The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 28, 1895, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 28, 1895. — REVIVAL OF THE ROMANCE OF ATTEMPT TO MAKE SENTIMENT AN CISTS .OF MIPISITPSaT ST eSS [ o A0S A A S A S It strikes as curious the mind of a|ingsand almost threats I took a wagon nineteenth century his- any man or set of men conscientious torian that should undertake to foist upon an intelli- | if we were willing to believe Dr. Whitman gent public, history constructed on the | plan of the Niebelungenlied, the tales of lliam Tell. Yet ry editor of the Chicago Inter- | Ocean,” has done in his book, “How Mar- cus Whitman Saved Oregon,” which he very properly in his sub-title names, “A True Romance.” Even if I were not called by name to de- fend myself from the calumny of being | styled “a defamer” of Dr. Nixon’s hero, a | natural reverence for what I am convinced by my judgment and assured by the facts is the truth on the subject of Dr. Whit- man's agency in Oregon affairs, would im- pel me to take notice of Dr. Nixon's book. Why a man who is killed, as the natural | e of events in which he | has taken a pr al part, should be b LA LR L AL AL AA A AL AR L L R “How OREGON WAS SAVED.” RIDE—THE TRUTH PERVERTED. LD STORY IN A NEw DREss—DR. NIXoN as THE CHAMPION OF HISTORICAL ROMAN- BY FRANCES F g Arthur’s round table or the story of | this is what Dr. Oliver | on, ““for seventeen years president | | Company jdealized as a martyr because he failed to accomplish what he had undertaken, my | Teasor e to discover. Why a man who during his lifetime bhad abso- Jutely nothin do with the politics of | Oregon, and who has left not the least record of de ng to have any, should be- | come, nearly 1f a century after his| death, a shining example of devotion to | ‘his countr; t inst another | power, with whose subjects he was on | terms of amity if not of dependence, my’ darkened intellect fails to comprehend. xon’s ‘‘true | he carpenter | aiilatpu mis- | sion in the V ey, which was | the superi ent’s or Dr. Whitman'’s sta- tion. Besides this there were other sta- tions—th Large of Rev. H. H. Spal- ding at Lapwai, eighty miles or more dis- | tant from Waiilatpu; another in charge of | Walker and Eells in the Spokane | ar or longer a fourth per Nez Pei fr. Gray s employed at Waiilatpuand | Lapwai. I mention these | particulars to show the ground covered by | the Presbyterian missions, and for another account for my own following Gray’s ¥ ver of the West. supposed thata man for y d about the 1 ons_and inti- cquamted with The real author of Dr. roman was W. H. Gray, and genera their affairs must | be telling the truth about them, and I went into print before I found out my When I found it out I sought to i nd it is this conscientious effort and incidentally | 3, which has brought down oted head the heavy blows of xon controversial But al- | ave attacked my position by the pre d from the puipit they have not been able to overturn it, because I am able to prove my statements, while they have only the resource of repeating un- founded “assertions. In the columns of a am limited, but a brief review 1 points which I desire to ng up chapter VI, entitled e " Nixon close fference sufficient to givé 1ce of independent knowledge. | autumn of 1842 Dr. | | | | ‘Whitman, happ: to be at Fort Walla Walla, the Hudson on the Columbia, and at some newly arrived Catholic priests, heard | them boasting that some sixty settlers from the Red River country were about to arrive, who would give the balance of power to the British in Oregon. He also | states that Sir George Simpson, Governor | of the Hudson Bay Company, not only | ordered this colony to Oregon for the pur- pose of holding the c but accom- | panied it himself. Gray further represents | that Dr, Whitman’ on the occasion of this dinner impetuously replied to the priests that h v b; a thousand settlers for t S mping on his horse rode home, of thirty miles, in great haste, and before dismount- ing from his foaming steed announced . Whitman that he was going im- tely to the States to bring out a mmigration and save Oregon to the d States. Healso says that he did set off within two or three days. In the same chapter in which he relates these exciting incidents he tells us that Sir George Simp- son went to Washington that winter to | take a hand in shaping the boundary | treaty, which was also Whitman’s errand. All this is romantic enough, but unfor- tunately it is not true. 1f any one inter- ested to know the facts (and we might assume that Dr. Nixon should be such a man) will take the trouble to open 8ir George Simpson’s “Voyage Around the World,” he will find that the purpose of Simpson’s visit to America was solely to look after the affairs of the London company; that the visit took place in 1841 and not in 1842; that the Red River settlers arrived in 1841 instead of 1842; that Sir George, after paying a visit to Stickeen to investigate the causes which led to the killing of Dr. McLoughlin’s son, and a visit to San Francisco to establish a busi- ness house there, returned to London through Russia, and that in his whole narrative he makes no mention of having seen any United States territory, much less that he bad paid a diplomatic " visit vo ‘Washington to interfere with treaty-mak- ing. So far from any Catholic priests arriving with or before the Rea River settlers in 1841, the Hudson Bay Company refused to allow two priests who wished to come to Oregon that vear from Canada the privilege of traveling with their express, a privilege never refused to the American mission- aries. I have not the space required to go into explanations of these apparently con- tradictory acts of the British company. I can only state facts directly opposed to the Gray-Nixon romance. As Dr. Whitman did not go East in 1841, but in 1842, all