The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-10-01

and of what they are made, anu i AID
sure you will confess that it Is very
but when | tell you that
these humble little spinners have come
to the aid of man, and have preserved
and strengthened the work OF some OF
the greatest engineers the world ever
and have done for them that
which all their skill and patience had
failed to do, YOU will find it hard to be-
ljeye. know. And vet it is true, rs
will show you.
There is town in Devonshire. Eng
land, called Bideford. and. near tho
town, which is not far from the sea,
two rivers jOin-the Torridgc ana law.
There is is q great bridge just there,
arches in length. and IT
cost thousands upon thousands of dol
lars. and wears oflabor of many men.
to build it. But after it was finished
the surveyor saw that it would not last.
The tide was so rapid and strong that
it kept washing out the mortar from
the arches, and sweeping away the
heavy stones; and, work as hard as
they could. the bridge could not be
kept in order. or so as to be safe to
travel over.
At last wise engineer, who had not
thought even the lowliest of Gods crea-
lures too lowly for him to watch and
study, said he felt sure he could save
the bridge from being swept away. SO
he took men and boats and brought
hundreds of thousands OF ntusseis-yes.
insignificant little musscls-and placed
them among the stones of the arches.
The result proved the wisdom OF the
man who had watched their industry.
They went to work and spun their
threads all over the stones, and bound
them together SO firmly that the tide
and waves had no more power to wash
them away.
To this day the town Of Bideford
keeps men and boats at work to replace
the little spinners as they die. or are
torn away by heavy freshcts; and SO
valuable does it deem these humble
guardians of the bridge that it has
passed q law by which any person who
fears loose the mussels from the arches
shall be transported-which, as you
know, is terrible punishment.
1t isnot only at Biddeford, either, that
our little spinners of the sea have served
mankind in the same way. for in France
the Cherbourg Breakwatcr is made Sc
cure by the strong threads spun over
them by the tons upon tons Of musscls
that wise Government caused to be
placed among them.
You can Judge something of the man.
ner in which these threads hold by put
ting mussel in an aquarium. Very
soon you will find it fast anchored to
the sides of the glass or stones, and
then you will have to break the strong
threads. as the only way OF l00s ching
the spinner from his hold.
There is kind of mussel in the
Mediterranean Sea VIII CHI manufactures
silky thread in such large quantities
that the people of Sicily used TO make
it into gloves and stockings, which
brought extremely high prices, not
only because of their beauty, but on
account of their strange origin. So
highly were they valued, in fact, that.
in the year 1854. Pope Benedict the
Fifteenth was presented with a pair of
stockings made Of the silk threads spun
by these humble workmen OF the sea,
and the Gift was thought one worthy
of the exalted station Of the receiver.
But. in their actual toll. or handi-
work, as it were. our little spinners
have not exhausted all their usefulness.
In the cool winter weather (but not in
the warmer months) the sea-mussels
form a wholesome, palatable food, and
in some places they are brought from
the paris of the coast and placed
where they fatten more rapidly-at the
mouths of rivers emptying into the sea
so that the cities near BY may be sup
piled with an abundance of fine, fresh
mussels.
There is yet another manufacture in
which the humble mussel excels. which,
| il of less real utility, is far more beautiful
than the threads they spin.
Even as far back as the times of the
ancient Romans, the rivers of Brita n
were famous for the beautiful pearls
found in the mussels that dwelt in
them, and we are told that the desire
to possess these gems was one of the
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