The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 2, 1897, Page 26

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 2, 1897. A CABLE ROAD HIGH UP IN THE MOUNTAINS An Effective and Practical Line Operated in the Usual Manner and Used for Hauling Logs From Their Hidden Glades to the Railroad In the heart away from expect to town, one would scarcel roads in operation, | greet the stranger in the great ‘‘redwood beit” of California—those forests of giant § a dense forest, and miles | Yet this and many other surprises will | trees, exceeded in size only by the famous “Big Trees,”” another variety of the same spectes. As this timber is peculiar to California alone, so are the methods employed in getting it out. And nowhere else in the world are logging operations carried on as in the redwood forests,which extend along the coust from Monterey almost to the Oregon boundary Jine. The Eastern lum- berman will seek in vain for the famliliar methods of his native ‘‘pineries,” for those methods are out of date in the “red- woods” ; besides, they are totally inade- quate for bandling these giants of the for- est, many of which will measure twelve or fifteen feet in diameter and nearly 200 feet in height. Especially in the moving and transpor- tation of the huse logs procured were the old methods found deficient and danger- ous. Oxen and horses were too slow and clumsy, too expensive and in their places everywhere are used especially designed machines of the cable-winding type, the application of which is continually being enlarged. The Iatest application of this principle is the cable lozging road asan extension of the steam railroad that trans- vorts the logs to the sawmill or storage pond. These cable roads are used for bringing the logs from places in the forest inac- cessible to the locomotive and cars, usually some guich, up which they wind and twist to the point where the logs cut on the surrounding hillsides have been % I e ington ( sensa- not f 'resident been by his elevation to The pomp of The together e he holds. slightly in evidence. grounds in greater or less s is_to be greatly ition, the grounds of mansion on the south side eveland administra- of the Governm th one efforts to add to the excl which Mr. Ciev: 1 himself. tempts of ness w to surround irom at- r absence | ivene: is | here and If one ent now on a le- nitted to talk to of tt nge pleases 1 wishes to see gitimate errand he is pe him, and that witbout any unnecessary Celay. The President will not permit | any one to waste his time, but he under- stands thoroughly how to be - courteous and at the same time cause his visitor to sec for himself that his call is brief. This | is the secret of popularity. No oneis| neglected, none are snubbec; every one is | treated with a politeness that is exceed- | ingly grateful, thoush no attempt is made to impress the recipient with the Presi- dent’s courtesy. Pro <nt McKinley sees no reason why | he should be debarred from the privileges which citizenship and good conduct confer upon any man. It has almost become a popular maxim that the sidewalks of Washington are not good enough for the President of the United States to walk | upon. This is the result of a rigid adher- ence to etiquette and a liberal use of the carriages which are supposed to convey | the chief executive about the city when | sters watch for the President, and they | know the smile and kind word he gives them are genuine and not matters of he cares to go. The present occupant of the Presidency is no lover of hivery. A man whose personal habits are above re- prouch, he is still one of those rare humans that men know as a thoroughly good fel- low. He dearly loves to take a walk, and he is likely to go anywhere. He seems to take a keen delight in traveling about the | city in = most unostentatious fashion, his companion generally being Secretary Por- ter. It is almost an every-day occurrence to see the President, if he happens to be on the street at the time the children are passing back and forth from school, stop and chat with the youngsters, Seeming to enjoy the conversation immensely. The children of Washington have declared Mr. oMc KINLEY LINATTENDED ON PanNSYLVANIA McKiNLEY AND Scrool CriLDRen: gathered—in some instances three miles from the railroad terminus. Of course these roads cannot be compared with the elaborate street raiiway system of San | Francisco, for they were not built for passenger traffic, In their operation neither cars nor rails are used, while the truck, if such it may be called, is only a common *‘corduroy’’ roadway, on top of which the cable travels, hauline, or rather “snaking” long trains | of logs, which shide and bump over its rough surface, The power station is located near the end of the raiiroad track at some point convenient for loading the logs on the