Chapter XV: Miscellaneous Local News (1)

=Type of story.= Although most local events have been included in the various classes of stories discussed in preceding chapters, there remain several forms of city news that require separate consideration. Much interesting, timely information is to be found in schools, public libraries, museums, parks, and various departments of city government. As activities supported by public money, these institutions should be of interest to every citizen. Real estate, building, manufacturing, and business matters also furnish news of considerable interest and importance. Besides this information, there are many little incidents in the daily life of every city that have no significance as news but that can be written up as entertaining stories. Hotels, railroad stations, docks, and street cars are frequently the scenes of little comedies and tragedies that the reporter with keen insight into human life and with ability to portray them, turns into readable sketches. Animals no less than persons may be the central figures in these stories.

=Purpose.= The aim in one class of these local stories is to furnish timely, significant information in attractive form concerning public institutions and business activities. The purpose of the other class is to entertain the reader with little glimpses of the life of the city. Constructive journalism undertakes to stimulate the interest of every citizen in municipal affairs and in public institutions by putting prominently before him from time to time significant information about them.

The utmost accuracy in presenting information of public affairs and business matters, it is needless to say, is absolutely essential. It is important to maintain the same standard of truthfulness in writing entertaining feature stories, not because their contents are of vital importance, but because a newspaper, in order to command the confidence of its readers, cannot present anything in its news columns that is not true. Fictitious details are no more justifiable in feature stories than in news stories.

=Treatment.= In order to interest the average reader in news of various municipal activities it is necessary to make the stories attractive in form and style. Striking facts and figures or unusual statements, featured at the beginning, catch the reader’s eye and lead him to read the story as long as its subject matter and style interest him. Effective use of statistics and comparisons is shown in the story “Public Schools Open,” p. 233. Two stories that begin with unusual statements are those entitled “School for Backward Children,” p. 235, and “New Feature in Manufacturing,” p. 243.

Since there is practically no news interest in entertaining feature stories, the reader’s attention is attracted and held by the way in which the story is told. Narrative and descriptive beginnings, conversation, suspense, humor and other devices used in short stories and novels are well adapted to these news stories.

* * * * *

NOTE--_The following story was published
some years before the European War._

PUBLIC SCHOOLS OPEN

_New York World_

There trooped into the public schools of New York
yesterday an army without weapons that in numbers
exceeded the great military force of the German
Empire, with its 613,000 fighting men; that was
greater than the standing army of France, with its
force of 529,000 available soldiers, and that more
than doubled Great Britain’s defenders.

The school-house doors of the consolidated city
were thrown open to 625,000 pupils, commanded by
17,000 teachers, or a greater number of commanders
than now direct the movements of the combined
military forces of the three powerful nations in
the world.

The United States Army, with its 70,000 men and
officers, is a little more than one-tenth of this
multitude. The entire budget of the War Department,
which includes a vast expenditure outside of actual
expense for the maintenance of the army posts in
time of peace, was $103,000,000 last year. New
York’s Board of Education, which in 1907 spent
$19,845,870 for teachers’ salaries alone, has asked
this year for $31,641,326.75 to carry out its plans
for providing additional accommodations for pupils.

The maintenance on a peace footing of Japan’s
army of 220,000 men, which is a little more than
one-third of New York’s army of school children,
will cost $35,000,000 or $40,000,000 at the most.
The pay of a New York Superintendent of Schools is
greater than the pay of a German general, and only
slightly below that of a British commander of equal
rank.

The eight associate superintendents in New York
command larger brigades than any of the officers of
equal rank in France, Germany or Austria-Hungary.

Public School No. 1, which is located in the most
populous centre in the city--Catherine, Oliver and
Henry streets--and which has 2,800 pupils on its
roster, was thrown open at 9 o’clock yesterday
morning. There is no other school like it in
Manhattan, and its opening always has attracted the
interest of educators.

In the boys’ department, during exercises, the
principal cautioned the boys that only boys over
ten would be allowed to sell newspapers, after
school hours, and that each must get a license to
do it.

“We are exceedingly crowded in the first grade,”
said Mr. Veit, “but I do not think the school
has greatly increased in numbers. The removal of
houses for the erection of the Manhattan end of the
Manhattan Bridge has taken out many families.

“We have four Chinese boys in this school. Teachers
would never have nervous prostration if they had
Chinese boys to teach. They have great respect and
reverence for their teachers.”

All registration figures were broken in the Bronx,
and when the schools opened every seat was filled.
At the Morris High School, One Hundred and Sixth
street and Boston road, of which John H. Denbeigh
is principal, there were about three hundred new
applicants. Mr. Denbeigh expects there will be
about two thousand seven hundred pupils.

There was a distinct innovation in the inauguration
of a school for deaf mutes in the old High School
Building, at No. 235 East Twenty-third street.
Superintendent Maxwell is greatly interested in
the prospective work of the school. Although there
are many deaf mute children, unschooled, in New
York City, there were only sixty-five registered
yesterday, owing to the fact that few persons knew
that a deaf mutes’ school was to be opened.

Annie Hamilton, “stone deaf,” who a year ago could
not distinguish a word or articulate a sound, was
brought to the new school by an older brother.

Miss Regan extended her hand to the child and said:
“Good morning, Annie; how are you?”

“Very well, thank you,” the child replied,
indistinctly.

Miss Regan smiled and shook her head. Then she
placed a finger at the child’s thorax and indicated
that the vibrations were not as they should be.

