The Portland daily press., 1888-02-16
the NATIONAL CAPITAL.
Fred Douglas and His Reminiscent
ces OF Abraham Lincoln.
The Talk of Washington Respecting
Mr.. Riaine's Letter.
Capt. ZaIinskis Description of His
Pneumatic Destroyer.
Especial to the Press.l

Especial to the Press.l
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14.-Fred Douglass
| appearance at the Lincoln memorial birth
day celebration was decidedly interesting.
| The old negro does not appear to have fallen
| off at all in vitality. He arose before tn aud
ience after SenatorCullom had taken his seat
| Douglas leaned on a big ebony cane with an
| ivory handle, which Mrs. Lincoln had sent
him on the death of her husband, and told
stories of the times he had seen and known
the great man. He called them gimpses in
to his great, noble soul. Douglass talk was
full of bright things. 81 was very much dis
turbed when first went to see him. said
he. "lt impressed me that was about to
see great man. But l speedily found it
was easier always to see great man than
little man." His description of Lincoln's
appearance was inimitable. HE was sitting
there reading" said Douglas. with his feet
scattered about the room. He gathered them
up and began to rise. He kept on rising and
| rising, and it seemed as il he would never
| STOP" Douglas had come to see Lincoln
about the colored troops he was raising in
Pennsylvania. as he had raised them in Mas
sachusetts He greeted Douglas and talked
to him in way that made them friends for
| life. He told of seeing Lincoln again on his
second Inauguration day. He followed close
to his carriage all the way up Pennsylvania
Avenue, land that then," said he, twas a
sheep without its shepherd"
Mr.. BIaine's Letter.
The town has more Presidential talk to the
| square inch than ever before. Mr. Blaine is
as ever the center and topic of it ALL His
letter is discussed in more different lights if
possible than his cable interview on the
tariff Everybody speaks in the warmest
tones of him, but in the very next moment
speculate as to his successor, for success
sion Is the term they use in the Republican
convention. "For whom does Blaine throw
his strength" is the question eyeryon is
asking now. Allison is not the answer
given so promptly as it might have been this
spring or summer and perhaps the greatest
classes of answers come from men who will
not believe that Mr.. Blaine is out of the
race. Some of these are from the Mugwumps
to whom the idea that Mr.. Blaine is not
angling with all his consummate skill for the
nomination seems altogether impossible.
The Blaine men are generally willing TO ac-
cept it. They had a premonition that 1t
might come, many of them. 1t was the very
night that the despatch of Mr.. Jones' was
sent from from Pittsburg to the Associated
Press Coy. Dingley was talking about the
situation of Mr.. Blaine. II know" said he,
as well as want to know, or can know,
that Mr. Blaine has no personal wish for the
nomination. But want to see some man
who is so strong as he is in the country"
The Governor said then that he felt that on
ly the affirmative wish of Mr.. Blaine, eX-
pressed plainly and inevitably would close
up the talk of his nomination. That is the
curiosity of it. The letter has come and peo-
pie have read it, and the talk of Blaine is
quite as strong as it ever was before.
The Pneumatic Gun.
Capt Zalinski and some shiny brass tubes
were in the War Department library yester-
day morning when certain Army and Naval
officials and other invited guests began to
drop in to hear a lecture on the subject of
the famous pneumatic gun and its shells and
fuses. While the proceedings were stayed
to await the coming of Secretary Endicott
such of the audience as did not know the
captain began to make speculation as to what
manner of man was this who handles and
talks about dynamite as though it were sand.
Unconscious of this searching inquiry the
captain leaned carelessly against the wall
and chatted to some OF his acquaintance
about his terrible machine. He Is man. OF
sturdy build, rather beneath the medium
height, and with dark brown mustache
and beard. There Is slightly foreign look
dScernable among his features, for he is by
nativity Pole, having been brought to this
country when an infant. Shortly afler 10
O'Clock Secretary Endicott arrived and took
a seat in the front row alongside of Senator
Hawley There were about one hundred
present, and others kept coming during the
lecture.
THE DYNAMITE GUN.
The room was then darkened and the cap
tain ascended small platform and rested
his arm affectionately across the steering
gear of an immense brass torpedo that rest
ed on two "horses," and would contain, it
was said, 600 pounds of dynamite. He be-
gan by announcing that it was his object to
give some idea of the construction and posi-
bilities of the pneumatic gun. "In the fir st
place." he said, "the object of the gun is to
throw large masses of high explosives with
accuracy and safety to the gunners. The
main use of the gun would be as a land de-
fense against the attacks Of fleet, in sup
port of mine of torpedoes. The dynamite
cruiser is merely swift vessel carrying one
or more of these guns. When the idea OF
projecting 40 or so pounds of dynamite was
hroached to me four years ago l.. as an ar
tillerist, scoffed. But as such had con-
me, and when the gun was first brought to
Fort Lafayette saw that there was promise
in it, and from that time L have been
believer.
THE FIRST GUN.
was brass tube, 2 inches bore, and 2S feet
long. 1t being furnished with hand stop
cock for turning the compressed air on and
off, there was but little comparative accura=
cy. At first we used blank cartridges filed
with sand, and then tried small charges of
dynamite The next gun was inches in
bore. 80 feet long, and the shells were load
ed with from II to % or 80 pounds of dyna-
mite About the first difficulty encountered
was the fuse. We used Illuminating cap,
but it sometimes failed, and our attention
was turned to other methods. Then it was
found that the explosions took place at the
front, thus producing an impact OF the gases
that drove the force of the snOck backwards.
Thus it was seen that the explosion should
occur at the rear of the shell. The trouble /
have mentioned about the fuses led me TO
think of electricity, and since then each
shell has been provided with an electric at
tachment which, on contact with the target,
closes circuit that produces an explosion.
TO TEST THE PENETRATION
of the shells, we had erected at Fort Lafay
ette target consisting of several iron plates;
one shell, filled with sand, perforated three
| plates, while that loaded with dynamite only
went through one. / caused one shell to be
filled with cotton waste in the front end, and
much better results were obtained, the shot
penetrating six plates before the explosion
occurred. This showed that it was imsort-
ant to determine with accuracy both the
...o .,,d ,.loon Of tha aynlocion From al v