that interesting story of the utterances of the avant-couriers of the Red River settlers, ‘Whitman’s impetuous reply to their boast of occupying the country, and his hasty departure for Washington, falls flat. v Gray, in_his ignorancesof history, has said that Whitman made nis visit to Wash- ington to prevent Webster from trading off Oregon for a codfishery on the coast of Newfoundland with "Lord Ashburton, and that he did prevent it, the truth being that the Oregon boundary was not consid- ered in the correspondence between Web- ster and the British plenipotentiary in 1842, but only the Maine boundary, which had never been settled. Had Whitman in- tended to influence international negotia- tions he would have been unable, as the Webster-Ashburton treaty was concluded in August, 1842, before he had thought of leaving Oregon. Now all these errors of Gray are just as open to discovery by Dr. Nixon as_by my- self, because they are all matters of record. Yet he chooses to write as if he believed the romance he offers in place of history. Another statement which cannot be sus- tained against the evidence to the contrary is that Dr. Whitman brought a wagon through to the Waila Walla Valley in 1536, | stow it upon another? | arr | the slanderous tongues that b | can Board of X | sions? Dr. Nixon makes Whitman say to Secre- tary Webster in March, 1843, “‘Six years ago I was told there was no wagon road to Oregon and it was impossible to take a wagon there, and yet in despite of plead- MARCUS WHITMAN'S WINTER AT THE EXPENSE oF HISTORY— OREGON. MMM ULLER VICTOR, over the road and have it now.” 5 Of course, as this conversation had no wit- nesses, it is purely an imaginary one,though aliar, as I am not, it might have taken place. Dr. Whitman aid not take any wagon to the Columbia River in 1836. The American Fur Company, with which he traveled, annually took wagons as far as Green River, which was_ the rendezyous of the trappers, white and Indian. Beyond there the country was rough, mountainous and rocky, and very trying to the feet of animals, as well as hard upon wheels. this reason the leaders of the Hudson Company, to whom the American transferred the missiona- guidance and protection, ob- jected to the proposition to con- tinue the wuse of wagons beyond Green River. But the two ladies in the party found a wagon a great convenience, and, in the case of Mrs. Spalding, a neces- sity, for her health was such that she could not sit on a horse all day. This motive, with possibly others, induced Mr. Whit- man to cling to the lightest of his two wagons. He took off the front wheels at Fort Hall and made it intoa cart, and in | this shape took it as far as Fort Boise, where it was left, the horses being quite worn out, and Mrs. Spalding having re- covered her health. Farnham, who came to Oregon in 1839, speaks of having seen this cart at Fort Boise. In 1840, when the | American fur companies were abandoning the mountains, beaver no longer being | plenty, two mountain men—Robert New- ell and Joseph L. Meek—brought both of | Whitman’s wagons through to the Colum- | bia, leaving the cari at the mission, but ng the four-wheeled vehicle to the | llamette Valley the following year. This part of the road to Oregon—from the Snake River to the Willamette—being by far the most difficult portion of the route, why should history deprive these men of the honors which belong to them and be- ries for ta Wi The want of candor in Dr. Nixon’s book is too glaring to be passed over. For in- stance, he quotes from ‘‘Senate document (without number) December 31, viz., the Forty-first Congress, February 9, 1871,” as | follo “There is no doubt but that the rrival of Dr. Whitman in 1843 was oppor- | tune. The President was satisfied that | the territory was worth the effort to win it. The delay incident to a transfer of | negotiations to London was fortunate, for | there is reason to believe that if former negotiations had been renewed in Wash- ington, and that, for the sake of a settle- ment of the protracted controversy, and | the oniy remaining unadjudicated cause | of difference between the two Govern- ments, the offer had been renewed of the | forty-ninth parallel to the Columbia, and thence down the river to the| Pacific Ocean, it would have been accepted. The visit of Whitman com- mitted the President against any such | tions on the Pacific Coast.” out to meet and trade with the immi- rants, of whose exrecuzd arrival they had geen apprised, pi loted the companies down Snake River and over the Blue Mountains into Oregon, The latter, and most difficult part of the journey to Whit- man’s station was_entirely under the di- rection of the Indians, as Lr. Whitman was intercepted at Grand Rond and hur- ried to Lapwai to attend Mrs. Spalding, who was very ill. All this is susceptible of proof, and nothing which Dr. Whitman reported to the board thereafter contra- dicts it. : In a letter to the Secretary of War hLe uses these expressions: I have, since our interview, been instrumental in piloting across the route described in the accom- panying bill, and which is the only eligible wagon road, no less than 300 families, con- sisting of 1000 persons of both sexes, with their wagons, amounting to 120, 694 oxen and 773 loose cattie. The emigrants are from different States, but principally from Missouri, Arkansas, Illinoisand New York. The majority of them are farmers, lured by the prospect of bounty in lands (long held out gy Congress), by the reported fertility of the soil, and_by the desire to be first among those who are planting our institu- Further on he says: “They have practically demon- strated that wagons drawn by horses or oxen can cross the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, contrary to all sinis- ter assertions of all those who pretended it to be impossible.”” I come now to a