The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 18, 1895, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1895. Editor and Proprietor. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: DAILY CALL—$6 per year by mail; by carrier, 15¢ k. 1.50 per yea $1.50 per year ru office of the S 1d Weekly), Pacific States Adver- Rhinelander bullding, Rose and New York. He is the Budd of railroad promise. The scalpers ye shall have always with you. M S 1 much safer to pray for rain than to bet on it. Good streets are the best indication of prosperity. There are no cobblestones in the road 1o progress. Combination is sometimes better than competition. You never help your town by denounc- ing your neighbors. He who subscribes to the valley road lays up treasures in bank. The transgressor never gets off a hard road without getting into the mud. Investigation has the eel of legislative scandal by the tail, but can it hold it? The frost v have blighted the fruit supply, but it did not hurt the demand. He who helps the Fruit and Flower Mission adds another tint to the rainbow. If you read our advertisements to-day you will know where the best bargains are. You never make the best of your neigh- bor by always trying to get the best of him. This is going to be the week for the manufacturers to talk business and mean it. Prosperity and lack of enterprise are too unfriendly to walk on the same side of the street. You get all the news of the day tersely told and brightly pictured by consulting your CALL. Whenever you see anything you don’t ike, toss a cobblestone at it and get it out of the way. For the people of the interior San Fran- eisco is the best holiday resort to be found in the State. One by one the States are unloading | their Legislatures and looking up for the picnic season. There are some silurians who refuse to die simply because their funerals will be a public benefit. Dr. Keeley’s announcement that asafce- tida is a sure’cure for grippe ignores the eflicacy of the skunk. Concurrently with the adjournment of the Legislature were several serious run- aw. in Sacramento. With the best street-car system in the world. why should we have the worst sys- tem of street paving? One of the best ways of looking at the day is to regard it as an opportunity for subscribing to the valley road. y hold festivals occasion- ally, but for those who seek recreation San Francisco is a perpetual pleasure. The greater the extent of territory which China surrenders the wider will be the spread of civilization in the Orient. The Ingleside murder was one of those crimes for which even the ingenuity of lawyers can find no conceivable provoca- tion. One of the things needed among the recreations of S8an Francisco is a series of daily round-the-bay excursions at popular prices. The Legislature having gone to join Congress, the silurians and the cobble- stones are the next nuisances to be got rid of. Street begging has diminished since the Cavry drew attention to it, and the police should now get in and suppress it alto- gether. All the barbers in the State will rejoice over the law that enables them to take their little shavers for a half-day outing on Sundays. — A peculiar compliment to the stability of legislative wisdom is the declaration that this or that lobbyist “defeated’ a cer- tain bill by “working against it.” It is not remarkable that Charles E. Laughton, known as “The Fiddling Gov- ernor,” dropped dead while reading a book entitled “The Sunny Side of Politics.” The report of the investigating com- mittee that either Dunn isa liar or Bigg; didn’t tell the truth, is an absolutely cor- rect conclusion, but the public knew it before. A club to increase the population toa half million is a good thing, and one of the best ways to proceed is first to increase the population of the interior by helping the valley road. Following closely upon the combination of the wine-makers comes that of the raisin-growers—the two grandest steps ever taken for making two great indnstries in California profitable. He who opposes anything which will ad- vance the valley road for fear that his enemy will receive a benefit irom the en- terprise is a stronger enemy of his enemies than friend of friends. After a vivid and picturesque descrip- tion of an ice gorge in the Alleghany, the Pittsburg Despatch concludes with the re- mark, “it will be better appreciated by residents of the valley when it dis- appears.”’ The French have a word, ‘“‘trepidation,” which they employ to designate the shak- ingof the earth by passing trains or by other means, which deleteriously agitate wine while undergoing the process of ripening in the cellar. In making a curve from one street into another, Mr. Sutro’s railroad has cut through the corner of a cemetery, and this act, which may not bring injurious trepidatlon to the dwellers in the silent city of the dead, has produced a lively afiiufion among their survivors. l COME TO SEE TUS. Now that the passage of the year has brought us near to the outing season and the thoughts of all incline to holidays, we invite the attention of our friends of the interior to the City as a place of holiday resort. It is an old familiar custom for City peo- ple to go to the country in the spring in search of fresh pleasures amid the meadows and the orchards, but it has been generally overlooked that it would be equally bene- ficial to country people to come to the City. San Francisco has more varied charms than any mountain slope or any beach by the sea. Nearly all that there is in mountain and sea are hers, and there is much besides. Here the visitor can find a picturesque diversity of art as well as nature to delight his eye, please his fancy and instruct his mind. We invite the people of the interior to come to the City to see its stately architec- tural piles, to take the ride along the shores of