The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 20, 1897, Page 18

18 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 1897. COOPER'SLOCOMOTIVEWAS NOT THE FIRS This is a tale of the first locomotive that ever succ Iy ran its leneth on Amer- ican soil. s nothing to do witn the old Caiifornia days, but shall take one back to other climes, amid other scenes— back to where the headwaters of the Monongahela purl overthe pebbly bottom, amid the foothills of the Cumberiands. The father of Jjohn J. McCue, & well- known hotel man in this City, placed on | eam locomotive. The elder McCue was a much honored enzineer, and during bis life enjoyed preferment from the Delaware ana Hudson Canal and Railroad Company, to whom the first lo- comotive belonged. It was from his futher that Mr. McCue first learned of this obscure machine because of the blatantly echoed praises showered upon Old Iron- sides. De Witt Clinton and John Bull have served glory that really idze Lion, wk A the track the operate was sucgessiul three year extoiled Baldw locomotive, two years before John Bull and two yearsand six days before the De Witt Clinton. There is another source of information ; st 8, 1829, | : 01d Ironsides, the much NIN = = FIRST LOCOMOTIVE RUN IN AMERICA, also. This latter is a “‘History of the) First Locomotive in America,” written by one William H. Brown and published by ppletons in 1874 It is now out of 1d one of the relics Mr. McCue has | zathered about bim at his pleasant little home on Eighteenth street. From this book b valuable supplementary infor- mati ed, and taken with the story told by Mr. McCue leaves no doubt | n that the L can locomot: | Mr. McCuc’s father was in the employ of the Delaware and Hudson Canal and | Railnay Company. But let his son tell | was the pioneer Ameri | v father was born New Year's day, 1807, and died April 19, 1880,” he prefaced | as he leaned over the Baldwin counter to | help bestow credit where credit is due. *He was always a very bright poy and at 18 was a stake-driver for the surveyor’s gang that laid out the Erie canal. At 15 Iie was a sub-contractor and at 19, in 186 was the contractor for the Delaware and Hudson canal. It was he who ran the first boat over this canal. He died at Denson, lowa, April 19, 1880, while on his third visit to California. He is now buried at Pottsdam, ‘It was quite a while before his death, indeed I think it was soms time in 1857, that he received a letter from John T. McEntee asking about the first locomotive ever operated in America. - My father was surprised as he had aiways thought that every one knew the Lion to have been the very first. My father wasin the employ of the company in 1820—this letter came | TWO RECENT DISCOVERIES IN THE A Remarkable Exhibition of Hos-| pitality to Vi THE twenty-eight years later—and put the en- | gine on its track, Horatio Allen being the opercting and my father the constructing engineer. In answerto this request Le had me write at his dictation. I was youug and the incident made a deep im- pression on my young mind. So far as I can remember the letter ran something like this: My Dear Jack: Your request received. The Stourbridge Lion was undoubtediy the first, sitors on the Part of Samoans. One of the queerest customs of the| Only unmarried women are permitted | liquid tastes and looks like gentle Ssmoans was the cause of a great desl of embarrassment to a party of San Franciscans a short time ago while the tourists were sojourning in the sunny land | made famous by the pen of Robert Louis Stevenson. | When a person of more than ordinary | importance is entertained by a Samoan | chiefitis the invariable custom to per- | jorm the sacred ceremony of chewing the kava and offering the liquid to the guest | and saould the cup not be drained to the to chew the kava nut, t .e Samoan belief being that unless masticated by virgins the nut loses its best properties. the brew—if such it may be called—is r2ady, and the chief takes up a quantitv in a cocoanut-shell cup and handsit to the guest of the occasion, Woe betide him if he refuses it, for this is the most serious breach of etiquette | that can happen in a Samoan houschold, PEED TRIAL BETWEEN At last | == = (- PETER C It made its trip drawiug & Jarge quantity of stone August 8, 1820, over a three-mile stretch | of track at Honesdale, Pa. At that time I was working, as I had been for some time before, | for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Compat | In the early partof 1829 Horatio A company’s engineer, sent to |to buy three en The first one, | the Lion, arrived May 7, 1829, via ship | 1 | John Jay, and was landed at W | The Eagle, the second, arrived v | Charles Hicks. So soon as the n | | reached us I was girected by President Jobn | | | | | | | | | t Point. . Bution of the canal company to go io New York and bring up the engine. IleftJuly4, 1829, and returned July 21. By July 25 I had | the Lion on track, and August 8 Horatio | Allen got up steam and ran it, while attached i | to a number of loaded cars, a distance of five | | miles and back. This was undoubtediy prior to all other trial trips of anything of the kina [ in America. | Here Mr. McCue after much