Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, November 10, 1901, Page 15

VIAD Viaducts an Outgrowth of Commercial Necessi UCT AS A PLAYGROUND FOR THE CHILDREN OF LITTLE I'TALY - Photo by a Staff Artist, VER since the day some centurte manent congestton of tratlic is completely ago when the bold Sir William avoided Wallace of Scottish legendary and Again, a bridge reache out span after fiction bore his Lady Helen safely pan, with great empty arched opening across a raging torrent on i bhencath each, and the reason why it is not slender slippery elm lo hat spanned th built solidly from the bottom y oall s chasm, leaving a band lawless rufflans length s because it is impossible to cross standing baflled at the other end of the he obstacle contemplated in such a man uncert erial pathway, the high standing nper. A viaduet, on the other hand, is open of bric 18 conservers of the public bene below solely for the benetit of the trafme fit and guardians of the common weal has passing underneath, as otherwise, as far as been a matter of general concession, That topography is concerned, it could be built the noble Sir William, however, thought up as a highroad from end to end of his fallen tree trunk in the light of a In the United States has occurred the va artery for the conduct of the flood of ost extensive expr ion in practice of general traflic is to be doubted. But be thig sentiment toward the expedition of that as it may, the fact remains that since raffic The wholesale use of viaducts in the day when primeval man first learned (his country can be duplicated nowhere in that stepping across a ditch was easier than c¢limbing down in it and up the other side and applied this knowledge to larger, deeper and wider chasms, the value and di- versity of the overhead hanging pathway have been matters of mere progressive de- velopment Sof was ( expression the world br rom the rude tree trunk crossway that loubtless the first form in which this of a new principle appeared, of men has advanced to a stage idge building at which the labor has become an art to him who understands it and a profound mystery or yet a miracle to the one unversed in details of engincering But easily the most marvelous feature of this wonderful institution, bridges, is the viaduct branch of the subject Bridges cross gulehes, rivers, canyons and mountain torrents in deep ravin , thus carrying peo- ple casily over obstacles that would other- wise be of the gravest nature But the viaduct leads men over men, traffic over traffic and by%this disposition of humanity and its accompanying commodities at dif ferent localities what would otherwise be hopeless interference resulting in the per he world in similar pro tiot Ihey omnipresent Every city has the ind 1eost of the sn wnd there | ta wlroad center in the land, large « mall, that t its quota of viaduet Omaha itself no means scantily & plied In fu it has more viaducts than the avera v oof . ind th 1 I'he viaduet is an i fon which fr I very nature follows railroad I i 1 born of them Wherever there i oncentration of ratlroad trafli near a ke colligation of population a via luct become i essentinl feature i necessity, however, depends directly uy the latter element of the combination \ mall number of people may b ingen to a great expan of 1 wl trackag ind no viaduet will he ne hecause the nt of traffic over those tracks will no be suflicient to delay either the trains or the people. In the s way a great ma of humanity will require a viaduct to cro even one track for he traflic will be o constant that either the trains or the peo ple would be compelled to cease movemer it that point alto her without it Omaha a railroad center and its tua tion with respect to both the tracks and its outlying and ining districts is such that many viaducts are needed Railroad tracks not only surround this conflux of life but also eteh it back and forth and in and out and acre So all the conduits of trade are ntercepted at least once and viaduets are necessary at those points a well as at others where the railroads them selves cro Despite thi the railroad have demurred to a greater or le degres on every proposition advanced by the eity for a viaduct in the course of its progres and this fact alone makes interesting th history of the big hridges in Omaha It was in 1886 that, after due municipal finesse had been exercised and moral sup port on the purt of citizens demonstrated Omaha secured its first viaduet, the old wocden structure on Sixteenth street that TWENTY-FOURTH Artist, STREET VIiADUCT TAKEN MAY 24, 1501-Photo by a Staff FTWENTY-FOURTH STREET VIADUCT -« 1901 Photo by a Staff Artist was replaced by a new one a year ago. This nitial attempt was an up and down affair conforming to the general undulations of the ground bencath it instead of being buil on one levell There are no longer viaduet in Omaha with rolling surfaces, however I'his Sixteenth street viaduet is still the longest in the city, some 1,500 feet I'he first one had only a twenty-foot roadway with six-foot walks on either I'he present bridge has a roadway thirty-five and a half feet in width, with sidewalks five feet wide I'he next year another viaduct was bullt also of woc This is on Eleventh street and still stands It is of the twenty-foot width Nothing more was done until 1500, when the Tenth street viaducet was constructed This is casily the most extensive affair of them all and the most expensive in con truction. It is eighty feet in width over all, having a sixty-foot roadway and ten foot walks. It is little more than 1000 long, but the cost was about $100,000 After that the replacing of the Sixteenth street vinducet in 1900 was the only extensive work of the kind done till the present year when the Twenty-fourth street viaduet was built This is of the thirty-five-foot width and is 1,050 feet long Of the four big bridges the one on Sixteenth street is the nearest perfectly level, there being a slope of only six inches to 100 f But in addition to these large viadu there are a great many