Evening Star Newspaper, February 3, 1894, Page 15

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1894-TWENTY PAGES. ANARCHISTS’ BOMBS' The Mechanical Construction of These Instruments of Death. TWO WAYS OF KILLING: Simple Pots and Cans and Their’ Deadly Contents. | | HOW THE BOMBS EXPLODE Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, January 16, 1804. F OR ANARCHIST dynamite to produce | its effects the: infer- | nal machines may | have an innocent and | even a playful out- side look. Of late | they have been using | sardine boxes and tin , eaffine cans. When the police descended | on the room of Vail- Jent they foun a | eaffine can marked | “analyzed by the| municipal laboratory of Paris.” It was be deadly bomb. This may surprise many | persons to whom the word bomb calls up! the idea of a war-like shell intended w de- stroy by the scattering of its heavy frag: ments. To understand the weapons of th present-day anarchist it is necessary to re- | call the progress which has been made i explosives. Explosives kill in two wars. (1) By the} force of solid bodies projected or broken off and whirled about In a gaseous whirl- pool, and (2) by force of the instantaneous , expansion of the gases themselves, which sweep before them like bits of straw every obstacle which they encounter. Up to almost present-day times the first ‘was the sole principle on which the utiliza- tion of gunpowder in war was based. So long as gunpowder only was known, the force of explosives and the facility of their use were comparatively limited, The efforts of war engineers consisted chiefly in surrounding gunpowder with a solid cas- ing of cast iron or steel. Such were the| military bombs during the first half of this | century. On the other hand. as powder! The Barcelona Romb. can be exploded only by firing it, it was necessary to furnish these bombs with a | fuse, difficult or dangerous to light ani to Project when lighted, and capable of being put out by design or accident. | It is thought that one of the next explo- sions of the anarchists will take place in Malaga, today a thriving commercial city, the most modern-built in Spain. The per- fections of this new bombs construction | will demonstrate the steady, onward pro- gress of the march of civilization. The first serious step toward present-day explosives was the discovery of fulminate of mercury. It changed the conditions cf firearms, by substituting percussion caps for flint locks. Fulminate of mercury is that whitish substance which fills the in-| teriors of percussicn caps and cartri exploding gunpowder with a light s| Besides its quality of exploding gunpowde: fulminate of mercury has a superior power of expansion of its own in comparison with Sunpowder as 314 is to 263. Orsini, the | would-be assassin of Napoicon III, was the | first to utilize it to make a bomb which could be thrown by hand. The Orstui Bomb. The bomb of Orsini was a cast-iron sphere flied with fulminate and bristling with little chimneys fitted over with per- cussion caps. This was also the model of the bomb thrown at the Emperor of Aus- tria in 1853, which had for its most obvious effect the building of the finest Gothic church of modern times. Franz Josef, in thankfulness for his escape, built up the Votive Church; the bomb (which failed to explode) Mes in a glass case in the Im- perial Art History Museum at Vienna. Curiously, enough, in spite of recent pro- Rress, thesestwo oldest bombs were made the exact modeb of the recent bombs of Harcelona. The only diiference ts that the bombs of the Spanish anarchists were of superior bulk, about the size and shape of &@ moderately large Bermuda onion. One of these bombs, alighting harmlessly in the Inp of a lady in an orchestra chair, did not explode; and it has been preserved and carefully examined. Its complete resem- biance to the old Orsini bomb is beyond all | question. Dynamite. » however, along with the ¥ jate years these vile crim- y handled. le By | | with nitro-glyeerine the pro- rss under light shocks, and to be feared from a bla usive force con:pared | sis to 23. Moreover, t Tava a against what | $e called the point of greatest resistance. | Tais means that. exploded quite by itself | im the ir, it will dig a hole in the instead of spreading groum ‘vith amite, therefore, ¥ the second princi S first realized | le cf explosives, already tion by f i like dynamite, it is not ecessary to inclose them in a heavy re- ag body.like old style bombs and shells. Ravachol biew up the apartment house of the Rue de Clichy with a staple cast-iron pot filled up with dynamite, a pot whose jit he left to gape wide at one side to give an entran to the se. When Ma- thieu (who has never been found) destroyed un ra Very he contented himself t ooden box conceal:d in a canvas valise. | Up to the time of these two miscreants | (Ravachol and Mathieu) the chief difheulty consisted in how to explode their dynamite | without attracting attention or putting in- to danger their own precious skins. T' to use a fuse so urransé uiminate cap. Mathieu t Ravachol's Pot. es to explode a f. re- f enceaied his box and burning fuse in @ canvas valise. Ravachol first placed his pot. then Ht the fuse and quickly waiked away, to let it take its chances. ither of them wisked to throw a bomb containing sh an explosive as dynamite and be ed themse! Bombs f dyn bombs e t step of the anarchists they became acquainted with whick node by si miact w ether. Take, tor example, hyponit. | center dry, the bomb is harmless. ; the anarchist desires to use it, he simply and carbon sulphide. They are two liquids which, when contained in two separate bot- tles, are neither dangerous. If you mix them, the mere contact produces a terrific explosion. They couid be used as a direct explosive; but, as at the desired moment you must succeed