The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 26, 1896, Page 17

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 26, 1896. 17 HE water front is a little world all by itself. A ride of only a few minutes on the streetcars takes one from the midst of the City’s scenes of rushing trade to an at- mosphere that breathes of commerce with lands afar. Down on the water front, by the tall ts and the great cables and the big hulls, where employes of the shipping | corporations are wheeling bundles and bales and boxes from deck to wharf and from wharf to deck, or swinging freight on or off with beam and puliey and tackle, the mind seems to expand with the widen- ing sphere of contemplation beyond the of the b landsman’s life. Standing on the wharf one easily realizes that he is standing on the edge of a conti- nent, and that those huge shells, built to attle against the wave-battalions of the briny deep, are the messengers of the spheres and carriers of civilization. v a lesson is to be learned along the One may see what monsters the ocean vessels are, and as tons upon tons of merchandise are dropped into their holds, a faint idea of their immense capacity 1s obtained. These vessels often bring for- tunes into port and often bear fortunes aw. rewn along the docks are goods of al- most every description ready to be lowered bottoms. In one small pile s a thousand cases of oil for the Hawaiian Islands. It sounds like a large figure, but the pile doesn’t seem very large in com- parison with the loads of other things near by, and a thousand cases of oil will occupy only a very small corner of the craft any- how. There the planks seem bending under the weight of farm-machinery that is des- tined for Central America, and a few yards further on some schooners are loading for Alaska. There are stamp-mills for mines, more sacks of flour than one can count, some horses that will be put into service at Forty-mile Creek, and bales of h, sac there are hams and bacon, and salt and dried meats by the barrel, and mnany boxes full of cabbages or potatoes. Fancy food is not in demand 1n the region just under the Arctic Circle. There is a crowd of men near these vessels discussing Alaskan prospects. “They’ll come back with less than they | leave with,” ventured one of the propuets of the water front. | “How do you make that out?’’ inquired | & man who is courting a conversation and | who would like to get rid of some of his own surplus views. “Well, the Forty-mile country up there | is full of men already, and the mines nre! petering out, as it is. Those men are go- ing up there right along. There won’t be any work for them and most of them are poor, and I tell youif a small army of them isn’t stranded and starved or frozen to death it’ll be a wonder. I say these men | are shortsighted.” " “You don’t know,” says the other, “that the old Yukon miners come down with‘ Jots of shining gold at the close of every | mining season; that they always spread reports about the mines being worked out | and advise people to keep away from there | and that these same foxy old miners re- | turn to the cold north just assoon as spring is far enough along to assure safe | and | of grain to teed the animals with; | the possession of the families who owned them at the time the o1l excitement began is that of the farm of James MacCray, a little distance back from Oil Creek, who made his living and that of his family from it, adding a little to his income from the farm by getting out occasional rafts of lumber and floating them down the creek to the .Allegheny River. Mr. MacCray lived in a log house, and the other build- ings on his place were far from the finest. He and his family probably saw very littie ready money, but within five years from the time his farm was leased to oil-pro- ducers he was worth at least $500,000 and was living in a very fine mansion in Franklin. He and his wife bave both been dead a number of years and left con- siderable wealth to their sons, one of whom, I believe, still owns the old place. “MacCray’s farm wasone of the first leased, and soon after the McElhaney farm near it was leased by a man named Funk, who made an immense fortune out of it. Funk probably had $10,000 when he began, and he was soon worth at least $1,000,000. He died a few years after he had amassed this immense fortune, leav- ing it to his family. The owners of the farm also became very rich, as in those days the royalty paid to the owner of the bonus of $1000 an acre. land was often a half in addition to a | | Commons must be mentioned J. W. Side- ter. He borrowed $2000 to purchase a one- sixteenth interest in the royalty on a well | which was being drilled and which amounted to one thirty-second of the pro- | duct of the well itself.” It