The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 15, 1898, Page 6

SUNDAY: 3Lt vai slsatrac. SO NIA VaprRifgs JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. e A A e Address All Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager, PUBLICATION OFFICE......Market and Third Sts., S. F. Telephone Main 1888, EDITORIAL ROOMS.... Telepho THE 6AN EFRANCISCO CALL (DALY AND SUNDAY) is served by carriers In this city and surrounding towns for 15 cents a week. By mail 56 per year; per month 66 cents. THE WEEKLY CALL... OAKLAND OFFICE...... +..908 Broadway NEW YORK OFFICE.. Room 188, World Building DAVID ALLEN, Advertising Representative, WASHINGTON (D. C.) OFFICE...............RIgge House C. €. CARLTON, Correspondent. CHICAGO OFFICE.. .-Marquette Buflding C.GEORGE KROGNESS, Advertising Representative. .One year, by mail, $1.50 BRANCH OFFICES—527 Montgomery street, corner Clay, open until 9:30 o'clock. 287 Hayes street, open until 9:30 o'clock. 62| McAllister street, open until 9:30 o'clock. 615 Larkin street, open until 9:30 o'clock. | 1941 Mission street, open until 10 o'clock. 29291 Market street, corner Sixteenth, open until 9 o'clock. 2518 Mission street, open untll 9 o'clock. 106 Eleventh street, open uptll 9 o'clock. 1505 Polk street, open until 9:30 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-second ana Kentucky streets, open until 9 o'clock. e AMUSEMENTS, Baldwin—+In O1d Jepan.” Columbis—“Monbars " Californta—*The Ensign.” Aleazar—+Niobe. Morosco's—"The Prisoner of Alglers.” Tivoli—“Ship Ahoy.” Orpheum—Vaudeville. Metropolitan Temple—Testimonial to Frits Scheel, this aftern oon, 8Sherman, Clay Hall—Eneisel Quartet, Monday, May 18 Native Sons' Hall, Mason street—Lecture Thursday night. The Chutes—Zoo, Vaudeville, and “Visions of Art. Olympia—Corner Mason and Eddy streets, Specialties. Central Park—Dog and Pony Show. Sutro Baths—Swimming, Coursing—Ingleside Coursing Park. Courting—At Union Coursing Park. Recreation Park—Baseball to-day. El Campo—NMusic, dancing, boating, fishing, every Sunday, Caltfornia JockeyCiub, Oakland—Races to-morrow. document. | tions. AUCTION SALES. B Pacfic avenue, at 1) o clock. By P. J. Barth—Monday, May 16. Furniture, at 476 Guerrero A SERIOUS MATTER. N OTWITHSTANDING the allegation of the that all disposition to inquire into the financial : system of the proposed new charter is inspired by the | street railway corporations, we are constrained to ob- | serve that unless figures are doing considerable tall Auditor Broderick and Expert Williams | of the Supervisors’ Finance Committee have both fig- There is no material difference between the results of their investig Broderick’s estimated deficit is and that of Williams $950,000. Had the lat- | ter added the probable shortage this year ($100,000),as : 3roderick did, the totals would have been as mear | It is no answer to these figures to say that the offi- | cials who produced them are allies of the sugar trust gument is unworthy even of the Third Street Boodler | (late of Mission street)—an organ which for down- of the Pacific Coast. If a fair and honest analysis of | the financial system proposed to be adopted by the been produced by Broderick and Williams, why not order the analysis made and publish it? The fact | the allegation that the charter if adopted will impose upon the city a system of deficits certain to result in The purpose of The Call in publishing the estimates of Auditor Broderick and Expert Williams has not proposed charter. We have merely desired to place before our readers the truth concerning a very-impor- faulty system of finance their work should be rejected Indeed, as good citizens, not only they, but the Mer- | ter, should be the first to agree with us on this point. Even if they consider the Czar Mayor a desirable ac- be wished, they cannot honestly urge that a hotch- potch financial system will be a good thing for the The first duty of a municipality is to meet its ob- ligations promptly. In order to do this the power to ought to be clear and easily understood. The charter has fixed a limit on taxation, which is an excellent of the limit, and thus itself opens the way to financial confusion. The figures prepared by the Auditor and charges of improper motives. The matter is too se- rious to be treated in the manner familiar to politi- e — Commodore Schley displayed the proper spirit action was killing him. But several brave men of the navy have already been killed in action. The former 8 Bpear & Co —Monday, May 16 Furniture, at 3103 street, at 11 o'clock. Third Street Boodler (late of Mission street) | sugar trust, C. P. Huntington, the water, gas and lying about now there is something wrong with the | ured out a deficit under the proposed dollar limit. $1,121,788, ‘ alike as two peas. and opposed to good government. That sort of ar- right mental vapidity has long held the championship | new charter will yield any different result than has | that this is not done goes far to establish the truth of