in combining a consider- able quantity of each, there would be great danger to the anarchist in their handling. Therefore the criminals were obliged to Place one of the liquids in the bottom of their receptacle (a tomato can, a sardine box, or an iron pot) and then place above it the second liquid, contained in a smaller Mathicus Box. separate vessel. When the pot or can was overturned, then the catastrophe would hap- pen. The fatal objection to this machine was the danger of handling it. Neverthe less, the germ of the principle was there. It was the first “reversible marmite.” The term is put in quotes because it is a ghastly pun in the French gutter slang. A half column would be required to clear it up in} English, and then the difficulty would be that it could not be printed. The final perfection in this line of crime, the most debased and senseless which the world has known, has been the use of these same substances (hyponitric acid and carbon sulphide), employed no longer as direct ex- plosives, but indirectly, making them to take the place of the old fulminate cap. A small quantity of each, when mingled, will expicde two hundred pounds of dynamite, and the moment when the liquids are to mix can be arranged with mathematical exactness. Pea Can of the Hotel de Trevise. You unite two glass vials, Hke homeo- pathic medicine bottles, by a bent glass tube choked up in the middle with that kind of cotton which is called “‘bibulou: because it soaks up Hquids readily. So long as the machine is carried in such a position to keep the bent tube on top, and the cotton ip its en turns it upside down. The hyponitric acid, eating on the cotton, gradually eats it all away and joins the carbon sulphide, which runs down to meet it on the other side. The two liquids join, explode, and instan- taneously cause the mass of dynamite around them to explode. This was the con. struction of the bomb of the Hotel de Trev- ise, which was nothing but a tin French pea Pot cf Rue Des Bons Enfants. can. The same principle governed the con- struction of the bomb of the rue des Bons Enfants, where the receptacle was an iron pot. It was arranged to be carried down. The anarchist placed {t right s! in the hallway of the office of the Carmaux Coal Company. It was discovered and taken to the police station of the rue.des Bons Enfants. All the time the hyponitrice acid was eating on the cotton which from the carbon sulphide. came. The liquids joined; and a stone build- ing of the heaviest kind was shattered like an egg shell. parated it The last of these anarchist outrages in Paris up to the present date (though there may be another in a few days) was when the wife-deserting Vaillant threw his bomb in the full house of deputies. His receptacle vaS 2 mere tin lunch can, bought for 13 cents. The principle on which he constructed the machine was exactly that which has been last described. His explosive was not dynamite,but chlorated powder,called “green in the “Manual of the Complete The mixture to set it off was pleric acid in one bottle and prussiate of soda in another, joined by a glass tube with a@ cotton wad, which had been steeped in sulphuric acid’to stuff it in the middle, The interior of the bomb was also filled with those five-cornered nails they use for shoe- ing dray horses in France. _~ & Nails From Vaillant’s Can. It had been Vaiifant’s idea to stand: still after the explosion, avow the deed and glo- rify himself by making a fine speech to the vors. This theatrical intention neces- sitated, first, that he should not blow him- self up with the others, and, second, that he | should not merely set the bomb and sneak away, as Mathieu did, as well as Ravachol. He therefore chose the anarchists’ “green powder” in the place of dynamite. His vain desire to make a speech thus saved a thou- sand lives. Some days before this last crime the Paris police discovered an anarchistic plot to con- struct reversible bombs, which were to be hidden in the handles of canes and umbrel- las. These it was proposed to leave upside down in different expensive restaurants, the cloak rooms of such resorts of “capitalists” as theaters and music halls, the bourse and the great shops. It was calculated that in- stinctively some person would always take up the cane or umbrella and place it in its right position,whereupon an explosion would ensue. Such an explosion would be far su- perior in force to the bomb of the parlia- ment house, because the handle and stick could receive a greater quantity of dyna- mite or chlorated powder. The initial illustration shows one of these reversible bombs. Such is the short resume of the mechani- cai history of anarchist bombs. There is no indiscretion in giving it to the American reading public as long as our authorities permit the circulation of such books as “The mplete Anarchist” and “The Anarchist Indicator.” The affiliated miscreants who from time to time nerve up themselves to their abominable attempts know all about the ing of these bombs. They are the ones to fear. They are the ones to jail be- fore they do their work, at the same time we jail the publishers of anarchist books and newspapers. In the meantime, the great innocent public will take no danger from participating in a knowledge of the ugly art of bombs. STERLING HEILIiG. To conclude: | The moment, | } APES OF BORNEO Orang-Outangs Which Resemble Human Beings in Their Ways, THEY LIVE IN THE TALL TREE TOPS How They Fight, Eat and Build Their Nests. ARBOREAL CREATURES eee een HETHER OR NOT one chooses to be- lieve that monkeys are cousins of ours, the traveler who vis- its the island of Bor- neo cannot be other- wise than struck with the wonderful like- ness to human beings exhibited by the giant apes of that country. Whatever these crea- tures do is done very much as man would do it—that is to say, primeval