THE PITTSBURG DISPATCH. THIRD PART. PAGES 17 TO 20. 1 PITTSBURG, SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 1891. IRO OF ft SAIL. Stevenson's Cruise in the Casco From the Marquesas to the Societys, PERILS OF THE SOUTH SEA. Published Charts Worse Than Use less in the Maze of Isles. SQUALLS, STORMS AND CURRENTS Made the Journey Tery Dangerous for the Trim Little Ship. .GEOGRAPHY OF THE LINE OP ATOLLS rwEITTIH rOB THE CIBFJLTCE.l Letter No. 8. In the early morning of September 4 a whaleboat manned by natives dragged us down the green cove of the anchorage and round the spouting promontory. On the Ehore level, it was a hot, breathless, and yet crystal morning; but high overhead the hills of Atuona were all cowled in cloud and the ocean racer of the Trades streamed without pause. As we crawled from under the immediate shelter of the land we reached at last the limit of their influence. The wind Jell npon our sales in puffs, which strengthened and crew more continuous; presently the Casco heeled down to her day's work; the whaleboat, quite outstripped, clung for a noisy moment to her quarter; the stipulated bread, rum and tobacco were passed in; a moment more and the boat was in our wake, and our late pilots were cheer ing our departure. This was the more inspiriting, as we were bound for scenes so different, and though on a brief voyage, yet for a new province of creation. That wide field of ocean, called TVE GAZED IN "VAIN loosely the South Seas, extends from tropic to tropic and from perhaps 120 W. to 150 E., a parallelogram of 100 by 47, where degrees are the mo6t spacious. Much of it lies vacant, much is closely sown with isles, and the isles are of two sorts. The Two Kinds of Isles. No distinction is so continually dwelt npon in South Sea talk as that between the low and the high island, and there is none more broadly marked in nature; the Hima layas are not more different from the Sa hara. On the one hand, and chiefly in groups from eight to a dozen, volcanic isl ands rise above the sea; few reach an alti tude of less than 4,000 feet; one exceeds 13, 000, their tops are often obscured w.ith cloud, tbev are all clothed with various forest, all abound in food, and all are re markable for picturesque and solemn soenery. On the other hand we have the atoll; a thing of problematic origin and history, the reputed creation ot an insect apparently un identified; rudely annnlar in shape, enclos ing a lagoon, rarely extending eyond a quarter of a mile at its chief width, often rising at its highest point to less than the stature of a man man himself, the rat and the land crab, its chief inhabitants; not much more variously supplied with plants; and offering to the eye, even when perlect, only a ring of glittering beach and erdant foliage, inclosing and inclosed by the blue sea. From one group of the first class to another, from tne Marquesas to the Societys, our couise now Hr. And it was barred across by a whole fleet of atolls; the group indifferently known to whites as the Low or the Dangerous Archipelago, and in native THEEE IT the Panmotu. "subjected isles," or the Tuamotu, "company of isles." A. Wonder of the Pacific. They are 78 in number, say the Invalua ble Fiudlay who will find in the last sen tence three corrections for his next edition and he goes on to remare that they form "one of the wonders of the Pacific," and cover 16 degrees of lonpitude. without count ing scattered islands to the southeast. Find lay hesitates to draw the line npon the one side) I could never see where it should be drawn upon tbe other. To mv eve this pro cession of coral atolls extends," in a free scroll, across the whole chart of the South Seas, entering at the southeast, proceeding northeasterly, then' more and more to the westward, then (with a half wneel), due north, and lastly west agin to join the Carolines. In no quarter is navigation so beset with perils as in that archipelago that we were now to thread. The huge system of the trades is, far some reason, quite confonnded bjrthJs multitude of reefy the wind later- i HA '''' . y mits, squalls are frequent from the west and southwest, hurricanes are known. The cur rents are, besides, inextricably intermixed dead reckoning becomes a faroe; the charts are not reliable, and such is the number and similarity of these islands that, even when you have picked one up, you may be none the wiser. Insurance lien Fear It. The reputation of the nlace is consequently infamous; insurance offices exclude it from their field, and it was not without misgiving that my captain risked the Casco in such waters. I believe, indeed, it- is almost un derstood that yachts are to avoid this baffling archipelago; and it reauired all my in stancesand all Mr. Otis' private taste for adventure to deflect our course across its midst. For four days we sailed with a steady trade, and a steady westerly current setting us to leeward, and toward sundown of the BREAK IN seventh it was supposed we should have sighted Takaroa, one of Cook's so-called King George Islands. The sun set; yet a while longer the old moon semi-brilliant herself, and with a silver belly, which was her successor sailed among gathering clouds; she, too, deserted us; stars of every degree of sheen, and clouds of every varietv of torm disputed the sublustrous nicht; and still we gazed in vain lor Takaroa. The mate stood on the bowsprit end, his tall gray fig ure slashing np and down againt the stars. The rest of us were grouped at the port anchor davit staring with no less assiduity, but with iar less hope on the obscure hori- TOH TAKAEOA, zon. Islands we behold in plenty, but they were of "such stuff as dreams are made on, and vanished at a wink, only to appear in other places, and by and by not only islands, but the refulgent and revolving lights began to stud the