The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 16, 1898, Page 6

THE, SAN .FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY .16, 1898, JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. ~hddress All Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager. PUBLICATION OFFICE........Market and Third Sts. S. Teiephone Main 186S. EDITORIAL ROOMS 217 to 221 Stevenson stres Telephone Main 1874 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL (DAILY AND SUNDAY) Is served by carriers In this city and surrounding towns for 15 cents a week. By mall $6 per year; per month 65 cents. THE WEEKLY CALL.. .One vear, by mal, $1.50 OAKLAND OFFICE & Fastern Representative, DAVID ALLEN. NEW YORK OFFICE Room 188, World Building WASHINGTON (D. C. OFFICE Riggs House « C. CARLTON, Correspondent. BRANCH OFFICES--527 Montgomery street, eorner Clay: cpen until 9:30 o'clock. 339 Hayes street; open until ©:30 o'clock. 621 MoAllister street; open untll 9:30 o'clock. 615 Larkin street; open until 9:30 o'clock SW. corner Sixteenth and Misslon streets; open until 9o'clock. 2518 Mission street: open until 9 o'clock. 106 Eieventh st open until9 o'clock, 1505 PolK street cpen until 9:30 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-second and Kentucky streets; open until 9 o'clock. .908 Broadway Raceirack—Races to-morrow AUCTION SALES. 18, Horses. at corner Van THE PORTABLE STOMACH. HE report that some doctor abroad had de- Tpri\cd a patient of a troublesome stomach has begun to hav effect. Every doctor seems to want to do the same thing and is in quest of a stom: for which the owner has no strongly marked affection. Twice has the opera- tion been essayed in this country, and twice has the patient died, but in each instance, it is gratifying to note, not until admiring science had pronounced the operation successiul. Here arises a point of some What constitutes success? The mere re- moval of an internal organ can secarccly be thus characterized, for Jack the Ripper never fell short of accomplishing this when he set out to do it, and any butcher could take a cleaver and achieve the same feat. ach from the human economy is to cure the ache of it without regard to the longevity of the original proprietor, of course the creation of a vacuum mid- way of the mortal frame is sufficient token that suc- the inevitable delicac If the purpose of eliminating the stom- cess has crowned the efforts of the operator, and | whether the frame collapse is a collateral consider- ation of but That the medical world and the sure-enough world fail to agree is due to rence in the pe The first estimates an operation by the joy of making it, and the second clings to an old theory that some con- sideration ought to be given to the effect upon the subject who contributes to the affair his mortal parts. R that strong pressure has been brought to bear upon Congress to transfer the management of national homes for disabled volunteer soldiers from the present control to that of the War Department. dental moment. a diff nt of view. SOLDIERS’ HOMES. EPORTS from Washington are to the effect It is asserted by the advocates of the change that the | present management of the homes is expensive and cumbersome and that there would be a gain of both efficiency and economy by the transfer. The effect of the proposed movement would be to take the homes for disabled volunteer soldiers from the control of officers who, like the inmates, were volunteers, and place them under that of a bureau created for the purpose in the War Depart- ment, where the management would be in the hands of officers of the regular army. It would revive the old strife between the volunteer and the West Point graduate, and it is by no means certain the expected benefits would accrue. According to statistics compiled by Andrew J. Smith, governor of the Pacific Coast national homes for disabled voluntcer soldiers, the argument for s on the side of the present management Figures taken econom rather than on that of the reformers. for the three fiscal years ending June 30, 1896, show the average cost of maintenance per capita in the soldiers’ homes to have been $118 28, while the re- ports of the inspector-general, U. S. A.. show the average cost of maintenance per capita at the regu- lar army soldiers’ home at Washington to have been $201 11 While the comparison with the Soldiers’ Home at Washington is hardly a fair test of the compara- tive merits of volunteer and regular army adminis- tration, inasmuch as the home and its grounds at the capital are show places and are kept like a park and a summer home for the President, nevertheless the showing made for the management of the vol- unteer homes is sufficiently excellent to' throw the burden &f proof upon those who wmaintain there would be greater economy under the