the Golden Gate to the cliffs, to wander a happy day away amid the varied delights of the park, to ascend the Twin Peaks and overlook the wonderful pano- rama that spreads around, to visit the Pre- sidio and Alcatraz, to make the tour around the bay, or in any of a dozen other ways and places seek out the notable points of the City and enjoy the aspects of beauty they afford. All Californians should see San Fran- cisco. All Native Sons should know it as the Frenchman knows Paris, as the Ital- ian knows Rome. It should be a matter of patriotic pride to be familiar with its his- tory and to note its growth. Every land- mark in it from the seawall by the quiet bay to the cliffs where the ocean surges beat should be considered as a part of the common possession of all Californiansand a source of as much enjoyment to them as Yosemite or Tahoe. It is not too much to say San Francisco is a perpetnal fiesta. Here there are always flowers and music and crowds. The natu- ral beauty of ocean and park delight by day and the brilliant theaters attract by night. Life pulsates rapidly here. Sensa- tions follow one another fastand stimulate the incessaut occurrence of new emotions. The mountaineer and the dweller on the plains will find in the novelty of the swiftly changing excitementsof the city an inspir- ation to a fuller intellectual life and a broader conception of the possibilities of human achievement. Here, therefore, should all the people of the interior come for their spring holidays and summer outings as well as for busi- ness and trade. The City has abundant welcome for every visitor. It has some- thing for all that will repay their coming, and he is losing much of the benefit of be- ing a Californian who does not make him- self as much at home in S8an Francisco as in the locality where he habitually dwells. The Vacaville region furnishes most of the earliest fruits that reach the market. This year a great part of the crop has been destroyed by an early frost. Inthose parts of the State where fruit is less forward the damage has been slight. As the frost was general the injury is measurable by the extent to which blossoming had proceeded. A chart showing the areas affected, to- gether with the extent of the damage in each, would be a safe and valuable guide to prospective orchardists. We are made to realize pointedly that although the profits of early deciduous fruits are much larger than those of fruits grown in more backward localities therisk of producing them is greater. It becomes, then, important to inquire whether it is possible to eliminate the danger of frost in the forwa=1 localities. Tne intelligence and watchfulness of orchardists have hitherto proved able to overcome all other enemies that have arisen. The two or three deadly kinds of scales that a few years ago created profound alarm and threatened to exterminate the industry were studied and fought with a persistency that ended in victory. When it was dis- covered that the phylloxera had invaded certain parts of the State, destroying vine- yards, it was found that budding into the wild native grapevines of California and Arizona completely checked the enemy. Frost is the next evil to be met and over- come. In Southern California it has been fought most intelligently in the citrus orchards since the heavy disaster of a few years ago. It is familiar knowledge that hoar-frost is dew which has frozen by the falling of the temperature to 32 degrees or below; that dew does not fall on windy nights, because there is a constant shifting of air which prevents the precipitation of the moisture in the atmosphere; noron cloudy nights, because the clouds prevent such a radiation of the earth’s heat as will permit the temperature to fall to the freez- ing point; and that hoar-frost, or the snow- like form that frozen dew takes on, is quite a different thing from the ‘‘frost” of the orchardist, which is more properly a “freeze.” Thus, the night may be either windy or cloudy, and yet the fruit may be frozen and thus destroyed. This is un- common, but possible, and it is well that we keep it in mind. Then, the three means that can be em- ployed, as a rule, to keep away frost are the producing of clouds or something to serve their purpose, the raising of the temperature and the agitation of the air. | Smudge fires, wade of some slow-burning substance which produces abundant smoke, are cheap and efficacious, if set not too far apart, and especially if there is a slight movement of air, which there nearly alwaysis. As the direction of these air currents is almost invariably constant, it is easy to ascertain which is the windward side of the orchard. In Southern Califor- nia water sprays are said to be employed to some extent. The only purpose that they can serve is to raise the temperature, as water, in order not to be ice, must be warmer than 32 deg. The spray may also produce a slight movement of the air, but this can hardly be regarded as an impor- tant factor. The problems involved in hanaling the frost problem are very simple, and the subject is one deserving of study. The amount which Vacaville has lost in a sin- gle season would have been sufficient, if invested in frost-preventing means, to in- sure protection for many years. A SERMON IN A WILL. The will which a man leaves may be safely taken as an exposition of his char- acter and as an index to the business ways of his life. In sharp contrastto the late James G. Fair’s will, with all its evidences of cynicism, suspicion, possibly revenge, and certainly small respect for the law and for the integrity of the courts, is the will of Alfred Barstow, an Oakland lawyer who recently died. It is true that he left an estate of only $20,000, which looks insignifi- cantin comparison with Mr. Fair’s, but that makes no difference when we analyze the essentials. Mr. Barstow was a kindly, modest, generous man of more than ordi- vary ability. His home life was ideal for its sweetness, harmony and comfort, and the high worth of the parents and of the home which they made is generously re- flected in that of their children. Butit is better that Mr. Barstow’s character should be read in his will, which contains the fol- owing unusual provisions: I desire my estate to be distributed in ac- cordance with the lawsof the State of Cali- fornia. 