National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1884-02-09
ON TIE AVENUE.
Small Talk About Men and s,a.ur

hVOtItsf OF ANuhNllits
"My brother made the first practical tor.
pedo for that purpose" said Dr. Roberts.
Somebody had conceived the idea Of blast.
ing the rock at tho bottom OF the wells snd
several attempts Had been made, bat ours was
tho first successful one. Al first We usci the
finest rifle powder that We could get but In
the spring of 1868 wo began 10 usc nitro.
glyoerne for our torpedoes. aud We happened
upon 1t In q peculiar way. Nitro. glyoorine
was invented by a French chemist sobrafa,
and the chemist had boon experimenting
with IL, rather "a toy than anything else,
for years. No practical use was made Of Il
because of the difficulty OF exploding IT,
Heat less than 3GO degrees could not explode
it, Lobcl made some experiments with u In
1860, and found that by applying long fuse
to percussion cap. embedded in mass OF the
compound and setting fire 10 tho fuse, the cap
would explode and set of tho nitro.glyoorine.
He used little of IL for blasting, and shipped
some TO this country. Some OF II, which he
had started for San Francisco, blew up tho
ship which carried IL at Panama; somo more
of it which reached San Francisco blew up
the express Office in that city, and finally
lot Of it exploded in Greenwich street, In
Now York city, and wrecked the street. Tho
agent who had charge Of this last lot was
thrown into Jail in New York and kept there
for long time. There were suits against
him for heavy damages for blowing
up Greenwich street. Our attorney In
New York defended him and wrote
to me about the stuff and its properties.
went to New York, and found that about 100
pounds of it had not been exploded. The
authorities had taken 1t out to where Central
park is now and buried it, / bought that
100 pounds. The next thing was to get IL to
Titusville. My agent tried every officer of
the company, and every one Of them threw
up his hands in horror at the idea Of trans.
porting the stuff Finally won't to the gen.
eral superintendent of the company and told
him that wanted magazine car of the same
kind that l had been shipping powder in
and that 1 wanted to put 100 pounds of
: glycerine in it for Titusville. He said
; it was absolutely impossible to do it. There
wasn't money enough to hire the car for that
purpose. reminded him that we we're ship
ping thousands of barrels of oil over his road,
giving him an immense business, and that we
; must have the materials to continue the bust
ness. He said it couldn't be done. Then
: just said to him, That nitro. glycerine has
got to go to Titusville and it's going to go,
and over your road too. If it don't 20 in q
magazine car I'll see that it goes in small
. packages in passenger cars, and if it blows
your railroad into little pieces you've got to
take the responsibility He looked at
me, and then he called clerk and
told him to furnish me with a mag
azine car to be loaded with whatever
wanted to put in it, Pm going said 1,
to put hundred pounds of nitro Put
in whatever you like" said he, 'but don't
: tell me single word about it. don't want
to hear word got O carman to cart that
. nitro-glycerine from Eighty-fourth street to
= Jersey City. He didn't know what il was.
q He had to cross q lot of railroad tracks in
d Jersey City to get TO the car and he drove
It fast. The cans would jump up in his cart
$ and expected every minute to see him &c
= flying up among the stars, but he didn't. II
A cost me $500 to get that 100 pounds to Titus
Is Vile. Not long after that got chemist
n down there and we went to manufacturing
a nitro-glycerine. We were tho first in thu
70 world to manufacture it in any considerabl,
- quantity"
70 49,
q Ex-senator Eaton, will you tell me-" in
quired the Avenue Man, why you objected
to tho immediate consideration of Mr.. Fin
erty's resolution of respect to the memory o
lie Wendell Phillips"
le ~ thought" said the ex-senator, 'that W
1t ought not to pass such resolution as tina
III without taking time to consider it. Wendell
.. Phillips has been living outside of all govern
SIS ment for twenty years. For twenty years h
of has been asserting that the constitution O
ul,t +
s. which have sworn to support was in leagu
~ with hell. He was secessionist. He though
IA the southern states ought to be permitted +
as so. Suppose that some one offered
or resolution of respect on the death q
no Robert i. Lee, whom you and know
T. have been a man Of absolutely pure life, al
w though we do not agree with his sentiments
/ would never vote for it. Wendell Phillip
was not a statesman, and from my point O
view he was not great man, nor did he d
any great good in the world. He vase Silver
tongued orator. fine lecturer, but not states
no man. He was FREQ lance, and sharp one
en- but he never did anything to entitle him
be so honored by the American congress.
isn't on account Of party. will vote for sue
49, a resolution respecting the death of Matt Cal
he penter or any other great republican, but nc
for Wendell Phillips"
&@m
a "My principal objection to civil servic
REFORM" said the gentleman from Philade
ns phia. sis that it produces an undue quantit
p ~, of incivility. The principle of civil servic
We reform understand to be that 30 long as b
ate performs his duty public official must nj
be removed. Now, man may perform b
duty faithfully aud we'll and yet
go disagreeable that everybody VIII
OF is compelled to meet him wishes that !
TO- were dead. When man depends upon tn
~, favor of the public for his position he
,in likely to treat the public with some consiC
70. Grafton. When he is independent of the pu
las lie he is, likely to share Mr.. Vanderbilt
at opinions. Long possession of an office Civ,
to most men tho idea Of ownership. No,
''vH Mr.. Spotiord, the librarian Of h
md congressional library, is not a result
civil service reform, but he is an O.
ample of what civil service refOr
will produce. Perhaps he does not belie'
The that he owns tho congressional library, b
by you cannot convince any plebeian reader
lay books-not a statesman or man of authority
IRA who goes into the library seeking book tn
ieu Mr.. Sponord does not have that belief. Pc
d haps some of his assistants do not belle