The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 9, 1896, Page 25

They Gather Starfish for the Schools A business has lately been established in San Francisco that is most likely the only one of its kind in existence. To be sure, it has made no flurry “‘on change,” and so | far there is no sign of gompetition. Baut, then, the business is not a very lucrative one, Still, those engaged in it are satis- fied with the returns and willing that it should last. The fact of the establishment of the business makes it necessary to state that | a use has been found for the starfish. Some people may state that it has long been useful in the way of ornamenting mantels and making seashell collections. But the use to which it has lately been put is greater than all of these. It isthat of serving as models to teach children how to draw. It was some time last March that the teachers of the schools in the northern part of town introduced the starfish as an adjunct to their method of instructing young minds in the matter of delineating form on paper. From the first the scheme was a success and the children made more rapid progress than had ever been known before. The reason for this is due to the fact that starfish are all alike and yet very unlike. queer-looking littie lumps down the cen- ter of each. Itiseasy enough for a child to “see’ these, and also easy to make it see that in no two of the creatures do the points turn in the same. Some of them are very symmetrical and straight, while others seem to all turn one way and have | all the curves of the proverbial ram’s horn. These differences are what cause character, the same as can be seen in the human face, and by teaching the children All have five points and a row of | to see it the drawing-lesson was an easy one. Of course to use starfish for the purpose of instruction it was necessary to have | plenty of them, and when school was'in | session the teachers used to send the good | boys out to get them. The boys liked the job, and it was astonishing what slow work it was to gather a few dozen of star- fish. This plan worked very well, how- ever, and there were alweys plenty of models on hand. It was after school closed for the sum- | mer that the boys thought of making a business of starfish collecting. The girls were, of course, then most interested in | drawing, but it was a difficult task for | them to get starfish to keep up their | studies during vacation. The only way to | do was to bribe the boys to go out and get | specimens for them, That is the way the | business started. | Bome of the boys have made consider- | able money out of the work. Two or | three days of each week they spend out at | North Beach picking the starfish from | the rocks. It is pleasant work for boys, | and some of them stay out there all day. They usually take a big basket with them, {and at low tide simply climb over the rocks picking up any and ail specimens | that are within reach. Each of the boys has regular customers and they sell the star- fish for 5 cents apiece. Some of the girls buy two or three every week. The best | part of it for the boys is that the starfish do not ‘‘keep” very well. After one of twoitis no longer fit for service. If it was the girls would trade them among themselves and so do the boys out of a fine easy business. them has served as model for a day or| THE SAN. FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 1896. The laziest mule in all California is the one on the Farallon Islands that belongs to the lighthouse- keepers. He is the successor of the late lamented *‘ Jerry ” and is known to bis owners as “Patsey.” In many ways he 1sa smart mule, but he | devotes most of his talents to devising means to avoid the The take him to do it. from the stari seemed pleased with his ho out on the steamer Madrona and at on He roamed over the istand at will, and as no work was required of him he was the happiest mule in the stail. But a day came when Patsey was not happy. It was after he had been on the island three montas and the Madrona came back on her quarterly visit. He then found out what he was there for.. As soon as the supplies were landed on ths wharf Patsey had to haul them to the lighthouse. And, oh, what hard work he found it after his three months’ vaca- tion. Every pound was a ton and his un- willingness made it about three.. He has never forgotten that day. The next time the Madrona came back Patsey was ready. The first visit of the steamer made such animpression on him that he even recog- nized the whistle as | the sound came over the water througha thick bank of fog. When the supplies were on the landing Patsey was nowhere to be found. Search for him as they would it was the next day before he was unwill- ingly at work. The next time the steamer came the keepers were ready for Patsey’s trick. As soon as he heard the whistle a shiver pass- little work that is required or him. The strange thing about his pian is that he goes to more