The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 21, 1905, Page 17

’ Pages 17 to 2% — 118 AT SAN FR/ ANCISCO, SUN;DAY‘, MAY 21, 1905. LIGHTNING DIRECTED BY A STRANGE POWER BIG DEWAND FOR AUTOS N ENGLAND —_— American ’fourists Rent Machines Abroad. ‘Woodruff an& Son Plan Double Honeymoon by Motqr. ny Houses to Let in London in Park Lane, the Row of Millionaires. the enteriain- summer on have closed their » Red Lox b e preparing for the forthcom- of Mrs. Spender flolk has become e Indigent Blind American Countess that the in- so proficient in She was espe- work o the quantity of She also of socks hich, it is supposed, she ste among the poor in Malmesbury, the cover school were ds of work ed with i ordered large use er ~wn a former pu- rrying on a small lose to was able to supply from him s long compete price vy situated at are no less n eight Park lane—London's row—and during the will this the possession > past not a few to acquire has never been y American pluto- T t have to live anywhere rticular in order to be credited with big bank accounts. Society always takes r granted t they ‘e a great su- of riches is always willi p them spend it wherever they may the ane is now suffering ciation with vast imagination. It On this account money and blue lves more on the rmer, fight ghy of it. only tHe former as an aid to the - social ambitions a Park lane residence not what it is cracked up to be. But meanwhile its land- Jords continue to hold out for the stiffest rents in London ————— Willinm Tell in Japanese. for lavish luxury folk who po: both bio: nd pride them: Jatter than on the fo And those who aiscoverir zation of lofty TORIO. May 2 hiller's famous drama, “William Tell,” has been per- formed in Jupanese at the Imperial Theater at Toklo. Tell was represented in the character of a Japanese hunter, who fights a tyrannical Chinese man- darin named Gessler. < AMERICANS 0D STACE H LONDON —_— Britain Invaded by the Yankee | Actors. 'Plags Which Scored Here Well Received Across Atlantic. Theatrical Season in Paris Unsatisfactory From the { First to Close. Special The Call LONDON, May 2 and the American actor and actress have invade: gland and conquered the Brit- ish public the - generalship of Charies Frohman the eXperiment has be- Under come a decided success, and Frohman declares that hereafter his companies will ciude London in their tours just as they do Chicago and San Francsco. As the result of five years Frohman has twenty-three now on contract to piay on and by next year he will theaters in London. The It of his experiment of bring- ing a whole company over here to pro- duce an American play anc the fact that ‘Leah Kleschna” has also made such a British have g hit has made the American manager that his prediction that American ceeed just as well in Lon- lish plays in America has been borne out. “The Anglo-Saxpn peoples are some- what alike after all,” said Frohman, “and the question “of“locale 1N a° play amounts to nothing if the play is there. The difficulty” with at w we don’t find it out we blame audiences “The American playwright is beginning to take his place among the leading play- writers of the world, as I said when 1 arrived here this time. American plays. five I have produced two them—beth with great succ though they are so widely different “The strong drama of Mr. (‘Leah Kleschna'), with its human touches, made its effect in London, just thie same as in New York 3 typical American trayed by Collier in Mr. Davis’ play re- ceived the same shouts here that it did in Broadway. “One ng is now demonstrated. Plays are welcome in England. Americ individuality and tinet find success here as star at- r among an army of successtul actors’ of LONDON IN ALL TOURS. ican plays produced in America that I feel positive will succeed here. I now have in rehearsal just for copyright per- es William Gillette in his new n play. My important stars wall find in the future that their tours will in- clude London just the same as they do Chicago and San Francisco. My actors y be called upon to play in Philadel- in December and in Edinburgh in February. This isn't the outcome of two plays, but five or six years spent in es- | tablishing my work here as fully as in America. “I wish to announce that at the begin- ning of next year I shall have in London the Duke of York's, the Vaudeville, the new Oldwich, now being constructed, and in November the building or a new