Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1909-12-30
happenings

ana sixty. eight injured IN tue UnRed
States during the fall hunting season
which closed Dec. L.
China buys 500 900 of sea weed of
San Francisco each year. IL is used
in upho'stering furniture. 1t is claial-
ed that furniture in which sea weed is
used for upholstering is free of moths
and other insects.
Kansas maintains farm near Kan
sas City where petty criminals are sent
to work out their fines. Excellent
crops are raised and the farm is run at
profit. There is always plenty of
help to do the work.
The first denatured alcohol plant
west of the Mississippi will be ready
for business Feb. l at Marshalltown.
The plant has seven buildings and it
has capacity of about 5000 gallons
per day which will require about three
thousand, two hundred bushels of
corn daily. Twenty men, including
four government inspectors, will be
employed at the start.
C. o. Mix, United States soldier
died Dec. 10 of leprocy. Mix served
in the Spanish American war and
contracted the disease in Cuba. He
has been isolated in a lonely cottage
on the Fort Screven reservation for
some time. His father died recently
leaving him $40, 900 hut the money was
of no use to him. His pay as SOL
der had accumulated too and he left
small fortune. The body was bur-
led with military honors in the ma
tional cemetery.
DR.. Newell Dwight Hills, an Iowa
boy who occupies the pulpit in Brook.
Ign where Henry Ward Beecher for
merly ministered, accidentally Disco
vered a vein of coal on his estate on
Graham island off Prince Rupert,
British Columbia. AS he does not
believe that minister should be in
the money making business he dis
posed of the property to old friends re-
ceiving nominal sum. 1t is estima.
ted that the coal found is worth al
least five million dollars.
he bread frnit grows in the South
Sod islands. The tree on which the
bread fruit grows is very much like
the horse chestnut to look at and
grows to forty or fifty feet high. Its
leaves are q very dark green and ma
ny of them are two feet in length
The fruit of the tree is the most won
derful part of it. 1t forms the princi
pal food of the natives, but before
they eat it they roastit in an oven
and when it is baked it looks just like
wheat bread. It is very nice to eat
has good flavor and it is nourishine
too, like real bread. 1t is delightfully."-
easy and simple for the South Sea
housewife to provide bread for her
family provided she has the requisite
supply of bread fruit.
w. M. Thayer says in his "Marvels
of the New Vest that in early days
the Indians called the locomotive
fire wagon" A train of cars was to
them cheap wagon, no boss" For
sometime after the first railroad was
laid the Indians viewed the locomo.
tive from the. hilltops at distance.
They gathered from far and near to
watch the fire wagon that whistled
louder than the eagles scream and
poured out dense black smoke. After
time they grew holder and approach
ed nearer, and once attacked a fire
wagon expecting to capture it. The
Indians stretched lariat across the
track, breast high, each end being
held by thirty braves. When the
train came in sight the engineer. TAX
ing in the situation opened the throt-
tie and let her go. He struck the La
riat going about 40 miles an hour aud
just piled up those braves promiscu-
ously. OF course many of them were
injured, and when questioned con-
corning the incident, aheepishly shook
their heads, saying: Fire wagon
bad medicine"
Secretary Wilson was in his sixty
second year when he entered upon the
duties of his office twelve years ago.
He has held continuous office longer
than any other cabinet officer during
the entire history of the UnitedStates.
Very few persons realize the magni-
tude of his work. When he entered
the department there were but four
teen persons employed in the Forestry
department. Last year there were
1888 in that branch alone and the
national forests now cover 10000 600
acres. He established the soil survey,
for the purpose of finding out to what
crops different soils were best adapted
In the last niue years this survey has