The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-29


Is that the laoorer shall get all his supplies
from the trader and turn over to him all
the rubber gathered; IL is equally swamp
law" that the trader shall conduct himself
In the same way with his chief; but peddlers
In canoes come to the laborers, aud small
steamers come to the traders, and it simply
revolves itself into a game Of who can
swindle most
The provisions which the rubber gatherer
receives consist mostly of salt fish, jsrked
beef, salt, sugar, coffee, mandioca meal and
rum. The rum should have been placed
first In the list and repeated with each item,
for the average rubber gatherer never orders
salt fish without rum, nor jerked beef, nor
salt, nor sugar, nor anything else without
heading the list with rum (cachaoa).
These provisions have paid profit Of from
rs to 50 per cent. or more to the furnishing
house. The trader also puts an equal profit
for himself on the price OF the provisions.
The freight is also no light matter; so that
the rubber gatherer has to pay two, three
or four times the Para price for the plainest
necessities Of life. IL wonder that tue
miserably-fed swamp laborer can live ab all.
THE DAYS LABOR. -
Yet he does. He rolls out of bis ham,
mock as soon as it is light in the morning,
takes his gulp of rum aud his oalabash Of
coffee and starts out to visit his rubber
trees. He sometimes wears a short pair of
breeches and occasionally shirt. he goes
barefoot, for he must wade through the
swamp, mud and ooze of the tide up to his
knees and ofteR up Co his waist in water
be takes basket full Of earthenware gill
cups, hunk of adhesive clay and a little
narrow-bladed Ratchet
II he adopts the most approved method Of
tapping the trees he reaches as high as be
can with his hatcbet making an incision i'll
the bark, but not reaching through to the
wood. The milk Immediately begins TO
issue in rapid drops or little streams. With
spat Of the adhesive clay he Immediately
fastens one of his little gill clay cups just
below the bleeding cash, and molds the clay
so as to make all the rubber milk flow into
the cup. Three such gashes at equal dis
tances around the tree and at equal hight
is the rule The next day he will make three
more gashes in the same way just a little
below these three, and SO continue until by
the end OF the season he will have reached
the level of the ground. Each of his 100 or
$50 trees is treated in the same way and he
returns home after having Travelled from
three to five miles, barefoot and almost
naked, through thorny tbioket and malarial
steaming swamp.
PREPARING FOR MARKET.
When he reaches his hut again he takes
another gulp from his demijohn, snatches
breakfast OF salt fab and nIandioca meal,
which are often moldy from the reeking
damp of the swamp, and then starts out
again with his calaba buckets to gather
the milk, which by this time has ceased to
flow His gill buPs are full, or nearly 50,
and when he reaches homo he has milk
enough DO make four kilos of rubber on an
average. The next task is the coagulation
OF this milk. For this purpose he has Jug
shaped furnace, make of earthenware
called hoiao, open at bottom and top, and
NnzaAt rkvr~ Nt,s. 81 H.. a
the air for the combustion. In this piece of
furniture he builds a fire, or rather a
smndge, with the nuts of the maj or
urucury palm The dense black smoke
which rolls from the open top of the
bolao, is the reagent which coagulRses the
milk. For this purpose the rubber
gatherer has a circular-bladed paddle,
smears over with clay so that the rubber
will not adhere to it. This IL suspended by
means Of cord from the limb Of a tree
just above the smudRe. The milk Is poured
over the blade Of the paddle, which is then
turned over and round about in the smoke,
and in a few moments the Aim of rubber is
coagulated. The same process of wstting
with milk and smoking the growing lump
until Il reaches the weight Of-froin Ave to
twenty-five kilos or more. - Then it is
slipped off from the paddle as q mitten is
pulled off from ones hand This ball is the
crude rubber of commerce. IL the coegu-
lating has been carefully done it is "hne"
rubber; If carelessly done, and the ball on
being cut open at the exporting ware
house shows signs OF poorly ooagulsted
milk or slight mixtures of foreign sub
stances, such as mandiooa meal IL is
classified as "middling fne' (entrefna).
There is also coarser grade STILL called
sernamby, the native Indian name for
'shells." This grade is composed of the
scraps and bits that have dried without
coagulation proper. especially the Innings
that form In the little earthenwAre cups
and in the calabashes and buckets used in
handling the milk as also the drippings
that run down the trees from accidental
wounds. These are all rolled together In a
mass and would bring as good price as
the middling fine were 1t not for the rub
bish that menage" innooently"to stow them
selves away In the lump. And this COOS on
four or five months at time, year in and
year out The trader is the slave of his
master in the city and the swamp laborer is
the slave Of the trader. After the first year
each one is indebted to his master, and the
debt is never paid but being paid forever.
The system is q bad one through and
through, but 1t will never be changed till
some new method of coagulating the milk
is discovered and groves of rubber trees in
accessible localities take the place of
swamps in the center of dense forests.