Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, January 16, 1910, Page 17

] PART THREE |HALF-TONE PAGES 1 TO 4, THE OMAHA OSUNDAY BEE. N FOR ALL THE NEWS THE OMAHA BEE BEST IN THE WEST VOL. XXXIX-—-NO. 31 OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 16, 1910. SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS. SNOW AND ICE AND SNAPPY WINTER WEATHER SPORTS Younmgn Find All Sorts of Fun Outdoors When Mercury Is Hovering Around Zero, and Lake and Hill and Pond and Boulevard Afford Ample ITH the coming of winter the out-of-door world is trans- formed. The somber landscape that autumn has left” strewn with the ruins of a summer’s burnt out glory is blanketed and buried by the snow. The still, dark waters of the lakes and ponds, stained and cleared into a transparent blackness by the tanning of many decaying leaves that came tumbling down with the frost, become sheets of translucent erystal ice. This new out-of-door world beckons to new sports. The base ball diamond, the gridiron, the regatta course are forgotten until another season. Soll and water have been replaced and transmitted by snow and The new medium offers other diversions. First of all, the sports of the winter demand motion and exertion, The spectator i8 now no longer a part of the scheme of things. To enjoy what winter has to offer one must be a participant. There is no place for languor. The atmosphere is charged with vim and dash and go, £0 naturally enough all the winter sports are varying expressions of motion, just simple movement, the joy is that of motion for its own sake. in final analysis. These three are the aecepted staples,of the amuse- ments that belong to winter. 1In little differing forms they are the prorerty of all lands where winter touches. When winter comes it is welcome for the new fields of sport that it opens. Gliding along with even rapid motion over a snowpacked road, the sharp tingle of clear cold air fanned against the face, an occa< sional thrill from swift turns and billiwing swells in the surface beq neath, bells Jingling softly in rhythm with the swing stride of gingery horses, always at a steady but heart-quickening speed—that is the ’my of sleighing. ' To taste the pleasures of this appealing diversion of winter’s out- of-doors to the fullest one must get out away from the paved streets, away from the conventional lines of the city. Out beyond the border of the town where terraces and lawn are left behind and the wayside is lined with hedgerows and fences interwoven with the withering weeds and vines of the summer gone, into the stretches where there is elbow room and a bit of space in which one's thoughts and gaze may wander undistracted, is where one finds winter at its best., It is there that your sleigh ride will lead you if you are wise. The sleigh swings up to the hilltop and you pause a moment be- fore crossing the erest. Off into the distance the eye meets only restful stretches of snow broken heré and there across the fields and meadows by the brownish grey of the Bow d'Arc of the hedges or the smoky tinge of the fringing woodland along the stream in the valley below. Here and there a dried and tawny plume of blue stem or a still deflant weed stalk rises from the white of the snow in memorial to the season that was. Then you cluck to the horses and are off down the hill. The snow spriys up from the shearing runners as you advance with increasing speed dowu the declivity. The spurting streams of spray fly uv to settle In litue drifted patterns on the even surface at the sides of the beaten roadbed. A tiny puff of snow dust follows each quick, sharp hoof strike. As you reach the bottom of the hill a short, sudden rise caused by the bump the careless road workers left at the edge of the crossing last fall makes you draw a quick breath as the sleigh half jumps from the earth. Then you glide over the bridge into the wood- land stretches. Here the roadway winds about on the level flood plain left by the yer~' ~° mes “ering of the now frost stilled stream. The winter woods R One plaintively peeping chickadee or a vociferous sapsiicke: wivmming about vaingloriously, or maybe drill- ing industriously for hidden larvae serve but to magnify the quietude, This impudent little bird, howeyer, cares not a whit for your intru- slon. He will give you no more notice than to flit across on your ap- proach to another tree stump. He is probably real busy, anyway, as he is occupled until dinner time getting his hard-earned lunch. One is inclined to believe that he has paused just the same to exchange profane opinions with a chattering squirrel up in the oak at the edge of the woodlot. The somber grey barkod tree trunks which go sweeping past as telegraph poles pass a train in your quick gait along the qulet, cold driveway, work a curlous fretwork of shadows across the roadway when the sun strikes his winter afternoon angle. The scene glves little