Dodge City times. [volume], April 03, 1880, Image 3

About Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892

Image provided by: Kansas State Historical Society; Topeka, KS

                
Underneath (he Hudson.
All that can be seen of the Xorth
Kier Tunnel thus far is a tremendous
well, smoothly lined with brick, sixty
feet deep, and wide enough to admit an
ordinary dwelling house.' This well is
covered by a clumsy wooden shanty,
high enough to admit a derrick, and big
enough to hold the two engines and
three boilers, the coal heap, brick pile,
clothes closets and office for the work
men and the company's officers. This
shanty is at the foot of Fifteenth Street,
three-quarters of the way from the
Fennslvania ferry to thellobokcn line.
It is cfoc to the river's edge, two blocks
distant from Provost Street, the thor
oughfare nearer the rher bank. Tho
river originally flowed where the shanty
is, and underneath the filling Is the
original silt. The great well beneath
the shanty is not to be a terminus of tho
tunnel. It is merely a starting point
which the tunnel shaft is to pierce, and
it was sunk because that was deemed
tho better way to begin the great work.
The tunnel will be worked back beneath
the city more than half a mile, breaking
through the surface beyond Erie
Street, and baing its absoluto terminus
and depot in Jersey Avenue. Event
ually this well may or may not be doed
up, but in either event the tunnel will
pass along through it as it passes any
other point in its course. The tunnel,
when completed will be two miles long,
and three-quarters of a mileof its length
will bo directly beneath the bed of the
river. As the river ehannel is nearest
the Xew York bank, and there is a wide
stretch of shoal water on the Jersey
side, there will be a continuous slint
from the Jersey shore nearly across tho
rher, when a "short incline upward will
bring the tunnel to the surface in this
city. At its lowest point the top of the
tunnel will be one hundred and two feet
below the surface of tho rher and alout
twenty feet beneath the river bed. The
Xew York terminus will be in the neigh
borhood of Washington Square, and
work in this city will be begun near the
foot of Lcroy "Street, which is almost
exactly opposite Fifteenth Street in Jer
sey City.
"liy onlinary means it would have
been next to impossible to excavate a
tunnel through the silt that was encoun
tered at the outset, and must bo fought
the greater part of the way. President
Haskins devised tho plan of sustaining
the earth above the excavation by a
pressure of air. A powerful pumping
engine supplies the force. For safety's
sake there is a duplicate engine, and
there are three boilers, because an acci
dent that removed the pressure of air in
tho shaft would brings about certain dis
aster and pos-ihle los of life. The
original plan was to bore one shaft suf
' ficiently wide for a double railroad track
and high enough to admit of the pas
sage of railroad cars. It was found
nece-sary, however, to altar this, and
now the tunnel is composed of two
shafts, side by side like tho barrels of a
fowling-piece", and strengthened as well
as separated by a central partition. These
tunnels will each contain a single rail
road track, and will be twenty-one feet
in diameter, which gives room for a Di
rector's palace coach, the tallest of
railroad vehicles.
A visitor to the edge of tho great
brick well sees what looks like a Urge
boiler protruding from tho well on the
river side, and extending sixteen feet
toward the center. There is a platform
of boards around it, and there are many
tubes and pipes, heaps of bricks and
one steam-pump upon the platform.
Beneath tho platform, which appears to
be at the bottom of the well, which is
really only half way down, there is a
sheet of muddy water covering the slit
that has been thrown from the tunnel.
The protruding boiler is w hat is known
as the air-lock, by which the egress and
-entrance of the workmen to the tunnel
is accomplished without destroying the
even pressure of air in the shaft. The
Sun reporter saw six men enter the tun
nel yesterday to go to work in it, and
presently he saw four leave it. Thcsix
men were lowered into a wooden buck
et, which was swung over a pit from
the arm of a derrick. The door of the
boiler-like air-lock was open"; but there
is an inner door that was skut, and
beyond it, in the tunnel, the pressure
of twenty pounds of air to the square
inch was maintained. The men en
tered the air-lock and closed the outer
I door. . The engines equalized 'the' air
pressure in tne locij with that in
the tunnel, ami then the inner door was
opened and the workmen passed into the
tunnel. It took ten minutes to do this.
