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About Schley County news. (Ellaville, Ga.) 1889-1939 | View Entire Issue (March 10, 1898)
o ■ H S M 3 AjLW V A ■ Tl>«* Mount* Behind the Screen. My little house behind the screen, 1 keep my playthings there; My shovel and my pail for sand, My blocks and books and marbles and My little rocking chair. My playmate on the hassock sits, He As quiet talks as a the mouse; whole day through, never Or stirs, unless I tell him to. Within my little house. Alone with me he knows he’s safe From giants passing by, glad, And when we play it makes him How many happy times we’ve bad, The rubber boy and I! He always heeds just what I say And knows just what I mean, We don’t believe that any man Could build a finer palace than Our house behind the screen. —New York Herald. A Vote for Stamp (’oilertor*. Stamp collectors Avill have to make room in their albums for a ucav 3et of Net her land stamps, Holland has al ways been very slow to issue stamps, and the total number is smaller than that of any other country iu the world. But this yeai the girl queen Wilhelmina is to be crowned, and stamps bearing her portrait Avill be issued in honor of the great event. Ase of Bird*. The eagle, raven, swan and parrot are each centenarians. An eagle kept in Vienna died after a confinement of one hundred and fourteen years, and on an ancient oak in .Slielborne, still known as the “raven tree,” the same pair of ravens are believed to have fixed their residence for a series of more than ninety years. Swans upon tbe river Thames, about whose age there can be no mistake—since they are annually nicked by tbe Vintner’s company, under whose keeping they have been for five centuries—have been knoAvn to survive one bundled and fifty years and more. The melody of the dying swan is mythological. Upon the approach of death the bird quits tbe water, sits dwwn upon the banks, lays its head upon the ground, expands its Avings a trifle and expires, ottering no sound. Tobogganing. This sport, under different names, is popular both in Canada and Russia. Before nihilism had terrified a great part of the life and gayety out of the Russian court, it Avas a popular pas time even among members of the imperial family. As tool as the Neva Avas frozen over sufficiently to bear the weight, two immense piers of solid ice were built at distances of about a quarter of a mile apart. On one side there was a flight of steps to the top, and on the other a precipitous descent at about an angle of forty-five degrees. Tbe sport consisted in descending this incline in a small sleigh, or toboggan. The pilot and bis one or more pas sengers having descended tbe first in cline, ascended the steps of the other pier on foot, and made the return journey. The trip Avas repeated back and forth until the parties were weary of the sport. A toboggan may accommodate three or four persons, but the smaller sleighs made t!o hold only tAvo are more common in Russia. A very slight movement suffices to guide the toboggan or to throw it out of its course. The steering is done by the occupant of the back seat. An inex perienced pilot, finding his toboggan careening toward the right, is apt to put too much force into his efforts to change its course, and so upset both himself and his passengers. The to boggan responds to the slightest touch. A stick of Avood is sometimes used in the guiding, but it can be readily done by the baud. To enjoy a toboggan ride it is nec essary to be Avell skilled in the art of guiding the sleigh, or to have great confidence in the person avIio is to do the steering. By the time the to boggan has reached the level, it has required velocity sufficient to carry it a very long distance. Iu Canada, -where some people Avho are not fond of the cold weather assert that the winters are “thirteen months long,” tobogganing is a most popular sport. While the nights are enlivened with balls, hops and concerts, the days are devoted to snow-shoeing excur sions and tobogganing parties, in which all, both sexes and ages, join, and which brightens the hill slopes and river banks throughout the do minion. The Canadian toboggan proper is a light curved slip of birch bark.daintly pointed or embroidered in quaint Indian style, which glides doAvn the icy slope with delirious swiftness, and, skillfully guided, carries its occupant far along the level ground at the buse. In some places in Canada there are courses of wood erected,and during the long winters the sport can be frequently enjoyed. There is just danger enough in to bogganing to make it exciting. An incautious guide may upset his pas sengers or run into another toboggan. The pace being from thirty to sixty miles an hour, a collision limy result in some serious bruises. In most places the course chosen is some natural declivity where the undula tions may be smoothed down so that the incline is even. Water is some times poured down the slope and al lowed to freeze, so as to increase the slipperiness of the surface.