{"id":1143,"date":"2026-08-27T20:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T00:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/?p=1143"},"modified":"2026-08-30T19:52:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T23:52:04","slug":"who-ate-the-pink-sweetmeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/who-ate-the-pink-sweetmeat\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Ate the Pink Sweetmeat? (1887)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"metaslider-id-1132\" style=\"width: 100%;\" class=\"ml-slider-3-100-0 metaslider metaslider-flex metaslider-1132 ml-slider ms-theme-default-base has-dots-nav\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Who Ate the Pink Sweetmeat\" data-height=\"700\" data-width=\"700\">\n    <div id=\"metaslider_container_1132\">\n        <div id=\"metaslider_1132\">\n            <ul aria-live='polite' class='slides'>\n                <li style=\"display: block; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-1140 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2026-08-27 19:54:12\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2416\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9020-scaled.jpeg\" class=\"slider-1132 slide-1140 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_9020\" style=\"margin-top: 2.8125%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9020-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9020-300x283.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9020-1024x966.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9020-768x725.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9020-1536x1450.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9020-2048x1933.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-1141 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2026-08-27 19:54:12\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1546\" height=\"2373\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9022.jpeg\" class=\"slider-1132 slide-1141 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_9022\" style=\"margin: 0 auto; width: 65.149599662874%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9022.jpeg 1546w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9022-195x300.jpeg 195w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9022-667x1024.jpeg 667w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9022-768x1179.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9022-1001x1536.jpeg 1001w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9022-1334x2048.jpeg 1334w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1546px) 100vw, 1546px\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-1139 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2026-08-27 19:54:12\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1517\" height=\"2297\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9023.jpeg\" class=\"slider-1132 slide-1139 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_9023\" style=\"margin: 0 auto; width: 66.042664344798%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9023.jpeg 1517w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9023-198x300.jpeg 198w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9023-676x1024.jpeg 676w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9023-768x1163.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9023-1014x1536.jpeg 1014w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9023-1353x2048.jpeg 1353w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1517px) 100vw, 1517px\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-1138 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2026-08-27 19:54:11\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1721\" height=\"1180\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9024.jpeg\" class=\"slider-1132 slide-1138 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_9024\" style=\"margin-top: 15.717606042998%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9024.jpeg 1721w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9024-300x206.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9024-1024x702.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9024-768x527.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9024-1536x1053.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1721px) 100vw, 1721px\" \/><\/li>\n                <li style=\"display: none; width: 100%;\" class=\"slide-1142 ms-image \" aria-roledescription=\"slide\" data-date=\"2026-08-27 19:54:12\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1057\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9021.jpeg\" class=\"slider-1132 slide-1142 msDefaultImage\" alt=\"\" rel=\"\" title=\"IMG_9021\" style=\"margin-top: 30.085146641438%\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9021.jpeg 1057w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9021-300x119.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9021-1024x408.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_9021-768x306.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1057px) 100vw, 1057px\" \/><\/li>\n            <\/ul>\n        <\/div>\n        \n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Title: Who Ate the Pink Sweetmeat? And Other Christmas Stories<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Author: Susan Coolidge and others<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Publisher: D. Lothrop and Company, Boston<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Year of printing: 1887<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even in the Victorian Era, there was a substantial commercial aspect of Christmas.&nbsp; Book publishers would capitalize on the gift-giving holiday by publishing special volumes collecting various Christmas-themed stories.&nbsp; This is one of those books \u2014 but what it contains is a delightfully strange selection of stories that have largely been forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It kicks off with \u201cWho Ate the Pink Sweetmeat?\u201d (\u201cSweetmeat&#8221; was the word for candy at the time).&nbsp; Three children each receive a piece of candy for Christmas.&nbsp; One of them eats it right away, then regrets it.&nbsp; The second trades it away for some broken items, and also regrets it.&nbsp; The third holds onto the candy all day, joyfully thinking about who he might give it to, and eventually gives it to a policeman, who eats half while giving the other half to a bird stuck in a tree.&nbsp; Also of note, the story is told from the point of view of one of the Christmas stockings.&nbsp; The lesson here is to delay happiness now in return for future happiness \u2014 effectively a Puritan moral guidance tale. The author, Susan Coolidge, was actually a well known children\u2019s author at the time, having written the popular <em>What Katy Did<\/em> series. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In \u201cThe Whizzer\u201d, two children, whose parents recently died, are playing outside when a curious man on a bicycle (which was a relatively new invention at the time) approaches them.&nbsp; They join him on his bicycle, and he brings them quickly to their prior home, and prepares them a Christmas dinner.&nbsp; When the neighbors come looking for the children, the stranger reveals that he is, in fact, their father, whose death was just a misunderstanding. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Patrincito\u2019s Christmas\u201d&nbsp; is, by today\u2019s standards, a racially insensitive story about a Native American who, in the spirit of Christmas, decides not to murder a young boy.&nbsp; \u201cCherry Pie\u201d is a quick story about a young girl who brags about her grandmother\u2019s cherry pie, then decides to invite her neighborhood friends over for some, thus forcing her grandmother to make another cherry pie. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBertie\u2019s Ride\u201d is about a young boy who ventures out into a snowstorm to mail a letter to his sister\u2019s fianc\u00e9, who has been ignoring her previous letters.&nbsp; Bertie gets stuck in the storm, and miraculously encounters his sister\u2019s fianc\u00e9, who is coming to visit for Christmas after all, and also saves Bertie\u2019s life.&nbsp; \u201cAsaph Sheafe\u2019s Christmas\u201d closes the book with a decidedly confusing story, about a young boy who breaks his Christmas gift to his mother while helping people around town, with a very unclear lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These stories were each earlier published individually in the magazine <em>Wide Awake,<\/em> then first collected as the \u201cChristmas Hearth Library\u201d in 1884,&nbsp; and then republished here as the \u201cGood Fortune Library\u201d in 1887. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book is inscribed \u201cEthelind Knapp\u201d, about whom I couldn\u2019t find much other than newspaper clipping from 1914 about her getting married in Buffalo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Further Reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/19thcenturyjuvenileseries.com\/series\/gfl_lothrop.html\" title=\"\">19th Century Juvenile Series &#8211; Good Fortune Library<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/philsp.com\/homeville\/fmi\/i01\/i01005.htm#A83\" title=\"\">Fiction Mags &#8211; E. E. Hale<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sarah_Chauncey_Woolsey\" title=\"\">Sarah Chauncey Woolsey &#8211; Wikipedia<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newspapers.com\/article\/the-buffalo-sunday-morning-news-ethelind\/24382904\/\" title=\"\">Ethelind Knapp marries Alfred Moss Roberts &#8211; Buffalo Sunday Morning News<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Acquired August, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title: Who Ate the Pink Sweetmeat? And Other Christmas Stories Author: Susan Coolidge and others Publisher: D. Lothrop and Company, Boston Year of printing: 1887 Notes: Even in the Victorian Era, there was a substantial commercial aspect of Christmas.&nbsp; Book publishers would capitalize on the gift-giving holiday by publishing special volumes collecting various Christmas-themed stories.&nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-1143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1143"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1158,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions\/1158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leedberg.com\/athenaeum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}