The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 19, 1896, Page 26

THE SAN FRANCISCO: CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 19, 1896 SHE RIDES WITHOUT *A LANTERN. Philosophy of Speed The triumphs of science have demon-| strated that if you would arrive at a con- | clusion be sure you unders d the cause; if you wish to attain a certain end t- | isfied that you thoroughly con the beginning. I do not mean that i cannot understand a thing in its ent v you must abandon the idea. Not at all! Aim at the truth, and ou do not bit the mark your hand will be stronger and your eye steadier for the next trial. | Acting on these principles 1 have en- | deavored to compile a rationaland, to a | certain degree, conclusive essay on the | philosophy of speed. 1 say “conclusive,” | meaning that the ideas herein stated are not the resuit of a hurried scratching to- | gether of notions, but rather they repre- | sent the reflections of years and are to me fixed and unchangeable dogmas. My pres- | ent object is to reveal to minds inexperi- | enced in athletics and unaccustomed to their phiiosophy why it is that of two men | built about ali¥e one will run like a deer and the other like a cow; or why one man | built like an Apollo cannot jumpas well as | a schoolboy, while another with stumpy legs and awkward style clears his own | height. The first idea to be considered is, “What is speed?’ The dictionary says “‘moving forward with celerity.” Very good, but can we not make the shoe fit a little closer? A locomotive moves like the wind and you ask the engineer how it is done and he will doubtless call your attention to some such fact as the wheels measuring eighteen feet and revolving 300 times a minute. You notice another engine making a great fuss, puffing and blowing, but not running u | nearly as fast as the express, and on elose | inspection discover that she is built for mountain-climbing or freight, and that her wheels are but twelve feet in circum- | ference and clustered on the rails like the feet of a centipede. As far as my knowledge has extended the principal forces which contribute to speed and jnmping ability are as follows: First, nerve force; second, strength of the circulatory system; tnird, condition of the digestive function; fourth, develop- ment of the muscular system. The ele- ments of the body, however, that are ex- ercised in the process of locomotion are the muscles, bones, nerves, sinews and vitals. These are the mechanical forces and have nothing to do with judgment and courage, which are forces of the mind. Let us first zet some of the minor points out of the way that we may dwell at length on the more important matters, and we will begin on the sinews. Let not the reader suppose that I underestimate the .importance of the sinews; they are unimportant by comparison only. These tough, guttapercha-like cords are the con- | necting link between the muscles and the bones. They have no power of their own, have little if any elasticity, and their dis- tinct attributes are flexibility and resist- | ance to any effort to stretch or snap them. In this their consistency is wonderful, the bone sometimes breaking before the ten- don will part. While it is desirable to have large, strong sinews, perticularly for jnmping, still I am inclined to think that | for runnine the tendons of the average | man are sufficient for all practical pur- poses in athietics. Then we take the bones. These are | tubes filled with marrow. They fre- | quently have a consistency peculiar to themselves or to their kind. For instance: Some are large and heavy; some are small and light. The best bones for a runner or jumper are the latter kind, as it will be plainly seen that he has little weight to carry thereby, but derives just as much benefit from theirconsistency as if they were heavy and large, The weight-thrower can afford to possess the latter kind, for, while they are of no epecial benefit to him they are no detriment. It has been asserted that a siight curva- ture of bone is an excellent thing, as it imparts a springiness to the stride or spring thereby. While I do not think this has heen satisfactorily proved, I do not doubt there is a great deal in the theory advanced. There is probably much to be gained by having a well-arched _in- step. Here the bones are joined by car- tilage and form an elastic curve that must give springiness to the step. In some cases there is undoubtedly a distiuct | twofold phase. | blood. advantage in having the sinews fastened to the bones at a greater distance than usual from the point of articulation of the joint. This would serve to give more leverage and power to the movement. Next come the muscles. These, as is well known, are composed of bundles of fibers, so fine that they may be compared to & hair. They are hollow and contain cells so minute that thousands placed upon each other would make but an inch. The arrangement of these fibers and cells can be justly compared to gaspipes filled with hollow balls, fitting closely. Do not forget these cells within their tubes, as they will be referred to later. When a man begins exercising (that is, an average man), the space between the fibers is filled with albumen, or fat. While