The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 31, 1897, Page 17

e e D THE SAN FRANCIS CO CALL, SUNDAY, J ANUARY 31, 1897. |y How Wiggins Broke the Sabbath Fell Out With His Wife, Denounced the Preacher, and Worried Himself Sick Over a Trifling Jask That §AST Sunday morning Mr. Wiggins - of ——teenth street rose benign and He haa bought some cur- | . and having decided to f felt like a certain fold with a new world to smart Alick p the work, Susan,” he said so we won't be late to ng job like this won’t take balf an hour, and I'll have 'em up while you're washing the dishes.” And then be went down into the basement. “I say,” he called presently, “where's the step-ladder?”’ “Over at the minister's,’’ answered his wife. “Youlent it tothem on Thursday and they haven’t got through with it. They’re papering, you know."’ T don't either,” retorted Mr. Wiggins wrathfully. “I ain’t oo Dorcas Society to Xeep track of all the neighbors are d oing. atever fool thing they are up to,thongh, | ought to send a person’s property | | back before it old age. I shomld idle curiosity how yo em thing p withou ain’t the celebrated Chi a tel vole.” drops to pieces with t like to know for expect me to put step-ladder. I ese giant, nor yet egrap o over and tell them you suggested Mrs. Wiggins. | nlight,” interrupted her I might hire the town- | s one, to inform the pub- | ng to break the holy n rtains, but I 1p some kind of a tower of coal-scutties and bootj a things, and if I break on’t you let that minister ne, for it will be his fault and blood will be on his head. And I | understood right here ana now he mext time I want to use my own | adder—bou, with my own hard t on this reseryation, ’s going to be a row—a howling cy- Tam aquiet man and can be put a certain extent, but there are h and blood can’t stand, g my step-ladder kianaped.and ransom is one of 'em.” s went back to her dishes, and pretty soon Mr. Wigsins came up- | stairs laden with an assortment of tools, large and varied enough to start a small | shop. “There’s only four to fit, anyway,” he said, cheerily; “‘the hall-room window is regular size, but the others will have to be pared off a little. 1'll put the easiest one up first.”” And then he went up to the hall bedroém, whence presently there came the sound of a most alarming crash. “It’s only the washbowl,” explained | Mr. Wiggins airily, as his frightened wife | appeared. “I got up on one end of it— | the stand, I mean—and the rickety thing i tipped and spilled me and the bowl off. | It must have been cracked before or it | wouldn't have broke so blameeasy! Why | didn’t you bring up the screwdriver, and | not come up empty-banded?” | “I'll get it,” answered Mrs. Wiggins, | dutifully, picking up the pieces of the | bowl in her apron, *'and’—havi | g learned wisdom trom long experience—'if there’s | anything along.” Mr. Wiggins grunted. “I can't think of anything much just now, but some opera tickets, some patty de foy graw, a new suit of clothes and a certified" check for $10,000,” he replied with withering sarcasm; ‘“bring them along, lease. And it ain’t my heirs and assigns ant that screwdriver, it’s me! Tem- pus is fugitting right along, and it's most church time.”” And Mrs. Wiggins obedi- ently hurried away. That first shade went up all right, and Mr. Wiggins, with much self-glorification, started in on the bay-windows. “Go and get your dress on, Susan,” he said, “'it won’t take me fifteen minutes to finish this job, so you'd better not let the grass grow under your feet.”’ “All right,” returned bLis wife, smilingly, and she retired to her chamber, put on her best gown, tiea her bonnet strings and appeared at the parlor door putting on her gloves. “It’s twenty two—'"' she said, *“"most time for the second bell, and your | clothes are all laid out.” Mr. ‘Wiggins, lying prome upon his else you want I'll bring it Floored Him stomach, with his legs spread ouy, in the | vain endeavor to keep a curtain flat upon which he trying. with the aid of a broomstick, to draw a straight line, looked up disgusteily. “I don’t care if it’s twenty-nine!” he snorted; *‘and [ don’t care if it’s time for the sixth bell! And as for my clothes being ‘laid out,” I don’t believe you'd shed atear if I was laid out myself! [fyou had | a glimmer of feeling for the man you swore to love and honor you'd come and help him with this cantankerous thing instead of rigging yourself out like a con- founded peacock and coming here to show yourself off and gloat over his misery "’ Mrs. Wiggins’ tender heart was smit- ten, and she pulled off her gloves so hastily that she pulled the thumb com- pletely out of one of them. Then, turning | up the front of her dress she knelt beside him. { was making very poor headway, and the apoplectic symptoms which he was be- ginning to exhibit were almost alarming. “Hard wor it, dear?’ Mrs. Wig- gins sympathized. “Now tell me what | to do; I'm all ready.” “You can stand there in your tracks and ask a lot of idiotic questions,” | snarled her husband. “Hunt up one of them old census blanks and read ‘em oft that; it’ll be easier for you, anc eateand luxury is what you're pining for always. Hard? No, it ain’t. IUs just as easy as pie. T'd like to do it every Sunday and evenings, too; it would be soothing after along day’s work. It's a regular picnic, only a fellow gets lonesome for the grass- hoppers and old maids. I say, Susan, when you get good and tired standing there on one leg staring at me I wish want that knife I left u stairs, and I want perspiring face the color of an over-ripe tomato, his crushed and dirty shirt hang- ing loose around his neck, his suspenders dangling about his kfiees and the lock of hair that had been trained for yearsto decorously conceal the bald top of his head from the public eye, lying limp and disheveled—basely false to its trust—upon one shoulder. Wiggine, zently,*I wauld resta while, just till the folks get by. The minister will be along presentiy.” Mr. Wiggins, hitherto unconscious of all save his - occupation, suddenly de- scended from his lofty perch with surpris- ing alacrity. “I resi:n this fool job right here and now, Mrs. Wiggins,” he declared, glaring at her vindictively, and giving one of the shades a jerk that brought it down, brackets and all, at his feet. “Iam will- ing to slave at legitimate toil for my family and sacrifice myself in many ways, but when the wife of my bosom sets me upon a pedestal in the parlor window, to be sneered at and reviled by the passing throng, it is time to assert myself. Those shades are going into tbe ash-barrel, and we will go curtainless until such time as I forget the indignities to which I have been subjected. Isuppose you have some- thing in the house which is auitable for lunch, and I am hungry. If you are not too much fatigued by standing round | yow'a start around aud do something.” I yoinonothing all the morning 1 wish you would trot it out; ifyou are I'll go and “You told me to go and dress, dear,” | those old curtain-sticks out in the shed— | ;oo g crust from some charitable person I've broke one of these and the old ones | ,\/q say no more about it.”” she said deprecatingly, ‘and I thought you were almost through. Why don’t you use the yardstick instead of the | broom - hand! It's right behind the chins-closet door, and it is a deal better | to draw a iine by. “I don’t need any information on that | trated herself on the floor to do the mark- | roq))y handsome shades ana bung them | ing and stretched on tiptoe to hand her | ¢ “henys and qui She | | point,” returned Mr. Wiggins with a dig- nity which on account ot his position was are too big. Then I want a drink of water and my pipe; then you can mark those | other shades and pare em off.”” Poor Mrs. Wiggins! She traveled wearily up and down stairs; she pros- husband the tools he was using. not as crushing as it was intended to be, | blistered her fingers cutting the curtains | ““but when a plain, simple man like me, | with a pair of shears which were afflicted | who isn’t able to keep his own private | with intermittent lockjaw, and she got a clairvoyant and hasn’t the time to go and | headache irom the glare of the sun, | consult a public one every other minute, | which poured into the parlor as if its mis- | is married to & human magpie who takes | sion were to prepare her and her husband a fiendish delight in hiding everything in | for a cannibal feast. And Mr. Wiggins all soris of mysterious places, he has touse | fretted and fumed and fussed and ham- | any blame thing he can stumble over, and | mered his fingers, and broke his suspend- | be humbly thankful. As for me being| ers, and scraped his shins getting on and | could make quick sales for you? {1t pretty warm in here, and besides I'm | don’t mind, do you, dear?” ‘nearly through,” Mrs. Wiggins, you ain't paying by the hour for this job, and it ain’t any of your matters if I'm at it three | weeks. Iain’t a lightming express or a | e explosion, but if I'm slow I'm | sure, and I don’t want to be bossed too | much, either, nor found fault with. If you think you know where that yardstick | is I wish you'd bring it back to its home and friends before it sprouts and takes | root in some foreign clime.” | While Mrs. Wiggins was gone out in the | dining-room Mr. Wiggins took the skin off his hands in three places with the screwdriver and burst the button off his | shirtband, and he was in a correspond- ingly amiable frame of mind when she returned. “I suppose yow've gone into the busi- ness of manufacturing those thines since youleit,”” he said, with a simulatior of affectionate interest. “How many have u got in stock now and what commis- sion would you allow a lively man who Yes, 1 burst the button off my shirt,” noticing her glancing atit. “Idid it on purpose; rigged up a block and tackle and hoisted till -it let loose. 1 like it that way; it's cool and comfortable and different from other folks. Now you've got your infor- mation I wish you'd take hold and help a little. You can draw that linc as wellas Ican if you'll try to overcome your nat- ural modesty enough to think so.” “I'll go and take my dress off first,” | suggested Mrs. Wiggins. *The sun makes atraid it’ll get linty off the carpet. You | “Mind?” echoed Mr. Wiggins with fine scorn. “Why shouid I mind what you | take off? 1 amn’t Anthony Comstock, and {if I was, I'm too busy to motice you. | Take off ali you want to, only hurry up | about it. There’s something to be done | here to-day besides getting up dress re- hearsals and primping before a lookin glass. When you put me onto a job like this you've got to help me ont, and not spend all your time prancing round in your best clothes and pretending to be a lily of the field—which you ain’t, not by a jugful” When Mrs. Wiggins came downstairs again her busband, using two of the plush chairs for a rawbuck, was trying to saw a curtain stick to the prover length, but as kis saw was dull, rusty and lacked several teeth, and he knew very little about the science of sawing anyway, he off the table, and still those curtains were | obdurate. They would refuse to go up at al, or they would go up with startling sudden- ness to the top of the window, or lheyi‘ would stop at some seif-selected way-sta- | tion from which nothing could move | them. They, did everything which they should mot, and nothing which should during that long forencon. When the neighbors came home from they | Mr. Wiggins had his lunch, of course, and a nap after it, and in the evening he went to chursh With his wife ana puta dollar into the contribution - box. The next day a man came with a full set of ly that it seemed like magic, and the white dove of peace perched again on the Wiggins ridge-pole. Fuxeearn McVAHON, The Rule of Polycletus. Polycletus the Grecian believed that human proportions were governed by cer- tain fixed rules, thus: “Twice round the thumb is once round the wrist; twice round the wrist is once round the neck; twice round the neck is once round the waist; once round the fist is the length of the foot; the two arms extended is the height of the body; six-times the length of the foot o eighteen thumbs is also the height of the bedy: again, the thumb, the longest toe and the nose should also ve of the rame length. The index finger should measure the breadth of the hand and foot, and twice the breadth should give the length. The hand, the foot and the church Mr. Wiggins was still at work, and their scandalized eyes beheld him | standing on the table, his begrimed and | face should be the same length. The nose should be one-third of theface; t e thumb one-third the length of the hand. “If I were youn, Achilles,” ventured Mrs. | NE of the great problems of the E age is to increase the speed of ocean steamships, and any idea or invention that points toward this end is | always worthy of consideration. | The maximum of efficiency between the steam engine and the propeller-wheel was years ago. | practically reached several Ocean Vessels of a steamer is to increase the horsepower of the engine and the number of propeller- wheels. To develop an increase of power engines of several cylinders are construct- ed 50 that the steam expands three or four times before passing into the condensers. As it is a propeller-wheel will develop only a small percentage of the power of | == | Improvements are made in propeller- | the engine, the rest being wastéd in lost | wheels trom time to time, but there is no | motion terough the inevitable *'slipping” | great gain in that direction. - A wheel that | of