darkness light houses of the mind or of the wearied optic nerve, solemnly shining and winking as we passed. At length the mate himself de spaired, scrambled inboard again from his nnrestful perch, and announced that we Had Missed Our Destination. I find a passage in my diary in which I smile at this experienced man's pretensions, declaring it impossible he should have picked up land so inconspicuous by so dim and so dispersed a light. I know better now. Impossible for ns, it was quite possi ble for him. I have stood by, for instance, while the captain and the' mate of the Equator picked up Butaritari or Great Makin in the Gilberts, and identified point after point, all correctly, as the mornlDg proved; and I soberly confess that I saw nothing. Yet, as far as eyesight goes, I believe I was superior to either. "What I lacked was a habit of the mind similar to that by which the Indian is so swift to spy game and follow footprints, or the man of letters detect misreadings in a page of print. Even while we smiled at the mate, we must yet bow to his deliverance. He was the only man of practice in these waters; our sole pilot, shipped for that end at Tai-o-hae. If we declared we had missed Takaroa, it was not for us to quarrel with the fact, but, if we could, to explain it. We had certainly run down our southing. Our canted wake upon the sea and our some what drunken-looking course upon the chart both testified with no less certaintv to an impetuous westward current. We had no choice but to conclude we were again set down to leeward; and the best we could do was to bring the Casco to the wind, keep a S IS, SIB. good watch, and expect morning. Morning From the Deck. I slept that night, as was then my some what dangerons practice, on deck, upon the cockpit bench. A stir at last awoke me, to see all the eastern heaven dyed with faint orange, the binnacle lamo already dulled ngjint the brightness of the day, and the steersman leaning eagerly across the wheel. "There it is, sir!" he cried, and pointed to the very eyeball of the dawn. For awhile I could see nothing but the bluish ruins of the morning bank, which lay far along the horizon, like melting icebergs. Then the sun rose, pierced a gap in these debris of vapors, and displayed an inconsiderable is let, flat as a plate npon the sea, and spiked with palms of disproportion altitude. So far, so good. There was certainlv an atoll; and we were certainly got among tbe archipelago. But which? And where? The isle was too small for either Takaroa or Takapoto; in all our neighborhood, indeed, there was none to inconsiderable save only Tikeij and Tikei, one of Boggewein't so called Pernioious Islands, seemed betide the question. At that rate, instead of drift ing to the west, we must have fetched up 30 miles to windward. And how about the current? It had been setting us down, by observation, all these days; by the deflection of our wake, it should be setting us down that moment. When had it stopped? "When had it begun again? and what kind of a torrent was that which had swept us east ward in the interval? To these questions, so typical of navigation in that maze of isles, I have no answer. Such were at least the facts; and it was our first experience of the dangerous archipelago, to make our landfall 30 miles out. The nigbtfell lovely. After the moon went down, the heaven was a thing to wonder at for stars. And as I lay in the cockpit and looked upon the steersman I was haunted by Emerson's verses: And the lone seaman all the night Balls astonished am one stars. By this glittering and imperfect brlght- AN ATOLL. ness, about four bells in the first watch, we made our third atoll, Baraka. The low line of the isle lay straight along the sky; so that I was at first reminded of a towpath, and we seemed to be mounting some engineered and navigable stream. Presently a red star ap peared, about the height and brightness ot a danger signal, and with that my simile was changed; we seemed rather to skirt the em bankment of a railway, and the eye began to look instinctively for the telegraph posts, and the' ear to expect the coming of a train. Here and there, but rarely, faint tree tops broke the level. And the'sound of the surf accompanied us, now in a drowsy monotone, now with a menacing swing. The isle lay nearly east and west, barring our advance on Fakarava. We must, there fore, hug tbe coast until we gain the western end, where, through a, passage eight miles wide, we might sail southward between Ea raka and the next Me, Kauehi. We had the wind free, a lightish air; but clouds of an inky blackness were beginning to arise, and at times it lightened without thunder. Something, I know not what, continually set us up upon the island. We lay more and more to the nor'ard; and you would have thought the shore copied our maneu ver and ontsailed us. The Captain, the mate and I were all on deck; the Captain not much gratified with our position; the mate part sanguine and part callous in tbe true South Sea proportion. He saw nothing odd in our position, which was even normal in tbe group. And he could scarce be asked to share in this anxiety about a ship, hav ing already lost several himself,and desiring no better than the opportunity t lose another. A Dispute About the Safety. "Well," he cried at last, "and what if the wind does fail? We could shove her off with an oarl" Conceive the effect of such consolation on a Yankee martinet! Captain Otis explodedr'the "mate -accepted "battle, and the pair wrangled bravely. And once and twice, in the hottest of the disputation, Baraka headed us -again and again, in the sea fashion, the quite innocent steersman was abused and again the Casco kept away. Had I been called on, with no more light than that of our experience, to draw the configuration ot that island, I should have shown a series