SAGITTARIUS 



5141 



SAGO 



County, is a manufacturing city, about eighteen 

 miles south of Saginaw Bay, sixteen miles 

 southwest of Bay City and 105 miles northeast 

 of Detroit. It extends along both banks of the 

 Saginaw River, which is navigable from this 

 point to its mouth, and is here crossed by a 

 number of bridges. Saginaw is served by the 

 Grand Trunk, Michigan Central and Pere Mar- 

 quette railroads and by electric interurban 

 lines. In 1910 the population was 50,510; it was 

 55,642 (Federal estimate) in 1916. About fifty 

 per cent of the inhabitants are Germans, and 

 there are a number of Italians, Bohemians and 

 Poles. The area of the city is about fourteen 

 square miles. 



Saginaw has beautiful parks, of which the 

 largest are Rust (136 acres), Hoyt (twenty- 

 seven acres), Linton and Bliss. Prominent 

 structures are a Federal building, courthouse, 

 city hall, city auditorium, the Mershon-Whit- 

 tier public natatorium, Masonic temples, an 

 armory, Elks' Temple, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. 

 C. A. buildings and the public library. The 

 principal institutions are the Burt Manual 

 Training School, the Arthur Hill Trade School, 

 which has a United States Weather Bureau Sta- 

 tion, the Michigan Institute for the Blind, the 

 Old Folks' Home, the Germania Institute, Saint 

 Mary's, Woman's, Saginaw General and Deten- 

 tion hospitals, the Home for the Friendless and 

 Saint Vincent's Orphan Home. 



:iaw has extensive sugar-beet factories 

 which handle the large crops of the surround- 

 ing agricultural country. Another important 

 industry is the mining of bituminous coal, the 

 output of which is sometimes 2,000,000 tons a 

 year. The city once had large sawmills, but 

 these declined with the depletion of the forests 

 of the state. The few which remain manufac- 

 ture rough and dressed lumber, sash, doors and 

 boxes. Leading industrial establishments are 

 manufactories of glass, rules, art furniture, 

 steering gears and silos. Here are located the 

 Pere Marquette car shops and a bean elevator, 

 said to be the largest of its kind in the world. 

 The city has an important wholesale trade. 



In 1815 a settlement called Saginaw City was 

 founded on the west bank of the river, and in 

 1849 a second settlement, East Saginaw, was 

 made on the opposite bank. The two were 

 consolidated as Saginaw in 1890. In 1914 the 

 commission form of government was adopted. 

 The waterworks are owned and operated at a 

 profit by the city F.A. 



SAGITTARIUS, aajita'rius, THE ARCHER, 

 the tenth of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. 



About November 22 the sun in its path around 

 the earth enters the sign of Sagittarius. The 

 westward movement of the equinoxes has 

 placed Pisces (the Fishes) as the first of the 

 twelve signs, a position previously held by 

 Aries, the Ram. Some authorities still place 

 Sagittarius as the ninth instead of the tenth 

 zodiacal sign. In astronomy Sagittarius is 

 represented by the sign / , a dart or an arrow, 

 and Sagitta is the name of a constellation 

 called the "arrow" or dart. According to an- 

 cient mythology the arrow is the one with 

 which Hercules killed the vulture which de- 

 voured the heart of Prometheus, who was 

 chained to a rock as punishment for having 

 stolen sacred fire from heaven. The archer 

 Sagittarius is a centaur, half man, half horse, a 

 son of Eupheme, the nurse of the Muses. 



According to Ptolemy, there are thirty-one 

 stars in Sagittarius, all of them small. Tycho 

 Brahe catalogued only fourteen stars, including 

 several variable stars. In Sagittarius the 

 Milky Way is particularly bright. 



SA'GO, a food-starch obtained from the pith 

 of several specimens of tropical palms native 

 to the East Indies. The sago palm grows best 

 in low, marshy soil, and attains a height of 

 about thirty feet. The strong trunks of these 

 trees have a hard outer layer about two inches 

 thick; the central portion is spongy and con- 

 tains the starch product. The trees devoted 

 to the production of sago are not allowed to 

 come to full maturity, for the ripening of the 

 fruit exhausts the starchy center, leaving the 

 trunk a more or less hollow shell and causing 

 the tree to die. These palms are therefore cut 

 down when they are about fifteen years old, 

 being then just ready to flower. The stems are 

 split up and from them is extracted the starch 

 pith, which is reduced to a powder by grating. 

 The powder is then kneaded in water o\ 

 cloth or sieve, through which it passes to a 

 trough, where it settles. After a i. \\ washings 

 the sago flour is ready to be used by the n.i- 

 tives in making cakes and soups. 



Sago prepared for export, however, i? pm n 

 further treatment. The floi t<le<l into 



a dough by mixing it with water, and the mass 

 is forced through sieves, dropping on hot. 

 greased pans in the form of small grains. The 

 grains vary in size, giving rise to the commer- 

 cial names of pearl sago, bullet sago, etc. The 

 heat forms a covering of paste, so that win n 

 ready for the market the sago grains are small, 

 translucent balls. These become larger when 

 cooked, but remain separate, never 



