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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1909)
KEAD'T TO SY/JV£r~ r of improper explosives, as well as the improper use of suitable explosives, results annually in the waste of great amounts of coal. The use of too high charges in blasting, or the use of un necessarily violent explosives, shatters much good coal, converting fuel into dust which may_jtself be explosive and become productive of much fur ther damage. Such explosions often loosen the roof of a coal mine, which may fall later to be wasted, or produc tive of fatal accidents. In addition to the actual experiments in testing explosives, important experi ments are being made in rescue work. One part of the station lias been fitted up as a miniature coal mine. This is a large glass-encased, air-tight room which contains difficult passages such as are found in coal mines. There are also various obstructions similar to what would he found in a n ine after it, had been wrecked by an explosion; also dum mies weighing 150 to 200 pounds, rep resenting asphyxiated miners. This room is filled with deadly gas and a rescue mips of men who are being trained in the work enter daily, clad in helmets which supply them with oxygen while they work. The men remain in this chamber for two hours, removing ob structions. picking up th< dummies, plac ing them on stretchers and carrying them away. There is also in the room a machine which records the amount of work a man may tie expected to do while wearing one of these helmets. One-half of the large building in which this rescue room is located is used as an auditorium and several hun /W2f\ dred miners and X ITS effort to stop the appalling loss of life in the coal mines of the country, the United States government is meeting with much success. For several months an experiment station, under the direction of the tech nologic branch of the United States geological survey, has been iu operation at Pittsburg, Pa., with the pur pose of discovering the causes of mine disasters and suggesting a remedy. Along with establishment of this station and the agitation which preceded the necessary legis lation, there has been a falling off in the number of deaths in the coal mines for the year 190S, and while the official figures have not yet been ob tained, it is stated that the number of deaths will be several hundred less than in 1907. which was an unusual year. In December, 1907, four ergies to dis cover some method b y which fhis dust can Jte prevented from being a serious menace to the miners. Experiments in wetting it have been go ing on for some time, but nothing of a very definite nature has as yet been learned, unless it is the fact that the coal dust does not ignite when there is a great amount of moisture in it. Every effort is being made at the station to come as close to the < conditions in a mine- as j ML~JP*I3 £X&l^OsSn/£. *S fe£.3CUT: PAT^TY'AT explosions took the lives of 700 men. one of them—at the Monongah mine in West Virginia—being the greatest mining disaster in the history of this country. There were 356 victims. During 1908, there were but two acci dents in which the -loss of life was 'very heavy; one in January at the Hanna mine, in Wyoming, with a loss of 70 men; the other. November 28, at the Marianna mine in Pennsylvania, w'hich resulted in 154 deaths. Already at the experiment station two discoveries have been made which will tend to decrease the num ber of deaths in the mines. It has been demonstrated that a number of •.-—the so-called “safety" explosives are anything but safe, in fact the state ment is made that with the present *4 COS3L* 'PL/t37' K>JLShS7~ explosives used m mining, the miner takes his life in his hand every time he touches oft a fuse. It is the purpose of the government to continue these experiments until the explosives of the country are standardized in such a manner that the miner will have a definite idea what these ex plosives will do. After the government has gone far enough in its experiments, a bulletin will be issued recom mending as permissible explosives such as stand the test. The facts learned concerning these ex plosives will be called directly to the attention of the state mining bureaus as well as the oper ators. Perhaps the most important and far-reaching experiments so far at the station are those in which it has been definitely shown that coal dust is an explosive equally as dangerous as the dead ly fire damp. This has been a mooted question among mining engineers and miners alike, both insisting that it is impossible to explode coal dust unless there is gas present. That the coal dust will explode in the mine where there is no gas has been repeatedly shown to several hundred operators and miners at the testing station. The experts at the station are now bending their en possible. The tests of various dynamites and powders used in blasting coal are being made in a mammoth boiler plate cylinder which has pre viously been filled with gas or coal dist. The cyl inder is 100 feet long and six feet in diameter. Safety valves have been placed all aioug the top and are left unfastened in such a manner that whenever there is an explosion the valves fly open on their hinges. A series of portholes on the side, covered with one-half inch glass, enables those conducting the experiments to witness the results from an observation house 60 feet away. An explosive mixture of fire damp and air, or coal dust and air, is pumped