The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 29, 1903, Page 24

M. LACROIX DESCRIBES ‘ THE FIERY GRANDEUR ’ OF PELEE'S ERUPTION SUNDAY | Publication Offt THE SAN IBAf SCO CALL, SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 190 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL. OHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. Address Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager .Third and Market Streets, 8. F. 4 ST PHASE. oF /2 ELUPTION TAKEN FWE HINOTES LITER) OF TWO PHOTOGRAPHS OF MONT PELEE, THE ; MINUTES BEFORE ERUPTION AND THE UTES LATER. b that e grand eruptions nterest of the wo! of Ma ique b isle S and A ¥ last manifestations of have not ceased for day. At times th by as violent as at the fi long-continued acti and most favorable of the various it to such oc- have been shown by festation as Pelee alon the ¢ Pierre on that yet a year hentic precedent manner and scale of destructive- a scientific mission of by the French t never were and may never be duplicated. s of observers, having at their osal the steamship Jouffroy, e harbor of St. Plerre and the Pelee and adjacent coun- ul and constant observers recorders of what has been taking 2 n November 16 last they were e of the eruption of Pelee that ved- the pretty little city eof St ummit of the mountain had been hanged and broken up by the tions, the Lake of Palms had d up and in ¢t NEW ADVERTISEMENTS. IMPORTANT SOIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 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WALLAT, ioe, 24 Sms s, WX e center of the | phases of mani. | Mont | | tions, however, | stituted | falling and bursting into a thousand frag- | successive stages of the exhibition, t the scene gathering | | February ter an enormous cone of incandescent ke heaved and rose under the pressure ternal forces. The sides of the cone riven into many fissures from which iten matter and puffed out voi- umes of deleterious gases. From time to time volcanic bombs of enormous size leaped from the tube or chimney of the volcano to great heights, ments on its fire-swept sides. Sometimes a regular cascade of fire flowed down on | several sides at once from the rim of the crater. The most unique and interesting exhibi- inked as they were with the St. Plerre tragedy, were the ‘“nuecs | ardentes,” or fiery clouds. These were frequent on a more or less large scale and were closely observed. The one of November 16 last, however, in scale and grandeur so far surpassed all the others that no comparison can be in- Its fellow of May 8, 1902, Was the death of St. Pierre. A full description, with & number of views taken from the Jouffroy at several is given by M. Lacroix in L'Illustration of 7, and is here reproduced in part. The first picture taken at 8:24 a. m. is a view of the mountain when the first appearance of the “nuee ardent” is made from the base of the volcanic cone, and it begins to fall down the valley of the Riv- iere Blanche toward the former site of | St. Pierre. This was taken a few mo- ments before the eruption. The second picture, the last of the num- ber taken by M. Lacroix on the occasion, was made five minutes after the first (at £:23 2. m.), when the “nuee ardent” had reached the sea, It traveled, as when its prototype rushed down on St. Plerre, at the rate of fifty-five miles per hour and rose to a height of over 13,000 feet. “As usual,” esays M. Lacroix, “this eruption was sudden and rapid. Some pre- cursory rumblings, a ‘blowout’ of red fumes from the rupture in the base of the cone, then suddenly the discharge of a cloud of very dense vapors, reddish brown in color, which, forming enormous ‘vol- utes,” came down the valley of the Riv- iere Blanche to the sea at the rate of ninety kilometers (fifty-five miles) anhour. The cloud raised and spread as it came and soon covered all the space of nearly four and one-half miles from the voicano to the seashore, rearing its crest at the same time to a height of over 4000 kilo- meters (two and one-half miles). At last it spread out and was gradually dissipat- ed. The whole manifestation did not last more than five minutes.” On returning the following day to the Riviere Blanche to recover some things that he had left in his flight at the first premonition of the outburst, M. Lacroix found evidence. that enabled him to fix the temperature of the cloud in passing that point at 200 degrees centigrade. “These phenomena,” he says in conclu- sion, “reproduce, with less intensity, how- ever, the eruption that destroyed St. Plerre and would certainly have accom- plished the work if the previous erup- tions had left anything to be consumed.” —_————— When Mark Twain called on Senator Chauncey Depew at his office recently he found him with his fingers much soiled from writing. As the Senator stepped to the bowl and began washing his hands Mr. Clemens observed, laughingly: “It would be a good thing if you would use a little of that soap on your