Evening Star Newspaper, July 2, 1892, Page 11

COFFEE CULTURE. The Headquarters of the Trade in Southern Brazil. THE CITY OF SAN PAULO. ‘The Journey to the Plantations Not an Easy One—How the Tree Grows and How the Berries are Picked, Dried and Made Ready for Shipment. Cuauersas, Braztn, May 10, 1892. © INVESTIGATE the whole business of coffee culture and com- merce at its best one must come to this southern province of Brazil. The city of San Paulo is the head- quarters of the coffee lines of railway run into the interior coffee districts. | Champinas : lies about eighty miles sorth of San Paulo, surrounded by the most famous fazendas or plantations. This little interior city has a population of 20,000, and is curiously situated in a deep hollow of the plain, which makes it » very hot, unhealthy and un- comfortable place of residence. From Champinas one may make many interesting ex- eursions to neighboring coffee estates, over country roads beside which Michigan ccrduroys would be like downy beds of ease—on horseback or in “buck boards.” The largest fazen tas lie slong the Rio Parahil year their region is extended. m straight ows of coffee trees are seen, along the bases A TYPICAT, RATLWAT STATION IX THE INTERIOR. | of foothills and some distance up their sloping | ._ It is the same way all along the railway | from Rio de Janeiro to Saa Paulo and from San San Paulo to Champinas and aay back into the interior. Almost the only other product | that attracts attention is the mandioc, the | staple food of the people and which also fur- nishes the tapioca of commerce; but that | strange shrub we must leave for a future letter. | jothing can be more beautiful than a coffee grove, whether clad only in a rich, dark green, or ablaze with scarlet berries, or white with | starry blossoms. They burst into fall | bioom simultaneously in a single night, hiding all the green, and making the whole plantation | white as a snowdrift, filling the air with like that of orange blossoms, only | werful: but in another twenty-four both flowers and fragrance have passed COFFEE NOT A SHRUB. Coffee is not « shrubas is generally supposed, | but a tree, which if allowed to grow untrimmed | wonld attain twenty fect or more in height, but which is generally kept down to eight or ten feet for convenience in picking. A grove can be started by burying the berries or from slips. ‘The latter are preferable, Pisced about six fect apart; and those plants which have been taken from the nursery with considerable earth around their roots will bear fruit in two years, | though their full yield is not attained under | four years. It is calculated that a thousand | thrifty trees will yield 2 fair average of 3,200 | pounds of coffee per annum. but in some parts of San Paulo province the yicld is as high as 6,500 pounds. “There are two and sometimes ARRIVAL OF A COFFEE TRAIN. three harvesis in a year, and after fifteen or twenty years the old trees mst be cut down to ive place to new ones. When fully ripe the (at is about the size, shape and color of a gommon sour cherry or a rather large cran- berry. The tough red skin incloses two grains or seeds. The old way of preparing it for market, still much used in Brazil, is as follows: ‘When the berries have acquired a rich blood red they are picked into bags by the negroes, twenty-three pounds being considered a fair work for one picker. ‘The bags are then emptied on the terreno or drying place, which is gencrally a level piece of ground beaten smooth orcovered with cement. After afew days in the sun the onter skin becomes black, hard and shriveled: and then the berries are pounded in huge wooden mortars. until the skins are broken without injuring the tough grains. By sifting the skins and grains are separated, and ‘the latter are again spread out in the sun until the pellicle enveloping each grain is dry as dust. Then ther are for sale or immediate consumption. IMPROVED METHOD OF DRYING. ‘The improved method now in vogue on the ‘wealthier estates consists in drying the freehly ‘ked grains on wooden trays or quired when dried on the bare ground, and the | outer and inner envelopes are removed by pass- | ing them through two mills. The main feature of, the first mill is a horizontal copper cylinder, whose surface is roughened after the nianner of It revolves against a board, between amp. which and the teeth space is left for the grains | did trade, and from it four | ements, | trench they escape the earthy flavor act | ruse of end bautlogs ts sala etaee te srovered Soe market, and behind all are the alave quarters— a lot of low wooden huts, generally arranged in A HUT IN THE SLAVE QUARTERS. a great quadrangle, closed by» high gate, which is always locked at night. into one of the huts and you will see a dirty hammock or twoswung from the rafters that uphold the thatch. a few cooking ut on the eerth floor and trates of a brush fire th the | middle of the room—seldom anything more or |less. As everybody knows, slavery has been jal hed in Brazii according to law, but the | negro¢s of the interior are virtually slaves, os moch as ever in the bondage of iguorance, poverty and debt. FREIGHT OX THE COFFEE. ‘The freight on a sack of coffee (133 pounds) is about 1 cent per mile; therefore coffee com- ing from the end of the Dom Pedro II railway must pay in the neighborhood of $4 the sack for transportation to the shipping point—one | third of its value when delivered in Rio. From Rio to New York the freight rarely exceeds 60 | cents the anck and it is often as low as 26 cents. | Thus 50 miles of railway in the coun- try where it grows costs more 5,200 miles of ocean. Many of the planters still send their coffee to market by mule train, considering that the cheaper way of transportation. The entrance into Santos of a mule train from the interior is something worth seeing. The train is always preceded by a white horse wearing a string of bells around his neck, and all t | mules obediently follow the leader. Sometimes | froops of several hundred arrive in « morning, and again there are weeks when none appear. Every mule brings two bags of coffee on his back, each bag weighing 133 pounds. Having made long, slow journeys, often of hundreds of miles, the animals are pitiable looking objects when their burdens are removed, for the con- stant sawing of the loads has not only abraded the skin, but in many instances ground off the ftesh to the bone. The bags are dumped in high piles in