The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 1, 1896, Page 15

" THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 1896. 15 was hen to the hoss’ they owned. Leastwise the animal belonged to Pete n, but as everybody had something hoss’ one time or another 1t got to be owned the town like. Why, in fact, the town d another name, Cockeye ich, but it got to be called Beetown is racehoss, Busy Bee. st piece of flesh vou wish to see; t hocks you could ever margine.’ like the wind, though he warn’t <y HE asked for a lamp, though it | (The old hotel-keeper gave us the ghost of ( was still daylight. ~ *Ah, my |a wink.) \ lady,” thought T, *you will have| *‘Itis Beetown,’ said he. your supper sent up to you, and {1 _ejaculated the hotel-keeper sud- you will g0 10 bed.” Good heay- | denly, as if struek with the name.) ens! what a ride it bad been. _Forty miles| * ‘Beetown? Solsaid to the driver,"Well, that day, over the San Jacinto Mountains, | where are the bees then? And as he was and here we were. stopping, as usual, to | just lovely though one-eyed, this is what please herat the most out- -the-way place he told me of Beetown. e inable. Nothing pleased her legend-| (The old man’s face was as imperturba- self so much as -calling a hal as a mask as she narrated.) 2 nn e e “About here there nsed to be considera- rbody out of their senses and g done, and of course a tidy bit tories out of them. She was er sonitied, so I, faithful esquire ti was, fairly chuckled when I heard he for a lamp. But bless my stars, if re not down in balf an hour, her 1 w acurlin 1ts most fetching manner, by the extra curls I knew the re the lamp. at There .was a bit of e, or whatever the stuff w. ty rosebud for decoration uncle and 1 knew she sc 1t was perfectly wonderful how she w appear aiter the toughest ride, hi pedigree, neither.” Well, he won had a millinery store at her c 1— € around-for far and near. Noth- rvelous, when you corsidér she kept ch him. Nothing was talked everything in a hand wn but that hoss. ‘Even the ag nine by Her uncle whispered to me: *1 children their odds in marbles on otel-keeper this time. A him.” (Tne eyelids of the hotel-keeper And by the quivered, but otherwise he gave no sign; had seen the quiver rosebud she will Jand him y mimicked the twang of the cake. Just listen to Just listen to view’ (mimick tones). ‘Such a « ed little devil that induced ’em to (Of course.) ‘No such s m bring a hoss that could match world.” (She’s right about 1sy Bee. You see, the hull town had got legends.” (She ha to think Busy Bee warn't born to be ] beaten. A mine or two had closed down oute.) ‘Mount ves, you v and there were lots spoiling for ex- ment. Assoon as Busy Bee was entered ainst that stranger, why Beetown filied up like magic. Sportscame from far and near. The place wasina fever. It gotawful! And and wusser as the race drew near. And on the morning of that race you bet vou couldn’t have bought a yard of white or blue calico in Beetown for a ransom. Blue and white was Busy Bee’s colors, and every sheet and tablecloth in town was cut up for decorations. More roses at a dollar apiece was round that hoss's stall than would have done for a fashionable corpse. Finally, just before the race, the be z got so high that the women acted crazy creatures; they got wuss nor the men. They yelled like hyenas, and denly, as if they were all thinking of at once, they began to pile their jewelry into a hat. “They tore their earrings out of their ears, the rings off their fingers, their breast- pins and everything of such like, piling all heaping high into that old felt hat—then staked that too. “Well, Busy Bee lost! But it was no other than the great Caractacus he was running agin. They had no right to a cie Sam, he saw t as we did, but 1 Californian was at her rn at the proper it was her method to very good story of her She could tell a good one or two in- h that her uncle, who worshiped nd I, who worshiped her, too, would ck up our ears when she would begin. That remind ¢ 1 Some bait a bett pri her lace-bord ddle tucked in her bos spread out like the petals ofa at reminds me of a most singu- that uncle and I came The stage coach passed | of gambling as is usual, but here cards | here came to Beetown an un- | you say to that story?”’ said my lady triumphantly. “Say ?"" said the splendid old fellow ris- ing with the dignity of a chairman, “say? 1 say as every word is as true as Gospel. I was the man as held the hat of jewelry for the last sweepstakes.” Solemnly he shook hands with her, as if performing a rite. She Qubbled up to him, sniffing stories galore on the morrow. Then he produced some rare stuff to cele- brate her story with. After she had taken bers upstairs to please the host witha semblance of tasting it he told us that Pete Wilson shot Busy Bee that very day and himself too. And *‘that one-eyed gun- ner, the stage-driver, to think he was alive yet. Why, he lost his eye,” but really we never dare tell her ladyship how the driver lost his eye. We dare not risk the narration—she might know it—and I told you it was rare stuff. PrTER STUDLEY. DR. SAMUEL JOENSON. Was Ver He Very Susceptible to Flattery. | Johnson, although he prided himself on | his good breeding, was often overbearing, | would sometimes break out with un- governable fury, astonishing, as it has been observed, “the well-regulated minds of respectable ladies and gentlemen.” | That he should have fouund solace in | female society is not surprising, but -that women should have been so fond of his may be thought curious, for he | never spared them, and frequently | expressed something like contempt | for their intellectual capacity. He declared that they were the slaves of | fashion, and made other comments by no | means polite to the sex. But Johnson did | not always mean what he said, and when | it pleased him no man could pay a compli- | ment more gracefully. Nothing can be | more happy than his saying to Mrs. Sid- dons when for the momént he had no chair to offer her: “Madam, you who so often occasion a want of seats to other | people will more ea: the want of | one yourself,” or his compliment, though we may suspect its truthfulness, to Mrs. Sheridan on her “Memoirs of Miss Sydney Biddulph.” “I know not. madam, that you havea right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much.” Dearly did he like a little flattery in re- turn, and when in his old age he heard the opinion of a countess that to be praised by | Dr. Johnson “wouid make one a fool all | his life,” he said: “I am too old to be | made a fool, but if you say I am made a | fool I shall not deny it. I am much pleased with a compliment, especially from a pretty woman.”” It was one of Johnson’s | peculiarities that while dressing like a | sloven, he considered himself an infallible | judge of what ladies ought to wear. *No milliner of Bond street,” says Mr. Craik, “could he more critital to detect the | displacement of a ribbon, the want of | modishness in a cap, or inharmoni- ous coloring in a dress.” He lectured | Mrs. Thrale on the subject, and he lectured her friends, and induced one of ‘them, who was aressed for church, not only to change her hat and gown, but also | to thank him for hisreproof. ‘It seems,” | says Fauny Burney, “that he always speaks his mind concerning the dress of ladies, and all ladies who are here obeying | injunctions implicitly, and alter whatever he disapproves.” This was written at Streatham, but Mrs. Thrale’s guests were not always able to satisfy the fastidious doctor. One young lady, whose cap John- son called vile, failed to win his approval | when she had changed Fanny’s own | cap was pronounced very handsome, be- her mother had to change her gown be- | cause it did not meet with his approval, “What does it mean?” I asked the stage-driver, for I was sitting up beside him. - through a veritable deserted village. The|smugele in & hosslike that' Caractacus, effect was -weird in. the extreme. The i first race or not, considering his ‘pedigree. <e= were on both sides of the street, | It was a dirty trick.” and the street itself a narrow gorge be- | “You bet!” fervently ejaculated tween two steep hills.” ‘There was the fur- | hotel-keeper, with his eyes closed still. wre still to be seen through the case-| *‘Well, the mines fell all to pieces, piace its. The wild creeping plants had | was bankrupt, everybody picked up sta}(es n fantastically everything together— and .leIt at once. To stay was starvation, chair to bedstead, bedstead to window, | and it was cheaperto leave the furniture through the dsors—house to house. where it was than pack it with them. ““What does it mean? I asked the stage- | And that is why Beetown is as 1t is drivery for I was sitting up beside him. | to-day. Now, Mr, Hotel-keeper, what do the wear a black hat and cloak in summer.— The Spectator. i = Miss Alice C. Fletcher, who has devoted vears to the study of the customs of the Indians of the Northwest, has been elected one of the sectional vice-presidents of the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science. The honors of Miss | Fletcher are the first of the sort extended | to a woman by the association. [BUDD AS AN INVENTOR, and was then told that she should not | The Governor Finds Relaxation -in His Mechanical Laboratory. i HE CONTRIVED A NEW ENGINE. The Chief Executive of California | Has Made Valuable Improve. ments in a Launch. The Governor of California is also an ardent inventor. When weary with the | burdens of state he seeks relaxation and | rest in the mechanical laboratory at his residence in Stockton. If he catches the | night train from Sacramento or San