Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-03-06


business at Fort Worth. due to our charm
ingly-smooth chalk-paved streets. 1t is a
business here to stay, undoubtedly. One
can almost conclude that it IS return of
the good old times of our great-grand-
mothers. when the wheel was cutting such
an important figure in domestic life. But
the wheels of to-day spinning so merrily
on our streets differ somewhat from those
old wheels which spun in the house only,
and of which the old poet wrote:
Eyes, stood up close beside her,
AS she stretched the feecy roll,
And for every tine she stretched 1t
collected double toll;
ma was near BY in the kitchen
With her pumpkin pies and curd,
But the hummlng Of the spinning
Wheel was all the sound she heard"
s*s
Those old spinning wheels hummed and
ratified a great deal louder than do our
modern wheels, for then people had not yet
learned about the sound-killing qualities of
India rubber. They furthermore differed
from the modern article in the fact that
they we're better adapted to taking toll, as
the poet terms it, while in motion. He who
would attempt to collect toll from his
modern embodiment Of concentrated sweet
ness while her wheel was in motion would
be very apt TO bring about a collision, and
possibly a disastrous wreck. But the ola
wheel and the new appear to be coming
In those loag-lost times the first thing eX-
pected of a man after the wedding was that
he should buy his wife wheel, and, judg-
ing from the way an interest in the wheel
is now planting itself among our people, not
much time will have elapsed ere the same
kind of thing Will be confidently expected
of the modern bridegroom.
While on this subject it may be proper
for US to state that the modern wheel is an
established fact, undoubtedly, and the time
necessary for that establishment has not
been long. The writer of these talks"
who is comparatively young man, of
course, Cfor no old man could be expected
to write so much nonsense), can well re-
member the advent Of the modern ''wheel."
It had been invented somewhere and the
papers were having much TO say about it,
calling it 1.-THE velocipede." About that
time q circus company came through the
country advertising as one of its leading
attractions velocipede riding outside the
tent, and free for all, before the regular
performance began. Everybody turned out
70 see the velocipede- 1t was in the fall of
1865, If we mistake not. We were there
and saw the veiOcipede and saw the man
riding it. The velocipede (firstclass of that
day. consisted Of the hind-wheel and the
fore wheel of a buggy geared together to
run, one wheel after the other with the
smallest wheel in front. A regular and
considerable slope of 100 yards in length
was chosen as the site for the performance.
Two men held the machine at the top of
the slope while the rider mounted; they
then turned loose and away went the ma
chine and its rider to the foot of the SLOPE
Two men then wheeled the machine back to
the top Of the slope after the manner of
boy drawing back his thboggan, and away
it went again, rider and all. to the lower
level And thus it was kept up till the peo-
pie had cheered them selves hOarse and
were satisfied. Such was the bicycle at its
best only twenty-five. years ago.
There are men ready TO contend that the
interstate railroad com mission has accom-
plished nothing of Importance. We must
be permitted to take issue against this po-
sition, for it has certainly developed capa-
bilities in the steam whistle which but for !
its action might neFer have been so much |
as dreamed Of The commission passed a |
regulation demanding that all engineers of |
locomotives should blow the whistle at |
every road crossing To this there could !
have been no particular objection, as many |
states already had laws demanding such a !
performance, but when the commission put |
It down in black and white that the whistle |
should be sounded in q certain way two |
long blasts and two short blasts) all the |
railroad men became disguised. They could |
see no reasonable reason for why there |
should be any particular style of blowing,
for the whistle of a locomotive is the whis-
tie Of q locomotive, no matter how many or
how few blasts there are of it, and would
tell as unerringly of the approach of train
in one shape as another. As a consequence
locomotive men have been turning that
order to ridicule since the day when it was
passed, and the result is wonderful devel-
Opment Of the capabilities Of the common
steam whistle Each engineer now has his
trade mark, > 80 to speak, and his friends
when they hear his horn know exactly who
is coming. One blows the bark
bow,'D and does it well; another
boots as an owl: another rouses
the echoes as 4 chanticleer and SO on, through
the whole list of everything that can be
wrung in on two long blasts and two short
ones The commission neglected 20 pre-
scribe that the blasts should be entirely
plain and hence this great development of
steam whistle capabilities. A man stand
ing at great railroad center like Fort
Worth, of i still night, and hearing the
different animals coming il from every
direction, can scarcely disabuse himself Of
the impression that all the bumorists of the
world are now riding locomotives.
Here is another poem by ore Of our home
poets. A lady has submitted it to Short
Talks, praying that we explain what it
means. II has already appeared in Fort
Worth contemporary;
TIE EgD OF TIE RIB.
IA MisoCynistic Ditty.l
The rib that God from Adam took
To make maid witial,
Soon wed. her lusting longing eyes
Gu ok caused her spouse fall
That deadly rib spoiled all
sing this deadly, lovely rib,
That these dgys is the tall.
And DglsHrtea-dr oping maid.
tShe ever yields 10 fashions call)
Beware Of her! She'u cheat You all.
This witchiug. cheating charming rib
That weeps and svo rs and .ools US all
Wi h mocllirg eyes, by honsyea toague, I
Tint caused the nrSt man 5 fan: ]
This dainty rib fat worms shall crawl
BRASSCoSJBE ASHLEY.
After twenty-four hours Of iucessaut and !.
,rayerful ponderation we have decided that :
his poem undoubtedly refers 10 the Fort
North market men who, declining to pat /;
onlze our own packing house, ship their :
pare ribs from Kansas City at times when !
he weather is a little too warm.
kTbt do nat y-snH l4ile CO. 1