The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 18, 1897, Page 18

18 FRANCISCO CALL, SU JULY 18 oMM ool many. years it. has ssemed to me that the problem of (ransportation was to be solved by a railrora in the trouble. They were so slow as (0 be abso- | lutely useless. In my invention it is dif- ferent. I do not think there is any limit air. The elevated roads were the first| to its possibilities, and to my own kncwl- step in this d rection, but they were 100 | edge cars move over it at the rate of a bulky. Imade up my mind that some- | mile a minute without the slightest dan- 1h ; thing could be founa s0 the scheme I bave ented, whi resu :ople know a little sometk abiut aenas isportation may at istrue) thatcontinuous aerial ca t would do, and | ger to the pi D is | lled a continuous acrial cable speed- | upon, or at least patented, is a meanrs to | ssengers in them. Another thing no one before bas hit | make the motion of the carriage of an | aerial e- J unpleasa railvay even. The cars have nt way. have long b the trouble with them t the cars which ran upon them had to moveat | a slow speed. T ay tiie secret of the | * two cables above to act as guides and & he carriage a smooth run all the goo 1 points of the ol shioned continuous ial cable r are kept, and in addi- tion comes high speed. How the motion becomes even is drives each wheel, the current being led to the motors through one cable, the other cable being used for the reverse current. Other means of propulsion might be em- ployed, but electricity seems to be specially adapted for this purpose. Special and simple devices can be used it necessary to make the motion exceed- | ingly smootb. Ordinarily my invention will be operated with two cables, but there is nothing to prevent the use of two ca- bles below for the trucks torun on and steadiers. The wheels run over a smoothly | curved cable rail and thus there is no jar on this account. o digress for a moment. It must be| An electric motor | prime necessity and also that speed with- out safety is worthless. available. ;%“ s My method of making the cars run smooth is not to heve the cable stretched so tight that it jumps up at the least rememberea at all times that speed is the strain, neither to have it so locse that it The best kind of steel cables, one inch in diameter, can carry, at a span of 200 feet and a sag of five feet, about 1500 pounds with perfect safety. There are cables in the market ranging in size from about a quarter of an inch up to two inches in diameter that are perfectly suitable for use for the aerial cable road, | and as single wires or a combination of | cables can easily be arranged, a very wide | always pitched and jerked about in a very | margin in weight of loads is therefore By ny ‘method of giv: | swings and.sways about, giving a corre- sponding motion. The idea of it all is simply this—to have either alternating or non-alternating supports. By alter- nating supports is meant a series of sup- ports where the supports of one cable alternate with and are placed midway be- tween the supports of the other cable, so that the point of the greatest depression caused by the sagging of one cable shall come opposite a support of the other cable. Non-alternating supports are sim- ply the reverse of this. NOVEL CABLE RAILWAY THAT RUNS HIGH UP IN. T would act as a counterbalance to the un- ruly wheel and promptly bring it back on the cable. So far asieaving the track is concerned, the only thing which really must be taken into consideration is the inertia of the wheels and arms, which are The main bulk of the upon the cable, Yising and falling to cor- respond with the plane of the cable. But the truck 1s so made that no matter how much the wheels themselves may change in position vertica!ly the car itself will be maintained at a level. Thus it will ran as smoothly as if it were upon the surface of | all light in weight. the ground. It may be objected that the wheels can leave the track when running over a support just as easily as if the supports were placed side by side; but this is not | so. The moment a wheel riding over a The two cables form a track, as stated, along which the car for passengers, or the { receptucle for freight, is transported. As the two cables are constantly varying in height, owing to the sagging thereof b;- tween the points of support, the caris supported upon the track by means of what is called a compensating truck; tqat is, a truck which provides for the varia- tion in the vertical height of difiierenl sections of the track, and in this way | maintains the car at a uniform height. Each oi the tracks by which the caris | supported consists of a pair of truck | wheels, which are pivoted on studs—that is, the connecting cylinder of steel which | runs from one truck wheel toanother, | generally known as part of the axle. These are held in the ends of armsand connected with the wheel at eac: end by the hub, which holds ths truck wheels | down to the cables. The truck wheel is carriage has no tendency whatever (_o eave the track; consequently, even if there should be—of which there is mo | danger-—such an accident as the jumping < | of a wheel and then settling down on the cable, the occurrence would really not be noticed by the passengers. On the other hand, if botk wheels and all the rest of the carriage had to follow the ups and downs of the cable, as is the case with inventions which have preceded | mine, the speed would need to be very slight because the whole system would be subjected to undue sudden strain, sway- ing up and down of the cables, ete. Un- der my method there are no such evils to | ! be feared. I firmly believe that my cable speedway is the legitimate successor of the elevated railroad. The elevated roads are costly