The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 25, 1898, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1898. MBER 25, 188 JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. Address All Communications to W. PUBLICATION OFFICE ...... Morket and Third Sts., S. F. Telephone Main 1868 EDITORIAL ROOMS......... 217 to 221 Stevenson Street Telephane Main 1874. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL (DAILY AND SUNDAY) 1s served by carriers In this city and surrounding towns for i5 cents o week. By mall $6 per year: per month 65 cents THE WEEKLY CALL. OAKLAND OFFICE. S. LEAKE, Manager. One year, by mall, $1.50 | ....908 Broadway | NEW YORK OFFICE.........Room 188, World Building | DAVID ALLEN, Advertising Representative, WASHINGTON (D. C.) OFFICE €. C. CARLTO! CHICAGO OFFICE........... C.GEORGE KROGNESS, Advertisi Riggs House | Corrcspondent. Marquette Building ing Representative, 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 until 9:30 o'clock. 6i5 Larkin street, open untll 9:30 o'cleck. 1941 Mission street, open untll 10 o'clock. 2291 Market street, corner Sixteenth, open until 9 o'clock. 2518 Misston street, open untll 9 o'clock. 106 Eleventh street, open until 9 o'clock. 1505 Polk street, open untll 9:30 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-second ana Kentucky streets, open until 9 o'clock. Parlor Match.” “Humbug.” he Yellow Dwarf. Morosco’s—*‘Uncle Tom's Cabin." of Keys." Veudeviile and the Zoo. ason and Eddy streets, Speclalties. hall Races To-morrow. nthal Piano Recital, Tuesday even- in; RESPONSIBILITY OF POUNDKEEPER. l rtv has been damaged by the deputies of Poundkeeper Osborne. ago these deputiés took yrse from a vacant lot in Richmond belonging to George M. Blanchard. They had no | T is gratifying to observe that Justice of the Peace Kerrigan has given judgment in favor of a man whose prop Some weeks right to impound the ani since he was upon pri- } vate property, but they did so, and grossly maltreated | him on the way to the pound. The animal was las- soefl and thrown, being badly cut and lamed in the | operation. Besides, the deputies whipped him un- ully & rse the a merc ard reached the pound to redeem his | The ser- | Whe 1al was scarcely recognizable. es of a vet ary surgeon, who charged $13, \\'crc‘ essary to put the brute in condition for f\mher: service. Blanchard brought suit against Osborne for | and upon the trial of the case estab- lished his ¢ . obtaining judgment for the full amount, with costs We do not know whether the poundkeeper is re- sponsible, but he certainly has a bond which ought to fy people who complain in this way of his duty. If it is the law that persons who | he hands of his lawless employ court, there will be a speedy and effective way'| of reforming the management of the public pound. All the Board of Supervisors need do in order to secure a good administration of that institution will be to increase the bond of the poundkeeper in pro- portion to the damage he may do. Mr. Blanchard is entitled to credit for having es- tablish to be hoped that other people whose property is made the sport of the poundkeeper's lawless deputies will fol- low his example. It is better to resort to the court rather than to the club. Under the State law dogs are property, and dam- be recovered for their destruction or in- well as the destruction or injury of other The poundkeeper has no right to impound can mulct s precedent, and it sincerely may jury anima cattle 1 horses found in private inclosures, and when he does so he is guilty of larceny. There must be some way to stop that kind of business, and the method pointed out by Mr. Blanchard's proceeding | is even better than applying to the Board of Super- visors, THE GRAND JURY. N using the expression he Grand Jury” refer- | I ence is not necessarily had to the presznt body. It | may have been futile, but so have all that have preceded it, and so will be all of the long array to follow. The average Grand Jury consists of tradition, in- tentions and mediocrity. It labors as the mountain, but does not bring forth so much as a mouse. If it | - serves any purpose it is that of ornament, and that it | adorns the social structure in any measure worth the | expense is an open question. i With all the rascality offered for it to deal with, the present jury has done nothing. It had the School Board, the ferry frauds, the miscellaneous peculationts of public officials as material with which to work, and what it has complished. Tt goes from office without honor and without even a bluff at achievement. Once more, as it has often done, a question arises as to what the Grand Jury is for. Surely it has some power. Who is balking it? What malign force stands between it and the accomplishment of something? It is this force which is in need of indictment. If the jury can't indict it, let