The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-06-03

brightest roses June may bring.
But they can not match your sweetness.
Gentle messengers of spring.
-Harper's Young People.
THE GIANT THAT EATS STRAW
PUDDING.
l am good-sized boy, about as large,
should think, as Jack was when he
"hitched his Ratchet" in the kean stalk
and went up to see the Giant. live
with my mother in little house eight
miles from Santa Cruz in California.
Every time we go to town we 90 through
Sequel, and every time we 20 through
Sequel we 90 by a block Of wooden
buildings that have been shut up and
deserted for a long time.
Some bad boys broke every pane of
glass in the windows, and that made
me think of man with his eyes put
out; excepting mostly thought Of a
ruined castle. l did not like It SO still
and lonesome there, but my mother
said:
"Never mind, I have heard that Old
Giant Machine is coming there to live,
and they say he eats straw pudding
ssAAN 0CASo OAOVA P0pOA nAA udy AOuH.
"Oh, dear, dear!'' says 1; "Isn't
that good! l always wanted to see a
giant, and now I'll have chance. Will
he let us in, do you suppose?''
"fes, indeed; he has ever SO many
men working for him, and they sell the
paper to the butchers to wrap around
our beefsteak."
The next time we went by the de-
serted castle the doors were wide open,
and could hear the sound of saws,
planes and hammers, and could see the
workmen passing back and forth, pre-
pairing the rooms for Old Giant Machine.
He had ever so many men at work for
him. Some were building fume from
away up the Sequel Creek to carry
water down to the castle. Some were
at the chair-factory, three miles away,
preparing two great redwood tanks,
ten feet across their tops, to make the
Giants pudding in.
Other men were hauling straw from
all about the country and making stacks
and stacks, some fifty feet long and
some hundred feet long. They put
roofs over the stacks to keep the rain of.
The roofs were made of boards, not
shingles; but the best one was made of
shakes.
Shakes are something like shingles,
only good deal longer.
Oh, but didn't tell you-there were
some more men cutting, hauling and
piling up cords and cords of wood to
heat the Giants furnace.
Well, it kept growing more and more
like real fairy story, for one morning
we came riding along, and as quick as
we got in sight of the castle l saw the
smoke coming out of the smoke stack.
didn't tell you about the smoke stack,
either-it is as much as twenty or forty
feet high, should think, but l can't
measure very well when a thing goes
up in the air like that.
We heard a rumbling and rafting and
thud. thud, that just about seemed to
shake the ground. and I says to my
mother:
"He's come!'
eyes, the Old Giant has come; shall
we go and see him?" she asked, laugh
ing.
Hitch my horses and down 1 90!
Hitch my horses and down l go!'' I
said. couldn't say cup I CO." be-
cause it's down hill to the castle door.
There were plenty of men hurrying
about. but they let us walk right in
without trying to stop us. looked
around quick for the Giant.
"There is Old Giant Machine" said
my mother. "He is second cousin to
Old Giant Weaver, who made the cloth
for your coat.'
"Well, he's pretty good Giant" 1
said, "though he don't look just pre-
ciseiy and exactly as I thought he
would; but he makes dreadful grum-
bling and grooming, and the paper flies
out of his mouth fast enough for any,
thing. How much comes out in a day,
wonder?"
give thousand pounds" said one of
the men, cor about forty feet every
minute"
"How much straw do you have to
feed it?'' I asked.
"It takes in about 5000 pounds a
day now, but we shall have to feed it
more when it gets in good working
order.''
"We would like to see how you pre-
pare the straw from the beginning"
said my mother.
cali right" said the man, "Come
this way"
Then he took us to the other end of
the building, up short fight of stairs,
and there was one of the immense red
wood tanks half full of straw.
"Now, Jack, isten!' said my moth
er.
So listened with all my might, and
can tell you just pretty near every
word the man said.
"This straw is we'll saturated with a
mixture of lime and water, and here it re-
mains for eighteen hours, during which
time steam is forced in, SO as to pene-
trate the whole mass and aid in the
bleaching process"
He talked a good deal like the piano.
roma man up in Santa Cruz.
"How much wood do you burn in q
day." my mother asked him.
"Not a great deal, only four cords,
two cords in twelve hours" said he.
SNOW come this way, and you will see
where the straw goes next, through this
cylinder, where it is washed by con-
tinual stream of water. Those bent
teeth force it through as the cylinder
revolves.
"Next the straw is pitched into these
two watts where for six hours tits ground
till reduced to a pulp"
"Where is the machinery that re-
duces it to pulp?" asked mother.
The man went to wooden cover
shaped like half cylinder; it was three
or four feet wide and painted green;
it was in the center of the vat and ex-
tended half way across it. The watts
were painted green, too, and were
about three feet high, ten feet long and
seven feet wide. or pretty nearly that.
He lifted some Stats at the bottom of
the cover, and showed us what looked
like roller with knives set in all
around it; they were about three feet
long, ! should think, but we couldn't see
it very well because of the fine straw
and the cover.
1.-THE straw being forced between
these rollers and plates of steel bars.