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SPONGE FISHING.
qI,TE an INDUSTRY ON THE
FLORIDA COAST.
fhs Manner ■ of Pishing and the Appa¬
ratus Required.
Fishing for sponges has developed
quite an industry on the coast of
into beds, corres-
Florida. The sponge a
MV., extend from Cape Fieri.
1, to near the mouth of the Apalachi-
cola river, a distance of 900 miles, and
one-half a mile to twenty miles
pom the coast, at depths ranging from
one to eight fathoms, this being the
greatest depth at which it is practica¬
ble to fish. ble area actually fished
over exceeds 20,000 squara miles of
water but there is reason to believe
that the sponge can be found over a
much wider area.
The manner of fishing and the appa-
rates req uired are very simple. Each
fishing schooner takes from two to six
dingeys or small boats; two men go in
each boat; one sculls and the other
stands at the bow with a sponge hook,
which is a three-pronged, sickle-shaped
instrument but more curved, and
measuring from the point to the base
nine inches; the prongs are about one-
Imlf an inch in diameter from the base
to the curve, and gradually tapering
to a blunt point; the haft is round and
about six inches long, and driven into
a narrow pole one and one-half inches
in diameter, and measuring from six
to fifty feet in length.
The hooks aud handles are manu-
factuted here, These contrivances,
with an ordinary wooden pail having
a glass bottom, and designated as a
water glass, are the paraphernalia re¬
quired to catch the sponge. The pail
is used only when the weather is
cloudy or the water is musky or rip¬
pling on the surface. It is half sub¬
merged in the water, and by looking
into it the sponge can be readily seen
at a depth of sixty feet. The boat is
scuttled slowly and stopped only when
the sponges arc seen. There has been
no improvement on the methods first
adopted, as here described, for catch¬
ing the sponge. About seven years
ago four Mediterranean divers were
brought over for the purpose of intro¬
ducing the diving system.
This, however, was abandoned for
the following reasons: First,tho heavy
iron shoes of the divers trampled the
young sponges so much that they
would not grow; second, the whole
sponge was taken up, so that none
would again grow there; while, if
taken up with the hook, there was a -
ways enough lefi to grow again;
third, it was impracticable, on account
of the rocky bottom. Last year div¬
ing for sponges Avas made illegal by an
act of the Florida Legislature, Some
of the sponges taken in the neighbor¬
hood of Hock Island measure six feet
in circumference and 15 inches high.
Such sponges are, however, rarely
found, and sell for prices ranging
from $100 to $150 for exhibition pur¬
poses, as they arc practically useless
for anything else. After the sponge
is taken out of the water it is east on
the deck of the vessel or upon the
beach, and exposed to the sun for
twenty-four or forty-eight hours until
it dies. It is then cast into the water
for a few days, washed out and beaten
with clubs until all the animal matter
is completely removed, strung up in
assorted bunches, and allowed to dry.
After the sponges are brought to mar¬
ket they are trimmed with shears, and
bleached by being immersed in a solu¬
tion of lime and water, and exposed to
die sun for several days.
When perfectly dry they are ready
for the merchant. There are many
varieties of sponge, viz: the sheep’s
wool, the yellow, the grass sponge,
the velvet and the glove sponge, all
differing in quality and price, the
sheep's avoo! being the highest priced
and selling in the market at Key West
a t $2 and $2.25 per pound. The others
sell at from 75 cents to $1.50 per
pound. Of those employed in fishing,
more than half are colored. Scarcely
any Cubans folloiv the business; they
prefer to stick to cigar making, as
they cannot stand the cold aud fatigue
incidental to sponging.
i ic canal through the Isthmus of
< or,nth, Avhich is now' only' nearing
completion, was begun during the
teign of the Emperor Nero, over 17C0
years ago.
How to lake tare u’ a naten.