—Detroit Free Press. A Precious Bui;. I remember once finding on tbe top shelf of a cupboard a package of queer little things,over which I was puzzled. They were about the size of half a kernel of lice, perhaps larger, ribbed and hard, and silvery-Iooking, but on being handled, shedding a dingy powder which left exposed a lustrous purplish surface striped with white lines. Were they seeds? and if so, seeds of what? or were they bugs? I was told that they were insects, costly ones, the cochineal from which the most beautiful red color in the world was obtained, and that the rich carmine in the box of water color paints was made from them. It is wonderful that such a tiny creature, a small parasite, should be come an important article of com merce; that the business of raising cochineal should be the chief occupa tion in certain places in warm lati tudes. The home of the cochineal is in Cen tral America. When the Spaniards arrived in that country they found the Indians using a superb color, and soon learned about it, and kept the knowledge a secret from the rest of the world. The principal place for raising coch ineal is Oajaca in Mexico, the capital of the state of the same name, in the southern part of the Isthmus of Tehu antepec. The people are mostly In dians, and they understand how to care for the insects, which require al most as much attention as silkworms. The plant on which they feed is a species of cactus, resembling some that we cultivate. This cactus grows about five feet bigb, and the leaves are 1bick, full of red juice and covered with prickles. The creatures do not in reality feed, but pierce the cover ing of the leaves and extract the juice, which by some process of nature converts the tiny live thing into a solid body of dye. They literally sap the plants, so that the cactus groves have to be renewed frequently. In tbe suburbs of Oajaca there are acres of gardens and plantations de voted to cochineal culture. Two crops of the bugs are gathered in a year, one in December, the other in May. The female cochineal are placed in little nests or baskets of moss and fastened to the best places on the cactus, so that the thousands of eggs may be laid when the food is suitable for the newly-hatched insects. When the time for collecting bugs for market comes, the Indians brush them off Avith a squirrel’s tail, or pick them oft' Avith a blunt knife. A man can pick only about two ounces a day. It takes seventeen thousand cochineals to Aveigli a pound. The next thing is to kill them, and there are several methods. One is to brush them into a basket and dip it into hot water, and others are to put them in a hot oven, or on hot iron plates, or in the scorching sun. The different Avays make a difference in the outside appearance of the bugs, and also in the beautv of the dye it self. After they are dried they will keep a hundred years Avithout losing their coloring property. No one Avho has examined the cochineal insects and crushed them to a dry red powder can doubt this. And no one need wonder that the Europeans Avho first saw them in this state thought they were seeds or some kind of grain. It is nearly four hundred years since the in\-ading Spaniards first knew the source of those incomparable red dyes among the obscure Indians of Central America. Noav, from the city of Oajaca about five thousand pounds of cochineal are sent aAvay each year. That is only one place out of many, though the most famous. One can judge of the importance of this little creature, in learning that in a single year over two million pounds went to Great Britain alone. Cochineal was formerly cultivated only in Mexico, but now it has been introduced into Spkin and the French possessions in Africa.