The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 22, 1895, Page 9

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1895. dictum of the architect. “Do not wn!trm;'—l decoration, but decorate construction.” That's the thing that ought to be printed and posted ur in every dressmaker’s parlor in the world— “Do not construct decoration, but decorate construction.” It ought also to be known and studied in our homes. Iwant to talk very earnestly to you about the decoration in the home. Mr. Wendte spoke here of the lack of it in Greek homes. It was not so much lack as you mifht think. They didn’t have & mountain of flam and china, and silk and velvet, and all the shiny things and ribbon ilu:fs and_plush 1hings that we have, but they had more beauty to the square inch than we have to the square mile. They kunew what beauty was. Among the Greeks a table was frequently an object ofg great beauty, richly carved and sometimes decorated with a statuette of one of the gods. Now, think of your tables at home. The great and governing principle of Greek art was its simplicity, its severity, its restraint, The moment a nation begins to decline its art goes with it, alweys. IU begins to lose that restraint, it becomes more riotous, more lond and less beautiful. There are three elements of beauty that are always present in real beauty,in the living body, any tool, or implement, or_vessel, any sm or constructed thing. These prin- s are: First, ease; second, use; third, Now apply these three principles to ; We have an idea the more we can ut onto thingsin the way of decoration the »etter they look, not knowing that decoration means primarily “that which belongs.” We put onto things that which does not belong wnd we have 10 sew it on, or, if in the house or the furniture, we nail it'on, paste it on, tie ng it on, anything to make it stay on it does not belonfi. ‘ne first element of in the house should be in the house ; in the architecture of the hoase asa hole and of the rooms in part. Tnere is a relation between what you live in and what you are. We make our own houses and our houses make ns, slthough it is very much easier to alter the houses than to_alter the people. When we understand the real feel- ing of ‘artisttc truth we can make better fiuuses by making better surroundings for hem. We think of the home as a place to put things up in that we make, We make them with our own hands and we think they are beautiful, and we have been told (this is one of the myths on which woman has been fed) that we, as women, have a special sense of the beautifil. We, as women, have not enough sense of beauty to dress our own bodies beauti- 1 We do not know beauty when we see e women. Then, we are told we have a natural faste in decoration, and all our beautiful little” novels ries tell about “the trace of a woman's —that you could tell in & moment that & woman had been there.”” Well, so you can. These traces of 8 woman’s hand usually con- sist in a birdcage and a flower-pot and a lace curtain. That's in the short stories—they can’t g0 into details, but the bird in the cage and the flower in the pot and the lace curtain in the_window prove there is a woman there. It really does. You can always tell the woman there. Tl tell you of & beautifnl, artistic thing I saw in a house I visited in this City. Anybody can make one like it. First you buy a Japanese doll—that’s beauty for you; and you cut its nead off—that’s true art.” Then you dig a hole in its neck and you put a piece of ribbon in it, and you get a feathler duster and put the handie through the hole in the meck till it sticks out below and the feather duster sticks up above, just like an Indian on the warpath; and then you hang that on the wall &s g decoration.” Then you know that upon your well is a decoration—*‘that which belongs.” No woman who has ever made one of those things, or enything like that, or has seen it in the haunts of her friends and said, “Oh, how sweet!”—no such woman can L‘E claim 'to any sense of beauty or anything ke it. There is an absolute law governing pure beauty. s to be governed by the thing to which it is applied. To understand how to decorate a home you must first feel, under- stand, whata home is and in what way the decoration is to carry out further the home ides. You cannot do anything well in this world without understanding it and loving it and honestly and L‘ourngenusly living up to what you understand and what you love. Mrs. Foley of Stockton had a few re- marks to make concerning the remarks just made, in which she stated that artists, in_her opinion, in decoration, as well as painting and music, were born and not made. “‘These things,”’ she concluded, “will be all right when we feel a little easier about where we are going to get bread to eat.” The congress then took a recess until evening. _— EVENING SESSION. Interesting Papers Read by Miss Abble |, Sage Richardson, Miss Katherine Ball and Others. The evening session was opened by the usual devotional exercises, followed by a very able paper on George Sand (Mme. Dudevant) and George Eliot, by Miss Abbie Sage Richardson. Her treatment of the works and lives of these two great au- thoresses was masterly, showing study and an originality of philosophical treat- ment. The “Elements of Good Taste’’ was the subject of the paper of Professor Bolton Coit Brown of the Stanford University, who said: onot think all the art in the world will make & good home. I do not think all the good taste in the world will make a good character. Good taste is not an element of ie. Broadly speaking, good taste is part of developed character, though not & prim- ement of character. Good taste is the purest kind of common-Sense. A barnisin £00d taste if it is furnished in