The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 27, 1902, Page 6

NCISCO is rarely at a I tion. Situated as she is ern shore of the c continual stream c ouring in and out of harbor, she has gath- d made of the a duality peoples g re sun, from th, ctic to the flliterate Pata- Orient has sent i d far-off In- der an i bed for in a wret wary passenger out a large acc the eighty-mile journe: of the line at Cazadero was oftti of the commiseration It was on this line of railway that Wil- liam Swanton, know all through th * occupied th 1 e woc orfously tive which senger train of at 8 o'clock was on time ar 2 p. m of the fortunate as t Piano-Leg Bi morning g at Cazadero at sh 1d it be so en route. the wderpinning which sup- ported his massive corporosit nd it was this pec rmation which aided not a n the tery and kept the papers on the firing for Bill a big Da man, with who liv m rried someth faic- taced bis plan her that ca an one of way about qualm wher his wheezy old was_ swinging around some of y curves or g the deep chasms on the swaying trestles which were numerous befor: Point Reyes was reached. Before his marriage Bill never seeme to care when his engine went rocking arcund t curves at a devil-ma pece, but latterly he had been known to shake his big head dublously and swea sotto voce at the management. His home was in what is known as th- old town of Sausalito, and every mornin when he pulled out for the run up the road he would sound four big blasts on the shrill old whistle and look up on the THE SUNDAY CALL. N hillside to catch a last glimpse of a wav- torney, applied for the payment of an in- at the side of the track fo- ing apron as his engine rounded the surance policy of $20,000 which Bill had curve at the end of the long bay trestle. taken out on his life te! On the morning of the 12th of Septem- Payment, of course, was refused, as there which la; ber, 1901, he blew his whistle as usual, no proof of death forthcoming. and looking up toward the little house on Then tt earch for the i the hill he failed to see any apron wa: as on in ear ing a fond farewell, but, instead, dt The slepths of the tinctly caught sight of his wife scurr round corner of the cottage m was about her months previous. fully with and a liberal reward was offered for wa ation ten toward his discov- ¢ ad or alive. Afie hort time ome he s best men ho was on a’ very hose that point until the train the tunnel at the top of Whites Hill Bill kept his fireman throwing wood into the furnace, and all the time swear- of the los ing under his breath at eve everybody on the face of the earth. aid to He knocked about Sausalito perament wife, or widow, and incidentally observed self. idleness a sit to the coast, was put upon the trail pation. Bu of gold hims if as he sm nd inutility a man of adily fall the will r whi'e and ate his lunch, then began digging care- a stick in a pue ci n the center of the track. The &shes were packed down pretty well by ng Bill the pounding of the trains, but he found 3 it light work to loosen them from be- rancisco police tween the ties, and so worked through and detective forces were put upon the them as methodically as a hing for a col t is just a freak pastir placer miner ed over the of his occu- dreamy tem- into strange ything and for a time, got acquainted with Bill'S habits when out in the country by him- When the train pulled into Camp Meek- that Ericson . alw ed her on going After ten or fifteen minutes he found er, which is about three-fourths of the away and returning that he had uncovered a large bone, or, way up the line, the fireman was alone Howeve didn't impress him deep to be more pre . a piece of one, for a on the engine. he w T amiliar with portion of it had crumbled to ashes on man- who kept the eating-house at 1 customs, e s, after hav- the touch, but one end with the joint re- Camp Meeker inquired how it was that seen Mrs. Bill, he couldn’t really mained intact. He eyed it curiously he w alone with the engine, and asked ame Ericson for kissing her. It was encugh for a moment, then picked it up, where Bill wa Ericson appeared fidgety how she could endure being kissed by dusted the ashes from it and laid it ill at ease, and said he didn’t know. Ericson In view of all the talk that s on the engine all right when going on about his connection with Bill ain left Point Reye where they fate that puzzled the detective. laughter. one some switchi but that w But of one thing he felt certain, and upp point about which he would talk. tHat was that long as’ E d the firing and ran the engine to tinued to Mrs. Swanton the life in- ment to. end of the ro; " then sent word surance policy would