The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-12-19
Bill i'm Congress to Vacate and
AnnuI Kansas Town.
Lots VIII Sell Soon at Rate of
$1.25 an Acre.
ORANGES into GRAPEFRUIT
DIR. BigeIOw of Kansas Tells of
Turkish Bath Process.
List of Kansans Visiting in
Washington This Week.

Washington, Dec. Ex-senator Charles
Curtis has presented a bill in the SEN
ate to vacate and annu1 as town
site the town of Voltaire Sherman
county, Kan, and declare the same as
public domain. Furthermore, the bill
provides that c. C. Perdieu, owner of
the lots of this town, his heirs and
assigns shall have the right to pur-
chase the lands embraced in the town
of Voltaire at the rate of SLIPS per
acre for a period of six months after
the passage of the bill.
Another bill introduced by Mr.. Cur
tbs directs the secretary of the treasury
to pay to James L. Wallace, his heirs
and assigns, the sum of $1,000 for
goods, wares and merchandise. also
seven head of horses, which were ta-
ken or destroyed by a band of Indians
who were then on a raid at or near
Fort Kearney, Neb., on July IA, 1864.
A third bill introduced by the Kan
sas senator directs that the sum of
$500 be paid to Claus H. often of Law
renee, Kan, for horse killed by Com
pany F, Seventh regiment of the Mis-
souri, state militia in the civil war in
the battle of the Big Blue.
Ever hear about sweating an orange
or a grapefruit? Well, it's done every
day in this season of the year by fruit
spectators, unmindful of the public
health and welfare, according to DR..
w. d. Bigelow of Gardner, Kan, the
assistant chief of the bureau of chem
istry, department of agriculture.
The sweating process is very SINH
lar to a Turkish bath, except that the
subject is an orange or grape fruit.
The Turkish bath produces a beauui
full yellow color without ripening the
fruit. Consequently the consumer of
the sweated fruit gets a sour product,
unfit for his stomach and harmful to
his digestive tract. The artificial col
Oring scheme gives q green fruit the
appearance of being ripe, and conse-
quently opens a market for it earlier
than normal. Many of the oranges
and grape fruits now on the market
of the country should be Illustrating
in some tropical grove in Florida or
California until January or February,
says DR.. Bigelow.
''They put these oranges in a room
fitted with a steam pipe or gas stove,
just about as warm as the average
heated room in Washington today"
said DR.. Bigelow, to the State Journal
correspondent. 1.-THE orange will soon
get yellow but it won't be ripe. This
is a peculiar characteristic of citrus
fruits, lacking, for instance, in the ap-
pie, which will ripen after being taken
from the tree, and differing from the
banana, which will not ripen on the
tree and must be ripened artifcially.
Some kinds of pears, too, will decay
on a tree instead of ripening, whereas
IL picked they would ripen rapidly"
Kansans visiting Washington this
week included Mr.. and Mrs. J. H
Grady of Garden City; B. F. Miller of
Fort Scott, w. S. Crawford of lola,
and D. J. Kaufman of Arkansas City.
Robert G. Hackman of Elizabeth,
\. J., and Miss Hazel Leslie of Law
renee, Kan, were married in Washing
ton yesterday. Rev. James S. Mont
gomery of the Presbyterian church,
performed the ceremony.
Abram G. Douglass was appointed
postmaster at Denison, Kan, today.