—Amanda B. Harris, in Boston Bouquet. The inmates of British prisons who cannot read or write receive compul sory education tAvice a week. CURE FOR HOG CHOLERA. RESULT OF EXPERIMENTS BY THE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. Hocrotary Wilson Bcliovc* That a Lem «*dy llu* Hpvii Found to rnufiil the liHvaRt'* ot the i>l»**a*H Which <o*ts Fanner* Nearly ft 100,000,000 11 Year. Nothing that has occurred since he became secretaiv of agriculture lias given Professor Wilson half us much gratification as the results of the ex periments t hat have been going on under his diiection iu Iowa and Ne braska during the last few months m the trc. ment of hog cholera bv inoc illation, for he thinks the discoveries that have thus been developed are worth $100,000,000 a year to the peo ple of the United States. Washing The experiments, says a ton correspondent of the Chicago Kecord were undertaken in Page county, Iowa, last spring, where sev eral hundred hogs that were afflicted with a disease that has until now been considered fatal, were cured by the use of serum, and several hundred more that were perfectly healthy when protected by the serum were permit ted to range freely among those that were diseased without showing any effects from the contagion. Eighty five per cent, of the sick were cured and the healthy protected. Similar experiments have been going on in Nebraska all summer, but the detailed returns have not been received. The serum is obtained in tbe same manner as the anti-toxin that is used for diph theria. A horse or a cow is inocu lated with the germs day after clay un til no effect is apparent. Its veins are then tapped, a few chops of its blood injected under the skin of healthy hogs has the same effect as a preven tive of cholera that vaccination has in smallpox. There was scarcely a fail ure in several hundred .cases, although the animals were exposed to the dis ease in every possible manner, The same treatment was equally successful in curing the disease when taken iu the early stages. Dr. Salmon, chief of the bureau of animal industry of the agricultural de partment, thiuks that the average can be increased to 90 per cent, next year, because experience will teach knowl edge and wisdom. Curiously enough, the cultivation of the serum does not injure the horse or the cow, and the animal can be used over and over again every year until it becomes aged, provided it is given plenty of those forms erf fodder that supply and strengthen the blood. A single horse or cow will produce 1000 doses of serum a year, and, if ordinary economy iA practiced, this will reduce the cost of treatment to 10 or 15 cents per hog. Hundreds of thousands of horses throughout the United States that are doav killed for their hides may be used to save the hogs, and their value Avill be increased by the demand thus cre ated for them. The method of cultivatingtbeserum can be taught at all the agricultural ex periment stations and on the large stock farms, and Avith a little experi ence fanners may be able to furnish their OAvn supply. The county agri cultural societies can take up the mat ter, and by co-operation their mem bers can reduce the cost and extend the usefulness of the treatment, but in the meantime Secretary Wilson considers it his duty to introduce the remedy and educate farmers and stock groAvers until they can take care of themselves. Secretary Wilson estimates the an nual loss from hog cholera in the United States from $90,000,000 to $100,000,000. In the state of Iowa alone, Avhere the statistics of the mor tality of the animals afflicted with this disease have been accurately kept, the annual loss is $15,000,000. He be lieves that nearly all this can be pre vented. In 1892 there Avere 52,398,019 swine in the United States, valued at $295,- 426,492. That was high-Avater mark. Since then their number and value have been materially decreased by the cholera," and the figures for 1897 were 40,600,276 hogs, valued at $166,272,- 770. These hogs are worth an aver age of $5.84 each. Iowa is the larg est hog state in the country, the cen sus for 1897 slioAving3,737,970 animals, valued at $21,182,330. Missouri comes next, then Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Missis sippi and other of the southern states. There was a decrease of 5.7 per cent, in the number and 10.9 in the value of hogs in the United States last year. Suit Water for Extinguishing Fires. It is proposed to put iu special Avater-pipes in Noav York for extin guishing fires, the salt water to be taken from the 'river front. It is claimed that such pipes would reduce insurance rates so largely as to justify their construction. They might lie so arranged as to be used by the tire-ex tinguishing boats now employed to protect buildings on the water-front from conflagration. The aggregate valne of buildings and property be tween Chambers street and Fourteenth street, New York, is put at $500,000, 000. A five per cent, reduction on the insurance rates on such property would be enough to lay many blocks of the proposed Avatc. -mains.