Evening Star Newspaper, April 20, 1895, Page 19

THH EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 1895-TWENTY PAGES. 19 more pain, than dyspepsia. ‘A CURE FOR DY THI 2 UE BE «woe I 3 slo aes 5493 £3) ait Of all diseases to which the human. frame is subject, none give more inconvenience, It prevents one from enjoying food, rendering it mecessary : actually to starve the body in order to get any relief at all. The symptoms of dyspepsia are usually distress after eating, often followed by mausea, loss of appetite, headache, pain in the side, constipation, dizziness, palpitation of the heart, &c. “burning sensation” at the pit of the stomach, and that full, bloated feeling after meals. If your dyspepsia is in its incipient stages several doses of ANS TABULIES Other symptoms are a will cure you.- But if it is chronic and very troublesome, you should take a regular systematic course of the tabules, one after each meal; or if these are too active, two a Read what a prominent Boston day. Ripans Tabules will cure where all else fails. physician says regarding his experience with Ripans Tabules: pleased with my experience with Ripans Tabules. “1 am indeed very much Il have a customer in Portland, laine, : to whom I gave a small vial to try. This customer had two physicians steadily for a long time treating his wife for dyspepsia, and the tabules were the only thing that did any good.” Ripans Tabules At All Druggists, 950 DR. DAM, Columbus Avenue, Boston, Mass. Nothing beats a trial, and Ripans is well worth a fair trial. Or by mail if the price (soc. box) is sent to the Ripans Chemical Co., 10 Spruce Street, New York. WHOLESALERS: F. A. Tschiffely, 475 Pa. Ave., Wash., D.C. E. S. Leadbeater & Sons, Alexandria, Va. Gents Box. .— SUPERSEDING STEAM Plans for the Future Development of H Electricity on Railroads. POTOMAC RIVER A POSSIBLE FACTOR How the Railroads Are Preparing to Fight the Trolley Octopus. CHANGES CONTEMPLATED Written Exclusively for The Evening Star. THE NE. OF brightest civil and electrical engineers in the employ of one of the big railroads enfering this city ui has been in Wash- smi ington for the past “Ss week or so. His + -\ business here and other matters per- taining to his voca- tion he chatted about in interesting fash- ion with a writer for The Star. « “For the lust few weeks I have been look- ing over the ground and sizing things up in a general way,” said the man of tripods and ohms, “in connection with the idea of equipping railroads with electricity, so that we can compete with the numerous trolley lines springing up all over the country. If the falls of the Potomac can be harnessed like the great Niagara, three-fourths of our difficulties will be overcome. In that case the proposed trolley road between this city and Baltimore will find us ready for them when their line is opened for travel. “All the roads of the country, but espe- cially the eastern lines, have decided that it isa fact and not a theory that con- fronts them, and that if they wish to hold their patronage and pay dividends they must fight the electrical octopus with elec- tricity. “There is no doubt but that electricity is cheaper than any other known motive power, and that with new developments its Cost will be still greatly reduced. You are, no doubt, perfectly familiar with the two railroads between here and Baltimore, and therefore I need not dwell upon the almost erfect roadbeds of the two corporations. n that they are ahead of the trolley roads, who will be handicapped with new founda- tions and close proximity to general thor- oughfares. To equip our road with the trolley system will be an easy matter, the buying of new cars being the chief cost; but as they can be purchased or built for about $500 each, this item is comparatively small. Using the Telegraph Poles. “On each side of our road from here to Baltimore there are two separate lines of telegraph poles, one belonging to the West- ern Union and the other to us. Brackets on top or underneath the wires thercon will suffice to carry a service trolley wire. On seven-eighths of the road they are set high enough to clear locomotives and cars. With the cars ready and the plant in work- ing order at the Potomac Falls, I'll guaran- tee to string the wires and make all the necessary connections in three weeks. Should the Potomac Falls project fail to materialize we will have to build power houses, but this is only the last resource. “Our idea then is to put on hourly serv- fice between Washington and Baltimore and let the locomotives continue with the through trains. With a guaranteed speed of fifty miles an hour this can easily be done, and I look for still greater speed. mit the through trains to make their usual fast