Evening Star Newspaper, August 15, 1896, Page 21

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1896-TWENTY-FOUR PAGES, HOUSE OF MILLIONAIRE STRATTON, WITH INDEPENDENCE MINE IN THE BACKGROUND. BIG MONEY IN MINES Fortunes Dug From the Earth by Poor Men. CRIPPLE CREER’S STRANGE ROMANCES ae How a Carpenter, a Plumber and a Teamster Became Rich. TALES OF MILLIONAIRES (Copyrizhted, 1896, by Frank G. Carpenter.) CRIPPLE CREEK, August 10, 1896. Thousands fail in mining. Hundreds make a living. Tens amass a competency, but it is only now and then one who by a lucky stroke of the pick, finds an enor- mous fortune and keeps it. David Moffat, the mining king, says the failures are not so great as In other businesses. It is certain that the successes are more phenomenal. I write today not of the failures, but of the Suceesses, the millionaires of Cripple Creek. Out of this gold camp, within five years, has come $13,000,000. The gold dug out last year was worth $8,000,000, and this year the output promises to be fully as large. The stories I hear of gold dug out and rold in sight make my avaricious mouth water, ard, lixe the hungry, ragged newsboy on the street outside the confectionery store, I press my nose against the glass and long for the riches within. Stratton, the Mining King. * Take, for instance, W. S. Stratton, who owns the great Independence mine, which has been turning out nearly $2,000 a day for the year, and in which it is estimated there are from four to seven million dol- Jars of gold in sight. How would you like to own that? It would be enough for your- self and your family for ages to come. It is one of the richest gold mines of the j world, and the man who owns it was work- ing five years ago at a carpenter's bench. Up to that time he would have been glad, T venti to have netted from the work of Fis hards 3+) a month. His mine last it is said, Juced &KW0.0W0, at a cos W. S. Stratton. about 10 cents on the dollar, an4 the ore is so rich that he has to keep back his orkmen for fear that he will not be able to invest the money which he receives from the gold which they get eut. So far he has spent his surplus in buying other mines, and he has today properties which I am told, make him the largest individual owner of mines in the world. f doubt whether he knows himself what he is worth. I} know that no one can figure upon his i Détit T am told thet Marshall Fie other Chicago capitalists offered him $7,- 00.000 for his Independence mine alone, and long ago he refused an offer of $3.000,- 00 for it. He does not like to talk about it. a I doubt whether an offer of $10,000,- 6 would tempt him. He says that the gold is in the mine and can’t run away. It is safer there than In the safe deposit, the best bank for him is Old Mother arth. c How Stratton Struck It. f ill I would not like to be Winfield | Scott Stratton. I would not exchange | places wit: him for all his millions. This thought ne forcibly upon me as I sat | with him in his little office over a bicycle store in Colorado Springs the other day | and watched him closely as I listened to! him. He is only forty-eight years of age, } but he looks to be more than sixty. His hair is as white as the driven snow, and his naturally dark complexion has’ been changed to a mahogany brown by the hardships of his laborious career and the @uxiety of his hunt for gold. He is nerv- Ous in the extreme, and he has, I believe, 1 Ue capacity for happiness. The story of his lite is < who has devoted And himself to finding a e. and who after enty years of failure has at last s edad. He has ‘eede by 1 k more than by any sp 3 though he ts a man of good common s . I judge you might find ninety men quite as good out of any one hundred carpente! that you could slect. Born in v leorned the carpenter's trade, he out to Colorado ng about tw ut once to p 1 at his trade ney necessary ntains in t mer, and day af- | and year after year he climbed the rocks and wendered over the hills looking | for mines. At one time he had saved three | s a} | drift ars of age. for gold. the win th d ars. He ir nd lost ft. He is nts and of little He failed again and again, ISM1 he was worth practically noth- | He had at this time a house in Colo- | which was mortgaged, and mine inte until ing. rado Springs. it was in May of that year that he, ren- dered almost desperate by failures, went to prospect about Cripple Creek. He realized that there was some gold in the boulders or float which lay up- on the grazing lands of this region, but up to this time no one had considered the rock to be worth much. As Stratton walked over the fields he no- | ticed one stone, the corner of which some | his repeated | for: prospector had chipped off. He icked up the broken piece and sent it to jenver to be assayed. It yielded over $300 to the ton. T! Was a surprise to Stratto: He at once gathered a wagon load of oth stones lying about the place and sent these to the assayer’s. They told him that the last was worth only $10 a ton. This, how- ever. showed Stratton that there was gold there, and he staked out a claim about the big boulder, and went to work. It was the Fourth of July when he began to mine, and he named his property “The Independence,” in honer of the day. He found gold almost from the grass roots. The ore grew richer as he dug down, and, after a short time, he found poci $ and fissures filled with gold. The gold did not run