into the cylinder and the explosive which is to be tested is shot into it from one end of the cylinder, so that the flame goes right into the firs damp or coal dust. Natural gas is used at this station for fire damp, because it corresponds very closely to this deadly gas. The cannon in vdiich the explosives are placed is fired by electricity from the observation house which is parallel with the cylinder itself. These investigations are expected to accom plish a double purpose; not only a reduction In the number of men killed in the mines, but also a saving of the waste in mining cod The use operators have 'vaulted the rescue drill through the large glass windows which separate the auditorium from the gas tilled chamber. Although there has been hut little opportunity so far for the rescue corps to demonstrate its ef ficiency at the mines, still it has done some good work. Once the helmeted men while fight ing a mine fire succeeded in bringing an unconscious man to a place of safety, where lie was given oxygen treatment and recovered his senses in a short time. It is not the intention of the United States government to furnish rescue corps whenever there is a disaster. The present corps was organized with the idea of encouraging the mine owners and miners tnemseives to torm suen organizations. Invitations have been issued to operators through out, the country to send picked men to the experi ment station, where they may watch the govern ment rescuers at work and later go through the same training themselves, in order that they may gain the necessary confidence in the Use of these helmets. Already a number of the large mining companies have taken advantage of this invitation and are organizing rescue corps at their mines, fully equipped with oxygen helmets. In 11)07 more than 3,125 men were killed in the coal mines of the country—a death rate of 4.S6 for every 1,000 men employed. This is from three to four times as many men per thousand as are killed in any coal-producing country of Europe, where experimental stations such as the one in Pittsburg have been in operation for several years. Full Beards for Farmers. The protection of farmers and others who are ex posed to the heat a great deal is a serious and diffi cult matter. Cancer is on the increase, and farm ers furnish a large proportion of the cases, many of them being due to the direct effects of sunlight on the face and hands. A full beard for the farmer is most desirable for his protection. _—Jl-—-■■■ NO ROYAL ROAD TO EDUCATION r Successful Student Must Be Called Upon to Make Effort. “Do all you can," urged President Eliot in a recent address, “to influ ence, each in his own community, the raising of the standard of instruction in high schools.” He added, also, pri vate schools. But these do not concern ns nor the public, comments the Bos ton Herald. We believe with Presi 1 iWtaMMaaMMu dent Eliot that the American people will be likely, in the future an in the past, to value a thing largely by what it costs, not cost in money only, but by what it cost in effort. Education is a result of effort, not of inspiration, and the greater part of the effort must come from the student, whether he be in the gramma:* schoel, the high school or the university. It is a mistaken idea that education should be made easy, that mediocrity should set the standards of the courses of the schools, but It is a current idea, and not limited to any city. Authority is too much inclined to provide bargain ed ucation. There can be no bargain. There never has been a royal road to education, and there never can tie one. But the belief that one exists, and that a smattering of many things is good enough, has served to cover the coun try with myriads of lives more or less content with superficial views and achievements, and the appearances of things. That is the penalty the pub lic pays for bargain education. The Realm of the Possible. T3»e realm of the possible was given to man to hope, and not to fear in. . . . If (in sorrow) the thought strikes you that we are punished for our sins—mourn for them, and not for the happiness which they have pre vented. Rather thank God that he has stopped us in time, and remember his promises of restoring us if we profit by his chastisement.—Charles Kingsley. ^2fiBSQQ9fiC9fiu^flfi£S^MSX£( jDIET AND| HEALTH || By DR. J. T. ALLEN ;i < Food Specialist , 1 Author of "Eating for a '[ « Purpose." "The ffeitt i Gospel of Health." !' Etc. ■ | (Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowies.) j “THE DIET CURE” (Continued.) . You cannot go to church or the opera, especially in the winter, when less air ami light are admitted, with out admitting into your air passages, enough germs of consumption or of pneumonia or other germ disease, to send you to the grave, if the vitality of the blood is so low as to allow these disease germs to multiply so far as to develop the disease in virulent form. Many of us have had consumption so far started, without knowing it, that post-mortem examination of our lungs would show that small colonies of the tuberculosis germ had started their work of destroying the lung tis sue but had been overcome by the natural defensive powers of the sys tem. And this applies to nearly every other disease. How often we read of death from the scratch of a pin or a nail, because the blood was in bad condition, the defenses weakened! Some modern medical philosophers hold that the vitality is in the nerves, that, therefore, the secret of