Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1915 — Page 2

EXAMPLE OF FIRST LOCOMOTIVE

First Railroad Train In New York, With the Locomotive “De Witt Clinton."

DATE ONLY FROM 1829

FIRST AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE THEN HAD INITIAL RUN. On Tracks Entirely of Wcod It At tained a Speed of Ten Miles an Hour—lntroduction of “Grasshopper” Type. The first locomotive looked more like a huge grasshopper than anything else. There was no cabin on it, and the engineer had to stand up while It was in operation. The astonishing i«erforraance of '"The Rocket" in England led to the Introduction of steam engines in this country- in 1829 Horatio Allen operated the first locomotive tried out in America; it ran on tracks made entirely of wood. Spectators at the trial were afraid to venture on the engine, and many of them urged the daring Allen to give up the experiment, as it was bound to end in disaster. Allen laughed at their fears, and, pulling the throttle wide open, he dashed ofT at the terrific speed of ten miles an hour.

In 1831 Phineas David of Pennsylvania designed an engine for the Baltimore A Ohio railroad. It was the first of the grasshopper type, and did good work for many years. Three of these grasshopper engines designed by Davis for the same railroad were in active service for over fifty years—a remarkable record. In 1831 Matthew Baldwin, founder of the Baldwin Locomotive works, designed an engine called “Old Ironsides.” It was tried out on the Philadelphia * Norristown railroad and made a speed of 30 miles an hour. It weighed something over fire tons. It was used only in fair weather, and when it rained horses were used to draw the cars. «*-' From this date rapid improvement was made in the construction qf the locomotive. The railroads were beginning to handle a large business, but their methods of management were so crude that ifiany fearful wrecks resulted.

Powerful Electric Locomotive.

Daring the year 16 powerful electric passenger locomotives have been placed in service on the main lines of the New York Central railroad. They are the moat powerful passenger locomotives in existence, and each is capable of hauling a train of 14 steel Pullman cars continuously at a sustained speed of 60 miles per hour; while with lighter trains a maximum speed with these locomotives has been obtained of 85 miles an hour, these speeds having been accomplished frequehHfon the experimental track of the company near Schenectady. All the wheels of the locomotives, including those on the leading and trailing trucks, carry motors, the whole weight being thus available for producing tractive efforts. —Scientific American.

Tunnel Through Selkirks.

The Canadian Pacific railroad is now engaged in the constructon of a double track tunnel five miles long through the Selkirk mountains at Rogers Pass, B. C. This will be the longest railroad tunnel in America, exceeding in length the Hoosac tunnel of the Boston & Maine railroad by about fourteen hundred' feet. In addition to its unusual length, it is of special interest because of the fact that it is being driven from a pioneer tunnfel parallel to and entirely outside of the limits of the final tunnel section. The tunnel is a part of a line change of 18.6 miles. —Railway Age Gazette.

Magnets Aid the Surgeon.

‘Powerful magnets are aiding physicians in the military hospitals of Europe because of the character of the ammunition that is causing most of the wounds in the land battles. Shrapnel shells have been used to a greater < extent than ever before, so that a very large proportion of wounds are from bits of shrapnel. In the hospitals of Prance magnets have been developed that will draw fragments of shrapnel to the surface from a depth in the flesh of even six inches, and steel jacketed bullets have been drawn out from a depth of more than two inches. —Saturday Evening Post

Better Deep-Sea Soundings.

A novel piezometer, claimed to give deep-sea soundings of much greater th»n the usual accuracy, i» due to A. Berget, a French physicist. The Instrument, eight inches long, consists of a reservoir of water, from which a long tube, one fiftieth of an inch in diameter, extends downward, and ‘communicates with an open side vessel of mercury. The tube, silvered inside, is graduated outside. Lowered in the sea, the pressure forces the mercury up the tube, where it dissolves the •Over, showing the degree of comprea-

