The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 27, 1897, Page 27

z i ' v ll%\;v AT g ¢ s § & S The boy and girl mountaineers Francisco who live upon and ¢/imb mountains with chapter to the are moantains D Fr s 't table § rock, frowni s ble as the Matt climb them. the ascent to Moun ut the Alpine sn coast down them There are winds like the snow aba y travele the boy sails of nay on wheels 1 More an | habitually n the Cit selves. untaineers | the mo e is a | of solid y as inacces- | ve s steep as h with- nd children e which toss bewilderment of | Mount § rd, ise them to fill the and propel them es on s calm s boy mountaineers on sleds down bill in midsummer and on | their feet shoot like a flash down der their feec are skates snows Mount Sha steeps | tead | of such oes as adventurers on road . ) nd west p the fastuesses of Tele- | graph H As the travel r approaches ere are on the trails, visible from a dis- tance, spl fred and bl if the | mountain had pranked itself out fantas- tically with a garment as of Quaker hue, il'uminated with numerous wild flowers. These spots of vivid color are really th headwear and fluttering dre-sesof groups of olive-skinned children, who chatter | volubly in all the Latin ton: Yes, even the language of Co antinople is | beard there and the sccents and musical liquid sounds of Arabi Montgomery street is the easiest climb. j eet, g precip- d elmost yery Iy from beetling cliffs at the wes carified | EXCLUSIVELY | freels to me the other day when 1 ques- 3 ) = ti her rding the enterprise, and { . ely say that ‘here for the firs A Novel Theater Now Being Constructed in | tme:s tuereal puspos of the uad i made public. I am fully aware,” Paris. M Loevy, “that in advocat such an enterprise as this theater I am The fisst and the only woman’s theas seal c ne myself open to the accusation of | of which the world ing constructed in Pa The piace or site isadjoining the ladies’ club known as the Cercle Picalle, near Montmarira. In France it will be the ~Theatre Feministe,” | ever known is be. which means a theater for women, women, and in the interests of wom y. There is only one weak spot in this armor of femininity and that| is the fact that the manager is 1o be a man, but the ladies, who sre the soul of the enterprise, say he will not count, as, like the rest of Lis sex, be will merely be their slave. | Au serieux, though, 1t is to be a genu- | ine piace for vomen. The White Theater, where only plays of ab: to be tolerated, was the into the mar This that t r their o ideas and the result is the Theatre The establishment is not No vent-up France will co its powers, e ladies of ev-ry coun- iry will be at liberty to air their g ances, assert their privileges and defend 1helr interests through the medium of the drama or the opera. For a lonz time the question of manage- ment was discussed pro and con by members of the club which had tb ganization of the theater project in hand. E'p pion was divided, not as to ite ability | of woman to take eniire charge of every detail, but as to whether it cld not be wice to have some man to do the drudgery and set honor and glory be the lot of the women. Finally it was decided that if a mean could be jound who would face the prospect he should be engaged on thespot. As the Frenchman is fond of excitement and loves b:ave edventure the neces- sary male was easily discover.d, and has | slready become ihe Adam in this other- wise Adamless Eden. | itis provided in the agreement that he | shall receive insiructions from the execu. | 1ive committee of the boxrd ot direciors, | which is composed of five women. Thus | far he bas accomplished the unparalleled | feat of pleasing all five, and is very popu- | lar. The circulars or advance announce- | ments of the theater and its purposes <o not bear the name of the manager, but | ctate that the theater is under the sole ! control of the board of directors, com- | posed entirely of women. They lurlhc‘r‘ state that only plays treating of woman's rights will be presented, unless some spe- cially good play by a woman receives the indorsement of the committee. Another committee of the directors bears the title of commiitee on plays. Its duty is to pass on all pleys which are pre- sented to it, siit the wheat from the chaf, apd then submit its selections to the full board of directors for approval. Each ylay is to be read through to the board, and then, to insure acceptance, the | authoress, or possibly the autbor, must | incorporate all sugcestions of the board. | The upkind men who bave heard of this | y that he who runs and reads d one performance, but that he | 10 proj ct 88, moy atien :nh:nuncemem thereof. Asidc from the manager the only con- divions under which men can hope to ob- tain a little scrap of the success which this theater, accordingto ojectors, 15 sure to atlain, is to write piays or mu- reads will run after seeing a szrcondj 'FOR WOMEN ' ocky floor of the sirange street below. Just here a graceful habit of a motherly mountaineer is exhibited. Across the child’s bick are the crossed straps of over- the abyss on his way firma out of the rea to reliable terra h of the local chamois. Where eet must coniinue liter- ally in " if at all, isa com- bination of Gibraltar and the Matterho: | On one side are perpendicular precipices of horned and jazged rocks. Below men | are wal ing about, foreshortened by posi- tion and distance =0 that they seem not much longer than clothes pegs as they work far below. by