continue to draw in- uperintendent that he was alone terest for the writers of it. ccded an engineer. One morning he started up the line. He So he laid Bill failed to show up at any point didn't take the tral he walked. After his digging. the line, and ricson in 1 dmitte s talk all it was a delightful jaunt into the Of s that they country, to ramble alon¥ road that ing so suspicious’ that - bay and the little hamlets on the way. tle brass kept under surveil: The one drawback relopments. along on the uneven roadbed. The f run with another day he walked as far as Camp. Taylor, 's house-z where he stopped ov blowing the whis he walked only to T, arding Bill's where- ha u vainly advert run “rancisco papers, ha Nine and a fine Next day he went on up the inton, through her at- miles beyond Point Reyes he “IT 15 JUST AFREAK PRSTIME OF MINE. HE SRID T° inst his 1d get chang- melted int ews of Mount Tamalpals and the side it curio the knocking through fire. beginning to smile. He for his ed up. It Whatever though ven the piece w than the whol possibly two or t enough wer wheels which This “man of orning walk, worth a coupl Wé was enjoying 1ds who laid over there on the ‘‘short “fflljlrf"i l“" bone therein ar dkerchief arefully abou g ich ery muc! wire sp looked v SELF, leg, placing the joint end against his hip. Then he roared with t had been most in his mind had evidently been on con- shown to be too ridiculous to give lodg- hich he held bone éhould theory he might have had. it down and went on with Shortly he picked up a piece hree ounces, a nrisshapen mass, and be- e_several lit- had passed Pinkerton's was getting for that bit e of dollars, himself. He looking back to catcn a few miles. There he stayed two days er ‘experienced the delightful sur- hie apron waving, precisely and, to all appearances, got gloriou prisgs which confront a miner. He took ¢ habit of looking. drunk with two or more of the train Out a newspaper from his pocket and nd folded his t the. wheels he had pick- h as though some careless fellow had dropped his watch into the fire. He looked up the hillside and about fifty yards away saw a small house in an in- closure, and ‘toward this he strolled leis urely. He found no one about the place, but as he turned to leave he saw by the gate a large bone which was evidently the mate to the one he had unearthed on the track; this, too, had been exposed to fire. He went around to the rear of the house, found a gunnysack and in this wrapped all of his.find. Then he went back to the railway track and waited. Ere long he heard an engine whistle up the line and, taking out a large red ban- dana, awaited the approaching train. Out of the timber just beyond him the engine soon came snorting along and he held his red signal high in the air and dropped it again as the whistle sounded and the train came to a stop within ten feet of where he.stood. Ericson was on the engine and appeared very white and trembling. 3 He clambered down to the ground to ascertain why the train had been flagged. The detective approached him easily and then as he talked quietly snapped a pair of handcuffs about Ericson’s wrists and said, “You are my prisoner.’ Ericson collapsed completely and cried like a child as the detectivé mounted the tender along with him and told the engi- neer he would do the firlng until they reached Point Reyes. Ericson was taken to the jail at’ San Rafael. Then the news began to spread and almost as quickly as it takes to tell it tugboats were leaving the city with re- porters and artists on board. Ericson as photographed again and again. The papers were once more aflame with sen- sation and in every picture there ap- peared a little sketch of a detect and a pair of bones. It was a kind of trade- mark used by the artists as a tribute to the astuteness of “Pinkerton’s best The Coroner of Marin County- sat on thebones and the disappointed detec sat oh everybody, just because they Tot it, and through it all the reporter, notebook in hand, was ubiqu‘tous. The Coroner didn’t think much of the bones. They were too small for an ele- phant and too huge for a man and he opined that they might have belo one cf Shaf mules, but as to having been i y connected w restion and s even for a sub- any Swanton that was out of the q too entirely preposter urban Coroner to consider, so the ( ner’s j y let Eri out of the muddle and he went back to Bili's wife and to up, apd rm abbut this particu- way of his 1 against der of William and again he found himself in time the case was placed on the ar and a good jury, as juries go, chosen from among the talesmen and Ericson found himself facing twelve tried men and true to tell