Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (April 24, 1904)
TI1E ILLUSTRATED DEE. 1 April 24. 1901 The Illustrated Bee. Published Weekly bv The Lee Publishing Company, Bee Building, Omaha, Nfb. Price. c Per Copy -Per Year. $100. Entered nt the Omaha Poslollioc ua Second Clans Mall Mutter. Pen and Picture Pointers IITY venrs nun the Interest of the n people of the I'lllted States WHS centered on the debate In (oratress over the Kin:i-iM-Nebraska bill. It whs one of the pitched bat- tics fought on the floor of the national congress between the slave power of tho south ii i nl the growing s ntinn nl of tho north against the Institution. Miiny of Its features were of the most nwitioiiiil sort, especially the assault on Senator Chillies Sumner of Ma.Hachu"ctts hy Preston U. Brooks, a nic:i.ler of the house of repre sentatives from South Carolina. On May 80. 1S5I, the bill lieiMiiifi a hiw and the pep rate governments of Kansas and Nebraska were Bet up, both being established as free Boll. The development of l.nlf a century has more than realized tee anticipation!! sf the men who then contended for the livision of the two great territories and the ireetlon of autonomous governments for laeh. Out of what wiui I In n wilderness two magnificent commonwealths have grown, t tut" a that are at the forefront In all that k'hh to make for the material, Intellectual and splrttiml welfare of an en lightened people. Nebraska stands first In the whole country in point of general en lightenment, having the lowfst percentage of 1 1 1 i tf rates, and Kansas In well up In the lint In his regard. The agricultural, grazing nnd manufacturing Intercuts of the two Mates are sili h an to f ive them high rank In the commerce of the nation, and the aggrcNslveneoi of the people has ulwnys been such lis to render each an Important factor In national politics. Nebraska did not share greatly In the exciting Incidents that marked the early growth and development of Kansas, but It was impossible that the territory could escape entirely from the disturbances that were a part of the "border warfare." Boiilhern Nebraska was the scene of a number of Incidents sultlclently stirring for the people who took part In tin-in, but In the main the territory began Its life under conditions that wi re far mote favor able to political pesce and general pros perity. The seat of government was es tablished at Omaha, nnd remained here for a number of years, being finally trans ferred to Lincoln. Hefore thin had been done nnd the state had been admitted to the union, tho questions that hud disturbed the early settlement had been submitted to the arbitrament of war, and a decision reached that admitted of no two Interpre tations. The men who came to Nebraska In the early days were of the sort who have made tho name of American pioneer one to be proud of. They took up the task of building an empire out of the wilderness with a vigor that brought Its reward within the llfctlne of almost all of them, fur very few of the first settlers did not live to tee the state take Its place In the nation's affairs. At the semi-oen-tennlal celebration, which Is to be ob served In Omaha on May SI, l'.Kil. will be present many who came to Nebrnrkii be fore the passage of the bill giving tho separate territorial government, and many more who had settled here prior to the admission of the territory as a state. These men have been part and purccl of the story of the state's growth. The principal orator of the day will be a Nbraskan. the son of the first attorney general of the state, who has risen high In the ranks of Ids profession and Is known as an orator throughout the length and breadth of the land. Henry 1. Kstabrook, now a resident of New York, where he Is engaged as general counsel for the Western Union Telegraph company, Is a native of Nebraska, and had his babyhood, boyhood, youth and early manhood in Omaha. It was here he developed those traits that have since brought him fame, nnd his se lection to be the principal speaker at the celebration was because of ' his peculiar fitness to deal with the topic assigned Mm. He knows the early history of the tate, and knows many chapters that have not been written, and ho knows on what Nebraska's prosperity Is founded, and tho men who laid the foundation. Mr. Ksta brook's oration will be delivered lit the new . Omaha Auditorium, which will be thus formally dedicated to Its uses. It Is ex pected that Archbishop Ireland and Sec retary of War Tuft will also lie on the program for speeches. Mr. Kstabrook begn tho practice of bis profession In Omaha soon after reaching manhood and ross rapidly to a prominent position at tho Nebraska bar. He left here about 1W. going to Chicago, where his Omaha partnership with the lute Judge Herbert J. Davis was resinned, snd the firm continued