Newspaper Page Text
S
IN A COAL MINE.
QtK.I U S< KNKS HUNDREDS OF
F K FT t'XDKIWiltOt'J* I».
The Little Slate Pickers—Descending
the Shaft—Miners at Work
In the Tunnels —
Ulne Mules.
A ROUND a huge central build¬
ing clustered other and lower
ones, sheds, engine houses,
machine shops, offices. Rail¬
road tracks extended in web-like
ways. Upon them stood files of be¬
grimed coal cars. Other huge struc¬
tures similar to the one near us, says
Stephen Crane, in tho Detroit Free
I’reHS, uprear their uncouth heads
upon the hills of the surrounding
country. From each a mighty hill of
culm extended. Upon these tremen¬
dous heaps of waste the miners, mules
and ears Appeared 'ike toys. Down in
the valley, upon the railroads, long
trains crawled painfully southward,
where a low-hanging gray cloud with
» few projecting spires and chimneys
indicated a town.
Csr fitter ear earne from a shed be¬
neath which lay hidden the month of
the shaft. They were dragged, creak¬
ing, up «ri inclined cable road to the
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junni y i iia. through tho hmlumg
from winch they were to emerge ...
classified fragment*. (.rent teeth on
ovoiv,.. : cylinders caught them and
cli.-acd tlicm At places there were
grab . Hint bid ea.I. go ...to its
proper chute. Tim ' .' lh 1111
deep i on every motionless < thing and
Clouds of it made the air dark as from
a violent tempest. A huge gnashing
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A BREAKER BOY.
sound filled the ears. With terrible
appetite this huge and hideous mon¬
ster sat imperturbably munching coal,
grinding its mammoth jaws with un¬
earthly aud monotonous uproar.
THE LITTLE SLATE PICKERS.
In a large room sat tho little slate
pickers. The floor slanted at an angle
of forty-five degrees, and the coal,
having been masticated by the great
teeth, was streaming sluggishly in
long iron troughs. The boys sat
straddling those troughs, and as the
mass moved slowly, they grabbed deft¬
ly at the pieces of slate therein. There
were iivo or six of them, one above
another, over each trough. The coal
is expected to bo fairly pure after it
passes the final boy. The howling ina
chinery was above them. High up,
dim figures moved about in tho dust
clouds.
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ENTRANCE TO THE ELEVATOR.
These little men were a terrifically
dirty band. They resembled the New
Aork gamins in some ways, but they
laughed more, aud when they laughed
their faces were a wonder aud a ter
ror. they had au air of supreme in
dependence and swore long oaths with
Through their ragged shirts we
coul 1 get occasional glimpses of
shou.ders, black as stoves. They
looked precisely like imps as they
scrambled to get a view of us. M ork
ceased while they tried to ascertain If
vp were willing to give away any to
bacco. The man \iho perhaps believes
that he controls them came and
harangued the crowd. He talked to
The slate pickers all through this
region are yet at the spanking period.
One continually wonders about their
mothers and if there art any school
houses. But as for them they are not
conecfiiyd, \\ hkii they get time off
THE MONROE ADVERTISER, FORSYTH, GA„ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4. 1894. -EIGHT PAGES
Ihpy ran go out on the cnlm heap and
play baseball or fight with the boys
from other breakers or among
j themselvc - aecor.nng to tne oppor
tnuitiei And before them always is
the hope of one day getting to be door
boys in the mines and, later, mnle
boys. And yet later , laborers and
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TIXR BREAKER.
hel P cr *- FiMl| y. when they have
e r "»u*'>be great big men they may
become miners, real minora, an.l go
down and get “squeezed’, or perhaps
escape to a shattered old man's estate
with a mere “miner's asthma. ” They
„ e ver y ambitious.
Meanwhile they live in a place of
infernal tlies. The crash and thun
del'of the machinery is like the roar
fla immense cataract. The room
shrieks and blares and bellows,
Clouds of dust blur the air until the
window* shine pallidly afar off. All
the structure is a-tremblo from the
heavy sweep and circle of the ponder¬
ous mechanism. Down in the midst
of it sit these tiny urchins, where
they earn fifty-live cents each day.
