The Springfield herald., 1914-09-25
cOCKR0ACHfs, "('lINk" Ju'cF, RATS!
MIXTURE CT LIED Wits I
PERSONAL LIBERTY ADVOCATES CAN DRINK IT IF THE.
WANT TO, BUT EXCUSE ME-
Story will Wrinkle Your Linen and Make Your I'm
ards Culver. It Appeared in Everybodys Magazine for
July, and Was Written by Overseer of Big Dis
tlery Plantation in the West Indies

'rne following Iaots about the
manufacture of West Indian rum are
somewhat startling. They ought to be
particularly so to rum-drinkers in this
country, for a large percentage OF the
West Indian product is consumed here
! was an oyerseer on two plantations
in Demerara, British Guiana, on the
west coast, and year on another
plantation on the east coast. In each
place had charge of the buildings and
superintendent the manufacture and
shipment of the rum and sugar. When
| was there the great bulk of our ram
was shipped to New York.
In sugar manufacture the green
juice of the sugar-cane is graduaiiy
heated in tier of huge open boile.-5
or pans. and is ladled from one to th2
other of these, until from the last an
hottest OF them the LIQUID is suckcC
into vacuum-pan. where II boils al
n low temperature and soon separates
into sugar and molasses. From the
vacuum-pan this mixture goes into
centrifugal sieves, which, revolving at
great speed. swing the moasses out
OF the sugar The latter is then
scooped out of the machines into
wooden trays, generally by Chinese
coolies. and borne on their heads to
the paclSing-room, where negroes pack
it into bags or hogsheads for ship
ment.
While the cane-juice SINNERS in
those big pans n great deal of black,
Shiny scum rises to the surface, which
;t, =; -ly; xrr
emptied into cutters, along which H.
flows into Il mighty tank sunk into
the ground SO that it drains every
floor of the buildings This receptacle
ought TO interest rum-drinlSers, for the
filling of it with what is aptly termed
wash" is the first act in the making
OF rum. 1t is the mother rum-tank.
Any water spilled on any of the
floors is bound to find its way into
this great underground receptacle.
| That is so arranged for the careful
/ gathering Of all waste ''sweets'-mor9
or less sugar. molasses, slimmings,
ETC., that are dropped on the floors.
] This waste, with the continuous. dense
steam from the pans. makes every
| inch of the briclS-paved floors most
| disa greeably moist. Particularly is
this felt at night, when one treads
on living carpet OF reaches. etc.
What May Be in Rum
The crunch of these underfoot and
the incessant flight between the
lamps, and often into ones face. OF
large insects, together with the leis-
urely moving of innumerable lizards
and large, At rats. makes night
round of the buildings anything but
pleasant. Night and day these crawl
ing things are fora ging all over. the
floors: and all the time, but especially
at night, reaches are crushed by thou
sands under the feet always bare
feet except the oYerseer's) OF men
who are all the time pattering bac'
and forth about their work.
At $50 every morning hose-piDei
play on the floors and big broom
swish the water along, helping il
carry its load of filth-out of door
into the canal, you may tsink? MOI
so. by any means; but forward and
down-grade, until It falls like small
Niagara into the mother rumtani:.
1t was indispensable that the floor,
be cleaned OF their coating of thai
kind of saccharine mucilage once il
every twelve hours. The night gang
washed off before they left at G in thi
morning; the day gangs did the same
tefore in the evening. The cane
mill never stops grinding out th'
juice, night or day. nor on Sundays
! 10 -l No <
any of the sequence. the mill, boiiinC
pans, whirling centrifugals, and carry
ing out the sugar.
AS to thai general cleanup, enc par
deserves special notice. 1t can easil.
be imagined that those Chiuawen VIII
carry the sugar rs montioaed-al
naked of course, save for the scanues
loin-cloth-working hard as they dc Il
that hot. moist mosphere-beeom
more or less coated all over their ei
low skins with adheTing sugar. Thi
they are carefully prevented from cs'
rying home with them. There is b
faucet supplying plenty OF warm va
ter, as condensed from the steam 0
: the engines Under this faucet eac
: sugary Celestial has to stand whi
the headman, or driver, let's go O
each a copious sousing. Then he :
4 allowed to leave the buildings.
. To rum-drinkers the real and crug
interest of these baths must lie in 70
lowing the waste rinsings; for thes
can be traced with deadly certaint
until they fall into the rum-tank.
There is another sight not easil
forgotten. There are pumping day
when the big wash" reservoir has
be relieved of some of its contents.
- steam-pump is used to lift the stu
to the great watts, two floors abov'
The big rose on the end of the hos
lowered into the seething caldron ofte
clogs up. The engine is stopped an
something is dragged away from tn
submerged rose with lohg-handle
grapples. Al first | wondered whi
so,id suhstsnce could possibly get