Evening Star Newspaper, April 17, 1897, Page 24

24 [alae aieeineacd 7 — round the earth. e total production of PINS BY THE BILLION! Ingenious Mechanism Employed Their Manufacture. the country is about twice this number, or neariy enough to extend ine straight line from the earth to the moon. The pins make their appearance at the he factory in the form of coiled wire packed in | in barrels. The ordinary pin is, made from brass wire, though fron is used for the cheapest grades. The first. stép in the trans- formation process is the straightening of the wire. The coils are placed on revolving racks and fed from these into a machine from the vise-like grasp of ‘which the. wire, emerges perfectly straight. Thence it gocs @irectly to the pin machines, where the most interesting step in the work of manu- facture goes on. The pin machine, like the printing press, combines. in one compact Pplece of mechanism a rumber of interesting —_-_—. TURNING OUT 300 A MINUTE Women Are Employedas Inspectors Processes. ae madi : = im the Machin and Sorters. As the wire is fed into the machinery it. pat encounters a sharp knife which cuts ft off into uniform lengths of whatever size IN THE FACTORIES may be desired. As each Iittle.length. of,| wire drops from the knife it falls upon a wheel, perhaps ten inches In “dfdmeter, set upright in the frame of the machine, The edge of this wheel is notched into a number of little grooves, each one just large enough to hold one of the bits of wire. The embryo pins settle into.- these grooves and are carried along by the re- volving wheel until an fron-thumb and finger seizes and holds them firmly, while an automatic hammer, by a single smart blow, puts a head on one end. en they fall upon another grooved wheel, which revolves horizontally and Jooks |ike a min- jature barbican with the bits of wire ‘pro- Jecting from its rim. As the. wires. move on in the clasp of this second wheel, the projecting ends pass over the surface of a. number of rapidly revolving wheels, which may be described as circular steel. files, These wheels grind the end of wire to a neatly tapered point, and after leaving them the points pass across a pumice stone wheel to give them thé #modthness-which the files cannot impart, and then drop into @ wooden box placed beneath the machine to receive them. The process is the same —s Writter for The Evening Star. What becomes of all the pins? It is an old question, and one that has never been answered. Take ft in everyday life. No- body ever willfully destroys or throws away a@ pin. On the contrary, all tradiiion is in favor of care in preserving these useful little articles. The connection between good luck and pins is brought out by an ancient Anglo-Saxon saw, which runs: See a pin and pick it up, And all the day you'll have good luck. See a pin and let it lay, Bad luck you'll have then all the day. This may be a little weak in grammar, but the point fs obvious enough. Every student of household “superstition know tco, that to come upon a pin lying with the point toward one means bad luck, while the opposite end is an equally potent har- binger of good’ fortune. And so a long/for all grades of pins, except that story might be made of the romantic and|in the best ones a stream of oil historical associations of the pin, but lest | falls upon “the points as they’ pass over the surface of the files. This “point- ing in oil" is said to impart a toughness" and durability not otherwise obtainable. It will be seen that since the wire was fed into this complicated machine it has passed through four distinct processes— cutting, heading, pointing and smoothing. There are over 100 of these muchines rarged along the sides of the manufactur- | ing room, cach one turning out 300 pins per minute. Not all the machines are like the one described, but this is the new- est, most up-to-date and most rapid in its operation. Back in a corner of the 1oem are some of the old h&rd* fathines of a decade ago, capable, under the direc- tion of a skilled workman, of turning out one-tenth as much as the most improved modern machines. In the square wooden boxes beneath the machines we have what may properly be described as a pin, locking very much as it does when it leaves the factory, al- though it has a number of processes to go throvgh still. The next step takes the pins to the whitening room. Here they are first placed in a “tumbling barrel,” which is simply a revolving cylinder, haif filled with sawdust, and rolled until they are cleaned of grease and dirt. Then they are passed through a blower, which re- moves the sawdust and leavés the pins bright and shining. Next they are placed in large square sieves and lowered into vats filled with a peculiar green fluid. ‘These are the nickeling vats, and after re- maining in them an hour or more the pins come out changed from a brass color‘to the familiar nickel hue. They are rolled in sawdust until dry, and th: upstairs to the stitching room. Sorting the Pins. Thus far the pins from each of the ma- chines have been kept in separate boxes, as the least variation in size would injure their eppearance and selling qualities when placed in the papers. Now, however, if there is any doubt as to the exact uni- formity of all the pins in each consign- ment, if any of them have been bent or imperfectly formed, they are run through a “sorter.” This