Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-12-06
Where They Come From.

You'll be shocked fear, says Oliver
Ihofne, in the Home Companion, when
1 tell you that your doll came out Of q
ag bag, her curls from the back of q
goat, and her elegant china tea-set out
Of a amud hole.
But w1lat will you say when l tell you
that your jelly is made out of old boots,
and your delightful perfumery from
nofrid-sneiling coal tar.
You don't own all (he made-over
things in the family, either. Johnnie's
new beayer-cleth oVer-coat was worn
out on the back. of q beggar, and per
maps even played me part of scare
row in some farm yard before it began
o come into the world again; and the
table gelatine" which every one of
he family loves to eat once did duty as
skin on the back of a rat.
us really wonderful to trace things
back, and see where they come from,
and which has reason to boast of its an
cestors. Queer stories you would hear
if the things around you could tell their
history. There's. your tatting shuttle.
It once made itself useful as bone in a
horse. while the ivory dice in your back
CANNON board adorned the jaws and
crushed the oats OF another of the race.
The pearl Of your paper knife lined
the shell house Of q modest little creas
ture at the bottom OF the sea, while
mammals shell comb was the comforta-
BILE roof over a sea tortoise.
8 Your guitar strings were indispens-
able to the internal comfort of some
poor pussy or unfortunate sheep, and
your piano would be but dumb wooden
box without some of the internal ar
rangements of horse.
Your nice hair brush first saw the
light on the skin of a dog. The crino-
line that stiffens the bottom of ladies'
dresses was used originally to switch
the Aies from the backs of horses, and
the mattress on which you sleep so COM
fortably served the same use before it
fell into the manufacturers hands.
Your dainty toilet soap-dear me,
how can I tell you-was made of dead
cats and dogs, found in the streets, and
the bitter slmonds' which so delight
fully fiavors your candy, came from the
horrible smelling coal tar.
The scent-bags of that offensive ami
NAL, the skunk, furnish some desirable
additions to the toilet-table, used for
removing rfFeckles, and tan and the
dreadful stuff left in drains is turned
/
adorns the face of the ladies.
To be sure, these disagreeable mater
-rials have some pretty tough 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 90 through
q long. process of washing and soaking
in I've and smoking with sulphur, and
.steaming and boiling before, they come
out white and delicate and tit for the
table. .--- ga
The coal tar, to, grow into perfumery,
goes through the hands Of chemists,
who treat it to don't know what dread
full process; and the dead cats and dogs
are boiled to extract, the grease, purified,
whitened and perfnmed before we see
them as soap. .-....,.1..-.
/, The doll whose ancestors inhabit q
ragman's den endured unheard of op-
Erations of washing, soaking, bleaching,
chopping, molding, and 30 forth, before
she took her place in the nursery to
amuse the little folks, and the clay from
the mud hole was washed, and purified,
and Whitened, and kneaded, and baked i
and glazed, bofore it ventured to call
itself china, aud take its place on the
tea-tRble. r - .f4- a
The e.horse-tails that stifen the dresses
and stufsOur mattresses are washed and
soaked and boiled and baked before We
use uIem;b and the intestines, which
make the voice Of guitar and piano,
went through long processes of scraping,
soaking in lye and washing, before they
were drawn ont into the fine, tough
strings with which you are familiar.
% Nearly all the things we throw away
in alleys, or even through our drains,
the most disgusting things you can think
of, are valuable, and, after going through
the hands of skillful workmen, come out
in new shapes, and have new fields
of usefulness.
The feats of old-fashioned fairies, who
turned pumpkins into carriages, and
shabby old gowns into elegant robes, do.
not compare with the wonders per-
formed in our workshops, by rough
looking men, in shirt sleeves and white
8prOnS.