Newspaper Page Text
SEPTEMBER /, 1906.
THE SUNNY SOUTH
THIRD <PAGE
• *•*•*•• #••*#’!
*
4
4
4
Is Cement to Replace
Wood in All Con*
struction ?
If So, the South's He* |
posits Will Swell Her T
Already Large Store j
of Wealth & s* ?
Method of Moulding for Bridge Construction
NLESS all signs fail, one of
the greatest problems or
the age has been solved,
that Is. what will be the
building material of the
future. The answer Is ce
ment.
But for cement many
large building operations
would now be at a stand
still, for wood is becom
ing too expensive to be
used in house construc
tion, and the enforced
waits for all kinds of structural steel vir
tually eliminates that material where
quick work Is desired.
Almost everything can be done with ce
ment, and with incredible swiftness and
Cheapness of price. The new process,
the mixing otf cement, sand and gravel
with cinders and broken stone, llooded ]
with water from a hose, is being used
to build houses, raise giant hotels, build
the piers and bridges for railroads, erect
barns. lay sidewalks, tix a girder or
fashion a chimney ca.p.
Almost anything is possble to the now
materal.
Probably the best Instance of working
against time with cement as a medium
la shown in the experience of an Atlan
tic City hotel company. They wanted
a structure four hundred feet long, 125
feet wide and 164 feet high. It was to
bo elaborate, and to have capacity for
1,200 guests. Bids were asked for a
steel building, and not only were the
prices lofty_ .but the delay In getting
the girders and oilier structural parts
made It «. certainty that a couple of years
must pass before the new hotel could be
ready for guests.
In this predicament, the proprietors
had recourse to the new process of rein
forced cement. The work went with j
gratifying celerity. In eight months and
three days, without the loss of a life,
the new hotel was completed. It is a
work of genuine architectural beamy,
the pride of the Clty-by-the-Sea, and as
great an expert as Til mas Alva Edi
son, after going over the entire struc
ture from collar to the Moorish dome,
said that It was the first perfect build
ing he had ever seen, and that it was
built of a material destined to be the
great staple of the future.
LOW INSURANCE.
The concrete building solves the ques
tion of lire insurance. The underwriters
wiio examined Atlantic City's new model
hotel were so well pleased that they
made a price 3 per cent lower than for
other hotels of the same class.
The farmer or suburbanite, who con
templates building a home, always looks
at the lire question thoughtfully, for In
outlying districts there is little facility
for fighting flames, and once they get
hold, an Inflammable building is likely j
to be destroyed. But a home built of j
cement cannot burn, for the reason that,
there Is nothing to be consumed, except
the interior furnishing, and enough in
surance to cover the cost of these deco
rations and furnishings Is really about
all that is needed in such cases.
A Staten Island man, who recently put
up a cement house at a cost of $3,875 a
most elaborate and pretentious country
home, estimated that the outlay would
have been $2,000 greater for a frame
house, and with that kind of building
would have been the ever present dan-| ufaeturc of its cfment. There are five
gor of total destruction by fire. | prominent companies, and their invest-
A cement house does away with all j ment is constantly being increased, for
need of^plaster anad lathing. Paper can 1 the demand for cement lias forcej them
be put light over the walls, or if pre- j to erect new mills, and to install new
erred thej can be frescoed or otherwise! machinerv, whose* value combined would
de S°™, t , ed ' i run into the millions.
u ng such a house does not require j As j n blast furnaces the chemist is
This Thrilling Louisiana Legend
^ Aims at Munchausen’s Laurels 9
(From The New Orleans Picayune.)
HE Barataria district teems
with many weird legends
and most of them have to
do with Lafitte and the
daring sea robbers, and
the ghosts of men slain by
tho pirate crew, but sel
dom from the dim mem
ories of the past is ever
resurrected the strange
story of the gigantic
turtle which made its
home in tho swamps and
shallow pools pear whore
Bayou Perot ends its sluggish course in
Little lake.
Adrien Bodichoux lives in a small,
though comfortable cabin on the shores
of the Bayou, all alone, and gains his
battle for existence by waging a cease
less war on the finny tribe and selling
his catches to agents at the Chinese
settlement, or to the canning factories in
the city.
