Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1898 — SAILORS' SEWING MACHINES. [ARTICLE]

SAILORS' SEWING MACHINES.

They Are Hand Machines' and Owned by the Men. Visitors on board war vessels in the navy yard will very likely see among the .sailors scattered about the decks smoking, talking, and so on, a sailor at work with a sewing machine. It is a hand machine, and has a pretty heavy base, so that it can be set down on deck and worked eesly without shifting its position. , r The machine is owned oy the man working it. On a big ship like, for example, the battleship Indiana,. carrying a. crew, of'4oo. men or more, there , would probably be found as many as a dozen sewing machines; on a third rate cruiser, a smaller vessel, such, for illustration, as the Detroit, there will be apt to be four or five sewing machines. The machines are oftenest owned by sailmakers and sailmakers’ mates, but they may be owned by sailors; any man on the ship might have a sewing machine if he wanted to. Space IS valuable on a vessel, and so only hand machines are allowed, and to bring a machine aboard permission must be got from the commanding officer. It is not to be supposed that every man in the ship would want a sewing machine; as a matter of fact, comparatively few men do, and those who want to take one aboard are not likely to find any difficulty in the way. A* sailor who has a sewing machine makes and repairs garments for himself and he does work for others for pay. There are not so many sewing machines on the vessel of the new navy as there were on those of the old; the sailor nowadays makes up less of his own outfit than he formerly did; lie draws more completed articles from the Government; but there is st;,ill plenty of work to be done aboard ship with sewing machines, and some money to be made with them yet. Tremendous Exodus to the Klondike. Despite the warnings of those who bare been on the spot, and predict suffering in the Klondike region, thousands of adventurous Americans are wending their way thitherward. AH' of them should be provided with that medicinal safeguard, Hostetter’s Stomach Ritters, which warns and nourishes the system, and prevents malaria, rheumatism, kidney trouble, besides remedying liver complaint. dyspepsia and constipation.