GIANT TASK IN RAILROAD BUILDING
Two Carloads of Powder in a Single Blast—$250.
000 Paid for One Mile of Track—2,629 Men
Employed on a Piece of Track Being
Built for the abash System.
\i 0mm n-i—wn
Cumberland. Md„ May 2.—"Look
out! Look out! It’s going off!” was
the wild cry heard a few days ago in
Paw Paw. a small mountain encircled
West Virginia town, on the new line
of the Wabash, twenty miles east of
Cumberland, when the ringing of
bells and blowing of whistles gave
the warning that In a few minutes
the button would he pressed that
would explode 8,COO pounds of giant
powder in the rocky mountain side
directly opposite and close to the
town.
For three days the people of Paw
Paw had watched men carrying can
after can of powder into the tunnels
dug into the face of rocks. As the
number of cans disappearing in the
mourtain side increased the alarm of
the people grew, and some in terror
left the town, while those remaining
filled their ears with cotton and wait
ed for—they knew not what.
At last, when 325 cans of powder,
8.125 pounds, had been emptied in
the arms extending right and left
from the inrer ends of the two 45-foot
tunnels, wires laid and the tunnel
closed, the electric button was press
ed. There was a deep, rumbling re
port, the whole earth seemed to rock
as though shaken by an earthquake
and tons of rock plunged forward and
toppled over into the canal and river.
uarioaas or Powder in One Blast.
Not a stone had been thrown a hun
dred feet toward the frenzied town,
but 20,000 yards of rock had been
torn from the mountain side and many
precious days saved the contractors
who are building the “link" connect
ing the Western Maryland railroad at
Cherry Run with the West Virginia
Central railroad at Cumberland, and
thus bringing nearer realization
Georce Gould’s dream of making the
Wabash railroad an ocean to ocean
line.
It was only the proximity of this
blast to a town that made it particu
larly prominent on this railroad con
struction that is requiring a blast
for almost every foot of the roadbed,
In fact it was a small one in compari
son to some that have been fired. In
one blast, in Sidling Hill mountain,
the charge consisted of 1,400 cans
of powder, just two carloads, and
when it was put off rocks weighing
half a ton were hurled through the
air hundreds of yards, across the Po
tomac river and striking telegraph
poles along the Baltimore & Ohio rail
road broke them off close to the
ground.
It is this necessity for almost con
tinuous blasting that has done much
toward making this sixtv-five mile
strip of railroad construction the
most expensive of any built in recent
years, with the single exception of
the line over which the Wabash en
ters Pittsburg. The cost of building
the first five miles from Cumberland
averaged $250,000 a mile and the
average cost for the sixty-five miles
fs $100,000 a mile. In budding this
connecting link, the Wabash has had
to contend with an unusually larsre
number of obstacles of a surprising
variety, some placed in the way by
rature, others by man.
Tunneling Through Solid Rock.
Until the advent of the Wabash it
was supposed there was no feasible
route through the narrow gaps in the
mountains between Cumberland and
Hancock, forty miles, save those fol
lowed by the Chesapeake and Ohio
canal and the Paltimore & Ohio rail
road. It was this belief that has kept
life in the old waterway, life sus
tained by the Baltimore & Ohio Rail
road company to bar out any possible
rival. Some years ago the Hon. Henry
G. Davis, then owner of the West
Virginia Central railroad, had a route
surveyed through the country follow
ed by the Wabash, but it was given
tip as impracticable. As a result. It is
not surprising that the construction
of this road is proving one of the
greatest undertakings of years, re
quirirg application of almost every
method known in railroad building
and the ingenuity of contractors, who
have built railroads in almost every
state in the union, has been taxed to
the utmost.
Upon forty miles of this line there
ere engaged to-day 2.C29 men. 300
animals, rine locomotives and nine
steam shovels. For eighteen months
there has been no cessation of labor
and it is hoped that in eight more the
work will be completed.
Obstacles to Be Met.
An idea of the difficulties encoun
tered can be formed from the fact
that this line in forty miles crosses
the Potomac river nine times, the
Chesapeake & Ohio canal seven
times, the Baltimore & Ohio railroad
three times, passes through moun
tain ranges and spurs by five tunnels,
varying in length from 790 feet to
4,400 feet, through ridges and hills
by innumerable cuts, many of them
over fifty feet deep through solid rock
and some almost a mile in length, and
that a great portion of the road is
being cut out of the rocky sides of
mountain ranges, directly above the
canal. One of the most unusual dif
ficulties in railroad construction, and
yet the most troublesome on this line
has been a disposition of the earth
and rock removed in making the road
bed, a difficulty arising from the fact
that the Wabash follows closely the
canal route. While waiting for legal
right to bridge the old waterway it
was necessary to push the construc
tion work and to do this the contrac
tors employed some striking methods.