DESCENDING THE SHAFT.
Over in front of a little tool house,
a man smoking a pipe sat on a bench.
“Fes,” ho said, “I’ll take yeh down
if yeh like.” He led ns by the little
cinder paths to the shed over the shaft
of the mine. A gigantic fan wheel
near by was whirling swiftly. It
created cool air for the miners, who
ou the lowest vein of this mine'were
some 1150 feet below the surface.
The black, greasy cables began to
run swiftly. We stood staring at
thern aud wondering. Then of a aud
den the elevator appeared and stopped
with a crash. It was a plaiu wooden
platform. Upon two sides iron bars
ran up to support a stout metal roof,
The men upon it, as it came into view,
wero like apparitions from the centre
of the earth.
A- moment later we marched aboard,
armed with little lights, feeble and
S rt «l ,ia S' the daylight. There was
an instant’s creak of machinery an l
fken the landscape, that had been
trained for us by the doorposts of the
shed, disappeared in a flash. We were
dropping with extraordinary swiftness
straight into the earth, It was u
plunge, a fall.
The dead black walls slid swiftly by.
They were a swirling black chaos on
which the mind tried vainly to locate
some coherent thing, some intelligible
spot. One could only hold fast to the
iron bars and listen to the roar of this
implacable descent. It was a journey
that held a threat of endlessness.
Then suddenly the dropping plat
form slackened its speed, lt began to
descend slowly aud with caution. At
last, with a crash and a jar, it stopped,
Before us stretched an inscrutable
darkness, a soundless place of tangible
loneliness. Into the nostrils came a
subtle strong odor oi powder smoke,
oil, wet earth.
MINERS AT WORK.
Our guide , strode abruptly into the
gloom. His lamp flared shades of yel
low and the walls of a
tunnel that led away from the foot of
the shaft. Before us there was al
ways the curtain of impenetrable night
We walked on with no sound save the
crunch of onr feet upon the coal dust
on the floor. The sense of au abiding
danger in the roof was always upon
our foreheads. It expressed to us all
the unmeasured deadly tons above us.
All at once, far ahead, shone a little
flame, blurred and difficult of loca
tion. It was a tiny', indefinite thins,
like a wisp light. We seemed to be
looking at it through a great fog.
Presently there were two of them,
Ihey began to move to and fro and
danced before us.
After a time we came upon two men
crouching where the roof of the pas
sage came near to meeting the floor.
I he garments of th. men were no more
sable than theii faces, and when they
turned heads to regard our tramping
party, their eyeballs and teeth shone
white as bleached ^oues. It was iike
the grinning of two skulls there in the
shadows.
But they said “Hello, .Tim," to on*
j con-luctor. Their mouthsexpaaded iu
smiles-wide and startling smiles.
In a moment thev turned again to
J their work. When the lights of our
: party reinforced their two lamps we
could see that one was busy drillin'.
into the coal with a long thin bar’
Tho low root ominously ijressed toll his
aho.tl.ler. a, he bent at hia The
other knelt behind him on the loose
lumps of coal.
We came upon other little low
roofed chambers, each containing blas£ two
men, a ■■miner.”who makes the
and his “laborer,” wlio loads'the coal
upon tho cars and assists tho miner
generally.
AT-THE MAIN SHAFT.
