The Cedarville Herald, Volume 12, Numbers 27-52

The Cedarville Herald. W. h . blaib , PuMbhsr, CIPAHVILLE. t - i ' » QUIP. HAIR, FEATHERS AND SCALES. I o n a o f . th e Curious P rap artlta o f E u b N D evelop ed Jly th e M lcrossopo. ''Once upon a time,” said a micro* acroplstto a Star writer, “a bold robber from Denmark made’ sacrilegious on- trance into a church in Yorkshire, England, and got away with some of the holy vessels. He was caught and was condemned to bo flayed alive, his skin being subsequently nailed to the church door for the purpose of afford* ing "an example to evil*doer* and tjo give an agreeable object of contempla­ tion to the good people who flocked to the sacred edifice for worship on Sun­ days, That was about a thousand years ago, and after awhlle-the human hide was torn off by bits, all traces of it being removed, save for some smnll fragments which still peep out from under -the eges of the broad-headed nails.b.^which it was stretched. , “Such, a t all events, has been the tradition in Yorkshire, and it happened' a few years ago that an .inquisitive per­ son sent a scrap of leather to an em­ inent expert in microscopy, giving no account of it, but merely requesting to know what kind of skin it was. The professor brought his .microscope to i bear upon it and presently found some fine hairs scattered over the surface, which, after carefully examining, he de­ clared to be human hairs,- such as grow on the'naked parts of the body. Fur* Ithermore, he stated th a t the person who owned them was of fair complex­ ion. This was very interesting, inas­ much as after the lapse of ten cen­ turies it was proved possible not only to distinguish human hair from that of. any other animal, but actually to de­ termine the race of tho man to which it belonged, the- Danes being light­ haired. “If yon will look a t a human hair un­ der the microscope you will find that its surface is formed of successive over­ lapping scales. The bristles of the hog . bear much resemblance to the human hair, though their diameter is greater, and the tile-like scales are much finer. Sheeps’ hair has much coarser scales. I t is owing to tho existence of these scales th a t a schoolboy is able by a pe­ culiar process to tell which is-the tip and which the other end of a hair, roll­ ing it between his finger and thumb. Thus manipulated, the hair always travels in the direction of the base, be­ cause the edges of the scales prevent it from going the other way. “ It is because of this scaly structure that those hairs which possess it-are endowed with the property of felting— th a t is, of being so interlaced and en­ tangled by certain mechanical opera­ tions as to form a dense cloth-like text­ ure.'- The substance of men’s hats is made of lambs’ wool and rabbits' fur, not woven, .but simply beaten, pressed and worked together between damp clothe The same property makes woven woolen tissues close and thick, and it is on this account that worsted stockings shrink, becoming thicker and firmer after they have been worn for awhile and washed frequently. Broad­ cloth is given its close and firm texture by the intimate union of tho felted wool fibers of which it is composed. From tho commercial point of vi *wthe excel­ lence of wool is detormi ted by tho . closeness of the little teeth or scales. Merino fiber has 2,400 teeth to the inch, whilo an even superior wool for felting purposes, called Saxon, Is seen under the microscope to have 2,720 teetli In an inch. “The feathers of birds are simply modified hairs. Scales of fishes overlie one another, tile fashion, like birds' feathers, and for tbe same purpose, namely, to shed water. If a fish’s scales were setwitb their edges toward his nose his progress through bis na­ tive element would be impeded. The scales of fishes are very beautiful things to examine microscopically. Take those of a gold fish for example. The brilliant golden or silvery hues of these fishes are produced, by a soft layer of pigment spread over their in­ ner surface and seen through the trans­ lucent substance of the scales. On carefully detaching a scale one sees on the under side a layer of gleaming sub­ stance easily removed, silvery or gold­ en, according to the hue of the fish. If a small portion of this substance is taken up on the end of a flue needle and spread on a glass slide under the microscope it is seen to consist of two distinct materials, one giving the color and the other the metallic luster. When thns greatly magnified the for­ mer of these two substances is seen to be a layer of loose cells, of an orange color in tho gold and whitish in the sil­ ver fishes. If a drop of water be then added and the solution gently agitated with the needle point the maS3 is seen to be full of an infinite number of fiat crystals, oblong prisms, with angular ends, By reflected light they flash like plates of polished steel. But what ap­ pears most singular is that each crystal is perpetually vibrating and quivering as if alive, although It is really due to a alight motion of the water in which they float. Owing to this irregular movement each crystal is momentarily brightening or waning, flashing out or pouring into darkness, thus producing Is positively magical effect. To this properly, presumably, is to bo attrib­ uted the pearly play of light which marks Lho living fishes.”