rotating dome, also of steel, weighs nearly 150 tons. The observatory,
of gray Roman brick with gray terra-cotta and stone trimmings, is in the
form of a Roman cross, with three domes, the largest dome at the western
end covering the great telescope. Of the two smaller domes, one will
contain a 12-inch telescope, and the other a 16-inch. Professor Young
says of the Yerkes telescope, "It gathers three times as much light as
the 23-inch instrument at Princeton; two and three-eighths as much as
the 26-inch telescopes of Washington and Charlottesville; one and
four-fifths as much as the 30-inch at Pulkowa; and 23 per cent more than
the gigantic, and hitherto unrivalled, 36-inch telescope of the Lick
Observatory. Possibly in this one quality of 'light,' the six-foot
reflector of Lord Rosse, and the later five-foot reflector of Mr.
Common, might compete with or even surpass it; but as an instrument for
seeing things, it is doubtful whether either of them could hold its own
with even the smallest of the instruments named above, because of the
reflector's inherent inferiority in distinctness of definition."
Professor Young thinks the Yerkes telescope can hardly hope for the
exceptional excellence of the "seeing" at Mount Hamilton, Nice, or
Ariquipa, at least at night. The magnifying power of the Yerkes
telescope is so great, being from 200 to 4,000, that the moon can be
brought optically within sixty miles of the observer's eye. "Any lunar
object five or six hundred feet square would be distinctly visible,--a
building, for instance, as large as the Capitol at Washington."
Since the death of Mr. Lick others have added to his generous gifts for
the purchase of special instruments, for sending expeditions to foreign
countries to observe total solar eclipses, and the like. Mrs. Phoebe
Hearst has given the fund which will yield $2,000 or more each year for
Hearst Fellowships in astronomy or other special work. Colonel C. F.
Crocker has given a photographic telescope and dome, and provided a sum
sufficient to pay the expenses of an eclipse expedition to be sent from
Mount Hamilton to Japan, in August, 1896, under charge of Professor
Schæberle.
Mr. Edward Crossley, a wealthy member of Parliament for Halifax,
England, has given a reflector and forty-foot dome, which reached Mount
Hamilton from Liverpool in the latter part of 1895.
Mr. Lick's gift of the telescope has stimulated a love for astronomical
study and research, not only in California, but throughout the world.
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific was founded Feb. 7, 1889; and
any man or woman with genuine interest in the science was invited to
join. It has a membership of over five hundred, and its publications are
valuable. The society holds its summer meetings on Mount Hamilton. Very
wisely, for the sake of diffusing knowledge, visitors are made welcome
to Mount Hamilton every Saturday evening between the hours of seven and
ten o'clock, to look through the big telescope and through the smaller
ones when not in use. In five years, from June 1, 1889, to June 1, 1894,
there were 33,715 visitors. Each person is shown the most interesting
celestial objects, and the whole force of the Observatory is on duty,
and spares no pains to make the visits both interesting and profitable.
James Lick planned wisely when he thought of his great telescope, even
if he had no other wish than to be remembered and honored. Undoubtedly
he did have other motives; for Professor Holden says, "A very extensive
course of reading had given him the generous idea that the future
well-being of the race was the object for a good man to strive to
forward. Towards the end of his life, at least, the utter futility of
his money to give any inner satisfaction oppressed him more and more."
The results of scientific work of the Lick Observatory have been most
interesting and remarkable. Professor Edward E. Barnard discovered,
Sept. 9, 1892, the fifth satellite of Jupiter, one hundred miles in
diameter. He discovered nineteen comets in ten years, and has been
called the "comet-seeker." He has also, says Professor Holden, made a
very large number of observations "upon the physical appearance of the
planets Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn; upon the zodiacal light, etc.; upon
meteors, lunar eclipses, double stars, occultations of stars, etc.; and
he has discovered a considerable number of new nebulæ also." Professor
Barnard resigned Oct. 1, 1895, to accept the position of professor of
astronomy in the University of Chicago, and is succeeded by Professor
Wm. J. Hussey of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
Sir Edwin Arnold, during his visit to the Observatory, at the suggestion
of Professor Campbell, looked through the great telescope upon the
nebula in Orion. "I saw," he writes, "in the well-known region of 'Beta
Orionis,' the vast separate system of that universe clearly outlined,--a
fleecy, irregular, mysterious, windy shape, its edges whirled and curled
like those of a storm-cloud, with stars and star clusters standing forth
against the milky white background of the nebula like diamonds lying
upon silver cloth. The central star, which to the naked eye or to a
telescope of lower power looks single and of no great brilliancy,
resolved itself, under the potent command of the Lick glass, into a
splendid trapezium of four glittering worlds, arranged very much like
those of the Southern Cross.
