The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1892-01-27


after had rested half the night, we had
to go again.
This time IL was on to canalboat or
lighter, which was to take US alongside
an ocean steamer. Down a long leg
there are nineteen OF them on the west
side of the elevator-we went. You
never saw such a fall, and the grain
poured out OF the leg just as water flows
out OF a pipe. The dust was suffocat-
ing. / struck the side Of the boat and
lay on the deck, for a moment partly
stunned. One man held the end of the
leg down which the corn was falling.
He had a rope about il and pulled on
the rope to guide it. First it filled up
one side of the boat and then the other
Another man wallowed in the corn on
board with shovel He wore a muzzle
on his face that made his head look like
the head OF old Farmer Browns hogs.
The other kernels of corn were fright
ened. They did not object to being sent
to distant Russia, where they could re-
lieve the famine or go to Ireland either,
where they could do much good But
to fall into the trough of n hog after
such journey was beyond their endur-
ance. Just then l saw that it was a
muzzle the man had put on to keep out
cortications from flying into his nostrils
He was covered with dust and his hair
was gray with it.
We were soon pulled out into the river
alongside an ocean steamer. A tug
came after us and lot of boats were
hitched together. Some of them left
beside tramp steamships. Others were
dropped alongside the big passenger
boats. The one l was on was left by
this ship and it was not long before we
were on board. But we had to go
aboard another boat Tristan elevator
boat. And it was the seventh time
was transshipped since 1 left old
Browns farm.
AT last tugboat with an elevator
built right on it reaching way up higher
than the side of ship came along and
began to wedge its way in between us
and the ocean vessel. 1t had an air Of
business and hustle and there was a
corresponding hustle on the steamship
when it arrived. Soon after was swept
into the hold OF the canaiboat, the
elevator boat ran long leg down into
the canalboat. Then the powerful ma
chinery that is used TO move the tug was
applied to the machinery in the elevator
and the buckets on the belt began to
pick up the kernels of corn in the canal
boat at terrific rate.
"On the elevator floor below the top
che there was q brief wait, while we
were weighed again, and then we went
piLnlng down into the bottom OF the
ships hold. Above the scales was a
cleaner, but our lot did not have TO go
through that, as we were cleaned at the
elevator, and it is used chiefly for grain
that comes on from Buffalo all the way
by boat and is not cleaned in one of the
great railroad elevators.
The elevator on board the boat has
all the appliances of the railroad ele-
vator, but the ships hold is the bin into
which the corn is sent. When | got
down here with another cortic alton partly
gone l found the steamers hold divided
into bins, some for wheat and some for
corn.
The elevator leg was swung to and
fro. First one bin was filed, then
another, just as the freight cars had
been at Buffalo, and men with shovels
evened it off. In tramp steamships,
where there are no bins, men have a
harder time to trim the hold with their
shovcls. When the top is dressed as
evenly as it can be boards are laid on it
and on them heavy flour barrels are
placed so that the grain will not shift
from side TO side and perhaps not shift
back again when the vessel heaves.
Tramp steamships are in great peril
sometimes when this happens in rough
weather"
And are we going TO be hauled out Of
here the same way?" asked the wheat
kernel, deeply interested in his fate.
Yes; | guess in about the same way
when we reach the other side, answered
the corn.
You have no conception OF the
amount of grain shipped from the United
States in one year, 1.-THE kernel Of corn
went on. Why, L heard two men Civ
ing figures as to the value of cereals ex-
ported as follows:
From New York; during November,
From Now York, during November. '' '''-N'
From New York, eleven months to
November 80. 1891. 5O,35s Ois
From New York, eleven months 10
November 81, 1890. ................. II, 595,7O3
From United States, eleven months
to November 81, 1891 ............... $4,000, 900
From United States eleven months
to November 80, 1890. ............... 12G,00o,000
Each of the kernels wanted to go
where he could do some good in allevi-
ating the wants of humanity, and in this
generous missionary spirit they both fell
asleep.
AS breadstuffs" is the largest single
item in value in our exports the figures
of total exports for November, 1891
$40, 100, 220-are interesting, as they are
the largest on record. For the year
ending Dec. /, 1891, our total exports
reached the enormous sum of S049 ,022,
1S5, and the United States sold to other
nations 1929 $40 ,696 Of product more
than they took from all other nations.
For the current fiscal year the exports
from the United States will exceed one
billion dollars.
Little Too Squeamish.
The virulent orthodoxy Of the Rus