the custom house yards and atound them cargadores immediately collect like swarms of black flies. There is an export duty to pay, and every bag must be pierced and a sample withdrawn, in order to determine the | quality and the duty thereon. The tariff, based. | on the market price, is gulated anew every Saturday. The sampling instrament is a brass | tube, shaped exactly like a pen. Whon the | point is pushed into a sack of coffee the berries Tun down through the tube, and after a hand- fal has been abstracted the instrament is with- drawn and its point turned over like a crochet hook, thus closing the opening. The operation occupies only a few seconds, and the ‘“‘samples” taken out amount to many tons in the course ofa year. They, together with all samples of exported sugars, Se tothe lepers hos- pital. The gangs of cargadores employed in “toting” the coffee away from the custom house and loading it upon waiting vessels are a feature of Santos. Naked from the waist down and from the knees up, their chocolate-colored hides glisten in the sun and their well-cultivated muscles stand out like whip cords. | Each gung has its —— generally the bape and most erful negro among them, who carrigs a Pattie, which be, sbakes'a Ie tambourine, 69 the barbaric music of which his followers keep step in a rapid jog trot, singing a low, monotonous song meanwhile in words to us unintelligible. Sometimes the rattle gives place to a flag. which is waved in unison with the step, but the chant is never omitted and seems as essential as the sailors’ “Yo ho, blow the man down!” It is said that the average life of a coffee carrier does not exceed ten years, and the wonder is that it lasts so long. PLANTATIONS PUSHED INLAND. Time was when all the hills that environ Rio aud the shores of its bay were covered with coffee groves, remains of which are still to be seen; but with the opening of the railways coffee culture disa from that section interior. Though the commerce of the Brazil- ian capital is dependent almost entirely upon coffee the commodity is now brought down from San Patlo, Minas Goreas and other cen- tral provinces.’ The railways were built ex- pressly for coffee transportation and for the convenience of people depen pon that branch of commerce. Thus nearly every pas- ‘one meets on those roads is interested in coffee for a livelihood, in one way or another, and about nineteen-twentieths of all the freight has some reiation to it. Take away this one industry and the railways could not y for the fuel consumed by their locomotives. t-class passenger fares are 5 conts per mile, second-class half that figure, and every pow: of Inggage, except that carried in the traveler's hand, is charged for at so high arate that a trunk of ordinary size costs more to than its owner, “Mr. Herbert Smith on this subject says that though the coffee die- tricts drained by the Dom Pedro and other railroads are so enormous, yet they do not give | one-thirtieth as much freight aa would come | from the same area in the United States. The | great plantations are widely scattered, and the majority of the people upon them being ex- | slaves they have few wants beyond what they | can raise. It — that ews PEA differ- ence in the producing power of according to what is raised epee. Ver exemple, you | cannot produce more than 500 pounds of coffee from any one acre of ground in a year under | the very best conditions, while in the same |length of time from eight to ten times that weight in corn or wheat might be produced. But if wheat or grain were grown hereabouts it would cost more to get it to Rio at present rail- | way rates than to bring it all the way from the , United States. Strange as it may ay it has | actually been figured out that wheat raised in in subjected to the | Wisconsin and Minnesota be laid down mortars and the wienowing fan, per are ready | ray = nif cheever in Rio de Jancizo than if it were grown | at the end of the Dom Pedro railway. BRAZIL PRODUCES HALF THE COFFEE OF THE wort. It is well known that Brazil produces fore than half of all the coffee consumed in the world, and that the United States takes more than half of all she exports. The first coffee tree in Brazil was planted by a Franciscan friar named Vallaso, in the garden of the San Antonic convent, but not until long afterward (sbout the time of the Haytian insurrection) id it, become an object of great cultivation and lid i to pass, but not the bucks. Thegrains drop | impoftance. The cargo was sent to the into water and are left to soak tweffe hours, iy | United States in 1809, and all the coffee grown which time the parchment-like film that envel- | that year in the empire was barely 30,000 sacks. epes each seed is softened. They are epread | These coffee districts, especially those of Gayaz . ag |and Matto-Grosso, were originally settled by , gold hunters, who buried themselves deep in LOADING THE SHIP. gut agsin on trays in the sun, and (when thor- eaghly dry are passed through the second mill, which resembles those used plaster,except that the two vertical rolling discs are wood, six feet im diameter and five fuches thick. their light weight abrading the Fellicles without mjuring the grains. Then the ner is brought into requisition and they are Te several acres of slop- ing hillside bad been carefully drained and eovered with cement for drying coffee upon. To inspect one plantation of the better clase is ‘to see them all, there is Little variation in their general ‘features. houses are plac and fruit orchards ap nue of yroached by a long ave nt palms and cnleced by mass. They are # carpeticss, curtainless end very bare of furniture, and it is safe to say | that in all Brazil you will bot find a Hbrary in @ country house and hardly « picture, unless it be that of the Blessed Virgin or some patron saint. ‘The old Spanish and Portuguese fashion of ar- Wall of the big. bare sala, and fanking i both ends are roms of chairs | placed phgiheavee i I The sofa is set against the farther | Interview ' f the interminable foreste in their search for treasure. quest was so successful that the most eager avarice was more than satiated. But people eannot eat gold and diamonds; and culture being wholly neglected it came | about that many who could count their treasure by billions suffered for the very necessaries of life. Next to Mexico and Peru, before the dis- covery of Australian and Californian deposite, Brazil furnished the largest quantum