Adrien, although never having enjoyed
the benefits of a good education, is talka
tive upon occasions, and if led up to It
lie will tell a chance traveler to the his
toric district the startling tale of “V.e
beeg turf what eets up ze mans.” A
party of tourists to Grand ijrle several
weeks ago met Adrien, who had sailed
down to the isolated community on busi
ness, and Adrien, readily making friends
with the visitors, needed small persua
sion to do tho honors.
It is a family legend with tin* Bodi
chouxs, that turtle story, and Adrien
takes some prime in irs relation for the
reason that one of his ancestors was the
prey of the brute, long years ago, even
before the days of the terrible Lafitte.
According to tile way Adrien fixes dates
tll» period, of tiie great crutacean’s do
minion over Litllr lake must have been
at a time just subsequent to the revo
lutionary war, when the whole of the
southern country was wilderness—a wild
erness almost in a condition primeval.
One day Bodichoux and two of liis
family on the southern shore of Lake
j Salvador, in a little village largely made
up of French and Spaniards, and a few
Americans, two of tlie latter old front
iersmen, who had seen service against
the murderous Shawnees in Kentucky
and Tennessee.
discorfcolately on their journey home.
When they regained the village t ho
next day, their story was received with
doubt and they were almost looked upon
with suspicion by their neighbors, who
had begun to think that they had mur
dered their relative somewhere oif in the
wilds; but a week later, when an Indian
arrived and related how a great turtle
had risen out of Little lake and pursued
him, compelling him to beach his canoe
and climb a tree, the Bodichoux claim
was believed, and a party headed by the
two American frontiersmen was organ
ized to go in search of tho monster.
Eight boats containing in ail twenty
men left the village on Lago Salvador
and made their way as quickly as possi
ble to Little lake. On the way they met
three fishermen who told them of an
other appearance of the monster, ttiis
time in Bayou Perot. The men said that
they were paddling along in their
perogue, when tho turtle appeared swim
ming toward them. As In the ease of
the Bodichouxs, one of their party, an
Indian boy, fell a victim to the de
stroyer. being seized by iiim after the
boat had been overturned.
When tiie hunters reached Bayou Perot,
they proceeded si wly and carefully hut
they entered Little lake without getting
a sight of tiie turtle. For several hours
they beat about the lake and at last,
when they had almost given up the
search, one of the party gave a startled
j cry and pointed to an object that was
! paddling through the water from tiie
1 direction of Bayou St. Denis. Tiie party
| saw at once that the hideous thing ap-
1 preaching them was the great turtle,
' and ns the creature, which seemed to
be full of fight, drew nearer, tiie men
| nervously fingered their ancient Hintfire
muskets and wondered if tiie balls would
i have sufficient force to penetrate that
tiiinck wall of bone.
I A dozen muskets barked slmultaneous-
i iy and the turtle was seen to pause in
its course and turn completely around
! several times. Again he came on, and
, when he was within a yard of tiie fur-
' tlierest advanced of tiie boats, whose
| crew was in a panic of fear, another
| charge of shot was poured at him from
! muskets which had been held in reserve.
Some of the slugs must have lilt a vital
j spot, for tiie monster was seen to spring
| entirely from the water and returning to
! his element to dive beneath tiie surface.
I lie appeared again far out in the lake,
j and tiie men in tiie boat could see that
| lie was heading In a curving, halting mo
tion toward Bayou St. Denis. The hunt-
; ers plying their oars went In pursuit
i cf the turtle, but down in the bayou
the creature sank and did not arlso
again, it is probable that lie was mor
tally wounded, for from that day no man
! laid eyes upon him, and ills huge shell
' may now be reposing somewhere In the
shallow depths of Ht. Denis.
The Grand Isle tourists thought tiie
i yarn interesting enough, tout one of
! them—very likely in a jest—suggested to
a companion that old Adrien came pret-
The Cause of Many
Sudden Deaths.
There is a disease prevailing in this
country most dangerous because so decep-
''" tive. Many sudden
deaths are caused
by . —heart dis
ease, pneumonia,
heart failure or
apoplexy are often
the result of kid
ney disease. If
kidney trouble is
allowed to advance
the kidney-poison
ed blood will at
tack the vital organs, causing catarrh of
the bladder, or the kidneys themselves
break down and waste away cell by cell.
