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HE APPEAL KEEPS IN FRONT 1—It aims to publish all the news possible. 2—It does so impartially' wasting no words-8—Its correspondents are able and energetic*

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VOL. 24. NO. 41.

THE ST. PAUE'AND MINNEAPOLIS. MINN.. SATURDAY. OCTOBEE 10, 1908. .40 PER YEAR.

SUCCESS OF HUDSON MAXIM Heroic Struggles and Distinguished Achievements of the

Fulminating Philosopher.

(By Dorothy Richardson.) Herculean in strength and physical

prowess. Promethean in sublime courage and endurance, Spartan in simplicity, Hudson Maxim, philoso­pher, scientist, inventor, is the hero of a tale of hard won victory over circumstances that is truly Homeric in character. Between the cham­pion wrestler of county fairs and the discoverer of the "ultimate atom," be­tween the callow 'schoolmaster of a Maine woods district and the inventor of the most powerful explosive known to science, between the barefoot and hatless boy who at nine years of age could neither read nor write and the man who at fifty-five has, like Goethe, made practically all human knowl­edge his own between each of these contrasted figures there is a wide gulf fixed. Hudson Maxim has bridged them all.

Sitting on the porch of his beautiful summer home, Maxim Park, on the western shore of Lake Hopatcong, one fair September afternoon, the "fulminating philosopher," as he has been most happily called, consented then and there to tell me the romance of his success and to what, in his opinion, that success is chiefly due.

After he had got education enough to teach school, Mr. Maxim had many interesting experiences as a peda­gogue in the Maine -woods and the mountains.

"The school agent of East Liver-more visited Kent's Hill, where I was attending the academy, one autumn," said /Ir. Maxim, "to get a teacher for the rlnter term of his school. The

partner were the joint authors. He also invented a new process of printing in colors. Foreseeing the advantage of color work m the daily press, he experimented by printing one issue of the Pittsfleld Evening Journal in colors, which was proba­bly the first daily ever printed in col­ors.

When the Maxim automatic gun, the invention of his brother Hiram, was being introduced Hudson Maxim made a special study of gunpowder, and was the first person to make or submit- for test any smokeless pow­der in the United States. He built two powder mills at Maxim's N. J., a small place named for him, one for high explosives and the other for smokeless powders. It was there that the Maxim-Schuppaus smokeless powder was developed, afterward adopted by the United States govern­ment. All common powder used by this government since that time has been made under his letters patent. He was the first to make multi-per­forated smokeless powder and to rec­ommend its use for throwing high ex­plosives from cannon, and he was also the first to design and recom­mend large torpedo guns using gun­powder instead of compressed air for throwing aerial torpedoes

In 1901 be sold to the United States government the secret of the high ex­plosive known as Maxlmite, which was the first high explosive bursting charge for armor-piercmg projectiles. sufficiently insensitive to be capable of withstanding the tremendous shook in the penetration of heavy ar­mor plate.

When a twelve-inch projectile from a long naval gun strikes armor plate

mercury It Is 5 per cent more pow­erful than ordinary dynamite.

One twelve-inch shell exploded with it at Sandy Hook before its adoption by the government was broken into more than 10,000 pieces.

One of Mr. Maxim's most important inventions is a new system of pro­pelling automobile torpedoes of the Whitehead type at a very greatly in­creased speed and range by means of motorite, a self-combustive fuel com-

HUDSON MAXIM.

H A L L W A Y IN MR. MAXIM'S RESIDENCE, BROOKLYN.

"big boys had thrown out three pre­vious teachers, and he came looking for a bruiser this time. He attended the evening round-up of the students, and made a speech, telling them what he wanted and that it was no use to take the school unless the ap­plicant was able to lick John Tolman, and he related the experience of the teacher at the last session of the school, who had been thrown through the window, sash and all, and as Mark Twain remarked upon a similar occasion, 'he did not need the sash, but it was handier to take it.' None of the students volunteered.

