The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 11, 1898, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1898. 3 .SEI;I'F.MBER 11, 1898 JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor ARt e et S iR e L Address All Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager. i Addrees M e e O PUBLICATION OFFICE......Market and Third Sts., S. F. Telephone Main 1868. EDITORIAL ROOMS.... ..2I7 to 221 Stevenson Street Telephone Main 1§74. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL (DAILY AND SUNDAY) 1s served by carrlers in this city and surrounding towns | for 15 cents a week. By malil $6 per year; per month 65 cents. THE WEEKLY CALL OAKLAND OFFICE.......... seseases ~eesbeese..908 Broadway NEW YORK OFFICE Room 188, World Building | DAVID ALLEN, Advertising Representative. | WASHINGTON (D. C.) OFFICE...............Riggs Houes C. C. CARLTON, Correspondent. | CHICAGO OFFICE... ..Marquette Building C.GEORGE KROGNESS, Advertising Representative. Qne year, by mall, $1.50 BRANCH OFFICES—527 Montgomery street, corner Clay, open until 9:30 o'clock. 387 Hayes street, open until | 9:30 o'clock. 621 McAllister street, open untll $:30 | o'clock. 615 Larkin street, open untll 9:30 o'clock. 1941 Mission street, open untll 10 o'clock. 2991 Market street, corner Sixteenth, open untll 9 o'clock. 2518 | Misslon street, open untll 9 o'clock. 106 Eleventh | street, open untll 9 o'clock. 1506 Polk street, open until 930 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-second ane Kentucky streets. open until 9 o'clock. AMUSEMENTS, bta—«Number Nine.” Stuart,” Monday night. iret Born” and * Turned Up.™ 11l We Forgive Mer. Colum! Baid ater—* The Leading Man.” nd Jones streets—Vaudeville. The Chutes—Zoo, Vaudeville and Spanish Bull Pight. Ulympia—Corner Mason and Eddy sireets—Spectalties. tutro’s Batha—Swimming. Kecreation Park—Bageball this afternoon. Coursing—At Union Coursing Park. Coursing—Ingleside Coursing Park. AUCTION SALES. By G. H. Umbsen & Co.—Monday, September 12, Real Fstate at 14 Moniomery street, at 12 o' clock. PIETY AND TAX SHIRKING. R. JOHN J. VALENTINE, known as presi- /\/\ dent of Wells, Fargo & Co., and noted for piety, will go to church this morning and thank God he is not as other men. In his unctuous fervor ke will express gratitude to Providence that while other men have to pay war taxes he has found a means of cvading them. He may even feel so uplifted in his conceit of this matter that he will drop an extra nickel in the collection box and rejoice that the Lord has provided him a means of getting it back again by making the patrons of his express company pay it. Such may be the devotions of the pious tax shirker this Sunday, but other Sundays are coming when he will not be so grateful—when he may even be heard complaining that the Lord has forsaken him and left him in his old age subject to taxes just as any ordinary citizen whose piety is not ostentatious enough to be conspicuous through the city. The reason why this change is likely to come over the devotions of the prayerful preyer upon the public is that Wells, Fargo & Co. may have to pay their taxes after all. As will be seen by our local columns this morning a suit has been begun by W. E. Costey to compel the express company to accept freight for shipment from him without his paying the revenue duties. This suit raises an issue for the courts, and with its decision will come an end to the petty rob- bery which the company and its psalm singing presi- dent have been practicing upon the people. It is to be noted that the position taken by Mr. Costey is exactly that taken by The Call and other newspapers of the city. Wells, Fargo & Co. not long ago declared the newspapers must pay the cost of revenue stamps on packages of papers shipped by them through the company’s express, and the pious president suggested a cunning means by which the papers could cheat the Government and ship a whole wagonload- of papers as one package. The Call and other newspapers of the city refused. ~They main- tained that it was the duty of the express company to pay the tax, and after some bluster the company yielded. Every citizen has the same right to ship packages by Wells, Fargo & Co. without paying the revenue duties, that newspapers have. The express company demands the cost of the stamps from the ordinary MAGUIRE'S PRIVILEGED CLASSES. J UDGE MAGUIRI try in vain to limit the o issues of the campaign to a discussion of the much berated enterprise reminds one W | That unfortunate and | of Byron's Southern Pacific road. apostrophe to woman: “Thou shouldst have no:sins of thine own to answer for, Thou art the author of such a book of follies in man.” If the Southern Pacific Company answers for the | book of follies in California in the record of dema- | gogues who have achieved office by fighting it, ixi should be excused for any peccadillos of its own. ‘ But, after all, the railroad has no complaint - to | make. It is a secondary offender, in a lower class | than the land-owner. Men can carry their goods on a | pack mule or wagon. The owners of railroads havei not taken away from the people anything they had | before. The wagon roads and rivers, the bay and the ocean are left. If the shippers don't like the rates | they can resort to other means of transportation. Judge Maguire does not say that the railroad has | robbed the people of anything as essential to their | life as air and sunshine. But he does make this serious charge against the land-owner. The private owners of land, who have put their money into real estate, are likened by Maguire unto those who would monopolize the air and sunshine. While he denounces railroads he proposes to destroy the land-owners. In his campaign against “special privileges” he puts the land-owner first among monopolists and charges | him with all the crime and poverty in the world. | Indeed in his letter to the single taxers of the State of | Washington he says if land everywhere can be con- | fiscated and taken away from the private owner, the | whole world will immediately become a republic! This being so, the sins of the land-owner are as scarlet. He is not only a “cunning aggressor” and robber of “the weak and undesigning,” but he is re- sponsible for all the monarchies and autocracies of the world as well. The Judge has not yet charged that to the South- ern Pacific Railroad, nor has he said that Govern- ment ownership of railroads will immediately repub- licanize the world. A study of his system of politics seems to demon- strate that, carried out, it will create more privileged classes than it destroys. By putting all the taxes on land he intends to destroy the private owners and get them out of the way as a privileged class. These un- fortunates have chosen to put their earnings in land instead of in railroads. The owners of railroads are to be exempted from taxes on their money, tracks, stations, terminals, ferry-boats, cars, loco- motives, coal, ties and material. Exemption from taxation is sprely a high privilege and those who enjoy it are a privileged class. When it is considered that nine-tenths of the cost of government is for the benefit of the owners of per- sonal property, exemption of such owners from the payment of any of that cost is a distinct privilege. The Police and Fire departments of this city are maintained solely in the interest and for the protec- tion of the personal property and improvements which Maguire proposes to exempt from taxation. No one can steal and carry off town lots nor set fire to them. The owners of land need no such protec- tion. Land goes infrequently into the courts. It passes probate once in every generation, and that is about all. The courts are kept and paid to ‘protect the rights of personal property, compel payment of insurance on buildings and enforce the collection of debts. All of these choses in action are exempted from tax by Maguire, and the cost of protecting and adjusting them is to be taken out of the land. The common man will see that this exemption clearly creates a privileged class. Again, it is the spirit of our institutions to put church organizations on a fevel and tax them, for it is a law inexorable that property accumulates at the point of non-taxation. It has been held against public policy, under our sys- tem, to encourage the accumulation of property in ecclesiastical . ownership. Does Maguire think it is good policy to encourage such ownership? His pro- posed exemption will tend to accelerate it. T ——— General Miles declines to talk any more. Unlike some political speakers he has the prescience to know when he has got through. e There is every probability that after the November election Judge Maguire will resume the practice of law in this city. PR S It is to be regretted that in the late war red tape stood between many a soldier and his abdominal badge. People who believe in the single tax also entertain the cheering belief that the other fellow will pay the tax. shipper simply because the officers of the company believe the shipper will not fight. The suit begun by Mr. Costey is therefore a battle for the public good. It is a notice to the corporation that the people, no more than the press, will submit to extor- tion on the part of unpatriotic tax shirkers. The company has recently issued a pamphlet de- fending its attempt to rob the public and cheat the Government. This production is prefaced with the statement: “It is of the essential nature of a docu- mentary stamp tax that the burden falls upon the beneficiar; This queer sentence, whose curious construction could have been the result only of a most prayerful consideration, means that whoever is to get the benefit of a taxed article or transaction is to pay the tax; that is to say, if a purchaser