The Omaha Sunday Bee
HoWO
Goi Him
naaha
OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 18, 1917.
0
II icJas hy lAe rouie of
loafing on i fie docks?
herding sheep and ped
Omaha Snatches Out of the
Air Wireless Messages from
All Quarters of the Globe
Comb Honey
By EDWARD BLACK.
Those articles about how Omaha
got its famous men are alt right, but
what we would like to know is. how
is Omaha going to get a new Union
depot? '
Photo shows interior of the wireless receiving station erected
by two Omaha men, George J. S. Collins (standing) and
Frank L. Brittin (seated), who are taking off messages pass
ing through the atmosphere over their heads. . , '
dling coffee.
We know a young man who is very
I mucn in neen 01 a nair cut, out we
are airam 01 cutting nis mennsnip
by referring to his hirsute peculiar
Steve Maloney denies that he is
learning to play a ukelele.
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By EDWARD BLACK.
The' air even in Omaha is not free,
as the public, has been led to be;
lieve. It it policed by Uncle Sam.
Every hour of the twenty-four hours
of the day the air above us is filled
with wireless messages, free to those
who have instruments to receive, but
not free to divulge reports of the
frtat conflict in Europe, diplomatic
exchanges, reports o! ships at sea and
'other important information. If you
want to know about it ask Frank L.
Brittin, a comparatively young wire
leu expert who is operating a .radio
station nights "in our midst" in con
junction with George J. S. Collins.
Brittin and Collins assert their sta
tion, located at 3020 Dewey avenue,
has unlimited receiving power and
are ready to back their, claim that
there is no station in this country of
greater receiving radius. On January
8 Mm. Brittin "tuned up" nil instru
ment to hear Naiakhan, Asiatic Rus
sia, nearly 10,000 miles away. Ex
plaining how they knew he Was hear
ing Naiakhan, he said the sending op
erator fluently signed "R. N. N.,"
recorded in an cfneial book as the
initials which designate that station
and are recognized all over the world
as belonging to Naiakhan. He does
not claim to be able to hear Naiakhan
every evening when he sits at his in
strument and picks up messages from
across the seas, but January 8 was a
"freak evening," when conditions
were unusually favorable for long
distance receiving.
Almost any everting, however, he
can tune up to hear Hanover, Ger
many, .or Koko Head. Hawaii, tlte
former, being nearly 6,000 miles to the
east. and the latter nearly 4,000 miles
to the west. ' v y
"Do you want to hear Hanover.
Germany?" asked Mr. Brittin..- '
The instrument . was adjusted to
the head and the sounds heard may be
likened to interruptions of a high
pitched note, the interruptions being
recognized by the experienced ear as
the Morse code. -.'
"The impulses arc Received in a
very delicate ftistrumci'it which mag
nifies them by heating the electric
ions and throwing them oif a cold
plate and then through a 'scries of
coils and condensers so that they are
audible and intelligible," was an ex
planation' offered.
It, is all tery simple to the expert,
but 'rather intricate to the lay mind.
"Whit about these wireless waves
sertt-'out from Hanover, Koko Head,
Savvilic, Eiffel Tower and other
places i" was asked,
"When an oocrator -:rnds out a
wave he ruptures the ether. The '."tig-1
distance stations transmit tvh.it -v 1
known as the undamped waves, which
travel 100,000 miles a second' he con
tinued.. '
"One hundred and six thousand
miles a second?" queried the dizzy
headed interviewer.
"That is exactly what happens." he
insisted. , "These undamped waves
travel on indefinitely: we don't know
how far, and we know they will go
through earth, cock, steel or any sub
. iUvicc." ''.. :
The powerful receiving apparatus
' at .this local " radio station may be
adjusted to receive 1,000 different
wireless waves. Eacli large station
of the world sends out an individual
wave length which is known, or may
he known o all able to receive their
messages. That is why it is neces
sary to "tune up"-the. receiving in
strament to catch the wave of the par
-Keep your eye on this page
from week to week. A. lot of
exclusive local features sure
to delight you art scheduled
for next and every Sunday
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in hi mmu hi TiW r'iiirinrii-iMr
ticular station whose message is de
sired. According to Brittin, wireless
waves are absorbed by all metal ob
jects. "While you are asleep the
springs of your bed may be receiving
a message of international impor
tance." We also insists that bed
springs or a kitchen range may be
easily transformed into an aerial. It
is not necessary, he adds, to have the
aerial outside of a building to pick
the messages.