"Just then I came in late, and Dr. Torsey, the president of the school, said: "There's your man. He'll take your school and he can lick John Tol­man, I'll guarantee"

Mr. Maxim took the school. When he applied to the school committee for a certificate they did not ask him the usual questions to test his educa­tional qualifications, but felt of his muscle and asked him if he thought he could lick John Tolman.

"Well," he said, "to make a long story short, I took the school and I licked John Tolman so hard that he became my friend from that day o n "

After his school teaching period Mr Maxim entered the printing and subscription book: publishing business with an old school friend, in Pitts­fleld, Mass., where his business rap­idly erew to large proportions, until in 1883 the profits of the concern amounted to $50,000. During this time his firm sold by subscription nearly half a million copies of a book on Denmanship, of which he and his

The Revival of the Bonnet. There is a decided piquancy about

the donning of a bonnet by a young woman. One coal scuttle recently turned out was as high as the* tallest hat that I have seen this season. This may represent the route by which bon­nets -will gradually enter again.

Should Be Popular. Manager—-"What sort of a play is it,

a character play?" Playwright—"No, sir, not a single

s e r s o n in i t has a, shred of character."

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the force of impact is about 50,000-foot tons—that is to say, it is equal to 40,000 tons falling a foot, or one ton falling from a height of 50,000 feet. The twelve-inch projectile weighs half a ton, so that the shock upon the plate is equal to that of the half-ton projectile falling from a height of about twenty miles. Max-imite withstands this shock without exploding, which enables the projec­tile to pass through the plate to be exploded by a detonating fuse Max-

pound—that is to say, a fuel contain­ing in chemical union the oxygen necessary for its own combustion, so that it is capable of burning in a con­fined space and -without atmospheric air and equally well under water.

It consists of a compound and 70 per cent nitroglycerine and 30 per cent of gelitinated guncotton. It has a tough rubbery consistency, and its combustion is capable of being con­trolled with great nicety.

It is made in the form of hars seven feet in length and seven inches or more in diameter. These bars are sealed into steel tubes and are capa­ble of being burned only from one end, where the product of combustion or flame is mixed with water by the flame blast, which forces the water through an atomizing device, convert­ing it instantly into steam. The steam and' the product Of combustion to­gether are used to drive a turbine, which drives the torpedo.

Mr. Maxim has also designed a tor­pedo boat to be driven by this same means, and he expects to obtain a speed of from fifty to sixty miles an hour with it, even in a submerged po­sition, rendering it practically invul­nerable in attack.

Naturally Mr. Maxim must have many hairbreath escapes, working as he does among such dangerous com­pounds.

"In connection with the experi­ments with the developments of mo­torite I have had several pretty close calls. Motorite is a compound con­sisting of about 70 per cent nitro­glycerin and 30 per cent guncotton, which is combined with the nitro­glycerin, forming a somewhat rub­bery substance

"The first time I made this mate­rial I engaged an old nitroglycerin maker and his assistant to help me. The weather being cold, there was a roaring fire in a big barrel stove in one of the houses. My wife, who was with me, was keeping warm by this fire. She called my attention to a big pail full of suspicious looking liquid, which she said one of the men had placed there to warm, and as he frequently returned to stir up the fire, and as occasionally a spark would light in this pail of liquid and be extinguished by a very thin film of water upon the top, she concluded that it might be dangerous if it should happen to be nitroglycerin. It was

nitroglycerin; one man was stirring the nitroglycerin was removed. Ten minutes after I visited the boiler house, which was perhaps fifty feet distant. There sat the same pail of nitroglyceri; onn% man was stirring up the furnace, while the other, spreading out as wide as possible, had interposed himself between the scintillating source of sparks and the pail of nitroglycerin. f

"The first motorite which I made w a s formed into round hars of the proper size by stuffing the material through a die. These rods were then varnished upon the outside surface and sealed into steel tubes, so that when a rod was ignited upon one end it could not fire down the side of the rod, but must be consumed from the exposed end only. But, as I after­ward discovered, these rods were ncjt perfect in structure^ as they con­tained.- longitudinals, flaws, which, though too small to $e seen by the naked eye, were stilj large enough for the flame to enter"M under pressure and cause an explosion, as will pres­ently be seen.