—Youth’s Com panion. LUCK IN DISGUISE. Iil-Onnrdsd Sporch Led on to the Oper ator'* fortune. It isn’t easy to tell when fate means well by a man. Some of her appar ently hardest knocks are all for the victim’s good. He was a telegraph operator, and a good one, buthe wasn’t in lavor with the chief. In fact, the chief doesn’t possess many friends among the boys. He was disposed to be shat p “'“l <iuiek with them, and telegraph operators are a sensitive lot. There was a vacant room that hadn’t been occupied foi a long time and the chief one day took possession of it as a sort of private office. The operator whose story we are telling didn’t know this change, and that very day when he happened to be in the wash room with one of the boys be opened upon tbe chief in a particularly sav age fashion. The washroom was sep arated by the thinnest kind ofi parti tion and every word could be heard distinctly on the other side. The oper ator dipped his face over the wash basin and as he sputtered and splashed he blessed the chief in a shockingly left-handed way. The man with him tried to stop the tirade, but he couldn’t catch his eye,nor could he get near enough to him in time to shake him. Finally the other man ex hausted himself and turned around Avitli a towel in his hands, Then he saw the look of horror on his com panion’s face. He kneAV that he av«s doomed. As he Stepped from the Avashroom with a jaunty air he met the chief. “I suppose,” said the latter, “you are ready to express your personal opinions in public as well as behind your victim's back ?” The operator never Avavered a hair’s breadth. “I am,” he said, smilingly; “and I can add a little to Avhat I have already said.” And Avith that he expressed his opinion of the chief in still more vig orous language, took his hat and stalked out. It was the first time that he had been an idler since he Avas a boy. He felt a little dazed. Then he resolved on a bold stroke. He would go straight to NeAv York. That night he Avas on hisAvay. With in a Aveek he had secured an excellent situation. Today lie commands a sal ary of at least $6000. “And I owe it all,” he said not long ago to a Cleveland friend, “to the fact that I'fired myself out of the old oper ator’s room. ”—Cleveland Plain Dealer. The Iceland Pony. While there are camels in the desert, llamas in Peru, reindeer in Lapland, dogs in Greenland, and caiques among the Eskimos, Iceland Avill have its ponies, which on those “Pampas of the North” Avill still per form the services done by the mus tangs of the plains of Mexico, the horses of the Tartars, Gauchos, and even more thau is performed by any animal throughout theAvorld. Without tlie ponies, Iceland would be impos sible to live in, and when the last ex pires, the Icelanders have tAvo alter natives— either to emigrate en masse or to construct a system of highways for bicycles, an undertaking compared to Avhich all undertaken by the Romans and the Incas of Peru in the same sphere would be as nothing. No Icelander will walk a step if he can help it; Avhen he dismounts he waddles like an alligator on land, a Texan coAvboy or a Gauclio left “afoot,” or like the Medes Avliom Plu tarch represents as tottering on their toes Avhen they dismounted from their saddles and essayed to Avalk. Ponies are carts, are sledges, carriages, trains, in short are locomotion and the only means of transport; bales of salt fish, packages of goods, timber pro jecting yards above their heads and trailing on the ground behind, like Indian lodge poles, they convey across the rocky lava tracks, ’I he farmer and his Avife, his children, ser vants, the priest, the doctor, “Sysel man,” all ride, cross rivers on the ponies’ backs, plunge through the snow, slide on the icy “Jokull” paths, and when the lonely dweller of some upland dale expires, his pony bears his body in its coffin tied to its back to the next consecrated ground.— Saturday Review. Time Taa-o Minute*. “Miss Daisy, you are writing to that little brother of yours Avho is vis iting out West, aren’t you?” “Yes. He’s a dear little felloAv. I miss him so much.” < < He is, indeed. HaA-e you sealed the letter yet, Miss Daisy?” “Not yet.” “Add a postscript, if you please,and tell him I want to know how he would like me for a big brother.” (Demurely)—“Mr. Spoouamore, it Avill be at least two Aveeks before you get an ansAver— if you ask him.” [And the matter avrs settled in about tAvo minutes.]—Chicago Trib une. A Good Start. “I should not be surprised if thi# Klondike craze wouldn’t be the means of building up Jinkle’s fortune.” “Is he going to dig gold?” “He saved up enough money to make the trip and then changed liis mind and opened a grocery store.”