The Western outlook. [volume], January 27, 1900, Image 1

About The Western outlook. [volume] (San Francisco, Cal.) 1894-1928

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The Western Outlook.
VOL. <h
HOriE=MADE WINDMILLS.
yd s:att* * , 'rougbout the Union
T[ |‘, vnierii-aii ingenuity—ami Yankee
«ill-anility, at that—shown to finer
» Nebraska, where
uim-mude \> iurtiyills, constructed at a
j , !lt , ~s r . ductile work of luill-made
tor fllfch -'I much larger
a s’; New England and the
Suites, says tin- New York
j,| mjjdit just as well as not claim
-Him- "f the credit for the iuventive
t.ss al) ,i power of adaptation which
r j , v . Western farmers display, for the
niii.r, came from the East, or their
pi,, !-- did, and the farmers of the
W>>t haven't a much harder row to
!l0( . iiian tin* farmer of the rocky hills
( \,.w Ur.alaud.
■j lies•• Nebraska folk can take a
Turnout mower and a few boards
Thiel, have dropped off the pig sty and
aalm out of them a windmill that will
sure them prolit, eveu If in the long.
1, ai- -iimiii' i s the sky refuses to “give
down.” The labor can bo put iu when
nothing more profitable is to be done
than praying for rain, and the ridicu
lous >lll,l of a dollar or so pays all the
money outlay necessary.
liruin Hinckley Barbour, in a bul
letin troiii the University of Nebraska,
u i.iuculd. tells of the Nebraska farm
er’s marvelous manner of making the
me.-, ns tit ila* end. Not only is water
J for irrigation, but stock is
■ i with water, rauchmen aud
eiders are benefited, dairy prod
e increased and improved, and
uiort of tiu* village and rural
senhanced.
of the home-made mills are
DF. OK WAGON AVHEKI,.
I'latte Valley, front Oma-
I>'-'i v**r, ami in the lesser river
u ' llrs, ' s "'hieli hranch out from this val
*'>• <Vminhiis, CJrautl Island, Kear
u, '. v . "v« i ton. Cozad, Lexington, <Joth
•‘iiburg, ogallala and intermediate
lo " Us are centers for tliese mills as
""•11 as ),„• other kinds of water lifters,
1 favorit,. form in Eastern Nebraska
‘ s 'he Jumbo, or tin* “(Jo Devil,” which
att *‘ r “ana- probably is a contraction
I.ike-the-Devil.” In Central
, UVM,,|- n Nebraska the prevailing
•M’e N '-ailed the Battleax Mill. Both
„ 11N do tar more than pump water.
f , run the grindstone, the churn,
a- teed griuder, the corn sheller and
A n, Saw : "" 1 ollu * r famj machinery.
' v ’ rk is d,,nt * l,y :l machine that
e. .. iu ‘' lm h‘d. from $4 to ,$5. Of
tiuit'r Ul ',' U " u ‘ is I)Ut iu "lieu there is
h I “° n ‘ massing to be done,
he lime were to be taken out of
S ,U . r; k ,I,e ,Tsult
pla<-e«, 1 V U “ 1, ‘ ,h0 nvi * ra *e cost is
the „ .;'r J ' v as «*r below which
could r ,‘ T“’ ’ "i OU<l S,MIU ’ Bcarce »j‘
putian, „ maxlnnH “ ,hat has been
C I,efUllS,rU( ' ll °”' ,f mills
Xiwig with the lowest tvpe ami cf
UP. there Is the Ju,nbo.? Ue Merrv
Round, Battle ax. the HouSmml
the Mock 1 urblue and the lteeou-
strutted Turbine. While farmers may
be rather particular what material
they put into the higher eost machine,
for those of the lower class no klud of
stuff lyiug around the barn Is too mean
to find some use. Old lumber, lath,
shingles, split rails, old packing boxes,
barrel staves, coffee sacks, tin from old
tiu roofs, the gearing from old mow
ers—there is scarcely au odd and end
that does not have a use iu the home
made mill.
For $3.70 W. W. ller of Havelock
made a baby jumbo, which pumps uot
only water enough for his stock, but
supplies his boardlug house with all the
water needed. It has four fans, each
three feet long and arms two and one
half feet long, and is mounted on a six
teen-foot tower.