of hard currency to the commercial world, and there | were diamonds, rubies, sapphires, ‘topaz, opals | and emeralds But these treasures re- of the country more than tarded the es ‘the unhealthy climate, dense forests, serpents and sav: have ever done. So much grester are the riches of the present agricultural duction that the annual sum received from the single article of coffee—not to mention India rubber, cotton, sugar, dye woods and” other \ — ‘great exceeds the results of nearly a contury of dia- mond mining. A few figures will prove this. Take the era of independence, the most pros } oo period of mining—from the year 1740 to '822- and in diamonds thé 232,000 carats ex- ported were worth not quite £3,500,000, while juring the year 1851 the ¢ of coffee from Rio alone amounted to £4,756.794. During the two years ending June, 1874, Brasil exported coffee to the value of $128,060,000, and the same period diamonds to the value of $10,- are not worked as in ‘of yore, but because the area of agriculture has been so greatly extended. Fayre B. Wazp. There is nothing on earth so puzzling in its ‘ction as the human stomach. No doctor can foretell what will agree with a dyspeptic. One case ia cited of a chronic dyspeptic who ab- horred toast and all light articles of food and and pushed itself farther and farther into the | ing him A MEMORABLE FOURTH Story of Separation, but Hap- piness Ever After. FIREWORKS AT GRACELAND. ‘Major and Mrs. Delmar’s Love Story—After Seven Years—How They Met at = Kansas Fourth of July Celebration—The Major's Old Flag—Life in the West. ‘Written for The Evening Star. ANG! BANG! BANG! BY (os Everybody jumped, toy the women screamed . and ‘then they all i —qlaughed. It was so perfectly absurd that 5 they noticed the noise at all, for they hnd been treated to the same thing every evening for ® week and ought to have grown used to it. Boom! crack! bang— sizz—z—o—o—p!! Tho women jammed their fingers in their ears and declared it was getting unendurable. All but one. The exception was the hostess— woman with s sweet, young-looking face, crowned by snow-whito hair. She smiled as she gently swung the hammock at her side and said, “I enjoy it.” ‘The women stared their amazement. It would have been breath wasted to express it in words, because nothing could be heard above the series of ear-splitting explosions which came just then. ’ Crack! crack! erack! | Thunder and Mars! Jupiter Pluvius and Popocatapectel! The very heavens seemed rent with the detonatio “I believe it will drive me cra: from it? How can yon say you en- "And a pretty, shrinking girl crept je and hid her face in lady's white gown. ey were quite a party, the guests of Maj. and Mrs. Delmar and their ‘niece, Mrs. Turner, in their beautiful country seat at Graceland, among the Maryland hills, and ail were congre- gated on the lawn. It was just in the edge of night. The red and yellow of the sunset had not quite faded away, but its glory paled to in- significance beside the perfectly wonderful rotechnic display of Fourth of July frewor which the children of the neighborhood were enjoving under the management of the Delmar gardener. Maj. Delmar was a ‘fireworks fiend.” He was indefatigable in his efforts to secure the newest pieces and the loudest noise- making inventions, and for a week before the “Fourth” the explosive toys made life a burden to the lover of earshot of the fun, to which all the children in the country were invited. Strange to relate, | very few people knew why the handsome, bluff old military gentleman and his beantiful wife were so devoted to “Fourth of July” demon- stration, since they had no children of their own to enjoy it. “Some people might think that Aunt Grace would have no love for Independence day, for it was on this day, pineteen years ago, that she surrendered her independence and went over to enemy,” remarked Mrs. Turner. “No, by Jove!” came from the hammock, “She ‘captured the enemy foot, horse and dragoons, spiked all the guns and leveled all the defenses ‘and he surrendered without condi- tion.” “Suppose you tell us about it. uncle. It ia quite romantic, I think, and I ought to know, for I had a hand in the denouement.” “Tell it yourself, my girl. I'm most too old to spin love stories.” “Bat this is your own, uncle, and I'm sure you do not regret it,” “Indeed, I don’t,” he replied, as he reached his brawny hand from the depths of the ham- mock to lay it on the firm white one still swa toand fro. “They have been nineteen beautiful years," he continued musingly, as he pulled himself ‘to a sitting position and gazed out over the hills where the sun had gone down. “Nineteen beautiful yeare; we are not so young as we once were, lass. The sun has crossed the line, but it will shine on our path clear to the foot of the hill.” The major was genial and jolly, rather bluff and not much given to sentiment, but his adoration for his wife, who was néarly twenty years his junior, was something sublime. Im- uous and imperious to his fellow-men, to fer he was all gentleness and submission. ‘The first exuberance of the evening's jollifica~ tion had subsided and the young girl was listening intently to the major's half aside to his wif fe. “Tell us about it, please, major,” she pleaded. “There isn’t much to tell,” said the major. “It is like ali cazes where true love doesn’t run smooth. In ours the love was all right, but our Inck seemed to be all wrong. My wife had the misfortune to be left an orphan and with- out arelation in the world. In the spring of 1864 I was furloughed because of serious illness and went to my old home in Boston to visit my mts after an absence of sixteen years on the Frontier, three of them in the volunteer service I met Grace at the house of a friend of my mother's, where she was living as a governess, and for the first time in my thirty-five years of life fell in love. I surrendered completely toa twenty-year-old golden-haired girl, after hav- ing won a major's etraps for valor in the service st the hostiles. When I returned to the front I left my heart in Grace's keeping, and never returned the property! Disaster and trials kept us apart for eight years, but we finally got things rounded up and branded in roper shape.” The major stopped and mopped Eis "taco with bis handkerchief, and hie Sloce broke in indignant); “Now, isn’t that exactly like aman? Aunt Grace, you will have to. straighten the story out, for uncle has left off just where the inter- est