The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 25, 1896, Page 25

“\ the ‘as an auv . New Y ri . Texas. £ THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1896. When Uncle Sam Arms Merchantmen In Pride and Power on Every Sea Old Glory Yet Shall Float Eight years ago Congressman W. C. Whitthorne, chairman of the House Naval Committee, introGuced a bill in Congress for the establishment of a naval reserve. It was received with much favor by offi- cers of the navy, and idur States atonce - took active steps to organize naval militia battalions. Uniortunately for this bill, which met with such ypublic favor, Mr. Whitthorne’s illness and death postponed action and it was not until three years later that it was finally passed in a form not as comprehensive or far-reaching as the framer of the bill designed it to be, at any rate it recognized the naval as a branch of the navy and small iations were made for its use. approy 3esides the naval militia alreaay organ- d in several States the law of 1891 pro- ed for the acceptance of steamers to ize carry United Siates mails, that they should be built with a view of being ser- " viceable to the Governmentin time of war. It was a very economical measure, which secured, without cost to the Government, a fleet of steamers suitable for auxiliary cruisers, and for which privilege European countries pay subventions amounting to many thousands of dollars annually. While Congress was wrestling with the subject, and finally succeeded in getting ‘something for nothinc, the navy officers were busy in inspecting every steamer | any claim to being enrol ed | that could Ia; liary naval vessel, and by 1890 the Navy Department was fully informed -of thestrength of the mercantile marine as a naval auxiliary. Since 1891 Congress has annually appro- priated $25,000 for arms and equipment of naval militia, and small as this sum is the organization has grown in the sev- eral States, as shown in appended table: | | Officers and Men. SraTzs. b 2y | | Talifornia, Miassachuseiis.. North Carolins... Xhode Isiand 1149 The naval militia of Texas existed only one year, and in California, owing to bickerings among the %fficers, there has been 8 redaction in numbers. The ad- dition of Illinois-and Michigan, with 386, is in a locality where our navy cuts no figure and a naval reserve on the Great Lakes will be very serviceable in event of war—more ndispensable in fact than on the seaboard. Much vet remains to be done by the { Federal Government toward making the naval militia useful, for the annual cruise for a week or less in a regular ship-of-war is wholly inadequate for the object in view. With the nucleus of a volunteer navy personne! which in time of war can and will be augmented by thousands from i Annapolis graduates who have gone into civil pursuits, and from the many who have served an apprenticeshipin the train- ing and other vessels of the navy, the country is far better prepared for war than it was thirty-five years ago, and the same conditions apply to the ships available. Our makeshift navy of 1861-65 had to deal with an enemy withont a navy and its functions were chiefly blockade duty. There are at the present time about eigity stearaers available for auxiliary war ves- sels with speeis ranging from 20 to 12 knots, and about 200 from 11to 9 knots speed. In time of war at least one-half of 25 these 280 steamers could be fitted with guns, but as yet the Navy Department has selected only thirty-two for which batteries are to be made ready and put away for an emergency. Those selected are as follows: ATLANTIC COAST STEAMERS, _—_ NAME. Built. Tons. Speed. . Louls. 1895 | 11.629 20 oe 1895 | 11,629 20 New Yol 188 | 10801 20 Paris . 1889 | 10,795 20 Seguranca 1830 | 4,11 14 Vigiiane 190 | 4115 14 Concho. 1891 | w724 14 City of P; 1878 8,632 13 Yucatan. 1890 | 8525 14 Orizaba. 1889 | 3497 14 Yumiri. 159 | 8,497 14 Aliianca. 1846 2.985 13 Lampsas 1843 | 2,943 14 Venuzuela, 1889 2,813 13 1878 | 2,820 14 1880 | 2800 14 1877 2,683 12 1889 | 2'669 13 1888 2,605 12 1889 | 2584 1414 1885 2,525 14 His Prestige to Maintain PACIFIC COAST STEAMERS. NAME. ] Built. I Tons: l Speed. Cl'y of Peking. 1874 | 6087 14 Ci'y of Rio Jan 1878 - 8548 | 12 Alameda. 1883 | 8158 15 Mariposa. 1883 | 3158 15 City of Sydney. 1876 | 3017 12 Colou. . 