The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 21, 1895, Page 24

24 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 1895. How China will pay the war Indemnity - By Frank G- Carpenter ~ Japan, it is said, will demand $150,000,000 in gola from China in addition to the ter- ritory which is to be granted as the price of peace. Itisa question in the minds of all who know anything concerning the Chinese Government as to how it will be able to collect this vast sum. It will prob- ably get the money in the first place in the shape of a foreign loan, and the customs will be mortgaged to pay the interest. At present China has perhaps the lowes taxes in the world, and the farmers pay less on their lands than they do in any of the countries of Europe. The increas- ing of such taxes would create a revolu- tion. The only way that the Government can raise money will be through levying duties on imports and exports. This will fill the rivers with tax gatherers, and China wil honeycombed with a net- work of official robbers. Every officer will put some of the receipts in his own pocket, and prices of all kinds will rise. The rivers are the highways of Chi The country is said to have 4000 , but it has none which are good, and the rivers and .the canals form the chief means of communication. There is no land on the globe which is better w: ered. There are provinces in Chin as New York whigh are cut up b; Holland, and in which you can visit e pan’s house by boat. You can travel )nger than a journey around the inese interior waterw equals in the Y Ho. ! of these big pieces of s work from early morning until at night. There is no machinery used on the wharves of any Chinese city. There are no derricks and no steam engines; hu- man muscle carries all the freight, and The heaviest of packages are borne off on the backs of men. 1 was surprised at their strength. 1 saw coolies at Tientsin who could lift 500 pounds, and some were carry- ing bales of cotton on their backs. At Hankow I saw coolies unloading ingots of steel, which weighed half a ton. These ingots were brought from Belgium to China, in order that the Chinese might experiment with them in the making of railroads. A half dozen coolies would take hold of one . raising it by means of ropes and poles, and they would grant and sing as they carried it off the steamer. All the boats on the Yangtse are unloaded in this way, and at all of the ports there are great hulks or barges filled with men, who wait for the steamers, and who handle all of their freight. There are millions upon millions of peo- ple who get their living off the Chinese rivers. China is to have more boats than all the rest of the world put together, and its boat population would in all proba’ bility be 1at of all Europe merica. On the rl River, in South at the city of Canton, there are said to be 300,000 people who were born, live and die upon the water. This river, which you reach from Hongkong, is filled with shipping, and as you near Canton vou will find it filled with craftof all kinds, from the small steamer to the great Chinese junk. There are thousands of sampans, or little Chinese gondol. with great black otse |and white eyes painted on each side of Each of these | their as much silt as the Nile | have grnw. There are cargo-boats. which igger eyes, and there are vast ships, oo Sl ‘\‘g{v [CHINESE every year, from thirty to fifty miles on each side of their mouths. At'the mouth of the Yangtse Kiang the water is as thick as and all along the m i seen dipping it up, p in order that it may spread over the land. I have traveled more than 2000 miles upon these wonderful rivers of China. iring it into ditches, be carried off and of no other streams of the world. I tion coes on everywhere and the fertiliz- ing material which th contain rejuve- nates the Chinese soil the Nile does that of Egypt. The Great Plain of China, which, by the way, is the most thickly pop- ulated part of the empire, has been built up from the sea by the Chinese rivers. It runs along the Pacific coast for about 700 miles, and_it is from 300 to 500 miles wide. It is one of the richest plains of the world, and its soil is mixed with salts and the evidences of decayed vegetation. It comes and the sea is colored yellow for | i (18 scenes along their banks are hike e | from the Loess region in the far interior | of China. covered with a yel feet deep. This soil a stream flows into it it seems to s open vertically, and the rivers which run through it s through gorges of sand 500 feet deep. From time to time the yel- low soil splits off in sheets from the sides of these gorges and it is carried down to the sea. During the hot season the winds blow through the Loess region and carry the dust over China. This aidsin its fer- tilization. The silt carried down by the rive: sea is so great that the land eve inches 100 feet upon the sea, and this has been going on for ages. Near Shanghai This region isa vast_territory | w earth about 1000 | ery fine and when | there is a large island which has been built | . 