control of a War Department bureau. On general principles the management of the na- tional homes for disabled volunteer soldiers should be left as it is in the hands of their former comrades in arms. The War Department has enough to do with- out creating a2 new bureau of service for it to per- form. There may be reforms needed in the exist- ing management, for no management is perfect, but such as are requisite can be obtained just as well without making the radical change proposed. Investigation of the reason that trolley cars are fenderless may win for members of the Grand Jury the approval of their own consciences, but it will not equip a single car with a fender. The Southern Pacific does not care whether or not it kills people, nor does it wince under the occasional rebuke of the Coroner. The only way to reform it will be to make WHY ? ERTAIN members of the Prison Board C seem to be punishing themselves.with the de- lusion that The Call has a malicious or polit- ical grievance against them; that its exposure of the glaring and inexcusable subversion of the Ostrom law has a sinister and shrouded motive to injure, to blemish willfully, their individual good name. Nothijng in intent could be further removed from the purpose of the inquiries made as to the manage- went of the San Quentin jutemill and the disposal of its product. Let there be no plausible misunderstanding of the interest of The Call in this matter. It was privately informed of illegal transactions which received the approval of the board, and urgently requested to de- fend the law. The informant of The Call is a reput- able citizen of the State; indeed an officer of the law himself, to whom the conspiracy of violations of the Ostrom act was brought home in his capacity as a public servitor. After a painstaking investigation covering a pe- riod of two weeks, the mismanagement of the prison jutebag product, and the reckless juggling with the statutory restrictions supposed to govern its sale, were so plainly proved that The Call felt in duty bound to place the subject, in its various phases, be- fore the people. It has been prompted by no desire to, create sensation or defame public officials. Evidently the Prison Directors have a mistaken notion as to their duties and powers. It is no suffi- cient apology for their actions that they, and not Senator Ostrom, devised the statute of 1893. This they assert. Why they should have drafted a law and urged its enactment only to violate its provi- sions in detail and condemn it in their report of 1896 is not explained. Selling sacks to middlemen and favored commis- sion houses might have been a prudent expedient in 1897 if the process of such saies inured to the benefit of those whom the law should forefend. An unprejudiced review of the situation will sat- isfy any tyro in business affairs that the board was conscious in the early spring of 1897 that a prosper- ous year was promised to the farmers, that grain- sacks would be in full demand and that the Calcutta “Big Five” were particularly and peculiarly inter- ested in advancing the prices. The speedy exhaustion of the San Quentin sur- plus for future delivery and the subsequent fixation of price by the board at a higher point than was pegged for the surplus sales facilitated the upward movement. Asif thiswerenot going far enough in the wrong. direction, the board on March 20, before the sack surplusage had been delivered and paid for, and while the Calcutta middlemen were dealing ac- tively in future deliveries, raised the price to $5 40 per hundred, a rate in excess of reigning Calcutta quotations. If any sound business principle actuated the Prison Board in this course it has not been pre- sented to the attention of The Call. The inflated price into which the board seem to have blown a goodly quantity of what the epigrammatic Emory Storrs described as ‘“east wind” was fixed by them in the current products of the mill. Their own ex- pert accountant shows that the average cost of that product was $4 24 per hundred. The law distinctly vestrains the board from fixing a price in excess of 1-cent per bag above cost. They marked bags up 16 cents per hundred above cost figures. AN INTERESTING DEBATE. Why? ARELY does the Congressional Record con- R tain anything of interest to the general reader. Even when debates are liveliest in Congress the Record manages by eliminations to make them appear of that kind of decorum which is always dull. Sometimes, however, it has the good luck to get out a live issue, and that luck attended it in the publication of the number containing the discussion in the House on the civil service law on January 7. Mr. Gillett of Massachusetts, a warm supporter of the mugwump system of civil service, cited the ad- ministration of the House of Representatives it- self as an