The Opelousas courier., 1894-12-29
A CHAPTER ON SALT.
Scraps of Information About q Useful Ar
ficla

ticle.
People do no: eat salt by the teaspoon
full as they do sugar, yet not a meal is
eaten during the day that does not
hare a seasoning of salt disseminated
through it, and sugar could be much
easier spared from food than the ore
humble saline article.
BY some mysterious law Of nature
salt is continually evolved from living
bodies, and must as constantly be re-
ceived again in due proportion to the
loss. 1t is by the law of evaporation
that we enjoy u privilege OF salt, as
of it is from the ocean, although the
salt of the sea is bitter and a draught
of sea-water works madness in the
brain of him who drinks 1t is esti-
mated that individuals average a yearly
allowance of sixteen pounds of salt.
This does not mean salt in the bulk,
but the constituent which enters into
the system by the process CT assimila-
ton. Its necessity as an article of diet
is assured by its presence in the cor
puscles of the blood, where mustard
and pepper are assuredly not found.
The salt mines Of the world are
among the most important schemes OF
commerce, and the slightest change in
the method of manufacture is hailed
almost as a triumph of science. When
England began to export a pure white
crystal salt to India, the Hindoos would
not use it, they m%istrusted its brilliant
whiteness and preferred the dark
native salt, which contrasted we'll with
their white rice. Time has overcome
their prejudice, and they TO- eat
freely of the English salt, while their
has undergone a purifying process.
The salt used in England comes prin.
cipally from the Cheshire mines, but
the continental salt is obtained from
different sources, especially from the
great salt district Of Austria, which
covers a large area, and has been for
many years a ource of revenue to the
people Of that locality. The Durren-
berg mine at Hallein has been worked
steadily for six hundred years and
others have been like q 1atrimony,
handed down to its workmen.
To the government the salt
mines are a regular profit. To go
down into these mines with leather
garments provided for visitors, to gaze
and taste, and wonder by the glimmer
of a horn lantern, has been n Of the
privileges of the tourist in Austria.
The great crystal crypts are most at.
tractive, and much less dangerous than
their prototypes, the coal mines.
The salt wells of Syracuse are great
American industries, which are, how.
ever, only two hundred and fifty years
old and were discovered by the Indians,
who were the originators of the salt
industry of this country, although they
were afraid to drink of the water, be.
lieving it to have been salted by a
demon to poison them. Father lie
Moyne, passing that way in 1858, evap-
grated some of the water of which
they complained and obtained a pure
article of salt, which he carried to
Quebec. Next a national tree of the
five nations was planted on the shore
Of the spring, and a treaty-making
council held. The Indians, however,
kept their possessions until after
the revolutionary war. Then a
company boiled the water in
camp kettles on crotched sticks, and in
177s the state bought the land, stipu-
its future use as a salt manufac.
turing field. Twenty Indian chiefs
the treaty. Gov. Clinton, Will
liam Floyd, Ezra L'Hommedieu. Rich
ard Varrick, Samuel Jones, Egbert
Benson and Peter Gansevoort-al]
names of historic interest-signed the
treaty for the state. In connection
with this is a historical incident which
showed what wise heads the f%orefathers
Of the country carried on their shout
ders. The salt-makers planned the Erie
canal, and after it was built. l~;quidated
three million dollars of Indebtedness
by simply increasing the tax on salt to
and a half cents a bushel. This
amount was afterwards paid to
the state for taxes on the wells, and
twenty thousand dollars annually t.
the treasury. The apparently cheap
provision for manufacturing gives one
idea Of the enormous profits that
have been derived from the Syracuse
salt welia-Detroit Free Press.