Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 1909)
X 7 -r-.- -?" -'-s-v PCs hC&'M- T w -Nasi BT JOHV HFRETH WATKINR. THE much-mooted Mars Is a seduc tive flama In which many astron omer moths have scorched their ulnars daring the past decade. During the weeks now to come we will hear more and read more concern ing this Interesting planet than ever before, which Is saying much; and this unprecedented Interest wlir be due to the fact that during the present Sum mer. Mars will come nearer to earth than It has ventured since man com menced to discuss Its "oceanB," "oases" ,and "canals." It will approach within about 86,000,000 miles of the earth's orbit. Or nearly 2.000,000 nearer than It was two years ago. when Its then close proximity caused considerable popular excitement. That the Martians will Introduce themselves to us earthllngs during this near approach, or that their tremendous engineering enterprises will at least be positively revealed to our telescopes and astronomic cameras Is alleged to be hoped by some astronomers of once high repute. These believers In Mar tians with engineering genius will be up for trial during the next few months. Can they make good? Can they prove their case.' At every other trial they have had hitherto the verdict of their peers has been against them. But for their gathering the necessary evidence conditions will be more favorable this year than ever before since the discus sion of the subject commenced. And if they fail again this year they will not have another in any wise equal op portunity for 15 years to come. "Canals' a Translator's Error. All of this palaver about the Martians and their canals was unwittingly started a generation ago by Schiaparel II. director of the Milan observatory In Italy. In 1877, when Mars made one of its near approaches to the earth, this astronomer discovered certain thither to unseen bands connecting dark por tions of Mars, which some astronomers had come to call oceans." Had chance created Schlaparelll anything els?e than an Italian we probably would have never thought of the "canals" of Mars. In naming thee bands this astronomer chanced to use the word "canales," which In Italian means "channels." As It was. TO CARE FOR GOTHAM'S INJURED Police Keport About 50,000 Accidents Yearly, and All Are Given Relief Through Fine Scheme of Ambulance Calls and Hospital Districts. NEW YORK. June 5. (Special.) In a little-known office on the third floor of the police headquarters, the greatest repository of secret news and information In the country, there may be found the man who. for years, has held a unique title. Officially he is the chief surgeon of the police department; actually, he is the director of human re pairs for Greater New York. As an ex pert in the distribution of the human flotsam and Jetsam injured in the hurly burly of the city's daily life, his unofficial title is unparalleled; and sitting in the obscurs center of a complicated web, it is his duty to know of and arrange for the cars of every person reported by the polles as injured in the city. How enormous is this task is shown by the fact that there were more than 50.000 reported injuries in this city last year ' 53.314. to be exact an increase of 1991 over 1907. or approximately equal to the percentage of increase in population. That, roughly. Is equal to 145 calls every day, or one call every 11 minutes. AYay System Works. To the averaga person, the clanging of an ambulance gong means that some one who has been Injured is being taken somewhere for some reason. But before this has happened, an intricate piece of machinery has been called into play. How this machinery' works may be illustrated by an actual example. A man steps off a car In front of the Grand Central Sta tion, let us say, puts his heel on a banana peel, falls and breaks his log. Unless he .is with iriends who take charge of him and thus relieve the city of this duty, he will very shortly find himself in the Flower Hospital, the Institution founded by ex-Governor Roswell P. Flower. There Is no chance of his landing any where alse. for the Grand Central is a part of tha district apportioned to this hospital, and Although few persons realize it. the system which makes possible his speedy relief also dictates as to where that relief shall b given. The whole system of ambulance service, which is the chief visible factor, so far as the public, is concerned, in the work of repairing 50.000 humans each year, is only a part of a still larger system In which the hospital is the basic factor. There are in Greater New York today more than SO hospitals divided into two groups the city hospitals, commonly known as Believue and Allied Hospitals, and the institutions not under municipal management, of which the Flower Hos pital Is a prominent example. The basis of this service rests on the division of tha city Into what are known ,TMELY 50LVE SC l l .V- rf MW I the news was flashed through the English- speaking world that canals" had been discovered on Mara. What had greased the ways upon which this theory was so easily launched was & stroke of guess work, made by no less an authority than Sir John Herschel. He had