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About The Wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-???? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 14, 1908)
THE 1VAGEW0RKER By W. M. MAUPIN UNCOLH, NEBRASKA , BodI grows desperate as . his meal ticket vanishes. Do you know what an 'ld-determln-ant-biophole hypothesis" Is? Neither do we. Now Is the time for the patient Fil ipinos to turn the other cheek to the augar trust. It was poor management to pull off a total eclipse where hardly anybody could see it. With what is left of the million dol lars, doubtless the earl of Yarmouth will be able to get on for awhile with out a wife. Nearly three billion people were carried by the railroads in 1907, Borne of them were delivered undamaged at. their destinations. A Denver girl has become the bride of a Pueblo chief who cannot speak English. Perhaps she will have a title among the Indians. Thirteen women's clubB have voted not to trim their hats with the plum age of birds. That is a lucky num ber for the feathered songsters. The Japanese have all they can do to look after their lives at home in a time of profound peace. They are getting automobiles by the cargo. Argentine farmers, x just now are busy hauling a big wheat crop to mar ket. - Automobile drummers should pack their grips for South America. A French inventor now claims to be able to send photographs by wire less telegraphy. What would a sud den wind storm do to Gov. Hughes' whiskers? About the nearest thing we remem ber to living music heretofore has been the crying of a baby at 2 a. ra. as the patient father walked the chilly floor. Really, Count ltoni is a' man of spirit. He will make faces at the prince or do something equally dread ful if the latter dares to marry bis former wife. A moving-picture machine exploded In Canton and 300 Chinese lost their lives in the resulting panic. Civiliza tion is dangerous unless one knows how to hande it. If Prince Helie de Sagan proves an costly a piece of bric-a-brac as did his. cousin, the count, it will keep the Western Union and the Wabash hump ing to run the show. The Chinese imperial telegraphs had net earnings during 190G of $645,537 on a working capital of f 1,232,000. Evi dently the Standard Oil Company isn't the only thing on earth, after all. Sixteen soldiers in Spain were ar rested as plotters against Alfonso be cause they visited a newspaper office, They will get off scot free, of course, If they declare they called to whip the editor. Ocean-going ships soon will be fit ted with all the comforts of home. About the only thing that will be missed Is the village feud and maybe steamship proprietors will be drag 'ging that in next. A Newark man was lined $20 for laughing at a policeman. In most cities the majesty of the law consid ers itself sufficiently vindicated when it has beaten the mirthful one over the head with a club. There is in lierlin an artist who is going to marry a widow with $3,000, 000. This is excellent.- Now let some delightful heiress add to the gayety by bestowing her hand and fortune upon some struggling poet. . A California architect predicts that we shall soon have 100-story buildings. If his prediction is verified it will be necessary for our fellow citizen to build some pretty tall stacks if they expect to keep us choking with smoke. Science has harnessed the potato bug, as it were, and is making it do Blunts in the interests of humanity. That is grand, sweet revenge for all ' the miserable hours it has brought to boys who had to "bug 'taters" when the fishing In the branch was fine. Defects of speech such us stammer ing are so prevalent in Germany that tho government is said to have insti tuted a campaign against them by es tablishing a special department in the medical college of the University of Ueilin, both for the cure of such im pediments and for educating doctors how to treat them. Perhaps the sug gestion is unkind, says the Baltimore American, but would not the trouble be more readily disposed of by going to the root of the matter and adopting a new language one easier to get the tongue around? Bee-stings, mustard-packs, and other uncommon remedies for rheumatism will have to take second place, in the matter of oddity, to a cure discovered in Australia. A whale, stranded on the beach at a health resort, had been cut open, and a freakish invalid plunged into the mass of blubber, re mained there two hours, and found himself free from rheumatism when he crawled out. The incident seems to be vouched for, and although the prescription Is more novel than entic ing, probably many sufferers would like to catch a whale and try it. A MICROMETER. Instrument for Delicate Measurements Which You Can Make. It often becomes necessary for the experimenter or practical worker to find the thickness of material so thin, or inconvenient to measure, that