The San Francisco call. [volume], May 05, 1895, Page 10, Image 10

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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10
WILD BUDS HAVE A DAY
Rare Specimens of Native
Flora at the Rose Show,
Maple Hall.
A BEAUTIFUL CORAL ORCHID.
An Undefined Species of "Bleeding
Heart" From the San Bruno
Hills.
"Wild Flower day" at the California
Rose Show, in Maple Hall of the Palace
Hotel, called together yesterday a large
throng of Eastern visitors and residents of
San Francisco. Beautiful specimens of the
native Sowers from the bay counties and
the far-away hills of Butte and Shasta lent
spei ial charm to the display. There were
also many varieties of the wild flower from
Santa Cruz and Monterey. The chief ex
hibitora are Mrs. W. S. Chandler, Mrs.
Bailey and Mrs. T. L. Walker of San Fran
cisco. Owing to their energy and zeal in
the cause the greatest number of wild
flowers ever collected for a single exhibi
tion was displayed. At the Midwinter
Fair a year ago 289 varieties were shown,
bul the present show offers 300 varieties.
The collection embraces one undetermined
species of the "Bleeding Heart." t
The rare and untamed stranger comes
from tbe San Bruno hills in San Mateo
County. There is also a charming coral
orchid from Santa Cruz. Not the least
titioua oi the beautiful flowers are the
Mariposa lilies, yet the ladies connected
with the show cherish the orange blossoms
from San Jose.
The show is accounted an unqualified
!he society, and it has now the
highest praise from a large number of
tourists in the City. It is a success from a
financial point of view, as the hall is
crowded from the hour of the opening un
til the closiae.
Professor Emory Smith of Palo Alto,
manager and secretary, remarked that no
attempt had been made to compete as a
carnival with other displays throughout
State. The object of the exhibition
was to elevate public taste in decoration
and to increase intelligent culture and love
autiful flowers.
Ear in the distribution of awards good
feeline has been manifested. The com
mittee has announced the following prizes:
CUT FLOWERS, OPEN TO AMATEURS.
■ Roses— Largest and best variety, Charles J.
Ahlborn, Alameda, $10. Second award is be
tween Professor E. .'. Wiokson, Berkeley, and
Mrs. Edward Hathaway, San Lorenzo, $5.
Roses— Twenty-five "best varieties, Charles
J. Ahlborn, Alameda, $7 50.
Koses— Twelve best varieties, Charles J. Ahl
born, Alameda, $7 50.
Carnations — Largest and best collection, sec
ond award (no first). Charles J. Ahlborn, $5.
Pelargoniums— Largest and best collection,
Charles J. Ahlborn, $7 50.
Pansics— Largest "and best collection, L. J.
Fenton, San Francisco. $3.
Best general collection of cut flowers— Mrs. J.
E. Babeock, Alameda, $10.
Sweet peas— Largest and best collection, sec
ond award (no first), Mrs. Hathaway, $2 50.
Sweet peas— Best collection of not less than
six varieties, Miss Sarah K. Bolton, Berkeley,
$3.
Clematis— Largest and best variety, Mrs. Eli
Le welling, San Lorenzo, $5.
Bulbous and tuberous rooted flowers — Mrs.
Eli Lewelling, San Lorenzo, $7 50.
CUT FLOWERS, OPEN TO PROFESSIONALS.
Roses— Largest and best collection, E. Gill,
Oakland, $15.
Rosos— Twenty-five best varieties, E. Gill,
$12 50.
Roses Hybrid perpetuals, including hybrid
teas, second award, California Nursery Com
pany, Nile 1 ;, $.").
Carnations— Largest and best collection, John
H. Siever?, $12 50.
Carnations — Best twelve distinct varieties,
Grallert & Co., Colma, $3.
Pelargoniums— Largest end best collection of
cut blooms, John H. Sievers, $12 50.
Geraniums — Largest and best collection,Gral
lert & Co., Colma, §8.
Pansies— Largest and best collection, E. Gill,
$3.
■ . Sweet peas— Largest and best collection, Sun
set Seed and Plant Company, $8.
Clematis— Largest and best collection, Cali
fornia Nursery Company, Niles, $5.
PLANTS, OPEN TO AMATEURS.
Potted pelargonium— Charles J. Ahlborn,slo.
PLANTS. OPEN TO PP.OFESSIONALS.
Foliage, flowering and decoration plants— J.
H. Sievers, $15.
Potted pelargoniums — California Nursery
Company, Mies, sl7 50.
Azaleas— Largest and best collection, F. Lu
darmann, $10.
Best specimen rose, special prize of $5, Mrs.
W. H. Smyth of Berkeley.
Pansy plants— R. Nuenmacher, Oakland, $5.
SPECIAL EXHIBITS.
- Decorated mantel— Mrs. E. T. Crane, San Lo
renzo, $15.
