Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, October 21, 1888, Page 12

21 1838, —-SIXTEE Never overvalue any article they quote in the papers There is so much “Buncom” in the general style of advertising that it is hard to discriminate between the real and fictitious. Barr's have no need to resort to such methods, their goods and prices speak for themselves to every intelligent pur- chaser. When Barr's make any special mention of prices on goods may depend upon them being just as represented. Our success in the past has been achieved in that way. We are meeting with the same succes you bought way below their value, s here by following the same rule. OOD GOODS at LOW PRICES Being constantly in the market looking for SPECIAL DRIVES we have something new and cheap to offer you at all times. visit. We call your attention to three of our departments, namely: { The express companies and freight lines bring new additions to our store every day, so you can't help finding bargains in all our departments every time you pay us a Millinery, Cloaks and House Furnishings. These departments have been patronized by the people of Omaha and vicinit extent and we are anxious ALL should visit them and get some of the Novelties and Bargains there. INTELLIGENT INVESTIGATION PAYS. Wm. Barr Dry Goods Co., Sixteenth and Douglas Streets. to an unusual THE RACE OF THE IRON HORSE. Facts and Figures of Modoern Rail- road Affairs. YOU CAN TRAVEL ON YOUR TRUNK An 0ad Coincidence—Less Risk But More Responsibility —A Phenome- nal Railroad Year—The Demand for Cars. You Can Travel on Your Trunk. Indianapolis Journal: *‘Do you know that if a man has a heavy trunk he can sometimes travel a long” distance on a railroad without a ticket or any mouney?” said & young man yesterday who had recently made his way back from Texas with but a few dollars “When I reached St. Louis I had but 5 cents in my pocket and [ did not know a man there [ could ask for a loan, I went to the ticket agent, and, muking known my condition, asked him how [ could get to Indianapolis. ‘Have you a trunk?’ he asked, told him that I had, ana he said he would introduce me to the conductor, When the conductor came up I was introduced, and he asked me for the cheok to my trunk, which [ ave him, and he then gave me a small icket which he said would get my trunk in I[ndianapolis. I asked him how much the trunk would cost me when I went to get it out, and he said $7. Well. I got through all right, but when I presented the ticket . for the trunk it cost me $9 instead of 87. have been wondering ever since who got that money, but I didn't care, for [ was glad to get back to Indianapoiis even on those terms.” An 04d Coincidence. Commercial Advertiser: From Birm- fngham, Ala., comes a_weird story of two friends—George White, engincer of a fast passengor train, and Bob White, foreman in the machine shops of the Louisville & Nashville road. They had a habit of making each other [ pretty gifts, and this summer the machinist constructed a out of the common asa present to the engincer. When finished he setit run- ping to insure perfectness, and for awhile it ticked away as merrily as you please. Suddenly, “without cause’ or warning, it stopped at 2:39 a. m., but mothing was thought of it till next day, when nows came that exactly at that hour its prospective owuer had been killed in an accident,and the oddest part of all is that no amount of starting or regulation since has ever been able to make the clock run puast that fatal minute, T Less Risk, But More Hesponsibility. Globe Democrat: The running of a locomotive is hecoming a position of more responsibilsty, while the dangers of the position are becoming less. And with these changes the more impertant it is becoming to have competent men on the foothourd. A few years ago the engineer bad no air-brake to take care of, but he might got killed for the want ofono. If he wanted to stop bad he whistled “*‘down brakes,” put hev in the “breechin’’ and waited for the brake men to get in their work. Now every improvement puts morve cares on his head and hand. He has the care of and handles a complicated brake, he is re- sponsible for llxu observance of a thou- sand signals, the heat of the cars has been asked from his supply, and he will 00n have another little engine and a dynamo to care for, yet with all these ings to look after,” unless one stops to shink for a moment, an engiueer is looked upon as & man who has asoft snap. Flattering Outlook. Globe-Democrat: Tha last quarter of the year promises to bo a phenomenal one for the railroads, affording a remark- able contrast to the light business and meager revenues of the carlier portions of the year. They are now beginning to handle the largest amount of traffic that was ever offered to them, and with rates generally restored to a remuner: tive busis. there is no reason why earn- ings for the next few months