great loss and damage. been to raise any false issue in connection with the tant matter. If the charter makers have devised a chants’ Association, which is supporting their char- quisition and centralization a desideratum devoutly to city. levy and collect a sufficient amount of money in taxes thing. But it establishes expenditures far in excess Expert Williams shotild be met by facts, not silly cians, demagogues and boodle newspapers. when he set off in quest of a fight, remarking that in- may be harder to endure, but the latter is more deadly. A writer in an evening paper professes to wonder what the volunteers think they have enlisted for. But as he is a gentleman of intelligence his profession must be regarded as a joke, and not a particalarly bright one. The Spanish fleet seems to have a facility for being in several places at once. Evans and Sontag once held the record for this sort of business, Dunham tried it with fair success, but the Spanish outclass them all, Rochefort’s suggestion that Spain and Italy be- come republics and form an alliance with France will probably not be acted on, and it would not be much of an alliance, anyway. ———e The mob which feels impelled by hunger to burn a storehouse filled with food needs something in its head as well as in its stomach. Admiral Montijo of the late Manila fleet is a brave man, for Dewey has said so, and anything Dewey says goes in this country. Information comes that hundreds of Spaniaids have been killed, but it does not come by way of Blanco’s typewriter. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 15, 1898. e e e el e . f. A man YELLOW MORALITY. F 2 man who is admitted into decent company re- l port therein a conversation with another upon mat- ters of serious personal importance or of public in- terest and it turn out that no such conversation oc- curred he is called, known, branded and posted as a liar. If he persist in reporting things that never hap- pened and conversations never had he runs the risk of condign punishment. It is safe to say that no gen- tleman would speak to such a man and no lady would tolerate his presence. He would be without influence, and men would prefer his enmity to his friendship, his blame to his praise. Will some one tell us the difference between the man who offends against truth and decency by word of mouth and one who commits the same offense in cold type and persists in it, using a newspaper as his medium? What difference is there between William R. Hearst telling all who will hear him of a conversation with the Pope, in which that august person treated issues of the greatest gravity with undiplomatic brusqueness, when he had not seen the Pope at all, and William R. Hearst publishing such an interview | with the Pope that never occurred and was promptly denied by the Pope himself? Again, if William R. Hearst should boast of an in- terview with the Queen Regent of Spain, in which she talked of the most delicate matters pertaining to her kingdom and her people, and he should vaunt himself upon his enterprise and influence in being able exclusively to enter her seclusion and get such an interview and it turned out that he had never seen the Queen Regent at all, and that the tale was a lie from beginning to end, what gentleman or lady would recognize him again? Can any one suggest any dif- ference between his telling of such an interview and printing it in the Journal and Examiner when it never took place and was a lie, made out of whole cloth? If William R. Hearst go among others and tell of a conversation with the wife of the President of the United States and it turn out that he had never met the lady and that no such conversation had been had with her, it would be the verdict of every gentleman that he should be kicked out of decent company as a liar and a poltroon. Now all of these things have been done by William R. Hearst. Through the Examiner he has boasted of interviews with the Pope, the Queen Regent and Mrs. McKinley, and has published* the same in de- tail, putting words into the mouth of the Pope, the Queen and the President’s wife when no such inter- views ever occurred. Will some one here speak for him and tell us why and how such conduct differs when its medium is a newspaper from the same course by word of mouth? When Mr. Hearst says in his paper that his “com- missiener” interviewed the Pope, Queen or Presi- | dent’s wife, knowing that such things never happened, He pretends to state It is not it seems that he has no defense. as a fact that which he knows is not a fact. like printing a rumor of outside origin. tense’ that he ordered his personal representative to meet face to face these three persons, the Pope, the | Queen and President’s wife, and receive from them an expression of their views upon the issues between the United States and Spain, and that such order was | exccuted, and that it was evidence of his enterprise and power, when such order was never given and | never executed, and he knew that they were not. His offense is a deception of his readers and is ly- ing of the most serious kind. The Pope’s Secretary of State, Rampolla, at once denounced it. The Presi- dent, through his private secretary, has denied the in- | terview with Mrs. McKinley, and it is known as posi- tively that the Queen Regent never met any repre- | sentative of Hearst nor gave any interview. Now what a perverted mind it must be that can parade these three gross offenses, these three out- | ragecus lies, and boast of them as journalistic enter- prise! 