it confess and indict itself. This wiuch is certainly due the public a cipher represents THE QUESTION OF PENALTY. OMASSO KELLINT has been found guilty of murder. As he, indubitably, was guilty, this is [ certainly a step in the right direction. But the jury said the penalty should be imprisonment ~ for life. Why? To send a man to prison for life means simply that a new burden is imposed upon society. It is not mercy to the man, for rather than be a hopeless pris- oner, he might better be dead. Society is under no obligations to the class of people who kill. They for- feit their right to existence when they give vent to their dangerous passions. They become a menace, and the privilege of protection against them cannot be withheld. There is no reason why, instead of be- ing put out of the way, they should be granted an existence that is worse than wasted, because it is of no service to them, no service to anybody else, and an absolute burden on people who, refraining from the delights of slaughter, simply attend to business, which includes the paying of taxes. We do not consider Tomasso as an individual. He is simply an example. He committed a murder for which there was no shadow of excuse, znd he should be hanged for it. If the death penalty is a pretense let it be abolished, but if it is a reality let it be im- posed when the subject is deserving | else there can be but little gladness in the day for B MERRY CHRISTMAS TO dLL. AIL, Christmas day, and a merry Christmas to H all! Once more our eyes are gladdened by the beholding of the anniversary that brings with its sunshine every form of joy known to the human | breast. The gay merriment of light-hearted children, | the deeper feetings of love and of friendship made | | manifest by the interchange of gifts, the benevolent ministrations of charity, the profound gratitude of | deeply religious souls—all have their part in making | up the sum of joy that brightens Christendom and lightens the world to-day. In a special sense this is children’s day, and is to be l‘ enjoyed by old people only upon condition that they‘; revive within their hearts something of the feelings of | childhood. There must be sympathy with happy hearted laughter, with childhood’s faith and love, or any, no matter how large may be the host of their | friends, how sumptuous the feast that awaits them, or how numerous and beautiful the rich presents be- stowed upon them. | Happy are those families that can gather to-day in one household. Happy also are those far scattered families who on this day renew in spirit the old-time ties and feel again in all their original force the in- | fluences of family love and affection. Happy are | those who out of their prosperity can help the needy, | and happy also are the needy who can find on this day | { evidences of that generous helpfulness that binds men | 'mgcthcr not only in the humanity of a common de- scent from Adam, but-in the diviner brotherhood of | the spiritual relation of all to Christ. | On the old Judean hills nearly nineteen hundred | i years ago the startled shepherds saw angels descend- ing and heard the heavenly song, “Peace on earth; | good will to men.” Through all the long drawn cen- ;turics since then that song has been to mankind a | comfort, a hope and an inspiration. It has sung | | into the hearts and the brains of men loftier ideals of | | aspiration and nobler purposes of life. Its beautiful | words, infused with the holiness of heaven, still seem {to vibrate after all these years with something of the Ecclcshal music that first sounded them through the | | world. “Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the | ! world,” said Jesus. The divine promise has been kept | | through nineteen centuries, and with each succeeding one humanity has grown better and brighter :md} nearer to the accomplishment of the true kingdom of | Christ. Never before was man so helpful to man as | now, never before were manners so gentle or morals | | votion to our institutions. States, but not all of it has come from that source. The best lesson which the Soutly has to teach to the West is what her own citizens have accomplished in diversifying their industries. An illustration of what has been achieved in that way was given in a recent speech at a Board of Trade banquet at Dallas by Joseph D. Sayers, the Governor- elect of Texas, who, in advocating the establishment of factories in that State, said: “In conversation with the Governor of Georgia a few years ago, illustrating the progress which his own State had made in manufactures, he spoke to me of his own little town of not exceeding 2300 inhabitants. There was not within its limits a citizen whose estate | reached the sum of $25000. They were getting poorer, while other cities in the State were' becoming richer and more densely populated. The people of this