From this tunnel of onr first mine
we went with our guide to the foot of
the main shaft. Here we were iu
,, most ortant of mine,
im P passage a
the main gangway. The wonder of
these avenues is the noise—the crash
and clatter of machinery as the ele¬
vator speeds upward with the loaded
cars and drops thunderingly with the
empty ones. The place resounds with
the shouts of mule-boys, and there can
always be heard the noise of approach¬
ing coal cars, beginning in mild rum-
8 au< * then swelling down upon one
ia . a tempest of sound. In the air is
the slow painful throb of the pumps
working at the water which collects in
tlie depths. There is booming and
hanging ami crashing until one sou¬
dera the tremendous walls are not
wren ched by the force of this uproar,
Aml U P and down the tunnel there is
:l riot of lights, little orange points
flickering swift and l somber flashing. Miners stride
1,1 an< procession. But
meaning of it all is in the deep
* jass * a ttle of a blast in some hidden
part of the mine. It is war. It is the
most savage part of all in the endless
battle between man and nature.
These miners are grimly iu the van.
They have carried the war into places
where nature has the strength of a
million giants. Sometimes their ene¬
my becomes exas >erated and snuffs
out ten, twenty, thirty lives. Usually
she remains calm, and takes one at a
time with method and precision. She
need not hurry. She possesses eter¬
nity. After a blast, the smoke, faint¬
ly luminous, silvery, floats silently
through the adjacent tunnels.
MINE MULES.
Over in a wide and liglitless room
we found the mule stable-'. There we
discovered a number of these animals
standing with an air of calmness and
self-possesssion that was somehow'
amazing to find in a mine. A little
dark urchin came aud belabored his
mule China until he stood broadside
to us, that we might admire his in
numerable fine qualities. The stable
was like a dungeon. The mules were
arranged in solemn row's. They
turned their heads toward our lamps.
The glare made their eyes shine won
drously, like lenses. They resembled
enormous rats.
It is a common affair for mules to lie
imprisoned for years iu the limitless
night of the mines. Our acquaintance,
China, had been four years buried.
Upon the surface there had been the
march of seasons, the white splendor
of snows had changed again and again
to the glories of green springs. Four
times had the earth been ablaze with
the decorations of brilliant autumns.
But China and his friends had re¬
mained in these dungeons, from which
daylight, if one could get a view up a
shaft, would appear a tiny circle, a
silver star aglow in a sable sky.
Usually when brought to the sur¬
face these animals tremble at the earth,
radiant in the sunshine. Later they
go almost mad with fantastic joy. The
full splendors of the heavens, the
grass, the trees, the breezes break upon
them suddenly. They caper and
career with extravagant mulish glee.
After being long iu the mines the
mules are apt to duck and dodge at
the close glare of lamps, but some of
them have been known to have piteous
fears of being left in the dead dark¬
ness. They seem then, somehow, iike
little children. We met a boy once
who said that sometimes the only way
he could get his resolute team to move
was to run ahead of them with the
light. Afraid of the darkness, they
would trot hurriedly after him and
so take the train of heavy cars to a
desired place.
MINE DANGERS.
Great and mystically dreadful is the
earth from a mine’s depth. Man is in
i the implacable grasp of nature, lt
j has only to tighten slightly and he is
crushed like a bug. His loudest shriek
of agony would be as impotent as Ids
Aosl moan to bring help from that fair
land that lies, like heaven, over his
head. There is an insidious, silent
j enemy in the gas. If the huge fan
i wheel on the top of the earth should
stop for a brief period there is certain
death and a panic more terrible than
any occurring where the sun has shone
ensues down uuder the tons of locks.
i If a man escape the gas, the floods,
'the “squeezes” of falling rock, the
ears shooting down through the little
tunnels, the precarious elevators, the
! hundred penis, there usually comes to
l him an attack of miner's asthma and
* slowly racks aud shakes hitu into the
crave. Meanwhile he gets ? > per day
' “
' aud his laborer SI.25.
In the chamber, at the foot of the
shait, as we were departing, a groan
of the men were resting. They lav
about jn careless poses When we
climbed aboard the elevator, we had
a them. moment in which to turn and regard
Then auddenlv the studv ir
black faces and crimen and orange '
lights vanished the'surface, We were on out
swift wav to Far above
uf, in the engine room, the engineer
sat with his hand on a lever and his
eye on the little model of the shaft
wherein a miniature elevator was
making the ascent even as our elevator
mighty was making it. In fact, the same
engines gave power to both,
and their positions are relatively the
same always.
