The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 17, 1904, Page 30

THE SAN FRANCISCO. CALL, S I DAY, JANUARY 17, 1904 4 | lephant Hunt. BY WILLIAM STAMPS CHERRY. Traveler, Expiorer and Big Hunter.] 1904, by Joseph P. Bowles.) Most people imagine that tiger lion hunting more dangerous than hunting the elephant. more about t e catlike beasts, whose Game trican or is far ferocity, cunning and courage are proverbial Few know what a mad elephant means, or that the elephant can be as mad to the square inch of surface as the lion or tiger. The average ob- | server thinks the elephant awkward or clumsy—a great mistake; but his knee joints, being =0 low in the front legs and so high in the back, give him 2 motion so unusual that to one un- familiar with his appearance he looks | £tiff legged. Critical observation will show that a lion or Aiger does not handle himself with greater ease or precision than does the elephant. His movements are masterly, and in the | forest, where he is at home among the grandest vegetation of nature, they are seen in perfect rmony. While a horse in heavy African grass would be as awkward as a hog on ice and could not force himself through the tangled mase at all, the elephant will run through it and tear through almost impenetrable forest as rapidly as a horse « over a smooth racetrack. The elephant’s tusks are set close to- the points, with only enough n run =e opening between to give his trunk play. They are like cowcatchers, and separ- ate the bush as he goes along. His feet and legs are well adapted to go- ing over logs and rcugh mountainous land: he can penetrate places where horses cannot go, and when he charges in the bush I would rather have a brace of lions or tigers after me than that one mad elephant. Elephant hunting is of all occupa- tions in Africa the m interesting, dangerc almost worship the successful elephant 1s and profitable. The natives hunter. His renown precedes him, and he is welcomed in places inaccessibie to the ordinary explorer. The flesh of | the elenhant furnishes him with the ng of living: and ome localities h more than the tusks. phant hunting a profession h is as difficult to learn and re- es as severe a course of training acquiring of is a university degree. If one is fortunate enough to get through the whole course without be- | ing k will come to a position where is reduced te a mini- mum. first it is uphill busi- ness first eighteen months 1 lost some two-thirds of the animals er they had been mortally wounded. h when wounded will often fifteen miles an hour, and may 2o a hundred miles before dying. Even when struck through the heart with a heavy ball they ill go for 300 yards. It has geperally been supposed that when animal is shct in the heart he die tan but T have s 5t buf- falo. deer and that have run a hundred yards. shot a wikd boar in ball ran the whole length of his body, coming out at his breast, and piercing his heart. 1 discovered when he was cut up. . notwithstanding that the heart was torn to pieces by the bat- ir y; I once tered bzll, he ran over a hundred yards | before ke fell Elephants differ greatly in disposi- | Yon and in capacity. tigent, others dull and senseless; some are brave, others are cowardly. After & somewhat extensive acquaintance with the elephant I have modified my \deas considerably regarding his gen- eral sagacity. This bas been very much exaggerated. There is no rule by which hand what an elephant will he is taken by surprise his first im- pulse will be to run, but if he is wware of your presence he may charge apon you like fury incarnate. His scnse of hearing and sight are mot good, but his sense of smell is keenly developed. And notwithstanding this Xeen sense of smell, I have been so slose as almost to touch them. rhen he is on the alert after being wounded one cannot get within shoot- ng distance without great danger. Then it is perilous work, as he smelis petter at a distance than close up. I have crouched behind bushes or ant hills on the plains where I could see hem well 200 or 300 yards off. When they got my scent they would lift up their trunks horizontally and turn ‘hem about, then give a snort and a trumpet blast and start off. It seems shat an elephant cannot smell well aith his trunk down. On the other nand, he cannot stretch his probiscis out straight, as is often seen in cur- rent pictures, as it is a physical im- possibility. The butt ends of the tusks are just behind the eyes. The under lobe of the proboscie is 2lmost as long as the upper, and the ears of the large Afri- can elephant are elliptical. not point- ed. An African elephant with a point- ear s exceptional and belongs to small specles. The beginning ©f the rainy seauson the best time 10 hunt the elephant. The ground is nc= soft 50 as lo track do. If They know | Id boards in the hoarll the ham and the | Some are intel- | you can calculate before-' Yet | "h]m, the twigs and leaves are moist and do not crack and rustle in get- ting up to him. The grass has then just started to grow from the burnt stubble, and in May and June the ele phants gather in the plains to feed.