The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 9, 1898, Page 23

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1898. wn here in a d so much monster is gth and i boy’'s ar is has rour and placed like ut it has none of the | of a llzard. It tlesnakes thick and le bites— p ngs or strikes at its victim, bites—it means busi- 1sp of the jaws Is som. marvelous 1ything once caught 0 double rows of teeth vise-like steel trap. -] saying that a genu- r will not release a piece s 1 the big auses a thun- 1l summer. It is tory that it attempt to force release its hold animal, for that d and the rep- tresh venom tile in a rage manufactur in its poison sacks in the mouth and injects it into torn flesh The first wher monste it has b s always killed en a human being and | and savages on | 1 | roof of the | the cut and | and then the jaws are cut and pulled | ay from the wound. The Maricopah dians do not attempt to release & tribe who has been monster from the and 1t is generally end the sufferings | victim among them blow on the hea no cure for the ison of the reptiles. the Gila monster r When att.cked about half his length and € ose to the ground, but rear- head and neck in a fie man- ‘m e a black, forked tongue over gth darts swiftly out of a 1y time wide and it emits a h pointed of its body beneath it. 1If this demonstration fails to repulse the aggressor the Gila mon- ster will not hesitate, when thoroughly angered, to make a snap at the foe, be r the rough s it man or beast. Tt bites precisely as a rattlesnake, but none c? the agility of a serpent. But it will never attack anything that it does not require for food unless first interfered with. If es- cape be near in the shape of a burrow in the ground or a hole in the rocks large enough for its accommodation the moneter will discreetly retire from view and remain hidden until the ene- ones or gravel | the pat to of a b a a Gila monster with the wood. s retired. of tke few authentic cases of re- from th of a Gila monster Vail of Phoenix, of the best-known attlemen In the Ter- While Mr. Vail was engaged in of his cattle In_the Gila ¢ Arizona in 1890 he took 1 one day In a chaparral. He resaddle his horse after the | while picking up a saddle | i the hot earth his hand was Gila monster that had | is one 1 moment before. Of | ail kn instantly that he a doomed man. His to his aid at once. The | s killed and the ja | from Mr. Vail's hand. than it takes tc pen these | words the man’s arm was bound tight at the elbow to check the flow of blood, wound cut open and strong ired in, while very co- whisky were poured | down M throat. He was put | on a horse and accompanied by his| cowboys role like mad for fifteen mi. | to the h of a pnysician in Tucson. Several brief stops were made 1) force | more liquor down Mr. Vall's throat and | to pour ammonia on the wound in the “or three weeks Mr. Vall lay n lite and death at the | 1 in Tucson. Phy for 3 i even from Los thing that money could | ce suggest was done for | He had a strong, vigorous | stitution, and in the course of a few He is e cattle business in the Tev- one in the Southwest has the wonderful recovery of fror. the bite of a Gila ed consuita- nong the Yuma Indians is a squaw 5 bit by one of the reptiles y vears ago. What decoction to the woman to save her what the ny physician at the tates garrison there did for the | e is now now known, but she | v whites and Indians in » town of Yuma as the only person that locality that ever survived the | f the monster. The wo- whi n has shriv- y to of the other the been a semi- r since her accident. For sev. | years she claimed to be deaf from | ffects of the reptile’s venom. seriod of sufferin~ after a bite by | ster and before death comes | relief is from twenty | s. A surgeon at | yrt Apache says he knows of the case ig, strapping Irish private in the rmy service who was bitten by a Gila er while out hunting one day and n five minutes. A teamster who d merchandise to Tombstone in s picking up mesquite boughs for | mpfire and unconsciously picked up He was arm and died before saw the reptile’s nd cut the teeth and jaws ound. Where the afflicted person survives an hour or two after the bite the agony is described as awtul | to witness. ! venom of the rattlesnake is| numbing in its first effect, | and after the first half hour is not so | ry painful, but the poison of the Gllfl,l CO000000000000000 and sq a minutes to two ho bitten in the uppe | | i | i LEARNING LANGUAGES GRAPHOPHONE. B Novel Club Formed to Prepare Parlez vouz Franeais? | Sprechen sie Deutsch? | No? Then buy a graphophone. That | is what a club of nearly 300 students in | this city are dolng, all in dead earn- | est, too. During work, at the breakfast | table, in thelr bedrooms, they will only | have to ‘“‘press the button” and cun- ning lttle machines will speak out a volume of French, German or Spanish | with all the fluency of the mother | tongue. The mazes of the inextricable | “irregular verb” will vanish. The charter members of | this novel organization met last week in Dr. Simpson’s office at the Y. M. C. A.