“What is your name?” she asked.

“Annie Hamilton.” This time the reply was quite
plain.

The questions of the teacher were understood by the
reading of the lips.

* * * * *

NEW SCHOOLS

_Chicago Herald_

Two agencies designed to add to a boy’s “chance in
the world” were opened in Chicago yesterday. One
of them intends to train children in the rudiments
of the art of earning a living; the other hopes
to reclaim those who, through lack of economic
equipment, have stumbled and fallen.

The first is the Pullman Free School of Manual
Training, created under the terms of the will of
George M. Pullman, millionaire car builder. The
second is the vocational school for prisoners at
the bridewell.

Ninety children, two-thirds of whom were boys,
enrolled at the Pullman school. It is designed to
provide free industrial training for those to whom
circumstances otherwise might have denied it.

The bridewell school is operated in conjunction
with the psychopathic hospital. Its plans
were explained yesterday by John L. Whitman,
superintendent of the prison.

“Many of the petty offenders against law are
mental defectives,” he said. “Lacking mental grasp
and manual efficiency, they soon find that the
industrial world has no place open for them. The
next step is crime. His sentence at the bridewell
over, the boy returns to the world. Thus society
punishes without removing the cause of the
individual’s wrongdoing.

“By opening this school we hope so to train these
boys that when they return to the world they
will, by virtue of the training received at the
bridewell, have at least the chance to do right.”

The enrollment at the bridewell school yesterday
was twenty-five. It is a small beginning for a
big ideal. The Pullman school is a big beginning
for an even more worthy ideal--making the need of
“reclaiming” unnecessary.

Mr. Pullman’s will contained a bequest of
$1,250,000, to be used as a trust fund for the
establishment of the school, his life’s dream.
Trustees under the will invested the money wisely,
for it since has grown until at present it
aggregates more than $3,000,000.

Under the terms of the bequest the school is open
free to “the children of persons living in or
employed at Pullman.” Thus its benefits are not
restricted to children of employes of the Pullman
Company.

The courses to be taught will include cabinet
work, pattern-making, blacksmithing, foundry work,
machine shop work, electric construction and steam
and electric operating, engineering, English,
mathematics, drawing and household arts and
sciences.

* * * * *

SCHOOL FOR BACKWARD CHILDREN

_Kansas City Star_

“Dummy! Dummy! Gee, but you’re a dummy!”

There are from 1,500 to 2,000 “dummies” in the
public schools of Kansas City, it is estimated.
They are the boys and girls who can’t have anything
“drummed into their heads” and so are the laughing
stock of their classmates. Between five and six
hundred of them are feeble minded. A large per
cent of the “dummies,” however, are not all around
“dummies” and might be saved from becoming feeble
minded and a menace to society.

“What are you going to do with them?”

That is the question Dr. E. L. Mathias, chief
probation officer, is asking Kansas City.

“Kansas City has got to wake up to the situation,”
said Doctor Mathias yesterday afternoon, in
discussing the report of the Juvenile Protective
Association of Chicago. A resume of the report was
printed in The Star of June 10. In that article the
statement was made by one authority that the menace
of the feeble minded was even more grave than a
foreign war or a native pestilence.

“Kansas City is sixteen years behind the times
in taking up this problem,” continued Doctor
Mathias. “Boston was the first city to provide
special training for its backward and feeble minded
children. Other cities have followed suit and
Kansas City must do the same. If numerous surveys
in other cities have revealed a ratio of one feeble
minded person to every 250 it is reasonable to
suppose that a like condition exists in Kansas City.

“Most of the backward children in the schools are
retarded by some physical defect or taint of feeble
mindedness. A very small number of the mental
defectives ought to be in institutions. But the
largest per cent of the retarded children could be
saved by being given special training in separate
classes.

“The entire problem of the feeble minded is even
more serious. Little can be done with the adults,
except to place them in institutions. Yet much can
be done with the present generation by directing
the minds of the mental defectives into useful
channels so that they will not become a burden on
the community and a menace to society.”

The board of education is considering the problem
and probably will start next fall in a small way
with a separate class room and expert teachers.

* * * * *

READING IN SCHOOLS

_Christian Science Monitor_

Reading is to be given especial attention in the
public schools of Boston again this winter in the
hope that next June will see the finest lot of
readers the schools of the city have ever produced.

Five points are to be especially observed: 1.
Correct pronunciation of words at an acceptable
rate of speed; 2. Expression of the meaning of what
is read; 3. Distinct reading; 4. Pleasing use of
the voice; 5. Ability to get the meaning of what is
read silently.

Silent reading ability is to be made a point of
special attention, as it calls for the application
of the child’s mind to definite reasoning, which
will in turn develop his mental powers.

In a circular now being sent out to masters
of elementary districts by the assistant
superintendent in charge, Mrs. Ellor Carlisle
Ripley, and approved by Superintendent Dyer, they
are requested to repeat this year the general plan
pursued last year for increasing the interest in
oral reading. They are then asked to devise ways
and means of increasing the child’s power to get
ideas from paragraphs read silently. The result is
expected to be two fold--to make more intelligent
and pleasing oral reading, and to develop in
children a fondness for reading when it is done
without the companionship of others.

As last year there are to be reading contests. On
two occasions in the course of this school year
in all grades above the third the children will
hear, in their school hall or some other selected
place, readers from their respective rooms. These
readers are to be selected by means that will tend
to improve the reading of all the pupils.

