THE PADRONE SYSTEM | I
ing tianies; it radiates from the re<l-hot
stove in the country store, where Nim-
rods swap stories during long winter even
ings. It sends th«- wheels of industry re
volving in great factories that darken the
heavens with their smoke.
Ami of course all this has served to
cheapen corn in people's estimation of it
OOD to burn! Imagine, says the as food. The population has been stuffed
San Francisco Examiner in a full- with corn-bread, hoe-cake, corn-starch,
pa g<* illustrated article on the sub ice-cream, cornmeal mush, griddle cakes,
and Indian pudding; popcorn has been
ject, a great Western community convert
ing into flames to produce warmth for the a drug on the market, for the chil
external body tons ami tons of rich, nu dren and even the pigs had a premature
tritious material that might go as health Thanksgiving every day for three months;
giving fo«al to warm tlu* inner man! Iler«* and still the cobs were mountain high.
A .Nebraska paper some tint«- ago took
is a consuming of fo«sl to cook other food
—a burning up of the elements of bone up the problem and offered prizes to the
and muscle for th«* purpose of preparing persons sending in the longest list of
another lot of the same elements for di dishes whose principal ingredient should
lie corn; and still others for the most novel
gestion.
In many localities in the West the peo suggestion that should be nt the same
ple order corn from their fuel merchants time practical for using stalk, husk or cob.
as they would order wood ami coal—by But notwithstanding all these measures,
the wagon load. They prefer it because there was no appreciable diminution of
it is cheaper than either of these combus the store. What was to 1«' don«*?
Presently, when the shortening days
tibles.
Corn, regnant monarch of the
golden fields of the West; corn that would were precede«! by frosty mornings and fol
till out the hollow stomachs ami clothe lows! by chilly evenings, the problem
with firm flesh the spindling shanks of the found itself solvisl. The su)>erfluity was
children of India: corn that might prove supplying warmth and comfort all through
more previous than all tin* wealth of Or- the land. The first few bushels went on
lints to the isolat«*d miners on the banks the coals with reluctance: it always seems
of the Klondike, is the ordinary thing to a dreadful thing to destroy food, ami one's
burn as fuel in parts of Nebraska. It is mind keeps wandering to the Russian
burned by the cook in the kitchen; it peasants or the natives of India or to
sends a pleasant glow of warmth through whatever |airt of the world happens to be
th«* cozy library. where children and their starving nt that particular moment; but
elders relax to rest and watch the tlicker- one soon gets used to it, ns to everything
F
DISAPPEARING
else, arid aft«-r alt eoi.i maxes a cheerful,
crackling blaze and thaws the numbness
out of the fingers and toes as well as oak
logs or coal do. It does not do to be too
seutim«»ntal. It is not only on the farms
that this new fuel is cooking the dinner,
cooking itself, in rian.v cases; but in ths
cities ami towns people have their dinners
. cooked by the golden maize of the poets.
The practical manner by which corn
first came to be adopted ns fuel was intro
duced during last winter, when a large
number of inquiries wer«* receive-! by the
Department of Agriculture of the Uni
versity of Nebraska asking for informa
tion about the efficiency of corn us fuel.
Prof. C. R. Richards, aided by the State
Board of Transportation of Nebraska, ad
dressed a circular letter to grain and coal
dealers throughout the State asking for
conservative estimates of the number of
people in their vicinity who were burning
corn.
Many of the replies to these letters are
of interest. Th«* information in all of
them is essentially the same. Prom all
of them it appears that a large percentage
of the people in Nebraska use corn ns fuel
when the crop is abundant and the price
low*, and we may naturally infer that the
same condition prevails in some of the
other Western States. It is an unfortu
nate fact that in most of the sections
where the valu«* of corn is least, the cost
of coal is greatest.
Corn and coal are now rivals. The gold
en cobs wave a haughty defiance to coal
cars from Wyoming as they run the
gauntlet of th«* serried ranks that stretch
from horizon to horizon. Will corn be a
practical fuel for the generation of power?