of bow-window promontories, each overlapping the other to the nor'ard, and the trend of the land from the southeast to the northwest; and behold, on the chart it lay near east and west in a straight line. We had bur just repeated our nianeuvre and kept away for not more than five min utes the railway embankment had been lost to view and the surf to hearing when I was aware of land again, not only on the weather bow, but dead ahead. I played the part of the judicious landsman, holding my peace till the last moment; and presently my mariners perceived it lor themselves. "Laud ahead I" said the steersman. "By heaven, its Kauehil" cried the mate. And so it was. And with that I began to besorry for cartographers. We were scarce doing Zi and they asked me to believe that (in five minutes) we had dropped an island, passed eight miles of open water and rnn al most high and dry upon the next. But my Captain was more sorry for himself to be afloat in such a labyrinth; laid the Casco to, with the log line up and down, and sat ou tbe stern rail and watched it till morning. He had enough of night in the Paumotus. The Geography of Atolls. By daylight on the 9th we began to skirt Kauehi and had now an opportunity to see near at hand the geography of atolls. Here and there, where it was "high, the farther side loomed up; here and there the near side dipped entirely and showed a broad path of water into the lagoon: here and there both sides were equally abased, and we could look right through the discontinuous ring to the sea horizon on the south. Conceive, on a vast scale, the submerged hoop of the duck hunter, trimmed with green rushes to con ceal his head water within, water without you have the image of the perfect atoll. Conceive one that has been partly plucked of its rush fringe; you have the atoll of Kauehi. And for either shore of it at closer quarters, conceive the line of some old Koinan highway traversing a wet morass, and here sunk out of view and there re- arising, crowned with a green tuttof.thicket; only instead of the stagnant waters of a marsh, the live ocean now boiled against, now buried the frail barrier. Birds Hiving Like Bees. And then a bird or two appeared,hovering and crying; swiftly these became more nu merous; and presently, looking ahead, we were aware ol a vast effervescence of winged life. In this place the annular isle was mostly under water, carrying here and there on its submerged line a wooden islet. Over one of these the birds hung and flew with an incredible density like that of gnats or hiving bees; the mass flashed white and black, and heaved and quivered, and the screaming of the creatures rose over the voice of the surf in a shrill clattering whir. As you descend some inland valley a not dissimilar sound announces the nearness of a mill and pouring weir. Some stragglers. asl said, came to meet our approach; a few still hung about tbe ship as we departed. Not for long. The crying died away, tbe 'last pair of wings was "left behind, and once more the low shores of Kauehi streamed past, our eyes in silence like a picture. I supposed at the time that the birds lived, like ants or citizens, concentred where we saw them. I have been told since (I know not if correctly; that the whole isle, or much of it, is similarly peopled; and that tbe effervescence at a single spot would be the mark of a boat's crew of egg hunters from one of the neighboring inhabited atolls. So that here at Kauehi, as tbe day before at Talaro, the Casco sailed by under the fire of unsuspected eyes. And one thing is surely true, that even on these ribbons of land an army might lie hid and no passing mariner divine its presence. Bobebt Louis Stevenson. Will call at your residence with samples and furnish estimates-on furniture reuphols tery. Hatjoh & Keen an, 83 Water street. fiu . mm i , . THE ANGEL OF DEATH Comes Upon Many Remarkable Scenes With the Sad Summons. EXPERIENCES OP AN OLD NURSE. A Bells of the Ball Dies With Champagne Upon Her Fair Lips. MATTER-OF-FACT END OF A MERCHANT l coRBEsroxDEircs or tm DisrATC&i New Yoek, April 1L "I haTe wit nessed many curious deathbed scenes," said a professional nurse now employed at a prominent New York hospital. "I am now 40 years of age, and have been a nurse for 20 years, though I have been in this coun try bnt ten. "A few years ago I was called.into a very aristocratic family on Fifth avenue. I cannot give you names for obvious reasons. But this family is very rich as well as aris tocratic. As I am usually called upon only in critical cases, I was not surprised to find the patient very low. She was the lov?d and petted only daughter. She had but made her debut the season before, and her second social season was at its height. It appears that she was a very lively girl a spoiled child and had caught a severe cold at an entertainment. Instead of taking care of herself, she 'went about as usual every night In evening dress. When I arrived at the house I found her lying in a magnificent room praotically at the point of death with pneumonia. Three physicians were in con sultation. The family were terribly fright ened. Her Last XJrlnlt of Wine. "The girl was verj lovely, for pneumonia is a sudden disease aud she had not been in bed more than two days. I found her wan dering in her mind. She seemed to half comprehend what I was, for she turned her dark eves upon me a moment and inquired: " -Will I be able to go to the ball?' " 'Ball! Mercy, child,' said I, trying to soothe her, 'don't think about balls. After awhile ' " 'Bing fotchampagnel' she ordered im periously. 