‘ When the grass is not more than waist high you can see them all right, but when it is ten or twelve feet high you are apt to get tangled up with them | before you know it. To quote my journal, November 12, 1898: We are now camped on N'Gongu River. I have been followed here by 200 native men, women and | children. I arrived last evening and | before 9 o'clock this morning had | illed an elephant; shot him in the} | into the river and swam to the other side. The elephant lumbered in after ime, lost his footing and was drowned | |in a stream of water thirty feet wide | {and not over nine feet deep. Either | that or the ball took effect, for he bel- | | lowed like a bull of Bashan and rear- i ed high out of the water before fall-| ing. The natives tied bush rope to | him and rolled him close to shore, where they cut him up, when I found that the ball had entered the hip and | made its exit through the opposite shoulder. | November 13—We followed a hiflr | bull all forenoon to-day in a driving | | rain, only to have him escape into a | swamp after wounding him. We were ; on the N'Gongu, eight miles below | camp, and had to cross over to get| back, or else round a great bend in| | the river, which would take hours. On | our side of the swolien river was a vast | | grass plain, with here and there a| clump of timber. On the other side with a dense forest. As I stood dread- | ing the struggle of crossing, a native | touched me and pointed up stream, where by the river bank, with his | head in a clump of brush, was a big | elephant. picking away at the leaves | | and seemingly enjoying his shower bath. When I was within thirty vards of | | him I took aim, but the pouring rain spattered on my gun barrel, making it difficult to see the sights. I fired; he staggered, but kept his feet and dragged himself into the bush. I could see a white tusk and aimed at the! place where 1 knew the head should be. | He reared, almost turning a back | | semersault into the river. But some- | how, cat like, he landed on his feet in the water, and started down along the | bank, which was almost on a level with | his back. As he came near me I fired | =0 close to his head that the powder | must have burnt him. He turned, and | reaching the opposite bank began | scratching away at its slippery sides with his legs all spraddled out like a | big dog trying to climb a picket fence. | | Swimming a river with a twenty- »und gun and clothes on would be an | impossibility under ordinary circum- | | stances, but with the excitement and | the help of a swift current I got across with only a few gulps of water in the | |transit. We were svon after the! wounded elephant, which by this time was reeling like a drunken man. There | is nothing so perilous as following a ' wounded elephant in a bush, for should ! | he charge there is scarce the shadow | of a chance for escape. We had not | gone very far when one of the men came bouncing back over the trail, his | feet touching only the high piaces. We |all turned and fled precipitateiy, but {found it was a false alarm. Soon we | | found ourseleves in a new herd, and made reckless by my ill luck of the | morning, I determined to try a fresh animal. { In the dark bush I could scarcely dis- | cern a black mass; there was no dis- | | tinguishing the head of the animal from the tail. I approached with a na- | tive until he refused to go nearer. There | were two trees just ahead of us stand- ng close together. I went to them, | thinking I could play hide and seek | with him if he came at me. Icoyld get | no better shot from here, for even yet it was impossible to make out head or | tail from what I could see. I ventured still closer. Bending low I saw two | | feet. and to my dismay they were his front feet. Instantly his trunk came e 4 | down in front of his feet, then was out- | stretched in my direction. He gave the | angry cry of the elephant, o close that | {1 could feel the hot breath as it was blown from the proboscis. Then he charged at me like a flend incarnate. | | The moment 1 made the discovery that | |1t was his front feet I was examining | {1 had instinctively taken several steps | | backward, turned and made a dash be- | tween the two trees, just as he made a | grab for me with his proboscis. T don't | | know whether he knocked me over or ! ‘nnl, but I fell. The tree checked his | progress for a moment only, but dur- | | ing that moment by rolling and tum. | | bling- I ‘was out of sight behind the ' bushes a few yards distant. Fortunate- | |1y my gun had gone off when I fell, and |the smoke settled down, obscurlng! everything, and by the tfme it hndlf | cleared away the elephant had gone off | | on a false scent. ;T came back to camp with a bruised | body and no appetite for lupper.' | thinking how nearly - that elephant . came to killing me. Of more success- ;(I.lllpllhunflng 1 will tell in another arti- "1t is not a very easy matter to cut | out a pair of tusks from the head