The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 16, 1898, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, DAY, OCTOBER 16 18 (& o TERRORS AND FORTUNES Chaed Us n THE LOG RAFTS Tha: Bumn o THE GOLDEN GATE: The One That Recently Escaped From Its Towboats Came Near Wrecking Several Vessels, and When It Began to Break Up Farme The Forward End of the Log Raft Rose High in the Air and Threatened to Crush the Tow-Boat From Which It Had Escaped. OG rafts are very Trhgs” in the north and started down. It got the northern lumber regions into San say P lost, but fortunate a heavy storm Francisco requires the greatest ability b px ame up and broke the raft all to pleces In the way of seamanship. The tow- Log raf nd washed it ashore out of the path boat captain must know his business and should not t ves: and keep a careful lookout on his ay the captains of passen- If we land one raft out of three we charge at all hours of the day and can still make money.” said the lum- night. knows that bermen, heedless of the danger and the If the weather is fine and the current break up out inconvenience might cause nav- light there will be little difficulty. The % & q . igation, and they immediately went to task will be only a question of time. up the floating o4 oh another log pile. The crew of the towboat will haveprac- n will iD= From that time to the present log tically nothing to do. income several dollars. rafts have been towed to San Fran- But if the current.is high and the sea ain of the passenger steamer cisco from the lumb regions of the choppy and with a long swell there is thought of one of them north with varie Some of the another story to tell. Under these cir- rafts have come through o easily as to cumstances the raft will dance around ghtmare. In the peace- a the log raft that ha from its tow lies in wait for er. Hundreds of lives are en- cause no jangered and a good ship placed in a It would seem, though, that the busi- down a D n of the gravest peril, when she ness is a profitable one, for log rafts dash for the towboat. If the man at e be a5 safs o5 when anchored in are still being bullt -and towed iwith he Swhéelfis ot jom the lookont the San S s ™ more or less suce small craft will hfidm'er\\'hclmeldrand e ere c o dof 4 at log crushed to pieces and nota man left to ve us Tots of money,» _ There can be no doubt but that log Erushed fO P ‘and if the pa er captains attend to their not run into t he towing of log rafts be crowde on all ocean waters con- Sailing sch r and, because they think . Pominal it dangerous, but that is nothing to US. thus seen that rmitted to carry on our most economical man- ‘We should be b s in the ner we can.” And so it appears that three sides to the log raft towing story. The question as to whether they should be permitted or not is a grave one, call- ate action on the part of ture. six years since the first towed inside the Golden t time only the commer- business was looked at, ss of the venture was Another raft was built there are tarian there i engaged in it. prai ngth of a country be measured by the value of its food then ands easily at the head of the ions of the world. Not only can t meadows and the orchards supply our own citizens, but there is left an to be shipped to other countri Take wheat, for example, one of the leading staples. During the past ten years the nation’s wheat crop has averaged about 465,000,000 bushels, ranging from less than 400,000,000 bushels 1n 1893 to over 600,000,000 two years earlier. The average rly exports of this wheat for the same decade we: 140,000,000 bushels, leaving 325,000,000 for home consumption. Excluding the wheat d for seed and for purpo: other than human food, the present consumption is estimated to be a little less than one barfel of flour per capita, or 70,000,000 barrels for the nearly ,000,000 population. That means an annual consumption of 14,000,000,000 pounds of flour—a bulk which, put into a single re- ceptacle, would require a barrel twice the height of the Washington Monument and correspondingly big of circumference. Were all this flour made into bread 1t would yield 20,000,000,000 pound loaves. Reversing the metaphor of the Sermon on the Mount and “giving bread for a stone,” these loaves would pave 3 road- way thirty-six feet wide and extending around the -.....a»:_-"/”. — COFFEE 1.200.000000 GAL. from its tow and float around ys, a menace to navi raft towing is a gre em. will contain as business are enormc the lumbermen the other travelers of the se: log raft is worth about $30,000. “scheme a profit of about $50,000. de from the financial and humani- »ects of the log raft busine her aspect. s its and danger of the men picturesqueness To safely tow a log raft from any of R "9, {te.