Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 December 1897 — Page 5

INSURANCE FUNERALS - HOW THE I’OOR PROVIDE IN ADVANCE FOR DECENT BI'RIAL. Insurance Companies Renp a Great Profit from This Class of Business —Babies’ Lives Insured. * Now York Evening Post. What to eat and drink, how to be housed and clothed, tlio wherewithal for business and social advancement, these are vital considerations; but the poor, those who, in familiar phrase, live from hand to mouth, add another query to the list, namely, the getting out of life and being decently buried. “It’s hard raking and scraping to put by this insurance money every week,” said a tenement-house mother, “but I sleep edgier at night when I know that there’s something to fall back on in case of trouble.” "I’m always worried till the baby gets to be a year old,” said a west-side matron. “The agents won’t give no policy on a. child that’s that young, and just the very minute the year is up I makes application.” “Why do you worry?” she was asked, as the visitor glanced at the chubby-faced children playing about. “Why worry?” she repeated. “Them what lives in this thick-settled part sees things to remind ’em of worryin’, when people dies sudden, and there ain’t a dollar in the house to promise the undertaker or to git a carriage or a flower. Then, the very ground to put ’em awaj in can’t be touched without money. I’ll scrimp all fashions and save every penny I can to keep my papers paid up prompt. No such dread a-hangin’ over my head. Let me see! There’s 20 cents for the old man and 10 cents apiece for the five children; that’s a good deal to pay out each week, besides the rent to see to; but I think about Potter’s field staring us in the face, and w'hen the agent comes to the door I pays him cheerful.” The life-insurance agents are regular visitors in the tenement houses. Any day they may be seen, note-book in hand, jotting down the dimes and quarters, the “premiums” from a slim exchequer. Then, when the long-dreaded trouble does come, and the company has been notified, the “claim Inspector” appears with another note-book, to investigate the circumstances of death, and certify to the justness of the ciaim. “When the sum received at a child’s death is large, is the money all spent on the funeral?” was a"Sked of a mission worker. “Invariably; but the average insurance obtained on very young children is only about S2B or S3O. I once suggested to the mother of a family that the $l4O insurance money that she had collected was too much to squander on burial charges. She did washing for her living, and her children stood in need of proper food and clothing. “ Tt does s#em like a lot of money,’ she admitted, “but I couldn’t use a cent of .Jimmie’s insurance money for anything but his funeral. It would be like using “bloodmoney” to buy the others things that rightfully belong to him.’ THE PRESSING NEED.

“You see, the life insurance men h*ve some forceful texts to preach from,” she went on, “should a poor person hesitate about taking out a policy. Here is an instance: A little girl came to my sewing class as usual one morning, and when the teacher greeted her, said, in the most stoical way, ‘My ma is dead in bed at home.’ The teacher went home with her, and, sure enough, the woman was in bed, just as she had been in the night, dead. She had not been touched, because, the death being sudden, they waited for the coroner. She had been a drinking woman. When it was certified that she died of heart disease, the undertaker was summoned and agreed to bury the body for $27. "The coffin was bought, and the dead, decently robed, was placed in it, but, when the funeral hour came, the undertaker stipulated that $lO of the $27 must be paid down before the procession could move. The husband want out and tried to raise the money, but failed, and what did the undertaker do but tumble the corpse out upon the floor, like a sack of tlour, and walk off with his coffin, to the horror and astonishment of everybody present. The city buried the woman in Potter’s field. I doubt if there is a single person who was present on that occasion, or who heard of the circumstance, who has not since taken out a policy. That one undertaker’s act did a great deal for the life insurance people, and I doubt if, from a business standpoint, the undertaker was to blame. Selling coffins was his means of making a living, just as selling bricks is another man’s business, or selling stoves another’s. He had probably buried two or three people and had never received pay; indeed, a woman present remarked that if the undertaker had let that coffin go, it would be ‘a sight of free buryin’s he’d ha’ had a hand in.’ In contrast to such a picture the absurdly fine funeral is to be preferred. “After all,” continued this observer, “there is something touching in these people’s devotion to their dead, and the consolation they derive from spending their all upon them. While a snowstorm was raging last winter, a little boy died, in whom I was interested, and the other mission workers as well. ‘I really should like to send some, flowers,’ said my co-worker, ‘but they are so scarce now. and so expensive, that 1 think I could put the money to better use.’ I went to that poor, shabby lodging, where fire and food had sometimes been scarce for days, and the room w'here the child lay was full of flowers, procured by the family or sent in by friends. Life-insurance money buried the child. The working classes are kind to each other in distress, and death seems to touch them more than suffering in life does. THE UNDERTAKER’S QUESTION. “Occasionally, though, the nonchalance with which they accept a calamity of the kind is grotesque. ‘What kind of coffin will you have?’ asked the undertaker of a man who ordered a child's coffin. He meant the quality of the lining, casing, rimming, etc. ‘Oh! the same kind I usually get,’ he answered. He had buried his wife and a •laughter previously. You may be sure they were all Insured, or the undertaker tvould not have treated him with such deference. ‘ls there a policy?’ is the first question an undertaker asks when his services are invoked.” Inquiry discovers that in the old city of New York a singlo industrial-insurance company has nearly half a million ixdieies in force, and in Greater New' York there arc nearly three-quarters of a million of industrial policies on record at the present time. This industrial insurance often includes every member of the family, from the age of two to seventy, with sometimes five or six policies on one life. In Newark. N. J.. out of 220,000 people, there are 210 industrial-insurance policies in force, in two companies. “Art industrial-insurance policies of fixed value?" Haley Fiske, vice president of the Metropolitan Life-insurance Company, was asked. “No,” he answered, “they are not in full benefit until after one year has elapsed from the date of issue. If. for instance, a policy should be taken out for s3l‘J. and the subject should tile within three months of the date of application, the amount of insurance would onlv be S7B. The full amount is paid after the policy has been in existence for a year. This fact has some bearing on the Zanoli case. If the barber’s last wife, of whom he collected insurance, had lived nine months longer the policy would have been worth $3lO, whereas, she iived only three months from the time of issuing the policy and he got only S7B. The daughter he collected on was insured under a policy that had been in force seven years. He collected only SSO. It was a policy which would have "increased in amount each year for several years after, ft would have been to his advantage to keep both of these women alive. “Are many of the industrial insurance policies endowment policies? Eighty-five per cent, of them are. Most of the policy holders we find good, square-dealing people. There have been a few cases where, it has been alleged, money was collected on parties not dead, but never, in our existence, a case where a man collected a .policy on his own life, as this Zanoli did. A* year ago we paid a policy on one Charles Zanoli, to a man named Braune. A while ago we heard things that made us suspicious, and when those suspicions were confirmed we had him arrested. All charges about his poisoned wives came out as a result of the trial. The payment of death claims by the companies is made upon the same evidence that the city requires to get a permit for burial. In his case we had all these certificates, properly sworn to. A large per cent, of death claims go to defray funeral costs, and payment is promptly made. “People who are well circumstanced can have little Idea of the importance of this question of burial to the poor. There is

