Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 27, Number 44, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 1 May 1897 — Page 6

BEHIND THE FOOTLIGHTS.

Personal Characteristics of Adelaide Neilson.

GENIUS OP THE GEEATEST JULIET.

Meeting: of the Famoun ActreM and Ban­

croft, thn Historian—MUs Neilson In

Hum or on* Recitations—Her Idea of

Money and Her Manly Idol.

NEW YORK, April 26.—So much has been written about the professional career of that excellent actress and charming woman, Adelaide Neilson, and the tales of her generosity are numerous, that it would perhaps he interesting to know how her theatrical friends, who •were in seme senses also rivals, regarded her. The difficulty in the way of that plan, however, is that there was but one opinion of her ability and goodness. Everybody thought that she was beyond cuvil in both of these respects, and, as agreeable as such rending might be to her admirers of the present day, it would certuinly also be decidedly dry.

I have heart! a great many stories dealing with the lighter and fun loving side of Adelaide Neilson's character, and, as I was her stage manager for a long time, I know that most of them aro true. All should be interesting, if for no other reason than that they were narrated to me by actors and actresses of reputation, the fame of some of whom at least equaled, if it did not even exceed, that of the fair Adelaide.

A Swimming Quadrille.

Harry Montague, than whom there was never a greater matinee girls' favorite in this country, related that on one occasion at Scarborough, a famous

ADELAIDE NEILSON.

watering place in England, a party of ladies and gentlemen, among whom was Miss Neilson, were enjoying a dip in the soa, when the actress proposed a swimming quadrille. It was agreed to, and she formed a double sot. Of course deep water for this purpose was a necessity, and that was a most trying ordeal to those of tho party who were indifferent swimmers, but who were also too proud to admit their shortcoming. The most envied man in tho party was a portly old baronet who had Miss Noilson for a partner. He was decidedly long on liquor and short on breath on this occasion, and by the time the "ladies' chain" had been reached he was pretty well played out. Miss Neilson had great difficulty in keeping him at her side. He would drift over and under and in all kinds of ways, to the groat amusement of the other participants. Finally he disappeared altogether, and when, some moments later, that fact was noticed, thero was a small panic, and everybody made a break for the shore. Tho old baronet had already boon rescued, and he was found in the bathhouse, pretty nearly gone.

Everybody shouted in chorus, "Pump him out!" Miss Neilson, who had really been amused by the man's plight and who did not realize the gravity of the situation, promptly retorted: "Yes, pump the water out, but don't forget, to pump the brandy in."

Charlotte Cusluuan was a warm admirer and friend of Adelaide Neilson, and she used to relate with great pleasure how she ouee took her young favorite to visit Bancroft, the great historian, at Newport, R. I. The conversation lagged for awhile until Bancroft happened to say something about Goethe. Instantly Adelaide was all attention, and when her host had finished she related an anecdote which I think has never been published. She said that one© a lad named Gotthardi was token by his mother to visit the Weimar theater. the care of which was tho psvticular hobby of the

gTeat

poet. They were

astouished to find the place almost empty. The lad seated himself upon one of the private box rails, with his feet daugling down. His mother's protests were of no avail, and the lad remained in his position until the door opened and a majestic figure entered. It was Goethe himself, aud the lad was so terrified that he paused for a second or two in his effort to jump down. The poet walked to the frightened little fellow, aud, laying a restraining hand gently upon his shoulder, said in his sweet, calm voice: "Don't get down. Thern'«! room enough mi that railing for both of us." And he forthwith proceeded to seat himself beside the boy, in order to effectually put him at his ease.

Miss Neilson related this little anecdote with so much feeling that Bancroft was much affected. He walked to her side, kissed both of bev cheeks, and turning to Miss Coshman remarked, "Worthy of the best." Miss Cushman silently nodded acquiescence-

