The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 11, 1896, Page 17

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1896. 17 To Judge the Brain Powers Of the Horse “Do you think,” some one said to me recently, “that horses really understand what is said to them ?” For answer I raised my voice so as to be heard by my equine pet feeding upon the il above. “Come down here,” I called, “‘and go into your stall.” She turned, gazed at me hesitatingly for an instant, and t::en, with | no demur, marched down the hill, pass-| ing us with the merest glance of recogni- | tion, and filed obediently into the stable. But my friend was still skeptical. “I} do not believe she really understands,” she persisted. *‘She has come to associate certain words with certain acts, and when she hears those words she does the asso- ciated acts.” I grant that,” I said, “‘out will you tell me what more we humans do in the way of comprehending language? The horse does not have as wide a range of under- standing as the human being, but so far as it goes it is batea upon exactly anala- gous principles.’’ It is rather wonderful, when one thinks about it, how much a ¢lever horse ean be | tanght and bow much wisdom he will | edge, our equine camping companion bad the rup of a stnbble-field in which the cabin stood. It was our custom to feed her grain night and morning in a round basket that when not in use hung upon a nail quite high up on the side of the house. One morning, baving the night before at- tended some festiviiy or other :n a near- by town, we were Jate in rising, and at about 9 o’clock we were startled by a loud knock at the front door. Hastily dressing 1 threw open the door to admit our caller, and wos confronted by Madame, who was jast in the act of repeating her heavy knock with one iron-shod foot upon the doorstep. She had taken the grain-basket from its nail and brought it io the door, and as I made my appearance she threw it down at my feet, with an indignant toss of the i.ead, wonderfully expiessive of her opinion of two women who would lie abed until that late nour and keep respectable ponies waiting for breakfast. It was the same mare who, on another occasion, by her almost human reason- ableness, saved me from serious injury, if not from death. I was driving one dark winter night up a steep, rocky ana peril- pick up by himself without instruction. I stood on Jones street, near Jackson, a | short t a0 and watched & big ba; . puil a heavy milk-wagon up the | Heo was all alone; there was no one | which was loaded with big | The grade just here is very | and the horse was progressing | ly back and forth from curbto | curbat exactly the angle that afforded the | best resistance to the backward sliding of | the wheels, while yet he could steadily ascend the grade. At each curb h turned carefully, with one watchfui eye upon his wheels, and notin a single in stance did he graze the curb or turn so arply as to endanger the contents of the | wagon. I watched the performance in delighted amusement until presently the driver of the wagon emerged from a | bouse in the block, milkcan in hand. He stopped beside me. I “You're watching take it,”” he said. | “Well, I suppose people stop and | watch hLim every day. -He'sa knowing old fellow, that horse, and he tanght him- self that trick when we first put him on | the route. * No one ever showed him; he | ied it out himself.” | time the bey horse had reachea | the top of the hill and stood upon the | level looking back as if to see why in the | world his driver was not on hand to con- | tinue the journey. It may be, as scientists tells us, that ani- | m als do not think, but I must say that I have seen horses do things the perform- | ance of which involved a process singu- larly like thinking. One summer, I remember, while camp- | that there horse, | balked. ously narrow road, which neither she nor I had ever before traveled. Bebhind the buggy walked a companion, bearing a antern. His lantern was of no real use, as, if carried in front, it blinded both the mare and the driver, and the road was 100 narrow to permit of the light-bearer’s walking beside the buggy, so we were blundering along, as best we could, in the murky blackness. All at once the mare stopped, and no urging of mine availed to make her take anotherstep. [evenstruck her with the whip, but to no purpose. I was in despair. “For the first time in her life,” I said to my companion, *‘she has I cannot say that I blame her much. Itis a fearful road.” My friend came around with the lantern and we saw, within six inches of the right front wheel, a yawning gully, where the road had been washed out by the recent rains. One step further and the vehicle would have toppled down a steep bank an almost indefinite distance. | We could teach our horses a great deal | more than we do if we were only willing | to take the trouble. I see women every | day go around their carriages and enter at the side away from the curb because they apparently do not know that in twoor three lessons the ayerage horse can be taught to bring the buggy close to the curb, crank the wheel and wait for his driver to enter the vehicle. 