Evening Star Newspaper, August 12, 1893, Page 10

19 A DINNER IN PARIS, Restaurants That Are Run by a Big Stock Company. WHERE SOUP REIGNS SUPREME Customs That Prevail Establishments. in the WAITERS AND THEIR PATRONS PARIS, July 1, 1898. ESTAURANTS, which are the prop- erty of a single com- pany, are scattered well over the busi- ness portions of Paris, and do an en- ormous business. At the cashier's desk a bright young woman adds up with incredible rapidity the complicated tant ecard with which you are actually ticketed. You cannot enter one of these restaurants without asking for one of these cards, which has something ef the appearance of a railroad rebate ticket, with @ row of figures down its side, ranging from one cent to two dollars. The waiters are pretty girls clad in black, with white @prons, white frills at the wrists and white {uille caps tied under the chin in a coquet- A Tip From the Bonne. {ish bow. They know very well that every eustomer who comes to them has an eye to eutting down expenses. They take your card and as a preliminary act make a Straight black mark opposite its five cen- times, or one cent, figure. This secures a yf taSleclotn and napkin for each guest. jen she marks upon the card a black line opposite the two cent figure. This is for ‘Dread. She leaves you then to wrestle with the bill of fare. ‘Soups are usually clear, thin and cheap. Onion soup is six cents. The girl will ask you :f you wish grated cheese with it, in Which case it Is seven cents. Then ‘she makes a black mark opposite the figure on our card which stands for seven cents. ou are through your card looks like baseball score. The waiter giris are paid tirely by the tips they get. Their custom- 97s are very frequently the same persons @very day, men who wish to eat with a ‘The Portions Are Small. eertain elegance yet without expending too much money. The girls know that to such a ian a spoiled dish or a cold steak means a serious disappointment and a loss of money; and as they wish to keep thelr clients, each girl to herself, there is great emulation &mong them as to who shall be most obliging and most serviceable. ‘Give me a dlanquette de veau.” you say. Blanquette de veau? Yes, monsteur, tm- frediately,” she answers. But she gives you & decided ‘negative shake of the head at the same momest. That means “It is a little warm for veal siew today. Try something else.” The restaurants belong to a grei stock company, and. as in all stock com- faries, the employes take greater liberties m when an individual proprietor is stand- ing about. computing his profits and his losses on each single deal. This habit of ving pointers to their citents is a distinct- we mark of these restaurants. AS a con- sequence. there Is scarcely a regular patron who does not pride himself on having a Iit- Cockney Tourists. Ue waiter girl who treats him better than @he treats anybody else. They do treat everybody as well as they can; but one Grows a trifle suspicious when he begins to | ghserss so much special solicitude lavished Rot only on himself, but on the man at the Bext table as well Bithouette, Behind the Ki ‘To return to the onion soup. grite at night. even in the high-priced taverns like Pousset’s ft one for sleep and to make the stomach clean and the the next | 5 cents each. | about them, | Frenchmen | in the res- ( dinner are a| re is nothing Fr the avidity with em. Halt the cust teurants’ take soup eaters @ aby restaurant the fish is the crucial | test. In these restaurants the fish is very often extremely Naturally the por- tions are small. They give you grilled fresh sardines with butter for 10 cents, tnd tasiclees ahs served with *binck bute tasteless fish, serv. ch E ter,” is 14 cents, and broiled mackerel, which they cook the best of all, is cheap at 1 cents. Fried sole, with grated cheese, costs 20 cents, and salmon, with mayon- +| naise, comes high at a quarter of a dollar. The salmon comes from Norway. H, DAR pet Among the meats plain boiled beef, dry and without vy, costs 6 cents. When garnished with a vegetable its price is § cents. Here there is a curious manipula- tion of prices. The “garniture” of meats with vegetables costs but little extra, while the vegetables served by themselves are rather dear. Thus are 12 cents a plate, but plain boiled beef garnished with peas costs only 2 cents more than plain boiled beef alone. To eat cheaply ts therefore to order garnished meats and avoid plates of vegetables sold separately. This is no great secret, and nothing to be gained by it except in the line of economy. The vege- tables used for garniture are inferior in freshness or flavor, although they are per- fectly good. ‘The French, even in their expensive res- taurants, have no proper idea of roast Meats. Mutton of a cut called “gigot” is Pretended to be roasted, and comes on tough and bleeding. Beef, on the other hand, 1s frequently cooked’ so long that it is as dry as dust. Roast lamb and veal is Served under-done and sprawling limply in @ watery gravy, ith water cress aroun the edge of the dish, as if that could make up for it. When roast meats are stuffed it {a never with plain bread crumbs and herbs. There must be chopped ham, forcemeat chopped mushrooms and grated cheese, ali mixed together. A small brotied chop costs in these res- taurants Ii cents. They are thought to be expensive and small for the price. English tourists, registered at the Grand Hotel, and who patronize the little restaurant opposite it for the sake of averaging down ex} a are the Coed perme of mutton chops. A Parisian would prefer a large dish of mut- ton stew, with potatoes, peas and onions swimming in a savory sauce. This would save him the price of vegetables and give him the money for three things the En- glishman does not value highly—the little radishes before the soup, the soup itself and black coffee, with brandy, at the end. Veal cutlets, in the true Vienna styie, even to the little anchovy curled up on the top, are large and filling at 14 cents. A icassee of chicken, very small indeed, whose poverty is hidden in a thick white sauce, is pleasing. but dear at 18 cents. The finest steak, a Chateaubriand, comes at a Sood bargain for 22 cents, while there are Ro end of makeshift meat dishes, which An Expensive Dinner Cheap. look better than they really are—beef cro- quettes, with tomatoe sauce, brains cooked in various styles, sheeps’ feet, pigs’ feet, Sausages, with white wine sauce, calves’ head, stewed liver and no end of dishes made from things left over. All these are cooked with great care and served with nearly the same elegance we are accustom- ed