The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 5, 1895, Page 10

10 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 1, 1895 WILD BUDS HAVE A DAY Rare Specimens of Native Flora at the Rose Show, Maple Hall. A BEAUTIFUL CORAL ORCHID.| An Undefined Species of “Bleeding Heart” From the San Bruno Hills. «\Wild Flower day” at the California Rose Show, in Maple Hall of the Palace Hotel, called together yesterday a large astern visitors and residents of Beautiful specimens of the from the bay counties and v hills of Butte and Shasta lent m to the display. There were ¢ varieties of the wild flower from and Monterey. The chief ex ors are Mrs. W. Chandler, Mrs. Bailey and Mrs. T. L. Waiker of San Fran- cisco. Owing to their energy and zeal in use the greatest number of wild s ever collected for a single exhibi- the flowe tion was displayed. At the Midwinter Fair a year ago 289 varicties were shown, but the present show 300 varieties. T ollection embraces one undetermined es of the “Bleeding Heart.” | e rare and untamed stranger comes from the San Bruno hilis in San Mateo There is also a charming coral | County. orchid from Santa Cruz. Not the least | stentious of the beautiful flowers are the | . yet the ladies connected w cherish the orange blossoms | nqualified | s now the | nber of | Tt is a success from a financial point of view, as the hall is crowded the hour of the opening un- til the el Pr manager ar attempt had been made to compete al with other di The object te public taste in decoration and to increase intelligent culture and love of be iful flowers. manifested. The com- nced the following prizes: been 3rs. Hathaway 2] ollection of not less than | ah K. Bolton, Berkeley, | best variety, Mrs. Eli | A flowers—Mrs. | Gill, ties, E. Gill, g hybrid ery Com- lection,Gral- | | n | and best collection, E. tand best collection, S %8 llection, Cali- | L | Ahlborn,$10. | P FESSIONALS. gand decoration plants AMATEU | 3| onfums — California Nursery | 17 50. and best collection, F. Lu- | ecial prize of $5, Mrs. th of Berk ants—R. uenmacher, Oakland, $ SPECIAL EXHIBITS. Decorated mantel—Mrs. E. T. Crane, San Lo- | renzo, ¥15. Flowering shrubs—Sunset Seed and l’lnm‘ Company, Menlo Pa Special mention — Mr: Be: ey, collection of cul zin View Ceme Sarah K. Bolton, vated eschscholt- sociation, Mountal oven-air roses; ) L. 0. Hodgkins, eactus bloss Golden Gate Park, decorative, flow- ering and foliage plants, and _berbaceous flo ers; F. A.Miller, palmsand_ferns; E.D.Stu tevant, Los Angeles, water lilies; Frank Peli- | cano, cut flowers; F. Inderman, roses. The flowers which adorn the hall are re- | newed fresh every day, and since the show- | ers of this week the freshness of the flow- ers adds to the charm of the show. | P The greatest throng of the week attended | the show last evenir The balloon sleeves | which fashion decrees for the ladies occa- | sionally knocked over a flower glass and splashed the water on the floor, but the | managers were good-natured and made no + complaint. The first prize of $15 for the largest and | best collection of wild flowers and ferns was won by Mrs. W. R. Chandler, a San Francisco lady, whose home has been with the flow nce she was a child in 1852, It may strike one as somewhat singular | that the hills back of the Mission and | Ocean View, in the immediate vicinity of | this City, should pe~uce 300 varieties of | wild flowers, but Mrs. Chandler made bker collection in rambles over the peninsula and near town. | The prize of $10 for the second largest | and -best collection of wild flowers was | captured by Mrs. A. H. Baily, whose col- lection was also creditable. 1 A collection very much admired was one | | by Mrs. W. H. Wiester, but it was not listed for competition. Music was a solace of the closing hours of the show. The programme numbers | Serc: Vinlin solo, Mise Chariotte Griar. hagen; mandolin by Professor Ferrer's | club; Bel Canta Quartet, Miss George | Wisner, Miss Helene Neilson, Miss Henri- | ette Grothwell and Mrs. R.S. Lamotte; | vocal solos, *“Thine s £0 Blue” and | “Whisper and I 8hall hear,”’ by Miss Josephine Sistermans, with violin obligato by Miss Charlotte Gru i termans delighted the aundienc of her voic A recitation by Mrs. Alseta Shed Langstroh was also an agree- able feature of the entertainment. WILL G0 TO ROME. Archbishop Riordan and Rev. Father Crowley to Interview Leo in the i Holy City. Archbishop Riordan will leave to-mor- row morning for Rome. He will be ac- companied by Rev. Father Crowley. Much interest is felt among Catholic people in the journey of the two reverend gentle- men. They will be absent for scveral months. The object of their visit to the Holy City has not been made public, but there is an impression that their mission will touch upon some important subjects now under consideration among the Cath- olic clergy of California. A reception will be given to Father Crowley at 2030 Howard street this even- ing, at which time a great number of his friends will assemble for the purpose of | and charming way | Antisdell, but generally | same name as at Pacific Grove. wishing him a safe journey and a safe re- turn. The