The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 21, 1897, Page 19

! { ] THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 1897. 19 YING at full length upon my back | under a thicket of close-growing v) osiers 1 was studying through the | fieldglass a newcomer among my | feathered neighbors, when something buzzed past my face, brushing against my hair‘as it did so. I thought it was a large moth or a but- terfly; the warm week of sunshine has | brought both these out in great numbers, and 1 paid no attention, so engrossed was Iin my observations. Stili the creature hoverea about mv head with a beating of wings that, had I given heed to, I should | have recognized, but not until a tlash of | brilliant color darted across my vision did I glance away from the glass. Then Isaw | that the mite that was inspecting me quite | as curiously as I was watching his big | brother was a brilliant little humming- | bird. I gave a start of surprise and he | was off, but Tcould see him gleaming |Ifind them as though I knew I should | jewel-wise among the foliage of the grease- | wood close at hana. It was the Anna | hummer, one of the most brilliant of ail these beautiful little oirds. The Anna hummer belongs exclusively to California. He is rather larger than the Eastern rub; throar, which he somewhat resembles. | This was a male bird, with a head like a gleaming ruby, a metallic red and purplish coat and a green vest—brave irappings | these in which to goa-wooing. Every year 1 am sure there wiil be at least une pair of these humming-birds nestling in a tangle of sweethrier here beside the stream. Whether they are the same pair, return- | ing year after year, I cannot say, but they | are very tame. 1 have known one to fly | nto the midst of a group of people and flutter about a speaker's face with the same familiar curiosity that marked this one’s inspection of me. | The humming-bird and the least fly- | catcher are the only wila birds I have | ever-observed who do not take instant [ fright at the sound of the human voice. | The barking of a dog, the neighing of a | horse, the mewing of a cai, all sounds| ciosely connected with humanity, do not alarm the birds. They will listen atten- tively if you whistie to them, but make an articulate sound and they are off. Ido not know why this should be. It is not very complimentary to us. The bird I was watching, when my tiny | visitor claimed attention, was the ruby- | érowned kinglet, a beautiful iittle creature | whom, until this spring, I have never no- ticed in this vicinity. This year I have | seen two, both males. The birds are about the size of the goldfineh, with upper parts | of dark otive-green, dusky wings and tail, | tipped with yellow, two whitish bars | across his wings and a brilliant dash | of red in his crown. I bave not heard | ithem sing here, save to utter a half-whis- pered, warbling sort of twittef, among the | willows, but the bird has the reputation, | in the East, of being a brilliant songster. They are only birds of passage with us, however, paying us a brief visit on their | way to the mountains, where they build | their nests and rear their young. We are just now in the full height of our spring season, and the recent warm days have brought the flowers out in earnest. In some one of his pleasant essays John Burroughs takes the poets o task for making buttercups and dande- | lions bloom at the same time. The dan- delions he declares to be a full month jater than tne buttercup. They are out before the buttercups here, however, and our Cahifornian poets may make them | neighbors with no fear of offending | mother nature. The blue-eyed grass is in bloom now. This is anotuer blossom that seems to differ in its habits from its| Eastern sister. Our blue-eyed grass may be gathered, and will, if piaced 1n water, 1ast for several days, to cheer and comfort its human friends, but the Easiern flower droops and dies almost as soon as it is severed from its root. The blue-eyed grass is really a lily, and with us most of this family last well if placed in water. | Anagalis, the pretty wee pimpernel, is also in blossom, dotting the young meadows with its friendly little red flowers. The pimpernel 18 an exceedingly lova- | ble little weed. It does no harm in a field and it bas such a happy, cheerful faculty of getting a living out of the barest, brown, sun-baked-clods of earth. The wallows are blooming in great abundance on the sunny uplands and in low, marshy places, and I know a hilltop that is just now carpeted with yellow violets. These flowers seem to love the wind-swept moun- tain tops and to tiourish where scarcely another thing can find a roothold. The brodizea, 109, is purpling the hitlsides, and lupin and poppies make the meadows and roadsides to bloom like fair gardens. The poppies hereabouts are by no means plen- tiful, however. If people are not more carefnl 1 fear the time will come when they will be rare indeed. I rarely take my walks abroad during these days that I do not come upon forlorn masses of these blossoms, ruthlessly plucked and after- ward left in the road to die. The veriest weeds would not flourish under these con- ditions, nor will our poppies do 5o for- ever. 1know a loverof flowers who makes & point of carrying packages of the seed with him on his walks and scattering them In waste places where flowers do not sppear. Idonot know why this is not a desirable course to pursue with reference to many of