Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, April 10, 1910, Page 18

THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: APRIL 10, 1910, G. 1910. — (Special pondence of The Bee) just visited the greatest of the world. It Poozoondoung. on river, below the port belongs to the Bullock brothers, who own other large mills und export thousands of tons of rice every year. Burma i about the best rice patch on the bosom of old Mother Earth. The lower part of it is a garden devoted to the cultivation of the crop, and upper Burma {8 more than half rice. The country has altogether rice areas equal to the state of Ohio, and its annual exports of this grain are more than 2,000,000,000 pounds. This s enough to give every-human being on earth ail the rice he could eat in one day and #(ill leave enough over to make a pudding for man, woman and child a8 sprinkle all brides year. Rice is the It takes the place cotton with us. The exports and the people are_rich the rice grows well or il (Copyright, 1910, by Frank O0ZOONDOUNG, Corre I have rice mill here at Irrawaddy of Rangoon. It the every well of of corn tor poor as grooms money the and one Burn and millions, crop of wheat sell or a Increasing the Rice Crop. The British government appreciates how much the prosperity of the country depends upon rice, and it is doing wonders in in- creasing the crop. It has an agricultural department whose efforts in this regard correspond with those of our department at home. It is studying seed selection, in- creasing the irrigated territories and mak- ing forecasts showing the possible yield. It has its agents in every part of the coun- try, and their reports upon rice are more accurately made than our reports upon cotton. During the last five years, in which a total of 13,000,000 tons was raised for export, the government forecasts were only 3,000 tons out of the way. The esti- mates came largely trom the local officials. Burma is a land of villages. Most of the people live in little settlements of thatched huts ralsed upon poles, and they go out- side to work. Every village has Its head man, who reports to the government the number of acres his people will plant. His figures are sent to the county officlals, and they send their estimate for their district on to officials of the province, the last calculations being made at Rangoon I do not know what Uncle Sam is doing in this line in the Philippines, but I venture he could learn much from the British Burina. in o Big Rice Mills, But come with me and go through this rice mill at Poozeondoung. The grain is harvested as paddy. In the field it looks not unlike wheat or oats, but every ker- nel has a husk on it and this sticks to it as though it were glued. When the grain is ready for shipment to the mills it looks much llke our wheat grains unthrashed, #ave that (he rice husks have neither heads nor beards and they stick tight to the kernels. It takes quite &s much work 1o get them off as 0 grind the thrashed wheat into flour. This 1is the work of these rice mills. The Poozoondoung mill covers s much &round as any of our large flour-grinding establishments. 1t has buildings of five storles, with single rooms as big as a &ood-sized garden patch. I entered one on the ground floor which was packed to the celling with rice paddy In bags. It held more than 2,000,000 pounds, and other rooms of equal size adjoining It were filled with the cleaned rice awaiting ship- ment. — Unloading Rice paddy 1s orought hoic over Burma. It tloated streams to the Irrawaddy river and toward to Rangoon by steamers in flatboats and barg The unloading Is done by Kast Indian coolies, many of whom are quite pretty young girls. They are black, lusty and buxom, bare armed and bare necked, and often with legs bare to the knees. Not & few of them wear gold buttons in thelr noses and rings in their ears. They have armliets and anklets, and I saw three with rings on thelr toes. These giris carry the rice boats 0 the mlills In baskets pounds each. They lift the their heads or shoulders, and ca and down the banks of the & plank roadway. the Paddy, from all is down the from the of fifty staln to Ty it up riyer over Their hours are from daylight to dark, and thelr average pay is less than 2 cents an hour. I am told they are quite as strong &s the men, and that they do better work, although their wages are lower. And still they save money wut 3 cents an hour and most of them make savings banks of (helr persons. Nearly every one I saw had more or less jewelry upon her. 1 remember a girl of 18 with silver bracelets covering her arm from wrist to elbow, and heavy anklets of silver on each of her legs. The lobes and rims of her ears were plerced with gold rivets, and the #old ring In her nose was as blg around as & saucer and as thick as & knitting needle. This ring hung down around her mouth, and when she ate lunch she stuffed in the rico through the ring. She was a Kling from southern Indla, and her hus- band & straight black man in a white cotton walst cloth, worked with her. Marvard Athletes va. Hindoo Coolles, 1u wnother room I saw the men