The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 17, 1897, Page 29

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 1897. 7 An Electric Hotel Tramway Is a Submarine Death Trap kuor\dor\'s Artery of Travel Under the River Thames the Scene of Many Liove Vows and Mysterious Murders Register, Pull a heVér, ar\d} Before You Gan | Say dJack Robinson You Are at Your Ghamber Door | IXTY feet below the surfaco runs a passageway under the Thames. N [t has been the scene of ma ve rows and murders, as well as several resting and amusing lawsuits. It is form of a large pipe forced through (b, rather than a tunnel. and its grewsome visitor to the ncient British cap this famous landmark of old Lon- don is to be swept away, the County Coun- cided to close the strange ng ower Hill to Tooley street. lis more famous than this quaint old stru which from an engineering standpoint is without doubt one of the | in the world. It was greatest curios C ucted in 1S d cost over shafts, each sixty feet deep, down to the tunnel, which is simply a continuous steel tube built of circular bands, which were niveted to each otheras fastas the boring was done. 0 feet long and is only seven feet hted by electricity, but se 10 which so many recollections are attached—it was kept in total dar he tunnel was first opened with the ( wer Hill to Tooley street, a journey would take quite a time if made on ce. A quaint little circu- earth’s sur quic wire. The passengers descended the aft and entered the omnibus through a ydoor in_its top, descending into the car by a ladder. This crude and un- ymiortable method of transportation met little publ and it wa before the was abolished. The ventilaticn was ed with the da that the River T little steel *‘trai ba s in Once in the c ntil theo ached. Theonly »door at the tap, n the tunnel there Le this was ren the cable has assengers have been cation before they There is plenty of ven- tannel itself, but no passage into a car. d for the first time a most mes ‘over released. th to be seen, a lashing of the they umes. Death should ever , but in this regard there r the str e of is 13 im- re have been several murders com- ted in its depths, and several times the eks ot a terrified woman have told of hway, or rather subterranean, robbery. is at hand there is small hope of catching the offende The passage is so small that onl e persons can walk abreast, and then they are compelled to walk so close together that their travel is any ng but comfortable. It is impossible to run through the tunnel. story attracts the attention of | It is known as the Tower | and runs beneath the river from | Perhaps no spotin the great British cap- | The tunnel | a of quickly shooting passengers from | omnibus was constructed of steel and | drawn from one end to the other| room | the tunnel by a desperado | is no hope of escape, and if rescue | theshort cut to save time,as he was on im- | portant business. When in the middle of the subway he met Roland, and after a quarter of an hour’s dodging the two men found out that they could not passeach other. Then an argument rose as to which should go back. Yates explained that he was going to compete against veral otner brewers for the supply of several public houses owned by a syndi- cate. Roland frankly admitted that he was on pleasure bent, but firmiy refused to walk back to Tower Hill. The men re- mained there arguing for half an hour,dur- ing which time fully a dozen persons en- tered the tunnel from one end orthe other, and finding their passage blocked were forced to retire. Finally Yates de- | cided to retire from the scene, and make his way back to Tooley street. Later he | brought suit against Roland for $10,000 damages, asserting that he had lost the opvportunity o extend his business through 1hnu. The court held that if there was | cause for a suit at all 1t was against the | city and not agamnst Roland, and the lat- ter was discharged., Tne city, however, | | had protected itself by returning to each man his hali-penny tollage, and the case was soon dropped, | Owing to the financial failure of its tun- nel, the company which owned it has re- | | ceived §55,000 from the corporation as compensation for the loss of takings, and now steps are to be taken at once to close up the strange old passageway. Simplicity Is Art. The merits of simple and artlstic effects | in furniture need no special mention. The era of stiffness and tawdry display is, to a great extent, a relic of the past, and the manufacturers of -the cheap grades of furniture are making praise- worthy attempts to exemplify the health- ful and esthetic tendencles of the times. Not so very long ago, says the Washington | sburg Dispatch, n excess of ornamentation and y, which is giving place to better taste and greater beauty and simplicity design and effect. The masses—in con- formity with the wonderful progress of this latter day—are evincing better judg- | ment and more e; cting discrimination in their demauds, and are not content \ the gaudy and vulgar productions of | twenty or thirty years ago. | |~ Within the past decide or two fashion | | has been very fickle and chanceful, but through all the