health lies in keeping the nervous system in order, and that, consequently, cure depends upon toning the nervous sys tem, which they aim to do by soothing drugs, by mental iniluence, by elec tricity. by change of scene or by rest, or all of these. It is true that all the physical func tions are controlled by the mind, with the nerves as conductors of sensation carrying impressions from every part of the body to the spinal column and the brain, and carrying messages from the brain and spinal column to every cell in the body, with the sympathetic nerve system directly controlling the vital processes—digestion, pulsation, etc., subject to suggestion from the objective mind, which is constantly going on while we are awake—every thought, every mental picture influenc ing the body, sometimes so powerfully, as in fright, as to cause death; but the nerves are as powerless to act, of themselves, as are the wires from a battery to produce a current. They must be charged front the dynamo, the brain, and that requires a galvanic bat tery, with the blood as its liquid: and the quality of the current must de pend. largely, upon the quality of the liquid, the blood. Unless the neces sary elements are supplied to the blood and the waste removed death must, in time, ensue. Poisoned blood will no more support life than will worn out liquid supply life to a bat tery. It is important, indeed, to treat the nervous system, and profound knowl edge of physiology and of psychology are necessary to do this wisely, but the materia! vital supply must come from the food. Proper feeding is the prime condition of a sound nervous system. Let a child be ill nourished, pre-natal, or post-natal, and you have a weak, "nervous” child, but feed a child well (avoid ing the almost universal error, too much food) and it is vigorous in every way. "Cold is a form of congestion, as, indeed, every disease ie, in a sense, congestion; resulting, primarily, from bad feeding, including defective elim ination. Diligent searchers after disease germs have at length discovered a germ to go with pneumonia, the grip and, as was to be expected, with each kind of "cold,” a great variety. Now germs play a very important part in the causation of disease, a part as im portant. at least, as the common house fly plays in the causation of filth. It is worthy of note, that the typhus fever germ has almost disappeared, because the degree of filth necessary to entertain that festive bug has been relegated to a semi barbarous age. The blood is circulated through every tissue by the vital impulse of the nervous system, which controls the expansion and contraction of the h"art and the arteries, as it controls every other vital function. If the tem perature of the body be suddenly low ered, contraction of the minute blood vessels at the surface of the body re sults, driving the blood inward and away from the extremities. Now if the circulation is free and easy through all the tissues, if the system is not clogged by the waste from imperfectly digested food, and if the nervous energy is high, and not abnormally sensitive, the balance of the circulation and nerve supply are easily restored, but if the circulation is sluggish and vitality low, a more or less permanent congestion results; we have a slight or a severe "cold." show ing chiefly in the head, the lungs, the throat or congesting the kidneys and precipitating rheumatism, if the sys tem is predisposed to rheumatism by improper food and sluggish circulation or, if the vitality is very low, as in the aged or the inebriate, pneumonia may result, even without any record of a distinct chill, or, if there is an hereditary predisposition to consump tion. that dread disease may gain a foothold. The blood thus leaving the surface Girls May Sit on Beau’s Knees Cleveland, O.—In a decision in which no names were used, Judge Adams of the juvenile court ruled that a girl may sit on her beau's knee without fear of interference by the law. An excite^ parent demanded the ar rest of his daughter. “She is 16,” he said. “I came down stairs at 11:30 o'clock last night and found her sitting on a young man's knee, her arm around bis neck. I told her to go to bed at onpe and ordered the young man away. She kissed him good-night be fore my eyes. I want you to awe her.” “There is no law’ by which I can in terfere,” said the judge. “No court would attempt to interfere with a girl sitting oh her beau's knee.” Baby Pianist Is Marvel. Leipsic.—This city is boasting the world's greatest child musical prodigy of the body, the pores of the sk.n are more or less closed, and the work of the skin, which is to throw off a large part of the waste of the body. Is Im posed upon the lungs and the kidneys. The functioning of the nervous system is also unbalanced, which contributes to the same result. The action of the interior skin, that is, the mucous lin ing of the air cavities, and of the ali mentary tract, is disturbed, on account of sympathy with the outer skin; it is congested. The lining of the interior of the body is but a continuation of the outer skin, it is for these reasons that there is an extraordinary dis charge of mucus, often general, when one is suffering from cold, and. with the extraordinary congestion, closing the pores of the skin, to a large ex tent, and the increased waste of tissue, due to fever, the urine contains more waste. The purpose of the fever is to burn up the waste matter in the system; it is a natural curative process, and to “cure" the fever except by doing the same thing that nature is doing by the fever and thus render the fever unnecessary—to stop or lower the fever by quelling it with anti-febrile drugs is always to combat the cure, and is sometimes extremely danger ous, as in pneumonia in a vigorous, full-blooded man. Blood-letting, a therapeutic agent now relegated to a barbarous age, though often “indi cated," is far more scientific than that —but lack of space forbids an interest ing explanation here. To stop a cough by drugging is equally irrational, as a rule. The cough is a curative measure. If the fire bell were to sound on ^a cold night in a hotel where every guest knew that a quick run down a long, cold hall, would bring him to a safe place—not warm, but safe—few or none would "take cold" by making the run and back immediately, bare foot and protected only by a night robe, 1 even though they might, en counter millions of influenza and pneu monia germs on the way), but let a dozen of the same people discover on awakening quietly, that they must walk through that same long hall, barefoot, and protected only by a night robe and many of them will contract cold, one tonsilitis, another influenza and perhaps one ta senile inebriatei even pneumonia. Almost every reader must have seen the proof of this, so I shall pass at once to the conclusion: Don't fear that every draft will give you cold; set your mind against taking cold, but don’t choose to sit in a draft. Keep moving when you are exposed to an unusual degree of cold: tense mind and muscles, walk fast. The atmos phere in ill-ventilated rooms is poi soned and the system is far raore like ly to be overpowered then by even a slight draft than it would he in cold but pure air in the open. No poison, no “cold," no pneumonia, even at 20 beiow zero, with the ears and fingers freezing. Grip, or common influenza is “catching" in a poisoned, "close" atmosphere, and where it finds lodging in a body laden with poisonous matter from unexcreted waste of superfluous food, it may become firmly established and lead to serious consequences. The germs of influenza, consumption, or pneumonia are always at hand, like vermin, ready to perform their office. Those who hold to the theory that the germ is the prime cause of cold, say that a draft or wet feet or a drenching cold rain, may be ignored, if we can only avoid the germs, but it is a physiological fact that extreme heat and cold affect every living or ganism, even when conditions are otherwise normal. I formerly suffered much from tonsilitis. but not since I understood and applied the theory of osteopathy, that disease is due to in terference with free circulation of the nerve energy and the cure, "take off the pressure, —that is, relieve the con gestion—a theory that finds useful ap plication often, even though it is only part of the truth. Osteopathic treat ment is especially indicated in pneu monia even where there are no "bones to set" and aside from massage, which is also beneficial, but it is no more wise to treat pneumonia by osteopathy alone than to treat it >>r drugs alone or by "science” alone. An old physician says that he has noticed, for many years, that pneu monia sets in more frequently at the beginning of the week, than at the end. This is undoubtedly because peo ple as a rule eat more heavily on Sun day, so that the vitality is more ab sorbed in eliminating waste matter, leaving less to resist the attacks of disease and also because, in winter and spring, people are more indoors on Sunday. Some authorities name among the predisposing causes of pneumonia, un der-feeding. Manifestly the prime cause is defective nutrition, with ex posure as the existing cause and the germ as the incidental or secondary cause. Improper feeding, most fre quently eating too much or eating the wrong food, is usually the prime fac tor in the mal-nutrition predisposing to pneumonia or "cold.” The statistics show also that pneumonia, which is second in death-dealing power only to consumption, becomes gradually more frequent toward the close of winter and spring when people eat most heavy food and least fruit and are most indoors and subject to sudden changes of temperature, (March, April and May, when the weather is most changeable, showing the largest har vest of death), and that the fewest deaths occur in July and August when the weather is least changeable, when most fruit and least meat are eaten and people are most in the open air. P.ecause I have not space enough to give the natural treatment for pneu monia, and because It is advisable al ways to have a physician, in serious cases, whose instructions should be followed implicitly, I shall give only the treatment which will apply to any form of cold, and to tao initial stage of pneumonia. This treatment is clear.'y indicated by a proper understanding of the true causes of cold or congestive chill, in eluding pneumonia, and by n proper understanding of the effects of such chill- and the means by which nature can be assisted in restoring the nor mal condfttion—that is, the condition in which all the powers of nutrition are performing their respective func tions naturally, the condition of health. The essential primary factor in the causation of common cofd, consump tic n and pneumonia, is defective feed ing and it must follow that the natural diet, simple but nourishing, is the most important means of prevention. 