It is desired that the first series of readings
will be concluded by Dec. 23 of this year, and that
the second series be held during the week beginning
March 27 next.

No centralized arrangement will be made this year
for sending trained readers to the schools, but as
all colleges of reading have expressed themselves
as very ready to co-operate with the schools, it is
believed the masters can secure readers at desired
times.

Inter-district readings will begin April 25 and
continue to June 1. Each school is requested to
send one reader and one alternate reader to the
inter-district reading assigned to his school. At
these readings each child will be allowed three
minutes for reading a familiar section supplied by
his school. Sight reading will also be furnished
and brief tests of silent reading will be made.

* * * * *

READING TESTS IN SCHOOLS

_Chicago Herald_

In the little red schoolhouse, if Johnnie was slow
in reading he was put in a corner, where he held a
ponderous volume, if he escaped corporal punishment.

Now if Johnnie is a pupil in the elementary
department of the school of education at the
University of Chicago he is sent to the reading
clinic of Dr. C. Truman Gray.

Dr. Gray, former reading expert at the University
of Texas, has been selected by Director Charles
H. Judd to conduct an investigation here financed
by the general education board of New York.
Dr. Abraham Flexner, head of the Rockefeller
educational body, is watching the investigation
with interest.

At Dr. Gray’s clinic Johnnie will spend half an
hour a day for five days. After Johnnie’s teacher
has given Dr. Gray all the information she can
about his vision, hearing, breathing and attention
Johnnie will be given some reading tests.

When Johnnie has read several prose selections,
each of increased difficulty; several bits of
poetry of a similar gradation, and a bit of oratory
he will be given a set of printed questions,
to which he will write the answers, and then a
number of printed stories, which he will read and
reproduce.

A careful record of Johnnie’s time and his number
of errors on each of these experiments will be kept.

Then Johnnie will be ready for the machines. He
will be taken into a darkened room and a printed
selection will be projected on a screen. As Johnnie
reads the selection a blank phonograph record
will record his performance, an elaborate camera
will take pictures of his eye movements, and an
instrument fastened over his chest will record his
breathing.

A camera shutter device on the projecting machine
will make it possible for the light to be shut off
the screen at any point, and the number of words he
can recall beyond the word he was pronouncing when
the selection disappeared will show the area of his
attention.

From the careful examination of these records Dr.
Gray hopes to arrive at the causes of poor reading
and to find remedies.

Dr. E. M. Freeman of the faculty of the school of
education is conducting a parallel investigation
into the teaching of writing in the school.

* * * * *

MEDICAL INSPECTION

_New York Globe_

The medical inspection of the public school
children is unsatisfactory, according to the
local school board of District 29, Brooklyn. This
district lies within Flushing avenue, Marcy avenue,
Myrtle avenue, Tompkins avenue, Lexington avenue,
Sumner avenue, Fulton street, Albany avenue,
Eastern Parkway, Washington avenue, Fulton street,
and Waverly avenue. The members of the board have
been “keeping tabs” on the doctors sent to the
schools by the Board of Health. They have found
little uniformity in the work, some visits lasting
only a few minutes, and others a whole afternoon,
while anywhere from nine to thirty pupils have been
examined.

As a result of the investigation, the local board
has submitted a report to the Board of Education
suggesting that a more definite method of
examination be required of the visiting physicians.
The board states that it “found that there is no
uniformity in their methods, except that they call
daily at the schools assigned to them. The calls
vary from five minutes to one and a half hours, and
the number of children examined from one or two
or none, to twenty or thirty per day. Some of the
physicians visit the classrooms, and others see
only the children who are reported by the teachers
as needing attention.”

This is the second criticism of the medical
inspection received by the Board of Education this
summer, the first coming from the Principals’
Association of the City of New York, which
forwarded resolutions to the effect “that the
medical supervision of our schools is incomplete
and generally unsatisfactory.”

While there is no marked indication of such an
outcome at the present time, it would not be at
all surprising if an attempt were made by certain
of the members of the Board of Education to induce
the board to take steps to take over the control of
the medical inspection by establishing a department
of school hygiene. This has been advocated by City
Superintendent Maxwell and by Dr. Luther H. Gulick,
director of physical training. While not as yet
approved by the Board of Education, the proposition
is under consideration by the Charter Revision
Commission.

The recent criticisms of medical school inspection
bear out those published by Dr. Maxwell in his
latest annual report, in which he declared that
“existing physical examinations made by the
Department of Health are generally inadequate, and
even when they are adequate are not followed by the
desired results.” In support of this statement Dr.
Maxwell quoted from principals’ reports to show
that in only 248 schools--less than half the total
number--were any examinations made for physical
defects--as distinguished from examinations to
detect contagious disease. In these 248 schools not
more than one-third of the pupils were examined.
It is only a few months since any examinations for
physical defects were made outside of the boroughs
of Manhattan and the Bronx, and then only because
of the criticisms emanating from the New York
committee of physical welfare of school children.

* * * * *

PUBLIC LIBRARY

_Milwaukee Sentinel_

“In the thirty-seven years’ history of the
Milwaukee public library we have never been able
to trace a single case of contagious disease to a
library book that had been passed from a home in
which the disease existed to one hitherto free.”

