The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, November 18, 1891, Image 2
OUT IN THE WOODS.
"KJnt in the woods where the maples grow,
There's a musical drip that the children
know,
! A spink, spank, spink,
1 A silverv tink
As tie waters down from the great trees
3ow.
.Sweet are the waters that trickle down
."Through the great trees, afar from the
town,
With their spink, spank, spink,
Till the trough looks pink
-As it peers through the sap from its coating
brown.
A rough-hewn trough is the trough for me
And its home-made "spile"' in the maple
tree.
For the spink, spank, spink,
Is a silvery tink
'That dwells like a song ic the memory.
"The dead leaves rustling beneath the feet
Once gathered from sun and from rain the
sweet.
And the spink, spank, spink.
Of the famous drink
Is the song when the spring and the winter
meet.
Oat in the woods where the maples grow
There's a musical drip that the children
know.
And the spink, spank, spink,
Is a silvery tink
That will summon the violets from below.
?Columbus Dispatch.
A Hero of New Mexico.
BT CHAKLE3 P. LUMMIS.
TThen I look back over the strange
career of my brave old Spanish friend,
Colonel Manuel Chaves, whose weary
remnant of a body was laid to lest two
1 years ago under the shadow of the noblest
mountain in Western New Mexico, the
exploits of many heroes, who were
handier to the frame-maker, seem a trifle
tame. Known and loved here, yet his
name seldom reached to the great outside
world of newspapers and historians, and
to-day he tills the grave of an almost unrecorded
hero. Yet I suppose there was
-never a more remarkable life. For over
fifty years he was almost constantly
warring against the Apaches, Comanches,
3?; ^avaios and Utes. Over 200 of his
relatives were killed by Indians. He
participated in more than 100 fights and
carried a scar for nearly every one of
thfcm. His body was such a network of
rrhnef-.lv pirjihrirps that srarpfilv rmild von
e . / '?"?J ? J
lay your hand upon him anywhere without
touching a scar. For the last fifteen
years of his life he suffered untold agonies
?the result of his awful wounds and the
years of exposure and hardship, but he
5? met this more merciless foe as calmly as
he had met the Apache, and when, at
p; seventy-four, the flickering soul went
out, it was calmly as a little child's.
>; . Life on the New Mexican frontier in
his day -was something which we can ill
realize. There were no railroads then to
make travel easy for even the timid and
^ veak, nor mails to bring far friends
near; nor telegraphs to flash warning or
lope. The lonely New Mexicans, shut
./iff frnm nrtH almnat. from t.'no
j, East by a vast and fearful wilderness,
' were surrounded by savage nature and
.-still more savage man. It was one of the
bitterest lands on the earth, aland of
_ vast distances and scant product, of in?
finite thirst an<3 little wherewith to
S -quench it, a laud of hardship eternal and
of daily danger, where boys were soldiers
and mothers had to fight for their
babes. It was almost as if there had
" been no other world beyond those awful
%, plains. Whatever was consumed was
1 made at home, and found no other marW'
.ket. There were not even firearms for
-defence against the relentless savages,
$ , -save a scant supply of the clumsy old
Spanish escopetas, (flintlock muskets)
scarcely better weapons than the bows
and arrows whose use the settlers learned
.from their foes. . Manuel was in his
youth a wonderfully expert archer, and
1 -won countless ponies and blankets from
the Indians themselves in contests during
the short intervals of peace. Later he
-became the best rifle shot New Mexico
/ -lias ever produced.
The little town of Cebolleta, where
Manuel passed his boyhood, was never at
peace in the first half century of its existence.
It was out and alcne from the
other Spanish settlements, and in the
-very heart of the Navajo country; and it
was a fearful sufferer at the hands of the
p? " x
Indians.
It was from Cebolleta that young Manuel
started, when he wa3 eighteen years
-old, on his first expedition?though he
if- had already seen enough of war at home,
and was accounted among the bravest of
KTr the brave. With his eldest brother,
Jose, and fourteen other young men, he
started for the Canyon de Chusco, 150
. miles to the westward, in the stronghold
of the Indians, on a trading expedition.
What a commentary on the times in which
they lived?this seeking a market among
iavages from whom murderous assaults
the traders were in constant peril even
while at home! They were attacked at
!'* -night in the Canyon de Chusco, and all
were killed save Manuel?who was left
lor dead with seven arrows in his body,
.-and his Indian servant, Pahe, who was
. also fearfully wounded. Alone and on
foot they started on that fearful journey
homeward. Pahe died of his wounds in
two days, and Manuel dragged himself
i . alone the rest of the way, hiding by day
from the savages, crawling on by night,
followed by sneaking coyotes that never
left his bloody trail; tortured with thirst
. and pain, with no food save the cactus
fruit, until at last a faithful servant
found him fainting on the last ridge of
San Mateo and carried him home upon
his back.
When he recovered from these wounds
he was engaged as a guide to a party ol
traders from Mexico to New Orleans, anc
thence went to St. Louis with a younf
Cuban, who finally robbed him of all h(
% had in the world.
Then he returned to New Mcxico anc
-Battled in Santa Fe, but in 1S46 had t<
flee to Utah on account of political coin
plications.
