Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1901 — Page 2

WAR ON THE HOPPERS

THE GOVERNMENT PREPARES TO FIGHT THE INSECTS. Peat of the Great Farming Regions of the Weat and Southwe»t to Be Battled Against by Plague—Cause Great Annual Damage. That the United States’ great farming regions in the West and Southwest may be rid of a pest which annually threatens the crops with destruction and causes an enormous financial loss, the government has adopted a new and extraordinary means. Grasshoppers exist in untold numbers in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska, but the situation in Southern Texas seems to lie worse than anywhere else. To relieve the distress occasioned by the grasshoppers, government ontomologists„are putting up in bottles disease germs of a fungous kind, deadly to grasshoppers, and is sending them to parts of the country where the damage threatens to be particularly severe. The fungus is obtained from South Africa, where it has been used with great success recently, vast armies of grasshoppers being literally wiped out by- it. It is propagated artificially by applying a bit of it to a sterilized preparation of gelatine and blood serum, on which the germs multiply rapidly. Thus prepared, the “cultures” are sent nut in glS&s tubes, corked with absorbent cotton and sealed with red wax, each one being enclosed in a pasteboafd cylinder. Directions for use accompany the package. In Colorado last summer there was an outbreak of fungus disease among grasshoppers, and quantities of the dead insects were shipped to Washington and utilized here for making “cul-, tures.” A whitish, thread-like growth

LARGEST KNOWN SPECIES OF GRASSHOPPERS. (The picture shows him one-half life size.)

on the bodies of the victims furnished the requisite germs. These “cultures” have been distributed during the present year in Colorado, experimentally, while the disease from South Africa is being tried in Texas. Infecting the Grasshoppers. On receiving a bottle of the fungus, the farmer is directed, by an accompanying printed slip, to put a number of live grasshoppers in a wooden box, together with a portion of the germ material. They will quickly become infected, when he may liberate all but half a dozen or so. These, when dead, will serve to communicate the disease to other living grasshoppers, placed in the box for that purpose. As fast as they are infected the “hoppers” are to be set free in the fields to distribute the plague among their fellows. The grasshopper is one of the most serious problems encountered by the farmer in the West. Owing to the settlement of great areas which formerly were its permanent breeding grounds, producing regular and enormous crops of the voracious pests every year, the insect no longer appears in those mighty swarms that used to arrive like devastating armies and devour everything green. But even nowadays not a season passes that the “hoppers” do not appear in alarming numbers in some parts of the country, destroying the crops and bringing great loss or even ruin to the helpless agriculturist: The “hoppers” sow their eggs, planting on one season those which are to be hatched the next. The female drills a hole in the ground with the horny tip of her abdomen, and in this she lays about 20 eggs, which are bound together in a mass with mucus excreted by the mother insect. The burrow is filled up with mucus, which makes it watertight. Fiszhting: the Pest, Now the farmer’s best ohance is to destroy the unhatched eggs, and this he tries to do in various ways, the most effective perhaps being to slice off an inch of the top soil, dry it and pass it through sieves to separate the egg masses, which are buried in deep pits. In the wheat growing regions burning

CONSUriPTION MORTALITY LOWEST IN CHICAGO. Dsatss rn IQ.OOO Uvwo Tow » *5 20 2S SO 35 40 4ft (0 BetarPsuh ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ j vismm wmrnmmmmtmmmmmmmmmmmmmtmamammmmmmmmmmm , StPetervb'lt Mmbow. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmamß pan* mmmmmm—mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm N«w York ■■■■■■■■■■ FUbMpbia mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ' ciwfow mmmmmmmmmm—rn* | BcrUo mmmmmmtmmmmmmmrnm MuekM(«r mmmtmmmmmmmm Lonw mmmmmmmmm Cktcafo tmmmmmmFollowing the discussion* at the recent Tuberculhsis Congress in London on the cure and possible eradication of consumption, the London Sphere has compiled the record of deaths in the world’* largest cities. From this it prepared the relative diagram above, which *how* that Chicago has lowest mortality rat* from the disease and Buda-Pesth the highest. » l*~ • »