man. In all the actioas of their daily lives—eating, drinking, building nests, fighting like roughs and so forth—they resemble our- selves, though in grotesque fashion. The females suckle their young and carry them astride their hips precisely as do the wo- men of Hindostan. Their motions of af- fection, satisfaction, pain and rage are shown in thoroughly human-like ways.” Thus spoke a naturalist in «onversation with a writer for The Star, and added: “Of course, you know that the orang- outang is one of the three giant apes. Though found to some extent elsewhere, it has its chief home in Borneo, where it dwells among the pathless forests which cover the greater part of the island, Its brain is as well developed and as large as that of the gorilla or the chimpanzee. While its fore-limbs are longer than theirs, it comes nearer to man than they in respect to the number of its ribs, having twelve pairs. The chimpanzee approaches most closely to the human type in the shape of its skull, in its teeth, and in the propor- tional size of its arms. The gorilla has the advantage in the proportion of the legs to the body, in the size of the heel, in the cur- vature of the spine, and in the form of the pelvis. “The most striking feature of the orang is its great size and general resemblance ,to man. The chest, arms and hands are pecially human like in their size and gen. eral outline. Since the animal depends mainly upon these members for {ts means cf locomotion, they are necessarily of mas- sive proportions. The natural position of your hand or mine when at rest is with the ‘ingers slightly bent at the tips, but that of the orang is with the fingers clenched. In handling a dead ape of this kind it is often found impossible to straighten even a single —— without cutting the tendon in the palm of the hand. Thus, when an orang is asicep the most natural position he can as- feo is firmly grasping a branch with each nd. “The eyes of the orang are very small, with an iris of dark brown and no white visible. Its teeth are always very much dis- cajored by vegetable acids and juices, the base of each tooth being black. The hair is usually brick red or dark red, though some- times so light a brown as to be aimost straw color.The animal seems to have no neck at all, the head being set squarely down upon the shoulders. Its hind legs are short and weak. Like a cherub, it never sits down in the proper sense of the word. The males are distinguished by remarkable discs of callous tissue on the cheeks. These are semi- cartilaginous and seem to be purely orna- mental. Females do not possess them. Desperate Characters. “The males are much given to fighting, as is proved by the numerous scars found on the bodies of killed and captive specimens. Being purely fruit-eating animals,their huge canine teeth seem to have been provided chiefly as weapons of battle, and they use them to great advantage. Like some roughs of the human species, they are given to | seizing each other's fingers and biting them of. Their jaws do not open wide enough to seize an arm or shoulder to good advantage. One individual ‘collected’ by a naturalist nd since relegated to a museum was named ‘he Desperado,’ because of the numerous signs of wounds which he bore. Pieces had been bitten out of his upper and lower lips, leaving a big ragged notch in each, and both of his middle fingers had been ‘chawed off’ at the second joint. Not only that, but on the feet the third right toe was missing, as well as the end of the left big toe and the fourth toe on the same foot. “In a fight the chief effort of the orang is always to seize its adversary’s fingers and convey them to its mouth. This meth- od of combat is adopted largely because of the extreme unwieldiness of the animal. While engaged in conflict it is obliged to Save itself from falling out of the tree by holding on with one hand, and it is hardly practicable to come to close quarters in u rough-and-tumble battle. Thus it is more than likely that such encounters rarely terminate fatally to the vanquished, the latter getting away sooner or later’ with more or less mutilation. In a fight with a man this giant ape pursues the same tac- tics, and it is not safe for a person to ap- proach too nearly an orang in a cage, lest he lose a finger or two by the venture. Even a baby monkey of this kind will in anger grasp the wrist of the individual against whom its rage is excited and will convey the hand to its mouth in obedience to instinct. “The faces and features of orangs vary as much as those of human beings ordin- arily—certainly as much as those of Chinese and Japanese. These apes inhabit a wide belt of forest-covered swamps which lies between the seacoast and the mountain ranges of the interior of Borneo. Out of the swamps isolated hills rise here and there like islands out of a sea, clothed to their summits with trees. Many of the trees bear fruit of different kinds, and at the season of ripening the apes repair to the hills for their great yearly feast. Among the fruits are the ‘durion,’ the ‘mangosteen’ and the ‘rambutan,’ as well as others equally unknown in this dart of the world. The ‘durion’ is perhaps the most delicious of all fruits, uniting the flavors of the peach, the pear and the strawberry. Like most things nearly per- fect, however, it has a drawback, namely, that it leaves a taste in the mouth the next day after it is eaten which is more abom- inable than can either be described or con- ceived. The animals devour the shoots of the pandanus palm and other trees, as well as certain kinds of leaves. During the hot months they retire into the depths of the forests. How He Navigates. “Orangs are the most arboreal of all monkeys. Living wholly in trees, they never come down to the ground, though when thirsty they descend far enough to reach the