1G
THE ILLUSTRATED BEE.
August 28, 1904
People and Things of Public Interest
TIUTOMOBILJ- racing Is not a nov
flk elty by any means, although
Omaha has Just had its first taste
55SJ of what may be called the real
" ' thing In this line. One of man's
ambition, traceable from his earliest days,
has been to eliminate the iu:intitlca of time
and space, or rather to make them one.
The mere f;tct that the attainment Is out
Of the question udds list to the pursuit,
And Impels man to further endeavors. Not
a means of transportation has been dis
covered but It has been put to the tent to
determine In how short a lime It can cover
a riven distunep. Naturally the automobile
Was subjected to this test very early In Its
Career, urn I for several years the sporting
Columns of the papers have been filled with
accounts of the wonderful performances of
the reckless men who drive their machines
a. furious speed over tracks nnd along the
toads in tho endeavor to lower the time
record for the distance. Now and then the
Accounts of these affairs have slopped over
tnto tho columns devoted to casualties, and
onus rather appalling lists of killed and
wounded have been published. Note, for
example, the Paris-Madrid road race In
Jrranco, which was stopped by the French
authorities at the end of the first day's
running.
In America the high sped contests hav
been confined almost exclusively to the
race tracks, with the result that but very
few serious accidents have been recorded.
On the trades the machines are nearly
always driven by men who make It their
business and who have trained every fac
ulty to tho sensation of traveling at tre
mo.idous speed for short time periods, so
that they are safe. If tho machine only
bolds together. The most noted of this
Class In America are those who were in
Omaha last week, Harney Ohlfleld and
Alonzo Webb. lloth of these men gradu
ated from the ranks of the professional
bicycle riders and brought to their new
avocation the advantago of training In a
port fully as exacting and almost as ex
citing as the one in which they now shine.
Oldflcld has driven red devils and green
dragons and the liko on almost every track
In the country and has made records that
are .not equalled by those of any other
The Age
The Ace of a Ilrlde.
N a recent contribution to the
press Dorothy Dix gave many ex
cellent reasons against early mar-
IcSflSpl rluges. Now her views are reln
t I forced by Edwin Wurflold, the
governor of Maryland. In an Interview
In the Baltimore Sun he Is quoted as say
Ins somewhat jocularly that 26 years was
the best age for a woman to marry, that
that was the age of Mrs. Wurueld when
lie married her. Continuing more seii
ualy, he said:
I do think that many lives are mado
failures by persons marrying before their
characters have been formed. You know,
whom flrst we lovowe rarely wed.' This
to a very true saying. Young people are
Impressionable and romantic, and, If left
to tholr own free will, are apt to rush Into
matrimony without properly considering
the grave responsibilities of married life.
Many coses have come under my observa
tion where youthful and hasty marriages
have resulted In unhapplnoss, discontent
and lives of drudgery. The old saying,
Marry in haste and repent at leisure,'
proves too often true. Young men and
women should remember that the romantlo
attichements of youth are not generally
lasting.
"I would not wish to be regarded as
laying down Ironclad rules concerning the
exact age when a girl should marry; it
might be at 22, 21, 26 or 20 years It all
depends upon the physical and mental do
velopment of the girl. I mean rather to
Indicate that a girl should not marry until
. she wus over 21, and of an age to compre
hend the responsibility of the marriage
state and to make an Intelligent choice of
the man whose companionship will be
lthcr a help or a hindrance to her life.
There are many serious quebtlons to be
considered In deciding upon tills most Im
portant step. Health, heredity, environ
ment, taste, social tendencies, all should
be carefully weighed if a happy marrlod
life Is desired. Girls should not be carried
away with tho good looks and fascinating
manners of men. The man a girl wouliT
marry when she leaves school Is usually
not the man she would select after shs
has seen more of the world.
"Marriage for the purpnxe of settling a
daughter In life Is, as a rule, a failure and
an unhappy one. No parent, nnd especi
ally no true and loving millier. will wish
to push her daughter Into matrimony be
fore she Is fully matured and fitted for
the grave responsibilities of married life.
