The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 6, 1898, Page 6

A i B R THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, M ARCH 1898 e " JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor Address All Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager. AP SO o PUBLICATION OFFICE. ..Market and Third Sts. S. F. Telephone Main 1868. EDITORIAL ROOMS... 217 to 221 Stevenson street Teléphone Main 1874 YHE SAN FRANCISCO CALL (DAILY AND SUNDAY) s served by carrlers In this city and surrounding towns for 16 cents a week. By mail $6 per year; per month €5 cents. THE WEEKLY CALL..... ©vereess.. ONE Vear, by mall, $1.50 ..903 Broadway OAKLAND OFFICE .. Eastern Representative, DAVID ALLEN. NEW YORK OFFICE.. Room 188, World Building WASHINGTON (D. C. OFFICE +evs.... Rigge Houso €. C. CARLT N, Correspondent. BRANCH OFFICES--527 Montgomery street. eorner Clay cpen untll 9:30 o'clock. 339 Hayes street: open unt!! €320 o'clock. 621 MoAllister street; open untll 9:30 c'clock. 615 Larkin street: open until 9:30 o'clock SW. corner Sixteenth and Mission streets: open untll So'clock. 9518 Mission street; open until 9 o'clock 106 Eleventh st.; open until9o'clock, 1505 Polk stroet cpen untll 9:30 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-second and Kentucky streets; open until 9 o’clock. ved From the Sea.” sha" Orphy Vaudeville. Auditorium, Mason and Ellis streets—Violin Recital Saturday - March on and Eddy streets—Specialties. hd Vaudeville. Masquerade Ball. Pt > Chutes—Chiquit nics' Pavilion Saturday evening, ces t0-morrow. this morning. his morning. AUCTION SALES. ch 7, Real Estate, at 14 Mont psen—Monday, 112 0'c THE CITY HALL VENDETTA. 71 UDITOR BRODERICK having publicly stated that by direction of his legal adviser, Mr. Murphy, Mayor Phelan has turned his | loose on his enemies, the time seems to typew have arrived when ffairs at the City Hall. interfere in a that Mayor Pl n's typewriter will herself be able much damage upon the Auditor or any- So far as Mr. Broderick is concerned he to inflict body else. is rather a tough customer and capable at all times But it is what this young lady of defending himself. represents that should give the people. pause. Mayor Phelan’s typewriter, be it remembered, is backed up by Counselor Murphy, Colonel Sullivan, NGC At this crisis it is not necessary to inquire into the , and a regiment of dismounted artillery. causes of the feud between the Mayor and the Aud- itor. s the late Mar- cus D. Boruck would say, about to “eventuate’ at the City Hall. Mayor Phelan, being at the head of the governm ily responsible for all deficits; but in this ¢ in and wishing to make the people think that he is a model municipal administrator, with character- jstic cunning he is trying to make his typewriter throw the upon Auditor- Broderick. The typewriter is probably doing the best she can, but Counselor Murphy's thinking. machine -does not seem to work with facility and Colonel Sullivan is no lawyer. The ground upon which the people may with pro- priety interfere in thé vendetta is this: While Mayor Phelan is spending his time dictating.to his type- writer, while Counselor Murphy, his legal adviser, is engaged in a fruitless attempt to collect his thoughts, It appears that a big deficit i ase, desiring to run for office responsibility and while Colonel Sullivan is preparing for a war with Spain, the treasury is slowly being depleted. The Auditor is powerless to prevent a deficit. He can only refuse to sign illegal demands. The Mayor and the Finance Committee regulate expenditures— | the latter in creating them and the former in signing them on their way to the treasury. The only theory, th ndetta may be permitted to therefore, on wh proceed is that it is more important that Mayor Phelan should be re-elected than that some of the tax eaters at the City Hall should be choked off and taxation reduced. Fortunately there is a regiment of militia in the town not commanded by Colonel Sullivan. We refer to the detachment officered by Jis+ Smith Colonel Smith, we beliey o a Democrat and a sympathizer of Mayor Phelan in his thirst for Auditor Broderick’s gore. The important ques- tion, then, is whether Colonel Smith could be relied on to do his duty in case it should be necessary to | call out the First Regiment to suppress the Phelan- fend It seems probable that unless Mayor Phelan can be forced to abandon controver- Broderick sial politics and attend to his business the tax eaters v the City Hall altogether. will carry aw he not turn his typewriter loose on the superfluous | officials who are ecating into the treasury like apple tree borers all the time? The police of Paris have a curious way of discour- aging murder. In the first place they catch the as- sassin and send him upon a course which only ends | when his head is in the basket. Now they have is- sued a pamphlet showing that out of twenty-seven murders committed for gain there was