something pathetic as well as whimsical In the sound of trumpet and drum and fife at the funeral of an Infant of twenty months, but tne music, the extra carriages full of flowers, the long line of hacks, and the white-painted hearse with its nodding plumes and white horses, comfort the parents as nothing else can. And even though the little one has toddled about ill-nourished and neglected most of its short life,' they feel that in thus honoring it they show proper respect and uphold the family pride In some way.” LONDON FOGS. An Element of Danger to Persons Unaccustomed to Them. London Letter in Philadelphia Telegraph. The first real fog of the season has come to town, and while it was not quite up to the mark of what is known as “a London particular,” it was sufficiently dense to set the people's tongues awagging on the subject and cause four or five accidental deaths and a score of more or less serious Injuries. It was likewise a fog of unusual persistency in its grip, for there was brilliant sunshine all around London and the day was as mild as May, yet the sun was powerless to scatter the white pall, and nightfall found it even thicker than at dawn. The fog sharps, however, criticised the display w r ith considerable scorn and remarked that it "lacked color” and "hadn’t the good old greasy feel about it.” There are many, indeed, who, loving London with an overwhelming love, are actually heard to bewail what they consider the sad degeneration of London fogs during the past few years, and to greet each “particular” effort on the fog bends’ part as a visitation to be greeted with grim good humor. Under its clammy influence they develop all the characteristics of an American “oldest inhabitant,” discussing the weather and discoursing on the meteorological phenomena of his earlier days, and the hoary and bewhiskered fog jokes and stories are trotted out for their annual airing. One of the pets of the collection has to do with the man who was nailing slates on a sloping roof and who failed to notice the edge when he reached it and went on nailing slates on the fog until he found himself down on the ground. Personally, I found the experience from the tops of several omnibuses a very interesting one to watch, and a curious feature of it came under my notice in the afternoon, when I went out to the Crystal Palace, on the Sydenham heights, with a man who had some dogs on exhibition at the Kennel Club’s show. We left London hidden In the fog and found the palace sparkling in a bright, clear atmosphere, but Its Interior was almost as foggy as the Thames itself. In the morning the Sydenham hills had been visited by the fog, and the vast glass structure had been filled with it, for a London fog’s power of penetration is something remarkable. Then the outside display had been blown away. A man learned in the ways of fogs told us that this was often the case, and that the palace was sometimes foggy for a day or two after a short but severe attack from the outside. To turn to the serious side of the matter, it is interesting to read how the railways cope with the dangers, which come in the fog’s wake. The superintendent of the Southwestern line, in an interview in one of the evening papers, says that the logs, in addition to the anxiety they cause to the officials, are costly visitors as well. “The principal expense,” he said, “is the fcgsignalling arrangements, which are veryelaborate. As soon as the man in the signal box cannot see clearly 150 yards ahead of htrn the machinery is at once "put in motion. Each signal man has the address of a number of fog signalers, who are at once summoned to their posts, whatever the hour of the day or night. These men are taken from those usually employed repairing the permanent way, and are onlychosen if they are acquainted with the elements of signaling. Each one knows, then, where he has to station himself, and at once repairs to his post. They are disposed in large numbers all along the line; others stand in reserve to relieve them, while many more have to be engaged, to bring refreshments to those on duty. “Between Waterloo Station and Wimbledon alone two hundred men are employed merely to lay the torpedoes on the line; between Waterloo and Clapham, again, there are 150, and so on as far as the line extends —occasionally, indeed, as far out as Weymouth. Every signal box has four fog signalers attached to it. Those at a junction have eight men. As they receive not only their ordinary pay, but also a bonus of a shilling or eightpenee per man and overtime money besides at the rate of eightpence or ninepenee per hour, you see our fog precautions run into money. “Then the torpedoes or detonators are a considerable item. They are little round iron objects containing inside three caps filled with gunpowder. They are attached by a tin handle to the railway. Every signaler places two of them before every advancing train. The cost Is Is 3d a dozen, and many thousands are used in the course of a day.” “And what is the system employed by the signalers?” queried the reporter. “It is very simple. They are provided ’frith a lamp and green and red flags, and then follow the lead of the signal box. As the detonators explode the train slow,: down or stops. The signaler on duty then displays to the driver a green flag if the line is clear and a red one if blocked. If the flags are not visible in the fog the red or green lights of the lamps are used.’’ Great precautions are also, taken at the docks, and large placards headed “Special Notice as to Fogs” are to be seen on the fences near the dock gates and in the publh houses near by. Many persons have walked cverboard anil been drowned during fogs, and the notices have been in use for several seasons.

