Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1898)
The Conservative * A MODERN BATTLESHIP. Thn Qnantlty and Intricacy of the Ma chinery It Contains. Even after n visit to and a thorough in spection of a modern battleship in port ono carries away but a faint idea of the 'L intricacy and quantity of the contained ' machinery , and none at all of the abso lutely rr'juislto amount of labor nnd ma terial that is continually being expended in order to keep the ship in a state of readiness and efficiency. Just as the great enterprises in commercial life indicate but little tn the general public the details of the toil and study which preserves them in permanently successful operation , so hero it is not in line with the attitude of prowr ss to parade the anxious oversight nnd the incessant exertions demanded by the internal requirements of a man-of- war in service. A battleship is not only a floating for tress , but is also a steam power plant of the largest size , with a greater variety and number of engines or machines than Is ever dreamed of by the uninitiated. Of all this combination there is no portion that can bo permitted to remain in a state of repose for any length of tJmo without en dangering its effective action when the emergency arises for which it was design ed. It is only by constant use that they can bo kept perfectly efficient , and at the same time this continued practice is equal ly necessary in order to familiarize the men with the details of the operation of every part and thus secure that prompt and certain response in time of action without which success is jeopardized to a degree difficult to overestimate. Of course it is not difficult to understand that all this involves constant wear and tear , which can bo compensated for only by as constant repair. On an armored cruiser , llko the Brook lyn of the United States navy , taking her as a sample of an up to date warship be tween a battleship and an ordinary cruis er , there are altogether 81 separate engines having a total of 156 steam cylinders. Add in imagination to this number , imposing in itself , the vast quantity and extent of steam , exhaust and water piping needed to connect all these engines to the boilers , condensers and water systems the thousands of valves to bo kept workable and efficient. Then include the seven great boilers , capable of evaporating into steam under forced draft 185 tons of water an hour , and ono can begin to comprehend the vastness of the steam plant of a mod ern ship. Chief Engineer A. B. Willits , U. P. N. , in Cassier's Magazine For Sep tember. CHOOSE THE BETTER PART. Extract From a Letter Written by Thomas Carlyle to HlH Sister Jenny. Understand always , my dear sister , that I love you well and am very glad to see and hear that you conduct yourself as you ought , writes Thomas Carlyle to his sister Jenny in The Atlantic for September. To you also , my little lassie , it is of infinite importance how you behavo. Were you to get a kingdom or 20 kingdoms it we're but a pitiful trifle compared with this , whether you walked as God commands you and did your duty to God and to all men. You have a whole lifo before you to make much of or to nmko little of. Fee you choose the better part , my dear little his tor , and make yourself and all of us pleased with you. I will add no more , but commend you from the heart ( as wo should all do ono another ) to God's keep ing. May ho over bless you. I am too late and must not wait another minute. Wo have this instant had a long letter from Mrs. Welsh , full of kindness to our mother vand all of you. The cheese , etc. , ia faith- .iiaiiiijii'juuu.1 . ' fully commemorated as a "noble" ono Mary is also mndo kind mention of. Yon did all very right on that occasion. Mrs. Welsh says she must come down to Soots- brig and see you nil. What will you think of thats' Her father in the meantime is very ill and gives her incessant labor and anxiety Colonial Expansion nnd Sngrar. The largest single pourcoof revenue un der the tariff is sugar , nnd about $80,000- 000 a year is to bo obtained under existing rates. But the sugar product of Cuba , Porto Rico and the Philippines and Ha waii will bo admitted free of duty into the United States. What this means , oven when the figures are taken from previous years , a little estimate Will show. The average importation of foreign sugars in to the United States each year is 4,000- 000,000 pounds. Of this quantity Cuba alone has in the past supplied more than one-half , and from the other islands named , Hawaii excepted , enough sugar can bo obtained to bring the quantity to } 9,500,000.000 pounds , or five-eighths of the whole importation. This means the wiping out of five-eighths of the sugar revenue , or some § 50,000,000 , which must be made up from other sources. A still further reduction must bo made for other products imported from these islands , such as tobacco , hemp and fruits , making the prospect of heavier taxation at homo still more probable as well as assuring the per- inanenoy of the Internal taxes now im posed. Worthington C. Ford in Harper's Magazine For September THE GREAT EVENT. What Kllseo Rcclns Considers the Cen tury's Most Important Step. Ono might certainly have ventured to predict that in the eastern portion of the Asian continent , pays Eliseo Reolus in the