Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, October 28, 1900, Page 19

October 28, 1000, THE * A Novel Feature In a Many of The Bee readers will recall with interest Dr. Seymour's five ye this where s' residence became well known as an eye specialist, and his subse- return in city he 80 quent to Chicago to enlarge his business. It has been a source of pleasure to many of his friends to note his prog- ress and steady advancement in his pro- fession. He has built up a very extensive Private Office and successful business and gathered about him a number of very skillful specialists but withal his conducting the Chicago busi ness, he gives the greater portion of his time to his Nebraska practice. He has established his home in Lincoln, which be- ing more centrally located in the state than Omaha fde from affording excellent rail road facilities, brings him nearer his many patients who are scattered over Nebraska REAR VIEW OF DR. SEYMOUR'S PRIVATE OFFICE CAR. How Chinese Use Modern Machinery (Copyright, 1900, by Frank G. Carpenter.) SHANGHAI, Sept. 10, 1900.—(8pecial Cor- respondence of The Bee.)—The biggest cot- ton factory of the Chinese empire is here at Shanghai. 1t belongs to Li Hung Chang, Sheng, the director of railways, and other wealthy Chinamen. It has a capital of 2,000,000 taels and it is a mill which would be enormous in the United States. Its buildings cover sixty acres, it employs 6,000 workmen and it is now turning out 1,000 pieces of cloth and 80,000 pounds of cotton yarn every twenty-four hours. The factory runs day and night. It has two shifts of workmen, each of which puts in eleven hours and a half, so that it is busy twenty-three heurs out of every twenty-four. The mill has fifty looms and 90,000 spindles and its machinery is as modern and up-to-date as that of any cotton factory of Massachusetts. This factory is run entirely on Chinese capltal. It is fed on cotton grown in China and its employes, men and women, are, with one or two exceptions, Chinese. This mill is the first of China's great cot- ton factories. It is not the only one by any means. There are cight others here at Shanghal. There is one at Soochow, one at Hang Chow and two at Wuchang, 800 miles up the Yangtse. There is another at Hong Kong and as soon as this war is over others will start up in different parts of the empire. The Japanese have bought some ground bere for a factory, the Germans own some of the factories already running and the probability is that both foreigners and Chinese will now enter the race to supply the Chinese millions with cotton goods manufactured on their own soil. At present there are in central China more than 378,000 spindles running and over 625,000 projected. Built by an American, This great mill of Sheng and Li Hung Chang was bullt by an American. Li and Sheng planned it seventeen years ago, but it was a long time before they could get the machinery made and the mill into operation. It was found that the short- staple cotton would not work with the ordi- nary American machinery and it had to be adapted especially to it. This was done by Mr. W. Danforth, a Massachusetts man, who came out here at the instance of the com- pany and was sent back to the United A COUNTRY COTTON GIN. ILLUSTRATED BEE. RECEPTION ROOM AND PARLOR During the past year he has made his which seem most commodious to be on trips in his own private car, a deseription Wheels, and is fitted with couche tables of which will be interesting to many who and chairs, and the room s used for a have never been permitted to pers nally reception room for the doctor patients, inspect these wonderful palace homes wside from meal hour The next room the And to say that Dr. Seyvmour car is o doctor uses as a private consulting room little palace on wheels is not overdrawing and is darkened as needed for examinatios the subject, as it was originally built for of the eyes with artificial light md s as the president of the Lake Shore & Michi- well appointed tor these pury 1he gan Southern railway, and besides being most up-to-date city office could p ihly unusually large is beautifully finished in be. Following this is the parlor, or general hand carved mahogany consulting room, occupied by the doctors The car is most conveniently arranged for living and office purposes; contains in all eight rooms, and is lighted by a modern acetylene gas plant, Beginning at the front end which, con trary to the usual method of housekeeping contains the kitchen The culinary de- partment, which, though rather minute contains all the essentials for the most extravagant cook, the range being the lat est model, but differing from that used in the home, insomuch that there is a little railing around the top which we presume is to keep the pots and kettles from sliding off while the car is in motion. The kitchen contains a large ice cbest, copper covered meat boards and sinks, all furnished with hot and cold water, and in the eves of an up-to-date cook this kitchen and butler's pantry, which adjoins it, are models of convenience in their many appointments that are so labor-saving. The china closet adds its curious features to the vice, as the dishes are hung on hooks and placed behind racks to keep them from sliding about and becoming generally mixed up when the car is in motion But leaving the butler's pantry, which is supplied with sliding shelve folding tables, etc., all of which are intended to save room, we will pass to the diningroom States to test the matter. Mr. still the technical foreign adviser mill, although he has nothing its direction, this being in Sheng's brother. It was with Mr. Danforth that I went over the mill. He tells me he is the only Ameri- can connected with it and that in all the eight cotton mills of Shanghai not more than a dozen foreigners are employed, al- though they use something like 000 hands Shen and Li Hung Chang have another mill in which there is but one foreigner, two other Chinese mills use forcigners as con- sulting engineers only and in the factories run by foreign cap there are a rule, not more than three or