The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 10, 1906, Page 2

THE SAN FRANCISCO S INPLE [SLANDERS PAILL KINO WITH BARE ITE HOT LAVA BOULDEKY BY WAL King Sy s eyes and bow a gags What John Henry Thinks of Courting BY GEORGE V. HOBART. down and g days are see their p & people 1 and like ese Nowaday goe wh a cleve sweet young man kes bugey bell rope at the ear n a benzine r the streets 4 when he tr end he has @ rapid-fire revolver | pocket and & bottle of carbolic acid in the other. His ‘intentions are honorable and he to prove them so by shooting love if she renigs when he play for her hand the old style wes the best, beca when young people quarreled they didn't need an ambulance and a hospital sprgeon to help them make up. In the old deys Oscar Dobson would draw the stove brush cheerfully across his dogskin shoes and rush with eager se feet to see Lena Jones, the girl he wished to make the wife of his bosom. “Darling!” Oscar would say, “I am sure to the bad of love of you. Pipe the downcast drop in this eye of mine and notice the way my heart is bub- bling over like a bottle of sarsaparilla on & hot day! Be mine, Lena! be mine! Then Lena would giggle. Not once, ' | but seven g turned home to tell skeptical around the hearth fire about the won- derful doings of the fire;walkers of the South Naturally, the folk at home have been more than incredulous. They 1ad not seen, with their own eyes, the racle-working islanders as they de- fied fire and all the power of the de- stroying element in the jou 1 hot and it incredulity & across be be stones, was to should their faces when the 1d their tales of wonder trav- seen however, ders them- For the the me to America the history alks on fire cult, are in the white man's d representa- es of the tory, prepar to demonstrate over the demon of perfect be visited by The eged some people of the privi to see this and already have h is so strange as zle not only the plain wh s the s le, but 50 the g men of science, the pi nd all savants who, are ' I lege of studying the Five dred persons watched Priest 3 wife go through the few days ago, at a sort of rehearsal performance’ given Berkeley by the Tahitian vis- s ese all were skeptical e s islanders made across the bed of w ¢ ks. After the trip the islanders, in shown heir ability to hat govern fire, or sup- fire, there were no ere w however, a f greatly curious ‘peo- one was cry e world is it done?” wer to ed a myriad times thing to say that question, en as ws anders who do the trick t of religion hey have absolute no doubt that in their ter- across the white hot re der the special care o ose might is shown w otees safe walk through the en who went upon strange tribe beings walking fous act to show ker and i the fire wal of spectac and great m trib Convers igh the surely erous 1st have power of those priests and folk | of the strange | priestesses who were delegated to per- form this weird; uncanny act. Of all the many generations who per- | formed vive. now on these shores. Their power to tread the flames unharmed is still potent in this foreign land, and they are prepared to demonstrate to skep- tical America that fire has no terrors | for them. With Priest Puhia is Princg Salmon, a cultivated, clever Tahitian, the head| of the tribe in which Puhia is a prlest.‘ The priest is old, wrinkled, a type of | that which is all of the past. Prince| Salmon is modern, suggesting civiliza- tion, and all of its concomitants. Prince Salmon is attired in clothes of a fash- fonable cut. Priest Puhia wears the garments of the native islander. The priest still venerates the Prince, how- ever, and obeys him as did the tribe's people in the olden days, when the head of the tribe gave the signal for action to all of his people. It was under Prince Salmon’'s direc- his wife was made to America. The Prince will attend to the details of the | journey throughout America. , If he should die or be harmed, the exhibitions would cease, for Priest Puhia will move on his journey over the red hot only when his Prince gives the word of command. The first exhibition of the power¥of the Tahitians to travel over the .stones revealed to curious Californians just what the modus operandi of the affair is. There is nothing about it to sug- gest magician’s art or any of the tricks of the illusionist. On an open on stones, a lot a big hole is dug and a great fire kindled in the hole. A bed of flercely glowing coals, is made, and on it are piled basalt