to in American hotels of the second class, while the cooking itself 1s often as ood as anything we have in America. The foreign use of vegetables is a prime matter of complaint with Americans abroad. “Why don’t you give us mn corn?" @ young American girl asked in a Paris boarding house. “We only feed that to cattle over here, was the landlord's response. Later on the young lady was offered a ish of boiled turnips. ) leur and Madame. “Thanks, no,” she answered, feed them 'to cattle in America. Here tomatoes are expensive, and they are most often served whole and raw in the Testaurant referred to. One tomato costs 10 cents. It comes on the table ina china bowl, accompanied by a sprig of onion and a bunch of estragon (tarragon). There are no sweet potatoes, no Bermuda onions, no Lima beans, and’ white potatoes are Feserved for mutton stews or fried. The restaurants have few puddings and no ple. If you wish pie you must consult the advertising columns of the Paris Her- ald. The proper addresses will be found under the scare head of “Corn beef hash, goatish balls, mince pie and other American delicacies. “In deference to their En- glish customers the restaurants serve plum podding (canned) alt the year round, ‘There also rice cake, which is almost rice pud- ding, at 6 cents. They have a variety of dry sweet cakes, which cost 8 cents an or- der, and there is pineapple, raw, sugared and served in kirsch, for 8 cents: fruit In season at varying prices, and ice cream, which s always dear and served in tiny quantities. At the present hour straw- A Typical Couple. berries are cheap, and you will have a big piateful for ents. They are either large cultivated ones, going by the name of Ricard, or little “fraises de. bots,” Which have a fragrance and a ‘delicacy quite their ow ‘e do not often get them in America. Cherries and green al- monds cost 10 cents a dish; peaches are 15 cents each. After this glance at each division of the carte in these restaurants, it will be notic- ed how minutely the prices are arranged. ‘The secret is to have no waste, to give very smal) rtions, to have each thing the best of its kind, and to muddle the mind of the customer by artfully arranged combina- tions. Every penny counts. The keynote 1s struck Im boiled eggs—two for eight cents. This eight cents represents (1) the cost of the eggs, (@) the expense of their prepara- tion, and (3) the restaurant’s profit. The cost’ of the two raw eggs naturally remains | the same, however they be cooked. There- fore when fried eggs are charged ten cents, nearly all the extra two cents must be set | down to profit. The omelette with. fine | herbs is the same price, ten cents. Here | most of the extra two cents represents the | extra t ble of preparation. But the ome- lette with grated cheese is fifteen cents! seven cents above the price of two boiled exes. e forced to conclude that the proprietors be themselv entitled to a Bront on the work of providence, which has lecreed that certain —— shall be ad- | dicted to the use of Parmesan cheese on egss. To the customer it is all the same. le consults his taste, and does not order It is thought to| particular dishes on which he thinks the management has taken the least profit Back of the foods there is the question of service, the cost of raw material and the laundry work. The service the restaurant ets for nothing: the are glad to work for the tips, which are about five cents for each customer. The charge for table Unen is sufficient to pay for its washin: the company hi own general laundry. for all its many restaurants. There is also THE EVENING STAR: WASHINGTON, D. ©, SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 1893—SIXTEEN PAGES. tiny profit on the bread, for the company has its own bakery. The meats come from the company’s own slaughter house. In- fegen as a butcher and took up the Tes asa itcher an 1 - taufant business to make a double profit on his meats. The question of the wine is also an im- sive an the ‘cheapest as expensive . cheapes ‘ordinaire” may be had ina ly yt carafon for four cents. This is @ goblet full and is not good wine. they call Medoc is twenty-four cents a bottle; while an extra franc makes a great leap toward really good wine. The most expensive Bordeaux at these restaurants is six francs, the most expensive Sauterne is three francs, and the most expensive white Burgundy is two francs. The restaurants revel in cheap cham- | oat ‘Tisane” is one dollar a bottl fosmos”’ brand of A. G. Lemaitre, runs from a doliar to a doliar and a half, according to the color of the label; Mumm's Ay Moasseux is a dollar twenty, and Heid. sieck Monopole two dollars. It’ is nothing strange to see dinner parties given by w:! to-do people in these cheap but dainty Duval restaurants. Champagne and good wines are called for in them as often nearly as the cheaper kinds. The Parisians are & frugal people, and yet they love good ‘The Parisian begins his dinner with a few olives or an extremely small plece of fancy sausage, dear at § cents. He ends it Frith doth black coffee and’ a glass, of brandy or Benedictine or other digestive, at about 9 cents. Imagine a dinner, th taken at a Duval restaurant: Consomm & cents; caviare, 12 cents; salmon, with green sauce, 20 cents; roast capon with cress, 25 cents; fresh cream in a little pot, 12 cents; coffee with cognac, 10 cents; and wine, say White Burgundy, at 40 cents. ‘The total is $1.27. If an extra soup be taken (6 cents), and an extra 3 cents be paid for table ‘Iinen and a half bottle of wine be added, with an extra coffee, this will be enough for two, and cost them about 80 cents aplece. ‘Neither of these prices is cheap. On, the other hand, the food 1s very good indeed. Year in’ and year out these restaurants maintain the Same excellent standard. Imitations have risen and fallen, but they only remain. Outside of them ‘it is only the stuffy plat du four in a big brasserie, or @ small eat ing house, and the chic restaurants, with thelr wonderfully perfect cooking and won- derfully expensive and changeable price STERLING HEILIG, ——+o- FARMING UNDER GLASS. Tem Acres of Sheltered Houses and Their Labor-Saving Devices. From the Chautauquan. The old farmer and his son-in-law hai entered a long glass structure containing countless tiny green lettuce plants growing in the ground. “What a monstrous lot of plants! Shouldn't think you could sell ‘em all.” “Ob, there are only 1,000 dozen in this house. The next house carried 2,000 dozen last winter.” “I should think it would take @ man all day to water ‘em.” “It would if he used a watering-pot. I once used a hose, but that took too much time, so I rigged a pipe on the roof under the glass. Stand back in the doorway an4 take out your watch while I let on the shower.”