Vanitas Symbolism

A vanitas still-life painting or photograph represents an old genre that goes back at least to the 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painters (with some notable contributions as well from the Spanish). It’s moralistic through and through, its message deriving ultimately from passages in the Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments, stressing the fragility and impermanence of life and life’s pleasures both intellectual, cultural, hedonistic, and artistic. From the Hebrew Bible: “Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher; all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 12: 8). From the Gospel of Matthew: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (6: 19-20). I hasten to add that I am not a religious person—but I find the vanitas genre fascinating. I tried to represent as many vanitas symbols as I could. What follows, for those academically inclined, is a brief explanation of the 5 categories covering the typical icons.

Category 1: Items representing hedonistic indulgence

- musical instruments: the gold clock behind, left, shows a woman playing a lute. Here, the green Russian balalaika is meant to stand in for the stringed instrument that (I presume) would have been readily available during the European Renaissance.

- alcohol and wine goblets: I have two decanters, one with orange liqueur, the other with what seems to be red wine to the left of the half full (or half empty) wine glass. That decanters and glass aren’t full symbolizes how quickly life’s pleasures disappear (see also Category 2).

- food: the limes and the lemon in the glass bowl to the left. The lemon especially is understood to be beautiful to the sight and smell but bitter, just like life can be.

- combs and mirrors symbolize narcissism, our infatuation with personal beauty (our vanity). We have a mirror, difficult to see, laying on its side just beside the fruit.

- objects of art: paintings, busts, statues, and the like. Here we have two paint brushes and a bust (of the ancient Greek poet Homer).

- jewelry: I meant to put some gold rings in there but I forgot. We do have what appears to be a heart-shaped blue diamond and, yes, it’s a replica of the Heart of the Ocean, the famous stone in Titanic and which I purchased for my wife (“she who must be obeyed”) at the Titanic exhibit in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, when I was there a few years ago.

- perfume: we have two small bottles beside the mirror

- items of revelry or sinful living are represented here by dice and playing cards. Four of the five cards have an added, more modern, symbolic significance: two black aces and two black 8s comprise the famous Dead Man’s Hand, allegedly held by American gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot down while playing poker. The mask—I can’t pretend to have seen one in a classic vanitas painting—was my idea as another symbol of revelry and reminds me of Poe’s story “The Masque of the Red Death,” which is a vanitas painting in prose.

- expensive items (“conspicuous consumption”) are represented here by the exotic red rug. Though we can barely see it, it’s a prized possession of mine all the way from Turkey.

- seashells are exotic and hard to acquire (see bottom left)

- a terrestrial globe, such as we see on the far left, back, is a meta-symbol of the world’s wealth and vanity (and is made, in this case, of semi-precious stones)

Category 2: Items representing life’s transitory nature and the decay of all earthly things

- music and instruments, while Cat. 1, also belong to Cat. 2 because music is transitory

- coins, as represented here by silver and gold pieces, are also transitory, never staying with us but moving from hand to hand

- bubbles, smoke, candles, butterflies: flame from candles eventually expires, as do we; its smoke recalls Psalm 102:3: “For my days are consumed like smoke.” Bubbles, like life itself, are short-lived, fragile and easily broken; butterflies are beautiful but fragile and easily killed.

- flowers symbolize beauty and so might belong to Cat. 1 but they are short-lived and soon wilt and die, as the photo’s Calla Lilies will. The Book of Job may have provided the inspiration: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days. . . . He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down” (14: 1-2).

- clocks, watches, hour-glasses are centrally significant because they measure and record time passing: with every second, we move closer to death. Here we have three kinds of time pieces: a sand-clock, a normal clock, and a little pocket watch in front of the books. This photo is a 30-second time-exposure: you can actually see the sliver of sand running from the top to the bottom of the sand-clock.

- the skull is the central symbol in a vanitas illustration, symbolizing our inescapable death and decay. We’s all gonna die!

Category 3: Items representing human achievement and culture

- books, for instance, represent the delights of reading. They also contain human knowledge but it’s only of this world, typically, and won’t endure. (Note that one of the two books is a collection of Poe’s works: he illustrates vanitas themes in “The Masque of the Red Death” and a few other tales.)

- writing instruments are related to books and we have a gold pen on top of the Poe edition—but, again, pens record and therefore symbolize human knowledge and culture, which won’t last as this world will eventually come to an end. Human strivings, achievements, and culture are futile and impermanent.

- weapons and armor are products of human culture as well (military culture), but even these can’t protect us from death. The knight’s helmet on the far right is here to remind us of that grim truth. Death is a great leveler: even the wealthiest and most powerful among us will come to the same end as the poorest and weakest.

Category 4: Items representing the permanent in the Christian context

- religious icons such as crucifixes, rosaries, angels, saints, certain types of flora (carnations, ivy, wheat, laurel): these remind us of or symbolize life after death—in other words, what’s truly important. Life in Heaven is eternal as opposed to the transient pleasures of Earth, which we should scorn. I have none of these symbols here because I don’t swing that way, baby. Not all vanitas paintings, even the classic ones, contain religious images.

Category 5: Written messages to clarify the moralistic meaning of the illustration

- for those viewers who can’t figure it out on their own, some painters provide messages, typically in Latin, explaining it all with well-known epigrams or quotes from the Bible. I have provided perhaps the most famous: Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas. “Vanity of vanity, all is vanity.”

In some respects I prefer this to one I posted a few years ago because this one has a dark backdrop, which reinforces the somber mood and meaning of the classic vanitas painting.

“The room itself is in messy disorder. On the table is a dish of fruit, which is real but appears artificial. Around it are grouped an ominous assortment of decanters, glasses, and heaped ash-trays, the latter still raising wavy smoke-ladders into the stale air—the effect on the whole needing but a skull to resemble that venerable chromo, once a fixture in every ‘den,’ which presents the appendages to the life of pleasure with delightful and awe-inspiring sentiment.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned)

It's amazing how much info can be derived from this Photo:

Flying at 110mph (good cross-country climb)

Straight and balanced

Climbing through 4300' at 150 foot per minute

Heading 060

Broadcasting on TIBA with Stellenbosch frequency ready

Squawking 2000

Mixture fully Rich

Less than 1/2 throttle

Carb Heat off (cold)

2400 rpm

15Gal in Right fuel tank, 20 in Left (yeah, right!)

Fuel Pressure slightly low, but still acceptable

Oil Temp and pressure in the green

kitchen Island/table. Built primarily with old growth hemlock barn siding and beams from western NY. The undercarriage was also built with Douglas Fir bleacher boards from LeMoyne College's gymnasium and yellow pine door casings salvaged ffrom a Buffalo area house. Even the figure 8s holding the top down are salvaged from an old table. The top is held together like a barn door with fasteners only.... the screws and leveler feet (and a tad bit of glue for the corners) and varnish are the only new materials. light sandings and varnish with tedious attention to detail, as barn wood is snaggy, and it is a usable and washable but rustic piece.

Savour this delicious illustration by Miss May Rivers digitally enhanced from our own vintage edition of The Fruit Grower's Guide by John Wright (1891).

Free download under CC Attribution (CC BY 4.0). Please credit the artist and rawpixel.com.

Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: www.rawpixel.com/board/50751/fruit-growers-guide

A. Fuji S5 body #1 with battery pack

B. Nikon 35-70mm f/2.8 lens (later replaced by 28-70mm f/2.8)

C. Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 lens

D. Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens

E. Space reserved for teleconverter or a prime macro lens (such as Nikon 55mm f/3.5 or Nikon 105mm f/2.8) or a fast prime lens (such as a Nikon 24mm f/2, Nikon 35mm f/1.4, Nikon 50mm f/1.4, or 85mm f/1.8).

