The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-12

urlIleu ana Detter-looklnS regiment on the
march than even the Seventh. If so, it must
be about the finest militia regiment in the
country.
The selection of the Twenty-third has
made the Thirteenth, of Brooklyn, terribly
jealous, and its officers will not be present at
the opening at all. The Thirteenth has long
been trying to rival the Twenty-third in
public favor, First, it made Henry Ward
Beecher its chaplain. And then it began 60
ing on expeditions to Canada, to Yorktown,
and goodness knows where not, and it in
vited regiments from Boston and elsewhere
to visit the city as its guests. In a
hundred such ways it has tried to
give people outside the city the idea that it
was Brooklyn's crack regiment. But people
in Brooklyn only laugh at such antics. They
remember how the regiment held fairs, ETC.,
to get the public to paw for its excursions;
how, on every possible occasion, its members
have a habit of getting drunk wholesale;
how it has imprisoned some of its members
Tor not paying their dues, when they had
been sick and could not pay; and how in
general the name of the regiment is synony-
nous with rowdyism. So they steadtastly
hold true their affection and pride for
Ours" as they long ago fondly named the
Twenty-third.
There is a pleasant little incident that
serves to bind the Seventh and Twenty-third
regiments together, and which, apart from
the fact that they are ~indisputably the finest
regiments in the two cities, makes it espe-
cially fitting that they should be associated
in the ceremonies of May "a. Colonel EN-
mons Clark, of the Seventh, and Colonel
Rodney Ward, of the T~wenty-third, enlisted
in the militia together, and were together re-
ceived into the ranks of the Seventh, in jan
uary, 1867. The regiment was then under
Colonel Shaler, who is now Major-general
commanding the first division N. &. S.. N. Y.
The new uniform, ordered by the State for
4 -, I'LL h. .v@AN 60, k1,N E--N H.
by the ~Twenty-third on this occasion. In
stead of caps, the boys will wear white cork
helmets, which will keep their heads cool in
hot weather. They will wear, also, glitter
ing brass shoulder-knobs
UNDER HE'LL GATE.
I visited Hallett's Point, Hell Gate, the
other day, where the great excavations are
being made by the government for the pur-
pose of undermining and blowing up Flood
Rock. The rock lies in the center OF the
channel, rising two or three feet above water
at high tide, and is about a third of an acre
on top. Under water it extends over an area
of ten acres, making all that space too shall
low for safe navigation, and as it lies in the
track of all the Sound vessels, it has always
been a serious obstacle. Work was com
menced on it ten years ago, and it is now
pretty well undermined.
You must put these things ON said the
engineer IN charge, when L told him l would
like to go below. The "things" were a pair
of huge rubber boots, a rubber coat reaching
below my knees, and a big rubber cap with a
cape that fell over my shoulders all around.
There's lots of ladies come to see the
place" he continued, encouragingly; and
they go all through like old miners"
l climbed down a slippery wooden stair
NOV fhA -,AA1 :. --l
lowing. At the bottom, forty feet down,
was a sort of plaza, with galleries ten feet
wide running off on every side. These gall
leries are fifteen feet apart, and are connected
by similar cross galleries, fifteen feet apart.
Many of them are thirty feet high. The
Longest one is more than a quarter of a mile
long. and | walked the whni"-i-resa VI II;
with the East river, and 1erryooaVs, ana
Sound steamers. and coasting schooners, and
tugs mnufueraoIe, over my neau. IL was
only it was all clean gneiss rock, instead of
coal. Montague wanted to know whose
niece, and the engineer told him the govern
ment's.
Doesn't the roof leak?' 1 asked, as a
young Niagara struck me on the back OF the
neck.
well, yes" said the engineer, land the
whole place i'd soon fill If we didn't keep
the pumps going. We have pumped out a
thousand gallons a minute for the past four
years. Now, that Id make somewhere about
2, 1894, 400 gallons that we've pumped out here
already, and we'll have to keep it up five
months longer"
The water is Just pumped out into the
river. The rock taken out is loaded into
scows and dumped into a big hole in the
river where the water is two hundred or
more feet deep.
'How big a cellar is it now?' I asked.
"'Bout eight acres and a half" he said,
60 ,AA rvotro nO,nn 70 EptcB - ont - 49,, r~o,,
nine"
'Gadr' put in Montague, what a place
for a beer tunnel, if there only wasn't so
much beastly water leaking imp
1--WE expect to finish tunneling by the
middle of September" said the engineer, as
we climbed back to daylight" and then
we'll put in a lot of dynamite, and on the
LIST of October set it off by electricity. 1t IL
all go off at once, and be the biggest blast
ever fired. Then We'll scoop out the loose
rock until there's twenty-seyen feet of water
at low tide all over"
PERSONAL POINTS.
George Riddle, the popular reader, is a
brother of the widow of Colonel Tom Scott,
of the Pennsylvania railroad.
Charles A. Dana, of the Sun, is not ex-
pected back until July. His son is win
ming great praise for his able manage
ment of the paper in the old gentleman's alb
sence.
The Rev. Henry Vandyke, jr., whose father
had the famous quarrel with DIR. Talmage,
is now pastor of the Brick Church, one of
the leading Presbyterian churches of this
city. Last Sunday he asked his congrega-
ton for $34, 900, to pay off a church debt,
and it was all subscribed in cash within ff-
teen minutes. DR.. Talmage's church has
been wrestling for years with a debt OF
500, 900, and hasn't paid off a dollar yet.
Maggie Mitchell, the actress, is here, as
youthful and s~prightly as ever. Yet one of
her old beaux tells me she must be very close
to sixty years old.
The Princess Louise is to visit this city,
it is said, next month, and go to the Ori-
entail Hotel, Manhattan Beach, for a fort
night.