Petaluma High School - Trojans Yearbook (Petaluma, CA)

Page 30 text:

P. H. S. ENTERPRISE ’08. Fathers are now in session devising means to meet the expense. We are now at the end of our journey. This is the Continental Hotel. It is called the Continental because there is no hotel like it on the American continent. In leav¬ ing the auto do not forget your packages and bundles. All out please. Sin ' m’s 13lurk across the that small T was a bi tter cold day, during that coldest of winters, 1853. The little shack trembled and shook in the violent blasts that came sweeping down plains from the north. Inside shack were ten miners whose prospecting trip threatended to come to an untimely end, for there they were, shut in a small two-room shack without any food and the nearest settlement fifteen miles away. All except one of the men huddled around the rude fire-place were big burly miners, but that one was a slender boy of about nineteen, who, although with an almost child-like look on his handsome face was reputed to be the best marksman with eith¬ er rifle or pistol in the west, and to be able to hold his own with any man on the fron¬ tier with his bare hands. At last he shook himself out of the trance- like stupor into which he had fallen, and placing himself in front of the men said, “Who will go with me to the settlement to get some chuck?” “What’s the use trying it, kid, there’s no man alive could make his way through the snow to ' the store, say nothing about com¬ ing back loaded,” said big Bill Barlow, the best man with a pick in that section of the country. But the kid, although silenced, did not give up his intention, and at last slipped off quietly and was soon lost in the whirling snow. For the first ten miles the kid, who was not a bad snow-shoer, made pretty good time. Suddenly, as he was swinging along over an apparently smooth stretch of snow, his right snow-shoe caught in something just below the surface, and threw him full length in the snow, spraining his ankle. He tried frantically to rise, but it was no use, his snow-shoe was firmly entangled in the branches of a fallen tree. Then he tried with all his strength to reach his snow-shoe to unbind it from his foot, but only succeeded in reaching within about two inches of it, and causing excruciating pains to run . all through his injured leg. A sudden thought striking him he reached into his pocket and after much fumbling brought forth his knife, but after removing his heavy gloves he found his fingers al¬ ready so numb with cold, that it was all he could do to open it. With the extra inches gained by the length of the blade he man¬ aged to reach and cut from his foot the en¬ tangled snow-she. He fell back exhausted, but knowing that if he stayed there mucn longer he would freeze, he made a desper¬ ate effort to rise and start on, which result¬ ed in his half walking, half crawling a few feet, and some more terrible pains in his in¬ jured ankle. And on and on he struggled falling a doz¬ en times in fifty yards, but always rising and continuing the battle for his life, and that of his starving comrades, until he became so numb with cold and suffering that his onward struggle grew mechanical and he realized nothing until twelve hours after leaving that lonely hut far out cn the plains, he suddenly staggered into circle of light and warmth, which in reality was the in¬ terior of the lone grocery store the village boasted, muttering, “The boys—Dead Man’s shack—starving! ” While a large force of men on snow-shoes and the best team the village afforded were making ready for the start to Dead Man’s shack, everything possible was being done for the kid. — 26 —

Page 29 text:

P. H. S. ENTERPRISE 08. the Carlson Currier Co. silk mill. The raw silk cuccoons are imported from China. These cuccoons and laundrymen are the only products of the Celestial kingdom which the custom officials will permit to en¬ ter this country. The loud pounding noises you hear come from the shoe factory just a block down the street. They turn out so many shoes down there you would suppose they thought the entire population were centipedes. We are now approaching the Washington- street bridge which spans the stream we crossed some time ago. The hill was placed in front of this bridge so as to induce the peasantry to drive rapidly across the bridge and fall into the hands of plain-clothes po¬ licemen on the other side. Keep your seat, ladies, there is no danger. That is not a riot call you hear. It is the gentleman at the Nickelodeon several blocks away announcing a complete change of pro¬ gram on Tuesday, Wednesday and Satur¬ day. He makes this announcement 420 times every day, to the great delight of all busi¬ ness houses on that street. The Old Brick School.—From the base¬ ment to the belfry you will find carved the names of the leading citizens of the county. In this famous ‘.‘Cradle of Knowledge” were rocked half of the stalwart pillars of the community, and the other half are being cared for in the same old crib. The building with the large sign is the home of the Petaluma Incubator Company. In this factory are made machines which hatch anything in the egg line from the pee- wee to the ostrich. They also make the brooders in which the product of the in¬ cubators is trained for good citizenship. Yes, madam, the brooders are some¬ what deficient as mothers. They can not teach the youngsters how to scratch for worms or call them in when it rains, but the firm is at work on a scheme to remedy this defect. We are now passing within eight blocks of the storage plant of the Petaluma Gas and Electric Company. The unpleasant odor you doubtless detect is due to the fact that ihe gas was made in Santa Rosa. You can not notice the odor when you see the bill. If the candle power was as high as the bill every citizen would have to wear goggles. We are now in the heart of the business district. This is Prosperity Avenue, the newly paved street. The city is now the proud possessor of one whole block of this kind of paving. We will have to drive slow¬ ly because school is out and most of the boys are using this street as a bicycle race track. It is now growing so dark you can not see to advantage any more of the many interest¬ ing features of this portion of the city. You will now be given the rare privilege of see¬ ing the city as it rests from the hurry of the day. The light you see some blocks ahead is a street lamp. The city now has twenty of these lamps and is very proud of them. Since they were installed the price of can¬ dles has been increased three times. A local architect has just finished a plan for lighting the entire city. He intends to have a ‘‘Statue of Liberty” every four blocks hold¬ ing in each hand a lighted candle. The City — 25 —

