Entries from July 2006 ↓

Over 25 head of cattle were killed by lightning in a most remarkable way in Finnis county, Kan. A herd of 800 were being moved to another pasture and for a part of the distance were driven through a narrow lane hedged in by a wire fence. While in this narrow passage a thunderstorm overtook them and a bolt of lightning descended and struck a fence post, felling the wire for 200 yards. Every head of cattle that was crowded against the wire was killed.

The lecture delivered by Prof. W. B. Stickney, of Ann Arbor, at the library building last evening, under the auspices of the Columbian club, was listened to with deep interest by a good-sized audience. “Nicola Tesla and Recent Marvelous Discoveries in Electricity and Ether” was the subject, and it was handled in an able manner by the speaker, who is an ardent admirer and strong champion of the Servian whose startling electrical discoveries have opened up a new era in the world of science. Although Nicola Tesla is by 37 years of age he has fathomed many of the hidden mysteries of electricity and is the patentee of 127 inventions along this line. Prof. Stickney suggested that the world was upon the eve of even greater discoveries in electricity and ether, the latter of which he denominated as the store-house of energy, and ventured the prediction that in five years from now the world would stand face to face with materialized forces of which it does not now even dream.–Flint Daily News.

The Free Press, in speaking of this magnificent display, said, “The stage set was the most elaborate affair of the times ever seen here. The large choruses were well trained; the principals were as effective as possible, the speciality performers were above the average, and altogether the performance was the most extensive entertainment imaginable, both in the diversity of its features and in the dimension of the stage. It is impossible to enumerate all its features. The sight was of a dazzling nature, when the entertainment was at its height. It is needless to mention the various set features but they were marvels of delight to the 6,000 or so people assembled and the “oh’s” and “ah’s” became a general murmur of admiration and pleasure. Certainly the effect was startling in the extreme, and nothing stronger or more sensational could have been devised.” The Tribune, in speaking of the performance, said, “Lalla Rookh is as brilliant as a butterfly’s wings. Fully 10,000 people visited the spectacle last night. To attempt to describe the brilliant setting would be about as profitable as to endeavor to catalogue the colors of a butterfly’s wings or to write and essay on a half dozen rainbows. The fact is, “Lalla Rookh is one those spectacles not to be adequately described at any treat length unless one desires to become ridiculous.” The News characterized it as a “splendid show, witnessed by many thousand people,” and estimated the attendance at 10,000, with as many more on the outside of the enclosure. It said in a sub-headline that the special features formed “a good vaudeville show.” In closing a description of the show the New said, “The show was over at 10:50 o’clock and everybody went home voting it a great success.” Performances are to be given every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night until August 10, with a grand gala night.

The real problem that stands in the way of poetry in machinery is not literary, nor æsthetic. It is sociological. It is in getting people to notice that an engineer is a gentleman and a poet.

from: Gerald Stanley Lee, The Voice of the Machines: An Introduction to the Twentieth Century, Mount Tom Press, 1906.

The story of “Lalla Rookh,” as told in the delightfully romantic poem of the Orient by Tom Moore, will be exploited in the pyrotechnic carnival which is to celebrate the opening of The Detroit Railway lines at Boulevard Park, 14th Avenue and the Boulevard, Detrot, beginning Tuesday, July 23. Lalla Rookh, as the readers of Tom Moore will remember, was the daughter of the powerful Arungzebe. As the time in which the story opens she was betrothed to the youthful king of Lesser Bucharia. The king had fallen in love with the heroine while visiting at her father’s court, where he was entertained in a style of magnificent hospitality. The young king goes back to his home and Lalla Rookh is to follow him. The day of her departure from Delhi was a day of the most gorgeous celebration and it is here that the story of the pyrospectacle opens. Setting forth from Delhi, in magnificently equipped barges and surrounded by the flotilla upon the Jumna, the action of the piece opens in a blaze of light. Upon the waters of the lake, which has been constructed at the park, the flotilla will set sail, attended by the feast of the roses, and Oriental custom of much beauty. The lake has been so prepared that it will represent, as correctly as may be, all the aisles and shores of the Persian Gulf and standing out in bold relief in the background will be the temples and alters of the fire worshippers. Volcanos in full eruption will illuminate the far distance. Each step in Moore’s story up to the time she meets the unknown Casmerean poet and is enchanted will be followed as told in the romance. Her desire to flee the court with the poet rather than marry the king is the climax of dramatic action. Into the story are introduced the tragic elements which Moore so graphically told and the happy denouement when the princess recognizes in the king the poet to whom her first maiden’s love has been given. With such a story, environed by all the wealth of gorgeous pyrotechnic display that the great master, Pain, is capable of, will the visitors to Boulevard Park be entertained on the carnival nights of The Detroit Railway. Already the amphitheatre approaches completion, the vast stage is ready for its twelve tons of scenery, the great lake has been flooded and the chorus and accessories numbering some three hundred people, are in training. Hundreds of workmen have been busy for weeks completing the double track line which The Detroit Railway has built to its park and by July 20 the last stroke of preparation will have been made and the pyro-spectacle ready for its guests. Parties intending to visit Boulevard Park and desiring seats in any particular portion of the grand stand will do well to notify Manager G. E. Raymond, 719 Chamber of Commerce Building, of their intention, that he may reserve accommodations for them. The first performance will be given July 23 and repeated every Thursday and Saturday night thereafter until August 10, with a grand special performance August 7.