continuing this fat begins to dwin- dle away, leaving the muscles free and untrammeled, where otherwise it would be impossible for him to do his best. Having now disposed of the minor points of our argument, we will proceed to take up the most essential features. The digestive function has a most important bearing on an athlete’s career, and it hasa First, for a man to be strong he must have nourishment—not the nourishment that a dyspeptic gets from a | half-digested meal, but perfect assimila- tion, where everything that is eaten ‘“‘goes | to the right spot.” We will all agree that it would be poor policy to send a ship into battle or across an ocean with defective boilers or with poor fuel. In the strain of | high pressure the boilers should supply the engines with every pound of steam they can generate, and this cannot be done if the tubes are crusted or the coal half | rock. | Digestion is the same; the blood should be supplied with nutriment as pure and strengthening as good food and a thor- ough digestion can furnish. This fact helps a man a long way in becoming a suc- | cessful candidate for championship hon- ors. But there is another reason why strong digestive organs are necessary. In a severe race, particularly for a long race, | the stumach, liver, kidneys and bowels get in distress if they are not in good con- dition, resulting in sickness atthe stom- | ach or pains and aches below the waist | during a race, which will throw a man out | of a contest quicker than anything I know | of. Then® constipation or the reverse af- | flicts many men and interferes with what would be otherwise, possibly, a successful career—all caused by imperfect digestion or kindred evils. ‘We now approach one step nearer the vital essence of speed and' consider the circulatory system. This consists of the heart, lungs and the veins or arterial system. . Somewhere in the neck, near the collar- bone, surgeons tell us,! the nourish- ment, as prepared by the stomach, enters the jugular vein and mingles with the It then rushesiback to the heart, entering one of the chambers, of which there are four, through a valve. The valves are curious affairs. They are much likea paper cornucopia or a fool’s-cap, with slits down the side. Through these slits the blood rushes, for | the pressure forces them open, but when once the chamber is filled they close and the blood cannot get back. Then the walls of the chamber contract and the blood, which is called venous blood, is forced into the right ventricle, and from there to the lungs. It is in an impure condition, mostof it having come from'all paris of the body, and largely carbonic acid gas. It is exposed to the air in the lungs and the ceils are filled with oxygen; then it is sent back to the heart, enters another chamber through one of those curious valves spoken of. Next it passes into a cavity immediately below, known as the left ventricle. This is, possibly, the most powerful of the four chambers of the heart, and it is on this that the great strain of foreing the blood through.the entire arterial system devolves, greatly impeded, as it is, in its course by contracting of the muscles, for 1t must penetrate every nook and corner of the body. The blodd possesses two_qualities—par- ticles of nutriment, which build up the waste. parts of bone, muscle and nerve; one of the elements of life. Now, the ar- terial system is so important that I will pause just a moment to speak of a curious fact, yet one which bears strongly on the subject in hand. Powerful as is that great pump, the right ventricle, 1t is impossible forit to perform all the work of forcing the blood over the body; therefore at different loca- tions inthe body, and particularly tbe limbs, are auxiliary valves which perform the double duty of preventing the blood from receding and assisting it on its way. In the back of the head at the base of the brain is a mass of grayish material known as the cerebellum. Nearly every- body bas noticed hanging in front of a butcher-shop an animal cut in half, ex- posing the spinal cord running down the backbone. Now this spinal cord within our vertebrs is but a continuation of the base of the brain, like the shoots proceeding from a buib. This cerebellum is so won- derful that I will have to. refer the reader to an encyclopedia if he is interested. Sufficient here to say that it is the seat of action, the spot where force is genera- ted. The Reason suggests to do a certain move: the Will undertakes it. planned in the upper brain. The decision is transmitted to the base of the brain, and in a secret chamber a cell is unlocked, transmitting through the nerves the dynamic power io the muscles. Sometimes the Will cannot unlock the de- sired power, but Excitement may. It is indeed an interesting study. GEorGE D. BArrp. Her Face Gives Light In the Darkness Surely there must be some new things in the world. Who, before, ever heard of the girl that rubs a luminous powder on her face at night and then rides safely in the dark without a lantern? And yet this is a fact, strange and absurd as it may appear. Of course, the girl who does this rides her wheel in the boulevards of Paris. She has not yet been heard from in America, | but doubtless