The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 31, 1896, Page 18

18 . THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 31, 1896. VELLOW DOGS SAFE ON TEHAMA STREET, Children Pledged to Protect Animals From Hood- lums. The Creed of Kindness Taught the Jefferson School Band of Mercy. How Dominick Syce Saved a China- man From Street Urchins—Dif- ferent Methods. People in the Jefferson School district, which has its center near First and Te- hama streets, are frequently heard to re- mark the change that has come over the spirit of the locality. A few yearsago a Chinaman was unsafe thereabout. If he wasn't forced into unequal hand-to-hand battle he was pelted with stones and made to think that existence in this country had more penalties than the annual poll tax, Woe to the stray dog or cat which raninto the territory of the young barbarians south of Market street. The cur was terrorized with an appe ndant of old oyster cans, and his noisy flight furnished amusement for many a block, while the feline became a target for siungshot and brickbat till she either succumbed to the assault or escaped under some friendly house. When puzil- ism was pooular in the West the urchins of Jefferson School had daily set-tos in back lots, and skinned faces, black eves and broken noses, as well as bruised hands and lame legs, were not rare things. To-day the Jefferson School is one of the most orderly in all the City. The children don’t fight as they used to; they don’t| stone cats, or tie tin cans to the tails of dogs or molest the sons of the Flowery Kingdom. And whv? Because every school child down that way, as soon as he is old enough to write his name, is made a member of an army for the prevention of all the old eyils, and no blue-frocked, brass- buttoned guardian of the peace could ever have done a tithe of the good that those children have accomplished. For the last four years the principal eof the Jefferson School, Miss M. M. Murphy, has been or- ganizing the pupils of all the various classes into Bands of Mercy, and although at first the idea was combated in the dis- trict, it has gradually increased in popu- larity until now every child seems proud of his enrollment. There are 350 members in the organization to-day, and each of them takes this pledge, which, if it isn’t impressive in the reader’s eye, is decidedly effective where it is thoroughly under- stood : “We, the undersigned, do solemnly promise that we will not fight, and that we will do allin our power to prevent cthers from fighting. “We do solemnly promise not to stone Chinese and to prevent others from doing it. “We do solemnly promise not to abuse dumb animals and to.do all we can to pro- tect them from the abuse of others.” Every Friday afternoon, before Jefferson School is dismissed for the week, the dif- | ferent classes gather in the assembly- room, each class being distinguished by a badge of a particular color—red, pink, white, purple, gold or blue. In chorus they repeat that pledge and then recite in unison this stanza from Coleridge: He prayeth best who loveth best All things. both great and small, For the dear God, who loveth us, He mede and loveth all. Last Friday afternoon the children were called upon to relate, as best they might, such experiences as had come under their notice to remind them of their duties as members of the band. Before startingout with the experiences, however, they all joined in.a song, and the voices blended remarkably well. Johnny Gould, a lad of 10, had a story | with 8 moral to it. “You see,” said he, “I was walking down Harrison street and I saw a boy my size with a brick going for a cat and I told him to stop and he says, ‘Shut up, who's doing this?” Then he turns and chases me all his might, but he tumbled over a rock and fell down hill and cut his face up, and the cat got away, and I got away, too.” By that you may see,” said the princi- pal, “that sometimes people are punished in this life for their misdeeds.” And Johnny Gould resigned the floor to Georgie Philips, who had this to tell: “Last week one day some boys on our street tied tin cans to a dog’s tail, and the dog ran like he was crazy, and I ran after it to take the cans off. A puliceman saw the dog and ran, too, and I guess the dog knew we ‘were friends, for he ran right into us, and one of the cans hit me in the leg and scratched it so the blood came. Then the policeman got the cans off; he said ‘I'll give $5 for the name of the boys who tied cans on this dog,” But I guess he never found out.” Dominick Syce was one of the boys who believed in heroic measures, and who wasn’t disposed to waste good advice ‘where sterner methods seemed to be re- quired. He had a few ideas of his own about how to prevent cruelty, and a titter ran through the hall as he reeled off his story: “One day a Chinaman with a bag o’ rags on his back was going