successfully until Judge Pavts had to give up active work. Not long before this Mr. Kstabrook was made general counsel for the Western tTnlon Telegraph company and moved to New Tork to b at the general office of the company. Equipped Himself to Meet Emergencies (Copyright, 1904, by Guy T. Vlsknlskkl.) iIVE years ago J. Waldo Smith was merely one of a number of as sistant engineers In the employ of a New Jersey water com pany, and one of the thousands in in of unknown Smiths. Today lie Is known as thn man who has charge of the biggest and most difficult piece of hydraulic en gineering In America; he Is chief engineer, at a salary of $12,0r.0, of the aqueduct com mission of New York, whose duty It is to furnish the metropolis with its water supply. The secret of Mr. Smith's rise Is re vealed by the manner in which he saved to his former cmploers their big pump ing station on the l'assule river at Little Kails, N. J., and prevented a water famine in the cities of Jersey City, Newark, Pnter son and Passaic, during the floods of last October, when all that section of the Jer seys was more or less inundated and cut off from outsldo communication for nearly a week. On the day that the news reiched the officers of the water company that a flood was coming, the Intelligence was also con veyed to them that the Utile Falls sta tion, contrary to the general belief, was not above the average flood line, but was something like four feet below It. Here was a pretty how-de-do. The sta tion, which has a dally pumping capacity of 80,000,000 gallons. Is depended on to fur nish Jersey City, Newark, Puterson and Passaic with their water. With this sta tion flooded and out of business, the offi cials knew only too well that 600,000 people would be cut off from their accustomed water supply, and not a drop would be drunk by them until the station could be got in working order again. Then, too, once the water got Inside, thousands of dollars' worth of damage would be done. Confronted with this predicament, the officials remembered that several time before, when he was an assistant en gineer, J. Waldo Smith, their chief en gineer, who was to leave their employ in a week and become chief engineer of tho Acqi:eduet Commission of New York City, had proved exceedingly valuable In emer gencies. So he was sought out ai.d tho situation laid before him. Mr. Smith Is a quiet, unostentatious man of 40 odd just the sort who would not attract attention on the street; and, more over, he has a hesitant speech that gives the stranger an impression that he Is not sure of himself. Mr. Smith said quietly: "I'll go up there and see what can be done,'' and the officials let him go. When he reached the Little Falls sta tion Mr. Smith found the employes greatly excited. They knew that the flood was traveling fast down upon them, and they were by no means Ignorant of tho fact tthat the station was in the path of tho rushing waters. They were for cutting out to safety and letting the people In Jersey City and elsewhere get ulong as best they could without water. Mr. Smith professed to Ignore their anxiety. He Inspected the station for a few minutes, formulated his plans and then turned to the men. "We will first barricade the windows," he said. The men looked astonished. "What! We're not to stay here wl h the flood coming down upon us? " they cried. Mr. Smith was unperturbed. "Yes why not?" he asked. "I've or dered a supply of food, which will be her soon, and whnt with the windnas barri caded and the doors closed and reinforced, there will be no danger." Compliments UCII has been said unl written of M the beauty of American women. by visiting foreigners. But Al phonsj Maria Mucha. greatest of French poster artists and noted also as an Illustrator and sculptor, who U on a visit in New York, Is more enthusiastic than any of them. Mucha is a devotee of the large nthWtlc type' of beauty, and he declares that In his brief sojourn In the United States ho has dis covered models of a perfection he had despaired of finding In Hurcpe. In his studio In the Sherwood the other day a New York World reporter aktd him for his opinion of the American woman. Enthusiasm danced In his eyes and effer vesced In his emphatic gestures as he re plied: "She Is the mast superb creature under the sun. Infinitely superior to the most beautiful women of Europe, The anaemic type of Parisian beauty In which all our artists find their Id at. Is Is a false one. Here the womea are strong, vigorous at one avelte and solid. "In Franco I have been obliged to seek my models among country won in peas ants who pass the greater lrt of their lives In the open air. The Parisian woman cloistered between four walls. Is anaemic. Her smile, her walk, her every movement betrays weakness feeblenesa Here the women are large, robust and their Uvea