thea- ter will begin for me in Shaftesbury ave- nue, on the corner next to and above the 2 » Theater. “From the plans 1 believe this will be equal in construction to the Empire Thea- ter in New York. ‘I nave already organized twenty- three companies to tour in England( for Miss Marie Tempest is to continue star- ring and Miss Ellen Terry 1s to make a provincial tour. S Collier was more amazed the other ht than his audience, and was doubt- the happiest man in London when found his points coming back to him. result of his success has been that now walking up and down Picca- a high hat. friend Barry, who never goes to ngihts, attended’ the dress re- hearsal with me and insisted on having tickets for the opening night, ‘thus see- ing the play twe nights in succession.” POOR SEASON IN PARIS. PARIS, May 20.—The Paris' theatrical The season commenced badly this year, and its end has been no better than the be- ginning. With the exception of the Comedie Francaise, which is scoring a great success with “Le Duel,” there is nothing worthy of remark. Other thea- |ters are already renewing their bills, though only for a month. Whether this ;is due to the war, to bourse difficulties | or 1o the temperature is impossible to | determine, but in any case there is quite | & slump in theatrical activity just now. | _The Isola Brothers, proprietors of the | Folies Bergeres and the Olympia, have sold those noted music halls to M. Paui | Ruez, ‘proprietor of the Parisan. the | Quintania and a few more music halis. | The Ruez combination is described as | @ music ball trist. and as such is hav- {inz difficulties with the Societe des | Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de | Musique. Au interesting dramatization of Kip- { I'ng’s “Jungle Fook” has been mmiz hy | Mme. Claudius Joequet, who has adapt- ,ed MM. Louis. Fabulet and Robert | @’ Humiere's translation of Kipling’s work | to the stage. . \e American play | us managers is that| we so seldom see where the play is and | d then in view the production of | McLelian | character por- | from our country—I mean by that, real | e | | “I hold contracts for at least six Amer- l , '‘New Theory of l ]EITS SECRET | KILLS PARIS, May 20.—“It would seem that lightning is a subtle being, whose nature | comes between the unconscious force of | plants and the conscious force of animals. | It is like an elementary spirit, eccentric or rational, clever or silly, farseeing or | blind, headstrong or indifferent, passing { from one extreme to the other. It wrig- | gles through space, it moves among men | with surprising agility, appearing and disappearing like—lightning.’ The spedker was Camille Flammarion, ! the world-famous astronomer and scien- | tist, who has devoted much of his recent | time and study to exploring the myste- ries of lightning which have baffled the ages. | 1 | | | i | | 1 hen even the freaks of lightning fol- | low determined laws?" was asked. In answer to the question he pointed to a pile of papers on his desk. “Each year I receive from the Ministry | of Justice official accounts jof all acei- | dents from lightning, as desCribed in po- lice reports. Here lightnjgg Kkills, there | | it passes without injuring. Farther on it seems absolutely frolicking. I have under | my eyes hundreds of examples. And vet | it is not possible to draw from them any conclusion as to a law. Sometimes it gives rise to the hypothesis that it ds a thought which, instead of being attached to a brain, is attached to an electric cur- reat. ““All that can be affirmed for the pres- ent is that in spite of its apparent inde- pendence lightning does not act as freely | : might be inclined to believe. It | | obeys certain laws still undetermined, and its actions, seemingly so unregulated | and so capricious, are not the result ot sheer accident. The plea of chance is sought as a refuge for our ignorance, but it cannot explain these fantastical phe- | | nomena. “The only sure way to reach general facts is by consulting particuiars. This is| | the method I invariably adopt in inves- tigating any scientific subject. Now here are-a few of the strange freaks of light- ning which I have suceeded in bringing together. FIRE GLOBE ATTACKS GIRL. “Abbe Spallanzini relates that on | Augus! , 1791, a peasant girl was in a field during a storm, when suddenly a globe of fire, the size of a billiard | ball, appeared at her feet. Gliding along the earth this