Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1895 — Page 6

MAKING MACHINERY.

HOW REAPERS AND MOWERS ARE MANUFACTURED. Thousands of Hen Work Day After Day in Smoky City Shops Making Implements for the Farmers to Use in Harvesting Their Grain. An Important Industry.

/ —IOKLE, scythe L<T cradle, reaper, twine-binder—such 5) ) are the steps of SK' progress in gralnA harvesting devices, fI - Fifty years ago a man who had ventured to prophesy in any gathering of bent-back farm

hands that a machine would soon be invented to entirely supersede their slowgoing cradles would have been laughed out of countenance. But the miracle has been wrought A man may sit in the harvester-seat and go clicking through the grain with only an occasional chirrup to his horses, and at the end of the day he will have cut eight or ten times as much as the brawniest eradler could have done. Besides that the wheat has not only been cut but gathered up and tied with twine in neat bundles, ready for the hands who

PREPARING THE COKES.

loiter along behind to do the shocking. All of the exhausting work of handbinding has been done away with, together with the necessity of preparing heavy harvest-dinners for the workers. Of course some of the romance of farming is lost in reducing its operations to machinery, but fifty years hence, when there is a machine for cutting, binding and thrashing the grain and then grinding it into flour on the spot so that it can be taken from the field iu barrels, future generations may look back and mourn for the romance of the twine-binder days. The complete interdependence of country and city is perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in the farm machinery industry. Thousands of founders, iron-workers, molders, woodworkers, cabinet-workers, painters and other craftsmen, all pre-eminently city dwellers, are engaged day in and day

MALLEABLE IRON MOLDING-ROOM.

out in hot, smoky work-shops making implements for the farmers to use In cutting their grain. Connected with these artisans there is a vast army of advertisers, printers and business men in various capacities. In return for the machines the farmers send a part of their wheat to feed those who serve them. Probably the greatest manufactory of farm machinery in world is located'lni Chicago. The material comes in crude pig-iron in blocks and lumber In planks. It passes to some one of the score of buildings covering fifty-one acres of ground In the northwestern part of Jhe city and is made into tens of thousands of small parts which are finally assembled, fitting together exactly, and the machines—harvesters, reapers, mowers and hay-rakes—go out beautifully painted and ready for work. These devices are not alone used In this country, where they have rendered bonanza farming a possibility, but they

are sent all over the world. Harvesters made in Chicago click through wheat fields in Argentine, in India, in the farms of the Sultan of Turkey, in South Africa, in Australia, in Russia and everywhere else that grain is grown. The'iron is unloaded from trains or boats at one end of the immense factory buildings, and it goes at once to the foundry. This is a great, highrafted room with smoky windows and the earth for a floor. It dangles full of ropes, chains and pulleys connected with devices for lifting the heavy molds and castings. Overhead are the tracks of a railroad with numberless switches and curves. Prom it swing great kettles containing hundreds of pounds of molten metal which is being trundled here and there to fill the molds. Over the entire surface of the ground as thick as they can stand are great square molds made of casting sand and containing little holes in the top through which the metal is to run. All the forenoon the men have been busy at work forming the molds in the shape of heavy wheels, harvester seats and other of the larger iron parts of the machinery. This is done by hollowing out holes in the black sand just the shape and size of the object wanted. The filling of the molds, known to the workmen as the “pouring,” takes place twice every day. The pig metal or gray iron is melted in a huge retort at one side of the room. When it is as liquid as water it Is let out with much sputtering and fireworks through a little hole in the bottom into a big crucible lined with fire-clay. When this is full the workmen push it along, it being suspended by a running pulley to the overhead railroad, and the molders run out one after another to have their long dippers filled. The larger molds are filled by pouring directly from the crucible. Blue flames and a thick white smoke belch out of the mold as the hot iron goes in. After the pouring has gone forward for half an hour the whole room is full of smoke, through which the dark figures of the,men dash back and forth like evil spirits, the blue flames spurt from the molds and the sparks rise in fountains from the

furnace mouth. After file'casting* come forth the. Hour in*ide of them can be readily 'brokW out Then each article goes to the tumb-llng-room, where it is inside of a cylinder resembling a barrel'and half filled with pieces of iron. When the cylinder revolves the rough edges are worn from the. casting, making It smooth and bright. Defective pieces always break In the tumblers. The room in which the machines work is so noisy with the constant rattling of Iron in the cylinders that it suggests all pandemonium let loose. It is perfectly wonderful with what ease immense molds and casts are lifted and carried about the foundry. This is accomplished by means of a pneumatic piston, to which a grappling chain and cables are attached. When the hooks are fastened to the article to be moved the workman pulls a string, the compressed air rushes into the cylinder under, the valve and up goes the load as easily as if it were on a fifty-ton elevator. Pulling another string lets out the air and the load slides easily downward again.

