The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 20, 1898, Page 6

THE SAN SUNDAY MARCH 20, 189‘3 “JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor Address All Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager. e B PUBLICATION OFFICE......Market and Third Sts., S. F. Telephone Main 1868. EDITCRIAL ROOMS... .2IT to 221 Stevenson Street Telephone Main 1874 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL (DAILY AND SUNDAY) Is served by carrlers In this city and surrounding towns for 15 cents a week. By mall $6 per year; per month 65 cents. THE WEEKLY CALL. .One year, by mall, $1.50 OAKLAND OFFICE. ..908 Broadway Eastern Representative, DAVID ALLEN. NEW YORK OFFIC] ..Room 188, World Building WASHINGTON (D. C.) OFFICE ....Rigge House C. C. CARLTON, Correspondent. BRANCH OFFICES—527 Montgomery street, corner Clay, | open until 9:30 o'clock. 339 Hayes street, open until | 9:30 o'clock. 621 McAllister street, open until 9:30 | o'clock. 616 Larkin street, open untll 9:30 o'clock. 1941 Misslon street, open until 10 o'clack. 2291 Market | street, corner Sixteenth, cpen until 9 o'clock. 2518 | Mission street, open until 9 o'clock. 106 Eleventh | street, open until 9 o'clock. 1505 Polk street, open | untll 9:30 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-segond and | Kentucky streets, open until 9 o'clock. AMUSEMENTS. Baldwin—* Mysterious Mr. Bi Columbia—Primrose and W California—* Town Toplo: Alcazar—+The District Attorney."” Morosco's—“The English Rose " Tivoli—" The Wid ow O'Brien.” Tlvoli—Concert Thursday afternoon, March 24. Orpheum—Vaudevilie. Metropolitan Temple—Concert. r. M. C. A. Auditorfum—Violin Reeital, this afternoon. Ellis streets—Recitals of Scottish fareh 21. dy sireets—Specialties. andeville: The Chutes—Ch Courstng—Ing HERE is an Eastern publication at hand with | an illustration of the peculiar form of brutality to which devotion to fashion has driven one | womar. his woman happens,to be a Countess. That she h: Iso to be a monstrosity in no man- ner interferes with her right to set the styles and ex- cite the envy of others. | The illustration shows her clad in a cape adorned | with the heads of fifty cats, slain for the purpose of | thus bedecking her in a manner at once barbaric and | It is not too much to say that any one of | 1 t »pens beastly. | the Supreme Court for decision. THE ANNEXATION RESOLUTION. T should be noted that the annexation resolution l offered by the Senate Committee contains none of the reservations that were boasted as prime features of the freaty. There is no abrogation of existing treaties between Hawaii and other countries. Even the shadowy restriction of the immigration of Asiatic coolies to Hawaii has disappeared. The resolution | simply extends the sovereignty of the United diiiutes to the islands. The Hawaiian treaties under which coolie contract labor now fills the islands are left in force. When sovereignty is exchanged without restriction it car- ries over from the abrogated to the acquired juris- diction all of its- treaties, agreements, contracts and obligations. When the sovereignty of France expired in the empire and was transferred to the republic no treaty fell by the wayside in the exchange. The new | sovereignty acquired them all, with their obligations and burdens. So we take Hawaii, under the joint resolution, for better or for worse, debts, treaties, contract labor and | all, and make it a part of our territory, to be gov- | erned under an undisclosed system, which may either | set up inequality of law between that and the rest | of our domain or may extend to the rest of the coun- try the labor system and other things now unknown | to us which inhere in “the peculiar conditions” of | that country. Will the annexation press tell us what has become of the boasted restrictions, reservations and safe- guards of the treaty, without which they were but re- | cently admitting that annexation would not be de-| sirable? This whole matter must be stripped now of its dis- guise and pretense. The debate must be in the open. The inquiry into the constitutionality of the joint resolution must be complete. As appears now it | cannot be vindicated out of the text or spirit of the | constitution. As this republic exists on a written con- | stitution, which grants to it all of the powers and | authority it may exercise, that constitution is to be | the test of our right to exercise sovéreignty in Hawaii. Suppose that by this joint resolution we as- sume such sovereignty and a test#is made, as it will be, by the refusal of a citizen to acknowledge our authority de jure in the islands. Such test must go to | That bench must | decide whether the constitution has been followed in annexation. Does any one believe that it will find | warrant for this proposition in the constitution? Ii so, where? The burden of proof is on the annexa- | tionists. They have so debauched logic in their ar- | guments that they have trained themselves for de- | bauchery of the written law. Why don’t they pro- | ceed? From the standpoint of the fundamental law