numerous variations of style there has been a strong and whole- | some undercurrent toward a greater sim- plicity and harmony. Particularly has this been irue of bedroom iurniture. The ent, while sat- al craving for change and | , have yet in no way detracted | from the wonted convenienc- of the sories of the chamuver. Be no! ys is as beantiful ous ac | ea | exam- | us makers in the | are far better | Wardrobes were for- t essentially for tie “warding nd then facilities were limited | space and trays and drawere. | rior formly very was invariably not, in the days of dered complete without a cheval which was ugly and | awkward y and cumbrous | mirrors have been dispensed with, and are | | rarely seen outside of servants’ quarters | or second-hand stores. Our toilet tables are much more con- nient than the ones our ancestors used. hey were, as a rule, plain and fitted with | a movable glass and one or two drawers, which, as they were immediately below | | the mirror, restricted the space on the top | {of the table. Vastly superior are the | | toilet tables that our ladies use, | d finish as the most celebrated most fam furtherm their uses. of robes, to hangin Wiiliam Gray. 8till the quaint old place is recalled g the happy recollections of dozens London’s east-side lovers. It has fo been a popular mee place for | " and 7 " and many is the | love song that has been sung there to the music of the rolling waters. Elopements bave been planned there, scandals have had their origin within its depths, and its | name has been used a thousand times to of nold refractory children in check. So | narrow is the tunnmel and so many the amusing experiences that result there from them tiat tie London comic p are always publishing accounts of lawsuits. The following rec suit for damages brought by Thomas Yales, a brewer living in Wimbledon, acainst Evan Roland, who conducts a Jarge bakery in the Shoreditch district, was tried in the Bow-street Police Court. Mr. Yates weighs in the neighborhood of 300 pounds, while Roland is almost as large. According to Ystes he entered the tunnel at Tooley-street entrance, making 18 | | | | a couple of generations ago were ridicu- The mirror is fixed and the necessary drawers are raised above the surface of the table, out of the way, and in nowise tres- passing upon the room of the table top. Washstands are similarly improved. Judged by the present standard, those of lously small and crude, be they ever so gaudy and ornate. They belied their name, for their size and shape almost forbade a “good wash.” And they were so con- structed as not to close vp when not in use | Sanitary science bas shown the usefulness of such a practice and modern washstands are made in conformity with the princi- ples of hygiene and sanitation. In the chair and cabine: work for up-to- date halls in newly vuilt houses the char- acteristic of the compactness and con- venience of modern furniture is parficu- larly marked. This apartment is usually of small dimensions, and consequently condensed accommodations are hi hly essential. Any innovation which affords convenience and at the same time mini- mizes space is a welcome boon. . ARTH: « R\ \\\k\\“w“\\\ N\ Strange Pipe Under the Thames, the Scene of Many Murders. Stran This Man Just Came Back to Life ge Case of Suspended Animation--Experiences Passed| Through by William Gray, Who Is Declared Dead and His Goffin Sent For W}H.I,IA.\I GRAY of Washington | reached the surface it was chilled by the | D R snaiched from the most horrible | Within a few moments of the tixed for his burial he satup nnd‘ quie told the under| r ihat Ijis services would not be r quired. Had not | the supposed corpse returned to life so | 18, suddenly another tragedy would have been added to the many laid at the door | of our system of burial. Here is written by his own pen the first account oi this | remarkable experience: Before 1 begin o tell the details of how | I came near being buried alive, only a few | days ago, [ would like to say that I am plain man, without much education, so if you expect any fine description in my | Writing you will most likely be disap- pointed. I intend to simply describe as | nearly as I can the horror of my feelings, | and T have no doubt the bare facts them- seives will be sufficiently interesting with- | out being dresset up by fine language. The frightful agony of mind I passed | through will be enough, I am sure, to fit | me for the task of describing it all, for not | for a moment has one detail left my | mind; in fact T suppose it is now im- planted on my memory forever. ‘When I died, for I was dead according | to the doctor, there were present at my bedside the following people, all of Wash- ington County, Indiana; Mary F. Gray, Jennie Shields, Mary A. Shields, Robert | Shields, William Bartle and James Bar- | tle. All of these will swear to the truth of what 1 say and so will the doctor, Dr. Elrod of Hennysville, Clark County, for I am sure that the mind of every one present received a shock that will remain | with them for a lifetime. Even now they all liokat me as if wondering whether I am really alive or am just a walking spirit, and if it