smaller ones tha have been constructed at different time ince I8N The longest is the one of mixed wood and iron construction which cross the tracks in the south part of Omaha on the boulevard near the Krug brewery, Thi I8 600 feet in extent, beginning at about Twenty-seventh street and running west A little way northwest at Thirty venth and Center streets is another overhead via duet, crossing the Missouri Pacific track WENED FOR TRAFFIC NOVEMBER 1 ' el owe on Centey reet I'he Ta notl | s along Hamilto reet IForty ond, cro ne the e raklway I'h her " everal i owhich th Wil road runs underneath and the train OV vl 'he handsomest one of th he one of Hd masonry abutments aw iy out north on Sherman aver where th matn track of the Missouri Pacific rail Way goes over. A simpler o ol iron may be found at the point where the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley track crosses Thirticth street, near Grand avenue Coming down to the heart of the elty there are four of these underneath cros ings within eight blocks of cach other and two of the big viaducts are in the same ter ritory, makimg almost a crossing for every bloek. Thes maller ones are located at Sixth, Seventh, Thivteenth and Fourteenth treets down in the Pacific and The of the lington croft main yards Burlington of the Union roads next overhead and treet et vinduet contemplated variety Pacitic block This Twenty will be the Bur tracke on Ban north of the viaduet will ex INth street to a eventh and Twenty crossing Union just six bridg neatr Center tend point cighth from between Twenty treet In least the case of of a double purpose is life of the has been is not the served bridges, at The briet viaduet that 1t also the tructure district ewarthy In young Fwenty-fourth treet suflicient th for directly demaonstrate i ‘Thi Italian find the the roadway from 200 up. The of ary only o roughfare children over th day will playing ranging are so expert at that it them the afety, numerous that pliayground CrOsses md any Httle children numbers ter elve hid own warm taking car he them will biridgs nor at they not neet for the all unle block traflic to for- of thetr get 8o they Episodes and Incidents in the Lives of Noted People ALI'H D, BLUMENFELD, London correspondent of the Brooklyn Euagle, writes as follows: “Hero worship is a capricious thing. Here is poor General Baden-Pow- ell back from the triumphs of Mafeking, where his deeds electrified the nation ana made him the most popular man in England since the time of Waterloo. He goes about London practically unnoticed If he had come home a year ago he would have been mobbed and hugged and feted by delirious crowds of admirers. Baden-Powellism was a fever, an epidemic It has completely burnt itself out, and not only is the gal- lant general a mere memory with the pub- lie, but he has also been made to taste the bitterness of official and royal dis War Office was not overjoyed The they King. into making him a major general public, ever cager to load it leasure t what called theatrical defense of Mafe- Public opinion, however, forced them Then the favorites with his honors and glory, looked to the queen to confer upon him the well-deserved knight- hood, but it did not come And the reason of it was that Baden-Iowell had usurped a royal prerogative in having substituted his portrait on the Mafeking siege stamps for that of the sovereign. The late queen nevs er forgave him the presumption and so when B, came home the other day and called, naturally enough it Marlborough house to pay his respects to the Kking, the hero of Mafeking was turned away! . The late James G. Blaine frequently ex- gited wonder by the way in which he ap- M\"unml\ remembered face Jozeph Cham- berlain, the English politician, shows sim- ilar facility, gained perhaps by means which Blaine is alleged to have used. He was passing the lobby in the House of Commons once and cordially greeted a member whom he had not scen for a long “Wonderful memory for names he said the member to a friend. “Yes," was the chilly answer he asked me yes- terday who you were The ameer of Afghanistan was one of the shrewdest and strongest men of his time. When the amount of the British sub- being fixed sidy was with him it was ex- plaincd that he must do this and that and the other ‘You remind me,” said the ameer, “of a Persian tale. A certain man took a piece of cloth to a tailor and said: Make me a morning dress out of ft and an evening dress—and, while T think of it, a working The tailor did his best and brought them all as he was told. But they were of doll's size. What more could he do with the cloth?” The ameer was not coat.” a great admirer of the British system of government. On one occasion a very high personage was conferring with him and saild in relation to some matter: “That is a very grave question and I must refer it to her government." The who did not clearly distingiigh the parts of majesty's ameer, the British constitution, replied: “When you ask me a question I am able to answer it at once; when 1 ask you one you say you must first consult 700 other gentlemen, I prefer our Afghan way of doing busi- ness,"” In connection with the fact that Booker T. Washington recently dined with the president, it is recalled that during Mr, Cleveland's first administration the late Frederick Douglass was invited to one of the congressional receptions, together with his Caucasian wife, then his bride And John €. Brown, the democratic governor of Tennessce, as far back as 1873, when he gave a banquet at the Maxwell house, Nash ville, had among the invited guests on that oecasion Sampson Keeble, a negro repre entative from Davidson county, who not only attended the banquet, but responded to o toast . John Uri Lloyd, chemist by profession and author by avocation, recently told of an incident by which he was enabled to bring together two sisters, separated by the civil war, who believed each other dead In “Stringtown on the Pike he repro duces a scene where, a mere lad, he stood by the pikeside and watched