The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 27, 1896, Page 23

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1896 23 Society’s New Fad v 5 ¥ scientific fad of society. The psychic | evening promises to achieve closer approach of the New Year the even- | i and more apropos. with the influence we m secrets of the year before us. y learn the queer things that humanity does will fail to admit the possibility of ibought trans- ference. It is shown every day by the | because of the necessity & great | being sensitive to impressions. She must | say the promoters of the psychic evening, ogi ven now several events of | be sensitive in bra in and mind and must this sort bave taken place, and with the | be influenced oy the thoughts projected. Pas yours | is not ordinarily supposed to be accom-!thing to be doneis to learn who is the ew studenis of human nature and the | plished by the aid of apparatus | y for New Year's Eve HOUGHT transierence will be the ! sion of all else. The sensitive is o called ity for her actnally The diversions of the psychic evening, devoted to occultism will become more | as shown by the accompanying illustra- Ttsdevotees hold that | tion, are varied and attractive. While it | portion of the programme outlined. | is true that thought transference in itself till it is rendered easier and more of an amuse- ment than a science by the use of steel bands and an electric wire. These bands understanding that seems to exist between | are adjusted to the heads of the two per- versons who are closely linked together, ! sons who are to inaulge in the silent lan- ; e 3 "/!.7177///,/' 1 future husband or wife, but the person in | the room who is thinking of them, or per- baps some one far distant. | Besides the things mentioned, there is | the method, which is declared to be prac- ticable, of gitting in & room with one or! more persons, thinking intently of the street outside, with which all are famil- iar, and that before the mind’s eye then will passin reproduction the events which are transpiring out of doors. All these things will be accomnlished, {to the entire satisfaction of every one | | present. This savors strongly of the pre- diction of the showman. Letus see just 5 what is'necessary to carry out the major | | When the company is gathered the first | best possible person to be the sensitive. | | Oftentimes impressions are very erroneous | in this regard. The very person who may | |seem to be frail and yielding is quite likely to be possessed of altogether too There are various ways in which experi- ments of thought transference will be car- ried out. One of them, for instance, is to have the sensitive write or draw some- thing. The sensitive is blindfolded, but this is not so much to prevent her seeing asitis to concantrate her thoughts, for concentration isan absolute necessity to successful accomplishment. The agent seats himself opposite the i blindfolded sensitive and draws a figure on a piece of paper. After this is accom- plished he will pass the design around to those present and each will study it thor- oughly. Sufficient intentness of gaze must be given to the object in question so that each person in the room may be able to see the picture with their eyes closed as well as oven. Then the agent, by concentrating his attention on the mental vision, will transfer to the mind of the sensitive the picture or fizure which he drew. The sensitive will not know how she gains the impression, perhaps, but she much wili-power. There is a certain test, will feel that she has received an idea, Society Seeking to Discover by Occult Means What Fate Has in Store for Them. i which results in the same thought being | guage, much after the fashion which the ed av the same time. nveyed from one human being to an- ier without the conscious agency of the expr c n o L any feeling whatsoever. has discovered that there oyment and entertainment in transfererce. The experiment be carried out in a variety of waysand a very interesting fashion. Soci cf these is ht, or the agent, as he is called. The the sengitive or the subject t> n the thought is transferred. interesti feature of the psychic t must be thoroughly and intelligent. earnest is | Itisa| It is absolutely | A thought | . 1t can be transferred with- | telephone girl follows in placing upon her head the contrivance which holds the receiver to her ear. | nected, as stated, by an electric wire. In the ordi- | v process two principals are required. | the transmitter of the | n of the agent and the | necessary that he should be entirely able | to concentrate his mind on the thoughts which are to be transferred, to the exclu- Over this wire the thoughts seem to flash at the will of the stronger and sometimes the weaker. The action is rapid and the result unique. Armrong other things which the ama- teur thought scientist will attempt at the psychic evening entertainment is crystal however, which is always tried, and that is by the agent requesting the lady to | stand and to close her eyes. Then he wish that she may lean her forehead in | the direction of his hand. Should she do | this she wouid be considerea seasitive. | Theagentis generally a man. Women, |as a runle, make goud sensitives an4 | very poor agents. The men are superior | because they are more positive in witl and better able to concentrate their attention | that she sees something. Thechancesare that after removing the handkercbhief she