HOT WATER FROM LAMP POSTS. An Invention for Utilizing AVnste Heat —lues to Wlileb It May Be Put. London Telegraph. The developments of the “penny-in-the-slot” system have been many and diverse, but none has appealed to quite so practical a demand as one shown recently to an invited company at the Crystal Palace, which, if realizing one-quarter even, of the claims put forth on its behalf, will effect little short of a revolution in workingclass domestic economy. In the fewest possible words, the problem has been worked out of utilizing the heat generated by the ordinary gas lamp of the streets for the purpose of warming water to boiling point, and an influential syndicate has been formed to turn to useful account a discovery of so many possibilities Calculations show that a sum of L 200,000 is expended annually on the gas Illuminations of the London streets, and it is urged that If the heat of only one-tenth of lamps in use were turned to account no less than 120,000,000 gallons of boiling w . at , er could £e made available at a commercial profit at a cost of a half-penny a gallon to the public. The 'dea. it should be explained, has been carried far beyond the merely theoret cal stage For the Vast four months there has been in full working order at the Crystal Palace an exact model of an ordinary “street refuge” lamp of six gas jets, which has supplied as much as 125 gallons daily nf hailing wiiter to tho stall holders and frugal Excursionists glad to be able to make their own tea. T lie idea has been brought not only to the notice of and S'on bv various important provim .a vestries as those of Liverpool and Nottingham but to that of St. Martin-in-the-Fields London, who have made concessions to the syndicate by which they anticfmite that quite half the present cost of illumination will be saved to. the ratenavers Among the numerous visitors who Save* inspected the system are the chairmen of ‘several public and sanitary bodies m this country as well as the director of he Mun Sal Council of Naples. Cor,salera ble alteration and adaptation will be necessary to turn existing lamps to a* count but it was emphatically promised that within the next eight weeks one would be in full working order on Trafalgar square. and before Christmas at least a dozen would be available in London. It is intended to place side by side with them automatic machines for the delivery of half-penny and penny packets of tea. coffee cocoa, sugar and meat extract, so that the working man or woman to whom even farthings are important, or w'hose duties call them out late at night or in the eaily morning may always be able to obtain a m,p of warm and comforting sustenance r Phe system is to he know T n as the Pliho waste-heat economizer, and the particular scientific claim to attention that it can put forward is that it has overcome the uifflcultv of transferring the heat at the top of a lamp to the bottom, or vice versa. T h is hJs been met by a simple automatic device bv which cold water is fed into a spiral coil and superheating chamber placed about a foot above the flame. In This the waiter is converted into steam, which is expelled by its own expansive force through an ordinary dead-weight safety valve, down or up a pipe, to the base of the column, or. in a house, to the floor above, where, through coils of iron nines it heats the water contained in the reservoir. This reser olr. in the case of an outdoor lamp, is connected with the water main of the street, and. by a further clever application of the automatic principle as soon as a gallon is draws off the boiler fills again. Due provision has been made against explosion, and after cold water has been introduced there is a boldly printed thermometer to show the would-be purchaser of the next half-penny worth the exact temperature within and the moment that full boiling point is reached. As a rough estimate of what each lamp thus transformed may be expected to achieve, every cubic foot of gas burned should heat one gallon of water per hour, without in the least detracting from the illuminating power of the light, of w'hich, indeed, the heating process is wholly independent. Moreover, in appearance the lamps remain practically unchanged. The superheating chamber is contained in a dome no more

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1897.

assertive than that In present use. while all the effect cf the reservoir below Is to suggest that the lamp stands upon a massive square pedestal. An effective design of a mythological head, whence the water flows, a tiny trough to catch and carry off the waste, an enameled drinking cup, chained, and a small handle released by the introduction of the coin complete the fittings. The principle Is applicable to domestic gas burners, and In fiats, small households or sick rooms it will probably find wide acceptance. In blocks, however, of ’’model dwellings” it is likely to meet a special want of humble housekeepers, w-ho now huy so largely of “shop bread,” tinned provisions, margarine and jam, and who, coining home late and tired after the day’s toil, will welcome a boon that will save the lighting of the fire and waiting for the kettle to boll. The oniy point not made quite clear in the recent exhaustive demonstration is as to the retention of heat, or how-, supposing the gas be turned off at the main at 5 on a summer’s morning, the working-class mother might depend upon the street lamp to make the tea for breakfast and supply hot water to wash the baby at, say, 8 o’clock. It would ruin the scheme In a fortnight to permit poor people to put in their half-pence and receive in return a supply of merely tepid water. A RESOURCEFUL PEOPLE. They Had No Holy Place, So They Killed a Man and Made One. Philadelphia Telegraph. Those terrible Afridis who are fighting against the British are creatures of infinite resources, and when they want a thing they generally get it one way or another. Before the recent outbreak the Afridis established a “Ziarat,” or place of pilgrimage, in their country, and the way they did it amounted to a stroke of genius. The neighboring tribes all had Ziarats, and the people went on pilgrimages to them and boasted of the virtues emanating from the dead holy men who were buried beneath the shrine. Now. there does not seem ever to have been any holy man among the Afridis, and in order to have a real Ziarat you must first have a holy man to bury. The Afridis nad been busy so many centuries robbing caravans and stealing sheep that they had not had time to pay any profound attention to their spiritual welfare, and really did not feei the want of a place of pilgrimage. Not long ago, however, some Mullahs appeared among them and began to point out their deficiencies in this respect. It was shown to them that they did not even have a Ziarat, and were in a bad way generally. A wave of religious fervor swept over the tribe, and it was resolved that something must be done at once or black eyes and lemonade would not be their portion in the Mohammedan heaven. A council of the leadirig' men was called, and, after much deliberation, it was decided that what was most needed was a Ziarat. If they could only get a Ziarat they would feel comparatively respectable, and there would be no further cause for complaint on the part of the Mullahs. Then the question arose as to getting a saint for the shrine. One of the chiefs said chat he knew of a Khattak. who lived out among tho hiils. who would fill the bill, but he was unfortunately still alive. The council thought that that might be remedied, and so the Khattak was sent for. He was put through rigid examination as to his high principles and general virtues, and he brought a lot of testimony to prove how holy ho was.. if 'His ; examination being satisfactory, they slew the astonished Khattak then and there."‘affd bursts a big pile of stones over his body. Then they proclaimed their deed, and in a week the pilgrims were flocking to the new Ziarat, and the reproach was removed from the land. Naturally the men who nlanned and executed this pious ‘coup” were looked upon by the Afridis as rnblic benefactors o” approved piety. Among the Afridis the man most respected is the man who is the most expert hies. In fact, thievery is the only road to Hstinction among them. The scheme by which, until of late, Britain muzzled these desperate folk is ingenious and worthy of note. To pay an Afridi to behave himself every day of the week is a course too expensive for any government. But by arrangement they have undertaken, at a price, to behave after the fashion of Christians on two days a week. The other five are devoted to throat-cutting, pillaging and the usual business of life, but on the remaining two they have hitherto sat quietly on their hilltops and watched with watering mouths the rich caravans pass to and fro in the pass beneath. If a shot was fired on those days the tribe on whose ground the outrage took place got 1,000 rupees stopped out of its allowance next quarter day. Os this sum the man fired at got 500 rupees, or his relations If it happened to be a good shot, while the government w-as the richer for the rest.

