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About The Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Cherry Co., Neb.) 1896-1898 | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1896)
u I 7 rt il4AAAAlAAAAAw I X yrViVWQ9QQQQ4rQQQ trxt 3 f K - i THREE PICTURES OF HORRID MR Good Shooting Three skeleton companies of infan tryISO men in all half faced to the right on the right wing of a division extended in battle line along a creek fringed with trees and there to hold its ground at all hazards We on the flank have no cover but face a cleared lield half a mile wide and are sprung out in single line No bullets are fired at us from in front but there is a steady and vengeful ping ping ping from the hot fjfculead coming in behind us and over the -heads of our comrades facing the south We stand at parade rest aud take whatever comes without wincing Now and then a bullet finds its billet and a man goes down but the Steady men of the senior captain prevents -anything like confusion in the lines Nothing tries the nerves more than to he under fire in line without movement but pride and iseipline are strong fac tors on a battle lield At the end of half an hour we have eleven men down Two of them are officers from the rear line The lire along the creek has grown hotter but our lines are holding their own and de pending upon us to take care of the I Sank Of a sudden a horseman rides i jiTout of the woods in front of us and in iiv Vr spects our position through his glass We only know that he is an officer but his glass enables him to count every man of us almost tell the color of each mans hair and eyes He holds his glass upou us for sixty seconds and xhen disappears among the trees Attention calls the senior captain und the line dresses in an instant Infantry in the woods whispers -each man to his neighbors Well let em come If they are too many for us reinforcements will be sent to us Ah Thats business Three guns of a battery come gallop ing lip on our right and unlimber and 41 cheer goes along the lines Shell first grape and canister next The guns will have a clear sweep over the field There they come and its cavalry instead of infantry Steady men No talking in the ranks Now then not a shot until they IfcJSfcQl fft he holds SECOXD5 ettEttfcStf mMm iwr HIS GLASS UP FOR SIXTY AXD THEX DISAPPEARS AMONG THE TREES pass that bush down there and then shoot to kill Five hundred cavalrymen ride out from under the trees and form up two lines deep The three guns open on them at once with shell but the lines form and dress under fire with a cool ness that excites admiration We can not hear the order of Draw sabers but we catch the flash of steel and draw a long breath The guns cease firing to load with grape and the squadron moves out on a front no longer than our own The bugles blow Trot Gallop Charge Here they come every trooper whirling his saber about his head and yelling every horse at the top of his speed Steady boys Let em get the grape and canister first Down with those muskets on the left Thats right stop that cheering in the center Wait Wait Now give it to em Boom boom boom from the guns double shotted with missiles which were fired point blank into the charg ing squadron and then a crash of mus ketry as every man pulled the trigger at the same instant Ten feet to the right of me a trooper broke through our line ten feet to the left a second but only to be shot down by the officers in the rear The smoke cloud hangs for a moment to obscure the vision but we hear the groans of wounded horses the cries and curses of wounded men the thud of hoofs on the soft earth We load and fire at will into the cloud but presentlj the wind lifts the smoke and whirls it away and the order comes to cease firing Where is the body of cavalry which charged us A score of horsemen down on the left another score away to the right a bunch of them just disappear ing into the woods from whence they came their retreat hastened by the shrieking shells sent after them from the guns On our front a dozen horses are limping about thirty others are down Six or eight dismounted but unwounded troopers hold up their hands and come walking in to surren dersixteen wounded ones cry out or curse us twenty two are lying dead on the grass Well done boys that was good shooting says the senior captain Glad to have been of service sir salutes the battery lieutenant as he advances A Grim Joker At the second battle of Bull Run our colonel was ordered to hold a posi tion on the right at whatever cost and the word Avas passed along the lines that no one should go to the rear on any fes Anv - 3 excuse even for fresh cartridges For two hours we lay in lines on the ground without firing a shot though the ene nrys bullets and now and then a shell fell among us to wound and kill While we were enduring it as best we could a private named Stevens looked back at the captain and asked Cap can I go to the rear after wa ter Against orders was the reply Five minutes later Stevens looked Y B- tr CAP CAN I GO TO THE REAR WITH TWO WOUNDS back and held out a bloody hand and said Cap can I go to the rear and have the thumb amputated Against orders was the answer Se ven or eight minutes later Stevens received a bullet in his shoulder and sitting up he pressed his hand to the wound and queried Cap can I go to the rear with two wounds Wait till the colenel comes this way and Ill ask him The colonel was then riding down to us behind the lines In about five min utes he was