"At the lower right-hand border of the beautiful cosmic mist, there
opens a black abyss of darkness, which has the appearance of an inky
cloud about to swallow up the silvery filigree of the nebula; but this
the great glass fills up with unsuspecting worlds when the photographic
apparatus is fitted to it. I understood Professor Holden's views to be
that we were beholding, in that almost immeasurably remote silvery haze,
an entirely separated system of worlds and clusters, apart from all
others, as our own system is, but inconceivably grander, larger, and
more populous with suns and planets and their starry allies."
Professor John M. Schæberle, formerly of Michigan University, has
discovered two or more comets, written much on solar eclipses, the
"canals" of Mars, and the sun's corona. He, with Professor S. W.
Burnham, went to South America to observe the solar eclipse of Dec.
21-22, 1889; and the former took observations on the solar eclipse April
16, 1893, at Mina Bronces, Chili.
Professor Burnham catalogued over one hundred and ninety-eight new
double stars, which he discovered while at Mount Hamilton. He, with
Professor Holden and others, have taken remarkable photographs of the
moon; and the negatives have been sent to Professor Weinek of Prague,
who makes enlarged drawings and photographs of them. Astronomers in
Copenhagen, Vienna, Great Britain, and other parts of Europe, are
working with the Lick astronomers. Star maps, in both northern and
southern hemispheres, have been made at the Lick Observatory, and
photographs of the milky way, the sun and its spots, comets, nebulæ,
Mars, Jupiter, etc. Professor Holden has written much in the magazines,
the _Century_, _McClure's_, _The Forum_, and elsewhere, concerning these
photographs, "What we really know about Mars," and kindred topics.
Professor Perrine discovered a new comet in February, 1896, which for
some time travelled towards the earth at the rate of 1,600,000 miles per
day. Professor David P. Todd of Amherst College was enabled to make at
the Lick Observatory the finest photographs ever made of the transit of
Venus, Dec. 6, 1882. As there will not be another transit of Venus till
Jan. 8, 2004, so that no living astronomer will ever behold another,
this transit was of special importance. The transit of Mercury was also
observed in 1881 by Professor Holden and others.
The equipment at the Lick Observatory is admirable, and the sight
excellent; but the income from the $90,000 endowment is too small to
allow the desired work. There are but seven observers at Mount Hamilton,
while at Greenwich, at Paris, and other observatories, there are from
forty to fifty men. The total income for salaries and all other expenses
is $22,000 at the Lick Observatory; at Paris, Greenwich, Harvard
College, the United States Naval Observatory at Washington, etc., from
$60,000 to $100,000 is spent yearly, and is all useful. Fellowships
producing $600 a year are greatly needed, to be named after the givers,
and the money to provide a larger force of astronomers. Mr. Lick's great
gift has been nobly begun, but funds are necessary to carry on the work.
LELAND STANFORD
AND HIS UNIVERSITY.
"The biographer of Leland Stanford will have to tell the fascinating
story of a career almost matchless in the splendor of its incidents. It
was partly due to the circumstances of his time, but chiefly due to the
largeness and boldness of his nature, that this plain, simple man
succeeded in cutting so broad a swath. He lived at the top of his
possibilities." Thus wrote Dr. Albert Shaw in the _Review of Reviews_,
August, 1893.
Leland Stanford, farmer-boy, lawyer, railroad builder, governor, United
States Senator, and munificent giver, was born at Watervliet, N.Y.,
eight miles from Albany, March 9, 1824. He was the fourth son in a
family of seven sons and one daughter, the latter dying in infancy.