The following year he was recalls
and put in commaud of an expeditio:
against the Utes, whom he thrashc
soundly.
The invasion of New Mexico by th
America 3 forces in the Mexican war wa
not opposed, and the Territory becam
-vart United States without blood
jjt? -shed. Very ejon thereafter came th
"Taos rebellion," a small but fierce uj:
.rising of Apaches aad Pueblos in tb
. most northern of the Pueblo towns, an
iManuel played an important part in sup
?* *-<pressing it. In a fearful hand-to-han<
Bg'i, -atruggle, too, he saved the life of hi
? commander?Captain Zeran St. Vrait
afterward owner of the 4,000,000-aci
h Jat. Yrain grant in Colorado. A gigai
tic Apache bad his knife at the heart of
the prostrate St. Vrain, when Don Manuel,
shooting a foo who was almost upon
him, wheeled and crushed the skull of 1
St. Vrain's assailant with the barrel of
his ponderous rifle.
In 1S55 he led a regiment of volunteers
on a six months' campaign against the
Utes, making a brilliant record therein.
In 1S57 he accompanied General Lor
1 ing's command in the war against Cuchillo
Negro (Black Knife), the most redoubtable
of all Apache warriors. He
captured the savage chief with his own
hand in a desperate night attack in a
gloomy canyon where hia scout3 had
found the camp of the hostiles. General
Loring was greatly elated by this cap- !
ture, but the prisoner was murdered by
the officer left to guard him?a turbulent
man who afterward met a violent
death.
In 1S60, when a large band of Navajos
made one of their characteristic raids on
the Rio Grande settlements and drove off
5000 sheep, Colouel Chaves pursued
them with fourteen men. He overtook
the hostiles at nightfall at Ojo de la
Monica and routed them; but in the
morning found his camp surrounded by
several hundred Navaj'03. From dawn
till dark of that desperate day the fifteen
heroes withstood the wild charges of the 1
swarming savages, each fighting from
behind his tree. One by one the brave
New Mexicans sank back on the redsoaked
earth, bristling with arrows; and
J at nightfall only two ot them were left?
Colonel unaves ana woman oancues?
both fearfully wounded. A company of j
soldiers from Fort Craig arrived just in
time to save them. In that ghastly
struggle Colonel Chaves had fired his
clumsy muzzle-loader 6ighty times, and
for every shot an Indian or a horse had
fallen. He had two bullets loft when
the arrival of the troops ended the fight. !
That was the kind of war they had on J
the early frontier. '
In a dozen other Indian outbreaks,
before and after those to which I have
so briefly alluded, Colonel Chaves dis- J
tinguished himself by the same cool f
bravery, the same dauntless will and the
same matchless skill as a marksman.
When the Civil War broke out Colonel ]
Chaves took command of the Second
Regiment New Mexico Volunteers, and 1
did brilliant service in this out-of-the- '
j way corner of the Union.
When Colonel Chaves returned to his '
lonely home at Ojuelos it was only to '
find that the Indians had despoiled him
of everything?his horses and cattle, his 1
30,000 sheep, crops and all?and left '
him Denniless, a blow from which he
never fully raUied his affaire, though his
industry never lift him in want.
After New Mexico's share in the war
was over, there was still more than two
decades of frequent Indian outbreaks
within her broad borders, in most of
which Colonel Chaves was a prominent
figure. On one occasion his lambing
i camp at the Salada was "jumped" by a
! large force of raiding Apaches. The
j few shepherds were too badly frightened
i to fight much, and all would have been (
i killed but for the coolness of Don Manj
uel. Posting each man behind a tree,
| with a promise that he himself would I
I shoot the first who dared run?and they 1
! dreaded his matchless aim even more !
than they did the Indians?he took hi3 *
ten-year-old boy by the hand and ran up J
the hill a few rods as a feint. The In- 1
| dians, seeing his flight, dashed straight 1
I into th2 camp without their accustomed 1
I ^.olimlnowr mmtrpll VTf>5 t.O Sf>G of what
I stuS their enemies might be made. A3
one grabbed up Colouel Chaves's priceless 1
Navajo blanket from beside the fire he 1
fell sprawling with an ounce bullet 1
through his brain. Another snatched 1
I the blanket and Colonel Chaves called to J
j one of hi3 companions to shoot. But 1
! when he saw the poor fellow's hand 1
) trembling so that he could scarce hold 1
! his gun, the Colonel shouted, "Wait! (
I Don't shoot!" He hurriedly rammed J
another charge into his old muzzle- 1
loader, and although by that time the
Indian had got so far that he felt him- 1
self safe, the unerring bullet caught him <
as lie ran ana tore ni3 necK neariy m
twain. By that time the shepherds had J
recovered their seDses and gave the In- ]
dians such gallant resistance that the lat
ter soon withdrew, carrying away some
valuable horses, but no scalps.