commenced to lead his fellows astray by calling the darker parts of Mars' sur face "water" and brighter parts "land." Later research, however, convinced the more conservative astronomers that there was little or no water on Mars and that what might be there was frozen tight. Perplexity over the probable function of the "canals" was added by the farther discovery that they crossed the so-called oceans as well as the "land." Enter Professor Lowell. Theories were all criss-cross until some IB years ago, when our astronomer, Per cival Lowell, after running his eye over the length and breadth of the land In search of "good seeing," selected a place In Arizona, a mile and a half above sea- level, and here erected apparatus,- with which he proceeded to snatch the Mar tians' secretB from the skies. At any rate, he has seen things on Mars that few other astronomers have seen or have thought they have seen, all of which Is alleged to be due to the fact that the altitude and peculiar quality of the air above his observatory render his 24-inch telescope the most powerful instrument in existence, although it is not so large as several others in this country. Counts 400 Canals to Date. By now a network of some 400 Martian canals, meeting and crossing at various angles, has been drawn and catalogued by Professor Lowell, and they average 1500 miles in length, which means a total length of 600.000 miles of such works. And since nothing narrower than 15 miles can be seen on Mars by. our most powerful telescopes, the enormity of these works can hardly be imagined. He believes that each "canal" represents not a single waterway, but a stretch of dark-colored vegetation, caused by a collection of ir rigation canals, and that the whole net work is a vast system constructed for tha purpose of "husbanding" a scanty water supply. Almost all are perfectly straight as if drawn by a ruler, and some single stretches he estimates to be as long as from New York to San Francieco. Some times they are seen double, in twin lines, like the parallel rails of a railway track. One typical double canal Is 2250 miles as ambulance districts, of which there are now 20. The whole city is divided up into specifically defined territories, each of which is covered by designated hos PROFESSOR WHO IMAGINES HE CAN TALK TO MARS, AND HIS WIFE, WHO IS HIS HELPMATE. -ta7 -&4VZ TOjDJP NEW TORI. June 5. (Special.) Professor David Todd believes it possi ble to hold communication with other worlds, and in an attempt to get sig nals from Mars will ascend In a balloon to a height greater than usually reached. He will be accompanied by Leo Stevens, the aeronaut. This plan to surmount natural difficulties will be tried not later than September, when the planet Mars Is nearest the earth. Professor Todd believes that if life really exists on Mars they have been trying for years to get Into conversation with us. and perhaps wondering what manner of stupid things we are not to re spond. In arranging for this ascent. Professor Todd will use every device known for the safety and success of the enterprise. The balloon will be the largest attainable, and be wishes to reach a height of ten miles. At the top of the bag will be constructed the wireless antennae, which will be con nected with ground wires, and which may open up to the world a new source of Information from our celestial neighbors. Professor Todd was born at Lake Ridge, X. Y., in 1S55, and married in 1879 Mabel Loomis Todd. He has been the astronomer in charge of a number of eclipse expeditions to Japan, West Africa. Tripoli. Dutch East Indies and. a number of other expeditions. Mrs. Todd has accompanied her husband on a number of his expeditions, and has been a great nelp to him in his work. She is an author and a contributor to leading magazines of articles on travel, astronomy and other topics, and Is also a popular lecturer. THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, JUNE 6, 1909. 3ir,A, FBW WBBKS'THS PtJMSTT WltL BE 1MBAHER TUB EARTH. THEN A5TKOM0E!TEK5 WILT, TRY TO vKfeiX. lis long and ts two lines are 130 miles apart. , About 180 dark spots which Professor Lowell sees at the points where these "canals" cross he calls "oases." To clinch all of this with photo graphic evidence. Professor Lowell dur ing Mars' near approach In 1907. sent Professor David Todd, of Amherst Col lege,' down into the Andes Mountains, where the atmosphere offered greater penetration ven than at the Lowell observatory. Professor Todd took with him an 18-inch telescope, to which he attached a special "planetary camera," and with this apparatus he made some 7000 negatives of Mars. Professor Todd is the man who Is alleged to be going up In a balloon to make tests for pos sible signals from the Martians. Mars' image on these negatives Is some three-sixteenths of an Inch In diameter about the size of the head of a carpet tack. Yet Professor Todd and Professor Lowell claim to see "ca nals" in them, especially when they are -enlarged some three to four diam eters. In such prints from these nega tives as have been thus far published no astronomers outside the Lowell Todd camps have been able to see any thing suggesting a