con- science, Senator.” “Possibly,” agreed the Senator. “Soap l would do in my case, but if "twas yours you'd have to use pumice stone at least.” New York Times. MISSIONARIES TO CHINA. R. GAMEWELL and General Adna Chaffee, seeking to enlighten the same audience on the same subject, took exactly opposite points of view. The subject being the future of China, the reverend gentleman declared that the only way to treat the Chinese situation is by education in Christianity. The military gentleman affirmed that he had never found in China a single intelligent Chinese who wanted to embrace Christianity. As it is a war- rantable assumption that all countries and races are controlled by their intelligent people, and as it is known that such people are numerous in China's population of 425,000,000, may it not be con- cluded. without offense to the Christian world, that we will get along better with China by letting its ancient religion and philosophy alone? The armies of several Christian and one non-Christian nation were in China during the Boxer uprising. While the American forces acquitted themselves with exemplary moderation, it was no more than that of the soldiers of Japan. The atrogities committed by the Christian troops of Europe make the history of the campaigns of Genghis Khan and Timour respectable. Foul crimes at which the very brutes would blush were committed under the banners of the cross. It is a rude, crude, but perhaps significant saying that a gentleman is a gentleman when he is drunk. This may have a double meaning, and one may be that a gentleman does not get drunk. Its paraphrase may be that a Christian is a Christian when he is making war, and that he may be was shown by brave Philip when his guns sank the Spanish ship and he restrained his men by saying, “Don’t cheer, boys; they're dying.” But be that as it may, the fact remains that the Japanese taught the armies of Christendom a needed lesson, and that Christendom lost a chance to impress China that its quality is superior to that of Confucianism. With that chance lost, what can one expect from further attempts to treat the Chinese situation solely from the missionary standpoint? Why not withdrav: that effort and sub- stitute for it a commercial status? No foreign merchant is atiacked in China. They go into the Middle Kingdom with safety and are amply protected everywhere by the freemasonry of trade. The Chinese are eminently a commercial people. Their merchants are among the foremost in the world. They are aware that their own trade is made better when other merchants come to barter with them. Social friendships, based on enlightened tolerance of ethical and religious differences, exist everywhere between Chi- nese and occidental tradesmen. Our Government never has to interfere to collect damages for assaults on an American merchant in China. Then why not send merchants instead of missionaries? They will not attack the civil institutions of China nor interfere with religion. If the Chinese smell oddly in their white nostrils, they will rémember the singular fact that all white people smell to Chi- nese like sheep, and are therefore nasally offensive, and in that respect the races are odor- ously equal. Suppose that we turn loose our mercantile energies upon China, and devote all our mission- ary energy to the home field. The slums in every American city are rotten for the harvest and the reapers are few. Let them carry the Christian sickle into that vast field of vice and crime, and after it is cleaned and gleaned we may look abroad for other fields to conquer. THE ROARING RIVER. EPORTS from all points along the lower Mississippi are to the effect that there is grave danger of one of the most serious floods ever known in that region. The river has broken the levees at many places and already the loss of property is large. To guard the embank- ments men have been brought from far and near, and in Mississippi even the State con- victs have been set at work. In spite of all efforts, however, break after break occurs, and if the river continues rising, as is quite probable. such vast crevasses may be formed as will turn almost the whole strength of the flood upon the farm lands, and then it is certain there will be a heavy loss of life as well as of property. For a long series of years the National Government and the State governments have been at work trying to confine the river during the time of floods. The planters along the river have given all the aid they could by strengthening the embankments in front of their lands. The best plans that engineers can devise have been tried, but the results are by no means encouraging. aid it is quite probable that in the end a system radically different from that now emploved will have to be re- sorted to. The expenditures of the Government have been made in accordance with what is known as the “Eads scheme”—a system of control based upon the assumption that by narrowing and straight- ening the