1 desire my widow to be executrix of this will, and that no bond is required of her in any proceedings growing out of her trust. I authorize and empower her to sell any and all real or personal property belonging to my es- tate at private or public sale, without the order of any court or tribunal, and that she have as full and free right of disposition thereof as though the title of all said property vested in her, and my only object in making this will is to facilitate the settlement of my estate. Ithink that no man should have the power to go further than this. Ido not believe the dead should meddle with the quick. When a person is once comfortably laid away, let him cease from trouble, and let the living carry on the business of life. Very probably the dead one will have all he can attend to if the “re- ligious doctors” are half right as to the ‘“truths” they hand out. . The novelty of this remarkable will lies in the first and third paragraphs, as the provisions of the second are not uncom- mon. If this will does not discover a par- ticularly lofty character we have read the riddle of human nature in vain. Its first element is a dignified respect for the law and faith in the honesty of the courts. Its second is the peculiar third paragraph, which, besides sustaining in spirit the first paragraph, calmly lays down the rule of conduct for others, making all who may read and heed it the beneficiaries of its provisions. Even the grim and somewhat irreverent humor of the last sentence car- ries a lesson. The last paragraph gives the necessary inference that the maker of a will has no right to leave his property for any pur- poses other than those specified in the laws of the State. These laws were framed prin- cipally to serve in the case of those who die intestate. Mr. Barstow’s only variation from their provisions is the relief of his widow from bonds and the handling and disposition of the property by her without the supervision of the courts. That he should bpe less lenient than the law and show a greater confidence in the widow with reference to the rights and interests of the children is a private matter with him and her and is one with which the public is not congerned. He has announced the principle that a man has not the right to devise money to friends and distant relations and for benev- olent purposes. infer from this that he was opposed to the employment of money in these kindly and beneficent ways, for we have the will itself by which to read the kindness and gener- osity of his nature. The small fortune which he leaves is not more than suflicient for the support of his family in the com- fort approximating that to which they have been accustomed. If he had been pos- sessed of twenty million instead of twenty thousand we may be sure that a large part of his fortune would have been employed by him for these outside beneficences dur- ing his lifetime, under his wise personal supervision, with immeasurably better re- sults than those which accrue from bene- factions becoming operative only after the death of the donor. This simple will is the noblest sermon that has been preached to men of large means in many a year, and for men of moderate means who have built such a home as his it is a perfect model. THE WISHES OF CANADA. A spirit of unrest is pervading Canada on the subject of a tariff. Besides the im- portant bearing of this subject on the interests of the United States, there has grown up with it a strong revival of the old question concerning the national future of that country. One of the most intelligent reviews of this question appears in the March number of the American Magazine of Civics, pub- lished in New York. Itis written by Mrs. Helen Gregory-Flesher, A. M., a Canadian, but now a resident of San Francisco. It is largely a collection of the expressed wishes of leading Canadians regarding the future of Canada, and is intended for the informa- tion of those Americans who believe that Canada would readily agree to annexation with the United States. . As this question is inseparable from that of Canada’s foreign trade policy,*it is necessary that they be considered together. Obviously, as pointed out by Mrs. Greg- ory-Flesher, Canada has a choice among only four paths—to remain a colonial de- pendency of the British crown, to resort to imperial federation, to become a part of the United States or to set up as an inde- pendent mation. It is shown that the steady growth of her national spirit is weakening the force of her position as a dependency and that by reason of the widely diverse policies of the various Brit- ish colonies an imperial federation would be cumbersome and impracticable. It being obyious, however, that Canada will sooner or later cease to be a dependency of the crown, the choice is narrowed to two propositions—annexation or independence. The writer presents many objections to annexation, as they have been set forth by the ruling minds of Canada, and they seem wise and insuperable. First, the powerful influence of the Roman Catholic church over the French Canadians is strenuously opposed to annexation, and the Established Canadian church does not desire it. Sec- ond, our Union is regarded as large enough, the fear being that so enormous an en- largement ot it would make it even more unwieldly and difficult to hold together than at present. Third, the depressing commercial effect of our