This was the reply of J. V. Cargill, assistant
librarian of the Milwaukee public library, to
Dr. John Dill Robertson, health commissioner of
Chicago, who has expressed the belief that library
books are a medium for spreading such diseases
as grippe, sore throat, measles, whooping cough,
small pox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, tuberculosis
and erysipelas. Dr. Robertson has sent a letter to
Librarian Henry E. Legler of the Chicago public
library asking co-operation in an effort to stamp
out any danger of spreading diseases in this way.

According to Mr. Cargill every possible effort is
made by the Milwaukee library to prevent the spread
of disease. In this the officials co-operate with
the Milwaukee health department. Daily lists of
the homes in which contagious disease is found
are furnished to the library, and books that are
returned from such homes are fumigated in a large
vault at the main library. When a health inspector
visits a home in which there is contagious disease,
one of his first questions is whether or not there
are library books. If such books are found the
cards identifying them are removed by the inspector
and mailed to the library, according to Mr.
Cargill. When the patient recovers and the health
department fumigates the house, the library books
are also fumigated as an added precaution.

The average book passing from home to home is never
fumigated or otherwise disinfected, Mr. Cargill
admitted, but he expressed doubt that any diseases
were spread by such books.

Among the ways in which Dr. Robertson of Chicago
says disease may be spread are the following:
Dampening the fingers to turn pages, placing books
open side downward upon a bed, coughing or sneezing
upon the pages or giving books to convalescent
patients.

* * * * *

MUSEUM

_New York Times_

Rain gods, storm charms, rattles to make the
thunder come, strange amulets which invite the
lightning, more than five hundred devices in
all which the Zuni Indians believe open up the
sluice-ways of the skies, were unpacked early
yesterday morning at the American Museum of Natural
History.

They had just come from New Mexico, where they had
been collected for the museum by Dr. A. L. Kroeber
of the University of California, who at great
trouble and expense had induced the bad weather
gods to come east. About the time the lid came off
the first packing case the wind carried sheets of
water against the attic where the collection is now
on view and the tempest howled and shrieked until
the little rain gods themselves shook under the
hurly burly out-of-doors. The water god, Long Horn,
rolled over to where the flower god was lying, and
shook himself for very joy, for he felt that the
man tribe of this great city would certainly be
very thankful for all the downpour.

It is so dry in the venerable town of the cliff
dwellers, Zuni, that most of the time the streets
are filled with dust, and top stories of the old
cliff dwellings powder up and blow away in all
directions. The Indians have lived there for 365
years without being in any way affected by the
manners and customs of the white men, according to
Dr. Kroeber, who has just come from a residence of
several months among them. Even though the United
States Government has made a big reservoir and dug
irrigation ditches for the Zunis, they still keep
up their primitive worship, which revolves around
the prayer, “Gods, give us rain.” As the tribe
lives almost entirely upon the maize it raises, the
ceremonies of rain-making bear an important part
in its life. Most of the conversation of the Zunis
consists of “Do you think there will be a shower?”
and “Neighbor, how is your corn growing?”

In many centuries there has been built up a ritual
for the worship of the sky gods which is very
intricate and mysterious and includes many secret
observances. The study which Professor Kroeber has
made is a very important one, for he will be able
to describe observances about which little has been
known. Many of the sacred symbols in his possession
were acquired after much trouble and not a little
risk, for the Zunis have an unwritten law that no
white man is to have any of the objects used in
their ceremonies, and that any one parting with
them is entitled to have his throat cut.

The rain gods are dressed in fantastic garb, and
the clash of their primitive hues can be heard
at a great distance. One of the symbols of the
lightning is a blue pantagraphlike arrangement of
lattice work which suddenly opens out to represent
the quick discharge of the bolts of the gods. There
are charms made like the forked flashes placed
over the doors to invite the showers. In the great
dances the participants wear wooden headgear carved
to represent cloud forms and the moon and stars.
Every creature which loves the wet is worked into
the symbolism of Zuni worship. There are tadpoles,
frogs, turtles, ducks, and geese, all of which are
represented by the masks worn when the invocations
to the gods of the rain are given.

There are rattles made of shells, which, attached
to the knees, make a prodigious noise. Peculiar
spindle-like devices attached to long thongs may
be swung about the head until they give a sound
which to the Zuni imagination suggests the roll of
thunder. One of the most valuable articles of the
new collection is a bowl, probably of the period
before Columbus came to this continent, which
is notched all around with a step-like device,
typifying the clouds and adorned with raised
figures of fish and polliwogs and ducks. It is
filled with water when the rain dances are given,
and a mass of suds is made in it by adding soap
weed. The priest stirs up the mixture with his
hands, and the lather brimming over the sides of
the bowl gives the effect of fleecy clouds.

The collection, which is one of the most important
ever brought out of the Southwest, is to be
arranged by Dr. Kroeber, who has obtained a leave
of absence from the University of California for
that purpose. He was kept in the Museum all day by
the snow, sleet, and rain.

* * * * *

MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS

_Boston Transcript_

Traffic conditions are regarded as so dangerous
at the corner of Tremont and School streets, on
account of the laying of the high-pressure pipes,
that the mayor has ordered the contractor to work
night and day, with forces as large as practicable,
until the work is finished.

