Image provided by: Yamhill County Historical Society; McMinnville, OR
About The Yamhill County reporter. (McMinnville, Or.) 1886-1904 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1898)
CUTTING AN ICE CROP. separate blocks, a slight blow of the r dust In th«1 double walls of the building needle bar or "spud" being sutllclent i uud the layers of hay that cover the to separate them. whole. The pay Is all the way from SI to An Icehouse is simply a great, barn- HOW THE FROZEN BLOCKS ARE llke structure with declining arms $1.75 a day, depending on the class of HARVESTED. reaching down into the edge of the work done. Most of the men in the water. This Is the same wherever you houses and on tile Held, laborers, work for $1 a day to $1.25. In former years Storehouses Are Great Barn-llke see them. These arms are the chutes the wages were not so much of a temp tip which the ice blocks are conveyed Struetures^How the lee Is Cut. Ruft- for storing in the houses. In smaller tation, but this winter there have been cd from the “'Field** uud Hoisted Into affairs the Ice Is hoisted by horse flow very tew other means of income In the Its Cold Quarters. er. In the larger, great engines drive country, and then there art“ a gixsl endless chains which pass down under many men about tae towns out of work A Winter Industry, the water and rise at the f«s»t of the and willing to get a lilt of spending Common as ice is of one kind and wooden Incline. The ice blocks, now money from a little odd work. In the another, not till the persons tvho use it separated, are driven forward upon large Ice fields tlie men live in a big In summer have seen it cut in winter. them, ami the links of tlie chain, as boarding-house which stands a few In a cold day the ice man gets rich, and they rise, catch the blocks and carry I hundred feet from the icehouse, a long. nothing can be more to bis liking than them up to the levels where they are I yellow, barnlike structure, maintained I by the company, in which the 300 or 4)sj the chilly blasts of December, the zero wanted. I employes are hotiseu and f«l. For the efforts of January. All about the It takes a good deal of Judgment to great cities and trade distributing cen feed the chain properly. The blocks long, toilsome hours in which they l.ilxir ters are located favorable spots for cut must conn* forward fast enough to keep on the lee fields or along tlie chutes the ting ice, and a sight of a great store the elevator In constant business. And men get 12 and 12^ cents an hour, ail house with a capacity of 90,000 tons, it must not come so swiftly as to clog except the men working with tlie tongs average blocks of 220 pounds, the ma ft. It must be two cakes wide all the in .e cars, who got 15 cents an hour. chinery, the large number of men em time, and the cakes must lie advanced Out of this money they are obliged to ployed to cut this immense harvest, In singly at the last. When the links of pay their board in the big roomy struct terests and startles the person taking the endless chain catch the cakes of ure. In tlie evening tin1 day shift lie It for the tlrst time. ice and carry them up the Incline. It alsmt in the smoking-room an hour or Usually some small lake is selected as drops them over a little ridge and they so liefore turning In, but as their day the harvesting sjx»t, ami here, as soon as at once start down a slower slope to begins again at 7 o'clock In the morn a cold snap gives a steely surface to the the doors of the icehouse. This latter ing and they must be through breakfast ice, the superintendent of the lee incline, a very gentle declivity. Is sup and reaily to work by that lion- they houses takes all the men he can find plies] with tracks on which the blocks spend little time running around at work for, and apportions them their can run smoothly. Half way down to night. Sixteen inches of Ice is considered a tasks. The average with gangs alsrnt the house there Is a divide, and the such llelds ns those contiguous to Chi two men at the place where the endless little too thick by the ice men. Twelve cago, Is, say, 100 men, and they cut chain delivers the blocks, direct the or fourteen Is thick enough for them. alsrnt 100,000 tons of Ice In three weeks. course1 of the Ice, as to tlie right or the Tlie average buyer considers a cake to First In the force are the scrapers. left. Each is armed with a pike, with weigh, roughly, 200 pounds. And when These men have an appliance alsiut the a beard to it like the beard of a bout- lie gets a cake he expects 200 ¡munds. slz«.