The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, March 30, 1898, Image 6

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    I
Japanese capitalists have tMght
100,000 acres of loud In southern
Mexico, upon which they w ill estab
lish an extensive colony.
According to the statistics of tbe
Btate Board of Charities more than
half of the people of New York city
receive free medical attention. In
other words, persona who are scrupu
lous in tlie matter of paying their
own way have to holp to pay for those
who are lle to pay for themselves. .
Hpeaking of Walt Whitman, the
London Critic describes him as "the
one great American poet." There
can lie uo doubt about Whitman's
greatness. Out here it may be re
marked that Tennyson, though a warm
admirer of the "good gray poet,"
gave Toe the foremost place among
our poets.
Dr. Johnson of Brunswick, Cnl.,
himself a colored physician, has col
lected the figures of the vital statis
tics of nearly itOO towns in the south
ern states, which show Hint the
denth-rate of colored people is double
that of whites in the same country;
and not only this, but tlint the birth
rate is smaller among the colored thuu
among the white population.
A theosophist of Washington avers
gravely tlint Joseph Letter, the
Chicago wheat king, is a reincarna
tion of Joseph, the son of Jacob, and
has the same bent of mind tlint made
the bitter such a favorite with
rhnrnoh.. He admits tlint the modern
Joseph is not quite up to the level of
his previous incarnation, but soy he
is young yet ond. should be given a
chance to grow.
Word comes from Paris of n curious
and successful experiment that a flor
ist there has made. He has mannged
to give the. chrysanthemum the scent
of the rose, the minitower (hat of the
jessnmiue, the cull a lily that of the
violet. A rose by nny other nnuie
may smell as sweet through this ex
periment, but it is to be hoped that
the French florist will not try to im
prove on nature when it comes to the
perfume of the real rose.
"Put it in nny way you choose,"
aid n recent speaker, horsolf n
woninn, "to the vast majority of man
kind home means cookery. A womnu's
domestic power and influence are in
Most instances in exact proportion to
lier ability to cook or to command
good cooking. The old phraso 'a nota
ble woman' means, above and beyond
everything else, Bkill in housewifery,
and it means this jnst as much today
as it ever did. It is a very democratic
standard, for it applies no less to the
tenement-house woman than it does
to the mistress of a score servants,
but it is none the less forcible for
that. Like love, housewifery levels
all ranks. It is common ground
whereon all women, be they high or
low, rich or poor, must meet, the only
aristocracy that it admits being based
upon excellence."
An English physician thinks that
the example of Sumlow, the strong
man, is not altogether a desirable
one for boys. While he admits that
it is a worthy ambition for a buy to
become well developed and a strong
man, yet when physical culture is
carrie 1 to tho extreme, as by Saudow,
it becomes pernicious. He says that
two dangers confront Haudow, and
they are, first, death at an early
period after complete suspension of
tbe athlotio straiu, and second, death,
at middle age, or soon thereafter,
from a continuance of his work. When
Snudow, it is argued, rests from bis
muxculur exertions he will not be able
to bring about a corresponding in
volution of his heart and lungs. , 8an
dow, while a wonderful athlete, has a
dangerous system of muscle-building,
and one that should not be imitated.
Says the Philadelphia Ledger: "We
don't want to tight," but the figures
of Adjutant General Brooke's report
show that we can it we must. In the
five states of New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Dele
ware, forming very small section of
the Union, he finds a total of 2,233,
717 men available for military duty.
Comparatively few of these are trained
in military tautios, but moat of them
are familiar with arms and intelligent
enough to use them properly without
much drilling. In this connection it
is well U remember that of tbe large
number of foreigners included in the
report by far the greater part re
ceived thorough military drill at
home before coming to this conn try,
and ere, in reality, traine I soldiers.
Ehouhl they take up arms in defense
of their adopted ,oonntry they would
cf themselves te formidable fight
MAKING
How tho GovernmeK Hurry-Orders For Great War
Weapons Are Being Executed.
