El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-04-09
Copyright. 1910, by Frank C. Carpenter.

province, the last calculations being
made at Rangoon.
I do not know what Uncle Sam is do
ing in this line in the Philippines, but
l venture he could learn much from the
British in Burma
Burma's Big Rice Mills.
But come with me and go through this
rice mill at Poozoondoung. The grain is
harvested as paddy. In the field it looks
not unlike wheat or oats. but every ker-
mel has a husk on it and this sticks TO
it as though it were glued. When the
grain is ready for shipment to the mills
it looks much like our wheat grains I'M
thrashed. save thatthe rice husks have
neither heads nor boards and they stick
tight to the kernels It takes quite as
muc.h work to get them off as to grind
the thrashed wheat into flour. This is
the work of these rice mills.
The Poozoondoung mill covers as
much ground as any of our large flour
grinding ablishments. 1t has build
ings of five stories, with single rooms
as big as a good sized garden patch. I
entered one on the ground floor which
was packed to the ceiling with the rice
paddy in bags 1t held more than 2,00O,-
800 pounds. and other rooms of equal
size adjoining it were filled with the
cleaned rice awaiting shipment.
Unloading the Paddy.
Rice paddy is brought here from all
over Burma. 1t is floated down the
streams to the Irrawaddy river and tow
ed to Rangoon by steamers in flatbOatS
and bargeS. The unloading is done by
East Indian coolies. many of whom are
quite pretty young girls. They are black.
luSty and buxom. bare armed and bare
necked, and often with legs bare TO the
knees Not a few of them wear gold
buttons in their noses and rings in their
ears They have armlets and anklets, and
1 saw three with rings on their toes.
These girls carry the rice from the
boats to the mills in baskets of so
pounds each. They lift the grain to
their heads or shoulders, and carry it up
and down the banks of the river over
a plank roadway. Their hours are from
daylight to dark. and their average pay
is less than cents an hour I am told
they are quite as strong as the men. and
that they do better work, although their
wages are lower
And still they save money at 2 cents
an hour and most of them make savings
banks of their persons. Nearly every
one L saw had more or less jewelry upon
her. I remember a girl of IS with sill
yer bracelets covering her arm from
wrist TO elbow. and heavy anklets of
silver on each of her legs The lObes
and rims of her ears were pierced with
gold rivets. and the gold ring in her
nose was as big around as a saucer and
is thick as knitting needle. This ring
hung down around her mouth, and when
she ate lunch she stuffed in the rice
through the ring. She was a Killing from
southern India, and her husband. a
straight black man in a white cotton
waist coat. worked with her.
Harvard Athletes VS.. Hindoo Coolies.
In another room 1 saw the men hand
ling the finished product The white rice
is bagged up in sacks of 226 pounds.
These are carried by East Indian coolies
into the warehouse and are piled up in
stacks Each lifts one of these bags
to his shoulders and runs up an in
clined roadway 1t looks easy. and three
Harvard university athletes. who visited
the mill the other day, rather sneered
at the strength of the Hindoos. saying