The Brooklyn Daily Eagle du lieu suivant : Brooklyn, New York • Page 17

it: THE BKOOKXYN DAILY EAGLE. NEW YOKE, SUNDAT, JAKCAEY 14, 1,900. WORK ON THE NEW EAST RIVER BRIDGE APPROACHES THE SPECTACULAR STAGE. WORK on the New East River Bridge, at the foot of Broadway, is now approaching the spectacular stage. That which has been done so far has been done underground, with no chance to play to the galleries.

Also much of the work has been decidedly disagreeable from the contractor's point of view. Fancy having to pay men $4 for a day's work consisting of one and a half hours! Yet that was the rate of pay for caisson men. But now the pier foundations and the anchorages are nearly all completed. The river pier foundations on both sides of the river are finished, the intermediate pier "When the towers are completed the contractors must undertake the most formidable job of hoisting that has ever confronted an engineer in order to get the great steel saddles on which the cables are to rest, into position. These saddles will be in one solid block, weighing thirty tons.

A weight of thirty tons is jtfst nothing at all for an able bodied derrick to toss about near the ground, but when it comes to getting a block of metal of that weight 335 feet up in the air well, that's different. The nearest approach to this undertr" 'ng in difficulty was placing the heroic statue of William Penn on the dome of the Philadelphia CUy Hail. But that statue is not so far above ground, and, fur foundations will be completed by to morrow, the anchorages will be finished in a few thermore, it was hoisted in sections. The tv I saddes will be hoisted through the center of days more. The stone contractors on the I t.

6 i the towers. Probablv a thrpp mmTte innh IB lllllllllllllllllll! Brooklyn side, the Degnon McLean Company, stee, cabIe rutming ln a six sheaved block now have 300 men at work. In a few days will be used. When the towers are completed the cable contractors, the John A. Roebling Company, will give an exhibition that will discount the work of placing the cables on the old bridge.

An elaborate series of experiments with wire have been conducted under the direction of Chief Engineer Buck of the bridge. It has been determined that No. wire is to be drawn across the river it must be carefully adjusted so it will bear its full share of the strain and no more. Light foot bridges will be swung across the cables, as all will be built simultaneously, at four or five points. On these bridges men will be stationed who will signal to each other and to men on shore who are adjusting the wires.

Gravity will be the force depended upon to adjust the wires. When a wire drops down evenly beside its fellows the workmen will know it is in position to bear its share of the burden. The wires will be in pieces 1,000 feet long, which will be spliced as they are put in place. The wires will be carried back and forth 1 used. This wire is .162 of an inch in diam across the river, being given a turn around an more all the stone cutters and masons employed on the bridge will be given a two years' vacation.

In thirty days more the New Jersey Steel and Iron Company, which has the contract for the steel work, will begin putting steel ln position if they can get the metal. Then they will hold the center of the stage for a year. The false work which must be utilized ln erecting the steel structure, is in place on the New York side and nearly so on the Brooklyn side. The steel contractors must build the towers which will support the cables. These towers will be of steel.

Their tops will be 335 feet ove the level of the water or as high as the tops the flag staffs on top of the Syndicate Building, on Park Row, in Manhattan, are above the street level. These steel towers, owing partly to their extreme height, will look so frail and slender that nervous feminine passengers on the Twenty third street ferryboats, seeing them, will be strongly tempted to shriek and run Into the cabins, for fear the towers may topplo over on the boat. But they will not. down under the flare of the light and settled in front of the Secretary. Who was this unusual, unannounced caller? Were his intentions peaceful? It was well along into the evening and there was considerable money in the safe.

Mr. Day, still maintaining covert watchfulness, examined the money. It was genuine. Again, and now more openly, he scanned the man, who had moved up close to him. The situation was unusual, not to add dangerous or might be.

However, the secretary decided upon the Taking the bill, he opened the safe quickly, took therefrom two fives, threw the ten into their place and closed the safe. Then he handed his visitor tho money. A most astonishing thing followed. Coming close to the desk, the unknown began taking other bills from his pocket. Twenties first, then tens, next one of the fives he had just received, followed by a two and finally two ones.