Down on the meadows of the Passaic,
on the shore of Newark Bay, and
within the bounds of the city of
Newark itself, says the New York
Herald, men are .working day and
nieht on suns for the Government.
The complex and exquisitely adjusted
machines that turn ami bore "jackets
and "tubes" never stop, except for s
"rest" of an hour or so or tho roplno
ing of a nutter dulled by hours of slow,
stendy ploughing through the hardest
and finest steel.
Hteol Is everywhere, In almost shape
less, obtoi:g ingots, fresh from the
casting room; in forged lengths, in
cylinders, now bearing some resem
blance to a "rapid flro," nnd in chips
and shavings. There are strange and
interesting scenes in these gun shops
nnd the pictures presented each hour
are dramatic in the extreme. Here in
these processes in to be seen the acme
of American manufacturing, the great
essential fact being the machinery,
that is nlmost automatic in its work,
and the few men ueeded to control and
guide it.
Except in the forging room scarcely
a blow of a hammer is heard. The
shops are nlmost as silent as the grave.
Wheels revolve, cutters turn, mon
stand placidly by the side of machines,
moving softly here nnd thore. All
this time, ench second, the gun that
some day will belch forth ilro and
steel of its own is coming nenrer com
pletion. Chips fnll ns tho bars ro
volvo, but tho cutters are not hoard.
The guns, it would appear to the
onlookers, are nlmost making them
selves. Of the sturdiest type of American
mechanics are the men employed.
They are workmen who think and who
know, men who enn judge when a cor-
tain instant has arrived, knowing its
approach by intuition, rather thnn
nOKINQ
men of brawn and muscle. The latter
finalities are not so much needed in a
gun shop of to-day. Bliould a partially
Bnished tube or juckot have to be
juoved there is the electrio traveling
f raue overhead, that, at the jerk of
cord, swings over its grappling irons,
and these need only to be attached.
Tho gun man of to-day. needs ouly to
guide nnd to know.
These works nre of the Benjamin
Atha & Illiugworth Company, one of
the three concerns iu this country
that have the plant and the skill to
turn out guns of size. Their main
shops are at Harrison, the next station
to Newark, and their casting Bhops
aoross the Passaic, on the "Island."
Dozens of pieces for the navy and for
coast defence are being made here.
;Wotk of Great Care.
Bix weeks is practically the minimum
of time for the making of e modern
gun, and to finish olio within that
space everything would have to go
marvellously well. The "treatment"
of the steel would have to be success
at the very first attempt something
that does not often happen and the
MOULDS.
first tests would have to show that the
Government standard had been
reached. Oftener than other viae these
results can only be obtained through
much trying and the expenditure of
time. ' A batch of gnus may thus take
months in the making, while goodluok
may hriug it down to weeks.
It is in the easting shop, of course,
that the process of gnn making has its
very beginning, in the furnime where
steel is made from s medley of pieces
el old iron, v iron Unjths, broken
BIG GUNS.
long since relegated to tho scrap
yards.
Here ia the first stage of the modern
gnn ragged and rnsty metal that is
carted in wheelbarrows tip to the fur
nace doors. The maws of blazing
heat, several thousands of degrees in
intensity, stand open to receive it. Bo
overwhelming is this heat that even
the mnster melter has to put on blue
glasses to peer into the flames rising
noron oasts.
over the bubbling sea of metal when
the doors are open. When the doors
nre dropped down that is, shut
there is only revealed a single spot of
brightness, nu eye that looks into the
furnace's llnuie, and even this ennnot
bo approached too closely with the
linked eye.
Ilpgtiiiiliia: the Oun.
The gun is under wny. Ten tons of
metal are I'alrendy in the furnace n
Inke of molten, seething metal held in
by banks of sand. Other things of
stool are to be made of this mass, the
gun works being only a portion of the
Atha & Illingwortli plant. Whethei
used for peace or war, ' steel is stool,
MACHINE.
differing ''only in quality. . It is all
"boiled down" in the same way.