10_a great extent, the pro- duct of the Hong Ho and the Peiho. The Yangtse Kiang River is said to be 3500 miles long. The Hong Ho rises in Thibet, within 100 miles of the mouth of the Yangtse, and it is almost of the same length. It flows as far as from New York to Denver before it gets a large branch, and by the time it has reached the sea, it has Francisco. It is only navigable by small boats, and a great part of its course is through the Great ‘plain. 1t hias yusiorn: bankments to keep it in its conrse, but every year or 5o a flood comes and hun- dreds of thousands, and sometimes mil- lions, of people are swallowed up by it. ‘When 1 first visited China I arrived just after one of these big floods. Abonty 20,- 000,000 people were ruined by the river, and millions had been drowned. During my trip of last vear I sailed up the Peiho to Tientsin and saw the evidencesof the great flood of the year previous. This covered the plains surrounding Tientsin. | It ruined hundreds of villages and at one time it seemed as though it would er ger the great city of Li Hung Chang, which, vou know, contains a million people. ight below Tientsin I saw thousands of graves which bad been washed out by flood. The coffins were lying floated by the thousands to the sea. The Peiho er is the one which flows from near Pe! northern provinces of China must go. is a winding, muddy stream, navigable only for large ships about fifty miles, or as far as Tientsin. There is a bar at its mouth, and it is only at high tide and with a proper wind that you can get over this. During my trip this summer we lay ngtse Kiang, and the land | \ | for two days outside the bar, under the | shadow of the Taku forts, before we could get over, and in coming away we had to wait two days for the proper wind and flood to get outside of the river. Secretary Foster and party were on the same ship. We had a cargo of hones for Japan, and betwixt the smell and the sea the delay was by no means pleasant. In going up the Peiho you wind your way through a low, flat plain, which is covered with one- story houses of mud. These houses are built right along the banks of the river, and the land back of them is divided up into farms and orchards. The blossoms were out during the time that I went up the Peiho, and the brown piain was spot- ted here and there with vast patches of white and pink flowers. Half-naked chil- dren squatted on the banks, and there were thousands of people at work in the fields. Inlthe eatrly morlr;in/z you could see them going out to work from the villages. The marc%ed by the hundreds alongihc pu[hsy. going always in single file. At Tientsin I found an ocean of ship- tiogfslym at the wharves. There were of all kinds and from all parts of China; there were acres of rafts made of logs, which were to be sold as lumber; there were great barges and junks loade with all kinds of merchandise, and as we neared the city we came into a forest of masts, among Which swarmed tens of thousands of blue-coated brown-skinned men, loading and unloading the ships to which = they belonged. ere were S0 many of thesecoolies that they made me think of a swarm of ants, and they were quite as busy as ants at their work. 'Every man went on the trot, and I saw them at | | miles an hour. | and twelve feet in a single night, and it | boils and seethes as it goes through. Here is an eddy, there a whirlpool and there against the rocks it dashes in a spray The rocks are are filled with all kinds of ferns; they are the edges Zlue- RIGAT 0N late snails which are here to be found. He has the ducks so trained that he can call them back to the boat at will, and he hurries them up by giving the last ducka blow with a stick. After the ducks are grown he carries them from one market to an- other on his boat. There are fowl markets in all of the cities, and the goose market of Canton is filled with thousands of birds every day. Fowls are sold both dead and alive. Theducks and geese are dried and pressed, and they are shipped in large quantities all over China. Taxes will now be collected on all such articles of food, and there wiil be nothing which passes through the rivers which will not have to ay a share to this fund demanded by Span. i : One of the means of raising money which the Government of China will have will be the granting of foreign concessions for the building of railrouds between points like Tientsin and Peking. Such concessions would undm\bled]ygtay well, and it may be that Wharton Barker, if he will get some abler man than Count Mitkiewicz to represent him, could now put through his scheme for establishing a great Chinese national bank and the building of railroads in the Celestial Empire. Of this, however, and of the chances of American capital in China, I will write in another letter. Copyright, 1895. MERCHANTS' ASSOCIATION. Why There Is a Scarcity of Money for Street- Cleaning. The Organization Will Disband If It Is Not Better Sup- ported. . When the Merchants’ Association en- tered into a contract with the Supervisors | to sweep the streets of the city from No- i vember to June 30, in consideration of $6666 60 a month, it was supposed that, | with the addition of §29,000 subscribed by the business men, the streets could be | cleaned every day, except Sunday. As stated in the CAwvr, it has been found nec- essary to lay off the men, dirt-wagons and sprinkling-carts one day in