the thickness . cannot be found by means of foot rule' or other common measur ing device. : A simple, fairly accurate and easily made apparatus of the mi crometer form may be constructed as follows, explains Dr. Thomas R. Baker in Scientific American. Get a common iron or brass bolt about one-quarter of an inch in di ameter and 21,ls inches long, with as fine a thread as possible,- and the thread cut to within a short distance of the head of the bolt. A bolt with a cut in the head for a screw driver should be used. Clamp together two blocks of wood with square corners about one inch wide, three-quarters of an inch thick and 2 inches long, with their narrower faces in contact (the width of the clamped blocks be ing two inches), and bore a quarter- A Home-Made Micrometer. inch hole through the center of the blocks in the two-inch direction. Now remove the clamp and let the nut of the bolt into one of the blocks so that its hole will be continuous with the bole in the wood, then glue the blocks together with the nut between them. Cut out a piece from the block combi nation, leaving, it shaped somewhat like a bench, and glue the bottoms of the legs to a piece of thin board about 2V& inches square for a support. Solder one end of a stiff wire about two inches long to the head of the bolt at right angles to the shaft and fix a disk of heavy pasteboard with a radius equal to the length of the wire, and with Its circumference graduated into equal spaces, to serve iu measuring revolutions and parts of revolutions of the end of the wire, to the top of the bench; put the bolt in the hole, screwing it through the nut, and the construction is complete. The base is improved for the meas uring work by gluing to a central sec tion of it, covering the place where the end of the bolt meets it, a smalt piece of stiff metal: and it is convenient to neve the, graduated disk capable of ro tating, so that its zero line may be made to coincide with the wire. Kind the number of threads of the screw to the inch by placing the bolt on a measuring rule and counting the threads in an inch or half an inch of its length. The bolt in making one revolution will descend a distance equal to the distance between the threads. To use the apparatus, put the object whoso thickness is to be measured on the base under the bolt, and screw (he bolt down until its end just touches the object, then remove the object and screw the bolt down until its end just touches the base, careful iy noting while doing so the distance that the end of the wire moves over the scale. The part of a rotation of the bolt, or the number of rotations with any additional parts of a rotation added. divided by the number of threads to the inch, will be the thick ness of the object. Quite accurate measurements may be made with this instrument, and in the absence of the expensive micrometer it serves a very useful purpose. I have used it in the beginning classes in electricity for measuring the .diameter of wire, for finding the numbers of wires from ref erence tables and for making various other measurements. HOME-MADE DRAFT SPRING. How One Can Be Made from Old Ma , chinery Spri.-g. A draft spring for j-s on the evener or tongue of agricultural implements, to relieve the jerk on the horses' shoulders, may be made from any old Fig. 2 The Draft Spring. corn-plow or machinery spring. Two loops are formed as shown in Fig. 1 from s-inch round iron. .Insert one loop from each end of the spring as in Fig. 2. The clevis or pulling trace may be fastened in either end. Smallest Electric Motor. A German mechanic has built the smallest motor In the world. It Is used as a scarf pin and is run by a battery In bis pocket He keeps it In I constant operation. j TO MAKE CONCRETE STEPS. Directions for Putting in a Permanent Improvement. Concrete may be used in the con struction of steps, particularly in damp places, and in the open or where the ground is terraced, concrete steps and walks can be made exceedingly attrac tive. Where the ground is firm it may be cut away in the form of steps, with each step cut two or three inches low er than its finished level. When the nature of the ground will not admit of its being cut away in the form of steps, the risers are molded Reinforced Concrete Steps. between two vertical forms. The front one may be a smooth board, but the other should be a thin piece of sheet metal, which is more easily removed after the earth has been tamped in be hind it, says the Concrete Review. A simple method of reinforcing concrete steps is to place a half-inch steel rod iu each corner, and thread these with quarter-inch rods bent to the shape of the steps, as shown in tho sketch, placing them about two feet apart. For this class of work a rich Portland cement concrete is recommended, with the use of stone or gravel under one-half inch in size. Steps may be given