the wheel in the water. | will develop half a knot more speed per | In view of such facts it would seem as hour over the best wheels now used and | if a return to first principles—the padale- with the same horsepower will yield its | wheel—would be the only solution of the \.inventor a fortune. say the only way, to increase the speed | sible to crowd into them. The paddle- SES;QUE LA ---0S, THAT QUR e N ] RIR POR LA PA-TRIAES VIVIR EN CADE NAS VIVIR £S MO DIC FOR ONES COUNTRYS TOLIVE LIFE IN CHAINS 1S NAUGHT tL3E BUT : %“‘F— ‘-E‘E»—Fifix {‘E TJ:* == =it o OEATH. EN O- PRO-BIO Y A-FREN TA SU- IN WHAT SHAME AND INSULT ARE WE NOT PA - TRIA 05 CON-TEMPLA OR LAND MAY WITH PRIDE LOOK UP- ON-- - GUILG: =550 NO Tk --YOU, FEAR IN 0O OEL CLA-RIN ¢5- CU-CHAD EL S0O- ----BLED NOW THE BU- GLE HEAR YOU NOT THE MAIS U - NA MUER-TE DEATH NAUGHT THAT 1S could have no spirit otber than that of the Bayamis”—the ‘B melody. NI - DO A LAS AR-MAS VA-LIEN-TES CO-RRED CALL.-..- THEN TO ARAS VALIENTLY AND TO FIELD . - W HE “HIMNO CUBANOS” is the national anthem of the Cubans; the war song that inspires the patriot with the resolution ‘‘to do or die”; that urges him on to B2 clorious victory ‘o to, fir his owh eyes and those of his people, a stili more glorious death. the prelude to the onsweep for freedom that struck terror into the souls of the hated Spaniards. Like other songs that have been the companion and the inspira- tion of freedom’s childhooddays, the origin of this is yetin obscurity. The tune dates back many vears, to the time when the spirit of liberty—newly awakened, and yet balf smothered in the patriotic Cuban breast—first began to voice itself in wordless but meaning melody. Furtively breathed at first by some venturesome liberty lover, its notes awakened responsive echoes in many a breath which cherished like feelings and linked in everlasting fraternal bonds hearts that before hardly dared to think aloud the thoughts suggested by the melody. Its stirring notes and words, voiced by many a freeman’s throat, have been Soon words were fitted and sung to the music. They ‘The tune was carried from place to piace throughout Eastern Cuba, and though the words often varied the theme never. “Toarms! Not for glory, but to break the chains of tyranny !’ was ever the burden, whether sung in the hills of Santiago or the plains of Puerto Principe. The exact time of the origin of the turfe, or who Was' the author, is not known. A grateful and free posterity may find him out and link his name to the song as a fit- ting monument to his genius, Long before the declaration for freedom at Yara in 1868 by Cespedes and his bold Bayamese compatriots the tune, with the words substantially as given above, were familiar to every lover of freedom about Bayaino and the neighboring towns. It was taken up by the army and sung throughout the ‘‘ten years’ war.” Wherever they went they carried it with them. Ttsignalized triumph or solaced defeat. and it infused new life into the drooping spirits defeated By the outnumbering foe. Never put in priut, but soon all Cuba knew it and sung it. 1t was then the “Himno mese Hymn”; now it is the *‘Himno Cubanos.” The song, brought from the cradle-side of Cuban freedom—Bayamo—by the band of brave men who first drew for the cause, found an echo in every free Cuban heart, and has been adopted by the Nation. From Cape Maisi to Cape S8an Antonio it may be heard, not only timing the martial movements of the patriot army as they fly at the foe but from the herder on the hill, the plowman on the plain, thé belle at the ball and the housewife at the daily drudge. Its full-voiced notes discover every Cuban gathering, and its whistled strains It led the triumphal march into the townsand villages wrested from the oppressors, cheer the lonely way of the solitary traveler, though to be heard by the Spaniard is to be accused as a traitor and doomed 10 deatn, problem, for ships are now constructed | At present the best way and, one might | that carry all the engine-power it is pos- | | are classed among the fastest vessels in A Californian's Novel Invention A Redding Man’s Paddle-Wheel for Rough Water—The Princi- ple Gan Be Applied in Increasing Speed of wheel will give out nearly all the power put into it, but has always had several drawbacks when it came to using it in rough water or at a high speed. In rough water, when the ship roied the wheels frequently came out of water and the en- gines ‘ran away,” often causing break- downs. Inrunningat a high speed the LT