Part 1

Transcriber's note.

Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently repaired. A list of other changes made can be found at the end of the book.

Mark up: _italics_ =bold=

=MADAME LANORMAND'S FORTUNE-TELLER AND DREAM BOOK.=

This is the greatest book ever published on these subjects, and contains plain and correct rules for foretelling what is going to happen. It treats on the art of telling fortunes by the hands or Palmistry, as practiced by the Gypsies.--On Moles.--The Birth of Children, and Foretelling Events by the Moon's Age and the days of the week; and How to know if your love for a person will be returned.--Also, on Charms, Spells, and Incantations.--Fast of St. Agnes.-The Nine Keys.--Magic Rose.--Cupid's Nosegay.--The Ring and Olive Branch.--Love's Cordial.--The Witch's Chain.--Love Letters.--Strange Bed.--To see a Future Husband.--The Lover's Charm.--How soon you will marry.--How to tell a person's character by Cabalistic Calculations.--How to tell Fortunes by Tea Leaves and Coffee Grounds; by the White of an Egg.--How to Choose a Husband by the Hair.--Lucky Days, etc., etc. It also contains a complete Dictionary of all Dreams, arranged alphabetically, and with a clear interpretation of each.--Also, Hymen's Lottery, and all good and bad Omens.--Also, the only true copy of the Oraculum ever published in this country; it is the Oracle that foretold to Alexander the Great, his successes; it was found by MADAME LANORMAND, in 1801, in one of the Royal Egyptian Tombs; it was given by her to Napoleon the First, who always consulted it previous to any of his undertakings. =Mailed for 20 Cents.=

=THE SHOWMAN'S GUIDE; OR, THE BLACK ART FULLY EXPOSED AND LAID BARE.=

This book contains most of the marvelous things in Ancient or Modern Magic, and is the Text Book for all showmen. It shows How to knock a Tumbler through a Table.--To drive one Tumbler through another.--How to make the Protean Liquid.--To make a Watch stop or go at the word of command.--How to walk barefooted on a hot iron bar.--To discover any Card in a pack by its weight or smell.--To turn Water into Wine.--How to eat Fire.--To Dip the Hand into Water without wetting it.--How to Fill a Glass with two different Liquids, without mixing them.--How to Light a Candle by a Glass of Water.--To Freeze Water by shaking it.--To break a Stone with a Blow of the Fist.--To tear a Handkerchief into pieces and to make it whole again.--How to fire a loaded Pistol at the Hand without hurting it.--To change a bowl of Ink into clear Water with Fish swimming in it.--To produce Candies, Nuts, etc., from a handkerchief, and many other tricks too numerous to mention. =Mailed for 25 Cents.=

=THE MAGICIAN'S GUIDE; OR, CONJURING MADE EASY.=

This work was written by the celebrated HOUDIN, who, being prompted by an honest desire to instruct those who wish to be initiated into the depths and mysteries of his art, laid bare all his professional secrets, and has treated the subject in the most eminently successful manner. By a series of lessons he has thoroughly explained the principles of the higher science. Numerous illustrations, together with full and explicit directions, make success sure, and he who desires to be the sought after and honored guest at every party or entertainment, has but to study this book. It treats on all kinds of Magic, Legerdemain, and Prestidigitation; Galvanism, Magnetism and Electricity, and is illustrated with 33 first class engravings. =Mailed for 25 Cents.=

OUR KNOWLEDGE BOX:

OR,

OLD SECRETS AND NEW DISCOVERIES.

_A COMPENDIUM OF VALUABLE INFORMATION, AND AN INDISPENSABLE HAND-BOOK FOR THE USE OF EVERYBODY: THE BEST COLLECTION OF RARE AND VALUABLE RECIPES EVER PUBLISHED._

GEO. BLACKIE & CO., Publishers, _746 BROADWAY, NEW YORK._

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

Secrets of the Liquor Trade 3

Druggists' Department 8

Manufacturers' Department 14

The Toilet, Perfumery, Etc. 27

Hunters' and Trappers' Secrets 34

The Fine Arts and Sciences 36

Farmers' Department 43

Confectioners' Department 46

Valuable Miscellaneous Recipes for the Household and every day Requirements 48

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by CHAS. MCARTHUR, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

OUR KNOWLEDGE BOX.