she is Lere and will yet shed her beautiful radiance on the dark- ness of a moonless night 1n the park. It hasn’t reached the fad stage yet, even in gay Paris, but it has been tested by more than one of even the ultra-fashion- able set in Paris, the French journals say, and has worked so successfully that it will doubtless soon become a fud. The lumi- nous preparation is scented, of course, and All thisis | Benefits of There is, perhaps, no form of athletic pleasure that gives more perfect action for tbe development of the body than swim- ming. It has, moreover, the advantage of affording active exercise for nearly every muscle, without any accompanying jar or strain. I do not mean by this that the imprudent swimmer cannot oyerdo and strain muscles or overestimate his powers, but, taken in a rational way, the exercise, despite its supposed perils, pre- sents on the whole fewer elements of dan- { | it gives the fair face it shines on not only | a strong and penetrating radiance, but it softens the countenance that without it | has a hard, yellowish cast in the light of | an ordinary bicycle-lamp. Rice powder and sulphate of zincis the secret, with almost any perfume added, that gives this startling yet altogether pleasing effect. And, of course, it was a French scientist who made the discovery. Suiphate of zinc has been found by M. Charles Henry, a distinguished modern French savant, to have a wonderful power of absorbing sunlight and giving it back: in the dark. Rice powder, very finely ground and bolted, to which a small quantity of this mineral is added, gives an | of fact, more endurance as swimmers than | mers of my sex clambering exhausted | exquisitely soft luminosity to a fair young face. On a pitch dark night on the boule- vards the lady-cyclist dusted over with this powder is in herseli a lamp. S\A)immir\g while among the animals swimming is only a modification of ordinary locomo- tion, with man it is different. His upright position in walking is wholly unlike that which he assumes in swimming. But every boy and girl should be taught to swim as an essential to comfort and to self-preservation. San Francisco women Hyvpatia continued, ‘‘some rs ago I was given up as a hopeless victim of lung trouble. They sent me down to Santa Barbara and made we swim. Ilearned to dive like a duck, to stay in the water by the hour, to swim under water and to float upon it, and by the end of a year my chest measure had increased by an inch and a half, and every muscle in my body was as supple as silk.” “And you recommend long - distance swimming for other women?”’ “Not if they are out for a good time in the surf,” was the reply. “The swimmer who wants to go any distance in the water are particularly fortunate in the oppor- tunities afforded them to become expert swimmers, but it is a matter for regret that so few avail themselves thereof. I must not dive, or do fancy strokes, or in- dulge in any of the tumbling play that is half the fun of being in the water. When Iam out for a long swim I start out easily HOW HYPATIA DEVELOPS HER THROAT AND LUNGS. ger than almost any other. For women it isa particularly desirable sport. In a | peculiar way it comes within the limits of feminine powers, and curiously enough | while few women have attempted the | showy feats which men have accom- plished in the water they Lave, as a matter | have men. They float more easily and are | far less liable to chills and cramps, and despite their inferior strength make quite as good swimmers as do men. | half envied Hypatia the other day when she came home, brown, strong and en- | thusiastic, from a trip to one of the bath- | ing beaches and talked about swimming | three miles without a rest. | ‘“How did vou do it?" I said, filled with | memories of breathless, gasping swim- to shore after a splash of 150 yards | through scill water. Hypatia, the athletic | and well-developed, is neither large nor particularly strong, und three miles The luminous paint cannot be spoiled by damp, and, indeed, will resist heavy rain if combined with some strong adhe- sive body. In the Rue de Longchamps there is a house where a suite of rooms is lighted with it. The lady receives at ‘5 o'clock.” The apartments appear to be bathed in moonlight, and the curtaing are as if studded with glowworms; the very ceiling scintillates. The furniture seems as if it haa been rubbed with phosphorus. Colored ob- jects on which the light falls take the rich tones of the topaz, ruby and emer- ald. The powder does not lose its bril- and oxygen, which nature has ordained | liancy if used in starch or common size. . Q BN\ SRS ' ] Man, meaning the whole human race, is Dot naturally a swimming creature. Throw a cat into a pond and she insiantly begins to tread water. Horses, cows, pigs, compelled to do so, swim as readily as ducks and geese. Even land snakes when they take to the water slip silkily through it as though'it were their native element, but men have to be taught to swim. Let a man be suddenly thsown into the water and if he has not learned to swim the in- stinet of his ancestry at once asserts itself and he begins to climb. He reaches out to clutch at something and the movement sends bim headlong to the bottom. The reason