'I'm going to dress for the ball. I must go.' She tried to hum a waltz, then suddenly exclaimed, 'Champagne! Cham pagne! Bring champagne! It warms the heart so! My heart is getting cold! Bring more champagne!' "She choked and gurgled and her voice sank to a whisper. "The doctors were at her side iu a moment. It was evident her yonng life was fast ebb ing. The stimulant was brought. Bising on her elbow she grasped the freshly opened bottle from the tray and before we had time to recover from our astonishment poured its sparkling contents down her throat. Her eyes shone like stars. " 'Cham ,' but the word was never fin ished. "She flung the bottle from her, sank into the soft pillows and expired. I hadn't been there ten minutes. Didn't Know What It Meant. "Sometimes the ludiorous is so mingled with the pathetic ending of a life," said the nurse, "that it requires considerable self control to prevent laughter. You have doubtless heard of the little 8-year-old who was on ber dying bed, and being told by her sorrowing parents that she must die, very strenuously objected. " 'But you will go to heaven, darling, to live forever,' said tbe mother. " 'I don't wantto go to heaven to live,' 'the little girl -tearfully repljedp'any" Tjlstce" where you and papa are is good enough for mel' "There was a rich old merchant over in Thirty-fifth street whom I was called upon to attend. He had spent a lifetime in the accumulation of considerable wealth, and in his old age went :traigbt from his counting house to his bed. He could scarcely be brought to realize that his stay on earth was short. His large family was very anxious concerning his future, but couldn't get him to consider tbe question. The family doc tor told me his case was hopeless and In structed me to impress this fact on his mind, which was inclined toward business and trivial things. His daughter met me in the library and took me up to tbe sick room. She was a richly-dressed and very lovely lady. Insisted on Dress Beform. " 'That is the way you spend my money,' said be from the bed, as soon as we came forward. He paid no attention to me. 'Just look at that dress!' " 'Dear me! Never mind, papa please don't talk of such things now. Try and fix your mind on more serious things. Ibis is the nurse.' " 'Nurse! nurse! I don't wanl any nurse. She can't be more serious than this thing of throwing away hard-earned money!' "While he had resisted every attempt to prepare him for death, a day or two later he was a little restless and lay eyeing me for a long time. He suddenly spoke up: 'So I'm going to die, am I?' His voice was deep and harsh and sounded as if it came from the grave. I was startled almost out of my usual self-possession, bnt finally managed to tell him as gently as possible that his timeon earth was very short indeed. If he had anything on his mind he'd better act accordingly. ' 'Well, I 'spoie I might as well get ready to go,' he growled, as if it bored him. ".Bring 'em in.' Alluding to his family. Finished With a Prayer, "I hurriedly summoned his wife and chil dren. He feebly tried to raise himself, but gave it up. Then he gave them an extended lecture on their mode of living. He remind ed them that he had worked early and late to leave them a competence, and he hoped they wouldn't waste it in riotous living. They ought to curtail expenses and reform on certain matters of dress ! "Though he was terribly exhausted when finished, he waved them aside abruptly and growled: 'Now get out and send in the other gang I' "He lectured the rest in the same way. One of the members of his family remained after the rest had gone out. It was his young son. I held my finger on the old man's pulse. It was flickering. " 'Can you pray? he suddenly asked the yountr man. "Yes, lather,' sobbed the lad, his heart almost bursting. " 'Well, then, preach up,' was the hoarse reply. 'The boy fell upon his knees by the bed side and uttered a few choking words, while the old man rested bis hand upon his son's head. Iu half a minute the old merchant was dead." Went With the Lightning's Flash. "Widely different,"- continued the nurse, "was a case I was called upon to-attend to when I was in England. It was that of an old man, too a rich country 'Squire. He was a terrible old fellow who had a reputa tion all over the countryside of having lived a reckless life, of being a grinding landlord,, an atheist and even a terror to his family. In fact, he had driven them out of doors, ope by one, until he was practically alone with bis servants, a few greedy rela tives keeping a risky place in the near back ground. But a single daughter had stuck to him, and she was afraid to say or do anything. Poor girl; she didn't know what to do. "I had been sent for and came up from London, The old man seemed about breathing-his last wben I got there, which was in the night I sh'all never forget that night. It bad been sultry all that day. The sky was black with lowering clouds, and as I was driven from the station in a mail cart by a servant the road waa lighted by vivid Sashes ol lightning that almost cllnded us. They had darkened, the windows 0f tnxi sick room, but tbe occasional flashes pene trated even there. I went straight to tbe bedside and took up the withered wrist. At first I thought tbe patient was already dead, his pulse was so weak and irregular and the breathing so feeble. Bnt close attention for a moment convinced me he was still alive. A minute later I said to the terrified daugh ter, 'He's gone,' and so it seemed. "At that instant there was a terrible burst of thunder. It rocked the solid old country mansion on its foundations. The old man started up in bed to a sitting posture just doubled up like a galvanized corpse twitch ing in every muscle. " 'What's that?' he asked, the death rattle in his throat "I began to explain that it was a thunder storm, when he flung his hands aloft and shouted with an awful oath: 'It's the gates of hell opening for my soul!' And he fell back a corpse. Died Hissing His Norse. "I have the reputation of being tbe pos sessor of good magnetic powers. In