of | I large elephant. It takes a good ax, | worked by lusty arms for half a day. To reach the under tusk the entire head must te cut off. When you have I(he time at your disposal it is besi to |allow the tusks to remain in the head | juntil the dentine decompnoses, then a gas will form in the cavity, causing | an exolosion which will send the tusks some distance from the head. In hunting the elephant you- soon come to discover that he has a definite range of territory to which he keeps all his life, unless disturbed and forced to move on to pastures new. An elephant travels on an average thirty-five miles every twenty-four hours ‘n search of food. The larger males never lie down on account of their tusks; only the females occa- sionally and the young often. ——— Townsend's California glace fruits and candles, c & pound. in artistic fire- etched boxes. A nice present for Eastern friends. 715 Market st., above Call bldg. * oot sman S e & it Special l:nfomuon supplied dally to business ho and publtc 1 Press Clipping Iumun(mua!:)a,”byc:h fornia streel. Telephone Main 1042 . M [lerprisiug and progressive men. |a climate or I1THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor « » « » o « . « . . Address All Commenications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager Publication Ofice ......ccveererenese i, ..Third and Market Strects, S. F. JANUARY 17, 1004 A MORE BEAUTIFUL SAN FRANCISCO. ANY and various are the prospects that promise good to San Francisco and to California in the immediate future. Cheering signs of prosperity aré to be seen all round the horizon, while only here and there is any visible portent threatening disaster. Among | all the good omens of the time, however, none is better than the sanguine spirit which animates our more en- All along the line they are moving confidently forward to the achievement of great things for the city and for the people. Private activity was never more vigorous, and all the organiza- tions devoted to public objects are vying, the one with the other, for the attainment of the common desire for a greater and a more beautiful city. Evidences of the impulses of this sanguine spirit are to be seen on every Hand. Three of its manifestations are deserving of especial notice, first, the movement for the display at St. Louis of a special San Francisco ex- hibit on a scale of first-class magnitude; second, the project for beautifying the city according to a plan to be devised by men of high ability and experience in such work; and third, the project for undertaking a universal exposition in San Francisco in 1913. The three move- ments are widely dissimilaz in some respects, but they accord like different strains of a well ordered harmony. A successful display at St. Louis, which is the immediate and pressing work of the present, would greatly aid the movement for beautifying the city, and that in turn would rouse the energies of the people to make a rec- ord-breaking exposition nine years from now. The possibilities of San Francisco are so great in every direction that it is inevitable her citizens should indulge great dreams of future achievement in all de- partments of human endeavor. Her potencies as a com- mercial metropolis. of the vastest of oceans are not su- | perior to those which she possess as a center of art and of social life. She may become anything from one of the world's greatest trading ports to one of the most beautiful and attractive capitals. No other city has such such scenery. Were there no city here, thousands of tourists would visit the peninsula every summer and every winter to enjoy the picturesque com- bination of ocean and® bay, valley and hill, with its cli- mate so genial in winter and so bracing and refreshing in summer. Dominated as it is by a city of high attain- ment and still higher promise, the peninsula should be one of the most attractive resorts of pleasure-seekers on | earth, drawing to its manifold delights visitors from all parts of the world. Out of such possibilities there come of course inces- sant impulses to action. We are feeling such impulses now more potently perhaps than ever before. We have strong and public-spirited men to lead us toward the achievement of much of our common desire. There is no reason why we should not loyally co-operate with those men. Whether they are seeking the immediate end of a special exhibit at St. Louis or planning for an exposition of our own nine years from now, they should have cordial support. It will not be difficult to attain a more beautiful San Francisco if We are true to ourselves. Great things can be done by a people who possess great seli-confidence. It is now time for us to rouse up that confidence. Let us once resolve to have our speciai ex- hibit at‘St. Louis, our great auditorium, our comprehen- sive plan for future improvements, and our campaign for the exposition in 1913, and doubters will be/ as- tonished to see how easily one of these achievements will follow the other. The main thing is to make a be- ginnin&. That is