consideration of the real motives which lea Whitman to make his winter journey to the States. My Gray-Nixon opponents allege that it was solely to “save Oregon,” which was in no immediate danger. I say, and sbundant proofs bear me out, that he went on his own private business and the affairs of the mission, and that whatever he said or did while in the East that seemed to bear upon National politics was simply as any other person going from Oregon to the East in those days might have said or done these things. To come from the Pa- cific Coast in 1842 was to have done something remarkable. To be able to relate stories of adventure and describe a vast and wilderness country was to gain an interested audience any- where. Especially were the President and Cabinet alert to learn everything bearing upon the value of a territory whose title was in aispute between the United States and Great Britain; and every man, whether he was a mountain man or a missionary, who had been in Oregon was closely questioned. Only the year before Dr. White, a returned missionary, had been sent for to go to Washington and answer questions. He answered them so intetligently that he was told to proceed to the West and collect as many as he could of the people who were waiting for the bounty land act, and lead them to Oregon that season. He was made sub-Indian agent, paid a salary, and commissioned with other extraor- dinary powers. At the same time Fre- mont was sent to explore the country as far as the Great Divide, it_being intended that his reports,of the land passage should connect with Commodore Wilkes’ reports on his explorations on the Pacific Coast. Yet in the face of all this action by the Government we are told that Oregon was in danger of being traded off for a coafish- ery on the Newfoundland coast. Dr. White gathered up about 130 persons by advertising and lecturing and proceeded to lead them to Oregon. As he had only previously traveled by sea to and from the Columbia River and knew nothing of the road before him, he prudently left his wagons at Fort Hall and depended upon pack-horses down Snake River and across the mountains. By this course he arrived at Whitman’s station by the middle of September. Mr, Grant, the Hudson Bay Company’s agent at Fort Hall, assured Dr. White that he could, if rne wished to at- action.” “Thisis a clear statement,” says | tempt it, take his wagons through Dr. Nixon, ‘‘summarizing the great his-|to the Columbia, and pointed out toric event and forever silencing effectually | the road. It ran, after leaving Fort in mod- ern times attempted to deprive the old hero of his great and deserving tribute.” Why is the fact concealed that this Senate document is a_chapter from “Gray’s His- tory of Oregon” and penned by the same hand, or the further fact that its purpose was to obtain from Congress a grant of land at Lapwai, ostensibly for the Ameri- ions, but really to en- rich men connected with the Oregon mis- The history ef this case in the ourts is not without value in connection with the subject in hand. On this busi- ness Mr. Spalding went to Washing- ton and while in the East presented | the Whitman story, as published in this document, to the editor of the New York Evangelist, Dr. J. G. Craighead, with the request that he should do all that he could to maintain Dr. Whitman’s claim to be considered the savior of Oregon. This the gentleman promised, and after- ward went to Washington, where he spent two monthsin looking forevidence that this claim had any fonndation. Failing in this he wrote to_Hon. Elwood Evans of Olym- pia, now of Tacoma, telling him that there was nothing discovered to corroborate the statement of Gray and Spalding, and ask- ing him for light. A copy of this letter is among papers in my possession. Inow come to the consideration of that part of the Gray-Nixon narrative which deals with the immigration of 1843. It should be unnecessary to go into the ex- amination of recorded evidence, the claim being on the face of ituntenable. Dr. Whitman arrived in the United States in March, 1843, and found, according to his own report to the board, preparations al- ready in progress for alarge migration. It goes without saying that a body of 800 or 1000 people with cattle and household goods could not be got together by the efforts of one man between the first of March and the middle of May in a country thinly settled like the border States, or in- deed anywhere. Nothing short of a year’s time would suffice. arms and other property were to be disposed of, wagons and cattle with six months’ provisions to be vprovided, and all arrangements per- fected for quitting the couiitry forever. Yet Gray says that the magic voice of Whitman accomplished this marvelous exodus by simply passing through Missouri on his route to Washington, and Dr. Nixon says, by way of making an_improbable thing sound probable, that while Whitman was in the East attending to mission and private affairs, Mr. Lovejoy was ‘‘publish- ing far and wide that Dr. Whitman and himself would early in the spring pilot across the plains to Oregon a body of immigrants,”’ and further, “it is just as certain that the large immigration to Ore- gon that year was incited by the move- ments of Whitman and Lovejoy as any fact could be.” He had overlooked the fact that Lovejoy himself says, and he has inserted the statement in his appendix, “The doctor remained all night at the fort (Bent’s Fort, in Colorado), starting early on the following morning to join the St. Louis party. Here we paited. The doctor Broceeded to Washington. I remained at ent’s Fort until spring, and joined the doctor the following July near Fort Lara- mie, on his way to Oreqon,in company with a train of emigrants.” | TLere could be no mistake about this statement, though he, depending on mem- org and influenced by the impressions