Men with heart or lung diseases could
not work under these conditions, but
healthy young men are said to experience
no harm from them. When the work
progresses further thi3 pressure will have
to be doubled. The four men who desired
to come out stepped into tho air-lock,
closed the door behind them, and sig
naled the engineer. The compressed
air was allowed to escape with a deaf
ening roar, like the escape of steam
from a thousand locomotive safctv
valves, and presently the door opened".
A dense cloud of brown smoke rolled
out from the lock, and as it thinned out
the forms of the workmen passing
through were distinguishable. The re
porter was informed that this was tho
smoke of the candles, by the light of
which the men work in the shaft. Fif
thcen or eighteen pounds of candles are
consumed by them in a day, and the
smoke they create is a great hindrance
to the work, although only the very best
adamantine coach lights are used. The
electric lights, which emit neither smoke
nor heat, will soon be used in the place
of candles. One light over the well and
one in the shaft will supply all tho il-
liiminnlmn ,tin, j tiAnilml 11 n-L- In Ilia
i JIIMllll.ll.lfll mil is lt.l.u.u. If fin nv
' tunnel never ceases. It is prosecuted
by three gangs, each gang working eight
hours. Sometimes the men eat their
meals in the shaft, but as often they
come out and spend half an hour on the
earth's surface. Theirs is not dainty
work. The earth that they dig out is
mixed with water in the bottom of tho
shaft, and when it lias reached a cer
tain depth and consistency it is blown
out into the great brick well by the air
fircssure in the shaft through pipes that
ie at the bottom of the excavation, and
that are built out to follow the workmen
as they extend the shaft. Whenever it
is necessary, this mud is bailed
out of the bottom of the well to
make way for more. As the tunnel is
now it has the shape of a gigantic bot
tle, the air-lock taking the place of a
cork in the bottle's neck. The neck of
the bottle is formed by tho narrow bore
that was gradually widened untd the
permanent diameter of twenty-one feet
was reached. As the excavators work
they are closely followed by men who
line the shaft with plates of riveted
iron, and these in turn are fol!owed by
masons who construct the arch brick
work thaf forms the tunnel wall.
Nearly 100 feet of the permanent tunnel
has been completed. Xo ilate is set
for the beginning of the work on the
Xew York side of the river. X. Y. Sun.
m
Bid They Talk Together I
A few years ago there was on a Texas
cattle ranch a larce and valuable im
ported Brahma bull, the acknowledged
champion of the range. Two graded
bulls seemed to be tho especial objects
of his dislike, and ho never missed an
opportunity for felling them to tho
ground.
These two bulls were also never seen
to meet each other on friendly terras.
One morning, however, the herdsmen
observed them standing with their horns
locked, and their noses almost touching
the grass, et there was nothing in their
actions that indicated an unfriendly
spirit. They appeared to bo communing
about somethiug.
This attitude continual for a few
minutes, when one of the bulls started
off in a heavy trot, uttering an angry,
subdued bellow, and lashing his tail.
The other followed a short distance be
hind. On they went to where the Brahma
bull was grazing. The meeting, as
usual, resulted in the Branma promptly
knocking over the first bull that" ap
proached, but just as he was in the act,
the other ran up and drove his horns
into his side. The Brahma staggered a
few steps, fell and soon died.
The two graded bulls then quietly
walked off in different directions, and,
although they remained in the herd long
afterward, they were never again seen
fighting. Cor. Youth,s'Companion. '"
.. '
The Florida orange crop, .this year,
promises to be much larger than ever
before, the data from counties easily ac
cessible indicating about 440,000 boxes..
The yield in Putnam County alone, last
year, was nearly 500,000'oranges, but
with tho large number of trees coming
into bearing, this year.-ther crop is ex
pected to be 25,000,000. The trans
portation of this amount will require a
train of 10 cars each day for 90 days.
