Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Sioux County journal. (Harrison, Nebraska) 1888-1899 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1894)
TOPICS OF THE TIMES. A CHOICE SELECTION OF INTER ESTING ITEMS. CvmniHU and CrttU-laina Hu4 t'poa thm Happening of tha lay MUtorirmi and ira Bota. Vaim jople would t, much hap pier if they had the courage to come down to real life. A state-max may sometimes I a politician, hut it doe not necessarily follow that a politician Is always a statesman. Header, to le perfectly honest, did you ever throw a hootiack at a cat, or did you eer know anybody else who did? The knot is a nautical mile, and its length is fixed at fi.Oxo feet. The land mile in England and the United States Is 5,280 feet A lady older thaa the Constitu tion of the United States has just died in New (cleans. She must have had a good constitution herself. Wiikn you feel certain that you have exhausted every effort, you are next door to the object of your am bition. Never (five up while you live Five men in and atout Boston have dined together once a year for fifty consecutive years. This w an extraordinary caso or somnambulism. A rEnnoN has been cir ulated in Cleveland and numerously signed ask ing lor the passage of a city ordinance requiring wider tires on wheeled vehicles. The Clovclanders are wet ting at the secret of road retorui. Caitain William FiTzmmi Con ik)nj, whose death occuned recently In Washinifton. was sentenced lobe shot as a Confederate spy during the war. He was faring the (Irlnif party when his reprieve arrived, carried by a mounted messenger. ' Mil Nkaky of Newark, N. .1., h is received irom the Treasury Depart ment a new " note for one that was eaten by his goat, which he killed to j recover the fragments that accom panied the affidavit Neary is In a $ bdl and outa S2 William. A number of school misses In Phila delphia made a gown for ice Presi dent Stevenson when he was elected last fall, under the impression that when presiding in the United States .Senate he must be robed after the. present fashion of the justices on the Supreme Ifcuch. A iiosTon judge has dccld d that a man's face Is h's own. and that an artist has no right to reproduce the sacred lineaments without their own er's consent. This same judge should go a bit farther and make a ruling holding the sun to be an accessory be fore the fact when the "artist" uses a kodak. Wiikn an undertaker's wife adjusts a noose about her thr at while stand ing on a barrel, puts a revolver to her temple, blows her brains out, kicks the barrel away, breaks her neck, and is discovered hanging by the no ghbors it's a sign she was t ired of life. And a woman lu M ill vale, Pa., did all this. This seems to be cry cold weather for Indian medicine men. Within the pasr week two hive been killed because they did not effect the cures they promised. There are some of the methods of the wild and un tutored Indian that might be adopted by the clvlllcd whites, and their treatment of unsuccessful physicians Is one of them. Connr.Tr, with that frankness of expression habitual with men who live by fighting and by talking about fighting, says that he will bo doing the American public a favor by whip ping Mitchell. This may be true as to a large majority of the people, but In order to entirely satisfy a divided public sentiment, it will be neces sary for both men to be well whipped. LrfriHK Minim, the female an archlst, says this country Is too young to Indulge In bomb throwing. I oulse. you are ud to snuff. This country is altogether too young and vigorous to try the lorn-throwing business to any extent It's Just young enough to string of the fellows who Indulge in that kind of business, and It has given an example of Its ability and vigor la that line. If necessary it can do so again. Tub wife of a missionary to Africa gives Borne amusing details of the mercantile value of certain articles among the natives, needles and cloth ranking highest They are absolutely current coins. Three needles will purchase one chicken, one noodle two eggs. Old tin and empty bottles aro also m-ch In request, old cans taking the place of drinking cups. A fowl can tie had for two yards of cotton or a small piece of cloth. Somkthinu must be done to put a top to the Carnival of Crime in this town, fay the Cblml0 Herald. Ft long as the bandit conllned them selves to holding up railroad treas urers, lostotlce cashiers and other persons of small Importance tha pub lic suffered in (silence. Iiut when the palladium or the aegis or the what eer it is of oar liberties in other words, the laro hanks are looted by dastardly villains it is time to call a halt, also to rail out the militia an I i put the village under martial law attain. Whither are we at, anyhow? TiiE Western Pacific is a (jre.it place for islands that emerge from waves unexpectedly, and as suddenly disappear. Sometimes they come up to stav, but more often the have an existence