canal. But Pro fessor Lowell says one's "brain must be open to them, not his eye alone." Is he, like Riley's youngster, "seein' things at night?" Conservative astronomers make small bones of intimating that he Is. Al- pitals. Every ambulance call in a given territory is covered by the Institution to which it is assigned. These districts be ing fixed on, the whole work of human DISPUTED POIMTiS though the disk of Mars is, at best, only 1-5620, that of the moon and che breadth of .nese canals is said to be but 1-25 that of .the disk of Mars, Pro fessor Lowell says he sees these streaks a network of fine pencil marks: so fine, however, that they are visible only ; on special occasions of atmospherio clearness and steadiness. But they are only an indescribable per plexity to Professor E. E. Barnard, di rector of the Yerjces Observatory, upon Williams Bay, Wisconsin. And Professor A. E. Douglas, of the University of Ari zona, who was Professor Lowell's chief assistant for seven years until 1901 has lately come out with the suggestion that some of the Martian canals seeming to radiate from the so-called oases on Mars may be due to allusion of vision similar to that which makes rays appear to ex tend from a star; also that the double canals are due to the well known ha!i illusion. "There are fundamental defects in the human eye producing faint canal illusions," adds this former chief assist ant of Professor Lowell. Professor Si mon Newcomb, one of the greatest of living astronomers, admits that some dark streaks exist on Mars, but adds that "the enormously complex variety of light and shade which the best observ ers see to exist on Mars and which is at the very limit of visibility by the best eyes, may be interpreted by the brain in an unending number of ways, and trio repairs, so far as the city is concerned, has its basis. Simple as it may seem, the system in volves not only much labor, but has been subject to much misunderstanding. Aside from the thousands of hospital workers engaged in this labor of human repairs in the workshops, that is, the hospitals. 84 employes of the city itself are a part of the system for the administration of the physical end of the relief work. The development of the service is always go ing on as is Indicated by the recent sign ing by the Mayor of an ordinance provid ing for an enlarged board to supervise the ambulance service. Likewise, the direct or of human repairs Is called upon con stantly to study the accident record and to make recommendations looking to more efficient service. Curiously enough, these changes often lead to public misconcep tions. On the 1st of last March, for example, a change was made in certain districts due to the withdrawal of the ambulance service of the Roosevelt Hospital. The territory formerly serve by it was ap portioned among three other Institutions, the Flower Hospital receiving the busiest section. As a result the ambulance rec ord of the latter Institution showed 862 calls for the month of March and April as compared to 346 for the same period a year ago. This hospital is now handling about one-tenth of the ambulance calls of the city, and has just added two power ambulances to its previous equipment to. meet exactly this contingency. Odd Mi.itako Made. The publication of these figures show ing increased calls, however, caused peo ple to Jump to the conclusion that acci dents were about three times as common thisi year as last, a conclusion, of course, entirely erroneous. But even with New York's accidents increasing only at about the same rate as the population, the han dling of them is by no means a simple matter, and the present efficient system Is the result of long study and careful supervision. As to the character of the causes of these 50.000 ambulance calls every year to attend to human smash-ups. they run the gamut of all the ills that flesh is heir to. Some of them are false alarms, so to speak. Others are trivial, involv ing only a bruise or a slight cut. The re port of the Flower Hospital shows that only about eight out of every 22 patients are brought to the hospital. Nearly one third are cared for by the ambulance sur geon without being brought in. while one fifth either decline treatment or are taken home or to some other institution. But less than 4 per cent die before reaching the hospital, so efficient is the service. Christmas Wedding Ends in Court. A Christmas wedding has ended in a May divorce suit. Lucy E. Cram is suing Henry S. Cram. In a complaint filed in the Circuit Court yesterday she says that her husband refuses to allow her to live in the same house with him. She married him December 25, 1S95, she says.. Mrs. Cram wants to care for their three children. . MYST mind of each observer will after long practice choose that mode of interpreta tion which best suits preconceived id-?as." But these workings which he sees or thinks he sees are proof to Professor Lowell that "life able to fashion them is present there at this very moment He says that such "straight lines are not natural products." But how about straight cracks in a volcanic crust? Could they, be .those? Professor W. H. Pickering, -another of Professor Lowell's