up and our captain was about to address him when Stevens call ed out Never mind Cap Im a dead man and dont want to go to the rear With that he fell over and struggled for a moment and was dead A bullet had passed clear through him before ho called out Talkinjr It Over Three months after Joe Skinner de serted from our regiment he was cap tured on his farm at home by the pro vost marshal and sent back to the regi jment in irons for trial He had desert ed in the face of the enemy and it was generally believed that he would be shot and great was the astonishment therefore when he got off Avith a three months sentence to Dry Tortugas When Joe was brought before his judges he had a simple story to tell and lie told it in a simple way He said I got to thinkin it all over and come to the conclusion that wed had enough war I started out from camp and kept walkin and walldn till I met a reb Hello Johnny whar ye goin Into the Union camp to stop this wah And I was jest goin into your camp to do the same thing Lets sot down and smoke and fix things up Wall continued Joe we sot and sot and we smoked and smoked and we talked and talked He was a friend ly cuss and bime by he said hed give in if I would I said I was willin and we shook hands on it I says we cant stop the war but we can go home and mind our own bizness and he said hed do it if I would I started home and - - rrr i i m 8fr vt r Zoi jiWr Jt WW -- yB - r TALKING IT OVER thats all there is to it and if the war isnt stopped Im not to blame for it To Verify a War Up is ode President Homer T Fuller of Drury College Springfield Ohio has received a letter from a Massachusetts man who offers a large sum of money for the verification of a war episode The story is that in the early days of the Avar a detachment of Confederate troops in Missouri took about 400 Union prisoners Twelve of these prisoners Avere lined up and shot Avithout proAo cation by the Confederate officers Up on hearing of this act the commander of the Federal regiment drafted twelve Confederate- prisoners to be shot in retaliation As the line was being formed a young man named William Lear stepped forward and asked to take the place of one of the condemned men Avho was his friend The request AAas granted and Lear was shot in place of his friend NeAV York Tribune The face of every babe is an interro gation point Its future depends on how older folk answer the question TIMELY FAUM TOPICS MANAGEMENT OF THE FARM GARDEN AND STABLE Harrowing Corn Ground Wheat Kills Off Innumerable Weeds and Levela Eidjres Vine Cutter for Gardeners Adding to Wheelbarrows Capacity Machine for Gardeners The illustration represents a machine adapted to cut off parts of any creeping vine or for trimming or cutting off run ners and it may be carried close to the plant to cut off desired portions with out injuring Avhat is left the cutters being also readily adjustable and easily accessible for sharpening or cleaning At the forward end of the machine is a sickle bar finger adapted to travel on the ground and the body and the finger bar are made in two sections di vided longitudinally there being in the ear part of the finger bar and the for Avard part of the body a longitudinal opening where the cutters are located mL HS5sifrS MACHINE TO CUT VINES The ground Avheel at the left hand side of the machine has an internal gear and is fast on the axle the oppos uig wheel being removable while meshing Avith the internal gear is a pinion on a shaft carrying a stellated cutter wheel whose teeth are sharpened on a bevel to meet the cutting edge of a cutter adjustably secured in the left hand Avail of the longitudinal open ing the upper edge of the cutter being flush with the upper surface of the fin ger bar of the machine The stationary cutter may be adjust ed or removed as desired and in case the vines might be damaged by the passage of the machine in its ordinary shape the removable wheel may be taken off bringing the cutters near the trunk and precluding the possibility of injuring the standing portion of the vine Corn Ground Wheat Corn stubble that has been seeded in grain and is not sown to timothy or clover will be much benefited by a thorough harrowing as soon as the land is fit to Avork Hook three strong mules or horses to an adjustable steel tooth harrow and harrow across the drill rows Ten acres can be gone over in a half a day What few stools of grain may be rooted out will not amount to much The loosening of the soil around the grain roots and the thorough pulverization of the earth be tween the drill rows Avill be a very great advantage to the crop After the harrowing and before a rain is an ex cellent time to give the field a top dressing of fine manure or 100 pounds of nitrate of soda and 100 pounds of phosphate of lime These two fertiliz ers act well together and in a favora ble season will increase the yield from eight to ten bushels per acre Fields of grain that are in bad shape either from being gotten in late Avant of prop er f ertilzation or owing to severe winds knd alternate freezing and thawing rwill be much benefited by a good har rowing The editor has frequently harrowed corn stubble grain and always with the best results and would earnestly commend it The harrowing kills in numerable Aveeds which is another advantage besides breaking off the corn stubs and leveling the ridges which makes it easier for the reaper Corn stubble wheat should not be seed ed to timothy or clover but it should be plowed up as soon