river bed the current in times of flood would flow more swiftly and would scour out the bottom of the channel and so make a deeper waterway to the sea. The plan we believe has been found satisfactory in the main, but it is evident it cannot be relied upon to meet such an emergency as has come with the present flood. There have always been engiheers who distrust the Fads Sys- tem, and they will doubtless be heard from when the next river improvement is under consideration, but while they can be relied upon to reveal all the weak points in the system now employed, it is doubtful if they can suggest a better vae. One of the explanations given for the breaking of the embankment is interesting as an illus- tration of the ill results which not infrequently follow man's interference with the equilibrium established by nature. The waters of Louisiana swarm with muskrats, and the creatures have be- come a veritable pest by reason of their numbers and their habits. They burrow into the embank- ments along the river, and have carried their burrowing to such an extent that the levees are honey- combed and weakened. Thus when the floods come the embankments are found incapable of re- sisting the force of the waters, notwithstanding that to all outward appearance they are as strong as ever. The swarming of the muskrats is said to be due to the destruction of the alligators that prey upon them. Thus while trying to rid themselves of the alligators the people of Louisiana have ex- posed their river improvements to destruction by muskrats, and the new evil is worse than the old. AMERICAN WOMEN IN EUROPE. MERICAN critics of every kind and degree have so often condemned the American heir- ess who marries any kind of a nobleman from a Count to a Duke, that it is interesting to have a statement of the other side of the case from one of the heiresses who have made the venture. Such a statement has been given by Mrs. Cornwallis West, who was formerly Lady Randolph Churchill, and has long been one of the most eminent of American women in Lon- don society. Writing for the Pall Mall Magazine and its ultra British readers, the clever Ameri- can woman presents of course a very pleasant picture of international marriages. She declares that Great Britain has been “the happiest hunting ground” of the American heiress, and that the best matrimonial successes have been attained there. Her argument is that British society is much broader minded and more appreciative of individual merit than that of any other country, for the reason that there is a recognized head of society in Great Britain, and also recognized grades among the people, so that they are not apprehensive of having their privileges encroached upon or their position shaken, and can afford to receive whom they please. While that argument will satisfy the Briton, it will hardly be satisfactory to an American, for in this country we hold there can be no true social life without eduality, and we can hardly ad- mire a hospitality that opens its doors to a man on condition that he will respect the superiority of his host and make no pretension to be just as good as any one else in the room. Neither have we any particular admiration for the man or woman of talent who accepts invitations on those terms. Another argument for a British marriage is given in the statement: “Life in England is on much larger lines and more full of occupation for women of the leisured classes than that of any other country. Everything is open to them if they have the ability. In American society women, with a few exceptions, seem to have neithet the inclination nor the opportunity of taking them- selves as seriously as they do in England, where all are more or less engaged in philanthropic schemes or work of some kind, and the greater or more prominent the social position the more they are called upon to do. When Americans marry Englishmen they are no whit behind their Eng-- lish sisters in this respect, and their successful co-operation must be a proof of what they could do in their own country had they the same opportunities.” It is evident from that statement that our brilliant representative of American womanhood at I.pndon has lived so long abroad that she has forgotten what American life is like. Certainly no one who lives in any part of our Union perceives a lack of woman’s activity in any department of endeavor, and i, is safe to say that the American heiress who marries an English nobleman does not do so from any very intense desire to find a larger field for carnest work of any kind. o AUTHENTIC PO IS FOUND OF “DI e RTRAIT OF AUTHOR VINE COMEDY” e 4 Y oF DANTE Sae GmosTH 2 e CONTEMPORANEOUS PORTRAIT CF THE POET DANTE IN THE i FRESCO “PARADISE” IN A FLORENTINE CHURCH, IN CONTRAST WITH A NOTED PORTRAIT OF LATER TIMES [ N N the chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novilla, known as the “Ch pelle des Strozzi,” at Florence, Ital are two anclent frescoes represent- ing