Evening Star Newspaper, December 14, 1895, Page 17

. THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1895-TWENTY-FOUR PAGES. VIEWS OF MR. GRAY He Does Not Believe Mr. Cleveland Desires Renomination. ———— ABCUT PRESIDENTIAL POSSIBILITIES os Blind Administration. € : Not a pokesman for the THE 1 INANCIAL QUESTION —_—_+ ENATOR GEORGE Gray of Delaware first attracted nation- al attention by break- ing the uninterrupted line of Bayar“is in the United States Senate. He succeeded Thos F. Bayard when the latter was made Se retary of State in Mr. Cleveland's first ad- ministration. There was still a Saulsbury in the Senate from : but four yeurs later the Ine of y was broken by the unexpected Delaware her first ‘Then there was neither y in the Senate, and the star t condition had not existed before for more ti 2 n half a century. y's conspicnous ability as a law- and an interpreter of the Constitution his services to the democratic party - brought him the opportunity to serve net of a President. But this did cur last summer when his name w ited so freely with the position made promotion to the D pariment of State. In spite of positive as- sertions at that time, Mr. Gray tells me the President made no proffer of a cabinet of- fice to him then. If he had done so, Mr. Gray would probably have declined the honor, as he had done before. He believes that a man who accepts a cabinet office should give his whole time to his public duties. This Mr. Gray cannot afford to do, for, while he is not a poor man, he las a large family, and he needs the income which his practice srings to him. Mr. Gray does not counsel any man who is ambitious to make his mark in the law r public life. He says the study of » problems under consideration in Con- $ will absorb almost all of the time which any one can command. His law office is one of the historic build- irgs ot Wilmington. It was formerly the Eayard residence, and here James Bayard died. His home is a delightful old colonial Senator Gray. @welling at sire the northern end of Merket t—a brisk ten minutes’ walk from his office. It fs In the old part of Wilmington, just a stone's throw from picturesque ‘old Brandywine.” An old-fashioned saloon par- lor, the full depth of the house, {s on the left of the broad hallway as you puss the latticed doors. The Senator's library is across the hall. It was in the reception room that I spent a very pleasant two hours with Mr. Gray not long 1g0, dis- cussing politics and politicians. Senator Gray's Opinion of the Presi- dent. Although Senator Gray has the reputation of being the “mouthpi of the ninis- tration” on the floor of the Senate, singu- larly enough he is not an mtimate of Mr. Cleveland. And he denies that he ‘s a blind spokesman for the administration, 1s some have charged. Any one who has watched the Senator's public career, or who has come in personal contact with him, does not need to be assured of his independence. “I have never supported anythinz unless I bel 1 it was right,” said the Senator. “A man's partisanship may influence his Judgment at times, but in public life E have advocated always what I believed in. T am not an intimat> of the President. fr fact, I probably see less of him + cratic Senator, except those who tre dis- tinctiy on bad te-ms with him "* ut you admire him,” T suggested. Very much,” said Mr. Gray. “I think he han any is a very remarkable man—a man of strong convictions and them, the courage ‘to siz port I must admire a man who has the ence and the courage to do what he ht—provided he has the intelli- stinguish the right from the jand is a man of remark- aracter, and one whose public career int a great deal to the people of the 1 States. And to the democratic party?" T asked. Md in his tariff message of ISS7,"" said ator. “That was a remarkable docu- and one wie h brought the divided 3 democratic part: toge: as nothing else probably couia heave done ympathized with that message, because It am a free trader in the same sense Janiel Webster was In 1824. But I ad- it most for the abundant courage of +n who wrote it. Probably up to that Mr. Cleveland had given little consid- eration to the question of tariff taxation. When, however, he did take it up, and the truth in regard to it dawned on him, it Wos like the light that broke on St. Paul on Bis way to Damascus. He could not. see anything else until ho had brought the mat. ter to the attention of Coagress and of the American people. Some, perhaps many, democrats had an idea then that the Pres ident had ruined the party. They were like @ lot of (frightened doves in a dove cote Yet that rm se really solidified the party as nothing else could have done.” The Tariff and the Silver Question. The Senator laughed at the si tion that the American people would ever go back to a high protective tariff, amd scoffed at the proposition that Asia would ruin the American people by doing the manufactur- ing for the world. ment, elements of the Suppose they do send a Manufactured goods here,” he sag, Cea? People must do something to earn Souls or they cannot buy them. Anc ; will find some Industry in which teas Never believe that the people of our blood ani race are going to be at a loss for oe. cupation. Lam not afraid of the competition of cieap labor. What difference did it make to the people of Delaware when Massachusetts began to manufacture shoes It meant simply that the people of Dela. 2 cheaply shod. Besides, it not the business of the government’ to furnish labor to men. he greatest mind in the history of the republic.” said - tion’ comple He retrac that speech in years, but It s today an unans and unanswerable arcument. The tions which govern international trade growing simpler and more uniform ry year. ‘The commercial world fs becoming 4 Boll larity. Trade between Belgium adhd the United arried on in much the erned by the s. princ and > ¥ a tions of the world are being simplific will ver return to the old tariff condi- tions. Mr. poke with some enthusiasm of Mr. a’s work for sound money. “The free silver heresy, said, and then he paused. “You are a sound money han, are you not?" he asked with rare con- @ideration for even the political feelings of another. “Well, I will call it the free silver heresy then. This heresy had obtained a strong hold on the democratic party. It Was necessary for the countr, welfare that the tide of free silver sentiment should be stemmed. If Mr. Harrison had been President of course he could not have done it, because he could have had no influence with the democratic party. Fortunately for the country Mr. Cleveland was in the White House. He is a little slow of thought, but when he gets an idea he gets a complete hold of it—or perhaps I should say it gets a complete hold of