SECRETS OF THE LIQUOR TRADE.

_Cider Without Apples._--To each gallon of cold water, put 1 lb. common sugar, ½ oz. tartaric acid, 1 tablespoonful of yeast, shake well, make in the evening, and it will be fit for use next day. I make in a keg a few gallons at a time, leaving a few quarts to make into next time; not using yeast again until the keg needs rinsing. If it gets a little sour make a little more into it, or put as much water with it as there is cider, and put it with the vinegar. If it is desired to bottle this cider by manufacturers of small drinks, you will proceed as follows: Put in a barrel 5 gallons hot water, 30 lbs. brown sugar, ¾ lb. tartaric acid, 25 gallons cold water, 3 pints of hop or brewers' yeast worked into paste with ¾ lb. flour, and 1 pint water will be required in making this paste, put altogether in a barrel, which it will fill, and let it work 24 hours--the yeast running out at the bung all the time, by putting in a little occasionally to keep it full. Then bottle, putting in 2 or 3 broken raisins to each bottle, and it will nearly equal Champagne.

_Cider Champagne, No. 1._--Good cider, 20 gallons; spirits, 1 gallon; honey or sugar, 6 lbs. Mix, and let them rest for a fortnight; then fine with skimmed milk, 1 quart. This, put up in champagne bottles, silvered and labeled, has often been sold for Champagne. It opens very sparkling.

_Cider--To Keep Sweet._--1st. By putting into the barrel before the cider has begun to work, about half a pint of whole fresh mustard seed tied up in a coarse muslin bag. 2d. By burning a little sulphur or sulphur match in the barrel previous to putting in the cider. 3d. By the use of ¾ of an ounce of the bi-sulphite of lime to the barrel. This article is the preserving powder sold at rather a high price by various firms.

_To Neutralize Whiskey to make various Liquors._--To 40 gallons of whiskey, add 1½ lbs. unslacked lime; ¾ lb. alum, and ½ pint of spirits of nitre. Stand 24 hours and draw it off.

_Madeira Wine._--To 40 gallons prepared cider, add, ¼ lb. tartaric acid; 4 gallons spirits; 3 lbs. loaf sugar. Let it stand 10 days, draw it off carefully; fine it down, and again rack it into another cask.

_Sherry Wine._--To 40 gallons prepared cider, add, 2 gallons spirits; 3 lbs. of raisins; 6 gallons good sherry, and ½ ounce oil bitter almonds, (dissolved in alcohol). Let it stand 10 days, and draw it off carefully; fine it down and again rack it into another cask.

_Port Wine._--To 40 gallons prepared cider, add, 6 gallons good port wine; 10 quarts wild grapes, (clusters); ½ lb. bruised rhatany root; 3 oz. tincture of kino; 3 lbs. loaf sugar; 2 gallons spirits. Let this stand ten days; color if too light, with tincture of rhatany, then rack it off and fine it. This should be repeated until the color is perfect and the liquid clear.

_To correct a bad Taste and sourness in Wine._--Put in a bag the root of wild horse-radish cut in bits. Let it down in the wine, and leave it there two days; take this out, and put another, repeating the same till the wine is perfectly restored. Or fill a bag with wheat; it will have the same effect.

_To restore Flat Wine._--Add four or five pounds of sugar, honey, or bruised raisins, to every hundred gallons, and bung close. A little spirits may also be added.

_To restore Wine that has turned sour or sharp._--Fill a bag with leek-seed, or of leaves or twisters of vine, and put either of them to infuse in the cask.

