Newspapers / The Roanoke Beacon and … / Oct. 13, 1899, edition 1 / Page 4
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TIIH BUSINESS OP TlIK BIGGEST Mill'. t k Atlanta Constitution. While the reading public has been tolerably informed aa to the size and Bpeed of the great ocean liners and knows by how many feet each would overtop the Washington monument or how many city diocks 11 wouiu uu, there is one feature of the immensity of these ships of which very little is known even by the most experienced travelers This fmncerns the business management of these vessels, which in the case of the largest liners has grown to be an enterprise of vast proportions requiring the services of hundreds 01 men. For example, the operation of the Oceanic, the largest steamer ever Duiit, which arrived in New York on her maiden trip last week, involyes amulti tude of activities and is managed on a scale that seems almost incredible to the landsman. An inkling of their proportions may be gained from the fact that it would take a miner twenty five years of steady work to get out the coal required to fill the bunkers of the Oceanic for a single trip, while the iooa supplies that she demands for each voyage would more than support the miner and his family during the whole of that time. To appreciate the vastness of the business operations connected with the greatest ocean liner it is necessary to rid one's mind of the idea that she is a ship as our fathers understood that term. She is not manned by sauors, and. the seamen form an inconsiderable number in the make-up of her crew. Nor is she a floating hotel, as the maga zine' writer is fond of calling her. There is no hotel that compares with her in the extent and variety of its activities. The, Oceanic is an ocean city nothing less. When she is at sea she has a popu lation of 2,000 as great, as many a town with county seat aspirations can claim. A score of diiterent trades and occupations are practiced on board her. , She has independent lighting, heating and refrigerating plants, machine shops, a printing office, a carpenter shop, in short almost all the equipment of an up to date community, together with much that is peculiar to herself. WHAT A SINGLE VOYAGE MEAN8. To all practical purposes each voyage represents a complete business venture, All accounts are rendered separately for each voyage. The crew from the cap tain down are engaged at the European port for each round trip. They are technically discharged at the conclusion of the voyage and must sign new ar ticles before they are shipped again. Aa soon as the liner ties up at her pier at the end of oae voyage the prep arations for the succeeding one begin. While cargo is being discharged from one side great barges are pouring coal into her bunkers from the other. The . Oceanic has a coal carrying capacity of 3,700 tons and burns upwards of 2,000 tons on each voyage. It requires the service of Bixty men working steadily for forty hours to coal her and the operation cobih aooui ifijzuu. xue uum itself costs about five times that amount. - ""--'j'n-oihr Words the coal bill of a vessel like the Oceanic while she is at sea amounts to the tidy sum of $1,000 per day.' While this operation is going on the Bhip undergoes a thorough cleaning that makes her shine like a new dollar. Painters, repairers and cleaners swarm over her. Truckloads of provisions, " amounting in the aggregate to half a hundred tons, are put on board. Every piece of her machinery, every plate and rivet is carefully inspected, and by the time the cargo is shipped and passeng ers come aboard a matter of $5,000, aside from the cost xt coal and . provis ions, has been expended in preparing her for her yoyage. THE MEN WHO DO THIS MARVEL. While the captain is of courae the supreme authority the actual manage ment is conducted by three separate departments. The first of these con cerns itself with the sailing of the vessel, , and is presided over by the chief navi gator under the directions of the cap tain himself. The Becond is the engi neer's department. This is under the direction of the chief engineer, with .wlLPm the captain seldom interferes. It """"-"wrtant to the "welfare and hjp, but the passengers jSjhag of its operations. meut looks after the Jtngers and is under jfchlef steward. ; Be three departments Imen shipboard j6 called Sailors. jwever, are not those of Jack Tar, but consist jibing decks and operat A machinery. In fact about , item of their work that recalls y time duties of the sailor is in trill for manning the boats, which are compelled to go through at ar intervals. The men under the tion of the navigators and their Officers number about 100 in all. ."In the engineering department fully 200 men are employed. The officers