work to avoid work than it would Patsey has been.on the island for about three years, and ed over him and he started for one of the highest hills on the I island, never stopping until he had reached the top, all thel Laziest ule in the Golden time giving utterance to pioans of anguish. To climb the summit was an awful task, and Patsey was wet with perspiration when he got there. Of course he was soon captured and brought back, and no doubt he. found his work much Larder for his unnecessary exercise. But it failed to cure him and every steam- State er day the same performance has to be gone through. On one occagion the Madrona happened to bein the vicinity, possibly chasing an escaped whistling-buoy, and gave a long blast of the whistle. me. He was brought ce given full liberty. Patsey was not expecting anything of the kind, and at once became filled with fear. There was no time to climb the peak, 8o he flew over the rocks to a cave. The entrance was arugged one, but Patsey man- aged toget in and, as he thought, was out of danger of work. It was two days before Patsey was missed, and a long search was necessary to find bim. And then the fun com- menced. It was easy enough to get in, but getting out was an- other matter. In fact, Patsey could not do itunaided, which was the reason he stayed there so long. Blocks and tackle and several hours’ bard work were ne- cessary to get the frightened mule out, and when at last he mustered up courage to look at the wharf and saw no boxes there he was a most foolish-looking mule. Patsey has got so that he knows when the steamer is com- ing without hearing the whistle. He knows when it is due to a day. Two or three days before the time he will make bimself scarce. On one occasion the ves- sel was several days in making a landing and poor Patsey was nearly starved, but he never got hungry enough to overcome his aversion to work. The keepers get con- siderable amusement out of Patsey’s un- willingness to work. ‘They don’t mind it, particularly as they know where to find himnow. The general verdict of all visitors to the island is that Patsey should have been a tramp. *‘Did you notice that?” asked Dr. J. J. Clarke of this City to me as we were rid- ing on a Sutter-street car. What he drew attention to was a Chinese passenger who, when asked for his fare, took a nickel from the interior of his left ear and gave it to the conductor. “A queer place for carrying money,” I said. *I know of many oad places that people carry money in, but that is the | oddest.”’ “It was with a view of drawing your at- tention to a dangerous practice that I asked you to look at that Chinaman,” said the doctor, and then he nudged me to look in the direction of a well-dressed lady who had but a moment before taken her seat and was fumbling in her purse for her fare. She fourd the coin she was in search of and placed it betwe:n her lips while sne closed her purse, and then taking the coin from her mouth, held it in her hand until 1t was called for. “I suppose you saw that lady place that coin between her lips:” asked the doctor, “Yes; whatof that? I've seen that done a hundred times.” 2 “Did it ever occur to yon that the prac- tice is a dangerous one and the source of more disease than many people imagine? Does that lady know where the coin’was before she placed it in her mouth? May | it not have bgen in the ear of her Chinese | laundryman or cook, or may it not have | been in the pocket of some individual af- | fected with a contagious disease? [f it was in the ear of an individual who had an affection of that or- DON'T PUT MONEY IN YOUR MOUTH gan the microbes of the disease would «ling to the coin and when placed between the lips, if there should happen to be a cold sore there, or, asit often happens, a rupture of the tissue, the germs of dis- ease would find lodgment there and the party guilty of the practice would wonder how it happenea that there was anything the matter with ber. The microbes of contagious disease wiil attach themselves to coin, and now you can see how easy it is to transmit disease, not only by a coid sore or a lip that is what is commonly called ‘cracked,’ but by inhalation. “The practice,”” adaed the doctor, with some vehemence, ‘‘is not only dangerous, but it is positively disgusting, and I can- not understand why so many ladies are given to it.” | the word of the men who make the state- Strangt Diet of Farallon Tsland Rabbits Students of natural history are continu- ally finding some strange habit developed or partly developed in the animals of Cali fornia. The reason for this is that there | is such a variety of climate and conditions within a comparatively small area that the creatures simply adapt themselves to | the locality in which they happen to be. In no other part of the world can one get such changes of temperature with so little change in location altitude as can be found | between this City and San Jose or Stock- | ton. Nor can such radically different islands