The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 6, 1898, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 1898 BROUGHT THE LAST MESSAGE ~ BACK FROM EXPLORER ANDREE How the Third Pigeon the Explorer Sent Qut Was Shot by the Captain of a Whaling Vessel. pigeon that w: tic Ocean on Ju! s and the message der its wing was explor to the unknown with | days previous. skin of the bird | were brought to | a month afterward, | a certaln amount | t about the bird being genuine. } There were some things lacking in the | age and a few things were con- d with the killing of the bird that ce the se oked a little suspicious, but all have een investigated, and there is no long- er any doubt but that the bird is one | that was freed by Andyee from his bal- loon. The Swedish Geographical Socletyhas | gpent months in research and investi- | gation, and President Gustave Retzius | as g forth the soclety’s verdict ven that the bird and message were both ine. The report has been published ision could be reached. This re- a long document, and contains ments from some of the greatest in Europe. A careful perusal of the report dis- the exact facts about the kill- of the pigeon, to get at which it | to interview many doz- 1 d messe is all acce parts of the ern part rope and Green- But all this only proved that the who killed the pigeon told the about it, incredi it may 1 yet incredulous people t be blamed. for when the cap- e killed the bird, knocking it whe it remained many s until he came back and picked 1 d a story that one > sea, ting. ace of it does really > to be true. wed h Geo- must be ac- »ms that when the er Alken killed the on the border minutes nd 2 o’clock helmsman_called who was sle range bird gaff! You must ., it iooks so que who ha ither 1 s curiosity up on de been sleeping ugh reply; but b ht he U 3 igan; but it se behind a block, the ot shoot without risk of e block. So he climbed up with his rifle, and shot it, bird falling forthwith into commanded the man on ) 1 a barrel fastened near | e mast, to come down and | and fetch the bird. The | aking so much trouble | Jittle bird which prob- | t to bed again, and | t in the water. Having | distance, following the | the Alken met another whaler. On | ing the story of the strange bird | . captain of the second whaler ex- | haps it is one of Andree's carrier aptain of the Alken, who did about Andree’s ascension, at ed to the region where the | , and sent out two boats | car After a while | one of the t ned, having been | 1 enough to find “the strange | which indeed proved to be one - pigeons carrying the dis- | - can now be no doubt about the | hess of the pigeon, for it has | n as far as human affairs | yven, that the bird was killedi and place mentioned. ssage, which was sealed in a | e tube, was as follows: July 13, 12:30 o'clock mnoom. Latitude 80deg. 2min., longitude 15 deg. 5 min. east. Good speed eastward, 10 deg. to south. All well on board. This is the third pigeon post. ANDRE This was written in Andree’s hand on wvhich was furnished Aftonbladet (Bvening vs) of Stockholm. The editors of the paper say that none of the blanks | could have into the pos: on of | any one but Andree. Furthermore, the pigeon was re zed by people who had seen it I was taken north. It was a young bird, and one of An- dree’s pets. He had gres in it, and proph d that it would come back, even if none of the others did. Making calculations from the dis- | patch and the place where the bird was found, it is shown that it had wn about 120 miles from the balloon vard Stockholm, and some twenty- four miles north again, from the near- est land to the whaler, on the gaff of | which it sat down, so utterly tired that | =) WIND CHART FROM JULY Fi0n Aagees FolArC¥D il Aponbledas Stockhelon v Sowd) i Facsimile of the only message that has been received from An- dree since he started on his fam- ous balloon trip in search of the north pole. The rounded figure is apsule in_which placed. It was - pigeon’s wing. a picture of the the message Wi fastened under | new cyclone, or “low,” started then in tence, which must have changed the direction of the balloon. It is therefore most likely that the balloon never lJeft the Arctic circle; that its passengers were obliged to land on Franz Josef Land or else- where, and that no news from them | can be had until next summer. | It is ot likely that they ever | reached Siberia or Alaska or any other | part of the American continent. | It is improbable that the aeronauts were driven as far as Siberia or Nova | Zembla. Had they reached the former country in July last they would ere this have been heard from, even from the remotest parts. If they had reached | Nov- Zembla their chances of return- ing to civilization by means of the seal- | ing sloops which leave the west coast | of that land as late as September | would have been good. It is not likely they were caught in | adverse currents and carried back to | Spitzbergen or to Greenland, for the | general movement of the storm was to the east. | There | to the | scent, attention. that the are three probabilities as approximate point of de- each strong enough to merit The first of these s “Ornen” remained in the air till Franz Josef Land was reached. Once over this land, the aeronauts would be able to distinguish it by the changed appearance