Upon this pile of notes, representing a large amount and which he had carefully arranged upon the desk, he placed a fifty cent silver piece, a dime, a nlckle, and, last of all, three pennies. Mr. Day looked on with undisguised surprise at this eccentricity, and his uncertainty reached amazement when the man finally turned and witbrui a word made hasty progress toward the door. Recovering, he hurried to ask: "VVhr.t is this for?" Tho door had almost closed upon the retreating figure, but it turned. Now the hat was pushed up and for ono moment was framed in the bright opening and against the darker background of the street a face beaming with satisfaction, lit up with tender and loving benevolence and the earnest reply came: "For the poor." In another moment the picture vanished; the door softly closed and as the secretary brrnthed with relief again he whispered In meditation: "An angel unawares." eter.

Tms gives an area of .0206 of a square inch tor the wire. Each wire must stand a pull of 3,810 pounds without breaking. This is equivalent to a tensile strength of 180t000 pounds to the square inch. Steel is in its strongest form when drawn into the form of wire. A bar of steel one inch square would not stand a pull of more than 50,000 pounds without breaking.

No. wire having an area of one square inch will stand a test of ISO.OOO pounds, while fine piano wire will stand a test of 300,000 pounds to the square Inch. In each strand cf the cables there will be 29S of these wires and 37 strands will make a cable. This gives a total of 10,767 wires in each cable or 43,068 wires in the four cables which will carry the bridge. Each cable will safely bear a weight of 20,000 tons, or 80,000 tons for the four cables.

To build these cables will require ten months. They must each be built up in place a wire at a time. As each wire is ployes. Now, you shall not leave; since your determination is based on my discovery of my obligations to you, and you apparently don't want to be thanked and think that seeing me daily I'll try to do so, I'll leave the hotel and get employment elsewhere." The Silent made a gesture of protest and then took to pacing up and down the room. "Everybody will want to talk to me when you tell the story," he suddenly said.

"Don't you want it told?" asked George. "No." "Then I won't. Nobody shall speak a word to you of it. I have told no one yet, nor will The Silent shook hands with George heartily and sat down again. "Then you will stay?" asked George.

"Yes." "And I can tear this note up?" "Yes." "I know," continued George, with j. sort of gulp, "that you are a great, big hearted, singular sort of a Dick and don't want me to thank y.ou again, but I do wish you would let me take you to my house and "let a dear, grateful little woman there thank you." The Silent sprang to his feet, with frantic gestures. "No! No! No! No!" he exclaimed. Then he fell to pacing up and down rapidly. Suddenly he stopped in front his visitor.

"See here, George Smith," he said. "I can talk just as well as you can. Every day of my life I do more talking than you do in a week. From 10 o'clock in the morning until 4 o'clock In the afternoon I don't do anything else but talk and it is the same talk, over and over again, to the most vexatious, irritating, irresponsible and unreasonable class in the world, who, if they can, don't or won't try to understand. There are women to whom I have explained the same thing, in the came way, at the same place, every day for fifteen years.

I came to this hotel and adopted the plan of silence to even up things to strike a balance a saving average. But for that, I should go crazy. I am paying teller in the ladies' department of a bank in the shopping district, chained to the hopeless task of educating the feminine mind in the ways of finance." George shook hands with him. He understood and sympathized. And their mutual sympathy has tightened the bonds of thei" friendship.

SEACOAL iron spool in the, anchorage, much as a piano is strung. Each strand, therefore, will be composed of one wire 165 miles long. When the cables are wrapped they will be 184 Inches in diameter, as compared with 15 inches on the old bridge, yet the new cables will be four times as strong as the old. In constructing the end spans 6,000 tons of steel must be placed in position on each side of the river. Just now there isn't so very much activity to be seen around the bridge approaches.

The men who are now at work are stone cutters and masons who toil modestly behind high fences so that only the privileged may see what they are doing. But just wait a little while. raw ir yssoasist JlJiJjJIUXUJJ Uilf i I i Li! i.L THE SILENT HOTEL GUEST, EXHIBITION OF SIGHT HEADING The Singular Case of Elmer E. Branbow, Who, Having the Faculty of Speech. Declined to Use It During the Whole Term of His Stay at the St.