Fran- | cisco, early in the morning, if you know | the secret of his retreat, you may find him | i his shirt-sieeves and overalls, with ham- | so expertly that he is prized as a referee. have been made in the workshop show that a speed of twenty-two knots per hour can be maintained almost noiselessly. This is not the first invention that has wasted the gray matter of the man who is now Goyernor of California, and yet the Governor has never boasted of his mechan- ical genius. He has rather, in truth, hid his ight under a bushel in this respect, and only those who are very intimate with him have any knowledge of this phase of his life. For years Governor Budd has spent | a large part of his leisure time in his work- shop. He is blessed—or cursed, as one may view it—with a brain that finds rest in activity, relaxation in diversity of employment. This latest and perhaps greatest and most useful invention of his, however, grows out of the fact that Budd | is also an enthusiast in another line of en- | nate, particularly Erastus Baldwin’s claim deavor—that of practical out-door athletics. | to boyhood supremacy in wrestling. Lf He is a member of the Stockton Athletic | this point can be established in favor of Association, one of the best and most | the man who rose so far out of Poverty complete organizations of its kind on the | Hollow, Mr. Huntington will be known in coast. Asnember of this association the | history as the man who never was thrown. Governor takes an active interest in al- | With the railroad* battles raging at most all field sports. He knows football | Washington and in Kentucky, Mr. Hunt- ington has taken time to write out his version of the wrestling contest and to give additional reminiscences in substan- HE story of C. P. Huntington’s boyhood days, published in TuE SuNpay Carn of February 2, has been read by the famous railroad millionaire and evidently with deep p-rsonal interest. Some of the assertions made by Mr. Huntington’s schoolmates are controverted by the mag- He wields a good hand at the bat on the diamond, and is a good base-runner when in practice. Boating is his strong- | tiation of what he says. Building upon hold, however, and when opportunity | the story of his youthful experience he affords he pulls a strong oar in | has voluntarily conuibuted the wisdom Governor Budd as a Mech | | anic—Working on His Gas Engine at His Home in Stockton. [Sketched by a “Call” artist.] - | mer or saw or file in hand, at his work | beuch in the tankhouse back of his home on Channel street. His latest invention is an improved gas- oline engine for his private launch, the | Hazel. Governor Budd is an enthusiastic duck bunter, and when the press of other | duties permits he stéals away to the tule land in the Hazel, with one or two other crack duck shots. But the Governor, be- ing an enthusiast and prodigal of energy in all undertakings, is also nervous at times. He did not like the everlasting thump, thump, thump, and psist, psist, psist of that zasoline engine—the one that formerly propelled Dr. Cross's launch be- | fore it was burned. The thump and the | psist also disturbed the even humor of | the canvasbacks and teals and often made them fly away to other marshes beyond | the reach of bullets from the Hazel | hunters. This caused extra trouble, the | launching of skiffs and long pulls through | the narrow, winding sloughs that pene- | trate bevond the high tules. Tt also awakened the Governor's inventive facul- | ties. Since the day ke sailed toy boats in the washtub James H. Budd has evinced a | genius for mechanical work, and all | through his busy career he has never entirely permitted his palms to become unfamiliar with mechanical tools. At his residence on Channel street he has a very complete workshop or laboratory on the lower floor of the tankhouse. So when he began thinking about’ ‘the unpleasant | noises made by the Hazel’s engine it was a natural sequence for his ever-active brain to set to work to seek 4 remedy for the defect. And when the voyage was over the engine was taken out and carted up to the tankhouse. Since then all the hours and half hours that Governor Budd has been able to steal frocm the cares of state and the pressure of office-seeking politicians have been spent in removing the thump and the psist from that gasoline engine. i e He has not been unaided in his mechan- i icat work. Dennis Malone and Nick But- ler, fellow-members of the Stockton Ath- letic Association, of which the Governor’s brother is president, by the way, have shared hislabors. Both Butler and Malone are crack duck shots, and know also a whole lot about practical mechanical work. Governor Budd has done most of the theorizing and as much of the actual ham- mer and-file labor as time would permit, while his two willing and capable-assist- | ants have put