Newspaper Page Text
6
CANNING SALMON.
rilK WAY IT H BONE ON THE
PACIFIC COAST.
Catching the Fish an<! Preparing
I hem for Market An Occupa¬
tion That In Assuming
t / Great Proportions.
(2 ANNEl) throughout become yet few salmon n the table has civilized have of late delicacy world, years idea
how persons any
it is pr. .aired for market. Last
season there wa- a total packing on
the Pacific Coast of about 1 700 000
eRKes weighin" about 81*000 000
pounds, or 40,800 tons accordin''to
» corresj.ondent writing from l»„rt
lan.t, Op. to th. St Louis Globe
Democrat. This seems an enormous
quantity of fish, yet it is but little
more than a pound to each inhabitant
of the United States, or to each fiv.
possiblc consumers iu Europe and
America.
- The methods of taking salmon in
tho Columbia are varied ami some of
them unique. There arc "ill net
seines. I raps and wheels Ten years
ago 800 boats captured twice as manv
fish as w. re taken this year with 1361
bontH, 311 traps, seventeen seines and
twenty-seven wheels, Nets are um*( 1
chiefly near the mouth of the river,
though more or less in use for 150
miles inland and on tho Willamette as
well. A fishing outfit consists of a
gill net worth about $300 and a boat
worth $200, besides other accessories,
and requires two men to handle it.
This makes tho average wages of the
2628 fishermen only $-100 for the sea-
8011 , They are chiefly Scandinavians,
Finns and Italians, hardy, reckless
men, who earn every cent tlioy receive.
As the fishing season varies consider¬
ably on the different streams, many of
thorn go from place to place. It is a
grand sight, on a clear, breezy morn¬
ing at Astoria, to hoc nearly a thousand
boats speckling the broad estuary of
the Columbia with their spread sails.
TRe men usually go out so as to fish
on the incoming tide, often remaining
out all night. Not only is their occu¬
pation a cold and cheerless one, with
none too good returns financially, but
it is exceedingly dangerous as carried
on at. tho mouth of tho river. Fifty
four were drowned last season, a mor¬
tality of two per cent. In their eager¬
ness to get the first chance at tho lish
they approach too close to tho break¬
ers on the bar aud are capsized or
their boat is overturned by a sudden
squall.
Fish traps are “contraptions” of
idling ami ncttinK, so arranged iu to
take advantage of the salmon's instinct
to mi im Hhiimi nml ,1 i.
He is led by a converging runway into
an ante-chamber called “the heart,”
lm Urn human body!"' 1 Frmn S
finds his way through a narrow
tunnel into “the well,” where he re
mams until taken out. These traps
are all located in Baker’s Bay, on the
Washington side of the Columbia, a
wide body of shallow water separated
from tho main stream by a long island
Of Hand. ^6.v V years «*o these were
first introduced, ( and
now there are
175 of them, each paying a license to
the State of Washington of $10 a year,
Heines are used in a few places in shal
low portions of the stream. One end
is carried to its full length out into
the stream with a boat and is then
circled down the river and inwards
until tho water is shallow enough,
when a horse is hitched to it, and it is
dragged with its Hopping contents
upon the banks.
. Fish wheels arc the latest product of
inventive genius in th > catching of
salmon on the Columbia, and are only
an amplification of the method used
by Indians for many years before the
whiteman set foot on Oregon soil,
For nearly five miles, at a point .140
miles inland the Columbia is a narrow
and turbulent stream, confined be
tween narrow, rocky banks and its
channel filled with masses of rock
Fifty miles further up there is au
other series of rapids and cascades
twenty-five miles in length litsl\in<*" These
places lmvo been the grounds
of the natives since the memory of t-hc
aborigine runneth not to th-contrary 'of
The salmon is a combative fish full
energy and determination to reach the
spawning grounds at the headwaters
of the river. Ho loves a swift current
and laughs at ordinary cascades were’ lean
ing up them as though it -Teat
sport. For this reason he is to be
found in the swift current swirliim
around tho base of the basaltic bluffs
that project iuto the river at various
points in tbe localities mentioned nets'
The Indians catch them in din
A board is laid on the top of the rock
one end projectin'’a few feet over the
water the other end beiim ° weighted
down with heavy stone? Uuon the
projecting end a noble ludian stands
equipped with a small net attached ;
the end of a long pole. He dips this
iu the water, reachin" as far up stream
as possible, and passes it rapidly
downward. With great patience lie
repeats the operation, perhaps half a
hundred times, until he is rewarded bv
a fish in tho net. This is his part. He
will not even take the fish out of the
net. Domestic etiquette requires that
the lord of the tepee shall hunt and
fish aud enjoy himself and the squaw
>hall do all the work. Catching the
fish is sport, but taking it out of the
net is work. The squaw does that.
