The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 15, 1904, Page 8

- e Gold Supply. K _WRIGHT, LL. D A Age in North America,” Russia,” etc.) ght, 1904, Joseph B. Bowles) of the va 1d consists If it t would not but a great deal cheaper, for it arcity. plenty a as cheap be only A be the greatest nuisance in th 2 uses to which it can Its principal beautiful dom from rust or oxi- gfeat capacity for be- ithout heat, drawn into nd hammered out into ceivably thin sheets. It he strength of iron or the ca- taking and keeping an edge. the earliest ages it has been tive to men and so free from that doth arce, that st “precious” metal and s most convenient exchange cailed “money all that gold is so =carce, distributed. An in- amount of gold is dis- water of the ocean, but quantities that it would i times as much to ex- T since are very limited. in tions consist its is free vg welded w row corrrupt,” and the is very widely quantity extracted wid be worth when in our posses- sion. The principal source of the sup- T very recent times has been its of sand and gravel form- deltas of mountain streams ying their banks near their These gravel deposits and through which ‘the gold is ted are called ‘“placers.” ining consists in separating from the worthless ma- rough which it is dis- ted, and it is carried on by a of processes in which water kes a prominent part. The gold, be- £ heavier than almost any other ma- terial, sinks to the bottom when agi- tated in water, where it i& found con- entrated after the removal of the ighter material. One of the earliest sources from hich gold was obtained was in the bed of the Rion River, which coming from the Caucasus Mountains empties into the Black Sea mear Ba- This the celebrated region o which the Greeks resorted in early times in search of the golden fieece, down 1 was hich g= now supposed to be nothing se than a fleece of wool which had ead over the bottom of the r, where the current swept long a small amount of sand and eravel in which particles of gold were ntermingled. The gold, being heavier the gravel, kept closest to the bot- 0 that the particles became en- igied in the meshes of the fleece and it became “golden” in meore than ative sense. This mode of min- «n as the Ginsley process) is tom ing (kn still practiced and is the most efficient vay of getting fine particles of gold seminated through a great body of sand. A stream of the gold-bearing sand is kept moving over a long stretch of felt cloth by a current of water, hich carries away the sand, but per- mits the gold to be caught in the meshes of the cloth, which after being shaken for successive times to set free the particles of gold is finally burned. so as to extract the entire amount that has been entangled. But in the more common placer mines thé gold is found bean-sghaped nodules of all sizes—from those scarce- Iy perceptible to the naked eye up to those which weigh twenty thirty pounds, and in some cases even one hundred pounds. one sach mass having been found in the Ural Mountains in 1842 and being now preserved in the museum at St. Petersburg. In the rich placers an immense amount of gold has been extracted by the familiar hand process known 85 “panning,” from which there comes our expressive phrase “pan out.” The gravel is shov- cied into a pan with flaring edges. which is held under a stream of water and skilifully keot in motion by hand and xhaken s0 that the lightter material | is carrie@ over the edge of the pan and +he heevier minerals left at the bottom. But ia gravel banks consisting of cearser material, with a smaller pro- rtjenai amount of gold inclosed, otber more effective devices are resort- e¢ 1o for securing the separation. Often a Jet of water under great hydraulic pressare is directed through the nozzle of a"hose against 2 gravel bank, disin- tegrating it and washing it down to lower-leveis, in which process the ma- terial is swept through a flume a rough bottom, into the crevices - which the gold settles while the gravel and pebbles are swept beyond. After a sufficient length of time the flume is ceared vut and the gold coilected from the bottom. Oftentimes the themselves prove to be the best ulic agencies for “separating the goid. ~ As thes: mountain streams wear away the gravel terraces upon thelr banks they carry the lighter material to lower leveis, while the goid s caught in pockets and holes that cover the boitom of the streamn. ’ Put the gold found in placer mines lias all been derived from quartz veins vhich. coming up from the depths of (e earth. penetrate to the surface through rocks of nearly every geoiogic age. The progess of quartz mining is jittie eigz than 2 repetition of what na- turc has been doing through un‘cld ages in viding the deposits found i the placer mizes. The Guaslz cou- Tivi jery of various sorts it is now pos: follow .these gold-bearing quariz | ! | of man a supply of geld tha it has been re- | s s, | taining the gold is dug out from the! |vein and artistically pulverized under | the action of gr | when streams stamping machines, | water are caused 1o | THE JOHN D. SAN FRANCISCO CALL SPRECKELS, Proprietor . « + « « « « « « . Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager | | Publication OMice .....sunnueseenennnnnnnnse. CEEESEEY ...ieoeieran .. .. Third and Market Streets, S. F. viesses. «MARCH 15, 1904 AN INTER-AMERICAN ROAD. HE very full acount of the report of Commissioner Pepper, on the inter-American railway, which The | run over it and separate the gold from lit has i been done in nature by the mountain streams. * { Through theé use of modern ‘machin- lte | veins to great depths below the ca surface, thus putting within the r & ere- | of. The celebrated Comstock vein in Nevada has been Imined for a depth of 3100 feet, while! a tunnel 20,000 feet lonz has been dug | to drain the mine. The extreme heat| | developed at such depths presents the! | greatest difficulty but it has already | $150,000,000 worth of goid. - The profit to be derived from quartz | | mining depends upon a combination of | tofore unthought ‘f'tmdfli"nF, A vein of quartz rich in | gold may be so thin that it will not | jpay to work it at great depths. A | {in such an | the cost of working it would be exces- ive. One of the most celebrated ex- {amples of a low grade gold bearing quartz which has been’ worked to great profit because of its accessibility is the | Douglas mine, near Juneau, in South- | eastern Alaska. Here, rising from the | | water’'s edge, is 2 great mass of quartz | with a small amount of gold dissemi- nated through it, averaging only about $2 or $3 a ton. But the quantity is al- most unlimited; the stamping mill is built close by the wharf; the quartz is. mined from the mountainside im- | mediately in the rear and brought down to the uppas story of the mill by grav- ity, where stamping machines, moved water power, are set to upon it. The final separation of the gold, espe- | cially of that which is in fine particles distributed through the quartz or grav- 1, has until recently been secured prin- cipally by the use of mercury, which | has strong affinity for it, and when | | mixed with the residuum containing gold forms an amalgam, which can be removed and easily subjected to sep- | arate treatment to again free the gold. | But the most remarkable recent ad- | vancement in the art of separating gold has been by the use of potassium cya- nide, which has the advantage of be- |ing very cheap and of being able to | be used over and over; while the quartz | | for this treatment does not need to be |80 finely comminuted as for mercury. Potassium cyanide dissolves gold, when | the liquid readily vields it up again on being supplied with certain other | | compounds for which it has a greater | affinity. Through the use of this meth- | od, which was discovered only a few | vears ago, the production of gold is | | likely to be increased almost indefi- | | mitely, use discarded by the old process, can be made to yield a profitable supply of | gold. The variations in the supply of the | world’s stock of gold have been re- | | markable. | estimated that the total amount of | gold and silver in possession of the | world was worth about $2,000,000,000, |of which we may suppose that one- | half was gold, but this stock gradually | | diminished, through abrasion, acci- dental loss and use in the ornamental {arts, till in the ninth century it was | reduced to about one-eleventh of that | amount, or to about $200,000,000 worth. To this amount there was lit- | tle increase until after the discovery of America, when the mines of Mex- ico, Chile and Peru began to pour in their supply to the European market. Between 1493 and 1850 the addition was $3,273,600,000, while from 1850 to 1879 the addition was $3,755, 600,000. This great increase in the supply of gold since 1850 was due largely to the gold discoveries in Cali- fornia, which were made in 1848. About the same time there were also remarkable discoveries of gold in Aus- i there were in twenty years $2,500,- doubling the amount in the posses- sion of the world. Nor has the production of gold in the United States diminished in amount, but rather increased. The largest production of gold during the height of early mining interests in California amounted to $65,000,000 in 1853. From this the production gradu- ally fell to about $33,000,000 annu#l- 1y in 1892. Since that time it has in- creased until in 1960 the production of gold in the United S according to the last report of its Geological Sur- vey (1901} yas $79,171,000, and in {1901 $78,666,700. At present the United States leads the world in the production of gold, while Australia continues to produce about half the amount furnished by the United States. Another growing center of gold production with un- | Enown future capacities is Siberia, |are found on the flanks of the Altai Mountains, in the mountains west of {the Yenisei River about Minusinsk, near the Chinese border, and east of Yeniseisk, haif way down toward the Arvctic regions. Placer mines of still greater extent are now worked with { immense profit in the almost Inacces- isible headwaters of the Lena River, i