The following extract is made from Mr. Ball’s remarkable book, “Things Chinese.”

It is very extraordinary to find an Edgar Allan Poe in Chinese literature, B.C. 200. The Chinese prototype was an eminent statesman, Kia Yi by name, who was also “no mean poet.”

A Chinese “Raven.”

The Fu-niao or Bird of Fate.

’Twas in the month of chill November,

As I can very well remember

In dismal, gloomy, crumbling halls,

Betwixt moss-covered, reeking walls,

An exiled poet lay–

On his bed of straw reclining,

Half despairing, half repining;

When athwart the window sill,

Flew in a bird of omen ill,

And seemed inclined to stay.

To my book of occult learning,

Suddenly I thought of turning,

All the mystery to know,

Of that shameless owl or crow,

That would not go away.

“Wherever such a bird shall enter,

’Tis sure some power above has sent her,

(So said the mystic book) to show

The human dweller forth must go,”–

But where it did not say.

Then anxiously the bird addressing,

And my ignorance confessing,

“Gentle bird, in mercy deign

The will of Fate to me explain,

Where is my future way?”

It raised it’s head as if ’twere seeking

To answer me by simply speaking,

Then folded up its sable wind,

Nor did it utter anything,

But breathed a “Well-a-day!”

More eloquent than any diction,

That simple sigh produced conviction,

Furnishing to me the key

Of the awful mystery

That on my spirit lay.

“Fortune’s wheel is ever turning,

To human eye there’s no discerning

Weal or woe in any state;

Wisdom is to bide your fate;”

This is what it seemed to say

By that simple “Well-a-day.”

Poe’s apparent obligation to early Chinese literature brings to mind another interesting parallel. Many persons have remarked the similarity between Poe’s tale of “The Cask of Amontillado” and Balzac’s story of “Le Grand Breteche” the motive being the same in each case–burying a living man in a tomb of masonry. But we wish somebody who is wise in dates would inform us whether Poe was indebted to Balzac for this incident, or Balzac to Poe. It seems to us that it is more likely that Poe read Balzac than that Balzac read Poe, whose fame has waxed since his death. But we should like to be assured by somebody who knows. Perhaps Mr. Stedman can tell, or Mr. Woodberry.

When Messrs. H. A. Everett and Albert Pack of The Detroit Railway, promised last November to have cars running in Detroit by July 1 the people were incredulous, as they did not know Messrs. Everett and Pack or their ability to accomplish the seemingly impossible. They had been accustomed to the old foggy method of the other lines and this was the basis of their doubt. The Detroit press of last week told how thoroughly they kept their promise and when the same two men promise a pyrospectacle of great magnificence, to celebrate the opening of their lines, that promise must be believed. The pyrospectacle, “Lalla Rookh,” which is to be given in Detroit, is now running in Cleveland and has won for itself the utmost of praise from the Cleveland papers. All kinds of superlative adjectives have been used their [sic] to describe its bewilderingly beautiful setting, tis graceful dances, its thrilling pyro-technical features and the perfection of detail and ensemble which marks the production. To properly celebrate the opening of The Detroit Railway will Tom Moore’s Oriental romance “Lalla Rookh,” environed by all the skill an thrilling accessories that the great Pain can invent, be brought to Detroit and presented on Boulevard Park, 14th and Avenue and the Boulevard, beginning July 23.

Goldsmith, by William Black. Part of the English Men of Letters Series, edited by John Morley. London: Macmillan, 1878.

Thanks to Sankar Viswanathan for post-processing this book.

Bookp(h)ile