evidence of the evil results of leaving the selection of officials to party patronage. “We have, he said, “more employes, we pay them higher sal- aries, we have poorer service than under any other it pay roundly for a few of its homictdes, or if by chance the trolley were to catch a Vining or two the effect would be salutary. Sir Charles Fairlie-Cunningham fell in love with 1 chorus-girl who did not reciprocate, and so he has comforted himself by blowing out his brains. The girl probably feels herself a participant in the com- fort thus created. The child-wife of childish old General Clay would confer upon this country a considerable boon by the . simple act of jumping inta a well, -~ system.” Dropping into poetry, he described the way to success in getting on the payroll of the House as follows: “It lies through two swing doors, swung to. The attendance is always full. Some by the door marked ‘Push’ get through, And the rest by the door marked ‘Pull’” That scored one for the civil service examination side, but the other party got their innings when Mr. Faris pointed out that ability to pass an examination does not imply ability to perform good executive service. Robert Ingersoll, he said, could pass an examination in theology, but that would not fit him to serve as pastor in an orthodox church. On the other hand, a man who could not pass an examina- tion in the simplest matters might have the exact capacity for the work required of him. To prove that he told the story of a man in his city who had' suc- cessfully managed a large mercantile business ‘and acquired therein’ a fortune, but who, being selected to take an inventory of a stock of goods, wrote “sox” for socks, and when his attention was called to it as an error changed it by writing “soxes.” Mr. Mahany made a good speech-and won ap- plause in maintenance of the theory that ability to get an office is a sufficient evidence of ability to fill it, and that examinations are a waste of time. He laid it down as an axiom that “any man is capable of administering any job he can get.” “Carrying his argument to its logical and supreme conclusion, he declared, “It is the greatest glory of our Govern- ment that almost any man you meet on the street is capable of being Chief Magistrate of the United States, and if capable of wielding that high power is certainly capable of administering a subordinate office.” Mr. Kerr showed the absurdity of the examina- tion system by citing some of the questions candi- dates had to answer. Two of these are as follows: Two-thirds of seven-ninths of what number is a half of eight and two-fiths divided Dby fourteen and seven-tenths less fourteen ' and two-sevenths? A man" weighing seventy-two pounds runs with a ve- locity of six against a standing but not resisting man whose weight is ninety-six pounds, What is the re- sult? 3 Taken altogether it was a good debate, and even if not instructive to future generations was at any rate calculated to add to the gayety of nations. " No ship is to be sent to Havana, but if the Spanish go so far as to invade Washington and charge on the Senate with fixed bayonets there will be a pro- N - e e e - THE OPPOSITION TO McKENNA. Y the discussion in the Senate on Friday the B public is made aware of the nature and extent of the opposition to the confirmation of At- torney-General McKenna as Justice of the Supreme Court, and his friends may congratulate him on the showing. During the debate he had the support of the strong men of the Senate, and his opponents could do no more than postpone the confirmation for a week. Senator Allen, who spoke for the opponents of Mr. McKenna, disclaimed any knowledge of the truth of such charges as have been made against him. He, however, read over all the protests that have been sent to Washington from this coast and asked time to investigate them. He laid stress upon the assertion made in some of these that the At- torney-General lacks the legal attainments necessary to an aspirant for the Supreme bench, and also em- phasized the report that large corporations have been instrumental in procuring the nomination. Such being the sum and substance of the charges of the opposition, it did not take the friends of Mr. McKenna long to dispose of them. Senator Hoar, speaking as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, stated that the committee has investigated all the charges and found there is no truth in them. The greater number of the charges, he said, had been made for the American Protective Association, and as they had been founded solely upon the fact that Mr. McKenna is a Catholic by religion, they had not been deemed worthy of serious consideration. From the tone of the discussion which followed it is evident a large majority of the Senators took the same view as the Judiciary Committee. No