F. Fuji S5 body #2 with battery pack

G. Nikon 20-35mm f/2.8 lens

Items stored in an outside pocket of the 400 AW Lowepro backpack:

White balance tool

White balance instructions on 3x5 index card

Remote camera trigger

Spirit leveler

Extra camera batteries

Extra CompactFlash memory cards

One or two S5 battery chargers when needed

Speed lights, light stands, umbrellas, tripod or monopod, remote speed light triggers and receivers, and extra batteries for speed lights are carried separately.

Date and Time of capture: 4/8/2024 from about 2 to about 5 pm EDT.

Location: Washington D.C.

Gear: Seestar S50 "smart telescope" equipped with a Seestar-supplied solar filter. Cavix LP-64 camera leveler interposed between the Seestar and a tripod.

This single panel view shows a chronological sequence of some of the eclipsed images from my still shots of the partial solar eclipse of 8 April 2024 from Washington DC.

The original still images were edited in Adobe Lightroom Classic (LR) as follows:

Applied the same 1:1 aspect ratio crop to the selected images.

After masking the background, I pushed the Blacks slider in LR's Basic Panel all the way to the left (i.e. -100) to get the same black background for each image.

Finally, using LR's Print module I created a chronological arrangement of the above edited images.

Vanitas Symbolism (October 31, 2019)

A vanitas still-life painting or photograph represents an old genre that goes back at least to the 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painters (with some notable contributions as well from the Spanish). It’s moralistic through and through, its message deriving ultimately from passages in the Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments, stressing the fragility and impermanence of life and life’s pleasures both intellectual, cultural, hedonistic, and artistic. From the Hebrew Bible: “Vanity of vanity, saith the preacher; all is vanity” (12: 8). From the Gospel of Matthew: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (6: 19-20). I hasten to add that I am not a religious person—but I find the vanitas genre fascinating and I already have a few vanitas photos in this gallery. Here, I tried to represent as many vanitas symbols as I could. What follows, for those academically inclined, is a brief explanation of the 5 categories covering the typical icons.

Category 1: Items representing hedonistic indulgence

- musical instruments: the gold clock behind shows a woman playing a lute. Also representing music, of course, is the sheet music, bottom right (Beethoven’s Für Elise).

- alcohol and wine goblets: I omitted the decanters this time but have a beautiful wine goblet shipped from the UK—it is, in fact, a hand-blown replica of a goblet often seen in the hands of the wicked Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones. (It was hand-made in the Czech Republic for the Merchant Venturers.) It’s about half empty, which symbolizes how quickly life’s pleasures disappear (see also Category 2).

- food: the lemon to the left of the goblet. The lemon is understood to be beautiful to the sight and smell but bitter, just like life can be.

- objects of art: paintings, busts, statues, and the like. Here we have a bust of the Greek poet Homer and behind him a small replica of a statue sculpted by Michelangelo in 1533 for the Tomb of Giuliano de’ Medici. As well, at the left, middle, we have a paint brush leaning against an obvious symbol of art, a paint palette.

- jewelry: we have some gold rings about in the middle of the photo just in front of the long knife. We also have what appears to be a heart-shaped blue diamond and, yes, it’s a replica of the Heart of the Ocean, the famous stone in the movie Titanic and which I purchased for my wife (“she who must be obeyed”) at the Titanic exhibit in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, when we were there a few years ago. It’s hanging just below the blue butterfly in the case.

- perfume: we have two small bottles in front of the sheet music

- items of revelry or sinful living are represented here by the hookah beside the helmet, as well as the dice and playing cards. Four of the five cards have an added, more modern, symbolic significance: two black aces and two black 8s comprise the famous Dead Man’s Hand, allegedly held by American gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok when he was shot down while playing poker. (This idea was suggested by my dA friend David—“Okavanga.”) The red mask with feathers—I can’t pretend to have seen one in a classic vanitas painting—was my idea as another symbol of revelry and reminds me of Poe’s story “The Masque of the Red Death,” which is a vanitas painting in prose.

- expensive items (“conspicuous consumption”) are represented here by the exotic red rug. It’s a prized possession of mine all the way from Turkey.

- seashells (two in the picture) are exotic and hard to acquire

- a terrestrial globe, such as we see on the far right, is a meta-symbol of the world’s wealth and vanity (and is made, in this case, of semi-precious stones)

- portraits sometimes appear in vanitas paintings—paintings within a painting! Of course, a portrait is perhaps the most obvious indicator of vanity but if the picture is of a beautiful man or woman, we get the added meaning of beauty as transient. Here I have a photo—yes, a selfie—of my beautiful wife (who’ll kill me when she finds out I included a photo of her in a vanitas picture).

Category 2: Items representing life’s transitory nature and the decay of all earthly things

- music and instruments, while Cat. 1, also belong to Cat. 2 because music is transitory

- coins, as represented here by the gold pieces flowing out of the (barely visible) black pouch, are also transitory, never staying with us but moving from hand to hand

- bubbles, smoke, candles, butterflies: flame from candles eventually expires, as do we; its smoke recalls Psalm 102:3: “For my days are consumed like smoke.” Note that one of the two pewter candlesticks is overturned, again suggesting the fragility of life. Bubbles, like life itself, are short-lived, fragile and easily broken; butterflies are beautiful but fragile and easily killed—as dramatized by the case with several colourful butterflies pinned under glass.

- flowers symbolize beauty and so might belong to Cat. 1 but they are short-lived and soon wilt and die. The Book of Job may have provided the inspiration: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days. . . . He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down” (14: 1-2). In fact, I headed to the backyard during a heavy rain storm to bring in a few of these impatiens, almost dead from the cold of a late October.

- clocks, watches, hour-glasses are centrally significant because they measure and record time passing: with every second, we move closer to death. Here we have three kinds of time pieces: an hourglass, a normal clock, and a little pocket watch in front of the books. This photo is a 30-second time-exposure: you can actually see the sliver of sand running from the top to the bottom of the sand-clock.

- the skull is the central symbol in a vanitas illustration, symbolizing our inescapable death and decay. We’s all gonna die!

Category 3: Items representing human achievement and culture

- books, for instance, represent the delights of reading. They also contain human knowledge but it’s only of this world, typically, and won’t endure. (Note that one of the books—the one on which sits the skull—is a collection of Poe’s works: he illustrates vanitas themes in “The Masque of the Red Death” and a few other tales.)

- weapons and armor are products of human culture as well (military culture), but even these can’t protect us from death. The knight’s helmet on the far left is here to remind us of that grim truth. Death is a great leveler: even the wealthiest and most powerful among us will come to the same end as the poorest and weakest. The long knife below the helmet, along with its scabbard, serve the same symbolic function. (Thanks to my buddy Bill for lending me these weapons. They go nicely with the helmet!) Note how both knife and scabbard are pointing to the skull on the far right, sitting by itself, biding its time.

Not only do the knife and scabbard work, visually, as leading lines but the entire composition is designed to slant from the top left of the photo to the bottom right. Visually, we’re led inexorably to the skull, to death.

Category 4: Items representing the permanent in the Christian context

- religious icons such as crucifixes, rosaries, angels, saints, certain types of flora (carnations, ivy, wheat, laurel): these remind us of or symbolize life after death—in other words, what’s truly important in the Christian context, as illustrated by a line from the Gospel of Matthew: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (6:19-20). Life in Heaven is eternal as opposed to the transient pleasures of Earth, which we should scorn. I have none of these symbols here because I don’t swing that way, baby. Not all vanitas paintings, even the classic ones, contain religious images.

