The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 31, 1897, Page 18

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1897. With truth it is said that “one-half of the world does not know how the other! half lives.” "The haif that does not know is the prosperous half, the ha'f that per- | haps does not wani to know and does not It nears of deep poverty occasion- but is not often affected by if, be- > it does not scem r Its on ception of life, of humanity, is itself. It behooves this half of the tworld to koow something of the doings of the other half. Poverty and dirt go hand in hand—poverty and dirt and disease. They con- 1 breed, in the slums, the pestilence who is | a socialist and who stalks into the halls of the richana the well-to-do with as moch freedom as in his birthplace. Last week when dismi the heads of fourteen asof otber offic ssal hung over inspectors, as well . on account of the re- | GLOSING GHAPTER Judge Coffey’s decision in the Parsons estate, rendered a week ago, was the closing chapter n ihe most interesting and thrilling cases. The name of Parsons is unfamiliar to old Californians, but should they be asked about tize Mandeville *isters, their mem-} Jennie | or two one of | of law ory goes bick 1o the early days when these giris were creating a furor in our mu: nd dramatic world. . Mrs. Parsons, whose estate was in con- v, was one of the famous sisters, ynor sisters, Agzatha, Jen- a, arrived in California. The d great beauty and grace of were endowed with sweet voices and dramatic ability. They made their first appearance at the old American Theater, which was then situated on the corner of Bansome and Halleck streets, where they received the higlkest praise for thejr efforts. The clever trio was disbanded in the foliowing year. when Agatha left for Italy to complete her musical education. The talented young singer studied under the nie girls posses: figure, and an 2 foremost masters, and finally made her debut and opera. Shesang in all the large cities of the Oid World, and re- ceived highest mention. She then re- turped to her adopted country, and ap- peared lead ng operatic roles, adding new laurels to her fame by her sweet sing- ing. Itiseven said that her voice rivaled Patti’s in purity. Alicia became the wife of Charles| Thorne Jr., a son of the great actor, and himself possessed of great ability. Jen-| l duction of the apvropriation for Health Office )by the Supervisors, I was detuiled to =o with one of the inspectors tosee what sort of work they did and how necessary they were. 1 found that every inspecior had more work to do than bhe could attend to, and that instead of re ducing the force it should be multiplied: | I saw phases of life that one could hardly | ed. It i some poor imagine e though, how well to know, children, maage nie made her home 1n this city until 1871 when she married Captain Otis Parsons, who was in command of one of our coast steamers, plying between here aud Vic: | toria. Shortly after her marr she moved with her husband to Vie- . A boy blessed the union, and she s iving contentedly until her death, ch occurred in the terrible catastrophe of the steamer Pacific on the night of No- vemuer 4, At the time of her death no estate was found, but 1n the year 1894 upon the Hi- bernia Bank publishing a statement of ac- counts not called for in 12n years, it was discoverad that Jennie Parsons had a bank account there. Public Administrator Freese obtainea letters of administration upon the estate and M. C. Hasset was retained to look after the interests of the S:ates heirs. Agatha bad married a physician while in the heyday of her glory and on her death left two chitdren survivi Dr. William G. States and his sister, Beatrice States. While the estate was panding a Min Adams Brooks of Chicago cot Pa c e apveared in {, cla ming to be the daughter of Mr=. »ns by a secrei marriage, which she wed was contracted between her Adams, an acter, in the city of New York, in the year 1847, and to sustain her claim she produced numerous letters said to have been written by her mother Mrs. Hoag, in whose custody she was placed afler her bir:h by her purents. She averred that she was placed under the guardianship of Mrs. Hoag before the I | | the | | Mandeville sisters came to California, | for her Eastern home. | hed picked ap at sea in a bottle. other, Jennie Parsons, and one George | to a | vy the D vinity on the same mold as our- selves, live. If no other good can be ac- complished at least fhe knowledge of it all make us contented, even if our lot bas seemed hard before. My work began with Meat Inspector | Davis in Chinatown at Fish alley, a little street between Dupont and Stockton, be- ginning at Washington and ending at Juckson. Just a biock of condensed miassma, an cdor indescribable, betrayer and mixing up with the mud in the nar- row thoroughfare. There is always mud here, caused mostly by the waste water from the fish stails. There are nothing but fish stalls and buicher-shops to be seen. We went into