AFRICAN ROAD A MARVEL

Capo-to-Cairo Line Reveals a Panorama That Is Without Equal on the Earth. When all the great railroad trunks of the world, have been built, a decade or two hence, four of them will appear upon the map in heavy black, indicating that they surpass all others in importance, writes Lewis B. Freeman in the World's Work. These will be: The Pan-American, from the Arctie wastes of Canada to the Straits of Magellan; the Trans-Siberian, from the Atlantic to the Pacific across northern Europe and Asia; the TransPersian, or some other line, from the southeast of Europe to India; and the Cape-to-Cairo. The Pan-American and the Indo-European rallroada- may surpass the Cape-to-Cairo as commercial arteries, and the Trans-Siberian will doubtless figure more potently as a strategic line; but for the sheer interest of the country traversed —for the picturesque variety and romantic appeal of the panoramas running like double cinematograph films past the car windows —the great African trunk can never know a rival. . . . Six thousand miles, across 66 degrees of latitude; a score of climates and the lands of a hundred different peoples or tribes; the second longest of the world’s rivers and two of its largest lakes; the greatest dam ever built, conserving water for the world’s richest lands; the most imposing and ancient of all temples; the greatest waterfall, and the most Important gold and diamond mines; and finally, one of the last great expanses of real wilderness, the only place In the world where the wild beasts of the jungle may be seen in their primitive state, from a train; all these seen, traversed, or experienced in 12 days! Surely, there can never be another such railroad as this.

Latest Great Railroad Stations.

Nowhere are there to be found such noble terminal and union station buildings as now exist in the United States. Foremost among these are the Pennsylvania station and the new Grand Central station in New York; but oub side of this city there are other monumental buildings which are scarcely second to the two mentioned In import tance. The latest of these to be opened is the Union station in Kansas City, Mo., which was opened to traffic on November 1 of this year. The building, of classic design, is monumental in sixe and of dignified and harmonious proportions. The central portion of the building contains a main hall 240 by 87 feet and 92 fqet high. The waiting room is 350 by 78 feet. The total cost of the station, approaches, new belt line and the new terminal works represents an output of oyer forty million dollars.

“Safety First” Saves Life and Limb.

The annual report of the public service commission of New York state shows that the “Safety First” movement is producing excellent results. There is a decrease of over 72 per cent of passengers killed on steam railroads in the state of New York during the last year, as compared with the year preceding. There is a decrease of 45 per cent in passengers injured. In 1913 41 passengers were killed, last year only 14. During the last year 943 passengers were injured as compared with 1,746 in the years before. There is a gratifying decrease in casualties among railroad employees; 196 were killed and 3,022 injured last year, as compared with 250 killed and 3,076 injured the year before. —Scientific American.

The Left Hand.

If —after various reports —we are to believe that it is the left arm, and not ill the right that Kreisler is wounded, this is no cause for congratulation from his audiences. The violinist’s left hand has the "beau role.” When Charles Reade was pleading vigorously for the restoration of the left hand to equal honor, he liked the public to guess what two marvelous things were done by a trained left hand greater than anything boasted by the right. It turned out that one was the work of the famous left hand of a pugilist famous in that day, Tom Sayers, and the other was the fingering of a great violinist. But the pianist Thai berg also “put in his left” to the amazement of the concert room.— I London Chronicle.

Motor Buses Multiplying.

In addition to lines already in operation, three new lines of motor buses were put into service in New York recently. It is plain that these buses have made good fhere, and that must have been the harder because city transportation has been developed further in New York and more money has been put into the business in any other community in the world. According to Automobile Topics, motor buses in some parts of the country are being successfully operated in direct competition with the street cars. —Toledo Blade.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

Gibet, no longer forbidden

TIBET Is no longer A closed kingdom; we have opened it up, says CoL Sir Frank Younghusband, the famous English explorer, in a published interview. As the most important result of the expedition which I led to Lhasa, he continues, a formal treaty was signed by which the country was practically thrown open to foreigners. Trading posts have been established, and the natives are anxious to cultivate friendly relations with the outside world. The city of Lhasa is situated in a lovely valley, well Irrigated, richly cultivated, and watered by a river broad as the Thames at Westminster. It is exceedingly picturesque, the town being huddled about the base of a lofty hill, on which stands the huge palace of the grand lama —an imposing structure of masonry, very solidly built. Many of the houses are of stone and substantially constructed, and not a few of them are surrounded by shade trees. The picture presented to the eye by the rock-perched palace, with the stray city at its base —the whole set in a beautiful valley, deep in the heart of the mountains—is wonderfully Impressive. Our expedition started from Darjeeling, and the first part of the journey lay through the wonderful tropical forests of Sikkim—the mountain sides covered everywhere with a -wealth of tropical vegetation. Mar velous orchids and innumerable butterflies of brilliant hues lent additional beauty to the scenes through which we passed. Steadily ascending, we finally emerged upon the high Tibetan tableland, and found ourselves In view of a magnificent panorama of 160 miles of the tallest peaks of the Himalayas,

