The Leon reporter., December 14, 1899, Image 4

About The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930

Image provided by: State Historical Society of Iowa

                
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For many months visitors to Lake
Constance, on the German side, have
wondered at a huge and curiously
shaped building which has floated
about one half mile from the shoro oil
Frledrichshafen. The structure is
over 500 feet long, 75 feet wldo &nd 65
'eet high. In the front the queer
building comes to a sharp point like
the wedge-shaped ends of the locomo
tives that have 'been built recently to
attain high speeds by being formed so
that th£re shall be little resistance to
the air.
The building has been guarded night
and day and none was allowed to ap
proach it. Whenever the doors wero
open for any length of time the en
trances have been covered with heavy
curtains, so that even the most curious
of the inhabitants of the surrounding
towns have failed utterly to find
what was going on in the mysterious
place. The only thing that could be
guessed was that some government
matter was concealed in the floating
house, for what little communication
there was with the mainland was by
means of government vessels.
A correspondent for the Sunday
Press has discovered what has been
under way in this building. It is the
mammoth dirigible airship of Count
von Zeppelin, which is being construct
ed under the supervision of the Ger
man government. This is the great
balloon to which Major Baden'Powell,
brother of Col. Baden-Powell, the Brit
ish commander at Mafeking, has just
drawn his government's attention as
the most Important efforts of recent
years. He describes it graphically as
saying that it resembles the slender
skeleton of a huge battleship made of
aluminum, containing a large number
ef balloons.
Its total capacity is about ten tons.
About $350,000 have been spent in the
construction, the plans having been ap
proved by the German government.
Major Baden-Powell says it is hoped to
drive the vessel at the rate of twenty
two miles an hour.
Rumors have been heard from time
to time about this airship, but details
were lacking and none of those con
nected with its construction could be
induced to say a word. The picture
and description of the balloon which
are printed here make the first au
thentic and detailed news to reach the
world about this the most ambitious
attempt of modern times to solve the
great problem of navigating the air.
Count Von Zeppelin is a German sol
dier, famous for his desperate ride into
the heart of the enemy's country in
the Franco-Prussian war. He has been
working on the plans for the airship
for years, and long before he began
the building of his monster he had
examined and acquired every patent
that seemed to him at all available.
•Thus, when he was ready to begin
building he had at his command hun
dreds of improvements and appliances
without the embarrassment of having
to dicker with their possessors. Em
peror William has been enthusiastic
over the matter, and Count von Zep
polin has had ample and ready aid in
the last two years during whi-.h the
balloon has been under way.
The idea of building the airship in a
floating building was adopted for many
reasons. One was that it made se
crecy easy. Another, the more im
portant one, Is that it will enable tie
makers to launch the balloon readily
and to make trial trips with It at. will.
Therefore, the building was erected on
ninety-five exceedingly buoyant pon
toons, and bo anchored that it can
gviag with Jftgwlnd, always turning
«ev
DETAILS OF ZEPPELIN" AIRSHIP
its rear end to the breeze. It will be
possible, therefore, to launch the bal
loon in the direction of the wind at any
given time. In addition, the building
Is so arranged that the part which
holds the airship can 'be hauled out
like the drawer of a deck, and when It
is so hauled out it floats on separate
pontoons. This will give to the bal
loon a free start at any time, and will
make it easy to return it to the build
ing.
The balloon is 375 feet long, shaped
like a torpedo, and its diameter is 36
feet. The skeleton is of aluminum,
FLOATING BUILDING ON WHICH AIRSHIP WAS CONSTRUCTED.
and its base consists of sixteen ribs of
aluminum shaped as polygons, with 24
angles. They are fixed and braced in
their positions with aluminum wires,
which radiate from common centers
like the spokes of a wheel. This skel
eton is separated into seventeen sec
tions which are movable independently
of each other. The whole is enmeshed
with ramie fiber netting, to hold it to
gether, so that the airship really is 17
balloons fastened together with an out
side covering.
The texture with which each bal
loon skeleton is surrounded to hold the
gas is a new material made of cotton
and rubber combined.
Together the balloons have a capac
ity of 10,000 cubic yards. The carrying
ability is what Major Baden-Powell
says it Is—ten tons. But the inven
tor and builders say that this weight
can be carried even should one or
more of the balloons become disabled.
The motive power will be furnished
by benzine. This has been selected,
despite Us Inflammatory qualities, be
cause it was found that even the best
of electric accumulators were too
heavy. The engines for utilizing the
s«a!