common-sense. _The second element of good taste is the es- thetic—beautiful forms, beautiful colors; and perfect harmony in these colors and forms js the esthetic part of good taste. When trained not only & source of pleasure to us in the house but {n all our walks of life. I don't know to what extent one is elevated bv know- ing the difference between good color and bad. Of course it is not agreeable to go 1nto a room named Sojourner Truth, came forward. She described, in her negro dialect, how she had been aslave in the South and in the State of New York for forty years, and how her friends had tried to educate her, and she had to tell them that the place where the ‘larnin’ ought to be’ was all growed up. Miss Anihony made this story ;.gply to her own knowledge of art. She said she knew very little of art, but if it could raise the minds of women and spur them on to greater efforts for their ulti- mate advancement, intellectually and mor- ally, it should be cultivated. “Home-made Art,” by Mrs. Katherine Ball, was thelast paperof the evening. She said the artist has learned he cannot imi- tate nature, but by practice he can closely depict what he perceives. She then pro- ceeded to enumerate the outlandish and inartistic figures and forms used for dishes and other articles of householders, show- ing how inconsistent and incongruous this use may become. They are not only in- artistic but awkward and unhandy. But we shall have birds, flowers and fishes on our table china, and much too open work in the embroidery of our tablecloths. In the use of such art we find the sacrifice of usefulness and convenience for the sake of the artistic. 1tis true that many of these outlandish articles of household decora- tion show the development of home-made art in the United States. But I suppose no one has yet given a re- ceipt for the harmonious’ blending and combination of colors, and the honsehold Rev. Lila Frost Sprague of the Aux- iliary Committee. [From a photograph.] decorator is left to her own taste and in- genuity. Thus we find yellow and green, Ppineapple and violet, in_the trimmings of waste-baskets or the backs of chairs and on mantel draperies, etc. There is beaut: though, everywhere. No city in the wori‘f has so many varieties of stores as has San Francisco—Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Spanish, Hawaiian, etc.—and in those shops may be found samples and speci- mens of home art decorations which the ladies should not overlook. Before adjourning Mrs. Cooper an- nounced that hereafter the evening ses- sions of the congress would be held in the First Congregational Church, corner of Mason and Post streets. S THEY WENT TO PALO ALTO. Miss Anthony and the Rev. Anna H. Shaw Visit Professor Jordan. The faces of Miss Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Anna H. Shaw were missed at the congress yesterday. The ladies had taken advantage of an-invitation from_President David Starr Jordan of Stanford University and left on an early train for Palo Alto, as his guests. They inspected the university buildings and grounds during the after- noon and will be in attendance on the congress to-day. Al SBR L TO-DAY’S PROGRAM ME, The Cooks and Housemalds WIIl Be Thoroughly Dis- cussed. “Home and Economics” come up for consideration to-day, and the various pa- pers have been assigned to well-known housewives in the congress. The pro- gramms 1s as follows: Morning session—‘Home Industries—Past, Present and Future,” Rev. Ada C. Bowles, Po- mona, Cal.; “Our Household Limitations,’” and see blue walls and red curtains, or any other equally outlandish _ combination. Whether this sense of good taste in color makes us good citizens or not Ido not know. 1 want to think about it twenty years longer before I can give an_opinion. Whether & man is a-better citizen because he can admire g beautiful sunset or &n harmonious combination of colors is an open question. It is obvious, however, that it makes them happler and bet: ter men and women. Miss May Keeler read a highly enter- uiging paper on “Art in the Home.” She said: Art is a common possession. Art in the commercial ~ rating of the world is not practical. But it is the most practical of all the elements of human happiress because itlivesin the home. The subtle potencies of art’ cannot be decoyed into wrong and per- verted channels. It is spontaneous. It blossoms for the enrichment of humanity. Once all the arts were included in and con- tributed to architecture. Now it is too often in the exclusive possession of the wealthy. Nothing is accidental or meaningless in art, Natural man like the animal had beautiful motions. There is freedom, strength and repose in purely animal nature. All feeling is born of natural causes, but is drawn fortn by ex- traneous causes, The subtleties of art extend throughout all nature. We find it in the modu- lation and culture of voice as surely as one finds it in the dressing of the human body. One or the other soothes and comforts us, In illpess how strongly is this illustrated! Artg has a use not alone in the home butin all o life’s decisions and should be eultivated for the adyancement of human happiness. A garment should enhance the peculiar characteristics of its wearer just as the voice clothes a sentiment, and this same theory ex- tends to the home. 'In_ decoration color is the first consideration. Nothing is more quickly felt than the restfulness and refreshment which proceed from a room decorated in colors which are in perfect harmony. But all houses are not homes and all decorations are notart. At the ciose of the last paper ten min- ures were given to a general discussion. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Stetson said she would break spears with Professor Brown. She said she could not agree with Pro- fessor Brown in that good taste did not make a man better. Professor Brown said that good taste was nothing more than common-sense, and Mrs. Stetson ‘said that if good taste and common-sense did not make a man or woman better then she did not know what did. Miss Shaw’s name was called and she responded in her inimicable manner. She said she knew very little about artin the home. She knew, however, that in some rooms she felt a restful peace come over and that it was due to the harmonious trimmings and furnishings of the apart- ment. In other rooms she felt like going into a fit, so inharmonious and incon- k:{ruous' were the furnishings thereof. Much she thought ‘depended on the art displayed in the decorations of the home for'the shaping of the thoughts of the in- mates. _Art is a God-given faculty and its exer- cise in the home is one ot its most exalted functions. Miss Susan B. Anthony id’ she was in anm _abolition convention in Rochester, N. Y., in 1852, with Wendell Phillips and others, when a blazk woman, six feet tall, [} \ Miss Anna M. Stovall of the Auxiliary Committee. [From a photograph.] 4 turtevant Peet, president State W.C.T. Skilled Labor or Domestic Service,” Mrs. en Campbell, New York; “Cooks and Cook- “K’ Mrs, E. O. Smith, 8an Jose, Cal, {ternoon_session—‘Domestic D Harriet W. R, Strong, Whittier, allTrades and Mistress of None,’ White, San Francisco; “Home or Workshop,” Mrs. Eliza A. Orr, San Francisco; *“Does Home Life Forbid World Service?” Miss Mollie E. Conners, Oakland, Cal, Evening session—“The Woman of Pessimism and the Woman of Evolution,” President Jor- dan, Leland Stanford Jr. University; -‘Organi- zation in Home Industry,” Mrs. Charlotie Per- kins Stetson, S8an Franclsco; */Shall We Cc-op- erate?” Miss Susan B. Anthony. o TR WOMEN WHO LEAD. Characteristics of Some Prominent Members of the Con- vention. Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper, president of the coneress, was born in Cazenovia, New York, and was educated in the Co-educa- tional Institute of that State. During the Civil War Mrs. Cooper was in Memphis, Tenn., and there taught a Bible- class of soldiers numbering from three to five hundred. She was a member of a_so- ciety that looked after the needy families of soldiers, and was vice-president of a so- ciety formed for the protection of refugees. For forty-five years Mrs., Cooper has taught a Bible-class for adults. For the past sixteen years she has labored ear- nestly in behalf of the S8an Francisco kin- dery ns, of which she is now the loved and honored president. She is vice-presi- dent of the San Francisco iated Charities, and of the Century Club. Besides raising a family of children Mrs. Coophe: devoted many years of hg life to charity, temperance, woman suffrage and ail ?Qmsde:rlndadvmwi ideas nfd inmtufi?)nl. MISS TESSA KELSO, I thank the stars I am a Western girl,” is a favorite expression of Miss Tessa Kelso’s. She was born in Qhio, and has lived in California, and thinks that a rec- ord like that cannot be beaten. It is her firm belief that the Western girl is the most fortunate piece of femininity in the wide world, and to look at Miss Kelso’s bright face and hear her happy, ringing langh is to be possessed with the imme- diate conviction that she was born under a Iucky star. Miss Kelso began her career ten years ago as a newspaper woman in Cincinnati. In those days the newspaper woman was something of a rarity, and was only thrown occasional details by a somewhat reluctant editor. A salaried newspaper woman, Miss Kelso says, had never been heard of in Cincinnati; she had to pick up what she could get, and she shrank from nothing— not even from taking the river front as a detail, when it was given her as an experi- ment. She did the river front so well that she was sent down there every day and had to find “stories” among the boats and steamers. Seven years ago Miss Kelso came to Cal- ifornia, and for the last six years she has been librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library. She has just resigned the posi- tion to begin newspaper work again in New York,iut she leaves behind ner a host of friends in the City of the Angels, where her influence in educational matrers has been very widely felt. Miss Kelso is what may be called a self-made woman, for she has carved out herown way in spite of family cares which would have retarded the success of any one with less buoyvancy and determination. As a writer she is just beginning to be known by her articles gn the Arena, the Forum,etc. She and Miss Beatrice Harraden are avarm friends, and they have made the pilgrimage to- gether from Southern California to the shrine of the congress. THE REV. MRS. BOWLES. The Rev. Mrs. Bowles was ordained in the year 1869 in Penselvania, Mass,, and has been a constant preacher of the Gosipel ever since. Mrs. Bowles always asks for and receives the same salary as the minis- ter preceding her. She has occupied the pulpit in Pomona for the past two years, and admires California and her people very much, but considers them young and inexperienced in woman suffrage and tem- perance movements as compared to people in the Eastern States. The Rev. Mrs. Bowles was for ten years secretary of the Woman’s Ministerial Con- ference, and is a member of innumerable industrial, reform and philanthropic asso- ciations. : She is strong, determined, sympathetic and progressive. Her sermons are never written, but are outlined and kept in her mind until they become a part of herself, and, to use her own words, she first “‘gets full of her subject and then fires away.” The husband of Mrs. Bowles, who has long been dead, was also a minister, and encouraged his wife to enter-the minis- terial field as