dedicated to open air sports have mad tbem the most beautiful ornament of their But the men could not see It that way. Knowledge of the wall of water that was then moving toward them and carrying away everything in its path railroad bridges, houses, trees, debris of all sort had unnerved them; their thoughts were all centered on losing no time in getting to higher ground. Straightway there was a Contest one man, of scarcely medium stature, combat ing tho impulse of a score of panic striken men to flee. He argued with them, pointing out how thousands of people would suffer greatly if they ran away. They granted the fact, but they were thinking of their own skins. He showed them why they would be out of Jobs, if they deserted their employers when they were most needed. They replied that their Jobs could go hang; they weren't going to be drowned. He tried to reassure them, stating that his plan would keep the wa ter out of the station. They admitted that the scheme sounded all right, but what Uivy wanted was ocular proof of its prac ticability. Then Mr. Smith told them that they would have it he commanded them to stay with him In tho station; said that he would remain alone if need be, but that he didn't Intend to; that they were going to stick by him and help fight tho flood. That was all there was to It, so please get to work and help to barricade the place. Man, like sheep, loves to be led. Th employes saw In their chief engineer a lader; they fell in behind him, and soon were busily engaged In closing the win dows with planking, and further strength ening the coverings by means of braces reaching to the floor of the station. Next, the doors and all other weak spots were similarly barricaded. Mr. Smith Inspected the work once more to see that every thing was satisfactory, and then the little band knocked off to eat and to wait. They did not have to wait long. To the self-Imprisoned men there soon came the roar of the flood as it swept down the valley. Louder and louder It grew, as It rolled onward then the rushing and swirl ing noises arose on both sides of them; the crest of the flood had passed them and was plunging on down the river. They waited. Fretty soon there came dull sounds from the outside, low down, near the base of a wall. No one had to tell them that the water was creeping around the building, that the noises were the result of compact with the station of some trees or other debris caught In the waters. As the poundings on the walls crept ever higher and higher the station not infre quently trembling when the blows were delivered by heavy objects water inslst . fntly mudu its way Into the building through every crack and crevice that could not be hermetically sealed by barricades. But Mr. Smith was not caught napping. He had looked for this very thing, hud prepared for It, and he set two centrifugal pumps to work to carry off the leakage All the while the other pumps were send ing the customary supply of water to the various cities that were dependent on their running, and Mr. Smith und those men who were not needed at the pumps kept close watch on the barricades. Up mounted the sea of wuter three feet three -feet three three six three eight, nine, eleven four feet. Before the flood came no one had expected the water to go higher, nnd now the prisoners anxiously listened for sounds and watched the crev ices for signs, at least, of no further rise. But their hope was sbort-llved. Up went Our Women country. There Is a type as distinctly American as there is a Parisian, a Slav or a Saxon type." Questioned about the artistic develop ment of the city, Mucha answered: "One must not expect too much of a new country whose energy must first be directed to the development of Its Indus- trial and commercial Interests. This country Is too young yet to have devel oped an artistic side. There arc painters here, and very good ones, too. But they are not American painters. Although born here, they are European, generally French. They study abroad and are formed there, so that their best efforts are in realty only copies. At the present rate of develop ment, however, the real American painter will be produced within fifty year., and then he will create for himself. He will have originality. He will be Ameilran. The second generation will wltrass un American renaissance. But the country Is too young yet It will have to be waited for. "This renaissance will produce ideals of a grandiose severity. It will have columns built of a single block and vast arcade.. It will recall the grandeur of the temple of Solomon and the Kgyptian pyramids. Ornate effects, decorated windows, fantas tic architecture will have disappeared, and a style vast, large, pure and grandly simple will have taken Its place. And It will match Its greatest ornament, the American woman.' the