the thing to be done now. Excitement in a mild form has ruled at the Presidio for several days because of certain experiments being made in reference to the adaptability of a new hash to the scasoned stomachs of Uncle Sam's fighting men. The hash has been administered in measurable quantities and nobody has died. It is safe to announce, therefore, that our troops have once more met the enemy amd vic- tory, even without internal disturbances, is ours. V.V have duly listened and heard comments upon her by all our local writers and talkers. The enthusiast and the cynic, the gentle amateur and the Sir Oracle of criticism, the veteran who heard her in her prime a hun- dred times, the youth who never heard her before; the man who strives to say the true thing and the man who prefers to say*the bright one, all have had their chance to talk and they have thoroughly used it. ‘We have thus heard in full the voice of San Francisco on the Patti of to-day, and it has been a confused voice, ition as it were of the babble of the multitudinous seas. Now this Sunday morning in the first moment of calm that comes after the chatter that broke forth over her person and her singing, it may serve as an instruc- tion as well as an amusement to learn what London thinks of Patti, and thus have the benefit of mcasuring our judgment by the standard of thit of the critics of the gray old city where Edward is King. where our LONDON’S VIEW OF PATTL E have had Patti's farewell concerts. We have seen her, we have heard her; and in addition we a repe! wirls go to get Dukes, our dudes to get trousers, and our | men and women of genius to get a recognition denied them at home. Among our London exchanges just received is a copy of the Daily Mail containing in the place of honor on the editorial page a column article by Frank Merry on Patti's appearance at a concert at Albert Hall. Read at this moment in this city, it appears indeed a irank, merry criticism, for it gives the gay ha-ha to many an aspiring critic who would doubtless like his musical judgment as well as his trousers to be deemed true to the latest Lon- don pattern. Y It is no mean critic who is authorized to fill a column of space on the editorial page of the Mail. He writes of Patti as the chief star of the firmament of song. Her concert drew an audience that filled the vast audi- torium of Albert Hall., and Merry says that neither “Pad- erewski, Kubelik and his Countess, or even Melba” could do that. He adds: ¥ “The Patti concert is a banquet of superfluities. ‘The grand organ, a Wagner overture by full orchestra, a famous violinist, 2 noted pianist, and other eminent vo- calists—all simply padding to fill up the spaces between two chief performers. When the moment has arrived a low murmur begins in a distinct corner of the hall and swells like the roaring of surf. Then steps forward a little woman, youthful, active, u!{-ponet*d—it is Patti. The orchestra begins—and a Hush greets the opening notes of Mozart’s ‘Batti, Batti.'” &y ; With the fervor of the faith of a true enthusiast, Merry says: : “If you have not heard .the Patti voice before you may “few Le a little puzzled, not to say disappointed. It is em- phatically not a big voice—a small voice of ' exquisite tone—diamonds on a thread—which carries with the clearness of a silver bell in the largest hall or opera- iouse. You begin to note the deft, sleight-of-hand way of getting from one note to another, and then the haunt- ing beauty of the tone. By this time you have become a Patti enthusiast yourself. At your clbow is a certain well-known musician—one of those irritating kind of | people who have been everywhere, heard everybody, and who consequently know everything. ‘Um-—noth- ing to what she used to be) he murmurs. ‘When [ heard her in “The Barber—— At once you gemember that Mme. Patti should be a lady of sixty—but you can- not realize it.” | London is not the city from which one expects such | exuberant laudation as that, and of course there arise’; a desire to know the cause of it. Merry insists that ! Patti sings to-day more enchantingly than any othcr} woman can sing, and.in explanation says: | “Adelina Patti is one of the remaining representatives of the ‘Bel Canto’ school of singing. Its methods were | apparently simple. You treated your voice as an instru- | ment—played scales and five-finger exercises upon it half [ the day; alternately bullied it and coaxed it, until, goaded | to desperation, it developed incomparable qualities both brilliance and softness, such as no other method | can imitate. And this voice need never grow old.” Such is the voice of critical T.ondon on the Patti of | to-day. It is the voice that will greet her when she re-j turns from her American tour. She will perhans htar‘ it roaring from another great audience in Albert Hall, | and read it next morning on the editorial pages of lhei most sedate and conservative of newspapers. Would it | be strange then if that gray old city of smoke and fog | should seem to her full of brightness and beauty; would | it be strange if she greeted it by singing more tenderly | than ever 'before the heart’'s own melody, “Home, ! Sweet Home"? of | The local fraternity of pugs, numerous and prosper- ousin the smiles of mistaken official favor, is aghast at the offer of fifteen thousand dollars for a “contest” be- tween two plug-uglies. The managers of these fellows evidently have an abiding faith in the stupidity of the public to believe that it will guarantee such a sum for such a spectacle. We are either very prosperous nr, very foolish, or baih. R on. From the tops of trees and the balconies of houses the supporters of two rival political | grafters pop off their guns in the divine name of liberty | at anything which offers an easy mark. Business is at! a complete standstill. Pillage and arson are of such frequent occurrence that the press reports accept them as a matter of course, mere commonplaces. The Ger- | man papers are waxing sarcastic over the affair and drawing lessons from our benevolent Monroe doctrine. | Commander Dillingham of the cruiser Detroit has re- | ported to the President that the lives and property of Americans are daily in jeopardy. In short, it is the old revolutionary mare’s nest all over again. First it is Hayti, then two pot-boilers in Salvador fall at outs and there is more popping of the detestable littie guns. Hardly has trouble been assuaged on the main- land than off in the water somewhere a miniature vol- | cano spits and froths, and our ships must hasten there to protect American interests. Nigh onto a century of this intolerable. thing, since the immortal Bolivar and a | Irishmen cut the yoke of Spain; and yet every | recurrence of the dog-days and each succeeding solstice witnesses one of these play wars. The British Bahamas have no such troubles; the Danish West Iadies suffer no such intermittent fevers of brawling; the French possessions are peaceful; yet practically the same people inhabit all the Carib islands. It appears then that nnlyt a strong government by others than themselves can | insure continued peace in all this nest of buzzing hornets: i What must be the policy of the United States in the | future when the constant brawls on all sides will hamper | our digging of the canal and the proper operation of it ' when once it is completed? Shall the question be solved | by annexation? President Andrew Johnson in his | fourth annual message called attention to the wearisome | condition of affairs upon this very island of Santo Do- mingo and urged that.it be made a part of the United States. General Grant continually urged from the Presi- | dential €hair the npecessity of putting a stop to the| brawls on the same island by annexation. That was| twenty-five years ago, before our country had a thoughti to the islands of the sea, and when even the purchase | of Alaska raised a storm of protest from those who | sought to hew close to the line of precept laid down | by the early Presidents. Since that time we have' acquired Porto Rico, the Philippines, Guam and our | share of Samoa. We are to have sovercign authority | over a strip of territory from ocean to ocean in Panama. We are irrevocably committed to a colonial policy. The European powers recognize the fact that their hands are restrained from meddling ‘on this side of the | Atlantic. When their interests and the lives of their | citizens are jeopardized by the petty fights in the Carib- bean they can do no more than appeal to the United States to rectify the evils. Whether by annexation or by | a consistent policy of severe repression it may yet be the duty of our Government to bring order out of this hundred years’ chaos. A CURE -FOR SANTO DOMINGO. EVOLUTION in Santo Domingo swings merrily | Emperor William has finished his course in voice training, and s hoped that his Majesty may be able, | without danger, to indulge his liking for public speaking. For the peace of his househoid and of his neighbors,[ however, it may be well for him to confine his public | discussions to affairs in which comaiiments only are ex- pected and may be spcken. i The investigation by the Regents oi the University of California into the muddled’ affairs of their defaulting secretary indicates very clearly that hookkeeping, book- reading and bookmaking are three very distinct and an- tagonistic arts. From the mass of facts submitted it is also.very clear that in this wretched affair the book- ! makers had far the best of it. Fppes . —_— In the dread Chicago fire, which came as a national | calamity, California had its share of sorrow, for some of our own people were numbered among the victims and mourning fills not a few of our homes. This should be surely a spur to immediate and complete action in the scheme already undertaken to insist that our own places of amusement may not be deati-dealing fire traps. - | leaves, when she felt a light touc._. “Quartz” on Conversion. “I reckon there ain't many of us lleft that remembers how Rattlesnake Pete was convarted,” said Billings reminiscently. “Pete was a bad