for this lies largely ih the fact that sounded like a long swin. and quietly, with a long, slow, straight ahead stroxe, with no spurting. The only change I ever make from this isto the side stroke, and this butrarely. I never dive on a long swim. It uses upone's wind too quickly. But the sensation of going through the water with an easy, even, straight-ahead stroke, knowing you are good for any reasonable distance, is a little more like flying than anything else I know.” I wonder why it is that most of us think we know what flying is really like. ‘We compare every sort of sensation with this one, which none of us has ever known, as glibly as though flying were a matter of everyday human experience. Asa matter of fact flying, when it comes to be a hu- man possibility, will probably not bring into play half the powers that swimming exerts. The swimming bath has of late years been even brought into requisition as an adjunct to the training of trotting horses. There is nothing finer for devel- oping the muscles and putting the skin in healthy, active working order. Any one who has experienced it does not need to be reminded of the delicious, stimulating effect of sea water upon the skin. There is nothing in the world quite like it, and the woman who can avail herself of its benefits and fails to do so makes a serious mistake. One need not be a long-distance swimmer to enjoy the delights of sea- bathing. There is ample exercise afforded by the swimming-baths with which this City is well supplied, but there is addi- tional delight in any sport enjoyed under the blue sky, and the new woman would do well to turn part of her activity toward popularizing bathing on some of the avail- able beaches hereabouts. Fit to be ranked with swimming is the time-honored, humble, but eminently use- ful exercise of walking. By this I mean a genuine walk, where the air is pure and the ground safficiently uneven to afford some muscular exertion; the scene varied enough to interest and stimulate the brain. This latter effect is an essen- t1al in every effort at physical culture. PENELOPE POWELSON. The New Dance at the Summer Resorts The latest in dancing—it's the Tandem Waltz. At the gay watering places in the East, at Newport and Saratoga, Cape May, Atlantic City, even as far West as Chi- cago and St. Louis, the Tandem Waltz is now the rage. There is no more siow, languorous danc- ng on a handkerchief’s space. The young man who held his partner close as if he dreaded robbery is out of date. The *tandem” craze has struck the waltz. The “tandem’” has its aavantages, says the New York World. In it both girl and young man move in the same direction at the same time. Instead of a young man holding out his hands and the girl tucking her head under his chin, she gives him the cold shoulder. For' the girl whose only charm is the sloping lites of the back of the neck and the fetching little locks tickling the white nape this is especially comfortable, The girl stands back to her partner, who holds her right arm extended. This girl’s “Well,” said Hypatia, “I used to think 150 yards was my limit, too, until I made the discovery that after going 200 yards I get what atbletes call ‘my second wind.’ Then 1 am good to keep it up almost in- definitely. 8he warmed up to the subject. “See here,” she said, and standing before me she drew in a deep, long breath. De- spite the aisguising foids of her soit, well- fitting street gown I could see the muscles rise and note the splendid expansion of chest and ribs. “Swimming did that for me,” she explained as, after what seemed an almost incredible length of time, she let ber breath softly out. “You see,” left hand is put behind her. This does away with what prim people have called unmitigated temptations of the waltz. There is no chance for the young man to clasp a girl’s slender waist, Faces are not dangerously close, and eyes—oh ! eves can’t look into other eyes any kind of tender looks. The ““tandem” takes all the flavor out of Strauss waltzing. However, it is one of the distinct novelties. Here's one advan- tage: the tandem waltz will never ruin the back of the waist of a mirl's dress. But think of the tall girl towing the lit- tle partneraround in a tandem waltz, Wonderful Buried Forest at Baden Giant Redwood Trees “Brought to Light by a Ganyon Stream After remaining buried for thousands of years, beneath the yellow clay of the Baden hills, the remains of a once great forest are now being brought to light by a freak of nature almost as curious, though much more gradual, than the one that overwhelmed the giant trees. Running out of the hills, almost oppo- site Baden station, on the Southern Pacific line, is a little stream of water, limpid and insignificant during the summer mont_hs, but a swollen, turzid torrent, roaring down the canyon during the period when the winter rains drench the heights. For p:rhaps a mile before it reaches the road there is nothing to excite more than passing attention to the canyon, but be- yond that it is a miniature Colorado Can- yon, and quite as curious in its way. As the stream is ascended the cut through which the water flows becomes narrower and deeper until the walls tower almost straight into the air to a height