“ of an ordinary express wagon l>ox. sook. And when a bad piece comes But lie makes no allowance for the ex It proceeds sidewise, and tip|>ed up In along—one broken or otherwise urnle- cess where the thickness is greater than such manner us to carry the snow along I sirable—the1 men snatch it from the Is required for that weight. Besides with It. Its nether edge is provided track, if they have time, and shoot it that, tlie larger blin ks are much more with a steel plate, so that the lee Is over tlie ends of the scaffolding and difficult to handle. Ice 14 inches thick will overrun 200 ecraped perfectly clear of snow. The down to tlie ground. snow Is banked up In great ridges, as Along the extensive side of tin1 house pounds a little. And every added inch nearly out of the way as possible. Then are* built platforms at different eleva of thickness, when th«1 blocks are 22 come the markers. A man with an tions, with doors opening upon them inches square, means tlie addition of eye for a line stretches a rope from one from tin1 house's. The tracks on which 15 isiunds to tlie cake. Much of the ice to two furlongs In length, and pushes a tlw ice blocks travel are laid on these cut this winter is 18 Inches thick. That 'hand-marker along beside it, till there platforms, and nt each of tlie doors a means, with this size1 of cake, 270 Is a distinct line scratched across the man is stationisl with a short boat pounds. Which is more than the ice surface of the lee. Then a man with a hook or filke ¡Mile, which he uses in man lines to sell for 2<>0. “plow” comes along, a boy leading Ids capturing a block her«“ and there from There are some blocks of ice so clear horse, and he follows th«* line scratched tlie screaming stream that hurtles past that a person can “read through them,” PLOWING AND In the ice. sending the steel of Ids plowshares as d«*ply into th«“ ice ns lie can. Turning about at tlie farther end, he comes bai'k.euttlng d«*eper, and a third time deep«‘r still, till he 1ms ent per haps half way through th«“ Ice. While lie Is de«'i>enlng his Hrst incision an other man follows with a marker, set ting its guide In the Initial grixive, and marking a second groove twenty-two Inches from tlie Hrst. The tlrst ice Is cut nearest the ice- itrousea. After that th«1 men cut farther and farther away. But the <listane«> is never so great that one man cannot CUTTING ICE. him and turns in the door, where It shoots down another incline to the workmen who are placing tlie ice in po sition. Tlie sliced of tlie Ice blocks as they approach the iloor Is amazing. Tlie fore«“ of on«> would be something like tlie blow of a cable ear. Tlie num at tlie door «lot's not try to handle the cakes with anything like an arbitrary force. He whacks his pike Ixard into tlie block near a corner, and, yielding slightly, manages to turn ft till the force of its own momentum swings it around, and it leaves the platform track, plunges through the dixir and de but ice six inches thick would offer a pretty effectual barrier to the gleaner of news if he read through from top to bottom. Average lee is clear enough to offer little obstacle If one reads through from side to side. It is 22 inches square. And the eye can easily distinguish fairly fine print through those twenty-two inches. But, though it is only sixteen inches thick no one would pretend the second time that he could read through it from the upper to the nether side. A little computation shows that Ice sometimes pays better than wheat. A strip of ground 10 oy 16 rods will em brace nn acre. Off that surface, cov- er«“d with water, frozen to a depth of fourteen or more Inches, 12.960 cakes of Ice, each twenty-two inches square, could lie harvested. That means 645 tons. Even at the price roceiv«xl at the Icehouse tlie selling price of tl>«“ lee would I m * more than many a man's whole farm Is worth. Certainly It Is mor«' than th«' aver age value of any acre In any farm in Illinois. Bridges. STORING THE drive 200 cakes of ice from the Hehl to the houses. He can. with little waste of time, take th«“ griiiter raft 20 by 60 cakes, ami containing 1,200 blocks— down th«“ canal to the houses. If the Ice plow has lx>en driven too deep the raft will break Into smaller bodies by striking on the edges of the channel now nnd then. That adds to the labor of the men slightly. But the saw has don«“ very little. Its only us«> has liven to cut the field up Into rafts of the re quired size, either 10 by 30 cakes or 20 by 60 cakes. Arrived In the neighborhood of the bous«“s. th«“ men gi> aboard the raft with I sirs an«1 by striking here and there In the lin«“s cut by th«“ plows «op erate the raft Into smaller seclions, each two block« wide. Tin's«“ rafts are sent forward again nn<1 as they come to the foot of th«> Incline np which the blocks must travel to the house another man goes riong and cuts the float Into ICE. scends like an avalanche to the levels below. Down In the Icehouse there are other men, sitting at the sl«le of th«“ runway down which the blocks are hurtl'd. They take such of th«> blocks as they can reach In time and drag them from the track and shoot them to this side or that of th«> great room. There men ar«* awaiting th«- Ice with poll's and each block Is plac«l in regular order till the great floor of th«“ house Is tilled. Then another layer Is plac«l on th«- first