fittle city got together and determined to build a factory. They didn’t want to build an expensive one. They didn’t propose to put up buildings three andi four stories high, but a plain, simple, one-story build- ing. Stock was issued only to those who lived within | th * community, and to none other. No man was per- mitted to take more than $1000 worth of stock. They began in this small way, and in less than five years they were exporting from their village more than $1,000,000 worth ‘of cotton fabrics every year, and now | there isn’t a single idle boy or girl within that com- munity, my friends. Young men are not studying law nor medicine, but they are earning a living.” There are many small communities in California that might profitably follow the example of this| Georgia town. Self help is better than waiting for | capital to come in from abroad. The manufacture of | fruit into fine jellies and preserves can be carried on in small factories just as well as the manufacture of cotton. Tt would be worth while for the towns that form the centers of our fruit districts to try it. Vthis moment, and they appeal to the deep-seated beliefs and conscience of public men. They call for expression of opinions by leaders who | have shown, in the past, intelligent and unselfish de- They involve great con- stitutional questions, and their solution promises to greatly affect the future of our Government and our people. Men wise in the knowledge of public law; scholars trained in the study of physical problems; ethnolo- gists and biologists and social philosophers, all have their attention fixed upon the issue of our war with | A TALE OF TWO . BILLIES. ERY grave problems confront the country at so pure. The joys of this Christmas day will be shared | more abundantly by a larger proportion of men than | those of any since the great festival was first estab-i lished. | The saddest souls can find some joy in this holy | | season, the happiest hearts some cause for increased | gladness. In the solemn churches so beautifully | decorated, in the well-ordered homes where peace and | love and plenty dwell, in all the haunts of men, there will be found and felt the radiance of the joyous influence of the day, and everywhere and at all times the salutation will be full of cordiality as men and | women meet to wish one another, as The Call wishes | them, “A merry Christmas day.” THE BRITISH LIBERAL PROGRAMME. | Y the retirement of Sir William Harcourt from the leadership of the Liberal party in the House | of Commons the confusion among the Liberals | which has prevailed more or less ever since the re- tirement of Mr. Gladstone has reached a crisis. At no period in this generation has Liberalism been so | weak in the kingdom. At the present time it has neither a leader, a fighting force nor a platform. The Ilondon Chronicle, one of the ablest represen- tatives of the party, attributes the confusion mainly | to the inability of the Jeaders in Parliament to agree | upon a plan of action. In a recent issue it says: “It is perfectly well known they never seriously consult | even among themselves. Still less do they consult their party, whether within or without the House. They are much at variance as to what ought to be done in many grave matters, and even as to what the bulk of the party would wish them to do. They doi not arrange what they shall say or when they shall keep silent. The game goes on as it may, and games so played are lost before they are begun.” It seems to be conceded that the Liberal party will not again in the near future undertake a fight for home rule in Ireland. In a recent address to his con« stituents on the subject Sir Henry Campbell Banner- man said: “The party was not blind, or deaf, or idiotic. Liberals must take facts as they found them. | Two heroic attempts had been made within the last | few years to carry out this great change. They had failed, even though sustained by the genius and en- thusiasm of the author of the measures, who had now passed from them forever. Could they shut their eyes to the fact that the preponderating opinion in England was opposed to home rule, and that a third attempt, in present circumstances, to pass it would really mean a third failure? ~ What could be gained for the cause by going on kicking against a stone wall?” With the view taken by Sir Henry the more in- fluential papers, as well as the leaders of the party, seem to agree. The prevailing opinion is that the new local government act should be thoroughly tested be- fore any further steps are taken toward an extension of self-government to Ireland. The old issue brought to the front by Parnell and sustained by Gladstone being thus set aside, for a time, at any rate, and there being no leader to come forward with a new programme, the Chronicle has collected what it calls “opinions from representative