Ah, what a rifle-shot the withered,
wiry old man was, even when I knew
him, in his old age! New Mexico has ]
never had another such marksman as he j
was in his prime; and his six-foot muz- ]
zle-loading rifle of enormous calibre was |
never excelled by the finest modern arms i
that cried conclusion with it. In all his 1
long life?in nearly fifty years of which i
not six months at a time were ever with- i
out warfare?he never was known to
miss but one shot. ' And never did he
have to shoot twice at bear or deer, and i
seldom more than once at human foes. I
shall never forget my mingled amusement
and awe at an incident which occurred
wnen he was seventy-two year3
old and suffering fearfully from a cataract
in his eye. We were out with his
grandson, Roilolfo Otero?a gallant lad
and fine rifleshot. Rodolfo had a fine
Winchester with which he did some extremely
clever shooting. "Try it, grandpa!"
he kept urging the worn, old man,
bent and wasted by disease. He had
never trusted our modern magazine guns,
but at last yielded to Rodolfo's entreaties.
"Go, put me a mark on yon cedar,"
he said, pointing to a gnarled tree a full
10U yards away. Rodolfo ran over, and
?considerato of his grandfather's age
and condition?fastened to the tree a
paper some six inches across.
"Va!" cried the old man, calling him
back. "What thinkest thou, hijito?
That I am as the moles? Here, take
[ thou this bullet and make me a mark of
r j it on that paper!"
'| Rodolfo did so. My ejes are none the
?j worst in the world, but I could not even
5: sec that lead-mark less than half an inch
' in diameter. Colonel Chaves raised the
' j rifie in his withered hands, looked pain0'
fully at the fluttering papor, threw the
" rifle to his shoulder and fired?all in the
' cime in which one might count five.
* j "Pucs!" he said, as the smoke cleared,
1 | "now it sees itself better," and he fired
* 1 again, with the same rapidity. And
! when he walked to the mark the bullet
e : was in tha spot Rodolfo had marked, and
tS the second beside it so close that the
e flattened bits of lead touched!
Little wonder that such a marksman,
e as cool in mortal danger as in sport, a
born commander and a noble man, was
;e the terror of the savages, and was loved
^ and is mourned by those he helped to de?
fend.?St. Louii Republic.
s Australia is the only country in the
world to which ruminating animals are
e aot indigenous, and yet cattle and sheep
i- j of various breeds thrive there amazingly. '
< ' ' ' ..-.v.
I AGRICULTURAL.
i
TOPICS OF INTEREST RELATIVE ]
TO FARM AND GARDEN. '
<
BEE 3TIKGS.
Bee stings were considered at the
Wisconsin Convention. It was regarded
as an easy matter to avoid stings by
proper protection. Most apiarians try to
avoid arousing or angering bees. Bee
veils, hats and gloves are used by
many, but the quiet action of the beekeeper
and care in handling them will
enable the bees to be handled without
Btinging. Sometimes smoke angers the
bees instead of quieting them. It was
advised that all beginners should wear
veils until they have acquired confidence
and are quite fearless.?New York
World.
AVOID EARLY PASTURING.
Pastures should not be pastured until
the herbage has made a good start. It
is a great waste to feed off the grass before
it furnishes a full bite. The roots
are nourished through the leaves. It is
in the leaves that the food of plants is
prepared tor assimilation ana caaage into <
cellular tissue; and until the leaves are c
well grown the roots cannot grow. But 1
when the leaves are well started the 1
roots increase and the foliage then grows a
more rapidly, and as this grows the 8
roots become stronger. It is plain, then,
that early pasturing stunts the growth a
all through the year, and is of little
benefit to the animals themselves.?
American Agriculturalist.
WHEN 18 A HEN TOO FAT?
A hen is too fat when she is apparently
too heavy behind, when she is lazy and
cares nothing for work, seeking only to
have the owner feed her. She cannot
:i_ ?*? I i.: J /
susiiy uy% suuii ueuumt-s tueu. hulll tiertion
when chased, does not lay, though c
in good health, and is very heavy when a
held in the hands. We do not 6tate that i
my one of the above causes indicate a 1
fat hen, but to observe her in all of I
them. Of course, the surest method is c
to lift her and the weight will be there. 8
Examination of the rear of the body will t
ilso show the fat under the skin by its r
color. s
As to what should be the character t
und quantity of the food required to f
fceep them in a healthy condition, can- 8
not be correctly stated, as no two hens $
ire alike. Leghorns and Brahmas (or c
Dther large breeds) should not be kept t
together. If hens are in good condition,
the best food is chopped clover hay
(chopped half an inch in length and
calded), all they will eat in the morning,
a tablcspoonful of ground meat
mixed with mashed potatoes; and scatter
wheat for them to pick up before going
to roost.?Farm and Fireside.
BOYS ON THE FARM.
The decadence of farming of late years
is largely due to the undeniable fact that
city life has offered greater attractions as
well as greater profits to the young.
While it is true that farming does not
now require so severe and unremitting
toil as formerly, can it be said that
young people on the farm have been encouraged
to find their pleasures and relaxation
at home? This is the only way
to make farm life attractive to the average
young man. If on each holiday he
goes to the city,it will naturally soon seem ;
to him that city life is all a holiday while | c
life on the farm is one of unceasing i
drudgery. It often happens that city c
boys kept at work in stores, and only
allowed to so into the country for vaca- I
tion, sec only the holiday side of farm
life, and acquire a love for it that those ,
brought up on the farm too often do not
share. Why do not farmers take a hint .
from these facts, and make as much holiday
as possible for their sons at home?