blocks, brought from this fire-walking rite in the( South Seas only a meager handful sur- | The very last of the race are| | tion that the trip of Priest Puhia .na“ | AN Tahiti to America. these rocks, ands if they porous they could not withstand the fierce heat they undergo; ordinary rocks would crumble in the heat, but this basalt, lava product, these bowlders of volcanic origin withstand such heat as would melt steel and destroy granite. When the stones are made so hot that there can be ne question of their condition, then the priest and his wife prepare to make their journey over the stones. They chant prayers, and as they move toward the bed of red hot stones their incantations increase in intensity. Reaching the stones, they whip the air and the ground three times with banana leaves they have carrfed, and then the march across the awful bed of fiery stuff begins. The feet of the islanders are bare. They have not been prepared for the ordeal with any applianes. No medi- They are porous, were not g SN & Pricst Puhiay Walkingr over) Red hot Lave, " = . T UPON Q ?/Ir;z',,’ffy' cinal stuff or material of any kind has been applied. Dr. Frank’' gWoolsey of Berkeley exariined the feet of priest Puhia be- hot Stones Prepared - Jfor Prigst. Puhia'sWierd/ ourne fore and after the fire-walking cere- mony, and declared that nothing in the { way of herbs or unguents or any such thing had been used. He found the feet | of the priest ynharmed by the orde: He confessed himself at a loss to ac- Count for the thing. | Stranger than all is the declaration of John Thomas, a wealthy Englishman, | who accompanies the Tahitians as a sort of patron. that whitet men are able to duplicate this feat of the fire- walkers, if the w..te men make the “journey across the stones in the wake ’of the priest and his wife. If this order is followed, all is well. Other- wise, death is the portion of the white man who attempts such a thing. | “Captaln Richards, of the steamer | Alameda, has done the trick, with the | priest,” sai@ Mr. Thomas, | Doty, at Papeete, the American repre- sentative in Tai.., has done the same thing. They were unharmed. They would never dare to try it. however, | except while following the priest over | the hot stones.” | The custom of walking with bare feet S W P! “and Consul| SRR ~ L A i > Priest Puba his ,\A/i‘f;, and_Pince Salman.., on hot Stones is one of great antiquity | ana is undoubtedly of Oriental origin and probably practiced as a religious | rite by the worshipers of the princi- | ples of heat and light as seen in the | sun and in his emanating fire. the devotees of is now enly oecca- sionally followed in one of the Fijian Islands; and Kalatea, | Tahiti. The religious significance has | been lost in the mist of ages and even the words used in the ceremony have lost their meaning to the performers, but the bellef still exists among those whe practice it that it is enly by the | direct favor of the presiding genius or | spirit of fire that they are preserved from harm during the rite. Once practiced by Baal and Moloch im Japan; in At Huahine, near Kaiatea, in the Soclety Islands, the goddess who pre- sided over the ceremony was Tetuanul Taharia, who was worshiped at th Marae or altar of Faretai in the distri of Parea. Her first priestess, ages ago, was Hina-te-anpu,and at the time Captain Cook's visit in 7 the priest in charge of the altar was named Maod Under the influence of the Mission work the fire walkers became dispersed. One priest named Faraa went to the little island of Maupiti, and anether, Tapau, to Kaiatea. There he has still pre- | served the cult and has instructed a few disciples in the ceremonies, among these being Priest Puhia. | There can be no doubt that this cus- tom is a survival of a form of sun | worship; probably the first cult of primitive man. It is interesting to note that the apecial funection of the Huahine goddess named was the giving of information | through her priests of the whereabouts of voyagers in canoes and of lost prop- erty; the sun being, of course, all- seeing. les, something like those Then she 't be. epiy: “No, Oscar; it it other r we bite finger is hat up out of the coal say to Lena: “False one! You love Conrad, the floorwalkér in the butcher shop. Curses on Conrad, nd see what you have missed, Lena. ve tickets for a swell chowder par- next Tuesday. Ah! ever Then Oscar would walk out and hunt one of those places that Carrie Na- n missed in the shuffie, and