News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1915-04-28
BETTY AT THE FAIR
Letters of the Panama-P Pacific Expo
sition by Florence Livingston
LETTER II
SAN FRANCISCO, -
SAN FRANCISCO, =


LETTER II
| SAN FRANCISCO, -
Dear Father::-
Where do you think paradise is? The
other day did better than Milton, for
found it without having lost it. 1t was
ia long, bright room. filled with masses
of blossoms and rich with their perfume.
Down both sides were tables covered
with cut flowers, and soft groups were
arranged on tho floor like gorgeous rugs.
Daddy, did your gray eyes ever see a
fawn-colored tulip, or single white ny
drangea flower two inches and a half
across, or a cluster of rhododendrons like
purple chiffon with jewelled stamens?
Did you ever see group of azsleas in all
the mellow tones of autumn leaves?
shan't try to describe that room, and
you couldn't stretch your Imagination to
picture its munificence. Alice and l
walked up and down the aisles, drinking
in the beauty aud sweetness of roses and
hyacinths, of Easter lilies and fruit BIOS
SONS, of tulips and daffodils, of ranuncu-
lus and anemones, of spirea and lilies of
| the valley.
81 am going to live and die right
here. declared, as we stopped in one
corner of the room and looked back.
you can't'', laughed Alice. This
isn't to last but two days"
"Then at least I'll have two days of
it,, persisted.
"Moye, madam, said disguised voice
behind me. "You are standing on the
display"
How little thing it takes to bring one
down from the clouds! Alice and 1
moved out through the nearest door and
turned our attention to practical mat
tiers. The first was an apple sizer. Fa-
ther. can you take your mind out of in
surance policies long enough to think
what an apple sizer is? Or did one ever
come into your experience? Anyhow, let
me tell you that it's very clever. It's
chief feature is long row of canvas
pockets. A swarm of unsuspecting APP
Piles are let loose in another part of the
machine, and in turn roll into small cup
at the end of an arm, which works auto
matically with an even throw toward the
pockets.
After this scientific explanation, you
can see yourself what happens. The
throw is retarded in varying degrees ac-
cording to the weight of the apple,
and each one lands in the pocket occu-
pied by his equals, and of course the
largest ones get the front seats in the
first pocket. This machine is used for
apples, pears and like fruits, in which
there is constant relation between size
and weight, but it won't do at ell for
oranges. 1t seems that the orange is a
deceitful rascal, who cares absolutely
nothing for ounces and pounds. Some
times he likes to build big yellow globe
around small amount of juice, and
sometimes it pleases him to enclose a
heavy weight of fruit in much smaller
case than you would expect.
The orange is managed by its diam.
eter. We went to another booth and
watched it being done. A slow-going
hoist lifts box of unsorted oranges and
empties it gently into canvas slide.
One man sorts the fruit according to
quality, sending part of it into bin, and
the rest on its route to be boxed. A Sec
ond man receives the selected oranges
aud places each one on a rubber ring
that looks like an air cushion. These
rings are regularly spaced on narrow
treadmill.
Then curious thing happens. While |
the oranges are marching along in single |
file like soldiers, they receive the solemn |
brand of quality. A small machine at |
the side reaches out two horns, each one |
a seal, and stamps the or
anges, two at a time. Then they are
turned into an avenue bounded on one
side by a rope and on the other by sue
cession of wooden rollers, each quarter
of an inch farther from the rope than its
predecessor. The smallest oranges drop
down at once and roll into the first bin.
but the large ones ride merrily aleng un-
til the opening grows wide enough to let
them through. 1 understand that there
are other methods of grading. bat this
Is the only one have seen in operation.
When we got out into the sun, we
found it rather hot. The avenues were
bright with throngs in summer attire;
he men in light suits and straw hats;
he women in thin gowns with lace and