She also splits it open and spreads it
out in the sun to drv for winter use.
while her lord and veritable master
either catches more fish or lies lazily
upon the ground with a pipe m his
mouth. Indians also spear salmon in
the shallow water at the foot of falls
and cascades nearer tho headwaters of I
the streams, or else build weir traps
and drive the fish into them.
The fish wheel is but an amplifies
tion ot the Indian dip net. It co u -
sists of a wheel resembling the paddle
wheel of a steamboat, the paddles be
ing troughs of netting. These are
either fastened to a framework pro
jeeting out from shore, or are attached
to a scow anchored near the bank. The
strong current keeps the wheel iu mo
tiou, the nets dipping into the water
successively, with their openings down
stream, ready to scoop up every un
wary fish they encounter, carry him
aloft and spill him in a trough. One
of these wheels during a good run of
salmon will scoop up several tons a
day. In this particular, as in many
THE MONROE ADVERTISER, FORSYTH, GA-, TUESDAY, MAY 1894.—EIGHT PAGES.
other?, the superior knowledge and
inventive genius of the white man en*
able* him to beat the Indian at hi?
own game. is what in
The process of canning
teresta sightseers the most. A tour of
a cannery is very entertaining. Those
institutions are invariably but a se¬
ries of rough board sheds built upon
piling at the water's edge. One who
lias been educated at the market to
look upon salmon as rather an expen
sive luxury, is not prepared to see the
way in which they are thrown about
with forks with as little care os one
would use in shoveling coal. They are
forked out of the boats and thrown
into heaps in the receiving room, each
cannery holding several thousand a
dav during a good ran. There is very
little ime for an American about a can
n< ry, save as a eb rk or manager. The
fishermen are nearly all foreigners, are"
and the hands in the factory
nose, from the butcher to the final
tester. A few boys and girls find work
in the labeling and packing depart
ments.
It does not take twentv°cans Ion" to convert a
fre-h fish into of cooked
salmon. The butcher grabs him and
with a few dexterous turns of a long
sharp knife cuts off head tail and
fins, opens him and takes out his en
trails. He is paced qnicklv to the
washing tanks and then i„ seized and
laid on a cuttin" table and with one
stroke of a series of knives is cut into
chunks of the required length. Eithei
by hand or machine these chunks arc
stuffed into cans, and the cans laid on
an incline, down which they roll, their
lids being automatically soldered on as
they go. They are then loaded upon
trays and the trays placed in steam
boilers. After coming from the boil
ers the cans are tested, then given a
lacquer lmtli, then tested again, tliie
time by tapping them with a nail, to
judge of their soundness, by the tone
emitted, and are then labeled and
packed, forty-eight in a case.
The cans are made at the same
place, machinery being employed in
every detail of the manufacture. Great
care is taken to have them perfect,
thorough examination and testing be¬
ing given them at every stage from the
sheet tin to tho labeled can.
Supplying Lost Portions of the Hotly
‘
- ....
, l ansp Til an 08 in ', 7° , un *1 >s 0< f° r<>.n rS W ( j 1 t\u , . \ C u m- X
0
in,ui H.ings o m o >jce s o uir
.mlor^'o w ,° '!• V l have ' U been ,iT bo fi unfortunate ,I° 0<
ri< 1 ' n'fvfrn , r '* '<V * 11 ace 10 * 16
” lnl lfl Vi**, f j 1 ' U 1 ri0,,s J spea
»*
"c"’ ' i a< . VHr , U ° ®" , r « tr y. lu 16 111
L^bodyby Inking iTein piocesof tlmflesh
from another lias wonderful. I
have just been reading an interesting
Belgian " wo°rkman° 1 Ti
that a got drunk
recently and was put in the lockup at
dmom^intb^^ell 1 'UitU^lIim man
was also locked who had the delirium
tremens. No sooner had the door
been closed when the latter prisoner
attacked the workman with vicious
ferocity and bit off large portions of
both of his ears. The assailant was a
mechanical engineer named Marchant,
and when he came to liis senses and
learned what he had done he pleaded
to be taken to the hospital to ask the
forgiveness was'm of liis victim Bicetore'Hospital, The latter
bed at the
in Paris and when Marchant got there
the attending physician asked him if
he would not like to give th- sufferer
his oars back. Marchant said he would
do anything to accomplish such a re
suit and gladly assented to the surgeon’s
suggestion that he should allow two
simill r h,k n f tn rmt
arm. The pieces were removed,
shaped as nearly as possible to the
likeness of ears and attached to the
wounded places. The story closes
with the cheerful intelligence that the
operation proved entirely successful. ”
—Washington ^ Star
__
An " American Bicyclist J in Cliim
Small donkeys, with jingling bells,
were quite numerous. I met an elder
Chinaman astride a very small and
cv ^ deu ^J a nervous donkey. The
boast feared the wheel, and to my
borror jumped down from the raised
road into a rice field. The old man
wa s thrown in a heap. I hastily dis
mounted, thinking ho was seriously
injured or killed outright. He strug
S led to llis foet > and instantly mo
tioued 1110 to ride , being far more
anxious to see the strange wheel than
about llis own hurts. After the old
hoy Lad seen me ride we grinned fare
welb
Farther on a woman and a small
bo J were thrown off donkeys in the
same AVa >' > but Chinese wear so many
K vers of wadded clothing in cool
weather that they are seldom hurt by
’
a fall.
