The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-03

pElCEs-
 And the owner of the gum swamp, who formerly thought the more of it he rad the poorer he was. now finds him. self growing rich of the once despised sweet gum.
 The factory alluded to above begins work with the log. Indeed, it begins at the swamp, for the company OWns ! many acres of gum timber, chiefly To- cated in North Carolina. The logs are delivered by the railway company at the yard, and they are then pulled by machinery to the drag saw" at the end Of the immense building, where they are cut into four-foot lengths. But the redOubtable gum is not yet ready to take kindly to being worked. It first has to undergo torture in the 'sweat-boX. In the yard near to the drag saw are immense wooden bores | capable of holding many thousands of feet. These are practically tir-tight. A box is filled with several hundred logs and closed, after which steam. conducted from two immense boilers in the factory, is turned in. The impress sion made upon one approaching these boxes for the first time is that char coal is being manufactured by means of pit burning in manner familiar to all the older readers of the Times-Dis- patch who are native to the mountain ous section of Virginia. The effect of smoke is produced by clouds of steam escaping from crevices between the boards which form the boxes. IT ronIIipAS fror1, 1fxy- tn fofsfxr- eight hours to reduce the gum to sub mission and put it into a mood willing to be carved up by the hungry ma chimes waiting for it inside the factory a few yards away. When the timber has been sufficiently steamed, the, doors of the box are opened and the logs are drawn forth by means of grappling hooks, for they are as hot as boiling water. While still steaming they are rolled up inside the building and to. the knife-a ponderous machine whose chief feature is a ponderous cylinder, presumably of steel. about four feet long. with a sharp knife or bit cast into it's side and running it's entire length. The log is firmly locked in machine somewhat resembling a turner's lathe, which is set to cut board of the re- quired thickness.
 The machinery is started, the log re- wolves rapidly against the sharp. rigid knife, and shavings four feet wide be- gin to run out along the platform be- hind It keeps two men busy throwing the hot shavings to one side, where they are taken by others and borne to another machine, to be cut into slaves the desired width. The log is shaved down until there is left only a core of perhaps a foot in diameter. This is sawed transversely in thickness of less than an inch, and the pieces are used as heads for the barrels. The bark is the only portion of the log not put to use in the manufacture of barrels.
 The barrel is set up on a revolving machine, which the cooper works with his foot It requires but few minutes to turn out a finished barrel, as good as the most cereful trucker desires for his cabbage.
 The berry baskets are made by ma chinery on the second floor. The opera tives are women. They work at long table, each at machine, the feature of which is a metal cube, which just fills quart berry basket. The thin strips from which the baskets are made, cut to exactly the proped width and length, are piled on the table at the operatives hand, arranged in pairs laid together, so as to form a Maltese cross. She lays the crss on the cube, presses down ! an tI,n Af +l.a the cube turns half round, the other two ends are pressed down, a hoop is slipped down over the embryo box, and tackled to it. There's the box. Of course l have not in describing the op- eration of this machine nor of the oth- CT machinery in use, attempted to ex- plain it in the manner of those who op- crate them, but simply to describe them as they impressed an on-looker.
 Negro girls make all the baskets. A white woman is employed as inspector. Boxes not up to the standard aer thrown out. l was told that many of the women make over dollar day. Nearly all of them have other women or children busy all the time arranging the hoops ready for instant use, and forming the crosses which are to form the sides of the baskets, and this way the number made in day is largely in- creased.
 The gum logs furnish material for the entire enormous output of the factory, save the slender pieces of scantling to which are nailed the strips used in making the sixty-quart berry crates, which are of pine.
 This is the story of the lowly and de- spised gum. He has made millions for the truckers, or will make it by saving it for them.
 But the day will come when a gum will be as hard to find as walnut.