Category 5: Written messages to clarify the moralistic meaning of the illustration

- for those viewers who can’t figure it out on their own, some painters provide messages, typically in Latin, explaining it all with well-known epigrams or quotes from the Bible. I have provided perhaps the most famous: Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas. “Vanity of vanity, all is vanity.”

The dark backdrop, as typically seen in classic vanitas illustrations, reinforces the somber mood and meaning of the scene. Here the left of the backdrop is more brightly lit than the far right side, where the final symbol, the skull, sits in relative darkness.

“The room itself is in messy disorder. On the table is a dish of fruit, which is real but appears artificial. Around it are grouped an ominous assortment of decanters, glasses, and heaped ash-trays, the latter still raising wavy smoke-ladders into the stale air—the effect on the whole needing but a skull to resemble that venerable chromo, once a fixture in every ‘den,’ which presents the appendages to the life of pleasure with delightful and awe-inspiring sentiment.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned)

"Lucky Strike, France, June 17, 1945 - The Company led by Lt. Carty, waits their turn for mess."

From www.skylighters.org/special/cigcamps/cmplstrk.html

Camp Lucky Strike was situated in the town of Saint-Sylvian, 5 kilometers from Saint-Valery-en Caux. Its location was not selected by chance, but rather because the occupying German troops had constructed an airfield there in 1940 with a landing strip 1800 meters long and 50 meters wide. This airfield was one of the defensive elements of the Atlantic Wall: surveillance and coastal defenses were also a perfect starting point for attacks on southwest England. V-1 rocket launching ramps were installed at the beginning of 1944 in the woods surrounding the airfield. It was heavily bombed by the British throughout the war, but especially during the fighting which followed the June 1944 landings. In September 1944 American Engineer Corps troops took control of the area, repairing the landing strips and constructing the camp.

The camp became the most important military camp in Europe. It extended over 600 hectares (1 hectare = approximately 2 ½ acres). It was a mandatory port of entry for practically every American soldier, and 1½ million spent from a couple days up to 18 months there. It was the principal camp used for repatriated soldiers and liberated POWs, but also as a reception station for soldiers on leave. It was also a staging area for the Pacific Theater and — until August 10, 1945 — for the invasion of Japan. There were 100,000 men in the camp each day — 100,000 men to lodge, feed, train, and entertain. (Regarding repatriation, there were 6,000 daily departures by plane or boat from Le Havre, the only port liberated on the western coast that could accommodate large ships.)

The camp, where the 89th Infantry Division managed the reception of troops, was a veritable American city for 18 months. Life was therefore rhythmical with this enormous hub of military personnel, short stopover for some, several months for others. One could find, like in any American city, a hospital, church, movie theater, post office, police station, barber shop, and a supermarket. There were also concerts and shows with famous celebrities (Bob Hope and Mickey Rooney, among others). And around the camp, there were the usual prostitutes and easy access to the local black market.

The first American troops arrived around Christmas 1944. They consisted of engineer units composed in large part of black soldiers. The local population discovered with much amazement the equipment used by the Americans (Harley Davidson motorcycles, Jeeps, Dodges, bulldozers, levelers, GMC trucks, etc.). It was impressive to see such machinery that up to this point was unknown in France. A large part of the landscape was covered in a blanket of cobblestone measuring 30 centimeters in thickness. The cobblestone was brought ashore from the beaches of Veulettes by the sea, St. Valery-en-Caux, and also Veules les Roses. GMC trucks assured an uninterrupted shuttle between the beaches and the plateau that was covered by thousands of tents.

The bomb craters on the German airstrip were repaired with cement. This airstrip became the principal boulevard of a virtual tent city. Sometimes, the traffic on the airstrip was interrupted to allow airplanes to land. One had to worry less about the police than about the trucks, tanks, bulldozers, Chryslers, Cadillacs, or Jeeps! The traffic was as bad as in New York and controlled apparently, like they do there. It was also very dangerous to those pedestrians that would risk crossing the street without paying attention to traffic signals. They would be flattened like a pancake.

The city was divided into four sections: A, B, C, and D. Each section was made up of 2,900 tents under which were housed 14,500 men. These virtual neighborhoods even had public parks, and in certain places, statues of pretty women. The Red Cross also had offices in the neighborhoods: nurses and girls who would serve hot coffee, cake, and newspapers day and night. A little further down were the bars: one for officers; another for NCOs and soldiers. One could drink everything they used to in pre-war France: the best liqueurs, good champagne, cognacs, and water of life (aqua vita), as well as Coca-Cola, whiskey, gin, and American beer. The bars were only open from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m., which was not enough time to satisfy the customers. Each sector aslo had its own auditorium, which served as a theater, cinema, and chapel all in one.

More permanent structures with ceilings, floors, and direct lighting began to appear. There was a PX and several gift shops. The PX carried everything — one could find handkerchiefs, electric razors, chocolates, condoms, cigarettes, cigars, toothbrushes, lighters, watches, and knives. In the gift shops GIs could find items from Paris which they usually sent to their mothers, wives, and girlfriends such as perfume, scarves, lace, and jewelry. In each section of the camp there was also a hospital, shot clinic, and, just about everywhere, VD clinics. Condoms were available everywhere and the soldiers really needed them, since the camp was assaulted, day and night, by an army of women! They came from everywhere: Paris, Dijon, and Marseilles. The MPs worked hard. In 15 days during the summer of 1945 more than 300 arrests were made.

As for medical care, aside from the hospital there was a dental clinic in each section. In each clinic there were ten dentists!

The heart of the post was situated near the Janville Chateau and not far from there was a small factory which produced 200 liters of ice cream per day.

A military tribunal was located in the Chateau and was presided over by a Colonel. And very near that, behind the bars, was a prison composed of a tent without heat and the guard shack. Each sector had a repair shop with thousands of repair parts and a gas station which received fuel from the harbor via tanker trucks carrying millions of liters. The lifeline of the city was assured by an administration housed in the Anglesqueville Chateau in the city of St. Sylvain. Potable water was pumped from the Durdent River, after which it was sterilized and carried by pipeline into the camp.

The winter of 1944-1945 was very cold, and, at first, the organization of the camp was poor. The quality of the food left a lot to be desired. Soldiers came from faraway America and were greeted as liberators (which they were) by the locals who gave them bread and accepted them in their homes for warmth. The soldiers ate jams and jellies almost exclusively and often demanded onions (which they ate raw) to avoid scurvy. Afterwards, things began to change. Provisions arrived in abundance from the United States and the locals discovered the riches of the U.S. Army (chocolate, tobacco, cigarettes, blankets, shoes, clothing, soap, etc., everything that had become scarce during the German occupation). The American soldiers' uniforms (which were very informal, with rank insignia hardly apparent on the officers) shocked the locals, along with their weapons, notably the M-1 carbine. Relations with the local population were very limited due to the language barrier, but it was very good with the French civilian workers employed in the camp. The living conditions in the camp were very hard for the GIs, especially because of the cold, but it was infinitely more comfortable than for the French civilian population, who lacked everything, particularly food, medicine, and clothing. There was a certain feeling of bitterness on the part of the population due to the wastefulness of certain goods by the GIs.

U.S. soldiers bound for the camp landed at Le Havre (which was taken on September 12, 1944 by the British after an intense bombardment which destroyed 85% of the city — 12,000 tons of bombs were dropped in 12 days, with a large number of victims in the civilian population) and were carried to Camp Lucky Strike by trucks and trains to the station at St. Valery-en-Caux.ST VALERY EN CAUX STATION A terrible train accident occurred there on the morning of January 17, 1945. The train's brakes failed and the locomotive hit the station (see photo at left). The cars derailed one after another and 53 GIs were killed and over 200 injured. Very few spoke of the accident in 1945, because Army Headquarters did not want this bad news to fall into the hands of the German army, even if the end of the war was near. The incident is still vivid in the memory of the local inhabitants, and a plaque telling of the accident is mounted on the front of the station, which can be viewed today.

