The Caldwell tribune. [volume], December 11, 1897, Image 6

About The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928

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THOUSAJND ISLANDS.
UNIQUE AMERICAN RESORT
WITHOUT COUNTERPART.
floating Market that Gom from Cot
tage to Cotta |t«—Sunday Boat Servie«
In Lonely Bay-No Place for the
Audacious Bicycle.
(Special Letter.) —
HB beauties of the
Thousand Islands
In the St. Law
re uçe river are by
no nieans unknown
to the tourist; In
fact, they are be
coming more and
more appreciated
as one of the attrac
tions of American
scenery. Americans
and Canadians make these islands
summer residences, and the life they
lead there is unique and different from
any other , summer enjoyment, The
islands themselves are said to be near
ly 2,000 In number, and for 50 miles
down the noble river cover Its surface
with Infinite variety. Many residences
have been erected, from the comfort
able family house to the wooden board
shanty and canvas tent; and on one
<Grlndstone island), the American
Canoe association has Its headquarters,
and some 200 canoeists in one camp un
der canvas, and in another beautiful
locality on the same Island their lady
relatives have a separate canvas vil
lage. It Is family life, however, which
has the most interest. To begin with,
there are no roads, and, consequently,
no vehicles; even the ubiquitous bi
cycle Is unknown.
Perched on some commanding rock,
or nestling under the forest shade,
picturesque residences peep out at
many a turn, each with its little wharf,
where lie generally the yacht, rowing
gig, and the canoe. These are the only
means of intercommunication with
each other, and with the great world
on shore. Sometimes the large excur
sion boats come noisily through the
tortuous channels, whistling and caus
ing the surf to roll up the rocks to the
Inconvenience of those afloat, but gen
erally all Is peace and quiet. The sun
shines, the odor of the pine trees fills
the air, the great river spreads out
like an inland sea in places, and in
others is apparently completely land
locked by Islands of all shapes and
sizes. To any one trying to find a
friend's house without a pilot or prev
ious knowledge of the place, It Is all
a perfect labyrinth of water passages.
Boating and sailing are everywhere
visible, and every morning a little
steamer, fitted up as a complete mar
ket, comes darting hither and thither,
from house to house, bringing every
description of supplies. That is cer
tainly convenient, and an improvement
on the custom of cities on the main
land. There Is no postman, no tele
graph boy, no trolley car, no railway
whistle—all Is peace and quiet, and en
tirely apart from the outside busy
world. Through the narrow channels
glide the boats carrying happy parties;
friends meet, callers come round and
land at the little wharves, picnic par
ties have a small paradise to select
from, and then, in the broad open
reaches, the white-sailed yachts have
breeze enough to keep up many a
friendly race. The water is clear as
crystal, and bathing Is almost perfec
tion—either In rough or smooth water
—there Is choice of both. There is
splendid fishing, and sport of every
kind also. The Islands themselves are
mostly granite and some sandstone.
They are clad with pine, birch, oak,
and many forest trees, so that they
have the shade and solitude for refuge
from the summer Bun.
The clear northern sky and bright
sunshine give color everywhere—and
the sunsets are something to see and
remember. Then, as the night draws
on, a solemn silence settles on all. The
breeze dies down and a glassy calm
falls on the water. The Islands assume
strange shapes as they loom oat in
dark masses against the evening sky,
with the pines standing as It were cut
out in silhouette on the summit. Where
the reflections begin the eye cannot
detect till the lights begin to twinkle
from the dwellings, and the scene be
comes fairy land. Each wharf has Its
colored light throwing its trembling re
flection, each window gleams, and in
the stillness happy voices are heard
far and near, or strains of distant
K
DEVIL'S WASHBOWL.
music come softly to the ear. Then
the camp fires begin to glow, and the
moon rises slowly from behind some
dark Islands'like a globe of yellow
flame. But when its path of silver Is
gleaming in the water, out creep the
boat« and canoes again into the solemn
husk of night, scarcely breaking the
silence by the noiseless paddle or soft
ly dipped oar; and from the gloom
oome other gliding skiffs from many a
sheltered cove. Friends hall each oth
er, and then side by side many light
craft lie with their freight of happy
occupants. And of course some one
has brought a guitar or mandolin, and
soon sweet voices are singing the dear
old songs of many homes far away,
and " the night Is filled with music."
