Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, August 28, 1887, Page 10

PE Y " 'UHE OMAHA DAILY BEE: Emmense Wealth Acquired in a Vory Few Years. MONEY +MAKING ROMANCES. Ehe Raillway Kings—How the “Big Four" Worked the Railroad Fileld for All There Was in 1t George H. Fitch in the Cosmopolitan, Balzac, with his royal imagination, mever conceived anything more drae« matic, more picturesque, or more essen- sially unreal than the rise to fortune of the score of men who may be classed among the great millionaires of the Pacific coast, the enormously rich men ‘who will *‘cut up" to use an expressive phrase, for more than twenty millions. Balzac reveled in millions as a miser gloats over his golden hoard, and be en- dowed many of his characters with the generons hand of the novelist; but he dealt in franc, not dollars, and the sourse speculators and the great finan- cial schemes that he loved to describe pale into insignificance before the for- tunes and business operations of the halt dozen men of the Pacific coast, who, in mining and railroads, have made for- tunes that would have been called royal even in the days ot Caesar and Imperial me. Nowhere in this country, outside of the oil regions of Pennsylvania, have vast fortunes been gained in soshort a time as in Californin and Nevada. The wealth of Girard, Stewart, Astor, Vanderbilt, was laboriously and slowly gathered, when cum}mrml with the sudden leap to fortune of the railroad and bonanza kings of Cahfornia. In its rapid devels opment, 1ts enormous profits, and its crushing monopoly, the Southern Pacific company is only to be compared to the Standard Oil company. Both have been built up by men with a genius for man- .‘mq vast enterprises, but the leaders in both have more bowels for small com- titors than the ;fhuxt of old Marly that rouge saw on that famous Christmas Eve. There is no standard of compari- son for the bonanza mines of the Com- stock lode that within five yeuars lifted four men above the twenty million limit and added four hundred millions to the world's wealth. The Pacitic coast millionnires may be arranged like the geologic formations of the earth, in throe ages, The primary period embraces the famous men who made the Golden State known round the world. They were the pioneers, the Argonauts, the adventurers who built a at state in the far west and trans- formed in a single decade the wretched, BSpanish-American cattlo raising territory nto one of the richest states in the Jnion, with resources as varied as its elimate and with all the appliances of au older civilization grafted on the vigorous life of the frontier. The most promi- nent of these pioneers were Harry Meigs, who sailed out of the golden gate ono Blght with all his belongings, leaving be- ind an army of deluded creditors, and who amassed an enormous fortune as a railroad builder in Peru; Sam. Brannan, who founded his wealth on Mormon tithe oney, was the foremost citizen of San 'rancisco in its stormy youth, and then suddenly dropped out of ‘sight to vege- tate in Sonora and dream of another reat fortune to be mude out of the leagues of land granted him by the Mexi- can government, but now in possession of the fierce Yaqui Indians; William C. Ralston, the Napoleon of the far west, who did more to develop California than any score of his associates, and who died by his own hand when ruin stared him in the face; and Wilham T'. Coleman, the Jender of the old vigilance committee that saved San Francisco from the rule of gamblers and thieves and made hon- est government possible. ‘The hmts of this article forbid more than this allusion to the men of this period. The secondary periods is the era of the railway kings, which saw the conguest of the snow crowned Sierra Nevada and of the alkali desert that stretches away eastward from the base of the mountains to the prairies of Wyominfi. It includes Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington, and Charles Crocker, known in_negro minstrel parlance as ““I'he Big Four,"" whose combined wealth 8 estimuted at one hundred and eighty million dollars. ‘The tertiary period is the age of the bonunza kings, which saw_the develo ment of the Comstock lode in Nevada, ghe richest silver mines in history, the addition of over four hundred million dollars to the world's supply of the recious metals in ten years. It includes e names ot Flood, O'Brien, Fair, Mac- kay, Sharon, and Jones. Another and later era must emb the land and speculative millionai ggin, Tevis, Miller, Lux, learst, Baldwin, Lunim?'. and others, who, are above the ten mi’lion level. The aggregute wealth of all these Paci- fio coast millionaires would make cheap and poor the riches of Monte Cristo or !w treasures of 'King Solomon's Mines.” ven if it could be stated in exact figures, the average reader would have as poor a oonception of it as he has of the weight or bulk of fifty thousand dollars in gold. What will be attempted in this article 18 fo give pen pictures of the more promin- t of the Pacific coast millionaires, w:th ief sketches of the "5 they made their fortunes. It may be addea that all were gool‘ men thirty years,ago, and that all ould furnish good examples to add to Bmiles' collection in *‘Self-Help.” For- tune first came to them because the were shrewd, energetic, far-sighted, sconomical, abstemious. Their histories all show crushing losses and disappoint. ments at the outset of their careors, but hese disasters serve only to bring out he mettle of which they are made, and §o stamp them as types of the American, the best representative to-day of the aterling