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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 28, 1908)
- - ' THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, JCTNK 28, lu. .3 1? JLIcXA J T Is generally understood that the era of the automobile dates from 1ST0. but it has recently been found that Elijah Ware, one of the most emij nent engineers and Inventors of his time, built a very successful car in ISC. Its success may' be judged from the fact that Mr. Ware was In the hab it of racing his machine with fast horses on the old plank road in Bayan, X. J., and also able to go along ordi nary rough roads. Mr. Ware spent a great part of his life In the West, and had close con nections with Portland in some engine-ring work. He was born in Xorth Wrcntham, Mass., on August 2". 1S23. His father, being a farmer, wished to make Ms son a farmer, too, but Elijah u-"d to sneak down in the fields to make steam whistles and waterwheels when In- ought to have been making hay. In fact, he was a born mechanic, and soon found his life work. Mr. Ware was a master mechanic in a rail road machine shop at the age of 27 and one of the pioneers in railroad engineering. But Mr. Ware's specialty was In steam shovel work. In which he became a close friend of Sidney Dillon, formerly president of the Union Pacific and one of America's great financiers In Jay Goulds day. Mr. I)illon thought the world of Elijah Ware, and never called him anything bin 'Lijah. Mr. Ware had admittance to Mr. Dillon's office on Wall street at all times. At the time that the Michigan Cen tral was being built, Mr. D'.llon gave Ware an important position at Glrard, Pa., near Mr. Dillon's home. Later he came to Boston, where he was engaged in work connected in the filling In of the Back Bay. while here Mr. Wars built his automobile or steam carriage, as it was called then, In the year 1S81. It was not his first invention, as tie had been tinkering away at one thing or another since a boy. At this time he wanted to make a horseless carri age, because as far as he knew none had been successfully built. . Lyman C. Ware formerly engaged in steam shovel work at Portland, and the man who turned the pins for the machine on a lathe tells some interest ing anecdotes, as he worked on many contracts with Elijah. He speaks of him as a dreamy-eyed, thoughtful man, with more mechanical than business ability; in fact, lie could not even order his own groceries without being cheat ed or imposed on. The appearance of his steam carri age when completed resembled a mod ern fire engine more than an 'itnmn- JIM NASIUM. T HERE'S nothing to it." said the Old Sport to the bunch of trav eling men who were discussing l':e merits of the various communities Ih y had visited, "I've been splattering i!'.;.' presence over the map for the past 25 cars, and you can take it. from me that it-ball is a barometer that will mighty oon put you next to the standing of any c-immunity you happen to butt into. Of en;isf, we're all hep to the fact that no i 'immunity is so thundering much to-the ; oud that it hasn't got its element of un : i: able citizens, and no section of the :p is mi crowded with bums and mutt I xl'k that there isn't room for a few of i :ii;ro's noblemen to be loafing around. Ui:t when we speak of communities, we're talking about the predominating element 'it the population, and we figure up che team batting average of the neighborhood mid not the individual standing. "Now. there's no more representative isathering to be found in this old dump of a world than the festoons of human ity that slop over the stands at the ball grounds on any of these warm Summer afternoons. There isn't a station on life's little jerkwater railroad that you'll not find represented there, and you'll butt Into the guy who is traveling along the high way of life in a palace car rubbing clothes with the hobo who is stealing his passage on the bumpers. And what is still more to the point, when the ump opens his gab and yells "play ball,' the walls which di vide the classes crumble into ruins, and for the time being millionaire and laborer blend into a mass that is simply human ity. For once capital and labor forget their differences and plug for the same end, and the boss of the upper pavilion and the office boy out in the bleachers, who is supposed to be attending his grandmother's funeral, both yell In uni son for the same purpose. And you can take it from me that you'll not find this condition existing any place in the world but Inside the fence at the baseball grounds. "The throng that is yelling its head off at a baseball game is as good a repre sentative gathering of the citizens of that community as you could rake up in the neighborhood with a fine tooth comb. And when I see a baseball crowd that is loaded to the muzzle with partisan feeling and can't see the visiting team with the l.ick telescope, then I always take mighty good care to keep my hand on my wallet as long as I'm in that town. And If I happen to he engineering a business deal in which a considerable portion of the property-holders of a village are lnteiest ecl and during a lull in the proceedings should float out io the ball grounds and h-ar th"- crowd yelling bloody murder at the ump on all close decisions, I always sneak back to the hotel and look up the papers and put in the rest of the night digging up technical loop holes so I won't get stung. "In some towns you'll find that the knocking element predominates in the baseball crowds, and the guys who are there with the merry mitt for the stellar stunts are as widely scattered as facts in a political