Terre Haute Weekly Gazette, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 11 November 1886 — Page 9

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OUK REVENUE MARINE.

PICTURES OF UNITED STATES COAST GUARD VESSELS.

The Service that Prevents Smuggling, Protects tlie Seal Fisheries, Takes a Hand in Our Wars and Go«» on Arctic

Expeditions.

It was not long till the small fleet grew. In a country in which, from the beginning, wealth and population have increased faster than was ever known before, ten revenue cutters were not long sufficient to do the work. In 1799 the United States revenue cutter flag was adopted. It is that which appears at the top of this column, ensign and pennant the ensign with sixteen vertical alternate red and white stripes, and a union containing a blue eagle on a "white ground surmounted by thirteen blue stars. Wherever you see that device, at home or in foreign ports, you will know that there is a vessel belonging to the United States revenue marine service.

The revenue vessels do go to foreign ports now. They take part in our wars. In 1812 they took a conspicuous part. The ensign with the sixteen vertical stripes is familiar in the waters of the world. Some have made famous expeditions to the Arctic regions. One of the most celebrated among these is the revenue cutter Corwin, noted for her cruises to Alaska, Wrangel land and other frozen regions. What did she go to those outlandish places for? Well, partly to prevent the traffic in liquor and other unlawful goods in Alaska, partly to hunt for missing whalers and to protect the seal fisheries.

REVENUE CUTTER LEVI WOODBURY.

Once she went to Siberia to bring home the crew of the Rodgers. But long ere this the small, sharp pointed single masted sailing cutters had changed and grown into large and small steamers, armed and equipped equal to men-of-war. About thirty years ago the J. C. Dobbin was built—a topsail schooner. Years before that the revenue marine vessels had changed from tbe single masted sloops to the type of topsail schooner with its two masts. The Dobbin was the last of the schooner type. The old Dobbin appears in the second illustration.

The vessel in the third illustration, the Woodbury, shows the modern type of revenue steamer. Small steamers belonging to the revenue service are called steam launches. Where we started with ten little boats for this arni of government in 1790, there are now forty, mostly large ones. The coast guard has kept pace with the growth of the country. Twenty-five of these vessels are steamers of 130 to 500 tons. The first s*eam vessel in this service was built in 1S4&

SCHOOL SHIP CHASE.

Officers in the revenue marine service are required to be practically educated for its duties. There is a system of instruction and promotion as rigid as at West Point or the Naval academy, at Annapolis. The course of instruction is passed on board the school-

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OAST guard! I didn't know wo had anyl" That is what the average intelligent person occasionally says when the United States coast guard is mentioned. The average intelligent person mostly asks next: "What is the

REVENUE EJTSION.

coastguard?"

It is the force of armed vessels that move up and down and around the coasts of the United States and prevent smuggling, or do anything else for the government in which watching and fighting are wanted. In other words, it is United States revenue marine service. It is sometimes called, too. the revenue cutter service.

THE OLD "DOBBIN."

The fact is that we had a revenue cutter service before we had a navy. Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury, recommended it as long ago as 1789, and his suggestions were acted on in 1790, so that the service is now nearly a century old. Hamilton recommended the "employment of boats for the security of the revenue against contraband."

The first boats were small, sharp-bowed sloops, meant to coast along the bays and inlets and keep a sharp lookout. They were of very light draught There were ten of these single masted little vessels in the first batch ordered.

Ihip Salmon r. unase.

lasts two years,

and is very thorough. When he enters on the course, the young man becomes a cadet. At its close he becomes a third lieutenant. The cadet must be between the ages of 18 and 25, perfectly sound physically, and have book qualifications equal to those required by the examination at Annapolis. He is thoroughly instructed in all the duties of navigation, from the work of common sailor to that of commander. He must likewise have a military drill. The Chase makes foreign cruises every year, to give the young men practical experience.

The whole marine force,'officers, privates and engineers, at present numbers 1,016 men. Of these 800 are private sailors. Our coasts are divided into districts, each under the jurisdiction of collector of customs for a given port. Certain of the revenue marine officers are detailed as inspectors of the lifeaving service.

THE CHICAGO GRANT MONUMENT.

The Prize Design of Louis T. Kebisso, of Cincinnati. The $500 prize offered for the best design for the Chicago Grant monment has been awarded to Louis T. Rebisso, of Cincinnati. Chicago will probably have her memorial of the nation's hero finished before New York gets the money raised to build hers. New York has the tomb of the general, too, and it seems as if she would speedily erect a monument to him, if only from a sentiment of local pride. But the town that heads off Chicago must get up early in the morning, earlier than any one has done yet.