him. He comprehended the sliver situation, saw its necessities and acted promptly and effectively. With the aid of Mr. Carlisle he held back the demo- cratic party from the road it was threaten- ing to take. He gave it a chance to think. In this Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Carlisle did a fine thing for the country and a fine thing for the democratic party.” I asked the Senator if he believed the good accomplished was permanent. = "* he said, “because the revival of trade and the rise in prices has given the people a chance to see that cheap ver does not mean necessarily cheap agricultural products. To associate these two in the public mind has always been the effort of the silver propagandist.” Presidential Possibilities. I asked the Senator about the statement attributed to him favoring Mr Cleveland's renomination. “I was rather precipitated into that inter- view he said. “I had only returned from Europe a short time when a gentleman, whom I had known in Washington as a newspaper correspondent, called on me in New York and asked me what I thought of the democratic candidates. I named several of them whose views on public questions were in accord with mine, beginning with Mr. Cariisle, but I did not speak of Mr. Cleveland. Presently he said: ‘What do you think of Mr. Cleveland?’ and I replied that if Mr. Cleveland was a candidate he Was my choice all the time. But I have no idea (hat Mr, Cleveland will be a candidate. 1 have, of course, never spoken with him about the matter, but Iam quite sure that he is noi onty not a candidate, but that he uo inclination or desire to be. fhe interview, thou not submitted to » before publication, was, however, sub- y correct, except as to one personal about Whitney?” have always thought that Mr. Whit- all-round democracy and his spiendid administrat.on would make him a very strong candidate. “I have been informed recently that he has said he would not take the nomination if it was equivatent to an election. But I don’t know this. The truth is, I am not a very good hand at forecasting.” ‘Then the Senator wanted to know what the chances of the different republican can- didates were, and he seemed surprised to hear that Senator Allison was showing so much strength. “I thought when I went to Europe last summer,” he said, “that Harrison would probably be the republican candidate. The troubie with Allison has always been that “he is from a state which has been so strongly republican in presidential e<ections. I would like to see him nominated. He is a very able man. Tne great feature of Mr. Allis career is his cautious conserya- tism. You can never get a direct committal from him.” Revert! g to the republican presidential candidates, Mr. Gray said: “My ideal of a republican’ candidate, though, is Cushman K. Davis of Minnesota. He is an eminent- ly fair man, a scholar and a man of fine in- telligence. The telegram he sent to some strikers In his own state during the Chi- cago riots was characteristic. I don’t know, though, whether it would do him more harm or good if he were nominated. I was discussing the question recently with some one who expressed the opinion that it would cost him a great many votes, ¢: pecially in Iino! But I hope hi chance to make the race, and you may quote me as saying almost anything in his 2. Pione thing which T cannot bear Is what is known as ‘jingotsm,’”” said the Senator. “I believe that a man should not country publicly what he could not s himself with modesty and propriety. I think it in quite as bad taste for a man to to bully England on the floor of the it would be for me to go out into ard and bully my ne: shbor be- cause I was stronger than he. The jingo on the floor of the Senate al rubs me the wrong way.” Gossip About Men. The nam2 of Senator Hoar came up in the course of the conversation, and I quot- ed his retort In debate with Mr. Butler of South Carolina as an example of his ca- pacity for being Irritating. Some one, de- fending Mr. Butler from Mr. Hoar's charge that he was implicated in the Hamburg e, had said that in Mr. Builer’ veins flowed the best blood ef South Caro- lina. “I'm not talking about the blood in his veins; I'm talking of the blood on bis hends,” said Mr. Hoar, In his rasping way: and it took the earnest persuasion of Mi Butler's friends to prevent a personal en- counter. “Hoar is very bright and witty,” said Mr. Gray. “I recall a comment he made to me when Jones of Nevada was delivering one of his voluminous silver speeches. We were sitting opposite each other, Mr. Hoar and I, listening to the speech. Jones nad gone back to the ham and Isaac, ani was work! down through the ages, tracing the history of money. Presently he spoke of of shells as money. Mr. Hoar leane? over toward me. “That would be very rice," he sald. ‘One could order half A dozen raw and pay for them w shells.’ " Mr. Gray had spoken w ome entha- siasm of Mr. Carlisle as a presidential quantity. I asked if he believed the Scc- retary of the Treasury was fully qualified to fill the presidential chair. “God has given Mr. Carl he replied. * c ras su light, and he is incapable of sophistication. I have known him to stop im an argument a ‘ine mind,” because he detected a flaw in his own reasoning. I have admired Mr. Carlisle for many years. His views on the tariff and on finance have coincided with mine. splendid mi land's intelli fight against party Ny Ts ested that Mr. Carlisle in the White Hou would not have Mr. Cleveland's backbone, ard referred to nis speech on silver coinage in 18) “When that speech was made in the House,” sald Mr. Gray, “the question was between the compromise Bland-Allison bill and unlimited free cvinage, at the ratio of 16 to 1. Mr. Carlisle advocated and voted for the Allison bill and was aguinst free His al equipment and Mr. Cieve- ent ccurage have won the silver in the democratic coinage. He was for bimeta'!ism, and said many things in support of his position which he would not say now, Vv one who favored the Bland-Allison bill then believed that its passage would restore silver cullion to a purity with gold, and it took the experience of years to correct that notion. The issue had not then be: as it is drawn now, between the enemies of sound mon Mr. C mot considered the question as thorou then as he s since, and he frankly sai in his Louisville speech that ne Yad modi- fied many of the views he expressed then,”’ The Solution of the Money Question. Mr. Gray says he has no specitic solution of the financial difticulty to propose to Congress. “It will be solved,” he said, “when the government goes out ef the banking busi- ness, and when its abnormal and mischiev- ous relition to the supply of gold coin in the country ¢ when it no longer is obliged