The Birmingham age-herald. [volume], August 24, 1913, MAGAZINE SECTION, Image 50

About The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950

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Colonel Gaillard Talks on Our Avalanche at Panama j
Copyrighted, IjIS. by Frank G. Carpenter,
Washington, D. C.
I HAVE just had a long chat with Col
David D. Gaillard, the engineer com
missioner who for the past six years
has had charge of the Culebra cut. 1
first met him when I wrote up the Pan
ama canal of more than a year ago
3 then went with him on foot through
the mighty gash which he was making
In the Andes. AVe walked together from
gang lo gang of the thousands of men
who who were gouging out the earth,
blasting the rocks and carrying the
inighti trains of spoil down to the
ocean. We investigated the petty volca
noes and studied the slides. At one
place in the canal Mother Earth had
humped up her hack and thrown a rail
road half way down to the battom. I
photographed the colonel beside this great
hump, and had Just time to change my
film before another hump occurred and
the railroad again went flying, being
overturned under our eyes.
My talk with Colonel Gaillard last night
was at the Monday evening reception of
the Cosmos club. He wore a black
steel-pen coat, a boiled shirt, well blacked
shoes, and looked more like a club man
than a civil engineer who is doing one
of the biggest things upon earth. When
we walked together through the canal at
Panama he was in his working clothes.
His riding trousers were wrapped In leg
gings of leather, his shirt was of flannel,
and he looked as much Ihe day laborer
ns any steam shovel man or as any
Jamaican handling a drill. When at
Panama he walks miles through the
canal every day, and there is not a de
tail of the excavation of which he has
not a practical and scientific knowledge.
He knows the work so well that he cau
describe it to the amateur in plain Eng
lish and the latter will understand what
he says.
It was In the same simple language
that we talked last night. I had asked
Colonel Gaillard not to deal in figures,
hut to give me the story of what was
going on In round numbers, and in such
terms that the man on the street could
understand.
The Culebra Cut
Every one knows what the Culebra cut
Is. It is that part of the canal where
the mountains had to be gouged out to
make the rock waterway through which
the ships can go. The excavation began
at a point above sea level almost as
high as the top of the Washington
monument. That was on the top of Gold
hill, and on the opposite of the pass
the digging began, a little more than 100
feet lower. It has to go down to 40
feet above the sea level, and the amount
of excavation has been estimated as
enough to make a tunnel to the center of
the earth so large in size that a railroad
train could run through and not scrape
the walls. The total amount of digging
and carrying away of earth done by the
Americans will be about 230,000.000 cubic
yards, and the bulk of this vast sum has
come right out of the cut at Culebra. In
order to understand what this means. 1
would say that a yard of earth weighs
over a ton and a half, and for each of
these millions of cubic yards you may
figure that it would take two good sized
horses to Haul it In a wagon up hill and
down over the ordinary farm road of our
country.
During my talk with Colonel Gaillard
the question as to the actual amount of
material which had been handled under
his supervision at Panama came up, and
he said:
"When I first went to Panama I was In
charge of the dredging in the Atlantic and
Pacific divisions, and 1 there took out
something like 5,000,000 cubic yards of
material. In addition 1 had the Culebra
cut That was in April, 1907, just, about
six years ago. Since then we have ex
cavated more than 106,u00,000 cubic yards.
When r took charge 5.500,000 cubic yards
had been taken out, and I was told that
there were only 65,000.000 yet to dig. The
actual amount taken out has been 50 per
cent above that, and there are about
6.500,000 cubic yards still to be moved be
fore the Culebra cut will be finished."
The Andes Versus the Desert
“Please tell me in simple language what
106.000. 000 cubic yards means?”
“Ft means so much,” replied Colonel
Oaillard, “that it Is hard to comprehend.
When the French first opened the Suez
canal they had taken out 72,000,000 cubic
yards. What we have excavated in the
Culebra cut alone Is one and one-half
times as much. Besides, the excavations
in Egypt were mostly made up of soft
material and the sands of the desert.
The greater part of our material has
been rocK, which we had to blast out
with dynamite and carry miles away to
the dumps.
