The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 17, 1901, Page 3

THE SUNDAY CALL. HE present controversy between the ted States Government and the f the Southwest rel- ts of the latter to allotted mineral facts of singular the particular region the annual output of ifornia for tane sCme o has I six ve enormous the o . principal es W is obtain=d e subject with . ow. o salt deposits is in of wk kr as the grent & distr the unique- . w - s a ¥ w f s ' ra sh broug ut, which ¢ "R scraping boom in tha . e singularly unique mplement known mpleme a pon- rop heavy he machine ad of a ow furrow p the frag . el ridges on either hand neath the surface there is St w seepage from the . e substance is broken 2 hand by more Indians, - work it with hoes to and fro in the iy the earthen particles dis- eolve, where the mineral product to await narily it action of the wator result in their result, how- must yrmer element excessive a tial the y refining rings have been g of an vieinity though obtained at intensely alkal the washing-out use e &5 enormous quanti - ‘SALT PLOW TURNING FVRROW" A tles of salt yielaed vy this region since the industry was first inaugurated, on:v about ten acres of immense deposit has yet been worked. This is accountcd for by the remarkable rapidity with with & new crust forms as the work proceeds, which enables the same ited area to be gone over continuousl The drying and milling plant connected with this industry are located at the vil- lage of Salton, immediately north of the It deposits and constitute an immense structure 600 feet in length. After the salt has remained stacked in the field suf- ficiently long to allow the surplus moist- ure to drain therefrom it is loaded on flat cars and hauled to the curing establish- ment. Here it is firet elevated to the up- | per portion of the plant, where it i emptied Into a bulkhead breaker, by which the mass is reduced to uniform particles, which are then run througn a burr mill and thoroug ground. The product is next subjected to a bolting or | sifting proc and after being put through an aspirator, which remeves all foreign substances, is packed into sacks for shipment. In addition to the better grades of salt prepared after the foregoing method for large quantities of the un- designated as domestic uses refined product “hide salt,” are sold for mechanical and Industrial purposes he working force employed in the Salton Jistrict is altogether made up of Indians and Japane the conditions of life in those brazen regions being such as Y Sefeefotorfosfrioe labor could wpe Induced to The Japanese, who are greatly in the minority. are emploved only as sack sewers, the mining and milling of the salt being performed entirely by the #io white espouse, which for weeks at a stretch reg'sters an average of 140 degrees, the sun's rays are reflectcd from the scin ing salt felds like the glare of a seething furnace. So intolerable is this blinding effect that Indiar The hardships endured year in even the ans are forced to proiect nd year out by these denizens of the their ey ith colored g! ses in order desert are impossible of adequate concep- to withstand this fierce ordeal And in tion. In addition to the terrific heat, the face of these uperarduous conditions B N A I W St ) QTERMERS ON THE UPPER CQNQO- WENTY vears ago Henry M. Stan- ley, who had reached Stanley Pool to .ve years' work planting { statio the river, launched the first steamer on the waters of the Pool. It was the little En Avant, of five tons burden the twenty years that have since elapsed Europe has not failed in a single year to send more steamers to ply | on the great African river. 7 There are to- 103 steamboats travel- irg up and down the Upper Congo and its tributaries, or preparing in the shipyards at Stanley Pool for launching. The flotilla has taken a prominent part4n the pacific | conquest and the economic expansion of the new Congo country. It has been very prominent in the work of exploration and T [3:4 on In 1y B I e 2 e e e o ] Thvs Hovse Rvdes on a Streetgar. may grow on thorns and les when horses begin There is a does it. nected with the Cherrebin ar Denver thought was no soomer thought of than put in operation. about in this way: The carline toward its end ascends a long hill. Its end lles at the summit. Now, upon the return trip, the down slspe was found to be so steep that the hcrse with difficulty avoided belng run over by It came Jthoruonlhckduerlp (Photo by Charles E. Bay, Denver.) the