Camp Lucky Strike was a transit camp where troops never stayed very long. After several days of rest, the GIs moved out for the front. Others came back, but not with the same names… German and Italian prisoners of war who were also interned there. Some of these prisoners were used as truck drivers.

A large parade, which the local population was invited to, took place on the airstrip on July 14, 1945. The parade was greatly appreciated. After the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945, the camp was used for the return of troops to the United States. Before their departure, the soldiers were given new uniforms and their old ones were burned or buried. Likewise, other worn-out equipment was either burned or buried.

Camp Lucky Strike was also made up of several satellite camps in the neighboring countryside. The civilian buildings housed various army offices (MP, administration, etc.). It was as though the region had become a small part of America. The troop movements were numerous and the contacts with the soldiers remained mostly superficial. The soldiers' units did not concern the locals. They were more concerned with their names and addresses. Sometimes photographs were exchanged, but the relationships, which grew during this period, have faded with time. Towards the end of the demilitarization period little of the camp remained, except for some German prisoner barracks, which housed some 1,500 prisoners and 50 guards. The guards did not actually guard anything and kept busy with other work. The prisoners were free to come and go as they pleased. (There was either no guard or if there was one he was German!)

Tanker trucks were at their disposition. They came and went in all directions — Lee Havre or Rouen. They also delivered wood, blankets, shirts, shoes, and cigarettes (and pistols!). The headquarters of the black market, open all the time, was situated on the coast of Janville, not far from the small Chapel of the Virgin, designated an historical monument.

Camp Lucky Strike remained active until the end of 1945, and was officially closed in 1946. After its closure, it was necessary to clear the countryside and remove the cobblestone in order to return the fields to the farmers. This work was done by hand by numerous workers and lasted over a year. The French did not possess the same enormous mechanical means that the United States Army did. The cobblestone that was reclaimed was returned to the beaches and also served to fill in the many holes and trenches made by the German troops during occupation. Thousands of cubic meters were also used to construct the Cany-Barville Stadium (Cany-Barville, with a population of 3,500, is located four kilometers south of the site of Lucky Strike).

With the completion of the clearing of the camp proper, a section of terrain approximately 150 meters wide, which comprised the old landing strip, was handed over to a French aeronautical association, who put on an air exposition every two or three between 1946 and 1995. This airfield, along with its buildings, was named the St. Valery-Vitte Fleur Airport and covered a little more than 35 hectares. Closed in 1995 due to old age, the only thing that remains of the airfield is the guard shack that was at the entrance of the original camp at the intersection of the roads leading toward St. Valery-en-Coax and Cany-Barville.

Substantial traces of what was once the most important Allied military camp in Europe during WW II no longer exists, except perhaps in the memories of a few hundred thousand surviving American veterans and as footnotes in a few history books.

The Stanford campus always looks like an oasis of twinkling lights at night.

Though it doesn't appear to be straight, the horizon is level (I have a built-in leveler in my 7D). I actually tried to straighten it, then realized I had created a "leaning tower of Stanford". (I think they do lean to the left here anyway....)

So, the lawn is sloped to the left, but the tower is vertical !

On Thursday March 22, 2018, my Railfan Friend Jim and I visited Kirby Farm in Williston, Florida to witness the beginning of a Place for Critically ILL and Disadvantage Children. - Kirby Family Farms is Focused on Railroad and Agricultural History !

Kirby Family Farm will not open officially open for at least a full year, since there is much work to be done. They have assembled a great number of discarded Carnival Rides, Narrow Gauge Locomotives, 18 Ringling Brothers Circus (Passenger) Cars, a few Circus Wagons, a former USAF End Cab Switcher and various Surplus Trucks donated by US Government Agencies. Some of the former Steam Locomotives have been converted to Diesel-Mechanical and were formerly used by various Theme Parks such as OpryLand and Bush Gardens Williamsburg.

This photograph shows a two former Military Vehicles, that Daryl Kirby acquired for his new enterprise. The ride folds up for storage if it needs to be moved to another location. There are other Rides and Attractions in the background.

Daryl was very cordial with us, allowing us to roam freely taking photographs. We spoke with him and his employees about the monumental amount of worked to achieve an grand opening in 2019. He has acquired many discarded carnival rides through donations and purchases and he needs Volunteers.

The Kirby Family Farm has hosted "6 Gun Territory Re-Enactments" during through the 1960's. aka: "Six Gun Territory" featuring Sam Huston. They also feature Christmas and Easter Celebrations and Fund Raisers. He is looking for Volunteers and additional acquisitions.

The Kirby family Farm is located at: 19650 Northeast 30th Street, Williston, Florida 32696. They can be reached at 352-812-7435.

The Kirby Family Farm Website is at: kirbyfarm.com

Capacité de la décapeuse : 28,28 m³

Travaux de terrassement de la tranche 3 de ZAC Europôle 2 de la Communauté d'Agglomération Sarreguemines visant à créer 3 plateformes pour un total de 234  915 m².

Pays : France 🇫🇷

Région : Grand Est (Lorraine)

Département : Moselle (57)

Ville : Hambach (57910)

Adresse : ZAC Europôle 2

Construction : Avril 2025 → Novembre 2025

"They look with respect and long remember", said Superior, and you "insure that respect with a brilliantly-styled Superior Side Service Coach". They further proclaimed the "silent flawless magic of the Super-Matic Table, the practical efficiency of the Lev-L-Matic leveler", along with "the dramatic beauty of your Superior Coach".

After an extended stay in Harper's Ferry siding, this manifest is creeping north at 10 mph on CPKC's Marquette Sub just north of Lansing, IA. The nice exhaust shimmer would be due to 8117 being the only motor on an almost 100-car train. The slow order is due to this being the first train through since an army of tampers and levelers piled into the New Albin stub track half an hour earlier. CPKC has hauled an amazing amount of ballast here this summer, apparently covering a solid stretch from La Crescent, MN at least all the way to Harper's Ferry, IA. Amazing to think around 1980 under Milwaukee Road this WAS almost 10 mph track!

I've been meaning to post a shot of this for a while, and finally got around to it this evening.

This is my dedicated panoramic tripod. If I plan to take panoramas, I lug this baby around with me in addition to my main pistol grip carbon fiber tripod.

I still have my Nodal Ninja 3, and it is configured to shoot with my XTi and 10-22mm lens, but it can't handle the weight of the 5dmkii.

This is configured to hold the 5DMkii with the battery grip, on a Manfrotto quick release plate.

The new EZ Leveler is great. With the two sets of knobs you can lock the head level and eliminate any residual flex. With the previos version of the EZ Leveler there was always a little bit of play in the head, which made it difficult to get perfectly consistant alignment between images.

The RD16 head makes it a snap to change the horizonal rotation, or lock rotation. However, if you are like me and really only use the head in a single configuration that may not be terribly important to you.

This is a special photo - I had another one from the exact same spot at quitting time a few years ago and had the opportunity for another similar image. This is my Dad, finishing another day of harvesting wheat ... his 75th year of driving combine. Needless to say, he's isn't relinquishing this position anytime soon!

1st year was pulling a combine with a Caterpillar RD4 (which is why he says, WHAT? all the time!) ... now, he drives a combine with GPS/auto-steer and auto-header height control!

This was the previous photo - www.flickr.com/photos/jeffzenner/15548450271

www.jeffzenner.com

www.facebook.com/jeffzennerphotography

Modern truck loading bay with overhead door, dock leveler, dock seals, canopy, indicator lights.