cama in a 400- | barrel well, and sixty days later the clergyman sold out for $18,000 and took a trip to Eurove. I think the trip was for his health, and if not the object must bave been equally praiseworthy, for he came back and continued to preach the Gospel | till the day of his death, and while he was preaching he spent the money he had made out of oil in doing good.” SINGERS IN PARLIAMENT. Than Might Be Supposed. The Commons is noted rather for its dis- cords than for harmonies. But although the Parliament orchestra as a whole would be eminently unsuitable for an orchestral concert, yet a number of individual musi- cians might be selected from among them who, as solo performers, could be relied upon to provide an excellent entertain- ment, Foremost among musicians in the e A stroll along the water front may yield | nuts grow and how the monkeys play one many lessons, if he chooses to learn. | ball with them, or how one may live withe That seaman, whose face is blackened | out expense by the banks of a stream un- | with coaldust and who has just emerged | der the spreading branches of the bread- from the body of a whaleback, might tell | fruit tree. Some of the tars may have one 2 great many things about places | voyaged with lumber to South Africa and vaging. Alaska is rich, sir. These peo- | re as keen as they make them nowa- | days. But the miners and the seamen pay no | heed to these onlookers and debaters, they | ha usiness to attend to and are going | about it as if they understood its require- | ments. Those vessels over yonder, which will ca: missionaries to China and Siberia, will also go laden with flour and pork and otber things, so that America, while pay- ing some attention to the souls of heathens | and other benighted people, is neverthe- | less bending an eyve to the main chance | and letting no opportunity slip by to pull | 3 Asiat shekels to the shores where those Is receive heartier welcome than the Americans are such heavy tea- drinkers, however, that the Chiuese make matters financially interestirg in a com- mercial way. From North Beach to the foot of Har- rison street one may behold all kinds of bay and sea going crait and see faces and hear tongues of about every nation of any importance under the sun. One straight- way calls ubon his geographical knewl. | edge to locate points on various parts of the globe whence tt vessels come to us.. Oneis disposed to believe that to be a sailor and see many lands and mingle with many strange peoples in distant climes is to obtain a liberal education, but it is, perhaps, the case on the sea as it is on the land—many don’t take advantage of opportunities that come to them, many don’t see them when they come, and some don’t care whether they come or not so from which we get most of our coal. A | made excursions into the country that has sailor from the South Sea Islands might | given Great Britain so much money and | describe to us interestingly how the cocoa- | trouble, and they might tell us something long as they have plenty to eat and drink. | about the gold fields of the colony or the diamond mines of Kimberly. Many of the boys of the sea can spin yarns of mighty | London and busy Liverpool and rich | Amsterdam and giady Paris. The old | salt who has been around the world can | tell more about the commercial products | of the different lands than the school- books, and the old salt is always in evidence down alorg the water front. The brisk salt sea air is both refreshing and bracing. What tall straight masts those are! The men far up in the rigging show plenty of nerve! Imagine them up there in a fierce gale at sea. They are now working leisurely and like men on the solid ground. There is no excitement to boast of in their laborson the calm, peaceful water front. HAYSEED MILLIONAIRES. Ponnsylvania Farmers Made Rich by oil, ““An interesting book could be written,” said an old-time 0il man to a Pittsburg Dispatch reporter, “about the farmers who grew fabulously rich in a few years from the product of their farms lying on Oil Creek, if anybody would take the trouble to collect the information about what be- came of them. Itis a curious fact that in the sixties most of the money in the o1l business was made by men who began with nothing, and the farmers came in for & very large share of it. I myself could tell many stories of men, owning nothing but the land, out of which theymade a very poor living, who in a very few years after Colonel Drake drilled the first oil well in the United States were worth hun- dreds of thousands of dollars. Most of them afterward died poor, and their farms are now owned by persons not of their kith and kin. *The only exception I recall to the rule of the farms having passed entirely out of More Musical Talent