Evening Star Newspaper, February 3, 1894, Page 13

MARYLAND OYSTERS: Beds Which Produce One-Third of the World’s Supply. USES FOUND FOR OYSTER SHELLS|: How the Luscious Bivalves Are Shucked and Steam-Canned. WORK DONE BY WOMEN N THE SsUBJEC1 of the oyster fishery of Maryland the United States fish commission has been gathering some infor- mation of a most striking and interest- ing sort. When it is considered that this state produces twice as many of those luscious bivalves as are grown in all for- eign countries com- bined, it will be seen that the topic is worth talking about. The fact that the waters oi Maryland yield one-third of the total oyster groduct of the world is not less impressive. The total oyster product of Maryland aurigg the present century—not counting what has been used for lime—has been about 400,000,000 bushels. These mollusks have been sold in the markets for $250,(00,- 000—a sum of money over four times a¢ @reat as the entire valuation at present of the taxable property in all the counties of the state where the fishery is prosecuted, mot including the city of Baltimore. The output of the industry is equal in value to one-sixth of all the fisheries of the Uni- ted States combined. Nearly every part of this country is more or less dependent for the abundance and cheapness of its oyster supply on the yield of the Chesapeake, as are also foreign consum of the canned meats. No other state in the Union has, in pro- bortion to its area, so great an inland water surface as Maryland. The oyster indust-y 1s carried on @n eleven of its twenty-three founties. In these eleven, because of the mnumerable tributaries of the Chesapeake extending into land, there are few localities Yemoved further than six miles from navi- gable water, thus bringing all the residents into close contact with the fishery. The latter is the chief means of support en- Joyed by the 2_.,000 persons composing the Population of the eleven counties referred to. This does not include Baltimore. The Three Branches. The oyster markets of Maryland employ @ore capital than the fishery itself and sive work to ‘one-half as many persons. Baltimore fe the biggest oyster market in the world, but the business of selling and shipping is conducted on a large scale in several other towns of the state, Crisfield coming second. The marketing trade is ivided into three branches—the raw shuck- ing trade, the steaming trade, and the trade im oysters unshucked and au naturel. The raw shucking is most important. Next in Point of magnitude is the steaming trade, which is located at Baltimore, where are prepared over nine-tenths of the world’s Product of steamed canned oysters. In Baltimore, at preseft, there are fifty-eight firms engaged in shucking oysters for the Faw trade. The shucking is performed by @ small army of 32,000 persons, mostly men, but in some establishments large mumbers of women are employed. The work is fatiguing, requiring strength as well as skill. Accordingly the men can make more money at it, earning as much as $2.25 in a day of twelve hours. They get twenty cents per “cup” of nine pints wine measure. The preserving of foods in hermetically- sealed tin cans was begun in this country about 18H, salmon and lobsters being among the first products thus prepared. In 1848 the process was extended to oysters, which were cooked im Kettles. About 1S) scalding was substituted. The prese: method of steaming was devised in 1x¢ Twenty firms in Baltimore are now en- gaged in steaming oysters. Small cars filled with the bivalves in the sheli are run directly from the wharf into the fac- tory. The tracks pass into steam chests, which are oak boxes twenty feet long, lined with sheet iron. Steaming Oysters. ‘When a car has been run into the box the doors of the latter are closed, steam is ad- mitted and the oysters are left for fifteen minutes. Then the chest is opened and the ear is run over another track into the shucking room, its place being immediately occupied by another car. In the shucking Toom the cars are surrounded by the shuck- ers, each having a knife and a can, which hooks upon the side of the car. The steam- ing having opened the shells, no trouble is found in getting at the meats, and the car soon, emptied. The oysters are then Washed with ice water and transferred to a tabie, where other operators fill cans with them. The cans, after being packed in iron baskets, are again subjected to the action of steam. Then they are cooled, capped and tmally packed in boxes for shipment. The whole process is completed within an hour after the oysters are de- luvered from the vessel at the wharf. ‘The shuckers work in gangs of six or eisht, comprising sometimes whole fami- lies of men, women and children. Four thousand of them are employed in Balti- more, mostly women and children, the work being light. They are mainiy Gel Mans and Austrians. The rate of pay is 6 cents per cup of nine gallons. An active Woman can earn about 3 cents a day. Few scenes are more interesting than that whi may be observed on-a visit to the shucking room of one of the canning houses. At one end the cars of steaming hot oystcrs are reccived, and, as they ure arvanged in long rows, the shuckers, to the nuinber of 600 or more perhaps, dressed in more or less uresque costumes, sur- round them, and with rapidly working knives hastily remove the yet steaming Meats. The a. is full of the hubbub of foreign tongues, as each shucker discusses With hb eighber the petty ambitions and jealousies entertained, or relates the latest bit of domestic gossip. Nothing. however, is allowed to interrupt even for a Mo:nent the swift movements of the knives. A woxzsand bushels of oysters leave about 1,100 bushels of shells. 2 iat- ter accumulate in great heaps about the shucking houses. The quantity of 5: elis landed oz shores of the last oned at 12.14W,000 tons—twice suffic overload and sink every sailing steam vessel, barge and canal boat i ica. The weight represented is grea r than the combined tonnage of all the steam ves- sels in the world. Until recently the shuck- ing tirms have had much trouble to get rid of the shells. Such of them as they could not give away they were obliged to pay for the removal of. In 1389-00 the Balti- more market men paid $20,000 to get rid of eheils. A Source of Profit. Recently, however, the oyster shells have become a source of profit, new demands for them having arisen. In 1892-113 they fetched from 1-2 a cent to 1 1-2 cents a bushel, the trade receiving $25,000 from this source. They are shipped in »normous Quantities to other states, where they are utilized for roads, for lime, employed in mak- ing coal gas, in the manufacture of special grades of iron and for railway beds. For the last purpose they serve almost as well as stone. They are also used in the culti- yation of oysters, affording suitable sur- faces for the young oyster “spat” to at- tach itself upon, and to some extent as chicken food. It is an interesting thing to consider that the material of the shells of the hens’ eggs which come to market is furnished to no small extent by oyster shells. Enormous heaps of shells at various ints along the shores of the Chesapeake fn Potomac remain to this day to show jow largely oysters were used for food by the early Indians. These mounds, which fate back to a period far more ancient than | landing of Columbus, were usually vil- ge sites. In fact, they represent the ac- gumulations of the refuse of the breakfasts | bed Ginners of many generations of abo- THE, EVENING STAR,. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY - 3,°1894—-TWENTY PAGES rigines. The early colonists in this part of the country obtained oysters from the in exchange for trinkets and other merchandise. The savages conducted this fishery systematically, not only procur- ing the bivalves for their own use, but sending the dried meats for great distances inland for barter with tribes of the in- terior. In the same way various kinds of marine shells, since dug out of mounds in Ohio and elsewhere, were obtained by the inland aborigines. Nevertheless, it does not | @ppear that the early European settlers in is region drew to any great extent upon this valucble source of food supply. The oyster fishery of Maryland—the most extensive and valuable in the world—has been vexed with disputes for the last sev- enty years. Legislative attempts to con- trol it satisfactorily have been made in vain. Whereas in most other oyster-produc- ing states the market supplies are chiefly obtained from private grounds, Maryland has persistently refused to encourage the development of proprietary beds, devoting all her energies toward protecting the free fishery on the public domain. Though the provision of oysters made by nature for this region is so vast, imprudent methods of fishing are threatening to exhaust it. Already the yield is becoming less, though still enormous, and the oysters brought to market are of much smaller size than formerly. Thus it happens that several Baltimore market men are now importing large oysters from elsewhere. They Are Getting Smaller. The largest season's catch recorded was that of 1884-5, when 15,000,000 bushels were brought to market. In 1892-3 the yield was only 10,142,500 bushels. The oyster reefs have actually increased in area during the last thirty-tive years, but the bivalves are fewer, as well as smaller. Their diminished size is due to the fact that they do not have time to grow bigger before they are taken. Most of the Potomac oysters are sold in Baltimore, though about 150,000 bushels of them are marketed in Washington. From this river come the famous “kettle bot- toms,” which are the largest oysters pro- duced in Maryland. ‘The laws of Maryland and Virginia respecting oysters are so at variance as to seriously affect the interests of the fishery in the Potomac. Two great interests in the Maryland fish- ery have been at war with each other for nearly a century. They are represented re- spectively by the tongmen and the dredgers. They are united on only one point, namely in antagonism toward the planters. This antagonism is due to a feeling that the planting of oysters is an infringement of custom and is calculated to interfere with the free fishery. The tongmen hate the dredgers because of the improved machinery used by the latter. The former are citizens of Maryland, as is required by law. Few workmen are more independent than they. At almost any time any one of them who knows his craft can catch from four to twelve bushels of oysters in a day, for which there is always a demand at his door. He sells them to neighboring market houses or to transportation vesseis. Having enough to supply his temporary needs, he takes life easy. His earnings are from $100 to 3800 per annum. This much he gets by tonging, but usually he does more or less of other kinds of work as well. The oyster fishery of Sinepuxent bay, in Wercester county, has had a very remark- able history. From 1820 to 1844 the bivalves Were so extraordinarily abundant there that they were gathered in great quantities for burning into lime. Owing to natural causes the outlet of the bay was closed in 1845, and th water became so fresh and the bot- tom so covered with vegetable growths that the oysters were almost entirely destroyed. In 1868 a big storm opened a new inlet and thoroughly scoured out the bay. This re- sulted in a great deposit of “spat” during the next season, and within thrée years the yield of oysters in the bay rose to SuU,UUU bushels per annum. Farmers deserted their fields to work this molluscan bonanza, and Some persons earned as much as $100 a week by fishing for oysters. But the inlet closed up and the oysters decreased. On this account the yield of the bay has been small since 1384. At present a plan is con- templated for opening a new outlet by en- gineering. If this is done the bay is likely to become once more a producer of oysters on @ great scale. For information on this subject the writer is indebted to Mr. Chas. H. Stevenson of the fish commission, -+eo WHEN SMILES ARE IMPOSSIBLE. "s Pitiable Plight on a Wet and Windy Day. The utter absence of a sense of humor from the average feminine composition is never more clearly visible, says the Pall Mall Budget, than in a busy thoroughfare on a wet and windy day. A woman may be a philosopher, she may have original ideas and brilliant theories on the fundamental questions of morality and ethics, but she rarely rises superior to a muddy boot or a draggled petticoat. The woman is an ex- ception indeed who manages to preserve a smiling face in the teeth of an east wind which plays shuttlecock with her umbrella, and a dreary sleet which bespatters her clothes and freezes her fingers; young or old, fair or plain—scarcely one of them who does not frown ommously as she hurries along, forgetful of other people's feelings and umbrellas and toes, hustling and jostling, with never a glance for the ab- surdity of the situation. For there is some- thing unmitigatingly ridiculous about pe- destrians on a really bad day; nobody wants to walk on the outside of the pave- ment because of the splashing omnibuses and cabs; everybody wants to pass every- body else, regardless of the limited space afforded by the conglomeration of um- brellas; everybody pushes and elbows and | shoulders, and when an umbrella appears in sight ail considerations of gallantry or po- liteness or sex or age are forgotten—it