THREE POPES AT ROME. A Case Wlileli Illustrates the Rivalry Between the Pontiffs. Rome Letter in Pall Mall Gazette. English people wall be aware that the three greatest dignitaries of the Catholic Church are each commonly called “pope.” n order to demonstrate the great pow r er ind influence they enjoy. The first, of course is the real pontiff, called the “white -iope;” the second is the general of the Jesuits, the “black pope,” so named because of their habit, w'hich is entirely black, and the mysterv and darkness reign;ng in the order, and the third is the prefect of the Propaganda Fide, the “red pope,” whose jurisdiction extends over all the bishops of the world, the designation “red” being used because the prefect is always a cardinal. What seems odd to the outsider is that these three “popes” are often in conflict one with the other. This can really never cease, because of the immense power each wields. The divergencies and struggles have generally been between the “w'hite” and “black” popes, when the latter have not found in the former docile •’ollowers of their views, either political or religious. . Pius IX seemed to have the energy to emancipate himself from his contemporary “pope ” the Belgian Father Baecker, when, on ascending the pontifical throne, he gave the constitution to his people, and two vears later, in 1848, sent the pontifical troops to fight with the Piedmontese against Austria for the independence of Italv. Such a course, if persisted in. would have united all Italy under the ruie of the papacy, for what Italians at that time wished above all things w'as to free countrv from foreign domination and unite Italy, ‘under little matter what sovereign. So much was this so that Garibaldi, hearing in South America of the step taken bv Pius JX. rushed to the peninsula to offer his sword in the service of the Pope. But the pontiff had worked and acted against the wishes of the Jesuits, and soon had to make a radical change by inaugurating that period of reaction which was nothing more or less than yielding to the dictates of the "black" pope, lhis is the latest example of such a struggle, hut in the history of tho church instances are not wanting, some ending tragically, it is said, for the real Pope. „ The conflicts between the white and “red” popes are less conspicuous to the general public, being almost exclusively about religious matters. Something of the kind has been going on of late, and has now reached a. critical point, between Leo XIII and Cardinal Miecislao Ledochowski, the present prefect of the Propaganda, famous for his fierce struggle with Bismarck, to which, with its relative imprisonment, he owed his rise to the purple. The Pope and his secretary of state. Cardinal Rampolia. would have liked to introduce radical reforms in the Propaganda, taking from its jurisdiction all those regions where there is no reason for the existence of missions, such as England, Germany. Russia. America, etc., where the people, although Protestant or schismatic, are alreadv Christians, and leaving under the rule of the Propaganda only the apostolic prefectures and vicariates of those regions where the populations are idolaters or infidels. . .An example will give better than anything else a clear idea of how the two popes, the “white” and the “red,” stand. Lately a priest of an Oriental Catholic Church, who was going to Belgium, had the authorization of the Pope to collect money there for his church, bearing letters of introduction from the papal secretary of state to the nuncio at Brussels for the purpose. It was as though a door had been closed in his face. Cardinal Goossens, the only wearer of the purple of that oountrv. absolutely forbade anything of the kind, having had no instructions from the Propaganda, and no remonstrances or authority of the Vatican could change his decision. Belgium, one of the most Catholic countries in Europe, being still under the jurisdiction of the ganda. Cardinal Ledochowski energetically and vigorously opposes any change, saving that so long as he remains prefect he w'iil a"ow no diminution of the prerogatives belonging to his office. The friction between him and the Pope has reached such a height that in the last private circle he'd by XITT it was remarked that he addressed himself to every cardinal present except T,edochowski, for whom he not find a word, even when the prefect kissed his hand. Ilart n Presentiment. Boston Traveler. Mrs. Meyer—What’s the trouble. Mrs. Schulz? You are in bad humor this morning. Mrs. Schulz—You see. my husband stayed at the club every night last week until after midnight. Last night I made up my mind to sit up, determined to give him a curtain lecture when he got in late. And what do you think? The fool came home at 9 o’clock’

