Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1884-08-02
In a Sugar House.

Like brooding mother hen, the old
sugar house spreads its low roof wings
At either side upon the rivers bank. At
one corner rises the towering chimney,
a marvel in its way round as a needle,
and having its inner courses like the
thread Of a screw that Z may thorough
iy devour the black smoke which, other
wise would pour from the lofty inuzzle.
Ranks Of corded wood on one side.
ranks of blue, juicy cane with shoots and
thick-swelling joints on the other side
wagons coming filed with the sweet
stalks and going 10 the fields again full
of noisy children; men passing to and
fro, every second one of them maunch
ing cane; bright skies smiling overhead
sweet birds, merry birds, brilliant birds,
here, there. and everywhere; the odor o.
autumn in the air, the sweet, gladdenine
sense Of rewarded labor in the heart
all these betoken 'the grinding season,
when waving fields bow and fall pros
trate before glistening, flashing cane
knives piled by vigorous hands, and tho
year is arranging his affairs for his ire
vocable departure to the eternal past.
Soon the last touch OF preparation
great steel rollers are secured, kettles ar,
set afresh, troughs are calked, and
bright, new barrels and hogsheads OF
cypress are piled in readiness.
1t is for other sugar houses to boast OF
steam train, centrifugal process OF
vacuum pans One advance beyond the
primitive suffices for the unambitious
spirits of such one as this we view, and
that is fully met in the long rectangular
sheet-iron vessel with its row of compart-
ments from ''the grand to ''the bat
terry" instead of distinct kettles.
The fire is lighted, and roars under
those large compartments or pans filled
with water boiling furiously.
An armful of cane is thrown upor
''the carrier Another and another anC
yet another; then an increasing supply
follows, and up, up, up, it goes on the
moving, endless chain of wooden Stats
guided by skillful hands, it falls into the
insatiate jaws of the rollers, and is munich
ed and crunched till it falls away upor
the farther side like big wad of bleacheo
straw.
Along small troughs below the roller;
runs the sweet white juice, through
fumes of sulphur in the perforated ches
beyond, thence pumped to the "receiv'
ers' aloft, treated with lime water, and
the word is passed below. Great dippers
whose handles are measured by the foot
fly rapidly, the water is lifted. quickly
from the first of the pans or kettles
"the grand"-and the juice flows in, t.
follow again, after a while, the still
retreating water, until, at last, all the
compartments are filled with the boiling
foaming juice alone.
Carefully, skillfully, the surface oil
each is swept with long wooden blades,
thus forcing back from each the up,
heaved impurities detached through the
combined agencies, the sulphur fumes
and the lime water.
So the work goes on, day and night,
the divisions of time noted only for the
incoming of one set of workers and tho
outgoing of another for needed rest OF
food.
Round and round, the three hugo
rollers ceaselessly revolve, while the
many jointed stalks jump and writhe
and crackle as they are grasped and
crushed Ey the cylinders; steadily, con
tinuously, the little rill of expressed sac.
charine sap runs to the purgatorial puri-
fication of the sulphur chest, and so or
through its several parts the work con
tinues
Down at the last of the pans-''th
battery"-he who is specially known as
1.-The sugar makerp stands on guard.
At short intervals he dips into the
vessel, extracting a small portion of its
darkening contents. Into this, when il
has cooled, he drops small glass tube
with a metrical scale like barometer's,
and tiny bulb below filled with dimin-
utive leaden beads.--Jdmes B. Gable, IA
the Current.