_Ginger Wine._--Take one quart of 95 per cent. alcohol, and put into it one ounce of best ginger root (bruised and not ground), five grains of capsicum, and one drachm of tartaric acid. Let stand one week and filter. Now add one gallon of water, in which one pound of crushed sugar has been boiled. Mix when cold. To make the color, boil ½ ounce of cochineal, ¾ ounce of cream tartar, ½ ounce of saleratus, and ½ ounce alum in a pint of water till you get a bright red color.

_French Brandy._--Pure spirits, 1 gallon; best French brandy, or any kind you wish to imitate, 1 quart; loaf sugar, 2 ounces; sweet spirits of nitre, ½ ounce; a few drops of tincture of catechu, or oak bark, to roughen the taste if desired, and color to suit.

_Gin._--Take 100 gallons of clean, rectified spirits; add, after you have killed the oils well, 1½ ounces of the oil of English juniper, ½ ounce of angelica essence, ½ ounce of the oil bitter almonds, ½ ounce of the oil of coriander, and ½ ounce of the oil of caraway; put this into the rectified spirit and well rummage it up; this is what the rectifiers call strong gin.

To make this _up_, as it is called by the trade, add 45 pounds of loaf-sugar, dissolved; then rummage the whole well up together with 4 ounces of roche alum. For finings there may be added two ounces of salts of tartar.

_Aromatic Schiedam Schnapps, to imitate._--To 25 gallons good common gin, 5 over proof, add 15 pints strained honey; 2 gallons clear water; 5 pints white-sugar syrup; 5 pints spirit of nutmegs mixed with the nitric ether; 5 pints orange-flower water; 7 quarts pure water; 1 ounce acetic ether; 8 drops of oil of wintergreen, dissolved with the acetic ether. Mix all the ingredients well; if necessary, fine with alum and salt of tartar.

_St. Croix Rum._--To 40 gallons p. or n. spirits, add 2 gallons St. Croix Rum; 2 oz. acetic acid; 1½ ounce butyric acid; 3 pounds loaf sugar.

_Pine-Apple Rum._--To 50 gallons rum, made by the fruit method, add 25 pine-apples sliced, and 8 pounds white sugar. Let it stand two weeks before drawing off.

_Irish or Scotch Whiskey._--To 40 gallons proof spirits, add 60 drops of creosote, dissolved in 1 quart of alcohol; 2 oz. acetic acid; 1 pound loaf sugar. Stand 48 hours.

_Rum Shrub._--Tartaric acid, 5 pounds; pale sugar, 100 pounds; oil lemon, 4 drs.; oil orange, 4 drs.; put them into a large cask (80 gallons), and add water, 10 gallons. Rummage till the acid and sugar are dissolved, then add rum (proof), 20 gallons; water to make up 55 gallons in all; coloring one quart or more. Fine with 12 eggs. The addition of 12 sliced oranges will improve the flavor.

_Bourbon Whiskey._--To 100 gallons pure proof spirit, add 4 ounces pear oil; 2 ounces pelargonif ether; 13 drs. oil of wintergreen, dissolved in the ether; 1 gallon wine vinegar. Color with burnt sugar.

_Strong Beer, English Improved._--Malt, 1 peck; coarse brown sugar, 6 pounds; hops, 4 ounces; good yeast, 1 teacup; if you have not malt, take a little over 1 peck of barley, (twice the amount of oats will do, but are not as good,) and put it into an oven after the bread is drawn, or into a stove oven, and steam the moisture from them. Grind coarsely. Now pour upon the ground malt 3½ gallons of water at 170 or 172° of heat. The tub in which you scald the malt should have a false bottom, 2 or 3 inches from the real bottom; the false bottom should be bored full of gimlet holes, so as to act as a strainer, to keep back the malt meal. When the water is poured on, stir them well, and let it stand 3 hours, and draw off by a faucet; put in 7 gallons more of water at 180 to 182°; stir it well, and let it stand 2 hours, and draw it off. Then put on a gallon or two of cold water, stir it well, and draw it off; you should have about 5 or 6 gallons. Put the 6 pounds of coarse brown sugar in an equal amount of water; mix with the wort, and boil 1½ to 2 hours with the hops; you should have eight gallons when boiled; when cooled to 80° put in the yeast, and let it work 18 to 20 hours, covered with a sack; use sound iron hooped kegs or porter bottles, bung or cork tight, and in two weeks it will be good sound beer, and will keep a long time; and for persons of a weak habit of body, and especially females, 1 glass of this with their meals is far better than tea or coffee, or all the ardent spirits in the universe. If more malt is used, not exceeding ½ a bushel, the beer, of course, would have more spirit, but this strength is sufficient for the use of families or invalids.

