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THE YARN MILKS.
Hoiuf’ IrtirmUnx laft ani 'Figrnwvm A houl
thi* ii real StnpnUoii - Money for the
Ivnlli.
[ Atlanta Constitution. f
In writing recently of the results of
the experiment of the proprietors of the
model little yarn mill at Westminister
S. 0., we were led into making some ap
proximate comparisons of the amount of
money that would be saved to the
planters and to the South, if each
neighborhood worked its cotton into
yarn before sending it to market. In
the very nature of tilings, the figures we
used could be only approximately correct,
but they were based upon the results of
the Westminster yarn factory, which are
undeniably correct. Thus, for instance,
the yarns are spun fr§m the seed cotton.
This fact, which is a fact, annihilates
the coat of cotton-gin, packing, screws,
bagging and ties. Annihilates, did we
say 1 On the contrary, the cost—the ex
pense of keeping the gin3 in order and
of employing labor to run them, the cost
of bagging and ties —is in a moment
turned into ready cash, which the farmer
retains in his pocket. This is the first
and immediate result of the new process.
Let us, in this connection, present some
more figures that are at least approxi
mately correct. At the very lowest
estimate, the services of one hundred
thousand gins art 1 required to aid in pre
paring a cron of 5,000,000 b ties of cotton
in market. We will assume, therefore, that
there are 100,000 gin houses in the South,
and that these gin-houses are worth
$750 each. Some are worth more and
some less, but we will roughly estimate
their worth at f 750, which makes the
value of the Southern gin-houses $75,-
000,000. How often dot s tins property
have to lie renewed. We cun give no
figures here, but it is sufficient to say
that from the Ist of September, 1874, to
the Ist of September, 1875, the news
papers of Georgia chronicled the burn
ing of 140 gin-houses. The chronicle
was kept by tw r o papers, the Columbus
Enq • irer and the Savann; k News, and the
first made the number 140 and the latter
130— if we remember correctly. Add to
this those that were never reported to the
newspapers and we have 136 gin-hou3es
burned in Georgia in one year. From
February, 1872, to September, 1573, ac
cording to a tolerably careful list kept
by one of the editors of the Savannah
News, there were 157 gin-houses destroyed
in Georgia by fire. This is a terrible
record, but every succeeding year has
added to the list, and scarcely a day
paa=*es that our exchanges do not chronicle
the destruction of one or m ore gin-houses.
It must be obvious, therefore, that to
any estimate of the value of the 100,000
gin-houses in the South must be added
the cost of renewing them more frequent
ly than any other species of property,
This may be called the risk, and amoun ts
to a considerable per cent, of the $75,-
000,000, though liovv much we shall not
undertake to say. Another fact tv? be
taken iuto consideration is that this
property is in use on an average only
one month of the twelve—which is
equivalent to paying a year’s interest on
a sum of money for the privilege of
using it one month.
The thoughtful reader can make
estimate fitted to his information. We
have merely given the cue; but any
estimate must show a terrible array of
figures to offset the profits of the cotton
crop, and the waste is worse than the
drain. Just here the Westminster pro
cess steps in between the planter and
his gin-houses, and by abolishing the
latter and rendering their renewal Use
less, puts se mnty-five millions in the
empty pockets of the South. But this
is not all. At a low estimate it costs
the planter $1.50 to prepare his bale of
cotton for market after i is ginned—in
dress it in an appropriate suit of bagging
and bind it with ties Let us say. then,
that the bagging and ties of a crop of
5,000,000 bales costs the South $5,250,-
000 in cash or its equivalent. In the
present condition of things it is a cost
that is absolute and inevitable, and to
annihilate it is to add the sum it repres
ents to the profits of the cotton crop.
This, according to the testimony of eye
witnesses, is what the Westminster mill
does. The cotton is taken from the
baskets as it comes from the field and
converted into marketable yarns, far
more valuable for all purposes of trade
and commerce than the cotton that has
been ginned, baled and compressed. At
a rough estimated, 100 per cent, has
been added to the price it will fetch the
farmer, so that with all the cost of gin
house s out of the way, the vast cost of
bagging and ties, the loss in sampling
and stealage, the cost of weighing and
storage, and the thousand and one com
missions annihilated, the farmer has his
cotton in the shape of yarns, and, leav
ing out of sight all the saving in the
costs that are done away with, it is
wortl.i 100 per cent, more than the cot
ton that is prepared for market in the
old way.