“““'a ATy ‘e LR TR R -~ in all sorts of directions. certain amount of flex But every few n has managed to ility ation. faster than its tow. eat deal cheaper than hooners, 1 log raft as could ordinary of towing expenses It will be the profits from this s, enough to make t the dangers to A small If it is Francisco the ,000. But larger e been sent down largest is said to promoters of the of her own. be caught and will drift about for da every vessel that pa the coast. for most reached. and the raft went adrift. availing. Several This the floating log pile. Then it broke in two and the surface of the ocean for miles was scattered world. If bakery wagons were loaded each with a thousand of the loaves 20,000,000 would be needed to move the bread. They would make a procession over €0,000 miles long or eighteen abreast from ocean to ocean. Of course not all the flour is made into bread, since millions of pies, cakes and other products of the cook’s art come from these 70,000,000 flour barrels. Wheat, however, is far from being the only grain used for food by the American people. The corn crop is about four times as large as that of wheat, and some seventeen hundred miilions of bushels re- main for consumption in our own country. But only a fraction of this reaches the stomach of man direct. For the most part it is taken in the pork, beef, milk, butter, eggs and other products of animals that fatten on its substance. In recent years, apparently, the direct use of corn for man’'s food is increasing with the “‘mixed” flour, the patent food preparations, the brown bread, corn dodgers and like cookery. Whole sections of the South use corn almost exclusively in preference to wheat flour. Then there is the oat crop averaging 700,000,000 bushels, most of which remains in this country. Amer- jcans are rapidly following the Scotch in the use of oats as a table food, still only a small fraction of the total crop is consumed in the home. The average barley crop is 70,000,000 bushels, all but 5,000,000 bushels of which remains within the country. - The usual yield of rye is 28,000,000 bushels, very little of which is ex- ported. But the barley and rye are largely reduced to fluid form before the American consents to take DISTILLED p veossFis s ™ > TEA 1100000000 GAL.. BEER - 1,200.000.000 GAL. Owing to a the log raft has a way of occasionally going It seems to slide serfes of waves and make a Another danger comes when tne log raft brea s the tow line and starts on If this happens ht the pile of logs can often the voyage proceeded with, but if it happens at night during a storm the chances are that the raft vs endangering s up or down This is what happened to the last raft that was sent down from the north. All went well until San Francisco was al- Then the cables snapped For over a week all efforts to find it proved un- steamers narrowly escaped running it down and reported the location to the tugboats here. when the tugboats went out to hunt for the raft they could find no trace of SPIRITS - 90.900.000GAL with logs. It was then that the Italian fishermen realized the beauties and the riches of log rafts. Each of the float- ing piles was worth about $5, and every fisherman with a boat forgot all about fish and began to scour the near-by ocean for logs. Pile catching was the principal industrv along the water front. Some of the large boats could take two of the logs in tow and make two trips a day. This meant $20. There will be no more fishing as long as the piles hold cut. Send down more log rafts and let them break up just out- side the Golden Gate and the Italian fishermen will be happy. Another log raft a few days ago es- caped from its tow and went adrift. The steamer Queen almost ran into it. But them into his stomach. Some 15,000,000 bushels of buckwheat enter each year into the composition of our pancakes. Another favorite food of the Americans is the po- tato. Its average crop in recent years has been about 225,000,000 bushels. America’s sweet tooth is said to be abnormally de- veloped. The consumption of sugar reaches the aston- ishing total of 5,500,000,000 pounds; but only one-eighth of this is raised at home. Last year nearly a third of the supply came from Germany, and 8 per cent more from the rest of Europe. The West Indies sent 24 per cent and the East Indies 14 per cent. The dairy produces another important part of the food supply. With the butter, cheese, milk and like products, the total value to the consumer is estimated to be not less than $600,000,000 a year. To spread the bread, make the piles and concoct other appetizing dainties requires an annual supply of not less than ,000,000 pounds of butter. Besides, we export about 000,000 pounds. Cheese is used to the extent of 230,000,000 pounds annually. Made into one gigantic cheese it would measure 450 feet in diameter and half as many feet in height. Then there are the eggs, of which 850,000.000 dozens are used during the year. Placed end to end they would gird the world twelve times at the equator. Yet this use is not excessive, since it allows less than three eggs a week to each person. Probably no people in the world eat as much meat nc the Americans. The Secretary of Agriculture places WINE. 25000000 GAL. Il K [ IIf Il i Italian Fishermen Towing in Piles Adrift From the Dere- lict Log Raft. Evidently the raft anchored itself on a reef off Pigeon Point, where it remain- ed for several days, until finally loos- ened by dynamite. $25,000. It also had about $6000 worth of chain on it. A short time ago a lumber raft broke up outside and a section of it drifted on to the beach at Santa