The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 8, 1898, Page 6

THE SAN FRANC ..DECEMBER 8, 1808 JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. Address All Co mmunications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager. PUBLICATION OFFICE ..Market and Third Sts., S. F. Telephone Main 1868. EDITORIAL ROOMS......... 217 to 221 Stevenson Street Telephone Main 1874 THE AN FRANCISCO CALL (DAILY AND SUNDAY) Is served by carriers In this city and surrounding: towns for 15 cents a week. By mall $6 per year; per month 65 cents. YHE WEEKLY CALL. OAKLAND OFFKE... NEW YORK OFFIKCE.... Room 188, World Building DAVID ALLEN, Advertising Representative. ne year, by mall, $1.50 ..908 Broadway WASHINGTON (D. C.) OFFICE... C. C. CARLTON, Correspondent. CHICAGO OFFICE........... .Marquette Building C.GEORGE KROGNESS, Advertising Representative. BRANCH OFFICES—527 Montgomery street, corner Clay, open until 9:30 o'clock. 387 Hayes street, open until 930 o'clock. 621 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. 2291 Market street, corner Sixteenth, open untll 9 o'clock. 2518 Misslon 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 ana Kentucky streets, open until 9 o'clock. nted Just for Fun.” ‘Gayest Manhattan.” he Private Secretary.” Orpheum—Vaudeville. The Chutes—Gorriila man, Olympia—Corner Mason and Eddy streets, specialties. vaudeville and the zoo. Butro's Baths—Swimming. Mechanics' rilion—Charity Baszaar. Columbla—Press Club Entertainment this afternoon. Eherman - Clay Hall—Plano Recital Friday Evening, De- cember $. Oakland Race Track—Races to-day. Ingleside Coursing Park—Coursing Saturday and Sunday. Rosenthal—Coming in December. EVADING CIVIC DUTY. HENEVER a trial results in miscarriage of W justice—and that such results are frequent will not be denied—there is an outcry against the inefficiency of the courts. The men who make it first and loudest are themselves to blame. They refuse to perform jury duty. Because a citizen has large businéss interests is no | reason he should be able to whisper an excuse into the ear of the Judge and then permitted to go his way. He is as able to endure the tedium of a trial as another man. He can far better afford the loss of time than can his neighbor who toils for wages. The opening of every notable case is marked by a pitiful exhibition of lack of regard for the public wel- fare. Talesmen will plead all manner of pretexts for being allowed immunity from the jury-box. They have even been known to lie about it, in which in- stance, instead of being fined for contempt of court, they have been given permission to go. Later it is their privilege to read of the trial and express dis- approbation of the verdict, to rail against the jury system, opining loudly that it is a failure. So, to a certain extent, thanks largely to them, it is. In minor cases it is rare that representative citizens are selected as jurymen. Apparently they are not so much as expected to serve, for they are not sum- moned, and the panel is made up of the courtroom leafer, the professional juror, the ragtag and bobtail of the city, lacking in intelligence, principle and standing. If the method of trial by jury is to con- tinue, the time has come for a decided reform. Re- spectable citizens should be chosen, and, having been chosen, forced to act. The service rendered by an honest juryman is honorable, far more honprable than his efforts to sneak out of it. DISSATISFIED SCHOOL DIRECTORS. IRECTORS Gallagher and Waller of the D Board of Education are said to be not satisfied with the report of the Grand Jury. Possibly the object of formulating a report is not the satisfy- ing of every rascal whom the report may adversely criticize. That the management of the board has been shameful there is no denying. That some of the members belong behind the bars is the common be- lief. They have wasted the funds placed at their dis- posal, have unblushingly defied the public to do any- thing about it, and now have the unspeakable assur- ance to resent the mention of their dereliction by a body organized for the avowed purpose of bringing lawbreakers to justice. There could not well be better recommendation for the Grand Jury than the displeasure of Gallagher and Waller. This might be strengthened by a yelp from Ragan, and Drucker could add to its weight by ex- pressing disregard for the attitude of the jury. The fact stands out that the course of the Board of Edu- cation has been from the first against all decency, and that if it has not been wantonly dishonest it em- braces a number of fools. At least, it has been a re- proach and a disgrace to the community. The more