The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 7, 1895, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1895 CI‘IAi{LES M. SHORTRIDGE, Editor and Proprietor. —— - == " SUBSCRIPTION RATES: DAILY CALL—$6 per year by mail; by carrier, 15¢ per week. S DAY CALL .50 per year. WEEKLY CAL] 50 per year. The Eastern office of the SAN FRANCISCO | CALL (Dally and Weekly), Pacific States Adver- | tising Burcau, Rbinelander building, Rose and Duaze streets, New York. TH RCH 7, 1895 RSDAY : B Jimmy, get your veto. The revolution in Cuba is only a blow- hole. The Governor has a chance for a ten- sirike. 1 Third street is bad, but some other streets are worse. We must have clean streets as well as clean politics. Leave the flower-stands alone and move i the cobblestones. 1 the Generat Government has no use for at Island, we have. If there is any sermon in a cobblestone it preaches damnation For the present at any rate, the flower of the period is a daisy. G No city can put.on metropolitan airs that tolerates sewer'g: We expect Los Angeles to stand in with us on the competing road. Don’t forget that we must have proper sewers to have healthy homes. Nevada proposes to touch the button of frrigation and blossom like the rose. About the best move we can expect from the Legislature is a motion to adjourn. Street improvement would be a cure for present evils and a prevention of worse to come. | The Governor will find his seat more | comfortable if he sits down on extrava- gance. Candidates for the Legislature hereafter | should be put under bonds to keep their pledges. There are some men who never get into @ combination without. making it a com- plication. Since oleomargarine under its own name smells just assweet, 1t might as well be sold under that name. It may be constitutional, but it is cer- tainly un-American for a Police Commis- sioner to hold office for life. Letus get the work of municipal im- provement started before the Republican National Convention comes. From what some Assemblymen say, it appears that certain reformers have been talking more than they knew. The common saying that California got nothing from the deficit Congress is in itself a proof that she got a black eye. Although there are only two Democrats in the Kansas Senate, they have been dis- turbing the State with a faction fight. ‘When the Democratic Congressman gets home he will have a hard time trying to explain what he has been doing all winter. The reason why a scandal circulates so rapidly is that while everybody wishes to get hold of it, no one is willing to keep it. Brazil is making progress in republican government and has got far enough along | to substitute election riots for revolutions, Legislators who wish to evade a moral vesponsibility for broken pledges will probably plead an immoral irresponsi- bility. The appeal of the bimetallists for a third party comes in good time to be discussed, decided and laid aside before the next cam- Ppaign begins. In consenting to reduce the misappro- priations a little the Senators acted with much benignity as if they were for- ng people. Now that the war talk between Mexico and Guatemala is over, Corbett and Fitz- simmons have resumed their long-distance tongue punching. e The Goulds can meet any boasting on the part of the Astors and the Vanderbilts By the quiet remark that they own a count and have no scandals. gl Every step of the San Joaquin road thus far has been wisely taken, and the election of Alexander Mackie to the office of secre- tary was one of the best. Mrs. Vanderbilt is now in a position to prove that marriage is not a failure and divorce is a success, for by the double op- eration she has cleaned up $100,000 a year. The report that the American Church Missionary Society is short in its accounts leads to the conclusion that some of the members must have been introducing politics into religion. When a week goes by without the successful working of the gold-brick swin- dle in some part of the United States, it is & very exceptional week, and yet the American people are intelligent and ‘“all- fired smart.” President Worthing of San Jose Grange says that if every man, woman and child in California would eat only ten pounds of dried fruit annually, the entire product could be marketed in this State, and the suggestion as well as the fruit is good enough to give everybody a taste for sup- porting home industry. It is reported in Washington that in the next Congress Mr. Loud is likely to be chairman of the Postoffice Committee, and Mr. Bowers of the Committee on Milita: Affairs. These positions would be well de- served on the double count that the men are worthy of them and that it ishigh time for California to be taking her rightful place in Congress and getting her share of the honors. “The silver men who are thinking of leav- ing the Republican party in order to start a bimetallist party, evidently overlook the fact that in addition to free silver coinage we need the Nicaragua canal, the Ha- waiian cable, bounties to shipping, the re- arrangement of the tariff on the protective principle, and the irrigation of arid lands. A party cannot stand on one issue alone. The people demand“many things and from the Republican party they can get them A POLITICAL BLUNDER. The address of the Bimetallic League, published in the CaLL of yesterday, was undoubtedly the most important political document of the year. Its importance was due partly to the greatness of the sub- ject, partly to the skill of the argument embodied in the address, but mainly to the signatures attached toit. A cause becomes great whenever great men advocate it, and the fact that such a'statesman as Senator Jones of Nevada has signed his name to this document raises it to the rank of the highest political manifestos of the time. With all due credit to the document angd with all respect to those who signed it, however, we cannot regard it as other than a polifical