* An instant Iater a fine mist seemed to fill the entire place, and then it was gone. “Why, it wasn’t a minute.” “No. I usually give them about forty Seconds. You see every single plant has been given a gentle sprinkle of water by only & turn of the hand. 1 calculate, that Saves at least 20 cents a day in labor. “How do you keep the weeds down?” “Well, in the first place, I don’t have many. I use fertilizers largely, and if wi do appear I have a little wheel Weeder that a boy pushes along between the rows of plants. The lettuce soon cov- ers the ground so that it chokes off the weeds.”” Farmer Allen walked along the narrow paths between the beds, lost in wonder and admiration. Every tiny leaf sparkled with dewy drops of water and stood up fres green and vigorous after the artificial shower. Was not this whole business of raising crops under a glass a key to much of the peculiar position of farming inter- ests? Here were crops raised in an artl- ficial climate. Under glass there ts abso- lute control of heat and rain, and these thi ‘are the essentials of’ plant life. Would the use of glass spread, would it be possible to raise other crops than flowers and lettuce in this way? Did such farm- pay? iy ‘fo ail of which the son replied in this wise: ‘3 iyS me because I am a mat food. I run my little ten-acre farm precisely as a factory is run. I "se, as you see, iabor-saving devices. I pro- great quantities of a very superior article, and a yore I get fair and steady prices. My lettuce goes off by rail as far as New York, and some of it even to Albany and Hartford and New Haven, and other places this side of New York. I make money by reducing the cost of man- ufacture and by the use of labor saving appliances of every kind. I never plant a seed by hand. It is ali done with planters. I never touch a weed out of doors or in- side with the hands. I do not even dig my tatoes by hand. As for this rane bus- it is growing tremendously all the time. Some of these millionaires who are expertmenting with glass in a large way are showing us food manutacturess that almost an; len Mi = gimoat any garden crop can be raised un: COOKING BY ELECTRICITY. Labor-Saving Devices of Which Elec- tricity is the Power. From the Hotel Reporter ‘The stories of the use of electricity in the hotel kitchen if practically realized will make life in the back part of the house a very pleasant and easy occupation. There is already @ device for grinding the morn- ing coffee. A little slide starts the motor, and when the coffee is ground and falls into the coffee pot a weight turns off the motor automatically. Meat may be chopped, fruit juice pressed out, an ice cream freezer turned, or cream extracted in an instant from milk by va- rious other devices of which electricity 13 the moving power. There are baking ovens, heating stoves, saucepans, broilers, griddles, sadirons and various other uten- sils which may be attached to any electric light wire. ‘The voltage in the case of the household appliances is from 50 to 110. The ovens, which possess many advantages over an oven heated by gas or kerosene, are ined with asbestos, so that there Is no radiation of heat into the room. The heat is applied at the top and bottom of the oven alike, and may be controlled by @ switch on’ the outside. There is a ther- mometer attached to the oven showing the exact degrees of heat, and there is a plece of plate glass in the oven door so that the cooking may be watched and the heat staduated if tt is going on too rapidly. The FSi objection to the oven is that {t cannot be opened during the cooking, and, therefore, meats cannot be basted as they certainly should be. There is no special gain in time. A twelve-pound turkey re- juires two hours and forty-five minutes ve-pound roast of beef about an hour and @ half, if it is roasted rare. Pies of va- nds may be cooked in from thirty minutes, and it seems probable that this oven would prove more valuable for pastry baking and other cases when an intense heat is required than for gen- eral use in the kitchen. The great ad- vantage of such an oven’ over one heated by gas or kerosene is that there 1s no odor and no smoke. The average kerosene stove 1s Hable to smoke unless it is watched with the most scrupulous care, and nothing ts more destructive and disagreeable than the all-pervading, paige and greasy soot from this smoke. A pancake griddle, a coffee pot or teapot may be attached to a wire separately. There are also broilers which broil the meat with- out smoke and in so rapid a manner as to recommend them to all good cooks who know the value of intense and rapid heat in broiling. It is not likely that these kitchen utenstls will take the place of the range, but they may be valuable as an adjunet. ———-+0+ An Expression of Opinion. From Truth. How queer’ MAKING LEAD SHOT. Something About a Simple but Curi- ous Industry, DROPPED FROM A HIGH TOWER The Little 6pheres Molded by Natural Forces. SORTING DIFFERENT SIZES. Correspondence of The Evening Star. NEW YORK, August 9, 1808. e HIS IS THE SEA- son of the year when makers of lead shot are obliged. to shut down their business almost entirely, be- cause of the heat. Not half a dozen blocks from the city hall a slender tron tower rises high into the air. Its purpose is the manufaeture of small metallic pel- lets for the use of sportsmen, and of these it turns out billions every week in cold weather. Up near the top of the tructure are furnaces for melting the sub- Stance, which is poured in showers of glob- ules down though the shaft. They fall into a well of water at the bottom, out of which they are then scooped, to be sorted into proper sizes and polished for market. Each individual shot must pass a test and be declared perfect before it is permitted to go out. Among the many popular delusions cur- rent is a widespread motion to the effect that shot are made spherical by falling from a height through the air. Various stories are told of the manner in which this fact in physical science was originally discovered. One of them refers the invene tion to a dream, in which a shot-maker be- held molten lead falling in the shape of globular pellets into wat Another at- tribe the invention to a ‘tinsmith, by accident gropped some melted ‘metal from the roof of a church which he was repairing. Whatever basis in fact. these anecdotes 2 pr Hey not have, It ts cer: Pi whatever ex: {dea referred ‘to. ‘The fact is that partes if they they would not ‘tumble, but