A LESSON FROM AFRICA.
Sometimes valuable information about ourselves comes from unexpected sources. Here is something interesting about American baking powders all the way from Africa.
Rev. Bishop William Taylor, for several years Methodist Bishop of Africa, says that the red label of the Royal Baking Powder, so familiar to every housekeeper in America, is quite as well known and the powder as highly prized in every part of that continent to which civilization has extended. The Royal Baking Powder was taken to South Africa a great many years ago by Mrs. Robinson, a missionary. But its use soon spread beyond the Missions, and it came to be regarded as a necessity by all classes. It was found particularly valuable in the mines and upon the ranches, and frequently sold at interior stations for a dollar a pound. Especially has it conduced to the comfort and health of the missionaries, who would find bread-making a sorry business without it.
Another interesting fact is that no other baking powder will stand service in that country. Rev. Ross Taylor, the agent for African Missions, says: "During the past ten years we have shipped Royal Baking Powder regularly to our African Missions, and for the last four years to the exclusion of all other brands, because of the testimony of our missionaries that it maintains its strength, freshness, and purity in the tropical climate, which others do not. For instance, the superintendent of our mission in Angola, a work that is financially maintained on commercial lines, reported that he could not hold his trade with anything else but the Royal. We are using it in forty mission stations in Africa."
Here is a suggestive fact of value to American housekeepers. Though the presence of this keeping quality in the Royal and the lack of it in other powders is developed more conspicuously in the hot, moist climate of Africa, it exists in the Royal and is deficient in the others as they are sold in this country in exactly the same ratio. This natural test demonstrates more forcibly than a chemical analysis could the wide difference that exists between the different baking powders in their combination and actual practical value. The maintenance of its strength and freshness under all climatic conditions is evidence that the Royal Powder is more accurately made and composed of purer and better ingredients. Such a powder only will give uniform results in perfect foods and prove of the greatest economy in the saving of flour, butter, and other articles used in their production.—N. Y. Christian Advocate.
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