And when the last "good night," "good
night" die away Into the surrounding
stillness, the heart still lingers with
regret at parting from what is more
like peace, unbroken for thousands of
years, than a pervading influence upon
the island homes of men with busy
lives elsewhere. Perhaps this is felt
more strongly than at other times ou
Sunday evenings. For years It has
been the custom to hold a "boat ser
vice" about sundown,, in a little nook
aptly called Lonely bay. Here from
all quarters the boats repair, and glide
up the still water to the head of the
bay, whose carved channel shuts it in
from the outer waters. Lying there,
side by side, they gather together, and
It is very Impressive in such surround
ings to hear all join in the old familiar
hymns in a Temple truly not made
with hands. In fact Half Moon bay,
as it Is often called ,is the outlet of
an ancient glacier which ages ago
scooped It Into itB present shape—and
It was a hapjpy thought to adapt It as
a place of worship, unique of its kind.
On the rocks above are some most
Interesting traces of glacier and water
action and what the Indians call the
"Devil's Wash Bowl," is a perfect
specimen of these forces hollowing the
granite rock.
And so day by day the happy sum
mer life in the islands passes on till
the shortening afternoons, a sense of
chill in the air, ae well as the glowing
colors of the fading leaves, tell the
autumn is at hand. Signs of change,
too, appear In the heavens at night, as
from the far frozen north the streamers
of the aurora silently flash over the
dark blue starry sky. Then It Is time
to break our stay on the islands, and to
leave these homes with all their varied
pleasures and happy memories, and go
back to the old life and occupations.
GIRLS IN NEW GUINEA.
They Are Cooped Up und I« I« Difficult
to ISlope With Them.
Girls In New Guinea have little
chance to elope. Every night they are
put in a little house way up In the top
of a tall tree. Then the ladder is re
WA
&
In,
HOUSE FOE NEW GUINEA MAID
ENS.
moved. Parents' slumber Is not dis
turbed by thoughts of an elopement.
Where a Man IVlnnt Speuk Up.
"I had occasion the other day, for the
first time," said a sober-minded citizen,
"to go up high In one of the modern
tall buildings. I called on a man in the
seventeenth story. It certainly was
tremendous the way they hoisted us
up that shaft, with a smooth start and
easy stops and lightning between. But
the most impressive thing about the
trip was this; A man who ge>t on where
I did, at the ground floor, and who
wanted to get off at the tenth floor,
Baid 'Tenth,' as It seemed to me the
Instant we started up; but the ele
vator man said: 'This is the twelfth;
we'll stop going down.' If there Is a
place on earth where a man needs to
speak up, it appears tc he in the mod
ern elevator car."
Precocity In Hindoo Children.
A traveler who recently visited India
states that he was astonished by the
precocity of Hindoo children. Many
of them are skillful workmen at an
age when other children arc learning
the alphabet. One of the most expert
carvers in wood he saw was a boy of
10. and many of the handsomest and
most costly rugs are woven by children
not yet in their teens.
TmpofiMlhle.
Ida—Did he hug aud kiss you after
you accepted him? Ada—He didn't <lir*
—we were in a canoe at the time.
The wise man proflts by experience-,
but he is still wiser who profits by th*
experience of others.
HOW FLOWERS GßOW.
PUSH THEIR WAY THROUGH
SHEETS'OF ICE.
The Soidanella. a Fragile Alpine Beauty.
Lays by Stores of Fnel In Summer.
With Whleh to "Heat Its Way" the
Following Spring
(Special Letter.)