begins. * “It’s too deuced hot to sentimentalize,” re- turned the major gruffly, “‘and—beside, I don't like to think of the years that came in between. They made an old man of me and changed Grace’s golden hair to snow white.” “They were sad years, all of them, in ono sense.” said Mra, Delmar, “but perhaps it was the discipline necessary to bend two imperious wills and chasten two rather unsubmissive hearts.” “You will tell us about it?” insisted the party in chorus, as Mre. Delmar paused. “Since you really care to hear it, yes,” but again Mrs. Delmar paused and a shadow of pa seemed to sweep over her face. ‘Our trials began Cote soead on the return se major to duty. ils were very it r an the Indians extremely hostile; ‘so that Mr. Del- mar's parents and myself were suffering in- tensely most of the time. Early in '65, after not having had a word for eight weeks, came a letter from Fort Riley in a strange hand. Major Delmar had been shot in the arm by a poisoned arrow, andhad been very ill, but was geiting | better. The letter was four weeks old! With aching hearts we waited for later tidings. To go to him during those turbulent times was im- possible. “A week after the receipt of that letter Major Delmar's father died suddenly of heart failure, and two weeks later his wife was laid in the grave beside him. A sister whom I had never | een till then was hastily summoned from her home in C ‘and though too late to see her mother's eyes. She settled which was quite large, and in- that Iaccompany her to her’ home in Chicago, to which ho wen obliged to retemn ot once because ‘away on the plains in his delirium and_ per. ished. When his body was found it was badly decomposed, but they identified it by the cloth ing and bad buried him with military honors in the fort cemetery. #0 fast upon the other Teason, I felt get just as far away me of my dead nity offered for f i E f i e | i i Hl ib F 2 : { jet who happened to be within | | chesters. my day ry and followed it to a little town away ont in Kansas, some twenty miles from Fort Biley. At this'point the conductor aj on scene and infortned us that the Wild Cat creek had been carried away bya freshet and we could got no further that day. There were few passengers and I was the only woman, “The town where we were stranded was a now institution. There were probably 150 inhab- ftants and they lived in tents and board shanties, The jt was a box car. Hotel “We found the inhabitants in « state of hilar- ious excitement. It was the evening of the 3d of July and they had enddenly concluded to hold a celebration on the Fourth. The women had prepared the vinnds and the bill of fare would have given a French chef the clic, Iam sore. As I sat with those kindly hearted women in front of the ‘store’ that evening, where | Inst. ay they discussed the plans for the picnic with the male portion of the community, rolling about in the grass in the street, I discovered much of the economy practiced in pioneer life. “Some of the women had been gently bred, but life-had not been kind to them and varying fortune had at last stranded them on this in- land ocean, where with small means and lurge families they were ‘beginning again, as they had probably done a dozen times before in as many diferent states. I wish I could give you the ‘menu’ for that day, but remarkable as it was [ can't remember it all. It was to be shared in common—spread upon one long table on the grass, ° “"'T was just bound to have some slaw,’ I heard one woman say. ‘An’ there wa'n't no cabbige in forty miles, as I knew of. But Bob was doyn to the bend last week an’ got some turnips¥and I jist oxperimented on them. I cut ‘em up fine an’,dressed ‘em like maw uster her cole slaw, an’, law, you couldn’ tell it from the real thing.” “You just wait till you try my mince pics,’ said another proudly. ‘When Jim come. home this marnin’ an’ said we's goin’ to bev a sure nuff celerbration I set to work on them pies. I didn’ hev mach to work with, but I teil you they'r boss. The ” give Jim a hunk of buffalo yist'day an’ I biled that tender and soaked up some dried apples to chop an’ I heda few dry currants, Iwas just put about fer cider er sumthin’, but Barkeep Bill smelt the buffalo a cookin’ an’ stuck his head in the tent to know what I's doin’, an’ when I told him he said he'd send in his conterbution, an’ it were frome lemons an’ a pint of smackin’ good brandy. You jist wait!’ ‘I've gota jar of sass left fram the bar'l of relief pervisions eent us in Barton county last inter, "put ina third,and so they went on. Thero was a whole volume of trial and priv: m and disappointment expressed in these little house- ly bursts of confidence, but the women. were all cheery and bright, hopeful and patient. Inever quite understood ‘how it could be so, when some of them were suffering such fearful reverses, “The celebration was to be held in a grove, five miles distant, on the ‘G’ ranch, In the fts of conversation I learned that ‘major’ had promised ‘a hind quarter of buffalo roasted ready to eat,’ a dozen antelope roasts, jowder and ‘several gallons of milk. d also promised a dozen ‘cow ponies’ for the ‘grotesques’ to ride, and had consented that his niece, a child of eight, should join the dinner party, and, ‘mebbe so,” he would come over him- self at mbon. While I was vaguely wondering if this ‘major’ had anything beside a ‘handle’ for a name a small boy broke in shrilly on my meditations. “Tsay, dad, we hain’t got no flag!” « ‘Well, I'm a coyote ef the kid ain't druv the nail clean to the head!’ ejaculated dad dis- gustedly. whatever!’ said another. tin gehenna'll we do? queried a 1 be a gol-durned sickly percesh fer a Fourth of Ju Now Year's “thout no flag, I'm thinkin’.” “Reckon the major’s got one,’ suggested some one. ““Mebbe so, but we kain’t trust to luck fer this, We got to hev one, shore. Kin you ladies help ns ont.” he said eppealingly. “There was a general shaking of heads and mutual murmur of regret. The town didn’t even possess a red flannel shirt, it seemed; one woman had torn up ‘Sam's’ last one a few days before to wrap around his legs, ‘whar he hed the rumatiz awful, an’ the linerment hez spiled it clean.” . “Iran my possessions over hurriedly. I had but one red article in my wardrobe, a merino shawl. I offered it up on the altar of loyalty, and was caunonized at once. A bride of a week gave her only white petticoat and a young mother turned her baby's clouk over to the common fand for a blue field. “T ente heart and soul into the making of that ting, and by midnight it floated, a little heavily, to be sure, still it really floated, from le spliced from broomsticks, where it had Toeclans is Seek at my door, a8 though to ‘keep watch and keep guard’ over me as I went to rest inthe little ‘dog’ tent which had been thoughtfully set aside for me by the hospitabie people, Despite my strange surroundings I went to eleep at once, only to be awakened in a few moments by a succession of war whoop! anvil firing and the crack of *44's’ and Wi “The boys’ were ushering in the Fourth as was the fashion ‘back on earth.” “They kept it up till daylight, and it was other a tired woman who appeared at break fest the next morning, which was served ona ‘oods box on the shady side of a shanty, with ae kegs for seats. I never met kindlier greetings or more generous hospitality than was offered me by those people, with their primitive surroundings and scant means, “The ‘percesh,” headed by a very proud on horseback, with cartridge belt and ‘44's’ in lieu of sash and saber, and with ‘our flag’ streaming rebelliously above his head in the strong, cool wind, wound over the trail across the prairies to the grove by 10 o'clock. Just be- hind this improvised mai were a dozen or more ‘grotesques,’ none the less hideous be- cause of their limited means for appareling themselves, Then came all the boys and men who could muster horses, and bringing up the rear were the five ‘prairie schooners’ the town possessed, the sides of the canvas raised that the motley crew riding in them might take in the awe-inspiring grandeur of that great pa- rade! Irode in state on a spring seat in tho front of the first wagon, The Wild Cat, still running bank full, prevented the repairing of the washout, and I determined to make the best of the situation and get all the fun possi- ble out of the occasion. “Jack rabbi@ scurried with low-lying ears across the trail; prairie dogs barked frantically and dipped into their holes on our nearer ap- proach, while the half-tame antelope of the settlements fled affmghted from the medly of sounds made by the grotesques and a cowboy fiddler. Shades of Paganini! how he did mur- der melody. “Once at the celebration grounds, a pretty tree-shaded spot on the banks of Coocoo creek, the women began to arrange for the dinner, while the men rolled round on the (Feo smoking and spinning yarns, and the children trooped down to play inthe water. Iwas given the place of honor on the spring seat under a tree, and was watebi scene, when a new v y to look up to meet the gaze of ap black eyes, and their owner, astride a small roan pony, flung a package in my lap. « ‘Here,’ she said imperiously, as she jumped to the ground, ‘uncle heard you wanted one, but you aré to be mighty careful of it. I be- lieve he thinks more of it than he does of me.” ‘As she talked she uncoiled a rope from the horn of her boy’s saddle, and, jabbing the picket pin in the ground, the stamped it down with her boot heel, and flow off to the creek, where the children were, leaving me in be- wildered amusement holding the pac! y ‘You better open it miss,’ suggest one of the women, ‘Like as not it’air somethin’ fer the table. ‘That young’un is too scatter brained to-do anything proper like.’ “Acting on her suggestion I unrolled the per anda faded silk flag slid through my ds, ‘Ideclare for it, if tain't the flag that themajor keeps hung over the woman's pictur in room. I seen it one day when I's over thar! exclaimed one of the women. “My brain was reeling and with tremb! gett X tanned. 60 a tripe below. ine bine and Te for two initials, ‘G. D. Thad embbeldered: them in Sa eee hie? cetind ‘the other chil- ag emp about us. 7 men rushed to the bank of the creek and. soon came back laughing. “Let up on that chin music, kids, it’s nuthin’ but an old Indian skeleton. He’ must » bin buried years ago und the earth has wore away, leavin’ his bones a settin’ life-like the bank. Here's a lot of trinkets he had on,” and ‘Dad’ emptied a handful of gewgaws into my "The little girl set up and to poke them about, and a bit of sparkling bine caught picked {t up, and. for the second. time heart was in my mouth. Push- Foot, to my feet. ** “Tell me at onoe,’ I demanded, ‘who this—’ but before I could finish the sentence the tread of horses’ feet and a cheery ‘Hello, boys,’ broke in upon me. engTO! an instant T stood in ed silence, e sapphire ring in im _of my outstretched feeling aie tran’ little older and much handsomer than I had known him, rode up and dismounted. “‘Are you not dead?’ I gusped hoarsely at My dear sir, do I present the a an astral body? he returned as he self with then appetizing victuals and I'll convince yon—’ “Just then he caught sight of me. ‘His ruddy face grew white and he put out his hand to touch me, like a child afraid of what it would handle. “ ‘By the gods, it’s Grace!’ he shouted, when I did not vanish from his presence, and, catch- ing me ina fervid embrace, he began a regular war dance. The amazed ‘people thought the ajor had been suddenly bereft of his senses and that they had unawares been entertaining a pair of lunatics, ‘The women ‘ed to a safo dis- nce and the men managed to get a grip on the major which sobered him up, xi “As Teank faint and white into the wagon seat I became conscious that I hold the sap- Phire ring in a grasp that made my hand ache. held it up before the major's astonished eyes, “ ‘Where in the name of heaven did you find that,’ he shouted excitedly. ‘I lost if nearly ight years ago when I was wounded, not twenty feet from this spot.” “Before I could answer twenty curious peo- ple were engaged in reciting the lay's adven- lures and the major concluded thay the Indian thief must have lost his life the day be got the aS and been buried on the spot where he | “| “Explanations were in order just then, and it wasa hysterical crowd from that time on. Even that wonderful dinner was almost forgot- ten as the major ahdI pieced our stories to- gether. The women laughed and cried over me, and the men shook my hand, then bo! alternating hand shakes with the major till we were all exhausted. ‘ “One year of the major’s life from the time he was wounded was a blank, and he never learned what intervened. One day, recover- ing from illness cansed by a blow on the head from a bucket in a shaft, he was astounded to find that he had been for a month working in a silver mine in Colorado, coming