its leading spirits protest, the more they emphasize the certainty that the people were led into electing to important office a lot of incompetent and conscience- less knaves. MURDER AND INCENDIARISM. HERE is one method by which the crime of Tar:tm can be checked, and this is the simple one of punishing it. There is no misdeed in the whole list more unpardonable, because it must of ne- cessity be deliberate. When the setting fire to a building results in finan- cial loss to innocent parties, the guilty wretch should be held responsible, and if unable to pay, be kept in confinement until the sum had been worked out at a credit of perhaps a dollar a day. This might mean a life sentence, and so much the better. If the crime involves the destruction of life, it should be treated 1s murder of the first degree. The people of one California town are now search- ing for an incendiary, and. catching him, he will be hanged. He ought to be. It is a pity the law does not prescribe this course, and the way to educate the law-maker is to give him a few object lessons. Surely the man who applies the torch to a structure in which people are sleeping is deserving of no more consideration than the one who wrecks a train, and, according to the code, the wrecker is a murderer, fit for the gallows. e 2ot For refusal to give alms to an impertinent beggar a citizen of Los Angeles was recently stabbed. The problem of what to do with our beggars has long been a puzzle, but about the disposition of this par- ticular one there should be no difficulty while there is jail-room. Figel may congratulate himself, so far as the courts are concerned, but as to his conscience there is per- haps a different aspect. THE PRESIDENT AND FINANCE. HE friends of the single standard and sup- Tporters of financial and currency reform have occasion to be pleased by the President’s atti- tude toward these most necessary policies, In the message he says: “The importance of adp« quate provision which will insure to our future a money standard related as our money standard now ie to that of our commercial rivals ‘is generally recog- nized. “The companion proposition that our domestic paper currency shall be kept safe and yet be so related to the needs of our industries and internal com- merce as to be adequate and responsive to such needs is a proposition scarcely less important.” These declarations cover the conclusions reached by the Indianapolis money conference, as formulated in the bills which are already referred to the House Committee on Banking and Currency. Of course it is known that those bills cannot pass the Senate, as at present constituted, for in that body the sound money men are in a minority. But the next Senate, which goes into power on the 4th of March, 1899, will have a good working majority of sound money men, as will the House which begins at the same date. 1f there be any change the need of this financial re- form is more pressing than ever. The country is ad- monished by the result of the recent elections. The Republican party made its losses east of the Missis- sippi River, and its gains west of that line. Cali- fornia contributes two to the gains in the Senate and six to the total majority in the House, or within | a fraction of one-half thereof. The party has been renewed in its power for specific reasons and well defined purposes, chief among which are those related to the standard of value and the currency reform, to which the President refers. As it is pot expedient to attempt anything with the to bring the next Senate into action in co-ordination with the friendly majority in the House at the earliest possible day after the life of the next Congress begins. Then will be the first opportunity presented, since the financial agitation began, of a President and House and Senate in accord upon the measures and method of reform. An extra session should be held next spring to dispose finally of this subject. Then, if by some unforeseen accident the President and House chosen in 1900 should desire to disturb that adjust- ment, the Senate would stand in the way and could not be overridden. K It may be said, we believe, with confidence, that the surest safeguard against such an accident will be found in the enactment of financial and currency re- form next spring, thus demonstrating the fidelity and good faith of the party in power and proving its right to further confidence by having merited it. ANOTHER WAR STAMP DECISION. DISPATCH from Lansing, Mich., brings the f\ intelligence that” the State Supreme Court of that commonwealth has handed down a de- cision declaring that the express companies must pay for the war