The news-herald. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1909-1911, February 03, 1910, Image 2
J EXPERT SKEE RACERS TO MEET National Tournament to Be Held In Coleraine, Minn. NEW RECORDS ARE EXPECTED. Crack Knights of the Spruce Bladoa Will Make Great Attempt to Equal or Exeat Mark Mads Recently by Ols Fsiring. ! By TOMMY CLARK. Minnesota 8kce Jumpers and those f other states arc bard at work pre paring for the national tournament to be hckl at Coleraine Feb. 10 and 20, JTbis event Is always looked forward to by .the followers of the daring Jumpers, who gather In large crowds (o witness the wonderful flights of the rordy competitors on their wooden runners. This fascinating winter pastime la extremely popular In Minnesota, Wis consin and Michigan, and It Is expect ed that skeers from all three states and the Dominion of Canada will be on band when the tourney starts to et new figures for the long leap that Is tbe magnet that attracts the ad mirers of this reckless form of sport Great preparations arc being made o perfect the long slide In Coleraine, o tbe dating knights of tbe spruce fclades will have every opportunity to leither equal or excel tho world's rec- Krd figures of 144 feet, made by Ole Wring at Duluth, Minn., recently. !Thls jump exceeds by six feet the bump made by Olo Gunderson of Chip pewa Falls, Wis., last year. At the Irecent meet In Duluth Jor Ants, an lAlnskan Eskimo, jumped 127 feet. The longest running Jump recorded was Unade by Ole Mangseth of Coleraine. lie cleared 137 feet. On the course in Coleraine the top of (he Incline Is nt an altitude of between mm mmsmmm tER XOPBUT OI.1D1NO DOWNHILL AT I OHKVr WEED. 1250 and 300 feet. For those who know little about a tourney of this kind the Hollowing will no doubt prove inter lest lug. Tho starting place for the rid ers is a woodcu Htnieture built at the top of a li ill. Hundreds of loads of Iwnow nro dumped along the course to luinkc the grade approximately unl (form. The riders are stnrted from a (point on tho slope thirty-three degrees from the horizontal and coast past a hntlnt where the slope Increnses slight py to the Jumping oft place. Tho mo unentum U so greot as to impel them (forward iu tho flight through the mid air, which Is the feat of tho perform lance. A perfect performance requires that Hi Jumper alight on his feet and main ftaln his balance while on the steepest part of the i course. From there he (must coast down to the level. Tbe limner's preatest dllllculty Is In keep S'-V. ' - i i ancc after leaving the Jump llui.' n 1'i.ico and lauding below. i Stakes nro net five feet apart for the (benefit of the Judges of the contests vThe distances covered by tho Junipers Are measured In a manner slmilnr to those used on n football field. After each Jump tho snow on the course Is raked, which keeps It loose, so there Bs n downy bed for the Jumper to anil Into even if he swerves before (alighting and conies down on his shoul ders. To start the contestants n man Is stationed at the Jump off with a fing, (with which he signals to a bugler nt. la certain point, indicating that the Itrack below is clear. Signaling is nee ess--n ry because tho rider nt the top of tthe Incline cannot see all of the course towing to the hump Just above the wtrptch of greatest steepness, Skeo Jumping has rapidly forged t ho front rank of winter athletics in ho western section of this countrv ir.ee Its Introduction by the Senndl bavians, and It bids fair to retain the popular favor by tho reason of Its (freedom from objectionable feature hat mnter into nthur nnrts. I8J THOMAS, ENGLISH BE AH. Crack Pugilist Who May ...set Ketch. For Championship. Tom Thomas, middleweight cbnra plon of England, the lad who wean tho new Lord Lousdalo gold belt, 1 as big a man on tho other side as our own Stanley Ketchel Is on this. 1 things turn out right Stanley nnd Tom are going to bump, and then all dis putes as to tho' real middleweight champion will bo settled, leaving out Snra Langfurd. Thomas, accordlug to Owen Moran and other English fight ers who hnve soon him, Is a shifty lad. with a kick In both gloves. He drop ped Charley Wilson, tho man who beat "Gunner" Molr, in two rounds. Wil son was no uintch for Thomas at all In the battle for the belt and was out classed entirely from the start. Thomas, troubled with rheumatism as he was, fought a grand battle. The. day before the fight he was so bad on his right leg he spent half