StfaatBSH!
sues
a
VON ZEPPELIN AIRSHIP UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
naphtha are wonderfully light, being
built of aluminum bronze, and they are
designed so that practically it will be
impossible for fire to reach the bal
loon. In addition the airship is to
be dressed with non-combustible ma
terial.
The engines and the passengers will
be carried in two aluminum gondolas,
each about thirty feet long, which will
be suspended under the body of the
balloon with firm aluminum girders.
The two gondolas will be connected
with a swinging platform of aluminum
netting.
The crew is to consist of live men.
Count von Zeppelin, in command two
engineers and two machinists. They
will be enough to handle the engines
aud the weights which are to deter
mine the position and direction of the
craft. These weights are suspended
under the gondolas on a cable which
permits them to be moved from one
end of the balloon to the other. When
they are hauled to the stern the air
ship will point upward. If it is de
sired to sink the craft the weights are
sent to the bow. This arrangement
takes much unnecessary work from the
engines, and enables them to devote
their entire power to the great pro
pellers, of which there are four. They
are made of aluminum and made like
the screws of a ship, and they are at
tached to the sides, not the ends, of
the airship. The ends are given up
to immense rudders.
It is known that great sums of money
have been furnished from official
sources for the work, and the king of
Wurtemburg as well as the emperor
of Germany has visited the building
often in the last year. The first trip
is to be taken before the end of No
vember.
Alaska's Great Earthquake.
The earthquake In Alaska, assuming
that the stories about it are not over
done, was the worst seismic disturb
ance 'the Pacific coast has seen since
the Chilian earthquake which wrecked
the American cruiser Wateree. A curi
ous feature of it was the splitting ot
W
the face of a glacier into immense ice
bergs.
4*.
The Onuor
1
Newspaper Man—I should lik* to tel
egraph home that the. commanding
general is an idiot! Censor—I re'gret
to inform you that we'can permit the
transmission of no military secrets,
ur*.
THE LEON REPORTER, THURSDAY. j)EOEMBBk 14?
TRADING OP ISLANDS.
RECKLESS DEALING IN OTHER
PEOPLE'8 PROPERTY.
How Germany and England Swap Vast
Area* of Land Belonging to the
Blacks Settling of the Samoaa
DUpnt*.
•.'•MP
(Special Letter.)
In return for the title to the Samoan
islands, with the exception of Tu
tulla, which goes to the United States,
Germany has ceded to England the
Tonga Islands, Savage Islands, and the
two largest of the Solomon Islands.
The Tonga Islands lie in the south Pa
cific, and are close to Fiji Islands,
which are already under British con
trol. They comprise seven larger is
lands, with many low-lying and small
islets about them. The population,
which is almost exclusively made up
jof natives, is estimated to be 25,000.
English missionaries have converted
most of the inhabitants to Christianity.
The islands are nominally ruled by
George II., a black king, though the
German government has maintained
officials in the archipelago who had the
real authority. Savage Island is a
beautiful island, thirty miles in cir
cumference, lying half way between
the Tonga Islands and Samoa. It has
a population of 6,000, all of them be
ing converts to Christianity. Unlike
most of the islands of the south Pa
cific, Savage is densely wooded. The
Solomon Islands, of which two of the
largest are ceded to England, lie north
of New Guinea and form part of the
so-called Bismarck Archipelago.
UCA OR WXLLIS IS.
FRENCH**
HORNE IS.,
•'ty
FIJI ISLANDS
ENGLISH
1STEXT YEAR'S NEWS.
An Almanac Which Predicts Nothing
but Dire Tiling*.
The stars in their courses appear sin
gularly determined to fight against the
well being of our planet at the close of
this wonderful century, and but for the
faint belief that prophets sometimes
remain to bless those whom they come
to curse readers of Zadkiel's almanac
for 1900 might well consider the advis
ability of immediately following the
desperate example of Horace Walpole's
lady, who, it will be remembered, had
made up her mind that when the end
of the world arrived she would set out
for China, says the London Globe. Jan
uary opens happily, but, like a fair de
ceiver, this good nature is not to last.
Early in the month there are to be
"startling fluctuations on change." In
February things grow worse. De
structive fires will be numerous, acci
dents rife there will be trouble in the
Bombay presidency, and in Bulgaria
and Macedonia there are to be "violent
outbreaks." During March insanity
will be "more than usually prevalent"
in America. Greece is threatened In
April. Religious disputants are to be
hard at it in May. June is to witness
avenging anarchism in Austria, Ger
many, Russia, Turkey and Greece.