GRANT STATUE AT CHICAGO.

The statue is to be equestrian, and will stand in the park on the north side in Chicago. It will crown a sort of two-story archway. There is an elevated roadway crossing a street underneath, in the fashion familiar in Central park, New York. Across the elevated roadway is an arch, and above, in the center of this, is to stand the statue. Those who pass the archway will look up at the hero sitting upon his horse.

The history of the sculptor who made the design is one of peculiar interest. He came to this country, not so many years ago, a brown skinned, bright-eyed young Italian. He was ready to work at anything his hand could find to do, but he bad already a trade and a good one. He was a marble cutter with ideas and hopes. For years he worked at graveyard statues. Not to put too fine a point upon it, he was a tombstone sculptor. But he made more artistic tombstones than anybody else could, and it was not, long till his beautiful productions attracted the attention of rich Cincinnatians. He became known not as a mechanic, but as an artist. When the modeling class was started in the Cincinnati school of design, Louis Rebisso was made teacher of it. Since then his career has been steadily upward. He is one of the rising sculptors of the country.

AMERICA LEADS

In the Possession of the Great Monuments of the World.

A COMPARISON OF FAMOUS MONUMENTS.

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lin. Fig. 6. Column vendome, Paris Fig. 7. Bavaria. Fig. 8. Sphinx at Gizeh. The above illustration presents in abetter form than figures can convey the relative heights of the great monuments of the world. It will be seen that in possessing the Washington, Liberty and Bunker Hill mcnumenti we tower highest toward the heavens, with the exception of the pyramids, which ca» hardly be considered in this connection any more than mountain peaks. America's pride in this respect cannot long remain, for Franc* intends to build, by 1888, an iron tower 1,000 feet high.

French Soldiers' Beards.

«jno of (Jen. Boulanger's new regulations in the French army is that the sol' diers shall allow their beards to grow. There has been time enough for a practical demcnitration of this experiment and the effect is said to be almost startling. Very few men have^ beards that will do to keep, and there is a very general condemnation of the change.—Kansas City Times.

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Mrs. Stewart's Death Kecalls.

TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA, THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 11,.1880.—TWO PARTS —PART SECOND.

A. T. STEWARTS PA1ACI.

THE NEMESIS WHICH FOLLOWED ITS PROPRIETOR'S PURPOSES.

How the Bequests of the Millionaire Dry Goods Prince Have Been Diverted From Their Original Purposes—What

The grave which covers the late Mrs. A. T. Stewart hides from view the only object which kept the name of the great millionaire merchant prince from being forgotten. A. T. Stewart died April 10,1876. It had been his ambition through life to leave certain monuments that would perpetuate his name in lieu of the heirs with which he was unprovided. And these monuments should be live institutions that would grow on the solid foundations he had provided, and thrive on the business impulse which he would infuse into them.. With this ftew the shrewd and heartless little man worked and delved for years upon years, unaware that a structure to be permanent must be accompanied with a sentiment of affection in those left to preserve it. A name to be revered in the memory of man must have attached to it a good record, otherwise no amount of marble, or iron, or stone can perpetuate it.

STEWART'S MARBLE PALACE.

So Stewart,besides founding the greatest dry goods establishments this continent ever saw, connected his name with other institutions on no less grand a scale. He controlled the carpet mills of the country at the time of his death. He owned two of the finest hotels, the Grand Union at Saratoga and the Metropolitan, of New York. Three New York theatres were among his possessions, while his marble palace on Fifth avenue was adorned with treasures from every land. He had about completed a colossal hotel for working girls, with the purpose of providing them with the maximum of comfort at the minimum of cost.

He founded Garden City on the spacious plains of Long Island, an extensive monument to his memory, he thought, in permanent real estate. The fortunate inhabitants of this favored Garden City should alsopossess his remains, to honor as long as the $2,000,000 monument in the shape of a cathedral should cover the. ghoul proof vault in which they were to repose. Nemesis seems to have swooped down on the plans of Stewart, and they remain only as a striking example of how tbe purposes of man "gang aftaglee." His great wholesale dry goods house is now an office building and likely to fall into the hands of the city. His retail house, which covered a block is now cut up into many small stores with a multiplicity of owners. The control of his immense mills is divided among rival manufacturers. The hotel and theatres passed immediately to other proprietors. It is rumored that his marble palace was out of the possession of his wife for some years before her death and that it will shortly be opened as a club house. His house for working girls was not allowed to fulfill the purpose of its designer. Garden City exists as a deserted village. Only the grand cathedral tomb remains, and that as a monument to the hollowness of human hopes, for it covers an empty tomb. The only way in which this cathedral could likely be diverted from the use for which it was intended was by preventing the remains from being interred there, and this was the very thing that did occur. A. T. Stewart's body was stolen from the temporary vault in which tney rested on the 6th of November, 1878, and none outside of the few ghouls who carried them away know what has become of them, though it is supposed they consumed them with quicklime to destroy all evidence of their crime.