Cruz. rafts, however, are not so much to be feared by seamen as log rafts. monster of heavy piles that keeps the steamer captain awake at night. Where He Drew The Line. Once there was a farmer from Swales Hollow drove up to Gerber’'s undertak- = == Rty o1 11 v e 8 e 4 0 U [TV BRI 01411111008 1O 2 g"ss—;——:: £ _— o e O 170 st ;um".v_é' o i 3 YAl tert st st g et oct Pettere st et o) = = l’ml B £ WA rs and Fishermen Along the Coast dbandonad Their Callings to Gather This raft is worth Lumber It is the the window. the annual meat bill at not less than $900,000,000. Figures can be only approximate, yet a fair estimate would place the beef consumed at 5,000,000,000 pounds, pork at 4,000,000,000, and mutton at 800,000,000 pounds. With the poultry and game the total meat eaten an- nually cannot be less than 10,000,000,000 pounds, which is nearly two pounds a day apiece for each family of five persons. To the meat supply must be added the products of the rivers, lakes and oceans, aggregating probably some 800,000,000 pounds of various kinds of fish. The canned salmon alone is placed at 80,000,000 pounds. Americans are drinkers as well as eaters. Last year they used 725,000,000 pounds of coffee and 110,000,- 000 pounds of tea. At the average strength the coffee in the cups would measure 1,200,000,000 gallons and the tea 1,100,000,000 gallons. To these must be added beer, 1,200,000,000 sallons, wines 25,000,000, and distilled spirits, such as whisky, brandy and rum, 90,000,000 gallons. This gives a total of over 3,600,000,000 gallons or al;;out forty-eight gallons for each man, woman and child. The statement in billions of pounds of the food consumed by the nation is certainly impressive, but far less so than if one could actually see these enor- mous quantities. As an aid in measuring one day’s food of the American people imagine that a giant 2000 feet tall were to land on this continent from a distant planet. Larger by far than the famous giants found by Gulliver in the land of Brobdingnag this monster would tower four times as high as the Wash- = 3 the Flotsam of Lumber and Loglv * For, although Mr. Gerber is not given % E) e cup,gyet he always has a little choice XXX on hand for emergencies. "After the farmer had taken three fin- gers he asked the price for attendance and hearse. Mr. Gerber told him so much. Then for embalming; and a goodly cash figure was named, for which Mr. Gerber said he would fur- wverything. nlET‘;I(:en t}‘x’e fm%mer took three fingers more and sat dazed with sorrow, like patjence sitting on a monument smil- ~ at beef. h“f\t?etr several moments had passed the undeftaker broke the silence l?'}: asking, “Who is the er—the deceased? “The which?” asked the farmer. o “The person who is dead—who is it? «Why no one is dead that I know 1 n“Al:‘mt you wanted a coffin, you sald?” Farmers on the Beach Near Half-Moon Bay Gathering Lum- ber From the Broken-Up Raft. ing establishment in East Aurora and asked the price of a coffin that was in Mr. Gerber explained the price_was so much; and as the farmer locked the picture of woe and had evi- dently driven a long way, Mr. Gerber invited him into the private office and asked if he would not take something. OOGOOOOOOOOOGOO0OOOOODOO0OOC00000GOOOOOOOOOODOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO0000000600000000000000000000000000 % WHAT UNCLE SAM EATS AND DRINKS IN ONE YEAR. 4% “Coffin! -I don’t want no coffin. And, anyway, didn’t you agree to fur- nish everything?” The farmer was duly kicked down the steps.—The Philistine. . The woman of the hour is the one who says she'll be ready in a minute. ington Monument. Taking a seat on the Palisades overlooking the American metropolis, suppose he was to call upon the nation to supply him with food. He would need an amount equal to that consumed by the entire 75,000,000 people. Set his daily supply before him and see what it would be. * On a bread plate half as large as a city block would rest a loaf of bread 300 feet long and half as tall. Beside it _would stand a pie large around as.a gas holder. From a saucer the size of a ferryboat he would sip his oatmeal with a spoon whose bowl could hold a trolley car. A smoking piece of beefsteak would be twenty-five feet thick and extend over an area equal to ten city lots; a covered dish contains three mammoth white ~-tatoes and a sweet potato each 100 feet long. His pat of butter would measure a hundred feet in diameter. By his side is a glass of milk as large as a water service tower, an egg 100 feet long, an apple of equal height and a 600-foot cube of sugar making up most of the day’s food. But the giant does not forget to ask for drink. Besides two or three glasses of water, each the height of a modern office building, he drinks half the beer from a bottle which towers above the World building, takes a sip of wine and two (giant) fingers of whisky. A mammoth cup of coffee and another nearly as large of tea are disposed of during the day. Yet all this food and drink represents only the quantities of these articles that disappear down the throats of the Ameri- can people every twenty-four hours. Copyright, 1898, GEORGE B. WALDRON. B i st oo 1 2o o sie Amas e S By