Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-19
MANICURE.
WITH WATCHFUl EYES
American Consuls Ever on the Lockout for
Interesting Things
Reports of Great Value to the Conn
merciai WorId-A Typical
Case in Point.

do you know" remarked a State De-
| partment clerk to a Star reporter the other
day, that the commercial value Of the
kola nut in this country, and throughout
the civilized world so far as l know. was
developed Jointly by the State Department
ana by the curiosity OF a newspaper man
here in Washington. Well. that is a fact
Five years ago nobody had ever heard OF
| the kola nut. l don't suppose there were
half dozen people In this country outside
OF few professional botanists who had
ever heard the name. | am sure | had
| never heard Of it till one day we got brief
report from our consul down at Mozam-
bique. inclosing a sample or two of the
nut and its leaves, and telling how the
natives in his part of the country used II
as a stimtilant and a substitute for food
while making long trips into the interior
and carrying heavy loads
1T seemed such an unusual story, though
We get good many queer stories In the
consular reports, that this newspaper man
OF whom l spoke begged the department
TO follow it up and get some more infnr-
nation on the subject. We did, and the re-
suit was a larger consignment of nuts from
The consul and a fuller account of the kola
pant The nuts were turned over to the
Agricultural Department and the news
paper man reaped the reward OF his curl
osity in material for a long and very in
teresting story.
Soon became Widely known.
The account Of the new stimulant was
copied all over the country, and the rest
Of the correspondents took it up and wrote
stories the subject We were deIuged
with inquiries from physicians. druggists
and manufacturing chemists in all the large
cities, and within a few months there had
been several experimental importations u
EA1a he fi,e. h.
a commercial way.
Experiment proved that there was con-
siderable virtue in the new preparation. and
popular Imagination, stimulated by the
newspaper stories on the subject endowed
kola with all sorts of virtues that it did
and did not have The result was that in a
few weeks there We're a dozen brands Of
"kola" preparations on the market BY this
takes the great bulk of the African crop.
though there are considerable exports to
England, Germany and France.
The curious part of ii TO me Is the way
the kola industry started out Of the i'm
aginative mind of a single correspondent,
for the original brief report, though ii was
published like all other reports, at
tracted no attention till it worked up
by this one newspaper man"
The fact is there are good many curl
Gus things in the consular reports of which
the general public knows very little and
would know less were it not fer the alert
agents Of the State Department stationed
all over the world There is never a new
industry that has possible bearing on the
commercial interests of the United States
but is snapped up by the nearest American
consul as food for report and forwarded to
Washington, where it is published in due
official form, and, what is more important
from practical standpoint, is turned over
to the scores of newspaper correspondents
whose names appear in the Congressional
Directory and by them given much wider
publicity in all quarters Of the country
where IL may be of special interest.
On Thousands of Subjects.
These reports cover almost every con-
ceivable subject from the discovery OF a
particularly rare orchid in the wilds OF
the upper Amazon to the Introduction OF
machinery for the manufacture Of bone
buttons in a section of Switzerland where
the work has hitherto been done by hand.
Among the first mention of automobiles in
this country were reports on the subject
from our consus in France far back
as 1893 and information on this and kin
dred up-to-date subjects is continually
drifting into the big editorial room of the
State Department in turn to be distributed
broadcast for the benefit Of the American
public. Foreign commercial shams are ex-
posed through this medium, although never
with any editorial comments. The manu-
facture of artificial silk from gelatin in
France was recently noted with a full de-
scripton of the machinery, the manufac-
ture of champagne in Germany from Amer
icdn apple refuse was treated IN the same
way, as well as the presence of poison
Gus cOloring matter in certain foreign can
dies and toys. Markets from American
products are pointed out quickly as they
develop American coal in Norway,
American locomotives in England, Ameri-
can flour in Turkey and American cotton
in the interior Of Brazil are only a few
of the instances where the American mer-
chant and manufacturer have profited by
the suggestions of our consuls.
An interesting fact in connection with
the newspaper end of the work is that
many of the consuls and commercial agents
are graduated from the newspaper ranks.
This has been the case for years past and
ii may be the nose for news" that fire.
quently helps the far-away consular agent
to see and appreciate the business OPEN
ing which he so promptly reports for the
benefit OF his fellow-citizens at home