The Washington Bee Newspaper, September 19, 1908, Page 3

Hi A Trying Out Craft of Vari- ous Make and Master- ing Aerial Problems. PICKED BODY OF MEN) Blow to Redsghioc the the Utility of Air; AIRS PQ Navigation, the Lost Time is Now| Rapidly Made Up—Well Equipped | Works for the Purpose Installed at Fort Myer, Near Washington. Washington, D. present _, Government tests of airships of va- rious types will serve to bring promi-| nently before the public the functions and personnel of the newest and one of the most interesting branches of the United States army-—the Balloon Squad. The little group of men who Within the past few months have Qualified as experts in the handling of sky craft will serve as the nucleus of what will ultimately become one of the most important organizations in Uncle Sam’s military establish- ment—a trained body such as is es- sential, if this nation is to overcome | the long lead already gained by France, Germany and Great Britain in military aeronautics. The Balloon Squad is a branch of | the United States Signal Corps. Fora number of years ballooning has been regarded in military circles, as an essential adjunct to the signa! work of the army, but Americans have been unaccountably tardy in exploit- ing its possibilities. Picturesque indeed, were the cir- cumstances which finally aroused the Yankee officers to action. The Spark that set interest and energy aflame in this direction was the win- ning of the first international bal- Joon race by Lieut. Frank P. Lahm. That young American army officer, barely twenty-eight years of age and almost a novice in the work, should , defeat the most experienced aero- nauts of Europe and win a decisive victory in what was, up to that ume, the greatest areial sporting event the word had ever seen, could not help but kindle the patriotism and the &eronauiic interest of his fellow of- ficers at home and abroad. The outcome of the sentiment thus aroused was the issuance der creating the Aerona jon of the Signal Corps ranged to get out of s of an or- utical Divis- It was ar- | orage the sev- | WIRELESS RAYS A | MENACE TO HEALTH. i Will Probably Cause Some Myste- | rious Disease Like the X-Rays Did. j Loncon, England.—It is now as- serted that wireless telegraphy may | | turn o~t to be a menace to health of, | the human race. Basing his alarming suggestion on| | the .act that the Admiralty is now} sending messages to the British fleet | a sea by means of a wireless tele- | | Graphic apparatus erected at the} jvavy Headquarters in Whitehall, a! | well-known scientist says: “This means that ether waves are being ie. loose in one of the densest parts of London, in my opinion a ; Most dangerous experiment, consid- ering the totally unsuspected re-| box produced by X-rays, which are | | only another form of ether waves, | ; Upon people coming into frequent | contact with them. “With this wireless system once 1 use the people not only of Lon- don, but of all England, will be con- tinually subjected to these myste- rious and little understood ether dis-! turbances, with possibly calamitous results in the shape of some fearful and obscure disease akin to that caused by X-rays.” Professor Sir William Crookes, when consulted on the subject, im- mediately admitted the possibility of the wireless rays being injurious. “Marconi rays and X-ray:,” he said, “are both vibrations of ether. The X-Rays did not produce any in- iurious effect for some years, and the fact that they were at all dan- gerous was not suspected. Personal- ly, though I have worked with the | X-rays from the beginning, I have! escaped harm. It is possible that the wireless rays may have an ill ef- fect upon people constantly subjected j to them, though I have not heard of! a case yet.” A professor at King’s College said: “It is so uncertain at present in! | what way the A-rays generate skin | disease that I should not care to} affirm that wireless rays have no such | effect. For a considerable time no one | | imagined the X-rays to be harmful and then several bad cases occurred. | It is impossible to be sure that the | Marconi waves are not injurious, ‘Buses we know that the X-ray ether waves are so dangerous. It cannot | be denied that anotner set of ether | Waves mirc it have their own special | action upon the human system. It; might be undiscovered for years. | Experiment alone can determine | whether these wireless rays are harmless or not.” eral balloons of foreign make which | had been bought by the Guring the Spanish been in storage ever was decided that the the new acti S suould joon house” at Fort Myer, Va., just across the Potomac from Washing- ton, and where the progress could b