Flowering shrubs— Sunset Seed and Plant
Company, Menlo Park, $5.
opecial mention — Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton,
Berkeley, collection of cultivated eschscholt
zias; Mountain View Cemetery Association,
ODen-air roses: Mrs. L. O. Hodgkins, cactus
blossoms; Golden Gate Park, decorative, flow
ering and foliage plants, and herbaceous flow
ers; F. A. Miller, palms and ferns; E. D.Stur
tevant, Los Angeles, water lilies; Frank Peli
cano, cut Sowers; F. Inderman, roses.
The flowers which adorn the hall are re
newed frosh every day, and since the show
ers of this week the freshness of the llow
ers adds to the charm of the show.
The greatest throng of the week attended
the slmw last evening. The balloon sleeves
which fashion decrees for the ladies occa
sionally knocked over a flower glass and
splashed the water on the floor, but the
managers were good-natured and made no
complaint.
The first prize of $15 for the largest and
best collection of wild flowers and ferns
was won by Mrs. W. R. Chandler, a San
Francisco lady, whose home has been with
the flowers since she was a child in 1852.
It may strike one as somewhat singular
that the hills back of the Mission and
Ocean View, In the immediate vicinity of
thi3 City, should po-luce :iOO varieties of
wild flowers, but Mrs. Chandler made her
collection in rambles over the peninsula
and near town.
The prize of $10 for the second largest
and best collection of wild flowers was
captured by Mrs. A. 11. Baily, whose col
lection was also creditable.
A collection very much admired was one
by Mrs. W. H. \Viester, but it was not
listed for competition.
Music was a solace of the closing hours
of the show. The programme numbers
were: Violin solo, Miss Charlotte Gruen
hagen; mandolin by Professor Ferrer's
club; Bel Canta Quartet, Miss George
Wisner, Miss Helen' Neilson, Miss Henri
ette Grothwell and Mrs. R. S. Lamotte;
vocal solos, "Thine Eyes to Blue" and
"Whisper and I Shall hear," by Miss
Josephine Sistermans. with violin obligato
by Miss Charlotte GruenbajEren. Miss Sis
termsns delighted the audience with the
quality of her voice. A recitation by Mrs.
Alseta Shed Langstroh was also an agree
able feature of the entertainment.
WILL GO TO ROME.
Archbishop Riordan and Rev. Father
Crowley to Interview Leu in the
Holy City.
Archbishop Eiordan will leave to-mor
row morning for Rome. He will be ac
companied by Rev. Father Crowley. Much
interest is felt among Catholic people in
the journey of the two reverend gentle
men. They will be absent for several
months. The object of their visit to the
Holy City has not been made public, but
thcro is an impression that their mission
will touch upon some important subjects
now under consideration among the Cath
olic clergy of California.
A reception will be given to Father
Crowley at 2030 Howard street this even
ing, at which time a great number of his
friends will assemble for the purpose of
wishing him a safe journey and a safe re
tarn. The Archbishop and" Father Crow
ley will be accompanied to Oakland to
morrow evening by a party of friends.
WILL TOUB THE STATES.
Messrs. Beckett and Cole to Inspect
Kastern Universities.
F. A. Beckett, Ph.D., chairman of the
board of trustees of the California College
of Pharmacy and president of the Alumni
Association of the department of phar
macy, University of California, left Satur
day for an extended trip through the
Eastern States and Canada in xhe interest
of the college. He will inspect the various
State universities and colleges in order to
obtain the latest data, ideas and improve
ments for the new building that the State
is about to erect for the professional de
partments of its university. Mr. Beckett,
who is also a member of the site and build
ing committee, will be accompanied by Dr.
Beverly Cole, who goes in the interest of
the medical department. An architect
will accompany the gentlemen in order to
draw any plans the committee may wish
to consider later on. The gentlemen will
return the latter part of June.
HER FIRST ANNIVERSARY.
A Fund Started for the Little
Girl Baby Abandoned
at the Fair.
Search Still Being Instituted for Its
Young and Heartless
Parents.
The pretty little girl baby left by its
young father at the "Creche,"' or Day
Nursery, of the Midwinter Fair, is now
Naomi Elizabeth yon Schmidt. To-day
she is one year old.
Miss Naomi has grown to be a very
pretty girl. She has a sweet disposition
and charming ways, that have won for her
many warm friends. Several of these are
wealthy gentlemen, who have decided to
start a bank account for little Miss yon
Elizabeth Naomi yon Schmidt, the
Baby Abandoned at the Fair.
[From a photograph by Tabtr.]
Schmidt as a birthday present. This will
form the nucleus of a fund for the child.
It will be very welcome, since the foster
parents are not well to do, and any addi
tions to the little one's nest egg will be
thankfully received.
The child was left on June 21 of last year
with Miss yon Schmidt, who had charge
of the Day Nursery. It was brought by a
young man, who was well dressed and
apparently well bred. He arranged to have
it cared for during the evening, and left 50
cents and a few clothes and disappeared,
never to return.
The description of the child and the man
and the fact that a young couple known
at Pacific Grove as Mr. and Mrs. F. W.
Tisdell had left that town on the morning
the child was abandoned made Mrs. L. M.
