Cream of Tartar
tar'ter, a white crystalline powder composed of tartaric acid and potassium. It is obtained from the lees, that is to say, the sediment or dregs of wine. It is valuable not only in medicine, but as the essential element of the best baking powder . Efforts have been made to manufacture the drug direct from the juice of the grape. A California association has offered a prize of $25,000 to the scientist who shall make known a method of manufacturing cream of tartar from the juice of the grape, without going through the intermediate process of wine making and settling. Such a discovery would give additional value to the grape crop of that state, as well as decrease the price of an expensive household necessity. See Bread
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Creasy
SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD (krē-se), an English historian; born at Bexley, Kent, in 1812. He was educated at Eton, and at King's College, Cambridge, of which he was elected a fellow in 1834. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1827, and was for about 20 years a member of the home circuit. In 1840 he appointed Professor of History at was the London University, and in 1860 was made Chief Justice of Ceylon, receiving at the same time the honor of knighthood. His principal works are: "The Rise and Progress of the British ," and "The Fifteen Decisive Constitution Battles of the World." He died Jan. 27, 1878.
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Crecy
or Cressy, kres'si, a village in the northeastern part of France. It is noted for a famous battle, August 26, 1346, in which Edward III of England with an army of 40,000 men defeated the flower of the French chivalry. This battle is reputed as the first in which cannon were used by English troops, "which, with fire threw little iron balls to frighten the horses." This battle is significant also in that English yeomen armed with the bow gained a victory over gentlemen in armor. The battle of Crecy has been termed the death knell of feudalism--the beginning of the rise of the common people in England and France. Not only were 1,200 French knights left dead on the field of battle, but the usefulness of heavy armor--the possession, the dependence, and the defense of the wealthy and the noble--was past. "The churl had struck down the noble," says Green. In this battle the king's eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, of whom we hear in English history, won great renown for bravery. See Black Prince
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Credit (Economics is the postponement)
in economics, is the postponement agreed on by the parties of the payment of a debt to a future day. It implies confidence of the creditor in the debtor; and a "credit system" is one of general confidence of people in each other's honesty, solvency, and resources. By means of a credit system a comparatively small stock of money can be made to do duty for carrying on a number of different transactions; but it is indispensable for every good system of credit that money must be instantly available when required, and this principle applies to every species of transaction where postponed payment is concerned. Public credit is the confidence which men entertain in the ability and disposition of a nation to make good its engagements with its creditors; or the estimation in which individuals hold the public promises of payment, whether such promises are expressed or implied. The term is also applied to the general credit of individuals in a nation; when merchants and others are wealthy and punctual in fulfilling engagements; or when they transact business with honor and fidelity; or when transfers of property are made with ease.
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Credit (LETTER OF an order given)
LETTER OF, an order given by bankers or others at one place to enable a person to receive money from their agents at another place. CRÉDIT FONCIER (krā-dē fôn-syā), a mode of raising money on land in France, the peculiarity of which is that the advance must not exceed one-half of the value of the property pledged or hypothecated, and that the repayment of the loan is by an annuity terminable at a certain date. Several companies have been established by the French Government with the privilege of making such loans. CRÉDIT MOBILIER (-mō-bēl-yā'), the name given to a gigantic scheme promulgated in France in 1852, and sanctioned by the existing government, the objects of which are: 1. To take in hand and originate trading enterprises of all kinds, on the principle of limited liability. 2. To supersede or buy up trading companies; and to substitute script and shares of its own, for the shares and bonds of the company. The Crédit Mobilier of America was a corporation with a Pennsylvania charter, granted in 1859 nominally to conduct a banking business. The charter passed into the hands of railroad financiers in 1864, who used it to finance the Union Pacific Railroad and to shield themselves from loss in case the railroad proved a failure. Congress investigated the enterprise in 1872-1873, and two members of the House of Representatives, Oakes Ames, of Massachusetts, and James Brooks, of New York, were censured by resolution of the House.
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Credit Mobilier
mo-be'lier, in United States history, a corporation chartered to build railways. It was an early instance of graft on a large scale. The company was formed in Pennsylvania in 1863 with a capital of $2,500,000. The name adopted was that of a former French banking company with a somewhat similar history. In 1867 the stock was increased to $3,750,000, and the company undertook the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. For a few years enormous dividends were paid and the stock rose rapidly in value. When the exposure came it was found that many honored members of Congress--men who had voted large national bonuses to assist in building the railroad--were stockholders in the Credit Mobilier, and that the company had received outrageous prices for its work. In other words, the organizers of the Credit Mobilier gave stock to senators and representatives in exchange for votes that granted the Union Pacific securities wherewith to pay three prices for the building of the road. A committee of the Senate recommended the expulsion of one member; but no action was taken. A committee of the House recommended the expulsion of two members; but the House contented itself with votes of censure. A number of congressmen were, however, retired from public life; and a connection with this scandal (probably innocent for the most part) cost James G. Blaine the election to the presidency.
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