—Washington 6tar< THE BATTLE- FIELD. HIS FIRS T BATTLE . A Y stera n D ela tes t h e Story o f I lls M alden E xperience In War, “How did you feel in your first bat­ tle?" was- asked of a veteran with the record of forty battles behind him, “Well, I was frightened, I suppose," replied the soldier. “Tell us about i t " He was by no mean anxious for the task, but they urged him, and he be- fan: “J was with tho army of Gen. Thomas there a t Chattanooga in the. fall of 1803, when Gen. Bragg, with a splendid array, had us cornered and was slowly starving us to death. When Grant came we were told there would be plenty of fighting. . We were in n.o condition to fight, for we were in rags, and many were sick with scurvy. There was' no ammunition, and we did notpos/scsB nsingle position from which the euemy could be attacked.- It seems that as Grant was coming .forward he telegraphed back for ammunition, clothing and small rations, and the very day of his arrival these were [issued to the army. Yon can have no-idea how it strengthened and encouraged us. Where we had been weak and dispirit­ ed before we were now active and full of energy, and all we asked was to be led against tbe enemy. “But, really, when orders came to advance, I confess the courage was cooled very noticeably. One thing was that the movement began in the night. Along in the evening our company was ordered to report for rations, and the first hint we had of how longtho fight would last was when we received ten days' rations. Ammunition was next issued, and wo were kept moving. I well recollect Thad left a waterproof blanket bohind, intending to get it be­ fore we finally started. But os soon as the cartridges were drawn, and with­ out breaking ranks, they marched us straight down to the river; Many .a night afterward I wanted that blanket, but I nover saw it again. Down tlie river and along the rocky -bank over a road that was difficult enough in day time, we went tumbling along. “Presently, ns I rose to the top of a little hill I saw a lo to f boats just ahead a t tho river’s edgo, and the soldiers climbiiig in them. There was a jam of men before me. They could not em­ bark rapidly enough. Some were in the water wading and trying to clam­ ber first into one boat and then in an­ other. Some' lost their guns After a .while wo were afloat and driftingdown, crowding together—tho whole river full. No one knew where we were going. “Some one said: ‘It 'is getting day­ lig h t’ The east was becoming red. While I watched it, crumpled, half kneeling in the boat, I hoard some fir­ ing just above on tbs left hand, and then there was a rush of the boats ahead and a loosening of oars. Pretty soon every one was along the shore and climbing up on the bank. Not even the company officers know -where we wore going. But there we were* all ashore, and ‘forming in something like k line, but irregular and. crowded, and with companies and companies .that I never had seen before. No one heard • command, but yet we were going for­ ward, Just before sunrise I passed a group of confederates. There must have been fifty. ‘That’s the picket guard We captured/some one said. I hadn’t known we had captured any one. At daylight we were stopped, though there had been no formal orders that any one heard, Men a]iead were sit­ ting around on the ground and fences and rocks eating. We all fell to eat­ ing, too. Then there was a forward movement, and all the army—it looked like'5,000 men—was marching rapidly. Lookout mountain towered up there on the le ft Confederate works reached clear down to the valley. The sun was very h o t Some of the men wanted water. My canteen was quite empty. I wondered why I had not filled it at the river. • “All of a sadden the air seemed to burst, to shatter, with a volley of ar­ tillery. A hill on our left, half way to the mountain, was occupied by a Con­ federate battery. They were firing right into our column. The ‘soldiers just ahead of us were running out of the road up toward the cannon. Our company ran out of the road, too. The grounds sloped up easily. The guns were about a quarter of a mile away. They kept on firing. Now, for the first time I saw some one was hit hero and there in our troops. I could tell by the l.ctle diversion it would cause. Men would loolt to a common center, where all behind would partand hurry around, looking a t the ground in that center. Just before ns stretched a thick piece of low, stunted timber. I could not see. the battery, but I heard it constantly. The shots Were tearing fthrobgh the trees. Horn j one said they lmd another bat­ tery in the woods. We were panting from the run. Now and then a soldier would loosen his blanket or his knap­ sack and let it roll away. . ■“We were in the timber. A man was killed right in front of me. lie fcll,strug- gling and trying to rise, but making no cry. A soldier lifted his canteen strap Jrom his neck and ran on, taking a drink from the full supply, I thought it was a horrid and brutal thing to do, but the soldier ran on, slipping his own head and arm through the canteen strait. *Out On the other side of the woods. There