Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-02

a bunch on the docks. They come from
Honduras. Nicaragua, Costa Rica ana bocas
del Zorro, Panama. These steamers also
bring cocoanuts. pineapples and oranges.
Last year they brought 4.5s9. ST2 punches OF
bananas 2.9S1, $50 cocoaniIts and lSo,oo4
crates of pineapples. The imports or cocoa
nuts fell off about one-half from me pre-
vious year when 4.469, 625 were tossed over
the docks of Mobile. The trust handled al
together about 30,O00.000 punches of ba-
nanas last year at all the ports, or ABOUT
three billion bananas-an average OF ioIsy
for every man, woman and child in the
United States.
Transporting the Bananas.
Railway trains run alongside of the
steamers. and punches of bananas are
passed up from the matches and across into
refrigerator cars by colored stevedores, of
whom about 300 are engaged at the Mobile
docks An ordinary shipload will fill two
trains of twenty cars each-an average of
about 1900 punches to train. AS soon as
they are loaded they are started northward
on schedule time, each train being accom-
panied by three men, whose business 1t IS
to look after the ventilation, the heating
and the icing of the cars, according to the
weather. so that the fruit will be kept in
precisely the proper temperature from the
moment it starts at Mobile until 1t Is
dropped from the train at its destination.
The trust has its agencies or regular
customers in all the northern cities
commission men, who take so many car
loads a week. The bananas are picked
green on the plantations, but ripen them
selves while en- route to market. banana
is a self-heater. 1t contains a great deal OF
latent heat. One, bunch warns another
The fruit men here say that II pile OF
bananas is placed in an ordinary room the
temperature will rise Immediately several
Degrees and remain stationary until the
fruit is removed. when it will drop to nor
NAL again In other words. bunch OF
bananas is as good as gas stove.
The banana specials" as fruit trains are
called, have the right of way over every
thing except limited passenger trains, and
the railway companies contract to deliver
the fruit on schedule time, paying forfeit
for every minute they are delayed The
trains make about forty miles an hour,
which enables the trust to deliver the fruit
in Chicago st. Louis. Cleveland, Pittsburg,
Philadelphia Washington. New York and
other cities within ten and often nine days
from the time it Is picked from the planta-
lions in Central America The captains or
the steamers are given bountieS for the
good condition of their cargoes, for 1t is
very easy to ruin a cargo of bananas. If
they locked up in close hold of ship
without ventilation, or placed in an air
tight car, they will rfpen so rapidly by
their own heat that they will probably be
spoiled before reaching their destination
A regular line of Norwegian steamers is
bringing cargoes of sisal hemp from Yucca
tan. and it is shipped through this port
to Xenia. Akron. Dayton, Miamisburg and
Cleveland Ohio: Chicago and Peoria, ILL.,;
Milwaukee. and Peterboro, Ont, and other
places. where it is manufactured into rope
and binding Irvine. 1t Is only a little way
look at the map you will that it is al
most within jumping distance, and the
steamers carry a good many passengers
from this city and other parts of the south.