The herald., 1897-09-12

much that they worked harder for her
than they ever had for Tom, the profits
were worth while when the season was
over, and the house was furnished
good.
"Why don't I get out Of a business In
which I'm so likely to lose an arm or a
leg any day? Cause like it. You can't
wean a seasoned old thrashing hand
from his job. But half the charm went
away when the horse powers went out
and the steam engine came in. You re-
member the big horse powers, mebbe.
We staked the power down to the
ground so that it couldn't move. The
horses were hitched in pairs to the ends
of long poles or Sweeps and Travelled
round in circle, in the centre of which
was a gearing. On top of that there
was a platform. The driver stood on this
platform and managed the horses with
whip that had long lash and short
hickory stock. The drivers used to get
so expert with their whips that they
could take fly off the ear of any one of
the horses without touching the ear.
Fact, sir horse power drivers were as
good masters of the whip as ever Mex
ican mule drivers were, and know, for
/ used to drive on horse powers myself,
as you know.
ut was no fool of job to be good
driver either. You had to hold back
the eager teams and keep the lazy ones
to their work, and see to 1t that they
all kept going at good even gait so
as to give the machine steady motion.
used to like to see the horses go round
and round. held off buying an engine
as long as 1 could I was afraid of a
blow up; the biler Of one of the first en-
gines in this part of the country busted
one day just as I was driving up to
take look at it. By the beard of the
smooth shaven prophet but didn't she
make a big noise! The driving pulley
sailed right by me, not six feet away,
and my old roam horse came near rum
ming away with me. The biler went
right through the barn and set it afire
in no time. Nobody got much hurt,
though; the engineer was standing
right behind the biler between the
trucks, and he wasn't burned or
scratched.
"But horses or no horses, it's fun to
thrash. The farmers wives always
cook their best for the thrashers, and
do their best to make them comfortable.
In return for all their kindness to US
we carry the news of the neighborhoods
to the women, picking up few fresh
points at every place we visit, and that
makes us thrashers about as popular
men as there are anywhere.
when you were following the ma
chine with me, everybody got rid Of the
thrashed out straw by means of an
endless sort of belt, called carrier, that
conveyed it from the machine to the
stack or wherever it was slowed. Most
thrashers use this kind of a carrier
still. but not all. Generally it isn't hard
work to take care Of the straw, but
sometimes it's a measly job-specially
when the grain is short oats or barley.
Barley Is the dustiest grain that's
thrashed, and besides it has boards
that get into your mouth and work their
way through your cheek and play lot
of such pleasant pranks. Thistly oats
are almost as bad The thistles get under
your finger nails, under your shirt and
about everywhere they can. shall
never forget how once you had your
own troubles with a thrashing of short,
unbound barley. The farmer, you re-
member, decided not to stack his straw
outside, but to stow it in the barn, and
SO the far end of the straw carrier was
run up under the peak Of the roof. It
was skwalloging hot day, and none Of
the men would go UP and handle the
straw.
"You were only boy and not expe-
rienced, and you accepted the Job.
Wal, the machine was started UP and
| in about one minute you were lost to
the world in a cloud of the blacklist,
thickest dust you had ever seen. Your
mouth, your eyes and your ears were
all choked up in no time, and you hol-
| Tered for some one to come and take
your place; but nobody paid any atten-
ton. So you just jumped down off the
platform in the peak of the barn, and
went out to the pump to wash out your
breathe-holes so you could get little
air. You said you'd have been dead in
five minutes more. and mebbe you
would; but your leaving your place up
| there was rather expensive all around.
The straw carrier got clogged and
broke down, and eight or ten men were
kept idle the whole afternoon while re-
pairs We're being made.
1.-The newest things in thrashing ma
chimes now are wind -stackers. A wind
stacker is a big, sheet iron tube In which
We make an artificial cyclone that sucks
the straw up carries it through the tube
and drops it wherever you please on tbs
top Of the stack, the tube being hung
on pivot SO you can swing 1t around to
suit yourself"
Copyright. 1897. BY Bachsller Syndicate