a day In tho doctor's office. At that he won easily tho next evening. When ho fought Hartley Connolly twenty rounds and won his right arm became almost paralyzed with pain after the second round. Crippled as he was, he fought TOM TH0U1S, ' EROLIsa MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION. Connolly with his left and still won. From his measurements you can see that he Is rather short for a middle weight, standing under five, feet sev en Inches. Ketchel Is five feet nine Inches tail, which would give him an advantage of over two Inches. Here Is the dope on Thomas so far; also note that be is thirty years of age. Ketchel Is twenty-three. Thom as' record: Born at Carncelyn farm, south Wales, 1880; height, five feet six and three-quarter Inches. NEW TENNIS TOURNEY. Player Rally In 8upport of Clay Court Championship Matches. Lawn tennis players have rallied so enthusiastically to tbe support of the project of the institution of a national clay court championship that the suc cessful outcome is assured. Dr. V. E. Hawk of the University of Illinois, chairman of the national banking com mlttce, has stood as sponsor for such a tournament from Its inception. He Is supported by three of the executive committees of the national association. Ralph Uolterboff of Cincinnati, L. Hur ry Waldncr of Chicago and W. I Scott of Atlanta. The western players are organizing to put the championship through, taking the stand that nine tenths of the matches in this conntry are decided upon clay surfaces. NATIONAL RIFLE MATCHES. Tourney Will Again Be Held at Camp Perry With Conditiona Unchanged. Tho national bonrd for tho promo tion of ritlo practice has completed tbe preliminary arrangements for the na tional matches for 1910, which will Ih held at Camp Ferry, Ohio, wbero slmi lnr contests have been held in the past two years. There will be two days' preliminary practice, beginning Aug. 19, and the matches proper will begin Aug. 22. All other contests will be held prior to the Inauguration of the national matches. The rules that governed Inst year's events hnve beeu adopted for the com ing meeting, with n few changes cal culated to make the rapid fire and skirmish work resemble those under actual service conditions. Sailing and Motorboat Races. The rognttn committee of tho Brook lyn Yacht club has decided on Satur day, July 2. ns tho starting date of its annual salllns; nnd power bont races over tho Cape May course. Griff to Watch Players Closely. Manager Orlfllth threatens to em ploy detectives to see that Cincinnati players do not violate tho temperance clause of their contracts. SPORTING BRIEFS Princeton will make cross country running compulsory for candidates for tho 1910 football team. Pugilist Ad Wolgnst, who Is to fight Bat Nelson in Los Angeles, Cal,, Feb. 22, is twenty-ono years old nnd has been fighting four yenrs. Jesse Westerjraard, tbe giant Danish wrestler from Des Moines, 1ms recelv ed n request frn Jucki Johnson to assist in bis training for bis contest with Jim Jeffries on July 4. Vancouver Rowling club's newr'.lit oared shell will make tho vo.-nge around Cape Horn coming from Eng land. It will arrive next spring and will bo tho first eight oared shell In the far west of Canada. Red Fox, the only son of Fljius Fox, tho greatest English race horse on this continent, has been landed In safety nt ;he Rrookslde farm of breed ers at Dyment, Rarrlo, Canada. Hed Fox is n big bay horse with black loluu tha cold of Lis famous sire. THE JOYS OF BOBSLED RACING An Exhilarating and Fascinating Sport Indulged In by Many, WONDERFUL FAST TIME MADE The Vankeer, Winner of Race at Hunt ingtorn N. Went a Mile In 37 4-5 Seconds Switzerland the Ideal Place For Great Winter Sport. In an early day, some time after tbe landing of tbe pilgrim fathers, but be fore one's waistband grew permanent ly great, there was a simple outdoor amusement known as "slldin' down hill." At that day sleds were roughly of two kinds, high sleds for girls and mollycoddles, who sat tremulously on tbe seat while some one started them with a gentle push, and low sleds for boys who took tbe hill with a' ran and flung themselves down on the sled. "Belly bumper" was the word to de scribe this method of descent There, were, of course, many variations of the simple sled. What genius first got the Idea of connecting two small sleds by a loos; plank history does not record. We are told that a bobsled Is "a sled con sisting