J. E. Brown’s mill, which Is on the
Midway nurseries, near Kearney, is
one of low cost. Out of old grocery
boxes he made the faus and the box,
and the gaspipe axis cost him $1.50.
What could such a mill as this do?
Well, it pumped enough to irrigate his
garden through a killing season of
drought, and kept his strawberry patch
and his small fruit from death. Pretty
good investment for $1.50. In fact.
Brown Ims figured out that the profit
from that little mill during three pretty
tough times of drought exceeds that of
HOME MADE SAW .MILL
the whole farm In three ordinary sea
sons.
The regulation jumbo mill is set per
manently to fuee the north or south
and thus catch the force of the prevail
ing winds. But when the winds blow
from another direction these mills
would be of no use, so this difficulty is
overcome by putting up “universal”
jumbos, which are set on a screw, and
which will turn with the wind iu any
quarter. Sometimes, too, Jumbos are
set up in pairs, quartering the compass,
aud with such an inexpensive machine
it is easy to do this. The merry-go
rounds look like huge side wheels of
steamers set horizontally on towers.
In the general class of turbine mills
are included the Holland mills, the bat
tleax mills, with two, four, six aud
eight fans; the giant battleax, the mock
turbine- tLe tixr!, revolving, with and
without rudders -aud the reconstruct
•■d turbines, which last named usually
arc t... ..hopmade ones which have
been injured and are bought cheaply
aud repaired.
The battleax mill gets its name from
its resemblance in tlie arms aud di"
blade to the ax. Like the jumbo,
ually is set in a north and
rimi, and a - tin* prevailing
”1- :
:i]M" it is -odd..ill that tiiHHHH|
• atm. .t be used. The axis of fHj*
may bn of wood, gaspipe, 'T
an iron rod. The battleax mill
<"aiToll. near Overton, cost
than the average, because it lias .;
ty barrel tank connected with it.
Grand Island, Dledrich
spent $l4 on a battleax mill and tni^|
The fans of the mill are llxed In the
driving parts of an old thresher, and
the brake is taken from an old wagon.
Near Grand Island, too, is a mill put
up by a f irmer named Scliroeder, who
i d barrel staves for the fans. A. G.
gleyoj Verdon put up a cheap battle
mill which does all the work of saw
ing ao-lu h logs. Elmer Jasperson put
up on UU farm, near Ashland, a two-
MILL NEAR KEAR.NJCV
A Journal Devoted to the Interests of the Negro on the Pacific Ooast and the Betterment of His Condition.
fan battleax mill, which has only one
like It In the whole State. Its cost was
$ll, and for this outlay it runs a corn
sheller and feed grinder and a grind
stone.
< >ne of the most ingenious mills in the
whole State stands on a farm near
Gothenburg. It is made merely of a
wagon wheel attached by its axle to a
barn. To the spokes are fastened
blades. This contrivance pumps all the
water needed for the barn. Still an
other mill is a two-fan turbine, aud is
made from an old mower. Near Grand
MADE FROM AX OLD MOWER.
Island, Fred Mathiesen built a mill, the
driving parts of which were taken from
an old self-binder. It waters his stock,
and yet the cost was under $5.
By putting a rudder on a mill the
arms can be made to swing around and
stand iu the wind, aud by putting a
mill within a tower instead of upon it,
the chance of destruction through be
ing blown down by the high winds is
lessened greatly. One of the queerest
mills is that of a farmer named Boer
sou, who lives near Grand Island. He
took the sprocket wheel and fly wheel
of a corusheller and at a cost of $2 put
together a contrivance that pumps
enough water for sixty head of cattle.
Another odd aud Ingenious hit of
mechanism Is a reconstructed aermotor
that cost practically nothing, yet
pumps for the house, lawn, garden and
a small fruit orchard, briugiug up 270
gallons of water au hour in a tifteeu
and oue-half mile wind. Theu there is
the “toy” water mill of A. C. Wulker,
a civil engineer, which pumps 0,480 gal
lons of water in twenty-four hours.
