The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 13, 1898, Page 21

GUSSMANN e THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1898. 2 e - STRANGE EXPERIENCES & LONE MAN "o DEFENDING CLIPPERTON ISLAND. i i 1 Mt | \,\\\(\h\\\w\'\\\w A\ A\ N N \ THREW tropic se It req battle. He NATIONAL AND PRIVATE CONTESTS FOR CLIPPERTON ISLAND. tion of the national sovereignty to which Clipperton Island is now being considered by Judge Seawell. The man who land, unless vague accounts of a seventeenth cen- by a French navigator are allowed, will be in court at of Per , Captain Permien, is a rugged seafaring man over 70 vho has followed the sea for more than half a century, and ¥ -4 as a master of a vessel. 1g early in the eighties in the re- od it. His attention was first at- the Caleb C ove tigated its character and saw that it con- e of guano. He raised the American flag over it ssion of it in the name of the United States of America. ned to San Francisco he repcrted his discovery to the State er the provisions o2 the Federal statutes and claimed he deposits of guano. r he transferred his claims to the island and the deposits to a ation which was formed for that purpose, the Oceanic Phosphate he defendants in this suit. inst the company and the six directors, and is to se- f the contract by which the stock was transferred from nd to secure what it is claimed are Permien’s property rights d. e vexed question of what country has the right to exercise sover- y over the island has been inves ated. The Secretary of State Jeen communicated with. But, contrary to what has been reported, the Secretary does not say that it belongs to France, but simply that ac- cording to some gazetteers and similar publications, the island was first discovered by a navigator sailing under the French flag. It is not known, t Fran as ever laid claim to the island, or ever performed sovereignty co rning it. The suit is a scission has It w ver charted until after Captain Permien’s discovery, and ® never f charted until within the past year, when the United States © Hydrographic Office accepted the very careful and complete chart made © INSECTS THAT ARE MUCH STRON ?. adapted The hou the earwig were made the subjects of the scientist’s tests. The most convincing test to show a fly’s strength was made with a parlor match. Mr. Fly lifted easily a splinter of wood seven times longer than himself. .Com- by Paul Henning, who spent several months on the island in the em- ¢ of the Oceanic Phosphate Compa es more pluck to face his sit- uation than it would to advance into For he has soldiers to face, too. ay be snapped up any time and ® 5 e ® & & PIIPPOPPOOPOPIDPP and one ills that might befall a man | on a bird-inhabited sandspit in semi- | 28090099000 00000000060600664 | | taken in chains to a Mexican dungeon. | And any one who has read about the | way political prisoners are treated in | tropical American countries knows | what that means. | A Mexican man-of-war took the | plucky fellow off the island the other | day, but he jumped overboard, swam | back, hoisted the American flag again | and to date has successfully main- tained his position on the island. Sev- | eral nations claim the island. While | these big ones are battling over the | sovereignty of the place a number of | corporations and capitalists are disput- | ing in the courts here the commercial | rights of it. For the island is rich in| guano deposits. | Theodore Gussmann, the manwhohas | self marooned himself on Clipperton | Island, is doing his level best to hold it for the United States, and incident- ally for his employers, the Oceanic | Phosphate Company. | The other day a French man-of-war“ touched at the island and brought | away letters from Gussmann in which | he detailed his novel situation. One of them was to Captain Baettge, a friend in this city. It was of a business na- | ture and dealt with the best way to preserve certain rights in the island. Another letter was to a particular friend, in which the self-marooned man relates the awful lonesomeness of his position. Some idea of this lonesomeness can be obtained from the accompanying | pictures which are drawn from pho- | tographs taken last year by Newland | Baldwin of this city. It was then that | Gussmann's story began. | At this time Gussmann was one of a party sent to Clipperton Island by the | Oceanic Phosphate Company on . the| steamer Navarro. The party remained | on the island some weeks putting up buildings and collecting guano and | then departed for San Francisco, leav- ing Gussmann and two companions, named Nelson and Smith, behind to | take care of the place. The title to the land and buildings was given into | Gussmann’s custody. A few weeks after the departure of | the Navarro the Mexican cruiser Dem- ocrata hove in sight and after great difficulty landed a party of marines, | who pulled down the American