Senator undertook to maintain the truth or even the ap- proximate accuracy of the charges. Senator Allen himself disavowed the championship of them. They were treated as unworthy of consideration and served no purpose other than that of giving to the friends of Mr. McKenna a welcome opportunity to refute them in open Senate and dispusc of them once and for all. It is gratifying that both the Senators from Cali- fornia cordially supported the candidacy of their fellow Californian. Senator White, though a Dem- ocrat and opposed in politics to Mr. McKenna, bore witness to the fact that he is an honorable man, a competent lawyer, a just .jurist, and declared he would vote for his confirmation. Senator Perkins was equally vigorous in refuting the charges of the opposition and very pertinently pointed out that Judge McKenna’s record on the circuit bench suffi- ciently attests his fitness for promotion to the higher office to which he has been nominated. The whole course of the fight against McKenna has been a new illustration of the old spirit of an- tagonism and jealousy that in the past has defeated the aspirations of so many Californians and kept the State from holding a rightful prestige at Wash- ington. Fortunately this case has not resulted as those of the past. A new era has dawned for the people of this coast. Mean and unfounded charges urged by petty spite to prevent the advancement of honorable men are now treated here as in Washing- ton as unworthy of serious consideration. @ SUMMARY OF CURRENGY REFORM, HERE are ten diffcrent kinds of currency cir- Tculaling in this country and authorized by its laws. These are gold coins, silver dollars, sub- sidiary silver coins, gold certificates, silver certifi- cates, United States notes, carrency certificates, treasury notes of 1890 and national bank notes. It will be seen that all of these originate in Fed- eral authority, and there seems room for question- ing the necessity for so many kinds of money com- irg from the same source. Putting all metallic money in one group and placing with it such paper currency as is merely representative of metal like the silver certificate, the tendency of legislation would seem to be wise when it aims at one single kind of paper currency, safeguarded In its issue, se- cure in its redemption and uniform in its value in all parts of the country. The report of the Volunteer Monetary Commis- sior aims at this simplifying of the currency. Its de- liberations were directed to the presentation of a plan that will: 1. Remove all doubts about our standard of value. 2. Give the United States the best credit of any nation. 2. Purge our currency system of features shown by experience to be weak and dangerous. 4. Provide a paper currency convertible into gold and theretore equal to gold at all times and in all places adequate in volume to the needs of business, with a ¢ralty of growth and elasticity enabling 1ts automatic adjustment to variations in demand and capable of distribution throughout the country as want and use may demand. 5. To so utilize existing silver dollars as to main- tain their parity with gold without imposing undue burdens on the treasury. 6. To avoid injurious rency. 7. To avoid issue of interest bearing bonds except in case of unlooked-for emergency, but to author- ize their issue when necessary to preserve the na- ticnal credit. 8. To so separate public and private credit that weakness in the former may not destroy the latter. It is expected that if the system recommended by the commission be enacted into law we will secure stability of standard, two kinds of currency, metal- lic and paper, of equal value and each good as gold. The paper will be a bank issue, as well secured as the present national bank note, and its permanence will not be affected by the final payment or the national debt, and, therefore, the disappearance of United States bonds now ‘required as security for the bank notes. The greenbacks and treasury notes will grad- ually disappear without perceptible increase in the _bonded debt and without contracting the volume of currency. The new national banking system will be unrestricted and banks with $25,000 capital may be formed. 