handiing e linisbed preduct. The white rice . A (i A Is bagged up These are carried into the wareh in sacks of 226 pounds. by East Indian coolies uses and are piled up in st 2. Hach lifts of these bags to his shoulders and runs up an inclined roadway. It lodks easy, and thres Harvard university athletes visited the mill the other day, sneered at the strength of the Hindoos, saying that any good could carry such a load up a plank. Thereupon the manager asked one of them to try It. He did so, getting the bag his back without very much trouble. He was able to make his way across the room, but when he trled to go up the incline the weight pulled him over and he fell with the rice to the floor. This college crowd tried pick the broken rice grains in competition the Hindoo girls, thinking they work quite as fast, but had to give despair. The rice Is of various according the broken grains in it, and every shipment has to be tested by counting the number of whole grains in & fixed quantity. It takes keen eyes to distinguished the Imperfect kernels, and the Harvard boys failed in the test. one who rather on same to out with could up in srades, to ished Like Silver Spoon: It seems strange to think of polishing rice like your best sliver spoons. But that is what 1 saw them doing as I went through this mill. The machinery is the finest known to the trade. The paddy or rice in the husks is first winnowed and then carried to the top story, where it is passed through grinding stones so care- fully set that they pare off the husk without breaking the rice. The stones are of a composition harder than iron, and they have to be roughened every week by skilled Hindoos who understand how to fix them. After this process the rice s again winnowed. It goes through countless fans and shaking sleves, being again carried to the top of the mill and descending by gravity from floor to floor, shaken, gruted and cleaned at every turn. After the husk is off, the kernels are polished. This is done with chamols skin, the grains belng thrown back and forth against a roller covered with this muierial. The chamois cylinder goes (. EAT INDIAN COOL1ES® ARE BROUGHT IN BY THE SRHIPLOA —=THE RIC W 'A,x 5 TPORT OF RANGOON SHOWING THE B = D NK8 g (090 ©000Q0000000a3 0 0 IOO OO0 OO 8000000930000 0000 O adoa&aoéo-fl Anaam ) around at the rate of 500 revolutions a minute, and when the rice flows out from it it is as clean and white as the first tooth of your baby. It now falls through a chute into bags and is sewn up by Indlan girls, when it is ready for shipment aboard. Much of the expcrt is to England, France, Ger- many and Holland, but a great deal goes to India, China and other ports of the far eust. The Burmese rice Is much bet- ter than that of Hindustan, and it brings such high prices that the natives ship their own product abroad and eat the cheaper imported rice which is sold In the markets. g s Hindoo Invasion. Speaking of the coolies in this mill drings me to the Hindo. invasion of Burma. The Sast Indian coolies are being brought here by the shipload. They are carried across the Bay of Bengal, a distance of 1,000 miles or more, for less than $1, and by the mail steamers they can come here from Calcutta for about 64 cents. In other words the passage costs them about one- twelfth cent a mile, at which rate one could go from New York to Washington for less than a quarter and from the Atlan- tic to the Mississippi for about a dollar. The Burman does not like to work. He despises money; and when he gets a little ahead he acquires merit by giving it out in charity, establishing a drinking foun:_ tain or putting a plate of gold on some Buddhist shrine. The Hindoos, who work for almost nothing at home, can earn as much as $ a month here, and the This Woman Holds Office of County Treasurer UT in the northwest corner of Nebraska. lles the county of Cherry, one of the largest in the United States, comprising (IR che wencrous area of 8 square miles. With a population of only about 12,000, this vast domain gives plenty of room for people to live, grow, prosper and progress. Women have been elected to the office of county superintend- ent of schools. Cherry county has taken the Initiative and Is sald to be the first county in any state of the United States to select a woman to guard the county furds and handle the affairs of the office of county treasurer. The woman so se- lected and whose title to the office has been confirmed by the supreme court of Nebraska Is Miss Gertrude Jordan of Valentine, who will assume the duties of the position as soon as the balances can be struck and the county commissioners can settle with her predecessor, a man, which will be within the next ten days. As treasurer she will handle between $85,000 and $100,000 per annum, this sum being the tax collections of Cherry county. Miss Jordan is a republican, about 30 years of age and has resided in Nebraska ten years. She has served as deputy county treasurer of Cherry nearly eight years, this time being almost the entire terms of two Before the end of his term, Treasurer W. D. Armstrong, under whom Miss