[t is time that the old rule, which made t
the boy hoe his row and run for water,
while the men rested, was superseded by a
? practice which would give boys the
easiest tasks, and the little investments f
that gave largest profits, as the best
means to interest them in farming and ^
make this the occupation of their lives.
?Boston Cultivator.
t
SMALL FRUIT CULTURE.
For leaders who propose a spring 8
planting of strawbeiries or other small
fruits,a few points selected from a paper f
read at a meeting of the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society by M. P. M. Au- i:
gur, Pomologist of the Board of Agri- t
culture of the State of Connecticut, will
be both seasonable and useful. For c
spring planting, for fruit alone, it Is rec- c
ommended tc set the strawberry in rows
three feet apart and one and a half feet
in the row, allowing each spring plant j.
to throw one strong runner on each side,
rooting a single plant opposite the intervening
spaces so that each trio will rep- 8
resent the angles of a triangle. For I
July planting, set in rows two feet apart
and one and a half in the row, just after f
a rain, when each plant can be taken up c
with a mat of earth adhering.
The Wilson was once every man's t
berry; the crescent was called the iazy f
man's berry, and the Haviland is much
after the style of the crescent. All are t
rather too small to be satisfactory. There t
are now too many good varieties offered
to allow of detail in their description.
Asa rule, the pistillate varieties have
been the most productive when properly c
matched with suitable bi-sexuals. Thus
three or four rows of the Jewell, with ^
the Sharpless on one side and the Bel- '
mont on the other, are considered well
matched. Likewise the Jersey Queen, c
with the Cumberland on the one side y
and the Charles Downing on the other, (
have produced immensely.
With the raspberry and the blackberry, j
as with the strawberry, the tendency is ,
to overcrowd. Plant raspberries six feet |
by six feet apart; blackberries, eight
feet by six feet. When the canes reach j
three and a half feet, nip out the tips, j
which will give strong laterals, aud when
these reach one and a half feet clip them.
Few are aware of the possibilities of
these plants when well treated.
PEAS IN THE GARDEN.
Early peas are usually a very profitable
crop for the market gardener. They can
be planted among the earliest of any
crops, in fact just as soon as the ground
is in condition to work, and as the question
of profit is largely determined by
earliness every effort should be made to
secure this point. Choose ground that
is either level or that slopes slightly toward
the south, and prepare it by working
in a very liberal quantity of good
manure. Enough should be applied to
make the soil distinctively rich and loose,
so that its quality ia apparent to the eye
and the hand.
To put the soil in the best condition
to secure quick germination of the seed,
it should have the benefit of hand labor,
provided the area to be planted is small
jnough to warrant this. There is no
sther tool that will put a seed bed in as
jood condition as a sharp-toothed steel
rake. After all has been done that the
plow and harrow can accomplish the rake
:an still be used to advantage to finish
to the depth of a couple of inches.
Drills can then be opened by a small
garden plow, worked by hand, and the
leed covered by the same implement,
rhe Beed should be sown rather thickly
n it, either by hand or with the seed
Irill opened so as to let the seed run out
iberally.
An appreciable gain in earliness is
nadc by sprouting the seed before plantrig
by mixing it with the fine soil and
ceeping it warm and moist for twenty:ourhour3
before using. Thus prepared
ind planted, the warm suns of April will
ift the younsr sprouts above the ground.
rhe variety to bo used is of course a
first and best," of any reliable seedsnan.
The kinds known as "halfiwarf,"
will in the average prove most
)rofitable. But where space is very
imited, or for forcing in hotbeds,
Iwarf varieties, like "American Wonder"
>5er special advantages. They require
10 brushing, and may be planted in close
ows, but to give best results the plants
hould not stand closer in the rows than
ix inches.
The question of Btaking the vinea
hould be determined by the availability
>f labor and brush. As soon as the
rine has attained a height of a few
nches it begins to throw out tendrils
hat seek for some support. If this is
urnished the vine will expand more
han if left to itself, and probably will
tave a greater fruiting capacity. If
>rush is not supplied to encourage vinng
there should at least be some proection
afforded to prevent the vines
Iropping upon the ground. The pods
ire quickly soiled by contact with the
jround, and in wet weather will rot.
ro guard against this stakes may be
>laced at intervals along the rows, and
>ne or two strands of heavy twine
tretched so as to catch the vines when
hey "begin to fall over, or a clean mulch
ttay be spread which will answer the
ame purpose. The mulch, too, would
>e of value in checking evaporation
rom the soil in case of drought, but
hould not be spread until the season is
o far advanced that the ground has be-'
:ome thoroughly warmed, or it will reard
the earliness of the crop.