was no battery tit eve. But the one tip on tho hill seemed terri- i biy near, ,I t was firing with dreadful regularity. Soldiers from three sides were running up tha t hill. Some were shouting. I t occurred to me we were in great danger. I wondered more of us .were not h it We were in range of muskets. The first volleyfairly swept the advance runners from the ground. As we ran on wo passed dead and wounded men every few steps. I was terribly .tired. My lungs seemed bleeding. The breath came in painful gasps. “Tho shouting now increased to a roar, and tho sound of musketry chang­ ed from a volley to a ragged, continual discharge. Part of it was from our own men. Several soldiers near mo took aim and fired a t the guns, just puusing an instant in the .run. .Others jerked up their guns and fired a t ran­ dom, without even tuklng aim. For the first time I saw my captain. He was away ahead. It occurred to me we ought to be near him, and I tried to overtake him- The ground was level. The cannons were silent The shout­ ing fell away. A good many of our men were clambering over the earth­ works between tho guns. I lost the captain,- and got over the parapet Our men; were mixed all up with confeder­ ates.' One could tell them apart by .the clothing. But neither side was fight­ ing. Some of the confederates were •gathering up bits of personal belong­ ings. Most of our follows were sitting down on the ground or anything .else and panting. Pretty soon the confed­ erates brought their arm's and stacked them up without much order, and then they gathered in -a rather compact group on one' side. •Our fellows kept coming over the earthworks or around through the openings in the rear. . I learned presently that I had been- one of the first twenty union soldiers in the fort - ■“That was my first battle. The offi­ cial reports say our Bide lost one hun­ dred and fifty men. They also say-we buried one hundred and forty confeder­ ates 'that night—a thing I remember and wish I eould forget We arfe cred­ ited with more than a hundred persons captured. Tho affair is spoken.of as a gallant fight1, and' one of the most im­ portant to Gen. Grant in his maneuvers for the defeat of Ilrngg. I have been in a good muny battles since of course, and while in many of them the dead and wounded were in sight more thickly, yet i saw very little more of the bat­ tle. “The fact is, no man sees a battle. A combining of reports after it is all over gives the world the story, but the fel­ lows who are deepest in are in the poorest position to tell about i t ”—Chi­ cago Herald. A WAR TOUGH. A .Reminiscence* of War Times, as Told by Col. *Illlly" Wilton. Col. “Billy” Wilson, of Wilson’s Zou­ aves, was one of the Well-known char­ acters of this city a quarter of a century since, and many an anecdote is told of him to this day by those who were active in the stirring times of the war. Col. -‘Billy’’ was a rough-and-ready sort of man, and, withal, a bravo one, and just tho man to lead the regiment that bore his name, That regiment had a good record, and though it was com­ posed'In part of much of the riff-raff of the town, and had mauy doubtful char­ acters among its members, It could “fight,”- Thereby hangs a story. Col. ‘‘Billy” Wilson was one day sit­ ting a t his desk—this was in 1801—•tak­ ing the names of recruits. A typical tough slouched In, coming up close to the colonel's chair. Ills clothes were in tatters, his hat broken and his face showed a week’s growth of beard. Even bis walk was “tough," ‘'Does yousc do recruiting?" said the patriot * The colonel turned in his chair slight­ ly and answered in the affirmative, "Ycr does, cli! This is straight!” “What is your name and age?” asked the recruiting officer, lie received an answer. “Is your health good?” “Well, jess as good as yours." “You’ll probably do,” said tho colonel suavely. Then he commented politely upon the service, saying he thought the new soldier would not find his duties unpleasant, and directing him to go to the doctor and be examined. As the conversation lagged, the colo­ nel said: "Can you fight?” This roused the tough citizen in a way lie could not re­ sist. Ho. edged up to the chair, shoved his doubled fist very close to Wilson's nose, and shouted, with an emphasis unprintable: “I enn lick you!” Col. “Hilly” used to tell this story with great gusto. The new recruit proved one of tho best soldiers in tbe regiment, which, on account of its tough personnel, was placed on a sand island off the coast of Florida, where, when the southerners at­ tacked it, they were driven back inflno stylo. I t was related of Col. “Billy” that when, with flying colors, the regiment marched down Broadway' cn route south, lie marched some distance in ad­ vance of his men. Ho was asked why, and replied: “I’m afraid some of the rascals will pick my pockets,’’--N. Y. Mail and Ex­ press. ___ ____ —Slips for tho broadside docking of vessels have been built a t three of tho principal ports of France. By this means vessels are to be hauled out of the wiitcr without straining, and the cost is less than by the ordinary means of placing in a dr,? dock. IN WOMAN’S BEHALF. THE WAGES OF WOMEN. Tact* D rou gh t to L ig h t a t a M eetin g o f th e B r itish A