March 11, 1908 (Wednesday)

\ON THE HIGH SEAS, A WIRELESS OPERATOR IS CHARGED WITH PIRATING THE NEWS: A little while ago, the Ottawa correspondent of The London Standard newspaper sent a wireless message to his newspaper in England. The story dealt with the Japanese Exclusion bill in British Columbia. As the wireless crackled its way eastward across the Atlantic, the signal was picked up by a man named Stickrath, the Marconi operator on board the North German Lloyd liner Kronprinzessin Cecilie (above). Stickrath snagged the information out of thin air, and part of the piece was published in The Daily Bulletin on board the ocean liner.
When the ship docked at Bremen, Stickrath faced the wrath of the Marconi Co. He was discharged for "pirating" news. The captain of the ship has sent a message to the office of the Marconi Co. in Brussels and asked that the manager reinstate Stickrath, according to the article on the front page of today's New York Times.

SPEAKING OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, NIKOLA TESLA OFFERS A FAR-REACHING VISION FOR THE INNOVATION: Inventor Nikola Tesla was one of the guests of honor last night at a dinner presented by the Entertainment Club at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. He offers these predictions, as quoted in today's Times:
"Mankind will eventually harness the waterfalls and transform this enormous pressure into energy, and this will simplify warfare. Aerial vessels of war will be used to the exclusion of ships, and with 10,000,000 tons of energy this country will be equipped to rout the civilized world.
"I consider the greatest achievement of humanity will be WIRELESS TELEPHONY, which may be operated throughout the globe. This will solve a thousand intricate features of our civilization. It is scientifically possible, and it will gradually become an actuality."

SWARTHMORE'S BOARD CAN BE BOUGHT, BUT THE PRICE HAS TO BE HIGH: On Feb. 13, The New York Times reported that Swarthmore College was considering abandoning its sports programs so it could qualify for a $1 million gift from someone who had attached that particular string to the money. A little more research on the part of the school has led to a totally different set of facts. The gift from Anna T. Jeanes, which was based on the school ending "participation in intercollegiate athletics, sports and games," has been rejected by the school's Board of Managers. Intelligently, the school formed a committee to discover just how much the gift was worth. In this case, the committee did its work well. The total value of the gift -- which included some property whose possession might be disputed in court -- was worth between $24,000 and $47,000. Original estimations of the value of her estate -- guesses, really -- were in the $2 million to $3 million category. She died in September. That month marked the beginning of football season. And football will continue at Swarthmore this September.

READERS DEFINE A "MATINEE IDOL" FOR THE CALL OF SAN FRANCISCO: The Call newspaper asks readers an "impertinent question" every Wednesday. The answers must be original and witty -- and "the briefer the better." Last week's question was "What is a matinee idol?"
Today's Call prints the answers that the judges liked the best. The winner -- which earned the writer $5 -- was:
-- "Once in a while he's an actor."
My favorite, which earned a $1 prize:
-- A man, deep of chest, long of limb, with a light in his eyes that lies in his soft brown eyes, and lies, and lies, and lies.