Now it is cheap and economical for do
mestic use. It is cleaner an«l more easily
handled than coal ami contains but a very
small amount of ash. Some special form
of apparatus ingeniously adapted to the
new medium utilizing as much heat as
possible may increase its practicability.
some sections to cut all trees that are art* taking the place of those cut twen
<: inches in diameter, whereas a year ty years ago. There are some en
ago nothing smaller was wanted than thusiasts who believe that an effort
12 inches in diameter. In the forests should be made to replant the pine for
th«* stumps ar«* 8 and 10 feet high, but est, but the conservative lumbermen
thes«* wen* cut ten years ago, anil th«* say that it takes from fifty to on«* hun
average person is at a loss to know dred years to grow pine tree's to profit
why men would go to th«* trouble of able proportions. Nevertheless, some
cutting a tree so l'ar abovt* th«* ground. have found It profitable to return to de
When tli«*se tre«*s becnine victims of vastated forests and cut the trees
th«* loggers they wen- surrounded with that were rejected ten an«! twenty
snow to a depth of from 7 to 10 feet, years ago. They claim to have made
and men wen* obllg«*d to cut them at rts great profit as those who handled
th«* snow level. Now th«* order runs to th«* lumber originally.
cut th,*m as low as 15 inches and not
Many of tin* millionaires of Wiscon
higher than is inches above the ground. sin have mad«* their money from lum
Tin* best portion of th«* tn*«*. It is ber. Among them ar«* ex-Senator
claimed. Is at tin* butt, but an experi Vilas, ex-Gov. Upham, Gov. Scofield,
ence«! lumber limn says that the In I’lilletus Sawyer of Oshkosh, Rusts
creas«* of Illinls-r by such close eirts and Ingrams of Eau Claire, tlu* Luillng-
does not pay half tin* extra trouble tons of Milwaukee* anti Senator J. II.
that loggers encounter while cutting Stout, of Menomonee.
tin* tret*.
Lost the Connection.
Th«* sain«* conditions exist in Michi
The students of one of our well-
gan. Th«* lumlter Industry at l’ere
Marquette is almost r«*a«ly to expire, known colleges for women, says the
and has already e«*as«*d to exist at Portland Transcript, a re accustomed to
do their shopping In town through the
medium of a certain John, who, lack
ing intellectual gifts, has a faculty for
doing errands. John writes dowu his
orders himself.
On«* day his list closed with:
•'mb roz. madder 1"
“choc cream lp”
“git a string.’’
John [Hindered: “Get it where.
What kind? Who had ordered It? Was
it for an eye-glass, picture-cord, corset
lacing?’’
lit* couldn’t
remember,
couldn't “git” it, and went back with
out any.
But tlu* moment he saw Jenny Peters
tuning her guitar at tlu* window and
heard her call out. "O John, did you do
my errand?" lu* remembered all about
it. ami said to himself:
"There now, why couldn't I 'a'
thought of her glta-trlng and written
out so plain, too! Strang«* I couldn't«
'a' thought o' that!”
FORESTS.
The Lumber Industry of Michigan and
Wisconsin Must Soon Decline.
It is estimated that th«* output of
lumber in Wisconsin and Minnesota
«luring the year 15115 was 4,51Mt.lMH|,IMto
feet. If this amount had all been
sawed Into boards, a house Kt foot High
and 15 feet wide, with a board loot-,
could have been built around th - globe,
with enough lumber left to build a
fence on «»aeli side. Bicyclists enjoy
g«ssl boanl tracks, which lire only too
short to suit them, but this amount of
lumber would have built a track r«*acl.-
ing ten times around th«* «-itr.'ii. t»f
nil th«* manufacturing capital luv<>sted
hi th«- State, lumbermen claim about
42 per cent., or m-urly .1- H i 5,2<M».< mmi .