merely temjKirary. The wonderinif skipper misses a familiar landmark by which he has l;eu ac customed to get his bearings, and perhaps the next da he runs his ves sel's nose upon a brand-now piece of territ ir- that has sprung up out of the water since he last came that way. The region south of Japan is so given to this sort of eccentricity that (ships avjld it. Vocanica lion is responsible for such phenomena. A kkw of the original tribe of Cherokee Indians have never left their Kastei n home. There ar about l.ooo of them, and their number is increasing. They live in a wild, mountainous section of west m North Carolina, and their chief town is known as Yellow Hill. The climate Is very healthy, and oneof the oldest Cherokces known as ' liig Wileh," says he is 1 1' years old. Hunting is not only their amusement but their means of getting a living. Heerand otfier wild animals are still abundant In this ser tion of the Mate. During the w;ir the-e Indians were Con fed -erat s, and raised a regiment which followed the Confederate fortunes till th" surrender at Appomattox. In these naturalization times a certain fact should be known. A late decision was given in a Nebraska case, in which a clerk of the court had taken his liook and o Vcial seal and had traveled through the country dealing out naturalization papers to such aliens as th local politicians Indicated would vote for the party to which he belonged The-e naturali zation certificates were decided to I e fraudulent and Invalid. A man can be made a cit izen only in an open court of record before a Judge at the usual place, of holding court A mere clerk or deputy cannot hold a con structive term of court ata country tavern or under 1 cotton woud tree by the roadside and issue to local crowds lawful natural! ation papers. Ik It prove true that an iceberg eight miles long and I, Aim feet high was lately seen in the North Atlantic, it would Indicate an unusual break ing up of polar lee the past summer, and prove that t he season of lHii.'l ir. the far North was an unusually warm one. It is out of the season for very large icebergs to be seen coming to the southward. They are mostcotn mon in June and July, that being the time when the yearly growth of the Ice glaciers breaks off and floats away. Th s iceberg teems to have been a much larger one than has been re ported in many years. It raises tho query whether ice in the Aictic regions is not decreasing, indicating a falling off of the usual degrees of cold. The first effect of such a pro cess would be to send southward larger quantit'es of An tic Ice to bo thawed. Fi.ovi) Cot xrv, Va., has some en terprising farim rs whose good ex ample might be copied by others. They have organized a "Corn Club," Its object being to test the amount of corn that an acre of Floyd land will produce. The member producing the largest yield from an acie In I ?-. 4 will receive Ho in gold, and at the time of awarding the prl.o the club will give an old l-loyd County Thanksgiving dinner of roast turkey. Such experiments as thesr arc really uselul and amid 1 carried on to ad vantage In counties in this State. There Is no better way than tills to study tho rcsou ccs of one's land, and Incidentally to learn what can be done on a small piece of land. The capabilities by the acre In the same section have never been d scovercd by concerted action among tho fann ers, and it would be worth trying. Small Fry. To a third party it is sometimes surprising how much prldo a large man can take In ( niching a small llsh. i-o it must have seemed to a sarcastic young woman of whom we read In tho Washington Star: Two or t hree young men were ex hibiting with great satisfaction the results of a day's fMiing, whereupon this young woman remarked, very demurely. "l Ish go In schools, do they not?" "1 believe they do; but why do you ask?" "Oh, nothing, only I uas Just thinking that you must have broken op an infant class." Waste of wealth is sometimes trieved. ro- AGRICULTURAL NEWS A FEW SUGGESTIONS FOR OUR RURAL READERS. How to Protect Youni Fruit Tree from luumJ 1'rolila from Poultry When a Huuwi Should He Hnu-rfd Matter About the Farm. Cheap ami Kffertlie Tree tinarda. It Is astonishing how much damage two or three rabbits can do to a young orchard in a single night Four years ago I had an orchard of seventy trees planted, on open tr round. letween my house and that ( f a neighbor. The orchard was well cultivated, and the ground kept en tirely clear of weeds anl trash: and as my neighlior kept two hunting dogs, which made it their business to kill every rabbit that ventured into that locality, I thought it entirely unnecessary to provide any protec tion for the trees. Late in the win ter there came a light lall of snow, accompanied by severe cold wcath r. I looked over the orchard the follow ing morning and not a track of any kind was to be seen, but the se ond morning 1 noticed a few rabbit tracks, and to my great surprise I found that