At Welton tunnel, a mile south of
Cumberland, a large wheel was placed
on top of the mountain above the
tunnel entrance, cables were run
from this across the river and canal to
the low land, where filling was neces
sary, and the rock from the tunnel
was carried over in a large iron buck
et suspended from the cables. The
laborers’ camp was located on top of
the mountain and the men construct
ed a 150-foot ladder leading up the
precipitous face of rocks from the
mouth of the tunnel, and this ladder
they ascended and descended many
times a day.
In the construction of the Indigo
tunnel, a method never before employ
ed in the East, and rarely elsewhere,
is being employed. This is the great
est tunnel on the line, being 4.400
feet in length. It passes through a
Sidling Hill mountain range and
makes the Wabash a straighter line
and almost a mile in three shorter
than the Baltimore & Ohio. It is being
made by drilling the heading (the full
width of the tunnel, twenty-four feet,
and nine feet high) through from the
bottom or at a grade level, and the
rock will be blown down until the
required height is reached. Old con
tractors, accustomed to driving the
beading through from the top, shake
their heads and pronounce this meth
od a “costly experiment,” but Mc
Arthur Bros, say the strata. Indigo
shale, is just right at this tunnel for
this method and are confident it will
be a success. The heading is being
driven from both ends at the same
time and the men are within 100 feet
of each other, nine feet a day being
the progress made from each end.
The men working from the eastern
end have penetrated only eleven
inches further than those coming
from the western side.
The “Stick Pile" Tunnel.
In order to cut a roadbed through
the masses of rock that rise straight
up from the bed of the canal it was
necessary to wait until navigation
closed for the year. In the meantime
the holes for the blasts were all pre
pared and when the water was with
drawn. about a month later than ever
before, thousands of pounds of pow
der and dynamite were exploded in
these holes and the canal bed was
fiiled with earth and rock for many
miles which must be removed within
the next two months.
The only place where the Wabash
leaves the canal and river for any
considerable distance Is at Bayard,
thirty-five miles east of Cumberland.
After crossing the Baltimore & Ohio
railroad, the river and caral, at a diz
j zy height on a 1.370-foot bridge, five
j 150-foot channel spans with viaduct
approach, it strikes boldly into the
mountains. After running through
tremendous cuts, over deep ravines
and through the Stick Pile tunnel
1.600 feet in length, it emerges from
its five-mile run through the heart of
the mountain at Orleans, W. Va. This
is considered one of the heaviest
pieces of work on the line, but here
as at many other places, a compara
tively straight line is secured with
moderate grades and with a saving
of almost a mile over the Baltimore
& Ohio route.
The first work was done on this
connecting link on July 21, 1903, and
the contract called for its completion
in eighteen months. The d^lav and
extra work occasioned by trouble
with the canal rendered its comple
tion within contract time an Impossi
bility. Now. October 1. is the date
set for the opening of the road, but it
is claimed January 1, 1906, would be
a nearer date.
From Cherry Run to Hancock, ten
j miles, the road is completed and trains
are running on it. For ten miles east
of Cumberland the roadbed is ready
for the rails and the three bridges
are in course of erection. At numer
ous other places there are four and
j five niile stretches completed, but
i there remains a great amount of
difficult work to be done. It is only
the fact that work is being rushed
day and night, regardless of weather
conditions and without regard to ex
pense, that makes safe the prediction
that not later than January 1, 1906,
the Wabash will have this line open
for traffic.
Parent Stock of Europe's Kings.
It is quite true, although it is little
known, that nearly every sovereign
in Europe i;i not only kinsman to
King Edward, but is descended from
our English Kings. In fact, eleven of
them are direct descendants of James
I. The kings of Spain and Portugal
spring lineally from King Janies
thiough his son. the first Charles;
while the sovereigns of England. Ger
many, Russia, Austria, Italy, Denmark,
Belgium, Greece and Holland all come
from James I.’s daughter Elizabeth,
who married Frederick V., Elector
Palatine. .A future King of Sweden
and Norway will soon join the throng
through his wife, Princess Margaret
of Connaught, and some day the only
European ruler who will not.be in a
sense British will be the Sultan of
Turkey.—English Exchange.