each week to the time the contract expires in June, for | the lack of funds. It was not that the as- | sociation’s officers miscalculated upon the cost, but because they have not been able to get the full sum allowed by the Super- visors. Four months ago Superintendent of Streets Ashworth toid the merchants that | he must have $666 of the appropriation for | repairing streets, as this was the only fund he could reach that was not exhausted, and they had to stand the cut. Another | reason is that more streets have been swept by the association than the contract required. Up to the present the streets have been cleaned every duf', and what was lacking when the monthly appropriations were ex- HOUSE BOAT the eyes of which are as large around The Chinese paint eyes as soon think of trying to travel through a | lindfolded as of sailing on a boat which had not a pair of eyes painted on 1 found a whole family liv- | as a dinner i»ln(e. on all their boats, and a sailor woul city the front of it. ing on these boats, and I saw contained three generations of Chinese. shore at Hongkong. away, with a on her back. of the boat, and, looking back, I saw a raw. red baby frantically waving its rosy arms |and erying out its protests through its | | toothless gums. This woman had no other home than her boat, and on such boats Mar- riages take place upon them, and all of | sebold life are to be children are born, grow up and die. the features of ho seen in connection with them. Each of the high officials who live along 1€ e | the Chinese rivers has his own boat. This gone as for as from New York to San | is decorated with flags. died not long ago a gory was made for_her. mourning, and it Jooked ican eyes. The Chinese shaped just like a slipper. Bs 00 arr houte can be made to go very fast. man power. men were doing the tork of an ordinar, as-engine. I could fill this column wit lescriptions of the different kinds of boats the | used by the Chinese. Each section has its - on the | own peculiar make of boats and a Chinese ground, and during the flood the dead | sailor can tell to what part of the country a ijl_)ip belongs as soon as he sees it. less than 1000 feet wide, an almost like that of the sea. of granite, and nlonE gowned, pig-tailed workmen are quarryin, reat blocks of granite, which are shipps own the Yangtse-Kiang. Thereare miles of these gorges, and the scenery about The \C g orges, and uite a population along them them is the most beautiful in China. boats are tracked through the there is whose main sup The queerest rt 1s from such work. ©00] boats are very clumsy and mef' land nlnng creeks an some not | more than twenty feet in length, whici[\g remember one woman who rowed me to | & She was working aby of about two years old | . I heard a squall in the rear , and the bigger the man the more flags and bunting. L1 Hung Chang has a steam launch, When his wife eous funeral barge his was decorated with white, which is the Chinese color for orgeous {o Amer- ave boats which are worked by the feet and which are These are used | ey are not much | bigger than the ordinary canoe and they At Canton T was shown boats which had paddle-wheels | at the sides and which were worked by The men turned the wheels inside the boat, which connected with the | paddle-wheels outside and a half dozen ere is a vast boat traffic in the far in- B ng on down to the sea, and | terior,of China. I saw boats at Hankow upit all the freight which supplies the | which had come down almost from the It | borders of Thibet. They were made so that they could jump the rapids and work | their way through the great gorges of Ichang. These gorges are 270 miles above Hankow and nearly 1000 miles from the sea. The great Yangtse River here flows through immense canyons, the rocks of | which rise for hundreds of feet straight up above the water, The gorges are in places the great river rushes through them at the rate of nine It rises and falls ten ats 1 saw during my trip on the Pearl River were those devoied to the raising of geese and ducks. The Chi- nese are the best fowl-raisers of the world. They raise ducks by artificial incubation and they know just how to feed and care for them. For five days after they leave the shell they are not allowed to hear any noise and their food consists of rice-water. After this they are given boiled rice. For the first two weeks they are kept in a and then they are put on the boats and made to shift for themselves. The f are some- what like rafts. One boat will sometimes hold more than 1000 ducks, which are in charge of one or two keepers. The duck farmer rows or sculls the boat to the low the banks of the rivers or T d he drives the ducks off from 4me to time to feast on the worms and - A YANGTSE FERRY BOAT hausted was made up out of the subscrip- tion fund of $29,000. At a recent meeting of the executive committee of the associa- tion it was found that the reserve fund would be exhausted before the expiration of the contract with the city unless some change was made. Over twenty miles of streets are swept by hand. and about 260 men who arein straitened circumstances are furnished with employment. Besides these are the dirt cart and sprinkling cart drivers. Itwasfound