The San Francisco Call and Post from San Francisco, California • Page 29

Higbt Efcventure of a filobern X) 3 California Gift Who tfke a a tii cf the Surras Thought cf "WOMAN and a horse sliding dow I a river's slippery bank, lodgin I I upon a narrow shelf of I rock and spending the night I 1 this terrible position while Biorm nowia raging torrent roars and this is a situation to appal the bravest heart. And yet there is one woman In California whom it did not frighten and who telis the story so quietly that It is apparent 6he wishes to minimize rather than to exaggerate the danger. This woman, however, is a born In the forest, trained from her earliest years to ride and to shoot, perfectly at home on the mountain trails, whether by flay or by night, and an utter stranger to Buch a thing as fear. What to others would be a perilous adventure, to be remembered for a lifetime, is to her only an incident in a series of experiences so often repeated that the most startling accident does not appear very ususual. To mention the name of this young woman is to revive recollections of 'hat pioneer and historian of the Yosemite Valley.

J. M. living and as much interested as ever in California's great gallery of natural wonders, which he ha devoted his life to making better known to the worid. It will also recall to' the minds of many visitors to the vulley the last few years the pleasant picture of a Blender, graceful girl- a perfect riding a magniticent bUck horse, a handsome bat vicious tempered whom none but the most accoraplishfl horseman or horsewoman cjuld think of mounting. This young woman Is Miss Gertrude Hutchings, daughter of lings, the explorer and all but liscoverer of the beautiful valley with which his name has been so prominently associated for more than forty years.

Born in the valley. Miss Hutchings has known no home. and with every rock and pool, every strep and slope, not only In Yosemite itself, but for miles around, he is familar. Her father's cottage stcod near the great Yosemite Fall where the spray and the thunder nt ffeiress an African. Verily, Africa is fast becoming civilized.

An English girl has actually fallen in love with a dusky African. And no ordinary irirl is she but one with an abundance of money and no small share of good looks. Her name is Florence K. Jewell, and she is the daughter of Joseph Jewell, a mining engineer, who made a fortune in Hex? Miss Jewell happened to be at Bloem- Miss Jewell happened to be at Blnemfontein. the capital of the Orange Free State some time ago.

and there one eultrv afternoon her attention was attracted toward a you- Matabele warrior. He was clad in his picturesque, barbaric, native costume, and the ordinary traveler would have seen in him nothing more than a stalwart African ravage Miss Jewell, however, saw a good deal more in hlm-so much more, in fact, that fhe lost no time In finding out who he was. She was informed that he was a pureblooded Matabele- that he was known a "Prince" Loben. or Lobengula. and that he professed to be a relative of the famous Matabeie king of that name.

She In' an Ethiopian show to be held in Kn Jewell thereupon concluded that mmmm being concentrated on Lobengula. Day after day she went to see and admire the highest cataract of the world are never out of one's sight or hearing. Opposite the door of the pioneer's homo rose the mighty masses of the Half Dome and Sentinel Peak, while in the foreground thrre glanced by the waters of that most beautiful of rivers, the clearflowing, r-haed Merced. In winter the snows softened the harsh outlines of the crags and lay deep upon the valley, and in summer the pine and cedar forests stretched away in solemn loneliness for scores of miles. A childhood spent amid such scenes was bound to develop a character as unusual as the surroundings.

Love of adventure was as natural to Miss and contempt of danger as easy as habits of domestic and feminine timidity are to other women. She learned to ride the most dangerous trails with equal facility by night and by day, and in the moonlight nights, when all the valley lay buried deep in mow, she would tie on her snowshoes and start out for a long stroll through the white silences of the tremendous mountain gorge. She would pass under the shadows of the great cliffs, thread the ghcstly aisles of the forest, and not return home till the early hours just before the break of day. As a rifle-shot the young girl became as proficient as the most expert hunter, and as for fishing she could throw a line with the best angler and lure the shy trout from their recesses with as much certainty as an Indian. Marvelous are' the tales told of the daring of this quiet, reserved young laiiy, whose manner is that of the gently reared daughter of the city rather than of the border heroine.