an average profit of a little over $13. That this disappeared dur- ing the course of the trials is a reasonable supposi- tion, and the guillotine closes every chapter. An elderly man from Towa has been robbed of the $165 with which he intended to outfit himself for the Klondike. As a matter of course he is not pleased, and yet he ought to regard himself as lucky. To go to the gold regions with only such equipment as could be secured for that sum would be to invite starvation or the privilege of freezing to death. Two men who insulted some unescorted ladies riding wheels in the park are in jail, with every pros- pect of staying there for a while. The ladies are to be congratulated not only on this fact, but that they ‘had the courage to undergo the ordeal of appearing in court against the pe: e Another of the justly celebrated knife fights of which San Quentin .convicts make. a specialty has just taken place. Some day the authorities of that institution will be goaded to the desperate course of disarming the prisoners. Mr. Wilett, now a resident of Redwood City, indi- cates a willingness to be hanged which does credit to his judgment. He may beé assured tha: in this posi- tion he will be sustained by the public, which will gladly pay for the rope. A RS The telegraph states that “Weyler is boastful.” Now, in these stirring times; is there any excuse for trying to palm off a chestnut like that as news? the people may with propriety | It is not likely | Why does | AN OPEN QUESTION. OVERNOR BUDD has addressed a commu- 6 nication to the Governor of every common- wealth in the Union admitted to statehood since the admission of California asking them to co- operate in holding a grand exposition to commemor- ate that historic event in the development of Ameri- can civilization on the Pacific Coast and throughonlt the Great West, and assigning cogent reasons why the celebration should be made not by California alone. but by joint action of all Western States and Territories. By these communications the great enterprise will be brought officially to the notice of the executives of the various States, and the movement to attain it may be said, therefore, to have taken definite form. It is no.longer a subject for discussion merely, but for action. The Governor asks that delegates be appointed to an interstate convention to discuss the project and arrange plans for accomplishing it, and to such a request there can be hardly any other than a favorable response. It is noteworthy that in his letter the Governor leaves the place as well as the date of holding the convention open for future determination. He also leaves open the question where the proposed exposi- tion shall be held, and refers to that point no further than to state that “Mayor Phelan of San Francisco will shortly appoint a committee to look after the in- terests of that city in connection with the exposition, and the Mayors of other cities of the State will do likewise.” The reticence of the Governor on these points of time and place is of course proper and fitting under the circumstances. Since other States are invited to take part in the enterprise and, if they consent, will have to share the expense to some exrent, it is im- perative that the delegates of those States should have a voice in determining where the exposition shall be held and also where and when the convention called to prepare for it shall meet. San Francisco can have no just objection to the Governor's letter on this score. It leaves the field open to her as to all other cities of the State and even all cities of the Great West. If she procures the holding of the exposition within her limits it will be on her merits as the metropolis of the coast, and not by forestalling other cities by a cut and dried pro- | gramme. The victory, if she wins it, will be therefore | the more welcome as well as the more honorable | and the more profitable. While all this will be conceded, it will nevertheless be recognized that we must not be backward in pressing our claims for the fair. The scheme was criginated in this city by The Call and has been first taken up and advocated here. These give us some claim for the honor of holding the exposition in ad- | dition to those derived from our superiority of size | and greater facilities for making the exposition a | f notable one and accommodating the crowds that will | attend it. On these grounds we can win by the ex- ercise of energy, but we cannot win without energy. | Tt is safe to say that Los Angeles and Oakland, in | this State, and perhaps some of the vigorous cities | outside, will make a fight for the advantage of hold- ing the first grand exposition of the whole Golden West. We must, therefore, be ready for the contest when the convention meets. Let us prepare for it | now. . THAT OAKLAND PARK. HREE things bar the recent patk ordinance passed by the Solid Six in.the Oakland Coun- 1‘ Tci]. The land is probably worth