Of a sudden the fleetiug walls be¬
come flecked with light. It increased
high to a downpour of sunbeams, The
sun was afloat iu a splendor of
spotless blue. The distant hills were
arrayed in purple and stood like
monarch?. A glory of gold was upon
the nearby earth.
Of that sinister struggle far below
there came no sound, no suggestion
save the loaded cars that emerged one
after another in eternal procession
and were sent creaking up the in¬
cline that their contents might be feet
into the mouth of the “breaker,” im¬
perturbably blem cruel and insatiate em¬
of greed and of the gods of
this labor.
Small Brains.
Scientists have agreed that it is not
the __
amount of brain -the weight of
the brain—which decides the intel¬
lectual or idiotic destiny of man, but
the amount of working surface of the
brain ; that is, the number and intri¬
cacy of convolutions on the brain de¬
termine the mental status of its owner.
Thus a very large brain, if compara¬
tively smooth, would have a much
less thinking surface than a smaller
brain if highly convoluted. The brain
of Byron was unusually small, as was
also that of Sir Walter Scott, the gen¬
tle Wizard of the Nortn, who wove
the old traditions of his loved Scot¬
land into so many charming romances
in prose and poetry. The brain of a
statesman seems much smaller after
he is elected than it did before. There
must be expanding and shrinking
brains that scientists have not yet dis¬
covered.—New Orlean Picayune.
To Travel at a High Rate ot Speed.
The wheel shown in tho illustra¬
tion, patterned by a Chicago man, is
designed to facilitate traveling at a
high rate of speed, while being of a
comparatively durable aud simple
construction. The rim has a cushion
tire, two outwardly curved webs from
which form a casing or (Jage for the
rider, the webs preferably forming
spokes connected with central hubs in
which is a shaft on which is loosely
hung a frame carrying a seat for the
rider. In the forward lower end of
of the frame are also journals iu which
turn the crank shaft, with crank arms
engaged by the feet of the rider in
the usual way, the sprocket chain con¬
necting with wheels on the main shaft
on opposite sides of the seat and
within the hubs, whereby the wheel is
rotated.
The brake shoe is on the lower end
of a vertically arranged fork, the
upper end of which has a handle ir
easy reach of the rider, while springs
on the fork arms normally hold the
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brake shoe ’out of contact with the
rim. The wheel is held in upright po¬
sition at rest by two rods sliding in
vertical guides on the frame, the
lower forked ends of the rods being
normally held out of contact with the
ground by springs, and the rods being
pressed down into the ground by
means of handles at each side of the
saddle. At the lower extremity of
the frame is a basket to hold pack¬
ages, etc., and connected with the
basket is a rod on which is held an
adjustable weight to counterbalance
the weight of the rider on the seat.
That the rider may readily pass in or
out of the cage one of the spokes on
each side is connected with the hub by
means of a hinge, the out end of the
hinged spoke engaging a keeper on
side of the riui by means of a spring
latch. The steering is readily effected
by the rider bending to one side or
the other.—Chicago Times,
A Carriage With Pneumatic Tires:,
Joseph Pulitzer, proprietor of the
New York World, who is passing the
season at Bar Harbor, Me., has the
only carriage in town with the pneu¬
matic tires, and the other cottagers do
not know whether to like it or not. It
has such a quiet way of getting around
without being heard that it is said to
have fallen into disfavor with a party
upon whom it came up from behind
so quietly that it was not heard. It is
a very nice thing and is greatly en¬
joyed by its owner.—Chicago Herald.
Utility.
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shaving-brush, but the poodle’s tail
did juit as weH.-*- Judge.
FASHION FANCIES.
MUCH TALK IS HEARD AROl'T
DRESS REFORM.
Plenty of Ideas, But Nothing That
Takes the Feminine Fancy Has
Appeared as Yet—The
Latest Styles.