quarters” as to what the policy of the party should be. It announces as the result that there is among Liberals, first, “a strong general desire to raise the question of the Lords,” and, second, *“ a powerful and genuine movement in favor of the taxation of ground values.” On each of these issues the Liberals would have the support of all the radicals in the kingdom, and their support in many constituencies would be sufficient to determine the result by the defeat of the Conservative candidates. A campaign along such lines would be lively, and the very fact that the policy is proposed by so strong an organization as the Liberal party gives promise that ‘he coming of something like a social and political revolution in Great Britain is near at hand. A LESSON FROM THE SOUTH. NE of the notable features of the industrial O activity of the country is the energy with which the Southefn State. have entered upon the task of building up manufacturing enterprises. Several of the States of that section have undertaken to foster such enterprises by exempting them from taxation for a series of years, and Alabama has re- cently joined the number by granting a ten years’ freedom from taxation to all manufacturing estab- lishments set up within the State in the next five years. Much of the manufacturing enterprise of the South has been due to Northern capital anc Northern jcnergy, which Have been induced to enter those Spain, the negative and affirmative responsibilities it has brought to us, and the manner of our acceptance or rejection of them. In the two leading parties of the country there is not internal harmony of opinion upon the policy of expansion. In each are strong men who oppose, and as strong who favor, that policy. The great mass cf | conservative opinion appears to be against it, and there is a desire that it be approached and settled without an appeal to partisanship. In this high and mighty time, when thoughtful men pause and ponder each proposed step, the comedy fea- ture is introduced by the appearance of the two Billies, Hearst and Bryan, one out of his unripeness yelling, “Nail the flag to the Philippines!” and the other, out of his desire to remain an object of at- tention, shouting, “Pull it down!” Each gravely in- forms the country that he is the leader of the Demo- cratic party, each has a past that consists of ungrati- fied ambition and a future woven of rainbows. Neither is qualified by natural talents, culture or experience to lead anything more serious than a cotillon, and then not unless the figures are called, yet they are self-deluded by the belief that they are leading the country! Colonel Bryan“has been living in a tent for three months, drawing a colonel’s pay and commutation, in- attentive to the formation of public opinion which has been in progress since expansion was proposed, and just as cold weather came on has resigned from the army in order to try and assume leadership of the aiti-imperialist movement. It should not be neces- sary to inform Colonel Bryan that neither his party nor his country looks to him for leadership in any grave matter, nor will either gratify his vanity by accepting him in that capacity. Mr. Hearst succeeds in being merely ridiculous. He advised his party here into a situation in which it got 4 sound thrashing, and while it blubbered and rubbed its bruises he turned upon it with jibes and jeers for following his advice. Like Bryan, he is greedy of notice and has less talents and training to support him beyond mere notoriety. Verily the Democracy of Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland has fallen and shrunken painfully if it have come to the size of these rival Billies, who are pull- ing it in opposite directions like two billygoats tug- ging at the remains of a ripe hoop skirt. The judicial and argumentative temper in which the Nebraska Billy approaches the discussion of the subject is seen in his speech in Lincoln last Friday night, in which he said that the gold standard has wrought more wrong and injustice in this country in the last twenty-five years than Spain ever wrought in all her colonies. We intervened in the Spanish colonies by virtue of a nation’s right to compel the end of unjust govern- ment, and the world refused to prevent the execution of our purpose. Now, here is Colonel Bryan, an American citizen, supposed to speak for millions, who declares that our Government in twenty-five years has been guilty of more injustice and inhumanity to our people than Spain was guilty of to her colonies in three centuries! If this is the truth, the world that let us punish Spain for less crimes than ours has, by our precedent, the right to move on our works at once, punish our Government and liberate our people! The sober-minded people who view with alarm the experiment of imperialism in the tropics may view with a panic the