would they " got to the Started in any other shay be made round by’ the merely slugs whi water. But it = arriving at the bottom. As fi {ts purpose ts not to chili them, bat Teese ford a yielding substance for them to strik Ie it were otherwise they would be flat- peredatnd, made useless. “The well in the we aera er described is twelve ‘The Shot Tower. ‘The ower may be likened to a tall and very slender light house. It is 178 feet The spiral tron stairway winds trom ane bottom to the top around a central shaft. To reach the summit {s a laborious climb. At a helght of 140 feet is @ floor Fat? & furnace for melting the metal. "Thirty r is another faaee ae poeta ne To} wer furnace ts us for the smaller siz rt they do not have to drop so far In order ts in order to t cool. For big shot the upper fut feempioved. A’ fall of abzty Poe witTatee sufficient for the very small bird shot. The workman who tends the furnace hi a dozen utensils which look like big sane pans, with long handles. each saucepan is perforated with holes.’ There is no other apparatus. manufactures are more simple than that of lead shot. ‘ ie metal for making shot has to be vet carefully prepared. Tin is commonly found as an alloy of lead, but if there is so little a8 one pound of tin in six tons of lead the material will not produce shot; {t will only yield oblong slugs. Pure lead will not mak Shot at must have with it a proportion of The latter has somewhat the same effect upon lead as lard or butter has on Pastry; it makes it brittle. To mn with, the metal is put into a pot witl Pounds of arsenic to each ton of lead. The mixture is heated to a cherry red, which signifies about 2,000 di Fahrenheit. The alloy thus prepared 1s made into of 10) pounds each. One of these pigs melted together with 1,000 pounds of lead, and thus is obtained the muteriat re, quired for the shot. Not long ago a ‘sensation was made in the newspapers by writers who asserted that game killed with shot that were load- ed with arsenic must be poisonous. Of course, nothing could be more absurd. The effect of this mineral on the metal is to cause the Inter when melted to form itself Raturally into globules, like quicksilver. When the man at the furnace wishes to ascertain whether his molten stuff is heat ed to the right temperature he throws & Uttle of it out upon cool iron. If correct, it splits up into a lot of rolling globules re- sembling mercury. All being in readiness, he skims off from the top of the melting pot a quantity of the impure stuft that loats on the surface. He puts a layer of this In the bottom of one of the saucepans. When partly cool it is of a putty-like con- sistency. It is very porous. How the Operator Works. Now, the operator holds the saucepan over the central shaft, which is boxed in with planks all the way to the bottom of the tower. Looking down, one can see a faint shimmer of the water in the well far below. ‘The workman with his ladle pours some ‘of his pure lead alloy into the pan. It makes its way through the porous stuff on the bottom of the utensil and forms Uttle drop at every opening in the perfora ed bottom. The drops fall down the well, followed by others as fast as they can form. Being lquid drops, they are “absolutely spherical when they leave the saucepan. ‘The man keeps on adding melted lead with his ladle as fast as it is required, so that the shower of metal drops is continuous. By the time they have fallen 100 feet or more through the air they have cooled and hardened so far that the impact of the wa- ter does not alter their shape. In the manipulation of the lead and saucepan a skill {s required which ma- chinery could not supply. It is not neces- sary to have a pan with a distinct size of erforations to produce each size of shot Semanded, Holes of a given size can. be made to yield shot of several different sizes by making the layer of scum on the bot- tom of the pan thinner or thicker, or by altering the temperature of the lead alloy. ‘The holes are punched by hand. At the same time, it 1s not possible to make all the shot in a given batch of exactly the same size. No. 4 shot, for Instance, are made with a pan that’ has holes measur- ing four one hundredths of an inch in di- ameter. Three-quarters of them will be of the right size, but from 15 to 2 per cent will be smaller or bigger than No. 4. Making Different Sixes. Another fact to be considered is that brands of lead differ. All of them will not make shot of the same sizes for holes of given sizes. The operator is obliged to get over the difficulty by suitably adjusting the temperature of his melted metal and the thickness of the scum at the bottom of his pan. The best time to make shot 18 when the fron sides of the tower are whit: ened on the intertor with frost. In the sort of weather which now prevails the leaden drops do not cool fast enough, £0 that they are flattened when they strike the water below. Not long ago a visitor came to see how shot were made at the tower described. Showers of the little lobules were falling down the shaft. Standing near the bottom he thrust his hand out to feel the leaden rain. The fore- man grabbed his arm quickly enough to revent him from being seriously injured, ropping from such a height the shot would have quickly riddled Me hand, From the bottom of the well endless chains of little buckets dip up the new- made shot and carry them to a floor above, where they are poured upon an in- clined table of heated iron. As they roll across this table they are dried by the heat, and at the other end of it they fall into great bins. There they remain until they are ready to pass through certain further processes which are required to prepare them for market. On coming out of the bins they go into a revolving cylin- der covered with wire cloth. Friction in this contrivance removes from them all corrosion and dirt. Then they are Geter ed by machinery to a series of wide boa! arranged like steps, the difference in ele- vation between each two being slight. The first and highest board is slanted sufM- ciently to set the shot rolling to the end of the steps. The other boards are hori- zontal. Testing the Shot. Now, between each two of the step-like boards there is a space as wide as three or four fingers. The perfectly spherical shot jump clear across these spaces, but the imperfect ones do not roll sufficiently well to make the leaps. Perhaps they may get across ome or two of the gaps, but they are sure to drop through by the time they get to the third or fourth. Falling out, they are rejected. Those which pass ordeal and jump all of the spaces ere per- fect