Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, January 19, 1890, Page 13

HARD SCREENED COAL. Grate, Egg, Range, No. 4 and Chestnut. When your coal bin is empty give us a trial. Delivered $9.05 AND $10.00 PER TON THE OMAHA DAILY BEE: SUNDAY, ‘3ANUARY 19, 1800-SIXT EE PAGES. 13 ST PLACE YOUR COAL ORDERS WITH - EXPERIENCED AINND RELLIADBILE OUR LEADER Peacock COAL No Soot. makes a Quick,Hot Fire. It is the Coal .that makes Friends Wherever it Goes. $7 Per Ton, Delivered. 103 South (5th Street, Opposite Postoffice. Telephone 1490. Yard Office, Jones and 5th Streets. BEST QUALITY, CLEAN & PURE, LOWEST PRICES ‘ DURABLE Pearl COAL. This is a Good All Around Coal, for Cannon . Stoves, Cook Stoves and Grates. $5.50 Per Ton, Delivered. I &0 ELECTRICAL PROBLEM. f97hat Shall We Do with Our City Wires. {fHEIR MANIFOLD MENACES. Whe Dangers of Leaving Them Sus- pended in Airand the Difficul- ties Attending Their Burial Under Ground. Shall the Wires Go Under? The electric current as a carrier of energy has come to stay, and, although its mechanical apparatus is as yet far from perfect in economy, efficiency or safety, it has made, especially during the last five years, such wonderful ad- wvances that it must be deemed & per- manent improvement, certain to re- ceive rapid extension. Provision there- fore, must be made for it in municipal administration and engineering. In the extension of electrical distribu- [ tion,large cities have been brought into 'l contact. with serious evils and Omaha i has already experieuced some of them. ! These evils are: 1. The great nuisance of poles and . overhead wires disfiguring the streots and buildings and interfering with the work of firemen. 2. The danger of fire from their in- candescence and of death caused by the passage of the electric current through men or animals, No wire, however harmless in itself or ivs purpose, can be safe while there « is a chance that it may form a connec- tion for some destructive current com- municated to it by another wire. In fact, the telephone and telegraph wires, entirely harmiess by themselves, are in this respect the most dangerous of all because they are naked, while the high fi tension conductors, such as the electric light wires and the motor feed wires are more or less insulated. The disas- trous fusion of the switch board and other apparatus at the telephone oftice receutly is a good example of the dan- gers of the telophone wires. A high tension conductor, though completély insulated at every point but one, may, through contact ut that one point,render a great length of ordinary wire fatal at every poini ) man or beast touching it. A telephone or telegraph wire mlfs across an electrio light wire, saws through its insulation and receives its ocurrent. Some hapless victim touches, not the original conducror, but the naked secondary conductor with terrible results. Thisis the history of all accidental deaths by electricity uns recorded in the newspapers, In New York, Brooklyn, Washington and other eastern cities the people have become alarmed at the electrical mor- talities, and the decree has been made that all electrical conductors shall be ‘buried in vhe ground. But it is certain that in the present state of the science, high and low tension currents should not 5 bo placed in close proximity eitber 1 under or above ground. They should either be placed underground in en- tirely separate aud suitably protected systems, or one or the other should go ; underground. Apart from all other reasons the consideration of safety dic- tates as wide a sepuration of the two classes of conductors as possible. That all should be left to eross and tangle in } frowiug muugnouy above ground is ntolerable. By all means the tele- L reete————— o phone and telegraph wires will have to go underground, and their removal rom poles gnd houses will remove the greater part not only of the nuisance but also of the danger. For, when these numerous naked wires are out of the way it is perfectly possible to make the high-tension currents as safe us they would be underground, There has not yet been perfected a satisfactory storage battery or conduit system for the electrical railways and for the present at least the puolic will have to allow the overhead wires to re- main. It isa matter of afew months probably when some eolectrical expert will discover the solution of the conduit problem and the wires can be put under ground. 3 The electric light companies use com- varatively little wire. Mr. J. K. Soden of the Thompson-Houston electric light company of this city s that one cir- cuit wire is sufficient for tifty arc lights, while 2,000 incandescent lights with the alternating system can be supplied with but eight wires. 