Bayley, who knew them, think the baby
was one born to this young couple on May
5. Her suspicions were strengthened by
the mother's utter carelessness about the
child. Mrs. Bayley came to this city and
found that her surmises were correct.
A search was at once made for the
peculiar couple. The man had given out
that he was a railroad man from the East.
This was thought to be true since he
traveled first class upon passes. They had
given different names at different places.
Sometimes it was F. A. Chisholm, some
times A. Farrell, sometimes F. W.
Antisdell, but generally they used the
same name as at Pacific Grove.
They always passed as man and wife,
and as Mrs. Tisdell had in her trunks an
entire bridal outfit, it is thought that they
were married. Why they should have
abandoned the child has not been learned.
! They dressed well, were always well sup
! plied with money and were evidently
j people of education.
Miss A. J. yon Schmidt, the young lady
in whose charge the child was left, lives at
820 Bush street. She said yesterday that
her people were still trying to find the
j baby's parents. They had employed many
detectives to follow clews, but to no pur
pose.
"We did not do this because we wanted
to get rid of baby," she explained. "We
would not give her up for anything now.
But we thought it was our duty to the
little one to try to trace her parents and
induce them to provide in some way for
her.
"As yet we have received help from no
source whatever except in little kindnesses
from friends. We don't care for that,
though, and can do all that is necessary
for baby."
LOST COIN
Turns Vp in a Kaunas Bank After
Twelve Years.
Several days ago A. N. Mover, receiving
teller of the Wyandotte National Bank of
Kansas City, Kans., found among his day's
receipts a quarter of a dollar bearing the
name of '•>!. W. La Rue, Louisville, Ky.,
together with some hieroglyphics, the in
dividual mark of a Royal Arch Mason.
He thought that the coin was undoubtedly
a highly prized pocket piece and he di
rected a postal card to M. W. La Rue,
Louisville, in hopes of finding the owner.
He had almost forgotten the matter when
he received a letter from Mr. La Rue, who
had removed from Louisville to Cincinnati
and afterward to Winton Place, Ohio, of
which village he is now Mayor. He said
that he had lost the pocket" piece twelve
years ago, and expressed himself very
anxious to get it back, saying that he would
gladly pay for the coin and for Mr. Mover's
trouble.
Mr. Mover sent it by registered letter to
Mayor La Rue, and Friday he received a
letter from him acknowledging the receipt
and inclosing 36 cents, which, he said, was
to pay the expenses — 25 cents for the quar
ter, 1 cent for the postal card and 10 cents
for the registry stamp. He added: "The
wanderings of my little mark may never be
known, but I hope all its errands were
those of beneficence. I grudge nothing of
its performances, though, like many other
wandering loved ones, its absence has been
a source of many surmises, regrets, appre
hensions, and now and then a bitter pang
of genuine grief, as its place could never
be tilled except upon order of authorities
not easy of access or always placable. Its
possession entitles me to "Masonic burial;
to relief from pressing temporary want and
guarantees other privileges, immunities,
etc., that would be out of the power of
hundreds and hundreds of coins of like
weight to procure."— Kansas City Star.
• — ♦ — ♦
The newest puncture proof band for use
on cycles is made of strips of whalebone
inserted between the air tube and the
outer cover.
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY is, 1895.
MAY IN THE SIERRAS.
Where the Snow Queen Is En
throned and Flora is
Unknown.
SUMMER DAYS AT TAHOF.
Thomas Magee Recommends the
Mountains to Careworn
Humanity.
The Call of last Sunday contained an
article upon the varieties of climate in
California and of the difficulty of having
Eastern people believe that we have such
contrasts. The difficulty is nearly as great
with people resident here, who have not
traveled much through the State. Two
great flower festivals have just been closed,
one at Los Angeles and the other at Santa
Barbara. The same sort of festivals might
easily have been held in many of the towns
of the San Joaquin, Sacramento and So
noma valleys or at Santa Cruz, for this is
early May, when the whole face of the val
leys is rich with wild flowers and their
homes with cultivated ones. Had it been
possible quickly to transport the visitors
at the recent flower festivals to the Sierra
Nevada, in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe,
they would have beheld the Winter King
in his glory as they had a few days before
beheld Queen Flora in her lavish beauty
and colored variety and magnificence.
I .-pent last week at Lake Tahoe on Nor
wegian snowshoea. Landing at Glenhook
from Carson, on the east side of the lake,
where the snow first disappears, I crossed
to McKinneys at Sugar Pine Point on the
west side where there vet was four or five
feet of snow. I made a trip of eleven
miles to the Rubicon Soda Springs, situ
ated in a canyon in the very heart of the
Sierra. The view from the eastern summit
walls of that canyon was one of the wildest
and most wintry upon which the eye could
rest, especially as a storm was threatening
and the sky colors were somber and lower
ing. From ten to twenty feet of snow
still Jay on the summits which were in
sight on the western side of the range, for
there precipitation is very much the most
lavish in scattering "snow like wool" and
ice and "hoar frost like ashes." The two
extremes of color covered the whole ex
pansive and magnificently wild landscape;
there was snow on the one hand and black
conifers on the other. The summits are
round-topped and easily climbed, and have
an elevation of 8500 to 11,000 feet. These
are no mean elevations, and explain not
only the existence of snow — very deep
snow in the sunny month of May — but
why large amounts of it lie there all the
year.