one-half inch wearing surface of cement mortar mixed in the propor tion of one part cement to two parts sand. This system is well adapted for stairways in houses. SCOOP THAT WEIGHS. Does Away with the Necessity of Em ploying Counter Scales. Every grocer can scoop up sugar oi coffee, etc., from the storage bin and very closely gauge the correct quan tity. Yet he would not be willing to give it to the customer as the . full weight to be purchased without first testing it on the scales. A Texas man has hit upon the idea of having the scoop indicate the weight of the contents, eliminating the necessity of transferring it to scales. His weigh ing scoop is shown in the accompany Scoop Which Indicates Weight. "tug illustration. The pan for gathering up the article to be weighed is pivoted to the handle and operates a pointer, which indicates the weight of the con tents on a scale. If a pound of sugar is wanted the grocer dips enough out of the bin to swing the pointer to the pound mark. The sugar is then trans ferred directly to a bag, doing away with the necessity of weighing on scales. j TESTING A BRIDGE. Severe Strain Placed Upon the New Rodah Bridge at Cairo. , The Kodah bridge at Cairo is prac tically finished as far as the structur al work itself is concerned. This bridge is now undergoing the official tests, but it will not be publicly opened to traffic until the terminals of jthe structure are finally completed,' to gether with the approaches at one end. This is a work that will probably take some time to accomplish. The tests are of a severe character, dead weights of sand and steel rails being piled up on each pier in succession, exerting a pressure of 1,000 tons. Sub sequently live weights of steam rollers and tramcars loaded with sand and water carts filled with water are to be run on the bridge, with a total pres sure of 460 tons on the main girders. The tests so ' far have been, so j we gather, satisfactory in their results. No fault or strain has been revealed in the material. How Ancients Did. By rubbing metals with salt, before applying mercury, the ancients 'ob tained a reaction similar to that for which copper sulphate is used. "The chlorine released from the salt formed a silver chloride easily attacked 1 by the mercury, so as to form an amal gam. First Rubber from Zululand. A first shipment of Tongaland and Zululand rubber has been dispatched to London from Durban. A large tract of rubber country Is being worked un der a concession granted by the Natal government, and regular shipments are expected. PERILOUS WORK OF The difficulties and dangers of build ing a transcontinental railroad such as those crossing Canada are not ap preciated by the layman, unfamiliar with the obstacles encountered. In many places the roadbed has to be blasted out of the face of a sheer cliff, possibly . overhanging a mountain stream hundreds of feet below. In or der to mark the way it is necessary for the surveyors to. bang logs from the top of the cliff, to enable them to MEANS VAST OUTLAY COST OF ELECTRIFICATION OF ALL RAILROADS. Estimates Made Show That a Billion and a Half Dollars Would Be Needed to Make the Change Desired.. The advisability of wholesale elec trification of all the railroads in the country has been formally considered in abstract before the electrical en gineering associations, and the ques tion has been found so great that the meetings were marked, more by con tention and argument than by definite results. Figures presented show the estimated expenditure involved should every mile of railroad in the United States be reconstructed for operation by electricity and the rolling equip ment changed to correspond. .The to tal cost of such a change is given at about $1,500,000,000. Electrical pow erhouses to give a total of 2,100,000 kilowatts or 2,800,000 horsepower would be required. Fifteen hundred millions of dollars .is a sum so vast that it means nothing to the average person, and yet it represents an invest ment so stupendous that only an ex tremely small portion of it can be con sidered to have any relation to the Im mediate future. The economy of such a change has been estimated, in prospect, as con siderable. Present operating costs for the movement of every car and en gine in the country total $1,400,000,000 In one. year. By electrification this would be reduced by about $250,000, 000, representing that much actual and net saving. This last sum is indeed enormous, but it only emphasizes the magnitude of the project of universal electrification; for the most radical advocates of the new power have not yet dared to claim that the saving, large as it seems, would warrant the change in its entirety. Under certain special conditions, however, the new power will stand su preme, and it is by the extension and more general application under these peculiar circumstances that electricity will