Much greater care is required in the casting of the malleable Iron parts of the machines—the smaller devices on which the strain is very great. In the great room in which this work is done each of the molders, of whom there are about 100, has a stall of his own, with his own casting sand and tools. He makes his own molds—usually the same piece month in and month out One man has made knife heads steadily for fifteen years. The workmen are paid by the piece, and some of them have grown so very expert that their wages are large. When the iron is hot each man fills his thirty-five-pound ladle and runs with it to his stall, where he fills his mold. It is an exciting scene during the pouring hours of the day. Here all the smaller harvester and mower attachments are made—7oo to 800 castings of different kinds—and large quantities are kept on hand for repair purposes. Many old farm implement houses which have a great many of their machines in use, find this a profitable part of their business. Many of them have repair supply houses in all parts of the world. During several months of the recent financial difficulties it is said that one Chicago manufacturer actually made larger profits out of his repair department than he did from the sale of new machines. One of the largest concerns has a cable and telegraph code word for each casting, so that repairs can be ordered from anywhere in the world in the shortest possible space of time. Back of the manufactory and facing on the river is the lumber yard. More than 15,000,000 feet of pine and hardwood stock is used yearly in the manufacture of tongues, whiffletrees and parts of the bodies of the machines, although the wood part of the industry is a bagatelle as compared with the ironwork. About 4,000,000 feet are

used yearly, simply for packing and crating the machines for shipment. Two whole floors of an immense building are devoted to the woodwork, and here, in an atmosphere of sawdust, the planers screech, the saws spin and 100 men work with drawshaves, planes and hammers. Highly seasoned oak, second growth hickory, ash, maple and poplar are most largely used. Most of the wood parts are smoothed on great wheels covered with sandpaper before they go to the paint-shop. In another great room the bolts and screws are made, bitten by clever little machines from solid rods of metal. One great room in the works is devoted entirely to canvas work, for each harvester has numerous canvas parts. One set of girls cuts the pieces out, another hems them and a third puts on the slats the buckles and the straps. In this one factory 170 acres of duck are used every year. This would make a strip three feet wide and 452 miles long. One of the most important processes in the whole manufacture is the making of the knives and sickles which cut the hay and grain. The raw steel comes Into the works in long narrow strips, and an Ingenious machine cuts it up instantly into the prefer shapes at the rate of two every second. 4fter being beveled they are tempered by an Interesting process. The pyramid-shaped pieces of steel are heated over fires fed with fuel oil, and at the proper moment they are lifted off and plunged into an oil bath. Prom this, as soon as they are cool, they are fished out and shoveled Into the tempering ovens, which deprive them of their.brittleness. From this room they go - the grinding room, where a score of huge grindstones whirl noiselessly from daylight to dark. The sections are fitted into swinging brackets, which hold them at an angle against the stone. Water pours down over them in a stream, but so great is

IN THE TUMBLING-ROOM.

the friction that showers of sparks shoot off and mingle with the water, giving the appearance of liquid fire. The parts are now assembled and put together by skilled workmen, each part being tested. Now they are ready for the paint* They go first to the whiteroom, where all. the floors and the men and the tools are daubed with white paint. Here they are ducked by means of pneumatic lifts into a bath of paint and are then dried Off. After being striped and lettered In blue and red they are beautifully varnished and sent out to the shipping-room.

ADVANCE IN WAGES.