championship of Colonel Bryan which proceeds upon the declaration that our govern- ment at home is worse than that of Spain abroad! ——— Santiago has become clean by the method of using the lash on the people who transgressed sanitary Jaws. While the method cannot well be applied gen- erally, the virtue of it will be recognized. The coming of the Santa Fe to this coast means that other great lines are bound to follow. Roads which now terminate in Colorado and Utah will be no longer content to stay thére. It is not possible to watch a man ascend in a bal- loon, hanging by his teeth, without wishing that the laws of gravitation would be suspended. The man invariably comes down. Three months for stealing a turkey; acquittal for having killed an inoffensive man. The administration of justice has not been reduced to an exact science. Lt Let us forget that the Spanish Peace Commission- ers have called us “upstarts.” It is a fact that when the provocation warranted we did upstart. SRS AR The fact that another French soldier has been ac- RN RO 4 It is curious to notice that the Super- visors in their latest extension of time to Bateman Brothers have set July of next year as the limit. These contrac- tors have undertaken to erect the Hall of Justiee, or, rather, they have under- taken not to permit any other comtrac- tors to erect it. They have obtained extension after extension, and doubt- less can obtain more. They can have all the time théy want, and bulge over into eternity. They can bequeath the job to their children, and their chil- dren’s children can grow gray in pur- suit of the noble industry of making a lot of monkeys of the Board of Super- visors and blocking the progress of the north end of the city. Therefore to set so early a date as next July is only a waste of effort. Another extension will then be' given, not for the mere ask- ing, perhaps, but still, it will not be withheld. As a matter of fact, Bate- man Brothers should have been thrown bodily off the work at their initial fail- ure to live up to the terms. There has never'been advanced the shadow of ex- cuse for letting them abuse the public and ignore the stipulations supposed to govern them. Even now there might reasonably be an endeavor to have constructed a Hall of Justice somewhere else. The people need one. The present architectural tortoise is not for use; it is solely for the amuse- ment and edification of the living Bate- mans and of uncounted Batemans yet to be. “L. Y. B”—If it were possible to make out what you mean, I could with a clear conscien{:e agree with you. Lillie K.—I grieve to have to state that thé stuff you send is not poetry. ‘Why not enter into a literary partner- ship, your share of work being to fur- nish the stationery? “A Friend."—Anybody able to write so bright a letter ought to be willing to sign it. Please try your Christian science on the habit of being anony- mous. « s e A Kentucky Judge, deeming a re- porter guilty. of contempt, forced the offender to sit all day on the bench with him and facetiously called attention to “my learned associate.”” There were two fools on the bench that day. I would like to have some attorney cite the law under which the Judge was acting, as well as the rule which pre- vented the reporter from taking a leg of the bench and beating out such apology for brains as the court pos- sessed. However, a reporter who would submit to the indignity deserves no sympathy and probably would not recognize it if extended to him. &5 wion As to the policy of expansion, I deem it useless to say anything for there is no use to attempt putting the brakes on the wheel of destiny nor to attempt to accelerate the speed. In the long run the result is the same and fthe wear and tear of tissue is a needless waste. I observe that the Rev. Mr. Parkhurst has decided that this country must not grow save within bounds already fixed, and is making remarks about it. It could be wished that Parkhurst would learn the peace and joy which comes of attending to one’s own business. He smears his pulpit cushion with some of the filling of every pie, for to keep his fingers out of the pastry is a course never oceurring to him. In fact Park- hurst does almost everything save preaching the Gospel. As a reformer he is virulent and ineffective. Posing as an apostle of every fad, he keeps himself in print. I never heard of his doing any good, nor of his bringing anything but reproach upon the high calling he draws a salary for following while invariably engaged in following something else. . “The Coming Light” appears with an appeal for support, but before con- tributing I am willing to await its ar- rival, . . Andrew Carnegie summoned Bryan. and Bryan went. As an admirer of the Nebraskan, I am sorry for this. Car- negie is not a good American. He has secured a great fortune out of the pro- tection the laws of this country afford- ed him, and he does not appreciate his luck. The men who work for him have never felt the effects of his liberality. because the quality is one he does not possess. It is true that he has given money away, but only when it was to be so expended as to perpetuate his name. Rockefeller has done the same thing, and there is none so foolish as to deem the oily magnate either a good citizen or a liberal man. If Bryan ex- pects to retain the hold he has uvon a portion of the people of this country, he must be careful as to the comphny he keeps. He cannot afford to mix with Carnegie. . . It is impossible not to admire the spunk of Mrs. Himmelman. Ten years.