we cannot take Hawaii because it is “a paradise of P hil ing was of v | P these cats while living was of more value to the world the Pacific,” nor because we are strong enough to take n the lady herseli. At least they could catch mice, mice sf cheese, while the limit of her usefulness »ms to have been expressed in contriving a novel heme whereby to demonstrate herself a heartless ure so weak of mind that only gallantry restrains ould serve this freak rightly if the wraiths of tims were to howl every night throughout the apartments where she keeps their heads among the other treasures of her wardrobe. They should haunt | her dreams, and when at last she shall be summoned | to another world there ought to be fringing the out- | most shore of the same a row of grinning phantom | cats each displaying the ghost of a set of teeth. | But Judge Campbell is not blameless. He declared | tic cat to be a wild animal, and by this time Sure | the dom his decision could have been cabled to Europe. enough the cat is being treated with no more con- | sideration than the marten or the mink. | /\’\ on Friday morning of scenes in four notorious | at | once a news item, a literary picture of one of the | dramatic phases of life in this city and a sermon for the community at'large. novel, but in the aggregate it was startling; the pic- ture was as vivid as a Rembrandt masterpiece with its lights and shadows brought out by the contrast be- | tween the women themselves and the places to which they had been brought by the mad spirit of gambling, | 1d the sermon was what San Francisco shall make | of it. \ | | | | WHERE WOMEN GAMBLE. : 1SS MICHELSON'S description in The Call poolrooms “where women gamble” was The news was not wholly This is not the first time the authorities and the good people of the city have been informed that pool- rooms in which women gamble on the races are run | more or less openly. Over and over again in the | course of its long crusade against poolrooms The | Call has published that fact as an evidence of the ex- tent to which the pernicious effects of this illicit and nefarious trade have pervaded the community. This time, however, we have given the evil a fuller and | more forcible exposure than ever before, and even | those who are most careless of public and private morality so long as it does not affect them personally can hardly remain indifferent any longer to this blighting curse that falls upon all classes—men and women, youth and age—alike. In the poolrooms where women gamble there are women of all kinds. Miss Michelson says: “There isn’t a type missing. There are women of 70 and girls | of 17. There are women in sealskins and shabby, poverty-stricken women; women who are spending money earned most shamefully and women who have | scrubbed and washed and swept and drudged in other people’s houses for their pittance. There are repre- | sentatives from all grades of society. There are re- fined, sweet voices and also those strident accents that are not out of place in such surroundings. There are well-educated women there, and those whose sen- tences are fluent only when they are expressing them- selves in the jargon of the racetrack.” All these types of women are marked by the sign characteristic of those on whose weakness or viciousness the professional gambler lives. The evi- dence of a spirit of greed, of a desire for some gain | they have not earned is on the faces of them all. Rich | or poor, young or old, refined or coarse, they have a common bond between them in that mad longing to get something for nothing which makes them the willing victims of the poolseller, the easy prey of any smart rascal that offers them a chance to bet. It is useless to reason with these unhappy creatures. To get a chance to gamble they will go anywhere, visit any sort of a place, congregate in any kind of a den. Moreover, as a general rule it is only a ques- tion of time when they will resort to any sort of prac- tice to obtain money to gamble with. FEach in her way will exert an influence upon the women around her, and particularly upon those vounger than her- self. A thousand reasons, therefore, call for the im- mediate suppression of the poolrooms® The offense is monstrous. The punishment should be as swift and as severe as justice has it in her power to give. 5 e Honore Laine has gone to the trouble to swear to his story concerning Weyler, but it gains' little strength from this circumstance. Something more than “a hope to die” affidavit would be needed to place any statement fathered by Honore firmly on a pedestal of truth. | | Rampart City or Minook, at Circle City and | great bulk of those who were caught on the way to it any way, nor because it is a round in the ladder of manifest destiny. This Government has no power, no destiny, no right, outside of its constitution. A thing may be desirable, or expedient, or ambitious, | but we derive no right from any of these reasons. | Our sole derivation is from the constitution. Is it possible that Benton and Clay, Thurman and Ed- | munds, gnd all the great lawyers