regularly. Sometimes there would be a pocket as big as the aver- age parlor, and sometimes ‘the rogk con- taini the rich ore would extend only to the size of a tumbler. He sunk his shaft, lowever, and ran out laterals from two to three hundred feet on either side. He soon tegan to find gold everywhere. Even the rocks lying on the surface of the ground | some netted him a fortune. There were some great boulders near his shaft. He had these broken up with dynamite, and from them alone he got $60,000. It was not, how- ever, all clear sailing. At one time the gold seemed +o have played out, and he offered to sell the mine for $130,000. His offer was refused, and within a few days after this he made another rich strike, and for twe! ty-five days he took out about $1,000 a day. At present he has gone between six and seven hundred feet down into the earth, and there fs no doubt whatever but that there are millions of dollars’ worth of gold between the levels which have been already mined. The mine seems to be growing rich- er as it goes downward, and his refusal to sell it for $7,000,000 was in the minds of many here a good business decision. The Habits of = Millionatre. A man whose income has b2en about $3 a day finds it hard to jump at once to the spending of from two to three thusand dollars a day. Mr. Stratton at present fs not attempting to live up to his income. ‘The little yellow cottage in which he lives tn Colorado Springs, did not, I venture, cost more than $,500, and the servant girl, Jobn Harnan of the Portland. Eben Smith, Dave Moffat’s Partner. who, with her sleeves rolled up, came to the door when I called, looked as though she might find it hard anywhere to get more than $10 a month. Just below his mine Stratton has another house. It has only five rooms, and {ft cost In the neigh- borhood of a thousand dollars. that he I am told is building a house at Colorado which will cost him something 0). His offices are of the most un- pretentious nature, and he secludes himself in order to keep off the beggars. For some weeks he had to have a _police- man about his home at Cripple Creek to keep the crowd away from him aud his private secretary tells me that he receives about two hundred begging let- ters a day. He is not a mean man, but he has no idea of the possibilities nor the pleasire of giving. His charities so far have been purely individual, and In most cases to his friends. Not long ago his driver saved his life and that of his s ter by keeping the horses { ing an attempted runaway. At the end of the drive Stratton gave the man a check for $1,000. He has given his wife, ho ts separated from him, $50,000, and I am told that he frequently hands checks to his sister, who lives with him. id to be very sensitive as to being for money, and a friend of his tells me that his sister never says a word about wanting a dollar. I have heard it sug- gested that if she did so It would not be forthcoming. She just waits and he gives her a check fot one, two or five hundred dollars as the spirit moves him. How Three Poor Men Made Millions. Stratton received more than $12,000 last year in dividends from his stock in the Portland gold mine. This mine. lies just lack of the Independence, and its enormous frame buildings can be seen for miles about Cripple Creek. Its chief owners are three men, who were almost down on their up- pers five y '$ ago, but who, through it, ere now enormously wealthy. Their mine produced last year more than $2,000,000 worth of gold, and {ts president, James F. Burns, says that if it were worked to its full capacity it could turn out more than $10,000,000 this year. At the time Stratton €iscovered the Independence mine Burns was working at his trade as a plumber. One of his partners, James Doyle, was then sawing and planing as a carpenter, and the third partner, John Harnan, was’ working on the road in Colorado Springs, holding a scraper for 15 cents an hour. It was Har- han who discovered the mine. His claim at the start was not bigger than the average city lot, but the property surrounding it, yrich has since been purchased by these men, now embraces about 150 acres. nan had been working for some time on ittle city lot claim, while Burns and Doyle had staked out a claim a little fur- ther up the mountain. Their claim was rather close to the Independence. They had worked at it for some time and yet dis- covered nothing. Harnan had been doing prospecting for Stratton. He had een down in the Independence mine, and ke knew its wonderful riches. He thought that Burns and Doyle had a good thing, and he asked them how much they would give him if he would take the claim and w that it was worth something. Py d they would give him a third interest. He at once went to work and soon struck “pay rock,” which was wonderfully talua- We. For some time they tried to keep the ct_a secret, for they knew that if Dave Moffat and the other capitalists who were workings about them should learn of the n the road dur- Jus. Doyle of the Portland. Jas. F. Barns of the Portland. yalue of the property they wopld buy all the claims about it. So they got their ore out in secret and carried it down from the mine at night In sacks oa thetr bac! As the ore got richer the sacks were ni large enough to carry all they wanted | So one night they took a wagon up to the mine and prepared to haul it away by th wagon load. They overloaded their wagon, however, and