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Speaker 1: Christmas Crackers by Leonard Larkin. If there is one thing

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inseparable from Christmas in general, and the little one seasonable

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gatherings in particular, it is a cracker with what a

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delightful look of expectation they have waited for it to

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go bang, And how they have screamed as they scrambled

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after the surprise which came in response to the explosion,

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and reveled in a complete outfit in the way of paper, garments,

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hats and caps, jewels, toys, puzzles and what not. But

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there are others who love the cracker. Have you not

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seen them? She is merry eighteen, and he with just

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enough mustache to twirl. They each seize an end of

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that convenient little cracker, Bang it goes. Why doesn't he

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pick up the gaily decorated paper cap or she the

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pecorn little apron with the blue bows. Simple because there

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is a tiny slip of paper inside, and they are

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eager to read it. That little scrap of paper. May say,

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the sweet crimson rose, with its beautiful hue, is not

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half so deep as my passion for you. Twill wither

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and fade, and no more will be seen. But whilst

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my heart lives, you will still be its queen, and

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the next moment they are in the quietest corner of

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the room. It was Cupid himself who hopped out of

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that cracker. Christmas crackers have much to answer for, considering

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the many moments of merriment which these small rolls of

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paper will surely bring, and the countless chats on courting

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topics they are sure to give rise to. We are

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inclined to hasten from romance to reality and take a

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peep in upon the workers whose busy fingers provide the crackers,

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in short to find out exactly how they are made,

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from the moment the paper arrives at the factory to

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the time the completed article is ready to be packed

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up in dozens and sent away. Messrs Tom Smith and Co.

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Of Wilson Street, Finsbury are really the creators of the

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Christmas Cracker as we now know it. About forty years

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ago a sweetmeat and Love motto was wrapped in a

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piece of fancy paper and in those days answered the

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same purpose as Christmas crackers do now. They were called

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kiss mottoes. Then it got converted into somebody's luggage, and

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finally the elaborately got up Christmas cracker of today. Oscar

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Wilde did much, however, for its welfare. Even the crackers

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caught the esthetic movement and became wrapped up in esthetic colors.

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Messrs Tom Smith and Co. Manufacture eleven millions in a

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single season. Our own country will claim some eight or

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nine millions of these, and the remainder will get scattered

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over the world, India claiming a big parcel. The first

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room visited at their immense factory was on the ground floor.

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Here is a miniature quarry. Hundreds of stones imported from

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Germany are stacked everywhere. Men are busy in the far

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corner grinding and grinding them until a perfectly pure and

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level surface is obtained. If you feel inclined, you might

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endeavor to raise from the floor. The largest litho stone

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used it measures sixty inches by forty and would turn

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the scale at a ton. The stones are then passed

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on to the litho artists, for lithography plays a most

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important part in the manufacture of a Christmas Cracker. Upstairs

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is the artist's room. Clever artists are constantly engaged in

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making fresh designs year in and year out, and it

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is nothing extraordinary for some of them to spend weeks

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in completing a single set of designs. The literary work, too,

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is no small item, and a man who can write

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good verse can earn good money. Ladies seem to be

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the most adept at this sort of thing, which is

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paid for at so much a set of verses. Mister

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Walter Smith, who accompanied us on our tour, goes to

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a desk and takes out a handful of sheets on

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which all sorts and conditions of bards have written. Some

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of them are very funny. Here is one which is

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immediately waste paper basketed, whilst sweets are eaten and crackers cracked.

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Naughty boys are sure to be whacked. The poet asked

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five shillings for this, and offered to supply them in

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unlimited quantities at the same price. The next one is

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a gem and is at once accepted. Half hidden neath

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the spreading leaves, a purple violet bent its head, yet

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all around the moss grown path in love its fragrance.

