The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1878-04-27

Hsw Tie Hennenites Burn Grass.
The grass-furnace or stove is nothing
costly, or complicated, or likely to get
ont Of order. On the other hand it is
contrivance 20 simple that many will
say of it a. one man did when he first
saw . railroad track: Nobody but .
fool could have thought of 80 simple
thing!" In . word, as the Irishman
made . cannon by taking large hole
and pouring iron around L, so the Mem
MONTE mother Of food and warmth is
developed by piling brick or stones
round q hollow. :;,g ...
Aware that such generslities are too
vague, will make my description more
specific, and hope to render the whole
mystery plain and level to the lowest
capacity. 80.
The material used for the Russian fur
mace seems unimportant. Some en-
ploy common brick, others stone; one
builder told me he preferred to mix one
part Of sand with two Of clay. In his
judgement this mixture retained heat
longest for radiation through house.
The position of the furnace is naturally
as central as possible, because heat tends
to diffuse itself on all sides alike.
Furnaces will, of course, vary in size
with the size of q house. A good model
is this: Length, five feet; height, six,
and width, two and q half. The bricks
to be employed are about six hundred,
unless the walls be of extraordinary
thickness. The structure may be said
to have six stories. l, the ash-box; 2,
the fire-box; 5, the oven; 4, smoke pas
sage; 5, hot-air chamber; 6, smoke pas
sage either to chimney or to drum in
an upper room.
Many questions have been asked me
as to the size of the fire or fuel-box. Its
length is about four feet, its width and
height, each, about foot and q half.
1t is asked, How is the grass pressed
and prepared for the fire-b0x?" 1t is
not prepared at all, but is thrust in with
q fork as one would throw fodder into a
rack. People suppose they must be
putting in this fuel all the time. This
is not the fact. At the house of Bishop
Peters (48x27 feet), which is large
one for q new country, the grass or
straw is pitched in for about twenty
minutes twice, or at most three times,
in twenty-four hours. That amount of
firing up sufices both for cooking and
comfort.
1t will be observed that the heated air
strikes the oven, and also the reservoir
of hot air both above and below, and
that no particle of hot air reaches the
chimney till after turning four corners.
It works its passage. The iron plates,
doors, and shutters are such as any
foundry can furnish. They are mex
pensive. In case where I Inquired the
cost, it was IS.
Near a score of years ago, when I first
pushed west of the Missouri, my feeling
was: "what a corn and wheat growing
capability here runs to waste! What
myriads of buffaloes have been shot
merely for the dainty of their tongues!"
So now in the light of Mennonite exper-
fence, many a Yankee in Nebraska sees
that he has thrown away cooking and
warming power that had millions in it.
He long ago laughed at his father
smothering bees in order to secure their
honey-and at his neighbor who put in
to his store the corn which he might
have sold, the same year, for dollar a
bushel. He now laughs with the other
side of his mouth at himself for burning
outdoors that prairie produce which, if
burned indoors, would have saved him
too many dollar. He who thus laughs
will need no preaching to make him
square his practice in the matter of
cookery and house-warming according
to the Mennonite plan. His faith will
be stronger than ever, that the Provi-
dence which created quinine where chills
prevail, as well as perfumes where ne
grOes are most numerous, and provided
buffalo-chips for the Indian in the far
west, has there also furnished fuel for
the civilized settler; ''grass of the field,
which to-day is, and tomorrow is cast
into the oven''-a gift which, if he
makes full proof of it, will be sfficient
for all his needs.
Straw and old prairie-grass have been
thought as useless as grave-stOneS
after the resurrection. But the recent
utilizing of them is in keeping with the
spirit of the age-with developing pat
ent flour best suited to human uses from
that part of wheat which had been the
food of hogs, and with planning mills so
constructed that they feed their boilers
with their own shavings. Indeed it sur
passes all witty inventions in its line,
unless it be the proposal, just now start
ed, for turning even tramps to an ac-
count, by clapping them into the regu-
lar army, and sending them among In
dams to scalp, or to be scalped, no mat
tor which.
Many Nebraska Yankees were made
happy last winter, thanks to the Men
MONTE stove; more will be next winter.
That household blessing to an outsider
seems capable of little Improvement.
But the Yankee will improve it, for he
has improved every thing else he has
borrowed-eyery thing from watches to
steam engines, ships, and even religion.
In fact his betterments in the last article
are said to be as manifold
As If religion were intended
For nothing else but to be mended.
Thus Yankee cuteness may render the
Russian stove simpler, smaller, cheaper
of better material-of more elegant
design-of more economical combus-
ton. But as now used by Nebraskan
Mennonites, it is worthy of all accepta-
ton by prairie pioneer. A Hibernian
hearing of stove that would save half
his wood, said he would buy two and
save the whole. The saye-all that he
was after, he would have found in q
Mennonite observation-disclosures D. But
Ter, in tks Chicago Times.