Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 15, 17 January 1872, Page 4

A Model. —The Grey Star gives the following : —" An extraordinary sample of the results of patience and ingenuity is exhibited at G-ilmer's Hotel. It is a working model of a high, pressure steam - engine carved out of rata, with no better appliance than an ordinary penknife, by a resident of the remote district of Moonlight. The minute size of the model, the perfection of its details, and the nature of the material and of the instrument with which it was carved, make it a work well worthy of notice. It is to be disposed of by art union, and for the benefit of the Hospital, on the Ist of February next." Sink ok Savbi. —A Timely Caution. —Mr. E. H. Home, " a swimmer of fifty years' practice," has published a letter in the Times, in which he says : —Almost every man, woman, and child who cannot swim, when they find themselves suddenly out of their depth, throw up both arms and cry aloud for help —the most rapid of all methods for sinking ; in fact, the art of going down quickly is to throw up both arms. But if, instead of this, both arms are kept under water, while the hands "fight" the water, by beating it down beneath them, and the feet and legs do the same sort of thing, by contiuuing to kick the water down beneath them, —the person who does this cannot sink. He or she cannot sink while they will do this ; it is impossible. They will thus be able to keep upon the surface for that brief time for want of which so many are lost. Furthermore, if the persons thus beating the water down beneath them will only extend the arms a little, so that the palms of the hands may not only beat but pull the water towards them, they will then find themselves advance towards a bank, shore, boat, or other object, and will, in fact, find themselves swimming by what is called the dog-stroke. Beyond this, the only presence of mind required is not to beat, kick, strike, splash or pull too faat, as this is sure to cause loss of breath and exhaustion, and increase the contusion of mind. Be it especially remembered that all splashing is to be avoided as much as possible,' — partly because it dashes the water up to the nostrils and into the mouth, and also because it is sheer waste of power. All blows and struggles must be made under the water, and not at all on the surface. As it is quite in vaia to warn a drowning person not to try and seize upon the man who swims to save him, and thus do his utmost to drown his preserver by clinging round him and trying to get upon his shoulders (if the latter is so foolish or over-excited as to allow this), I would recommend the drowning person to seize his preserver by the hair, who will at once, if a tolerable master of the art, swim away with him in quite a free and easy manner. Protection and the Chicago Fire. —Protection is looking up, says the Australasian. Its great and glorious principles have achieved another victory in America. Their operation has been such as to furnish thousands of mechanics with lasting employment at high wages. Masions, bricklayers, carpenters, joiners, upholsterers, plumbers, painters, glaziers, plasterers, cabinetmakers, carvers, carpetweavers, excavators, and laborers of all kinds will be at work for months to come in rebuilding the city of Chicago, and in

refurnishing its houses and restocking its stores. But what — some sceptical freetrader will ask — has all this got to do with protection ? Marry, a great deal. Protection laid Chicago in ashes. As how ? " Thusly." The owners of the slate quarries of Pennsylvania are rigorously protected against foreigu competition. Slates, therefore, are too dear in America to admit of their being generally used for slating purposes. Consequently, substitutes have to he provided. At Chicago this substitute took the shape of paper steeped in pitch and covered with gravel. This was the inflammable covering of the buildings in that unfortunate city. Consequently, when the late fire broke out, it leaped from house to house and from street to street as rapidly as a train of gunpowder ignites. The flames ran along the roofs of the edifices with appalling velocity, and the melting pitch dropping into the rooms below increased their combustion. " Chicago has really been burnt down," as the Spectator says, "in order that Pennsylvanian quarrymen might plunder the public comfortably." And why not ? Why should they not be protected as well as the manufacturers of slop clothing in New York and Boston, where the condition of the female white slaves is more deplorable than that of the negroes before slavery was abolished? To be sure, about 12,000 houses were destroyed, about 100,000 people rendered homeless, and property to the value of £30,000,000 or £40,000,000 was consumed. But what is that compared with the assertion of a great principle— the principle that each industrial interest is to be allowed by law to levy black mail upon all other interests, aud "the devil take the hindmost"! Chioago, re-edified, ought to have a monument like that on Fish-street Hill, and there should be recorded on the pedestal how the great city was burned to ashes as a stupendous sacrifice to the principles of protection in the year 1871.