3 The placing of telephone and tele- graph wires underground is easy and the results satisfactory. Whether it can be done without financial ruin or embarrassment is a question, as the cost of perfect insulation is great. With tha telegraph companies the change would not be a hardship as their earn- ings are limited only by the capacity of transmissions. But a telephone wire earns only a rental and the contract with each sub- scriber is terminable on short notice, and it is plain, therefore, that unless a oity be provided with subways reach- ing every house and permitting the jin- troduction and removal of single wires without the disturbance of pavements, neither the telephone company nor the city could endure the requirement that all the wires be put underground. It is therefore evident that a part of a city telephone system will always be above ground, namely, the short ter- minal distribution to groups of subscrib- ers, Still this would not result in a hundredth part as much inconvenience and danger as the present system. In putting the wires under ground other problems arise and among these are: : 1, How shall the wires bunched to- gether in & subway be 1nsulated from each other and induction prevented and leakage into the earth avertea? 2, What can be done to prevent the dangercus accumulation of hydrogen and other explosive gases in the sub- ways? In the castern cities the box conduit of creosoted wood has proved most satis- factory as an insulator, although gutta percha and rubber which are used in many places have given satisfaction. Of the great durability of creosoted wood there seems to be uo question. Its elusticity makos it better than any con- crete or terra-cotta. It does not tear the lead upon the cables drawn into it, as both conerete and iron are likely to do; it permits a cgustruction leaving 1o joints liable to sug aud open by their own weight or under pressure, As to form, it is easily constructed and laid by ordinary workmen, permits the easy passage of cables, successfully resists all surlace pressure, presents a large c“'"w“f in moderate space, and cun be readily constructed to suit any capacity. i An objection is made by some that box conduits muy give an opportunity for the accumulation of explosive mix- tures through leakuge from gas pipes or other means. But ex- periments have rru\'ed that the comparatively small amount of gas ordinarily entering a subway can be removed by simply ventilating it, par- ticularly at maun holes through pipes or | boxes extending toa suficient %mxht. Thus the proper ventilation of the sub- way will reduce the danger from gas to a minimum. The question has been raised whether for high tension conductors it would not be better to use solid conduits pack- ing vhe insulated conductors in a muss of gsphaltic or other materinl which would admit neither gas nor moisture. - But it is urged ngainst this that all these solid conduits of various concretes are linble to crack somewhere sooner or later; cracks admit moisture and moisture is rapidly fatal to insula- tion. The Edison company in New York have their wires in cables of one, five or ten strands in iron tubes which are placed between thick insulators. The subways ave placed twelve or fourteen inches below the strect. Man-holesare placed at every block. The latest device for insulation is the use of flake mica in electrical conduits in a manner which is destined spoedily to work a revolution in this great field and accomplish results which have been sought after for years but which, as yet, have never been attained, It is well known that mica is a remarkable non-conductor and for that purpose it is used extensively in the manufacture of dynamos and = motors. But it was not until recently that, as the outcome of eluborate observations made by Messrs, Gould and Watson of Boston, flake mica could be mude a very desir- able and most effective insulation when used as a packing. The method of us- ing the flake is to pack it in the conduit containing the wires. The telephone, telegraph and other wires are covered merely with a single coating of cotton webbing. The meshes of the webbing become filled with flake mica. Con- densation within the conduit is effectu- ally prevented because the packing of the mica prevents the passage of damp air or changes of temperature in the conduit. The system 1s exceedingly simple and cheap, and meets the main objection of all telephone and telegraph companies uhout the expense of insulat- ing wires. The -local electrical experts recom- mend strongly that an electrical engi- neer be appointed for the city. The; insist that such a position is of as much importance as those of boiler and gas inspector and superintendents of build- ings. Whether the wiresare in the air or underground it is insisted that the safety of the public requires a compe- tent city electrician, an letter to the Cleveland If you chance to be vis- cican “baile,” quietly s ting on & bench minding your own busi- ness and watening the show, be uot be surprised if some bewitehing senorita with