quahtivs of the Anglo-Saxon, she world conqueror. THE RAILWAY KINGS. ‘The story of one of the four founders and builders of the Central Pacitic rail- 18 the story of all. Of radically un- ike character, they have still worked to- ther so closely that their tortunes have en identical: but to two of the four be- ng the credit of leadership. Of these wo—Leland Stanford and Collis P, Huntington—Stanford is the broader- minded and more liberal man, Hunting- ton the more subtle, far-seeing, and diplomatic. Hence. in furthering the fi:nl railroad enterprise that has made m among the wealthiest men in the oountry, Stanford was given the practi- cal management of the building and operation of the road on the Pacitic coast, while Huntington controlled the equally difficult and important department of socuring government aid at Washington d the negotiation of the company's :ndl here and abroad. Of the other two partners, Mark Hopkins was a skill- s‘! bookkeeper and financier, while arles Crocker had strong executive eapanty and was useful to Stanford in l‘iua"m‘lnmmunl of the details of railroad ding. The El’ll place in my sketoh of the uilding of the Central Pacitic railroad longs to Leland Stanford, who by char- er, wealth, and position was the er in_the enterprise. He came of excellent English stock, his father being farmer near A.llunx. N Y &lfld, after the stu of hi l:‘vblnlin [ L) 13 - undism H fire. He came smayed, and while casung about for & new location, in 1853, he caught the California gold feve He engaged in the merchandise business, and ten y: aw him the pos- sessor of perhaps $100,000. In 1861 he was elected governor of California by the repubticans, and it was in this same year that the project of spanning the contin- ent with a railroad was discussed and that the California legislature granted a charter to a compnn{ of which Stantord was president and Huntington was vice president. Never was a fi"“ work begun under more unto conditions. The road had to be built to Ogden in Utah, a dis- tance of 878 miles. The "fi‘ foot hills, the almost inaccessible heights of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada, the des- olate alkal plains of Nevada, the terror of the uverland wagon trains, the canons of Utah—all these had to be overcome. By making use of natural passes over the mountains the engineers finally de- cided that the road was feasible, Then Stanford set to work to u-{ to gain help. ‘The position was this: He had as as. sociates Huntington, who was a dealer in hardware at Sacramento, the capital city, and Mark Hopkins, Huntington's partner. Their combined capital would not have made over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Many of the Cal- ifornians had orossed the plains and climbed the Sierra in the overland emi- grant trains. These pioneers scouted the idea of building a rairoad, and their opinion had great weight with others, The result was that the pro{ectors could get very little at the outsct in their own state. From the general government they secured the noble land grant that wa3 worth many millions; but before they could use this land grant on the government bond of thirty-five thous- and dollars per mile, they were required to construct the first fifty miles of road. It was in overcoming this difficulty, in inspiring the confidence of capital that the genius of Stanford was shown Even when government aid came it was badly handicapped, for the bonds were worth only about one-third of their face value. Ali through the dark days of the war the company went pluckily on with their work. Any one who lived in Cali- fornia ut that time can recall how the bonds and stock of the struggling cor- poration were hawked about without finding purchasers. They were like the bonds of the government. Kew men in California were willing to the seven per cents, as the workers declared that they would be repudiated like the old Continental bonds. It was the common opinion, both in Sacramento and San Francisco, that Stanford, Huntington, and Hopkins had sunk all their own for- tunes 1n the railroad, and that failure would be sure to overtake them when they tried to cross the Sierra. It took the courage of great connec- tions to overcome this public sentiment; but Stanford in Cahforaia and Hunting- ton at Washington and New York ac- complished it. Early in 1867 the tunnel under the summit of the Sierra Nevada was finished, and on May 20, 1869, the last spike was driven that joined the east and west. It is interesting now to read the bril- liant letters of A. D. Richardson to the New York Tribune, in which he described the scenes of this ride across the contin- ent, now grown almost as familiar to the thousands of tourists as the trip across New York state or the tour of the great lakes and the St. Lawrence. The Journey from sea to sea, which then con- sumed twelye days, has been cutduwn to 8ix, while the hardships of the old time railrond travel has been so eliminated that a Sybarite might now enjoy the jour- ney. '%he completien of the railroad wit- nessed the sudden advance of all its pro- jectors to great wealth. Immigrants flowed into the state by thousands; the company’s lands became valuable; the facilities of the road for lmns&)orting freight and passengers were taxed to the utmost; new territories were opened and clamored for railroad connection, so that a little more than ten years after the building of the original road saw the building of a new line through Arizona and New Mexico. The rapidity with which the Southern Pacific road was con- structed is one of the marvels of Ameri- can