water, fairly leaping to four feet four feet six -five feet up to the height of their shoulders, over their heads. Then, suddenly, there was a splintering sound, followed by a rush of water In ward. A plank In one of the barricades had broken away. Mr. Smith rushed forward, his compan ions following. They grabbed fresh plank ing, dashed toward the break, measured their strength against that of the growing stream, forced the planking over the hole, held and secured It there drove back the flood, which had succeeded In only wetting, not drowning them like rats In a trap. Still the water rose. It touched seven feet, wt ut on to eight, thence more gradu ally to nine, nnd then crept so slowly up ward that the men could not tell whether the Hood was still gaining strength or receding. They watched the barricades, worked the pumps, while the ten-foot mark was gained four feet above the tallest man of the little band. Pretty soon, while they were watching for evidences of a further rise they had given up guessing where the water would stop they became aware that the flood had done Its best. It was at a standstill and half the battle was over. The other half was like the first, with the conditions reversed outside the pound ing sounds fell steadily lower and lower, and one after another the crevices quit leaking from the roof downward. But in side, Mr. Smith and his men still watched tho barricades, kept the centrifugal pumps carrying off the leakage, and the great pumps throwing the customary supply of water into the mains leading to Paterson, then at the mercy of the water, and to the other towns. Finally, after hours of waiting and watch ing, all leakage stopped, there was no pounding on the walls, and the men knew that they could venture out. A barricade was removed, a door opened after twenty four sleepless hours they breathed fresh air once more, and by the marks on the walls verified their calculations of the height that the flood had reached. A few hours later Mr. Smith quietly re ported that the pumping station was safe and the pumps had not missed a stroke during the time that the station was en dangered. He had again proved himself the man for tl:a emergency. Previous to this time, Mr. Smith's record for the better part of his life had been that of taking care of emergencies. "Even as a boy," one of his friends said recently, "Smith was always ready when called upon. He seemed to equip himself espe cially for that purpose." Ho entered the service of the water com pany, one of the biggest In the east, la 1891, as an assistant engineer. For a time he attracted no great attention to himself by his work and none by his personality. But after several years his superiors began to notice that whenever occasion arose for some unexpected thing to be done In the daily routine of pipe laying or what not. Smith either had a plan for accomplishing It, or did It as a matter of course and a part of his work. Next thing they found out, by putting him in charge of a small Job, that be knew how to command as well as to run a pipe line. BUM later, Mr. Smith having shown abil ity in figuring out the resistance of wa ter under varying conditions, was given the Job of laying a certain Important main. He did It expeditiously, and at a minimum cost. In IK the water company wiu con fronted with the problem of a great waste of water In Paterson. "There's Smith, one of our assistant engineers; maybe he can straighten matters out," some one suggested. Mr. Smith was placed In chirpe of the Paterson pumping station. He "metered" the town, made other innovations, and before he had been In the new position very long the waste had been reduced by several million gallons daily, and there was no complaint from the consumers. It was this piece of emergency work that first attracted outside hydraulic en gineers and experts to Mr. Smith, and thereafter they followed him In his prog ress to the position of chief engineer of the water company, and in his acts while serving in that capacity. So that when' the members of the New York Acqueduct commission were looking about for a chief engineer to tackle a Job that requires ex ecutive as well as engineering ability, they picked out Smith. He did not want the place and told the commissioners so. They kept at him, offering him liberal Induce ments and then practically asking him to name his terms. Finally, he agreed to take the position If no restrictions what soever were placed upon him. The com missioners agreed, Mr. Smith handed in his resignation to his old employers, and during his last week of service with them this man, who, as a boy, had entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the express purpose of preparing to become a leading engineer later on. per formed as dramatic a piece of work a could well be Imagined. GUY T. VISKNISKKA