to construct, buiky and ex- the cable the wheels on the other side and | pensive to run. The aerial cable speed- below would be pressed up as if it were | way 1s nothing of the kind. It hasall support would fly straight out and leave adapted to run along and be supported starting to go up an incline, and this | the advantages of the elevated with none W P g of its discomforts. It will darken ne screets, and it would do away with the nuisance of the sieam engine. GEORGE SIEURIN. YOUNGEST MUSIC COMPOSER IN CALIFORNIA ESTELLE BAKER, street, ¢l esL composer s to be the you stelle Baker, who lives at 547 Mission | tion of her claims will show that she has certainly considerable right to them. aud a considera- | Whether or not she is really the very CALIFORNIA’S YOUNGEST COMPOSER AND POETESS. youngest composer might be open to dis- | cussion, but.considering the work she has done there is no doubt that she is a genius. DEATH OF A FAMOUS OLD DOG Jip, the dog detective, for many years,a boatman got to them and took them s smart- on Ano fter living famous in San Franc sco io ness, is dead. passed awa Nuevo Island a short time ago there for about three years. 1 le Hundre member Jip. He was known uader the various titles of *“The dog detective,” *“The dog life ? “The dog paper-carrier” and *“Tom’sdog.’”” His owner was Thomas N. Butwell, a ent keeper of the Gov- ernment fog “ignal at Ano Nuevo Island. Certainly no dog was ever mure sagacious than Jip nor more useful. Hedid all that was expected of him, and was continu- ally surprising people by doing things that were not expected of hir. Jip was born in Oakland in 1883. He was a full-blooded setter, and had a most amiable disposition. When very young he showed remarkable inteiligence, and in some unknown manner seemed to know what was right and what was wrong. S His first act of what might be called heroism was certainly strange for a dog. He was down near the Twelith-street dam in Uakland one day when the water was bein: letout of Lake Merritt and suddenly caught sizht of two kittens that bad been overtaken by the rising water. The two little animals were struguling and crying and wonld most certainly have been drowned if it bad not been for Jip. The dog seemed to know that something was wrong and plunged into the rapid cur- rent at the risk of his own life and soon rescued the kitlens. Jip was a great traveler, and was as likely to be in Oakland as San Francisco, although his home was in the latter place. On a certain occasion a littie boy was lost from his home in Oakiand, and, in spite of the efforts of the police, friends and detectives was not found for tour davs, and then it was Jip that did the work. How the knowiedge came to the dog is one of the mysteries of nature. A policeman passing near a certain part of WeL. sreet was attracted by Jip's barking and rucning toward a large sand- box in a vacant lot. ‘T'he policeman fol- lowed the dog and tnere was the little lost bov lying in the bottom of the sand- box, almost dead from bunger and ex- pesure, The greatest'act of Jip’s lite was saving a boy from drowning. The youngster had fullen off the ena of Missivn-street pier into the bay. Jip happened to be near and jumped in after him. Aftera hard | struggle the doz caught the boy by the coat ané managed to keep bim afloat until 1s of people in this City will re- | | ashore, the boy being unconsciouns. As an assistant to policemen Jip was the best thatcould be bad. He has helped arrest dozens of wrongdoers, and on dif- ferent occasions was the first to be sus- picious of guilty people. At a certain time the dealers at the Clay-sireet market were troubled a great deal by thieves and the police were unable to locate the cal- prits, One day an officer was standing on Mer- chant street when t¥0 young men passed carrying a basket. Jip, who happened to be near, commenced to growl and fol- lowed the men. The officer stood and JIP, THE NUEVA watched and in a few minutes saw the men leave the market wits Jipafter them. The dog caught one and the policeman the other, and it was found that they had stolen a number of fine geese, And so the stories of Jip’s achievements mizht be continued indefinitely. He saved the lives of several people and helped arrest as many more. For a leng time Jip's owner, “Tom” Butwell, used to be boatman for Twe CAnn and took the papers across the bay to Ouakland every | morning. For a while Tom used to go to the vress- room for the papers himseli, but soon Jip got into the habit of doing the work and never neglected to show up at the proper time. The bundle of Oakland papers was not =0 large in those days as:t is now and Jip used to carry them in his mouth. After going to Ano Nuevo Island Jip was quite contented for a long time, but tinally began to miss the life of a big city. He would never allow himseif to be alone, DOG DETECTIVE, WHO RECENTLY DIED AT ANO ISLAND. but stuck close to his master and mis- tress and always accompanied them on their trips to Pescadero. Last month they cams to San Francisco for a visit of a few days, and on their re- turn found Jip dead. He was unable to bear the lonesomeness caused by their ab- sence and succumbed to grief. Less than 15 years of age and a composer of music and songs. Not a laborious worker who manages to pick out a mel- ody on the piano and then with difficulty transcribes it, but one who writes with ease and rapidity and really seems to feel inspiration. The accompanying piece of music will give an idea of what this youthful musi- cian can do. To be sure, the work has a few crude spots and one or two errors, but on the whole it is fully equal to the greater portion of work of this kind done by professionals. Ceriainly, es a song it is superior to most of those sung in our theaters. One