necessary to sprinkle the streets before sweeping, an expense not calculated in the first estimate. As a re- sult of the conference it was decided to stop all work every Wednesday in order to reach the end of the fiscal year without exhausting all the funds. A prominent member of the association said yesterday: ‘It isa very short-sighted iece of business for Mr. Ashworth to cut own our appropriation. Whenever the streets are not cleaned the dust and dirt is blown and washed into the culvérts and sewers, and it costs the city more than $600 to keep these clean.” Vice-President H. D. Keil says that un- der the present circumstances the associa- tion will barely be able to fulfill its con- tract. “We need more help from the business men,” said he. “There are many who are not assisting us in the least. For- merly these same men were obliged to pay for sprinkling the streets in front of their stores. Now they are getting it done for nothing by our sprinklers. If they will pay into our general fund the amounts they formerly paid for sprinkling, and what they have saved in damage to their goods by the dust, it will help us very much. ‘The situation is this: If the business community and the Supervisors do not come t0 the support of the Merchants’ As- sociation better than they have done in the past this organization may go to the wall so far as keeping the streets of the city clean is concerned. Our friends are doing nobly, but there are still a large number who receive the benefits of our efforts and who do not contribute a cent toward car- rying on the work. It is for the people to say whether they want good, clean and safe streets or if theg will be satisfied with the old order of things. As a business proposition it costs more to have dusty streets, poor pavements and bad sidewalks an clean thoroughfares. If the public will stand by us we will continue the work, but if any further spirit of indif- ference is manifested I predict that the members of the Merchants’ Association will drop the whole business.” .. — A new religious prophet has arisen among the Georgia negroes in the person of Jerry White. Jerry is & negro, about 40 years old, and is very black. Hecame into Athens, Ga., recently from Oglethorpe County, where he has been promulgatin, h’la G%tacmnu‘ He claims to be a prophe of 5 oold and’ A s rrnre sz, A Great French Novelist. PARIS, April 1, 1895.—Among the young litterateurs shines brilliantly the name of Paul Hervien. ‘Peints par eux- memes” procured for this young writer the decoration of the Legion of Honor and certainly a man of 35 years who can write a book of such force is “somebody” and must be made known to lovers of artistic literature in all countries. Paul Hervieu personally is one of the most interesting men I know, tall and blond; he speaks slowly, distinctly and in a rich, melodious, low tone of voice. Most striking is the expression ot his eyes—the expression of a physician, who everywhere sees invalids and everywhere delivers his lectures on social physiology. Paul Hervien has a special place in the new generation ; beside Marcel Prevost, the novelist, whose style is like that of George Sand; beside Paul Marguerite, the pessim- istic writer; beside Abel Hermant, who studies society in all countries, all times; beside Jules Case, who writes of French customs with bitter criticism—he stands forth as an original exponent of life, A ¥or his debut in the literary world, Paul Hervieu gave us “Diogene le Chien,” the history of a man who disclaimed hu- manity and hated civilized society. Then a 1ourney through Switzerland inspired him to write “L’ Alpe Homicide,”’ a recital of crimes committed by the mountains, and afterward appeared ‘‘La Betise Pari- sienne,” purely ironical under its mask of dramatic cruelty. A series of mysterious works showed that Paul Hervieu was influenced by the writings of Edgar Poe, the friendship of Octave Mirbeau: “Les Yeux Verts et les Yeux Bleus,” *L‘Inconnu” and “I’Exorcisee’’ were the publications dur- ing this period. aul Hervieu loves the gay world, be- cause he considers it a comedy, in which he is a spectator and eritic. His society novels are ‘Flirt,” ‘Peints par eux- memes” and “L’Armature,” the book which is now the literary sensation of Paris. “Flirt” is a novel in which Her- vieu proves that the world is wicked only on the surface. In this novel there are no crimes, very littlelove, but a great amount of harmless flirtation. ‘“Peint par eux- memes’’ goes to the extreme. The person- ages love with ardor, kill and are killed, and yet the author describes society truthfully. Each character speaks the correct language of the salons, and in tone, sentiment and style ‘Peints par eux- memes,”’ is a masterpiece of ori;:inaht*;. In “I’Armature, his latest work, Paul Hervien shows his talent for painting the age in which he lives. For by Armature he means money, the support of all human sentiments in this century. To thoroughly understand this work, one should visita sculptor’s studio and see in what manner his blocks of plaster are held by a species of iron skeleton, on which he models the exterior portions of a statue. If a piece of plaster falls or becomes dry, the iron frame yreserves the appearance