along, and a boy began firing stones at him. The Chinaman began to run, and the boy kept a-chasing of him and firing at him, untit I runs up and sticks out my foot and trips the boy head over heels,. The Chinaman laughed and it made the boy madder and he jumps up wild and yells, “What's the matter of vou? ‘I’m all right,’ I says, ‘How d’you like it yourseif? Now go and throw stones at another Chinaman, will you? " “Try to avoid harsh measures, boys, wlha;uvnr it is possible,” advised the prin- cipal. “A long time ago,” said little Willie Hammerschmiat, “I found a kitten on the road aad it was going to die because it never had anything to eat, and I took it up in my arms and brought it home and mother fed it and made it warm. We liked the kitten s0 much after a while that we kept it and gave our old cat away, and now that little kiften is a great big cat and catcnes all the mice around,” “That’s the way the cat is payin, for sdving its life,” remarked .yihfc{::. Bome recitations followed and the schoo] sang to the air of “Home, Sweet Home,” this stanza: Be kind to dumb creatures, nor grudge them your God gave them thelr life, and your love they must And he who the sparrow's fall tenderiy heeds Wil lovingly look on compassionate deeds. And now the little girls were given an TENAMA STREET BAND e = SN fiE;EU%SEA vELLow G MERCY opportunity to spedk in the interests of the society. Esther Mossbacher had been instru- mental in bringing punishment on a man who was cruel to his horse. ‘‘He was driving up a big hill and the horse couldn’t go any further, so the driver got outand beat the horse awfully. I screamed to the man to stop, but he went right on hitting the poor horse, so I ran into a blacksmith- shop and told the blacksmith, and he ran | out and called a policeman and had the man that beat the horse arrested.” Katie Donovan had seen a baif-starved and very weak-looking dog on the street with a sign on its back—*'For Sale.” “I had just been to the baker’s for a loal of bread,” said Katie, “‘and the baker had given me a doughnut, but I had only begun to eat it when I saw the poor dog. I went and gave the dog all the doughnut I had left, and took the sign off his back, and the dog licked my hand. He was weak and lay down by a doorstep, and 1 thought I would go and askif Icould bring him home. When I got back to where I left the dog he was gone, and I never could find him.”_ “But you had reason to be satisfied and pleased with the kindness you showed and with your efforts to do still more for the beast that had, no doubt, been greatly abused by some heartless person,” ob- served the principal. There were recitations and more experi- ences, and Arthur Anderson, a prodigy of 6 years, read a few paragraphsirom a daily paper and was loudly applauded. A little colored boy askead the principal if the band couldn’s sing the **Mocking Bird.” The request was granted, and itis as good as listening to the average concert rendi- tion to hear Jefferson School singing the “Mocking Bird.”” The chorus is really de- lightful, the girls singing on one side while the boyson the other side whistle the air and trill. *Little Boy Blue” is an- other favorite song, and that was also given in appreciable style. Then the 350 children marched down the assembly hall in per- fect order, according to the piano signals for the fire drill. Miss Murphy said the children brought into her office little kittens or dogs which had been saved from cruel treatment. There are some ludicrous features about the actions of the children in carrying out the objects of the band. For instance, one boy nearly had a fight to prevent anotheér from chopping a long wurm in twain. The defender of the worm took it upin his fingers and carried it into school, where he frightened one of the teachers who mis- took it fora snake. But, of course, the boy had to be commended for his act. He was simply following out the Band of Merey idea. The Jefferson School Band of Mercy register is a wonderful collection of curious hieroglyphics, for 6-year-old children have affixed their autographs here and there, and some interesting studies in the chirog- raphy of the young is the result, although some of them sign their names about as plainly as Shakespeare or Horace Greoley used to do. There is plenty of evidence to the fact that these children are doine good. Strong men will heatken to the voices of tender little girls when they would not heed the words of elder people, and there is an example where a man who was beat- ing his horse was called to by a child, “Please don’t whip him, sir.”” “What is 1t to you?”’ laughed the rough iellow. “I belong to the Band of Mercy, sir,” was the response. ‘‘Please don’t whip the horse any more.” “Well, child,” said the man, lowering his whip, “‘since you ask me to stop, I’ll be gol-darned if I don’t stop. ¥or your sake, child, I'll