railroad building. Since then no less than three other transcontinental lines of railroad have been built, others are still in process of construction, while the development of the Pacific coast as well as of the vast interior territory, which the old school geographies used to call the “Great American Desert,” has outstripped the dreams of the most sanguine western speculator. These years have naturally witnessed reat changes in the fortunes of the men that built the first Pacitic railroad. All except Hopkins are still alive, and all bid fair to enjoy many more years of life. Stanford’s health is broken, as much by the loss of his only aon as by the weifht of yearsand heavy cares, Personally, Stanford impresses one as the most sin- cere of the three men. He nhas a face which once seem is not soon forgotten. Itisa massive face with overhanging eyckrows and great ox eyes, still keen when he looks up to note the effect of what ho says. He talks with extreme dehiberation, selecting his words and ap- parently weighing every statement. His legal training, his long familiarity with reat enterprises as well as his associa- tion with prominent men at home and aproad have given him a breadth of mind in which his Californian associates are lacking. Stanford's only passion is for fine horses and this taste he has gratified on his ostate at Palo Altoin the heart of the Santa Clara valley. ‘There he has a large number of fine thoroughbred horses, and when he goes down to his country home it is his pleasure to sit in a large chair in the center of a ring and see his favorie young fiyers brought out for trial. It was while watching one of these fast trotters-—an animal which had the enor- mous stride of twenty-three feet—that the millionaire conceived the idea that in some part of his course the horse must entirely clear the ground and have all four feet in the air. So he decided to have his horses photographed while in motion. He secured the services of a skillful photographer named Muybridge, and he arranged an ingenious system of cameras worked by electricity by which an instantantaneous view ot the animal was fivan as he passed the homeline. About orty thousand dollars were spent on these experiments; but they overthrew all previous notions on the subject, and the work which Stanford had written and published, entitled *‘The horse in motion,” is a valuable contribution to science. Senator Stanford has also done more than anyone else to improve the breed of horses in California, and to demonstrate that the climate of that state is superior to Kentucky for the breeding of swift trotting and running stock. It was the hope of Senator Stanford to rpetuate his name and to hand down is wealth to his only son, Leland Stan- ford, jr., a 1ad who showed marked abil- ity in mechanics. But the boy had a weak rhynqua. and three years ng{, while in “Florence, he contracted the Roman fever and died suddenly. His death aged the father more than twenty yeara of work and responsibility had done. It led him to devise means for leaving a memorial to his dear son in the form of a great industrial unwer- Ill{qw be established on his estate at Palo Wlto. He sought distraction from grief in outlining the plans of an institution more generous in scope and endowment than any in this country. He called to his aid the best educators, and with char- acteristic energy he completed last year the plans for the ‘'Leland Stanfora, Jr., University," with an endowment of more than t;;ul ‘ml:lil:om. in lands and o!hTr roperty,which is sure to increase greatly rn value in the next decade. The endow- wcludes the Vina ranch of fifty-five ment thousand aores in Tehama county, on which is the largest vineyard in the world; the Girdly wheat ranch in Butte county, comprising twenty-one thousand acres; and the Palo Alto ranch and stock farm of seven thousand two hundred acres. The total value of these three ranches is five million three hundred thousand dollars. When in California the senator spends nearly all his leisure at his country estate. His town house,on the crown of what has been irreverently dubbea Nob Hill, cost, with its furnishings, not less than .i.fiOO.~ 000. It 1s occupied perhaps_two months in the year by the owner. It is rich in wood-carving and frescoes, snd the art gallery contains the largest collection of old masters outside of a public gallery in this cnunlr‘v. Mr. Stanford was elected United States senator from California two years ago by a large vote. He met practically no opposition in his own party, for even his enemies recognized his honesty and his fitness for the position. When he announced himself as a candi- date the contest was settied. The senator divides his time between Wash- ington, New York, and San Francisco, in all of which places he has houses. He is zenemll{ accompanied by his wife, who was Miss Lathrop, of an old an and well-known Albany family. She is known for her many charities, the kin- dergarten schools of San Francisco being specially indebted to her bounty. She has probably a larger and finer collection of diamonds than any one in this coun- try, but she seldom wears them. The fortune of Stanford is estimated at fifty million dollars. Adjoining the Stanford mansion in San Francisco 18 the striking Norman castle of Mrs. Mark Hopkins. Her husband was tha financier of the railroad company, but he wore himself out by coustant application, and for soveral months before his death he had forgotten his own identity. Just be- fore this loss of his memory, he had begun the construction of this superb residence. One day his medical