speech. The crowds seem to go to the ball game for the express pur pose of keeping their eye peeled for some excuse to get on the job with their ham mers in the anvil chorus. And you can take it from me. gentlemen, that if you auend a few weeks loafing around these , bile. Wood was used for fuel and a small iron boiler generated steam for the oscillating engines. The steam carriage was very trim, and with the steel and brass machinery and gaily painted woodwork it must ha,ve had a dashing look. Quite a stir was cre ated when news was circulated that Mr. Ware had a horseless carriage, and some wanted to have it kept from the streets for fear it would scare norses. But on the day the machine was tried It was easily seen tnat their fears were 111 grounded. These pessimists IN WHICH HE SHOWS THAT BASEBALL CROWDS towns you'll blamed soon find that life in that section of the world is a case of the survival of the fittest. The entire so cial, political and business systems in these communities will be found to con sist mainly of an endless chain of dog eat dog and the devllt take the weakest pup. If you sneak around the back alleys In these villages you'll see the women holding gabfests over the back fences about the latest scandals concerning their next-door neighbors, and before you get well enough acquainted with a guy to call him by his first name he'll walk a square out of his way to come up and stand on your toes andi blow his breath In your face while he tells you what a sap-headed idiot somebody else is. and if you attend a social function you'll find that 11 de- velops into a hammerfest in which every guest's pedigree is raked around through the mire with a muck-rake. "And if you'll just keep your eye peeled as you knock around the circuit, you'll blamed soon get next to the fact that this is a double-riveted cinch rule to which there are no exceptions. This Is so be cause a baseball crowd is a representa tive gathering of the populace with the varnish scraped off to show the real ma terial underneath, and you can take my tip that you'll always find that the guy who is slopping over with an unfair par tisan spirit and working the anvil chorus overtime at the ball game will show the same traits of character in his private and business life. And when you find did not the optim one man asked him if there was any thing in the way of assistance he could do, Mr. Ware snapped back: "The trouble is there are too many trying to help." Mr. Ware drove his machine very slowly through the streets, making less noise than the modern automobile. But in the country it is said that he went "like the wind." The people in stovepipe hats aria bonnets must have been surprised when these sentiments predominating in a base ball crowd, take it from me that you'll find them predominating in the social and business life of that town." "Well." spoke up one of the "drum mers," "all I've got to say is that if you've got the right dope, I've been mighty lucky to get out of some of the towns I've hit alive. Down In Western Texas the umpire who gives a close de cision against the home team usually has to back it up with a Gatling gun. And come to think of it, Old Sport, you're dope holds good in respect to that section, be cause I've been skinned, clear down to my socles down in that neck of the woods." . "Take it from me, that dope is reli able any place." replied the Old Sport. "Take Cincinnati, for instance. Without doubt a Cincinnati .baseball crowd is the biggest aggregation of hammer throw ers that ever bunched up In one corral. When it comes to throwing the hammer that gang down there has the Olympic records smashed to smithereens. Thev seem to have the knocking habit injected into their systems, and they can't see a good flay If the lot is slopping over with them. They patronize the games down there for the sole purpose of hacking the home team to pieces and knocking the players, and they've had some of the greatest players t..at ever wore spikes in Cincinnati, but they weren't good enough to please the fans. Now. I've mingled in the social and business Hf of Cincinnati to some extent, and you bother Mr. Ware as much as Ists who tnea to help. When I ' - this clattering . engine came whizzing along the peaceful country roads, kick ing up dust arul vomiting smoke a3 it went. Mr. Ware steered with a wheel, slowed down with an ordinary carriage brake and controlled the en .Ine with ropes. When he went downhill he had to shut off his macliineery entirely and controlled the speed with a brake. One time while going downhill his valve bgan to open, thus permitting the ARE BAROMETERS THAT can take my tip that their conduct at the ball games is simply an external manifestation of what is being pulled off around town every time a guy drops his guard and leaves an opening. "They're not very long on loyalty down there, and if any of you guys ever put an article on the market that you want to sell in Cincinnati, take my tip and don't manufacture it down there. And if you are selling an article that is made In Cincinnati, don't waste much time covering your home territory, because those dubs down there would a-blamed sight rather buy something that is made In the Island of Sulu than a home prod uct. If you ever butt Into the busi ness life of that town you'll find that this is a straight tip and on the level. and it's the same spirit that they splat ter around the ball grounds down there. The rooters can't see anything but the punk spots In the home team, and you could ramble' through the local papers with a forty horsepower magnifying glass and you wouldn't find a