Jordan been was serving her elghth year as deputy, re- signed to take up other work. A demo- cratic board of county commissioners ap- pointed E. B. Quible, a democrat, to fill the unexpired term, he being a receptive aspirant for the democratic nomination. Miss Jordan was retained as deputy until the time of the party primaries last August, when her nomination by the re- publican party as its candidate for the otfice forced her to resign. Quible became the democratic nominee, As the campaign waxed warm, Miss Jordan discovered that her long term of service in the county court house and her acquaintance with almost every voter in Cherry county served her well in the race. Iler personal campalgn was nonetheless thorough, as she attended every Cherry county gathering, from picnic to auction, sale, it being her plan to be wherever numbers of poeple could be seen and talked with. Her most energetic cam paign was made in remote parts the county, and to do this she traveled more than 600 miles horseback and in buggy during September and October, sides half as much more by rail The result of the campaign conducted by Miss Jordan was shown at the polls in November and in the form of a majority of 242 votes. Having furnished Cherry county proper and sufficlent bond, and, of on a be- with a having Eliminating ETTY stealing, cheap graft—it's not all in Pittsburg.” The head of the angry. ‘Send for firm was that collector,” he said. The collector came. cems (o be too much work for you," the managing partner said. *Probably you need help.” The collector believed another man would be a valuable addition to the force. “H'm, thought #0," the manager said, and then read from a slip: * ‘March $—Left store 8:30; went to home at 93476 East Steenth street; returned to store at 11/25; 2:15 went to Orpheum, ete.’ Te turned on the now amased, collector. “Hard work, wasn't 1t?" he snapped. “Now, do you desire to work, help pay the expense of the detective who tralled you and make good, or -will you ‘quit mow?"’ “I believe 1'd like to work It out” the trembling collector replied. Well, get a move.on you, then,” w the parting admonitioh of the manager. And the collector got it on. “Cheap graf,” the manager resumed. “Often wonder how some men can stoop to such meanness. Not long ago I observed that a certain young man bad long been ordering furnishings, neckties, and such things by letter and paying for them in Petty Graft stamps. That scemed queer. I don't for business ‘that's crooked, so I investi- gated that customer. Found he worked in & bank; son of a wealthy father—just cheap graft. He'd been stealing stamps for a year “We allow our outside men to turn daily accounts of money spent for car fare. Often one man collects it for several to save making many accounts. When 1 noticed one of these men charging us more car fare than I belleved he spent I looked him up. Discovered he'd added a figure 1 to the 80 or %0 cents account every day and so got $1.80 or $2—cheap stealing for a dollar. Cost him his job, “Nothing so detestable and so annoying in_business as this form of dishonesty. There's stealing golng on now in this store that I don't know how to touch. The ques- tion in the minds of employes is, ‘Should I tell the firm, or is it any of my busi- ness? When we can get employes to un- derstand that the firm's interests are theirs we'll have most of the graft controlled. “If you see a clerk stealing from your employer, isn't it your duty to tell him? Wouldn't you report it if you saw a man putting his hand into another's pocket on the street? Don't you owe that much to the man who pays your wages or salury?” ~Kansas City Star, care the duties of 6 of the pres- qualitied to perform county treasurer, on Januar ent year. Miss Jordan went to the cou house to cnter upon the duties of the office to which she had been elocted, but Mr. Quible refused to turn over the bools and funds, contending that being a woman and not an clector, she was not qualified, legally, to become county treasure Miss Jordan at once employed attorncys, who filed a petition in the supreme court at Lincoln: asking that a writ of mandamus issue, compelling Quible to surrender the office. After the hearing was had, (he Judges of the supreme court took the case under advisement and on March 2, handed down u decision, declaring Miss Jordan's eligibllity and holding that a woman in Nebraska has a right to hold the office of county treasurer. Of the seven members o the sufreme bench, six concurred in favor of a woman's eligibility to hold county of fice In this state, one dissenting. Justice Rose in writing the majority cpinion, Kays o constitutional or utory provision ‘nconsistent with the right of a woman to hold this office Lias been found * He also refers to a legislative en- stat- actment that adopts *so much of the com- mon law of England as is applicable and not inconsistent with the federal and state constituticn and the statutes of the state.”” This law permitted to hold office administrative in character, the duties of which they are competent to discharge. Justice Letton, roncurring