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About The Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Cherry Co., Neb.) 1896-1898 | View Entire Issue (May 20, 1897)
ii V MEXICAN BOUNDARY M v LINE IS MARKED BY MONU MENTS OF IRON Incidents of the International Survey Recently Completed Difficulties Ex perienced by the Bonndary Com mission Lrinc Fixed nt Last The official geographical boundary between the United States of Ameri ca and the Republic of Mexico has been established and after many years of hard -and dangerous work by Colonel J W Barlow engineer-in-chief of the In ternational Boundary Survey and his men the line has been marked by a se ries of boundary monuments built of Iron Colonel Barlows report has been sent to the Department of State at Washington but will not be published for a year Numerous fine illustra tions are to be made to accompany the report and when completed it will be one of the most Interesting and attrac tive documents ever issued by the Gov ernment The war with Mexico which closed with the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo entered into at the village of that name in 1848 resulted in the cession to the United States of the States of New Mexico and California as then consti pated The southern boundary of this territory was not clearly defined and a commissioner was appointed to mark the line but managed to spend all of the appropriation before he commenced the work W H Emory was then ap pointed who with a commissioner from Mexico went about the work in a business like manner commencing at the Pacific coast When the gold excitement of California reached the men at work on the line they abandon ed the work and went to the mines se riously retarding its progress Later the commission succeeded in filling the places of the workmen and proceeded with the survey which was finished to the first natural mark the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers How ever before this work was complete the Gadsden treaty of 1S53 made it nec essary to move that part of the line east of the Colorado farther south to where it yet remains This new line was to begin at a point on the Rio Grande commencing at parallel 3147 and to run west along said parallel 100 miles thence south thirty miles 1 TojatfliT CftvHi ftTofias I orate in design After completing the i western end of the line to the Colorado the commissioners returned to the point where the Rio Grande forms the line and worked in the opposite direction transporting their supplies up the Rio Grande by freight teams Working westward they reached the Colorado River and marked the line with stone monuments at various distances apart Three or four of these were substantial and yet remain but the rest about thirty three in uumber soon gave way to the hand of time Some of them dis appeared entirely while a small pile of stones remained to mark the place where others were supposed to have been This left the boundary between the two countries very poorly marked Some new towns and ranches had sprung up along the line and there was doubt as to which country they legsjly belonged The tax collectors were frequently baffled and the reve nue guards had some doubt about the line although they knew by tradition approximately where they had a right to enforce the laws at the point of a gun Some mines were discovered along the line and in more than one place the mines wero -located on both sides of it The United States import duty on lead and the Mexican export duty on gold and silver were of some importance and the very high duties on liquors all kinds of merchandise and live stock made the necessity for a well defined line Imperative The United States and Mexico final ly agreed upon re marking the boun dary from the Rio Grande to the Pa cific and upon the methods to be em ployed in the work According to the stipulations monuments were to be erected not more than five miles apart the weight of which should be not less than 500 pounds each and the line should not be changed from where first located by previous treaties Three years was allowed for making the line and other minor details were left to the joint commission The commis sioners organized their respective ex peditions and agreed to meet at El Paso where the line begins early in 1892 The commissioners for the United States were J W Barlow engineer-in-chief A T Mossman astronomer and D D Gailliard in charge of the field work Mexico was represented by Ja cobo Blanco engineer-in-chief an as tronomical party and other assistants About seventy five mules were pur chased in Missouri by the United States commissioners and an equal r wfr iixSSa ssrSv mb fvwn l Pr t ffv Mt1b MMLltyv Plciv g Monument 5 PP5 I IWPtTiI o7the ttswA pfl ymz A 3 n mm b JXmi MONUMENTS ON THE MEXICAN BOUNDARY to parallel 3120 thence west to inter section of third meridian thence north west to a point on the Colorado