of 150 to 200 feet and the light of the sun is far Jess bright than on the surrounding bills. From the appearance of the giant rift it would seem that when the convulsion of nature that heaped these great hilis one against the other was passed the earth in this particular place was softer and more broken than in other spots and that the first downfall of rain began the work of disinterring the buried monarchs of ages ago. Graaually the stream has cut its way into the bowels of the earth until from the banks of the yawning chasm it looks like a tiny spring branch far below. Here and there great landslides have torn away from the bordering hills, leaving barren gaps in the scanty. verdure and damming the stream temporarily, but their barriers have been. only temporary and little by little they have been carried down to be spread over the area where the canyon widens into the plain. Among the curious features of the canyon are the tail pinnacles of clay thay stand here and there along the banks of the canyon like sentinels. The water has gradually cut away the earth surrounding some unusually hard streak of clay, leaving 1t standing silent and grim, a tribute to the vagaries of nature. The canyon is like a bit of the wildest mountain nature transplanted into the commonplace foothills and seeming strangely out of place among the peaceful dairy ranches and vegetable gardens that surround it. Even the birds seem to be different than those of the surrounding hills with their brilliant plumagze and sharp cries, and occasionally a great owl flits spectrally through the shadows when disturbed by the infrequent hunter. About & mile and a half from the en- trance to the canyon, where the chasm is the narrowest and the stream has cone the deepest into the earth, is revealed something of the rature of this district before the hills were there. Projecting from the lofty clay wall near the level of the stream are a number of massive logs that resemble redwoods. Exposure to the air for a considerable period has caused the ends of the trunks fartbest from the bank to rotand crumble, but the portions that were uncovered by torrents resulting from the fierce storms of last winter are still sound and show the trees to have been of large size. The dozen or more trees that are now in sight are apparently resting on a ved of gravel—seemingly the bed of an ancient stream—the stones which form it being water worn and rounded and quite differ- ent from the fragments of slate and sHell that are found on the neighboring hiils. What vast convulsion of nature over- threw them and heaped the yellow clay upon their prostrate forms, covering them and their gravelly resting place for cen- turies, and until another stream searched them out and gave them again to the light of day, will never be known, but scientists will draw conclusions and in- struction from their crumbling trunks, and may through them supply some miss- ing link in geological history. Local scientists are already interested in the trunks, and a party will probably visit the canyon before the winter rains return to observe them and probably to bring away a section for critical examination as to their condition and other matters. Professor George Davidson, the veteran scientist, who for many years was at the head of the Coast and Geodetic Survey on this coast, thought that the find would prove of considerable scientific value, and inquired particularly as to the location of the canyon and the depth below ground that the logs were exposed. ‘“As far back as Spanish history and tra- dition go,’” he said, “we have no record of redwood trees growing north of San Bruno Mountain on the peninsula. That the entire peninsula was once covered with a redwood forest is certain, however, forin boring for artesian wells redwood logs have frequently been struck at a depth of from 300 to 500 feet. “*The chips brought up by the drills showed the logs to be in good condition ana sound. Itis a well-known fact that redwood retains its normal condition when in a damp soil and free from air for an indefinite period. *“This is the first instance that has come to my knowledge where these long-buried logs have been brought under human observation, and no doubt will give geolo- gists many interesting points. ‘‘The manner of their becoming buried ismerely a matter of conjecture. It may have been one of those great upheavals that have occurred from time to time in centuries past that overthrew them, or those clay hills may have slipped from some cause and carried the great trees with them. No doubt the stream, as it wears the canyon wider and deeper, will un cover many more.'’ The celebrated American historical col- lection of Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, a great-nephew of Robert Emmet, the Irish patriot, has been presented to the New York Public Library on the Tilden, Lenox and Astor foundations. Dr. Emmet has been making the collection since 1840, when he was 12 years old. It deals prin- cipally with the revolutionary period, and is remarkably complete. Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria is a scientist, & musician, speaks half a dozen languages fluently, and does all sorts of other things equally well