quadrennial national elections would not agree with the steady habits which Canadians have acquired. Fourth, our own confession that the administration of our laws is uncertain is a warning to Can- ada that our system is defective. Fifth, our popular clection of the administrators of the law and their consequent political partisanship is repugnant to the Canadian sense of fitness and security. In short, Capada would gain nothing and lose much by annexation, and will not ‘entertain the proposition. All the material advantages that Canada might secure by more intimate relations with the United States would come from unrestricted commercial reciprocity—the abolition of tariff charges between the two countries. Since the publication of Mrs, Gregory-Flesher's article the Canadian press has proken out in a feverish partisan contest over®@such reciprocity. Clearly l}:m_nda will not adopt England’s free-trade policy, and some of her leaders are boldly ad_vonating a tariff scheme, which shall dis- criminate against all the world, including Great Britain, and in favor of the United States. The opponents of this policy point to the distress in the United States and England which has followed the adoption of a free-trade tariff, and thus we are made to face the interesting fact that the errors of our own Government and Great Britain have vroved the most valuable warning to Canada. ¢ —_— 1t is asserted that a bill is actually pend- ing in the Iliinois Legislature under the startling title of ““An act to authorize the incorporation of mutnal windstorm com- panfes.”” In the absence of any further in- formation on the subject the inference is that the bill is designed to encourage pugi- lism in the drama. ) It would not be fair to | UP-TO-DATE IDEAS. People familiar with recent attempts to con- struct a practicable flying machine regard Lawrence Hargrave of Sydney, N.S. W., asone of the most intelligent and progressive experi- menters of the day, says the New York Tribune. Not only has he made about a score of small devices, which will actually fly when launched, but he has also given mnch attention to the perplexing question: How shall an airship, big enough to carry human passengers and susceptible of being navigated safely when once afloat, make its start and effect a landing without injury to itself or its occupants? One of his solutions of the problem is to have some large Kites, suitably anchored, kept flying {rom stout ropes and use these latter as hitch- ing-posts, both at departure and on arrival. It would be an easy matter to hoist the machine from the earth in the former case to such moor- ings and to lower it gently therefrom in the latter. The sort of kite which he devised for this pur- pose he designated as “cellular.” He began three or four years ago with two square card- board boxes, without top or bottom, tipped up on one side and mounted one behind the other on & light stick, so that one cell was at a short distance from the other, and one could look right through the two, when one end of the thing was presented to one’s gaze. The whole fabrication weighed only & few ounces. The String was attached to the connecting stick, sometimes at the middle, but usually quite close to the one cell; and the kite floated end- wise, almost horizontally,in the air, its rear extremity sagging only & little. The top and bottom of each cell was then an aeroplane, which, when at a small angle with the wind, would be lifted thereby. Several modifications of the original design have been made, but without changing the principle. Mr. Hargrave now reports, in a letter to Engineering, an ad- ditional step in his investigation. With several cellular kites of greater size, strength and lift- ing power than were sought at first, he has been able to lift himself up in the air fifteen or twenty feet; and this achievement inspires him with greater confidence than ever in the ultimate practical success of seronautic science, In the new kites the flatsurfaces are of cheap cotton cloth. American redwood was used for the ribs and other parts of the frame. Two rods, instead of one, connected the cells. And the contrivance was put together so that it could be coliapsed and rolled up for conveni- ence in transportation. The four kites used in the recent experiments varied in size ana had the following dimensions: Height, from 2 to 214 feet; breadth, 5 to 9 feet, and length, from 6 10 9 feet. The open space between the cells was much narrower in proportion than in his earlier kites. The distance between them was about the same as the fore-and-aft length of a single cell. The string by which the kiteswere flown was a manilla clothesline and was at- tached to the under side of the frame, about one-fourth of the distance from the forward edge. The kites were sentup tandem, at inter- vals of forty or fifty feet, the smallest one first. Exactly how they were connected is not stated, but it seems probable that the rope from the uppermost came down diagonally through the open belt of the second, and that a short cord was used to tie the latter to the main line just under the front part of the lower kite. Alto- gether only about 200 feet of lino wasrequired. Each kite flew at an angle of about 15 deg. with the horizon, and the outermost three- fourths of the rope rose at an angle of nearly or quite 60 deg. with the same plane. Now, when the largest kite was coupled on and had gotten out only about six feet from its anchorage, Mr. Hargrave hitched thereto a sling seat, got into it himself, and instructed his assistant to slacken away slowly. After forty-two feet of line were out the last opera- tion was stopped. The daring investigator then found himself suspended about sixteen feet above the earth’s surface. His weight was sufficient to bring the section of rope between him and the ground down to an angle of about 