"When my first motorite apparatus was tested a couple of sticks burned all right, as these happened to be flawless. The next went off with a noise like a ten-inch gun. Three of us were standing around the machine and we all thought we were dead for the instant; but the machine had not actually exploded. The material had blow out through the safety valve, slightly burning a young man who was assisting me.

"I then hired another place to con­duct the experiment, as the above episode had placed the machine under suspicion at the first place. I was soon again ready to repeat the test. I thought I had discovered the trou­ble, but I had not, for I had not yet found out that the trouble was due to the longitudinal flaws in the ma­terial. There were two of us in the room when the test was made—a young Irishman and myself. He said he was_not afraid if I was not. Ready' The button -was touched to ignite the motorite. There was a flash and a terrific bang. The ma­chine was blown to fragments, which were hurled in all directions about the room, making deep dents in the •walls; but, fortunately, neither of us was hit. The windows were blown out, sash and all. I then went away from that place and built a laboratory especially for the purpose of making further test. This laboratory was built with heavy brick walls, with a skylight which opened up twelve feet square, and there were big double doors and windows and the roof was tied down strong to ksep it from lift­ing off in the event Lof an accident, and provision was made for touching off the machine from a position out­side the room, and behind a barrier my wife and I made the next test alone. The button was pressed, and a fearful explosion followed. One fragment of the machine came out at the door, embedding itself in the barrier in front of us.

"Profiting by the success of this ex­periment, a full-sized torpedo appa­ratus was next made and a special laboratory built on Lake Hopatcong for continuing the experiments. After one year of hard work I was ready for the important test, and a com­mittee of my associates were to visit me the following day for the official experiments. On this previous day I was called away to Morristown, N. J., as expert on a case in court, leav­ing the laboratory in charge of my assistant. While I was gone there was an explosion which killed my as­sistant, and I found my place burned to the ground. As my assistant was an old explosive man and a very in­telligent and a very careful and re­liable man, it is perfectly inconceiva­ble how he—if it was he—could have produced an accident.

Mr. Maxim's idea of rest is a change of work, and during the last nine years while resting from the arduous toils of his profession he has been working upon the origin and de­velopment of human speech and the "hiology of literature," including a scientific unraveling of the subjects of poetry, rhetoric and oratory.

I MAN IN BUCK PUZZLES WALL STREET 1 ]

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Who is the Man in Black? That hag been the mystery of the "Wall street boat" lot the Sandy Hook steam­ship line throughout the season. The Man in Black has out-Wilkie Colinsed "The Woman in White." He has set 300 brokers guessing, and has kept them guessing every morning and ev­ery afternoon as they made the jour­ney from the Jersey shore to the city and vice versa. Every attempt that has been made to fathom the identity of the stranger has met with failure. If the attendants on the boat have known they have kept the secret well —until now. Approached and spoken to the Man in Black, as he has come to be known, has mumbled inarticu­lately and has walked quickly away.

Every effort has evidently been made to veil the man's identity m a cloud of mystery. Three weeks' question­ing brought no light—until a day or so ago. It was learned l(,hen—and the solution will settle many wagers that have been made during the sea­son among the Wall street crowd— that the mysterious Man in Black is the father-in-law of the man who con­trols the bootblack privilege on the Sandy Hook boats. He acts as a "srotter* among the bootblacks on the vessels and sees to it that the boys ring the bell twice instead of once The well-guarded mystery has been solved, and the Wall street com­muters may once again take deep breaths.

After looking all over the country ' foi a young woman to play the role

of the Princess in the production of "Little Nemo in Slumberland," found-ded on Winsor McKay's series of pic­tures, Messrs. Klaw & Erlanger have finally selected Miss Aimee Ehrlich to be the originator of this important role.