from nebody Knew where, ‘The months back of that were 'He at once communicated with the com- mandant at Fort Riley, and began to pick up the tangled thread of life. There seemed tobe little for him to live for. His parents and sister were dead and I had disappeared. After the first London address given his sister he lost me, and though he spent year abroad his search was hopeless. He returned to the weet and with his brother-in-law bought the Kansas ranch. A year later the brother-in-law died and left his daughter to the major's care, and so the uneventful years went by for both of us up to that day. “We were married there on the historic ground by an itinerant preacher, who, like my- self, was waiting the fall of Wild Cat creek. The major insisted and I had no desire to post- pone it. For in all the wide world I had not « foul to consult, and I bad had eight years to consider the step. ‘There were no bridesmaids, and no bert an, but overhead was@ canopy, our impro- vised fiag, stretched from tree to tree, and the ‘marshal,’ prouder than ever, stood beside us with the old silk flag gently swaying on the staff of broomsticks to which it had been trans- ferred. My wedding ring was the eapphire, with the flag, my parting gifts to Maj. Delmar, who had-said they would always remind him of my ‘true blue eyes and sunny hair.’ “No wedding bells ever sounded sweeter than the anvil chorus salute, with Winchester ac- iment, which punctuated the preacher's ing prayer. The cowboys, in their exuber- ant glee over the ‘boss’ happiness, burned enough powder to protect Washington from British invasion. Yes, 1 love the Fourth of July noise, and the major and I always feel as | though the whole nation was celebrating our marriage anniversary Just then, with a siz,a set piece went off. Across the waving folds of the flag was the name “Grace” in say ire blue. “Grace and Graceland forever,” shouted somebody enthusiastically, and up through the star-gemmed night went’ the brave hurrahs, almost drowned by the fusillade of rockets, cannon crackers, pin wheels and bursting bombs. Isauen Worrewt Batt. ——___ ee. VALUES OF FOREIGN Changes That jave Been Made Since the Cirealar of April Last. The director of the mint has estimated and the Secretary of the Treasury has proclaimed the value of foreign coins to bo followed in es timating the value of all foreign merchandise exported to the United States on and after July 1, 1892, expressed in any of such metallic cur- rencies. ‘The following changes have been made in the | values of foreign coins since the circular of April 1, 1892: Value April 1, Coins. i Silver florin of Hungary. Boliviano of Bolivia Peso of Central Rupee of Indi Silver yen of Japan Silver dollar of Mexico. Sol of Pern. Silver rouble of Russia. Mahbub of ‘Tripoli Bolivar of Venezuela. In the circular the director of the mint has estimated and the Secretary of the Treasury bas proclaimed the value of the gold florin of Austria-Hungary at $0.48.2. Hereafter the value of the gold florin will be used instead of the value of the silver fiorin in estimating the value of foreign merchandise imported from Austria-Hungars, expressed in florins, ‘The nominal standard of Austria-Hungary is silver. but the actual money in which mer- chandise is purchased is paper florins, the de- preciation of, which is meaeured by the gold standard, and not by the commercial value of the silver florin, One Use for the Onion. From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. A very convenient mucilage can be made out of onion juice by any one who wiches to use it. A good-sized Spanish onion, after being boiled a short time, will yield on being pressed quite, a large quantity of very adhesive fluid. This is used quite extensively in various trades for pasting paper on to tin or zine, or even 5 and the tenacity with which it holds would sur- Ese any one on making the first attempt. It the cheapest and best mueilage for such pur- Poses and anawers just as well as many of the more costly and patent cements, Some of the cements sold by street fakirsat 10 cents a bottle consist of nothing but onion juice and water, and the bottle and cork cost a great deal more than the contents, ———_seo—_ “Raising the Very Old Boy.” From Life. THE EVENING STAR: WASHINGTON, D. C, SATURDAY, JULY. 1892-SIXTEEN PAGES, FORMER CAMPAIGNS. Recollections of Them by One Who Was a Worker. DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMEN. How They Have Conducted Affaire—Mistakes Made by Their Not Being in Close Bela- tionship With the Candidate—Mr. Buch- workers of the democratic and the republican organizations will begin in earnest and only end at the closing of the polls on November 8 The labor involved in the conduct of a presi- dential campaign is stupendous, and the cost | proportionately large. Though not a Methuse- lah, Ihave seen the workings of the national democratic committee since 1856. I t most of my time during that canvass in Phi where I witnessed the incessant labor of Col. Forney and his corps of assistants. Penns; vania was the battle ground and from Forne! knowledge of the state the cam} trusted to him. Mr. At mont, the chairman of tho national committee, and his dent and by the democratic . In the full- ness of his gratitude the President-clect tendered Forney a place in his cabinet. The Postmaster goneralsbip, it was claimed by Col. ‘orney,"had been tendered him, but when the President reached Washington and conferred | with the magnates of the party he was obliged tochange bis mind in view of the position of almost the entire south. The ident sought to placate Forney, but Forney insisted upon the President keeping his promise, and nothing short of the position of Postmaster General would satisfy him. He refused the | most liberal_proposition ,tendered h Mr. Cornelius Wendell of the consulate of Liver- pool, then worth $25,000 per annum, and, the European correspondent of the Union at €10,- 000 per annum, the check for the year in ad- vance being laid before him. THE SPLIT AT CHARLESTOX. In 1860 the democratic convention met at Charleston and the story of that ill-starred gathering has been repeatedly told. I had the honor of knowing both candidates of that and the Baltimore convention, which grew out of the split at Charleston. The two candidates were worthy of each other. Gen. Breckinridge was one of the most brilliant men of the period,and | of Judge Douglass, the estimate of him by “Mr. Gales