word of praise in a million years. When it comes to hammering, this old town on the. Ohio has a boiler factory sounding like a symphony with the soft pedal on. "Now. take Boston. When It comes to fair sportsmanlike baseball crowds they have all got to take off their lids to Boston. That gang up In Beantown would go In crowds to the ball games' if their team hadn't made a run since the Pilgrims landed, and you always find ; steam to go from the boiler to the ! engine, but as Mr. Ware did not dare ! let go either the brake or wheel by j the time he reached the bottom he was going like the wind. Shortly af- ter completing his machine lie was engaged in work in Bayon, N. J., where he used to race, his machine with fast horses on the old planK road. This shows that he must have been able to attain finite a good speed, probably not REGISTER THE TEMPERAMENT OE HUMANITY them passing up the hum plays and cheering the good ones, whether it's the home players or the visitors who are pulling them oft. And any of you guys who have ever mixed in much up there know blamed well that there Isn't a fair er and more impartial bunch in the world to do business with. You'll tind the Bos tonians a bunch of optimists, and if you go to the ball games up there you'll find optimism splattered all around the lot. "And it's the same all over the cir cuit, fellows, the spirit you see at the ball grounds you'll find splattered around the town. In New York life is a case of the survival of the fittest. You're all right as long as .you're there with the goods, but you've got to beat it when you hit the toboggan. The sympathy racket doesn't go there, and n-ight makes right. Nothing succeeds like success In New York, and likewise nothing fails like failure. When you go up you' go up mighty high, and when you fall you come down mighty hard. You'll find this con dition of affairs from the Battery to Har lem, and you'll get next to it 'in blamed short order by putting in a few after noons at the Polo Grounds or with Clarke Griffith up on the hill. "You've got to drive it into a Pitts burger and clinch it before he'll believe that anything can beat a home product. I hiladelphlans have to be shown before they'll buy, and they'd rather lose an oppcrtunity than take a chance, and you'll find that a. ball team has to keep less than a mile in two minutes. After n while Elijah Ware got tired of his plaything and sold it to a minister in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, who wrote later that It met his high est expectations. This minister want ed a carriage that would take him tc and from the church without a horse. But it must have made a stir among his good parishioners. About this time Mayor. McCoppin, of chalking up victories in Quakertown in order to get the crowds. Dctroiters are just the opposite from iittsburgers, and can't see home products through the Lick telescope. "There's nothing to it. fellows, when ever you want to get a line on the tem perament of any community just float Superstitions Relating to Birds jjip HERE isn't a man or woman, in 1 any class of life, or in any oc- cupation, who is not supersti tious," said a, veteran hunter while talk ing to some old friends in a lobby of a downtown hotel recently. It was his first visit in Washington, and his friends were making him talk about hns life In the woods, says the Washington Post. "Before you joined me I was reading a newspaper account ol a dinner recently by 13 men on the 13th of the month, where they broke mirrors and dt other foolish things," he went on. "These peo ple were surely tempting Providence. Why, even a hunter knows when it U dangerous to go against nature, and foolhardy to bark up aealnst supersti tion. "It has always been said that sailors were the most superstitious of men, but I think hunters are a close second to them. We have a pet superstition about every bird of the air and beast of the field. For instance, take the much abused but very necessary hen; you all know the old adage: " 'Whistling girl and crowing hen Always come to some -bad end.' "Once I heard a hen crow; fact, now. I was out in the Middle West then, and my partner also heard the hen. It up set him very much and he told me It was very unlucky. Sure enough, some days afterward he received a letter say ing that his mother had died suddenly. One old hunter whom I met in Aus tralia told me that I ought to have wrung the hen's neck immediately, and the spell would have been broken. "Oh, you may laugh, hut I should like to know how many of you keep pea cocks" feathers in your houses? One su perstition In regard to them is that as long as you keep a peacock's tall feath ers in your home the daughter of the house will remain unmarried. "Three times in my life has a bird flown in my open window, and each time it has been the herald of death news. "The turtle dove . is called a sacred bird, and many farmers and hunters say that the house where doves make their nests cannot be struck by light ning. It Is also true that people who suffer from erysipelas often keep doves, declaring that they draw the Illness to themselves, and as a proof of this the bird's feet become scarlet. "Crows are unlucky if seen on the left of the observer, and also when one files over a house at the same time cawing thrice, it Is a sure sign that one of the inmates will die an unnat ural death. "I have knocked about a bit in this world and hunted in a good many coun tries," said the old man, lighting his pipe, "and always found that hunters of every country are equally supersti tious about birds. For Instance, the Scotch consider magpies