I have for years made it a practice to
visit the upper Sierra in winter on snow
shoes, and I hold, and in this opinion there
will be no dissent from those who live in
the mountains, that there is no other sea
son comparable to winter for wildness of
beauty of woods, hardy magnificence of
m entry, bracing climate and sky and cloud
contrasts and splendor. One winter week
in the Sierra on snowshoes, spending each
whole day in the open air, is worth at least
a month there in summer. But the
chief characteristic of winter is the in
tense solemnity and silence of the woods
when it is calm. The peace is intense and
profound — I might almost say unearthly —
but the latter in the most agreeable sense.
This peace is intensely acceptable to any
one whose life is spent in the bustle of city
life, but whose soul has not been wholly
so/cl to the nervous rush, tierce competi
tion and unnatural bustle. Such a peace
is found, in union with parklike beauty
of surroundings, in Wards Creek Canyon,
near Biackwood, the latter a well-known
point on the lake. The place is really a
mountain valley, bounded by walls 1500 to
300(1 feet in height.
We joyously pushed up this excessively
beautiful mountain temple, through which
a tine stream of water was singing and
sparkling over granite bowlders to
it? home in the lake below. One
felt almost out of the world. It would,
too, have been hard to say to which
feature of mountains, woods, snow, per
fect silence, a steel blue sky or falling
crystal icy water the scene was most in
debted for its majesty, perfectly restful at
tractiveness and pure beauty.
We heard much of the wealth and
variety of flowers of the recent southern
flower shows, but had there been in those
exhibitions every flower, wild or culti
vated, now growing in this State, they
altogether would not probably have been
as one to a billion beside the innumerable
flowers of the snow, each of undeviatingly
hexangular petals, but of innumerable and
exquisite varieties of form.
And the earth-grown flowers are of little
value, valuable for many things as they
are, especially to the senses of sight and
smell, compared to the myriads of frozen
flowers, flowing lightly, noiselessly and
freely from the sky, fleecing the mountain
landscape with frozen winter crystals of
the purest shape. Ere long, too, trans
formed to water, they will in the clearest,
coldest and wildest of streams and rivers
express themselves in the most thoroughly
aerated, and therefore whitest of cascades,
weaving the most beautiful and transitory
of water laces, uttering, meanwhile, the
most nerve-soothing of songs and lullabies,
which he who camps by them wishes he
might hear forever. Many of these falls,
as seen from below, shooting over Yoscm
itic wails, produce the impression on the
beholder that they are shot from the sky.
But there is far too much balm and equa
bility in the southern counties; and there
fore I am but referring to a universally
recognized truth in saying that the best
type of people cannot "be produced where
skies are softest and climatic balm is con
stant.
Even here in San Francisco and its
vicinity, where we have periodical, bracing
winds and heavy fogs, the climate still
lacks sufficient frost in winter to make it a
typical one. I therefore hold it to be an
absolute duty of parents, where they can
afford it, to give their children and them
selves one or two months' change during
the year in the Sierra Nevada. The best
time, I think, to go there is between Au
gust and October. Every night of the
latter two months is likely to De a keen,
clear, frosty one; the stars burning with
intense radiance in the deep, steely sky.
In June and July the ground is "damp,
sometimes, and high and cold winds and
rain are not unfrequent. The muscles and
nerves are braced and made most vigorous
in the high mountains, and the lassitude
and want of tone in the system which af
fect so many dwellers in the impure air of
towns and cities both disappear there.
If a sky-climbing, but easily accessible
range like the Sierra Nevada, existed in
Great Britain, thousands of men in early
and middle life would go snow-shoeing in
such mountains every winter. But here
such exercise and exploration are utterly
unknown. A few friends with my sons
and myself have for fifteen years had the
range to ourselves, as visitors on snow
shoes. No money would repay us for the
glorious exercise we have there enjoyed,
and the grandeur we have thus beheld.
No sight or experience to be had here are
comparable to those I have attempted to
describe in making one, in body and soul,
wholly a Californian. An intense feeling
of thankfulness is created in the mind, too,
that one is privileged to be a citizen and
resident of such a lavishly — nay, an unsur
passedly — gifted State. And of all Cali
fornia's gifts, and of all her wonderfully
varied and rich real estate, I insist that
there is none equal to her mountains, in
solid pecuniary value; while, rich as they
are in what is material and tangible, they
are yet poor in those respects beside that
far higher wealth and splendor which ap
peal to the highest powers of the mind and
soul of man. Thomas Magee.
I !•«•<•-< oinago Advocates.
Hon. A. J. Warner of Ohio, president of the
American Bimetallic L«ague of the United
Stales, and Hon. J. C. Sibley of Pennsylvania
will address a citizens' mass-meeting at the
Metropolitan Temple next Tuesday evening.