of patent pills gets any benefit from them he must pay the tax; if not, then the seller must pay the tax. By this reasoning the man who draws a check ought not to | pay the tax, because the man to whom it is payable gets the benefit. | Wells, Fargo & Co., taking their sentence as an axiom, not to be disputed, argue from it that their company is a public benefactor and that all who pat- ronize it are the recipients of benefits. Mr. John J. Valentine, it will be seen, is determined to pose as a philanthropist as well as a steady church goer. The general public, however, if they accept the axiom, will not accept the conclusion. They will hold that the company is the beneficiary, the ship- pers are the benefactors, and that by the rule as laid down the company should pay the tax. The justice of the popular contention is beyond refutation. The express company is capitalized at $8,000,000, and the earnings last year amounted to 10 per cent on that sum. Of the vast capital only: $500,000 represents money paid in. The rest is ficti- | tious. With a capital that has so largely expanded and with an income so large it is clear that Wells, Fargo & Co. have been very extensive beneficiaries of the trade of the public and are, by their own reas- oning, in duty bound to pay the tax the Government imposed upon them. This pamphlet, like all the other arguments and bluffs of the express company, is simply a move to gain time, a trick to get the people to wait. When the merchants of San Francisco began to take steps to bring about a decision on the right of the com- pany to exact the revenue tax from its patrons, the officials persuaded them to abandon the project by as- serting that the same issue was to be raised in the East | and would be speedily heard and settled there. Time has passed, but no decision has come from the East. The merchants were tricked. When the combined express companies of the country, by a collusion which was itself unlawful, de- cided to unite for the purpose of shirking the tax, an opinion was obtained on the question from Attorney General Griggs to the effect that the companies must pay. Some time afterward the attorney for the ex- | press companies, John J. McCook, of New York, a man eminent at the bar, in politics and in the church, and having three several kinds of pulls, induced the Attorney General to so far change his original declar- ation as to declare that as to the issue between the shippers and the express companies the Government was indifferent. In other words, so long as the Government derives the required revenue, it matters not who pays it. In that condition the controversy stands now, and the action brought by Mr. Costey is a veritable gain for the people. It brings the issue to a point where neither the company, by its tricks and its bluffing, nor the president, by his prayers or his pamphlets, can keep it from determination by the courts. If now the case can be forced to a speedy hearing and de- cision, all will be well. In the meantime the people must not forget that a Legislature is to be elected, from which relief may be expected. A recent decision by a court in Wash- ington City holds that the rates of telephone com- panies are subject to revision by legislative authority. The telephone company of the District of Columbia by that decision has been compelled to serve the pub- lic at the rates fixed by Congress. What has been done there can be done in Cali- fornia. The enormously rich express company, whose capital has expanded from $500,000 to $8000,- 000 and whose earnings are 10 per cent, most of whose business is done in this State, while nine-tenths of the stock is held in the East, is a legitimate subject for taxation and regulation at the coming session of the State legislative body. The people should see to it that men are elected in every Assembly district who will investigate the af-, fairs of the company and arrange for taxation and rate regulation according as justice dictates. This subject is one which the telephone company as well as the express company shoutd heed. The people are weary of the tricks and frauds of wealthy tax-shirking corporations, and all of them will have ‘a day of reckoning when the Legislature meets this winter, even 1 ANARCHY'S LATEST CRIME. Y the hand of the assassin who struck to death B the Empress of Austria the anarchists of Europe have accomplished another of those ter- rible crimes which they call triumphs. A woman, venerable for her years, loved for her virtues and made sacred to every noble heart by the many sor- rows that have fallen upon her august head, has been stabbed and muirdered for no other reason than that of being the wife of the sovereign of a great people. This latest crime of anarchy is in many respects the worst and most revolting of all. The wretches who aimed their bombs or their poniards at the Czar of Russia, the President