to maintain a pile of gold in the treasury, which it invites al the world to draw upon with the demand notes which itself furnishes them, and that continuous ly by obligation of law. The governmen must call the gold notes which M. Sherman and the republican party pr y from redeeming. ‘Ther the nece: for bond ase. The preser uation of ury Department is no more aptly ated than in the story of the man who the other day, brought his ship into New York harbor leaking badly, and who said he had pumped the Atlantic ocean through her three times on the way over. ay_is confident that both repub- and democrats will declare for sound in their naifonal conventions, and ulists, he thinks, will carry the tes. He dves not look for any tive relief from the flnancial tangle te me from this Congress. He believes both parties will “play polities’ dur- ing the greater part of the session, look- ing to political advantage in November, ISM. GEORGE GRANTHAM BAIN. , OR TUR) + requiring a stimulant with nourishing roving food, Hall's Vegetable 8 newer Is just the specific. CHAT WITH LANGLEY Discoveries as to the Sun and Aerial Navigation. YEARS OF STUDY AND OF WORK Results of the Invention of the Elec- tric Time Service. BIRDS IN FLIGHT (Copyrighted, 1895, by Frank G. Carpenter.) OR YEARS THE Rises of Mr. S. P. Langley, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- tion, have been watched with ab- sorbing interest by the scientists of the world. What Edison, Tesla and Bell are to applied science he is to pure science. He has created new methods in the study of the heavenly bodie: He has to the largest extent measured the heat of the sun, inventing for the purpose the bolometer, by means of which the temperature of a sunbeam car be tested to the millionth of a degree. He has given us our best idea of the wonderful spots on the sun's surface, and has best shown how this great bedy may practically affect the earth and eventually be better used to its advantage. It was Mr. Langley whe origi- nated the systematic time service by which the clocks of our cities are now regulated from the observatories of the country and by which the railroads still run their trains without danger of accidents through vary- ing time. It is he who has made some of Prof. Langley. the greatest advances in the study of the problems of the and of the physical principles upon which aerial navigation if It is ever realized must rest. The most of these experiments and «b- servations were made by Mr. Langley while he was the head of the observatory at Pittsburg, though he was then constantly supplementing them by others which he car- ried on at high altitudes all over the world. In the plains of Spain, on the edge of the crater of Mount Aetna, in Sicily, upon Pike's Peak, in Colorado, andvon the snowy summits of the Sierra Nevadas, in Califor- nia, he has been, not as a tourist for an hour, but spending long days and nights studying the heavens, catching the chang on ihe sun's surface, and trying their "practical applications for the use mankind. He is in a minor degree ¢ ing on observation xperiment to! n to learn of an though his time and energies are neces- sarily almost wholly devoted to the ad- ministration of the great institution of Which he is the head. A Chat With Secretary Langley. This man is now sixty-one years young. His life has been packed with the hardest of work, but his eye is bright, his step is firm, and he has today as much vitality as any of the younger officers of the in- stitution. He is, I believe, the busiest man in Washington, for he carries on his scien- tific experiments only in the intervals ‘of his administrative work, and it required a special appointment made some time In ad- vance for me to secure a chat with him. I found him a charming talker, full of good nature and overflowing with apt quo- tations and fun. There is nothing pedantic about him. He dropped for the time all technical language, and in every-day words, at my request, tried to convey to some idea of his wonderful work. 1 him a number of questions about himself. He did not like to answer these. He wanted to put himself in the back- nd, but I fet} that the people will be din his personalit and in the of how an ambitious boy “hitched his wagon to the stars’ and got there. Upon my asking him when he was first attracted to the study of the heavens, he replie “I cannot remember when I was not in- terested in astron . I remember read- ing books upon abject as early as at nine, and when I was quite a boy I learned how to inake little telescopes. and siudied the stars through them. Later F made some larger ones, and though they were, of course, nothing like those we use here, I think myself they were very good for a boy. of the most wonderful things to fhe was the sun, and as to how It heated the earth. I used to hold my hands up to it and wonder how the Ss made them warm, and where and how the heat came from. I asked many questions, but I could get no satisfactory replies, and some of these childish questions have occupled many years of my later life in the answering. I remémber, for instance, one of the won- ders to me was a common hotbed. I could not see how the glass kept it warm while all around was cold, and when I asked, I was told that of course the glass kept in the heat; but though my elders saw no di ticulty about it, I could not see why, if the heat went in through the glass, it could not come out again. I now know that the size of the rays changed after en- tering the glass, and that they could not come out because they grew larger, being in much the same condition as that of the lean mouse who crept through a hole in a barrel of grain, and filled himself so full he could not get cut again. Since then I have spent many years in studying the way that that greatshotbed, the eart! itself on which we live, Is, by a like prin- ciple, made warmer by the atmosphere that cevers it as the gl. did the hotbed.” “Was your father an astronomer, Mr. Langle! I asked. “No,” was the reply. “My father was a merchant, and I have no recor tronomers {n my family. My f: ~ pot rich enough to give me an income sufl cient to support myself and my hobby Astronomy, you know, is not a very profit: able science, and as I had to make a living for myself, I chose the pri fon of archi- tecture and civil engine but I_never heartily liked it. to ng, After some rope, and on my return ing a little money, I decided would take up as life to it. 1 vent to the Harv: ty at Cami work and cupying mi siduously already v the fact that althou, ience that only observatory work could ply, I still Knew enough to command a salaried position from the outset. I re- mained at Harvard for some time, and then was called to the Naval Academy at