The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 14, 1897, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14 1897, 19 DEAD CHINESE EXHUMED TO BE SENT TO THEIR NATIVE LAND Tue C nese population of the towr has for the past two weeks a strain of excitement con- exhamation buried in the Chines hat place. This has been a g y Cal ter the nd remova A of rrectionists dug into the g removel their to work get compa contents in- | etand | e Flowery | the east- Valley of the T ally umber of gold | white persons having ien their ate of old at the sluic were ve armed into these the o a bona w of hich hies m ore ne- ( se p taking rrels or clans of | Butin the grave and beneath the un- hallowe=d dust of California all these harsh considerations bl ed into irdi: ame fluid and disappeared. The very whose wrati: was respounsible tor idence of many were foremost in the fund subscribing for theirexhumation. | The precepts of the deified Confucius must not be disregarded by a considerable Ch nese population. Itis a fundamental in- junction of the sublime religion of the philosopher that the Chinaman and his native land must b: one in deatn; and though he may die abroad, yet his final interment must be beneath the shadow of the temples of his faith. uron bis conscience 1s yielded the same obedience as that other one which dis- | poses him to shave his head and train his, crown bairs into an elongated queue. Accordinglv, ample means being pro- | vided and all arrancements being made, seven laborers in company with a priest in yellow robe and cone hat, and a num- ber of residents and relatives of the de- parted, repaired to the Celestial necropo- | T was on the outskirts of the city, the site apparent mainly by a number of rough, hog-sty looking fences inclosing litlle squares of earth, within which on | wooden headboards the name of the de- | ceasec was painted in black symbols lis. Ihe solemn proce-sion with its shovels | |and picks, its white banners snd white | tened to certain sing-sone incantations of threw rice | | their impudent and This commana | may be susceptible of such rout, while globular lanterns, halted in front of these fences, thrust the globe and banner-poles in the ground. then with bowed heads, as- suming an aititude of worship, they lis- the queer-haited priest, who and bits of white paper upon the ground, and made a number of surprising gesticu- lative anties with his arms. This, the white and profanely curious portion of the assemblace was told, in response to insistent questions, was an overture exorcism employed to tter the affrites and pizwidgens which those with staying quali:ies sufficient to resist might be propitiated by the offering of rice. The ceremony being laborers set to dig ing in the ground, and | in a very short while there was uncovered | a dark wocden box, perfectly dry in this | sing the mortal | semi-arid soil, and enc emains of Dr. Tong Foy. The doctor, | with a childlike faith in his own physic, had succumbed thereto about eighteen months prior, and now, when the box was | raised and the lid removed, was in that aavanced stage of structural dissolution | so common to therun of his erstwhile patients, The sallow ski: was drawn tightly over whatremained of the doctor’s face and the great disks of his brass- rimmed spectncles reposed listlessly over the vacant cavities of his eyes. The doc- tor’s long glaucous coat was faded and. in part, decaved, and the general appearance of the entire cadaver and its habiliments was one of collapse and defedation. There were several persons in the gath- ering who, recollecting the doctor with affection possible to those who had es- caped his treatment, greeted the exposure of the dissolving anatomy with something of the emotion which suffused that loval company grouped about the coffin of Na- poleon when it was uncovered tothe light. The air was stirred by sudden wails, by acute and startling stridor, and several of the shovelers were forced to leave their lsurvey of the corpse to comfort the dis- | from enforcing their demands known so Jr oy KRS POk abts i A s L e Q over, the | tressed. Their pain, however, did not last | often to characterize the conduct of the | long, for soon the doctor was disrobed, | dusted with guicklime and turned to the | action of the air 1n order that his disin- tegration might be hastened. The resurgents, if such they may be | call next passed to the interruption of | the repose of Mr. Sha Wo Chan, late pro- | prietor of the reputabe Chico washhouse long famous by that name. Mr. Chan had the misfortune to die just upon the eve of | his proposed departure for China for per- | | manent residence after a season of ten vears’ arduous labor spent