“In simple language, if what we have
taken out could be piled with vertical
sides in a square inside the building lines
of a Washington city block it would
make a shaft reaching to a height of
over six miles; and if it were loaded on
railroad trains, at 400 cubic yards to the
train, the cars holding the stuff would
fill one continuous track reaching twice
around the world at the equator. If
you could put the material into a rail
road embankment, 45 feet wide at the bot
tom, 15 feet high and wide enough at
the top for a double track line, that em
bankment could be stretched from Wash
1 if.ton to many miles beyond Chicago,
ar.ci siUl it would not hold all the earth."
“How much more digging have you had
to do than was calculated at the begin
ning?”
'"1 have shown you that we have al
ready taken out over 10,000.060 cubic
yards more at Culebra than was esti
mated when we began work there. In the
whole canal the excavation will be more
than double the original estimate. The
International board of consulting engi
neers figured the total excavation for
the completed lock at 90,000.000 cubic
yards, and it Is now known that the ex
cavation will he in the neighborhood of
220.000. 000 cubic yards. Some of this in
crease has come from the widening of
the canal, and a great deal is due to the
additional work caused by slides and
breaks."
Uncle Sam’s Culebra Avalanches
"What has the slides amounted to?"
“So far they have added over 20,000,009
cubic yards to the material in the Culebra
cut jilone. A million cubic yards is equal
to a solid block 300 feet square and 300
feet high. Such a block would have a
base of more than two acres, and it would
rise to the height of a twenty-five or
thirty story building. Twenty such blocks
would bp equal to a solid block of two
BY FRANK G. CARPENTER
. COL. DAVID D. GAILLARD,
Who has excavated the Culebra cut
acres more than a mile high. Talk abou
the pyramid of Ghizeh! This is esti
mated to contain 3,000,GUO cubic yards
Six or seven such pyramids have slii
dow n into the Culebra cut, and we hav
have had to move them out.''
"What are these slides?”
"They are of two kinds," said Colons
Gail lard. "One is the slide proper, whicl
consists of the movement of materia
lying on the rock bed. They are com
posed of clay and earth, and may have ;
great deal of rock mixed with them. The;
are masses of earth, moving by gravlt:
on a smooth Inclined surface of harde
underlying material. The other class i
known as the "break.” It conies fron
the weakness of the various strata fa
under the surface. They are squeeze,
out by the enormous weight of the ma
terial lying above them.
"Take first the slide proper. In thi
case the motion is very like that of a
■ glacier, and it ranges In speed from a
few inches a month to fourteen feet a
1 day. In the large slides the motion is
) uniform. In one instance the speed was
about ten feet per day. and the variation
during the first ten days of the move
1 ment did not ambount at any time to
i more than 10 per cent. That was the fa
1 mous Cucaracha slide, which covered 47
- acres, and carried down a mass of mov
l ing material of several million cubic
r yards.”
The Danger to Ships
“Is there any possibility of one of those
** -slides dropping down on a steamer in
» transit and swallowing it up?”
r “I think not,” replied Colonel Gaillard.
I “The slide would have to move far more
■ rapidly than any we have had to fall
upon a steamer in transit. The only way
' that a ship could be affected would be by
one of the breaks, where the material In
the bottom of the canal might rise up
and the ship go aground. You remember
the hump'that occurred when we were to
gether in the canal. Had that taken place
when asteamer was passing over the
when a steamer was passing over the
her keel had been within six feet of the
bottom. As to the speed at which the
sliCes proper come down into the canal,
we have not yet had a man killed by any
of them. So you see they do not go very
fast. Indeed, we do not looke for any
danger as to slides and breaks more than
a temporary blocking of the channel, and
that may not occur.”
Rock Which Flows Like Molasses
'Tell me something about the ‘breaks.’ ”
“The breaks are caused in every case
by the crushing of a weaker underlying
layer of rock through the enormous pres
sure of the high bank on the side of the
canal above it. If this weak layer runs
across under the canal at a few feet be
low the level of the bottom, the mate
rial is forced laterally toward the center
of the canal and is heaved up through the
bed. If it Is above the bottom level It
may be squeezed out from the sid4s or
walls of the canal. It is just as though
you had some jelly In a layer cake. If
you press on the cake the jelly will ooze.