that he was a phenomenal statesman would stamp him as a man of great power, The convention of 1864, which nominated Gen. McClellan, was forlorn hope, compara- tively. The soldiers’ vote taken in the field was influenced, it was cl lated in the republican int ccin had butlittle opposition. questioned the policy of making nomination at that time. Isaw but little of Gen. McClel- lan during that canvass. national com- — conducted the campaign from New or] The nominee of the convention of 1868, Gov. Seymour, i met several times during the cam- paign and in September visited him at his home | at the request of the President, and he had then almost abandoned the hope pressed his regret at not havi was expected he would do. which nominated Mr. Greeley was called order by Mr. August Belmont, who declined re-election as of the nati mittee and was succeeded by Mr. Augustus Schell, whose labor and means were bestowed upon the canvass even when it was apparent the election of Mr. Greeley was hopeless, HOW MONEY Was WASTED. A day of two before the election, certainly | within a week, a deceased statesman from Indi- ana came to Mr. Schell and obtained $8,000 with the assurance that with that aid Mr. | Greeley would carry that state. In vain Mr. Banks (“Anno Domini” Banks), who was secretary of the acommitien, demon- strate impossibility joing it. Mr. Schell gave the money. Andas usual the | leaders of the party in Pennsylvania came to | the committee with the assurance that with $30,000 they could carry the state for Greeley. | I was sent to Mr. Erastus Corning, Gen. George | McGee, Henry Ricmond and Mr. Barnum for | an assessment levied on them, which they | paid, but not one of them believed the state | | could be carried. At the meeting called to| meet the gentlemen from Pennsylvania, declined, as it ' Barnum, whom I followed out in the mountains where his furnaces were, gave a check for somo thousands and said for all the would do i thrown = it was far from sanguine, but gave his check for the amount ho was assessed. While there Gov. Packer received a m that Mr. Greeley would reach Mauch Chunk that evening en route to a large meeting at Allentown, on the rear platform of the car and for ten minutes he talked on slate in all its varieties, uses and value. One of the gentlemen who es- Allentown said they had learned more about slate than they had ever known before. When an opportunity occurred ‘Mr. Greeley took me into his com; tend asked what was eaid of his speec' very much pleased to hear how they were reciated, and as the North Carolina election ugust had not taken express a very iP Norember, hat pelled any hope for success ii the south.” The negroes for whom he had labored all his life, to whom they were in a great measure indebted for their voted against him to man. Mr. Greeley was « very sensitive man and their ingratitude and the cartoons in Harper's We i nch suffering. An for we never veské nt ric sa Fe pay the expenses of the conclusion Gen. Ransom that he had an’ unexpended subject to his order, and after the feat had settled on us I went to and obtained that balance—some instance of politcal Integrit an , OF, as some would say, of politica: mr for & F i convention | his Given for political uses { suppossd to be ex: ‘NORTH CAROLINA Im 1876, ‘When I left Raleigh for New York a few before the presidential election, eight thousand, and in reply to telegram from head- quarters that all my demands hed been complied with and I would be responsible for the state, Gen. Ransom and days the H F i i H 3 3 E ul i i 5 i i ; i thd iu i] é tf 4 ° F 1 i f elf i i 11 could not get we had by Mon- | mow rmNes where telegrams day correct tickets in every precinct, and as a | Tesult we carried the stnte by 15.000 instead of 8,000. I exonerate Col. Keogh from any Knowiedge of this attempted frau. ‘MR. TILDEN'S METHODS. ‘The suecess of Mr. Tilden was achioved by the methods he adopted in obtaining results, He took nothing for granted; hg wanted and he obtained exact information. Nelther time, spared. I met,a few m (Mr. P. W. Rhodes) who Private secretary, and results I speck of. i i i was enabled in advance of an election a. In 1874 Mr. shin Goer. | Tun for governor, and wi aid of . Rhodes he was enabled to correspond with ‘man of nce in the @ate, and, after state, he sent for Mr. Kelly | . Augustus Schell and announced his | for the nomination. While they both de- themselves ready to support they ised against it, as they felt sure Tammany | Kings county would oppose him. In quiet way he said he thought hen the convention was called, aeliteippet yy Mr. Rhodes | occasion to see Mr. Kelly, or made the oo- casion,and Kelly urged him to advise Tilden not to attempt to get the nomination, as Tam- many and would went it. Rhodes and said: “Mr. Tilden didn’t carea ~— for Tammany or Kings, for out of the 3884 delegates he had secured 284, and if Tammany and Kings didn't want to get left they had better como in and make it ” “Kelly could hardly believe it, he called at Mr. Tilden’s house | and was convinced. When I went to North Carolina in 1876 I had sent me poll books for every election precinct in the state. That mode of procedure was unheard of, but it was then demonstrated tobe practical. Politics to Mr. Tilden was his recreation. After attending to his large law practice ho devoted himself to books and politics, and with able assistants, like Mr. Rhodes, he perfected his knowledge of the state of New York tosuch an extont that he knew every man in the state, his avocation, bis infiu- ence and his weight in the community in which he lived. That system ended with him. He left no one who had the patience, persistence and, above all, the passion for the science of politics he bad. GEN. RANCOCK'S DEFEAT. In 1830 Gon, Hancock was the nominee. I have already spoken of the causes which | brought disaster on the campaign. I met a very | ardent friend of the general's on Monday, who differed with me as to the cause of the He attributed it to the committee. organization Gen. Hancock had no say until his friends demanded some personal represen- tation on the committee, when some one re- signed and Gen. Baidy Smith was put in his Place. I adhere to my opinion that the cases of the defeat were the “Morey letter” and the | letter written by the general on the tariff. Gen. Hancock's letter on taking command at New Orleans of the southern department marked himasa man of ability beyond his military record. All his