| after this woman had been divorced from her husband he took a notion that he desired the custody of their chil- dren, and as the ways of the courts are past finding out, got permission to take them away from her. While she dick- ered with the Sheriff's men at the front door she smuggled the youngsters out at the back, and at this writing has them in hiding. I hope she will keep them there. Ten years is a considera- ble period for the love of a father to re- main dormant. . Many remarks have been made about Dunning, and such as may have been of a complimentary nature I failed to note. The man does not appear in an enviable light, and yet it does not seem fair that for the only exhibition of de- cency he has given he should have been sent to jail. Dunning refused to an- swer a certain impertinent question propounded by Attorney Knight. In my judgment, which may be bad, Knight had no business to ask the question, and knew this when he asked it. He seems to have a total disre- gard for the rights of a witness. It has always been a puzzle to me why within a court a lawyer should have the privi- lege of being impudent to a degree which in any other place would earn him a cracked pate. Many cross ex- aminers seem to regard the feat of in- sulting witnesses as something of which to be pfoud. As a matter of fact, it is cowardly, brutal and stupid. Cow- ardly because the witness has no means of defense; brutal becauge it is torture of the helpless, the exagger- ated tendency of the small boy to im- pale a fly; and stupid because any fool with a tongue can harass. There is no bravery in prodding a caged lion or lashing a chained mastiff. The fault cused of betraying army seccrets is fairly good evi- dence that he is not guilty, b % 3 is not peculiar to Knight, but because {he talks more and louder than most of 0000000000000 0® 0000000600080 00600Q WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS. By HENRY JAMES. @ 000900900000 00000900090 000900000006000060660 OO O ms_kmd, he makes it appear more than ordinarily offensive. : . As to the guilt or innocence of the Botkin woman there is nothing which may with propriety be now said, but as to the morbid females who flock to her trial, craning their neeks to catch each particle cf filth set afloat, com- ment is permissible. They are all guilty of indecency, and each one, as she scrambles for entrance, lays aside her claim to respect. The perverted mas- culine intelligence which similarly pro- claims its nastiness is as bad, but less shocking. . ey Liliuokalani asks that the lands taken from her be restored. There may be here and there a tendency to sneer at the request, but I do not understand Why. She was robbed of the land as surely as she would have been robbed ‘of her watch through the act of a pick- Docket in extracting that article from her pocket. Nobody had any right. to deprive her of her holdings. If the peo- ple of the United States have persuaded themselves that the overthrow of the monarchy against the tearful protests of its subjects was justifiable they surely have not gone so far as to think that larceny fs a virtue. s s e Writing of the theft of the skull of Lillian Brandes an Oakland paper says the insinuation that the relic may be tampered with is tantamount to say- | ing that the attorneys are capable of becoming accessories to murder. So it is. What of it2 P Enterprise is commendable, but to make a hit it must have something more than the attribute of cheapness. I notice an evening paper out openly and holdly to advocate a welcome for the C?lifomln troops when they come back will be as certain as the rising of the sun I am waiting with curiosity to see the paper in question take to itself all the credit for this. No easier path to glory was ever blazed. When the boys arrive there will be such a demonstra- tion as the city has never witnessed. Nothing could prevent this, nothing keep the enthuslasm in check. There Wwill not be the least inclination to try. And after it is easy to imagine the paper in question proclaiming with jy- bilation the result of its endeavors. e el The anarchist howls for the abolition of law, and we regard him as a rogue or idiot. Yet good