HOW RAISINS ARE CURED ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL INDUSTRIES OF CALIFORNIA. A Food Product of Increasing Importance—The Grapes Are Dried in the Sun in the Vineyards. San Francisco Letter in New York Post. Early rains have spoiled immense quantities of grapes in the California vineyards. Tho raisin-growers suffer more than the winemakers, as wine grapes are used nearly as fast as they show, by the saccharo.neter, that they aie ready for the press, w-hlle raisin grapes when ripe must still be dried in the field. But prices for raisins, though probably a little higher than in recent years, will still be reasonable, for the main crop is already in the packing houses or on the way to market. I remember very w-ell the troublesome and crude beginnings of the raisin industry in California. A few men, whose names are nearly forgotten now, and who were laughed at by the newspapers, began to dry grapes of various kinds. This was about IS7O, and the men who finally proved that a raisin could be made in California were W. W. Blowers, of Woodland, George Briggs, of Yuba City. Mr. Dietz, of Sacramemo, William West, of Stockton, and a few others of less note. They spent money until some of them were almost penniless, going to Spain, Zante and other places to study the business as far as the very natural local jealousies of raisin makers abroad permitted such investigations; importing r ited vines and cuttings from all sorts of p.aces, some of which proved to have been wrongly labeled, and not to be raisin grapes at all; trying experiments with vineyards on different soils, and with various kinds of drying apparatuses and patent arrangements. Technically, almost any kind of grape will dry into a useful cooking product, and will often be fit to eat. Even in old Spanish times in California the surplus Mission grapes were dried, and along in the fifties and sixties such dried grapes found sale at good prices. Hard and full of seels, the product nevertheless formed the basis of many a pioneer grape pie. But, as one might say that almost every variety of prur.us will dry into a dried plum, but only a few varieties will make prunes, so we find that the raisin of commerce requires for its production a peculiarly firm, sweet grape of high flavor, thin, transparent skin, and the capacity to dry rapidly and easily. There are hundreds of varieties of wine grapes, but the good raisin grapes can be counted on the fingers of both hands—and there is still room for improvement. VARIETIES OF GRAPES.

There is the Muscat group, which produces the bulk of the raisins of the world. This consists of Muscat of Alexandria Muscatello, Gordo Blanco, the famous Huasco of Peru (a seedling Muscat) and one or two others, all yellow or greenish in color, all possessing a sweet, musky flavor and all immense bearers. There is the seedless group, including Sultana, Thompson’s seedless and one or two more, some very sweet., some more or less acid and popular for cooking, and all quite small in comparison with the Muscats. There are the white and black Corinths, the true “currant” grapes of Greece, but these varieties are as yet of little importance in California, as wherever tried they degenerate in quality, often producing seeds and becoming coarse. The one great fault of the leading varieties of raisin grapes is that they produce a succession of crops extending over the whole season from August until frost, which often finds the vines covered with small, half-grown clusters. A variety which gave its entire yield in one midseason crop, which could be gathered, cured and taken to the packing house before danger of early rains, would enable growers to make more money, and yet to sell the raisins at a considerably lower price per pound than they do now. Greater si*e of berries and fewer or smaller seeds are also desirable qualities. To such ends as these the attention of Intelligent hybridizers Is being dlreeled Returning to the history of the Industry, it is curious that when raisins of fine grade were first produced by Blowers and others, they could hardly sell them even here. The foreign article had a “different flavor, people said. This was merely the flavor of age and staleness; two-year-old raisins were all that usually reached California then, and Blower’s product was called “raw ’ and tough. In fact, he tried a process of semiroasting, to give darker color and more of the sugar crystals common in old raisins. Aside from this, it is certain that our newer and richer lands produced a raisin of stronger and different flavor from that or Valencia. For a time it was thought necessary to imitate foreign labels and packages in the most exact manner, and a sea voyage for our own raisiiisi was even recommended. Mr. Blowers, after exhibiting raisins from a very small vineyard in the town of Woodlands at state and county fairs, planted ten acres, which were in bearing by 1875. in which year he marketed 30.000 pounds. That year he also so*d upwards of 120,000 grape cuttings. These, figures are from the California Horticulturist for September. 1876, and were given by Mr. Blowers himf-ielf. I speak of this with especial exactness because, in various review's of the industry, it has been said that no raisins were made in California before 1876. The development of the business is sufficiently wonderful without taking six or eight years of hard pioneer work from its history. INDUSTRIAL GROWTH. After 1576 large sums of money were made, and the planting of vineyards took place on a great scale, first In Yolo and Solano, counties, afterward in Los Angeles and San Bernardino, and finally in Fresno. Tulare, Kern and Kings, where the Industry has now found lt§ most suitable home upon rich sandy loams o£ten strongly im pregnated with alkali salts, which, when not present in excess, add vigor to the vine and high flavor to the grape. The process of making raisins is best studied at Fresno, the leading town of the central San Joaquin valley region.. When 1 first saw the place in 1877 it was a small, new village in the midst of wide stretches of sand. A single irrigation ditch watered a few' acres, and men were planting fruit trees and vines. The sites for the great colonies of later years w’ere being surveyed. Miss Austin, one of the pioneers, was at work in her small vineyard. There was one struggling little newspaper, the owmer of which offered me a half interest, free, if I would “take hold to boom the richest valley on earth and help make a city right here.” At the present time Fresno has a population of 12,000. The tributary orchards contained in 1896 some 348.500 trees, half of which are of bearing age. The area devoted to raisin varieties of grapes is now' about 35.000 acres. The raisin crop of 1890 exceeded 2L000.000 pounds, and by 1895 the Southern Pacific Railroad had shipped from Fresno county, chic-fly from Fresno, the town of the same name, the enormous quantity of 83,924,142 pounds of “raisins and dried grapes”—the latter used elsewhere for making wine. The raisin crop alone at this period exceeded 60.000,000 pounds. The best estimate of the 1897 crop now' obtainable from the raisin packers themselves is 75.000,000 pounds, allowing for the damages of recent rains. A man who desires a raisin vineyard ploughs deeply and plants cuttings of the most approved varieties, where the vines are to stay, at distances of from six to twelve feet apart. These root very easily, and are cut down to stumps of fifteen inches in height, which form the permanent bearing vines. In four years the yield is considerable, and the crop increases in size and quality for several years. The large amount of water available when necessary reduces the ravages of the phylloxera to a minimum. PROCESS OF CURING. When the grapes are “dead ripe,” the superb clusters, equal in size, quality and apppearance to the best hot-house products, are cut from the vines and laid upon wooden trays of two or three feet in size, w'hich are put in the vacant spaces in the vineyard. The expensive drying-floors of Spain give no better results; the less the grapes are handled the finer the bloom and color of the raisins. When one side is sufficientlv dried the grapes are inverted into another tray without shifting their relative positions. The whole field process is simple. cheap, cleanly and effective. Men and women and children work in the vineyards and have become experts at the business. The quality of the raisin is decided by daily attention in the field, tipping the trays to get more sun, piling them to cover from showers, and finally bringing the contents of many trays into large "sweat-boxes” six or eight inches deep, where the skin becomes tender and the needed moisture is

