Barringer High School - Athenaeum Yearbook (Newark, NJ)

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LA TOUR EIFFEL. '4 and farther from the second floor. At the foot of this I meet a friend. Having each bought a white ticket for one franc we ascend together. He tells me among other items of interest that the tower weighs about seven thousand tons, and the iron, drawn into a wire a tenth of an inch in diameter, would make a tele- graph wire around the world. This struc- ture is supported by four curved uprights, with arches between, which are one hun- dred and sixty-five feet high. The span between the feet is three hundred and thirty feet. The base being of cement gives it a very light appearance, but in reality it is embedded by foundation stones extending farther in depth than the bed of the Seine. Two and a half million rivets were used in the construction of this tower. Besides four staircases, there are five lifts, three of which are constructed on the French and two on the Otis system, of which America is justly proud. These elevators ascend at the rate of three and a third feet per second. The first floor holds six thousand people, the second fifteen hundred and the third five hundred, to- gether with two thousand on their way up, make a grand total of ten thousand people. Enough to make a small city. The money- making capacity is about seven hundred and fifty dollars per hour, or nearly one- thousandth of its entire cost. For one hundred thousand dollars it can be taken down and re-erected on another site. So if the World’s Fair in 1892 cannot have an Eiffel Tower of its own, we might borrow the French one for six months. The parts of the tower, like the parts of Solomon’s Temple, were not constructed at the place where it now stands, but were finished in the factory and brought to the site all ready to put together. It was com- menced on the 28th of January, ’87, and completed March 30th, ’89. By this time we have reached the sect floor, at the north pillar, quite close tot printing office of the “Figaro.” Wenw toward the railing, from which we view the palace of the Trocadero, situat on the right bank of the Seine, and erect for the exhibition of ’78. We decide go higher, and accordingly buy qur 1 tickets, having in the red, white and b! invested five francs. There is no sta way, so we step into the lift. As ascend the iron trellis work is more slew and there is more space between the d ferent parts. On the third fl x)r we are so fortun; as to meet M. Eiffel himself, who 0 dially invites my friend, whom he knui and me to his private rooms, where spends pleasant hours far above the thii of the earth. The staircase which Its to these apartments has only ten stfl The rooms which we enter are large 1 triangular. They have double wooi walls, and the space between the two w. is filled with mineral cotton, which light, a non-conductor against heat, aa proof against vermin. This makes rooms warm in winter and cool in su From these rooms we go out on a race which is about three yards wi Here learned men are able to try expt ments that must be made in the opem Up here the noise of Paris is gone; a hum still reaches my cars. The below seems like the land of the Ii the putians; everything is so small, high as this is, we can go still higher, straight staircase of thirty steps leads a small round landing scarcely a yarf! diameter; we then come to an iron t' in which there is a door. Opening thi?( see within a ladder on which we : crawl on our hands and feet to a sr balcony. We can go no higher, for are at the lighthouse.

