The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1904-01-08


to strife passion had despised myse
for having entertained | was nearl
p. well, and Lucy had begun to leave II
, alone with my books and pen.
But how little | knew my own veal
ness until the dear girl came to me or
: evening, and, kneeling by my side, let he
fair hair veil her rosy bushes, while in
taltering voice she told me that Stephe
Parkhurst loved her, and that she ha
promised to become his wife.
BY a powerful effort l restrained IN
impulse to thrust her from me, and lister
ed in silence until her tale was finished
l even forced myself to kiss her forehead
and utter sincere wish for her happ
ness.
But | could do no more. said l wa
tired and begged her to leave me. Luc
never knew or dreamed ofwhat suffere,
that night, while she rested upon he
innocent pillow happy in the great 10,
ofloving and being loved.
But fought the battle and came OF
victor over the passion that had grow
with my growth and strengthened Will
nv strength.
Next day | was too i'll to go down stair
but l sent a kindly message to Stephen
and when joined the family circle aftel
a few days interval was able to NEE
him calmly, and with the subdued de
meanor that could be so readily ascribec
to my illness.
Day by day my own hands unfalter
ingly dug the grave of my beautiful deaG
love. Deeply buried it and locked tn.
sepulchre and engraved no name upor
its tablet.
When stood beside Lucy at the altar
and kissed the new made wife l knew
the fratcrnal relation was firmly estab
lished, and my love for Stephen Parkhurst
forever purged of the fiery pain OF
! passion.
Hitherto had demanded only admire
ton; now the worlds applause had lost
its charm, and it was whispered that
Margaret Stapleford had grown woman
ly since her sisters marriage.
The Greatest Bridge Ia America.
One of the greatest deeds ever wrought
in stone and steel is the new East River
Bridge, formally opened this week. Be-
side the interest and admiration excited
by the building of the first bridge that
linked Brooklyn with Manhattan, this
far more imposing climax ofengineering
genius has passed almost unnoticed, for
two reasons.
Weaving these tremendous webs of
steel over a mile and half of river and
shore, and swinging the crowded traffic
of the greatest city of the land on slender
cables around which man may clasp his
arms, are no longer a novelty.
A fifty million dollar tunnel under the
Hudson River; thirty-fve million dollar
subway driven the length of the narrow
strip of city packed to suffocation; fifty
million dollars worth of new railway
terminals; one, two or three new bridges
costing fifteen millions each-these arouse
only furry of interest in New York. 1t
has no time to turn aside for big things
that would mark epochs elsewhere.
The new bridge is forty per cent wider
and one-sixth longer than the older
Brooklyn Bridge, and the traffic capacity
is more than twice as great; orif30O, 900
can be crushed across the old bridge in
day, then nearly two-thirds of million
will be able to swarm across the greater
structure. Yet the cost of the new bridge
is less by So, 100000, and the time of
building less by five years These facts
mark the march of engineering knowledge
and experience in fifteen years.
The total length of the new bridge is
1900 feet, a mile and third of double
decked steel roadways soaring one
hundred and thirty-ive feet above tide
water, hung from steel towers three
hundred and thirty-fve feet high. Four
trolley tracks, two tracks for elevated
trains, two driveways, two footpaths,
and cycle path are laid in the one
hundred and eighteen feet of width, three
times as wide as cross-street of New
York Twenty thousand tons of dead
weight pull at the granite anchorages
before car or passenger crosses, COM
pared with the fifteen thousand tons of
material striving to pull the older Brook
lyn Bridge up by the roots.
Experts say that no possible strain can
break down the bridge, and that when
the old Brooklyn Bridge has crumbIed
away and nothing is left but the granite
towers, the new bridge will still be open
for business" Skeleton steel towers are
substituted for the granite monuments
at the ends of the other bridge, a seeming
paradox when the Pennsylvania Rail-
road is spending millions of dollars to re-
place steel bridges by solid stone to make
a more permanent way. Much added
strength is in the four cables, which are
eighteen and a quarter inches in diameter,
against fifteen and three.quarter for the
first bridge The difference is slight to
look at. but impressive when seen be-
meath the steel jacketing which hides the
most wonderful and delicate achievement
in all bridge construction. Each of these
four cables is made of 1896 separate
wires, each wire strung separately across
the East River, while one hundred and
forty men spun the huge steel rope. This
daring band of workmen bound twenty
six tons of steel wires into this cable web
each day, each wire thirtv-five hundred
feet long, and only three-sixteenths of an
inch in diameter, scarcely bigger than
heavy picture wire. Five thousand tons
of steel were fashioned thus into four
cables the thickness of stout tree, and
the strength of each little wire, tested be.
forehaud, became part of a mighty
harmony of effort, all pulling together,
yet the power to bear its gigantic burden
was no more than the united endeavors
of thirty thousand picture wires" The
four cables cost 81 400, O0O.-Colliers
Weekly.
Not So Bad AS Appeared.
Senator Lodge possesses a sense of
humor, but certain committee clerks at
the capitol think it grim one.
One day toward the end of the special
session of the Senate last spring the
clerks in question, who were working in
a room just off that of Mr.. Lodge, were
astonished by the sudden appearance of
the Massachusetts senator.