Archbishop and” Father Crow- ley will be accompanied to QOakland to- morrow evening by a party of friends. WILL TOUR THE STATES. Messrs. Beckett and Cole to Inspect Eastern Universities. F. A. Beckett, Ph.D., chairman of the board of trustees of the California College of Pharmacy and president of the Alumni Association of the department of phar- macy, University of California, left Satur- day for an extended trip through the Eastern States and Canada in the interest of the college. He will inspect the various State universities and colleges in order to obtain the latest data, ideas and improve- ments for the new building that the State is about to erect for the professional de- partments of its universit; Mr. Beckett, who is also a member of 1he site and build- ing committee, will be accompanied by Dr. Beverly Cole, who goes in the interest of the medical department. An architect will accompany the gentlemen in order to draw any plans the committee may wish to consider later on. The gentlemen will return the latter part of June. HER FIRST ANNIVERARY, A Fund Started for the Little Girl Baby Abandoned at the Fair. Search Still Being Instituted for Its Young and Heartless Parents. The pretty little girl baby left by its young father at the “Creche,” or Day Nursery, of the Midwinter -Fair, is now Naomi Elizabeth von Schmidt. To-day she is one year old. Miss Naomi has grown to be a very pretty girl. She has a sweet disposition that have won for her many warm friends. Several of these are wealthy gentlemen, who have decided to start a bank account for little Miss von Elizabeth Naomi von Schmidt, the Baby Abandoned at the Fair, [From a photograph by Taber.] Schmidt as a birthday present. This will form the nucleus of a fund for the child. It will be very welcome, since the foster- parents are not well to do, and any addi- tions to the little one’s nest egg will be thankfully received. . The child was left on June 21 of last year with Miss von Schmidt, who had charge of the Day Nursery. It was brought by a young man, who was well dressed and apparently well bred. He arranged to have it cared for during the evening, and left 50 cents and a few clothes and disappeared, Dever to return. The description of the child and the man and the fact'thata young couple known at Pac Grove as Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Tisdell had left that town on the morning the child wasabandoned made Mrs. L. M. Jayley, who knew them, think the bab, was one born to this young couple on Ma. 5. Her suspicions were strengthened by the mother’s_utter carelessness about the child. Mrs. Bayley came to this city and found that her surmises were correct. earch was at once made for the peculiar couple. The man had given out hat he was a railroad man from the East. a] was thought to be true since he traveled first class npon passes. They had given different names at different places. Sometimes it was F. A. Chisholm, some- times A. Farrell, sometimes F. W. they used the They always passed as man and wife, and as Mrs. Tlsf}ell had in her trunks an entire bridal outfit, it is thought that they were married. Why they should have abandoned the child has not been learned. They dressed well, were always well sup- plied with money and were evidently people of education. Miss A. J. von Schmidt, the young lady in whose charge the child was left, lives at 820 Bush street. She said yesterday that her people were stiil trying to find the baby’s parents. They had employed many detectives to follow clews, but to no pur- 08/ “‘We did not do this because we wanted to get rid of baby,” she explained. “We would not give her up for anything now. But we thought it was our duty to the little one to try to trace her parents and induce them to provide in some way for er. *‘As yet we have received help from no source whatever except in little Eindnesses from friends. We don’t care for that, though, and can do all that is necessary for baby.” —— . . — LOST COIN Turns Up in a Kansas Twelve Years. Several days ago A. N. Moyer, receiving teller of the Wyandotte National Bank of Kansas City, Kans., found among hisday’s receipts a quarter of a dollar bearing the name of “M. W. La Rue, Louisville, Ky., together with some hieroglyphics, the in- dividual mark of a Royal Arch Mason. He thought that the coin was undoubtedly a highly prized pocket piece and he di- rected a postal card to M. W. La Rue, Louisville, in hopes of finding the owner. He had almost forgotten the matter when he received a letter from Mr. La Rue, whe had removed from Louisville to Cincinnati and afterward to Winton Place, Ohio, of which village he is now Mayor. He said that he had lost the pocket piece twelve years ago, and expressed himself very anxious to get it back, saying that he would gladly pay for the coin and for Mr. Moyer’s trouble. Mr. Moyer sent it by registered letter to Mayor La Rue, and Friday he received a letter from him acknowledging the receipt and inclosing 36 cents, which, he said, was to pay the expenses—25 cents for the quar- ter, 1 cent for the postal card and 10 cents for the registry stamp. He added: “The wanderings of my little mark may never be known, but I hope all its errands were those of beneficence. I grudge nothing of its performances, though, like many other wandering loved ones, its absence has been a source of many surmises, regrets, appre- hensions, and now and then a bitter pang of genuine grief, as its place could never be filled except upon order of authorities not easy of access or always placable. Its possession entitles me to Masonie burial; o relief from ?ressing temporary wantanda guarantees other privileges, immunities, ete., that would be out of the power of hundreds and hundreds of coins of like weight to procure.”