of others, says a little further on, ““The doc- tor came to the frontier settlements, urg- ing the citizens to emigrate to the Pacific. Heleft Independence, Mo., in the month of May, 1843, with an emigrant train of about 1000 souls for Oregon’’—clearly a matter of hearsay, as he was himself at Fort Bent at the time mentioned. To_ quote as reliable anything stated after an interval of thirty- three years and strengthened by no re- corded testimony is to lay one’s self open to gravedoubts. With my experience in prov- ing the value of remembered events, such evidence is set down as worthless or at best only corroborative. An article in the Missionary Herald, published by the Mission Board in 1843, informs its readers that Dr. Whitman left for Oregon in June, which agrees with the assertions of several of the most intelligent of the immigrants of 1843 that Whitman overtook them on the South Platte. Thus itis clearly not proven anywhere that Dr. Whitman either was instrumental in raising the large im- migration of 1843 or that he conducted it from the Missouri border. It met in council near Westport, Missouri, and was led by a well known mountain man and pilot” as far as Fort Hall. From there Dr. Whitman, with a company of Nez Perces and Cayuses, who had come Boise, through Burnt River Cafion and Grand Rond Valley, thence over the Blue Mountains to the Umatilla. This route had been pointed out to Farnham in 1839 by the company’s agent at Fort Boise as a feasible wagon route while comment- ing on Dr. Whitman’s abandonment of his wagon at the fort. These facts dispose of the charge that Grant endeavored to dis- courage the taking of wagons to the Co- lumbia. As a matter of fact, this route traveled by White's company, and the fol- lowing year by the great wagon company, was fully described to them by Grant, who furnished the captains of divisions with a chart of the country. No credits for ex- ploration, therefore, are due to Dr. Whit- man, or the immigrants who performed the labor of opening the road to wagons by grading or felling trees. As all thisis susceptible of proof, I beseech my oppo- nents to refrain from saying hard things about me for stating a fact. But to return to the motives which led Dr. Whitman to go East as suddenly as he did. The cause lay, first of all, in the un- tractable disposition of the Indians in general, and the Cayuses in particular. There is a whole volume of evidence to show that from the earliest years of the missions the Indians were dissatisfied. While they were willing to receive mate- rial benefits, they were unable to compre- hend spiritual truths. After some experi- ence with them it was found necessary to use an arbitrary authority over them, even in some cases to whip them. This punishment was sometimes in- flicted on the young chiefs at Lapwai, but the Cayuses would not submit to it. On the contrary, they on several occasions at- tacked Dr. Whitman by striking him, knocking off his hat, throwing mud over him, and like hostile demonstrations, As there were usually at his place no more than three or four persons, including Mrs. Whitman, retaliation, if it had been Chris- tian policy, would have been unsafe, and these insults were submitted to. The Indians, being only grown-up children, presumed more and more upon the im- munity they enjoyed, until at last they were quite beyond control. In 1841 when Wilkes visited Waiilatpu he was in- formed of these troubles, which he reports in_his ‘“narrative.” Apparently all that held the Cayuses in check was the pres- ence of the Hudson Bay Compsn{. hen matters became too serious to be over- looked McKinlay, the agent in charge of Fort Walla Walla, a firm and kind friend of Dr. Whitman, paid a vigit to the chiefs and gave them to undersfand that unless they conducted themselves in a friendly manner toward the missionaries they might expect to lose the trade of the com- pany, this argument usually being sufli- cient to quiet them for that time. But as they beheld the prassemy of Whitman, who by much labor and energy had built up a comfortable home, farm and flouring mill, and compared with it their own failures, they were consumed with envy and jealousy. They assumed that the land used by Whitman belonged to them, and that consequently the crops from it were theirs. They destroyed the doctor’s water ditches because they were not allowed to use the water for their gar- dens, and stole the melons from the mis- sion garden, besides practicing many other annoying acts. At the other missions there were similar complaints made, as the reports printed in the Boston Missionary Herald furnish evidence. At the time of the arrival of Dr. White with the first real emigration to Oregon, the affairs of the superintendent were be- coming desperate. The home board, dis- satisfied because the missions were not self-supporting after six years, and warned by the missionaries themselves that they were in danger, had ordered that the Cayuse and Nez Perce stations should be abandoned, and that Mr. Spalding should return to the East, while Dr. Whitman should join Walker and Eells at Spokane. Such an ending to six years of constant effort wasjnot to be thought of. Besides, the arrival of an immigration furnished an argument, which if properly pre- sented to the board ought to satisfy them that the two stations which were ordered closed could not only, with an annual influx of immigrants, hungry from the plains, become self-supporting, but the source of wealth. All that was lacking was more help, and that he in- tended to demand. But there wasno time to be lost, as his orders were imperative. In a fortnight after White's arrival Dr. Whitman was on his way to the East to explain the new situation and to ask for re-enforcements. His friend McKinlay fitted him out with the dress of a Hudson Bay man, the better