it broke down just as they were about to leave the mine. The next day the ore was found on the side of the hill with the broken wagon near it. This showed the value of the mine and from that time on they hauled their ore out. They had, however, to fight for their rights. Other miners tried to jump their claim and Burns took a shotgun and drove them out at the point of it. They had for- ty-sever lawsults about their title, but their ore was so valuable that they were able to pay for the best legal talent and id their own. They got Stratton to go in with them and they added the Anna Lee and other mines to thelr property until it is now one of the most valuable in the world. President Burns estimates that their average output is worth $70 a ton and he says that there is ore streak of ore in the mine that Is worth about $38,000 a ton, the rock running 19 ounces of gold to the ton. At the selling value of the Portland stock, the property is worth between $4,- 900,000 and $5,000,000 and I venture you could not buy it for $6,000,000. They paid last year more than 9480,000 in dividends and until last year they were paying 3 cents a“share in dividends every month. They have given a pledge to their stock- holders that they will pay 36 per cent in dividends this year and they claim that they have not begun to get near the end of their wonderful gold treasure. The mine has now, it is said, five miles of workings and its machinery is some of the finest known. The Doctor Mine. Many of the best mines here have no stock on the market. The oldest miners of Colorado say that Cripple Creek will last for fifty years, and all kinds of fabulous estimates are made as to the amount of gold which will be turned out. Gov. Grant, the manager of the Grant and Omaha smelter at Denver, is reported “as sa: that in seventeen years Cripple Creek produce $00,000,000 worth of gold. ‘The result of this belief is that the own- ers of the mines hold their rty ve high. There are mere holes in the gro here which have so far produced nothing, but which are capitalized for millions. One rather sanguine operator tells me that he does not believe you could buy all the mines of this region today for $100,000,000 cash, and the man who expects to come to Cripple Creek and get something for noth- ing will go away sorrowful. One property which promises well is the Doctor mine. It is situated on Raven Hill, and is as yet barely more than a prospect, but its own- ers, I am told, would not take a million for it. It is the property of two men who came to the Rockies with a little money and bought the Chief mine and the Doctor mine, two claims which lay side by side on Raven Hill. They spent their first money on the Chief. It failed to pay, and they at last got $40,000 in the hole. "They then gave the work up for a time in disgust. Shortly after this a miner cama to them and offered to lease the mines and to give them a portion of the profits. They ac- quiesced, and he went to work. Within a few weeks he had tak>n out $80,000 from a sirgle great lode which he discovered. He struck crystallized gold in the quartz by shooting down the sides of their old work- irgs with dynamite, and the result is that the Doctor is now a valuable property. How Miners Steal Gold. It is generally known that a large part of the Cripple Creek ore is of a very low grade. Much of it has to be reduced by the cyanide Process in order to pay, but there are spots in nearly every mine where large amounts of high-grade gold have been found. The high-grade ore of the Victor mine averages about $200 a ton, and the average value of the shipments of Cripple Creek ore last year is estimated at $60 a ton. Now and then a Tich pocket is struck, however, which will pay a thousand dollars and upward a ton, and such places in the mines are careful watched, for fear the miners will carry away the gold. The manager of one of the big- gest gold mines told me that he often had his miners searched before they left the mine, and in certain parts of the mines they were always required to change their clothes upon coming in and going out. Not jong ago a miner was suspected of steal- ing ore. His cabin was searched, and more than $1,500 worth of rich gold-bearing rock was found. He had carried out the richest pieces from time to time in his pockets, and all together had taken out ninety-six pounds, which was worth $16 a pound, or $1,536 worth of ore. Leasing Minc Speaking of the leasing of the Doctor mine, the custom of leasing mines is very common here. Men will take mines and work them for a certain time for a fixed Price, or for a proportion of the gold gotten out. There are many men who have good Prospects who have not the money to work them, and one with a moderate amount of capital can elther get a lease on such pros- pects or buy a share in them. Take, for in- stance, the Anchoria Leland mine, the stock of which was selling for four cents a share about a year or so ago. It has this year sold for $3 a share, and it is practically not for sale in the exchanges. This mine was opened up by a lease. It was not considered worth much until a man named Maloney from Dakota came through Cripple Creek on his way to Leadville. He looked at the mine and leased it. He spent $7,500 in open- ing it up, and in one year, I am told, he took $400,000 worth of gold out of it. His lease has now expired, and the mine will be worked by the