former assistants, but who Is now assistant professor of astron omy at Harvard, suggests this explana tion. According to this theory Lowell's "oases" are really craters from which the straight cracks have originated and irmn wnicn tney radiate somewhat as streaks radiate from the craters of the moon. In these cracks may grow vege tation, fed by carbon-dioxide and water Issuing from within. Newcomb on Martian Fauna. Life of only the "very lowest order" exists on Mars, if life exists there at all, according to Professor Simon Newcomb, whose opinion will probably carry great er weight than that of any living Ameri can astronomer. In the first place, he argues, the atmosphere of Mars has only one-fourth the density of that of earth and is thinner than that on top of the Himalayas. Furthermore, the temnera- ture of Mars must be everywhere below NIGHT WATCHES FOR FROM Sebenane to Thamasetse, both of which are pools of water situ ated on the old Hunter's road from Francistown to the Zambesi, is. roughly speaking. 75 miles. Sines the railway has been opened up between Francistown and Buluwayo this road is never used, and Is practically deserted. We had started very early In the morning. Just about sunrise I heard a rustle In a bush close to the road, writes Arnold W. Hod son In the Field. Thinking it was onlv a steinouck or a duiker. I paid no atten tion till I heard the animal bound away, when rt struck me as making rather a loud noise for so small an antelope. I then caught sight of a yellow object moving parallel to the road and saw it was a lioness. She bounded into the road and stood looking at me. I had my thick gloves on. as it was very cold, and in conse quence nather fumbled pulling off my night protector, which, to save time, I dropped on the road instead of putting Into my pocket. My pony, however, tc gan to pirouette round in circles, and be fore I could get him in hand the lioness bounded away. I gallopsd after her down the road, but she soon got Into the thick bush, where we lost her. We got, to Thamasetse the next day und found old lion spoor, but none fresh. Some days afterward one of the bush men app?ared and reported that the lions were at Thamasetse. 1 got ready as soon as possible and left that evening with one native. We rode all through the night and arrived at our destination the next afternoon. The lions did not come down to drink till the third night, when in the morning we found their spoor still fresh and damp. We followed it up care fully, going through thorn bush. We got so close to them once or twice that we could hear them growling (there were five altogether), but the wind changing, they emelled us and made off, and although we followed them up for some distance, we did not catch sight of them again. Eventually we had to give it up. The following day we found the spoor of one male and one female, and followed them up for about 12 to 14 miles. We would come to e place where they had been sleeping, and then, evidently smell ing us, we could 8 how they had be come uneasy and gone on a short dis tance, where they had slept again. This went on till we had gone too far and had to go back. After this experience I decided to try different tactics, so we dug a hole 15 yards from the water, in which I intend ed towatch at night. We made the hole as inconspicuous and secure as possible, and then went around to the outside pools and filled them all up. so that the lions, if they wanted to drink, would have to come down to our water. At undowa I took up my -position in the freezing point, except possibly in the torrid zone under a high sun. But even here, in the equatorial regions, the night temperature is colder than any ever ex perienced on our globe. If any water exists on the planet it not only must be frozen, but the tem perature of the ice must be far below freezing point, and water in this condi tion is not very convenient for irriga tion enterprises, as we know them, at least. Life will develop more rap idly in a warmer than a colder world that ours, he further be lieves, and fcnus, therefore, would be better adapted to life than Mars. In deed. some planet revolving between the kadiri (the native name for "game hole"). A few hours afterward some sable and roan antelopes came down to drink, and it -was a very pretty sdght to watch them. They approach the water carefully and when quite close suddenly bound away. My opinion is that they do thie to see if by chance there is a lion in the water hole, because the latter lie up close to the edge of the pool in the shadow or the bank and then spring on the game when it drinks. The mere fact of their bound ing away would probably entice the lion forth. The sable antelope seemed to me to be always more cautious than the roan antelope. One of the former, a female, came 12 times to the water and dashed away each time. Of course she may have Juet smelled me. which . would have ac counted for it; hut 1 do not think Bhe did. for she eventually drank. I kept watch night after night, and al though I saw plenty of game, no lions came: It was very lonely by oneself in these . holes, and the cries of the wolves and jackals are at times very un canny. One