closely watched by the tive officials of the it is the expectation that ere many months elapse.a second detachment | of the Aeronautic divis ganized at Fort Omaha, Neb., where the government is now buil za model balioon h e and is install- ing what it is a d to be the most up-to-date piant in the worid for the manufacture of the hydrogen gas used for the inflation of balloons ‘Mhe baloonists at Fort Myer Lave the care of ail the balloons owned by the War Department. These include & French balloon of 9,000 cubic feet capacity, which was bought during the Spanish War; 26.000 cubic feet capacity, of German man- utacture, which was ac rea at the same time; the famous Balloon 10, of 76,000 cubic feet cap which was built especially for the Signal Corps by Lec Stevens and three small! balloons of German man- ufacture, 400 cubic feet capacity each, which are intended primarily for signal work but which are prov- ing very useful at Fort Myer as re- serve reservoirs for the storage of a surplus rupply ot hydrogen during the inflation of the big balloons Uncle Sam’s establishment is pret- ty well equipped, in addition to a vast array of such standard adjuncts as ballast bags, anchors, the like, there are instruments for registering the lifting power of a gas bag and for testing the quality of the gas in use. One ingenius me- chanical assistant is an apparatus, war and ince, had and it administra- a balloon, operated by turning a crank, which | inflates a balloon with air so that it may be tested for leaks or to-fa4# tate repair work. For the time being the hydrogen gas used as the lifting medium in the dirigible and all other balloons is manufactured at a temporary plant at Fort Myer, but ultimately all the cas required for army balloon opera- tions anywhere in this country will be manufactured at the Fort Omaha plant and will be shipped wherever needed in tanks somewhat resem- bling, save for their larger size, the gas tanks used in connection with soda water fountains. The balloon squad has its regular drills just as do other branches of the military service. The most im- portant of these has for its object the inflation of a balloon. 10,000 Wed from One School, Cincinnati, Ohio.— President Hill of Lebanon University declares that fuily 10,000 matrimonial matches had been made through the influence of the schoo! since it was founded fifty-two years ago. Jnited States j dquarters of | be at a “bal- | War Department. | ion will be or- | No. s | Pittsburg, baskets and ; WIFE GOT THE MONEY. | etree “Come On" Was Wise, and Bunco Men Were Buncoeda. | Wichita, Kan.—J. J. Savage, a, | ranch owner of Amarillo, Tex: came ; to this city to bet $3,500 on a “‘fixed” | norserace. He has fled back to Tex- | as with his own money and $500 be- ! | longing to the four men who tried to fleece him. He vrought a draft here to wager on the race. After Savage cashed the draft the bunco men gave him $500 of their own | money to wager, thinking to con-| | vince him that the ieal was all right. Before the wager was made & friend gave the Texan a tip, however, | j;and he and his wife hired a motor | car, drove from the city to Welling- | ton, and took a train home. Mrs. | Savage took charge of her husband’s $3,500 and the bunco men’s $500. ! IS $20,000,000 WASTED? Experts Say River Dams Government's Ohio Are Bad. Pa.—The most of the | $20, 000,000 which has already been expended by the government in mak- | ing the six dams below Pittsburg, in | the Ohio River, has been practically | thrown away, is the contention of | rivermen, and there is a fight on inj the matter between river interests | and the engineers in charge of the} government work. | It appears that the government / | dams have been so constructed that , the water eddies immediately below ; the dams, making sand bars, which }are far more dangerous to shipping | than were conditions in the river be- fore the dams were built. HORSE HURRIED TO DOCTOR. Wise Animal Knew What When It Got Colic. Bloomington, Ind.—The most sen- sible horse of local record was found here when the family animal of Samuel Johnson became sick with colic, and of its own accord made its way to the veterinary eight blocks away. Dr. Sweesy heard a noise in his yard and he found the Johnson horse reeling in pain. He treated the animal and sent it home. to Do} To Trace Shells by Telesccpes. Wasuington, D. C.—One hundred observation telescopes are to be pur chased by the Ordnance Department ofthe army. They are to be used in coast artillery practice to watch the | fall of shots. ' (a Return Wave of Immigrants. Washington, D. C.