of the statue. B4 e s tare the sy sociona e tallic skeleton which holds together the decaying portions of modern society. On this idea is based the novel, and al- though each character secms to us fa- miliar, not one can be considered a por- trait. The author has taken the corruption of one, the pride of another, the weak mind of this one, the rude manners of that one, and fabricated people, to whom many names might beapplied. To these villains of the plot he has added two or three per- sonages of fine character, and thus the novel becomes a drama. - The heroic, ten- der, graceful Gisele d'Exirenil, to save her husband, whom she adores, accepts the af- fection of Baron Saifre, who, with hisgold, rules Paris. The husband learns the truth and rushes to the house of the financier, intenaing to put an end to the life of the destroyer of his happiness. He enters, and at the door of the Baron’s room finds a hospital nurse, who leayes him alone with his enemy. He finds Saffre wearinia straitjacket, fastened in an armchair, his eyes bloodshot and without a ray of intel- ligence. FExirenil is in despair because the venge- ance has not been his. The Baron re- mains in absolute stupidity as Exirenil howls imprecation after imprecation, but finds himself powerless to produce the least impression upon this mass of inert matter. Wonaerful in strength is the history of the hideous Baron Saffre, his grandeur and his fall. After ruling Paris the bankrupt financier has the living death of an intelligence completely destroyed. The Baroness Saffre is avaricious, and makes a speculation of her pretended ill- ness, as her husband does of stocks at the Bourse. The Countess de Grommelain, their eldest daughter, is a typical victim of the morphine habit. In Armature, there is a marvelous gallery of contempo- rary portraits—QOlivier Breland, the petit bourgeois, who wishes to be a grand seign- eur; Catherine Saffre, Princess Nagear, Count de Gommelain; and when one has finished reading the book, so terrible are the accusations against society, accusations which are based on a solid foundation, one feels anxious to leave civilization and dwell far from the haunts of men. M. Paul Hervien has only written two glays. “Les Paroles Restent” was pro- uced at the Vaudeville Theater in 1893 and treats of the social slander which always leaves its mark.. He is putting the finishing touches to another pla;i? which will be produced at the Theater Francais next season. Although Paul Hervieu is misanthropic, he has not abandoned his Learly career, for in his works he isa diplomatist. He believes that virtue exists, but in the worla it occupies a very small place. Of life he sees the tragic side. Dramas which we pass by with indifference, be- cause if we reflected on them we should lose a taste for life, are by Paul Hervieu analyzed and held ug as examples of the world’s wickedness. For him there is much more bad than good to be found in this existence of ours, and for him appears always the dark side of every event. But Paul Her- yieu does mnot believe in trite ideas, in trite expressions. ~ Although he makes one understand much which he does not explain, he never uses an 1m- proper word, never a vulgar phrase. One never finds a word which denotes the emotion of the writer, never an opinion which might be considered personal. He is never indignant and never rants, never ]nuihs and is never angry. . The chief quality of Paul Hervieu's books is their fidelity to life. He discovers under the mask of society the ugliness of human nature, the silent gnmu where the actors are exquisite creatures, where the victims do not complain, where the witnesses never speak, where treason, suicide and murder even respect the convenances. Every- .where in his books we see delicacy in thought and expression. Sometimes his irony in itself might be considered too cold, too cruel; then he gilds it and thus veils its bitterness. Nothing stops him in his task of revealing the inner workings of so- clegd but always his writings have an ele- vated moral Bposition. ARONESS ALTHEA SALVADOR. The Great War With Russia. Under this title Routledge issues a sec- ond edition of the personal retrospect of ‘William Howard Russell of the invasion of the Crimea by the allied armies. Mr. Russell, it will be remembered, was the representative of the London Times during that famous campaign, and enjoys distinction first as being ‘“‘the father of war correspondents” and of having “‘saved ourarmy in the Crimea.” In his book he gives & clearidea of what the lot of the correspondent was in that ! early day. He was a mere camp-follower, with neither position nor prestige, an in- novation despised and distrusi by the army authorities, unable to_procure any sort of aid or consequence—his very exist- ence made possible by the only privileze accorded him by the home Government— the right to draw rations, when there were any, and to Yay a round price for them. Mr. Russell writes of much that is not to be found in the books of accepted histo- rians of the war with Russia. His letters to the Times at the time excited wide and often unfayorable comment, both at home and abroad, by their wholesome criticism, not of those in comrhand, but of