about twenty miles south of its confluence with the Gila At the time of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo the diplomats were ignorant of the fact that the Col orado River from the junction of the Gila runs a little north of west for a distance of about six miles and then resumes its general course southwest This caused a line to be run on the south side of the river where it was supposed when the treaty was made the river would form a natural boun dary Part of the town of Yuma and the territorial prison of Arizona have been built on this narrow strip of land and a difference of opinion has arisen as to the true boundary between Cali fornia and Arizona along this part of the line and the matter has found its way into the courts The question to be decided is whether the prisoners in the Arizona penitentiary are illegally confined in California when they should be in Arizona The Difficulties It is easy to -understand the difficul ties of surveying a line 700 miles in length without a supply point on the whole line All supplies necessary to a large expedition except a few arti cles of food such as wheat corn and fresh meat and even those scarce and very dear had to be conveyed either from the Pacific toast or the Gulf of Mexico Railroads had not yet reached the wild and woolly West and the few inhabitants were accustomed to the task of hauling freight with mules or oxen a distance which frequently reach ed 1000 miles Although five years passed between the two treaties only seven monu ment reaching from the Pacific coast to the confluence of the Gila and Golo rado Rivers had been set These were of thin cast iron joined at the corners by rivets except the one at the coast which was of marble and very number of men was deemed necessary engineers astronomers one comput er one photographer the writer one blacksmith one carpenter rodman teamster laborers servants and last but not least important cooks The Mexican Expedition The Mexican expedition was organ ized on the same plan but not quite so extensive They brought their mules from Mexico but nearly every thing else was of American manufac turewagons instruments and in fact everything necessary for the ex pedition Our appropriation for the work was 225000 but the Mexican government allowed their commission ers a monthly allowance of 3000 in Mexican silver Fortunately for them silver was almost at par when the work first began but it dropped in price till they were compelled to sell their dollars for 50 cents and buy sup plies at American prices The methods of running a long line on a parallel are different from ordi nary surveying It must run with the curve of the earth and therefore a straight line runs off on a tangent from the true curve line which at a distance of fifty miles amounts to about 1000 feet As no telescope has yet been in vented that will look around corners or long curve lines It is necessary to calculate the distance at every monu ment station across to the true line No compass is used in this kind of work for various reasons principally1 because it is not reliable there being a continual as well as regular varia tion which at San Diego amounts to 14 degrees The heliotrope is used as a target for the transit which once started on the line is sure to keep it The longest distance at which this lit tle instrument was used on this line was about ninety miles The helio trope is simply a combination of two mirrors that will reflect the sun in any direction thus forming an artificial sun as it were The method of using it at a longi range is to send a man ahead to a high elevation when by signals from the man in charge of the transit he places it at a given point where it musemain stationary until reached by the transit The heliotroper must remain wlthit to keep the sun continually shining upon one of the mirrors which are about three inches in diameter There he must stay it may be for days or it may be for months For measuring the distance in this work the stadia method was adopted which is simply calculating the space on an upright rod which comes between the cross hairs of the transit As the rod is moved away the space on the rod increases and vice versa This way of measuring the dis tance proved very satisfactory and much more correct than the chain It ranks next to the triangulatlon meth od for accuracy When we reached Tiajuana a little Mexican town twelve miles south of San Diego wrote a member of the Barlow party recently we found the old cast iron monument completely de stroyed nothing remaining but the base on which it formerly stood We re placed the base with a very large one of concrete in which we used six bar rels of cement On this we built a granite monument twelve feet high with elaborate inscriptions after which we placed a high steel fence around it for protection against relic hunters But before our office work was finished at San Diego