searching in | FIRST TRAIN | deemed unsafe and OF PASSENG OOPER’ boxes had a lion’s head onone and an eagle’s on the other and both of them worked with copnecting rods from the wheels to erasshopper or walking beams, one each side of the boiler. Those worked the same as on steamboats on the Hud- son.” ‘‘After all, however,”” continued Mr. | McCue, “the 'English locomotives were cardea. The third | one, 1 was told, arrived August 1.” | So far as the Peter Cooper locomotive is concerned it was not even experimented with until the summer of 1829 and its first successful run was not made untii | August 28, 1830, or one year and twenty days after the trip by the Stour- bridga Lion was made. This, however, was the first American locomotive, and was | named the “Tom Thumb.” ER-CARS EVER RUN IN (The Locomotive is the “‘De Witt Clinton.””) | some drawers produced a piece of faded | paper with the following description writ- ten by his father as a guide for the de- seription which was embodied in the let- ter. The description is: *Those engines were built in England atatown called Stourbridge. They stood on four wheels, all drivers, of five feet diamter, with caste hubs, oakwood spokes and pulleys with heavy steel rims. Th | boiler was a round cylinder. The smoke The first locomotive of any kind was| built by Armand Cugnot, but it upset in | the streets of Paris one day and being con- sidered dangerous was locked up. It is vet preserved at the Conservatoire des | Artes de les Metiers, ac Paris. But the idea out of which has grown the present railroad was first introduced by Charies Thomas of Denton, England, February 11, | 1800, before the Literary an¢ Philosophical | Society of Newcastle, England. He was | e : S LOCOMOTIVE, “TOM THUMB,” nately press the ground, thus furnish seis, however, led up to the final a supported by one Dr. Anderson, a co- aborer of Watts, and it was urged that stagecoaches placed on rails and propelled by endless chains, with stationary engines 88 the motive power, “might be made to go at least six miles an hour.” ‘ This was all being done at & time when little else was occupying the rainds of the mechanical scientists, and, deriving his | inspiration from the discussion, Richard Trevithick in 1802 built a steam carriage | much like the traction engine of to-day. The trial at London was satisfactory, but on the country roads was a failure, and it | was later abandoned. A later invention | by the same man, adapted for the tram- | ways, succeeded in hauling ten tons of | stone on rails at the rate of five | hour, but was also abandoned being i | practicaily afailure. Many others followed, THE STATE OF NEW including James Bramtor pusher which was so arranged t braces in the rear were made at two o alter- the motive-power as a man pushes a boat with a pole. It was of four horsepower, miles an hour. | All of these various trials on suc- essful experiments of George Stephen- | The girls who chew the nut any way inconvenienced by it, becau:e they do not swallow the juice, and they often appear to enjoy the predicament o who those try vainly to rise from their lowly . All that is necessary 10satisfy tie dictates of Samoan etiquette for the principal guest of the occasion todrink | the kava, the rest being at liberty to par- taze of it or not, as the The nutmeg water, a flavor of soap is ofien detected it for tne first | is thoug by those who partake of time. Captain Luttrell, until recently master of the wandering schooner Vine, char- tered by Sarah Bernhardt for a bay cruise | during ber last trio to the cosst, and that | on ber 1ast voyage was supposed to be lost, | was recently in Samoa ia company with Captain Thomas G. Cushman, who is the agent in this City for a number of vessels | ished to see that individual smilingly re- are not in , must drink when it is offered to us or for the these people will feel very much hur Like as not they will stampede our horses in addition to treating us with scorn, and have to walk back to Apia.'” saying so in so many words Luttrell gave Cushman the idea that all | mustdrink and that the first one to whom | the cup was offered must drain it without a moment’s hesitation. Cashman looked at the savage-lonking | chief, thought of the long tramp back to sia, and when the cup was handed him | drained it immediately, though his face | expressed great repugnance. When the | cup was handed to Luttrell he was aston- fuse it and then go into convulsions of | laughter. w Cushman said to Luttrell on the way back to Apia cannot bs quoted here, but he is still looking for a chance to get even, The Execution of a Gannibal. | It was in the middle of the dry season | and the night had been intolerably warm, but by stretching my hammock on the veranda, which faced the Roquelle Rivel Imanaged to gain a few hours of rest. It could hardly be called sleep. With the lives of his feilows, when not | closely watched by superior officers, is not | in the habit of taking prisoners. The treuble of feeding and guarding them is | too great. But one meek old gentleman who was caught in the act of grilling a | tibia over a slow fire, preparatory to dis- posing of it, was knocked over by the flat | of