time. “The public will undoubtedly be benefited, as about a cent a mile wil be the rate, or 75 cents for the round trip from Washing- ten to Baltimore. An experienced electric motor constructor assured me, after look- ing over our road, that the distance could be covered in an hour at the extreme out- side. “I know positively that the opposition railroad has taken the same steps we have in this matter, and that beth roads will be equipped with electricity for local travel before this year is out, provided our com- mon enemy opens up for business inside of that time. Some of the officers of our company have had an impression, changed to conviction recently, so that they now firmly believe that within the next five years we shall see many of the railroads of this country either adopting electricity or preparing to do so. Trolley Consolidations. “In the opinion of those who are watch- ing the development of the Niagara plant it will in the course of a few years furnish electricity enough to carry on all the traf- fic on the New York Central road. If Ni- agara Falls can do that I do not see why the Potomac Falls cannot be made to do the same. “Why, over in New Jersey during the past month there has been one great transaction resulting in the consolidation of trolley systems, 2nd it threatens dangerous com- petition for the local traffic on all the rail- roads in that state. It combines into one .system all of the electric roads stretching through that populous country which ex- tends for thirty miles north of Jersey City. Another consolidation is imminent which will bring into one system ail of the roads extending from Jersey City westerly through the large towns of Newark, Eliza- beth, the Oranges, and it is likely that this will by and by become a part of the sys- tem which is to be extended to Philadel- phia and practically paralleling the Penn- sylvania road through to Baltimore and this city. “This Summer we shall see the beginning of the work for a through trolley line from New York to Albany, which will run for the whole distance only a mile or two east of the New York Central tracks, and from Albany westward they are already con- templating the building and uniting of links which will furnish a trolley system from New York to Buffalo. Do you won- der the railroads are waking up? “Tt is in self-protection, as well as from motives of economy, that the managers of the steam railway lines which have ter- minals in the large eastern cities are now determined that during the coming summer thorough experiments shall be made to test the capacity 6f electricity to do the work which steam is now doing, and we have already started in working with all our might. Advantages of Electricity. “One thing I would like to call your at- tention to is the fact that in the last twO or three years the development and im- provement of electric motors and motor plants have had a very perceptible effect upon the comparison of cost and conven- fence as made by those who have studied the practical possibilities of electric trac- tion on steam roads. Two years ago the coal bill was considered to the exclusion of certain advantages on the side of elec- tricity which have since been more clearly disclosed. I have classed these advantages about as follows: The cost of repairs is less with motors than with steam loco- because the mechanism is far more simple. There are not so many mov- ing parts, and these are not so much ex- posed to the action of mud, sand and water. | ‘Three or four years ago, however, the cost of repairs in electric service was a for- midable item. More miles are run per day, or more hours of service are obtained per day, with electric motors than with. steam locomotives, so that the cost of labor per mile is less with the former, and the amount of work done with a given sum in- vested is larger. “Second. When electric motors of larger size and for higher speed than those now used are made to take the place of loco- motives, they will run about the same number of hours as the motors now in use, but will cover continuously from two and a half to three times the distance now covered by the locomotives. The locomo- tives must be run into the round house and thoroughly examined and cleaned up more frequently. The electric motors used ti The perfect roadbed and block system will insure safety, and the regular sidings per- move a train can be placed under one o! the cars. The weight of the train is thus reduced and less power is required for the moving of it. “Now take the situation over in the New England states. It is almost certain that the railroads over there will have to fight for their lives, so to speak, this summer against the trolley lines. This fact has im- pressed itself