The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 21, 1898, Page 4

1898. THE SAN FRANOCISCO CALL, MONDAY, MARCH 21, MARCH 21, 188 JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. e Address All Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager. Pttt sl e R e PUBLICATION OFFICE......Market and Third §ts., 8. F. Telephone Main 1868. EDITORIAL ROOMS... ..2IT to 22| Stevenson Street Telephone Main 1574. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL (DAILY AND S8UNDAY) Is served by carrlers In this city and surrounding towns for IS 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 OFFICE. -Room 188, World Building WASHINGTON (D. C.) OFFICE -Rigge House C. C. CARLTON, Correspondent. BRANCH OFFICES—527 Montgomery street, corner Clay, open untll 9:30 o'clock. 339 Hayes street, open until 9:30 o'clock. 621 McAlllster street, open until 9:30 o'clock. 615 Larkin street, open untll 9:30 o'clock. 1941 Mission street, open until 10 o'clock. 2291 Market street, corner Sixteenth, open untll 9 o'clock. 2518 Mission street, open until 9 o'clock. 106 Eleventh street, open untll 9 o'clock. 1505 Polk street, open untll 9:30 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-second and Kentucky streets, open until 9 o'clock. AMUSEMENTS. Baldwin—* Mysterfous Mr. Bugle." Alcazar—Ui Dudley."” Moroeco he Upper Hand." Tivoli—" The Wid ow O'Brie: Tivoli—Concert Thursday atternoon, March 24. Orph ndeville. " Auditort Mason and Ellis streets—Recitals of Scottisl! ory' Monday evening, March 2L Song and St ympia, corner Mason aud Eddy streets—Specialties. s—Chiquita and Vaudeville. 1 Excursion to San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley arch Special CLEARER COMMERCIAL SKIES. HE business situation is better than a week ago. TAt that time it was marked by a pronounced un- certainty, susceptible of development in almost any direction, favorable or unfavorable. But since then the sky has cleared again and it is now seen that the immense war preparations all over the country were the sole cause of the temporary unsteadiness. The wonder is that the disturbance was not greater. True, Wall street continues to show varying moods as the Cuban situation clouds or clears, but the rest of the country has again settled down to business and things are going on as usual. Commercial reports from New York show that the kbone of the situation is the excess of merchandise exports, more than $41,000,000 in February, with an | increase of $2,200,000 miscellaneous products, §2,100,000 in provisions, $4,500,000 in cotton and $7,000,000 in breadstuffs, compared with last year, and $15,000,000 in all products. in and imports have gained but 8.7 per cent. The outgo oi cotton surpasses all expectations, though the price was stronger last week, and the export demand ap- parently paid no attention to market fluctuations. In the last issue of Bradstreet's appears a table of X | comparative prices of 108 staple articles, raw and manufactured, showing fluctuations from April 1, to March 4, 1808. From this showing it is learned more than half the articles mentioned ad- vanced in February and only fifteen actually declined. Compared with low water mark in July last 24 out of the 108 are lower in prices, but the decreases were unimportant and in some cases due to climatic in- fluence. In fact, the aspect of affairs is decidedly bullish all over the country. As one trade authority tersely puts it, “neither peace nor war reports have changed the onward current of business.” The financial situa- tion is distinguished by orders for more than $25,- 500,000 from Europe, which effectually check any tendency toward monetary stringency, while treasury receipts of over $1,000,000 per day keep the currency supply fully up to all probable needs. Wheat also moves in spite of all speculation. Atlantic exports, flour included, have been 1,824,560 bushels, against 1,253,300 last year, and from Pacific ports 1,371,826 | bushels, against 268,503 last year, making for three weeks from both coasts 10,659,125 bushels, against 4,538,441 last year. The usual barometers of trade show continued high pressure all along the line. The bank clearings of the country last week were 35.4 per cent larger than for the same week last year. Failures were about the same in number. Favorable weather has increased the distribution of goods everywhere, the West and Northwest sending in the best reports in this respect. Navigation has practically opened on the great lakes, and by the first of April this important branch of na- tional trade, which has been closed during the winter, will be in full current again. The staples remain about as they have been for the past few weeks, iron being active and firm, wool flat, and dry goods, gro- ceries and other lines of business being in satisfactory movement everywhere. On this coast the weather continues to engross at- tention. Light scattering showers in the San Joaquin Valley have kept the grain crop growing fairly, though present indications point to only a moderate | yicld. Hay and minor cereals continue to advance, and the stockmen in some districts are worried about