Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-06-20

finished, "let Hurcules himself do
what he may" and let the cost be
whatsoever it pleases.
In writing of gunpowder we have
to deal with one of the most potent
agencies known in all the glorious
records of civilization and progress,
as well as in the sombre annals of hui
man suffering and sorrow. The first
charge of gunpowder compounded
in modern times is said to have hurl-
ed the inventors pestle through the
ceiling of his labratory and the last
charge that human hands shall ever
make will doubtless shatter into it's
original atoms "the great globe itself,
yea, all which it inherit" and dis
turb preadventure, TO its deepest
foundation the rock and refuge Of all
the circling ages. Says Lowell in his
grand "CathedraP":
OF Earth's anarehic children latest born,
Democracy, Titan who has learned
TO Tough at Joves old fashioned Munderbolts-
Could ne not also forge them, if he would
lie, better skilled, with solvents merciless,
Loosen ed in air, and borne every wind
saps unperceiyed the calm olympiau height
or ancient order feels its bases yield
And pale gods look for help to gods pale.
We can scarcely realize in full all
the grand triumphs that have already
been achieved by means of this pow
erful compound, nor can we begin to
estimate, on the other hand, the sad
ness and anguish that it has brought
into the world, the homes that it has
darkened and the hearts that it has
crushed. But yet it is so. The same
smoke that has hung over SO many
fields of mortal strife and carnage,
has left its umbered trace on many q
page OF history, and given to the no.
best strains of martial poetry an un-
dertone and coloring that aye sug
gest the wall Of the suffering, the
cry of the fatheress and the widow
What spectacles did not the sun be-
hold from that age of mighty tumult
when Oliver Cromwell told his men
to put their trust in God and keep
their powder dry, onward to those
heroic times when, on the historic
plains OF Concord,
the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world;
thence downward again to the un-
paralleled and sanguinary conflicts
Of the late Rebellion, and the decisive
engagements of SJrausburg and Cha
Ions, on the other side of the sea-
And all because men will make an d
use "those vile guns which many u
good tall fellow have destroyed so
cowardly." However.
Leaving cylinder mills mum Der two
spoken of last week, walk of sever
al minutes brings US to the press
house. But before we enter the es-
adjustment We'll pause awhile in
the shade, and prattle about things
that may or may not be relevant to
the subject. The reader is free to
skip the rest Of this paragraph, mas
much as it promises to be very dull
indeed. From forty rods to quarter
of a mile is the common distance that
one powder building is located from
another. The dense growth of trees
usually intervening, is quite as much
matter OF utility as OF mere attract
iveness and beauty. Whenever an
explosion occurs, the same leafy
boughs among which the glad bird
are now singing as loudly and sweet
ly as birds can only sing in June,
prove barrier of very effective
character. They arrest the burning
fragments of wood, splinters, etc. fly
ing violently from the exploding
mills, thereby preventing the fires
being communicated from one build
ing TO another, and lessening, in a
measure, the extreme peril attending
the manufacture of powder. Lofty
barricades, substantially built Of the
strongest boards, are used by some
companies for the same purpose, and
where trees Of Natures own plant
ing are not found, other conditions for
the location of powder mills being
favorable, their planting and cultiva-
ton is begun simultaneously with
the construction of the various build
ings. 1t is by no means a common
occurrence for more than one build
ing to explode at a time, albeit we
find it recorded that as many as SOW
en- have been known to explode, one
after another, with apparently no
communication whatsoever-least-
wise.none that was sensible to the Wis
ion. Now, however, let us enter
this black press house, abandoning
for the time all hope of future use-
fulness and distinction, and thinking
(Which eases ones mind so much, on
such occasions, of all the terrible
powder-mill disasters whereof we
have ever read or heard.
And now few lines of what you,
my dear sir, might call arrant bosh,
after which, space, time, and 80 forth
permitting, you shall DO told how
powder is pressed, coined, and pol
lshed.
This building is quite large, and is
furnished with some very powerful
machinery giving it withal a terribly
impressive interua! aspect. We hear
a roaring and rushing, caused by a
furious little turbine water-wheel. and
see, in a remote corner, a sooty man
working away with wonderful dill
gence and wooden shovel. That
Solomon in his greatest glory was at
all arrayed like this man, is pre-.
sumption staggering to the healthy
and incredulous belief. Light and
airy is his costume, although it is not
exactly what writer's on the aesthetics
OF dress would call graceful. 1t is
single garment, sin longitude tho
sorely scanty," like that ofthe supple
jade in Tam OlShanter, and bears
some resemblance to that well known
item OF wearing gear forming the
subject of Thomas Hoods most fam
GUS poem. The Germans call it hemd
but certain of our high-ton ed lady