to insure his safety, and with a guide to other of the com- pany’s forts, whence he would be for- warded along his route, No sooner was Dr. Whitman well started on his way than the Cayuses commenced hostilities. One ¢f their chiefs invaded the chamber of Mrs. Whitman at night, she bemdg protected by a single white man. Alarmed at this outrage she fled to Fort Walla Walla and was sent to The Dalles, where the Methodists had a station, and spent the year of her husbund’s absence in vzsxtgcg different places in the Columbia and Willamette valleys. Even in the mat- ter of Mrs. Whitman’s desertion in_the midst of an Indian coun Dr. Nixon desconds to subterfuge, giving the im- pression that the doctor provided for his wife's removal to The Dalles before leaving his station, although if he knew his subject at all he must have known that he left her in chargfi of the mission, with only one man for a helper. All the writers of that day, namely, Hines, White and Lee; comment on the fact. After the incident referred to, and the flight of Mrs. Whitman and her male assistant, the doctor's mill was burned down, with the grain it contained. From this time until 1847, when the troubles culminated in the massacre of November 29, the history of the missions is one of failure. Convinced at last that he could not hold out much longer Dr. Whit- man purchased The Dalles station, but, neglecting to remove, and the Indians be- coming further enraged at the appearance among them of a fatal disease introduced by the immigration, he paid the penalty of his determination witfi his lite. . Fraxces Furrer VicTor. San Francisco, July 26, 1895. CIENCE - >, NDUDTRY N2> 20 8N, S EMPLOYMENT OF \% [} 4"( * Women 1§ ENGLAND.— ~J ° An investigation into the employment of women and girls lately conducted by the labor department of the British Board of Trade presents results somewhat at variance with those disclosed by the census investigation in the United States; the statistics of which haverecently been made public. So far as England is concerned, the current view that women’s employment is rapidly extending and that women are replacing men to a considerable extent in industry is not confirmed. The em- ployment of married and elderly women has, on the whole, diminished, and the em- ployment of women in casual occupations hasalso declined. Thesignificance of anin- crease in the employment of women and girls under 25 is impaired by the fact that there has been a concurrent and similar ex- tension in the employment of young men and boys. Miss Collet, who bas examined some of the reasons for this discrepancy between preconceived notions and the facts, points out two main causes of error affecting public opinion as to the extension in the employment of women. One is the somewhat too hasty assumption that the recent tendency in the direction of the greater employment of middle-class women was representative of general changes in the field of employment for women of all Kkinds. On the contrary, the great increase in productive power through the introduction of ma- chinery has largely increased the number of Englishmen who are able to support their daughters, while the need for the services of the latter at home has de- creased. Therefore, it is pointed -out, in the middle classes, a high standard of comfort, a diminished probability of mar- riage and apprehension with regard to the future, bave all combined to encourage the entrance into the labor market of middle- class girls. At the same time, however, a converse movement has been going on among the less prosperous classes, by whom the benefit to the family to be de- rived from the services of women at home is only gradually being realized. As a matter of fact, the statistics given in the report indicate that the total increase in the employment of women and girls as compared with the population was very slight during the decade of 1881-91. A second source of error as to the question of female employment is found in an un- scientific method of statistical comparison. A fact of great importance is brought out in the regort—there is not a single case of absolute decrease in the number of males employed which-does not also show an absolute decrease in the number of females employed. Ripe Wite Your Mourn Crosep.—It is quite time that the perils of the wheel should be formulated. With the ordinary dangers, over-exertion, or injudicious ex- ertion, the public are quite familiar; but the ailments engendered by the use or abuse of the wheel have yet to be classified. As an advance guard comes the statement of adentist thatan over fondness for in- dulgence in bicycling is developing a dis- eased condition of the gums and teeth. The explanation of this phenomenon is that the extra effort in ascending hills and running races, and the short, quick breaths of cold air that strike the overheated gums through the open mouth, develop a congestion of these parts. The face is swollen up as with an ordinary toothache, us forms around the teeth and loosens hem. The pain is intense, and the teeth often have to beextracted. A leading den- NEWS OF THE CHURCHES, An Eminent Greek Scholar Goes to the University of the Pacific. TRINITY'S NEW FRESCOES. 