not beat him any more.” ‘When children are taught the creed of kindness at the start, the odds are strongly in favor of their making better men and ‘women. Zaca Lake Needs Federal Protection. The people of Santa Barbara County are very appreciative of the natural beauties of the wild mountainous region which lies back of the fertile coast valley and which comprises very nearly two-thirds of the county’s area, but for years they have been tamely submitting to baving barbed- wire fences strung across their most at- tractive trails, and many of their most de- lightful canyons and mcuntain passes have been closed to travel by speculative individuals who, for the sake of gaining a doubtful title to an uncertain water right, or to snatch a bit of wild pasture which may in the very distant future attain some marketable value, will thus bar public ap- proach to localities. worthless for settle- ment but abounding in scenic attractions and in game. Now Santa Barbara County mountain stream dozens of times, some- times over a broad culvert, at others ford- ing the shallow water. It is probably one of the steepest and most rugged roads on the coast. One who has traversed it many times remarks that although heavy teams are often taken over it it isa sort of road that an Eastern man would crawl up on his bands and knees, and that it fairly *‘leans back” in places. But it is pic- turesque, as such roadsalwaysare. Some- times it loses itself in shadow under over- arching sycamores, sometimes it emerges | on a bare and rocky hillside or penetrates a lovely glade where stately white oaks cast their refreshing shadows, or plunges into a watery glen where naiads might sport in the still night hours. It finally emerges in a charming grove of stately suggestion in the visible landscape of the delighbtful surprise that lies beyond. The wise, however, press on, penetrate a nar- row defile evidently chanueled by the water's flow, and, slowly ascending, come at length upon one of the prettiest sights that the country holds. Here is the lake, an expanse of thirty-seven acres, mirror- ing the blue sky, and the steep mountains that rise above it on every side. A fringe of tules surround it and a noble growth of tall pines, sycamores and white oaks en- circle it, the trees growing close to the water’s edge and sometimes advancing into the shallows. An old cabin made of shakes split from live oak trees, built more than twenty years ago, with a clump of oaks beside it and a nice little clearing extending behind it, is on the opposite sees the gem of all her natural beauties slipping away from it, and her people are petitioning the Federal Government to have Zaca Lake perpetually set apart for a National park. High up in the heart of the mountains this charming body of water lies, nestling in a great bowl-shaped hollow at the foot of Zaca Peak, whose triangular shape dis- tinguishes it along the serrated crest of the San Rafael Mountains. The road thither leads by way of Los Olivos and through a corner of tne Zaca Ranch, the latter a tract of 13,000 acres, one of the largest grain ranches in California, the property of J. W. Calkins, a Santa Barbara banker. The route to Zaca Lake follows Zaca Creek, crossing and recrossing the little white oaks and tall pines, with a level grassy sward, some five acres in ex- tent, climbs a low ridge, heavily wooded, and plunges into what is known as the “Sink.” This Sink has been & fruitful cause of dissppointment to many strangers., It lies just below the lake, and may at some remote period have been connected with it, for it is apparently the bed of an ancient lake, and is a fine sheet of water in flood season, but dries with a stiff mud bottom and a single, small starveling pool of water in the sum- mer season. The traveler is often dis- posed to consider it the end of his quest, and decides that the lake he has come so far to see has all dried up. People have been known to camp here for days before discovering their mistake, for there is no NN 2 | bank. The lake is about 3000 feet above the level of the sea, but the peaks which rise above it appear even higher than when seen from the valley below.. The water has an average depth of sixty feet. The ground beside the lake is a favorite camping ground for summer pleasure seakers, who spend months at a time boat- ing, swimming, hunting and exploring the wild and interesting country about it. Curiously enough, although there are many indications of the prehistoric tribes in the mountains close by, there is nothing in theimmediate vicinity of the lake to indicate that it was ever the site of aboriginal settlement. This is an extra- ordinary fact, taking into consideration the advantages offered by the great body of water, and can only be accounted for by the fact that some strange superstition in- vested the spot, a thecry which is in part substantiated