mortheast of Lake Baikal, and in vari- {ous mountainous distric{s bordering the Amur. But the most remarkable of all the j recent discoveries of gold are in the Transveal, South Africa. fere gold wak discovered in small quantities in 1867, or rather it should be said re- discovered, for the whole country Is covered with the remains of prehis- toric mines, which, with considerable probability. are identified by Mr. Ham- mond with the mines of Ophir to which Solomon sent expeditions. In 1885 the most sensational gold dis- coveries ever made were those at Wit- watersrand, in the Transvaal, where an area no larger than the District of Columbia was, 2t the breaking out of the Boer war, furnishing gold at the {rate of $40,000,500 worth a year. The total amount of gold in this single de- osit ix estimated by Mr. Becker to be 160,000 !the worthiess material very much as| ich vein of greater thickness may be | inaccessible position that | work | | ation,” built by American capital. since ores of much less rich- ‘)nr‘ss, and indeed immense piles of ref- | At the time of Christ it is | to the supply of gold from America | tralia. From these two sourc¢es alone | 000,000 worth of gold added to the | stock already in existence; thus nearly | | where placer mines of immense extent | Call has publshed, will be taken as a satisiactory | report of progress in that great project. Such a railway to connect the Rio Grande with the Rio de la Plata, and | give an all rail route from all parts of the United States i and Canada to Buenos Ayres, must of necessity be built down the west side of the Andean range. On the east { side the obstacles presented by the mountains are the least of the difficuities to be overcome by engineering. The vast swamps of the Orinoco, the Rio Negro, and be- | yond them the tropical forests and marshes of the Ama- zon and its tributaries, are obstructions that can be con- quered only by exhausting the wealth of the world, and then the tropical poison of the climate would defeat the ! purpose of such an enterprise, which is the union of the extremes of the hemisphere by rail, and the supplying of rapid mail facilities and means of communication and commerce, useful to the peoples of both continents. We have very convenient rail communication with Mexico, and American capital has been largely invested to construct it. Its projéction southward has reached within 172 miles of the Guatemala line. Thence souther- ly, disjointed projects are contemplated ar under con- ! struction that will carry lines across the Central Ameri- can states. Salvador has long had a line in contemplation from the valley of the San Miguel to Fonseca Bay, and some construction has been done upon it. It may be met by a line from Guatemala easy of construction down the valiey of the Lempa, and intersected by lines from the western seaports, Acajutla, La Libertad and El Triunfo. To that country such a line would be the equivalent of our railways down the Atlantic coast, by which New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile and New Orleans are connected. It would tra- verse the rich ailuvial zone of Salvador, believed to be the richest part of Central America in its agricultural ! possibil Passing into Honduras there is a line already in oper- Nicaragua and Costa Rica are backward in construction, but their topography offers no impassable obstruction to a road. Once across | Panama, by hugging the coast rather closely the moun- tains of Colombia may be avoided, and when the line enters Ecuador there is nothing in climate or other phy- sical conditions to hinder easy construction, to connect existing links through Peru and Chile to the Andean tun- nel through which the road must pass to the east side of | the mountains, into Argentine territory. - | Already roads from either side are aimed at that crossing, respectively from Buenos Ayres and Valpa- raiso. Passengers regularly make the transit now, by a portage over the summit at ansaltitude of over 10,000 feet. But the trip with saddle and pack animals is very trying and offers no facility to commerce. When the tunnel is bored, as it will be, all rail goods trains can carry trade between the two coasts of South America. Heretofore the difficulties have been political rather than topographical or financial. After crossing the Rio Grande this inter-American field has to traverse eleven | different nations. No other line in the world has to deal with as many jurisdictions and separate sovereignties. | Many of them are nations frequently at war with each other, or torn by internal dissensions and domestic revo- lutions. By the last steamer it was reported that Central America is chafing under such a long period of peace. Salvador has had no revolution since Regalado smote Gutierrez out of the Presidency in 1898, and Honduras has been quiet nearly a year. Colombia is biting her thumbs over the loss of Panama and is probably to be the prey of Venezuela. All of them would be made peaceable and prosperous by the construction of this railway, which would make their products readily exchangeable, give them quick mails and bring them into the world and out of their seclu- sion. It would touch the business ambition of their people, promote production, raise the standard of life and touch their politics with'a zeal for the public welfare. It would be the greatest north and south highway in the world, eclipsing Cecil Rhodes’ Cape to Cairo dream of a longitudinal line through Africa. His project was to cross 63 degrees of latitude. The American project from the northern line of Mexico would traverse 70 degrees. His line would be inland the whole distance. The inter- | American railway would let on the Pacific, with access to ies. | the seaports of Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Panama. Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina. As links aggregating only 4800 miles remain to be built to complete the American line, at a cost of $150,000,000, it will be completed long before the Cape to Cairo plan is { accompiished. 1f reports are to be credited Washington is seriously disposed to annex the pestiferous little island qf San Domingo. Why not?> We are being constantly involved i in Dominican rows anyway and when we get the pesky little rascals into the family we can wallop them to our heart’s content according to strict rules of family dis- cipline. | U of for six weeks, as a Presidential candidate. The last time he was mentioned was when Fitzger- ald, member of Congress from ‘New York, interrupted Landis of Indiana with an impassioned ascription to Par- ker as the hero of the Democracy, the bearer of the ark of the covenant of liberty, the hope of the people, the loved of the masses, their very present help in time of trouble, the household word around the winter firesides of the republic. When he stopped for breath, Landis said: “Canthe gentleman from New York give me Judge Parker’s post- office address?” Fitzgerald, still sweltering from his elo- quent exertion, repfied that he could not, “Then let me know his given name,” said the .cold and deliberate Landis. Then the New York member had to confess that he did not know the given name of this national hero and household word, and the whole House roared with laughter at the gnti-climax, and no ~ae ventured to refer to Judge Parker again until the 13th inst. Meantime the orators have been thumbing the New York blue book wherein his name appears as an official, and it is given out that “Judge Alton B. Parker’s nomi- nation is practically assured.” This is a statement in the line of a directory, for it carries his given name, 'but should alse give his address, to the end that no one may be caught like Congressman Fitzgerald. The directorial information is said to come from “one of Judge Parker's foremost managers,” and therefore is of importance. Now what sort of managers has the Judge, if the foremost one is a sample? H‘«np‘: “The PARKER’S TURN. NTIL yesterday Judge Parker had not been heard i Democratic party has an obportunity. I know that the | do party has shown itself to be capable of almost anything, but I do not think that it will commit the folly of throwing this chance away.” Fareweli, Judge Parker. Your postoffice address need not be given if that is the kind of foremost man- agers you have. It is a party capable of almost anything that the country fears, and not Judge Parker, given name and”address uncertain. His nomination will not certify | that the party ceases to be capable of almost anything. The country saw it run away from the strongest man it | ever putin the White House, and in spite of him try to | bankrupt the treasury, debase the currency, destroy !hei nation’s financial honor and credit, and in the effort | bring on a panic that is remembered with horror by all who experienced its rigors. The party “capable of al- most ‘anything” did this against the command and coun- | sel of Cleveland, Carlisle, Bayard, Gray, Lindsay, Pal- mer, Vilas and every general of division and corps com- mander in the party, and even of the captains of tens and of hundreds and the file closers and truncheon men. With that history does any one pretend that the colorless and impalpable personality of Judge Parker will hold it | in check? ; His foremost manager has shown that he shares the | country's estimate and apprehension of the party, which no nominee can change or reassure. Wonders will never cease in the administration of | public affairs in this city. Exhibiting an inexplicable | activity, the police have actually raided a gambling den ! that has flaunted its tempting vice for months on one of | our prominent thoroughfares. The incident suggests itself as of sufficient importance to warrant an investiga- tion by the Police Commissioners. If the raid was war- ranted, why was it delayed? NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD STORY. PPONENTS of the candidacy of Theodore O Roosevelt to succeed himself in the Presidency | are wont to lay great stress upon the contention | that he is “unsafe,” that his “strenuousness” would prob- ably lead him to a grave indiscretion of policy