Sometimes she would fir.d a basking rattlesnake asleep upon the trail, and slipping up on it with stealthy tread she would seize It by the tall, swing it. swiftly around and around in the air, and striking its bead against a rock or a tree kill it before it could seize an opportunity to use its terrible fangs, of which a single touch meant death. At other times she would climb the steep trail to Glacier Point and walk out upon the terrible overhanging rock, that dangerous him, and, being a man, he naturally Boon saw what an impression he had made on her. They talked to each other and the young lady was surprised to discover that her dusky Adonis aid talk fluently both in English and Dutch. What talked about only they two knew, but every one can guess.

Anyhow, they soon came to an understanding and the result was that all arrangements were made for a speedy wedding. Meanwhile, however. Miss Jewell's friends had not been asleep. They saw how the African had fascinated the wealthy girl and they were determined that he should not profit by it. They hoped that it was merely a girl's wayward fancy, but they were undeceived when the bitter news of the proposed wedding reached them.

Then they rose up in arms. They vowed that a cultured and wealthy English girl should not become the wife of an uncouth savage. But how could they prevent the wedding? Miss Jewell is 22 and can do as she pleases. They knew that, and so, instead of remonstrating, they pleaded with her not to ruin her young life In this mad fashion. She listened patiently to these pleas and finally so much pressure was brought on her that she consented to postpone the wedding.

No more extraordinary romance than this has occurred In our day, and thousands who never jaw Miss Jewell or Lobengula will be anxious to know how It will end. That Lobengula should have spent so much of his time In lovemaklng while In London Is certainly surprising, for the reason that other Matabeles who have gone to the English capital have apparently had no time to do anything except to wonder at the extraordinary sights around them. King Lobengula sent emissaries to Queen Victoria a few years ago. and London was to them the most wonderful place on earth. Some strange marriages are made nowadays, but this is apparently the first time that a cultured and wealthy white girl has set her affections on a native African.

That there should be a strong opposition to the marriage Is not surprising Lobengula may be. and very probably is. a first-class fellow in his own country, but there are very few persons in England, if indeed there are any, who think that he is fit to become Miss Jewell's husband. Strange Cases of Surgery. Dr.

Morestin. a Russian surgeon, who had been treating a woman for recurring abscesses, announced the recovery of his patient the other day. He had removed from her a pair of physician's hemostatlc forceps, four Inches long, which had been accidentally sewed up in her body four years before. Said a New York physician: "A Bhort time ago an up-country doctor came to the city to be operated upon for the removal of the vermiform appendix, although I understand he never had appendicitis. He did not improve after the operation, and one night he died.

There was an autopsy, and it was found that a sponge had been sewed up in him. Yet I have known of many forceps, clamps and other metal Instruments to be forgotten and left in patients, and the latter get are bad. Prom their very nature they become collecting agents and soon poison the body. The smooth metal objects, on the other hand, are apt to work their way Into the alimentary tract, and then they soon pass away. You doubtless have heard of needles which have Btayed In the human body for years, gradually working their way out of the system, or of old soldiers who still carry the bullets shot 'nto them during the civil war.

The glass swullower3 of the dime museums really perform wonders in the way of resisting foreign substances In the human body. "The most wonderful case of all was that of an insane man whom I caw in an asylum In Lancaster, Pa. He took to swallowing things in the carpenter shop, and before he was stopped he had gulped down 140 nails of all sizes, some buckles, a piece of old iron, some screws and a lot of other things. "All of this hardware was extracted and the man recovered. He is still living and still a lunatic." THE SUNDAY CALL.

and Ridgy Airss Thfcft Footing on One of the Most Dangers tVarTs in the VcssrTiTts and So Headlong the CTtFF. tilting projection upon which one step amisa would precipitate you three thousand feet down to the valley floor. WhUe there were a few others venturesome enough to go out upon this rock in daylight. Miss Hutchings would take the awful risk of doing it at night, and with unshaken courage stand there, and waving above her head a flambeau afford to the watchers far below in the valley a spectacle which made their nerves tingle with the knowledge they had of the dangers dared by the heroic young woman. Some years ago Miss met with a girl after her own heart.

was the daughter of a San Francisco merchant, who had been bred in the city, but who had become as enthusiastic a lover of forest as the Yosemite Diana. Together they resolved upen a life of adventure, and obtaining horses and rifles they started out to live as hunters. Week after week and month after month they ranged through tha mountains from the Merced to Kings River, and from tho western limits of tho Sierras to the oharp declivity of Its eastern edge. They explored every canyon, followed trail and took every chance which is taken by the woodman and the mountaineer. They camped wherever night overtook them and lived upon the game which their rifles brought down.