those who had sent out an army so ill able to con- tend either with the natural forces or with those of the enemy they were to encounter. Insufficiently Frovisioned, with no ade- quate medical stores, without even ambulance and hospital services pro- vided, the sufferings of the British soldiery through that year form a subject that most English historians prefer to pass by. Mr. Russell, however, was not writ- ing with the Home Office in view, but for readers of the Times, and it was his letters that aroused thet English people to the formation of the Times fund for the relief which to the Western mind is incompre- hensible, but no more so than are some traits of our Western civilization to the Japanese mind. Ourliterary references to women is one of these traits. Mr. Hearn recalls the difficulty he once had in ex- Plaining to an advanced class this line rom Tennyson: She is more beautiful than day. | “The students could understand the i use of the adjective beautiful to qualify | day, and the use of the same adjective separately.to qualify the word maid, but that there could exist in any mortal mind the least idea of analogy between the beauty of day and the beauty of a young Wwoman was quite beyond their under- standing,” yet their religion and their liter- ature accord to woman the highest spir- itual ugporzunities. “The eternal fem- inine,” however, has no place in their con- | ception. Society, even the noun that ex- presses it, is masculine. While the scien- | tific problem of the origin of the Japanese has never yet been solved, Mr. Hearn is | inclined to believe the balance of the argu- ment is in favor of their Malay extraction. Under the submissive sweetness of the gentlest Japanese woman—a sweet- | ness " of which the Occidental can scarcely form any idea—there exists possibilities of hardness absolutely incon- ceivable without ocular evidence. A | thousand times she can forgive, can sacri- | fice herself in a thousand ways unutterably | touching, but let one particular soul-nerve be touched, and fire shall forgive sooner | than she. So, too, under all the amazing self-control and patience of the man, there | exists an adamantine something very | dangerous to reach. Touch it wantonly and there can be no pardon. Of the young men, he says, elsewhere: ‘“They can pre- serve an imperturbable exterior under quite of the army and brought to the front when ' extraordinary circumstances. but under | PAUL HERVIEU. need was greatest what he had asked for, rovisions, medical stores, ‘‘a plethora of octors and—blessing ineffable to all but them, the Avatar of Florence Nightingale and her nurses, angels of mercy minister- ing to sick and wounded as they were never tended before.” The_ contrasts instituted between the French and the British forces on thatcam- paign are frank, but not such as the British eople were accustomed to hear, and “‘the ather of that plague of modern armies,” when the Times began to reach the front, found his position even less enviable than it had Ereviously been. The book throws a sirong personal side- light upon the battle of Balaklava, with its famous charge of the Light Brigade. The whole battle, according to him, was mis- planned from the first. The army was un- favorably posted, while the Russians had for days been busy constructing breast- works “under “volleys of field-glasses” aimed at them by the watching English. The latter had done nothing of the sort. After the first fortnight no effort had been made to strengthen the position at Bala- klava. Every one was busy nntici‘xmting a return home before Christmas. Warning came to Lord Raglan to lose no time in_getting into Sebastopol. It was unheeded. Even the Turkish allies knew what was coming, and told Lord Raglan of it; Rustem Pasha sent in a spy with the news that the at- tack would come next day. Lord Raglan returned the verbal message, ‘“Very well.” The preparation made to meet the impend- ing blow by the British commander-in- chief was arequest that “anything new be reported to him.” The Russians let him know at daylight next morning. Lord Lucan and Lord Cardigan, broth- ers-in-law, and respectively general and brigadier of the cavalry, were notorious ! foes, known as such by the home Govern- ment, who set them to work together—an impossible task. Misunderstanding was inevitable, as the fate of the Light Cavalry demonstrated. Good feeling among all the generals was conspicuously lacking. There was little personal intercourse among them. Lord Raglan’s singular delay, Mr. Russell declares to have been the result of indolence. Sir George Brown was a marti- net rather than a general. The Duke of Cambridge was young and_inexperienced, Evans rough and sour, England simply entlemanly and judicious, and Sir George %nhcart forward, positive and unmanage- able. The home Government had not an- ticipated war. It had been deemed that the probable services required of this array of talent would be diplomatic rather than belligerent, and for such service Raglan woufil have been admirable. Our newspaper correspondent does not mince matters when he tells ot the suffer- ings of the army. The men were coatless, bootless, provisionless, destitute through- out the terrible winter. Itis