a terrible flood came down the Otai River near which it stood and undermined it causing it to topple over into the roaring torrent never again appearing in sight The sand that washed down filling the bed of the river covered it so deep that kt was never found so that it was neces sary to construct an entire new one at a more secure place The final monu ment No 258 standing on the mesa overlooking the ocean was originally a very fine one but tie relic hunters had continued to break off the cor ners until it was battered into a dis graceful condition After recutting and re engravlng this beautiful piece of marble we placed a steel fence around it which will probably protect it from the vandal hand of the relic hunter This monument was shipped from Ver mont around Cape Horn to San Diego in 1851 and from there conveyed on gun carriages belonging to the mili tary post at San Diego to its destina tion where it has ever since been an object of interest especially to the Eastern tourist It required about five months to finT ish the office work and print the photo graphs after which the office was trans ferred to Washington where the work is being prepared for the final report An additional appropriation was neces sary for making maps and finishing the report and paying a few other inci dental expenses so we find that the cost to each government will amount to 300000 or 000000 in the aggre gate which with three years work in the field has given us a well marked international boundary with monu ments intervisible from one to an other at various distances from one half to five miles apart so that any part of the line may in the future be determined easily Manufacture of Wooden Boxes Among the thousands of industries whose headquarters are located in New York is the manufacture of wooden boxes Over 90 per cent of the busi ness of the world in this particular line of goods is done through New York It is not surprising then that the me tropolis should boast of the largest and oldest box establishments in the world Fancy boxes of every description are made They are all shapes sizes and styles and they are finished in a greaj variety of colors It is not generally known but it ia a fact said a prominent member of the trade that wooden boxes ara cheaper than those made of paper glass or tin They are shipped to almost ever country in the world one large New York house having established agencies in all the European countries Asia and Australia Patent automatic machinery is useo in their manufacture and over ten mil lion feet of lumber a year is made into boxes by one large New York firm alone Pigmy Races There are several pigmy races vary ing very little in size and ranging from three and a half feet to four and a half feet in height Among others are the Itas of the Philippines the Andaman islanders and the Akkas of Central Africa Of the African dwarf races Emin Pasha states that the tribes near Lake Akkas average four feet one inch Dr Parke who in 1SS6 discovered the Batwa gives their average height as four feet three inches but places them Intellectually above the Nubian ne groes These races are regarded by some anthropologists as survivors of a race that may have once occupied a much wider region extending it is sug gested over India North Africa the Pyrenees Switzerland and Central America A Good Lawyer George Washington Sr George did you cut down that cherry tree George Washington Jr Did you see me George Washington Sr Yes sir I did George Washington Jr Father I cannot tell a lie I did it with my lit tle hatchet Judge Preliminary Larkins You meaato tell me that that is a wedding procession on the way to the crematory Kilson Yes the bride is a Boston girl and they are going to thaw her out New York Journal Everyone occasionally wishes that his friends would worry more about his condition SPAIN AND UNCLE SAM NAVY STRENGTH OF TWO NA TIONS COMPARED Onr Chances on the Sea in Ca9e of War with the Spaniards The United States Navy Has Some Splendid Ships Comparison of Strenuth There has been considerable specula tion rife of late as to what might hap pen at sea if the United States and Spain went to war Possibly there are those who have an idea that the Span ish naval force is insignificant Facts show quite a contrary view of the mat ter Spain has at the present time 11 armored ships with 322 guns 63 unarmored ships with 306 guns 2 ar mored gunboats with 12 guns 40 unar mored gunboats with 267 guns 2 dis patch vessels with 8 guns 10 training and store ships with 10 guns and 79 torpedo boats The total number of guns on board the vessels in the Span ish navy is 960 ten of which weigh from 40 to 80 tons 110 from 20 to 40 tons 286 from 4 to 20 tons and 554 un der 4 tons Of the torpedo boats 60 are over 100 feet in length and are pro vided with torpedo catchers and every other valuable device known to modern naval equipment The most formidable ship