BITTER DOSE FOR CALAMITY. HOWLERS TO SWALLOW. Workingmen Are Sharing in the Returning Prosperity—A Tremendous Nail in the Coffin of Protectionism —Tin Plate and Crockery Industries. A Long List. The following is a partial list of wage advances for the single month of April, 1895. Nearly all of these are in industries that are less protected than they were one or two years ago when wages were being reduced in them. Where the percentage of advance is not given it is because the reports usually said that the rates of 1893 or 1892 had been restored: ... p er cent. Firm and location. advance Pakachoag Worsted Mills, South Worcester, Mass Moses T. Stevens & Sou, 3 mills In X. H 15 Thomas Dolan & Co., Philadelphia, Pa... .15 Globe Iron Works, Cleveland. Ohio 15 Wholfender, Shore & Co., Cardiugton, Pa.. 5 Washington Mills, Lawrence, Mass Bricklayers Co., Philadelphia. Pa Belding Bros, tc Co., silk, Rockville, Conn.. 5 Wllllmantlc I.lnen Co., Wllllmantlc, Conn. .5 American Linen Mills, Fall River, Mass...— Silk Ribbon Weavers, New York City

CALAMITY HOWLERS, TAKE NOTICE.

Worumbo Mills, Lisbon Falls, Me ..10 Fall River Mills. Fall River, Mass 10 G. Cotton Co., North Grosvenordale, Conn.lo E. W. Chapin & Co., Chapluville, Muss. ...10 U. S. Bunting Co., Lowell, Mass 10 Lakeside M’f'g. Co., Leicester, Mass 10 U. S. Cotton Co., Central Falls, R. I. .5 to 10 All Cotton Factories, Full lllver, Muss. .VM All Cotton Factories, New Bedford, Muss.. 5 Qulnebang Dun. Cos., all In Conn B. S. Stevens, Qulnebaug, Conn 15 Slateh W'oolen Co., Webster, Muss John Chase & Sons, Webster, Mass 10 Vassalborough Mills, Augusta, Me 10 Burke Hull. Co., Rowley, Mass 10 Weybossett Woolen Mills, Olueyville, It. I.— Dyervllle M’f’g. Co., Dyerville, It. 1 5 J. M. Stearns & Co., Williamsport, l’a. ,1c yd Win. H. Grundy <fc Co., Bristol, Pa 5 Llnwood Mill, North Adams, Ma55..'....,. Woolen Cos. Mills, Westerly 10 Dodge Davis M’f’g. Co., Bristol, N. H 20 Poland Paper Co.. Mechanics Falls, Me.l2-20 Cocheco Cotton Mills, Dover, N. H 5 Williamstown M’f’g., North Adams, Mass..l2 N. Pownul Co., North Adams, Mass 12 Beaver and Eclipse Mills, N. Adams, Mass.l2 Merino Mills, Olneyvllle, It. 1 10 Tyson Clirome Works, Baltimore, Md...,10 Eddy Electrbt Co., Windsor, Conn 10 Salmon FallsM’f’g.Co., Salmon Falls, N. 11. 5 Jesso Eddy Woolen Mills, Falls River, Mil3B 10-15 S. K. Wilson Woolen Mill, Trenton, N. J.. 10 Edwards M’f’g. Co., Augusta. Me... ..4...10 Three Cotton Mills, Suueook, N. H A. L. Sayles & Sons, I’aseoag, It. I. (off).. 5 Norwalk Mills Co., Norwalk, Conn 10 Stotts Mill, Lowell, Muss 5 Paige Tube Co., Warren, Ohio 10 Minnesota Iron Co., Minneapolis 10 Tube and Boiler Works, Oil City, Pn 10 Hamilton & Ludlngton, Iron Mt., Mich...— Ntolmls Mills, Tnrklln, It. I a. Morristown Woolen Co., Morristown, Pa. .10 Usion Mills, Moosup, Conn Stirling Woolen Mills, Lowell, Mass Clonk makers, Cincinnati, Ohio 25