evenly distributed. The same sweating method is used with lemons, to reduce the thickness of the rind. From the raisin-growers’ vineyards and warehouses, the great sweat-boxes go to the packing houses. At this point the product usually passes from the growers’ ownership, bringing him from 2tz to 3 cents a pound, ungraded, in the sweat-boxes. The best vineyards yield from one to one and a half tons of such raisins per acre. Hundreds of teams move along the wide, macadamized roads of the raisin districts, taking raisins to the packers. Clusters of raisins fall to the ground and are picked up by the town children: the country youngsters are surfeited with fresh grapes and raisins, so that they can eat no more. METHODS OF PICKING. Packing companies, with ample capital, grade and pack raisins of every variety, under different brands. The cases range in size from one-pound pasteboard boxes of machine-seeded Muscats (a comparatively new product), to fifty-pound wooden boxes of stemmed Muscats, of Seedless Sultanas, and of other varieties. The cluster grapes—that is, of raisins packed In carefully selected bunches, not stemmed —require much skilled labor. The best packing houses use American labor for all higher grades; boys, girls, and men of much experience put up all the fine Five Crowns and Six Crowns, the best qualities known to the trade. A ten-pound box of Six Crowns, from one of the leading packing houses, is as beautiful a sight as the American fruit trade can show; single clusters large enough to make nearly an entire layer fill the box, and the grapes are the largest and best that can be grown at the present time. In all. the packers make four grades of seed raisins, beginning with Two Crowns, a small, cheap but good article for general consumption; they pack three or four kinds of seedless grapes; they put up several kinds of fancy trade packages and “small cartons” according to demands, but can have nothing better than Six Crowns to fill them with. On a pinch, for exhibition purposes, a good nouse can till a table with perhaps thirty quite distinct and attractive grades and varieties of raisins. Three Crowns and Four Crowns form the great middle-class raisins. It is possible that in time most of these will go to market seeded by machinery, but seeded raisins have yet to become widely known and popular. The trade term “Crown” has been borrowed and translated from the Spanish; it is really a conventional symbol, stamped on the box, one or more crowns being u;ed. The sizes of the boxes used for cluster raisins are naturally those made customary many years ago, but in both larger and smaller packages, and in the grading California raisin makers have shown much originality and good sense. Bags, used for a time, are now wholly discarded. Boxes are made of the best Sierra lumber—soft white pine, spruce, and tamarack —and the paper and labels, which formerly were apt to be too cheap and gaudy, are now more artistic. In this direction, however, there is still room for improvement.

