The San Francisco call. [volume], March 21, 1897, Page 19, Image 19

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

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE
IDYLS OF THE FILED
TfT^YING at full length upon my back
-ij^k under a thicket of close-growing
mes^p osiers I was studying through the
- tieldglass a newcomer among ray
feathered neighbors, when something
buzzed past my face, brushing against my
hair as it did so.
I thought it was a large moth or a but
terfly; the warm week of sunshine has
brought both these out in great numbers, i
and 1 paid no attention, so engrossed was
lin my observations. Still the creature
hovered about mv head with a beating of !
wings that, had I given heed to, I should
have recognized, but not until a flash of |
brilliant color darted across my vision did i
I glance away from the glass. Then I saw |
that the mite that was inspecting me quite
as curiously as I was watching his big
brother was a brilliant little humming
„ bird. I gave a start of surprise and he
i was off, but I could see him gleaming j
jewel- among the foliage of the grease
wood close at hand. It was the Anna
hummer, one of the most brilliant of all
these beautiful little birds. The Anna
hummer belongs exclusively to California.
He is rather larger than the Eastern ruby
throat, which he somewhat resembles.
This was a male bird, with a head like a
gleaming ruby, a metallic red and purplish
coat and a green vest brave trappings
these in which to goa-wooing. Every year
I am sure there wiil be at least one pair
of these humming-birds nestling in a
tangle of sweetbrier here beside the stream.
Whether they are the same pair, return
ing year after year, I cannot say, but they
are very tame. I have known one to fly
into the midst of a group of people and
flutter about a speaker's face with tho
same familiar curiosity that marked this
one's inspection of me.
The humming-bird and the least fly- j
catcher are the only wild birds I have
ever -observed who , do not take instant!
' fright at the "sound "of the human t' voice. '
The barking of a dog, the neighing of a I
.horse, the mewing of a cat, all sounds ]
closely connected with humanity, do not j
alarm the birds. They will listen atten- j
tively if you whistle to them, but make !
an articulate sound and they are off. Ido
not know why this should be. It is not
very complimentary tons.
The bird I was watching, when my tiny
visitor claimed attention, was the ruby
crowned kinglet, a beautiful little creature
whom, until this spring, I have never no
ticed in this vicinity. This year I have
• seen two, both males. The birds are about
the size of the goldfinch, with upper parts
of dark oiive-green, dusky wings and tail,
tipped with yellow, two whitish bars
across his wings and a brilliant dash
of red in his crown. I have not heard
them sing here, save to utter a half-whis
pered, warbling sort of twitter, among the
willows, but the bird has the reputation,
in the East, of being a brilliant songster.
They are only birds of passage with us,
however, paying us a brief visit on their
way to the mountains, where they build
their nests and rear their young.
* We are just now in the full height of
our spring, season, and the recent warm'
days have brought the flowers out in
earnest. In some one of his pleasant
essays John Burroughs takes the poets to
task for making buttercups and dande
lions bloom at the same time. The dan
delions he declares to be a full month
later than the buttercup. They are out
before the buttercups here, however, and
our Californian poets may make them
neighbors with no fear of offending
mother nature. The blue-eyed grass is in
bloom now. This is another blossom that
seems to differ in its habits from its
Eastern sister. Our blue-eyed grass may
be gathered, and will, if placed in water,
last for several days, to cheer and comfort
its human friends, but the Eastern flower
droops and dies almost as soon as it is
severed from* its root. The blue-eyed
grass is really a lily, and with us most of
this family last well- if placed in water.
Anagal.s, the pretty wee pimpernel, is also
in blossom, dotting the young meadows
with its friendly little red flowers.