TJmt the rising tide of prosperity did not stop in April is evident from the following list of wage advances during the first three days of May: Firm and location. Per cent. Bell, Lewis, Yates Mining Co., Dubois, Pa. per ton 30-40 Helvetia Mining Co., Dubois, Pa., per ton Minn. Iron Co., Minneapolis 10 Iron furnaces, Newcastle, Pa 30 Sheridan's Woolen Mills, Seneca Fa 115.... Foundries, Cleveland. Ohio 10 Farwell Worsted Mills, Central Falls, , k I yard Mahoning Valley Works, Youngstown, Ohio 15c per day Tomas Furnace, Niles, Ohio 15 Phoenix Iron Works, Meadville, Pa 10 Cotton Mills, Springvale, Me 6*4 Probably 250,000 workers are now getting bettor wages than six weeks ago, and probably 100,000 more are now bn strikes for higher wages, with fair prospects for success. This is bad medicine for calamity howlers, but they will have to take it until they cease their croaking. Comparing April, 1895, with April, 1892—the banner McKinley year—we have here a list of fifty-eight recorded wage advances, two of which (those at Fall River and New Bedford, Mass.) affected nearly 50,000 workers, whereas in April, 1592, we find no wage advances recorded, but instead a long list of wage reductions. The Reform Club published a list of wage reductions in protected industries only, during the first two years under the McKinley tariff law. This list contains forty-eight Instances of wage reductions in April, 1892. But for lack of space we would print it and the present list of wage advances in parallel columns. It is not, however, necessary, as neither of these lists will be disputed, even by the greatest friends of McKinley ism. They will try to account for wage reductions, in 1592, and for wage advauces now, by the “unusual conditions” in each case, and will continue to asert that their theory is entirely sound, although, in both cases, the facts not only would not fit it, but were exactly the reverse from those promised. Tin Plate and Crockery Industries. The protectionists have no trouble in proving the-benefits of protection and ithe evils of free trade. If an industry is prosperous it is because of protection; If it is not prosperous It Is because of free trade. Page 221 of the American Economist of May 10, is de- / voted to showing how prosperous the tin plate industry is under protection; page 222 to showing how badly off our crockery Industry is under free trade. It Is true that the tin plate industry

has been wonderfully prosperous since Wilson made a 45 per cent reduction in the duty on tin plates— reduced from 2 1-5 to 11-5 cents per pound. It is also true that the crockery industry is not as prosperous as it should be—since Wilson reduced duties from 20 to 45 per cent, or an average of only about 35 per cent But what is the inference to be drawn from the tin plate and crockery industries? Is it not that the crockery is not as prosperous as the tin plate industry, because the duty on crockery was not reduced as much as the duty on tin plate? There is more in this theory than most protectionists are willing to admit. Thus the crockery industry has enjoyed high protection so long that it has become full of trusts that sustain prices, lower wages, hold factories idle, and discourage inventions aud improvements. If the protection duty had been abolished or reduced sufficiently to smash the most of these combines (the present reduction has smashed several) and to compel a complete reorganization of the industry, it would soon begin on an independent basis and would not only prosper but, because it Would turn out more goods at lower prices, would give employment to more labor than is now employed. The tin plate industry being a new one

and having gotten its start not mainly because of protection but because of great improvements, had not time under McKinley duties, to get into solid petrified trusts that would make it one of the protected fossil industries. If the duty on tin plate be not reduced greatly during the next four years, it will have ceased to keep pace with its foreign competitors and will not, under ordinary circumstances, be more prosperous than the crockery industry now is.

Where Protection Ends. The legitimate outcome of trying to protect all industries (and thereby protecting none), Is shown in an editorial in the American Economist of May 10. Home and Farm, of Louisville, Ky., asks the very sensible and pertinent question: “Why should we protect sugar raisers against pauper labor and not protect the cotton planter against the pauper labor of Egypt, and the wheat grower against the pauper labor of Russia and India?” To which the American Economist makes the following reply: “There is no reason why we should protect the sugar raiser from pauper labor and not protect the cotton planter. As a matter of fact, the wheat grower is protected and always has been under a policy of protection. The cotton planters of the South have never asked for protection; they have always claimed that they did not need it; but wo believe that the time is not far distant when they will find,that the increasing imports of foreign cottons are tending to cheapen the value of American grown cottons. We want no pauper products—no pauper prices —no pauper labor. Kentucky will be more prosperous with protection for all its industries, but nothing can be gained by narrow-minded local selfishness. Home and Farm should know this.”

