Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1901-12-20
THE wINDIAM REFoRMER, FRIDAY DECEMBER
FAMILY TRADE SECRETS.
Some That bring Great Wealth 10
Their Fortunate PossessOrs.

That silence Is golden no one vii
deny, but they who will most ready al
nit the truth of this maxim are th'
members of those families whose
silence, lasting in some cases for cen
turtles, has brought them untold wealth
And the most curious part of it Is thai
outsiders, try as they will, have beer
unable to discover the secrets these
lucky families possess.
Few people know where Bank OF
England note paper comes from, and
fewer still how it is made because its
manufacture Is a family secret, and
has been so for nearly two centuries
In 1T17 n man named Portal discovered
how to make this paper, and the gov
eminent thereupon contracted with
him to supply all that was required for
bank notes. The contract still holds
good, and once week a quantity is
sent from Laverstoke, in Hampshire,
where the family still exists, the paper
being guarded by number OF detec-
tives throughout the journey No one
has yet succeeded in discovering how
the Portals make the paper and prob
ably no one ever Will.
Minton ware is another family mo-
nopoly, though unprotected by the
patents act In 1893 Thomas Minton
a Staffordshire potter, discovered how
to make peculiar china with a green
glaze unlike any other in vogue. He
kept his secret to himself, made the
ware by stealth, and In due time ac.
cumulated fortune. Before he died
he gave the secret to his eldest son,
and it has been handed down from
generation to generation to the present
time. The works are now situated at
Stolle-On-Trent. and every year the
Mintons turn nearly 100000 tons of
clay into the famous ware that bears
their name
Sword forging is one of the most diff
fcult branches of the mechanics art,
and only one family, residing in Biz
minghanl, knows how to do it to per-
lection. There is a secret in sword
forging which this family alone has
conquered, and it has been in its pos
session for upward of half a century
and is still unknown to outsiders. \
sword made by workman belonging
to this family is worth twice as much
as one made by any other firm, and al
though enormous sums have been Of
fered for the secret from time to time
every member remains true to his
trust.
One of the oldest family secrets is
that connected with the manufacture
of eau de cologne. for it has been own
ed by the Farnas since 1888. In that
year an Italian, Giovanni Farina, in
vented the perfume, and only his eldest
son was admitted into the secret. vt
the present moment the Earinas have
twenty-eight factories at Cologne.
This silence on the part of the family
through 50 many years has brought
untold wealth, for nine out Of every
ten bottles of the perfume purchased
all over the world is of Farina make. 4
1t seems hard to believe that we ar
to great extent indebted to one fam
lily for our supremacy on the seas, but
such is the case. All the iron used in
the navy is made by the family Of
the descendants of York
shire farmer, who discovered method
Of making the metal harder than any
one else could do, and in consequence
received a contract to supply the iron
'or the navy. The secret still remains
with the family, and foreign nations
nave periodically offered millions for
Is possession, but without success.
In the wine trade there are endless
secrets, some of them Of great i'm
)ortance and owned by single families.
Iokay, rare and costly wine and the
avorte drink of the emperor Of Aus
ria, is made only by the Counts Of
Iemplen from a secret recipe, while
he equally famous Lachrymn Christi
'annot be procured except from the
amily of Adrienne, the owners Of the
Vineyards on Nesuvius. Maraschino,
90, is made in secret solely by a DaI-
NATHAN family called Nanis, who first
discovered the recipe three centuries
go.--London Tit-Bits.