85 deg. with the horizon; and to maintain even that it was necessary that the wind should blow at the rate of eighteen or twenty miles an hour. If it slackened, he sank; if it freshened, he rose. But though he made sev- eral ascents, he was always able to alight gently, and the kites themselves were very stable; the longitudinal strain on the rope, as measured by & spring balance close to the an- chorage, varied from 120 to 240 pounds, while the weight sustained vertically was 208 pounds altogether. The four kites weighed thirty-five pounds, the line, seat and tackle seven, and Mr. Hargrave himself, 166. With a winch at- tached to the sling seat the investigator thinks that he could have pulled himself down and let himself out easily without aid. He con- siders it demonstrated, then, “that an ex- tremely simple and compact apparatus can be made, carried about and flown by one man, and that a safe means of making an ascent with & flying-machine, of trying the same without any risk of accident and descending, is now at the service of any experimenter who wishes to use it.”” PERSONAL. Senator Simpson is at the Grand. Assemblyman Kelsey is at the Baldwin. Judge J. C. Daly of Ventura was in town yes- terday. Assembly Bulla and family are staying at the Grand. Judge 8. F. Creary of New York is at the Palace. ouncilman J. J.Quinn of Stockton is Lee Tairchild and sister are guests at the Lick House. Attorney Dante L. Prince of Fresno is a guest at the Grand. Governor James H. Budd is registered at the California Hotel. Senator Seawell, his wife and son, are guests at the California. Major Charles McKelvey of Santa Rosa is reg- istered at the Palace. Louis F. Breuner, a Sacramento furniture dealer, is at the Grand. Colonel George B. Sperry and wife of Stock ton are at the California. Lee D. Carrington, the well-known San Diego newspaper man, is in town. Raphael Wieil, the clothing man, has re- turned frem his European trip. Assemblymen Swisler and Bledsoe and State Senator Linder are at the Grand. ) H. C.Shaw, a manufacturer of agricultural implements, is registered at the Lick. State Treasurer Rackliffe came down from Sacramento last night and staying at the Grand Hotel. Senator Mahoney arrived from the State cap- ital last night and is occupying his old quar- ters at the Baldwin. Senators Burke, Seymour and Seawell and Assemblymen Lynch, Bennett, Brusie and Laugenour are emong the arrivals at the Cali- fornie. e —— PEOPLE TALKED ABOUT. ‘The Chicago Times-Herald does not approve of Mr. Greenway’s former rival. Iteven takes him seriously to the following extent: “The man Chambliss of San Francisco, who is tramp- ing over the country with ‘copy’ for a book of scurrilous assaults upon the so-calledsociety of the chief city of the Pacific, is in contemptible business. The public has no interest in the private coteries of any city. It may safely be assumed that Chambliss is inspired by chagrin or other unworthy motive. His vituperation of private life in San Francisco contributes nothing to civilization, and reflects most seriously upon himself.” Ellen Terry was 47 February 26. In Coven- try, where she was born, a brass plate on one house bears the inscription: “This is the birth- Pplace of Miss Ellen Terry,” while on another house across the street is a similar plate marked, “This is the original birthplace of Miss Ellen Terry.” Collis P. Huntington expects five good busi- ness years “from now on,” he says. This is not very complimentary to the recently deceased Congress.—New York Recorder. AROUND THE CORRIDORS. J. Waldo Kirk, who is at the Palace, has gained considerable celebrity along the coast as the “King of the dudes.”” But that title is misleading and does the gentleman an injus- tice. Mr. Kirk is unquestionably a man of taste in his dress, but the individual who Teckons that this gentleman’s time is chiefly consumed in personal adornment shoots wide of the mark, for Mr. Kirk is, in a way, & genus. In the business world he isknown as the repre- sentative of a large manufacturing house, but in his idle moments he has found time to evolve some curious schemes wherewith to allure a few honest dollars. He has, for instance, invented & combination cane and umbrella which is decidedly unique. The two parts are separate, and the latter, when folded, fits nicely into the former, which is hollow. The cane forms the handle when used as an umbrella, and the two parts join to- gether by a peculiar device. The invention possesses sufficient merit to have attracted the support of John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil magnate, who has supplied the necessary capital to manufacture it. A few years ago, when Kansas City was in the midst of a phenomenal boom, and when the enthusiasts there prociaimed that the town was destined to be a second Chicago, Mr. Kirk mortgaged all his earthly possessions and in- J. WALDO KIRK. [From a photograph.) vested the proceeds in fifty lote in one of the most promising suburbs. Then the fragile bubble collapsed and the lot-owner has since been chiefly occupied when in Kansas City in dodging the Tax Collector. “Those lots have been dropping off at the rate of fifteen a year for several seasons past,” said Mr. Kirk yesterday, “and it begins to look as if the Tax Collector will have a clear title unless times show aradical improvement.” . Mr. Kirk says that many large Eastern houses are at present contemplating the opening of branch places in this city. “San Francisco has suffered in the past few years because of the more energetic spirit dis- played by Los Angeles,” said he, “but_Eastern men of moans are beginning to appreciate your advantages, and the tide of travel will soon set this way.” The rain kept many of the membersof the Union League Club at home last night, but still a few ventured out, and these, after the affairs of state had been canvassed, and all other subjects, political and non-political, had been exhausted, turned their attention to story- telling. “I can’t vouch for the truth of the following,” said Colonel F. S. Chadbourne when it came to his turn, “but if you had only listened to the earnest tones of the old skipper who related the story to Jim Boobar and myself in the Chief Wharfinger's office a few days ago you wonld have been almost convinced. The oid fellow had had a stroke of good luck and he was about to start Dback East to visit the home of his childhood. He had never been with more than & few hun- dred dollars in his Jife until his streak of good luck had come, and this was how it happened: ‘I was making my way back from Central America with a load of cedar logs and barrel staves,’ said the ancient mariner. ‘When we were ten daysoutit came on a dead calm.’ You see, boys,” sald Chadbourne, “it was another case of & painted ship and & painted ocean. “ We whistled for a breeze, but not a breath of air could we get. Suddenly there was great commotion to leeward and I wondered for & few moments what was the matter. Then when I got out the glasses I saw it was a fight between a thrasherand a whale. Well, they fought and fought and gradually edged to- ward the schooner. My boy and I got out the sweeps and tried to get away from the dangerous position, but it was no good. We gotnearer and nearer, and then I saw that the whale was getting the worst of it. Finally I saw I'd have to take a hand in the fight, so I got up my shotgun and when the thrasher sprang into the air Ishot him dead. The whale came alongside the schooner and lay there more dead than alive for awhile, then he gave me a grateful look, took the fiuke of the anchor in his mouth and started away. He towed (h~ schooner out to sea and I was praying and cursing by turns asI didn’t know what was going to happen. It was all pure gratitude on the part of the whale, how- ever, for my having killed that thrasher. After towing us about 100 miles he landed the schooner alongside of a big piece of ambergris half as big as my head. You see that whale knew the gtuff was valuable and remembering where 1t had spat it out towed me back to find it “But that’s not all the story, gentlemen,” ex- claimed Chadbourne as the crowd began to move away. “The whale, as soon as it saw the ambergris safe in the schooner, turned on its back and died. The old man and his crew put the barrel staves together, tried out the blub- ber, filled the Dbarrels with oil and finally reached San Francisco. He sold the entire stuff for & small fortune and is now going to spend the rest of his days ashore.” The members of the clublooked at each other in silence for a few moments. Finally Paris Kilburn broke the spell by saying, “Gentle- men, let us — adjourn into the Palace Hotel bar-room.” “Iknew Cornelius Stagg well, in fact, few knew him better,” said James H. Gates, the well-known druggist, in the Occidental last evening. “Stagg and my brother were both members of the Linda Mining Association, which came around the Horn in the bark Linda in 1849. They reached San Francisco on Sep- tember 1 of that year and at onee started for Sacramento in a little steam launch which they brought out with them. The little vessel was also called the Linda and used to run between Marysville and Sacramento. “There were forty members in the Linda Mining Association, but of these there are only a few living. Mark Brumagin is now engaged in large mining operations in Mexico, John Q. Moore is in the Carson Mint and William Ryck- man is a member of the San Francisco Stock Board. Not one of the forty was over 23 years of age when we reached San Francisco. My brother, Dr. Justin Gates, who died some years ago, was one of the party, and he and Cornelius Stagg were great friends. The murdered man was & good friend—one who never forgot & faver and never refused assistance in an emergency.” LILIUOKALANI IS EXPECTED. The Exiles Say She Will Be Here In- side a Month. “Ex-Queen Liliuokalani will be in San Franciseo inside of a month,” said Harry Juen, one of the exiles who came up on the Arawa last Thursday. ‘‘She will only stop here a few days and then will go to New York and take a steamer for England. She is a prisonerin the palaceand islodged in the same rooms she occupied as Queen. She is closely guarded, but still she can es- cape, and a vessel is in readiness day and night to carry her away. What she will do in Epgland I don’t know and I don't care, but that she will not remain a pris- oner for five years I am certain.” HOGS AND POSIES OF LAKE MERCED. SUTRO'S SKIRMISH FIRING HAS DEVELOPED A BIG WATER- SUPPLY WAR. RIDE OF THE HEALTH BOARD. THE MAYOR TALKS AGAIN AND WiLL Now FicHT IT OUT TO THE END. San Francisco’s water supply is againa question of the day, and the controversy between the nfunicipality and the Spring Valley company is rapidly approaching a b climax. The Spring Valley people have taken up the gage of battle and are denouncing Sutro and defending the practice of drink- ing water. Members of the Board of Health are inclined to be hostile to the Mayor and to speak indulgently of Spring Valley water. Now expert chemists and bacteriologists are working away producing reports that will supply ammunition to both sides. The reports will be along in a few days and interesting proceedings in the Board of Health are imminent. Lake Merced is now the definite fighting point. It isso pretty a spot that trouble about it seems a pity. The lake holds two and a half billion gallons and its normal daily supply is three and a half million gallons. The 2700 acres about it owned by the company are arranged in gentle slopes, and as it is all wholly unused, every square rod now blazes with a profusion of rioting wild flowers. The Spring Valley Company pleyed an inning yesterday by taking four members of