3 In this feature the West has a special interest. The function of a bank is to distribute the surplus capital of the country and put it as a Yoan fund with- in reach of men who must use their credit in their business. A proper distribution of this loan fund will avert frequently the necessity of mortgaging land and will give a readier and cheaper use of credit than now. In this State it will be found especially useful to organize banks on $25,000 capital in the sections where money is needed in handling the fruit crop, and the new law, if properly made use of, would in- terpose protection between the producer and the commission man in a form very useful to the pro- ducer. contraction of the cur- The courts have given a notorious pickpocket the privilege of “leaving town,” but if the police have any idea that she will leave town their faith is sweet childlike, ; S8t e e s T - G nuuLN B BV RIR8R A good friend counsels me that this column does not contain enough sun- shine. Possibly she is correct, or it may be that she overestimates the util- ity of the solar ray. My effort thus far has been less in the direction of getting sunshine in tnan in keeping moonshine out. If my friend, bound by a sense of duty to read such casual and fleeting comment as here recorded, find herself thereby plunged in gloom, I hope she will not blame me. My aim is not to hang a somber -curtain athwart the orb of day, but to main- taln a safe and dignified position mid- way between the joke and obituary de- partments. France has for feeling cheered. The baby has come into fash- ion again. The statistician whose joy it has been to figure out the time when the mewling of the French infant would be but a blessed memory, can turn his valuable attention elsewhere. In 1895 deaths in that country exceeded births by 17,813, and in 1896 the births exceeded deaths by 94,000. Speculation as to reasons for this burst of patriot- ism are a little out of my line, but I would be pleased to hear fromr aj com- petent authority, and more than will- ing to surrender to his solution of the problem all the space he might need. Complaint {8 often heard that the Salvation Army and kindred organiza- tions make a noise. This wiil be con- ceded by thoughtful persons to have some basis in fact. But it must not be forgotten that nolse is a long way from being all they make. They make many a man better thau they find him, make life bright again for many a woman to whose deeps of despair silked and satined piety could not reach even if it wanted to, a desire of which I have not had the happiness to observe any indication. The subtle connection be- tween the hammering of a bass drum and the awakening of a conscience I confess myself unable to grasp. It does not readily a--ear why the prom- ise of eternal life gathers force by be- ing shouted from under the shadow of a waving flag. There is nothing tend- ing to show that tamborines were tinkling when the sermon on the mount fell from lips inspired of love and tenderness. Yet these truths do not change the circumstance that the uniformed and vociferous enthusiasts lift the fallen, comfort the mourner. Let them do it in their own way. They at the worst are not the only offenders of the ear. There is ever the whistle and the bell. The brass band emerges from a dive at nightfall to murder melody and lure the chump. The cheap show rents a street car, fills it with blare and turns it loose upon the peo- ple. The faker cries his worthless wares undisturbed by remorse or by police. If a silence seems desirable the soldiers marching over the cobbles be- cause they want to do good and are doing good are the last who should be required to lay aside the implements of discord. e The latest Englishman to give his impressions of this country after a long and patient investigation covering nearly two days uses the term “New Yorkeress.” To follow him {o his con- clusions, or indeed to follow him be- yond this offense, were a waste of time. There is a prohibition paper across the bay which takes especial delight in accusing the city daflles of bribery. Not only is it addicted to this offense, but it insists on printing a picture of Henry B. French. To the latter affront I object. The French style of whiskers is not prepossessing; the French way of reeking with goodness and hanging out a sign to call attention to it has a tendency to pall, and recollection of the manner in which French got mixed up in Normal School matters reminds me that all that glitters is not necessarily | & good imitation of gold. It is impossible to regard the un- tamed and unfendered trolley-car with favor. The manner in which it darts upon the innocent citizen and sends him in frregular sections to the Morgue is bound to create hostile prejudice. Even the pedestrian has a sort of right to live, provided he is agile enough to dodge. Yet it is with a thrill of ad- miration I learn that the trolley has run down a beer wagon. Heretofore the beer wagon has been regarded as invincible. It has been conceded the kingship of the thoroughfare, and the multitude has either scurried from it or been sorry. But the beer wagon has met its master. It has often puz- zled people who happened to think of it why the beer wagon has not been adopted as an engine of war. No char- jot with glittering blades protruding im- politely from the hub has ever pursued the tenor of its way or mowed down the populace with a more cheerful