in the United | Siates. He was esteemed by his couvn- | | question, or with that irreverence for the trymen for the possession of $800 in gold which subsequent to his funeral it was privately announced had been, in obecience to his request, interred with his remains in his coffin. Very anx- | ious and diligent search was accoraingly | made within the box for this treasure, and the interest displayed in this inves- tigation eclipsed the curiosity of the com- pany for the remnant of Chan himself. Tt was rot found, however, even the Hebrew subterfrge of a check being nowhere ap- parent. Either some desecrator of the slumbers | of the dead had previously exvlored the wishes of those who may be incapacitated Western heathen, those of the East had failed to deposit the sum as directed, but had transferred it to other accounts. The | money was not theie, and amidst much clatter and Joud ecymbal-talk the coffin | containing Chan was raised on end and its | contents dumped forward and down, fall- ing as they did in a very disgraceful and | tangled mess, the lime being shoveled | over them with an angry energy, as though the poor mummy were responsible for the disappointment of its indiguant dis- turbers. The next grave opened was that of Sam | ceremony. Kwei Chow, a deceased vegetable grower and vender, who varied his secular occu- pation with tbat of a priest or president of the local josshouse. Chow had died in great peace at a ripe age and his obse- quies had been attended with elaborate His cerements were ot silk, and the siole which conspicacusly com- prised a feature of his decorations was ex- travagantly embroidered with gold. They were passe and darkly stained, these august vestments, but the company pre- served the parts of them which had escaped the disintegrating agencies of time, while Chow him-elf was sprinkled and sunned preparatory to the final scraping. And so the diggers and shovelers passed from one repository to another, now tak- ing out the black and greasy bones of Charley Ling, in whose skull rattied a lead bullet, put there in 1886 by Fong Wey as a period of emphasis to the latter’s claim of right in a mining location, now reverently raising the remains of Miss Guet Suey, who, however devious was her earthly course, died in hope of prompt and spiritual transportation to the King- dom of Flowers, return to which she was denied during life, but now destined to be conveyed thither in a somewhat unrecog- nizable shape. For five days in this manner was this disinterment part of the business prose- cuted. At the end of this time 135 bodies had been severally removed, dusted with the chloride of lime and dried in the drv mountain air. Then five days of und tarbed tranquillity followed, after which there appeared upon the ground a corps of operators with knives, who set to scrap- ing the femurs, the various processes of the ilium and else, which employment continued unremittent!y during the ensu- ing week. At the end of that time all | bones being bunched, wrapped and laid in neat-fitting layers in the consecrated pyx, which was to be their receptacle of | conveyance, this was closed and mounted upon a catafalaue singular for the drae- ons that embossed 1ts ends at four corners. This curious arrangement was placed in the middle of a much more remarkable procession. Two immensc pajer figures, one of a fierce-looking soldier, the other of a mild-faced statesman, were carried in front, efter which there came two large red globular paper lanterns. Men in black- whiskered masks, mounted on ponies, oile along; men dressed as soldiers, with tin cutiasses and chain armor, marched jon; mourners in white, with white but. tons on their black glossy hats and white bands in their queues, a billowy sea of flat rattan and rice-paper umbrellas; then the squad of musicians, who piped on discordant flageolets; the strange tam- bourine of a gong which vielded a copper scream to the occasional thump of the man who bore it—all this moving in compact mass down streets from the burial ground to the josshouse, where for two days ceremonies were performed the detail and significance of which belie de- scription. Then there was finally the feast, which seemed to close this remarkable cele- bration, for it followed the ship- ment of the sealed bone box to San Fran- cisco, whence it should find its way to China. The piece de resistance of this repast was roast pig, its skin varnishea with some resinous solution, which gave it a brown color, and was eaten with a white rice gin, a bowl of which was set on thetable and was dipped into indiscrimin- ately by the members of the company, each of whom used shells for drinking vessels. A large gathering was presentat