blunder. The fundamental principle upon which it is based is an error in politics. Starting yith the unquestion- able statement that the money problem is now the dominant issue in the United States, it proceeds to argue that neither the Republican nor the Democratic party has taken a decided stand in favor of the re- monetization of silver and therefore a new party is necessay to advocate the cause of bimetallism and bring about that change in monetary affairs which is necessary to the welfare of the people. Conceding the dominant importance of the remonetization of silver, we cannot admit the conclusion drawn from it. Political parties cannot be founded upon a single issue, no matter how great and far- reaching that issue may be. Many things are to be done by the American people in the near future. The tariff must be re- formed on the protective system, the Nicaragua canal must be constructed, the Hawaiian cable laid, American shipping fostered and promoted, and a vigorous foreign policy enforced in all quarters of the globe. To whom could the people look for these things if they elected a Congress pledged only to free silver? Such a Con- gress would speedily fall into warring factions worse even than that which has so recently passed away, and while it might do something to settle the monetary issue, it might also unsettle every other issue on which the growing welfare of the country depends. No statesman nor any party is a more earnest or steadfast advocate of silver coinage than the CaLn. Nevertheless we can neither follow nor approve of the pro- posed movement. There is no need of a third party. The Republican party is firmly | pledged to bimetallism. The great leaders of the party have espoused that cause and | the rank and file are in hearty accord with them. The surest and speediest way to return to bimetallism is through the re- turn to power of the Republican party. At the present time every aspect of the situation and every'prospect of the future promises a safe solution of all our prob- lems by the triumphs of Republicanism. It is a matter of regret, therefore, that any Republican at this juncture should talk of forming a new party or entering upon any untried experiments. The way to win on this issue, as on all other issues, is to remain true to the party that saved the Union and maintained its prosperity unbroker for thirty years. That party will give us the Nicaragua canal, the Hawaiian cable, the protective tariff, a subsidy for American ships and free silver as well. OUR SHIPPING INTERESTS. San Francisco has a fine fleet of coasting vessels. Some of them were built in the stand having come here on deep-water voyages have been put in local service. The greater number are the product of our own yards. We have ample facilities for their construction. Our fir timber is ex- cellent in quality and cheap in price. Pa- cific Coast spars are in demand the world over. Our coasters are stanch, large car- riers and good sailors. When we turn from our coasting to our deep-water trade we find it mostly in for- eign bottoms. We have some vessels of domestic build, but the big ships that gather here each season to carry away our wheat crop are under foreign flags. They are mostly British iron ships. Our navigation laws secure our coasting trade to American-built vessels. There is no such protection for our ships engaged in foreign trade. The postal subsidy law gave a small measure of encouragement to American-built steamers. It was origin- ally intended to foster the building of American sailing ships, but Democracy was then strong enough in Congress to knock that provision out of the bill, As the emporium of the Pacific Coast San Francisco should build and own a large part of its deep-water tonnage. Wooden ships are by no means obsolete. Where the advantages are so great for their construction as here, they can continue to compete with steel and iron for most pur- poses. For that matter we have built some of the best steel men-of-war in the world and can do the same for the merchant ser- vice on demand. As a commercial and manufacturing community we should de- velop our sea-power in the ocean paths of peace. By steam and sail, with wood and steel, we should do our own transportation to our own profit. The next Congress will be strongly Re- publican. Tt will favor the extension of American manufactures and the develop- ment of American carrying trade. It will be in a position to offer encouragement to American ship building. This turn in our National legislation comes in opportunely with the movement now in progress in California for increased industrial activity. A day or two ago a Puget Sound built whaleback steamer came into port on her first voyage. Ships of her class have proved very successful in the navigation of the Great Lakes. They are an illustration of the facility with which American inge- nuity adapts means to ends. As steam is in a measure displacing sail power, espe- cially on comparatively short voyages, the development of this type of steamer may have its influence on the commerce of the Pacific. With a little temporary Govern- ment encouragement, cheap coal, which Wwe are ina fair way to get, and the enter- prise to strike out for ourselves, we may soon see a fleet of sea-going whalebacks plying between San Francisco and Mexi- can, South American, Hawaiian, Australas- ian and Oriental ports. They will be built in our own shipyards, fly our flag and €AaTIN 0Ur OWn money. THE NEW MINING ERA. The sale of a placer mine near Yreka to a firm of capitalists moves a press corre- spondent to predict that Siskiyou is about to enter upon a new era of mining develop- ment. This will not surprise pioneers who re- member when Yreka was one of _the lively vlacer camps of California. There can be little doubt about the mineral wealth of Siskiyou. Compared with some other mining counties, it has been neglected. Yet, the judgment of