The mayor was informed of the situation when he
arrived at City Hall this morning and immediately
made a personal inspection. He found large piles
of dirt at each corner of School street and wagons
used by the contractor so placed in receiving their
loads that at times it was practically impossible
for vehicular traffic to move at all. School street
is one of the one-way thoroughfares and the volume
of traffic that moves into it at the corner of
Tremont, from both Tremont and Beacon streets,
is very large at certain times of the day. Under
the best conditions dangers are daily presented
with swiftly moving automobiles coming down Beacon
Hill, either to make the turn or to move straight
ahead. It will probably be necessary to close
School street some time this week, and, in fact,
many persons declared today that such an order
might prevent a serious accident, with conditions
continuing as they are at present.

The laying of the high-pressure pipes along Tremont
street has been anything but agreeable to the
contractor. The various underground wires and
conduits of the public service corporations are
ordinarily well placed in the files, but the ground
beneath the asphalt of this thoroughfare contained
numerous obstacles which were not anticipated by
the city engineers who planned for the new system.

At the corner of Tremont and Boylston streets the
contractor found that, in order to carry the pipes
in accordance with the blue prints, a huge two-foot
main conduit of the gas company would have to be
shifted. This caused much delay and it will be
weeks before the changes will be made to satisfy
the city authorities. Today a large space on the
surface was boarded. Then followed the every-day
difficulties encountered by the laborers in digging
up the ties of the old street railway, which were
not removed when the line was banished from the
street.

Today the laborers met with a still greater
surprise when they encountered solid rock, brick
and concrete obstructions far beneath the surface,
and also deeply imbedded piles which had remained
in the earth for scores of years and which do not
appear on any blue print of the street that the
City Hall records contain. It was learned, however,
that the tunnels of brick and concrete were parts
of an old steam-heating system installed many years
ago by a company that planned to heat buildings at
much less cost to the occupants than could possibly
be done by individual plants. These operations were
of short duration, and when they were given up,
the city authorities failed to oblige the removal
of the tunnels, which are eight feet beneath
the surface and of no hindrance to the other
underground works.

The laborers are also digging up today the remnants
of the physical property of the old Massachusetts
Telephone Company, which existed nearly twenty
years ago.

* * * * *

MUNICIPAL WORK

_Springfield Republican_

Co-operation between the city and the public
service corporations to a greater extent than
before in order to prevent the tearing up of newly
laid pavement is expected to result from the
Dickinson-street case, in which a pavement that
has been down only two years is being broken open
so that the United electric light company can put
in its conduits. Samuel L. Wheeler, inspector of
underground wires and conduits, who prescribes what
wires shall be put underground each year, will try
to place before the public service associates the
plans for his work a year or more in advance. Thus
the companies will have a chance to get their wires
underground before the streets are paved.

Mr Wheeler is obliged by law to order a mile of
wire put underground each year in order that
eventually all wires within a two-mile radius of
the City hall shall be underground. In his 15
years of work this is the first time that such a
situation as that on Dickinson street has arisen.
Superintendent Fred H. Clark of the department of
streets and engineering said yesterday that no one
is really to blame, since the street had to be
paved when it was, and it was impossible at the
time to order the wires underground before the
paving was put down. The electric light company has
expressed its willingness to co-operate in every
way that it can. The supervisors have ordered the
paving of Pine street and between Cedar and Walnut
streets the company’s wires are still above ground.
Although Mr Wheeler has not ordered these wires to
be put underground, the company has said it will
try to get them under even though its appropriation
for this work has been made for the year.

The supervisors and the street railway officials
will confer this afternoon to plan for the relaying
of tracks so that the work will precede street
paving. The company intends to relay its tracks on
Main street between the arch and the car barns and
on Chestnut street between Allendale street and
Jefferson avenue. Paving is to be done on these
streets but it will follow the track work. The
company does not want to relay its tracks on State
street near the New England railroad, however,
although the city wants to pave there, and a
similar situation may arise on other streets where
the company thinks its tracks good for a year or
two longer. It is to consider these situations that
the conference will be held.

* * * * *

NEW MUNICIPAL EQUIPMENT

_Boston Transcript_

Bursting water mains are not so great a menace in
Boston since the water department installed a motor
truck with a power appliance for quickly closing
the heavy gates. Work which formerly required
four men, laboring continuously for forty-five
minutes, can be done in ten minutes by using the
power of the truck. This mechanical device, an
invention of George H. Finneran, superintendent of
the distribution branch of the water department,
not only conserves the water supply and reduces
the damage due to breaks, but permits of rapid
regulation of water volume at fires, facilitates
the testing of gates and relieves the anxiety
always attending derangement or damage to the water
system.

In one of Boston’s most important thoroughfares,
lined with costly buildings, there is a water main
which, if completely broken apart, would allow the
escape of 50,000 gallons of water each minute.
Controlling this line are gate valves thirty-six
inches in diameter which, in closing, require 307
turns of a gate wrench and, formerly, the services
of four men for about forty-five minutes. A few
minutes’ delay sometimes meant the loss of life and
thousands of dollars. These gates, the largest in
the city, can now be closed in ten minutes by one
man and the motor truck, which was built for the
purpose by the White Company of Cleveland.

The truck is required to respond to fire alarms and
other emergencies where water must be controlled to
prevent loss or damage. The calls are frequently
overlapping, and crews are on duty day and night.
The runs vary from one block to the farthest
end of the water system. Under the old scheme,
when several gates had to be closed, the few men
available at night were almost exhausted before
shutting the last gate. By its ability to work
continuously the truck has relieved the fear of
being unable to cope with any emergency.