Admires Washerwomen’s Tribute.
Among the things most admired by
Que<va Alexandra on her recent visit
to Gibraltar were two wonderful tri
umphal arches of clothes baskets
erected by the washerwomen of the
town.
Industrious American Consuls.
They are always investigating, in
quiring and wanting to know. They
are not content merely to send to the
department perfunctory reports of of
ficial returns of imports and exports or
i mere tables of figures (although these
i as matters of routine are not ignored).
but they delve into obscure places,
j they oompare and contrast, they of
i fer their advice and suggestions free-'
I ly and the department allows T^iem
, full scope. How much the consul's re
j Porf is "edited” before it is made pub
lic, or how often it never is given pub
licity, no one, of course, outside the
department has any means of knowing,
but the daily bulletin issued contain
ing these reports, which is given wide
and gratuitous distribution, shows
that the American consular corps is
industrious and intelligent.—London
Post.
Canal Lessens Distance.
By Cape Horn the distance between
I New York and San Francisco is about
14 800 miles. The Panama canui will
reduce this to something less than
6.000.
\
'
The daring, reckless flirting with
death for the purpose of amusing the
public, which hat gone to such ex
treme lengths u iring the past three
or four years, will this coming season
reach a limit almost inconceivable to
the average mind.
The “thrillers” which will thrill the
public during the summer have been
perfected by those “human freaks”
during the past winter, and some of
them have already been “put on” in
New York. They are real “thrillers.”
In the past few years ingenious,
wild, incredible schemes have pressed
on without a break, so that there has
hardly been a year when the freak of
one season was good enough to be the
freak of the next.
The circus people themselves won
der where the nerve of the freaks is
going to stop. They really thought, or
rather, feared, that it had reached the
limit when Fitzgerald, the one-legged
man, rode down an almost vertical
the building is a painted canvas moon.
Opposite it is the up-tilted end of one
of these loop-the-loop contrivances.
The woman flies along on her wheel,
darts off the very end of the dizzy
road and goes spinning clean across
the arena, high over head, till she
strikes the moon, which opens and
takes in her and her wheel.
Scarcely had the people of Europe
had time to gasp at this before a Pa
rasian woman came out with some
thing that was indeed worthy of being
called “the biggest thing yet.”
So big was it that the American cir
cus promptly went “down into its
clothes” for $5,000 a week for her and
brought her over as its star attraction
for the season of 1905.
This new thrilling freak is a pretty
woman. Mauricia de Tiers is her
name.
She seats herself in an automobile
high in the air on the top of a skele
ton structure as tall as a five-story
course. At the same instant the
other rider shoots into space from the
tippedup end of his runway, and the
two whiz by each other in mid-air.
Bang Bang! They hit the upward
pointing end of the second loop at the
same moment. But they do not anni
hilate each other as one expects those
hurtling bodies to do; one strikes the
loop underneath and the other above.
The one who has been upside down
whirls around below, and even as his
wheel rights, he is hurled off again,
once more reversing his course, to
leap through the air a second time
and bounce with a shock onto a plat
form whence he rides off onto the
ground. The other in the meantime
has reached the end of his runway
and is also shot off and upward to a
platform at the opposite side.
What next? The circus people can’t
imagine. But the chances are that
somewhere somebody is trying to beat
these two feats already with some
the DOUBLE
^J.OOpTHEOAe.'*
flight of stairs from the top of Mad
ison Square Garden to the arena on a
bicycle. But if they wondered what
could be found to follow that thriller,
they had their pains for nothing. Be
fore the season was ended, a dozen
plans were on foot to beat the act.
Fitzgerald himself beat it by going
down the same terrible declivity in
the next season on an automobile.
His bicycle had been improved on by
two men who flew the staircase on a
single wheel, one standing on the
other’s shoulders and firing off a pis
tol as they sped.
Along came another man who rode
in an enormous cage made of slats set
widely apart. Gradually, as his veloc
ity increased, his wheel climbed the
side of the apparatus till he rode at
right angles to the slats. Before long,
three men were riding around in the
cage. Then others found that the act
would look more thrilling if the cage
were lifted high in the air and had no
bottom to it. so that any accident
would certainly hurl the performers
outward and downward like a cannon
ball.