Bladder troubles almost always result
from a derangement of the kidneys and
a cure is obtained quickest by a proper
treatment of the kidneys. If you are feel
ing badly you can make no mistake by
taking Iir. Kilmer’s Swamp-Root, the
great kidney, liver and bladder remedy.
It corrects inability to hold urine and
scalding pain in passing it, and over
comes that unpleasant necessity of being
compelled to go often through the das-,
and to get up many times during the
night. The mild and the extraordinary
effect of Swamp-Root is soon realized.
It stands the highest for its wonderful
cures of the most distressing cases.
Swamp-Root is pleasant to take and is
sold by all druggists in fifty-cent and
By JOHN OXENHAM.
much expert lubor. The army of metal j
workers, bricklayers, carpenters and !
other artisans required in wood or steel
construction, is almost completely dons
uway with on a cement building. All
that is needed is an expert to superin- ;
tend the mixing of the cement, and a
carpenter and staff to construct the
molds or frame work into which the soft
cement Is poured.
Once a cement 'house Is finished the '
work is done, and done to stay, accord- I
ing to all natural laws. In a century
the building ought to be in as good
shape as ever. There is nothing to rot
l or fail into need of repairs. The build- ;
ing does not have to bo painted yearly
as in tiie ease of wood, or gone *'ver
for rust ns in tiie ease of steel.
Tiie foundations and pillars never need
replacing because they have rotted.
Wooden porch posts are always rotting. .
\\ liilc the building of low-priced con
crete houses is still in its infancy, the j
farmer lias been so impressed with tiie >
idea that he is extending it to his barns |
and out buildings, and finding that it I
works admirably.
FREQUENT USE.
If more than one concrete building is
put up toy the farmer, he can use his
same wooden forms over and over again,
and If there Is a stone crusher in tiie
neighborly otl lie can utilize in making
1.1s concrete the oldstone walls cf tiie
neighborhood, or tiie thousands of stones
Hint are constantly being impelled to the
surface of tiie choicest pasture land.
Building by cement does away with
many of the city's noises. The terrilic
pounding on steel girders that marks
tin erection of a metal building is en
tirely absent when concrete is used, in
fact one apartment of a hotel has been
occupied with complete absence of any
discomfort to tho guos^ while mw
walls of concrete weie being put up
within a few feet.
The big railroads are all adopting the
cement bridge. It Is cheap.er, more en
during, more quickly erected, and it re
leases the builders from slavery to .lie
steel mills.
Tiie tremendous 'boom in cement build
ing is shown by tho difference in the
output of cement now and eight years
ago. In 1897, this country produced
about a million and a half barrels. Last
year this had grown to twenty-six and
half a million, and the total for 1905
■vc ill exceed ev-n this great amount.
PHILADELPHIA CEMENT.
Fortunately the supply is virtually un
limited. Tiie ladiigh Valley region in
the most important factor, so in the
manufacture of Portland cement »hc
chemists employed in these mills repre
sent the topnotchers In their profession.
Portland cement is simply a combination
of argillaceous limestone with the nat
ural cement rock, but to secure the nee-
fssary high tensile strength, ground to
the utmost fineness, with uniformity of
color (thus assuring that all construction
work will improve in strength by age
and stand forever, if so required), de
mands analytical skill of tiie highest or
der.
There is much of the romantic in the
I discovery and development of the ce-
| men' region in this county as well as in
Northampton. Partners who for years
i had succeeded in nv king only a bare
living from the stubborn soil suddenly
foiled themselves rich beyond tiie wildest
! flights of their imagination.
■ Bair n, rocky soil in which the will
‘ carrot, the goldenrod art! tiie t ma la
( thistle were always tiie most bounteous
harvests, and where the tiller of tiie soil
often damned tiie rod; which was yet
to prove Iris fort a , sold for hundreds
of dollars per acre.
One farmer sold his land for $100,000.
and placing no trust in men or banks,
made them give him the money in cash.
D. O. Saylor was the i ionirr of the
cement Industry in Pennsylvania, and
the mill iti which lie made the first Port
land cement is still standing.
SOUTH’j CEMENT WORKS
Tiie south will likewise share gener
ously in this tremendous new source of
revenue, since cement, deposits are fre
quent throughout the south* rn states.
