Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1896-03-20

plant and process. they find that
it pays them better to sell their
cane or the partly manufactured
product than to produce cheap
grade Of sugar. At the refineries the
cane is fed by the LOAD to massive
corrugate ted steel rollers, from 'he
side OF which the greenish juice flows
into large shallow evaporattng pans,
where it is boiled carefully. The proc
ess Of boiling the juice down Is
m UGH the same as that employed by
the maple sugar makers Of the North
in boiling down maple sap. but up
| on. a far more elaborate scale. Over
here will be great crystalltzing pans
or cisterns, where the boiling syrup
IL placed to turn into sugar. and In
the next the sugar is being shoveled
out and transferred to the centru-
ugal machines. which revOlve 80
fast that they force all the molasses
ont of it. leaving golden yellow
sugar, which Is worked oyer until
we have Il nice white sugar, bringing
on the market in New Orleans 4.25
to $5.45 per 100 pounds. The cane
stalks after passing through the
rollers are perfectly dry and into the
furnace they go to aid as fuel. Cane
requires an enormous amount OF
work and it takes eleven months to
raise and harvest the crop. The
sugar industry had begun to assume
mammoth proportions under the
Mckinley bill, and the planters and
rcf3ners are very sore over their treat
ment by the government. Being
induced by the bounty to put In ex-
pensive improvements, many OF them
placed large mortgages upon their
no mes and plants in order to have
their refineries complete. Then be-
fore they had fairly got to work
the bounty was taken of, leaving
them with an enormous Indebtedness
and before they were able to walk
alone to compete with the sugar
industry of the Indies. This has
utterly ruined hundreds Ut men who
had owned their places prior to 1892;
but since 1894 have been sold ont
under the sheriff's hammer, many OF
them for less than one third Of what
their buildings and refineries Origi-
nally cost.
The great amount Of drift wood
on the river at certain seasons OF the
year furnishes employment to hum
dreds of people who gather and
manufacture it into stove wood,
which finds a ready sale. When not
engaged in the drift wood business
many of these same people catch
birds for market, getting 25 cents
each for hooking birds and the same
for red birds. We see many Of our
northern birds among the branches
of the trees along the hanks and in
the groves. The scarlet tanninger,
the goose heak, the OriOle. the rob-
bin, the blue bird. the brown thrush,
the meadow lark and bObOlink are
here, but none of these, excepting the
brown thrush, sing like they do
north. The fish caught are much
the same as in the upper river with
the addition of small fish, called by
the natives sardines, much the shape
and style of our sinners
We arrived a: New Orleans on
Feb. IL and are much pleased with
the city. Many nOrtherners are here
at present to rec the Mardi Gras
procession. which will commence
with the arrival Of a mock king
(king in every sense for the time
though) and retinue at the dock on
the 18th inst. The streets are
c rowded with people from all parts
of the world. OF course during the
carnival room rent and accOmmO-
datiOns at the hotels are rather high,
but otherwise and at any other
time this ia a city where person OF
moderate means can live very rea-
sonably. The roses, peaches, and
plums arein blossom and everything
is green. The huge live oak and
other shade trees, festOoned and
hanging with moss, in the parks
in and around private and public
grounds, are simply beautiful: and
the low, fiat situation OF
the city, the open sewers and cutters,
green with a scum even now, the
manner of disposing of the city's
garbage, and surrounded as it is by
miles OF swamp, she can be called a
comparatively healthy city. There
are over 1870 cases OF small pox in
the pest house at present and new
cases reported every day. But this
is a large city and the victims of
small pox are mostly cOlored or
people who have no regard for the
laws of health. We are told that
back from the river upon the higher
lands where the Gulf breezes are en-
joyed one will find very healthy
cOnnfrv