will be able to fully describe the figure These two bends of | hold his right hand at a distance of from |drawn by the agent and visualized by all steel on the different persons are con- | four to five inches over her forehead and | the other persons in the room. Itis de- | clared by those who have made the exper | ment that the situation described will be | the result attained at such times in nine | cases out of ten. This experimental trans- | ference of thougkt brines out very clearly | the reason for the every-day thought trans- { ference that takes place in families. There is naturatly a general unity of thought in gazing—the process whereby it is said | upon the thought decided upon. It is the | such circles, and theresult is that thoughts that the sensitive, lookinz closely at a | crystal and concentrating her mind, will see before her a reproduction of the images which fill the mind of the agent or some otber person. Then there isthe mirror—that old relic of Hallowe’en cus- tom. The thought scientists promise that by looking into the mirror steadfast- | ly on such occasion one will not see a i refined organization of woman that makes | | her the best sensitive. She is more in- | | tuitive and more impressionate than man. The agent must be level-headed, quiet and | determined. The sensitive must listen to and quietly obey the directions of the | agent. These things accomplished and | understood the rest of the programme is clear. are frequently known to others before the originator speaks them. An experiment which is occasjonally tried and bids fair to be very popular is that which causes the sensitive in several rooms distant from an assembled com- pany to act in accordance with their es. In this instance the sensitive should leave the room where the company is assembled by herself and go to some other part of the house, auite a distance away. Then if it is desired that she should get a certain article in some other room the agent should write the name of what- ever it may be on a slip of paper, and this slip of paper shouid be shown to each per- son in the room which the sensitive just left. Then every one, as well as the agent, should think of the article in question and form the desire in their minds that the sensitive shall go and get the article and bring it to the room from which she started. In most cases the experiment is entirely successiul, although the sensitive is wholly cut off from all conscious or un- conscious direction of either the agent or the other guests who are enjoying the evening’s entertainment. A still more interesting trial of thought transiereuce is that which causes the sensitive to speak a word. In this in- stance, when the sensitive, who has been sent from the room, re-erters it and stands iust inside the door, all those present think intently of some word which it has been agreed upon she shall say. Inamo- ment the sensitive will, as a rule, speak the word. She cannot tell why. She only knows that she has had an impulse to speak, but cannot tell how it came to her. It 1sthe case that the agent, to be en- tirely successful, must be the principal mover and planner of the actions which the sensitive is to take. 1tis practically through the strong willand mind of the agent that the sensitive is made to see with her mind’s eye. If it is adrawing that she is to describe, it is always best thar the agent should make that drawing. He, above all others, should concentrate his attention thereon after the drawing is completed. Then he must insist that sev- eral of the other persons in the room keep their minds upon the object delineated with equal intentness. The reason for using a drawing in an instance of this sortis to reduce thought toa drawn subject. This makes the re- production by thought infinitely easier than it would be under other chcum- stances. It1sthe way thought is utilized in tkis series of experiments more than the requirement thatis made wkich en- | ables thought transference to become a thorough success. The impression should not be gained that what has been described is at all in the nature of hypnotism or the so-called spirituatism. Nothing of tbe sort. Those who have experimented assert positively that thought transference is no longera matter of doubt and thata careful trial will convince any one. Itis not neces- sary for a person to become a medium or anything of the sort. Two people witn minds closely united always find that they know one another’s thoughts almost in- tuitively. Tuis is held to be thought transference. It will be given a thorough test this winter at society’s psychic even- ings. Spice of Variety in Life. The expression of his face showed that he was easily irritated, and the contractor into whose office Le walked braced him- self for trouble. *I wish,” said the irritable man, ‘that you would do me a favor in connection with the work on my house.” “Anything that we can do will be cheer- fully attended to.” *Thank you, I wish yvou would send a new man to dL the painting.” “‘But the one we have there is an excel- lent workman.” 4 “I don’udoubt that. But he has been there three days and he hasn’t whistled anytaing but ‘Tell Them that You Saw Me.” I'm pretty siow at catching a tuane, but I've learned that with all the varia- tions, and if it’s just the same to you I'd like to start in on a new one.”