hint of the verdure that June will coax out of the tightly sealed buds. But never mind; it’s winter now and a bit too chilly to be mooning about in the woods when the restive team is anxious to keep solug. fee, Skating, coasting, sleighing, they are all one and the same " Up over the next hill and on down the long declining sweep be- yond into the city again. The first arc light’s bluish radiance contrasts strangely with the cold distant shimmering light of the early evening Stars way off there in the blue of a few millions of miles of attenu- ated ether. Youn.are on the edge of the city again. Pull up your horses and turn about to take a look into the country landscape fading into the nightfall. Speed 'em up into the busy streets once more to dodge automobliles .and cars again. It is night and there is dinner waiting and the theater yet to add'to the day’s amusements. Sleighing Is a sane, wholesome sort of sport, if one may call sport such a pastime so curiously blending varying components of pleasure. The easy, gliding swing of the sleigh as it moves over the snow which presents a surface velvety and yet firm, soothes with a peculiar mes- meric influence, but you are kept awake and alert by the tingling, frost laden air, so sharply refreshing, like a draught of bitter sweet wine. There is enough chill to keep the sense active and give the blood work to do. The horses themselves get the contagion of it. The beaten snow glves a resilient footing for the sharply calked shoes and the snappy air supplies the impetus to long, powertul strides, following in sure speed-producing succession, The jangling belts of bells seem, too, to have a part in giving the prancing team a spirit of pride. The horse is secure at least in his position of honor as the mo- tive power of the sleigh. The gasoline motor has tried to encroach even on this field of equine endeavor and a score or so of slaigh motors, motor devices cunningly arranged with toothed wheels and complicated ‘“‘pushers,” have been patented. They have not been successful, however, and the horse stands supreme in this one winter pastime, Perversely enough, despite the unusual generousity of the winter season in its advantages for sleighing, Omafia has taken but little interest Out on the boulevards and through the parks the motor cars go whirring by, while the sleigh is seen but rarely. It appears a pleasure much neglected while the enthusiasm of the city folk is wrapped up in the motor car. Out in the country, where distractions are not so many, the Nebraska farmer people have been making che most of the winter's snow. Just as they did in the old days when you went to the district school, the young folk are gathering in merry sleighing parties. The big wagon box is set on the sled runners, which have been pulled down from a summer of storage in the barn loft or implement shed. With the wagon bed filled with hay, plenty of robes and blankets and two sturdy farm teams hitched cn ahead, they pile in to ride roister- ing and singing along the country highways and byways in the stimu- lating cold of the night. The Nebraska farmer boy, of course, owns his smart cutter and like as not a motor car like his city cousin, but it’s the old farm sled for gregarious soclability. There's likely to be mugs of cider and some home-made dough- nuts at the end of the ride—wake up, you're in Omaha, with butter 40 cents a pound and rent day coming around. The skaters throng the cold, glazed surface of the lakes and ponds about the city in nolsy, frolicking crowds, After school hours and on Sunday afternoon the skating carnival is to be seen at its best. The skaters whirl and glide and jostle with many a good natured bump and laughing fall. It is a crowd of widely variant people. - The little tots of barely 7 are there mingling with the grown-ups. Here and there one sees strange foreign faces in the throng of skaters, faces that show plainly the delight ‘of a new sensation. The immi- grants from the shores of the Mediterranean are becoming Ameri- canized in their sports as well as work. In interesting contrast are those stern Scandanavian faces, from a land where climate has en- gendered long familiarity with the ice. The crowds on the ice present some interesting figures. There is the little girl who can’t skate, much a burden to her big brother and the big girl in whose progress he seems to be much more inter- ested, The fancy stunt man is always the center of a flock of less proficient admirers, who follow him about in his antics on the ice. Just as the wake of a country circus {s marked by a series of barn loft trapeze accidents to amateur acrobats, so the small boy comes to grief and hard knocks trying to repeat the figure skater's performance in a secluded corner of the pond. The figure skater gives an imprespion of the unlimited possi- bilities of his medium. With but a stroke here and there he executes a dozen combinations