For weeks this stood in state in the
hall of the White House. At last the floor was a foot deep in the
fragments remaining after the enthusiastic Democrats had eaten their
fill.

[Illustration]

_Chapter Three_

Foreign Greats

_Ode to Cheese_

God of the country, bless today Thy cheese,
For which we give Thee thanks on bended knees.
Let them be fat or light, with onions blent,
Shallots, brine, pepper, honey; whether scent
Of sheep or fields is in them, in the yard
Let them, good Lord, at dawn be beaten hard.
And let their edges take on silvery shades
Under the moist red hands of dairymaids;
And, round and greenish, let them go to town
Weighing the shepherd's folding mantle down;
Whether from Parma or from Jura heights,
Kneaded by august hands of Carmelites,
Stamped with the mitre of a proud abbess.
Flowered with the perfumes of the grass of Bresse,
From hollow Holland, from the Vosges, from Brie,
From Roquefort, Gorgonzola, Italy!
Bless them, good Lord! Bless Stilton's royal fare,
Red Cheshire, and the tearful cream Gruyere.

FROM JETHRO BITHELL'S TRANSLATION
OF A POEM BY M. Thomas Braun

_Symphonie des Fromages_

A giant Cantal, seeming to have been chopped open with an ax,
stood aside of a golden-hued Chester and a Swiss Gruyere
resembling the wheel of a Roman chariot There were Dutch Edams,
round and blood-red, and Port-Saluts lined up like soldiers on
parade. Three Bries, side by side, suggested phases of the moon;
two of them, very dry, were amber-colored and "full," and the
third, in its second quarter, was runny and creamy, with a "milky
way" which no human barrier seemed able to restrain. And all the
while majestic Roqueforts looked down with princely contempt upon
the other, through the glass of their crystal covers.

Emile Zola

In 1953 the United States Department of Agriculture published Handbook
No. 54, entitled _Cheese Varieties and Descriptions,_ with this
comment: "There probably are only about eighteen distinct types or
kinds of natural cheese." All the rest (more than 400 names) are of
local origin, usually named after towns or communities. A list of the
best-known names applied to each of these distinct varieties or groups
is given:

Brick Gouda Romano
Camembert Hand Roquefort