1/ ] . In the Tunnel Where the Nest of Live Bats Was Unearthed by Blasting. N W\ SN AN NN W \ | \ \ fl Some Words That A Horse Can Be Taught to Know much like “whoa’’ that its use serves to lessen obedience to that supreme word of command which should always bringa horse up standing. It should never be There are a number of useful words | which & horse can be taught perfectly to | understand and obey. -‘Steady” isa word | | I always teach any horse I drive often to | understand and heed. Itisa good wora | to have at your command, the ‘‘s0-0-0" of | used save to stop a horse, and he should be trained to stop instantly upon hear- ing it. “‘Come here” is another phrase every horse can and should be taught to obey. ‘Whoever has chasea an equine torment ing with a friend in a cabin on a canyon’s | most good-natured drivers sounding so | about a pasture when in a hurry to hitch up will appreciate the desirability of | teaching a horse to come when called, a lesson any horse can learn. Every horse carries an index to his tem- per and intelligence in his face. The teachable, tractable animal is broad and flat between the eyes: the bony ridge of his face dishes slightly from the point where the face narrows, toward the nos- trils. His ears are well set, sensitive and far apart, with a well-defined ridge of bone extending across the top of the head | between them. Always feel for this ridge in judging a horse. The eye should be | large, clear and bright, with a prominent ridge of bone along the innerand upper | edge of the socket. Miss RusseLL. Peddles the Same Green Turtle to Many Restaurants “Green Turtle Soup To-day.” The sign is so familiar on all manner of restaurants in San Francisco that to a stranger it would seem that San Fran- ciscans are gourmets of a pronounced type. One would pass it by without com- ment if posted outside the door of a restaurant of the fashionable class, or even that of a ‘“four-bit” house. But when it comes to a place where meals, including soup and wine, or beer, are Live Bats Found Imbedded Deep In the Earth served for 15 cents to 25 cents, the marvel is how can green turtle soup be dispensed as part of the menu. Here again the traveler is taken by surprise, and led to infer that in all the wide world there is not such a paradise for the man who thinks much of his dinners. It barely costs the native a second thought, so accustomed is he to accept things as they are, without investigation of any kind, but it must strike him that there is some deep down mystery in this green turtle soup asa course of a cheap meal. “Would you like to -know how it is done?” asked an employe of the Pacific Mail Company. “Then I'll tell you,’”’ he added after a brief pause, while he as- sumed a quizzical air. “Every time a steamer comes in at the dock here from Panama, vou can see an o!d man looking for turtles. Generally he gets one or4wo ‘of them, and hauls them away in his little cart to his home on Third street. Where he lives are also his office and business headquarters. He usually keeps a stock of six or eight tur- tles on hand, and with them he makes his living. Pretty tough on the turtles, but that makes no difference as long so he makes it pay. And then, you see, these prevention of cruelty to animals fellows don’t catch on. “Wel!, this fellow gets the big turtles for asong, and what do you think he does with them—turn ’em into soup? Not much. He rents them to restaurants at so much a day, and moves them from one place to another, all over town. Most of his business, though, is south of Market street. “The restaurant men leave the turtles on the sidewalk beside the door and put out a sign, ‘Green turtle soup to-day.’ The turtle’s back is painted with the same sign, and as he sprawlsabout and peeps from under his cover once in a while he attracts people. You've noticed 'people stop to look at the turtles. +It’s a great advertisement and pays the house well, but none of that turtle gets into the soup, for he goes to another eating place next day, and so on. Those cooks know how to make a good imitasion with young veal and things. from half a dozen or a dozen turtles pays the old man well. “The turtles don’t standa this rough usage very long. A few weeks settles their hash, and then they are killed and sold for a pretty fair price to some restaurant that dishes up the genuine article. And this is how the hasheries can have turtles at their doors once or twice a week.”” About 200 miles from Sydney, N. 8, W., is a place cailed Wingen, and in one of the mountains there is said to be a coal mine which has been burning for over 100 years. A nest of live bats were found 100 feet underground in’Snowshoe Guich, near Cottage Grove, in Oregon, the other day. This is considered a most