PEST HOMES,
jtrnRRta victims op -costa-
filOVB DISEASES ARJ&J&U.UN.
(Cnw York' North Itrother iMnnd
Sstem 14 by Fnr the Itost lis tUo
World Whero Cliolsr
Patients Go.
LONG way up the
East River, beyond
8 sunken meadow,
writes n Now York
rorrcspnndent of tlio
Pirnyunc, three isl
ands block the chan
nel that winds past
the forts to Long
Idand Sound. Two
re barren wastes of bay weed and sand.
Tno third juts Into the channel with
gross-crown bluff. Great bowlders
washed by every tido lie tit its base. Up
on Its brow stands n lighthouse with a
big fog bell In its white tower against a
background of groen trees. The Ashing
boats that dot the channel keep to the
windward of the island. Passengers on
the deck of the big outgoing Sound
S'.entcers watch the sunset glow in tho
myriad windows of a group of red brick
buildings on its shore, wondering what
they may be, while the city's spires fade
iwny in the distance. Presently several
shrill blasts sound from a steamer's
whistle and at the signal, ns the boats
hoot bohind tho point, a ktot of men,
carrying a stretcher between them, are
seen making their way down to the
landing. The men are orderlies from
ono of the hospitals. The blasts were
sounded by the New York Health De
partment's steamer coming up fro the
city to tell what it had on board. It is
the official language of North Brother
Islaud varied to suit the particular pesti
lence of the trip. For this is New York's
penthouse, better known in this day as
tho Riverside Hospital.
Whatever may bo the shortcomings of
New York in other respects, it Is par
ticularly gratifying just now to recall the
statement made by Jacob A. Rus, in a
recent number of tho Cosmopolitan, that
it is far in the lead of the municipalities
of tho world in the manngotnent of pesti
lent diseases.
In recent years a marvelous change has
come over North Brother Island. To
day, where once was a waste of sand, are
broad and shaded lawns; winding, well
kept walks, trees, shrubs and flowers;
handsome, substantial buildings and hos
pital pavilions or wards, arranged on a
plan securing perfect ana absolute isoia
tion with a maximum of comfort to the
patients. One result is seen in a very
low death-rate, cocsidering the character
of the institution. List year before the
Importation of typhus fever in the ship
load of Russian exiles, it was sixteen per
cent, of about 000 cases.
" The old pesthouse it still there, but
even that bas lost its terror. Uecunie a
harmless measles pavilion, it stands up
on the northeast shore of the island at
one end of a half circle of one-story
frame buildings, seven in number now,
but so planned as to be capable of in
definite extension as the needs of the
growing city may domand. The island
itself has grown under the hands of tno
builders. Low placet have been filled
in, the half-score acres of availablo
ground have become thirteen, and in
place of the sandy beach, of which the
winter storms claimed their sharo year
by 3 ear, has como a strong seawall
against which the breakers rago in vain.
The frame buildings are the fever wards.
MISS nOI.DKN, TOE CHIEF NCtlSE.
Scarlet fever and measles claim most
ot the pavilions in times of comparative
peacs. This year typhus fovor in faded
them. In the sudden rush their capacity
was quite exhausted, and a camp of
tents was pitched on the lawn to sholtcr
the overflow. It was while the weather
was yet cold, and a cry went up against
the supposed outrage. As a matter of
fact these, tents have board floors and a
stove that make them very comfortable
abodes and much preferablo in the eyes
of the physicians to the woodon bouses,
partly because tbo ventilation in them is
perfect, partly because-not much is lost
in destroying them when the scourge has
had its day. Even the pavilions are built
on the modern hospital plan with this
end in view. It is the easiest way to get
rid of a malignant contagion. Flame is
a great purifier. Still, ono hesitates to
burn up a house, while a tout is touched
off without u pang.
