1 MAKING THE |
I STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. 1
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$ HOW PRETTY MAIDS AND OLD SALT SEA DOGS WORK
)K UPON THE GLORIOUS EMBLEM.
It is an excellent time to talk about
flags, particularly the American flag—
the finest of them all. It takes an in
credible number of them to supply the
annual demands of the nation.
Nobody knows how many are made.
There is one firm in Elizabeth street,
says the New York World, that manu
factures more than 150,000,000 each
year, and there are scores of other
makers in this country. From which
it may be inferred that there are half
a dozen flags made annually for each
man, woman and child in the United
States.
Of course the majority of these flags
are little affairs three inches long and
two inches wide, which sell for twenty
seren cents a gross. They are printed
on muslin and are turned out by the
million. Cheap muslin flags are made
six feet long and forty inches wide.
The good flags, those made of bunt
ing, sewed together, and with care
fully arranged stars, are manufactured
by flag-making firms and by every sail
and awning maker in the country.
The most interesting placo where
flags are made is Building No. 7 in the
Brooklyn Navy-Yard. There every
flag used in the United States navy is
made. There are the various United
States flags, signal flags, pennants, en
signs, flags of high officials, from the
President of the United States down,
and the flags of forty-three foreign
nations. Wherefore it will be seen
that the flag outfit of a United States
warship is pretty extensive.
Just nor- the workers under James
Crimmins, master flagmaker, are very
busy. Nowhere are Hags so carefully
made. Every star, stripe, bar aud
device is measured to geometrical ac
curacy, and each flag must stand a
strength test. They are being turned
out at the rate of 100 a week.
The bunting is made in Massachu
setts. It is entirely of wool and of the
best quality. It must have so many
threads and a fixed tensile strength.
The colors must be fast.
The stripes are cut out just as cloth
ing is cut, in many layers at a time,
by means of a circular knife that is
kept as sharp as a razor. Then they
are sent to the sewing-room, where
skillful young women sew the stripes
together and place the blue field in
place.
The stars are cut out thirty at a
time by means of a cold chisel and a
big iron-bound mallet. Folds of
goods, smoothly woven, of a standard
grade, are laid in yard lengths, thirty
thicknesses together, on a large
square block made of cubes of oak,
put together with the grain running
in different directions. A metal star,
used as a model, is placed on the mus
lin and carefully marked around with
a lead pencil. Then the workman
places his chisel on the pencil line
KINO THE NAVAL MILITIA
FLAG.
ough. A few blows
ion of thirty snowy
••he stars upon the
■■xaotiug work,
eack flag,
-v are
that
■ht
le
1
turesque workers. They are two olc
sailors, and expert sail makers. It is
their business to put on the finishing
touches—the rings, the tape that adds
strength, aud many other things
They wear a white canvas uniform,
use the queer sailmakers' thimble ant
talk in a fascinating sea jargon.
Directly the flags are finished thej
must be measured. Triangles,
squares and stars of polished brass
mark off the floor. If a flag is an
CUTTING OUT STARS.
inch or two out of the way it is re
jected. The width of an American
ensign must be ten-nineteenths of its
length. The largest flag made at the
Navy Yard is thirty-six feet long ami
nineteen feet wide.
The foreign flags give the greatest
trouble. Some of the designs are ex
tremely intricate aud the colors are as
Joseph's coat. At one time these de
signs were painted, but they didn'l
last. Now the color is cut out by it
self and sewed in place. It requires
expert needlewomen to do this work.
One of the most difficult flags tc
make is that of China. It is triangular
in shape, a brilliant yellow, with a
black, open-mouthed dragon crawling
about. One of the most beautiful
flags is that of the President of the
United States. It has the coat-of
arins of the nation on a blue field, sur
rounded with stars. The eagle is
white, and the shield he holds is
properly colored.
There has been a deal of dispute
over the evolution of the American
flag. When the Revolutionary War
broke out the flags used by the colo
nists were English ensigns, bearing
the Union Jack, upon which were
written "Liberty and Union" or other
similar expressions. Then were de
veloped the Pine-Tree flag, the Rat
tlesnake Hag and many others.
The American ensign was adopted in
1777 by the Continental Congress.