the Board of Health, Professor David- son, C. E. Grunsky, two newspaper men and two or three others out through the poppies and daisies to the lakes and pumps nnt[l) away around by Colma to where Mr. Sutro found the hogs wallowing in Spring Valley water. President Charles ebb Howard and Chief Enginecer Hemann Schussler represented the company. The party got wet inside and outside. Just inside the county line and a little south of Ingleside the party found the magnificent pumps and then looked at the water, A little duck went under, and then one looked one and two miles to see a sign of life. Only flower petals seemed able to speck the surface. “I wanted these gentlemen to see the worst there is,” saidng. Howard. “And what is the worst ?” “The muddy water.” The water itself did rather suggest the Missouri River. Narcissus would never have fallen in love on those pretty banks. Four rockaways wheeled through sand and posies around to the pointed head of the lake where nearly all the running surface water comes in. A small stream was un- ostentatiously contributing a few brownish miner’s inches. Across the point was a lever. “Now you see this point of the lake con- stitutes asettling reservoir,” explained Mr. Schussler. ‘“Here the muddy water drops most_of its detritus, and as it runs over this dam it is not nearly so muddy, though it is still somewhat muddy now. Thisis only in winter. In summer no water comes in."” ' Mr. Schussler further explained that the Mereed supply had not been used for over two months since it became real muddy. The supply was used as one supplementary to that from Pilarcitos for the Western Ad- dition only at any time. Then the fact should be understood that between 90 and 95 per cent of the water of Lake Merced came through the sandy hills and by sub- terranean courses along strata of hard- pan. It was thus periectly filtered into urity, whatever the pollution of the sur- ace where it started. Even if the small percentage of surface-water were impure the percantage of impurity would become very small in the big lake. Dr. Regensburger said that water of that degree of muddiness, even if it were being sent to the city, would be offensive only to the sight and not unhealthful on account of its mere muddiness. ‘‘All told, we have as fine a water supply as there isin the world,”” said the doctor. Dr. Keeney said that there were un- doubtedly bacteria in the water, as there are in waters everywhere, but that typhoid fever germs were the only ones to fear, and no signs of any had appeared. Professor Davidson indignantly scouted the idea of the water being bad and told of some reservoirs he had visited near Lon- don, where the filters were cleaned every few weeks and all but the filters sold for rich fertilizers. An hour later the party looked down on the gulch carrying the little stream from a spur near Colma about a mile above the heaa of the lake and just outside the com- pany’s big reservation. ; “There’s the hog ranch,” said Schussler, pointing to a few acres, most of which was ireshly plowed, and which surrounded a diny-faoking ome. Down where the creek ran was a fine place for hogs, but none were on parade. A quarter of a mile farther up was another dirty-looking nest of small buildings and a pen imprisoning tive porkers within a few feet of the little stream. The creek certainly drained the hogpen. Another gulch branched upward into the hills to the west, displaying on its side a dairy and some similar signs of bucolic industry. How far this surface drainage in winter, when water runsy pol- lutes Lake Merced, is a matter for debate. Neither Mr. Howard or Mr. Sutro made any positive denials of the undesirability at feusz of such things in that place. +If Mr. Sutro had any complaint to make why didn’t he make it to me, instead of opping it into the papers?” said Mr. oward. Mr. Schussler also objected to this way of doing such things, and intimated that at times when Spring Valley water is being criticized people whose property might be valuable for its filth were always anxious to cinch the company. It was announced that the hogman was about to move for some reason or other. “We admit that this is rather bad, but we are steaaily and quietly trying to con- trol our watersheds,”” was the most definite ‘thing that Mr. Schussler could contribute to the discussion of the hog ranch. He made the interesting announcement, however, that the comgany would un- doubtedly very soon do what he wanted it to do, viz.: get wholly rid of the surface water by turning it into the ocean through a great cement tunnel 4000 feet tong and sn‘pplemen} the subterranean supply with a few artesian wells, "Tlllxere is gne thli’ng, this howl has wholly sto] our buying land on this wsterz’hed. Pel;e dechrel{ & Mr. Howard and Drs. Keeney and Long got in a whack at the Mayor by letting out the information that the analysis by Dr. Price, which he presented to the board a week ago, had just been discovered to be nearly three years old, a fact which Sutro didn’t mention. Dr. Spencer has made an analysis for the board, and the Mayor holds the report in silence. _““The report shows bacteria of decompo- sition,” said Dr. Keeney. Mr. Howard has experts at work, too. One of them is Thomas Price. SUTRO TALKS OF BRIBERY. He Believes the Spring Valley Wants to Sell Its Plant. Mayor Sutro believes the Spring Valley Water Works Company will attempt very soon to sell its water system to the city. He has declared that it is impossible for any one to supply a large city with pure water from a supply gained in or about the city limits, and he has said that he will rove that all the sources of supply the pring Valley corporation have are con- taminated g human babitations near them, Therefore he is in favor of the city building a new system, the water of which must be secured from sources in some uninhabited district in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In a conversation yesterday Mayor Sutro said he would never let up in his op- sition to the Spring Valley Company. e said : ; “Let the people watch the Spring Valley Water Works. 