should not be equal, if not greater, than any ever vecorded for a similar period. All the roads east and west are short of cars and every wheel that can be turned is in motion. Under such circumstances the companies are not likely to furnish any motive power for cut-rate competi- tion, if they can possibly avoid it. It is easy to see that, with good paying rates and all cutting done away with, a larger mileage than ever before and all the traffic that can possibly be handled with this increased inileage, and move effi- cient equipment, the last quarter of the year can scarcely iuil to be one of unex- ampled prospevity. The railroads have made the worst showing they can this vear. It must be admitted, however, that, while all is serene in other qua ters, the situation east of Chicago is ratlicr slow in righting itseil, and some of the managers ure growing very im- patic ¢ call the perverse of the Pennsylvania road in refus- ing to restore the rate on grain. Th is a good deal of doubt as to the atti- tude of the Pennsylvania, which is just now more of an enigma to the other roads than it er has been before. Some of them say it does not know its own mind. Certuin it is that the other lines do not know what it wants, and are somewhat suspicious of its motive in adhering to the low rate. The cu ous part of it is that the Pennsylvania is apparently making no effort to secure the grain traflic, and other roads are veully currying tho greater portion of it. But whatever stumbling-blocks there aro in the way of full settlements, 1t will be found that better rates and good protits will come with the enor- mous husiness ahe: The Car Demand. Globe-Democrat: There {5 one great annual ebb and flow in the demand for railvoad cavs. The active senzon gen- erally opens about September and ¢ tinues for porhaps six months. During this period the demund for the supply, Then comes months of compar which side-tracks are often incumbered with long lines of empty and unused cars. It is the movement of the great crops simultaneouly in all parts of the country that swells the demand of cars in the autumn to an excess of the sup- ply. In regions wheve this traffie of the earth's annual products constitutes the main business the difference between dull and busy seasons is of course most 1 lked, and in districts of neous trattic the lines of often almost ‘bbliterated, and™n approximate uniformity the year through tkes their place. But on an lative demand for carson roads in north varies for seasons as two and three. T suffice te move the freig road in April it may be expected thut in October 3,000 cars will be r quired. Iu the south, because of the relative impor the cotton crop, the difference is greater. If 1,000 cars are ample in summer 2,000 will be needed in winter. Most railroads have more cars than their minimum require- ment and fewer thun their maximum veeds, The recent failure of the per diem car charge and the compleie return of all miscell nee of lines to the mileage system of rental for foreign cars diminishes the chances of a road keeping its own cars, for the cost to other roads for retaining them is less. When acar now once leaves the line of road that owns it, it never returns until loaded, and is often de- tained for months for local business. Southern roads, from their greater needs, “steal” more cars during this scason than their northern neighbors. Leta car once get beyond the Ohio river and it is useless to hope for its re- turn before spring. General managers may promise to_rcturn it promptly, but once in the southern service it success- fully eludes all efforts for recapture, and the owner must content himself with the mileage. A car tracer re- cently went after one of his missing cars and found it at last down in a remote corner of Texas, where the enterpris- ing borrower had converted it into a station house for a new town. A post- oftice was established in one end anda country store for the other, It required cousiderable diplomacy to oust the ten- ants, but the car tracer finally won his point. Under the mileage system the possessors had no rent to pay. A Venerable Locomotive. Kenesaw Gazette: is not twenty steps from the leviathan locomotive, Governor Joseph Brown, now re- ceiving the finishing touches in the lo- comotive paint shop of the Western & Atlantic railroad, in Atlanta, Ga., to another locomotive, dilapidated, com- paratively insignificant, exposed to the elements, without shelter or carve. It is the North Carolina, and the legend on its boi front reads M. W. BALDWIN 1852, Philadelphia, Pa. Western & Atlantic rvailroad thirty-six years ago, and at that time rated as one of the finest locomotives in the south. Master Mechanic Collier ola * p heap” mecurnfully, and with wsigh said: T would regret tosee her broken up. I passed wood on her in 1858 Ull keep her here as long as I can —she’il do to pump water with in case