Several are 'already being worked hi
Georgia to great profit. They include
the Portland and the ordinary brand o'
cement. As yet tho industry is barely
in its incipi* ncy and as the demand In
creases oth r far-reaching deposits will
be opened lip.
Texas. South an,] North Carolina, and
Alabama also boast extensive oometu
deposits. In several instances capital
has already bfen invested in their de
velopment. while in as many others the
bids are waiting only the formation of
companies to return excellent dividends
on Investment.
The average price for good cement rock
Is about $300 per a;rc. but the soil that
lias limestone in it is virtually worth
almost any money. It even pans out
WAS as clear and close
knit a piece of circumstan
tial evidence as could pos
sibly be—not a link in the
chain was wanting, and it
drew tho noose so tight
round the necks of three
men that they on I j- escaped
by a hair’s breadth.
I knew Tom Martin
when h e was a lump of a
boy about tiie Cottesloe
warrens. T o m knew
every foot of the sandhills
and woods, and when old
made him under keeper at
Tiie people of the village were fisher- j Cleserest, the folks laughed and said it
men and hunters, who sold tlieir prizes ; was a rase of setting a h'm to catch a
in the big city across the groat river, 9nd h’m. But Martin made an excellent
i ty near being in the Munchausen class, j onc-dollar size bottles. Non mav have a
i ~ I sample bottle of this wonderful new dis-
I coverv and a book that tells all about it,
both sent free bv mail. Address, Dr. Kil
mer & Co., Binghamton, N. Y. When
writing mention reading this generous
offer in this paper. Don't make any
mistake, but remember the ltame.Swamp-
When she accepted Pete Tresknr. Dave Root, Dr. Kilmer's Swamp-Root, and the
swallowed ids disappointment as best lie address, Binghamton, N. Y., on every
could and went to sea. His mother was bottle,
dead, and witli Kitty married there was
nothing to bring him back to Cottesloe.
But he never fopgot his old love, and
aTter each vovage lie rerurned there like ,
a homing pigeon, and each return added j Condemnation on circumstantial evidence,
to Mrs. Kitty's store of
started afres;. tho pleas against The
uriou.s remem
brances from foreign lands. Site accept-
1 ed his friendly offerings, and the ktiowl-1 new
edge of the stronger feeling that lay be-
! hind thorn, with equanimity, not to say
j enjoyment. She ’ retained all iter good
; looks, and delighted in them and in tiie
| power they gave her over menfolk gen
erally.
Tom Martin bad cast his eyes at Kitty
Travil like all the rest. He had borne
Petitions filled the air. The petitioners
were suddenly l3*ocked breathless toy
that the two elder brothers, James
and John Treska, had confessed to the
murder, stalling that Peter had done ids
best to dissuade them, and had even in
terfered on Martin’s behalf. In the result
the homo office—in evident doubt of the
genuineness of this late confession—al
tered the sentence on all three men to
one of penal servitude for lifc-
So the Treskar brothers disappeared.
A Cement Railroad Bridge.
excursions were often made in light pe-, gamekeeper, and as a not unfitting end
rogues and flat-bottomed screws through j to all his endeavor lie was found dead in
the long chain of lakes and bayous to tiie I Cottesloe woods early one morning, with
mighty gulf which stretched away in tin- ! his skull bashed in froiyt a blow with the
broken miles to tiie distant Spanish main.
.. to beat gold, for a good acre of lima-
Pennsylvania alono can turn out twenty I stone land will pan out for its owner
million barrels a year indefinitely. I $70 or $80 per day. An enormous
Cemoit was found in tills county as j amount of limestoek rock is brought into
One dnv Bodielwtix and two of his
sons, young men, left home in a long,
narrow birch canoe, made after tiie In
dian pattern, and paddled away on a voy
age of fishing and exploration. In time
they gained Bayou Perot and proceeded
down tiie placid stream, with reedy
banks Oil either hand, toward Little lake.
Tiie canoe nosed into the In ice late in
tiie afternoon, and tiie voyagers plying
their paddles with easy stroke proceeded ,
to cross the sheet of water. They had 1
gone only a few yards when the surface
of the lake in front of them was vio- j
butt of his own gun, which lay by his I
side. The three Treskars were arrested'
in bed a couple Of hours litter. James, j
th e eldest, bore a nasty bruise on the !
forehead.