of a body resting on two short sleds, called bobs, one behind ,tbe other." In Its early stages the bobsled was still crude. Often It was made from two old sleds and an ordinary board, and the carpeting of tbe plank was re garded as bordering on the effeminate. Even with these crude materials the simple sport of "sleddln downhill" be comes exciting and even dangerous. The real refinement of the bobsled has come in late years with tbe In crease In tbe number of winter resorts whose attraction la cold fresh air and not warm fresh air. f Switzerland makes a specialty of them, and in Switzerland tbe bobsled Is a highly developed speed machine. No longer Is old fashioned foot and rope steering gear in use. That did well enough for the old timer, which was well loaded with half a dozen venturesome boys and girls. The new mnchines have steel hobs made for that purpose, with a specially arranged connecting board, which seats between sixteen and twenty-five, and It Is steered by a wheel like an automobile. Even a searchlight has been added by one builder eager for novelty. Races for these elaborately made ilcds are a regular feature of the win ter carnival nt many resorts. In the enst Huntington, N. Y Is the center of the sport, nnd there ench year con tests for speed nnd for the sled with the longest "fetch" nro held. In fact, a big carnival Is planned to be held 'n Huntington Jan. 27. Several prizes are offered, among them a gold cup valued at $250. The Yankee, owned by S. F. Townsend of Oyster Bay. N. Y.. captured last year's event and es tablished a record for a mile that will probably stand for some time, that of 37',4 seconds. In Huntington the course Is especial ly prepared for the races. Water is sprinkled along the hilly road chosen for the contest, and It freezes until the route is glare Ice. Start on a heavy grade over a course of this kind a sled built for speed and manned by a crew of sixteen taught to act as one, and you have the iceboat's greatest rival. Owing to the Inconsistency of the weather in this country a majority of people know very little of tho possibil ities of tbe sport. It is not until one gets over In Switzerland, In one of the valleys of that mountainous land, thnt one finds the sport of coasting carried to the highest point of perfection. It Is there In the .valley with the poet ical name Engadine. at St Moritz, that coasting becomes an art In this val ley, Its floor as high above the level of the Rea as tbe crest of Mount Wash ington, where winter reigns for half a year and people go' to regain health, there Is a slide, nearly a miio long which has a descent of 550 feet. At some points in the course tbe sleds travel at the rate of eighty miles an hour. There Is sport! Skill has greatly reduced the time In which the course can be covered. In the early days the average speed was about thirty miles an hour. Recent winners of the contest have averaged, however, more than forty miles. On the straight run at tbe foot of the course a speed verging on eighty miles has been attained. Tbe same kind of sport may be had with bobsleds, but the slnglo racing Bled Is the favorite for coasting nt St Moritz. The sweep of a bobsled loaded with several per sons around one of the curves is an exciting spectacle. The man at the helm, with eyes fixed ahead and mus cles nt high tenslou, keeps the front bob in Its course. Those behind lean toward tho inside of the curve, two or threo of them digging into the snow with sticks, which throw up the snow behind like n cloud of dust. Like an express train it sweeps around the curve and is gone. Indian Wrestler After Gotch. John Middle Sky, a full blooded In dlnn, Is the latest candidate for the world's wrestling honors now bold by Frank f.oteh. Middle Sky recently ar rived in New York nnd announced that he wants u crack at the title. The lu dlnn hns doue considerable wrestling In tho last few years and has never lost a contest FIRST ROCK TUNNEL Made Centuries Before Drills ana1 Blasting Powder Were Known. The first rock tunnel of which there is any authentic record woj achieved over 2,000 years ago on the outskirts of Jerusalem, when tho way was opened for tho admis sion of water of the spring of Gihon to the pool of Siloam. Gihon, now known B3 Mary', spring, is in the valley of Kedron and was the only natural spring in the vicinity of the city of David, It was separated from the city by the Ophcl ridge, a mass of rock, so that