evening at dinner time just as Ranchubu. my servant, was bringing in the soup, one of my little bushmen, a splendid little chap of about 14 and very plucky, who was going down to the water to fill his billy, suddenly becan yelling with all his might "'Newe!" Newe!" (leopard, leopard) and then, still shout ing, commenced running after it across the veld. I snatched up my rifle and cilling to the dogs rushed after him. Luckily, I had on a pair of light running shoes instead of my usual heavy shoot ing boots, so was easily able to keep up with the others who had Joined us. We must have gone about three miles when we heard the dogs barking and knew that they had bayed the leopard. In a few minutes it would be quite dark, so I put on a fresh spurt to try to get a shot while I could see my sights. The leopard was standing outside a thick patch ef bush with the dogs, furiously excited, surrounding him. After several ehots and misses, the leopard breaking away each time, a lucky shot struck him in the neck and killed him. I was glad the matter ended as it did, for I found that two of my previous shots had hit him. and it is seldom that a wounded leopard does not attack his assailant. It is curious that he did not take to a tree, as is nearly always the case when chased by dogs. He was an excellent specimen of a large male. We got back to the camp about 8 P. M.. a very jubilant party, and when I had had my. supper I again took up my position at the water hole. Plenty of game came that night, but no lions. The next day was very hot and oppres sive, and we felt sure that if lions were anywhere near they would come down that night to drink. I took up my posi tion soon after sundown, and about 12 o'clock, as we had no meat, shot a male orbits of earth and Venus would be bet ter adapted than even the earth for tha development of higher forms of life. Finally, as to Mars. It is unfavorable to any form of life except that of the very lowest order. So that of Mars ip another case over which the doctors widely disagree. May hap during the coming weeks this broth er planet will approach near enough to whisper some answer to th great riddle which It has propounaed. 'Tis more like ly, however, that it will venture only within sufficient distance to spring a. fresh mystery that will plague astrono mers for another generation. Washing-ton, D. C, June 1. BIG GAME sable antelope.. He was mortally wound ed and ran about 60 yards to die, when, as I discovered in the morning, he was pounced upon by a lioness and immediate ly killed. I heard nothing and saw noth ing till about 3 A. M., when I heard lap. lap, lap from the pool In front of me. As soon as it was light I could see her . ears moving ana fired again, this time' hitting her Just below the head, whicrtl finished the matter. She was a splendid j specimen of a lioness. My first shot hadi hit her in the neck, and the second in thej stomach. Her skin was perfect and veryj glossy. We found the remains of thei sable antelope she had killed about eightyH yards away, and saw by the spoor thatJ there had been at least six lions around. i the pool that night. They had evidently been frightened byj the fate of the lioness and had not come .' down to drink- We followed the spoor of; a lion and a lioness. After we had gona a short distance the bushman pointed to a tree and showed us where the lion had. been standing up on his hind legs clawing it. He said that the Hon was looking around for the lioness I had shot and was very angry at being disturbed from his feast of the sable antelope. We went on milo after mile, but a breeze springing up behind us we had to go back. That night I again sat up at the water hole, but sew nothing more exciting than a few sable and roan antelopes. The next day it was again very hot, and at night I went down to the hole full of hope that the lions wou'. c-.nt oack. About 3 A. M. the same morning I could hear some animals at the remains of the sable antelope. The cracking of the bones was one of the most horrible noises I have ever heard. I made sure that the lions had come back, and expected them when they had finished their feed to come down and drink; but they did not come, and in the morning we found that they were jackals that had been eating the meat during the night. I continued to sit up at nights, but the lions did not return. On the third even ing just before going down to the game -hole the leader came running into camp and said that he had heard the cries of a dying sable antelope, so we went out as quickly as possible to the place, and on getting near to it heard the peculiar half growl, half-bark uttered by wild dogs. There wore four or five of them. They did not run away when they saw us. but bounded a few yards and then turned round and looked at us, all the time making a hideous, noise. I shot one of them and the rest then decamped. Thia wild dog appeared to me to be differently marked from one I had shot a few weeks before more to the southwest. These brutes do no end of damage among game, and the bushmen say that sometimes if they are disturbed in their orgies thejr will attack a man. They certainly loole.' fierce enough to do so.