be- comes an object lesson in “the survival of the fittest” and a free fight or something near it ensues, in which the fair sex un- doubtedly manage to bear their part with more than a tolerable grace. Wom ——_+-e+__—____ HOW TO RUN FAR AND FAST. Keep the Knees Bent, Lean Forward and Lift the Feet Very Slightly. Physiologists and lovers of athletics may be interested in recent experiments and re- searches of a French artillery captain, M. de Raoul, who, some fifteen years ago, be- gan to try and find out the most economical and least trying way of walking. There are many manners of walking, says the Popular Science News, some of which are much de- void cf grace, but it may be supposed that as far as efficiency is concerned one must be better than the others. M. de Kaoul has come to the conclusion that, as far as fast walking is concerned, the b method is that which he calls marche enflexion. The principle is to run without leaping, to raise the body above the ground as little as possible, to keep the knees bent, the upper part of the body inclined forward, so that practically you are always running after your center of gravity. The feet must be raised only very slightly. M. de Raoul, who has now some years of experience, says that he can now take any man be- tween twenty and sixty and teach him to run as long as his legs can carry him with- out getting out of breath. Some men can, on the very first trial of the method, run seven or eight miles without stopping, while, with the ordinary tactics, they could not have run over a mile. The first kiio- meter (a kilometer is five-eighths of a mile) is usually covered in seven minutes and a quarter, the second in six minutes, and the third in five minutes and forty-five seconds. An interesting feature of M. de Raoul’s researches is that even after a long run. according to his method, a stiff walk is no trouble at all; the muscles which work in both cases do not belong to the same set, and while one exercise 1s performed the muscles which minister to the other rest. ———_+e+_—____ A Young Bandit. From the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Texas Jack’ was locked up in the sev- enth district station house last night. The desperate character had been captured by brave Officer Stone, and the latter was as proud of his capture as a hen is of its first egg. Stone was patrolling his beat at 8d and Green streets when he noticed a.sus- Picious-looking figure crawl over a back fence on Green street. The figure on the fence wore heavy boots, into which were tucked embroidered velvet trousers. A short velvet coat, a wide sombrero and a belt, with gleaming revolver and xnife,com- pleted the costume. The face was covered by a thick mask. The figure jumped down to the pavement and was quickly caught in the firm grasp of Officer Stone. “Here, unhand me, cur!” shouted the captive. “Know you not that I am Texas Jack?” Stone's heart beat faster as he realized the iraportance of his capture, and he hastened his pace considerably. He dragged his prisoner before Sergeant Brown, in the sta- tion house, and said laconically: “Texas Jack—suspicion of robbery “Take off your mask,” ordered the sergeant, sternly. The prisoner promptly obeyed, and displayed the | tear-wet face of an over-grown boy. “I idn’t do nothin’, mister, honest,” he said. was just climbin’ over our fence so mother wouldn't see me. I want to turn out with the young Merry Men New Year “tab.” The sergeant thought it best to lock him up, and Texas Jack began to ery. About midnight the creat scout’s mamma THE NATIONAL ERA Dr. Gamaliel Bailey and his Famous Paper. RECOLLECTIONS OF AN ASSOCIATE Where «Uncle Tom's Cabin” and Other Great Stories First Appeared THE OFFICE MOBBED ——, ME LIBERTY party was formed as early as 1841 or ‘42. In 1843, a convention of the party issued a platform of prin- ciples. It took the ground that slavery can have no support under the Constitu- tion; that it should be abolished ‘in the District of Columbia and the territories; and that the fugitive slave act of 1793 is unconstitutional, in that it denies to the alleged slave the right of trial by jury. It favored emancipation Ly the people of the states. It was in support of these principles that the National bra was founded in Wash- angton, in January, 1847. Dr. Gamaliel Salley, as the successor of James G. \ir- ney, nad for some years been engaged in the publication or a weekiy paper at Cin- cimnau, called the Philanthropist. It was in te year 1841 that he was mobbed in that city, and his types and p: thrown into the Ohio river. me tren revived the publication im a neignboring village, but atter a while, I believe, recurned to the eity, In 1547 an association of abolition- «sts, with Arthur Tzppan of New Yors at their head, resuived to establish an anti- slavery newspaper in Washington. A capi- tal of some 920,000 was subscribed, a air. Noble was empivyed as the business mau- ager, and Dr. bailey was employed as ine euitor, He then gave up his paper at Cin- cumnali, and brought its patronage into the ara. This arrangement uid not last lous, and Dr. bailey, aiter a few monins, bougia. vut the business and assumed control as proprietor, us well as editor. The ira pub- ushers never owned a press, and from the urst they employed Messrs. Buel and bian- chard, Washington printers, to print the paper on their own press, the publisher surnishing the paper. ‘the Era was a large sheet; the price was gz per annum, but it nad no local support, and no advertising. it had at no time more than four of its thirty-two columns tilled with standing matter, and this standing matter consisted of periodical prospectuses. A large circula- tion was necessary to its support. For that day, ..1 Washington, the circulation of the Sra was regarded as a great success. Tt soon rose to 15,000 paying subscribers, and at its best to 28,000. The success of the Bra was all the way through Its existence in proportion to the bitterness of the op- position it encountered and to the prin- ciples it advocated. Some months after it was started certain abolitionist# of the north mede a futile attempt to run off some seventy slaves from here, in a sailing vessel. The Printing Office Mobbed. The editor of the Era was unjustly sus- pected of being at the bottom of the scheme, and the printing office was mob- bed. The types were scattered and some injury was done to the house, which stood opposite to what is now the cast front of the patent office. The effect of this mob- bing was greatly to enlarge the subscrip- tion list of the Era. Orders for it, with the money, flowed in by the thousands, and Dr. Bailey reaped a harvest. Mr. Polk, who was President of the United States at the time, did his duty. The