Fostafc-c Stamps.
The question of a correspondent who
wishes to know when postage stamps
fir.it came into use in the United Slates, '
recalls recollections of one of the most
hotly contested battles for public wi-lf are
and conVcnience evcrfought in the United
States. In Great Britain the entire
chango in the rates of postage, and de
livery of letters, proposed by llowland
Hill, went into operation in 1840. Pan
ny postage across the Atlantic stood at
ohce in strong contrast with the rates
charged in the United States, where it J
cost six and a quarter cents to send a
single letter not over thirty miles, be- j
twten thirty to eighty miles, ten cents;
bctwen eighty and one hundred and
fifty miles, twelve and a 'half cents, over j
one hundred and fifty and les than four
hundred miles, eighteen and three
quarter cents, and over five hundred j
miles, twenty-five cents. These ratC3
were for a single piece of paper. Each
additional piece added one rate, and a
letter that weighed one ounce was made
to pay four rates. I
Every year when Congress met its ts-
bio was loaded with petitions for cheap
postage. State Legislatures were in-
UUltJU W iaS IIUIUIIUII .Mtl .V-9ir.Ut.Vll
in favor of a reduction, and a partial
reform wa3 effected in 1815, against the I
' earnest opposition of many who held
that as tho Post-office Department was '
j not self-sustaining at these high rates,
, a reduction would result in its becoming
j a heavy charge upon the Government.
I The partial measures of 1845 only
whetted the desire of the people for a
wholesale reduction, and the agitation
continued until March, 1851, when a
law was passed by Congress reducing
! the rates to three cents on letters weigh-
' ing not more than half an ounce, and
carried not more than 3,000 miles, if
Ytn u-iarirr uma uronaiil If nnt. nm- '
paid the rate was five cents for a half i
ounce; and these rates were to be in- I
creased according to the weight, as at '
present.
To facilitate the prepayment of this
postage, the Postmaster-General was
directed to prepare and furnish Deputy (
Postmasters for sale to the public, .
'suitable stamps of the denomination!
of three cents." It was left optional
to use a stamp, or to pay the three cents
at tho Post-office, and, as a further fa
cility for such prepayment, the same
bill provided for the coinage of a three
cent piece the forerunner of a long
series of " fish-scale " money. 'The
three-cent piece came into favor at first, I
however, being voted " decidedly neat j
and tasty," which, perhaps, it was com-1
pared with the broad and cumbrous
copper cents, for which in a measure it .
furnished a convenient substitute. ,
The three cent pieces and the three ,
cent stamps were ready for delivery by
the time tho new law took effect on .
Julv 1st, 1851. I
When the first reduction was passed
in 1815, the pieces of mail matter an-1
nually bandied in the United states
numGered about twenty-nine millions ;
the beneficial effect of the many reforms
of which it was the harbinger may be
imagined from the fact that thirty years
afterwards the number of letters and
pieces of transient matter handled in
Boston alone was thirty-nine millions,
or one-third more than the whole postal
business of the country a generation
earlier.
Xow, in the free delivery cities alone,
eighty-eight in number, more than eight
hundred and ten millions of pieces of
mail matter are handled annually, while
the postal-car clerks handle nearly three
billions of pieces of mail matter in the
coarse of a year. In Xew York City, in
a single week, 7.193,290 pieces passed
through the hands of the post-office
people, and the Government in 1879
paid for the carriage of more than thirty
millions of pounds of mail matter by
railroad. These figures give some Idea,
but by no means a full one, of the re
sults which have flowed from the revo
lution begun when postage-stamps came
into existence in this country. CUve
land Leader.
Tarkejs.
Of all the good new things that Euro
peans gained through the discovery of
this continent the turkey stands one of
the foremost. lie is. in fact, the king
of birds, when his size, adaptability to
all climates, plumage, and delicacy of
flesh are considered. He certainly
would have made a better national em
blem than the thievish bald eagle, which
steals from the fish hawk; and better
than the golden eagle Would hive been,
as that is a native of both continents.