stamps affixed to receipts issued to ship- pers. No particulars are given, but since the Ameri- can Express Company is mentioned as one of the litigants, we may presume that the case is an appeal from the decision of one of the Michigan Circuit Courts, wherein it was held that a writ of mandate would issue compelling the express companies to stamp their receipts. Up to the present time the express corporations, in their selfish and unpatriotic contention with reference to war taxation, have said that until some court of | last resort had decided against them they would con- tinue to believe their construction of the law to be correct. Here, at last, is an opinion from a court of final resort in a great State. What are these contu- macious tax-shirkers going to do now? Half a dozen nisi prius courts have ruled against them to the one for them, and the latter was an ill-considered “rush” decision rendered for the purpose of furthering an appeal. At last a Supreme Court has upheld the former line of decisions and reaffirmed the opinions of the United States Attorney General, Commissioner of Internal Revenue and other officials who have ruled on the question. We repeat, what are the express companies, and especially Wells, Fargo & Co., going to do? If they do not now submit and pay their war taxes we have a right to consider them in rebellion against the Government and the law. They have refused to support the nation in time of war, its greatest peril; they have set the courts at defiance and openly flaunted their arrogance; they have stamped the re- ceipts of their big patrons and robbed their small and helpless ones; in short, they have been guilty of con- duct which, were it proved against an individual, would render him liable to punishment as a traitor and a criminal. Are these express monopolies goifg to be allowed to continue in this manner until the end? The attention of Congress ought to be called to the matter by the Boards of Trade and Chambers of Com- merce of the country. Something more than a clari- fication of the law should be undertaken. The ex- press companies should be brought under Govern- ment supervision and made to feel that they owe at least obedience to the law. There is but one way to reach the hearts of the selfish and unpatriotic con- cerns, and that is through their pockets. If the law is amended it should enact that intercommercial ex- press rates shall not be increased beyond the figures now prevailing, and that the war stamp tax shall be quadrupled. This might make the traitorous cor- porations sing a different tune. e ————— It is pleasing to learn that the Examiner’s national policy is the guide of the administration. The enter- prising Hearst not only made the war, but has dic- tated the terms of settlement with Spain. However, the administration has been too busy to set forth these facts, and the Examiner has modestly saved it the trouble. Miss Ball is to be congratulated upon having de- feated the Board of Education. The merits of her contention are not widely known, but anybody en- gaged in controversy with the board is certain to be right. Baldwin is not particularly beloved now, but if he cover his property with a two-story row of cheap stores, he will be pained and surprised to realize that he has not reached the zenith of unpopularity. —_— The tugboat style of marriage seems to have been revived. Nevertheless, an opinion prevails that a wedding which would be illegal ashore is nothing to brag of when performed at sea. Sl Chinese exclusion laws are said to be in effect in Hawaii. By way of preventing the Chinese any un- necessary distress, it may be added that the same laws arc said to be in effect here. ‘When a day passes without fresh revelation of crookedness somewhere in the City Hall, that day is japt to be Sunday. 4 present Senate, it is highly expedient and necessary | CALL, THURSDAY, LEES, BECKER, ET ALS. N two continents Karl Becker is known as O “The Prince of Forgers.” Well he earned the title. His adroitness and his facile pen have for years been the terror of bankers. Becker is in jail in this city, his latest crime confessed. ~ What next? On his first trial Becker, together with an associate, was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for life. The trial took place before Judge Wallace, a jurist noted for unswerving severity. Many a footpad has Wallace sent across the bay to end his years in stripes. Many a man, impelled by want to some deed of violence, has trembled before Wallace at the words dooming him to confinement for twenty, thirty or forty years. So it was not surprising that Becker was sentenced for life. Neither