In shadow is the casting shop, ex
cept whon the doors are raised, when
a flood of light, a wave of extreme
heat, is thrown out. In the dusk of
the shadows grimy men raise the sea
of metal with long bars. The master
melter, never still, steps now and then
to his wheels, set at one side of tbe
furnace ami looking like the brake
wheels on a freight car, and gives one
or the other a sharp twist. By this
he regulates his fire five hundred de
grees at a twist. The silica Jbricks
with which the furnace Jis lined can
stand four thousand degrees of heat
and more before they commence to
melt. The master melter runs up the
beat to tbe extreme point and then
lets it down.
There are three "heats" a day in the
casting shop. Three times metal is
heated, three times it is let go with a
mighty rush into the casting pot. Tbe
last few moments of each heat are the
dramatio instants. It is then, at tbe
judgment of the mnster melter, that
the furnace m fed with "medicine."
shovelfuls and blocks of metal being
tossed in. On this depends. the qual
ity, tbe strength, the elasticity of the
steel, essentials of the most vast im
portance of the gun of to-day.
Into the Casting Pot.
Two hours is usually sufficient for
the boiling of this steel in its cradle
of Bind. At last the one moment ar
rives. The bar at the furnace'! baok
is worked through the sand to make
an opening. An instant, and into the
casting pot below the mass tana, scat
tering millions of sparks, a glowing,
golden torrent that foams and biases
as it plunges down.
Tbe picture of the gun's second
stage is superb. On every hand fly
these sparks, and tbe mass bubbles
and seethes in the casting pot. On
its top, through the glow, can be seen
a dirty mass the slag or the soutn
that is of no nse cr value. But the
picturesqnenees of the scene bes not
ended. The casting process is only
half through. The liquid metal must
get into its moulds, and that in short
order. y
On a track the casting pot rests. .It
is pushed along this track until a gi
gantio crane overhead seises it. swing
ing ft aloft. Over mounds of sands it
is swung, and the metaL by the move'
taent of a bar, is allowed to drop down
in a thin stream. Again shower upon
bower of sparks, surrounding tbe men
who, with chains and staves, control
the eluBy pot and pnll along the
erase. The criot old sboB. tiJk ite
floor of sand, its unrelenting dust and
and its dreariness, is made into
brilliant cavern for the moment, and
the toiling men are supernatural in the
light.
In Mi Roach.
A prosalo time follows, when the
metal in themonlda mnstoool. When
the sand is finally knocked away the
gnn that Is to be is only a rough mass
of cast steel, indicating only to the ex-
rert its fine quality, and not even to
Iiq in any degree, for tbe tests must
ootue to prove that. In the forging
shop this mass is hammered and worked
nntil it becomes an octagonal ingot of
jnst twice the weight " will possess
when it is finally turned and bored in
to a "jacket" or a "tube." The hoops,
tbe third part of a gun, are cast and
forged hollow, not in solid cylinders,
as the jacket and tube are.
With the carrying away of the rough
ingot of steel from the forging shop
the special work of gun-making com
mences. Tbe boring anil turning
fnctory is the scene of the first step in
this process.
Completed guns, ready for mount
ing and for fire, are not turned out in
these gun shops. The finishing
touches, the actual putting together
of the parts of the gun, the rifling it
self, are done at tbe ordnance works
in Washington. It is the business
alone of a gun shop to mnke the steel
and to hand over to the army and the
navy the three parts of a grcnt gun -the
"tube," the "jncket" (which is
slipped on over the tube and then
"slirnuk on" by contraction) and tbe
"hoops," two in unmber, which, for
the purpose of strengthening, are fit
ted on tightly over the muzzle end of
the tubes. Ouoe these three parts are
together the metal becomes, practical
ly, one piece and it would be very
nearly impossible, by any art or sci
ence kTiowu to experts, to got the
jncket off.
, Finished hj the floverninent.
Only the "rough machining," in tech
nical phrase, is done on these guns,
this meaning that the final finish nnd
the rifling is put on by the Govern
ment itself. "Hough mnchining"
seems, however, a strauge torm, for if
delicate work requiring the utmost ao
curacy and preoisencss is not done
here it never was anywhere.