and expounders of the constitution have been wrong in their declara- tion that Congress may only admit new States, while new territory may be annexed only by treaty? | B account of affairs on the Yukon and the condi- | tion of the miners and other adventurers there which has been received since the winter set in is that | which has just come from our special correspondent, Sam W. Wall. His report .covers the whole of the vast region along, the river from Dawson to Fort Yukon, and gives information not only of the district generally, but of the individual men and women who are, wiptering at the varjous camps:or posts from Dawson down to the Fort. ¢ | This information ‘was not gathered-at second hand. i Mr. Wall, in whom journalistic enterprise is an in- stinct and the search for news an aspiration akin to | that which prompts the man of science to dare all‘ dangers and take all risks for the sake of discovering truth, started from Dawson in the middle of the Arctic winter to make the journey to Fort Yukon for | the purpose of finding out the condition of the people there and making it known through The Call to their | iriends in all parts of the Union. This dangerous task so willingly undertaken marks | the difference between the true newsgatherer and the | mere faker. It would have been much safer and | more comfortable for Mr. Wall to have remained at Dawson all winter wrapped in warm furs. It would | have been easier to write rumors of the lower river | and construct fakes than to go down the frozen stream and find the truth. He chose the hazard, the difficulty, the discomfort and the danger for the sake | of learning the truth, and the result of his efforts is; that The Call has been able to carry to many anxious | hearts news of their loved ones from whom they have not heard for months. Mr. Wall reports, with notes of what they are doing as far as he could obtain the information, the names of all persons registered at Fort Yukong at| at Woodworth. These names fill more than two closely | printed columns of The Call. They constitute the NEWS FROM THE YUKON. Y far the most comprehensive and most detailed | Dawson by the freezing of the river or who went | down to the Fort to escape the danger of famine at | Dawson when it became known there would be a| scarcity of food at that place if all remained there. This journey in midwinter to Fort Yukon is the second notable feat accomplished by Mr. Wall along the Yukon. The first was when he made his way up the stream in the fall to carry to the people at Daw- son the news that the water in the river was low and that the expected steamers would not be able to bring full cargoes of food to Dawson. That journey en- 2bled him to give warning to the Dawson people in time for many of them to get away and thus averted the threatened famine. The second feat accomplished by the journey down the river is hardly Jless useful since it gives reliable news of the snowbound adven- turers to their friends at home. At the time The Call dispatched Mr. Wall to the Klondike it announced that it would be represented in the gold fields by a‘ newspaper man and not a faker or a mere word monger. The promise of The Call to its readers has been more than fulfilled. It is represented along the Yukon by one of the heroes of journalism, and as a consequence its reports are worth more to the general public than those of any other peper, and to the friends and relatives of the men-and women who made the rush last fall they are invaluable. If Miles thinks San Francisco a Gibraltar it is plain the common impression concerning Gibraltar is based on error. The belief that that place would be difficult to assault and easy to hold had become almost general. o The value of the confession department of a news- paper would be a good theme for discussion at some college of journalism, | UNDAY, FRANCISCO CALL, CONTEMPT OF THE FAKER. HE action of Judge Cook in sending Attorney Mclntosh to jail for contempt of court and in commending his case and that of his “confes- sion” confederate, Edgar B. Haymond, to the Bar Association for further consideration will be hailed with satisfaction by all respectable people. There is no doubt that McIntosh and Haymond should be dis- barred. Centainly men who trifle with the adminis- tration of the law, as it has been proved that they trifled with it in the Hoff case, are unfit to practice law. The Bar Association owes the duty to itself and the people of the State of giving the charges against these young men full consideration and of commenc- ing disbarment proceedings if they shall be found guilty of unprofessional conduct. Judge Cook’s opinion—which, by the way, is a model of logical and vigorous English—discovers a strong grasp upon the law and facts of the McIntosh case. We do not know whether the doctrine of inter- ference which he so clearly illustrates can be made legally to apply to all the parties who attempted to traffic in the “confession” of Hoff, but that it ought to apply there is no question. The evidence in the Meclntosh case shows that the reporters and