the most experienced miners is that even in the more developed mining districts of this State there is more gold in the ground than has ever been taken out. How much more then is it likely to be true of a county like Siskiyou. During the depression of late years in California gold mining there have been plenty of indications that a revival would follow. The war against silver bas in- creased the demand for the yellow metal. Improvements have been made in mining processes. The cost of labor has fallen. Communication and transportation are easier "and cheaper. Supplies are more readily obtained. All these things make for the cheapening of production and the profitable working of ground that some years ago offered few inducements to capi- talists. Hydraulic mining is on the way to renewed activity under conditions de- signed to guard against injury to other in- terests. We may never have another boom in placer mining and “poor men’s diggings,” but it is very certain that cap- ital and enterprise have a great field before them in our mining counties. Distance lends enchantment to the mining pros- pect, but South Africa holds out risks as well as inducements, which may be avoided within a day or two’s travel from San Francisco. The mining population of our mountains have no need to leave civilization behind them. Orchards and vineyards find their most favorable condi- tions in the foothills within sight and sound of monitors and stamp-mills. The miners’ ditches offer facilities for irriga- tion to the horticulturists. The grain- fields of the valleys are within a few hours’ ride. The farm, the orchard, the mine, the home, the school and the church will all be in touch in the new California. A PRIMARY ELECTION LAW. There are several bills now pending be- fore the Legislature having for their pur- pose the amendment of the existing primary election laws of the State. There can be no doubt that our primary election laws in their present form require amend- ment. The reason they do so is principally because the adoption of the Australian ballot law so changed about the numbers of the code sections referring to elections in general as to make unintelligible the chapter of the code which provides for primary elections and which refers back to those sections. The issue, therefore, is not whether an amendment of the primary elections law is necessary, but rather what amendment among those suggested is the best Two' conflicting ideas are to be found in the proposed measures amending the primary election law. One aims at making primary elections compulsory, and re- quires that all parties shall hold their primary elections on the same day, and that all shall be governed as to the time, place and manner of conducting said elec- tions by the same rules and by a non- partisan board of election officers, selected in some non-partisan way. The entire scope and object of this measure seems to be to eliminate party organization, abolish party control and banish party spirit from primary elections. The very statement of the scope and object of this measure embodies the strong- est objection to its success which could possibly be urged. It is a grave mistake to attempt to discourage and destroy party spirit as an element of political organiza- tion. The existence of parties is a vital feature of our social system, and their maintenance an indispensable’ element of healthy political lifé. They are to the State what the ceaseless motion of its waters is to the sea—au essential to its purity and a preventive of stagnation and decay. There has been already too much interference on the part of recent statute-makers with the rights of men to ally themselves in parties and to advance their political views by means of party spirit. The primary election ought not to be subjected to the disintegrating influence of non-partisanship. Every party, in the selection of the men who shall compose its own conventions and nominate its own candidates, should be free to adopt its own mode of action. There may be some general provisions laid down by statutes which shall so regulate the conduct of primary elections as to guarantee to the majority membership of a party the right to rule it, and which shall encourage party spirit to organize along lines of honest politics. Further than this, however, the law should not attempt to go. The former statutes of this State, as em- bodied in the Political Code, contained a simple and satisfactory way to conduct primary elections which parties might or might not adopt, as they saw fit, but which, if selected, insured a reasonably honest primary. The insertion of the Aus- tralian ballot system into the code, as we have already stated, disarranged the sec- tions which contained this primary elec- tion law. The Republican State Central Committee has had a measure drafted and presented to the Legislature for passage which proposes to restore the former law, with certain additions which would more completely insure the honesty of elections held under it. If a primary election law is to be adopted at all by this Republican Legislature it should be this one or one similar to it, which preserves party organi- zation and party spirit at the very foun- tain of political activity, the primary elec- tion. NO MORE SECTIONALISM. Our Los Angeles friends are gratified at the interest taken by San Francisco business men in the coming fiesta in the City of the Angels. They accept it as an indication that the sectional feeling which hasbeen supposed to exist between North- ern and Southern California is wearing away, and that the people of both sections are going to work together for the upbuild- ing of the State. That is asit should be. Thereis not, and never was, any good reason for sectional feeling between Northern and Southern California. There is no reason even for a phraseology which so divides the State. There is nothing in the topographical, climatic, political