shot arid are deemed. acceptable with, out further test. bad ones are of all ee or down’ the’ well. ‘Finally, the little. pellets are put through a series of sieves with different sized holes, by whic! they are automatically sorted into all the different sizes known to the sportsman. Then it only remains to pack them in and send them to market. It should have been said, however, that before ‘being sort y jeves they are pu! * ma. chine which tumbles them around witi i otherwise known as black lead Dan Slattery, mer, Talks About His Profession. From the New York World. The men at the seaside bathing places who bring drowning people out of the wa- ter never speak of themselves as life-savers. They call themselves swimmers. One would naturally think that they would be proud of the title which is justly theirs and would want to use it. But these life-savers are modest men always. You see they are brave men, men who have an abiding re- spect for danger, and yet who never know what personal fear is. When the work performed by a life-saver, the dangers and insult to which he is posed are placed in one balance and the ‘amount of wages he receives is placed in the other, his compensation seems ridicu- lously small. The highest wages are paid along the Jersey coast, which is the most dangerous about New York. About Long Branch and Asbury Park they receive from $0 to $60 @ month. At Coney Island from $40 to $50 a month is paid the ife-saver. Along the Long Island shore beyond Coney Island, the average is $50 a month for & first-class man. The lfe-savers are ex- Pected to go on duty about 7 o'clock in the Homing and they are not at Uberty to leave the beach until 7 o'clock ight. They must pay all their own expenses; sometimes they are required even to furnish thelr own Dathing sult, Dan Slattery is a life-saver at one of the bathing beaches of Far Rockaway. He has been in the business for ten or twelve years. Like all the really men, Slattery is extremely modest. He has worked on all the beaches from Fire Island to Atlantic City. He is thirty-three years old and 1s therefore an old timer. All the life-savers ary young men. “What becomes of the life-savers?” Slat- x ret ed,” he replied simp! “They get drowned,” he simply. In theory a life-saver te not expected to take too much risk himself. If he finds he cannot save a man whom he goes efter and is himself in danger, he is expected to save himself. In practice the life-saver must bring in the person he Foe" after or drown with him. If he puts the theory to practi- cal operation he might as well make up his mind to get out of the business. He will find it almost impossible to get a job. And that is the reason why so many of the life- savers are drowned. “There are thousands of men looking for @ job as swimmers,” said Slattery, as he was lying on the sand ig a sharp look- there are mighty To make a good out upon the bathers, "bu few who are ‘any gos jwiramer,” said Slattery, in the first place, take to the water naturally. A man must never know what it is to get scared, because if he to get afraid he will lose his head, and then he's woree than useless. When ‘a person's drowning, you've got to get there as quick as you can, and then you've got to know how to han- die him after you get there.” Slattery stood up and motioned to an ath- letic young man who had been parading the beach, and who was then showing how well he could swim, “Those are the fellows who give us all the trouble,” he explained. “If there were no good swimmers we fellows wouldn't have anything to do. It's only, the good ewim- mers who get drowned. The others ki inside the life lines and are safe. The swimmers go out so far that it is hard to get to them when they have a crump or get tired. “It ig always best to go out with x life- line,” Slattery went on. “You can always t them in easier then. When a swimmer iret ree to a beach he starts in by et ing the currents and undertow. When sees @ man go down the swimmer doesn't Start for the place where he saw the man down. He probably makes for a point Wonty-fve feet away: When he comes up the swimmer is right there. Then comes the hard part. When persons nre drown: ing they haven't any sense. The first thi they do is to grab you around the neck. We tell them what to do, but they won't listen. We generally try to swim around them and wet hold of the neck of their bathing suit at the back. If we can get them there or by, the shoulder or by the waist It is a good “If the person behaves himself then he’s all right. (We can get in without any trou- ble, But if he keeps on fighting us it gets to be pretty bad work. If a man's got beard or mustache we'll usually give it - That distracts his attention and the swimmer can get free. Then if he tries to grab you again, there ts no left but to hit him, I don’t believe that there ts a. swimmer living who doesn't hate to hit a man in the water, and yet we have to do it pretty often. It is a good deal of a trick, » rhe swimmer has to raise himeelf ti the water and plant a blow where it will o the best good. It is astonishing how easy it is to save a man after you have Knocked him senseless. ow, women are better than men. They make a lot of fuss at first, but they seem to come to their senses quicker. If you tell & woman you will smash her if she doesi't do as you want her to, and you make a motion to carry out your threat, that is usually sufficient.” “What do swimmers usually get for sav- ing a life?” ‘Usually they get blackguarded. Half the people whom you save from drowning will stand on the sand and roast you until they can't speak any more. Occasionally they will thank you. Upon very rare occa- sions they may give you something.” It 1s astonishing, as any one will learn who talks much with the lifesavers and others who work on the beach, how few people reward them. The red-letter season in Slattery’s career was at Atlantic City, where he received $67 in gratuities in three months. It was that season that he saved Miss Annie Drexel of Philadelphia from drowning. She gave him a diamond In Worth $100 and two brand new $50 notes. he $675 1s four times as much as Slattery ever made in one season before or since, SS Ready Appreciation. ‘From Toronto Mail. Guide—“I have brought you to this point, miss, in order that your first view of the great manufactures building may enable you to grasp in some measure its stately, magnificent, yet simple grandeur.” ‘oung Woman (in wheeled chair)—“O, isn’t it nice!” ————_+e- A Man of Moods. From the Detroit Tribune. Janitor Mike—“Ol never seen sich a moody man as yizsilf.”” ‘Tenant—“Why, Miki Janitor Mike—“Larst winter yes wor kickin’ bekase there wor ice on the soide- warruk, and now yez kicks bekase there ain't none, I dunno.” ———+e- —__ A Changed Opini From World's Fair Puck. Rowe Tund (9am.)