—Washing- ton Star. A Big Deal. The following story was told recently by a woman who lived in the far West and did her shopping in New York by mail. “I bad paid my bill the day before,” she said, “but needed an article which was marked on the catalogue ‘8 cents,’ and at the risk of being informed that the order was too small I sent it, and before I had | time to tell about the joke of sending an | 8-cent order the article came prepaid with a 4-cent stamp. “At the end of the month I received a statement in a sealed envelope showing that I owed my New York correspondents 8 cents, for which 1sent a check and re- ceived by return mail a receipt for that amount. You see that my 8-cent purchase cost the concern 8centsin postage, and still it seems anxious to have my trade.” —New York Tribune. —_—————— Seven of the largest theaters in Italy are subsidized by the state. Photograph- of a Butterfly's Tongue HE visions which the camera makes | these were made and upon the data so ob- public nowadays are widespread in | tained important mathematical calcula- variety and make eemingly impossil of accomplishment. Nomore striking evidence of this fact can be found than the clever work of Professor George S. Moler ! of Cornell University in photographing a butterfly’s tongue. This tiny bit of the mechanism of one of the most delightful of insects is, in its ural form, barely perceptible to the human eye. Such a little affair it is that one views with absolute amazement the accompanying picture, which is drawn from the photograph referred to, this pho- tograph being furnished the writer by Professor Moler himself. It must be understood that photography is one of the sciences which the Cornell student learns as thoroughly as any branch of study that he chooszes to take up while under the guidance of his alma water. There are very many queer nho- tographs taken in the course of a term. Of the process of photography as a sci- ence, and of tle resuits of that progress Professor Moler has the following to say: Ty the Editor: Since the aavent of the modern dry pfate and sensitized fiim and the simplifying of the chem:cal processes fiecessary to produce a picture, the pho- tographic art has become indispensable in almost all sorts of scientific investigations. Its truthfulnessto nature and the ravidity of its action are two of the many valuable qualities of the process. When formed inder proper conditions the image upon the plate can be depended upon as being 10 e proportional in all its parts to the object itself. . £ “One of the principal things which has made this possibl: is the great accuracy with which photo lenses are now con- structed so that they give rectilinear it apparent that e is always on the images. During the last transit of Venus many vhotographs were taken, showing at tions were based. “Dry plates are now made so sensitive to light thdt if an electric spark of short illuminates one white a rifle t is fired past the plate the shadow of ballet will be as sharply de- fined as if the bullet were stationary. An- other curious fact is also observed at the same time, and that is that the shadows of some waves of compressed air are also photographed upoa the piate. They very much resemble the diverging wave pro- duced by a small steamer upon the sur- face of a smooth lake. “Sometimes in research work too many things are to be noted at thesame time for the eye to catch them all; sometimes the motion to be observed is too rapid to be seen, or there are cases in which it is 100 slow to be perceived as motion atall. In these and many other cases that might be mentioned the photographic process is called upon to aid the searcher after truth. “In some of the institutions of learning photograpby is taugut for the purpose of preparing the student to use it in connec- tion with his experimenial work in the laboratory. It is not necessary tbat he should become an artist capable of pro- ducing fine a portrait, or that he should become a skiliful retoucher, but it is quite important that he should know how to properly expose, develop and tix a dry plate or sensitized film and make prints or lantern slides frcm them. He should not have to depend upon others to do those things for him, and often in a way that would not bring out the points that he would like to have shown. “Ty the remainder of this article some of the u-es of photograpny will be illus- trated by cuts from the original photo- graphs. A stretched cord which was being made to vibrate for experimental purposes was different-recorded intervals of time the ) observed to have a peculiar path of vibra- positions of the planets upon the image of the sun; then accurate measurcments of because it was being driven by tion, which it maintained continuously, & mechan- ical device. To study the motion of the cord an electric light was arranged to shine through a narrow slit ana cut across the cord at right angles toits length; then when the room was made very dark oniy the light point of the cord was visi- ble, this on account of the rapidity of the motion described a bright line which was photographed, giving the ficure which | somewhat resembles a written capitai L | short quartz fiber, which is fastened at its ends, and then the proper magnetic and electrical conditions are established, the needle, as we may call the iron with its mirror, will be deflected one way when the current runs in one direction end the othier way when it flows 1n the other. “If sunlight or the light from an arc lamp is reflected from this little mirror while it is