some oases this influence serves greatly to rednce and soothe intractable and suffering patients. Once in an English hospital a difficult and dangerous surgical operation was being per formed ou a man who had been severely in jured in an accident He was a powerful young man. and at times two able bodied attendants were unable to hold him still. I was called in to assist The moment I touched his hand he glanced at me appeal ingly and grasped mine. From that mo ment he bore the pain unflinchingly. I had turned his face away from the operators and laid my cheek against his. He scarcely murmured again during the whole time. "When all was over he placed both of his great arms around me, and pressing me gently to his bosom, kissed me on the lips. Wbep. they disengaged his arms be was dead. "I remember a teamster I nursed once.in the hospital. His legs bad been run over and crushed. An operation had been per formed. He was constantly delirious. He drove his team all day and all night, swear ing the most fearful and original oaths all the time. He was the roughest character I ever had anything to do with. His foul language fairly rang through the ward. He had probably formerly enjoyed torturing the poor brutes he managed, for he would Swing His Bight Arm on High in the act of snapping a whip, all the time accompanying the motion with curses and demoniacal laughter. He seemed to be in tent on putting an eye out, cutting an ear off, or bringing blood in some way, and wben he imagined he had madean especially skillful stroke of this kind he would laugh and curse. It was terrible! He finally went off in one of thee fiendish paroxysms. I believe that is the only case in all my ex perience in which I could feel no human pity in which I was satisfied to see a man suffer and was almost if not quite glad that my patient was dead. "I knew a case where a genial, good bearted, whole-souled gentleman in New York lay sick with quick consumption. He had been a man about town and had hosts of friends. When he was convinced that he could live no longer, he called some of these watchers about him, called for glasses, made each person fill up with him 'for the last time,' and lightly waving his own finger of whisky above his head, he cried: " 'Well, hoys, I've had many a good time with you; here's for the parting drink! Goodbyl' and he died as he had lived, a con vivial man of tbe world." CHABLE3 THEODOBB MtTBBAT. AFRAID OF THE BESULTS. Why a tittle Girl Refused to Say the Fa miliar Evening Prayer. Housekeeper's Weekly.! "Now, mamma, I-" Thus the'ehild began, aud was stop'ped short by her Imother. -v a j - "Lottie, how many times I've told you not to begin with 'Now.' It is 'Now, mamma,' 'Now, I can't,' 'Now, I will,' 'Now, some thing or other continually. Don't say it again! The very first time you do I will send you to stand IS minutes in the corner." Little Lottie knew fall well the terrors of that punishment. What an eternity it seemed to her to stand that length of time with her face to the wall, not allowed to turn around, or speak, till told that the time was out; for always after about three minutes she felt sure the IS minutes must be passed, and that she, forgotten, must stand there alwaysl So, cautious Lottie retreated with her doll out of mamma's hearing, and it being already late in the day, escaped con demnation, When the little nightgown hail been donned, and mamma said tenderly! "Now, darling, say your little prayer," Lottie failed to notice how the catcher had been caught on the "Now," but answered: "I can't I mustn't." "Lottiel. Why not?" "Cause if I say my '- I lay as' I must stand in the corner." THE FATE OF THE AUTHOB. Tory Good Authorities Often Differ as to His Merits. The merit of Mr. Sborthouse as a novelist was first recognized by Mr. John Morley. Mr. Morley, as literary adviser to Messrs. Macmillan & Co., had tbe manuscript of "John Iuglesant" placed in his hands. He read it, and prononnced the book to be excellent. Tbe publishers, how ever, were. of a very different opinion, and decided to decline the manu script with thanks. "Don't do anything of the kind," said Mr. Morley; "rather than allow such a thing to happen I would pub lish the book at my own expense and risk." Seeing that their literary adviser was so confident, the publishers reluctantly gave way and accepted the book. All the world knows what a success it has been, and the high place which Mr. Shorthouse now occu pies among co temporary writers of fictioti. A CAHHON FOB EVEBY BOY. The Principle of Artillery Easily Demon strated In the Home. Take a thick glass bottle; fill It three quarters full of water, dissolve in that water 'about a dessert spoon ful of bicarbonate of soda, says The Churchman. Make a cylinder of a large card; stop up one end of it with a piece of crumple" tissue paper, and put into this cylinder a dessert spoonful of tartario acid. Fasten this cartridge thus manufactured by a pio and thread to the cork of tbe bottle, which is placed upright on the table. Let the opening of the cart ridge be at the top, and regulate the length so that it does not touch 'the water. Then cork the bottle tightly. Now our cannon is loaded, all that remains to be done is to-fire it off; for this purpose, place the bottle care fullv in a horizontal position on two pencils laid' parallel on the table, to form a gun carriagp. The water penetrating the tube or cartridge will dissolve the tartaric acid and the carbonic acid gae which will be tbe result will force the cork out "of the bottle with a violent explosion. By the effect of this reaction tbe bottle will roll back, imi tating the recoil of a piece of artillery. Ashtabula as a Lake Port. There are not 10 people in every 100,000 that know tbe little Ohio city of Asbtabul holds the fourth position in importance as a lake port Chicago