Among Members | R, other farm, which came under my obser- | by singing “The Men of Harlech” or *“Land vation, was furnished by a young minis- | of My Fathers,” rousea Welsh audience to the wildest pitch of enthusiasm. The hon- orable member has, it is true, never raised his voice in song within the House itself, but he is able to boast that he has sung at the request of a Speaker. It arose in this w: In the short Par- liament of 1885, Mr. Pee! invited all the labor members then in the House to a special dinner. After the repast an ade journment was made to toe library, and here, at Mr. Peel’s request, Mabon favored the company with a voca! selection. No one was more delighted than the then Speaker, who beat time on his knees as the singer proceeded. There is an excel- lent story told of Mabon’s exchange of compliments with Mme. Patti. Ata con- cert in Wales, Mabon and the great prima donna were among the performers. The concert over, Mme, Pattistepped up to the M. P. and observed, with a pleasant smile, “You sing really well, Mr. Abraham.’ “Yes, madam,” responded Mabon, gal- lantly, “and so do you.” The Irish party can boast of a number of vocalists. The veteran T. D. Sullivan bas written the words of many an Irish ditty, and has sung them with great effect at numerons}roliticul and festive gatherings. Tim ealy, too, is much given to rendering Irish ballads, “Mary | Doznelly” being his favorite song. Mr. | Healy plays his own accompaniment; le his brother Tom, who sits for North Wexford, is an accomplished pianist. Dr. Tanner can sing a good song, and socan Tom Condon and Dr. Fox. The Scotch members do not appear to be so musical as their brethren from Wales | and Ireland. It is true that Parliamentary caricaturists not infrequently depict one or the other of the representatives of Scot- land playing a solo on the bagpipes, but it is doubtful whether in realty any Scotch member of Parliament is in the habit of | performing on an instrument that is re- garded by the unappreciative Southron as | a fearsome and unholy invention. There is one member who probably owes his seat in the Commons to the sweet singe ing of his wife; and, indeed, music at po- litical meetings is becoming quite in vogue. Captain Grice-Hutchinson, Mr. Newdigate and R. J. Price, who are now M. P.s, sang | to the electors at the general election, and who knows how many votes which other- wise would have gone to their opponents, were captured by their musical efforts? Mr. Price, be it said, used to render “*Cacthing the Speaker's Eve'’ with great gusto. He has since had plenty of oppor- tunities of catching the august optic of that august personage. If the practice of having musical election meetings con- tinues'to grow there ought to bea great field among Parliamentary candidates for teachers of instrumental music and voice production.—Musical Strand Magazine. e e SPEEDY YANKEE OLIPPERS, Fast Sailing by American Ships Recalled by the Shenandoah’s Performance. The recent swift voyage of the four- masted clipper Shenandoah from San Francisco o this port has inspired several readers of the Sun to ask questions about the crack performances of other clippers of the days when steel and steam were not the chief factors in shipbuilding., James 8. Dodson of Bethlehem, Pa., writes that the clipper Northern Light, in 1852, made the passage from San Francisco to Boston in seventy-five days, that the Comet cov- ered the distance between the Golaen Gate and Sandy Hook in seventy-six days, and that the Flying Dutchman made thé round trip Yetween San i N { in 207 days, incinding the time she spent discharging and taking on cargo at San Francisce. There may be added to Mr. statistics the following: The crthern Light’s best trip was seventy-lwo days from San Francisco to New York. The Fiy- ing Dutchman covered 4620 nautical miles in sixteen consecutive days, or at the rate of somewhat more than 288 knots 2 day. The Mary Whiteridge, a fine Baltimore Dodson’s | clipper. ran from Baltimore to Liyerpool in thirteen days and seven hours. The Flying Cloud, one of Donald Mec- Kay's splendid ships, oz a run of eighty- rinedays and eighteen hours from San Francisco, made in twenty-four hours 42714 wiles. The Comet, which was a New York boat built by William H. Webb, on a return voyege from Hongkong to San Francisco, covered 1512 knots in 120 consecutive hours, which is more than 1214 knots an hour, or about the speed of the ordinary coasting steamship. The Comet ran from Liverpoo! to Hongkong in 84 days. The Nightingale of Portsmouth, N. H., in 1854, made Melbourne from New York in 76 days. The Trade Wind ran from Sandy Hook to San Francisco in 75 days and came back in 84 days. The Sove — ¢ “One of the most celebrated farms in the Oil Creek region was that of George ‘Washington McClintock. Like others living in that region, Mr. McClintock had a good farm with a few poor buildings on it, and was glad to make a little extra money floating rafts of logs to the river. His farm was leased by Brewer and Wat- son. He only got a fourth royalty, I believe, but in a few years he was worth at least half a million. He moved to Meadville, where, I think, some of his family are still living. 