David's Hotel. when comedy was playing that it came to be understood that he sought all performances that were particularly funny. He was generous in his fees to his waiters, his chambermaid and the porters, and his weekly bill was promptly paid in advance. He had been domiciled iu the hotel about three months when the proprietor made a decided effort to engage him in conversation. Having courteously declined the advances by a negative shake of the head, when the effort was persisted in he stalked away indignantly and retired to his room.

Six months from the time of his entering the hotel ho went to the desk and for the first time spoke to George Smith. Taking from his pocket a roll of bills he said: "Here is $500. Put it in the safe for me." After' that when George Smith was at the desk he would lounge about, occasionally addressing him a word and If George would talk listen with Interest so long as nothing in the way of reply was required of him. It George had a funny story to tell him he was delighted and would laugh heartily over tho AN ANGEL UNAWARES. on the part of a hotel clerk is necessary to divert the attention of the bell boy from the delights of "Perforating Bill, the Indian Pep perer," to the duties for which he is engaged for a princely salary.

It is not so. Justice to a long suffering class demands that the. truth should be known. The bell banging and the Comanche yelling are merely devices to enable the clerk to think undisturbed by questions. George Smith wanted to determine by swift and severely concentrated thought whether four dollars a day was Mr.

Brandow's limit or whether be could artfully induct that gentleman Into a five dollar room the next day So be banged the bell and yelled "Front." By (be time the bell boy had reached the clerk George had determined that four dollars was Mr. Brandow's limit and he said: "Take the gentleman to 4,362 and change his baggage from 11,487." At the same hour the following day the new guest made his appearance but going directly to his room. He could have barely reached it when its bell sounded in the office. When the bell boy reached the room in response to the summons its inmate was concluding a note which, addressed to the clerk of the hotel, he handed to the boy. George Smith read it in the office: "This room suits me.

What will be the charge per week for not less than three years?" "Twenty dollars," wrote George on the same paper. Stranger at Rooms of Society for Improving Condition of the Poor at First Excited Fear. I point. And George got iulu uik uuuil ui treas rectly to his room, whence he forwarded a note, asking that porters be sent to take out the furniture, pull up the carpets and bring in his own furniture. It was 7 o'clock before the change was effected to the satisfaction of Mr.

Brandow. It was shortly after that, hour that Tom, the head porter, said to George Smith. "Forty three sixty two is either the biggest politician that ever lived or a lunatic. Divil of a wuxrud the hull blessed time did he spake. He just pinted to where he wanted things and when we was dun dommed if he didn't give us a dollar apiece." It was on this occasion that Tom dubbel Mr.

Brandow the "silent." and then it was that George realized that not once in the four days that he had been stopping at the hotel had Mr. Brandow uttered a word in speech. George, therefore, concluded that his guest was dumb, but if dumb not deaf. However, this conclusion was Incorrect, as he learned the next day, which was Sunday. For the first time Brandow entered the restaurant that day.

He wrote his order for breakfast and ate his meal in silence. But when he gave his fee to the waiter he said: "I shall take my breaktst and dinner here every day. You must wait on me. Don't talk to me nor let any one else do so. Tell the bead waiter." George Smith, breakfasting at the next table, heard this and muttered, "Well, by gum!" It takes a good deal to fluster a hotel clerk, but that morning George astounded the cigar man by taking a 10 rather than his usual 25 center.

After this day it was observed that the Silent, as he was called, spent more time about the hotel. His habits tell under curious watchfulness and it was noted that he left the hotel every morning shortly before whither no one knew, and returned at 5. whence no one knew. In the evenings it was his frequent custom to wander about the office, but engaging' no one in conversation. IC any oue addressed him, he listened courteously, but replied only with a bow and walked away.

He was not morose nor surly and more than once it had been noticed that a group engaged ln humorous conversation or story telling was an attraction to him; that he would get us near to it us he unobtrusively could. He was often seen in the bar room, though he rarely drank, leaning on the bar at one end and listening to the talk of those in front, and it was observed that he wns far from being delicient in a sense of humor. On moro than ono occasion he hnd been seen to laugh. It was reported at the ofllce so frequently that he had been seen at tho theater nant. He thought he was at least entitled to the sympathy of one he had come to regard as a friend.