Hanwell Nouveau Brunswick, octobre 2013.

hanwell New Brunswick, October 2013.

Description for Uni:

Here is a image that i edited for my 'Connected Images' (Unit 2) work, i combined the pair through photoshop, this image has also been used as a poster around my school, advertising photography as a subject to future 6th form A-levelers.

...

Another photo manip made on photoshop. The front photograph is of a lovely Lorikeet, the background image is of a long exposure firework photo! :)

The Lorikeet was taken with my Canon EOS 500D

The firework photo was taken with my Fujifilm FinePix F47fd.

Shot on location as part of the architectural series in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Post-processing done in Capture One 20.

Camera: CONTAX 645

Lens: Zeiss Distagon T* 3,5/35

Back: Phase One P45+

Head: Arca-Swiss Core Leveler 75

Tripod: Gitzo GT3532LS

Filter: LEE Landscape Polariser

~ Gear Stuff ~

Camera: Contax 645AF + MP-1 + MAM-1

Lens: Hasselblad C Sonnar 5,6/250 Superachromat

Tripod: Gitzo GT3532LS + Arca-Swiss Core Leveler 75

~ Strobist Stuff ~

Manfrotto C-Stand 30

Broncolor Siros 400 S

Broncolor BeautyBox 65 + Grid

Broncolor RFS 2.1

Reseda, CA - Sometimes no matter how much you try it's not quite perfect, and that's OK.

Modern truck loading bay with overhead door, dock leveler, dock seals, canopy, indicator lights.

The marvels of the HSBC building - truly a splendid piece of architecture. The architect was Lord Norman Foster, and there is an absence of an internal supporting structure. Basically, Foster put all the guts of a building on the exterior and left a large atrium in the middle of it. I think he did the MoMA in Paris as well.

I took a 3 shot HDR of the foyer before - This is a 3 shot HDR of the fire escapes situated outside the building. You can see the reflections of the Cheung Kong and Citibank buildings in the glass.

3 shot HDR: processed in photomatix, photoshop, topaz. I hate the noise in the 50D - lassoed the sky and gaussianed the hell out of it (thanks Suziqb for the tip), cloned out halos, upped sats on reds and toned down yellows. Oh - image is as is - no crop. (trick is to illuminate the AF points and then use that as a leveler).

Can't wait for the 7D's auto leveler. Still torn between selling my EF-S lenses and going full frame 5DmkII, or just getting the 7D for the flash trigger/leveler/awesomeness.

View On Black

I think this might just survive a DMU.

Perishable delivery waiting to be unlaoded and distributed to the different departments. The orange divider separates the refrigerated section from the frozen.

Northside area of Cincinnati, Ohio. This rather beat up Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck is beginning to sag under the load. With the way things are being stacked into it, I know I certainly wouldn't want to be following it closely.

HTT

Yes 21st March is the first day of Spring but I think we in the UK will be greeted by much less endearing weather than I enjoyed here when I stayed at the private enterprise Kabbutz at Neviot on the Red Red Sea just south of Eilat. The Sun and sea is great leveler as Arabs and Jews enjoyed the beach alongside one another with no animosity.

July 1, 2018 - Goðafoss Waterfall known as "the waterfall of the gods" is located on the Skjálfandafljót river in the Bárðardalur district of the northeast region of Iceland. The waterfall got its name during year 999 or 1000 when Christianity was declared the official religion of Iceland. After that the local Lawspeker threw his statues of the Norse pagan gods into the waterfall. Hence the name ‘waterfall of gods’.

I bought a new tripod before the trip and hauled it to get great motion shots of waterfalls, however I forgot to turn my lens stabilization off so I wasn't happy with my resulting photographs. I also lost one of the leveler glides!

Canon EOS M camera with a Really Right Stuff camera body plate BEOSM on a Really Right Stuff lever release clamp B2 40 LR on a Nodal Ninja 3 MKII with Advanced Rotator RD16-II mounted on a Really Right Stuff TVC-23 Versa Tripod.

Accessories include Canon EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens with B+W 52mm 010 UV-Haze MRC Nano XS-Pro Digital and Canon GPS Receiver GP-E2

My next accessory would be a Leveler.

And yes, I know about the leveler on the tripod! This was a happy little accident!

Advice - Turn The Volume Down!

Very solid setup. Notice the power supply charging the battery I installed inside the pier. A 14ah gell cell battery fits nicely on the top alloy stanchion inside the pier. Unplug the charger connection, plug in the mount connector and you're ready to go 12 hours on a charge.

Date and Time of capture: 3/25/2024 at about 10:34 pm EDT

Location: Washington D.C.

Gear: Seestar S50 "smart telescope" with a Cavix LP-64 camera leveler interposed between the Seestar and a tripod.

I generated this short video by animating frame numbers 2786 to 2792 extracted from my 5970 frames-long video of the full moon.

This short is the consequence of an accidental observation while I was prepping my video frames for stacking. The stacked and postprocessed result is shown in my Seestar S50 album.

The image in each frame was cropped to 1:1 aspect ratio and processed in Topaz DeNoise AI and Gigapixel AI only.

(Note that due to lack of any full-scale processing, such as one involving stacking and postprocessing, the lunar image is itself structurally somewhat nebulous. Its purpose is merely to provide a background against which one can watch the movement of an airplane.)

"Macho" and the truck to aspire to they might be, but a sand quarry is a great leveler...............because any tipper driven into a soft spot can get stuck. Thorncombe Contractors' unfortunate Kenworth driver chose to take a wide turn after loading and came to grief. Quite a time was spent deciding where to attach the towing sling to enable a wheeled loading shovel to extricate the truck and trailer outfit.

Shot on location as part of the architectural series in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Post-processing done in Capture One 20.

Camera: Contax 645

Back: Phase One P45+

Head: Arca-Swiss Core Leveler 75

Tripod: Gitzo GT3532LS

Filter: LEE 0.6 G S

Equirectangular photos panorama panoramic 360 180 www.puzzledreams.ro

Name: Mortality

Size: A3

Medium: Charcoal on paper

Influenced by the sketch by Christopher Ryan, I sketched this skull. I find skulls very interesting as they are always smiling, and one possible reason I find behind it is that, it is only after death that they realize there was no point in living the way they did. Only a thin layer of covering changes the skull's expressions drastically to a sadness, depression or a happiness. God had created us all happy, which is evident from the smile on the skull, but it is the way of life that we lead that makes a difference, and after all death is a great leveler. This sketch is an easy one as it does not require any blending but at the same time it also requires confident strokes that mark the definite shape of the skull. The irony of the sketch is that, it deals with death and happiness at the same time and surprisingly fits in well. Anyways, who knows how it feels after dying.

Equirectangular photos panorama panoramic 360 180 www.puzzledreams.ro

Get the low-down HERE

This was made with a Nikon D2x, 14mm 2.8, Manfrotto 303SPH, Kaidan Quicktilt Leveler Base, Manfrotto 190 Tripod, Kaiser Double Bubble Fishfart hardwares and Photomatix HDR and Realviz Stitcher Express 2 software.

Installed on 2 iEQ45 tripod leg. Easy install, just unscrew metal stud and replace it with the adjustable leveler. The leveler has a 2mm vibration damper in the base also.

What to do when beavers threaten your conservation efforts?

Western North Carolina’s Kanuga Conference Center is home to a Southern Appalachian Mountain bog - one of North America’s rarest habitats. Bogs often home to rare plants and animals, provide important habitat for migratory birds and game species, improve water quality by filtering sediment and contaminants, and store floodwaters which helps decrease downstream flooding. They’re places we very much want to conserve.