Then came the loop-the-loop freak,
building. Pefore her the runway
points almost straight down till it
reaches a point about midway from
the ground. There it turns inward—
underneath itself, like a vast hook.
It looks as if. once started fr«<i its
giddy resting place, the heavy automo
bile must surely flash down the in
cline and drop wildly off into space
the moment it reaches the dip where
the roadway disappears.
The machine, with the little whit
clad figure in it. rips downward with a
roar. It dips down like lightning, still
clinging to the roadway, but upside
down, shoots off into the air with its
occupant head down, and the next mo
ment strikes the up-tilted segment of
a wooden roadway more than thirty
feet away, with a crash. Still upside
down it dftrts down the under side of
this, till, completing the circle, the
thing is right side up again and goes
careering along the incline to the
ground.
Auto bolide, they call it. The ride
lasts four seconds. It is to be done
twice a day in this country. That
makes eight seconds a day or forty
eight a week, which makes her salary
“The Death Dip” in an automobile as performed by Mile. De Tiers.
and the public said that this surely
was the limit. So thought the circus
people themselves. They figured that
there might be some modification of
the thing, but that the limit of daring
mortal injury and death for wages had
probably been reached at last.
Yet within two years the loop-the
loop ride was lost before the loop-the
gap ride, and in the same arena an
other rider was thundering nightly
down an incline so sheer that no man
could climb it, dishing up another and
leaping from the end of it over more
than twenty-five feet of space to the
up-tilted end of still another.
These things looked pretty hard to
beat, and they were. But they have
been beaten again.
In Europe to-day a woman is mak
ing what the program calls “A Flight
to the Moon." High up in the top of
$5,000 for less than a minutes work
a week.
But how many persons would take
the ride one single time for the whole
week’s salary or for the whole sea
son’s earnings?
The bicycle Loop-the Gap has been
out-freaked and out-thrilled, too. The
circus crowds of the season will see
two inclines facing each other and
each ending in the familiar loop with
the break or gap in it. The gap has
been vastly extended so that there are
more than 30 feet of open space now
for the riders to leap.
A rider starts at each summit. The
two wheels dash down, apparently
bound helplessly toward each other.
One. arriving at the end of his loop,
which inclines backward over itself,
is hurled violently upside down and
i catapults in a direction reverse to his
f thing even more wildly spectacular
and deadly.
WHY RACES WERE DELAYED.
—
Incident Showed Folly of Present
Automobile Driving.
A. F. MacDonald, who recently made
at Ormond, with a 90 H. P. car, five
I miles in a little over three minutes, is
j a prudent, no less than a skilled chauf
; fer.
MacDonald has no patience with
reckless .motoring. He believes that,
with ordinary care and caution, acci
dents might be altogether eliminated.
He said the other day:
“It is a shame that horrible fatali
ties so often occur in automobiling.
It is a shame that, at motor races, it
is possible to hear what I heard not
long since.
“An important race was to be run,
but at the hour of starting there was
some delay. The people became im
patient over this delay. A man in a
brown ponyskin coat accosted one of
the officials, and I heard him say:
“ ‘The race was scheduled for 2. and
here it is almost 3. What is the
trouble? Why all this waiting?’
“The official answered politely:
“ ‘The ambulance surgeons, sir, have
not yet arrived.’ ”
." ~ r
Great Pagoda at Rangoon.
Rangoon, the principal city of Bur
ma, grew up around the sacred spot
on which is built the great Shoay Da
gon pagoda, one of its principal won
ders. “Rising to a height of 360 feet,
its size is greatly enhanced by the fact
that it stands on an eminence that is
itself 166 feet above the level of the
city.” says a writer. “It is covered
with pure gold from base to summit;
and once in every generation this gold
is completely renewed by public sub
scription. Yet throughout the inter
val the process of regilding goes on
perpetually. Pious people w'ho seek
in this way to express their venera
tion and to add to their store of spir
itual merit climb up daily with little
fluttering packets of gold leaf, which
they fasten on some friction of its
great surface. There is no more pic
turesque sight offered by it than that
of a group of these silken worshipers
outlined against its gold, in the act of
contributing their small quota to its
splendor. The pagoda itself has no in
terior. It is a solid stupa of brick
raised over a relic chamber.”
—
Suit Rolls.