Near Kearney was an abandoned mill
and storage reservoir. The mill was
fixed at slight cost, bits of broken-up
boxes were uailed to tbe arms and the
whole thing worked as well as it did lu
its better days.
To shop-made mills and even to the
better class of home-made can be at
tached wires, by which the power can
he transmitted several hundred feet to
where it is needed. Sometimes the mill
is set at the house, aud its energy is di
rected so that it will run the pump at
the barn—ln fact, the Nebraska farm
er’s ways of utilizing these home-made
contrivances are endless.
American Beef in Scotland.
Owing to the scarcity of beef cattle
and fat sheep in the country, and the
consequent rise In price, very large sup
plies of American beef are finding their
way all over the country. Edinburgh
butchers, who, as a rule, decidedly pre
fer the home article, have of late beeu
forced to procure supplies from Liver
pool and Glasgow of port-killed States
beef. In addition, the chilled beef
agencies in the city have beeu selling
large quantities of American-killed
beef. A Chicago company is doing a
very considerable trade iu a high-class
grade of lieef. They have already es
tablished forty agencies in the United
Kingdom. The supplies coming into
Edinburgh for last week are phenom
enal, hearing in mind always that this
city has been In the past particularly
independent of foreign supplies of beef
and mutton. Upward of 400 quarters
of chilled beef have gone Into consump
tion, and, in addition, a like quantity,
viz., 200 sides port-killed, all of Ameri
can origin. Supplies of frozen mutton
continue about an average of 350 car
casses, mainly from the Argentine Re
public.
Lixlitaing Kills HhU.
The Penusylvunia Fisli Commission
had beard tales that the brown trout
with which some of the streams of the
State were stocked were particularly
susceptible to destruction from liirht
ißfeso they began an investigation
Buiow announce that the stories
habit *>!' the brown
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SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., JANUARY 27, 1900.
A new woman's club is to be started
in Loudon to which no one uuder six
feet iu height will be admitted.
German locomotive factories number
eighteen and have a capacity of 1,400
locomotives per year, part of which
output is exported. It is said that uo
American locomotives have yet been
introduced iuto Germany.
There were 5.920 suicides in this
country during the last year, compared
with 6,600 during the previous year.
At the same time there was a falliug
off of nearly 50 per cent, iu the number
of reported embezzlements.
The latest lifeboat, which has been
approved by the British admiralty, car
ries three long cylinders, into which
1.000,000 cubic feet of air can be com
pressed. This air will drive the boat
fifteen miles an hour for six hours.
Maros-Ujvar iu Hungary, a manu
facturing town of 3,600 Inhabitants,
may be expected to grow rapidly. A
Hungarian singer, who undertook to
give a concert there, found it impossi
ble, as there was not a single piano in
the towu aud he had uot brought one
with him.
As a result of the success of a num
ber of Jersey City women iu causing
the streets of that town to be properly
cleaned it is proposed to turn the de
partment of street cleaning over to the
women, having all the employes, from
superintendent down to sweepers, of
the feminine gender.
A number of Russian officers—among
the highest of the cossaeks of the
guard—have beeu sentenced to loug
terms of imprisonment lu Siberia aud
elsewhere for frauds and peculations.
Gambling, as usual, appears to have
furnished the motive for the vulgar
crime of falsifying accounts aud simi
lar forms of swindling.
Harry Farjeon, eldest son of the nov
elist, and grandson of Joe Jefferson,
lias composed the music for a two-act
opera, “Floretta,” for which his young
er sister, Eleanor, wrote the book,
which lias been performed with auccess
In Loudon. Young Farjeon is 21 years
of age and his sister is 18, but she had
completed the play when she was 16.
A divorced man’s club has beeu or
ganized in Alameda County, California,
for the purpose of sending out scouts
aud missionaries, men who have found
marriage a failure and whose object it
is to impress upon mankind the dan
gers of matrimony and give those In
clined that way au opportunity to profit
by their sad aud harrowing experi
ences.
If Pennsylvania is not well doctored,
from a medical standpoint, it will uot
he because of a scarcity of physicians.
The State Examining Board has grant
ed licenses to 375 more doctors to prac
tice out of 425 that made application,
aud in view of there being tw’o exami
nations held each year It Is patent that
the supply of medicos is being well pro
vided.