be found so close to the mainland as the Farallones are when compared to | the coast of California. The statementsfof the light-keepers and egg-pickers are that the rabbits live on the myriads of dead fish that are washed ashore every day. They will’eat any kina, although they seem to prefer shellfish to all others. At any hour of theday the rabbits can beseen along the shore hunt- ing the rocks for food. ‘When the rabbits are eating the fish they look very much as they do when they are eating cabbage, and nibble it in the same way. Theydo not seem to be the least particular as to the condition of the fish they are eating and will make a meal off one that has lainon the rocks a week just as soon as from one that has T Such being the case it is but natural that the creatures living there should be rad- ically different from the rest of their tribe in other parts of the wortd. But even so, it is hard to conceive of rabbits eating raw fish. And yei that is what they do on the Farallones. They have been seen in the act,and should one be inclined to doubt ment there is no denying the fact that there is nothing else for them toeat. It iz also known that rabbits are big eaters | and if they were deprived of food they | would soon cease to exist. To count all of the rabbits on the Far- allones would be an endless tosk and cer- tainly require atleastsix figures to express the number. Thay are there by the thou- sands and all seem healthy. Even in the rainy season the isiands are almost devoid of vegetation, and such as it is does not seem calculated to make | good eating even for rabbits. The plants | are very few and of slow growth. They are also lacking in nourishment, being of | the lichen and moss varieties. Certainly, | even when the islands are in their | greenest there is not enough to sustain | one-tenth of the rabbits that live there, just been washed ashore. It isinteresting to know that the rabbits that live on the Farallones have contracted their present mode of living within the last thirty years, as they are the descendants of tame rabbits that were brought there by the first lighthouse-keepers. They are not as pretty as their ancestors. In fact they have become very lean and haggard look- ing and have miuch the appearance of a half-starved coyote. But the fact that they have adapted themselves to their new conditions is only another example to J show that there is somefoundation for the Darwinian theory. However, it might be | well to state that tame rabbits that are raised with chickens have been known to eat scraps of meat and other refuse from the kitchen. A strange thing about the Farallon rab bits that eat shellfish is that they seem to pe struck by some sort of plague about once a year. At such times they will die by handreds, and on one occasion the island was nearly depopulated. The sick- ness always comes after the rainy season, when the green feed 1s at its best. Pos- sibly mixing the decayed fish and green food miay be the cause of the trouble. ]';an Shoes oing Out. The red shoes are going. This is not a joke concerning their movement as they are propelled, but an announcement that they are falling into disuse. This discov- ery has been made by a representative of Tue CanL on Market street, the great thoroughfare of the Pacific Coast, upon which all the customs and manners of the peoples who dwell west of the Sierras have exposition. A few months hence and the red shoe will be as rare as the extinct dedo. Where there were a dozen pairs of red shoes on the feet of Market-street pedes- trians a year ago, there are less than balf a dozen now. The same phenome- non of the decadence of their popularity has been observed at the seaside, at the country hostelries, and wherever civilized men and women have appeared in public during the present summer. Hotel clerks have noticed it; social philosophers have moralized because of the fickleness of the public taste; bootblacks have chuckled because, while their thews and sinews have been exercised, a shining and un- ceasing stream of nickels has trickled into their coffers. The well-dressed man now covets the velvety black gloss to adern his shoes which only the skill of the pro- fessional bootblack is competent to pro- vide. A leading shoe-dealer confirmed the ob- servations made by the representative of Tue CaLn who was looking into this sub- ject. ‘*Another year,” he said, “will see the red shoe as uncommon as it was dur- ing its first appearance. Thege are many less calls for red shoes than there were one year ago. Whast is the reason? I cannot give you one. The shoe-dealers generally are glad that the public are taking this turn. The returning preference for black shoes will enable thzdnnlers to carry on business with much less capital. The red shoe has appeared in the same variety as the black footwear, button, laced, high and low. This has made it necessary to keep up practically a double stock, as we have 1o meet demands for all iizes and