DOI Heft:
September 21, 1867
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16880#0134
COUNTRY STUDIES
BEWILDERING POSITION FOR SHY YOUNG CURATE (IN LAVENDER GLOVES) AT HIS FIRST SCHOOL F^TE I
A SINGULAR USE OF SOAP.
What very curious discoveries are made—in the newspapers at any
i rate—during the dull season! Here is one for instance :—
“ Californian papers state that there is dug out of the mountains of the Sierra
j Nevada Range a better material for beds than has been hitherto available in the
J markets of the world. It is the soap-root, which grows enveloped in a very tough
j and supple fibre, resembling somewhat the husk of cocoa-nut in colour and appear-
ance, but nearly as tough as whalebone. The first work is to put the roots through
a picker similar to a thrashing-machine, which is run by horse-power. This sepa-
rates the fibre into a hair of eight or ten inches long, which is placed in a large vat
or steamer till it becomes flexible, and is free from all gummy or glutinous matter.
The natural colour is brown, but it is often coloured black, and an expert would find
it hard to tell it from curled hair.”
If this discovery be genuine, the phrase of “ How are you off for
hair ? ” will soon be an equivalent for, “How are you off for soap ? ”
Aregetable hair-dyes have been commonly in vogue, and now they will
be followed by vegetable hair. Heads of soap-root hair will soon be
found in use, as well as beds of it. Made as it is to curl, it will
doubtless look becoming, and we expect that soap-root chignons will
soon be quite the fashion. Cleanliness at least will be secured by the
invention : for with regard to soap-hair we need hardly ask the ques-
tion, “Will it wash?” He would, however, warn the ladies who
make use of it, that they be careful not to wear it when they go to
bathe. Soap-hair, dipped in water, might, perhaps, melt into lather,
and rude persons might laugh to see a nymph emerge like Yenus
from the sea, with no chignon but a quantity of soap-suds on her
head.
Your Attention is Requested.
It is surprising that in all the various and conflicting communica-
tions made to the papers respecting the Abyssinian Expedition (Loud
Longford is not to be envied) no reference has heen made to a work
which ought to be a leading authority on the subject. It was pub-
lished last century by a writer of the name of Johnson, and is entitled
J Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. It may be consulted in the British
Museum.
ROOTS AND FRUITS.
Among the current news is a paragraph announcing that:—
“ Pine-apples made from turnips in Paris are said to be delicious; the turnips
are saturated with an appropriate syrup, which confectioners know very well how
to manufacture : the pine-apple is destined to become a success.”
Turnips converted into pine-apples may be mentioned with a par-
ticular exactness, as some of the fruits of chemistry. The root _ is
converted by chemistry into a fruit. Other roots will, perhaps, with
the help of that science, be made to undergo a similar transformation.
The tuber of the Solarium tuberosum will thus, possibly, be turned into
an apple, of a quality far excelling that of the potato-apple; so that
pommes de terre will be almost indistinguishable from the produce of
orchards, and walnut-leaf and ash-leaf kidneys, for example, will be
metamorphosed into nonpareils and ribstone-pippins. At dessert we
shall be presented with Orleans or magnum-bonum plums apparently,
which are, in truth, Jerusalem artichokes in a chemical disguise.
Bananas will very likely be produced, by the same means, from
parsnips, and pumpkins still more easily changed into melons. Nature
finds the vegetable cells, and chemistry has only to fill them with the
syrup. All these factitious fruits will, no doubt, be the very best that
can be had for love or money, next to the originals. It is probable
that turnips turned into pine-apples retain a turnipy flavour, and that
chemistry does not entirely subdue the Swedish nature of the Swedes.
The turnip made into a pine-apple is, however, a great improvement
on the monster turnip that generally turns up about this time.
Epitaph by a Eady.
Encumbrance sore long time I bore
Derision was in vain ;
But when short skirts became the mode.
They eased me of my train.
Ritualistic Church where the Banns of Marriage ought
ALWAYS TO BE PROCLAIMED.—St. All-banns.