2 The Probable Pastor for the Eplsco- pal Mission of the Good Samaritan. Rev. M. 8. Cross has been appointed dean of the University of the Pacific to succeed Dr. Sawyer. Mr. Oross is consid- ered one of the best authorities on the Greek language in America. In addition to making a special study of the classics, Rev.'Mr. Cross has spent some years at the University of Athens, where he ac- quired a thorough knowledge of modern Greek, and where his mastery of the classics earned him a high place among the professors. Dr. Cross is a brother of the Hon. C. W. Cross of this City. Dr. J. M. Beard, president of the Uni- versity of the Pacific, has moved from that carry away windmills of ordinary construction. It is fitted with an auto- matie “‘cut-out,’”” which makes contact as soon as the gearing is moved around, so that the electricity generated passes along two overhead wires to the cells situated in a building 150 yards distant. Themachine takes up very little room, and it stands the wear and tear of work so well that it promises to become, in possibly a smaller size of cheaper construction, a favorite means of water pumping, Professor Mitchell, who has subjected the vertical windmill to a thor%ugb test in the gen- eration of electricity, claims that such mills are specially applicable for lighting lighthouses, private country houses an factories so situated that the mill could be placed on the roof, and thus be in an ex- posed position. A Liquip Evnecrric ForGe.—Great inter- est was evinced when it was announced some time ago that a discovery had been made in Germany whereby iron could be melted in a pail of water. A lead plate was eonnected to the positive wire of a source of current and a pair of tongs to the negative. The metal to be heated is then grasped with the tongs and immersed in a vessel containing the positive electrode and a good conducting solution of dilute sulphuric acid or soda. The temperature of the metal will rise, and if the operation be continued will reach the melting point, The change in temperature is followed closely by the operator, and can be arrested at anfv moment by the withdrawal of the metal. This method, which reqnires con- siderable carrent, has been improved upon by a Niagara Falls blacksmith, who de- votes himself to the shoeing of horses. His tist has confirmed the fact of the existence of this new form of disease. It comes, he says, from an abnormal current of air, from fast riding, striking the gums, and if the sopulanty of the bicycle continues, it will evelop anew and permanent feature in dentistry. The only preventive is to al- ways ride with the mouth closed. Breath- ing through the nose may to some people be a little difficult at first, but the trick is soon learned, and besides its special value in wheeling, it is most essential to the gen- eral health. Y SEA GULLS As Carmizrs.—With the ap- proach of the yacht-racing season, when carrier pigeons are in request for the trans- mission of the result of contests, the old question of “carrier pigeons for sea service” is revived. A correspondent insists that gulls, which are more powerful birds than pigeons, might be efficiently trained and used to much_greater distances than are practicable with the latter. Insome parts of the country it is a common sight to see tame sea gulls around the fishermen’s cottages, and even in.farmyards miles from the sea. They live and feed with the domestic fowls and'learn readily to come when called. Itis suggested that if the ‘“homing” instinct could be developed in the gull to the extent that it is possessed by the pigeon, it would be invaluable for the work of carrying messages from vessels {ar out at sea. Itspowersof vision are much greater than those of the pigeon, and there would be no limit to their range of flight, since they can at any time rest on the water; moreover, their greater strength would enable them to ~carry bulkier messages. InPoRTANT Discovery 1N NAVAL Smie- BUILDING.—The announcement of an im- portant discovery in naval shipbuilding has been made before the German Reich- stag. During a discussion in committee on the guestion of construction of a ship to replace the “Preussen” the admiral said that successful experiments with a new armor plating had been made at Messrs. Krupp's works, where a hardening process had been discovered which gave extraordi- nary results and was the means of con- siderably increasing the resisting power of the plates. Valuable experience had also been gained trom the naval operations in the Chino-Japanese war. Of all the for- eign officers who had a%glied for permis- sion to accompany the inese fleet Ger- mans alone had n allowed to make a more minute inspection of the Chinese ships, which, it should be noted. post amuch greated power of resistance than the Japanese vessels. \ THE INTERIOR OF THE [Sketched by a NEW TRINITY CHAPEL. “Call” artist.] Napa to San Francisco, and the univer- sity’s headquarters will henceforth be per- manently located here. It is believed that strong influence will be brought to bear upon Rev. W. I. Kip, pastor of the Mission of the Good Bamari- tan, on Second street, to induce him to ac- ce pt the call he has received to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Berkeley. Mr. Kip can ill be spared at the mission, where he bas done a line of work which is considered unique in the Episcopal church in San Francisco. Most of the Episcopal congre- fz\uon belong to the wel-to-do class, but he Good Samaritan Mission has catered es- pecially to the toilers and the poor, and, in return, the people have rallied round it and have shownan enthusiasm in its work which many fashionable congregations might envy. It is believed, however, that Rev. W. I. Kip is just the man for Berkeley. Heisa voung man and a graduate of the State niversity, and would therefore be likely to have the power of appealing to the stu- dents. At present Mr. Kip is enjoying a two weeks’ vacation at Laie Tahoe, and his decision will most likely not be known till his return. If he agrees to accept the call to Berkeley the probability is that Rev. F. H. Church will be offered the pastorate of the Mission of the Good Samaritan. He is well known in Episcopalian church cir- cles as an active church worker, and is moreover a popular preacher, Mr. Church came from the East as curate to Rev. Dr. Easton of old Trinity Church; during the time of Rey. Mr. Davis he was curate at St. Luke's on Van Ness avenue, and at present he divides