Kanuga’s bog has seen the recent arrival of beavers. On one hand, they’re cutting down shrubs, which is a positive step as it allows more sunlight to fall on the plants managers want to thrive. On the other hand, their dams are making water levels so high they’re turning the bogs into ponds – eliminating habitat for the plants and animals that need the bog to live.

A solution? Install pond levelers –pipes through the beaver dams that help drain the pooled water down to a desired level and minimize the ability of beavers to detect stream flow – tricking them into thinking their dams are intact.

Recently staff from Kanuga Conferences, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service joined a team of Haywood Community College students to install two pond levelers at the Kanuga Bog.

What to do when beavers threaten your conservation efforts?

Western North Carolina’s Kanuga Conference Center is home to a Southern Appalachian Mountain bog - one of North America’s rarest habitats. Bogs often home to rare plants and animals, provide important habitat for migratory birds and game species, improve water quality by filtering sediment and contaminants, and store floodwaters which helps decrease downstream flooding. They’re places we very much want to conserve.

Kanuga’s bog has seen the recent arrival of beavers. On one hand, they’re cutting down shrubs, which is a positive step as it allows more sunlight to fall on the plants managers want to thrive. On the other hand, their dams are making water levels so high they’re turning the bogs into ponds – eliminating habitat for the plants and animals that need the bog to live.

A solution? Install pond levelers –pipes through the beaver dams that help drain the pooled water down to a desired level and minimize the ability of beavers to detect stream flow – tricking them into thinking their dams are intact.

Recently staff from Kanuga Conferences, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, The Nature Conservancy, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service joined a team of Haywood Community College students to install two pond levelers at the Kanuga Bog.

I have not been to this beach in many years, so I was not sure what to expect, this is the first set of images from this mornings shoot.

All my images are created using $500 worth of gear (camera, kit lens, tripod, remote trigger and bubble leveler) I'm hoping to purchase a better camera for Christmas but my low end gear has forced me to really push my post-processing abilities.

If you are starting out, save your money where you can and concentrate on producing better images with what you have - those skills you pick up will stay with you as you out grow your equipment.

3 exposures process with Photomatix and post-processed with Photoshop and Lightroom

Ambrogio Lorenzetti,

Allegoria del Buon Governo [1338-39]

detail personification of Concordia

Palazzo Pubblico, Siena

Two ropes start from the waistline of the two angels, which come together at the hands of Concordia, a direct follower of Justice and also seated on a chair and with a planer in her lap, a symbol of equality and "leveler" of the contrasts.

The large 80mm padded levelers installed on the Z 1.5" tripod.

A view looking up the boom from behind the crane.

An Automobile Patrol to ensure Order in the Camps.

Harper's Weekly May 19, 1906

The Human Drama at San Francisco

by Herman Whitaker — author of The Probationer

From the Contra Costa hills I saw a fiery cloud, miles high, rising over San Francisco. Eight miles away men were fighting one of the greatest fires of history without water. At the end of the first day word came that the powder supply was exhausted; later a supply was obtained somehow and for three days thereafter the sullen roar of the blasts went on unceasingly. It was a fine thing to hear: it stirred one’s blood, filled one with a sense of the indomitable resources that did not flinch in the face of the most fearful odds. Along the bay, San Francisco lay like a huge giant in a purgatory flames, —a giant tormented yet still unconquered. Above the roar and crackle rose his great voice, the growl and thunder of the blasts. And now that the smoke pall has lifted from San Francisco one may observe ruin so vast and complete that the mind registers only an impression of the common place. It is to immense, too comprehensive, to be appreciated until, after hours of wondering amid calcined brick piles, one returns to the flowers and gardens of Oakland across the bay. These Seem strange, unfamiliar; and so, by negation, appreciation is gained of the great lime kiln that was once a suburban city. Overlooking it from an eminence, the streets may be traced only by long brick piles that cross blackened and tottering walls. Closer inspection shows that this fire stone actually burned like coal : bricks are calcined, and cobblestones burned in places to sand and dust.

For duration, intensity, area, destruction, the San Francisco fire is one of the greatest in history: yet, when it is said, but half has been told. The quality it called forth— dogged courage, tenacity of purpose, cheerfulness, sympathy, hope —equal it’s stupendous proportions as a tragedy. History records no superior instance of a stricken people rising superior to a calamitous occasion. To earthquake and fire the Californian turned and still turns a cheerful visage. Though, in these days, millionaires have become paupers and business men bankrupt, once he scarcely a sober face upon the street. For the buoyancy is general, or becomes sympathetic sobriety only when the wearer comes in contact with some mourner. Of these, of course, there are many, and besides those who perished by earthquake or fire are those who died of wounds or exposure. The saddest cases of all were those poor women who died while bringing children into the world. The second night of the fire 23 babies were born on the grass of Golden Gate Park. 11 other unfortunate women bore children out in the Berkeley hills. And of these mothers nine are said to have died. For this, no one is to blame: it was inevitable to the situation. Almost equally sad is the case of children who have been separated from parents by death or confusion. Under any circumstances, of course, sympathy naturally flows to the orphan, but how much more is it needed when the bereavement comes in such terrible form. What could be more awful than the thought of the helpless child wondering without help or guidance through the perilous streets of a wrecked city. In all of Oakland’s many relief camps these may be found, and today they are being gathered together by the Salvation Army and taken to Beulah Park. Besides such inevitable suffering the situation developed a tragic side. Always when calamity interferes with established order, the beast crops out in man, and that San Francisco escaped raping, incendiarism , assault, and robbery is due to the inflexible administration of martial law. Not only were looters shot on sight, but all others who persisted in defying authority or in any way molested the peace of the people. The following cases a typical example: Out towards North Beach a refugee camp was situated at the foot of some cliffs, which fact suggested to some Barbary Coast hoodlums the amiable sport of rolling rocks down upon the women and children gathered there. Warned by the sentry on duty, one man dared him to fire. The word had hardly passed his lips before a bullet took him through the heart. There was no more rock rolling.

The soldiers, nevertheless, knew how to be kind. They shared their rations with starving men and gave up their tents to women and children. They stood between the people and would-be extortionists, confiscating the stocks of merchants who unduly raised prices. An instance of this was related to me by an eyewitness. In one of the relief camps, a sergeant heard an aged woman saying that she had been asked $.75 for a loaf of bread that morning. “What!” he exclaimed; and upon her repeating her statement he marched a squad of men to the store she showed him, and began to distribute the stock among the crowd.

“But these are my things!” the grocery protested.

“You charged this woman $.75 for a loaf of bread,” the sergeant answered.

“But I can charge what I like,” the grocery protested; “get out of my store!”

Without answering, the sergeant went on distributing the stores until the angry man laid a hand on his shoulder, then he turned.

“Do you think we are joking?” he asked. Then, turning to his men, he said, “Take him out.”

They shot him against the walls of his own store.

It is creditable to human nature, however, to know that cases of extortion were the exception. On the second day of the fire, I myself made a tour of the Oakland groceries and found only one man who evinced a disposition to advance prices. If there were others, they were deterred by an editorial published in the Oakland Tribune that very morning. “Cursed be he,“ finished the indignant editor, “who at this juncture tries to trade on the necessities of his fellows.” It is lamentable that such a warning should have been necessary; yet when one contemplates the violence, suffering, and bloodshed which have attended similar catastrophes in the past, when one remember set under such circumstances wrongdoing is the rule instead of the exception, the conclusion is forced upon one that man has progressed far in humanity.

