1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
6i3 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—Telephone wires from New York City to 
Little Rock, Ark., were put in action August 10. The 
distance is 1,380 miles, and it costs $2 a minute to talk 
over it. . . In the investigation of the New Jersey In¬ 
dustrial School for Girls, witnesses testified, August 10, 
to most brutal treatment of the inmates by the matron, 
Mrs. Eyler. This woman, who is the wife of a Lutheran 
clergyman, is accused of choking girls who had incurred 
her displeasure, beating them brutally with a strap, con- 
lining them for days in a cell on bread and water, in 
strait jacket and anklets, and calling in farm hands to 
aid in the abuse. One girl, according to sworn state¬ 
ments, was driven insane by the treatment she received. 
. . Another street-car was blown up at Cleveland, O., 
August 12. August 11, a non-union conductor shot a 
striker, and a soldier in uniform, but not on duty, was 
attacked by a crowd and shot. . . A lire which started 
in a manufacturing plant at Berea, Ohio, August 12, re¬ 
sulted in damage amounting to $100,000. . . The West 
Indian hurricane hit the Florida coast July 12, but owing 
to cautionary signals, no great damage was done. . . 
The first case of “faith cure” reported from Darlington, 
S. C., resulted, August 12, in the death of the patient, 
and legal inquiry is being made into the case. . . Two 
women at North Adams, Mass., recently took strychnine, 
mistaking it for headache powders. One died and the 
other was made critically ill. . . August 11, snow fell 
during a violent storm at ifork, Pa. . .At Spearfish 
Canyon, S. D., a boy of 11 saved the lives of 1)3 teachers 
on an excursion train by (lagging the engineer, and noti¬ 
fying him of an obstruction on the track. The boy has 
been provided with a free course at the Wisconsin State 
Normal School. . . The Altoona, Pa., Board of Health 
has ordered all stray dogs, cats, and other pet animals 
to be killed, thinking that they aid in spreading small¬ 
pox. . . The War Department has issued a statement 
warning miners against the Cape Nome district, Alaska; 
it is a desolate region absolutely without supplies except 
those taken there, and suffering and destitution are ex¬ 
pected. . . A bicycle tire exploded in Muncie, Ind., 
August 14, throwing the rider several feet into the air. 
He was fatally injured. . . A girl, 11 years old, died of 
diphtheria in Chicago August 14, after being treated by 
Christian science. No precautions had been taken against 
infection. . . Plans have been completed for the en¬ 
listment of five new regiments of volunteers. . . Cass 
Lake, Minn., was visited by a disastrous lire August 15, 
which destroyed three-fourths of the village. . . Dan¬ 
gerous forest fires are threatening farms and villages in 
Jefferson County, N. Y. . . August 15, it was stated 
that huge ice Hoes blockade the entire coast of Labrador, 
increasing the difficulties of navigation for the ocean 
liners, and injuring the codfishing industry. . . Fire 
started in a chair factory at Jamestown, N. Y., August 
16; it extended to 27 buildings, injured live firemen, and 
caused a loss of $500,000. . . The schooner Aaron Rep- 
pard went to pieces 20 miles north of Cape Hat terns, 
August 16, during a fierce gale, and live men were 
drowned. . . Carrie Snedicor, a two-year-old child, 
was mysteriously stolen near Princeton, N. J., August 
16. She is the child of a wealthy farmer and is de¬ 
scribed as very pretty, with jet-black eyes, light hair, 
and a small deep scar on her left hip. . . Mr. and Mrs. 
J. D. Davis, who left New York on an automobile trip 
to San Francisco, have given up in disgust near Toledo, 
O. The machine is hopelessly broken down. . . A reign 
of terror exists among negroes in South Carolina, owing 
to inflammatory talk against them, and many outrages 
by whiteeaps, who are whipping them and driving them 
away. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The. retail price of meat has 
been advanced at least two cents a pound in New York 
City. The retailers blame the packers, and say that 
they must raise prices or go out of business. . . A 
number of dairymen supplying Peoria, Ill., have organ¬ 
ized a crusade against the new ordinance demanding 
tuberculosis tests, which they say needlessly alarm the 
people. They have also decided to raise the price of 
milk. . . The crop report issued this month by the 
Michigan Secretary of State says that the wheat crop 
in that State is poor, averaging only eight bushels an 
acre, and that of inferior quality. . . The Southern 
Nurserymen’s Association met at Chattanooga, Tenn., 
August 1. The following officers were elected: President, 
N. W. Hale, Knoxville, Tenn.; vice-president, W. D. 
Grilling, Macclenny, Fla.; secretary and treasurer, A. W. 