1f Hearst had told them by word of mouth his coat- tails would have been frayed by the deserved kicks of every gentleman who could get within leg reach of him. Why is he entitled to any more consideration because his lies are in print? THE ARMY APPOINTMENTS. W applications had been made for every office in it at the disposal of the President. the effect that applications for staff appointments ex- ceed 10,000. A large number of the would-be staff officers did not even take the trouble to read the bill under which the army is constituted, for while the bill expressly pro- vides that the staff officers for the corps, divisions and brigade commanders are to be appointed by the President, many of the applicants sent their requests to the generals selected as commanders. It is said that Fitzhugh Lee could form a full regiment from the | men who applied to him for staff positions. A considerable number of these applications were backed by more or less Congressional strength. Sen- ators and Congressmen in a good many instances seem to have looked upon the Volunteer Army as a | field for obtaining patronage for political supporters. “Prominent statesmen” were recommended to com- mand a brigade or division who could not fitly com- mand a squad. The army was in danger of being officered by politicians rather than by soldiers, and sent to war under the direction of men who were more desirous of winning a personal reputation for themselves to use in politics than to win victories for the nation. From that fate the army and the country have been saved by the sagacity and firm patriotism of the Presi- dent. The Volunteer Army will be commanded by men who have had either military training or a large military experience during the war. The command- ing generals have both. Politics has played no part in the selection of the officers. Sectional divisions of the Union have been recognized only so far as was just and right in order that men from all parts of our wide republic might go to the field under the com- mand of men in whom they have the confidence born of local knowledge of their ability and their heroism. The people at large have reason to be thankful that .the President has had the firmness to resist political pressure for the appointment of untried and rossibly jncompetent men to command, and the boys who have enlisted have still more reason. The Volunteer regiments, full of courage but without experience in actual war, would have been heavily handicapped in fighting even a weak foe if commanded by men who at critical moments would have lacked the knowledge of what to do or the nerve to accept the responsibility and act with vigor without hesiation. President McKinley has been himself a soldier and has had experience with commanders. He knows the kind the nation needs and the army requires and has sesio B There seems no possibility of beating into the head of a Spaniard a knowledgc of the fact that he has been eked. g i) had the courage to appoint that kind notwithstanding the clamors of the ten thousand applicants for staff It is a pre- | ITHIN a week after the passage of the bill | creating the Volunteer Army it was reported | from Washington that upward of one hundred | Later information is to | aonointments and thelir urgent friends In Congess. | fla;of truce THE LIVING AND THE DYING NATIONS. DDRESSING his constituents at Birmingham fl on Friday evening the Honorable Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colo- nies, began by saying that he intended to make a plain statement of facts concerning international affairs and the policy of Great Britain, and that with- out revealing secret negotiations he would speak “unfettered by the mysteries and reticences of dip- lomacy,” so as to be clearly understood by the people. With this prelude he declared the policy of the Sal- isbury Ministry is to preserve for Great Britain an isolation from European alliances and to seek for such strength as might be needed in addition to her own, to withstand the Continental combinations against her, by drawing all parts of the empire into close unity and maintaining the bonds of permanent friend- ship with the United States. With a burst of im- passioned eloquence he added: “Across the Atlantic is a powerful and generous nation, using our language, bred of our race and hav- | ing interests identical with ours. I would go so far {‘ as to say that, terrible as war may be, even war it- self would be cheaply purchased