stockholders. Millionaires of Cripple Creek. I could give numerous other instances of fortune making in mines. I could find per- haps ten thousand times as many in- stances of men losing in mines, but min- ing is In reality a legitimate business, and I believe if followed with the same care, investigation and business ability as are Drilling for Gold. required to give sucgess in other business- es, the chances of making money are good. Here, for instance, ts a list of the millicnatres of Cripple Creek, as given by an old miner. I do not vouch for the truth of his estimates: W. S. Stratton was worth nothing, is now worth $10,000,000. James ¥. Burns, James Doyle and John Harren, each worth more than a millior mede out’ of the Portland and other prop- ertles. James R. McKinnie, a friend of Stratton end one of his advisers, has made a mil- ion. David H. Moffat, long a millionaire, has easily made two or more millions. out of Cripple Creek. He owns the Florence and Cripple Creek railroad, which cost a mil- Men, but which paid for itself in six months, and is still making money. Irving Howbart of Colorado Springs, the owner of the Anchoria Leland, has made a millicn. Eben Smith, Moffat's partner, has also made a fortune out of Cripple Creek. J. F. Maynard of Utica, N. Y., paid $1,000 for the Moose mine on Raven Hill. This mine is said to preduce now from six to eighteen thcusand dollars a month. An of- fer of $60,000 has been refused for it, but Maynard and his partners ask $2,400,000. R. C. Shannon, who beat Amos Cum- mings for Congress, is said to have made 2 quarter of a million out of the Anchoria Leland and the Portland, and the El Paso Gold King mine, which cost its owners $300, Is said to be worth nearly a million. In short, there are about ten men who have made something like a million dol- lars out of Crippie Creek. There are one kurdred men who have made more than $50,000 apiece and there are perhaps one thovsand men who have made $20,000 apiece. Nearly all of this money has gone to Celerado people, though the French are now investing largely and have some of the best prcperties here. FRANK G. CARPENTER. —.__ A Callous Soul. From the Detroit Free Press. “Orlando,” she exclaimed, “the baby has }| a tooth! “Has he?” was the response in @ tone which betrayed no emotion. “You don't seem a bit surprised.” “Tm not surprised. All the babies have first teeth. If this one didn’t have any I'd coe to get up some excitement, may- I thought you'd be pleased and happy about it.” ‘No. I don’t see thet it's any occasion for especial congratulations. The baby has my_sympath: “Sympathy! What for?” “For having his first tooth. He has just struck tae opening chapter of a long siory of trouble. Pretty soon he'll have other teeth.” ES “Of course he will.” “Every one he cuts will hurt him. Then his secund teeth will come along and push these out. That will hurt him again. Some of the new ones will come in crooked, like as not, and he will have to go to the den- tist and have a block and tackie adjusted to them to haul them around into line. Then he'll cut his wisdom teeth. After that he'll have to go to the dentist and iet him drifl holes and hammer till his face feels Hke a great palpitating stone quarry. I wouldn’t want him to go through life without teeth. But I must say that I don't see any occasion for the customary hilarity over an event that means so much in the way of sorrow and humiliation.” +o+ “Pa, what are neighbors?” “Neighbors are generally people that your mother says we must not get ac- quainted with.”—Chicago Record. REPAIRING PUNCTURE eo Various Methods of §topping Holes in Bioydle Tires, ALL SORTS OF PLUGS AND BANDS The Trouble Encountered With Leaky, Porous: Tires. TO DETECT APERTURES From the Scientific American. INGLE TUBE BI- cycle tires have be- come deservedly popular among American riders. Al- though it is some- times more difficult to effect in them a Positive and perman- ent repair than in the inner tube tire, a temporary repair, good for a thousand miles or more of rid- ing, may often be made in a few minutes. We Illustrate sev- eral methods of repairing such tires, which methods are divisible into three classes, plug repairing, patch repairing and band repairing. The first cut illustrates typical forms of plugs, one with a cylindrical stem, two doubie-headers shaped somewhat lke cuff buttons and another with a conical stem. They are made of various sizes and pro- portions. One of the simplest and most popular means of inserting a plug 1s shown in the cut No. 1, where pliers specially made for the purpose are employed. The approved method of operating ts to tle a string or Inserting Pateh With PHers, strong thread’ tightly around” the stem of the plug, which plug is then grasped by the pliers in the manner shown, is well lubricated with solution and is forced Into the aperture with the head innermost; the solution is then squeezed out of the flex- ibie tube, which is supplied with a special nozzle for the purpose, through the purc- ture, so as to fall upon the head of the plug within the tire. The tube of solution is withdrawn, the plug is drawn. into place by the thread and part of the protuberance 1s cut off... The doubte-header plug, such as shown in Fig. 8 of eut No. 1, is inserted by this instrument with the small head in- nermost. The large: head sis cemented to the outside of the tine by covering ite inner surface