curious machine has a hopper at the top from which the pins feed down through a narrow groove to an aperture graduated to any desired size, where every imperfect pin is thrown out, while the others drop. out a receiver. It is impossible to get the better of this ma- chire. Bend a pin ever so slightly, mar the point or head the least bit and the machine will instantly reject it. Next comes the sticking room, where the pins are mounted on papers, as they are to be seen on the shelves of dry gouds stores. It is not so very long since that this process was performed by hand, but now it is all done by a most ingenious machine. From the hopper into which the pizs are poured, as wheat is in a flour mill, they pass down into a narrow slit, which holds the pins upright. In Indian file they move down this narrow: line and at the bottom fall upon a grooved screw, which rejects all that are -imperfectly formed. The others it neatly turns upside down, ard leaves them standing point upward, thirty in a line, in a narrow frame. As the pins enter the sticking machine from one side, the paper, which has pre- viously been cut into proper widths, and gilded on the edges, is fed into it on the opposite side from a big roll. There are raised lines along the roller over which the paper passes and a press descends upon it making a double “crimp” in the re At the same time the narrow frame which holds the line of pins is automatically raised and the pins are neatly thrust through the paper, being released and left in exact and orderly array as soon as they have pierced it. The long strips of mounted pins are cut into proper lengths as they emerge from the sticking machines and pass on to the inspectors. The inspectors form the court of last resort, where all deformed or in- jured pins that may by any possibility haye escaped the machine, are discarded and thrown out. This work requires the great- est skill, and only experienced hands are employed. It may be said in passing that this prove a tender subject for school- Pin Sticking Machine — Putting Pins in Papers. masters, it may be well to turn to the more prosaic and practical side of pinology. ‘To con.e back to the starting point once more, the pins certainly do disappear, and it takes some billions of them every year to sustain the falling skirts, mend the ripped waistbands and replace the missing sur- pender buttons of the Amertcan_ people. And yet few of those in whose daily econ- omy the pin plays so important a part, whom its humble services may have saved froma most embarrassing situations, ever think of the amount of skilled and careful labor involved in the production of a single pin, few, it Is to be feared, are even prop- eriy grateful for the boon that it confers. “Can anything be more simple than the making of a pin?" you say, and you hold one up to look at it. There is nothing to it except body, head and point. You may be surprised, then, to learn that this pin tn the course of its manufacture passed through from 10 to 16 processes, journeying from basement to roof of a great factory in which are employed hundreds of skilled operatives, all giving their minds and mus- cles to the task of turning out £0 simple an object as the ordinary pin. And besides .>e-iuman workers the industry enga: dozens of different kinds of machines, op erating with the mysterious and almust Intelligent action which makes modern ma- chinery so highly interesting. As might te expected, the pin production of the United States is centered in Con- recticut, a commonw-alta famed zlmost as much for Yankee notions as for its wooden nutmegs. It is estimated that nine-tenths of ail American pins are made in Connec- ticut, and the largest pin factory in the country,is in that state. The number of pins turned out by this one factory in the course of the year, if placed end to end, would form a line reaching three times No potash—no mineral—no danger—in 8. S. 8. ‘This means a great deal to all who know the disustrous effects of these drugs. It is the only blood remedy guaranteed. urely Vegetable SS. S forces the disease out through the skin—does not dry up the polson to decay the bones, like mercurial mixtures do. “I was almost a physical wreck, the result of mercurial treatment for all the inspectors and most of the workers »lood poison; =$. § 8. | employed in the sticking department are fs a real blood remedy, | women. Men do the work in the whitening for it cared me per- | room and operate the pinmaking machines. manently."" Henry Roth, 3 1848 South Ninth street, Inspecting the Product. St. Louts, Mo. The inspectors have the lightest and pleasantest room in the factory, for plenty of light and keen vision gq together to Books free: address Swift Spect Beauties OUR ’97 COMPLETE LINE OF lonarch icycles The supreme result of our years ofexperience, Ready For You. The after-dinner Task of dish washing loses its terrors, and all household cleaning is ac- complished quickly and easily by the use of 2 GOLe WasHine THE X. K. PAIRRANK COMPART,.. Caicago, for tired people, hungry people, cold people, sick People, well people. Prepared in a minute. iS are spread ek Seiliy. Seake A AUR RE tngurea , inserting fresh ones in the places. y thelr work of handling thousands of pins every day their eyes become wonder- fully trained, so that they can detect the slightest flaw. Of the pins