editors of the Mission street faker negotiated in good faith for Hoff’s “confession.” There is little doubt that had they not been checkmated by the murderer himself, or had the price asked not been too high, they would have closed for the document and pre- sented it to their readers. Had the publication taken place, according to Judge Cook, all the editors, reporters and printers of the yellow sheet would have been guilty of contempt. To send them to jail it only would have been neces- sary to establish that any juror, or person drawn for a juror, had read the “confession.”” Why, then, were not the efforts of the yellow sheet to procure a “con- E fession” an interference with the proceedings of the | court? Had the confession expert of the paper not encouraged McIntosh to believe that Hoff’'s state- ment of his guilt was a2 merchantable commodity that | individual would not have committed the contempt for which he has been jailed. In other words, Me- Intosh interfered with the cause of justice at the in- stigation of the yellow journal’s confession depart- | ment. Why are not the conductors of that depart- | ment just as guilty of contempt as their fool scape- | goat, McIntosh? Judge Cook has the reputation of being an able | and conscientious lawyer. He is known to possess | courage and determination of a high order. There is nothing of the trimmer or demagogue in his com- position. He is just the man to establish the pre- cedent in this city that when yellow journalism de- serts faking and begins to seriously interfere with the | administration of justice its devotees must be locked | up. We are confident that the Mission street faker is | morally guilty of interfering with the course of jus- | tice in the Hoff case. McIntosh would never have offered a “confession” for sale had he not thought | the sheet presented him with a market. But can the | faker be proved legally guilty? This is a question | we are compelled to leave to Judge Cook’s decision. LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN IRELAND. —HE CALL published yesterday from its special "[ correspondent, J. J. Clancy, M. P., a review of | the measure proposed by the British Ministry for reforming local government in Ireland, accom- | panied by a forecast of the probable effects of the bill | upon political parties in Ireland and upon the general | affairs of the people whose local interests will be af- fected by it. Mr. Clancy, as a member of Parfiament represent- ing an Irish constituency and a strong advocate of home rule, is well fitted to speak on this subject with | authority. His words express something more than a mere personal opinion. What he says may be fairly regarded as the prevailing opinion'of Irish leaders on | the subject, and for that reason his letter to The Call | is of the highest value to all who wish an intelligent | understanding of the proposed legislation for Ire- | land at this session of Parliament and the attitude of the Irish leaders toward it. Mr. Clancy regards the measure proposed as a vast improvement on the existing system of local govern- ment. At the present time county affairs in Ireland are administered by bodies which, as Mr. Clancy says, are almost wholly unrepresentative. The Bal- four bill will give to Ireland a system of county gov- | ernment similar to that which prevails now in Eng- land and Scotland, and which will enable the majority | of the people for the first time to elect their own county councilmen. The effect of this will be something like a political revolution, for according to Mr. Clancy the result must be in all parts of the land outside of Ulster, and | in all but two or three counties even in that province, to exclude from the councils the so-called loyal minority. This does not mean that none of the for- mer administrators will be elected, for it is the judg- ment of our correspondent that if they submit them- selves for election as business men of experience in local control they may elect some of their party and retain considerable power in local affairs, but they can never hope for a monopoly of it any longer. The new measure, while remedying some of the evils of British rule in Ireland, will not close the ac- count by any means. With the Salisbury Ministry in office nothing can be expected for home rule at this session of Parliament, but that great issue still domi- nates the Irish situation. In every general election it comes to the front, and in all Parliamentary contests in Ireland it is the crucial test to which the con- stituencies submit all candidates who appear before | them. This struggle in Ireland has been perennially interesting to Americans, and The Call can with jus- tice congratulate its readers on being able to furnish them a record of the progress of the movement at this juncture from a correspondent so gifted and so eminent as Mr. Clancy. There is reason to regret that one of the lawyers who did so much to prevent the punishment of the most celebrated murderer California has had in re- cent years has appeared in the Flannelly case. His presence there