cars. Here is stationed a poweriul aouble, winding engine, having two drums or reels, | the one capable of carrying at leas three | miles of one-inch round steel wire cable | and the other over twice that length of a considerably lighter cable. Atthe beginning of operations the end of this smaller cable is carried into the woods (o the end of the corduroy road, | where it is wove through a fixed biock or | sheave and then brought back to the en- gine to be fastened to tne end of the larger | cable, enabling the latter to be dragzed back into the woods. Thus is the endless cable formed and the road is ready for business, the operations at either end or intermediate points of the rdad being di- rected by telephone or other eiectric sig- nal appliance. The logs handled on these roads range | from four to twelve feet in diameter, and | from twelve to twenty-four feet in length, and owing to thesappy nature of the | wood, are exceedingly heavy. Neverthe- less the cable ‘snakes” them along in trains of fifteen or iwenty ata time at a speed of three mil2s an hourunder favora- ble conditions. In making upthese trains, the logs are placedend to end and securely fastened one to the other by means of short chains attached to ‘‘dogs” driven into the logs. To the first or lead log a bridle of heavy chains is rigged for attaching the hauling nd from this the smaller or **haul- k'’ cable leads back over the logs, fol- lowing the train out of the woods. A 2376, A +innovation. rude sled, answering the purpose of a freight-train caboose, carrying liftine- jacke, pinch-bars and other appliances for use in case of accident, is coupled to the rear log and completes the train, which is then ready to -‘pull out.” This fact is signaled the engineer at the other end of the route, and soon the long string of huge logs commences its journey, the numerous sharp turns in the road causing it to writhe and twist like some gigantic snake. t Grades are of small moment in the con- | straction of the road, but without rails the principal difficulties are to keep the train in the ‘“middle of the road” by maintaining a “straight pull” on the cable atal! times and, in rounding curves, to prevent it from trying to take a shortcut across the chiord instead of following the arc. The first difficalty is overcome by using bearings and leads for the cable fixed along the sides of the 10ad wherever the one or the other is necessary, horizontal sheaves being used for bearings, while snatch blocks, from which the cable can be readily released, give a lead to it. The remedy for the other difficulty was very simple, but none the less ingenious, The usual practice in grading curves was reversed, the outer edge being made lower than tne inner edge, thus giving the logs a tendency to fall away from the curve. This tendency is increased by fastening sticks of timber along the inner edge of the curve to shear the logs off, any excess being corrected by a proper lead to the cable. Releasing the cable from these snatch blocks, or engaging it with them as occa- sion requires, constitutes the work of the crew which follows the train out until arriving at the “landing.” Here the “train” is uncoupled and the crew there load the logs on the waiting cars by means of jackscrews, cable purchases, etc., a car being required for each log. In the meantime the cable road crew bave loaded the coupling-chains and bridle on the sled, and, with the main cable, are being drawn back into the woods by the haul-back cable, the main cable being engaged with the snatche block- wherever necessary en route. Such is the latest application of steam power in logging operations and, like the application of the endless cable to street- raitway propulsion, a purely Californian . H. GALLAGHER. A smooth, white sheet of ghostly snow The rough, dark stems defines, All faintly crossed with row on row Of shadows from the pines. ) Amidst the dim, tall arches grand King Silence reigns profound, And shuns with night, hand clasped in hand, The agony of sound. The lingering moon sinks low and dim, Its time of labor done, And nature pauses, cold and grim, And waits the morning sun. At last its banners bright appear Along the eastern sky, Night shudders, turns with abject fear, And knows ’tis time to fly. The smooth, white sheet is crushed and torn Where soft the shadows lay, And on the air harsh voices borne Proclaim the waking day. King Silence’s frosty calm is broke By steady, ringing blows, A loud duet of stroke and stroke That quickens at the close. Destruction reigns throughout the glade Where spring the lordly trees, Long years have cast their somber shade Or whispered to the breeze, That caught the sunlight’s gilding touch Or jewels of the snow, Have felt the storm fiend’s savage clutch That hurled them to and fro. Alas! the storm hath spared in vain, For