Why there remained no affection for A. T. Stewart was due to the old man's hardness of heart. An incident which well illustrates this was told the writer many years ago by the daughter of one of the victims of this trait of Stewart's. Her father owned a small marble quarry in Westchester county, N. Y. When Stewart was about to build his marble palace he solicited estimates from numerous quarrymen for the stone. Her father was unfortunately the lowest bidder, and made a contract with Stewart to supply the marble for the building. This was at a time when labor was cheap. The war came, and quadrupled the prices paid labor. The poor quarryman soon found that it would involve all of his earnings for years to fill even a portion of the contract, so he appealed to Stewart, who was

HALLWAY IN THE STEWART PALACE,

just reaping the fruits of his tremendous corner in cotton, to relent

little on his con

tract. He begged him, even with tears, but the more he beseeched the more this Shylock insisted

his pound of flesh. A

contract is a contract, was the only answer Stewart would give him. The quarryman was rendered

bankruDt

and as he saw

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his little home and quarry gobbled up he died broken-hearted. Hit last words were that "happiness was not likely to come to Stewart in a mansion secured at the price of his life's blood." His prophecy was only too literally fulfilled. The house was finished, everything that money could purchase or excellent taste devise for the comfort of its interior was procured, and yet Stewart avoided it like a pesthouse and slept in the Metropolitan hotel in his endeavor to obtain rest, and only went to his marble mansion to die.

The house has always had the appearance of a prison, with watchmen as sentinels parading through the interior night and day to protect its art treasures. Mrs. Stewart also Kept away from the house as long as possible, and when she did return she remained, to all intents, a prisoner, for but very few were allowed to approach her. She was not a happy woman, and it has been said of her that oer last was unquestionably her happiest hour.'

Minnesota's Stato Fair Grounds.

MINNESOTA'S STATE FAIR GROUNDS.

We are enabled to pre^nt this week almost a bird's eye view of the new and extensive fair grounds, situated midway between the twin cities of Minneapolis ajid St. Paul, and to be used by the state of Minnesota. The vast inclosure is about a mile square. It contains, besides the main building, a dozen or more commodious structures for exposition purposes and tho accomodation of visitors, a fine race track, with a grand stand —shown in a separate illustration.

THE GKASTD STAND.

Though of comparatively recent construction, the enterprise and hopefulness of the people of Minnesota is shown by the rapidity inwhich the work was pushed toward completion, and by the breadth and magnitude of the plan which they have laid down. Tho bnildings are so isolated that a conflagration in one cannot spread to the others, while plenty of room is in this way allowed for the enlargement of the structures as the development of the various branches of exhibits warrants the extension. The citizens of the great northwest have great faith in the future of their territory, in testimony of which their new state fair grounds stf Minnesota is the latest evidence.

COMMODORE GHERARDI.

Promoted to Take Charge of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Now that we are to have something that may be called a navy there is a stirring up of the offioers at the training schools and naval stations, as more war Ships means promotion and position for the many naval officers that have been waiting for something to turn up. One of the^nost recent promotions is that of Commodore Gierardi to take charge of the important naval station in Brooklyn, N. Y. Born in Louisiana in 1832, Commodore Gherardi entered the navy from Massachusetts in the summer of 1846, during the Mexican war, as midshipman, before he had completed his 14th year, and then, ae- COMMODORE GHERARDI. cording to the custom of those days— the reverse of the present—having been half a dozen years' at sea, entered the Naval academy in 1852. He was made a passed midshipman that year, a master in 1855, and was commissioned as lieutenant in that year. The outbreak of the civil war found Lieut. Gherardi attached to the Lancaster, of the Pacific squadron. Returning to the Atlantic coast, he was made a lieutenant commander in 1862, and took part in the bombardment of Fort Macon that year. Next he commanded successively the steamers Chocura and Port Royal, in tbe western gulf blockading squadron, in 1863 and 1864. In the latter vessel he took part in the battle of Mobile bay, Aug. 5,

1864. Later in the war he commanded the Pequot In 1866 he was promoted to be commander, and 1874 was commissioned as captain, while he reached his present grade Nov. 3,1884. During the twenty years since the end of the war he has performed duties commensurate with his various grades, the Jamestown, Pensacola and Lancaster being among the vessels he has commanded, while for a time he had charge of the Naval asylum at Philadelphia. Commodore Gherardi is

fine looking, dignified officer.