was it surprising that the prisoner should have been given a new trial. Such is the way that justice is expedited. On the second trial there was still no shadow of doubt as to the guilt of Becker, but there was a disagreement. It is not to the pur- pose now to discuss the status of the jury. Before a third trial could be brought about the associate of Becker, a man equally culpable with him, deserted the forger and agreed to testify against his old pal. To this despicable treachery he was purchased by the offer of leniency. Who had a right to offer it? Becker saw that his case was hopeless. For three years he had been in the County Jail. While there was no prospect that he would be again convicted, there stretched out ahead the possibility of a long series of trials, more years of waiting, an intermin- able fight against justice. He determined to sur- render. At this point came the revelation of the utter inadequacy of Chief Lees. In his anxiety to be able to say that he had the Prince of Forgers behind the bars, Lees promised him immunity, as he had prom- ised it to the thieving accomplices. To be sure, Becker was to be punished, but he was to dictate the terms. He was willing to accept a sentence of seven years, with credit for the time he had kept the baffled courts and the helpless police struggling to give him his dues. He pleaded guilty, his plea being accom- panied by a statement from his own lawyers, the State’s lawyers and the Bankers’ Association, that this would be satisfactory. Or, in other words, Lees tried the man, passed the sentence, got the bankers to approve, and then asked Judge Wallace to enact the formality of legalizing the findings. Such unex- ampled impudence deserves the full weight of any re- buke Judge Wallace can administer. Is he to permit a Chief of Police, anxious for a scalp, and a lot of bankers, to override him and pre-empt his preroga- tives? We do not believe the Judge so weak a man. ‘We think he esteems the dignity of his position too highly to have it thus made an adjunct to a stupid and unlawful police scheme. He has heard Becker’s confession of guilt. He is in no manner bound to weigh extraneous conditions imposed by Lees. If Becker deserved a life sentence before—and this no- body questions—he deserves it now. The bankers agree that after the expiration of the trifling term they have decided upon for Becker they will give the old man a pension, not as a reward of merit, but as an inducement to be honest. They want the law to touch him lightly, so they may buy him to be honest. The entire scheme is rotten. It shows above all things the incompetency of Lees. He may make a bargain with crime, but when he calls upon a court to ratify it he insults not alone the court, but the peo- ple. Becker says that he is guilty, as charged. In at- tempting to shield him Lees is derelict to his duty. He has met the more astute Becker and the stronger intelligence won. Society wants protection against Beckers. It does not even desire that when caught they shall instruct the courts what to do with them. We hope and believe that Judge Wallace will over- rule the firm of Lees & Becker. Flooked in vain to Congress for protective legis- lation favorable to the upbuilding of the mer- chant marine needed to carry on our commerce. The Republican party, so faithful in the performance of its general pledges, has been strangely neglectful of its pledge in this regard. Our ship-builders and ship- owners are still struggling in vain to compete with the subsidized shipping of Europe, and our imports and exports are still mainly carried in foreign vessels, at the expense to us of a heavy annual tribute to the foreign owners. Now, at last, there is a fair prospect that justice will be done, and that speedily. The expansion of our merchant marine has become urgent. The events and the results of the war have combined to make clear the imperative necessity of legislation that will stimu- late the building of American ships to be manned by American sailors to carry American produce to all parts of the world and to bring back to our shores the goods we import in exchange for them. The President set forth the urgency of the matter very clearly in his message. “The annexation of Ha- waii,” he said, “and the changed relations of the United States to Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philip- pines, resulting from the war, compel the prompt adoption of a maritime policy by frequent steamship communication encouraged by the United States un- der the American flag with the newly acquired islands. Spain furnished to its colonies, at an annual cost of about two million