and part of the tire adjacent to the puncture with rubber solution, allowing the surfaces to dry as perfectly as possible out of contact with each other, and by then pressing them together, when they instant- ly adhere. A Simple Apparatus. Cut No. 2 shows a method of introducing a plug by a very simple apparatus. Fig. 1 is a metal tube with cross handle. The tube is cut off obliquely at its lower end. With it is provided a bent piece of metal, Fig. 2, by means of which a plug, pre- viously moistened with a solution as a lu- bricant only, Fig. 4, is forced into its_ob- Nque end, Figs. 1 and 2. The tubular tool 4s then driven into the puncture, and the pricker is fercéd Gown through it after its Antroduction, Fig. 3, 80 as to expel from it the head of the plug. On withdrawal of the two tools the plug is left in the ape ture, and its head may be pulled up by means of its projecting stem against the interior of the tire. Fig. 5 shows the plug, and in the section of the tube one plug is shown fn position. In the next cut, No. 8, a more compli- cated apparatus is shown, used for intro- ducing the plug shown in Fig. :6 of sech cut. A pair of pliers of peculiar construc- Tire Plagger. tion are aranged to support a cylindrical cutting edge, Figs. 1 and 2, of varying size. For each cutter a conical bed piece is pro- vided, also shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The bed piece is secured to the pliers below its cutter, and the bed piece, which, as held by the pliers when open, will be in advance of the cutting edge, is forced through the puncture. By closing the pliers, the bed piece is drawn up against the cutting edge, So that a small round disk is cut out of the rubber. The cutting seperation, as shown in Figs. 3 and 5, show the result. By re- versing the pliers and opening them, the plug is held in the other jews, as shown in Fig. 4, and after @ thorough lubrication with the solution is forced through the aperture into place. A peculiar“ system»of tmtroducing the plugs is shown in Fix. 4, where a plug with a hole in the stem is.ysed, A piece of wire ts heated, Fig. 1, in the flame of a match, and while hot is foréed through the punc- ture, burning off the: ends of the threads and leaving it ready,tor plugging, Fig. 2. The wire, still hot, or slightly reheated if necessary, 1s now inserted in one of the apertures of the plugs, 4,,to which it ad- heres. The plug, after lubrication, 1s forced into the puncture by the wire, which is then drawn back, pulling*the head of the plug up against the interio# of the tube. Burning Out the Puncture. We here encounter for the first time the burning out of the hole with hot wire, and for all phases of tire mending where a plug is to be used it is an excellent plan to burn out the hole rather than to cut it out by any means. The burning out removes the projecting ends of the threads and does away with the fertile source of so-called porousness. ‘ Band plugging ts shown in the next cut, No. 5. A needle about eight inches long, 5. with an end not too sharply pointed and containing a large perforation, is used. The other end should be bent into a ring- shaped handle. The needle is threaded with one or more bands of India rubber. It 4 shown as used with asingie band. If it be Gesired to introduce a single thickness into the puncture, on account of its smallness of size, the manipulation shown in Fig. 1 is adopted. The needle is threaded, a small portion of the band projecting from the eye; after lubrication with solution, the needle is introduced, and being directed very obliquely, is pushed far in, the band being held back on the outside until it naps out of the eye of the needle. On withdrawing the needle a single thickness of the band is left in the puncture. If two thicknesses are required, the needle is thrust well into the tire through the punc- ture and withdrawn, as shown in Fig. 2, carrying with it the end of the band. In executing the manipulation of Fig. 2 the condition shown in Fig. 8 fs always reach- ed; when, if the ends are long enough, the bands may be cut at the bend where it passes through the eye of the needle, leav- ing three thicknesses in the hole. In Fig. 4 the double band 1s forced well into the hole, and then the band is withdrawn to be cut off close to the eye of the needle, leav- ing four thicknesses in the hole. By car- rying out this system almost any number of thicknesses of bands may be introduced. The process seems exceedingly well adapted for irregular punctures. For introducing small rubber bands in quantities a needle with a small cross-piece and notched end should be used. A quan- tty of small endless bands are strung upon it, their center portions passing over the notched end, and their ends being looped over the two extremities of the cross-plece. The needle and cross-piece are so propor- tioned as to stretch the bands considerably. After lubrication they are forced into the tire, as shown, and the looped ends are pushed off the crossed piece. The needle is then withdrawn, leaving the banda in the hole, to be trimmed off as desired. A needie may be cut out of a piece of hard wood, to be used in an emergency in per- fecting this kind of a repair. It should look like an arrow head with a notched point. Patches. A patch {s built up of tire tape, by cutting short pieces and placing them transversely to each other, batten fashion. If a cut is large enough, such