Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1876 — How Jetties are Made. [ARTICLE]

How Jetties are Made.

The workmen employed by Capt. Eads on the ’Mississippi River jetties live in huts in a cane-brake swamp, and every rise of the tide covers the ground with water. They also endure the bites of the unusually big mosquitoes, and the proximity of alligators. The streets of Port Eads, as the village is called, are planks laid on posts. The jetties are built of willow matting alternated by layers of stones. The w illows are obtained on an island near by, the supply being equal to the immense demand. On the back of the island is a sloping platform, upon which mate are made by laying the willows crosswise and length wife until the mass is thirty inches thick. Strips of wood fi.mly bolted together hold the mat together after it is pressed compactly. Then it is launched toward the spot where it is to be used, attached to guide posts and piled with stones until it sinks. Each mat is 100 feet long and from fifty to fifteen feet wide, according to the place it is made to occupy in the tapering jetty. — Washington Chronicle. • ■ — 1 Titerk is a good deal of consolation just now in the thought, that a man who drops a five-dollar bill Into the contribution box buffers just as much from the heat as one who puts in a counterfeit quarter and takes out a couple of good tcn-cent pieces for change.— Bulletin.