Young girls Just out of school are not
quipped for the ordinary household duties
ef wives and for the cares and trials of
motherhood. They should, after leaving
71
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MISS OUACR HAUTMAN AND THR PTX1AT WITH WHICH SHE WON FIRST
DURINO THK CARNIVAL, AT DEW ITT, Neb.
ehauffeur In America, at least. On the
Omaha track he gave two wonderful per
formances, lowering his own time for a
mile on a half-mile track twice. One he did
It In a trial against the record and ngain
he did it In competition. His perform
ances seem the ultimate limit In foolhardy
daring. While his machine Is built ex
pressly for racing, and Is undoubtedly
safeguarded as far as human Ingenuity
and forethought can do so, yet he volun
tarily assumes the terrible risk of acci
dent, depending on the steel and rubber
of the machine holding together, while he
subjects it to the most terrific strain he can
put upon It. Dashing around the track at
the rate of almost sixty miles an hour, he
guides his frail machine from side to Bido
of a Bride
school, spend some time with their parents,
giving those parents the pleasure of their
companionship and learning something of
the every-day work that will be theirs as
wives.
"The girl who marries too early misses
many of the pleasures of life. She is
doomed to spend her youthful days In the
trying and vexing cares of motherhood
and household duties, with broken health
and run-down nerves before she has passed
her teena. Such marriages are unfor
tunate. They are entered into without
due consideration and frequently before
the husband has fully established his busi
ness ability and the earning capacity that
will enable him to provide for the increas
ing wants of married life. Girls should
be taught that there Is more In life than
getting married; that when they leave
school they owe some service to their par
ents, and that they should spend some of
their days In making the lives of their
fathers and mothers easier and brighter.
"The same advice pertains to young men.
I have known of cases where young men,
because thoy married too soon and befor
they had established themselves In perma
nent positions, were compelled to give up
good opportunities for advancement becau.-
family ties and environments kept them
down to one locality. The realization of
the mistakes of marrying too early has
discouraged many a young man, blasted
his future, brought disappointment to him
self and deprivation and suffering to his
family.
"I believe In marriage, and would like to
ee every man and woman mated In con
genial companionship for life, but I am
opposed to early and thoughtless marriages.
"Do not understand mo as fixing any age
limit as the period for marriage, though
the proper period, in my Judgment, is be
tween twenty-one and twenty-six. I only
speak from my own experience. I was
38 years old when I married and my wife
twelve years my Junior. We are happy and
contented with our lot and have four chil
drenthree girls nnd one boy all vigorous
and healthy physically and mentally. Hence
my reasons for advocating a mature ago
before marriage."
No Further Delay
The commander of the forces besieging
Port Arthur turned to a subordinate.
"Have all tho American presidential and
vice presidential candidates been notified of
their nominations yet?" he asked.
"They have, general," responded the sub
ordinate. "Then let the assault on the fort begin
at once!" shouted the general, the light of
battle flaming la his eyes. Chicago Trl
buntv. '
around the turns and . down the
stretches with precision and accuracy,
and apparently thinks no more of it than
tho ordinary amateur does of turns a
street corner at a slow pace. Not less spec
tacular than tho performance ' of Oldfleld
was that of Webb, who, while he did not
make any new records, was a splendid sec
ond in the races with his more noted oppo
nent, and who furnished one really sensa
tional bit of entertainment for the large
throng assembled on the second day. One
of tho tires on a front wheel exploded whMe
he was driving a machine at Its utmost
ppeed and rendered It Impossible to steer.
Tho machine swerved from the track and
against the fence, going through before It
was stopped, but the plucky Webb huns to
Peat Turned Into Coal
URN back the pendulum 'of tine
and make the period between
carboniferous ago and the pres
ent of .twenty-cisht minutes dura
tion. No more waiting for count
less centuries for nature to furnish the fuel
to heat homes, furnish power for factories,
carry on the mechanic arts' and breed
strikes in Pennsylvania. A Chicago engi
neer has solved the problem of chinglng
marsh mud Into anthracite coal and mak
ing It a marketable product all within two
minutes less than half an hour after It Is
taken from the bog.
During the last week practical demonstra
tions liavo beon made In this city with peat
fuel manufactured by the process patented
by J. Campbell Morrison, consulting engi
neer of the United States Peat Fuel com
pany, after four years of experimenting.
Tho results have shown a heat efficiency
equaling. If not surpassing, that possessed
by the higher grades of anthracite coal.
