Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-07-04
In a Sugar House.

Like a brooding mother hen, the old
at either side upon the rivers bank.
At one corner rises the towering
chimney, a marvel in its way, round as
q needle and having its inner courses
like the thread of a screw that it may
thoroughly devour the black smoke
which. otherwise, would pour from the
lofty muzzle.
Ranks of corded wood on one side,
ranks of blue, Juicy cane with shoots
and thick-swelling Joints on the other
side; wagons coming filled with the
sweet stalks and going to the fields
again full of noisy children, men pass
ing to and fro every second one of
them munching cane; bright skies
smiling overhead; sweet birds, merry
birds, brilliant birds here, there and
everywhere; the odor of autumn in the
air, the sweet, gladdening sense of re-
warded labor in the heart-all these be-
token ''the grinding season." when
waving fields bow and fall PROSTATE
before glistening, flashing cane-kniFes
piled by vigorous hands, and the year
is arranging his affairs for his ire
vocable departure to the eternal past
Soon the last touch of preparation is
given, the boiler is scrutinized, the
great steel rollers are secured, kettles
are set afresh, troughs are calked and
bright, new barrels and hogsheads of by
press are piled in readiness.
1t is for other sugar-houses to boost
of steam train, centrifugal process or
| vacuum pans. One advance beyond
the primitive sutfices for the unambi-
tious spirits of such a one as this we
| view, and that is fully met in the long,
rectangular sheet-iron vessel, with its
row of compartments from .the grard"
to ''the battery instead Of distinct zet-
ties.
The fire is lighted, and roars under
those large compartments or pans Tiled
with water boiling furiously.
An armful of cane is thrown upon
1.-THE carrier" Another and another
and yet another, then an increasing
supply follows and up, up, up, it goes
on the moving, endless chain Of wood
en- Stats guided by skillful hands, it
falls into the insatiate jaws of tle roll
ers and is munched and crunched till it
falls away upon the farther side like q
big wad of bleached straw.
Along small troughs below therollers
runs the sweet, white Juice, through
fumes of sulphur in the perforated chest
beyond, thence pumped to the ''re-
ceivers' aloft, treated with ine-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 fist of the pans
or ketaes-"the grand''-snd the Juice
flows in to 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 Of
each is swept with long wooden blades,
thus forcing back from each the up
heaved impurities detached through the
combined ~agenoes-the sulphur fumes
and the lime-water.
So the work goes on dav and night,
the divisions of time noted only for the
in-coming of set of workers and the
outgoing of another for needed rest
or food.
Round and round, round and round
the three huge rollers ceaseless'y re,
volve, while the many jointed stalks
jump and writhe and crackle as they
are grasped and crushed by the cylin.
ders; steadily, continuously the little
rill of expressed sac"harine sap runs I'd
the p%urgatorial pu%rifica:ion of the sui.
phur chest and so or through it, several
parts, the work continues.
Children, black and white, and old
men and Women their first color
wrinkled almost away-and many NOR
of all ages and of every color, come
with innocent, yet awkward. requests
or the openness of conscious II -:procity
for ga little %colou," and obta n un
measured abundance.
infatuated youth and maidens. fine oil
form and lovely Of face, Selling the pre-,
text for companionship, also come, with
all the ardor of novices, to s n that
with which their few years are already
well-acnuainted.
Standing awhile by the foaming. pans
and noting with well-feigned Interest
points utterly devoid of significance,
they drop away in couples beyond the
glare of the big lamps, into the shield.
ing half-shadows, there to whisper and
hear words as sweet as the air that fills
every part and corner of the sugar.
'house, floating in the vapor that con.
tinually rises from the boiling juice,
and, like q noble life, covering every.
thing about it with sweetness.
So it seems appropriate and right
that love, tine-discerning love, thai
knows it's own, should seek this place
Of sweets.
But the intensely practical springs
into prominence again.
Down at the last of the pans-..the
battery'-he who is specially known
for the time as ''the sugar MAKER
stands as on guard.
At short intervals he dips into the
vessel extracting a small portion of its
d~arkening contents. Into this. when il
has cooled, he drops a small glass tube
with a metrical scale like a barometer's,
and a tiny bulb below filled with dimin.
utive leaden beads.
1t is the saccharometer. 1t records
twenty-five degrees of density and is
laid aside. A little later it is once more
consulted and its thread of mercury
stands at thirty; then again at thirty.
three.
At the sugar-ma,;er's word a NINA.
ture tank is rolled along the little tram
WAYS and stODS at ssthe hatterv ,, Ae