Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-11-18

working his hippers trying to turI
over. I asked, S.how much will tha
turtle weigh?" He said, ..that turtle
weighs ifty-five pounds, but that's &
small one. A few days ago I had
four, the largest one weighed four
hundred and twelve pounds" land
what are they worth a pounds" He
said, sixteen and three fourth cents
a pound" Now some of you little
folks that read this take your states
and pencils and tell us how much that
turtle is worth? | asked, "who buys
all these turtles?" He said, .severy-
whore they want to get up Il big dis
play at conventions. That bigges,
one went to Denver, one to St. Paul,
one to Detroit and one to Chicago.
get orders for turtles, fresh oysters
aud everything from all over the Unit
ed States and Canada"
After we had got thawed out, he
took US to another big door, lower
down. As we stepped into the cooler
where the walls were made of frozen
fish we were shown buckets and buck
cts of frog legs. tell you they made
me feel hungry to look at them. As
it so cold in those cold places it does
not do to stay very long inside. AS
we came out, l said, chow long could
a person remain inside and not freeze
to death?" He said, "not long, unless
you kept moving pretty lively" As
we came to the warm air again, it
seemed real good to feel the heat of
the sun once more. l just thought,
no one need to go to Klondike to freeze.
We were then taken over to the ice
plant where all of the ice that is used
in the cold storage aud for packing
fish for shipment is made. As we ap-
preached the plant here came great
cake of ice down an incline and on
down towards the ice storehouse Mr..
Peters said, "we make ninety sucn
blocks every twenty-four hours, and
each block weighs three hundred
pounds. and we use it all ourselves.
We do not sell pound; what we do
not use each day is put in the ice room.
We clean out all of the cans every
twenty-four hours"
After we had seen all on this floor
we stepped into the elevator and were
taken to the top floor; then went up a
pair of stairs to the roof of the building
which is fiat. Here we were shown
and he explained the process. He
said, ''those long pipes you see going
back and forward in double rows the
pipes reaching almost across the roof,
receive all of the steam from the en-
gines below. 1t is condensed and that
stream of water you see is condensed
steam; that goes into those great boil
ers you see standing on end and is
boiled. Then it is forced through
that large drain you see there which
is filled with ground quartz from Cali
fornia. Then that water goes back to
that other boiler and is reboiled to the
highest possible degree of heat, then
it goes through that oilometer. |
guess it is to get all traces of oil and
other foreign matters out, for the least
taint of oil spoils the flavor of the fish.
| asked him, ''how long have you been
in the business?" He said, "thirty
years. l began on the street with one
dollar peddling fish. As l made mon
ey I enlarged my business. At one
time made a stock company, but l
found my partners wanted to sit around
and smoke and take it easy and let the
thing take care of itself and they just
draw the money. So | bought them
all out and now / own the whole thing
and don't owe a dollar" He said at
the time of the cyclone last May, the
wind tore and blew down all of the
upper works, and as II had fifty thous-
and dollars worth of stock on hand l
did not like to loose it, so just as quick
as the wind stopped blowing. L hired
men at two dollars an hour to help put
the works back in shape again" He
sale, 1.-The cyclone was on Wednesday
aud Saturday morning was running
in full blast as if nothing had happen
ed, and | saved my stock; didn't lose
a fish"
After seeing all that we had time to
see, for it was getting late, he offered
Ida a pail of oysters as complimentary,
but she preferred to pay for them. So
he had a large package of fresh lob
sters put up and gave her for my benefit,
and as he held my hand at parting.
said, ..every time you come up here
want YOU to call and see me" which l
hope to do. l. n,
from The West.
Nr C.sTYE Wyo Nov 3, 1897.