raven hair and roguish eyes trips lightly up to where you are ummg[ and unceremoneously smashes an egg over your head. Don’t be alarmed or frightened, but take it all in good purt. The egg is not addled, wor has it cou- tents of any kind save some sort of sweet smelling perfume, sachet powder, or perhaps bits of tine gilt paper,all of which drops about your head and shoul- ders in & perfect shower. This curious action is merely to show her preference for you, and means an invitation for you'to get up and dance with her, The ceremony described is to Mexican *‘bailes” as our German favors are to our ball rooms. This lit- tle diversion is carried toa harmless ex- travagunce at times, especially at private “baile” parties, when the eggs, possessing shells frescoed and deco- vated in the most delicate extremes of art, oftenjimes contain valuable con- tents and even gold dust. If the person who gives the ball is & man of wealth and consequence then the favors ure likely to be so costly as to reach the verge of extravugaut nousense. THE WORLD 0F WONANKIND Peep Into the Lives of the Wage Barners. ABOUT LOVE AND MARRIAGE. Mistakes Made in Choo:ing a Wile — Points for Parents—Indolent Wo~ men ot Guyamas — Young Drides Who Gush, The Lives of Working Women. These wage-earners are women with 1deas, high impulses, ambitions, and desires such as ail other women have, writes Miss Grace Dodge in Harper’s Bazar. Oue of the ladies who collected the above statistics, and who personally met and learned to know about the lives of over eleven thousand of the giris, was asked: ‘‘How muny of them have ambitions and an inner life of desire for better things; and how manv, if aided in the development, would turn out carnest, true women?” Quickly came the answer: ‘‘lKvery one. I have yet tomeet with a working girl who would not be lifted tq a higher level.” In- stance after instance was given by her of the heroic lives hundreds of them are now leading, and of the pleasant co- operative homes she had found. Many of us who have been honored by becom- ing the friends of our grand working sisters could echo her sentiments. No- where else can bo found in greater de- greo the noble impulse of heroism, self- sacrifice, patience, cheerfuluess and as- piration. All over the city, after a hard day’s work, thousands are gathered in evening scnools, working-girls’ socie- ties, or other rodms opened to them, where they can study and improve themselves, A lady visiting a down- town evenini; school ,saw a tired, sulky- looking girl busily engaged with "a copy-book. The teacher of the class said: **That girl comes: regularly cach night after eleven hours of work, and without any supper.” The lady paused by the girl’s desk, with the remark: “*Why do you come to school; are you not tired?” She lookéd up with a smile, saying: Wby, I must work, and I must also be educated, so what else can [ do? By-and-by, though, [am going to rest.’” How few girls in sheltered homes would have shown such coupage and ambition! Here is another instance: A girl was left as the, sole support and cave-taker eof an infirey father, and she shravely assumed the responsibility.«1 Risin, each morning between 4 and 5 o'clock, she made the fire, did the‘ household work (including washing),prepared breakfast, and after buying a paper for her frther and making him comfortable, began her day’s work at the loom before 7 o'clock. She worked in a silk factory and when the 12 o'clock whistle released her, she hurried home to prepare dinner, stop- ping at the butcher’s and grocer's on the way. The dishes were left to be washed up at night, for 1 v'clock must find her again ut her loom. At night, After praparinfi supper and clearing up tle house, she hud to get her father to bed, and it was after 8 o’clock before she was free. On certain nights of the week she would be found at a clpss where she could improve her mind, and on other nights she was busy caring for sick and tired neighbors. Bhe took out flowers, fruit. ete., for distribution from a club room, and was one who was always ready todo a kindly act. Love and Marriage. Love has a weakness for green peaches. I do not mean the real fruit; 1 speak metaphorically, suys a writer in the San Francisco Chronicle, When you go into the market you uaturally pick up the ripe peach and buy that. But when a man goes looking for a wife it seems somehow to be human nature to look for the green and unripe girl, and leave the ripened spinstor severely alone. I think myself—although I don’t know aunything at all about it—that girls should be left to ripen on the par- ent tree and plucked in the proper sea- son. A plump, fair, mature spinster should most eertainly be more ensily disposed of thap the green girl. But it is not so. Man, unthinking man, takes the bloom on the cheek for a fast color, and the naivete of youth for an everlasting cl ‘Women are taste- less when they are unripe and they harden with age. Marriage is simply a process of canning, and they keep their flavor for all their life if they are prop- erly canned. If this thing were more distinctly undorstood parents would have less difficulty with their children and a great deul of anxiety and labor, would be spared. 