The daily sentinel., 1909-02-20
RECEIPTS WORTH WHILE.
Some Money Makers for the Fellow
That Owns Them.

That most insidious and vicious
of drinks, absinthe was first con-
cocted by French chemist named
Ordinaire. He rold the receipt for
the trifling sum in francs. Soon,
however, the purchaser disposed of it
for no less sum than fifty thousand
dollars. Its new owner was a rich
distiller. who amassed a million dol
lars by the sale of the liquor Be-
yond this point it is hardly possible
TO estimate what the receipt has been
worth in money to its possessors.
The Oxford Press Syndicate values
its formula for making the very thin,
tough paper used in the Bibles at
more than million dollars. To per-
feet the process required twenty-five
years of hard work and the expendi-
ture OF hundred thousand dollars
in cash.
A secret of even greater value is
the formula for making the paper of
Bank of England notes. This is a
family possession of the Portals of
Laverstoke to whom already in two
generations 1t has brought an enor-
nous fortune.
The brilliant red cloth of the car
dinals' robes worn at the Vatican has
been manufactured for many gem
erations by the same firm of mer-
Chapelle. The secret process for dis
tilling the dye is given by father to
son, with every precaution to prevent
an outsider from gaining possession
OF the receipt. In this connection it
Is rather curious to note that this
family of cloth merchants is of Hug
enot descent and is Protestant today.
An English firm of bacon curers
paid fifty thousand dollars for the
formula of the Brandenburg method
of curing hams. a method of mixing
chutney sauce, which in the first in
stance, in India, was sold for a few
rupees, was recently disposed of for
nearly forty thousand dollars. The
butler of an English country family
sold for trifling sum the receipt for
making sauce which had been en-
joyed by the family for hundreds of
years. The purchaser was at that
time the head of the firm of Lea &.
Perrins of Worcester. The revenues
to the firm from this formula have
been enormous. A poor soldier gave
the receipt for backing to a barber
in the town of Doncaster who had
given him money to buy a railroad
ticket. The barber was convinced of
the merit of the backing and formed
partnership with a harness maker
named Day, of Trayistock St. Lon
don, to exploit it. Day & Martins
backing afterward became famous
throughout the world.
When the monks of La Grande
Chartreuse were expelled from
France the senior abbot carried the
receipt for the famous liquer in
casket of tempered steel, and this
was never for a moment out of his
possession. In the open market af-
terward, this formula for the twin
nquers, the green chartresuse and
the yellow, were sold for one million
six hundred thousand dollars. In the
beginning of this cordial the receipt
for making 1t was written on single
frasmen mt of parchment six inches by
nine. One by one, other ingredients
were introduced. II has been stated
that at the present time the mixture
contains one hundred and thirty
seven different substances. And ev-
cry addition to the drink required an
addition to the receipt The result
was volume of more than hun
dred pages. II is no exaegeration TO
say that this is the most valuable
book in the world. This becones
rather amusing when we consider the
fact that the mendicant friar who
first concocted the liquer regarded
his invention with considerable dis
favor.
He was shortsighted as Giovanni
Farina who was the originator of
eau-de-colone. A conservative esti-
mate of the total value of its sales
profits since that time is twenty-five
hundred millions of dollars.
The Nanis of Zara. in Dalmatia.
were wiser, They possessed as one
of their heirlooms a family receipt
for a drink distilled from the mar
asco. or wild cherry. When they
finally consented TO part from their
secret. they received in return large
sum in cash and land to the extent
of several thousand acres. This is
the cordial popular the world over as
maraschfuO