Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-01-24

And now here comes the story of a
fellow who got his leg into a corn
shredder Wouldn't that surprise you?
Pretty level headed men get their
hands caught in these deyilish ma
chimes, but it would seem as though
none save natural born fool would
lose leg that way.
We noticed n field the other day in
which were left for the winter a seed
ar, plow with the share in the ground
Just as the team was unhitched from it
and a horse rake, each of these imple-
ments evidently new from the shop
last spring. An old crow sat on the
tongue Of the seeder, which fifty COM
pleted the picture of agricultural shift
lessness.
The city of Minneapolis shipped in
this fall and winter 250.OO0 barrels of
apples to supply the trade Of that city
and points in the northwest. All these
apples were raised in the east, or near
ly ALL They should have been largely
raised in Minnesota and Iowa. They
will be some day when men get on to
what may be done in apple raising in
those states.
Illustrating the supremacy of the
United States in economic and mechan-
lcal ways over methods in use in
willie with improved appliances it costs
US about cents ton to handle coal
from car to vessel and from vessel to
dock it costs the other countries named
about 30 cents. the most Of the work in
their cases being done by manual la
Dor.
systems radiate from one small town
in the west. The cost to each patron
served on these lines, which from the
central Office in the city may be con-
nected with each other, has been about
$50 and small annual fee to pay the
expenses OF the. city exchange. 1t is
the amount of business
which is done over these lines and
how much travel and trouble gre avoid
ed.
We have sold wool for 81 per pound
and oats for 10 cents; have hauled
hogs and wheat to a market so miles
distant and sold the one for $1.75 per
hundred pounds and the latter for 35
cents. We have sold corn at rs cents
a bushel and live hogs at 10 cents a
pound. In these later times the i'm
provement in means of transportation
has SO equalized prices that such ex
tre1nes of values in farm products will
more rarely occur.
Dirty dairy methods caused serious
epidemic Of typhoid fever at one of our
western colleges. a country dairyman
who sold his milk to the steward of the
college had a foul well at his home.
Rinsing his cans in the water from this
well, instead Of properly scalding them,
the disease germs found the best condi-
tons for culture in the greasy deposits
in the seams r the cans These were
in turn propagated in the milk with the
disastrous results stated.
The desire to kill something, which
SO early manifests itself in most boys
and which is an hereditary legacy
from our barbarian ancestry, if allow
ed to find expression at ALL should be
developed by giving the boy bow and
a blunt headed arrow and let him
wage war on the English sparrow. A
boy could soon acquire sufficient skill
to knock these birds over and, while
gratifying his natural instincts. would
be doing good service to the communi-
ty at large.
A boy friend asks US where the frogs
go to in winter. While we never visit
ed a frog in his winter home, we think
that he will be found hid in the mud
of the swamp, below the freezing point.
dreaming The long winter solstice away,
happily Indifferent to the pressing ques-
lions of how he shall keep warm, what
he shall wear and where the next meal
is coming from. He may be depended
upon to come to life and activity when
the first warm spring days come and
join his croak with the robins song
in proclaiming that the winter is over.
1t gave us pleasure to read that old
Pat Maher, section boss on a line of
railway, had been awarded prize of
the value of not less than $75 by his
company for having the best kept sec.
ton Of road on the company's 6,00O
miles Of track. When our corporations
take this method of recognizing indi.
vidual merit and fidelity on the part OF
their employees, they are doing much
to lessen the existing friction between
labor and capital. This investment OF
$75 will be worth thousands to the com
pany next year in improved section
work all over their system.
We notice lately bids called for by 6
western township for the construction
of cyclone caves for each school dis
trict in the township. While this looks
like rather queer proceeding, it ha'
something 10 commend it after all