Mr. Murray, a Scottish naturalist, in
a paper on the habits of wasps, tells
how a blackbird will stand at the side
of a hanging wasp’s nest and deliber
ately tear It in pieces lu order to get at
the larvae, apparently undisturbed by
the swarms of angry insects whose
stings Instantly put to flight the hu
man curiosity seeker who ventures
near to watch the demolition.
So many children have been made 111
by eating the samples of medicine of
various kinds left at the doors by em
ployes of makers in Los Angeles, Cal.,
that the municipal authorities have for
bidden the practice and the manufac
turers will have to find other means of
advertising lu place of delivering such
articles from house to house. This
mtthod of bringing to the public notice
the remedies that are so innumerable
threatens to become a great nuisance In
some parts of the country.
I ..«• average duration of yellow fever
a week, but in graver cases the at
i k may be precipitate and prove
speedily fatal. There Is usually an Ini
tial chill, headache, pains in the back
and limbs aud slight Increase of tem
perature. In exceptional cases the ther
mometer in the mouth will register
from 100 to 105 degrees, as iu other fe
vers, but more often the body heat is
■ hiif.llnla <.lovqt>.q in,,! u, a.,
180 CP kdU ft!
mont correspondent of the London
Daily News, but eveu if he hud beeu
able to wade across without being
drowned, he would have been what in
Ireland is called “drowuded’’; and it
is uo help to a day’s shooting to begin
it soaked to the skin. 80, when a tall
man happened along, the king hailed
him.
“You must carry me across,” said
the King.
“Well, comrade,” returned the big
man. “it would take a good deal to
make uie do that. You may not be
very long, but you are broad and
heavy.” *•
“Oh, come, what will you do the job
for?” asked the King, slightly ruffled
by the allusion to his sore point—his
hulk.
“Not one sou uuder a hundred.” the
man replied, “aud I warn you, if you
fidget, I’ll drop you, eveu If it should
be In the middle of the stream.”
“Done!” cried the King. But in mid
channel a fear seized him that his
pointer was not following, aud lie
twisted around to have n look.
“Bourreau! You shall be paid for
this!” growled the porter; but he did
uot drop his burden.
“Now.” said he, as he deposited the
King on the bank, “you must pay me
not one hundred, but two hundred
sous. Don’t you know you risked both
our lives with your fidgeting?”
The King humbly pleaded that he
wanted to see If his dog was safe over
the water, and paid his ten francs
cheerfully, aud then asked:
“Is there nothing else I can do for
you?”
The big man pondered. At last he
said: “The thing I am long wishing
for is a donkey. If I had a donkey I
should be happy as a king. I'd sell
my little crops in Turin theu ”
“But it’s a long way to Turin,” ob
jected tbe King. “Wouldn’t a horse
better serve your need?”
“What a horse and no stable? A
donkey fills in in a corn shed or any
where; but it would cost me many a
lira before I should have a stable
built” said the man mournfully.
And so they parted. But soon after
ward the King provided one of his
own farm horses and sent it with 20
gold pieces to his bearer’s cabin.
The man’s wife was at home, and
scouted the idea that beast and money
were for her husband. The messenger,
however, was firm. He explained that
the gifts came “from the King.” Tnis
excited the woman’s mirth. She shout
ed down the hillside to her husband:
“Come home! Hero’s a horse for
you, man, and a purseful of gold!
From the King! For yourselt!”
It took the big fellow a loug time to
get it into his head that all these mira
cles had happened because he once
helped a stranger over the torrent, but
at length he accepted It for true.
That, however, Is uot quite all the
story. One day, when the peasant and
the cart and the horse were iu Turin,
he saw a crowd gather aud the people
said the King was coming. Then he
bethought himself of his manners. He
flung the reins to a boy, straightened
himself to his full height, and went
iuto the middle of the street, holding
up au imperious hand to the coach
man on the box of the royal carriage.
The coachman reined up, the moun
taineer bounded to the carriage door
aud shook the King’s hand heartily.
“I am proud to see your majesty,”
he said, “for I wanted to thank you for
sending me the money and the horse.