water. A more helpless creature on land could not be imagined. Owing to the great weight of their bodies, and the pecullar structure of their hands, they can- not run along the branches, and never dare to spring from one tree to the next. Smal- ler relatives of theirs, the gibbons of Bor- neo, weighing only forty or fifty pounds, and very frail in their bodily make-up, are so agile in leaping from bough to bough as to seem almost like birds. They are natu: al acrobats. Going in droves, whereas orangs live by families, one of the most in- teresting spectacles imaginable is to see a troop of them crossing a great gap In the forest by throwing themselves in succes- sion in the air, each one taking a swing or two to get a momentum before launching himself. Not so the orang, with its =. flabby stomach and massive head. His weight of 120 to 160 pounds compels him to move slowly and circumspectly, lest he fall. He will swing himself along'the under side of a large limb as a gymnast swings long a tight-rope, reaching six feet at a stretch. When passing from one tree to another, he reaches out and gathers in his grasp a number of small branches that he feels sure will sustain his weight, and then swings himself across. The adult male at- tains a height of four feet to four feet six inches. “That does not seem very tall, perhaps, but an animal of the maximum height I have mentioned will measure, with out- stretched arms, seven feet eight inches from finger-tip to finger-tip. The orang is not able to stand fully erec. without Primitive Dwelling. touching the ground with its hands. In the National Museum you will find a group of these creatures which is a wonderful work of art. It was stuffed and set up by the famous naturalist and taxidermist, Mr. Willlam T. Hornaday. ‘Two males are rep- resented fighting, one being engaged in bit- ing a finger from the hand of his adversary, while a female is gazing alarmed on the conflict from the family nest, a young one clinging to her body. Of course, these creatures do all their fighting aloft, and it is great fun to see them drop the armfuls of fruit they have gathered while engaged in conflicts for the possession of the spoil. Owing to their method of battle, it is al- most impossible to procure a skin which does not lack some of the fingers. The natives of Borneo regard these apes as human beings of an inferlor type. Mor a similar reason it was, for a long time, found impossible to get hold of an entire gorilla skin, because the African savages considered it religiously necessary to cut off the hands and feet of the animals when they killed them, just as they do with their enemies, possibly for the purpose of rendering them harmless hould, by any chance, come to lite again, “The nests of orangs are utilized for the purpose of repose. All over those regions of the Island of Borneo which are occupied by these apes one observes great. numbers of such primitive arrangements for dwell- | ing. They consist commonly of a quantity of leafy branches, broken off and piled | loosely in the fork of a tree. The animal | | usually selects a mere sapling and builds his nest in its top, even though his weight causes it to sway alarmingly. The Nest is only two or three feet in diameter. There is no weaving together of branches, which are simply piled crosswise. In fact, the beast builds a nest precisely as a man would build one for himself, were he obliged to pass a night in a tree top, and had neither ax nor knife. I have seen one or two such nests made by men in the forest, where the builder had only his bare hands with which to work, and they were in all respects like the nests of one of these apes. Upon this leafy platform the orang lies upon his back, with his long arms and short legs thrust outward and upward, firmly grasping while he sleeps the nearest large branches within his reach, An orang never uses a nest after the leaves become withered and dry. As soon as this happens he deserts it and builds a fresh one somewhere else. That is the reason why so many of these nests are to be seen among the trees of Borneo. They are nearly all old ones which have been abandoned. It is believed that the nests are constructed partly for the sake of pro- tection against files, by which the apes are greatly annoyed. They are able to protect the front parts of their bodies with their hands, but they cannot keep the msects from biting them in the rear, and so they gather a quantity of leaves and branches and make them into couches to repose |against among the boughs. A protection of this sort serves very well for a while, but presently its material begins to de- compose and the decaying leaves attract the flies, which the orang is so anxious to get rid of. Then he is obliged to make another nest of fresh stuff, and so he may require dozens of them in the course of a year. Inasmuch as he does not take the trouble to remove the old ones, they remain to adorn the tree tops in which he swings himself about. ———-+ e+ Municipal Conduits. From the Electrical World That the usual objections urged against municipalities entering into the business of supplying water, gas or electricity do not apply to public ownership of electric con- duits and subways is becoming to be recog- nized. Recently the Cambridge, Mass., board of aldermen requested the mayor to petition for such legislation as will enable cities and towns to construct and maintain conduits and man holes in their respective streets, for the purpose of carrying wires and cables for the transmission of ¢lec- tricity; that the companies and individual now maintaining overhead wires and cables be required to place their wires and cables in the conduits built by the city or town, and remove their overhead construction in all streets provided with conduits, and that such companies and individuals