of France or the Prime Minister of Spain, coul at least claim that they struck at men; but this scoundrel who perpetrated the crime at the Hotel Beaurivage was of that unredeemable baseness that not only commits causeless murder through devilish malignancy, but strikes at womanhood itself, even when crowned with gray hairs and robed in garments of maurning. = The fated house of Atreus, whose many calamities furnished the Greek dramatists with the awful trage- dies which still move the hearts of men, was not subject to a more direful doom than that which has befallen the ill-fated house of Hapsburg in this gen- eration. By a strange contrast with their terrible for- tunes, the Emperor and the Empress have been among the worthiest that ever sat upon a throne. Francis Joseph has long been familiarly spoken of as “the beloved Emperor.” The Empress herself was one of the most popular women in Europe, revered in her own land for her bountiful charities and gracious ways, and respected everywhere for her courtesy of manner, her frank kindliness and her genuine goodness of heart. It was to her generous confidence in the general love of the people and her unassuming simplicity of manner that her assassin owed the opportunity he found to strike his cowardly blow. The Empress was without guards. She was living amid the Swiss mountains in the simplicity of Swiss life. Any one could approach her without let or hindrance. She feared none, for she had done wrong to none. She forgot that to the anarchist it is not necessary that there should be a cause for a crime—that to him all that is necessary is an opportunity. It will be remembered that when the immigration restriction bill was under consideration in the House of Representatives the friends of the measure urged as one strong argument in its favor that it would ex- clude from the United States the class of people who have committed the crimes of anarchy in Europe. Judge Maguire not only opposed the bill, but avowed his antagonism to any policy of excluding such men. In the course of a speech delivered in the House January 27, 1897, on the restricti-1 bill he declared the exclusion of anarchists, socialists and nihilists was not desirable, and said: “They are genemllyI educated men, many of them holding university de- grees, whose offending consists of resistance to ty- ranny, which in the conditions under which they live is obedience to God. Who are the nihilists? They are the Democrats of Russia, who are struggling against almost hopeless odds to establish the alienable rights of man in that country as against the tyranny and false pretense of divine right on the part of the Czar.” Since that speech was delivered the anarchists of Europe have struck two blows, and Canovas of Spain and Elizabeth of Austria are dead; and now the Congressman who wished the doors of this coun- try kept open to the coming of such criminals is a candidate for the governorship of California. ——r e —— in- POLITICS AND THE TAX LEVY. O satisfactory evidence has been ;;'\'oduced to | N prove that the Finance Committee of the Board | of Supervisors has ever, as charged by the | $30,000 “advertising” contract Examiner, contem- plated the imposition of a tax levy for the current | fiscal year of §2 10. The committee has as yet held no meetings and given no consideration to the sub- ject. In fact, two members of the committee are out of town. Captain Rottanzi is with his company at | the Santa Cruz powder-mill, and Devany is at Skaggs Springs recovering from a fit of sickness. The re- maining member, Haskins, says the coming tax levy has never been discussed. The alarming cry raised by the ex-railroad organ, therefore, is political claptrap, and is probably intro- duced at this time for the purpose of diverting atten- tion from its operations with the Southern Pacific and other corporations with which it usually does business at election times. It will be remembered that the $30,000 “‘advertising” contract with the rail- road monopoly was negotiated at the beginning of a campaign, and was made payable in installments of $1000 2 month in order to keep the organ in line for thirty months. But even if it were a fact that the Finance Com- mittee contemplated an excessive tax levy—that is to say, a tax levy which would produce more money than the necessities of the city require—the Exam- iner should be the last to be heard in complaint. The Board of Supervisors is Democratic, and the Finance Committee is composed entirely of Democrats. Not only this, but the entire board, and two members at least of the Finance Committee, were named by Mayor Phelan by and with the advice and consent of the Examiner. It is a well-known fact that Mr. Phelan declined to accept the nomination for Mayor two years ago unless he could select the Supervisors. It was stated at the time, and never has been denied, that upon receiving this