that they throw out one will be found to have a little hook ‘on the point, a&hother an ill-ehaped head, but the imperfections: are so slight that thé ordinary persons, untrained to such work, would not detect one in a hundred. A pepet of pins of standard size contains twelve rows, with thirty pins in a row. So deftly and quickly does the inspector do her work that she handles thousands of pins in the course of an hour, yet she al- most never overlooks one that contains an imperfection. - ‘After leaving the inspectors, the papers- are folded, labeled and packed in cases, ready for shipment. It may have been only two or three hours since the little pin now reposing in its neat case, along with hundreds of its fellows, was part of a coil of wire many rods in length, but during that time it has passed through a dozen different operations and twice that number of pairs of hands. The process described is that through which the ordinary pin, what may be call- ed the hovse pin, passes, but, of course, there are endless variations on this usual form. Some of the brass pins are allowed to retain their original color, and these, of course, do not pass through the nickeling baths. Instead, they are boiled in another solution. Then there is the murderous hat- pin and others which it Is desirable to have of a dark color. These are subjected to the treatment known as japanning. From the manufacturing room they go to the basement, where they are placed in a re- volving cylinder half filled with the hot japanning mixture. When removed from here they are hung on racks and placed in big ovens under an intense heat, where they are allowed to “bake” for an hour or more. Then they are removed, cleaned in sawdust -and henceforth treated like the others. Odd Varieties. There are other pins of odd and wonder- ful shapes. Simplest of all is the crimping pin, which is made by simply bending a straight piece of wire so that the two ends are of equal length. Safety pins require more hand labor than any other kind, and are made by a separate process. The point is sharpened while the pin Is still a straight plece of wire. Then it passes through a machine which deftly winds it about an upright steel rod, thus making the spring. A Pin Machine. The heads are made separately by a ma- cbine which stamps them out of long strips of wire, and the two parts are firmly joined by a clamping machine. No machine has yet been invented that will stick safety pins into the papers, and this part of the work is done by hand. Here again experience lends speed, how- ever, and a girl who fs an expert can mount 100 gross of safeties in a day. A branch of the business to which the button craze and the recent campaign gave great Impetus is the manufacture of the Pins used for mounting campaign badges and motto buttons. Last fall the orders for these ran as high as 20,000 per day, and they could not be turned out fast enough to satisfy the demand. Then there are dress- makers’ pins, bank pins, hooked and bent and circular pins in bewildering variety. The statement that 300 workmen and more than 100 rapid working macnines, capable of turning out 300 or more pins per minute, are employed in a single factory gives no adequate impression of the great mountain of pins that is required to supply the market every year. Perhaps a state- ment of some of the orders received at one of the large Connecticut factories will give a clearer idea. The big department stcres in the great cities frequently order 100 cases at a time. A case of pins consists of 108 dozen papers, 360 pins in each paper. These are the correct figures, but nokcdy except a pergon with a genius for multipli- cation would attempt to determine from them how many pins the people of the United States manage to lose, des‘roy, or in some way get rid of in the course of a ear. ot is gratifying to note that in this, cs in so many other industries, the mechanical genius for which Americans are famous has placed this country in the foremost of production. It is an instructive lesson on the complication and specialization of mcd- ern industrial conditions to note the many different processes involved in the manufac- ture of even the simplest object required in daily use. There is mystery and ro- mance even in the making of a pin. ee THE DEBTS OF CITIES. A_ Matter With Which Population Does Not Seem to Have Much to Do. From the New York Sun. The Greater New York will begin busi- ness as a municipality, so to speak, on Jan- vary 1, 1898, with a municipal debt in ex- ceas of $200,000,000, a debt larger than that of any four other cities of the country. ‘There ts a general opinion, for which, how- ever, there is no real warrant, that the debt of American muncipalities is based upon their population, area, age and resources; but the fact is that while these elements regulate the running expenses of American cities, the debt is fixed rather by the form of government they have enjoyed or suf- fered from in the past. Boston and St. Louis are cities of the same size very near- ly (the difference in population between the two was less than 8,000 by the last census), yet the municipal debt of Boston is three times greater than that of Bt. Louis, while, on the other hand, the tax rate in St. Louis is 50 per cent greater per $1,000 of valuation than it is in Boston. Louisville, a city of 200,000 population, has