the slim outlook for feed. Heavy frosts have almost wiped out the apricot trop and damaged the peaches more or less here and there, but all other fruits have thus far escaped and promise good crops. San Francisco is still under a cloud as to the Alaskan business owing to the rail- road war in the north, but our local bank clearings still show that we are doing considerably more trade than at this time last year, so things must be in pretty good shape after all. There is nothing now in sight to indicate that we will not have a first-class year, taking it as a whole. Aubrey Beardsley's death will be regretted because he was a brave young fellow with the courage to back up a ridiculous fad and fool people into the idea that it possessed merit. As a matter of unromantic fact the Beardsley style of illustration was an exemplifica- tion of the accuracy with which rank idiocy could be reduced to a pictorial form. Professor Wenzell sets forth that other cities burn gas as dangerous as that furnished to San Francisco. However, something more than scientific dissertation is necessary to establish firmly the theory that two wrongs make a right. This theory has always had advocates, yet it may be successfully assailed. Sy v i Complaint is often made that some people talk too much, but complaint about the local telephones is based on the opposite grounds. They do not talk enough after they have absorbed the nickel supposed to woo them into a communicative mood. There seems to be an idea that an American ship would be in danger if anchored off Havana, but it would be easy to put enough American ships there that the danger could be spread so as to not be con- fined to the white navy. In two weeks in March | exports have been 16 per cent larger than last year | PREPARED FOR PEACE OR WAR. HE report of the Naval Board of Inquiry ap- Tpointed to inquire into the cause of the disaster that wrecked the Maine will soon be in the hands of the President, and it is reasonable to assume that he will at once transmit it to the Senate and thus | make known to the people the information they have | so long desired. The period of suspense and waiting is therefore nearly at an end. In a few days we shall | know all that the Naval Board has discovered and | have a clearer conception whether the controversy with Spain can be arranged by diplomacy or must be settled by war. It has been more than a month since the wreck of the Maine at Havana startled the country, roused patriotic sensibilities and stirred the people with something of the passion of battle. From that mo- ment the great mass of Americans have been ready at any time to sustain Congress in a declaration of open hostility against Spain, and Congress in turn | has shown itself ready to uphold the President in any action he might take to that end. Nothing has| occurred during the month of waiting to diminish or | weaken that feeling. Calm resolution has succeeded | | the first burst of wrath, but the calmness of to-day is | even more ominous to Spain than was the fiery indig- nation that raged when the people first had reason to | suspect that the destruction of the Maine was due to | Spanish treachery. It goes without saying that the same spirit of de- | termined resolve which has kept the country free from any manifestation of undue excitement for all these | weeks will have the same effect on the public mind during the remaining days of waiting. Ample evi- | dence has been given that both Congress and the | President are prepared to maintain the honor of thci republic in whatever way the emergency may demand. { The vote of $50,000,000 for national defense was an evidence of the swiftness with which the representa- tives of all parties in the country will act together if war is necessary, and the energy with which the ad- ministration has made use of the money to strengthen our military and naval force is sufficient proof that | it will show no weakness when the time comes for decision and action. With confidence in Congress and in the President{ | the people wait the result. They will expect to have | the report of the Naval Board made public as soon as | | it is received. If it proves to be noncommittal on the | question of Spanish responsibility for the wreck they | will be likely to accept that as a confirmation of their | suspicions that the act was one of treachery. Nothing will now relieve the war strain but a demonstration in | the report that the Spanish officials were in no wise | concerned in the act, either directly or by their pro- | tection of parties guilty of the crime. As a nation and as a people we are fast losing patience with Spanish sovereignty and Spanish bar- | | barism on any part of this hemisphere. If this crime ‘ | and its crisis afford us any rightful ground on which | to demand the freedom of Cuba and atonement for | the wreck of the Maine there can be no question but | that the people of all sections of the Unién would | be opposed to any diplomatic arrangement for waiv- ing that right. We are not a nation of jingoes, but | neither are we one of those nations among whom; “the jingling of the guinea hélps