Once when I was silently approach
ing from behind I called out to him.
Poor fellow ! He no doubt was used
to a quiet and uneventful m b i s
bumdrum country. Hs slowly turned
bbs bead bee who called to him so
l° ud b’> then made one grand jump to
the way. His feet slipped,
and with a terrible yell he rolled over j
tbe bau ^ aud mto the canal up to his
wa ist. Two baskets of beau bread
which he carried on a pole followed
bim i uto the water. Some way or
otber I thought it more prudent to
wbetd ou without lingering to offer
s . vm pathy. — “Lenz’s World Tour
Awheel,”in Outing.
■——---.m.---
Twenty Mil s in au Elevator.
An elevator bov in the Monadnock
Building rides from twenty car/ to twenty
five miles a dav in his I: is about
225 feet from the ground to the six
teenth floor and a car makes from 275
ti 300 round trips a dav, according to
the rush. Several voung men have
collected some interesting statistics on
he skyward travel in that bu ldiug.
Tuev iind that on busy davs each car
hauls a’"out 4000persons, upanddowu.
There are sixteen elevators in Monad
nock Building, which would indicate
that 64,000 persons visited the building
everyday. Nearly 300b, all applicants
for positions on the Metropolitan L
Road, came there one day last week.
It has been found by managers of bi"
office buildinea that one elevator is
needed for each floor. Some of the
buildings get along with less, the
vator service is not satisfactory in
these, particularly if they happen tc
be located in a busy quarter of tii«
city.—Chicago Herald.
TRAMP LIFE,
ONE OF THE QUEER FEATURES
i OF SUMMER.
The Female Tramp a Product of the
! Last Five Years—How She and
j the Male Tramp Pursue
j Their Wanderings.
_
C> ^ hundreds ^sago, were while ... to be tramps found . by on
h11 the country roads dor
ing the summer season, it was
* rare thing to find a woman
them; now, however, this is changed,
and whlIc the men ar ® 8tili Iar 8 el y ln
the majority, it is lamentable to see
that their ranks have been recruited
b y the accession of large numbers of
-
women, and these, not the old, hag-
1 U ard aa(1 decrepit, by any means. If
the tramps united and traveled in one
large army, they would indeed be for
! midable, but while there exists among
1 ! tberu a spirit of camaraderie, they
have no idea of organization, and as a
I consequence, are rarely to be found
. more than four together, usually two,
Bnd now > one of the two is a P t to bu a
woman.
I Awhile the tramp has no fixed desti
nation in view when he leaves the city,
j be bas the plan of his summer opera
tions usually arranged in his mind,
Along the lines of the many railroads
that seam New Jersey between New
York and Philadelphia there '
are
countless market gardens. Tho tramp
and his companion leave the freight
car at a proper point, which he knows
even better than the conductor, and
applies for work to the nearest farmer,
In the early spring the men and wo
men havo but little difficulty in find
ing employment at cutting asparagus,
the man receiving seventy-five cents
a day, and the woman, though she
may do more work, fifty cents, out of
Avhich they must board themselves.,
The farmer permits them to sleep in
liis stable or barn, and where his es
tablishment is large, he often has
rough shanties erected for the special
use of liis temporary help. Often the
woman finds employment as a servant
in the house, when she is enabled to
provide food for her partner without
any great outlay; otherwise they buy
what is absolutely necessary from their
employer at the lowest rates and live
economically. After the asparagus
Booson is ovel; , the green j.^geason
comes on, and here the relative wages
are the same, though it is customary
j. Q p a y £ or j-p 0 amoun t picked, rather
than by the day. Following the green
P eas ;. con ^ tho strawberries and by
p e ‘'me the New dersey supply is ex
tramps ^ansted, make the more their enterprising way south as of far the as
Velaw&ro ard Maryland where they
a ^e ready for the peach harvest
makers, work which, the world
°ver, seems to be a calling peculiar to
ya S rant *> and if the woman does not
understand it, she is quick to learn,
Ti* Along so the «n banks exceeds of the the man streams in skill, they
find suitable willow saplings in
a \ nnAm ' Ge ’ ^ without
the owners leave and for the
E roduct their lab »r they find a
5 eady mar \f amo ?|’ the funding
far “ ers *. Many of these people return
to thecitywita sums of money which,
nsed Wltb th ° shrewdness and econ
om y shown m collecting it might
carry them through the winter; but
the rule is they return to their old
haunts m the city and bjgm a drunken
debanch ’ wblch lasts tlU eycr / ce ^ 18
S°ne and they are forced . to solicit
alms on the street, or to avail them
^ives of the shelter afforded by the
Nation-house ot the Island
female accession to the army of
tram . ? 3 ® f late y f rS Presents many
Sad '“f” 68 * ^ 7
“nnntable obstacles to tnose inter
esteit in the elevation ot the masses,
It is now not unusual to find women
tramping alone and single-handed,
under which circumstances they get