include, besides the chief engineer, a score of assistants, hydraulic engineers, refrigerator engineers, water tenders, storekeepers and a clerk. There are eixty-five stokers, divided into three 6 hi P:ur hose duty it is to shovel into ' ""-aj, prppd While the principal activities of the ship 8 company are comprised within those departments presided over by the chief navigator, the chief engineer and the chief steward, there are numberless smaller enterprises that go on more or less independently. Ihere is a vast vast amount of auxiliary machinery; in fact, nearly everything is done by ma chinery on board the modern ocean liner. The Oceanic carries some forty hydraulic engines. There are engines to open and close the furnace doors and to open and close the partitions between the watertight compartments; an engine to work the fifty-three ton rudder; en gines to work the hawse pipes; hydraulic lifts to convey food and dishes from kitchen to pantry. This machinery, together with the electric light and re frigerator plants, requires the services of half a hundred men. Thus there are some three hundred men employed in the actual work of sailing a ereat ocean monster like the Oceanic. The remaining two hundred are required to look after the comfort of the passenger. FEEDING THE PASSENGERS. The culinary operations of the Oce anic dwarf those of even the largest hotels. No less than twenty-four meals are served on shipboard every day. There are four each for the first and second cabin passengers, the engineers, stewards and sailors. - Each of these seven big families has its own staff of cooks, numbering between thirty and forty altogether. There are about seventy dining room stewards waiters they would be called oa shore and about the same number of bedroom stewards or chamberlains. The yast responsibility for supplying food to the steamship community rests principally upon the chief steward Every afternoon he retires to his cabin and plans out the menus for the follow ing day a separate one for each of his numerous families from the elaborate course dinners of the first cabin folks to the comparatively simple fare of steerage and crew. These menus are then printed by the ship's printer and distributed to the chiefs of the various divisions. They estimate the amount of various food materials that they will require and submit these estimates to the steward for his approval. The next step is to make requisition on the storekeepers for the various meats, vegetables and other articles necessary to satisfy the sea appetites of 2,000 persons. The extent of this appetite may be conjectured from the f acti that the Oceanic ships for each trip some ten tons of beef, three tons of such other meats as mutton and veal, two tons of chickens and nearly two tons of ducks, turkeyB and such game birds as may be in season. These are merely the fresh meats which are stored in one big refrigerating room down in the depths of the ship, The vessel carries also two tons of smoked and dried meats, 2,000 dozen oysters, with fish, green vegetables and fruits in proportion. Of groceries and such commodities as will keep indefi nitely the provision Btores are kept filled In another cold storage room the Bhip carries 5,000 pounds of butter, 2,000 dozen eggs and 3,000 quarts of milk and cream. Another item not to be overlooked is 3,000 quarts of ice cream. These figures give a ready basis for computing the amounts of these various commodities used each day on Bhip- board. In addition it may be said that fifty pounds of coffee and over thirty pounds of tea are required daily. Four dozen bottles of Worcestershire are re quired to last out a .voyage with other condiments in proportion. Naturally a vast number of dishes are required. There are 1,500 silver spoons, forks and knives, and 2,500 of each variety of plates, cups and saucers necessary to meet all requirements. The broken dishes accumulated on each voyage fill several casks, and the cost of these is assessed equally on the whole body of stewards. ENOUGH LINEN TO STOCK A SHOr. To wash all theBe dishes is no light task. For the most part it is done by machinery. Big baskets of soile i dishes are lowered into tanks of boiling water which cleanses them thoroughly. Then they are dried by hand. The silver and finer china is washed by hand, and thia work keeps a force of twenty men busy. Of table aifd other linen the Oceanic requires ,&nough to stock a shop to last out a voyage. There are 1,000 table- clotns, 15,000 napkins and the same number of towels. Unlike most of its household operations the ship's laundry work is done on shore at the end of each trip in a plant maintained by the company for that purpose. The cooks are among the best paid of the ship's laborers. Chief cooks receive from $50 to $75 per mcnth according to the skill required of them. On the other hand the stewards receiye the least of any class, their wages being only about $15 per month. For the most substantial part of their income they must rely upon the tips of the passengers. While none of the ship's employees from the captain down receive rates of pay that are at all munificent, the great number of men empl yed makes the salary list amount up to a heavy sum. -,TnfVif;anic about $15,000 per month res alone, rnm these figures that " vjrreat ocean liner -f.el that has S $40,000 treme Vout BALOONS IN WARFARE. Vlr Ship to Carry Tweatr Men m Thoumnd Miles. The largest and one of the most pe :uliarly shaped balloons ever launched Into space was sent up from a suburb af Berlin recently by a corps of expert leronauts attached to the German irmy. The Kaiser's military managers are making numerous experiments with war balloons. They have been unusu ally successful, and some very startling discoveries in the way of aerial naviga tion and ballooning for the purpose of viewing and photographing the enemy and- their forts in time of war have been made. In launching this big air ship the united efforts of a score of soldiers were brought into requisition, and when a brisk breeze sprang up the gi ant gas cylinder broke away from its moorings, carrying Into the air a num- THE LARGETT BALOOX IX TOE WORLD ber of Emperor Wilhelm's pet officers. A huge scramble for rope ends ensued, and the mammoth balloon was saved, amid great applause and much perspi ration. This air warship can carry twenty men a thousand miles in less than half the time it takes a train of cars to travel. This is assuming, of course, that .the wind Is blowing in the right direction. Very little is known about the Kaiser's balloon experiments. The valuable things his officers and aero nauts have discovered have been re vealed to no one outside the official circles of the German army. Some day the fiery Teuton Emperor may startle the world with a complete fly ing machine and enemy annihilator. That, at least, Is what he Is working for at the present time. Took Away Ills Appetite. Kaler has a yacht and the means to go cruising when he feels like ft. Ha has a wonderful capacity for enlovina himself, but thinks more of a dollar than many a man in hla circumstances does of ten. At the same time he is so constituted that when he wants a thing he wants it, and the sport he af foids arises from his efforts to recon cile these two characteristics. 'At the next stop we make," he said to the colored'purveyor on their latest trip, "get a calf's liver and prepare it with some bacon. There's a dish that will just touch the spot." We ran Into a handsome and prosperous little place, but there was none of the coveted liver served at the next meal. 'Here, Eph," shouted Kaler from the head of the table, "I told you to provide us with some bacon and liver as soon as we reached a market. What's tho matter?" "I done call on de butchah, sah. but he asted me a dollah foh dat libah an' I tole him he couldn't projeck no such swindle 'gains; you, sah." "When I tell you to get a thing for this ship," said Kaler, with quite a millionaire tone, "get it. The order : gave you still stands, and it will be ust as well for you to remember it." There was another stop, andthen the dish for which Kaler's mouth wa tered was served. Got it, did you, Eph?" smiled Kaler genially. "How hard did this fellow hit the treasury?" Ten dollars, sah. He don hah no llbah in stock, so I had to buy a yeah lin' calf, sah, an,' aftah I got de libah I lef de res', sah." Poor Kaler couldn't eat. ; , Calendar as a Missionary. ' A large wall calendar, 11 by 14 Inches, containing much Information of direct practical value has been dis tributed by the Federation of Churches and Christian Workers among about 15,000 families in the Fifteenth, Sev enteenth and Nineteenth Assembly districts of New York city. It Is really convenient handbook, a co-opera tive method of sociological advertis ing. It is gotten up in an attractive form, with a picture of Government House, "Bowling Green," 1790, in the centre, one of George Washington at one side and the first church, 1642, and the Dutch Governor's residence on the other. . Information Is given on the differ ent pages in English. German. French. Italian, Spanish .ti Scandinavian in regard to churches, schools, libraries, museums, clubs, savings banks, etc. And for the benefit of both tenant and landlord the tenement house laws are partially printed. Longr Scarfs and Small Hoy a. Dr. Lucy Hall-Brown Of Brooklyn marvels that the lives of so many small boys are spared, when they are oppressed by the abnormally large scarfs which appear to have become a part of the modern small boy. She