Now, the,pressure is so great upon these
weaker layers of rock that they ooze out
as it were, or are forced up into the bed
of the canal."
“But how does that come%" T asked.
“It Is caused b.v the disturbance of
the equilibrium of the earth’s strata
by the digging of the canal. As long
as the strata lay one upon another
the weight of the mass was equally
distributed upon the bed., so that it
was not possible lor any of the strata
to move. When the great ditch was
cut, and the material taken out, the
lateral pressure which held the weaker
strata in place was taken away, and
the great w'eight above squeezed the
weaker materials far below out into
the canal. I might explain it more
scientifically, but that is a rough, sim
ple idea of how these breaks occur.
Where they come up through the cot
tom we dig the heaved, portion away,
and often the broken part of the high
hank settles again, causing another
hump in the same locality. After a
time, however, the weight of the
broken ’portion of the bank is so re
duced that it cannot move again. L
look for all such breaks and slides to
disappear gradually. They will stop as
soon as the earth has accustomed it
self to the changes in equilibrium made
b.v the digging."
"How long do you think they will con
tinue?"
“There will probably be slides until
the excavation Is entirely completed, but
they ought to stop shortly thereafter.
The water will aid in preserving equeli
brium, and the vibrations caused by the
firing off of charges of dynamite, and
that of the hundreds of loaded trains
which are passing through the cut every
day will then be removed. The humps
w'hich come, i any should come, after the
work is completed can he removed by
dredging."
A Sea-Level Canal Impossible
“Do not the slides show that vve could
not have built a sea level canal?"
“It would seem so to me. The unfore
seen increase indicates clearly that the
construction of a sea level cunal would
have been practically impossible within
any reasonable time and at any reason
ale cost. For such a canal the excava
tion, at Culebra cut would have had to he
85 feet more than the present depth, and
this would have caused a much greater
relative addition by slides than has been
the case up to the present time. During
the month of April last 54 per cent of the
total excavation made in that cut was
necessitated, by slides.’
“Had you known the possibility of
slides at the beginning and changed your
angle of excavation, could you have done
the work more cheaply?"
“We might have made more regular
slopes, but I doubt whether any ma
terial diminution in the quantity of the
excavation w'ould have occurred."
“When will thq dry excavation be fin
ished?"
“On May 1, 1913, we had still six and
one-half hill ion yards to take out. If
no new slides should come we ought
to be able to complete that work before
January. 1914. If, however, the water
Is turned into the canal In October, ns is
anticipated, there* will remain still two or
three million cubic yards which will have
to be removed by dredges.”
“When do you really expect to see the
water flow into the cut?”
“Prior to my departure the chairman
and chief engineer said it was his inten
tion to turn the water into the cut early
in October. 1913.”
“Does that mean that the canal will be
ready for use then?”
“I do not like to prophesy as to that.
There are all kinds of estimates. I see
that one big steamship line is advertis-^
ing that it. will send tourists through on
a sixteeri-thousaml-tofi ship early in Feb
ruary. 1914. I will only say, however,
that it seems certain that It will be pos
sible to pass ships through the canal
several months before the date of the of
ficial opening; that is, considerably in ad
vance of January 1, 1915."
“What force have you now at Panama?
I suppose that the men will soon be leav
ing to find other jobs?”
“During the past year we, have had
more men at work than ever before. May
1, 1913, the number was 46,000. That is
the largest in the history of the canal.” ^
“What can Uncle Sam do with the men
lie bus trained in this work?”
“I know of no large public undertak
ing now authorized where they could bo
used. you understand that the great
mass of our employes there are com
paratively unskilled. That is so of the
tropics. Our total number of Americans
is only about 6000. Some of them will
remain ori the permanent operating force
of the shops and canal. Others will
leave the government service, and find
work under contractors or with private
firms. A large number of steam shovel
mer. and locomotive engineers will be
ready for employment elsewhere.”
Uncle Sam’s Old Machinery
“What will Uncle Sam do with his ma
chinery?”
“Some of It will be kept at Panama,
but a great deal will have to be sold or
otherwise disposed of. Take the car*
and other rolling stock. We have so
much down there that If it were placed
as closely as possible on a single track
It would take up 32 miles. The rolling
stock In the central division, which In
cludes the Oulebra cut, would fill a track
19 miles long. This machinery will he
stored and sold as fast as possible Much
of it is in excellent condition.” t
"Can you give me any idea hr its
value?”
