The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 11, 1897, Page 26

In TrE CALn of July 19, 1896, appeared | mense flotillas to supply his wants. The | tossed so terribly that her passengers on an article describing a submarine tube to be used as a means of communication be- tween places separated by bodies of water, the manner of operation being to force a carriage through the tube by air pressure. Considerable interest was awakened by the proposition and its merits were widely dis- cussed, the opinion of competent engi- neers being that while the scheme Wasnot wholly impracticable, yet the difficulties 20 be encountered were of too great magni- tude to warrant the construction of such a viaduct at the present time; the necessi- ties of transportation not beirg now be- yond theability of modern sarface carriage to supply. Modern genius is, however, never satis- fied with existing appliances, and it is con- tinually inventing and devising new ways and methods, with appropriate machi- nery, to accomplish in less time and at less cost and bazard what is now being done with present appurtenances. Certainly there would seem to0 be abundant room for improvement iu the matter of marine transportation. For the high class traveler, the cabin passenger, able and willing to pay a couple of hundred dollars for his passage across the Atlantic, there is Mttle more to be aesired in the accom- modations furnished him on the best of the huge ‘greyhounds of the sea.” But for the one who does not possess the plethoric pocketbook of his more fortunate fellow, and so is compelled to take passage in the steerage, there is vet a great deal to be sighed for. But the passenger traflic, while large, is only a «mall portion of the trafic which passes and repasses on the seas and oceans. The desires of man compel the services of im- THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 11 1897. | interchange of commodities which make | up what is called commerce is a part and | parcel of civiiization, and that it will in- | crease is patent to all. The land side of | commerce traffic is fairly well to do. | Celerity, certainty ana safety are now ad- mirably combined in the railroad traus- | portation of to-day: but in marine trans- | portation the march of improvement has not proceeded with equal speed. This is mensurably due to the fact that carriage water, where it has to continually contend with adverse winds and currents, to say nothing of waves which, forming an un- equal and ever-changing surface, add very greatly to the resistance to be over- come by the ves 1t is also menaced at all times by delay and wreckage resulting from stormy and unfavorable weather. | Steam is graduaily substituting the sail on the main routes of ocean travel, but for very many years the sailing vessel will maintain her place over those routes her services appreciated in all cases where celerity is not a factor. There is one feature of ocean travel which is common to both sail and steam vessels, a feature which in the case of many ' people smounts to prohibition | against seagoing. It is the motion of the vessel. Large as may be builded the | colossal passencer steamer, there are waves in plenty to toss her to and fro, vither, thither, with as great ease as if | she were the smallest of the fleet. The | Great Eastern, the largest vessel ever built, so large, in fact, that she had to be broken up because her immense size ren- | dered her unwieldy, was pitched and by water is confined to the surface of the | less frequented and will continue to make | | attached to the anchor chains. one eventful trip were unable to stand upon their feet, and a cow was thrown | vodily through the skylight of the main | cabin into a group of wretched passengers | who were clinging to each other for sup- port against the awiul wrenching, tossing motion. The effect of wave motion does not ex- | tend to very great depth. The extreme | height of the waves of the ocean at a dis- | tance from land sufficiently great to be | reed from any influence of it upon their | culmination is about iwenty feet. Such | waves may be a quarter of a mile between crests, but their influence does not reach very deep. The water is practically un- disturbed at a depth of fifty feet. Even | the ocean currents, which are everyw here found, are mostly at the surface; some ex- | tend to depths of a thousand feet in narrow channels like that of the entrance to the Mediterranean and the channel of | Mozambique, but the depths of the ocean are always at rest. Itis now proposed to avoid the draw- | backs and di-comforts of ocean travel on | the surface and heteafter