a debt of nearly $8,000,000, but Coving- ton, in the same state, with a population of 37,000 by the last census, has a debt of $2,400,000, and Newport, Ky., a city of 24,- 00, has a debt of $1,100,000. “Chicago,which has a population considerably in excess of 1,250,000, has a municipal debt of $17,000,000, whereas New Orleans, which has a popula- tion of 250,000, one-fifth of Chicago's, has a debt of $15,000,000, and some | im- provements under way will mate ly in- crease it. » with a ulation at the last census of more than 100,000, has a@ debt of $1,106,000, whereas Evansville, which by the last federal census had a ponulation of only 50,000, one-half as large, a8 a debt of $2,100,000. The municipal debt of Kansas City is $4,000,000 and Sioux City, Towa, owes $1,200,000. The municipal debt of Philadelphia is $2,000,000 and of Pitts- burg $12,000,000, but Providence, which has about one-half the population of the has in- creased more rapidly in population, and the — included in it is somewhat larger THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1897-28 PAGES. sarermcte.Purce FADS AND FANCIE So" Suggestions fyr-the Great. Exposition LOOKING POR-AM IRRESISTIBLE CLOU —— May Be a Glosification of the Au- tomobile. PARIS WiLi BE EN FETE Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, April 2, 1897. 8 IT HAS BECOME the rule for each world’s fair to have tts “clou”—its Ferris a wheel or Eiffel tower ae —the force of compe- p 3m tition is putting a = great strain on all in- genious Frenchmen, who will have it that the “clou” of 1900 shall be absolutely stunning. The super- ior commission of the Ze exposition is engaged in receiving and examining all projects of- fered, and the talk of Paris is of marvels hitherto undreamed of. This constitutes one side of the present interest in the ex- Position, far off as the date seems. What is a “clou?’ Clou means a peg or nail. The soldiers call their police hall or Prison ‘‘the clou,” and “from this—or vice versa—the common people have it that to put one’s goods in pawn with the govern- mental Mont-de-Piete is to put them “au clou,” which is, exactly, “on the peg.” While, like much slang, its tracing is a bit obscure, the figure evidently is to “hanging up” an object or a person; so that, in the jargon of the Paris theaters, the ‘“‘clou” has long been the great scene or stage ef- fect or situation, or even a plece of mech- anism or scenic novelty—a tank, for in- stance—on which the management may count with confidence to “hang thé public up?” This is, at least, the explanation of the “argot’” dictionaries; as for the people, they use slang—they do not etymologize about it. The “‘clou,” at any rate, they say, will have to be a good one to surpass the Eiffel tower of 1889, which still stands proud ard dominating, with a moral power even more remarkable than its material power, in that it seems to keep in honor its crea- tcr’s name, most pitifully dragged through Panama. In the last half of the present century—including 1900? Oh, that is an aw- ful question when one sets to arguing about it—Paris will have seen five of these world’s fairs. The first, in 1853, had no But that of 1867 boasted three, as aleo did the next, in 1878. In 1867 it was the Edoux elevator, the Krupp cannon and the chime of forty-five bells; while in 1878 it was the grand aquarium of the Troca- dero, the captive balloon of the Place du Caroussel and the ‘giant head of Liberty, now on exhibition—&as well as on its body— in the harbor of Néw York. As for the ex- position of 1888, the genius of Eiffel gave it world-wide fdmé: Some of the Suggestions. And what are thé propositions which, to the number of 780;: have already been ex- amined, not t6'spéak of those unnumbered other hundreds to be heard from by the public when ,6ffictal routine gets there? The great revolving tower or house of twenty-three stories high, so often men- tioned in the American Sunday press, still holds a place iof honor in the possibilities. But of that Other, not a little talked of, the alleged \already “approved Bicycle Palace,” I can find no trace. No one has ever heard of it. While the bicycle will undoubtedly have a gicriovs showing, as/it well deserves, the cautious thinker is to remember that the three full years which must elapse before the exposition opens promise to be years of wonderful development for automobilism; and the present writer, for one, would not be at all surprised if the Paris end-of-the- century fair should turn out, in the end, to be a glorification of that self-same horseless carriage, here called “automo- bile.” Have not the Parisians already been promised electric automobile cabs, to be From the Top of the Tewer. eet on as soon as they can be constructed, y three of the great companies? It is true that up to the present moment only private turnouts are seen on the streets—but in what rumber! One no longer turns the head to watch them darting on. Positively, seriously, any reader who is planning to take in this 1900 exposition may now prom- ise himself, as an extra inducement, the high novelty and excitement of continuous- ly and habitually rushing through the broad and brilliant streets of the Ville- lumiere on swift and tireless automobile cabs—at 20 cents an hour! I lay my hand upon my heart and solemnly asseft that when the companies, foreseeing the great