Within a week from the first picking,
)eas usually be come plentiful in the
narkets and the price goes down onelalf
or more, and remains down while
he bulk of the early'crops are being
vorked off. Then the price often re:overs
to nearly the first figure, as most
gardeners fail to have a "second early"
:rop sufficiently early to keep up a contant
supply. To meet this need a "secrnd
early" variety cannot be depended
in, but the same "earliest" sort should
>e planted again within a week of the
irst sowing. The ground upon which
larly peas are grown can always be used
or a second crop, as the peas will be off
n time to plant potatoes, late cabbage
?r celery. So the manure applied should
>e in sufficient quantity for the needs of
>oth crops.?American Agriculturist.
FARM AND GARDEN NOTES.
Fresh ejzes are those not over a week
ild.
Fiesh water should be given twice a
lay.
A cow likes to be milked if she likes
icr milker.
Oats stand next to wheat as an egg>rc?ducing
food.
The greatest profit on a pig is in the
irst 200 pounds.
Radical changes of feed often make
he hens eat sparingly.
"Wheat bran wet with hot water makes
, good summer breakfast.
It is not necessary to coddle or pamper
owls to make them grow.
Roasting cotton seed ia said to greatly
mprove its feeding quality.
To keep fowls in a dirty, ill-ventilated
tennery is a foul proceeding.
Twentv-four hours after hatching is
oon enough to begin feeding.
The fowla will not thrive if they are
orced to stand in mud all day.
There la more profit, in the long run,'
n cultivating one acre than in skimming
en.
Keep your stables warm, dry and
lean, and provide plenty of good bedling.
One pound of cheese contains more
tutritive elements than two pounds of
leef.
Owing to its fertilizing value clover
hould never be sold for less than $15
)er ton.
Trim your fruit trees so as to give a
ree, open top, no two limbs touching or
rossing each other.
Close observers say that skim milk is
vorth twenty cents a hundred pounds
or feeding to calves and hogs.
Hen manure is no better than any other
aanure unless the food of the hens conains
valuable fertilizing elements.
Whenever the fowls can have a good
range and get plenty of green feed little
ir no animal food will be necessary.
Eggs are often badly flavored by alowing
the hens to werk too much over
he manure heap or to eat unsound feed.
Are your stables clean? For the sake
>f those who have to drink the milk?as
veil as the cow3?be sure they are
:lean.
The cow gets her exercise in gatherng
food to All her stomach. She is at
est when she is doing her best in elajorating
milk.
Don't put any faith in the methods of
improving bad butter or cheese after it
is made. The right way is not to make
i bad quality.
Change the water for fowl* at least
once a day, and place the water-vessels
of whatever kind in the shade to keep
as cool as possible.
With poultry,as with everything else on
the farm, there is always an opportunity
to 3ell at good prices fowls or eggs that
are of little better quality than others
are offering.
Game, Houdan, .Leghorn, Hamburg,
Andalusian, and Black Spanish are the
varieties o* chickens that require high
fences is order to control them. They
are all high flyers.
Sulphur for nests, whitewash for the
houses, coal oil for the roosts, cleanliness
for the floors and plenty of pure air and
a variety of food for the fowls are essentials
in profitable poultry keeping.
' ' V- -v.
... '
A SALT ISLAND.
THE WONDERFUL ISLA DEL CAR
jnufl Ui'r D1?A.1UU.
Xt Contains the Oaly Pnre "White
Natural Salt Deposit in the
World?Mined by Yaqal
Indiana.
One hundred and twenty miles southwest
of Guaymas, Mexico, and fire miles
east of the mainland of Lower Calif ornia,
in the Gulf of California, lies a
small island known to the Mexicans as
the Isla del Carmen.
Carmen Island, although only nineteen
miles in length and six miles in width at
its broadest part, is noted as one of the
most remarkable islands on the American
continent. At this place is found
the only pure white natural salt deposit
known, and the value of such a mine is
secondary only to the fabled gold mines
of King Solofeion. The island is owned
by a Spani3h-American named James
Viosca, who went to Lower California
thirty years ago and married a daughter
of the Governor. FTa livflrt nfc T.* Pa*
the capital of the lower half of the State,
where he has been American CodsuI for a
number of years.
Carmen Island is fortunate in having
a fine harbor in Salinas Bay where large
vessels find an anchorage in four fathoms
of water. Within a mile of this anchorage
the salt is mined. Just how long
since this saline deposit was discovered
no one can state with any accuracy. Two
hundred years ago there was a Jesuit
mission at Loreto on the mainland west
of the island, and it is known that the
fathers obtained the salt they used for
domestic purposes from Isla del Carmen,
' but among tho Yaqui Indians there is a
legend that their forefathers knew of the
deposit long before the mission was established
and that it was one of their
number who first acquainted tbe pious
brethren of the existence of the mine.
But it was not until 1865 that the salt
deposit was utilized for commercial purposes.
In that year a Mexican, who divined
the value of the mine, bought the
island from the Government, but after
owning it only two years he sold his title
to Ben Holliday, of famous overland
stage-line notoriety, for $91),000. The
new proprietor engaged James Viosca to
manage his acquisition, but after Holliday
died the bankrupt estate was glad to
realize ready cash for the salt treasure,
and Viosca became the owner of Carmen
Island. To him it has become veritable
gold mine.