stands first, Buffalo second, Cleveland third and Ashtabula next That port last yesr received 2,500,000 amount of 800,000 tons. PPK BEATS GREEK FIRE. Burning Petroleum the Best Defense New York Could Have. DETAILS OF A PRACTICAL PLAN. Overcoming the Objection of Sanger to Oar Own Shipping. PROTECTION FOB THE OIL PIPES rWEITTEN FOB THX DISPATCH, Anyone who will study the reports of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, and .the reports of the Board of Fortifications will learn that the defenses about New York harbor are totally inadequate to with stand an attack of modern naval vessels, such as Italy is so liberally supplied with. It may be true that some of her largest bat tle .ships have not the coal endurance re quired iu operating so far from a base of supplies, but there are many others, in addi tion to armored cruisers, in her list which could reach this coast and enter our harbors if not stopped in some way. The reports of the Chief of Engineers, particularly for the years 1880 and 1881, enter at length into every phase of the ques tion of harbor defense, and one thing is made clear in these reports, viz: that no great reliance can be placed npon torpedo plants unless there are land batteries near enough and strong enongh to protect and defend them. As the case stands we have no snch batteries not even tbe guns to mount in them, sUDposing they were built and'ready for armament. That is to say we have no guns able to drive off the iron-clads which would support the torpedo searching parties, although the six and eight-inch rifles now on hand might retard operations of that kind for while, and prove very effective even on the iron-clads at closer quarters. Preventing an Entrance. What Is wanted is- some way of barring tbe entrance of New York harbor nntil land batteries and other defenses can be rendered effective, and this, I think, can be done by means of pipe lines conveying petroleum in such way that it can be ignited on the sur face of tbe water, Avery little of this oil spreads with ran idity on water and burns with an intense heat, productive of great volumes of stifling smoke and poisonous, suffocating vapors. An iron-clad might withstand tbe heat of such a fire' for a considerable time, bnt its crew conld exist in such an atmosphere only as long'as they could hold their breaths, which is not to exceed one minute's time. The "Greek fire" of olden time is not a circumstance to what petroleum Is capable of doing. With our seaboard pipe lines we have already the means of sending to New York perhaps 10,000 barrels of oil daily, and can keep the supply up for an indefinite period. The Danger From Fire. When the oil scheme of harbor defense for New York was suggested several years ago the only serious objection urged against it was the danger of inflowing tides carry ing flames to tbe shipping at the wharves of New York and Brooklyn. Now at .the "Narrows," the entrance to the inner harbor, tbe width is only one mile, and ff across this was laid a heavy buoyed cable there could be attached to it strong sheet iron leaves depending in the water to the depth of a foot or two, which would effectu ally stop the oil which might float inward to that point and it is likely that very little would remain unconsumed after reaching that point the Narrows being fully 10 miles from where the fire should originate. The complete protection of New York and the Brooklyn Navy Yard particularly, requires that the defenses should be so re mote that even random shells could not reach them, but so powerful are modern guns that this distance is not less than 12 miles. To be effective, therefore, two or more lines of pipes should extend from near to Sandy Hook to near to Bockaway Beach. On an air line these two points are just ten miles apart, tbe deepest water between them being 45 feet Vessels stopped outside of this line at the nearest point to Coney Island would be four miles distant, to the southern suburbs of Brooklyn about ten miles, to Castle Garden and the Bro'okiyn Navy Yard, 13 to 11 miles distance. The Sonroe of Sapply. The supply of oil should be maintained from tanks and pumps out of cannon range on Staten Island, with the supplying lines laid on direct lines within the harbor, and therefore not to be tampered with by the enemy from the Bhore ends of the main cross lines near bandy hook and .KocKaway Beach, which they would cover of course with their guns. The oil should not escape from the main lines crossing the entrance of tbe outer har bor, but from jets on T branches COO or more feet long, extending seaward from the main cross lines. This arrangement would pre vent the main lines from being grappled by anchors thrown hastily overboard from a venturesome boat party. They would find nothing but ends of pipes pointed toward them, and, unless they could enter a consid erable distance within a burning area, they could take no hold of a pipe. It is simply impossible to think of any such work being done for the oil would spread at first a con siderable distance against the tide, so that the position of tbe flames would be at the best a very misleading criterion of the real position of the pipes. Meantime, with every outgoing tide, (heir vessels could be driven far out. and repairs might be made or new pipe lines laid across the channel back of the burning ones. No Trick to Lay the Pipes. About Pittsburg there must be more than 100 miles of 6, 8, 10 and 12-inch pipe lines for natural gas laid in our rivers. When first put down it was customary to go to great expense for dredging a bed for them, the notion being prevalent that river floods, drift, ice, etc., would disturb them easily. As this was not found to be the case, they are now laid in every direction, sometimes right down the center of the river for miles over shallows and