was not all so dreadful I could laugh when I look back at the whole | affair, Iam a farmer and was born 1y Wash- ington County forty-four years ago. I have been sickly for several years. You must excuse me if I keep saving I died, for I am firmly convinced that I passed through the experience of death. | I was first taken ili last month, | being seized with a kind of colic or| cramps. At first I thought little of it, | but after a day or two the phins grew so bad that I sent for Dr. Elrod. He lives ten miles away. Iexplainel to him how I felt and he gave me some medicine and it did me no good, and oon my pain was awful. I began to feel hot about the head and could not remember things very well, and for two days I lay in some kind of a fever. The doctor came twice a day, but I grew worse and one day toward the end of the month the family gathered round | my bedside and I could see by their grieved faces that they thought I was go- ing to die. There was no shock in the news. It seemed as if I had known for years I was going to die, and then I felt my limbs growing colder and colder, and realized that the end was at hand. First the chill struck my feet and it extended up my limbs, and then from my finger-tips to my body, until I felt as if an icy hand was just about to grip my heart, and that when that wasdone I should bedead. My pain was gone, but in its place was a haunting dread_that seemed to swell my veins until I thought that 1 should be- come 2 maniac before I died. So much agony of mind was crowded into that one short moment it seemeq as if I could not contain it all. Ifelt the sweat rising on my brow. On the inside it felt as if every drop was of molten iron, and that as it | | |as if 1 could measure the distance. | up the words, “He's de Indiana, has just been | cola band of death. Nearer and nearer the | cold approached my heart, until itseemed I knew that in a second more all would be over, but in that second I lived a thou- sand lifetimes. My bovhood days all swept before me, and a thousand details of | my daily life long_since forgotten passed before my mind. My young days spent at the plow, and the many hours I ran about the fields tugging at my mother’s apron, as she led from the fold a sickly lamb or went to pass a cheery word with the hay- makers—all this passed through my brain at lichtning speed; and when all was over and the last second of my longdream arrived I realized that I was just about to face my Creator. of relief I had. viction of the goodness of the G d on high | was so firmly stamped on me that it was a reality. Throughout the long strange scens I saw the people by my bedside. I watched their tears and listened to their moans ol grief with an acuteness that I had never felt before. Itseemed as if 1 could not help hearing them, and my eyes were fixed with a rigiaity that could not be described. Then the end came. With a clutch like that of a thousand cold steel vises, my heart was grasped in the firm embrace of death, and all was.over. Isay all was over, because this was the first moment’s respite I had had, and it was until some time after that that I realized my situation, and the reaction set | in. The first thing that then impressed me was that some one leaned over the bed and bursting into a fit of violent sobbing, said: “He's dead; my God! he's dead.”’ Then a thousand voices seemed to take d, he’s dead, he's dead,” until their eche throbbed on my brain like the beating of a shop hammer— | that was the beginning of my second horror. I realized that I was dead, or at least I thought so. Then I began to won- der if T was reaily dead. 1t had occurred to me as strange that I did not see heaven or the other place. These thoughts gave me a momentary shock, but nothing to the horrors that followed. My reason gradually returned, and just as 1f some one had struck me a violent blow came the full realization, “I am not dead—I am in a trance.” Then the weeping of those about my bedside was heard with redoubled force. It seemed as if they stayed there for days and every tear they shed was only binding me firmer in my liviug tomb. My eyes saw everything that went on. T tried to move, to speak, to blink my eyes, but I was fixed, held down it seemed by a thousand grinning devils. Then I was alone, that is the people left the room. I could hear the tick of the clock and counted the seconds flying by. Soon I must be buried, and I felt couvinced that no power I could summon would ever break the spell. My imagination led me down a million lanes, each one leading to the very verge of the hereafter. I fancied that I was placed in a coffin and lowered into a tomd. There were half a dozen other coffins on shelves, round the place. Sudaenly the lid of my casket was raised and I realized that I could move. I rose from my coffin, and finding myseif entombed, began to shout for help. No help came, and alter a long siege of tor- ture, I bezan to go almost insane. I re- member with a clearness too horrible to dwell upon how I laughed and snricked in my insanity. This frightful vision continued. The door of my room opened and several grave- looking men came in. I thought that T is was the