this entertainment, and as it occurred in the evening it was late in the night before a conclusion was reached. Meanwhils, after the guests had regaled themselves to repletion with the polished pork and else, they introduced a sort of game to force each other to drink more of the gin. Starting with the head person at aach table and entirely circling the boards, each participant threw his head forward and uttered some word to the accompani- ment of an appropriate movement of his fingers. There were a number of these words, each with a corresponding move- ment, the utterances called outin a loud, screechy voice. If the performer got seriatim through the formula of words and their ap- propriate movements he was safe; otherwise the penalty was that he must drink a shellful of the gin. As the zame progressed the gin shelis drunk became more numerous, until at early dawn, when the party broke up, every one was so thoroughly saturated with the fluid that progress was made with difficuity. Nevertheless they managed to disperse, the miners to their placers, the washers to their tubs, and the season of festivities and mortuary transmutation was at a close, and the Chinese phase of Chico re- lapsed into its customary quiet. Joux E. BENNETT. IS A REAL CHAMBER O er of h cony of Mme but place Jwn wav remind cer a bu e opposite; act th is due to the t every th f a tortured mb beast, who bas ors | fallen a victim to the savagery of some human animal. The owner of this museum is that soci- ety the somewhat long name of which is verently — indeed, flippantly — con- those people to whom the time in litlle things is an ob- though they waste the time v in other directions, into “The free nelty Socie! There is no catalogue provided to guide and instruct the visit- | t to each of tbe vari articl is attached a small white card on set forth the f. nished mu which which the readinz of thess cards. supplemented rough the soc ety’s formida- anbooks, gives o ideas ny ~ome of their brother men and whch are far from pleasing. ny the crueities perpetrated upon jumb animals are, it seems, prompted by 2 on the part of the perpetrator to -e himeelf or herself upon the owner less creature. In the case: ses have been the victims t'e idea seems to have been to destroy or maim something of money value. and thus stab the owner “through the pocket- 2 t by a glar Many o he in thai Sa i coterie. hestra. 1 A ?romisihg VYOur\g Musician. has been winning such enthusiastic praises for her musical ability Franci-co is proud to claim her as a daughter. i Francisco to continue her studies in Berlin she had achieved unusual distinc- Althoush but 13 years of age t r. Rosewald to piay second violin in the Young Ladies’ Saturday Morn- is as a pianiste, though, that Miss Asher excels. ations in the celebrated Berlin conservatory, Kee igliche Hochschule, she socreditably that, although she was two years under age, sixteen being the Before Miss Meta she was selected When she took ed number of years, she was admitted by a special order of the authorities. Professor barih, the pianist, who is considered the hardest taskmaster in Europe, ent interview s American one. ay er, and oaly 17 at that. lected Miss Meia as one of his most promising pupils, if not In the recent symphony that was given in honor Miss Asher was chosen 2s one of the performers, a rare honor, It is now three years since Miss Asher left San Francisco, and before returning she purposes to spend a year in Paris. The Berlin critics, who are given to severity, always speak highly of Miss Meta. This fact can onlv be appreciate! Asher is also 14 PPY po Klempner, but to her vorc momenis, the piano eccup bv those who realize the degree of excellence that must be obtained before a siudent can even receive mention from the critics in Berlin. sor of a light, clear voice admirab'y trained by Frau as her violin, Miss Asber devotes but her few leisure g all her time. Miss Her future career will be watched with great interest by all tle music lovers in San Francisco. book,” as the phrase is. Where smaller animals, of value oniy as pets, have been the objects of atiack, the plan has been to | wound the possessor through the suffer- ings of something which is dear to him. Here is the rope with which the horse of Thomas Haskins was, not two years since, bound and hung up in his stall by some midnight visitor who had a grudge against his owner; and here also is the hammer ‘which was used by that same visitor to smash the bones of the poor | credture’s head and beat out his eyeballs. | tully inadequate in the premises, still, ! horse he bestrode, because the animal— | more sensibie than his | wish te carry him over a screen door into | | Thomas