September Atlantic , populations long crushed by civil and military oppression would ono day lay claim to the rights of freemen , but it could never have been foreseen under what amazingly dramatic conditions the claim would bo asserted. Our ancestors , at the beginning of the nineteenth century , would never have harbored in their wildest dreams the fan tastic notion that Japan , the empire of the rising sun , would spontaneously trans form itself into a "European power , " Eu ropean at least , if not In language , history and traditions , in the complete recasting of its administration , institutions , cus toms and theories , in its devotion to sci ence , nnd its entire and unreserved ac ceptance of a policy based on observation and experience. This ia the great event of the century ono which casts into the Bhado all the other occurrences of an epoch which has nevertheless beun rich in memorable evonts. And it will ho no solitary avatar , for there are unmistakable Hlgns that others of the same character nro about to take place in the vast omplro of China , and in all those countries where inhabit ants of different race , yellow , red or black are brought into close contact with the men of our own Aryano-Greco-Latlu civ ilization. So vanishes that oft repeated as- fiortlon of the ethnologists that race is a final and irreducible fact , and that no possible progress in the perception of sci entific or moral truths can over prevail against it. It is from this point of view that the recent history of the far east presents phenomena to which it behooves us to devote our most serious attention. The Benefactor of Childhood. Froobel devoted himself to the rights of children. To free the way for the most complete development of the pcnfios , facul ties and sensibilities and thus to attain hnppinosfi without directly striving for it was their self appointed task. He consid ered not only childhood , but the whole child , and strove to waken the latent energies - orgies , to use the spontaneous powers , to call forth the unconscious forces of the eoul to the child's own upbuilding and uplifting. Ho saw the little stranger open his eyes on an unknown world and brought Its trea-iures close to him , that ho might not only POO , but observe , perceive and bo filled with beauty. Flo recognized in the tiny "imago of God" a now creator and opened a channel in which his creative need s-hould have full play by giving the little bands something to do. Ho ponotrnt- ed the personality of the child and invited it to reveal its own individuality through personal oxnrblon. Sadie American in Woman's Homo Companion For Septem ber STEAM ENGINE DESIGNS. Their Dlroralty Is Particularly Noticeable In EnKliind mid America. For the difference between building machinery and manufacturing it prob ably few bettor illustrations can bo found than those afforded by the steam engine industries of Europe and the United States. American steam engines , nnd wa ter wheels , too , are turned out in quan tity , like shelf hardware , and can bo bought at almost a moment's notice , much as ono would buy barrels of flour , with largo range of sizes available for choice , while the preponderating rule in Great Britain and on the continent is to build them to order and after special de signs , so that there is a marked absence of uniformity of product. Ono reason for this variety of designs , which wo do not remember having over seen stated before , is that for British mills and factories , for example , often of venerable ago , new en gines , when required , must bo built to fit in particular places places previously oc cupied by engines of earlier and mayhap hibtorlo make and curious shapes and combinations are therefore mndo compul sory to the builder of the new outfit. Out of 20 mill engines , for example , re cently ordered in the Lancashire district only two , itvas fctntod , wore intended for new mill buildings. All the others were to replace engines of past generations and had to bo fitted into the old quarters of these. That with euoh conditions there cannot well bo an underlying standard of design is obvious , and odd features of con- BtruoCion will doubtless thorofoi-econtinue Indefinitely. In the United States the fac tory , ono might almost say , is built with special reference to the engines kept in etook. Dnsigns of extraordinary character are not often needed , nor are they wanted , and with a study of a comparatively few types ono is fairly familiar with thu cur rent steam engine practice of the coun try. Cassior's Magazine For September. CAUGHT IN A CREVASSE. Ono of the Dangers Knconntcrod In Get ting Around In the Arctic Ilcgion. On more than ono occasion wo nearly lost our pony down crevasses when toiling over the high glacier land. Ono day last spring I was leading as usual with her , and Mr. Armitago was following in my tracks with the dog team. On the oven surface of the snow there is nothing whatever to indicate the yawning dark chasms , hundreds of feet in depth , which Ho concealed around us by light bridges of snow only a few inches in thick ness. The snow covered surface of the glacier looks ns firm and stable as Picca dilly , not oven a slight depression in the snow marks the hideous pitfall below , and the inexperienced traveler would probably trampon with a fooling of perfect socur-