A Checkerboard Fish.
Joseph Evans, of Thirteenth street
and Buydor avenue, is the owner of a
vory queer looking fish. It is four
feet long and has a tail two feet in
length, which is spotted and striped,
liko a snake. Evans caught the llsli
in nn oyster dredger while at work on
the oyster boat Mary Colman. It
lived nearly a day out of water and
caused no end of trouble before it fin
ally collapsed. The skin of the strange
inhabitant of the deep resembles a
checkerboard, being uniformly colored
with black and blue squares. Mr.
Evans intends having a glass case
made for the pretty creature and will
exhibit it in his parlor. Several scien
tific men, who have seen the fish, are
at loss as to how to classify it, and all
of them agree that a "what-is-it" fish
would be the proper name for it.
Philadelphia Record.
Water Car Far Indigestion.
"We must give special attention to
the outside of the body as well as the
inside," writes Mrs. H. T. Korer on
"What to Eat When You Have Indi
gestion," in the Ladies' Home Jour
nal. "The skin must be bathed every
morning with tepid water, followed by
a brisk rub. This is equally as im
portant as correct diet. A good rule
is to use water freely inside and out.
At least two quarts of water daily
should be taken; half a pint the first
thing in the morning and the last at
night, a cupful of warm water before
each meal, and the remaining quan
tity divided and taken before meals."
Centennial Celebrations.
This year's crop of centennial cele
brations includes observations of the
four hundredth anniversaries of Vasoo
de Goran's discovery of the way to
India by way of the Cape of Good
Hope, at Lisbon, in May; of tbe burn
ing of Savonarola at Florence, also in
May, and of the birth of Holbein at
Basil, in Switzerland. Montpellier
will celebrate the hundredth anniver
sary of the philosopher, Auguste
Cemte; Ancona that of the poet Leo
pard!, who was born atRecanati, clote
by, and Paris that of Micbolet, the
historian.
Old Bank In) Ifebraaka.
The building in which the oldest
bank in Omaha is located is in a very
dilapidated condition. The porches
NBBBaSKa'a OyLDEST BAKK.
are tumbling and its windows and
tops of the doorways have been taken
posession of by the sparrows.
Not only was this the first bank of
the town, but the first finanoial
institution under the charter of the
Territory of Nebraska. Its president
was Thomas H. Benton, son of the
Senator. Leroy Tattle was cashier,
and A. N. Wyman teller. In the
panic of '57 the doors were closed.
Tbe anoient structure is. deoidedly
picturesque in rta dilapidation and baa
fUKjuanUy beta put into piotuss by
f. I rmu .-
THE REALM
ok
Riots About HalrdrMitnc.
Modern coiffures are truly "fear
fully and wonderfully made. The
hair ie either crimped to excess or
worn so smooth that it causes dis
comfort even to look at it. A certain
a fm!x!R roiFrrnis.
set of young girls has adopted the
most impossible arrangement of the
hair, which is mnde only more gro
tesque by the fact that the most cas
ual observer can discover that it has
been curled on n hot iron. What the
foundation of this particular coiffnro
is, it is not feasible to state, as it looks
like a bird's nest and seems to be a
succession of waves and curls that
stand out about the face, forming any
thing but a becoming frame. The
measurement from the tip of the chin
to the top of the pompadour is literally
a foot. Consequently tbe lines of the
bead and face are lost and the fea
tures dwarfed. Crimping irons are
not to be scorned. . In fact, they are
a most useful accessory of the toilet.
But they should be used with judg
ment. Individual styles should be
studied, Women with broad faces
vhould avoid both too narrow nnd too
broad effects. Both are fatal to a
round face. If the woman with a nar
row, foval face, with a bead well
poised on a slender throat looks rav
ishing in a broad, loosely arranged
coiffure, with high puffs on the crown
of her head, it does not follow that her
sister, with the - short ncok, wide
face and high brow will find the same
mode becoming. Individuality is the
keynote of a graceful coiffure, as it
is of afl other fashions.
