The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 26, 1899, Page 24

FR CISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 1899 the Fields. 1883, by CI fton Johmson. Copyrighted the river, and here he tities of grapes, nall fruits over tr 17 overed bu would think is espec that w Hiding Deeper v York (the first an fron) wiil A D aph ws what kind h Pedro Is strewn the has a short dis On Ja getting elr fears ssel on chooner into with mer 1sco. went on the Little Moro rocks 2 ve people 10st their lives. The got intp lifeboats ap life rafts, but a and five of them were drowned before help came. aul wase also on her way from Ban Pedro to San Francisco, in command of Captain Downing, now master of the steamer Excelsior. On August 8, in a dense fog, she ran on Point P 5 the entrance to Monterey Bay, and became a ‘total wreck. o lives were lost. of study he on to the bir D in the Fo ty recedes from dohn Burroughs Liocking His Gabin Door, Bent on a Jrip Across long slope that sweeps steeply back from great quan- peaches and markets. good his little rciated with rest. .fo/m TBurroughs | - In Fs Cabin Ftome Sympathetic Character Study of the “WUboodland Senius.”’ fhose wooded wilds, and the desire grew on him to live among them. As a result he finally bought several acres of swamp land in & hollow high among the hills and entered with enthusiasm on the task of draining the marsh, clearing out the brush and stumps and building himself a cabin. The spot s @ mile and a half from the Riverby home and its only approach fs by a circultous and seldom-used wood road. Indeed, it is so sequestered that when strangers come to seek out the fa- mous nature writer they sometimes get Jost and wander for hours about the ¥ mountains before they find the lit- the house Spectal to the Sunday Call :em from experiments en carried on in the of lowa that we do not taste many of the things which we ted s. Itis eat at our daily m confidently When we that we merely smell them fee or tea, for in- them stance 1o not tas 1t is h they have on tl olfa we experfence. If the nc sed in the ordinary will not be from water or able to a we his made on many persons. 1id to be water, it rine. Water was s called coffee. was called | pork. Raw ape juice. prospect t00 Malt extract w y wine. Lard was pronounced butter. In short, experienced persons were un distinguish many common foods drinks when sen tions of smell were removed, and the odd clusion wa reached that a person ht even practice economy in eating by little merely blindfolding the eves and substi- ridges pork and beef for 1 r, tu {son, while if the further pry FEEOHOHDRDAORPAOXIKOXD X O ¥ & XO*O*E - HAVE YOU THE Curious Experiments to iken to close the nose, a JT BATTLE OF THE %@ E G HOH WRECKE By Clifton Johnson. tle glen where stands his cabin. Building ‘Slabsides.” This cabin s bullt on a ledge of rock at the borders of the swamp. It is a fair sized story and a half structure with one room below stairs and a loft above. Along one side is a broad plazza with shaggy cedar posts. The outer walls are of slabs, and this has led its owner to call it “Slabsides,” a name not altogether liked by the author's friends. They find the title too rude, but Mr. Burroughs says “It's a rough and ready place and why shouldn’t it have a rough and ready name? I can't stand anything that has Copyrighted, 185, by Clifton Johnson. #E5% SENSE OF TAS . the least taint of sentimentalism or af- fectation, and I _think a coarse-fibered designation like ‘Slabsides’ will grow con= stantly more significant and pleasing, while one would tire of a name that was merely pretty.” The interfor of the cabin 18 hardly less rustic than its outer aspect. There are no carpets or rugs, the unhewn joists of the floor above are exposed and have still thelr natural covering-of bark, and much of the woodwork in the walls and in the furniture s of vellow birch saplings. It 1s all of Mr. Burroughs’ planning and his persopal labor has entered more or less into nearly everything. “Slabsides,” John Burroughs' Gabin Home. HOAOHOHOXOXOAORORDAOAOROXOXS E? READ THIS. Prove That Our Sense of Taste Depends on Other Senses. itfon of qu > and vine re would pass r for the most very wes for good coff costly wine. The experiments which led to these con- clusions were ried on & Professor G T. W. Patrick of the University of Iowa, who has just con uni ed some of the results of his work to the American Psy- Professor Patrick was accuracy -in his of the persons enabled to work by the f: he experimented as an anosmic that is, absolu devold of .the