finds a difficulty herself In looking er a bit of lace she wears in the "t of her gown, and how the small 1 -n guide his footsteps when his ' obliged to take observations -"talnoua mass of big bows .doesn't know. A STRANGE RACE. THE RAMAPO MOUNTAINEERS AND THEIR PECULIAR TRAITS. Living Within a Score of Allies of New York City Is a Tribe of People as Distinct from the Average American In Their Way as Are the Red Indians. People who have never been up In the Itamapo Mountains, in New. York can nave little idea of how strange a race of people live back in those high and rocky hills, miles from any vll lage, and with not a rod of road by which there huts may be reached by wagon. In other words, it is not gen crally known that within thirty-five miles of Broadway, New York City, there is a community, as curious, al most, as can be found in the remote mountain recesses of Tennessee or North Carolina. It 13 a sort of lost tribe, or, rather, an amalgamation of two lost tribes. If one can imagine what sort of beings would result from more than a century of intermarrying of American Indians and Guinea ne groes, with an occasional dash of white blood added to the mixture, he may form a notion of the people that live back in the rugged hills that rise about Suffern, Itamapo, Sloatsburg, Woodbourne, Tuxedo, and other places In the Itamapo Valley. But It would take a pretty brisk imagination to picture some of the queer specimens of humanity that have resulted from this mixture. Albinos of the milkiest haired and pinkest eyed variety are common, and the dime museums re cruit their curio halls in that line from among these mountaineers, as did the great and only Barnum before them Back in the last century and during the first quarter of the present cen tury slaves were common in that part of New York State and the adjacent region of New Jersey. These slaves were treated no better by their old Dutch masters than were their fellow bondsmen in the South. They were worked long and hard, and the lash was not spared. Consequently runa way slaves were many. These run aways Invariably sought the fastnesses of the surrounding mountains. It is a very difficult thing to make one's way up and among the Ramapo Moun tains, even at this day, and it was al most an impossibility in the slavery days. As a result, when a negro once succeeded in hiding there he was. as safe from recapture as if he had gone to Canada, although he might be with in sight and sound of his master's home. Scores of runaways in time peopled the inaccessible hills, and in the spots where they threw up their first sheltering, huts of bark or fallen trees or found refuge In cave3 their descendants dwell to-day. The woods had their Indian dwell ers already and the two races mingled. These are the strange people who are seen now and then in the little villages along the Erie Railway in Rockland and the adjoining towns of Bergen and Orange counties, and whose homes are far back in the hills. A charac teristic of these people is that the names of the old Dutch families in which the original- blacks were slaves have been retained by them, genera tion after generation. The most nu merous family of the race goes by the name of De Groat, but there are De Freeses, Van Hoevens and many oth er Des and Vans. ..... .. In the Bummer time you might climb and clamber and stumble up the steep sides and over the rocky sum mits of the Ramapo Mountains all day and not see a solitary sign of a habita tion, although there would be many on all sides of you. They are so deftly tucked In among the rocks and hidden by the trees and foliage that only one acquainted with the ways of the moun taineers could find them. In the fall, when the trees are bare, the huts stand revealed to any one who may pass that way, and such are few, for although there is no better ruffed grouse shoot ing anywhere than in these mountain fastnesses, the weary climbing neces sary to get to the haunts of these birds Is more than the average sports man cares to undergo. There is no ground that might grow anything about any of these huts; not a chicken nor a fowl of any kind; not even a pig. But there are dogs without limit mongrel, wolfish-looking, dogs, such, as might hang about Indian camps, and always from one t half a dozen half naked, aerie, elfish-looking' children, who, at sight or sound- of stranger, Bcamper to cover in the hut, in the brush or among the rocks, disappear ing as completely as a startled brood of young quail. How do these people subsist? 