OCR Text |
Show j potatoes as Penholders. "It is surprising, " says a commercial commer-cial traveler, "how general the use of potatoes as penholders is becoming in hotels. I have seen them in use in great hostelries of the east, whose owners wouldn't hesitate for a moment to spend $10 for a desk ornament to hold pens used by the guests in registering. The mixture of starch, glucose and water wa-ter in the potato seems well adapted to take np tha impurities of ink and to keep the pen point clear and bright, while tho alkaloid of the potato, known as solanine, doubtless has something to do with it in the same line. These elements ele-ments readily take np the tannate of iron.whiehis the body substance of ink. Chemically speaking, starch is the first base of a potato, and sugar or glucose is its second base. Thus is tho humble potato finding another way in which to serve the uses of mankind." New York Tribune. |