This Investment of «-apltal In this In
dustry has I h ' cii on th«* Ineronse, which
the following statistics will show:
INTO 720 establishments, with a tap
ltal of $11,448.545.
1880- 704 establishments, with a cap
ital of $19,824.(151».
No Wonder,
ONE OE Till
GREAT SAW
Mill.
1st Mi 85,3 establishments, with cap
ital of $54.4111.213.
Th«* value of prishlcts from Wiscon
sin forests 111 1890 was $52.115,73!». and
th«* amount sawed was 2.Nt7,»MIO.IMiO
feet. To opcrat«* these lnter«*s«s $13.-
l»43,58|» was Inv« st«*«l, of which about
$1 l.fkkMMMi went to workmen for
wages. At the proseut time 45,« mm > men
ar« employ«*! in th«* State to harvest
this year's crop, and by the time too
season closes $14.IMMIJMMI will lav*
gon«* Into th«* hands of th«- hard work
Ing men of th«* forosts. Tin* forests of
Wisconsin ar«* fast disappearing. In
th«* past twenty-four years nearly 54.-
(<10.000.000 feet of pine alone lias been
carried away, which. If It had I hm * ii
cut In board» 1 Inch thick, would have
made a walk 41 feet wide long enough
to reach the moon. 250,000 mil«*« dis
tant. There Is said to be remaining
8,000,000,000 f«s*t of pine, of which
2,000,000,000 Is locate«! In Bayfield and
Douglas Counties. Th«* mill men cf
late have be«*n ordering U m » loggers Ln
I
1
■
[
|
j
PLANTS
IN
WISCONSIN.
Muskegon, Whit«* Hall and Grand
Haven. Now a movement Ison foot to
manufacture shingles out of some of
the stumps which remain. This Idea
has crept into the Badger State, and Is
nu-etlng th«* approval of old lumlxT
men. who Isdlev«* It to la* profitable In
th«* end. According to census statis
tics this Stat«* manufaetunxl 080,000,-
tHM> shingles In 1890. Whether men
will r«-sort to th«* stumps to Increase
th«* crop Is a matter «>f «*onjecture.
Uncl«* Sam seems to lie «aiming to th«
rescue. Not long ago In* sent an agent.
Filbert Roth, of Washington, to in-
veetlgnt«* th«* situation, an«l If possible
to ascertain th«* extent of th«* devasta
t.on and the possibility of reforesta
tion. He found that Marinette has
n«*arly 1,000,000,000 f«»«*t of pine and
309,000,000 feet of hardwood. Along
the Menomon«*«* River, 3,000,000,0*
feet Is still to I»* saved, and It will
take twenty y«*arH to exhaust the sup
ply in this region. It waa l«*arn«sl also
that lu some sections young plus trees
“I understand that Jones has a hard
time getting along with his wife."
"How's that?"
“They rid«* a tandem, and tlu* madam
weighs 250 | h > uu «1 s ." — Philadelphia
Call.
What He Waa After.
Congressman So you want to serve
your country, do you?
Applicant Well. 1 ain't particular
whether I serve my country much or
not. but 1 should Ilk«* to get an offi«*e at
a good salary. Somerville Journal.
A Discreditable Trick.
"Sputter says he Is not writing fot
fame; he Is writing for posterity."
“Well, all that I have got to say Is
that lu* is taking a mean advantage of
posterity." Detroit Free Press.
The First Person Singnlar.
“That's the most egotistical man I
ever saw," sai«l one usher at a theater.
“Yes. He won't even sit anywhere
except In Section I.”—Washington Star.
When some men feel blue they get
«Irunk aud paint things re«L
frowns U[x>n th«* padrone system, but
thinks it merely a matter of good
i health to keep bis mouth shut. Tills
| matter of sullen retention of knowl-
FLOURISHES IN CHICAGO’S ITAL **«lg«* Is one ««f tlu* hardest things tlu*
IAN SECT'ON.