Lovelocks, or "beau-patcbers."bave
reappeared, and the smartest women
in the East do not consider that the
hair, is properly ooiffed without them.
The genuine lovejockjs worn, just by
the 'ear, where it was pljoed by the
beauties of past centuries. Few wo
men can stand extra breadth at that
poldt, however, and unless they wish
to be extreme, they permit a lock or'
two to turn on tbe forehead or temple.
The lovelocks predict a revolution in
the styles for coiffures. TJiey even
suggest that women of fashion may al
low their hair to be white. Every
thing points to modes that were fol
lowed in the luxurious days of tbe
Frenoh court in Marie Antoinette's
reign. Tbe pompadonr remains the
favorite style for arraaging the hair,
but great effort is being made to re-establish
long and short curls. For
evening the bair is worn quite high,
and wben the aigrettes, feathers or
ribboiis are added, the arrangement is
quite eight inches tall. The wearing
of flowers in the hair is one of tbe
newest fads, and exceedingly dainty
are some of the confections the mil
liners are making up. lioaes are the
favorite flowere. The prettiest arrangement-oonsista
of one rose and a
few leaves, which are put close against
the knot of bair at the left side, and
from this stands np a straight spray of
one rote, some small buds and tbe
leaves. Another style is of red roses
- WP
LADIES' WAIST.
fashion;
nwuMjiwjnvi '
In a elnster. Doubtless by next sea
son the balr will be powdered, and
even diamond dust mav snarkla in the
looks of onr fashionables.
Latest Styles In nibbnns.
Among the latest styles in ribbons
are the colored failles and grosgrains,
satlnbaok velvet, with either violet
or mode backs, and black double faced
satins, with rsried flowers on one
side. Otter, emerald, ruby and tawny
brown lead in colors, and are much used
for dress and blonse trimmings. Har
lequin blacks and printed follies are
also much in favor. The demand for
taffeta is unabated. The favorite
shades are cardinal, ox-blood and
cherry, and they are a trifle more ex
pensive than other colors. The na
tional blues, violets and greens are
also popular tints, and plaid taffeta is
appearing.
Noteltlf In Urni Fahrlri.
Among the novelties in dress fab
rics are the new cashmeres wore in
two colors. They are beautiful and
will make lovely gowns. Kilk faced
serge is a handsome material for tailor
made seaside and conntry gowns.
Attractive Halt For a Mtlle Roy.
Navy blue cloth, says May Manton,
jinde this attractive suit, the broad
sailor oollar, enffs and shield being of
white serge, decorated with rows of
narrow blue braid. The blonse is
fitted with shoulder and nnder-arm
seams, an elaxtio being inserted in the
hem that finishes the lower edge to
adjust it in true sailor style. The
fronts nro closed invisibly, but but
tons and buttonholes can be used if so
perfurred. The broad sailor collar
ends iu pointod lapels that are joined
to the out-away neck in front, the
shield portion being simulated by
facing on the underweist, which is
disclosed between the lapels. A
pocket is inserted on the left front.
The sleeves are gathered top and bot
tom and finished with round fflff at
the wrists, neatly trimmed with rows
of braid. Tbe knee trousers are
shaped by inside and outside leg
seams, small hip darts fitting them
closely at the top. The closing is at
the sides, where pockets are made,
and a hip pocket can be inserted on
the right hip if wanted. Buttonholes
are made in under waistbands, and
placed on the top to attach the trousers
to the under waist, or buttons for
suspenders can be put on if so pre
ferred. Pretty suits are thus made
np in various combinations of materials
and colors, black and fed, brown and
fawn, or tan with cream being very
stylish. Tbe mode is - suitable for
wash suits of pique, Galatea, duck,
grass linen, or flannel; braid, em
BOCS' SA.ILOB BXiOUSI SUIT.
broidery or insertion all being need tn
trim suite in this style.
Tbe quantity of material it inches
wide reqaired to make this suit foe s
boy eiat years of age is 8 yixii.
A-