a sword wieided by a white officer, and | on regaining consciousness was bound | band and foot and unceremoniously lugged down to the coast in common | be seen only in this Zanzibar of the west with a quantity of loot. He was promptly convicted in the colo- | be heard in the streets withia a radius of nial court of cannibalism, and I had ar- | rived just in time to witness the closing | scene. The townspeople were swarming | toward the gallows, which had been | erected contiguous to the banks of the Y AND A HORSECAR. BIRDSEYE ORK. who built a|son, and all of his study and efforts were embodied in the Rocket, made by him and the successful competitor in the trial of English-made engines on October 6, 1829. It ran thirty miles in one hour and forty-eight minutes, and this was consid- and moved at the rate of two and a haif | ered marvelous speed. At this trial was Horatio Allen, asso- ed with John B. Jervis, chief engi- L the Delaware and Hudson Rail- way and Canal Company, He bad be:n AMERICA sent by Mr. Jervis for the express purpos, of examining the engines with instrisc. tions to contract for thres of them, F, Miller of Charleston, 8. C., who nag rel tives now living in Los Angele a spectator. Mr. Allen, according to his inst had already observed the work of thg then strange macbines, and having sarje. fled himself as to their practicabili:y already contracted for three to by ered by a manufacturing firm at the g ver Stour, near Birmingbam, England, Ty, first of these, called the Lion, and |y, | Btourbridge Lion, arrived via ihe o Jobn Jay at New York, about May s 1829, or about five months before the E . | lish prize trial took place. It was impe. diately shut up in the yard of the Weq, Point Foundry Company at New Y. and steam applied. For days the curious and others flockeq about it, and files of the old New York Ppapers contain graphic accounts of *the way the wheels went round.” It was not then tried on any track for the reason that there was none to try it oo in all the Em. pire State. About July 1, it was shipped upthe North River to Rondont, and thence was alyg! ructions, VIEW OF PETER COOPER’S LOCOMOTIVE. to the Delaware and Hudson canal, thence by eanal-boats to Honesdale, Pa. At Honesdale there were and are yet a great many coal mines. At that time a gravity tramway was used for the pnrpose of carrying the coal down the hill to the canal landing. By a rope, the cars were bauied up again. It was to improve upon this clumsy method that English engines were purchased. As stated, the Lion, the first one to arrive, left New York July 16, and arrived at Honesdale July 21. At this latter place it was allowed to stand upon the track ten days, baut, all preparations having been made, August 3 wzs set as the date for the initial trial This date is fixed as the correct one by the fact that Alva Adams, a distant rela- tive of John Adams, once President, had his arm badly shattered by the premature | dischargeé of a cannon used in the cele- oration. Dr. E. T. Losey, who, till re- cently, was a resident of Honesdale, am- putated the arm, and he posiuve'y stated | tbat he amputated the arm the day fol- | lowing, but did not make the charge until | four days later. On reference to his books | it was found that the charge was entered | under date of August 8. C. F. Young, {lene‘nl superintendent of the Delaware jand Hudson Canal Company in ths '70's, doubted that statement, and further in- vestigation showed that Dr. Losey was wrong, for from an old file of the Dundaff | Republican, in possession of Dalton Yar- rington of Carbondale, it was found that | the exact date was August §, 1829, that the | iron _monster first felt the quiverei life torougn steambox and throttle An_th | American continent. LroNarp FOWLER. The Practice Found to Be SOCIAL LIFE OF SAVAGES of Cannibalism Still Flourish- ing Near Civilization, made up a motley assembly, such as can coast, where thirty different dialects may tive miles. The Imperri was permitted to speak for a few minutes, and this seemed to bring to the surface all his dormant ferocity. He vented his opinion of the RS the threats, as all Africans stand in great awe of the dead and have implicit faith in supernatural visitations. i Then, as the drum sounded a signsl to | the hangman’s assistant, who was cop- | cealed in a neighboring clump of trees, I | turped away. Returning an hour later [ saw the corpse of the Imperri resting on the ground near the scaffold, minus the ra— | | \ sun came rolling up from the waste of salt | lagoons cloud upon cloud of noisome | vapor heavy with the poison that makes | life in Sierra Leone an uncertain problem ! R % ) y A A GROUP OF KAVA-CHEWERS. ot honor. When the party is seated in the chief’s abode three or four of the pre:- tiest girls in the village are called into the room and seated tailor-fastion in a half- circle facing the one who is being enter- tained. All being ready the chief handseach of the zirls a quantity of kava nuts, a prod- uct of the island much resembling the betel nut, and they fall to chewing them with ail the energy of strong jaws and perfect teeth. This operation is repeated again and again, until a2 sufficient quantity of the