a troop of Morgan's raiders gallop by, singing as they went, “The Girl of the Homespun Dress.' In the book the author used the first copy of the song that was at hand. Immediately he was flooded had misquoted it that he aceurate with letters Wi saying hing to be he published a statement to the effect that he would pay $100 for the true copy of the ong. This ouly created more trouble, as there are many variations of it Among those what two ending the original verses were Philadelphia and one of stated that cheir dead sister, St. Clair of Atlanta, had written In answering one of them Mr tioned the other sister. He ceived reply from her to he had stating that she thought the other ter dead and asking him to send the ad Mr. Lloyd did thi and lately that they had been reunited after five years' of proved to be ters, one of who Belle S0nK men re £l \tlanta, Clara the Lloyd at whom once a written si dre learncd thirty separation . known year of the best public men in Germany and for thirty the leader of the G brated his seventieth 20 at Frankfort founder and editor was Leopold Sonneman, one rman democracy, celo birthday on October the-Main He is the of the “Frankfurter for more than twenty the Relchst in which of the most ecarnest wlvocates of of the gold largely du parhament hropist ar and the itung,”" and years a he wa sful Woption member of ug body one and Heees The ideas in G in the known as progressive tandard cfforts well liberal wis to hi He 15 @ it German « philan friend of clence fine The abstainer total all inthimate Wurtemberg, rank of the the only ted monarchs VOUIE of Holland refuse queen ostentatiously Her of over the aid to be reigning Sultan of Turkey tells gre is a and to take Prince her teetotalers on occasion friend, hy Alne most Pauline wi won 10 She | totaler Tnong except Cleveland Journal how evangelists, world a voice i Maoffett Ladie Home th of all inging Ira 1. Sankey, came to glve the that will live long after his stilled, It was during Moody and first visit to Great Britain As entering the train in Glasgow bought a of a penny re in 1est hymn Sankey's they wers Mr. Sankey copy ligious paper called the Christian Age Looking over it, his eyes fell on som Verse the first two lines of which read thus There were ninety and nine that fely Tiithe el teniot tha Lol Mr. Moody,” exclaimed Mr. Sankey, "l have found the hymn that I've been look ing for for years ‘What is it?"" asked Mr It's about a Moody lost sheep.'” Two days later, in Edinburgh, they held a great meeting in the Fre embly hall As Dr. Bonar finished Mr. Moody leancd aver the pulpit and asked the singer if he had not a solo for the occasion The thought of the verses he had read in the penny paper came to My Jankey's mind and, opening his scrapbook, in which he had pasted the elipping, he placed it before him on the organ and after a moment of ilent supplication struck a full chord and began to sing. And note hy note came the now famous song. He composed it a he went along. What he sang was the joy that swelled in his own soul, hope that wa born, the love for those who needed help Thus he finished the first stanza Then, as he paused and played fow chords walting to bhegin again, the thought came to him ‘Can 1 sing the ceond tanza as 1 did the first? Can I remember the notes?' And concentrating hi mind once more for the effort he hegan to sing So he went on through for five stanzas and after the crvies he put the melody in musie Licutenant Thomas M. DBain jr., who quick wit and bravery prevented the sur prise and destruction of the American gar rison at Samar, is a Philadelphia boy. He was born in Philadelphia in 1877 and was educated in the Friends' Central school After he was graduated he went to Cornell university At the outbhreak of the Spanish war he enlisted In the Sixth artillery and with his battery was sent to Tampa, Fla Later he was ordered to the Philippines and made quartermaster sergeant of the battery. On July 25, 1809, Bains was made v second Heutenant and assigned to the Ninth infantry He Jolned his regiment at Pekin there and saw much of the work done John 8. Moshy, relates an o incident Washington during the war with the intention of Lincoln, but his plan at the last moment reached the halted on a he roing General rilla the famous guer of h visit to He went there trapping President woere circumvented General Mosby had of the capital and had overlooking the city, when German woman who was her murketing She displayed a pair of shears hanging from her apron Their presence suggested a happy thought to the rebel leader. Request ing their use for he carefully heared off a lock o abundant hair, and, confines hill old with met an in morning's A moment hi placing it in o sealed envelope, asked her to see that the package was delivered in person to the president Consent was casy and, strange to say, the messenger carried out her pledge, handing the en velope to Lincoln, who, on opening it, read Here's a lock of my hair, 1 hope in a few days to have the privilege of carrying away your entire head,” Lincoln was equal to the emergency, for with the same shears he detached a lock of his own and veral days later succeeded in delivering it to his elusive correspondent The answer accompanying it was: “Thank you for your kind intentions but I take pleasure in sparing you the trouble General Moshy ha wrefully preserved the epigrammatic reply, which he cherishes today as the most precious souvenir of the war. He declares the story has never been told, but vouches for its accuracy . Contra to a popular betlef created by long years of newspaper misrepresentation Russell Sage | not only quite particular thout what he eats, but [ a valiant trench erman and a good authority on matters of the enisine New York papers, in spite of this fact, pericdically describe his midday meal as consisting of a cracker, an apple and a glass of water, v matter of fact he generally lunches in the Western Union building with such men as the Goulds, Gen eral Eckert and other oficials of the Gould interests