—“Well, it just makes me sick to see strong, able-bodied men being | wheeled around like babies.’ Rowe Tund (6 p.m.)—“Seventy-five cents an hour? Allright. Meet me at this gate tomor- ; row and I'll take it for all day. Say, do you | know where I can borrow a pair of crutches?” SOME WILD PEOPLE. Strange Savages Visited by a Gov- ernment Ornithologist. INDIANS OF CENTRAL AMERICA, A White Man Regarded as a Cu- riosity. THEIR PRIMITIVE HOUSES. TRIBZ OF WILD people hitherto al- most unknown has been visited within the past year by a scientific agent of the sovernment, sent to Central Awerica for the purpose of collecting rare birds. These savages dwell f1 Costa Kica, far up the Lito Frio, or“cold river." They are cali 1 tne Suntusa In- dians, Early explor- ers put on record vague descriptions of them, saying that they were white, with red hair. There is no truth in that. It Js a fact ‘that they live in extraordinary com- munal shelters, each village occupying a aingle shed, which may be 10) feet long tnd thirty feet ‘wide, protectiag "60 or more in- dividuals from the run and tropical rains. ‘Such a shed is constructed in the simplest possible manner, its tent roof thatcle? with palm and plantain leaves. ‘The ridae pole is twenty feet above the ground. ‘The in- terior of this remarkable dwelling ty di. vided off into stalls, each of which is oc- cupied by a family. Under the dirt fluor the dead are buried, by which ingen‘ous plan the survivors have their defunct rela tives always with them. J2lonyated hel- lows, where the loosened earth has sunk, mark the graves. The shelters are fre- quented by great numbers of vampire bats, which suck the blood of the savages at night. A Light Toflet. The men are naked, except for a breech- clout made from the inner bark of a tree, which is beaten out into a soft cloth. The women wear nothing but a strip of the same material wound about the waist and tucked in so insecurely that it 1s continual- ly oi undone. Some of the young fe- Tales are quite e208 locking: are all very small. The children are w! nude, the babies ‘being carried on their mothers’ backs commonly, with nothing to hold them Dut thetr e women do most of the work, guch as carrying pl ins from the fields in sacks of bark made with meshes like nets. The men are jealous and follow their wives around to see that they do not Get into mischief. The sheds have always a sour smell, which comes from partly decayed plantaini and huge bowls of a drink cailed “chicha.” This beverage is made by the old women, whose most Important occupation it 1s to chew ripe plantains, expectorat from time to time into receptacles provided, for the purpose. The liguid thus obtained is Allowed to ferment, thus becoming & frothy reparation of le Tt is fhen ready to drinks having ‘e suM™fcient percen of alcohol to render it fairly intoxicating. The savages get drunk on it every day of their lives. They go out @ work in the morning, and returning by 10 or 1 am.,, give up the rest of their time to orgies. A Good-Natared Peopl Apparently they never quarrel, being the most good-natured of wild people. There are plenty of plantains and plenty of old women to do the chewing, so that there is never any lack of intoxicants. They dip the “chicha” out of the bowls with half gallbashes, which serve for drinking cups. The beverage has such gas produciag prop- erties that a savage who has indulged in it excessively looks distended almost to the point of bursting. ‘The are usu- ally toothless, because plantains contain an acid which destroys the teeth. These Indians are fond of rubbing themselves with cacao-butter, which within the last few years has become known to the civil- ized ‘world as a toilet preparation. They make it by boiling the cacao seeds, skim- ming off the oil which rises to the surface. ‘They are an agricultural people, growing gaceo, from which the com: hoco- late ls made, in clearings, as well as Dlain- tains. Having no metals they cut away the dense’ tropical veretation with “long knife-lke machetes of hard Witch they have a few fone hatchets, ich they picked up in streams, but these implements are of prehistoric ses. They are i posed to be thund its. ep A pd manufacture fish lines, hammocks very beautiful twine out of tree bark. They see one Dude of pals ax fon long ana “wrapped at oth ends Ring by ag ] ks them from splitt , while eee Misch’ wood. which i another ‘kind are used for the ar- 1 thi same black w. of palm. No fea! rows. Setting Traps for Game. ‘They set pit-falls with sharp sticks stuck up in the bottom for wild hogs and tapirs. ‘The latter are nocturnal animals and very Aificult to capture otherwise. The savages know how to make other kinds of snares, and they do some fishing with the bow and arrow. They have killed off nearly all of the monkeys in their neighborh: bei yery fond of their flesh. They will not ea! deer, regarding them as sacred. The res- son ‘that they wear so few clothes is sim- ply that they have no means of obtaining more complete garments. The climate is so mild that there is no need of much clothing, the temperature never falling be- Jow 70 degrees. | Nevertheless, they would glad to adopt a more ci for oe adornment, if it were prac- of bie. Mr. C. W. Richmond, the govern teat ‘Grnithologiat who visited them, found one old woman wearing & dilapidated pair of trousers without much of legs left for a coat. aw Man a Cartosity. It took him nine days to get up the snaggy Rio Frio with canoe and paddlers to where these people dwell. They had only seen one other white man in many years. Naturally they were very curious about him. His shirt being open in front, they rubbed his skin with their fingers to make sure that its whiteness was not ar- tificial. One savage a his mouth open gently and tried to pick fillings of gold out of his front teeth, jabl excitedly. ‘They thought that he was deaf because he could not understand their questions. When one of them became too stent Mr, Richmond would look the Individual in the eye and begin reciting the Declara- tion of Inde lence. This method was very ee the Indian nodding his he at intervals as if he un- derstood. The buckles on the visitor's eus- penders excited —_ astonishment, their use appearing unimaginable. The savages were most amiabiy 4 5 They obtained from Mr. Richmond ell of his cartridges for keepsakes, as well as other small articles. He saw one youn; man with a raw wound