The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 14, 1899, Page 21

pol Academy of on little or no howeve d Well, many what years W pach driver), morse far- petted and a four- were going pretty well raw red of whic ack-horse er attempted e first punt it in flood o-day—and h old pad- ong—p: 1z se sama a price t doesn’t to a dip heavy tim- ot of the of th g0 ? sald Sa: N ttle k on our right Yes, T remem- ck heap, and flicked at a r’s rump, who, back lived past, and we of Grafton, ttiement house, one straight, grass- one long, was looked upon even In quite a ‘“‘place”’—for it 1al meeting and a ank where once a r fro Sydney used f the gréatest im- population, who waterside to tire at the ving place on the produce coming of debarkation for t broke out at Sol- Yugilbar ranges, in the seven- , a young Scotch- for the ar the same ship in the plac: evening left same long strag- iy dwindled on lost itself in forest. : 10 compass. here were our dog, & zed kangardh and ck- one lost the ation of a after many covered the pitched he life dreds of more or le: of the rich “finds possess my miner’s ure as a relic of past lferino tled down to alluvial gold he work being nearly we at once started out to stumbl. on a blow-up , and following it hich we duly registered There were six of us office; a barriste; »w who had been Allen, a Royal from London who at rin the my- the fiddle and ; “Dago,” a Spaniard, an played divinely on concertin self. We picked up “Dago’'—as we called him— not because we cared about him, but because we wanted an extra man to up the six necessary to apply for a Ive-acre claim along the line of our reef, and Dago was loafing around doing nothing. That's how we roped him in. He was rather a sullen chap—dark, hand- some, with a bhia very white teeth, and a trick of showing them when he smiled, which wasn't often. He talked a little English of a sort, not unspar sprinkled with deitles and “big-big-I of a_mil a bend of the Yu put up a log humpy, s of stringy wn there one Sunday, 't make me welcome, I never went near him aga Dago, my mate and I worked in the same shift— two of us down the hole and one on top to wind up. Dago and T had a difference of opinion one night about a girl. It was Christ- and the had been havin a in the camp ana some The girl—there were only two altogether on the reefs—gave me a dance, and Dago di t like it. So we Dago and I, and he av his special brand of “Engll and hurt him. 1 ehead th now—where the haf; but our n 1 beéing down in the e went by and I h orgotten g ft. I thought Dag 1 too—but he ; and this is what happened. had sunk on the reef about 100 feet 1 we came on water, which made =0 fast that we couldn’'t work at the bot- of the sl t at all. There was noth- ng for it but to build a floor about thirty feet up from the bottom, and work at th level until the shaft below us was filled up. Then we would all turn to and bale out the water. So we got on This floor was simply made of voung saplings with the bark left on, laid loosely couple of cross-pieces, one at each ft, meagured rthe 1l elx feet by three feet. The country we were going through was as hard as fron and we could do nothing with the gads and hammers, so blasting. It ary, in order and prop: follows, for me to 3id it deseribe our work and the way we At the top of the sh 1 one of us hauled up iron buc from below, while the other two filled them with stone and mullock as it was broken out. The buckets simply hooked on to an fron hook, which in turn was s rope t was a windl, s spliced on to the end of a manila working round the windlass barrel, It was our custom when the bucket ws full and hooked on to shake the rope. \ fon i o Expert H. W. Wilson THE S s | \1\‘\\\ “I Made One Wild Plunge Into the Darkness as the Blasts Went Off Above Me.” + Gives His Opinion of 4 Submarine Boats. * R e R R e R R R S D R R B b R S S S R NE of the greatest of modern naval experts, H. W. Wllson, has recent- 1y been expressing his views with regard to the possibility—ef sub- marine navigation. The submarine boat, he does not hesitate to say, is slm- ply a freak of enthusiasts. “It is easy enough,” he writes, “with the resources of modern ergineering, to build a boat which shall move about flush with, or just below the water. The diffi- culty is experienced in directing it. If flush with the water the horizon is lim- ited, and an observer in the boat will have his field of vision cut off by the smallest wave. Below the water nothing can be seen. It has been suggested that the boat should be steered by a special sounding apparatus on the bottom which would automatically derote changes of level. Yet, obviously, for this to be of any use extremely accurate charts of the bottom must be prepared, and this would be a work of years. Another defect of the submarine is her low speed.” The chief submarines now afloat or bullding are the Gustave Zede, belonging to France; the Delfino, belonging to Italy, and the Holland and Plunger, belonging to the United Btates. The construction and method of working the first two are kept religiously secret. I have seen the outside of the Delfino, but that told me nothing. She was a red-painted, cigar- shaped craft of some size, and, when T