or social conditions to warrant any such distinction. Tehachapi Pass is not a division but a connection between two watersheds. Some temporary considerations have in times past created a certain, or rather un- certain, amount of sectional sentiment. The question of irrigation, riparian laws, etc., raised what was once supposed to be an issue. We know now that irrigation is just as necessary in some parts of Northern California, speaking geographically, as in the southern section; and that in some parts of Southern California it is not needed. There is no issue on that subject. A few politicians and would-be office-holders made this a handle for an agitation in favor of State division. Then the building of two oveérland railroads into the southern part of the State, the multiplication of minor branches, an influx of health and home seekers, and a rapid growth in population and business, created in the minds of some the idea that the south was progressive, the north stationary, and that the vigorous new section wanted to set up for itselt. The first indication of a determination on the part of San Francisco and the North- ern part of the State to throw off the fet- ters of monopoly, and grasp and utilize its facilities for development, has put a new face on the situation. A few months ago when the valley railroad proposition was languishing for want of support, Southern California talked of tapping the upper San Joaquin Valley and drawing it away from San Franeisco Bay. To-day the talk is, and soon the action will be, for a through line that will develop the valley and tie San Francisco and Los Angeles together in business bonds. Within a few weeks brains, energy and co-operation have shown the people that California is one State and one community, with & common interest in the present and a glorious pros- pect for the future. There is no sectionalism in business. When the construction of competing rail- roads under the control of our own people, the clearing of our rivers, the revival of our mining industries, the multiplication of our farms and orchards, the development of our manufactures, and the rapid and cheap exchange of our products in domes- tic trade become accomplished, there will be no more talk of sectionalism. The sense of solidarity and the pride of state- hood will silence it. The only rivalry be- tween the North and the South will be in | the promotion of the interests of Cali fornia; the noble emulation as to which can best work and best agree. —_— Baron von Gotta is reported to have sub- mitted to the German Husbandry Council a resolution demanding the refusal of the most favored nation treatment to countries outside of Europe competing with Ger- many and the eventual establishment of a customs union of the European husbandry states. This, of course, is designed to ex- clude American agricultural products from Continental Europe, and while the design is not likely to succeed, the consideration given to it is sufficient to impress upon our farmers the importance of building up a home market for their products and thus making themselves independent of Europe. —_———— The good ship Progreso, that sailed yes- terday with 108,000 gallons of wine and 18,000 cases of canned fruit, carrieds with her a mighty evidence of reviving pros- perity and also a proof of the need of the Nicaragua canal. STAGE ADVICE. BY EDGAR SELDEN, COMEDIAN. When & man knows what his own line is, either in theatrical or literary work, the best thing he can do is to stick to it, lest worse be- fall him. At least that was what I told Archibald SELDEN WILL STICK TO COMEDY, [From a photograph.) Gunter when he proposed that we should write an opera in collaboration, and he would prob- ably own now that it was sound advice. At the time he made the proposition though, he ‘was infatuated with the idea of winning lyric honors—an idea he had got hold of from a song he had written for Annie Pixley, called ‘At the Washtub.” The refrain was, *“Wash, wash, wash,” a sort of parody in fact of Tom Hood’s “Song of the Shirt.” I set the song to music, and Gunter laid great stress upon the fact that it must be rendered in a pathetic enough mamner to wring tears from the eyes of the audience. Now Archibald is a successful and original novelist, but he is as heavy as dough outside his books, so knowing that his judgment couid not be relied upon in the matter of stage effect, we persuaded him to let Annie Pixley sing “The Washtub Song” for the first performance, in a lively, spirited way, that was in ac- cordance with her part. The thing caughton tremendously, and Gunter was so delighted he wanted to write the libretto of an opera right away. “You promise to compose six melodies, 8elden,” said he, “and I'll make the book.” “Yes, and who will produce it when the opera is written and composed?” I asked, for I knew that sort of thing very seldom pays. You want a company of fifty or sixty people to bring out an opera, and even if it-is a suc- cess you cannot do more than pack the thea- ter, and a play that has only five or six prinei- pal characters and does not cost & tenth as much to produce is just as likely to do that. Besides, though I did not tell Gunter so,I knew that his specialty was novel-writing, and mine Irish comedy. When I was a little fellow, only 4 years old, Iremember being soundly trounced for show- ing the first germs of that passion for inter- preting Irish character which has followed me all through life. They had taken me to a panorama where a man named “Barney, the guide,” had a good deal to say. After coming home I looked around fora suitable costume for re-creating the part of Barney, and remembered that in my father's study was a handsome green table-cloth that he set great store by. Hali an hour later when my father went in to think over some mathe- matical problem he foundme draped in his table-cloth, declaiming with a rich Irish brogue, and hegave