—Kansas City Star. - The newest puncture proof band for use on cycles is made of strips of whalebone inserted between the air tube and the outer cover. Bank After MAY N THE SIERRAS, Where the Snow Queen Is En- throned and Flora is Unknown. SUMMER DAYS AT TAHOE. Thomas Magee Recommends the Mountains to Careworn Humanity. The CALL of last Sunday contained an article upon the varieties of climate in California and of the difficulty of having Eastern people believe that we have such contrasts. The difficulty 1s nearly as great with people resident here, who have not traveled much through the State. Two great flower festivals have just been closed, one at Los Angeles and the other at lemm Barbara. The sawe sort of festivals might easily have been held in many of the towns of the San Joaquin, Sacramento and So- noma valleys or at Santa Cruz, for this is early May, when the whole face of the val- leys is rich with wild flowers and their homes with cultivated ones. Had it been possible quickly to transport the visitors at the recent flower festivals to the Sierra Nevada, in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe, they would have beheld the Winter King in Lis glory as they had a few days before beheld Queen Flora in her lavish beauty and colored variety and magnificence. _ 1 spent last week at Lake Tahoe on Nor- wegian snowshoes. Landing at Glenhook from Carson, on the east side of the lake, where the snow first disappears, I crossed to McKinneys at Sugar Pine Point on the west side where there yet was four or five feet of snow. I made a trip of eleven miles to the Rubicon Soda Springs, situ- ated in a canyon in the very heart of the Sierra. The view from the eastern summit walls of that canyon was one of the wildest and most wintry upon which the eye could rest, especially as a storm was threatening and the sky colors were somber and lower- ing. From ten to twenty feet of snow still Jay on the summits which were in sight on the western side of the range, for there precipitation is very much the most lavish in scattering “snow like wool” and ice and “hoar frost like ashes.” The two extremes of color covered the whole ex- ive and magnificently wild landscape; was snow on the one hand and black conifere on the other. The summits are round-topped and easily climbed, and have an elevation of 8500 to 11,000 feet. These are no mean elevations, and explain not only the existence of snow—very deep snow in the sunny month of May—but why large amounts of it lie there all the year. " 1 have for years made it a practice to visit the upper Sierra_in winter on snow- shoes, and f hold, and inthisopinion there will be no dissent from those who live in the mountains, that there is no other sea- son comparable to winter for wildness of beauty of woods, hardy magnificence of scenery, bracing climate and sky and cloud contrasts and splendor. One winter week in the Sierra on snowshoes, spending each whole day in the open air, is worth at least a month there in summer. But the chief characteristic of winter is the in- tense solemnity and silence of the woods when it is calm. The peace is intense and profound—I might almost say unearthly— but the latter in the most agreeable sense. This peace is intensely acceptable to auy one whose life is spent in the bustle of city life, but whose soul has not been wholly sold to the mervous rush, fierce competi- tion and unnatural bustle. Such a peace is found, in union with parklike beauty of surroundings, in Wards Creek Canyon, near Blackwood, the latter a well-known point on the lake. The place is really a mountain valley, bounded by walls 1500 to 3000 feet in height. We jovously pushea up this excessively beautiful mountain temple, through which a fine stream of water was singing and arkling over granite bowlders to its home in the lake below. One felt almost out of the world. It would, too, have been hard to say to which feature of mountains, woods, snow, per- fect silence, a steel blue sky or falling crystal icy water the scene was most in- debted for its majesty, perfectly restful at- tractiveness and pure beauty. We heard much of the wealth and variety of flowers of the recent southern flower shows, but had there been in those exhibitions every flower, wild or culti- vated, now growing in this State, they altogether would not probably have been as one to a billion beside the innumerable flowers of the snow, each of undeviatingly hexangular petals, but of innumerable and exquisite varieties of form. And the earth-grown flowers are of little value, valuable for