Mr. Brittin. has much interesting
information relating to the selenium
cell which has been revolutionizing
the electrical world. This cell is very
sensitive to light and sound. Through
the application of this cell to the
typewriter he predicts the passing of
the stenographer. A typewriter has
been invented which will respofld to
the sounds of letters as pronounced,
but the invention has not been per
fected to respond to entire words.
"The time will come when the tired'
business man will wear a metal plate
in his shoe and carry a receiving in
strument in his pocket and while
walking along the street will be able,
to tell his wife he has an important
engagement at the club, or some other
excuse just as good," facetiously re
marked the man of wireless thoughts.
Mr. Brittin has been invited hv
Lieutenant McCauty to go to the!
ureal i-as naval training station
to assist in the establishment of a
government radio school for opera
tors. There are now 22,000 amateur wire
less stations in the United States and
thirty of them in Omaha. Somt ama
teur stations have a receiving radius
of 2,500 miles and t sending capacity
from live, to 500 miles, the latter dis
tance being the exception.
Frank Whipperman has no hobby
except boosting for the Midwest Ce
ment show.' He could play golf or
billiards or pitch horseshoes, but
when he has a moment to spare in his
work as head of the Qmaha Concrete
Stone works he is boosting for the
cement show, dictating letters, talking
to cemenf men or selling space for
the cement show. , , .
"I'd like to have time for" a little
recreation of one kind or another, but
by the time I put in spare time boost
ing the show the time is all gone,"
said Whipperman.
Whipperman is a veteran of the
Spauish.American war. During his
soldier days in Cuba he had a hobby.
His hobby was exploring old forts
and castles. Consequently he was al
ways getting across the deadline of
some old fort or castle that was un
der guard by the American regulars,
and it was not an infrequent sight to
see him leaping out of a high port
hole in the castle with the bayonet of
a regular at his coattail.
A. B. McConnefl of the Sherman
if cConnell Drug company manages a
big orchard for amusement and profit
down in southern Missouri Maybe
Those Were the Happy Days I
Do you remember the good old
days when we were gallery gods? It
does not seem so many years ago,
after all, but when we come to think
about it, those days were before au
tomobiles, phonographs, motion pic
tures or wireless telegraphy were es
tablished. Remember when some'
popular show was on, how we would
wait in a line for the gallery to open?
Usually one member of our gang
would get the tickets and the rest of
us would be waiting for him at the
topmost point of the stairs. Then
we would make a line drive for the
front row and be in our seats long
before the first occupant would ap
pear in the parquat The gallery in
those days represented a clientele not
to be sneezed at
More than three decades ago the
Hanlons piesented their "Superba"
and "Fantasma" for the first time in
Omaha at the old Boyd theater at
Fifteenth and Farnam streets. And
do you remember James O'Neill as
Kdmond Dantes in "Monte Cristo?"
How we were thrilled when Monte
cut himself free from the sack in the
water and exclaimed, "The world is
mine I" Have you forgotten the trick
scenery of Byrne Bros.' "Eight
Bells? Verona Jar beau was there
in 'Nanon" and "Starlight." Fond
memories are awakened , when we
mention Jolly Nellie McHenry, Katie
Emmett, Kate Claxton in "The Two
Orphans," Sol Smith Russell in
"Peaceful Valley, "The Poor Rela
tion" and "New Edgewood Folks;"
Mattie Vickers, Patti Rosa, Jeffreys
Lewis, Lulu Glaser, Gus Williams,
Corrine, Tom Keene, Robert Down
ing, Joseph Murphy, Flora Walsh
Hoyt, Milton and Dolly Nobles, Alice
Evans, Mark Murphy, Frank Mayo
and many others.
Those were the happy days I '
Papa's Baby Girl.
Tom O'Connor, city clerk, main
tains that a man has not lived a full
life until he has experienced the thrill
of hearing his first-born say, "Papal"
He has just passed through that im
portant epoch of life. Nor is that
all of it. He knows what it is to be
summoned from his conch to supply
some infantile need of the night. He
avers that pacing from pantry to par
lor, pacifying his progeny with pare
goric, is something that mol be seen
to be appreciated. He it now prac
ticing a few lullabys, such at "Rock
abye, Baby, on the Tree Top." He
also has mastered the art of placing
a pin where it will do the most good
without making the baby yell. And
he has resigned himself to this fre
quent observation of friends. "The
dear little thing looks just like her
mother, doesn't the?" And Tom
O'Connor replies, "Yes."