the high price | asked, but not for a park, because it is a rate that is | luxurious even for cities of a million inhabitants. | Oakland cannot afford to pay such a price. The next | veto on it is that the people will not vote for such a | proposition begun or submitted by the present city government. With 2 Grand Jury investigating | | charges against the Council and Board of Works, and with public feeling finding expression in the mobbing | of Councilmen, the people will not vote to put any other great matter in the hands of their government. | The third is that under any circumstances it is doubtful if the people of that city can be induced to consider any park proposition that does not include the final obliteration of the West Oakland marsh. | The true policy in park making is to convert land that is not geod for any other use. Where Central Park, New York, now blooms was a rough district, useless for any other purpose. It was populated by goat-milking squatters, and disorderly gangs hid among its crags and ledges. It was a dumping place for offensive waste and was an affront to all the | senses. Golden Gate Park, in this city, was built on blear | sand dunes, waste and worthless; and Buena Vista, one of our park reserves yet to be developed, is a high peak, worthless, unless graded down, for any ordinary -use. ~Its altitude, the view it commands of | the ocean and bay, make it of the highest value as a | part of our park system. Mr. Church of the Park Commission of Essex County, N. J., in a recent address on “Park Bene- | fits” to the New Jersey State Horticultural Society, | said: “It is demonstrated that parks are immensely “profilable as inyestments. They increase the value } of real estate and brings a large public revenue. It | is one of the principles of park making to take land which would be difficult of use for any other pur- | pose and dangerous to the general health and elim- inate its unsightly and menacing character by con- | verting it into a pleasure ground. The Back Bay ; fens in Boston are a good example of this. For years | they had lain, as the Hackensack and Newark | marshes in New Jersey lie now, unsightly stretches | of useless land, too insecure for the erection of fac- tories, too marshy for the building of houses. The | Metropolitan Park Commission acquired them, and by an inexpensive system of pumping mud from the | lagoons, and a drainage system, has made them one | of the most picturesque features of the park plan.” | Oakland, being under the same necessity to get rid | | of the noisome and mcpacing features of her Six- | teenth street marsh, and with the great profit in pros- pect: from its conversion into a pleasure ground, to | be seen by the hundreds of thousands who pass it every year on the overland, suburban and local “trains, will never be gnilty of the short-sighted policy of paying a luxurious price for land that needs no conversion and is far out of sight of visitors and out of reach of the majority of her people. For these reasons we don't think it necessary to further discuss the park ordinance, which has been | passed under circumstances that would injure the chances of the most meritorious measure. While it is true, as the papers have stated, that ig- nominy has been heaped on Councilman Woodward | of Oakland, there is a suspicion that ignominy is not I'all he got out of the deal. There need not be great concern over rumors that | terests to the State Board of Trade. OUR ALASKAN TRADE. Y formal and official act the work of promoting B the Alaskan trade of California has been trans- ferred from the special committee appointed for the task in this city to the State Board of Trade, and the latter body has accepted the duty with a cordial willingness which gives good promise of zeal and fidelity in the performance of it. The change of management is in every respect a good one. The members of the Board of Trade have long been engaged in work so similar to that ex- pected of them in the present instance that they may be accounted experts in the business. The board is known throughout the Union and in the principal cities of Europe. It has correspondents in all im- portant centers. It knows where to fook for trade and how to reach it. The reputation it has achieved by exhibits and by other forms of making known the advantages of California as a place of industry and of residence will stand it in good stead now in pro- moting this particular phase of our commercial de- velopment. It is highly important that the Alaskan trade in- terests, not of San Francisco only, but of all Cali- fornia, should be in the hands of a pcrmanenlly or- ganized association and under the direction of men of large influence and varied experience in promot- ing State enterprises. The trade is going to be some- thing more than the boom of a year. Unless all men who have visited Alaska and given any time to a serious consideration of its resources have