The salt deposits cover a surface of
1000 acres. About one-third of this
acreage is a mass of pure, clean white
salt; the remainder is covered simply
with a layer of soil, brought there by
rains from the adjacent mountains, and
also in places with a thin coating of coral,
all of which when removed show the
pure white salt beneath. The suit deposits
in this basin have proved by actual
investigation to be fourteen feet in thickness,
but it is hard to work at any depth
below the surface, as the briny water
sweeping through creates a new layer of
salt of from five to eight inches in thickness
in fifteen days. The most remarkable
thing about this deposit is the fact
that although the salt has been taken
from this basin for ages, the surface of
the lake has never been lowered, but always
retains the same level.
The method of obtaining the salt is
very simple. A man armed with an iron
bar breaks off chunks of the crystalline
mass, which are then loaded into carts
and hauled to dry land, from 600 to 800
feet distant. Here the stuff is dumped,
reloaded and taken to the wharf, half a
mile away, where lighters receive the salt
and convey it to the vessels lying in the
bay. Crude as this system is, the cost
of mining the salt and conveying it to the
wharf averages a trifle leas than twentyfive
cents a toe.
The entire salt basin is always covered
with a briny solution averaging four
inches in depth. The workmen, who
are mostly Yaqui Indians, wade around
all day long in their bare feet in this
pickle deposit, and the result of their exposure
is seen in numerous ca86s of sore
ankles to which the Indians pre subjected.
Before they became hardened
to the work the poor fellows suffer excruciating
torments the moment their
joints come in contact with the salt
water, but, like everything else, the system
finally gets accustomed to the exposure,
and, once thoroughly seasoned, the
Indians cease to complain. But irritating
as this is, it does not compare with
the agony suffered by the poor fellows,
who, while pounding the briny crystals,
receives a splash of salt water in his eye.
Half a dozen of the Yaquis have partially
lost their sight in this way and one Indian
on the island has become totally
blind. The brine is so strong that if a
particle gets into the optic the sight is
destroyed unless the saline substance can
be removed at onco by a vigorous application
of fresh water. As pure water can
only be obtained at a distance it often
.'happens that the sufferer prefers to take
his chances rather than go to the trouble
of reaching the remedy. Hence one-eyed
workmen are quite prevalent on the
island.
Many theories have been advanced accounting
for the presence of this wonderful
salt deposit, bnt the one most generally
accepted is that the surrounding hills
and mountains contain immense sodium
deposits, which are dissolved by natural
courses of water, either rain or underground,
veins, and then carried to the
lowest ground which in this case is the
basin that contains the salt deposits. All
creeks in this vicinity discharging their
water into this lake have salt water before
getting to a point even several feet
higher than the surface water of the
lake, which has no communication whatever
with the sea. It is only fed from
these creeks flowing from the adjacent
hilis and mountains.
The salt found on this island is of a
very superior quality and is believed to
be the only pure, white, natural, refined
salt?deposit or mine?in existence. In
its natural deposit it is found in even
layers from five to eight inches in thickness.
It forms even and pure white crystals,
and is ready for the mill as taken
from the lake. When fine table salt is
required no other refining process is
needed than that of milling.
The actual deposit, extending over
620 acres,at a uniformed depth of twelve
feet, gives 340,170,000 cubic feet, or
12,148,92S tons of pure,perfectly refined
salt. As soon as the workmen have excavated
a given number of cubic feet
they abandon the site and operate at another
point. In the first cavity the brine
comes quickly to the surface, reforms or
crystallizes, and in two weeks is ready
again for the native miners. This proc/
I
' ' '.v.cess
of reforming is constantly progressing
and the attentive watcher may se<
the crystals appear on the surface ia
much the same way that suoirflakei
gather and form in a concrete mass.
Mexicans Are Not Rich in Expedients.
On the tramway between the towns ol
Zac-atecis and Guadalupe in Mexico,
which are a few miles apart, the waj
from Zacatecas is down grade. Thi
cars go at great speed by their own
gravitation; no ammais are anacnea,
for the descent is as steep as a toboggan
slide. It requires six mules, however,
to draw each car back again. The animals
are harnessed three abreast, like
the horses in the Paris omnibuses. Even
the projectors of the tramway had no
fixed idea as to how it should be
operated, and an American overseer "ha3
been in charge from the beginning.
The cars were ordered from Philadelphia,
and while they were being built, the
steel rails, which came from Liverpool
by way of Vera Cruz, were laid down
from one end of the route to the other.
When the cars arrived, it was found
that they would not run on the track, as
the rails had been laid on a guage three
inches narrower than that for which the
cars were designed. The Mexicans, in
their ignorance, saw but one way out ot
the difficulty; that was, to rebuild the
cars, make the bodies narrower, and cut
off the axle-trees to fit the gauge of the
rails. The present superintendent, a
practical American engineer, was in
Zacatecas at tne time, ana tooK in tne
state of affairs at a glance. He offered
for five hundred dollars to show the
owners how to get over the trouble without
altering an article on the cars. The
money was paid, and with twenty men
and proper tools the American took up a
few rods of the track, made a gauge for
the rest, and in one day had the cars
running over the short distance. The
managers of the road at once put the
American in charge, and he has held the
position ever since.?Argonaut.
A Great South-American Railway.