shall pay to the city or town a rental that will insure not less than 10 per cent upon the amount invested in the conduits. The question thus broached is aside from any advanced views in regard to the extent to which municipali- ties may extend their functions and rather one as to whether electric companies should be compelled to submit themselves to the mercy of a private monopoly when they are required by the public to adopt a certain method of installing their wires. It would, on the other hand, seem to be the duty of cities to provide equal ani \intrammeled faciiities for those whom they eomp2l to adopt this means of electrical distribution-— a duty which cannot be properly discharged by an intermediary whose object is not ac- commodation, but profit. The principle at stake is more nearly akin to that involved in the maintenance of public nighways, and in its application there seems to be no rea- son for introducing the element of private monopoly. The conditions are not the same as those concerned in the ownership of city lighting plants for several reasons. In the latter case it is the question of the supply of @ commodity, and the continuous opera- tion of a manufacturing plant, which may result in abuses if in the hands of a munici- pality, Better service may be given through private ownership, and in case of inefti- ciency the entife public is affected and has the power to at once apply the remedy. On the other hand, a conduit is a structure, and when once laid requires little or no a! tention. The contract is a forced dne as far | a8 the users are concerned, while in an elec- tric lighting monopoly the consumer can or- der out his lights and a ccmbination of con- sumers can forc2 reasonable treatment. In the one case the parties directly affected are only the conduit monopoly and the eleztrical company or companies compelled to use the conduits, with only the politicians or the un- certainties of legal technicalities to protect the latter, while in the other the entire public serves as a check against unfair treatment. In other words, there is a de- cided difference between a monopoly to. and over which it retains practical control, and one which it acccrds to a second party .to be exercised by the latter over a third party. It may be said that the rights of the users of conduits will be defined by law and may be enforced by them whether the owner fs a private company or a municipall- ty, but experience has shown that while in the former case technicalities of law and a | “pull” may intervene, in the latter public | opinion will tend to force equitable treat- ment aside from technicalities. It thus seems to be entirely to the interest of elec- tric light and power companies to have the | ownership of electrical conduits and gub- ways vested in the public and not in a private monopoly, and it is to the interest of the public itself to retain the control of its streets, and besides earn the continuous profit that otherwise it would donate to private individuals, whose only considerable active function would not extend beyond the period of installation. ——__+e-+—__. The Sunny Time. From the Boston Globe. It’s a long way back to the sunny-time, And the and the blooms of the honey-time, The white sprays of the Maying-time, And the hearts and hands of the playing-time— A long, long way, thro’ {rost and rime, Back to the meadow-mint and thyme! It's a long way back to the smiling summer, And the muftied roll of the partridge drumiaer, ‘The pimpernel and the budded rose, ‘Tne promise-tints of the iris-bows— A long, long way to the cheery chime, And the loving lips of the balmy-time! a long way back to the mowing-time-- We're now in the winds of the snowing-time; | White and cold are the sills of the doors, T the moors; ‘The earth is bound in a steely chain, And back to the birds is a long, long Janet But back thro’ the sleet and the drifted snows We go, to the summer sunset glows— We take the woes of the tearful time To the carols of the cheerful time— Back to = gleam gh ger toed And the the olden-time! PY hopes of WH TEI LEROY FOGG, An Example. Why, one of them walk- ing coats I*read about in the fashion papers!” which the public willingly submits itself] c 15 =_ —_——— EXTERIOR OF STATIONARY CREMATORY, SHOWING R UNWAY AND FEEDING SLIDE. TQ BURN GARBAG The Crematories for, Destroying Refuse in Chicago, TRAVELING GARBAGE BURNER | The Cost and Capacity of the Cre- matory System. INTERESTING FIGURES M. A. Lane in Harper's Weekly. The municipality of Chicago is in the throes of the garbage question just at pres- ent. This means that the city has reached the metropolitan stage of its growth, and that from now on it must grapple with problems that have become long since fa- millar to the governments of all great cities, from the time when Baby@on was in \its palmy days to the present moment. | Water supply and aqueduct systems make |up the first necessity with which growing | municipalities must fight. After that comes drainage. After drainage light and transit have their day. And when all these mat- |ters have been nicely arranged, and the municipality looks around and finds that it has no longer a civic back yard into which to dump its garbage, it calls in the experts nd asks for relief. Now the world’s fair {city has long outgrown its garbage-dump- ing age, and conceives that a town claiming a population of 2,000,000 it should have modern methods of disposing of its offal. The reduction or cremation process seemed the best and most reasonable, and | experiments were therefore begun along that line. Interior of Stationary Crematory— Raking Out the Furnace. Stationary crematories for garbage have been used with success, andvare now so used in many foreign countries, notably in England. There the plant is an import- ant affair. There are several stationary burners in England that have cost not less than £50,000 or £75,000 each to construct and equip. In this country the best sta- | tionary burner is at Los Angeles, Cal.