Newson, Nashville, Tenn.; executive committee, C. M. 
Grilling, Macclenny, Fla.; W. L. Wilson, Winchester, 
Tenn.; J. A. Miller, Rome, Ga.; E. A. Bissell, Richmond. 
Va.; J. Van Limlley, Pomona, N. C. The association as 
organized includes the nurserymen of 15 southern States. 
. . The aggregate loss caused by the Texas floods is 
now put at $7,414,000. The greatest damage was in Mc¬ 
Lennan, Falls, Milam Robertson, Brazos, Burleson, 
Grimes, Washington, Waller, Austin, Fort Bend, and Bra¬ 
zoria Counties. The number of farms submerged is esti¬ 
mated at 8,100, with a total area of about 1,380,000 acres. 
Of this area, at the time of the Hood, there were about 
503,000 acres under cultivation, 339,000 acres being in cot¬ 
ton, 124,400 acres in corn, 10,800 acres in sugar cane, and 
28,600 acres in other crops. Although nearly 90 per cenL of 
the total loss occurred in the destruction of, or injury to, 
growing crops, the damage to farm property and the 
losses of live stock, etc., amount to $844,000. The land 
itself is damaged by washing and gullying to the ex¬ 
tent of over $200,000, but of this loss, about one-half is 
estimated as offset by the increased future productive¬ 
ness resulting from the alluvial deposit left by the flood. 
. . The annual harvest home festival at Yates City, Ill., 
August 10, was attended by 3,000 persons. . . The an¬ 
nual convention of the Society of American l<iorists was 
held at Detroit, Mich., August 15-18. . . The annual 
meeting of the Canadian Horticultural Association will 
be held September 20-21. . . Egyptian cattle are suffer¬ 
ing from a plague of foot-and-mouth disease. . . Reports 
from northern and central New Hampshire, received 
August 16, state that the recent white frosts injured po¬ 
tatoes, tomatoes, and small fruits. 
PORTO RICO.—Later advices state that the recent 
hurricane leaves 100,000 people destitute. Ponce was the 
greatest sufferer, two rivers flowing through the town 
drowning thousands. August 11, 500 bodies were recov¬ 
ered; August 12, the number of dead reached 2,000. There 
was no drinking water in the town, the cisterns being 
filled with salt water. Gen. Davis says that famine is 
impending, and he asks for immediate aid. Two trans¬ 
ports loaded with rice and beans will be sent at once 
from New York. The natives are restless, and cavalry 
patrol has been established. 
CUBA.—A number of Cubans are leaving for San Do¬ 
mingo to aid Gen. Jirninez in his efforts to obtain the 
presidency of that republic. . . Miss Clara Barton fears 
a Cuban war if the starving people are not fed. She says 
that the children who have to forage for themselves will 
grow up into bandits. If the police prevent them from 
obtaining food in the cities, they will take to the woods, 
and get it the best way they can. . . A number of 
rifles have been seized in Havana. It is supposed that 
they were intended for the use of Dominican insurgents. 
PHILIPPINES.—August 13, a squadron of cavalry drove 
the insurgents out of San Mateo, and took possession of 
the place, with a loss of two killed and 14 wounded. It 
is reported that Aguinaldo has moved his headquarters 
to the Gabang Mountains. . . The insurgents were 
routed near Quingua, August 14; they were trying to tear 
up the railway. . . An escaped Spanish prisoner states 
that, July 27, Lieut. Gilmore and 13 other Americans 
were held at Vigan. The insurgents were routed in a hot 
light near Angeles, August 16. . . Reports from Cebu 
and Negros, which were considered friendly, state that 
the insurrection is gaining strength in those islands. 