Occasionally some shcephardar or would ha Eiirnrlssd at seeing two young: women, with rifles swung from their saddle-bows, ride his lonely camp and offer to trade a haunch of venlsen for a little flour or coffee. This continued until the San Francisco merchant, becoming genuinely alarmed for his daughter's safety, succeeded in finding: her and reasserting his authority. He decided that as the best cure for such romantic wildnesa the girl should be sent East to attend a school, in which deportment and all the proprieties are a prominent feature of the curriculum. But she refused to part from Miss Hutchings, and as the only way to solve the difficulty the latter was sent along, too. This educational course lasted a couple of years, and soon alter returning the San Francisco girl was married to a gentleman who was prominent in educational circles.

liisa Hutchirgs returned to her life in the valley and to her habit of lonely rambles. One of her favorite tricks was to make the ride of twenty-six miles from Wawona Into the valley after nightfall. She would go down to Wawona to see friends who lived there, would let the time slip by until darkness began to gather, and only then wnuH think of the necessity of starting homeward. -Laughing to scorn the anxious advice not to attempt in the darkness roads which other persons to travel only in daylight, she would A Pi-otecWnS 2e Saves the Ufe of M'" oF the arid oF the mount the big black charger and start i upon a gallop through the deep shadows i of the forest. Phe would not always fol- low the road, but would sometimes try de- 1 tours and cut-offs, and It was while 1 this she met with the experience men- tloned in the beginning of this article.

The night was a stormy one, in ihe midst of a prolonged wet spell, when the creeks and rivers were all converted into torrents. The right was inky black, and some of the Ycsemite people who reitte this story say Miss Hutchings lost her way and wandered at random through the woods, But this is not credited by those who know her best, for they do not be- lieve the darkest night could be dark enough to make her lose the way through, the forest, an 1 they assert she was merely taking a short trail. In any event, she found herself riding along the precipitous bank of one of the forks of the Merced River, and before she realized that the was in any danger she felt her horse losing his footing and slipping and slid! ni? downward. Instantly eha threw herself from the saddle, and she and the horse together pitched and rolled as if to certain death. It seemed to be a mere chance of being Wiled by the fall or of being swept to death In the swollen torrent.

Fortunately there was a projecting ledge on which both horse and horsewoman landed. They were conscious that they had been saved almost by a miracle from death for the time being, but Inal escape from such a fearful position was more than doubtful. Miss Hutchings was conscious that the shelf of rock was narrow, and that any movement was dangerous, ami the horse was no less aware of It. for he shook and trembled in a tuning agony of fear. For once all the fire taken out of the big black His mistress managed to slip off his saddle and bridle, thinking this might slightly improve Ms chance to escape alive if he should fall off the ledge Into the river.

For herself was nothing to do but to wait for morning and some luclrr chance. It was impossible to climb up tne bank before daylight came, and It was euualli- out of. the auestion tg think of moving down toward the river. It was raining and sleeting-, and the night was as cold as it was black. The woman and the horse shivered through it in some way.

Inspired in their determination to maintain their perilous foothold by catching glimpses through the darkness of the flashing foam in the torrent, which showed where it dashed over the ragged rocks that would have made a fall into its water certain death. Daylight came at last and with an opportunity to escape. By crawling carrfully along the bank, making use of hand and foot holds. Miss Hutchings reached a place of temporary safety on the edgo of the stream, and in a little while succeeded In attracting the attention of a rancher who lived on the farther side of the stream, and who. taking no small risk of losing his life, crossed the river in a boat, which he had first made fast to a tree by a long rope.

Miss Hutchings was rescued, and a little later the horse wxa also taien out of his place of danger. Every one else In the valley talk? of Miss Hutchings' adventure as thrilling almost beyond parallel, but she refers to it with reluctance and declines to accept the position of heroine. At the present time Mise Hutchings Is acting as librarian and secretary for the Sierra Club In Toeemlte. Qirl as a JYaval Architect. A brlg-ht-faced girl works with hammer and anvil at a forge In a shop next to the railroad tracks in Boston.

Her name ia Lydia Gould Weld; the shop Is part of tha Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and she is studying: to be a naval architect. Miss Weld is 21 years old, and daughter of the late Franklin Weld of Falmouth. While attending- the Institute of Technology she lives with her relative, George F. Seavera, in Morton street. Jamaica Plain.