the hurt that honor feels.” | THE SEASON OF FETES AND FLOWERSH | | HE season of singing birds and b]ossoming! | Torr ards has come. The roses, heliotropes and geraniums, which at all times of the year lift up their beauty to adorn our gardens, are now at their best and brightest, while the native wild flowers | bloomit g on hill and plain vie with them in color and | sweetness and add to the spring a glory which the | other seasons know not. This, therefore, is the time when the minds of all who are not harassed with | labor turn to thoughts of floral fetes and festivals of | roses. Already reports of preparations for these entertain- | ments come to us from many parts of the State. Santa Clara County is to lead off with a festival uvnique in its nature. This is to be known as a “car- nival of buds and blossoms” and will consist in put- ting the whole county op exhibition and inviting all | the world to come and see it. It is to be no display ia a hall or a pavilion or any building even if it were | big cnough to serve for an exposition. When the | orchards bloom every acre of land for miles around San Jose is a flower show. It is to see this splendor that the county invites visitors next week. The Znuest will not be expected to walk through flowers clong aisles hundreds of feet long, but will be taken in a carriage and driven through blossom-bright avenues for miles and miles. After that display the fetes in other portions of the rate will follow thick and fast. One of the most | notable of these will be that for which preparations are row being made at San Rafael. That beautiful | home cf wealth and refinement has a host of advan- | tages that give it special facilities for entertainments | of this kind. A considerable number of its people live cortinually in an atmosphere of beauty, joy and hospitality. It will be for them as natural as breath- irg to make a rose festival as perfect as can be at- tainred anywhere on the globe. For all of these fair things to come we may rejoice to-day. San Francisco is near enough the center of tke State for her people to visit every fete that comes. We will see San Jose, San Rafael, Santa Rosa and | all that make merry in the spring. Their hospitality | and their visions of beauty will be our joys, and thoucands of our people will attest the fullness of our delight ir such neighbors, THE POSTAL DEFICIT. HEN the Loud bill providing a means for | W making the postal service self-supporting by putting an end to ghc costly abuses which have grown up in second class mails was defeated The Call expressed the opinion of the people generally in say- ing that it then behooved the opponents of that measure to devise some other for getting rid of the deficit. It was promised at the time that this would be done by reducing the expenditures for mail trans- portation. That promise has been broken. The appropriation bill passed by the House on Saturday afternoon, so far from reducing expenditures, actually increased them by $1,700,000 over the appropriations for last year. This is the result of a difference of opinion among reformers. It seems clear that a conslderable major- ity of the members of both houses of Congress is in favor of an economical postal service. It is equally clear that with the practice of economy we could make the service self-supporting without diminishing its efficiency. It happens, however, that some of the reformers desire to effect the economy by restricting the privilege of second class mail to legitimate news- papers and periodicals issued as frequently as four times a year, while others are willing to permit abuses in that class of mail matter to go on and would at- tain a surplus for the postoffice by reducing the rates paid the railroads for transportation. The friends of economy being thus divided, both plans have failed. We have had to make an increased appropriation for the postoffice at a time when strict economy is im- Lportant, and the chances are that in spite of the in- crease we shall have as big a deficit as ever at the end of the year. The deficit in our postal revenues is the more aggravating because the postoffice service in Great Eritain, France and Germany is not only self-support- ing, but actually ylelds a surplus. We could have equally good results if our postal affairs were con- ducted on anything like a similar basis. The letter postage and first class mail matter generally yields us a handsome revenue. The surplus which is piled up by that class of mail, however, is swallowed up by the cost of handling tons of stuff at rates that do not pay the cost of handling. The only two plans for remedying the evil which have had any strong sup- port in Congress have just been voted down one after another. The deficit averages about $11,000,000 2 year, and it seems likely to stay with us. POOLROOMS AND OPIUM JOINTS. URING the past week The Call exposed the D extent to which opium joints and poolrooms are being conducted in this city. The exposure showed that the two evils are carried on with a de- gree of defiant publicity which constitutes not only! a scandal to our laws, but a serious menace to all