Tiie in rest of the Treskars really nei'i- :
ed no extraordinary acumen on tiie j
part of the local constabulary, for they >
were notoriously on better terms with
the Cleserest rabbits and pheasants, and J
| so, naturally, on worse terms with their
keeper, than any outsiders had any
' 1
* kis disappointment worse than most. He| But they were not forgotten. More than
that. Mrs. Kitty and iter children were
not forgotten. She was put into tiie way
of earning a living for herself and them,
and applied herself thereto with courage
and an outspoken belief in her husbands
innocence.
Twelve months later David Travil re
turned once more front foreign parts and
learned all that had happened in his ab
sence. He was visibly much upset. He
called on Kitty Treskar that night, heard
ail she had to say, left her some pres
ents he had brought home, and all his
money, and next day he walked into the
police station at Cottesloe and surren
dered himself for the manslaughter of
Tom Martin.
His account of the matter was plain
and straightforward. The night he left
Cottesloe he wanted to say goodby to
Kitty Treskar. He acknowledged blunt
ly that he was in love with her still, as
lie always had been. On the way to the
cottage he met Martin, who taunted him
with the fact. They got to glows. He
lost control of himself, and smashed the
other's head with his own gun. Then,
with no thought of the trouble falling on
any one else's shoulders, he made his
way to Liverpool, joined his 3hip and
sailed at daylight.
So here was a victory for the oppo
nents of circumstatnial evidence. The
country rang with so atrocious a miscar
riage of justice.
Slowly the legal machinery ground the
martyrs out of tiie mill—three patient,
dazed men, broken somewhat in body
and spirit, but still alive. The public,
however, rose to the occasion. A fund
was subscribed for the purchase of land
in the far west of Canada where they
might start life afresh, and they de-
never forgot that Pete Treskar carried parted, leaving David Travil In the pris-
off the prize, and ho bore him a grudge! on whence they hail come,
in consequence. They were permitted an interview with
Until now, however, their antipathies him tiie day they sailed, and I was pres
had not passed tiie bounds of hard wordsj en £ a t Very few words passed be-
a.nd mutual threats. So, when Martin' tween them. The men came away with
was found with his head beaten in in Cot - j oyes that wore vague and troubled. Kit-
tesloe woods, it was inevitable that sus-jty wept as though her heart was broken,
pinion should promptly fall on his avowed cleserest begged mo to see them safely
enemies, the 1 reskar»- j on board the Allan boat at Liverpool,
And everything seemed to point to the: an jj *hat is how I came to he present at
justice of that suspicion. It came out their interview with Travil at Kirkdal®
•clod a visit o,i,
that the three .men bad expected a visit j j n j]
that night from David Travil. who had | ‘ Everythlng shaped W e11 for them. They
been tit home and was lea ving to join his j had
more mone'v in their pockets than
sl ‘ip at Liverpool. Iravil, however, .. „ QT ,„
early as 1850, anil was first used by
the Lehigh Valley Coal and Navigation
Company.
Tiie great Pennsylvania cement belt
extends from Fogelsville, Lower Ma-
ctingie, to the Lehigh Valley river at
Caplay. It runs in a notlhenstly di
rection, and Is the same licit that later
crops out in New Jersey. One com
pany alone employs an army of soma
21,000 men in connection with the rattn-
tha cmient belt from Sunville, I.ebanon
county, Pennsylvania.
Once the rock is taken out of the
earth everything in the manufacture of
cement is done automatically. Machinery
carries it to the roasters; from the roast
ers it is carried to the crushers; from
the crushers it goes to the stockhouse,
and from there to the sacks or barrels
without having been touched by the
workmen.
right to he.
There were three brothers of them—
James, John and Peter, Pete, the young
est, was married to Kitty Travil, a noted
lently aerated, and the waters boiled and j boaufy of thv countryside; and tliey all
threw off a small spout of sand and jjtogether in a cottage on tho out-
mud. The elder Bodichoux, who was m itii*t*s of Cottesloe.
the bow, cried to ills sons to execute aj an a Kitty had two children—a
and
Kxcavatiug Gigantic Cement add Limestone Quarry.
quick turn, and as the frail bark spun
'round, front tiie lake was protruded a
broad, bony head, set o:t either side with
large goggle eyes, and tapering away
into a long curved hook, which resembled
a parrot’s beak. This was not all, lot* as
the head stretched out on a long no. k
toward tiie men In t*e canoe the waters
again parted and a great shell, falling
away at tiie sides, ami almost forming r,
furrowed ridge at its apex, appeared. Tho
shell was of terrific dimensions, larger in
circumference titan tiie end of the gteat-
cst hogshead Bodichoux hud evet
on the wharves down In the citj
tiie monster’s head was of a size m .
keeping with its urmore.l back.