after harvest as the work can be done and seeded to grain and then to grass The American Feeding Cottonseed Meal The use of cotton seed in moderate quantity in connection Avith bran or lover hay or pasture would not injure your butter but rather be beneficial as the foods mentioned would tend to make it soft and oily and the addition Df cotton seed Avould counteract this effect and give it a firm consistence and good grain Avithout injuring the flavor perceptibly At the Mississippi Agricultural College Ave feed our milch cows a ration consisting of four to six pounds of cotton seed meal two to four pounds of bran or cornmeal twenty pounds of corn silage and hay ad libi tum through the winter months or eight to ten pounds of seed may substi tute the whole grain ration When the cows are in good pasture they need but little meal As they become dried up two pounds of meal and two pounds of bran may be fed with good advantage Sowing by Hand There are not many now who can dis tribute grain or grass seeds evenly by the hand and get the right amount per acre It is likely that the art will be wholly lost There are broadcast seed ers which will do the work quicker and better than the best sower by hand could ever do The drill nowadays does most of the grain seeding the only difficulty with it being that when the soil is very mellow the seed is put in too deep Rolling after the seed bed is prepared remedies this difficulty It is also a good plan to roll down the land which is to be seeded by hand The harrow or cultivator will cover it deep Ly enough Hand Irrigation for Fruit An Ontario farmer reports good re sults in irrigating strawberries by ear v rying water in pails from a shallow well and pouring It on the bed and from this beginning in irrigation he has erected a reservoir elevated above the level of the beds to be Avatered which he fills by hand pump and dis tributes by hose With this crude sys tem of irrigation he has been able to raise as many as 4420 boxes of straw berries from a measured acre in a very dry season and thus having almost a monopoly of the market he was able to sell his berries at a fine price How a Woman Would Farm I would work for small fruits It is very nice for the women to run out and pick a bowl of rich strawberries rasp berries or blackberries when they only have perhaps a half hour before tea not time enough to go a mile away to some rough pasture or scraggly wood let alone coming home with perchance a broken bone or two and their dresses nearly torn to pieces says a writer in the Maine Farmer If you chance to mention these things to a man Oh no time to fool with such things What wont a Avoman think of next I notica if the berries are on the table he finds time to eat them while the women are too tired to even look at them One thing more I would not be boil ing swill on the kitchen stove running in every morning noon and night with the SAvill pail full of meal emptying the contents of the teakettle the Avomen have got just to the boiling pitch foi washing the dishes or getting the meal then after getting half Avay to the pig pen call back Oh there I have taken all the Avater out of that teakettle I would have a building all to myself where I could heat water boil swill forge an iron and do a job of carpenter ing Nitrogen for Early Peas When planting early peas a small nmiount of nitrate of soda will pay bet ter than with any other crop The pea requires nitrogenous manure as it is more nitrogenous than any other grain except the bean It is true that the pea root is able to decompose air in the soil and extract the nitrogen from that but it does this only when in an ad vanced stage of growth A small amount of nitrate of soda sown Avith peas warms the soil around them for it aids the growth of pea roots which liberate carbonic acid gas which al AAays evolves heat It is thus by fur nishing food and warmth at the early critical period that the pea is made earlier than it otherwise would be and brings a higher price in the market Increasing a Wheelbarrows Capacity When wheeling corn fodder and oth er light stuff a wheelbaiTOAvs capacity is too limited for convenience The il RACK FOR A WHEEI BARROAV lustration shows a simple attachment that can be slipped into the barrow on such occasions to the great increase of its capacity The side pieces should be hardAvood strips The attachment may be supported by hooks from the strips to the top of the wheelbarrows back if preferred Feed Economically The cost of production governs the profit and not the prices received Ex travagance in feeding waste of valua ble food and the use of stock that does not produce above the average are the obstacles Avhich cause mortgages and entail losses Small Farms Pay Small farms are made to pay by closer attention and a better feeding of the soil than is possible witih largo ones Odds and Ends If one wears old loose -kid gloves while ironing they will save many cal lous spots on the hands Silver spoons that have become dis colored by eggs may be cleaned readily by rubbing Avith a soft cloth and a little dry salt If brooms are dipped in a pail of hot suds for a minute or two each week it will make them tougth and piable and they last much longer Little bags of orris powder are con sidered among the daintiest devices for perfuming bed linen and undercloth ing and are more popular than laven der just now in the most luxurious houses Palms rubber plants and all foliage plants used in the house should have a weekly washing