| building, and formed what will be known as the ‘1900 Club.” The prime object of the club is to master one or all of these languages before the Paris exposition in 1900, which many of the members will at- tend. The graphophone method will be used to this end, and the system prom- | i to work wonders in the study Df! all foreign tongues. Charles Freeman Johnson, official | stenographer to the Midwinter Exposi- | tion, first conceived the idea of organiz- | ing such a club, after ten years’ expe- rience in using graphophones. He is now organizing 1900 Clubs” in Los An- geles, Chicago, Detroit, Toledo and cities of the Bast. Nearly 300 young men and women in this city have en- listed for the work. The objects of the 1900 Club are: First—The study of the French, Ger- man and Spanish languages, conversa- tion, reading and writing, with compe- tent teachers and through a novel plan of home study. using the graphophone in the club and at home. Second—To collect all necessary in- formation for those desiring to visit the Paris Exposition in 1900, to procure | Many ph s a person_hurt by the | Walter H. Vail says he | owes his recovery to a prompt use of whisky and the application of am- | Dr. E. G. Harper, who has been among the Hualipl Indians in Mexico | for several years in the Interest of sclence, says the savages there cer- | that the great spirit Moz-no-ha, who | the monster goes through the human sys- tem with lightning rapidity and causes unspeakable pain and excrucialing agony from head to foot. The victim seems to be paralyzed, and yet every muscle, bone, sinew and particle of | gray matter {8 keenly alive to intense pain. The sufferer’s head seems as If it would split open. Very few persons bitten by a Gila monster can speak after the first fifteen minutes, but un- consciousness seldom comes until a few minutes before death. Phy ians say that the poison sets up a tremendous ction of the heart, and the victim really dies of heart failure. The person who has been drinking to ex few days or a few hours before s in- jured by a Gila monster is almost sure of death half an hour after the bite. | in the Territory s worse imulants are tainly have a decoction that is a cure, if administered immediately, for the bite of the Gila monster found in that region. “I have Mexican decotum,” cently, “but from the anti-venom Harper _ re- it was useless. Pres- ident Diaz says, however, that it can be had, and he will interest him- self to get it for the benefit of the peo- ple of the United States, where a death from Gila monster bite happens once in a while. “The most wonderful feat I ever saw accomplished anywhere,” continued Dr. learn this tried to Hualipis said Dr. Harper, “was down on the edge of the desert wastes in Southern Sonora sev- eral years ago. It was a test of the power of the anti-venom preparation of the Hualipis. The chief medicine man claimed that he was a wizard, too, and dwelt on the peak of Orizaba, came down and helped him defy death from the most deadly poisons known among the Indians. At the time of the test I witnessed, the medicine man sum- moned a dozen of his assistants around a caldron, which was steaming and boiling with roots, leaves, horned toads, rattlesnake heads and a score of other kinds of articles. I was told that this was the anti-poison medicine. In an hour the stuff was cooled and ready for se : U The chief medicine man drunk lib- erally of the strange tea and then his body was liberally washed with some liquid that made it impervious to poison. The body, bare to the walist, was then painted in red and white stripes. A fox hung from the walst. The medicine man bounded into the arena with a ‘ho-ho,’ brandishing over his head two Glla monsters. Then he varied the pro; -amme by twirling them around his bocy and permitting them to crawl all over him. He teased the reptiles, poked his thumb into their mouths, and even put them up to his face. I am sure the man was bitten several times. We looked upon this daring feat with horror, while the In- dians viewed it with superstitious frenzy, and showered upon the medi- cine man all the presents they could command.” “The most awful paroxysms of pain I 00000000N0O000C00C for the Great Paris Exposition. tions for members on railroads, steam- ships and at hotels. A trifiing monthly fee will be charged, for which members will have advantage of a permanent club room, fully equipped with foreign books and periodicals printed with English translations for students, competent teachers in both beginners’ and ad- vanced classes, graphophones and cyl- inders containing the language lessons, with opportunities for conversation practice, together with all