■ police have to cop«* with. Murderous
affrays are common among the llal-
lals. but it is exce«*dlngly difficult to
Miserable Children Held in Hitter
make an arrest or secure a conviction
Bondage and M lit tinted So an to Create
because even th«* victims refuse to giv«*
the Sympathy of the Publie—Fiend information. Tlu* stiletto is ever ready
ish Cruelty and Greed.
for th«* informer.
On Forquer street, not far from Jef
White Slaves!
ferson, lives a padrone who is waxing
Tlu* horrible padrone spstem flourish fat off the pickings of twelve little chil
es lu the Italian section of Chicago and dren in various stages of productive
Innocent childhood is held In a tlirall- ness. Some travel about with wheezy
dom far worse than the slavery that concertinas, others peddk* newspapers,
existed In th«* South before the war. others sell chewing gum, ami others
Recently a newspaia*r man, with sev get money in questionable ways. But
eral police officers, made a tour of the they all bring grist to his financial mill
every night or they go supperless to
bed and feel the weight of a stick as
Well.
From this den the party made its
way through a «lark alley, clutter«*d
with refuse, to th«* rear of a black, for
bidding-looking building on Desplalnes
street. A sudden yanking open of the
door by the combined efforts of tlu*
four officers revealed a crowd of «les-
jierate men huddled in a small room.
On the faces of all was plainly written
the fear of arrest, ant! the assurance
that nobody was wanted seemed to
give relief to all of them. This build
ing is th«* one from which Capt. Wheel
er’s officers in December last took a
! padrone named Mosielll and his wife,
Lucy, on the charge of having delib
erately burned out the eyes of three
“AFHAILl TOGO HOME.“
children for begging purposes. When
Italian quarters and tin- result la a the children were first found they re-
story of bitter bondage, of fiendish fus«*d to say a word against the pa
drone, ami it was not until they were
cruelty and of most rapacious greed.
The first stop, says the reporter, was given to the cart* of a reputable Italian
made at a tumble-down two-story woman and tenderly treated that the
house on Ewing street, near Des- terrible story was coaxed out of them.
plaines. No lights could be seen from Capt, Wheeler, who made a personal
the outside, but the noisy gabble of investigation of the case, was satisfied
voices told of a lively commotion that Mosielll would be sent to the peni
among the inmates. Here, on the up tentiary, but at tile trial tlu* same old
per floor, in one squalid room. Ilves it difficulty of securing testimony was
! about tne padrone quarter for nearly
throe hours, looking into all sorts of
miserable holes, few of them fit to
shelter a self-respecting dog, and yet
all Inhabited by human beings. Cellars
and garrets alike were crowd«*«! with
men. women ami children of varying
ages, from the wee mite of a boy just
large enough to serais* a few notes out
of a wheezy violin, to girls just merg
ing into womanhood. In every pl;, t*
some on«* man was in supreme con
trol. and none disputed Ills authority
as "boss.” If there was any talking
done with th«* officers it was the "boss”
who acted as spokesman, ami the oth
ers maintained an inquisitive silence,
alert to what was going on, but never
speaking a word.
Suddenly emerging from a dark al
ley Into Hnlsted street the glare of the
gaslights lillnde«! for a moment even
tlie veteran officers, and they nearly
stumbled over a poor wretch of a girl
sitting on th«* curbstone anil shivering
with cold. Unlike th«* other unfortu
nates, sh«* was rebellious In her deter
mination. and willing to talk, a willing
ness which was Increased by the gift
of a quarter and the promise of police
protection.
"’l-’raid to go home,” salil the girl in
broken English. "Got no money and
padrone beat mt*. Must have 50 cents.
No money, no supper, no lied, get lick
ing to-night. Then to-morrow no
breakfast—must bring in dollar to-mor
row to make up for to-day.”
Postage Stamps.