Ml« XeilMHi la Co«MNr

Adelaide Neilson has always been associated in the minds of theater goew with heavy work, but the woman was exceedingly versatile and was really a*

good ia comedy, or even in farce, as she waa in tragedy and the higher forms of the drama. Colonel Forney, the celebrated journalist, used to tell a story of how he, in company with Mr. Pugh of the Philadelphia Academy of Music, got Miss Neilson interested in a fair for charitable purposes which they were engineering. The distinguished actress, then in the zenith of her fame, became enthusiastic over the thing and promised to lend her aid and professional services in any way they might be required toward the furtherance of the commendable object She was rather taken aback, however, when Forney proposed to her seriously that she should recite a "Punch and Judy" piece. He argued, and rightly too, that her appearance in such work would attract more attention than if she were seen in her ordinary line. The plan worked magnificently, and the affair was a huge success. Colonel Forney said that he had never realized until that time what a marvelouely versatile woman Adelaide Neilson was. She did the "Punch and Judy" bit as carefully and as well as she could have done the balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet." And, by the way, it may not be generally known, but it was nevertheless a' fact, that no dramatic entertainment held so much charm for Miss Neilson as one of these same "Punch and Judy" shows. She never missed an opportunity to see one, and she used to laugh at the nonsensical antics of the little figures as heartily as any child.

E. L. Davenport, the father of the young man of the same name who is rapidly making an enviable reputation as an actor, once invited Adelaide to recite Theft and Accountability.'' The request was made in a spirit of raillery, but the famous actress would never be bantered, and she started off, giving the brogue and all the trimmings of the little sketch which used to be considered highly amusing at that time. The story ran about as follows: "Patrick, the Widow Moloney tells me that you have stolen one of her finest pigs. Is that so?" "Yis, yer 'onor." "What did you do with it?" "Killed it and ate it, yer 'onor." "Oh, Patrick, when, on the judgment day, you are brought face to face with the Widow Moloney and her pig, what will you say when she accuses you of having stolen the animal?"

Did you say the pig would be there, yer riverence?" "Of course I did." "Thin, yer riverence, it's very simple. I'll just say: 'Widow Moloney, there's yer pig. Take him and welcome. I've got through with him.1

Davenport used to admit that when he asked Miss Neilson to recite the stupid little thing he had thought he would have the laugh on her, because he felt sure that she would make an awful mess of the brogue, and, besides, the thing was so old that no one would be amused by it. Instead of that, however, he declared that he had never heard it so well told, and he was the lpudest of the enthusiastic applauders.

Her Generosity.

There is one phase of Adelaide Neilson's character which seems to have never been understood. Simply because she happened to be comparatively wealthy, there was a very general impression that she loved money for the sake of having it—in other words, that she was penurious—although she was always conceded to be personally generous to those with whom she had intimate business or social relations. She was generous, and she was not, in any sense, penurious. She accumulated money simply because she could not help herself. She made so much that she could not spend it all, try as hard as she might And there is no gainsaying the fact that if she had not earned a small fortune almost every month that she lived after she had become a prominent stage figure, she would not have had a dollar at her death, for she could give a good many princesses points on how to enjoy wealth. Her idea of money was that it was worth thinking about only for the pleasure that it might bring.

This woman, who was the idol of to many thousands of persons, also had a sort of idol whom she worshiped from afar. This fortunate individual was Gustavus Brooks. I do not mean that she was in love with him. But she used to think him an ideal actor and man, and the chances are that she was not far wrong in either of these estimates. For my part, I think she was exactly right. The magnificent fellow went down in the wreck of the Australian steamer Loudon, and his heroic conduct in working almost without clothing at the pumps in order that other lives might be saved had the efect of making Miss Neilson still more enthusiastic in her admiration of him. Whenever his name was mentioned, her eye would kindle, and if a word were said iu disparagement of him, she would launch into a recital of his heroism during the last few moments of his well spent life, and—winding up the recital in the most fervid mannerwould almost impale the detractor with a scornful glance from those magnificent eyes as she asked if that was the sort of man whose memory ought to be maligned by persons who in many cases were total strangers to his character and formed impressions from gossip and newspaper tattle. Walter Montgomery, himself one of the best actors England ever sent us, used to say that be would often, through a friend, resort to a ruse in order to get Miss Neilson to give this recital. He declared that at such times she was fairly inspired, and never failed to hold her hearers spellbound. That was probably due as mnch to the woman's great magnetism as to the rendering, for of all the players with whom I have been associated I have not seen one who was more magnetic than Adelaide Neilson—the beautiful, the talented, the Dobla. L. Joars ISCEXT.

It is said by scientific men that th hair from the tail of the horse is the strongest single animal thread known.

AT A VOLCANO'S APEX.

MR. F. A. OBER AGAIN ASCENDS THE TOWERING POPOCATEPETL.