will be taken as an indication that justice is likely to stumble over a lot of ridiculous but impeding technicalities before finally dropping Flannelly. It may have been noted that the European powers now engaged in making monstrous demands upon China have refrained from asking the United States as to the propriety of doing so. However, they find -time to pause long enough in their schemes to loot to tell the United States how Spain ought to be treated. An evening paper presents som: statements which it labels in large type, “True Facts.” It is with no de- sire to be captious we make the suggestion that a fact possessing the element of veracity gains much of its real character and value from this circumstance. Spanish papers at Havana are saying mean things about the people of this country, but they cannot be blamed for it. It must have been noticed- that the papers of the United States are not projecting floral tributes in the direction of the Spanish press. MARCH 20, 1898. A gentleman who writes for the San | Jose News gently corrects me for ob- jecting to the action of an Oakland Judge in having discharged a man guilty of wife beating, because the vic- tim of the beating had asked it. But I find upon reading his article that we agreed remarkably well. His idea is that wife beaters deserve severe pun- ishment. He wants them haled to the whipping post. Where we differ is as to the adequate penalty. I would have them haled to the nearest lamp- post and hanged. . The case of Colonel Finegan of San Rafael is of peculiar interest as show- ing how a man with money can make a monkey of the dignity of the law. Finegan claims to be a pauper. He asserts that he is unable to pay his divorced wife the alimony she sde- mands and thé courts uphold him in his absurd position. Finegan has plenty of money to supply himself with the luxuries of life. That he is a pauper nobody believes, least of all himself. It seems to me that even if the ex-wife cannot have her dues there ought to be some way of sending Fine- gan back to jal} B e It is a rare pleasure to be able to agree with the Evening Post, and I avail myself of the opportunity. Its position as to the Inutility of send- ing missionaries to China is unassall- able. If missionaries abroad have ever done any good 1 have failed to hear of it. For them to go to China and try to tell the people there what is a suitable form of religion for them has always seemed to me a distinct im- pertinence. While they occasionally have trouble, the marvel is that they do not have more. They deserve to be led to the border and firmly kicked in the direction of home. Millions of dollars are wasted in trying to “save the souls” of the Chinese before we have any good evidence that the Chi- nese have souls, or that the quality of soul they may have is worth saving. Certainly the Chinese Christian as known in this country is a fraud, us- ing his piety as a cloak, and as an ex- cuse for making love to some suscepti- ble ‘teacher, who perhaps marries him and goes into the business of rearing half-breeds. I do not believe that since the dawn of Christianity a sine gle Chinese was ever won over tg it, and I do not believe it of the slight- est importance that any should be. Y say this with the greatest respect for the opinions of those who differ from me. They have the same right to their opinions I have to mine, . s s Perhaps it will not be amiss to say a pleasant word about Attorneys McIn- tosh and Haymond. If ever there ap- peared against the local horizon two fellows more frankly knaves than thess I chanced to miss the sight. It seems that they were engaged to defend against the charge .of murder a man known as Hoff. This is only a part of his name, but it may serve to iden- tify him. They entered into a scheme for selling a ‘confession” of their client, and peddled it assiduously de- jpite the averments of their client that e had nothing to confess. Aside from the intrinsic villainy of the scheme must be considered the reflection it constituted upon the law they are sworn to uphold. Their idea seems to have been to sell the man's declar- ation of guilt and devote the praceeds to lining their pockets, and incidentally to ‘proving the prisoner an ‘innocent liar. If their course was.not an in- sult to the public, and particularly to the. court, there is no such thing as an insult. If it was not an attempted swindle, then the man who sells a gold brick made of brass is an angel of guilelessness. Think of taking the money derived from a confession of guilt and using part of it to establish the fact that the confession was false, or that being true, the statutes were powerless to punish the culprit. congratulations to the gentlemanly scoundrels; not that they deserve con- gratulations particularly, but note must be taken of the fact that at least one of them is still out of jail. Al te It is necessary for me as part of the daily routine to ride in the Jackson street car, leaving the foot of Powell street a little after 6 in the evening | About one time in ten it is my blessed pritilege to occupy