men and women who by reason of any mental or moral weakness are liable to be enticed to ruin either by the gambling mania or a desire for opium. On our statute books there are laws against each of these evils, but the laws are not enforced. The police know of the existence of the poolrooms and opium dens. They know where these places are, they know the persons who maintain them and-they know also a considerable number of those who attend them. | Knowing all these things they make no arrests be- | cause, as they claim, long experience has shown that it is impossible to obtain convictions. In other words according to the police the laws are inefficient or the courts are inefficient to deal with either the dope fiends or the poolroom fiends. So far as the opium dens are concerned it seems clear that the defect is in the law, which requires for | conviction a degree and kind of proof that cannot be obtained. So long as all persons arrested for main- taining an opium joint or resorting to one for opium smoking have to be tried under the State law there can be hardly any convictions. The only chance for suppressing this evil before the assembling of the Legislature gives a chance for an amendment to the law lies in the suggestion | made by Attorney Drury, that if a test case were car- ried®to the Supreme Court that tribunal would hald that such offenders could be tried for violating the city ordinance. This course should be followed. The’ test case should be raised at once and the issue deter- mined. As for the poolroom keepers, their immunity seems | | to be dependent upon the juries that try them. The law on the subject is sound enough and the police have in the past made many arrests, but convictions are about as rare for this offense as for that of running an opium joint. This view of the subject carries the | source of the evil one step further back and raises the | question of reform in the police court jury system. Assistant District Attorney Black, who agrees with the police that the failure to suppress poolrooms in the city is due to the juries before whom the arrested pool-sellers are tried, said in an interview published in The Call on Saturday: “If the Police Courts acted as they do in the Superior Courts in regard td the | impaneling of juries better results in bringing law- | breakers to justice would prevail. Where an officer is given the power, as he is in the Police Courts, to bring any one or anybody for a juror it is hard to expect that a verdict will be givenin accordance with the evidence, as a friend of the man on trial can easily get in the way and be placed on the jury.” In that direction, then, the enforcement of the law seems to be blocked. Mr. Black says, however, it | would still be worth while for the police to make ar- | rests and keep trying to procure convictions. Police | Commissioner Gunst seems equally convinced that | the evil can be suppressed if the fight is kept up. This policy should be vigorously pursued. Poolrooms in the city are forbidden by law ~nd the police should arrest all who violate the law even if the courts fail to convict them. HAS GONE TOO FAR. ed by The Call. It con- sists of one reprchensible act. The author is Colonel Joseph A. Nunez, who apparently is not ashamed of being caught in the act, for he sends the thing with his own compliments. A not unnat- ural impulse would be to wrap it about a brick and send it back again. Possibly worse plays have been written, but there is no record of any such event. To attempt to pass upon the merits of the Nunez soar would be to reach out after the unattainable; there are no merits excepting the single one of | brevity, and of this there is far too little. Neither would there be any object in analyzing the creation. Enough to say that it is entitled “The Fragmented Maine Shatters Proud Spain.”” This will be recog- nized at once as poetry. It is not perfect poetry, but it constitutes the loftiest flight of the whole produc- tion and is so much superior to the play that it ought to cut loose from a hampering environment and go sailing adown the centuries on its own hook, claiming no histrionic value but the glory of being simply the songlet of a bardlet from away back. The use of the term “fragmented” is most happy. It serves to divert the mind. In contemplation of it | there is, it is true, a tendency to hope that the author and the play may likewise be “fragmented.” The | shrewd observer will be so taken with the hope that | a kindly providence will place upon him the task of doing this that he will immediately drop the pamphlet and begin looking for a club, Nunez has gone too far., When he begins to wield the deadly pen a stricken world appeals to him to go | back to his customary and less formidable dynamite. e —— Perhaps the Gas and Electric Company can set up the plea for retaining the “voluntary” contributions it has forced from customers that it wants the money itself. Any footpad could make a similar plea. There is no reason except the kindness of Provi- dence preventing some of the dangling wires which kill horses occasionally from trying the powers of mankind to resist