our wild flowers. ! Climbing up a steep bank the other day, | I came upon & bed of tsll, nodding flowers, the shooting star. Sinking upon my knees beside them, the wide pano- rama of foothills and valley, the distant Ci*ias and the broad blue bay faded from | gods,” the name mea The slipped shoulders and I was once more a child in an Eastern meadow, wandering amid the “‘white weed” and clover, and stopping, thrilled with delight, to touch and gloat over a single shooting star growing at my view. years from my feet. It wasalways an event in the sum- mer, the finding of this flower. Other events grouped themselves about it. After that I remembered things as hap- pening the day or the week before or after I “found the shooting star.’” ing else ever happened on that day. There was nothing left to happen. The event was supreme. So deeply impressed upon my memory is the rarity of this plant in our western New York meadows that California’s beautiful abundance of blos- soms has not yet accustomed me to re- gard it as common. I cherish the lovely, eerie flowers when not see another throughout the season. “Wild cyclamen,” it is called hereabouts, | bt itis really the meadow cowslip, the dodecatheron of the Greeks. “Twelve Those old Greeks and Romans were full of poetry and the bard-sounding Attic and Latin nomen- clature of our botanistsis often more beau: tifully expressive than our English names for the plants, This little chickweed here at my feet, for instance, is called, in Latin trientalis, because it usually third part of a foot in height. The reason seeps a little far-fetched, but why should we call the little plant chickwee 1,and why should the common nams of the beautiful cyclamen itself be anylhing so hideous as “sow-bread” ? Now that the honey-making flowers are really in blossom the busy bees are busy indeed. I opened a hive the other day and peeping in saw that the waxen combs are rapidly filling. Incidentally I per- formed for tbe hive a service that always gives me an indefinable sense of sympa- taetic regres. From the floor, underneath the combs, I scraped nearly hali a pint of dead bees. The hive seemed in no way | depleted. The workers came and went busily in the cunshine, and all seemed well with the colony, but there were the bees that had died of old age. Some | wers mot yet dead, but strucgled feebly from the mass as they were brushed out | into the light and warmth. The first bees in this hive came away from the parent hive last June in the heyday of youth, when warm weather started the honey flowing and stirred the swarming instinct in their blood. They were pioneers form- ing a new colony. totled, building the combs now ready. to be tilled and rearing a young brood to take their places. Through the bright winter days they went far afield for sup- plies. During the heavy rains they busied | themselves inside, constructing the won- derful cells that a fortnight hence will | hoid the golden sweetness of the flowers. Then, their labor done, before they had seen its fall fruition, in the bright pleas- ant spring days they lay down and died. The young bees of the colony, like the | young people of the human race, will reap the benefit of their labors. Those who laid the foundations for the afier- work will never see the rich hcney stored in the combs, They sowea, but others Noth- | zrows the All summer long they | shall reap, to store and sow in turn for their successors, There is no accumula- tion of private fortunes in the hive, no monopolies, no trusts, but each toils for all and lays down the burden only when its allotted span of life is ended. The length of a bee’s life Gepends largely upon the amount of work it has to do. I have somewhere seen its naturai duration for a worker bee stated at ten months, but from the guantities of dead bees swept from the hive I feel sure that at least two genera- tions perished in the upbuilding of the | streets of comb ranged so accurately in | the racks. But the life of the hive goes | on, as it has since Virgil's day, and will | when we are gone to our rest and our | human successors take up where we lay | it down the task of making this worlda | richer, sweeter, better place because | human bsings have done their allotted | work in it. ApELINE KNAPP. Favorite Golors. whelmingly tbe masculine favorite, it is While blue is pre-eminently and over- | persons contributing to the results choose by no means a general feminine favorite. The favorite woman’s color, standing at the head of the female list,is red. Roughly speaking, of every 30 masculine votes, 10 would be for blue and 3 for red; while of «very 30 feminine votes, 4 would be for blue and 5 for red. Red and blue are thus more nearly equally popular among women than among men. Other relatively marked masculine preferences are for the colors relatea to blue (blue violet ard violet) and other feminine preferences are for lighter red, or pink, and to a less ex- tent, for green and vellow. Further, men confine their selectious to relatively fewer colors than do women; and finally while all men and women alike are much more apt to choose a normal than a tran- sitional color and a darker than a lighter shade, yet the tendency to do so about the same in the former direction is markedly different in the latter respect; of a dozen men, 10 would choose among the darker colors snd only two among the lighter for the most pleasing color: while of a dozen women, seven would choose among