Tombstone epitaph., 1890-01-18
BORING A CANNON.
Work That Requires Considerable Care
 and Unlimited Patience.

Work That Requires Considerable Care
 and Unlimited Patience.
 At last the cannon is turned down, and is ready to be bored inside. In this operation it must be bored so straight and true that the boring tool, entering at the exact center of the small end of the cannon, will come out precisely at the center of the large end, seventeen feet away. Those of you who have tried to bore a straight hole lengthwise through even a short bit of wood will know that this work requires not little skill and care.
 When any of you boys have a job of boring to do at your workbench, you make fast the article to be bored and turn the boring tool. Itis just the other way in boring a cannon. The boring tool or ''bit" is held firm and motionless, while the great mass of steel to be bored turns around. This plan is found to in sure steadiness of the bit" It would be almost impossible to make this bit firm and solid enough to do its difficult work, and yet free to turn around in the can non. So if you had been at the side of this gun-lathe when the work was be- gun you would have seen that the bit was motionless-except for slow ad- vance into the gun.
 The bit attends strictly to business, and steadily bores it's way through the steel. Most of you have been to the country and have seen pig ''rooting" in the ground. Imagine, then, a pig to be standing still and the ground to be slowly passing under the pigs snout and being rooted" and you will have case much like that of the bit and the can non. In fact, the boring tool is called a ''hog-nosed" bit, and it roots up that cannon as if it enjoyed the operation. No long, graceful curls come from this boring, but small, crisp shavings that are removed as fast as they accumulate in order that the boring tools work shall not be interfered with. The bit is going into the steel at the rate of three eighths of an inch for every turn of the cannon, and it is making round hole almost large enough for a boy to put his head in-five and three-quarters inches in diameter. As the round hole grows deeper, the heavy bar, on which the bit is fastened, advances into the cannon steadily, moved by a number of wheels and screws that form part of the lathe.
 must not lose sight of the shavings, the little ones that come from the inside and the long, spirally-twisted ones that are turned from the outside of the can non. A military-looking man, standing near the lathe, does not lose sight of these shavings or trimmings either. This mans business is to carefully in- spect the borings and trimmings. That is what he is paid to do. Uncle Sam pays him and expects him to earn his salary. The cannon is being made for Uncle Sam and he intends to find out all its qualities, whether good orsbad. So the man eyes the borings carefully Now, if with plane or your knife-blade. you will cut thin shaving from bit of wood, it will show any little flaw exist ing in the wood from which it was sliced The tiniest knot-hole or crack will show in the shaving much more plainly than in the wood itself. So it is with a can- non's shaving. It is dreadful tell-tale and the fault-fnding man beside the gun knows this perfectly well. He examines the spiral turning or the little piece of boring and finds no evidence of flaw or crack. The long spiral strip is as smooth as glass and as glossy as your sisters curls.
 Into the solid steel the hog-nosed bit roots it's way until it is in so far that a little electric light must bear it company tc show the workmen how matters are progressing in the heart of the cannon. After eighteen days of steady boring the bit lets daylight into the bore of the cannon by emerging at the other tor larger) end, seventeen feet away.-St. Nicholas.