the informa- tion and special advantages the club may obtaln concerning Paris and the exposition of 1900. The charter members of the 1900 Club are: Mrs. H. C. French, Mrs. E. P. Jordan, Mrs. Nellle Holbrook Blinn, Mrs. E. C. Colnon, Mrs. John Gillson, Mrs. M. J. Donovan, Mrs. De Lyons, Dr. J. M. Simpson, Mrs. G. W. Cloud, Mr. H. J. Dorlan, Mr. W. E. Little, Mr. F. Flawith and Charles Freeman John- son. Mr. Johnson has a graphophone in his bedroom, and every night and morning it is, “Au revoir!” “Bon jour, Monsieur” from_the metallic little teacher at his bedside. “If 1 have only a minute,” said Mr. Johnson, “I set the graphophone to talking; while I am washing, dressing or undressing, the machine always has the last word. “We intend to make our club a Chautauqua of languages. In our club rooms we will have graphophones for the ume of the members who will hear from little cylinders nothing but the best of French, German and Spanish. We will have competent teachers to dictate to the machines, which the members of the club can then hear as long as they like. Graphophones are cheap. and we will all have them in our rooms ready for use any hour in the HANGS ON TO Like a Bull Dog While The Poison Acts AND HAS TO BE CUT AWAY. ITS VICTIM <) = PR 5 ever saw,” sald T. W. Brooks, a well- known miner and prospector in Arizona, while he was in Yuma recently, “was that suffered by a Mexican scout ten years ago. We were camping along the | Gila River one night in summer and at | about daybreak one of the mules we | had tethered near by raised a commo- | tion. The Mexican, who had taken off his boots because of the excessively warm weather, jumped up and ran to see what was the matter, while I lazily rolled over for another nap. In a mo- ment I heard piercing shrieks and was on my feet before I knew it. I snatched up the camp lantern and ran to the | Mexican. He was dancing about on one foot and pointing speechless to some- thing dangling from the other. I looked and saw a Gila monster." | “In a trice I had my hunting knife out and plunged it again and again into | 2000000000000200000000000000C000000000C0C00C0CC0O0000C00000 DIVISION OF AFRICA BY THE GREAT POWERS TERRORS OF THE GILA MONSTER the reptile’s sides and back. It hung|eyes were staring wide open and his on like an English bulldog, and when | hands were clenched. 1 saw that it was dead I by mai force | “In half a.. hour h was insane with pulled the monster away from the foot, | pain. His legs and then his whole body now dripping with blood. By that time | swelled. It seemed as if the wounded the Mexican had become calmer. He |foot and leg would burst open. He tried knew what it meant, and he simply | to talk in Lis delirium, but his tongue sald between the pains that darted from | was so swollen that he could only utter the wound through his , ‘It will | whistling sounds. In an hour and a all be over in an hour. knew we half he was dead. I have sometimes had there no antidote for the poison, | dreamed I saw all that scene over and he told me to give his pay to his | again. The Mexicans in Phoenix said wife in Phoenix and to go and tell her | that the fact that it was in the middle how he had died. In ten )minutes his|of a long summer when the man was pain had increased so much that he was | bitten was what made the poison so unable to open his mouth to even gulp | venomous.” down whisky that I pressed to his pur- [ Captain B. E. Lewls, recently retired B EE from the United States army, has lived ple 1i said no one could imagine the excruciating agony he w in. Per- | seventeen years in Arizona and New spiration rolled from “is body zs if he | Mexico. “Tt is an absolute truth,” says were in a Turkish bath, and he rolled | ‘that the hiss of a Gila monster-is | back and forth on the ground. His ' deadly to some creatures. I would not Contest Between England and France for the Rich Table-land of the Interior and What the European Governments Purpose Doing With the Territories They ONDON, Sept. 24.—It seems only | vesterday that public attention was centered in Cuba. Then it shifted to China. Now it is| fixed on Africa. General Kit- chener has swept all before him at Omdurman. Gordon is avenged. With the masterly hand of a genius Kitchener has moved persistently for- ward. After Omdurman, he advances witheut delay and challenges the French claims in the lower Soudan. He orders Marchand and Liotard to evacu- ate Fashoda, bringing the Anglo- French dispute to a crisis. In the south, Cecil Rhodes makes the wonderful claim that he will bufld rallroad from Cairo to Cape Town. For the next fifty years nation building prom- ises to center in ‘“‘Darkest Africa.” Will the French give way? How will the Europeans divide up the continent? What will the effect be on America? Can Cecil Rhodes carry out his gigan- tic plan? All these questions suggest interesting possibilities. The story