styles in both red and black shoes. “J am surprised at the varieties of styles there are in shoes although I have been familiar with the business many years. The shapes of toes, the shapes of heels and the descriptions of curves are many. Now so far as 1 have been able fo learn there is no special reason why the red shoe be abandoned. No ultra fashionable has decreed it. This appears to be a case where the public has tired of a fad. The red shoe first came into common use in San Francisco about 1893 and for two years its local popularity continually increased. It came from the first in all varieties, like butterflies for instance, cro Mmoo Bn = pIME =2 C wer® (mn W R\ Nl 1f the excellence, the variety and the number of clubs. all tending to better thq socla! side of man’s life, be any indication of the condition of soclety, then San Franclsco need have no fears for her reputation. - For in all of these qualities in regara to clubdom the City by the Golden Gate though young ir years occupies a position far in advance of many of her older rivals. Indeed the fact thata city can present associations of men—clubs if you will—the outgrowth of a high development, intel- lectually, socially or pbysically, Is proof of its social advancement. This condition, it may be sssumed, reflects the culture and refinement of the community. And as San Francisco olubs in their own respective spheres are the peer of any other clty’s civic pride should extend to then. The clubmen themselves are proudof their or- ganization. Meet a San Francisco clubman any- where on earth and in five minutes he will have told you something, a story perhaps, or a vivid de- scription of his own clubhouse. He may talk to you ot Bohemis, the olub known all over the globe Wherever art is understood or good-fellowship ap- preciated; or, perhaps, the conversation may drift into the subject of physical culture, and tnen world’s record and salt-water swimming tanks ana other things will be mixed up in connection with the Olympic Club. The Press Club may be men- tioned. ‘Those nights with the cream of Bohemia, those late watches! And the wit, the glorions voices and divine musiclans from everywhere! Ah. those late watches! Nothing like them in all the wide world. Mere mémories of those mghts when everything goes but the clock. And so on to the end. Each one unique, each most interest- ing to the stranger. who, if he is anybody, must have caught something of the fame of San Fran- cisco clubs. Péerhaps in no more striking way 1s this self- esteem better expressed than in the characteristio emblems and mottoes adopted by the different clubs. If the club have a strong individuality the more distinctive is its crest or emblem. The emblems are fostered and paraded with becoming conceit until each is intangibly associated with s club’s name and traditions. And then atlast they breathe inspirations. They betray the very es- sence or spirit of the clubs. Can auything In its way be more eloquent of the athlele and his attri- e i /) Y/l 1/ butes than the winged O of the Olympics, or the owl of the Bohemlianswith their motto “Weav- ing spiders come not here”? Of course there Is nothing tew in clubs adopting mottoes. As far back as history goes there are storles of crests and emblems. The Rom r- riedthe motto “8 P. Q. R.” on their standards: By this irony of repetition of history people nowa- days nearer home bow before the sign,’"S. P. R. R.” However, that is another stof}, as Kipling used to say in his tales of India. Bo the clubs of san Francisco have followed in the groove and set up their standards. Probably noue of the local clubs makes more of its crest then the Bohemian Club. One never hears of a jinks or Indeea any function of this organization without stumbling across -that old wise owl of theirs. It makesan attractive emblem does thls same 0wl with the fluttering wings and watchtul eye, and so it serves its purpose. Once? a time the dignified bird was assoclated with the motto, “Weaving spiders come not here,” but then the club was troly Bohemian. Buteven if the club’s character has changed and the men who make it live in luxury his owlsbip still retains an honored perch, for they are patr ns of art in its fullest sense and are with Bohemia if not of it. In polut of vears the Olymplc Club’s emblem stands first, while as a typical crest it lacks noth- ing by comparison with others. The club has made this design its official seal. The original emblem of the Olympics was designed by Arthur and Charies Naht in 1860, and then recognized by the club as its official crest. That wps in the days of the San Francisco Olympic Club when the late General John McComb was its president. Out of the old organization grew the present magnificent institution. which tuok up the first design, with slight modi fications, as its emblem. The crestis also used as a badge by membe id has been fashioned many & time in diamonds, rubies and sappbires as souvenirs to distinguished