The Worthington advance., 1897-01-07
icE-cREAM ON THE OCEAN,.
Big Steamers Take 1t from New York fo
the Round Trip.

the HOUnO Tip.
Ice-cream has such peculiar power
of disappearing, or rather of speedily
resolving itself into a substance which
bellies it's name, that it might seem ill
adapted for an article of export. Yet
when properly packed it may be kept
for weeks and even months. This being
true, it can be and is transported by
land and water to great distances. All
the ocean steamers leaving New York
city for Europe and for the southern
and West Indian ports are supplied here
with ice-cream, not only for their out
ward but for their return voyages as
we'll. New York has monopoly of this
trade and it is chiefly confined to two
or at most three companies. The cream
which is to travel thousands Of miles be-
fore being used is made in precisely the
same way as that for the domestic trade
and there is practically no difference in
it's taste after weeks of freezing.
All steamers have ''cold room" in
the hold, in which is placed huge re.
frigerator, made especially for the pur-
pose of holding ice-cream. It consists
of square wooden box, very heavily
built and lined with zinc" Within this
is a square receptacle for the ice-cream,
much smaller than the inside of the box,
SO as to allow plenty of space for ice
all around it. The ice-cream is brought
down to the steamer in large tubs, each
containing 40 quarts, put up in the
usual oblong quart bricks.
The tubs are taken aboard the vessel
and unloaded below. One by one the
quart bricks are packed snugly away
in the great, square receptacle in the
refrigerator. These cans, as they may
be called, vary in size, the largest, such
as is used, for instance, on the steamer
New York, containing about $50 quarts.
Previous to the filling, solid mass Of
cracked ice and salt has been packed
into the space between the sides of the
can and the box walls. The employees OF
the cream company direct the ships
hands as to the proper replenishment
of this ice and salt, a process which
must be gone through each day. The
temperature of the cream is kept in the
neighborhood of zero all the time.
When needed for the table, the bricks
IRE taken out through small door in
the top of the box, that there may be as
little exposure as possible to the CON-
paratively warm outside air.
Although the ice-cream thus shipped
is in almost every case meant only for
use aboard the steamer, there is at least
one company in this city which has
customers in the West Indies, and thus
actually exports its wares, in the com.
mon meaning of the word. The trade is
small as yet and was brought about
entirely through the steamship com.
panies.
Sending ice-cream from this city
out into the country by rail is also an
important branch of the business.
The distances are far more limited than
when it can be sent by water, owing to
the amount of the express charges.
The process also is simpler, for, on
account of the rapidity of transporta-
tion, no refrigerators are necessary
and the tubs are placed directly upon
the cars. Towns and country villages
within radius of 100 to 200 miles of
New York are supplied with most of
their ice-cream from here. Despite
tlle number of patent "homc" freezers
advertised, the methods of which are
warranted to be lightning-quick and
infallible, the number of people making
their own ice-cream is comparatively
small. Many have tried it and many
have failed: After course of watery or
gritty concoctions, which bore only an
extremely faint resemblance to the de.
sired article, the aniateurs have usually
returned to the kind manufactured BY
some well-known metropolitan firm
N. Y. Tribune.
The Porous Plaster.
Tommy had been suffering from a
lame back for day or two and his
mother bought porous plaster for the
same and prepared to adjust it. AS the
eyes of little Mabel fell upon the pune
tured square she <exclaimed: ooh,
mamma! What are all the holes for?'
SI know interjected / Tommy;
"they're forlettin' the pain out" Rich,
mond Dispatch.