This young miss, -who is only e leven

years old, was born and raised to her present degree of youth in Cleveland. She is not a professional player, but has danced at amateur entertainments in Cleveland, where she is a great fa­vorite.

Messrs. Klaw & Erlanger think that in Miss Ehrlich they have found an ideal princess to play opposite Master Gabriel, who will originate the role of Little- Nemo.

WAITING FOR A FORTUNE •

imite is so insensitive that melted cast iron may be poured on it with­out exploding it, serving merely to set it on fire, when it will burn like so much pitch.

When, however, it is set off by a strong exploder made of fulminate of

Quick Change. "Fer 2 cents," said the boy with the

dirty face, 'Td knock ye down." "Here's de 2 cents," said the boy

with ragged trousers, tossing the coins at his feet and squaring off bel­ligerently. "Now come on an* try it, durn ye!"

"Wot's de use?" rejoined the other boy, picking them up and backing away. "Ain't no sense in knockin* a feller down w'en ye kin git de mun out'n 'im widout doin' it. See?"

' J.*}* S h it,

J2£R .MAnaLM'S S t X M M E R H O M E ! -AFTD I A B O R A K

The Marriage Bond. The easier it is to obtain separation

and divorce the more careless will people become in contracting mar­riage. Experience proves this, and if the purity of the family life is to be maintained it will not be by making light of the marriage bond.

Unusula, Therefore Suspicious. Long—"They say, you know, that

people can be killed by kindness." Strong—'Is that why you are so

attentive t o your -wife's mother?"

Lucky Future Generations. There is a saying, a t Carlyle that

the greatest hope of our world lies in the certainty of heroes being born into it. That is indeed a glorious cer­tainty, but the reference might be en­larged. Birth itself, we venture to say, not of heroes only, but of the gen­erations in their succession, is the in­finitely hopeful thing. It is the guar­antee that the world will never grow old, that it will never stand still, that no halt is to be called in its eternal progress.

Like many another man, Mr. Blin-key is always hoping that something will turn up. He's an intelligent man and he knows perfectly well that there, isn't one chance in seven hun­dred and eighteen thousand million billion that he'll ever get a dollar that he doesn't work for and earn; and still he's always hoping and thinking that something might happen.

And'so when he gets to his office in the morning he looks in the letter box there, not really with the expectation of finding a fortune, but nevertheless thinking that there might be some­thing; not disappointed if there isn't, but wishing that he might find there a check for $1,000,000 from somebody or somewhere or notice of some for­tune that had been left to him that he was now to come and claim.

It 's just the same when he goes home at night. He's been away all day, time enough for forty things to happen, for forty fortunes to come in, and he knows there hasn't any come, and still it is not an absolutely impos­sible thing, and so he's always kind o' hoping that he l l hear some good news when he goes home.

H e -never does, he finds everything going along there placidly; there has­

n't been any fortune sent in or brought in by Uncle Sam, and he knows they'd speak of it if there had been; but sometimes he says to Mrs. Blinkey jokingly:

"Anybody leave us $2,000,000 to­day?"

"No," says Mrs. Blinkey, smilingly. "One million?" "No." "Half a million, maybe?" says Mr.

Blinkey. "No, nor a half million," says Mrs.

Blinkey. "Perhaps it was $100,000? We could

do with that." "No, nor a hundred thousand." "Not a dollar?" says Mr. Blinkey. "No, not even a dollar," says Mrs

Blinkey. "Well, then," says Mr. Blinkey, "I

guess 111 smoke my pipe," and he does this right cheerfully. But he's al­ways hoping.

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Scourge of Tipping. In London tipping has become a

public scourge. In a West End res­taurant if you pay 4 pounds sterling for your dinner and do not leave a fifth of that sum a s a tip, yon are looked upon as a skinflint

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CALLED FOR SKILL

RAILROAD WORK ACCOMPLISHED UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

Line In Montana Carried Through, Though Obstacles of a Stupen­

dous Character Had to Be Met and Overcome.