1n Europe the affec- tionate mother only lets one of her daughters out at a time and conceals the others until that one has been taken., It is an excellent plan, but it does, not always work well. 1t some- times gives the girl the flattering aspect of an only child, and if the father is rvich that is a very effective deception. In America they are so proud of them all that they putthem all on view as soon as possible and say: “Let the best girl win.” The result is a percentage of old maids, although no woman in America ever misses her last chance. It is somehow a knack they have of gettiog in in time. Zut a man generally objects to ma agirl the family want him to, and, generally speaking, the girl agrees with him. If people would throw at men’s heads the girl they don’t want him to marry and dexterously keep hack tne one they do want him to murry, they would mukoe a success of it every time. As they always put up the eldest, why, the youngest is the one that gets in and makes the trouble. I've no- ticefl that generaily the youngest of the girls wants to marry against her pa- rent’s wishes: I don’t know whether this isdue to a desire to have the eldest married first or a sincere opinion that she is too young, or.a valid personal ob- jection to the man in the case. On the other hand, the eldest girl is always amenable to the father and mother, She is obedient and goes willingly to the altar with the man they approve of* T don’t know whether tnisis because she can’t do apy better or she isafraid she will not get any husband at all, orif she really feels that her parents know best what is for their daughter’s hapi- ness, Of course girls always tell vou chey are going to be old maids. Thatis a subterfuge,an ambush that has cuught many 8 man, Many a fellow has “‘gone it strong” on that supposition, and fourd that the girl’s determination was not very deep. What a pity itis that other people are such fools that we can’t for 4 moment except their experi- ence as our own. But we are not fools. We make mistakes, but we are not fools, The Indolent Women of Guaymas Manual labor is considered dishonor- able for any but the lowest classes; and oor, indeed, must the aristocratic Mex - can become before he or she will con- sent to do any kind of work, indoors or out—in most cases I verily belleve they would prefer starvation, writes Fanoie B. Ward in a letter from Mexico. To GENUINE Walnut Bloeck Large and Coarse; daily arrivals. We Screen it Carefully. Delivered to any Part of the City. $4.50 PER TON. I be sure the ladies look after their households a little each day, aiter a fashion-—-that i3, they go around the casu and worry the multitude of ser- vants by ignorant orders; and most of them use the needle skillfully on lace work and embroidery. But for the most part their lives are spent in the hammock, ecating, slecping, smoking cigarottes in dainty silver holders, xmfi chatting airy nothings. They are all religious and regular churchgoers to morning mass and evening vespers, ob- serving all festas and doing whatever priest and confessor dictate. They read little or nothing, as a rule know nothing of the world beyond their limits of vision, and their highest idea of en- joyment is in dancing and sinless flirta- tion. Thore are a great many balls, and every evening there is informal dancing in somebody’s casa, It isthe universal custom everywhere in Mexico for neighbors and friends to ‘“‘drop in” of an evening without especial invita- tion, and always ‘*‘where two or three are gathered together” there is music and dancing, to which these light- hearted, pleasure-loving, warm-blooded people incline as naturally as ducks to water. As an incident characteristic of the place I may mention that coming to Guaymas once via the California Gulf the steamer arrived Monday morn- ing. [t was alter 9 o'clock when I went ashore with the captain, but we found everything shut up—the custoru-Louse, the postoffice,the stores; nobody stirring but the American consul, even the dis- tributer of the mails and the master of the post being cross and sleepy because disturbed so early. There had been a carnival ball the night before (Sunday), una young und old had danced till Mon- day dawning. . Mensured by John. Of all the men in the world perhaps the ove the most to be pitied is the newly-married one whose bride is in love with him, not in the shy, clandes- tine way thut makes her the sweetest creature and him the happiest man this sideof heaven,butin the whole-hearted, absorbed way that casts itsell to the four winds of heaven, and is as