There is a dispute as to the significance
of the flag. The explanation accepted as
the most probable is that the blue
field is intended to represent the
night of affliction that in 1777 sur
rounded the thirteen States, which
were typified by the white stars ar
arrauged in a circle, signifying the
endless duration of the new Nation,
while the stripes were chosen out of
compliment to New York and the
Dutch Republic, and were a compli
ment to Republican principles.
The number of stripes symbolized
the thirteen States, the first and thir
teenth, both rod, representing New
Hampshire and Georgia respectively.
General Washington was a member of
the committee appointed to design a
flag. Mrs. John Ross, of Philadel
phia, made the first flag. She de
signed the five-pointed star.
John Paul Jones put the new flag
to the first public use. He ran it up
to the masthead of the Ranger. The
flag, strangely enough, had but twelve
stars, probably due to a blunder.
Jones had the same flag on the Bon
Homme Richard.
Of course everybody knows that
each star in the flag represents a
State, and that for two years the en
sign had fifteen stripes, the addi
tional one representing Vermont and
Kentucky. The flag has been un
changed, save for the adding of stars,
since 1818.
YOUNG CIRL A COLONEL.
Miss Emnin W. Wlilttington of Hot
Springs a Militia Officer.
Miss Emma W. Whittingtou of Hot
Springs, Ark. ,has been made a colonel of
militia by Governor Joues of that State.
This is the third time iu the history
of the American Republic that this dis-
EMMA W. WHITTINGTON.
tiuction has been conferred upon 0
woman. Miss Whittiugton is a mili
tary enthusiast and is the sponsor of
Company A, Third infantry. She is
a well-known society belle at Hot
Springs, and as a hostess she has no
superiors in the South.
Miss Whittiugton is the daughter of
Major Alf Whittiugton, one of Hot
Springs' most prominent citizens; a
granddaughter of Colonel Hiram
Whittingtou, one of Arkansas' pio
neers, who settled in Little Bock in
182G and established the Little Rock
Gazette, which paper is still in exis
tence. In 1832 he moved to Hot
Springs. He was selected to repre
sent iu the general assembly what was
then the Western District of Arkansas,
and was prominent in framing the
new constitution of the State.
In her full uniform of a colonel Miss
Whittiugton will be a prominent fea
ture at the State Encampment, to be
held at Little Rock.
A Curious Experiment.
In Vienna a condemned criminal
was kept iu complete darkness for
several hours previous to his execu
tion as a preliminary to an experiment
that was to be tried upon him for the
purpose of ascertaining whether or
not the retina of the human eye is of
sufficient sensitiveness to hold tho
image of the object to which it had
last beeu exposed for any length of
time. He was instructed to fix his
gaze intently 011 a building facing the
place of execution, on which a very
bright light fell. Wheu the black
cap was pulled over his head, the eye
was prevented from accepting auy
fresh image or picture; the execution
followed immediately aud the examina
tion held on the eyes within a few
minutes thereafter resulted in finding
the building as an outlined object on
the retina. The details, however,
were wanting, aud the picture faded
rapidly.
Heart Photographj*.
"Say!" exclaimed little Willie sud
denly breaking a long silence and
turning to his mother, "is there such
a thing as a photographic heart?"
"Why, what do you mean, Willie?"
asked his mother in surprise.
"Well, I heard that man who was
here last night tell sister Sue that her
features wero photographed on his
heart," explained the boy, "and judg
itig from the way he was holding her
I should think they ought to havo
beeu."
A Caudle 120 Feet Illgh.
One hundred and twenty feet high
a white candle once towered. Its di
ameter was twenty feet. That means
that it was as wide as tho ordinary
city house and that it shot about four
times as high as the usual dweUing.
It gave a light that illuminated
everything for miles around. The
light was, of course, au electric search
light. The candle was a shaft of steel
and of staff*. Staff is the material that
made the World's Fair a "white city."
The candle was erected at au expo
sition in Stockholm as a sort of tri
bute to the candle using habit of the
people of Sweden. Gas aud electricity
have not weaned them from candles.
They use more than any other coun-
A
WAX CANDLE 120 FEET TALL.
try and manufacture more. In one
year one Swedish manufacturer of
candles sold for home use 21,000,000
candles, ranging in height from a cou
ple of inches to seven feet.