was lucky enough to escape with | ing was that the dog, following his natural | instincts, | torture which a hilariously intoxicated | cause hisdriver in her estimation came After passing through this night of agony the horse was found hanging in his bonds the next morning, still alive, and was mercifully killed. The wretch or wretches who took this roundabout but most cruel way of apparently repayinga gradge were | never punished. Two arresis were made, | but the eviaence available was insuflicient | to convict, and the suspected persons | were allowed to zo free, In a little bundle are some bits of evi- dence which led to the conviction, on | rrefutable circumstantial evidence, of a | revengetul scavenger. This man, one | night in 1895, stole into the stable where | he and a former friend of his had, until | a recent quarrel which had led to his own withdrawal, stabled their horses together. His quondam friend’s horse was still there, and over its unoffending head he poured a boitle full of carvoiic acid, burn- ing the flesh to the bone and nearly destroying one eye. is gratilying to | learn that, after a hard-fought legal battie | in which an appeal was taken to the Supe- | rior Court, this individual wus made to pay | a fine of $100, which, though it seems piti- doubtless, caused him sufficient “mental anguisk” to warn him against indulging in such amusements in future. Instances of this kind are sadly numer- ous in the history of thesociety ; but there are many instances aiso in which there wasno element of intended revenge apon human beings, but where the whole terrible affair sprang from a brutal desire | to punish the animal itself, or make it obev the will of its master. To the former class beiongs the incident of which a certain bloudy butcher-knife is a memento. W:ith this mild instrument of correction a grocer of Eureka Valley once, in the retirement of his back yard, stabbed a dog thirty-two consecutive times. The reason given for this proceed- the amiable | had “‘chased’’ grocer’s cat on the previous day—no alle- | gation being made, however, that he had | injured the pet in the least. A pair of spurs, with rowels overan inch | long, shamefacedly confess, through the | medium of a card which is attached to | them, that tiiey are the instruments of fellow used to tear open the sides of the rider—did not the interior of a saloon. A board an inca thick, eight inches wide and eight feet long. was used by a certair Thomas Allen to beat his unfortu- nate steed over the head and neck. 4 fine of only $10, but as a year has passed since this exhibition of tem'er on his! part, and he has not again fallen into the clutches of the law, it is thought that the sum must have been large enough in his eyes to teach him at least a moderate amount of self-control. One of the worst cases of cruelty ever known in this city was the work of two pedalers, whose ill-used horse balked one day and refused to carry his heavy load farther. After energetically and assidu- ous!y trying the various forms of torture | which are populurly supposed to be effica- | cious on such occasions they invented a new one of tiieir own, which had the merit at least of curing that particular horse of the equine vice to which they objected. They fastened a 10pe around his tongue, tied the free end to another cart and whipped up the forward norse, with the result that the tongue was at once torn out by the rogts. The aconized creature was shot, and the peddlers served a six months’ sentence, during which it is hoped they found time and opportunity to reflect upon the undesirability of possess- ing ana exercising too much ingenuity. A razor rusted with blood brings to mind the story of the woman who, be- | which were really only wvoor little mud | the edge of the sidewalk, deliberately— | after trying vainly to ciimb up in the| | wagon and wreak her vengeance on the | | man—slashed a horse’s throat, making a | | three-inch cut from which he nearly bied | | to death. Tiie feminine would-be butcher | was arrested, tried, adjudged insane and | sent to an asvlum where rzzors are inter: | dicted as means of discipline. Cases of erunelties inflicted by women are, for self-evident reasons, noticeably in | the minority. The recent *‘fad” for starv- | ing horees as nearly to death as possible, | | without being actually obliged to send | them to the feriilizer factory, was, how- | | ever, apparently inaugurated by the Mrs. | | McNally who, over a year ago, gained a | little pleasing notoriely by feeding her | poor beasts upon atmosphere while she | had $4500 hidden in a woodpile on her | | premises. | Harness, saddles and collars, filtay with the exudations from cancerous s 3, 8Show