and a third on th«“ second nnd so on, till th«' house Is Ailed. There Is no sawdust between the lay ers. ns there us«! to lie, when ice was put up In the «“ountry. If th«' men stopped to make that provision they wouldn't get tlie crop In the warehouses till after th«“ first of May. Ami every oue known that is no time to cut tee. .All the provision made against melting Is the stuffings uf shavings and saw A primitive notion exist«*«! among the Romans and other races that a bridge was an offence ami injury to the river god, as it savial people from being drown«l while fording or awlmmiug across, and roblied th«* deity of a cer tain numlM'r of victims which were his due. For many centuries in Rome pro pitiatory offerings of human victims were mad«“ every year to th«* Tiber: men ami women wen* drowned by be ing Ix'uml and Hung from the wooden Sublldan bridge, which, till nearly tlie eml of the Republican period, was the one and only bridge across the Tiber lr Rome. New Kailroad Polley. Ther«> was a collision on the Danish state raiiriNid near Copenhagen some tlm«' ago In which forty persons were killed ami seventy wounded. The rail road at once admitted that it was tc blame, ami Instead of fighting claim« for damages, has appoint «si a commit- tee to settl«“ with th«“ claimants what will be fair compensaition. so as tc avo!«l having the claims brought lute the courts. Sweden Makes Butter. During last year over 23.34)0 ton« of butter were exported from Swetien. nearlv all of which went to Britain. I mnr. He dined In silence nnd nlone, I nnd so did she. Otten Mrs. Jerolamen The Tummany Leader Once Swam Out i had to speak to her husband in refer- Among a School of Sharks. i ence to household affairs, but he never It is said that Richard Croker, the answered. Tammany boss, is a man absolutely de He was a church member, being one void of physical fear ami to prove it a of the organizers of the Mount Arling story Is told of his great nerve. ton Methodist Episcopal Church. In Some years ngo a New York news 1874 the town was divided on the ques- paper printed an article which stated I tlon of prohibition. Tlie old man trleil that the talk of sharks eating human i to induce the members of the church livings was all rubbish; that they were ! to Indorse the cold water ticket at tlm afraid of men and would swim away in town election, but they refused. He consternation If a man were suddenly swore that be would never go to to appear before them. Among those church again. He kept his word in this who became Interested in the matter as he had toward his wife. was Mr. Croker and he declared the Thus his lite went on in silence and gloom until a recent Monday. Then ho could ndt arise in the morning, for pneumonia had laid,its grip upon him. He was 80 years old and he felt that ' he could not recover. His wife bent over him with the love that all his harshness had never killed. He saw the light in her eyes, nnd feebly essay I I ing to take her hand he sobbed: “Dear, I’m so sorry. Will you forgive I me?” Forgive him? Would she? Kneeling I by the dying man's bedside, she wept softly, while be, with tongue freed at j last, rambled on deliriously about old times. She did not leave him until the end came. He died with his hand in hers and a look of happiness that his face had not borne In twenty years. CROKER WITHOUT FEAR. FORMS A HUMAN HEAD. Queer Figure Outlined by the Tiny Leaves of an Ivy Vine. Mr. Gilbert ha« u-en i reparing a re issue of the famous “Bab rmllads,” with the addition of many of the songs which have appeared in the different Savoy operas. All that Shakspeare has to say aliout love and lovers lias been carefully sought out and arranged by Chloe Blakeman Jones and is soon to be pub lished in book form under the title of "The Lovers' Shakspeare.” Dr. H. H. Furness keeps steadily at work on his variorum edition of Shak- speare's plays. It is reported that he has completed another volume, "A Winter's Tale,” which the Lippincotts will publish within a few mouths. Richard Harding Davis has finistn'd his dramatization of “The Soldier of Fortune” and read the manuscript to Mr. Charles Frohman, at whose sug gestion the novel was made into a play. He awaits Mr. Frohman’s ver dict. “Select Documents Illustrative of the History of the I'niteu States, 1776- 1861,’’ edited, with notes, by William MacDonald, Professor of History and Political Science at Bowdoin College, is tlie title of a book announced by the Macriillan Company. Frederick Warne & Co., publish “The Life of Victoria, Our Queen and Em press. Simply Told for Chilili i.” The book is fully illustrated and the text tells in an interesting manner a few of the great facts about the British Empire and its progress during the years since Victoria h~s reigned. Certainly 8. R. Crockett’s forthcom ing Juvenile book does not lack for enough of a title. It is called The Surprising Adventures of Sir Toady Lion with Those of General Napoleon Smith: Au