Annapolis to take charge of the obser- vatory there. My next position was as the diractor of the Allezheny Observatory near Pittsburg, where I spent a great part of my professional life before I came to Washington.” ‘It was at Pittsburg, then, that most of your experiments were carried on, was it vere rd Universi- idge and found a position for udy there. That I had been oc- f with astronomy pretty as- » I think, saown by I lacked the exper- "* replied Mr. Langley. “There was a quite large telescope for those days at Pittsburg. It had been bought by a club of amateur astronomers, partially for cash, but mostly on credit. After the first en- thusiasm passed away the debt remained and the club became disorganized, so that the telescope was about to be sold at auc- tion, when the Western University secured it. They invited me to take charge of the observatory, and I came to Pittsburg and began my work. The°first work, however, was to provide the indispensable apparatus for the observatory, which, except for the single telescope, wastoné/only-in name. I found, however, a total lack of money.” He Organizes the Time Service. The secretary continued: “My proposed investigations could ‘not ‘be made without books and instrument§, an@ these could not be got without funds. I then began to look around for something which I could do which would be commerdially profitable to the observatory, and- thé result was the inauguration of the ‘time service, which has since spread all over the country, and by which the clocks’$f 6ur railroads and our cities are now regulated from an ob- servatory at some céntraf point. It is fa- millar enough now, but'T had the hard work of first introdu¢ing ft and persuading people of its utility. I had to interest the city councils and the railroads in it, but I finally got an electric clock established at the observatory, and soon had the time of the city regulated by it. Before this each jeweler had his own time. Each of the railroads ran by different times, and there was no certainty as to the arrivals or de- partures of trains. Soon after I started it it was extended along the lines of the rail- ways until we were regulating clocks as far as Chicago and Philadelphia from Pittsburg. To do this we had to have the electric wires to ourselves, and it was so arranged that we were allowed to use them for five minutes at 9 o'clock in the morning and at 4 in the afternoon of every day. The system soon spread to other cities, and it is now in use all over the world. I did all this to me ungrateful work in order to get means for my experi- I look back on it, I think I t_I did tolerably’ well in a business way, for_a man chiefly versed In scientific affairs, for frst and last I thus atory over $60,100. ‘This I made out of nothing, as it were, and this all went into books and into the means for scientific research.” The Sun Often Behind Ime. “The observatory clock was regulated by the sun, was it not?” “Yes,” replied Mr. Langley. and the fixed stars. the sun alone, It is by no meanga regular “By the sun You cannot work by body, as many people suppose. You would not give anything for a watch which should be as irregular as the sun. ,The sun is sometimes fifteen minutes out of the way at noon, sometimes ahead and sometimes benind time, and it is only by averaging its irregularities that we know whcre to tind it.” “Your studies have been largely devoted to the sun, r. Langley. What is the sun, anyhow “That question is a good deal easier to ask than to answer,” was the reply. “I have spent years in watching It and trying to learn something about it. I have dis- covered some things, but I should have to know a great deal more before I could adequately answer that question. I spent three years in the study of the spots on the sun before I was ready to make any an- notncements concerning them, and during the waking hours of those three years the sun's face was almost constantly before me. Have you ever looked at it in a tele- scope? Do you appreciate what watching the sun is? In the first place, the face of the sun in a telescope is almost always quivering. Our atmosphere makes it seem to move to and fro in waves, and looking at it is like looking at a flickering candle, so that if its surface were ever so near it would be hard to make out the detail: I ‘t then it 1s, of course, really an enor- mvus way off, so that these details are also lost from its remoteness. “Can you ‘give me an ‘idea how far off it is?” } “IT have tried in one of my popular wri ings to do that By a borrowed illustration, replied Mr. Langley. \'For instance, you tovch your finger to @ d@&ndle, and in a fraction of a second your brain announces of. Langley's Bolometer. asured. Suppose you had an arm which would reach from the earth to the sun, and you could put the tips of your fingers on that glowing mass of fire. It would be a little mere than one hundred years (if you 11d live so long) before you could know that your fingers were being burned. Well, the rays of the sun have to come all that distance before they reach you, and the last miles of their journ 2 through waves of heated alr, which makes the sun scem to flicker so, while beyond and behind all this almost all its brightest surface is in real actual motion, shifting here and there with a velocity many hundred times that of a cannon ball. These real changes may last fora second ora minute, and spe- cial phenomena may occur in the twinkling In my studies of the sun spots I a paper and pencil before me as I looked through the telescope to record these changes as they went on, in order to catch their varying expressions on the sun's face. ‘I cannot describe to you the wonders which are going on there. I found, how- ever, that in order to do my work well, T must learn something more than the me- chanical drawing which was all T knew, and as these studies went on, I learned to draw and paint sufficiently well to make my records. Since then I have drawn hun- dreds of sun spots, and the works which I have published have been illustrated with my own drawings of them.” A Leok at a Sun Spot. At this point in the conversation Secre- tary Langley had one of these former draw- ings of a sun spot laid upon the table. It was, in fact, a beautiful painting about 14 inehes in size, of what seemed to be a snowy surface, with a iarge black area in the middle, crossed by strange lines of light, blending in fantastic outlines like the frost figures on a pane of glass. “That,” said he, “is a spot which T saw in 1873, It remained about twenty minutes in {, Drawn by Prof. Langley. the field of the telescope, and it looks just as I saw it. You notice all around it Is white. The sun does not look like a ball of fire when you see it in the