united in a compact to deceive the public and agreed upon a story to tell, that vast region is something more than a desolation of ice and snow. Its riches of gold will be sufficient to maintain a profitable trade for years to come, and may perhaps develop there an industry which will be permanent. At any rate there is to be “big business” done there for several successive sea- sons, and to obtain and hold a fair share of it Cali- fornia will have need of an energetic and well directed management of her interests. The struggle for commercial advantage and su- premacy is the form which has been taken in our time by the primeval strife which results in the sur- vival of the fittest. It is eonducted on a scale of vast magnitude by nations and with rivalry hardly less in- tense by different communities of the same nation. For this the fleets of Great Britain, Russia and Ger- many are now gathering along the coast of China, and for this every progressive city in the United States exerts its activities in competition with _its neighbors. We could not escape from this struggle if we would. We must fight for Californian supremacy on the Pacific Coast or renounce our destiny, and the fight to be successful must be waged by co-operative effort. There may be many excellent ways for bringing about the desired co-operation, but surely cne of the best is that which has been adopted by entrusting the work of promoting our Alaskan in- That much hav- ing been well done, let all now unite to strengthen the board and speed the work to complete success. fl will consider for the improvement of the State Library and an increased use of it by the people consideration should be given _to . the traveling library system now in vogue in several of the Eastern States and at present under discussion in STATE LIBRARY EXTENSION. MONG the plans which the Board of Trustees California. No better scheme cotild be deyised for rendering the State Library serviceable to the com- munity at large, and the trustees will make a great mistake if they do not provide for undertaking it. The system under which traveling libraries are operated in the East has becn several times explained in The Call of late, and it is not necessary at this time to go over the ground again. It suffices to say that the system is no longer an experiment. It has been tested and found to work well both in thickly populated States like New York and in newer and more sparsely settled communities like Wisconsin. “In each case it has been found to fill a popular need, and has been so cordially received in localities where public libraries do not exist that the successful opera- tion of the system is no longer a matter of doubt. The conditions of rural life in California are such that a system of traveling libraries is more necessary bere than in any other State. The people of our rural districts are as cultured as those of New Eng- land, but they live in communities as sparsely settled as those of almost any part of the Great West. Their general culture gives them a desire for books and an ability to appreciate their value and to profit by them, but their remoteness from towns and cities prevents them from enjoying the advantages of li- braries. To them, therefore, the traveling library would come as a veritable boon, and since they are taxed to support the State Library it 1s only just that it should be conducted in a way to give some of its benefifs. There is nothing in the operation of the proposed system that would entail any considerable cost on the State or detract from the value of the library as a storehouse of learning for the use of the Legislature or special students at Sacramento. The expense of shipping the books in circulation from, one locality to another would be defrayed by the members of the association receiving them, and no valuable work of prime importance to the State need be placed among the number of those included in the traveling sets. It is perhaps impossible to establish a traveling library system with the State Library as a nucleus until the next session of the Legislature, but in the meantime the trustees might profitably devise a plan for carrying out the work and have it ready for sub- mission for enactment into law when the ‘Legislature meets. The system is certain to prove as popular in California as it has been found to be in New York and other Eastern States, and the present board can hardly find any better means of making their ad- ministration memorable in the history of the library and in the minds of the people than putting it inte practice here. The physical director at Berkeley has violated a very precious law. He is not a physician, and yet he has presumed to patch up minor bruises received by his pupils during gymnasium practice. Naturally the doctors are indignant. Yet the public does not fully understand and gropes for light. Would a student athlete by chance achieving a bloody nose be subject to