The morning call., 1895-02-03
Sticks a Knife in the Cement
Foundations.
PIECES WILL BIZ ANALYZED.
Grand Jury Foreman Gagan With
the Party,
And ALSO DETECTIVE STlLNELL.
Took a Ride Down the Front, and Are
Opposed to the SeaWall Going
North.
PIECES WILL BE- ANALYZED.
IND ALSO DETECTIVE STILWELL.

To see the Governor of the State floating
around under the moldy old wharves,
through the forest of barnacle-coyered
piles and in and out of the clammy caves
of the new cement foundations of the pro-
posed ferry depot a great crowd OF people
gathered at the foot of Market street yes
terday afternoon.
And there he was with a party big
enough to weigh the small boat down to
its gunwales and make the navigation diff
ficult if not dangerous, for the tide was at
its highest.
Ten o'clock in the morning, when the
tide was low, was fixed as the hour for the
beginning of the cruise, but through some
misunderstanding the party did not reach
the front until nearly o'clock.
But when it did get there it was an
misunderstanding body There was not
only Governor Budd and Harbor Commits
sioners Cole, Bassett and Chadbourne and
Engineer Howard C. Holmes, all Of whom
were to have been expected but there
were State Senator Gleaves chairman of
the Committee on Rivers and Harbors and
secretary of the California River Improve
ment Commission, Foreman of the Grand
Jury w. H. Gagan and with him Charles
J. Stilwell of the Stilwen Detective
Agency. If this was not an interesting
party it would be difficult to make one up
in this city-a party calculated to make it
interesting for any blowholes in the sub
terraneous concrete.
Once on the water front they did not
stop to sun themselves or to have their
photographs taken, but stepped into a
Whitehall boat already waiting and We're
rowed through the labyrith of piles into
gloomy tunnels of concrete.
This was what they came to see. And
they saw all of it before they moved back
into the black forest of Shiny piles again.
The Governors hat and hands were
smirched and barnacle or two got tangled
in his whiskers. The tail of his overcoat
was discovered at one point to be dragging
in the water astern, but it was all an incl
dent of the business that they had come to
do, and the business was done. The oars
were unshipped for much of the way and
the boat was pushed along by the boatman' 5
hands up and down the dark water tun-
nels, the nine men in the boat gouging at
the cement with pixies and penknives, here
and there successful in chipping out a
piece of the composition, passing it from
hand to hand and discussing its quality.
The cement on some of the supports was
found to be quite soft and easily cut into,
while on others it resisted the pike like so
much granite. The first was said to be the
new and the latter the old cement. The
support which was said to be broken by
the rising of the caisson was found, but
the break was under water in the high
tide. This had been the occasion of most
of the talk out of which this visit of inspec-
ton had come.
The Harbor Commissioners and En-
gineer Holmes explained that the peeling
of the pile had no significance as to the
quality of the work, for it was the result
of the collision of the heavy caisson with
the pile when the cement was new, and
was certain result of such treatment at
such time to the best possible cement.
There are two tests for cement" said
Engineer Holmes. zone of these is chem
ical analysis and the other is time. The
better of these is time, but for lack of it, as
is the case in the present instance, chemi-
cal analysis may be tried. Good cement
will harden with time-the longer the time