—Wash ington Star. SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. A full-grown man exhales 17 ounces of . carbonic , . acid hours. gas every twenty-four From HO pounds of gas tar in a ton of coal over '2000 distinct shades of aniline dyes are made. A new discovered spot on the sun, which is visible just now, is said to be 30,000 miles in diameter. Astronomers tell us that in our solar system there are at least seventeen million comets of all sizes. The difference between the tallest and shortest races in the world is one foot! 1-2 inches and the average height is five feet 5 .1-2 inches. The lake of Urania, in Persia, con tains more salt than the Dead sea, which holds twenty-six percent., or eight times as much as the ocean. Singers, actors and public speakers, since the introduction of the electric light, have less trouble with their voices, and are less likely to catch cold, their throats are uot so parched, and they feel better. This is due to the air uot being vitiated and the temper ature more even. Many persons are desperately afraid of night air, and so shut themselves into close rooms and breath an atmos phere poisoned by human exhalations. It is well to avoid draughts, but night air, as Florence Nightingale put it, is the only air we have at night, and it is much wliolesoiner pure than impure. In Berlin the firemen wear water jackets, with a double skin, which they are able tp fill with water from the hose. If the space between the two layers becomes overfilled, the water escapes through a valve at the top of the helmet, and llows down over the fireman, like a cascade, protecting him doubly. M. Forel, in bis excellent work on ants, has pointed out that very young ants devote themselves at first to the care of the larvae and pupae, and that they take no share in the defence of the nest or other out-of-door work until they are some days old. This seems natural, because their first skin is comparatively soft; and it wouid not be well for them to undertake rough work or run into danger until their armor had had time to harden. Hoaa* It Feels to Fall From a Height. F. R. Richmond, the architect, is now able to be in his office, but his thigh, which Avas broken close to the hip by a fall September 1, is still Aveak, and he has a painful stiffness of the knee, which, hoAvever, Avill prob ably not be permanent. The effects of his many severe cuts and bruises have disappeared, Mr. Richmond fell thirty-five feet, Avith nothing to hinder his flight, and landed ou a lumber pile. He Avas on the roof of tbe Hooker schoolhouse and wished to get down on a staging just under the eaves to look at a cornice. To SAving himself down he caught hold of a rope reeved through a pulley block As his Aveight came upon it the rope, Avhich Avas secured on the other side of the block by a knot, pulled through and Mr. Richmond went hurtling doAvn. In less than a second and a half he reached the lumber pile, but during that time be avrs able to think over the facts in the case and do a little philos ophizing. “I felt myself falling,” he said, “and reckoned from the distance I had to go that I should probably he killed. My mind av or lied clearly and I did not lose consciousness, as I have heard men sometimes do in a fall of that kind. I thought to myself, and ‘Every man must die sometime, this is probably the time for me.’ I did not lose consciousness Avhen I struck, but the thought came immedi ately: ‘I’m pretty badly hurt, but this fall isn’t going to kill me.’ ’’—Spring field (Mass.) Republican. Made His First Fistol Out of a Spike. Marshall Tidd, the famous gun builder of Woburn, Mass., made Ids first firearm out of a spike 63 years ago. When Marshall Avas 10 years old his father died, and lie was ap prenticed to a shoemaker. On the day when the Boston – Loivell railroad ran its first train through Woburn the boy was one of the spectators. He picked up a spike, and the idea oc curred to him that it could be fash ioned into a pistol barrel, A black smith cut off' the ends of the spike, and Marshall then bored it on Ins brother’s lathe. He found a piece ot lioopiron and fastening one end iu a vise, made a spiral of the metal. he got the shape that seemed best a made a tool to cut the inside of t barrel. This pistol barrel was mountei ou a stock that extends tbe entn* length of the barrel, The hammer is very old-fashioned in design, sold the a » percussiou cap __ r __, nipple. i He Aveapon to another boy for $3, lost sight of for nearly a ( l" ltr e was friend of a century. One day a it to track of it and presented working order. maker. It is still in At Russian railway stations “g r ' e ' books” are kept iu which Tf sen ' ance 00 gers may enter complaints. The “ sent to the central office cm ce are then m month, and all complaints are vestigated.
