The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 24, 1896, Page 17

\ THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 24, 1896 “This telephone vice is getting to be an awful bore,” said the Nervous Man, as he re- joined one of the swall round-table groupsin one of the ante-rooms of the Press Club. That setties it! 1'm tired of play- s that you call & bore?” said the Man Suffering From Ennui, turning to ervous Man. me in on that story— | d in bores.” ntieth time 've been to that | telephone e Iast hour and I haven’t yet | got the number 1 want. ‘Line is busy & that's all I can get outof it. what I calla b What do you call it?” “That g at all. What really jars a man is to make half & dozen trips to the tele- in nalf an hour and each time g Aflinity at the instrument. I've [ phone-ro find swn him to keep that wire hot for three- | of an hour at astretch and me wait- | elephone to the city editor that I | find the man he sent me to inter- \ere’s more than Affinity who think they own that telephone,” said the man who lo last game. “There's eight or ten feliows in i 1b who never come here except to use | the telephone; a when they do come they | stay too long. I've mnoticed, too, that some of them who pay dues least irequently use the club wi 1at’s what [ was going to say,” remarked Nervous Man, who hed made another fru: trip to the wire. “I'm going to propose | t the directory make rules not allowing on v tk man to use the wire more than five minutes one numbe | That wouldn’t help out much—not with | ity. I've known him to call up half a 1 girls, one after another, and buzz them over the wire,”” said Ennui. | It's not only the clubs that are suffering | from this growing telephone vice. The business men are groaning under itsinflic- tions. Now that telephones are cheap and are getting cheaper, men and women who have lots of time to spare are sparing a good deal of it on opposite endsof the | WiT Every busy man who has ever found his | line crossed when he wanted to call up the | wholesaler for 2 rush order knows this to | his sorrow. It may be very interesting to some people to listen to telephonic love- making and electric kisses, but the busy man and the woman in business fail to see | the humorous side of it. 5 { The vice has got a firm gripon lots of | pecple already and some have become con- | firmed telepfione drunkards. They haunt | the telephone and only leave it long enough to eat and sleep. In the worst | cases they often forget to eatand do not| 20 to sleep until the last nickel-in-the-slot | telephone in their neighborhood has | closed for the night. The vice has fastened itself on all classes | of men and womén, but more particularly on the voung clerk and the pretty type- | writer. The way they use the wire oten | maukes Central blush—and that’s saying a | whole lot, for Central.is usually many de- grees removed from a bashful country girl, ‘and in the idle hours of the night and day will stand a good deal of taffy herself. There’s been a lovers’ code printed for use on the telephone, and it is havinga big | sale now. A bright San Francisco man in- vented the code. It's for nse when other people are within hearing distance of the one who is doing the talking. He has made a pile of money out of hislittle book, | and has sold a lot of them in the Eastern States. The only trouble with the code is that when a new girl gets on the otherend of the wire—one who doesn’t know the code—it won’t work. However, it is get- ting to be pretty well known now. There isn't a typewriter in town, it is claimed, who does not know the code by heart, and the inventor of it bas set himself to work on a code for the grocer’s clerk and the servant girl. Many of ‘the big grocers furnish tele- phones free to their patrons now. Of course the telephone doesn’t reach to anywhere except to the grocer, but that’s great convenience to a good many families. It is so easy to ring up the grocer and order a jar of olives or some pickles for luncheon, that a good many more olives and pickles find their way on the luncheon board than be- fore the grocers began to furnish tele- phones. il “No more telephones in my house, I—tell— you!” and Smith brought his fists down with 8 big bang that shook the dice off the end of the bar. “‘Four sixes—hard to beat that,” eaid Brown, passing the cup to Smith. “But tell me what's the matter with the telephone. The grocer wanted to put one in my house, and my wife and I have about conculded o let him. Quite a convenience, you know.” “/Convenience be hanged! Can’tget the ser- vantgirl to keep away from it, and when she isn’t at it the nursegirl is. They’re both sparking the same clerk at the other end of the wire. They've gota cipher arranged between them, and when the servant girl orders four dozens of eggs it scares the life out of my wife— she's so nervous, you know. Of course, four dozens of eggs means ‘I love you a whole lot,” or something like that. Then she orders ten pounds of butter, and if my wife overhears her she has a fainting spell. But ten pounds of butter only means ‘I'll be looking out of the window when you pass.’ Of course, the gro- cer’s clerk at the other end repeats all these big orders, aud his employer thinks he is doing a rushing business. I've told my wife fifty times that these big orders didn’t mean anything, but she's 50 nervous that every one of them she happens to overhear frightens her into a headache. “Change girls? We've tried that—we try it every week or so, and always did. No; the telephone has got to go. Tll shake you for just one more.” “Sixes again! That'shard. Butwe've got to have the telephone {n our house. My wife's had the same girl for two years,” said Brown. a But, of course, the telephone will in- crease in power and glory—there’s no doubt of that—in spite of all the objections that may be urged against it. It has proved the theory of Plato that time and space are illusions. Time disap- pears when you can talk to your branch house at Sacramento, just as if you and the manager were vis-a-vis. Space was de- stroyed entirely when the cable stretched ecross the Atlantic. But if the wire doesn’t work right,if you l wires he HOW TO KEEP THE FROST FROM FRUIT, Weather Prophet Hammon Tells How to Raise the Temperature. The Cold Air Can Be Made Warmer on Frosty. Nights in Orchards. . | Using the Energy of Fire 1o Evaporate Water, to Be Again Condensed After Diffusion. W. H. Hammon, the United States | Signal Service Officer at San Francisco, | contributes for THE CALL readers the fol- lowing interesting paper on the very timely subject of how to prevent frosts in orchards: In the Riverside Press of April 21,22 and 1s published an extended article by Ed- ward Copely on frost protection. The pa- per on the whole is excellent, especially that portion where he explains the condi- tions under which frost forms. The method which he recommends for prevent- | ing frostsis that of directly heating the air by means of small fires made ot coal placed in baskets, which are suspended a { few inches above the ground. In his dis- cussion he takes into consideration the fact that on frosty nights the air for some can’t getthe number you want and yet | you know there is some one al- ways there—that’s where tne pinch is. It's this vice of telephoning | that is making busy people gray- | haired and the air blue with blasphemy. Sometimes Central is to blame—very often, in fact. Yesterday she laid her chewing gum beside her, and two wires got crossed in it. I heard Jones scolding his wife over the phone, but I couldn’t get an answer from Central—mot until she wanted to chew that gum some more. Recently a new modification of the tele- phone vice has developed I have noticed. It is shown in the man who lays for crossed wires. That’s all Le wants. He comes into the office to see me three times aday and each time rings up Central. If the wire is crossed he is happy. You ought to behold his face while he is lis- tening to a secret courtship over the wire. He confided 1n me-the other day and asked me if there wasa “cure’’ for his habit. I told him to read TuE CALL's advertising columns, but he said he had done that and found cures for every other human vice except that of telephoning. Here's a chance for a bright young doc- tor, whose future 1s more promising than his immediate present. In his it of confidence the crossed-wire fiend said he had twelve friends whom he visited every day regularly, and -whose used. Then, besides this he spent a couple of the largest-sized white- metal coins every day in the nickel-in-the- slot telephones. I asked him how many crossed wires he managed to find in a dey, forI had an idea at the time that all this would make a readable Sunday story. “It varies,”” he said. “Some days I catch a crossed wire every other time. Some days I don’t catch more than one or two all aay long.” *‘That’s dreadful !” I said, feelingly. “Yes,” he said, “those are my dark days.” I think the new telephone code will cure him in time. ““There ought to bean extra tax of say five cents for every meaningless or useless word | #poken by wire,”” said a man at the Stock Ex- | change who was waiting anxiously to tell bis broker to buy more mines. Finally he grew impatient. Prices were going up a fraction every hour, so he dashed around the corner and sped up Montgomery street, to give the order in person. *‘And what do you suppose I found the mat- ter with the broker's telephone 7’ said the Stock Exchange man when he came back fi- teen minutes later, perspiring. “Line out of order?” “No, —— it; that wouldn’t have been 80 bad. There was the junior bookkeeper say- ing alotof soit things over the wire, that I couldn’t get because Central turned *‘the-line- is-busy-call-again” machine on me. However, we bought the stock in time, and if it keeps on going up till evening I won’t complain this time about the bookkeeper to his boss. But the next time——1" SiysE Gl . The largest pure diamond, that belong- ine to the