the first butcher-shop we came to—the one on the corner of Fish ailey and Washington street. A number of Chinamen foliowed us in. Inspector Davis looked well at all the meat. He found some very poor and really unfit to eat, but none diseased. In one corner bung the carcass of a goat. skin goats in Chinatown as they do other animals, but have a way of picking the bair off. The «kin is so very white it re- sebles nothing so much as a human | corpse and gives one the shivers, “Where you k spector. e it trree or four Chinamen at ones. “*You lie, vou kili ’em aownstairs.” “No lie, kiil ’em B.utcnertown,” an- swered the indignant chorus. “Well, we wiil see for ourselves,’” said Mr. Davis. So down we went, which was no easy matter, forthe stairway was utterly dark and the stairs were rickety and in some places broken. We reacued a dark under- ground little room. There was a stove in it and a Chinaman cooking, | e must have had the eyes ¢f a bat to see to cook in the dark corner the stove was in. *The only light and ventilation the room got came through the iron grating in tte sidewalk above. tiree big sides of beef, the dirt and dust | through the | from the sidewalk falling grating on then. There were barrels of corned beef tl:ere and four chicken ccops, as weil as two coops full of gzeese. The most terrible stench arose from them. About three feet from these, which were crowded together, were six beds, built like steamer berths, the rolled-up bedclothing in them being filthy. We were about to go out when we heard a peculiat noise behind the wall. Mr. Davis +0on discovered a door and opening it and lighting a candle which he carried, discovered an alcove to the cetlar in which wera confined several goats. They were in absolute aarknessand could get scarcely any air. He ordered them removed im- mediately and also ordered the meat taken of the rottenness that abounds above, within and under the dilapidated build- | ings on either side, outon the side“ulki In support of her claim she also produced a marriage certificate and a bavntismal cer- tificate, seemin in aue form, which she claimed was given to her by ner mulher; before her departure ‘or California. In addition to these documents she pro- | duced a letter said to have been written | by her mother to her from Vietoria in the | r 1875, inviting her to come to Califor- | nd meet her in San Francisco upon arrival of the steamer Pacific from | s tion she testifi t on arriving at Port Costa on the 6th | of November she learned that the Pacitic | was lost on the night of the 5:h. Sne| then came to Ban Francisco and remained | there a few days inquiring for letters or | news of ber allegcea mother. Becoming | discouraged at not being able to hear| from her she made preparation to leave | At this point she alleged a sailor piid her a visit and | handed her a will, which he stated Le | This | will she presented to the court. On | its face it appeared to have been written | by Jennie Parsons while the steamer Pa- cific was sinking, and in which it was | stated she wouid seal it up and throw it | into the in the hope that some one | might pick it up and forward it to her| aear child. | She then returned to Chicago and put | the will away in a magazine, and thought | re | no more aboutit until the estate was founda | by the publication of the Hibernia Bank. | The States heirs repudiated the clnim‘r of this pretended child, and they proved 1 OF A MOST INTERESTIN upstairs. We did not find the piace where the goat was killed, though we searched thoroughly for it. The China- conclusively that Jennie Parsons arrived They do not | . HOW CHINESE PREPARE MEAT FOR MA men were perhaps iaughing in the'r | top of the house with four immense hogs sleeves at us,-for said the inspector: *“T'll eat my hat if those heathens hav n’t killed that goat some place around here.” *“Hello! Ben Day, what you want? Belly clean blutcher-shop, heap good meat,” said the boss of the next aoor shop, while two Chinamen who stood in the back- ground lauched in the queer, unnatural fashion that only Chinamen can. They are good imitators, these little yellow men, in all things requiring mechanical skill, but the laugh is beyond them, mirth is not in them. When they ape good- fellowship, grow loquacious and facetious there is an obsequiousness behind it which comes from a fear of something. Mar. Davis poked a fat old Chinaman in | the ribs in a jocose manner while he said 1’em goat?”asked the in- 'em Blutchertown,” answered | | in the city of New York with her parents | and sisters by the ship Jennie Lind on Ash Wednesday, the 25 h of Februar 1852 five years after the pretended mar- age, and therefore she was notand never coule have been married to George Adams. Upon this proof being made, it was clearly shown to the court that th> ciaim of Minnie Adams Brooks was a {fraudulent | one and an attempt to loot the estate by forged letters and papers. The child born of a clandestine marriage, becominz | clousin, Right under the grating hung | 10 me: *“There’s