if in a great and noble cause the stars and stripes and the union jack should wave together over an Anglo-Saxon alliance.” This frank statement of the policy which Great Britain intends to pursue will recall attention to the recent declaration of Lord Salisbury before the Prim- rose League in a speech which was almost as frank as that of Chamberlain. Salisbury attributed the present crisis in international affairs to a change that is now going on in the conditions of the nations. The weak states, he said, are growing weaker, and the strong ones growing stronger, so that, to use his epigram- matic phrase, “the nations of the earth may be divided into two classes—the living and the dying.” The seeds of conflict, he declared, are inseparable from a dying nation. Strife cannot be avoided in com- munities where both the Government and themanhood of the race are decaying. Nor can strong races stand aloof from these conflicts when the strife approaches the border of the land occupied by the strong. As the decay goes on and the civil disturbances among the dying nations increase, the living, growing powers must necessarily assume a larger responsibility in the government of the world. Had Salisbury spoken merely as a philosophical student of politics he would in all probability have named the living nations and the dying ones, but as he is Prime Minister of Great Britain and has upon him the responsibilities of office, he did not venture so far. To the intelligent observer of the world’s affairs, however, it will be easy to supply the names. We know that China, Turkey and Spain are decad- ent nations. We know that Great Britain, Russia, Germany, and above all the United States, are living and growing nations. The seeds of conflict insepar- able from the dying cause conflicts among the strong. Which of the living nations is it that is to assume or | have forced upon it the largest share of responsibility for the government of the world? Our own experience affords an illustration of the truth of Salisbury’s words. The decadence of Spain | by producing conflict in Cuba has forced upon us a war which will leave on our hands large possessions and a consequent responsibility for their government. | Under such circumstances we will be compelled to | give more than a passing consideration to the British offer of lasting friendship and possible alliance. We cannot stand aloof from the dying nations. We must face the inevitable crisis brought about by their decay. The responsibility is already upon us, and | when the timie comes for us to determine what shall be done with the Philippines we shall have to decide the question of what part we are to take in the larger politics of the world THE TONNAGE TAX. HILE the Democrats and the Populists of W Congress have attacked the war revenue bill mainly because of the provision of a bond is- sue, a different set of antagonists in the commercial cities of the East are directing their efforts toward the elimination from the bill of the clause imposing an increased tonnage tax on shipping. According to the arguments of this class of oppo- nents the effect of the tonnage tax will be to obstruct commerce rather than to increase the revenue to any great extent. The Boston Herald says it is question- | able whether the tax would yield as much as $2,500,- | 000 a year, while it is fairly certain it would tend to increase shipments of wheat, pork and other West- ern produce from Canadian ports and diminish those from our own ports. The New York Times takes much the same view of the probable effects of the tax. It declares the increased duty will be particu- larly vexatious to those who have to pay it, and thus to some extent drive commerce from our shores with- out yielding any adequate recompense for the loss. These arguments will have the more weight because |at this time the urgent need of the country is a widely | extended commerce. We produce in almost all kinds of staple crops more than we can consume and require foreign markets for the surplus. It is clearly, there- fore, to our interest to extend commerce rather than to obstruct it, and if the proposed tonnage tax is to have the effects calculated by the commercial interests of New York and Boston it would be well to have the revenue bill amended in that respect, It has been said of old, however, that good argu- ments must give way to better. In this case it seems that the better arguments are on the side of the framers of the revenue bill who proposed this among other taxes to raise a war revenue for the nation. During the debate on the bill in the House Mr. Ding- ley pointed out that the increased tonnage tax would be no higher than that imposed by France, and but slightly higher than that imposed by Great Britain. It is not calculated, therefore, to be so onerous as the people of New York and Boston think, and conse- quently not so likely to drive trade away from us as they fear. Another point made by Chairman Dingley is of the highest importance. He