Tubject, "Free Coinage."
JOE A N-EW COMMONWEALTH.
To Be Created From Parts of Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Michigan.
A West Superior correspondent to the
Chicago Times-Herald outlines a proposi
tion for the creation of a new State. It is
seriously proposed here to create a new
State by taking a part of the three States
of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan,
which will be known as the State of Supe
rior, or the "Mineral State." This idea is
a modification of the new State plan so
often repeated, and its creator is Captain
Alex McDougall, the inventor of the
whaleback.
Captain McDougall would cut out a ter
ritory bounded on the north by Canada,
on the west by the Mississippi River, on
the south by a line drawn from the Mis
sissippi River along the southern bound
ary of the northern tier of Wisconsin
counties, and terminating at the extreme
tip of the upper peninsula. Of course the
eastern boundary would lie in the lakes,
but that is immaterial to the plan.
What is aimed at particularly is to place
the three great iron ranges, the Ver
milion, the Mesaba and the Gogebic, in
one State, so that the interests of none of
them could be injured by conflicting legis
lation and all might be treated from the
same basis.
The new State would be strongly Re
publican.
HOME FOR THE PASTOR
A Parochial Residence at St.
Teresa's, in the Po-
trero.
Current Events of General Interest
In the Busy and Promising
Suburb.
A new parochial residence for the pastor
of the church of St. Teresa, on Tennessee
street, Rev. P. O'Connell, and his assistant,
Rev. Aloysius Petinelli, is among tho early
prospects of the Potrero. To swell the
building fund an entertainment was given
at the Potrero Opera-house last Tuesday
evening by the Potrero Amateur Specialty
Club.
The entertainment was a minstrel per
formance that proved very enjoyable.
Stephen Cronin was tiie interlocutor, and
the end men were J. Farrell and J. Hig
gins, tambourines, and P. Kaher and P.
O'DonneJl, bones. Music was furnished by
the club's orchestra — Henry Voss and Ed
ward O'Donnell, violins; Frank Lovett,
clarionet, and Gibson O'Connell, piano.
The entertainment concluded with a
sketch entitled "Won by Strategy," in
which H. G. Leffman, Miss A. Hammer,
E. J. O'Leary and A. T. Coakley partici
pated. Messrs. Dolan, McCormick, Lind
sey and Rogers did gymnastic turns; J.
Sullivan won applause with "Our Little
Jim"; the Keller brothers played a zither
duet, and some fine music was rendered by
the Seattle Mandolin Club.
The St. Teresa Hall Association is pre
paring for an entertainment to be given on
July 3 for the benefit of the hall fund. It
is the intention to provide adequate hall
accommodations for the four parish socie
ties: the Young Men's and Young Ladies'
Institutes, St. Patrick's Alliance and An
cient Order of Hibernians.
An entertainment by the Potrero Ath
letic and Social Club" will be given on
May 11.
The "Q. T." Club enjoyed a social even
ing last night at Masonic Hall, in South
San Francisco.
Miss Grant, a former pupil of Mme. Ada
Clark, has opened a dancing-school in the
Potrero Opera-house.
The bi<r sixty-ton twelve-inch gun, which
is to be placed on Fort Point to help its
companion on Lime Point guard the Golden
Gate, has been started on its way from the
Potrero to the Presidio by Contractor Me-
Near. Considering the difficulty met with
in moving the other monster" destroyer,
more time was expended on preliminaries
with cannon 2. It was placed on a lighter
yesterday to be towed to the landing near
est to its destination.
FICTION AND REALITY.
Some of the Queer Coincidence! Which
Have Been Xoted.
Life is no respecter of copyright, says
the London Chronicle. On the contrary,
it is one of the most unscrupulous of
plagiarists. The fictionist invents a
tangled plot and rounds it off with an in
genious crime. A week afterward, in are
mote part of the world, a set of people play
the plot, and one of them commits the
crime, just as if they were actors rehears
ing a written drama. Robert Louis Stev
enson was the victim of this, so was Rider
Haggard, though we have not yet heard
that anybody lias tattooed a will on some
body else's back.
Not long ago a French novelist was
sued in court for damages on the charge of
having used a man's name and history as
the basis of his story, whereas he has
never even heard of the man.-
This, of course, is quite different from
the case in which Dickens senior may have
stood unconsciously for the portrait of
Micawber, or Leigh Hunt have been cari
catured as Harold Skimpole, or when the
lady novelist of the present uses the name
of another for an offensive character in her
story. The plagiarism we are speaking of
is akin to the haunting belief of Solness,
the master builder, that his own thoughts
raised themselves in actuality. Probably
the death of the unknown Mrs. Ebbsmith.
and "The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith" was
an instance in point. Mr. Pinoro writes a
"modern" play, exposing the inner work
ings of a woman's mind and exhibiting
the consequent development of her con
duct. An unhappy lady, a divorcee, who
had legally adopted the name of Ebbsmith
to avoid the infinite monotony of Smith,
read the notices of this play, perceived a
resemblance to her own life so close as to
cause her to describe the play as a "superb
work of art," bought tickets for it, but
threw herself into the Thames before the
date of the performance.