Speaking of the eternal fitness of
things, it is rather appropriate that
marriage licenses are issued at the
court house. After the courting days,
then the court house: and, sometimes,
it is the court house again. (Ap
proved by the National Board of Cen
sors.) c
"Mr. Toastmasrer."
Reversing the established order of
things has proved in some instances
to be a pleasurable activity. The
custom of addressing oneself to a ka
leidoscopic variety of food and then
being addressed by a battery of speak
ers, at a function known as i banquet,
needs reversing. From both a physi
ological and psychological point of
view it is uncouth to first crowd the
digestive tract with provender and
then impose a lot of facts and fic-
it is not exactly a hobby, but anyway
the orchard gets all his attention dur
ing spare moments, and one of his
jobs locally is to go into the market
and buy some 500 pouuds annually of
insecticide of various kinds with
which the orchard must be sprayed.
Rome Miller's hobby is auto driv
ing and flower gardens. Mr. Miller
drives in his car for hours every
day, just to be driving. In Los An
geles, where he now.livcs, ne is driv
ing much in his car. There also he
has one of the finest flower gardens
in the city. He paid some $10,000 or
$15,000 for a lot near his house just
in order that he might plant flowers
in it and have a garden to suit his
own tastes. . Here he has a wilder
ness of flowers with the bold Vord
"Omaha" worked out in variegated
shades of floral colorings.
E. J. McVann does not spend all
his life reading freight tariffs to make
legal battles against advances before
the Interstate Commerce commission.
No, when. he is not reading freight
rate schedules, he is reading mavbe
Shakespeare, or Tennyson, or Edgar
Allen Foe, or John G. Neihardt. He
loves to read and his range of read
ing is very wide. He reads tut most
By A. EDWIN LONG.
If that historic blizzard of 1888
hadn't blown all the profit out of the
sheep business in Montana, a certain
well-known Omaha man might today
be bringing trainloads of his sheep to
the Omaha market, and walking the
streets in cowboy hat and corduroys.
But the blizzard came and so this
man came to Omaha, not at once, but
eventually, after he had drifted away
from Montana and tried other loca
tions throughout Uncle Sam's domain.
Then- too, if his big brother hadn't
sent him back from the Ozark moun
tains, when, as a kid, he ran away
from home and sought to bury him
self in these hills, he might today be
a drawling southern Ozarkian farmer.
But he isn't.
Instead, he is keeper of the records,
the scribe, the confidential adviser and
general secretary for the organiza
tion of big retail concerns in Omaha.
He is J. W. Metcalfe, secretary of
the Associated Retailers of Omaha.
Born in St. Louis, this lad early
learned to loaf around the docks on
the Mississippi, learned to smoke
from the durkies and dock hands, be
came an expert swimmer in the
swiftest current of the Mississippi,
stubbed his toes on the cobblestones
tion upon the mental recesses. It
should be talk "before tea. The minds
of banqueters are keener before the
inner man has been sated. The mind
needs a rest after the body has re
ceived its nourishment. The proposed
plan would protect the last speaker
from addressing a weary crowd and
some empty seats.
Irritations of Life.
Waiting for a crosstown car.
To have a friend ask, "Are you go
ing away?" when you are carrying a
satchel. 1
To have your wife awaken yon ont
of a touot sleep to say she heard a
strange noise.
To have some cave man in front of
you at the theater explain audibly the
details of the play. ' .
To have an old-time school girl
friend tell your wife what a nice little
boy you were when you went to
school.
To try to write with a pen found
on the counters at various pubjic,
places. '
Wanted Young man to work in
livery barn. Must have stability
Some men make money raising
chicks and others raising checks.
Oldest Inhabitant What is a cow
on roller skates? -
Careful Observer Rolling stock.
ours
ancient philosophies along wilh the
most modern fiction. He reads the
lightest doggerel in the line of verse,
along with the heaviest matter pro
duced by all the masters of the muse
in all the ages. Queer combination,
this mingling of stern freight sche
dules with tinkling rhymes. But . Mc
Vann says:'"Why not? One is making
bread and butter; the other is enter
tainment?"1 Single tax is the hobby of .W. F.