“No. The machinery which we have la
the central division cost us about $12,000,
000. but a comparatively small percentage
of thut will be realized on a ^ual sale.
'Phe shovels, cars and engines are in ex
cellent shape.” ,
“Should not the canal he tested before
ships are allowed to go through it?”
”1 suppose that will be done. It is Im
portant that the operating force should
be thoroughly trained, and all the ma
chinery brought up to the highest pitch
of efficiency before commercial and war
vessels are allowed to pass through. This
may be done by experimenting with such
craft as belong to the canal commission
and are no longer needed for other work.
With these vessels we could train the *
operating force, and try out the ma
chinery. Idle—safety appliances should
also be tested, and I doubt not they will
be.”
I The British Cabinet Needs No Chatuaqua Trips Hj
LONDON,August 23.—(Special.)—Up
to date no cabinet minister in this
country has threatened to go on the
lecture platform on the ground that his of
ficial salary is inadequate to his needs, al
though the Right Honorable David
Dio yd George recently assured an inves
tigating committee that he wp* a poor
man on the $25,000 a year—or over
twice as much as is paid to any member
of President Wilson’s official family—
which he receives as chancellor of the
exchequer.
^^Mlnisjers of the crown over here ar*
t jn receipt of salaries and enjoy “per
quisites” which must make the mouths
of American ministers water if they
know about them. One of them draws
nn actual stipend of $50,000, or as much
as the presidency of the United States
was worth only a few years ago, while
another gets $35,000 a year and fees in
addition which more often than not
amunt to more than his official pay.
Three others live rent free, at the expense
of the public, and one of these latter, the
First l^ord of the Admiralty, has at his
disposal besides a private yacht which
cost the British taxpayer something like
$50,000 a year to keep up.
Jf William J. Bryan, for example, in
stead of being Secretary of State for
Uncle Sam, had Prime Minister As
quith’s job. he would be drawing more
than three times his present salary, and
would also enjoy, rent free, an uncom
monly comfortable as well historic of
ficial residence.
The Premiership of England, it Is
true, is an unpaid job, the only real per
quisite in connection with it being its
holder’s privilege of occupying the fam
ous mansion, No. 10 Downing street—
now the goal of suffragettes and Scotch
bailies—which often has been described
and perhaps justly, as the “most inter
esting house in the world.” Whoever
becomes premier when a new admlnis
.. lration comes into being, however, sel
dom contents himself with the office,
but takes unto himself also th,e portfo
lio of some other minister of the crown,
usually, as in the case of Mr. Asquith
or Mr. Balfour before him, that of First
l^ord of the Treasury, which carries
with it the pearly emolument of 5000 of
"the best,” as they would say over
here, meaning sovereigns, or. in our
mt>re democratic currency, $25,000 a
year.
Tt must be a lot of satisfaction to be
aide to receive one’s guests in a man
sion that is absolutely unique—and
unique of course. No. 10 Downing street
is. Comparatively few persons in this
country know, by the way, that the dingy
little street in which this, to outward
appearance, dingy little house stands,
was built by and is named for an Amer
lean In the person of one George Down
ing. a rather shady graduate of Har
vard who nourished in the time of
Charles II., but such is the fact. As
for No. 10. while far from being a pal
ace, being renowned for its winding
passages and funny little rooms—in one
of which Nelspn and Wellington met
for the first and only time, and another
of which was Gladstone’s favorite “den”
-—it boasts of several superb apart
ments. One of these is the famous ban
quettir.g hall that was built by William
Pitt, and others the historic old cab
inet chamber—now used for clerical
work—with fine long windows looking
across the long garden terrace, the
First Dord's reception room, where tin
cabinet now meets, and the dining hall,
a really magnificent room, famous for
its paintings and candelabra, wh'ch
holds more than 50 lights.