a patch is placed in the interior of the tube and pressed up firmly against the cut by forcing the sides of the tube together. Another such patch is placed outside, and the whole is secured by winding the tire tape. Solution m@¥ be used to secure the tire tape in place if the tape is tuo dry to adhere without it. Cut No. 6 shows a puncture band, which may be of heavy pure gum rubber or of leather, Figs. 1,3 and 4. Fig. i is arranged to be secured by strings around the tire. Fig. 3 has a buckle and strap, and Fig. 4 has the well-known eyelet and stud catch Wire Plugger for Single Tube Tires. used on gloves. To apply these, if made of leather, an India rubber patch fs first ce- mented by solution over the puncture on the outside of the tire, and over {i the band 1s secured. The band shown in Fig. 4 is of somewhat thick and elastic Igdia rubber, long enough to be wound twice around the tire before being secured, thus producing a very per- fect tension. This or other bands can be directly cemented over the puncture, the rubber patch being dispensed with. This is not recommended. As a substitute for the Lands a leather shoestring, which is wound tightly over the rubber patch, is excellent. In all these cases the tire should be in- completely inflated, so that when finally inflated the tension 1s increased. Porous Tires. There are two points relating to the sub- Ject to be considered. One is the alleged porousness of tires. Single tube tires in general consist of an inner lining of India rubber, surrounded by a fabric, the latter bedded in and coated with India rubber. The t'-htness of such a tire depends almost entire. on the maintenance of the integrity of jis inner lining. If this is punctured or injured from the inside air will get into the fabric, and, follo the threads, escape in a quantity of minute streamlets, so that when sponged with water minute bubbies will be seen escaping from an indefinite £ Plugging Tire With Rubber Bands. number of places. The tire may be punc- tured by a nail and the puncture may be mended so as to be perfectly tight, yet the nail may have punctured the inner coating on the Gpposite side, too, without cutting through, and this puncture may be eno; to start leaks, producing so-called porou: ness. There is no way of finding the loca- tion of such an inner lining puncture. Another point relates to the putting on of a patch by means of rubber solution. The adherence of these patches does not depend on cement, Ike action of the In- dia rubber, but on cohesion. The best way of doing it ts as follows: The surfaces to be fastened together are coated with the so- lution, which is allowed an hour or more to dry. If possible, it is well to give ten to twelve hours. Or, ‘after drying two or three hours, a second, and after a similar interval, a tatrd, coating of the rubber may be given to the surfaces, the final drying being as long as possible. When perfectiy dry the surfaces are placed in contact. The instant they touch they adhere, and the operation is complete. in mending on the road, where time is an object, the surfaces coated with solution may be dried more rapidly by exposing to the sun and by blowing upon them. A puncture in a single tube fire may be readily found by immersing the tire in water, and still more simply by wetting the a Canoe ta) Pancture Bands, surface with water, using a sponge or even the hand, and watching for the es- cape of the bubbles from the wet surface. It is assumed, of course, that the tire is kept inflated all the time. For burning out @ puncture in an emergency a hairpin may be employed, heated by a match. As a desperate remedy a porous tire may have a longitudinal slit, about six inches long, cut through its inner periphery. At one end a hole half an inch in diameter is made. A weight, such as a nut from a bolt, is tied io a string and is worked around the tire. An inner tube is drawn by it into the tire. The slit is then laced up and the tire becomes an inner tube tire. This is not practicable except with tires having a good fabric to hold the lacing. —S SOME VALUABLE WASHINGTONIANA. Dr. Toner’s Remarkable Zeal for Ac- curacy. From the Boston Trauscript. By the death of Dr. ‘Toner in Washing- ten last week the country has lost one of its most tireless workers in the line of his- torical research. Of late years Dr. Toner’s subject has been the life of Washington, paid out of his own pocket, he has gather- 4 a mass of material in the shape of orig- inal letters and documents, books, news- Papers nd periodicals, besides copies where the originals themselves could not be obtained, which are certain to be of enormous value to the historical students of the future. All that he has gathered to- gether thrs, Dr. Toner has steadily poured into the Congressional Library, forming what is known as “The Toner Collection.” Whenever St was suggested to him that he should write a life of Washington or even compile bis letters, Dr. Tener would shake lis head emphatically, saying, “Oh, no. I am not a historien. I could not wr books: besides it is too curly yet to writ the life of Washington. All I aspire to do is to get the materials together for 8: future historian. That fs enough of a task for me." He did, however, consent to edit and publish one of Washington's diaries Dr. Toner’s hobby seems to have been ac curacy. Wherever any of Washington's letters had all been pullished he carefully