and con- | sequently plunge this country into needless complica-} tions with some foreign power. To bolster up their as- sertions these timorous ones have been citing of late the Roosevelt anecdote, now widely published, which occurs | in ex-Secretary of the Navy John D. Long’s new book, | “The New American Navy.” i The incident referred to in Long’s book was one which | the author described as having taken place just prior to the outbreak of the war with Spain, while Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy. “His (Roosevelt's) ac- | tivity was characteristic,” says Long. “He was zealous in the work of putting the navy in condition for the ap- prehended hard struggle. flis ardor sometimes went | faster than the President or the department approved. | Tust before the war he, as well as some naval officers, was anxious to send a squadron across the ocean to sink the ships and torpedo-boat destroyers of the Spanish | fleet while we were yet at peace with Spain.” | This story, which has been the cause for much fruit- less ‘controversy and bandying of words to and fro by the opponents of Roosevelt, seems to be settled, once | for all, by the new light thrown upon it by Francis E. Leupp, in his recently published book, “The Man Roose- | velt.” The author of this personal view of Roosevelt, who as a veteran Washington newspaper correspondent, | had ready access to the inside circle of affairs at the time when Long’s anecdote about the Assistant Secretary | is placed, discusses the incident as follows: . | “The whole record of this incident was long ago| transcribed from notes made by me in the spring of 1808, with the idea of some possible historical use to be | made of them later. With all-‘deference to Mr. Long | and entire faith in his sincerity of purpose, I am bound | to believe that he overlooked one essential feature of the story. He represents Mr. Roosevelt as anxious to crush Cervera's fleet on the high seas instanter and without notice, whereas my notes show that Mr. Roosevelt's plan involved, as a preliminary, a warning to Spain that she must take the responsibility for whatever happened.” | If this closely intimate view of the affair from the pen of the man whose business made it imperative to get at the truth can be taken as more authoritative than the statement of ex-Secretary Long, there does not remain much campaign material in the anecdote. The sending of Cervera’s fléet across the ocean in the early days of March, 1808, was as definitely a hostile act as the con- stant reinforcement of the Port Arthur fleet by the Rus- sians prior to February 8 was a blow in the face of Japan. Let those who wish to take strong exception to the suggestion of Secretary Roosevelt turn back to the history of the Venezuela boundary dispute and there dis- cover what attitude Cleveland was to take the minute an English fleet appeared off the Bahamas. His vigor- ous action at that time averted a possible clash between the two nations. ; The highest compliment yet paid to the discriminating activity of Bristow, the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General, who has unearthed many of the frauds that have disgraced the postal service, was paid the other day in the unseemly row in the House of ‘Representatives. Bristow touched a tender spot on the senmsitive bodies of too many distinguished statesmen. The inquiry, therefore, should vigorously be prosecuted to the end. Where so many are apparently hurt by investigation it is eminently proper to discover the reason. The Supreme Court of California has decided that the salaries of public officials, other than those created by the constitution, may be attached by creditors. What is politics coming to? We create officers with nothing to do, pay them handsomely for filling the emimently de- sirable duties of their positions and now insist that they must meet their just debts. We must plead, in the light of experience, that a serious mistake has been made somewhere. Energetic measures are being taken in Hawaii to im- prove the National Guard of the island territory and to place the citizen soldiery upon a basis in keeping with their importance as an American institution. The move- ment should receive the heartiest encouragement. The National Guard is held very dear in the sympathies of Americans, and anything tending to its expansion and efficiency will always be welcomed and approved. A capitalist prominent in the financial affairs of the State was sentenced recently in Los Angeles to serve an imprisonment of two years in San Quentin prison. What a novelty it will be to have a man of money as an inmate of one of our penitentiaries. It is well, indeed, to know that even | nothing that will appeal ! oner tell the driver not to hit that ! quivering flanks of the ancient steed ' ‘A Pcor Beginning. A number of humane citizens of the capital citv of Mexico are experiencing | difficulties in forming a society for the prevention of ciuelty to animals. Amer- ican residents had for a long time been talking of ‘forming an organization for the relief of