use the sirata of | water below all disturbance of wind and | | wave as the new route. A modern genins offers a pian utilizing the trolley to ac- | hours. Recent discoveries in the rehabili- 1 be propelled by electricity and it is| thougnt will be able to achieve at across the Atlantic may be made in sixty tation of the oxygen in air that has been itiated by breathing removes all diffi- cuity in the providing of pure air for the use of the occupants of the vessel. On the under side of the trolley tube will DeJ a submarine electric cable provided at designated points with attachment de- vices, so that, if necessary, a vessel using the troiley will be able at any of these voints to establish electrical telegraphic communication with tne shore. It is not contemplatea to use the trolley tube as | an electric force conductor to carry a cur- | rent for the use of vessels. Each vessel | will be in itse!f independent, being equipped with a new and improved form of storage battery. By means of adjust- able tanks the vessel will be so balanced | as to have a slight excess of buoyancy, so that if by any means connection with the trolley tube should be broken the vessel will rise to the surface and would then complete her voyage at the svrface. Between the United States and England | the bottom of the ocean is of very even surface. So level is it that it has received the name of the “‘telegraphic plateau.” It | is most admirably adapted to a mode of service such as is here outlined. The first few trips of the submarine ves- sels may not be successtul from a financial point of view. People are timid and will hesitate. Al the dangers, real and im- | aginary, will be greatly exaggerated at first, but as the operation is continued the | traveling public will soon learn to preler | he swift, smooth trip througn the haunts | of the wonderful denizeus of the vasty deep to the body and soul racking torture of a storm-tossed journey at the surface. F. M. C , D.8e. “There Is a Peace That Gometh After Sorrow.” ““There is & peace that cometh after sorrow,” Of hope surrendered, not of hope fuifilled; | A peace that looketh not upon to-morrow, But calmly on a tempest that is stilled. A peace which lives not now in joy’s excesses, Nor in the happy 1ife of love secur But in the unerring strength the heart pos- sesses Of conflicts won while learning to endure. A peace there is, in sacrifice secluded; A life subdued, from will and passion free; *Tis not the peace which over Eden brooded, But that which triumphed in Gethsemane. sie Rose Gates in the April Century. A Painful Meeting. A dramatic story was told at the Ham- | ilton College alumni dinner in New York | the other evening. General Schuyler | Hamilton gave some interesting incidents | irom the life of his grandisther and de- scribed & meetinz between Aaron Burr complish the navigation of submarine | depths. His plan is a simple one, and | when the engineering works that the last | few years have witnessed are considered the scheme here described does not ap- | pear impracticable. | The plan embraces the stretching of a | | continuous trolley conduit across the | | ocean. The line is not exactly a “line,” | but is a split tube of bronze or other metal | not oxidized by sea waier, made continu- | ous by its sections being hinged in such manner as to form an uninterrupted tube, | one stde of which is open for the traverse | of the vessel's trolley. This tube is to be held in position by snchors, placed at | proper distances, and it is breld in suspen- | sion at the proper depth by metal floats Perhaj a better idea wi!l be had by reference to the accompanying drawing. Of course it may appear at first thought that the mag- nitude of such an enterprise wouid be fatal to its accomplishment, but nowadays | the size of the job does not deter modern | engineering from attempting it. The ves- seis engaged in transportation will be built like buge cigar-shaped spindles, so a3 to make high speed. They wil | courteously. | deported himself like a dignified gentle- | are some who will argue that he has a de- and Mrs. Hamilton, daughter-in-law of Alexander Hamilton and the mother of the speaker, 1n 1%30. *‘As Colonel Burr entered the room,”” he said, “my mother, | in extreme agitation,seemed about to faint. Colonel Burr, noticing this, but not know- | ing her, immediately went to the s.de- board, poured out a glass of water and advanced to band it to her. It was all done most naturally, gracefully and My motber shook her head and murmured: ‘I am the daughter of Alexander Hamilton.” Withouts word, Colonel Burr placed the glass of water on the sideboard, bowed in smlence to the | Misses Nathan and quietly retired. It was to him, as to my mother, evidently a very painful meeting. Colonel Burr | man. 1 was a little boy about 8 years oid. Then I learned for the first time to impress the fact upcn my memory that Colonel Burr had killed my grand- iather."