traffic, shall have put on their 30,000 or more of these splendid, shining, swift and elegant magician’s vehicles to replace the 15,000 broken-hearted and anaemic horses of today, the Paris-gone-mad-with-motion will be the real “‘clou;” the real fair will be outside the exposition grounds, and all around in a circumference of fifteen mile: while the resultigg razzle-dazzle—unfore- seen as yet hy the Parisians themselves— will be in the nature of such an outrageous pandemonium of gayety and gladness that the whole w: stand aghast! Meanwhile, tike*him of the muck-rake in the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” who could not perceive the -glorieus crown, because too cccupied, we argue over the merits of the ninety or m “clous,” which the commis- sion superteuy has‘set aside as worthy of and choice among them. i. convenience one may classify penoramas and the lema‘ lan to project pictures or what- ever on “artificial clouds!” Reconstructing Old Fraiee. a the list of the ninety projects be- fol , and, while I fear to name them all, I will venture to mention a few that seem most striking. The heading of pano- Tamas includes quite a variety of schemes, Fopening employment to wax or papier _ figures; scenery and properties, ax In “villages;” and effects arid illusions of the stage transferred to the open air. These ideas seem to run chiefly to the reconstruc- tion of “Old France,” “Old Paris,” “Pictur- esque France,” “The Grand Army,” and various series of telling historical scénes; to ethnography and foreign subjects, like “A Trip Around the World,” “A Voyage From Paris to the North Pole by Balloon”— @ most ingenious illusion, very great in con- ception—explorations, expeditions, ._ con- quests; and to general history and science, as in “The Streets of the Centuries,” “‘The Progress of the Nineteenth Century” or “The History of Costume.” Perhaps none of these panorama-cyclo- rama-diorama ideas will be accepted; and, in any case, but two or three can be ud- mitted to the grounds. And will they not have to compete with the delightful inter- est of such marvels as the proposed giant hogshead to contain 150,000 gallcns! Of what? More moving still is the really magnifi- cent idea to construct a great glass tun- nel along the bottom of the river Seine, iteelf to be dimly lighted white the sur- rounding waters will be lighted brilliantly, in which case there would be an exiraordi- nary stocking of the river with aquatic life, to come and bump their fishy noses up against the glass! Under this heading of “Constructions,” there seem to be quite a number of proposals to exploit the river, the most mysterious being an “aquarium- theater,” while there are five distinct plans to build model ocean liners or war ships. The proposition to construct a “Jouah Res: taurant”—the name has nothing sinister in nch!—inside the bones and skin of a most extraordinary gigantic whale now under treatment in some Swedish or Nor- weglan seaport town is not expected by its backers to be let inside the grounds; nor do they care much, thinking well that, anywhere outside, its novelty will always draw as many people as the whale’ can hold. They propose to have their waiters A Jonah Restaurant. dressed and masked as fishes. There are, for the rest, so many captivating plans under this heading of “Constructions” that should the visitor, when the time comes, walk through the grounds of the exposition of 1900 with a full list of these early pro- jects in his memory, he would shake his head for sadness at the thought of this or that which might have been! The “Pal- ace of the Press and Advertising,” the “Palace of Glass,” the “Palace of the French Song,” the “Temple of Gold” and the “Cortege of the Nations” being most spoken of, perhaps one of them imay be realized. But it must be admitted that the third class of projects, roughly indicated under che heading of “Scientific Curiosi- ties,” 1s even still more favored by the mass of the Frenchmen. Selentifie Curiosities. Of these scientific curiosities there have been eight already put aside as worthy of particular attention. The great refra ing telescope, the history, progress and actual practice on the spot of photog- Taphy in colors; the utilization of the ground under the palace of the Trocadero (and immediate environs) for geological and mining expositions; a reproduction of the terrestrial globe and ditto for the’ mecon; an exposition of fiying machines, whether guaranteed to work or not; the history of chrono-lithography; and’ the celebrated “luminous projections on arti- ficial clouds,” a magic-lantern idea with so much magic in it- rtificial clouds” — that the Parisian mind is luminous with hope and expectation. At least two of these latter schemes, the telescope and the terrestrial globe, must have received some notice in the ‘Ameri- can press already. The globe being the proposition of Reclus, the world-famed Seographer—and unarchist—would syrely turn out a marvel, both as to its gigantic size and its stupendous accuracy, at least as to the civilized portions of the globe. It would be higher (in diameter) than a house of I do not know how many stories; be permanent, the exterior surface of thick glass; contain elevations and depressions showing the condition of the earth’s sur- face, and, as for its minuteness—being so very, very large—they tell us strange tales of the smallest villages and creeks to be all put there in their places! Alas' the luminous projections and the artificial clouds! The great refracting telescope, on the other hand—that which was to bring down the moon to but a few miles distance —may be supplanted by a telescope with a gigantic lens of the new kind, undreamed of ninety days ago! It seems to be abso- lutely certain that by the discovery that large lenses may be built up of smaller lenses instead of being cut and. polished in one piece—a marvel in the world of op- tics that upsets all calculations—telescopes of hitherto mere “Jules Verne possibility” will soon be numerous and cheap! . STERLING HEILIG. —_—.