The pimpernel is an exceedingly lova
ble little weed. It does no harm in a field
and it* has such a happy, cheerful faculty
of getting a living out of the barest,
brown, . sun-baked clods of earth. The
mallows are blooming in great abundance
on the sunny uplands and in low, marshy
places, and I know a hilltop that is just
now carpeted with yellow violets. These
flowers seem to love the wind-swept moun
tain tops and to flourish where scarcely
another thing can find a roothold. The
brodiasa, too, is purpling the hillsides, and
lupin and poppies make the meadows and
roadsides to bloom like fair gardens. The
popples hereabouts are by no means plen
tiful, however. If; people are not more
careful I fear the time will come when
they will be rare indeed. I rarely take
my walks abroad during these days that I
do not come upon forlorn masses of these
blossoms, ruthlesdy ' plucked and after
ward left in the road to die. The veriest
weeds would not flourish under these con
ditions, nor will our r poppies, do so for
ever. I know a lover of flowers who makes
a point of carrying packages of the seed
with him on his walks and scattering
them In waste places where flowers do not
appear. Ido not know why this is not a
desirable course to pursue with" reference
to many of our wild flowers.
Climbing up a steep bank the other day,
I came upon a;• bed of ' .tell, nodding
flowers/the shooting star. Sinking upon
my knees ; beside them, the wide pano
rama of foothills and valley, the distant
ci'^sand the broad blue bay faded; from
view. The years ' slipped from -my
shoulders and I was once more a child in :
an Eastern meadow, wandering amid the
•'white weed" and clover, and stopping,
thrilled with delight, to touch and gloat
over a single shooting star growing at my
feet. It was always an event in the sum
mer, the finding of this flower. Other
events grouped themselves about it.
After that I remembered things as hap
pening the day or the week before or
after I "found the shooting star." Noth
ing else ever happened on that day. There
was nothing left to happen. The event
was supreme. So deeply impressed upon
my memory is the rarity of this plant In
our western New York meadows that
California's beautiful abundance of blos
soms has not yet accustomed me to re
gard it as common.
I cherish the lovely, eerie flowers when
I find them as though I knew I should
not see another throughout the season.
"Wild cyclamen," it is called hereabouts,
but it is really .the meadow cowslip, the
dodecatheron of the Greeks. "Twelve
gods," the name means. Those old GreeKs
and Romans were full of poetry and the
hard-sounding Attic and Latin nomen
clature of our botanists is often more beau
tifully expressive than our English names
for the plants. This little chickweed here
at my feet, for instance, is called, in Latin,
trientalis, because it usually grows the
third part of a foot in height. The reason
seeips a little far-fetched, but why should
we call the little plant chickwee l.and why
should the common name of the beautiful
' cyclamen itself be anything so hideous as
1 "sow-bread"?.
Now that the honey-making flowers are
really in blossom the busy bee* are busy
indeed. I opened a hive the other day
and peeping in saw that the waxen combs
are rapidly filling. Incidentally I per
formed for tbe hive a service always
gives me an indefinable sense of sympa
thetic regret. From the floor, underneath
the combs, I scraped nearly half a pint of
dead bees. The hive. seemed in no way
depleted. The workers came and went
busily in the sunshine, and all seemed
well with the colony, but there were the
bees that had died of old age. Some
wera not yet, dead, but struggled feebly
from the mass as they were brushed out
into the light and warmth. The first bees
in this hive came away from the parent
hive last June in the heyday of youth,
when warm weather started the honey
flowing and stirred the swarming instinct
in their blood. They were pioneers form
ing a new colony. All summer long they
toiled, building the combs now, ready to
be filled and rearing a young brood to
take their places. Through the bright
winter days they went far afield for sup
plies. During the heavy rains they busied
themselves inside, constructing the won
derful cells that a fortnight hence will
hold the golden sweetness of the flowers.
Then, their labor done, before they had
seen its full fruition, in the bright pleas
ant spring days they lay down and died.
The young bees of the colony, like the
young people of the human race, will
reap the benefit of their labors. Those
who laid the foundations for the after
work will never see the rich hcney stored
in the combs. They sowed, but others
An Every-Day Scene at the Ranch of "The Woman Miner of Tuolumne."