The gate-closing device consists of a universal
wrench socket with a worm gear, enclosed in an
aluminum housing and mounted on the running board
of the truck, so that it can be easily brought into
position immediately over a water-gate manhole.
When the truck is in position a wrench is slipped
through the socket. This wrench fits the nut on
the gate-gear below. The universal wrench socket,
together with a universal joint on the end of the
wrench, affords sufficient flexibility in case the
truck is not on level ground, or in case the wrench
socket is not directly over the gate nut. It is an
easy matter, however, for the driver to bring his
truck into the exact position.

The worm gear is driven off the regular
transmission of the truck. The device is operated
by a lever placed upon the side of the truck and
easily accessible to the driver. In closing gates
the forward speeds of the transmission are used.
In opening the reverse is used. All gears are made
of chrome or nickel steel. All bearings are ball
bearings. The aluminum housing is firmly bolted to
the frame of the chassis and well braced to resist
torque. The wrench is a hollow square steel tube
terminating in a specially hardened steel socket
with universal joint between socket and tube.

The gates are equipped with indicators showing the
position of the valve and informing the operator
when the valve is seated or entirely opened. Where
indicators have not been attached to the gates a
counter is used. This counter is placed on the
end of the wrench recording the number of its
revolutions. This helps the operator to determine
when the valve is entirely up or down. As a means
of safety in the event of the valve seating with
force or before the operator expected, a pin of
known strength, placed in the universal joint of
the wrench, breaks off and breaks the line of force
between the engine and the gate, thus preventing
damage to either the gate or the gate-operating
device.

* * * * *

SAFETY CAMPAIGN

_New York Herald_

With the belief that Long Island will be the
touring ground for more motor cars this summer than
ever before, largely on account of the European
war, James A. McCrea, general manager of the Long
Island Railroad, has announced the beginning of
a campaign of sign display asking the public to
co-operate with the railroad in saving human life.

Enormous signs, 2½×10 feet, electrically
illuminated at night, will be stretched across the
highways, in many cases attached to the structure
of the modern overhead crossings, making a plea
to the motorists as they speed under them to be
careful in approaching and passing over the grade
crossings that still remain on the main highways of
the island. The railroad has eliminated more than
three hundred grade crossings at an expense of 15
million dollars, and yet fatal accidents occur in
some places where there is a wide open view of the
railroad in both directions. There are still 631
grade crossings between New York City and Montauk
Point. Of these more than three hundred are guarded
by gate-men, two at some points, at a cost to the
railroad of $25,000 a month.

Careful motorists do not combat in the least
the statement, frequently made by the railroad
officers, that many of the fatal grade crossing
accidents on Long Island were the result, pure and
simple, of the motorists’ recklessness. Many of
them drive too carelessly over the crossings, the
officers maintain, assuming all the time that the
locomotive driver is looking out for them. Mutual
watchfulness is observed in the city, and it is
contended that the same should be true in the
country.

Ten great signs already have been erected at
prominent points, where they cannot fail to
attract the attention of motorists. They are in
black and white letters that may be read several
blocks away. They caution:

........................................
. THIS SIGN MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE TODAY. .
. .
. All the precautions in the world .
. will not save the lives of those who .
. drive automobiles recklessly over .
. railroad crossings. .
. .
. When approaching a crossing please .
. stop, look and listen. .
. .
. We are doing our part. Won’t you .
. do yours? .
. .
. LONG ISLAND RAILROAD. .
........................................

Mr. McCrea says the grade crossing problem has
been a stupendous one, particularly since the
advent of the motor car. He is open to suggestions
that will eliminate the danger at any point and
immediately accepted two that were made to him by
persons interested only in the safety of the public
in general. One was in reference to a dangerous
crossing, now guarded by men and lights, but where
the conformation of the ground so places the lights
that they are practically valueless as a warning.
The other was in reference to the color of the
gates used by the Long Island Railroad and all
others in this country. The universal custom in
this country is to paint the gates white.

In Europe, particularly in Germany and Austria, all
the railroad gates, toll gates and custom house
gates are painted black and white. They can be
seen for long distances and are almost as easily
observed in the night as in the day.

Not only is the railroad putting up signs calling
the attention of motorists to the danger of driving
recklessly over grade crossings; it will conduct an
advertising campaign with a series of “life saving
bulletins.” These will appear regularly and will
plead for greater care on the part of motorists.
One of its “life saving bulletins” will read in
part:

Watch for the flagman’s lantern.
Listen for the warning bell.
Slow down.
Look up and down the rails.

We are doing all that time and money permits in
abolishing grade crossings. Will you help us end
accidents by doing your share?

* * * * *

BUSINESS MERGER

_Milwaukee Sentinel_

Through a deal involving about $400,000, the
Milwaukee-Western Fuel company has bought out
entirely the docks, property and business of the
Northwestern Fuel company’s Milwaukee branch.

The big merger has been pending for a year.
Agreement was finally reached on Wednesday,
although details were not arranged until Saturday.
The Milwaukee-Western will take full possession on
Monday.

It is in no sense a consolidation. As far as
Milwaukee business is concerned the Northwestern
Fuel company has ceased to exist. As one of its
Milwaukee officials remarked after the deal was
closed, “They have swallowed us whole, head and
tail.”

The Northwestern company was one of the oldest coal
firms in Milwaukee, having had offices here for
thirty-two years. In sales it did a yearly business
in the city of about $2,000,000.