—__ POWER FROM OYSTER SOUP. How an Ingenious Engineer Saved His Train and Passengers. From the Chicago Times-Herald. He was more than an ordinarily accom- plished Har for an amateur, and they all knew it when they asked him for a story. “I can tell you how I once ran an engine and saved a train-load of people with an oyster stew, if you want to know, but I don’t think of anything more exciting than that,” he said, apologetically. : “That's good enough,” they all declared. “Give us that.” “All right, then; here goes,” he said, as he settled back in his chair: “I was once engineer on a road that ran for a long stance through the forests of northern: isconsin, and we were frequently bothered by forest fires. They were par- ticularly bad at the time I speak of. One day I had run through one big blaze, only to find that there was a bigger one ahead. The worst of it was we were low on water, and there was no chance to fill the tank without dashing through the fire ahead of us. I sent the fireman out to see if we had enough to make the run, but he came back and told me the boiler was almost dry. “I was puzzled for awhile. It was death to all of us, I knew, to stay there, but how to get out was the question. Suddenly a harry thought struck me. ‘There was a milk car just behind the first baggage, and I made for it. ‘How much milk have you got? I says to the fellow in charge. ‘About forty cans, I guess,’ he answered. “Why do you ask?’ ‘Never mind,’ says L. ‘What's that in those cans in the corner? him, and then I ordered the other train hands, who had come up to see why we had stopped, to tote that milk and those w oysters up to the engine. P “They did it, in spite of the kicking of the milkman, and when they had brought nes wp I ordered them all chucked into ihe The conductor came up, too, and, declared it was a funny notion td be mak- roast. “Well, we finally dumped in all the oysters sat ee i? : 5 [FURNISHING RELIEF How the Government Provides for Sufferers by Flood. A-DAY'S RATIONS FOR TEN CENTS Distributed Through the Commis- sary General of Subsistence. PURCHASING SUPPLIES —_—_+—___ Written for The Evening Star. Ix MILLION square meals can be provided for the Mis- sissippi flood suffer- ers out of the S200,- 000 appropriation lately male by Con- gress. Salt pork, % bacon, cornmeal}, rz AS. white flouf and mo- ion. lasses constitute the = \ rations which are be- ing distributed AME among these unfor- “* tunate people by the ‘War Department. The issue is being made on the basis of nine ounces of the salt meat, thirteen and a half ounces of flour, fifteen ounces of cornmeal and a corres- ponding proportion of molasses per man per day. These provisions constitute what is known as the plantation ration, which has been found to about equal the daily diet of the average laborer employed in the submerged area. A great majority of the destitute people, according to official reports received at the Agricultural De- partment, are plantation negroes, tho whites being for the most part plantation superintendents and their employes. Each plantation ration, calculated to maintain one man for twenty-four hours, costs the government about six cents, which would be very cheap living if the individuals could purchase the same foods at the same price, retail. Add to this four cents additional, per ration, to pay for ex- pense of transportation and distribution, and you have ten cents per man per day According to this estimate the congres. sional appropriation will buy 2,000,000 day rations, which will equal 6,000,000 square meals, as suggested, as each well-fed citi- zen is supposed to be entitled to three meals a day. In other words, the govern- ment pays three and one-third cents a meal for the food-which it is distributing along the overflowed banks of the father of rivers. According to official advices, there are about 380,000 residents of the flooded areas, more than the entire population of New Hampshire, Were all these mouths to be fed the entire appropriation would go down the red lane in about five days. The officials in charge of the distribution believe, how- ever, that their supplies will last for two 4nd perhaps three months, if necessary, since a comparatively small per cent of the residents have been made absolutely desti- tute and in need of federal alms. Purchasing Su, The congressional appropriation is being expended through the War Department for the reason that that department Is the only one which actually buys and distrib- utes foods on a large scale. The Agricul- tural Department {ts merely advisory, as far as its relations with the public food sup- ply are concerned. Hundreds of pounds of meats and groceries are