It Is Three Miles In Height, Yet It Can Be

Easily Climbed—Effects of a Rarefied At-

mocphere—The Highest Volcano Be­

tween Alaska and Pern. .»

[Special Correspondence.]

CITY OF MEXICO, April 19.—The grandest object on this continent, and the most magnificent thing in Mexico, is the great volcano Popocatepetl, or the smoking mountain. This is the English equivalent for the long Aztec name, though it doesn't smoke any more, not having been in eruption for perhaps 1,000 years.

Still, Popocatepetl is an object well worthy one's attention. It is the highest elevation on our continent between Mount St Elias and Chimborazo, and, roughly speaking, raises its bead into the Mexican sky nearly three miles above the sea.

In the first place, it rises from the great Mexican plateau, which of itself is about 8,000 feet above sea level. In the second, some two-thirds of the remaining 10,000 feet can be ascended on mule or burro back. But, again, don't imagine it is, as some of my western friends have said, "no slouch of a climb anyway," for the last mile or so is anything but easy.

This is the third time I have essayed the climb, and descriptions of it may be found in my old book,' 'Travels In Mexico, and also in The American Naturalist for February, 1886, when I accompanied Professor Packard, the learned entomologist, to the snow line.

After several hours of riding we arrive at the rancho, or old hut, where once the "volcaneros," or volcano men, who gathered the sulphur in the crater, brought their crude sulphur to be refined. In this hut, which we reached just before sunset, we passed the night, sleeping on a rude bench covered with straw and under blankets which hardly kept out the cold, for the air at night

At first over, or rather through, loose volcanic sand, then the snow line is reached, where, for perhaps 8,000 feet, the climbing is over the snowfields. There is no special danger, no steep rocks, glaciers or precipices, only one steady "grind" up that dazzling slope of snow. Here one needs blue or smoked glass goggles to protect the eyes from the painful glare, as some have been temporarily blinded by it. I fixed my alpenstock firmly in the enow and followed in the tracks of my guides, and so wallowed on, hour after hour, until the summit was reached, about noon. As everything is covered with snow you cannot tell the location of the crest until right upon it and I was almost on the point of giving up when my foremost guide cried out, "Aqui esta" (here it is), and in another minute I fell exhausted at the very edge of the yawning crater.

Like all self respecting volcanoes, Popocatepetl has a crater, deep and wide, perhaps 500 feet to the bottom of it, and half a mile across. Its sides of basaltic rock are steep and plunge directly down, so that if you do not walk with care there is great danger of falling into it At one time the "volcanoios" used to descend by a rude windlass and rope to the bottom, gather the crystals of sulphur formed there at the steam vents and ascend in the same way. This was a very dangerons business, and many men have lost their lives at it but it was not profitable enough to be continued, and so has been abandoned.

As I said, it is a remarkably easy climb, but yet it is not advisable for any one to try it who has not sound heart and lungs.

It took me several boors to get to the summit Bnt I went down to the snow line in about a minute. Sitting down on a straw mat "petafce," I gathered the ends of it up around me and just "tobogganed" over the snow like lightning. Soon the rancho and the horses were reached, and before dark I was again at the railroad station of Amecameca, having been three miles above the sea and having experienced a multitude of strange sensations, all within th$ space of less than 86 hours. It was all delightful. But I shall not do it •gain. FMCD A. OBXB.

Eli RE HAUTE SATTTBDAY EVENING MAIL, MAT 1, 1897.

THEY WANT TO SOAR.

AIRSHIP STORIES BRING SWARMING •V CRANKS TO WASHINGTON.

Patent Office and Smithsonian Deluged,

With Letters From Them—Queer Ideas

of Some—Will the Flying Machine Be

Usefnl In War?

[Special Correspondence.]

WASHINGTON, April 26.—The recent stories about a flying machine have set the cranks at work writing letters from all parts of the country. The letters are still coming. The government has issued more than 150 patents for fiying machines that cannot fly. As every one knows, the "flying machines" which have been exploited from time to time are not flying machines at all. Almost any one can get a patent on a device, however cranky, if it does not infringe the ideas of some one else already patented, and many of the patents taken out every year are for devices which on their face are impracticable. One man, for example, has a patent for tempering steel in a decoction of apples, turnips and weeds. The cost of a patent is what stands in the way of many crank inventors. The government demands 16 for filing and $20 more for issuing a patent, and if the patent is not granted the $15 is not refunded. The fees of lawyers for drawing up patent specifications sometimes amount to $10,000 in a single case.