fully one-third of the trees had been gnawed, four of them lieing completely girdled. The tracks showed plainly that the mischief had been done bv rabbits. My neighbor brought h is two dogs, and we hunted 3& Vvs. 1. WOVEN T.llii: H,'AI1D, Flo. 2. I'liOTKCTKI) TlllilS. tho entire locality over, hut could find only t wo rabbits, in the stom achs of which we found tiee bark. We followed their back tracks and found that they had come from a hwamtiv tiact, six m.les distant. I imme lintel v bound up the wounds on the trees withstripsof cloth, and, as soon as tho ground Unwed a little, 1 took four-inch diaiu tile, broke them open length wise, and, rciuiiv ng the cloth in closed eac.i of the trees wilh oneof 1 hi-iii binding them together with small wire. The-.; tiles were then tilled with tine soil, and kept full un til the first or October, when they were opened and the trees examined. In every instance the wounds were inti ely healed, the bark having grown over t em, and the trees were in a healthy, thrifty londition In a roots had started out from few cases, the edges of the healing wounds but the autumn drouth had stopped their growth. 1 uring llic iast three years 1 have tiled quite a number of in jured trees for neighbors and fri wis, and In every Instance they have healed completely. C. Frederick In American Agri ulturlst I'rolHs In roultry. There Is one source of revenue from poultry keeping that Is too often neg- i lected. It may be because it is not j generally known that all kinds of ! feathers are salable. The demand is increasing every year, and most coun- : try merchants will take them and ; sell then on commission. The fowls ! tun th" dry i Icked, and the feathers clean and n good condition 'J he tail and quill feathers should bo pack'.'d separately from those which are tofter. Separate the several , kinds, and uls separate those from j di erent kinds of poultry. The pro- ! ceeds from the feathers should repay the cost of picking and all thejlabor ; of preparing tho fowl for tho market. Poultry keeping when the business is properly conducted and with an eye mainly to egg production, is ex- ' tremely profitable. Experiments in feeding and In computing the value of eggs show that if no estimate Is made for labor one dozen eggs can be produced at a cost of about fi cents for food, or about half a cent an egg. ' If all the food consumed by the fowls went directly to egg production the profit would always be very good; but much depends upon whether the hens j convert this food into eggs, flesh, or j the support of their bodies; but as we have said, when the feeding is i properly conducted, the profit pro- 1 cured Is a satisfactory one. Another j fact which should also lie considered J Is that when eggs are marketed they ' carry from the farm but little of the ! nutritious elements of the soli In ! proportion to their value. Philadel phia Inquirer. llnnNIi the Weed. The Cermantown Telegraph says: "With any of the class of cultivated crops where there Is a real neglect of j proper cultivation, the effect is felt j In tho crop harvested. This fact is I demonstrated by a little observation, and a few moments' consideration of i tho case leads to no other conclusion, j Wherever vegetable growth is going on, there Is being taken from "tho j soil elements of fertility, and if these are diverted to a noxious growth then they aro lost to the main purpose of the farm. To say nothing ot tho un pleasant appearance produced, the effect upon any crop is Very damaging In the diminished crop production. Take the case of corn and potatoes njM and with the eye as a judge, we lie- lleve that a tinulnrt, n en l.nrfi that allows a rank growth of weeds, will reduce tho yield i f both fodder and grain at least one-third. This Is especially the caso where large weeds are allowed to grow among potatoes, ntwl In a nr. a twin t. I he hills: the ei nn will tie light and of small size. No farmer can afford to put his Holds to such use. If he cannot properly at tend to the matter of cultivation himself, or cause it to be doue by others, he had far better confine his effort to a smaller surface and such an one as can le sufficiently and pruiierly attended to. it is to be feared that su t cient attention is not paid to the eradication of weed-. These are the pests of our farms that exert to pow erful an influence in the withdrawal of our fertility. Hold as much as possible for the use of crops. 