Lippincotts Magazine, May 1876 | Page 9

item is the pop-corn privilege. A business-man of
Dayton, Ohio, finds himself justified in venturing the heavy sum of
seven thousand dollars on this very light article. Parched corn was well
known in Ohio in 1776. The Miamis and Shawnees had, however, a
monopoly of it. It composed their commissariat for a campaign against
the whites. Such is the progress of the century.
This explosive cereal does not satiate the proverbially sweet tooth of
our people. Their craving for confectionery is laid under further
contribution by the financial managers of the exposition to the tune, for
instance, of five thousand dollars for the privilege of manufacturing
chocolate and candy. Dyspepsia insists on asserting its position among
the other acquisitions of the century. The treasures of the American
bonbonnière are said to be richer and more varied than in any other
country. Paris gets up her delicacies of this kind in more tasteful and
tempting style, but our consumers care little for such superficial
vanities. They look for solid qualities in everything--even in their
lollipops.
Another description of fuel, employed for the external and not the
internal feeding of the animal machine, and quite as evanescent as
candy, claims a factory to itself. This is a French invention called the
Loiseau Compressed Fuel. To bring it to Philadelphia, the mart of the
anthracite region, would seem to be carrying coals to Newcastle. The
relation between demand and supply in fuel is happily, for the present,
on too sound a basis to leave much room for artificial substitutes. Our
anthracite deposits are circumscribed, but bid fair to last until the
virtually untouched seams of bituminous and semibituminous coal shall
be made amply accessible to every point of consumption. We are not
yet in the slightest perceptible danger of the coal-famine that threatens
Great Britain.
In regard to the accommodations provided outside of the exhibition
buildings by individual enterprise for the display of various products
and processes of manufacture, it will here suffice to say that they
notably exceed the corresponding array at any of the European
expositions. Illustrations of the social and industrial life of different

races and nations are, on the other hand, inferior to what was seen at
Vienna and Paris. Mankind and their manners are more homogeneous
within an available circle around Philadelphia than around either of
those capitals. The rude populations of the lower Danube, the Don, the
Caucasus, the Steppes, Albania, Syria, Barbary, etc. cannot be so fully
represented here. That they should be, were it practicable, would be
more to their advantage than to ours perhaps, the probability being
slight that we should deem it desirable to adopt many of their methods.
Nor will the eating and drinking of the nations be so variously
illustrated as in the cordon of restaurants that so largely contributed to
the spectacular effect at Paris. The French genius for the dramatic was
quite at home in arranging that part of the display; and they did not
allow the full effect to suffer for want of some artificial eking out. The
kibaubs, pilau and sherbet that were served up in fine Oriental style
were not in all cases prepared by Turks, Persians and Tunisians. The
materials were abundant in Paris for these and any other outlandish
dainties that might be called for. So were costumers. There was no
reason, therefore, why imitations should not be got up capable of
serving every purpose, and of giving more amusement than the genuine
dishes and divans of Islam would have done. The negro waiters in the
American saloon doubtless outnumbered all the other representatives of
the dark or semi-civilized races that appeared in a similar character.
They proved a success, their genial bearing and ever-ready smile
pleasing the mass of the guests more than did the triste and impassive
Moslem. The theatrical can just as well be done here, and _quant. suff._
of Cossacks and Turks be manufactured to order. Then we have John
and Sambo in unadulterated profusion; the former ready at the shortest
notice and for very small compensation to indoctrinate all comers in the
art of plying the chopsticks, and the latter notoriously in his element in
the kitchen and the dining-room, and able to aid the chasse-café with a
song--lord alike of the carving-knife, the cocktail and the castanets.
Water, the simplest, most healthful and most indispensable of all
refreshments, is provided without stint and without price. Foreigners
are struck with the immense consumption of water as a beverage in this
country. They do not realize the aridity of our summer climate, which
makes it sometimes as much of a luxury here as it is in the desert. A rill
of living water, let it issue from a mossy rift in the hillside or the mouth

of a bronze lion, comes to