his own story and listen to others tell theirs. The Ereat bone of contention was the great be hich sounds at once complex and’ simple, and indeed it was both\ intd- the case was brought Professor Joflyem of the University of Cal fornia, the renowned paleontologist, whaose fame filled two hemispheres, and of whom it had been said he could take a piece of toenail as small as a penny and ¢oustruct a mastodon that would sink a ship. Gf course, this assertion was purely the- aretical, but it sounded so wonderful and past all belief that the entire community resolved to witness the trial. If from a toenail this marvel of twentieth-century learning couid construct a mastodon, what .might,Be expected from: a charred piece of large as that whi ad been L the attorneys *“ ibit The broadgauge California Nort Rallr t ran special excursions m the terminus of its line at Ukiah, where is located lum {or the in- e, and the Judg having an eye to re- appoinduent, consented to tran: fer the trial from the s ourthouse at San Rafael to the bl on at the Schuet- zen Park, so there would be adequate ac- cominodations for everybedy. Professor Joliyem therefore had all of Marin County by the ears; San Francisco gent her contingent, and from Berkeley and Palo Alto the two great universities cwplied their corps of professors to listen o tnis great authority on structural frameworks dilate on the possibility of a piece of charred bone. It was very like standing to make a spech in the big convention halls when a Presidgent of the United States is to be nominated. When Professor Jollyem was called for the State there was a waving of handkerchiefs and fans on the part of the ladies, the male spectators began to applaud, and from the rear of the big pa- vilion the college vells of the rival univer- sities shook the rafters. The Judge panged his gavel and the bailiff shouted “Crder! Order! Sit down!” until he was red in the face, until finally Professor Jollyem raised his hand deprecatingly 2nd suddenly a great hush fell on the as- sembly and the learned man filled them 7 ms to nee could m the ash ast Plar there be- e a herald g B ore the doom. or Bill been six feet and two inches in height and weighed 230 pounds. Thi were 1 bad Ericsen and nself was_looking badly: However, h ld a fairly straight story. He said that the morning of the day of Bill's disappearance Bill had been so ugly there was no such thing as doing the work to suit him, but he (Ericson) | Iad managed to keep mum and keep up steam until Point Reyes had been passed. Then there was a hard pounding between the tepder and the baggage car and Bill had told h to go back and see what was the trouble.” He climbed over the woodpile on the tender ang gat down to adjust the coupling and when he returned to the cab of the engine Bill had dls- appeared. When ¢onfrontéd: with the tes- timony of the owner of the property near where the bones wers.fqund that on the day of Bill's disappeararnce this rancher had noticed the train come to a stand- ill in front of his placs and had seen Fricson get down from the engine and pull cut the ashes, Hricson replied that with the woed at Sausalito they bad taken on something over two tons of soft coal, which he had used in preference to the wood; that this coal developed a great quantity of clinker, which clogged ate so that théy. couldn’t make steam. It became so bad flnally .that the train was stopped and he cleaned the grate. It developed, however, that the railroad officials knew nothing of there having been any coal isalito #nd further that clinker had been’ found in the ashes ; also that after the train t the rancher: went down to there found the bone which e had discovered In his yard. ghout the er ton #at unmoved, oc at Ericsor ige made a lor ne on imposing made a n techn process,of adjustme On the e vember S places were thrilled ws that the ferry-boat 1 Rafae ing between San Francis®o and Sa in conneetion; with N ( road, had been collided with @ in the heavy ft ded the 1 Fortunately only a few lives we although the earlier reports indica several hundred passengers had 3 down with e steam Two da body of a man was found on shore of Alcatraz Island, washed up Wy the sea. This proved to be the of Willlam Swanton. In his coat was found a book ned a letter addressed to was with difficulty deciph- :ad as follows I somehow couldn’t feel sneaky h to write to you aboul the manner in your wife and Ericson have conducted es, but now that It has been decided that you are a dead one, the insurance com- pany has decided to pay Mrs. Swanton the $20,000 insurance and she has declared her intention to use the money to secure Ericson’'s acquittal and