Suit rolls, which are something like
j enlarged music rolls, come as a new
wrinkle to athletes, especially base
ball, lawn tennis and golfing men, this
season. Really they are intended to
keep out wrinkles in the clothing. Be
j sides a place for a pair of shoes, an.
outing suit and shirt may be laid flat
hi the roll and the strapped into a
neat bundle. They come of canvas or
leather, with handles like those on a
shawl strap.
Remarkable Menagerie.
Paula Edwardes recently received
the following letter, which is evidently
the work of some polite lunatic:
•‘Dear Miss Edwardes: Knowing
you to be interested in anything novel
in theatrical entertainment. I should
like to make an appointment to show
you my collection «f trained geuns
They have the well known flea circus
stunned to death. The star of the com
pany is a typhoid fever bacillus,
named Mike, who can stand on all sev
en of his hands and whistle ‘Home,
Sweet Home’ through his teeth. I
have also two young measles microbes
wto do a sister act and a family of
diphtheria bacilli, the youngest of
which can tuck his limbs under his
neck and sit on both ears at once.
The performance can be given on a
stage two inches square. Kindly let
me know when and where you will
see me.”—Minneapolis Times.
Telephoning to a Phonograph.
The disadvantages inevitable In
telephoning have been partially over
come by an Intstrument of foreign
make—though the general service
i ability of the device has not been
demonstrated by usage in this coun
try, according to the World’s Work. It
may be described as an ordinary tele
phone with a phonographic attach
ment. While Mr. Jones is in his office
the attachment is not in use, but on
going out he connects it with the tele
phone. When someone calls for Mr.
Jones over the telephone, the phono
graphic attachment responds some
thing after this fashion: “Mr. Jones
is not in. This is a phonographic re
ceiver speaking. Kindly give me your
message and I will give it to him on
his return.” On coming in air. Jones ,
sees from a signal that a message is
waiting him. He takes the receiver
and the phonograph delivers the mes
sages (perhaps there are many) that
have been confided to it.
University Faculty Colony.
A Stanford university faculty col
ony is to be started at Carmel-by-the
Sea, southern California. Among those
who build summer homes there are
President Jordan. Professor* Gilbert,
, Stillman, Fish, Pierce, Merito. Elmore
, Cannon and Mrs. W. A. KimbcJJ.
Shakespearean Subterfuge.
Mrs. Maybrick, who has returned to
America after fifteen years of impris
onment in England, tells an amusing
anecdote of her life there. In the Eng
lish prison the convicts are not al
lowed to use profane language, and
the restriction becomes extremely
irksome for many of them. One of the
keepers, says Mrs. Maybrick, was once
passing a cell when he overheard the
convict w'ithin talking loudly to him
self. The keeper stopped to listen.
“Out, damn spot!” he heard, repeat
ed over and over with intense empha
sis.
“Here, you!'' ,alled the keeper. “No
swearing—stoj that!”
The man drew himself up and re
plied, with dignity, “Do you mean to
tell me,” he inquired, “that one cant,
even quote Shakespeare in this place?”
—Harper’s Weekly.
Children Keep City Clean.
The children of San Rafael, Cal.,
have been formed into a junior section
of the local improvement club. Their
duty will be to preserve the street
trees and to keep paper off the streets.
There are many popular but un
founded prejudices against the dietic
use ot fruits. It is generally sup
posed, for example, that fruits are
zonducive to bowel disorders, and
lhat they are especially prone to pro
duce indigestion if taken at the last
meal. The truth is the very opposite
af these notions. An exclusive diet
af fruit is one of the best-known rem
edies for chronic bowel disorders.
During the late war, large numbers
af the soldiers suffering from chronic
dysentery were in several instances
rapidly cured when abundantly sup
plied with ripe peaches. Fruit juice i
may be advantageously used in both
acute and chronic bowel disorders.
Care must be taken, however, to
avoid fruit juices which contain a
large amount of cane sugar. Juices
at sweet fruits should be employed,
or a mixture of sour and sweet fruit
juices, or acid fruit juice may be
sw’eetened with malt honey or mel
tose, a natural sweet produced from
cereals. Raisins, Mgs, prunes, sweet
apples and pears may be mixed with
sour fruits.