clerks in the departments were among the principal actors in the mob. He threat- ened to turn them out of office unless they could make their peace with the editor of the Era. They were prompt to apologize very humbly for their conduct and were forgiven. Mr. Lewis Clephane, still living and a prominent citizen, was the chief clerk in the Era office at the time. He retains a vivid recollection of the events. Afte> Cespoiiing the printing office, the mob moved around to Dr. Bailey's residence and called him out. He resided at the corner of E and Sth streets, where the Concordia building now stands. He came to the door and addressed the crowd. Daniel Ratcliffe, a lawyer, represented them. Dr. B. assert- ed his rights as a citizen to write and pub- lish his sentiments, and declined to yield to the demand that he should cease to publish the Era. His door and windows were open, and the lights were burning brightly within, where his family and friends were quietly seated. The passions of the mob were soothed by the calm, dignified and firm attitude of Dr. Bailey, and they went off in a better humor than they came, and Ratcliffe became one of the doctor’s warm friends. Col. Seaton, editor of the “Nation- al Intelligencer,” and mayor of the city, resided in the next house on E street, but was confined to his bed. The families were on friendly, neighborly terms, and Mrs. Seaton invited the Baileys to spend the night at their house, in antici- pation of what happened, and the doctor's children were taken over and put to bed before the mob came. The Local Election Washington, at that day, was in sympa- thy with the south as regarded the slavery question; but the presence of the United States government was sufficient to tem- per the public spirit, and to prevent any very extravagant outrage by a mob. Capt. Goddard, the chief of police, acted nobly. He stood in front of the Era building, and told the mob they could not enter unless they did so over his body. The republicans organized an association here in 1855; one of the first—Mr. Cle- phane, who kept the books, says—that was organized in the United States. We com- prised a full dozen men,'at least, if not a baker’s dozen. We met in the publication office of “The National Era,” which was then located about where Lansburgh’s store on 7th street now stands. We had a ticket out that year for the office of collector of taxes. Mr. Clephane was our candidate. He received thirty-one votes—at least that was all that was allowed him. But he says the votes for him in the more benighted precincts were thrown out. I voted at or near the corner of 12th street and Pennsyl- vania avenue. My position was well known to the canvassers, and I was approached by both parties—democrats and know-noth- ings—and urged to put on my ticket the name of one of their candidates for some other place than that of collector. For we had but one candidate in the fleld. I was by no means a know-nothing, and was still further removed by the slavery ques- tion from being a democrat, and my recol- lection is that I put the name of a know- nothing candidate, for something, perhaps surveyor, on my ticket. But I voted an open ticket, while the democrats and know- nothings were cutting throats and shoot- ing each other. . ‘The next year, or it may have been later, but before the war, I voted for somebody, something, at the city hall, an open ticket, while the war raged all around between the old parties. These facts show that while republican or anti-slavery principles had but slight foot-hold here, there was little danger in avowing that sentiment, beyond the inevitable danger of being excluded from office. The people here had grown up under con- gressional training, where the most out- ken freedom of speech was indulged on all sides. John Quincy Adams, Joshua R. Giddings, John P. Hale, Owen Lovejoy, Charles Sumner and many others had ex- hausted all the resources of rhetorical in- vective tn desoribing and denouncing slavery, and there were many quiet people in Wash- ington who delighted to listen to them. But after all, none of these northern men ever rivaled Thomas Jefferson in the character- ization of slavery. Mr. Sumner once quoted to me a passage from a speech of Lord Brougham in denunciation of slavery; and said he hesitated in opinion as to whether that, or the celebrated sentence in Hooker's “Ecclesiastical Politz,” in which the author defines law, was the best prose sentence in the language. I thought Hooker’s sentence, which embodies a universal truth, the best; but as to Brougham’s, though very fine, I think it is not stronger or finer than Jeffer- son's in his “Notes on Virgina.” Who that | came and took him home. knew slavery as it existed in this country T will not recognize the searching, trenchant force of the following passages: Jefferson on Slavery. They are not like the denunciations from without by men who knew little of the in- stitution from personal observation, but they more resemble the work of the dissect- ing knife which cleaves to the bone and dissevers the joints. Jefferson says: “The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unre- mitting despotism on the one part, and de- grading submissions on the other. Our children see this and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. * * The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives @ loose rein to the worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated and daily exercised 11 tyranny cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. And with what execration should the statesman be loaded, who, permitting one- half the citizeris.thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patriae of the other. For if a slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that’ in which he is born to live and labor for another; in which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contribute as far as depends on his individual endeavors to the evanishment |of the human race, or entail his own iis- erable condition on the endless generations proceeding from him. * * And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure When we have removed their only firm Lasis, a conviction in the mirids of the peo- ple that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath! Indeed, I tremble for my coun- try when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever; that, consid- ing numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest.” ‘These prophetic words, now fuliilled, are the words of Thomas Jefferson. How “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” W ten, Not many magazines in this country have done so much for literature in the same number of years as did “The National I remember