Directly next door is No. It Downing
street, an infinitely less luxurious and
hifetd'ric but eminently comfortable
Jjou.se where, rent free again, lives the
chancellor of the exchequer. It is rather
a striking coincidence, by the way, that
Dloyd George, who like W. .1. Bryait,
has come to be regarded as the tribune
and advocate of the “plain peeptil,’
9rould, like his distinguished contempo
rary on the other side of the Atlantic,
be the only member of the present cab
inet to allege that his official salary is
inadequate to his needs.
Of the well rewarded members of the
British cabinet, the first law officer of
the* crown, Sir Rufus Isaacs, has the
feathered nest. To begin with, he
draws a salary of $35,000 a year as com
pared with the $12,000 with which At
torney-General M (/Reynolds Is rewarded
yearly, this sum, moreover, being his
emolument merely as legal advisor to
the government. Unlike tlie American
attorney-general, he also appears in the
courts on behalf of the crown, and gets
whopping big fees for so doing. Of
course the yearly aggregate of these
lees varies according to the number of
cases in which the first law officer of
tiie crown is engaged, but they invar
iably amount to enough, plus th* attor
ney-general's official salary, to enable
the government to get a man at the top
of his profession for the post. Sir
Rufus Isaacs, the present attorney-gen
eral. (who may have been appointed
Lord Chief Justice before these linos
appear in print) is, for example, one of
the ablest of the English barristers, and
must have given up a practice as
K. C., or king’s counsel, worth from
$100,000 to $150,000 a year to accept
the attorney-gteneralship. Last year
which brought with it the long drawn
out Titanic investigation, the stat*>
prosecution of Mrs. Pankhurst and th**
Pethick Lawrences, the Olympic-!lawke
collision case and the* suit for
$100,000,000 brought against the gov
ernment by the National Telephone
company, was a rich one for the attor
ney-general. who pocketed, in fees and
“refreshers” between January) and
December 31, the goodly sum of £9764,
or just short of $50,000, which makes
his annual income work out at a little,
less than $80,000. For his appearances
in the Titanic inquiry alone. Sir Rufus
Isaacs received £2458, or, r'ughly.
$1 2,290, this sum representing a brief
fee of 300 guineas, or $15,000, and the
“refreshers” at the rate of 50 guineas,
' or $250 a day.
The second law officer of the crown,
officially known as the solicitor-gen
eral. gets a salary of $30,000, and. like
his distinguished chief—“fees.” Those
pocketed by the present incumbent of
the post, Sir John Simon, amounted last
year to $32,07 5. Like the attorney-gen
eral. the solicitor-general sits in the
House of Commons, and the absence of
his chief, or during a vacancy be may
perform the function of attorney-gen
eral in all their extent.
Legal luminaries are well recom
pensed, the world over, and the member
of the British cabinet witli the fattest
official salary, or “screw” as it is col
loquially termed over here, is that
potent and vastly dignified personage,
the Lord Chancellor. De Wolf Hopper
has been taking him oft quite lately in
the American revival of “Iolanthe” into
„which the opera with characteristic ir
reverance. W. S. Gilbert, himself an ex
barrister, introduced the dignified occu
pant of the famous Woolsack in the
House of Lords. In the United States,
we have no exact counterpart of the
Lord Chancellor who. besides acting
as speaker of the upper house, is
supreme head of the English judiciary,
and who draws an annual salary of
$50,000. When he retires, moreover, he
immediately enters upon a life annuity
amounting to $25,000 a year. The pres
ent holder of this office is, of course,
Lord Haldane, who was secretary of
state for war before his elevation to
the Woolsack, and who is crossing tho
Atlantic next month to be present by
special invitation, at the groat gather
ing of the American Bar Association
which is to be held at Montreal.
Nobody ever has accused the Lord
Chancellor of having a snap. Besides
sitting, clad in wig and gown, on th«
Woolsack as speaker of the house of
peers, he sits as a judge in that house,
in the privy council, tile court of ap
BY HAYDEN CHURCH
fT- -.. .. I'll .. ■'»■. .... ■■ fi ■■■! im i ii i
The drawing room at 10 Downing street, where the prime minister
of England lives rent free
The Lord Chancellor, Lord Haldane,
who gets $50,000 a year, and Prime
Minister Asquith, who is paid $25,000
a year and vile srent free in a historic
mansion.
FOR A CITY WITHOUT FLIES
IIV WILLARD D. PRICE
(Exclusive Service The Survey Press
Bureau.)