attend- ant took him to the top of the hill, where he saw the work of building going on, when the millionaire turned to him and in n querulous tone asked: “What infer- nal fool is wasting meney on such a house as that?” He died soon after. His widow, who was a poor New England fiirl when Mr. Hopkins married her, in- erited all his wealth. She still retains her shares in the road, and her adopted son is one of the rising young men in the rairoad office. Her country home is at Great Barrington, Mass., where she has built a costly summer residence. She is regarded as the richest woman in Ameri- on, us she has a fortune of at least forty million dollars, of which ske does not spend one-half the income. In the next block above the Stanford and Hopkins palaces isthe large ana pre- tontious residence of Charles Crocker. There i8 no architecture about it, but 1t is tinely furnished, and has a_Iarge art gal- lery. Crocker was taken into the rail- road company in 1882, with lus brother, and his executive abilities were of great help in the building of the railroad. He also had charge of the buiiding of the Southern Pacific road. In mental ability and in education, however, he is far in- ferior to his associdtes. He has a heavy, palid face, with no signs of mental vigor or alertness in it. He is credited with Frvnt shewdness in business affairs, and| ntimate knowledge ofall the details of! practical railroad work. He recently purchased a costly house in New York, which he will make a bridal gift to his only daughter on her approaching mar- riage, while he is now building a fine house on one corner of his own lot in San Francisco for a son who was lately married. It 18 Mr. Crocker’s custom to ride home from the railroad offices in San Francisco in the democratic street oar. who sces him leaning his weary face on his large gold-headed cane would take him for a deacon or a philanthropi: benevolent i3 his expression an maculate his clerical looking neck but the observer would be greatly mis- taken. Crocker has the reputation of being the most merciless of all the mi lionaires. Some idea of his characi may be gained from this incident. When he bought the block on which his present residence is built, the owner of one lot, a stubborn German, at first refused to sell. When his avarice became excited by the millionaire’s intent eagerness to buy, he gradually increased his price af- ter em‘:\x snccessive offer. Finally Cracker became enraged and swore a mightf onth that never while he lived would he buy that property. So he built a huge fence, twenty-five feet high, around tbe house of the Germs The latter soon had to remove his house, and the fence, somewhat reduced in height, still remains to mark the millionaire’s wrath, although the Germaun has been in his grave for several years. Crocker is regarded as worth thirty millions, of which much is real estate. Of the railroad millionaires C. P. Hun- tington is least known in California. For more than twenty years be has made his home in New York and Washington. In keenness of mtellect and knowledge of men he ranks above Stanford. He is a great organizer, an accomphshed diplo- mat, & manipulator of raillroad shares and of railroad legislation, second only to Jay Gould. It shows the rare combin- ation of diverse talent among the found- ers of the Central Pacific railroad that one of these four men should have pos- sessed 1 supreme degree a faculty that was probably the salvation of the whnole enterprise in its darkest days. Huntington was a natural trader. The stories of his early shrewdness when he did business in Otsego connty, N. Y., re- semble the similar tales of Gould's pre- cocious ability for overreaching his neighbors. He went to California in 843, and hisinorease 1n wealth waa ouly the result of the application of extreme shrewdness and economy. In partner- ship with Mark Hopkins he built uv the greatest hardware business in the state, and for years the firm deult largely in miners’ “supplies. When the railroad building began, they supplied much of the material for the roads, and this, Any one with his interest n the rairoad, madde Huntington one of the reat millionaires of this country, is fortune is estimated at forty millions; but is probably beyond this, since he has spent very little on out- ward display. His onl{ expensive taste 18 for pictures. He lives simply and quietly in New York, but like Juy Gould his hand is felt over a wide extent of ter- ritory. Asan organizer heis probably the equal of Gould, His latest expioi the opening up of the long line o!p rail- road which ends at Newport News and the establisement at that pors of a great wheat-shipping depot - has occupied him for the last ten years and, if successful, will add materially to his vast fortune. A Word to Girls and Eoys. Shamokin Times: Girls and boys, I want to say to you that there is nothing 80 valuable as character; nothing more essential to your happiness und success in after life than reputation. An indis- creet act in your early years may, and probably, will follow you through all your life and often crimson your cheeks with shame. This is particularly so with girls. There are always those with evil tongues,who will be ready to recall your discredit, any evil reports that may have stained your fair name. Be on your guard then, to give no foundation for the talk of the slanderer. You may, in pure thoughtlessness, do things which an in- terpretation of may be disastrous to you. Be careful, then, of your conduct so "this evil may not fall upon yor i Dr. J. H. McLEAN's Strengthenin, Cordial and Blood