directed attention to the fact that nine-tenths of the vessels engaged in the ocean carrying trade from ports of the United States are of foreign ownership, and that if the war continues very long it is probable all of them will be. The proposed tax is therefore a tax on foreign shipping and will tend to promote the building of American ships. This consideration had great weight with Congress and will have an equal effect with the people. The nation is at war and must raise a large revenue to defray the cost. All parts of the country must bear their share of it, and the commercial cities of the East ought not to complain of the burdens which the pro- posed increase in tonnage duties will place upon their interests. Moreover, as the foreigner gains by carry- ing American goods across the ocean, he might as well pay his share of carrying on the war. Spanish efforts to approach the insurgents with friendly overtures do not seem wholly successful, the response generally being a volley. The spanish them- 1 BEBSRS&KBESQHEEGBEBBRNBR!BNSB“BIIH% WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS. . = 8 By HENRY JAMES. P 8888!98!3828885!39893838538 BRI It is a standing problem why the fact that a girl is going on the stage should be considered of enough importance to warrant the printing of her picture and pedigree. I cannot see wherein it is of the slightest moment to anybody but herself whether she goes on the stage, gets a job as typewriter, learns how to trim hats or becomes what is known in commerctal circles as a saleslady. If there is one calling a girl can choose in which such talent as she may pos- sess will almost to a certainty be wast- ed, it 1s the calling of the actress. The life is a shallow mockery, an existence of tinsel and pretense, carried on in an atmosphere of scandal. It involves no opportunity for a home, but scant opportunity for fame, and the chance to retain such reputation as one may take into it is painfully slight. I feel sorry for any girl who adopts the stage. Unless she is a genius there is every probability that she will never be heard of agaln except as the figure in some unsavory episode. If she s a genius she may rise to the position of a Bern- hardt, in whom much can be forgiven. But it must be remembered that the children of a Bernhardt do not have the privilege of speaking of their father, and, indeed, may be unable to speak with any certainty. . s s There is no particular reason why this city should provide an orphanage for homeless monkeys, and certainly none why a large tract of land should be purchased for a site. Some people may have noticed that out toward the Cliff House there is a beautiful and spacious park. This is free to all. It has been improved at great expense, but the improvement will inevitably go on for many years. If the monkey must be provided for, Golden Gate Park is the place for him. There a secluded valley could be set apart for him, and the taxpayers with tolerable grace sub- mit to contributing toward his board and lodging, but to be asked to “pungle up” for the support of a lot of fellows with some realty of which they have been unable to dispese in a legitimate way touches them in a different spot. I object to President Jordan as an au- thority, because he does not live here. 1 object to Superintendent McLaren’s dictum, because McLaren does not want & “zoo” in the park he so ably engineers to a state of verdure and bloom. He dislikes the presence of the animals now there, and they are not given proper attention. If of a hardy family they thrive tolerably, and if not hardy they die. Even the grizzly which Hearst unloaded on the park after he found him unavailable as a member of the staff had to be located in the park by a trick. It is far betier that San Francisco should have no “zoo” than that it be established through fraud in a section of the city reached with diffi- culty from every other section. 1t would be far wiser to use the money in prosecuting the Supervisors who are trylng to loot the treasury of what ‘Widber missed. To have a batch of them in a cage would be something like. e Reports that Fitzsimmons is to fight a bull In a ring at Havana doubtless represent a silly attempt o revivify the unpleasant remains of the notoriety won by a blow in the solar vlexus of another of the pestiferous tribe. I wish it were possible to believe the report, and that the bull might toss Fitzsim- ‘mons up with one horn, catch him on the other and finish an interesting per- formance by planting a triumphant hoot so as to double the diaphragm of the pugilist into a mortal kink. I have nothing against Fitsimmons person- ally, never saw him, never want to, but he 1s one of a class that cumbers the earth. . s s For just fifteen minutes I would like to be President of the United States. This period would be sufficient for the formulation of a message to the war- lorder of all the earth. I think it would be possible to convey to him in language at once diplomatic and forceful