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About The Rockdale banner. (Conyers, Ga.) 1888-1900 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 1891)
MEXICO’S PUBLIC PORTERS ---- A CHAllACTBR SKEW EVERYWHERE Iti CITY 3TP.EEX3. tinfoil in a Guild, anti Honest—Pro Uiglou* Goad* That They Carry— The -• ion I'ay. Throughout Mexico the cargador is the uDivci,a! public porter On the cor nm of city street# ivhcro traffic is most den; •. three or four enrgudoes always arc •standing waiting for a job. To summon on.-, it is needful only to step to the window, or out upon the balcony, and clap one's hands. All within hearing're install to this apd the first of the several difficulties which attend ♦rn ploying a cargador is that of segrega ting tiic man who is wanted from his companions who are not wanted, hut who insist upon being hired. As a semi public functionary, fcaeh of these public .porters is duly licensed by the civic au thoritics, and is compelled to which wear con- the cpiculousiy a brass badge on «umber of his license is exhibited. Theoretically, lie can beheld responsible, ■cinder the police regulations, for loss or breakage of articles while in his charge. Practically, however, this legal provision is without value—inasmuch as the entire mint of his earthly belongings seldom is more than his white cotton shirt fmd trousers, his • battered straw hat, the cushion that serves fo save a little his 'buck, and (ha meeapal with which lie awing* his load. All that can bo gained, therefore, by judicial proceedings against a delinquent cargador is the mixed plea sure of compelling him to forfeit his badge and to spend some weeks or months iu jail. Fortunately, the need for such extreme •action very seldom, almost never arises. In every city and in every large town the eargmlores arc united in a cofradia, a guild, that is governed within itself by .eevero laws. Professional honesty ab¬ solutely is insisted upon; and it is much to the credit of the men—who fre quen; If are intrusted • with articles of value which would suffice to keep them In comfortable idleness for a year—that dishonesty among them is unknown. There tgro cases on record, indeed, of ••firga.loros who have given their lives in defence of tho property confided to Uicitreare. In lea- essential matters of morale, matters not •affecting the rep¬ utation of tile profession us a whole, (lie Individual cargador is free to conduct himself, so far ns the cofradia is con¬ cerned, pretty much as he pleases. If he sees fit to drink more pulquo than is good for him, and thereby becomes so obli$bu8 to the orders of his employer «s lo go hopelessly wrong with his load, qr rev at,odds with the law of gravity as to come down by the run and involve himself and his lading in a general wreck, his fellows ate mule'of far from reproaching him. A cargador 1 enforced such base idleness; stuff and, soon finds himself iu‘ us there always are more men than there is work, his loss of custom is some one vise's gain. In point of fact, however, injury to tho*lond is almost as rare ns is deliberate theft. Even when tho heads of these carriers are muzzy with over¬ much pulque, their legs continue firm under the most prodigious and the most, heterogeneous loads. The eanjador extraordinary collection of things that a can carry upon his back and dependent from his person is truly ♦mi-prising. A trunk, or a bale of goods, or any single is large article, is ho disposes of easily. It household wheu^ he engaged in moving furniture .that lie of really operations shines, in usually suck a case, is his.base chair. a This is an article that readily may be .-.\vuug oft his back, ami that lends itself to the attachment of, a miscellaneous toad: a bed and bedding, rolled up to¬ gether, placed on the seat, and sur¬ mounted by a picture or two, a rose* tree in a pot; » hat-box; and hung to the tegs and rungs a roll of matting, domestic utensils, a sword and several pairs of shoes—in addition to all of which he will carry on ins ’left arm, raised that Ins left hand may steady his load, an iron pot ; under His right arm an umbrella and a broom, and in lib right hand ft parlor lamp or a tin cage containing a live cockatoo. To see a caagador'walking along the streets in the middle of au iron bedstead memor'ffc is a sight »« remember, and still morn in his appearance beneath a perfect mountain of rush-bottomed chairs. Vet with l.id iug* of this stupendous and perilous nature he .will work his wa? through crowded streets—dodging sue eessCully foot passengers, carriages, carU and tram cars—and come tri- umphautiy to hts journey's end. Excellent though the rriee n ■adored bv I lie earga-.lor almost invariably is, the normal foreigner shiiuks from employing him because of the inevitable tij.it- that must-In- fought before the difference be¬ tween what he wants to bj paid and what lie ought to be paid c.m tie adjusted, This is a matter that cannot be reduced •to h system, and that defies all rules. In every £ ire hi* pay must depend upon the distance to be traversed and upon the size nud weight of his load—factors of uncccUiuty which open a field of argu inent that practically is limitless. The safe rule is to compel him to name his own price, always a difficult matter to accomplish, atm theu to offer him half as much a- ho demands. Ordinarily, after a slurp discussion, these terms are accepted; but a brisk little wrangle is aurc to take place when the cas* is re •opened, the job being completed, by s presenfatioa of excessive claims for difot- money. Yielding at this stage of firmly declaring that pulque to the value 0 f three tiacos, that is to say four and a half cents, is as much as any cargador ought to drink at one time .