in the Spanish navy is the Pelayo of 10000 tons burden which was constructed by French shipbuilders about ten years ago She represents the most formid able advancement along the line of na val warfare accomplished during the period that has elapsed since the Amer ican civil war Her ram is of the most powerful variety and her battery con sists of two 12 5 10 inch rapid fire guns which practically constitute her broad side Then there is a secondary bat tery of a dozen smaller guns and six torpedo tubes The Pelayo is more powerful than any vessel in the United States navy so far as armament is concerned She is provided with a steel waterline belt eighteen inches thick at the maximum and has a speed of about sixteen knots an hour An other superior craft is the armored cruiser Emperator Carlus V with a tonnage of 9100 She carries two eleven-inch guns in barbettes ten inches thick eight 5 inch rapid fire guns and four four inch rapid firers together with a powerful secondary battery of rapid fire six and three pounder guns Her protective deck is six inches thick and her sides are partially plated with two inch steel She is the newest of the Spanish fleet of any considerable size There is in the Spanish navy also one of the finest types of the modern armored cruiser It is the Infanta Ma ria Theresa She represents a fleet of eight cruisers of her own sort which fly the Spanish flag Her armament consists of two 9 45 00 guns in bar bettes and ten 5-10-inch rapid firers For protection she has a belt at the water line twelve inches thick along the central body of the ship Twelve inches is the thickness of the barbette armor As opposed to the Pelayo our navy has wonderful battleships in the Iowa the Indiana and the Massachusetts These two latter warships have each an armament of four 13 inch and four 6 inch guns and are of 11000 tons dis placement as compared with the Pe layos 10000 The Oregon another monster has a very thick plate of side armor which constitutes its superior ity The cruiser New York is a pro totype of the Carlos while its compan ion warship the Brooklyn is a little more than equal to either This vessel carries eight 8 inch and twelve 5 inch guns and is infinitely more modern than even the famous New York In a sea fight it is the opinion of experts counting in the Maine and the Texas with their twelve 6 inch guns their foot thick turrets and over 13000 tons displacement we should be able to put up a hard naval fight under all circum stances There is one point of advantage we have over Spain and that it is our rams and monitors While every mod ern warship is possessed af a ram we have in the Katahilfn a vessel built for nothing else but snking her prow into an unlucky foe The Katahdin is not a very big vessel as warships go for her tonnage is only 2200 but she could knock the spots off the best warship that was ever constructed armored or unarmored if only given half a chance Then there are our five double turreted monitors of which the most powerful is the Puritan of 6000 tons About half her size are the Terror the Am phltrite the Monadnock and the Mian tonomah Their armor is 11 inches thick and their guns are 10 inch pieces Of course the monitor is pre eminently a coast defender In smooth water and for harbor work this craft is unsur passed As opposed to Spain in general naval equipment we have 33 armored ships with 681 guns 33 unarmored ships with 551 guns 28 unarmored gunboats with 262 guns 1 dispatch vessel with 10 guns 36 training and store ships with 112 guns and 27 torpedo boats As against the 960 guns on board of vessels in the Spanish navy the United States has 1640 guns of which 64 are -from 40 to 80 tons 188 from 20 to 40 tons 317 from 4 to 20 tons and 10S0 under four tons If worst comes to worst and our war ships were inadequate in point of num bers we could call on our big liners for aid Of course it would not take much time to make unarmored cruisers out of them and so far as speed is concerned there is nothing in the Spanish navy or ur own either for that matter which could touch them Spain has one big liner upon which it could draw the Compania Trans Atlantic whose thirty-two steamers have a gross tonnage of more than 100000 To defeat Spain in a sea contest would it will be seen from the facts given be a task that differs widely from childs play If Uncle Sam and Don Spaniard really come to blows it will be a duel each of the combatants In which will have a foeman worthy of his steel A GRANT MEDAL It Commemorates the Completion of thetNew York Monument The American Numismatic and Ar cheological Society has issued a medal to commemorate the completion of the Grand monument The medal is in bronze is two and one half inches in diameter and bears on the obverse the bust of Gen Grant and the seal of the society The portrait committee of the society after careful deliberation and research selected for the medal de