medical rebuke if he tried to stanch the flow of gore? ' —_— Some of the Spanish papers have the hardihood to suggest that Consul-General Lce should be recalled from Cuba. If they do not want him there it is an excellent reason why he should be there. Perhaps the Spanish had better order him to get out and see how it works. # It is surprising to note that a person described as Spain is engaged in buying all the idle battle-ships afloat. To buy ships requires. either .money or credit. ¥ 2 a lady is going about indulging in the reprehensible vocation of “flim-lamming.” As a rule ladies avoid this method of acquiring pin-money. i ] s e r would have deemed these BHNENNNEESNEENENNEENENNANNNNNNERR KRG |ing the Pi“? Beneath the grave's kind- 888N 8 . BRIV NS Several intimations have reached me of an intention on the part of a number of gentlemen to treat me to an experi- ence which: they crudely designate as being thumped. The idea is not pleas- ing, and a natural’ interest in'prospec- tive events has actuated some inquiry. I learn the reason for the war talk to be certain things said in this paper by “A Modest Critic.” -I'am not a modest critic; neither do Iproposetobe a docile instrument for the vicarious correction of any one who is. When the day shall come that I must be thumped let it be on strictly personal account. I only ask the belligerents to refrain from as- saults from the rear, and to remember that In arguments ‘between gentlemen brass knuckels are barred. o Sl e Sometimes feeling an impulse to say something savoring of unkindness, I almost regret that a sweet and sunny nature forbids. Only for this restrain- ing influence I would remark now that the Senators and Representatives in Cuba as a part of Hearst's traveling 200 are the cheapest lot of monkeys ever caged. I would add that there is no surprise In the fact that Hearst has tried a scheme like this to advertise his continuous performance, but that it is surprising that he found a number of public men so nearly shameless as to abandon the work they are paid to do and become exhibits. That they have a trace of decency left is shown by an at- tempt to excuse their indecorous and vulgar conduct on the ground of going in quest of information for their own guidance. In other words, attempting to palliate an offense most unseemly, they add to it a silly lie. If these men had resigned, if they had by proper method left the high places they dis- grace, the Senate and House would have gained in dignity. As it is both bodies are brought into ridicule, and the world will wonder what manner of creature is here intrusted with respon- sible duty. Of the gang bought by Hearst but two were ever worth men- tioning. Thurston of Nebraska was supposed to have brains and judgment, the opinion flattering him. He has luck instead. He {s a corporation lawyer, who bamboozled the farmers into a be- lief not only that the leopard could change his spots, but was anxious to do 80, he being the leopard. Cummings of New York is a professional news- paper faker, who has simply relapsed from statesmanship into his old trade. I do not wish to be understood as say- ing these things. They are merely things I would say if not handicapped; nor do I wish the hopeful band the ill fortune of being in Havana if the ard- ent Spanish there get to cracking the American skull. Drowning would be as effective, and would not give rise to international complication; of which there is already an oversupply. These impertinent junketers, with their heads caved In, would have to be rated as dead statesmen, while at the bottom of the sea they would be merely a set of abated nuisances, and nothing to pay. €2 Sadeie It is not reasonable that police court lawyers should expect time to be grant- ed them during sessions to denounce each other as “Hars”’ and ‘‘eurs.” This is a busy generation, and it is willing to take some things for granted. The inutility of trying to gather figs of this- tles is no more firmly established than the belief that a police court lawyer is all’ his opponent in malpractice can possibly paint him. . There is an oldmanlivingin this city, his name Diamond, his age as given by himself 102 years. As respect is natu- rally due the one whitened by the pass- ing of many seasons, the feeling toward the venerable Diamond could hardly fall short of reverence. There is some- thing august about the man who has braved, the storms of a century, who stands at last alone at the. head of a path marked on either side by the graves of generations, born, matured and in fullness of time gathered to their fathers while the solitary figure has survived, a living link between the present and a past that is dead. Yet in the case of Diamond, I would like to see the proofs. He looks to be a well-preserved man of 80. Supposing that inadvertently he has added a score of years to his record the mistake would be hard to detect. He has nev- er married, and therefore there are