is no wonder it was such a slow pro- 

 cess to separate them in the good old 

 days. The Yankee, Eli Whitney, went 

 to Georgia to teach school, but by the 

 time he arrived there the school was 

 taken by another, and he was out of 

 employment. That was a happy mis- 

 fortune for him and for the country. 



He was a nailer, a cane maker, and a 

 worker in wood and metal. A Yankee 

 nailer cannot be idle in a strange land. 

 The expression, "as busy as a nailer," 

 is a good one. Whitney looked about 

 him to see what was the popular de- 

 mand in his line. He found the great- 

 est difficulty the southern people had 

 to contend with was the separating of 

 cotton from its seed. He went at the 

 business of inventing a machine to do 

 the work for them. 



He placed a saw in a slit in a table 

 so that cotton could be pushed against 

 its teeth as it revolved. The teeth 

 caught into the fiber and pulled it 

 away from the seeds. As the seeds 

 were too large to pass through the slit 

 in the table they flew away as the fiber 

 let go its hold upon them, and Whitney 

 soon found he had solved the problem. 



This is the first step in what may be 

 called the manufacture of cotton 

 fabrics. In another article we shall 

 examine all the various sorts of tex- 

 tiles that are made from this interest- 

 ing fiber, and speak of their manufac- 

 ture, treatment, sale, and use. 



Under Whitney's gin the bulky seeds 

 soon began to pile up astonishingly, 

 and it became customary to remove 

 the gins as the piles of this useless 

 seed accumulated. It was left to rot 

 upon the ground in these heaps just as 

 it fell from the gin. Another ingenious 

 Yankee saw there was a great deal of 



material going to waste in these piles, 

 and he experimented to see what could 

 be done with the seed. 



It was found to be very good for use 

 on ground that had become poor by ex- 

 haustive farming. An excellent fer- 

 tilizer is made from it. The cake is 

 used for feed for cattle to great advan- 

 tage. Dairymen regulate the quality 

 and color of the milk they get from 

 their cows by varying the amount of 

 oil cake given in their food. The oil 

 extracted from this seed is used in the 

 arts. It is not equal to linseed oil for 

 painters' use, but it is a great substance 

 for use in mixing in with better oils to 

 make them go farther. In other words, 

 it is largely used for the purposes of 

 adulterating other oils. Not only is it 

 used in making lard, but it is now sold 

 on its own merits for cooking purposes. 



Two days out of New York we 

 sighted the black smoke of a great 

 steamer. At sea everybody is on the 

 lookout for vessels and much inter- 

 ested in the passengers that may be on 

 the craft casually met. So we kept 

 watch of the horizon and were glad to 

 see that a big one was coming our way. 

 She was headed so nearly towards us 

 that we hoped to get a good view of 

 the many passengers that might be ex- 

 pected on so large a ship. When she 

 was near enough to show some of her 

 side, she looked rusty and ill kept. We 

 wondered what the fare must be ior a 

 ride across the water on such a cheap- 

 looking monster. As she came nearer 

 we saw there were no passengers. 

 "What is she?" "What does she 

 carry?" The first mate told us she 

 v/as a tank steamer, running between 

 the United States and Belgium, carry- 

 ing 4,200 tons of cotton-seed oil at a trip. 



THE WISE LITTLE BIRD. 



A little cock sparrow sat on a limb 

 And shivered and shook and whined ; 



And his little mate went and sat by him 

 And asked what was on his mind. 



"The snow comes down and the north 

 wind blows," 

 The little cock sparrow said. 

 " And the cold, cold world is so full of 

 woes 

 That I wish that I were dead." 



So his little mate chirped, " Come, fly 

 with me," 

 And they left that frosty limb. 

 And they fluttered about from tree to 

 tree. 

 And she gayly chattered to him. 



And the little cock sparrow forgot the 

 snow 



And the chilling wind that blew, 

 Nor thought again of his weight of woe; 



He had something else to do. 