zest. Now it has lost its prestige. Instead of being a thing of terror it is a vulgar vehicle for the transference of kegs, and instead of being the boss of the road would on meeting a trolley-car take its axle between its wheels and run. i It is not surprising to observe that another “model” young man has gone away and that a large sum of his em- ployer's money is keeping him com- pany. When a young man gets this adjective fastened to him he must either do something like this or violate precedent. There is no young man who deserves so i1l of the world as to be re- garded as a “model.” In fact, there is no line of conduct he may pursue that can justify the placing upon him of the handicap constituted by the ridi- ulous title. The youth unfortunate enough to be pointed out as a pattern is apt to be one of two things. Either he 1s a rogue in disguise or a Miss Nancy with too little brains to assume a dis- guise. In each case the plan of not imitating him has much to commend it. If the natural impulse to be honest, industrious and decent is not sufficient to govern a life the sooner the police become cognizant of the matter the better. When one has been taught to look up to and emulate the example of a certain “model” and the model sud- denly lights out for Canada, embarrass- ment is certain to rise. The exact point at which a “model” ceases to be this and becomes a horrible example is dif- !ficult to define. If the rising genera- tion must have a “model” by all means let it choose one who is dead and had the fortune to die without being found out. In & recent number of the Examiner was printed a picture of an electric sword in action. It would appear from the spirited {llustration that a soldier with ong of these remarka- BREULLUARAIIULRLRUEIRIRARI{E{IWLE WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS. By HENRY JAMES. RURURURRURLRIURYERYRRE ® 8 E 8 & %2 ble weapons has a battery on his per- son. He touches the enemy with the gleaming blade, at the same time pressing a button. This gives the ene- my a dose of electricity which takes the form of a stellar display, and has the effect of paralyzing. After the enemy has been knocked cold he may be dis- patched at leisure, or perhaps deprived of an ear in token of having got the worst of it. There could hardly be a better scheme unless it be hypnotism. To hypnotize a whole army would be as practicable, more effective, and there would be an absence of the awful danger that the battery, getting beyond control, might burn a hole in the uniform of the swordsman. It is with a feeling of the utmost friendliness, not unmixed with awe, that I venture to speak of Parson Da- vis. As there may be more than one Parson Davis, it is necessary to speci- fy that these few remarks apply to him of Oakland. This Davis is a source of endless pleasure. His presence causes a smile to flit across the face of nature. 1f it were possible to imagine a fat beam of sunshine wearing a plug hat he would be it. Some have found fault because Davis occasionally thinks he is a circus, they affirming that he is only a clown, which is clearly an under es- timate. He is the circus, ringmaster, bandwagon, dog under the same, cage of performing monkeys, and all the side shows, as well as the concert-now- about-to-take-place. In other words, and to abandon figurative speech, Da- vis is a daisy. Erring persons prone to rudeness might call him a lu. He can sing, dance, lecture, act, strike more poses than a contortionist, has good taste in ties, gives first class spir- itual advice, wears his hair wide and long, entertains his friends and an ex- alted opinion of Davis. That's enough for any Oakland salary. I am unable to credit the rumor that at San Quen- tin he was observed to swing a bottle above his head, a rumor which has caused him a high grade of mental an- guish. Nor do I believe that if he. did swing a bottle it contained a liquid more exhilarating than ginger ale. He was over there with a gang known as the Examiner push. When he went to the condemned cell to snatch a brand from the burnine, what if he was merely a disguised reporter under con- tract to describe the process at space rates? It is not for the worldly to lay down a course for the professionally righteous. He may have had a laud- able purpose. The gang by which he was surrounded was godless to a de- gree. No finer material ever fired evan- gelistic zeal. The Examiner prize fight- ers were fierce and clamorous. When he found them not amenable to exhor- tation, perhaps he felt an impulse to | bring them by carnal means to a state of grace. In this way the swinging of a bottle could easily be excused, and had he brought it down upon the pate of the unregenerate could even be praised, though the ginger ale had been sacrificed. Whether the Rev. Mr. Davis acquired $50,000 worth of the high grade mental anguish hereinbefore men- tioned, is of course a matter not to be passed upon by me, but at any rate he has the satisfaction of knowing that he emerged from the sertmmége with his-halo polished to a new luster, his | dazzling hat only slisttly askew, and his self esteem without spot or blemish. Now that his congregation have seen fit to uphold him, far be it from me to call attention to the fact that the con- gregation had the joy of being absent while their pastor was on exhibition with a rabble of co-workers at prison. When an attorney named Terry, per- forming the sacred rites of his calling before Judge Daingerfield, dashed a | glass of water into the face of the op- position, he was warned from the bench that he was in contempt. So far as is learned this closed the epi- sode. Simply to be told that one is in contempt, one knowing this in ad- vance, does not seem to constitute a strong restraining influence. If Terry had been sent to jail the effort of spec- tators to avoid sharing in the contempt would have been less arduous. For many months the Examiner has been coddling the parents of a mur- derer who has now passed from the scene. The coddling appertained par- ticularly to the mother. This woman’s picture has been printed times without number, always making her young and comely, while—it is no possible reflec- tion upon her to say it—she is neither. Money has been lavished on the fam- ily. Different members of it have been paid for the portrayal of emotions far better not described. Any trash the murderer himself’ might choose to scribble was seized upon with the avid- ity displayed by a buzzard winging its happy way to carrion feast. Re- porters capable of doing good work have been trained to be maudlin, tear- ful, slobbery. In vain the public.re- volted against indecency long drawn out. To so much as to make known in general terms the protracted and disgusting _programme - adhered . to would be ~offensive to morals. But there was a purpose behind it all. The giant intelligence which pilots the Ex- aminer thought that at the ‘last it would get a confession from the mur- | derer. With this end in view it scat- tered money freely, hired men and women to camp by the condemned, ever hoping for a startling climax. At the end its emissaries swarmed,, buzzed, flew in eccentric circles. They indulged in pugilism, hysteria, rant, rot. They brought a minister of the gospel to the scene and at their be- hest he disgraced his high calling. And the result of it all was that they did not get a particle of information which representatives of any other pa- per failed to get, though the Examiner did publish much no respectable jour- nzl would have given room. In brief, it started out to cover ttself with the peculiar glory it loves and succeeded in covering itself with odium. The Ex- aminer strikes me as the hog of news- paperdom, its nose for news a snout seeking garbage, as its four feet the trough. Among the pleasures vouch- safed some of us who work in the field of journalism is that of not being con- nected with a sheet so gross that its existence casts a shadow over the honor of the craft. Such is the ethical side. The practical side is that thou- sands of dollars and much high-priced talent have been thrown away. I trust this circumstance will prove pleasing to Mr. Hearst. If he wants to have his paper here a thing of booty and a jay forever I can assure him that he is not likely to be disappointed. “M, A D" the | writes to know why it is | that while much is being done to stop adulteration of food, liquor is being sold in"such form that it destroys the stomach and turns it into ulcers. T will overlook the point that the in- quirer spells liquor in the free and easy fashion thus, “licker,” and answer trankly that I don’t know. I did not even know that this awful thing was being done. If any saloon keeper has played such a trick on M. A. D. he can- not be blamed for feeling just as he does about it. Still, there is a remedy. Mad can change his drinks. Or if his stomach has been fooled to the point of ulceration he can have that organ snipped out with a surgical pruning knife, and thus have a joke on the wicked purveyor of stimulants. With no stomach to be destroyed nor to har- bor ulcers, he could swallow anything short of burning brimstone and laugh at the dispenser thereof, particularly if he had told him to “put it on the slate.” *Twas Griffiths of Ohlo, By his fair fame he swore That Hanna'd tried to bribe him, Whereat he wax-ed sore; And every one for miles arouid Could hear the Gritfiths roar. *Twas Griffiths of Ohio, He had a faithful wife, Who eaid they couldn’t buy him, You bet (quoth she) your life; £o then arose with noise renewed The sound of party strife. But Griffiths of Ohio, Judged by the thing