F you have ever
visited the Alps in
early spring, you
will know well by
sight the dainty
little nodding bells
of the alpine »öl
danella—twin flow
ers on one stalk,
like fairy tocsins,
which push their
heads boldly
through the Ice and form a border of
blue blossoms on the edge of the snow
sheet.
This adventurous little plant does not
wait for the melting of the snow, but,
vastly daring, begins to grow under the
surface of the ice sheet.and melts a way
up for Itself by Internal heat, like a
vegetable furnace. It may fairly be
called a slow combustion stove, not fig
uratively, but literally. It burns Itself
up la order to melt the ice above it.
This wonderful plant opens its fringed
and pensile blue blossoms In the very
midst, of the snow, often showing Its
Blender head above a thin layer of ice
where it fearlessly displays its two sis
ter hells among the frozen sheet which
still surrounds Its stem in the most in
credltable fashion.
Comparatively few observers havs
noticed that the soidanella, fragile as
It Is, actually forces itself up through a
solid coat of ice, not exactly by hewing
its way, but by melting a path for it
self In the crystal sheet above it. Yet
such Is really the case, warms the Ice as
It goes. The bud begins to grow on the
frozen soil before the ground Is bare
under the hardened and compresssd
snow which at its edge is always ice
like in texture. They then bore their
way up by internal heat (like that of
an animal) through the sheet that cov
ers them; and they often expand their
delicate blue or white blossoms, with
the scalloped edges, in a sup-shaped
hollow above.while a sheet of re-frozen
Ice, through which they have warmed
a tunnel or canal for themselves, still
surrounds their stems and hides their
roots and their flattened foliage. This
is bo strange a miracle of nature that
it demands some explanation; the
method by which the soidanella obtains
its results is no less marvelous than
the results themselves which It pro
duces.
The canny plant lays its plans deep,
and beglii3 well beforehand. It ha?
made preparations. All the prevloui
summer It has been spreading its rouni?
leaves to the mountain sun, and laylns
by ii r .terial for next year's flowering
season. Leaves are the mouths and
stomachs of plants, and the soidanella
has a style of leaves admirably adapted
to its peculiar purposes. Expanded In
the sunlight, they eat carbon and hy
drogen all summer, and by the time
winter comes they are thick and leatù
ery, filled with fuel for the spring, and,
of course, evergreen. The material
thus laid by consists of starch, proto
plasm, and other rich foodstuffs. Ali
winter the plant is hidden under tho
snow and ice, but as soon as the spring
sun begins to melt the surface at tho
lower edge of the sheets water trickles
down through cracks in the ice, fifitl
sets the root-stock budding. It prodvees
the very same effect as the water thiit
is poured upon melting barley in older
to make it germinate. And the some/
result follows. The soidanella absri'bs
oxygen from the air below the sft.w,
evolves heat from their combination,
and combines with it the fuels in Its
own substance, through the icy sheets
that spread above it.
The warmth the plant obtains by
this curious process of slow internal
combustion it first employs to melt a
little round hole In the ice for its
arched flower-buds At the beginning
the hollow which Is found above each
pair of budB is dome-shaped; the stem
pushes its way up through a dome of
air inclosed in the ice; and the water
It liberates trickles down to the root,
thus helping to supply moisture for
Ä
*
PROTRUDING THROUGH ICE.
further growth with its consequent
heating. But by-and-by the stem
lengthens, and the bud Is raised to a
considerable height by its continuous
growth. Still, so slight is the total
quantity of heat the poor little plant
can evolve with all Us efforts that by
.
J
the time the stem Is an Inch or
lo ng, th« lower part of the tunnel has
curiously frozen again. In this stag«,
then, thn melted space is no longer a
dome; Is assumes the form of a little
balloon or round bubble of air, sur
rounding the flower-bud.. At the same
time, the ice beneath, having frozen
again, almost touches the stem, so that
the bud seems to occupy a small, clear
area of its own in the midst of the
sheet, with Ice above, below, and all
round It.