his co-worker. She was mother of three children and stepmother of three more, and though she was a min- ister of the Gospel she was known all over the State as a model wife, mother and housekeeper, and she avers that the knowl- edge of religion, medicine, law or politics on%y tend to make the true woman more tender and loving, and_surely more capa- ble of raising her children properly and shaping their minds into the higher and better channels of life. MRS. EMILY PITT-STEVENg" Editor Call : The women of 8an Francisco owe the successof the Woman’s Congress to Mrs. Cooper. I think she is one of the grandest women the coast has ever known. Sheis not radical, but discreet, and that is the secret of her success. She was the means of bringing these two grand women, Miss Anthony and Rev. Dr. Shaw, to the meeting, and we owe her more than can be expressed in words. The effect of their presence combined with the work of the congress will be to lift up the whole State. Many women are in favor of suffrage, but do not like to say so. This congress will have the effect of popularizing that move- ment. We need anything that will cog- tribute to the suctess of woman's suifrage. It means her advancement, and I have great hope that this congress will help us carry the constitutional amendment passed at the last session of the Legislature in 1895. Many men are in favor of it, too, and all such gutheringu cannot help bavin, their weight. If there was a vote taken o this congress to-day I am certain you would find a large majority of the ladies, and the gentlemen presentalso, in favor of the enfranchisement of women. Miss An- thony is the grandest woman in the United States. Miss Bhaw comes after. The fact that they are to be received and banqueted the Century Club, the most conservative b; o{lsdi_es’ clubs, Ilook upon as being of deep significance. It shows that woman is beginning to show her womanhood. The new woman favors advancement on all lines. Mgs. ExiLy Prrr-STevENs. MRS. LAURA DE, FORCE GORDON. Editor Call : The effect and influence of the Woman’s Corgress must be salutary. The subject of the home is one of vast im- portance. While I think, from looking over the programme, that it is quite as strong as last year in point of speakers, I explain it on the ground that it is because we have Miss Anthony and Miss Dr. Shaw with us, In a general way the effect of the congress will be good, and especially so far as the woman - suffrage question is concerned. The congress 1s working directly for the emancipation of women, and these ladies here, like us, believe in beginning at the foundation. It is necessary in a Govern- ment like ours, The women suffragists concentrate their energies to the emanci- })ation from the foundation, then we be- ieve that the relation of women to the home and society will regulate itself. I believe that before the next Legislature meets mu{{ of the present politicians and leaders will wheel into line on the woman- suffragist question regardless of politics. Lavra DE Force Gorbox. MRS. CHARLOTTE STETSON PER- KINS. Editor Call : The Woman’s Congress was a grand thing for California and the coast. The interest manifest greatly exceeds that of last year and I am highly gratified to note the presence of S0 many men among us. Before 10 o'clock this morning there was hardly standing room and a new life seems to infuse the entire gathering. This shows an intense appreciation of and ad- miration for the two great leaders of the women’s movement of the age. the pleasantest and most favorable in- stences of this congress is the interest— not curiosity—which has brought so many of the other sex among us. CHARLOTTE STETEON PERKINS, BEATRICE HARRADEN. Editor Call: Monday was the first time I ever heard an assembly of Ameri- can women threshing out those great truths which are of interest to every thinking person. I was very much siruck by the ease and with which the women spoke. g‘::‘;cyuemed used to platform speaking ang did not show any nervousness. All the speeches interested me very much. Miss Kelso’s I considered the most vital, for I think all great truths should be conveyed to people in language they can easily understa BeATRICE HARRADEN, MRS. M. V. OSBORNE. Fditor Call: T think the Woman’s Con- gress is a wonderful advantage in the way of awakening and developing the intelli- gence of women. Itisthe best meansin the world of reaching the masses of the women and getting them interested in woman’s position and woman's rights. The attendance is representative of the leading women's organizations of the coast, and the attendance is much larger than last year. It cannot have other than a splendid effect on the different organiza- tions, and will encourage the ladies every- where to do better' work in their homes and over the world, MABEL V, OsBOBNE. RICHEST OF ALL VALLEYS, What the New Railroad Direct- ors Saw in the San Joaquin, WEALTH OF WATER AND SOIL. Thomas Magee Glves His Observa- tions After a Trip the Entire Length. In a letter lately written for the Cary, from the snow in the Sierra Nevada, I made the assertion that those mountains were the most valuable lands in the State, because they hold the snow from which the rivers of our two great valleys derive their waters. The truth of that assertion can only be fully appreciated by those who make a general survey of the more arid of those two valleys. Such a survey was re- cently made by six of the directors of the San Joaquin Valley Railroad. They were: Charles Holbrook, Robert Watt, John D. Spreckels, Captain A. H. Payson, Leon Sloss and Thomas Magee. Claus Spreckels, with two directors, also made a similar survey about a month ago. On the last trip, the districts between Fresno and Hanford, Delano, Visalia and the