The deal brings a great amount of valuable property
into the hands of the Milwaukee-Western Fuel
company. Its bought out rival had on hand about
75,000 tons of coal. It possessed two large coal
docks. One, at the foot of Washington street, with
two slips on the Kinnickinnic river, is 1,000x500
feet in size. This dock is on the Chicago and
North-Western road. The other is at the foot of
Seventeenth street and has 1,000 feet frontage
on the Menomonee river. It is on the Chicago,
Milwaukee and St. Paul road.

The capacity of the two docks combined is estimated
at 150,000 tons of anthracite and 200,000 tons of
bituminous coal. Their loading capacity aggregates
150 cars a day.

The Milwaukee offices of the Northwestern Fuel
company were at 152 Second street. For a time they
will be used by the Milwaukee-Western company
as a branch office. The Northwestern will also
use them until its affairs are settled. Whether
the offices will be continued as a branch of the
Milwaukee-Western Fuel company’s big offices at 14
Wisconsin street has not yet been determined.

Under the terms of the deal the purchaser will
assume responsibility for all unfilled contracts
of the Northwestern company. The Milwaukee-Western
expects to be able to give positions to nearly all
the Milwaukee employes of the Northwestern.

The deal makes the Milwaukee-Western Fuel company
sole agents in this city for the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western road’s Scranton anthracite
and standard hard coal, for which the Northwestern
Fuel company was also agent.

Officers of the Milwaukee-Western say that the
change will increase their company’s business by
from 300,000 to 400,000 tons yearly.

The headquarters of the Northwestern Fuel company
are in St. Paul, and it has big docks in Duluth and
Superior. Its chief business lies in that section
of the country. This will remain unimpaired, for
the present deal affects only the Milwaukee branch.

The officers of the Milwaukee-Western Fuel company
are: President, Edward A. Uhrig; vice president,
Alexander Uhrig; secretary and treasurer, Charles
W. Moody.

* * * * *

NEW FEATURE IN MANUFACTURING

_Chicago Tribune_

This is the story of a world war, a despairing
manufacturer, and a cow’s ear.

The despairing manufacturer shall be nameless here.
In Chicago and all over the country his name is
well known as one of the greatest makers of water
color paint in America.

The part taken by the world war is told in the
trade columns, where its effects on industry in the
United States have been vividly shown. The cow’s
ear belonged to a cow that may have been called
“Boss” or “Bess,” but that isn’t so important.

The agency that overcame the world war, that
soothed the manufacturer, that found the cow’s ear
and introduced the two shall receive its deserved
mention--it was the Chicago Association of Commerce.

It was more than a month ago that the water color
paint manufacturer came to the civic industrial
division of the Commerce association and told of
his business woes.

“We are about to shut down on account of the war,”
he said. “We can send out no more paint to our
trade. For years we have supplied them with an
imported water color paint brush with each box.

“The brushes are made in Germany. It is a secret
process. They use either camel’s hair or rabbit’s
hair of a fine quality. They are excellent brushes.
Our trade is demanding them. We have none left. We
can get no more on account of the war. We shall
have to close down.”

Anderson Pace, industrial commissioner for the
association, told the manufacturer to hold on a
little longer. He started inquiries in all lines
known to the association. The country was ransacked
for imported water color brushes, and all to no
avail.

Then the investigators, right here in Chicago,
and without wasting a postage stamp, got in
communication with a stockyards savant who was
the originator of the boast that “none of the pig
escaped but the squeal.”

“The most tender, delicate, yet strong and soft
hair in the world is to be found only in a cow’s
ear,” said the stockyards genius. “Camel’s hair and
imported rabbit’s hair can’t touch it for quality.
It makes the best water color brushes that can be
made.”

At the stockyards today men with shears are
snipping the tender hairs from Bossy’s ears as
the bodies of the slain animals are conveyed from
the killing pens. In New York a broker has made
arrangements with a brush manufacturer, who is
putting out an article that artists say fits itself
much more readily to the application of water color
than the old brushes imported from Germany.

In Chicago the nameless great manufacturer of water
color paint despairs no more. His plant is running,
his force is busy, his employés are happy, and the
orders are coming just the same as before the war.

* * * * *

REAL ESTATE

_Chicago Tribune_

Another of the old exclusive homes in the one
time fashionable block on Prairie avenue between
Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets, is to be given
over to business uses, the Arthur Meeker residence
at 1815, which has been purchased by D. C. Heath
& Co., school book publishers. The conveyance was
made by Mrs. Grace M. Meeker, and a consideration
of $35,000 is named in the deed, which was filed
for record yesterday.

The house, which is a large, attractive three story
stone structure, was erected by Joseph Sears about
thirty years ago, and about ten years ago was
purchased by Mr. Meeker and extensively remodeled
by him. It contains twenty-one rooms. It occupies
a lot 75x140 feet extending back to a twenty foot
alley, and there is a large garage in the rear.

The Heath company, which is the third largest
school book publishing house in the country, and
is now located in the Studebaker building on South
Wabash avenue, will locate their business at their
Prairie avenue purchase about March 1, using the
house for their general offices, and the garage,
which will be enlarged, for their stock room. The
sale was negotiated by Eugene A. Bournique & Co.