flag | flying at the time, hoisted the Mexican | colors and took possession of the place. Gussmann and his companions were invited on board the Mexican cruiser and told they must remain. Smith and Nelson, yielding to the seductive in- fluences of certain beverages, readily agreed to leave the island. In fact, it | is most likely they were tired of being | there. Gussmann, however, demanded to be put back on shore. This was re- fused, and he was ordered to give up | the letter and other papers pertaining to the ownership of the island. | Seeing that argument was | useless and that he would soon be seized by the Mexicans, Gussmann jumped over- board before anybody could reach him. It was a most dangerous thing to do, and the Mexican officers, thinking he would surely drown, allowed him to swim toward shore and he was soon lost to sight in the breakers. But Gussmann did not drown. In- stead he made the swim of his life, bat- tling for hours in the breakers and eventually landing on the beach in an almost lifeless condition. He did not attempt to stand up, for fear the Mexi- cans would see him through their glasses and send back for him. Instead he lay flat on the beach until darkness came, when he mustered up strength enough to crawl to his cabin. In the morning the Mexican cruiser was gone and Gussmann was alone on the reef. There is no more desolate spot on the face of the waters than Clipperton Island. Strictly speaking, it is a cir- cular coral reef, without any particular outlet to the sea. There is, of course, some seepage through the crevices of the reef when the tide rises and falls, but not enough to have any particular effect on the waters in the lagoon forming the center of the island. As a consequence they are dead and stag- nant and half filled with guano. Dur- ing the rainy part of the year, when the weather is stormy, the lagoon is stirred up occasionally by the waves These three men were CLIPPERTON Besides these two little palms there is not even a spear of green on the island. The enemy to vegetation on the reef is the terrible voracious land crab. This creature is very offensive in many ways. It is little larger than the crabs sold in the San Francisco mar- kets, but it has longer and stronger claws and can travel over the land at a lively rate. Nothing eatable escapes its voracious maw if it once gets a hold on it. It devours everything that washes up on the reef except boards and pebbles. For companions Gussmann has the myriads of sea birds that swarm over the island and two pigs that were res- cued from the wrecked Kinkora. In the letter to his friend Gussmann makes an attempt to describe his feel- ings when he found himself alone on the reef. Nelson and Smith were land- ISLAND AS SEEN FROM THE ANCHORAGE | preference to breaking his agreement | and going home. Instead he wrote a | letter asking to be released from his | contract and rescued. It is very like- ly that this will be done, as Captain Baettge is making efforts to get a schooner and go down.after him. In the meantime Gussmann is alone on the reef, hoping and praying for re- lease. Some idea of what he has to pass through can, se gained from the letter to his friend. This is written in German and is quite long. Whatever it may be in the way of chirography, it is certainly a most graphic descrip- tion of the lonesome days he passes on the reef. Such ordeals have driven many men insane, and it is hoped that Gussmann will live until help comes. “Days are all alike to me,” he writes in one place. “I don’'t know Sunday from Monday, and sometimes think Smith, Nelson and Gussmann, left on Clipperton Island by the Oceanic Phosphate Company. The captain of =& Mexican man-of-war tried to carry the trio away and lay claim to the island. Gussman jumped overboard and swam ashore, hoisted the American flag and has remaiped in possession ever since. The cocoanut palms are the only bits of vegetation on Clipperton Island. About half a dozen more were planted, but they were devoured by the voraclous crabs that overrun and destroy every green thing on the island; only iron, rocks and boards escape them. The pigs were saved from the wreck of the Kinkora. [From a photograph taken especially for The Call.] washing over the reef, but during the dty season the water and guano simply cook. On one side of the reef there is a flat sand pit a few feet above the ocean. On the opposite there is a jagged rock that rises probably 50 feet. The build- ings of the phosphate company are on the sand spit, and it is here that Guss- mann makes his home. On this desolate reef there are only two green things visible. They are palm trees that have been coaxed into existence by guano collectors. To save them it was necessary to plant them in boxes with sides about 18 inches high. l + ed by the Mexican cruiser and event- ually made their way to America and told their story to the