no relatives who might serve as a check. Living so solitary a life as he has, even if no more than 80, there would be great difficulty in controverting any statement he might make in relation to this matter. I do not wish to cast any reflection upon the old man. He may be sincere, but there are the de- lusions of age to be considered. He may even be correct. But in a stage of the world at which the man of 80 is rare, the man of 90 a wonder, the centenarian little less than a miracle, my stock of faith is overtaxed by the effort to accept this hale and vigorous Diamond, exhibiting the promise of 1iv- ing for decades to come, as having been ushered into this world in 1796. If he was, he can reasonably expect to be here in 1996, a marvel to races yet to be. s s s Although under the disadvantage of not being the seventh son of a seventh son, I am willing to venture into the field of prophecy, confident that it does not make "the slightest difference whether my guess ‘be right-or wrong. This countrx will see the time when its beautiful pacific theories will be knock- ed into so many cocked hats. The idea of perpetual peace is most soothing, but there are various ways of securing it. One is to calmly endure the impudence of any little 2x4 country which chooses ‘to be in a pugnacious mood. 8o long as the United States shall permit the rotten and rocking dynasty of Spain to abuse it, corrupt politicians of Nic- aragua to estop the building of the canal, every jim crow isle of the sea to sneer at the stars and stripes, it may have all the peace it wants, but at last it will grow tired of paying this price for it. In the end the United States will be a fighting nation hold- ing its own by an aggressive diplomacy backed by arms. It will extend its possessions not from mere greed, but because in no other way can the ag- gressions of European powers be held in check. It will rule the western hemisphere, and with its military force and its vast navy answer ‘the ques- tions of such as may doubt its power and its right. America has tried to progress along new lines. It has made an endeavor to be as a nation as honest and as fair as an individual ‘is expected to be. The result has been failure and.the fact might as well be WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS. * $ By HENRY JAMES. SN BREREVRRRL LR R B RV | yvhom she sacrificed all but love. . % s recognized now as any other time. Pre- senting a smiling face as a target for expectoration is as a policy, out of date. Meanwhile, an occasional peace con- gress is a pleasant affair, marked usu- ally by some speeches of excellence. . ia te A correspondent sends in the sugges- tion that the New York Journal blew up the Maine. While disliking to dis- agree with so good a fellow as the cor- rTespondent seems to be, I do not believe it. D One of the correspondents now en- gaged in sending from Key West vivid accounts of things which never hap- pened is Alfred Henry Lewis. He is noted for an absolute abhorrence of facts, regarding them as incubi which would hamper his flight. So he shakes them off and soars above them jubilant in the realm of fiction, sustained by the gauzy wings of falsehood. Lewis is no ordinary, vulgar liar. He evades the direct use of truth with a zest born of instinct and a skill nothing but prac- tice could have produced, but he does it so artistically, with such evident Joy In the feat that it is im- possible not to admire him. Besides, he does not rob the intelligent reader of any information, and the robbery of the other kind is immaterial. A student of events has but to read after Lewis a short time to know how to take him. The only course is to note every state- ment made, reverse it and there is the truth. Lewls has written much of pub- | lic men and measures. He never made an estimate of either approximately correct. Whether his judgment is al- ways bad or he is simply swayed by a detestation for veracity does not mat- ter. Results are the same. Lewis is| Just the person to be in Key West now, although the dating of his letters from | that point is fairly good evidence that | he is somewhere else. o it It is a pleasure to note that Auditor Broderick has sat upon a demand by Attorney Gavigan for $490. The public does not need to know anything about the merit of this particular claim. The | official intelligence which grasps every opportunity to sit upon a Gaviganclaim | merits no less a title than gumption. e Hanna may be an admirable person, but I wish he were less prominent. He is an astute politician, not of the va- riety, however, to which the heart warms. If some friend would suggest to him the wisdom of remaining in the background and then would jam the foreground so full the background could not be seen, he would be doing Hanna a good turn. o T A question has arisen as to whether merely| THE MAINE'S CHAPLAIN-W. who Nat Goodwin is married or thinks it, but it does not seem to me worth public