Newspapers / The Pinehurst Outlook (Pinehurst, … / Dec. 24, 1897, edition 1 / Page 2
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THK PINEHURST OUTLOOK. RESOURCEFUL SMITH. Here Is the Scheme by Which He Grew Rich Shoeing Horses. "I lived at a little crossroads hamlet which was not even a postoffice, on the line between New York state and Penn sylvania," said a story teller to a Sioux City Journal reporter. "Of course, there was a blacksmith shop there. In those days the blacksmith's trade was a noto riously good one. All the blacksmiths got rich with their horse, mule and ox shoeing, and the wagon and the other repair work which they did. Most of the blacksmiths combined with their other work wagon repairing and even wagon making. There were very few big wagon factories in those days, and a good hand made wagon cost big mon ey. When they wero doing nothing else, they would mako wagons, and when there was lots of transient work the wagons had to wait. This state line shop was a busy place. There was no tavern there, but the blacksmith also had a cider press, and he made the cider for all the farmers for miles around. But neither this nor the profits of his shop could account for the rapid way in which he accumulated wealth. As is well known, apple cider, if allowed to stand long enough, will become "hard," and after that it will turn into vinegar. "This cider dealer always had plenty of hard cider on hand, but never had any vinegar for sale. Tho farmers and others who stopped at his place could always get a drink of hard cider, which they took out of a tin dipper at 10 cents a drink, and tho size of the drink was something which attracted very little attention. Hardly any kind of beverage is more intoxicating than hard cider. It is a good deal like champagne in one respect. You can drink a great deal of it one day, and the next day you will be awfully sick and sorry, and a good deal drunker than when you went to bed. The blacksmith required no license to sell hard cider, and he worked the game to the limit. His place became very popular, and the farmers came from many miles around in both states to get their horses shod at his place. Many of them would come home drunk, and their wives began to protest. They always hadtohavo some excuse for hav ing visited the state line shop, and so the blacksmith, after supplying them with a few dipperfuls of hard cider, would take the shoes off . their beasts and put on new ones, whether they needed it or not. For this service he would charge a good round price, while in many instances it was noticed he made no charge for the cider. "But, as is the way of all flesh, this blacksmith died one day, and then his business secrets came out. He left an estate of over $80, 000, and in the cellai of the cider press a great number oi empty whisky barrels were found. For years he had been putting whisky into his cider and had been setting new shoes on nearly every horse which came along, willy nilly. "Washington Star. Methods of the Blind. The blind man has to depend almost entirely on the accuracy of his ears t( guide him wherever he may wish to go, and it is remarkable in what a short time he becomes familiar with a new locality and fresh surroundings. Few people are aware of the powers of the ear, but the blind, through con stant exercise of that organ, are able to discover objects almost as rapidly as a seeing person. For instance, when walking in a per fect calm, he can ascertain the proxim ity of objects by the feeling of the at mosphere upon his face. It would seem at first that the echo given back, were it only from his breathing, might be sensible to his ear, but it Bas been as certained by experiment that a blind man with his cars stopped can tell when any large object is close to his face, even when it approaches so slowly as not to cause any s nsible current of air. When ho is walking along the street, he can tell whether it is wide or nar row, whether tho houses are high or low, if any opening which he may be passing is a court closed up at the end or whether it has an outlet to another street, and he can tell by the sound of his footsteps in what lane, or court, oi squaro ho is. He goes along boldly, seeming to see with his ears and to have landmarks in the air. Of course no blind man likes to go over a new route unattended, but after he has traversed it once he knows every point of importance to him. Pearson's Weekly. WOMEN'S CLUBS. Their Real Position as Inculcators of Cul ture and Refinement. Well, to blurt out the awful truth at once, I have never thought so highly of intellectual stimulation as 1 have of some other things in life It is by no means clear as yet that the power of intellect upon life is of the greatest value, just as the history of human nature does not go to show that seeing clearly and doing well have been invariably associated One man or one woman with that extended and clarifying vision which is occassionally