remarkable dis- covery, and those who have visited the place and seen the animals are at a loss to account for it. John Dinman and Andrew Wilson have been developing a claim in the gulch by running a tunnel to reach the vein. The tunnel runs obliquely, and afew days ago when a depth of 150 feet had been reached the rock began to assume a different con- dition. It sounded loose, or holiow, in .that particular spot, and ihe partners knew that they were nearing what in miner’s parlance is called “‘a change.” Their **holes” were nearly loaded when this discovery was made, but they con- tinued loading and then went to the sur- face and touched off the charge. Upon their return they expected to find a vein uncovered ‘or- at least a rock of dgifferent character from that through which they Were running. But quite a differenc matter attracted their attention when they went back to the end of the tunnel and the circum- stance has been the wonder of the entire country ever since. It has created an immense amount of discussion, scientific and otherwise, but no certain explanation has yet been adduced. Instead of finding ore or any particular change in the rock thev found the tunnel full of bats. The cause of the peculiar sound that indicated a change of ground was a small cave and into this their last shots broke and out of which came the bacs. How the bats gotinto the cave is the problem and what sustained them there? The pointis about 100 feet below the surface and there is apparently no opening or means of ingress or exit. The bats when caught and taken outto the daylight appeared to be without eyes and able to fly but a little ways; in fact their wings were but meagerly developed. The first thing that atfracted the men’s atten~ tion upon their return to the tunnel was the peculiar odor, which, notwithstanding the But the rent | amount of gas from the exploded powder,. ‘was quite perceptible and disagreeable. The only solution of the strange oc- currence that has yet been offered lies in the fact that the rock is of metamorphic and aqueous origin, and, being in the Cascade Range, is of recent occurrence. The rock is a closely bedded shale, and at the time of the geological disturbance that put it into its present position the bats had their nest there and then became in- cased as they were found. Itwould seem, too, that the bats must be of that nature that becomes dormant and able to re- tain life without food. An effort was made to save some of them alive, but they rapidly succumbed to the sunlight and fresh air. / SOME PLAIN AND FANCIFUL TYPES OF THE NEW WOMAN THE SHOUTING FEMALE. There's the raving and tearing new woman, With ber hat on one side like a boy’s, Who makes speeches on every occasion. And who bolsters her logic with noise. With her disheveled locks In the breezes, See her gestures fantastic and queer; While the mu! gazes 2nd wonders, Whether really we needed her here. It was hard to be patient with male cranks, With their eloquence ready to spout, But it's barder to bear this new woman, Who hes nothing to do but to shout. THE ATHLETIC GIRL. Here you'see the athletic new woman, Who wears bloomers and wheels through the land She can carry a gun on the hillside, And aims to have ‘backbone” and “saud.” About freckles and sunburns she’s careless, But her muscle’s her pride and her joy; She can run, row and swim with her brother, Who declares she’sas good as & boy. There’s a place in the world for her muscle, Let ber be just as strong us she cau; If she will only smile like a woman And maxe sunshine 1n life for some man. LEARNED MAID. This is only a student-new-woman; Either doctor or lawyer she’ll be. There is nothing t00 dee to be fathomed, By the size of her books you can see. She admits th her brain 1s the lighter, But in quality firer than ours; And she claims equal rights in (he college, To develop her natural powers. We admit she can learn. this new woman; And we never have doubted her right, But this life is one wide fie!d of battle, And our learned young maiden must fight. THE MANNISH GIRL. ‘There is still one more type of new woman, ‘Though you might call her “him” at first sight; For ber coat, shirt, and hat, and stiff collar, On her brother would look about right. No, she doesn’t go in for athletics, Or to glean wisdom’s grain from big books; 8he cares not to be manly in nature, She would just be & man in her iooks. 