mea whaling thathe thought would cure me forever of trying to act charac- ter parts, but the passion was too deeply rooted for that. ‘Well, it was no use arguing with Gunter, he was determined to write the book of an opera. When he found I would not go in with him he set to work on the libretto all the same, and in time got it set to music. The work was called “Debs of Chicago.” Dixie produced it. The work was a great and glorious failure, and Iexpect thatGunter hag learned now to let well enough alone and be content with the novel writing for which he is so pre-eminently fitted, Fgrr st —_— s PERSONAL. Dr. G. Heussy of Sutter is staying at the Lick. Dr. R. W. O’Bannon of Hollister is at the Palace. Dr. A.8. Niffin of Trenton, N. J., 1s a guest at the Grand. v T.G. Yancey, & merchant of Newmans, is a guest at the Lick. D. D. Whitbeck, a capitalist of Sacramento, is now at the Grand. E. C. Farnsworth, registered at the Lick H. Prinz, a lumberman of Monterey, was at the Grand last night. F. A. Schneider, a capitalist of College Park, is at the Lick with his wife. J. Marion Brooks, an attorney of Los Angeles. is registered at the Grand. T. J. Peachey came down from Angels Camp yesterday and is at the Grand. Lieatenant T. G. Phelps Jr. of the cruiser Olympia is a guest at the Palace. D. B. Hall of the Land of Sunshine Company, Merced, is registered at the Palace. Captain A. W. Thompson, & prominent resi- dent of Everett, Wash., isat the Palace. Thomas G. Peachey and M. Rose, of Angels Camp, are in the city on mining business. They are staying at the Grand, attorney of Visalis, is AROUND THE CORRIDORS. “I noticed in the CALL,” said Captain Theo- dore Niebaum yesterday, “a statement that the distance from San Fraucisco to New York by way of Cape Horn is 7827 miles. While the figures given are probably correct when used to designate the air line distance, they are un- satisfactory to the mind of one who does not know what & vast difference there is between an airline and the track of & steam or sailing vessel. Here are the fastest records ever made by sailing vessels between New York and this city around the Horn: “‘From New York to San Francisco: 1852, Flying Cloud, 13,610 miles, 89 days 19 hours- 1854, same vessel, same route and distance, 89 days 19 hours; 1852, Swordfish, same route and distance, 90 days, to mside the Fdrallones, where the vessel was becalmed; 1853, Flying Fish, same route and distance, 92 day 1860, Andrew Jackson, same route and distance, 90 days 12 hours. \ “From San Francisco to New York: 1853, Con- test, 13,610 miles, 79 days; 1853, Trade Wind, same route and distance, 75 days; 1870, Young America, same route, 13,580 miles, 80 days 20 hours. “All these vessels were built with one object in view—speed—and carrying capacity was sac- rificed to that end. Of course & modern skip- per wouldn’t have these vessels as a gift, but the money in shipping during pioneer days | ‘was made by the man who got here first.” James A. Murray, banker, mine-owner and pioneer of Montana, is at the Baldwin. He is on his way home to Butte, from & tour of Mex- ico and Central America. “The development of transportation in the West is remarkable,” said Mr. Murray, as he sat in the brilliantly lighted hote! corridor last night, studied the motion of the elevator and talked Spanish with John Maguire. “You leave Butte one night and reach Salt Lake the next, Denver the third, El Paso the fourth and two days later you arrive in the City of Mexieo. Within thirty days one can travel from Mon- tana, do Mexico and adjoining republics nicely and return home by way of San Francisco. The American system of transportation is really ‘wonderful. “Do I think Mexico and Guatemala will fight? Well, mno. The fact is neither country is seeking war very badly. One well disei- plined American battalion eould clean out the whole Guatemala army. No, the war cloud has passed away and the two nations are wor- shiping before the altar of peace. They are really in no condition, financially or otherwise, for hostilities.” Mr. Murray is a keen observer and student of affairs, has traveled extensively and talks en- tertainingly on all the great issues of the day. He is particularly interested in silver legisla- tion and believes that the white metal will eventually get justice. ““In theseveral trips I have made to San Fran- cisco I have encountered some difficulty in getting the runof your streets,” said 8. E. Wil- liams, & Chicago electrician, at the Grand yes- terday, “but in Salt Lake City the streets, or rather the manner of running them, is enough to drive a visitordistracted. The street system of that city originates at Temple Square, within which stands the tabernacle, and the streets forming it were originaily named East Temple, South Temple, West Temple snd North Temple, but East Temple being the principal business thoroughfare its name has been changed to Mein street. The first street south of and par- allel to South Temple street is named First South street, and east of Main it is East First South street and west of Main it is West First South street. Continuing south each street that crosses Main is numbered in rotation—Second South, Third South and so on, all being further divided into East and West. The system is the most confusing in existence, I believe.” R. 8. Whitney of Los Angeles, who is at the Lick, says that the desert mining country north of Indio has recently been making some very large yields. “Only a few days ago,” said he, “while IwasinSan Bernardino,a prospector named McHaney brought alot of gold amalgam in to have it retorted. It produced about $700 in the precious metal. Mr. McHaney said that it represented the product of four tons of ore, which he mined unaided in nine days. The property from which this ore was taken is located about ten miles north of the Lost Horse mine, in the Pinon Mountains. The location has undergone no development and the results obtained are entirely the product of surface in- vestigations. There is likely to be a good deal of prospecting in the locality mentioned this season, as reports indicate that there are very rich and promising grounds there.” 