Purifier, by its vital- izing properties, will brighten pale cheeks, and transform haggared, . dispirite woman into one of sparkling health and RESULTS OF ELECTRICITY. —— Achiovements of the PJWUM and Mysto- rious Fluid, —_— THE TELEGRAPH Electricity in the Navy—Lightaing Photographs—Minds Lighted by Eleotricity—Alarm Bells—Elecs tric Rallways—Freaks, The Telegraph in England, The London Times thus suinmarizes some of the statements made by Mr. Raikes, the postmaster general, in his speech delivercd at the telegreph jubilee reeently: At first a machine required five wires before it could dispatch a mes- sage. Now on one single wire seven or eight messages can be sent simultane- ously. At first the rate of sending did not amount to more than four or five words a minute. Now on the latest machine no less than 463 words a minute can bo dispatched. The number of mes- sages has increased by steady steps until now, under the new tariff and with the facilities that have been so widely ex- tendod since the telegraphs cameo into the hands of the government the number 1s truly portentous. Those sent during the past year amounted to close upen a million a week—51,500,0004in all. 1o put the matter conciscly the relative proportion between letters and telegrams have altered in the most astonishing way during the past thirty years. In 1885, when the public had beco! well used to the telegraph and when every railroad line was provided with telegraph com- muuicni:n, for every telegram sent there 489 IN ENGLAND. were letters. In ten years the proportion had risen to one telegram for every 151 letters, In 1875, the telegraphs having meanwhile been purchased by the government, the propertion had risen agamn—it stood at one telegram for every fiff letters, and in 1586 it stood at one telegram for every forty letters, Of course, too, this increase has been more than a merely proportional increase. Letters have grown from 80,000,000 in the year of the ueen's accession to more than 1,400,000,000, and the absolute increase in the number of telegrams can be judged by that single fact. Moreover, if this is the testimony that can be brought to show the popular success of the telegraphs, move striking still is the story of inven- tions, energy, disappointment, and final triumph, which is presented by the sube marine cables. KFrom the time when Mr. Crampton, in 1851, first overcame the dif- ficulties of this branch of the work,down to the present time, when, according to Mr. Pender, there are some 115,000 miles of cables lying at the bottom of the sea, the progress in this degartment has been constant. - As the romyntic history of the first and second Atluntie cables showed, immense difficulties had to be encountered and ‘gri¢vous disappoint- ments to he expected; but now, so great is the improvement 1n the method of making the cables, the chance of success is very large. The latest scheme, as the now Colonial blue books show, is for lay- ing a oable under the Pacific ocean, from Vancouver to New Zealand. Surel there is no task from which modern .J ence will recoil. o+ Electric Apparatus in the Navy. Lieutenant J. B, Murdock of the United States navy, read, a_paver enti- tled the “Electric. Light Outfit on the New Cruisers,” at the convention of the National Electric Light association re- cently. He said in part: Qur conditions, so far as the dynamo is concerned, may be summarized by wish- g the great electrical output for a given weight and bulk, and although at first this may seem to be essentially the same thing as efliciency of conversion, it dely different. The next consid- on is that of the connection of the \mo to its engine. A starting point orded in the rule that belting should never be used on a sea-going vessel. Nothing so radically violates our condi- tion of economy of spuce as the use of belting. The adoption of fixture fenrmg botween engine and dynamo has been suggested and is probably Emcuunblc. ut its durability on ship- ward when the motion of the vessel muat cause working of the two shafts may not be great. In the navies of Kurope the practice of direct connection is universal, the dynamo shaft heing coupled to that of the engine. This calls, of course, for either a great reduction of the speed of the dynamo or a corresponding increase of that of the engine, It is probable that many fine uew vessels will require elec- tric motors. Gun carringes may be worked in this way on account of the ad- vantages that an electric motor ofters in emall weight and_bulk and in the im- portant fact that it is 8o much easier to splice a broken main than to patch a leaky vipe when steam or compressed air is used for power. Electric motors will be usefal for shell hoists and ammuni- tion whips, reducing the number of men employed for these purposes. Here, also, light weight and compactness are absoluteiy essential, and nine-tenths of the motors in commercial use would be barred out as too henvy. A ter-horse power motor, the largest we would probably use, should not weigh over 500 pounas,” Photographs of Lightning Wanted. Electrical Review: ‘I'ne Royal Meteorogieal society is desirous of ob- taining photographs of flashes of light- ning, as it is believed that a great deal of research on this subject ean only be pursued by means of the camera. " The council of the society intimate that they would esteem it a great favor if assist- ance were afforded in this matter, either by sending copies of any photographs by lightuing that may . already have been taken, or by endeavoring to procure them, or to interestiothers in the work. It may, perhaps, bo well