machines, which arc open gates on ruw ners, filled with lighted pitch pine,' are drawn by horses across the fields. Another method consists in digging pits, into which the swarms are driven, with the help of widespread wings of canvas stretched on sticks. The eggs are enveloped in tough little capsules, not easily broken by pressure between thumb and finger, but when ready to hatch the coat of the ovum is dissolved and releases the insect. When new born the young grasshopper is covered with a sort of veil, which presently splits along the back and is kicked off behind. So long as there is plenty of food in the neighborhood he does not move about much, but when the available' provender is exhausted he starts out to look for another spot. It is in this way that the great migrations are begun, an army of grasshoppers on the march being often as much as a mile wide. They cover the ground densely, devouring as they go all grass, grain and garden truck. Sometimes two such armies cross each other, but each keeps right along in its own course. Some grasshoppers are among the most beautiful insects in the world, with wings resembling in beauty and delicacy of hues the petals of flowers—pink, green, blue and otherwise tinted with many variations. There are some of huge size, which have a spread of nine inches or more from wing tip to wing tip. Anybody who will examine a grasshopper cannot fail to admire the beauty of its construction, and particularly of the armor in which it is clad, though it is a peacable creature and by no means inclined to combat.

In a Smoking Car.

A lady of a truly masculine spirit, accompanied by a small poodle, is said tc have failed sadly the other day in an attempted reformatory movement. She entered the smoking car of a suburban

train and sternly refused, when approached by the conductor, to go into another car, observing that her presence would keep the other occupants from smoking. One thick-skinned wretch, however, insensible to the claims of refinement and reform, began to enjoy his accustomed cigar, which was suddenly snatched from his lips, with the remark in a high treble: “If there is anything I do hate it Is tobacco smoking!” For a time the offender was motionless, then, gravely rising, amid the curiosity of the assembled smokers, he took that little poodle out of the lady’s lap and gently threw him through the window, sighing: “If there is anything I do hate it is a poodle.”

Kissing and Non-Kissing Families.

The New York Sun says that kissing among relatives goes by families, and It is quite true that certain households are known to all their friends as “great kissers.” The members, men, women and children, kiss each other the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, and on any other occasion that they consider sufficiently emotional. Still one may go too far the other way. A woman who came of a kissing family married a man who came of non-kissing stock. At one time her husband went to the railway station to meet a son who had been absent from home for two years, and on his return the wife said: “What did you do when you first saw Jack? Did you kiss him?” “N-no,” faltered the husband and father, “of course I didn’t kiss him.” “I’ll tell you what he said to* me,” volunteered the son. “He said: ‘Well, Jack, was your train on time?' ”

Tea in England.

Tea became known in England albout the middle of the seventeenth century. It was first sold in public houses, as beer is now tapped.

Prohibition of Timber Deck Loads.

No British ship may carry a deckload of timber into a British port between the last day of October and April 16.

Here is one of Italy’s new battle ships., The Regina Margherita, launched this year at Spezia, is to make 20 knots. She is of 13,825 tons, and in armor and armament resembles our own new battle ships. Italy, says the Chix cago American, has ont one, but a whole squadron of high-speed battle ships, able to choose their own time and place of action. The Benedetto Brin and Regina Margherita are of 20 knots, the Sardegua, 11 years old, of 20.1, and the Regina Elena and Vittorio Emmanuele 111. of 22. Here are five battle ships of 20 knots and over. We have not one. Besides these Italy has the Re Umberto, 13 years old, of 19 knots, the limit of our latest ships, just designed and not yet begun; the Sicilia, 10 years old, of 19.2; the Italia, 21 years old, of 18 (a speed not yet reached on an oflicial trial by any of our newest battle ships), the Lepanto, 19 years old, of 18.38, and the Emanuele Filiberto, of 18. Of Italy’s 15 battle ships 10 are of 18 knots and over, 7 of 19 or more, 5 of 20 or better, and 2 of 22. , Italy has not launched a battle ship of less than 18 knots within the last fifteen years. When she laid down the last of her 17-knot ships we did not have a battle ship of any kind built or authorized in our navy. We launched our first-class battle ships eight years later and gave them a contract speed of 15 knots. At that time Italy had in actual service a battle ship of 20.1 knots. s We are not accustomed to consider Italy very much of a naval power; yet the five battle ships of 20 knots and better that she has built or building might make us endless trouble if we were so unfortunate as to have them against us. They could range our whole coast, destroying everything afloat except our battle ships and our fastest cruisers, and remaining themselves in absolute security. They could cut off all trade between "the United States, Cuba and Porto Rico. They could wreck the entrance of the Nicaragua Canal, if that were finished. They could go through the Suez Canal, harry our naval force at Manila and rekindle the insurrection in the Philippines. They could loot our coaling station at Tutuila, carry off our Governor from Guam, as the Charleston did to the Spaniards, and wreck our trade withs Hawaii. They could devastate our Pacific Coast, ruin the shore mines at Nome and capture the gold fleet from Alaska. No battle ships that we could send in pursuit of them could catch them. The only things with which we could hope to bring them to an engagement would be our new armored cruisers, and it might be that these commerce destroyers, without a gun heavier than an 8-inch, and with only six inches of armor, but with the all-im-portant quality of speed, would save us from a danger before which our ponderous battle ships would lie helpless.