T (* yHERE about peculiar tumes dress that is and a great reform adaptable be deal used and of talk cos- tbe for
may
various occasions. Bnt it is an in¬
disputable and somewhat melancholy
fact, says the Ledger, that the majori¬
ty of these outfits are simply unbe¬
coming, and that the woman who has
tbe courage to appear in them is made
the subject of so much ridicule that
sensitive women shun them with a
feeling akin to horror.
A number of women have made
their appearance on the streets in di¬
vided skirt.-, Turkish trousers and leg
gins, but this by no means argues
that even for bicycle riding and kin¬
dred sports will this style of dress be
tolerated. There is urgent need just
now for some really sensible, practi¬
cal and becoming costume of this
sort.
It seems a little strange that, with
all of the ideas that have been ad¬
vanced, nothing has yet come before
the public ihat stands the least chauce
for favor. The nearest approach to
it is a very full skirt that droops over
! the sides and almost conceals the feet.
Say what one will, the present con¬
ventional ideas of life are against any
extended exhibition of foot-wear
- nothing . ..... likely
«™ng women, is
to 8UCCf f d ^ at goes against popular
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latest paris fashions.
The fancy for accordion plaiting
still holds. An exceptionally pretty
dress is of silk-striped muslin. The
accordion-plaited skirt has a band of
trimming made by sewing on insertion
in a sort of braiding pattern. The de¬
sign is repeated in the waist and
sleeves in smaller patterns, and is the
only trimming with the exception of
a velvet collar and belt.
Lace was never used in such pro¬
fusion, and it may be said never ivith
such excellent taste. Beadings are
set on, row upon row', in some in¬
stances forming a band eight or ten
inches wide just above the hem of the
skirt. Into these are drawn ribbons
in color matching the dress, or in con¬
trast, and these have rosettes at inter¬
vals around the skirt. The overskirt
idea comes on but slowly.
A dress of rich black silk, brocaded
with a tiny spray of bright rosebuds,
has a drapery of silk muslin in
accordion plaits. The drapery hangs
irregularly over the skirt, the points
where it is drawn up highest being
finished with large bows of ribbon
with ends.
Among the coolest and most com
fortable of hot-weather dresses are
those made with alternate rows of
material and insertion. The goods
may be the width of the insertion or
double the width, according to fancy,
the insertion being set in from neck
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A DRESSY COIFFURE.
to belt. The sleeves of some of the
newest dresses have the insertion set
in from shoulders to elbows over the
fullest part. Some styles show cuffs
and collar of insertion over the
material. It is a very easy matter to
make up these dresses if one has the
time and patience to hand-sew the
strips of material and the insertion
together. This is liked much better
than when put together with the sew¬
ing machine, although the latter is
much more expeditions and is usualiy
seen in all but the highest-priced
costumes.
THE SILK PETTICOAT.
The silk petticoat has become an ar
tide of artistic elegance, made of rich
brocades and moire silks and trimmed
with lace covered ruffle^ and flounces
os chiffon, and is almost as important
an item of dress as the gown which is
worn over it. A very dainty skirt is
made of black and white striped silk,
with a flounce of yellow satin at the
bottom, over which is a plaited silk
muslin ruffle edged with narrow black
guipure and headed with black inser¬
tion and a ruche of muslin, White
satin and white ohiffon are the ideal
combination for a bridal petticoat.
FOR A YOUNG GIRL.
A charming costume for a girl oi
fourteen is made of flowered delaine,
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TOtTXG girl’s COSTUME.
set off with lace tabs, insertions aud
panels. It has a folded belt and fly
bows in moire, in the darkest tint of
the pattern. A gauged yoke is of
white muslin or China silk. The large
hat is of fancy straw, adorned with a
huge erect loop and two side-fringed
ends of corded ribbon.
FALL STYLES.
The latest novelty seen in the new
gowns is the skirt w'ith the bustle
effect. The back is formed by four
box pleats, which are sewn to stiff cap
pieces. These caps are of the material
lined with horse hair, and set out
straight from the waist. The caps
are finished with a cord and the box
pleat hangs from the outer edge.