—that |1s, of course, excepting the new one at Chi- cago, whose inventor claims for its process \first rank among its kind the world over. The Los Angeles burner is rather emall matter built for a small town. In looking up the literature of stationary garbage- burners the street and alley cleaning bureau of Chicago ascertained the fact that the great crematories of England were | built with a royal disregard of expense. They can melt anything that is fed to them. The expense attaching to a plant that can reduce and destroy utterly fifty dead horses at once may be readily imag- |at Chicago was not constructed for such | Vast work as this, and hence cost consider- ably less, and does not ask quite so much money for its operation. Portable Paper Burner. Some further description of Mr. ard’s system will be given below. Mean- while it is necessary to call the attention | of experimenters in garbage burning to an |ingenious device, designed by Mr. George |S. Welles,who until recently was the super- intendent of the Chicago street and alley cleaning bureau. While the city was ex- Mr. Welles had built a novel engine for the reduction of city garbage. He called it a traveling crematory, in distinction to the stationary, and chiefly for the reason that it is what the name implies. The construc- tion is quite simple. It resembles a hori- zontal boiler on wheels, in which the com- partments are so divided that the primary combustion chamber receives the refuse, which with sprays of coal oil issuing from oil tanks placed perpendicularly on the top of the boiler produces the heat. This refuse consists of paper, old wood, rags, rubber or other odd stuff that is found in the gar- bage boxes. No garbage is thrown into this chamber. It is first placed in a secondary chamber, where it is dried, after which process it is transferred to the final com- bustion chamber to be destroyed. This transfer is made by opening a door in the drying chamber and pushing the contents forward on grates that are placed at a de- clining angle. Only four minutes pass from the time the garbage enters the drying chamber until it is all destroyed, leaving nothing behind but ashes. The fumes aris- ing from the drying garbage pass forward through a spray of oil from another tank, and are joined by the flame of the burning garbage below. Its chief and best feature is the saving it makes in cartage. The col- lection of garbage and its transfer by teams j either to a stationary crematory or to a dumping ground is the main item of ex- pense in handling the offal of a city. Mr. Wellies claims his portable burner largely | overcomes this difficulty. In fact, the de- jsigner of the machine, although he has burned many tons with it, does not believe in cremation at all. He holds that garbage may be dumped and covered with ashes in | perfect safety. But as the city desired it | burned, he selected this way of burning it. | Mr, Welles’ crematory will not consume | bottles, old fruit-cans, worn-out stove lids, ‘scrap iron and the like. He limits its use | to combustible refuse and garbage. | His arguments are interesting in the mat- ter of cost. The portable burners may be built for about $1,000 each, and seventy of ‘them will keep the city clear of garbage. The objection to the smoke that issues from the funnel is not weighty. It is white vapor, and not offensive to the sense of smell. In Chicago, or in any other city }laid out on the same street plan, the traveler is seldom seen in the highways, ]its work being limited to the byways or ined. The crematory of Mr. A. M. Brainard | Bratn- | perimenting with the stationary crematory, and cannot receive indigestible stuff like | alleys. Following the traveler is a wagon for the collection of the refuse that cannot be consumed. This is of infinite variety, but when the garbage and the combustible matter have been taken from it its quantity is largely reduced. Chicago's appropriation for street clean- ing this year is $1,000,000, This sum will fall short of its purpose. The streets and alleys cannot be properly cleaned with that money. Distances are interminable. For the removal of garbage"600 teams are em- ployed. At $3.75 per day each the cost per day is $2,250. That is the equal of $675,000 @ year for teams only. One team will haul average of one and one-half tons to a Idea. or about four tons a day—a total of 2,700 tons a day. The charge for cremating the garbage by the stationary process is 70 cents per ton, or $1,900 per day for cre- mation. That is the equivalent of $515,000 LOOK TO YOUR CHILDREN. The Great Mental and Physical Strain Upon Them at School. The Forcing System the Most Injuri- ous Feature of Modern Educa- tion—Health Above All. Written for ‘The Evening Star. It is a singular fact, that with the ability evinced by the American people in matters relating to political and domestic economy, they are to a very great extent oblivious to those things which formulate and de- termine the greatest happiness in Ife. In less than three centuries they have con- verted a vast and primeval continent into @ splendid empire; they have filled its for- ests, tunneled its mountains, bridged its rivers, and spread over it a vast network of railroads. The expenditure of nervous force and energy in these three hundred years has been enormous. The Anglo-Saxon came to America, a strong and robust man, thick set, of medium height, and red-faced, with a large supply of that reserve force we call stamina. How has he come out of the struggle? The American family of English degcent, which has been in this country over three or four generations, shows distinct physical deterioration. Unlike his