little ball reached | her bare toes, which it appeared to ca- ! ress, then rose under her clothes, open- ing out her skirts like an umbrella and came out by the middle of her bodice, leaping into the air with a great noise, having retained its globular form. The girl fell backward. Two witnesses ran to her assistance. She was uninjured. Medical examination proved that there was only‘a superficlal erosion stretch- Forward by Flammarion. IS STILL UNKNOWN Queer Freaks of Fire Flashes and Flaming Globes: OR 'NOT AS special Cable | about | | ing in the other some bread with which | | | Its Pranks Put 1 LISTS to The Call. pranks as these. But it must not be forgotten that some strokes of light- ning are veritable catastrophes. One day during a religious ceremony at Carpentras fifty persons were killed or injured by lightning. On the sloop ppho, in bruary, 1820, six men were killed and fourteen seriously in- jured. At Grosshad, near Duren, Ger- many, July 11, 1857; 104 persons were injuragd in a church and six killed. At Mount Ple nt, Tenn., July 12, 1887, were killed under an oak during a storm a rule those killed by lightning ntain an appearance of life, stay- in the attitude which they had ing when struck, but if touched they crum- bl€ to ashes. Many mysterious his- { torical disappearances may be attrib- uted to this phenomenon, notably that of Romulus, while reviewing the troops in the Caprian. Marsh. “In the town of Everdon ten har- vesters had sought refuge under a hedge during a storm. Lightning struck and killed four, who were left as if petrified.. One was found holding in His fingers the snuff which he was to take. Another had a little dog on his knees and had one dead hand on the animal's head while hold- he had been feeding it. A third was sitting with his eyes wide open and ing from the knee to the middle of the chest, and that her clothes were cut | i | Ppo » | NOTED SCIENTIST AND SOME PICTURES SHOWING THE WORK OF LIGHINING. | =7 LIGRIAING o Sty through where the globe had passed out. “In 1897, at Liguy, France, a husband and his wife were sleeping quietly one night when a formidable noise awoke them suddenly. The chimney had fallen, filling the room with .debris. With- in the house the effects of the bolt had been as terrifying, but remarkably ec- centric. Just beneath the ceiling, near which hung a harrow with kitchen utensils hooked on it, the stones of the wall had been projected horizontally with such violence that they stuck in the wall opposite. While all the glasses in the windows were smashed, a mirror was detached from the wall and laid uninjured on the floor. A chair, with clothes thrown on it, was taken up and set down: near the en- trance door. A small lamp and a box of matches were found on the floor, undamaged. “Harmless enough are such _little his head turned toward the storm. “May 24, 1904, at Charolles, France, Mademoiselle Moreau was stricken while sitting at the fireside with some.| friends. They were unhurt, but she was filled outright, the lightning bur- rowing under the right ear and pass- ing out by the left. ANTICIPATES THE NOOSE. “We sometimes find lightning tak- ing a part in judicial matters. July 20, 1872, a negro named Norris was to be hanged for murder in Kentucky. Just as he was stepping on the plat- form a formidable stroke of lightning killed him. The Sheriff was so im- pressed by this occurrence that he re- signea. “Or again. it may play the physician. In September, 1898, at Romaines, France, a tavern-keeper named Finot was standing ‘on his doorstep watching the storm when a stroke of lightning upset him and threw Iiim to the end of / TSR T PEIRIIIED B | | | of .death; fainting, fright, looting a house or destroying a building some- times suffice to quiet it. Its shape is not always.spherical, though generally so.. Sometimes oval, sometimes it has a flame like :a shell, dr else is quiet as a shooting star. . It is often like an orange and moves so slowly that ome can follow it for. several minutes. “One day at Secondigny two boys, one aged: twelve and the other fifteen, were. playing in_the street when they saw a ball like an orange rolling toward them. One touched it with his o | | 20 e THE MY KR DES ; LTS TV LIGERTNINE - vsoce T -+ the ‘room. He remained uncoascious for a time and blind for ten hours Having had rheumatism for some years, he could not take a step without the aid of a stick. Since then he no longer