being daily ship- ped to all sections of the country, where our many army posts are located. The War Department employs, in various large trading centers, an excellently man- aged corps of professional marketers, who purchase all of the food eaten by our sol- aiers. They are just the men to perform such relief work as is now being carried on. They do their selecting, buying, ship- ping and distributing according to a regu- lar system, which works like clockwork, and they are able to put food in the mouths of starving people in any part of te country within the veriest minimum of time. The whole of this flood relief work is in the hands of Commissary General of Sub- sistence Sullivan, who has detailed officers under his command to co-operate with the local relief committees of the submerged localities. Gen. Sullivan's assistants in the War Department are busy sending and re- ceiving telegrams concerning the work. Army commissaries are established 'n all of the great markets of the country, where salt pork, bacon and the other constituents of the plantation ration may be bougnt at the best advantage. After being purcnased at the cheapest price, consideration being taken of the relative costs of transpo:ta- tion over different distances, these provi- sions are handed over to officers cf the quartermaster general's department, who fee that they are immediately shipped to the localities most convenient as centers of distribution. The food is carried in freight cars over the commercial railroad lines, and on arriving at its destination is handed over again to officers of the com- missary department, who, upon consulta- tion with the relief committees, send them out in boats owned or hired by the ‘Bovery- ment. The War Department has at fingers’ ends a number of steamers, some of 200 tons, tugs and messenger boats em- Ployed by the engineer department in the work of improving the Mississippi. These are convenient for this distribution, email barges being sent out into the shallow waters. Regard All as Indigent. The policy of the War Department in this relief work is to regard all the suf- ferers in need of its aid as indigent people and to give them only: the absolute neces- sities of life, and those only as long as they are utterly helpless. In this way the appropriation, which is not so gen- erous as others made for similar catastro- phes, may be made to go around. Since the food can be taken directly to the unfor- tunates along the banks the department is averse to the congregation of the 4es- titute people in nearby cities, where they are sure to become a public care. Public funds would be necessary to transport them back to their homes, where, as soon as the waters subside, they will be needed to repair the levees and replant the ruined crops, The resolution approved by the President authorizes the Secretary of War to issue “subsistence stores,” no other necessities of fe being mentioned. In the strict in- terpretation of the word this means simply the distribution of food. The department, however, has construed subsistence to mean livelihood in the broad sense. Hence, tents, clothing and medicines may be dis- tributed in cases of urgent need, should it be desirable to establish such a precedent. In some places corn and oats have been sent to keep alive starving farm animals, who have thus managed to touch their Uncle. Sam’s heart strings. During its | | OGATARRH OF THE STOMACH. A Pleasant, Simple, but Safe and Ef- fectual Cure for It. Catarrh of the stomach has Keag, bean conpidernd the mext thing to tacurable.* usuel ayn toms are a full or bloating seneation after cating, accompanied sometimes th vis- ® formation of heart apd lungs and difficult brea’ fickle appetite, out, languid ling. is often a foul taste tn the mouth, coated tongue and if the interior of the stomach could be seen it would show a slimy. tnfiained condition. The cure for this common and obstinate trouble is found in 2 treatment which causes the food to be readily, thoroughly digested before it has time to ferment and irritate he delicate mucous «ur- Faces, of the stounach, To secure a prompt and healthy digestion ts the one necessary thing to do, and when tormal digestion ts secured the catarrhal condition will have dixeppoared. According to Dr. Harlanson the safest and best treatment to use after each meal a tnbict, com- posed of Dinst: ve, in, a little Nux, Golden Seal and frait acids. tablets can new be found at all drag stores under the narue of Stuart's Tablets, and not being a wedicire, can be used with perfect «afety aod thorough Use after mens Booher of 2710 Dearborn St... Chie: “Caterch ts a loval condition result d cold in the bead, whereby the Mning membrane of the nose becomes inflamed and ‘the discharge therefrom ymssing backword into the throat reaches the stomach, thus producing catarch of the stomach. Medical borities scribed for me for three years for without today of stomach t I cannot find ap. rep xpress my good feeling. I propriate words have found flesh, appetite apd sound rest from thelr use. Stuart's Dy tion ax well as the simplest apd moxt cot to rspepaia Teblete is the safest Preprra ean remedy for any form of indigestion, catarrh of stomach, billousness, sour stomach, heartharn and loating after mec is. for Ywok, matied free, on stomach essing ‘Stuart Co., Marshall, Mich, can be found at all drug stores. 