Indigestion sometimes results from
the use of fruits in combination with
a variety of other food substances;
but fruits taken alone constitute the
best possible menu for the last meal
of the day. The combination of fruit,
sugar, cream, bread, butter, cake and
pie may well produce bad dreams and
a bad taste in the mouth in the morn
ing. The use of fresh or stewed fruit
alone without any addition whatever
will produce no disturbance, and will
leave no unpleasant effects behind to
be regretted in the morning. Very
acid fruits sometimes disagree with
persons wrho have an excess of acid
and those who are suffering from
chronic inflammation of the stomach;
but with these exceptions, there is al
most no case in which fruit may not
be advantageously used.
The notion that acid fruits must be
avoided by rheumatics is another er
ror which is based on inaccurate ob
servations. The fact is, rheumatics
are greatly benefited by the use cf
fruit. At the same time they should
abstain from the use of flesh foods of
all sorts, beef tea and animal broths,
and all meat preparations, also tea
and coffee, as well as alcohol and to
bacco. It is, of course, possible for
one to take an excess of acids, as one
may take an excess of starch or any
other food substances. Vegetable
acids differ from mineral acids in the
fact that they do not accumulate in
the body, but are assimilated or util
ized in the same way as sugar and al
lied substances.
Very Dissipated.
There are a good many persons
who might be said to be dissipated
and “all broke up” according to the
Japanese use of the word, illustrated
in the following anecdote:
“T^iey are telling in Boston of two
or three Japanese students of rank
who have been in the habit of dining
each Sunday at the residence of one
of the prominent citizens of the Hub. |
On a recent Sunday one was absent,
and when the host asked why, one of
the guests said solemnly: *Oh. he
cannot come. He very, very dissi
pated!’ The host thought it best not
to make any further inquiry at the
time, but after the meal he ventured
to ask the same young man in pri
vate. ‘You say Mr. Nim Shi is not
well?’
“ ‘No, he not very well—he very dis
sipated.’
“ ‘He hasn’t been drinking?’
“ 'Oh, no, no! he no drunk.’
“ ‘Not gambling?’
“ ‘No, no gamble.’
“ ‘May I ask what he has been do
ing, then?’
“ ‘Oh, he very dissipated. He eat
sponge cake allee time—he all broke
up now.’ ”
Frances Willard and Fashionable
Dress.
Said Frances Willard in one of her
last addresses, speaking of the ad
vancement and present status of
women:
“But be it remembered that until
woman comes to her kingdom physi
cally she will never really come at all.
Created to be well and strong and
beautiful, she long ago ‘sacrificed her
constitution, and has ever since been
living on her by-laws.’ She has made
of herself an hourglass, whose sands
of life passed quickly by. She has
walked when she should have run.
sat when she should have walked, re
clined when she should have sat.
She has allowed herself to become a
mere lay figure upon which could be
fastened any hump or hoop or far
thingale that fashion-mongers show;
and ofttimes her head is a mere ro
tary ball upon which milliners may
rerch whatever they please—be it a
bird of paradise, or bea«t or creeping
thing. She has bedraggled her sense
less long skirts in whatever combina
tion of filth the street presented, sub
mitting to a motion the most awk
ward and degrading known to the en
tire animal kingdom, for Nature has
endowed all others that carry trains
and trails with the power of lifting
them without turning in their tracks,
but a fashionable woman pays lowli
est obeisance to what follows in her f
own wake; and, as she does so, cuts
the most grotesque figure outside a
jumping jack. She is a creature born
to the beauty and freedom of Diana,
but she is swathed by her skirts,
splintered by her stays, bandaged by
her tight waist, and pinioned by her
sleeves until—alas, that I should live
to say it!—a trussed turkey or a spit
ted goose are her most appropriate
emblems.”
A Substitute for Leather.
An English inventor has devised a
perfect substitute for leather which
can be used for boots, shoes and for
every other purpose for which leather
is employed. The newr tissue is called
wolft. It is being extensively used
in England, having been adopted by
the London Shoe Company especially
for walking shoes on account of its
coolness and its lightness. Wolft is
more durable than leather and is
much more waterproof, while at the
same time more porous, which makes
it a nonconductor, and to a large de
gree obviates the necessity for wear
ing rubbers which are needed by one
whose feet are clad with leather only
when the slush and mud is so deep
that the feet are half buried at every
step.
Fcod Value of Eggs.
Eggs are a very nourishing food
and represent two important ele
ments. fats and proteids, in an easily
assimilated form. A single egg
weighs about one and one-half
ounces, of which one ounce is white,
or pure albumin, and one-half ounce
yolk. The nutritive value of the yolk
is greater than that of the white,
though its bulk and weight are small
er. Its solid constituents are about
one half of its fat. Fresh eggs, prop
erly prepared, are readily digestible.