telescope. It appears more frozen than hot. It looks much like the molten white fron in a eet ts puddling furnac You cannot see beauty in the drawing, nor can you app ciate its size. That spot which I have there drawn was so big that the earth could have n dropped into it without touching the ides. Each of those bright gossamer-like threads is about 6,000 miles long, and that spot covered more than a thousand million re miles of the sun’s face. It had an area of five times that of the whole surface of the earth. A little edge of it broke up and dissolved while I looked at it, which was bigger than the whole United States. It was all in motion, and its seething par- ticles were flying about at the raie of fifty miles a second along the rface, under which I could see probably some thousands of miles into the darkness below, up from which came volumes of intensely heated whirling vapor. “How could you look at the sun so long, Mr. Langley, without huriing your eyes?” “I could not have done it,” was the reply, the pain. T sensation has traveled alcng the nerve to the brain almost in- stantaneously, but the speed has been4 Why Not Try Paine’s Celery Compound? . The loss of @ single night's sleep tells in the drawn expression cn the face and the sluggish powers of the mind. When this unfortunate priva- tion continues night after night no one can shut his eyes to the disastrous outcome. Debility, neuralgia, headache, dyspepsia, melan- cholia and that dread paresis follow. Physicians know the peril of sleeplessness. In every case brough under their care narcotics are rigidly kept away, because momentary rellef leaves mutters worse in the end. A permanent cure that looks to a rapid .ourishment of the nervous sys- tem fs found in Patve’s celery compound. Nothing performs the needed service so surely and 80 rapidly. It Is the gr-atest nerve and brain restorative the world has ever known. The wonderful formula for Paine’s celery compound is no secret to the medical profession. It is not a patent medicine. Its abso- lute freedom from any deleterious substance is an assurea fact, vouched for by the ablest physicians in the country end by the eminent Prof. Edward BE. Phelps, M.D., LL.D., of Dartmouth College, who first prepared 1 Sufferers from neuralgia, neuralgic headaches and rheumatism should stop short their morphine, qui- nine and such pain-killing drugs. No cure can be hoped for from these tempormers. There is one way of getting rid forever of the causes of all this suffering; that is by taking Paline's celery com- pound. In this great modern remedy the real means to bealth is attended to; sleep is made sound and refreshing, the appetite improves and the nerves stop complaining, because they get the nutriment that mature reqaires. This is the funda- mental, rational wey that Paine’s celery compound takes to be able to cope successfully with diseases of the liver, kidneys and stomach and to guarantee a complete return of sound sleep, good digestion and 4 quiet, well-regulated nervous system. Paine’s celery compound permanently cures dis- pases of nervous origin. It makes the sick well again. “had I used nothing but my eyes. I ha: first to invent an instrument to take th: place of the incomplete means used by Si: William Herschel in order to see the sur by reflection. The rays come to the focu: of the telescope in blinding brightness, p ducing a heat sufficient to melt iron, but these rays have sides to them, and by mir- rors placed at different angles they can be so reflected that there is no more heat and light than I choose to have. I have gazed at the sun for five hours at a stretch with this instrument, and have felt no more fa- tieue than I would have felt from reading a book." ‘The Sun’s Enormous Heat Force. “How about the heat of the sun, Mr. Langley? Can you give me some idea of it? “Putting it briefly, it is enormous beyond conception, for there Is enough to warm two thousand million worlds like ours, and every minute there is enough of the sun's heat falling on the earth to raise to boiling thir- ty-seven thousand million tons of water. But this heat which falls on the earth is not a thousandth part of one per c@nt of what the sun sends elsewhere, and all the qbal beds of Pennsylvania, for instance, though they can supply the country for hundreds of years, would not keep up this heat during the one-thousandth part of a second. Now, When you think that these enormous figures are not exaggerations, but within the truth, you have to give up the idea of grasp- ing the amount of the sun's heat as incon- ceivable.” 4 “Will we ever be able to use this heat taechanicully 2" “That remains to be seen. The force 1s there The method of preserving and ap- plying it economically has yet to he in- vented. My experiments on Mt. Whitney, in the Sierra Nevadas, showed that If we cculd save it all and use it for our steam ergines it would give about a horse power for every square yard of ground. We hear a great deal about the immense power from the recent utilization of Niagara, but the sun power which is, so to speak, wasted duily on this little District of Columbia is hundreds and hundreds of times as great. The heat on the surface of the Island of Manhattan or that occupied by London could at noontide drive all the steam en- gines of the world. So far there have been no practical inventions for utilization of this enormous power. At the Paris exposi- tion o. IS78 there was a reflector which drove a steam engine which worked a printing press. Ei on made a solar en- gine which it was thought might be used in the pumping up of the waters on desert lands. The probability is that the day will ccome when we will use all this force. When 1: does the deserts of the world, with their enormous sun power, may become the great centers of manufacture and of civili- zation.” Aerial Navigation. I next asked Mr. Langley some questions as to aerial navigation. He was disinclined to ta’k about the subject, and he gave me to understand that the statements made by the press concerning him in this connec- tion had been made without his authority. It is well known, however, that in his pub- lished scientific writings on aerodynamics Mr. Langley has described his discovery of facts which greatly alter our former sup- pesed knowledge on this subject, and that though he has not there undertaken to de- scribe any flying machine, as he is popu- k supposed to have done, he has made ments which show that mechanical from impossible. Thus, by a jon and direction of the nd the speed, he has sustained solid plates upon the air with an incredibly small ¢ y of energy. He did this many years ago, and at Pittsburg he made thous- of experiments which show that there n shapes in which matter can be so