many things as they are, especially to the senses of sight and smell, compared to the myriads of frozen flowers, flowing lightly, noiselessly and freely from the sky, fleécing the moantain landscape with frozen winter crystals of the purest shape. FEre long, too, trans- formed to water, they will in the clearest, coldest and wildest of streams and rivers express themselves in the most thoroughly aerated, and therefore whitest of cascades, weaving the most beautiful and transitory of water laces, uttering, meanwhile, the most nerve-soothing of songs and lullabies, which he who camps by them wishes he might bear forever. Many of these falls, as seen from below, shooting over Yosem- itic walls, produce the impression on the beholder that they are shot from the sky. But there is far too much balm and equa- bility in the southern counties; and there- fore' T am but referring to a universally recognized truth in saying that the best type of people cannot be produced where skies are softest and climatic balm is con- stant. Even here in San Francisco and its vicinity, where we have periodical, bracing winds ‘and heavy fogs, the climate still Jacks sufficient frost in winter to make it a typical one. I therefore hold it to be an absolute duty of parents, where they can afford it, to give their children and them- selves one or two months’ change during the year in the Sierra Nevada. The best time, I think, to go there is between Au- gust and October. Every night of the latter two months is likely to %n a keen, clear, frosty one; the stars burning with intense radiance in the deep, steely sky. In June and July the ground is damp, sometimes, and high and cold winds am{ rain are not unfrequent. The muscles and nerves are braced and made most vigorous in the high mountains, and the lassitude and want of tone in the system which af- fect so many dwellers in the impure air of towns and cities both disappear there. If a sky-climbing, but easily accessible range like the Sierra Nevada, existed in Great Britain, thousands of men in early and middle life would go snow-shoeing in such mountains every winter. But here such exercise and exploration are utterly unknown. A few friends with my sons and myself have for fifteen years had the range to ourselves, as visitors on snow- shoes. No money would repay us for the glorious exercise we have there enjoyed, and the grandeur we have thus beheld. No sight or experience to be had here are comparable to those I have attempted to describe in making one, in body and soul, wholly a Californian. An intense feeling of thankfulness is created in the mind, too, that one is privileged to be a citizen and resident of such a lavishly—nay, an unsur- f“sedly—g\fzeu State. ‘And of all Cali- ornia’s gifts, and of all her wonderfully varied and rich real estate, I insist that there is none equal to her mountains, in solid pecuniary value; while, rich as they are in what is material and tangible, they are yet poor in those respects beside that far higher wealth and splendor which ap- peal to the highest powers of the mind and soul of man. THOMAS MAGEE. Free-Coinage Advocates. Hon. A. J. Warner of Ohio, president of the | was burned. American_ Bimetallic League of the United States, and Hon. J. C. Sibley of Pennsylvania will address a citizens’ mass-meeting at the Metropolitan Temple next Tuesday evening. Tubject, “Free Coinage.” FOR A NEW COMMONWEALTH. To Be Created From Parts of Minnesota, ‘Wisconsin and Michigan. A West Superior correspondent to the Chicago Times-Herald outlines a proposi- tion for the creation of a new State. Itis seriously proposed here to create a new State by taking a part of the three States of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, which will be known as the State of Supe- rior, or the “Mineral State.” This idea is a modification of the new State plan so often rrfiented, and its creator is Captain Alex McDougall, the inventor of the whaleback. Captain McDougall would cut out a ter- ritory bounded on the north by Canada, on the west by the Mississippi” River, on the south by a line drawn from the Mis- sissippi River along the southern bound- ary of the northern tier of Wisconsin counties, and terminating at the extreme tip of the upper peninsula. Of course the eastern boundary would lie in the lakes, but that is immaterial to the plan. What isaimed at particularly is to place the three great iron ranges, the Ver- milion, the Mesaba and the Gogebic, in one State, so that the interests of none of them could be injured by conflicting legis- lation and all might be treated from the same basis. The new State would be strongly Re- publican. HOME FOR THE PASTOR, A Parochial Residence at St. Teresa’s, in the Po- trero. Current Events of General Interest in the Busy and Promising Suburb. A new parochial residence for the pastor of the church of St. Teresa, on Tennessee street, Rev. P. 0’Connell, and his assistant, Rev. Aloysius Petinelli, is among the early prospects of the Potrero. To swell the building fund an entertainment was given av the Potrero Opera-house last Tuesday evening by the Potrero Amateur Specialty Club. The entertainment was a