All travel to and from North Brother
Island is restricted to two routes, that
by the department steamer front the re
ception hospital at bixteenth street,
which is pre-empted for the sick, and the
other via the 133th Street Ferry.Thi lat
ter "line" is represented by a tingle yawl
propelled by a sphinx like boatman,
who answers calls ou the drum telephone
t the shore end of tbt ferry. On visit
ing days twice week a few scst.
tered callers come sometimes to tea
IrieDii is th boaniUL With the exoeu-
m
Hon of an occasional inspector of the
Health Department, these are the only
new faces ever seen on the island lit
erally faces only, for no visitor is per
mitted to go far beyond the ferry dock
without having enveloped him or herself
in the ugly Mother Ilubbard gown and
big rubber overshoes that are the uni
form of the island, worn always in the
sick wards.
TbouaU the Island Is connected with
the city by cable and telephono, the lit
tle hosnital of nurses spend their lives
thcro in virtual banlshmont from the
world. It has happened that a whole
winter has passed without nuy ono of
them crossing over to the mainland. Tho
doctor may travel on the steamer, and
does when ho has timo, but tho nurses
not. Their duty is on tho island, and
there is always enough for them to do;
Tn MicnoBB cnBtf ATonr.
for whether there be two or twenty pa
tients in a pavilion they must have their
own nurse. No other will do lest the
ptsts got mixed up and tho end become
worse than the beginning. There are
six women nurses, young uirls all of
them, who with rare devotion and cour
age have put away from them all that
makes life sweet, and taken upon them
this dangerous duty. Their chief Is tho
matron, Miss Kate Iiolden, who for ten
lung years has led this life of solitude and
sacrifice. She is a Southern girl whose
people lost their all in defense of the lost
cause so the tradition of the depart
ment runs. It was little less than a lost
causo she espoused when, having finished
her course in the Charity Hospital Train
ing School, she offered herself to the
Board of Health. A. typhus outbreak
had then decimated the stall of the old
Riversido Hospital on Biaokwell's Island,
and the authorities were at their wits'
ends where to get other nurses. Thoy
looked aghast at this frail young girl,
and asked her, almost harshly, if she
knew that she was courting almost cer
tain death. She replied calmly thnt she
knew; it was her chosen work. So thoy
took her, and tho doctors soon learned
to trust her ns their chief support in the
unequal tight. Before it was won sho
too succumbed, and for weeks the city
across tho river that had heard tho story
of her devotion and her suffering listened
anxiously day by day to tho bulletins
from her sick bed. She recovored and
was made matron in the course of years
at the munificent salary of QUO a month.
Ever siuce she has been the mainstay and
sunrdian angel of the island, coupling
with her duties as matron and nurse now
those of hospitat apothecary as woll.
Having pasted tbo requisite examination,
sho has been duly commissioned to mix
tho medicinos as wollascare for the sick
When, last February, in a single day
flTty-ecvcn Russian exiles woro found in
half a dozon lodging-houses suffering
from typhus fovcr and were packed off
to Riverside Hospital, followed by a pro
cession that swelled their numbor to a
hundred bofore the week had passed.
Miss Holaon spent .forty hours among
them, without sleep and almoit without
food, arranging, soothing and cutting
. the hair from tholr fevered brows, until,
literally worn out, she bad to bo carried
to bed.
gin the nd ministration building the
nurses nave a library given by thought.
ful friends, and even a music-room that
is not neglected under the pressure of
lifes sterner cares. They cross the
threshold of this their refuge only to
take up their never-ceasing round of
duties. The rooms of the physician in
charge, the autocrat of the island, are on
the main floor. His little principality
embraces two-score subjects, male
nurses, helpers and attendants of all
kinds. IIis rulo extends to the boiler
house next door, where the steam is
generated that heats all the hospital
buildings, and whence tho very com
p'.eto flro-extinguishlng apparatus of
111
IX ISLAND REGIMENTALS.
the island is directed In time of need.
At the door of the kitchen, in tho build
log on the other aide, it stops short.
There tho matron takes charge, weighs
out an tne groceries, and sees the food
for tho sick and the woll cooked. It
is tbt bsst that oan be bought for
money, though nont U asked or exacted
HIS
tor tt. Any patient who can afford it
and so wishes can pay for his board, but
ho gets the same as all the rest. 1 he
General Government is the only paying
customer of the department. It tends
the cases or scarlet feser and measles
that reach quarantine to Riverside, pay
ing a fixed sum for their care. Yellow
Jack and cholera it deals with at quaran
tine Itself. Its diphtheria patients go to
tho Wlllnrd Parker Hospital, in Six-
tecnth street, where the health depart
ment keeps its cwn as well. Diphtheria,
unless complicated with other dis
eases, Is cot admitted to the island.