■-)■'. Mrs. A. K. Rikert/"the woman miner of Tuolumne," a sketch of' whom appeared in last Sunday's CALL; has \ for, fourteen years been prospecting^ among the gold-fields of -California. The illustration
■shows her as she is about to dismount from her saddle at her picturesque dwelling/place after one of , her journeys through the hills and valleys of the Tuolumne ore-bearing region. She is mounted on her favorite
pony, "Snowflake,": which she rode all the way from La Paz, in Lower California, to her present home, near her Pino Blanco mine. . . ;
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 1897.
shall reap, to store and sow in turn for !
their successors. There is no accumula
tion of private fortunes in the hive, no
monopolies, no trusts, but each toils for
all and lays down the burden only when
its allotted span of life is ended. The
length of a bee's life depends largely upon
the amount of work it has to do. I have
somewhere seen its natural duration for a
worker bee stated at ten months, but from
the quantities of dead bees swept from the
hive I feel sure that at least two genera
tions perished in -the upbuilding of the
streets of comb ranged so accurately in
the racks. But the life of the hive goes
on, as it has since Virgil's day, and will
when we are gone to our rest and our
human successors take up where we lay
it down the task of making this world a
richer, sweeter, better place because
| human beings have done their allotted
j work in it. ,/- V Adeline Knapp.
Favorite Colors.
While blue is pre-eminently and over-
Most Novel Method of Obtaining Energy
/lir Expansion by Means of the Vibratory Impulses Derived
From the X j^ay
Y'£Yr<OW often do we pause and gaze
1"^-/ with admiration upon the working
JL^i^ of a steam engine. The beautiful
piece of mechanism never fails to enchant
us with its complex yet harmonious
motion. It is a familiar spectacle and yet
but few who look upon it really under
stand how it operates; how the energy is
created and applied. Not one in a hun
dred persons could explain that the rhyth
mical motion of the numerous parts was
produced by the expansion of steam ad
mitted through a valve into the cylinder
where it pushes the piston head to the
further end, where another valve, opened
just at the right instant, admitted new
steam that pushed the piston back again;
the alternate opening and closing of the
valves being accomplished by the to and
fro movement of the piston.
Steam is a gas, and, like all other gases,
expands when it is heated, and it is the
application of this well-known principle
that operates the engine. All gases are I
S composed of molecules in a state of per
| manent repulsion; the molecules may be
compared to springs constantly bent, and
making constant effort to free themselves.
Tho amount of pressure which these mole
cules exert against the sides of the vessels
which contain them depends upon the
volume or space which they occupy. So
that a given quantity of gas exerts a
greater pressure in a smaller than in a
larger vessel. Heat and cold play very
mportant parts in determining the condi
tions and powers (expansive force) of
gases. he molecules of the gas are kept
from disassoclation by cold, while their
struggle for separation is aided by heat.
The bursting of a boiler is due to the
enormous expansion of the gaseous steam
produced by the furnace fires.
A number of distinguished scientists
have devoted patient research and experi
ment to the phenomenon of the expansion
whelmingly the masculine favorite, it is
by. ; no means a general feminine favorite.
The favorite woman's color, standing at
the head of the female list, is red. Roughly
speaking, of every 30 N masculine < votes,
10 would' be for bine and 3 for red; while
of -very '30 feminine votes, 4 /would be
for ; blue and 5 for/ red. Red and blue are
thus more nearly equally popular among
women than among men. Other relatively
marked! masculine preferences are for. the
colors ". related to blue (blue violet and
violet) and other feminine preferences are
for lighter red, or pink, and to a less ex
tent, for green and yellow. * Further, men
confine their selections ;to relatively
fewer colors than do women; and finally
while all men and women alike are much
more apt to choose a normal than a tran
sitional color and a darker than a lighter
shade, yet the tendency to do so about
the same in - the former direction is
markedly different; in the latter respect;
of a dozen men, 10 would choose among
the darker colors and only two among the
lighter for the most pleasing color: while
of a dozen women, seven would choose
among the darker and five among the
lighter shades. This feminine fondness for
the lighter and daintier shades appears
also in other respects.
Passing next to the discussion of the
preferences among the combination of
colors enumerated above, the first note
worthy result is that no combination of
colors occupies the position of a decided
favorite as did blue among the single
colors, but that preferences for the several
combinations vary gradually from the
most to the least favorite. The two most
frequently and about equally preferred
combinations are red with violet and red
with blue, which are somewhat similar
in effect (the violet being very dark in ap
pearance); more than one-fifth of all the
J persons contributing to the results choose
of gases, and one of the results of their
labors is the establishment of the fact that
gases expand their volume a certain fixed
amount for each degree of increased tem
perature. This is expressed by the term
"coefficient of expansion," and means the
increase of the volume for each degree
centigrade. The working of our engine,
therefore, depends upon the expansion of
the steam-gas, and we would conclude that
increased power of expansion would give
increased dynamic force or engine-power,
which is the fact.