through deepjools with out the slightest regard to the conformation of the river bed. Moreover, a simple screw joint with a strong sleeve is all that is necessary a SO ton steady pull will not rupture au eight inch pipe joint of this kind and there is such a degree of flexibility about them, par ticularly in the smaller sizes, that they can be laid from scows almost as fast as a gang of men can screw on joints. Home Guabd. Belie. Comfort, Cure. Try Daisy Corn Cure. Action quick; eflect permanent Inquire of druggists. -sxt' VJr t-W WATtR JP . .THF I: mm.t i..Mm rPiYfEiiMiKTCdl 7 r TtTtt Mr lfMllf j, Wimm csv tmmr mm . c A FANTASTIC TALE, INTRODUCING HYPNOTIC THEORIES. WBITTEN FOB BY F. MARION CRAWFORD, Author of "Mr. Isaacs," "Br. Claudius," "A Koman Singer," and Many Other Stories That Have Taken Sank as Standard Literature. CHAPTEB XX. TJnorna was hardly conscious of what she had done. She had not had the intention of making Beatrice sleep, for she had no dis tinct intention whatever at that moment. Her words and her look had been but the natnral results of over-strained passion, and she repeated what she had said again and again and gazed long and fiercely into Beatrice's face before she realized that she bad unintentionally thrown her rival and enemy into tbe intermediate state. It is rarely that the first stage of hypnotism pro duces tbe same consequences in two different individuals. In Beatrice it took the form of total nnconsclousness, as though she had merely fainted away. TJnorna gradually regained her self-possession. After all, Beatrice had told her nothing which she did not either wholly know or partly guess, and her anger was not the resnlt of the revelation but of the way in which the story had been told. Word after word, phrase after phrase had cut her and stabbed her to the quick, and when Beatrice had thrust tbe miniature into her hands her wrath had risen in spite of herself. Bnt now tbat she had returned to a state in which she could think connectedly, and now that she saw Beatrice asleep before her, she did not regret what she had unwittingly done. From tbe first moment when, in the balcony over the church, she had realized that she was in the presence of the woman she hated, she bad determined to destroy her. To accomplish this she would in any case have used her especial weapons, and though she had intended to steal by degrees upon her enemy, lulling her to sleep by a more gentle fascination, at an hour when the whole convent should be quiet, yet since the first DEAB FEIEND, LET step had been made unexpectedly and with out her will, she did notTegret it. She leaned back and looked at Beatrice during several minutes, smiling to herself from time to time, scornfully and cruelly. Then she rose and'locked the outer door and closed tbe inner one carefully. She knew from long ago that no sound conld then find its way to the corridor without She came back and sat down again, and again looked at the sleeping face, and she admitted for the hundredth time that evening, that Beatrice was very beantifnl. "If he could see us now!" she exclaimed aloud. Tbe thought suggested 'something to her. She. would like lo see herself beside tbe other woman, and compare the beauty be loved with the beauty tbat could not touch him. It was very. easy. She found a small mirror, and set it up on tbe back of tbe sofa, on a level with Beatrice's head. Then she changed the position of the lamp and looked at herself, and touched her hair, and smoothed her brow, and loosened the black lace about her white throat And she looked from herself to Beatrice, and back to herself azain. many times. "It is strange that black should suit us both so well she so dark and I so fairl" she said, "She will look well when she is dead." She gazed again for many seconds at the sleeping woman. "Bnt he will not see her then," she added, rising to her feet and laying the mirror on the table. She began to walk up and down the room as was her habit when in deep tbought,turn ing over in her mind the deed to be done and the surest and best way of doing it It never occurred to her that Beatrice could be allowed to live beyond that night. If tbe woman had been but an unconscious ob stacle in her path, TJnorna would have spared her life, but, as matters stood, she had no inclination to be mercifnl. There was nothing to prevent the possi bility of a meeting between Beatrice and the Wanderer, if Beatrice remained alive. They were in the same city together and their paths might cross at any moment The Wanderer had forgotten, but it was not sure that the artificial forgetfnlnes3 would be proof against an actual sight of the woman once so dearly loved. The same consideration was true of Beatrice. She, too, might be made to forget, though it was always an experiment of uncertain issue aud of more than uncertain result, even when successful, so far as duration was concerned. TJnorna reasoned coldly with herself, re calling all that Keyork ' Arabian had told her and all that she had read. She tried to admit that Beatrice might be disposed of in some other way, but the difficulties seemed to be insurmountable. To effect such a disappearance TJnorna must dispose of some safe place in which the wretched woman might drag out her existence undis covered. But Beatrice was not like the. old beggar,; who, in his hundredth year, had leaned against TJnorna's door, un noticed and uncared for, and had been taken and bad never been seen again. The case was different The aged scholar, too, had been cared for as he could not have been cared for elsewhere, and, in the event of an Inquiry being made, he could be pro duced at any moment, and would even af ford a brilliant example of TJnorna's char itable doings. But Beatrice was a stranger and a person of some importance in the world. The Cardinal Archbishop himself