It may, of course, be taken for granted
that Mr. Pincro knew absolutely nothing
about this lady and her domestic circum
stances when he wrote his play. Yet he
finds that life has been beforehand with
him, and that when he thought he was
creating he was merely reproducing, just
as "when the red slayer thinks he slays,"
he is merely, according to the Buddhist,
conferring a fresh lease of life upon his
victim. But after the play was produced
the professors of the name of Ebbsmith
apyiear to have sought to escape the
notoriety which would attach to them from
the nightly sayings and doings of their
notorious namesake. "Her husband had
taken steps to prevent the name Ebbsmith
from being used on the stage." One won
ders where Mr. Pinero found it. He can
hardly have "made it up." Did he over
hear it in a railway carriage or 'did he see
it upon a village signboard as he drove by?
A dramatist or a novelist must get names
somewhere, and if the inconspicuous pos
sessor of a name made conspicuous in art
has copyright in it our playwrights and
authors will have to revert to" the nomen
clature of the period of "Tom Cringle's
Log," and give us such appellations as Mr.
Tailtackle, Mr. Ratline, Mr. Strop and Mr.
Reefpoint.
That nursery tale which has charmed
fenerations of children and their elders,
nown as "Blue Beard," was written by a
French author. The original of Blue
Beard was a marshal of France, and lived
iv Brittany, and who was charged with
murdering several wives and over 100
children. Being convicted of sorcery, he
was burned. .
OIL AND NATURAL GAS
Promising Outcroppings in the
Contra Costa County
Hills.
FOUR MILES FROM BERKELEY.
Geological Surroundings Indicate
That the Supply Is Inex
haustible.
The discovery of petroleum and natural
gas on J. O. Miner's property, commonly
called the Alden ranch, in Contra Costa
County, promisee to add a new enterprise
to this section of the State. That there is
oil and gas on the premises there is no
doubt, and from all appearances the sup
ply of the former is abundant. The new
field is so close to Oakland, to tidewater
and to the railroad that once a good flow is
started, in the language of Colonel Sellers
there is millions in it.
An inspection of the ground is well worth
the while, not only of the scientist and
curiosity-seeker, but of the capitalist, who
might see in the outcroppings in Louter
wasser Creek an opportunity to increase
his wealth. This petroleum-soaked valley
is just over the hills to the northeast of
Oakland, and four miles from the State
University at Berkeley. Mr. Miner's ranch
is readied by going out Telegraph avenue
ana turning into the Lafayette and Walnut
Creek road. To many of the old-tim«rs in
this City and Oakland who used to go out
to the Fish Ranch for a trout for breakfast,
it is best described as being three miles
from that once popular resort.
The presence of oil and gas is the most
plainly manifested about ."iOO yards up the
creek from Mr. Miner's house. At tnat
point the edges of the creek are discolored
by an oily substance which oozes from the
strata of shale rock, and floats away in
the stream. The owner and one of his
men entered the creek bed yesterday, and
with a pick broke up layer after layer of
rock, all of which, upon examination,
proved to he literally saturated with pe
troleum. The crevices and seams are
thickly coated with the substance, which
is brown and sticky and resembles crude
opium in color and consistency. The
men prospected up the creek for about 200
yards, and the same results were obtained.
Crude oil oozed out of the rocks at every
stroke of the pick, and floated away on the
surface of the creek until the stream was
glassy in appearance, like a mirror.
The discovery of natural gas was made
by Miner several years a<;o, about 500
yards up the valley from the place where
the oil was recently found. Oil was also
found up the creek while making experi
mental boring for gas. At the latter place
he collected about ten gallons of crude pe
troleum, but fully ten barrels escaped into
the stream from a small impounding dam
which lie had constructed. Upon that
occasion he made a sixteen-foot cut into
the side hill where there had been a land
slide into a salt spring. There is more
saline matter in the water of this spring
than in ocean water, and that is one of the
indications of oil. Out of this spring,
which has been deepened and enlarged, is
a constant How of bubbles from below
caused by escaping gas. A can with a
small faucet in the bottom was placed bot
tom up over these buboles, and in a short
time the upward pressure of the gas
showed that the can was full. A lighted
candle was placed at the mouth of the
faucet.
Instantly a flame sprang into the air a dis
tance of three feet as the gas was consumed.
When the spring is clean this flame has
burned for fifteen minutes, creating an in
tense heat, but yesterday, owing to the
soft mud clogging the holes in the
bottom of the spring, it did not burn over
three minutes. The experience of those
who have worked in the oil fields in Penn
sylvania and the southern part of Cali
fornia is that oil and gas go together.