ABOUT SLEEP WALKERS.
Narrow Escapes and Cure* That froved
Effective,
The mention of n sleep walker
standing upon the street railway traok
the other night and barely escaping
being run down has brought to the
minds of many people incidents in
this line that have come under their
observation, and it is simply astonish
ing how general is this habit.
One person mentions the case of a
member of the household who was
found wandering about on the house
tops, all unmindful of his danger,
while the observer was at his wits'
end to know how to get him in before
he should make a misstep and fall to
the ground. Usually the eyes of the
somnambulist are wide open, and now
and then a story indicates that the
vision must be fairly good at times.
For instance, a gentleman remem
bers that when he was a young man an
acquaintance was badly given to the
habit, and he would often go out into
the yard aud wander about. One
night a number of them lay in am
bush for him just to watch his opera
tions. By and by the door opened in
a businesslike way, and out came the
young man. He went straightway
across the street into a lot where there
was a nut tree aud proceeded to pick
up nuts and put them in a pile. A
few moments at this task, then he
started toward the house. In span
ning the fence he made a misstep and
fell. This awakened him, and while
he was in the first act of collecting
his thoughts he saw iu the darkness
the young men who were watching
him. Just at that time their appear
ance so startled him that he fled like
a doer. The circumstance was so
impressed upon his mind that he never
afterward indulged in the habit.
A gentleman told au amusing
incident that happened iu his early
life. He was sure that he could not
have been more than five or six years
old at the time. He often found him
self at the far end of the long, unfin
ished chamber where he slept and
usually could not wake sufficiently to
find his way to bed again, so one or
the other of his parents would hear
him crying and coine to his rescue.
Naturally,they got a little tired of the
bother, and no one should be blamed
for what followed. As stated, the
chamber was an unfinished one,and in
place of the guard rail at the danger
end of the stairway a number of bar
rels had been placed. When the
night's somnambulistic tour culmi
nated that left a lasting impression on
liis mind, as well as his body, he was
aear those barrels and it seemed had
been struggling to get through be
tween them when he must surely have
been killed by falling down the stairs.
The noise nroused the parents, ami ou
(his memorable occasion the father
risited the chamber and just in time
;o save the lad from getting through.
He was 011 his hands and knees push
.ng through, and the opportunity for
idministering the usual punishment
jf those days could not have been bet
ier arranged to order. "Talk about
ipankings," said the relator; "why,
that must have been 40 years and
more ago, •but I can feel the sting as
rl it was last night! But it cured me,
pou may be sure."—Hartford Couraut.
Counterfeit riant in a State Prison.
Expert counterfeiters among the
?onvicts in the state prison atFolsom,
Dal., have been making counterfeit
Money within the walls.
The other day a watchman detected
jomething wrong at the rock-crushing
plant and the engine room wan raided.
As the officers entered two convicts
lamed Cayne and Brown leaped
through a window, ran to a canal aiul
threw in a crucible and dies, which
sank in the quicksands.
The officers found a pile of finely
executed nickels made out of babbitin,
i soft, white metal which forms the
inside rim of the axle-box found 011 a
locomotive. This substance was taken
from the engine which runs through
the prison grounds and hauls the
trains of crushed rock which are
shipped from the prison rock-crusher.
The nickels are seemingly as perfect
and complete as any ever made by
Uncle Sam. Many of them have been
given circulation aud some have been
found in the town of Folsom.
How the dies and crucibles were
aver made will perhaps remain a mys
tery. Plaster of paris moulds were
used, and in the engine room were
found mauy fragments of this ma
terial.
Singhalese Children.
The Singhalese children are said to
be more beautiful than those of any
other race ou the four continents, and
some of the little girls, even of the
very lowest caste, are irresistibly
pretty as they run before you in the
streets to beg; they cry out iu the
sweetest and must plaintive of voices,
touching the stomachs to signify hun
ger iu a way that would be awkward
and vulgar iu auy other being, but in
them it is so tfinsoine that, before you
know it, you sacrifice a rupee to the
bad cause of encouraging tliein iu beg
ging—knowing quite well that all they
waut is a goi d opportunity to 1 ick
your pocket for more.—Outing."
A Woman's Fight With an KUKIP.