Mr. Fly, undesirable citizen, official dis
tributor of typhoid, choleru infantum,
dysentery, tuberculosis, spinal meningitis,
is having the fight of his life in Cleve
land. Tlie city has gone “3wat the fly”
one better and carried through an early
spring "Head ’em off” campaign, with
results that are nothing less Mian sensa
tional.
Cleveland has already been proclaimed
a “flyless city.” It is hardly that yet. But
thousands of householders have found it
possible to dispense entirely with screens
at doors and windows and a lone fly cre
ates more excitement now than a swarm
of flies would have a few' years ago. In
a recent inspection of the city markets,
where quantities of meat and provisions
are exposed, only two flies were found.
Two years ago there were myriads.
The "Head ’em off” campaign was tried
last year with such good effect that this
year, with Improved methods and a not
able marshalling of forces, the war was
a still greater success.
The present attitude of the community
Is pretty well expressed in this sentence
from a letter by Mayor Baker to the city
council: “The anti-fly campaign is a
movement of more far-reaching Impor
tance and more promising of prolonged
life and freedom from disease than per
haps any other single activity going for
ward in the community.” From the be
ginning the movement has been under the
leadership of Dr. Jean Dawson,\ professor
of civic biology at the Normal school.
The big emphasis has been on the elim
ination of breeding places. To be sure,
hundreds of thousands of flies have been
“swatted,” but countless millions have
been prevented, which is better. Miss
Dawson began with the claim that 90 per
cent of house files come from unclean
stables. Owners throughout the city were
forced to clean up their stables and keep
them clan. Public opinion focussed sen
timent, the board, of health passed rules
and the “junior sanitary police” saw that
they were enforced.
The “Junior sanitary police” are boys
recruited from the sixth, seventh and
eighth grades of the city schools. In each
school district the force Is officered by a,
chief, an assistant chief and four inspec
tors. The principal of the school appoints
the entire force. Needless to say, it is
considered no small honor tq be appointed
a member of the “Junior sanitary police.”
The official badge i^i prized highly. The
girls have a part, too, some of them being
made “sanitary aids.”
The school district is sectioned off and
each member of the force made responsi
ble for one section. He must make reg
ular inspections. When lie finds a dirty
stable, a rubbish-filled yard, a heap
of fermenting lawn clippings or a leaking
garbage receptacle he has, of course, no
power to compel the owners to clean up;
but in nine cases out of ten he can per
suade them to do so. And the children
are proving splendid educators. Now and
then persuasion f[ails and the abuse is
uncorrected. Then the case is referred to
a boy inspector and later to the boy
chief. Tf the courteous efforts of these
high officials also prove unavailing, the
report goes to the board of health and
a threat of a suit brings the offender
sharply to time. He discovers that the
alert consciousness of a whole city is
back of these badged children.
The schools were further utilized as dis
tributing stations for fly pamphlets and
circulars. Each bit of educative litera
ture as it came out was placed in the
hands of every child in the schools of
Cleveland and thence carried into the
homes.
The striking fact about all this cam
paign was that it was waged not during
the fly season, but before it. During a
blustering March and a wild, weeping
April, while flies were as scarce as straw
hats, the battle was at :ts height. It was
directed against the “winter flies’’—the
few which had survived the cold season
and would soon begin laying eggs.
The reason for these tactics were set
forth in a "fly-catechism’’ issued by Miss
Dawson. One question and its answer
read:
“How many flies may breed from a pair
in spring?”
“Allowing six batches of eggs of 160
each, supposing all to live and find filth
to breed 1n, the number would be 191,010,
000,(100,000,000.000, enough to bury the entire
earth 47 feet deep. Why not kill the fly
in the winter or early spring?”.
An enterprising ice cream company con
tributed 200,000 “swatters” and all the
school children of the city, whether they
were members of the “Junior sanitary po
lice" or not. were armed. A bounty of
10 cents a hundred was offered for all
flies brought to Miss Dawson s office at
the city hail. The campaign was financed
by popular subscription. At first there
was complaint that no flies could be fou»d
—but sharp eyes soon sought them out In
attic windows, barn lofts and odd, out
of-the-way corners, and they began to
Pour In at headquarters at the rate of
10,000 a day.
