The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-03-23
A UNIQUE FACTORY.
THERE ARE WONDERFUL MACHINES,
BUT NO VISIBLE PRODUCT.

f.. Noisy Neutrality-suspicious. of the Odd
Things Done by acknowledgement
Iunatic Asylum to the Reporter.
Without any question whatever, it is
the most unique factory in New York.
When YOU enter the door, the wbir and
buzz of machinery distracts your ears.
You see belts and pulleys in rapid mo
tion. Won feel the heat of the engine
which keeps all the machinery going, /
and YOU know that you are in place
where something or other is being manu-
featured.
II is hard, however, to discover just |
what the manufactured product may be, |
and the polite attendant who meets you |
at the door gives you no clew Of it as he
ushers you into the noisy workshop.
visited this establishment the other
day at the suggestion of friend, who
said it was the queerest place In Gotham
and had ''never been written up
The machinery was placed on one side
of q long, sunny room. On the other
side of the room were about dozen vel
vet couches. On which were reclining
muffied up figures. AS entered, nS-
ure arose and walked over to one OF the
machines. 1t was the figure OF WON
an. She drew up chair, sat down anu
placed her hands on little horizontal
metal bar. The bar jerked and tremDled
and the fingers gave little spasmodlc
Jumps in response. This queer perform
ance continued for several minutes, anu
then the woman changed her position
| and placed sher feet in sort OF square
! stirrnD at the side of the machine.
The stirrup Immediately shook back
ward and forward, half reyolved, spring
ing back and revolving again with most
astonishing eccentricities. The foot was
! shaken into the semblance Of half doz-
or, feet and the movement was all from
The ankle Joints. What any foot had
| ever done to deserve such treatment, or
| what good to the foot the treatment was
sunDosed to do ultimately, was to me an
| inexplicable mystery.
| A. another machine a second woman
sat. with her arm clasped by two rubber
and metal plates which rapidly revolved,
receding and returning, pressing the
arm until it looked like wee flat band
of scarlet ribbon (the woman wore red
gown and then receding again, whirrlng
and whirling with wonderful velocity.
was mystifed at first, but as the
minutes flew by 1 began to be bit
alarmed. | did not relish the idea OF be-
inc i'm a Iunatic asylum, where the pa
tents ran machinery and thrust their
limbs into the revolving wheels W1thout
any apparent fear or reason.
The attendants, however, seemed to
take everything as matter Oh course
and left me to my own resources. Oh'
of these attendants went to a couch Oh
which a young woman was lying lac
downward, and without moment
warning one end of the couch rose 10 al
upright position, leaving the youns
woman in an attitude winch Woulo ID
easiest described as standing on he
shoulders, her hands clasped over he
head. The couch was lowered and ralse'
aooin. and this performance was repeat
"a fonr or five times Then the youn:
, woman Law down and went to sleep.
One machine was worked by hand al
= ,oren+Iv II consisted of horiZonta
iar padded with leather, in front @
: Which was a movable rod of metal ful
I nished with resisting spring. Ever
2 few minutes some one would DraC
(. AGAINST the leather arm and pull the 70
in front. When 1T sprang up, IL carrie
L the subject almost into the ar ana
: retain the grasp OF 1t the SUBJECT W.
d obliged to breathe hard, stanu on In
9 toes and pull with all her might.
Il casual observer asked to guess what Tn
d | machine manufactured woulu cef Jail
reply, Long arms.
k But the queerest machines OF all we
IT two couches, in the center or whlch we
II moving wooden balls. These balls EloN'
,e slowly up and down in regular motion
Inst as was getting very mucn lnCe
AS ested in this apparatus some one gent
10 nnsbed me aside and placed herself
" one of the couches, lying deliberately
n ton of the moving balls. Far from pei
r. disconnected or annoyed, this pecuh
We Dersonace seemed to enjoy her restle
Mt resting place, and after few lnlnuV
STAY she went to the other couch-to q
ad the effects of the other balls presumap
lie All this was very interesting, OF cour
he ! and in the intervals of manufacture
b. every one struGs5 attitudes, swung the
lis selves around by placing their feet hrlI
If together on the floor and grasphS II
I'M rings far above their heads.
mt Another unseemly game which they
nd dulped in was to kneel on couch, w
MS some one holding their hands and SO
az one else holding their feet, and then IL
themselves forward the entire length
ON their bodies. They We're certainly er
at getic. and the expression Of dlgnlt
the gravity on their faces as they perform
in these peculiar gyrations was ludlcrou:
nat the extreme.
tbe This peculiar factory undertakes
manufacture-ha you guessed:-ne
for without medicine-rosy cheeks, PAM
tbe bodies, supple muscles and sound org
ar and good digestions just by mechanl
cd exercise.
~ Recruits from the ranks OF the La
eH' the halt and the blind come here
pecting to be cured. Hysterla, II
dnu facing. rheumatism, send patients h
and that is why every day they act
70" the inexperienced, like so many l