watercourses as the 1 faceo | v wrink between | - Byg there crevices in the rocks floor, b which have sufficient foothold to some adv s boys to enable them, toclimb a place re a chamois might become dizzy. ! What noise is that? % the steady target pra aph Hill mountaineers of who are pelting the brown v the fecund For some isonas ms really to houses, the invitation rt something into nt, where bit of ironm inches deej inches > throw someth 1 —but it is big evel to a lower one- boys to sit heir knees | simply irresistit their b toget Whether any of the child mountaineers slide has worn t e bottom of ied to curb a Lave a catapult made hes to see some- vog in it the the fresh and buoyant young Cal- ifornia bo; y witness their p ance with prof | Where the level of asidewalk on the | west side o t 1s higher than the sec- ond s'ory windows—or even higher than some of the roofs—on the oprosite side of the same street, right upon the edge of al U eer really a ounds o c eneral ment of the status than all franchise which co Mme. t 1 of i what I believe you Americans term of these efforts may come frc world they E be co ill be no difference in charges of 3 mission to this theater from those that atthe men will be eri of its size and class. It rit of fairness i not lea large playhouse, but rather woman always considers her own sex, and | on the bijou order. It is the intention of 18 o strong that an elephant micht | tug at them — in pictorial adver- tisement, at least—in vain. The moth- erly hand seizes tnese straps and the carly-headed adventurer, undaunted and | undismayed, secure in the strength of the | straps, is serene as he is swung out over to begin to roll | the en- | Hark! A cornet! A German boatman has found a sunny nook where the wind does not blow and there he plays some folk song with pleasing intonation and reasonable emoothness. The children hop down, roll down, tum- bledown and climb up from far below. They even forsake a well-meaning man who has brought them some candy, | actually leave the candy for the “moosik So they probably have the romance which ordinarily inspires mountaineers everywhere without their knowing or sus- pecting it one hit. Ther: are mountaineers in this strange city out on Bernal Hei of equal vigor, equal rich coloring, «qusl daring. There | ar. claus out there, hizhianders and low- | different question for consideraton. It is no trick to stand on your | ground floor in some places and | throw a stone over a fence, down your | neighbor’s chimneys. When a child re. | flects what a lot of excitement and soot | s is liable to sgitate in toe neighbor’s | ouse, it must be admiited that the temp- | on uvon him is strong; stroncer and | er the more he thinks about it. The girl mountaineers are as active us‘ ittens. Far skyward is a circular space | which was once surrounded by a smne} | | wall, but which is now encircled only at places where the wall has not been de- stroyed by children, who have managed to push over great sections of it by united effort, sending them toppling and rolling crashing down hill. But ! upon the sections which retain their posi- | ‘F tion, babies, the veriest little ones, who | can walk only unsteadily on the few level | places of the hitl, becom Blondins. They balance on one foot, walking on | the top of stone wall, their hair waving and their little frocks flving be- fore the stiff west wind which sweops in from the ocean. and the I | than forty years a o the troops, in | otedie ce 10 the commard of their sover- | eigns, turnea their guns upon the people nd shot and bayoneted men, women and even children, until blood flowed like | water in the streets of Berlin, of Vienna | and of many other capitals of the 0ld World. It was not a mere mob of | tramps and toughs with whom the mil- itary was called upon to dea!, do and h educated ci! | fessional men, o | politicians and bat well-to- | zens, pro- rchants, manufacturers, | legislators—in fact, ail Scene in the New Feminine Theater at Paris From Which Masculines Are Religiously Barred. therefore they may be sure of absolute justice. | oughly comfortable, and no accessory will Agents of this theater are to beap- | b wanting to make this plan a fact. Oune pointed in the largest cities of the differ- | or rather two rules will be strictly en- enf countries, the idea of this being to | show the wowen of all nations that their sex in France has really iaken a step which meaus wore in the way of advanc- . the managewsnt that it shall be thor- tendance must remove their hats on taking tbeir seats. The second is that there sball be no going out between acis, forced. The first is that all women in at- | solemnly promised to them by the terms that element which goes to make up what is known in the Old World ss the *bour- geoisie” ana middle classes, who were en- { deavoriug to secure the political rights of the constitutions decreed by their re- [ ay. | deeds of valor not unbefitting William { Tell and his stout-hearted foliowers. | of the ianders, who, venturing into the territory | of their rivals, Livn or low, must fight or | When the slogan sounds there are | When the flowers are spread all over the grassy slopes of the heights the little girls | gather them in great handfuls, climbing to the very top to get the finest. There, too, the bairns slide downhill on S \\\\ the slibpery grass with real sleds. There, too, the boys sail their wagous, sitting on | them and steering while the west wind blows. The queerest