'J H-w to Nave the Manure. How to save the barnyard manure in the best condition is the problem every farmer ought to solve. If left alone during the winter a large por t on of it, and that the best of it, is washed away by the melting snows and ra n. We like the plans of i'rof. tieor eson, of the Kansas Experiment Station He forms a large basin in the barnyard and piles all the man ure upon t The liquid manure can not escape, but rema ns in the de piession till taken away in the spring. He thus describes the basin: A large basin was scooped up, some five feet deep in the middle and gently slopinif to all sides, so that a heavily loaded wagon can be pulled up without unduly straining the team. The bottom was found to be of a clayey nature, so that seepage could not take place. The whole was done in a satisfactory manner by the use of plow and scoop, with one team and two men, in a couple of day's time. So the expense connected with the improvement was merely nom inal, l believe I an say that the manure has value since we began pil ing it in thl basin. There has been no waste from drainage, and theie has been less actual shrinkage duo to the decomposition than in a heap lying high and dry " Watering a Horse. If, would be bett'.'r for a farm horse if he cou d lie given water at some time between morning an noon and noon and night. There seems to be a variety of opinions touching this point. It is almost a universal habit to give farm horses water but three times a day morning, noon and night There seems to bo no better reason for this than that it is conve nient to do so, and i hat it would be inconvenient to do otherwise as a rule. All agiee that the horse ought to have what water he needs rather than what he wants. If left to go thirsty a half day afte - eating heating fo.id at hard vork t here is no limit to the amount of water lie wants, excepts what he will hold, when he reaches the trough. To flil up on cold water when the animal is in a heated cod dit on Is one of the most damaging things that can be done a horse, and y t because it happens to be con venient to let him do tills, the prac tice has come into vogue. Most farm ers could find a way to remedy the matter if they would, and it would be humane for them to do so, and prof itable, likewise. J , A Corn Mover. i I Prof Roberts says The corn gets a large amount of its plant food Irom the sun. This is free carbon a free gift of the gods, and jiever exhausts the soil. Carbonaceous matter never exhausts the soil. Carbon is not manure. The plant gets it from the sunlight Therefore the com, being largely car bonaceous, takes comparatively little out of the soil. Now, the clo er plant actually produces nitrogen. The soil that has 5, (nil) pounds of ni trogen in it this year, if it grows a crop of clover next year and we take oft two tons of clover hay, actually has more nitrog, n in it than it did the year before. The (Jualliy of 1'ork. American pork has been pronounced healthful and is admitted to all the markets of Europe. Hut the Eu ropean appetite Is fastidious. Fork that is made from corn lias not so good a llavorasthat made from peas and bariey. The pea makes pork hav ing a larger proportion of lean meat We can make as good pork as any country, but to satisfy European markets we must supply bacon that has lean as well as fat In its compo sition. Pork made from whole wheat, or wheat, and oats ground together, ought to satisfy this demand, Aerlcillturill Atom. GitouNDlfone makes a lasting and .satisfactory fertilizer. Tim most nutritive part of the wh at goes with tho bran. I)o not let any weeds go to seed around your hous and barn. An even temperature of ro degrees Is a good one for the winter hen house. 1) ) not le in too big a hurry to store the corn. Let it be well cured belore cribbing. liKiTF.it do a littlo and do It well rather than undertake to do too mu h and fall to do anything well. Wiikn trimming shrubs and bushes cut out tho wood; leave the new for next season's bloom and lrultage. Ne.er permit a piece of land to lie id!o because It is rough. Stock it with sheep and they will at least pay the interest and taxes. Kkkp the work teams In good con dition. There is no advantage in letting them run down now and be ing obliged to feed up later on. A nox of coal ashes In the hen yard irlve the hens loU of employment r,i I.. I ....It nnw.n, It. artrl """,. ..T?.h-rtt I""" """" " . " Hut never give them wood ashes. Tun North Amorlcan Ileo Keepers' Association recommends that apla rlan societies of tho various states memorialize their respective leglsla tures to enact laws that shall forbid the spraying of fruit trcos , time of blossoming. during A POWERFUL TONGUE, Mow a lmrt'.looi twrvaut Chat. gee! four?- of an Artist'a I.ir-. There lived in the service of Paolo Minucci a i-ok whom the famous i painter, Sa vator Hosa, struck bv the I man's humor, called his '-grinning ' ohilosopher." and with whom the famous artist sometime.samu.sed him- , sei f. One day as he sat carelessly on the ?dge of a marble table chatting with h s conk, the conversation took a turn which ena! led the man to utter i an attack upon the notorious extrav agance of the painter. Salvator liosa, after endeavoring to parry the blow by a defence of his contempt of wealth on philosophical grounds, laughingly concluded his argument by saying: ' One thing is ce tain; in the hour I have wasted wilh you I might have , earned a hundred seudi. The cook, with an exclamation of amazement, said boidly: , Now what does all this talk about philosophy an I independence, and the like, come t ? Suppose your philos ophers dp lost your voice by a cold, your hand by au accident, or your 1 leg i y a tali, what then becomes or i th s same philo ophy? 