W. WRIGHT’S Invention for a Rough-Water Paddle-Wheel Steamer. force of the biades striking the surface of the water caused an awful jarring all through 'the ship, and has been known to start plates in iron vessels. As a conses quence, the paddle-wheel has been prace tically abandoned for ocean vessels. al- though the steamers that run from New York to Boston are built this way. They the world, and are said to be very economical, so that passengers are carried at astonishingly low rates. But most of their run is through Long Island Sound, and they do not get very much rough water. It was a consideralion of these fact that led W. Wright, at present engaged in mining about eighteen miles iom Red- ding, to make some investigations with a submerged paddle-wheel.” He' has been working on it for a year or more, and at present has a working model that de- velops great speed and seems to be frce from the objections of the ordinary method of paddle propulsion. Mr. Wright was in the City a few davs ago and kindly made drawings and gave a description of his vessel. “When I began to study the matter,” said Mr. Wright, *'I first figured on sub- merging a paddle- wheel without any covering. What was the result? When it revolved the upper blades pushed back equally as the bottom blades pushed for- ward. Consequently there was no force aeveloped either one way or the other. It wes a balance. “Then it struck me that if one-half of the wheel was covered the projecting blades on being revolved would exert a force in a certain direction sufficient to move tke covering through the water. I tried this, but met several difficulties. But I think I bave overcome them all, as my model will show. “My first work,” M# Wright continued, *‘was to make a small vessel of tin and fit it with a propeller-wheel operated by a spring motor. I was. careful in building the wheels on the most approved lines and made several until I felt sure that [ had obtained all the speed the spring motor would develop this way. “I then fitted the same tin vessel with the submerged paddle-wheels and operated them by the same spring motor. 1had four paddles and the connections were crude, but on the first trial it developed twice the speed of the propeller. And as far as I can see there is no reason why the same result should not be obtained ona large vessel. Tkere is no more jar to the model than with the propeller-wheel and I found it almost impossibte, by stirring the water in the tank, to get any of the paddle out of water. To develop speed in a vessel of certain sizaiit is only necessary to displace a certain amount of waterina certain time. It makes no difference how it is done. “One of the points of my inventicn is the constiuction of the paddle-wheel. When at rest the covering or paddle-box naturally fills with water, and to start the whee] would naturally cause a vacuum to form®and consequently great pressure on the outside of the box. I have overcome this by having a pipe lead to a point above the water line. Another idea of mine to have the box free from water, so there will be no waste of power, is to make the paddles slightly curved and placed ata tangent to the arc of the wheel. This will cause the centrifugal force to throw the water from the center. When the blade leaves the box and strikes fresh, solid water in front it is submerged to the hub, but by the time it is ready to enter the box again it is almost free of water. “[n a large vessel the paddie-wheels could be cast of a single piece of bronze and the sponsons made the same way. My idea is to have them like the half of one side of a canteen, fastened to the ves- sel’s side, 50 as to cause little resistance. The shape of the vessel could be the same as at present, but of course there would have to be a little difference in the whart where she landed, in order to protect her wheels. +0f course I only look upon my inven- tion as an experiment and have not con- sidered the style of engines to be usea or the means of coupling them if such is de- sirable. But I do think thatI havea pria- ciple that can be practically applied to- ward increasing tbe speed of ocean steam- ers. I am thinking of constructing a working model about twenty feet long, and should that prove successful I have no fear about getting my invention adopted generally.” " Severe Test. Ethel—Ana would you really be willing to die for me, George? George—Darling, L swear it. Ethel—But would you be willing to die of hydrophobia or appendicitis or some- thing like that, Geprge 2—Truth,