Mrs. William Roliison, a young
woman living in Bedford county, Pa.,
had a terrible encounter with a large
eagle. The bird swooped down iu
her yard upon a goose and was about
to carry it away when the woman
rushed to the rescue with a club. The
eagle dropped the goose and fought
desperately for its life, sticking its
talons into the woman's flesh, tearing
her clothes aud covering her with
blood. The bravo woman did not
give up the fight, but wielded her
club so effectually that she succeeded
in killing the eagle, which measured
nearly seven feet.—Cincinuati En
quirer.
KNEADS AND FORMS A LOAF.
A Uread-Slaklng Machine That Doe* tit.
Work of Eight Men.
A machine, about as high and not
so broad as a man, is doing the work
of eight men at a bakery in Indianapo
lis. Half of its height is taken up by
its legs, so that the working part of
the machine is compact.
At the top is a trap door, opening
downward. The dough falls on this
door and passes through four sets of
two rollers each placed at different
distances apart. When the dough
leaves the last pair it is one-eighth of
an inch thick and has been thoroughly
kneaded. It falls on a piece of can
vas attached to two rollers. The rol
lers come together, forming a pocket
with the canvas, which forms the
dough loaf-shape, and when the rol
lers separate again the dough is
thrown out upon a table. The oper-
BREAD—MAKING MACHINE.
ator. however, usually grasps the
dough as tho rollers ojjen, and places
it in the pans on the table ready for
the oven.
Running at easy speed, the machine
will knead aud mold thirty-four
loaves a minute. The dough is fed
into the machine by a chair carrier, on
which tin cups as large as a saucer,
but deeper, are fixed every two or
three inches. Each cup holds enough
dough for one loaf of bread. Just as
the cup reaches the trap door it turns
over a pulley togo back to the dongh
table and the dough falls on the trap
door. Two men at the dough table
fill the cups as they pass. Only two
machines have as yet been made, and
they are being operated in Chicago and
Indianapolis bakeries, owned by the
inventor.
l»alnnce.
He was making a hollow pretence
of being hungry at breakfast.
"Had to stay at the office to balance
the books last night, my dear," he
remarked.
She was gazing gloomily out of the
window; aud upon the lawn there
were divers tracks.
"I hope the books were better
balanced than yourself when you got
through," she answered, not without
bitterness.—Detroit Journal.
WAIST DANGLERS.
Ingenious Devices Which Supply the
l T ses of Women's Pockets.
With her chatelaine dangling from
her belt the modern woman bids de
fiance to the man who recommends
pockets like his in her lovely gowns.
"If I must be businesslike," says
WAIBT DANGLERS.
she, "and have pencil and notebook
always with mo I will at least make
them look as attractive as possible,
io she has all the sober necessities
which tho average man carries in
his vest pocket, done up in gold or
silver cases with a chain on each, and
hangs all on her belt. Men do not
have so much to say about pockets
these days, for a remark of that char
acter only serves as an introduction to
the subject of new articles which "she"
needs ou her chatelaine.
The newest chatelaine buckles con
sist of a four-leaf clover under a orys
tal. Sometimes two such crystals are
used. The mirror often has the same
design on the back. The latest addi
tion to the collection of danglers is a
fan-shaped pin cushion with a little
velvet padding at the end for the pins.
Beaded purses or handkerchief bags
are the despair of most young women
who cannot afford to waste money upon
tho bag to carry it in. They can be
knit from heavy silk and trimmed with
clover leaf or flower patterns in beads.
The beaded bag in light colors is much
worn with evening costumes.
In India the rhododendron grows to
a height of thirty feet. Marigolds and
camomiles in North Africa reach o
height of four or five feet.
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.
An aseptic barber shop has been
star lin Baltimore, where all objects
tj:U i.jUch the'face have been steril
ized.
Asiatic cholera was first supposed
to have originated from the consump
tion of unsound rice, and was called
the "rice disease."
There are several varieties of fish
that cannot swim. In every instance
they are deep sea dwellers, and crawl
about the rocks, using their tails and
tins as legs.
Experiments with locomotives o#
the Wheeling and Lake Erie railroad
show that a slight addition of graph*
ite to the oil used for Inbricating pur
pose i promotes economy.