We must confess that we are inclined
to be enthusiastic in regard to this new
process. There can be no sort of mistake
as to what it and we be
hove it is a solution of a problem that
lias long vexed the South. In our
opinion it revolutionizes the prospects of
this section and opens up to us a future
of unexampled prosperity. Are we too
sanguine? This depends upon whether
the ■ Westminster mill can accomplish
these results with which it has been
credited by those who have seen it. We
have been told that some prominent
manufacturers, after looking at the ma
chinery of the mill, have doubted the
accuracy of the reports that led them
thitiwer. But they were deceived by the
very quality which gives the mill its
vaiue— namely, its simplicity. Used to
ponderous machinery, they could not
conceive how such simplicity could pro
duce such wonderful results, but they
were convinced after witnessing the
Operations of the mill,
iiosbeit, no one need make a mistake
in tht matter. The- Westminster mil!
and others of the same kind are all easy
of No one who has any thought
of investing can go astray or be misled
by anything that may be said by en
thusiastic newspapers. The process is
open to inspection. We look forward to
the day when the bulk of the Southern
cotton crop will be turned into yarns on
the plantations or in the farming neigh
borhoods—when every settlement of
planters shall be transformed into a
manufacturing town with its churches
and its schools—when the South will be
as rich and as powerful commercially
and intellectually as the North and tne
East—when her thrift shall be as wide
spread and her industries as numerous
as those of New England. Capital is
always on the alert, and it will need no
formal invitation to invest in these yarn
mills if the facts are as represented.
The most hopeful feature of the new
process is that it is inexpensive enough
to allow our own people to invest in the
necessary machinery, and in every neigh
borhood the smallest farmers can, by co
operating with each other, set one of
these little factories in prof!'able motion.
From every point of vio the matter is
well worthy the serious attention of the
South.
An Essay on Man.
Man was made in dry weather,
He was made of dust.
Quite a number have never re
covered from their creation; they are
still dry.
It’s a man’s nature to be discontented.
Adam had a monopoly, but he could
not be happy without someone to crow
over.
For a while lie knocked around over
the Garden of Eden, and then went to
the house; but he had to cook his own
supper, there was no stove-wood chopped
and things went on in a bad shape gener
ally.
The next morning it was the same
way. He had to make his own bed and
sweep out. His socks were dirty and
his arm would run through a hole in his
sleeve. So he was dissatisfied.
The next night, when he went to sleep
the creator punished him by making one
of his ribs into a woman, a great misfort
une to the race.
It has been six thousand years since
that rib was lost, and yet man continues
feeling for it.
This is a very feeling subject.
Pursuit in this case is said to be
sweeter than possession.
After Eve got acquainted with her
mate, she vowed that all the men in the
world were not worth Adam,
G oliah was a man.
A fop is a male who is ashamed of his
sex, and attempts to conceal the fact
that he is a man.
Concealment in such cases is attended
with but little trouble. It is only neces
sary to part his hair in the middle.
The family man resembles an oyster
on the half-shell.
The shell is known at home —the soft
side abroad.
Some men carry this remsemblance in
their faces. A great many men have
countenances like oysters.
Job is said to have been a very patient
man.
He had boils all over him.
Many a man now boils all over him
self when the preacher reaches “thir
teenthly” on a hot summer day, and
never thinks of the grandeur of Job’s ex
ample.
Brilliant, But a Failure.
Macaulay’s feats of memory, as recorded
in his biography, have astonished read
ers. He could repeat the whole of Par
adise Lost and several other long poems.
But one of his school-fellows, YVilliam
Grant, an idle fellow, who preferred go
ing about the country to getting his les
sons, far excelled him in memorizing.
Lord Teignmouth, also Grant’s school
fellow, says in his “Reminiscences,” that
he kn*?w him, when but fifteen. to repeat
the whole of the Iliad, the Georgies,
three books of the JEnid, and the most
of Horace’s Odes. Gifted as he was in
this respect, he failed at Cambridge Uni
versity, and in everything be undertook.