unlucky. They have an old rhyme about first seeing these birds in flight, which says: " "One's for sorrow, two for mirth. Three's for a wedding, four's for a birth Five's for a christening, six's for a death." "Other ill-omened birds are the Jack daws, whose appaarance in flights be- j FIRST EAC1HC MACHINE' CONSTRUCTED IN 1861 BY A MECHANICAL GENIUS WHO MADE IT WORK j San Francisco, was going to take down the old sand hills under the Santa Buena cemetery and wanted the best man in the country to superintend the work. He wrote Sidney Dillon, stating his wants and asking him to recom mend such a man. Mr. Dillon unhesi tatingly replied that the best man in the land was Elijah Ware, if he could have his own way. Mr. Ware took up the work, and now there is a City Hall and a busy district where the old hills stood. Iater he worked at Church Buttes. Wyoming, where he and his family lived in a baggage car divided into three rooms and attached to the sup ply train. His daughter says that this mode of living was more comfortable than a house, but nevertheless It amused Sidney Dillon to see 'Lijah liv ing that way. His boys always carried their guns with them, as the Indians were still hostile, and also to shoot rabbits, whose meat formed their chle! diet. Elijah spent his last days In Omaha, where he did little work, but was fond of catching gophers or prairie dogs I for natural history study. Ho did it in an ingenious way. He put a headless barrel full1 of sand over the gopher hole, and when the gopher came out he could not burrow back, as the sand would slide in as fast as he burrowed. Mr. Ware's last invention was an injector lor engines which engineers at that time were very much interested in. But shortly after completing it lie became sick and died on July 3, 1S90. The world was not ready to appreci ate the automobile at the time of Mr. Ware's steam carriage. The majority of the people looked at it In very much the same way that Elijah's brother Cryus did, when he was shipping - the machine from Boston to Nova Scotia. He had quite a time getting It aboard the flat car. and it bothered him by sliding back and forth. Cyrus was apked by a friend just before the ship sailed Willi the machine if he did not want to have one more look at it. "No," said Cy. "Let tiie damn thing go." Wellesley Hills. Mass.. June IS. around to the ball grounds and look the crowd over, and when you go home in the evening you can easily figure un what chance you have and dope out your campaign according to what you are go ing to stack up against. This is a tip that will be worth a lot to you fellows, and it won't cost jgu a tent." token either tempest or war. It is com monly supposed that death is also fore tpld by the flight of ravens and the screeching of owls. "The crossbill is said to ward off evil spells, and the robin is considered lucky. Possibly the beautiful legends about these two birds, which are so well known, is responsible for their popular ity. At all events, it is one of the odd superstitions that whoever kills a robin will be struck by lightning or becoma epileptic. The despoiler of a robin's nest will lose as many relations In the course of a year as the number of your birds stolen. "The quail ns said to have the gift of prophecy. His call is believed to de note the price of corn. If he calls six times it signifies the year will be bad; eight times It will be tolerably prosper ous, but should he call 10 times or more, everything will flourish. The cuckoo Is also regarded as a soothsayer. It U be lieved that he foretells the number of years a person may live according to his cries of cuckoo when first hoard by the observer. "AH Germans are superstitious about birds, and the belief that the storks bring children is credited all through Germany. There the stork is called 'the herald of spring." His behavior on his first appearance is very important; according to the superstitious, should the stork be chattering, the spectator wilt break a great deal of crockery during the ensuing year; if- silent he will be lazy; if flying he will be diligent. Who ever has money In his pocket on first beholding a stork will never lack funds during the year, nor will he suffer with toothache. No German dares shoot a stork, for the bird weeps large tears and each tear portends a great mis fortune to his slayer. "Among birds of good omen t lie swal low occupies an Important place. They are often called 'God's birds," and the house where they build their nest is said to be blessed and protected from evil. Various ceremonies must be per formed when you first see a swallow. One custom is to wash your face prompt ly, and thus preserve it from sunburn: another Is to stop and dig with your knife under your left foot, where yo will -find a hair which will be of the same color as that of your future wife's. One very old superstition about -swallows, which is thoroughly believed is that if one should fly under a cow, that animal would give blood instead of milk. The killing of a swallow Is unlucky and usually brings dire misfortune to tne guilty hunter. Some say he will lo.e a parent; others that his house will burn down, and still others believe that the swallow's untimely end causes four weeks' rain. "In former years It was held to be a crime to kill a lark, and the superstition now is that he who points at a lark is sure to be punished for his disrespect by having a running sore on the of fending finger. "And these are just a few of the hunters' superstitions." finished the old man as he arose, "take my advice and believe in some of them in order that your days may be long on earth."