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Softly shed my living violet, whisper low that o'er my life,

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Your fragrant sweet will make a garden of my life,

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where love its counterpart may meet. We now pass through

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innumerable avenues of Christmas crackers, all in huge parcels. In

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one stack alone, there are no fewer than fifty thousand

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boxes in a line one hundred feet long and ten

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feet wide. This represents a month's work, and every one

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is sold. We can quite realize this when we are

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told that one retail firm alone in London will send

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in such an order for crackers that it would take

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sixteen of the largest delivery vans built to convey them,

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with twelve hundred boxes packed away in each van. It

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is no unusual thing for an order of five hundred,

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one thousand, or fifteen hundred pounds worth of Christmas crackers

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to be received, the biggest of all, totaling up to

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three thousand pounds, the highest in the trade. This reminds

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us of the number of cardboard boxes which must be needed.

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The box making is a distinct industry. A plant of

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machinery for their manufacture costs anything between two thousand and

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five thousand pounds, and during a busy week, thirty thousand

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would be made and used in that time. The card

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is all cut to shape and stacked away, and the

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patterns are many, for there are over one hundred and

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fifty varieties of boxes. Just look at this pile of

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sacks in the corner. It is all waste cuttings, and

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often ten and fifteen bags will come down the lift

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in the course of a day. On the floors above,

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the printing is going on. A number of litho machines

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are running, for the most part, presided over by men

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assisted by girls who certainly take off the sheets with

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marvelous rapidity. One machine is printing funny faces to go

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outside the crackers. Another is turning out sheets with hundreds

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of flowers on it, and yet another is giving us

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countless little cupids. Every rose and cupid is cut out,

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and it is the same with any other picture with

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which it is intended to decorate a cracker. We shall

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be safe in saying that the contents of crackers come

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from every part of the world, and a peep into

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the store room where they are kept in huge bins

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and great boxes will substantiate this. On one corner of

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the counter are thousands of tiny pill boxes. These are

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filled with rouge and powder, with a little puff thrown in.

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Such are the contents of one of the crackers. For spinsters,

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those estimable single ladies also being allotted faded flowers, a nightcap,

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a wedding ring, and a bottle of hair dye. This

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pile of bracelets came from Bohemia, fans from Japan, toys

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from Christiania, with little wooden cups and saucers from the

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same place, scarf pins from Saxony. The little miniature pipes

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as played on by the accompanies to a Punch and

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Judy show are made by Parisians Jews. Harps come from Germany,

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and tiny wooden barrels from America. The familiar flexible faces,

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which can be squeezed and pulled into every conceivable shape,

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are made in London. Hundreds of little glass bottles are

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here supposed to be filled with a certain intoxicant known

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as gin. A young girl is filling them with the

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very reverse of anything intoxicating, although the label on the

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bottle says a million overproof. Italy, Turkey, India, China and

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South Africa all contribute to the store. The sight would

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set a child pining with pardonable envy, to play about

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this part of the factory, to enumerate every item which

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finds its way inside the crackers would call for a

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catalog the size of the strand magazine. We are now

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on our way to the top of the building where

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the Christmas cracker is really made. First there is the

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giving out counter. Here come the girls and receive into

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their hands a certain quantity of what is wanted to

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make the particular part on which they are engaged. Every

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strip of paper is counted. Close by the giving out counter,

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a number of young women are fringing the edges of

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the paper to be rolled. This is done on a

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small machine capable of taking four thicknesses of ordinary paper

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and six of the brighter looking gelatine. The material to

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be fringed is put against the teeth of the apparatus,

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the girl stamps it, and it is ready to give

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a neat and gay appearance to either end of the

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body of the cracker. The main workroom presents a busy sight.

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It is nearing one o'clock when the dinner bell will ring,

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and the hands are working at high speed so as

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to finish their self allotted task. Ere the bell tolls.

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Four hundred feet of benches are ranged from end to

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end of the room, and here are scores of girls

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sitting in front of partitioned of spaces ranged along the

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lengthy counters. Every girl has her glue pot by her side.