a seat. The other nine times I go swaying over the hills while hanging on to a strap. wishing cordially that the management of the road could be hanged to something which withheld the privilegeof tcuching the ground. The only reason more cars are not provided is stinginess, abetted by the natural gallantry of men. There are few men who can ride in a seat con- scious that in the same car, and per- haps emitting reproachful glances, there are ladies maintaining with diffi- culty a footing on the constantly changing slant of the floor. So the man gets up, tips his hat, and perhaps his courtesy is ac’ aowledged. Now, I be- lieve tha* to surrender a seat is wrong, excepting of course in the case of old people and invalids. As a matter of fact a woman is just as able to stand as a man. The impulse not to permit her to do so is working a hardship on the community. A man will s’ay on his bobbing legs for a mile and never grumble, but let him learn that his wife or daughter has had similar experience and there will be no end to his indig- nation, while the indignation of ' the woman will be an actual rage. The les- son is plain. The only way to get more cars is to allow the feminine patrons to take equal chances with the masculine. Then there will be a storm of wrath breaking about the head of Vining, and perhaps the impact will be sufficient to beat an idea into it, with theresult that in time the needed cars will beprovided. Meanwhile let every lady who fails to scure a sea’ console herself wth the thought that the men are acting like swine, not because they wish to, but be- cause of a high and holy principle. Gl e e Having pondered over the matter for several days, I am still of the opinion that the San Francisco Gas and Elec- tric Company ! as no more right to the $5 deposit exacted from customers than a footpad has to the purse he takes at the pistol's point. Also that the morals actuating the two processes of .rob- bery-are on the same plane. the latter point might be termed irrelevant, but readers may have noticed that the for- mer is to be tested in court. Every day somebody relates to me a tale of fraud committed by this concer~ with ijts army of trained meters. Not long ago a friend rented a furnished -ouse, the Jowner having already the $5 on deposit. BB&RQS&BES&R&B&HBBBEB&SRN&E&RBB&E&B% 5 WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS. = g By ,HENRY JAMES. ; ; :I RN NN NRERRRRERRRRRRRNRNRRRNRRRN My | It did not seem necessary either to landlady or tenant to explain this change to the gas reople, the circum- stances belng, with an apparent show of reason, deemed none of their busi- ness. When my friend paid his first month’s bill the company discovered that there was a new occupant at the number and at once demanded another who killed his brother, and under the promises of a chronic confessar, W):IO goes about loaded with crocodile tears and 3 thumb-worn Bible, told all about it. Clarke was fairly dying to take the world into his confidence. He want- ed to make a clean breast of it to whoever happened along, and would have done so voluntarily, but the con- fessor,nd his bribes were there and their jsence did nothing but vitiate the statement of Clarke. In the Be- lew instance similar measures 2 thing exacted which had nted several days before 1, obtained under circum- stan hich lent it value as evi- dence. The Hoff matter is the latest. no in $5. The landlady told them that her $5 | could remain to represent the house; | but this did not satisfy them. They | still clamored for the double security. | saying that if it was not forthcoming | the gas would be shut off. Three days | later they sent a man up to shut off the | gas, and my friend then paid the $. This is what the company is pleased to | term a “voluntary” contribution. I am | pleased to terw. it an example of imper- | tinence, imposition and theft, and I have as much right as the company *to | be pleased. Yet after the transaction noted the landlady had much trouble to get back her original $5, having to visit the office several times, and this when the office was awey down in Tar Flat, not easy to reach nor attractive to see. | All this leaves out of consideration the reckless charges made for gas never consumed, the wretched quality of the light, the deadly character of the suicide-promoting fluid, and the boor- ishness with which every complaint, however just, is invariably met. . e e The present law against oplum smok- ing is worse than nome. Under its puerile restrictions the police are help- less, for if they take any action the | courts at once nullify it and make the efforts of the officers appear ridiculous. It would be & better plan to wipe out the law and encourage the dope flends to smoke their shriveled carcasses off the earth which their presence now in a measure robs of joy. PO ‘While the affair is none of my bust- | ness, I cannot help feeling sorry that two doctors should have sued the es- tate of a rich man for a sum over $23,- 000. As representatives of a profession useful, necessary and generally honor- able, their