that the more rapidly it moves through the air, in one sense, the less power it takes to move it, and that solid models ve can thus made to skim, as it were, along the air, as a skater skims along the surface of thin ice; the faster you go in either case, the le of falling down. As far as I could ju from my talk with him, his experiment show that the soaring birds have an intui- tive knowledge of certain properties of the air, which have been only recently develop- ed through these experiments, and that by these they air almost without effort in a w: h there Is no reason to think that it is impossible we can do, if not by our unaided strength, at any rate by means of such engines as are recently be- ing built. With regard to this he spoke of the fact that such birds even about Wash- ington ma} sing and falling, soar- ing up and ling down, and moving in circles without any flapping of their wings. The Miracles of the Birds. Said he: “Did you ever think what a sical miracle it {s for such a bird as one of our common turkey buzzards to fly in the way it does? You may see them any day along the Potomac, floating in the atr with hardly the movement of a feather. These birds weigh from five to ten pounds; they are far heavier than the air which they isplace; they are absolutely heavier than so many flatirons. I suppose if men saw cannon balls floating through the air like soap bubbles they would lock on it as sur- prising, if not as a miracle. The only rea- son that we are not surprised at the soar- ing bitd is that we have seen it from our childkood. Perhaps if we had seen canron balls floating in the air from our childhood we should not stop to inquire how they did it any more than we do how the buzzards do it. Iam speaking now, of course, not of birds which fly by flapping their wings, but of those which fly without flapping their wings, or very rarely, and with almost no visible expenditure of force. He Tells of His Discoveries. “There is a good deal of misapprehension about my own investigations in this re- spect,” Secretary Langley went on, “but what I have at least demonstrated is that heavy machines, not balloons, can be made which wi!l produce enough mechanical power to support themselves in the air. and to fly, though this is not saying that we have yet got the skill to manage this power so as to rise, advance and descend safely. What is actually demonstrated rests on actual ex- periments, repeated hundreds of times in the laboratory, but under conditions not so easily repeated in the open air. “These experiments are in the nature of an engineer's measurements, giving things In pounds, feet and horse power, and by tsam I have shown that an expenditure of one horse power (if we can only regulate It so as to make the flight horizontal) will sup- port about 200 pounds, and at the same time carry it at the rate of fifty miles an hour through the air. “Now, there have recently been bullt steam engines which, with fuel and water for a short flight, will give a good deal more than a norse power and weigh a good deal less than twenty pounds, so that we have a very large margin. The Control and Direction of Flying Machines, “What I am trying to do is to establish by direct experiment the underiying principles of this future art or science, and, having found the exact amount of force required, if possible, to learn next how it is to be ex- erted, directed and controlled. “T know it 1s dangerous for any one to make any statement except In positive facts and figures about such matters. The people have, ever since the days of Darius Green and his flying machine, until very lately, put such a one down as a visionary, without investigation of what he has to of- fer. As for me, I have never said that man could fly by his own strength, nor have I ever published the details of any flying machine, but what I have not only dis- covered, but demonstrated by actual ex- periment, Is, that there is no doubt that machines can be made powerful enough to Stpport bod-es in the air which are thous- s of times heavier than the air itself. Feujle who ask, if this is so, why such ma- chines are not made at once to actually fly with the human freight, since we have now got mechanical power, may be re- minded that though they themselves have got plenty of strength to ride a bicycle or to skate, this, though essential, is not enough tll they have added the special s danger there being skill and experience to use it, just as every man’s legs are strong enough to ride a bi- cycle while yet most of us cannot do so without much painful experience In learn- ing how to use and manipulate our strength, as many nowadays nnd out. So t is with artificial flight. We have got the mechanical power now, but we have still got to acquire the skill to use it in this new field.” “But will that day ever come, Mr, Lang- ley?" I asked. ‘As to that,” replied Secretary Langley, re ve so far spokea only of what I have ascertained to be fact, ana I want to dis- tinguish between ‘what is fact and what Is only my opinion. Expressing only my per- sonal opinion, thea, Tam willing to answer that I believe it altogether probable that in the not yery distant future, but how far distant I do not pretend to say, flying ma- eb eg, that is, not tatloon: heavy con- structions actuated by ma will be propelled very rapiely through the air, prob- ably at first rarely and at great risk in fur- therance of the arts of war; later in intro- ducing a great change in all human affairs In the arts of peace.” FRANK G. CARPENTER. —_—->___ IN THE CHURCHES The congregation cf the North Presby- terian Church celebrated on Tuesday even- ing of last week the thirtieth anniversary of the dedication of their church building for religious worship. At the same time they also celebrated the twentieth anniver- sary of the installation of their present pastor. Rev. Charles B. Ramsdell, D. D. The occasion was one of unusual interest, many of those who were connected with the congregation in former years being present. Addresses of congratulation were delivered by Revs. W. C. Alexander, D. D.; Joseph T. Kelly, J. G. Butler, D. D.; G. B. Patch, D. D.; Adolos Allen and Rev. Drs. Byron Sunderland and F. D. Power. A delightful musical program was rendered, there being solos by Mrs. Carr'e Kidwell Stewart and others. Rev. Dr. Hamlin and Rev. Mr. Smith wage present during the evening, and letters were -received from Rev. W. H. Roberts, D. D., stated clerk of the general assembly of the Presby- terian Church, who was one of the original members, also from Rev. Dr. Wallace itad. cliffe, from whose church, the New York Avenue, the colony of twenty-three mem- bers went in 1865 to establish the North Chureh, and also from Revs. B. F. Bittin- ger, Luccock, Muir, Verbrycke