world. But they evidently thought Gussmann had been drowned in attempting to swim ashore, for they said nothing about him. He was alone on the reef and remained so until November 24 last, when a French man-of-war touched at the island. Gussmann now has a chance to leave, and his three months of solitude had taught him what he would have to pass through in case he remained. But his duty to his employers triumphed, and he chose to stick to the island and look after the property on the reef in it is all a dream that I will wake out of very soon.” Gussmann then goes on to describe the way he lives. He says that he | wakes about daylight every morning | and always thinks it is the morning | before. The first thing he does is to go |out and look for any signs of a sail {or a column of smoke. He -always keeps a pile of dried wood handy so that he can light it at a moment’s no- tice for a signal. For days he meets disappointment. Then he struggles | with himself. All about him the | breakers roar and the sea birds scream. He walks about and wonders OFF THE REEF. what to do. Shall he build a raft and attempt to get away? He starts to do so and then changes his mind. Many days Gussmann neglects to eat, although there is a plentiful sup- ply of food and water on hand. He simply passes his time watching tha horizon. Will the day ever end so that to-morrow will bring the hope of seeing a sail on the horizon? It is all he lives for. And so the days pass, each so much like the preceding one that all become intangibly woven together. It is tha same surf beating on the same beach and the same sea birds scream mo= notonously. The days go on and the sun rises and sets, but life is at & standstill. And yet Gussmann bears this bew cause he feels that it is his duty. London Underground Rallway. In designing the new London undere ground railroad, the engineers have hig upon a new scheme which may be adopt= ed hereafter on surface roads. There are no grades in the tunnel, but at various points the roadbed itself has been in- clined, so that it can be used as a brake or as a speed accelerator for trains. Om each side of each station is a 3 per cent gradient, rising on the approaching side and falling again to the level of the road on the departing side. This unique method gives a retarding effect to all trains ap- proaching the stations equivalent to the application of considerable additional braking power, while materially aiding in the acceleration of all trains as they leave the platform. Furthermore, the saving in power necessary to secure the requisite rapid acceleration is by the adoption of this plan calculated to amount to about 33 per cent. This is a point in modern railway practice which might well be adopted by surface roads. The new London underground follows the line of greatest traffic in the city. It runs from Liverpool street due west, un-" der Holborn, High Holborn, Oxford street and past Hyde Park as far as Shepherds Bush. The road will receive passengers from the great underground central depot, now in course of construction by the Central London Railway Company, between the Bank of England and the Royal Ex- change, brought in by the main lines of the London and Northwestern, Midland and London and Southwestern railroads. It is especially at this point in the city that crossing streets is a perilous task, and the railroad company is now engaged in constructing a series of subways im- mediately below the surface for the con- venience cf pedestrians and asapproaches to its own station below. From this cen- tral depot will radiate not less than five underground tunnels, some eighty-five feet below the surface, each feeding a separate and equally populous district of éhe great agglomeration known as Lon- on. —_————— The Movements of Tall Towers. It i{s announced that the Eiffel tower has been vibrating to such an extent that many_ of the excitable Parisian public have become alarmed lest it come about their ears. Colonel Bassot has found that the expansion and contraction of the iron in the tower causes it to describe a tor- ‘| sion movement between sunrise and sun- set, which traverses a curve of four inches. A backward movement equally as great occurs during the night. But in spite of this movement, the tower could not fall. It is quite as rigid as though constructed of a solid piece of steel, and, if anything, more so. Our own Wash- ington monument moves backward and forward several inches every day, vet nothing short of a convulsion of nature could displace it. The tall tower on the Philadelphia City Hall is also noted for its capacity to lean to one side. The great dome on the Capitol building in Washing- ton, D. C., moves quite a distance every day, and in this connection a curious ex- periment was tried to show how far out of lumb ‘it usually goes. A thin wire was ung from the inner topmost point of the dome. On the