8. 8. Marshall, whois at the Occidental, and who attended the recent Mardi Gras at New Orleans, says that the festivities there were the means of bringing to that city at least $9,000,- 000 in money. He estimates that there were 300,000 strangers in the city during carnival week, and'that the average amount of money spent was not less than $30. “It has always been & source of surprise to me that San Fran- cisco did not attempt something of the same character,” said Mr. Marshall. “Your climate in the winter season is splendidly adapted for it, Market street would be & splendid thorough- fare for the procession, and then what an ad- vertisement it would be for the city!"” There are quite & number of prominent Mon- tanans in San Francisco justnow. Ex-Con- gressman W. W. Dixon, James McGovern, John R. Reed, editor of the Inter-Mountain, and R. Watson, all of Butte, are in town. The three latter, who are just back from the South, are at the Palace, and Mr. Dixon is at the Occiden- tal. Colonel Merrill, who is known at Wash- ington for his good work in connection with the saving of valuable mineral lands to Mon- tana—lands that the Northern Pacific coveted and thought to rob the State of—is also one of the Montana contingent now doing San Fran- cisco. PEOPLE TALKED ABOUT. Professor Lucien I. Blake has succeeded, it is said, in establishing electrical communication by wire between the land and a vessel anchored several miles out in the ocean. Professor Blake is a Kansas man, and occuples the chair of physics and electrical engineering at the Kan- sas State University. Ten thousand dollars has elready been raised by the Greek committee on the Olympian games, of which the Duke of Sparta is chair- man, in order to clear the rubbish and putin order the Stadion, the ancient racecourse at Athens, where the international games will be held, During his four months’ sojourn General Booth has traveled 18,453 miles, spent 1847 hours on the cars, has written 216 letters and 11 articles on his work, spent 429 hours in army business and made 47 shortand 293 long addresses to 437,500 persons. In Paris it is said that France is now gov- erned really by the President’s daughter, Mlle. Lucie Faure, who has been already nicknamed Mlle. Lucifer. She is clever, ambitious and de- termined, rules her family completely, and has | published a book. Mlle. Rejane receives $1600 every time she plays, and her expenses are paid, besides which she is allowed a maid and dressmaker, SUPPOSED TO' BE HUMOROUS. “If,” seid her father, “you succeed in mak- ing £50,000 during the next two years out of your business you shell have my daughter. If you 1ail” — ‘“But I shall not fail,” interrupted the youth- ful suitor, enthusiastically, “Will you kindly tell me,” queried the old financier, coldly, “how you intend to make such & sum of money without?”’—New York Herald. Visitor—I am the Populist member of Con- gress from the ’Steenth Kansas district. In yesterday's paper you called me a demagogue. Editor—Well, sir? Visitor—What would you charge me to mail 500 marked copies of that paper to my con- stituents.—Puck. “I wouldn’t swear that way,” said the kind- looking old lady, miidly. “Bless your soul, ma’am, you couldn’t. It takes years years of truck drivin’ to come anywheres near it,” re- sponded the gentleman whose team had balked across the car track.—Cincinnati Tribune. “Do you intend to pay an income tax?”’ “No; T've had my ralary reduced to $3400.” Then, of course, you'll expect a Christmas present of about $500 or $600 from your employers.” “Yes, that is about the size of it.”—Boston Bud- get. L3 ber of other opera-honuses. Mascagni’s much- talked-of “William Ratcliffe’” has not been pro- duced in Berlin at all, but at the Scala, Milan. Humperdinck’s new opera, “The Royal Chil- dren”—another fairy story—will see the foot- lights at Munich under Hermann Levi’s direc- tion, and Sullivan’s “Ivanhoe” has been brought outin Liverpool instead of Berlin. Meanwhile the disappointed Berliners are bit- terly complaining that they.are dosed either withWagner or the eternal “Hansel and Gretel.” According to a new theater edict issned in Berlin, agencies for singers are classified as servants’ registry offices, and the “servants” when registering have to give theira Walter Damrosch is, musically speaking, a very important personage to-day. He has out- grown the youthfulness which was once charged against him as a crime, and his giits have found recognition in spite of the prover- bial stigma which attaches to the sons of celebrated men. In the short season of Ger- man opera which he is conducting at the Metropolitan Opera-house, New York, he is enjoying one of the chances of his life. Dam- rosch has succeeded in gathering together a | company of really great Wagner singers, and though his conducting has not so far created a sensation it has given general satisfaction. New York has rallied round him, and the per- | formances are paying weil, although opera, instead of being a social function, as it was during the Abbey and Grau season, is nOw a serious Lusines: almost a Lenten dev tion, in fact. It is only the ol nate devotees of ‘‘bel canto”' who listen ‘WALTER DAMROSCH, CONDUCTOR. [From an engraving.] coldly to the great music dramas that Dam- | night. gion, amount of wages required, etc. The Standard remarks that one might imagine one- self back in the Elizabethan age when “play | actors” were proud to be designated as “Her Majesty’s servants.” The leading agencies have protested, but with small prospect of suc- | cess. ~ Will a Nordica, & Lillian Russell, an | Albani, a Patti, let alone the male artists, sub- | mit to such indignity? Solong as thls insult- | ing ukase