His constitutional indolence prevented
his rise.
An incident which occurred while he
was private secretary for his brother,
Lord Gleneig, President of the Indian
Board, shows an inveterate incapacity to
attend to his work. Macaulay was the
public secretary of the India Board, and
one day was attending the sitting. Some
urgent affair was being discussed, when
Grant entered the council chamber and
whispered to Macaulay that he was
particularly wanted outside. Macaulay
replied that he could not then leave his
post. Grant, however,, hovered about
and renewed his request until Macaulay
followed him out of the room. Going
to a door, the idle fellow threw it open,
and pointing to a Yorkshire pie, ready
to be eaten, said, —
“This is preferable to business.”
Macaulay, who had a clearer appreci
ation of the importance of public busi
ness, somewhat indignantly turned on
This heel, and returned to the council
chamber.
The career of this brilliant memor
izer adds another illustration to tli6
many which teach that no mental abil
ity will compensate for the want of in
dustry.
■m B 1 ■ —~
He was anew man in the big music
store, she was a delicate blonde. She
entered, and approaching the young
man, timidly asked, “Have you ‘Rockel
in the Cradle of the Deep?’” He an
swered with a slight blush and some
hesitation, gazing far away toward the
horizon, “ Well—l really couldn't say—
I must have been very young at the
time, if I did.”
The quantity of gold minted in Vic"
toria, from the discovery of the precious
metal to Dec. 31, 1873, is estimated at
£192,050,082. This production has shown
a steady decline of late jeJfflfc
Un::::ulaf;le Matter Detained During
One Month.
[Nw Tori Time*.]
in gpite of official warnings and notices
almost without number, people will con
tinue to send to the postomce articles
which can not be handled or delivered. In
the New York office, within the past
month, the Searcher Department has
found in the mailbags and held as un
mailable matter the following:
Received alive—-Rattle snakes, black
snakes, copperhead snakes, mocasin
snakes, cats, grasshoppers, bees, hornets,
wasps, alligators, canary bird, potato
bugs, horned frogs, tortoise, turtles.
Received dead.—Mice, butterflies, bum
ming birds, rats, insects, squirrels, quail,
bugs, pheasant.
Cooked articles.—Plum pudding, boiled
quail, ham, sandwiches, bread and but
ter, cake, crackers, bread pudding, jelly,
custard, cheese, sausages.
Miscellaneous.—Pistols, loaded cart
ridges, torpedoes, medicines, glassware,
clothing, soiled undergarments, baby
clothes, hosiery, hair brushes, combs,
carpenter tools, pieces of machinery,
fence wire, gold and silver watches,
jewelry, novelties and notions of all
kinds, shrubs, roots, scions, herbs, fresh
and dried; fruits and flowers, six cases of
dynamite, which were thrown into East
River to prevent serious disaster.
Rut it is not only in posting matter
which can not be mailed that the public
is careless to a degree almost beyond be
lief. Hardly a day passes that letters
unsealed, unaddressed, and containing
sums of money, chocks, and other valu
ables, are not dropped into tlie boxes.
During the past six months one thousand
one hundred and fifty-three unsealed
registered letters were received at the
New York office. They contained in
cash $6,449.21, and in cheeks, drafts,
etc., $204,415.56, making a total of $211,-
464.77 posted in unsealed envelopes. Not
long ago a well known city bank posted
$1,500,000 worth of United States bonds,
which were unregistered and easily
negotiable, in an envelope so flimsy that
it broke open before it left the stamper’s
table. Similar instances of carelessness
could be repeated almost without num
ber. Indeed, it is hardly to be wondered
at that the officer who related these
circumstances felt called upon to exclaim
in conclusion: “ The post office has to
deal with a great many curious people.”
A Horse’s Revenge.
[Paris Correspondent London Telegraph.]
The Society for the Protection of
Animals against the cruelty of human
animals is not remarkable for its activity
in this country. The police appear to
think it no business of theirs when car
ters or coachman brutally maltreat their
horses in the streets, or when boys amuse
themselves by torturing dogs and cats,
or whatever other creatures have the
ill-luck to fall into their hands.