on his foot, stil bleeding, from the bite of a vampire bat. Strange to say, this blood- ya creature usually does not wake up its victim, but performs its operation of phlebotomy With- out rousing him to consciousness. The same fellow had been bitten in the leg three months earlier by a poisonous snake, and the limb had wasted away in conse- quence so as to be useless. The only do- mesticated animals seen in the villages Were ‘a young peccary and a “kinkajou. the latter a so! ‘urred nocturnal mammal, as big as a cat. The Indians had drums made out of hollow logs with iguana skin stretched over one end. To one of them the visitor gave an old steel machete, — made him the happiest man in his This region was first penetrated by Span- ish rubber hunters about forty years ago. They stole some of the children of the sav- ages and war followed. They killed the Chee) ley ney amet, ft the indians tray em by ing the woods with | pit. Tie The chief of the Indiuns was killed, id since then they have had no ruler or head man. There are about fifteen villages of them im all, each settle- ment occupying one shed. The tribe num- bers rather more than 2,000 souls. Their Social Custom: In the communal dwellings each family seems to be entirely independent, and all of them live most harmoniously vogether. When one of the young men is old enovgh to marry, very commonly he steals a girl and carries her away into the woods, per- haps remaining absent for months. Mean- while her afflicted relatives get over their annoyance at the occurrence, and eventual- Sr he returns with the woman. In that neighborhood Mr. Richmond shot nearly a score of what are called Holy Ghost birds, because they are snowy white. The spe- cles Is so rare that only two or threé speci- mens have hitherto been possessed by the museums of the world. On leaving this region the ornithologist visited the east coast of Nicaragua and journeyed up the Escondido river, which runs through one of the greatest banana- Se aso, regions in the world. The port Blue Fields. ‘The stream runs up ints the interior sixty-five miles to the Spanish town of Rama. There the Rama and Si- guia rivers join on their way to the ‘sea. For twenty miles up these two confluents | and down the Rama to within twenty miles of the coast the shores are covered with | banana plantations. Three lines of steam- ers from Blue Fields Dananas to Savannah and two lines to New Orleans. In winter vesels leave every five or six ays, each loaded with trom 12,000 to 20,00 <1 When a steamer arrives at Blue Fields the y to which it sends tug Up the river with orders, ‘These orders are delivered at the plantation. For ex- ample: One grower will be requested to cut on @ certain day 30 bunches, three- quarters full. This signifies a stage growth at which the fruit may be expect. to ripen in eight or nine days, Bananas two-thirds full not so big and not so near ripeness. They would be cut at this stage for transportation to a greater dis- tance. The steamers accept bunches hav- ing eight “hands” or over as whole bunch- es; those with from seven to four “hands” are taken as half bunches. The Banana Plantations. Each plantation is called a “bank.” When | it receives an order the foreman and his laborers start out early in the morning, through those portions of the culti- Fated land Shere the fruit ts sasee aoe dant ona the bert contitien. 2] p= 4 £2, along op down each pl at | © desirable’ bunch. ‘The ‘bunch is cut off and the plant is left to rot on the Spot. The bunches, whole ones weighing from 60 to 75 pounds, are carried to the landing place and green banana leaves are put over them to protect them from the ‘The banana is propagated by cutting off small shoots from the roots of developed plants and setting them out in jar rows . they shall be eighteet bet apart. Tequire no further attention except to keep down the weeds, which grow so rapidly and with such luxuriance as to re- Quire cutting every few days. Otherwise ey take away so much from the sus- tepance of the plants that the latter will only praduce half bunches. A fall grown plant is from twenty to twenty-five feet high, with leaves eight to ten feet long. It requires about eighteen months to mature and ripen the single bunch which it Produces. A good bunch will contain, 150 One square mile should “cut” 500 bunches a week all the year round. Unfor- tunately, bananas rapidly drain the soil, so that a plantation runs out in ten years or so. It begins to bear only half bunches gnd, must finally be abandoned for fresh The Planters and Their Laborers. ‘The labor in this banana-growing region ts mostly done by Jamaica negroes. They are the laziest and most unmanageable workmen in the world. It ts hard to get them to do more than two or three hours’ work in a day. as at omen ce reling. : they fight. It is aim with the Spanish laborers. Every one of the latter carries a knife at his hip or in the middle of his back, and when angry he will use it. The Spaniards have a disagreeable way of getting into rows at their festivals, on which occasions feuds of long standing are The planters are Americans, Spaniards and Jamaica negroes of a better clase. They are not money nowadays, be- ing at the a, of the steamer lines. Some time ago # Philadelphia line of steamers entered the business and started to carry bananas from Bive Fields. To freese out this new rival the other com rateed panies the price of bananas to $135 a bunch in gold. was very profitable for the growers while it lasted. ‘The Philadelphia company being choked off by this process, the price immediately fell and is now only # cents a bunch in Nicaragua money, which ts equi! alent to 39 cents in United States coin. ‘When the fruit is plentiful, the steamers reject all bunches which are not m the fin- est condition. There is nothing to do with these but to throw them sway, and thus !t happens that bunches of are seen floating down the ri ands, the fishes eating them and wading into the streams to These facts will help to account wonderful cheapness of bananas country. When they reach here it s said that the Itahan vendors ith them for the purpose of ripening them, but thar is very lkely untrue. Natives Prefer Piantains. Strange to say, bananas are not very highly prized where they grow. The na- tives greatly prefer plantains. They be- eve that raw bananas give people Severn, ‘The fully ripened fruit looks very different from the banana that ts sold in northern markets. It becomes finally ; them in several ways. So oy Se eee oie, Oy sek See sliced and fried. Goo egar from fermented bananas. The fibre ae product before long. A plant for a gigs? banana flour in preparation i set up Honduras. In the of this article the bananas are a and ground. It is claimed that the is as good and nutritious as that obtained from wheat, having the additional advant- panera red ‘Water and Milk. From the Detroit Free Press. ‘Two gr eg ae eas a Ouse. for @. mon! an Ronest’ old farmer, and Just after supper they sat down to talk over their pleasan’ i surroundings. “Just think,” said one, “what lovely milk that was. Nice and rich, and much better than that blue stuff we get “It's too good to last, I'm eae st ore ay ye len farmer and the cow lot adjoin! “Bill,” they heard We ee en or cee a = ; “There,” exclaimed the elder, “didn't I tell you it was too good to last,” and they went slowly and sadly into the house ex- pecting to find blue milk for breakfast. 