one. Half a dozen swigs was enough to set him goin’ so fast that these yer autermerbecls ain’t a mark to his gait. One day Pete was in his tantrums and he run acrost a little “Quartz" tenderfoot that hed just stepped offen | the stage. “‘Wal, stranger, jine me in a drink,’ says Pete. the little feiler. “The gang perched on verander looks for ructions. the hotel expected. " 'See yere, you white-faced squaw, you drink, and you drink now, and Yyou drink with me," declares Pete. “And he pulls his gun and mences to from experience, jumps to shelter. “The little down a bhook on the steps and then he gives one jump., knocks Pete's pistol a ng and lands Pete in the mud. com- The little feller has Pete by the throat | Sweet is the matin voice of birds and he chokes old Rattlesnake til' he gurgles black in the face. “Then the stranger turns to : out of hiding. he says, ‘I'm yere to preach the gospel, and I'm going to preach it if T have to choke it down the throats of the like of this. “Turning to Pe{g, he says: ‘Got ‘enough 2" .’ says Pete, groaning. to church Sunday?' the preacher. * 'Sure," savs Pete. “‘Get up,” says the preacher. 1e did, and Sunday ‘Pete’ went to church and for six months the ecamp was as quiet as a prayer meeting. The preacher was.a reformed prize fighter from the States.” ery says Her Help. ‘I do not drink, sir,’ mildly replies | There | was ructions, but not the kind they +* passengers on such a limited mileage there would be more accidents ther than here, but that is not the case; last. year showed a record of but six- shoot. «The gang, wise | teen killed and 1058 injured, including | | There is a little woman over in Oak- | land who was recently left with her little ones to fight the battle of life | alone. Bravely she faced the problem and right well did she struggle ‘o make both ends meet with the little which she had. But occasionally when she was alone and the memories of the days that had gone came upon her she could not keep the tears back. One day the widow was sitting in the dagkened parlor looking at a picture which was framed around with autumn upon her e bow. One of the little girls nes- tled her curly head down in the moth- er's lap and looked up into her face with eyes that did not understand. “M ther,” said the little ne, very poor : g % dearest one, poor. ‘Mz mma, how much bread would five big dollars buy?” “Why, my dear, that would bring us enough bread to last two months,” re- plied the mother, with her hand on the curly head. *“Well, mummsy,” whispered the little cne, with her head on ' the mother's shouder, “vou take the $ my god- mother ~ ve me. You can buy the bread and we can borrow the b ‘ter.” A Stranded Groom. A few days ago a tall, handsome young fellow, fairly well dressed, ac- | costed Judge Graham in the corridors of the City Ha!l and requested a few | minutes of the Judge's time. “Certainly. the way to his chambers. “Judge,” said the young fellow, he sank into one of the jurist's easy chairs, “six months ago I agreed to marry a very fine young lady before January 13. The time is pretfy near, as | and T thought I would come around to see you about—" “Glad to hear it,” interrupted the Judge. “I suppose you want me to tie the knot?” “Oh, no,” replied the young fellow, | “that part of it is all arranged. I want to know if vou will let me have $2 to pay for the license.” London’s Schools. _London sends 800,000 children to passengers and employes, on English man just quietly lays | railroads. Barley Song. At early dawn in summer weather; Sweet are the bells of distant herds At twilight coming home together. the | And sweet the brooklet's pearly note Adown the rocky hollows leaping: But sweeter yet the songs that float In winds o'er flelds of barley sweeping. I love to list. 'mid insects’ hum, While quails are piping in the mead- ows, As o'er the hills the reapers come, And shorter grow the morning shad- ows, To_music of the rustling grain And dream of all the coming pl When we its life juice oft shall drain And revel in its amber treasure. with keen delight we drink Th parkling nectar. foamy-crested, While songs go round and glasses clink, Ard every draught's with joy invested. I still shall hear, in fitful wise. The piping quail, the brooklet's flow- ing, The insects’ hum in chorus rise With winds across the*barley blowing. —Melvin J. Messer. Engincer of Skyscraper. New York's great skyscrapers are operated very much like battleships, says the New York World. The center from which the skyscraper is controiled is the machinery hall far below the street level. The commander is the chief engineer. A mighty man In his own dominion is the chief engineer. He is above the ordinary mechanic in knowledge of machinery, for he is in command of engines and dynamos that must be handled with extreme delicacy and vrecision. He is a clever executive, for his supervision extends not oniy over the men in his own iittle Kingdom | below ground, but up throughout the “are we | entire twenty or thirty stories of the | building. He is a man of good