1t is neat, though it's fearfully ugly, And perhaps she will find as she grows That soft womanly foids and sweet graces Fit a woman, as roseleaves a rose. POLITICAL WOMAN. ‘“Would you really call this a new woman? We have loved some just like her for years; They have helped us to bear all our burdens, They have shared all our joys and our tears.” Don't you see her hands held out in pleading? This dear creature is asking to vote. She declares it a right, not a 1avor, You should hear how much law she can quote. We must yield to her sooner or later, Let us hope this bad world she'll reclaim; But If politics grow a shade blacker Can vou tell who'll be mostly to blame? BACHELOR MAID. “Is the bachelor maid & new woma Well, perhaps it is best, 50 10 say; "Tis the name that is new, not the maldgas But it suits her to put it that way. She could ne’er be persuaded to marry, Never husband shall order her life. As for children. she never could stand them, ‘With their noise and perpetual strife. Yes, dear bachelor maiden new womany The men are a despicable 10t It may be you'd refuse one to marry, 1t may also be trne that you'a not. THE WIFE. Now, this Iact is the nicest new woman; May her numbers increase every day! 8he’s a trimly dressed, pleasant young person, Who can talk in sensible way. She will fall deep in love and gat married: Of her home she'll b» prond as a queen; She will walk step by step with her husband And with never a shadow between. She will gather abont her the children, Who will run when they hear mother eall, Anda she'll sing lullables in the gloamin g— “She's the old woman’’—so are they all. The Gold and the Death of an Alviso Miser Of the numerous hermits who have lived their dreary lives in some of the un- frequented spots in California Beniamin Rodman is entitled to a place in the front rank. The possessor of thousands of dol- lars in gold, he chose to spend his days in misery, and for twenty-five years occupied a dilapidated ark on Coyote Creek about thres miles from Alviso. He went about clothed in rags. He almost starved for food and slept on a pile of foul rubbish in his damp cabin. Just how he died will never be known, for he was alone, and ) none knew of his death for months after- ward, when his skeleton was founa by fishermen. The finding of his skeleton and the holding of the inquest have been reported in the columns of the daily pa- pers. Everybody living down that way knew Benjamin Rodman and despised him, for he was as disagreeable a man as everlived, The finding of his remains was due to the efforts of his nearest neighbor, the watcn- man at The Bridges, whoinduced a couple of men to visit the cabin. As he tells the story of Rodman it seems too horrible to be true. “I've only known Rodman about a year,” said the watchman when speaking of the matter, “‘but that is long enough, for he made my life miserable when he was alive. The people who bave lived around here a long time tell me that it is over twenty-five years since Roaman came to these parts, and that they always looked upon him as crazy. Nobody knows where he came from nor anything about him, but the supposition is that he made money in the mines, and tnat it turned his head. *‘He lived in peril of his life and said that he was afraid he would be poisoned. He spent his time along the banks of the slough bunting for such articles and food as would be useful to him. It wasdan- gerous for anybody to go near his ark, as he nearly always stood near the door and pointed a gun at them until they went away. Nobody suspected that he had any money until about five years ago, when he took a shot at the watchman who was. here then. *Of course he was arrested and taken to San Jose for trial. He was fined $300 or 300 days in jail. To the surprise of every- body he pulled out a sack of gold and vaid his fine. That watchman left the vlace soon afterward. “‘When I took this job I was told to keep a sharp lookout for him, whicia I did. He never came arcund without his rifle, and I was afraid that he would shoot at me any time. He was always in a mean mood and quarrelsome, but I humored bim and we never had any trouble. He objected to my being on the marsh, and 1 was afraid he would shoot at me some night when I went out to tend to the bridges. ““The last time I saw Rodman alive he ‘was towing a dead pig to his cabin. He had found it floating in one of the sloughs after it had been dead several days and was all swelled up. Iasked him what he was going to do with it, and he said he in- tended to eurei‘ and tbat it would last him all summer. That was some time last April. “Idon’t know how long it was after- ward, possibly & couple of weeks, when I noticed that there was never any smoke coming from the old man’s cabin as there used to be. I thought something was wrong then and kept a sharp lookout. I tried to see him, but he never came along the sloughs any more. I_t then struck me i that something was wrong with him. I tried to get some of the fishermen to go over and see, but they were afraid, I asked at least a dozen, but none of them would go, and I couldn’t leave my post to go myself. “About three weeks ago George Price and William Dumphy, two young men who came here to fish, agreed to go over and see what was the matter with the old man. They came back and said that only his skeleton was there. It was hanging over the well of the centerboard in the middle of the ark and the bones were picked clean by the rats. He must have been taken with some attack and died while trying to walk about. 