boy ana girl types in S8an Francisco may, alter all, be the miniature mountaineers such as no other ¢ity in the United States may boast as regards eithe environment, pluck or solid health. Would the troops, if calied upon to-day | to fire upon their fellow- countrymen, | manifest similar obedience to the behest | “Anointed of the Lord”? Thatis | a question which at the present moment | is occupying, toa far greater degree than prople in this country might be inclined | to beiieve, the attention of the crowned | heads of Europe, and it has within the last few days been bronght before the pu lic through a resolution submitted to the | Italian Parliament providing for the sub- stitution of the word ional” for that | of “Royal” in the official deseription of | the army. The arguments put forward by the supporters of the motion, which was eventually defeated by the Ministerial pariy, which possessesa mujority in the | Legislature, were not only logical, but also powerful, and cannot fail to appeal strongly to the people of Italy, as well as every other civilized nation, and must | assuredly have afforded very serious grounds for reflection to King Humbert and to his brother and sister monarchs, The command and control of the army | has from time immemorial been regarded | as the principal source of power in civil ized as well as in barbarian states, if no “de jure'’at any rate ‘‘de facto.” In| France this is understood so well that the ! people even go to the extent of declining to permit the creation of the office of gen eralissimo, insisting that the command- in-cbief of the army shall semain vested in the hands of the Minister of War for the time being, who, sometimes a military man and sometimes a civilian, is subject to the supervision aund controi of Parlia- ment, and can be removed by the latter s soon as he proves himself o be either ineflicient or untrustwortby. In England | very much the sime thing is the cm,i and practical, though perhaps not | theoretical, transfer of the command of | the army from the crown to Parliament has been quetly effected during the last two or three years. For whereas, until the resignation of Prince George of Great Britain, Duke of Cambridge, the latter was the real generalissimo of the military forces of the empire, exercising in the name of the Queen only his office, | which he consigered that he held direct from his august cousin, to whom aloae moreover he regarded himself respons ble, the command-in-chief to-day is exer- ¢ sed not by his nominal successor, Field Marshal Lord Wolseley, but by thecivilian Marquis of Lansdowne, Secretary of State for War, to whose orders Lord Wolseley is obliged to defer. | Queen Victoria did not consent to this radical change without a struggle. The great Duke of Wellington, who from the time of the Queen’s accession to the throne until his death in 1852 was her principal adviser in all military matters, was never tired of impressing upon her mind the necessity of at all costs retaining in the bands of the royal tfamily the command of the army, and his recommendations were contirmed by her husband, the Prince Consort, by Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel and Lord Beaconsfield, all of themn men 1n whose counsel she placed the most profound confidence. The point they made was this, that as longas the commander- in-chief was a roval prince he would be the direct and personal representative of the sovereign, independent to a great extent of Partiament and superior in in- fluence and prestige to that Legislature’s representative, the Becretary of State for War. It, on the other hand, the command of the army passed out of the hands of roy- | bave frequentiy occurred, one of them, | scaffold of Ki | of Wales been on the throne, European NobiliAtyk Bécoming Ar¥ny adlatus to the Secretary, subservient to| him and to Parliament instead of to the | crown, a very imporiant point when it is | remembered that in previous reigns con- fl cis between Parliament and the throne | indeed, culminating in the death on the ng Cbarles I The Queen, howevyer, finding at length tha: not only the Liberals but even ihe Tories were de- termined upon the change, deferred, as she has invariaoly done throughout her reign, to the will of ker people and virtu- ally abandoned to Parliament her strongly cherished prerogative of the command of the army, matters beinz facilitated by the fact that there was at the time of the old Duke of Cambridge’s retirement no roval prince of sufficient military stand- ing and experience to ensble his being ap- poinied to the vacant office, and that the sovereign was not a man, but a woman. Indeed, the chanze would certainly have | been more difficult had the Prince since | the constitution of every monarchical | country in Europe provides that theoret- | ally, at anyg rate, the command - in-| hiefof the army shall be vested in the | hands of the sovereign. This is the case, of course, in Italy. But in discussing the proposal to transform from a “royal” into a ‘“national”’ force, the champions of the resolution, who i cluded, of course, many of ex-Premier Crispi’s friends, argued that the army was | recruited for the defense, not so much of | the throne as of the nation, and was paid | by the latter; that the King was merely | its cnief officer, subject like any other of- | ficer to the orders of the nation; in fact, that King and the soldiers were alike the servanis of the people which Iunusheul the funds for their