Th«* design of the stamp is engraved
on steel, ami, in printing, [dates are
usetl on which 200 stamps have been
engraved. Two men are kept busy at
work covering these with colored inks,
and passing them to a man aud a girl
who are equally busy printing them
with large rolling hand presses. Three
of these llttk* squads are employed all
the time. After the small sheets of
paper containing 200 printed stamps
have dried enough they are sent into
another room and gummed. The gum
made for this purpose is a peculiar
composition, made of the powder «>f
dried potatoes ami other vegetables,
mixed with water. After having been
again dried—this time on little racks
fanned by steam power—for about an
hour, they are very carefully put be
tween sheets of pasteboard and press
ed in hydraulic presses capable of ap
plying a weight of 2,000 tons. The
next thing is to cut the sheets in two,
each sheet, of course, when cut, con
taining 100 stamps. This Is «lone by a
girl with a large pair of shears, cut
ting by hand being preferred to that
by machinery, which would destroy
too many stamps. They are then pass
ed to another squad of workers, who
perforate the paper between the
stamps. Next they are pressed one«!
more and then packed and labeled anil
stoived away, to be sent out to the
various offices when ordered. If a sin
gle stamp is torn or in any way muti
lated. tin* whole sheet of Itk) stamps Is
burned. Not less than 50,000 are said
to be burned every week from this
cause. The greatest care is taken in
counting the sheets of stamps, to guard
against pilfering by the employes.—
Ashton Recorder.
Shaker Relic Discovered.
THE PADRONE EVIL IN CHICAGO.
[Helpless children held In bondage, forced to beg and steal and punl-lied by their Italian masters
If they do not bring In the money required of them ]
man witli fifteen children ranging in
age from 5 to 16 years. Non«* of these
belong to him by parental ties; they
have been bought or leased from inhu
man mothers and fathers, or stolen
outright. As the party groissl its way
up the «lark stairs there was the sound
of a hard slap, ami a man's voice ut
tered some harsh reproof in Italian. A
faint gleam of light came from under
th«* door of the room, but the door it
self was barred—they always are in
that part of the town, where unexpect
ed visits by the police are not welcome.
Officer Birmingham laid his hand on
the knob lightly and the lamp was at
once extinguished. It took long rap
pings am! repeated assurances in mon
grel Italian to convince th«* man that
no harm was intended, or, in other
words, that he was not to be arrested,
and finally he consented to open the
door part way while iuquir.v was made
after a supposititious neighbor. The
timely striking of a match revealed a
room bare of furniture with th«* excep
tion of a rickety cook stove, a rough
pine table, a couple of chairs, and some
pallets of straw on the floor. On these
latter children were sleeping just as
they had com«* In from tin* street. .
Walls, cisling and floor were filthy with
dirt, an«l the stencil was stifling.
It is only at night that the Italian
quarter can I m * seen at its worst. There
are the same dirt and bail smells In the
daytime, but the men and children are
then mostly absent—the former at
work and the latter on the down-town
streets begging, stealing, and in other
ways trying to scra|>«* together th«*
amount of money which the padrone
has named as the stint. In most cases
this Is 50 cents for each child. Thos«*
who bring this sum back with them at
night get some kind of foo«l and shelter
and escape punishment; those who fail
ar«> starved and lieaten.
Ewing street, from Canal to Des-
plaines. is full of padrones' dens, and
most of them are counterparts of that
first descrltw*«!. Dm* room. «lark,
filthy and devoid of the commonest
klrnl of sanitary conveniences, will
hous«* half a dozen people. The man !
who rents two rooms is looked upon as
a sort of Vanderbilt or a crazy profll-
gnte. Tony Musch Is the swell of Ew
ing street because he lias a suite of two
rooms In th«* Garibaldi Building, a
great rambling structure with many
devious
and
confusing
passages,
through which no stranger <*onl«l possi
bly make his way unpiloted. .Maseb is
one of the law abiding Italians who
encountered, and the man escaped with
a year in the bridewell. As subsequent
events proved, the ease was not an un
usual one among the padrones. Other
instances were found in which children
had been deliberately mutilated In var
ious ways so as to excite the-sympathy
of charitable people and make sure the
giving of alms, but In no case has it
been possible to get the evidence neces
sary for a conviction.