by a vague legend which which has come down to us. The strange body of water, situated at this remarkable altitude and in its weird natural basin, has an air of mystery at twilight which might easily provoke superstition and the awe of the ignorant. The surrounding formation is igneous rock. In a little canyon above the lake a curious natural transformation is taking place, the water which flows through it being so charged with lime that the en- tire gulch is being slowly but surely filled up with the deposit that it leaves.. Mar- velous echoes can be called forth from the surrounding peaks in early morning and evening and curious fogs rise from the water’s surface on warm nights, taking fantastic shapes. The petition, which has gone on to Washington, asks for the reservation from settlement of two sections of land sur- rounding and embracing the lake. Upon this land two squatters are located, but it has only just been surveyed, and no entries have yet been filed.. While it 1s the senti- ment of the people that these settlers should receive some sn.all compensation, this compensation would be a slight mat- ter, as lands of this quality in this region are now taxed for not more than a couple of dollars an acre, and could with difficulty be sold for anythingat all, while they yield but a meager return for arduous toil. Already some of the noblest tree growths have fallen before the settler’s hand, and a few years ago a former settler burned over a large extent of woodland in the vicinity to *“provide more pasture.’”” Should the Federal Government grant the prayer of the people, the forest growth in the vicinity of the lake will be zealously preserved, pleasure-boats will be placed on the water and every effort be made to contribute to the comfort and pleasure of those who seek the spot. Itselevation and the configuration of the hills around it give the locality a most salubrious climate, and it is already recognized as one of the best health resorts in Southern California. Frora Harxes LOoUGHEAD. The Fate of Captain Dreyfus. Dreyfus 1s undergoing his sentence on the Ile du Diable, an arid, desolate rock, one of a group of three small islands sit- | uated fifteen miles northeast of Cayenne, in Guiana. The island is about half a mile long by 300 yards wide, the last exile there having been Delescluze, the French communist, Iam told that Dreyfus, who is the only prisoner on the island, will not long survive the rigid discipline and terri- ble monotony of his captivity. He is per- mitted to see no one but a prison doctor from the mainland, and while he is never for a moment out of sight, by might or aay, of one at least of his warders, all are expressly jorbidden under pain of imprisonment to converse with him. Escape is impossible, for Drey- fus is kept under Idck and key when not at exercise pacing up and down a measured 100 yards by word of command. Supplies are brought daily from the adjacent Ile Royale, where there isa large convict establishment, but it is only in very fine weather that a landing on the Ile du Diable can be effected. To further guard against escape any boat not flving the cipher flag is at once fired upon, while a telephone now connects Dreyfus’ piace of exile with the neighboring islands. A swimmer would stand no earthly chance, for the sea swarms with sharks. Dreyfus is much changed in appearance, and Las grown old and careworn almost beyond recognition. Mme. Dreyfus still firmly believes in her husband’s innocence, and the report that she had taken another name is absolutely unfounded.—Pall Mall Gazette. T MIDOCEAN ADEPTS OF THE BLACK ARTS, Wonderful Feats of the Medicine Men of Kings Island. Savage Chiefs Who Cure the Dying and Resurrect the Dead. They Live on a Barren Rock That Rises Seven Hundred Feet Out of Turbulent Waters. ““The strangest island in the world,” said Captain M. J. Healy of the United States steamer Bear last night at the Occi- dental Hotel, *is Kings Island, 2500 miles northwest of here and 120 miles off the coast of Siberia. ‘‘It lies almost in the middle of Bering Straits, almost equidistant from the A atic and American shores. It is inhabited by 186 of the queerest people I ever sct eyes upon. -The inhabitants comprise men, women and children of all ages, and besides these there are numerous dogs of all degrees except high. “The island is little more than a rock rising out of the storm-tossed waters of the ever-turbulent straits. It is about a mile long and half a mile wide and its sides are so precipitous that they are like cliffs. ““Almost in the middle of the island and at the south side is an indentation made by the rushing waters. This is expanded into a funnel-like hole, reacning into the island and out at the top at an angle ap- proximating fifty degrees. The hole is 130 feet deep and during stormy weather the natives let down a rope and drag