paradise and hell, where, SAyS & writer in L'Tilustration, the artist evidently drew his inspiration from Dante. These remarkable pieces have already | yn in “L’'Histoire de L’Art par ;‘:;::urs::n‘;: of Azincourt, which estab- lished a connection between the principal episodes and the corresponding tlercuts of the “Divine Comedy.” Lately it appears from a recent discov- ery made by a writer on Itallan art, M Chiapelli, that one of the figures of adise,” 6n which attention had not been fixed before, is no other than the very portrait of the great poet himself. The frescoes of the “Chapelle des Stroz- zi”" are the joint work of the two masters, | the two brothers, Bernardo and Andrea Orcagna. The latter and the youngest, having been born in 1329, only eight years after the death of Dante, the composi- tion in which the remarkable piece is fcund must be attributed to Bernardo, the elder brother. The discovery of the figure, If it is sus-| tained, will fill an important void. There is good ground to belleve that there ex- ists no authentic portrait or image of @ it @ ANSWERS TO QUERIES. BACK DATE-M. G. 8., City. The 2tst of May, 1900, fell on a Monday. OLD PAPERS-J. T. J., City. You may find the old papers you desire either at the reading-room of the Free Public Library, or at some of the newspaper advertising agencies. EXPLOSION—M., City. The explosion of dynamite in the Curtin sailor boarding= house, on Main street, near Harrison, oc- curred September 23, 1893, at 12:20 a. m. That is the only explosion in that house that this department has been able to find any record of. ASBESTOS-C. 8., Orland, Cal. The value of asbestos depends altogether on the length of the fiber. That which has been discovered in California has not been of any practical worth for the rea- son that it s too short. If you send a self-addressed and stamped envelope this department will mail you the address of people In this city who deal in asbestos. TRIPLETS AND STRAIGHTS-M., City. In poker tripiets, sometimes called “threes,” or “three of a kind,” are three cards of the same denomination, and nat- urally of different suits, accompanied by two cards of different denominations, but not necessarily of different suits. The highest triplets win, and triplets beat two pair. The straight is a sequence of five cards, not all of the same suit. Ace, king, queen, knave and ten is the highest straight, and five, four, three, two and ace is the lowest, while king, queen, ace, two and three is no sequence at all. The value of a straight {s decided by the to) card, and when two or more stralgh come together the one which has the highest card wins. A straight beats trip- lets, and a flush, which is five cards of the same sult, but not in sequence, beats a straight, while a straight flush, or “roy- al flush,” is the highest of all the hands. It must consist of a sequence of five cards all of the same suit. The value, of course, is determined in the & manner as is the straight, the higher or highest card or cards winning. 4 -3 | Dante save that which was painted by his | friend Giotto, and an authenticated icono graph has incontestably a high value | from an artistic as well as a documentary | point of view. i Thus neither Ary Scheffer (Dante and | Beatrice; Dante and Virgil meeting in hell the shades of Francesca da Rimini and of Paolo) nor Eugene de la Croix (La | Barque of Dante) have pretenged to ren- | der exactly on their celebrated canvasses | the veritable traits of the author of the | “Divine Comedy.” In the lack of precise documents they have interpreted the le | gendary figure, both following @ certain | convention and each following his own imagination, his own temperament, and bis personal conception of the genlus and character of the poet | The photograph taken by M. Brog! of Florence, recopied here from L'Tllustra- | tion, establishes the fact that this por- | trait of Dante differs very perceptibly as | to physiognomy from the accredited rep- resentations, with which it offers no anal- | ogy but in the resemblance of the head« | dress. In any case, the question raised by M. Chiapelli is very interesting and worthy of exercising the best efforts and highest | sagacity of the commission of savants and artists constituted to seek for ths | definite solution thereof. EX. strong hoarhound candy. Townsend's.® Townsend’s California glace fruit and candies, 50c a pound, in artistic fire-etched boxes. A nice present for Eastern triends. 639 Market st., Palace Hotel building. * Special information supplied dally teo business houses and public men by the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen’s), 280 Cali- fornia street. Telephone Main 1043. - The number of passengers carried by boats on the great lakes is from a quar- ter to a third of a million each season. creates perfect complexions and prompts the skin to per- form its highest functioms; it imparts that fresh, heaithful glow that 50 often disappears with youth; removes