Improving History for Old Boys, Young Boys. Good Boys, Bad Boys, Big Boys, Little Boys, Cow Boys, and Tom Boys.” • The following anecdote from Rome 1 may be read with interest by weary I editors. When Cardinal Gallmberti, then only a priest, directed the Mon- lteur de Rome, he called the editor-in- chief one morning and seriously pro posed to him to suspend publication of the paper for the three summer months. The editor had great «rouble in persuading 1dm to abandon this project and in convincing him that a paper whose publication depended on the thermometer was no 1< “ger a pa- I per. Ivy is known to be a T ry accommo dating creeper and often forms queer only way to settle the controversy figures of its own free w 11, but the which the article started was to put vine in the yard of James Hughes of a live man In front of a shark and Philadelphia is the queerest of the watch the result. He further remarked queer. The sketch shows the form out that some day he would find out for lined by the tiny green leaves. Many himself. people visit Mr. Hughes’ house to find One winter or two later Crokc- de out how the strings are arranged, but it cided to spend a few weeks in Florida would take an exceedingly fine mem and he was accompanied on the trip by ory to retain the plan so as to produce a Andrew Freedman, now president of similar effect. Some of the visitors the New York Base-Ball Club. Not far from St. Augustine there is a place where sharks may often lie seen lying motionless in the space between the shore and the bar. The water is almost always as clear as glass, and the huge fish are plainly visible. The first time Croker saw the sharks at this point he told Freedman he was going to find out whether they would eat a man if they got a chance. Next day he and Freed man went out there again, taking with them two good-sized chunks of raw beef, one of which they pu on a big hook, intending to use the meat as a bait and haul in the first unlucky fish that should venture on a nibble. But A STRANGE TBELI.IS OF IVY. owing to the powerful though smooth and quiet ocean swell, it was impossi have made a sketch of the entire vine, ble to throw the bait out far enough but as yet none has reported his suc to attract the attention of the sharks. cess in copying the oddity. This was tried and tried again, but to no purpose; every time the baited hook A Practical Test. The Old Woman's Reckoning. was cast it was brought back by the Dorn Pedro, the last emperor of Bra A railway train was running at the Irresistible force of the long swells. zil, was a man of a practical turn of rate of forty miles an hour, says the Finally Croker got tired, and seizing a mind, as the following story told of him Chicago News, and was approaching piece of beef in his hands he ran out well illustrates, says Harper's Round Big Creek, when the air-brakes were as far as he could, then gave a dive, Table. applied, and the train came to a stop and with half a dozen Impetuous lie once gave an audience to a young so suddenly that all hands were startled. strokes swam out to the group of al engineer who came to show him a new Many of tlie passengers Jumped off, and leged man-eaters, and dropped his bur appliance for stopping railway engines. with the conductor ran ahead of the den before them. The emperor was pleas«! -with the engine to see what was the matter. An Freedman was ilumfounded, and Idea, but wished to put it to a practical i old man with a lantern was coming up shouted to his friend to come back at ! the track. test. once; but almost before he could get “Day after to-morrow,” said he, “Hello! Did you signal the train?” the words out of his mouth Croker was “have your engine ready. We will | tsked th«> conductor. again standing on shore, dripping and have ft coupled to my saloon-carriage “Yes, it was me,” replied the old man. breathless, having got away from the and start. When going at full speed I “Well, wliat's the row?” sharks with all possible speed. will give the signal to stop and then we “Reckon the bridge over the creek “But the sharks hurried away as fast will see how your invention works.” j has gone down.” as my friend Dick did,” Freedman al At the appointed time all was in read “It has, eh? Well, if that’s the case, ways says in winding up the story, iness. The emperor entered his car you've done a thing which the com “from which I conclude that they were riage, tlie young inventor mounted his pany won't soon forget. When did the worse frightened than he; in fact, he engine and on they sped for several I bridge go down?” didn't seem frightened at all.” miles as fast as they could go. There "Dunno ’zactly.” Croker thinks the incident proves came no signal, and the engineer be "When did you find it gone?” that sharks are afraid of man. There gan to fear that the emperor hail fallen “I didn’t done find it gone at all, sah, are probably few, however, who would asleep. Suddenly the engineer came to but I reckon it ain’t tliar no mo'. Y'o’ believe this evidence conclusive. a sharp curve around the edge of the | see. sail. I was sittln’ in the cabin with cliff, when, to his horror, on the track the ole woman 'liout an hour ago, and COWS TO WEAR BUTTONS. directly ahead of them the engineer , it was rainin' and biowin’, when we heard a crash, and she calls out: Small Silver Badge Attached to the saw a huge bowlder. He had Just sufficient presence of Ear as a Health Certificate. “ 'O Lord, Jim, but what was that?’ “ 'Reckon it was that big seycamore Everybody else has had a chance at mind to turn the crank of his brake and the button fad and now it is the cow’s pull the engine up within a couple of tree,’ says I. “ 'Couldn't be. Must be the railroad turn. Those of them that are in good yards of the fatal block. Here the emperor put his head out of bridge.’ health must be decorate«! with buttons, “ 'Reckon it wasn’t,’ whether they will or no. Arrangements his car window and demanded to know " 'Reckon it was.’ ” have been made by the health authorl- the cause of the sudden stoppage. The engineer pointed to the rock, and, much “But what about the bridge?” asked to his surprise, Dom Pedro began to th«“ impatient conductor. laugh. “Reckon it’s gone, sah.” “Push it to one side and go on,” he “But why do you reckon?” sa.ld, calmly. “Why. at first I didn’t reckon. Then The engineer obeyed and kicking the the ole woman she reckoned, and I had stone was still further astonished to j to reckon with her or hev a row. When see tt crumble into dust liefore him. I reckoned as she reckoned, she reck It was nothing more nor less than a on«! I'd better come out and swing a block of starch which the emperor had lantern and stop the train, and that’s had placed on the rails the night be I what I did.” fore. “You haven't been down to the creek?” Onions for Brides. “No, sah.” Among the Greeks the onion was for “And you don't know that the bridge merly used at marriages, a jar of len EVEX THE COWS WEAB BUTTONS. tils, one of snow and one of onions be is gone?” ties of Alameda County, California, to ing spoken of as gifts to the daughter “No. sah. Y’o’ see, the ole woman she submit the cows in all dairies of the of King Cotys upon the occasion of her j reckoned 'twas, and I had to reck county to the tuberculin test, and those marriage to Iphicrates. In some on----- ” that pass the test successfully will places, even now, onions are throwu “Get out of the way. you old Idiot!” have a small silver button attached to after brides, as Is rice in our land. interrupted the conductor, as he gave the ear as a badge showing their In the south of England this patri the signal to go ahead. healthy condition. Cattle that canno$ archal plant was us«i by girls to divine “But the ole woman reckoned----- ” pass the test will be killed. “And she’s another!” their future husbands. When the on “Both of us idiots, eh?” shouted tl.e ions were purchased for this purpose Ixiie anil Death Broke His Vow. it was necessary for the purchaser to | old man. as the train began to move. For more than twenty years William enter the «Hop by one «loor and go out ' "Wai, I reckon so. too; but If she reck- II. Jerolamen, of Morristown, N. J., by another; it was, therefore. Impor ! ons we ain’t, then I’m goin’ to reckon was silent in his home, says an ex tant to select a greengrocer’s shop ; long with her. and k«“ep out of a fuss.” change. He made a vow and kept it ' which hail two doors. Onions bought We found the bridge all right, and until death faced him. Then he broke In this careful way. if placed under “reckon«!” It must have l«een the syca the oath, spoke to his wife, kissed her the pillow on St. Thomas’ eve, were more tree that went down with a crash. and died. warranted to bring visions of the fu One day back In the ’70s, after a ture husband. Did ft All the Same. tritllng quarrel, he said to his wife: Country girls were also wont to take '1 suppose you ha<! to do the driv “I’ll never speak to you again ns long an onion am! name It after St. Thomas. ing." suggested her beet friend, point as I live.” At that time he was 58 It was then peeltx! and wrapped in a edly, when the Is'autlfnl creature came years old. He kept his vow and lived clean handkerchief, after which, plac back from her ride with the handsome on. utterly Ignoring the woman who I ing It carefully on their beads, the young man. had shared his Joys and sorrows so | maids would say: “Indeed, I did not," replied the beau long. They lived In a cottage at Mount tiful creature. Good St. Thom ns do me right Arlington, Morris County; but, as far “Nor And let my true love come to-night. as Jerolamen was concerned. It was as That I may look him in the face "Well, I should say not There was If his wife was not living. Ami him in my fond arms embrace. no compulsion about It at all, but un She bore the slight without a mur- —Cbautuuquau. der the circumstances I preferred to.” BICnAHD CROKER.