with Everest, the loftiest mountain In the world, as the culminating object. In the dim, mysterious distance lay the sacred city of which so little is known, and entrance to which was barred by every obstacle man or nature could raise. Not Opposed at First At a place called Yatung a trading post had been established under an old treaty. But a wall had been erected to shut out all intruders, and beyond it our traders had never been allowed to pass. The wall was built directly across the road and high up the mountain side on either hand. We thought we might have to fight our way through, but the great door in the tower which guarded the road was standing open, and thus we passed peaceably through the gate of Tibet, and descended into the Chumbi valley. - *• ... In the valley bottom and on the hillside were comfortable villages and cultivated fields. The people seemed well-to-do, and were decidedly well disposed toward us. They soon showed themselves keen traders, and must liave made a small fortune out of their dealings with the expedition. After three weeks, which were devoted to military preparations; we started again. A force of the Tibetan troops attempted to oppose our progress, saying to us over and over again. “Go back to the frontier!'* It was not until early April that, after exhausting every possibility of agreement, we finally proceeded to Gyantoe. On the way we

had several fights. The distance from the frontier to Lhasa is 320 miles, and Gyantse is just about half way. The town Is situated in a flat, open valley, dotted all over with flourishing hamlets, and watered by numerous streams. It was an agreeable change for us, especially as spring was coming on, and the bitter cold had been left behind. On the fifth day of May our camp was awakened by wild shouts and firing, which were the prelude of an attack in force by the Tibetan troops. For fully two months we were besieged; then re-enforcements arrived, and we were enabled to proceed. On July 14 we set out for Lhasa in the midst of a rainstorm. Frequent rains thereafter went far to destroy the delusion that Tibet is a rainless country. Lhasa, the Forbidden City. As we passed over range after range of hills we looked eagerly for the mysterious city. It was on the second day of August that we beheld at last the golden roofs of the Potala —the huge group of buildings on the hilltop composing the official quarters of the grand lama —glittering in the distance; and on the following day we pitched our camp beneath the walls of Lhasa, the forbidden capital, which no living European had ever seen before. The first fact of importance that we ascertained was that the grand lama had fled. He had sought refuge in Chinese territory. We found much to interest us meanwhile in the monasteries, which might be described as ecclesiastical settlements, surrounded by high walls and gathered about one or more temples. The temples always have red walls, and in many instances the roofs are covered with plates of pure gold. In

each temple is usually a long altar, behind which stand huge images of the gods. Inside they are very dirty and grimy, with highly decorated imaginative pictures of demons and dragons. Before the images of the gods burn many bowls of butter night and day, just as candles are burned in Roman Catholic churches before the figures of saints. People Were Hospitable. When once we had entered Lhasa we found the people hospitable as well as friendly. They even gave ha free access to the monasteries and temples. They are very fond of theatrical performances, which are conducted in the open air. On one occasion I was routed out of bed at seven o’clock in the morning to attend such a performance, which lasted until seven in the evening. It was got up expressly for my entertainment, and consisted mainly of pantomime, accompanied by dancing and music, the latter being chiefly drumming. They wanted to go on with it for three days more, but one day was enough for me. Vi We saw a good deal of the women of Tibet. They are not veiled or secluded in any way, as in other oriental countries. Many of them came to our camp, between fights, bringing eggs, poultry, mutton, butter, wheat, barley, and other produce for sale. Polyandry is practically restricted to the agricultural laboring clasa It is an expedient of economy, the arrangement usually being, one under which a woman is the wife of several •brothers. She does not- choose he* husbands from different families, ./.•