went through them in comparison with th originals, and wherever the editors bad changed the spelling or punctuation, or had even placed the letters of abbreviated words on the line Instead of above the line, as had been the practice of Washington himself, Dr. Toncr has.so ccrrected the published copy as to make it absolut like that of Washington. Some of the pub shed letters, morcover, are somewhat conventionalized. Where Washington had written three or four ietters of the purport the editers aimed to reproduc letter conveying the whole {de cedure was very dist Toner, who has had each letter reproduced nt- exactly as it was. His industry in h ing down information concerning Wash’ ton was remarkable. He made a trip spring to a small town near Nashville, Tenn., for the purpose of seeing one published letter which somebo: there possessed. Dr. Tener was unable to in- duce the owners to part with it and so he made an exact copy. As a result of bis years of research the Toner collection, which will have a con- spicuous pla in the new Congressional Library, will be a mine of wealth f u- dents of all of the revolutionary period, and esp2cially for those studying the life of our frst President. ———s—e EFFECT OF THE “TRAUMEREL” An Extravagant Word of Praise for Schumann's Composition. From the Brooktrn Eagle. If there is any one thing that has lift the taste of the American public to its pres statement! Yet true. In the first place, the public ear had hardly been attuned to the sreat things, for it had never heard them. The popular muste was frothy, and it might even be said that, with the exception of New York and Boston, the American cities were without music. Then, the grand or- chestra was unknown, and when Mr. Thomas, with his forty-two men from Cen- tral Park garden, went on tour through the provinces the band was hailed everywhere with delight. And its programs never held anything so popular as Schumann's “Trau- merei.”” Old readers, and some less old, necd not to be told how the orchestra used to play this piece. It was set to strings entirely, with possibly some use of the wind in t little romance that was interpolated effec- tively between the first playing of the theme and the coda, and the end, hushing down in the softest Giminuendo, to a faint dream of a note, was a revelation oft value of strings. ‘The laborious brass band, the crackling piano, the fiddle as a solo strument—these were familiar, but here w: something new. Never before had Amer cans heard the string orchestra employed alone. Never had they known what a crescendo and diminuendo might be. The truth of tonality, tne vocal smoothness, the perfect mechanical control of the instru- ments, the unison in fingering and bowing. even, were things that they talked about and when a return long after the concert engagement was annou ways letters to the co: ag asking that the played. Of course, since then, we have learned that the same technic can be applied to other things, and that other orchestras have strings as well as that of Mr. Thomas. We have learned, moreover, that the range of a composer like Schumann was not ex- pressed in this one dainty little piece, any more than the ge completely in a literature of mu jus of a poet ts iustraced mnet or a quatrain, ly in the iwenty omas began to pl: ng with Vogt’s “ 8 le and the Xi. But because we appreciate hoven ard have become a nation of gr Wagnerlans, are we to scorn the steps by which we rose? “Amarylli ae Snake Poison and Cholera. From the Medical Age. A. L. Sandall, M. B., municipal commis- sioner, Caicutta, late medical officer to the lodal government, Bengal, declares that the empirical practitioner in India has wonderful success in combating the rav- ages of cholera. Case after case, given up by the faculty as hopeless, is successfully treated by him. I managed to elicit the fact that the powerful agent enployed (sub- cutaneously) was a tincture of which the poison of the cobra formed the sole Later I discovered a woman in posse on of a small supply of the tincture, and her | suce in treating cholera es was, on a smaller scale, as striking as I could not help reviewing the astonishing fa that many eminent men of this city peatedly found in their practice that cases of chojera given up by them as hopeless were cured—provided a_certain chariatan was called in and permitted to inoculate his mysterious counterpeison, yet no one thought himself called upon to investig the subject. 1am prepared to avouch or the honor cf a medical man my thorougn conviction of the repeatedly successful treatment of hopeless cases of cholera by the inoculation of the sufferer with cobra venom. and aided by a salaried clerk, whom he | ent standard it is ““Traumerei.” Astounding | COWARDLY MOUNTAIN 1) From the Denver Republican, “There is a good deal of humbug in these stories about the Colorado mountain tion,” said Sam Van Horn of West Las Animas | arings in th ms dered in a circle, and a © d stumbled upon the tig kot our water. Recog he stop nk so he aw refi din the of @ mountain lion as | | didn't wait to investig record as he came dow { | yesterday. I read yesterday a story about a lon which two men found had got into their cabin through an open window, and krccked one of them down in jumping out when surprised by their return. Now, up to that point the stcry is all right, for the Colorado puma is as big a thief as there is in the animal