—New York Letter. e o The elephant is a wise beast, but there pravea taste. He is fond of gin, it is said, | zinErass \LFRED PARSONS, ARA. No artistic event in the last ten years has given rise to as much discussion in London as the recent academy election, by which John Sargent was chosen for the full honors and Alfred Parsons and J. J. Sbannon for associate membership. All three are practically Americans, that is to say, 1hey are, in the English acceptation of the term. 1 here should be a word in the lan- guage to express that a man was not born in the country to which he owes his alle- giance, either by the right of descent, by the accident of birth, or by choice after arriving at manhood. An artistis, as & rule, a man who has become a citizen of ihe world—who is at home in Tunisor Japan, in London or Rome, on a Califor- nia ranch or in a Dutch village. The days when an artist was supposed to liveon air, and as little as possible of that, to be distinguished chiefly by a colossal igno- rance of any subject but his own and a superb superiority to such trivial matters as his appearance, his food and his debts, this golden age of simplicity has left not atrace behiad. Any eccentricity of any kind is avoided with a care that becomes almost as absurd as the ancient desire to mark the professional by his long, un- kempt hair, his wildly rolling eyes, his re- | markable clothes and his complete self- | absorption. | The three new members of the academy | are natives of Cosmopolis, for Sargent | was born in Florence, the son of a Boston | physician, and was educated partly in America, but principally abroad; Shan- non, of Irish descent, was born and lived in America until his fifteenth yoar, and Parsons was born in Somersetshire, in | Merrie England, but curiously enough he alone of the three lived in America, was educated there, and only returned to Eurbpe 0 study after he had reached the age of 2. English artists speak of the election with a mixture of admiration, cordiality and regret that is not guiltiess of a fine and somewhat horror-struck con- sciousness of their own generosity. “Weil,”” said a Scotchman 1n’ a recent | rather heated discussion, “we did it; we are a marvel of the highest sense of jus- | tice. We do not care whether a mau be a | but will not touch champagne. native of China or the Sandwich Islands; | ALFRED PARSONS, A. R. A. if he be a gentleman and an artist, he s voted for. I have been proud of my vote ever since. I forgot that they were not | subjects of the Queen, but I have felt up- Dited, noble, above reproach, ever since I have discovered that we have been a gen- erous example to the world. 1t makesa | man feal like a monument.”” 1 There are a few voices, however, which are hardly allowed to be heard and they murmur: “Whatabout the protection to | home industry! Here we are, hundreds | strong, knocking at the big pates. They | open up but once a year, and only three | men can enter; can you blame us if we ! think it rather bard that the strangersin | the land have the prefezence and we must | wait the next opportunity I’ Asa whole, however, the election was | received with acclamation, the sincerest | delight. The models who walt in the | conrtyard to bring the news :o the fortu- | nate had a hara fight to earn their guinea. The modet who brings the news has, from | time immemorial, had that special claim, | and it is to be presumed that neither Mr. Parsons nor Mr. Shannon was less gen- eral than his British conireres. Alired Parsons lives in a little street on | Campden Hill, lice a country lane, in a little square, squat, gray house, witha | bit of garden, gay at present with =pring flowers, The treesare just touched with & mist of green, but the wild plum, with | its little sharp distinct branches anda its wave of brilliant blossom<, looks as though | it had posed for Mr. Parsonsor for the Japanese artists he admires so zenuine Iy | and frequently reminds me of. The gray | stone pathway leading to the house is full | of delicate leaves, and a straignt row of | daffodils leads to the very door. The | studio is behind the house and is reached by a long wooden passage, on the walls of | which there is a running frieze of sketches | that just refuse to present themselves in ! an_accommodating spirit. They all lead | to Rome, or to Mr. Parsuns’ studio, where a fire burns in