Using a soft cloth or sponge each leaf should receive a light washing with lukeAvarm water and the soil should be loosened about the roots Plants breathe through their leaves and cannot grow well unless they are kept free from dust Mildew may be removed in the fol lowing manner First by rubbing off any loose mildew then rubbing in com mon salt afterward sprinkling liberally with powdered chalk and moistening with clean cold water After this dry slowly in the open air rinse and if the marks are still there repeat the process It may be necessary to do this several times but in the end the spots will be removed It is sometimes convenient to remem ber tho following items of cooks meas urement One pint of liquid equals one pound Two gills of liquid make one cupful Four teaspoonfuls make one table spoonful Two round tablespoonfuls of flour will weigh an ounce Half a pound of butter will make one cup Four cups of flour make one pound Two cups of granulated sugar make one pound but in powdered sugar 11 will take two and one half cups to make one pound t n t One Countys Work Bureau County is a good example of the possibilities latent in a gravel bed and developed by experience common sense and a little persistent hard Avork The writer Avell remembers the time when the only good roads in that coun ty was the highAAray running easterly from Princeton and known as the old Peru road For years that road was in good condition the year round and the farmers along its route increasing ly prosperous while everyAvhere else the roads were for a large portion of the year hideous as a mince pie night mare After suffering from this in cubus for half a generation people be gan to think Finally it daAvned upon a feAV bold and venturesome souls that if gravel Avere good for the poor road it might possible be good for some others So tho idea spread and the experiment was tried until noAV the graveled roads J comparatively smooth and always pass able ramify the Avhole county and dis tant farms are brought approximately close to town by that wonderful genii gravel Bloomington 111 Leader The Wide Tire Campaign Not only do Avide tires save the pave ments but they are also a saving on beasts of burden The Missouri Good Roads Association at its recent conven tion in Columbia declared in favor of wide tires Prof H J Waters dean of the State Agricultural College added to the tabulated results of the tests made between narrow and wide tired wagons the following By using the wide tires an average of fifty three pounds draught is saved A horse is computed to exert a pull of 150 pounds for ten hours traveling at the rate of two and one half miles per hour On this basis the wide tires save slightly more than one third of the ex ertion of the horse The experiments with heavy wagons from which the conclusions of Prof Waters were reached formed the most interesting part of the proceedings of the convention and the results of all the tests were carefully noted In ev ery test it was demonstrated that the wide tire lessens the labor of the horse and is in other ways far superior to the narrow tire which is the most com monly used Bloomington 111 Panta eraph Cheap Roads A very Avise philosopher has observed that the great bulk of the pedple must ahvays support the mass of the popula tion The people pay for everything the people have The public pays for the railroads and the expense of running them If the railroads were only half as good and could only haul half as much it Avould cost the people twice as much to ride or ship over them It is fortunate for the people that railroads are conducted in an organized business like AA ay If the opponents to improved roads had their AA ay the rail road Avould be neither profitable nor pleasant The people of a community are tVe ones vitally interested in the roads of that community If the farmers of each township were to get together and mutually agree that they would go about it in an organized way to build and maintain a system of good roads their sum of happiness would be increased Since the people pay for the roads AA hy not have those that are cheapest and most pleasant the best ones In Holland Avhere they have the best roads in the world it is said that a farmer will haul with a team of large dogs as heavy a load as can be draAvn over a bad road Avith a team of horses This reminds us hOAV dog gone bad our roads are This country has 1300000 miles of common roads This would encircle the globe fifty times or go to the moon more than five times But if most of them would go there just once and not come back earth would be just about as happy He Liked to Be Sick Imaginary and fashionable diseases are among the most painful and vexa tious annoyances of the physicians life One venerable doctor Dr S C Busey of Washington goes so far as to say that but for them men of his pro fession might hope to live as long as the aA erage of people Every communi ty has its drug fiend he remarks and he proceeds to describe an example a small red haired very bad tempered man who may once in a Avhile have been actually sick though oftener he thought he was sick and oftener still was trying to make himself sick On one occasion I was summoned at night in impetuous haste to hear this mans story of the sudden loss of the senses of taste and smell and indeed of general sensation I found him sitting bolt upright in an armchair his red hair standing on end his face flushed with rage and his mouth pouring out volleys of curses The