The station of the great Southern
Railway on the Plaza de la Constitucion
at Buenos Ayres is a vast and handsome
building, which will bear comparison
with the best modern railway stations in
Europe. The monumental marble staircase
and entrance hall, the offices of the
administration, the waiting rooms, and
the arrival and departure platforms,
spanned by a tasteful iron roof, are all
as fine as anything of the kind in the
Old World. The adjoining goods station
and depots are of enormous extent,
and during the season form the great
wool market of Buenos Ayres. The
plan and distribution of the various services
are most conveniently arranged. The
rolling stock of the great Southern Com????
//>?. naao>H/fQK 4- Kaffir* ia liirn fKft afa .
pauj 1U1 HIOIUO id) KUW VUW w?v> |
tion, of the most modern and improved
description, built in England, the ordinary
cars on the North American plan,
and the sleeping cars on the European
system, with compartments of four bed3.
This company runs also vestibule trains
between Buenos Ayres and La Plata,
and these cais, likewise built in England,
are fitted up with the greatest
luxury, and provided with every convenience
that a traveler can desire. I confess
that I was agreeably surprised to
find such an admirably appointed railway
in the new republic. In the Old
World, even in these days of international
expresses and through trains from the
Bastille to the Sublime Porte, the public
is not accustomed to such splendor as the
Buenos Ayres great Southern Company
offers to the nil admirari Argentine farmers.?Hwjper'a
Magazine.
Sural Argentine.
All the country traversed by the above
railway lines is devoted to pastoral and
agricultural industries, and the landscape,
with the exception of the hilly district
of the Sierra de Tandil and the Sierra de
la Ventana, is alwayB the same?bare
pamDa, with 6tretches of marshes and
small lakes abounding in wild-fowl. As
for the estancias, towns, villages, and
colonies, when you have seen one you
have seen all, and all are equally unpicturesque.
The life, too, has become
less fertile hi picturesque incidents since
the enclosure of the land with wire
fences, which makes the management of
the herds much simpler, and enables the
estancieros to dispense with the guard of
mounted gauchos, who are now to be
seen only in the very distant interior. At
present the majority of the population
has no particular character, being composed
of Italian and French immigrants,
of Basques with red or blue cloth caps,
and a few native gauchos with broad .
belts constellated with silver coins, long
ponchos, and wide Oriental trousers like
petticoats, generally black, but sometimes
striped with brilliant colors.
Nowadays, however, the gaucho is losing
his individuality, abandoning his pecu1?A?
A K/jPrtminrr aaoimilttpd
tiai WObUUig| dUU UbUUUMUg I
in dress and habits with the swarms of
miscellaneous Europeans who have peopled
the modern Argentine, &nd made
the hundreds of colonies and towns that
have sprung into existence within the
past tea years. To visit these young
centres of so-called civilization is no
pleasant task.?Harper's Magazine.
Yellow Pine the Peer of Any Woed.
A Chicago paper says workers in ornamental
wood now assert that yellow
pine, hard fi?ished in oils, is the rival
in beauty of any wood that grows, not
excepting the costliest of the hard
species, it being susceptible of receiving'
and maintaining as high a degree of
polish as auy known wood, while, when
impregnated with cil, it is almost indestructible.
In such a condition it is im- '
pervious to even hot grease and other
| substances that leave an ineffaceable
stain upon white pine, maple and various
other woods. The yellow pine referred
to is the long leaf pine growing so
abundantly in East Texas. Trees can be
found in this species with a curled grain
a little on the plan of "curly maple."
No other wood can be made into more
beautiful cabinet work. There are a
few small mills in the long-leaf pine i
regions further east that cut this char- |
acter of piae exclusively, shipping the
product to 'Northern cities.?Boston
Transcript.
How Tall Chimneys Oscillate.
The extent or degree of the oscillation
of tall chimneys may be exactly taken
by a close observation of the shadows
they cast upon the ground. An instance
to the point is that of a chimney 115
feet high and four feet in diameter externally
at the top, near Marseilles, 1
Franca, the oscillations of which were i
observed by the shadow during a high
wind to attain a maximum of over twenty
inches.?Detroit Free Press.
i
jSBF m*:' 'AS
' I I la '
POPULAR 8CIXHCS.
The great Lick telescope, of California,
reveals about 100,000,000 of stars. The
greatest ocean depth ever found
by measurement was in the Atlantic near
Puerto Rico, 4651 fathoms.
Aluminium bronze is rapidly super*
seding manganese bronze for screw pro* .
pellers in high-speed vessels.
By a new device pieces of metal may
be shaped with rapidity by being forced
under dies while rendered soft or plastic
by an electric current.
It is stated that undented tin platef
will give an electric current in common
water when one is exposed to -the light
and the other screened.
A new roofing paper is made by applying
to the miner a comnosifcion of boiled
linseed oil and pulverized charcoal. - The
paper so prepared is said to be perfectly
sir and water proof under all circumstances.
7
The residuum of petroleum "distillation,
which at one time was a by-product of a
little value, has now, owing to the increased
demands for lubricating oils and
wax, become more valuable than the first (
product.