on the managers of the rail- roads whose tracks lie chiefly in the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massa- chusetts. It is in that neighborhood that the trolley lines have increased at a great- er ratio than in any other part of the coun- try. The electric lines have been run out in all directions from the principal cities of these states, in a majority of cases par- alleling steam railroads and largely reduc- ing their (raffic and receipts. Dwindling Railroad Receipts. “Thé greatest railroad in that section of the country has lessened its train service on some of its branch lines from this cause, and in its last annual report it said that it would be compelled to pursue the same plan wherever its revenue wage decreased by competition with the trolley. The re- ceipts between Boston and Malden on this railroad have fallen off 50 per cent on ac- count of cheap fares on the electric lines running between those places, and another steam line running to summer resorts in that vicinity has suffered the same pro- portion of loss in traffic. “Phe competition from electricity which the steam railroads will experience will for some time at least be on branch lines and in surburban traffic. The trolley lines pay nothing for their right of way, and, de- manding only comparatively a small invest- ment, and able to run their‘cars cheaply, can give a service much below the price at which steam lines can afford it. As an il- lustration of how cheaply passengers can be carried by the trolley lines; take ‘the case of the line running from Boston to Marblehead, a distance of twenty-one miles, the fare of which for the whole dis- tance is eighteen cents. Excursions from and around Boston, covering in the aggre- gate over sixty miles, can be made on trol- ley cars at a total cost of ninety cents, or at the rate of one and a half cents a mile. On a well-patronized route, doubtless, the fare could be placed as low as one cent a mile and still a good profit returned, as it has been demonstrated that the cost of the motive power for a trolley car is a fraction under three ceats a mile. Plans of the Railroads. “Notwithstanding this favorable show- ing by the trolley lines, you can rest as- sured that the railroads will not go out of business, but, to use a well-known expres- sion, are ‘laying low.’ They have one great advantage over their electric rivals, and that is the possession of a right of way and a laid track that is all their own. They are subject to few of the inconveniences that are inseparable from operating a railroad on a public highway or through the crowded streets of a city. This_will enable us to adopt the trolley on our roads, cognecting cities, and run trains ata higher rate of speed and with fewer obstructions than cars can be run on the ordinary trolley line. And, you know, speed and cheapness are the elements that will tell in the long run. “Between Philadelphia and New York we have four tracks, or more accurately speaking, Jersey City. If we equip two of these tracks with electricity and run cars zt the rate of a mile a minute, at a pas- senger rate of one cent a mile, we can laugh at the proposed competition of pro- jected rivals. The same situation applies to the roads running out of Washington. All the roads will have to adopt some such system, and when they do the present situation will be reversed in favor of the railroads. “Berore I came to Washington I went over the situation in New England and had quite a talk with the vice president of the biggest road over there. We had quite an interesting conversation, and he gave me figures from the actual business records of the accounting department of his company fer the past three months, showing the in- roads made upon their receipts by the trol- ley lines, and I must say they were eye openers for me. Influence on Wages. “Nineteen cases were quoted of stations between which there had been a falling off. Between the first two stations there had been a depreciation of fifty per cent of the evtire business; between the second two, eighty per cent of the business, and so on down the list in like ratio. That record is not by any means exceptional, and it shows the extraordinary strides which are now teing taken by the electric trolley service in country districts. “Whether the adoption of new motive power will affect the wages of the higher grade of railroad employes is a question that will develop in the next year or so. One extremely strong organization will be almost wiped out should electricity prove to be the future power for railroads. I re- fer to the firemen. The engineers will un- dcubtedly holf their own, as it takes a cool head and steady hand to pilot a train over the country at the rate of a