had directed the nuns to receive her, and they were responsible for her safety. To spirit her away inthe night would be a dangerous thing. Wherever she was to be ' MnKmMm ' ' LOR mnir 1 i l Qry J THE DISPATCH taken, TJnorna would have to lead her there alone. TJnorna would herself be missed. Sister Paul already suspected that the name of Witch was more than a mere appellation. There would be a search made, and a suspi cion might easily fall upon TJnorna, who would have been obliged, of course, to con ceal ber enemy in her own house for lack of any other convenient place. There was no escape from the deed. Bea trice must die. TJnorna could produce death in a form which could leave no trace, and it wonld be attributed to a weakness of the heart. Does anyone account otherwise for those sudden deaths which are no longer un frequent iu tbe world. A man, a womao, is to all appearance in perfect health. He or she was last seen by a friend, who describes the conversation accurately, and expresses astonishment at the catastrophe which fol lowed so closely upon the visit. He, or she, is foend alone by a servant, or a third per son, in a profound lethargy, from which neither restoratives nor violent snocks upon the nerves can produce any awakening. la one hour, or a few hours, it is over. There is an examination, aud the authorities pro nounce an ambiguous verdict death from a syncope of the heart Such things happen, they say, iriih a shake of the head. And, indeed, they know tbat such things really do happen, and tbev suspect that they do not happen naturally; but there is no evidence, not even so much as may be detected in a clever case of vegetable poisoninjr. The heart has stopped beating, aud death has followed. There are wise men by the score to-day who do not ailc 'what made it stop?' but 'who made it stop?' But they have no evidence to bring, and the new jurisprudence, which in some countries covers the cases of thefts and frauds com mitted under hypnotic suggestion, cannot as yet lay down the law for cases where a man. has been told to die, and dies from 'weak ness oi the heart.' And yet it is known,,) US HAVE SUPPEB. and well known, tbat by hypnotic sugges tion the pulse can be made to fall to the j lowest number of beatings consistent with li.e, and that the temperature of the body can be commanded beforehand to stand at ft certain degree and fraction of a degree at a certain hour, high or low, aa may be de sired. Let those who do not believe read the accounts of what is done from day to day in tbe great European seats of learning, accounts of which every one bears the nams of some man speaking with authority and responsible to the world of science for every word he speaks, and doubly so for every word he writes. A few believe in the anti quated doctrine oi electric animal currents, the vast majority are firm in the belief that the influence Is a moral one all admit tbat whatever force or influence lies at tba root of hypnotism, the effects it can produce are practically unlimited, terrible iu their com prehensiveness and almost entirely unpro vided for in the scheme of modern criminal law. TJnorna was snre of herself, and of her strength to perform what she contemplated, There lay the dark beauty in the corner of the sofa, where she had sat and talked so long, and told her last story, the story of ber lite nbich was now to end. A few deter mined words spoken in her ear, a pressure of the hand upon the brow and the heart and she would never wake azain. She would lie there still, until theyfound her, hour after hour, tbe pulse growing weaker and weaker, the delicate hands colder, the face more set At tbe last there would be a con vulsive sbiyer of the queenlyform, and that would be tbe end. Tbe physicians and the? authorities would come and would speak of a weakness of the heart, and there would be masses sung for her soul, and she would rest in peace. Her soul? In peace? TJnorna stood still. Was that to be all her vengeance upon tha woman who stood between ber and happi ness? Was there to be nothing but tha nothing but tbe painless passing of the pure young spirit from earth to heaven? Was no one to suffer for all'TJnorna's pain? It way notenougb. There must be more than that. And yet, what more? What imaginable, wealth of agony would be a just retribution for her existence? TJnorna could lead her, as she had led Israel Kafka, through the life and death ef a martyr, ihrough a life of wretchedness and a death of thame, but then, the moment must come at last, since thla was to be death indeed, and her spotless soul -would be beyond TJnorna's reach forever. No, that was not eno'ugb. Since she could . not be allowed to live to be tormented, yengeance mutt follow her beyond the end of life. TJnorna stood still, and an awful light of evil came into her face, A thought of which tbe enormity would have terrified s common being had it entered her mind and taken possession of it Beatrice was iu her power. Beatrice should die iu mortal sin, and her soul would be lost forever. For a long time she did not move, but stood looking down at the calm' and lovely face of her sleeping enemy, devising a crime) to be imposed upon her for her eternal da. struction. TJnorna was very superstitious, or tbe hideous soheme could sever have pre sented itself to her. To her mind the deed ' was everything, whatever it was to be, and ' the intention or the unconsciousnesa is, , doing it could have nothing to do with, the) consequences to the soul of the doer. She)' j made nb theological distinctions. Uieatrieeu: should commit some terrible crime, and'a should die in committing It Then, ahati !. wouW he lost, and lvils would do In CM tbe worst torment wn.cu Uiiorna could,nq do on earth. A crime a robbery, a, bs z XI UE 1
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