1873 | 2686 1 Acapulco 1873 | 2572 11 Peru... 1892 | 2640 14 San Jo 1882 | 2081 1 San Juan 1882 | '2076 11 San Blas. 1882 | 2075 1 All of thvse steamers are in the ocean trade and do not comprise the full extent of our resources in that direction, small as THE UNITED STATES CRUISER CHICAGO AND THE AUXILIARY STEAMSHIP ALAMEDA. These two vessels are shown for the purpose of comparison, as they are nearly equal in tonnage and length. The gross tonnage of the Chicago is 3080, her length 325 feet, while the tonnage of the§ Alameda is 3158 aud her length 314 feet. The speed of the Chicago is 15 knots, while the Alameda is classed as a 15-knot boat in Lloyds, although she can make 16 knots with ease. Armed with six 6-inch rifles, ten rapid- | fire and two machine guns, her designated armament, the Alameda would prove an admirable auxiliary naval vessel. it .is, thouch, as compared with Great Britain and France. The coasting steam- ers on the Pacific, especially those of mod- ern build, are but little, if any, inferior to the ocean steamers selected, guch as the State of Californis, Queen, Santa Rosa and others. The batteries which the St. Louis and St. Paul will carry will consist of eight 6- inch rifles, six 6-pounders and four ma- chine cuns. The Paris and New York are to carry twelve 6-inch rifles and twelve machine guns. As an indication of what may be expected from these vessels it 1s only necessary to compare them with - The Diet of a Tar It Costs the Man His Job in the Navy An Eccentric Appetite Which Graved for Uncle Sam’s Gut Glass Edward L. Geatins, ex-member of the crew of the United States steamship Phila- delphia, is a much worried man. His trouble arises from an eccentricity regard- ing the quantity and variety of the food “he consumes, Not that he is too fastidious iu this regard, or that, to use a common expression, he possesses a beer income combined with a champagne appetite. He has assured. his messmates, and through them the world, that the famed feasts of Lucullus convey to his mind no example for bim to emulate, even if he could, and the gustatory creations of a Briliat-Sava- rin would not tempt him. To all outward appearance Mr. Geatins is much the same as other mertals, but in what tie late Silas Wege would call his “inards” he differs. This fact has brought him into eollision with the United Btates' Government, for, disdaining the - fare provided by Uncle SBam and served in the forecastle, Mr. Geatins appropriated and masticated no less than seventeen cut- glass tumblers belonging to the officers’ mess. Having performed this feat in the record time of ten hours, he looked to a paternal government for approval. He didn’t get it, however, but in lieu thereof received his discharge. “f had to quit est- ing gless,” said Geatins, **because the Gov- ernment told me they couldn’t afford it. Besides,” he added with fine sarcasm, “they said it wasn’t in the contract.” Having quit the service the ex-sailor is endeavoring to turn an honest penny by exhibiting himself as the only genuine glass-eater in the United States. To a CaryL correspondent he thus unbosomed himself: “Yes, I'm not sorry I quit the service, as on account of my diet I am really not fit for hard work. Do I eat anything else? Ob, yes; coal, sand, iron clippings and wool. Then I take jour eggs and a eup of coffce every twenty-four hours, but I cannot eat the crust of bread or any kind of meat. Take yesterday as an example of my deaily meals. I ate three glasses, four ounces of coal and four spoonfuls of sand. Day before I was feel- ing pretty hungry, so I managed to get away with five glasses and the same pro- portion of sand. “How long have I kept it up? Just twelve years, and until three months ago 1 was capable of eating o:her food. Sizce that {ime, however, my diet has only con- sisted of glass, etc.” THE CALL correspondent offered Mr. Geatins a cut-glass vessel, which he con- sumed with apparent gusto. A plateful of sand and coal vanishsd in a similar manner, whereupon he declared himself considerably refreshed. In reply to further queries he said: "I.hnve been examined by professors in Berlin and Heidelberg, London, Philadel- Pphia, N_uw York, 8t. Louis and Chicago. In Berlin they gave me twenty minutes to live lmer a perormance of eating my Z:“ food of glass, sand and coal. In ndon I was given the chance of 80 hour. At other places the physicians did not know what/to make of me nor could they understand how I lived. 