his time between Christ Church Mi]usion, San Jose, and the mission at Fruit- vale. The decorations of the Memorial Chapel at Trinity Episcopal Church have just been completed and service will be held in the building next Friday morning. The walls and roof have been covered with cement, which has the appearance of stone, and the roof has been beautifully frescoed. The furniture of the chapel is an_ ‘“‘ominum_ gatherum” of cherished relics from old Trinity Church. The altar, the lecturn, the cross, even the carpet and the pews, have been taken from the old building on Post street. Rey. T. M. Tai, the oldest presbyter of the Episcopal church in Japan, has taken the house 421 Powell street, where he will open a Japanese Episcopal.mission, with the aid of several American teachers. Rev. Mr. Tai, who belongs to the warrior caste, is a highly educated man, ana his elo- quence has already made quite a stir among his compatriots since his arrival, A New WinpMiLn For Erecrric LiGHT. A successful electric light installation on somewhat novel lines has been effected at a New Brunswick lunatic asylum. Near the asylum, to the north, is a piece of high ground upon which a vertical windmill of 10 horsepower has been erected, to be used for drivinga dynamo to generate electricity for charging the storage cells at the institution. This mill differs materially from the ordinary wind- mills so much in vogue in Holland and other Continental countries, as well as frem the more modern American type, all of which have to be brought up to the wind by means of a vane or workea round by hand, thus losing time and wind. It is constructed to move in a horizontal plane about a vertical axis, thereby bringing quite a new feature irto practice for the utilization of the much-neglected wind- guwer.n It consists of eight semi-cylin- rical boxes, each 12 feet long by 6 feet, neatly and securely fixed on-the ends of eight” pitchpine arms 21 feet long by 6 inches sqaare. These are connected to an n%rjgm shaft attached to a pit-wheel, which meves a fly-wheel confiected to a 100-horsepowerg dynamo. For two months the mfll"hn worked steadily day and night, without reqnh-ini any at- tention whatever, thus saving the wages of attendants. It is found to be exception- ally stanch and is unaffected by breezes forge is a rectangular wooden tank with a float controlled by a handle and rackwork for rmsuag or lowering the surface of the liquid. The positive wire is attached to a lead plate suspended from the edge of the tank. The negative wire is connected to three work rests, two of which are used for heating articles held by tongs, euch as horseshoes, bolts, rivets, etc, and the other for heating particular points on a long bar of iron. The arrangement by which any part of the bar of iron can be heated is in- genious. The bar is laid in a trough on two pieces of movable firebrick, which can be separated to any required distance. The space between the two bricks determines the length of the part of the rod that will be heated and can be regulated so accu- rately as to heat a space from a quarter of an inch in length to the full width of the tank. When the piece of iron is in posi- tion and the bricks are adjusted, the solu- tion is brought into contact with the iron by the depression of the float; electrolysis takes place and the heat from the burning hydrogen gas is imparted to the iron. The time taken for the melting process varies; a ;ileoe of iron one-quarter of an inch square will take about eight seconds, while a piece one inch s?uare will take probably sixty. The, cost of preparing a horseshoe with a coal forge with coal at $5 ver ton,is 5.58 cents; with the electric forge and current at 15 cents per 1000 watt hours, it is 2.32 cents. The iron is said to be entfy improved by the process. A -inchiron rod, after being subjected to electrical heatingand cooled in water, has been immediately bent into a circle of one-half inch radius, without ex- hibiting a flaw or a crack. THE TELEPHONE IN SWEDEN.—Sweden has always been to the front in practicai tele- phone work. The Swedish state telephone authorities are now about to combine the telephone with the state telegraph system. In Sweden, where service can be had for $6 a year, everybody is, of course, ‘‘on the telephone.”” In future every subscriber will be allowed to make use of his tele- phone address as his telegraph address. In sending a message the sender has only to add the letters “‘Rt.”” (Rikstelefon), for which no charge is made, and the tele- fl‘l{h office, on receiving the message, will ook up the address in the telephone regis- ter and send it on. Besides being able to thus effect a saving of two or three words in ever; telu‘fram telephone subscribers will be allowed to telephone on their messages to the telegraph offices for transmission, and they can, if they so desire, have their reply telegrams telephoned on to their house immediately they arrive. The Swedish lines of telephone management certainly seem to have fallen on pleasant places, for this admirable arrangement ap- pears likely to be as profitable as it is agreeable to eur{body concerned. The subscriber is provided ‘with a system of message transmission so ideal in its promptness and convenience that the thought of it fills the public of less favored countries with envy, and the state looks to save money by the increased accommoda- tion, as the telegraph traffic will be aug- mented and the number of messengers m’il be reduced. Villain once meant the serf who belonged tothe farm and was bought, sold or ex- changed with it. REBUILDING ST. ROSE'S The Insurance Has Been Satis~ factorily Settled With the Pastor. HE HOPES TO COME OUT EVEN, Work Begun on the Brick Church. The Poor People Suffered but Little, The insurance on St. Rose’s Church on Brannan street, near Fourth, that was de- stroyed in the recent conflagration, has all been settled with Rev. Dennis Nugent, the pastor, so satisfactorily that he has begun rebuilding with considerable enthusiasm and encouragement. The temporary wooden church, 93x50 feet, erected on the site of the old wooden one, proved ampiy large for the accommodation of parish- ioners. 