alone even better than when accom
panied by men, for they are more fer
tile in resources, and more readily
adapt themselves to their environ
ment. In addition to this they have
more resources in themselves. They
are quite as skilful and able as the men
in the farming work they undertake,
in addition to which they can sew and
do household work, which is entirely
out of the reach of the men. Farm
ers and villagers, perhaps because of
the novelty, regard more favorably
women than men tramps. They ap
peal to the sympathies and hospitality
of country folk, and being usually fer
tile of speech, and with active imag
inations, they are never at a loss
to frame appropriate stories to excite
the sympathies and benevolence of
those whom they can get to listen. It
is a curious fact that one never finds
among these women members of what
maybe designated as the middle
class. They are either very ignorant
and degraded or remarkably intelli
gent and with evidences of refinement
about them which their ragged rai
ments cannot hide nor their evident
poverty wholly conceal. In the
former case it is possible that they j
may be making an effort to better
their condition, though the chances
are that they are spending their ob
jectless lives in wandering and moving
1 tn the latter case they are invari
ab ly women with a story which they
conceal from the public, a story of j
error, it may be. perhaps of crime,
bu ’ never devoid of romance, and
never, if the truth were known, show
in g that they were themselves entirely
res P°nsible for their degradation.
Although these people are never j
f ecU Wlth c “ lldreD ’ P° sslbl Y never
ba ve any yet, year by year, the great
ar! f- v of tram P» “ increasing. It is
IK ' s»nce t is army was com
excluslvel .v ot men, but now
Wurueu have come to re-emorce
^, e m «y 1'ook in the course of
' %euTs Gi 1 \ accession of children, j
P artK T - Ul .' OI °^ e ° 1 enough to be
to tbe ^ ardeiJ « r and farmer.
lh ese_people . know nothing of law,
and
less 01 religion, whi.e many of them
Cft n read and write, but few can be
said to be ju tellectual, and even these
ai f a L t ^Liicale the schools, and to
, good education lias done
.
Day by day new social prob- t
iem * are coming up, and the attention j
4 '6 thinning public has been called
elements in our midst that ■
nw£lu o® r Jl *e and property. The
lr: «“P «as a vote, and, it need not lie
said, it is always for sale. No matter 1
who may be busy, the tramp has ever
ample leisure, and he is ready, like a
dammed stream, to swell the great
army of the irresponsible mob, when
ever the barriers are broken done. It
may, perhaps, be well to spend
millions for the redemption of the
soul of the savage African, or of the
contented Polynesian, but in looking
round for avenues for the exercise of
philMthrophy and humanity it might
heathen jrho wb??r^° are m me our midst.-New °v °
- 8
An v7'l n « i cctTomn, lommunitr. I .nl^
W asps act as architects, builders,
carpenters and papermakers. They
abroad iato th e fields and gardens
m search of provisions; with ex
emplary care for the public welfare
they cat out the sunny side of your
peaches and carry away meat from the
«mb chops m your larder. Man,
base man, who robs the busy bee o!
its hard-earned honey and slays the
gentle calf for the production of veal
cutlets, usually speaks of the socialist
insects as robbers and depredators,
But he forgets that the generous and
public-spirited wasp does not levy
tnbute on his apricots for itself alone.
It is the commissary of the republic.
Each worker hurries back to the nest
the results ot his fruit-hunting or his
marauding expeditions, and shares
them among his fellow subjects with
that distributive justice which Aris
totle preached and which nobody in
our human communities practices.
He carries out the principles of the
Fabian Society.
Every successful wasp, when he re
turns to the nest with a piece ol
prime beef or a wingless fly, or a cargo
of sugar, saved for the community
from the grocer’s barrel, perches on
the top of the dome among liis assem
bled fellows, and, disgorging all his
spoils, divides them equally among
nurses and papermakers. His two
main doctrines are, “If any wasp will
not w-ork, neither shall he eat;” and
“Every wasp to labor according to his
capacity, and receive according to his
needs in a free community.”
Division of labor, 1 believe, goes a
long "way in the nest. Some of the
workers seem to be specially cm
ployed as foragers and soldiers; others
appear to be told off as nurses and
guardians; while yet others are en
gaged os papermakers and masons. It
is even said that these last work by
deflnito shifts (I know not on wlmt
authority), and that they each have a
space of about a square inch allotted
to them to fill with cells, on which no
neighboring worker is permitted to
enwowh^ with "‘f?“‘“ns,.Omagmat.ve impity But these
° b ™ rs ; At any rate, the Eight
Hours act is not yet in operation;
wasps work early and late of their own
mere no tion.-Longman s M agazine,
Au Indian Soapstone Quarry.