The really distinctive feature of the
fashionable gown is its flaring skirt,
for the skirts flare more than ever at
the foot, the enormous sleeves and
round waist. The much-talked of
paniers and draperies find it difficult
to gain vogue.
Capes will continue to be the fashion
just so long as the immense sleeve3
make them a necessity, Velvet will
be largely used for them, with trim
mings of jet or lace. Butter-colored
lace and jetted and spangled lace of
all kinds will be used for trimming,
The mantles with long tabs in front
are newer than the round capes, but
the latter will be the favorites,
A handsome cape just from Paris Re¬
of dark green velvet, trimmed w th
butter lace bands, forming panels from
the neck to the bottom of the cape.
These panels were narrow at the neck,
and widened out at the bottom of the
cape. The neck was finished with a
full frill of black chiffon. These black
chiffon frills are seen on almost all the
new’ garments, no matter what the
material from which they are made.
Another pretty garment consists of
two capes, the longer one reaching
just below the waist, and the shorter
about half length. Made of black vel¬
vet and trimmed with spangled lace,
the capes lined with white satin, noth¬
ing could be more stylish.
Some very startling combinations of
color are seen, but as a rule the blend¬
ing of colors in a gown is most artis¬
tic. All the skirts show an increased
wideness at the bottom, fitting close
^ be ^ rou * and 8 ^ e8 > *h e fulness
being placed at the back. The double
skirt will be worn more than the draped
ones. It consists of two skirts, cut
exactly alike with the exception that
the upper one is cut six or seven inches
shorter than the under. A model that
is becoming to slender figures is that
having a box pleat on both sides. The
sides are cut shorter than the front
and back and faced with a contrasting
color. The gored skirts open at the
seams and showing a contrasting mate¬
rial underneath are to be worn quite a
good deal.
Alpaca is a material lhat is to be
worn this fall and one that makes most
useful traveling dresses, as it sheds
the dust and wears forever. Many of
the bodices to the go was end at the
waist, are full back and front, cut in
points on the bust, the upper portion
being of a contrasting color. Some
of the dresses have tight-fitting jackets
to be worn over waistcoats, buttoning
with a double row of buttons like the
Incrovable ' coat, ending in a straight
]j ne a t the waist, and having a full
basque at the back,
—-—
Girls in Scotland can make valid
wills at twelve years of age.
MINTING STAMPS.
HOW IT IS DON K AT THE BUREAU
IN WASHINGTON.
Queer Looking Presses Which Pro¬
duce IGOO Postage Stamps a
31 Inute— Giinimins and Per¬
forating the Stamps.
D ESCRIBING the printing of
postage stamps at the Bureau
of Engraving aud Printing in
a Washington, the Star says:
Each sheet, as furnished to the Gov¬
ernment, will consist of 109 stamps.
The printing is done ou queer-looking
presses, each of which produces 1699
stamps a minute, or about 109,000 an
hour. Each press has au endless chain,
that carries four plates, on which tU®
designs of the stamps are engraved.
On each plate 4 )J stam is are repre¬
sented. The sheets printed from thesa
plates are intended to be cut into
quarters eventually, in which ships
they will be sold by the Postoffico De¬
partment.
Each plate is carried by the endless
chain first under an ink roller, fro n
which it receives a coating of ink of
the proper color. Then it passes be¬
neath a pal of canvas, which oscil¬
lates so as to rub the ink in. Next it
pauses for a moment under the has Is
of a man who polishes the plate. Fili¬
ally, a sheet of white paper is laid
upon the plate, both pass under a
roller, and the sheet comes out ou the
other side 400 printed postage stamps.
The plates revolve in a cir.de, as it
were—more accurately speaking, they
move around the four sides of a sq iar i
in a horizontal plane. While one is
being inked another is being rubbed
by the c utvas, another is being pol¬
ished, and the fourth is passing under
the priutiug roller. The circuit takes
about a minute, during which four
sheets of 490 stamps each are printed.