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Volcano Dust as a Fertilizer. Mr. Fond, the government analyst of New Zealand, has proved by actual experiment that the dust thrown out during the recent volcanic eruptions is of a highly fertilizing kind. He obtained samples of the dust from three different places, and sowed a quantity of clover and grass seeds in each. The soil was kept moistened with distilled water, so that no manurial elements might be imparted by the water used. In all cases the growth was almost as vigorous as in rich volcanic soil. The rapid growth of the plants and their color show that the dust is a benefit to the soil on which it has fallen.—Cleveland Leader.

Keep Her Down.

Wife—John, dear, shall we get a light or heavy tombstone to place on mother's gravel Husband (with suspicious enpphasia)— Heavy!—New York Bon.

THE CROTON AQUEDUCT.

SOURCE OF THE WATER SUPPLY OF NEW YORK CITY.

A Great Conduit of Masonry, Thirty-five Miles I*ng—Perilous Journeys Through It—The Water of Twenty-three Lakes.

The lteservoirs. •••,

We hear often in one way and another about the Croton river, whence New York gets its water supply. But not many persons outside of that city, or inside, for the matter of that, have#any very definite idea of its whereabouts. It is associated in a mysterious way, in some minds, with croton oil.

It is a very modest little river in itself. Its importance rumes from the fact that it is the outlet of twentythree lakes of pure solt water that lie in the elevated region sixty miles north of New York city. These lakes aro so many natural reservoirs iii which is stored the wr.tcr supply of tho great city of a mil-

SECTXON OK AQUEDUCT, lion and a half of people. Three hundred and thirty-nine square miles are included in the region drained by the twenty-three lakes. The lakes aro emptied into small streams, which mingle their waters. The original source of the Croton river is the waters of three springs in Putnam county. These run out into three pretty little brooks. Tho brooks unite in a sociable way near Owentown, N. Y., and run along together, and that is how the Croton gets its start. Then immediately afterward come into it the waters of tbe twenty-three lakes, and so it becomes of sufficient importance to furnish the water supply of so many people.

This means only the present supply. That has been found inadequate, and new water sheds have been built to take in yet other lakes. Anew aqueduct is in process of erection, too. It will be a year or two before it is finished. When it is, New York will have a purer, nobler water supply than any city since ancient Rome, except, perhaps, Glasgow.

OUTLET FROM RESERVOIR.

But the new aqueduct is not yet completed. This paper deals with the present or old one.

Croton river enters the Hudson at Teller's point, forty miles above New York city. Six miles above the mouth of the Croton river, and thirty-five miles north of Central park, the present aqueduct begins. Up near Owentown is a great natural basin called Croton lake. It holds 500,000,000 gallons of water. At the southwestern end of this lake a gigantic dam is built, and here the great thirty-five mile aqueduct starts. The dam in 250 feet wide, and 45 feet high.

The aqueduct trails across ravines, tunnels through solid granite hills, and leaps high over rivers. It crosses Harlem under the floor of High E.idge in a huge pipe about twenty-three feet around. At intervals of every half mile it is pierced by a pipe to ventilate it In the first illustration such a ventilator appeal's in cross section.

In the second illustration the Central park end of the aqueduct is seen. Here, thirty feet underground, begin the forty-eight inch mains that conduct the water through the city. This point is known as the pipe gallery.

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INSPECTING AQUEDUCT.

In Central park are two reservoirs, and there is a third one down in the city at Fortysecond street.

Sometimes once a year, sometimes oftener, it is necessary to inspect the whole thirty-five-mile length of aqeduct. The chief engineer personally goes through it from end to end. Occasionally it is allowed to run quite empty, and the engineer and workmen—riding machines that are half bicycle, half hand car—pump themselves through the dank archway.

It is a pokerish business altogether. In there is pitch darkness, except at the manholes of the ventilators. The men have taken their lives in their hands. Any forgetfulness on the part of a gatekeeper, any misunderstanding of orders—such as letting the water in too soon—and whish! they would be drowned like blind kittens.