1 They are the best hunters and fishermen in the land, and game and trout are abundant all about them. They hunt and snare grouse and rabbits and catch trout for the market during the season. The women and children pick berries. For the products of the for est, streams and berry patches these people obtain store goods at the vil lages, both the luxuries and the neces saries the latter being chiefly whis key and tobacco; the former flour, meal and cheap dress goods. For their own home providing the 'possum and the 'coon are plentiful at their very doors and the chicken coops of the outlying farms and villages are not entirely inaccessible. Now and then a De Groat or Van somebody or other will hire out to do work by the day, but he Is looked upon by his fellow mountaineers as a degenerate. Some of the female children grow to be ex tremely handsome and shapely young women, but It is rare that there are any marriages among these people outside of their own race. CABBAGE ROOT MAGGOT. A Sertoiii Test Protective Method "lined liytl.iirue Croucrs. The cabbage root maggot has been the canpe of great loss to truckers, de stroying annually a large nmount not only of cabbage, but of ; allied plant Ihe fly which is the source of the trou bie deposits its eggs on the ground near to the stalks of cabbages, turnips, rad ishes, etc., and the larvae, when hatch ed, in about ten days or less, attack the rootlets and .eat partially into the main root. In a sketch of- this trouble and methods used to combat it M. Y. Kains gives the following" information Farm and Fireside: j in The best, preventive remedy in case of cabbage, kale and similar large plants is tar paper cards fitting closely around the stem. These may be cut trom one ply tar paper with the punch shown in Fig. 1. The cutting edtfes of thia tool, each of which is 1 inches long, are arranged in the shape of half a Tegular hexagon with one radius, DEVICE FOB CUTTING STEM CARDS. which is met at the center by six other cutting edgee, each one-third of - an inch long. These central cutters are upon a separate piece of steel, so as to be easily removed when sharpening of the blades is necessary. The little cuts allow the cards, when applied to the stem, to fit more closely, around it. Fig, 2 shows the manner of striking off cards, the dotted lines indicating where the tool is to be placed again. By hav ing the roll of paper on a horizontal spindle (a broom handle will do)," so that the paper may be readily unrolled and drawn across the cutting block be low, the cards may be struck off at the rate of about 500 an hour. When applied to the stem the. card must be made to fit snugly, so that the female fly cannot crawl nnder it to lay her eggs on the ground. They must also he high enough tip from the ground to prevent earth being accidentally thrown upon them, else the maggots may work their way into the stems as easily as if they were underground and no cards were used. This method of protection, which, if properly applied, is absolute, costs the large growers of Wisconsin, among whom the practice is common, about fl per 1,000 plants. , ,t The Sugar Beet In Texas. Writing of sugar beet culture in The Farm and Ranch, Professor Harrington of the Texas station says: This all seems to me a waste of energy in Texas. Why not make sugar from sugar canef Its advantages are many over that of the beet. First. We know how to grow it. Second. We' know just what to ex pect in the way of sugar. imra. sugar irom canecan be made on a small scale. . . - j Fourth. When not made into sugar, it can be made into sirup. " In addition to this, we have many thousand acres of the very best typo of cane land far better than that of Lou isiana, which can be bought at a.very low .prica ; j -. -- , Uiuu't Admire American, Children. An American lady in - Berlin had, oc casion to talk to o&r hostess abotit American" children. "I have read of them," said the German woman proud ly. "I have of them in English road. I have two stories read that I might know. I do not wish to go to America. have read 'Peck's Cad Boy' and Helen's Babies.1 AchI I stay by the Uerman children ;sol" -New ' York World. - A Bamboo Bridge. ,A British consular report from the far east describes a suspension bridge of 800 feet span made of bamboo, i The cane is split up into fibers and twisted together to form the cabloa Consider ing its span, the material of the struc ture is quite remarkable. The old tradi tion that almost anything can be. made out of bamboo receives here a good il lustration ln.the field of engineering The Largest Diamond la the World This is in possession of the- king of Portugal. It has a weight of l,68fc karats 14 ounces, and is as large aa a hen's egg. It came from Brazil in the eighteenth century and was then val ued at 11,000,000, whereas now it W a value of f3, 000, 000. It Doea Help. It taVf9 off ft irnnfl fionl nf t.hn on ffw ing attending illness and adds trreatlv to the pleasure of existence for the doc tor to tell you that yours was one of the worst cases he ever attended. Boston Transcript ... Deserved. Bill Why do you call your friend a popnlar song writer? . Jul Because he never sings his owb songs. ionkers Statesman. Gloves of chicken skin were in vogue in the earlf part of the seventeenth cen tury.