The following may be taken as
fundamental maxims in the care of a
watch, says the Youth’s Companion:
Do not let a watch run down, but
wind it regularly at a fixed time each
day ; set your Avatch by and compare
it with a reliable regulation; hold the
watch still when winding it; ne\ r er
shake a watch violently; never meddle
with the works; never carry your
watch near an electrical machine; do
not let your watch run more than two
years Avithout cleaning; never put
your Avatch in the hands of a poor
workman; if your watch stops, see
whether it has run down, and if it
has, Avind anil set it; if it has not run
down, see Avhether the hands have
caught; if they haA'e, by lining care,
you may free them; if neither of
these, take the Avatch to a watch¬
maker.
If the watch is dropped into the
Avater. if into fresh water, open the
cases of the works and put the Avatch,
opened, into a cup of kerosene or
machine oil. No time should be lost
in doing this. Then, as soon as pos¬
sible, take it to a Avatchmaker.
One of Jeffcr mn’s Stories.
Joseph Jefferson, the actor, tells an
amusing story concerning an old actor,
avIio was playing Covin in “As You
Like It.” Jefferson’s manner of tell¬
ing it enhances the fun very much.
In the fourth scene of the second act
Corin should say to Rosalind:
“But I am shepherd to another man
And so do not, sheer the fleeces that I
graze.”
Instead of Avhich, the old man, who
was nervous and flurried said:
“I do not greer the slilecccs that I
faze.”
Then he tried back.
“I do not frear the greeces that ]
shlaze.”
Once more:
“I do not flear the slilceccs—”
Then Avitli the most pitiful and woe-
be-gone expression, both of voice and
feature:
“I—I—do not shave!”
Curiosity in Paper.
George West of Ballston is in pos¬
session of a curiosity in paper, sent
him by a friend in Hong Kong,China,
says the Philadelphia Record. It is a
sheet 11x14 inches, made from the
web of the “sacred white spider” of
the Flowery Kingdom, It is as light
as air and almost as transparent, but
is also beautifully printed, containing
about two columns of matter, giving
in English the story of how “Mid¬
shipman Copplestone Avas presented at
the Court of Pekin.” Americans
know much about paper making, but
it is safe to say that there is not a
spider Aveb paper factory outside the
almond-eyed kingdom.
Cats as Game Takers.
E. L. Warner of Southbury, Conn.,
has a cat that has caught eight squir¬
rels in one season, and brought each
one to liis master before he offered to
eat it. George Tomlinson of Great
Hill, a few miles from Ansouia, has
one which has not only caught squir¬
rels, but the other day visited a brook
on Mr. Tomlinson’s farm and came
home with a four-pound trout in his
mouth. Miss Nellie Simpson of
Southington takes pride in her cat,
which provides for its own meals by
catching bullheads from a neighbor¬
ing pond. In its eagerness it often
gets into quite deep Avater, but it se¬
cures its prey and SAvims ashore.—
[Ncav York Sun.
Timely Advice.
The New York Star gives this time¬
ly advffce: It is always best to avoid
danger, if possible; therefore, there
is one rule which ought to be taught
in everv school in the I nited States,
and that is: never lift an electric wire
off the ground. The moment it leaves
the ground it may be dangerous. If
it is in the way of traffic, you may
safely pull it across the street with
your fdbt; then put your foot on it
and hold it on the ground, and it can¬
not hurt you, but do not lift it. Never
touch Avire tied on a pole. It may not
be dangerous, but it is like the “un¬
loaded - ’ gun—it may kill you.
A Spreading Habit.
“I see that the chewiug-gum habit is
spreading.”
“I should judge so. I found a big
bunk attached to my coat when I rose
from my seat in the car yesterday.”—
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.
The longest time thus far reported
for an incandescent lamp to burn is
10,008 hours.
A gold dollar can be beaten into a
sheet thirty-three feet long and sixteen
and one-half feet wide.
A medical journal estimates that
during its seven weeks prevalence in
the United States the grip killed 12 >*
000 people.
The antiseptic effect of coffee does
not depend on the catt’iene it contains,
but on the empyrcumatic oils devel¬
oped by roasting.
Galvanized iron is ordinary iron
which has been dropped in molten
zinc, and retains a surface coating of
the zinc when removed.
No better or cheaper insect destroyer
can be found for gardens than the
toad. English gardeners often pay a
shilling each for them.
Recent discoveries made by the use
of the spectroscope show that all the
heavenly bodies appear to be composed
of the same chemical elements.