_Root Beer._--For 10 gallons beer, take 3 pounds common burdock root, or 1 ounce essence of sassafras; ½ pound good hops; 1 pint corn, roasted brown. Boil the whole in 6 gallons pure water until the strength of the materials is obtained; strain while hot into a keg, adding enough cold water to make 10 gallons. When nearly cold, add clean molasses or syrup until palatable,--not sickishly sweet. Add also as much fresh yeast as will raise a batch of 8 loaves of bread. Place the keg in a cellar or other cool place, and in 48 hours you will have a keg of first-rate sparkling root beer.

_Superior Ginger Beer._--Ten pounds of sugar; 9 ounces of lemon juice; ½ a pound of honey; 11 ounces of bruised ginger root; 9 gallons of water; 3 pints of yeast. Boil the ginger half an hour in a gallon of water; then add the rest of the water and the other ingredients, and strain it when cold. Add the white of an egg, beaten, and ½ an ounce of essence of lemon. Let it stand 4 days, then bottle, and it will keep many months.

_Spruce Beer._--Take of the essence of spruce half a pint; bruised pimento and ginger, of each four ounces; water, three gallons. Boil five or ten minutes, then strain and add 11 gallons of warm water, a pint of yeast, and six pints of molasses. Allow the mixture to ferment for 24 hours.

_To Cure Ropy Beer._--Put a handful or two of flour, and the same quantity of hops, with a little powdered alum, into the beer and rummage it well.

_To give Beer the appearance of Age._--Add a few handfuls of pickled cucumbers and Seville oranges, both chopped up. This is said to make malt liquor appear six months older than it really is.

_How to make Mead._--The following is a good receipt for Mead:--On twenty pounds of honey pour five gallons of boiling water; boil, and remove the scum as it rises; add one ounce of best hops, and boil for ten minutes; then put the liquor into a tub to cool; when all but cold add a little yeast, spread upon a slice of toasted bread; let it stand in a warm room. When fermentation is set up, put the mixture into a cask, and fill up from time to time as the yeast runs out of the bunghole; when the fermentation is finished, bung it down, leaving a peg-hole which can afterwards be closed, and in less than a year it will be fit to bottle.

_Stomach Bitters, equal to Hostetter's, for one-fourth its cost._--European Gentian root, 1½ ounce; orange peel, 2½ ounces; cinnamon, ¼ ounce; aniseseed, ½ ounce; coriander seed, ½ ounce; cardamon seed, 1/8 ounce; unground Peruvian bark, ½ ounce; gum kino, ¼ ounce; bruise all these articles, and put them into the best alcohol, 1 pint; let it stand a week and pour off the clear tincture: then boil the dregs a few minutes in 1 quart of water, strain, and press out all the strength; now dissolve loaf sugar, 1 pound, in the hot liquid, adding 3 quarts cold water, and mix with spirit tincture first poured off, or you can add these, and let it stand on the dregs if preferred.