remains in force the Berliners have | little hope of receiving first-class foreign artists who have any respect for themselves. | A visitor to Japan says the most curious thing he saw during his travels was the band maintained by the town of Hakodate, which played every evening in the public square and | won the applause of large and enthusiastie | throngs. In the band were just five performe ers. They knew only one tune, “Marching | Through Georgia,” and that they repeated in- | numerable times every night, and night after Neither the musicians nor the auditors seemed to tire of this stirring melody, and everybody manifested & proud confidence in the thoroughness of the ‘“new civilization.” The World says of the first night of German opera in New York: ‘“All the Wagnerites were present. The society that bears the great master’s name in its entirety are the German musicians and professors, the rhapsodizing maidens, all those who have learned to under- stand Wagner, the emotionalism of his musie, its psychology and its physiology. And the others were also there—adherents of the lyric and romantic operas, the devotees of the art of bel canto, the lovers of melody pure and sim- ple, of mere vocal exhibition. The former came to applaud, the latter to scoff.” Massenet’s works, which were very little ad- mired in Italy & few years ago, are now becom« ing popular. “Manon’s Portrait” has just been produced with great success at the Pergola Theater in Florence. The Prince of Naples and his suite, as well as all the rank and fashion of the popular winter city, were present, and the | music was continually applauded and encored | by the whole assembly Montenegro is the most fashionable spot at | present in which to lay the scene of a lyric drama. The latest libretto written with Mon- tenegrin local coloring is by Axel Delmar, and is entitled “Szula.” Carl von Kaskel, a German musician, is writing the music. The Treble Clef Quartet will make its debut at Golden Gate Hall on the 11th inst. It fs composed of Miss Beatrice Priest, Miss Jeanette Wilcox, Miss A. M. Noble and Mrs. J. A. Bir- mingham. Miss Alice Ames, a society violiniste, rosch is conducting, but even the most rabid Wagnerians have to own that there is one fail- ing in his star singers, and that is scarcely one of them sings all the time in tune. Reginald de Koven says of the great tenor, Herr Alvar; “He looks and acts his parts exceedingly wel his singing is another matter.” Marie Brema 1s a great actress, with a splendid voice, but she sings sharp. Another critic says of the great lyric actress Rosa Sucher, “her supreme ecstacy in the duo, with its fine, exalted real- ism, more than atoned for the occasional lapses in intonation”; and so on through the list of most of the singers, though for Emil Fischer all the critics have unqualified praise. As a writer in a musical paper, however, observes: | “Singing of the old-fashion'ed sort avails not in | seething, surging scores like these. It isin-| tensified speech that is sung and declaimed to us.”” But though Damrosch is not to blame for the proclivities of Wagnerian singers, “Wag- ner’s seethiing, surging speech” would be more acceptable in tune. Women have accomplished a great deal in the arts and sciences, but there is one field where they have utterly failed to hold their own against the sterner sex, and that is in the field of musical composition in its broadest and grandest proportions. Mlle. Augusta | Holmes, whose lyric drama, “The Black Moun- | tain,” has just been produced at the Grand Opera in Paris, is the latest example of the oft- | made statement that women eannot quite sue- ceed as composers. Miss Holmes’ opera almost succeeded, but not quite, and the eritics, even the ones most noted for their severity, have let her down very gently. One of them says: “Miss Holmes is already a well- known composer, and a less vaulting ambition | than hers would have been satisfied with the | celebrity already achieved. But she seemsto | haye taken for her motto, ‘What height canI not scale?” She forgot, however, that it is not enough to scale heights, the ambitious climber must be able to stay there, and while genius | can breathe easily at great altitudes,simple talent gets out of breath and falls back. Never- theless one cannot help admiring the audacity which inspires one to say, ‘I donotmind the tisk of breaking my neck.’ Now when Miss Holmes, who has considerable fame at stake, undertook the ambitiouns task of producinga Iyric drama at the Grand Opera, she actually, morally speaking, ran the risk of this misfos tune. All honor to her pluck.” The music of “The Black Mountain” is com- pared to one of those transparent lakes which reflect the grand panorama of nature without having any color of-their own. Miss Holmes’ music reflects turn by turn Wagner and Masse- | net; indeed, her admiration for the former caused her to write her own libretto. The ac- tion is supposed to pass in Montenegro, though | it is the old, old story of Hercules giving up everything for a designing woman. Mirko, a Montenegrian chieftain, just returned from a skirmish against the Turks, is about to wed a village beauty, whom he calls “the gold of his soul,” when a Turkish dancer is brought in and accused of being a spy. Mirko, touched by her voluptuous grace, pleads for this dancer’s life, and she is given to his mother as a slave. The perverse creature soon wins Mirko away from the vil- lage beauty, and most of the second and third acts are taken up with their flight and love- making. Asler, another Montenegrin, tries to rouse his renegade friend «o & sense of honor, and failing to do so, stabs him, while the dancer seeks safety in flight. Some of the love scenes are set to graceful and really original music, though others recall Rubinstéin’s “Persian Melodies.” The patriotic airs, songs of victory, etc., are good, though mnot always free from banality.” Emily