ultimatum Boss Rainey transferred the nomination of the board to Phelan. Of course that gentleman acted only after consulta- tion with the Third Street Boodler. The Examiner buncombe howl about the tax levy, however, is not based upon a desire to conceal its responsibility for the existence of the “Shifty Eight” and the recard that muchly abused aggregation of good Democrats have made. That sheet cares noth- ing for responsibility in any form. The howl is launched solely for the purpose of setting up a false isstte and calling attention to the Spartan virtue of its especial pet, the Mayor. If a tax levy of $2 10 is levied the Third Street Boodler will claim that it raised the alarm and did what it could to avert the calamity. If no such levy is imposed it will, with equal effrontery, claim that it averted the calamity. In either event the Boodler has a “sure thing.” 3 If the Examiner were as certain of getting another $30,000 “advertising” contract out of the Southern Pacific this year as it is of establishing a reputation as an irretrievable ass, it would indeed be a happy sheet. But the grass is now too short for a contract. The dry year has cut down railroad receipts, and Mr. Huntington cannot afford to extend his payroll. The only hope left for Hearst, therefore, is to blackmail the water and gas companies and make what he can out of local politics. Mr. Phelan ought to pay well for the laudatory notices and pictures now being printed in aid of his candidacy. The Mayor’s leg will stand a good pulling. In many instances fusion has resulted in confusion, and Colorado has added effusion to the list. Lread with great interest, and I doubt R8N According to report, one Macfarlane, a person concerned in the trial of Cur- tis for the murder of Policeman Grant, passed through this city as a member of the Astor Battery. If this iIs true, he should remain at Manila, whether above or below ground does not par- ticularly matter. While, as a newspa- per man, I have observed some trials not marked by regard either for law or justice, I think in all the history of American jurisprudence there was never another trial so farcical, so rot- ten, such a travesty as that of Curtis. ‘That he was guilty nobody doubted, no- body who read the evidence could doubt; and as for the jurymen who voted to acquit, every one of them should have been sent to jail. Not only was the trial a succession of palpable per- juries, but there was scarcely an at- tempt at secrecy concerning this fact. There could not have been a clearer case. That Curtis went unpunished was a lasting disgrace. Macfarlane had to do. with fixing the matter. Probably he did not accept this respon- sibility for fun. . Still, there is a bright side to the affair. Since bun- koing the rallows Curtis has stayed away from California. . Sia I have not the slightest ambition to try the case of Mrs. Botkin. Last week there were indications that the case against her was groundless. At this writing the shadows are gathering about her. It may be they will van- ish as quickly as they came. The strik- ing point about the whole matter has been the readiness of people to rush forward with evidence apparently dam- aging, or designed to cloud the issue. Most of them were quickly proved to be pretenders, but this does not ac- count for their eagerness to be known as voluntary bearers of false witness. Another thing has been the amateur analysis of the woman's demednor. ‘Whether she is innocent or gullty is a conclusion not to be drawn from her conduct as a prisoner. Charged with an awful crime, it would not be sur- prising were she to break down utter- ly, and it is not surprising that she presents a cool and collected air. There is no rule about these things. To say she is guilty because she is calm as a Durrant is precisely as illogical as for the same reason to proclaim her innocence. She is to be pitied if her fate is in any measure to hang upon the testimony of handwriting experts. Probably they deserve the title, but I have observed that they will swear warmly for the side that happens to retain them. The only evidence upon which a prisoner can be fairly tried is that appealing to the senses. The prisoner ought not to be judged either by the dictum of an expert hired by the other side or by the hysterics in which the police are indulging. + e e “An American”—I have no words to waste on an anonymous liar and cow- ard. Therefore I have none to waste on you. . As a rule there cannot be sympathy for the young woman who secures a pistol and sets out to redress her own wrongs, but I would make an excep- tion in behalf of Evelyn Holt, who took a shot at Carl Fecker. The gravest error chargeable to her is that she did not manage to reach a vital spot. Not that Evelyn is any rosebud of inno- cence herself, but she seems far supe- rior to the Fecker creature. He is one of the cumberers of the earth