Baxter. Mr. Baxter knows every an
gle of the philosophy which seeks to
take for communal development the
rental value of lands instead of let
ting this flow into coffers of absentee
landlords. Yes, he is thoroughly famil
iar with every word written by Henry
George, the expounder of this doc
trine. Baxter knows "Progress and
Poverty" backward and forward. He
can almost recite the book, beginning
at the back page and working toward
the front. He knows, too, every cor
ner of the earth where single tax or
any phase of single tax has ever been
put into practice and how it has
worked out
During the last year H. O. Wilhelm
has developed a hobby for getting
members for the. Commercial club. He
of St. Louis, and played "hooky" from
school.
All .these things he learned in St.
Louis.
Abo he coasted down a steep hill
in that city with a load qf a dozen
other boys on a big sled. The speed
was terrific, but something went
wrong with the steering gear and the
sled sought to mow down a telegraph
pole near the foot of the hill.
Several of the boys were badly
stunned and battered, but poor Walter
Metcalfe, for so the boys called him
was directly in line with the pole.
He had been the pilot.
They picked him up and sent for
the ambulance. They mopped the
blood from his face and hurried him
home. They took him for dead, but
sent for a doctor just as a matter of
course. In about as much time as
elapses between sunset and sunup,
this lad began to show signs of life.
The doctor pulled patches of his lip
together and sewed them fast. He
bored into his nose and finding the
bones so badly crushed as to be of
no further use to his anatomy, he
removed them in chunks and frag
ments. He patched up the lad's scalp
in various places and altogether pnt
him in the way of becoming a real
human being again.'
But when spring came the wander
lust got him. He ducked away from
school and fractions, consulted an
employment bureau and shipped to
the Ozark mountains, where he want
ed to work on a farm and become an
Ozark farmer.
Down in those hills his brother,
Richard L. Metcalfe, was editing a
little newspaper. He grabbed this
kid off the train and made him fold
papers in the print shop, instead of
letting him drive mules for the Ozark
farmers.
But Richard decided the boy onght
to go back home, so he packed him
on the tram and sent him to his par
ents at St Louis. . '
Now the lad remembered he had a
brother o a hdtnestead near Fort
Benton, Mont. He hopped upon an
other train and went to the home
stead. There he. rode wild horses, herded
sheep, baked biscuits and turned flap
jacks with his brother for a few years.
They got into the shfep business in
pretty good shape.
Once an outlaw came to the ranch
with some stolen horses, when J. W.
was alone at home. The outlaw de
cided he would stay a few days, so
he coralled his horses and began to
bake biscuits for Metcalfe.
"And those were the finest biscuits
I ever ate," says Metcalfe. "That
fellow knew how to make them light
and fluffy, if he was a horse thief, and
after I had baked biscuits for his sup
per he told me he would do the bak
ing after that. Of course I let him
HoHby !
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was chairman of the membership com
mittee ana as sucn ne saw prospective
members -even in his sleep. It was
under his administration as chairman
that the membership was boosted to
2,000. He is now secretary of the
club, but has not lost the membership
bug.
Handling the megaphone at local
banquets is the hobby of O. T. East
man. Eastman is about the liveliest
announcer in the Commercial club
when it comes to any kind of a good
fellowship banquet He wields a big
megaphone through which he spills
his witticisms in almost a steadv
stream. He keeps the ball rolling
wnen it might otherwise tall through
a hole in the floor.
David Cole, John T. Yates and H.
K. Burket play pool almost every
afternoon of their lives at the Com
mercial club rooms. . They haul in
some other fellow to make a fourth
party, and then they, cut loose on
the game of "one and fifteen." If
the game is not a hobBy with these
fellows, then, their friends cannot see
when they get time to pursue their
real hobby, since they spend so much
time at the pool table.
do it. He had a six-shooter on his
this game now," he said. "I'll take
hip all the time, and why shouldn't 1
let him have his way?
"So he baked biscuits, and between
times he went out, roped some of his
horses and broke them to ride. Talk
about wild west shows! That fellow
gave me exhibitions of broncho bust
ing that I have never seen equalled in
any wild west show. He had to ride
some of those horses, a half day to
take the fight out of them, and at
noon some of them we.re still pitch
ing." But the horse thief, went away with
the herd after a few days, and Met
calfe looked after the sheep in peace.
