A QUEER WASHING MACHINE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2572, 5 January 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

A QUEER WASHING MACHINE.

This United States National L'ark in the Yellowstone contains, among many other geysers, one known by the name "Old Faithful,' , which General Sheridan's troops utilised P.s a self-acting, natural power, washing machine. And a firstclass washerwoman Mother Nature was found to lio. "Old Faithful' , erupts every eighty minutes with almost tin; regularity of clock-work. All that was rucpiiieil of tlie soldiers was to strip, throw in their shirts—linen only, " Old Faithful " tears thu woollen ones to pieces — their pipes, sit down, and wait. When the geyser began the work, the clothes were tossed and worried about as li. a legion of invisible washerwoman were d ling all they knew with then). Finally they were shot 100 ft into the air, all cleaned, and rinsed, and the soldiers caught them as they fell. One man threw n his shirt immediately after an eruption. Probably, like the great general, Siuvarrou's, it was " none k>o clean," and he thought that the full eighty minutes would be none too lon;,' to cleanse it. Alas !it disappeared down the geyser's gullet into the earth. A\it] it was the only shirt the soldier had ! The soldier buttoned his tunic over his bare chest and went to sleep. An hour or so afterwards he was awakened by loud shouts, lie opened bis eyes in ti.ni: i.u s-o the missing siiiit drop at bis f---.-', eh'? l ! sis a |)iiik, iiiid tVe.-li as p tint. "Did F.u ; ,fui "" b...l rtl'uKud to belie his name,