Look over at him there with the cart
load of cabbages. He Is hale and
hearty! And I always wished to tell
you I am glad I was of service to you
at that stream; and I am sorry I culled
you a bourreau.”
The King greatly relished the frank,
Independent ways rf his Alpine sub
ject, his uneonveutionallty and good
breeding, as well as the hearty hand
shake, which was returned with equal
heartiness.
RESTING THE MUSCLES.
Why a Man Stretches and Yawns
When He's Tjred.
When a man Is tired he stretches his
arms aud legs and yawns. Birds and
auimals, so far as possible, follow his
example, says the Pittsburg Dispatch.
Birds spread their feathers and also
yawn or gape. Fowls often do this.
Fish yawn; they open their mouths
slowly uutil they are round, the bones
of the head seem to loosen and the
gills open.
Dogs are inveterate yawners and
(In .^rnerican^ewsvap^t
How the Japanese and Chinese Bat
Their Food.
While a pair of chopsticks may seem
to us to be the clumsiest of substitutes
for the kulfe and fork, the Chinese and
Japanese use them with such ease and
skill that they are magic wands iu their
fingers.
“They cut their food with their dag
gers, and they eat with pitchforks.”
cried the horrified Japanese who first
saw Europeans eating in such a bar
baric and revolting manuer with the
knife and fork.
Light-fingered, deft, aud Imitative
as the Japanese and Chinese are, it
takes them as long to learu the proper
aud graceful use of the kuife aud fork
as It requires for us to master the evo
lutions aud etiquette of the chopsticks.
It is a pret»y sight, ut the begiuuiug
of a Japanese or Chinese feast, to see
the host help his guests to sweets, as
then is displayed the best and most
graceful play of the chopsticks. One
can take a lesson, ns the master of the
feast daintly lifts cakes or confections
and places them ou the plate or paper
before each guest. The Chinese chop
sticks are longer than the Japanese,
often metal-tipped aud decorated, and
are used again and again. Mandarins
carry tlieir own silver-tipped ivory
chopsticks to a feast, wipe them clean,
and carry them home agaiu when it is
over, lu the common restaurants in
Chinese cities, the chopsticks consti
tute a lottery for the patrous. All the
sticks are kept together in a deep,
round box, and certain ones are mark
ed ou the lower end with a Chinese
character or number. The oues who
select those chopsticks from the box
are entitled to an extra dish or portion
without charge. In the old city of
Tien-T»in, particularly, one is half
deafened when he passes a restaurant
by the rattliug on the boxes of chop
sticks and the shrill voices of the pro
prietors screeching the merits of tlieir
establishments at the top of their lungs,
uud appealing to the universal passion
for gaming.
In Japau, where exquisite neatness
aud daintiness mark every part of
household living, the same chopsticks
are used only once. At a feast, or at
au ordinary teahouse, a loug paper en
velope laid beside one’s bowl contains
a pair of twelve-inch sticks uo thicker
than lead pencils, whittled from clean
white pine. To show that they have
never been used the two sticks are
whittled in one piece and split apart
only half their leugth.
When the first course of the meal is
brought In one breaks apart his chop
sticks, and plaeiug oue lu the angle of
the right thumb, bruces it firmly
against tbe tip of tbe third finger, as
in Fig 1. That chopstlek is held rigid
and immovable, receiving no motion
except as the whole hand turns upon
the wrist The other chopstlek is held
by the thumb, first and second fingers
(Fig. 2), just as tbe pen is held lu writ
ing, and is the working member of the
pair, moving freely up aud down or in
any direction. A little practice will
enable one to manage the chopsticks
with ease, aud to hold them lightly,
but so surely and firmly that they will
not wobble nor lose their hold of any
thing. At first oue will find his chop
sticks making X’s and crosses in the
air, tlylng out of his fingers and per
forming strange and unexpected tricks
in his helpless right hand. A traveller
enjoys his meals at a Japanese tea
house, when he can pinch off a morsel
of fish with his chopsticks and dip it
in the cup of soy, hold up a hit of fowl
aud nibble It, and do expert tricks with
the couvwiient little sticks. Some
small boys and girls whom I have
known, have become so infatuated with
CHOPSTICKS.
FIQ. L
FIO. 2.