information that his royal nose, as often before, is being poked where it has no business. He would be told that we are competent to take care of our own affairs, that he nas no more voice as to the disposition of the Philippines than in settling an elec- tion contest between two Congress- men from the Podunk district. If he does not like our style he must en- dure it as patiently as he may, for we are too busy to change it to please him, and don’t particularly care to suit him, anyhow. Having done this, I would cheerfully resign and let Mc- Kinley go right on with the war, as he seems to hnve the ha,ng of it. The fact appears that Widber in- tends to make a technical fight. In other words, he confesses to being a thief, but defles the people to do any- thing about it. I think that in the event of his securing his freedom on any such Dlea there could arise no question as to the justice and advisa- bility of organizing a vigilance com- mittee and hanging him. P An actress who is attracting great crowds in New York does so by the simple process of undressing on the stage. Of course no respectable nor decent woman would do this. I am not attempting to lay down any moral Jaw, but must confess to a feeling of jrritation that one woman is sent by the police to a certain quarter of the town where the public may not be shocked at the sight of her, while her sister In degradation disports in the glare of the footlights, and the public tumbles over itself in the effort to be shocked. It is not a fair deal. . s e There has been on exhibition in this city for some time a lot of animals, whose forbears were probably wild, but who themselves are as palpably tame as the California flea. They tackle raw meat with diffidence and shrink from the giving of pain. There are lions and tigers, more or less halt and blind, a leathery eléephant of great antiquity, camels with real humps and a colony of lousy monkeys who skip from bough to bough or chatter with the,apparent wisdom of a session of Bupervluora All this is merely inci- dental. If anybody enjoys watching the beasts of the jungle, who by the way never saw a jungle, the show is far from objectionable. My protest is against the feature of it known as “The Happy Family,” really the most unhappy aggregation that ever caused an observer regret. In the cage are rep- resentatives of the varied simian, ant- eaters and other things, including the selves taught the Cubans the habit of dxsrega:dm\c:lr:m.,uo dog, cat and goat. My plea behalf of the dog and cat, not belong there, are distinctly miser- able. The antics of their cell-mates distress them. Their superior intelli- gence is tried by the presence of zoo- | logical trash. Their tails are pulled and their feelings ignored. They have | been cowed to a state of absolute wretchedness. To keep them there is a cruelty for which there can be no excuse. Anybody can chuck dogs and cats Into one cage with a pack of tor- | mentors, but I submit that there is nothing admirable in the act, and that the resulting exhibition of suffering is not worth the price of admission. e ela Some German scientist has been fig- uring with infinite pains the amount of | food consumed by a man during a lite | of seventy years. He has calculated | how big a loaf would be constituted | had all the loaves eaten been combined | in one, how great would have been the size of the aggregate potato; he has even branched from the main topic and studied out the dimensions of the cigar that might have been built of all the many cigars burned during the jour- ney through this vale of tears. Such statistics are always interesting to me. They show how a person with the abil- ity to think, to grasp a pencil, and ac- tually to make characters on a plece of paper can, after all, be a fool frit- tering his existence away and devoting all his time to boring his fellow men. . . . Most of the weekly papers of the East are patriotic. Truth is doing va- | liant service for its country. I regret | to say that Life is not. I regret it be- | cause it has always had an element of | brightness about it. Its jokes for the | most part have not been borrowed. ‘While it devotes itself to the lighter side of existence it is serviceable in whiling a moment away. In discuss- Ing the serious business of war it Is a | sneering traitor with too little courage | to say that it favors Spain. All it dares do is to gibe at love for the flag, | administration and of the brave volun- teers who are going out to battle. It deserves to be suppressed, not by spe- cific act, but by the method of being | let alone. I observe that the Rev. Dille objects | vigorously to the ladies of the Fabiola Society accepting money from the man- | agers of the racetrack. It seems to me he is wrong. Even If the racetrack people are to be considered as directly representing the powers of darkness, their money, once in the hands of the | upright, is very like any other money. If not taken by the Fabiola it might go into channels tending