Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1893 — ABOUT CORNCOBS. [ARTICLE]

ABOUT CORNCOBS.

A Chapter on the Many Uses to Which They Can Be Put. Corncobs are useful to make pipes for the men, as stoppers to bottlesthat have mislaid their corks, to crowd into the bunghole of the cider barrel, to throw at the hens when they scratch the young onions, to curl hair on, to hold up windows, to ferrule the children with, to grease the griddle in place of the time-honored half of a turnip, to wind basting ravelings for future use, to stop up any kind of a chink, to drive away red ants and to found a for tune. The last two statements may seem to challenge remarks, but they can bear the light of the best tallow ever run in a candle mould. One steps on corncobs when entering the pantry, and joggles the cream into the pickle dish. On inquiry one finds that red ants don’t like corncobs. I don’t wonder. As for the fortune, a man who once lived not ten miles from Springfield laid the foundations for a fortune so large that, although he died twelve years ago, the lawyers have not yet done fighting over his will, solely by carrying loads of corncobs hither and yon ana selling them for fabulous prioes. The children find both fun and sorrow in cornoobs. They make pretty dolls to be sure, but if the masters of the Inquisition could have been provided corncobs sufficient to allow one for the mouth of each prisoner, they would have, abandoned all other methods of torture. It is a most enlightening sight to enter a “deestrict” school ana see a row of little culprits standing behind the stove, a corncob in eaoh mouth, and the silent tears of agony rolling down the chubby cheeks. A corncob smudge is said to give ham and bacon a most perfect and delioate flavor.

A corncob put on a pole, saturated with kerosene and set blazing, will destroy any worms’ nest into which it is thrust during the early morning of June’s rare days. A corncob slightly greased and set in a candlestick has been known to burn half an hour, and to save bringing in the lantern from the barn in order to light the children to bed. Without the grease it would, if very dry, burn slowly and perfume the air in a way that showed itself an excellent substitute for joss sticks. The ancient nurse in the rural districts uses them to purify the atmosphere in the sick room aud considers that, together with woolen rags, they are far ahead of any disinfectant favored by the medical fraternity. Tho country damsel preparing for the aocial fray has been known to blacken her eyebrows with a burnt cob. When children object too strenuously to having their teeth sooured with soot from the teakettle, an indulgent parent may make a compromise on the black powder from a burnt cob. In many places the jetty stuff is supposed even to have medicinal power, and Miranda swallows a) quantity in order to have a sweet breath—ah, telltale plan—when Ferdinand comes a-wooing. You can black boots with corncobs. You can shell corn by rubbing cob on grain. A oorncob makes an excelllent scrubbing brush. A woman with a s6ul for ingenuity onc« hung out a large wash with clothes pim manufactured from cleft corncobs.