His father, Josiah Stanford, was a native of Massachusetts, but moved
with his parents to the State of New York when he was a boy. He became a
successful farmer, calling his farm by the attractive name of Elm Grove.
He had the energy and industry which it seems Leland inherited. He built
roads and bridges in the neighborhood, and was an earnest advocate of
DeWitt Clinton's scheme of the Erie Canal, connecting the great lakes
with New York City by way of the Hudson River.
"Gouverneur Morris had first suggested the Erie Canal in 1777," says T.
W. Higginson, "and Washington had indeed proposed a system of such
waterways in 1774. But the first actual work of this kind in the United
States was that dug around Turner's Falls in Massachusetts soon after
1792. In 1803 DeWitt Clinton again proposed the Erie Canal. It was begun
in 1817, and opened July 4, 1825, being cut mainly through a wilderness.
The effect produced on public opinion was absolutely startling. When men
found that the time from Albany to Buffalo was reduced one-half, and
that the freight on a ton of merchandise was cut down from $100 to $10,
and ultimately to $3, similar enterprises sprang into being everywhere."
[Illustration: LELAND STANFORD.]
People were not excited over canals only; everybody was interested about
the coming railroads. George Stephenson, in the midst of the greatest
opposition, landowners even driving the surveyors off their grounds, had
built a road from Liverpool to Manchester, England, which was opened
Sept. 15, 1830. The previous month, August, the Mohawk and Hudson River
Railroad from Albany to Schenectady, sixteen miles, was commenced, a
charter having been granted sometime before this. Josiah Stanford was
greatly interested in this enterprise, and took large contracts for
grading. Men at the Stanford home talked of the great future of
railroads in America, and even prophesied a road to Oregon. "Young as he
was when the question of a railroad to Oregon was first agitated," says
a writer, "Leland Stanford took a lively interest in the measure. Among
its chief advocates at that early day was Mr. Whitney, one of the
engineers in the construction of the Mohawk and Hudson River Railway.
On one occasion, when Whitney passed the night at Elm Grove, Leland
being then thirteen years of age, the conversation ran largely on this
overland railway project; and the effect upon the mind of such a boy may
be readily imagined. The remembrance of that night's discussion between
Whitney and his father never left him, but bore the grandest fruits."
The cheerful, big-hearted boy worked on his father's farm with his
brothers, rising at five o'clock, even on cold winter mornings, that he
might get his work done before school hours. He himself tells how he
earned his first dollar. "I was about six years old," he said. "Two of
my brothers and I gathered a lot of horseradish from the garden, washed
it clean, took it to Schenectady, and sold it. I got two of the six
shillings received. I was very proud of my money. My next financial
venture was two years later. Our hired man came from Albany, and told us
chestnuts were high. The boys had a lot of them on hand which we had
gathered in the fall. We hurried off to market with them, and sold them
for twenty-five dollars. That was a good deal of money when grown men
were getting only two shillings a day."
Perhaps the boy felt that he should not always like to work on the farm,
for he had made up his mind to get an education if possible. When he was
eighteen his father bought a piece of woodland, and told him if he would
cut off the timber he might have the money received for it. He
immediately hired several persons to help him, and together they cut and
piled 2,600 cords of wood, which Leland sold to the Mohawk and Hudson
River Railroad at a profit of $2,600.
After using some of this money to pay for his schooling at an academy
at Clinton, N.Y., he went to Albany, and for three years studied law
with the firm of Wheaton, Doolittle, & Hadley. He disliked Greek and
Latin, but was fond of science, particularly geology and chemistry, and
was a great reader, especially of the newspapers. He attended all the
lectures attainable, and was fond of discussion upon all progressive
topics. Later in life he studied sociological matters, and read John
Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer.