EXPENSES OF AN AMBASSADOR.

sixty Thousand a Year Required at the Enropean Capitals. Unlike other governments, ours makes no extra allowance for the living expenses of its representative. Thus It is that many times an important foreign mission has been declined—for financial reasons—by the able statesman to whom it was proffered. If one accepts such a post he naturally feels In duty bound to live up to the standard set by his predecessors, and this usually means that he must have a large private fortune to draw upon. There have been a few instances where such positions have been held by men unable to maintain great establishments, but who have unwisely attempted it by incurring obligations which they could not meet, thus bringing themselves and their government to humiliation. Diplomatic agents are without the pale of the common law of the countries where they are stationed, and if bills are left unpaid creditors have absolutely no recourse. There is a large financial advantage to a diplomat if he is a bachelor, for it is then understood that he has no special obligations in a social way. If he be personally popular he will be overwhelmed with invitations, but need never use any in return excqpt to such small parties of friends as he may care to entertain in his chambers or at a restaurant. The most of the diplomatic corps, however, are married men, for their governments know that upon the social administration by the mistress of the household depends in no small part the success of the official side of the residency.

A diplomatic residence in any of the larger European capitals may easily mean an annual expenditure of from forty thousand to fifty thousand dollars. Only rich men are therefore eligible for these posts, and thus a false standard of wealth is being raised as a test for diplomatic preferment. It is likely that before long our government will lease and furnish perftianent houses for its ambassadors and ministers in the principal foreign countries, and this will go a long way toward correcting a grave fault in the present system. Our ambassador to St. Petersburg had to do house hunting for six months, and was almost in despnir of finding a suitable residence. As it is, he pays more in rates than even the ambassador in Loudon, and it is said the fental is more than a thousand dollars a month.—Woman’s Home Companion.

ENGINE RUN BY SUNSHINE.

Ingenious Yankee Has a Solar Motor in Full Operation in California. Bottled sunshine is one of the dreams of science. When it becomes possible to run motors with the energy of. the 3un's rays without the intervention of coal or steam, the world will be revolutionized. The discoverer of the process will work greater changes than any Alexander of Caesar Who ever lived and conquered. Science has long known how to make steam with sunshine, but the discovery has hitherto taken an experimental rather than a practical form. California now claims the distinction of showing that a “solar motor” may be a commercial success. Perhaps this should have been expected of the land of sunshine, and yet, oddly enough, the machine comes from the foggy coast of New England. The Yankee notion is from Boston and has Just been set up at the ostrich farm

ONE OF EUROPE’S FIGHTING FLYERS.

THE HALIAN BATTLESHIP REGINA MARGHERITA.

near South Pasadena. The sun’s heat is being used to make steam, which in turn funs an engine to pump water. Famous John Ericsson devoted years of thought and experiment to his sun motor, but It was never perfected. The motor shown in the illustration has, however, reached the stage of successful application, and is now on exhibition as a practicable machine, working a 10-horso-power engine capable of lifting 1,400 gallons of water a minute.

The main feature of this sun motor is a huge affair like a glass umbrella minus the handle. It is furnished with 1,800 mirrors, each about two feet long and three inches wide. It swings on a circle thirty-five feet in diameter and concentrates the sun’s rays on a boiler having a capacity of 100 gallons. It takes about an hour to generate steam, showing a pressure of 150 pounds to the square inch.

UNIQUE RAILWAY IN SAXONY.