in some heavy licks with the tools, and have, in a measure, acted as a balance-wheel to Budd’s higher flights of inventive genius. In other words, they told him this or that idea was feasibie or impracticable, as the case might be. And theend of itall has been thatthe objectionable noises have been removed from the gasoline engine. * And not this alone, but its speed has been materially increased. Both Malone and Butler de- clare that the improvements are out and | out inventions of Budd, and the Govern- or's friends—or rather the very few of them who know of the existence of that work- shop in the tankhouse—are urging him to have his improvements patented before their technique 1s made public: But the Gevernor declares he'is much | too 'busy to go into that end of the enter- prise. It is merely a matter of mental re- laxation for - him, and the pleasures de- rived from stealing upon the' ducks of tule land unawares and sailing in a swift, moving noiseless craft repay him amply for the energy and gray matter exhausted in the work. At present the Hazel is on the waysin Governor Budd’s private boathouse on McLeods Lake, opposite the Stockton Athletic Association’s boathouse. The new engine is about ready to be placed in her, and within a few weeks this wiil be done and then the Governor and a picked 1Crew will beoff fora cruise. Tests that | to tule land in his private launch. And | of it was not and that part I don’t like to | | of Califcrnia may be fleeing from the | that there is something dishonorable and | one or the other of the association’s crews. | of his years for the benefit of young men | The association has three barges, one the | who are now struggling in their metaphor- | “Jim Budd,” a 39-foot shell, one the “*Van | ical Poverty Hollow. His letter, addressed | R. Paterson’ and the other the “Oriel.” | to an old friend in this City, is as follows: | But since Budd assumed the robesand I suppose vou have seen published in cares 6f the Gubernatorial chair he has|one of the San Francisco papers lately (1 had no time for training. Yet his love for | haven’t it ‘before me here) an article or aquatic sports has been undimin- | letter signed by a Mr. Nunan which pur- ished, as witness .his long seclu- | portsto be an authentic account of my sion. in the Pollywog after his| early life. Itamused me a good deal, be- illness, and his semi-frequent voyages | cause a good deal of it was true, but some now that the progress of the launch has | see published. To be sure no part of it | been rendered practically noiseless and its | charges me with any dishonest acts; | speed greatly increased by reason of the | but some poor boy whose career is yet be- | Governor’s invention another long voyage | fore him and who has got to fight his way may be anticipated. Soon the Governor | upward might think on reading this article i | troubles of state to the joys of duck-shoot- | undignified in honest labor. ing. HOUSE OF ABALONE SHELLS. It Is Near C. 1t and Belongs to a Chinese Fisherman. 0dd habitations are to be found zll over California. Sometimes there isa good rea- | son for this being odd, but often it is the result of some crank idea. On.the beach near Cypress Point, in Monterey County, | there is one that cannot come under the | first head, and hardly under the last. The residence belongs to a Chinese fish- erman, and is part natural and part the work of his own bands. The natural por- tion of the house is a small cave in one of the many rocks that stick up all- over the beach. - The other part is a sort of wooden shed that has been built in front of this opening. The lumber used is of the rough- est kind, but the esthetic Chinaman over- came this objection by covering the whole outside with abalone shells, the hollow side being turned out. 2 The Chinaman evidently did that many years ago, when the shells were -plentiful and had scarcely any market value. Every shell used has been destroyed, as one ‘or more naiis have been driven through them | according to their size. Some of the 3helis are magniticent in color and enormous in size. There 1s one at least fifteen inches | in diameter, and a duplicate inh good con- dition could not be bought in San Fran- cisco for any price. Most of the iarger shells, if they were not punctured with nailholes, would readily sell for from $3 to $5 apiece. But that size cannot be had in the market now, and would be difficult to find on the rocks of any part of the coast. The general effect of the house, when the sun strikes it at the proper angle, is dazzling. The polished, pearly surfaces sparkle with astounding - brilliancy and flash with all the colors of the rainbow. It is a pleasing and surprising:lght. and the only pity is that so many beautiful shells ‘were destroyed to produce it, | I have always believed, as boy and | | as