only sense | I had no fear, for the con- | ants. Almost as soon as they entered the room they began to measure me for a cof- My blood seemed to be turned into and my brain—had I the fin. boiling oil, | scribe the feeling it contained. But the | end was near. The people came into the | room and talked for a few moments w th the undertaker, In reality the undertaker bad not yet arrived. Then as if banished they were the undertaker and his assist- | power of a_Longlellow, L could not de- bers street, New York, a hard- éILLIAM LOCKWOOD, 113 Cham- ware merchant of wealth and me- ! chanical genius, has just worked out the details of a most remarkable invention, which he hopes to see in. every large hos- telry in the land ere long. He has trav- elec for twenty-five years, and du ring that time, after a careful estimate, he has figured out that he has walked through hotel corridors a distance almost equal to that from Gotham to the Golden Gate. With such an extensive hotel acquaint- ance it naturally follows that his very face is known in every hotel between the At- lantic and the Rocky Mountains. He is. by no means unfamiliar with many of the hostelries of the Pacific Coast, and it was disadvantages of the best of them which first gave him the idea of bis plan, which may seem somewhat impractiial or chimerical at first giance. It has, how- | ever, been pronouncea entirely practical and feasible by hotel men and mechanical plans. Everybody who has had any experience at all with hotels knows the tiresome length of the hallways and corridorsof a big city hostelry, where hundreds can be accommodated at oue time, and also the confusing labyrinth which the hallways aretoa stranger in search of hisor her room. The very fact that the hallways are so confusing to one unfamiliar with them causes much unnecessary walking, | and to an invalid or an old person the ad- | for a room often means much in the way of exertion. It would puzzle a conjurer to find bis room in Young's Hotel in Boston or in the Windsor or Plaza hotels of New York, especiaily if he was unfamiliar with the arrangement of the balls. It is to do away with all this unneces- sary walking and hunting about the | bouse that Mr. Lockwood has perfected | the details of his invention and it is the comparative ease with which it can be ap- plied to any hotel and the amount of time and walking which it will save guests of | the house which causes him to hope that | before long they will be a reality in every hotel of any consequence, This invention entirely does away with the necessity of walking from the time a guest registers at the clerk’s desk until the door of one’s room is reached. The invention is a unique indoor tramway, | which leads to all rarts of the house and on which guests can be carried wherever v desire to go. When one pauses er the idea in all its simplicity of detail the practicability of the whole thing [ | [ | | into general use. Starting from in front of the clerk’s desk. where the newly arrived guest regis- construction and set into the floor of the corridor so as to be hardly noticeable. In fact, so little do the rails attract the notice of the guests that at a casual glance they else. From the desk these rails lead di- | rectly up the stairs and through the maze of hallways to all parts of the house. Immediately after the guest has regis- tered and been assigned to a room the clerk, instead of calling for the time-hon- ored “front,” simply touches an electric button, and almost as if by magic a hand- some little car glides around the corner from behing the desk, and passing along the miniature railway track, the use for this famibharity with hotels and the chief | engineers, before whom he has laid his | ditional steps taken in a wearisome hunt | becomes at once apparent and the wonder | is why in this age of labor-saving devices | it was not thought of long ago and put | ters, is a small pair of rails, very light of | appear more like a part of the design of | the floor ornamentation than anything | | or stand still. The details of the motor are exactly similar to the ones under trolley streetcars. These cars themselves can be made very attractive, especially if they are made to match the furniture and the rest of the house furnishings; or they may be made somethin. after the style of a swanboat, with a gracefully rounded front which curls upward and practically surrounds the occurants, while the backward sweep of | the sides partially covers the body of the bellboy in charge. These cars can be made very ornamentsl as well as useful, | and there is practicaliy no limit to the possibilities of the artificer’s skill in mak- ing them light fairy looking affairs, con- structed of and decorated in any fanciful design which may be chosen by the hotel proprietor or conceived by the maker. Then as the car rolls noiselessly along over | its well-polished rails it seems to be sliding along the floor in the most mysterious but rapid fashion. When the guest has taken his place in the car and the bellboy is told the number of the room a turn of the lever starts the car on its way. As the car starts up the stairs a strong cogwheel under the