sense of sme He was enabled thus to determine which sensations were those of taste and which were smeil. He experimented also on normal subjects and some of the re- : surprising only four simple taste sensa- sweot, bitter, sour and salt. It is said by some that the only two, sweet and bitter All which are nsations tastes are complex re smell, touch, temperature sight. The means by which we disting almost all of our common foods and drinks is not the sense of taste so much as it is the sense of smell, touch, temperature and sight. Al the fine differences by which we distin- guish the varfous fruits, meats and drinks depend nc n taste 11, but upon se other senses. . Pure sensations of taste add hardly more than a certain emo- tional element to the complex sensations Sweet things we call “goo and bitter things we call “bad,”” while s: add a ¢ n piqu when not exc . A partial proof of these facts may be given by merely blindfolding the eyes and closing the nose and taking various kinds of foods and drinks Ifito the mouth with- out swallowing them It will bhe ound that s quite in 1 tinguish of the c and drinks. It is always difficult to eliminate the sense of smell in normal subjects. Pro- fessor Patrick was able, however, by ex- perimenting with ct possess sense of smell whatever, and compz the results with those obtained from nor- mal subjects, to get more accurate results as to the more fmportant part played by smell in_distinguishing foods and drir It is, of course, generally known that what is pc v mistaken for the taste of coffee, tea and wine is only their aroma or odor. By these expertments, however, it was shown that coffee and tea have a . which is simply bitter, and 1t and sour 7, which is pleasing ot tast cannot be distinguished from a weak s luticn of quinine. A weak Infusion coffee or tea, however, cannot he di tinguished from water. Even with nor 1 subjects, with the eves and nose closed, twenty experiments with coffee ave the following results: It was called offee” once, “bitter” eleven times, quinine’. four times, “tea’” three times, and “milk” once. PN Burroughs at Home. ‘The feature of all others tr pride in is the great stone ch 1s warranted to draw well in all weath- ers and not to smoke a fireplace that in amp times not made merely for the company of i of the olden blaze and fits evenings. most always crane and other k about the bor Slabsides is Mr. through the ye months. There h woods him st softened roar of a w ears from some distan whispers in the 1 birds sing and tw and at night t mer day calls from t spring the eve volces of the frogs autumn the katy ant with thi fly over the hollow & a roundi since Burrou mold, an cabbage, ve ble As a Housekeeper. r Whoever comes to visit this ls friend or 1ble receptic hermit, w rs about It s a domestic f o ¥ ooy e st d the b Nature and its close about alway gs are not wholly -uncivilized, for sure of a hospi time appro to lunch. . Tt Mr. Burroug a cold sp there, half immersed Wrecked New York as She Lies Upon the Beach at Halfmoon Bay After a Year's Buffeting by the Waves. Rrom & Photogranh Taken Spectally for the Sunday Call ches you larder is never is an exp aration of a rustic dinner. ng bubbles from the K FOR EXISTE a black teaket ttl and [ s of th Bur eats, and the solitude of “living agree He with in the mi The rocks and in and shut out 1 and an occasional eagle mountain top. ridges come to the borders of the clea ing and wild ducks frequent the creek in He alway If mile away. untamed > -raises far sweet corn and other sid dJohn Burroughs at Work in His Gabin. The Greatest American Writer of Nature. Copyri, by Clifton Johnson. e certain tin pafls containing fresh meats, milk, etc. In the kitchen cup- board are canned goods, prepared foods, honey and other eatables. Then the is the garden always at hand to draw from, and in a near nook is a henhouse, and the flock that makes the clearing its me furnishes the cabin table with eggs. I do not think Mr. Burroughs loves housekeeping for its own sake, but he ac- cepts the work for the sure of the accompanying freedom. Not much time is sy on cook ng, bed- making and the enough to make the place pre able and keep it e of free easy wholesome- t he takes It te of {ts having ude rivals those place was 1 n on chil eplace, b warmth ded from nd in a s ness. The day as a whole is for farming, writing and meditation. A Day’s Work With the Author. The first duty after the breakfast things are out way is to tramp down through the to the village in the valley to get t At the same time Mr. s Riverby and