_Soda Syrup, with or without Fountains._--The common or more watery syrups are made by using loaf or crushed sugar, 8 pounds; pure water, 1 gallon, gum arabic, 2 ounces, mix in a brass or copper kettle; boil until the gum is dissolved, then skim and strain through white flannel, after which add tartaric acid, 5½ oz., dissolved in hot water; to flavor, use extract of lemon, orange, rose, pine-apple, peach, sarsaparilla, strawberry, etc., ½ ounce to each bottle, or to your taste.

_Bead for Liquor._--The best bead is the orange-flower water bead, (oil of neroli,) 1 drop to each gallon of brandy. _Another method_:--To every 40 drops of sulpuric acid, add 60 drops purest sweet oil in a glass vessel; use immediately. This quantity is generally sufficient for 10 gallons spirit. _Another_:--take 1 ounce of the purest oil sweet almonds; 1 ounce of sulphuric acid; put them in a stone mortar, add, by _degrees_, 2 ounces white lump sugar, rubbing it well with the pestle till it becomes a paste; then add small quantities of spirits of wine till it comes into a liquid. This quantity is sufficient for 100 gallons. The first is strongly recommended as the best.

_Coloring for Liquors._--Take 2 pounds crushed or lump sugar, put it into a kettle that will hold 4 to 6 quarts, with ½ tumbler of water. Boil it until it is _black_, then take it off and cool with water, stirring it as you put in the water.

_Wax Putty for Leaky Casks, Bungs, etc._--Spirits turpentine, 2 pounds; tallow, 4 pounds; solid turpentine, 12 pounds. Melt the wax and solid turpentine together over a slow fire, then add the tallow. When melted, remove far from the fire, then stir the spirits turpentine, and let it cool.

_Cement for the Mouths of Corked Bottles._--Melt together ¼ of a pound of rosin, a couple of ounces of beeswax. When it froths stir it with a tallow candle. As soon as it melts, dip the mouths of the corked bottles into it. This is an excellent thing to exclude the air from such things as are injured by being exposed to it.

DRUGGISTS' DEPARTMENT.

_Arnica Liniment._--Add to one pint of sweet oil, two tablespoonfuls of tincture of arnica; or the leaves may be heated in the oil over a slow fire. Good for wounds, stiff joints, rheumatic, and all injuries.

_Ayer's Cherry Pectoral._--Take four grains of acetate of morphia, 2 fluid drachms of tincture of bloodroot, 7 fluid drachms each of antimonial wine and wine of ipecacuanha, and 3 fluid ounces of syrup of wild cherry. Mix.

_Balm Gilead._--Balm-gilead buds, bottled up in new rum, are very healing to fresh cuts or wounds. No family should be without a bottle.

_Blackberry Cordial._--To one quart of blackberry juice, add one pound of white sugar, one tablespoonful of cloves, one of allspice, one of cinnamon, and one of nutmeg. Boil all together fifteen minutes; add a wineglass of whiskey, brandy or rum. Bottle while hot, cork tight, and seal. This is almost a specific in diarrhea. One dose, which is a wineglassful for an adult--half that quantity for a child--will often cure diarrhea. It can be taken three or four times a day if the case is severe.

_Brandreth's Pills._--Take two pounds of aloes, one pound of gamboge, four ounces of extract of colocynth, half a pound of castile soap, two fluid drachms of oil of peppermint, and one fluid drachm of cinnamon. Mix, and form into pills.

_Brown's Bronchial Troches._--Take one pound of pulverized extract of licorice, one and a half pounds of pulverized sugar, four ounces of pulverized cubebs, four ounces of pulverized gum arabic, and one ounce of pulverized extract of conium. Mix.

_Bryan's Pulmonic Wafers for Coughs, Colds, Etc._--Take white sugar, seven pounds; tincture of syrup of ipecac, four ounces: antimonial wine, two ounces; morphine, ten grains; dissolved in a tablespoonful of water, with ten or fifteen drops sulphuric acid; tincture of bloodroot, one ounce; syrup of tolu, two ounces; add these to the sugar, and mix the whole mass as confectioners do for lozenges, and cut into lozenges the ordinary size. Use from six to twelve of these in twenty-four hours. They sell at a great profit.