BEWILDERING POSITION FOR SHY YOUNG CURATE (IN LAVENDER GLOVES) AT HIS FIRST SCHOOL F^TE I
A SINGULAR USE OF SOAP.
What very curious discoveries are made—in the newspapers at any
i rate—during the dull season! Here is one for instance :—
“ Californian papers state that there is dug out of the mountains of the Sierra
j Nevada Range a better material for beds than has been hitherto available in the
J markets of the world. It is the soap-root, which grows enveloped in a very tough
j and supple fibre, resembling somewhat the husk of cocoa-nut in colour and appear-
ance, but nearly as tough as whalebone. The first work is to put the roots through
a picker similar to a thrashing-machine, which is run by horse-power. This sepa-
rates the fibre into a hair of eight or ten inches long, which is placed in a large vat
or steamer till it becomes flexible, and is free from all gummy or glutinous matter.
The natural colour is brown, but it is often coloured black, and an expert would find
it hard to tell it from curled hair.”
If this discovery be genuine, the phrase of “ How are you off for
hair ? ” will soon be an equivalent for, “How are you off for soap ? ”
Aregetable hair-dyes have been commonly in vogue, and now they will
be followed by vegetable hair. Heads of soap-root hair will soon be
found in use, as well as beds of it. Made as it is to curl, it will
doubtless look becoming, and we expect that soap-root chignons will
soon be quite the fashion. Cleanliness at least will be secured by the
invention : for with regard to soap-hair we need hardly ask the ques-
tion, “Will it wash?” He would, however, warn the ladies who
make use of it, that they be careful not to wear it when they go to
bathe. Soap-hair, dipped in water, might, perhaps, melt into lather,
and rude persons might laugh to see a nymph emerge like Yenus
from the sea, with no chignon but a quantity of soap-suds on her
head.
Your Attention is Requested.
It is surprising that in all the various and conflicting communica-
tions made to the papers respecting the Abyssinian Expedition (Loud
Longford is not to be envied) no reference has heen made to a work
which ought to be a leading authority on the subject. It was pub-
lished last century by a writer of the name of Johnson, and is entitled
J Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. It may be consulted in the British
Museum.
ROOTS AND FRUITS.
Among the current news is a paragraph announcing that:—
“ Pine-apples made from turnips in Paris are said to be delicious; the turnips
are saturated with an appropriate syrup, which confectioners know very well how
to manufacture : the pine-apple is destined to become a success.”
Turnips converted into pine-apples may be mentioned with a par-
ticular exactness, as some of the fruits of chemistry. The root _ is
converted by chemistry into a fruit. Other roots will, perhaps, with
the help of that science, be made to undergo a similar transformation.
The tuber of the Solarium tuberosum will thus, possibly, be turned into
an apple, of a quality far excelling that of the potato-apple; so that
pommes de terre will be almost indistinguishable from the produce of
orchards, and walnut-leaf and ash-leaf kidneys, for example, will be
metamorphosed into nonpareils and ribstone-pippins. At dessert we
shall be presented with Orleans or magnum-bonum plums apparently,
which are, in truth, Jerusalem artichokes in a chemical disguise.
Bananas will very likely be produced, by the same means, from
parsnips, and pumpkins still more easily changed into melons. Nature
finds the vegetable cells, and chemistry has only to fill them with the
syrup. All these factitious fruits will, no doubt, be the very best that
can be had for love or money, next to the originals. It is probable
that turnips turned into pine-apples retain a turnipy flavour, and that
chemistry does not entirely subdue the Swedish nature of the Swedes.
The turnip made into a pine-apple is, however, a great improvement
on the monster turnip that generally turns up about this time.
Epitaph by a Eady.
Encumbrance sore long time I bore
Derision was in vain ;
But when short skirts became the mode.
They eased me of my train.
Ritualistic Church where the Banns of Marriage ought
ALWAYS TO BE PROCLAIMED.—St. All-banns.