—Harder a "Weekly. SELECT SIFTINGS. Demosthenes was the son of a cutler, c Wolsej wa3 the son of a butc.c r. has been taugnt , to retrieve The raven mest creditably. Dublin is better provided with open .spaces than any other town in the United Kingdom. One dog of the Convent of St. Ber nar ,j j, s;i j<i to have saved more than f ort y human lives, A pension has just been granted to an Oregon man who is a veteran of the War of 1312. He ^ 102 years old. Chinese peasants were introduced into the vast forests of Oregon ten years ago, an-i now it is estimated that there are 1,000,000 of them in the country. The rapidity with which a hawk and many other birds occasionally fly is pro¬ bably not lc-;s than at the rate of 150 miles an hour, when either pursued or pursuing. Lemons originally came from India. They were used by the Romans to keep moths from their garments, and in the time of Pliny were considered an excel¬ lent poison. Swifts and swallows fly every year from England to Southern Africa and to the Moluccas, and the restless, wandering flight of various oceanic birds is still moro surprising. “Better lute than never” was used over three hundred years ago by Thomas Tucker in his “Five Ilundreu Points of IlusbarPry.” Later on Banyan used it in his “Pilgrim's Progress.” The Confederacy issued eleven kinds of postage stamps. They arc all, if un¬ used, worth double their face value. The ten-cent blue stamp of 1863, if unused, brings Ijifi.Od, or if used $2.51). j a Paris there are professional trunk packers who can be hired to pack a trunk artistically, folding expensive govv-usand other garments in tissue paper and stowr ing away delicate bric-a-brac in the safest way. Tho hump on tho back of the drome¬ dary is nn accumulation of a peculiar species of fat, which is a 'Store of nourish¬ ment beneficently provided against tho tiny of want, to which the animal is often exposed. The dromedary or camel can exist for a long period upon this hump without any other food. F. Heap, a keeper of the Glendale Na¬ tional Cemetery, near Richmond, Va., has a desk, made in 1610, which has been in possession of the Heap family, of Eng¬ land. It is said to have been used by Oliver Cromwell in 1647-48 when light¬ ing Charles I. It. is of antique oak, beautifully carved and highly polished. The^tupendous monuments upon the plain of Memphis and the “mountains made with hands" upon that of Cholula seem like the t wo ends of a chain of human thought and intent, of which tho connecting links arc to be found through out Tartary, the eastern peninsula, China, Japan and the isles off the north¬ ern Pacific. Use of the J in Holland. But if the scenery of Holland is thor¬ oughly delightful fflio language is quite another thing. The Dutch have, in the first place, a love for the letter “j” which amounts almost to madness. They do not always pronounce it, for they luvo relieved it of all labor as a consonant. They spell ieo “ijs,”and then pronounce it as we do. The capital of France be¬ comes “Pari js” in their hands, and in a general way it is safe to affirm that they regard any word spelled without a “j” 11 s a lost opportunity. The signs fairly bristle with their favor letter. One of the most common signs which meets the eye at every corner is “Tapper!j produced eu Slij terij," tlu- sight of which the doctor the most alarming ef foots. He was convinced that “Tapperij f» Slijerijj" must P he sometning wicked indeed, mid with curiosity inherent in ad men since the fall,he ardently longed to know exactly what it was. He was secretly utraid, however, that Dutch wickedness might sit but ill upon nu American stomach, and he never really mustered. sufficient courage either to “tapperij” or to “slijlerij,” although ho still regets that he was not bold. Ilovva telephone can be used in a country iv he re- s uch a language obtains I cannot understand, unless there ba some sort of a fiber by watch the j's arc kept from bu- wire.— Chicago Tribune. •Hv.lffhist Butcheries. It is a curious fact that the govern meats of the universal-mercy practising Buddhist nations are anything but scri^ pulous iu the use of legal manslaughter as a means of social reform. In the Buddhist provinces of Southern China the headsman is a busiest of public functionaries, and the last monarch of Buddhist Buruiah scandalized even his' pagan neighbors by the wholesale butch cries of star- hamber tribunal. The same official, however, who would not spoil his appetite hv the execution of tvveuty or'thirty political offenders, might eoa eeivo serious, scruples about killing a t-ockfoach, and throughout Buddhistic! Asia the slayer of a moukey would prob ably be mobbe 1 ou tho spot. — Nett York Voic*. THE FARM AND GARDEN. WHAT DOMESTIC ANIMALS EAT. In the report of a French agricultural experiment station it is stated that out of 575 plants the goat eat3 449 and refuses 126; the sheep, out of 518 plants, eats .