Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1902 — A School Boys Travels. [ARTICLE]

A School Boys Travels.

Started from Surrey Sept. Btb, with my father and 8. B. and V. EL Thornton, arrived at Hammond at ten and from there went to the city on the street oare and elevated road. Until six o’clock in the evening saw some of the sights of the oity. One grand sight was the lake and its grand steamboats. We visited Swift’s Packing House. The guide first took us through the cooling rooms, where we saw 30,000 quarters of beef, next to the slaughter house aud from there to the sausage factory where they make 10,000 pounds daily. From there to the soap factory where they were boiling soap in large tanks 30 feet deep and 15 feet in diamater. They mould the soap first in. large bars, weighing from 800 to 900 pounds and make 200 of these bars a day. Then cut those into slabs and then into the small cakes which we buy at our groceries. From there to Montgomery Wards big store and went up in the elevator 394 feet. Then we wended our way to the depot and started for Appleton, Wis , where I was going to visit my sister and husband, Mr. and Mrs. Orlo Abbott. Appleton, the county seat of Outogamie Co. is a beautiful city and has a great many factories. I had the pleasure of visiting some of them while I made my short stay there. We went to the Fox River paper mills, the guide showing us and explaining just how the paper was made. First they have a large tank that the old waste rags are thrown into to be cleaned and then goes through six more and comes out as white as snow ready to be made into paper, the pulp is then spread on a belt ten feet -wide and I guess it has no end, and then through a roller that presses it' out thin, and on through other rollers until it becomes strong enoug to support itself. Then through another process that dries , and polishes it. Then it is rolled in great rolls and taken to another machine and cut into sheets.

We also visited the chair factory, canning factory and novelty works. They also have one Ainericau watch factory there which employs 200 hands and make 200 watches each day, This county is noted for its fine truck and dairy farming. Each farmer can keep from ten to twelve cows on forty acre farm. Last but not least their ineaue asylum kept up for the incurable, is a wonderful place. It has the most beautiful grounds and everything is done to make the place as cheerful for the inmates as possible. Their are 390 acres in the farm and the most trusty inmates help on this farm. Everything is done to restore their minds at the hospital at Milwaukee and if there is no hopes for them they are then brought to this one where they have the best of caro the rest of their lives. George Thornton.