who ought to be killed on general princi- ples. Tt would appear that he lived by fraud, and that the Holt woman was one of his most profitable victims. She gave him her money, which he was too lazy to earn, and she gave him her affection. It was all she had. That she was weak and foolish to love a brute of his unhallowed type is true, but in no measure excuses him. She ought to be able to get out of her dif- ficulty. A female who believes the man who tells her he will marry her after a while, meantime assuming to- ward him the relations of wifehood, is so big a fool that the plea of idiocy surely would set her free. P Some of the French officlals claim there is evidence outside of the forged letter of Captain Henry sufficient to convict Dreyfus. Reference is doubt- less had to more forged letters. There is a growing prejudice against evidence of this sort. Nobody outside of France ever considered Dreyfus guilty and no- body, with the exception of a few who were persecuted for it, ever seemed to care. There was a cry from the aris- tocracy that the man be sacrificed, and he was. There have been times in the history of France when the aristocracy has failed to have things its own way, and with all the ardor of absinthe, the aristocracy is trying to induce history to hasten the Inevitable repetition of it- self. For J. W. Bird of Sacramento I con- fess a lack of admiration. He has put in a claim for $600, the reward of- fered for the arrest of the murderer of some relatives. The murderer was Frank Belew, who was not only an as- sassin, but a brother-in-law to Bird. Belew has been hanged, and Bird, the betrayer, wants his pay. I suggest that if he get it he devote a part of it to keeping green the grave of Be- lew. . . . s e In a measure the Muser of the Delta is mistaken. He says that when others jump upon him I come to his rescue. Not so. He is amply compe- tent to take care of himself. I simply view the spectacle, feeling for his as- sailants the same emotion which would be excited by a terrior having the te- merity to tackle a lion. It is a pleas- ure to see the Muser cuff them, play with them and finally cast them aside. They ought to know better anyhow. Occasionally duty impels me to attack somebody or something, but you don’t catch me fooling with the Muser. I approach him with a respect little less than reverence, and I don’t excite his wrath. There is no sense in being rash. . An Eastern preacher declared last Sunday that contact with the world and the world’s methods would para- lyze the soul. This being the case, he ought to have given a recipe for slid- ing through the world without coming in contact with it, and of keeping in ignorance of the baleful methods here- inbefore mentioned. Soul-paralysis must be a serious thing. B s s A gentleman for whose judgment I have great respect sometimes lends himself to the answering of queries sent to this paper. The answers are ssssassssusuuuumauuswussaassansizsns:28838 WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS. By HENRY JAMES. ERR- R AR R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R PR R TR R R = 8 8 ® 8 ] not add much to the sum of human intelligence. I would not ordinarily presume to criticize them adversely, and vet a recent one struck me as sus- ceptible of improvement. He said to one anxlous searcher after the truth that a Scotch terrier is good for ro- dents, but a fox terrier is better. I cannot agree. A Scotch terrfer is bad for rodents and a fox terrier is worse. In the same column he explained that the falling of a star did not indicate the death of a man, and that bellef to this effect was a superstition. I don’t know about this efther. Stars fall and men die. What subtile connec- tion there may be between the two events is beyond human ken. They may be a specific instance of cause and effect for all the wisest person in the world can tell. g e There is little reason for condoling Wwith anybody who is fleeced through the agency of a matrimonial bureau. That such a bureau is of necessity & fraud, people with sense enough to re- ceive a mental impression from the im- pact of a falling house are certain to know. Yet I confess to respect for the nerve of the mining man who got taken in by one of these traps with a widow for bait, in having her put in jail and endeavoring to break up the concern. The widow is sald to be known to the police, and if she is not the quicker they get acquainted with her the better. But the widow has a trifle of nerve herself. She denounces the unhappy victimof her wiles as lack- ing in refinement and as not being her | social equal. Well now! She de- serves to be sent to the head of the class. I trust that when out of her cell she may meet some one who is her equal in the essential quality of re- finement, and that they may live hap- | pily ever after. There is many an incident in local life worth writing a