people must some- times wonder what law is for unless to be degraded. Certainly those persons Wwho are guided by base instincts., and at the same time have money. can safely defy it. In the absence of money, a pull is potent. Here ig the ‘Wells-Fargo Express Company, a cor- poration headed by g godly man burst- ing with scriptural quotation, -and yet every day cheating its. customers de- liberately, systematically, and making the pretense that it thinks itself abid- ing by the statute, Here is 4 school board, many of whose members, for ex- ample, Waller and Ragan, deserve to be in the penitentiary as felons, rob- bing the public, pilfering from the pockets of the teachers and laughing gaily at any attempt to check them. Here are seekers after office solemnly making oath that their election ex- penses ‘have been a trifle, certainly within the legal limit, and knowing. as everybody else knows, that when they S0 swear they commit willful perjury. Here is a Board of Supervisors bound to protect municipal interests, and do- ing everything but this. Here is a Grand Jury helpless or unwilling to bring the rascals to account. Nothing need be said of the shameless travesty of almost every trial for murder. the gambling, secret only from the police, the plundering of public funds. In a broader way this same disregard for the law may be observed all over the country. What does Huntington care for the law? How much does it con- cern a Yerkes? Why should Standard Oil be permitted to burn its books? The truth is, wealth and influence have the power to trample law under foot. The poor and friendless, transgressing, catch the full force of the penalty. Had Rosser been the son of poverty, his victim a millionaire, he would have died in the penitentiary of old age. Had Figel been a pauper the cases against him would not have been dis- missed and police energy would never have been devoted to establishing his innocence. Contemplation of the truth as it apoears every day in local his- tory and the history being made all over the country is enough to excite grave misgivings. . Mrs. Mary Haman of Sacramente sends out a circular setting forth that she has been ordered of the Lord to an- nounce that he is not cowing during 1899. While this may not be official there is evidence that the lady is sin- cere, and I willingly contribute to the spread of her information. e e There is something brutally strange in the indignant charge that there has been no suffering in Monterey County and that the kindly impulse to send provisions to the hungry there is born of a wanton desire to give the locality a bad name. In all probability, how- ever, the citizens whose stomachs are experiencing the first satisfactory die- tention in many days will fail to in- dorse the peculiar view. TR The seating of a polygamist in Con- gress would be wrong beyond the point of toleration. Not only would it Le the anomaly of giving to a deflant law- breaker a place among law-makers, but it would degrade the tone of the House, Congress has ever been distinguished for the strictness of its mora% and the rigidity of its virtues as well as the unquestioned purity of its motives, It could ill afford to lower the standard which hos made it the pride of one con- tinent, the wonder of another and the joy of heaven. . * ‘Whatever may be the conclusions of the investigating committee the fact ig plain that the commissary department of the army in Cuba was miserably managed. The great fault was with tha contractors. Of course a contractor who would gell rotten meat for the usc of soldiers is a miserable traitor who ought never to be paid and deserves hanging. But of course he will be paid and instead of being hanged have a larger bank account and be a solid citi- zen, his counsel sought among finan- ciers. It is with a thrill of pride I notice a college president has resigned to acs cept the position of under sheriff af i Tom Manila. As such a welcome | Sonoma County. Comparatively few college presidents have ever done any: thing like this. In fact there may be heads of universities so set in_ their ways that the chance to be under sheriff- would not appeal to them. So- noma County is to be congratulated. Tts writs will be couched in classic terms and notices of delinquent sales sa cortectly worded as really to make pleasant reading. Eiin There is a person addicted hopelessly to the crime of writing who proclaims that I have no more sentiment than a mule. But even a mule would kick that particular.persfn. = The literary gentleman of the Ex- aminer is trying to discourage Kipling, but I hope the virile Englishman, who writes better fiction and better poetry than any other author of the genera- tion, will keep right on. To be sure he has given us a few things lately nat up to his own incomparable standard, | but these were not the ones selected for condemnation. A