—Immigration officials scatter a few bits of infor- mation which tend to lessen the pessi- mism stirred by the news that 600,- 000 Europeans have already booked passage back to America. | It occurred to Dr. Wright that } out, | hy | crave narcotics. | cate that the “strenuous life | measure responsible for the recourse ~SiST STOTT eee i ae ‘WE HAVE AN OPUA ENLOF Ul | Extent of [legitimate Use of the Drug In This Country. The Smokers Not Confined to the Chinese, Who Seem to be Adopting Measures to Stamp It Out—In New York City It Is Estimated That 5,- 000 Whites Hit the Pipe. Washington, D. C.—Iin spite of the qact that the Chinese population in the United States is much smaller | than it was in 1878 the importation of smoking opium into the United States has increased more than 250 per cent since then. In 1907 the importation of smoking opium was 157,000 pounds. These facts are only a few of the startling features of the reports now being received at the State Department by the Ameri- can commissioners to the interna- tional congress to investigate and re- port on the growth of the opium hab- it, The investigation is being conduct- ed by Dr. Har ilton Wright of Wash- ington, one of tue commissioners who | has his headquarters in the office of Assistant Secretary Huntington Wil- son of the State Department. Al- ready he has reports that show that the importation of opium to the United States from 1903 to 1907 in- creased 1,000,000 pounds over the importations for a comparative per- iod immediately preceding. It has been ascertained also that about 75 per cent of the importations are used |in the manufacture of morphine. Of the manufactured products of the arug only 25 per cent get into legiti- mate uses. In New York City there are said to be about 3,000 Chinamen, of whom 500 are smokers of opium; another report places the percentage of the smokers at one-third of the entire population In Philadelphia there are 1,000 Chinese, fully one-third of whom are addicted to the habit of smoking. These figures do not take into consideration the moderate smokers of whom there are many. The returns made to the commission estimate that there are 5,000 white smokers in New York City. The sources of information upon which the commissioners rely are State pharmacists, members of the American Medical Association, police reports, manufacturers of opium, chemists, druggists, and boards of health. One of the interesting facts glean- ed by the investigation is th users of the drug among the C se population in the United States are anxious to give it up and the young men are being strongly impressed by Chinese medical authorities with the destructive influences of the use of opium. Chinese doctors have de- vised a cure for the habit which is being generally resorted to by vic- tims of the drug. The efficacy of the cure has not yet been fully test- ed. When the commissioners to the in- | ternational congress were appoint- | ed they were instructed that the pri- mary purpose of the international congress was to consider the growth of the opium habit in the far East. we might profitably investigate the prev- alence of the habit in the United States. He set about getting reports from all the large cities, and up to this time the replies have been rath- er startling He believes that it proves conclusively that we have an opium evil at home which demands our attention before we start out to reform the Orientals. He nas not yet received full re- ports from New York City, and those that have come are conflicting, but enough has been received to indicate that in the United States the use of © opium as a habit has grown to an alarming extent and th: its growth is not among the Chinese residents, ; seem to be | who, on the contrary, adopting measures for stamping it but the progress is among the whites and what surprises him is that it is not among the slums but in the professional classes, where the high- keyed nervous systems seem to Many reports. indi- “isina to the drug. LIVES ON $75 a Year. eaetitas | ; Musician Trying to Save $10,000 for the Poor. Omaha, Neb.—In order that he may give his entire property to the poor, Victor Schmidt, a well-known . Omaha musician, was discovered liv- ing in a cellar for which he paid $1.50 a month. In his pocket were certificates of deposit for nearly $8,- 000. Schmidt asserts that he lives on $75 a year and gives the balance ©. his earnings to the poor, Schmidt is a college-bred man and a former student at a German uni- versity. He has always been a char- ity worker. He is attempting to save $10,000 with which to estab- lish an institution for the poor. British Take to Parasols. London, “England.