Lake Chelan, in Washington, never
freezes, although it is in latitude 40
degrees north. The reason given is
that , . *o deep that the warm water
is constantly rising from the bottom to
supplant the cold.
The acid of lemons is credited by
the “Dietetic Reformer” with large
influence in prolonging the life of
Count Waldeck to 120 years, he “hav¬
ing resorted to this antidote to the
sluggishness of the liver.”
Those interested in astronomy will
have an opportunity to observe a total
eclipse of the sun under favorable con¬
ditions in 1900. It will occur in the
early morning of May 27 and will be
visible from Virginia to Louisiana.
A curious fact about double stars is
the contrast in color which often oc¬
curs in them when their brilliancy is
notably different, In this case the
color of the fainter star is always
nearer to the blue end of the spectrum.
An Austrian sculptor, Friederich
Beer, has discovered a process for dis¬
solving marble, and then molding it
like metals. The name of the marble
thus treated is beryt. The uew pro¬
duct costs little more than plaster, and
is especially w r eli adapted to the orna¬
mentation of houses.
When Sir John Ilerschell was de¬
fending the character of astronomical
science in view of an error of nearly
4,000,000 miles in estimating the sun’s
distance, the correction was shown to
apply to an error of observation so
small as to be eqnivilent to the appar¬
ent breadth of a human hair at a dis¬
tance of 125 feet.
The most expensive thermometer in
this country is in use at the Johns
Ilopkins University at Baltimore, Md.
It is known as Professor Bow land’s
thermometer,and is valued at $10,000.
It is an absolutely perfect instrument
and the graduations on the glass are
so fine that it is necessary to use a mi¬
croscope to read them.
At a recent meeting of the London
Zoological Society A. D. Bartlett com¬
municated some ooservations ou
wolves, jackals, dogs and foxes,
based mainly upon his experience of
those in the Zoological Gardens, Ills
remarks tended to prove that all the
varieties of the domestic dog owe their
origin to wolves and jackals, the habit
of barking having been acquired under
the influence of domestication; and
(hat the dog is the most perfectly do¬
mesticated of all animals.
Barbarity of Indian Butchers.
The Indian papers are constantly de¬
claiming against the practice among
the native butchers of skinning goats
alive, and the imperfect appreciation
of the barbarity of this practice
evinced by native magistrates. In one
case recently the offence was punished
by a fine of 20 rupees, and another by
a fine of 25; and, as has been more
than once pointed out, such sentences
are hopelessly inadequate to stop the
evil since the fines are covered over
and over again by the additional value
which.flaying alive gives to tho skins.
I expect that the native magistrate,
like the rative butcher, will never be
■rot to look at cruelty to animals as a
European looks at it. The most effec¬
tual means of eradicating this form of
barbarity would be to establisu public
abattoirs, and lestrictthe slaughtering
of animals to them.—fLondon Truth.
THE EXECUTIVE MANSION'.
DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS AT
THE WHITE HOUSE.
a
The China and Table Cutlery—The
Cooks and the Kitchens—A Com¬
plete Laundry—Table Linen.
After breakfast, which aiways occurs
exactly at 8:30, Mrs. Harrison sees the
steward, McKim, aud gives him the or¬
ders for the day, says Miss Grundy in the
New York World. This means that she
teils him whether there are to be guests
aud whether she wishes any changes
made in the decorations of the private
dining room. He arranges the entire
menu for the day, does the marketing
and oversees the servants. Unless it is
the housecleaning season that is all the
time Mrs. Harrison gives to her kitchen,
but you may be sure she lias just as much
interest in everything going well as a
young matron when giving her flrst din¬
ner, and she says that the oniy difference
between her cares now and when she was
a private citizen is that she does not need
to worry over the preparations for enter¬
taining.