something wrong around here; these fellows are too joliv to suit me.” In an eager manner the proprietor be- i | way. gan showing Mr. Davis d fferent pieces of | meat, commenting on the peculiar beauty of each. A whole beef which hung in a corner was quietly overiooked by him— not so by Mr. Davis. “What's that ?”’he asked, pointing to it. “Him ali right,” said the boss, with pre- tenced sang froid, while the faces of all the Chinamen became as expressionless | as usual. “This meat s fall of tubercu'osis; what doyou want to lie for? “Him no b'long me; him b'iong my Belly blad meat. You send wagon take him ‘way; no likee blad meat my blutcher-shop.” *Yes, you are the most innocent Caina- man I've ever met,” the iaspector an- swered. “Me belly honest; no sell em blad meat, no cheatte.” “Who sold you that meat?” asked Mr. Davis, “One man San Ratfael sell my clousin. My clousin gone; my clousin know him name; Ino know.” *What time was it brought here?” “One, two o'clock this morning."” “Well, let me catch you with meat like that again and I won’t let you sell apy more meat. I'll catch that San Rafael man, and I'll arrest him, too. “Alllite,” +aid the **coss” in an insolent, sullen manner as he turned his back. His “all lite” expressed as much asa dozen strong American swear words would. In oneplace we discovered a pigpen on i He bought stx chops for 5 cents and | I\l arrest you if | | you lie like that to me,” said the inspector. | | | | that his thin, white hair was parted in the | middte. init. Even in the country where there i plenty of fresh air a pigpen is the ioulest imaginable thing.. Just think what a pig- pen on top of a littie house must be! The cooking stove was on top cf the house, | 100, and there were barrels of stuff—evi- dently gathered from restaurants and hotels for the hogs—fermenting in the suL. There were also sevaral barrels of corned beef standing uncovered, exposed to the sun and any dirt that might fall their way. The Logs were ordered away and t!la place cleaned up. *“‘But,’’ said Mr. Davis, “‘this is the most discouraging work in the world. The next time I come the vlace will be nice and clean, but when I come | again it will be just the same as now. The Chinamen are not so- much to blume as | are the people who rent them these old houses. They are not fit for firewood. and | are a menace to San Francisco in every They have been condemned by Health Department and Fire Department, but the owners simply get out an injunc- tion to stay proceedings and we can do | nothing.”’ The roofs of the fish markets are cov- | ered with drying fisn, the cellars are full of barrels of salted fish. Everything reeks with Chinese dirt, and yet the Chinamen | will tell you they sell to more white peopie | tban to Chinese. by one who will spend a morning hour there. The buyers all come with little market baskets on their arms. Most of them are foraigners—Portuguese and peo- pie from the Latin quarter, but there are a good many Americans among them, some of them dirty ana uncouth, some habbily genteel. One little man who came with his basket seemed to be a rem- nant of gentiiity, He was well brushed and well mended, and wore a white flower in his lapel. The rus'y black coat had been made for a bigger man, but I imagine the present owner wore it with more grace than did be for whom it was made. He carried a cane and walked with alimp, which made me think he had been a soi- dier. His white whiskers were very scant on each side of his face, which was pink all over. He lifted his hat as he stood be- side me in thesbutcher-shop, and I saw His hands 1< oked soft and clean and his fingernails well kept. This little This is readily believed | old man was a gentleman; how came he here? RKET went his way. I could not follow hig, for the inspector had more to show me, and there was a great deal more to see, too. There were dozens of porkhouses on Dupont street. There wes an alley where Chinese pedd.ers keep their reserve sl_ock of fruit and vegetables under their dxr_ly beds, and where they sold eggs, to white people as well as Chinese, for 20 cents a dozen, while eggs sell for 4) cents down- town. 1 supposed they were old eggs n_nd wondered what people could do with them. «“Tnis is a very little part of the meat inspector’s duty,” said Mr. Davis. “There must be an inspector at the wharf and one at Butchertown; beaides that every mar- ket and butcher-shop in San Francisco must Le inspected at least onge a week. [ ought to have half a dozen ussis_t@nls and I have only three, and their polvmcal heads are likely to come off at any time.” We wa'ked back to Fish alley and stood about in the shops taiking to the China- men and watching the white purchasers. It seemed to me a poor, hungry dog would scorn the stuff some of them bought. ’.J’m; butcher gaveall the women buyers a piece of liver, and each hungrily watched the share he gave another, and some of them— the young Portuguese women—were not above ccquetting with the Chinamau for a larger suare. * The heaviest