sign the portrait which appeared in the Century Magazine for December 1SS4 accompanying that publications series of wTar articles It is also the one which Gen Grant acccepted as a correct representation of himself as he was when in his prime about the time of the battle of Shiloh On the reverse of the medal appears a true picture of the oempleted monument In issuing the Grant medal the so ciety follows its custom in commemo rating noteworthy events among the medals it has heretofore used being the Lincoln medal in 1866 the Wash ington medal in 1S83 the Columbus medal in 1893 and the Muhlemberg medal in 1896 Gen Horace Porter who was a member of Gen Grants staff during the war and intimately as sociated with him in after years has OBSERVE FEVERSE pronounced the portrait on the medal an excellent likeness of the great com mander and the Grand monument committee represented by Mayor Strong Gen Porter and Elihu Root have given their approval of the medal and have adopted it as the official medal of the occasion A Monopoly Ive got a great mind said the young man to go West and grow up -with the country But you dont know anything about agriculture I know that But there are one or two sections where there seem to be so many politicians that I believe an ener getic man could come pretty near get ting a monopoly of the farming Washington Star The Way to Do It What I want is to achieve fame at a singte bound Then go to Cuba and lose yourself Cleveland Plain Dealer sJTZTt BIRTHPLACE OF SPIRIT RAPPING Country Home in New York State Where the fox Sisters Won Fame Prominent believers in spiritualism recently held a convention at Roches ter X Y in honor of the forty ninth anniversary of the birth of modern spiritualism Many people believe that WHERE 8PIRITS FIRST RAPPED Rochester is the birthplace of spirit rappings but this Is an error The real birthplace was Hydeville Wayne Coun ty a few miles from Newark The spirit rapping phenomenon began iu March 1848 in the family of John D Fox at that place After a while the raps occurred only in the presence of the two sisters Margaret and Kate The family having removed to Roches ter the raps accompanied them and new phenomena including clairvoy ance and the movement of ponderable bodies without appreciable agency were developed In November 1849 the Fox girls ap peared in a public hull and the phe nomena were freely manifested and subjected to many tests In May 1850 the Fox girls arrived In New York the alleged spiritual manifestations be came the subject of extensive news paper and conversational discussion Their faces were published far and wide Mediums through whom thej DARK SPANISH FLEET WHITE UNITED STATES FLEET THE WARSHIPS OF SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES were said to occur sprang up in differ ent parts of the country and were mul tiplied by hundreds and almost by thousands Blackboard Spelling The revival of the old fashioned spell ing school has been tried in some locali ties but only to prove that it does nor as a rule reach the poor spellers they stay away from it they are not want ed in a spelling match says the North American Review The spelling school was for the glorification of the good spellers It did something no doubt for depraved brain cells before such mysteries were ever heard of in con nection with spelling books before physical Inertia could be charged to weak valvular heart action and tem per to microbes and all the rest The spelling school belongs to a past dis pensation says my friend but it sug gests -what might do much for raphy if the blackboard were made a conspicuous feature and the attention concentrated upon the reading and writing of sentences of -which the lowing Hnight be an example Mr Wright the wheelwright does not write rite rightly with helpful stories occasionally like that of the teacher who wrote upon the board the three1 words Boys Bees Bear asking thei children to construct and write a sen tence in which these words would be used intelligently one boy giving at once Boys bees bear when they goe in swimming The Home of Dyspepsia San Francisco seems to be the natu ral home of dyspepsia Physicians there say that ten out of twelve of the inhabitants suffer from indigestion5 The only explanation suggested is the fact that the climate allows fruit and vegetables to be had almost the yeai around so that there is not the en forced change of diet that residents o other regions have Unduly Editor This fellow is littering the office with miserable poetry Well havo to put a check on him Poet who has heard the word checs rushing in Ill be obliged if youll let me have the check right away sir Philadelphia North American Babies Liifce liight Colors Anything black will produce more disturbance in your babys mind than anything white A child refusing to go to a relative in dark clothes would not hesitate if the suit were changed to a light color