way to Talaimanar on the Island of Manar and the construction of two piers, and customs, postal, and railway quarters at each of the railway termini for the service of ferry steamers provided between them. There is also a large quarantine camp on Rameswaram Island for the detention of coolies bound for Ceylon. The rolling lift drawbridge is America's contribution to the enterprise. Engineers find this bridge particularly interesting because of its length of span, two hundred and eighty-nine feet, giving a clear way for vessels two hundred feet wide. It was erected entirely It was erected entirely by native Indian labor, and, to avoid in THE OBJECT OF PILGRIMAGES terference with navigation, with its leaves pointing up at angle of sixty degrees. The workmen were Moplahs-natives of the Malabar Coast, Western India-who had had little, if any, experience in bridge building, but what they lacked in knowledge they made up in main strength and activity. The pneumatic riveters rather stumped them at first, and much of the early work had to be done over; but the Moplahs soon got the hang of it and then they did. good work at the rate of two hundred and fifty rivets a day for each squad. The Moplahs, unlike the Tamils who live in the neighborhood of the route, are strict Mohammedans and therefore The Hindu temple on Rameswaram Island, South India, is served by the railroad. temperate. The pay-day drunk, so familiar to American railroad contractors, was conspicuously absent. Other labor consisted of Eurasian and Tamil foremen, engine men, mechanics, rivet inspectors, painters, and boatmen. The laborers consisted of both women and men, for when it comes to hard work the Hindu believes in equal rights. Everybody worked ten hours a day, Sundays as well as week days, except when an occasional Mohammedan feast caused an interruption. During the Mohammedan fast of thirty days, the Moplahs knocked off at four o'clock. They had to do it, because they abstained rigidly from eating, drinking, smoking, or chewing from sunrise to sunset. Under these conditions eight hours' work was all they could stand. Hindu feast days didn't count, for the Moplahs paid no attention to them. Anchorages for the drawbridge were constructed on artificial islands about sixty feet square. Here steel cylinders twelve feet in diameter were driven deep into the clay of the sea bottom and then filled with concrete. Owing to the small OPERATORS ON THE LIFT BRIDGE Hindus have been taught to handle the bridge from the little house. which it was shoveled into galvanized iron dishes about twelve inches in diameter and five inches deep which were carried by boys and women up runways to be deposited in the huge counterweights which balance the ponderous leaves of the bridge to such a nicety that but little effort is required to open or close it. All hoisting was done by hand. winches. In spite of these primitive methods, and in spite of high winds and a daily rainfall of two inches in October the erection of the drawbridge was finished in six months. A terrific storm at the end of November, 1913, did a lot of damage to the embankment across the Island of Rameswaram and to the artificial islands at the bridge site. But by strenuous work the job was finished in time to avoid something all night the contractors were able to run the first train across the bridge at 3:50 p. m., thus avoiding something dreadful by the nar row mar gin of ten minutes. The Indian Government formally approved the bridge December 29, 1913, and regular passenger traf fic was established to Dhanushkodi on January 1, though the usual celebration was not held until February 24. The temporary gap of twenty miles is now filled in by a fleet of three steamers of only six feet draft, which run first on one side of Adam's Bridge, then on the other, according to the direction in which the monsoon is blowing. This monsoon difficulty necessitated two complete sets of piers and terminal facilities at each end of the route. If the new route to Ceylon proves as attractive for tourists and as profitable in other traffic as the directors hope, the gap will soon be bridged. Then the tourist can, if he wishes, ride from Madras away up on the east coast of India, through to Colombo, the metropolis of Ceylon, without changing COMMEMORATING VALLEY FORGE WHERE CORN IS KING MCLEAN County, Illinois, has been mapped in corn. As that county is in the very center of the rich Illinois corn belt, the map is labeled "Where Corn is King". In fact, it is almost entirely due to its corn crop that McLean County is one of the richest agricultural counties in the United States. The map, which is accurately made on the scale of three-fourths of an inch to the mile, shows all the thirty townships and every village, city, and railroad. Different colors of corn were used for the different townships and, to avoid minor variation in the same township, only corn from one ear was used. The label is of pop corn of three colors, and the railroads are of blood butcher corn, a particularly dark red variety. Every American knows of the bleeding feet of Washington's army during the terrible winter of 1777-8 at the darkest moment of our history. ARCH TO WASHINGTON'S MEN VALLEY FORGE, Pennsylvania, rejoiced recently over the dedication of the hundredthousand-dollar Arch of Triumph which has just been erected to the officers and private soldiers who served during the Revolution. The memorial is a towering structure of granite rising to a height of sixty feet, with appropriate inscriptions to the officers and soldiers of the Continental Army who were quartered there from the middle of December, 1777, to the middle of June, 1778, a critical moment in the history of the nation, when the tide might have turned either way. About half a bushel of corn and ten ONE OF THE RICHEST COUNTIES McLean County, Illinois, stands high among the counties of the United States Its crop is corn and this map is made of corn, too. IN THE ORNATE ARGENTINE DINER CHEATING THE PORTIONS of the shopping district of Pittsburgh are sometimes visited by floods. One prominent merchant of the city fights them in a somewhat novel manner. Steel bulkheads have been made which fit the display windows perfectly by means of steel uprights. The latter, bent to an angle of about three inches, are placed in the windows. They are securely fastened to the stone of the building, and then leaded. Holes in the uprights permit of speedy fastening of the bulkheads to the uprights at a height sufficient to escape the passing water. When the meal is over the player piano is started and the car becomes a riot of maxixe and tango. pounds of putty were used in constructing the map. It was made by It was made by eight boys from the same country school during their spare hours one winter. This map impressed on all the pupils the meaning of corn to the community. The flood protection shown in the illustration can be put into place at the average rate of six minutes a window. DANCE ON TRAIN ON the trains de luxe of the Central Cordoba Railway of Argentina, operating between Buenos Ayres and Asuncion, Paraguay, the player-piano fulfills an important mission in helping to pass the hours of travel for the passengers. When dinner is dinner is over, the tables are quickly cleared and folded against the sides of the car, the carpet is rolled back, and to the merry allegro of the player-piano the passengers dance the one-step, the Brazilian maxixe, and the Argentine tango, the while the train races northward and westward along the beautiful shores of the Rio de la Plata. PITTSBURGH FLOOD DOORS Sheet-steel bulkheads have been attached to windows of downtown stores to keep out the water as Pittsburgh's two rivers rise. |