The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1899-08-04

seems to be with mouth open. Feeling
| the hooks dragged along, they close on
it. Then the fisher draws in and the
clam doesn't know enough to let go.
They are picked off and thrown into
| the boat. The fishermen have shacks
on some one Of the islands in the river.
/ Here they boil the CLANS, the meat fall
| ing out.
This clam meat is in some places fed
| to pigs and chickens. In Prairie du
| Chen it is thrown away. Some fell
low will set up a big poultry farm
here some day, buy the clam interiors
| for a penny a basket and make his
everlasting fortune.
The shells are sold to the factories in
town, or to buyers from other cities. [
saw a worker with a wagon load for
which he got $6.75 ton. He also said
that as the season advanced the clans
closed their mouths tighter, which
would lessen their hook-grasping ca
! pacity. Some men get a ton in two
| days work. At times one sees dozen
boats at work off the city.
The factory employs thirty-One
| hands. Each cutter has a machine
carrying a cylindrical saw. Holding
the shell in his hands, protected by
|
cuts nine or ten circles from the shell,
which is then thrown away. The cir
cles are called blanks" and an in
! genious machine drops them into boxes
according to their thickness. Some of
the expert cutters make $18 a week.
! Just now the factory is busy training
| men to operate the machines. The SUI
! perintendent, Mr.. Kline. came from
Jersey City, and is an expert. We saw
pile of $500 tons of shell in the eel
| lar. The shells are soaked in water for
! number of days before being cut to
| soften them. The output is 2100 gross
! week. A 30-horse power engine fur
nishes the power.
In time it is likely Prairie du Chen
will complete the process of making
the 'blanks,' into buttons, though this
| neceSSltateS quite an expensive plant.
Big Catholic Institutions.
The city has a strong Catholic ele-
ment, and, as usual lays stress on edu
| cation.
The public schools are headed by Su-
! perindent J. w. Pratt, university
| graduate, of StOughtOn, who has been
here for some years and is in much es
| TEEN. The high school is a handsome
| $4,000 structure. Among it's gradu-
| ates are City Attorney G.. Fl. Sweitzer
| of Lacrosse and G.. H. Keyes of James,
vile.
The colleges under the Jesuit broth
ers is an extensive plant, EST. Johns"
| and to this and to the convent, also
| an elaborate institution, John Lawyer,
who was an ardent Catholic, contrib
utes literally. The main building of
| the college was an ambitious $4,000
! hotel, built when the railroad came in,
and for which later there was little use,
! as the terminal was moved to the up
per town in 1868. 1t was used as hos
! pital for both Confederate and Union
soldiers during the war, and when
| Platteville captured the new normal
! school, there was a bitter struggle to
| induce the state to accept this building
It had AWARDED history as an education
al experiment under various auspices
until soon after 1876 Mr.. Lawler
bought it and gave it to the Jesuit Or
der. For many years it was devoted to
the education of priests. Extensive ad-
ditions have been made and it is now
devoted, in addition, to the training
of Catholic youth. There is an extern
sive farm operated in connection with
it,
KUlnS Ihat should ESG preserved.
Early pictures indicate what extern
sive constructions Fort Crawford in the
thirty years before the war must have
been. The land is now in private
| hands and the buildings have been
largely torn down to secure the mate
rial-stone. Nothing remains in the
original form except a few ruins rising
q few feet from the grOund--stOne and
. he %
left. Kindly vegetation has grown up
over the historic remnants, which look
silently disconsolate over the wide
sweep Of drill ground to the river be-
! low. Near by is the officers cemetery
"a pathetic spot-~showing the work
Of decay, but with here and there a
faded wreath or a rain-beaten wooden
crOss-the mementOes Of Memorial
Day when parOchial and public school
children have pretty practice of for
getting their differences Ct faith and at
| fectionately, Loyalty, paying tribute to
heroes whose names and fame the hur-
rying years are celebrating It does
seem as if the commonwealth of Wis
cOnsin should step into this spot and
claim it for her own, protecting it as
an historic, sacred shrine for patriots
of all future years.
Water to Drink and Cure.
Prairie du Chen is very proud of it's
water supply, which is from artesian
wells. In the hotel you notice water
running COnStantly-water with med
icated but not displeasing taste. You
see fountains playing in public places
and even streams babbling refreshing
ly in the cutters of the streets. There
are frequent hydrants from which man
| and beast Stake their thirst. The wa
! ter is from artesian wells. There are
some ten of these wells. The first was
sunk in 1876, a six-inch tube, to a
| depth of $50 feet. Then mineral water
| came UP at the rate of twenty barrels
minute and piled up in the air for
| severity feet. Two wells Of this sort
| even furnish power to operate -four
! ing mill-certainly a novel and perhaps
/ unprecedented source of power.
| But the water is not alone to drink.
| A visit to the sanitarium disclosed a
| dozen people taking Turkish and other