Upon the mnln shore also are the dis.
Intccting furnaces or crematories, through
which all Infected clothing must pass be
fore readmitted Into the community as
safe. The clothing of typhus fever
pntients never returns. It is fed to the
(lames as the surest way of tendering it
harmless.
As an institution Nfcrth Brother Island
Is unique. There Is nothing like it any
where in the world. In the great cities
of Europe thoy have flouting hospitals
for small-pox and moro or less perfectly
Isolated "contagious wards" in their or
dinary hospitals. Tho Isolation secured
in New York Is absolute, and it must
ever be the chief defense ot the city and
of the Nation against an euomy that is
forever knocking.
Hoffman Island, whore the cholera
patients go, is about two miles south nt
the Narrows, and, says Frank Leslie's Il
lustrated, gets its name from Governor
Hoffman. His built on a sand-bnr known
to pilots as West Bank, and rises abrupt
ly out of the water on a pile of rocks.
The island Itself, covering a Tew acres, is
composed nt sand inc'.oied In a crib-
work, which in turn is protected Dy ino
rip-ran. About nine hundred pitients
can be handled there at ono time. On
it are the germ-proof dormitories for
disinfecting, and in every direction the
assertion Is borne out, so often made by
sea captains, that the New York quaran
tine Is the safest in tho world.
The floors of the building are made
of asphalt, whllo the ceilings are con
structed of galvanized and torruzntcd
Iron. Tho partitions are also built of
iron, while in some portions the smaller
walls are built ot enameled brick. There
aro no mattresses in the dormitories,
and the cots are tho simplest kind ot
hammocks suspended over Iron frames.
Steam does everything, irom disinfect
ing to cooking. Bith tubs to the nuui-
HOFFMAN ISI.ANC, HEW TOtlK BAT.
ber of sixty-eight, made ot metal, are
utilized for bathing the Immigrants, and,
if necessary, tho infectod water can be
disinfected bofore it it discharged luto
tho bay.
The disinfecting chamber of tho dor
mitory is on the upper floor, and is built
entirely of iron. It is a room filled with
frames which rest on sliding tracks. Ou
each frame rests a "wiro basket for the
clothes of each immigrant. All are kopt
separato from etch other. Wheu the
clothes are put In these baskets the first
thing done is to exhaust the air in the
chamber. Buperheatod steam, which
may rim to 250 degrees, is sont undor
high prossure through 0 000 foot ot coiled
piping in the rooms, and gauges inrti
cato the prossure in tho chamber. In the
engine rooms the degree of heat In the
disinfecting room it indicated by the
ringing of electrio bolls. So thorough is
tho work ot disinfection that it is im
possible for the attendants to ro-entor
the chamber' for several hours after the
windows have been reopened.
Long FIuko.' Nulls.
To allow tho nails to grow to an In
ordinate length is common in China, ti
an indication that tho ownor folio w a
sedentary occupation or loads a lifo of
leisure. Loug nails on tho right hand
would interfere with tho use ot the
brush (corresponding to our poo), and
would therefore reflect unfavorably on
the person concerned, as touding to
show that ho did not dsvoto himself to
composition and lltorary exorcises, the
pride of every educated Chinese. Thoy
are almost alwoys confined to tbo loft
hand, therefore, and are at times very
long, delicately-chased silver cases being
worn to protect them. Some years ago
I met a Chinese gentleman who had care
fully guarded the growth of tho nails on
the third and fourth flngeis, the former
for tome tou years, the latter for over
twonty-flvo. The nail on tho fourth
finger, when the silver ptotector was re
moved, was tome tlx Inches or more
long, and twisted like n corkscrow.
Some few months later, this gentleman,
owing to an accident, broke the nail.
His grief was as great as it he had lost a
near relative. Notes and Queries.
Jewels and Their It s In Watches.