It has recently been claimed that
iron ships fitted with electric plants
suffer rapid deterioration of their
pipes having direct connection with
the sea, due to electrolytic action.
It is said that every thread of a
spider's web is made up of about live
thousand separate fibres. If a pound
of tbis thread were required it would
occupy 28,000 spiders a full year to
furnish it.
A case of leprosy in its worst form
has been discovered ill London. No
hospital or home for incurables will
take the patient in and no means of
isolating him from contact with other
persons has been found yet.
According to a German publication,
a chemist of that country has prepared
a fluid that has the power when in
jected into the tissue of a plant, near
its roots, of auieestlietizing the plant
—not destroying it, but temporarily
suspending its vitality.
Recent investigations by Dr. Lin
den-Kohl have shown that the princi
pal source of the gulf stream is not
the Florida channel, but the region
between and beside the islands of the
West Indies. At Einioni the volume
of this warm water is sixty times as
great as tb"? combined volume of all
the rivers in the world at their mouths.
Recent developments in traift light
ing with the storage battery as an im
portant adjunct warrant the belief that
the electric light will at no distant day
be universally used for illuminating
day and sleeping coaches on all steam
railroads. Not only is this true of the
United States, but one of the largest
railway i-ompaiiies in England is
already equipping fifty of its day
coaches with dynamos and storage bat
teries of a system which has been
successfully tested for some months
past.
Food in an Egyptian Village.
"An Artist AmoDg the Fellalieen"i9
the title of au article iu the Century,
written aud illustrated, by R. Talbot
Kelly, the English artist. Mr. Kelly
says of bis daily food in a typical
Egyptian village:
We rise early, and a cup of coffee
is always offered, sometimes accom
panied by a piece of bread, or a small
cake made of flour mixed with honey
or oil. Somewhere about midday, if
we are within reach, some light food,
such as boiled eggs, bread, and coffee,
is sent to us. In many cases the eggs
are boiled hard, shelled, and served iu
a large bowl of oil, and tho meal has
the added interest of the endeavor to
catch the slippery morsels as they bob
about in th • liquid. The taste for oil
or semua (clarified butter) is one that
must be acquired; both are frequently
more or less rancid, and are liberally
mixed with almost every thing,vou eat.
At niglit, from (5 to 8 p. in., the only
meal of the day is prepared. It is
almost always the same. This con
sists of a little very greasy soup, to
which is 'added semua, sttwed or
boiled mutton, or goat's flesh, on a
pyramid of rice, and the ceremonial
dish of riz b'il labau (boiled rice and
milk). This last is always good, aud
iu most cases is the only thing eatable.
Pigeons and turkeys from a pleasant
variety when offered; but few hosts
give one the choice, a "lamb or kid of
the flock," being considered a more
"honorable" dish, and demanded by
one's position.
As Many Kind* of Turtle as Fish.
Did you know that there were tur
tles of so many kinds that it required
the mind of a naturalist to remember
their names? And did you know that
out of all these, only two varieties
were convertible into savory soup?
They are the Chelouia Mydas and
variety of terrapin.
They are caught mainly in the Gulf
of Mexico. The desirable weight for
a turtle is from 110 to 110 pounds. It
is a delicate being and requires ten
derest care or it will inconsiderately
die before being cooked. At thesame
time by an almost feminine contradic
toriness, it is very tenacious of life,
and while it may perish of a chilly
breeze it is quite likely to refuse to
die for twelve or fifteen hours after
having its head chopped off.
The turtle which provides soup for
aldermatiic banquets and that which
provides coiubs for aldermauic wives
are not the same brand. The latter
is the liawk's-bill turtle.
The common turtle is the only am
phibious animal whose contentment is
proverbial, but whose brain is so
small that it can't be taught a single
trick.—New York Journal.
Happy Family of Been nml Itattlcra.
While out hunting recently Claus
Ahlf found a colony of bees hidden in
the crevice of a huge rock, and, on
opening the cavity, discovered snugly
coiled iu the same apartment five
rattlesnakes, two of which measured
four feet ten inches in length and nine
and a half inches around the bodies.
The quart of oil rendered from the
rattlers Mr. Ahlf thinks more profit
able than both honey aud bees taken
from the rocks.— Oceauside (Cul.l
Blade.