Chemical analysis has shown a combination
of hydro-carbons and volatile substances
giving thorough combustion; physical an
alysis a specific gravity approaching and
in some cases exceeding that of hard coal,
so thnt a ton of peat fuel will take no more
room in the cellar than Is required for a toa
of coal. The peut fuel can be produced at
less than 90 cents a ton.
There Is nothing new In the 4doa of utiliz
ing peat, the soil that covers thousands of
acres of waste land throughout the United
States to the depth of from three or four
to fifty feet, as fuel. The trouble has been
to develop a process economical enough to
make It an article of commerce. The elimi
nation of the moisture in the raw product
has been one of the drawbacks. Another
has leen tho compressing of the dried peat
into cubes or blocks that would withstand
the weather and not disintegrate in ship
ment. From the tests mado Mr. Morrison seems
to have solved all theso problems. A cen
trifugal separator for the removal of part
of tho moisture at a low cost and a drier
that reduces tho remaining moisture to
approximately the percentage contained In
anthracite coal have overcome one obsta
cle. The other and most important im
provement, wherein the commercial value
of the finished product rests, has to do with
the compressor that packs the ground par
ticles of peat into blocks for the market
In the systems heretofore employed the
peat briquettes, or tablets, have been
formed by a fixed pressure, which has not
given them sufficient density. Hy the sys
tem demonstrated last week the density
sought is obtained by a yielding pressure
an Impact and a slide by a ram of great
power.
This combines the a to ins and molecules
PRIZH IN THE FLOWER PARADE
his peat and stopped the racer before It was
damaged to an extent that could not easily
be repaired. Two hours or such a matter
nfterward he rode downtown on the ma
chine that had Riven the people such a
fright by Its unruly performance.
On Thursday and Friday of last week
DeWItt, in Saline county, held Its annual
August carnival. Of all the fiestas of the
lesser Nebraska towns not one Is more
largely attended, nor more worthy of pa
tronage than this celebration of DeWilt'a.
Tho flower parade and trades display was
elaborate and beautiful. Herewith we pre
sent tho picture of Miss Grace Hartman,
who took first honors In the flower parade,
winning the $20 prize.
of tho separated peat particles and gives
them a chemical combination like that of
the coal dug from the ground. The slid
ing pressure, aided by steam heat on the
outside of the cylindrical Jacket through
which the fuel cubes pass, also forces the
natural tar and pariffine in the peat six
pounds of the former and two pounds of
the latter to tho 100 pounds into a glazoi
exterior that renders the block impervious
to moisture.
The scientific experts can show long
tables of figures, showing the constituents
of coal and peat and the chemical changes
that produce them. For the layman, it is
sufficient to remember that the beds of
coal lying hundreds of feet beneath the
earth's surface are the formations of ages
of decomposition of vegetable changes. In
peat there exists the same elements. The
modern scientist simply has produced ma
chines to do nature's work of ages in a
few minutes.
More than that, the scientists offer to
show that they have Improved on nature.
Practical tests made at the shops of the
Weir & Craig Manufacturing company,
where the plant Invented by Mr. Morrison
has been Installed, showed that there is
none of the waste, through smoke and es
caping gases, in the use of peat fuel that
attends the use of both hard and soft
coal. There were no clinkers and the
percentage of ashes was much lower than
in the case of coal.
One particularly interesting test was
made with an ordinary cook stove. A fire
first ws built with four pounds of kindling
and six pounds of hard coal. A thermo
gauge was placed In the oven and readings
made at regular intervals through a pecp
holo. When the fire had died out and th
stove was cool another tire was built with
four pounds of kindling and six pounds of
peat briquettes, and readings again were
made. They showed that the average heat
obtained was 10 per cent greater with the
use of peat, while the duration of effective
heat was 20 per cent greater.
Several engineers in charge of the mo
tive power of railroad systems and other
experts has been witnessing the tests, and
great interest has been aroused in the new
fuel. Chicago Record-Herald.
Francis' Early Life
David R. Francis, president of the St,
Louis fair corporation and ex-governor of
Missouri, began life as a newsboy and
to the sharpness which he acquired while
acting in that capacity attributes a good
deal of his success. There was a conven
tion of newsboys at the fair the other day
and President Francis told them of his
boyish experiences, much to their delight.