Gradually In this way, the little buds,
manage to bore their way to the sur
face itnd to the sunshine on the out
side of the ice-sheet. At last the stalk
melts 1U path out, and a flower ap
pears on the top, In the center of a
small cup-shaped or saucer-shaped de
pression. The exquisite blue bells are
thus seen blooming in profusion, ap
parently out of the ice itBelf, or as if
stuck into It. Unless you looked close,
and noticed that their stems came from
the ground beneath, you might even
imagine they were rooted in the crys
tal mass of ice. The edge of the snow
field in early spring is often pierced
and riddled by hundreds of such soid
anella borings; others above are in
process of formation; and if you cut a
piece open you will see inside how each
is produced, with its narrow tunnel
below, its balloon In the center, or
later, Its saucer-shaped depression on
the surface.
TO DREDGE THE YUKON.
St. I .ouia Capitalists Will Send a Boa*.
Up In the Spring*
A St. Louis company has been or
ganized with the avowed purpose of
taking up the bottom of the Yukon
river. They expect to put it carefully
back when they get through with it,
but by that time it will be no more
attractive than the bottom of the Miss
issippi, for the company will have all
the gold there was in it. Already a
mining engineer is at Chilkoot Pass,
en route to the golden waters, and as
soon as his report is received work will
be commenced on a dredgeboat of spe
cial design which it is believed will get
everything worth having out of the
river in no time. The boat will draw
about 20 inches of water, and will be
about 110 feet long .large enough for
the purpose of this expedition. It will
be equipped with a sand pump, which
ivill handle 200 tons per hour. Patent
tlulce boxes will be placed on each
side of the boat, running its entire
length, and so arranged that all gold
will be saved, however fine. During
the season, the dredge will operate 24
hours a day. In sand which runs but
£50 a ton, which is a conservative es
timate, it will be seen that the boai
will have a capacity of $240,000 a day
The boat will be built of cedar and
steel, braced every 10 feet with water
tight bulk-heads, separating the boat
iuto air chambers, making it impos
sible to founder or become easily
wrecked. The expedition will be pro
visioned for two years, and a gasoline
launch will act as a tender, making
i-egular trips to the mouth of the
Yukon, thus keeping connection witt
the base of supplies, bringing in pro
visions and taking out the output. The
party will include physician and sur
geon, and complete medical stores; also
assa yer, mining engineer, mechanical
THE YUKON GOLD DREDGE.
engineer, electrician, etc. Nobody car
join the expedition without money, and
each member must have life and acci
dent insurance in favor of the com
pany. The boat will be completed and
delivered to the mouth of the Yukon,
ready to move, as soon as the icf
leaves the river.
Paper Bottles.
A German paper maker has recently
obtained letters patent on bottleB made
of paper, for use on board of ships par
ticularly. It has been a cause of much
damage to steamer lines that in bad
weather a large number of bottles ol
wine and other liquors are broken in
the storerooms,in spite of every precau
tion. The new bottles are made of a
composition which, with the solution
in which they are made water tight, is
still the inventor's secret. After being
impregnated with this fluid the paper
bottles are slowly dried In gas stoves,
and this process of drying must be
watched carefully, for otherwise the
bottles would remain porous and allow
the fluids to leak out. These bottles
can be handled roughly without the
least apprehension; neither the pitch
ing nor the rolling of a great steamer
during rough weather nor the break
ing down of a truck upon which they
are loaded loosely would be apt to
damage a single paper bottle.
Suited the Proportion.
Admirer—How do you manage to
turn out so many jokes on the num
erical preponderance of ladies over men
at the summer resorts? Tenplunks A
Weeke—I have simply remodeled over
my 16 to 1 jokes of last year.
HEIRESS KIDNAPPED,
the Police of MinneapolU Believe Ml»,
Rntherford Ha. Been Carried Away.
The Rutherford family of Minnea*-j
oils is a very wealthy one, and as it
consists at present only of Mr*. Ruth-,
erford and her daughter Fanny, It ivlll
be seen that this young womrt Is
heiress to no small fortune. But her
present wealth and future prospects
seem to be more of a curse than a
blessing, for they have made her in the
past a target for fortune-hunters, and
now she Is missing from home, and the
police have offered a reward for J. A.'