1 believe the men at the head of it will soon try to sell their system to the city, as they know it is a rot- ten one, and is rapidly becoming worse. ‘“When they attempt to sell the works to the city there is 1o doubt they will spend thousands of dollars in bribery to carry their scheme through. They value their plant at $22,000,000, and the citizens have to pay them such high rates that the com- ;F"Y gets 5 or 6 per cent on that capital. he company has put in a lot of property bought for speculative purposes as part of the water system so ‘as to raise its capital to $22,000,000. Outside of the speculative land purchases the Spring Valley Company has nothing of value to intending pur- chasers but the water pipes, which are probably worth $1,500,000. The water supply s worse than worthless. The idea of getting water from cowsheds! “Dr. Winslow Anderson of the State Board of Health in speaking of water in rivers and wells in populated districts, a short time ago, said that such water used for drinking purposes would poison whole communities, hence the necessity of proper precautions in the water supply. 1 “Marsden Manson, the civil engineer, spoke before the Technical Society of the Pacific Coast two years ago. In the course of his remarks on the Spring Valley Com- pany he said that there are two minor sources of water supply, whose area by reason of the growing population and neglect are rapidly becoming dangerous, if they are not already so. ‘“After severely scoring the Lobos Creek system for the absence of any sewer sys- tem with a proper outlet, the existence within its area of a hospital connecting with a sewer without any outfall, the ex- istence of not over-clean ‘dairies,” the use of partof the area for cemetery purposes and the dumping of garbage and filth as filling for lots be%o\v grade he said that the watershed tributary to Lake Merced, some 5000 acres in extent, is objectionable from the same general causes. He further stated that the area tributary to the Ala- meda Creek source will have to be aban- doned in the future for the same cause. All areas from which a municipal water supply is drawn should be kept absolutely free from human habitation and it would be a wise measure for municipalities in growing countries to acquire catchment areas and afforest them. ‘‘Since Marsden Manson delivered his remarks the Spring Valley Company has been compelled to condemn the Lobos Creek system and it is preparing to aban- don the Lake Merced system, I believe. It will then draw its supply from San An- dreas and Pilarcitos lakes and Alameda Creek, the water of the latter of which is brought across the bay in pipes. I intend to have all these places thoroughly in- vestigated. I believe they are filthy, but I will say ntn.hin§l against anything con- cerning which I have secured no proofs. “The Board of Health was invited by Charles Webb Howard of the Spring Val- ley Company to take a trip to Lake Merced to-day. g do not know how many accepted the invitation, but I did not go, as I have seen Lake Merced and I don’t care how Howard may explain the matter. He can- not change the facts. “If the people would only see the decay- ing refuse from restaurants which is put in the hog wallow which empties into Lake Merced they would rise to the situation. Until we can get pure water the Eeople should boil all the water they drink. As boiled water is not pleasant to the taste, they should put a teaspoonful of salt to every gallon just before boiling the water. This will preserve the taste. “The report of Dr. Spencer on the con- dition of the waters of Lake Merced will be made public at the next meeting of the Board of Health. As I have the report now, I will call a meeting immediately. [ think I will call it for next Tuesday. ““The use of a water supply from an area partly_within our city limits should be immediately prohibited. In case ,the cholera should strike this city one case might pollute the whole water supply, as water when impure feeds the germs and makes them multiply with incredible rapidity. Marsden Manson recently said that water is the most active disease-di tributor imaFinable and to paraphrase the very truthful words af a celebrated author- ity, ‘No power on earth could save San Francisco from the scourge of cholera or typhus were g single case to occur ora single infected garment be washed in one of the watersheds supplying the city with water.’ “It is for this reason that I will never lek up until San Francisco owns its own water system, with the source of supply in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Not one spot in a million throughout the world is so well situated as this to get a pure-water supply, which will last for ages. I do not believe in getting the water from Lake Ta-~ hoe, however, as people live about it. The water must be obtained from the top ofthe mountains, where there is no human habi- tation. We should store up the mountain water and not let it run into the ocean. Every drop is just so much gold. “Large pipes could be run from the mountains to this city, and the supply is so great branch pipes could be run to all the interior cities like Sacramento, Stock- ton, Oakland, San Jose and others. It could be so arranged that irrigation could be furnished to fruit and grain-farmers. The Sierra Nevadas shou]f be made a great storehouse of water, which the people should control and use to benefit and en- rich themselves. The water would be al- ways strictly pure, as it would come from the melted snows of the mountains.” SUPPOSED TO BE HUMOROUS. 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