spectacle was as ludicrous as it AAras sad though the mans poor wile was in a condition of terror J kneAv him well enough to believe that it was all cry and no Avork a pretence to frighten his wife for some fancied in attention or neglect I knew also that his lore of deception was so great that he would submit to torture rather than acknowledge his deception When the vocabulary of exrletires was for the time exhausted I said to him that his maladies Avere apparei Uy J complex and each Avould have to b treated by itself and as the loss of oral sensation was the most serious I would attack that first Then seating him in a cane seated J chair I enveloped him in several UeaA yi blankets put his feet in a hot mustard bath to which at brief intervals I add f ed some hotter Avater and placed uuder the chair a lighted alcohol lamp He bore this for a time with anaz ing fortitude but finally the ngid lines of his face softened the sweat poured in streams from every pore and hisj hair fell dripping over his brows As1 he began to Avince I offered him a dose of tincture of capsicum To my sur prise he SAvallowed it Avithout a grim 1 ace but when I quickly offered hinv another he rebelled and reluctantly c J knoAAledged a partial rescoraaon of taste and sensation adding however in insolent glee that the sense of smell was still absent At that I poured from a bottle of thet milk of asfoetida such a dose as I thought would bring smell and taste to J a tin funnel and forced him to take it He smelled it and soon after I left1 him sleeping quietly He Avas cured for a time and re F mained for a considerable period a sible couAalescent His imaginary nil- ments continued but assumed a mild and harmless type no lived to an ad i anced age and died as he nad lived J complaining and fretful bore lie Trusts the Reporters Chauncey M Depew knows newspa j per reporters as Avell as any man and here is what he truthfully says ol them j Every profession has its code ofj honor That code is ahvays based upon confidence and trust I see more re t porters and oftener than any ten men in the universe They breakfast dine sup and sleep with me or practically that isrwhat it amounts to They comet to me blue penciled at all hours of the day and night for a revelation whichJ they must take back in some form or be discredited at the office It is oftenj a matter which it is important for me in justice to the interests which I rep- resent or the people who trust me not to reveal but when as often happens something can be said which will reach over the important crisis by a tion of facts and the situation can onlyi be understood by a full explanation the reporter hears in confidence the story and then the line drawn beyond which he must not go and never has that confidence been misplaced nor the line OA erstepped Meadow Larks Music During a short residence in Califor f nia one of our delightful experiencest came to us through the vocal entertain ment of the mocking birds and meadow larks Of the meadoAV lark I now write It is a joy forever to have lis i iened to the incomparable notes of ouei of those birds which cradled on theli topmost point of some piume like yptus bending beneath the weight of the bird and sAvaj ed by the passing- breeze poured forth its soul in irre i pressible overfloAV of song in tones so full clear SAveet and delicately modulated as to place this songster beyond the possibility of a rival We were horrified later to see by a Sanj Francisco paper that these songsters Avere being exterminated by the hunt- ers who killed them for the markets1 at so much a hundred Boston Tran4 script A Remarkable Photograph Professor Boys of London recently delivered an illustrated lecture in which he showed photographs of the Lee-Met-ford bullet as it passed through a quarter-inch sheet of glass Just before the bullet touched the sheet the air wa e cut a disk of glass about half an inch in diameter clean out At the same time the glass around the hole was crushed into powder and driven back at an extremely rapid rate The glass stuck to the bullet for a short time after it had passed through the disk being driven out in front of the boAv wave In this experiment the Avaves caused by the vibrations of the glassf were plainly shoAArn A photograph of the bullet after it had cleared the glass by nine inches shoAved the remainder of the glass intact but Ahen the bul j let had proceeded another sixteen inches the sheet of glass AA as seen tov break and fall in fragments Aluminum Will Be Cheaper The production of aluminum in thisj country has increased from eighty- three pounds in 1SS3 to S50000 pounds in 1S93 and the estimate for 1S96 is 8GUU0U0 pounds the processes for ing it having been greatly improved The price at the reduction Avorksf ranges from 50 cents to 55 cents a pound Applied electricity explains they ease with AAhich the light metal is now1 turned out What Weylers Silence Means Gen Weyler has gone on a neAv tack When he Avas asked about the report that twenty four Cuban citizens had been taken out and shot he said that he knew nothing about it The NeAVJ York Sun says there could be no plainer intimation to his subordinates to go ahead and do their worst Wood Wood soaked in a strong solution of common salt is thereby protected against decay especially Avhen placed underground It nearly alA ays shocks a man to see a woman attending church in the midr die of the day There is one thing we have always admired about pop corn it keeps its promise it pops