She is an attractive girl of medium height, with brown hair, blue eyes and a merry laugh, which does not go at all with the popular conception of the erudite woman. She has not had a college education in tho classics, but is well up in mathematics. Before coming to the Institute of Technology she was a pupil at a fashionable school In Bryn Miwr. Miss Weld, says the St. Louis Republic, made choice of the profession of marine architecture a few years ago, when a yachting party cf which she was one put In at Bristol.

R. 1., to repair a broken, shaft. In looking- over the shops of the HerreshoiTs while the work was being done desire to be a master of that craft took possession of her and grew to a serious purpose, in which she was hu! mored by her family. In the same shop with Miss Weld are working about fifteen young men, some graduates of universities or sons of manufacturers, who have here more facilities for iearning rapidly than In the shops of their fathers. Miss "Weld's first lesson in forging consisted in hammering to a point the end of a short piece of iron bar.

Next she was given a foot length of bar and told to make it into a pointed rod with a ring on the end. About this time the blisters began to come. The first was ar the base of the forefinger of the left hand. This burst, and the continued abrasion of tho hammer i handle turned the skin black, leaving a square half an inch so tender that an ordinary girl would have cried had anything touched it. No cries and no gloves for Miss Weld only more hammering.

A day or two later she made an iron bracket like that used to support a mantel. There are three nat! holes in arm of this bracket, which must he punched and countersunk at the anvil. In using the punch she missed it with one awing of the heavy hammer and struck the back of her left hand a hard blow, peeling off the skin and raising a sweil: A hook and staple was one of her easij est pieces of work. She surprised in! structors with the ease with which she made an iron strap similar to that used i for suspending thp ends of timbers. After that she tried fagot welding, be- I ing given three scraps of iron, which she forged into single ba-.

This is not so I easy as it seems, and many an apprentice blacksmith has become vexed in spirit to see the cracks in plain sight and one or two stray ends sticking out. The most difficult of her tasks so far has been the timber-hanger. Six or seven years ago, says the Instructor, a young man became so angry at the obstinacy 1 of the iron which he was trying to shape I into this form that hi hurled the hated thing through the open window to the furthermost side of the railroad tracks and walked out of the shop, leaving a blue streak in the air as he passed. Two or three days later he returned in humble and determined spirit and managed to conquer the troublesome bit of iron. This is an indication that Mia? Weld's path is not altogether one of rosos.

and that the problems in forging- set before her are of the kind that would sometimes test the patience of a saint. The reporter asked the instructor if he didn't give his extraordinary student more attention than the young men. but he explained her proficiency by another reason, saying: "She is more than usually quick to comprehend what is told her. In grasping the principles of forging she has proved heri self the equal Of any of the young men. Her use of the hammer is fully up to the average.

She has a very strong arm and does not appear to get tired. A few days ago I was busy in another part of the shop for a long time and was somewhat curious to know how was getting I along. When I got back to her she asked me, jokingly, if I ken her. I i found that she had progressed as well as I if I had been advising her, and she went i right ahead until the job was done." dictionary of the Private. One of the privates of the Thirty-first Michigan brought up with him from Cuha what is known as "The Private's Dici tionary." For the benefit of these who are not conversant with military terms some of the definitions are reproduced: The whole bonnet.

The trimmings. An officer of minor importance. Mule An Irreligious brute of the animal kingdom. His rank is three notches above first sergeant. A third-class private or windjammer, who disturbs slumber and poker, games.

A poor excuse for a square meal. A thing in demand, not good In a street fight or police court. A ticket to heaven. Pay great day in the army, when all men are alike; a day to settle disputes and patronize the canteen. A place where we get our beer and the big head.

A haven of rest for good soldiers. Guard A crime unpardonable. A disgrace to any Dress sport the officers are stuck on; or, Anglo-Saxon for cakewalk. Craps A good way to dispose of i or, the game that made the American soldier famous. Officers' gathering of thirsty i officers in a secret place to discuss politics.

A retired hard-shell preacher i who has lost his religion and comes to the- I army to umpire poker games and keep I books for a gospel shop. Surgeon A second-hand horse doctor who gives you oil for a sprained ankle, then puts you on double duty. 29.