of the most unusual features of Miss Baker’s music, for a young vergon’s composition, is its simplicity. ‘There is no attempt at elaboration to the detriment of the feeling, She simply writes what she feels, and, perhaps, he greater elegance will come later with greater skill that only comes from long practice. There are other interesting features of this young person’s composition, the origin of which can easily be traced to the influences of her life. Carefully consid- ered it will be noticed that there is an | ecclesiastical sirain to all of her music, even though the words are of a nature not atall so. There is not much to write of a person’s life when that person is only a littie over 14 years old, but aiter all those are the years that make the rest of the life. . Estelle Baker was born in Vallejo, but came to San Francisco when an iniant, and has lived here ever since. She at- tended the public schools, going through the grammar grade. Of musical educa- tion she has had none, more than the teaching of the notes, which was done by her mother. She has always attended Sunday-school and church, at which places she heard the best music it has been her fortune to listen to. “Oh, yes,’’ she said to 8 CALL writer who visited her a few days ago; *Ifind it just fun to write music. At school the | teacher used to be always scolding me for writing songs instead of attending to my lessons. It aoesn’t take me long to write a song and put the music toit. Here’s cne, ‘I am mad at you,’ that I wrote iast night. I made up the words and wrote the music in about four hours. Ididn’t play ituntil this morning, and I found it all rght, “How many songs have I written? Weil, Idon’t know exactly. See that pile there. That’s about sixty, and guess 1 have a few more somewhere. I am work- ing on a couple now that are going to be sung at one of the theaters. No, I haven’t published any before. I publisted a march a few months ago that sold pretty well. It was a simple thing that I called ‘Francesca,’ although I don’t know just why. ‘Here’s a song I have just finished that is going to be published soon. I have named it ‘Yellow Kid Mine, It is a coon song and everybody who has heard it seems to like it. “Instrumental music is lots easier to write than songs, because sometimes you can’t think of just the word you went. But I would rather write songs, when I feel iike writing at all. If Idon’t feel like writing I can’t write, Sometimes I try to make myself feel like writing, but it won’t work. “It's funny how these things come to you. Sometimes I will be looking out of the window and an idea will come into my head. Theun I sit down and write and don’t stop if it takes me all night to finish it. That part of the work is what 1 call HAVE YOU SEEN MY Words and Music Gomposed and Arranged by Estelle Baker. MAGGIE? Written for “The Gall” duly 11, 1897. fun. “I don’t know whether I like to write | the words or the music best. It just hap- pens which I happen to be doing. When Iam writing the words I alwuys write the words first, and have the music a sort of running through my head. 1 feel then as if the notes were of no importance, and I would like some one else to compose them. Then when the verses are done and Istart in on the notes I feel as if I never want to do anvthing else and can hardly tear mys:lf away from them.” “What do I expect to do with all my music? Oh, I am going to—well, I don’t know. I won’t do anything else but write music and if I can’tdo that, why, I guess I will do it anyhow. Mamma en- courages me to write and I think I am improving. Of course, maybe I think my songs are better than they are, but I know they are better than other girls I know can do. Why I know lots of girls who have taken music lessons for years, and I guess they know more about technique than I do, but they couldn’t write a song if they were pmd for it. I write songs just as I feel and always try to make them as good as I can. If other people like them it gives me pleasure, and it may be that after awhile I can make a profession of music. On a summer’s day not long ago A man came up the street. His hair was rough, unkempt aud lone, He was rags from head to feet. He tottered up to our back door And asked us for some bread, And if we would not give him place To lay his weary head. And when we'd given him some food He bitterly sobbed and signed; He laid his head upon his arm— My Maggie, dear, he cried! It was the same old story o’er; The child was brought up well, Was spoiled nd pumpercd and indulged, Till one sad day she feil; She ran off with & worthless chap, Who promised her great fame, But when her reputation fled Then no one spoke her name. The sorrowing mother passed away, The father, by despair, Was almost crazed and wandered round And asked folks everywhere: CHORUS. Have you seea my Maggle? 8he’s my ouly girl—my only child, Ilove her more than all thiis world, kind folks Pardon me because thus Ido cry, But she is my onlv cbild, And I mustsee her ere [ die, CHORUS. Have you seen my Maggie ? She’s my only girl—my only child. Ilove her more than all this world, kind folks; Pardon me because thus I do cry, But she i5 my only child, And I mustsee her ere I die, Not long after Maggie came Back to her childbood’s bome; The house looked lone, deserted, drear, The weeds around it grown. She stepped inside the door and saw Her father in his chair, And as she softly came to him She found him dying there. “Dear {ather!"” then she cried in grief, +’Tis sunshine after rain”; He smiled in joy and gladly said, *My Maggie's home again.’ CHORUS. He had seen his Maggie— shx:d“m th: runaway ; ¥ e’d come back to him, tho’ late She came back to father to eheor'l:l‘mml.nd; And when he died he was satisfied, (pain; For Maggie was home again, v b N