center of the car, but sufficiently high to clear the floor when on the lever, works over a third rail placed in the center of the track from the bottom to the top of the stairs. This third rail is notched to fit the cogs of the whee!, and thus the ascent is made up the broad stairway to the flporabove with- out slipping. The tracks lead all over the house, and each floor is a complete rail- way system in miniature. The cars can be switched from one set of rails to an- other by simply vressing an electric but- ton within the car, and the current pass- ing through the wheels to the rails auto- matically sets the switch, one pressure of the button throwing the switch in one di- rection, two resetting it and three throw- ing it in the opposite direction. By this means the cars can go to any part of the | house. Not only can this indoor tramway be used in carrying goods from the office to t eir rooms, but it will be of inestimable value to invalids, who by this means can sit in their rooms, call & bellboy and tak- ing the car at their room door be carried without any exertion on the part of any one and no personal effort directly to the dining-room, parlor, smoking-room or cafe, as they may elect. By the use of this invention a stranger going into his room in a strange house will not feel like an explorer of unknown foreign regions, wherein may be pitfallsin the shape of unknown stairways, open air- shafts or pieces of furniture lying in wait in unexpected places to upset the advent- urer whose temporary aim in life is to find his own room and not by mistake wander into the linen press or housekeeper's pri- vate sanctum. In addition to its many advantages this invention is an improvement ou even the most modern elevators in that itcan make the trip between floors almost as quickly as #n elevator, and the necessity of walk- ing to the elevator and then from the ele- vator to one’s room 1s done away Wwith. Mr. Lockwood is firmly convinced that his mvention will practically revolution- ize the present methods of getting about in the hotels of the country, and he is con- fident that he will scon witnessa practical demonstration in the leading hotels of his electric hotel tramway. Novelty in Bedroom Sets. A decided novelty in bedroom furniture is & recent English invention. Fancy a The New Electric Hotel Railroad. by a wizard’s hand all my torture fled. My lite came back, and without the slightest feeling of pain or worry of mina I sat up and inquired what all the trouble was about. The wild shriek that came from the lips of the women folk and their ghastly looks will remain with me forever. 1 realized the horror of the situation. The folks sent for Dr. Elrod, and when be arrived [ was sitting up, and have been for the past several days, though the mem- ories of it all remain my constant com- panion. WriLLiaM GRrAY. — A great Austrian specialist bas demon- strated that in countries where no cow’s milk is used thera is no tuburculosis, but that in every country where cow’s milk, butter and cheese are used consumption and its kindred diseases are prevalent. ——————— In making gold threads for embroidery it has been found that six ounces of gold can be drawn into 209 miles of wire. which now becomes apparent, stops in front of the desk. Inthe car is a seat which can accommodate two persons, while perched behind in another, much like a footman’s, is the bellboy, who con- trols the car by the means of a lever and an electric button. There is no noise when the car moves, and apparently no motive power until one looks carefully, and there is discovered a small slot between the tracks, very simi- lar to the slot used by the cable-cars, only much smaller, and in keeping with the size of the rails. From the bottom of the car there projects downward through this slot a slender steel rod which travels through the slot on an electric wire, just as a trolley does, only instead of being at the top this trolley is at the bottom of the car, and through it is carried the elactricity which furni hes the motive power to the car. The power is controiled by means of a lgver which either throws on or turns complete chamber suit that can be folded into one small case measuring 6 by 2by 2 feet! Other articles of furniture are also made after this patent. A new sideboard brought ount by the firm which holds the patent rights is five feet wide and seven feet high, and is as rigid as glued-up fur- niture, and easily manipulated. Ina few motions this apparently solid and hand- some article is reduced in height to ten inches, the widtn remaining the same. When this sideboard is in use only a close scratiny will reveal its difference from an ordinary buffet. The motions are few and simple; no toois are necessary, no previous knowiedge is needed, and there is no complication of parts likely to get out of arder. Dining-room and parlor furniture on the same principle has aiso beeh put upon market. The inventor has had his idea patented all over the world. This foliing farniture promises to be very popular, especially for use 1 crowded city apart- ments, where space is restricted and valus off the current, causing the car to move | able.