story about. In the| daily record there are touches of pa- thos, even of heroism. I have in mind the Widow Wilson, with whom for years two hackmen have been in love. One did his wooing by night and the other by day, and the joy of nel(her‘ m was marred by the knowledge that he | did not have a monopoly of the widow’s | great heart. Some women can keep a | secret. Year after year was the widow | courted by the pair, each putting in a | twelve-hour shift. But at last the| men found each other out, and there | had to be a (final choice, an ordeal| which no doubt wrung the tender sen-‘ sibilities of the charmer. She made | her selection and there may be expected | shortly a fisticuff function, wherein two | hackmen will be principals and the po- lice will referee. - Whether the pres- | ent status of the matter is satisfac- | Ltory to the widow's daughter has not | been ascertained, as this young lady | has gone for a time to the Magda!eni Home, and is what the Spanish term | incommunicado. This affair consti- tutes one of the incidents to which ref- erence was made in the opening line. | Minna street society is said to be all broke up about it. . ‘When a man sends weekly political | letters to the country papers, all the | letters presenting a single side of the | situation, and does it “without remun- eration,” I take this to mean without | remuneration from the papers. Doubt- | less he gets paid at the other end of | the line, and does not take it in the form of glory either. The patriot who | beats his breast and yowls from the stump seldom becomes so enthusiastic as to do it with an eye single to the betterment of any cause to the neglect of his purse. The scribbling patriot is built on the same lines. ERlel e Phil Francis of the Stockton Mail has | been perpetrating poetry. He presents it with an intimation that he expects bricks to be shied at him. I am al- ways loaded for the amateur poet, but reading this verse I laid down the brick | which had been ready poised. The | verse was a tribute to “The Man in the | Ranks.” It was gentle, patriotic, re- sonant with melody. If I could write | poetry as well as Francis can I would do it oftener than he does. s s s Among the best letters sent back from Manila have been those of Fred Healy, a private in the ranks of the First California. When the call to arms came Healy was quick to re- spond. He was a reporter on this pa- per, a gentleman by birth and instinct and culture. He went because he| thought it his duty to go. After he had enlisted he told me that he had not much confidence in himself. He did not know how he would act under fire, “and yet,” said he, “I would hate to come back from Manila without hav- ing been tried out.” He has been “tried out” and he acted as everybody who knew him was sure he would. I see from a private letter from a com- rade who stood next to him in the ranks that a bullet cut a branch from a tree not a foot above Healy's head. Of course this circumstance was not in itself remarkable, but in Healy's\ own communication it was not men- tioned. Like the brave young Ameri- can that he is, he would not boast. He would not evén speak of his own sen- sations, or the ordeal through which he had passed. I glory in the spunk of Healy, and venture to say that when he returns the staff will have him as guest of honor at a better dinner than the Philippine Islands ever saw. . 3 . o At the latest “attempt to assassinate the Czar” I say “bosh,” and probably in his own language that potentate made a remark to the same effect. It seems that a house was blown up by gas just about the time the Czar was to pass. The explosion occurred pre- maturely, so the royal family escaped, but the brave anarchist who stayed in the house until it had become so full of the deadly monoxide that a match sent it into smithereens. perished in several pieces. I wonder how, while he was waiting, the anarchist had refrained from breathing. Had he lived in the atmosphere he is supposed to have cre- ated, he would have died of it, and hav- ing died could not have struck a light at the critical moment. I think it more probable that there was no gas in the case. More likely the anarchist | “hen reporter.” exploded and wrecked the edifice. His demise was a cause rather than an ef- fect. s . A misgulded paper of the interior has something to say about the “hen re- porters” of this city. This includes the libel that they are as homely as hedge fences. The precise physical status which accords with the hedge fence s unknown to me. Also is the | Bringing sighs f; ‘What is the hen re- & porter, anyhow? Does the idea pre- vail that there is a poultry show giv- ing a continuous performance here? . s The Tulare News is the latest to start a special department wherein genius may disport at will. The department is called “Oozings” and it cozes in a manner to cheer the drooping sons of men. To some extent it has patterned after the Musings, of which it has been my pleasure to give ocecasional speci- mens, but this is nothing to its dis- credit. There are few masters in lit- erature, and while one might emulate the style of Milton or Poe he would be apt to fall abjectly or write over the heads of his readers. So the Oogter coples the Muser, and I think with happy results. I venture to quote a sample: “Ot writing verse I never tire, Although at times I do perspire.” 