tho flower of a well informed mind, but is oftener the fruit of a beautiful spirit, is a greater power for all right mindedness than the most active intellect under tho most conscientious stimulation And as to the opportunity for culture offered in the woman's clubs, i seems to me that in a last analysis true culture eludes any con scious effort to acquire it. 1 have liked to think that culture, like all other graces of the mind and soul, is not attained by be ing too consciously sought. It droppeth like tho gentle rain from heaven and in solitudo and self dependence It is a 'quiet fireside thing,' which neither needs nor desires the contribution of the exchange place One gets it, as one gets grace from above, in the seclusion of one's closet and as the guest of one's own soul. So far from ministering to real culture and scholarship, 1 make so bold as to say that no club, social or technical, male or female, bond or free, ean do more than to receive the results of individual scholar ship and culture or offer more than mere stimulation This of itself is good, if one does not make too much of it, and in small towns, where the wheels of life go slowly, where books are scarce and the re sources of the individuals are not abun dantly developed, a woman's club is no doubt a necessary means to growth and diversion, even though the work under taken be solemn enough to make a Ger man university professor laugh. But that was a profound truth of Margaret Fuller's "The soul that lives too much in relations becomes at last a stranger to its own resources " Helen Watterson Moody in October Scribner's. The Autograph Book of Blue. She gave him her book to write in Her autograph book of blue And she said, "Write it straight now, Tommy And something nice and true." Stiffly and squarely he wrote a line For his queen with the eyes of blue Proudly and signed it "Tommy" "Maggie, I love you true." A youth came from a college A student grave and wise fle looked at the little old autograph book. He looked at her true blue eyes, And he scrawled, with cynical smiling, In the old, old book of blue, Of the folly of lovo, and signed it "Thomas Reginald Hugh." man came from his labors, Learned in the school of years, Uazed at the little blue book and dreamed And gazed as ho dreamed through tears. Then he looked and saw her smiling With tears in her eyes of blue, And he wrote and signed it "Tommy "Maggie, I love you true." H. W. Jakeway in October Ladies' Home Journal. CORN AS Conclusions Drawn by Professor Richards From Careful Tests Made. It is difficult to say at what time corn was first burned, but it has probably been used to a greater or less extent for a good many years. Dire necessity drove tho early settlers of the western portion of tho Unit ed States to this practice, and the results were sufficiently good to warrant its con tinuance. In a general way it has been recognized that when com is abundant and cheap and coal is expensive tho former makes a cheaper fuel than tho latter, although no scientific determination of their relative efficiency has ever been made, so far as the author is aware. During last winter, however, a number of inquiries wTcre re ceived by the department of agriculture of the University of Nebraska, asking for in formation about the efficiency of corn as fuel, and the author undertook tho inves tigation of this subject. From the experience of the author in conducting boiler tests of corn it is doubt ful whether it would be a practicable fuel for the generation of power unless it were burned in some special furnace that would insure the perfect combustion of the vola tile matter which forms so large a percent age of the whole corn and which is driven off at a comparatively low heat. Some form of automatic stoker would also be desirable, since the corn burns rapidly and must be frequently fired, making the work of the firemen very arduous and at tho same time tending to cause incomplete combustion by the excess of cold air enter ing through tho fire door. Undoubtedly corn may at times be a cheap and economical fuel for domestic use. It is cleaner and more easily handled than coal and contains but a very small amount of ash It burns rapidly with an intense heat, which is apt to be destructive to the cast iron linings of the stove. Here, again, some special form of firebox that will not be injured by tho heat and that will utilize as much of the heat as pos sible should bo used If the rate of com bustion be too great, much of tho heat will pass up the chimney It is interesting to note that an acre of land will produce from 40 to 80 bushels of corn, which, if burned, will yield from 22,512,000 B T. U. to 45,024,000 B. T U., not counting the heat that could bo obtained from the stalk. Since a ton of good coal will give up from about 20,000, 000 to 20,000,000 B. T. U., an acre of ground is each year capable of producing fuel which is equal to from 0.87 or 1.28 to 1.74 or 2.50 tons