separately, Elates that *‘no constitution or statute pre- venting, women have for many years creditably occupled official positions in county affairs in this state, apparently by cominon consent, To teke the position now that they are Ineligible, or do not possess the nccessary qualifications, would be to turn back the clock and to say that com- mon caperience and common sense yleld to anclent custom In another country.” Justice Fawcett in dissenting rfays that “women were not given ihe right to hold unty office by either the constitation or the statute, and that if their political rights were to be extendcd, it thould be done by the legislature end not by judicial legis| ton.” He further acds that, “If a woman can hold the officz of county treasurer, she can hold the office of governor of the state” women b7 THE UNLOADING- ik land seems an E1 Dorado to them. As it now more than half of the population of Rangoon is Mast Indi nd there are thousands of Hindoos | town ™ every large ast Indian Money Sharks. jon is not confined to the lab There are many Indian merchants and Chitties, or Indian banke The latter do about all the loaning to the individual farmers. They lend at from 2 to 40 per cent a year to the Burmese, taking mortgages on their crops. The laws here are such that the Hindoos cannot own land; but the crops can be mortgaged, and the Chitty puts his agent on the farms to see that he gets his loan cut out of the sales, These Chitties are the queerest bankers maginable. Our ideal of that profession is & fat, sleek, well-dressed man who looks prosperous and has the finest house in th town. The ordinary the Hindoo banker wouid not cost an American dollar, and he lives in a hovel. His black skin is bare, with exception of a rag of thin cotton around the loins, and a calico jacket which ends at the walst. His shaved black head is often free of turban or cap, although he may have ashes smeared over it to show his caste or re- ligion. The Chitties come from near Mad- ras. Their only idea is to make money breed, and they save every cent. Some of them are quite wealthy, all are said to be honest, and thelr word is accepted by the banks for large sums. Some start in Ran- goon as clerks at $12 a month. They will live on oné-third of that amount and loan the rest out at interest. When they have accumulated 10,000 rupees or so they go back home and live economically on the interest of their holdings thereafter. Outside the Hindoos the most of the banking is done by the British, who have four large banks in Rangoon. These are the Hongkong and Shanghal bank, the charted bank of Indfa, Australla and China, the National Bank of India ana the Bank of the Netherlands. All these do a general banking and exchanse bu their interest varying cording to the season of the year get from 10 to 17 per cent, recelving most at the planting and harvesting the erops. The oring va classe dress of the a ness, raies ac- They the ot Burma's Foreign Trade. The trade here almost altogether in the hands of Great Britain. The officlals protect the British merchants and favor them where possible, although the Ger- mans, Japanese, Belgians and French try to compete As to our trade, it small, usually amounting to less than $1000,000 a year, and consisting mostly of machines, canned goods and kerosene oll, Within the last year have established a consu- late at Rangoon, and the man in charge, Mr. E. A. Wakefleld, doing much push American trade. He thinks we should have direct steamship line from here to New York and also better banking con- nections, as well a wyolesale depot which should keep our leading exports in stock. The total Imports of the country Is or so we a as now amount to something like $26,000,000 nor ! which Great 5 per cent the American goods tools, pipe fittings, axes, typewr sewing machines, The Burmese ter classes wear some American shoes they beginning ‘to eat canned and condensed milk. They milk, but their own cows are as draft animals. They ter, not a few spread milk bread in its place annum, of Britain more than Among supplies are ana £ the het- are fond of used chiefly importing but the condensed and on Our Amerie isslonaries. should a good misslonaries have in the way of America Burma. Our for the people trade done mor education n 1S DONE BY YOUNG ng 4 GIRLS, ¥V Ak, Wt than those of About elvilization have r country the first Ch < done was that of the American 151y the Rev. Adonir Rev. Jud dictionary Bible who sent m Tud here in 1813 first Burmese and he tr nacular. He remained foreigners fled al (he troubles with England the British-Burn; prison and almost his sufferings is ing in missionary history work, however, and did British took lon dying in 1850 for his health. Since then the steadily increased ican Proiestantism seems Burma as its special field, spending almost & quarter of a million d annum upon it. It has a lage number of - missionaries, over §00 native churches and about 60,000 It is carrying on a number boys' schools, and the Baptist college at Rangoon, which has more than 1,200 = dents, is about the most advanced educt tional institution