to the promo- tion of evil. I think the ladies should take all the racetrack money they ean get and regard the operation as forag- | ing on the enemy. The Dille posl!tun‘ is weakened also by having acquired | the active support of the Rev. hteb- bins. IR There has been a shameful negligence in the reception of the soldiers in San Francisco. It must be said that this is no fault of the citizens. Their hearts warm toward the volunteers. They respect them for their quick pa- triotism and for their courage and sac- rifice. They are doing all they can to | add to the comfort of the boys nowr in acmp ~at the Presidio. Their | greatest worry is that they can do so | little. But when a battalion from =& sister State lands at the wharf and is not met by somebody officially qualified | to lead it to its quarters, when the man in charge is obliged to ask his| way, the indignity is inexcusable. The | Oregon lads, big, brave fellows, came | as the sworn and mustered-in soldiers of Uncle Sam. Surely there must be an official amenable to rebuke for the | neglect of them. They enlisted to fight, not as martyrs. If Uncle Sam cannot care for his men in this city, where he is supposed to have stores, where there are thousands of mer- chants with goods to sell, and where | his credit is ample for anything he| wants, the promise is he will make a pretty mess of it when he gets them | six thousand miles from anywhere in the land of a hostile and well-armed foe. | . . . | The world has never known a more important catastrophe than that which wrecked the Maine. It caused the loss of but 266 men, for the most part of humble origin, the sinking of a ves- sel valued at a few milllons. Bug 1} had almost said, it changed thedestiny of the world. Nothing changes the | destiny of the world. Evi ents may roll | aside the curtain revealing the fate | which from the beginning had heen; written. This explosion was such an | event. Now the mind’s eye can see that which had been hidden. It can see | thrones ready to fall, dynasties about | to pass away. It can see a young | £ giant among nations just realizing its | own strength. It perceives a new fear in the face of royalty. That when the Maine went down it carried with it principalities and peoples no prophet is needed to tell. The tragedy was but a link in a chain of circumstances, a' brief chapter in an Almighty plan. | would like to see a monument to thei men of the Maine. Where they sleep | now on an alien shore a great shaft should arise to show that Americans | do not forget their dead. But islands | wrested from the treacherous Spa.n- jard will be a grander monument, and in the thunder of guns there is eulogy. e ‘With no desire to embarrass the ad- ministration I wish to go on record as opposing the appointment of Russell | Harrison to be a major. Young Harri- son is more varieties of foolishness than ever on exhibition under one hat until he pranced into the subdued light | reflected from the fiercer beam wmcht necessarily beats upon a white house. | He did more to make a joke of his father’s administration than would have been thought possible. He talks with all the volubility of a parrot and the ju ent of a Burchard. Perhaps he could meet the requirements of a drummer boy’s position, but I doubt it. As scon as he ascertained that he could not rise vocally above the clamor of the drum, he would either puncture the instrument, or retiring sulking to | his tent, let the army of the nation go to smash. e R Brother-in-law Bird is in the em- barrassing position of being accused by Frank Belew of having guilty knowledge of the murders for which Belew is shortly to be hanged. The possibility that the prisoner is lying for men | ments of the soldler. | notches in his rifl disparage by innuendo the efforts of the l i % T § e reason to feel proud of hims who will betray hn $fténddr t8 the law, the offender being a relative and the betrayal long delayed, and then claim the reward, is not the style of man who inspires confidence. At least he may be certain of being under a cloud to the end of his days, and serve him rightly. 2 ¢ 5 J. F. J. Archibald is to be congratu- lated. He received the first battle wound inflicted upon an American in Cuba. It was sericus enough to be worth mentioning, and yet not serious enough to tie a rag around. Mr. Archi- bald was known to possess the ele- No one more bravely than he ever chased across the Sausalito hills the wild and untamable aniseseed bag. He was always in at the death, and the flercest aniseseed bag ever cornered gnashed its teeth vainly at him. No sign of terror was excited within his breast, and, without a pang, as calm as a May morning, he looked upon a tear in his trousers and laughed it aside as a mere trifle. More- over, he is a good fellow, devoidof pre- tense, as little afraid of a Spaniard as of the game infesting the environs of San Rafael. I hope he will get back with no worse hurt and with several A FREEHOLDER ON TEACHERS SALARIES. To the Editor of The