the hard-heartedness of men who persist in driving anguished beuasts when every step causes the suffering creatures a most deadly pain. A man named Nor ton, who pays taxes on $40,000 worth | of property, is a frequent offender in this regard and in lesser but still cruel ways, and has been dealt with legally azain and again during the past nineteen years. One of his engaging pecubarities is to | drive his horses without shoes until their | hoofs are worn almost com pletely off, and | a photograph of the horse recently re- | lieved by the society from aciive service | in his behalf is a good object lesson for those few who do not appreciate the good work which the organization is doing. The doing to death of dogs in various | horrible ways is commemorated here. | Noticeable among these cases is one where a party of boys used a dox for a target and employed nails for bullets. Another bo misnamed Angell, grew tired of his pet terrier, and after suspending it by the | neck for a time, dragged it behind him during a wild race up hill and down dale, and finished his amusement by sitting | down and hammering its head with a small stone until death ended its suffer- ings. 'f‘ue Midwinter Fair was a constant source ol trouble as far as the protection of animals was concerned. Many of the forms of amusements planned were de- cidedly and successfully objected to, and | a “ring bit”” used by a Turkish equestrian | in the Streets of Cairo is one ot the tro- phies secured during that time. This bit is one beside which the famous, or infa- | mous, Spanish bit seems merely an orna- mental appendage to a horsa’s trappings, since the business part of it is a circle of steel which surrounds the lower jaw and is so contrived that a very slight pu!l on the bridle nearly separates the animai from that useful portion of his anatomy. The fight ovee the ‘‘chameleons”— lizards from Florida—we all remember, as well as its successful outcome, A number of spiked poles speak elo- quently of the gentle methods employed in the loading and unloading of cattle on their forced journeys to oar markets. One pole with a sharpened spike in the end six inches long is a souvenir of departed days | in Butchertown. [t was jormerly neces. sary, when the old windlass system wasin use, that the animals should pinnge for- ward quickiy at the end of the chute, up which they walked in single file, in order that they might be properly caught and bandled by the machinery. Thisspike was used to accelerate their movements; and since a wound in the flesh would cause the blood to settle around it and thus lower the value of the meat, it was the custom to siab the death-doomed brutes directly in the eye. The plunge which invariably followed was entirely satisfactory. Another method which gave equally zood results was to break one of the legs just above the hoof with a singie blow of an ax, but the society objected to this 2lso, and managed to stop both these practices, and at the present time our butchering establishments are as well and mercifully conducted as are any places of their kind. Chickens are great sufferers at the hands of dealers, as they are sadly apt to be packed into crates far too small for the number imprisoned therein, and to be criminaily neglected in the matter of drink and food, Plucking them alive has, however, been stopped, as the heavy fine imposed on several offenders has had w proaibitory effect. The ill-treatment of cats, the starving of pet birds, the abuse of ‘“show” animals of every kind—all these things and more too near her child who was playing on come within the province of this society, FLORENCE MATHESON, | ! ance would have caused | the attaches of the Morgueif ever in their | po-ition | old Powell-street wharf was shorn of half AS TOLD BY T Earth shail reclaim Her precious things from theel— Restore the dead, thou ~ea! ! FELICIA HEMANS. The barkeeper in the dingy little drink- ing place ol the water front shudders at the sight of the black dollars. | “'Sacre bleu,”’ he exclaims to the grin- ning waterman, “Ino taka the mon’ of | the dead man.” But he takes it, compro- mising with his conscience by furtively crossing himself as he sweeps the ill- omened coins into his cash drawer. The history of black dollarsis a matter of common knowledge along the front. Time was, perhaps, when their appear- inquiring com- ments even in the haunts of those whose habits lead them mest along the wharves, but that was before a teneficent law had given to these habitue: of the fronta whastly, ghoulich avocation. Now the story of the discolored coins1s known to | every longshoreman and boatman. They are the forcea tributes of the dead. Whence come the black dollar.? Ask experience the bay has given up a vietim upon whose body was found so much as the price of a shroud. “'Seldom do we find a cent on the bodies of those who bave been broughtout of the bay,”” says Deputy Coroner O'Brien. *Often their pockets are turned inside out, and frequently the pockets areina that suggests that a clumsy effort has been made to putthem back after so turning theru.’ Ask the shrewd boatman if the pittance which the city and county gives for the recovery of bodies from the deep pays for the weary hours spent in patrolling the bay for these grewsome priz2a. But the answer conclusive comes not from these. 1Itisin the black currency of East street. Each year the citv and county pays out in the neighborhood of $500 for the recov- ery of bodies found afloat; $460 was the ex- act sum for the last tweive months, but the Morgue records show that to have been | an unusually light year. Ten dollars each is the reward which the Supervisors have seen fit to offer for these ghastly relics of suicide, of crime and of catas- trophe. There are many craft afloat, and it is hazardous guessing where the tides may carry their burdens, yet day after day and through the long watches of the night the trained eyes of the waterman are scanning the drift. If the search but yield an occasional gold piece from the city treasury that is something. And always there is the enance of the black dollars. The tide sweeps swiftly and fiercely by the northern seawali of the city. Navi- gators keep their vessels well into the fairway tc avoid the treacherous dragging force of the currents. It was to prevent disaster, often imminent to the bark caught in this rush of waters, that the | | its length. Drifting objects are borne rapidly along on this current, and are swept with the churning waters between | the piles of the projecting wharves. When night has changed the green waters of the bay toa great pool of inky black; when the proud ship riding 2t an- chor is but an indistinct skeleton in the sight of the single lantern at the mast- head; when an occasional ferry-boat with its silent procession of brilliant lights is the only evidence of the busy life that throngs the harbor when the sun is up, then is there an eager eye always watching the flotsam of that speeding tide. Out on one of the piers beneath which the current is swiftesta patient boatman keeps nightly vigil. Stol- idly, hopefully he waits. Some time it must come, Perbaps it will mean but the Coroner’s paltry warrant. But who can tell? Perhaps it may be freighted with the black dollars. 1t 1s not zlone these ghoulish watchers to whom comes the opportunity to earn the city’s reward. The Italian fisherman whose saucy little bark slips from its moorings two hours before the sun is up and bravely dances along the waves toward the great open sea someiimes encounters that which makes his blood rua cold and stills the song which lie carols to the accompaniment of the winds. Per- haps when it was first sighted he thought it a mass of drifting weed or the wreck- age of some ill-fated craf, and curiosity causad him to swerve just a little from his HE BLACK DOLLARS course. If the superstition of his class is strong within him he turns the nose of his boat hurriedly away from his terrorizing | discovery and the great lateen sail groans | and bends almost to the water as the finy craft scuds tike a thing affrigchted away into the night toward the wilderness of waves beyond the heads. Much contact with the practical popu- lation of the water front has made many of these foreign fisherfolk more worldly wite. They have mostly learned now that the silent things which once were men have little power to harm them. They have learned, too, of the reward—perhaps | of the black dollars. Such a fisherman secures the prize, heads the little craft! toward the city, and the watchman on the wharves hears the strains of a Latin love song as he glides homeward. When the Coroner’s men find the pockets of the waves’ victim turned inside out they ask rno question. What would be the use? There is an old truism which treats of dead men’s tales. LRl T It is a wee bark and a sly bark that enters the San Francisco harbor usnpoken by the reporters of the Merchants’ Ex- change. Away out on the northmost point of the peninsula is their watch- house, and every hour of the twenty-four Danny O’'Connell, Michael Fitzgerald or Jamas Black is scanning the narrow path- way between the heads. When the sunlight is glistening on the water and the eye of the landsman turns, aching, frore contemplation of the glaring surface, Fitzgerald gazes hour after hour into the haze beyond the Heads for the first sign of an approaching mast. the unskilled observer