the big, open grate, and where there is much light and a sugges- | tion of bright things—polished woods and | bronzes, light frames and water colors and | flowers everywhere. Everything is cean, clear in color and rather delicate, as the | | number for the last ten year: surroundings are of a rather fastidious taste. This big room leads into another, which seems practically out of doors, the light seems to flood the piace, itis everywhere. Evidently 1n real life asin his work Mr. Parsons has no use for the dark—nc mystery of the “dim religious light” ap- peals to him. Personally, as he stands i his own studio, he seems entirely in the right. He is in light colored clothes, although it is very early spring; his hair, when it is not prematurely siiver, is bionde; his eyes, of grayish blue, have an exvpression of whimsical gayety, and with the sunburned, hard freshness of his com= plexion, he has that look of unquenchable youth that so frequenily accompanies a man who spends most of the time in the open air, till the end of his days. Mr. Parsons’ work is as well known at home as abroad; wno has not seen those exquisite drawings that illustrate, with Edwin Abbey’s, Herrick’s and the Old English Batads, She Stoops to Conquer, and many others? A Harper’s Monthly without a Parsons drawing has been a rare or longer. And during that time Mr. Parsons has | been Irequently in America, in New York, in the Carolinas, in Southern California, | in San Francisco on his way to and from Japan. § His sketchbooks are characteristic—full { of exquisite drawinys, as careful as those of a botanist, of any strange flower, leaf, surub or tree that came under his notice. Impressionism never drew Mr. Parsons into the vortex; he never spiashed in paint, simply for tue fun of dashing it about, like an unruly boy in the surf. Its dangers and iis pleasures had no fascina- tion for him—clear, honest, finely drawn sketches done for the sharp characteriza- tion of the object under his immediate at- tention. A Cherokee rose, with its beau- tiful buds turning back to the stem; sn orchid or a meadow dai: drawn as a Japanese artist would do them, freely, sharply and with grace. In landscape he has no equalsin his own field—nol, it must be confessed, a very wide one. The one painted years ago and bought by the terms of the Chantrey bequest. “When Nature Paintea Ail Things Gay,’” is painted with an exuber- ance, an enjoyment, a richness of color that acts upon the observer lika a burst of sunlight. Itis music out of doors, and for once Mr. Parsons uses the whole key- board. No meager illustration can do it justice, for itis full of the very odor and exhilarations of spring. Ithas not the depth of a Courbet, but far more spon- 1aneous feeling for the crisp, sharp cbange of light on blossoms and trees und sheep and water and the earth that flies an em- erald flag, and is brilliant with trans- parent shadows that drop from the shin- ing clouds over the trees—that are bouquets of bloom—to the earth, that is at once light and solid. The work of later years has been all played “in the treble,’ so to speak, and the iandscapes in oil have been a little thin, a little like water colors, while the water cojors have had the solidity usuaily connected with oils. The water colors strike a finer and truer note; their occasional hardness only accentuates their firmness, their delicate and hnished brilliance. he calm and the patience that Mr. Parsons puts into these little landscapes. They are hardly more than a foot square, but you f:el aimost as though cach Hower had made a particular appeal for special attention, and yet they are neither minuts nor do they lose thelr concentrated flash and flime of color at a distance. Mr. Parsons has sketches of the swamps of the South, and of the alfalfain Santa Barbara, ablazs on the hills; Japanese vegetable gardens and lotus fields; but he is only really at home in a corner of an Enciish garden, where there is perhapsa decrepit fountain, green with age, with a bit of siiver water and every variety of young “flowerhood’ pusning forwurd to catch his delighted attentior Vax Dyck Brows. London, March 24, 18 Nearly a quarter of a cantury ago, when | I first met ex-Mayor Adoipi Sutiro, he | looked very much like the picture that is reproduced herewith. The other day | when this engraving was shown him he | said to me: ‘“‘Yes—yes; to besure. Ire-| member that picture very well. It was put on a lot of Butrostunnel bonds that | were never issued. Some of my friends | said it was intended as my portrait as I | looked in my working clothes with a pick in my hands breaking ground for begin- ning the