The Economist believes in “going it whole hog or none.” It knows that duties on such articles as wheat, corn and cotton do not, and cannot, protect farmers. No duty on an article that is exported largely and imported not at all, or but slightly, can be protective, unless the producers of such an article can form a trust and maintain prices at home above those for export. This most manufacturers can do, and many of them have done but it is next to impossible for farmers to combine in this way. Consequently they get only bogus protection from their duties. But supposing it were possible to protect all industries alike by protection; and supposing moreover, that the benefits of this protection were distributed evenly among all engaged in these industries—including even the. factory hands who never receive any protection benefits, and never hear of them except at election time—what would be the final effect of protection? It would be that each industry would bo projected at the expense of all other industries and what one would gain by protection would be lost by the time it had paid its share of protection to all other 'ndustries. It would, be exactly like a. game of poker in-which "6ach participant had lost exactly as much as he had won—not counting time as any value. It is impossible for everyone around a gaming table to win more than he loses. It is equally impossible for every industry to gain more than it loses by protection—unless we accept as true the idiotic statement that the foreigner pays our tariff taxes. There is nothing iu protection when it : s applied “all hands round.” There is much in it, for those on the inside, when applied to certain industries. Let us not deceive ourselves about it!—Byron W. Holt. 1:

A HOME TO BE BUILT.

For Aged and Disabled Bailrood Employe*. In the spring of 1890, Dr. Frank” Ingalls, of Chicago, founded a home for aged and disabled railroad employes, which home is being largely supported, by voluntary contributions from the several railroad brotherhoods. Since

THEIR PRESENT HOME IN CHICAGO.

the incorporation of the home thirtysix unfortunate men have been cared for, and some of them, who were so injured as to be totally incapacitated for railroad work, have been taught another trade. There are at present nine Inmates of this home, which is located at No. 45 Washtenaw avenue, Chicago, three of whom have been confined to their beds for over three years. Dr. Ingalls, the founder, is an old member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and the board of directors is composed of members of the railroad tinlons. The present building is now full, and a fund has already been started for the purpose of erecting a ltirge and commodious building in a suitable locality for the purpose of doing a work that will be far-reaching in its power for good. The railroad organizations are now beginning to appreciate the value of such an institution, and the time is not far distant when they will undoubtedly make arrangements for the maintenance of the home out of the general funds of their orders. The Hon. L. S. Coffin, an exrailroad commissioner of lowa, started the building fund with a donation of SI,OOO, and the following labor organizations are now contributing to the support of the present home: Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Order Railway Conductors, Railroad Telegraphers, Railway Trainmen, Locomotive Firemen, and their ladies’ auxiliaries. It should be stated, however, that this home is also being assisted by private subscriptions, and many prominent railroad and express company officials have made liberal contributions.

A NEW TROLLEY.

An Underground System That Promises Success. The Metropolitan Traction Company believes it. has found an underground trolley system of street car locomotion that can be operated successfully, and it will be put in use on the new line in Lenox avenue. The road is already built. The surface construction is exactly like a cable road, and most persons thought the motive power would be cable,' although the company officials said that electricity would be tested. The conduit through which the conductors will run is like the cable conduit on Broadway. On each side of it, at distances, qf thirty feet, are soapstone pillars thirteen and one-half inches high and eight inches square. No wire is to be used at all. In its place are four and one-half-inch iron channel bars running from pillar to pillar, and resting on insulators. The pillars rest in cast-iron pedestals, provided with sockets six inches deep and one inch larger In Inside diameter than the pillars. The space then left is filled with sulphur. There is a manhole at each, pillar, so that in case of any trouble it will be possible to make instant repairs without interfering with the street. On each side of the conduits and

THE NEW TROLLEY.

outside of the pillars are five pipes running the entire length of the line, and In these the feed wires will be carried. The arrangements for the drainage of the conduits is believed to be perfect. The trolley itself which will be used on the car is a five-eighth-inch steel bar, provided at the lower end with outwardly pressing springs, which are secured to positive and negative contact shores. The trolleys are attached to the car by crossbars attached to the side frames of the wheel trucks.—Electrical Review.

Moynihan Was “Scairt.”