The horses would appear to be aware
of the supineness of their supposed pro
tectors, for they have taken the matter
in to their own hands, or rather into their
own teeth and feet. A carter, by dint of
hard flogging at bis three horses, per
suaded them to drag sixteen tons of coal
to the foot of the steep hill which
leads to the Boulevard Bessieres, but his
powers of stimulation utterly failed to
induce them to proceed any further. A
thick steam rose up from their panting
sides and nostrils. “ Budge!” said the
fiend; and straightway the carter began
to lash and swear. A crowd gathered
around the ferocious beast, who aban
doned the lash and began to bang his
stick into their heads and kick them
with bob-nailed boots in the sides. The
leader of the team took it upon himself to
protest against this extreme measure.
He turned round, seized the carter’s
arm with his teeth, tossed him to the
ground, and trampled him with his
hoofs; then seized him again with his
teeth and tossed him about. The crowd
and the police, which had looked on ap
provingly while lie tortured the horse,
interfered for the protection of the
human monster, who was with great diffi
culty torn bleeding and mangled from
the just equine resentment. He is justly
punished; but surely some penalty
should be inflicted on the railway com
pany which sent out this heavy load of
coal to be drawn up-bill by three horses,
when twice the number would have
barely sufficed for the work. The carter
has paid his penalty; let theirs be now
inflicted. Why should not the police be
armed with full power to dispatch to the
fourriere any vehicle loaded beyond the
power of the horses harnessed to it.
Music in Stones.
: > r- vt Yfi r k Herald.]
Avery interesting and curious exhibi
tion was gFen by M. Baudre at Charlier
institute yesterday afternoon. M. Baudre
made the&cd&entul discovery of musical
notes in pieces of hint, and for twenty
four years he has been collecting enough
of these stones to make a chromatic scale.
He h.is now perfected his discovery and
lias made a musical instrument of the
same general idea as the harmonieon,
but which is much more-powerful. The
Stones, which are of various sizes and
form, are just as lie found them, no
artificial aid being brought to bear in
adapting them to this use. The instru
ment is composed of an iron frame, along
the top of which the stoiies are suspended
by means of stout twine; then, with two
bits of stone that have no resonance M.
Baudre played a variety of tunes, mak
ing nice harmonies and bringing forth
exceedingly sweet tones. The stones
are not regulated bv weight, as entirely
different notes weigh just the game;
the musical quality is something
given them by nature. Besides the
stones, M. Baudre had a number of
bits of wood about the size of an old
fashioned clothes-pin, which he threw
on the marble floor one at a time, and
they produced the regular notes of
the" scale with remarkable correctness.
The singing* stones, however, are the
more interesting of M. Baudre’s dis
coveries.
Is It Extravagance 1
iOhio Frm*r.|
An Eastern contemporary savs: “Not
long ago we traveled in the West for a
day in company with an agent of an ex
tensive manufacturer of parlor organs.
He was returning suddenly and unex
pectedly, having already taken more
orders for instruments than his firm
could make for a year to come. His
customers were Western farmers. Every
family required an organ, and the prin
cipal reason was because the next neigh
bor had one. All were sold on a year’s
credit.
The young Indies who learn to use
these instruments doubtless no longer
milk the cows or manage the dairy;
spin the wool from their fathers flock;
knit the family hose, or rarely make
their own dresses. One luxurious habit,
especially if it causes work to be thought
inconvenient or degrading, leads further
and becomes disastrous in the end.
The young men, too, require a fast
horse and a costly wagon and a more ex
pensive attire; and then the help of a
hired man in the field is as needful as
that of the help in the kitchen. And
under the pressure of all these self-in
flicted taxes, farming does not pay, and
it is to be feared that it never will until
these taxes are repealed.”
The evident intention of the writer of
the above extract, is to protest against
undue extravagance, against an expen
diture for luxuries beyond the ability to
pay, and in this we agree with him. But
we do not like the implied thought that
farmers, in order to make their business
pay, must be deprived of all the luxuries
of life, must confine themselves to the
mere necessities of existence. The world
is progressing, and even Western farmers
are getting out of the pioneer stage,
where the imperious demand for the
necessities of life banishes every thought
except of constant toil and the closest
economy. They can afford many things
their fathers could not, and are learning
that life is not, drudgery only, nor toil
our whole destiny, that our homes shel
ter not only bone and muscle, but mind
and heart also, and that these demand
food and raiment as well as the body.