to mention that the photography of lightning does not present any particalardifliculties. If & rapid dry plate and an ordinary rapid doublet with full aperature be lefi uncov- ered at night auring a thunder storm for a short time flashes of ightning will,after development, be found in some cases to have imvressed themselves upon the plate. The only difticulty is the uncer- tainty whother any. particular flash will buppen to have been in the field of view. Mines Lighted by El ectricity. Mr.Settle,the patentee of the water cart- ridge, by means of which dynamiteis ex- ':l led harmlessly in fiery gas or in the eart of a barrel of gunpowier, is manag- g director of the Madeley Canal and Iron company in Stafford. His inventive skill has been applied successfully to the illu- mination by electricty of the mines un- der his control, so that the miners do not even ru%ulra hand lamps in their opera- tions. One of the seams of coal, three feet in thickness, is worked at a depth of 460 yards from the surface, and the wires are supplied with a current from an upper level 825 yards deep. Permanent lamps of sixteen candle power are fixed throughout the workings and sixty feet distant apart. The small globe of glass which incloses the incandescent film is surrounded by a larger globe filled with water, The ‘illuminant glass floats in this, and it is only when the globe is full of water that contact is established and light produced. As a matter. of courseé, when the glass is broken contact_ce Rses, aud the water preyeuts any possivility of . an explosion, complete extinction bel; instantaneous. eso lamps are not af- fected by air currents. Eleotric Lighting of Berlin Theaters. Electrical Review: The overa of Ber- lin is mfl closed, and the necessary works have been begun for extending clectric lighting. The performers’ boxes and the concert hall are already lighted elec- trically, and now the installation f{s to be extedned to the stage, the auditor- ium and the corridors. e Edison com- panv has undertaken the completo sup- pression of gas in the establishment. The proprictors of the ‘‘Residenz Theater," at Berlin, are in treaty with the same company for the installation of the elec- tric light 1n the entire theater before the commencement of the next season. New Automatic Alarm By Boston Advertiser: While American electricians are almost hourly enlarging the scope of their inventions, the ontre- reneurs of other countries have not been dlo. A couple of Germans lay claim to a complicated arrangement which is in- tended to reduce danger in railway travel to a minimum. ‘L'he device is an automatic alarm bell, whose ringing will provent collisious botween trains on the same track, The invention includes something of the Phelps-Edison device, by enabling a train in motlon to remain in telegraphic communication with the station at the other end. This of course provides an additional safeguard by in- creasing the facilities of the division su- perintendent for watching over his net- work of tracks, An Klectrio Doorplate. Chicago News: During the thunder- storm on Tuesday nw,nin;i' an iron plate forming the threshold of Truax's confec- tionery store at Waukesha, Wis,, became so charged with electricity that a do, bounded from it with a terrific howl, while sparks scintillated from every hair of his skin. Then n young man essaying to enter with damp boot soles was im- pelled to jump 1nto the air by the thrill- ng of every nerve of s body with electric exhilaratio Los Angeles ectric Railway. San Francisco Call: The electric rail- Wwaoy now running at Los Angeles is pro nounced a_great success. ‘They claim it can be built for one-third of the cost of o cable rond, and be run at much greater speed and at less expense, They have run as high as twenty mi per hour, but the usual speed is from ten to twelve. The field where electricity 18 being employed is idently enlarging daily, and its po: ties are something mar- velous. Man and Horse Killed by Lightning. Denver Republican: The accident oc- curred on the prarie during a storm about 8 o’clock in the morning. 'The de- ceased having tiod his horse to the horn of his saddle with a lariat, and during the rain placed his blankets under the saddle for protection, and with them his 45-Colt's revoiver and belt, both full of cartridges, und was undoubtedly sitting sideways on the saddle with a thin rubber slicker about him. Thestroke killed both man and horse, broke the iron horn of the saddle, ex- ploded all the cartridges and set fire to teather of the saddle, picket rope, blank- ets, tearing his hat boots and shirt to vieces, while the fire consumed the flesh of the leg from the knee to the ankle. He was in a cramped, contorted position, as though fullen backwards from « sitting position. The unfortunate man never knew what killed him. Ne:w Electric 'Storage Battery. The first public test and exhibition of the Woodward electrica! storage battery was made in Detroit, Mich., last wee and proved to be a complete success. A number of Detroit capitalists are inter- ested and immediate steps will be tuken for the manutacture of the new batteries. Lightning Freaks, l,ightnini: not only burned the house of Joseph Wilcox, of Lake Clear, Fla., but struck his barn and Killed all his stock. John Lampert and his dog were killed by lizhtning while tonding “sheep on the ranch of Dr. Welch, at Greeley, Col. Lightning struck the powder mill at Streater, 1Il., and it blew up promptly, smashing things for halt a mile around. A pitehfork carried over the shoulder of William Casselman at Gloversville, N Y., during a thunder