Wing Devices.

The early applications for flying machine patents were usually for wing devices. Then there was a period of balloon machines. Of recent years there has been more work done in the direction of copying bird flight.

One patent issued within a few years is for a bird outfit—wings and tail— made of great imitation feathers of tin and silk. Equipped with these, the inventor proposed to skim through the air, guiding himself with his tin tail. Another inventor has patented a huge kite, within which sails revolve. Below the kite hangs a basket for the aeronaut How this is to be governed does not appear. Another device patented is

P6&Z

THE SUMMIT.

is very keen, owing to the altitude and the neighboring snowbanks, and only the numerous fleas, which were alert and vigorous, kept our blood from congealing. Between the cold and the fleas, however, we got but little sleep and were very glad to respond to the call to breakfast at about half past 4 in the morning. After a cup of coffee and bite of bread and chicken we prepared for the real ascent of the cone. At first I rode through the pines to a point high up the lava beds, where a weeden cross indicated the spot beyond which horse or donkey could not go. Then the remainder of the climb was to be on foot.

a boat hanging between gas cylinders of aluminium. Paddles at the side of the boat are to beat the air and propel it. Another inventor expects to have his boat raised by fans at the sides and steered by propellers at the ends. There is an adaptation of the bicycle to aerial navigation in a balloon with a saddle suspended where the basket should be. In this saddle the aeronaut is to work the pedals which will operate two fans, with which he is to force the balloon in the direction desired.

Until a comparatively recent date the men who applied for patents on flying machines were regarded as harmless cranks. But when men well known in the scientific world began to experiment man flight assumed a new dignity. Hiram Maxim, the inventor of the machine gun, was one of the well known men who took hold of the idea, and he has worked for a year or two to develop it Professor Lilienthal, who sacrificed his life experimenting last year, was another. Third in the list came the secretary of the Smithsonian institution. He is the boss Darius Green of America. To adapt to serious uses a slang word of the day, Professor Langley is a bird.

At the Smithsonian.

You would not think it to look at him. He is a stout, elderly man whose beard is tinged with gray. He weighs, I judge, about 200 pounds, and to see him entering the sacred precincts of the Smithsonian you would never suppose him capable of anything so airy as flight The act seems out of keeping, too, with the dignity of so important a person. Can you imagine the emperor of China or the ahkoond of Swat flapping a pair of prodigious carpentered wings and manipulating an artificial tail far up in the empyrean? Well, neither of these is so sacred a character as the secretary of the Smithsonian. When he enters his office, his assistant Rathbun, a prize ox who has fed at the government crib through all his adult years, kowtows tremulously. The transit of Langley is an event which ranks in the official world with the transit of Venus in the astronomical.

The Langley machine has been reposing in a sealed chamber of the Smithsonian all winter. There does not seem to be much object in sealing the chamber, for all the essential features of the machine are known. Professor Langley takes the lofty ground that he will not patent it, bnt will give it to the scientific world. The gift is of doubtful value, for it is not possible to imagine even a tried and successful aerodrome in popular demand.

The principal claim made for the flying machine is that it would be usefnl in time of war. The aerodromist, they my, could spread his wings and fly over the enemy's camp to drop dynamite on him or to reoonnoiter his position. The machine would not be much more valuable for that purpose than the balloon now is, and General Miles told me a

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Balloons In Warfare.

Balloons were used in warfare during the siege of Paris. They were ordinary gas balloons, and they were used for carrying people out of the city beyond the lines of the besieging army. These people took carrier pigeons with them and sent messages back to their friends. This was in 1870. But the balloon in warfare antedates the siege of Paris. There are evidences that balloons were used for the purpose of reconnoissance in 1794, and they were so used on the peninsula during our own civil war. Experiments have been made recently in France and in the United States looking to the more general use of the balloon in warfare, and as the defensive side of the problem is always as important as the offensive, tests of various arms and ammunition against balloons have been made. Russia, Germany, France, Austria and England have all been conducting experiments, and reports of them have been received by the intelligence office of the war department here. They show that a balloon 2 miles away and 1,000 feet above the earth can be hit with 25 out of 86 shrapnel shells that a balloon 8 miles away and more than 800 feet high can be pierced with 20 out of 26 shells, and finally that a balloon 8)4 miles away and half a mile high can be brought to the ground by a shell.