1 .’mow a man who can break the ice in the river In winter, and take a rlunee bath and be none the worse the ne.v. day. If the average healthy man were to fall off a city bridge and break through the ice, the danger would be not pneumonia but the result of the mental and physical shock. If he were quickly landed without physical injury, and immediately run to an adjacent hotel and have a brisk rubbing with a Turkish towel, and then dress at once, and feel that he was none the worse, the effect would probably be the seme as in the ease of the man who voluntarily can take a river bath in January, but in no case is this ad visable. It indicates, however, like the example of the hotel guests,- an im portant means of prevention, which everybody should follow in varying de gree according to age and strength, in winter. It also indicates the serious mistake of preparing for a cold, grip. » or pneumonia, by hugging the stove continually or remaining closely in an ill-vePiilated, dark, steam-heated, car peted room. The temperature of the sleeping room should not be above 50. It is best to breathe out-door air. ■whether one is in average health or suffering from pneumonia. The farmer's toy who 50 years ago saw th< stars shining through tiie roof when he awoke in the morning after h severe storm in February, with a blanke: of snow around him. was not addicted to catching cold as much as j we who think we must hear the steam hissing before we venture to expose our hands or feet. On awakening in a temperature of 30, we can at least be sure that al though the nose and ears may feel cold, there is no danger of catching ^ cold. The Indian, asked why he did ^ not catch cold like the white man. said, "Me all face.” If we can extend v this immunity to the arms, then to the legs and then to the entire body, and maintain it, we shall have a permanent defense against the exciting cause of "colds" including pneumonia. Rub the arms, alternately extended, uncovered, vigorously, for five min utes, then neck and chest. When a glow has been induced in the upper part of the body, jump from bed and begin to rub the legs, vigorously, alter nately, with the hands, till a glow lias been secured, all the time breathing deep and fast. Next begin to rub briskly the trunk in every part that, can be reached, going to the extremi ties when a tendency is felt to chill, thus keeping the circulation equal ized. Follow ten minutes of this exercise with movements exercis ing every muscle in the body, flushing the small arteries in every tissue. Then begin with a wet towel, rubbing vigorously the extremi tiesand then the trunk, finally removing the robe and ending with a dry Turk- '' ish towel rub. This may take 30 min utes, but it will be the most profitable investment of the day. It may require weeks’ or months'gradual approach in a mild temperature before this full program can he carried out in a freez ing temperature but the (Effort will he repaid many times. With a walk of five miles daily, this will supply ideal physical exerc.se and be an insurance against disease, if the proper food .s eaten and the mental conditions right. Rut if these preventive measures are neglected, the nutrition is bad and a severe chill takes place, threatening perhaps pneumonia: Fresh air first, the colder it is the quicker it wilt burn off the waste, relieve congestion an^ give life to the blood by furnishing oxygen. Empty the alimentary canal as quickly and completely as possible, by emetic, (if a meal has been eaten within two hours) euema and rhubarb; stop eating till you are sure that nor mal conditions have returned, resum- ^ ing with acid fruit, fresh if possible, after one or two days or longer in serious cases. Sit with the leet in hot water up to the knees for half an hour, adding hot water as the bath cools. When the stomach settles, drink a; much lemonade (no sugar) as possible While sitting with the feet in bath reclining havj? a cold pack about the head and neck. Have thorough mas sage and osteopathic treatment and a vapor bath and, in ordinary cases, no cold or pneumonia will develop. Don't yield to the inclination to eat ravenously; the appetite is not natural. There is a rapid burning up of waste matter, but that should ga on without interruption, whereas a heavy meal will Interfere with the cure. "Feed a cold and you’ll starve a fever" (later), the fopular maxim should read. Fever is a beneficial process; it is nature’s house cleaning. To stop it by depressing the action of the heart is always wrong, often fatal. The high temperature, as in pneu monia is prolonged by the poisonous matter generated in the blood by the pneumo coccus pneumoniae, the spe cific germ of lung fever, degenerated blood being rapidly poured in upon the heart, but to refrain from adding fresh poison by eating when the stomach cannot digest and to keep the ali inentary canal clean and clear and to furnish plenty pure air at the lowest temperature to burn off the waste in the blood and vivify it with oxygen_ this is simple but effective, always. In Pilar Osorio, a threc-year-old girl hi a piano recital before an audience ot * critics, she played the moet classic* > selections perfectly. She playa whol^v from memory. Her case has excited so much comment that arrangements have been made for a scientific com mission to examine the girl and "her ancestry in an effort to find the source of her talent. The girls parents have accepted numerous engagements for the public appearance of the child hut ,i ^l“,y,iaia*’/ a tender age will be prevented on gf maauariaa grounds, *