Concerning the pervading cheerfulness of which I have been speaking, no report of the situation would be complete without some mention of it’s humorous aspects. For instance the young man whose modesty overcame his fear of death. Running out into the street at the first shock, he observed two young women of his acquaintance leaning out of the window, and was so afflicted with a certain sense of his pajamas that he ran back into the building. Now closer observation or less scrupulous modesty would have shown him the folly of his act, for he was clad in the very latest fashion. Indeed men in pajamas impressed others more lightly clad very much as a tailored youth regards a hand me down. Then there was the dignified gentleman of my acquaintance who put sleeve links into clean cuffs, shaved, washed, and packed a suitcase before merging upon the street. But not until he had walked a block down Market Street did he discover his utter lack of trousers. On Nob Hill, the city’s aristocratic section, two well known society women were observed dragging a trunk between them: and surely panic is a great leveler, for just then a man with a vegetable cart came along, offered his conveyance and drove off with a star a fashion on either side of him.

After the fire had burned itself out, the humor evolved into a sort of grim practical joking. Soldiers and police pressed every man they could lay hands on into service for clearing the streets of bricks, wherefore many a sight-seer who had obtained a pass to cross the bay and see the sights remained to heave brick. One police sergeant remarked with a grin, “I’ve got a bank president, a traffic manager of the Southern Pacific Railway, and a Chief of Police all in the gang. They didn’t like it at first,” he added, tapping his boot with the muscle of a long pistol, “but now they’re doing fine.” Then there was an English man, in immaculate traveling suit, parading ferryward with a suitcase. “But I can’t heave bricks,” he answered when impressed; but he did – five hours with that gang, and five with another which caught him further down the street.

Yet on the whole such things were accepted philosophically, and out of the tangle and trouble were born innumerable acts of sympathetic kindness. Late this morning I met a printer who, until then, had held steady employment. “Chucked my job,” was his answer to my question; “do you think I’d hang onto it while hundreds of married men are hunting for work?” And in an Oakland restaurant a similar case occurred. A man applied for work, and, when the proprietor refused, he said, “I must have it, for I have a wife and children to support.” Unwillingly enough, the proprietor repeated that he could not employ any more man, whereupon a waiter who was passing set down his tray of dishes, whipped off his apron and handed it to the applicant. “I have nobody but myself to look after,” he said; “take my job.”

These are but two instances from among thousands that might be cited, which go to show the quality of the public spirit. While the fire was yet burning, plans were being evolved for the building of a greater city. “Going to rebuild?” one hears constantly in the ferry, trains, and cars; and always comes the ready answer: “sure, just as soon as the ashes are cold.” A man was treated for burned hands at a local hospital because he could not wait for the bricks to cool. Cheerfully, bravely, San Franciscans are facing their problem, and their attitude may be summed up in the answer given me by a man this morning. He is 106 years old and when meeting him on the street, I put the question, “well, Captain, did you save anything?” he answered: “Only what I stand in. I’ve got to begin all over again.” Yet it must not be imagined that there is anything flippant about this attitude. The men who laugh and joke do so with the full knowledge of the gravity of the situation. This morning, Secretary Metcalf placed the property loss at $500 million and the jokers are the men who suffered the loss. Another misunderstanding should be avoided. The money reported subscribed is said to be sufficient to tide San Francisco over her crisis. This is not the case. Of the three million and a half that Congress appropriated, all but $300,000 is already spent. Indeed that is all of the appropriation which the relief committee of San Francisco has seen, the bulk of the appropriations having been spent by the War Department for provisions and supplies. The Rockefeller gift of $200,000 was handled entirely by the Standard Oil agents; and this morning Mr. Phelan, chairman of the Central Relief Committee, stated that many of the other subscriptions had not been paid. At the time of writing, the committee has only $600,000 to its credit, and most of this sum is preempted by debts already occurred. It should be distinctly realized that the business part of San Francisco has been swept from the face of the earth; that months must elapse before paralyzed business is reestablished, lines of trade reopened, and the great mass of laborers reemployed.

Six months is a low estimate for the length of time during which a quarter of 1 million of homeless and houseless people require assistance. It would be safer to say that a year will pass before all are reabsorbed into industry. At this juncture therefore it behooves every American to bestir himself for the benefit of San Francisco, which in the past has herself so often extended a helping hand to those in affliction. It would be dastardly to allow actual want to touch men and women who are facing bitter calamity with so brave a front. Surely this will not be. It may be safely be predicted that, once the facts of the case are clearly known, a generous response will meet all needs; so let there be no slacking in the good work. If this be rightly done, the San Francisco conflagration will be remembered not so much for its enormous losses of life and property, its vast areas of distraction, but rather because it furnished the world with proof that, in our time, “brotherhood of man” was not an empty phrase. The lesson it teaches is not that such and such a style of building is earthquake or fireproof, but that no calamity can exceed or quench the courage of man. As the Israelites of old were led to brighter and more beautiful lands by the clouds of smoke by day and the pillar of fire by night, so San Francisco’s mounting flames were landmark on the road to a greater humanity.

LEGO train table. Dimensions: 30" high, 3'x5' surface. I built three tables for my layout. 2x4 sides (a bit heavy in retrospect). Sleeves for PVC pipes in corners. Removable caps with levelers for the floor.

Update:

1) The levers on I chose are about 1/2" long. You might want longer "elevator" screws on the bottom if you need more leveling action.

2) the levelers will 'walk' themselves out of the inserts. I'd buy an extra box in case you lose any in tranport or at an event. The sleve will stay snug in the PVC, it's the screw/base that will unscrew itself.

Update 2:

1) caps don't come off very easily once weighted. Not a big deal but I didn't see them being such a snug fit

2) 3x5 size worked otu great for my minivan. Any bigger and I'd have to go to the roof.

Harper's Weekly May 19, 1906

The Human Drama at San Francisco

by Herman Whitaker — author of The Probationer

From the Contra Costa hills I saw a fiery cloud, miles high, rising over San Francisco. Eight miles away men were fighting one of the greatest fires of history without water. At the end of the first day word came that the powder supply was exhausted; later a supply was obtained somehow and for three days thereafter the sullen roar of the blasts went on unceasingly. It was a fine thing to hear: it stirred one’s blood, filled one with a sense of the indomitable resources that did not flinch in the face of the most fearful odds. Along the bay, San Francisco lay like a huge giant in a purgatory flames, —a giant tormented yet still unconquered. Above the roar and crackle rose his great voice, the growl and thunder of the blasts. And now that the smoke pall has lifted from San Francisco one may observe ruin so vast and complete that the mind registers only an impression of the common place. It is to immense, too comprehensive, to be appreciated until, after hours of wondering amid calcined brick piles, one returns to the flowers and gardens of Oakland across the bay. These Seem strange, unfamiliar; and so, by negation, appreciation is gained of the great lime kiln that was once a suburban city. Overlooking it from an eminence, the streets may be traced only by long brick piles that cross blackened and tottering walls. Closer inspection shows that this fire stone actually burned like coal : bricks are calcined, and cobblestones burned in places to sand and dust.