BOAT INSPECTION.

Accidents have come fearfully near happening more than once. It is necessary to travel twenty-four hours to complete the whole length and make repairs, sometimes remaining in the aqueduct during that time. Once the engineer ordered the gate keeper at Croton dam to let the water in at 11 p. m.

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The gate keepsr misunderstood and nooaea the aqueduct at 11 in the forenoon. It was all the men could do to reach the nearest manhole and climb up the ladder before they were borne down by the rushing tide. The water was already to their waists, and they staggered whils trying to keep their feet in the tearing current. The coolness and pluck of the engineer kept them from getting panicky, and saved them.

The water is not always entirely drained out of the aqueduct. Then enough is left in, about five feet, to row over the course in a metallic boat. This is scarcely less dangerous than the other. The boat is easily upset and sunk, and then for those who lose then* heads, as p(or humanity is apt to do in trying situations there is tho added danger of drowning. Fortunately only one life has ever been lost in tho great conduit

The aqueduct as finished in 1842 and cost, without the reservoirs and distributing pipes, $8,575,000

EUGENE FIELD,

The Talented Poet and. Paragrapher «f •The Chicago News. Mr. Field is tho genius who. writes the "Sharps and Flats" for The Chicago News, and is one of the brightest paragraphers on the American press. He is 32 years of age. His father, IV M. Field, of Missouri, was the attorney for Dred Scott, the negro who was the plaintiff in the great case in the supreme court of the

United States which resulted in the celebrated "Dred Scott decision. Atan early age Eugene's mother died, and be was sent to Amherst, Mass., and placed in the care of an aunt, Miss French. He finished his academic education at the age of 17, and then entered

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SV0ENX FIELD.

Williams college. The death of his father, soon after, compelled him to quit the eastern school. Professor John W. Burgess was appointed his guardian, and ho was placed in Knox college, at Galesburg, Ills. Here he remained two years, and afterward completed his education at the University of Missouri. In 1871 he visited Europe for six months. In 1873 Mr. Field began reporting on The St Louis Evening Journal. In a few months he was appointed city editor, which position ho held until 1875.

Later he filled positions on the press of Kansas City, Denver and other cities, going to The Chicago News a couple of years ago, He is regarded as one of the very best of America's younger verse writers. His public literary record has been made in the past dozen years. Mr, Field is happily married, and is happiest himself when surrounded by his intelligent and interesting family.

JOHN P. RICHARDSON,

The Kcwly Elected Governor of South Carolina. Governor-elect John Peter Richardson, of South Carolina, comes from one of the oldest families of that state, where he himself was born in 1831. He is a son of the late Governor John P. Richardson and a great-grand-son of Gen. Richard Richardson, who was a prominent man in the Palmetto state both before and during the revolutionary war, and four of whose descendants have been governors of South Carolina. Col. Richardson was graduated with distinction from the historic South Carolina college, at Columbia,

JOHN P. RICHARDSON.

in 1849. He then engaged in planting til Clarendon county. He was chosen a member of the South Carolina house of representatives in 1856, and served until 1862, when he joined the Confederate army, serving upon the staff of Gen. Cantey in the west until the war ended. After the war Col. Richardson represented Clarendon county faithfully through all the dark and troublous days of reconstruction. He was returned to the legislature in 1878, and in 1880 was elected- state treasurer. In 1882 he was again elected %tate treasurer, and in 1884 again honored by reelection to the same important position—in each instance without opposition. In August :ast he was nominated for governor by the Democratic state convention over four competitors, and on Nov. fl was elected without opposition.

Rigid Court Etiquette.

"Her majesty," writes a Lwdon correspondent, "eats at state dinners without gloves." The reason for that is at once apparent. It enables her majesty to get a better grip on the wing of a chicken. In wrestling with the common hen of commerce at the dinner table she must be handled without gloves, or the battle is lost. Gloves would also be very much in the way when her majesty desired to clutch an ear of corn by each end, the tip and the lobe, so to speak, while she gnawed at it amidships. You see, there area hundred emergencies that might arise during the progress of a state dinner wherein gloves would be in the way.—R. J. Burdette.

Post Facto Legislation.

Chronology. Old Gentleman (''putting a few questions'')—Now, boys—ah—can any .of you tell me what commandment Adam broke when he took the forbidden fruit? Small Scholar ("like a shot")—Please, sir, th' wornt no commandments then, sir!^, (Questioner site corrected.)—London Punch.