1 leave to the judgment of the world whether the Muser himself ever did a finer stroke. The Oozer is a soul thriller from way back. There was a poetic spirit in Colorado once who wrote ‘verse. Happily I have forgot- ten most of it, but one couplet clings to memory like a burr. It is this: “Many well-known people perished in this horrifying fire, And others less well known did also then expire.” The suspiclon forces itself upon me that the Muser has secured a copy of my Colorado- friend’s work, and that the Inspiration seeps through his font of poesy so markedly that the Oozer gets the benefit, and less directly, we all do. President Valentine of the Wells- Fargo Express Company is a peculiar individual. I had learned to look upon him as truly good. He not only has the boon of plety, but the gift of speech, and the manner in which he can ad- dress young men, counseling them from the error of their ways, would touch the heart were it not for the unfortu- nate knowledge that Valentine has re- fused to permit the concern which he directs and adorns to pay its share of the war tax. He has gone so far as to write a pamphlet about the matter, setting forth clearly that Wells-Fargo folk are not as other men are, but have the blessed privilege of forcing the rest of the world to pay Wells-Fargo taxes. ' It doesn’t look right to me, but then I am no Valentine. So deeply have I been puzzled as to be glad that the atter Is going into the courts. If Valentine objects to the ordeal, I sug- gest the simple remedy of doing as other people do. To pay a’'legitimate tax is really not a painful experience. He ought to undergo it. The com- pany is rich. It pays a great interest on fictitlous capital. It can afford to be decent. WAR. scuttling ships; urning bridges; human lips, Reddening all the rosy ridges. Faces white Ripping railr Cutting cable Beneath the night (Now may God defend the right!) | And the charge and the retreat, Battle mists by red blades riven, Lightnings the morning sweet, And the stars are stormed from heaven. Faces white Beneath the night (Now may God defend the rightl) Then, the glory of the lands, And the wreath the hero graces. Oh, the unclasped, outstretched hands, Pallid lips and tear-stained faces{ And faces white Beneath the night (Now did God defend the right?) —Atlanta Constitution. Cal. glace frult 8c per 1b at Townsend’s.® L tdab sl Rl Special information supplied dally to business houses and public men by the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen’s), 510 Mont- gomery street. Telephone Main 1042. ¢ e Coolgardie, in Western Australla, wants to- hold an International Mining and In- dustrial Exhibition to celebrate the fifth year of the town's existence. —_————— First and Second Class rates again reduced via the Santa Fs route. Call at the new ticket office, 628 Market, e Only the best for the best only. Among the Barrels, $63 Market t. ——— Thomas’, 114 Grant ave., for swell millinery. Opening Tuesday, September 13. No cards. The Indian crocodile is a ferocious and dangerous animal and causes great destruction to human life, especially in Lower Bengal. ADVERTISEMENTS. ATTENTION Is called that | have just received a full line of Cheviots in all shades, and | am making Suits to order for $12.50, $15.50, $17.50. Excellent and very stylish business suits, and guaran- teed to fit and finely made. | also have a full line of Serges, Diagonals and fine Piques that | make suits of to order for $20.00, $25.00, $30.00. They make fine dressy suits and are well worth $35 to $40. DON'T MISS THIS CHANCE. Remember that these suits are well made and well trimmed and guaranteed to fit, and, furthermore, are kept in repair free of charge for one year. JOE POHEIM, The Tailor, 201 and 203 Montgomery Stree 844 and 846 Market Street. * 1110 and 1112 Market Street. SEMI-ANNUAL EXAMINATION —OF— TEACHERS. building, Powell st., near Clay Sexmember“n, 1898, at 1:30 p. m. ‘m.FmDAY' n compliance with the State school law each applicant must pay an examination fee of §2 In advance to Miss P. M. Nolan, secretary of the Board of Examiners, office, central corridor, third floor, City Hall. . H. WEBSTER, uperintendént of Common Schools. CHAS. W. WELCH, Secretary: PAINLESS DENTISTRY : FullSet ol Teeth y Cdo extracting free §500u D cod Crowns 2k §350up Fillings - - - 25cfs.up 5 Open Evenings & Sundays . VAN VROOM EI Dental ‘Sixth and Market Dr. G W. Kieiser, Prope