Show FOH LEISURE millis AN HOUR tiivi is th speed of th diw cleoria El eoria david G items of baltimore is the inventor of a new rapid iran eit electric railway system which promises to revolutionize the carry ing of mail and express lie had been interviewed on the subject of liia new invention at hia home in laurel maryland and has now giyen the following interesting de af the plan the railway has two rails very like any other railway but it is here in sort of lattice work and there by a barbed wire fence which clies al aig on both sides but the queerest thing about this railroad is what travels on it A FEATURE mr weems standing iu the door of a shed touches a button when out of the shed aralla an iron plated thing about two and a half beet long pointed at one end it is on wheels and looks very heavy and clumsy no sooner have you begun to look it ovar and wonder whether it is a torpedo or a than it disappears it goes off like a flash nothing touches it nothing it but it goes A little rumble a dark streak g round the of the circular railway and it is hidden behind a clump of trees mr avgeros still stands with his hand on the button watching a pencil moving in an automatic devico over a piece of rudd paper at a halll he exclaims and a moment or two later one milt then A mile and a half and in a few seconds more the long black thing ou ft heels whizzes by you take your watch and time it in little loci than a minute it reappears fars in another minute it whizzes past once more As it goei and round it is like nothing so much as a big shuttle moving in a circle with inconceivable rapidity the track is exactly two milea in circumference we are not running very fast now mr weems says only 1400 revolutions of our dynamo this gives us a speed of exactly two miles a minute our machines develop up to revolutions equal to more than four miles a minute for twenty four hours out stopping on a first class track reasonably straight and without too many steep grades we can easily develop a continuous speed of three to four miles a minute in fact there is practically no limit to the speed that our power can produce the only question is how speed the tracks and cars are ablerto stand the track ne are snow using is all curve and full of grades the success of this remarkable railway has been so thoroughly as aured by actual demonstration that chicago may now begin looking forward to the receipt of mail from new york in four or five hours PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE within a very few years said mr beems there will be a double track electric railway from new york to chicago about miles ong the track will have a twelve inch gauge and will be in a net work of barbed wire the wires of which this fence is made will be used for telegraph telephone and automatic signals overhead will be space carrying for A hundred commercial telegraph kirea the track is so light and ithe rolling stock so easily carried imbat at very small additional cost the road can be elevated through towns and cities and wherever it may be Dece to obviate heavy grades through this protected way trains two and a half feet wide and of about the same height will be run at the speed of miles an hour no engi nemen conductors or brakemen accompany this train whose menta are controlled easily and absolutely from the power stations of these stations there will be one in new york one in chicago and seven on the line about miles apart these power stations will a capacity of about hudaa power each and any practical engineer can compute the coat of maintaining them it is really trifling considering si the efficiency developed if water power can be had for some of the stations even if five or ten miles ironi the track it will be utilized power being transmitted by wire in operation trains of four or five cars will be run a motor car and three or four others the cars are so telescoped together as to form unbroken surfaces top bottom and bides and the rear car AS well as the first or motor car is pointed so as to offer the least possible resistance to air the movement of each train is automatically and accurately registered on a chart in the power stations the slightest accident to the train or the presence of an obstacle on the track shuts connection at the will of the dispatcher a train can be stopped at any point backed up or started ahead again the trains are therefore under complete control should not justify the building of a double track a single track could be easily and efficiently operated OF scally UNLIMITED while it is true the capacity of a train of five can is not large about a lou of mail or express matter to a car the capacity of the road will be very great and it economy admirable ten or fifteen draing an hour each way will require no more power than a train aday and practically no more expense since the power la et eaSily maintained at the generating and no employees are re quiren with the traina fifty or five tow an hour could be easily dispatched from new york to chicago at it is not intended to apply the new invention to the transportation of human be ing but after the commercial BUO cess of the mail and express line hall have been demonstrated it is predicted a passenger lii e will speedily follow for the carrying of passengers the car would be made about three feet wide with single seats no sleeping care would be required because five hours would suffice fur a journey from new york to chicago the traveler could leave chicago early in the morning lunch at new york spend the afternoon