The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-09-12
INCIDENTAL INTERVIEWS.
Information About Strange and Uncommon
Things ELECTED in Casual Conversations.

SQQlnLeQ INTO the internal drEduKou1oHLS VI PuH
zled customers watch through a barrel shaped
magnifying glass which he had screwed and was
holding in his eye by some process only known
to those initiated in the mysteries of his profes
sion. Anyone else than jeweler couldn't keep
one of those spy glasses in his eye two seconds,
unless it was cemeuted there with giant glue,
but one of these modern Tubal Gains
will hold one In that position hours at time
without any apparent effort you've been fool
ing around in too close proximity to an electric
light wire somewhere" he added, as he ran
tool into the bowels of the movement and stirred
up the lifeless machinery. Here's the prime
cause Of the trouble" he continued, as he
plucked out the handspring with a pair of pinch
ers The coils of the spring were clinging
to one another tenaciously ''The spring is
thoroughly magDetiZed, you see, and the watch
couldn't run if it wanted to- This is getting to
be quite common occurrence in large cities"
he went on, loQuaciously. The multiplicity OF
telegraph, telephone and electricity wires
have much to do with the variations and
stoppage of watches, and manufacturers are
inventing means to provide against the evil AL
most every day called upon to examine
time-pieces that have mysteriously refused to
longer keep in motion, the owners not being ad-
vlsed of the effect of electricity the delicate
mechanism. When a watch is once thus affect
ed, it has to be gone over thoroughly and every
part of it demagnetized. The process of demag-
netlzing was formerly done by machinery, and
then only in the larger cities like New York and
Chicago; but any frst-class jeweler can now do
it by hand, and at about e-half the former
price. Some of the manufacturers are making
speciality of watches so constructed as to not De
subject to these magnetic influences, and to per-
sons with whom correct and reliable time is as
sentlal, they are necessity"
-
'The reminiscent reporter who wrote about
the old Y. NJ. G. A. building having Lad it's be-
ginning in iniquity and its ending in disaster,
didn't include in his review all the iniquitous
things connected with its early history" said an
oldtime Indianapolitan the other day. Cup to
1860 1t had been known as Gaston's carriage
factory. It was then purchased by Charley
Hail. and fitted up to accommodate livery
stable, saloon, billiard-hall and gambling rooms
The building was declared unsafe when Hall
bought it, but he plastered it over with stucco
and paint until it took on a substantial look.
It was a very tough place. John Nc
Davitt, who was the champion billiard
player of that day, was one of the
attaches He burned to death in
the Chicago fire. Dan Bacon had charge of the
bar and gam bling rooms. The building was sub
seQuently used variety theater and was
dive of the worst class. Dan Shelby being the
controlling spirit for long time. Shelby is now
proprietor of the Academy of Music, handsome
place of amusement in Chicago. The facts con-
nected with the purchase of the building by
Charley Hall have not been referred to in the
papers, although it is matter of contemporane
Gus interest, and enters into the general lniQul-
ties of the history of the building. It is hardly
probable that the fact could be substantated,
but it was common rumor and the general un-
derstanding that the property was pur
chased by Hall with campaign funds
which had been diverted from their
the jewelry business with House Talbot, but
went to Washington during Buchanan's admin
istration to take a position in one of the depart
ments. During the Lincoln Breckenridge cam
paign Hall was sent to Indiana by the national
Democratic committee with $780, 900. SO it is
alleged, to be used as a corruption fund, and 1t
is also matter of ancient history that $17 900 Of
that sum was privately used by Hall in the pur-
chase of the building whose tottering walls fell
with such frightful effect last Wednesday, The
old building was stepped in sin and rottenness,
structurally and morally, from the time of its
niquitous inauguration by the Hall regime until
it passed to the ownership of the Y. NJ. Z. A,
and its disastrous collapse fit ending to an
institution whose influences through nearly all
the years.of its existence were thoroughly bad"
He was Kansas City man, who was tempo
rarily sojournng at the Grand Hotel, and he
said, incidentally II noticed paragraph in the
Journal the other day about Ortiz Harper Stein,
the brilliant and erratic young fellow who has
been getting himself thoroughly advertised
recently. knew him very we'll when he was in
Kansas City several years ago. 1t was while
there that he killed Fredericks, the manager of
the Theater Comique, about woman of the
town. He tried on two occasions, and was
finally released through the efforts of rich and
influential relatives and friends. He was a
mere boy then, hardly Of age, but he had been in
Leadville, and all the tough places
of the West. and beneath o
gentlemanly exterior he had pretty tough
CIV ;roco Ho TO- md nf
MUS and cussedness While he was in prison he
compiled volume of sketches and poems, ele-
ganty illustrated with his own pen. / can't
understand why it was never brought out in book
form. It would make volume any one would
be glad to possess for, aside from his literary
ability, he is an excellent artist. He gave me
poem which was written by him the day he left
the prison. Ihad forgotten about it until saw
his name mentioned in the journal the other
day. 1t has never been printed anywhere. You
can use it if you want to- This is what he wrote:
Ishrank to breathe the prison air
1t seemed so heavy with the stings
OF desperation doubt, despair!
did not dream that anywhere
There lived and breathed such hideous things
The cursed chequer of the iron bars
That interviewer iron
That swells and thickens till it mars
The and sky-until Gods stars
Shine blurred and blotted down between.
Ihad not thought how very sweet
1t was to put all this behind,
And turn my happy, hurrying feet
Toward the great stream of mankind;
To join it and become part
The busy street, the thronging mart
Are holy grounds to me-
The murmurng of the crowded ways
Is to my song of praise,
constant undertone that says.
Know all men here are free"
"There Is good deal of sentiment in that
which does not comport with his recent conduct
but it's pretty fair poetry all the same. The
description OF the celldoor, and the sensation it
produces, is very clever. it strikes me. After he
left Kansas City lost all trace of Stein until
happened in Lafayette last winter. Passing
along Fourth street. my eye was attracted to
two immense plate-glass windows, on which two
great, golden comets were depicted as flashing
through other spheres and worlds and annihilat-
ing ethereal space This struck me as being