east side were inspected. The Han- ford district in Kings County was espe- cially interesting. Nine inches of rain would be a heavy fall therein a wetseason; hence, if the local rainfall was the only de- pendence for moisture, no crops, other than haphazard grazing, could be counted upon in any season. In short, between nearly hopeless aridity on the one hand and soil in many places spojled with alkali on the other, the region would be nearly wholly a desert. Itis now one of the richest regions in the valley, because it has been made inde- pendent of local rainfall by irrigation from mountain rivers. Irrigation has not done more for the Hanford region than for every district in the valley where water has been thus used, and I only cite that region because it was naturally one of the most arid of them all. Hanford was not the richest of the dis- tricts through which the directors drove, because it has not yet, by cultivation, got rid of all its patches of alkali; neverthe- less, nowhere in the whole valley will its crops, either of wheat, oats or barley, or of alfalfa, grapes, pears, apricots, peaches, grunes or almonds, be izrent]y surpassed. uccessful farming results from irrigation are due to the one great main source of water supply—the Sierra Nevada—and therefore to those mountains the San Joagnin Valley is practically indebted for all of its developed wealth. True, the sun- shine and soil were there, but the sun heat was ineffectual and the soil barren, until water_ artificially applied made an unsur- passedly fruitful agricultural marriage. Nor is this all; even a country with ample rainfall would derive great benefit from irrigation, for, as we all know, rain frequently fails to fall when its descent would apparently do the most good, while in the case of irrigation, the water may be applied at just the right moment, and thus the very best results can be obtained. The question, and it is a very interesting and important one, will here be asked whether the whole of the_land of the great valley has been irrigated. The answer is no; not over 400,000 acres of it have been watered, while at least 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 acres yet remain to be irrigated, and even of the remainder, but a small portion is necessarily desert land.. It will thus be séen to what a vast empire irrigation has not yet been applied in the San Joaquin Valley—lands as easily and cheaply sus- ceptible of being brought under the do- minion of that beneficent process as those already rescued by it from hopeless or par- tial sterility, and brought to the highest stage of agricultural wealth. Think of trees with a load on each of 1000 to 1200 unds of prunes, as they have had near ‘isalia, and of raisin and wine grape vines yielding, as in exceptional cases they do around Fresno, twenty tonsof grapes to the acre, the average frequently being eight tons. hese results have been obtained in older districts around Fresno and Visalia, not now from full, but only from partial irri- gation. And this is one of the most in- teresting and profitable facts connected with the system. g After a district_has been irrigated from five to six years it is no longer necessary to run water through any but the main ditches, for by that time lateral seepage has wet the whole soil and the moisture, originally fifty or sixty feet below the sur- face, permanently remains at a depth of from five to six feet. Irrigation is thus reduced to half its running expenses, be- cause it is reduced to half its labor, while in addition the quantity of water needed is reduced to not over a third the supply originally needed. One hundred and fifty thousand acres of land around Fresno now need sub-irrigation only, that is, irri- gation in the main ditches by lateral seep- age. gI haye stated how much land in the San Joaquin Valley can be that has not yet been irrigated and the question will, there- fore, naturally be asked whether these lands continue in their naturally arid con- dition because there is not now enough unused water left with which to irrigate them. And here is the place to speak of the enormous supplies of life-giving and wealth-creating water possessed by the Sierra Nevada. I am assured by those best competent to judge that there is at least double the water still going to waste in these Sierra rivers that would be necessary to irrigate all of the still dry lands between Stockton and Bakerstield.” Seven of these rivers are of majestic flow. They are the Kern, Kings,” Kaweah, San Joaquin, Merced, Tuolumne, Stanislans and the Mokelumne, From only two of these rivers systems of irrigation” at _all commensurate with their flow have so far been established, and yet that flow seems to hav e been very little af- One of | to fected by the water taken. Some idea of the watery wealth still to be appropriated for irrigation and of the work remaining be done in that connection may be formed from these facts. The extent to which the waters of these large rivers are sure to be made serviceable for irrigation purposes at once becomes apparent upon examining the irrigating systems from such lesser rivers as the Kaweah and Tule rivers, to which the fertility of the Porter- ville, Visalia and Tulare districts is wholly ue. And yet, while recognizing the immense value of the waters of our great mountain reservoirs for what has already been done through their use, a fact should here be stated te whick I have never known atten- tion to be called, and that is that the Freatert wealth of California does not lie n its gold deposits, its kingly timber- belts, in the high average wealth of its soil, or even in its ample supplies of water. These are all immense sources of natural riches, but they do not all equal, I think, the