vibrating and the reflected light The exposure was repeated again after shifting the plate a little to one side, thus | giving a pair of figures. | “In electrical mezsurements and investi- | | gations there are many cases where pho- ! | tography comes in as a very convenient method of making records. One of these is the taking of alternsating current curves. When an altrrnating current dynamo is running it sends a current first one way around the line then the other, and these sometimes flow at the rate of several hun- dred per second. Now if an exceedingly light mirror is attached to a verv smali bit of 1ron, so that both together are smalier than the head of an ordinary pin, and these are cemented to the middle of a T ity 7 falls uoon a rapidly moving dry plate the spot of light will leavea trace which will be revealed by developing the plate. It will resemble a wavy line like the traces shown, which were made in that way, but 7 Y Wonderful Photograph of a Butterfly’s Tonguz. it bas more meaning that a simple wavy line to the electrical engineer. *When sound waves impinge upon a stretched membrane they will cause it to vibrate, and if the membrane covers the opening of a small cavity through which illuminating gas is passing cn its way to a pinho'e gasjet the flame will aance up and down with every wave, and when the sound is a complex one the flime will pe- riodically shoot to different heights. “By enriching the gas with oxygen the flame mgy be made bright enough to make an instantaneous picture of itself very time it shoots up, and by swinging the camera around while exposing the successive images will fall at different places across the plate, and they will, by their relative sizes, indicate the character of the sound. “The photograph of the tongue of a but- terfly which is shown was made. by first mounting the object upon a microscopic slide, then illuminating it by an ordinary gas light, a lens being used to concentrate the rays of light upon it; an enlarged image of the object was then produceda by means of a part of a microscope including the objective. The image being so greatly enlarged was necessarily quite faint, so the time of exposare had to be increased according. “SBometimes an object is opaque, then ‘it must be lighted from the front; thisis case when one wishes to photograph the broken end of an electric light carbon to show the grain highly maenified. “GEROGE S. MOLER.” All these odd things of which Professor Moler tells he has learned largely through his vwn experience. Hence what he says can be accepted as the ulterance of a man who knows. He tells what the camera is daily showing, that in the simplest things of insect life lie the greatest wonders. Admitting Women. The question of the admission of women to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Parisis again to be brought before the French Parliament as an amendment to the budget. The Government will probably leave the matter entirely in the hands of the Chamber, without interposing any op- position. It is not thought probable, however, thatthe measure will be adopted, as it would involve large additional ex- pense, chiefly because the size of the classes would be so increased that the building would have to be enlarged or a new one provided, especially as it would be considered necessary that the instruc- tion bs given to the sexes separately.— New York Tiibune. —————— As achild, King Umber‘o of Italy was extremely fragile, and as a youth he was very delicate. When he grew older, how- ever, his constitution improved, and now be almost equals his late father, Victor Emmanuel, in robustness, America Can Rival Pisa’s Leaning Tower HE leaning tower of Pisa has a pro- totype in America. It is 200 feet high rand at the base is two-thirds that number of feet in cizcumference. At pres- ent it is thirteen inches out of plumb, ana | during a heavy storm, sways back and | forth like a willow wand. This remarkable structure is built on the grounds of E, C. Stearns & Co., accord- ing to 8 system invented by Sanford E. Loring, an architect of Syracuse, where the tower is located. By his system heavy timbers are braced continuously and connected by iron shoulder-piates, which take the place of the skeleton steel construction. The brick on the outside is walil in any sense of the term. The tower is unprotected, and has to take the force of every gale that blows. It is just now the cause of fierce strife in Syracase, because the people declare that it is an imminent source of danger and liable to fall at any moment. Architect Loring, however, says thatif it was thir- teen feet out of plumb, instead of thirteen’ inches, it would still be as safe as'a church, and that people might walk about under and around it all day and be in no more danger than in the Mammoth Cave. The Syracuse Common Council avers thet the tower is a public menace, and the ar- chitect in reply holds that it is perfectly intact and safe, and that it will stand any strain that is likely to come in the iuture. The Stearns tower has only become of | the leaning variety at a comparatively | recent date. The circumstance that brought it into prominence in this role | was a hurricane, or, as some cail it, a tor- nado. Inany event it wasa fremendons wind, the fiercest and rhe fastest which even the oldest inhabitant of Syracuse ever heard of. The wind came from the southeast, siriking the tower upon the faces shown in the accompanying