discussion. So long as the pair who went through the wedding ceremony are satisfied there is no need for anybody else to fret, and when they pine for freedom, as is inevitable, it might be an actual relief to them to find that the bonds were bogus. ey There have been some expressions of doubt as to the necessity for a City Hall commission, and these it is a pleasure to set at rest. I had myself wondered if,, when a building had grown so decrepit from age that time had pierced its roof, the gentlemen in charge of its erection would not be justi- fiable in refusing longer to be bur- dened with the effort of clinging to the payroll. But no. With a faithful de- votion beautiful to see the commission still meets and adjourns. Proceedings of a recent meeting were constituted of the auditing of the salary account of the secretary. The next meeting will be marked by the reading of min- utes, showing the accomplishment of this benefaction. So the commission is necessary for the auditing of the secretary’s salary, and the secretary is necessary to record the fact that the salary has been audited. I think noth- ing could be plainer. -The brutal pub- lic seldom pauses anyhow to reflect how its servants are overworked, never during a month having more than thirty-one days for repose. Probably the thought has not even occurred that they must have suffered much in Feb- ruary, that brief span affording only twenty-eight days in which to battle against brainfag. 5 e e Since the French Cabinet refuses to be criticized at short range I take the advantage of distance to remark that they are acting like a lot of pareties stimulated by absinthe to a state of useless activity. If I knew how to express this idea in French each mem- ber of the Cabinet would receive a marked copy. . Into every life, however lowly, there comes some inkling of romance. In the garb of a vagabond may rove one who was born to marble halls, while feet which unshod have trod the cobbles of an inhospitable city may in later time sink into the carpet of its most splen- did mansion. The ordinary life is com- monplace, with only here and there a touch of the exceptional, a passing con- tact with the experiences which leave the impression not of reality, but as though the mind, wandering in dream- land, had lost itself amidst the visions of fancy's realm. This is not true of all; there are-lives romance through- out. The writer of tales, searching for material to be woven into fiction, would find in the career of Joseph Rou- tier facts more strange than the mere ups and downs which go to compose the human span. Here he was a man of business, a respectable, progressive citizen, whose home was always open, ‘whose happiness was never complete unless friends were there to share it. Between himself and wife there was the utmost devotion. In /the day of prosperity they were companions; when adversity came, still she clung to him. Now that he has passed beyond, and she eats the bread of charity, memory turns back to the old, glad years with tender and unbroken insistence, with never a tinge of regret save that there has been a parting, never a reproach for the long seasons they lived under a shadow. Who shall say it was the shadew of dishonor? That Routier was an exile from his native France no- body had suspected. That after the death of the tyrant who had banished him he did not dare visit the land of his birth was a secret. That the wo- man, once a favorite at court, had vain- ly interceded for him and, failing to mitigate the royal decree, had chosen to abandon her home, her name, her children and with him fly to the far- away California of the new world, this came as a tardy revelation. Who know- | fact with clearness. things true S 1y slfield the man finds rest. And sure: is in that Iy the woman, whose heart & gyrave. is entitled to as benign a sanc; tuary as it will afford when she has taken her place beside the one for People of an observing turn of mind cannot have escaped noticing with re- gret the gait of certain young ladief- 1.say . “gait” advisedly, for_unly this general classification is_possible. C"; tainly, the manner in which they Sel over-the ground is not & v}*alk. trot, sal- lop nor glide. They bend to.:ward m;m the hips in a fashion indicative of pain, but whether an affection of the stom= ach or & pang across the small of the back is a sacred mystery. They take short, pattering steps, and always seem to be on the verge of tottering like a Chinese lily-foot lady. I do not Cf.