wealth bestowed upon our two great valleys in the long days of summer in con- tinnous cloudless snn[lflxt and riotous sun heat, That the latter fierce in its in- tensity we all know. Much discomfort, too, is created by this intense heat. Never- the'leis, it is this superabundant outpour- ing of caloric, more even thanJabundant water for irrigation and the rich soil of our great gvalleys, ithatZjproduce ¢ erops, the lbnnfiwx and valueof which no one ap- preciates who has not seen them in this, one of the most favorable ever known in the great valley. It may be said of great heat as of t cold, that those who are sheltered a do not exert themselves suffer most from it. Those who sit fanning themselves beside iced drinks in the summer heat of the San Joaquin suffer more from that heat than those working in it. A gentleman who J growing seasons for months rode every day on horseback through the hot valley says he did not in: the least suffer thereby. This is largely due to the extreme dry- ness of the air; 85 deg.in the moist at- mosphere of this City or of New York is more trying than 110 deg. in the shade or 130 to 140 in the sun in the great valley, where sunstroke is unknown. The direc- tors of the road, without suitable light clothing, rode in wagonsevery day, driving from 5:45 A. M. until 4 to 6 ». M., with the thermometer during the hot hours at an altitude of 100 to 110 deg. They not only did not_suffer, but came back "bene- fited by the trip. . Nature’s ferfility, even in temperate climates, is almost miraculous, but 1n the San Joaquin Valley, for the reasons stated she is absolutely explosive, in the sense o actually bursting with a wealth of crops nowhere surpassed and but rarely equaled. Four crops of alfalfa, two of grapes, one of wheat and another of corn from the same land, without the application of fertilizers, or even a thought of their use, everybody can now behold, necessarily marveling constantly at the sight. The alkali of the San Joaquin Valley, thought to be wholly a curse by those who are unacquainted with the facts, has much to do with preserving the life of the land under the heavy pressure of two to four crops a year. Itcannot be said of alkali as the Indiaps said of whisky, that too much is just right; but a certain percentage, which the most of the land possesses, is a valuable adjunct to agriculture, because it contains chemical constituents which add ermanent fertility of soil. Some of the E\nd of the valley is badly alkalied, and therefore barren, but much of it can be divested of its injurious surplus of alkali by flooding (that is by leaching) or the a?kali can be neutralized by the applica- tion of gypsum, large deposits of which are to be found in the east side of the inner coast range, sloping. toward the great valley. But_there is so much land in the valley brought under a high state of cultivation, and such vast areas that are yet by the same process to be similarly made in- tensely productive, that it is unnecessary to dwell on the problem of reclaiming the lesser areas of refractory land. Indeed, throughout all of the val ei it is not yet so much what has been as what yet remains to be done that attracts attention. And yet probably in no portion of the world is there a field for the elicitation of greater wonder and admiration at what agricul- ture has already accomplished, touching, as it here does, nearly every variety of land product. Those addicted to pessimistic views of our future, and who think that if the field of wheat growing is lost to us then all is lost, should see of what varied crop re- sources of the very highest pecuniary value and of very limited area of world production the 8an Joaquin Valley is now possessed. I have here spoken of the wealth of the San Joaquin Valley, but the ownership of land in 1t, and the systems of irrigation have not always been economical or wise, nor has cultivation in it by any means al- ways been profitable. Land purchased or acquired by various schemes from the Government at $1 25 an acre has been held at $40 to $100 an acre. The profits of sale to the speculators who acquired those lands have thus been enormous, the settler at the very outset having had the heavy wei;iht of excessive prices hung around his neck. Selections of colony locations, 100, were seldom well adyvised, Then irrigation in some cases resulted in bringing so much alkali to the surface as to make cultivation impossible, without at least two seasons’ flooding, which was not always possible, Colonies settling in the valley in some cases were churglgfl $60 an acre for badly alkalied land. Their consequent failure kept hundreds of other newcomers from buyine. outhern Pacific freight overcharges, which _have been the chief cause of want of profits in farming and fruit-raising, have not been by any means the only drawback to increased settlement and cultivation. The raisin-grower is charged 5 per cent commission in the valley and 214 per cent commission on the Atlantic sitile, where his crop is sold. He generally needs ad- vances, and pays 10 per cent interest on them. There was a time in the raisin districts when $200 to $250 an acre net was made from that crop. These excessive profits proved in a Egeneral way to be an unmitigated curse. Everybody went crazy on raisin - growing, and therefore the boomer and seller of land at outrageously high prices had a perfect bonanza. Land ‘was sold on the credit. system, and nearly everybody went in debt heavily. Prices fell last year—indeed, they then went out of sight. In the blue days, and they have been many during the past five years, Sheriffs were the chief land operators. I think it doubtful whether Southern Pacific back-breaking charges (of which the di- rectors of the new road