electric shock, « Congressman Lewis of Washington is said to be interested in a noiseless powder, but it is certain the gentleman is not loaded with it. That “the colored troops fought nobly” is a matter of record, and their chances of doing it again were never brighter than now, If the price of hay keeps going up soon the man with timothy seed in his hair will be reckoned an aristocrat. General Miles in wanting peace is not alone. Every- body wants peace, but it must be had on certain con- ditions. e Py When a lawyer peddles a “confession” it is not too much to ask that it be one concerning his own deeds. i B The threat of Spain to stir up revolt in the Southern States does not seem to strike terror. | paper join the Examiner in its out- QRN UM T RO & INDIVIDUAL THOUGHTS, § BY A MODEST CRITIC. [-R=3=3-3-3-3-3:-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-2-3=1+] The Laine letter about Weyler is about the worst attempt to fool the public ‘deeply Interested in the disas- | ter to the Maine that has yet been at- tempted. This plece of news is, of course, due to the New York Journal. The Laine confessing himself a pris- | oner {n Cabanas Fort swears he saw a couple of tons of dynamite laid in Havana harbor. Will this class of nauseating insult to intelligence never cease? I recommend Mr. Hearst to employ, at any rate, one news editor who knows the rudimentary princi- ples of handling explosives. And I | sometimes wonder what the ignoram- uses who concoct these stories Imagine an electrically connected submarine mine to be. They are not expected to know much about the mechanism, but from matter that has been printed by the Journal and its miniature, it is evi- 06 308 308 30¢ 3¢ dent that they imagine a mine to be | constructed by wheeling a few hundred | sticks of dynamite over the water in a | hand barrow (made buoyant by occult | power) and dumping the load into the | water. One of the assistants at this | strange seance then plunges his arm | into the water and, lo! electrical con- | nection with—anywhere—is made! | Another of the elect (as the work is | done by night) then smells the briny | deep and the position of the mine is plotted by intuition! The most mar- velous thing to me about it all is that anyone can read and digest such crass nonsense as the Journa/ sees fit to publish. The ghost of the Chronicle’s strate- glc attache appears agnin. It is, how- | ever, not very painful to have to lay | him anew, as he arises from his inter- ment much like a “Jack-in-the-box,” | for the face amuses, though it be the | same old face. He still squeaks of the strategic value of the Hawaiian Isl- ands, but this time thusly: “It has not escaped the notice of the Senate and the House during the present | war scare that Honolulu is the one weak point as it stands in the defensive s, tem of this coast. Spain could not send | a single. modern cruiser under steam | from the Philippines or Carolines to the neighborhood of the Golden Gate unless she could coal the ship en route. The first attempt of the enemy in the Pacific, | therefore, would be to seize Honolulu and | use it as a base of supplies.” ! Spain would, as she could, coal her ships en route if we were at war with | her, which we are not and are not | likely to be. If we owned Honoluly, | however, she might possibly, but not probably, take it and use it as a base, | but will this innocent never see that ine« the hands of a neutral power the occu- | pation of Hawaii by : 1 enemy is impos- | sible? The independence of the islands | is already guaranteed, and our enemy, | no matter what nation it might be, | that would choose to incur the wrath of either Germany, Great Britain or| any other first-class power by seizing | an independent State, would wish his | cake dough and even flour. By refus- ing to annex these islands and insist- | ing on their independence, we wipe out | a serious menace to the coast. With the independence of the islands firmly established all our enemies who desire | to attack this coast are truly robbed | of all but a floating base. Possibly Captain Mahan will tell me how much | wisdom there is in a strategic move- ment which gives the enemy a clear | chance to obtain a point of vantage. If | in the next twenty years we increase the navy so that we can spare a dozen | ships to protect the group, leprosy be- | ing stamped out, the Chinese and Jap- anese having by the grace of the Crea- | tor betaken themselves to their native | soil, there might be no such very seri- | ous objection to making them a part | of American territory; but to-day it is | evident that we cannot spare the ships; | the leprosy flourishes exceedingly, and | the Orientals are there in their revolt- ing swarms. The Chronicle is placed in this position by its advocacy of (he‘ annexation of these islands. It is | either willing that they should become | a county of Californi~ or it does not object to take the risk of the addition of two Senators to represent a handful | of men. Which is it? There is no pos- sible logical escape from the dilemma, | and it is welcome to which ever horn of the bull it chooses to grasp. Will