one day, in due time, come into its own on the railroads. Clyde Fenni more Burns, in The World To-Day. Stopped Train to Help Girl. The gallantry of an engineer and members of a crew of a passenger train on the Milwaukee railroad re sulted in the rescue of a blushing schoolma'am from a curious predica ment, according to a dispatch from Scotland, S. D. The incident occurred at Kaylor, a hew town about midway between Scotland and Tripp. The young woman was hurrying to catch the early train, and in order to reach the station platform had to crawl through a barb wire fence. Her skirts became entangled, and the more she struggled the tighter grew the clasp of the fence uyon her. The engineer saw her predicament and promptly applied the brake, so some one could go to her rescue. The rescuers were the conductor and the members of his crew, and after some little time they succeeded in separat ing the clothing of the young woman from the sharp barbs on the wire. Naturally the young woman did not volunteer to give her name, and the engineer and others who had gone to her rescue were too gallant to ask It. Automatic Umbrella Delivery. The railroad stations of Berlin are shortly to be provided with automatic machines which, on the insertion of 50 cents, will deliver an umbrella. A ticket will also drop out, and, on pre senting it within two days to an office of the automatic society, 50 cents will be paid back in return for tne um brella. RAILROAD PIONEERS A obtain a foothold. Moving cautiously, along this perilous path, where the slightest slip would send them to death, they work their way, examining the geological formation and making notes of the cutting that will be re quired. The ax men go first, then fol low the transit men, to ascertain the distance and angles, the levelers, rod. men and topographers, each with their work to perform before the ac tual construction of the road begins. CAR BROKE FROM TRAIN. Solution of Mystery That for a Time . . Puzzled Railroad Men. One night a long freight train broke in two as it was coming arour-. a sharp curve on the Erie road between Buffalo and Corning, N. Y. The en gineer put on all speed and ran away from the hind section in order to give the conductor and brakeman on the rear end a chance to stop their sec tion. This they succeeded in doing a quarter of a mile or so, and then the engineer backed the forward section, coupled on to the rear section and pro ceeded to Corning, the end of the di vision. The conductor who was to take the train over the next division discovered in looking over his train that he had a way bill for a car which was not among those delivered to him. The other conductor was certain that hV had the car. when he started for Corn ing, and showed its' number checked off in his report. . , No solution of the mystery came for a long time. Then some boys came across the missing car at the bottom of a ravine below the curve on which the freight train had broken in two. It is supposed that when the rear section of the broken train started to round the curve this car had jumped the rails, broken the coupling holding it to the car behindhand cleared 20 or 30 feet down the hank before strik ing the ground, which at this point was covered with underbrush, and that this undergrowth, after the car had rolled past, had righted itself and given no indication of having been dis turbed. BRITISH ROADS IN BAD SHAPE. Ovcr-Capitalired, They Have Hard Work to Earn Dividends. . According to P. W. Wilson, M. P., British railroads are capitalized at $6,430,000,000. This is less than half the American total, but four times as much per mile. The railroads, ex pensively built, with renewals being added to capital at the rate of $75,000, 000 a year, with receipts increasing only two per cent, a year and the divi dend rate steadily falling, are loaded with $300,000 a mile of capital. Practically all the stock of English railroads is held not for control, as here; but for investment, and the own ers demand dividends. But capital in creasing faster than business has gradually forced dividends lower. IJondividend' stocks are fewer than with us, but the great mass of securi ties pay between two and four per cent., and the general average' for a generation has been: Period. Dividend. Period. , Dividend. 1871-1875 4.S 1S91-1S95 3. SO 1S76-1SS0 4.2!) 