has sighted the ship Fitzgerald has determined its char- acter ard is preparing to put off to itin his whitehall. Itis important that the anxious owners and shippers should have the earliest pos- sible news of the arrival of the craft, and before it has weighed anchor the details of its vovage will be known on 'Change. At night the vigil is aifferent, but no less faithful. The Golden Gate is then but the blackness between the revolving red iight on the south and a steady white lizhton the north. Itis a monotonous life watching, watching, always watching a | strip of black between that red light and that white light. Sometimes the watcher in the nignt sees a dark figare emerge stealthily from the gloomy surroundings of the seawall at Powell-street wharf. experience has taugnt the Exchange men If it is a man long that even if his nerve does not forsake him be will hesitate long before taking the final leap. Most men dislike to do any- thing in a hurry. It the figure is thatof a woman who glances aporehensively about ner asshe speeds toward the water the watchman knows there is no time to be lost. The whitehall boat isswung into the water and tbe iittle crafu is urged to its utmost. Perhapsitis in time to forestall the at- tempt at suicide, if such was contem- plated, and the black figure glides back again into the shadows. If the boat is too late—but it is never too late to atleast pull the half-drowned victim from the water. For those who escape the vigilant eye of the watchman there 1s but one probable fate—the ghoulish searchers of the bay, the seekers for the Coroner’s re- ward and the black dollars, Before | The denizens of the water front seelittle of the heroicin pulling a drowning man or woman from the water. Itiswiththem | but a casualincident of their everyday life. | Yet even among the boatmen Danny O’Connell has achieved something of a reputation in this line, for Danny’s pos: tion at the end of the city has thrown ex- ceptional opportunities in his way. In the swift currents that sweep the city's northern seawall is played the last act in many a tragedy. ; “*Many a time I have heard the screams when I was asleep,” said Danny, in a reminiscent mocd. ‘I can always tell if it is a suicide. There is nothing else that sounds like it. I hear a scream, then a spiash, and I know there is work ahead for me. “It is mostly the women who scream. If it is a man we may hear the splasb, but generally nothing is known of his jump until the body is found floating in the bay. *“Two or three months ago I was sound asleep in my room, when I woke up with astart. There was a sound of a woman’s laugh coming irom the beach. You never neard such a laugh as that. It had the ring of a suicide’'s scream, and I said to myself, ‘Danny, there is something wrong there.” ‘I hurried back to the beach and there was a woman shrieking and laughing as she waded out into the water. ** “What are you doing? I shouted. “‘I'm married to the waves and I am going to join my husband,’ she answered. And then she laughed again justas the water closed over her head, “I jumped into the water and pulled her out, but she fought like a tiger and came very near joining ‘her husband,’ the waves.” A number of boatmen were listening to Danny’s tales of the bay, for Danny is a good raconteur. Perhaps most of them bad bad similar experiences, but they counted them of too little importance to relate. Their ideas were more practicable. “Youdon’t get anything for those you puil out alive,” said one of them, “‘and for every dead one you get $10.” The conclusion was inevitable. It is better to rescue a dead one. The sentiment was popular and it was applauded. “I remember wben I was a little fel- low,’” continued the man who had spoken last, *I was waiking along here with my dad. We saw a fellow walking along the seawall here like he was trying to make up his mind to something. “‘Watch that man, Johnnie,’ said my father, ‘there’s $10 in it for you.’ I bid behind the lumber piles neariy all day, waiting for something to happen. A lotof times he walked over toward the water and I thought he was going to do 1t. Butevery time he walked away again. I was just making up my mind I had a wrong tip when he came over1ight near where I was hiding and shot himself in the head. Ididn’t getacent for all my waiting.” Sentiment is not a virtue of the water front. | e Antonio, the barkeeper, shudders at the sight of the black dollars. They speak to him of grim, gaunt, ghastly death. They tell of desecrations which arouse his su. perstitious terror. They conjure up pit tures of uncanny, fearsome things, which the beedless waves toss hitherand thitner, unmindful of the set, whiie faces. & ¥rank H. Bexson, *