Page 31 text:

P. H. S. ENTERPRISE ’08. When two months later he emerged from the sick room, the first thing he heard was a roaring cheer and the first thing he saw was a group of nine grateful faces and the first thing he realized was being carried on the shoulders of his partner in the pros¬ pecting trip, who told him that the shaft sunk at Dead Man’s Shack was turning out one hundred dollars daily, and that his share was awaiting him along with the contribu¬ tions of his grateful friends. —GEO. SKILLMAN ’ll. OUBTLESS many people have seen the tops sold at nearly ft 43 Yl all toy stores, consisting of a metal disk mounted on an axle in a ring; but probably very few realize of what importance it has become of late. It was first used in the early part of the last century to illustrate certain things about the seasons, substituting a small globe for the disk. When its peculiar properties were discovered in 1832 by Prof. W. R. Johnson, it was called the rotascope, but now the gyroscope. Its most important property is that when the disk is whirling rapidly, the axis can not be moved from its first position without difficulty. This may be easily illustrated by standing a bicycle on its rear wheel and on rotating the wheel as fast as possible, trying to turn it by means of the handle bars. While this property may seem very im¬ portant, it was not put to use to any extent till the invention of the torpedo. Each one of these conta’ns two near the motor, one to keep the torpedo at the same level and the other to keep it going in the same direc¬ tion. It has also been used in ocean-going vessels to reduce rocking; but was not a success, since the gyroscope could not get a leverage on anything solid on the earth. But its most important use comes later. Many men have tried as many different ways to eliminate one rail of the ordinary railroad track. Some have one rail above, and one below with a guide on each side, and one is running in Germany, where the trains are suspended from the rail. Also there are the systems, like that in Chicago, where the cars are hung on a cable. In Eng¬ land, however, Louis Brennan, who has studied the gyroscope for over thirty years, and is said to be one of the three men in the world who really understand it, has applied the principal to a mono-rail car. The car used at present is about six feet long, and about two and a half feet high. In front is a small covered space for the con¬ trolling apparatus, and air brakes. This also holds the gyroscope, which consists of two wheels revolving in a vacuum in opposite directions on frictionless bearings. The car is run by two electric motors, using cur¬ rent from a storage battery in the rear of the car. The freight in the car can all be put on one side, and the action of the gyroscope will raise that side. It also tips the car in the right direction when it is on a curve. Another great advantage is the ease with which temporary bridges can be constructed, the inventor having one on his place made of a wire cable stretched between the two rail ends. Tremenduous speeds are expect¬ ed of it, such as 100 or 150 miles per hour. The British government is so interested that is spending $25,000 on a car twelve feet wide. Still the car has its difficulties. The gyroscope wheels must weigh 5 per cent of the weight of the car. With an ordinary passenger coach, this would mean three tons, and a wheel of this size going at 2,500 or 3,500 revolutions per minute would be liable to explode. This probably can be overcome by casting the wheels in one piece of metal. Sir Hiram Maxim calls it a “highly scientific toy” which will not work on a large scale. The result of a large car is, therefore, un¬ known, but if it is a success, it will certain¬ ly bring about a great revolution in the art of railroad construction and operation. —C. H. GREEN. — 27 —