that | spoken wish to inosculate this State | with leprosy, if so, the people of Cali- fornia should know that fact. It has been demonstrated so often that from anystandpoint these islands are worse than valueless to us that it seems idle to continue to discuss it, but public | opfnion in California should be farther | awakened to what this polluting plan of | annexation actually means. ‘l The purchase by the Government o!’I cruisers abroad and the evident intent | to move more rapidly in the rebuilding of the navy draw attention to the | manning of the ships. I opine that | the encouragement of boys to enlist | can scarcely be too strongly urged. | And of course training ships must be provided. American ships should have, as far as possible, American hearts on the mess deck as well as in the ward room. Our navy is now recruited from | seamen of the various merchant ser- vices of the globe, and that is unwise. The day of the striking of topmasts in fighting ships has passed. The most | valuable seamen in the marine branch of the national service to-day are those who are capable of properly serving modern guns. Those who have had opportunities for fairly consider- ing the matter agree that boys trained | for service in any navy lead lives as happy, and have prospects quite as good as those who learn trades in their various countries. Men of large ex- perience are satisfied that this is a long way the best plan to get the most efficlent naval force. Naval reserves may be good, but they ure rarely up to the necessary standard. The Naval Reserve which will be created by the fostering of the building of American steel steamships will, undoubtedly, be exceedingly valuable. High class mod- ern vessels make cruisers that will be quite formidable to anything but a protected enemy. Those of other na- tions look business like enough when fitted with guns, and we should pro- ceed to add to the nucleus for a fleet of this sort we already have in the Paris, the New York and a few others as rap- 1dly as possible. Congress should begin to be generous to American shipping. It has been stunted long enough. The Rev. R. 8. Coyle of Oakland is of the opinion that the voters of that city deserve to be robbed and jobbed by the combination of Councilmen and water companies, because, as he ex- plains with reference to the former, | vance regulating the movements of tor- | ynem? answered the captain. ‘The man | miles. That is not good reasoning, my rever- end friend. In no case can you know a man to be a rascal till you prove him one. You may think him honest or otherwise, but where did you get your opinion that responsibility “for the events of the past two weeks which have so outraged the community rests principally upon those who did not have consclence enough toward city to make a righteous use of the ballot”? The responsibility rests wholly with those who offered bribes. ~Bribes cannot be accepted when not proffered, and no matter how Intelligently or consclentiousl- a man, any number of men, may vote, there is no assurance | that one elected to office will remain honest even if he be upright when he | commences his duties. It is proper to pray that the Deity will give the water companies their reward. No.other pow- | er is at all likely to punish them even | if an emissary of either corporation | be heard offering a bribe to a €ouncil- i man, and later it be shown that the jail bird was seen to take it. NEWS OF FOREIGN NAVIES. rived yesterday. W. F. Scatten and wife of Detroit are staying at the Occidental, where they ar- rived yesterday on the overland. F. M. Johnson of St. Louis and F. 8. Kerry and P. R. Lance of Cleveland, O., are all registered at the Palace. W. R. Macinflis, general freight agent of the Canadian Paciflc, is registered at the | .the Palace, on his way to Del Monte. . Sells and C. W. Sells are two e 4o arrived at the Palace last night on ther way to Del Monte. Clyde W. Miller, a wealthy banker of Osage City, Kans., Is at the Grand, where he is staying on his wedding tour to the coast. C. E. Chaffee, a Chicago rallroad man, is at the Palace to attend the meeting of the freight men at Del Monte to-morrow afternoon. Charles F. Schieffelin, the Los Angeles mining man, who, together with lus brother, now dead, discovered the famous Tombstone mine and founded the city of that name in Arizona, is a guest at the Baldwin. 