\ll at- tention to these things with a view to bringing about a reform, having got be- yond the stage of essaying the palpably impossible. But in a wholly respectful way I wish that pretty girls would cease making guys of themselves. s g While there is no difficulty in filling the space allotted to my use weekly, I would be glad to surrender a portion of it to the Rev. F. D. Bovard of Alame- da. He can have all the room neces- sary in which to explain why at a re- cent funeral, after eulogyandmusic had stirred the congregation to its depths, he had a collection taken. The idea of the stricken family having to sit there and listen to coins dropping from the fingers of weeping friends strikes me as grotesque to the point of being bar- baric. Had some able-bodied mourner dried his tears and called upon Bovard for the purpose of beating a few grains of sense into him, I would®cheerfully have chipped in to pay any resulting fine. Bovard needs a lesson anyhow, and did not have to make a display of himself beside a corpse to set forth this He it was who at the time of a reception to the late Kate Field given by the newspaper women of this city grossly and stupidly insult- ed the gentie entertainers and their guest. They had for refreshment a ° bowl of mild and innocuous claret punch, which Bovard perceiving, began straightway to froth at the mouth. He accused the ladies of being under the influence of the harmlessbeverage. One who is particularly handsome, and has a complexion as the rose, he charged with having acquired color by the flush of inebriation. It is hardly necessary to say that had Bovard not been pro- tected by his cloth some one would have charged him with lying, and forced him on his knees to beg the pardon of the ladies he had maligned. Perhaps while he is explaining the funeral epi- sode he can find time also to throw light on this other oceasion he acted the boor. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. City. Rev. J. P. Chidwick, was chaplain on the United State | Maine when she was destroved, i | olic priest, and his residence | City. THE SAMOA DISASTER—Subscri City. The disaster at Samoa by which several vessels were thrown by a storm on the shore of Apia occurred on the 15th.of March, 1889. Three American and three German war vessels were bl | ashore. Fifty Americans and ninety- Germans were killed ‘at that time. ~ | SONS OF CHINESE PARENTS—J. Dunnigan, Yolo County, Cal. At t | Presidential election held in San Fran- cisco in 1896 there were registered four natives of China—that is, sons of Ameri- can citizens—who were born while their parents were temporarily sojourning in the Chinese empire or born while the father was in the diplomatic service of the United States. In addition there were registered eighteen natives of Cali- fornia, sons of Chinese parents. INTERSTATE COMMERCE—F. T. M., Bowman, Cal. By reason of non-compe- tition the interstate commerce act is sus- pended as to the Pacific Coast, and it is not in violation of that law to charge full through rates say from Chicago to Sacramento and then charge a local rate for sending the goods back to an inter- mediate point. If you have any complaint in connection with freight charges you should send it to the Interstate Commis- sion at Washington, ) LINCOLN—J. A. F., Edgarton, Minn. The public acts of Abraham Lincoln show that he was an abolitionist. During his single term in Congress he voted for the reception of anti-slavery petitions and fo, the abolition of slavery in W. ington, D. C. It is recorded of Mr. Linceln that the abolitionists could at any time, when it was not pleasant or popular to do so, apply to him for legal help In cases aris- ing out of the Fugitive Slave Law or oth- erwise affecting the rights of colored peo- ple. He was, before he signed the eman- cipation proclamation, alw: in favor of the gradual abolition of slavery. —_——— BLASTS FROM THE RAM'S HORN. Nature is hard to decelve. Rob nature, and she will rob you. Meanness is idleness in business. To lose patience may be to lose all. When home i{s a slave-pen it is not ome. The way of life is narrow, but well aved. ‘Wherever there is envy there is ignor- ance. Trials are the up-grade lessons of edu- cation. No man can do his best whose motive is not love. Nothing emits a worse odor than a fall- en name. Deception is a viper that bites back and forward. Too much notoriety is like a blanket coat in hot weather. ’ Learn to be contented and you will know how to be rich. T e e i, E. H. Black, painter, 120 Eddy st. * —_——————— A choice present for Eastern friends, California Glace fruits, 50c. Townsend's. * ———————— Fifty styles looking glasses in French and German plates. Sanborn, Vail & Co. * ———————————— Spectal information supplied dally to business houses and public men by th Press Clipping Bureau (Allen’s), 510 Mont- gomery street. Telephone Main 1042, ¢ Drs. Bush & Son have removed to 206 Kearny St., Adams Bldg., rooms 810, 309, . Dentistry in all its branches. Teeth without plates especially. Tel. Red 1226. * —_—— OUR ANNUAL KLONDIKE. The combined yield of gold and silver in the United States last year was but one-third the value of the corn crop. We received $54,000,000 for corn exported, and that is a Klondike of tested richness.— Globe-Democrat. ADVERTISEMENTS. You really‘ don’t know how fine Pot Pie Crust can be made unless you use Royal Baking Powder