the darker and five among the lighter shades. This feminine fondness for the lighter and daintier shades appears also in other respects. Passing next to the discussion of the preferences among the combination of colors enumerated above, the first note- worthy result is that no combination of colors occupies the position of a decided favorite as did blue among the single colors, but that preferences for the several combinations vary gradually from the most to the least favorite. The two most frequently and about equally preferred combinations are red with violet and red with blue, which are somewhat similar in effect (the violet being very dark in ap- pearance); more than one-fifth of all the one or the other of these combinations. —Popular Science Montbly. Blessing of Employment. When morn the task dispenser passes by. Somo take their burdens up with sweet elation, Taught by a kindly past that jewels lie "Mid stony wastes of routine occupation; * Others subvert the golden hours that hasten, Despite the past's accusing looks that chasten. Most blest is he who the essential path Of happiness in labor is pursuing, Who heeds time’s opulence by day, and hath. The prize of sleep allotting night’s soft woo- ing, Who wiil permit no rust on its tools shining, Or dust in chambers of his mind's refining. The climbing rose that toils that it may twine Without the casement its rare bower o beauty, . » Mingles its perfume with this truth divine, Blessings succeed to effort, grace to duty; So hands employed gives impetus to thinking, And purpose finds its goal through work un- shrinking. No faithful labor ever comes to naught, Feet that are shod with care insure swift. running, toll and vain cool evening’s rest is bougnt, And stalwart labor conquers latent cunning. Tiis mind is rayless where no plan is growing, While he who looks afar keeps his face glow- ing. ARTHUR HOWARD HALL in the Salem Gasette. ———————— Some of the orders for books sent to London publishers by country correspon- dents are highly amusing. One book- seller wrote for a work of “Harry Stock- les,” when he wanted something of Aris- totle’s; another who wanted ‘*‘Gaudea- mus,” by Farmer, asked for “God Aim Us, by a farmer,” and a third sent a re- quest for *Pharaoh’s Life of Christ,” when With ne wanted Dzan Farrar’s celebrated work. Z]:OW often do we pause and gaze with admiration upon the working L¥AD of a steam engine. The beautiful piece of mechanism n e ver fails to enchant |us with its complex yet harmonious motion. It is a familiar spectacie and yet but few who look upon it really under- stand how it operates; how the energy is created and applied. Notone in a hun- | dred persons could expiain that the rhyth- | mical motion of the numerous parts was produced by the expansion of steam ad- mitted through a valve into the cylinder | further end, where another valve, opened just at the right instant, admitted new | steam that pushed the piston back again; the alternate opening and closing of ihe Ives being accomplished by the to and fro movement of the piston. Steam is a gas, and, like all other gases, expands when it 1s beated, and it is the application of this weil-known principle that operates the engine. All gases are |+ THE NEW EXPANSION AIR ENGINE | a8 STEELCYUNDERS Inwricn VIBRATION IS where it pushes the piston head to the | From the X Ray of pases, and one of the results of their labors is the establishment of the fact that gases expand their volume a certain fixed amount for each degree of increased tem- perature. Thisis expressed by the term “coefficient of expansion,” and means the increase of the volume for each degree centigrade. The working of our engine, therefore, depends upon the expansion of the steam-gas, and we would conclude that increased powerof expansion would give increased dynamic force or engine-power, which is the fact. We have learned that heat is the agent which aids the separation of the molecules, and so we employ it to expand. the gas. | Atmospheric air expands .003665 for each | additional degree of applied heat. Steam, which is mostly hydrogen, expands about | the same, its coeflicient of expansion being | .003656. Inventive genius never rests. It is un- satisfied with the knowiedge that Jeat ex- pands; unsatisfied with the method of composed of molecules in a state of per- manent repulsion; the molecules may be compared 10 springs constantly bent, and making constant effort to free themselves. The amonnt of pressure which these mole- cules exert against the sides of the vessels which contain them depends upon the | volume or space which they occupy. So | that a given quantity of gas exerts a greater pressure larger vessel. Heat and cold play very muportant parts in determining the condi- tions and powers (expansive force) of gases. The molecules of the gas are kept from disassociation by co!d, while their struggle for separation is aided by heat. The bursting of a boiler is due to the | enormous expansion of the gaseoys steam produced by the furnace fires. | A number of distincuished scientists have devoted patient research and experi- in a smaller thanina| producing the heat by the crude and ex- travagant process of burniog fuel. Ttin- quires, What is heat? and it forthwith gathers together its wils and proceeds to devise newer and more economical ways of producing the requisite heat other than by literal combustion. The giant intellect of Tyndall possessed in the most marvelous degree