The proprietor of the hotel advanced the sum required and the operation was performed successfully. George handed the fee to the surgeon. "Why. my dear sir, you have paid it," said the surgeon. sir? You are mistaken," replied George.

"By no means. Yesterday a man representing himself as coming from George Smith, head clerk at St. Davids, father of the child to be operated on to day, came to me and paid down the required sum. You owe me nothing more." George was dumbfounded. He concluded that it must be an act of kindness on the part of the hotel proprietor, his employer.

He went back to the hotel and questioned that proprietor, but that person denied it and denied all knowledge of it, a little inclined to be incredulous as to George's story. When, however, George returned the money advanced to him, he believed and tried to aid George in solviug the mystery. But a mystery it remained, becoming a staple story with which George regaled his friends. Some time after this, when the child had wholly recovered, George was stopped on the 6treet by the surgeon, anxious to know how the child had progressed. And while they talked George saw the surgeon hesitate and fix his eyes on an object across the street.

Looking, George saw the Silent passing. "There," exclaimed the surgeon, "there is the man who came to me, representing that he came from you to pay the money." Tho mystery was revealed. The Silent had paid the operating fee and true to himself had said never a word of it. That evening George spoke to the Silent of it and of his gratitude, of his sense of obligation and in the middle of his expressions the Silent walked away to his room, whence he sent a note to the desk, saying that his room would be vacant at the expiration his week. George went immediately to 4,362 and rapped at the door.

It was opened by the Silent, who stood in the opening, surprised and inhospitable, for he did not ask George to enter. But George had a purpose in visiting him and so pushed his way in, closing the door after him. "Mr. Brandow," he said, "your note has been seen by nobody but myself. You are leaving this hotel because I have discovered your act of kindness.

I know you are fond of tho house, of your room and of your surroundings. You are comfortablo here because your peculiarities are respected by all the em uring up fuunv moments io reiaie to mm. In fact, George got to feeling a stn ng friendship for the oJd fish and on the side of the Silent it came about that when George was on duty he was not far off. usually leaning with his back against the counter, moving away when anybody came up for business. "For all th' wuriuld." said Tom, the porter, "like a dog hangin' around his master." Thn! a vear nassed and the Silent was as With the Institute Class Under Direction of Miss Burt.

Miss Mary Fidelia Burt of Carnegie Hall, author and sole exponent of a new method of musical stenography and development of th old French method of Rousseau Galin Parl Chcve of sight reading and ear training, will give a demonstration on Friday evening, January 19, at 8:15 o'clock, at Wissner Hall, Fulton street ar.d Flatbush avenue, or the practical results she has accomplished in her class at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. The class will sing at sight any interval In the major, no matter how difficult it may be. It will also intone at sight in the staff notation any hymn in the keys of sharp, 0 flat, flat and and fiat. It will sing at sight two part and three part work, beside the chorus "Evening Bells," from Bruno Oscar Klein's opera "Kenilworth." Miss Burt's three little pupils, Miss Winifred Marshall, Miss Edith Sweet and Miss Helen De lany, the last of whom began her work, tone deaf, unable to sing or recognize 'a single musical sound, will give the same demonstration over which the musical public of New York and Brooklyn have been enthusiastic fur two years. Their work wil, include singing at sight and at random any' interval ln the major, 'minor and chromatic modes; difficult time insynuoyation in two, three, four, six, nine notes to a beat; singing from the staff in any of the fifteen major or minor keys, as well as most difficult two part and three part work.

Their car training has been so remarkable that all this work is taken down from musical dictation in Miss Burt's new system of musical stenography. They will also slug duets with runs and ca showing the purity and ease of execution gained by this method. Miss Burt has made a specialty this year of introducing the much dr. aded chromatics in an easy, logical manner in the first studies. The work at the Institute class Is excellent and Is remarkable for results in only twenty five lessons and with the slves.