Rajah of Mattan, weighs 367 carats. The one of the next greatest weight, the Orloof, or Orloff, weighs 198 carats. distance above the ground is considerably warmer than at the surface, consequently it would be possible to warm the lower air until its temperature and resulting density were equal to those of the air above the surface before there would be any ten- dency of the surface air to rise and escape. Therefore he believes that it is possible, by means of small fires, to warm the lower stratum of air sufficient to prevent frost and at the same time avoid luss of heat which would result were there an upward draught of sufficient force to carry the heated air above the tree tops. He criticizes as follows tne plan sug- gested by me in an earlier article for ac- | complishing this: Professor Hammon of the Weather Bureau, San Francisco, recommends the sprinkling ot fires w dew point so that dew will form at & higher temperature as the best means of preventing a damaging fali of temperature. If the air was still and a sufficient quantity of water was va- | porized there could be no question in regard | tall the heat expended in 1 bringing the dew point up 10 the temperature of the air would be lost. How much this would be would depend upon the dryness of the atmosphere at the time. But this plan would not work here in River- | side because of the constant draught across the | groves every cold night. This would defeat | any attempt to surcharge the air of our groves | with water vapor. Aqueous vapor, being lighter than the air, mingles with it rapidly. Much would be lost in rising above the trees T'he plan could not ‘be other than wasteful of heat. This statement of my suggestions in re- gard to frost prevention is somewhat in- complete, and since the question is an jm- portant one involving the possible injury or protection of one of our most important industries it would seem that a compari- son of the processes may be of value. The difliculties experienced in all methods of directly heating the air arise from the unequal distribution of the heat through the lower portion of the air, on account of which the warmer masses of air rise above the region needing pro- tection, and cold denser air is continually flowing in from the sides to replace them. | THE MAN WHO FORETELLS ToirhEL WEATHER L R W. H. HAMMON, Local Forecast Official Bureau in San Francisco, Who Contributes a Timely and Vaiuable Essay on the Suhject of How to Prevent Frosts in Orchards by the Evaporation of Moisture.& o — 1 2y in Charge of the United States Weather [Drawn by a “Call” artist from a photograph.) h sprays of water, thus raising the | Of course this upward draught will be less with small than with large fires, but it would seem incredible that any fire could continue to burn and not form an upward draught, which would carry the heated sir above the tree tops. The tempera- tures at which incandescence occur are from 1000 to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit, and the air in contact with incandescent bodies must surely be heated hundreds of degrees above the surrounding n?r, and the expansion resulting from this intense heat would undoubtedly cause a most rapid upward draught. The question then is, Will thisupward draught be as rapid when the heat is used in evaporating water as when directly applied to the air? For comparison we will assume that the fires in the two instances are of equal in- tensity. In the first, which we have just described, the heat is applied directly to warming the air about it; in the second a portion of 1t is consumed in evaporating water. Every pound of water which is evaporated will consume as much heat in merely changing the water intc vapor as would be necessary to heat about 1000 pounds of water through one degree; that is, it will take 1000 times the heat to va- porize a pound of water as would be nec- essary to raise it one degree. and in the end the vapor will be at the same temper- ature which the water had at the begin- ning. Now, owing to their difference in specific heat the heat necessary to raise one pound of water one degree would raise one pound of air more than four degrees. Therefore, the heat necessary to vaporize one pound of water without in the least adding to its temperature would heat one pound of air through more than 4000 de- grees. As statea by Mr. Copely in the quota- tion above, water vapor is lighter than air, provided their temperature be the same. At equal temperatures the specitic gravity of air and vapor are about ten to six, but any gas or vapor expands about one- fifth of its volume for an increase of tem- perature of 100 degrees, or will double its volume for every 500 degrees. Therefore, to heat the air 4000 degrees would mean that it would be expanded to eight times its original volume, and its density be but one-eighth what it formerly was. Conse- quently, a cubic foot of water vapor which had but six-tenths of the density of air when at the same temperature