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LA TOUR EIFFEL. 3 LA TOUR EIFFEL. CARRIE S. ROMER, 92. u L A BELLE FRANCE’ sings the Frenchman, and my heart echoes the notes as I stand on the banks of the Seine; the green fields, the serpen- tine river, the beautiful city, whose every outline, every motion, says: “Gayety! I color! merriment! Enjoy life while you I may; if not in Paris, then where?” Thus I ponder as I wend my way from the Trocadero and over the bridge which crosses the silent river to the goal of my ambition, “La Tour Eiffel,” so marvel- ously .slender in structure that the first impression is one of disappointment. Can it be as tall as is said? Could we put Bunker Hill Monument on top of Wash- ington Monument, and on this place our Statue of Liberty, and would this great Beacon Light still look down upon our virgin’s lamp? Almost one thousand feet, nearly twenty times the height of our High School. I try to imagine twenty High Schools placed one above the other. Why, since a site is wanting might we not remove the old building and ereet in its place a Tower School modeled on a [ smaller scale after Eiffel? If a tower one thousand feet high will hold ten thousand people how tall must a tower be to hold two thousand people? I give it up, since I do not know the size of the base, and, any way, it is vacation; one is not sup- posed to know aught out of school hours. When I return to Newark I shall suggest my plan and offer my problem to the Board of Education. One must not suppose I am ascending the tower during this soliloquizing. Oh no! Iam simply waiting in line for the privilege of exchanging two francs for a blue ticket, the open seseme to the first j stage. I am early at the entrance, but there is a crowd before me; good-natured, in holiday attire and voluble—as the French ever are. No one is impatient, for each knows before he starts that a half day will be consumed. After the ticket is purchased I walk slowly up the stairs, stopping at the numerous landings to admire the beautiful pictures, framed by the cross-pieces of the iron work. The view from the first floor extends many miles. The Arc de Tri- omphe is the chief object of importance. This structure was once pre-eminent, but is now utterly dwarfed by Titanic Eiffel. I now look directly downward and see an immense throng of people hurrying to and fro, who remind me of the busy ants that one often sees building their tiny homes in the earth. The people look so small that I think they are not moving. It is already after twelve. How quickly time passes! It was hardly a quarter after eleven when I entered. There are four large restaurants on this floor. At my left is the “Alsation Lorran,” at my right the Anglo-American and opposite these are the Russian and French. They are as large as any res- taurants in Paris and look inviting. I enter the Anglo-American and enjoy a delicate luncheon. On leaving the res- taurant I hardly know whither to turn, but bend my steps to the side from which to view the heart of the city. The pic- turesque Seine divides the landscape into two parts. The bridges, which I can see, are covered with people, and many of the boats on the river are also filled. How bright the city looks with the flags of all nations flying about. After thoroughly enjoying this scene I turn toward the stairway, thinking that I can see bet-

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THE POWER OF MIND. 5 The guardian of this lighthouse tells us I that it takes him more than half the day I to keep the prisms and classes clear. lie I also says that the electric light in the I tower can be seen for a radius of eighty 4 miles. We must descend in the lift to the second platform, though we would linger to take a last walk around the square, see the printing press, buy a paper and write a postal. We look down through the centre of the tower at the labyrinth of iron bars and try to believe we are still four hundred feet above the earth. The descent is made in less than a minute. As I again find myself on the smooth, graveled walk under the immense stone arches that support this admirably con- structed lighthouse, I take a seat and watch the surging crowd walking beneath ; anon I gaze at the dizzy altitude, trying to grasp the height, the depth of this iron lion. Although so small that it was con- tained in the convolutions of one man’s brain, now that the conception has taken stable form, to be seen by millions, the mind through the eye fails, and it is impossible to realize the generous scale on which this Modern Babel is built. Prize Oration 1889. THE POWER OF MIND. EDMUND K. HOPPER, ’89. A 1IND is always young: profound I IVI thought, always original. It is a wrong belief which some have enter- , tained that, as the world grows old, mind t becomes aged and enfeebled, exchanging t its ancient originality for present weakness 1 and debility. Man has the same power to- [ day that he possessed in the days of Pericles i and Augustus; the same glory of intel- lect shed upon the empires of the old t world, may brighten this republic of the ? new. Every mind exerts an influence. As I the sun, setting beyond the western hills. t leaves a trail of light behind it, so wher- jever man moves he leaves behind him influences either good or evil; energies potent for blessing or for future ill. The world still feels the evil effects of Nero’s cruelty. A thousand years is not long . enough to stay the tide of social pollution (created by men of genius like Byron and (Voltaire. But let us look rather at the good influences of mind. About three hundred years ago there were born in England two men whose names have become immortal. Shakes- peare was a child of nature. His mind was not fashioned by rule, but seemed to expand under the guidance of its own instincts. When we reflect upon his early circumstances, the age in which he lived, the state of learning and public sentiment at that period, we are inclined to regard him as the most remarkable man that any age or any country ever produced. His works are a living source of moral and literary instruction for the whole world. Milton was a child of culture. How many there are whose minds have been enlightened by his acute reflections and profound views, whose piety has been warmed by his religious devotion, and whose cravings for greatness and sub- limity have been satisfied by “Paradise Lost.” Shakespeare and Milton—their works bear not the impress of common minds; they are not the puny and perish- ing efforts of ordinary men, but the durable monuments of strong and gifted intellect.