saw her, was lying in one of the Spezzia baseins. She appeared to have an armored conning tower. I was told by an Italian officer who was showing me the dockyard that she is a complete success in every- thing but steering. Her speed below the surface is 8% knots. The Gustave Zede is one of the largest submarines that have been constructed. On the surface, with her rather tall con- ning tower projecting above the water, ghe can steam or ‘“mote.” for her engines are driven by accumulators—14 knots. Un- der water she goes & knots. She carries one torpedo tube and nine men. Service on board is sald to be both dangerous and disagreeable. The fumes from her accu- mulators affect the health of her men, and there have been curious explosions when the current was being run into her. The Holland and Plunger are boats con- structed In the United States from the drawings and designs of Mr. Holland, and if they realize half what the inventor claims for them should be exceedingly effective vessels. The Plunger is the larger of the two and displaces 168 tons when completely submerged. She has steam as well as electric engines. On the surfuce, using the former, she can cover sixteer kncts; submerged, using her dynamos, she can do ten knots. Like most submarines, ehe is cigar-shaped. She has a funnel for use with her boilers, which burn petro- leum, when cruising on the surface. The funnel can be lowered inside the boat with great speedsand ease. There is a conning tower protected by six-inch nickel steel. Two torpedo tubes are carried. The supply of air fer the crey can be drawn through an india rub- ber tube connected with a float on the surface of the water, or, if need be, can be derived from reservoirs of compressed alr carried®™n the hull. The boat is sub- merged either by pumping water ballast into the tanks or by setting screws in motion, when she can be dragged down or up. A boat very similar to the Plunger was designed thirty years ago by Mr. Holland, and was intended to attack our {ronclads, but somehow or other funds ran out and it was never completed. Mr. Wilson, as a practical naval archi- tect, bas no mercy for the vislonaries who are always Inventing naval freaks. One of the most extraordinary of these fancies, he says, Is the circular ironclad designed by the Russian admiral, Popoff, which obtained from him the name Pop- offka. Two of these vessels were built for coast service In the shallow waters of the Black Sea. Their names are Admiral Popoft'and Novgorod. Both are perfectly circular on the water line, but have pro- tuberances at the stern under water to enable them to steer. The Novgorod's diameter {5 100 feet, the Popoff's 120. The first has two ll-inch breech-loaders in a barbette in the center of the ship, the second two 12-inch guns on disappearing carriages. The Popoff has an iron belt running right round, 16 inches thick, the Novgorod one 9 inches thick. Bach ship is built with a forecastle to house her crew. The Novgorod has six and the Popoff four screws, but their speed is miserable, not excceding six or seven knots in fine weather. Moreover, they proved very difficult to steer or handle, which is just w! we should expect. They have done no service at sea, and never will, belng now laid up at Nikolalev, vertical® where they are likely to remain until bro- ken up for old iron. It is scarcely to be believed that so ridiculously unseaworthy a type of ship could ever find favor in England. Yet a rs after these naval abortions had appeared a British admiral projected a fearful and wonderful craft as his ideal She nearly cir- driven by turbines, to displace d to carey six 100-ton and ten a moade attery, revolving is perhaps the s ever designed by was to be 80-ton guns on two turntables. absurdest ship that w an inventor. A less egregious freak Is the curlous torpedo-ram Polyphemus, laid down at Chatham in 1878 constructed. € has a light the first real ram to be is torpedo shaped, but superstructure built upon her hull. 1 number of turrets for six , which resemble pepper- pots and give her altogether a very sin- gular appearance. She is protected by two and three Inch steel armor plating on her curving sides 1 when sunk to battle trim by means of ballast tanks lies prac- tically flush with the water. Her ram is very strongly built, and projects twelve feet from her stem. She has also five tor- pedo tubes, all submerged. In case she receives injuries which fill one or more of her compartments she can expel her water ballast and drop cast iron ballast, which 1s attached to her keel in sections, to the total weight of 200 tons. Service in her is not very comfortable, as her sea- men have to exist on what i{s known as potted air—that 1s, air artificially pumped into the hull. In battle she would be safe enough, being thoroughly protected. She has seen much service in the Mediterranean, where she is now in commission. The Americans have a not very successful copy of the Polyphemus in their ram Katahdin, built from Admiral Ammen’s designs. She is a ram pure and simple, having no torpedo or heavy gun equipment. In general out- line she resembles the British ship, but has a auierent shaped ram, chisel bladed instead of pointed. She has also no su- perstructure, but has thickly armored ventilating shafts, conning tower and funnel base. Her speed is only sixteen knots, as against the Polyphemus’' 17.8 knots, and it is not very obvious how she is going to overhaul the ships she intends to ram. s ‘Waggle—Yes, sir; a man never knows what happinesss Is until he marries— Mrs. W.