you did, I reach the sad conclusion That Hanna raised his bid; Yet trust to your discretion To keep the figure hid. I cannot refrain from saying that some of the best writing in connection with the Durrant case was from the pen of Miriam Michelson. Yet Miss Michelson was at no time required to dance attendance on the assassin nor any of his tribe. She did not deal with the terrible scenes of which he was the central figure, nor indulge in tearful exclamations. Her work was in the nature of a study of the broader ques- tions involved, and she brought to their treatment keen perception, a fine faculty of analysis and a broad men- tal grasp. In addition to all these she possesses a most happy and incisive faculty of expression. Far to the Klondike's frozen wilds, where roams the polar bear, Rich nuggets hide deep under ground and frost rides in the air; One day there went an aged bard to write him what he saw, And getting chilled he quick made haste be- side a stove to thaw. Alas! Alack! when he got thawed, oh! awful thing to hear, He realized with pang most keen that he had sloughed an ear. Yet this is not the worst to tell; the bard is coming home; All chances are when he arrives he'll straight- way slough a po Last week I felt an impulse to write something harsh about the Durrants. | That the editor drew a long mark through it did not seem to me then the part of wisdom. I am willing to con- icede now that he was right, and to | wager that this statement will receive his smiling approval. That the father and mother both had done much to for- ‘felt sympathy nobody who was at San | Quentin during the last hours of the son would think of denying, and yet | human judgment is apt to be unduly | harsh. "I came back from the scene of the murderer’s death, with its sordid preliminaries and its ghastly after- mdth, certain that the fatal rope would be for sale and the body go to the high- | est bidder. It did not occur to me that the Durrants would rise to the height | of trying to respect the last wishes of the law’s victim. They seem to have done this, and their efforts met an op- | position hard to understand, brutal I am sure and senseless I am inclined to believe. The idea that a body, inert, lifeless, the malign spirit that had ani- mated it gone, could not be reduced to innocuous ash without desecrating | the place of flame, strikes me as silly [ to a point almost grotesque. The con- | sideration shown the assassin while he | was living was too great by far. The | shame heaped upon the broken and |empty shell of clay taken from the iscflfiold of justice was equally without excuse. The crude old plan of leav- inig the bones of the hanged clanking fh chains at the roadside is shocking, but it is the same idea that denied to . Theodore Durrant’s body the embrace of the grave, the embrace in which all lie equal, and would have kept it from the purifying fire, where secrets defy the prying eyes of science. - —_———e—————— “ITALIAN MISSSION.” To the Editor of The Call—Sir: Under this heading there appeared in your paper of Friday, Jan. 7, an article which was calculated to mislead. The burden of the article was that it was intended to estab- 1ish an Ttalian mission in connection with St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church, on the corner of Stockton and Filbert streets. ‘While it is true that the matter has been talked of at various times, it is en- tirely untrue that any definite plans are now being formed for undertaking this work; and, furthermore, no definite plan could ever be formulated without the ac- tive co-operation of the rector and vestry of the parish with the Bishop of the dio- cese. I desire, therefore, to say that the Bishop, ‘the. Woman's Auxiliary and tha rector and vestry of St. Peter's have ab- solutely no idea now of doing any such hing. MARDON D. WILSON, Rector of St. Peter's Church. San Francisco, Jan. 15, 1898 —_——————— E. H. Black, painter, 120 Eddy st. —_————————— Cal.glace fruit 50c perib at ‘Townsend’s.® —————————— Special information supplied daily to busll’neu houses and public men by the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen’s), 510 Mor‘l- gomery st. Tel. Main 1042. During the leisure recently forced on him by impaired health the Pope has been revising his Latin verses, which will shortly appear under the title “Carmina Novissima.” For throat, lung troubles, Low's Hore- hound Cough Syrup; 10c. 417 Sansome st.* —_—————————— Captain John Biddle, Corps of Engin- eers, U. B. A., has been named by the Secretary of War, on recommendation of the chief engineer, as a delegate from the United States to the eighth Inter- national Congress of Navigation, to be held in Brussels in July, 1898. NEW TO-DAY. - 15 Minutes | Sufficient to make most de- | licious tea biscuit with Royal Baking Powder. ek .