For duration, intensity, area, destruction, the San Francisco fire is one of the greatest in history: yet, when it is said, but half has been told. The quality it called forth— dogged courage, tenacity of purpose, cheerfulness, sympathy, hope —equal it’s stupendous proportions as a tragedy. History records no superior instance of a stricken people rising superior to a calamitous occasion. To earthquake and fire the Californian turned and still turns a cheerful visage. Though, in these days, millionaires have become paupers and business men bankrupt, once he scarcely a sober face upon the street. For the buoyancy is general, or becomes sympathetic sobriety only when the wearer comes in contact with some mourner. Of these, of course, there are many, and besides those who perished by earthquake or fire are those who died of wounds or exposure. The saddest cases of all were those poor women who died while bringing children into the world. The second night of the fire 23 babies were born on the grass of Golden Gate Park. 11 other unfortunate women bore children out in the Berkeley hills. And of these mothers nine are said to have died. For this, no one is to blame: it was inevitable to the situation. Almost equally sad is the case of children who have been separated from parents by death or confusion. Under any circumstances, of course, sympathy naturally flows to the orphan, but how much more is it needed when the bereavement comes in such terrible form. What could be more awful than the thought of the helpless child wondering without help or guidance through the perilous streets of a wrecked city. In all of Oakland’s many relief camps these may be found, and today they are being gathered together by the Salvation Army and taken to Beulah Park. Besides such inevitable suffering the situation developed a tragic side. Always when calamity interferes with established order, the beast crops out in man, and that San Francisco escaped raping, incendiarism , assault, and robbery is due to the inflexible administration of martial law. Not only were looters shot on sight, but all others who persisted in defying authority or in any way molested the peace of the people. The following cases a typical example: Out towards North Beach a refugee camp was situated at the foot of some cliffs, which fact suggested to some Barbary Coast hoodlums the amiable sport of rolling rocks down upon the women and children gathered there. Warned by the sentry on duty, one man dared him to fire. The word had hardly passed his lips before a bullet took him through the heart. There was no more rock rolling.

The soldiers, nevertheless, knew how to be kind. They shared their rations with starving men and gave up their tents to women and children. They stood between the people and would-be extortionists, confiscating the stocks of merchants who unduly raised prices. An instance of this was related to me by an eyewitness. In one of the relief camps, a sergeant heard an aged woman saying that she had been asked $.75 for a loaf of bread that morning. “What!” he exclaimed; and upon her repeating her statement he marched a squad of men to the store she showed him, and began to distribute the stock among the crowd.

“But these are my things!” the grocery protested.

“You charged this woman $.75 for a loaf of bread,” the sergeant answered.

“But I can charge what I like,” the grocery protested; “get out of my store!”

Without answering, the sergeant went on distributing the stores until the angry man laid a hand on his shoulder, then he turned.

“Do you think we are joking?” he asked. Then, turning to his men, he said, “Take him out.”

They shot him against the walls of his own store.

It is creditable to human nature, however, to know that cases of extortion were the exception. On the second day of the fire, I myself made a tour of the Oakland groceries and found only one man who evinced a disposition to advance prices. If there were others, they were deterred by an editorial published in the Oakland Tribune that very morning. “Cursed be he,“ finished the indignant editor, “who at this juncture tries to trade on the necessities of his fellows.” It is lamentable that such a warning should have been necessary; yet when one contemplates the violence, suffering, and bloodshed which have attended similar catastrophes in the past, when one remember set under such circumstances wrongdoing is the rule instead of the exception, the conclusion is forced upon one that man has progressed far in humanity.

Concerning the pervading cheerfulness of which I have been speaking, no report of the situation would be complete without some mention of it’s humorous aspects. For instance the young man whose modesty overcame his fear of death. Running out into the street at the first shock, he observed two young women of his acquaintance leaning out of the window, and was so afflicted with a certain sense of his pajamas that he ran back into the building. Now closer observation or less scrupulous modesty would have shown him the folly of his act, for he was clad in the very latest fashion. Indeed men in pajamas impressed others more lightly clad very much as a tailored youth regards a hand me down. Then there was the dignified gentleman of my acquaintance who put sleeve links into clean cuffs, shaved, washed, and packed a suitcase before merging upon the street. But not until he had walked a block down Market Street did he discover his utter lack of trousers. On Nob Hill, the city’s aristocratic section, two well known society women were observed dragging a trunk between them: and surely panic is a great leveler, for just then a man with a vegetable cart came along, offered his conveyance and drove off with a star a fashion on either side of him.

After the fire had burned itself out, the humor evolved into a sort of grim practical joking. Soldiers and police pressed every man they could lay hands on into service for clearing the streets of bricks, wherefore many a sight-seer who had obtained a pass to cross the bay and see the sights remained to heave brick. One police sergeant remarked with a grin, “I’ve got a bank president, a traffic manager of the Southern Pacific Railway, and a Chief of Police all in the gang. They didn’t like it at first,” he added, tapping his boot with the muscle of a long pistol, “but now they’re doing fine.” Then there was an English man, in immaculate traveling suit, parading ferryward with a suitcase. “But I can’t heave bricks,” he answered when impressed; but he did – five hours with that gang, and five with another which caught him further down the street.

Yet on the whole such things were accepted philosophically, and out of the tangle and trouble were born innumerable acts of sympathetic kindness. Late this morning I met a printer who, until then, had held steady employment. “Chucked my job,” was his answer to my question; “do you think I’d hang onto it while hundreds of married men are hunting for work?” And in an Oakland restaurant a similar case occurred. A man applied for work, and, when the proprietor refused, he said, “I must have it, for I have a wife and children to support.” Unwillingly enough, the proprietor repeated that he could not employ any more man, whereupon a waiter who was passing set down his tray of dishes, whipped off his apron and handed it to the applicant. “I have nobody but myself to look after,” he said; “take my job.”

These are but two instances from among thousands that might be cited, which go to show the quality of the public spirit. While the fire was yet burning, plans were being evolved for the building of a greater city. “Going to rebuild?” one hears constantly in the ferry, trains, and cars; and always comes the ready answer: “sure, just as soon as the ashes are cold.” A man was treated for burned hands at a local hospital because he could not wait for the bricks to cool. Cheerfully, bravely, San Franciscans are facing their problem, and their attitude may be summed up in the answer given me by a man this morning. He is 106 years old and when meeting him on the street, I put the question, “well, Captain, did you save anything?” he answered: “Only what I stand in. I’ve got to begin all over again.” Yet it must not be imagined that there is anything flippant about this attitude. The men who laugh and joke do so with the full knowledge of the gravity of the situation. This morning, Secretary Metcalf placed the property loss at $500 million and the jokers are the men who suffered the loss. Another misunderstanding should be avoided. The money reported subscribed is said to be sufficient to tide San Francisco over her crisis. This is not the case. Of the three million and a half that Congress appropriated, all but $300,000 is already spent. Indeed that is all of the appropriation which the relief committee of San Francisco has seen, the bulk of the appropriations having been spent by the War Department for provisions and supplies. The Rockefeller gift of $200,000 was handled entirely by the Standard Oil agents; and this morning Mr. Phelan, chairman of the Central Relief Committee, stated that many of the other subscriptions had not been paid. At the time of writing, the committee has only $600,000 to its credit, and most of this sum is preempted by debts already occurred. It should be distinctly realized that the business part of San Francisco has been swept from the face of the earth; that months must elapse before paralyzed business is reestablished, lines of trade reopened, and the great mass of laborers reemployed.

Six months is a low estimate for the length of time during which a quarter of 1 million of homeless and houseless people require assistance. It would be safer to say that a year will pass before all are reabsorbed into industry. At this juncture therefore it behooves every American to bestir himself for the benefit of San Francisco, which in the past has herself so often extended a helping hand to those in affliction. It would be dastardly to allow actual want to touch men and women who are facing bitter calamity with so brave a front. Surely this will not be. It may be safely be predicted that, once the facts of the case are clearly known, a generous response will meet all needs; so let there be no slacking in the good work. If this be rightly done, the San Francisco conflagration will be remembered not so much for its enormous losses of life and property, its vast areas of distraction, but rather because it furnished the world with proof that, in our time, “brotherhood of man” was not an empty phrase. The lesson it teaches is not that such and such a style of building is earthquake or fireproof, but that no calamity can exceed or quench the courage of man. As the Israelites of old were led to brighter and more beautiful lands by the clouds of smoke by day and the pillar of fire by night, so San Francisco’s mounting flames were landmark on the road to a greater humanity.