3 Four masses have been held in it on Sun- days since it was opened, and at each service the church was comfortably filled, while at the 9 o’clock mass it was crowded every Sunday morning. ‘This rude building will serve as a parish headquarters until a handsome Gothic church will be dedicated for divine worship. The people who worship beneatn its roof are satisfied to accept some inconvenience under the trying circumstances. .Meau- while no time is being lost in repairing the burned brick walls of the partly finished new edifice. e Adter the fire it was seen that the granite facings and heavy bases for piers and pillars had broken and disintegrated like so much _brittle glass under the conflict between intense heat and streams of cool- ing water. Even the massive granite blocks, nearly buried in the mud beneath the basement, had split in two. Higher up the granite hcingbs _bad chipped and ex- ploded, while the bricks stood the heat re~ markably well, i The damage done to stone and brick is now being repaired, under the supervision of the underwriters, so that the higher superstructure may have an absolutely nge foundation. The new church was covered for $30,000 with the Ktna Insur- ance Company, but the damage done was adjusted to the satisfaction of Father Nu- gent at $10,000, and that amount isto be paid him. “I felt gratified,” said he yesterday, ‘“over the treatment I received from the insurance men. They were very fair, par- ticularly the Ztna Company. I find now that I may come out even after rebuilding, though there is still a doubt about it. “‘The first consideration now is a resi- dence near the church, so I intend build- ing a home there right away, where my parishioners can see me and I can be amon them. As for the school building, I wil duplicate the one that was burned. “I don’t believe that any of the poor people who were driven out of home by the flames suffered really. A great deal of money, clothing and furniture was dis- tributed among them, and there was no real suffering after all. Over $800 passed through my hands to be distributed in coin and $1100 for furniture and clothing. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the ladies of the parish did wonderfully good work in alleviating the distress.” AUSTRALIAN TELEGRAPHY.—A clever bit of telegraphy has been done in Australia. Through the co-operation of the telegraph authorities in all the five colonies ou the mainland of Australia, a very interesting experiment was. lately made in the long distance transmission of telegraphic mes- sages. The limints selected were Rock- hampton and Breeme in Roebuck Bay, Western Australia. Breeme is on the northwest coast of Western Australia, and is the point where the cable from jnvs, and so from Europe,is landed in that colony. It is also the furthest point north n Western Australia to which the tele- graph has been carried. At the time ap- pointed all ‘the instruments on the various ~intervening _stations between Rockbampton and Breeme were con- nected, and thus a continuous cir- cuit was made between the two Eoints. The signals received in Rock- ampton from Israelite Bay, about 4000 miles away, on the southern coast of ‘Western Australia are described as being as clear and sharp as if thefir had come from across the street. In the line be- tween Israelite Bay and Breeme there was a defect which somewhat im- paired the distinctness of the sig- nals. But the experiment was de- cidedly a success, for perfectly readable signals were exchanged and a conversation was carried on between the telegraph mas- ters at Rockhampton and Breeme, which, following the route of the wire, are 6275 miles apart. AN ImporTaNT ELECTRIC RAILROAD ScreME.—The public is already aware that important developments in the installa- tion of electric railroads are close at hand, but the enormous scope of this movement is yet but imperfectly realized. In the matter of the acricultural indtstry alone, the electric railroad is destined to bring prosperity to extensive sections of the country whose agricultural development has always been restricted by the inability of the farmers to carry their products to market. A road which will well illustrate the bearing of this importang issue is now under consideration, and its successful in- stallation and operation would doubtless lead to the opening up of the resources of many other agricultural communities by the running of electric roads. Itis pro- posed to connect by a single line the St. Lawrence and Merrimac River valleys from water_to water. The line would run from Haverhill, N. H., to Nasbua, twenty miles due west through one of the most fertile farming countries of New England, then northward through a thickly popu- lated manufacturing region to the White Mountain country and on to Quebec, the strongest fortified town in America. The road will open up through the length and breadth of New Hampshire a means of pleasant passenger service as well as a cheap, convenient and speedy methoa of transporting the products of the land to the most remunerative markets. The word supercilious comes irom the Latin word signifying the eyebrow. The habit of lifting the eyebrows in scorn sug- gested the present signification. e Pragmatical originally meant nothin worse than complete absorption in busi- ness affairs. LA BELLE GREOLE CIGARS Manufactured by S. HERNSHEIM BROS. & CO., New Orleans, La. RINALDO BROS. & CO., Pacific Coast Agents, 300-302 Battery Street, S. F. Bfanch Store—29-31-33 South First St., San Jose, Cal,