would be five times heavier than esch cubic foot of air after it has received the heat neces- sary for the formation of the water vapor. From this it would seem that the upward draught produced by the heat used in vaporizing water would be but one- tif th what it would bhave been had the to the air. But Mr. Copely’s statement of my pro- cess is extremely incomplete. By using as much of the energy of the fire as is pos- sible to evaporate water, the upward draught is diminished, but it is necessary for the proper protection of the fruit that the vapor be condensed back into water before it escapes from the region needing protection, when all the heat which was necessary for its formation will be again made manifest and tend to raise the tem- perature of the surrounding air. Vapors and gases will distribute themselves very rapidly throughout space, and it is a prin- ciple of them both that any gas or vapor will distribute itself throughout a space f the other were not present. | if vapor is given off by water at the fire it | will quickly distribute itself in all direc- tions throughout the dryer air as rapidly as it would expand into a vacuum. This carries the warm vapor into the cold air, like a fog in the air. These particles will be warmed by toe heat set free by con- | densation, and on account of their ex- tremely small size they remain practi- | cally suspended in the air, thus trapping | the heat of the fire in the lower layers of the atmosphere. . I must admit that the process suggested by me (that of spraying small fires) is crude. That it is more efficient than Mr. Copely’s will probably be admitted. However, I believe that principle of pro- tection advocated (that of using the en- ergy of fires to evaporate water to be con- dersed into water after it has been dif- fused throughout the lower air) is the best method yet suggested. The essentials to success are, as stated in a former paper: (1) the evaporation of the necessary amount of water within the region to be protected; (2) the condensation near the surface of vapor in such quantities that the heat will prevent injury; (3) the re- tention of this heat within the region needing protection. have been devised since the publication of the former article, but all depend for their success upon the above. C Dbl o The Speaker Was Amazed. Itis frequently the unexpectednessof a thing that makes it amusing. One of the commonest performances in the House—a most pernicious one, too—is for members to ask leave to extend their remarksin the Record, and the request is always ranted as a matter of course. On2 morn- ng the inexorable hammer fell on Judge Culberson right in the middle of a sen- tence. 3 He quie'.l said: “Mr. Speaker, I ask leave—"" and the Speaker, without waiting for him to complete his request, started in to rattle off the usual formula about ex- tending remarks, when Culberson electri- fied House and gallery by finishing with this astounding and unheard-of sentence in that forum: *‘Mr. Speaker, I ask leave to withdraw my remarks from the Rec- ord.” The Speaker was amazed, the mem- bers could hardly believe the evidence of their own senses, the stenographers smiled and even the pages were surprised into silence as the biz Texan sat down with a quiet chuckle.—Champ Clark in St. Louis Republic. same amount of heat been applied directly | already occupied by another gas almost as Therefore about where a portion is quickly con- densed, forming small particles of water Many better applications of tais idea |, freely. than the spraying of small fires with water | principles suggested | THE MAN WHO NEVER LOSES HIS TEMPER, With the Exception of Grog and Poker He Is Perfect. . John McLain, the Picturesque Samaritan of the North Beach. He Leveled the Dumps Till He Leveled Meiggs Wharf Out of Existence. North Beach boasts of a rare and rich character in the person of honest old John McLain. Itis strange that fame has not sooner discovered him, for since page after page of the daily press has been devoted to hermits and faddists and eccentric folk, it ought to be a desirable relief to contem- plate a man of such royal good nature that he has never been known "(even by asso- ciates of a whole generation) to grow angry or speak aught in malice; a man, in fact, who finds his chief happiness in lighten- ing the burdens of others; who frequently goes far out of his way todo a kindly deed ; and whose every weakness (with the ex- ceptions of grog and poker) ‘leans to virtae’s side.” Along North Beach, John McLain's word is his bond, and never an ill word is spoken of him. 1If poor people cannot find enough wood for their kitchens, John shares kis own wood with them if he f"-‘I/ ] g JOHN McLAIN, the Picturesque North Beach Character Who Is Noted Far and Wide for His Energies as a Good Samaritan and for the Fact That He Was Never Known to Lose His Temper. His Only Vices Are Grog and Poker, (Sketched from life by a “Call artist.] knows what is wanted. If the hungry ap- peal to