to have heard from the editor and proprietor that abont twenty voluines were made up from its columns and published. John G. Whittier was the corresponding editor, and many of his finest poems—all, indeed, that he wrote during the many years in which his con- necticn with ‘fhe ira” lasted—first saw the light through that medium. He also wrote many fine prose articles, biographical sketches of eminent philanthropists, &c. “Uncle Ton:’s Cabin,” the most remarkable and widely read work of fiction of the cen- tury, first appeared in the columns of “The Era.” It originated in this way, as Dr. Bailey informed me: Mrs. Stowe had writ ten some shorter stories for “The g and at length, in the spring of 1851, the doctor sent her $i00 in advance, with the request that she would write another story. She began with “Uncle "s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly,” sending in as much as one and a half or two columns at a time. It soon took hold of the northern anti-slavery mind like fire in the prairie grass, and ietters came pouring in in praise of it, with the expression of the hope that it would not scon be cut short. The doctor, of course, forwarded another hundred dol- lars, and another and another, from time to time, asking the lady to write on and on. And thus it was that the famous story came into being. She retained a copy- right, and when finished she employed a Boston publisher, Jewett, to bring out a handsome edition, as well as a cheaper edition, which were printed and circulated by the hundred thousands. The book was translated into every language of Europe, and printed and circuiated in vast. aum- bers. It was sald that from Jewett Mrs. Stowe received twenty thousand doliars, while his profits were much greater. Eu: ropean publishers, also, in the absence of an international copyright, generously for- warded the author liberal portions of their profits. “Uncle Tom" was skillfully drawn with reference to its circulation in the south; for it happens that her worst and most odious characters are imported from the north. Legree, the wretch who bought Uncle Tom at the sale of the amiable New Orleans gen- tleman, who was unfortunately killedY was from Vermont. Haley, the negro trader. who bought him at Mr. Shelby's sale, is made to talk like a northern-born man,while Mr. Shelby, the good-hearted Kentucky gen- Ueman, the original owner, was forced to sell, or, rather, forced to submit to a sale; and the New Orleans gentleman who bought Uncle Tom of the trader. was the embodi- ment of honorable and amiable qualities. The great purpose of Mrs. Stowe was to show the inevitable evils attendant upon a system which made one human being the slave of another, and in doing so she shows the noble characteristics of the masters that went along with their arbitrary power. When the book first appeared, and before Exeter Hall and the northern abolitionists turned it into a political weapon, it was read and wept over by southern ladies, but when their husbands and brothers saw the uses that were to be made of it it was at once placed in the index expurgatorious, when it became treasonable to look into it. Miss Catherine Beecher, a sister of Mrs. Stowe, was a contributor to The Era. She lady of superior talents and learning, hom her eminent father, Dr. Lyman Beecher, said that “Catherine was the smartest of all his boys. Mrs. Southworth’s First Novel; Mrs. Southworth’s first novel was first published in The National Era. It was called “Retribution.” It appeared serially, like Mrs. Stowe's work, and began, I believe, in 1849. It was a great success, and her writ- ings were sought after by New York and Philadelphia publishers. After writing for some time for a Philadelphia Publisher, she entered into a permanent engagement with Mr. Bonner of the New York Ledger, from whom she received, for many years, what would be deemed a liberal salary; but it fell short of the share which fell to the Ledger as the fruit of her writings. She has been a voluminous writer and eminently successful, and even now her works are undergoing new editions by publishers who own the copyrights. Mrs. Southworth tells the story herself that when she commenced writing she was teaching school here in Washington at a salary of $250 per year. The first essays in that way were short stories in the Baltimore Saturday Visitor, The proprietor, Dr. Snodgrass, sold out the Paper in 1849 to the editor of the Era, and took occasion to commend to him the au- thor of an unfinished story in the Visitor. Dr. Bailey transferred the story to the columns of the Era, and invited Mrs. Southworth to finish it. She did 80; and he paid her $15 for it. She declares that that first $15 gave her more delight than any thousand she afterward received for her writings, because it gave her the assurance of an additional resource for the support of herself and children. While wri ‘ing for the Ledger and other publication: she se- cured and retained copyrights, and was paid Uberally for advanced sheets by a London publisher, who spread them broud- cast over Great Britain. Wherever the En- glish language is spoken her name has be- come as familiar as household words by her graphic pictures of life in America. She still lives, and, although feeble in health, she is cheerful and happy from the con- sciousness of a well-spent life. She is deep- ly religious, broadly catholic in her senti- ments, full of anecdote, lively, humorous and pathetic, in the telling of which she is an adept. Other Famous Contributors. Among the political contributors to the columns of the Era were the Misses Carey, Phoebe and Alice, and “Lucy Lar- com,” a nom de plume. The name of the author I do not remember. Then there were the brilliant essayists and poets, as well, “Grace Greenwood,” or Sarah I. now Mrs. Lippincott, and “Gail or Mary Abegail Dodge. They were regular contributors for a number of years, and their sparkling thoughts dashed off in the Era have been garnered up among the standard literature of the coun- try. Dr. Pierpont also contributed many of his fine poems. Theodore Pazker Writ- occasional contributor, and dealt his sindge hammer blows upon the “slave wer" through the columns of the Era. Horace Mann also wrote occasionally for the Era. A Mr. Stanton, the husband, I be- leve, of the more celebrated Elizabeth Cady Stanton, wrote a long series of brilliant es- says upon moral and social questions, which were afterward gathered up into a volume. Another fine writer, name not remembe! wrote finely about Cuba, and the articles made up into an attractive volume. Also another, who at the time was the reporter of the debates in the Senate or House, gave some graphic pictures of men in and out of Congress. In one of