of the ice sheet beneath them and by the black cliffs at the edges of the fiords. Here Herr Andree may have become convinced of the usefulness of waiting for further advance toward the pole, and in consequence decided to descend. In such e, and if the descent were | made in safety, the voyagers might it at once put its head under its wing | without great trouble make their way It could, of course, ught alive if the until it was shot have been easily o to Cape Flora, about the eightieth par- allel, where Jackson left a comfortable captain had known it was a carrier j house and ample supplies for a winter- pigeon. At first th that the captai to kill the bird at 2 o’clock in the morn- ¥ was already peeping over the horizon. well as investigating the genuine- f the pigeon the Swedish Geo- al Society has , at the same time making ef- to ascertain where Andree’s bal- s likely to be at the present time. To this end the log books of all the ships in the Arctic at that time that could be examined were carefully gone over so that it is known pretty well how the wind was blowing for several after the pigeon was tossed from alloon. m the information that has been obtained it is shown that there were | moths two active storm centers at that time. From Andree's position he must have been caught in the ght it appears strange | n of the Alken could see | far from Cape Flora that » been gather- | ind from one of | first them and carried away from the pole. | her I | ing. In case their descent were made so they were unable to reach the Jackson camp be- But it must be remembered that | fore the winter closed in upon them, his was in the far north and at that | Andree and hiscompanions might shoot hour at that time of the year the sun | enough bear, walrus and seal to sup- port them through the winter, and throw up a hut to live in, as did Nan- sen and Johnson in the same region. The second probability is that the Ornen came down in the ocean to the southeast of Spitzbergen. When Herr Andree was asked a few days before his start what would hap- pen if they descended in the sea, the adventurer replied coolly, “Drown.” A certain agtress, having been disen- gaged for some time, had packed her wardrobe in pepper to preserve it from She was recently called on in a hurry to take the part of the queen in “Hamlet.” Being rather late for her cene, she omitted to shake out 1 robes, and her dignified en- — LAST SIGHT OF THE BALLOON AS IT DISAPPEARED IN THE NORTH. rope drags and th balloon were broken just as it was rising and that the occupants of the car were at the mercy of the win It appears that a cyclone or “low pased from the west to the east, north of Spitzbergen during the three first 's of Andree’s journey. it passed west of Spitzbergen, the the 13th of July it must have beensome- where north of Franz Josef Land. The two circles on the map indicate points of the same pressure. At the height of 2100 feet the balloon must "then ve followed the direc- tions of the wind. It must have sailed toward the northeast, and after only & few hours perhaps entered the very light winds in the center of the low pressure area. I'rom here the balloon must have been carried further, the 13th when it again entered stronger winds. During the first hours it must thus quickly have been carried to 82 and 83 degrees latitude and then remained there for perhaps a day stationary. From here the balloon must have been carried further to the northeast. A I TO I3 INCLUSIVE. From the Time Andree Left Spitzbergen Until the Pigeon Was Released. VALS and arrows show the direction of the balloon could not have been carried toward the pole, but must have drifted either eastward or westward. The chances are in favor of the former. The circle shows whers the balloon was when the message was sent. The black disk shows where the pigeon was shot on July 15. The fact that the pigeon reached this point is conclusive that the wind tended to- » ward the east at the time the bird left the balloon. that Andree is now wintering somewhere in Franz Josefs Land. the air currents which indicate plainiy that This indicates that there is a hope It must be borne in mind that the |trance had an astonishin- effect. steering gear of | King, after a brave resistance, gave The | vent to a mighty sneeze that well nigh The 11th of | 12th it was north of these islands, and | jand the shrieks made the stage vibrate. All the royal courtiers and maids of honor followed suit sympathetically. Hamlet came on with a most sublime tragedy air, but after a convulsive movement of his princely features he buried them in his somber robe, while sneeze after sneeze was all that was heard. Amid the hubbub on the stage of delight from the audience, the stage manager between | sneezes rang down the curtain. WORKINGMAN'S TRIALS IN GUATEMALA, EORGE E. LLOYD has just re- turned from Guatemala after a pe- culiar experience there in quest of a chance to better his 'fortune. Some months ago contractors started to build a railroad there and Mr. Lloyd was one of scores of young Americans who accepted the contractors’ offers under a firm belief that Guatemala offered golden chances to ambitious young fellows eager to better their fortunes. “On December 17, 1896, he said, I shipped from New Orleans under agree- ment to do railroad work in