The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-04-16
@0[FFEE i'm BRAZIL

I rubbish and dust 1t IS mex, thrown into
| great corrugated wheel OF cast iron.
| which has grooves 50 graduated that they
| break the skin on the coffee without hurt
| ing or scratching IT, After the skin IS
| broken the beans are carried TO a second
l yentiIator, in which the shells are taken
| OF like the chaY n threshing machine.
| A fan blows the chaY on and the grains
| fiow down through the trough to the sep
| arator
| Mocha and Java Coffee of Brasil.
| The grains are now OF a light olive green
! color They must be separated and graded
| before they are shipped. The little round
| seeds which came from the small berries
/ on the ends of the stalks will go into one
/ grade and win be sold in our American
| markets as Mocha straight from Arabia:
| another size win be classed as Java, and
the weIl-known Mocha and Java which you
mix will possibly have come from the
| same stalk This is no fiction. The Bra
| lillian coffee Is among the best Of the world,
| and vast quantities OF IL are consumed
| every year as genuine Mocha and Java
| Other kinds Of grains will be classed ac-
| eording 10 their grades. and from every
| lot FIVE different grades are made.
Among the Coffee Sorters.
| One OF the most interesting sights on the
I plantation TO me was the factory in which
| the women were sorting the different
grades in order TO pick out the bad seeds
| Come with me and look at IL. We are in
vast room filled with Italian girls of all
| ages, from 10 to - and upward. They sit
| at long tables. at the backs of which are
boxes Of green coffee seeds
| Just opposite each girl is a little opening
| in the box. Out of which she pulls handouts
| or the olive-hued grains and spreads them
out on the table before her She looks
| them carefully over. picks out such as are
bad and throws them into a box at the
| right. sweeping at the same time the good
grains through hole in the table SO that
| they fail into bag. which Is fastened be.
meath and which hangs there between her
knees.
Some OF the girls are quite pretty. They
nave the large eyes and the bronze rosy
faces OF Neapolitan peasants They have
gay handkerchief tied about their heads.
and as you enter their great dark eyes
look at you. Nearly all are in their bare
feet, and noticed that some of them dig
their pink toes into the bags as they work.
AS soon as bag is full 1t is carried away
by men TO the sewers. who fasten II up
| ready for shipment
4 the back of the room are great fam
| niiI. and cleaning machines through which
eoHee or the various grades Is running in
steady stream A noise like tina, of a
| Srisf mill fills the room. and burning coffee
Initiates your nossrils with an appe,fzing
odor. 1t comes from the rear OF the build
Let US go there and learn what they
are roasting. Outside We see great stack
! OF the parchment hull chaff This is being
f, used as fuel for the engine. I, In the burn
| ing OF the coffee chaff which causes the
/ smell.
| Over the Plantation ON an Enxtne.
But Mr.. Hammond is ready with the
| special engine to take US on d trip over
| the plantation. II IL an American loco.
/ motive, made IN Delaware. We Jump on
and are carried for miles through this
great coffee garden. In front and behind
| US. as far as can see, there are long
lines OF green bushes There are vast
areas 10 the right and the left. all coffee
Look DOWN the road. See how the lines OF
| bushes run on and on, growing smaller and
! smaller until they come together. Notice
| the bushes in that field over there. They
are not as high as your knee. Those trees
have only been planted year. and the
| others further on in the little holes with
| chips and sticks over them have been there
| only a month.
| How green everything Is. The coffee
| leaves seem to have been vanished There
L
| Of the coffee tree and the contrast of the
background Of red soil throws the green
| out. making II seem more beautiful still
| Turn your back TO the engine and look
ABOUT you. We are now on hill and we
! can see the whole earth spread out In a
heat waving mantle OF green through
| Which. here and there. run stripes of bright
RCD. the roads What a principally, Job
would have died of envy had he seen this
plantation,
Notice those little green buds on that
plant They surround the joints Of the
! branches ike necklace just over the
| leaves. Later on they viii be red berries
| and later still will be turned into the ccf-
! fee of commerce. and will be travelling over
| the world. They win furnish liauor
/ which will be drunk on the boulevarIs OF
| Paris and slipped by the scandal mongers
| In the drawing rooms Of Washington
Lovers ii may he will whisper sweet moth
| iugs over them, statesmen may Law ont
! their campaigns by them. and perhaps IN
| our lu-id South they may take part In one
az those angry engagements which resul.
| in coffee and pistols for two
Negroes Versus italians.
| Within the las; ten years great changes
have taken place in coffee growing in Bra
| gil Formerly everything was done by
| slaves. who worked under oyerseers and!
| who put in something like fifteen hours A
, day. Each planter had his own gang OF
| negroes. The overseer called them a, 4
o'clock and marched them 10 the coffee
| fields Their meals were brought 10 them
! there. and they were kept in the fields un-
I'll about { o'clock In the evening
Now that the slaves are ema ncffated
! the most Of them have left the coffee re-
: gions and italians have been imported IN
! take their places The Iahorera on ~. uu-
; nlont faz@nia are nearly all Italians and
am told they make far better workrnen
than the negroes
FRANK G. CARPENTER.