members. ‘The emblem of the Press Club was designed by Briggs, who found his inspiration for the idea in the club’s moito: Let the world slide, Let the world go, A fig for care, A fig for woe, The University Club, the youngest of now reached that point where a crest and motto aredesirable. Eruce Por.er has suggested & de- sign, classic in every partioular, consisting of a shield with a Bacchanalian staft, an open book, a Roman lamp, and the motto In early Roman letters: “Lux, Veritas. Comitas’’ This desigo i3 now under consideration, and will be adopted with slight alterations. The most luxuriously appointed club of all, the Concordia, is satisfied with a simple though ele- gant crest, which has been maintained for more than thirty years, from the early days of the or- ganization. This design appears upon the club’s stationery—a monogram with one C inverted and in the middle a bell suspended from a knot, em- blematic of the tiesof friendship. The bell con- veys the thought of harmony—concord—in clear notes, ‘The Cosmos Club used to incorporate a terres trial globe, suggesting the cosmopolitan whose home i3 the world. Now the clab’s crest or seal is & monogram of two ribbon-like inittals, C. C., within a circle, ‘The French ciub, the Cercle Francais, has from the time of its organization in 1884 used a charac- teristic monogram of the initials C. F., which have appeared on the cercle's stationery, invitations, cards, etc., for years. ‘The Mill Valley Country Club, mostly composed of San Franciscans, has a neat emblem In a crescent and star which was adopted when the club organized about three years ago. The Country Club's emblem, of which Its mem- bers are prond, is the deer's head made famous by Landseer’s picture. As deer stalking over the Marin mountains shares largely with the soclal rleasures of the aristocrati¢ organization the emblem is regarded as particularly sppropriste. The St. George Club has adopted St. George and the dragon encircled by what Is technically termed a garter. . The Scottish Thistle Club uses the emblem of Scotland—the thistle—which signifies defiance. Its motto Is; “The Clans of the Gael, shoulder to shoulder. Among the clubs that have no emblems are the Pacific Union, the Merchants, Burlingame, San Francisco Verein and the Union League. , has Blossoms - for Tots In the southern part of the City there is a section south of Harrison street, between Sixth and Nintn, that is known as “Fac- toryville,” from the fact that theie are so many factorids there. In that section there is located the Stanford Primary School, in which on every school day 400 little ones congregate for instruction, and none of the pupils are over 10 years of age. These as a rale are the children of poor people who live in close quarters in the district, and who have not the advantag’s of the children of parents who are in bet- ter circumstances and have neither the room nor the opportunity to indulge in any, of the fancies that may possess them. These children of the poor, as well as those who are more fortunate, have an innate love for flowers, and this is evi- denced by the pleasure they take in the garden that has been set out in the school~ house yard. Nearly every schoolhouse has a garden within the inclosure on which it stands, and these are cared for by a public gardener, but it is a question whether any is more highly prized by the little ones than is the one at the Stanford Primary. It is not very extensive, but it contains a great variety. There are sweet peas in every shade with tendrils clinging to the walls sending out their sweet- scented blossoms, single dahlias in many colors that are attractive to the eye though devoid of scent, gladiolus reach- ing high and soggestive of Jacob’s ladder, sweet roses from delicate to deep hues, lobelia that forms a pretty horder of biue, pansies that afford an extraordinary at- traction for the little ones, and many other specimens of those beauties that nature has provided for the gratification of mankind. ““These little ones whose homes are such that they have no room for garden patches,” said Miss Edith H. Crowley, the principal, “all seem to have that love of flowers that appears to be a natural im- planted passion without debasing motive. They cannot, as I just said, have a garden at home for want of space, but they do display their love for flowers by planting slips in oyster-cans, broken bottles and other receptacles that are of no service, and once in a while some little one brings & ‘treasure’ to put in the school garden. The little ones we have will not cull a flower here, but they spend a good deal of their spare timein watching the plants growing, and many watch particular plants day by day with as much solicitude as a mother watches her baby to notice the coming out of the first tooth. They will come to me with the information that a pew flower had come out. Many of them are too yonng to know the flowers by name, so they designate them by color.