of Africa as she is to-day | a DIAGRAM SHOWING HOW FRANCE @ND ENGLAND ARE SEIZING POSSESSIONS | The fight for territory is between England and France. flag flies over three million square land three parts. makes up in quality her lack of quantity. A great low area in the north; an immense table land extending from Have Seized. many jointly holds Lake Tanganylka but Lake Nj the lakes of Zam- besi, the lakes of the Upper Nile and Lake Tchad are controlled by the Gov- ernment at London. But England has the fertile valley of the Nile, which, after frightful mis- management by the Egyptians and years of recuperation by the English, is now holding its own. She has the rich country of the Uganda and_th surrounding provinces of British East taken by an Englishman, but most un- fortunately, acting under the Belgian flag. Had England stood back of Stanley, had she listened to his plead- ings and not driven him to Leopold of Belgium, there would have been an un- broken line of English territory to-day through the center of Africa, from the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope. The Congo Free State makes the single break. Stanley found it. Belgium has established a protectorate. Africa. She has Cape Colony, with its | Still the obstacle can be overcome. farming lands and its ranch And, | Leopold is working in entire accord lastly, she has the richest part of that| and’s plans. He has es- hed E in Golconda of the world, the diamond and gold fields of South Africa. ngland’s policy of “the open all trade matters. He will There is one mc fact ahout Eng-|place no obstruction to any plans that land’s territory and an important one | will lead to development and civiliza- because it bears directly on the rail- | tio: road of Cecil Rhodes’ imagination. e value of Egypt commercially lies in the Nile River. The rising of the river and the consequent fertilization of the land renders two and sometimes three crops vear mossible. This gives an immense agricultural output. The Soudan is immensely fertile and when once under control will play an impertant part in the world’s wheat supply. South Africa will probably be devel- The sweeping victory of Kitchener will not warrant in calling the Soudan Egyptian—and therefore British terri- | tory. A glance at the map will show | a straight line of England's territory | from Calro to Cape Town with but one break. The waving of the Union Jack through all those 5000 miles of terri- tory is prevented only by a mnarrow | strip of 540 miles. That land was| IN AFRICA. In actual area, France holds the most. Her miles, while England’'s control covers only apbout two millions. But Eng- Roughly speaking, the continent of Africa is divided into the Sahara desert southward through the continent; the mountainous region along the coast, the passageway to this table land. The first, the desert of Sahara, is for France; the second, the meat of the continent, third—a sort of rind—belongs for is the oft-repeated story of British brains and British pluck; the story of that greatest element in the Anglo- Saxon character, its colonizing faculty. The fight for territory here is between England and France—and England wins as she always has won. Look at the map of Africa. In actual area, France holds the most. Her flag flies over three million square miles, while England’s control covers only zbout two millions. But England makes up in quality her lack of quantity. Rough- ly speaking, the continent of Africa is divided into three parts. A great low area in the north; an immense table land extending from the Sahara desert southward through the continent; the mountainous region along the coast, the passageway to this table land. The first, the desert of Sahara, is for France; the second, the meat of the continent, is for England; the third— a sort of rind—belongs for the most part to Portugal and Germany. The principal rivers, lakes and har- bors belong mostly to England. The only first-class harbor not under Eng- lish control is Delagoa Bay, under Por- tuguese rule, and on this the British lion has fixed a gaze which means that he will not be denied. France has the Upper Niger. Leopold of Belgium holds a part of tHe Congo River. England holds the rest of the navigable water day. Close to 300 students are now in- gpecial rates and advance accommoda- terested here.” is for England; the the most part to Portugal and Germany. 