—I'm glad to hear you say that. “And then it is too late.” W SAN FRANCISCO OCALL, SUNDAY, MAY 14, 1899 mediately wound up, and when the bucket reached the top emptied the contents into a paddock and then sent it down below again, In the shaft we were obliged to blast, 2s I said before. This was done by drill- ing holes in the rock, which were then loaded with blasting powder, the fuse in- serted, and then the whole tamped down hard and fired. The firing was done by lighting a bit of candle over the flame of which we bent the fuse. While the casing of the fuse was burning through, who- ever fired the shot would have plenty of time to put his foot in the hook, shake the rope and be holsted up out of danger. Then off would go the blast, and when the smoke cleared away we went down the hole again and sent up the rock broken out by the shot. After we put in the sapling floor over the water hole, we began to drive along the face of the reef, and had worked in about a foot, when my gold-mining days were almost brought to a sudden stop. My mate, the army man, had injured his hand, and knocked off work for a spell to get well. So Dago and I had to shift for ourselves. It was my turn down the hole, and T had succeeded after great labor in putting in two shots about eigh- teen inches deep, one each side of the shaft where we were driving. The labor of this was terrific, as, being single- handed, I had to swing my hammer—an 8-pounder—with one hand and turn my drill with the other. However, I got through, loaded up the two holes, bent my fuses over two pieces of candle which I lit, and then shook the rope as the signal to hoist away. Just as I put my foot Into the hook, however, I noticed one of the fuses had buckled up with the heat and turned out of the candle flame I stooped down to bend it straight again. The casing of the other fuse §lazed away merrily, and I knqw that in a few seconds the fuse itself would catch. There was no time to I turned to grasp the rope, but it gone! Looking up the shaft I saw appearing high above my head. I shouted to Dago, out he didn’t seem to hear me. The hiss of the fuses, which I had timed for half a minute, attracted me—fascinat- ed me. I remember looking helplessly them, and thinking I could, perhaps, drag them out. I tried; but, no. T had tamped them in €0 tight that they wouldn't budge. My God! What was I to do? it dis- 44+ Then, whoever was at the windlass im- 'l,, \¥ W'lf‘,"){-l‘l‘;f,“( i Y From a photo by Lindt, “hump; Bellew's Melbourne, ‘Australia. ' on the Solferino diggings, Australia. The barrel with the net over it was used as a meat safe. On top of it is the wind tell-tale. The hut was built by Bellew out of bark stripped from the red gum trees. The group in the foreground is examining a ‘‘prospect” washed in the pan. ew s Jack The man nex el Bellew, in those days ‘humpy” the “Main was a op,” as bbott of the mounted police in the diggings. ailor, had just gone into mining and called his the sign on the yree shows. There were about twenty seconds be- tween me and eternit I heard nothing but the infernal hissing of the fuses; and it seemed to get louder and louder. Suddenly an idea struck me. If I could climb up the shaft I might get above the worst of the bls T put my back against one face of the haft and my feet against the other and tried to work up that way. It answered at first. T had got a few feet above the level of the drive, when I slipped and came down with a thud on the TETF 4444444444434 44 4444434344434+ 4 4344404444444+ 4 4444304444444 4444444434044 4 4444444444444+ Dropped Out of Sight. + Remarkable Disap- 4 pearance of Prom- + inent Men, Bé R R R R e T P S P YOOI UUUUUN HE past few weeks have heen very able for the large number ances reported in the few ronet two princes 1 were declared to be *‘mi there were at the same time se in which less notable people cerned. One of these—the disappearance of a a striking re- se which oc- curred in the middle of last century. A domestic servant named Elizabeth Can- ning suddenly disappeared from her home a about 9 o'clock.on the night of 1753. There was not the ightest clew to her whereabouts, and every search made for her was in vain. al prayers were offered in churches that the girl might return to her home. Four weeks passed, and then, on January 29, hungry and half-clad, the girl knocked at her mother’s door. She told an amaz- ing story to the effect that she had been carried off by gypsies to a lonely house, where she had been starved and crueily treated by an old woman; and at length two gypsies were arrested. They appeared before Henry Fielding, the novelist, who was at that time a magistrate at Bow Street, and were afterward sentenced at the Old Bailey—one to be~hanged and the other to be burned in.the hand. The Lord Mayor was, however, by no means satisfied as to the truth of the girl’s story, and caused