Guatemala. The understanding was that I should pay for my passage down ofit of moneys earned after getting there. There were over a hundred other men who sailed at the same time on the battered old steamer Stillwater. Forty-four of us were put into one cabin that was scarcely large enough to hold ten. -Most of the time we were not alloweu on deck and the fetid atmosphere of our close quarters was polsonous to several of the men. “Numbers of the men were almost phy- but nevertheless they were compelled to go right to work as soon as we reached our destination, a deserted spot on the sea co: Cit; ‘It was there that we learned f first time that under the laws c:r 522 country we were ‘peons’ and rights of any kind until we had pshl?ldbngl‘: what we owed the contractors for pas- sage to the awful place. We were con- stantly kept under guard and fed only on the poorest kind of beans and coffee. “‘The treatment we received here was simply awful. We were worked from day- light to dark, and many a poor fellow un- used to the hardships dropped dead from exhaustion. “The nature of the country at this point was low and marshy, and fever spread among us. Scores died and were buried in the mire without any mark raised above them to tell who they were. “Attempts at escape were frequent, but as far as I know none ever succeeded. A Spanish commandant and a flle of Sol- diers were constantly on guard and quick- ly stopped and brought back any man who attempted to leave. “Those who attempted to escape and were captured were made to forfeit all they earned, and also to pay double | i sical wrecks after the seven days at sea, | ast about 150 miles from Guatemala | | put to work in the morging. The man The only pigeon of Andree th means of identification. at has come to hand. killed in the far north. on the edge of the ice floe, by the captain of a whaling vessel. he lettering on Drawn Fram a Fhotograph of the Mounted Bird. 19 THE ONLY PIGEON OF ANDREE THAT HAS COME TO HAND. The bird brought the only message that has been received from the intrepid explorer. the bird's wings was put there by Andree as & It w for their passage. The guard who made this capture was paid_$10. ““Thomas Judge, an Odd Fellow of Chi- cago, Willlam Strickland, a printer, of Houston, Texas, and Frank Story, an artist, of Coburg, Ontario. were never again heard of. They signed the labor contract, In Laminitas office, New Or- leans, agreelng to work out the price of their passage and advances, as working men on their arrival in the Spanish re- public. For there Spanish laws prevail, and a_man must ‘work out’ out his debts as a ‘peon’ to get a passport to travel that if I were. cast on a desert island with a bundle of lead pencils and plenty of paper I wouldn’t care a cent whether a sail hove in sight or not. I saw that you rieeded a shave, and that set me to thinking. Why do you shave, anyhow? I never do. Look here: “We’'ll suppose that you began shav- at 18 years of age and that you keep it up until you are 70. That makes fifty-two You have a heavy beard. We'll suppose that you shave RIGHT WING OF PIGEON SHOWING AND MEANS OF IDENTIFICATION. REE'S NAME WHICH WAS BRANDED AS A through the country and show he is a free citizen. ““This was one of the conditions of the | concession granted Sylvanus Miller for | building the road. The contractors were autocrats. Their will was law, “One night a_sub-contractor named M. H. Guthrie of San Antonio, who boasted he had killed his twenty-eight men, caused one of our boys to be stripped and placed in the stocks so that the mosqui- toes would torture him till he was again offense was dropping over from sheer ex haustion and want of proper food while working in the gravel pit in the hot, burning sun at 110 degrees temperature. “At last I pald up my passage to Panzos, Guatemala, and received my passport, at a cost of $39 for the horrible passugc there and $103 for supplies fur- nished me. — e WHAT SHAVING COSTS. The statistician who had been busy with his pencil looked up at the man who hates figures and said: “Didn’t have anything to do and thought I'd figure a little. You know | twice a week. That costs 15 gents a | shave, and you get rid of one-eighth of | an inch of hair. That will be a quarter of an inch a week, or one inch a month. To get rid of that inch you pay $1 20. An inch a month is twelve inches a | year, costing you $14 40. “Now"—and the statistician drew a | long breath—"twelve inches a year for fifty-two years is 624 inches, or fifty- two feet. It will cost you §748 80 to get that amount of whiskers out of your system. Then suppose you give a nickel | tip every time to the man—" But the fellow who hates figures had fled. | — e Dr. F. E. Yoakum_of Los Angeles, Cal., has applied the X-rays to the de- termination of gold in quartz. In a photograph he was taking there was a vacant space on the plate, and he plac- | ed a plece of gold-bearing quartz on it. When the plate was developed, the outline of the quartz came out on it, with specks here and there which showed the presence of gold. i E EORGE H. HOPPER, who died the other day on his Elmwood es- tate, near Cleveland, Ohio, be- came rich through his associa- tion with the Standard Oil Com- pany, but he was noted particularly for his striking individuality and quaint characteristics. In early life he