15 4\'? \Li\;wf QANEAN SHEA ENGLISH gae ¢ FRENCHID ways. Rnglish gunboats patrol the lakes. The Congo Free State and Ger- 23 NE MAD TO CHOP THE REPTILE'S HEAD AWAY | want to risk my life by trying the ex= periment. was once sitting on the | porch of my headquarters in the Apache war and I saw my little black- and-tan dog nosing with something in the sage brusk a few yards away. I looked and saw a Gila monster dart | forth and hiss in the face of the dog, | which sprang back at the same mo- | ment. I ran and killed the reptile ana the dog went off to sleep near by. It was dead in two hours. Several per- sons and I examined the dog carcass carefully and we could find no evidence | of a bite on the beast. I am sure it | was something in the hiss or breath of | the Gila monster that killed the dog. | _“A Mexican ranchman near Fort Bowie told me that he once saw a sheep attacked in the same way by a Gila monster and the sheep went.into a stupor and was dead in a few hours. POOOCCCCOOO0000CR0 oped faster than other portions of the Dark Continent, because it already has such a splendid start. The district in- cludes Cape Colony, Natal, Bechuana- land, Matabele, Mashonaland and other smaller provinces. Cape Colony has been known for centuries. Orig- inally settled by the Dutch and after- ward occupied by the English, there | exists in the colony a strong element | of political friction which sometimes | takes the form of an outbreak. The | temporary setback to Cecil Rhodes in the elections of last month is but an- other example of the pertinacity of the Dutch. Farther north, the English are gus'hing into the vast territory of Rho- esia. Almost surrounded by the land of the English and with nearly a half of their populations composed of that na | tionality are two independent countri | the Transvaal and the Orange Free | State. That they will hold aloof from | England’s control for a number of | years is unquestioned, but that they will be absorbed finally under a protec~ | torate seems inevitable. | _ This then is the condition of the Brit- | ish star of empire in South Africa. Sit- | uated almost entirely in the temper- | ate zone, rich in farming and grazing lands, containing almost fabulous min- eral wealth waiting to be developed, it stands to-day England’'s greatest Afrie can colony. | What progresshas Cecil Rhodes made with his railroads, and does that prog- ress warrant his claim of a railroad from Cairo to Cape Town? In Egypt | the railroad has followed the British advance. In 1896t reached Wady Hal- fa, a distance of 800 miles from Cairo. In 1897 it was pushed forward to Ber- ber, 300 miles more. The capture of Omdurman means the immediate con- tinuation of the railroad to that point. The necessi ies of a big army, the im- mediate need of occupying in force the whole of the district, calls for rapid construction. The present railroad in Egypt _has been built almost entirely for military purnoses, and its chief characteristic is military utility. After the war has closed. the branches of commercial value will be advanced on the foundation alreadv laid down by the army. In British East Africa a line has been planned to run from Mombasa, on the coast, to Lake Victoria. Already the first hundred miles have been oven- ed and trains are running. The who e distance to be built is 656 miles, and it is estimated that less than five years will be necessary for finishing the work. Some of the details in the run- ning of the trains are interesting. They start and return on alternate days. journey inland is up grade, and speed is twelve miles an hour. prices are in three classes, the first being 38 rupees, the second 19, and the third 3 rupees 3 annas. A feature that may appeal to Americans is the names of the stations Chaugamwe, Samburu, Maji Chumoi. What possibilities for the intelligent brakeman. The telegraph is the scout of the railroad system in Africa—its advance agent. Along with the iron rail from Cairo to Capetown runs Rhodes’ plan of a wire line and it will be finished in a few years. The end of 1897 marked the first real step in Cecil Rhodes’ plan, when the rallroad was extended northward as far as Buluwayo. The financial success of this enterprise has so encouraged Rhodes that he has petitioned the En- glish Government to guarantee the in- terest on the next section, the line from Buluwayo to Lake Tanganyika. This line will proceed northeasterly to Zumbo, passing through the Sanga coal flelds. Crossing the Zambesi on a ferry it will pass through Northern Rhodesia, opening up a new territory peculiarly fitted by its altitude for white colonization. Finally, it will 1 strike the lower end of Lake Tangan- yika. This new portion will cover a distance of 800 miles and the expense of building it will be £2,500,000. The guarantee of the Government would enable the company to obtain the loan at 3 per cent instead of 5 per cent. As the line to Buluwayo was a paying one from the start, there are good rea- sons to believe that the Government will not lose money by such a guaran- tee. One ‘other great factor will shortly contribute to the development of Africa. This is long-distance trans- mission of electric power. Already the waterfalls of the Nile at Assuan have ben harnessed and power is being trans- mitted overland to varicu. points. Alexandria is being lighted by trans- mitted electric power- i