Spain is to have her turn in July and
what is left of her, together with Italy
and France, is to be shaken by earth
quake In August. The sultan Is to be
visited with rebellion in September and
France and Italy are to feel the scourg
ing power of war in October. Colonial
difficulties for England and disturb
ance in France, Italy, Afghanistan and
Persia mark the passing of November,
and December concludes with more
trouble for the sultan, fire3 and public
excitement In Paris and a danger of
railway accidents in England. Surely
after all this the twentieth century
must come in like a lamb.
Royal Dress Allowances*
People sometimes wonder what sum
is put aside for dress by the daugh
ters of royal houses. An interesting
fashion writer tells us that before her
marriage the Duchess of Fife had a
very small dress allowance—about
$1,500 a year. Besides yachting and
everyday dresses and all the usual cos
tumes required by a girl of the upper
class, royal princesses have also to
wear the costly and elaborate dresses
which their rank demands at the
weddings of their near relations. They
are, however, fortunate In having stores
of beautiful laces, priceless furs and
marvelous jewels, all of which can be
used again and again. On the whole,
it may be asserted that a frugal prin
cess may spend a3 little as $5,000 a
year on her dress, while her more
wealthy and extravagant sister may
find her dress bills amount to ten times
that sum. Age has nothing to do with
the matter, for the Queen of Italy
spends far more than does her beauti
ful young daughter-in-law, the Crown
Princess of Naples. The Empress of
Russia, who, more than any other Eu
ropean Princess is able to indulge her
wildest fancies, dresses with the great
est simplicity. In the daytime she
mostly wears tailor-made coats and
skirts and in the evening favors .the
purest white materials.
"J-T
crabs, upon being asked (or some
frogs' legs, replied that she "would
not touch one of the horrid things for
a ruble." Wherever there is water in
Russia the frogs abound in such quan
tities that one is reminded of the no
blemen of other days who used to send
their slaves out to beat the marshes,
so that they could sleep. Russian*
never eat rabbits, as they say they
nest with rats, nor will they touch
snails or turtles, which are found in
great quantities all over the country,
Only the aristocrats eat kidneys, and
then only those of the sheep or lamb.
Goose flesh is little esteemed, though
tho fat is used for culinary purposes.
TALK iS NOT CHEAP.
The Tong-Dlntance Telephone Contra
dicts the Old Saying.
The telephone contradicts the saying
that talk is cheap, says the New York
Commercial Advertiser. Political can
didates often find out the dearness ot
talk but the ordinary citizen is most
impressed with it when he tries to
'phone over 1,000 miles of wire. The
recently completed line to Kansas City,
for example, costs $2 a minute, and
even 2 cents a minute, the ordinary
rate for short distances, is more than
it costs to have a cab standing outside
the door while one pays a call—in this
case very appropriately called "pay
ing" a call. A frugal man, if ever
the force of circumstances contrives
to have him pay such a call, loses
much of the pleasure of the visit, es
pecially those effective pauses the nov
elists love to dwell on, by the thought
of the cab outside with its growing un
earned increment. And similarly,
whether it be for the same reasons or
GERMAN
^uSAMOA. OR
TUTUILA.I.
NAVIGATORS
ISLANDS
0 SAVAGE OR NIUE I.
GERMAN
FRIENDLY IS.
GERMAN
SAMOAN AND TONGA ISLANDS.
r-r'
4
""V. No Frogs'
tMga. *'xSibSl~A
Great quantities of crabs and lob
sters are annually canned in Russia,
yet-jnp^yire In little favor, and
kjJSfre regarded with horror,
sold lyge quantities of
because of the hypnotizing effect of
the little box one speaks into, one can
take no pleasure in talking socially
through a telephone with a friend,
even if one has not seen him for a
year or two. However, in a business
way, talking through a 'phone, even at
$2 a minute, is far cheaper in time and
money than going to the other end ot
"the wire, so talk may be considered
relatively cheap, after all.
IN SOUTH AFRICA.
It is more than doubtful if any of
the soldiers in South Africa have seen
as much actual war service as-Melton
Prior,- who goes out as a war corre
spondent. In that capacity he is a
veteran of twenty-one campaigns. Dur
ing the fifteen years beginning in 1872
he saw actual fighting in every year
but one. In addition, it is not likely
that any officer in Sir Redvers Bul
ler's command has as thorough a
knowledge of South Africa as this
same noncombatant. Mr. Prior went
all through the Boer war of 1881 and
in addition has been at the front dur
ing Kaffir, Zulu and Basuto wars in
South Africa. He has been twice
around the world, has explored Ice
land, and knows all Europe as most
men know the square on which they
live. In addition to being an accom-
MELTON PRIOR.
plished writer Mr. Prior is a talented
artist. He represents in South Africa
the oldest illustrated paper In the
world.