iilustra- tion. In its vicinity immense trees were torn up by the roots, the roofs of great , Bir LTI merely a veneer,sand not a supporiing | i | il | £ buildings were twisted off and torn away as if they had been of half-inch plank. Buildings in their entirety were lifted up and smashed into kindling wood, but though the big tower swayed from side to side, as if understanding that it was made to bend and not to break, 1t did not fall. On the top of this tall tower isa water- tank, and this tank contained at the time of the storm its normal contents, 10,000 gallons of water. When the storm was over and the sunlight shone again hardly a gallon of water had been lost from the | tank, so far as appesrances indicated. | The tower, however, showed the eftect of the terrific blow. Before the storm hap- | pened, the structure had been as straight as a British grenadier, but now it was found it had been twisted upon its axis and bent over so that it leaned in as great a degree as the famous tower of Pisa. 1t will be observed by a glance at the picture that there are one or two breaches in the wails and that some of the window sashes are in a woefully dilapidated con- aition, butf otherwise it seems to be in very good shape indeed. The space be- tween the third and fourth stories and the sixtn and seventh seems to have suffered from the storm the'most severely. The sole fact that saved the tower fiom demoli- tion was the peruliarity of the structure, which is curiously arranged iron work. Tha brick wall that seems to form the structure is, as stated, simply veneer, and the holes that the storm rent through it indicate forciply what would have been the fate of the structure had the brick entered into its composition more largely. Asit is,it is the strangest specimen of what clever architectural work will stand, and before the Common Council and the Stearns people are through with the war it is making it all promises to become one of those legal fichts that will go down into history as events in which every one is in« terested. sl ANTEchr b s 7 The Leaning Tower of Syracuse. Napoleon’s Warhorses. The most celebratea warhorse of the present century is unquestionabiy Napo- leon’s Marengo, says Our Animal Friends. In view of the many hundred biographies of the great captain, it is certainly sur- prising that so little should be known with any degrep of certainty concerning this world-famous charger. ¢ To an Ateérican visitor to the dethroned Bonapartes at Chiselhurst, in June, 1872, Louis Navoleon, in a conversation about his own horses and the war steeds of the most illustrious of modern soiders said: “The Emperor’s favorite charger was Marengo, an Arab, of good size and style, and almost white.. He rode him in his last battle of Mount St. Jean, where Marengo received his seventh wound. I once mounted him when a youth, and but a short tinfe before the stezd died, at tie age of 6. Another favorite warhorse was named Maria, and was used by the Emperor in many of his hundred battles. Her skeleton is now to be seen.in the an- cient castle of Ivenach on the Rhine, the property of the Van Plessen family. Of the other sixty or seventy horses owned by Napoleon and used in battle, perhaps the most fatous were Ali, Austerliz, Styrie and Jaffa. He bhad nineteen chargers killed under him. The American visitor might have added, but did not, that Marshal Blucher had twenty shot in battle, while Generals Cus- ter and Forrest are believed to have each lost almost as many in the brief period of four years. Maria, or Marie, is thus de- <cribed by Victor Hugo in the words of a French veteran: = “QOn the day when Napoleon gave me the cross I noticed his beast. It had. its ears very far apart, a deep saddle, a fine head, marked with a black star, a very long neck, prominent knees, projecting flanks, oblique shoulders and a strong crupper. She was a little above fifteen hands high.” The Hon. Francis Lawley of London possesses the picture of a white Arab stal- lion, the history of which is weil known, with the inscription in Fremch, “Ali, battle-charger of Napoleon.” He was captured from the Mameiukes and pre- sented to the great captain. On Napo- leon’s downfall a French gentleman pur- chased Jaffa and Marengo and conveyed them to his estate in England. The tomb- stone of the former is to be seen at Glas- senbury, in Kent, with this inscription: “Under this stone lies Jaffa, the celebrated charger of Napoleon.” The last trumpet call sounded for Ma- rengo in September, 1829, just as he had completed 36 years. After his death his bones received an honorable place in the Military Institute, as already mentioned. Another soavenir of the famous steed is one of his hoofs made into a snuff-box, which makes its daily round after dinner at theé Queen’s Gnard, in St. James’ Pal- ace, London. On the silver lid is the legend: *‘Hoof of Marengo, barb charger of Napoleon, ridden by him at Marengo, Austerlitz, dena, Wagram, in the Russian campaign, and at Waterloo,” and round the silver shoe the legend continues: “Marengo was wounded in the right hip at Waterloo, when his great master was on him in the hollow road in advance of the French position. He had been fre- quently wounded before in other battles,” Some electricians carry a small come pass. in their pockets, and before they touch a wire hold the compass near it. It the needle is not deflected tney know thers is no current im it,and that it is safe to handle it