wreck- less of comment as the solac system, says o writer in the New York Evening Sun. There is one dear little creature whose admiration for her husband so pervades her mental atmosphere that she meuasures everything in life in vnits of John. She is a remarkably bright little woman, but she seems utterly in- capable of a mental operation whose middle term is not represented by John, “My new rooms are ton feet high,” she says, ‘*that is just four feet higher than John. Isball need curtains three yards long for my window s, *We were in Mexico on our wedding trip,” she further narrates, with the en- thusinsm that characterizes all she says and does, “‘and I learped to ride. [ rode the dearest little broncho you ever saw—a wee little fellow. He was just balf as” high as John, and dido’t weigh much more. And in Chicago, on our way home, we went to Barnum’s circus. We saw Jumbo— such a ponderous.big mountaiv of meat. Why, he weighs tons and tons more than John and is three times as tall, I am sure. Aud John—you know just how dear and sweet and kind he always is,”—(one catchesone’s breath at this)— “bought me the most deligious red tea- gown in Chicago that you ever saw. A red gown is not very becoming to me, you know, but it makes John look like a Spanish cavalier—when [ wear it and sit beside him, I mean.” And s0 on, while the adjectives pile uY‘ the fall over by their own weight, like the tall houses the children build. It is a supreme dehght to the little bride, and certainly very pleasing to an e e s audience, but one sometimes wonders ;vhnt, John would say if he could only hear it. Are Women recenary? A recentnmumber.of the Chicago Trib- une denotes a column to considering whether women are mercenary, and to what extent money affects their choice of husbands. The points made are that women are no more mercenary than they ought to be, that if women held as an abstract truth that no pecuniary con- sideration ought to weigh with them at all in the choice ofa husband, we should have infinitely more instances of matri- monial disaster than at present; that it is a matter of congratulation that young women are strougly,influenced b, the conventionalities among whic they are brought up; that the desire to marry well often proves the touch-stone by which unconsciously a young woman is enabled to take the true measure of her feelings toward a suitor. *‘If the feeling overcomes the conventions she need not be afraid to trust it; but if nos in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred the passion was simply a delusion from which she will some dn,}' thank heaven she escaped in safety.” Considering the fact that so many women have not money nor the power to make it,and that in the past they have looked forward to marriage as the only way to establish themselves, *1t is as inevitable for women to imagine that they want rich husbunds as it 18 for curates to long to be bishops, clerks to be merchants and lawyers to be judges. In the abstraot, then, the majority of women will alwayi desire husbunds possessed of wealth uug power, just as most men are themselves eager, in the abstract, for the same things,” Women and Biography. “People are reading a great deal more biography than they used to,” said a bookseller the other day to a reporter forthe Chicago Herald, “*and biograph is paying the publisher nearly us wc{l as fiction today. ‘It is noticable also that there is & marked increase in the number of women who are buying biography. Where we used to sell one volume to a woman now we soll five. With the bet~ ter class of women readers—women of culture and iutelligence—it is quite a rival to fiction, *What kind of biography do women read? The lives of other women, for the greater part, ‘Marie Bashkirtseft,’ for instance, is seliing rapidly, and Miss Alcott’s *Life and Letters’ is one of the [ast-selling books of the year, and nearly all the copies of both these books are bought by women. Women seem t be most interested in their own sex. It was well known to the book dealers when the life of Nathanie! Hawthorne was written by his son that the sale of the books was increased one-third by the addition to the title of his wife's name.” Wept at Weddings. A lady in Detroit has a German girl who has a large cirele of friends, among whom there is occasionally a wedding whieh vhe girl atiends, says the Free Press of that city, On one such oceasion her mistress noticed that she was care- ful 1o pravide herself with two handker- chiefs. “What is that for, 'Gusta?” she in- quired. *0, I carry one, I ory with one,” was the answer. f . “But, "Gusta, you should not cry at a wedding,” said the lady. ‘“Yes'm, we must,” answered the girl, I T went to my friend’s wedding and not ery, she get mad. I must polite be.” An idea of politéness not at all bad, e Portia fans of white ostrich feathors with flower centers aud joweled haudles are very fasbionuble.