mile a minute. The engineer's work will be sim- plified, but-his experience and nerve will be paid for at the old rates, as it would never do to place ordinary men in charge of a train. With additional train service the firemen would be promoted up to engineers, but it would take a doubling of the service to find places for all of them. _— HIS MOTHER .AS CAMILLE. Ex-Spenker Crisp’s Boyhood Recollec- tions of the Stage. Ex-Speaker Crisp’s family was of the stage. And, indeed, it was this profession of the theaters by his parents which fur- nished Sheffield, England, to the ex-Speak2r as a birthplace. Both Crisp’s father and mother were Americans born and bred. And it was while his father was fulfilling an English engagement that the leader of the Georgian democracy was born. Not only were Crisp’s father and mother stage folk, but his brothers as well. One of his brothers perished at the burning of the Brooklyn theater many years ago. He was playing at that theater at the time. Not long ago Rhea appeared in Washington in the role of Camille; Crisp, then Speaker of the House, was in attendance. In the in- terim between the second and third acts he turned to a gentleman who occupied a seat just behind him. “This is the first time I've been to theater for many months,” said Crisp. ‘It struck me all'at once that I'd like to see this play of Camille. I haven't seen Ca- mille since I was a mere boy, many years ago. On that occasion my mother played the part of Camille, while my father was Armand. And,” concluded the Speaker, while a smile settled about the corners of his kind, friendly eyes; “while I would not claim that my mother was the greatest Camille that ever lived,.I must say that the impression which still dwells with me is that she played it a great deal better than does this lady.” At this point the curtain went up and the Speaker settled back for the third act and the clustering memories it brought in its train. the — SECRETARY MORTON'S CREST. —1 Did He Inherit Lové of Trees From His Sco Antestors? One of the most-smphagized traits of the nature of Mr. Morton, pthe Secretary of Agriculture, is his lové« for trees. Mor- ton possesses for ‘4¢ees@lmost that sym- pathetic interest he has for a human being, and b2trayg all.,pf that admira- tion for a forest; which belongs with the Druids. Indéed, Morton might have made in his love’ for the oak a famous brother of that dim, far-off twilight priest- hood of the woodg,-{f herhad only lived in Druid days. It was Secretary Morton who, in 1872, became the sugestor and author of Arbor day; seftthg- #”tree-planting ex- ample, which has been followed far and wide, as a standing army of a million trees bear witness. They might all have decay- ed, or been eaten by a wormy death as acorns, save for Morton and his Arbor day. While the most obdurate and demo- cratic of Americans, Secretary Morton had adopted a coat of arms. Avoiding all terms of heraldic sort, this coat of arms is the picture of a wide-spreading oak in full green leaf; and beneath it for motto is written: “Plant trees.” “And do you know,” said Secretary Mor- ton, when speaking of this coat of arms the other day to a reporter of The Star, “I was not a little struck while journeying in Scotland last summer, when I learned that the crest of the Scotch house of Mor- ton was a tree. I began to wonder if after all my admiration for a tree was not in- herited from some forest-loving ancestor who lived and died in Scotland centuries ago.”” THE SALE OF SEEDS How the Agricultural Department Secured Some Evidence. TALK WITH THE OFFICIAL SEED BUYER Members of Congress Who Pre- ferred Ready Cash. OPERATIONS OF BROKERS Written for The Evening Star. HE MAN WHO CON- I ducted the investiga- tion, at the instance of Secretary Morton, of the sale by mem- bers of Congress of the seed quota, was Enos 8. Harnden, buyer of seeds for the Department of Agriculture. He caus- ed it to be known that he was desirous = of purchasing seeds on his own private account, if he could get them cheap from Congressmen. One broker whose ‘confi- dence was gained entertained an impres- sion that Mr. Harnden wished to use the seeds for political purposes, with a view to securing an election to Congress for him- self. The situation was certainly unique. ‘The seeds which Mr. Harnden had pur- chased for the government at market rates he subsequently bought again from mem- bers of the House at a small fraction of their actual cost. Notwithstanding the evi- dent profit in this enterprise, he let pass offers aggregating 100,000 packages. In truth, government seeds were found to be a drug on the market. Brokers had whole cellars full of them stored away in sacks. One of them offered Mr. Harnden 30,000 packages of last year’s seeds at an incredibly low figure, because they were somewhat damaged, mice having got into them. Another dealer was ready to sell three full quotas at $150 per quota—i. e., at the rate of one cent a package. But the tichest case was that of a Representative, whose name is withheld for the present by Secretary Morton. It will be made public soon, together with the rest of the data. The story, as told by Mr. Harnden, is as follows: ¥ “I was called up on the telephone by an official of the House. He said that he had heard that I was purchasing seeds. Would I like to buy a quota? I replied: ‘What is the price?’ The answer was $75. I said that I would close the bargain, but must know the Representative’s name, in order that I might make sure that the quota had not been drawn from the Department of Agriculture. The name being given, I sent over to the seed barn and found that the quota was there all right. Having ascer- tained this, I called up the official over the telephone and told him that I would take the seeds. I asked him to get the Representative to make out an order trans- ferring the quota direct to me. There was some demur at this, the official suggesting that it would be just as well that the order should assign the seeds to himself, and he could indorse it for me. But I insisted that the deal must be strictly ‘above ground and honorable,’ and that the order should be straight. So he sent the order in the form I requested, which was what I re- quired for evidence. I paid the $75 with a check to the order of the Representative, and I now have that check with his own indorsement in my possession. Thus the case is made complete. It is Wholly Mlegal. “Whereas there was plenty of evidence in a general way of the prevalence of this abuse, we desired to make out in complete shape a typical case in which a Represen- tative sold for money the seeds which were received by him from the government | tor free distribution. The law expressly | provides that the seeds shall be distributed Congressmen. Thus the transfer of seeds by one member to another is wholly illegal. Yet we have record of more than 100 trans- fers of this kind. One member wrote to the department the other day inclosing a paper which assigned to him the quota of | another member. We replied that the other member had no seeds to transfer, inas- much as he had already drawn them all out. Whereupon the applicant rejoined that he must have the seeds, inasmuch as he had already paid the other member for them. Where such transfers between Congressmen are made, it is not uncom- mon for the agricultural member to give public documents in exchange for the seeds of the city member. Yet the law allots the seeds to the district and not to “he man representing it. They belong to the people of the district and are not the per- sonal property of the Representative. “The other day,” continued Mr. Harn- den, “a well-informed person pointed out to me a handsome dwelling in the fashion- able part of Washington. He said: “The owner of that house bought it, paid for the lot on which it stands, and furnished it with money made by buying and selling Congressmen’s seeds and documents.’ Here are figures which show that in 1804 9,555,- 000 packages of seeds were purchased and put up by Uncle Sam for distribution by members’ of the House at a total expense of $127,708. In view of the practice pre- vailing, it is no wonder that government seeds are a drug in the market. I let pass offers that were made to me of 100,000 packages of this year’s seeds, merely be- cause the evidence relating to their sale by Representatives would not have been complete. These 100,000 packages were rep- resented by Representatives’ orders held by brokers, who offered to assign them to me. One member actually came to me to buy seeds. He was from a rural district and had not enough to go round among his constituents. He had received offers of quotas at $8 per 1,000, and desired to know if that was an excessive price. An Abundance of Cases. “The quota which I purchased for $75 was certainly a bargain. It consisted of 14,950 packages of vegetable seeds, 1,365 packages of flower seeds, and 82 packages of field seeds—corn, grass and clover. The total was 16,307 packages, which cost the gov- ernment $14 per 1,000. So you will see that Uncle Sam paid about $228 for what I got from the Representative for $75. “We could easily have worked up more cases if we had desired, but the sort of de- tective work involved was by no means agreeable. I had to make it my business to gain the confidence of the dealers, while a young friend of mine industriously spread a report to the effect that I was trying to purchase seeds in large quantities. One broker transacted