educa- not—very— | tion, for he comes into contact with a'l professions—all manner of men who make up the high business life of the metropolis. He s a man of experien«e both in his own particular sphere and in the world in general. His activities and responsibilities are so varied, as to executive, scientific and administrat- ive functions, that he might be likened to the Mayor of a city, or to a captain of industry controlling hundreds of workers, as well as to the captaln of a battleship. The chief engineer of the New York skyscraper is usually the superintend- ent al The two offices are combined in most of the large downtown struct- ures. He is supreme in his lofty castle. This is to say he is in charge of a property which costs as much as many a battleship, for the investment outlay said the Judge, leading | represented in the latest type of twenty to thirty story skyscraper in’ the finan- cial district ranges from two to six miltion dollars. Awswers to Queries. LOTTERY TICKETS—H. 8, City. In California it is a misdemeanor to sell any kind of lottery tickets, genuine or bogus. WIRE CONNECTION—H. 8., City. Without knowing something about the location where railroad ties are wired in the manner described this depart- ment cannot answer the question asked. RICHEST MAN—H. A. F., City. It cannot be stated with any degree of school, her ability to do so resuiting accuracy who is the richest man in from the efforts of her school board the United States and in the world. proceeding under the recently adopted | John D. Rockefeller, the oil magnate, education act. It has erected five hun- apd Alfred Beit, the African mining dred nmew public buiidings, covering a | king, are supposed to head the. list. square mile of valuable land, distribut- ing them in every one of London’s fifty- A MISDEMEANOR—H. 8., City. Tt eight electoral divisions. four to every is unlawful for any person to have in square mile of the city’s surface. The ' his possession any indecent pictures o outlay was about $70,000,000, and lheyilitenture. therefore if an officer ar- are by far the most important of the rested an individual and on searching municipal assets. The work has been him found such matter on him he going on for thirty years, with con-!wculd be justified in charging him with stantly improving educational tions, and seems now to be pretty thor- oughly equal to the service required of it. | condi- | misdemeanor. 3EET SUGAR—Subscriber, City. The 1t gives more than elementary in- | pess.)ility of extracting sugar from the struction; puvpils find classes open to| beet root was first demorstrated by them in literature, science, art, tech- ! Margraff in 1747, nology and the like. with lecturers and with the white beet. who experimented M. Archard pro- teachers who are expert in their re- duced excellent sugar from the beet in spective branches. At six of the poiy-| 1799, and the chemists of France ex- technics the highest classes have been | tracted sugar from the beet in 1390 at included in the faculties of the reor- ganized London University, wl'? its six hundred orofessors and its twenty- five constituent colleges. constituting a center of academic teaching and re- search not unworthy of the great city | which it serves. “By its inspection of schools*and its new school leaving ma- triculation examination down ifs roots to the secondary schools, from which it is attracting a stdadily increasing number of undergraduates.” Deaths by Accident. ' One hundred and ten passengers on railroad trains oderating in the United States were killed in rallroad accidents during the last vear and 2338 passen- gers were Injured In those accidents. The total of lives lost, Including rail- read employes, In this couniry in the same time, amounts to 606 and 6111 people injured. We operate 193.304 miles of railroad, and we carry 607,- 278,121 passengers; the English rail- ways In the United Kingdom have not'amity, so sollling a man's over 22,000 miles of road, but 1.185,000,000 hassengers, It it stretches | 1 carry have betokened enmity, The spllling would be'salt was held by the anclent natural to suppose that with so many be an unlucky omen, the suggestiop of Bonaparte. BAIL MONEY—H. S, City. If a man deposits ball for a man charged with a bailable offense he virtually agress that if the man does not appear for trial the amount so deposited shall be forfeited, but that applies to oge who would he able to appear for trial. It the accused, before the trial, should commit suicide, the party depositing the bail would only have to show that fact in order to claim his money. A surety is not expected to perform an impossibiiity. SPIL!J}/G THE SALT—Enq., City. The popular bellef that it is unlucky to spill salt probadly originated from. Leonarde da Vinci's picture of the last | supper, in which Judas Iscarfot is rep- resented as spliling the salt. Or it may be that Da Vincl may have so painted it to embody a then popular supersti- tion, A gift of bread and salt was token of friendship; salt was a sign sait ma SRA<s» Romans