of ‘“back curves” Wlth\l dlz‘zy spin like a dervish and a long spiral sweep at the finish, / ¢ On the ice the youngsters play the games that have been the property of children for generations. There are-excited, screaming Controlling Trains Automatically EVERAL important devices in rafl- road signaling, intended to dimin- of cab signaling is si mple as well as certain The engineer receives his information as ish the human factor in railroad ac- cidents, come over from old year for development in the new The alm and importance of these devices Is explained by a writer in the Railroad Man's Magasine. In part he says: A telephone on the train connecting with distant cities so that a traveler can conduct business from a speeding coach as if in his own office is one of the striking features of a three in one invention which Fred Lacroix, a young rallroad man of 24, has just placed in succebsful operation on twelve miles of the Eriv railroad in New Jersey. The two other parts to the combination are a cab sig naling system and an automatic stop, and the whole proved its efficiency before half the signal engineers and many finaneiers of New ork. The inventor is staking his success on the practical working of the safety appliances, but the appeal to the general imagination is in the telephome. For though the public at large does not know when ft travels whether the road is automatically. controlled or oper- ated by hand signals, it can see a telephone and feel a thrill of wonder when it is possible to sit in a car and talk with someone 1,000 miles away while the train is whirling over the country. As to safety, Lacroix's system has all the advantages of the automatic block in pre- venting collisions, and goes a step further by stopping the tggin if the engineer does not heed the signal. The fact that {ts method the . is also worthy of comment. Up to the time Lacrolx appeared with his device the most advanced form of signaling included only cab signaling and the auto- matic stop. This combination has been used, moreover, only on a few miles of road in England and is not thoroughly established as . yet, The difficulties encountered have been chiefly with the weather conditions, necessituting, the use of sieam heat to melt the ice and snow at the points of contact be- tween the engine and the signal ments on the track. With Lacroix's system a third rall is used, and there is only such inconvenience as Is caused by ice on a third rail anywhere, and that is not too great to obviate, as shown by the success of third-rail systems in the open country $ The telephone in the cab is entirely new in signaling, and has immediately com- mended itself as a time saver. It provides a quick and direct means of communication between engineer and operator and permits the issuing of orders to trains on the move at a distance from a station, A light third rail does the work. It con- veys the signals, applies the brakes when necessary and acts as a telephone wire. The mechanism is on the engine, where it is brought into the roundhouse for imspection, and all that can get out of order along the track is the track circuit, containing a bat- tery and a track relay. If anything should happen to these the traln will be brought to a full stop. - arrange- to the condition of the track ahead from a green light, which shows in his cab as long as the right-of-way is clear. Directly under it is an electromagnet, which derives its mag- netic powers from a shunt-wound dynamo driven of steam pressure from the engine. When it has its full energy it is sufficiently powerful to hold a heavy iron arm, which, when in contact with the magnet, does not affect the air brake valve, If anything happens to the current so that the magnet loses its power the heavy iron arm falls, opening the valve and setting every brake in the train. And, as the air escapes it passes through a whistle which it blows in warning. As the current also sup- plies the light it goes out simultaneously with the dropping of the arm. In the same circut with the light and the magnet is a shoe of steel brushes, made to scrape the third rall and communicate an electric current to its surface. As long as the third rail is in & closed track circuit not broken by the presence of another train the current which 18 iocal to the engine flows out through the third rail, making a com- plete circuit of the track wires and returning through the wheels and body of the engine. If there is another train on the track and the ‘circuit is not closed the engine circuit is abruptly broken by the same opening in the track circuit which interrupted the track current, the magnet loses its power, the arm drops, the brakes are set and the train stops. = _ " (Continued on Page l‘our,)’ Scope for Healthy and Happy Exercise R TceBoat Sarlors On CaorterLake contests at “blackman” and “tag.’’ Then the school boys have & nondescript game which is neither hockey nor the “shinnny” of the country town lots. There is something in whacking at an old battered can to watch it sail over the ice that appeals to a boy’'s ardent instincts. This nameless game has no particular finish and no scoring, but there's & lot of fun about it all. Skating is in favor with many of the young women of Omaha, too. They are to be seen on the fine days skating with Just as much leisure grace as the jostling crowds will permit. The most popular, because the most accessible of the skating places in Omaha, is the lake at Hanscom park. From the vantage of the hilltops about the little pond appears much like a carnival ground as the throng of skaters surge about in many colored streams and blotches from the massing of gay sweaters and caps. The available skating places of the season have been limited this season owing to the persistent fall of snow following the formation of the ice. Carter lake, which in seasons past has offered the best skating of the locality, has been impossible territory this year be- cause of the snow crust. Hanscom park lake has been kept cleared for the skater through the enterprise of the street rallway company, which reaps many a nickel from the carrying of the skaters. On one chill, blustery day last week & lone ice boat spread its wings for a little spin across Carter lake. This boat is the last of a fleet of the ice craft that used to skim the lake at lightning speed in performances of wonderful daring. Ice boating is the mogt dangerous but fascinating of winter sports. The speed is but limited by the wind. Broad salls, with hundreds of feet of pulling surface, mounted on light steel-shod run- ners, develop a velocity just a little faster than the wind itself. The possibilities of the ice boat for producing thrills is unlimited. To ride an ice boat before a winter gale is to travel at a speed that at times may exceed that of an express traln, There is just a narrow seat to hold onto and there are sudden turns to be made in the bullet- like flight over the ice. To the experienced ice yachtman an air hole or a bit of open water fifteen or twenty feet wide is not an obstacle. The speed is sufficlent to shoot the boat across to the firm ice on the other side, Of course, sometimes it don’t—and then. Sometimes the front runners of the craft cross the gap and take the surface on the opposite side, but let the rear runners on the speeding craft drop below the edge of the ice. Then comes a shock. From sixty miles an hour to a dead stop Is enough to.put the passengers of the ice boat all over the lake, but that's part of the fun. ‘The encroachments of the ice harvestérs and the dangers of the sport have operated as a discouragement, and the fleet of racers at Carter lake have been abandoned. The same reasons have militated against sall skating, which is well near as dangerous and quite as exciting. Equipped with a big triangular sail mounted on sturdy frame the skater can execute maneuvers on the ice that wonderfully re- semble the swooping flight of the swallow. It is a sport for a strong, sure skater. As With the ice boat, the skater can veer and tack like making a reasonable speed against the wind. Clothed with a covering of packed snow, every inclining road- way and hillside offers the opportunity for sport to the coasters. Out in the districts where the crowded traffic is mot an interference the sleds are busy. A bully lot of excrcise the coasters get. It is a long walk up the slanting course to the top. A rest at the starting point, then a plunge off with a suddenness like flying through space, swiftly at first, dying slowly in the long slide out on the level end of the course, then trudging back again, dragging the sled; that is the endless circuit of the coasters. o Perhaps the graphic description improvised by an old Indian is the best way to express it. This redskin had for the first time seen a full-grown bobsled take a steep slide. He watched many trips in wonderment and delight. The speed made a great hit with this thoughtful brave. An attempt to explain his sensations to his fel- lows found his vocabulary uncomfortably deficlent. Groping about for some way to say it, he at last exploded: “Swish, swish—walk a mile.” That was the whole story—down the hill and up again. When a bobsled loaded with elghteen lusty boys gets into the grip of lke Newton's law of gravitation on a slippery hillside it is bound to develop speed like a sixty-horse power motor car on Farnam street’s down grade, which is generally admitted to be going some, The steersman of the bobsled has a strenuous job. He is the guardian of the safety of his passengers and the strain of a long slide over an uncertain course puts a bicycle face on the man in front. A tew inches off the beaten tracks and the treacherous sled will turn turtle, which means that the joy riders will pile into an ungraceful tangle, with the possibility of some broken bones,