them he gave to John Adams the soubriquet of “The Old Man Eloquent.” and it stuck to him. Another of his life-like pictures was that of a Virginia gentleman of the old school, who held a clerkship here in one of the departments, and had “a position to maintain” on $ per annum. The National Era, begun in January, 1847, succumbed in 1860 to the competition which it So essentially contributed to raise up. It is true that its able editor, Dr. Bailey, died the year before at sea, while on his way to Europe in search of health. If he had lived, it is possible that he might have protracted the existence of the Era for some short time, but not long. It was a weekly newspaper, devoted to a single purpose, and by the triumph of the repub- licans in the election of President Lincoln the mission of the Era was fulfilled. Hun- dreds, perhaps a thousand newspapers all over the northern country, had come to ad- vocate the cause of freedom and republi- canism, and there ceased to be a reason for sending to Washington from every town for light and information on the subject. Dr. Bailey, as has been said, died on his Way to Europe, in May, 1859. His good lady survived him many years, and died in this city. His oldest and, now I think, only son, resides here, a successful patent law- yer. The three daughters, all married, re- side in Europe. During several summers, beginning in the year 1653 or '54, I was employed by Dr. Bailey to take his place as editor, while he was absent, and in the fall of 1858, when his health had completely failed, he appointed me as the permanent editor, which position I held until the pa- Per was suspended, as above explained, in 1860. DANIEL R. GOODLOE. NEW NECKTIES. Some Dainty and Stylish Suggestions for the Season. Pretty neckwear always appeals directly to the artistic sense in a woman, and if the new “wrinkle” is not quite adapted to her peculiar style, she will give it just the tiniest twist, add to the length, or snip off an inch, and lo! it suits her as though the inventor had her in mind when he fashioned the frivolous thing. The very latest Parisian neck garni- ture calis to mind many bad memories connected with the dark days of the French revolution; but a pretty woman is not supposed to bother her modicum of brains a bit about that. This new neck- tie is called the Ro- bespierre, and very much resembles the old-fashioned ‘stock.’ Marat and Danton and the other revolu- tionists wore it, too. Robespierre. By the way, it is just a little odd that the most popular neck garniture for several years has been named for people of murder- ous proclivities. There was the Medici col- lar and ruff, which long-necked women just won't give up. The woman after whom it was named had a character that makes Liliuokalani’s appear white. Then the Eliz- abethan ruff, big as it was, did not save the virgin queen’s subjects from the guillotine. The Charlotte Corday kerchief has its turn, when there ig fouad a pretty girl who can stand its severity of outline; and now comes the Robespierre, which, in irony of ‘ate, is oftenest seen in red. Take a soft piece of silk, mousselaine de soie, or ribbon, twelve inches or so in width, and put a wide pPlece of lace across the ends. The scarf should be all of a yard and a half long. Put it around the neck from the front toward the back, cross it and bring it front and tle in a hard bow with , short ends hanging straight down. Pull (fy the bow out, so chat #7] the cross piece will look very tight. Still another tie is called L‘Incroyable. It is made exactly like the Robespierre, butia half a yard or : more longer. It is put neroyable. on the same way, and when tied, the loops hang below the middle of the waist and the ends hang to the bottom of the bodice. The Louis XIV tie is much liked to wear under a youthful chin. It also is made of soft silk, but is only a yard and an eighth long, with deep lace en the ends. It is put on from the front, crossed in the back and brought forward to tle once. One end lies over the other and ts caught with a jeweled pin. Louis XIV wore the hat so fashionable now,cov- ered with plumes,car- ried a big ermine Louts XIV. granny muff and wore laces of exquisite fineness. All these new ties are for wear with outdoor garments and should be made of some bright color that is becomiag to the weaker. They tone up a dark street gown wonderfully, —— Written for The Evening Star. Dark Days. (Villaneile.) ‘These dark days gloom my heart and brain; I weary of those somber skies; For summer-time I long sgain. I try to read, but try in vain, Too scant the light for my dim eyes; ‘These dark days gloom my heart and brain. ‘The roofs are moist with drivzly raia; On yonder bills a fog-shroud lies; For summer-time I long again. For bees’ hum, bird-songs, that I fain Would hear, dull, inuftled street-sonnds rice; ‘These dark days gioom my beart and oraia. The trees seem mutely to complain; No feathered anorist tnrough them iles; For summer-time I long again. Mark! there's the organ-grinder's strain; He hopefully his trade etill plies; ‘These dark days gloom my heart and brain. The window flowers peer through the pane, Pale, and with me they sympathize; For summer-time I long ugain. Even Fancy fails; her wonders wane; Her scenes now boast no brilliant dyes; ‘These dark days gloom my heart and brain, 1 bulld no castles now in Spain; For such the Muse her aid denies; For summer-time I long again. 4 long for days when wood, field, lane, Are fraught with wealth ihat all souls prize; ‘These dark days gloom ay heart and brain. "Tis hard impatience to restrain, A villanelie not filled with sighs: ‘These dark days gloom my heart and brain; For summer-time I long again. January 25, 1894. W. L. SHOEMAKER, ge ante One of Tyndall's Heroic Experiments. From the Western Mail. In 1865 Tyndall performed the experiment of separating light from heat. In the course of the investigations which enabled him to do this he nfade one of the most daring ex- periments that ever a scientific man ven- tured on. Knowing a layer of iodine placed before the eye intercepted the light, he determined to place his own eye in the focus of strong invisible rays. He knew that if in doing so the dark rays were absorbed in a high de- gree by the humors of the eye the albumen of the humors might coagulate; and, on the other hand, if there was no high absorption, the rays might strike upon the retina with a force sufficient to destroy it. When he first brought his eye undefended near the dark focus the heat on the parts surrounding the pupil was too intense to be endured. He, therefore, made an aperture in the plate of the metal, and, placing his eye behind this aperture, he gradually approached the point of convergence of the