4—Say, what have Ie treated this way?” —oo————— They're ized Up Just the Same. From the Milwaukee Journal Some people labor under a superstition that being disagreeable adds to their im- portance. FOOD FOR CHILDREN. How to a Nourishing Dishes in Warm Weather. the Little Ones in Prime Condirion—some Good Recipe Advice for Keepi | Written for The Bvewing Star. The heaith of our children is of first tm- Portance and the preparation of the food they eat has more to do with their well being than anything cise. Nourishing food, with early hours, fre ‘quent bathing, plenty of fresh air and exer cise, will hardly fail to keep a child well and able to throw off diseases when they re prevalent or else to have them in uch light form that they will scarcely cause any anxiety, Now that the warm weather is actually upon us and our Mttle chiléren are more lable than in winter to diseases caused by indigestion, improper food, #c., & few suggestions as to dishes suitable for them and some simple recipes may be se ceptable to the readers of The Star. If a child of three or four years is per fectly weil and strong he may eat a few green vegetables, meat, frait, &e.—tn fact, Very much the ‘same ‘that his elders do. But it is wise to be watchful and et the first indication of aay indigestion stop the Vegetables and fruit and put nim mostly on a milk diet—rice, milk toast, &¢, until Perfectly weil again. Ali meat for ebti@ren who cannot use a knife should be cut up or minced very fine in order to assist thy in mastication. In very hot weather Itt or no meat should be given and none at all until the child has cut al! of his first set of teeth—the twenty “milk teeth,” as they are called. A poached egg on toast is a whol and simple dish for a child. In fact, i they agree eggs are often better than for children and grown people as well. If eggs are to be eaten soft-boiled, it is best to put them in water just below the botl- ing point, keep them ‘there from five to ten minutes or until the eges dry quickly on taking them out of the water. a cooked in this way are easily digested cause the albumem or white is soft ike the yolk. Rapidly boiling an egg hardens the white and makes it Gifficult to digest, Macaront for Children. Few people know how to cook macaroni for a child. But properiy prepared, it is a most palatable and nourishing dish. In the first place, go to a reliable grocer and buy &@ good article. Have a large saucepan full of bolling water well salted. Breek up your macaroni into pieces about four inch- oo jong. Put it into the saucepan, and boll Until thoroughly soft and swelled twice as large as when dry. If the water While boiling, fill up from a boiling ketwe. When the macaroni is cooked, oft all the water (it is better to put it in a colander), and put with it milk and Wut- ter. Let ‘it stew slowly in this for abeut fen minutes, when it is ready to be served. This is much liked by ttle children. end if niccly prepared, and with en salt, is an excellent edible for them, and for grown too. The ‘average cook, however, will Geclare that macaroni should be soaked, or put on in cold water—which reduces it to a sticky, starchy mass, uneatable ana in@icest- bie. ‘The time for cooking macaroni és important. 3 ou the woy “Boll twenty minutes,” but 1 have known it to be Milk Toast. ‘Milk toast is something every cook thinks she knows how to make. But what « qif- ference there is in different cooking! ut your bread in the oven to dry thoroughly while the milk is boiling. When it buits put in a lump of butter and salt well. The being thorough! ‘expose tt to Souls for & minute when it wil celicate brown. hg FD iy stiF ee e ikea by most children. Graet. Barley water and oatmeal gruel are very 00d for teething babies. They are bot made by boiling barley or oatmeal in water for a number of hours, then stratming ané sweetening. A pinch of salt should be put into the water when your little girl or boy is milk and bread Dushed away and he will want or something else which you are a! not be for him. Take tle water (enough to dissolve 1t), pinch of salt and a heaping tablespoonful ef into the milk and when it begins te Doll stir im the dissolved cornstarch. Bent it a good deal and let it cook several min- utes. Wet some small molds or cups with cold water and pour into them the hot mix- ture, Now your little boy can eat the blane mange warm in the cup or cold as he pleases. ‘It is my, experience that he fers it warm and takes a grea and pleasure in seeing it prepared knowing it is done expressly for him. The old-fashioned remedy for summer com- plaint may be known by some, but it is #0 simple and efficacious that It will do no harm to repeat it for the benefit of thone who have never heard of it When a child's bowels are disorfered anf milk in any form, as well as other food, disagrees, the following is useful in check- ing diarhoea and causing healthy action: Take flour, say @ pint, put it in a strong ton cloth. Put it in a pot of boli water and boll it nearly all day, belng car ful the water does not boll away and leay it Gry. When it is done and you untic the cloth you will find a ball, something like very hard apple dumpling. Scrape off ail the soft pastry outside until you come to a dry hard bail in the center. This ball és what you want to keep. Put tt away jn ary covered box and grate as you aced ft te ada to the baby's milk. A spoonful of this hard ball grated fine and stirred into « cup of milk on the stove until it thickens « Hetle will usually have e wonderful effect § checking diarrhoea when + Ontmen? bofled ax usual fo: perhaps a Nttle softer and with m is very nice strained, so tha own lished by this to cht Her Biu®, From Trnth. Ten Rroke—“Why do you call that you poker chair?” Miss Dashing—“Because it has so often heid a pair.”