Few peoplo understand just what is
the practical value ot the ' jewels" in a
fine watch. These tiny bits of precious
stones are set in the "bearings" of the
mtcbinorv or "movement," as it is
called where the pointed ends of the
little pivots turn and turn continually.
This constant grind of the sharp littlo
points would wear away the hardest
metal. Only tho hardness of a precious
stone can resist the severe iriction.
Garnett are sometimes usod and some
times sapphires. These, being harder,
are put into the new improved, quick
winding watch, which adds to its wear
ing qualities. It is one ot the marvels
of tho watch trade, that a jewelled
watch of this high grade ottn bo sold so
cheaply. Boston Cultivator.
Queen Victoria possesses a small cabinet
of Rose du Barrl cblua that it valued at
150.000.
SI
CHINESE FARMERS.
COTTON AND KICK IlAtSItfO O.I
VBB YANQ-T9M HlVEfl.
Xhrre Crops) tt Year Primitive) Tools
-low Plowing In thn Water
Chinese Wajrfts A Chinese)
Farmhouse.
HE Chinese farmer It
it in abject poverty.
I rode up the Yang
tse Eiang River as far
at Hankow, 800 miles.
The Yang-tse is an
other '.Mi ss is s I pp 1
River. The whole bot
tom is ridged with
. . .
nroKcn levees nnu r.oi-
-"jk3s eli witb graves as
thick as hnycocks on a New England
meadow. The farmer's house Is always
a hut, writes Eli Perkins, in the New
York Sun. It is generally built of rice
straw and looks like a straw stick in
Illinois with holes oaten Into it by sheep
and hngs. It would be a poor cow shed
in America.
When not made of rico straw it is
built of rough boards or adobe brisks
one ttory high, has paper for windowt
tnd is thatched with rice straw. It has
no chimney and no stove. There are no
flowers about it as with the Japanese.
A pig and a cow may occupy the tamo
hut. The pig it scavenger with big
black ears. The farmer hat a few
chickens and ducks, but never eats them
himself. He never sees a newspapor.
He has no carpet, no musical Instrument,
no books, and aeldora a clock. The
floor of l is bouse is hard ground. His
bed is strnw. He has no windows in his
house or hut. In winter he covers him
self with rags to keep warm, and in
summer he is almost nuked. He sows
his barley or rice In a bed, hoes them by
band, reaps them with a sickle, and
winnsws them In the wind. A quarter of
an acre it a big farm. He has no
kuowledgo of politics. China might
bavo a big war and he would never hear
ot it till troops marched Into his rice
field.
The tools of tho averago Chinese
farmer are a basket, a tea kettle and a
four-tlned hoe. This hoe is very heavy,
and is used for spading as well as hoe
ing. He inites it in the air as a black-
A CniNESB
smith ralset hit sledge, imbeds it in the
earth, and pulls it forward. The food
ot 400,000,000 people is cul
tivated by this one implement. A
trashing machine or a reaper is novcr
lean in China. Tbo Chinese put as
much labor on an aero as an American
fanner would on twenty acres. A China
man will raise enough on an aero to sup
port a family of seven and pay his dollur
and a half in tnxes. The size of a
Chincso farm is from a hundred feet
square to three acres. A quarter of an
scro will kcap a man busy, but he will
ralso throe crops a year ou it. First ho
raises barley or wheat in tho rinter.
When the wheat is heading, cotton is
town broadcast. Aftor reaping the
barley aud wheat in June tho littlo
cotton is econ coining . up. Then the
barley roots are pulled up and the cotton
comes on. It is in beds aud is all hood
by haud. It grows low and hat a short
table Chinese cotton would not bring
threo cents a pound in New Orleans, and
tho yield is about 200 pouuds to tho
ere. Men and women draw the crops
to market on two-wheeled carts.
Cotton is not bulod but crowded into
tacks like wool. Horses are seldom seen
on a farm in China; men and womon do
the work of the horse. A Chinose farm
laborer gets about four or five cents a day
aud hit rica.
Notwithstanding labor being to cheap
In China the tuporior tkiil of our Amer
ican cotton planters aud the good qual
ity of their cotton and its cheap price it
destroying tho cotton industry in Chint.