invisible rays. First the pupil and next the retina were placed in the focus without any sensible damage. Im- mediately afterward a sheet of platinum foil Placed in the position which the retina had occupied became red hot. Explanatory. _ From Life. “Jim, wot is steam, anyhow?” “It's @ sort o' waporous sweat wot the millions of hanimaicula wot’s in the water throws off in their hanguish at bein’ scald- ed to death!” “Wot a gilly { am! I might ha’ knowed as much.” A LITTLE WORN BOOK It Brought Tears to the Eyes of a Strong Man, AT SCHOOL BEFORE THE WA Some Interesting Ante-War Prob- lems in Arithmetic. DOWN IN NORTH CAROLINA Written for The Evening Star, A poor little thumb-worn book, tossed Sean teeth te the 10-cent box at a sec- ud-hand store by every passer-by. Its covers were dingy not only with dirt, but the original coarseness of its wretched yellow paper. Its leaves were of that muddy brown spotted paper which the in- experienced papermakers within the con- federacy made in the early sixties. The binding was strong, the cotton back dyed the prevalent butternut, The type was worn, battered and broken and evidently that used on some dally newspaper. Alto- gether it was a miserable little book, and yet to a man of forty, who picked it up the other day, it possessed a wondrous charm. He lifted it tenderly in his hands as a monk might some thrice-blessed mis- sal. He felt of its wrinkled, dirty leaves as tenderly as a blind chiid touches his magic page. He turned its pages eagerly, sometimes reading a sentence aloud, then muttering to himself, then shutting the book and looking its covers over vacantly as if he had forgotten where he was. Then he opened and read again, until the and their story melted into a blurred liquid mass, and the man was crying like a baby. The little book was simply an old arith- metic, published at Raleigh, N. C., in 1863 by Branson & Farrar, and printed at the office of the Biblical Recorder. The type on the title page was not artistic, and the absence of a letter in the address of Bran- son & Farrar, “Fayeteville street,” sug- gested that the T box in that particular font had been run low by the blockade. The editor was “L. Johnson, A. M., Pro- fessor of Mathematics in Trinity College,” and in his preface he said: “The great de- mand for books at this time of an elemen- tary character in the southern confederacy has called forth this little volume. Noth- ing new or original had been attempted. The compass of the work is such that it can be thoroughly learned by the youth of either sex, before their presence at home or the demands of their country debar them the privilege of attendance at school.” The author plunged resolutely into his work with this puzzling problem: “How many thumbs have you on your right hand?” And after ascertaining how many thumbs “you” had on both hands proceed- ed to have William give James two more apples in addition to the one he already had. He then expresses a sense of curios- ity as to precisely how many apples James had in all, a curiosity which in all prob- ability some bright-eyed little confederate satisfied thirty years ago. Warlike Problems. There runs through the book a warlike undertone, that, lie the long roll, aroused many a boy to thoughts of the field, of arms and battle. ‘Five soldiers are in one teat and ten in arother. How many soldiers are there in both?” “Ninety soldiers are in one company and twenty in another. How many soldiers are there in both?” “Twenty-eight men were sent out on picket duty, four in a company. How many companies were there?” “A captain of cavalry paid $100 for a horse and $100 more for a pistol. How many dollars did both cost him?” “A company of 100 men went into an en- gagement where 50 were killed. How many were left?” The mind of L. Johnson, professor of mathematics in Trinity College, evi- dently far away when he wrote this little book. He saw brave men charging in line of battle, or pacing up and down on sentry duty in the cold and darkness of a winter right. Perhaps he fancied himself a cap- tain of cavalry riding a $100 horse with a $100 pistol in his holster. Perhaps, too, he would have been a captain but for the necessary $200 representing horse and pis- tol, without which he could not go to bat- ue. It may be he saw himself sleeping ten in a tent, and discretion modified his valor, or did he think of the company of twenty men and speculate whether he would be one of the twenty or of the forty or fift: others lying buried pell mell in a ditch at Manassas or Antietam? He nevertheless put such stirring numbers the following in the heads of his pupils, and taught them to be patriots, as well as mathematicians: “If one confederate soldier kill ninety yankees, how many yankees can ten con- federate soldiers kill?” He meant no offense by spelling Yankee with a Kittle Y. He probably had no other. He likewise spelled confederate with a lower-case C, doubtless for the same rea- son. Again, further on, to illustrate the process of division, he asks: “If one confederate soldier can whip seven yankees, how many soldiers can whip forty-nine yankees?” In another place Mr. Johnson records a remarkable instance of good luck: “A con- federate soldier captured eight yankees each day for nine successive days. How many did he capture in all?” “Seven confederate soldiers captured twenty-one yankees and divided them equally between them. How many did each one have?” This sounds as if the Yankees were eaten up alive, and as the author does not eluci- date his fearful statement, his scholars will probably go down to their graves with this impression firmly fixed in their minds. The commissary features of war were not ignored in the work of Mr. Johnson of Trinity College. He says in one place: “If thirty-two soldiers eat 896 pounds of beef in a week, how many pounds will 175 soldiers eat in a week?” At the time the book was printed this problem was rather apocryphal. If the thirty-two soldiers were confederates it is safe to say they were satisfied that they would not eat one pound of beef in 896 weeks. One hundred and seventy-five confederate soldiers would only have multiplied the weeks and increased the uncertainty to the beef. Supplies. The cost of supplies for taought of. “At $10 a pound how much coffee can you buy for $40?” “At $10 a bushel how much wheat can you buy for $307” “If eleven quires of paper cost $22, what is the cost of one quire?” “If one bushel of potatoes cost $4, how many can you buy for $48?” “How many hats can you buy for $108, if one hat costs $12?” “The sum of $105,000 is paid to an army of 42,000 men; what does each receive?” f a trader makes 40 cents a pound on every pound of butter he sells, how much will he make on eight