1 think he died from eating the dead pig, and I am sure it happened soon aiter I last saw him. He micht have been there yet if 1 hadn’t induced those fellows to go over and see what was the matter. ““The Coroner came over from San Jose and held the inquest, but just what was agreed upon I don’t know. The ark was sold to a man for $7 and it has proved a good investment. Of course it was of no use to him, but he came over last Sunday and made a search of it. When he came back here 1q take the train he showed me $1200 in gold that he had found concealed in different places in the ark. The chances are that there is a whole lot more money concealed around the place. Thé old fel- low was often seen -digging in certain places and people believe that gold is ’;‘ A .\‘S'lfill\_ oo buried there. The ownerof the ark jn tends to make a thorough search. An old resident about here says that when Rod- man first came here he told him he had $20,000 in gold, but that he didn’t believe him. The chances are, though, that that money is somewhere around waiting for a finder.” Miser Rodman’s old ark was visited by~ a CALL representative last week, at which time the accompanying picture was made. How the man could have lived there is a mystery. Squalor and filth does not describe the place and the awful silence of the marsh 1s enough to turn one’s brain. The bottom of the ark had rotted out years ago, so that at hign tide the "interior con- tains several inches of water. oz 4% L% g v ,; T ok 1) Il Ark on the AlvisoMarsh Where Benjamin Rodman Lived the Life of a Miser Hermet and Died an . Awful Death 4 America Was Not Named by the Florentine It seems safe to assume that nine-tenths of the native-born Americans are ignor- ant of the real origin of the name of their mother country. This is not strange, as the makers of schoolbooks have taken particular care and delight to perpetuate an error born of ignorance. We have been told time out of mind that it was Americus Vespucins, a Florentine navi- gator, who, with loud and ponderous voice, proclaimed himself to Europe as the discoverer, and with intent to defraud fastened his name upon the newly found country. This bit of* pseudo history has been asserted with severe authority and maintained with asperity, and nothing but the hand of time can wipe the untruth from the pages of history, for it requires the aid of centuries to establish knowl- edge. Recently a movement has been es- tablished in the East, which has met with more or less success, with the object of tearing the borrowed robe from the back of poor “Americus,” demanding its resti- tution to 1ts rightful owner, Columbus ( ?). However laudable this effort is to give tardy justice to a calumniated reputation it is founded upon a misconception. It would only rob the innocent and enthrone another error, because the first name of Vespucius was not “Americus” but ‘“‘Albericus.”” Of course exact history could not take note of such trifles. Americ, Amerrigue or Amerique is the name of the high land in Nicaragua, the high land or mourtain range which lies between Juigalpa and Libertad, in the province of Chontales, and which reaches on the one side into the country of the Corcas Indians and on the other side into the country of the Ramos Indians. “Ic¢” or “ique,” used as a terminal, means ‘‘great.’* . Columbus mentions in his fourth voy. age the village Coriai, probably Caicai. The people abounded with sorcerers or medicine men, and this was the region of the *“*Americ” range, 3000 feet high. But Columbus does not mention the name, “Americ.” It is stated that the name ‘‘America Province’’ first appeared upon a map pub- lished at Basle in 1522. Until that time the region was believed to be a part of India. 7This information may be verified by reference to *‘The Naturalists in Nica~ ragua,” by Thomas Belt. The northmen who visited the conti- nent in the tenth century, according to Torfens’ “Historia Vrielandie An- tique,” found the country a low level coast thickly covered with wood, and called it *“Markland,”’ from “‘mark,” a wood. The “r’’ had a rolling sound as in Marrick. A similar word found in the region of che Himalays, and the name of the World Mountain, Meru, is pronounced in some dialects as Meruah, the letter “*h” being strongly aspirated. It is notable “that two people could possibly accept a word of similar sound, each having unsed it in their own sense, and finding it applied to the same territory.” Frofessor Wilder remarks it is plausible that the State of Central America where we find the name “Americ,”” signifying (like the ‘'Hindu Meru) great mountain, gave the continent its name. Vespucius would have given his surname if he had designed to give a title to a continent. 1t is Vespucius who has been slandered and to whom restitution is due. There is more 1n a name than the world wots of—even Romeo and Juliet must haye found that out—although a rose by \.any other name would smell as sweet.