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Turn round and look at the immense stove, where twenty

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pots are being constantly warmed up, so that as soon

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as a worker's glue cools down, she has only to

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cross to the stove when there is another pot ready

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at hand for her. It is noticeable how cheerful the

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young women are, and to what a superior class they

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apparently belong. A good cracker hand can easily earn fourteen

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shillings sixteen shillings, and at a busy time, eighteen shillings

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a week, and the cracker trade of this firm alone

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means the constant employment, directly and indirectly of close upon

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a thousand people. One young woman is rolling the paper

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paper of all the colors of the rainbow are before her,

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and dozens of completed crackers are arranged in front, waiting

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to be carried away and the manufacturer of them booked

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to her credit. The paper is rolled on a brass

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tube so that a trim appearance is obtained. Colored string

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ties it up and the gelatine is quickly placed round it.

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The girl we were watching said she could roll two

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dozen best work in a quarter of an hour, though

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she could do commoner work much quicker. Her next door

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companion was blessed with busy fingers. First she took a

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slip of paper. This was the inner lining. Round this

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she wrapped the gelatine, added two decorating ends or fringes,

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and then put in the detonator the explosive paper tape,

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and it was ready to receive its contents. She could

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do a gross an hour. Her fingers traveled faster than

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the pencil in our notebook. Passing girl after girl, we

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find them all surrounded by the brightest of colors in

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gelatine and paper. One is making paper dresses for a doll,

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a neat, little white tissue frock trimmed with red braid.

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This formed part of a rather novel box of crackers.

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A good looking doll is placed in the box, and

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each cracker has some article of a tire inside, so

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that when everyone was pulled, the doll could be provided

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with a complete outfit. Others were making hats and caps.

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The paper is rolled round a tin to shape, pasted together,

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and there is your chapeau. All is very simple, but

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nothing could be more effective when the article is completed.

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The card board alone used in the manufacture of the

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empty boxes in which the crackers are packed exceeds one

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hundred tons in weight during a single season, and the

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tiny strips of card constituting the detonators over five tons.

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Twenty tons of glue and paste. Between six and seven

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thousand reams of colored and fancy papers are used, whilst

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the total weight of the thin, transparent sheets of colored gelatin,

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which add so much to the brilliancy of a Christmas cracker,

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amounts to nearly six tons. The process by which gelatine

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is manufactured is a most interesting one. The raw gelatin

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in five hundred weight casks from Switzerland. It arrives on

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these shores in thick, rough sheets measuring six feet by

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three feet, weighing about three to four ounces each. It

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is then reduced to a liquid by steam power water

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being added. It is clarified, and while in its liquid state,

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dyes of the richest hues are poured in to render

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it of the shade of color desired. While the gelatin

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is thus in a liquid form, it is poured upon

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frames of glass measuring twenty four inches by eighteen inches,

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much resembling window panes. Workmen, by the movement of the glass,

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allow the melted gelatin to spread over it and so

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form a sheet of uniform thickness. These sheets of glass

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are then arranged in stacks and the film of gelatine

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allowed to set. When the gelatine sheets are hard upon

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the glass, they are then transferred to a room in

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which a strong current of air is allowed to pass

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in and out to complete the drying process. This takes

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from twelve to eighteen hours, after which a knife is

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run round the edges of the gelatine, which, then being

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cut with a knife, peels easily off the glass and

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is now ready for use. We were curious to know

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what was the biggest cracker ever made. Crackers are made

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three feet long, containing a full sized coat, hat, collar, frill, whiskers, umbrella,

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and eyeglass. A story is told of a well known

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member of the aristocracy who entered a West End shop

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one day and saw one of these gigantic crackers. He

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inquired the size, and when he heard it, exclaimed, three

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feet not big enough for me. Just you order me

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three dozen crackers, each six feet long. The six feet

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crackers were made and delivered. Whether the noble and congratulated

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himself on the fact that he had obtained the largest

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cracker up to date, we do not know. But the

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biggest of all was that made every night for Harry

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Pane as clown to pull with the pantaloon in the

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pantomime at Drury Lane. It was seven feet long and

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contained costumes large enough for the merry couple to put on,

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and a multitude of crackers which were thrown amongst the

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children in the audience. End of Christmas Crackers by Leonard

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Larkin