—The English- man has taken to parasols. After this, maybe he will adopt the picture hat, end in time he may even come to fans. ih lal | Committee on the Importation js nntaats I IMPOSTOR POSED ag LONG-LOST SON Lived on the Fat of the Land Tn the Real Jake Kinderman. Made Appearan San Bernardino, Cal.—By the re- turn of Jake Kinderman aftertwenty- one years’ absence, his family find that that they have been made vic- tims of an unscrupulous suas who for several years has posed) the real Jake Kinderman, lived \ ease, and disgracec. ite family nan by nis strange conduct. they supposed he was their son they put up with him. The imposter dropped into family six years ago and laid claim to being the long lost son. He was received with wide open arms as he} told a straight story of his past. Friends of the f: nily from far and hear were invited to meet him. Then} he began to show signs of a peculiar! nature. He carried two big pistols in his belt and wore a cowboy hat and cowhide overalls. He shocked his relatives by applying for the position | of official uog catcher. For months he rode a big horse, chasing dogs. It was made so warm for him that he) finally left, but he reappeared in Passadena, where he toon the dog eateher’s job. Later se went to Long Beach to catch canines. After that he drifted into Arizona and months ago returned, being giv- en another welcome by the parents, For several months he had been missing On «= recent morning a stalwart young man called at the Kinderman home. He was in the navy blue. “I’m your son, Jake; don’t you know me, mother?” he exclaimed as his parents opened the door. Mrs. Kinderman caught one glimpse of the man’s~ honest blue} eyes, heard his voice and fainted. The sailor carried her into the house, wiile his father, brothers and sis- ters swarme ing who he was nor whether he had better be placed under arrest. “Jake! Jake!” cried the overjoyed mother. She revived, and in an in- stant the entire family was about him, completely carried awa. with joy at his return. How the imposter vecame posses- ed of the information which made it so easy for him to set at rest all fears as to his identity is a mystery to the real Jake Kinderman, though iv is certain that the two men must have met probably in some foreign land, during the wanderings of the real Jake Kinderman. When the real Jake ran away with | Joe Rubidoux they followed a cir- cus. Then Kinderman joined navy, and for eighteen years has served Uncle Sam. He fought for his country at Menila. He was seized with a desire to know the fate of his family and he started for home on a leave of absence. He will return to the navy for a three years’ enlistment and when that is served he will be retired. CHILDREN MADE BLIND, One-Third Victims of Careless Doc tors and Midwives. Springfield, 11].—One-third of the blind chudren of this country are the | victims of careless or midwives. physicians This is the charge that Superin-| tendent George W. Jones of the IIli- nois School for the Blind, makes in an articles in bulletin of the State Board of Charities. Superintendent | Jones says: ‘Inflammation of the eyes of the} new ring from one to three days birth. A two per cent. solution of silver nirtate is an absolute specific | for this disease and a one per cent. solution can be administerec without | danger by the most untrained per- son.” AUTOS USELESS IN WAR. fests at Pine Plains Manoeuvres Were Unsatisfactory. New York City.—The automobile is practically useless for military purposes, is the gist of the report filed at the headquarters of the De- partment of the East, United States Army, on Governor's Island. This report, signed by Lieut. Col. E. F. Glenn, Twenty-Third Infantry, and Capt. William T. Johnson, Fifteenth | Cavalry, refers to the tests made at pine Plains, N. Y., during the thirty | days’ army manoeuvres. Ask Publicity for Accidents. Sharpsville, Penn.—With a view vo lessening the number of accidents, the American Anti-Accident Associa- tion of this city, asks the press of the country to make a special feature of | all accidents occurring in this coun- try, placing the occurrences under a regular heading, as is done with sporting, financial and other features that are classified. Such featuring, | it is believed, would cause people to consider more carefully the cause of accidents and assist in a possible pre- vention. Humming Birds Vanishing. London, Ergland.