‘187 and refuses 141; the cow, out of 494 plants, eats 275 and 218; the horse, out of 474 plants, eats 252 and refuses 212; while the pig, out of 243 plants, eats 72 and refuses 171 .—Trenton (N. J.) Ameri¬ can. BENEFITS FROM DRAINAGE. By removing superfluous water from the soil a way is made for the air to aid in decomposing the organic substances, which become the food of the plants, and ingredients which are hurtful to plant growth, and which cannot other, wise be removed, arc carried oil by rain. Not only does the removal of extra moisture make the land drier, but it al¬ lows the soil to have the full benefit of the sun’s heat, rendering it warm and congenial to plant growth, and ready to benefit by the least shower of rain, at the same time raising the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. stiff Drain¬ ing also makes soil of a or tena¬ cious nature more friable and better pre¬ pared to- receive the fibrous rootlets of plants, and by* the action of the atmos¬ phere hard pans or crusts are broken and pulverized, so that the roots may enter them, a result which could not otherwise be obtained without subsoiling or trenching .—New York World. FRACTURE OF BONES OF ANIMALS. Valuable horses and cattle may have broken bones of the limbs set, dressed and heal with a considerable degree of success. But in consequence of the struggles of injured animals, whenever secured by every known appliance of the skilful surgeon, deformity from displace¬ ment is the rule and not the exception. The fore legs of valuable horses may be set and dressed with a fair degree of suc¬ cess where the proper appliances of the veterinarian and his skill are secured at an early hour after the accident has occurred. There are stallions doing good service after having had a fore leg broken. One that lias had a broken leg is a fine road horse, and a three-minute horso will be compelled to take his dust all day long, unless the driver of the broken-legged stallion drives out of.sight of tho slower horse. Iu every serious in¬ jury of animals we commend immediate surgical advice, and if the case is incura¬ ble have tho animal put out of suffering. —American Agriculturist. TREES AS FENCE TOSTS. We consider the idea of planting trees for posts a most excellent one, because the fence of the future will no doubt be composed largely of iron or some other cheap metal, which can be fastened to living trees without seriously injuring them or checking their growth. With living trees as posts the farmer will se¬ cure something In position, that when is perm repairs anent and other al¬ ways 1 to parts of a fence may be required. Where there are. board or rail fences now stand iug ou the line of a highway, the- poung trees should - be planted on the say one or two feet from the fence, ia order to give room for placing the wires on the outside of the trees as they be¬ come large, without crowding upon the highway. Trees should be selected for planting that are adapted to the sdil and climate, and these can usually be ob¬ tained in the forests of the neighborhood without cost beyond the labor of trans¬ planting. If all of our farmers would put tills idea of living fence posts into practice, their present complaints about the great cost of farm fences would have no foundation worthy of 11 moment's con¬ sideration .—New York Sun. now TO CARE FOR RUNNING GEAR. The repair and renewal oi running gear is often a burdensome expense to farmers . who keep a variety of carts, racks, farm wagons and riding carriages. Not infrequently this expense is largely increased by lack of care or by ignorance of the effects which varied atmospheric conditions have upon the woodwork of wheels. These, if badly constructed at the start, are costly articles, though they be had as a gift. To attain the best and most economical results, it is necessary to begin with honestly-constructed gears, a ml then give them intelligent care. The idea is quite prevalent that wheels do best when housed upon an cartii floor—a practice that is not only un¬ necessary, but, under ordinary conditions, positivelv'harmful. Besides the actual wear by use, the agents most destructive to running gears are moisture and the sun’s heat. Unless the woodwork is thoroughlv protected bv paint or varnish it will swell whenever it is web, causing “springing" of the spokes,splitting of hub and felly and perhaps the “dishing” of the whole wheel. If a gear is not. thoroughly protected by paint it can be readily seen that an eartheu floor, usually quite moist, is, therefore, not the best kind of sup port. When wheels are long exposed to the sun’s rays there is likely to be a skriukage of the wood that opens the joint* readily, admitting moisture. When it is necessary to have a cart or wagon out of doors, let some old blankets or pieces of carpeting be thrown over the wheels, or, better still, have on hand a sheet of cheap cloth large enough to cover body, wheels and all. Frequent painting of fnrm wagons, sleds, etc., to gether with care as to exposure, will save many dollars of expense. A light csr- riagc or wagon that is driven upon the road should have its rims painted and the whole vehicle varnished at least once each year. That will go a long way toward protecting it from the action 0 / the weather.