Suspended from Iron Piers, It Runs to the Top of h Mountain. Consul-General Charles L. Cole, of Dresden, writes that the suspension railway at Loschwitz, Saxony, was opened to traffic this year and is the first mountain railway of its kind for the convenience of passengers in the world. It runs from Loschwitz, a village on the banks of the River Elbe, about five miles from Dresden, to the top of the Rochwitz heights, which command a most beautiful view of the Saxon capital. The railway is 820 feet long, with a gradient of 22 per cent and is constructed according to the “Laugen” system. Thirty-three iron piers of different hight, weighing about 300 tons, the highest being 49.2 feet, carry the rails on which the ears are hung. Each car holds 50 passengers and weighs, when occupied, 12.8 tons. Their shape and construction differs entirely from all other railway cars, and even from those used by the Barmen-Elber-feld suspension railway. A steel cable 1.7 inches in diameter connects the two trains and looks them firmly together. It i& operated by two powerful machines of 80 horsepower each, stationed at the top terminus of the road. The cable lias a strength of flexure of 209,437 pounds. Particular attention and care has been given to devices to Insure the safety of the passengers and to regulate the running of the ears. Each car is provided with three brakes—system Bucher-Durer—two of which work automatically at the least slackening of the tension of the cable and stop the car. The third brake can be operated by hand from the platform of the car. From a hand attached to the disk upon which the cable Is rolled the engineer can always determine the exact position of the cars on the road,

PRACTICAL SUN MOTOR.

and an automatic bell warns him if the train is running too fast. The greatest safety consists in an automatic brake, both at the lower and the top station, which is put into action by the arriving car and stops it, no matter how careless the engineer may be.

A Plunge in Oil.

There is a story told of Mr. Rockefeller’s first venture in the oil business. Indeed, he has been known to tell the story himself, with evident appreciation of its humor. It was away back in the early sixties, when he was engaged in the grain business in Cleveland, Ohio. One of his customers, a Mr. Breed, was the owner of an oil well at Titusville. Mr. Rockefeller became interested in the account of the well, and consented to go to see It with a prospect of purchasing. The next week he appeared. Mr. Breed tells of his visit. “The w«ll was about eight miles below Titusville, on Oil Creek. The roads were very had, and w-e rode horseback. We left the horses tied to a tree, and went the last half-miie on foot. The path led over a sort of bayou six feet across. The oil men threw the sediment from the oil tanks into the bayou, and the mixture of oily mud and water was inky black. “To cross the bayou we had to walk a log, which was slippery from the snow of the previous night. I crossed safely, and was about to offer Mr. Rockefeller a helping hand when he slipped and fell into the bayou. “He sank into the tarry mud nearly to his hips, ruining his clothes, which happened to be new and light-colord. It took us half an hour, working with barrel-staves, to scrape off the tar, so that he could walk. His first remark after he was out of the bayou was: ‘Breed, you’ve got me into the oil business head and ears.’ “He bought the oil and a new suit of clothes before he left Titusville. Mr. Rockefeller and I rarely meet, but when we do we always have a laugh over his ‘first plunge into the oil business.’ ”

Her First Use of the Telephone.

“Marla,” said a business man residing in the suburbs to his wife, “you have been wanting a telephone in the house for a long time. The workmen will cbme and put one In to-day. Call me up after they have gone away to see if it works all right.” Late hi the afternoon there was a call at the telephone In Ills office dbwn town. Putting the receiver to his ear he recognized the voice of his wife, pitched in a somewhat high key. “Is that you, James?" she asked. “Yes.” “Will you please go out right now and mail that letter I gave you this morning?” He had forgotten it, of course, and he obeyed.

Playing Whist for Money.

“Whist halls” are advertised in the eastern papers. Those Institutions are public resorts, where whist is played for prizeß redeemable in money. Poker parlors are prohibited in large New England cities, but the whist hall is much in vogue.

The St. Lawrence River.

Vessels of 4,000 tons can ascend the St. Lawrence to Montreal, a distance of 1,000 miles from the sea. Only one other river In the world, the Amazon, Is navigable to such a distance for craft as large. If there Is any Joy In a family, divide It. Don’t let any one member do all the work.