She has introduced numberless changes
which give a home-like air to the private
dining-room. One of these is to have
the table for
, p read with napfans instead of wlthOTO
a ifrge Itnd aflS of «£ »** “£*
^ do^and S the there is a.wa,s a
where its china is kept. Ihore isn t a
gentlemans house m the laud tha has
not better accommodations There it is
-all the elegant ware which the former
mistress of the White House gathered
with so much pride and in the face of
so many growls from the Congressional
Appropriation Committees wmch sup-
plied the money tucked, crammed and
jammed into an unfinished closet vinca
would hardly kennel two mastiffs Mo
wonder that so much of it is broken and
nicked that each succeeding mistiess o
the White House almost sheds tears over
the rum of the thing most dear to a wo-
man s heari, rare china. In- ’reM nt
Arthurs day there was not even this
closet, all the valuable china beings orel
in the basement; but he had this closet
cut from the little hallway by he e e-
vator. 1 here are two rows of shelves
about three feet deep, and there the
three sets which belong to the service
are kept, one-tun d of them being on he
floor. Mrs. Harrison says that of
1000 pieces, made at so great an expense
m the Hayes Administration, thue ar
not more than four hundred left. Wo-
men all over the land know wit j
not to have enough ^ and
saver
forks to go round, and they have all felt
the anguish of seeing the most distm-
guished guest get the plated one by ma-
take. But who would dream that the
White House would not have enough
knives aud forks to go around, and ^
it is true. Every time fifty people set
down to a state dinner tneretwu of them
take their bouillon from plated spoons
their terrapin from plated forks and cut
the fillet of beef with plated knives.
It is a horrible thought, but tnere are
only four dozen genuine silver knives,
forks and spoons in the butler s pantry
and by the most skilful ingenuity they
cannot be made to do duty for fifty people.
There is one set of knives and forks in
the sideboard which has a history, for it
cost a President his le-electmn These
are the gold knives and forks which \ a i
Buren added and when the people learned
that the public moneys were being taken
to put gold spoons in Presidents’ mouths
Kri"ss ?’4 «is
t*old at nil, aud the people w'ere hasty in
their judgment. They are solid silver
washed with gold, aud it was only a few
vears ago_in President Arthur’s day—
that they began to wear off, and disclose
the hoax. He had them rewashed, and
they are still used on state occasions,
They are small, fine-bladed and much
more delicate than those commonly in use
in this day. Many of the larger pieces
of silver date back to Madison’s day, al-
though no memoranda have been kept,
and it is hard to tell when things were
purchased.
The busiest place in the whole Execu¬
tive Mansion is in the basement, over
which Dolly Johnson, the colored cook,
*
presides. Dolly is a tall, fine-looking
woman, light of color and probably not
much over thirty. President Harrison
secured her a short time ago from Ken¬
tucky, and, from all accounts, Dolly
knows how to suit a Presidential appetite
much better than the former cook, Mme.
Pelouard. whose fanciful French cooking
was not at all to the plain American
taste. Marj J Robinson makes the pies,
frie#fce *
bakes the bread and crullers,
and is the assistant of Mistress Dolly
•Johnson, who confines her ambitions to
brewing soups and basting meats, The
two can get up a dinner that would put
Phillipini, Nieolini and all the other
$10 000 chefs to the test. Delmonico
has no more juicy meats than Dolly draws
from her oven, and Vanderbilt’s own
chef cannot put up a better pastry than
Mary. They both wear tidy dresses of
Dutch-blue calico and big white aprons
that cover them from bead to foot, but
neither of them wear caps, as the hist
*u<nrestion of liverv is unallowable at the
White House
There are two kitchens in which Dollv
Johnson can carry out her dream of
oookerv. one under the private dining-
room and of the same size and tbe otefer
under the serving-room and butler's pan-
try. The first is used when a state din¬
ner is under way, and in the second the
preparations for each day are made. The
kitchens are as neat as a pair of pins, but
they haven’t the appointments of the
kitchens that are now added to five thou¬
sand dollar houses, and one cannot help
wishing that the people who do so adore
the quamt, historic White House would
get a peep into these dark, illy furnished
rooms. The upper floors of the quaint,
historic White House are bad enough,
but the basement would be condemned
by even a modern building inspector.