Besides, it is shown in practice that observations from the great height reached by the balloon are defective because the angle of vision leads to error in the estimation of bodies of men. The flying machine would have an advantage over the balloon if it could be made responsive to the will of the operator. The balloon cannot be guided except by the uncertain method of raising or lowering it so as to find a favoring current of air. The aerodrome as planned will go in any direction at the will of the operator. It will carry machinery to operate its huge wings, and parachute provision may be made, so that if the machinery should get out of order the machine will settle slowly instead of falling quickly to the earth. The great objection to the use of machinery with devices relying on gas for elevation was the explosive character of the gas used, and the fact that even propulsion by compressed air might produce through friction a spark which would ignite the gas and so destroy the balloon and the aeronaut.

The flying machine may use electricity if a storage battery of light weight is devised. Professor Langley, in his experiments, has designed using a steam engine in his aerodrome. An engine has been made which weighs less than ten pounds to each horse power. It has been estimated that such an engine will support a .weight of 200 pounds in the air at a horizontal velocity of 45 miles an hour, and still more at a higher velocity.

Tbe Aerodrome.

The Langley machine was exploited first four years ago It had been in construction then for two years. It was surrounded with an air of mystery at first hut this was dissipated gradually, and facts were given out from time to time. Finally tbe statement was made that tbe experimental machine had been sent through the air for half a mile, and this was verified by Professor Oardiner Hubbard of the Smithsonian. Of oourse this aerodrome was a model on­

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few days ago that the balloon was not a considerable factor in warfare. The United States army has balloons and is prepared to take them into the field, but they are net reckoned as of much value, and in case of war the commanding officer would not feel very unhappy if the balloons were left behind.

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ly. The first machine was about 15 feet long, shaped like a mackerel. It was built in great part of alumiuium. Inside the shell were two small engines capable of exerting one horse power, boilers supplied with a volatile hypocarbon in place Af water and a small gasoline tank.

In the ground plan of this aerodrome there is nothing new. Many years ago a Frenchman made a toy which was operated by the power of a twisted rubber band. This toy flew up into the air, and when the rubber was untwisted fell to earth again. This toy was improved by Professor Langley and made to take longer flights, and then the machine which has been careering around the lower Potomac in the summer for the past thrae years was developed. Professor Langley has been experimenting for ten years.

The letters which have been ooming to the Smithsonian for some time have been from people who wanted to learn whether the authorities there knew anything about the western airship. The scientists in Washington were not disposed to put much faith in the airship stories because they have believed that no one was going to "discover" the method of flying. It was natural for them to think that ii

the flying ma­

chine was made it would be the result of hard, scientific study. The scientific world knows who are conducting investigations into the principles of the aerodrome, and none of these men had been flying over Chicago or St Louis or San Francisco. So they placed little faith in the stories of the mysterious visitor which were telegraphed from the west.

When I showed them a letter from a personal acquaintance in St. Louis claiming that he had seen the airship just above the housetops, that it w.is "80 feet long, a heavy looking thing, painted in stripes and with great wings at the sides slowly flapping or turning," they smiled at me pityingly and shook their beads. But your scientist is usually skeptical about anything he does not understand.

GEORGE GRANTHAM BAIN.

Keeping Ahead.

Mistress—Why, Mary, you have dated your letter a week ahead. Maid—Yis'm. It will take over a week for it to get to me mother, and she wouldn't care to be reading old newsy even from me.—Boston Transcript.

My

Neighbor Told

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About Hood's Sarsaparilla and advised me to try it—This is the kind of advertising which gives Hood'sSarsaparillathe largest sales in the world. Friend tells friend that Hood's Sarsaparilla cures that it gives strength, health, vitality and vigor, and whole neighborhoods use it as a family medicine.

Hood's Pills act easily and promptly on the liver and bowels. Cure sick headache. Elizabeth, N. J. Oct. 19, 1896.

ELY BROS., Dear Sirs:—Please accept my thanks for your favor in the gift of a bottle of Cream. Let me say I have used it for years and can thoroughly recommend it for what it claims, if directions are followed. Yours truly, (Rev.) H. W. HATHAWAY.

No clergyman should be without it. Cream Balm is kept by all druggists. Full size 50c. Trial size 10 cents. We mail it.

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Diseases of Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat. Honrs—9 to 12 a. in., 1:30 to 4 p. m. Sundays 9 to 10 a. m.