ssociation. The economic section of the British association a t its recent meeting took under consideration the relative wages of men and women, and discussed the matter thoroughly in the hope that some conclusion could bo reached, some,basis of fixing the pay that women ought to get whore they do the same kind of work as men. As might have been ex­ pected, no definite conclusion was reached, although the. matter was very thoroughly discussed, and n great deal of interesting-information obtained. In the first place,, it was shown that tlic popular belief that women do not get thp. same pay as men for the same qual­ ity of work is a mistake. They are paid quite as well In many branches. In art and literature they ■receive- the same - compensation, and obiong tho greater singers the Women have probably received more. In the trades or-professions they get tho same pay when they organize and insist upon it. For years tho Lan­ cashire cotton mills paid female labor less'than the males, until the women organized and struck. Since then the mill owners have not considered the sex of their employes, but tbe work done. A similar strike was that of the women teachers in Wyoming and it was similarly successful. Indeed,- within the' last few years the salar­ ies paid female teachers have approximated closer and closer ; to those paid the men, until now in a majority'of the states no differ­ ence- ^between them is recognized. When, . however, it comes to factory work the women get less, generally because they do less. Their work is usually different from that done by the men, simpler, lighter and easier. Again in regard to.type- writors, clerks, telegraph operators and tlie./like, the smaller, pay is due to infer­ ior work. This is especially the case with typewriters and clerks, due to 'the fact that when the women go into these branches they do so temporarily, expecting to leave them soon for some­ thing else, where a* the men adopt them generally as a permanency. It is this temporariness ' which -makes much of women's work—especially where they enter into competition with men—inferior, and is the cause of their receiving lower pay. Whenever they go into any trade which they intend to keep up permanently, they get the same pay,and they do-so, moreover, when they are thoroughly organized and insist upon their rights. But when it is a more makeshift, something to be follow­ ed a year or so until they are married, the work is inferior and the pay small. These are the conclusions reached by tho British .Association, after' having discussed the matter for several days. —N. O. Times Democrat MORE SYSTEM DESIRED. A C om m e n t a n th e L ack o f M e th o d In th o . Way. W om en W o rk . A newspaper in commenting on the. lack of method .in the way women work, says: From remote generations tth n liavo been taught to do. th eir work by rulo. No man hiros s laborer w ithout engaging Ills time tor a cer­ tain num ber of hours. Tho man servant knows distinctly when and w hat time he m ust devote .to h u work. Tbe female servant alone Is ex­ pected to do hor work In a happy-go-rasy way. At ono time she Is seriously reprim anded for w hat Is overlooked at other tin v s, Tho trouble With servants Is largely duo 10 want of order In laying out their work and malting them a there rigidly to it. Tho average mald-of-nll-work has somo reason In rebel -ig against her position when hor work dcpoatN, as it often does, upon tho whim sical fancies of the m istress, who drives hor from ono thing to another w ithout system or order. There is a grain of truth in this, and women are finding out that the work of running a house must -bo brought under more system than it has been in the past; but the hap-hazard methods complained of are not essentially femi­ nine. The conditions under which women work have fostered this way of doing, and household, work can nevbr be brought under the rigid discipline Of the workshop because people can not live by machinery. She is the best | housekeeper who can got best control of conditions so as to minimize the friction of the various occupations that go to make up the sum of house­ work, A frail, delicate woman, with four or five young children, a small number of rooms, only an incompetent maid of ail work to rely upon for help,, and a hus­ band who expects all the comforts that he lr d in his bachelor days, should not be criticised for lack of method because licr house is a good part of the time in disorder. Give the same woman a house roomy enough to have a place for every thing, help enough to give each one time for doing thoroughly the task allotted to her, and leaving the house­ wife time to think of something besides the necessity of saving some expense a t every turn, and the lack of method might not be So prominent a feature of her household,” By faulty training,'and too large demand upon time and strength, women lmvo been forced into tlio unsystematic ways complained of. More leisure and more mental training will correct the fault, and the next gen­ eration of housewives will have a chance to retrieve the reputation of women in this respect.