Do you know this famous red (but black after the photocopier got done with him) character? Chances are good that you do, he's the oldest existing trademark used in the United States, over 130 years and counting. That means he went to wars, he went out west on wagons, and you can still find him easily in just about every grocery and convenience store in America. The guy that started the company that owns him, a fellow named William Underwood, first started by selling jars of mustard and pickles over 170 years ago oil' a wharf in Boston. That's before the back bay was filled! So if you New Englanders don't know about this little red devil, shame on you.

I happen to be a big fan of his, having eaten Underwood's Deviled Ham as long as I can remember, and never seeming to get enough of it. It comes in little cans wrapped in paper, and as my memory serves me it always came in little cans wrapped in paper. I have found some old advertisements for it that show it in 1909 looking pretty much like it does today. You snitch it out of mom's cupboard, pop it on a little bread, and voila a dandy compliment to soup. In fact when we had soup and deviled ham sandwiches I would use the soup spoon to eat what was let! in the can, if my mother wasn't around to catch me. With Deniese gone on a trip to see her parents in Colorado, I am home alone and found some unprotected in the pantry. Heh heh heh!

So what IS deviled ham, and why did the Underwood family decide to use the devil as a logo for their food? I mean, it was almost the Victorian era when the company came up with this, a time when people were supposedly touting high moral values. I would think a devil logo would raise the ire of preachers of the time, denouncing it and any company that took him so lightly. However, it's the Underwood company that sounds sinister to me! Their advertisements often had men dressed as the devil touting its goodness. Here are a couple examples: "Branded with the Devil but fit for the Gods" and my favorite "Sold by first-class dealers. If your grocer does not sell it, for his name and 15 cents in stamps we will send you a ¼ pound can." Yowzers! Almost sounds like they are saying give us the deadbeat's name and "Cousin Louie" will drop by for a "visit"!

Turns out deviled ham is "selected hams from selected com fed winter stock", which were "raised in the com belt district" How can you get more wholesome than that? But wait, there's more: "Every ham thoroughly cooked and sterilized twice" where "the human hand touches the meat but once, when it is cut from the pigs. Then automated machinery does the rest in the spotless kitchen of the oldest canning company in America", In other words, trust us, we've been around and we know what we're doing. All this sounds very nice, but then why call it "deviled"?

Well, they must know something. According to a couple dictionaries I checked, the term "deviled" as in deviled eggs, fish, and yes ham, is defined as "a highly seasoned, chopped, ground, or whole mixture that is served hot or cold" and guess what they used as an example? Yup, the famous product of William Underwood. A product in the dictionary? You better believe it,

Why doesn't "deviled" mean ungodly, or sinful, or the like? Well, it does in some dictionaries, And having said all the above about deviled ham, that is really where I am going today.

We can make bad things cutesy, like calling a cut a boo-boo, but it doesn't change what they really are, it only changes our perception. The devil is evil, twisted, a liar, foul, and many other awful things but we can take him lightly. We mock him in commercials and movies. In some cases we are made to relate with him, or to even sympathize with him. Few Halloween's have gone by where I haven't seen a kid or two dressed up as him, Just Friday night I heard someone one here say a steam radiator is a devil of a thing to take apart and put back together again. I never did find out why the devil is used as Underwood's trademark, but likely for the shock value. Pretty risky, but it paid off.

Which I can't help but think of whenever someone comes along and tries to "shock" Christians into action. They think those who are sober, calm, serious students of the bible need to be stirred up and buzzing in high gear or they can't call themselves zealous. By interjecting "seasoning" and "spices" into bible studies, by saying outrageous things mean to "provoke thought" they think they are doing God's work. The damage and division they cause they justify in their own minds as being a worthy "investment". Apparently it's not just ham that can get deviled!

Randy