Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1876-08-10
Our Radix Letter.
Taking a Bath-The Earth on
Firc-BlOOd Drinking-Tbe
New Gold Diggers,

Jerseys vast market garden would
soon have TUNED "toPs up" and
prices OF vegetables would have
been fearful. As it Was the loss
has been great, but the rain saved
thousands upon thousands of dol
lars in that place alone. Anoth-
er contribution to public comfort
was the almost entire extinction
of the forest and bog fires which
have been causing great loss and
annoyance during the latter part
of the hot weather in northwest
ern Jersey. A large part of the
counties lying nearest this city
are bogs and drained marshes,
the surface of which is of a peaty
nature and grows a long, rank
grass. These marshes are usu.
ally wet, but under the July heat
they became dry as dust, and
sparks from the myriad locomotives
which daily pass over them star
ted numerous little fires which ate
down into the dry peat and spread
in all directions till hundreds of
acres were in a state of combus-
ton impossible to extinguish by
any ordinary means, and sending
up vast columns OF a peculiar suffo-
eating smoke which drifted over
the neighboring cities. Although,
of course, most of the grass on
these marshes was dry and burn
ed readily, there were many large
spots, where, for some reason, the
heritage got moisture enough TO
keep it green. But the fire
spread slowly through the under
lying peat and there was presen-
ted phenomenal spectacle Of green
fields through the vegetation of
which blue smoke curled inces.
sanity. 1t looked a good deal as
though the crust of the earth were
getting thin in this neighborhood
and the fires of old Pluto's regions
were beginning to make them
selves felt. Two and a half inch
es of rain, however, discouraged
this performance, and only the
blackened fields now remain to
tell the story.
A most extraordinary fashion
| can't call it anything else-is
coming in vogue. What this fash
ion is may be inferred from the
fact that along in the afternoon iii
the "killing rooms" of one or two
of cur big slaughter houses, inva.
lid men and women may be seen,
some of them regular first fami-
lies, too, waiting for the butchers
blade to send the life blood of
some healthy bullock spoutiUg in
the air. This red stream is
caught in a dozen glasses and
well, not to put too fine a point
on it, the cannibals just pour it
down very much as an ordinary
white man would dispose Of a glass
of lager beer. | don't want 20
enter into an argument here to
prove that New York civilization
is receding toward that Of the
South Sea islands, but l must say
that | don't admire the custom
nor appreciate its utility. l be-
lieve if couldn't n. anuiacture my
own blood | would rather go with
out than run the risk of growing
horns and tail by the course indi-
Gated.
A new method of gold digging
has been invented by some gen.
fuses of this city, who evidently
have a taste for the metal, but
don't care to grab around for it
among the dirt and rocks of the
Western mines, under the addi-
tional disadvantages of being liza
BILE at any moment to be Snatch
ed baldheaded" by those uneasy
aborigines who are making the
Black Hills too hot for comfort.
The new plan is to take twenty
dollar gold piece and bore a hole
through its diameter from edge to
edge as large as may be without
disturbing the surface of the coin.
From this main shaft tunnels are
bored out in every direction till
the piece which looks all right, ex.
the little hole in one edge,
s really honeycombed. Having
worked the "lead" to its utmost
the operator plugs the
loles with some heavy wire to
'estore the piece to standard
weight, carefully restores the
nilled surface over the hole in
he edge and repeats the opera
n another piece.
The advantages of this modern
ystem of mining are too mani