A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator,' 27 August 1870—America certainly does show considerable humour in the invention of its newspaper fibs,—a humour of which there is not a trace in the English papers. The last discovery there is of an abundant spring in Nevada of ready-made chicken broth, only needing salt and pepper to make it ready for the tureen. It is added that three pounds of beef boiled in the liquid yielded by this spring will yield as much beef-tea as twelve pounds boiled in water, and that it also possesses a remarkable aptitude for hatching chickens' eggs. Clearly this is the place for a colony of in- valids. If a mine of thin, crisp, hot toast should only be discovered in the vicinity.—which the fitness of things seems to render almost certain, —there would only be wanting an abundant spring of water-gruel,—"thin, but not too thin," as Mr. Wodehouse says in "Emma,"—to make it a heaven for convalescents.
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