minstrel per- formance that proved very enjoyable. Stephen Cronin was the interlocutor, and the end men were J. Farrell and J. Hig- gins, tambourines, and P. Kaher and P. O’Donnell, bones. Music was furnished by the club’s orchestra—Henry Voss and Ed- ward O’Donnell, violins; Frank Lovett, clarionet, and Gibson 0’Connell, piano. The entertainment concluded with a sketch entitled “Won by Strategy,” in which H. G. Leffman, Miss A. Hammer, E. J. O'Leary and A. T. Coakley partici- pated. Messrs. Dolan, McCormick, Lind- sey and Rogers did gymnastic turns; J. Sullivan won applause with *‘Our Little Jim’’; the Keller brothers played a zither duet, and some fine music was rendered by the Seattle Mandolin Club. The St. Teresa Hall Association is pre- paring for an entertainment to be given on July 3 for the benefit of the hall fund. It is the intention to provide adequate hall accommodations for the four_ parish socie- ties: the Young Men’s and Young Ladies’ Institutes, 8t. Patrick’s Alliance and An- cient Order of Hibernians. An entertanment by the Potrero Ath- letic and Social Club will be given on May 11. The Q. T.” Club_enjoyed a social even- ing last night at Masonic Hall, in South San Francisco. Miss Grant, a former pupil of Mme. Ada Clark, has opened & dancing-school in the Potrero Opera-house. The big sixty-tontwelve-inch gun, which is to be placed on Fort Point to help its companion on Lime Point guard the Golden Gate, has been started on its way from the Potrero to the Presidio by Contractor Mc- Near. Considering the difficulty met with in moving the other monster destroyer, more time was expended on preliminaries with cannon 2. It was placed on a lighter vesterday to be towed to the landing near- est to its destination. e e FIOTION AND REALITY. Some of the Queer Coincidences Which Have Been Noted. Life is no respecter of copyright, says the London Chronicle. On the contrary, it is one of the most unscrupulous of plagiarists. The fictionist invents a tangled plot and rounds it off with an in- genious crime. A week afterward, in are- mote part of the world, a set of people play the plot, and one of them commits the crime, just as if they were actors rehears- ing a written drama. Robert Louis Stev- enson was the victim of this, so was Rider Haggard, though we have not yet heard that anybody has tattooed a will on some- body else’s back. Not long ago a French novelist was sued in court for damages on the charge of having used a man’s name and history as the basis of his story, whereas he has never even heard of the man.. This, of course, is quite different from the case in which Dickens senior may have stood unconsciously for the portrait of Micawber, or Leigh Hunt have been cari- catured as Harold Skimpole, or when the lady novelist of the present uses the name of another for an offensive character in her story. The plagiarism we are speaking of is akin to the haunting belief of Solness, the master builder, that his own thoughts raised themselves in actuality. Probably the death of the unknown Mrs. Ebbsmith and “The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith’’ was an instance in point. Mr. Pinero writes a “‘modern’’ play, exposing the inner work- ings of a woman’s mind and exhibiting the consequent development of her con- duct. An unhappy lady, a divorcee, who had legally adopted the name of Ebbsmith to avoid the infinite monotony of Smith, read the notices of this play, perceived a resemblance to her own rife so close as to cause her to describe the play as a “superb work of art,” bought tickets for it, but threw herself into the Thames before the date of the performance. It may, of course. be taken for granted that Mr. Pinero knew absolutely nothing about this lady and her domestic circum- stances when he wrote his play. Yet he finds that life has been beforehand with him, and that when he thought he was creating he was merely reproducing, just as ‘‘when the red slayer thinks he slays,” he is merely, according to the Buddhist, conferring a fresh lease of life upon his victim. But after the play was produced the professors of the name of bsmith appear to have sought to escape the notoriety which would attach to them from the nightly sayings and doings of their notorious namesake. ‘Her husband had taken steps to prevent the name Ebbsmith {from being used on the stage.” One won- ders where Mr. Pinero found it. He can hardly have “‘made it up.” Did he over- hear it in a railway carriage or ‘did he see it upon a village Slgnbosrg as he drove by? A dramatist or a novelist must get names somewhere, and if the inconspicuous pos- sessor of a name made conspicuous in art has copyright in it our playwrights and authors will have to revert to the nomen- clature of the period of “Tom Cringle’s Log,” and g;dve us such appellations as Mr. Tailtackle, Mr. Ratline, fir. Strop and Mr. Reefpoint. ————————— That nursery tale which has charmed enerations of children and their elders, nown as “Blue Beard,” was written by a French author. The original of Blue Beard was a marshal of France, and lived iu Brittany, and who was charged with murdering_several wives and over 100 children. Being convicted