Anglo-Saxon pro- genitor, he is, if not diminutive, tall, un- duly tall, with little muscular development; per year for cremation. These are the figures of Mr. Welles, who is inalienably opposed to the stationary plan. He says that the sixteen teams that remove the garbage in the eleventh ward alone, and the cremation of the garbage they haul, cost the city not less than $115 per day. The traveling machine will keep this ward clean for a cost of $16 a day. Traveling Garbage Burner. The discrepancy is appalling. Mr. Brain- ard, however, who operates the stationary crematory, laughs at Mr. Welles’ calcula- tions, and the bitterness of the two parties, which seems to have become a sort of po- litical faction fight in Chicago, is very amusing. The exact processes by which Mr. Brainard manipulates the gases for the generation of heat in his retort are his own secret, and he refuses to disclose it. The general construction of his crematory—the only one of its kind in existence—is open for inspection, and he takes quite as much pride in its efficiency as Mr. Welles does in the incontrovertible merits of his. Mr. Welles, who was at the head of the bureau when the stationary burner was first tried, boasts that he stopped it, or choked it, in two weel Mr. Brainard, on the other hand, at Mr. Welles, and bitingly ridicules his efforts to “choke my con- sumer,” as he puts it himself. The stationary man genially invited the portable man to bring his traveling burner down to the stationary burner, the purpose of the invitation being, on the part of Mr. Brainard, to throw the traveler into the retort, and melt it away into a harmless lump of scrap iron. Mr. Welles retorted by offering to bet Mr. Brainard $1,000 that he would fill the stationary burner up with ashes in ten days. Of course neither propo- sition was accepted, and out of this pictur- esque rivalry grew a startlingly clean con- dition of alley in the city. The city has accepted the stationary cre- matory, having considered the tests to which it was submitted as satisfactory. 1t is withal a rather pretty little building, when its pul is taken into considera- tion. It is situated at the river and Super- ior street on the North Side, surrounded by shipping and warehouses and factories. In principle and construction it is a wide departure from others that have been used in this country. The retort is circular in form, and eight feet in diameter. It is built of brick, the house of the same ma- terial, and all is painted white. At one side of the house is a runway for teams hauling the garbage. This runway leads to a semicircular platform, on which the garbage is dumped. Here it is taken by laborers and thrown into three openings, to be carried down as many chutes into the retort below, where it is consumed. The chutes are built at an inclining angle of about forty-five degrees; their orifices open- ing on the dumping platform are Closed with sliding doors. From each chute, near the outside mouth, is a flue that connects with the chimney, and through these flues pass the products of the combustion. The heat in the chutes, even up to the very openings, is so intense that the matter passing into them is almost consumed be- fore it reaches the retort. This is espec- jally true of vegetable matters. The refuse is received in the retort on a bed of bars, and is constantly raked over by man who stands at the large opening. The residue is thrown out through two openings at the side. Heat is made by constant sprays of petroleum into the furnace, and its generation is facilitated by the injection of air with a blower-fan through a large pipe that encircles the retort. The oll is blown into the furnace with a steam jet. so that the combustion is especially fierce. | the flame strikes the garbage from above, |and as the vegetable matter burns various gases produced in the retort by the com- bustion flicker and flare in greens, blues, se and almost all the spectroscopic colors. In the reduction of the garbage by this crematory no distinction is made as to kind. Ashes, bottles, tin, scrap iron, are alike flung into its flaming maw, are swal- lowed up, raked over, burned, raked over again,and thrown out reduced to fine ashe: | These ashes make a solid, firm filling, | readily disposed of in a city which, like | Chicago, has large need of materiai like that. So confident is Mr. Brainard of the serviceable qualities of his crematory that he says he will undertake to clean with it ;not only the city’s: alleys, but the streets jas well, and that for $250,000 less than the last appropriation for the purpose made by the common council. Of the portable burners the city uses but two of the larger kind, for the burning cf garbage and refuse. A’ third traveling cre- matory is utilized for the reduction of gar- bage only. This is smaller than the two others, but constructed on the same prin- ciples. There are about a score of still smaller traveling burners that are used for the consumption of waste paper in the streets. This is an excellent idea, and saves not a little expense in the way of cartage. Paper is light and bulky. The city will build half a dozen of the Brainard crematories for use next summer. The traveling crematories will also be used. —+e-+—____ A Better Lana. From Puck. |_ Tramp (reprovingly)—“Ah, lady! In the part of the country I just come from the women didn’t ask us to saw a cord of wood fer our dinner. | Lady of the Hou: id you come from? Tramp.