of accident to the waterworks.” M Collier says he presumes the North Ca olina is the oldest locomotive in the south, She was used during the war, huuling refugees to places of safety, but has not been in active service of late vears. As compured with a locomotive She is certainly @ curiosity. Stanford t Globe-Democra It may be stated on first-rate authority that Senator Leland Stanford, one of the four foundersof the Southern Pacific company. will soon re- sign the presidency of the company, which he has held continuously for a quarter of a century. The annual meet- ing takes place early next winter, and it is then that Stanford will retire. He will ach New York next Saturday from Europe, where he has been trying the watersat Hamburg and Baden with- out much eflect. His health and strength are seriously impaired, and he desires to give his time to the manage- ment of the new university at Palo Alto, which is a memorial of his dead son. This university will probubly he opened to students early next year. Mord, it i has only a few millions of d stock of the Southern Pacific. r of th heirs founde i the which is managed by tetire. Colonel Charles Fred Crocker, the man who is generally regarded as most eligible to the position of the president. He was thoroughly trained by his father in all the details of railroad business, und he has doveloped executive ability of u high order. For several years Stanford has done very the railroad office: have devolved on old and trusted official, who was lately made Stanford’s assistant in the man agement. The Southern Pacific, though the gross earnings are very large, docs not pay as good an income as many eastern roads. The reason is because the high officers draw unusually large salaries, and because so much railroad building is being done. They pay well, and the company’s salary list includes some big salariés, the president (Stan- ford), vice president (Huntington], and second vice president (Crocker) all get 825,000 yearly each. Timothy Hoplkins draws $15,000, Stephen Gage, Stan- ford’s assistant, gets 812,000, while a half dozen others, including the counsel receive $10,000. The business of the road is growing so rapidly that the com- pany has been unable to meet the de- mand for freight carriage this year,and the prospect is that another year will witness an even greater development of overland trafle, of which this great sys- tem gets the lion’s share. ttle work at Most of his duties hen T. Gage, an Tabalating the Accidents. In every well-regulated railroad of- fice, says the Globe-Democrat; there is a department where an exhaustive rec- ord is kept of every accident, trival or gerious, that occurs on the property of the company. The record is keptasa necessary protection against unjust damage suits. Experience has demon- strated that quite often a suit will be instituted against the company several years after the injury complaived of has been received, and at a time when the witnesses to its occurrence have either been forgotten by the company or have themselves forgotten the occurrence in its essential particulars. In consequen; the defence of the company has bee lame and halting when, in the estima- tion of the company, it might have been better. Now, when an accident occurs, be it only the mashing of some poor brakeman’s thumb, the unbending rules and regulations require that each em- ployo give a written’statement of the affair, and if the accident be serious that the names and statements of other witnesses also be. procured. These are flled for future reference, to be used as cirvcumstances may require. In a ponderous folio ave carefully indexed the names of all persons iujured killed, with their residence, the place of accident, ete. Thisbook on a L.rge railroad system is rapidly filled with names, for each day!brings a number of casualtics. It is a'gory record. Per- haps half the total cusualties occur to trainmen while coupling cars, but the is & prentiful sprinkling through th list of tramps falling henkath the wheels, of passengers injured while alightin from or boarding a train in motion, mnfi many other varieties. Some are pecu- liar. Hero is an instadce: Following tne address of a cduntry physician in the record of a local road is the single announcement. **Stood out in the rain and caught cold,” ete., a curious entry indeed. The history of the case is that the country physician, one damp raw evening in December, tramped e patient’s residonce to & lonely railway station und arrived in a state of profuse perspiration, The station was locked and the passenger was compelled to await his train by standing out in & drizzling rain. He caught a severe cold from exposure, sued the railrond company, and settled his case for $1,600. - A bachelors' club, ory 1zod at Bentou- ville, Ark., is to impose a heavy fine on mem- bers unmarried at the end of 1889, excoyting those who can give