— American Agriculturist. CABBAGES FOB HENS. Nothing is better for hens in the way of vegetable food than frersh raw cab¬ bages ; many farmers have a surplus that can be fed in winter if properly taken care of, and the hens will eat up any small or loose heads' that would other¬ wise go to waste; tie up*a head by the stump just high enough from the ground for the hen to peck at it'easily, and they will leave little but a hard stump. In putting up cabbage for winter use, it is a good plan to assort the heads, placing the small ones by themselves, so that when wanted by the hens they can be taken out without delay in sorting them. Hens will also greedily devour the waste leaves stripped off the heads when putting tip cabbage for maiket. These should be fed from rack of convenient height, which will answer also for feed¬ ing clover hay, of which hens are very fond. Any such food if fed upon the lloor is apt to be speedily trampled and wasted; besides it is not wholesome for hens to cat food thus polluted. This is better also than chopping up such food, for it saves the labor of chop¬ ping, and gives the hens some useful oc¬ cupation and exercise, wmch is just as important for their welfare as it is to keep boys busy at some useful work or harmless play, to prevent their getting into mischief. Idle hens in confinement often eat the eggs as fast as laid, and the feathers off each others hack; try to find some more useful occupation for their idle hours.— Massachusetts Plo ugh man; FARM AND GARDEN NOTES. House the pullets. Tree tops are not the warmest roost¬ ing places at this season of the year. Always feed by scatterng out so that the fowls will not gorge themselves. Feeding sulphur twice a week will, in many cases, cure hens of feather pulling. Many make the mistake, of overfeeding, keeping the stock too fat to be profit¬ able. •Better sell the extra poultry reasonably early than be obliged to purchase feed iu order to winter. Go over the poultry house now and see that all cracks are closed tight. Warmtb is an essential item. If your runs and house are too 3inall don’t try to keep a large flock and wonder why you are not successful. If you ventilate, don’t make a draft; if yon do there will likely be a “draft” on the number of your flock. • Poultry intended for breeding should never be pampered. Vigor and health are more important than fat. Soft soap is considered a good remedy for scaly leg3. Hub on and let remain a short time and then wash off. Guineas generally go in pairs,' and in selling off the surplus in the fall this fact should always be remembered. So long as a good variety of food can be given, the fowls will usually need very little stimulants or condiments. Healthy, .thrifty fowls are invariably early risers, and they should be fed as soon as they fly down from the roosts. Unless good care is taken in the se¬ lection of the breeding stock, the best breed will soon degenerate to be not bet¬ ter than duug hills. At the present price of grain will it pay you to carry a raft of cockerels till spring and then sell them as “old roosters?” Don’t go to sleep and lose vonr head; act with judgment. In our own flock of poultry the remedy we find a sure cure for all diseases and ailments is to bleed, with oae blow of the hatchet, directly back of the ears. It is very inexpensive and effectual. On many small farms a combination of small fruits, bees and poultry can be made very profitable. Like every other kind of work, however, care anti atten tion must be given if the good results are realized. It is unnecessary to teach an incubator hatched chick to eat, they will soon learn. They never require food for the first twenty-four hours. Afterward they will generally and around obey the instincts of nature peck for a morsel. The cohi affects the miik product of unprotected dairy cows very unfavorably. If you wonder what makes the cattle shrink so in their miik we say cold wcath er and exposure to wind and rain. It pays to keep milch cows in a warm stable these cold nights, also to mix „ the . f mess of . ^1-feed with warm (not !l0t ' ’ T - ter - • With plenty of pasture laud geese can be made profitable if they are well mau aged. They need a go'od shelter in winter. It is not too late yet to lay ia a good supply of road dust to use for the dust bath, and to use as an absorbent, Good males are the most important part °f tho flock, at least so far as the breed ing is concerned. The manager of a poultrv farm which has been in existence five years, without an epidemic of any kind of diseases, savs an inflexible rule of the establishment is to kill every chicken that shows a de¬ cided lack of vitality. It is poor economy of time, patience and feed to attempt to raddle weak or siclhy chickens. The healthiest and strongest alone ate kept NOTES AND COMMENTS. The founding of the Imperial bank and its branches has caused a great scarcity of bullion all over Persia. No one will accept the new bank notes, which it was hoped would be put in circulation in¬ stead of the old silver coin, which 1ms been sent to India to be converted into rupees. The Persian population is dis¬ contented and commerce paralyzed. Con guess m ax -elect Henry Page, of Somerset County, Md., has