four foreign work men. Danforth is of the to do with the hands of Chinese Factory Girls, It has 'been found that the Chinese the equals of any people of the world factory hands. Mr. Danforth tells me that they learn quickly to handle machinery and that many could take their places in our mills and hold their own. The foremen understand how to control the hands and the work is thoroughly organized. About three-fourths of the employes are women and children. I went through room after room filled with girls weaving and spinning, Some of the women had brought their babies with them. One I remember had laid her almond-eyed little one in a basket between her knees as she worked. The baby was quiet and its cheeks broke out into dimples as I tickled it The factory girls work from 6 to 6, with a half hour at noon for luncheon. They ride to the mill on wheelbarrows, a half dozen sitting on the same barrow, leaning back to back against the wheel, which comes up through the center of the vehicle I asked as to their wages and was told that the average was 28 cents in silver, or 14 cents in our money a day. The poorest do not get more than 5 cents a day, while very skillful workmen and workwomen make as much as gold a month. Such cases are very few, Iourteen cents a day i3 just a little over 1 cent an hour, and many of these girls do not earn even half a cent per hour. The night shift is just the same as the day shift, the workwomen changing off with each other and working alternately all night or all day for a week at a time. At the close of the war with Japan, when a number of the new mills were built, wages rose. There was a strike or two and the average went up to an amount here consldered enormous, or from 17 to 20 cents of our money per day. Since then they have fallen to their present level, but they - ‘ the purpose of fitting g general examinations imd is a model of luxury with its carpeted floor an upholstering, which far sur passes the average physician ofMce in comfort and convenience for their patients The next rooms are the doctor private apartmen occupied by himself and wife wnd of two adjoining room each heing ecight feet square, one contain ing a bath tub supplicd with hot and cold water; the other, which is used as a small private parlor through the day, can be v instantly transformed into a stato room, which in minutene would al most give one the impression of a play h tthough every appointment is per Passing from here we reach the room in the rear of the car, which in reality would be called the front hall or general recep tion room tthough the car | usually oved with the Kitchen forward, and b fng attached to the rear of train lenve the spucious platforms to be occupied in pleasant weather by the traveler Many of the doctor move coming to nd from his home are made in the night which, however, do not interfere with the houschold retiving at the usual hour il arising the nest morning to find their nerounding entirely changed perhaps from the pieturesque hills of South Dakota to the proad praivie of Nebraska, and thetr breakfast served as regularly and with as lttle commotion as you would be ealled by your servants inoyour own home Dro Scymour expects to make Omaha a visit some time during the coming winter i many of his friends and acquaintances Will appreciate an invitation to personally inspect the car PRIVATE OFFICE CAR OF DR. W HIS ANNUAL TOU will probably rise again with the new mills to be built when the war closes In the Shops, The interior of one of these big spinning mills is a curiosity. The factory is built of dark gray brick, with enormous rooms run ning around courts. The buildings are of two stories, well lighted with many win ich room has hundreds of modern machines, at each of which are more of these Chinese girls, som with big feet and with little ones The little-footed maidens hobble about, swaying this way and that, as they arrange the thread. Some of them sit on bench and turn the reels by p ng their little feet up and down on the pedals. I am told that the women with small feet cannot do as much work as those with the big ones They have to sit down oftener, and the big- footed women complain that they allowed to rest as much their footed sisters. The cotton is ginned here in different ma chines than in America. A great deal of it is ginned before it comes to the factory in rude hand wringers. In the factory small steel Japanese ging are employed. These are about one-fourth the size of our modern machines, but they will not do one-cighth as much work. They are run by steam and are handled by men and boys After the cotton is ginned away Into enormous bags dows weaving two or some are not as small it 18 packea ecach about I SEYMOUR, IN WHICH HE MAKES R OF THIS STATE twice as big as the biggest bed tick, and holding pounds of corton. The balea are not pre *d down, as with us. The bags fastened into a framework, and the put the cotton in with thelr arms, carrying it up steps to the top. When the bag is full they jump in and tread it down with their feet, and then pile in more until are coolies they have the requisite welight., Some Modern Tnventions in Chinan, I have said that this factory has modern machinery Its looms come from the United States, but its spinning machinery is from England. The steam engine {8 a 6500 horse power Corliss, from Philadelphia, 1 think, which Mr, Corligs Invented especlally for it It he an American electrie light plant for it and can keep 6,000 1ights burn ing The goods are carrled from building to building on the factory raillroads. It has its own water works, including a large tank and pumping station. The employes go through a fire drill every week, and every- thing, as far as possible, I8 fireproof, one of the structures having a roof of the shape of a tank in which one foot of water is always kept, I asked Sheng as to how much money the company used in {ts business He was rather reticent about giving figures, but sald that It used from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 (Continued on Eighth P CHINESE FACTORY GIRLS ON THE WAY TO WORK.