business with me right here in my office in the Department of Agriculture. We were very secret about it, and 1 put on as much of an air of mf$s- tery as if I had not been acting throughout under the orders of Secretary Merton. This broker required references from me. He said that he had to be very careful, inas- much as he had got into a scrape last year through buying books from a Congress- man’s clerk. The clerk had forged the. Representative’s signature to an order for the documents, and the dealer was arrest- ed for selling the stolen goods. “The alleged reason for distributing seeds gratis among the farmers is that they may have an opportunity to obtain ney and fresh varieties, tending to the improvement o* agriculture. Of course, as a matter of fact, the whole business is for political purposes solely. Congressmen find it use- ful to throw sops in the shape of free seeds to their constituents. Hence the enormous annual appropriations for this purpose. The appropriation last year was $160,000. The truth is that the farmers have oppor- turity to get the best seeds of all sorts in the open market. Such seeds may be pur- chased in the stores of every city, town and village throughout the country. In fully four-fifths of the towns of a population of more than 200 there are merchants who make a specialty of garden and field seeds in bulk or in packages. There are, more- over, 152 seedsmen in the country who issue catalogues that are mailed to farmers and gardeners in all the states. Many of these ilustrated catalogues are filled with extra- ordinary descriptions of vegetable produc! and tell stories that would do credit among the constituents of the respective ts, to | Pall Barcn Munchausen, but they afford to the agriculturist an opportunity of ordering whatever seeds he may desire. All he has to do is to pay for them. Proposed Test of Seeds. “For a long time past the department has been used as a dumping grotind for seeds- men who had stocks of seeds which they were afraid to send to market gardeners or other good customers. The practice of the department until recently has been to divide up the appropriation among the scedsmen, who charged pretty much what they chose. Under the present administra- tion this matter has been reformed, and we purchase our seeds from the lowest bidders, requiring that they shall come up to a cer- tain standard, and be free from seeds of weeds and the larvae of injurious insects. “It would be an extremely useful thing to the farmers if Congress would appropriate $15,000 for the purpose of making tests of varieties of seeds and naming them, in or- der that the present confusion and multi- plication of alleged varieties might be done away with. The results obtained could be published in a series of farmers’ bulletins.” RENE BACHE. - = Unique Water Works. From the St. Louis Globe-Demociat. Every prairie dog town has its well, and every dog in town has the privilege of de- scending the winding passage to water as many times a day as he chooses. These wells are said to sometimes reach a depth of several hundred feet. I know of one which is eighty feet deep. A friend ot mine, whose ranch is surrounded by prairie dog holes, dug a well to bed rock, and, not striking much water, he ran a tunnel along bed rock for some distance, and dug into a hole which he followed for a few feet further and struck a plentiful supply of water. The dogs had done the same as himself—bored down and drifted until water was found. —_—_\-02—___ The Little Girl's Prayer. From the New York Times. A little girl in a Pennsylvania town, in saying her prayers the other night, was told to pray for her father and mother, who were both very ill, and for one of the serv- ants, who had lost her husband. She faith- fully did as she was told, and then, im- pressed with the dreary condition of things, added on her own account: “And now, oh God, take good care of Yourself, for if anything should happen to You we should all go to pieces. Amen.” This Docs Sometimes Happen. From the Philadelphia Record. - When Martin Dills, a farm hand, went into the mow to pitch down some hay re- cently he was scared nearly out of his wits, for as he thrust his fork deep into the hay he heard an unearthly groan from be- neath. He dropped his -fork and rushed out to his employer, Asa Robbins. The two returned to the mow and uncovered a wild- looking, very much frightened man, who begged for mercy and something to eat. The man could only say his name was Cal- lahan. After he was fed and warmed Rob- bins brought him to Flemington and Dr. Ewing said he was insane. “Where be’est thee gwine, Jarge?” ‘Baint gwine nowhere!” jut thee must be gwine somewhere!” law, Oi baint! Oi be coomin’ back!"— Mall Budget.