when enemies appeared before the wall they could cut off this sup ply and compel the people within to depend upon stored water. King Ilezekiah about 700 B. C. devoted himself to remedying this by con structing a tunnel, which is referred to in II Kings, xx., 20, to bring the waters within the walls. At that time not only was tunnel ing through rocks an untried work and one that must bo done without such aids in the way of drills and blasting power as even the most amateur workman would use now adays, but there was no mariner's compass or other means for follow ing a given direction underground. The distance from the spring to the pool of Siloam is about !)00 feet in a straight line, and the hill over head is about 150 feet higher than the spring. To perpetuate this Ilezekiah'd workmen had tools of bronze, of a description now unknown, They began digging from both ends ot the same time and tried to keeji their bearings in u straight line bv sighting from outside. They dili not maintain a uniform bore, but kept the slope of the bottom with great accuracy. The shaft is from two to. three feet wide and from ten feet high at one end diminishes to a foot and a half in the middle. Sighting from the outside did not prove a very satisfactory method. Many places are to be seen in the tunnel today where headings were abandoned and a start made in a new direction. Even then the tun nel rambles about and was more than 1,700 feet long before the two ends came together. The opposing diggers were able to find each other at last by listening for sounds of the others' picks and working toward the place whence they seemed to come. This was learned from an inscription on the wall of the tun n.l which was discovered in 1880 by some boys at play.' For a city situated as Jerusalem was no gift could 'have been more welcome than that of an assured water supply. One can imagine therefore that tho ceremonies at tendant upoa tho completion of the work were on as magnificent a scale as could then be devised. Chica go Record-Herald. Narva and Coolness. Seated reading in his private room, the superintendent of a large prison heard a slight sound and. looking up,, was confronted by ?. dangerous convict holding a lonj; bar of iron. "Don't you move," he muttered. "I'm going to get away, even if I have to kill you!" "But," ealmly rejoined the super intendent, "I thought it was to morrow you were going ?" The man looked at him with stu pid amazement. "Yes," said the official, "don't you know? A pardon came for you today in consideration of your good conduct. You can go now, I sup pose, if you want to. You'd like to see the papers ? They're in here, I believe. He opened a drawer as he spoke, and the next instant the convict was facing the muzzle of a revolver. Easy to Be Calm. It certainly does make a differ ence "whose ox is gored." Among the patients in the. private ward of a Philadelphia hospital, according to a' writer in Lippincott's Maga zine, there was once a testy old mi lionaire of that city, whose case gave his physicians considerable dif ficulty at first. "Well," asked tho crusty patient one morning, "how do you find m now, eh?" "You're getting on well," re sponded tho doctor, rubbing his hands with an air of satisfaction. "Your legs are still swollen, but that doesn't trouble me." "Of course it doesn't!" said the old man. "If your legs were swol len it wouldn't trouble me!" Relieved "That must bo a pretty bad toothache to swell your face like that. Why don't you see a den tist?" "I did call on your friend, Dr. Tullem, yesterday nnd experienced great relief." "You must be mistaken. Pullem hns been out of town for a week." '1 know. I felt relieved when I found that out." A BIT OF DIPLOMACY An English Official Who Outwit ted a French Admiral. HOW PERIM ISLAND WAS WON The Interesting 8tory That la Told by a Whits House on the Foreshore of the Arabian Coast at the Southern . Entrance to the Red Sea. On the foreshore of the Arabian coast in the strait of Fab-cl-Mandeb. at the southern entrance to the lied sea, stands a large white house con cerning which the travelers to the far east may hear a curious story. In the middle of the nineteenth century, when M. de Lesseps after many diffi culties had successfully floated the Sues Canal company, tbe governor of the British port of Aden, about 100 miles distant, was surprised one morn ing by tbe visit of a French squadron of very unusual size for that part of