When Elmer E. Brandow registered at St. David's the clerks of that fashionable hostelry agreed that the strangest character of their observation, rich and varied as It was in the nature of their business, had come under their care. Within a week Brandow's name was lost in that bestowed on him by Tom, the head porter, "The Silent." One bright autumn day two years ago, about 5 o'clock In the afternoon, "The Silent" walked into the hotel, carrying a small hand sachel and wrote this on the register: "Elmer E. Brandow, City." George Smith the head clerk, with the facility born of long practice in reading names from the wrong end of the book, that is to say, upside down, acquired the name of the new guest by the time It was written and asked: "What kind.

of a room, Mr. Brandow Ave, four or three dollars?" The new guest, taking a two dollar bill and a one dollar bill from his pocket, laid them before the clerk, who immediately banged a bell and yelled, "Front." To the bell boy, promptly appearing, ho said: "Take Mr. Brandow to room 11,487." At the same hour the next afternoon the guest appeared at the desk and laid before George Smith two two dollar bills. It is the part of a hotel clerk to divine the thoughts of the gue3ts of his house and so George, looking at the two bills, immediately said: "Don't like 11,487, eh?" Ho banged the bell and yelled "Front." It may be here parenthetically remarked that It Is the popular supposition that the banging Of a bell and the Comanche yell of "Front" xjtiijK cume me ooy wun twenty aojiars ana i another note. "Please receipt.

There will be no objec tions, I presume, to my furnishing the room to my own taste." I "A queer jigger," was George's comment when he read the second note. "He means to get everything down on paper; a new way of making a contract." However he wrote on the bottom of this note: "None whatever. I'll send the hnusplrnpnpr Mr. Day, the General Secretary of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor, at 104 Livingston street, sat one evening recently in his office, writing up the day's records. The building was deserted and quiet.

Without warning or announcement a stranger entered. His figure and vigorous action showed a middle aged man. His black felt hat was drawn down over his face and he wore, buttoned well up, a heavy overcoat which showed considerable usage. He approached, stopped a short distance from the desk and said: "You are Mr. Day." He spoke as fixing an identify and, withal.

In a tone of quiet, self contained assertion, ys one might announce conscious command of a situation. Ho spoke briefly and simply as being a man who comes directly to the point with no timo for halting preface or delaying explanation. "Yes?" was the answer, with an inflection and look of interrogation. "Can you," continued the stranger with a quick gesture, taking a step forward and producing a bill, "give me two fives for a ten?" Mr. Day was alone in the building.

The man stcod looking toward tho safe. Mr. Day's eyes followed his. There was silence for a few moments. "Yes, I can;" slowly replied Mr.

Day, at last, fixing the man with careful scrutiny. Upon this his visitor advanced and dropped upon the desk a tea dollar note. It fluttered I much of a mvstcry as he had been in the beginning but knowledge of him had spread from the employes of the hotel to the frequenters until iirandon was known as "The i Silent Man of St. Havhls." George Smith fell into trouble. His little son was seriously afllicted and medical consultation determined that an operation by a specialist was mveary.

The tee of the specialist was vorv latp' George had not the funds Yet if "tho one's life was to be saved' the operation must be performed. I George was trouble.l and to a friend who had called on him lie confided his troubles across tho counter that he was forced to ask 1 tho proprietor "of the hotel to advance the I sum which was nearly year's salary. He was'noc conscious that the Silent was within hearing until looking up he saw him standing near, and with an expression closely akin to a sneer, certain! the opposite of the sympa thetie the Pilr nt walked away with an air of I studied indifference accompanied by a gesture which contradictorially might have been deemed ono of impatience. George was indig to consult with you. Received twenty dollars for room 4,362 for one week from date." When the housekeeper arrived the room was empty, nor did the guest appear again until late that evening.

The next day from time to time were delivered chairs, tables, desks, lounges, lamps, carpets, rugs, curtains, draperies, pictures, all marked "For Elmer E. Brandow. Room 4,362." "I think I'd better retire from the business," remarked George Smith, as he looked over these things. "The limit la reached. Here's a man that pays the price asked and buys his own furniture." At 5 Mr.

Brandow appeared again, going di.