action constitutes a grave | reflection upon the craft. It appears from the complaint that they were in | attendance upon the man just one | month, at the end of which period he | died. What may have been the.rela- | tionship between their ministrations | and his taking off does not particularly | matter. It may be taken for granted | that he had the benefit of the highest | skill; that in the absence of the care he received he would not have been | permitted to linger so long as thirty days, and yet I do not believe the doc- tors earned any such amount as $23,000 | or that they think they did. If, hav- ing been called to treat a rich man | stricken with malady they had brought | him back fromthe gates of death the element of gratitude would have en- tered into the settlement, and had he chosen to Wwrite them a check for $50,000 | apiece, there would have been no cauys for complaint. But I contend that med- | ical services, covering but one month, | and then terminated by death, could not possibly have -any such value as | the doctors have chosen to place upon | them. They could not have had this | value if the doctors had abandoned Ul.’ their other practice and devoted them- | selves exclusively to the patient. When one has taken to the bed of pain from | , which he is never to arise the boon of | dragging out to thirty days an exist-| ence that might have terminated in | less does mot seem to me to be.con-| siderable. - It assuredly is not worth such a fortune as many worthy and in. dustrious men toil vainly for during an | entire lifetime. | . - o An Oakland correspondent, evidently | sharing the disesteem it has been my | duty to express toward the Board of | Education, sends me a clipping from | The Outlook, a New York publication of standing and dignity. Such is the savor | of decay thrown off by this precious board that it has been detected as far | away as the Atlantic seaboard. Prob- ' ably there is not another body amy-| where, supposed to be devoted to the interests of education and so utterly | neglecting them; supposed to be on a lofty plane, vet so reeking with the overflow of an internal rot. That the board is a nuisance and disgrace, that the good in it is powerless against the evil, that some of its members deserve | to be in the penitentiary, there is no | question. Some who are not vicious are | actually and painfully ignorant, with | not the slightest conception of what their duties are, the slightest desire to find out or the slightest ability to per- form them. The Outlook passes by the | ‘Waller and the Ragan with their en- | vironments of scandal and takes up the | Drucker, whom it regards as a queer | specimen, whose openly avowed prac- | tices should be classified as criminal. | “It keeps us busy looking after our friends,” Drucker had said when dis- cussing the matter of appointments. “Each director appoints his own friends and relatives,” continued this modern exponent of educational methods, ap- parently without a thought or care that by the words he ‘was confessing him- self one of a band of shameless knaves. | School directors have no right to have “friends” such as must be provided for | regardless of worth. They are not elected for the purpose of being pur- veyors of pap to members of their fam- ilies. No wonder The Outlook is| shocked at the scheme of regarding teachers’ positions as spoils to be par- celed out among the faithful. Here we hawe become accustomed to the sys- tem. But when the system has grown so noisome that it discredits us in the | estimation of thinking people 3000 miles | away, it is time to transfer a lot of low- { down politicians from places of respon- | sibility and trust to the seclusion of | San Quentin’s jute mill. l A% % It is stated that a woman renowned for the fact that she bathes daily in | milk is on her way out here in a spe- | cial car. It is not a cattle car. I fail to see why indulgence of such a fad should have placed upon her brow the laurel wreath of fame. T should term bathing in milk a decidedly nasty trick, besides being a waste’of an ar- ticle for which children cry. IR Perhaps the confession department of the Examiner will retire from bus- iness now that it has been brought into the glare of judicial publieity and made everybody connected with it con- tribute to the grins of an appreciative pecple. In the first place the ‘“‘con- fessions” wrested by hypnotism and cajolery from the unwilling bosoms of the wicked possess neither interest nor value. This was shown first in the case of Clarke, the St. Helena freak # | Baking Powder, No. i quality, This has brought the members of two professions into ridicute and disrepute. The idea of springing a Bible on a creature like Hoff and of offering him $10,000 for a confession is an absurdity. Nothing Hoff could possibly tell would be worth this sum or any other. That such an offer was made is a demon- stration that it was made in bad faith so far as payment was concerned. The {ludicrous side of it all is too manifest to be ignored. An attorney dickering with a journalist in the hope of