NO. 21.
The Japanese rice Is so »I«Ut>ooh that
It Is easly lifted up on the chopsticks in
balls or lumps; but the loose, dry grains
In a Chiuamau’s rice-bowl require a
different treatment. He puts the edge
of the bowl to his lips, and the two
sticks are used as a shovel or fan, and
sweep the rice into his mouth in a
steady stream. Then the Chinaman
presses the last grains iu with the
sticks, closes his lips, ai.d sets down
the bowl. Two such “plays” usually
empty the rice-bowl, and the China
man only stops when his mouth Is full
and his cheeks stuffed out like balls.
All meats, Ash, and vegetables are
booed or cut Into small pieces In the
kitchen before they are cooked, aud
more than half of the dishes at an Ori
ental feast are soups or stews, rice ac
companying every course as breud does
with us.
The use of the chopsticks Is not con
fined to the table alone. The Oriental
cook will turu the cakes, or the chops,
or anything iu the frying-pan or on the
gridiron with his chopsticks. The
spoon or paddle is seldom used, and
in a Japanese kitchen there is no
pronged instrument equivalent to our
fork. The cook stirs and beats with his
chopsticks, and eveu spreads the icing
on a cake with them, and rubs flour
smooth in a cup of water. A Japanese
cook will say “Naruhodo!" 'wonder
full. and a Chinese cook grunt some
thing unintelligible if you show them
a patent American egg-beater churning
the white of an egg to froth with its in
genious arrangement of wheels cranks,
blades and wires; but they both will
put the egg-beater away on the pantry
shelf and go on beating eggs to a stiff
froth with chopsticks—and do It so
well and so quickly that one loses re
spect for the inventive genius of the
age.
A SCALPER’S TICKET.
IU Time Was Expired and the Passen
ger Was Ejected.
“Talking 'bout scalper’s tickets,” said
au old conductor, “the queerest thiug
l know io that line happened wheu 1
was working for the Missouri Pacific,
back in the ’Bos. My run was between
Kansas City and St. Louis, and one
morning as 1 was pulling out ou my
east-bound trip a fellow gave me un
old three-day excursion ticket that had
expired at least six months before. I
told him it was no good, and after con
siderable growling he handed me some
small silver. That will carry me to
,’ he said, naming a little way
station, ’and between times I’il think
it over.' ‘Very well,' l replied, ‘but I
gave you notice right now that I won’t
curry you a foot further unless you put
up the money.’ He made no answer
auu beguu r u>\ . iffftst.
When we got to the station I was by
his side. ‘Well, sir,’ I said, ‘what do
you intend to do?’ ‘I Intend to ride ou
this ticket,’ he snarled. ‘l’ve read it
over and It’s perfectly good.’ ‘l’m not
going to argue any more about that,'
said I; ‘you pay your fare quick or get
off.’ ‘Not unless you’re the best man,’
said he, looking ugly. Well, I threw
him off, nut it was a tough Job. He
fought like a wildcat and came near
licking both me and the brakemau. The
station where this lmppeued was in
the heart of a wild moonshine district,
and the crowd that collected all sympa
thized with the passenger. As we pull
ed out they stoned the train. I expect
ed to hear from the fellow almost at
once, but I didn’t, and the affair soon
passed out of my mind.
“Six months later I liappened to be in
the general office when to my great
surprise I saw him coming out of the
manager’s private room. ‘Who is that
man?’ I asked a clerk. He laughed.
‘Why, don’t j'ou know him?’ he said.
‘He’s ,' aud he named a detective
who had lately worked up the evidence
In a big tralu robbery case in the very
neighborhood of the station where our
row had occurred. Then I understood.
You see, he wanted some good excuse
for going Into the settlement, and there
was no better role than that of a poor
man Just ejected from a train by a
brutal conductor. He had his scalper’s
ticket to show, he bad Just put up a
genuine fight and he claimed to be dead
broke. All that appealed to the natives,
and they took him in at once. The re
sult was that he stayed there a mouth
and picked up all the evidence he want
ed. It was a shrewd scheme, but I
still thbJi he madi that scrap unneces
sarily rcJMstlc.”— New Orleans Times-
HemocJtC