202 



THE AMinUGAN DKK-KEEPER. 



July 



mon forest ferns and some chrysanthe- 

 mum CTittings. — Speaker. 



TWO MEETINGS vViTH MILES. 



SUGAR MAKING IN CUBA. 



One lai J*as»d«na, CbI., and the Other 5r\ 



Los Aiij^eles. 



"0}>r' night in the cfrice cf thr IT^tpi 

 Rayra r:d in P;;sadena, Cal i 



travtitr. "I met General 

 Miles. . I was introduced to Irl.a by r,Ia- 

 jor Ben C Tinimau. The olilce was a 

 big apartment. with a great fireplace on 

 one side of it. Th^re were large rocking 

 ut for the comfort cf 

 : ) .sit thrre, and it 

 which ladie.s did not hes- 

 if they l^ui occasion (o 



shairs sea: 

 guests Yvl. 

 \7as a^ rocm t 

 ikitp 



visit 



rffip 



"C ;i fire in th'^ 



gi'eat L; ■ u.s much fcr 



cheerfn.iL .thing else, and 



the hig^ rctiu \'.-u:-: dcu.d; uly a pleasant 

 place. General Miles, Major Truman 

 and myself sat there until 11 o'clock. 

 The general tall:ed freely and most in- 

 terestingly, and to me it was a most 

 enjoyable evening. I hati always had 

 the heartif'St adniiration for General 

 Milp.s — I .had been a soldier myself — 

 and I tihought I should always remem- 

 ber that evening with gnitificaticn. 



' 'The next miming, v.'hile going out 

 of the Hotc 1 Nadeau in Lr;.=? Angeles, I 

 met a gentliiian Vviio said 'Gcod morn- 

 ing. ' I .stc pped and talked, but I could 

 not possi]>ly recall him. Presently he 

 said: 



" 'You don't remember me.' 



' 'I r:nd I did not. 



" 'My name is Miles, ' he said. 



"Well, I wished that the Hotel Na- 

 deau had bcr-n getting in coal and that 

 there had been a ccnvenient coal hole 

 open for nif to slide into, but there 

 wasn't, and I did the lest I could under 

 the circumstances, \vhich I guess was 

 poor encugii. but the general was per- 

 fectly good humored ab( 'at it, for which 

 I was profoundly thankful. 



"Seeing tiie general in a different 

 light, cr amid totrJIy different surround- 

 ings and when I had least expected to 

 meet him, f- upled perhaps with seme 

 degree of natural absentmindnPS3 on my 

 part, h.ad brought this disccmiiture upon 

 me, and cha:;rin over this second en- 

 counter will: General Miles has alwi.y.<^ 

 materially lessened my enjoyment of 

 thp fir.qt " — T\"p\v Vc.rk S-an 



The Cru<le methods That W^ere In Use 

 Twenty Years Ago. 



Twenty years ago, in those times of 

 slavery and high prices, hui Ifttle atten- 

 tion was given to machinery or engi- 

 ;:■ n:: . Planters were content to get 

 vs''.: ::nage of. cane they could fi'om 

 an acre of land. 



The cane was brought to the sugar 

 house, Vv"here the laborers slowly put it 

 on the can-ier, passing it to the mill, 

 where it was rolled or ground between 

 the rolls cf a three roller mill to extract 

 the juice, getting an extraction cf 55 

 per cent out of a pcs.sible 85 e:ir 88 per 

 cent cf the whole weight in the cane. 



The cane v\-as brought to the sugar 

 house ' 'train', " which v/as a set of four 

 or five krttli s set in brickwork, having 

 a strong fire under the smallest or 

 "strike' kettle. The flames pjLssed un- 

 der antl around all the kettles, the un- 

 consumed gases escrcping through a 

 chimney. The combustion was so imper- 

 fect that at night flames could be seen 

 many feet high, coming from the top of 

 the^. e-himney. 



The largest of these kettles received 

 the raw juice, and there it was limed 

 anel sk'>nimed as the impurities rose. It 

 vvas then ladleel to the next kettle in 

 f.uccession, each time being thickened in 

 density and reduced in bulk by evapora- 

 tion until it arrived at the "strike" 

 kettle, v,her(^ a skilled attendant knew 

 the ex;ict point at which to stop the fire 

 anel ladle out the mass into the crystal- 

 lizing lYdiis, in which it was allowed to 

 cool. 



In a few d;iys it was firm enough to 

 be taken out, placed in hogsheads and 

 allowcel to elrain in the storehouses, 

 losing at h ast one-sixth inelripptng mo- 

 lasse.*;. The he>gsheads were then repack- 

 ed tmd placed on carts and ciravvn many 

 miles to the railroad for shipment to 

 the merchants' stores at the scacoast, 

 where' they wore again allowed to drain, 

 W( re repacked, reweighed and sold, thus 

 piling up an expense account that made 

 the profits lock slim; but, as sugar was 

 selling at a high rate, these expenses 

 could be bo'^"'~. 



Over one-third of the entire popula- 

 tion cf the globe, or about 400,000.000 

 people, speiik nothing but the Chinese 