everywhere heard) have had any more injurious effect on the development of the SBan Joaquin Valley and the profits from cultivation than the high prices charged for land. Those who acquired dry lands were en- titled to large profits for putting water on and making them irrgable, but they would have made enormous profits had they charged one-third to one-half the Tices theg actually exacted. In short, and grabbing on the most outrageously wholesale scale has been, next to railroad exactions, the great curse of the valley. Families and large land monopolies are not apt to be found together. Confinement of attention to special crops is another great drawback in the valley, although a much-needed change in this respect is gradually takin, lace. The farmer of the valley is beginning to learn that he must give attention to details, by producing his own poultry, eggs, butter, meat and vegetables—that is to say, to bu; nothing he can raise on his own ground. The exposure of costly agricultural imple- ments to a raging sun, the air notoriously arid, seems nearly universal. There is no excuse for such folly. ¢ The San Joaquin Valley is greatly in need, on a wholesale scale, of u.veri;]' homely element. I mean the domestic hog. He is now occasionally but he should every- where be seen. He isat home on almost any kind of feed, and therefore, as a most useful scavenger, he takes care of all waste and refuse. But one animal equals the hog in his power of digestion, and the ease wiaa which he can make himself at home on any kind of feed. Of course I am not lacing the hog in competition with his Sigesuve superior, the goat. An experi- enced Illinois hog-raiser says that hogs can be raised in the San Joaquin Valley at half the cost of their production in the reat corn and hog State of Illinois. 5‘here is a large pork-curing establishment at Los Angeles, and thither, at necessarily very high reigl]t rates, most of the grunt- ing products of the S8an Joaquin Valley are shipped; the small remainder emit their last squeal in San Francisco slaughter- houses. g RS Bat the 8an Joaquin Valley is still very short — most unjustifiably short in an economical sense —on hogs. Farmers there, now baving few of this kind of hog, should cry for them. San Joaquin Valley farming and fruit growing interests would show very different financial statements if more hogs were raised: There is a special work for the American hog in the valley. He is needed to aid the advance of the prices of raisin and wine grapes. Two crops of these are yearly ered, the flnf in August and September and the second in October and November. The second crop is not equal to the first in either quantity or quality. It is especially apt to suffer in the latter point from the fact that it is gathered in the rain: season, when drying is difficult. Thi second crop is in the nature of a surplus, and comes in competition at the Bast with the first crop; indeed, some sellers manage here and there to work it off as the better article. Now, the second crop should be gener- ally, as it now in some cases is, left to be thered by hogs. There is said tobe no fi:mr or more fattening food forthem. The hog does not injure the vines in the least, either, in harvesting the second crop. His use in this way, therefore, is most appro- priate, and his sale for cash always certain and generally remunerative, Everywhere, evén now, we saw signs in towns: "C/uh paid for hogs.” These signs would be much more common and the prices paid much higher if one of the largest pork- 9 curing establishments in the world were established in San Franeisco. 5 I was told, I do not know how correctly, that California pays $3,000,000 yearly for hams, bacon and lard. Itisan economicat outrage that one dollar goes out of the State for those products. The directors of the new road had a most profitable trip, in the sense of acquiring very much valuable information as to the condition and resources of the great valley. They were also enabled to select two routes, along either of which the line ma; wisely be built. They were all astonishe and gratified at what they saw of the bursting wealth of the valley—a wealth at once of quantity and quality. In_view of the size, wealth and future possibilities, they were deeply impressed by the sacre trust committed to their care in the man- agement of the people’s railroad through it. . Each of them, therefore, felt that nothing connected with the road should be a source of farofit to them unless every shareholder also partook of the profits. The directors of the road were every- where received as friends. They could and did everywhere assure the delegations they met that none of them owned a foot of land in the valley,and that not one of them proposed buying any, so that land | speculation or town-lot gambling was not even in_their thoughts. They stated that | they did not come to build a road with a | sideshow of speculation in anything, or to | move or cause the removal or injure exist- | ing towns, but that they only desired to | acquire knowledge as to where the line could best be laid out to serve the valley ‘best and do the greatest good to the great- est number of its people. Their object, they said, was to aid the commercial, in- dustrial and real estate interests of the City, but, to accomplish this, they all knew that they must develop and make friends of the people of the interior, on the principle of co-operation. They had Erevlou:ly believed the road would pay, ut after their trip they were positive it would pay a fair interest on a basis of ireiihts and fares far below those exacted by the Southern Pacific lines. There is no means known to me by which the future of San Francisco can be better measured than by a trip made | through