1have bgen a puzzle to every one who has seen me. I left the Philadelphia on the 12th of last | month, and a few nichts previous to this, | after we were all paid off, I was arrested for eating seventeen glasses in ten hours and was told 1 had to stop eating the glasses on board of the ship, as the Gov- ernment could not afford to keep me on such food, and that there was nothing of it in the contract. “Ordinarily I feel well and sleep well as any hale and hearty man, and I never ex- perience any aches or pains unlessitbea toothache after eating bread, which seems so much harder to bite than glass.” Optician and Oculist. . The London Lancet has taken up the subject of the proper relations that should ) ‘exlst between the optician and the eye doctor. It is precisely because the ad- vances of our knowledge during the last few years have lifted the whole matter into the professional sphere, says the journal, that it behouves opticians to be chary of prescribing giasses, however competent they may be to determine the precise lens or combination of lenses required. Even in this re- spect there are limitations to their powers, for the optician would not be justi- fied inemploying atropine, without the use of which in many cases the appropriate glasses cannot be ascertained. Ophthal- mic surgeons have reason to be grateful to the opticians for the beauty and perfec- tion of the lenses they supply and for many useful suggestions they have made in regara to mounting, and we sre sure that in the long run those opticians will thrive best who will devote their energies to the resources of their art. Though they may be thoroughly competent to deal with the physical aspect of the ques- tion, additional and special medical knowledge is required to determine whether it is advisable to adopt those very measures which, from a physical point of view, leave nothing to be desired. A Liabouchere Story. ‘When Mr. Labouchere wasat Cambridge he played a cunning trick on the exam- iners. One of them, enthroned upon his dais, observed that the young man was constantly taking stealtby glancesatsome document concealed beneath his blotting- paper. He jumped at the conclusion that he must be referring to some notes which he had surreptitiously introduced. He walked over to him and said, sternly, “Lift up that blotting-paper.” Mr. La- bouchere pleaded and protested, with the result that the examiner was more con- vinced than ever that he had discovered a genumne case of cribbing. He insisted, therefore, and the undergraduate had to obey, and then the examiner discovered that the only object concealed beneath Mr. Labouchere’s blotting-paper was the photograph of an exceedingly beautifu! young woman, whose bright eyes, he de- clared, inspired him with right answers to the perplexing qnestions which the ex- aminers had propounded. e Diamonds in Hard Steel. In a recent number of the Comptes Rendus occurs a very interesting com- munication by M. Rossel on the presence of diamonds in certain very hard steels. It was shown some few years ago by that indefaticable worker, M. Moissan, that when iron at an extremely High tempera~ ture was saturated with carbon and then cooled under a high pressure, a portion of the carbon separated out in the form of a diamond. It occurred to M. Rossel that the neecessary conditions for the forma- tion of these minute diamonds are ful- filled in the manufacture of very hard steel, and he has found in the examina- tion of a large number of samples that such minutediamonds can actually be dis- covered in the steel by dissolving in acid and subsequent treatment of the insoluble residue. The crystals, which present all the chemical and physical properties of tue true .diamonds, are of course ex- 'tremely small. ————— . The French people still t an average of 4000 duels oyetypyen. e - Inspired By a Bird Old Fiddle-maker With an Odd . History When His Ganary Died He Liost Ambition and Geased to Work All summer a man made fiddles in the back room of a house just off Fourth avenue, near Twentv-fourth street, says the New York Sun, Another man who occupied a back room in another house used to watch the fiddle-maker from his window. A birdcage hung in the fiddle- maker’s window and a yellow canary hopped and chirped and sang during the day as the old man polished the wood- work. When the fiddle was ready for the strings the old man tied them with thumb and finger, and then when they were properly adjusted he would take a bow and draw it over the catgut until the sound satisfied his ears. Then he woula play and bend his neck and act as if his soul was entranced. When he finished the canary would nearly always dance on its perch and sink until its notes filled the ares back of ‘the house, and the dwellers in the vicinity would put out their heads and listen. That was satisfactory to the fiddle- maker, He would put the instrument into a box and it was ready for the mar- ket. If the canary did not sing the old fiddie-maker would unstring the catgut, THE MAN WITH rub-the wood and replace the strings and try again and again un:il the canary did sing. If the bird refused after several trials the old man would throw the instru- ment aside and begin on anoiher. One day the old fiddle-maker was not at his work, the window was not raised and there was no birdcage to be