man, that any honest work was honor- able, and when I was a boy I always took the work that lay nearest to me and did it | with all iny might and took pride in doing | | it so well and so much quicker and better | than anybody else could do it that ‘it would be noticed and thus be the best pos- sible argument ‘that my next job should be a higher one. I have always founa this.policy the best in life and may say that I have been reasonably successful in what I have done during the last sixty years of my business life. I have taken no step backward and' no honest man has | ever said of me that I gave less than full weight and measure or that my word was not as good as any man’s bond. I do want to put Mr. Nunan right in one or two statements of his narrative. ‘Where, for instance, he remarks that one of the boys at school threw me in wrest- ling. That’s a mistake, for no one in the “Hollow” ever threw me or ever could, and in a rough-and-tumble scrimmage I could “wipe up the floor’”’ with half the boys in the school taken together. The writer of the article also says, on the au- thority of some one in the poorhouse who says he was a schoolmate of mine, that I was not a good boy in school. I think I was a pretty good boy, although I did have a tussle a couple of times with the teachers, and [ laugh over it to this day when I think of it. I believe the writer's poornouse friend is right in saying that | this teacher’s name was Peck. The pen- alty in our school for bad spelling, as fixed by Peck, was one blow of a heavy ferule on the palm of the hand for every word misspelled. 1 was never in those days, and [ am not to-day, much of a speller, although I betieve I worked harder in that direction than those who were fortunate enough to find it an easy task; but I objected to the punishment, for it} did not .-seem to me " a fair thing to do, -so one day I agreed with four other boys that when the spell- ing lesson came up-.we would all miss | every time. We did so, and as the good spellers “went up”—as it was called—the ad spellers, of course, ‘“went down” {o the | foot of the class.. We five boys had ar- | ranged: between us that the first. boy called | out for punishment should' refuse -to put | out is hand and open the fight right | there. It happened that the first boy called in this connéction was not the right boy for the business; but the next was, and that was myself. I commenced busi- | ness without any delay, and only one of the four came in to help .me; but we two went for that teacher ard we whipped him. ¥ 5 There was another teacher whose name, if I recollect right, was Ely—if I ever meet the poorhouse friend of the writer (who, by the way, I ses says he would vote against the funding bill if he could), I.wiil ask him so as to be sure—but we wiil call him Ely. The first day this teacher came to school he brought with him a bundle of whips, which he stood up behind his desk. ‘When he returned, from dinner—we had | dinner at noon in those days, the uncanny C. P. HUNTINGTON WRITES ABOUT HIS SCHOOL DAYS AND GIVES SOME ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN, looking things were not there—or rather, I should say, they were cut up into small pieces. He asked one and another of the boys who had done it, and they all answered that they did not know; al- though, of course, they knew very well. When he asked me if I knew I said yes, but when he asked me who it was I refused to tell him. He said he would put me out of school if I did not tell; but I didn’t and we sailed in, and there was fun for the boys for a few minutes, but I was able to gather him up and take him out without harming him muck. Now, there may have been something wrong about these two schoclboy squabbles, but some- how I do not remember them as being so, and few recollections of my life have given me so much innocent satisfaction, or so often caused a smile, as the remembrance of my tussle with Mr. Ely. Now, a few serious words to the boys with stout hearts and strong arms, and nothing in their pockets, who have got the sober work of making a living before them. Take that work which is nearest to you until you can do better and work with a will, doing it as well as you possibly can, and so steadily that one might almost think the Fates were doing it, yet turning your thoughts away from your mere man- ual labor to watch out for something higher and better. Do this and you will surely succeed. Be always true to your- self; work with an honesty of purpose, and spend no money for the things you do not need. Imneverin my life used tobacco, and: until I was nearly 50 years of age I did not know the taste of wine or distilled liquors— notwithstanding what was told to Mr. Nunan by his poorhouse friend. It is in- | teresting and instructive to ficure out how much money a boy commencing at 15 | years