fresh inquiries to be set afoot. The whole town was moved, and the people were split up into “Can- ningites'” and “Gypsyites,” just as France is now divided over the Dreyfus case. It created as much excitement throughout the country as the Tichborne case, and ultimately the girl was tried at the Old Balley for perjury. The gypsies were set free, and after a trial of eight days, in which thirty-seven witnesses on one side contradicted twenty-seven on the other, Elizabeth Canning was transported for seven years. But nobody ever found out where she had spent those four weeks. The disappearance of the Archduke Johann of Austria is, perhaps, the strangest story in the strange annals of the Austrian court. There are those who believe the Archduke to be alive to-da but his fate will probably remain a my tery, He married an opera singer in Lon- were con- don, in spite of the fact that he was a nephew of the relgning Emperor, and set sail from Liverpool for South America, in a ship which he bought and christened after his wife. The vessel was reported from Monte- video, but since that time nothing has been either. heard or seen of the Arch- duke. He has disappeared into space, and though repeated searches have been made by order of the Austrian Emepror and the Hungarian Government, no news has been red since, man r's ago, s S at Monte: His mother, who died not long ago, belleved at the time of har death that her son was still alive. There have been several missing M. P.’s. Sixteen years ago Mr. Powell, the Conservative member for Malmesbur: disappeared in a balloon. The ascent was made in England, but neither balloon nor balloonist were ever heard of again, and it was assumed that both were lost in the sea. Mr. Douglas Pyne, at one time mem- ber for West Waterford, also disappeared at sea. He was last seen alive on a steam packet, crossing from Dublin to Holyhead, and though a handbag and some letters belonging to_him were found on board they were not claimed, and Mr. Pyne was never seen again. Another member's seat was once de- clared vacant because the member could not be found, but happily he appeared in time to stop the election. It will be Te- membered, t0o, that Mr. Carvill, an Irish Nationalist member, was supposed to be missing a year or two ago. He turned up in Australia. The circumstances surrounding the dis- appearance of Sir Arthur Curtis,a Hamp- shire baronet, are very peculiar. He left England with a gold mining party bound for Klondike, and disappeared from the camp after some trifling dispute about the cooking. He left the camp on oot, without food or weapons, at a place fifty miles from any other habitation. A thor- ough search was made, but no trace could be found of the missing baronet, vas seen and Lady Curtis has obtained leave to presume that he is dead. But it is quite within the bounds of possibility that ti baronet may walk into his house one of these days. floor of the shaft. I heard the saplings crack, but the noise was almost drowned by the awful hissing of the fuses. As I nbled to my feet a sapling broke under me and my leg went through the floor. With an inspiration I thought of the well beneath, Still that awful hissing! I knew I had only a few seconds now between me and utte nnihilation. T tore away at the saplings like a madman. My God! how hard they had been jammed down! I saw the water below me; the bright light from the top of the shaft was reflected in it. Was it my fancy, or did I face, reflected there, or w T water was about t low me. There was no time to hesitate. The only chance of safety lay that w v I made one wild plunge, and as I fell heard the splitting, hurtling, thunderin roar of the blasts as they both went off above me; then I knew see Dago's s it my own? 1 feet down be- R They told me it was afterward when I woke up. I s in my humpy, conscious of great pain. M head was all bou ; my left arm was strapped to a piece of wood, and I feit awful. Dago’s girl w. itting on a wood in the big chimney of the humpy, something over the f She came up presently beside me, and saw I was awake. Dimly the remembrance of something happening in the mine dawned on m “What has happened?’ I murmured, feebly. She bent down over me. ‘“‘Hush, you mustn’t talk. “Where's Dago?’ I wondered. I must have said it aloud, for she answered— “Gone!” “Where?"” “God knows The tears welled up in her Then it all got dark agair Wide Worla. t with head resting in face there ion. s were sunken. . v eyed the door into the grill room of the bar beside which he sat Upon h of deep de. = s seated a look By and by a friend happened in and slapped him on the shoulder. “What's the matter, old man?” he asked. “Matter 'nuff,” was the melancholy re- ply. ‘What?"” “Last week the warm weather inspired me and I wrote a lot of verses about spring and violets and balmy breezes, and now look at that.” He pointed toward the window beyond which the snow was piled in drifts.—De- troit Free Press. ————— Cripple Creek is great on etiquette. A man out there met a little girl with whose family he was very intimate and said: “Hello, Edith! How are you?"” The little miss drew herself up and re- plied: “I'se very well, but I ain’t Dphone,”’—Boston Globe, b ' no tele-