the orient, which, having encountered a terrific storm off Sokotra. bad put in for repairs. In the mind of the governor curiosity was at once aroused as to tbe destlno rton of so targe a command, a curiosity which Increased as he found It Impos sible to extract any further Inforwa tlon from the French admiral or his o fflcer 8 beyond the statement that they were upon an ordinary cruise, an er.ilnnatioii which tbe former was not tbe least Inclined to believe. Firm In tho belief, therefore, that some political move of great impor tance wus afloat. If not afoot, tbe gov ernor. In order first of all to gain time gave orders to go very tortoise-like ou the repairs and then set to work to take the Frenchmen off their guard by giving a succession of such en tertii la ments as both bis slender means and tbe awful barrenness of the place would afford. But. though at tbe end of two- weeks tlie French and British officers bad got upon tho best of terms, the Immediate destination of the French, squadron rcuialued as much of a mystery to the governor of Aden as before, and In spite of all possible delay tbe re pairs were nearly completed. Now, It happened that the wife of the governor possessed an Irish maid, who had been receiving attentions from one of the French petty officers attentions which the girl did not re gard seriously. It occurred to the- gov ernor that by such means something might be learned of his unexpected visitor's plans, and a private conver sation between the governor's wife and her maid resulted in another be tween the latter and her French ad mirer, by which It was discovered that Periin Island was the objective point. At this information the governor opeuert his eyes wide indeed, for. If the Suez canal were cut through, l'e rim, as commanding the southern en trance to the Red sea, in the middle of the strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, would ho a place of great strategic lmpc Innce. over which, without doubt, i. Was the Intention of the French- ad miral to hoist the tricolor. Secretly giving orders, therefore-, for a gunboat to immediately embark a detachment of soldiers and steal away In tbe night for I'erim Island, the gov ernor then announced a fnrewel) bun quet and ball for the day but on fol lowing, a tlual act of courtesy with .vhich the French admiral would will ingly have dispensed, for be was anx ious to sail, but which he could not well refuse on account of tbe- use he had made of the British supplies and machinery ut Aden. So tbe dinner nnd party In due course came off, the governor behig lu high spirits, because lu the menu time be had received the news of the oceu patlon of I'erim. which under tbe t-ir cumstances would surely be followed by the louged for promotion, and the French admiral was equally buppy, for he hoped on tbe morrow to add the same important llttlespeckof land to the dominion of bis own . country, thereby covering bis breast with tbe stars nnd himself with uuuitluie glory. Next day, after nn interchange of cordial farewells, the French squadron sailed away to an apparently unknown destination, until, when clear of tbe land, tbe course was laid full speed di rect for Peri in island. Tben what were the dismay nuu (tit appointment of (he French ndiiilrul and his officers when, on connug in sight of their destination, they beheld the British flag flying and a company of soldiers drawn up to give them n proper x:ilnte. It is said the French admiral was so mortified at bMngthus outwitted that he first flung fils cock ed hnt overboil rd and then followed It himself into the sea. x Be this as it may, as Teriui was clearly alreudy occupied by the Brit ish, the only counter move which the French could make was to take pos session of a strip of tbe foreshore on the opposite Arabian const, where they built the fortified white house lu question, but ns the plnce was entirely ut tbe mercy of tbe guns ou Perlm Is land It was Bhortly abandoned, to re mnln to this day as a monument of a French admiral's undoing. Exchange In Honor of Minerva.1 Tbe most notable festival at Athens was In honor of Minerva. All classes) of citizens on this particular day marched In procession. Tbe oldest weut first, then the young men, tben tbe children, the young women, tbe matrons and the people of the lower orders. Tho most prominent object In the parade was a ship propelled by hidden machinery and bearing at Its masthead the sacred banner of