Call: With ref- erence to the portion of the school fund to be set aside for the payment of sal- arfes: First—Section 9, chapter 8, article VII provides that the Auditor shall annually segregate not to exceed §28 for each pupil in average dally attendance during the preceding fiscal year for the payment of salaries. There 'is no proviso that sal- aries shall be limited to this amount. If it were argued that salaries must be kept within this limit because $28 per puplil is | set aside to be used for salary purposes f ual force be argued be paid at present to be set only, it might with eq that no salaries coul because nothing {s required aside for that purpose. Second—The amounts paid in salaries of teachers, janitors, shop and office em- plo Census matshals, board of exam- ners and all other employes of the de- partment for the years for which I have been_able to find reports average $% 49 | per pupil in_average daily attendance| during preceding fiscal year, or $2 50 per pupil less than the amount proposed by the charter! The years referred to are 79, ’83, 's4, 85, '86, '87, 92, 54, 96—fourteen vears. I ballave tho statisticsof the omitted yearswould lower the average because the skeletonizing of classes for the purpose of making places for teachers began under the notorious Hyde board in 1861 Third—In the present year, the statistics of which the opponents of the charter constantly assume as a standard, there! has been an extraordinary inecrease in at- | tendance owing to the opening of numer-! | ous evening classes in_different parts of the city. Under the charter the depart- ment would next y reap the beneiit of this increased attendance. Fourth—1 understand how the expert whose estimates are published in The Call figures a decrease of $110,000 in the income of the School Department as provided by the charter, when I know do not | that the maximum levy would produce at! least a quarter of a million more than| the department has ever yet received.' The. statement of Mr. Williams_ asserts: “The amount now paid for salaries of school teachers is $1,084,920.” If I owned the amount by which that statement ex- department to-morrow and live during the remainder of my life on | the interest of my money. JOSEPH 0'CONNOR. B EEL A ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. THREE-DOLLAR PIECE-M. T, I, City. Dealers offer from $3 25 to $4 for a gog:eaa of lflg Their selling price is CZAR OF RUBSIA.-D 8., Mission of San Francisco. Alexander II,grandfather of the present Czar of Russla, was assas- sinated March 13, lESl BLOOD 'PURIFIER—A_ S. M., City. This department is not ad\'artislng which is the best blood purifier. Such informa- tion may be obtained from any first-class physlcian or pharmaci: THE SUN SHINES—J. A Alturas, Cal. During the summer months the sun never sets on the United States, but in the short days of winter there is a period when the sun does not shine for two | hours out of twenty-four on United States possessions. WATER WHEEL—C. F. M., Oakland, Cal. The following is the rule for com- puting the horse power of an overshot | water wheel: M\Ill(&)l)‘ the weight of water in pounds dis- charged in one mlnute by height or distance in feet from center of opening in gate to sur- face of tall race; divide the product by 33,000 and multiply quotient by assumed or defer- mined ratio of effect to power. Or, for general purposes, divide the product by 50,000 and the | Quotient 'is the horse power. The welght of water is sixty-two pounds per cube foot at a temperature of 60 degrees. It | the fall of water be thirty feet the velocity of its flow Is sixteen feet per second. ——ee Finest eyeglasses, specs; 1ic. 65 Fourth.® e A handsome present for your Eastern frlends; Townsend's Cal, Glace Frults, Sc , in fire etch boxes. 627 Palace Hotel. * Special Information supplied dafly to | bueiness houses and public men by the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen's), 510 Mnnl- | gomery street. Telephone Mafn 1042. —_————— They’s lots 'sides him for to go an’ fight, For he's fond of peace an’ his pipe at night, i An’ he don’t do well when he's out my sight, So he'll light the fire in the mornin’! —Atlanta Constitution. —_————————— EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER. Use Acker's BEnglish Remedy in any case of hs, colds or croup. Should it fail to give fmmediats relief money refunded. At No Per- cemue Pharmacy. ADVERTISEMENTS. il MACKAY'S GREAT SPECIAL SALE. Real comfort, good up— $6.655 iy oo rduroy, as shown. THREB PATTERNS CHAMBER Mahogany. Mfll B.Es ® T$7800 $45 00 TO $30 00 $34 50 Extraordinary Vllfl. erstocked on This Line. oD HALR MA’H‘RESSES H Xw-mm top SOLID OAK TABLI CARPETS. S4o—For TAPESTRY, good wearing; 20 atterns. 62c—HEAVY TAPESTRY, close weave; parlor, hall and dining room pat- terns. 77c—Best quality and 10-wire TAPES- TRY, borders' to match. All manu- ne!unrl noqmrn'm RUGS. cial This Weele 18x36, 8B, Bt §1 75, SEE OUR wmmws. ALEX. MACKAY & SON, 7 l5 Market St. : % $ b ! % i