The turtle, for such Bodichoux term* j
ed tho creature, although its descript.on
tallies closely with that of the atvit.l
glyptodon of the -Mesozoic age, had
'bounded front tho lake when it saw the'
I boat, displaying four great clawed feet |
! and a long bony tail, and swam toward j
i the cxtlorers with a dreadful rapidity, i
I'rged on by tiie strokes of the paddles j
in the hands of tiie lusty crew, the canoe',
attained a sreod that it had never at- j
tained before, but just when the rounded j
bottom was grating iti tiie sand and mud !
of the sloping beach, the turtle reached j
its sterm, and with a sudden dasli of its •
head, overturned the boat, and threw |
the Bodichouxs into tiie shallow water. j
The father and tiie younger son regained |
their feet and struggled up tiie beach,
but an agonizing cry smote their ears |
and wheeling around tliey saw Michel—
that was the name of the elder son—
describing awful twists and turns in the
Jaws of tiie horrible demon of the lake.
The turtle, its jaws dripping blcod,
raised its head aloft, and the terrified
watchers on the beach saw the point of
the beak sink deep into the side of tiie
unhappy victim, and as the sound of
crushing bones sickened their ears, poor
Michel gave another scream and yielded
up his life. The turtle, still holding its
prey returned to the lake and swam rap
idly across the expanse of water, and
was seen as a small speck in the dis
tance to climb jthe opposite beach to
enjoy unmolested its disgusting meal.
Bodichoux and his remaining son, torn
by an awful grief, righted their capsized
canoe, which still lay close to shore,
secured two of the paddles and started
boy mid a girl, aged 4 and 3. who bore j
■.their own names. Kitty Travil had had!
many suitors, and had encouraged them I
all with joyous impartiality. When site ;
wedded Pete Treskar, general opinion '
said site might have done very much liet- j
ter for herself. But site hail a will of her
own. and (here was an end on't.
Tito disappointed ones found wives j
elsewhere or still sighed for Kitty, as j
the case might toe. Dave Travil, iter :
cousin, whose mother had brought Kitty j
tip. had always considered he had a kind i
of family lien on tite girl—which was!
quite enough to settle his chances, j
though sin* liked him as well as any. j
tliey had ever dreamed of possessing, and
a letter from myself to Hector Mackay
at Calgary, which I knew would Insure
for them the strenuous good offices of
,, . . ... ■ one of tiie very best men in the whole
through the t leserest woods on tueir vvayi , . . '
n-i „„..m m , northwest of Canada.
Yet it was a downcast little party
never turned up, aud they had gone over
to Clearc-ote to look for him.
They had not found him, and tliey had!
to acknowledge that tliey hail come
home. They could not, in fact, well deny
it. The cunning pursuers of tiie law pre
sented in evidence certain deftly cut slabs
of clayey soil. conLuning imprints of hob
nailed boots which tallied exactly with
tiie peculiarities ot tho Treskar chaus-
sure.
Tlds was all quite possible, but as the
sole defense against a capital charge it
sounded somewhat thin and simple. The
verdict was inevitable; and the three men,
vehemently protesting their Innocence,
Were committed to the assizes on the
whose hands y wrung, and whose hearts
I tried my best to cheer, as the calls
rang out for slioregoers to board the
tender.
I had business interests at that time
in Vancouver, and I promised to drop
off at Calgary the next time I went
and look them up.
“Eight months later I found myself in
Calgary. I had heard twice from Hec
tor Mackay anent the Treskars, and wa
had had one carefully compiled epistle
charge of wilful murder. j from Mrs. Kitty on behalf of them all.
The jury at the assizes confirmed the' of thanks ' ,- or al , that had be r a
verdict of the coroner's court. They
were condemned to death, and tiie verdict| Continued on Last Page.
A Portland Cement Mill.