1 floods the government was called upon to appropriate for the purchase of new house- hold equipment, and for the repair of fences, buildings, ete. Similar extravagant requests have been made this year. Should the federal appropriation be drawn upon to set one man up in business anew, such a precedent would justify the expenditu of ail the money in the treasury. The boats carrying the provisions are commanded by lieutenants of the army They are authorized to carry all private donations which may be made in the flooded states or elsewhere. These private donations are expected to enable the gov- ernment rations to last sufficiently long to keep all the unfortunates well nourished until they can again proceed with their work. Im Other Years. The army officers having charge of the distribution of these relief rations are not inexperienced in such work. When in February, 1882, the Mississipp! behaved in such a manner as now, Congress appro- priated $350,000 to be similarly used by the ther! Secretary of War. Within forty- eight hours after President Arthur ap- proved the resolution supplies were on their way tc the sufferers. Altogether, 3,2 day rations were bought with this appro- tion and distributed. Two years la e Ohio and Mississipp! o° |, an aggregate of $670,000 was ap- propriated and expended for rations. The War Department then issued from St. Louts as much as 349,433 pounds of salt meat, 5,012 pounds of flour, 518,100 pounds of cornmeal, 15,190 pounds of green coffee, 982 pounds of roasted coffee, 25,628 pounds of sugar, and 4, pounds of salt, and from New Orleans much larger quantities of salt pork, flour and meal. Again, in April, i890, when the Mississippi alone overflowed, Congress appropriated $150,000, partly spent for the same rations. In this year Con- gress over-estimated the sufferers’ needs, and about $45,000 of the appropriation was unused, and afterward reappropriated for the territory of Oklahoma. This year the War Department will not add such extra provisions as the coffee, sugar and salt, given in 1884. In that year the officer in charge cf the distribu- tion was authorized to hurriedly purchase whatever provisions the people absolute- ly required. The sufferers then were most- ly white people, whose comfort depended upon their cups of coffee and morsels of salt fer seasoning. This year rigid in- structions have been issued against lavish relief, because it is believed that ff the laborers and their families in the flooded districts should be given, free of charge, better food than they are accustomed to, they will be loth at first to return to their customary modes of life and will to some extent become demoralized. This theory is applied to the negro plantation laborers especially. The department would be se- verely criticised were it to discriminate be- tween classes, so the whites forming tne minority will have to eat what is good for the negroes until able to re-establish themselves. The federal government when called upon has generally been prompt to relieve suf- ferers in the several states. Just after the war it made a generous appropriation to relieve the victims of the grasshopper plague in Kansas and Nebraska, while in the earlier days, when pioneers were travel- ing to the great unexplored west, food was sent from military posts to many of the emigrant trains which became stranded in the prairie. Our military posts have ever been open to sufferers. Stranded steamers in the upper Missouri river frequently call upon the neighboring forts for provisions and repairs, which requests are almost always granted. Surgeons at posts in iso- lated localities are always caring for sick persons who live far from other physi- cians. Thus our War Department, al- though established and maintained for the primary purpose of maiming and slaugh- tering the enemies of the republic, exercises in times of peace the no less valuable func- tion of healing the wounds and feeding the mouths of our loyal citizens whose comforts and lives are placed in jeopardy through misfortunes over which they have no control. a Couldn't Be Fooled. From an Exchange. In a Boston suburb a priest of one of the churches announced that a collection would be taken up to defray the cost of coal for heating the church. Everybody contributed but Tim —, who gave a sly wink as the plate was presented to him, but nothing else. The priest no- ticed Tim’s dereliction, but surmised that he might have left his money at home. A similar contribution was jevied the fol- lowing Sunday. As before, every one gave except Tim, who looked sly. The priest wondered, and after service took his nar- ishioner to task. “No, Tim, e said, “why didn’t you give something, if it was but little?” “Faith, I'm onto yez!” said Tim. “Tim!” “Yes, father.” “What do you mean?” “Oh, nothing. Just that I'm onto yes; that’s all.” “Tim, your words are disrespectful and require an explanation. What do you od “Oh, faith, father, a-thrying to pull the wool over me eyes, a-thrying to make us believe yez wants the money to buy coal to heat the church, an’ yer riverence knows it’s heated by steam!” —<eo—__$___— It matters little what it is that you want —whether a situation or a servant—a “want” ad. in The Star will person who can fill your need. Teach the KING SOLOMON AND HIS From Life: MILLION MOTHERS-IN-LAW. Eivsun Sseep ia a