“One of the funniest things I ever saw in a theater,” said Frank Lane, the actor, “happened In a town not far from Chicago. Our . company was snowbound and had lost two or three dates, so we filled in one night at this town. The theater was really a big town hall with no gallery, but having a lot of raised seats at the rear. When it came tlmq to begin the show there were only five or six persons in the main body of the hall, but the cheap seats at the rear were crowded:' Our manager thought it would be better to have the audience within hearing distance of the stage, so he told the ushers to notify the people in the back seats that as soon as the curtain went up they could go forward and occupy any of the front seats not already taken; Well, the curtain went up and Frank Moynihan, who lives in Chicago, was discovered on the stage. He was playing an Irish servant. . His lines were, ‘Here it is, a half hour past the time and master not yet returned,’ or something likethat He had spoken about four words w\en the whole mob

in the rear of the house arose as on* man and rushed wildly toward him, climbing over chain, knocking each other down in their haste and howling like Indians. Moynihan dropped his feather duster, gave one yell of trror and ran from the stage. He thought they were going to kill him, sure. "it was several minutes before he recovered sufficiently to go back and take up his part.”

SETH LOW, OF COLUMBIA.

Who Recently Presented That University with $1,000,000. Columbia College has recently been presented by its president, Seth Low, with the magnificent sum of $1,000,000; or rather, Mr. Low has personally assumed the cost of the new library building of the college in New York, which is estimated at that amount The library is to be a memorial to his father, the late Abiel Abbot Low. Connected with the gift are three conditions, one of which is that college privileges be extended to some of the boys and girls of his native city—Brooklyn. Accordingly twelve Brooklyn scholarships will be established. Another condition is that eight president's university annual scholarships be established. Another condition is the formation of a fellowship in honor of his class—that of ’7O. President Seth Low was born in Brooklyn, Jar. 15, 1850. His father was a merchant and the young man, after graduating from Columbia College, became a clerk in his store. In 1875 he was admitted to partnership. Mr. Low was a founder of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities and its first president In 1881 he was nominated for the Mayoralty of the City of Churches as a reform candidate and was elected, gaining much praise during his administration. He was re-elected in 1883. Hon. Seth Low wns installed president of Columbia College in February,

PRESIDENT SETH LOW.

1890. George William Curtis, writing upon that occasion, called him “a man of scholarly accomplishment and training, of great experence in public and commercial affairs, of a singularly sound and wise judgment, of tried administrative skill and of tranquil independence and courage, blended with admirable moderation.”

An Odd Gem.

A precious stone which at the present time is very valuable, because ’t is the stone of the hour, is the peridot, or “evening emerald.” It is a lovely stone, with its exquisite shades of transparent green, the best suggestion of w'hose hue is the effect produced by looking at the light through a delicate leaf. Jewelers say that the peridot is a species of olivine, of the same class as the beryl, aqua-marine, and topaz; and that it Is, in fact, the ancient “topazion,” otherwise known as chrysolite. It is found in Egypt, Ceylon, and Brazil, good crystals being exceedingly rare. Of the various shades of green olive, leaf, pistachio, or leek, the clear leaf green Is the most admired. Of all the precious stones, the peridot is the most difficult to polish. The final touch is given on a copper wheel moistened with sulphuric acid, a process which requires the greatest care, for, if dipped into the acid the stone has the peculiarity of becoming soluble. Sometimes it is cut in rose form, or like a carbuncle, but it is better and more valuable when worked in small steps, as the brilliance is thus increased. Owing to the quality of softness, the peridot has been considered of little value, but now that it is the fashion, fabulous prices are charged for the stone.

Curing Insomnia.

“I was cured of an annoying propensity to sleep in rather an original way,” said Jones. “Some time ago there were a number of_ nights when I could not sleep until just before it was time to rise in the morning. Then, of course, it was hard to wake me. My friends advised all sorts of remedies, but my wife set her wits to work, and found the right one. The next night I fell into a light doze soon after I got into bed, but in less than twenty minutes I was as wide awake as ever, pitching and tossing, and unable to close my eyes. Well, my wife got up, struck a match, and pretended to look at her watch. Then she said, ‘I wouldn’t try to go to sleep, dear, as it will soon be time for you to get up now.’ That settled it In three minutes I was asleep, and slept like a log. This was repeated once or twice, and now I get my regular sleep every night The best of it was I didn’t know for a number of days the little ruse that had been employed to send me to sleep.”