man assails his crown ; And swaying, quivering as in pain, A king falls crashing down. The moaning, splintering, deaf’ning sound Re-echoes far and wide, Proclaiming with its last rebound The fall of sylvan pride. With clanking links the trunk is chained, And through the flying snow, With creaking iron cables strained, The trains of timber go. And so from dawn to dusky night, ’Mid ring of steel and cheers, The hand of man with ruthless might Undoes the work of years. CLARA 1ZA McKinley to be the best President they ever heard of. As a matter of fact no one | has ever occupied the executive mansion | since the dwys of Atraham Lincoln who be meets to himself as does McKinley. than a dozen children in Washington can to them. Nowadays, however, the young- policy. | The President also has taken lately to | traveling about by himself. He strolls along the street just as he did in the days when he was & plain Ohio Congressman and his Presidential aspirations, if they existed at all, were deep within the bud. ‘When his acquaintances, of whom he has hosts, happen to meet him he stops and chats with them on all sorts of topics, altnough as a rule most of them have suf. ficient courtesy to avoid arguments re- | garding the offices. The duration of his walks is limited by the amount of time at his disposal. Sometimes it is for twenty minutes and again for an hour. — 2 — %, | seemed to have the gift of attracting those 1t is no exaggeration to say that not more say that President Cleveland ever spoke VT ) 5 s On oneof his walks a few days ago he was stopped by a shabbily dressed man who suid: “Mr. McKinley, don’t you remember me? I was in your regiment during the war.” The President shook hands witn the speaker as cordially as if he had been A member of the Senate, and with a few kindly words did more to re- move the feeling of depression with which the shabbily dressed man was evidently afflicted than a $10 note would have ac- complished. Mr. McKinlev is not dis- posed at any time to rebuff any one who speaks to him except a persistent office- seeker. Toward this class of persons his manner is a trifle icy and each day is see- ing it congeal to a greater extent. Perhaps the most unusual thing for a President to do 1s the journeying in a cable-car, which Mr. McKinley enjoys. It is trae that almost every one knows him, but his kindly democracy wins him re- spectful treatment by even the most curi- ous, and Washington people at least refrain from staring at him. This prac- tice on the President's part almost took away the breath of the class of people who have looked upon the President as a sort of demigod, but Mr. McKinley does not seem to consider bimself one whit better than he was before the election, and ap- parently sees no reason why he should fsauma & regal maaner toward the popu- ace. In eddition to his other travels about the city the President has become an en- thusiastic equestrian. He selects the hour between 4 and 5 o’clock for this exer- cice. He has no regular starting point, it being his evident intention to enjoy a view of the city from a seat in the saddle in all the different sections. In order to save time he is driven from the White House to a designated point, where he is met by Major-General Miles and several attendants with horses. Then the ride begins. The Presidentand General Miles are both excellent horsemen. General Miles has, of course, what is known as the military seat, and President McKinley sits his animal with equal grace. The two canter about and seemingly find any amount of enjoyment in the exercise. The President is also inclined to dis- pense as much as possible with the pre- vious fashion of only riding out in a car- riage which is accompanied by liveried coachman and footmen. He is very fond of driving a good horse himself and 13 now arranging for the parchase of a road- wagon and a-stout cob, with which, he says, he is going to test the quality of the Washington boulevards as he never before had opportunity. It is hinted, too, that the President has his eye on a very speedy animal, and though he is a devout Metho- dist and is not supposed to know any- thing about trotting horses, 1t is confi- dentially whispered that he really knows a good piece of horseflesh as well as the veriest jockey that rides. 