- They were used at night to giv the hand whiteness and delicacy. :.Cjj Southern Supremacy. Wilmington Star. . The . State of North - Carolina alone manufactures more cotton . now thi n was manufactured in the whole 'South in!8S5. The utilization of a motive power in operating cotton mills, '...will Btill lurther reduce the cobI of produc tion in the South and will stimulate mill building, thus hastening the "su premacy which this section- is destined to have in that industry, and the lime when the South will be the wcrid.'s cotton man ufacturing" centre, with the sceptre wrested - from both i Old Eug land anil New England. s. , :. If there 8 were more 'judges like the one in San Francisco who sent million aire Bradbury to ' jail recently for the offence of spitting on the sidewalks, there ; would' bo lees complaint, that mouey .will Secure immunity from the' law's -" punishment.- San- Francisco has an ordinance which prohibits men from BpUtiug on the sidewalks or the Ilooirs of street cars. . Mr. Bradbury, being a rich man, .held this ordinance in contempt and violated it when riding on one of - the San Fran cisco cars. The conductor called 'his attention to the fact, but he did not heed the warning and continued lo, expec torate on the floor of the car, insolently asking the conductor what the .com pany proposed to do about it. What the company did do about it was to re port him to the authorities," and as he had already been fined shortly before for a similar offense, the police-jusliceM be fore whom the delinquent.;, was sum moned, sent him to jail for twenty-four hours without alternative. Tbe defend ant spent some time and a good sum of money. iq fighting the sentence, but the court would not let him off, and so the millionaire spent a day and night in jail. The justice had the right sort of stam ina. The violator of law should be pun ished as the law1 demands, whether he has a million dollars or tfftSiiH a cent. . Thon-lngr. , To persons of lessor rank one saitfe "You, without thou-ing anybody, be ic not some utue cnua, ana mat inotr Wfirt much rnnrfi fiend nnd thnt tV rna- tome itself amongst the meer courteous and better bred were to speak in such manner. What eoncerneth- familiar friends, amongst them the custome doth comport in certain places that" they Thou" one another more freely,.- ia J other places one's more reser.y?d. - Youths' Behavior." 1632. l Deputy Marshal Royal, of Yadkin county, .says he arrested a man named Younger in Iredell county a few days ago for blockading. After the arrest Younger called the revenue. officer to prayer, and the officer says he invoked God's blessing upon them both with earnest and sympathetic words. Itoyal claims that this blockader has given him a great deal of trouble, notwith standing his supplications. Sportsmen in the various sections tif the State where cairidtres are hunted. agree that they have never known the birds to be morojiunierous'.:. -In a large ' number of counties hunting is no lonepr permitted, save. by consent in writing of landowner. '.This' .new law. is intended fc-gr?e the pot hunter a knockout blow. The bird season in almost all the coiin-- ties does not begin until November 1. ' A resolution wfta olTorod n.t :n. meeting of the Charlotte" aldermen last Monday 'night requiring" 'all' saloons in the city to be closed at 8:80 p. m. The resolution YvfiB sup ported by Mayor McCall, who.jiiaiM a speech for it, but only, two of. the eleven aldermen voted' for it; ' " " There-a mo vemeh t on foot' to erect a monument to the late Rev.- R.Lr Abcrnethy, D. D. He did a great work for education in North Carolina and his named should be honored. ." Servant girls are so scarce in Chioaeo that employment agencies are ransack ing the neighboring towns for material to supply the demand. -Rev. Georcre , Stuart. the known evangelist, is : conduct' meeting in Charlotte. He is preacher. i wrw a m m , ', . if lAl I EL n n n Iks u'd U :.zA IS JUST AS COOD FORADULTCa.- WARRANTED. PRICE 60 cU Paris Mediotne Co., Ht. Louis, Mo. Gentlemen: We sold lost yenr, OXF bnttMn rf JBOVB'8 TABTBLKSS CHII4. TON IC mui have SJUht UirteM-oM already this your. In nil our x- never sold on article thutgayo Bi$h .univcnuil suli wu AUU.n truly, OUAranttwrt to mrA-OiIHs Fovora mui ia ' " III . v. i laria In all of Its forms. Jel lvd. L
The Roanoke Beacon and Washington County News (Plymouth, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 13, 1899, edition 1
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