A. A. Cunningham, an analytical chem
ist at 229 Geary street, has examined the
dark, sticky substance and pronounces it to
be a fine grade of petroleum, equal to any
produced by the wells in the southern
part of the State. Samples of the shale
gathered from along the ledge for three
quarters of a mile show fine samples of
paraffine in large quantities. In this rock,
which was taken from the surface, 13 per
cent of volatile substances were found.
A prominent scientist who has examined
Mr. Miner's property states that the geo
logical features of the surrounding country
are very similar to those near several large
oil fields in the East that he had visited.
In the first place, it is situated in a coal
region. Mount Diablo, with its coal min«s,
lies to the southeast. In the opposite di
rection, among the hills back of Berkeley
and San Pablo, coal has been found incon
siderable quantities, but according to
scientists it is about 8000 years too young
to be of use commercially.
In fact, from Mexico to British Colum
bia, and even Alaska, coal and its products
are found.
It is believed by tbose who have ex
amined Mr. Miner's property that the sup
ply is inexhaustible, and their opinions
are based upon the formation of the coun
try immediately surrounding. As stated,
the croppings are in the bottom of the
creek, which at that point is 450 feet above
the sea level. It is in the center of a huge
amphitheater, two miles long by a mile
wide, and near the center is a lofty hiii
now green with a crop of barley.
The stratified rocks of the surrounding
mountains all show a "dip" at an angle of
forty-five degrees toward the center. Fol
lowing the strata, in the imagination,
down the angle until they meet, the im
mensity of the oil reservoir "had also better
be left to the imagination. At this point
the importance of the stratified shale can
be seen, for it is between these layers that
the oil is forced to the surface.
The unstratined sandstone rock that the
torrents of ages have formed in the center
of the huge basin prevents the oil from
reaching the surface except in places where
the upheavals from the interior of the
earth have caused breaks. The altitude of
the outcroppinps of the oil leads to the be
lief that there are vast stores of the same
useful product in the lower parts of the
basin.
The places mentioned are not the only
ones in the valley where oil has been
found. In several small gulches that spur
off from the creek it is found on the sur
face of water that collects in little depres
sions made by the hoofs of horses and
cattle.
Several jears ago a number of men
undertook to bring the oil to the surface.
The inexperience of the prospectors, the
poor quality of the tools used and the lack
of funds caused the work to be discon
tinued. A crooked well was oored on the
flat land, a distance of about 100 feet. At
that point the machinery broke and could
not be extracted from the hole.
Even at that small depth, which is
hardly below the creek bottom, the iesults
were very encouraging. Several barrels of
crude oil were obtained and the prospec
tors had not reached the desired depth by
many hundred feet.
To reach the large supply boring ma
chinery, such as is used in other localities,
will have to be brought into service.
When the supply is tapped a few days
will more than compensate the operators
for all their time and expense if the oil
bed proves to be what is promised by sur
face indications.
There will be no trouble to convey the
oil to the commercial centers. It is only
seven miles across the hills to Oakland by
a direct line and ten miles by road to tide
water. There are good roads leading over
the hills. Mr. Miner's ranch is half a mile
from the California and Nevada Narrow
gauge Railroad. Mr, Miner has not been
in a position to develop his own property
and during the oil excitements in the
southern part of the State he deemed it un
wise to attempt to attract the attention of
oil-dealers to his discovery. He now pro
poses to take steps toward developing
what he and others believe to be a bonanza
in oil.
FIRING IT.
A Lesson in Pistols Given to a Man From
Boston.
"Coming East over the Atchison road
from Las Vegas, N. M., to Kansas City,"
said J. F. Rankine of Elizabeth, N. J., " O ur
train was detained west of Dodge City two>
days by a washout. There was a crowd of
the roughest sort aboard, some of them
cattlemen from the ranges, and others
railroad men returning from the construc
tion work of a railroad just completed. It
was a hungry time, for there was nothing
to eat; but there was plenty of beer and
liquor aboard, and the passengers in the
intervals of drinking amused themselves
with cards and betting and by firing pistols
from the car windows at the telegraph
poles.
"In one seat next a window sat a very
young and innocent man from Boston, one
of the many from that locality sent out to
points along the line of the Atchison road
by the favor of the management, to grow
up with the country. He had come to the
conclusion that the Back Bay and Cam
bridge were western enough for his tastes,
and was on his way to the East. .Beside
him sat a stranger, a big ranchman, wear
ing a black sombrero. Inspired by the ex
ample of some men who were firing from
the car windows, the Bostonian took from
his traveling-bag a pistol that must have
been a gift of a doting female relative. It
was an elegant little pearl-handled affair.
its tiny barrel beautifully chased and orna
mented. It looked more fit to be hung on
a watchguard than to use as a weapon, but
the owner, in imitation of the others,
blazed away with it at a telegraph pole,
with about the noise and effect that a fire
cracker would have produced.
"The ranchman beside him looked with
surprise and then with grim amusement at
the Boston man's shooting, and, for the
first time, seemed to take an interest in
what his seatmate was doing.
" 'Let me look at that tfiing, stranger,'
he said.