him, he offers them such food as his cabin afforas. If some penniless per- son seeks shelter for the night, John will | cheerfully open his door to theone in | need. His cabin is only the size of an | ordinary single room, and yet he has often | harvored a half-dozen tramps over night, and warmed them up with coffee before | they departed in the morning. McLain is about three score and ten, and | he has done more work with his shovel | than almost any other man alive. Forty | years ago the bay ran up to Francisco street and washed the foundations of Abe | Warner’s Cobweb saloon. Abe Warner, who is to-day lying 2t death’s door in a little room close by the site of his early- | time resort, is over five blocks distant | from the sea. Now this five blocks of | land, represents, for the most part, the | work of John McLain. It is quite safe to | say that he has “made” more of the land upon which San Francisco is buiit than any other man. For about twenty years McLain was wharfinger and special officer at the old | Meiggs wharf. In those days tne Sausa- | lito boat landed there and things were lively. The wharfinger had charge of the North Beach dumps, and as these were situated on private property a 5-cent tariff was levied on every load. To avoid pay- ing thut tariff owners of dump-wagons would delay the work of unloading until late in the night, then drive speedily into the low ground near the beach, empty their wagons and drive away. Neverthe- less the corporation which employed Mec- Lain received quite a little income from the dump-wagon tariff. The five new blocks at North Beach are made up of dirt and refuse from every hole and corner of the City. *'If old John had quit working on salary thirty vears ago, and made a business of nunting for valuables in the dumps, he’d be rich to-day,” exclaimed a resident of North Beach. There are numerous for- eigners who became wealthy through the | a skiff load of laughing boys and girls and | promise to pay him in the future. John both lends and trusts. If he were to be paid up all the sums that boys have prom- ised him only to forget about immediately John would have gold enough to start a bank. Lads sometimes steal away with the skiffs just for the fun of the thing, but they bring them back at their conveni- ence. Joihn never grumbles—never com- | plains. The only thing that ever worries him is that some of the boys will become reckless and overturn the boat. It is one of the septuagenarian’s delights to take out sail with them in one of the bay inlets. | The king of the dumps is happiest in the midst of happy children. And so, day in and day out, you may find him leveling down the fresh- sown earth on the Stow estate—unless, verhaps, he has gone to lend a hand at | painting a neighbor’s fence or to help at | odd jobs bere and there out of pure kind- | ness. You would hardly expect to find a pretty well educated old man working with a shovel there; butJohn McLain has had avery fair education and comes of a good family. A rich, fashionably dressed sister calls upon him some time about Christmas and invites him to spend the holidays at her home. John laughsand | thanks her. He is content where he is. | With only himself to look out for, John is | moving pleasantly down life’s decline. He | doesn’t seek the company of women; | doesn’t seem to care much for women. Maybe it is a woman’s fault that he is now burying himself in the North Beach dumps. “North Beach was once a residence sec- tion—stylish, with high rents,” said Mc- Lamn. *That was in early days. Then everybody came here for pleasure and pastime. Since Harry Meiggs skipped out in 1854 the place has gone rather slow. I | hike these old haunts. though. They're | home to me. I'm alone—don't trouble | anybody—and I guess I get as much good | out of life as the common run.” Women in Journalism. Speaking of the recent disclosure that the strong editorials in the London Daily | News during our civil war were written by | Harriet Martineau the Chicago Times- Herald says that ‘‘there are other women like Mrs. Chapman of the Westminster Review, scholars, patriots. students, im- bued with an absorbing love of science and humanity, who, constitutionally devoid of personal arbition, have thus contributed | to the progress of the age which, unseen | but not unheard, they have adorned. | Among these are Margaret Fuller, Rebecca Harding Davisand Lucia Calhoun Runkle, at one time on the staff of the New York Tribune.”” This list would be better if it began with the name of Mrs. Margaret Sullivan. Mrs. Sullivan isand has long been one of the ablest editorial writers on the American press. She is to-day the first of women journalists, her work being an | honor to her sex and her profession— Louisville Courier-Journal. pickings, not only of bottles and rags, but of gold and silver. But John kept right on toiling for a salary from sunup till dark, while others picked fortunes up on the property in his charge and right un- der his nose. He never