storm, drew the lightning and cost him his life. William Bowen and his sister-in Miss lunice McKenzie, were inst; killed by lightning at Palestine, Tex., while taking refuge under a large pine tree. Heavy rain put out the fire caused by lightning that struck Thomas Powell’s barn at Rocky Mount, N. C., but the lightning had already killed two horses and an ox. ‘The entire family of Meredith Mensoll -law, of Pickens county, S.C., was killed by . lightning while dining. The family con- sisted of Mr. Mensell, his wife and four children. Lightning stunned the stallion Red acket, belonging to James Prico of Farmington, Ga., and he has becn as doeile as a lunb ever since. No one was known to ride him before. Lightning tore out the casing and blinds of & window of a house in Little Rock, Ark., und threw two bird cages upon the floor, but neither of the birds in the cages was injured. anding in a cemetery at Tenn., afforded shelter in a storm to nine negrocs who had just buried a friend. Lightning struck the tree and Killed them all. While Charley Spencer of Milwaukee was fishing lightning struck him, and tore the clothes completely from one side of his body, cutting them as neatly in two as 1t the job had been done witha knife. Lightning tore out the whole side of the Widow Jones' house at South Solon, 0., and revealed the widow and her three children huddled together in the most abject terror. None of them was injured, however. When lightning struck the New Eng- land House at New Millford it passed completely around the collar of H. O. Warner, who was seated on the piazza, iving him for a time & haudsome neck- ace of blue flame. When lightning _struck the barn of James Smith of Marion, Ind., he was standing between his two horses with three pigs nosing around their feet the flash all the ammals dropped d while Smith was entirely unharmed. Lightnin{ tore a large oak tree on the remises of John Mathis, at Cuthbert, ia., into kindling wood, and sent a mule tied to it on to its knees, but the raule moon recovered, kicked a wagon into bits, and was otherwise very lively. rer g — Home Made Mummies, There were recently lying in San Fran- cisco, awaiting shipment to Europe, the remains of four Arizona Indians, which are, perhaps, the most perfect specimens of the natural embalming process of a dry climate ever found in tbis country. These remains are simply dried up by the action of an atmosphere in which there is no humidity. Even the viscera, which all embalmers in Egypt found it necessary to remove in order to guard against decomposition, have been desic- cated like the other parts of the body, so that one has here the practical result of the embalmer’s art with not a single or- gan of the pody removed, The discovery was made by a party of American prospectors in the Sierre Madre mountains of Arizona, not far from the border Line of Mexico, says Harper's Weekly. . These miners ware searching for ‘indications - of gold, und also for & cave ia ‘which it wus repor- ted ' a large amount of . treasure UNDAY, AUGUST 98. 1887.—~TWELVE PAGES. and = precious stones had boen buried, They wero following an Indian trail along the steep banks of the Gils river, when one of the number noticed & peculiar formation in the hillside which scomed artificial. He stuck his pick into it and fetched ay @& bit of yery hard cement. The curiosity of the party was at once excited, and full of the hove that they had at Iast discovered the treasure cave, they quickly removed the cement, only to tind it covered with a wall of solid masonry, evidently the opening into some chamber in the olifl. The stones were laid without mortar, and several of the largest buinfi ro- moved an entrance was aflorded 1nto a rude cave, perhaps twenty-tive by fifteen foet. By the dim light thoy saw at one end the skeleton of a human clnf propped up in a sitting posture. t ,lns ed across their minds at once that they were in a burial-chamber ot some of the prehistoric dwellers of the co\lntr.\r. and that the mythical. treasure was still as great a myth as ever. An examination of the figure showed that it was that of an unusually powerful man of medium height. Near by were three heaps of stones, which the miners uickly cleared away, exposing to view the remains of four other human beings —a man, a young woman, and a mother and her ‘child. All wero in perfect pres- ervation, the feutures being clearly rec- ognizable. They were all covered with coarse-woven cloth, which fell to picces when touched, and all were crowded into positions with _the knees reaching nearly to the chin. The bodies were extremely light, all weighing together only a few pounds. The prospectors determined to remove them to the nearest station, so they were packed in a sack and thrown over the back of a burro. After much trouble with some Indians of the neigh- borhood, who resented this desecration of the graves of their ancestors, the party reached the railroad and the bodies were shipped to San Francisco. —-— The Sea of Gallilee. Correspondence Cleveland Leader: The lake 1s about twice as long as broad. 