kingdom, but when the stery goes on to say that after knocking one man down it sprang at the other and shook him by the coat, I don't believe a word of it, for the beast is the most cow- ardly of all the cat family of Colorado. I would a hundred times prefer to meet a mountain lion than one of the bobtatled cats that we have down along the Arkan- sas river. I don’t mean to say that the puma won't fight, but before doing so it has to be cornered. If the track is clear it will always run from a man. “me animals will fight when surprised. but I never knew a puma to do so. They will always get away if they have a cleer course. But when they do have to fight hey are ugly cus- ell you. They make one charge with teeth and claws and ere gone in a flash, but they can do horrible dam- age in passing over one. ;One day, in riding up one of the canons of the Purgatoire river, I saw a small herd of cattle rushing ‘wildly down the caron. The herd parted as they came up to me, and in front and not twenty feet distant was a puma which had been in hot pursuit until I appeared on the scene. The puma is fond of horseflesh, and horses stand in mortal terror of them My horse shivered with fear, and the beast after standing for an inst fectly still turned and went up th of the eanon in great bounds, only ping when it had reached a rocky from whence it could watch my move with suf. One day mp who been in my camp two or three days # for Trinids from Purgatoire river. st d of taking the plain river r went across the roughes! country in cre lon, disregarding our advice, for we ex pected nothing but that we | w to search for him or take the resp of his death. He left early in th ing, and soon after » whe enjoying our af in with a rush t D his feet in an instant breathiess with running could re ud h y one to low was pon am he that a ver his speech told 1s course we laughed at him. n to believe that he had seen ger then a jack rabiyit, by story, and finally rte not a tan in the cam to investigate. This mitted to pass, 2 buc! Ss and started quarter of a mile away, and I reached there J had forgot moun lic You ca surprise, as bending over to AV I saw in the pool the reflection of a a puma with the water dripping from mvzz 1 will not say that I was frightened, but the beast was frightened as I, for us 1 raise threw up my arms and like one of Governor Hr the animal whirled, sprang feet at the first jamp and in an instant. in ins 1 have ne n ion tha cattle fully disay- enty yours come sud I did rot peared in the moun denly upon a m Get away as rapidly as possible.” = >> <a SOME EVERYDAY PaTors. Races Upon -” sald a chief official of one of great railroad ems, speaking to his confidential messenger, “Waker, pi don't say ‘all right’ whenever J give you or right iness-like.”” Walter flushe h head and as he withd presence he stammered Where do we get that hands ire all over dirt? mean that the dirt is all over Another Pittsburgism as Stocie or the dirty face ts t words “wait when we This mistake is so deep r quent that we seldom attention i awn to it side We sk a friend to » when we should wait fur has the meaning of © supply wants.” word “g “ger” ts of.” sstructions orders, ears, dr his w from the offi or “tO acquire But diss got ar “got home r term), and say along with cur we “got dead.” and much more cor- eived an iny “ rich, arrived b qd that easi ay we “re sick, became re married But, however this may tastes of the ordinary other use of the word of Chicago and which has special male lictions of er of good English, It When we wish to say we have to do a thin say we “have got Kot” to do a thing this is not very plain appeal ader, there which sr down the def The exact no dou! be found in the fact that the word is not a very strong or emphatic wor while “got” has a force and vim about that brings it into constant play nis Subject recently of the Twentieth Century matter of dia nia mountains 4 ed very intelligently. Fi tion arose, “Has I The mously d “ll bring a smile sophical turn Pittsburg is steadily more correct: pronun’ the east encouragem When the x summer ame uj) que! locali t may from biey causes unces * and not. “It's me.” “sits” at the tabi pro- It is 1° down and ‘Nes The nativ jement of the vicinity of Pittsburg is undoubtedly Scotch-Irish. This is shown by the fact that #he is the str hold of fc eat branches of the Pres! terian Church. The Scotch ue. Any one w Gelightful dia ts hes MeClarer Mr. Wats dean ly tect t © in western Pe sylv h transformed wor On the s continually hear and one that »4 so fist has thr contra) is seldom that we hear unce “of” with a full, Scotch word ic,’ meaning * | had the effect of producing th “sich.” Scotchisms 2 out number our ordinary eve We know bet- j ter than to nse 1 we never write them, but the of the mother ton is slow to die. -——- +0+ - Believed Her. From Harper's Kound Table. “Papa, is Mrs. Bigelow very poor?” 2 Cedric, Mrs. Bigelow is well off; don’ nice house she has “But she slee “Why, Cedric! “She said she aia.” “What do you mean?” “Don't you remember when she was here to dinner night before last she excused be self, and said she must go ho’ cause she w to bed with the — ———s Taxed Alre: From the Philadelphia Press, Miss Stout (bicyclist)—“T think it woula be a great shame if bicycles w taxed.” Miss Slender (ditto)—“Then why do you ride one? You must be a great tax on it. you know what a s in the hen coop, papa?”