—Lord Stanmore, giving evidence before the Select of Plumage Prohibition bill, said that when be went to Trinidad (as Gover- ; nor) in 1866 there were eighteen or nineteen different kinds of the hum- ming bird, but now there are only about five. 2 BF ye o it — “7 a7 the | six | about him, not know-/| the | born is an acute infection occurs | after | A a A NRE cS co Lit) ' Gulenao Nesresa For Many Years Concealed Her Secret. POR POSED. WATE GIL | | | | * MOTHER TELLS STORY mitted Svicide—"ack of the Girl" . Story is a Tragic Narrative of Race Conflict Which Brought Aching Hearts to a Score, Pay | | Chicago, 11] ian Beatrice Wat. | Kins, a beautiful negress. who for | | years passed herself off as a white | girl, killed herself when her cup ot | | bitterness became full to overfiowing. | A man had fallen in love with her, and passionately loving him in re- turn, she confessed ber secret to him, He gave her $15.000, married anoth- er girl and a month later blew out tis brains in Washington Park. The girl in planning of her own death adopted his meihod, even to sending a bullet ¢ hing into her right tem- ple. Back of the girl's death is a tragic | story of a conflict o. race which brought aching hearts to a score of persens. As the young girl lay ina’ north side undertaking room a ne- gress bent and withered, leaned over the body and wept. She was the girl’s mother, who in order to allow her only daughter to associate with white folks, had given her up and passed her daily on the street without a sign of recognition. And yet the golden haired octoroon loved her dark skinned mother, and on secret visits to her home lavished | affection upon her. Thomas F. Kennedy, the motive for whose suicide im Washington | Park on January last had been a mys- j tery until now, was the man who fell jin love with the ill-fated girl. She | returned his ,ove and told her moth- jer that they were engaged and that \she intended to keep her race a se- | eret, but she worried so over possible discovery that one night she sobbed out the truth. Kennedy left her and a month afterward married Gwendo- lyn Reese. Four veeks after his marriage Kennedy was found dead in | Washington Park, only a few blocks from his home where he had furnish- led elegant apartments for his bride. Lillian Watkins the last year had been living at the home of Samuel Cc. Phinney, No. 376 Dearborn ave. Mr. and Mrs. Phinney never suspect- | ed that the girl was a negress. Miss Watkins was employed as a steno- | Srapher in the First Trust and Sav- ings Bank, and all of her fellow workers thought she was a Causcas- ian. On one or two occasions friends had remarked that she had rather a dark skin, and Miss Watkins always turned the subject by remarking carelessly that she had Hindu blood, as her grandfather was a Hindu. She studied at the University of Chicago. At one time she lived at the Virginia Hotel and for a few | months was a guest at the Warner Thirty-third street» and Cot- | tage Grove avenue, Mrs. Ida Watkins, the\ girl’s moth- | | er, lives at 3571 Forest avenue. With | i | | | | | | | | Hotel, | tears streaming down her face she told the story of her daughter’s | struggle to obtain recognition as a white. “My child’s misfortune was that | she was born with a white skin and | golden hair. Oh, how proud I was | of my little baby when she lay at my breast and I saw her delicate skin I little thought | | of the shame and misery it would | cause her later in life. Her father | was a white-skinned mulatto and Lil- lian was even whiter than he. { “Until my little girl was sixteen years old she always passed as a col- ored girl. Then a schoolmate put it into her head that she could pass as a white girl, and she came home and | toid me that, while she still loved }; me, she wanted to be known as @ white girl and asked me not to rec- onize her as my daughter. I thought my heart would break and we both cried for hours, but Snally.I saw that Lillian’s happiness depended on the) sacrifice and I made it. “Then Lillian became converted | to the Catholic religion and entered a convent in Buffaio, N. Y. She wanted to take the veil but became ill and confessed to the priest that ; She was a negress. I was living in | Hamilton, Obio, at that time, and Lillian came home. A few months afterward she came to Chicago and then sent for me. She explained gently that she was known as a white girl and would have to visit me secretly. She gave me $50 a month for my expenses and came to see me three times a month. When we passed on the street we did not rec- ognize each other. “Then came my daughter's great unhappiness. She passionately loved Thomas Kennedy and she told me that he loved her. She told him her secret and they parted. He married in a few weeks and a month after- ward shot himself. He gave Lillian $15,000. She bas left me all of this; money in her will, and in her will) wrote that | was her nearest and } dearest relative. So you see she did love me although my skin is black.” Miss Watkins shot herself in ner ; and golden tresses. dently had deliberated a long time is before she cotfimitted suicide. | tracts at Nelson, |in tattered clothes approached him |later and appealed to him for work. | A moment later the stranger extend- ler was a fellow convict | their teeth to be scraped or stopped, room at the Phinney home. She evi- has ESCAPED CONVICT DEPUTY SHERIFF. Model Citizen for Eleven Years— Identity Disclosed by Former Fellow Prisoner. Williams, Ariz.