* * * * *

REAL ESTATE

_Philadelphia Ledger_

The six and a half acre plot of ground at 5th and
Cayuga streets, which has been used as a picnic
park for a number of years, under the name of
Central Park, has been sold by S. C. Abernethy for
Joseph S. Slomkowski to a builder, who will begin
the work of developing the ground in the spring
by the erection of about 30 houses on the 5th
street front and 65 houses on Reese street. The
price paid for the ground was close to $60,000.
Practically all of the tract has been sold with
the exception of a small section south of Cayuga
street. The seller reserves for his own use a plot
of ground 120 feet by 130 feet at the corner of 5th
and Cayuga streets, on which he will build a new
hotel. The ground sold has a frontage of more than
700 feet on the west side of 5th street to Annsbury
street, with a frontage of 307 feet on Cayuga
street to the North Penn Railroad, and a frontage
of 400 feet on the north boundary. The sale is the
largest transaction in ground made in this section
of the city for several years. Central Park has
for years been a favorite picnic ground during the
summer, particularly with labor organizations.

* * * * *

PROPOSED NEW HOTEL

_Boston Transcript_

Another large hotel, to cost about $1,250,000, is
to be erected in the retail section of the city,
at the corner of Washington and Avery streets. The
Commonwealth Associates, Inc., who acquired title
to the land last month, have let the contract for
the construction of an eleven-story building to the
Haynes Construction Company. Clarence H. Blackall
is the architect and Hurd & Gore are the consulting
architects. Morse Brothers have taken a lease of
the hotel for a period of twenty years.

With the exception of the Washington street
frontage and about 100 feet fronting on Avery
street, which will be used for stores, the entire
building will be devoted to the purposes of a
first-class commercial hotel. On the first floor
will be the office, reading-room, large public
dining-room and buffet. In the basement, under
the corner of Haymarket place and Avery street,
there will be a rathskeller, entered both from
the hotel and from the street, with the kitchens,
serving-rooms, etc., in the rear, under the hotel
lobby. A sub-basement will contain storerooms,
machinery, heating plant, etc.

The second floor will be largely taken up by
another public dining-room, banquet-room, etc., the
remainder of the building being given over to guest
rooms, with the exception of the eleventh story,
which will contain specially fitted sample-rooms
for commercial travellers. The rooms will be
unusually spacious, with convenient alcoves for
beds. Large windows will light the room proper
and the alcove. The finish will be of carefully
selected Missouri red gum, stained a rich mahogany.

The building will be fireproof in every particular,
and will be constructed in accordance with the
most approved methods, practically no wood being
used except for the doors and windows. All floors
will be of concrete, with tile and marble-finished
flooring in the public rooms and corridors, tiling
in all the bathrooms and carpets elsewhere.
The building will be heated and ventilated in
an approved manner and furnished with all the
electrical appliances. The elevators and stairs
will be centrally located, so as to give immediate
access to all parts of the house.

The exterior will be of limestone and brick in the
style of the French Renaissance, which effect will
be carried through the decorations and finish of
the principal rooms. A broad marquise finished in
bronze will mark the entrance of the hotel proper
and extend along the whole frontage. A service
entrance will be at the rear on Haymarket place.

Leases for the stores have already been arranged on
long terms with David H. Posner and Coes & Young,
both of whom have stores in other parts of the
city. The Commonwealth Associates, Inc., owners of
the property, were organized through the office of
Codman & Street, Easton Building, with George U.
Crocker, president; Max Shoolman, vice president,
and Gerald G. E. Street, treasurer.

* * * * *

MUNICIPAL BOND SALE

_Springfield Republican_

City Treasurer E. T. Tifft yesterday surprised
himself and financial experts as well by selling
a bond issue of $1,000,000 at remarkably good
terms, in spite of the tying up of money by war
conditions. The issue was sold to N. W. Harris &
Co of Boston, who will pay the city a premium of
$5670, bringing the interest rate down to 4.30 per
cent. This rate is less than one-half of 1 per cent
higher than the rate for last year’s issue, and
congratulations are coming to the city and to the
city treasurer on this success from many financial
men who have been looking with interest on this
issue as the first test of the bond market since
the war began.

The bid of the winning company was 100.567, while
the second bid was made by the Third national bank
of this city offering 100.44. E. H. Rollins Sons,
A. B. Leach & Co, Perry, Coffin & Burr, and Blake
Bros & Co, all of Boston, made a joint bid for the
issue which was third, the bid being 100.176. Of
the $1,000,000 there was $200,000 on the municipal
building loan paying 4 per cent, and the remaining
$800,000 is in 4½ per cent bonds. The issue was
made up of the following loans: Municipal building
loan, 20 years, 4 per cent, $200,000; high school
of commerce, 20 years, 4½ per cent, $150,000;
Fulton-street loan, 20 years, 4½ per cent,
$400,000; Myrtle-street school addition, 20 years,
4½ per cent, $136,000; land for school, Franklin
and Greenwood streets, 20 years, 4½ per cent,
$64,000; Brightwood school addition, 20 years,
4½ per cent, $25,000; Walnut-street engine house
addition, 20 years, 4½ per cent, $25,000; total,
$1,000,000.

The rate at which these bonds were sold shows
that the state of the money market is not as far
from normal as was feared by many people, and at
the same time an opportunity is given to local
people to invest in the city bonds at a price
which will bring them a better return than can be
obtained on the issues in usual times. These bonds
are tax exempt, the exemption extending to the
federal income tax. Interest on municipal bonds is
collectible without certificates of ownership and
individuals are not required to report the income
to the federal government. The successful bidders,
N. W. Harris & Co, are represented in this city by
Percy O. Dorr, who has offices in the Massachusetts
Mutual building.