selling to him a hand-made confession, but meanwhile carefully guarding against the possibility of being drugged by the journalist, is something to go thunder- ing adown the corridors of time for at least a week. It is none of my fight, and yet I venture that Tom Garrett, sorely ‘as he may have been tempted, and justifiable as he might have been in yielding to the impulse to poison.a lawyer or two, never did such a thing in his Iife. BUSH-STREET BOULEVARD. To the Editor of The Call: The Bush street boulevard ,burlesque is again excit- ing the risibilities of those people wha have given any thought at all to the mat- ter. That the scheme could be seriously considered by any one is farcical—Bu street is so dearth of all natural adv tages, being, in fact, unsuitable in every way. It is so narrow it woww admit of neither good walks, shade trees or a good roadway. The grade in some places is altogether too steep for bitumen. Bush street is a short street, passes no places of interest, no public buiidings, and has no fine residgnces; there are no guod views; it has no outlet; in fact, it pegins nowhere and ends likewise, unless & short cut to a cemetery be the great de- siderium. It should be quite enough to condemn the scheme that more tnan three-fourths of the property owners, representing 14,000 feet frontage, have protested against this boulevard fantasy. How ridiculous would this San Francisco boulevard appear in comparison with the boulevards of other large cities! ‘wne street, for the most art, 1S now well paved with bazalt locks, has been accepted by the city, and were it kept in_the condition the street laws demand the best paving for this street is zlll'!:ad}'3 adsured. That the property_owners of Bush street, with ifs { ghost railway, have for years been made a catspaw to pull chestnuts out of the fire for the Sutter street railroad hsas been very apparent to all except those “who hava eyes and see not and ears and hear not.” Now when the matter is again brought before the Street Committee next Thurs- day it is to be hoped that mev??sncs of the 200 Bush street protestants will be re- spected and no injustice done. That ih~ Bush street boulevard burlesque will ba then ended for all time Is devoutly prayel for by a common sense Property owner and a willing worker for San Francisc's best good.. ALMA E. KEITH. San Franeisco, March 19, 188, —_— e ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. GOAT ISLAND— Oakland, Cal. The area of Yerba Buena Island, also known as Goat Island, in the harbor of San Francisco, is 140.9 acres. NOBLES OF SPAIN—E. H., City. There ‘is & book published In Mfadrid; Spain, en- titled “La Guia,” issued by the Govern- ment, that contalns the names of the r.o- bility of Spain. You might obtain a copy of it through a book selling house. —_———————— E. H. Black, painter, 120 Eddy st. —————————~ A handsome present for your Eastern friends, Townsend'sCal.glace fruits,l0c 1b.* P — information supplied daily to the ont- . Special business house; and p‘:\fll‘ic n)lenlob Press Clippin; ureau (Allen’s), 510 A gomery splgeeg. Telephone Main 1042. e A great rush at 116 Grant avenue on ac- count of the auction sale that Quong Wing Long & Co. are having there. Un- less you go early you cannot get in. They are positively letting their goods g9 to the highest and best bidder. These goods Gre all first-class, and are sold for less than shoddy prices. B — The raflway companies “of Great Britain pay an average every day of £1700 in compensation, about 60 per cent being for injuries to passengers and the remainder for loss or damaged freight. e Drs. Bush & Son have removed to 208 Kearny st., Adams Building, rooms 310, 303, 305. Dent- istry in all jts brafiches. Teeth without plates especully. Telephone Red 1226. It is said that every thread of a spider’'s web is made up of about 5000 separate fibers. If a pound of this thread were required, it would occupy 28,000 spiders a full year to furnish it. ADVERTISEMENTS. KLONDIKE PUZLLE. Free to every buyer at our store; regu- lar price 15¢ to 20c. It wil amuse the whole family and costs you nothing. A DROP In prices astonishes and iInterests the whole country, especially large Alaska buyers. Bacon, backs, good grade, ... Ham, well cured, small sizes, Lard, pure, 5-1b square cans, Salt Pork, dry, sides, per Id . Potatoes, evaporated, per Ib. Rolled Oats, Eastern, per Ib Flour, Willamette Valley, bl Beans, White Pea, not fancy, Ib....1% Butter, 60-1d tubs, Elgin, choice, Ib..21¢c Prunes, dried, sweet and good, Ib. Pears, dried, very choice, Ib. Raspberries, very choice, .. Blackberries, evaporated, per Ib.. Syrup, cooking grade, gallon tins....25¢ Coffee, roasted and ground. Gold Pans, polished, each. Yukon Tralil Sleighs, each Folding Sleighs, each...... Combination Toboggan and Sleigh. Stoves, 8 kinds upward from.. Dog Harness, upward from.. $2.50 $1.00 ‘Whip Saw, 6 ft., complete; none else where Sheepskin Buffalo Sleeping Bags, best.. Blanket Overalls, each. per pair. Everything for evervbody. Prices SMITHS CASH STORE 25-27 Market St., S. F. $12.00 -$1.00