We believe in pianos and organs in the
farmers’ homes wherever they can be af
forded, and where there are sons and
daughters growing up, we would strain
a point in the ability question to obtain
one of these instruments. The farmer
has as good a right to these things as the
man of any other calling, of equal
ability to purchase.
The Gardner Gtoi.
[Cleveland Herald.J
kerne times ago Capt. William Gard
ner, of Toledo, invented a remarkable
gun, which was claimed to be the most
ingenious and deadly instrument known
to modern warfare. It received marked
attention from the leading officers of our
army and navy, and Mr. Gardner was
complimented on all sides at his success.
Since that time Mr. Gardner has made
some great improvements upon his orig
inal invention, and a Cleveland company
has organized to purchase his patents for
the improvements and secure the right
to manufacture the gun in all foreign
countries. For over a year this company
has had its agents abroad, endeavoring
to induce the English, French and other
governments to examine the gun, and if
it proved to be all its friends claimed for
it, to adopt it and put it at once into
practical use with their armies. The
English Government more than a year
ago appointed a commission of scientific
experts to examine the gun, and on
various occasions the commission and
some of the most accomplished military
men in Great Britain have been present
at various trials to test its qualities. The
gun proved unequal to every demand
made upon it, and on Monday a telegram
was received from London saying that
the English Government had approved
the gun and would adopt it for use in
their army. The gun is light, can be
handled by two or three men on the
field, can be carried in the arms of two
men, can be made with double or single
barrels, and made to fire with deadly
precision three hundred shots per min
ute. Wherever three men can go they
can carry this gun and work it in the
field. Hence its vast superiority to all
guns that require horses and heavy car
riages to transport. The adoption of the
gun by Great Britain is the highest com
pliment that could be paid to the in-,
ventor, and this action of the English
Government will probably be rapidly
followed by the leading nations of Eu
rope. There is no doubt that the gun is
one of the most deadly weapons ever
known in the history of the world.
Recovering a Lost Watch.
[Bridgeport (Conn.) Farmer.]
Horace Wedge, of Long Hill, Bridge
port, -went- out shooting recently, and
returned at night after a tramp cover
ing several miles of ground. After his
return home he put his hand in his hip
pocket for his watch and found it was
missing. He then remembered that at
Stepney Depot, that day,, he and his
companion had pulled out their watches
and compared them with the depot
clock; but this was worth nothing as an
indication for finding the lost property,
as they had tramped a weary round
since then. That or the following night
he dreamed that he saw his watch lying
near a beach tree, in a run near Long
Hill, where they had killed a couple of
birds, and so vivid was the dream that
the following day he resolved to go and
take a look for the watch. He found
the tree he saw in his dream without dif
ficulty, and, lying near it, just as he had
pictured in his dream, he found the miss
watch safe and sound.
The Chicago Times is noted for its
dainty headlines. The following is one
of its recent strokes of genius in that di
rection: “Saints in Soak—John Q. Can
non, Brigham Young, jr., and John
Taylor jailed at Salt Lake for Con
tempt.”
Concentration in Farming.
There is a notable absence of capital
among the mass of farmers, while farm
ers free from debt or those supplied with
the necessary means for the full develop
ment of resources are the exception
rather than the rule. The more limited
the capital the greater the necessity for
concentrated effort, for avoiding un
necessary outlays and expensive experi
ments, Finally the individual wliose
only capital is a stout heart and a will
ing hand, must needs make every blow
count, directing his efforts only in a re
munerative channel. More ambitious,
enterprising, go-ahead farmers are ruined
by attempting too much, than by more
thorough work on a limited scale.
Every neighborhood abounds in prac
tical lessons concerning this subject of
concentration in farming. Many a far
mer, seized with a desire for improving
his broad ac:res, attempts to reclaim a
bog, or clear a stony pasture, neglecting
some fine piece of arable land that is
neither half manured norhalf cultivated.