"The Bostonian passed the pistol to him
with an expression of satisfaction on his
face, as much as to say: 'This is rather a
neat thing, don't you know, and I'm in
the shooting as well as the others.' The
ranchman handled the wee weapon with
an affectation of admiring awe and ex
amined it with grave curiosity.
"'lt's a great firearm and no mistake,'
he pronounced. 'If 'twas mine would you
like to know how I'd fire it?'
i( Thfi Bostonian looked pleased and
nodded. The ranchman drew his own pis
tol, an immense long-barreled affair which
looked as if it ought to be mounted on a
gun carriage. Calmly he stuck the barrel
of small pistol into its capacious muzzle,
and thrusting the big ■weapon through the
open window took a deliberate shot at the
telegraph pole. The butt and barrel of the
little pistol flew two ways as it struck the
telegraph pole in the center, while the big
bullet behind sent splinters flying as it
plowed through the timber.
"Upon this worse than contemptuous
treatment of his property the Bostonian
looked with consternation, and at first
was indignant. But he had some tact and
a sense of humor despite his nativity,
and there being nothing better to do he'
soon joined in with the others in the laugh
that was raised. His big neighbor passed
him a peace offering in the shape of a
flask approaching an army canteen in
size, the Bostonian pulled manfully at it
and for the rest of the trip the two were
most friendly companions. The ranch
man took the" tenderfoot under his protec
tion and would suffer no one to impose on
him. A grand rush followed our arrival
at the first railroad dining station, where,
after our two days' fasting, a meal for
fifty persons was served to the 150 fam
ished passengers. It was grab, everybody,
and the big man loomed above the crowd
as he strode, holding aloft a whole boiled
ham in one hand and a loaf of bread in the
other, back to the car to join his friend
from Boston." — New York San.
THE BODY'S WEIGHT.
Constant Changing of the Human
Avoirdupois.
Many people weigh themselves fre
quently and imagine that they know their
weight. Bweet illusion! Nothing is more
difficult than to know one's weight exact
ly, even with access to first-class scales.
We hear one say: "I am making flesh.
I have increased two pounds." and an
other: "I am getting into form. I weigh
three pounds less." But, while I do not
wish to make myself disagreeable, espe
cially to people who keep account of their
weight, lam convinced that in most of
such cases there is really not an ounce of
gain or loss; or, if there is any variation, it
is not what the scales record.
The ordinary methods of determining
variations in weight give absolutely falla
cious results. The causes which influence
weight are numerous and rarely taken into
consideration. For example, Was the
weight taken immediately after breakfast
or long after, or following active exercise
attended with free perspiration?
One's weight is like a mobile expression
— it changes every instant. The study of
the matter is, nevertheless, of considerable
physiological and hygienic importance — a
fact of which I have become thoroughly
convinced in the course of over ten years'
investigation of the subject.
The inaccuracy of ordinary balances,
such as one iindsat railway stations, deter
mined me to make a portable balance to
weigh 220 pounds and to be exact to within
an ounce, and since then I have weighed
myself regularly every day at the same
hour in the morning and under identical
conditions, and to-day I possess a record of
five years of experiments, conducted with
the utmost precision from day to day.
Every day when weighing myself I re
cord the barometric and hydrometric va
riations, the temperature and the dinner
menu for the day. These experiments have
convinced me more than ever that our
weight is in a perpetual state of fluctua
tion. After eliminating the errors of the
instrument, our weight varies, subject to
innumerable influences. After breakfast
on a warm day one loses more than fifteen
grains an hour.
How, then, are you to arrive at your true
weight when it is subject to such incessant
fluctuations? When we remember that 70
per cent of our body is water, there is little
difficulty in understanding that our weight
must vary continually with the transpira
tions of the moisture ; moreover, it varies
with the pressure of the atmosphere. The
mere variations in atmospheric humidity
suffice to account for a change of more than
a pound, and other causes may suffice to
account for another pound.
The person who only weighs at inter
vals may infer from this that he is growing
lighter or heavier, but the conclusion ia
unwarranted. There are some people, on
the other hand, who will tell you that their
weight never changes. This, too, is an
error; it is continually fluctuating.
The fault ia that the scales used do not
record variations of a pound or so. For
ordinary purposes this is of no conse
quence, but for recording changes of
weight in sickness it is of very serious
moment. The scales are not without their
importance in medical practice, especially
with infants.
The weight of an infant increases in
definite proportions during the first weeks
of life, and there can be no departure from
this regularity of increase without impair
ment of health.
For aduit persons, too, it is good to con
sult the scales, for they are the barometer
of health. Any sudden increase of weight,
amounting to a pound or so in a day, indi
cates a tendency to disease. It is evidence
of health when the weight does not fluctu
ate more than three or four ounces from
day to day. Great fluctuation implies de
rangement.—New York Dispatch.
During the revolutionary era in England
both Catholics and Protestants used the
dramatic form as a means of controversy,
and the plays published at that time con
tained as many arguments as the sermons.
HENLEY'S
CELERY
BEEF
AND
FOR
Rheuma-
tism,
Neuralgia,
All
Nervous