eritic who tail‘s_ to see beauty in “The Brushweod Boy has a broken cog in the steering gear of his perceptive faculties. R S A dispatch from St. Louis states that an ex-canvict there has committed sui- cide because private detectives, despite his desire to lead an honest life, hound- {ed him from place to place and would not permit him to earn bread. A proper sequel would be the report of the sui- cide of some of the private detectives, It is a melancholy circumstance that to the private detective suicide seems ta present but meager attraction. Without doubt there are honest men who go inte thig calling, but while as & newspaper reporter 1 have had to meet and know | many of the sleuth hounds, I do not re- call that I ever had the pleasure of run- ning across one of this variety. The average private detective is worse than the man whem he arrests or blackmails, a choice of course being decided upon after the weighing of the prospective | profits. There should be something done to suppress the craft. An ex-convict has rights and among them that or ! making an honest living if so inclined, | There is a tendency to damn a person | who has* been in the Dpenitentiary, | whereas, the truth is, he may be | morally and intellectually the superior | of his neighbor who has never been | there but ought to have been. I could name men of national reputation and influence who should be wearing stripes, men who have millions and never an honest penny, men who have position secured never by unpurchased votes, men who aspire to office but have not been purged of thieving ree- ords, and have escaped the punishment which a hungry citizen stealing a ham cannot hope to escape. I have known men who under some sudden impulse have committed a crime and repented of it bitterly before the hand of the law had touched them and othgr men | who have deliberately committed greater crime, scoffed at the idea that | the law could reach them, and kept !r!ght on being respectable. I do not | think that privaie detectives should hound any man to death, but if they cannot resist the inclination to attempt something of the kind, wish they might try it not on persons who have 'been convicts, but upon those who ought to be convicts with terms so long as to have no chance of acquiring the “ex.” PR ' ‘When ladies gravely declare that the mistletoe is out of date, with all respect to them I am 'inclined to believe the out-of-dateness does not apply to the | mistletoe. | To friends everywhere I send Christ- mas greeting, and’ suggest on behalf of | thig excellent family journal that now is the time to subscribe. Not that I «care much, being certain they will get the paper even if necessary to borrow it, but the wisdom of cultivating the good will of the business office is known to every newspaper writer. HEXEERRRERXX R RBRN RS HIS NAME IS IMMORTAL The name of Grant is immortal, but the Grant who is trying to be United States Senator because of his name is, so far as the people of California know to the contrary, a very commonplace personage. They say that he has bought a few legislators whose votes he expects to receive. Time will tell— Redding Free Press. FEXRERREZ R XX R R —_—— IN THE BEST OF HUMOR. A prize fight is not called a mill be- cause it gives work for the hands.—Phile delphia Times. the tragedy, who can— D{s!‘g;:lnad two hearts must feel!) Here's ‘“Wanted—To exchange a tan- Dem for a single wheel.” —Puck. Simkins—What ma.k;s your nose so red, Timkins? Timkins—It glows with pride, sir, at not p:zll‘gllngiittaelt into other people’s businesa. ~Tit 8. EREXHFRRRXKEE LR RXXEK KX KRR R LR EE R EREREEREER ERE X ERER EEE T n't Longhill recovered yet from the illness he contracted in the army?" “No; his pension arpllcnuon won't be passed on for several weeks."—Philadel- phia North American. “I cured my wife of wanting her own way about everything.” I let her have it."—Chicagp Record. He sang a little song of snow, But snow staid out of sight, He sang a song of violets, And every roof was white! Atlanta Constitution, Her arm was white and beautiful, Her jewels glittered like the stars. A hundred envious whispers said: “‘She’s got two vaccination scars.” —Chicago Tribune, “‘One of my romances netted me 100,000 marks.” “Which one?" “‘One I carried on with a rich over in Ostend. I married her." gende Blaetter. The best Xmas present: Townsend's Cal- ifornia Glace Fruits, &lc, in_ fire etched boxes or Japanese baskets. 3 Palace Hotel buuol;:. ol Geiall = Special information supplied daily to business houses and public men by the Press Clipping Bureay en's), 510 Mont- gomery street. Te\anhgne Mash) 1042, ¢ Gazkins~I struck great luck to-day. the way, so did I. B T 0t cal e jury. U didr T Fot let offi—Rox: bury Gazette, : Agx 'S ENY pDY WILL STOP. 2 o lfi“ nnyaxfliflm‘;l cure :37 worst leom ed. At twelve hours or meney refun Drug Co.