There are several varieties of turkeys,
tho magnificent Honduras, our American
wild ones, and in the domesticated kinds,
we have the bronze, black, white, buff,
and other colors. There is but little
doubt that all domestic varieties origi
nated from the wild turkey of the United
State, and of thee varieties, the bronco
are nearest to the wild birds in color and
size. They are the heaviest and are
probably the hardiest. In every way
tho bronzo is the turkey.
I can not lay too much stress on the
importance of size in breeding turkeys.
Xothing is gained by breeding from the
youngest or smallest birds. As turkeys
are not at maturity until three years old,
it is much the plan for those who want
fine, large birds to breed from those
that aro fully matured. What would a
farmer gain by breeding together for a
number of generations hall-grown cat
tle, or pigs, or any other stock? He
would certainly expect their sizo to bo
materially lessened; it must be so, too,
in any stock. Selling all tho biggest
turkeys because they weigh and sell for
a little more than the smaller ones, is a
poor policy. Suppose you sell at IS
cents a pound five large birds weighing,
say 25 pounds, and keep five weighing
five pounds less, yon get -?1.50 more for
tho larger birds. Xow, should you
raise 20 young birds the next year from
the small ones, they would weigh less
at a given time (say about Xovember)
than they would have done if larger or
raised from five matured or larger birds.
Up to that time of year they get most of
their food in the fields, so that the less
they weigh the less profitable they are.
If the 20 young birds each weigh five
pounds less, you have 100
pounds' weight le-s, worth, at
eighteen cents per pound.- eighteen
dollars. Deducting the $4.50 taken for
tho extra size of the five birds sold and
perhaps a dollar saved on, a little less
food than the five larger birds would
have eaten, the loss amounts to S 12.50
by breeding from tho smaller birds; for
the larger birds are of no more trouble
to look after than the smaller ones.
Tho best way is to liavo a gobler not
related to the hens, of as fine matured
stock as can be procured, with good
large two-year-old hens, which are bet
ter than one-year-old birds, if extra sizo
Is wanted. One gobler is enongh for
six or eight hens ; but some prefer not
to allow him more than four or five. Tho
hens delight to lay in quiet places whero
they are Tea ?t likely to bo disturbed ; it
is best to watch them a little, and if they
take a fancy to any out-building, some
times a nest-box put up in it will keep
them from laying astray; but should
they lay astray, they should be watched,
that tho nest may be looked after, as
they generally lay more eggs than they
can properly cover, some of which may
bo set under a hen or otherwise dis
posed of, but it U most important to
find a sitting turkey's nest to see that it
is kept clean, as sitting birds often break
eggs and foul the nest, destroying the
whole brood. The nest can be cleaned
while the turkey hen is off feeding.
Many people labor under an impres
sion that a hen or turkey will hatch and
raise more young ones when left to a
stray nest without Interference, thinking
that as such habit is a nearer- approach
to nature, it must be the correct way.
But what does nature do as to increas
ing numbers? In a state of nature the
whole feathered tribes about hold their
own in numbers from one year to an
other. This will not satisfy the breeder
of domesticated birds and animals. If
a farmer has five hen turkeys, he must
raise more than that number to
pay him for his trouble, and here
is where the secret of success comes
in care. , t ,
Your turkeys are very dainty and re-
2 aire frequent changes of food; when
rst hatched, chopped hard-boiled I eggs
and bread-crumbs aro best. Curd,
chopped . meat, .lettuce, and onioni
(wild, green onions will dol, corn meal,
wheat middlings, buckwheat, are aU
"ood. The birds soon get tireu of any
one food and most be watched to sec
that they keep eating, for they some
times starve with one kind of food only
before them- Put the mother m a
roomy coop, set a few boards around to
make a yard in which the' young' ones
can -et their luxuries' without running
into danger, and In' about thre .weeks,
when they can eet'orer t-u,ch
board, they may have their liberty in
fine, dry weather. Rural Ktvr Yorker.