dollars, steamship lines communi- cating with a portion of the world’s markets, as well as with trade centers of the home Government. The United States will not undertake to do less. It is our duty to furnish the people of Hawaii with facilities under national control for their export and import trade. It will be conceded that the present situation calls for legislation which shall be prompt, durable and liberal.” Furthermore, the President added: “The part which the American merchant vessels and their seamen per- formed in the war with Spain demonstrates that this service, furnishing both pickets and the second line of defense, is a national necessity and should be en- couraged in every constitutional way.” Short as the present session will be, the country has a right to expect of Congress a good and effec- tive shipping law before it closes. The issue is broader than that of supplying the Philippines and the West Indian Islands with merchant lines. It is one of supplying the United States with such lines. Our commerce is expanding in every direction. Our tribute to foreign ship-owners is increasing annually. Every argument which can be justly drawn from the conditions of the present or the prospects of the fu- ture tends to strengthen the demand that the Govern- ment adopt at once a policy of fair play toward the American merchant marine. A MEASURE OF URGENCY. OR a long time the American people have Sp————— Mrs. Mentel is said to have suffered a considerable shock upon discovering that she was a murderess. Precisely what effect she thought the impulsion of two bullets into the body of her husband would pro- duce is a matter thus thrown into the field of specu- lation. It may truly be said of the Earl who has wedded the Colgate soap fortune that he has taken the cake. DECEMBER 8, 189 CAN'T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. Influential Journals Look Upon Burns’ Candidacy as a Theme for Laughter, Fleers and Jeers. BURNS A POLITICAL JOKE. (Los Angeles Herald). Colonel Burns is only a political joke when considered as a Senator, and the anti-poolroom and racetrack influence is enough to prevent a sport from getting the place. The men who the Widbers and McGlades are not the ate. are even indirectly responsible for men who can go to the Federal Sen- Mr. Grant ha's been lost in Washington or any old place in the East, where he thought he could get the influence of a friend of his father's on the California Legislature, which, he naively imagined, could be made to vote as some Eastern Senator wished. General Barnes is still a possibility, and S0 are two or three others, but to-day the only man who even approaches probability of success is Mr. Bulla. To-morrow it may all be different, for if new material of the right sort springs can be figured on. up a new arrangement of the votes WILL DAMN THEMSELVES. (Los Angeles Times). If there is any legislator in this State who wishe« ‘o forever damn him- self politically, socially and morally let him go to Sacramento next month and vote to send D. M. Burns to the United States Senate, and the job will be done with neatness and dispatch. According to the San Francisco cor- respondence of the Oakland Tribune ‘A thorough canvass of the State is being made in his (Burns') behalf, and if he is satisfied that he has enough . votes to secure him the victory there is no doubt he will go out He would certainly be several kinds of an ass if he did not go for the Senatorship were he certain of success. Sure! for it.” But there’s the rub. Dan Burns has no more show to get the votes of the reputable and honest Assembly- men and Senators from the interior than he has to have his character as an ex-official of the State restored to him by that same Legislature which is to elect a United States Senator. A GOOD WAY TO KILL HIM. (Yreka Journal.) Dan Burns is mentioned as a possible candidate for United States Sena- tor, but we don’t believe he will be “in it.” The Republicans have plenty of better timber to pick from in getting a first-class man for that important position. Possibly Burns’ name has been mentioned as a good way to kill him politically as a leader or boss. The Republican voters are not favorable to him by any means, a fact that members of the Legislature can easily dis- cover by asking the question. AN OBJECTIONABLE CREATURE. (The Californian.) The report has obtained currency that Colonel Dan M. Burns is in the fight for Feéderal Senator as the candidate of the Southern Pacific of Ken- tucky. if it were to be dedicated to purposes To little purpose had the Republican party captured the Legislature 80 vile as the election to the United State