We have learned that beat is the agent
which aids the separation of the molecules,
and so we employ it to expand- the gas.
Atmospheric air expands .003665 for each
additional degree of applied heat. Steam,
which is mostly hydrogen, expands about
the same, its coefficient of expansion being
.003656.' '.'-;>/
Inventive genius never rests. It is un
satisfied with the knowledge that jeat ex
pands; unsatisfied with the method of
producing the heat by the crude and ex
travagant process of burning fuel. It in
quires, \Vnat is heat and it ' forthwith
gathers together its wits and proceeds to
devise newer and more economical ways
of producing the requisite heat other than
by literal combustion/* ?: '. y -s s /"/' :
-. .The giant intellect of Tyndall possessed
in the most marvelous degree the power
of scientific analysis and deduction. His
wonderful accomplishments in the domain
of scientific research evidence a deeper
penetration into the subtle "■ delicacies hid
den in natural physics than bas ever been
recorded of any other investigator. No
greater authority upon the subject of heat
is known than Tyndall.'. In his elaborate
contribution to the knowledge of molec
ular physics Professor Tyndall repeat
edly asserts that heat isa mode of motion
— simply vibration of the molecules of
matter. Later investigations confirm his
one or the other of these combinations.
Popular Science Monthly.
Blessing of Employment.
When morn the task dispenser passes by.
Some take ; their burdens up with sweet
elation, ' * * X. '.•.':-' *
Taught by a kindly past that jewels lie
Vs 'Mid stony wastes of routine occupation; /*
Others subvert the golden hours that hasten,
Despite the past' accusing looks that chasten.
Most blest is be who the essential path .
': Of happiness in labor is pursuing, • - : y
Who heeds time's opulence by day, and hath
The prize of sleep allotting night's soft woo
ing,'. ;y . .■ xxXx-mx^j Xy- v "•■■" - : :
Who will permit no rust on its tools shining,
Or dust in chambers of his mind's refining.
The climbing rose that toils that it may twine
Without tho casement its j rare bower of
beauty, '_. , • '■ '■'..;■ - : * r
Mingles its perfume with this truth divine. .
Blessings succeed to effort, grace to duty;
So hands employed gives impetus to thinking,
And purpose finds its goal through work un
; shrinking. V/H'-V' :% ' ''y.-'/yy '??/'*/ "'"/■/
No faithful labor ever comes to naught,
Feet that are shod with care insure swift- -
running. ' / '.- ... ' / V
With ? toil and pain cool evening's ; rest ;Is
bougnt, , s ;; ' --p ; 1
And stalwart labor conquers latent cunning.
His mind is rayless where no plan is growing,
While he who looks afar keeps his face glow
ing. : ' -. .
Arthur Howard Hall in the Salem Gasette.
— : — — — •— • — ■ — : — y
Some of the orders for books sent to
London publishers by country correspon
dents are highly amusing. One book
seller wrote for a work of "Harry Stock
les," when he wanted something of Aris
totle's; another who wanted "Gaudea
mus," by Farmer, asked for "God Aim
Us, by a farmer," and a third sent a re
quest for "Pharaoh's Life of Christ," when
he wanted Da an Farrar's celebrated work.
. conclusions— that what is heat, as appre
ciable to us, is nothing but motion, sim
ply molecules vibrating at a certain rate
of speed. .
The conclusion is evident that, if by
some other means than the application
of actual heat we may be able to aid the
separation of the molecules of a gas, as
steam, . we may then be able to produce
the expansion of the gas in an available
form of energy or power. That this is
capable of accomplishment by vibration
is an accepted fact, for vibration is proved
by the investigations of Tyndall and oth
ers to be but another form of heat, or, to
express it properly, heat is vibration.