of sorcery, he OIL AND NATURAL GAS. Promising Outcroppings in the Contra Costa County Hills. FOUR MILES FROM BERKELEY. Geological Surroundings Indicate That the Supply Is Inex- haustible. The discovery of petroleum and natural gason J. O. Miner’s property, commonly called the Alden ranch, in Contra Costa County, promises to add a new enterprise to this section of the State. That there is oil and gas on the premises there is no doubt, and from all appearances the sup- ply of the former is abundant. The new field is so close to Oakland, to tidewater and to the railroad that once a good flow is started, in the langunage of Colonel Sellers there is millions in it. An inspection of the ground is well worth the while, not only of the scientist and curiosity-seeker, but of the capitalist, who | might see in the outcroppings in Louter- wasser Creek an opportunity to increase his wealth. This petroleum-soaked valley is just over the hills to the northeast of Oakland, and four miles from the State University at Berkeley. Mr. Miner’s ranch is reached by going out Telegraph avenue ana turning into the Lafayette and Walnut Creek road. To many of the old-timers in this City and Oakland who used to go out to the Fish Ranch for a trout for breakfast, it is best described as being three miles from that once popular resort. The presence of oil and gas is the most plainly manifested about 300 yards up the creek from Mr. Miner's house. At that point the edges of the creek are discolored by an oily substance which oozes from the strata of shale rock, and floats away in the stream. The owner and one of his men entered the creek bed yesterday, and with a pick broke up layer after layer of rock, all of which, upon examination, proved to be literally saturated with pe- troleum. The crevices and seams are thickly coated with the substance, which is brown and sticky and resembles crude opium in color and consistency. The men prospected up the creek for about 200 vards, and the same results were obtained. Crude oil oozed out of the rocks at every stroke of the pick, and floated away on the surface of the creek until the stream was glassy in appearance, like a mirror. The discovery of natural gas was made by Miner several years ago, about 500 yards up the valley from the (ylace where the oil was recently found. Oil was also found up the creek while making experi- mental boring for gas. At the latter place he collected about ten fin“ons of crude pe- troleum, but fully ten barrels escaped into the stream from a small impounding dam which he had constructed. Upon that occasion he made a sixteen-foot cut into the side hill where there bad been a land- slide into a salt spring. There is more saline matter in the water of this spring than in ocean water, and that is one of the indications of oil. " Out of this spring, which has been deepened and enlarged, is a constaut flow of bubbles from below caused by escaping gas. A can with a small faucet in the bottom was placed bot- tom up over these buboles, and in a short time the upward pressure of the gas showed that the can was full. A lighted candle was placed at the mouth of the faucet. Instantly a flame sprang into the air a dis- tance of three feet as the gas wasconsumed. When the spring is clean this flame has burned for fifteen minutes, creating an in- tense heat, but yesterday, owing to the soft mud clogging the holes in the bottom of the spring, it did not burn over three minutes, The experience of those who have worked in the o1l fields in Penn- sylvania and the southern part of Cali- fornia 1s that oil and gas go together. A. A. Cunningham, an analytical chem- ist at 229 Geary street, has examined the dark, sticky substance and pronounces it to be a fine grade of petroleum, equal to any produced by the wells in the southern part of the State. Samples of the shale gathered from along the ledge for three- quarters of a mile show fine samples of paraffine in large quantities. In this rock, which was taken from the surface, 13 per cent of voiatile substances were found. A prominent scientist who has examined Mr. Miner's property states that the geo- logical features of the surrounding country are very similar to those near several large oil fields in the East that he had visited. In the first place, it is situated in a coal region. Mount Diablo, with its coal mines, lies to the southeast. In the opposite di- rection, among the hills back of Berkeley and San Pablo, coal has been found incon- siderable quantities, but according to scientists it is about 3000 years too young to be of use commercially. In fact, from Mexico to British Colum- bia, and even Alaska, coal and its products are found. It is believed by those who have ex- amined Mr. Miner’s property that the sup- ply is inexhaustible, and their opinions are based upon the formation of the coun- try immediately surrounding. As stated, the croppings are in the bottom of the creek, which at that point is 450 feet above the sea level. Itisin the center of a huge amphitheater, two miles long by a mile wide, and near the center is a Yofty hiil now green with a crop of barley. The stratified rocks of the surrounding