1896-1901) 3.64 1SS1-1885 4.k!i' 1301-1905 V- ..3.3S 1SS6-1S90 4.07 . The owners of British railroads, by years of "after us the deluge" in sistence upon dividends at the cost of watering capital, have got into as bad a condition as American frenzied finance reaches in its most pyrotech nic flights. The service is unpro gressive, improvement is delayed and the demands of laboring men go un heard. It is at base a disquieting sit uation. , . . . . Dog Understands Signals. The New York, Susquehanna & Western railroad has a cur dog that understands ' the block signal system as well as most engineers.. His name is Boscoe. This quaint mongrel ridesi in the cab of a , locomotive and watches the semaphores. If an arm is up, meaning that the block ahead is not clear, Boscoe growls ominously,! and the engineer , takes warning. If the arm' is down, indicating a clear track ahead, Boscoe barks joyously. , , s ; Barry Dumplings., ,-. ,' The winter dessert of apple dump lings may be replaced by some mads with . raspberries or other . berries. Serve with hard sauce Into Which t beaten as much of the crushed fruit a it will "take without separating. New Use for Fly Paper. ' I have discovered r new use for sticky fly paper. I found that Jf mouse puts his one foot on the paper' he would put hlB other foot on, too,' and it wiU hold him fast.-Chicago, tribune. Diaboio In the Past. More diaboio discoveries.: In ' the National Library at Paris are two prints, one entitled "The Game of Dia boio at the Beginning of the Last Cen tury;" the other entitled "The Devil for Four (the old diaboio)." Two couples are playing diaboio excitedly in a room; the furniture is upset and the mirrors broken. Another design is entitled: "The Good -Devil,, Mow He Goes!" A young woman throws a big, simple fellow in the air, and from bis pocket fall pieces of gold. In the same picture is another woman, with her diaboio cord round the neck of a man!, with the inscription below: "See how we lead them!" Diaboio raised a furor in France in 1812. It was then, according to the Figaro correspondent, imported from England, and an Eng lish caricature of a later date repre sents a great Wellington sending to St. Helena's a very little Napoleon rul ing on a diaboio. Long before' the revolution of 1789 some missionaries in Peking sent an exact reproduction of diaboio to a French minister at state who collected Chinese curiosi ties. .The Chinese are always found to have forgotten everything we are be ginning to learn! Dundoo Advertiser How to Keep Warm In Winter. The clothiers intend to keep women warm if one may judge from the many: new "protectors" on the underwear counters. 1 Separate knit sleeves at the knit underwear departments are among them. Then, too, there are Shetland vests with or without sleeves that give a maximum of warmth with a mini mum of bulk, and union suits ot tho same gauzy wool. Bloomers of satin, mohair, or sateen, some lined with al batross, are in the same category, be ing snug extras . for wet or bitter weather. : These bloomers for wet weather for the woman who Is out at all times and' seasons are Ideal, since they take the place of a skirt aad s damp hem about the feet. No Mere Dark Brown Sugar. j . "You have no Idea," said the wife who is also an, excellent i,cooay"howj difficult it is to make molasses oookieB and gingerbread' and brown bread so it will have the same flavor that It had in the days now past. And why? Because -itt fs .wellnlght Impossible t6 find the good old-fashioned dark-brown sugar. That's the secret of it. , There was a time when one could get differ ent grades of brown sugar, that which was least "refined" being very dark and' vastly sweeter than ' the light brown or "C" sugar, as it used to be called. But those days have passed, and I suppose that never again will my cooking taste quite so good. "Of course the younger . people, those who have never known the ex quisite flavor of molasses candy and molasses cake made with - the dark sugar, cannot realize the difference. Happy mortals they',' As for myself, I am constantly looking for the sugar of my childhood, and there is not a week but I have my hopes raised by some storekeeper telling me he has it; but he is mistakenr-it is the light brown sugar he has, and not that whjch I seek." " ' ' ' :. '" TEXAS FARMS. For Sale or Exchange for Eastern Nebraska or Western Iowa- Farms, 3566 acres Brazos Valley land in Baylor' county, Northern Texas, sub divided into 160 acre tracts. Strong, rich soil. Suitable for winter wheat, oats, , corn cotton and alfalfa. All kinds of vegetables and fruity Suf ficient timber for fencing and fire tvood. Abundant rainfall. Healthful climate. Near good county seat town of 3,000 people. For further infor mation call on or write, F. A. Field, Room 686, New Brandeis Bldg., Oma ha, Neb. . Lincoln Directory BEATRICE Creamery Company Guarantees highest mar ket prices for ydur cream. Call at our receiv ing station HERBERT E. GOOCH BROKER AND DEALER Grain, Provisions, Stocks, an Cotton. Iain Office, 305 Fraternity Bids Lincoln, Nebraska. Bell Phone 513 Auto Phone Kj iMtgext House in State exrt GLEANERS AND DYERS And P raisers of Ladle'. Gen Heme' and Children's Clothing. Write for Price LiL J. C. WOOD & CO. 1322 N ST., LINCOLN, NEB. A, G. DAVIS & CO. S7ll PAPER Our IMS Sample Books are sow ready for shipment to any dealer or paper hscgwr. O St., LlACOLAi, HBB. .