_Candied Lemon or Peppermint, for Colds._--Boil one and a half pounds of sugar in a half pint of water, till it begins to candy round the sides; put in eight drops of essence; pour it upon buttered paper, and cut it with a knife.

_Camphor Balls_, for rubbing on the hands, to prevent chaps, etc.--Melt three drachms of spermaceti, four drachms of white wax, and one ounce of almond oil; stir in three drachms of powdered camphor. Pour the compound into small gallipots, so as to form small hemispherical cakes. They may be colored with alkanet, if preferred.

_Camphorated Oil._--This is another camphor liniment. The proportions are the same as in the preceding formula, substituting olive oil for the alcohol, and exposing the materials to a moderate heat. As an external stimulant application it is even more powerful than the spirits; and to obtain its full influence the part treated should be also covered with flannel and oil silk. It forms a valuable liniment in chronic rheumatism and other painful affections, and is specially valuable as a counter-irritant in sore or inflamed throats and diseased bowels. Camphor constitutes the basis of a large number of valuable liniments. Thus, in cases of whooping-cough and some chronic bronchitic affections, the following liniment may be advantageously rubbed into the chest and along the spine. Spirits of camphor, two parts; laudanum, half a part; spirits of turpentine, one part; castile soap in powder, finely divided, half an ounce; alcohol, 3 parts. Digest the whole together for three days, and strain through linen. This liniment should be gently warmed before using. A powerful liniment for old rheumatic pains, especially when affecting the loins, is the following: camphorated oil and spirits of turpentine, of each two parts; water of hartshorn, one part; laudanum, one part; to be well shaken together. Another very efficient liniment or embrocation, serviceable in chronic painful affections, may be conveniently and easily made as follows: Take of camphor, one ounce; cayenne pepper, in powder, two teaspoonfuls; alcohol, one pint. The whole to be digested with moderate heat for ten days, and filtered. It is an active rubificant; and after a slight friction with it, it produces a grateful, thrilling sensation of heat in the pained part, which is rapidly relieved.

_Camphor Tablet for Chapped Hands, etc._--Melt tallow, and add a little powdered camphor and glycerine, with a few drops of oil of almonds to scent. Pour in molds and cool.

_Camphorated Eye-Water._--Sulphate of copper, 15 grains; French bolo, 15 grains; camphor, 4 grains; boiling water, 4 oz. Infuse, strain, and dilute with 2 quarts of cold water.

_Canker-Cure._--Take one large teaspoonful of water, two teaspoonfuls of honey, two of loaf sugar, three of powdered sage, two of powdered gold-thread, and one of alum. Stir up all together; put into a vessel, and let it simmer moderately over a steady fire. An oven is better. Then bottle for use. Give a teaspoonful occasionally through the day.

_Cephalic Snuff._--Dried asarbacca leaves, three parts; majoram, one part, lavender flowers, one part; rub together to a powder.

_Certain Cure for Headache and all Neuralgic Pains._--Opodeldoc, spirits of wine, sal ammoniac, equal parts. To be applied as any other lotion.

_Chamomile Pills._--Aloes, twelve grains; extract chamomile, thirty-six grains; oil of chamomile, three drops; make into twelve pills: two every night, or twice a day.

_Chlorine Pastiles for Disinfecting the Breath._--Dry chloride of lime, two drachms; sugar, eight ounces; starch, one ounce, gum tragacanth, one drachm; carmine, two grains. Form into small lozenges.

2. Sugar flavored with vanilla, 1 ounce; powdered tragacanth, 20 grains; liquid chloride of soda sufficient to mix; add two drops of any essential oil. Form a paste and divide into lozenges of 15 grains each.

_Cholera Morbus._--Take two ounces of the leaves of the bene plant, put them in half a pint of cold water and let them soak an hour. Give two tablespoonfuls hourly, until relief is experienced.