not to be wondered at that the people at home were aroused by his letters to a high pitch of indignation. Since that time, forty years ago, the British army has been reconstructed on new and modern principles, and the war correspondent has a recognized value, but Mr. Russell’s book will be of interest to a large number of readers as shedding light on a memorable struggle. [London and New York: George Routledge & Sons, Limited.] Out of the East. A thoroughly Oriental effect in yellow and silver is Lafcadio Hearn’s new book just issued by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. “Out of the East” is a volume of reveries and studies in New Japan by a man who is pre-eminently well calculated to give us an interesting glimpse at our little neighbor in the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Hearn was for a number of years a teacher in Japan. He knows the Japanese peoplé thoroughly and he writes of them with a personal as well as a literary enthusiasm. The insights that he affords us upon Japanese charac- teristics are fascinating, There is much | this self-control there is a fiery conscious- ness of strength that will show itself in a | menacing form on rare occasions.”’. i Exceptof filial affection demonstration | | seems to this people indecorous. Love as | | well as hatred are kept within control so | | far as outward exhibition goes. But the | latter emotion has at times its terrible ex- }-ression. Centuries of the highest culture have wrapped the Japanese character about with many soft coverings of courtesy, of delicacy, patience, sweetness and .moral | sentiment, but underneath these charming | multiple coverings remains the primitive | clay, hard as iron, kneaded perhaps with all the mettle of the Mongol, all the dan- gerous suppleness of the Mongol. The world has had so recent an exhibi- tion of the Japanese as a fighter that one articular bit from Mr. Hearn’s book will e of especial interest. He is writing of jinjutsu, the ancient art of figchting without weapons. To the uninitiated it looks like wrestling. You see a crowd of students watching ten or twelve lithe young com- rades, barefooted and bareheaded, throw- ing each other about on the maninF. * % * A professional wrestler would observe more. He would see that those young men are very cautiousabout putting forth their strength and that _the bolds and flings are both peculiar and risky. In spite of the care exercised he would judge the whole performance to be ~dan- gerous play, and would be tempted, per- haps, to advise the adoption of Western ‘scientific” rules. The real thing, how- ever—not the play—is probably more dan- gerous than a Western wrestler could guess at sight. Jinjutsu is not a training for public exhibition. It is an art of war. The master of that art is able in one moment to ut an untrained antagonist hors de com- at. He suddenli dislocates a shoulder, unhinges a joint, bursts a tendon or snaps a bone without any apparent effort. He is more than an athlete; be is an anatomist, and he knows touches that kill as by light- ning. -But this fatal knowledge he is under oath never to communicate except under circumstances where its abuse would be impossible. The art consists not in put- ting forth your own strength, but in utiliz- ing that of your antagonist against him- self—a subtlety of art that is in itself a startling revelation of the Japanese mind. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. For sale by William Doxey, San Francisco.] The Statistician. The eighteenth edition of the Statisti- cian and Economist far surpasses all its predecessors. The claim of its compiler, Mr. McCarthy, that it is “unique and peer- less among books,” will be generally ad- mitted by those who have occasion to con- sult its pages. It embraces all the choicest material and best features of compact cyclopeedias, technical handbooks and field guides, ‘electric veriodicals, chronological summaries, histories and universal dic- tionaries. Within its covers are thousands of curious and valnable facts never before chronicled in abiding form under a sys- tematic classification. Numberless rare and | useful truths, till now fleeting and transi- tory,find here a permanent niche and make arich contribution to the store of human ::ul)ew&l;::i%e tihgt none, whether ignorant ed, rich or poor, old afford. to be without. 'For busy e and women it is invaluable. An elaborate table of contents follows the preface, and grips, a co'giona index will be found at the close of the volume. It containsover 300 new and corrected ) J)agea—inelnded in_which will be found every State election beld during 1893 and 1804 in the United States, together with the gubernatorial and congressional elections in. California by counties; the Wilson and McKinley tariffs compared, acts of the Fifty-third g:ggms,‘l "lafleren', kinds of inlgnul reve- speci: Xpayers, cigars and cigarettes manuiactured, manufacturers’ statistics, whale and salmon fisheries; insurance, fire, life and accident; important changes in the District of Colum- bia as late as February 11, 1895; real and personal property in the United States; all the international expositions held during this century, including the