the odd dis¬ tinction of bearing a different surname from his father. He is the son of John W. Crisfield, a veuerabte lawyer, for whom the amphibious village of Cris¬ field, an oyster-packing town, was named. The son early took the name of Page to please a relative, and has always borne it, somewhat to the confusion of those unacquainted with the facts in the case. The project of providing a place for accommodating 100,000 people, is being considered in'Loudon, England. A pro¬ posal is on fcot to build a “People’s Temple,” by covering a space wherein at least 100,000 could assemble for the discussion of topics of public interest. The building is to be made architecturally beautiful, with such arrangements that it can be subdivided .when required, could so that discussion on many subjects be going on at the same tune. The discovery of Professor Koch, whatever its value may be m cases of consumption, is not to remain a secret. Physicians are almost the only members " community who do make of the not money out of their important discov¬ eries. CUK , It It is is a a point point of of honor honor ainong ittnong them to allow the whole world to profit by their researches when they find a new remedy for wide disease. Their reward is in the benefit which the sick and help¬ less receive, and in the gratitude, which should not be stinted, of the community at large. Events point to the early occupation The of Turkish Armenia by Russia. Armenian plateau is one of the most im¬ portant military positions and in the worl by 1 and the shortest easiest route which Russia could reach India. Eng¬ land secured for the A rn wnian provinces and ad¬ at the Berlin Congress a local ministrative autonomy. But England has done nothing for the district since then, in spite of her promises. Now Russia threatens to tjike advantage of this remissness, and the war cry “Ar¬ menia for the Armenians” may soon dis¬ turb the peace of Europe. A Greek colony of one thousand members has lately settled itself on Canal street in New York. The men are gene¬ rally young, strong and healthy, as dark as many Italians, but more intelligent and ambitious. They are not, however, from the ranks of the Greeks that we read about in history. No incipient Homer, Achilles or Phidiag lias yet ap¬ peared among them; and thfiy continu¬ ally earn their living as peddlers of small large wares, bootblacks or barbers. A influx from Grecian cities is predicted by the Turkish and Greek consuls, during the next five years. The fact has just come to light be in Brooklyn that a man who wanted to a policeman and was found to lie under the required height secured a second ex¬ amination, whereupon he proved to lie tall enough to be passed. The mystery was explained when it was ascertained that he had half an inch of cork sewed into the heels of his stockings. It is a weakness in the Civil Service law, says the New York Tribune, that it provides no punishment which for the fraudulent prac¬ tices of this is a sample. Some found time ago in have the personated same city one man was to another in a physical examination. The perils of the sea had another illus¬ tration a few days ago, and not very far from the Atlantic coast, when the steamer Alps sighted a bark with 250 starving whalers on board. These men were in transit from the Azores to'Ncw Bedford, and probably the danger of dying from hunger and thrist when they started on this brief voyage seemed more improb¬ able to them than danger from thunder¬ bolts. Yet a two weeks’ hurricane de¬ layed them until their slender provisions bad given out, and unless the fates had sent them across the track of a friendly steamer, another tragedy of the sea would soon have been registered. The year 1892 will probably be signal¬ ized in South America by a most inter¬ esting event in civil engineering and in international overland commerce. This will be the completion and opening of the Trans-Andiue railroad, the first across the continent of South America. It is 19 years since this work was begun, and it is now confidently expected that it will be finished by the beginning of 1S92. The road is to run from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso, a distance of 871 miles. There are now 640 miles of it fin¬ ished at the Buenos Ayres end, and eighty-two at the Valparaiso end. Of the remaining 149 miles about one-third is practically complete and the rails laid. The passage Cumbfe of the Andes is accomplished at the Pas-, which is 13,045 feet above the sea level. The railroad, how¬ ever, does not reach the summit of the pass, but pierces the mountain by means of a tunnel more than three miles long, at an elevation of 10.450 feet above the sea. The grades conriderable are, of course, distance very the steep; lor a .rise is more thau 422 feet to the mile, or one the foot line in every rack rail 12L is employed On this, portion similar of a to those on the Hartz and other moun¬ tain roads. One unfortunate feature of the road i* the. diversity of gauges adopted. The different sections of the a have been built by different com panics, and each company has its.own gauge.—[Engineering and Building Record. Within the l*t three year* 373 males nod 133 feinat s bare been tortured by dacoits in the eentrai division of Upper Bnrrnab.