A Famous Hindn Dead.
Swaml Bhaskarananda, the famous
Hindu Ascetic, of Benares, is dead.
This devout Brahmin, who kept him
self naked and self-immured, was vis
ited by nearly all the Indian tourists
during their stay at Benares, includ
ing the Prince of Wales. He spent h}s
life in a rigid posture, giving no heed
to his jrisitors, and patiently waited for
death in tin holy city, which, accord
ing to Hindu belief, means life ever
lasting. Although Swami was a ce
lebrity little was learned by his vis
itors of his actual life or of the beliefs
that dictated his peculiar asceticism.
A Fatal Error*
Every engaged girl makes the mis
take of imagining that she now has
him too secure to be scared away by
appearing in curl papers.
The Lord Jesus Christ has been driv
en from statesmanship largely and
from education. He has difficulty in
getting a welcome from many
he Re
WENNA POLWENNA.
Werina Polwenna, the elder, kept a
fruitshop in a Cornish fishing village
—a small and crowded shop, with a
meeting-house on one side of it and a
great glaring gin palace on the other
and Wenna did a good business with
miners and fishermen, and they said
her stocking was full. But no man
had been bold enough to ask her to
marry again, for common repute held
Wenna for a witch, and no white witch
at that.
'Twas said in Westoe that strange
things were bought and sold in her
small, breathless shop, where the air
smelt always of apples, and paid for
in strange ways sometimes into the
wrinkled hand or dirty apron of old
Wenna, sometimes into the pretty
brown palm of young Wenna, her
daughter.
Young Wenna was very fair to see
she was a brown girl with leaf-brown
hair, and black eyebrows often knitted
over her large light-gray eyes for
young Wenna had her mother's own
temper, and that Westoe people said
"was the "Old One's but still young
Wenna was very fair to see, and her
lips were as ripe and soft' as a cherry
that has seen the sun.
I, coming to Westoe to paint its
ruined castle, heard of young Wenna's
beauty and deviltry and old Wenna's
deviltry and ugliness, and went down
one summer evening to the little shop
to buy some fruit and to see with my
own eyes. Old Wenna was nowhere to
bo seen, but young Wenna was serving
behind the counter, and her pretty
hands were stained with the juice of
the red currants she was selling.
"Curran's, apples, strawb'ries?'" She
held up a handful each of the first and
last, and looked at me with laughter in
her gray eyes.
"White currants," I said. Wenna
shook her head as she weighed out a
pound of black cherries for a boy.
Mun's a fool," said a girl standing
at the counter, eating cherries, "but
secce the word's spoke, Wenna, dear
life, wilta let me have the powder?
'Tes none too late to try it."
"Thou'rt a fool, too, Alice," said the
fruit seller, busying herself In a deep
drawer behind the counter that seemed
to be full to overflowing with packets
of seeds, small packets and large, and
some almost infinitesimal.
One of these very small packages she
drew out and tossed across the counter
to the girl Alice, receiving nothing in
payment that I could see. Then, as
the girl snatched it up and put it Into
her bosom, Wenna laughed and asked:
"Is it for Nat or Willy,for you named
no names, Alice?"
I'm namen' none now," the girl
Alice cried angrily, throwing down a
shilling, and she ran out of the shop
muttering to herself as she went.
Wenna Polwenna turned again to me.
White curran's I haven't got, but
there's red enough an' to spare. Wilta
have red ones?"
I nodded. "Red currants will do—
and a pound of black as well."
A man at the end of the little shop
laughed out suddenly,
Wenna'll serve you wi' those fast
enough," he said. "Them's the Old
One's colors, they du say. Is ta true,
Wenna Polwenna?"
Wenna laughed.
"YOU HAVEN'T ANY MORE BERRIES?" I ASKES.
Wenna, she sells nothen' that's
white," piped the boy at me. "Not
even white cherries—no, my dear saul,
she don't." Wenna threw an overripe
cherry at him, and it broke upon his
cheek, leaving a purple stain there.
And her eyes blaztJ as if she would
have liked the fruit to be a stone. The'
boy made off, laughing.
"Not even white witchen'," he shout
ed from the door, and scampered off,
chuckling.
K:.
"Maybe. You should be askin' mam
my that, Lell Trewavas," she said.
"An' what are you wan tin' tonight?"