Young Stanford determined to try his fortune in the West. He went as far
as Chicago, and found it low, marshy, and unattractive. This was in
1848, when he was twenty-four years old. The town had been organized but
fifteen years, and did not have much to boast of. There were only
twenty-eight voters in Chicago in 1833. In 1837 the entire population
was 4,470. Chicago had grown rapidly by 1848; but mosquitoes were
abundant, and towns farther up Lake Michigan gave better promise for the
future. Mr. Stanford finally settled at Port Washington, Wis., above
Milwaukee, which place it was thought would prove a rival of Chicago.
Forty years later, in 1890, Port Washington had a population of 1,659,
while Chicago had increased to 1,099,850.
Mr. Stanford did well the first year at Port Washington, earning $1,260.
He remained another year, and then, at twenty-six, went back to Albany
to marry Miss Jane Lathrop, daughter of Mr. Dyer Lathrop, a respected
merchant. They returned to Port Washington, but Mr. Stanford did not
find the work of a country lawyer congenial. He had chosen his
profession, however, and would have gone on to a measure of success in
it, probably, had not an accident opened up a new field.
He had been back from his wedding journey but a year or more, when a
fire swept away all his possessions, including a quite valuable law
library. The young couple were really bankrupt, but they determined not
to return to Albany for a home.
Several of Mr. Stanford's brothers had gone to California in 1849, after
the gold-fields were discovered, and had opened stores near the
mining-camps. If Leland were to join them, it would give him at least
more variety than the quiet life at Port Washington. The young wife went
back to Albany to care for three years for her invalid father, who died
in April, 1855. The husband sailed from New York, spending twelve days
in crossing the isthmus, and in thirty-eight days reached San Francisco,
July 12, 1852. For four years he had charge of a branch store at
Michigan Bluffs, Placer County, among the miners.
He engaged also in mining, and was not afraid of the labor and
privations of the camp. He said some years later, "The true history of
the Argonauts of the nineteenth century has to be written. They had no
Jason to lead them, no oracles to prophesy success nor enchantments to
avert dangers; but, like self-reliant Americans, they pressed forward to
the land of promise, and travelled thousands of miles, when the Greek
heroes travelled hundreds. They went by ship and by wagon, on horseback
and on foot; a mighty army, passing over mountains and deserts, enduring
privations and sickness; they were the creators of a commonwealth, the
builders of states."
Mr. Stanford had the energy of his father; he had learned how to work
while on the farm, and he had a pleasant and kindly manner to all. Said
a friend of his, after Mr. Stanford had become the governor of a great
State, and the possessor of many millions, "The man who held the
throttle of the locomotive, he who handled the train, worked the brake,
laid the rail, or shovelled the sand, was his comrade, friend, and
equal. His life was one of tender, thoughtful compassion for the man
less fortunate in life than himself."
The young lawyer was making money, and a good reputation as well, in the
mining-camps. Says an old associate, "Mr. Stanford in an unusual degree
commanded the respect of the heterogeneous lot of men who composed the
mining classes, and was frequently referred to by them as a sort of
arbitrator in settling their disputes for them. While at Michigan Bluffs
he was elected a justice of the peace, which office was the court before
which all disputes and contentions of the miners and their claims were
settled. It is a singular fact, with all the questions that came before
him for settlement, not one of them was appealed to a higher court.
"Leland Stanford was at this time just as gentle in his manner and as
cordial and respectful to all as in his later years. Yet he was
possessed of a courage which, when tested, as occasion sometimes
required, satisfied the rough element that he was not a man who could be
imposed upon. His principle seemed to be to stand up for the right at
all times. He never indulged in profanity or coarse words of any kind,
and was as considerate in his conduct when holding intercourse with the
rough element as though in the midst of the highest refinement."
Mr. Stanford had prospered so well that in 1855 he purchased the
business of his brothers in Sacramento, and went East to bring his wife
to the Pacific Coast. He studied his business carefully. He made himself
conversant with the statistics of trade, the tariff laws, the best
markets and means of transportation. He read and thought, while some
others idled away their hours. He was deeply interested in the new
Republican party, which was then in the minority in California. He
believed in it, and worked earnestly for it. When the party was
organized in the State in 1856, he was one of the founders of it. He
became a candidate for State treasurer, and was defeated. Three years
later he was nominated for governor; "but the party was too small to
have any chance, and the contest lay between opposing Democratic
factions." Mr. Stanford was to learn how to win success against fires
and political defeats.