buyer there walked about as though she were afraid to be seen. Sbe poked her fingers into-all the meat and cried to persuade the Chinaman it was not good so that she could et it cheaper, and looked quite triumpbant wkhen sbe could get it for a few cents less than had been asked for it. She was a middle-aged woman with a hard face—just the sort of woman who has always seen better days, | who has a hard luck story to tell, and who hasn’t a drop of the milk of human kind- ness left in her shriveled breast. I bade Mr. Davis good-by and followed her just to find out if I really kuew thetype so well I could not be mistaken. She went into a dingy-leoking house on California street. It was a good-sized place and there was a card in the window announc- ing *Rooms and Boara.” I did not go in. It wasenough to know that she did keep boarders and that she fed them on Chinatown meat. This information was a small part of that acquired by & tour among the various butcher-shops “of the Chinese quarter. Lucy Byrp. AND COMPLIGATED WILL GASE and on this testimony the case rested. In deciding th: | court took into consideration the ex-quar- | alarmed at the consequences, gave up all her ciaim to the estate. Another chapter in the interesting case was closed on the last day of the year of 1896, when Minnie Adams Brooks died in Chicago. - The States heirs were not to receive the money of the dead woman without a struggle, however, as the Parsons laid claim to the money on the technical and iegal presumption that un- der section 1963 of the Code of Civil Pro- cedure tue husband was presumed to have survived the wife, they haviag perished in a common calamity, and therefore they were entitled {o the money. To overcome this presumption of sur- vivorship the States beirs through their counsel, M. C. Hasset, procured the te: mony of Neil Henley. Heniey’s testimony virtually decided the contest. He testi- ftied that be had seen Mrs, Parsons mn s boat about sixty feet away from the sink- ing vessel and that Captain Parsons was on the deck of the vessel, that the sleamer sank before the small boatdid The Mysterious Hieroglyphics of Poston Butte The only Caucasian fire worshiper the great § perhaps in entire United Colonel Charles D. Poston, Arizona’s oldest pioneer and first delegate to Congress. Long ago Colonei Poston became a Parsee apostle. He wa- converted 1o the faith while in Ind:a on a mission for the Siate Department. He re- turned from that mission a devout sun ‘worshiper He wrote a lecture on the Parsees and delivered it in New York and San Fran- cisco and other cities. Then he published a emall volume about the Parsees. He wrote some verses about them—in the early days he could write verses that easily feil under the designation of poetry. Then he traveled in China and elsewhere for the Government, and after that was given the land office at Tucson. Ali this was more years ago than a good many people would like to see stated in print. n| the | Tucson he conceived the idea of re-estab- As soon as the colonel was located at lisuing the sun worship upon the very site of its prenistoric and perhaps most brii- liant glor.es—Souihern Arizona. He lo- cated a big butte near the famous old ruin of Casa Grande, tried to induce the Pima Indians 15 return to the oristine purity of their own now degenerate religion, among thinking men and educated women in the United States and Mexico. A great many learned and cultured peo- ple both in America and Europe knew all about the colonel’s plans to start the nu- ceus of a Parsee millennium on the sun- kissed sands of Arizona amid the mounds and ruing o’ a civilization older, no doubt, than the pyramids of Egvpt. A great temple to the sun god, to be located on the summit of Poston te, near the city «f F.orence, Ariz., was projected. A A ‘;/\‘ / | grandest temple of | sance on and set absut to establish a Parsee cult | The treasures of Arizona's wonderful | mines and quarries were to make the | temple of surpassing magnificence, a | fiting monument to the departed glories | from the love of archmological research,” | of the Aztecs, the everlasting admiration of unborn generations who should cross | seas and continents to view the first and | the Parsee rena American soil. Now all the splendid plans bave been abandoned. i It is even possible that the Parsee tem- | vle—upon whose onyx altars an eternal | bonfire of cottonwood and mesquite was | tolight the true path for ail time to come— | may never be built. Many devout archw®ol- ogists and pious antiquarians all over the western world will regret keenlv the sud- den determination of Colonel Poston to | abandon his interesting projects, and pos- | sibly they will undertake to carry them forward without his assistance. But the colonel is not only obdurate in the mat- | their affair, not mine. ter, but is pessimistic as well. “I was interested in this matter from ethical and religious motives, as well as says he; “but I find this not a rel age, not the ripe time for a Parsee re I have arrived at