'What then would be our famous 1 Signor i.osa? Signor Rosa, the mar velous painter, the improvisato e,the poet and actor ! No, marry, it would then be Signor liosa the cripple, Signor liosa the pauper, Signor liosa : tiie mendicant ! I see him now at j the nor, h of one o our churches, with 1 his staff and his pi x--box, saluting the good devotees as they pass, with: i ' KJarlta. signor, Christian! miei!' j "Philosophy in soothl I never yet could see the beauty of that philos- j ophy which leads to the st iff and the ( poor-box!" The cook went about his work, but , when Minucci returned to trs home J lie found ilosa seated on the marble table, absorbed in thought He an nounced to his friend an immediate reform in pecuniary habits, and laid out a plan for himself by which he appeared as a prospective miser. When Minucci mildly remonstrated with him on the danger of extreme? in all things, Salvator sprung from the table, crying: "What! do you want to reduce, me to beggary? And to behold me standing at a church porch with a staff and a box. and 'Carita, signori, Christiani miei.' " Minucci was amazed by this out bu st, and at first thought the artist had gone mad. but on in Uiry lie dis covered that his buffoon of a cook h id done more by his word picture than all the learned men and sage friends of Salvator had been able to effect by reiterated counsels of eco nomical reform. House Plants in Winter. In t ie ordinary dwelling th :re is generally too high a temperature, too much dust and a deficiency in light air and moisture. Some per sons poem to have a knack of making all kinds of plants grow under the most unfavorable circumstances. A cutting, when put in by their hanis. will aiwavs take root; the plant as sumes the des'red form; it is always free from insects and mildew, sets its 1 uds early and blossoms most abund antly. Is this owing to a magnetic attraction existing between such per sons and their plants? Kooms lu which plants are grown should be aired thoroughly on all sunny days and moderately on all other days. In very cold or windy weather care should be 'taken that cold air does notcome in contact with the plant To avo:d this lower the sashes a ely little from the top and admit fresh air from one ; djoining, ct the temperature be considerably lower at night than during the day; the same difference as there is be tween day and night duiing summer, out of doors All plants should be carefully ex amined daily to guard against insect pests; destroy at om e any that may appear, and pick off all dead or riy n' leaves. Water sparingly this month, excepting such plants as are making rapid growth. Syringe daily when the weather is mild and the day clear until the plants are well established. Syringing will furnish all the water that is re uired. Watering is one of the most important parts of plant culture: more plants are injured, if not ruined, by over and untimely watering than from any other cause. I io not applv water until the plant asks for it, which it will do by a graceful drooning of the foliage when the sun shines fully upon it: then water amply, as though it rained hard, and do not water again until needed. Tho common practice of watering regularly, morning and evening, without regard to necessity, is a frequent cause of plant disease, i-omodaysa plant will require far more water than on others, as eva poration is more or less rapid; ob serve this and act accordingly. One of the chief causes ot fiilure in growing house plants is tho over heated rooms in which they are placed We often see plants in broken pitchers and old fruit cans, growing in the small and narrow window of a poor man's humble cot tage, far more luxuriant and healthy than those in the overheated houses of i.ho rich, because du lug most of tho winter plants in their natural state make but littlo growth, the most care needed being protection from frost. The cool rooms of the poor, ill ventilated though they may be, furnished more fresh air than can survive the furnace heat and tho un consumed gases of a house "with all tho modern Improvements. " Ameri can (iardeuing. Only a Hhoo. Hero worship sometimes runs to ridiculous extremes. A distinguished landscape painter once left his carpet slippers behind him in tho bumble village lodging when for three months he had lived and worked. Flii j careful w fe at once sent for ber hua the hand's slippers; his landlady sent one ' slipper, begging, at the same time, to keep the other as a memento. Iluek Antics. Many kinds of birds indulge in curi ous, aerial performances during the m , ting and breeding season. Same of the be-t-known instances are those of the night-hawk, the woodcock, and the snipe. Mr E. W. Nelson, in