kava has been accumulated. Then water is brought in and the juice diluted until 1v suits the fancy of the chief. last drop the taboo is put upon bim from that moment. The guest must drink with as much decorum as the chief employs in passing the cup. The effect of kava is as queer as the method of preparing it. The first drink produces no effect beyond, | perhaps, a natural nausea, but the second | and third are more potent. The liquid is imbibed sitting tailor-fashion on a mat, and after the third cup, the guest, unless of unusual strength, finds it impossible to rise. The brain is as clear as thoagh the liquid had been pure water, but from the t down, the body seems to be para- Jyzed, and the guest must of necessity sit and w for the effects to wear away unless helped to some other posture, A trip on horseback into the interior was arranged and when about fifteen miles from Apia the mariners were ac- costed by a chief, who invited them to | alight and enter his houe. They did so and he at once called three girls and ordered them kava for his guests. Captain Luitrell, who had *‘been there before,”’ quietly informed the chief that nis companion was a man of great im- portance and Captain Cushman was at | once placed in the seat of honor. He looked askance at the chewing maidens as they worked industriously on the nuts and wanted to leave. “We can’t do it now; it is too late,” in to chew ! | Interior for several months and had but and has properly obtained for the spot the term ‘‘the white man’s grave.” I ordered my boy to prepare breakiast and then, taking up my book, slipped into a Madeira chair and had read but a few lines when my attention was diverted from it by the regular tap, tap, tap of a distant drum evi- dently marking a step. The sound came nearer and nearer until suddenly only a dozen rods from my bungalow from with- out a grove of cocoa paims emerged a black-visaged sergeant of the native troops. By his side walked the drummer and im- mediately back of them came three men abreast, T'wo of these were uniformed in the gariison tunic, trousers and fez, their armsat carry; two platoons similarly at- tired followed ,in close ranks, while an English officer brought up the rear. The man in the middle particuiarly at- tracted my attention by his strange garb, and as the company passed within five yards of me I readily distinguished the prisoner, for prisoner he was, as an Im- perri, one of a fanatical sect of natives wkose persistent practice of cannibalism the colonial police had endeavored for years to suppress. Asl bad been in the | lately returned to the coast I nastened to inform myself of the meaning of this ante breakfast procession. It appeared that the Imperri trive, whose babitat is less than twenty miles from the seat of the colonial government, Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa, where a pretense of civilization has been main- tained for more than a century, had very recently been detected 1n another man hunt, caught red-handea in fact with the remnants of their nhorrid feast scattered on every side. The prisoner whom I had seen but a few minutes before had been adjudged guilty of participating in the offense, and tie death penalty was said Luttrell in a horrified whisper. “We about to be inflicted by hanging. The African, with his usual disregard THE EXECUTION OF A CANNIBAL IN THE WILDS OF AFRICA, river, and, following them, I secured a| place close to the old Imperri and ar- ranzed my camera for o few shots. The authorities, the spectators and his ene- mies in general in unstinted language, accomvanying each phrase by violent | right hand. The heart had also been re- moved and buried with the amputated member inaspot remote from that se- condemned man was not at all ferocious | gestares. He told his hearers that he was | lected for the burial of the body. This in his sppesrance. On the contrury, his | countensnce was strangely gentle and | not loth to visit the land of the spirits, but he assured them in a tirade of abuse ‘ was in strict accordance with the native belief that if the right hand and heart are calm, and the long white zown that en- | and invective that he would surely return | separated from the body the deceased is shrouded his body, hanging from the neck, gave him quite a patriarchal aspect. | The better class of the Sierra Leonese | did not attend the ceremony, but hun- dreds of Krumen, Mendis, Timnis and Foulahs, arrayed in semi-civilized dress, laughing, jostling one another and calling derisively to the principal in the tragedy, to earth to haunt them and pursue them with his presence. It is significant of devotees of cannibalism that they never admit the practice, and so in this instance the old man’s last words voiced hisin- dignant and energetic protest tbat he was guiltiess. The more timid of the on- lookers became silent when they heard | thereby prevented from revisiting his former abode or from doing turther mis- chief. This custom, abhorrent as itap- pears, is rendered necessary by the na- tive’s indifference to death, but as this in- difference does not extend to the mut tion of his body its effect is wholesome. GEorGE K. FRENCH. e e e ————— e et wogen