A year later he was a delegate at large to the Republican National
Convention; and instead of supporting Mr. Seward, who was from his own
State of New York, he worked earnestly for Abraham Lincoln, with whom he
formed a lasting friendship. After Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated, Mr.
Stanford remained in Washington several weeks, at the request of the
president and Secretary Seward, to confer with them about the surest
means of keeping California loyal to the Union.
Mr. Blaine says of California and Oregon at this time: "Jefferson Davis
had expected, with a confidence amounting to certainty, and based, it is
believed, on personal pledges, that the Pacific Coast, if it did not
actually join the South, would be disloyal to the Union, and would, from
its remoteness and its superlative importance, require a large
contingent of the national forces to hold it in subjection.
"It was expected by the South that California and Oregon would give at
least as much trouble as Kentucky and Missouri, and would thus
indirectly, but powerfully, aid the Southern cause."
In the spring of 1861 Mr. Stanford was again nominated by the
Republicans for governor. Though he declined at first, after he had
consented, with his usual vigor, earnestness, and perseverance, with
faith in himself and his fellow-men as well, he and his friends made a
thorough and spirited canvass; and Mr. Stanford received 56,036 votes,
about six times as many as were given him two years before.
"The period," says the San Francisco _Chronicle_, "was one of unexampled
difficulty of administration; and to add to the embarrassments
occasioned by the Civil War, the city of Sacramento and a vast area of
the valley were inundated. On the day appointed for the inauguration the
streets of Sacramento were swept by a flood, and Mr. Stanford and his
friends were compelled to go and return to the Capitol in boats. The
messages of Governor Stanford, and indeed all his state papers,
indicated wide information, great common-sense, and a comprehensive
grasp of State and national affairs, remarkable in one who had never
before held office under either the State or national government. During
his administration he kept up constant and cordial intercourse with
Washington, and had the satisfaction of leaving the chair of state at
the close of his term of office feeling that no State in the Union was
more thoroughly loyal."
There was much disloyalty in California at first, but Mr. Stanford was
firm as well as conciliatory. The militia was organized, a State normal
school was established, and the indebtedness of the State reduced
one-half under his leadership as governor.
After the war was over, Governor Stanford cherished no animosities. When
Mr. Lamar's name was sent to the Senate as associate justice of the
Supreme Court, and many were opposed, Mr. Stanford said, "No man
sympathized more sincerely than myself with the cause of the Union, or
deprecated more the cause of the South. I would have given fortune and
life to have defeated that cause. But the war has terminated, and what
this country needs now is absolute and profound peace. Lamar was a
representative Southern man, and adhered to the convictions of his
boyhood and manhood. There never can be pacification in this country
until these war memories are obliterated by the action of the Executive
and of Congress."
Mr. Stanford declined a re-election to the governorship, because he
wished to give his time to the building of a railroad across the
continent. He had never forgotten the conversation in his father's home
about a railroad to Oregon. When he went back to Albany for Mrs.
Stanford, after being a storekeeper among the mines, and she was ill
from the tiresome journey, he cheered her with the promise, "Never mind;
a time will come when I will build a railroad for you to go home on."
Every one knew that a railroad was needed. Vessels had to go around
Cape Horn, and troops and produce had to be transported over the
mountains and across the plains at great expense and much hardship. Some
persons believed the building of a road over the snow-capped Sierra
Nevada Mountains was possible; but most laughed the project to scorn,
and denounced it as "a wild scheme of visionary cranks."
"The huge snow-clad chain of the Sierra Nevadas," says Mr. Perkins, the
senator from California who succeeded Mr. Stanford, "whose towering
steeps nowhere permitted a thoroughfare at an elevation less than seven
thousand feet above the sea, must be crossed; great deserts, waterless,
and roamed by savage tribes, must be made accessible; vast sums of money
must be raised, and national aid secured at a time in which the credit
of the central government had fallen so low that its bonds of guaranty
to the undertaking sold for barely one-third their face value."