Across the hall from the kitchen is the
steward’s room, a large apartment under
the state dining-room. It is tastefully
furnished with carpet and chairs sent
from the upper rooms, and contains a
large desk, vhere Mr. Mck:m enters the
marketing m books as large as it takes to
enter the deposits at the I reasury. tie
comes in about 11 from the Centre Mar¬
ket, where everything in the way of
meats and vegetables are bought for the
White House, enters these purchases and
each month draws up a summary of the
month’s expendituies, which I have
heard are of a size to make an ordinary
man whistle “Razzle Dazzle,’’ with all
the mournful intonations of that pathetic
song. The walls of the steward’s room
are lined with closets which can 'be put
^ pretty 9um „ bsU for their
"Tl, S le!pihf rolims andTnfho
Jg-JJ
“
^ the laundrv _ tbat is W orH, seeing,
for a cIeaner roon \ cannot be imagined,
R . g , an( r,ight ? and off one corner is
^ mtk> ^ d roQi England room . There is
^ old _ faghionod New fireplace
wMch wftS built in the waU !1S far
back as tbe time wbeQ Abigail Adams
^ dowQ from Bostou aad wrote back
8Uch ome accountg 0 f the “barn-
Ro which sbe could put to
uo better use than to dry her clothes,
^ lacjJ js atiu used for heating the
^ . f tbc Monday’s J was h, which oc-
^ f larl 4n. b Min the family of
Qrder y cit It is formed of hard-
iaster and looks as though it
wouM stand another century . A
, ] aundry stove stands in the middle
^ ^ room CQVered by two terr aces of
w hieh the three white women—
Johamm M and Miss Grass keep
^ • ° th i ive . lomr D day. They are
le sant . faced w orae n, and can out-
doA _bSingin the polishing business,
There ^ are thirteen regular ^ house servants,
Qr more are cm .
. v bout the grounds and conserva-
aoou
. g m anotll8r room where one
^ *[ &q idea q[ K arrison’s house-
ke It is the linen closet on the
The Unen was formerly
1 garrison closet8 in the steward’s
^ DOticed one da y (
^ be a c , 03ct amply i arg0
^ made behind tbe elevator and she had
P walled j sbdvcs built , and
^ fa White House bas a matchless'
J"® undcr the care of
^ Mrg Harrison - s maid , a nd a
. / Uk breatb f meadow
rom a
J so cIcan and sweet,
is init led with “U. S.” in
- - of napkins
^ although ^ one set Une
^ in ut with afaint
<)f ^ The kins are aU a yard
prison ^ an(} of tbe drie3l damask. Mrs.
has added to the stock since
^ been in the white House, and
} * j one se t 0 f dinner Unen that was
^ ^ ^ ^ dinner tbat b ^
fine and soft as silk.
Rice is the staple crop of Japanese
farmers, large and small, and consists of
two varieties. The most popular is
similar to that produced in our Southern
States. The plants are started in hot
beds, and when the seedlings are live to
six inches high, along in May, they are
transplanted into fields which have been
flooded by irrigation or otherwise most
of the time since the harvesting of tho
previous crop in October and November,
After the plowing, which is done in the
primitive style characteristic of that re-
gion, the plants are put in tufts of
several plants about six iuchcs apart, aad
the natives wade about in the water and
mud in setting them oiU The fields are
hoed every two weeks. The grain is cut
with a sickle, made iuto bundles and
left to dry in the fields. When dried,
the rice is threshed by flails, separated
from the chaff, and the hulls removed by
pounding in a mortar, With the intro-
Auction of new machinery an
mooern processes, it is exp
nee culture m Japan will become a le-d-
industry, and a source of consuler-
able wealth to the nation, instead of be-
ra « . ed , a^ost , . wholly . for
home consumption .—Amenean Agricul•
t (trial.
A Cure for Squinting.
A for squinting, which . not
cure is so
unsightly as the method at present gen-
orally adopted—black goggles with a
hole in the centre—is highly recom-
mended. Let the person afflicted take
any pair of spectacles that suit his sight,
or even plain glass, and in the centre of
one lens let him gum a small blue or black
wafer (or spot of black photo, varnish or
Brunswick black) about the size of a ten-
cent piece. The result is that the double
image vanishes, and the eye, without fa-
tigue or heat, is forced to look straight,
and with time and patience is cured.—
Courier-Journal.