Crawford, the well-known English cor- respondent in Paris, says that “The Black Mountain” would have not been declared a failure if a man had written it. I pity a French woman,” she says, “who has to strike out in an out-of-the-way and ambitious path. There is nothing harder than for a man as fa- mous as Gounod was or Verdi is,to get a four- act opera received at the Grand Opera-house. But when the composer is a woman the diffi- culties are simply appalling. Augusta Holmes is twitted with having been patronized at the opera-house by the all-powerful Mme. Strauss and an exotic Princess, who rolls in riches and is & bosom friend of that lady and of herseli. They may have helped her. But trust Bertrand not to bring out a four-act opera if he did not think it had first rate quali- ties. The work Augusta spent on it was sim- ply prodigious. The rehearsalsat the opera- house were the least part of her labors. Every one who had & part wasdrilled in it at her house. In some parts the orchestration is weak, but the opera in many respects has tak- ing characteristics, and could have been com- posed by no commonplace musician,” A number of the newest and most popular composers have lately made contracts with the Berlin Opera-house to produce their works in the German capital. Quite suddenly this enter- prising policy has been abandoned and the works that Berliners were eagerly looking for- ward to hearing have been scatterod to & num- will assist at the con The Musical Courier is authority for the | statement that the pianiste, Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler, will remain in this country for another year,and may possibly begin her season in San Francisco next September. Saint-Saens is traveling in the Orient, and a dispatch from Cochin China states that he has just completed his new opera, ‘*Brunhilda.” The work will be produced in Paris during the autumn. The municipal authorities at Bayreuth have decided not to purchase Herr Oesterlein's Wagner Museum, and in all probability the collection will come to America. SPIRIT OF THE PRESS. Our needs would seem to require cheap } freight rates from West to East and high freights from East to West, whereas the inter- ests of the East are quite otherwise. Still, if we can get cheaper power on this coast by means of harnessing our waterfalls and trans- mitting electricity to where it is wanted, man- ufacturing enterprises may be able to produce most that we ourseives consume if nothing more. The manufacturers’ convention which is to meet at San Francisco this month will, it is to be hoped, throw much light on this dark subject.—Tulare Register. ‘When the Legislature was new’and its mem- { bers were scoring for position in the retrench- ment race the press was ready to say and the people to admit that the electors of California had caught just the body of lawmakers they had been looking for. There is less harmony of sentiment on that point just now, and the fact is attributable in great part to the carrying at Sacramento of a large and expensive and useless army of attaches, and the disposition to save at the spigot whilea free flow is permitted at the bung.—Napa Register. The question of giving pupils of public schools military training is being disenssed at the present time by the press of the State, which recalls to mind. that Fortuna grammar grade pupils were given such instructions a year ago. Patriotism and military tactics are two things that could be profitably taught, is | the opinion of the Advance—Fortuna Advance. The CALL publishes & list of the clerks and other employes of both the Senate and the Assembly drawing wages ranging from $21 to $56 per week. In the Senate there are 163 and in the Assembly 147, or & total of 310. Thus there is an expenditure for this army of nearly $11,000 per week, the greatest in the history of the Legislature.—Quincy Bulletin. No country can be thoroughly prosperons ‘while its farmers have to depend en dirt roads to reach railroad stations. Numerous and competing railroads will help them, but their help will not be great as-long as farmers have to flounder through mud to reach the stations. —Stockton Independent. - The announcement that the famous Bidwell ranch in Butte County is to be leased to a syn- dicate of wealthy San Francisco Chinamen may well carry dismay to the hearts of all who had hoped to see the influence of the Chinese upon California industries reduced.—Stockton Mail. If a man passes & bad bill on our streets he is arrested, if he can be caught. If a legislator passes & bad bill, and legislators pass lots of them, he is generally paid by some one for his services.—Santa Cruz Sentinel. Discoveries of new and extensive deposits of gold in various parts of the State are among the most encouraging signs of the times for California.—Oakland Tribune. All the reform measures introduced with such a flourish of trumpets in the Legislature are figuratively as dead as doornails.—Wood- land Democrat. The people are not being fooled by the leca:omical vells at Sacramento.—Quincy Bul- etin, —_— —_—— Bacox Printing Company, 508 Clay street. * CRYSTALLIZED ginger, 25¢ 1b, Townsend’s. * ——————— CUR-IT-UP; heals wounds, burns and sores ag if by magic; one applicaton cures poison oak; itrelieves pain and abates inflammation. * B — THOSE WHO CONTEMPLATE BUILDING can do so advan enuxl{ to themselves by entrusting thelr building improvements to Jas. E. Wolfe, architect, Flood building. Specialties in flats® ———— But little has been done by the Legislature, though the high hat and woman suffrage bills ©ought to make it memorable.—Lodi Sentinel. —e EVERY form of suffering hasa cause. Remove the cause and the suffering will cease. Nervousness 1s due to poor blood. Purify the blood with Hood’s Sarsaparilla and nervousness will disappear. Ss A o LADIES take Dr. Siegert's Angostura Bitters erally when they feel low them up immediately. gen- spirited. It brightens