the conviction even that many of Zoroaster's followers to-day know littls and care less about the true teacbings of the Magi. Masny of them, in fact, have no more re- lizion than Lave the Christians. Iam through with the matter for good. If any one else cares to take It up that will be 1 have donealll could. Ishall do no more.” Poston Butte, the proposed site of the future sun temple, lies in a country pecu- liarly rich in archwmological interest. While Colonel Poston was in the Tucson Land Office he built a wagon road to the summit of the butte and this has since en- abled many a learned delver into prehis- toric lore to visit the place and view its strange, arcane picicgraphs and hiero- glyphs, whch are cut deep in the sione | walls of the bluff, But Colonel Poston isa very old man now, and that is probably one reason why he bas reiinquished bis long-harbored pic- turesque plans of relighting the magis’ sacred fire in Arizona. For several years he worked hard with the Pima. Indians, all of whom retain to this day the out- ward form and many of the rituals of the Parsee woruhip, 1 tried to reawaken in them the smoldering spark of their own great her- itage, the heart worship of that God which has ‘neither face nor form, color nor shape, nor fixed place,’ and who is ‘such a glory that tne human mind cannot comprehend him,’ as the Z:nd Avesta says, but my efforts were useless.” The colonei lives very.quietly and se- cluded in Pinix now, where after a life- ume of Federal service, interspersed with many scholastic achievements, he is pass- ing his declining years with responsibili- ties no greater than that of keeper of the archives of the Arizona Historical So- ciety. Poston butte lies on the north bank of the Gila River, two miles northwest o! Florence. From its summit there is a fine view of the noble ruins of Casa Grande. Oa its sides are markings similar to those on the tablets unearthed recently on the ancient site of Chaldea. No one knows for a cer- tainty what may have boen its past elories, but it is certain now that he in whose honor modern scholars have nem d it will never live to see those glories re- vived. Luke NorTH. heirs of Ouis | i | interesting contest the | esiate to the States heirs. termaster’s testimory and awarded the | The sole survivor of the wreck is still| { be able living in Stellacoom, Wash, He will never to blot out of his memory the scenes of that terrible night. y . . N ~ Lwm Vioian ) had a 4///&;&;14./4/””,/1&/‘—0/5,%.& gras / YRSy A G Ulrs ) SEWA Zv{«j‘, LA 7/ £ ) Aoan %«ZW ~ /] g \ R ol el “f SN PORTION OF THE FRAUDULENT & (emet ) 5 /) o thowr A 0[{( Ieae e E Ruvear %‘7 Mlrres 7;0-(( ’KJ/VL,‘ DU St L S Mmmfiw %zfiv%zm; Lo -b/f B whtlins a\%f bilers J gare oLl : Yy e qomne /Lgx 2 %irw-c £t e WILL. ill Valley's Golony of In November of last year a society for acclimatizing song birds was organized in Mill Valley, Marin County, and a consid- erable sam subscribed to pay for the im- portation of a number of foreign song- sters. In February last a .consignment of eighty birds, vprincipally meadow larks, bullfinches and thrushes, were received from Germany and confined in an aviary for a time, so that the birds mizht te- come accustomed to the climate and attached to tne locality. The stran- gers thrived, and of the eighty which reached Mill Valley only two succumbed to the effects of the long journey across the During their temporary confinement the birds were the objects of the greatest interest to every resident. Their voices were stilled while captive, but their beauty and caressing ways endeared them to all who were permitted to approach their cage. Two months after their ar- rival the doors of the aviary were opened and the birds were accorded their free- | dom. | They seemed loth to leave, and fordays hovered around their old home as if afraia | to venture into the unknown region round | about. Conditions in Mill Valley proved congenial to the birds. The combination of hill and valley, field and forest was not | unlike those of their German home, and they soon became, to all intents and pur- poses, a portion of their new surround- ings. Their only enemy to be feared was the bluejay, a very pirate among the feathery tribe, but a small bouaty on bluejay heads Song Birds encouraged an aclive warfare against them which has been very effective 1n benishing t e pest from the locality. The songsters thriveld uuder the wa caful care of their protectors. They were observed to mate and then came the nest-building, The surrounding - t] seemcd to becongenial to the new-comer I who settied down Lo the business of rajs ing new broods witn the most verfect air cfowning the entire neighborhood. Their glad notes they poured out in such entrancing volume and brilliancy as t charm Lhe listener. The attempt to ad a new element to the cther delights of the valley at the foot of Tamalpais wos suz- cessful, and lhaflsoclety determined to go forwara and 6 import more and more of the songslers uniil the woods were crowded with them, .’“Wf{/