Senate of this man Burns. a creature not only objectionable because of his own past record but additionally offensive because the protege of the raflroad. The brazen impudence of the railroad in California politics should no longer be tolerated and any man - known to be its candidate should always be overwhelmingly beaten, whether the office of his aspirations be great or small. In the degradation of politics and corruption of men in high place no other agency in California has wielded an influence so potent and malign. To gain its ends it has hesi- tated, apparently, at nothing. It has dominated California politics with the insolence of a czar and in total disregard of the rights of the people has kept its transportation rates at‘'a voint so high that it might not inap- propriately be designated the limit of human forbearance. Time was when California, bound hand and foot and completely at the mercy of the Octopus, had its president in the United States Senate; but we have got beyond that. ‘We entertain slight fear that Burns, even with the great power of the Southern Pacific behind him. will come Young would prove less obpectionable than he. dangerously near to election. Even De But there are in the Sen- atorial contest, truth to say, too many men able to call their souls their own to permit to become formidable the candidacy of either of the two named. California needs in the United States Senate a man of character and standing and ability, a statesman and a speaker. character or standing or ability? Is Does Dan Burns possess he an orator or a statesman? Is not his record as a State official such as to render the mere suggestion of his candidacy an insult? While the people of California do not Legislatures to so strict an account as hold their they should, nevertheless the man who at Sacramento would vote for Dan Burns for United States Senator must be a creature from the slums of San Francisco. AROUND THE CORRIDORS. Banker W. H. Kenzie is at the Lick. Mr. and Mrs. John M. Godey are at the Lick. E. J. Benjamin, U. S. A., is at the Cali- fornia. Fred Cowan of New York is at the Palace. A. Biffar of Germany is a guest at the Palace. Judge J. M. Mannon of Ukiah is staying at the Lick. Dr. P. N. Russell of Fresno is a guest at the Lick. E. P. Gifford, a merchant of Auburn, is at the Lick. R. E. French of Bakersfield is staying at the Grand. Dr. E. Bverets, U. S. A, is a guest at the Occidental. W. J. Canton, U. 8. 8. Olympia, is at the California. Frank Hurst and A. Long of Chicago are at the Russ. F. A. Lafferty and wife of Sacramento are at the Grand. Mrs. R. W. Nichols of San Diego is a guest at the Lick. Willlam M. S8ims of Sacramento is reg- istered at the Palace. R. M. Pogson, the manager of the Tejon ranch, is at the Palace. E. W. Hale, a merchant of Sacramento, is a guest at the California. L. N. Parks, a miner of Lowden Ranch, is a guest at the Occidental. E. C. Langford, a merchant of Littleton, N. H., is a guest at the Palace. M. Seebey of Tacoma and R. F, Fletcher of Los Gatos are guests at the Palace. W. H. Babcock, a grain merchant of ‘Walla Walla, is registered at the Lick. Ex-State Senator James McCudden of Vallejo is registered at the Occldental. A. M. McDonald is registered at the Lick. He is a prominent miner from So- nora. James M. Hardman of Boston and C. M. Blinn of Chicago are registered at the Grand. F. 8. Weston and E. H. Brocklehurst of London are registered at the Cali- fornia. Miss Ada Gilmore, daughter of Superin- tendent Gilmore of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, is at the Palace. Rev. I. Osborne of Honolulu and Rev. D. G. McKinnon of Stockton, both promi- nent Episcopal ministers, are at the Occi- dental. —_————————— CALIFORNIANS IN NEW YORK. NEW YORK, Dec. T.—Arthur Rodgers of San Francisco is at the Netherland. A: J. Beggs of San Francisco is at the Cosmo- politan. Dr. L. F. Wood of San Diego is at the Park Avenue. ——————————— CALIFORNIANS IN WASHINGTON WASHINGTON, Dec. 7.—E. R. Dimond and wife of S8an Francisco are at the Shoreham. Hugh Craig, president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. has taken quarters for the winter at the Cos- mos Club. He protests that he is not here to mix in polities or to interfere with any plans of the delegation, but to urge the passage of the Nicaragua canal bill. Mr. and Mrs. Woods of Stockton are in the city. ——— MICROBES IN MILK. It will be readily granted that the in- spection of milk and its sources of supply i8 of even more importance from a pablic health point of view than the inspection of meat, since milk is so largely used as the food of infants. Milk, immediately it is taken from the healthy cow, contains no microbes. HB?dl{ has the milk settled in the il than they abound, so many as lo,oo&m in one-quarter cubic inch having been de- tected. The ?nefl(on which naturally resents itself i{s, “Where do they come 'rom?’ From the solled teats, from the soiled hands of the workers, from the at- mosphere of the milking shed and from the palls themselves. They possess the property of mwung very rapldly. onsieur ge ‘reudeurich of the Berne Laboratory asserts that milk just drawn containing in one-quarter cubfc inch 9000 microbes, seven hours later was found to contain 60,000. After a period of tw enty- five hours had elapsed 5,000,000 microbes were present in the same quantity of milk; and if the temperature be raised to 95 degrees Fahrenheit the microbic popu- lation of the same milk, during the same time, would reach the enormous total of 812,500,000! Children appear particularly prone to contract consumption through the agency of milk containing tubercle bacilli— Chambers' Journal. —_———— A POOR LITTLE GIRL. She never ran with a hoop, nor blew Soap bubbles out of a pipe, nor knew In all her days what a world of fun It was to scamper and jump and run; She was born to wealth and a house of Jride, And must be proper and dignified. Dear little girl! I am sad for you; They have fiiched your world of roseate hue; They have robbed the sweets childish play, And stolen your years and your dreams away,; And You'are a little girl no more, Poor little martyr in pinafore! I frankly own I would shrink to face Your accusing eyes at the throne of grace. I tremble to think what the King may of your mete To tl’let culprit couched at the judgment seat, Who‘ has taken a child that was made to sing And_stifled the song and deceived the King! —Joseph Dana Miller, in The Criterion. WELL-KNOWN PEOPLE. Admiral Dewey has a valuable collec- tion of butterfiies, which is insured for $6000. Professor Moses Coit Tylor of Cornell has been made a character in a novel by Justin McCarthy. The marble fountatin that Emperor Wil- liam purposes to erect in Constantinople ts | to commemorate his visit there is to be of his own design. George Julian Zolnaz, the sculPtor, has completed his bust of Edgar Allan Poe, and it will be placed in the library of the University of Virginia. George Hitchcock, the painter, is a grad- uate of Brown University and a direct de- scendant of Roger Williams. When he left to study water-coloring in England _his parting words were, “If I succeed I shall not return.” It is announced from Leipsic that Herr Meyer, in acknowledgment of his grati- tude to Providence for the deliverance from captivity and safe return of his son, Hans Meyer, the African traveler, has given 1,000,000 marks for the building of twenty-seven workmen's dwellings in Leipsic Lindenau. Caleb T. Row,who after a service of for- ty-four years, has resigned from the gen- eral management of the American Bible Soclety, is said to be the greatest author- ity _on the various editions of the Bible and their history in the United States. He owns one of the best private collec- tions in this countryx In his newly published ‘“Memoirs” Sal- vini says that the only time in his life he lied about his art was when he saw Bernhardt in Schiller’'s A “Maid of Or- leans.” He sald the performance was poor, yet when the tragedienne asked his opinfon he replied, “You were superb,” whereupon “the divine Sarah” introduced hgm to her company as “the master of all of us.” A DREADFUL ASSAULT. Mr. Justice Ball, an Irish Judge, was noted for his amusing manifestations of ignorance, but whether they were real or rretended has never been clearly estab- ished. He tried a case in which a man was indicted for robbery at the house of a poor widow. ine first witness was the young daughter of th: widow, who identi- fled the prisoner as the man who had en- tered the house and smashed her mother's chest. “Do you say that the prisoner at the bar broke your mother’s chest?’ said the Judge, in astonishment. “He did, my lord.” answered the girl; ‘“he jumpe#fi on it till he smashed it entirely.”” The Judge turned to the crown counsel and said: +‘How is this?” Why is not the prisoner indicted for murder? If he smashed this poor woman’s chest in the way the wit- ness has described he must surely have é{él‘lgge‘he‘ri;‘w“aut. mz'l lord,” said the 5 as a wooden chest."" o hill Magazine. i ——————— THE WORD &GROG.” The word “grog” has a curious h It comes in a roundabout way fm‘r:mtrhye' French gros-grain, of which our English grogram” is a corruption, meant a stuff of coarse and heavy texture. 