_ The largest aboriginal
soapstone
quarry that has been found in this
country has recently been discovered
near Clifton, Va., a short distance
from Bu i Run. It seems to havo
been undisturbed since the day when
the red man roamed through this part
of the eountry, ana tms ract, as well
as the extent of the quarry, affords an
opportunity for studying methods ol
aboriginal quarrying -winch is practi
Cally unequalled in the history of the
discovery of aboriginal remains in this
country A short time ago the own
ers of the property, in examining the
place with more than usual care, be
came convinced of its character, at
lea8t as a primitive workshop of the
early inhabitants of the country, and
desiring that its true nature should be
determined with scientific accuracy,
called the attention of Professor W.
J McGee, who is at the head of the
Ethnological Bureau to the find. He
^ «nce detailed Mr. William Dinwid
die one of the employes of the bureau,
and under his direction a place was
cleared about twenty-five feet wide
and seventy-five feet long. Yesterday
a party accompanied Mr. Dinwiddle
from this city to inspect the place.
An inspection of the quarry con
vinced the experts that tho methods
employed in working it were extreme
ly primitive, and evidently w^ent back
to a time before the advent of the
whites in this country. Stone tools
had been used exclusively. The chisels
were stone, and so were "the hammers.
The entire method of this primitive
quarrying was shown, and the party
were able to secure specimens which,
together with the tools, will show how
the work was done. The stone Avas
cut out in round lumps and then
broken off from the main stone. Then
these blanks for pots where hollowed
out with small chisels which were used
by hand. More than one hundred
cavities from which pot blanks had
been taken were fouud, the tool marks
being distinct.—Washington Star.
-----— ---
Harned Away From the Town.
“A man runs across some peculiar
things when looking up his ancestr}',”
said Henry Cadle. “When iovesti
gating my own lineage in New Harnp
shire I discovered that my great
great-grandfather was warned by a
town meeting not to come into the
town. I wondered what he had done
to make himself obnoxious, and when
I learned that, notwithstanding the
warning, he did move into the place,
I admired his assurance, but thought
him lacking in self-respect. The
matter was explained tome by the
Secretary of State. lt was the custom
for any one intending to remove into
a town to give notice of such inten
tion. At the next regular town meet
mg he was warned to stay away, be
cause the law provided that if this was
done the town would not be liable for
his support m case he became a
pauper. It was not a matter of clis
grace or personal ill-will, but
purely a precaution to cover possible
future financial reverses. ”—St. Louis
Globe-Democrat,
A Big Bed ot Chiua Clay.
It is reported that a practically in
exhaustible bed cf kaolin (china clay)
has been discovered near the town of
Glen Allen, Mo. It has hitherto been
supposed that the only deposit of the
kinu in this country was the one in
North Carolina, which some Japs are
now proposing to work. The Missouri
bed is said to be of a very high
quality, and has been purchased by a
company of Chicago capitalists, which
proposes to go extensively into the
leans manufacture Picavune. of china ware. —New Or* j
THE PECAN NUT,
A SOUTHERN MEMBER OF THIS
HICKORY FAMILY.
St. Louis tho Largest Pecan Market —
Where the Trees Grow aud Their
Bearing Capacity— Their Treat¬
ment Before Retailing.
Qr T. market LOUIS in is the the world. largest It pecan is es
tiraated that at least a quarter
of a million pounds of pecans
are handled in this city each season,
They are shipped in car load lots to
all parts of the United States. It is
an industry that is constantly grow
ing, but has not yet attained the mag
nitude of the peanut trade. S. Louis
handles on an average 12o, 000 l . ;s,
or 625 car loads, of peanuts each sea
son, and is the second largest peanut
centre in the United States. The larg
est peanut market is Norfolk, \a.,
which handles four timeS the amount
handled in St. Louis,
The pecan belongs to the family of
hickory, and is found growmg in its
wild state from the Gulf of Mexico to
the Great Lakes, but principally in
the rich soil along the Wabash, Mis
souri and Mississippi and many rivers
in Texas and Arkansas. Along these
rivers the pecan tree attains its largest
growth, and in the South it often
measures three to four feet ir_ uiam
eter, with a spread of top of sixty to
seventy feet. Its habit is lower and
more spreading than the hickory when
not surrounded by other trees, and
when growing alone it makes a full
oval head, forming one of the haud
somest shade trees, with foliage of a
rich dark green color,
Under favorable conditions, the tree
is of very rapid growth. The nuts are
borne in clusters of three to as many
as seven, on the extremities of new
wood; the saminate flowers appearing
at the ends of the preceding year’s
growth. Many years ago some nuts
were planted in Maryland, an 1 now
some of the finest pecan trees iu the
Union may be fouud growing there,
The finest pecan nuts in the world
are found in the State of Louisiana,
where the trees are cultivated in
groves. The large soft-shell or paper
shell pecans come from Louisiana, and
some of these nuts are from l£ inches
to If inches in length, and from three
fourths to one inch in thickness.