Clergymen were urged to preach “fly
sermons’’ and many responded. A picture
film, “The Life of the Fly,’’ was used to
good effect in many churches and the
atres. In addition to ‘‘Head 'em off" and
“Swat the fly,” a triple slogan ran, “Clean
your yard! Make a garden! Swat tl*e
fly!” and in many a back y/ard gardens
began to blossom where fly-breeding rub
bish heaps had been.
When the winter campaign closed. May
15, 490,835 flies had been accepted and paid
for—and this before the beginning of the
“season" an ft in a city which had suf
fered very little annoyance from flies dur
ing the preceding summer, thanks to the
anti-fly campaign then in progress.
"You have brought about a famine In
flies," lamented one man who had six
chameleons to feed. “My pets are starv
ing. There are no flies to he had about
my house and my neighbors can't seem
to help mo out. I’ll pay and pay well for
every live fly yojir children can bring
me." And he did. .
One ol’ the best fruits of the movement
has been a public demand for flv-free
stores. Merchants have made quick to
sense the demand. Recently 100 Normal
school girls inspected 511 grocery stores,
confectionaries, meat stores, restaurants
and milk depots. They reported that in
GO per cent of the stores not a solitary fly
could be found, in only 3G per cent were
flies at all numerous.
The early spring “Head ’em off” cam
paign is a remarkable success. Over 100
towns and cities have written for infor
mation concerning the methods used in
Cleveland. The coming year will doubt
less see the plan in operation in many
.jrunicipnlfties. The more commonly it is
adopted the worse luck to Mr. Fly and all
the disease of which he ia the herald.
peal, and the chancery division of tho
high court of justice. He has i ho ap
pointment of all justices of the peace
throughout the kingdom, and all tho
judges of the superior courts except the
loot'd Chief Justice, who is nominated by
the prime minister. Incidentally—ow
ing to the fact that the Lord Chancellor
of days gone by was an ecclesiastic—
the present one controls no end of the
ecclesiastical "patronage" in the shape
of crown livings and he is supposed to
he the general protector of all Infants,
idiots and ltinatices and has tho super
vision of all the charities of tho king
dom.
Perhaps most important of all the
Lord Chancellor’s functions, however,
is his custodianship of the great seal
of England. This seal, th© specific em
blem of sovereignty, is attached only to
the most important cfhss of public doc
uments, such as writs summoning par
liament, treaties, and official acts of
state. A new one is made for each sov
erlgn, th eold one being solemnly
broken, and this seal is delivered to
the Lord Chancellor on his appoint
ment and relinquished by him on his
retirement. (he resigns when the party
of which he is a member goes out of
office). Never, in fact, is the Lord
Chancellor supposed to let th© great
seal go out of his possession, and this
was Lord Haldane’s chief difficulty in
accepting the recent invitation to
visit America. It has, however, been
solved by reverting to an ancient cus
tom. which consisted of putting i.he seal
into commission, as the phrase goes,
i. e, appointing certain commissioners
to administer it during the Lord Chan
cellor's absence from the realms.
If there is no counterpart in the
American cabinet for the Lord Chancel
lor, neither is there an exact on© for
the First Lord of the Admiralty or the
"ruler of the King's navee," as W. S.
Gilbert, who was fond of poking fun
at high dignataries, called him. As a
matter of fact, however, (and here lies
the distiction between his office and
that of the American secretary of the
navy), the First I/ml is not actually
the '’ruler" of Britian’s sea forces. Th©
rear boss of the navy was the Lord
High Admiral, who no longer exists
but whose anelent office is "In commis
sion", to use the phrase once more—the
commissioners in this case consitlng of
the first Lord of the Admiralty and
four sea lords, in the persons—at pres
ent—of one admiral, one vice-admiral
and two rear-admirals of the fleet, who
each gets £1500 or $7500 a year—all,
that is, excepting the Third Sen Lord,
Rear-Admiral Briggs, who is also
comptroller and receives $7750.