car, which coasted. Brakes were put on and the horse was all right. But as he rode that there was a waste of cnergy somewhere; when the car could go of itself what was the use of making the horse work? He was either a kind or an economical man. The upshot was that this system was arranged. At the top of the hill the horse 1s unhitched from the car. He knows the ropes himself now, and without guidance he steps upon the front platform, which has a wire netting at one side and chamn at the other. Thus a very comfortabl: little stable is inclosed in which the horse snjoys his long ride to the bottom of the hill. He knows well enough the point at which his work will begin again and he is enough of a philosopher to step off the car when that point is reached and walk to his place of work. He really likes the scheme and he Is as eager for his ride as a boy who has dragged a sled up hill is to begin his coast down. Though it is gravity that carries the car down, the spectators’ gravity is apt to be disturbed when they are first introduced to the novel spectacle of a horse riding on a horsecar. —_——— Bigsby has an offensively familiar way tbout him.” “What's the new illustration?” “Why, every time he alludes to the twentieth century he calls it ‘old twenty cent.’ "—Cleveland Plain Dealer, it occurred to the driver | of occupation. Without these steamers it would not have been D ible to start so many trading and other stations. They could not without the steamers procure sufficient supbolies. The steamers also made it possible to de—slop the ivory and rubber trades, which have now reached large proportions. Belgian enterprise has placed nearly halt of these vessels on the river. The fleet of the Congo Free State numbers twenty- nine vessel§, and Belgian trading com- panies have nineteen steamers, making a total of forty-eight vessels owned and con- trolled by Belglan enterprises. .ne most important fleet after that of the Belgians is the French flotilla. In the past two years the French have sent thirty-nine boats to Brazzaville. om Stanley Pool, and most of them have been launched. The Duten traders own ten vessels, the Ger- many two, and the English and American | missionary societies have four steamers in | their service. It was a gigantic undertaa.ng to trans- port the first fifty steamers to the upper | iriver. They had to be carried piece by | piece on the backs of men. Not a few of the larger vessels were divided into more than a thousand manloads. and after thesc myriad pieces were unloaded at Stanley Pool months were reauired to rivet them together and prepare the ve: sel for launching. 8o nearly eighteen years wcre taken in | @ttt oo et @ | “But how did you impress the wild Ta galos that you were irom Boston?' in- quired the steamship captain. ““Oh, that was easy,” responded the re- turning anti-imperialist. “I just took a stick and sketched a bean can in the | sand. Then I pointed to my big head and nose glasses.”"—Chicago News. ————— | “Men are so dense,” said Mrs. Dovey. “Why, dear?” asked her friend, know- ing there must be some personal motive. “I made him a lovely pair of sofa pil- lows three weeks ago, and he hasn’t even thought about buying a new sofa for them, I feel sure.”—Philadelphia Press. ———— Suitor—Permit me to say, Miss Flash, that in suing for your hand I am respect- ing the wish of my late father— Miss Flash—Beg pardon, sir; but in this instance you have inherited your father's lateness; I accepted Mr. Foreman last evening.—Richmond Dispatch. | sense. | a trotting horse and a cyclist. rst fifty steamboats on the A very different chapter in has been written in the p.zcing the upper river. Congo history roaroad from Matadi to Stanley Pool Within the past twenty-four months haif of the Upper Congo fleet of fifty vessels have been carried on the cars to the Pool.