there, ith one arm glued, tight around the ar rail, he would fasten his system to a jag which would last for a week. Despair would grab him and he'd be farewell for- Oscar with the souse thing for sure. e would recover strength to walk downtown without attracting attention of the other side of the street he would call on Lena and say: “Lena, forgive me for what 1 bave done, but love is blind—and, be- sides, 1 mixed my drinks. Lena, I was the downward path and I nearly went to hell.” Then Lena would say: “Why, Oscar, 1 saw you and your bundle when you fell in the well, but I didn't kKnow it was as deep as you mention.” Then they wouyld kiss and make up and the wedding bells would ring just as soon as Oscar's salary grew large enough to tease a pocketbook. But these days the idea is altogether different. CHlidren are hardly out of the cra- dle before they are arrested for but- ting into_ the speed limit with & smoke wagon Even when they go courting they have to play to the gallery. Nowadays Gonsalvo H. Puffenlotz walks into the parlor to see Miss Imo- gene Hoffbrew. “Wie gehts, salvo. “Simlich!” says Imogene, standing at right angles near the piano because she thinks she is a Gibson girl. “Imogene, dearest,” Gonsalvo con- tinues; “I called on your papa in Wall street yesterday to find out how much money you have, but he refused Lo name the sum, therefore you have untold wealth!” Gonsalve pauses to let the Parislan on Imogene,” says Gon- clock on the mantel tick, tick, tick! He is making the bluff of his life, vou see, and he has to do even that on tick. Besides, color, Then Gonsalvo bursts forth again: “Imogene! Oh, Imogene! will- you be mine and I will be thine without money and witheut the price.” Gonsalvo pauses to let this idea get noised about a little. Then he goes on: “Be mine, Imo- gene! You will be minus the money while I will have the price!” Gonsalvo trembles with the passion which is consuming his pocketbook, and then Imogepe turns languidly from a right angle triangle into more of a straight front, and hands Gonsalve a bitter lopk of scorn. Then Gonsalvo grabs his revolver and, aiming it at her marble brow, ex- claims: “Marry me this minuge or I will shoot you in the topknot, because this furnishes the 1local | T love you.” Then papa rushes into the room and Gonsalvo politely requests the old gentleman to hold two or three bullets for him for a few moments. Gonsalvo ‘then bites deeply into a botle of carbolic acid, and just as the Coroner climbs into the house the pic- tures of the modern lover and loveress appear in the newspapers, and fashion- able society recelves a jolt. This is the new and up-tffdate way of making love. However, T think the old style of courting is the best, because you can | generally stop a jag béfore it gets to the undertaker. What do you think? (Copyright, 1906, by G. W. Dillingham Company.) Mice &s Ordinary Seamen. It seems strange at this late date that these much despised and maligned little animals should be made to earn their daily bread in a very curious way, yet it is a fact, nevertheless. They are now being used as signals in submarine boats. Should there be the least leakage of naph- tha the little animals give warning by a series of incessant squeaks, for they have a great dislike for the irritating odor of that article. They are rated.on the books of the British navy as ordinary seamen and are paid at the rate of one shilling a week each, which is used to provide them with food. Pawns Poker His Hand. | “Many queer things have been offered {to me as pledgzes for loans,” said the pawnbroker, “and stories behind them would fill a book. There was one man, for instance, who put up a §iv gold plece for a loan of $5. The coin was a keepsake and he wouldn't par: with it. | But the oddest loan I ever mads W28 on a poker hand "It was late one afteraoon when three men came in, They were ill more or less excited and asked to sae nie privately. The spokesman was a city | employe and I knew him slixhtly. ie explained that he had been sitiing in {a pretty stiff game—! guess ;"> 1 Xncw | where it {s—and there came a big Jnck- |pot in which, after a lot of play, tto | betting had narrowed down to him a |a prominent poliucian. My visitor all in. .The game was table stakes, hat the politician offered to waive the yules |and wanted to bet $500 on his hand. “My visitor asked for and received fif- | teen minutes’ time to raise the money. {In the presence of the other players the |remainder of the deck of cards had been wrapped and sealed. Each player had then shown his hand to a commit- | tee to guarantee against substitution or |any crooked play, and the search for the necessary $500 began. “My visitor had gene after one or two friends, byt they were not to be found. As a last resort he came to me. If I would ‘advance the money on the strength of the hand he would pay arv interest within reason With that ae drew his five cards from his inside pocket. He held a straight flush of hearts, king high. There was only one other hand that could beat it, and that Was an ace-high flush. The first ques- tion I asked was, ‘Who dealt the cards? My visitor had. I considered te propo- sition for half a minute and decided to run the risk. There wasn't one ch: nce in a thousand that the other fellow had a straight fiish also, so, putting $500 in my pocket, I went around to the place where the game was being played. i found matters just as my visitor had described. ' The sealed cards were pro- duced and found to ba intact. The pol- itician wanted to raise the bet then to & thousand, but I geclined to o that far 'The cards were then shown The politician held the four aces. He was game, though, and never batted an eye- lid a8 my man gathered in the stakes. My $50 was handed to me with the rate of interest agreed upon.”’ How much was {t?" asked a listerer. “That's a professional -ecret,” said the pawnbroker with a chuckle. How the Nation Makes One of the most picturesque and in- teresting departments in the Brooklyn navy yard, little known to the outside world, Is the naval flag-making estab- lishment. To supply the hundreds of | vessels, ranging from the great battle- | ships 'down ' to the tiny launches, with | their prescribed pro rata requires the con- stant manufacture of many |of flags. To cut out, sew and complete |these Uncle Sam maintains an exten- sive plant, going at full blast all the | year round and employing nearly half | hundred skilled needlewomen and a few men. | The flag room is on the third floor of {the bureau of equipment building. On | entering the large room the visitor's first impression is a blaze of color. Rolls | of bright bunting are heaped up waiting | to be cut; while long lines of electrically | driven - sewing machines, operators, are reeling off and putting |the finishing touches to American and | foreign ensigns of many diffrent hues |and patterns. Especially dificult and tedious is the {hand embroidery of the peculiar and in- tricate designs and centerpieces used. by the flags of most of the South American countries and other foreign nations. Last year this flag factory cost the Govern- | ment $60,000; $43,000 of this amount was for material alone and $17,000 for labor. The number of flags turned out was over 50,000. These included 300 distinctive and special kinds. A good idea of the number of flags that must be carried by a single ship can be gathered from a large pile, shoulder high and fifteen feet long, just finished for the new battleship Connecticut. About one- half of the lot is composed of the foreign flags, incased in thick paper bags. The name of the country is stenciled on the bottom. The remainder, including those for ordinary use, signal sets and the in- ternational code, etc., are not wrapped, but tied in round bundles and lettered. the regulation number every ship of our navy has to carry, the material and mak- ing of which cost Uncle Sam just $2500. for each ship. This sum, multiplied by the number of ships in the service, foots up to many thousands. It is necessary to equip them for all forms of ceremonial and official occasions, saluting and slgnal- ing, both at home and in foreign waters. With an extensive array of flags sfored on board, the ship is prepared to meet and show the proper naval etiquette to all high-rank officials of any nation who should come aboard or whose waters the vessel enters while on 'a cruise. The thousands | with women | | foreign complement contains forty-three | flags, each twenty-five feet long and thir- | teen feet wide. Certain of these are full of animal shapes, curlous designs and marine landscapes. They are, therefore, difficult to make and require a surprising |length of time to finish. This flag \manufacturing establishment |1s under the supervision of Thomas Maloy, |officially termed master flagmaker, and Miss M. A. Woods, quarter woman flag- | maker. Besides critically inspecting the | inished output, they also