In a saloon in Fort Benton young
Metcalfe was tared into a poker game
by a couple of professional sharps.
"Only penny ante," they said. When
they had played a half hour, they
suggested playing for a dollar anty
to make it interesting.
"Here boy," said a big voice behind
Metcalfe. Metcalfe looked around
and saw the bartender, big Vet Wool
worth, standing over him with his
hand on the boy's shoulder.
The bartender lifted Metcalfe clear
of his chair and took his place at the
table. "It's time for you to break off
the hand from now on."
And the lad has ever since been
Qrcfe History of Omaka
AD flie truth an J untruth thats fit to know
By A. R. GROH.
Chapter II. Discovery of America.
The first chapter of my grea't his
tory, as you no doubt remember,
took up Nebraska in prehistoric times
and brought it down from the days
of the dinosaurus and the mound
builders to the times of the Indian,
the noble red man of the plains.
It is now necessary for us to turn
our attention for a short time to a
land beyond the Atlantic ocean in
order to show how this country came
to the attention of white men.
Our narrative carries us today to
sunny Spain, the land of grapes and
wine and bull fights and toreadors
and dark eyed senoritas.
At that time the people believed the
world was flat It looked flat and
therefore they thought it was flat.
COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA
How the ocean was kept from running
off at the edges they did not attempt
to explain.
There was one man, however, who
did not share these views. He be
lieved the world was round.
His name was Columbus. He was
a Spaniard who had become famous
by discovering how to make an egg
stand on end which no one was able
to do before he did it.
Intoxicated by this success, he de
termined to discover America. He
was poor as most great men are. The
present historian is poor also. Some
of the greatest discoveries and inven
tions and writings have been effected
by poor men.
Columbus went to Queen Isabella
with his scheme. She spoke to her
husband, the king, about it.
But the king laughed. He told
Columbus he was crazy. Bat the
queen stood by Columbus.
THE;NEWS 15 -BROUGHT -.TO - OMAHA
thankful to this burly bartender, for
he knew nothing of poker, and the
fellows he was pitted against were
planning to go through his little pile
rapidly.
Then came the blizzard. The
sheep were far and wide in the hills.
By thousands the sheep were frozen
all over Montana and the great west.
The Metcalfe boys lost most of theirs
with the rest, and J. W. fled once
more for St. Louis.
There he peddled coffee for a tea
and coffee house for a time, and then
decided once more to follow his
brother, Richard L., who was editor
of a paper in Omaha.
When he arrived in Omaha ha be-
gan to plug about in the printing and
then in the advertising departments
of the newspapers here. For time
he was advertising manager for one
of the dailies, and that's how he got
well acquainted with the big retailers
of the city.
.Then the retailers started their as
sociation, and made him secretary,
which explains how he landed here
after learning river slang on the
docks at St Louis, folding papers in
the Ozarks, herding sheep in - Mon
tana, and peddling coffee from door
to door in St. Louis. v
Next Wwk How Omaha Oat ChartM R.
Shcmuui. .
"I will pawn my jewels," she said.
So she pawned her jewels and with
the money bought him three steam
ers, the "Nebraska," the " Iowa" and
the "Montana."
One pleasant morning in June, 1492,
Columbus steamed out of the harbor
and off to the west. The king, tradi
tion tells us, was so peeved that lie
wouldn't even come down to see them
off. , .
Be this as it may, Columbus sailed.
It was on October 12 that the lookout
in the prow of the first steamer cried
"Land ho" and there was America!
Columbus is often criticised by
sailors for taking four months to cross
the ocean. But when it is remembered
that the steamers were all second
hand and the poor quality of the Span
ish coal, it is not surprising. We
iv J
should not criticise Columbus for this.
Getting back to Nebraska now, we
ask what effect had this great event
on the Indians living t their simple
lives on the plains of N'ebraska?
None whatever! They didn't know
they were discovered. It was -manv,
many years before the news came
through the forests to them. That
was before the days of the telegraph.
In Chapter III we shall deal with
the arrival of the first white man in
Nebraska.
Questions on Chapter II.
. 1. What is Spain noted for?
2. How did Columbus first become
famous?
i. What were the names of Colum
bus' steamers?
4. What effect, if any. had the dis
covery of America on the Indians in
Nebraska?
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