up the seals, walruses and other sea animals which tbey have taken. “Itis on these animals that the natives subsist. They are very expert in taking them, as well as great whales, which they do not fear to attack, and in fact secure as trophies of their prowess. They hunt all these animals in their kyaks—boats so stout and skillfully made that, though they are often tossed over and over by the surf, they are never wrecked and are speedily righted. The boatmen sit with their feet in holes in the boats, clad in water-tight walrus skins. These boats will put off successfully where the ordinary boat would not live a minute, “But about the catch of these walruses and other animals and the strange island. The natives have scooped out queer re- ceptacles on both sides of the entrance on the ledge. These are so cool that they are natural refrigerators, and in these they stora the bodies of the animals for future use. There are about twenty of these re- ceptacles or natural refrigerators, and there is nearly always a supply of meat in them, so that the chances of starving at any time are comparatively scarce. “On the right side of the isiand above is the village of the Indians. It is a queer town, whose miniature houses are made of walrusskinsstretched on light frames. The ground is so rough that the little skin abodes are ranged oneabove the other, like. houses in a mining camp on a mountain side. In the distance they look small and fragile, but they are full of people and active as beehives. “From the tossing waves where the Bear lay the catacomb-like refrigerators and the village presented a novel appearance. “The island, although a sort of repub- lic in its government, is ruled by a few medicine men, 2ach of different degrees of importance. The medicine men hold their positions by their remarkable feats of leger- demain. Many people have gone to see Herrmann, and Blitz also, in his lifetime, and have wondered at the feats they have seen them perform. But I undertake to say that none of these professors of the black art have performed more marvelous things than I have seen these barbarian medicine men do there. “For instance I have seen one of these medicine men take a man and lay him on a table and take a big knife and stick it right into bum to the handle. The man would writhe, turn pale, gasp -and die. Then the medicine man would withdraw the knife, go through a few incantations, fumble over the victim, and in a moment he would get up and go about, sound as ever. I have also seen them pluck out rab- bits, birds and other forms of animal life, from impeossible places. They would do things before yvour eyes, that were marvel- ous to us, and to all the natives, for of course the natives believe implicitly in the supernatural powers of their medicine man. “But the strangest thing I saw happened on board my ship one day. There were about 100 ot these natives aboard. One of the natives, agirl, fell down with a hem- orrhage and vomited blood all arounds The blood came from her lungsin streams. She was lying there on the deck as pale as death, and I thought to myself that she would die there, so I rushed a. man off to get Dr. Yeamans, the Bear’s szrgeon. “Before the doctor could get there the chief medicine man rushed out, and, going to the girl, he blew first into one ear and then into the other, and then tapped her on the chin, and she got up and.was all right agein, and she began dancing around on the ship as healthy and active as though there had never been the least thing the matter with her. And mark you, this wasn’t two minutes from the time she had the hemorrhages. I never saw anything so marvelous in my life. There was all the blood before me on the ship, too. “Talk about queer things, where is Herr- mann and civilization alongside of that? “The tribe of Indians have lived there - from time 1mmemorial. They have . been born there, and on the island they bury their dead. The Indians are nomads and Jeave the island every summer, with the exception of a few housekeepers, and don't come back till September. They go to the mainland on both sides, wandering about like our American Indians used to do on the prairies, only that these live largely in their kyaks, while they hunt for seals, wale ruses and whales. “The strange rock in the sea which is the abode of these natives is about thirty miles from Port Clarence. Irelieved them twice when they had through infortnitous circumstapces been reduced to a point bordering on starvation. “I cannot see but that thess natives on that rude rock in bleak and distant Bering Strait are as happy as any people 1 have ever known. 0ir children are as joyful apparently as ours, and in all respects the Booplo Seem to enjoy life as well as we do ere. Did you ever hear of another people like them?” If I had not seen them I would. ?:t:d i$ hard to believe they actoally ex- 4 4