on broad way i or wall street dine at and reach chicago again in time to retire at midnight he would travel very rapidly but comfortably in a train lighted and heated by electricity he would more over travel in lafety because the construction of the track would render it impossible for a train to become derailed and automatic appliances would obviate all danger of collisions he might not find it to bis advantage to slick his head out of the window but there would be no difficulty about the ventilation of the coaches no smoke dust gas or cinders would interfere with respiration the cars now in use on the experimental track here have their wheels on the outside of the body new cars soon to be put in use have the wheels within the walls of the cars leaving no projections except the journal boxes AN IMPORTANT PATENT patents of the company controlling this invention is one whose importance will at once commend itself to the reader who hopes some day to travel from new york between luncheon and dinner it is a special form of rail under the projecting arm of this rail travels a guard which reals within a couple of of the under surface ur face standing ready to hold the upon the track in cases ol 01 accident or shock this rail serves the double purpose of giving protection against accidents and of carrying the two currents the outgoing and the return the positive current ia carried br the rail itself while the negative current returns on a small copper wire carefully and placed on the outside of the upright section of the rail this rail can be crossed by pedestrians and without danger of shock from the powerful current coming through it the rail weighs sixty pounds to the yard and the average cost of the track is computed at a mile A double track line between new york and chicago with power stations and equipments would probably cost no more than 12 and have a capacity more than equal to all the mail and package express matter now passing between the two cities an 7 the following story aia sent in by ale a justly esteemed resident of eo ion the hudson where his ancon p om ising love of truth has gained him an enviable reputation among the villagers and the more sophisticated metropolitans itans who make this beautiful spot their eummer home to use their narrator s own words 1 I was one day last winter fuching through the ice of the river for eels a favorite with me when my little girl who was with me cried out that there waa something un a line well out toward the middle of the stream hastening to the spot I 1 drew out upon the ice what I 1 at first took to be an enormous eel but which proved to be a serpent of unusual size instead of to get away the reptile lay perfectly quiet while I 1 extracted the book from its mouth once free it threw itself into a coil and to my surprise sprang into the air with a hissing noise not unlike that of a rocket the bright colors with which it was marked flashing in the sunlight added not a little to the similarity after reaching an altitude of nearly fifty feet it turned gracefully and descended in a coil an attitude which completely nullified the force of the fall this performance the snake went through with several times and averal other amusing tricks which greatly delighted my little daughter it came up to us with every evidence of friendliness and received a portion of the lunch which I 1 bad brought after satisfying its hunger it glided back through the ice whence it had come 1 I thought no more of the affair until an event during the monh of june last recalled it to my mind my daughter who was playing along the river bank slipped into the water and the current being very strong would certainly have been drowned bad it not been for this very serpent which seized her by the dress and dragged her to the there since that time every evening about 7 it fills its mouth with water and coming near the bouse sprinkles the whole lawn in such a manner that the grass is luxuriant even in the hottest weather you may readily comprehend that I 1 have not regretted sparing the the snake when it was in my power to kill it with an ax which I 1 bad by me J M and office over n T Soy dera hardware tore eui ade of street A POTTERS FIELD boiton miss hw no to bar her worthy poor N I 1 am owing to neglect on the part of the city government the city of boston is without a potters field in which to bury her indigent dead no appropriation has been made and there are not bough nough men employed at mount hope cemetery to dig the graves when the appropriation pria tion bill caroe in this year the trustees of mount hope cemetery asked for an appropriation of this sum was reduced by alie mayor to and when the city government acted on the appropriation bill it declined to appropriate anything for mount hope cemetery the city government has also postponed action on transferring the cemetery to the lot owners until october in the meantime the trustees are absolutely without any ands except what they may obtain from the sale of lota ahe most pressing need for money is fur burying the city poor but there is another interesting legal point which the trustees are discussing the city of boston has given a bond to a large number of lot for a perpetual care of the lots having no funds the trustees will be unable to continue the care this bond guarantees the lot owners have for some time past been trying to obtain control of the cemetery and unless the city lives up to its agreement they will in a short time appeal to the supreme court for the transfer of th cemetery |