the power of scientific analysis and deduction. His wonderful accomplishments in the domain of scientific research evidence a_deeper penetration into the subtle delicacies hid- den in natural physics than bas ever been recordea of any other investigator. No greater authority upon the subject of heat is known than Tyndall. In his elaborate contribution to the knowledge of molec- ular physics Professor Tyndall repeat- edly asserts that heat isa mode of motion —simply vibration of the molecules of ment to the phenomenon of the expansion matter. Later investigations confirm his Most Novel Method of Obtaining Energy Air Expansion by Means of the Vibratory ‘]n\pulses Derived conclusions—that what is heat, as appre- ciable to us, is nothing but motion, sim- ply molecules vibrating at a certain rate of speed. The conclusion is evident that, if by some other means than the application of actual heat we may be able to ai steam, we may then be able to produce the expansion of the gasin an available form of energy o power. That this is capable of accomplishment by vibration by the investigations of Tyndall and oth- | express it properly, heat is vibration. Within the few years last past some very | important modifications of previous ideas have taken place, dne to the extension of our knowleage about physics. Recent dis- coveries in electricity have opened to our senses conditions in .that branch of en- ergy hitherto undreamed of. The last dis- covery, that of the *X' ray, has conferred most valuable information upon the mys- tical subject of electrics. Of the full na- ture of the ray, its comvlete conditions and powers, we are, as yet, unaware; but already know that it must consist of mat- ter in the hizhest rate of vibration cogniz- able to our physical sense. by many competent to pass opinion that | the ray is capable of exciting intense vibration in such other forms of matter as may be under prover conditions subjected to its influence. Based upon these logical deductions, a prominent inventor is now at work upon the construction of an expansive air en- gine, the overation of which is accom- | plished by the use of air expanded to an enormous tension by means of the vibra- tory impulses derived from the X ray. It .will not do at the present day to ridicule | any announcement Jike this. Experience | daily teaches us that the ‘‘inventive | crank '’ of yesterday has become tbe wor- | shiped king of to-day. Science emphati- cally declares “that all gases are com- | posed of molecules in a state of permanent repulsion,” and, further, that these moie- cules are possessed of electrical character- | istics and are susceptible of magnetic traction and repulsion; so the proposition to employ the X ray as an excitant is both rational and promisingly practical. Of course, there are numerous details con- nected with the émployment of this novel mode of procuring energy, which will have to be carefully studied out, but they are all within the field of well-understood mechanics, and present no insuperable obstacles. Itis the novel method of ob- taining energy—bprimal power, thatis here presented. F. M. CrosE, D.Sc. the | separation of the molecules of a gas, as | is an accepted fact, for vibration is proved | ers to be but another form of heat, or, to | It is believed | ated somewhat of a sensation, #Yand was the pet if not the lion of the hour. Then he went down to Gila Bend and covered himself all over with glory and blood by whioping the biggest bulldog in Maricopa County. It's the five-horned sheep I'm talking about. He never had any other name, even in the natural history books. He is the prop- erty of Jose Morilet, who told the people at Pheenix thav his freak pet cost him $200in Mexican coin, and that he brought him from a hidden mountain fastness down near the Chihuahua and Sonora lines, out of the most marvelous collection of zoological freaks on the face of the earth. Morilet’s truthful tale was that he found an old man down there who had spent all his life in collecting and breed- ing puzzles for the natural historyclassi- fiers, Not that any of the scientists ever got down that way; but if they had, ac- cording to this veracious statemen? of the owner of the five-horned sheep, they would very likely have suspected the con- tents of their bottles, or else the evidence of their own eyes. Jose says that the old man had three- headed Gila monsters, horned toads with seven legs, a steer with a head on each ena and no tail, dogs with snake’s heads, sheep with five legs, and a variety of other hideous surprises on nature eatirely too gHILE he was in Pheenix he cre- numerous, and in many cases too horrible to mention. And this five-horned sheep, being a duplicate, and not a very awful specimen at worst, the old fiend let him go for a couple of hundred shining. And perhaps Jose’s story is correct—I have not thedata at hand now to deny it— but it is not the story that I started out to relate. The bulldog was fa- mous not only in Maricops County, but about all over the -Territory. He was probably the ugliest looking brute in any two judicial districts, and had got his teeth into the entrails of more than one bear in his time. A bulldog’s teeth are hooked like, and when on duty in the mouth of a fall-grown and fall-blooded proprietor they have the power to tear things asunder in s most pitiless fashion. Some of the Pheenix sports had an idea they would like to see Tiger's hooks come together on the