in the country. It s rec ognized by the British government and 3 affiliated with the University of Calcutta Nearly all of the students are native Bu mese and many are Christians. The insti tution is largely self-supporting. The stu- dents pay for their board and tuition, and not a few work their way through. Re- cently a manual training school has been added, and the course Is such that the graduates are given the degree of B. A. The American Methodists have a mission here, which was established about thirty years ago. They are doing considerabls work In Lower Burma and have numer- ous schools. The American Baptist Mission Press is one of the largest and most tlour- ishing of its Kkind. It publishes Bibles, tracts, religious newspapers and many edu- cational works. tists, m o mad anslated the into th when of 1 first du 'h ¥ affec se war, v starved f the He kept at much after the of Rurma on a sea voyage h one of most posses lower while mission here has At Baptist That ‘branch of to have and it I8 now lars per communicar of girls' and —— fo Schools in Burma. The British government is doing much to educate the Burmese. It blishing schools of all kinds from kindergariens colleges, and it now more than 6,000 public schools, with about 250,000 puplls on the rolls. In addition, there many pupils in other schools, of the schools being carried on out government. The public &chools have about the is e are almost over 15,000 de th ame home and their The students studies as our schools at hours are somewhat similar are interested In athletics arill and play foot ball and eric In addition there are thousands of classes taught by the monks. Kvery village has its monastic school and such boys as do not 5o other schools attend it girls dare not come near the monasteries for the priest who would touch or talk with a woman would be defiled. It Is a part of the duty of the monks to teach and the charge no tuition. The boys are taught io read and write, and they lcarn elementa arithmetic. They study out loud mit to memory the prayers and hymns ¢ Lord Buddha. They are s night and morning, one of prayers reading as follows “How great a fayor the Lord dha bestowed upon\me in showing me Jaw, by the keeping of which I may cscape my salvation.” of their into and the boys to the I'he and ¢ pposed to pra their morn bl s and th boys seeur of At the g0 some stay schooling many the monasieries there all thelr while and then com: They all learn , and live Others remain for a out and go Into to read and write in the schools, and Bu for reason, in the point of the | of the men, is far in advance of a country of Asla. FRANK business. G. CARP: Romance in Fisher Lives story of how a Mancheater (N. H.) painter found In the St. Lawrence river a lump of grayish substance welghing thirty-eight pounds, and how he has discovered that the rolld, fatty stuff s nd is worth $30,000, recalls the est thing to romance that ever ntered into the lives of Glouster and New Bedford whalers, in the days when American whalers dared every 1t was like a lottery. Once a lifetime you might chance on the decay- ing body of & whale, gIving off an awful smell, and inside that fortune, enough so that have to §o to sea again. Charles Reade far as we remember, Is (he only writer tiroduce ambergris into fiction. In “Love Me Little Me Long' David tells Miss Fountain how “the skipper stuffed thelr noses wind cars with cotton steeped in armatlc vinegar, and they lighted short plpes and broached the brig the putrescent monster and grappled to It; and the skipper jumped on it and drove his spade (sharp steel) in behind the whale's side fins." He goes on to relat “How the skipper dug a hole In the whale as big us & well and four feet deep, and after & long secarch gave a shout of triumph and picked out some stuff that lovked like Glouster cheese; and whea he old sea. in whale would be a 50 you would never upon had nearly he slacked filled his basket with thi the grappling board; and tufe David irol and the captain sung « a small tumbler 1 fainted away, but for and hauled him on the carca dropped astern for drank and have his rum and would n s rum; and | w on odor; and ho up timid| ster checse young ladi amber-ga autions the was horrid and the pre wvenly fume that tighting with crew smelled crept y one, and how Gloug 2 great favorite of your the some and the in the King of perfumes of it 1n all of knowing skipper I our richest haa made 100 guln turn of a hand It Is & matter of record that not far from the Windward Islands & Yankee one of the best aling yea did eut out of a wh pounds of ambergris which ld for (500 The price quoted years was § Ambergris kipper in oid 180 wa for for many an ounce \ the particu azll and of Mada was send more than any The stuff is a secretion of the sperm whale which dies of the disease producing the perfume wmatter. Chemists find it hard to account for the fact that the smell of the dead whale 13 so horrible when the substance taken out is valuable only ‘#% & source of sweet suells.~Brooklyn Eagle n found floating « off the coast of gascar. The Baha other source lari o market