Morris, who is believed to have kldnap-i
ped the young woman. Morris, who
has a long criminal record, met Mrs. 1
Rutherford and her daughter while
they were traveling in the south last
spring, learned of their wealth, and
that they lived in Minneapolis. On the
6th of May Miss Rutherford disappear^
ed from her home, leaving a note say
ing that she was going to St. Paul and
would return the following day. Sine«
then a letter has been received from
her, evidently written under restraint,
saying that she was happily married to
a man she worshipped. The police are
convinced that Bhe was kidnapped by
Morris and is held by him, and they|
are making every effort to find her.
Miss Rutherford is about twenty-live
years old and is highly accomplished.
Her father was Capt. George Ruther
ford, a pionosr citizen of Minneapolis,
who left a vast estate to his widow and
only daughter. This wealth has
brought Miss Rutherford many suitors,
but she has always refused to leave her
mother, and has expressed no desire
to marry. All these things strengthen
the police in their belief that she has
been kidnapped.
LOVERS OF THIRTY YEARS WED
Indiana Boasts a Bright Example In
, Constancy and Devotion.
A bright example in constancy and
filial devotion is afforded in the experi
ence of a couple recently wedded in
Liberty township, Indiana, the newly
married pair being Mr. and Mrs. Henry
Foreman, who reside on their 400-acre
farm near Greentown. In point of age
both bride and groom have passed the
half-century mark. Though lovers
from early childhood and betrothed
from youth, the marriage was deferred
until now; the engagement covering a
period of thirty years. Young Fore
man had a stepmother to whom he was
greatly attached, and to whom he
solemnly pledged to support during her
lifetime, promising not to marry while
she remained alive. Contrary to ex
pectations, the invalid and dependent
stepmother lived until a year or more
ago. During this long wait of nearly
a third of a century the lovers scrupul
ously observed their vows, toiling on
through the years without a thought
of disregarding the pledges given the
stepmother or breaking faith in any
manner whatever. They grew gray,
lived frugally, saved their earnings and
patiently bided their time. When
death removed the barrier, the lovers
had accumulated sufficient means to
buy the largest farm in the township.
The minister first engaged to perform
the marriage ceremony died of old
age many years ago, and a divine of a
new generation officiated at the long
delayed wedding—Chicago Times-Her
ald.
Luxury In Central Africa.
We learn from a London interviewer
that Zomba, the capital of British Cen
tral Africa, is quite a civilized place,
in which the visitor may require a
dress coat. "If the commissioner asks
you to dine, you will find that he lives
in a luxurious mansion built high up
on the shoulder of a lofty mountain.
Your dinner will he cooked by a Hin
doo chef of exquisite cunning, you will
be waited upon by deft servants as
black as night, the table will be deco
rated with flowers such as no British
duchess could buy, the view from the
windows will delight your eye. After
dinner you will step out into the veran
da, perhaps, and smoke your cigar with
the roar of the cascading river in your
ears, or fall into a luxurious chair and
read the last novel from Mudie's or the
last batch of papers which the post
man has just delivered. Then early to
bed and early to rise, your bath, your
coffee, and a little fruit perhaps, a
stroll in the delightful garden, full of
fruits and flowers, a peep at the com
missioner's private menagerie, then
dejeuner."—London Star.
HU Discovery.
Grinnen—"Old fellow, I've discover
ed the fountain of youth." Barrett
"What?"
Grinnen—"That's right. And it Isn't
a fountain at all. It's a bicycle." Bar
ret (still incredulous)—"What make?"
—Chicago Tribune.
Not Up-to-Date.
He lies in jail for bigamy;
The law is most inhuman
In robbing man of liberty
For wanting a new woman.
It's a poor recommendation for her
biscuit when a widow tells how fond
her late husband was of them.