The best mode of preparation is
whipped raw, or cooked for twenty
cr thirty minutes at a temperature of
about 160’ (curdled!. The yolks are
more easily digested when boiled
hard, and the whites are also easily
digested when hard boiled, providing
care is used to reduce the coagulated
white to minute particles which may
readily be dissolved by the gastric
juice.
A single egg is equal in value to a
dozen oysters.
RECIPES.
Mashed Peas With Nuts.—Soak a
pint of Scotch peas overnight in cold
water. In the morning drain and put
them to cook in warm water. Cook
slowly until perfectly tender, allowing
them to simmer very gently toward
the last until they become as dry as
possible. Put through a colander to
remove the skins. Cook the peanuts
separately, drain from the juice, rub
through a colander, and add to the
peas. Beat well together, season with
salt, turn into an earthen or granite
ware pudding dish, smooth the top.
and bake in a moderate oven until
dry and mealy. If preferred, one
third toasted bread crumbs may be
used with the peas and a less propor
tion of nuts. Serve hot like mashed
potato.
Graham Gems.—Place one pint of
cold water in a crock, add one egg;
beat water, egg and a pinch of salt
together. Then add lai cups of white
flour and ai cup of graham flour, beat
thoroughly, and bake in a quick oven.
Irish Corn Soup.—Take one pint of
slice potato cooked until tender, a Id
one pint of corn pulp obtained by
rubbing cooked dried corn through a
colander. Season with salt, add wa
ter to make a proper consistency, re
heat. and serve.
Split-Pea Soup.—For each quart of
soup desired, simmer one cup of split
peas very slowly in three pints of
boiling water for six hours or until
thoroughly dissolved. When done,
rub through a colander, add salt and
a slice of onion to flavor. Reheat and
season with one-half cup of thin
cream or a spoonful of nut meal pre
pared as directed below. Remove the
slice of onion with a fork. Serve hot
with croutons.
Baked Parsnips.—Wash, scrape and
divide; drop into boiling water, a lit
tle more than sufficient to cook them,
and boil gently till thoroughly tender.
There should remain about one-half
pint of the liquor when the parsnips
are done. Arrange on an earthen
plate or shallow pudding-dish, not
more than one layer deep; cover with
the juice and bake, basting frequent
ly until the juice is all absorbed and
the parsnips delicately browned.
Serve at once.
Unappreciative.
Hon. R. G. Cousins, of Iowa, who
is proudly known throughout his na
tive State as "Our Bob," recently
strolled into a barber shop for his
customery shave. While the barber
wielded the razor over the face of the
eloquent Congressman, he hummed,
plaintively and pathetically, "That
Little Old Red Shawl My Mother
Wore.”
When he had finished his work, Mr.
Cousins slowly arose from the chair
and handed him a quarter, saying in
his characteristic lazy drawl:
“Just keep the change and go and
bus your mother a new shawl.”—Phil
adelphia Ledger.
No “Soft” Snaps in Life.
Whenever I see a youth looking for
“a s >ft snap,” I pity him. There can
be no doubt where he will end. if he
does not change his tactics. If he does
not brace up, take stock of himself,
and put vim and purpose and energy
into his life, he will surely join the
great army of the “might-have-beens.”
—O. S. Marden, in “Success Maga
zine.”
■ *n Spite of the Academy.
While that body of sirupy literary
sentimentalists known as the French
academy refused to gild the declin
ing years of Jules Verne with an elec
j tion to the coveted hall os' immortals,
this rarely gifted writer will survive
in worldwide appreciation long after
j the puling poets and itching love anal
; ysts who rejected him have been for
gotten. Jules Verne was great beyond
I the line posts of a single country. The
author of “Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea,” “Around tie World
in Eighty Days” and half a hundred ^
other delightful books may not meas- ®
ure up to the standard of emasculated
drivel required by the academy, but it
must have been a satisfaction to the
stricken author to know that the world
had placed upon his brow the laurel
of success.—Kansas City Journal.
Japanese Generals Are Christians.
Gen. Ncgi and Gen. Kurokl are mem
bers of the Presbyterian church, and
Field Marshal Oyama’s wife is also a
member In good standing of that de
nomination. Admiral Togo is a Ro
man Catholi*.