maintenance. It was | | added that the word *‘royai’’ now prefixed to “army” gave rise to the impression that the latter constituted merely a body of personal retainers of the sovereign, | who in the event of any conflict on huis | part with the people would espouse his | cause instead of the taxpayers’, who after | all are its paymasters. | A confliet of this kind is no longer re- | garded as :mminent in italy. Butit can- | not be denied that something i this na- | ture 18 apprehended in Germany, and | more especiaily in Prussia, where mon- | arch and people are daily drifting further apart. That Emperor William anticipates some such struggle is apparent from all his re- Cent utterances whenever he has occasion to address his troops. notably at Bielefeld last week, his favorite theme being tne | duty of the soidiers to hold themseives | ready to defend with their life's blood | their sovereign and his throne, not so much against the foreign foe, as against | the enemies within the frontiers of the | empire and of the kingdom. In presid- ing at the ceremony of the swearing in of the recruits, he never fails to remind them that their first duty is to ward himself rather than to the people who pay them, and he is never tired of | expatiating on what he describes as the | “King's cloth,” that is to say, the uni- | form, which he, like many other sover- eigns chooses to regard as the livery, not of the State or of the nation, but of the | monarch to whom the wearer is bouna by special ties of allegiance, loyalty and blind, unquestioning obedience. Nor must it be forgotten that in all instances of disvute and strife between civilians and military men, the Emperor always up- | holds the latter, even when they are alty into those of an ordinary general the spective rulers, but which the latter de- I clined to put into force until compelled by latter would necessarily become a sort of | to the extent of either pardening or com- shown to be the aggressors, and actually | killed unarmed Officers muting the sentences that have been in- flicted upon officers, who, while drunk, have seriously wounded and in some cases and inoffensive civil- ians. Perhaps no stronger illustration of the Emperor’s views in this respect can be given than the fact that his most trusted friend and his favorite associate, Count Pniiip of Eulenburg, who is at the pres- ect moment his Embassador at Vienna, murdered in this fashion a peor cook in the streets of Bonn. The Count was at the time an officer of hussars, and the | chef, who was an-elderly and stout man, the father of a large family. having inad- vertently jostled the nobleman in the crowded thoroughfare, was immediately cut down and then run through the body by the Count’s sword, expiring shortly afterward. Ail that Pnilip Eu- lenburg ever suffered for this bratal and inexcasable homicide was a few months’nominal arrest within the bounds of a fortress, That is to say, he was per- mitted to roam about the neighboring country all day long, being merely bound to report himself to the officer in com- mand of the fortress late at night and in the morning. Nor is it without thought of the conflict | which he sees ahead of him that Emperor William has in several instances decora- ted and promoted common soldiers, who while doing sentry duty have responded to the jibes and jrers of drunken men and mischievous boys by shooting to kill, with deadly effect. ‘What will be the attitude of the army, should the anticipated struggle between crown and people take place? In court and official circles at Berlin it is believed that the Emperor will be able to rely upon his troops. But this opinion isin no way shared by the people themselves, nor yet by the leading German politicians of the day. The rank and file of the army is no longer composed, as in former days, of ignorant boors, unable to either read, write or even think for themselves, but of | thoughtful, well-educated men, who have been taughtat school what are the rights and constitutional prerogatives for which their grandfathers and fathers shed their life's blool. They know, too, enough of history to-appreciate the fact that in every struggle betwe:n the crown anit the peo- ple, itis always the latter that has ended in carrying the day. Lastly they reaiza Emperor who pays that it is not the them, and to whem | they in consequence thereof owe allegiance | and obedience, bu ¢ the people, repre- sented by Parliament. Hence, if they are called upon by their sovereign to fire upon amob of turbulent anarchists they. may possibly obey his command. But shouid the mob be composed, as it was in 1848 at Berlin and in 1851 in Paris, of legisla- tors, politicians, professional men and re- spectable citizens, it is almost certain that common-sense, humanity and regard for enlightenment and progress will prevail over mere coasiderations of discipline, and that if ealled upon to fire or to charge the soldiers will follow the example set by so many French regiments in analozous in- stances at Paris—namely, they wil! ground arms and refuse to obey, convinced that the first duty of the army in a constitu- tional country is no longer to the king but to the nation. Had the French Mar- shal Bazoine realized this at the siege of Metz in 1870 and made it his duty to pre- fer his country and his nation to his Em- peror, his name would not be doomed to- day to lasting execration and infamy, as | that of the most contemptible traitor of the present century, Ex Arracuam