It is hardly worth while to expend labor
and money on a rough spot while the
smooth pieces still remain at half their
productive capacity. If the manure sup
ply is limited it is better to apply it to
the productive fields, where good re
turns are reasonably certain, than to
scatter it over thin and scanty soils to
to the neglect of stronger land. Many
an industrious farmer has proved a fail
ure in the vain attempt to cultivate more
acres than his means would justify, when
if his labors had been concentrated upon
half the area, success would have crowned
his efforts.
It is not always the largest herd of cat*
tie ot flock of sheep that gives the best
result per head, but the greatest profit
follows the best herds and flocks. In
case of limited means it is far better for
a farmer to own half a dozen good cows
than double the number of poor ones. It
is far more profitable to cut three tons of
hay from one acre of good land, than to
run over thr£e acres of half-starved soil
to secure the same weight at the harvest.
Quality rather than size is the real test
of many a farm product. A little extra
care and skill bestowed upon a dairy of
fifty pounds of choice butter, will yield
a larger profit than the shiftless, haphaz
ard churning of one hundred pounds of
an inferior quality.
It is not the number of miles traveled
in a day, or the number of blows struck,
that puts the balance on the right side of
the ledger, but it is the aim and purpose
and plan of the labor which determines
the profit and loss. Among our farming
classes too many random shots are fired,
too many hours of labor expended with
out definite plan, too many animals fed
without profit, too many acres cultivated
without fertilizers, to give the cultivators
of the soil that reward which should at
tach to their labors. Measured by the
standard of production in the garden
plot, how insignificant is the ’ average
yield of acres on the farm, and yet the
garden is only a practical illustration of
concentrated labor and manure. Better
culture, more concentrated effort, in
creased attention to detail must be the
watchwords of that Eastern farmer who
hopes to secure a livelihood in competi
tion with the mammoth fields and virgin
soils and lands easily cultivated of his
Western brother, on the broad prairie
and rich bottom land of the far West.
It should be the aim of every farmer not
to increase his acres under. cultivation
any faster than his capital and circum
stances will warrant, but rather to im
prove his methods and concentrate his
energies and resources in the direction
of better culture, with larger and more
remunerative crops from fields already
in hand.
Luring Sardines.
[Marseilles Letter in Boston Journal.)
Another interesting product of France
not of its soil but of its waters, is the
sardine, which is borne to every clime,
and considered a delicacy by all nations.
It is said to belong to the herring family,
but never attains to a large size. The
uniformity of their size is seen in the
boxes, which are jsut adapted to packing
them, as they are found to correspond in
length. These little finny creatures are
caught in nets, and, after being well
washed, the heads are cut off and the
fish are sprinkled lightly with fine salt.
After lying for a few hours they are
placed on grids in rows almost perpen
dicular. The frames are then placed in
pans containing boiling olive oil. This
oil is changed as often as it becomes too
black and dirty for continuing the cook
ing process. As soon as the fish are con
sidered sufficiently cooked they are
withdrawn from the pans of* oil and the
grids placed on tables covered with zinc,
the surface of the tables inclining to
wards a groove in the center. The oil is
thus carried to a vessel prepared to re
ceive it. Around these tables stand
women whose business it is to pack the
fish closely and uniformly in boxes.
The boxes being full, the fish are covered
with fresh oil, and the lids of the boxes
are then soldered down. Thus hermet
ically sealed, they are placed in a wire
basket and immersed in boiling water.
The smaller boxes are thu3 boiled for
about an hour and the larger ones some
what longer, in proportion to the size of
the box." The fish are then ready for
the market, and, being packed in cases,
are sent to the ends of the earth.
A Second Messiah.
Mrs. Mix, who has a Connecticut rep*
utation for working miracles, travels
through that State professing to cure
diseases by laying on of hands, and
crowds seek her wherever she goes. The
most wonderful stories are told of her
powers. She charges nothing for her
services, and accepts only food, lodging,
and conveyance from place to place.
She is of pure negro blood, uneducated
and a devout Methodist.
When you choose a wife, your
eyes and commend your soul to God.—-
Spanish Proi .