China will bavo to glvo up cotton and
go into rice, barley and peanuts. Last
fear the Chinese raised only 100,000
bales ot cotton. The raising cf silk
worms here will always thrive, and silk
will be reeled from tho cocoont into
ikelnt by ohoap Qve cents per day labor,
but tilk weuviug will havu to go to Eng
land aud America, whero they use powor
looms. Tea will always be raised in
China, whero fivo cont labor can pick
the leaves. Tho tea plant is the same as
our camellia or japonlca.
mm
A cniKBiB FAnunousn.
' If rice la to bo raised after barloy aud
wheat, tho land it flooded with water.
Men and women, kneo deep in water,
pull tha harrows. Then tha rloe it let
out in the wator in hills a foot apart. It
la common to tee women working in the
rloo Hold covered with ttraw garments
to their knees, Aftor the rice It bar
vested a full crop ot radishes is put in.
In order to irrigate for rice water it
pumped on to the land by hand, thonxh
sometimes a revolving bolt covered with
buckets it propelled by a buffalo cow
which walks round and round like
thrashing horses in America.
Rice in China is worth about dollar
a bushol. A Chinaman can live on four
bushels ol rice a year. This, with pea
nut oil. tea, and a littlo sugar, costs
about 3 a year.
"You think five dollars year la
America," said Mr. Leonard, our Con
sul General, "is cheap living, but If a
man in Chicago should live on boiled
wheat with n little cotton seed oil, tea,
nnd sugar, he could live as cheap as tho
Chinese. It is meat which makes liv
ing expensive in England and America.
It takes eight pounds of cereals to make
a pound of beefsteak, and where you get
a pound of beefsteak it Is only worth
about a third as much as a pound of
wheat or corn. Americans reduce tho
tns rntNF.se forked no!.
nutritious quality of their food thirty
fold, by feeding it first to the animal
and then eating the animal.
"China," continue! Mr. Leonard,
"supports 400,000,000 beings, but
they eat the cereils. America could
support four billion people if they would
eat com and wheat like the Chinese.
But instead of that, Americans feed
eight pounds of corn to a shcop or stjor
and then eat the steer."
The Chinese cow on the Tank-tta
Is a semiampbtblous animal. You will
often see her grazing with her head en
tirely under water. This is the ani
mal that a well-dc-to farmer uses for
plowing, instead of his wife and
daughter. lie uses the milk and mus
clo of tho poor cow. It is pathetic to
seo this patient old cow plodding along
through tbo rice fields knee deep In mud.
COW r-LOWINO.
The plow she Is drawing Is a rude bit of
a log with an iron point. A digger
Indian could mako it. It was used bo
foro Noah went into tho ark, and it will
be uiod a thousnnd years Iron now. Tho
Chinaman never changes.
Propagation of Cholera Germs.
The culture of the cholera germ is art
exrtomely interesting though very simple
process.
An upright glass
tubo, as shown In the
illustration herewith,
is tilled with gelatine,
and when the latter
has hardened suffi
ciently a germ is in
serted in its centro by
meant of a platinum
neatlle.
The germ at onco
begins to incubate,
and in a few days it
has multiplied a
thousand fold. Tha
germs eat their way
down through tho
gelatine, and tho
mass assumea a funnol
shaped form, which
givet the gelatine a
clouded appearance.
Tbo tingle germs
aro Invisible to the
naked eye, but can be
teen In large masses.
When magnified 800
diameten the tingle
germ become! plainly
visible. It has a
crescent-shaped form,
somewhat like that of
a comma, and they
aometimee blond to
gether in tbo form of
o tpiral.
Dr. Koch discovered the cholera gcrtn
in India in 1SS3 Now York World.
Electrio Spark riiotiyruphy.
Professor Vernon Boys lately brought
together in the United Presbyterian
Church Synod Hall, Edinburgh, Scot
land, a monstor audience to hear his lec
ture, with experiments, on "Electrio
Spark Photography." In the course ot
the lecture Professor Boys explained
that by the electrio spark articles moving
at the rate of 10,UOO miles an hour can
bo photographed, and by tho introduc
tion of a revolving mirror a apood of
180,000 miles an hour can bo coped
with. The mirror makes 1U24 turns
every second, worked by electricity,
which It equal to about 150 times
as fast as a riflo bullet travels. Tbo
whole photographlo powor of the spark
it over in a time equal to tbo ten or
eleven millionth part of a toeond, and it
it during that incredibly brief apace that
the image it made on tho sensitive plate,
Beleutiflo American.