—“The natural gas regions.” —“Didn't, eh! Where rate | he still, however, is capable of developing considerable nervous force, that which comes of undue stimulation, and at the ex- pense of the generc! physical economy. To Be the Best Educated, Now, superadded to their splendid achievements over natural obstacles, the Americans aim to be the best educated people. Whatever else an American parent can give a child, it seldom neglects its education. Its general mode of life, its as- Sociations, cleanliness, hygienic environ- ment, its reverence of sacred things, and its immortal soul, may be overlooked, but it generally goes to school, and pays homage to the great American fetish—edu- cation. From the date his intelligence showed the first sign of its Presence, it has been stimulated and wrought upon until it is to be wondered that it retains any sem- blance of normal vigor at manhood. Abso- lutely forgetful of what education strictly means, the “leading out” of the mental faculties, guiding and moderating them, the reverse process is adopted, the brain is crammed, the ambition stimulated, and the animal worked for all it is worth. Unfitmess for Maternity. Coupled with this immense extension of our conquest over nature and its resultant on our physical and mental growth, there are conditions operating toward national deterioration still more insiduous and subtle, but none the less powerful. Leaving out of consideration the mad race for the ac- quirement of wealth and social importance, the most vital fact is the unfitness for maternity in a large class of American wo- men, who thus start their children in life handicapped; and when we reflect how soon the child is to be absorbed, mind and body, in the task of acquiring an cdu- cation, can there be any wonder at its so rose Proving unequal to the demand up- on it? must learn at some time that nervous force is not a spontaneous, though invisible, production. It needs for its de- velopment and normal operation in a child abundant exercise in the open air, a liberal The Demands of Nature. Most unfortunately the highest educational efforts of children are called forth when na- builder requires that his material be abun-* dant and of good quality, in order to build well, even more peremptorily does the great architect resent any infraction in her bill of supplies, and if she is denied, the work goes from her hands with the stamp of unworthy upon it. Unfortunately this mark is seen but too often these days in the the braces and orthopedic apparatus worn by children who should be overfiowing with natural resources. There sometimes Undeniably the radical hygienic error of this generation, and especially in America, \s the overuse of the nervous system anu the enforced idleness of the muscles. The Forcing System. The most unfortunate feature in modern educational processes is that children are forced. In evidence of this we note the immense increase in distinctly school trou- bles from the lower grades to the last symnasium year, shown in the statistics of the city of Hamburg. it can be said as a postulate that any time a high school student devotes to study beyond six hours or that in which he is practically at the schools is a positive In- j jury to him and just as it goes beyond this period does it increase the prospects of his physical downfall. The time of younger children should be based on the above as a maximum and study out of school should be prohibited. As a rule the studies are too advanced for the age of the pupil, there is too much written work, and this by artificial light, and its character is apt to be too abstract. The fact that a thing has been done one way in the past, seems the best reason why it should be done some other way in the future. It is pitiable reading, these that come to us from abroad as to the phy- sical condition of school children, by Stroff_ reports six-tenths per cent out of 7,478 pupils in St. Petersburg suffering from head ache. Among the children of Hamburg 32 per cent were found with un- healthy nervous systems. In Berlin 289 children committ suicide from school causes. ‘The Moderna School. President Hall sa; The modern school is now the most widely extended institution the world has ever seen, and it never was extending so fast as at present. North Af- rica,New Zealand, Egypt, Ireland and many till lately barbarous lands have developed elaborate school systems. The juvenile world now goes to school and has its brain titillated and tutored, and we have entirely forgotten that men have been not only good citizens, but great, who were in idyilic ignorance of even the invention of Cadmus. Now if this tremendous school engine, in which everybody believes with a catholic concensus of belief, perhaps never before attained, is in the least degree tending to deteriorate mankind physically, it is bad knowledge, which is bought at the expense of health, which is wholeness or a ea! itself, is not worth what it costs. conditions, all the highest joys of full maturity, internal prosperit not reverently ask: “What sh: a child if he gain the whole world of knowl- e and lose his health?” “The greatest wealth of a state is the poe- session of a strong and hardy people. It is not true that “money is the sinews of war” if the sinews of men’s arms are want- It is the highest and most solemn duty of a state to see that its youth be not rendered unfit for the full duties of man- hood, that health be subordinated to no other thing. Especially does this obtain in those institutions deriving their support from the commonwealth. JNO. C. WISE. —_ History Straightened Oat. From the Chicago Daily Tribune. “What name does the pale-face prisoner give?” sternly asked Powhatan, the war- like and powerful Indian chief. ‘He says,” replied one of the braves, re- ectfully saluting the ruler of the tribe, his name is John Smith.” “John Smith!"roared the infuriated chief- . “Does the pale-face chump think he cun keep his real name out of the papers by working the John Smith racket on me? Fetch him here! Tl John Stith him! Now brain him with the a rushing out of the family wigwam and saved the prisoner's ilfe by marrying him on the spot. She thought he was a Vere de Vere.