Within the few years last past some very
important modifications of previous ideas
have taken place, due to the extension of
our knowledge about physics. Recent dis
coveries in electricity have opened to our
senses conditions in .that branch of en
ergy hitherto undreamed of. The last dis
covery, that of the "X" ray, has conferred
most valuable information upon the mys
tical subject of electrics. Of the full na
ture of the ray, its complete conditions
and powers, we are, as yet, unaware; but
already know that it must consist of mat
ter in the highest rate of vibration cogniz
able to our physical sense. It is believed
by many competent to pass opinion that
the ray is capable of exciting intense
vibration in such other forms of matter as
may be under proper conditions subjected
to its influence, y ///;"/
Based upon these logical deductions, a
prominent inventor is now at work upon
the construction of an expansive air en
gine, the operation of which is accom
plished by the use of air expanded to an
enormous tension by means of the vibra
tory impulses derived from the X ray. It
will not do at the present day to ridicule
any announcement Jike this. Experience
daily teaches us that the " inventive
crank" of yesterday has become the wor
shiped king of to-day. Science emphati
cally declares "that - all gases are com-,
posed of molecules in a state of permanent
repulsion," and, further, that these mole
; cules are possessed of electrical character
istics and are susceptible of magnetic at
traction and repulsion; so the proposition
to employ the X ray as an excitant is both
rational and promisingly practical. Of
course, there are numerous details con
nected with the employment of this novel
mode of procuring energy, which will have
to be carefully studied out, but they are
all within the field of well-understood
mechanics, and present no insuperable
obstacles. It is the novel method of ob
taining energy — primal power, that is here
presented. F. M. Close, D.Sc. .
Arizona's Zoological Freak
The Fiv>e-Horr\ed Sheep Which Whipped the
Biggest ' Bulldog irv Maricopa Gounty.
¥(|£-?-I^HILE he was in Phoenix \ he ere-
If' 3 ate -l somewhat of a sensation,
ill 11;.^ and was the pet if not the lion
of : the hour. Then he went down to Gila
Bond and covered himself all over with
glory and blood by whipping the biggest
bulldog in Maricopa County. It's the
five-horned sheep I'm talking about. Ho
never had any : other name, even in/the
natural ; history books. He is the prop
erty of Jose Morilet, who told the people
at Phoenix that /his, freak pet cost him
$200 in Mexican coin, and that he brought
him from a hidden '} mountain fastness
down": near the Chihuahua , and Sonora
lines, out of the most marvelous collection
of s zoological freaks on . the -.- face . of | the
earth. Morilet's truthful ; tale \ was' that
he found an old man down there who had
spent | all his life in collecting and breed
ing puzzles for the natural history classi
fiers. Not that any of the scientists ever
got down that way; j but jif they had, ac
cording to this veracious statement of the
owner of ■ the '■ five-horned j| sheep, , they
would very likely have suspected the con
tents of their bottles, or else the evidence
of their own eyes. mXiWX^'-''
"■' Jose says tbat the old man had three
headed Gila monsters, horned toads with
seven legs, a steer with a head on each
end and no tail, dogs with snake's heads,
sheep with five legs, and a variety of other
hideous surprises on nature entirely too
-■■■■ -..--■■■ .y. - . ■ . - r . •- .-.-'-.. : .yy '„.'■■- :'.-..-.■■.
THE FIVE-HORNED SHEEP.
numerous, and in many cases too horrible
to mention. And this five-horned sheep,
being a duplicate, and. not a very awful
specimen at worst, the old fiend let him
go for a couple of hundred shining.
And perhaps Jose's story is correct — I
have not the data at hand now to deny it—
but it is; not the story that I started
out to relate. The bulldog was fa
mous : not only in Maricopa County,
but '/ about all over the '- Territory.
He was probably the ugliest looking brute
in any two judicial districts, and had got
his teeth into the entrails of more than
one bear in his time. A bulldog's teeth
are hooked like, and when on duty in the
mouth of a full-grown and blooded
proprietor they ; have the power , to tear
things asunder in a most pitiless fashion.
Some of the Phcenix sports had an idea
they would like to see Tiger's hooks come
together on : the throat of Jose's -five
horned pet, not because they had any
thing in particular against the pet— no one
had but because Jose used to blow so
much about the fighting qualities of him.