Xitrini. Tl j s .
wrr
Odd Thlntrs From Orchard and Garden.
If any boy or girl desires to make a
unique and very acceptable present
to a friend ho or she can do so by fol
lowing the accompanying instructions,
and besldos will derive great pleasure in
praparing the gift. It consists of ira
printing any name chosen upon tha tkla
of apples, pears or vegetables.
Helect any strong-woven, dark woolen
clotb; cut letters from it about threo
quarters of an inch square; when sou
f
fio. r. cT.OTn tBTTitns Fon tvn mahkmo.
have enoiuh to form tho name, pasts
them iu the nroper or der on tome thin,
tough papi; when dry take strong
white linen thread and connect tho tops
of the letters together Dy sewing through
them, as shown in Fig. 1, leaving tha
ends long enough to reach around tho
article to which It Is to bo attached.
These ends should have short
strings connecting the tying cords,
fio. it. trx-i.RTTP.nKn appi.b.
being longer ns you recede from tha
name, for an apple, the Inst ono being an
inch and a halt in length. When tht
fruit it quite fully grown select a smooth,
fair, healthy looking apple from the
south side of the trees, and tlo tha name
portion on the sldo facing the sun, and
in a few weeks tho portion of the skin
underneath the letters will have bleached
to a very light shade. Of courso you
will have soaked off the pnper on tha
back previous to tying in posi
tion. A late keeping ripple should
bo chosen, nnd a red variety is pref.
erable. How it will appear when tht
cloth letters are removed it shown io
Fig. 2. n
When desiring to imprint a melon,
pumpkin, or other vocetnblo, larger let
ters can be usod and moro of them nt is
Fig. 3. Instead of lettors the yoar may
be imprinted, or any plain desisn, liki
a pair of half open scissors, hammer, etc.,
being careful to tie tbo strings firmly,
nnd in case ot fruit, chaoie n specimet
that will not be touchod by another ol
whore an adjoining twig will not changa
FIO. III. ISSCmrTIOJt OX WATEnMELOS.
the position of the loitering, even if you
are compelled to cut away toma nuali
branches. American Agriculturist.
Slaking tin Dmnn to Speak.
There cannot bo an instance of a per
ton born dumb regaining speech, for no
ono can regain what he never possessed,
though he may acquire it. In speaking,
however, of persons born dumb we muse
exclude tho vast majority ot thoso culled
deaf and dumb, for their inability to
speak arises from no malformation of the
tonguo, but thoy remain speechless .be
cause, having beou deaf irom birth or
early childhood, they have never heard
the conversation ot othors, nor learned to
imttato It. Large numbers, who in this
sooso have been deaf and dumb all tboir
lives, have learned to speak by signs or
by the motion of tha lips, or by sounds
tuch at ordinary persont produce. It it
difficult to toll generally whether a por
ton it dumb from birth, because the de
fect it not at first tuspected. But thera
are cases' of real congenital dumbness. It
arise from injury to the lingual nerves, or
nerves ot the tongue, or from general or
local debility. But it may urise from a
visible cause, from the child being
tongue tied, the fianum lingua), ai it it
called, or bridle of the tongue a mom
brane underneath it extending too far
forwurd toward! the tip of the tongue,
to at to prevent tho tongue being ex
pended or put out. This may make it
impossible tor the child to suck, and, if
not relieved, may interfere with its speech.
A surgeon can snip the tbin part of the
frtenum, care, however, being taken not
to endanger the Ungual artery. It U not
certain, however, that a tongue tied poo
ton could not speak, for Jussicn, ono
hundred and sixty years ago, recorded
the case of a girl of fifteen year old, who
had never possessed a tongue, and yet
could speak without inconvenience, and
persons learn to do so who have had their
tongues to a great extent removed.
Yankee Blade.
Evolution ot the Watermelon.
t
1 (0.
Judge,
1
1