bis ' Pirds of Alaska," says that the pin ta.l duck has some very peculiar habits of this kind. He once saw a pair rise into the air and start off, the male in full chase after the female at a marvelous rate of speed. Pack and forth they went, with rrequent qu ck turns, now al most out of sight overhead, now skimming along the ground in an in voked course ery uidicult for the eye to follow. Soon a second male join d in the chase, then a third, and so on, till six males were vying with each oiher in the pursuit The original pursuer seemed to be the only one capable of keeping close to the coy female, and even he, from her dexterous turns and curves, was able to draw near only at intervals. Then he always passed under her, and kept so close to her that the two pairs of wii gs clattered together with a noise like a watchman's rattle, and audible a long distance. The chase lasted for half an hour. One by one the males dropp-'d oil, ti.i finally but one or them the original one, Mr. Nelson believes was left. ' Then the paT settled into one ol' the ponds. At other times Mr. Nelson saw a female, when pursued in this way by several males, plunge under water at full speed, and suddenly take wing again a tew ards beyond, the males all the while after her. The pintail has also a habit during the mating season, of descending from a great altil ur'e at an angle of about fortv-tlve degrees, with the wings stiffly outspread and slightly curved downward. The bird is fre quently so high that the noise ro duced by its passage through tin f r is heard for Of teen or twenty seconds before the bird comes into sight. He descends witn meteor-like swift ness till he is within a few vards of the ground, when a slight change in the position of the wings sends him gliding away close to the tround fr,m one hundred to three hundred yards without a wing-stroke. The sound produced by this swift pas-age ttirougli the a r can onlybJ compared to the rushing of a gale through the tree-tops. At first it is like a murmur; then it rises to a hiss; and as the bird sweeps by, it is aim .st a roar. "Youth's Companion Wit ne8.siiij I'ix ;oution . The change that has camjuwi, men's minds with, regard to tha ad vantages to be derived from witness-; ing the execution of criminals is worth noting. At tho beginning ol our century it was the opinion of al most every one that these sights were very beneficial, because they tended to warn tho e with criminal longings what might Le their own fate. I remember, when the bill was before Parliament for causing executions to Like place in private, hearing more than 'one per son say that if these great public warnings were withdrawn mu ders would become more frequent Subse quently experience ha not fulfilled the prophecy. So llrmly was It Impressed on the popular mind that gazdng on the death agony of felons was a whole some experience for the young that I know of instances where poor un happy boys have been compelled to be spectators of the tragedy. Tue late Mr. William .-owerby, Sr., of Mcss.ngham Hall, a gentleman who died at a mature age some quar ter of a century ago, told me that when he was at school at Lincoln, as tho, execution days came round, a whole holiday was given, so as to af ford tho boys the means of iniprov in their morals bv ga dng on the hanging. I have often mentioned this note of barbarism in conversa tion, and have somet mes thought that those who had heard me were under the impression that I was ro mancing or had b en misinformed. To-day 1 ha e met with a conllrma tion of the statement. Mr. Pest in j his als, Personal and Literary Memorl 1S2H, page uti.'l, says that when ho was at the Lincoln iiammar School the master "dismissed the boys half an hour before noon, that they might arri e in time at the place of execution, when there wa a man to be hanged." Some persons ha e a strange hank ering after sights of this Kind. We need not refer to past times. I met a gentleman in society some seven or eight years ago who had been present at thirty-six executions. He was the only man I ever met who seriously objected to the death penalty being carried out in private. Notes and Queries. Eor the Fair Face of Her. There are few women who have not had at some time or another use for a face powder, even though as a rule they eschew anything on that order. A violet powder which ca i be comp unded is composed of wheat starch, three pounds; powdered orris, half pound. Mix together and add attar of lemon, one-eighth of an ounce; attar of bergamotand cloves, each one-half dram. For those trou blesome blackheads that so often dis figure tho face that is blessed with the most classical features the follow ing compound works wonders: Take kaolin, four drams; glycerine, three drams; acetic acid, two drama, and oil of lemon, five drops. Apply this every night and after a few days th black specks can be easily pressed out, or most of them will even coma out by washing with pumice stone soap.