Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1875-06-19
where They Come From.

lftci Sbt thot JouA Noii ediilD -
of a rag bag, the curls from the
back of a goat, and her elegant
china tea set out of a mud hole.
Bat what will you say when ]
tell you that your jelly is made out
of old boots, and your delightful
perfumery from horfid smelling
coal tar?
You don't know all the made
over things in the family, either.
Johnny's new beaver cloth over
coat was worn out on the backofa
beggar, and perhaps even played
the part Of a scare crow in some
farm yard, before it went into the
rag bag and began to come out in
the world again, and the Table
Gelatin'' which every n OF the
family likes to eat, once did duty
as skin on the tack of a rat.
1t is really wonderful to trace
things back, and see where they
come from. and who has reasons to
boast of his ancestors. Queer sto-
ries YOU would hear ii tire things
around you could tell their history.
There's your tattling shuttle. 1t
once made itself useful as a bone in
a horse, while the ivory dice In the
backgammon board adorned the
Jaws and crushed the oats OF ano-
ther of the race.
The pearl of your. paper knife
lined the shell house of a modest
little creature at the bottom OF the
sea, while mammals she'll comb
was the comfortable roof of a sea-
tortoise.
Your guitar strings were hides
pensable to the internal comfort
of some poor pussy or unfortunate
sheep, and your piano would be
but a dumb wooden box without
some of the internal arrangen4 ents
of a horse.
Your nice hair brush first saw
the light on the back of a hog and
its pretty back papier mache came
out Of the ragman's bag. The erin
oline that .stiffens the bottom Of
ladies' dresses was used originally
to switch the flies from the back or
a horse, and the mattress on which
you sleep so comfortably served
the same use before it fell into the
manufacturers hands.
Your dainty toilet soap-dear
me, how can / tell you-was made
of dead cats and dogs, found in the
street, and the "bitter almonds
which SO delightfully."- flavors your
candy, came from the horrible
smelling coal-tar, while the choic-
est ale is delicIuusly favored with
-putrid cheese!
The scent-bag of that offensive
creature, the skunk, furnishes some
desirable addition to the toilet Ia
BILE, used for removing freckies and
tan, and the dreadful stuff left in
drains is changed into q fashiona-
BILE toilet article, and adorns the
faces ofladies.
To be sure these disagreeable
materials have some pretty rough
handling before they come out
in their new colors. The old boots,
for instance. They do not step from
the gutter into the jelly kettle. by
any means. They go through a
long process of washing and soak
ing in I've and smoking with sui
phur, and steaming and boiling, be-
fore they come out white and del
icate, and fit for the table.
The coal-tar, to grow into per-
fumery, goes throughthe hands of
chemists, who treat it to, | don't
know what dreadful chemical pro-
cess /; and the dead cats and dogs
are boiled to extract the grease, pu-
rified, whitened and pertumed be-
fore we see them as Dap.
The doll whose ancestors inhab-
tied a ragman's den endured I'M
heard-of operations of washing,
soaking, bleaching, mounlding,
and so forth, before she took her
place in the nursery to amuse the
little folks, and the clay from the
mud-hole was washed, and purifi-
ed,and whitened, and kneaded, and
baked, and glazed. before it Ven
tureJ to call itself china, and take
its place on the tea-table.
The horse-tails that stiffen the
dresses and stuff our mattresses are
washed, and soaked, and boiled,
and baked, before we use them and
the intestines which make the
voice of the guitar and piano went
through long processes of scraping
soaking in lye, and washing, be-
fore they were drawn out into the
fine tough strings you are familiar
with.
The rat slain. which we eat I'M
der the name Of gIeatin, first flour
ished as the thImb Of a gid glove,
and after being worn out in that
capacity went through ever so ma
ny purifying processes, somewhat