The most important, part of the
work, requiring the greatest skill, is
the polishing. It is doue with the
bare hands, no other method being
equally efficient. The object is to leave
exactly enough ink for a goo 1 impres¬
sion, and no more. One girl lays the
white paper sheets upon the plates,
while another young woman removes
them as fast as they are printed an l
stacks them up iu a pile. This pro¬
cess gives the results of hand press
work. Half a dozen presses working
together, each turning out 100,099
stamps an hour, can produce a good
many millions iu a day. Three hau ls
are required for each press—the print¬
er, Avho does the polishing, and two
girls. The printer must account for
every sheet of blank paper that he re¬
ceives. The sheets are counted in the
wetting division before they are de¬
livered to him. After they are printed
they are counted before they are sent
to the examining division, where they
are counted again.
Spoiled sheets are counted as care¬
fully as perfect ones, because they
represent money. If lost or stolen,
they could be used. On each sheet
appears the special mark of the print¬
er who turned it out. An allowance
of 1| per cent, is made to him for
spoilage. If he exceeds that allowance
he must pay for the extra loss at the
actual cost of paper, ink aud labor
represented. If a sheet is lost, it must
be traced back to the last person who
handled it, and that individual will bo
required to pay face value for the
stamps represented. If the person re¬
sponsible cannot be found, the divi¬
sion which last handled the sheet must
pay. No loophole is left for the loss
of a single one-cent stamp. After be¬
ing examined the sheets are counted
again and are put between straw
boards under an hydraulic press to
make them lie flat. Thus they are
counted more easily, and can be made
up into smaller bundles.
After undergoing this process they
are counted once more and are sent
down stairs to lie gummed and perfor¬
ated. The method of gumming, iu
particular, is a novelty, being wholly
different from that utilized hitherto in
such work. It is much more rapid and
efficient, and before long will doubt¬
less supersede the old plan, which is
even now applied to the gumming of
cigarette stamps for the internal rev¬
enue.
Tho gummed sheets are passed over
to a long table, where girls pick the n
up in pairs, and, placing the gummed
sides together, put them between
layers of straw boaids. Arranged in
this way they areplaced under a steam
press to flatten them, the mucilage
having caused them to curl somewhat.
On coming out of the press they are
counted again, and now they go to
the perforating machines that make
the pinholes by which it is rendered
easy to tear the stamps apart.
The perforating machine is an ar¬
rangement of little wheels revolving
parallel to each other and just far
enough apart to make the perfora¬
tions as one sees them iu a sheet of
finished stamps fresh bought at the
postoffice. After the perforations
have been made across the sheet one
way by one machine, the sheet miif 1 .
pass through a second machine for th
cross perforations. In the middle of y
each machine is a knife which cuts the
sheet in two, so that the sheet of 490
comes out of machine No. 1 in two
sheets of 200 each, and theso are di¬
vided into four sheets of 100 each by
the second perforating machine. The
stamps are now done, and only re¬
main to be gone over, inspected,
counted and tagged in packages of 109
sheets before being sent out. Each
package of 100 sheets holds 10,000
stamps, of course.
Bnt there are one or two more pre¬
liminaries. After receiving the per¬
forations the sheets of 100 are put
under a press to remove the “burrs”
around the little holes; otherwise,
these would greatly increase the thick¬
ness of a package. Then they are
counted and are placed in steel-clad
vaults, from which they are drawn as
the Postoffiee Department may want
them.
Johnny Dineil Off Six Buttons.
Little Johnny West, of Detroit, is
now in good condition to play “out
ton, who’s got the button?” His
mother gave him half a dozen horn
buttons to hold while she tflreaded a
needle and got ready t.» sew them on
his clothes. Master Johny swallowed
the buttons, one au l aU, an l dosea’t
know why he did it. As a walking
button box he seems to be a complete
success. —Detroit Free Press,