- While a month was renuired to carry the earlier boats over the moun- tains and down into the valleys along the 5 miles between the lower Congo and the Pool, an entire boat is now carried over the route in two days. Thus the rail- roa. has facilitated placing steamers on the upper river, and now both railroad and steam vessels are working together in the commercial expansion of the country. past two years since the opening of the |of enchanting beaut the most acute trial of all is yet to be SALT TO THE MILLS enumerated—that of the torturing thirst induced by the salt-laden atmosphere, and which hed toflers seek in vain the wre: to alleviate by quaffing the warm, brack- ish waters of the one solitary well the region affords. However, the inexplicable ar to their race enables workers to endure their stofelsm pecu the Indian salt unenviable lot with ‘never a complaint, and so lcng as they receive the pittance that constitutes their daily stipend they are the personification of contentmen Notwithstanding e tlons associated with there are occasions when the great deso- late region Is transformed, through the agency of the desert mirage, into reaims At one time the vast glaring expanse will gradualiy be- come enveloped in a subtle, twilight haze through which ever changing vistas come the forbidding condi- the salt country, | ana go in kaleidoscop! ray. One mo- ment the senses are entranced with a vision of flowering elysian fields, which n instant later merge into the vague semblance of a wondrous cit wi spien- | @ia palaces rising one beyond the other and broad, shadowy avenues stretching away into the infinite. B e 2 2 2 e e But grander still are the effects when viewcd by moonlight, at which time the great expanse appears. like a phanmm St = - Inter- world, the opaline detalls of which spersed with the long drawn shadows of distant mov a picture of unutterable sublimity. tain steeps, are wrought into Our enemy the nucrobe is now trying to ingratiate himself with humanity. He is making whisky for man, and hopes to be received by him as a friend. This particular whisky-making microbe was first found in Chinese yeast, where a Frenchman discovered him, and imported him to Paris, where he was turned into a distillery. He is bred in a laboratory for his spectal work, to carry on which he is placed in a close vat with the grain and other necessary material, which has been sterilized so as to eliminate every other possible variety of microbe. In this vat our little new work converting starch first into sugar and then into alcohol. His product is now being exhibited in Paris. e e.——— Mrs. Hardheid—I can always tell what kind of a wife a man has by his views on the woman question. Stranger—I have all sorts of views. Mrs. Hardhead—Then you are a Chicage man.—New York Weekly. fend goes to Gs'cmh That Paces a Mer 22 22 ed ostrich in the United States. He has won his fame as a pacer. The ostrich farm of Jacksonville, Florida, is his headquarters. He is, in fact, an American ostrich to the bone, having left all the tropical slowness of his South African ancestors behind with them. He is the fastest running bird known; he paces his mile in 2:22 and feels ready for another at the end. He has always been a tractable bird, not through lack of spirit, but through good That Is how it comes that he is often seen along the Jacksonville road at- tached to a light buggy in which are seat- ed the manager of the cstrich farm and the keeper of the birds. *He is better than any horse,” says the keeper, ““for he shies at nothing and he makes better time."” He lkes his work, too. When he sees the buggy being taken out, he comes lunging toward it, at full run and with both wings spread, as eager as other ostriches are when they see feed time coming. He is in such a hurry for his run that his keeper says, “I know that bird would harness himself if he knew how. He sort o' walks into the traces.as it is. Oliver once took part in a match against The horse was one with a record, and when Its owner entered the competition he ex- pressed some scruples. “It's no use, you know,” he safd to the ostrich man. “I've got a big winner here and you've got nothing but a fool of an ostrich. You'd begter back down now, don’t you think 502 But Oliver’s owner shook his head. @Ll\'ER W is the most distinguish- “I'm going into the thing with my eyes open and you needn’t worry about me,” he sald. “If you win, you win fair, and 1 won't hdve any kick coming.” The cyclist went through something the same kind of consclence prickings. “You know I'm a cracker-jack,” he explained, “‘and if you insist on the race I've got to be honest about it and put it all over your bird, and the horse, too, for that matter. I'll let you off now If you say so.” The ostrich man did not say so. He insisted upon the race as planned and the two competitors finally gave him his way, with: “It's up to you.” As to which of the two—the horse or the cyclist—came out ahead of the other, history does not record. What It does tell is that “Oliver W" beat them both, and that beyond doubt or quibble. " Ostrich Ready for a Run,