then marry him, it looked too cold-blooded. They are & bad lot, both of them, Bill, and you'd better come back and let her know what you think of her and thea throw her over. Ericson has had his scare all right. Come back Bill. It doesn’t pay to waste tears over such cattle as they are, Yours truly, GEORGE. »# Of course the finding of Bill's bedy freed Ericson ‘and Mrs. Bill got her money and later Ericson got both. But the mystery still unsolved is about the bones found in the ash-pile nine miles above Point Reyes. Professor Jollyem says they are undoubtedly the relias of some prehistoric giant which were im- bedded in that plle of soft coal but the Coroner of Marin- County contends that they belong to Shafter’s jackass which had frequently been known to kick him- self into a white heat. The detective still holds the chunk of silver and the reporters say he alse hes the “‘wheels. bod bod GRQY ~SADDLE HORSES TABOGED. © T is curious how important a part color plays in the selection of a sad- dle horse. Perhaps:'it is because of some old saying, perhaps because of some fancied unsuitableness, perhaps be- cause of no reason—but the gray saddle norse is tabooed. Gray is an unpopular color in horseflesh, and many is the fine horse, which, because of its qualities, should have brought a fancy price, that bas been forced down to a low figure on account of its plebeian color. Seal brown is the fashionable color at present, and the chestnuts, both dark and light, are always popular. A good bay is always in demand and a bay of that peculiar dark color known as blood/ bay is a great fa- vorite. These colors may be somewhat confysing to the beginner at first, but they are easily distinguishable to the practiced eye. The fashionable gait for a saddle horse nowadays is the ‘trot. An expensive horse must have a fine trot, canter and walk. It matters little whether or not he is a pacer, and hardly at all whether he can execute the -foot.” The day of the single-foot¢r has passed away and these horses and pacers are uged only by old men and the few others who desire a slow, easy gait. The canter and the trat—the strenuous trot—they are the thing! The proper sdddle horse should be fine- ly gaited, very Inteliigent, quick and nerv- suited in weight to his rider, elastic sy. His conformation must be per- ie head small and finely formed, arched neck cut out and set on the shoulders, the back short and without curve, tne rump well rounded, and the tail carefully docked or cut short, the legs and thighs shapely but stout and strong— for the sadcle horse must be well braced for any shock. The breast must be broad, and the ear—that delicate Index of the finely bred horse—must be thin, pointad and sensitive. These features in tae sad- dle horses are the evidence f good breeding. T e SECRETS OF A WOMAN'S EYES. YES have a language all their own and tell heaps of secrets, In mem they are not apt to betray the heart, but a woman’'s eyes are veritable telltales. The woman of variable emotions gener- ally has brown éyes, but often they are ay-blue, with a laugh in their depths. e s=oft, quiet, brown eyes mean a wealth of affection, while sharpily bright brown ones indicate that the owner is as easily won by an ardent lover as she i lost to him. She Is an adept at flirting, and does not hesitate to smash a heart ai a double blow. The woman who is trus and faithful in her love has a frank and wistful expression, and wins by her soul quality rather than by her physic charm. She radiates a fascination of magnetism wherever her eyes dweil for a moment, and betrays her love ns when she looks into the eyes of the man she would choose of all others to be her lord and master through iife. Light blue, laughing eyes seldom belong to intellect: women or women of much sincerity, while in man this is not true. Earnest blue eyes indicate gentleness without much demonstration. Brown eyes tell of a migh e of love and soul depth in makeup. and kes them ideal women for courting or 3 t d to a man's earn- est devotion and are full of the sympathy a true man craves in the monetonous grind of h ine. A man mpathetic woman, and finds it sometimes in gray eyes, but oftener in brown. The gray-eved woman is cold, unrespons! and calculating. Dreamy eyes of any color mark the pos- sessor as retrospective in habits and rare- ly practical. A biue-eyed man finds it easy to love a woman with soft brown eyes, because he knows intuitively that the little “‘opposites’” in their natures would fit in and accommodate themselves each to_each. He knows that In future years, when adversity comes love seems tempted to fly from the he will always find a soft hand nis own.