the sufferings of their dumb friends, and had at last succeed- ed in interesting several prominent Mexicans in the project. A meeting was called and the scheme was thor- oughly discussed. The consensus of opinion was that a humane society ! should be formed. It was thought that recognition of the work by the authori- ties would be an excellent advertise- ment of the new organization and that | it would also awaken the interest of the masses. A committee was appointed to wait on the Mayor of the City of Mex- ico. The Mayor welcomed his visitors ! with open arms and listened attentively to their outline of the proposed work. { At last he stated that he fully ap- proved of the scheme and theught that it would prove of immense benefit to the municipality. He was then in- formed that there was a lack of suffi- \ck-nt funds to give the work a proper | start. He knitted his brows for a mo- ment and then exclaimed, “I have it gentlemen; we will have a grand bull-, fight—the best that the city has seen in vears. The proceeds will be used for | the benefit of the new society.” The humane citizens have decided to gather the necessary funds by soliciting contributions. ! His Last Bit. He was not very ragged, but his| clothes had an appearance of seediness about them that was mute evidence that prosperity and he had been strangers for some time. As he stood in the lee of the Phelan fountain he presented a most disconsolate appear- ance. Suddenly he straightened himself up and removing his hands from his pocket gazed for several minutes at a 50-cent piece the opening of his fist dis- played. It was all he had. He shrugged his shoulders, and with a contemptu- ous “humph” started toward one of the gayly lighted, warme-looking saloons that are plentiful in the neighborhood. Within a few feet of the door he passed a little woman, paprly clad, who was | standing close to the building, and in a | weak, quavering voice called out “even- ! ing papers.” The poor, weak voice attracted the attention of the seedy man, and he half-turned in the little woman's diree- tion. Then he walked toward the sa- loon. With his hand on the swinging doeors he stopped, looked at the piece of | money in his hand and then with a| | shiver turned and walked rapidly to the vender of the news. “Take this, mother,” he said, hand- ing her the glittering coin, “and get home out of the cold.” ctions. IHuman Contrad “A man who will brutally beat his aged mother because she refused to | give him money to purchase liquor is | supposed to be so low that there is to him or rouse in him a spark of kindness,” said | a deputy jailer at the County Jail a few nights ago during a discussion ot' the habits of the criminals and law- breakers, “but I saw a man of that caliber do a little thing recently that | caused me to think quite a little of | him. “This man had been occupying a ceil | here for six months because he black- | |ened the eves of his old mother for refusing to give him money to buy drinks with. The morning he was re- | leased the first thing he did was to| g0 across the street and enter a saloon, | where I presume he bought a few | drinks. When he came out he started | to walk up the street, but stopped and watched a man who was brutally beat- ing a superannuated horse that was hitched to a load that was too heavy for the animal to haul. I raised the window and plainly heard my late pris- | herse again. The driver forcefully con- signed him to hades and again struck the poor animal. Well, quicker than I can tell it the man who beat his moth- | er was upon the driver. He pulled him | off the wagon and kicked and struck him for fivesminutes and then left him bleeding and sore on the cobbles. And | then he patted in a kindly way the and went back into the saloon.” | The Coming of Rain. { Wan, widowed fields beneath a cloudless | Look out across a summer sea in vain And in their loneliness they seem to cry “Where are the lost ships of the Win and Rain?” When, of a sudden, Bob White, whose eye is true \ As any pilot's, and who cannot fail, Pauses a_startled instant in the blue. | Then shouts to all the flelds. “A sail! sail!™ ston Transcript. { The Largest Tunnel. The Simplon tunnel in the Alps, one | of the greatest works in the world, is | rapidly approaching completion. Its | total length will be a little over twelve miles, of which distance six and up- | The completed tape | ! i * He are pot allowed it to escape If he did seized something. Being spread his dominion is dreadfully extensive so that his countryman boastally say ‘the sun are never sets on our domin- jons.’ The Testamony of English said that he that lost the common sense, he never any benefit though he had gained the complete world. The English are cunning institutioned to establish a great empire, of the Paradise. The Englishman always said to the an- other nation ‘give me your land and I will give you my Testamony.' So it is not a robbed but exchanged as ths Englishman always confide the object to be pure and the order to be hoiy | and they reproach him if any them are | Killed to death with the contention of | other man.” Vacant Lot Farms. In the April Delineator Allan Suth- erland writes of a remarkable socio- logical experiment—no longer an ex- periment, for its practical value has been demonstrated—that has been tried in several large cities, of changing un- beautiful vacant lots into garden spots. Vacant tracts of land are borrowed from generous owners of real estate, divided into small tracts and loaned to needy people, chiefly old men, invalids and children. They are furnished with seed, tools, etc., and their work is di- rectéd by competent supervisos Among the many beneficent result: f the efiorts of the Vacant Lots Associa- tion, the following are mentioned in the article: Hundreds have found emp ment who would otherwise have been idle; land has been rescued from weeds and rubbish and made to bring forth fruits and flowers; little children who at best could hope only for a ountry week” have found glorious “country summer”: they have had, in large measure at least, suggestions of coun- try life, with its blessing of pure air, wholesome food and health-giving ex- ercise, and many have already set their faces resolutely to look for pleasant homes in the country; indeed, the de- mand from suburban property owners is rapidly increasing for these youth- ful trained workers of the soil. Printing Without Type. There are three companies in New York and Brooklyn that are about to put on the market devices for printing without types. Ome is capitalized at $10,000,000. The process is as simple as a-b-c. To begin with, a typewriter with the standapd keyboard is used to “set up” the copy, not in lettters, but in per- forations in an endless strip of paper. looks somewhat like the music used In automatens that play the piano. The strip of paper is passed through a machine which prints, with justification, sheet after sheet of matter of the required size—a book page or a newspaper. Impressions of this printed stuff are then made upon aluminum or zinc plates as thin as or- dinary sheet iron, which are placed with equal facility upon both the bed and platen and the cylinder presses. Answers to Queries. JACKPOTS—Subscriber, City. Jack- pots can be opened only by a hand containing two jacks or better. INDIAN LANDS—A Subscriber, Pa- cific Grove, Cal. For information as td the time when the Indian reservation |in Oregon will be opened to settlers, address a letter of inquiry to the Gen- eral Land Office, Washington, D. C. POKER—Subscriber, City. There is a marked difference between draw and straight poker. In straight poker the original cards are played, there being no draw. Each player puts up a given amount prior to the deal, and there is no ante. TRANSFER VARNISH—Subscriber, Oakland, Cal. What is known as trans- fer varnish, used for transferring and fixing @mgravings or lithographs on wood, for gilding, silvering, etc., is de of the following ingredients, in e proportions given: Four ounces of mastic in tears and four ounces of sanderac in one and a half pints of rectified spirits, to which is added one- haif pint of- Canadian balsam. WRITING MACHINES — Student, City. The attempt to produce a writ- i-thgquo‘mhuariehl-lcm ! ing machine goes back nearly 200 years. | The reccrds of the British Patent Office north, or Brigue, side, and four and i show that a patent was issued to Henir upward on the south, or Italian, side, ! = " | Mill, a London engineer, @r a writing | leaving only a fraction over ane mile | pchine in 1714. From that time down i et to be comvlet‘e:‘.'lx is expected that | to 1856 numerous machines were in- 3::et;:20figgon;iny ux::l:?n:’fft:iflu vented, but it was not until that year = that the pioneer of the present type- not be long thereafter when trains Will | \yiting machine was presented. This | ward have been penetrated on the regularly be ning through. 1 Beac] Alfred E. f the organization of the work is of bieh et- | P ioeinies 5 (e Bione At ficlency. No sickness exists among lhelwno obtained a patent for a machine men; the use of the Brandt drill imme- embodying the characteristic basket- diately suppresses all dust and there | ke isposition of t. ype bars and type has not been a singie case of miner's ¢ (ne present machine. This was = phthisis, although some 3,000 men| machine for bossed H printing em! letters | have been at work for five years. for the use of the blind. About the What a ]ap Thought same time Dr. S. W. Francis of New York made a machine having the keys It is both Interesting and important | 2Tn8ed around in a circle and using to know at this juncture what is the an inking ribbon, a traveling frame Japanese Rilow -6 Al s and an alarm bell. Here it {s, as written by a Japanese: “The England which occupled of the largest and est dominion which rarely can The Englishman works with a, very powerful hands and the Townsend's California glace fruits and candies, 50¢c a in artistic fire- mm A nice present for Eastern 715 Market st. above Call hidg * . — long legs and even the eminenced mind, houses and public men by the 7 g e S P v 2 B e N hoss dztgate S AN