Back from Moslem's old den the
party traced its way through a maze
of blind alleys ami ill-smelling garbage
boxes to Mather street, where the offi
cers arrived at a house just in time to
prevent a man from beating a boy with
a club. Even then the youngster was
sullen in his misery and refused to give
tin* policemen any information, and
the old rascal of a padroni* actually
laugh«*«! at the officers in contempt.
Outside this place the party lingered
some tim«* in the hope that a renewal
of the attack would give them excuse
for making an arrest, but the padrone
was too sly to lie thus captured. Late
as was the hour, many of the llttk*
In the old shaker settlement at Son-
yea, N. Y„ a peculiar relic has been
discovered. It consists of a stone about
2%x4% feet and four inches thick which
is covered with Inscriptions, though
most of them : re so badly defaced that
they cannot be deciphered. But the
words "Tlie Lord's Stone,” and the
date, “1847,” are sufficient to identify
the stone as connected with the wor
ship of th«* Shakers. It was found by
workmen in excavating for a building
that is to stand directly on th«* site ot
the Shaker meeting-house. The stonf
is supposed to be a sort of "kissing
stone.” It has been turned over to the
Historical Society of Mount Morris
ami will be preserved in a glass case.
No doubt some process can be <levis«*d
by which its inscriptions can be de
ciphered more fully. The character
istic r«*tl«-ence of the Shakers lias made
information in regard to them difficult
to obtain, and anything of the nature
of a historical relic will be highly
prized.
Tapestry of an Empress,
A Paris correspondent writes: Th«
Gobelins are engaged on a tapestry for
th«* Empress Alexandra which they ex
pect to finish by May 1, 1900. It rep
resents the original painting of Marie
Antoinette ami her children that hangs
at the Elysee. The painter was Mme.
Vigee Lebrun. The young empress was
greatly struck by its beauty, ami
thought it deeply interesting.
M. Faure mad«* a note of this, and
asked the tin«* arts minister to consult
with tlie director of the Gobelins as to
the best means to secure a g«H»d copy.
Three of th«* best artist weavers were
set to work last February. They work
alternately, so as to be busy only two
days in the week, and thus keep their
eyes fresh. They are now nt the fig
ures. The dyeing and sorting of the
wools was a tedious and troublesome
work.
Cementing Leather to Iron.
Tin; STILETTO FOB rllK 1XSOKMEK.
To cement leather to iron, cut the
leather roughly to sha[>e, allowing
about one inch per foot in the width
of the pulley. Then soak the leather in
water until it is wet through. Now
stretch it well in the direction of the
circumference of tlie pulley and cut it
to exact shape and length. It should
next I m * sewn up butt to butt with a
shoemaker’s awl am! thread, and the
leather, having been stretched in the
direction of the circumference only,
will, as it gets dry, have a tendency
to resume its former shape, thereby
shortening In circumference and “clip”
tc the pulley. A shallow groove might
be made for the stitches to sink In.
while slaves were just returning home
to report to their masters ami hand
over the financial results of their day’s
work. Through streets and alleys they
came silently like rats, those who hail I
money pushing along carelessly, while
th«* unfortunate who had fnileii in their
task hung back, dreading to encounter
the fierce padrone and yet afraid to [
remain away longer than the appoin
t'd time. It was a mournful sort of
procession, this return of the child
chattels, and even the stolid policemen,
The Rise of Cities.
inurod to countless repetitions of the
Europe has four times as many cities
scene, could not forbear from com
as it had in 18S1. and the United States
meating upon it.
In this manner the party tramped fourteen times as many.