The San Francisco call., 1898-05-01

Y N the heart of the Santa Cruz
 Mountains, where giant redwoods
 reach toward a blue sky and the
 canyons are a tangle of foliage, and
 nature unfOlds to the passer-by a nancrama of peace, there are strange and disquieting sounds these fair spring days The air is rent from time time with sudden thunder not of heavens artillery" and it's echoes repeat them- selves until the canyon of the San Lo- renzo seems a battle ground of hidden foes. come to stain the peoples crlm- son in their deadly conflict
 It is Uncle Sam, making ready for war.
 In the length and breadth of these United States there are but two mills supplying our Government with ord nance powder, and one of these mills has been in operation in California. for more than thirty years. The standard of requirements for ordnance powder in our country is higher than anywhere else in the world. The powder we pro- duce is in every respect superior to the best that Europe can manufacture. To California, then, the army and navy turns in this its hour of need, and here are being wrought the sinews of inn pending war.
 Carload upon carload is rushed east ward as fast as steam can carry the consignment. Stored therein are thou sands of pounds of smOkeless powder for thirty-caIiber rifles, smokeless pow der for artillery for army and navy, and brown prismatic powder for both army and navy. Fancy three train c17iT terrible burden to headquarters.
 By next week the daily shipments across the continent of brown and snOkeless powder will reach in pounds the 2O.0OG mark. Each hour of the twenty-four finds Q force of 200 skilled workmen straining every nerve ana muscle faithfully to the dangerous du- ties in hand.
 Orders. by wire come thick upon each others heels into the midst of the workers in this vale of the San Lo- renZo, and at intervals the telephone rings a sharp command. The War De partment is transmitting it's terse' tense messages:
 Last year there was al accident at the mills in the canyon. Powder pro- fessiOnals refer to such disasters as premature explosions. strange 10 say. it occurred after midnight when all the operatives MSlC clSICSP' HI ." large building, filled with heavy ma chinery, were 16000 pounds of the strongest kind of black powder one Of the most daEPerous of explosives known. The site of that structure is to-day a deep h, le in the ground into which the water has seeped, forming 2 little lake Of the dense growth of redwoods around it nothing remains but Q few trunks, burned almost to the roots, and ghostly survival of euca- lvptus Bitter InanrOOt tWineS about the blackened tree stumps. and across one of them a rusty bit of twisted iron pipe lies where it fell, like meteor from a molten sky.
 The shock reused with terror the sleeping world for miles arOnd, and flung from their beds in a house half mile up the mountain side the superln- tendent. his wife and babe. The win dOws of their residence were shattered. No one was killed and none knew how 1t happened No one ever knows just how premature" explosions occur Powder-nakers will tell you that they are the result of carelessness. We never hear the careless mans story, for the very good reason that he is al- ways dead when his testimony IS needed.
 A few years ago a local company at considerable expense sent man East for several months to investigate pre- cautionary measures in regard to nitro