'fi“fl old Admiral Vernon, who commanded the English navy just before our War of In- dependence, wore breeches made of this material, and was nicknamed from that circumstance *““Old Grog.” He used to have his men mix water with rum that was always served to English sailors as part of their rations, and hence any dram mixed with water came to be called grog,” and the places where such things are sold ‘“groggeries.”—St. Nicholas. COL. HAMILTON'S COLORED MAN TAKEN AWAY His Wages Paid Outof “Billy’s”” Pocket. JACKSON’S PRUNING KNIFE DAN BURNS' LIEUTENANT IN A STREAK OF BAD LUCK. His Salary Was Cut Down and He May Be Obliged to Work for His Living. Colonel “Billy” Hamilton is in a streak of bad luck. The star of Dan Burns seems to have cast a hoodoo upon him, even the proximity of a *“cullud pusson’ has not been able to save him. It was only a few days ago that the col- onel sent on to Washington a memorial recommending Burns for the position of Naval Officer which he hoped that Colo- nel John P. Irish would vacate by the 15th of the present month. But the petition ran up against a waste basket in the White House and, Colonel Irish, a gold Democrat, will vacate nothing. Then came the announcement from Washing- ton that President McKinley intended to keep Colonel Irish in office until after the Inauguration of the next President at least. This was quite enough, but the cruel blow was followed by another a few days later when Colonel Jackson notified him that on the first of the present month his mascot, A. D. Jones, the col- ored gent who hefts Custom House cash for Colonel Hamilton, would be relfeved from duty, because the appropriation of $30,000 allowed Colonel Jackson for emer- gencies in his capacity of Collector could no longer stand the strain. As Colonel Hamilton was pretty busy in the Dan Burns fight for the SenamrsmP he_could not afford to be confined to his office in the Custom House, and he embraced the alternative of paying the salary of Mr. Jones out of his own gocket for the pres- ent month and possibly until after the conclusion of the Senatorial contest in the coming session of the Legislature. That is why there is a streak of sadness in the perennial smile of the cashier, and that is why there is such a wistful look in_his eve. ‘When he took the office the annual sal- ary_was $3000, but on the recommendation of Major Moore, an inferior in_military rank, the salary was cut to $2500, the major hefting the value of his services at that amount. Another story of the reduction has ~ been going the rounds, but it is without doubt unfounded in fact, Collector Jackson being too good a friend of Colonel Hamilton to do any- thing of the kind. The story is that the Collector backed the cashier for the po- sition of Naval Officer in order that a vacancy might thus be created in_the cashiership which the Collector could fill with one of the many patriots who are making him walk the floor at night study- ing and worrying because he can't give them all a job. Then when the jig was up that he took away the cashier's darkey so as_to compel the cashier to work and thus disgust him with the position and make him resign, and create a va- cancy anyhow. But the proof that this story is not true lies in the fact that the prunning knife has been applled to other departments as well. For instance, his good friend, Internal Revenue Collector John C. Lynch, who is not a colonel and never rose higher than fifth sergeant, was obliged to discharge three of his clerks in order that his emergency _expens might not exceed his pro rata of the $30,- 000 appropriation. The clerks discharged on the 1st of the month were P. T. M. Waite and D. D. Schindler, who have been working for several months on an index to the duplicate Chipese registra- tion_in his office. W. v. Colm was the third victim of the economical change. Auditor Cope mourns a recent cut from $3500 to $3000, while the salary bf the ad- Juster was increased from $2500 to $3000. That is why *“Billy”” Hamilton does not smile so profusely as before, and why the air of the Custom House is so chilly notwithstanding the hot time in Major Moore's office. Cal. glace fru.. 50c per 1b at Townsend's.® —_— r—————— OQur store will be open evenings until Christmas. Sanborn, Vail & Co., 741 Mar- ket street. o ————— Special information supplied daily to business houses and public men by the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen’s), 510 Mont- gomery street. Telephone Main 1042 * —_———— “California wild flowers,” ‘“Chinese” and “Indian;” 48 styles. Christmas cards as usual. Sanborn, Vail & Co. s —_—— He—Do you believe, Miss Faith, that an ass ever spoke? 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