satisfactory evidence that they have proposed and been rejacted three times during the year. AMONG THE ELECTRICIANS. Development of the Great Agent of Modern Civilization. ELECTRIC POSTAL RAILWAY, Use of the Electric Light in Fishing— Electric Cable Road—Use of the Phonograph — Bhocks and Flashes. A New Electric Postal Railway. Electrical Worla: The Sprague Elec- tric Railway and Motor company is now building for the Electro-Automatic Transit company, of Baltimore, three twenty-five horse-power railway motors of aspecial type for operating a car on the last named company's experimental road. This road hus been erected at Laurel, about twenty-five miles out ‘of Baltimore, and carries three rails, one above the car for carrying the current, and two below, which support the car and constitute the return circuit. The motive power for this road will be sup- plied entirely by eloctricity, and the cars will be controlled and brakes applied by the same power. FEach car is built of sheet iron,1s two feet square and about twenty-one feet long. Two cars constitute a train,and when joined, they are connected after the vestibule pattern by a flexible connection the size of the cav itself. The speed which it is expected to attain is five miles per minute. It is the intention to soon build two roads for carrying mails and other light freight, one between Balti- more and Washington and the other be- tween St. Paul and Chicago. Use of the Electric Light in Fishing. Many attempts,says Engincering have recently been mude to employ the elec- tric light asa means of attracting fish woa particular place so as to facilitate their capture. The arvangement gen- erally adopted has been to plunge an incandescentlamp in the water, connec- tion being made by leads with some source of electricity on board the fish- ing craft. When, however, this ar- rangement is adopted in deep-sea fish- ing, it is found that tho mains to the lamp are very liable to foul the fishing appliances or the cable of the vessel. Iu short, it has been found to maintain a permanent ion with a lamp plunged to a considerable depth below the surface of the water. M. Paul Regnard has got over this difficulty by adopting a lamp worked by & primary battery, the whole hich” can be tossed overboard and reclaimed at some future time. The battery used consists of six Bunsen cells, in which, however, the nitric acid is replaced by chromic acid. These cells run a small Edison lamp. ¢ Electrical World: Reports come from Switzerland of a novel combination of the electric and cable systems on a road up the Burgenstock, Current 15 trans- mitted three miles to‘the road from a couple of twenty-five-horse-power dyna- mos driven by water power, and the dynamos, charging accumulators for thé purpose, operate two motors sta- tioned at the head of the road, which is 938 metres in length, The motors are connected with and drive a rope system which bauls two cars upand lowers them. Each car will carry fifty or sixty persons. [t might be mentioned that the same water power furnishes current for lighting the big hotel and pumpiug up spring water by motor, but the chief point to us lies in “the suggestiveness of the first application. Such a plan as this might well be adopted on strect car lines which happen to include a steep grade or two, for it would ce tainly avoid the necessity of subord- nating the whole plant to'the require- ments of a few short sections. Use of the Phonograph. Blectrical World: Whatever may have been the criticisms against the old phonograph, the conviction must force itself upon those who have studied the subject, that with the rapid improvements that are going on in the phonograph and graphophone, their use will become general in a short time. Tho experience of those who use the instruments for the first time is no guide in any way asto their values, because, as in the caseof the telephone, it requires a little practice to become accustomed to interpret the sounds which emanate from the cyhinder. Once acquired, however, the reading from the phonograph is as simple a matter as the reception of a message over the telephon and, indeed, in some cases far easie Electric Tramways in Salt Mines. Science: In the new Stassfurt (Ger- many) mine an electric tramway has been in operation since January, 1884. It was built by Siemens & Halske, and wus a success from the start. The en- gine is of twenty-horse power, and is placed above ground at the mouth of the shaft. The dynamo is compound wound, and gives about forty 3 of 800 volts. The current through cables to the tram-line, a d tance of 410 meters. The motor is sup- lied from overhead iron conductors,in- sulated from the ground. The motor is simply one of the well-known type of Siemens dynamos, placed horizontally on a car to economize space. The dyni- mo supplies about twenty-horse power of encrgy, the motor gives about ten- horse-power—an _efliciency of only 50 per cent. The weight of the wagons Lo he drawn is about 2,500 pounds, and there ave sixteen in a train. The mean speed of ahout one hundred words per minute, . Messages, to be sent over tha Morsq lines, must be written or printed; but & message to be telegraphed by the new system must be perforated, for which Mr. Craig has a beautiful littlo may chine, 8x10 inches, with two banks of keys, called a *‘composer,” which even a child can operate reliably and quite expertly after an hour's practice, snd after a reasonable amount of practic fifteen to thirty words per minute can be perforated, Simultaneously with the perforations the maching prints, in plain Roman letters, every word of the message, which is ro- tained, while the perforated message is sent to the telegraph office the same as a message is sent in manuscript to bo telegraphed over a Morse line, with this difference—the. machine message will bo transmitted at the vate of 1,000 or 2,000 words per minute, and be legible and nvourmul{ record i telegraph characters, and the Morse message will be telegraphed by the haud-key system at the rate of fifteen to twenty-fiva words per minuto and be recordod by “*sound"’ rveading in ordinary mand- script. It is claimed that the machine record is three times more accurate than ‘‘sound" recording. With the regular office perforator exe perts do, reliably, fifty words por min- ute, or 8,000 per” hour, and it is claimed by Mr. Craig that the actual cost of transmitting 1,000 words 1,000 miles is not over 2 cents. The cost of paper to perforate 1,000 words is 1 cent, and 2 cents for rocords ing paper. Expert young men or young ladics, do perforating for 10 conts per 1,000 words and the same for copy- ing on the typewriter—total, 25 cents for completing 1,000 words. On this basis it would cost for lubor and paper less than 850 to telegraph and complete forty-eight columns of this newspaper from New York to Chicago. Mr. Craig hasalso devised a new tele- graph wiremade of pure copper with & ght mixture of silica, which is said to increase the tensile strength to twice the strength of steel of equal size, tha et tensile strength be eportod 000 pounds to the squ is about six miles per hour. This line is not in any way so efficient as those that can be put up to-day, but some fig- ures as to the cost of working are of in- terest, especially as the road has been long enough in operation to allow an accurate estimate to be made. In 1824, 176,196 trucks were handled, and the working cost, including all items, wages, fuel, ete., with 15 per cent for interet and’ depreciation, was 10.1 pfennig (about Z#c) per truck, while the cost be- fore had been 20 pfennig (5¢). In 1887 the figures are still more favorable, ns the underground electric way had been considerably incrensed. The cost was plennig (about 2e) per truck, or 12.92 plennig per kilometer ton, as compared with 84.2 pfeunig per kilometer ton by human labor, which the electricity dis- placed. 1If the few electric tramways in mines that are now in operation in this country were investigated as to cost, it would be found that their economy is as great as that given above, It isonly a question of a fow years when mule and man poweér in mines will be replaced by electric motors. Machine Telegraphy of To-day. New York Sun: Mr. D. H. Craig, formerly manager of the Associated Press. has devoted nineteen yours to | the development of machine telegra- ply, and claims to be able to telegraph 2,000 words per minute from each end of a wire, a total of 4,000 words in sixty seconds. ; The messages or reports are legibly and uniformly’ focorded in ordinary tel- egraph characters, which can be read by clerks familiar with them at the rate No. 4 gauge wire we pounds per mile, and b ctrieal wire, to San Francise, the ance would be abou a majority of tho teleg tween New York and W, an electrical resistan 4,000 ohms—thus the n siliconized copper wire will bring San Francisco neaver to New York, electrically, than New York is to Washington. Y Mr. Craig's apparatus is now on oxhi« bition at Washington, in a room in the capitol near the sonate chamber, — = The most efficacious stimulant to ex- oite the appetite is Angostura Bitters, the genuine of Dr.J. G. B. Siegort & Sous. ona_onm With eloctrical resist 000 ohims, while aph wires be- shington show of more than e Why They Preferred it. Minneapolis Tribune: They mot in & restaurant and fell into conversation about their lunch. *‘Ah me,” said tho first, “‘the approach of winter saddens me. I would it were always summer." “Now I,” replied tho other, *like the winter season. In winter I regain my henlth, enjoy life, meet friends and have a jolly time, which I never do in summer," “What is your business?" “Iam an umpire. What is yourst” “I am a suow shoveler.” AR S Horsford's Acid Phosphate, For Indigestion, and discaves Dyspepsia, incident thereto,