ROWING FINE FOR SCHOOLBOYS, SAYS COACH

Guy Nickalls, the Yale rowing coach, is a pronounced advocate of - rowing for schoolboys, believing that it will develop them from undersized weaklings to men of strength. This he considers is proved by the case of the English schoolboys, who are, benefited by participation in the sport. In speaking of the subject, he said: "I was from a physical standpoint an excellent example of what rowing could do for an undersized weakling. At twelve years of age I weighed only 70 pounds. I began rowing at. fourteen, when about eighty pounds in weight, and steadily gained in weight, until at twenty I weighed 170. I am an example of thousands in England of what regular rowing exercise will do for an undersized boy. It also has the advantage of other sports in that a lot of rowing exercise can be put through in a very short space of time, so that it will not interfere in any way

BARNEY OLDFIELD TO RETIRE

Veteran of Automobile Speed Kings / Declares He fa Through With Sport—Loses His Nerve. Barney Oldfield, a veteran among the automobile speed kings both in road and track racing, has announced that he is through with the sport. The death of Spencer Wishart, one of his closest friends, in the Elgin national race has convinced him, he says, that the time is ripe for his retirement from the dangerous pastime he has followed so successfully for many years. This is not the first time Barney has

Barney Oldfield.

announced his retirement. He has always been unable to resist the fascination of high speed work, in spite of numberless narrow escapes from death. } "I’ve always thought I had a lot of nerve,” said Oldfield recently. “My friends have told me so, and the newspapers have written about Oldfield’s nerve. But I certainly was forced to a back seat one day. "It happened on a southern track, where I was carded as one of the fear tare drivers. The promoter, a big fellow with leather lungs, also acted as announcer during the races. "He would call out, through a megaphone, ‘Barney Oldfield Is now cranking his car,’ ‘Barney Oldfield la now efcntjgHifig a toe,’ and so on. , "After the face I rode back to the

Guy Nickalls, Ya le Rowing Coach.

with the boy’s regular school studies. “School rowing in England is, it is generally agreed, a greater factor in the physical development of youth than any other exercise so far cultivated. The chief schools in England which make a specialty of this form of athletics are Eton, Rugby, Shrewsbury, Redford, Beaumont, Westminster, Winchester, and others which are situated near suitable water for this purpose. So far as statistics can be relied upon no heart or lung trouble or permanent muscular strain can be directly attributed to this form of athletic sport, and I may say that it has been generally recognized in England, at least, that since the exercise of rowing makes use of and develops every muscle in the body, it does more to cultivate the growth and to develop the chest and generally benefit the growing youth than any other form of athletic exercise.”

city on a crowded street car and everybody was talking about the event. A couple of young fellows sat next to me and one exclaimed: “ ‘Gee, Oldfield has a lot of nerve, hasn’t he?' “ ‘Perhaps he has,’ said the other. ‘But he hasn’t half the nerve the promoter has in staging that kind of a race.’ ‘‘Needless to say, I didn’t divulge my identity.’’ *

HIGH-PRICED PLAYERS

; Eddie Collins,Philadelphia » Americans, bought by [ Chicago Americans.... $50,000 1 Joe Tinker, Cincinnati i Nationals, bought bjr | Brooklyn Nationals..!. 25,000 i Marty O’Toole, St Paul J American association, i bought by Pittsburgh | Nationals 22,500 > Larry Chappell, Milwaui kee American associa--1 tion, bought by Chicago i Americans 18,000 | Lefty Russell, Baltimore i International, league, * bought by Philadelphia i Americans y 12,000 | Frits Maißel, Baltimore ' International league, | bought by New YorkAmericans 12,000 ! Rube Marquard, Indianap- ' oils American associa- > • tion bought by New [ York Nationals 11,000 > Cy Seymour, Cincinnati | Nationals, bought by i New York Nationals... 10,000 [ Spike Shannon, St. Louis Nationals, bought by ! New York Nationals... 10,000

Athletes May Run Wild.

In the recent decision of Judge Bartow 8. Weeks of the Amateur Athletic union legislation committee has put an end to all discussion concerning an athlete running for his college during the academic year and for an athletic club in the summer months. Judge Weeks decided that an athlete is perfectly entitled to do such a thing, so next summer many college stars may wear the colors of prominent dubs.

Veteran Driver Plans Activity.

Ed Geers, the veteran driver, plana to take Aavfl, Atawah and a few other light harness horses to Ban Franciscq tor the Jane meeting