These fancy pecans bring from twenty
five cents to forty cents a pound on
the market in New Orleans, and all the
largest nuts are used at home for the
table, while only the smaller ones
reach the trade in the North The
largest pecans that are on tho St.
Louis market come from Louisiana,
and the trade here pays from eighteen
cents to twenty cents a pound for
The Texas pecans are the ones prin
cipally seen on the market here They
grow wild there, but are cultivated to
a limited extent There are a few
groves of from 100 to 200 acres each
m the central and west central por
tions of Texas, along the Brazos River,
^nese pecans are bought by St. Louis
commission men and are shipped here
by carload lots, the price being fixed
at so much per pound A carload
ranges from 24,000 to 30,000 pounds,
and the price for the Texas nuts in
their native State is generally from
five to six cents per pound,
After being received here the nuts
are run through a process which
polishes them and also cleanses them
them of all foreign substances. This
is done by machinery. A pecan nut
m its natural state has a light brown
color, and after being polished by
machinery and the use of harmless
chemicals it has a reddish brown color
and glistens like burnished steel The
nut is then a beautiful ornament for
a table There are several processes
for polishing, but the secret of mixing
the chemicals is known only to mem
bers of the firms using them,
A pecan tree bears a few nuts at six
to seven years of ages, but at ten
years, if the tree has had proper care
and soil, it will give a paying crop of
150 pounds of nuts. The crop will
increase annually until the tree ar
rive at a mature-bearing age, when it
is^ When from in its twenty maturity to thirty tree years will raise old.
a
from 200 to 250 pounds of nuts. Then
figure on an average of seven cents
per pound for the nuts, or, say, an
average of $15 per tree, and with forty
trees to the acre, that would mean
$6°0 an acre for one crop. Of course
tbe pecan grower must wait ten or
twelve years before his grove begins
to pay a profit.
Pecan trees thrive best near a
stream, and a subsoil is preferable.
The deep alluviums, or river lands,
even those liable to occasional over¬
flow, and such as are in consequence
of little value for other purposes, con
stitute those of greatest value to plant
the pecan upon. But it is notadvis
able to select land with too compact a
subsoil which holds surface water,
d- be pecan tree has a tap root which
shoots downward perfectly straight
until it strikes water. This tap root is
often longer than the tree itself.—>St.
Louis Republic,
Tlie Value ot Herb Teas.
It is the old-fashioned housewife
who sings the praise of herb tea. But
even the modern woman should not
scorn its soothing powers, Chamo
mile tea is most beneficial in case of
sleeplessness or nervousness. Cinna¬
mon tea is an excellent remedy for
hemorrhages, The tea from black
berry root is good for summer disor¬
ders ; that from green straw-berry
leaves is a soothing wash for a can¬
kered mouth, and either calamus or
catnip tea is excellent for infants’
colic.
Herb teas are made by pouring
boiling water over the herbs (either
dried or green). After covering allow
them to steep for several minutes.
The tea is then poured off and sweet¬
ened to taste.—New York World.
What ‘•Pelagic” Means.
The word “pelagic” means “of or
pertaining to the sea.” The usual
method of taking seals has been to
kill them when on shore, so that those
most valuable for their fur should be
slaughtered. Seal poachers have shot
the animals while swimming, claiming
they had a right to do so if beyond
the thre€-mile limit from shore.—. *
Atlanta Constitution.
Loading an Ocean Steamer.
The loading of an ocean steamer at
jne of th* New York City piers is a
eight well worth seeing, The length
of the steamships, some of them being
nearly 600 feet, makes very long piers
necessary. These piers on a sailing
day present an animated scene. A
long line of trucks, loaded with all
sorts of merchandise, moves slowly
down the pier, each truck delivering
its packages opposite the particular
hatchway, down which they are to be
lowered. The big ships load at four
different hatchways at the same. time.
Steam-hoisting apparatus at each, and
separate gangs of men, all, Lower, v.
under the direction of one stovedor •,
load and stow the immense cargo iu
an incredibly short space of time.
All prominent lines handle their
own freight, but some of the smaller
Hues give it out by contract to a steve¬
dore, who employs his own men.
About six gangs of tweuty-‘ive men
each, and about twelve foremen and
dock clerks are employed, \ s many
men are employed as can work to ad¬
vantage. The day men are relieved
by other gangs of men who work at
night. In rush times a few men are
added to each gang. From 10.60 ) to
100,000 packages constitute an ocean
steamship’s cargo. The largest number
of packages are carried at the season
of the year when the Bordeaux t'ruL
canuing trade is on, and the propor¬
tion of small packages is increase !.