EFFECT OF ALTITUDE ON MAN. Explanation of the Restorative Effect of Mountain Air. Letter in London Standard. An interesting summary is given in Nature of a French book by Dr. Paul Regnard on the “Effect of Altitude on Man.” Many of us have ascertained by experience that, when we fell "used up” after a long period of hard work, we recover tone most quickly by seeking some quiet mountain resort, at a few thousand feet above sea level. In the Alps, the most suitable spots, as every one knows, are found from about four thousand to seven thousand feet. Below the one the midday heat is apt to be too great, above the other the temperature is often too low for comfort. In such a place the air from the first has an exhilarating effect, and, after inhaling it for a few days, vigor returns, and life becomes an enjoyment. Dr. Regnard tells us why this occurs. The first experiment—and this was only made in a very general way—was about the middle of the present century. A Swiss Protestant clergyman, Kraenbuhl by name, had been struck by the marked difference between the children from the mountains and those of certain schools in Berne and Zurich. The former were sturdy and ruddy, the latter weakly and anaemic. He arranged for some of these—organizing a “children’s county holiday” on a protracted scale—to wve at Beatenberg. This, now becoming well known as a health resort, is a mountain village, on the north side of the Lake of Thun, nearly 4,000 feet above sea level. The effect was marked — in a few months the children had greatly improved in health. Dr. Guggenbuhl’s hospital for Cretins on the Abendberg, near Interlaken, produced similar results. It was discovered some years ago by Paul Bert that the blood of animals living at high altitudes absorbed more oxygen than did that of similar animals at a lower level. It was next found that this blood was richer in the coloring matter (haemoglobin.) The third step was to discover that not only was the latter increased, but also the number of red corpuscles in the blood was still more augmented. This was further corroborated by the observation that when animals descended from a higher to live at a lower altitude, the number of red corpuscles in their blood decreased. Direct experiments also showed that these corpuscles notably diminished in number in an atmosphere which was abnormally rich in oxygen. Now, the blood absorbs oxygen in the lungs, and transfers it to the tissues of the body. This is done by the red corpuscles through the agency of the haemoglobin. Hence, the more corpuscles, the more thoroughly the carrying work is done. So the mountain air has the following effect: Suppose a weakly, or even a consumptive, patient goes up into the mountains. His badly nourished condition renders his tissues an easy prey to the microbes which have contrived to effect a lodgement under the insanitary conditions of his previous life. But when he breathes an air less rich1v supplied with oxygen, his blood is not able to absorb enough for its requirements: a “reaction” is set up; new corpuscles are formed, which gradually acquire the normal amount of haemoglobin, and thus a host of recruits is added to the pigmy carriers, the work of transference of oxygen is much more effectively performed, and the result is the better nutrition of the body. It resists the assaults of the destructive microbes; they no longer ircrease and multiply, but dwindle—perhapr are slaughtered (for such things do occur) by the army of defense. When the patient descends to a lower altitude the red corpuscles decrease in number, but the good effects remain, and the quality of the blood is now much more satisfactory than it was before the visit to the health resort. Mountain sickness, also, Is connected with the quantity of oxygen. This is due to asphyxia of the tissues, which are unable to obtain a sufficient supply (at a time, owing to muscular exertion, it is most needed), in consequence of the diminution in amount of that element at considerable altitudes. This malady, no doubt, often comes from want of proper training, but even the most experienced climbers have felt it at great elevations. At the top of Mont Blanc almost half the atmosphere by weight lies below our feet, which, of course, implies a greatlv-diminished sunnly of oxygen. Mr. Whymper and his guides suffered severely when encamped at anout 16,600 feet in the Andes, and Sir Martin Conway found in the Karakoram Himalayas the effect was always perceptible at this height, while at about twenty thousand feet the lassitude and difficulty of breathing became painful. -Thus, of oxygen, like of many other good things, one may have too much, as was already well known, but one may also have too litt'e. . AFRICANS HARD TO KILL. Only Slightly Hnrt by Injuries That Would Be Fatal to Caucasian*. Wadi-Halfa Letter in London News. The constitutions of the peasantry in this part of Africa are marvelous, but not more marvelous than is the extraordinary immunity from serious accident that they appear to enjoy. They are the most careless, irresponsible, happy-go-lucky folk that the mind can imagine. They have absolutely no respect for the pow’er of steam, and are wholly careless of gradations of Impact. You could not persuade them in ten years that to be struck by any project’ng portion of a train carrying five hundred tons’ weight and traveling at the rate of twenty miles an hour was in any way more formidable than being kicked by angry cow. Both blows hurt—that is all. And nature appears to be in the conspiracy with them to maintain this condition of ignorance. Accidents befall them that with white men would entail an inquest and appeal to the employers’ liability act. And they do but rub themselves and grin. Nothing seems to hurt them seriously. For instance, not long ago a train, heavily laden and running on the down grade at top ajeed—say, twenty-five to thirty miles an hour—approached to a spot where a “straightener” was standing close beside the line. Behind one of the carriages was a solid platform of wooden beams, projecting a foot or two on either side. This was the “zeer” platform, so built in order that the zeers—great porous water jars of the kind in which Morgiana hid the forty thieves—might catch th* rush of air and the water be thus cooled. The train came on; the “straightener” remained—as though he had calculated it to a nicety—iust in the right place to be struck with most force by the projecting timber. Os course, everyone shouted at him. and equally of course he paid no sort of attention, with the result that the blow took him full in the back of the head. At the moment the train could not be stooped, but from the station about a mile farther on Lieutanant Blakeny sent back a bearer party with everything necessary- for first aid. convinced in his mind, however (he had seen the occurrence), that the man

he Saks Store J Special Offerings for This Week. j Men’s All=Wool Suits and Overcoats I That from weave-worth and tailor-worth deserve a better fate than the bargain counter TUp re all-Wool Cheviots, in I ±3 La x L*s checks and plaids —dark — i colors—single and double-breasted, and full 1 $7.50 values. The Overcoats "ST’S black cassimere—and full $7.50 values. This Week They Go at . *j $5.00 j*^* : Regardless of the low marking, we positively and fully guarantee every inch of the goods —every stitch of the making—every detail of the fit. Ti=t2 OFF: ' This week we offer all our sterling silver novelties —our toilet sets, manicure sets, shaving sets, work boxes, glove boxes and handkerchief boxes at exactly half price.