and Ennis. In_a week or so Rey. Isaac W. Canter, D. D., pastor of Mt. Vernon M BE. Church, is to begin a series of sermons at the morning services on the Lord's Prayer. The topics are as follows: “The Fatherhood of God,” “Haliowing God's Name,” Kingdom Come,” “Dving God's Will, Daily Bread,’ ‘Forg.ving Our Debtors,” “Deliverance From Temptation.” The Metropclitan Presbyterian Church recently re-elected officers for the church year as follows: Elders, Robert L. Ewing and John R. Zimmerman, re-elected, and Dr. John E. Carpenter and Philip H. Boh- electec Ph . F. J. Wood- n and W. E. Wilson, re-elected, and W. K, Ferris and A. Trow, newly elected. The first of the year the District Epworth I ue is to get out its first annual. This will be in the shape of a forty-page bound pamphlet, appropriately illustrated and containing information about the constitu- distri ganization. ‘The Brotherhood of St. Andrew Chapter of Trinity Church has arranged for ser- mons to be delivered every third Sunday evening in the month on topics appropriate to the brotherhood. Several of the best- known local Episcopalian divines, as well as some from abroad, are in the course. Rev. Richard Lewis Howell will preach to- morrow evening. Rev. Father Mackin of St. Paul's Catho- lic Church was receatly in New York, where he purchased statues for the Church of the Blessed Virgin and of the Sacred Heart, both of which are gifts from members of the congregation. Other mem- bers of the parish recently presented two memorials for the sanctuary, bringing the number up to the requisite eight. The ide pillars near the main altar are also shortly to be adorned by adoring an- gels, recently purchased. The Lutheran Ministers’ Association met Monday at St Paul's Church for the first time this year. This first meeting was given up to informal discussion, principally on the condition of Lutheran churches of the city. The annual electicn of officers of the sodality of St. Joseph’s Church, which recently took place, resulted as follow President, Miss Mary Miss Joe Curtin; Mi: Nellie McLaughli Mollie Sullivan; treasurer, Johnson. Rev, Father John J. Murray, pastor of the Sparrow's Point Church, in the suburbs of Baltimore, delivered’ an address to the sodality Wednesday. It is nearly settled that the Trinity Ger- man Lutheran Church will not get Rev. Mr. Sennie of Buffalo, to whom three calls have been sent, to accept the pastorate made vacant by the resignation of Rev. W. C. H. Luebkert. In order that Mr. Sennie should be fully informed as to how the church stands in this city, a committee of three members of Trinity’s congrega- tion, Messrs. Graff, Emmert and Reisinger, left last Saturday for Buffalo, but returned without having attained their object, the Buffalo congregation absolutely refusing to allow their pastor to go. It is probable that a cali will be made to some other minister in a few days, but in the mean- time Mr. Sennie may after all send on his accepiance, as he is very anxious to come to Washington. Notice has just been received at the American University office of a gift of real estate from a resident of Fall River, Mass. ‘The real estate is located in Findlay, Ohio, and, while just at present depressed in value, in common with all other property, a conservative estimate places its value at about $10,000, The best advantage of the donation is, however, that it is a rent- paying business block, unimcumbered. The board of managers of the Presby- terian Alliance at {ts last meeting, held last week, decided to postpone the annual mecting of the alliance from the 10th of December until next week. A committee was appointed to prepare the annual re- port, to be presented at the meeting, which will take place in the Metropolitan Pres- byterian Church. The president, John W. Foster, will preside, and the address is to be delivered by Rev. Wallace Radcliffe, BD D: Mt. Vernon M. E. South Sunday school has purchased a new library. Five nun- dred and fifty volumes were secured, and these, together with those already in the building, will put the school In possession of quite'a large collection of books. St. Patrick's Church is making prepara- tions to celebrate the evening of the last day of the old year in a very imposing manner. Cardinal Satolll is to conduct the pontifical vespers and Bishop Keane de- liver the sermon. The choir, under Sig. Maina, supported by an orchestra, is to ender specially prepared music, and the ntire interior of the church is to be bril- ntly illuminated. The l@ies of the par- ish have reorganized for charitable pur- poses, with the following officers: Director, Rev. Father Gloyd; president, Mrs. Francis Becker; vice president, Mrs. Frances Hill; treasurer, Miss Maria Harbaugh: corre- sponding secretary, Mrs. Mary L. Stephen; recording secretary, Mrs. Hoiflizer. It has been decided to hold the installa- tion of officers of the District. Epworth League at Hamline Church on the 8th of January. A committee composed of three members of Hamline Chapter, Messrs. E. W. Williams and M. A. Watson and Miss Ida O'Neill, and of the District organiza- tion, Messrs. Frank ‘T. Israel and W. T. Palmer and Miss Fannie A. Meeks, has been appointed to arrange for the cele- bration. Word has been received from Maj. Geo. A. Hilton, who is at Los Angeles, Cal., stat- d the officials of the general or- tion of the league, its officers, chapter and | ing that he is arranging for a convention of the NationajyGospel Mission Union to be held about the middie of February. The convertion is to be patterned after the one recently held in this city, and is for the purpose of arousing an interest in rescue mission work on the Pacific coast. The Gos- pel Union at Los Angeles is auxiliary to the national body. Friday evening the Presbyterian Chris- tian Endeavor Missionary Union held a meeting at the Metropolitan Church on Capitol Hill, at which President Howard Wilbur Ennis presided. The feature of the evening was addresses on the life and cus- toms of India by Rev. Madhavaray Nikambe and his wife, both being attired in native costume. On Christmas morning at St. Aloysius Church there will be solemn high mass, at which Cardinal Satolli_ will pontificate. Prcfessor Fanciulli, leader of the Marine Band, has composed a special mass, which will be sung by a choir of fifty voices, sup- ported by the band. ‘Tomorrow is to be observed as Epworth Herald day in the Methodist churches. The Herald is the official organ of the league. The Congregaticral Club is to celebrate Forefathers' day with a New England din- ner next Friday. The dinner is to be served at 6 p.m. in the lecture room of the First Congregational Church, and there are to be a number of especially invited guests, among whom will be President B. L. Whit- man of Columbian University and Represen- tative Andrews. The “Eugene Rhodes memorial room’ at the Homeopathic Hospital has been com- pletely fitted up by the Christian Endeavor Society of the First Presbyterian Church and is now ready for use. ‘The local Presbyterian churches are to unite in a week of prayer at the New York Avenue Church from January 5 to 12, in- clusive. The services are to be held from 4:15 In the afternoon until 5 o'ciock, and a committee composed of Rev. Drs.’ Rams- deil, Radcliffe and Luccock are making the arrangements. ,fhe Ladies’ Missionary Society of the First Congregational Church are preparing to send a barrel of supplies to Kev. Mr. Pease of Hay Springs, Neb., as a Christ- mus present. ,the Donation Club of St. Augustine’ Church has presented the altar boys with rew Cassocks and surplices to be worn on festive occasions. A sewing circle was also recently organized in the parish to make up articles of clothing for the benelit of the poor. The social committee of the Christian En- deavor Society of Mt. Vernon Church gave a social last evening in the lecture room of the church. Marvin M. E. Church, Rey. William A. Hammond, pastor, has concluded a series of religious services, which continued for near- oe month. ‘ommittees for the new year of th Christian Endeavor A one rounced as follows: Misses Randolph, Fester and Weightmai tally committee, Misses Stowell, Dodge, Pe- ters, Wells and Wilson, and auditing com- mittee, Messrs. Cockerille and Bohrer. The historical aduress on the foundation of Presbyterianism delivered by Rev. B. F. Bittinger at the centennial celebration of the First Church by request of the Pastors’ Association is to be printed and bound in pamphlet form. The first Sabbath of the new year all of the Presbyterian churches will unite in a joint communion service in the Church of the Covenant at 4 o'clock. Tomorrow all > Presbyterian divines, according to the action taken et a meeting of the Washin, ton presbytery held last week, will preac on the propersobservance of the Sabbath, President William Burdette Mathew the Epworth League hag appointed a F | committee for the distribution of the ne of the league to the newspapers. It is com- posed of the two secretaries, Messrs. F) T. Israel and George 8. Gibson, au M. Lacey Sites. The Mission of the Good Shepherd, a mis- sion of St. Mark's P. E. Church, on H street tortheast, has sent word to the local coun- cil of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew that a chapter is to be organized there. Rev. Father Douvherty, pastor of St. Stephen's Catholic Church, gives out that the net result of the recent fair is $4,300, reariy enough to pay for the entire improve- ments recently made. The friends of Dr. and Mrs. Harding will be glad to know that their boy Alfred has sefely passed through the trying ordeal of scarlet fever, which for nearly two months s shadowed their household. The house bas been thoroughly fumigated by the ae of health. Alfred is out of quaran- ne. At a meeting of the Christian Endeavor Society of the Central Presbyterian Church held during this week, the resignation of the president, J. K. Hill, on account of his continued absence from the city, was ac- cepted, and Selden M. Ely was elected to fill the vacane; ty pulpits the subject of Sunday be discussed tomorrow. Friday and Saturday next, at the three seminaries of this archdiocese of the Catholic Church, St. Mary’s, Balti- more; St. Clement's, Uchester, and Wood- sipck, Howard county, Md., Cardinal Gib- bdns will confer the rite of ordination upon large classes of candidates who are now undergoing preparation hy a spiritual re- treat of six days for the reception of the sacrament. Among these candidates for the mirfor and the major orders of priest- hood are Jesuits, Redemptorists and secu lar students affiliated with the collezes, ordinations of the Redemptorists at St Clement's, Ichester, having been purposely deferred from last June on account of tha cardinal’s absence at Rome. The late pro- vincial of the Redemptorists in the eastern province, Rev. Elias Frederick Schauer, C. S.S. R., has now control of the Hchester Seminary, and Rey. Ferdinand Lit, C. S.S. R., has succeeded him as head of the community, with residence at St. Alphon- sus’ rectory. Baltimore. The national mass meeting of the Sun- day League of America will be held to- morrow evening in the Metropolitan M. E. Church. Senator John Sherman has been invited to preside. There will be prominent speakers. Archbishop Gross of Portland, Ore., ar- rived in the city on Friday evening and the guest of Rev. Jas. F. Mackin of St. Paul's Church. His brother, Very Re Mark S. Grosssis one of the assistant pas- tors of St. Paul’s. The archbishop will preach at St. Paul's while here. Last February a Woman's National Sab- bath Alliance was organized in New York city, having for its aim the preservation of eur American Sabbath. The ladies who or- ganized this society were such well-known women as Mrs. Darwin R. James of Brook- lyn, Mrs. Bottorne, Mrs Bishop Newman, . Margaret Langster, Mary Lowe Dick- nSon, Mrs. Howard Duffield, Mrs. Cliaton B, Fiske, and many others, They feit that women are the national -conservers of the Sabbath, and can largely ferm public opinion concerning it, and can tirely make its social customs. They have the training of the children, and what they really believe and pract.ce will largely govern the future observance of it. In view of these facts the alliance was formed. Its objects are: First. To arouse the women of America to a realization of the existing pertis hich threaten the Christian Sabbath, or the Lord's da: Se cud. To enlist all women in definite efforts to counteract the perils, especially in the home and in social life. After the formation of this society, it was thought wise and best to make some such effort in Washington to arouse the common interest of the ladies of Washing- ton, and with this In view, Mrs. Darwin R. James will come to Washington on Moada; She wil have with her Miss Matilda Kaye, secretary of the alliance; Mrs. Dr. Knowles, and probably Mrs. Margaret E. Langster, the authoress, and others A large meeting for ladies has been arranged for, to be held on Tuesday at 10:45 a.m. in the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. A commit- tee of ladies representing all denominations is in charge of the arrangements. A purlor meeting in the interest of Sab- bath observarce will be held in the rooms of Miss Morton on Wednesday morning. Mrs. Hoke Smith was to have had the gath- ering in her parlors, but the sudden death of her brother-in-law prevented. Mrs. James and other ladies who will be in the city will address the meeting.