of age could have by the time he is three score and ten years, if he should save 25 cents aday, and compound it semi- annually at 5 per cent interest. Too many young men who go out to work watcih the clock to be sure they don’t reach their | work one minute before the appointed time, or leave it one minute after the regu- lation hour for closing has struck. It is a great mistake, for the hard times are sure to come when those who employ iabor must part with some of it in the interest of a necessary retrenchment; and then it | will be found that those who loitered on their way to work and hurried on the way from it will be the first to be dispensed with; while those who showed their inter- est in their work by not watching the clock lest they should give a moment more of their time than they had agreed to give— | those who staved behind to clean up their desks and to finish their work rather than their day—will be retained. Those who work well for others work well for them- selves. Those who do not frequently find their reward in the poorhouse. How often have I observed that the manuifacturer who made the best article he possibly could for a certain price grew steadily richer; while he who made the poorest article he could sell for the same price grew poorer until bankruptcy resulted. To be successful in the best sense of the word one must work with an honesty of purpose, giving full weight and measure and doing all things well to the whole extent of his ability. The desire to get rich in a hurry mars the happiness of many men, for wealth 1s of slow growth; but it comes at last to him who does not waste his moments but works with all his might and lives on less than he. makes. Riches thus acquired bring comfort and happiness. Do not forget, though, that there is “a withholding that leadeth to poverty,” not only in money but in hap- piness; for the poor we have always with us, and to them we must. always be ready to give our portion. I do not refer to those jackals in human shape who howl along our track with the oulcries of the improvident, who think the world owes them a living; who want to gather where others have sown, who want to pick up something without laying anything down, and make those who save divide with those who will not; for to give to these is almost a sin, because giving to them makes the world worse instead of better. Hoping you are quite well, and with kind regards as always, sincerely yours, ;&@/,0444/\;@7: NAVIGATING THE OLOUDS. Latest Steering Balloon Plan Invented by Count Zeppelin. Count Zeppelin, a cavalry officer, who be- came famous at the beginning of the war of 1870, has for five years been oecupied with the subject of aerial navigation. On Thursday evening, at Stuttgart (says the Berlin correspondent of the Daily News), he gave a lecture showing the result of his work before a distinguished . audience, the King of Wurtemberg being among those present. Count Zeppelin referred to the steerable balloon shown in 1888 by the French Captain Meudon, whose experi- ments he confessed had been a great deal of use to him. Count Zeppelin has in- vented a means of treating the pores of the silk-stuff used in the making of the balloon so that it will hold the gas for months. His caris very firmly attached to the balloon, with the propeller in front and steering gear behind. The motor i8 of aluminum with a six to ten per cent copper alloy. The balloon canrise to aheight of about 1200 'yards, carry a weight of mearly two toms, and, if necessary, remain seven and a half days in the air: The expansion of the gas by warmth is met by conducting what may be called the overflow into a reserved space, so that the balloon camnot burst, and yetlose no. gas: Ascent and descent are effected without throwing: out -ballast or loss of gas. The advantages of Count Zeppelin’s balloon- have been fully ac- knowledged by the Prussian-military au- thorities. - They reckon the maximum speed attainable to be five meters per sec- ond (say eleven miles an hour), but the in- ventor claims_at least. twelve ‘meters per second: - f 2 ‘The Count is convinced that his balloon, if practically carried out, will be able to travel for weeks at a speed of about sixiy miles - per day," bearing a fairly heavy weight, and would be of ‘the greatest im- portance in times both of peace and war. The Standard correspondent adds that the Count does not consider it worth while to construct a small model, as it would cost nearly as much as a full-sized balloon, namely, 250,000 to 300,000 marks. At Aldershot, by the way, they are more cautious about communicating similar de- tails of ballooning - inventions.— Westmin- ster Gazette. —————— The manuscripts of the fifth and twelfth cénturies - were written with very good black ink, which has not shown the least signs of fading or obliteratiou.