the valley av this season. This | City hasinow for the first time in its his- | tory Flaced itself in the position which it | should iong have occupied of the friena and developer of the resources of the in- terior of the State. But working together, as I believe both peoples will for the next ten’ years, will develop resources and wealth not only unsuspected by 'strangers, but of which the most of us do.not our~ selves dream. THOMAS MAGEE, A STEAMER ON THE YUKON, The Brig Geneva to Carry Away a Stern Wheeler to Alaska. ‘The Missing Engineer of the River Steamer Modoc Is Discov- ered Dead. The brig Geneva is lying at Howard-street wharf No. 3 taking in supplies and ma- chinery for the Yukon River, Among the cargo being stowed away is a large stern- wheel steamer which is going aboard piece by piece. The steamer was built by Mat- thew Turner at Benicia and "afterward taken to vieces and sent to this City. The Geneva will sail from here to St. Michaels. The steamer Bertha, which arrived from Alaska last week, sails for Victoria to-day. On her return from British Columbia she will proceed to St. Michaels, taking with her a small army of mechanics toput the sternwheel steamer together. The latter will then be put on the Yukon River and will be used as a mail and supply steamer for the miners. Being of light draught she will be able to go further up the river than any large boat has eyer dared venture. The Board of Harbor Cowmissioners met yesterday afternoon, but transacted very little business outside of routine mat- ters. The bonds of Hyslop and Ros- borough, lately appointed wharfingers, were approved. Bids were received for the erection of a coal platform on seawall ot 11, for the accommodation of the San Francisco and North Pacific Railway Com- sauy. Darby Laydon was the lowest bid- er and was awarded the contract for $1027. Another of William Mighel’s vessels is going out of thecoasting trade. Bhe sailed yesterday for Puget Sound, from where she will take in a cargo of lumber for South American ports. The body of Michael Ward, the engineer of the river steamer Modoc, who was drowned two weeks ago Sunday morning, was recovered on Monday near Freeport. Ward took his watch as the steamer was leaving Clarksburg for Sacramento. On_the trip up he either fell or was knocked off the fantail and the steamer barely escaped crashing into the Sacra- mento bridge. Freeport is about twelve miles this side of Clarksburg. ‘Ward’s life was insured for about $5000, and the finding of his body means much to his widow and little family. He was known as a sober, steady and industrions man, and heleaves a large circle of mourn- ing friends. i‘he United States steamer Albatross sailed for the north yesterday, her ulti- mate destination being the Bering Sea. The Australia sailed for Honolulu yes- terday morning with a good sized crowd of Eassengers and well stocked with freight. The steamer Corona arrived from San Diego and way gorts. She was delayed several hours’ by strong headwinds. Among the passengers were W. R. Dailey and his dramatic troupe. ———— Two New Lady Lawyers. The following were yesterday admitted to practice law in the courts of the State: Edward James Banning, Arthur Brand, Willard Wall Butler, Alice Ann Clark, Mabel Clare Craft, Jeremiah Judson Cudsworth, Richard Vincent Curtis, Walter Everett Dorm, Nathaniel Baker Frisbie, Edwin Otto Hahn, William Theodore Hess, William Francis Humphrey, Guy Rey- nolds Kennedy, Harvey Arthur Kincaid, Abraham Powell Leach, Fvivs Lent, George geeley Littlefield, Albert Ware Lyser, James NEW TO-DAY. CALIFGRNAFUBNTURECE Words and even pictures do scant justice to our subject h ere — Chiffoniers and Dressing-cases. For every picture we show we’ve ten other § pieces of different design. The shape of the mirror, the grain of the wood, the thorough hand pol- ish and the general fine finish—those are the features on No mirror here, but so much space, such ample drawer room and the two special toilet draw- ers at the top— added charms, all of them. Where space is scant — that’'s where this example suits so well. For a man who i shaves—shaving stand @ and chiffonier in one —and at the cost of # cither. es- A piece of / pecial daintiness— %l delicate enough for =1 a bridal gift, useful, delightfulto any one and in any place. Four small upper drawers, so useful for gloves, hand- kerchiefs and trink. ets, and a “bonnet box” as well in this particular offering. Breadth of drawer—so much desired by so many— [P& is the leading attraction in this chiffonier —it’s comfort- ably low too— people vary in height. The wide oval mirror, swinging to any angle, is a constant comford —here we have it with splendid spaces below. High in size, low in price—a “poor man’s piece,” and yet withal as service- able as the most expensive, if not j quite as decora- tive. A modifica. tion of bureau, dward Manning, Alired Bailey McKenzle, & Victor Lathrop ~ O'Brien, James Willian dressing - case O’Halloran, John Prosek, Elbridge Nelson R s Rector, Tod G. Robinson, Charles William and chiffonier, V. ow Van elt, illiam Basi e, - Randolph Virginius Whiting. . ETOpTRhs the ful, comfort- R N able—a “mul. “nothing so good but it has a flaw” There is one serious objection to the Robert MANTELL Havana Ci- gar ; it cheapens a lux-. ury—reduces it to the level of a popular en- joyment If you don’t object to that - see that your cigar bears this mark. tum in parvo” in truth. A superb dress draw- er, fit for the modern “hair-cloth” skirt, a long cheval mir- ror and a maultitude of other com- forts. Will this brief exhibit serve to show you that in the line of Chiffoniers we’re well supplied ? Carpets . Rugs . Mattings CALIFORNIA FURNITURE COrMPANY (N. P. Cole & Co.) 117-123 Geary Street’