FOREIGN.—The island of Montserrat, British West In¬ 
dies, was "completely devastated by the same hurricane 
that damaged Porto Rico. Every house on the island 
was destroyed or damaged. The loss of life-was 74. 
There was much damage in St. Kitts and Nevis, 21 deaths 
being reported from the latter. . . During a recent 
hurricane on the Australian coast, 100 lives were lost. 
Five vessels foundered or were wrecked. . . A number of 
prominent Frenchmen, including Paul DfToul&de, were 
arrested August 12, charged with conspiracy against the 
Government. . . Mattre Labor!, the distinguished French 
advocate conducting the defense of Dreyfus, was shot by 
a would-be assassin August 14. Labori was not killed, 
but dangerously injured, and accomplices of the assassin 
robbed him of important papers bearing on the case be¬ 
fore help arrived. . . At Oporto, Portugal, there have 
been 26 cases of bubonic plague and 11 deaths. 
UNCLE SAM’S SPENDING MONEY. 
WHERE HE KEEPS SOME OF IT. 
A Visit to the New York Subtreasury. 
A MILLION DOLLARS.—How insignificant it 
seems! How paltry! A little oblong package of 
soiled paper, fastened with tapes, and weighing about 
three pounds! Can it be possible that so great value 
attaches to the little bundle which the Treasury of- 
he tells me that that package contains just 1,000 bills, 
ttcial placed in my hands for one brief minute? Yet 
each of the denomination of $1,000, and for the like of 
which Uncle Sam will give the nearer its face value in 
shining golden coins at any time he choose. One 
might naturally expect a queer sensation while hold¬ 
ing in his hands such a, to most of us, vast sum; yet, 
somehow, it failed to impress me, and a single $10 
bid or bright gold piece in my own pocket, would 
have far more effect than the millions and hundreds 
of millions I saw piled up around me in Uncle Sam’s 
treasure house in this city. 
THE NEW YORK SUBTREASURY.—This low, 
solid building of stone and iron, with its dome-shaped 
roof, is one of the show places of New York. It is one 
of about 10 United States subtreasuries, but does more 
business than all of the rest of them put together. 
In its vaults at the'time of my visit a few days ago, 
were more than $100,000,000 in gold, not to mention 
the cords upon cords, and I don’t know but hundreds 
of cords of bank notes and silver coin. The latter 
especially was almost bursting its restraining bars, 
the iron-latticed sides of the receiving vaults being 
literally bulging out like the sides of an overloaded 
wheat bin after an abundant harvest. 
The Treasury fronts on Wall street, and stands on 
historic ground. The average populistic idea of this 
street is that it is a nest of leeches and robbers. The 
fact is that it is the financial heart of the country, 
from which flows the life blood of trade through 
every artery of the business world. As one goes up 
the broad steps to the wide entrance doors, he passes 
the statue of Gen. Washington, of heroic size, which 
is supposed to stand upon the very spot where he was 
inaugurated as first President of the new-born Re¬ 
public. Just inside the entrance, too, suitably en¬ 
graved with the record of the fact, is the stone upon 
which Washington stood while taking the oath of 
office. What stupendous changes have been wrought 
in this great country since the scenes thus commemo¬ 
rated were enacted! 
BEHIND BARS AND BOLTS—A broad hallway 
extends from front to rear, and on either side are 
the cages in which work the clerks, and the vaults in 
which the vast sums of money are stored. Every em¬ 
ployee does his work behind locked doors. Every 
vault door is double locked, and so complete and per¬ 
fect are the discipline and the regulations under 
which the work is done, that such a thing as steal¬ 
ing nr embezzlement seems totally impossible. The 
visitor is taken in charge by an attache, but before 
he can be shown around, another official must be 
summoned to accompany the first, for it is one of the 
rules of the Department, that no person shall ever 
enter any of the vaults alone, and two officials, at 
least, must always go together. 