mountains all show a *‘dip” at an angle of forty-five degrees toward the center. Fol- lowing the strata, in the imagination, down_the angle until they meet, the im- mensity of the oil reservoir had also better be left to the imagination. At this point the importance of the stratified shale can be seen, for it is between these layers that the oil is forced to the surface. The unstratified sandstone rock that the torrents of ages have formed in the center of the huge basin prevents the oil from reaching the surface exceptin places where the upheavals from the interior of the earth have caused breaks. The altitude of the outcroppings of the oil leads to the be- lief that there are vast stores of the same useful productin the lower parts of the basin. The places mentioned are not the only ones in_the valley where oil has been found. In several small gulches that spur off from the creek it is found on tle sur- face of water that collects in little depres- sions made by the hoofs of horses and cattle. Several years ago a number of men undertook to bring the oil to the surface. The inexperience of the prospectors, the poor quality of the tools used and the lack of funds caused the work to be discon- tinued. A crooked well was vored on the flat land, a distance of about 100 feet. At that point the machinery broke and could not be extracted from the hole. Even at that small depth, which is hardly below the creek bottom, the results were very encouraging. Several barrels of crude oil were obtained and the dprospec~ tors had not reached the desired depth by many hundred feet. To reach the large supply boring ma- chinery, such as is used in other localities, will have to be brought into service. ‘When the supply is tapaed a few days will more than compensate the operators for all their time and expense if the oil bed proves to be what is promised by sur- face indications. There will be no trouble to convey the oil to the commercial centers. It is" only seven miles across the hills to Oakland by a direct line and ten miles by road to tide- water. There are good roads leading over the hills. Mr. Miner’s ranch is half a mile from the California and Nevada Narrow- gauge Railroad. Mr, Miner has not been in a position to develop his own property and during the oil excitements in the southern part of the State he deemed it un- wise to attempt to attract the attention of | the shooting as well as the others.’ oil-dealers to his discovery. He now pro- poses to take steps toward developing _wha_tl he and others believe to be a bonanza 1n oll. —— FIRING IT. A Lesson in Pistols Given to a Man From Boston. “Coming East over the Atchison road from Las Vegas, N. M., to Kansas City,” said J. F. Rankine of Elizabeth, N. J., “our train was detained west of Dodge City two/ days by a washout. There was a crowd of the roughest sort aboard, some of them cattlemen from the ranges, and others railroad men returning from the construc- tion work of a railroad just completed. It was a hungry time, for there Was nothing to eat; but there was plenty of beer and liquor aboard, and the passengers in the intervals of drinking amused themselves with cards and bettingand by firing pistols from the car windows at the telegraph poles. “‘In one seat next a window sat a very young and innocent man from Boston, one of the many from that locality sent out to points along the line of the Atchison road by the favor of the management, to grow up with the country. He had come to the conclusion that the Back Bay and Cam- bridge were western enough for his tastes, and was on his way to the East. Beside him sat a stranger, a big ranchman, wear- ing a black sombrero. %nspired by the ex- ample of some men who were firing from the car windows, the Bostonian took from his traveling-bag a pistol that must have been a gift of a doting female relative. It was an elegant little pearl-handled _affair. its tiny barrel beautifully chased and orna- mented. Itlooked more fit to be hung on a watchguard than to use as a weapon, but the owner, in imitation of the others, blazed away with it at a telegraph pole, | with about the noise and effect that a fire- cracker would have produced. *“The ranchman beside him looked with surprise and then with grim amusement at the Boston man’s_shooting, and, for the first time, seemed to take an interestin what his seatmate was doing. ‘“ ‘Let me look at that thing, stranger,’ he said. ““The Bostonian passed the pistol to him with an expression of satisfaction on his face, as much as to say: ‘This is rathera neat thing, don’t you know, and I’m in The ranchman handled the wee weapon with an affectation of admiring awe and ex- amined it with grave curiosity. * ‘It’sa great firearm and no mistake,’ he pronounced. ‘If 'twas mine would you like to know how I'd fire it ?’ “The Bostonian looked pleased and nodded. The ranchman drew his own pis- tol, an immense long-barreled affair which looked as if it ought to be mountedon a gun carriage. Calmly he stuck the barrel of small pistol into_its capacious muzzle, and thrusting the big weapon through the open window took a deliberate ehot at the telegraph pole. The butt and barrel of the little pistol flew two ways as it struck the telegraph pole in the center, while the big bullet behind sent splinters flying as it plowed through the timber. “Upon this worse than contemptuous treatment of his property the Bostonian looked with consternation, and at first was indignant. But he had some tact and a sense of humor despite his nativity, and there being nothing better to do he' soon joined in with the others in the laugh that was raised. His big neighbor passed him a peace offering in the shape of a flask approaching an_army canteen in size, the Bostonian pulled manfully at it and for the rest of the trip the two were most friendly companions. The ranch- man took the tenderfoot under his protec- tion and would suffer no one to impose on him. A grand rush followed our arrival at the first railroad dining station, where, after our two days’ fasting, a meal for finydpersuns was served to the 150 fam- ished passengers. It was grab, everybody, and the big man loomed above the crowd as he strode, holding aloft a whole boiled ham in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other, back to the car to join his friend from Boston.””—New York Sun. THE BODY'S WEIGHT. Constant Changing of the Avoirdupois. Many people weigh themselves fre- quently and imagine that they know their Human weight. Sweet illusion! Nothing is more difficult than to know one’s weight exact- ly, even with access to first-class scales. ‘We hear one say: “I am making flesh. Ihave increased two pounds,” and an- other: “I am getting into form. I weigh three pounds less.” But, while I do not wish to make myself disagreeable, espe- cially to people who keep account of their weight, Ilam convinced that in most of such cases there is really not an ounce of gain or loss; or, if there is any variation, it is not what the scales record. The ordinary methods of determining variations in weight give absolutely falla- cious results. The causes which influence weight are numerous and rarely taken into consideration. For example, Was the weight taken immediately after breakfast or long after, or following active exercise attended with free perspiration? One’s weight is like a mobile expression —it changes every instant. The study of the matter is, nevertheless, of considerable nysiological and hygienicimportance—a act of which I have become thoroughly convinced in the course of over ten years’ investigation of the subject. The inaccuracy of ordinary balances, such as one finds at railway stations, deter- mined me to make a portable balance to weigh 220 pounds and'to be exact to within an ounce, and since then I have weighed myself regularly every day at the same hour in the morning and under identical conditions, and to-day I possessa record of five years of experiments, conducted with the utmost precision from day to day. Every day when weighing myself I re- cord the barometric and hydrometric va- riations, the temperature and the dinner menu for the day. These experiments have convinced me more than ever that our weight is in a perpetual state of fluctua- tion. After eliminating the errors of the instrument, our weight varies, subject to innumerable influences. After breakfast on a warm day one loses more than fifteen grains an hour. How, then, are you to arrive at your true weight when it is subject to such incessant fluctuations? When we remember that 70 Sgr cent of our body is water, there is little ifficulty in understanding that our weight must vary continually with the transpira- tions of the moisture; moreover, it varies with the pressure of the atmosphere. The mere yariations in atmospheric humidity suffice to account for a change of more than & pound, and other causes may suffice to account for another pound. The person who only weighs at inter- vals may infer from this that he is growing lighter or heavier, but the conclusion is unwarranted. There are some people, on the other hand, who will tell you that their weight never changes. This, too, is an error; it is continually fluctuating. The fault is that the scales used do not record variations of a pound orso. For ordinary purposes this is of no conse- quence, but for recording changes of weight in sickness it is of very serious moment. The scales are not without their un%:)rmnce in medical practice, especially with infants. The weight of an infant increases in definite proportions during the first weeks of life, and there can be no departure from this regularity of increase without impair- ment of health. For aduit persons, too, it is good to con- sult the scales, for they are the barometer of health. Any sudden increase of weight, amounting to a pound or so in a day, indi- cates a tendency to disease. It is evidence of health when the weight does not fluctu- ate more than three or four ounces from day to day. Great fluctuation implies de- rangement.—New York Dispatch. ——————— During the revolutionary era in England both Catholics and Protestants used the dramatic form as a means of controversy, and the plays published at that time con- tained as many arguments as the sermons. HENLEY'S ELERY BEEF AND [RON FOR Rhenma- tsm, Neralgia, Nervous Diseases.