requires a stick, but can do what he likes. “Politics also appear to have their power of attraction. When McKinley ran for the Presidency with Hobart a large barn had been built by an ardent Republican named Abner Milikan and decorated with lituograph pictures of the two. During a storm the building was several times struck by lightning and seemed wrapped in flames. No harm was done, but it was found that the pictures had disappeared and silhouettes of them were traced on the wall. “Ball lightning is the most I mysteri- ous form of lightning. "It sometimes behayes like a small animal with the most evil nature. And yet its cruelty "'is not necessarily pushed to the extent exploded, killing him in- stantly. His comrade was thrown down, but was not hurt DETERMINED BY CAUSES. “This goes to prove that people should not play with lightning. It does not like to be interfered with and the lessons it reserves for the imprudent are cruel. “Sometimes it splits a man neatly in two as with an ax. This happened to a miller’s boy at Croix, January 20, 1868. He was cut straight up from the legs to the top of the head. Inm 1389 lightning struck a mirror, making ten holes in the gilt frame, volatizing foot. It e | | —— ACTRESSES 70 DAZZLE YOUNG KING French Maidens Prepare to Charm Alfonso During Visit. ST Speetal Cable to The Call, PARIS. May 2.—Gossip from the Rue de la P says nearly every actress of the younger generation has ordered new robes ready for the coming of King Al- fonso. The King has announced in un- mistakable terms that he is going to see Paris through and through, and will not leave a single theater unvisited. Madrid is dull, and when he is out of it he doesn’t intend to reproduce it by clinging to the weary round of official entertainments. It is ddubtful if he will be allowed all the liberty he demands, but the minor stars are preparing to shine their brightest should he chance to find his way to the 1 | lesser theaters. | point, “That terrible woman,” as the Kaiver is reported to style the Grand Duchess Axastasia, sent for a milliner in the Ave- nue de'I'Opera to go to Cannes, and the only r v+ handsome toilette among the round dozeir she chose for her daughter's trousseau, according to a woman's view- is destined for her own wear at the marriage fete. It is of pale mauve satin, very heavy, trimmed with twerfty- five yards of old lace at $40 a yard. The costume is made very pretty by a subtle combination of colors in the girdle and sasin of a peculiarly subdued pink and | blue. | At the gate of the Elysee Palace | group of English tourists, misled by the guard of honer presenting arms as Em- bassador McCormick’s carriage rolled out. raised the cry, “Long live the King!™ which quickly subsided as the Embassas dor stuck ou a deprecatory face. “ The American colony gathered In strength this week at Mr. and Mrs. Frank King Clark's, where many had their first glimpse of the new occu- pants of the embaSsy. Practically the ‘whole embassy set was present. ‘William - Blumenthal, the new third secretary of the embassy, has arrived from Lisbon to enter upon his Paris duties. SN Y she is less capricious than we believe. These curious facts show us once again that our knowledge of the universe is incomplete and that its stody is inter- esting in all its phases. It is certain that electricity has in nature a part more important than we generally think and that in human life it has an almost perpetual part which is mearly unknown. Sensitive beings notiee this at the approach of storms and feel the most extraordinary relief when the storm has We have here a physical influence followed by a meral influence, the two coming very near together with the residents of our planet. “in the wild state, coming’directly the gilding and transporting it to the | from the atmospheric regions, the elec~ facé of the mirror, while the gquick- silver on the back was traced in the most beautiful designs. " “We call such things.freaks. but they are rather apparent than real, for they are determined by causes. So it is with . the prettiest woman; without knowing it, obeying internal or external causes, tric fluid is the most dreadful mes- senger of the air. Conquered by the genius of man, it has aided powerfully in the progress of modern civilization. Tt lightning should be tamed and its sparks directed, its services would be innumerable. And this is & possibility within the limit of scienos.’