0Oo0o0oo0o0000O0O0 ) “Close the door o and allow no one <] HOW o to enter unless he © A SAILOR o can produce & Blectricity is being introduced in the Russian navy for raising ammunition, loading and working guns on board ships. Of the 250 torpedo-boats which the nayal | programme _establishes for the French | navy, 175 will be afloat during the present | ye | The British battle-ship Illustrious has | passed through her full power trial of elght hours under natural draught, and developed 10,241 horsepower, an excess of 241 horsepower over the contract. It is reported sthat the Japanese have | is time laid a number of torpedoes wnds, near Formosa. The work was to be done under the su- perintendence of Captain Yasuda of the | Japanese navy. | The British torpedo boat destroyer Vio- | let passed through her coal consumption | trials last month. Steaming at the rate | of 13 knots she used one ton of coal to make a distance of 30 knots. As the boat | carries 84 tons of coal, this supply should enable her to make 220 knots at a speed of 13 knots per hour. Experiments have been made at Kiel | v German naval officers with a contri- pedoes discharged from a ship. It is | claimed that absolute accuracy of aim was obtained with a Schwartzkoff tor- pedo up to a distance of 4300 feet, or over four-fifths of a mile. The Woodlark, one of the latest bullt light draught turbine twin screw gun- boats for service in Egypt, has had a successful trial. The boat is 145 feet in | length and # feet beam, and was to draw not over 24 inches with a load of 30 tons, at which her speed was to be 15 statute At her acceptance trial with the | stipulated load the boat drew 23% inches and made 30% miies in two hours. The hull is plated with bullet-proot steel plating, and the Woodlark is now credited with being the best boat in the British Nile flotilla. The British sloop-of-war Algerine s at | the prseent time in drydock at Tung-Ka- | doo, China, making good the damage she suffered recently in a collision with a junk. She has been remarkably unfortu- nate since her first commission on Feb- | ruary 11, 1807. It took her eight aays to make Gibraltar from Plymouth, losing one boat and smashing others. Arriving | on the China station one of her officers committed suicide, and in November last | she ran aground on the Shanghai flats, | remaining high and dry for some hours, Still more recently she ran aground again, carrying away her starboard bilge | keel and ripping off the wood sheathing | on her bottom, and to cap the climax of misfortunes she afterward collided with a junk, by which she lost several boats and was badly damaged about her top | sides and deck. The reparirs will take | | several weeks and will cost at least $15,~ | 000, The experfence which the British | cruiser Edgar recently had with a tramp | steamer indicates that it is more difficult | to sink a merchant vessel than a ship of | war. The Edgar fell in with the Eden- | moor, a tramp steamer from Newecastle, | bound for an Asiatic port with a cargo of | refined petroleum. The steamer was on | fire fore and aft, and the crew was taken | oft with some difficulty. the Edgar concluded to quicken the sink- | ing of the doomed steamer and opened a brisk fire with her quick-firing guns and | an occasional shell from her 9.2-inch gun. | After an hour or so of this gun practice | the Edenmoor evidently became some- | what dilapidated and took a gradual list | to port. This was her condition at noon, | and an hour later she was nearly bottom | up. At 2 o’clock the man-of-war’s crew | renewed the attack, and after firing sev- | enty shots from the -inch quick-firing | guns and the 9.2-inch gun the hapless steamer “fluked” and gradually disap- peared stern foremost, sinking in sixty | fathoms. The money expended In firing shells at this tramp steamer must have | footed up close to $2000, but it was a | practice in gunnery of which the Edggr | was evidently very much in need. | GET READY. Clouds are gathering quickly in the sky— Get ready! An ugly storm is swiftly drawing nigh— Get ready! | Let the timid hunt secluded places where | The smoke of battle may not scent the | air; Uncle Sam has grabbed his scabbard and | his tempered blade is there— Get ready! The time for empty parleying is past, | Get ready! The enemy has dropped his mask at last— Get ready! | Burnish up your gun and load it for the | ray, | With the rising of to-morrow's sun you | may Be called upon to kiss the ones you love and march away— | Get ready! All the world s looking on to ‘“see the n"— b Get ready! Let the foeman be the first and last to n— o Get ready! Uncle Sam has ugly wrinkles on hisbrow! ngprvl\z\rfld to quit the anvil and the | low— "Tlsptlme for bloodless fighting with the en and pencil now— 5 B Get ready! The Lord is still above to speed theright— | Get ready! Trust the Lord, but don’t forget that you must fisht— Get ready! Though our arms be strong and though our cause be just, ‘We must be prepared to parry and to thrust! ‘When the soon or —$ E COLLECTED IN THE CORRIDORS. E. H. Clark of Portland, Or., is at the Lick. 7 y E. de Reynler of banger is a guest at the Grand. E. W. Baddler is registered at the Lick from Healdsburg. F. S. McComber, a wealthy miner of Sonora, is a guest at the Palace. ‘Willlam M. Bates is a traveler from Boston, who is at the Occldental. R. S. Ritchie, a mining man from Gol- conda, Nev., is registered at the .aldwin. R. L. Anderson of San Ramon arrived a kt!ls city yesterday and went to the o dreaded summons comes, as late it surely must, Get ready! KISER in Cleveland Leader. | Grand Opera House of satisfactory ais- OWAS MARRIED- © charge and show o O a foul anchor 0000000000 scnrimshawed on his left forearm,” said Captain Lacy, as the Ancient Mariners came to an anchor in their favorite harbor., **We have had enopgh of strangers who want to fish for turtles in the Gulf of