Passing through the clerical department, we were 
first taken to the storage-room for bank notes. As 
these come to the Subtreasury, they are inspected and 
counted; those much worn or soiled are put up in 
bundles for sending to the Treasury at Washington, 
where they are destroyed, new bills being sent in their 
places. Those kept for further use, are put up in 
bundles, each containing 1,000 notes. Thus a bundle 
of $1,000 bills contains just $1,000,000, and one of 
these is handed to every visitor that he may say that 
he has had in his hands this vast sum of money. It 
was one of these I held, but, alas! the doors were 
locked, and two vigilant officials stood guard! Lining 
this room, clear to the ceiling, are iron boxes, closed 
with iron doors, and in these the money is stored. 
This vault was intended for bank notes only, but the 
accumulation of gold was so great that the gold vault 
was overflowing, and many millions of dollars are 
stored here. When one of these boxes is filled with 
the stout canvas sacks containing the gold coins, it 
is sealed with a composite seal, one-third of which 
is furnished by each of three officials, and which 
must not be broken without the presence of the three. 
The amount contained is designated on a tag. 
In the silver vault, the sacks containing the coins 
are piled up in compartments on each side a narrow 
passageway, from which they are separated by an iron 
latticework. They are packed in regular tiers and 
layers, and this work is done by experts. Still the 
lateral pressure was so great that the latticework 
bulged out badly, though strongly braced. The larger 
part of the silver stored here is dollars, and each one 
of these, though worth Intrinsically but about 50 
cents, is represented by a paper silver certificate, 
which you and I never hesitate to take at its full face 
value every time we have a chance. When badly- 
worn coins are received, they are sent to the Mint to 
be melted and recoined. 
THE EFFECT OF SO MUCH MONEY—It is said 
that familiarity breeds contempt. What is the effect 
upon the men working among such vast sums from 
day to day? I don’t suppose they experience such a 
contempt for the “filthy lucre” that they will refuse to 
draw their salaries. But these great piles of coin and 
notes are to them no more than the bales of cotton, 
kegs of nails, or casks of molasses handled by the 
longshoreman on the piers. The precautions are such 
that not a penny could be lost without its loss being 
directly traced. For myself, I never before so realized 
the utter worthlessness of money in itself. It is so 
much dead timber. It needs the quickening of active 
business to render it a vital force in the world. 
F. It. V. 
DRYING SWEET CORN SEED. 
Curing in the Open Air. 
I read Mr. Gregory’s account of curing sweet corn 
for seed, on page 559. He is much more experienced 
in the seed business than I am, but I think my prac¬ 
tice for curing seed sweet corn is superior to his in 
efficiency and economy. Several years ago, when the 
canning industry was carried on in this neighborhood, 
I cured sweet corn for seed. I had some frames about 
5x10 feet, made of 2x4 timber, and covered them with 
poultry wire netting on one side (the timber was set 
edgewise). To secure the wire more firmly to the 
frames, also to increase their storing capacity, I nailed 
a two-inch strip of board on the edge of the frames 
over the wire. I then set four posts in the ground, 
so the corners of one of the frames would rest upon 
them. The posts were topped with inverted old tin 
pans to keep vermin from climbing to the racks, 
which were strengthened by one or more cross-bars 
to keep the wire from sagging when loaded. 
I gathered my seed corn when the husks were get¬ 
ting dry and the grains shriveling, and husked it and 
spread it on the netting of the rack, sometimes two 
or three layers deep, taking some pains to make the 
upper ears lie loosely over the lo-ver ones. Then I 
put bits of board across the corners ir> keep the next 
rack from fitting closely down on the first one, filled 
this in the same way, and so continued, putting as 
many as 12 or 15, one above the other, covering all 
when filled, with a board roof. I left all in this *hape 
until late November, when I removed the bits 0 f 
boards from the corners by lifting the racks apart 
slightly with a bar, while I took out the pieces of 
board. Then the racks rested closely one upon the 
other, so as to exclude the snows of Winter, and the 
corn was well housed until I was ready to shell it. 
I found that the corn dried much better placed thus 
in the open air than I could make it dry within a 
building, no matter how loosely I stored it. The 
above plan can be used on a small scale, but I should 
say, always dry in the open air. m. mouse. 
Massachusetts. 
