The age-herald., 1901-01-28
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERYDAY LIFE

fact nevertheless that whenever violin virtuoso comes to town, every man who knows anything about playing the violin immediately takes to drink" said man we'll acquainted with music and musicians. ''Of course, it is only great violin player that produces this effect, and as a man Is not famous nowadays until his remarks are copyrighted so a violinist is not at the top notch of the profession unless he or she can set the smaller fry to drinking I have noticed this phenomenon for some time and a recent visit of a distinguished violinist to Birmingham but emphasized the fact. One man who controls large busi- ness interests and who ordinarily is the beau ideal of w. c. T. U. society, be- came very much excited the moment he learned that the violinist was In the city. He dropped all the cares of business and immediately took drink or two. I don't mean to say that he took too much, he only took what he was obliged to have Half dozen other cases came under my notice. Everyone of these students of the violin intended to go and hear the virtuoso, but the excitement of anticipation was so great that some of them defeated their own pur- pose by taking too much. The reason of this I suppose is that everyone who has studied the violin has been subjected to severe nervous strain. It is the most dif- hcult instrument in the world and when one reaches perfection in the art, only those who have studied 1t realize what 1t means. They become greatly excited at the thought of hearing this divinest of all music, and take to drink as means of relieving the tension on their overwrought nerves. Musicians naturally have sensitive organizations which will not bear too much strain"
 The average jury Is fearfully and won- derfully made" said former proprietor of a hotel where juries that were hung were accustomed to spend the night 'When I nrst commenced to furnish supper and rooms to juries. I always provided them With linen napkins, the same as ordinary people, but I lost so many of these that l soon substituted paper ones instead which suited them just as we'll and cost me much less No matter how warm tho weather jurymen always want fire in their rooms The reason of this Is that most jurors chew tobacco and they use the fire as cuspidor. Time and again they will put fire out in this way It was much
 
 new carpets for the rooms. jury never was known to ask for a room with a bath. have had many juryman make his mark on the bed and many of them are as in. nccent of bath as the prisoner, who was so dirty when arrested that the jailor or dered him washed. He appeared so sur prised at this process that the jailor asked him if he had ever taken a bath before. Certainly not replied the prisoner. I have never been arrested before'
 ''I see that Professor Gray, who had the famous controversy and law suit with Bell concerning the invention of the telephone is dead,' remarked a citizen who is inter- ested in mechanical matters. "Gray made several important discoveries in electrical devices and claimed to have first discov- cred the telephone. Bell won out however. and today Gray is comparatively unknown while the Bell telephone is at everyone's mouth. It was the old controversy of who saw it first. Wallace and Darwin had A similar dispute over the theory of evolu- tion, but Darwin's publishers got his work out first, and now man never sees a monkey without thinking of Darwin, while Wallace is seldom thought of in this or any other connection. It is getting more difficult every day to invent something that has not already been invented and patented. My first experience with patents was some years ago, when locomotive en- gineer came to me to assist him financially in getting out patent on an invention He was one of the most competent engineers I ever saw and was thoroughly practical He claimed to have invented device for eliminating back pressure in the cylinders of locomotive. As a rule only about three- fourths of the actual steam pressure is transmitted into energy, the piston head having reached the end of the cylinder and started back before all the steam can be exhausted. This remaining steam is what is known as back pressure, and the modern locomotives overcome it, by high pressure, by means of which they can afford to loose one-fourth of the power and still have enough remaining for all uses This en- gineer claimed that his device would elim- mate this back pressure, that he actually had it in use on his engine, and by means of 1t was saving one-fourth of the coal the engine had formerly used He offered me half interest in his invention if I would have it patented. If you will consider for moment the total amount of coal that this device would have saved, if used on every locomotive in the United States, you will see what fortune was in store for the owner. Say an engine burns four tons day. which is a low estimate this inven- tion would mean saving of ton of coal a day for every engine in the United States If there are ten thousand engines and coal was worth $2 a ton, this would be c d4ly saving of $2O,O0o or T.3o0,0OO a yea quite a neat little sum- knew the engino was absolutely truthful and so impressed was I with the invention, that I decided to go to Washington myself and have it patented We'll, to make long story short, found the device had been patented so long ago that the patent was out of date. and any body could use 1t. Why it is not in general use I can't understand, as I know it will do what the engineer claimed. The reason