To Relieve that Cough.

One’s doctor will encouragingly inform one, when struggling back to strength from an attack of grippe: “That cough of yours will have to wear out. You can scarcely expect to rid yourself of it before wanner weather.” If this is true, the least that one can do Is to mitigate, so far as is possible, the violence of the throat affection. Glycerine is excellent as part of a mixture for moistening the dry feeling there. Either with water or with whisky it is beneficial, but the latter dose is rather sickishly sweet for one already nauseated by the influenza. Equal parts of glycerine and lemon juice make a compound which is not unlike strong lemonade In taste, is refreshing to take after severe coughing and is highly recommended by physicians.

Razors Made by Machinery.

The manufacture of razors by machinery has now become a fixed iact in Germany, and the quality of the article Is said to icompare favorably with the best Sheffield product, the process being also applicable to scissors making.

HORSE MEAT WAR IN PARIS.

Amusing Complications from Using Flesh in Sausages. • An amusing warfare has been carried on in Paris between the Government chemists and the makers of sausages in which horseflesh has been used. Some time ago the Butchers’ Association of Paris strongly advocated a law rendering it compulsory to designate by a label or otherwise all sausages composed of horseflesh or In which horseflesh had been mixed with other meats. The authorities, while perfectly willing to make regulations enforcing this practice, declined to do so on account of the impossibility of punishing offenders. To punish the violators of a law it is necessary to detect the violation and also to show proof of it. In the present state of scientific knowledge It is not possible to satisfactorily determine the difference between flesh of the horse and that of any other animal when they are both chopped fine and mixed together. A chemist finally discovered that if the meat were treate with iodated water a reddish-brown reaction would be apparent if horseflesh were present Pork or beef does give this peculiar tinge. The pork butchers rejoiced and prepared to push the wished-for legislation. The horsemeat men had a card np their sleeves, however, and commenced adding a little flour to their sausage meat. When the lodated water was applied contact with the starch of the flour immediately produced a brilliant blue, which effectually masked all traces of any other color. This blue, of course, would point to the likelihood of horsemeat being present, but it could not be sworn to. Supposing the meat to be pure beef and the flour added, the blue would be the same when the test was applied. The chemists again went to work and discovered that if the starch was separated by maceration and subsequent filtration, and the residue treated with two or three chemicals, the horsemeat would be detected. So far the victory rests with the chemists, and the law will probably be passed unless the horsemeat men make another discovery. In 1892 20,000 horses were slaughtered In Paris,- three-fourths of which went into sausages, so that the importance of the industiy may be realized.

A MAMMOTH POTATO.

It Was Grown in Colorado and Weighs Eighty-six Pounds. Here Is a copy of a Loveland, Col., photograph, showing Farmer J. B. Swan and his prize potato. The pota-

FARMER SWAN AND HIS POTATO.

to is 28 inches long and weighs 80 pounds, 10 ounces. On one acre of land in Larimer County last year Mr. Swan produced 25,816 pounds or 430 bushels and 16 pounds of potatoes.

A BICYCLE BOAT.

The Latest Use to Which the Revolving Pedals Have Been Put. A bicycle boat on the .Lake Bols dc Boulogne, in Paris, is attracting much attention. The seat, pedals and steering gear are similar to those of the bicycle, but the motive Is applied to turn a screw at the stern of the boat To the onlooker the man apears to be rid-

THE BICYCLE BOAT.

ing a bicycle in the boat and the novelty of the spectacle draws public attention. It is said that a speed of five miles an hour may easily be made in calm weather. No doubt we shall soon have the boat in use on all our pleasure lakes, for a novelty of that kind is sure to “take.”, i

The “Sassy" Humanitarian.

“She’s the sassiest woman I ever applied to for a bite.” “How did you find that out?’ “Well, she offered me cold tomatter soup and stale bread, and I said I thought a little cake would do me good.” “Well?” “She said if it was a cake of soap she thought it would.” He—“ You told me your father was a retired capitalist, and now I find, after marrying you, that he is pot worth a cent.” She—“l only told you tfie truth. He was a capitalist once, but after the panic hit him he retired from the cap. italist business completely.”—Cincinnati Tribune. Half the people in the world are working the other half for chumps, and doing well. /