coveted anybody his findings or his gains, and perhaps he is better contented in his rude cabin than some of these ex-dump-speculators are in their mansions. McLain kept leveling the dumps until he had leveled Meiggs wharf out of existence. He rises before the sun every morning, and has much of his day’s work well un- der way before the good people of the resi- dence portion of the metropolis have rubbed the sleep out of their eyes. He always has money about him and he spends Sailors have dubbed him **Mc- Lain, the Yank,” because he is American to the core, rejoices in American achieve- 23 ments, and is as fuil of patriotism as any one would be likely to run across in a trip from here to the Atlantic. He likes to bear somebody sing ““Hail Columbia,” or “Marching Through Georgia,’ or “John Brown’s Body,” and if any one will ren- der these songs in a half-acceptable man- ner he may count on ola John setting up the grog as often as any of the company becomes thirsty and as long as the singing continues. ‘1he urchins of North Beach keep note of McTain’s celebration days. It has grown to be a sure-thing proposition that if John McLain gets hilarious in the evening there will be money for the finder near John’s doorstep in the morning. The fact is that the old fellow keeps his tobacco and his money and his keys all in one pocket. When he arrives at his door in an ex- tremely tired condition he usually turns his pockets inside out 1n his effort to get the key. He gets the key, of course. The urchins get the rest. Ola John is loved especially by the young people. He owns several skiffs, and if boys pay 15 cents for an hour's rental of the skiff and keep 1t out three or four hours John don’t grumole. When boys are “broke” and want to go out fish- ing they borrow a boat from John or THE CAPTURIG OF | FANDUS FORGER, How Becker, the Chief of the Nevada Bank Swindlers, Was Caught. The Taking of a Man With a Record of Crime on Two Continents—A Street Scene in Newark. Patrolman W. J. Loftus was standing at the corner of Broad "and Market streets in Newark yesterday noon, says the New York Sun of May 15, when five men, com- ing from as many different directions, gathered around him. The patrolman paid little attention to the men until one of them approached him and said some- thing in a low tone. In a moment he was all animation. Glancing across to the op- posite corner of Market street he saw two well-dressed men coming down Broad street. Loftus looked at the men, and then looked at one of the five who had spoken to him. The man nodded, and the patrolman crossed the street and stopped the two men. “Gentlemen, I am sorry to trouble you,” said Loftus, “but you will have to go with me to police headquarters.” *What do you mean, sir?” indignantly asked the smaller of the two men.” “You are charged with being fugitives from justice and being handy at swind- ling banks,” replied the Newark officer. “Just come along to police headquarters aud you will probably be able to explain the whole matter.” “Indeed we will not go to police headquar- ters, for we are neither swindlers nor fugi- tives from justice,” answered the man, his indignation rising to the boiling point. “If you do not stand aside and let us pass I will eliminate you from the street.” “We'll have no more talk about thig matter here,” said Loftus, “‘and if you do not come along without resistance I'll see which is the harder. your head or this lo- cust stick.” “There is evidently a mistake here some- where,” said the larger of the two men with a very superior air. ‘“We will accom- pany this fellow just to show him before his Chief whatan ass he has made of him- self.” The two men and the policeman pro- ceeded toward police headquarters, and not ten feet behind them walked the five men who had surrounaed the patrolmen onthe corner. The group attracted the at- tention of the people on the streets, but they had little idea that one of the two men with the policeman was Charles Beck- er, the cleverest forger and bank swindler that this country has ever produced, and that the other man was James Cregan, the- forger's pal. Neither did they know that the five men who formed a sort of rear guard back of the policeman and his prisoner were five Pinkerton detectives, one of whom, at least, had been on the trail of Becker and Cregan ever since the Pinkerton Agency learned that the two men were implicated with Frank L. Seaver and Joseph McCluskey in the swindling of the Nevada Bank, San Francisco, out of $20,000 through the agency of a raised check last December. ‘When Becker and Cregan reached police headquarters they were searched. pon Cregan was found $230785. He had one $1000 bill, twelve $100 bills and bilis of smaller denomination and silver. The $100 bills were sewed to the man’s undere clothing. In_addition to the money Cregan carried a handsome gold watch and chain. and wore a large diamond ring and diamond scarfpin. On Becker was found $150 in money, besides his watch and jewelry.