must infallibly have been killed. When the bearer party returned the sergeant in charge reported that the poor victim was "zazan shwier,” i. e., rather cross. There was nothing else the matter with him, and the next day, having got over his pardonable. vexation, he went to work as usual. Again on another occasion, and still on the down grade, at night a navvy lost his cap overboard. It was the flimsiest apology for a cap, but it was apparently dear to him, so he jumped out after it. W’hen the circumstance was reported at the next station an engine w r ent back to collect him, and met him hurrying along quite comfortable and very pleased with himself; he had found it. PROMOTED FOR GALLANTRY. A New' York Policeman Rewarded for Catching a. Burglar. Theodore Roosevelt, in the Century'. Early in our term we promoted a patrolman to the grade of roundsman for activity in catching a burglar under rather peculiar circumstances. I happened to note nis getting a burglar one w eek. Apparently lie nad fallen into the habit, for he got another the next week. In the latter case the burglar escaped from the house soon after midnight and ran away towards Park avenue, with the policeman in hot chase. The New’ York Central Railroad runs under Park avenue and there are a succession of openings in the top of the tunnel. Finding that the policeman was gaining on him the burglar took a desperate chance and leaped down one of these openings, at the risk of breaking his neck. Now, the burglar was running for his fiberty and it was the part of wisdom for him to imperil life or limb; but the policeman was merely doing his duty, and nobody could have blamed him for not taking the jump. However, he jumped; and in this particular case the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the unrighteous. The burglar had the breath knocked out of him and the “cop” didn't. W’hen his victim could walk tne officer trotted him around to the station house, and a week afterward he himself was promoted, it appearing, upon careful investigation, that he was sob_r, trustworthy and strictly attentive to his duty. , Here again it seems to me that we followed the eminently common-sense plan of promoting a man who had earned his promotion by faithful and distinguished service and by proved superior capacity. We cared no more for the policeman's views on the tariff or the currency than we did for those of the burglar. Our interest and the interest of citizens generally was to have the officer catch that burglar anu otherwise do his duty. If he did his duty we were for him; if he did not we were against him; in neither event did we care whether the officer had or had not the backing of the congressional delegation of the city or the central committee of the county. Os course, as before, this exposed us to wild outcries from the local political bosses and heelers, and much sneering at “civil-service reform:” but all the outcries and sneers meant was that we were doing our duty as decent men and as public officials, with some siignt appreciation of what was implied by the worus honor and uprightness. Political organizations are eminently necessary and useful; but when they are seized by professional spoils politicians of low morality, w r ho run the “machine” in their own interests, who clamor against honesty and defy decency and rail against that device for obtaining clean government which is known as civil-service reform—then it is time for all citizens who believe in good citizenship to rise in revolt. MASON AND DIXON LINE. .Many of the Stones Marking the Famous Boundary Are Mifteiing. Letter in Hanover (Pa.) Record. Mason and Dixon’s line, so much heard of during the exciting anti-slavery times prior to IS6I, when the great civil war broke out, passes along the southern boundary of Cordorus, Manheim and W’est Manheim townships, iork county, and at the point where it crosses the Baltimore and Hanover turnpike is seven or eignt miles distant from Hanover; along that portion of West Manheim township where it joins Adams county it is about six miles distant. This line was run by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two eminent civil engineers, who were brought from England by the heirs of William Penn and Lord Baltimore to establish a true and correct boundary line dividing their respective proprietary possessiens—Pennsylvania and Marylandlong in dispute, and was commenced in 1763 anu finished in 17*7. four years being occupied in the survey. A miles one or was inaced at each and every mile along the entire length of the line as surveyed, and at every ten miles a larger and more elaborate stone was erected, with the Pennsylvania coat of arms on one side and those of Maryland on the other. . . , . These stones were about three feet high, and many of them yet remain in their original positions, marking the famous boundary line between the northern and southern sec-

tions of the country—a sectional line made famous and historic by the advocates, and proclaimed and recognized as such in the national halls of legislation by the statesmen of the North and South in their heated discussions of the slavery question in the antebellum days. These stones are of a peculiar species of granite, and were brought from Scotland in vessels at the time the survey was made and transported the entire length of the boundary jine by pack mules, a slow and tedious job, and it is to be regretted that any one should have been so vandal-,like as to remove any of them, even for relics, or to utilize them about their premises; but, unfortunately, this has been done, and quite a number of them are missing and have totally disappeared and their whereabouts are unknown. The County Commissioners of York and Adams counties a few years ago made an effort looking to the preservation of these boundary stones, and passed along the line of their respective counties to note their condition and as far as possible restore and replace them in their original locations. Some were found to bo lying prostrate on the ground, others mutilated, and here and there others removed and carried away, leaving a gap several miles in the line unmarked. An effort should be made to discover the whereabouts of the missing stones, and the persons in whoso possession they are and the parties compelled to restore them, if still intact and perfect, to their legitimate and proper position In this historic boundary line, wt)leh should be faithfully preserved. ltenl Cirlef. Chicago Record. “Dreadful about Sirs. Rixby’s sudden death.” "What! Is she dead? I was just going over to sell her a ticket to our charity bazar.” His Preference. Detroit Free Press. Patient—Poctor, this is an awful bill of yours. The Doctor—l saved your life. sir. Patient—But now I don’t want to live. ECZEMA ON HANDS” Completely Covered, and Between the Fingers Skin Perfectly Raw. Husband Had to Dress and Undress Her Like a Baby. Physicians* Medicines Drove Her Almost Crazy. Hears of CUTICURA. Husband Goes Twenty Miles for It. First Application Gives Perfect Ease in Five Minutes, and a Night’s Sound Sleep. My hands were completely covered with Eczema, and between my fingers the skin was perfectly raw. I had to sit with both hands held up, and away from the fire. My husband had to dress and undress me likeab&by. X tried the best physicians, but their medicinee gave me no relief, and drove me almost crazy. I was advised to try Ccticira Remedies, and did so, although my husband had to go twenty miles to get them. As soon as he got back, I used the C trice BA < ointment), and flee minutes after the first application / teas perfectly easy, and slept soundly all that night. llefore I commenced using CCTICCRA Remedies I coul l get no ease night or day. I could not hear to get warm, it would put me in a rago of itching. I always keep OmcußA. Remedies in my house now, ami recommend them to everybody, because of their wonderful effect. Yours gratefully, AUN'iid M. HARRIS, Push, Mecklenburg Cos. Va Srtsnr Cess Ts**rmsT ros Tonrgnro, DtsnncKiNQ Ui'MOBS. Warm baths with devices* Soap, gentle application, of Cvtici'ka (ointment), tha great akin cure, and mild doaca ot Conceit* ILsoltsat, 6 nateat of blood p udders and humor cures. Thia treatment instantly allays itching, burning, sag irritation, removes crust, and scales solte .a, soothes, sad heals, permits rot and sleep, and results in a speedy uu% when all ala# tai.a. _______ Sold throughout the world Ponraa I). *C. CourSals Props., Boston. Ot# - " How tsCura Every Uumcr," ban, EVERY HUMOR

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