gives directior 's work on the farm. If it is at the time of the grape harve her important tasks in progress he may stay all day to help and superintend, but a rule he n returns to his beloved Slabsides. e rest of the morning he spends in reading, writing and thinking, with some interruptions in-the way of the neces- sary preparations for dinner. Afternoons walks through the woods or walks in Part- his celery swamp or perhaps makes & second visit to Riverby. returns from the lowlands to his cottage among the rocks with a progeny are sense of relief. He is glad to get away Jin sur- from all connection with what smacks of hurry and busin To quote his own words, he has *an unfailing satisfaction the simpler, ruder things of life, and jus celery, as soon as I step within the walls of Slab- s my cares slip away from me and I feel as if I had escaped from something rassed me \ the v the ridges he ppoorwill In the s 1 with the T nd in the reson- awks Yet the been drained M a garden of its rich in ) or with healthful in- stincts help sharing this feeling to soms t. You come under the spell and vou, too, would like to build a Slab- sides in some quiet forest dell. But. after all, the life would probably not fit an- it does John Burroughs. He is 1 ildren and he finds a g alone with nature that few. are ‘in other one of ppiness in bei Not in its ery EOXOKOHOHS > On July 14, 189, the Pacific Mall Company’s steamer Colom- bia was totall on Pigeon Point. She was in command ot Car now superintendent of the Oc mship Honolulu, and was h 3 Pan- cisco. There was a dense fog on the water at ing of danger was the crash of the anyth! ., remains of these vessels. In some few ha fed timbers remain to show that Not so in the case of many a storm has raged portion of her masts and some of her e the hull from the companion forward fs intact, and to all ship was launched. Amid- hes through the hull and 1 and keelsons. ome to York, however. ships tr ing remains but the ke he New York was formerly the Amerfcan ship T. F. 1d was built in 1883, being the first sailing vessel ever bullt of fron in Am She was never a lucky ship, and it was in hopes that a change of name would do y with the hoodoo that induced her owners to rechristen her “New York.” or way here from Hongkong when she was lost. rly in the morning of March 13, 1 the people of Half- moon Bay saw a ship ding inshore. e people aboard did not appear to know just exactly where they were, but finally the vessel was out and stood out to sea. How it h pened was ne overed, but the ship's course must have been changed again during a thick fog that came up, and that night at 8:30 o’clock the New York was hard and fast on the beach of Halfmoon Bay. Ca abody, now master of the American ship Wills- cott, a narrow escape gold to zoma spect < was salved, but the hull remains blundering. not She was on h p- d a valuable cargo, which was t of the merchandise ument to somebody’s e *People who handle the yar have but little idea of the years of study and exp that were necessary to secure the standard yard measure,” observed an official of the coast survey. “Bird, a famous scientist, made the first standard ,mml 11:. 1760, but the English Government did not legalize it until 1824, “Ten years afterward, when the House of Parliament in London was destroyed by fire, the standard yard was lost, and England was again without a standard yard of length. Sheeps- banks next made a standard yard measure, which the English Government adopted, and, so that it could not be again de- ved by fire, four authorized copies were made of it. One f ese was deposited in the Royal Mint, another in the Royal Society, another in the observatory at Greenwich, and the fourth was imbedded in the walls of the new House of Parlia- ment. = The standard yard measures which are owned by the Gov- ernment are copies of the original, one of which is owned by the coast survey. The United States Naval Observatory has one also. “The delicacy of its construction may be gathered by the fact that a change of temperature of one-hundredth of a degree Fahrenheit has been found to produce a sensible effect on the length of the bar. “The copies of the standard are made of bronze, for the rea- son that bronze is less affected by temperature than any distinct or single metal. *“The cost of the construction of the original standard yard measure involved the labor of Bird and his assistants for neariy six years. |sneag;;-hnnks was eleven years in producing the ac- curate coples which he made from Bird's ori) ure- &ents.”—Washington Star. s ana