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY TOLD. Farmer for Four Tears Has Been Unable to Eat—Banker Key Threatened Bnicide Boys Are Held for Robbing the Mail. Thomas Arbuckle, aged 24, of Scott County, has not eaten a particle of food in four years, but still maintains a hold on life by taking liquid food through an artificial opening in his side. This manner of procedure is caused by his cardiac orifice being completely closed. Seven years ago Arbuckle had a severe attack of typhoid fever. When he recovered it was found his cardiac orifice was closed and an operation was performed. The side of his stomach was fastened securely to the wall of his abdomen. An opening was then made through the abdomen, through which he takes his food. Arbuckle has fairly good health and accomplishes the work of the average man each day on the farm. Held for Mobbing the Mail. George Moore and Ulysses Snyder, accused of robbing the mail at Greencastle, were bound over to the United States grand jury by Commissioner Higgins at Terre Haute, on their pleas of guilty. Snyder says he stole the mail pouch at the Monon depot and’gave Moore some of the contents. He also gave Moore checks and drafts amounting "to several thousand dollars. These have been recovered, and properly forwarded. The ooys got only 50 cents in cash and a dollar’s worth of stamps. Moore was out of the State Reform School on parole, but will npw be turned over to the United State authorities. Plight of Banker Key. When Banker J. M. Key, Andrews, was arrested for alleged forgeries, he reached to his pocket and drew a revolver. When 'overpowered he said. ‘‘There is one of two things for me to do, and that is either to go to Michigan City or commit suicide.” When placed in jail he begged for a knife, and asked that his family be not informed of his plight. He was arrested at the instance of O. M. Packard, vice president of the Capital National Bank, Indianapolis, with which he had deposited several thousand dollars’ worth of bad notes.

Boy Attacked by a Carp. The son of Spencer Benadum, Muncie. was fishing in Buck Creek, and a large carp pulled him into the stream. He became entangled in his line. The fish started down stream, returned and attacked the boy. A huge gash was cut in his body by the fish. It was captured by a farm hand, after it had almost drowned the youngster. State News in Brief. The drought is unusually severe in Howard County. Rochester is soon to have a complete new sewer system. Mrs. Gibson Jackson, Madison, tried to drown herself in a cistern. Gravel caved in and killed Frank Bartholomew, GO, at Noblesville. At Vincennes fifty chickens burned yith a barn and contents. Loss, SSOO. Fire destroyed 150 shocks of wheat on the farm of Jacob Deßoy, near Tipton. Frank Purcell, Washington, charged with kicking his wife to death, is in jail. The drought has dried up pastures and the butter famine is general over the State. John N. Wolfington, Frunklin, was made seriously ill from taking headache powders. Marion liverymen have formed a trust and advanced the price of boarding horses $2 on the month. Andrew Carnegie has given an additional $5,000 to the Washington library, making $20,000 in all. George Meakin, aged 35 years, was instantly killed by a Vandalia freight train near his home at Turner. A discarded cigar stub fired the dry grass on Edward Thompson’s farm, six miles north of Elkhart, and $2,500 worth of damage was done. Henry Dold’s big dog sprang playfully upon his little daughter, at Sellersburg, knocking her down. A blood vessel was ruptured and she died. James Willinms, Greencastle,'lias returned from the Oklahoma laud lottery drawing, and says most of the claims after the first thousand are not worth the entry fee. Mr. and Mrs. Silas Stinson are firm believers in Dowieism. Stinson is a well-to-do farmer, four miles north of Colfax. He and his wife have sold their farm, and, after a public sale of their household and other effects, will move to Dowie’s city of Zion. Edward Blakely, who died at Scottsburg a few days ago, was one of the largest men in the State, his weight being 345 pounds. A coffin had to made for him, and it would not go into the country church, where the funeral was appointed. The services were held under a tree. Twelve men lowered the coffin into the grave. State Statistician Johnson said, from observations he had made, that he believed the corn crop in Indiana was practically beyond redemption. “Rain,” said he, “will be of little benefit now. Ruin and an unusually late fall might help conditions, but even then the benefit will be small. The corn stalks have begun to harden, and the stalk is weedy. Even with good ruins from now on the ears of corn will not develop. In some small localities there will be good corn." He sees nothing to justify a belief that there will be more than one-fourth of an average crop. ,

The. Governor’s office finds in investigating the advertisement for the “Long Beach turf house,” that the pictures were sent to many officials, ministers and bankers. At Terre Haute, John Sanders, 71, and Mrs. Emma Warren. 09, were married by Justice Brown. Both had been twice married before this, and they were boy and girl friends. The general offices of the Tinplate Workers’ International Protective Association of America, which hare always been in El wood, will be moved Sept 1 to Wheeling, W. Va.