was a tinner, and when the Standard Oil ‘Company or- ganized he obtained the contract for | making tin cans for the company through Samuel Andrews, a distant tel- ative. The Standard at that time was shipping all its oil to California in tin FFECT OF WEALTH UPON A TINNER. cans, and the contract proved quite a)account of ill health,-but JohnD. Rocke~ valuable one for Hopper. Later, when | the barrel business began, Hopper se- | cured the contract for painting, gluing | and gauging the barrels. In that way his name went throughout the civilized world, for wherever the Standard shipped a barrel of illuminating oil there was inscribed upon the barrel in letters of black, “George H. Hopper, Gauger.” Fifteen years ago he sold out his con- | tracts to the company and went on the salary list. He was delegated to manage the Long Island Paint Works and the Baycnne Glue Works. Time and time again he asked to resign, on were both alive and the Standard Oil Company existed he should be connect- ed with it in an official capacity. About ten years ago Mr. Hopper pur- chased Elmwood farm, near Cleveland, and started in to lead the life of a gen- | tleman farmer. Many amusing stories are told of him in_ this connection. He decided to turn it into a stock farm. The first thing he did was to | purchase Bell Boy, a stallion, for $51,- | Six months later Bell Boy and the | | 000. | stables were burned. Mr. Hopper be- came disgusted with the idea of rais- ing stock and gave it up. He was seized with the idea at one time that it was the proper thing for a gentleman of elegant leisure to own a yacht. He had one built and christened it the Florence, in honor of his eldest daughter. feller assured him that as long as they | ‘When the yacht was com- | = launched without ballast, and as it struck the water a big wave hit it and it capsized and went to the bottom | with the crew on board. The yacht | was raised, but Hopper never again put his foot upon it. Whenever any one wanted a_sail he caused the crew to an the horizon carefully, and if the indications were that there would be fair weather for three or four hours, he would permit his friends to go cruising in it for that length of time. Hopper’s whole career as a farmer was an amusing failure. He owned a | beautiful orchard of peach trees, and a | friend one day remarked that he would j come down in the peach season and partake of some. | “Do,” said Hopper, “do,” grasping | him by the hand warmly, “but let us | know when you are coming so we can | get some peaches from Geneva.” Hopper was of a nervous, restless dis- | two horoscopes. pleted it was found to be too big to en- | position, and had lived such a busy life ter the creek at the farm, and, there | that it was agony for him to be idle. being no natural harbor at the place, it | Therefore he employed men to build a had to be kept at Ashtabula, twelve | stoene wall around his park, not that the miles distant. Hopper hated the yacht ‘ wall was at all necessary, but that it from the day it was built. It was |gave him something to superintend. FATE OF THE MAINE AS FORETOLD BY THE STARS S 0) ///m\~ g il FITn Y AW/ SN2 HOROSCOPE OF THE MAINE'S HOROSCOPE OF THE MAINE'S DESTRUCTION LAUNCHING. STROLOGY is said to have cognizance of distinct laws under which such occurrences take place, as was set forth in the writings of the great English astrologer, William Lilly 250 years ago. As late as 1835 the Turkish Government launcheda large man-of-war, and, as was still the custom, the Suitan’s astrologers appointed the most fortunate day and hour, to be discovered by them, as propitious for the event. The two horoscopes, or charts, of the heavens accompanying this article show the positions of the planets at the exact times of the launching and the destruction of the battle-ship Maine. Without going intotheastrologicalsitu- ation very deeply, certain astrologers claim these two horoscopes show: First—That the launching would be accomplished successfully. Second—That the ship would meet with a sudden, violent and unexpected end, not at all in the line of her exposure to the ordinary risks of warfare. Third—That her destruction would be caused by fire from beneath, the fore part of the ship being chiefly injured. Fourth—That this would result from the act of an enemy. Fifth—That the ship would be wholly or partly restored to her original condition. = Sixth—That she would lose pearly all on board. The method of reaching these conclusions consists in a comparison of the Such comparison shows that at the time of the ship’s destruc- Mars was-in the ascendant of the horoscope of the launch- tion the evil planet ime in the fourth or “House of the Grave” at the moment ing and at the same t of the disaster. The evil planet Saturn of the first horoscope came in the twelfth or ‘“House of Sorrow” of the second. The sun was in evil aspect with its own place in {he first horoscope. Mars in the first horoscope came in the second to a con- junction with the moon. Herschel and Saturn had progressed in the second to the mid-heaven of the first, in opposition to Neptune, while Neptune in ‘the second had made the square of Saturn in the first. All of these are evil posi- tions and aspects, and fully portray the exact event foreshadowed 1n the horo- scope of the launching of the ill-fated ship,