The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-13

power OF healing III the DOX. Unlike Pan
dora's box. which sent the troop of evils
out into the world, this famous ''cachet"
sent nothing but good will and pleasure.
barring, perhaps, possible headache.
II, however, we speak Of bonbons them
selves, what can we say of bolabonDisyssg
Everything that is beautiful. everything
that Is curious, everything that Is quaint.
everything that is ludicrous, everything
which is timely is utilized. | received
once an immense green satin grasshop-
per, the jour de- l. Gu--in Paris, filled 10 his
uttermost GntsnnGe with bonhons. 1t
could be for once said that the '.grasshop-
per had not become burden" The pqn-
ftier todttedts, formed of satin, pearls straw
and flowers, NAV be made TO conceal
handkerchief worth thousand francs I'M
der the rose satin lining. The boxes are
painted By first-rate artists, and remain a
lovely belonging for toilet table.
Beautiful metal reproductions of some
antique chef d. cure are made into bon
bOnHieres
Some bonbon boxes have themselves
concealed in huge bouquets of violets,
fringed with lace. or hidden under roses
which are skillfully growing out of white
satin; beautiful reticutes, all embroidered.
hold the carefully bound up packages.
where tinfoil preserves the silk and satin
from contact with the sugar. Ii France
did nothing else but make bonbonnieres she
would prove her claim TO being the most
ingenious purveyor for the luxury of en-
tertaining in all the world. If luxury
means ito freight the passing hour with
flying happiness" France does her ''possi-
BILE, as She would say herself, to help
along this fairy packing.
At Easter, when sweetmeats are almost
as much in request as at the New ear
(the French make very little of ChristmasD,
these bonbOn establishments are filled
yEgf Of rha
There are nests of eggs, baskets of eggs,
cradles full of eggs and pretty peasants
carrying eggs TO market. Nests of eggs
with birds OF brilliant plumage sitting on
the nests or towering over them, while
their freight of bonbons repose on the
softest swans down, lace and satin, or
again the egg itself Of satin. with its yoke
of orange creams and its white of marsh
mallow paste. There is no end to this
felicitous and ducet strain.
The best candied fruit | have ever eaten
[ bought in a railway depot in Venice.
The Italians understand this art to per-
lection. They hang the fruit by its natural
stem on long straw; and no better ac-
compartment for long railway journey
can be imagined.
The French do not consider bonbons un-
healthy. Instead of giving her boy piece
OF bread and butter as he departs for the
'Lycee," the French mamma gives him
two or three chocolate bonbons. The hunter
takes these to the top of the Matterhorn;
ladies take them in their pockets instead
of lunch basket, and one assured me
that two slabs of chocolate sutficed her for
breakfast and supper on the road from
Paris to Rome.
| do not know what Baron Liebig would
say TO this in his learned articles on
the "Nutritive value of certain kinds of
food, but the French children seem to be
"a yyaf hn iht1ta 70,
chocolate of the highest. by their fruits
shall we know them"
In the times of the Medicis and the Bar
tholomew massacre, the French and ltai-
ian mobiles had 4 curious custom of always
carrying about with them in the pockets
of their silk doublets costly little boxes
full of bonbons Henry Quatre Marie de
Medici and all their friends and foes car
ried about with them little gold and Linn
oges enamelled boxes, very pretty and de-
slrable articles of vertu now; and doubt
less there was one full of red and white
comtltS IN the pockets of Mary Queen of
Scots when she fell dead, poor, abused,
beautiful woman, at the foot of the block
at Fotheringay. Doubtless there was one
in the pouch of the grisly Due de Guise,
with his close-cropped bullet head and
long spidery legs, when he fell, done TO
death by treacherous Catherine de
Medici, dead and bleeding, on the pol
ished floor of Blois! No doubt stream
of bonbons ran out of his velvet pockets
1t was a childish custom, and proved that
the age had a sweet tooth; but it might
have been useful for diplomatic purposes,
and was highly conducive to flirting. As
a lord chief justice once said that snuff
and snuff boxes helped 10 develop charac-
ter" so the bonbonniere helps TO empha-
size manners; and | am always pleased
when an old or new friend opens for me a
liT%l, ell Hsy Il oft .,l
violet or roseleaf conserved in sugar, al
though | can eat neither of them.
A witty writer says that dessert should
be 1.-The Glrandole. or cunning tableau of
the dinner" 1t should surprise, aston
iSh, dazzle and enchant" And we NAV
almost decide upon the taste of an age as
we read of its desserts. The tasteless lux
ury and coarse pleasures of the reign of
Charles H., that society where Rochester
futtered and Buckingham flaunted-how
it is all described in one DESSERT At
dinner given TO the father (of great
manv) OF his subjects, Charles H.. bv
Lady Domer, was built large gilded ship
of confectionery. Its masts, cabins, port
holes and lofty poop, all smart and glitter
ing, its rigging all ataunto, its bunting tiy-
ing. its tigure-head bright as gold leaf
could make it. Its guns were charged
with actual powder. Its cargo was two
turreted pies, one full of birds and the
other of frogs. When borne in by the CAV
pages To the sound of music, the guns
were discharged, the ladies screamed and
tainted. so as to require to be held uD and
consoed by the gallants. who offered them
sips of tokay." Poor little things, such
was the court of Charles Ii.
Then. to sweeten the smell of powder
the ladies threw at each other egg shells,
filled with fragrant waters; and ''all dam
ger being over" they opened the pies.
out of one skipped live frogs; out of the
other flew live birds who put out the
lights; so. what with the screams. the
darkness, the frogs, and the smell of pow
der, we get an idea OF sports at Whitehall,
where black-browed, sWarthy-visaged
Charles presided, on which grave Claren-
don condesceuded TO smile. and which the
gentle Evelyn and Waller were condemned
10 approve
We have not entirely RETAINED from
such sugar emblems aC our own great
feasts: bat fortunately, they are rather
gone out, excepting for some emblem
haunted dinners where We 10 have surared
Monitors. and chocolate torpedos. | have
seen the lovely Venus of Milo in frozen
cream. which gave a Wit the opportunity
Of saving that the home Tor such a goddess
should he the Temple Ot Isis; ANA Bar
tholdi's immortal Liberty lends herself to
chocolate ana nougat now and then. But
very rarely at private dinners.
The fashion Of our gay, with its low
dishes for the sweets, Il So much better
that We cannot help cousratullUug our
selves that we do not live even in Gays Of
the inst George. when. As one witty au-
thor a-JJu saws: The house of Hruns-
bat German taste Horace NAipoIe
great about tribes, Incompatible deeider
If tA, width OF q sanebuCkle. keen
Gc,plser OF all meanne>SeS hut his own