of coal Tho stalk will probably increase this amount by one fourth or one-third. Professor C. It Richards in Cassier's Magazine For October. The Use of the Great Toe. The negroes of the West Indies use the great toe constantly in climbing. Several years ago, while spending some time at one of the famous resorts in Ja maica, I had an opportunity to observe the skill with which the black women, who do a great part of the menial labor, carried stone, mortar and other build ing materials on their heads to the top of a five story tower in a part of the hotel not then finished. Much of the unerring accuracy with which they (women and girls) chased each other up and down the long lad ders, with heavy loads skillfully poised on their woolly pates, was due to the firmness with which they grasped each rung of the ladders with the great toe. They did not place the ball or the hol low of the foot on the rung, but the groove at the juncture of the great toe with the body of the foot, and they held fast by making the back of the other toes afford the other gripping sur face. In much tho same way the Abys sinian native cavalry grasp the stirrup. And I have seen a one armed Santo Do mingan black, astride the near ox in a wheel yoke, guiding a lead mule with a rein held between his great and sec ond toes, while his only arm was devot ed to cracking his teamster's whip. A German Story of an American Attempt to Doom a Sewing Machine. The following story, which was pub lished in German in connection with the death of Marie Seebach, the noted German actress, shows very well the conception of American affairs which still prevails in Germany to a certain extent. Seebach was here more than 20 years ago, and it is scarcely possible that such an incident as is described would have taken place then, but many such stories are told in Germany today as illustrative of American enterprise. According to this reminiscence Mario Seebach one day received a message that a gentleman wished to see her. She told the servant to send him to her drawing room in the hotel, and when he arrived he introduced himself as a certain Colonel Smith. Then he plunged at the object of his visit and said that he represented a certain well known make of sewing machines. "1 have already heard," he said, "that you are a great artist. I want to find out if you aro a good business wo man as well. Do you want to make some money?" "Oh, I've no objections to make to that," she said, "if it is possible in a perfectly correct and dignified way." "Oh, it's in tho most correct way possible that I propose," the visitor continued, "and I offer you $10,000 for doing it. " "What have I to do in return?" ask ed Seebach. "Nothing in the world," the colonel replied, and as he noticed the expres sion of astonishment on her face he went on: "I told you that I came from a sewing machine companyone of tho largest in the world. All that I demand of you in return for the $10,000 is that as Marguerite in the spinning wheel scene from 'Faust' you will use one of our sewing machines instead of the wheel, and just keep it in motion for a few seconds. Then we would let hand bills drop from the gallery, saying that the machine used by Marie Seebach was made by our firm. " The actress is said to have hesitated for a second, but, in tho end, her re spect for Goethe's tragedy is described as tho feeling which saved her artistic reputation. This story is of a type that disap peared from general use 40 years ago. It is of the kind told about P. T. Bar num in the earlier days of his career, but stories of the kind still pass muster in Europe, although a press agent who attempted anything of the kind in this country would soon lose his job. New York Sun. FREE BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE. The Seaboard Air I.lne About Double I lie Amount mo Curried. The Seaboard Air Line lias followed up its differential tariff, which reduced through fares about one-third, by an other stroke of policy equally as bold. The general passenger department yes terday issued a circular which will doubtless cause excitement in railway circles throughout the South. The cir cular reads: "On and after December 5, 181)7, and until further notice, the Seaboard Air Line, in order to meet the action of its competitors, will allow free three hun dred 300 pounds of baggage for each passenger holding a full ticket, and one hundred and fifty 150 pounds for each half ticket, between stations on its lines. "The rules governing the checking of baggage to be the same outlined in excess baggage tariff No. 1, in effect Jan uary 15, 1897, and Circular No. A890, in effect June 10, 18!)G. There will be n change in the free allowance in checking baggage through to points beyond the Seaboard Air Line." Norfolk Virginian.
The Pinehurst Outlook (Pinehurst, N.C.)
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Dec. 24, 1897, edition 1
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