So they tried several times to arrange a
match between the two brutes, but wnen
it came to the scratch Jose proved bash
ful and would not allow the match to take
place. He was making : a good thin.; by
exhibiting his freak at 10 cents a look,
with a fondle or two and the privilege of
feeding him peanuts thrown in, and ...he
protested that he didn't want to make his
pet unpopular by having him officiate as
executioner of the most popular bulldog
in the county. • XX *.■' '"-,_.
Of course the sports swore that Jose
was afraid to loso his .freak, and there the
matter -rested for a month or two, and
people began -to lose interest in the
strange animal. The gale -receipts fell
off, and by and by any one could see the
Mexican's pet for a bare piece of the shoe
leather it cost to loiter m front of the
Washington-street "banks" until Jose
and his freak came i out — for '. Jose was
strong on faro. When he played, how
ever, he always had his freak with him
for a mascot, and it is the opinion of sev
eral of the keenest Washington-street
dealers that the freak made a mascot
against which no bank could hold out.
In spite of all this, however, the god
dess did desert Jose upon one occasion —
the day before he left Phoenix and two
days before the now historic battle which
I am struggling to bring a tin? pen to
the point of narrating. And I may state,'
as well now as at any time, perhaps, that
there is tbe tanned hide of a large Dull
dog down at Gila Bend to attest the truth
fulness of every word that I am going to
utter about this fight
' When Jose left Phoenix he took his' mas
cot along with him, and this is probably
the only thing he did take except his
trousers, shirt, sombrero, blankets and
boots.' They were good boots and he had
use for them. , ,
When near the Gila Bend the mascot
and the Mexican came up with Hake and
Tirer. The meeting was somewhat unex
pected, and Tiger was loose. So was the
mascot. As this is very near the most ex
citing part of my story, it is propor that a
halt should be made long enough to ena
ble the reader to get into the confidence
of the author to the extent, at least, of
knowing that Tiger was the famous bull
dog— was, 1 say, for he Is no longer —
against whom the Phoenix sports tried to
have the mascot fitted to a death battle.
And the owner of Tiger was willing
enough, for he had as much, if not more,
conceit in his animal than had Jose in
his freak.
Bat all that was long ago.* The scene is
changed from the gayeties of city life to
the heat , and quiet' of a desert ranch.
Four travelers Wero won ding their way
along a dusty road. They are in pairs,
and each pair is approaching the other —
approaching also a battle royal that the
Phcenix sports would have given their
eyes" to have witnessed.- The records are
inexact as to distance and time, but about
the main facts of the case there are no
disputes. All at once Tiger spied the
mascot and began to sniff the air. Jose
I and his pet came forward quite peacefully.
The freak is a , very wild-looking beast,
with a face as bland as the face of Ah Sin.
Only his queer horns have an ugly look,
but' at the same time they are so ponder
ous in appearance that one would expect
to find them rather an ' incumbrance in
battle.
; Well, the -distance shortened between
the approaching parties. Then, suddenly
there was a streak of dust about 100 feet
long stretching from Hake Nelson to the
Mascot. In much less than another sec
ond there was a bunch of dust where the
mascot had stood. And -when the dust
cleared away a little Hake and Jose could
see — and, alas, that the Phoenix sports
could not!— a big black and white bull
dog, almost limp and nearly dead, hang
ing by the neck between the two lower
horns on the left side of the freak's head.
. How the thing happened no one will
ever know to a nicety. But there was the
dog dying and there was tbe freak pan
ing, but still mild and bland. One of the
antlers had penetrated and torn the flesh
of poor Tiger, ; but /although the wound
bled freely it was not sufficient to have
caused the death that very shortly en
sued. Hake and Jose held an inquest then
and there and. their unanimous verd ct
was that Tiger came to his end by strang
ulation at '■, the / hands— or rather at the -
horns the' queerest animal ever seen in
Mariopa County. The jurors also exoner
ated the freak. They could have done no
less, for he was surely not the attacking -
party.
f X The dog's neck was • wedged in tightly,
so that he could only be extracted by main
force. ;/. If the five-horned , freak ever goes
back to Phcenix the boys will crown him
laurel. Luke Nosth.
19