tot goddess. WILD ANIMALS. Man Is Steadily and Surely Working Their Extinction. Sir Ray Lankester writes of the enormous number of living crea t ures which man has destroyed since he first appeared on earth: "Even in prehistoric times it is probabie that man by hunting the mam moth the great hairy elephant assisted in its extinction if he did not actually bring it about. At a remote prehistoric period the horses of various kinds which abounded in North and South America rapidly and Buddenly became extinct. It has been suggested, with some show of probability, that a previously un known epidemic disease, due to a parasitic organism such as those which we now see ravaging the herds of South Africa found ita way to the American continent. And it is quite possible that this was brought from the other hemisphere by the first men who crossed the Facific and populated North Ameri ca. "To come to matters of certain ty and not of speculation, we know that man by clearing the land as well as by actively hunting and killing it made an end of the great wild ox of Europe, the aurochs, or urus, of Caesar, the last of which was killed near Warsaw in 1C27. IIo similarly destroyed the bison, first in Europe and then (in our own days) in North America. A few hundred, carefully guarded, are all that remain in the two continents, lie has very nearly made an end of the e!k in Europe and will soon do so completely in America. The wolf and the beaver were destroyed in these British islands about 400 years ago. They are rapidly disap- E earing from France and will soon e exterminated in Scandinavia and Russia and in Canada. "At a remote prehistoric period the bear was exterminated by man in Britain and the lion driven from n irum Macer hed irVw ks. ItSl a fc' f t the whole of Europe, except Mac donia, where it still flourished the days of the ancient Greeks, was common m Asia Minor centuries ago. The giraffe and the ciepiiant have departed from Sout Africa before the encroachments o civilized man. The day is not disli;, .i ii -ii i . iuiii, niiL-ii invj win cease 10 exist in the wild state in any part of Africa. And with them are vanishing many splendid antelope. "Even our 'nearest and dearest' relatives in the animal world, the gorilla, the chimpanzee and the ourang, are doomed. Now that man has learned to defy malaria and other fevers, the tropical forest will be occupied by the greedy civilized izea will horde of humanity, and there be no room for the most interest ing and wonderful of all animaly the man-like apes, unless (as w5 may hoye in their case, at any rate) such living monuments of human history are made sacred and treated with greater care than are our an cient monuments in stone." Chi cago News. Thackeray on Tennyson. Here is an offhand comment made on Tennyson by Thackeray in a letter to Mrs. Procter. Thackeray, it will be remembered, knew Ten nyson from the early undergraduate days at Cambridge. Indeed Thack eray's verses "Timbuctoo" were written in good natured parody of Tennyson's prize poem. "Alfred Tennyson." wrote Tlmrk-omv "if n he can't make you like him will make you admire him. He seems to me to have the cachet of a great man. His conversation is wften de lightful, I think, full of breadth, manliness nnd humor. Ho reads all sorts of things, swallows them aai digests them like a great poeticaT boa constrictor as he is. Perhaps it is Alfred Tennyson's great big yel- uw mce anu growling voice that have made an impression on me. Manliness and simplicity go a great i ttUV 'iltl n,n T T I uiv, j. j.uw.-v. uookman. 8ea Superstitions. One of tho oldest sea supersti tions has been connected with the flying of birds. If the birds flew nigh, that signified good weather. If they skimmed tho water, that meant bad weather. There is grad ually spreading among tho seamen a superstition that if any animal in aboard the vessel bad weather mav bo deferred even if tho birds am flying dose to tho water if th head of the animal is pointed aft and is held in that direction for eomo time. A Wonderful Help. "Doctor, I called to thank you lor your valuablo medicine," said tho young man. "So it helped you, did it? I afn very g ad, said the doctor, smiling. f Indeed it helped mo wonderful- iy WaS tllC flSSlirinrr rnrvl., j "How many bottles did you find J'ou fina of it l "Oh. I .li.ln'. 4.1,- .... v .ana nuy Qi jj, I Induced my uncle to tako one bottle, and I am his sole ueir."-Ladi.V "omn Journal, ,