"You know well enough," he said,
coming forward from the dusk into the
night, a tall and comely lad in a fish
erman's Jersey, stained with hard
weather and much mended.
"How do I know? You don't know
yourself, Lell," she retorted. There
was passion in the two young faces
looking at one another, and. I saw both
had forgotten me, and drew back a
step.
"I want"—the boy's blue eyes looked
deep into the girl's gray eyes, and he
put his hand out and softly touched
Wenna's boBom, curving exquisitely
under her torn red bodice. I want
tUa-^or these," and his fingers drop-
ped to a bunch of dull blue berrle*
were stuck In fear belt
"I can't—I daren't," Wenna saiCL
"You mustglveme one or the other.
"LeU. they call me the Old Oft
wean."
"I don't care."
"I do care!" Wenna's eyes flashed
brilliantly into his—"an' you'll get the.
berries."
Both hands trembled a llttle^-th*
fruit-stained hand which gave and the
sunburnt and rope-blistered hand
which took. &
"I'll buy them, then," he said, .*TH
not have them as a gift, Wenna," and
he threw a string of fish on the counk^'
ter. "They're fresh caught tonight'
"Mammy'U cook them for supper
Lell. Good-night," Wenna Baid, with
drooping eyelids.
"Good-night, child wean."
Then she turned to me, with a some-S^*
what dazed look in her beautiful eye^'t
"Red curran's, yes, an' black. An'are
you for gooseberries, sir, or. will you*
be for some flowers? Poppies, now—•
or gypsy roses?"
"You haven't any more berries?" iP
asked. And she changed color sud
denly and dreadfully.
"No! I have poppies for my fancjr*1""
lads, but dwale berries for only one—
man," she said, looking at me with
eyes that narrowed like a snake's
about to strike. "Will you haye a
poppy, sir?"
I went out from the apple-tainted
air and drew a deep" breath of the
sweet evening. Wenna watched me
from the doorway, smiling her inviting
smile. I threw away the fruit had
V5»:
She smiled now, and I drew back,'
suddenly afraid of her.
"Maybe you'll go into the room be
hind the shop, sir. MammyHl be glad
to see you, an' she's finer things to bell
than ever cross this counter."
"Flesh and blood, I suppose?" Iaai^ft
paying her hastily. "No, I don't want*
any."
a
bought—
I think It would have pols-'i
-and the next morning I left "'A
nvnlriori .. 1)'
oned me
Westoe. I avoided Cornish local pa
pers for the next month or so, there?
fore I never knew whether those dwale'
berries worked out Lell Trewavas' re
demption or not. Almost I hope they
did. I met a Westoe man the other
day, and he tells me the lib-omened
little shop has been pulled down and
is In process of rebuilding as a registry
office. And old Wenna and young
Wenna have gone beyond seas. I
wonder where they are plying their un-~
canny trades now?—Nora Hopper.
They Don't Like Tin Happars«
Seeing a cart load of tin chlppings^
being taken into one of London's lairg-"^
est hotels, the writer inquired the rea
son. ''We use it for rats," the porter
replied. "The hotel rat is biggeTi
bolder and wiser than any other. "He
laughs at traps, fattens on poison, and
the killing or chasing of dogs, cats or
ferrets is his pet diversion. Even
when energetic measures have rid us
of the pests they are with us again in
greater force within a day or two.
They will tunnel through anything
Filling the holes with broken glass
was considered a good scheme until
we found that with marvelous patience
they removed the glass piece by piece.
But we think we've beaten them now."
With this tangled-up tin we cover all
places where the beasts are likely to
enter our cellars. They can't chew It,
and they can't carry it away as the
do broken bottles, for when Mr. Rat.'
takes hold of a single strip of the tin:
he finds it an inseparable part of a
network weighing many pounds."
Groaod-Flnor Bedrooms.
From the London Chronicle: fhere
is danger in the porous character ot
plaster ceilings, which are often vety
thin indeed. The ordinary ceiling Is
"only a porous diaphragm permeable
by gases with considerable freedom."
Tho vitiated air of sitting rooms there
fore frequently finds its way through
into bedrooms. 'The British Medical
Journal asks any sceptic to "compare
his bodily and mental sensations'after
sleeping in such a room and in one sit
uated over a similar room well Ventil
ated and not occupied or illuminated
by gas during the evening." The^ rem
edy, it say8, is tgJiave bedrooms on the
ground floor, and Mving, working and
cooking rooms upstairs. But how about
The evening of life comes biarlil|^.
Its own lamp,
Si*
h"
m#:
3S'.