Some big packages, such as a street¬
car completely boxed, or a steam
launch enclosed in a ease, require con¬
siderable power and much skill to
load. Heavy machinery and enor¬
mous cases are lifted from the dock.
swung over the open hatchway, and
lowered to the cavernous depths as
quickly aud easily as though they
weighed but a hundred pounds instead
of several tons.
Tho stowing of the freight requires
experience and judgment. The weight
must be arranged so that the vessel
stands upon au even keel, and sho
must not be down at the bow, or too
low at the stern. Then the cargo
must be stowed so that it will not
shift. The importance of this is seen
when the rolling and plunging of the
ship in a heavy sea is considered. The
cargo would not only be seriously in¬
jured if it tumbled about, but the
vessel would be unmanageable. —De¬
troit Free Press.
The Stubborn Camel.
Camels aro not like horses, If a
horse does not want to do anything we
make him. If a camel does not want
to do anything ho leaves it undone.
No amount of coaxing, no amount of
cruelty, will make him budge. He
has the determination of a mule com¬
bined with the strength of an elephant.
A camel is one of those aggravating
brutes which will drive a hot-tempered
man to distraction. Nothing will pur*
suade him to listen to reason. He will
oppose your will with a passive resis¬
tance that is absolutely unconquerable.
The only way to treat a camel is to
humor if you cannot humbug him.
They will often lie down if you load
them with the proverbial last straw,
and you might beat them to death or
offer up all the pleasures of Paradise
before they would get up. They arc
pig-headed beasts. Sometimes when
they have quite a light load they turn
nasty and throw themselves to the
ground. But, although they are ob¬
stinate, they are not cute, and an
Arab, by pretending to submit, can
generally get the better of the stub¬
born beasts. Tho driver will ostenta¬
tiously remove three or four packages
from the load, and the animal, with an
inward chuckle of satisfaction, rises
at once without perceiving that the
parcels have meanwhile been returned
to their former place. As he flatters
himself he has shirked some of his
duty ho swings away with a light
heart, gratified beyond measure, like
a spoilt child, at having his own way.
The camel is an unsociable beast.
He is also habitually dull, except when
he is sniffing the salt air of the desert.
When ho is treading the sands, with
the burning sun on his back aud the
boundlesss waste before him, he feels
himself at home. The immense heat
makes him bubble over ’with pleasure,
and fills his frame with a sublime in¬
toxication. It has been stated on the
best authority that he can go nine
clays without water. And if you had
ever seen a camel drink when he does
get a chance of quenching his thirst,
you would not be surprised at this.
They have been known to put away
seven gallons aud a half at a time.—
London News.
Philosophy ot Gaping.
Yawning or gaping is au involun¬
tary opening of the mouth, generally
produced by weariness or inclination
to sleep, sometimes by hunger or sym¬
pathy. It often precedes a fit in some
intermittent fevers, and, in some in¬
stances, by the frequency of its reoc¬
currence, becomes a real disease, It
is supposed to be determined by an
interruption of the pulmonary circu¬
lation. Natural yawning, accordding
to Boerhaave, is performed by expand¬
ing at one and the same time all the
muscles capable of spontaneous mo
ticn by extending the lungs, by draw¬
ing in, gradually and slowly, a large
quantity of air, and slowly expiring it
after it has been retained fox- some
time, and then restoring the muscles
to their natural state, Hence the ef
feet of yawning is to move, accelerate
and equally distribute all the humors
through all the vessels of the body,
and, consequently, to qualify the
muscles and organs of sensation for
their various functions. Herr Xogeli,
a German physiologist who has made
a special study of yawning, has come
to the conclusion that several deep,
deliberate y.«n» regularly indulged
m night and morning constitute the
most beneficial form of gymnastic hy
giene. — New York Dispatch.
_. __
Photograpli the Nlanip.
tt How can you find ri i out another »
postage Stamp baa been used or not'
Photograph it It the postmark has
been obliterated the blue or green
color ml! not make any impression on
the plate, while he black traces of the
obliteration will appear with great
clearness. Even when the stamps have
been well washed and no trace of the
obliteration can be seen by the naked
eye or through the microscope, the
photograph will show very clearly the
two concentric circles of the stam-i,
{he date, an l even the name of the lu
,-ality. —New York Telegram,
THROUGIITIIE SOUTH
ITEMS OF INTEREST GATHERED
FROM SOUTHERN STATES.
Culled and Condensed From Our
Daily Dispatches.
The North Carolina state medical
society met at Greensboro Tuesday iu
its fortieth annual session. Dr. Wil¬
liam II. Cobb, of Goldsboro, presided.
Two hundred physicians wore present.