It ia proposed doing away with the old
system of lightning rod protection and
replacing the rods with narrow ribbons
of copper, which will use up the energy of
the lightning and save the building
frcm destruction.
An English engineer has designed,and
is now manufacturing, a portable crosscut
saw; that is, a large two-man saw
that can be folded up into small com-,.
pass. It is really a flexible chain of sawteeth
riveted together.
The ratio to the circumference to the
diameter of the circle was computed by ~
Archimedes as 22.7, and P. Metros
A~ U QKK 11Q A . +n,}.V.,o * ['*
UIOUO IV WVcAAV* <UU?V? a WAUVUQ va?"
culation Shanks has now fixed it as far
as 530- decimals, and Rutheiford has
verified the result up to the 440th deci-' y
mal.
According to the latest observations v ;.V<
which Dr. Finsterwalder has published, J-'' ?
as stated in the Scottish Geographical Magazine,
the region occupied by advancing
glaciers is extending from west to east,
and has lately crossed the limits of the },>
eastern Alps. The glaciers in this regioa '
have been receding during the last thirty . O.
years, but now there is undeniable proof ;:h
that those of the Ortler group, at aiiy vj;
rate, are in a state of progression.
A physician has hit upon an excellent
way of utilizing rubber in the treatment
of wounds. He places one end of the
strip of rubber upon ode lip of the wound
and then stretches the rubber to fasten >
the other end to the opposite lip. In this v <
way he draws the several parts closely
together, and the elastic rubber continuously
holds them there. The efficiency
of the sheet rubber used was increased by
painting it over with a thin gutta-percha
cement.
Professor Keyes notes a remarkable . J
effect of gravitation in the form of some v
shells belonging to the genus Capultft.
TTTVil*A AMa4n?A ' a/1 in aifnaflArtd . 1
TV 11CU CUC WCCUUIC. CAIOICU iu DMIWMVUB
to cause an attachment beneath, so as to
be inverted, as it were, the shells- would
assume an elongated form. The same
species when found where they had to bo
"right side up," or on the top of a flat
surface, had wide, depressed shells.
Some would consider these forms as requiring
new specific names. Professor
Keyes contends that a true description of
the species should be so drawn as to i
allow for such variations.
Photographing a Bursting Babble. l||
At a recent lecture before the Royal
Institution, England, the lecturer, after
referring to a series of photographs of
animals in motion, which had been taken
by means of a movable shutter, said that i
rapidly occurring phenomena might also
be photographed by the exposure of the * <
lefts to a flash of magnesium light or to
the electrical spark. After stating that
qeither of these flashes was absolutely instantaneous,
he proceeded to show their
actual duration. It appears .that a flash ,
from a Leyden jar lasts less than onetwenty-five
millionth part of a second.
3ome idea may be formed of such a duration
by considering that it is nearly the
tame fraction of a second as one second '
Is of a year, as a year contains, roughly,
25,000,000 seconds. It was further
ihown that a soap film might be photographed
in the act of breaking, but as
this occupied less than one-tenth of a
lecond, it was more difficult to photo*
graph than jets of liquid. A dry shot
would pass through a soap bubble without
breaking it, bnt a shot wetted with f
alcohol would break the film at once'.
By means of the dropping of weights suspended
from the electro-magnet it was
??:kir, matra fho Kmlnnv nf.th*
pvaOlU&W uw tuaav v**w q ww ?
Sim and the flash of the spark simultaneous,
and thus photograph the film in
the act of breaking.?New Orleans Timet
Democrat.
"m i
Canine Jealousy.
Druggist Koehler lives in Mounts Auburn.
He owns a huge bloodhound,
which for a long time had been the pet
of the children on the block. Not long
ago he presented his neighbor, Mr. Hill,
with a solemn looking little pug. The
children immediately transferred their
affections from the big bloodhound to ,
the little pug. The bloodhound moped
for a while, and once or twice assaulted
his riril, the pug. The other
day the pug disappeared. It was sought
far and wide. One of Mr. Hill's servant!
remembered that she had seen the bloodiound
carrying the pug pup in his
nouth through the side yard of the Hill
residence. Another search was made.
The pug was found in tlje cistern. It
vas dead. The bloochound had captured
the pug, carried it into the rear
rard and dropped it into the cistern
veil, the cover of which was half removed.
The bloodhound thus du posed
>f his rival.?Cincinnati ComnwrciiL
Treatment of Lockjaw.
It was not long ago discovered in Germany
that inoculations with the blood of
victim of lockjaw fail to produce the
disease, but that fluids from the wounds
causing the lockjaw invariably give rise
to it. This indicates that the specific
poison of lockjaw remains near its point
bf entrance, and that iocal treatment is
necessary. .Acting on this theory, Dr.
Pavilini recommends subcutaneous injections
of carbolic acid. A severe case
of lockjaw in a boy of fifteen was on the
ifourth day treated with injections of a
pne per cent, solution of carbolic acid
pear the wound in the foot, and this was
bontinued at intervals increasing from
three hours untiljthe twenty-seventh day.
The boy recovered.?Trenton (aY. J.)
American.
__ J" _**? . rL'.i_ _ . . . _ * ! i ' ^