lower end of the wire was a plumb bob, in the lower point of which was inserted a lead pencil. It just touched the floor of the rotunda, on which a large sheet of white paper was laid. As the dome moved it dragged the pencil with it, and, consequently, left the tracing of its course on the paper. An oval fully a foot in length was marked out every day, showing that the apex of the dome of the Capitol moves that much in twenty-four hours. Z A FLY CAN EADILY - LIFT A MATCH FIVE TIMES LONGER THAN ITSELF 1APS you know how far a flea can jump and a man similarly equipped with muscular th could leap over houses or across wide but very few people appreciate the sur- strength with which insects of certain endowed. Pictures will convey the idea re vividly than descriptions. In the ac- tions the powers of three common These bdictures are »mpa painful. paratively speaking, the match would represent to the average man a piece of timber about thirty-five feet long and as thick as his body. That would be considered a wonderful feat of strength. The fly did his feat, too, it must be remembered, leased his grasp of the match whenever he became tired or obstinate, or when the strain on his wings became Naturally there can scarcely be an accurate comparison between men and flies: but as far as possi- ble the scientist tried to substantiate his experiments by very careful observations and computations. the fly experiment two matches tie but only a fair load was used for purposes of comparison. Another exhibition of insect strength was made by tying a piece of cotton to one of the fly's legs. done without crippling Mr. Fly, as the thread was loose- ly tied, the bristles on the insect’s leg preventing it from optionally, COTTON 12 TiMg OF THE FLY. Hg CAJH 2P CARRY 1 N \CA fN,“'b"L e G0y, AMAN SAY SEYINHEIGHT WOULD FIND IT VERY DIFFICULT TO MORE THAN LIFT ACOILOF ROPE 12 TIMES HIS DIZE. slipping and could have re- ately is Indeed, in together were lifted, did and This wag wings, but failed. These experiments so other trials were m: The match weighed four times as much w« of string a little off. what the fly did. to show power in movi: e to show weight-liftin, as t the cotton half as much. MATCHES (D 24 TIMES THAT OF THE ABOVE EARWIG. HE CAN DRAG THEM WITHOUT MUCH EXERTION. First the fly tried to raise himself by flapping his Gradually cutting off the cotton till he could raise himself' it was found that the string was about twelve times as long as the fly's body. a saflor of average height and strength, give him a cable sixty feet long and as thick as his leg at the thickest part—could he lift such an immense cofl, much less soar through the air with it? Now take Yet that proportion- The earwig, one, of the beetle family, was chosen for another series of tests. After harnessing the bug to a dray was constructed of card- rd, with the side folded down at right angles and two IF A HORSE WERE AS STRONG COMPARATIVELY HE COULD DRAW THIS LOAD OF BEAMS. pleces of lead pencil, minus the leads, were pivoted by To this the bug was atached and the tests of strength began. ‘He dragged the cart easily af- ter a moment’s curious investigation. were piled upon it until there were eight. These eight matches weighed twenty-four times as much as the earwig and their combined length was thirty-two times longer than his. comparison a horse may be utilized. means of wires. sect balked. doubtful if an ordinary draft areas; much proportionally. ability. insect cart and he drew that, too. meant, a match was four times longer necessary fol to divide the Then an English penny was dropped on the bug's To figure how much this the experimenter ascertained that the penpy weighed as much as eighty-three of the matches. "is T purposes of, comparison with horse-) fimmmwlengthn.qunwmtotlgg'n: AN EARWIG CAN LIFT STRIP OF PAPER 12 T s culation show: Then matches Then the in- this feat. For purposes of 1t is more than much. animal could carry as by the insect. than an earwig it was ment. If AND HOLD SUSPENDEDA TIMES \TS WEIGHT )posedly pro GER THAN MEN IN PROPORTION TO THEIR olZE rtionate in bulk and length. This cal- that the astounding number of 330 solid pleces of timber, each as long and as thick as_himself, Would be required were the horse to attempt to duplicate As a last experiment the earwig, suspended, held in two of his feet a strip of pa?" twenty times longer than himself and fully as broad, A picture of a dozen men upheld by one of their fellows illustrates proportionately the strength employed welghing twelve times as The rope necessary to bind together a dozen men for such an experiment, were it ment, need not be counted, for t pleces of paper than the one referred to in this experi- Moreover, there was no compulsion in the ma: the earwig voluntarily seizing the ribbon of holding it tenaci goulble of accomplish- e insect lifted heavier tter, paper and ously.