Ten negro piisoners escaped from
jail at Raleigh, N. C., early Wednes¬
day morning. Among them was Orange
Page, under i ^ntenco of death for tho
murder of a colored woman, who was
to be executed June 14th.
Governor Carr, of North Carolina,
lms chosen Morehend City as the place
of encampment of tho state guards
this year. The exact date is not yet
designated, but will be very early in
duly. The railways make a rate of 1
cent a mile each way.
'The newspaper men of Richmond, at
a meeting organized the Old Dominion
Press Chib, with thirty-five charter
members. All newspaper men in Vir¬
ginia are eligible to election us non¬
resident members. Tho daily and
weekly papers will be embraced.
A Montgomery, Ala., special of
Wednesday says : The Oates men claim
to have official reports from the con¬
ventions held in all of the counties in
the state except six and that these re¬
turns give Colonel Ontes 254 8S 100
votes in the state convention and Cap¬
tain Johnston 215 12-100.
The democratic central committee
of North Carolina met at Raleigh,
Wednesday. It culled a meeting of
the state executive committee for 8
o’clock ]>. m., June Pith. It is the
sentiment of the central committee
that it is best to hold the state con¬
vention not earlier than the last of
July nor later than August 1st.
Governor Tillman has decided to
have a court of inquiry to look into
the action of the military companies
which refused to obey liis orders to go¬
to Darlington during the dispensary
troubles. He has issued orders ap¬
pointing Brigadier General Richbourg,
Brigadier General E. J. Dennis and
Colonel Willie Jones as tho court, with
J. T. Barron as judge advocate.
The general assembly of the south¬
ern Presbyterian church assembled in
Nashville Thursday morning. Among
the prominent questions that will
come before the assembly will be the
question of the preaching of theologi¬
cal students who have not yet been li¬
censed, and the case of Miss Sadie
Means, a telephone operator in Co¬
lumbia, S. C., who was disciplined by
her church for continuing at her posi¬
tion in the telephone office on tho
Sabbath.
General Auditor Loop,of the South¬
ern Express Company, has requested
the Southern Associated Press to send
out the following warning to all south¬
ern cities: “Spurious money orders,
purporting to have been issued by
Wells, Fargo & Co.’s express, Chicago,
have been sent all over the south.
Some are sent through banks and at¬
torneys. The general auditor of the
Southern Express Company hereby
cautions all bankers, express agents
and others to beware of these coun¬
terfeits.”
WASHINGTON NOTES
WIIAT IS GOING ON AT UNCLE
SAM’S HEADQUARTERS.
Comment Concerning Transactions in
the Various Departments.
'Jhe senate committee on territories
have ordered favorably reported (with
amendments) by tho tho bill already passed
house providing for the admis¬
sion of Utah into the union as a state.
The senate Wednesday confirmed
the nominations of the following post¬
masters: Virginia—James M. Neal,
Danville. North Carolina—William
P. Huffman, Hickory. South Caro¬
lina—William F. Motts, Greenville.
Alabama—William B. Gear, Bessemer.
Tho state department lias received a
cablegram from Minister Baker an¬
nouncing that the Nicaraguan govern¬
ment had given satisfactory assurance
of prompt compliance with tho per¬
emptory demands of the United States
in relation to the punishment of the
murderer of Wilson, the American
killed at Rama in March.
Senator Hunton, of Virginia, and
Senator Kyle, of South Dakota, (tho
latter through liis clerk) admits tho
truth of the published statement that
they had been approached and offered
money for their votes against the tariff
bill, although both gentlemen declined
to name the man who made the offer.
The story was published in full in a
New York paper Wednesday morning,
and, with the exception of the matter
of detail, is substantially correct.
Secretary Eamont is making au ex¬
amination into the record of clerks in
tho war department with a view to
making a wholesale cut in his force,
and it is stated on good authority that
the dismissals before the 1st of July,
the beginning of the next fiscal year,
will number fully 300. The record
and pension office will furnish the
greater number of these, and several
chiefs of divisions will be among tho
unfortunates. Other heads of depart¬
ments are preparing for many clerical
changes. A number of reductions in
grade among old clerks has already
been made in the state department.
CYCLONK IN OHIO.
A village Wrecked, Seven Persons
Kilted and Thirty Injured,
r Pl Lunkel, „ Williams
JC 'V.f? 0 ° m
county, Ohio, was almost entirely de
stroyed by a cyclone Thursday after
noon. Seven lives are known to have
been lost; thirty persons were injured,
„omo of them fatally, and more than
fifty houses were demolished. Knukel
js a town of about 300 inhabitants, in
the extreme northwestern part of tho
stttte , on the Detroit and Logansport
branch of the Wabash railway J
'
Gold Rapidly Dwindling.
The treasury department was advis
cd Wednesday afternoon that $2,-
500,000 had been engaged at the New
York subtreasury for export to
This reduces the gold reserve
below $87,000,000.