Sutro tunnel. Really, i never felt very much flatiered by the picture. I thought it made me look too bald, and 1 imagined I was rather better looking. Didn’t you?” Of course I could not refuse to acquiesce in that opinion, for as a matter of fact Mr. Sutro was quite dashing in appear- ance at the time he was in the flush of his power, pushing work on the famous Sutro tunnel, on the Comstack lode, editing the Virginia City Daily Independent, and running for the United States Senate at Carson, in opposition to William Sharon first and afterward to John P. Jones. At the same period he was traveling through the State of Nevada with a magic lantern, giving illustrated lectures on the doings of the big mining company manip- ulators. Journalism seemed to have had a genu- ine fascination for Mr. Sutro at the time he was conducting the Daily Independent. He took a lively interest in every part of the paper, anda had a high appreciation of the importance of the local news col- umns. As may naturally be supposed, he assumed personal supervision of the edi- torial columns, that did not deal so muck with expletives as with logical arguments “insinuations against the rule of William Sharon, the then acknowledged king of the Comstock, with = sway more absolute than was ever wielded by the late Frank McManus in the Potrero, and against Mackey and Fair, who were be- | ginning to make themselves felt in politi- \' © i o TR SOME EARLY REMI cal matters as well as in mining manipu- | lations. { Recent years have developed in Mr. Sutro an aptitnde for superlatives that be avoided while he graced the editorial tri- | pod in Virzinia City. He purposely escnewed that style of wild and woolly Western journalism that has been made familiar to the world through the lacu- brations of the Arizona Kicker and the Nevada Self-Cocker. A favorite form of attack on the big corporations that were attempting to throttle the Suiro tunnel was to keep be- fore the peovle a realization of the com- bination that had been made for the absorption of every item of pront that | could possibly accrue from the operation | of the great Comstock mines. Accord- ingly Mr. Sutro’s paper frequently pub- lished extracts from the test:mony of | James C. Flood in the snit of George W. Kinney against the Consolidated Virgi Mining Company, Flood, Mackay, Fair, O'Brien, Solomon Heydenfeldt and others. Here is a sample: Question—At what mill has the ore of the Cousolidated Virginia mine been crushed within the past year? Answer—At the milisof the Pacific Mill and Mining Company. Q—Who are the owners of the Pacific Mill and Mining Company? A.—It isan incorpora- tion; Mackay, Fair, Flood and O'Brien are the principal stockholders. Q—Where does the company procure wood for the purposes of its mine? A.—Sometimes from the Pacific Wood, Lumber and Flume Company, and sometimes from Yerington & Co. Q.—Who are the owners of the Pacific Wood, Lumber and Flume Company? A.—It is an incorporation; Mackay, Fair, Flood and O'Brien are the principal stockholders. Q—From what source does the company procure water? Gold Hill Water Company. Q —Who are the owners of the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company? A.—It is an incor- poration. The principal stockholders are W. S. Hobart, John Skae, Macksy, Fair, Flood, O’Brien and others. I forget the others. ] O’'brien are not the T | for him to consult with Mr. Sutro ona A.—From the Virginia and | g vision of the great mining district a [ISCENCES and Mining Company? A.—The trustees are Maciay, Fair, Flood, O'Brien and Wailgve. | Q—Who ure the trustees of the Pacific Wood, | Lumber and Flume Company? A.—Mackay) | wir, Flood, 0'Brien and Follis. Q.—Who are the trustees of the Virginia and !‘ Goid Hill Water Company? A.—Flood, O'Brien, | Mackay, Fair, Hobart, Skae and Wells. Q—Is there any other corroration from which the company draws supplies of any cuaracter of which Flood, Mackey, Fair and trustees and principal stockholders? A.—I don’t know of an Q—Is the California company’s ore also re- Quced in the mill of the Pucific Mill and Min- ing Company ? Do they procure their timber | also from the Pacific Wood, Lumber and Flume | Company, and is their water supplied from | the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company ? 5. Ore day John I Ginn, who was man- | aging editor of the Indcpendent, invited me to drive with him from Virginia C to the town of Sutro, as it was nace:s: question of importancs concerning next | moning’s issue of the paper. After the | most urgent mission had been disposed of Mr. Sutro wheeled around in his chair ana | exclaimed: “Ginn, did you ever see a played-out, broken-down mining-camp?” | Mr. Ginn said that he had visited sev- 1 of :hose acenes of disaster. ‘Well,” continued Mr. Sutro, “that’s the kind of a place these big mine-owners are going to make out of the Comstock lode. Tiey are just gouging oat the heart of the ore, instead of mining scientifically, and the camp 1s bound to suffer. 