—*No necessity for that,” said Mrank Sherlock, as H. B. Woods, a ranger, covered him with a Trevolver and declared him under ar- [ewe Sherlock had been recognized as Charles Bly, a convict who rode | away from the New Mexico peni- | tentlary on the warden’s horse elev- Becaus Why Lillian Reatrice Watkins Come | en years ago. Ever since his escape the fugitive has iived an exen. lary life. For /eight years he served as a deputy sheriff of Mojave County, and in that time had run down many desperate criminals. He was held in the high- est esteem by his fellow townsmen, and the revelation that he was an escaped convict came as a shock to the entire community. Recently Sherlock vecame a suc- cessful contractor and secured con- ‘riz. A workman ed his hand and said: ‘‘Why, hello, how are you?” The supposed strang- who had served in the penitentiary when Sheriock alias Bly, made his escape. Sherloc.. gave him a job but dis- charged him later. This incensed the ex-convict and he betrayea Sherlock. The next day Captain Christian, of the New Mexti- |¢o penitentiary arrived and started |tor Sante Fe ‘ith Sherlock, where he has two years to serve on a four year sentence for horse stealing. Be- cause of his exemplary life the citi- ens of Lis home town will make an effort to secure his pardon. DENTISTRY FOR DOGS. Cost of Filling and Scraping a Ca- nine’s Teeth. London, England.—An observing reporter of a local daily on overhear- ing two ladies discuss the relative merits of their pet dogs’ teeth at the Peking Palace Dog Show, started up- on a tour of investigation among fashionable West End dentists and made the important discovery that several well known dental surgeons made a large income by attending to the teeth of their client’s pet dogs. Baid one: ‘I frequently attend to the teeth of pet dogs belonging to my clients, and that practice is common in our profession. Scraping dog's teeth is a simple enough and almost painful operation. I have on severai occa- sions cleaned a dog’s hollow tooth and filled it.. Only once have I tak- en a wax impressicn and supplied false teeth, and the dog soon got rid of them. The instruments are the ‘game that we use for human beings. “Show dogs are brought to me for as a decayed tooth means loss of points in competition. My scale of prices is: Scraping a set and clean- ing, £1, 1s.; refilling and cleaning one tooth, 5s.; making a bicuspid or incisor, 17s. 6d.; making a canine and grinder, £1, is. I have never supplied a full set of teeth fcr a dog, | and could only give a fancy estimate, but the work could not be done prop- | erly under 25 guineas.” PLANTING EYELASHES, Hair of One’s Head is Threaded Along Edge of Eyelid. Paris, lashes” France.—"‘Planiing eye- is the latest torture which women endure for beauty’s sake. The operation which is ‘‘very delicate and painful,” is this described in the Paris Health Journal: A long hair is singled out of the patient’s head. A needle is thread- }ed with it and forced in and out of the skin along the edge of the eyelid, forming a _ series of loops. These loops are then cut at the extremeties and the rows of lashes thus obtain- ed are curled upward with curlers. When the operation is finished the patient has to spend twelve hours with ar oiled bandage over the eyes. The process for the manufacture of eyebrows is similar. 400 KEPT FROM SUICIDE. Persuaded to Live by Salvation Army Officers. Chicago, [li.—Five of the Salvation Army officers, among them Brig. Alexander McMillan, the founder and head of the famous ‘Anti-Suicide bureau,” has left Chicago to take command in various parts of the United States. Within a year or more since the Anti-Suicide Bureau was started ex- actly 400 men and women have ap- Plied for advice at the headquarters. According to the army officials large proportion of these would have taken their lives if the bureau had not intervened. Balloon Parties for London. Lnodon, England.——The “balloon party” is said to have arrived, and, indeed, there are hostesses who boast the possession of a tame balloon for jthe entertainment of their guests. Helium Really Liquefied. London, England.—Proi, Obnes telegraphed to Prof. Dewar con- ing the statement that he has succeeded in Nquefying helium. Cris = _