pounds?” A local flavor pervades the book. In one Place Lemuel goes out and gets sixteen chincapins. In another a boy reads eighty pages in the North Carolina Reader and seventy pages in Our Own Reader, and the whole school is put to the trouble of esti- mating how many pages he has read in all. Peola, on page 39, buys eight crackers and sells them to a company of boys, selling two to each bby. The problem is to tell how many boys there were in this company to which Peola gold his or her crackers. The answer is not given. All through the book are hickory nuts, walnuts, apples, peaches, pears, oranges, melons and other good things capable of addition, division and silence. the army is Financial. The author tells us, on page 121, that “the gold coins of the southern confederacy are the double eagle, eagle, half eagle and quarter eagle, $3-piece and $1. The silver coins are the 3-cent piece, dime and half dime, dollar, half and quarter dollar.” But @ page and a half is devoted to this sub- ject. When he inquires how much one dol- lar in specie is worth “if five dollars in specie be worth $20 confederate money,” we begin to see what the matter is. ‘What the Man Remembered. The man who shed tears over the dirty little book never saw Mr. Johnson, and wouldn't know him from the side of the house. But he remembered when he was @ little barefoot, ragged boy down south | = during the war, going to school with that very book, or one like it, under bis arm, He remembered Peola, James and Lemuel. He had wondered about the Johnnie who captured eight Yankees nine days running. han the ewentpeee teens wi ees between seven ‘confederates. while his 5 i y i i g 5 8 ii a Hf i | e i Ff Lj A t i E # al nal i f if é i f é e i eg i & He ir i if Hat ; | # 4 i i 8 f i i i § ef | | E i 8 i iD til i g i iil | F i : F { rs H be Hi i g i f i i f i i a ii 1 ee i eet é 7 Hi Reg paper that it cost a who book tight and left the store. TO FLY THROUGH Al The Possibility of Being Able to De It Without a Motor. , When Air Currents Are Understoea as Souring Birds Under- stand Them. Written for The Evening Star. on this subject, the time, as I am now, were correct and sound, but which I could get no one to accept or even to listen to Since then I have watched of the modern theory of the subject gravely taken up science, and have noted the nearer approach of accepted results to own conclusions, until now the Gestion presupposes the whole of osition, save its essence. The flight of a bird is a physical the result of physical laws and the case of a bird which flaps flight, without doubt, is the direct the operation of wings @ resisting medium, just as of a st of the propeller be no scientific imagine, is now birds, the largest do not flap their posed, therefore, that likewise the result of patural forces? Certainly not tific age. The Air Currents. Roughly stated, the flapping tains and propels itself by downward and backward wit But if, with its wings sition in which they do work, the bird were acted on rent of air the exact counter-eg that produced by the motion of a current, in other words, which would upon the wings the same work wings in flapping do upon the air, its t would be the same. Such a current, in iu simplest form, move, Ss > | | ; i i g 3 & i bee P Ry ; i i g t ag g i i i E H Hi ge al ent and i & g i is their the : i H ; i z F 5 BF cee aly € i & id we ward and forward in the bird's course. The wings of Strength of current. But strong, sustained, diagonally upward moving currents of air are not common in nature, and it is for this reason, I take it, that the small-winged birds have usually to rely upon their own work in flying. The soaring birds, on the other hand, are provided with iarge wings, by means of which they are able to support and pro- a ag yn im still air with slower 8 s. In proportion to weight the work required must, however, be approximately of the Bnet een ne: oe of the larger wings requiring greater ef- fort to move them. What the small bird accomplishes rapid strokes, the large-winged must per- form with a single heavy, slow one. The difference between the two methods of doing the work is the samme between lifting a hundred high in a given time, pound by raising the whole mass at one greater tax of strength larger wing example, soaring birds of the best oped type can rise from the low angle only. It is stated that dor can be confined in a very be sufficiently narrow. For birds of this type are not air or low places. What the Soaring Bird ‘The open space and the free the element of the broad-winged bird. The wide expanse of surface present enables him to gather zephyr the force it would require a impart te a small wing. His task in is not to exert upon the air the force neces. sary to lift and propel him, but to receive it from the wind in such a manner as to guide him toward his object, and this he i 2ePEee i if: i i he the force and direction of the current through which he is moving. Taking this view of the flight of the soar- ing bird, I do not have to imagine the cre- ation of any force not explainable by the ordinary laws of nature, or to seek for any pulsations or vibrations within the wind itself, which could be expected to beat a@ heavy body upward rather than downward, or rather than both ways at once. The flaws, gusts and eddies of the breeze un- doub*edly have their effect upon the of the bird, as they have upon the of the ship, but they are more apt to deterrent than —- Lats poe Se for potent causes and neglect = sweep to which they are mere incidents’ Is the wheel driven by the swirls swashes of the mill stream or by the of the body of the water itself? a weighted plane surface placed ly in the air will certainly sink to ground, wind or no wind, the answer that the wings of « bird In the act of soar ing are not a plane surface hort- from a |the necessary vertical or lat |according to the well known principle at the paralielograms of forces. The suggestiveness of all this in the ai- rection of the flying machine fs that with the proper appliances, which doubtiess can be devised, and the necessary skill, which may perhaps be acquired by cultivation, is possible for men to fly, without the of 8 motor, FRANKLIN W. LANTZ. Washington, Jan. 24, i894. fete locate Considerably Mixed. _ From the Indianapolis Journal. Mrs. Wickwire—“Oh, by the way, dear, when does Lillian Russell get back her throne?” Mr. Wickwire—“You mean Liliuokalant don't you?” Mrs. Wickwire—“Maybe I do. I have seen both their names in the papers so much that I get all mixed up.” bAK NERVES Use Horsford’s Acid Phosphate. It is particularly useful in making weak nerve: strong, as it contains necessary elements of nutri tion for the nervous system, obtained from ral sources.