7 “At least 1000 persons made larger or smaller fortunes out of the oil produced from this farm, The Central Petroleum Company was formed of persons inter- ested in {t, and is still in existence, though it does not now control this property. Although in a few years following Drake’s discovery, ard preceding the day of oil ex- changes, the price of oil fluctuated frem 50 cents to $14 a barrel, still nearly every- body who started in a small way made money, and the full history of this farm would furnish some very noticeable in- stances of it, Onesomewhat amusing one is of an acre in which Mr. McClintock traded his interest, probably on the chance of the wells on it being dusters, for an old horse. The owner of the horse was a man named Killen, and the animal was not worth more than $50, but a few months after the transaction a weil came in on Killen’s acre which enabled him to sell out for §5000. I never heard what Killen did with his money, but the next day the man who purchased sold for $10,000, and four or five days later the second purchaser got $15,000 for his holding. 3 “Another instance, somewhat of this character, though the scene of it wasan- l botham, who has taken the degree of bachelor of music, and can discourse as learnedly on the musical art as on the political situation. Then comes C. Stuart-Wortley, who, although he is wont to speak with great modesty of his musical achievements, has written two excellent songs, “Why Does Azure Deck the Sky ?”” and “‘The Gypsy’s Dirge.”” Ar- thur Balfour, too, is a caltured musician, who delights not only in listening to the best performers, but in playing the piano- forte for his own pleasure. [t does not ap- pear that Mr. Gladstone, with all his mar- velous versatility, ever came forward as an instrumentalist. But in the bygone days the eminent statesmau delighted in sing- ing, and it is on record that hisfavorite song is “My Pretty Jane,”’ a ballad that is not so familiar to-day as it was a gener- ation or two ago. Sir Richard Webster is well known as a member of a church choir, and he has appeared on the plat- form at concerts with great success. Sir Richard inclines toward sacred and serious music; 8ir Edward Cilarke, if report be true, leans toward the humorous, and can ;endera coster ditty with marvelous ef- ect. The labor members are s in musical talent. John Burns, when a rosy-cheeked voungster, sang in a sur- vliced choir; and Keir Hardie is not only a performer on the mandolin, but can put athos and force into a Scotch ballad. His avorite song is *‘Mary of Argyll,”” and his rendering of it has frequently evoked the plaudits of his admirers. And specially prominent, of course, is William Abra- ham, familiar to the Welsh people and to the Commons as,*Mabon.” cially strong abon can, 1 ereign of the Seas, one of Donald McKay’s flyers, on a trip from Honolulu to New York, covered 6245 miles in 22 days; one day she ran 436 miles, and for four days her average was 398 miles, The Andrew Jackson of Boston made San Francisco from New York in 80 days. The skipper of the Flying Scud of Damariscotta, Me., declared that on an 80-day voyage from Sandy Hook to Melbourne he covered 460 miles in tweniy-four hours, but his triends said he was merely spinning a yarn for landsmen. The Young America, one of William H. Webo's creations, made five trips from San Francisco to New Yorkin from eighty- three to ninety-two days. She covered the course between Liverpool and New York ia eighteen day The Lizhtning, McKay packet of 2084 tons and‘.".!sgeet long, ran from England to Calcutta, carry- ing British troops, in eighty-seven days, beating other sailing vessels by from six- teen to forty days. She sailed from Mei- bourne to Liverpool in sixty-three days. The James Baines made Melbourne from Liverpool in sixty days. The Red Jacket ran from New York to Liverpool in thir- teen days and eleven hours, and from New York to Fastnet in ten days. The Dread- naught sailed from Sandy Hook to Queens- town in nine days and several hours; she reached Liverpool in thirteen days and eight hours. The Glory of the Seas, with 5000 tons of freight, made San Francisco from New York in ninety-four days, aver- aging 161 miles a day for three weeks.— New York Sun. ———————————— Of the 17,000,000 inhabitants of Spain nearly half are ignorant of the art of read- ing and writing.