1 would like to have you assume the charcter of a prophet and write a description of how the Comstock will look twenty-five years nence.”’ Mr. Ginn did so. He pretended to give quarterof a century from that time. He said that nothing could stop the woeful waste of opportunities then going on, and in view of this fact represented the bo- nanzas and ore bodies exhausted, the Q—Who are the trustees of the Pacific Mill | thunders of the stampmills silencea for- i (S i SISSS OF ADOLPH SUTRO ever, owls roosting in the Con. Virginia hoi«ting-works, Cstreet filied with coyotes | and wild goats a:d the International Ho- | tel, the Sawaust Corner and the Delta sa- | loon turned over to the use of rattiesnak.s | and rats. That prognostication created a | sensation, and there was talk of lynching | the autior, for it was not generally be- | lieved that such a condition of affairs could possibly come to pass. The last time [ visited Virzinia City Mr. Ginn’s vision was grimly recalied to my memory. The buildings represented in the ac- companying engraving were planned for the use of the tunnel company, but more | unpretentious structures wers provided, with the exception of the superintendent’s | residence that siill stands on the sloping hillside, commanding = view of the town of Sutro and Carson River Valley to the | southward. Popularity did not at that time seem fo be the goal of Mr. Sutro’s ambition, and | he got rather more than his share of news paper abuse, yet his lectures were always well attended and hisopponentsconfessed that his campaigns cost them more money than they cared o0 lose. In arecen: conversation Mr. Sutro ex- pressed gratification at having laid down the cares and burdens of public office, which he thought did not yield sufficient compensation in the way of benefiting the community to tempt thoughtful citi- zens {rom the comforts of private life Speaking of the condition of his invest- ments in San Francisco realty Mr. Sutro said: *'1 have to thank Denis Kearney for the greater part of the acres I own on this peninsula. Yousee, I was just selling out my interests in Nevada and particularly in the Sutro-tunnei enterprise, when Denis Kearvey began his crusade that knocked the values out of real estate in ncisco. I putin all the money I could raise and waited for the reaction. It looked a littie gloomy for a while, but at last it came out all right. It was very gratifying to me, you may be sure, to find that my judgment in re- gard 1o the investment was not ar fault. Of course the possession of the substantial proof of my forethougnt did not diminisn my satisfaction, but I think my greatest | pleasare was derived from th: realization of the fact that 1 was not lackin: in busi- ness sagacity in this venture. Then I had the additional pleasure of witnessing the growth and development of this beautiful city.” Mr. Sutro for 8 moment fell into a medi- tative mood, but he aroused bimself and | with an eloquent motioa of the nand in- d cating the wide sweep of the bay added: “But what I have done is nothing to what may be accomplished by others who are buying real estate in San Francisco. ‘“Just look at that hurbor—the most magnificent on the face of the globe! Just look at the generous site which this peninsula affords for the accommodation of a great city—the most picturesque under the sun. “Just think of the climatic conditions and all the varied advantagee offsred to the people of this City, and you must agree with me that the future of San Francisco must inevitably be greater and grander than any dwellers by the Golden Gate have yet dared to dream. The advancement in twenty years is startling, but it is nothing to what the futare holds in store.” In that word “'future’ there seemed to be a tinge of regret for tha venerable | financier, for though by the eye of pre- | science he was able to pierce the veil of | time and in imagination view the grand- | eurs of a city that will arise on the ruins of our best at present, yet in the natural this City. I was looking around for a chance to place my available capital to advantage and made up my mind that my best chance was in the sand dunes of San course of events he could not expect to | witness in the flesh the accomplishment | of those promised marvels. i WeLrs Drury. a . o ¢ Ja i AR ML oSS