1t is not for a moment to be compared to Como or Lucerne, neither has it the beauty of Kutrine or Killarney, or our own exquisite Lake Georgo. If one must compare it to something, the lower part of Windermere might do. Over on the other shore, near Gerasa and Gamala, are some steep slopes, quite suitable for any swine to run very quickly and surely down mto the sea. Therc is a strange absence of boats; someor.e says there are but three on the whole lake, but this must be amistake. Still the fishing is largely done from the shore. We had some of it, and some successful duck shooting. This morning one of the buats was captured, and looking out equally for towns and duck, we spread sail for up the lake. First of the towns comes Magdala, from the name of onc of its sinning denizens known the world over, ‘We pass Dalmanutha, and now approach a bank rosy with wild oleaders in_blos- som, some of thetrees standing quite out from the shore in the water. Our craft runs up into the midst of this grove of color and scent, and disembarking, we walk tor some distance through a field, suddenly findin, ourselves stumb- ling, not onlv through the brambles, but over the fragments of Corinthian capitals and columns. All about are ruined blocks and bases of basalt, indi- c""'f voleamic formation, but in the middle of all the basaltic remains are those of this building, built of beantiful blush marble. We are at Tell Hum, which has by far the greater evidence in its favor as against Khan Minyeh, of be- ing the ancient Kefrnahum or Caper- naum, the bome of Christ, where, pro- tected by Rome. he could dwell in safety awmongst the Syrsans, and Greeks, and Jews after the Nazarencs had thrust him forth. These white fragments amidst all the black very probably belong to the synagogue which the Roman centurion wasfood and great enough to erect for the Jews. We don’t tind many Christian rulers erecting Jewish synagogues, now- adays, and we are glad that it was that same centurion whom our Lord admired and whose servant is healed. Tf this be truly the synapogue what stories could these stones tell of the discourses which One preached in their hearing, of the lance from that one which may have allen upon their pagan beautv, and yet as we turn to leave there greets us tho view of the lake and its distant shores which cannot have greatly changed, that view from these sands at our feet, where the divine bard of Patmos was wont, as a little boy, to haul in his fatherrs net. Now we seo Chorazin and now Beth- saida—Julias,, standing partly in Naph- thali and partly in Manasseh, the country east of the Upper Jorday. Not to be out- done by Herod's honoring Augustus at Samaria, or by Antipas naming his new and pet city Tiberias, Philip added the ~name of Cwsar's daughter to this Bethsaida. Al the lake scenery is full of the words and deeds of that life about which history itself turns. A storm coming up in the south peaks of of the walking on the sea; the men fish- ing, the parable of the net, the ruined synagoguo, of the healing of the demon- iac. Wasitnoton and ahout thislake that the multitudes were fed, the d seased made whole, the dead made alive? Was it not here that the aptestillustra- tions of the sower, the tares, the tribute money, the treasure, above all, the ser- mon on the Mount, were voiced by lips which spake as never man spake. ———— The Style tn Visiting Cards. New York Mail and Express: *Fashions change as much in visiting cards asin dress,’’ said the salesman in charge of the stationery department of an up- town establishment. ““The style of cards for men is very small, two sizes being used, asccording to the length of the name; the smaller of the two being 8} inchos long by 13 wide, 'I'ne next smaller size is used for single ladies, and is 8} inches long by 2 wide. Then comes the size for married women's cards. ‘These are consistent with umlrunl,)' dig- nity. They measure 4 inches by 24. There is still a larger size on which are en- Fmved the names of both the head of the nouse and his wife. These are the stand- ard sizez, and any variation from them must be made to order. The style of engraving used is now much plainer than formerly, when the old English, Roman and block letters were in vogue, The prcvnilm,i form is plain script. With men the Mr. is inyariably used and the first name given in full, name is often given, also. “This rule applies equally to young women's cards. Honorary titles for men aro always given, and for women's cards the address should not be omitted. The address should always be placed in the lower rifim-hand corner, and during the season the reception day is engraved in the lower left-hand corner. The mother’s and daughters’ names are sometimes pinced on the same card, the Kuung women merely app ing as *“T'he lisses,’’ with the family name appended. Crests are only uséd on the eards of foreigners. Americans have not yet reached that stage of meaningless fool ishness. There 1s a style of eard which 15 nearly square, but’ which from its awkward shape is rarely used. Black- edged cards are still fashionable for ladies in mourning. The rtic- ular style for business 13, except the rule 1s observed of making them us p a8 possible, The card of a diplomat of the first class bears the full titie of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten- tiary of the United States. PFAULTS of digestion cause disorders of the liver, and Lfie whole system becomes deranged. Dr.d. H. McLean's Strength- ening Cordial and Blood Purificr perfects the process of digistion and assimulation and thus makes pure blood. , The middle Bl agonTongueStyport of evener, and hook fng under'axle, the age. 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Consulting room No. 4., H" il g i L 8ee wat stamp lo cu Inside of Corset. YIELDS 70 EVERY MOVEMENT OF THE WEARER, fiy akrusin a Wit-clasn deslars. CHOTTY BROS., Chieago, 1L " I\ \ Attach 88 10 the undor wer draw boll, ool , Omuby, Neb, NNEH y Street, Illinois Conservatory of Music asiod advastages in ail Dopartimonts of igerature, Wodon Lang ungon. Klooutlan ¥. BULLALD, 8ubt., Jacksouvijie, A