Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-02-05


car-steps which one car ascend and
descend without testing the utmost
width OF ones petticoat npparntus for
sanding railroad tracks, attachments
LOT unloading box-cars. hoods to pre-
vent smoke from pouring backward
ueVices Tor Keeping cattle of the
tracks, and goodness knows how many
more. Conspicuous In this end of the
century is Mrs. Maria f.. Beasley.
whose scheme of IL new railway system
II brought to the successful compile
ton predicted by engineers and biisI-
ness men, VIII revolutlouize the present
mode of transportation between the
East and West. Railroad mon have
Tor many years been puzzled over the
question how to carry pcrishahlo COM
lnodittes long distances aud preserve
the large per cent of them now lost:
and q woman is the first to solve the
troublesome problem. Mrs. Beasley
with others, felt that refrigerator cars
would never be made satisfactory, for
some thinga VIII not bear an undue de-
gree of cold and that u system furn-
ishing greater speed that any in use
today must be invented. So she set her
wits to work on the old idea of con-
Meeting great commercial centers in OPP
posite parts of the country, by elevated
railroads with two tracks. upon which
the cars viii travel without stops Mt
any way stations, and uninter-
rupted by any local traffic or
street crossings. The motive power
IL 20 be electricity. supplied from
stations arranged every fifty miles
along the route, and applied through
Tcsln's latest improvements in current
transmission. Mrs Beasley's particu-
lar invention Is the lock betyeen the
cars and track, which guarantees her
road greater safety against Jumping of
rails than any offered by our present
mode of surface transportation. Those
of my readers who went to the Worlds
Fair, in Chicago. will remember seeing
Mrs. Beasley in the transportation
building.
Women's inventive genius has not
omitted the gruesome. as well as the
ridiculous, They are responsible for
several improved corpse preservers,
and burglar-proof tombstones, and in
distructable funeral wreaths. One de-
vice Is small fiat case containing a
photograph of the late lamented and ,
on the movable cover is inscribed these
words: Look at me and cover my I,
face" a sort Of locket. of abestos or
lava, has been patented TO be carried
in the pocket of anybody who starts
on railway journey. II there should
be an accident. like the Ashtabula hor-
ror, and the wearer Is burned UP, the
locket, being of understandable ma
terial. will be found intact with his
charred and otherwise unrecognizable
remains. on the cover is stamped the
words: Address inslde:" and on open-
Ing 1t. the finder sees the name and
address of the unfortunate traveller.
Among the queerest inventions Is a
luminous cat. to brighten rats and mice
ut night; trap for catching tape
worms; fastening with which to Sc
cure brick TO n cows tail, to pre-.
vent her switching 1t in the mixers
eyes: a combined trunk and house, in .
which persons of small means may live
in a small way when travelling and
save hotel bills. and combination
pillow and cannon. The beam of the
pillow is made of iron and bored out so
as TO form cannon. Whenever the
farmer, while at work In the field, sees
savages or tramps approaching, he has
only to unhitch his team. so as to get
them from In front of the muzzle, APP
ply his match and say his prayers, and
trust Providence for the result. II
looks ms If the farmer were good deal
more likely to be killed by the recoii
than the foe by the shot; however one
must leave something TO Providence
In case the gun went OFF while in use
as n pillow, Divine interference would
certainly be necessary to prevent dis
aster both to team and farmer.
The tape-worm trap Is still more
curious. II consists OF a hollow ball.
divided Into two parts which are
hinged together and provided with a
spring upon their inside. so that they
may be made to snap together Hike a
steel trap. The unfortunate Individual
In whose interior the long drawn-out
reptile has taken up its abode must
refrain from eating till near the point
of starvation. Then he bates his little
trap with some choice morsel. swallows
II. and Keeps firm hold of the string.
His snakeship is supposed to be eager
~ soaking for n good square meal, and
when the tit-bit arrives in hts neigh
borhood he sticks his ugly, three-cor-
nered head into the trap; then snap
In nd laA mt ant
ceeds to draw in his line. hauling the
tape up through his throat. How he
is to know when the trap Is sprung,
and how avoid being choked to death
in the process, is not the inventors
business, but his own.
One might go on for a week with
tales of these odd patents; but the one
last mentioned makes a farther dose
inadvisable for the present.
FANNIE BRIGHAM.