The first Lord of the Admiralty, as a
political officer, can make suggestions
to the sea lords, but he cannot order
a change of policy on their part; if he
tries to they resign and their is no end
of a pother! The First Lord, now, of
course, the Right Hon. Winston Spencer
Churchill, gets $22,500 a year and has
the use, as a residence, of the Admiralty
building Itself, which contains, among
other hundsome apartments, the finest
private ballroom in London. Tills, by
the bye, is the only one of the rooms of
at the Admiralty which tho present
First Lord, who has a house In Eccles
ton Square utilizes personally, the
others having been turned over to the
clerical force of the department.
Winston Churchill makes frequent
use, however of that other "perquisite"
of the First Lord of the Admiralty, tho
steam yacht "Enchantress", on which,
he and the Prime Minister recently re
turned from a cruise in the Mediter
ranean. Punch had an amusing cartoon
showing them lolling back in deck
chairs, imbibing cool drinks, and com
miserating their less fortunate col
leagues in London with "Votes for
Women” fanatics, strikers, and various
colored "perils" on their hands.
The "Enchantress" which was built
at Belfast, in 1894. does not compare,
of course, with the "floating: palaces'
---!
of some American and other million- *
'Hires, but she Is a mightily comfortable
little craft which carries a crew of 1J>
offices and men, and costs a little over
345,000 a year to maintain. The "En
chantress is at tile First Lord's servrce
whenever he wants her, and Churchill
has wanted her often, but every effort,
and they have been many, that has been
made by parliament to convince him of
making pleasure cruises at the public
expense has rebounded boomerang-like
on the head of the sponser. Quite rec
ently in fact, Churchill, goaded at last
Into making a detailed reply to ills In- >
•tulsltors, not only showed that when
ever he entertained private guests on
the "Enchantress”, he had paid for »
them out of his own ppeket. but demon
strated that the 'official visits of In
spection paid by him to different de
partments of the fleet, had exceeded
both in number and apparent useful
ness, those of any First Lord of recent
vems. this vindication of his adminis
tration being greeted with cheers from
all parties in the house.
Women in Surgery
From the Rochester Democrat and Chron
icle.
In a passing reference In a magzlne
article there is a suggestion of effective
ness In surgical work that 'is not yet
generally attained. That surgeons spe
cialize in operating only for certain dis
eases and on certain parts of the body
is-well known, but a feature of the oper
ations In the famous hospital of the May -
os at Rochester Minn., is novel. It Is
said that one of tfie valuable assistants
Of tlie brothers is a needlewoman whose
Angers have been trained to sew up in
cisions with remarkable rapidity and pi e
clsion.
Surgeons today receive invaluable Hs
sistance from nurses, and the particular
nurse to which attention has linen called
suggests how women may, and prob
ably noyv do, complement the yvork of
surgeons to the great advantage of the
patients. Persons who have been ex
plored with the knife have doubtless often
studied the hands of tile surgeon and
wondered how skilled they- were in re
placing organs, bringing together Jn-.-I
slons and sewing and tying—especially
the last, for organs have a way of tak
ing care of themselves when they are
"dumped back" Into the vicinity of their
proper place.
How Important a place women will oc
cupy In medicine Is still In doubt. They
are not yet a large factor in general prac
tice, and we have not heard of famous
women surgeons, although there may be
hucIi. It may be predicted that women
will not take the place of men In medi
cine, hut they will occupy an important
complementary place; anil It is gulte ap
parent that a woman trained in surgery,
yvlth slender, strong, sure hands, vvouid
give a man assistance that few members
of hts own sex could render.
Coughs Up Bullet
New York, August 23.—(Special.)— While
engaged in household duties in her home,
Mrs. Patrick Vaughn, wife of a chauf
feur, was seized with a violent lit of
sneezing and coughing. Vaughn was
starting for a doctor when a violent
paroxysm brought from his wife's throat
the remnants of a bullet which was acci
dentally shot Into her head .ID years ago.
No blood discharge followed the elec
tion of the bullet, and In half an hour
Mrs. Vaughn was ready to start on a
vacation she had planned to liegln today.
When she yvas 7 years old a revolver
bullet pierced her forehead between the
eyes. The yound healed. Ever after that
she suffered from violent headaches. A
month ago the surgeons In Fordham hor- ■
pltal removed a growth in her throat a
which they took to he cancerous. They ,*
now believe the growth was caused by
the bullet.