1t may seem strange that a man with so much responsibility on his mind and with so many calls on his attention should find time for the exercise and amusement enjoved by the President. President McKinley’s success in this re- gard is due to the fact that he is exceed- ingly systematic. -Everything is con- is both a time and place for everything. The system of handling the White House correspondence, for instance, is so per- fect that tue great bulk of the letters re- ceived never bother the President. One of the clerks of the White House sorts and opens all mail not marked personal. Applications for office, indorsements on applications, and various other communi- cations are sent to the appropriate de- partment without being permitted to take up the President’s time. All the letters marked personal, with- out excaption, are opened by Secretary Porter. The secretary’s relations to the President are so thoroughly confidential that he knows what the President cares to see and what he does not. So by the time the correspondence is sifted down in the manner described, it is not as onerous a matter as mizht be thought. Itis rarely that the President has leisure to read even a small proportion of the letters that are marked personal. His secretary furnishes him with memoranda of the more impor- tant correspondence, which he carefully scans. Itisa notable fact thatsince Mr. McKinley’s occupation of the White House there has been practically no com- plaint of neglected correspondence. The Presidont is never too busy to respond to the request of a reasonable nature any more than he is to return the greeting of an old friend. Every morning at balf-past 9 o’clock or thereabouts President McKinley has fin- ished his mail and is ready for the busi- ness of the day. Senators and Repre- sentatives are welcome every day except Cabinet days, between 10 and 12 Other persons are met by engagement. Three afternoons a week the President meets the public in the East room. All the President’s time that he will devote is taken up by theoffice-seekers, but to these he is, as state |, beginning to turn the sold shoulder. He simply has to do it asa matter of self-protection. A dignified, kindly man in his relations with the public, President McKinley is simpiy devotion itself to his invalid wife. No matter how great may be the pressure upon his time, he always finds leisure to see her a dozen times a day. In tke even- ing, if there are no special arrangements, the President is very likely to engage in his favorite game of cards, six-handed euchre, and enjoys himself hugely. Itis often the case, bowever, that he has to see a Cabinet Minister or talk with his secre- tary during the evening hours, and this keeps bim in the office and away from the family. No matter what happens he gen- erally puts business aside at 11 o’clock and by midnight lights are out in the White ducted upon a basis of accuracy. There House. ODD GYGLING NOVELTY A new and unique cycling sensation is the seesaw quadricycle. It isacombina- tion of the old and nearly forgotten tri- cycle with the modern bicvcle, and the result is a curions-looking affair, which is now attracting widesoread attention from wheel men and women throughout the country. Nothing like it in appearance or design ever before appeared on the horizon of the eycling world. This seesaw quadricycle is essentially a family affair. It is built for four riders, with an adaditional seat for a steersman or governor. The construction of the ma- chine is of the simplest. There are no complicated joints, gearing or combina- tion of levers and clamps to confuse one or make an ordinary breakdown a serious matter. Also the fact that no previous experience is necessary in order for one to ride with all the speed and skill of an ex- yert tends to make the seesaw quadri- cycle a popular mesns of diversion for parties of four or even for two persons, who, while wishing to enjoy the exhilara- tion of cycling, dare not trust themselves to the uncertain balancing qualities of ihe ordinary tandem. The seesaw quadricycle isa four-wheeled affair, as its name implies. The rear set of wheels are slightly larger in circumfer- eace than the forward ar guiding wheeis. Motion is given the machine by the weighs of the riders, who sit upon seats differing very considerably from the ordinary bi- cycle seat. These seats, of which there are four, two in front and two in the rear, are fixed at the ends of long levers, which are not un- like the walking-beam of the ordinary side wheel steamboat. not occupied by the seats for the riders is connected by an upright driving-rod with a large sprocket-wheel in the center of the = machine. The tilting, or seesaw, levers at either end of the machine are supported over the axies by npright supports or standards, strongly braced and working on five roller bearings. The seats for the riders at the two ex: treme ends of these levers are comfortably upholstered affairs, and below them are adjustable foot rests, which allow riders of different heights to secure at all times a. comfortable footrest or brace. The framework of the machine, which is oblong, is made of cold drawn seamless tubing, exactly like that used in the ‘con- struction of the ordinary bicycle. ‘The rear wheels are thirty inches inh diameter while the front ones are two inches smaller. The end of each lever . e 2