—Springfield (Mass) Republican. . M rs , XV. \V. T aylor was superin­ tendent of the poultry and pet stock de­ partment of the Larimer county (GoL) fair. • MISS LIZZIE THAYER, T b s C sp sb la and T ru stw orth y Train u it. p a telier o f « n E astern Railroad. There ara many women who occupy more imposing and better paid posi­ tions, but there are few, if any, wlin incur every day in*the week such vast responsibilities as devolve upon Miss Lizzie E. D. Thayer, This young lady has been. for two years the train dis­ patcher of the New London Northern railroad, whose tracks jbxtend from New London, Ct., to lirattleboro, Vt, 'a distance of IE l miles. Not a mile-of the entire road is double-tracked. There are forty-eight regular trains on the time table' along, with any number of extra ones, both freight and passenger. During the summer excurson trains are run a t frequent intervals. All these trains°are moved, by telegraph, and the safety of lives and property involved depends largely upon, the nerve, fore­ sight and promptness of tho young woman whose finger tips are on the tel­ egraph instrument in the. New London office, ’ Miss Thayer is said to be the only woman in the world, who holds such a position. From seven a. m. to nine p m. she is.responsible, and for the prin­ cipal part of the time she is hard at work receiving .and dispatching mes­ sages. She keeps one of the telegraph wires hot with train orders and instruc­ tions to conductors in regard to the work a t tho many stations. She side­ tracks freight trains to let “passengers" whiz by, or, perchance, she sidetracks a passenger train for a few minutes to prevent a freight loaded 'with perislia- • ble stock from getting “laid out.” I t was somewhat by accident that Miss Thayer became a train dispatcher. Three years ago she joined the office for a short time as assistant to the regu- . lar official. : Within a year ht} resigned, and for seven months the young lady performed ia.ll duties without any as­ sistance.' The superintendent hunted up and down the road for the proper person ■ to fill the place. Meanwhile •the road was running on all right, and finally, having grown tired of looking for the proper man, it, was decided that as Miss, Thayer’s work had been per­ fectly satisfactory she should be re­ tained in the position.—Chicago Post ”‘ I 1" u ^ Mis* M arsdep’s Mission. Miss Field, the traveling companion of Miss Kate Marsden among the Rus­ sian lepers, bos returned and is giving thrilvng accounts of the perilous jour­ ney to Omsk accomplished by the two women. It seems that a herb which gives promise of .being an efficacious remedy for leprosy has been discovered, and it was to find this herb and to ex­ amine into the condition of the wretch­ ed lepers that Miss Marsden undertook the 9,000 miles’ journey. Part of the distance was traveled by the two wom­ en lying flat on their backs on their luggage stowed in' the bottom of an open Blcdge. Tlieir shelter a t night was sought in huts whore there wore no beds, their food was of the plainest description and their recreation visiting the sick and prisoners in hospitals and prisons, which are abundantly recruited from tho exiles constantly on the march toward Siberia. In D sya Gone lly . ' There was a time when it was con­ sidered a part of a woman’s duty to spin the thread and weave the cloth for the use of the family, to wash and iron licr husband’s linen, and to' have no thought about the cellar and pantry, the kitchen and her accounts. Times have changed. Tho invention of labor- saving machinery of all kinds has left women with hours of leisure upon their hands, and tho employment of that leisure has led' them into new fields, to the creation of new industries and to taking the place of men in the depart­ ments ‘of tho old, which they are ea-* pable of filling.—Chicago Graphic. POINTS qF PROGRESS. Two hundred women are employed by Edison in working at tbe more delicate details of his electrical inven­ tions H elen C amphrll says that 200,000 women work in a hundred different •trades in New York city, and of that number 27,030 support tlieir hus­ bands. R ev . M ary L. L esgktt , the pastor of the Unitarian church of Green Har­ bor, Marshfield, Mass., is very suc­ cessful. She came from Beatrice, Neb., where she preached for three years. T here are more women workers in the United Kingdom, Great Britain and Ireland, in proportion to the population, than in any other country in tho world, Twelve per cent, of the working classes there are women. T)n, E mma G t ’ nkel , of Newport-, Ky., a graduate of a Cincinnati College, and who completed her studies in Germany, lias become one of the most successful physicians in »her state. She is the daughter of a noted homeopathist, Tim political equality club of War­ ren, 0„ has been investigating the number of women engaged in the vari­ ous industries of th a t city and finds that ontsido of domestic industries there are 052 women employed in gain­ ful labor. A woman ’ s duty is certainly the thing which she is best fitted to do, and in the ratio of her preservation of her in­ dividuality Is her usefulness increased. She is capable ct settling the matter herself, and with trained intelligence and reasoning powers skilled l>y the Consideration of subjects of the highest 1 importance, can scarcely e rr ,- Chicago Graphic.