seen. Nearly a week went by and the situation remained the same, e The man at the window opposite, who bad watched the work all summer, walked around to the front of the house in which the old fiddle-maker had his room and asked for the landlord, and inguired of bim what had become of the old fiddle- maker and his canary. “They’ve gone,” was the reply. “That is, the old man has gone. He came to work one day and found the canary dead, and he put it 1in a littie box, tied up his traps and gave up the room. He said he didn’t think he could ever make another fiddle, for the bird was the only critic he had upon whom he could rely. He said when it refused to sing at his playing that the fiddle was no good. I never knew any name for the old man except Johanis. Whether that was his family name or otherwise I never learned. I asked him once, and he said it made no difference, and I always made out the receipt for his rent to Johanis, Sometimes he slept in the room on a cot, and then he would go away and stay some other place. ‘‘He was not very communicative, but I learned a little of his history by degrees. He was a member of an orchestra in Vi- enna, and his wife was a singer. He showed me her picture once, in an old fashioned breastpin. . She was young when the picture was taken and must have peen a beautiful woman. He used to write her music and always played for her when she sang. I never could learn from him anything about her fate. Whether she'died or whether she left him remains a mystery to me. But he told me one day that the canary belonzed to her, and that he brought it to this country; thatthe canary was his inspiration—I think that is what he called it—and when it died it seemed to be all up with the old man. That is all I know about it.” Glass houses of a very substantial kind can now be built. Silesian glassmakers are turning out glass bricks for all sorts of building purposes, claiming for them such advantages as variety ol shape, free trans- mission of light, strengtn, cheapness and general adaptability,. Where complete diffusion of light is needed, as in iactories, conservatories, courtyards, etc.,, they are specialiy suitable. THE COSTLY APPETITE. An Awhul Ordeal Fiction Ahead of - Date by Ten Days Pirline - Love Story " That Ends on November the Fourth *It’s too bad about that young Metealf,” said old Judge Merrill, settling back in his chair in that comfortable fashion acquired only by age and long practice. “Whny?"” asked Mrs. Merrill anxiously, lifting her eyes toward her eldest daugh- ter, who, with scarlet face, had listened to her father. “He's lost his mind—studied too hard or something—and is doing the most ridiculous things. No use listening to him. His father said he taiked to him for an hour the other evening. Gave hima real going over. Told him he would have no more nonsense. The young chap lis- tened to him attentively until he had fin- ished, and ‘then with composure asked his father to give one good reason for be- ing a goldbug; and so it is with every- body, No matter what subject they bring up he replies with an encomium of Bryan or a plea for free silver. He is as crazy as a loon, and crazier. Why, even a loon woulan’t advocate Bryan's election. I ‘met him this morning on Washington street and he wore a huge Bryan badge. I felt awfully sorry for the poor boy and Lis family, but then every family is bound at one time or another to have its sorrow.” Bessie Merrill, with filling eyes and drouping, heard the sad story. It dia not seem credible, she thought, that he who had been so good, so manly, and so kind, could be stricken in the fullness of his youth, yet the facts were indisputable. Her father’s testimony only veritied the many rumors she had heard. And would itall end thus? Would the love she had given to young Metcalf never sift through his beclouded brain and bring him light? For weeks after, ber mind was filled with thonghts of the convent and the grave, % & @ The night efter McKinley was elected, Bessie met a howling, hooting crowd of jubilants, burning red tire and carrying broums. Bue recognized, before she could read the transparencies, the long-drawn- out Harvard yell. The banners were all for McKinley, and bearing the larzest was the big square-shouldered form she knew so well. He saw her immediately, and, handing the transparency to a comrade, he pushed his way to ber. *On, Harry," she said, “I am so glad. Iam really so glad. - After all everybody said about you and that horrid vid Bryan, ar n't you glad he was defeated?”’ “#Glad. Never so glad of anything in my life. Every one had me down as a lunatic. My own folks cut me, and the kids used to laugh at me on my way to lectures.” s Then he explained to her all about it; how he was elected & member of the Dicky Club, and to prove his worth asa member his courage was tested in the way which caused all to think he had lost his mind. He was to wear a Bryan badge and advocate Bryan sentiments at all times and in all places. It wasa terri- ble ordeal for him, but he had borneit the larger cruisers of the repular navy» with somewhat similar batteries. The Newark, for example, carries twelve 6- inch rifles and an assorted secondary bat- tery of 6 and 3. pounders and machine guns; the continued sea-speed wouid not exceed 17 knots and her bunker capacity is only 809 tons. The four liners, on the other hand, will carry & battery equal to that of the New- ark. Their ¢ niinued sea-speed for an in- definite period, or solong as the coal holds out, is 20 knots m ail kinds of weather, and they can stow 5000 tons of coal, suf- ficient for a run of 9000 miles at 20 knots an hour. As commerce-destroyers ana fighters of vessels not neavier armed nor betier protected than themselves they are unsurpassed. The only real advantage which regularly built war vessels possess over the ocean-liner pressed into service as an auxiliary war vessel lies in the pro- tection of the machinery and boilers, over which an arm red deck miminizes the danger from shot and shell; 1n other re- spects the ocean-liner has the advantage, and Congress drove a very clever bargain in thus securing from its private citizens a navy which the Government, it seems, cannot afford to maintain. In July last Congress made an appropri- ation -of $500,000 toward beginning the work of making and purches- ing guns for the auxihary cruisers, and the work has just berun at the Wash- ington gun-foundry. It will requireabout 40 6-inch, 175 j-inch, 175 4-inch rifles and nearly 400 secondsry battery guns, con- sisting 0f 6, 3 and 1 pounders and machine guns. As fast as completed these guns will be forwarded to the different navy= yards, to be ready when wanted. England deals more liberally with its private ship-owners, and paid to eleven steamers $243,000 during the present year for the privilege of reserving them for war purposes; it pays $1,100,000 yearly in sup- port of a naval reserve, and in addition pays hiberal subsidies for ocean mail ser- yice. Other countries have been equally far-sighted, and it is tnis liberal policy which explains why the number of our ocean steamships is so few in compari- son with European countries. 5 Taking the steamers of speeds ranging from twenty to twelve knots, inclusive, England comes first with 725; France, 125; Germany, 92, and United States 80 Spain has 32, and Japan, a nation of only recent creation, has 22, which in a couple of years is likely to exceed our auxiliary navy in point of number and,quality. bravely, and the congratulations which followed the revelation of his real convic- tions partly recompensed him for the dark days when friendship waned and long eluded him like the fleeting lights of the swamp lands.—New York Sun. Nature’s Paper Factory. J. M. Johnson of Fresno Flats, Cal., recently sent to the office of THE CaLn what at first sight would appear to be a sbeet of machine-made paper, similar to that out of which Japanese napkins are made. In Mr. Johnson’s letter, he states: *Inclosed is a sheet of paper, made in considerabie quantities here by the hand of nature, in the springs, ponds and water- tanks, wherever the water is comparatively quiet. ‘‘At first, it is a grass-green scum; but as it dries out it bleaches to a whitish color—a sort of cream white, like the sample I bave mailed 1o you. “When I saw it first, I realty thought it was some kind of Japanese paper; but it proved to be a product of nature, and human ingenuity had nothing to do with its composition. I would like to know, through THE CALL, the opinion of some of your scientists in regard to this rather interesting matter.” The sample and the facts in regard to it are certainly interesting. Dr. Gustave Eisen of the Academy of Sciences, when shown 1he specimen in question, observed that the strip of paper was remarkable for its evenness and closely knitted parts. “Of course,” said he, ‘‘all paper is made out of vegetable fiber—grass and plants. This paper is composed of green alge, and is found in still ponds. It is not strong enough, however, to be of any value.” Professor W. A. Setchell of the depart- ment of botany at the University of Cali- fornia examined the paper, and the result is thus given in his own words: “The specimen is the so-called ‘water- flannel.’ It is composed of the matted fila- ments of Cladophora, one of the grass- green alge. Professor Hilgard says that it isfairly characteristic of alkali streams.”” —————— Changing the Face of Time. “The latest” in clocks and watches is distinetly original. It comes from France. The sug estion is that the decimal system should be adopted for clocks and watches, bidding good-by to our old friends 11 and 12 o’clock entirely, and to divide the face of the clock into ten instead of twelve sec- tions, This system is now,used by the Geographical Bureau of the French army, and it is urged that it diminishes the labor of calculation by two-thirds and les- sens the chances of mathemutical error from four to one. The following is an outline of the rules of the decimal system as applied to timepieces: *The day, from midnight to the .mid- night following, is to e divided into 100 equal parts, known as ‘ces.’ *The sutdivisions, according to the deci- mal plan, are ‘decices,” or tenths, ‘cen- tices,” or hundredths, ‘miliices,” or thou- sandtus. “One.of the main divisions, the ‘ces,’ is equai to fourteen minutes and twenty-four seconds, or almost a quarter of an hour.” This, say the scientists, is the easiest vossible system, but the poor lay mind may not quite agree with such a conclu- sion, and 6 A. M. sounds as yet far more ac- ceptable than 25 ces, 1ts decimal equivalent, ———— Had Struck Another Match. Bishop Wilmer of Alabama was not in attendance upon the late convention, but he was well represented by his anecdotes, which are related by churchmen much as Lincoln’s stories are by the general public. Here is one of them: One of the Bishop's friends lost a dearly peloved wife, and in his sorrow caused these words to be inscribed on her tomb- stone: “The light of mine eyes has gone out.” The bereaved husband married within a year. Shortly afterward the Bishop was walking through the graveyard with an- other gentleman. When they arrived at the tomb the latter asked the Bishop what be would say of the present state of affairs in view of the words on the tombstone. “I think,” said the Bishop, “the words *But I have struck another match’ should be added.”—Minneapolis Journal. No Theme For a Poet In Vintage-Jime on the Barbary Coast Grapes Not Pressed by White Feet of Laughing Girls Artists of every country have exhausted their resources in typifymng on canvas the beauties of the vintage. In all lands where the grape is grown the hills covered with vines and dyed by continual tints contrasted with the purple and amber of the grape afford such a wealth of variegated coloras to charm the eye of the peasant, as well as the cultivated sense of the artist. The joyous vintagers with their baskets of fruit and happy countenances add to the beauty of the scene and make a subject which the sublimest artists of the age delight to portray, ‘What a contrast, therefore, these happy pastoral scenes of Spain and Italy present to the commonplace aspects, of the vine tage in our own Latin quarter of the Bar- bary Coast. Even the most imaginative can extract no romance or beauty from the way the juice of the grape is extracted by the Italians on their own domain. First, the grapes, instead of being con- veyed to the press in baskets borne on the heads of laughing boys and girls, are packed in commonplsce boxes, crushed and wrinkled in the handling and dumped into an improvised cask until it is nearly full, " Into this climb a couple of stout, big-footed natives of Italy with bare feet and legs and there they stamp just so long as a bit of juice remains in the grapes to be crushed out. Occasionally one or both of the wine. makers steps out of the cask and walks around the yard for awhile or goestoa neighborinz saloon for a pot of beer. Then he jumps back into the press again without taking the trouble to wash his feet and begins stamping the grapes as be- {"fore. This method of making wines is cheap and primitive, but it mizht not suit a connoisseur. To our adopte i citizens, howe ever, it seems to be all right, and if they are satisfied and no one else but them- selves drink wines made in this fashion, who has the right to complain? As one of them remarked, ‘Oh, that is all right; when the wine ferments the dirt all falls to the bottom.” Died as He Lived. The machinery of the big mill stopped with a sudden and horrible jar and jerk and the workmen pulled out the crushed and bleeding form of one wno was stranger to them all. i ‘“‘Are you badly hurt?” inquired one. “I fear I am,” groaned the unknown. “I am dying.” “Bhall we send for your friends? Quick, tell us your name.” 'Oh, never mind,” he answered. *Iam allalonein the world and mv name doesn’t matter. Just :ay I died incog.’”’ And a grim smile illumined his face as the spiric of the professional humorist took its flight with his last supreme effort,— Judee.