throat of Jose's five- horned pet, not pecause they had any- thing in particular against the pet—no one had—but because Jose used to blow so much about the fighting qualities of him. Mrs. A. K. Rikert, “‘the woman miner of Tuolumne,” a sketch of whom appeared in ‘last Sunday’s CALL, shows her as she is about to dismount from her saddle at her picturesque dwelling-place after one of - her journeys through the hills and valleys of the Tuolumne ore-bearing region. L, il 7, 4 1774 A pony, “Snowflake,” which she rode all the way from La Paz, in Lower California, to her present home, near her Pino Blanco mine. An Every-Day Scene at the Ranch of “The Woman Miner of Tuolumne.” has for fourteen years been prospecting among the gold fields of California. The illustration She is mounted on her favorite | back to Pheaix the boys will crown him Arizona's Zoological Freak The Five-Horned Sheep Which Whipped the Biggest Bulldog in Maricopa Gounty. So they tried several times to arrange a match between the two brates, but waen it came to the scratch Jose proved bash- fal and would not aliow the match to take place. He was making a good ihinz by exhibiting his freak at 10 cents a look, with a fondle or two and the privilege of feeding him peanuts throw: in, and he protested that he didn’t want to muake his vet unpopular by having him officiate as exccutioner of the most popular bulldog in the county. Of course the sports swore that Jose was afraid to lose his freuk, und there the matter rested for a month or two, and people began to lose interest in the strange animal. The gate receipts feil off, ard by and by any one couid see the Mexican’s pet for a bare piece of the shoe- leather it cost to loiter in front of the Washington-street ‘“‘banks’” until Jose and his. freak came out—for Jose was strong on faro. When he played, how- ever, he always had his freak with him for a mascot, ard it is the opinion of sev- eral of the keemest Washington-street dealers that the freak made a mascot against which no bank could hold out. In spite of all this, however, the god- dess did desert Jose upon one occasion— theday before he leit Pheenix and two days before the now historic battle which I am struggling to bring a halting pen to the point of narrating. And I may stats THE FIVE-HORNED SHEEP. as'well now as at any time, perhaps, that there is the tanued hide of a large bull- dog down at Gila Bend to attest the truth- fulness of every word that I am going to utter about this fight. When Jose left Pheenix he took his mas- cot along with him, and this is probably the only thing he did take except his trousers, shirt, sombrero, blankets and boots. They were good boots and he had use for them. When near the Gila Bend the mascot and the Mexican came up with Hake and Tizer. The meeting was somewhat unex- pected, and Tiger was loose. So was the mascot. As this is very near the most ex- citing part of my story, it is proper that a halt should be miade iong enough to ena- ble the reader to get into the contidence of the author to the extent, at least, of knowing that Tiger was the famous bull- dog—was, 1 say, for he Is no longer— against whom tke Pheenix sports tried to have the mascot fitted to a death battle. And the owner of Tiger was willing enough, for he had as much, if not more, conceit in his animal than had Jose in his freak. But all that was long ago.” The scene is changed from the gayeties of city life to the heat and quiet of a desert ranch. Four travelers were wen ding their way along a dusty road. They are in pairs, and each pair is approaching the other— approaching also & battle royal that the Pheenix sports would have given their eyes to have witnessed. The records are inexact as to distance and time, but about the main facts of the case there are no disputes. All at once Tiger spied the mascot and began to sniff theair. Jose | and his pet came forward quite peacefully. The freak is a very wild-looking beast, with a face as bland as the face of Ah Sin. Only his queer horns have an ugly look, but at the same time they are so ponder- ous in appearance that one would expect to find them rather an incumbrance in battle. Well, the distance shortened between the approaching parties. Then, suddenly there was a streak of dust about 100 feet long stretching from Hake Nelson to the Mascot. In much less than another sec- ond there was a bunch of dust where the mascot had stood. And when the dust cleared away a little Hake and Jose could see—and, alas, that the Phwnix sports could not!—a big black and white buli- dog, almost limp and nearly dead, hane- ing by the neck between the two lower horns on the left side of the freak’s head. How the thing happened no one will ever know to a nicety. But there was the dog dying and there was the freak pant- ing, but still mild and bland. One of the antlers had penstrated and torn tae flesh of poor Tiger, but althouzh the wound bled freely it was not sufficient to have caused the death that very shorily en- sued. Hake and Jose held an inquest then and there and their unamimous verd ct was that Tiger came o his end by strang- ulation at the hands—or rather at the horns—of the queeres: animal ever seen in Mariopa County. The jurors also exoner- ated the freak. They could have done no less, for he was surely not the attacking party. . Thedog’s neck was wedged in tightly, 8o that he could only be extracted by main force. If the five-horned freak ever goes with laurel. Luke Norra.