test all the bunting. This comes from Lowell, Mass., |in lots of several thousand vards at a time. One day a sample lot' of bunting is ‘soaked and washed in soap and fresh | water. The next day the same process is followed” with salt water. It is then |exposed to the weather for ten days, | thirty hours of which time must be in | the bright sun. This is far the color and | fading test. The last test is for tensile strength. | For this test a strip two inches wide of the warp is placed in a machine and {must withstand a pulling strain of sixty- five pounds, while two inches of the fill- |ing must sustain a forty-five-pound strain. The flags are cut out from measure- ments arranged on chalk mark lines and metal markers on the floor. Large stripes and certain designs can be more con- veniently stitched in this way. Daily this | checkered section of the floor is covered |at all hours with several different flag: | with the men and women cutters at work. | The final sewing is done on the machines by the women. Each machin swiftly |run by a small electric motor. Some of the women excel In sewing on the stars, | others are skilled in finishing other parts of the flag. Nearly all have been many | years in the establishmeént. The pay runs |from $120 to $2 a day. With the bright colored, fantastic flags of all nations dangling from their machines, the long rt:-v;| of flagmakers presents a picturesque sight, The thousands of white stars used on the flags are cyt out by an ingenious machine, specially devised for this pur- pose, operated by electricity. Only a few years ago the stars were cut out by hand Now a plunger, fitted with steel kniv the shape and size of the star wanted, with a single down stroke cuts out from fifty to & hundred stars at a time. Press- ing the foot en a pedal operates the ma- chine. Some eight different sizes of stars are used, each having a special cutting |dile. Running the machine for ‘only an hour a day furnishes enough stars for several days. In the same room work t veterans. They sew the binding and tue | Its Emblems wooden knobs to the finished flags. Af- terward the border is stamped with the name of the ship, flag and date of con- tract. The largest flag made is the U. S. en- |sign No. 1, thirty-six feet long by nine- teen feet wide, which costs $40 to turn out. The President's flag requires the longest time of any to make, as it takes one woman a whole month to finish it. This consists of a blue ground with a coat-of-arms of the United States in the center. The life-sized eagle, with long outstretched wings, and other emblems are all hand embroidered and involve the most patient work. The flag is made in two sizes—ten feet by fourteen feet and three feet by five feet. The embroidery silk used on this and other designs costs $9 a pound. The foreign flags are the most showy and difficult to make. This is notabiy true of the South American ones, two of the worst being those of San Salvador and Costa Rica. The former has for a center piece a regular landscape consis ing of a beiching velcano and a rising |sun, set in a varied design of draped |banners, cactus branches, cornucopias |and a swastika on the ground of a rayed diamond, with the date of the independ- |ence of the nation inscribed on the top. Costa Rica has two ships in full sail on each side of the dividing chain of | mountains rising from the sea, with the | morning sun just appearing in the back- ground. The whole is surrounded with draped flags, with staffs surmounted with spears, battleaxes, swords, trumpets, ete. From 100 to 200 different pieces are in these different ensigns, all of which are | patiently appliqued by hand. A separate corps of hand embroiderers do nothing but this kind of work, and it occuples the time of one woman sixteen days to complete the San Salvador design. The cost of making the Costa Rican flag is | #46: that of San Salvador $2.50, the most expensive foreign emblem made. The flag of Siam, containing the big white ele- phant, costs $33. Another record breaker in point gholuble to make is the dragon flag :: na. This huge mythalogical monster is the prominent feature of the Chinese standard, and its fantastic scaled body, with claws and open mouth, is worked out on a yellow ground In blue, green and white. Over 100 seperate pieces form the grotesque figure, ten feet long. Twelve ta fourteen days are taken to finish this flag, Which -costs $175. The a new supply of ithough some wear out in less time,