California. “I was reading in the papers to-day of a fashionable wedding that took place from the Palace Hotel, and it brought to | my mind a wedding that once came off at Point Barrow, in the Arectic. A man by the name of O'Hara had been left in charge of some bone that w ore, and had' taken up with a native woman, with whom he had been living for some time when the revenue cutter, with Missionary Sheldon Jackson, the same fellow who has played the Government for a trip abroad to procure reindeer when he could | get them on this side at half the expense and far less trouble, came along. “Jackson heard of the connection, and was properly shocked, as became one of his professed sanctity. ‘Captain,’ he said to the vessel's commander, ‘this is scan- dalous! It must be stopped. They should be married.’” ‘Well, why don’t you marry might object, replied the missionary. ‘Object!” exclaimed the commander. ‘I'd like to see any fo-castie son of a tar- bucket object aboard this ship. ‘I am the law here.’ Tuen, turning to the quarter- master, ‘Send O'Hara aft.’ That indi- vidual soon appeared, and the captain, addressing him, said: ‘O'Hara, report at 10 o'clock to-morrow with your woman for marriage directly after muster.” ‘Aye, aye, sor,’ answered the disciplined son of Neptune, as he saluted. The next morning O'H. and his lady love were on hand, but Jackson refused to perform the ceremony, as he sald the sailor would desert his wife as soon as he got to civilization. “What has that to do with it?" inquired the practical captain. ‘Would he not do the same thing if ne was wedded to a Malay girl in Java or a Chinese at Hong- ra kong? However, since I have given the order it must be executed. O'Hara!' ‘Yis sor!” ‘Are you ready ‘O am, sor ‘Salute and consider yourself married, and take this plug of navy to begin your honeymoon on.” O'Hara did as he was ordered, and the happy couple went over the side hand in hand. “The wedding stood, for when O'Hara came down tc civilization he took a little 2-year-old boy with him, which he now sends to school, and every time the whalers go north he sends enough to keep Mrs. O'Hara through the ensuing year.” ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. PRICE OF BONES—C. H. C., Casmalia, Santa Barbara, Cal. The market price of bones in San Francisco is $10 per ton. ON TAMALPAIS.—Subscriber, City. The velocity of the wind on Mt. Tamal- pais on February 27, 1598, was, between and 12, 30 miles; 12 to 1, it was 36 mi and the maximum velocity was 40 m! per hour at 1 p. m. BALDHEADEDNESS.—G. S. E., City. This correspondent submitted the follow- ing: “It is claimed that insane asylums The captain of | contain more baldheaded men than men i with a fair head of hair. Also that it is a well-known fact that idiots and fools are never bald. Is that correct?” This was submitted to Asa Clark, medical su- perintendent of the Stockton State Asy- lum, and he has kindly furnished the fol- lowing answer: “In my experience with the insane I have not found baldheadedness more or less prevalent than it is met with on an average outside of the asylum, I see no reason why the growth of haif should be interfered with by son of any form of insanity present. As far as idiots are concerned, the saying ‘that fools are nev- er bald’ cannot be true, as we have at present representatives of forms of idi- ocy among whom baldheadedness is pres- ent. As deformities of the organs of the nervous system as well as of the body is generally characteristic of idiocy, one might meet with a profuse as well as a scanty growth of hair, though the latter is more apt to be the case.” f Genuine eyeglasses, specs; 15¢ up. 83 4th f Cal. glace fruit 5c per Ib at Townsend's.® # Specfal information supplied dafly to business houses and public men by the Press Clipping Bureau (Auer{s). 310 Mont gomery street. Telephone Main 1042. ¢ * One inch of rain falling upon one square | mile 1s equivalent ‘to about 17,500,000 gal- lons of water. . —_— ““Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup” Has been used over fifty years by milllons of mothers for thelr children while Teething with perfect success. It soothes the child, softens the gums, allays Patn, cures Wind Collc, reg- ulates the Bowels and is the best remedy for Diarrhoeas, Whether arising from teething or other causes. For sale by Drussists in every part of the world. Be sure and ask for Mrs, Winslow’s Soothing Syrup. 25c a bottle, —_—— CORONADO.—Atmosphere is perfectly dary, eoft and mild, being entirely free from the mists common further north. Round trip tickets, by steamship, fncluding fifteen days® board at the Hotel del Coromado, 3&; longer stay, §2 50 per day. Apply 4 New Montgomery street, San Francisco, or A. W. Bailey, man- ager, Hotel del Coronado, late of Hotel Colo- rado, Glenwood Springs, Colorado. —_———— The largest theater in the world is tha Paris. It covers more than three acres of ground and cost | 63,000,000 francs. ADVERTISEMENTS, J. N. Woodward of Vancouver, B. C., is one of yesterday's arrivals at the Oc- cidental. the electors “have put them there.” 1 Mr. and Mrs. T, W. Crosby of Chicago l Y | Py | | ( 5 L