General Manager Battin of Winston Bros, has returned from a trip to Taft, where he made a general inspection of conditions pertaining to the work done on the St. Panl line. Mr. Battin unhesitatingly declares that the work is proceeding in splendid shape and is progressing beyond expectations. The work at Taft has been accomplished In the face of almost unheard of diffi­culties and exigencies. The labor re­quired to carry material over the Bit­ter Root divide has been of a stupen­dous character and one requiring an amount of engineering skill almost foreign to this western country.

To cross the divide and transport material over the crest of the moun­tain, which is 1,000 feet above the tun­nel, the contractors have been com pelled to deal with a number of ex­traordinary conditions. Every stick of timber which is to be used in the con­struction of trestles and bridges on, the western slope of the Bitter Root mountains must be carried over the peak, and for this purpose the con­tractors have been compelled to estab­lish and maintain an electrio cable way which is more than a mile long. This cable way i s constructed of a cable^ iy2 inches in diameter on which is suspended another cable of smaller gauge. The latter is connected withv the power plant at Taft and la ar­ranged to run on the larger cable. An elaborate arrangement of clutches and chains are attached to the improvised trolley and upon these chains is sus­pended the freight necessary to carry over the peak of the hill. The raise on which the trolley operates is about 1,100 feet. All material is unloaded at Taft and hauled by wagons and sleighs to what is known as the boU torn terminus of the cable way and from this point the material is handled by the cable line.

As far as the St. Paul line has prow ceeded through the mountain at Taftj and in that vicinity, there are, all told; 20 bridges and trestles in course ofl construction. These structures range In height from 125 to 200 feet and from 300 to 800 feet long. The highest of these trestles make the celebrated Marent trestle, between Reid and Evaro, appear almost a pigmy in pro­portion. Of the structures mentioned, two will be built entirely of steel and cement. The remainder will be prin­cipally of timbers. The timbers used are so large that though the Bitter Root range has upon it many immense trees, none could be found of suffi­cient diameter to meet the require­ments and 500 carloads of this ma­terial had to be shipped from the Pa­cific coast.

Workmen are drilling on both sides of the mountain at the Taft tunnel and it is expected the forces will meet some time during the coming spring. Every effort is being extended in this direction and a full force of men and machinery is being worked night and day.—Missoula (Mont.) Missoulan.

Laugh at Premonitions. Readers of stories of premonitions

that tell engineers and other trainmen that danger hovers over them may be confident on beginning that the hero, mo matter how dark may be the out­look, will come out alive and covered with more glory than mud or coal dust.

Old railroaders laugh when they read the stories, and, like the person who always reads such yarns in the magazines and newspapers, know without going through all the details that the engineer, conductor, fireman, or brakeman, whichever he might be, would save the lives of all the passen­gers or do something else in the hero line before the end.

Railroad men do have premonitions, but the ones that fall to come out a s they do in the story books are mostly forgotten, and, lacking in dramatic in­terest, are seldom told.

240,000 Miles for Axles. Not until the locomotive has made

her second trip to the hospital, with a record of 240,000 miles, are her axles taken from the drivers and replaced. But on that second trip, regardless of apparent soundness, not a single one of these nine-inch steel axles is left keyed to the drivers The locomotive has run a distance belting the globe ten times over and the shock and Jar to a nine-inch steel has crystalized the metal past trusting longer until weld­ing and forging these shafts over again make it fit for locomotive frames.

Railroad Work Pushed. The rails of the Chicago, Milwau­

kee & S t Paul railway have been laid through St. Maries, and already freight is being shipped to and from the town* The road is being rushed as fast as possible, and before spring some of the finest transcontinental trains in the country will be running through S t Maries.

Besides the main line of the new transcontinental railroad, a branch road is to be built from St. Maries up the St. Maries river and will tap the biggest belt of white pine timber in the United States.

First Illinois Locomotive. On November 8, 1838, the first

steam locomotive, the Rogers, ran la Illinois on the Northern Cross rail* road, which is now a part of tha Wa» bash system. '

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