Midwinter, illustrated; Australasian sta- tistics of population, production and bank- ing; money circulation; food supply of the world; population of foreign cities and countries corrected to date, which show an increase of the world’s population of over 50,000,000 within the last five years. San Francisco: L. P. McCarthy, pub- lisher. Price, bound in cloth, $4.] “'The Grandee.” This is a translation from the Spanish of Armando Palacio Valdes, with an intro- duction by Edmund Gosse. Spanish nov- els are rare, and the rank of fiction in Spain may be inferred from the remark of a living Spanish novelist that ‘“a person of good position in Madrid would rather spend his money on fireworks or on an orange than on a book.” The novels of Armando Valdes, how- ever, bave acquired popularity, even in Madrid. Valdes was{;red a lawyer, but early left his legal tomes to enter the fourth estate, becoming editor of the Re- vista Europea, for many years the most important periodical,” from a scientific point of view, in Spain. e has published a number of volumes of critical essays and several novels, of which the one under dis- cussion is his latest. “The Grandee” is a typical Spanish tale. The scene is laid in a town which the author calls “Lancia,” under which name he has pictured for his readers Oviedo, the capital of the province of Asturias, where his early youth was spent. The picture given is an inter- esting, if somewhat exasperating one of picturesque, narrow provincial life, a so- ciety absolutely fortified against public opinion by its ancient prejudices, yet alive with human emotions, passions and in- trigues. Itabounds in laborious humor, and must be read at one’s leisure with plenty of patience to follow the author through the intricate mazes of Spanish society of fifty years ago. The picture given of that life isinteresting and amusing. New York: G. G. Peck. For sale by ‘William Doxey, San Francisco.] ¥or the Sake of the Family. A rather amateurish narrative by May Crommelin. The story hinges upon the family pride of the wife of a titled English- man, who takes a_ poor relation abroad with her as companion. The poor relation attracts a fellow traveler of means and the two fall in loye. They plight troth, but the girl does not reveal her identity. There is a shipwreck. The lovers are separated— both contract the rheumatism irom ex- posure during the wreck and lose sight of each other. There is agony and mystery for a hundred pages or so. then light and felicity, ending in"a marriage feast. New York: United States Book Company. For sale by William Doxey, San Franciseo.] Catmur’s Cave. Those who enjoyed Richard Dowling’s “Ignorant Essays” and his other volume of pleasant papers will be disappointed in this novel, which is an ambitious effort of the quasi-sensational order. There are all the stock ingredients for a thrilling ro- | mance, heavy villain, lightweight ditto, a long-lost heiress, a fin de siecle bachelor and seeking father, not to mention a pre- osterous lion-tamer madly in love with a Eideaus brute of a tiger, whom the heavy villain seeks to make a coadjutor in his villainy, but although well mixed, dread- fully well mixed, the mixture fails to thrill. [New York: The United States Book Company. For sale by William Doxey, San {:rancisco.] TO THE ENCAMPMENT, Grand Army Veterans Will Make a Good Show—A Warm Con- tests The twenty-eighth encampment, Depart- ment of California and Nevada, Grand Army of the Republic, will convene at Sac- ramento at 2 o'clock to-morrow. About 150 members of the various posts in this city will be in attendance. Many of these left for Sacramento last night, but the greater number will leave on this even- jing’s train. The Grand Army headquarters at 6 Eddy street will be transferred to Sacramento to-day. Commander J. M. Walling and staff ‘will leave the city to-night in order to attend the meeting of the council of administration, which will be held at 10 o’clock to-morrow morning. The encamp- ment will open _in the Assembly chamber at 2 o’clock, and at 10 o’clock Tuesday the parade will take place. The principal topic of interest to Grand Army men is the election of officers, which will conclude the business of the encamp- ment. There is no struggle for office ex- cept that of department commander. There are several candidates in the field, but the fight is between Charles E. Wilson of this city and W. R. Thomas of Oakland. —— « PROOF IS POSITIVE THAT LYDIA E. PINEHAM'S VEGETABLE COMPOUND Is Daily Curing Backache, Dizziness, Faintness, Irregularity, and all Fe- male Complaints, i [SPECIAL TO OUB LADY READEZES.) Intelligent women no longer doubt the value of Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound. It speedily relieves irregu- larity, suppressed er painful menstrua- tions, weakness of the stomach, indiges- tion, bloating, leucorrhcea, womb trou- ble, flooding, nervous prostration, head- ache, general debility, ete. Symptoms of ‘Womb Troubles are dizziness, faintness, extreme lassi- tude, “don’t care,” and ‘“‘want to be left alone™ feelings, excitability, irrita- bility, nervousness, sleeplessness, flatu- lency, melancholy, or the “blues,” and backache. Lydia E. 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