correspondence at that exciting iod was admirable, and doubtless led to his ing nominated for the presidency. ‘The cam- of 1884 was to me seen merely asa apec- tetor, and that of 1888 was likewise one in which Thad no interest—my fears of democratic suc- cess, which I felt could not be obtained with the nominee of the convention, were realized. MR. CLARKSON'S REMOVAL. The objections which are being raised against ‘the removal of Mr. Clarkson from the chair- manship of the sepublican national committee are groundless. The relationship between the chairman of the committee and the candidate is very close and confidential, and he is there- fore invariably a personal and clore friend of the candidate; it must be so. This failure in the case of Gen. Hancock led to his defeat, as it is charged to this day by his friends. While Ido not agree with them entirely, it is trae Gen. Hancock was handicay by | will be Tork, apd the resulé wes @ constant source of discontent. Somx F. Comme. Pree noe meet NEWS FROM TAKOM. of the Fourth of July. Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. Taxoma Panx, June 30, 1892, The people who have lived in the park for several years are looking forward to the con- templated improvements—such as the laying of gas mains and the erection of street lamps and the building of the electric road—witha degree of satisfaction which promises to make the winter season rival those of the time when the cool at- mosphere is enjoyed while the city folk are sweltering under the rays of the hot sun. That the gas lamps will be crected is now an assured fact. Many of the houses were piped when | erected, so that the introduction of gas will not | necessitate the tearing up of the floors and the breaking of the ceilings. The prospects for the construction of the Proposed Petworth, Brightwood and Takoma electric railroad are considered bright by those | interested in the affair. All the residents aro interested in the construction of the | road, because they can then reach the heart of the | ** city and leave at cither end at almost any time. The chief complaint about the present service is that the train leaving here at night is too early for guests from the city to have to leave. With the ion of an slecirio road & fo thought that the cars will ran as late as mid- it. Fourth of July promises to be a gala day at the park. On that day the oj new hotel in North Takoma will with appropriate ceremonier, | There ball and supper at the hotel and fireworks will enliven the occasion. The hotel is « commo- dious and complete ing in every respect and is situated at North Takoma not far from } iF i e & te HH EF be iW if i Hh i H | i f n i i | pies. Look IN MICH Democrats and the People’s Party May feet a Combination. Sretal Correapondence of The Eventne Star, Guaxp Rartps, Micn., June 90.—Neither publicans nor democrats in Michigan have fone wild over the resujt of the national com vention. Had the unit rule prevailed at Mime nespolis Harrison would not have received) seven wolverine votes, and it is well knows] that at least rix of the delegates to the Chicage| coayention would have voted against Cleveland had they been free to vote as they saw fit and] ‘as their political consciences dictated. ‘On the republican side the lack of enthn may in part be ascribed to disappointment the distribution of patronage four years and in part to ® greater fondness for other candidate. The democratic apathy partly due to personal di tment, moetly to the fecling that € nds tion was not judicious or wise considering record on teeny nestions and pensions andl the opposition from his own state, sar ad when tan cumpeign Say einen wear off when y the meantime the managers of both of the rties will keep their ears to the ground the news from Omaha, PROPLE’S PARTY IN BTCHTOAN. The people's party movement promises cut an important figure in the coming came paign in Michigan, and exactly which way will cut is problematic. The party managers) in the state do not as a whole rank hi ically or ms statemen. Many yt Deen leaders in former third party d some of them are notoriously in the ees for what money there is in it. Some ¢ most prominent of the people's party agers in Michigan are known to have been the pay of the other of the old times past as stool pigeons for and having done it once it is to ope they will not hesitate to do {f there is any money in the o the last republican administration several leaders received recognition for services dered in the form of appointments. Since under th Tesent demo h mor . tant part in the last same way and received their in| igu between the democrats and d be conducted on the tariff line and the financial questions will be severely alone. The democrats will, of co attack the republican national administration, and the republicans will point to the weak spots] in the ¢ ic state administration, "s party will make finances its chief with a strong leaning toward free trade. The people's party orators will paint a beauties of cheap money and lots of it, will deavor to persuade their followers that ences ey keep in the middle of road, and will denounce both of the old for their nomiuations and platforms, They pect to poll several thousand votes, and jud ing from the results in the last municipal tions in the state the bulk of the votes willis from the democratic ranks, although in th icts the party managers claim to making great progress and this means dra ‘rength from the republicans. © disappointed members of both of the © parties are waiting anxiously for the result ¢ Omaha convention tosee if they can dec @rop into the new orgunization. GUBERNATORIAL NOMINATION. In state politics the chief interest just centers in the contest between John T. Rich Hazen 8. Pingree for the gubernatorial nation. As the case now stands Rich is but Pingree is making rapid ning friends and advocates, and upon that fact his boom is been au office holder and that the democrats will meet about: time. . FUSION PROBABLE. Tf the democrats meet first they will nate candidates for states office and for United States Senate whom the re dntos induce some of the others to withdraw in far of the democratic . This ment, if it can be effected, will carry with it the advantages of @ fusion without the sact cans hold a majority on joint ballot of the legislature. GEN. LUCE A CANDIDATE FOR THE SENATE. It has long been known that ex-Gov. Cyrus ( Luce entertained serious intentions upon ator St ©