The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 27, 1898, Page 4

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1898 TUESDAY.................DECEMBER 27, 188 JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. ”;ddress All Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager. PUBLICATION OFFICE......Market and Third Sts., S. F. Telephone Main 1868. EDITORIAL ROOMS..........2I7 to 22! Stevenson Street Telephone Maln 1874. e oot e s A A Sy AMUSEMENTS. California—*‘"Magda.” 1 Minstrel Jubiles. Alcazar—'""A Midnight Bell” The Yellow Dwarf.” o's—"'The White Squadron.” heum—Vaudeville. A Romance of Coon Hollow.” The Chutes—Gorilla Man, Vaudeville and the Zoo. a — Corner Mason and Eddy streets, Speclalties. o ck—Race! Rosenthal Plano Recital, Tuesday even- AUCTION SALES, By Sullivan & Doyle—Wednesday, December 33, at 11 o'clock, Horses, Buggles, etc., at 327 Sixth street. EXPRESS COMPANY EXTORTION. Y reports that come to us from the East it is} de evident that the campaign of the Mer- | chants’ Association of New York against thc‘ extortions of the express companies is going vigor- | « on. A large array of statistics has been pub- lished showing the extent to which the people of that are robbed by the combined companies, who, in ! nce of the law, have organized something like a = gh it is called by another name. recent statement gives an interesting demonstra- \ of the way the express companies make their arges appear small while being really very large. From this it appears that about 40 per cent of the ex- press rates goes to the railroads and the balance is kept by the express companies for terminal charges— | hat is, for the collection and delivery of parcels. On | packages for short distances the rates are seem- | ingly low, but for long distances the charges are in- creased to such an extent as to make extraordinary profits for the extortioners. The following table f rates on packages of 100 pounds from New York to various points illustrates the working of the scheme: Rallroad Express Co. gets for gets for transportation. two cartages, To Yonkers . 2( $ ?‘l‘j; 5 & | To Buft . 5 To Cleveland . 05 35 | Denver, Ci Salt Lak nt 80 80 | | To ; While these figures were collected primarily to show the extortion in New York, they are interesting to the | whole countr; cities are as badly cinched as | the metropol It is of course no more expensive to | collect a package in New York for delivery in San | Francisco than one for delivery in Yonkers, and yet | the charge in the one case is only 30 cents, while for delivery in this city the charge is $8 70 above the amount paid to the roads for transportation. It must be borne in mind that these extortionate rming a league for the purpose of have had the meanness to shirk | r tax and shift it upon the mer- It was this last act that ssociation in New York to | e campaign which promises : r ot companies, after f fleecing the publi their share of the w chants and other shippe roused the Merch: indignation and started to end in the overthrow of the league. 3 | The campaign thus energ lly undertaken and | supported with such abundant evidence of extortion is one that should be cordially supported throughout; the Union. San Francisco has more reason than New | York to make a fight against the wrong, for no ex- press comp: has been more rapacious or more dis- loyal and dishonest in shifting its taxes than that which operates in this city under the direction of the holy sniveler who makes such an ostentatious parade of piety. N missioners has given rise to more discussion than the proposed abolition of the savings bank system in the islands and the closing up of the institu- POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS. O feature of the report of the Hawaiian Com- tion by making repayments of deposits as soon as practicable. Postal savings banks have been in operation in Hawaii ever since 1886, and, as in every other country where fairly tried, they have proven successful a greatly beneficial to the peo- ple. It is stated that the deposits in these banks at the present time amount to some- thing over $1,000,000, which is about $10 per capita to The working classes in the islands have profited by the existence of the banks, and through them considerable sums of money, which would otherwise have been hoarded, have been placed at the disposal of trade and industry. The proposal to abolish them is due to the fact that we have no postal bank system in this country, and the Commissioners deem it advisable to make the postal system of Hawaii harmonize with our own. Commenting upon this argument the St. Paul Pioneer-Press says: “What necessity there is for enforcing harmony or uniformity in the case is not strikingly evident. There are a great many points of administration yet to be discovered, as our governmental relations with our new dependencies shall take form, which cannot and ought not yet awhile to be made uniform with what we are accustomed to in the States. more, if uniformity in the conduct of postal matters is desired, Hawaii is in this instance distinctly in advance of the United States, and it would be far better to at once devise a postal savings bank system for the nation, and all its dependencies, than to set Hawaii back in the scale of progress in order to bring her postal system down to the present lower level of our own.” With the view taken by the Pioneer-Press most strdents of the subject will agree. There has long been an agitation in this country in favor of estab- lishing postal savings banks, and several Postmasters- General have recommended them. In fact, a bill to provide for their establishment was before Congress at its last session, and the subject may be taken up as soon as the new Congress assembles. Under the circumstances it would seem to be hardly worth while to close out the banks in Hawaii. The system is serving a good purpose there, and even ii we do not adopt a similar system of our own within the next few years it would still be no more than right to leave the Hawaiians in the enjoyment of the bene- fits to which they have been accustomed for the last twelve years. the population. Further- | THE NEED OF A CURRENCY SESSION. l at the regular session, nor a possibility of after. In this situation it is necessary to examine the con- ditions which exist and judge whether it is wise that the Republican party omit and avoid the first oppor- tunity it has had to affirm and accentuate its position as a sound money party. The opposition to an extra session declares, broadly, that there is no need of financial reform, that a protective tarift only is re- quired to protect the treasury against depletion by redemption of greenbacks, and that as long as we | have such a tariff specie payments will not be im- periled. This view is not in accord with an experience so recent that all men should remember it. President Harrison was inaugurated March 4, 1889. That day there was a balance in the treasury of $330,348,016. Of this there was in free gold, exclusive of the $100,000,000 reserve and redemption fund, $196,- 689,614. A protective tariff was passed in 18g0—the | McKinley bill, which has been justly regarded as a model measure. That tariff afforded all the protec- | tion to the treasury that can be expected of the exist- | T is believed that unless an ‘extra session of the Fifty-sixth Congress is held next spring for cur- rency legislation there will be no such legislation it there- | annexation by joint resolution has been condemned | membered how the English Revolution originated in ing Dingley bill, and equally safeguarded specie pay- ments. But, at the close of the Harrison administra- | tion the cash balance in the treasury had fallen to $162,450,577, including the gold reserve for greenback redemption. In the last three months of that ad- ministration $36,500,000 in gold was withdrawn from the treasury by the presentation of greenbacks for re- demption. It is history that during those three months preparations had been made by Mr. Foster, | Secretary of the Treasury, to issue bonds to replenish the gold reserve and safeguard specie payments, as it is history that his successor was compelled to carry out this policy during the administration that fol- | lowed. | The last report of the Secretary of the Treasury | shows a deficit for the last fiscal year of $38,047,247, and for the present fiscal year of $112,000,000, making a total deficit for the first half of this administration of $150,047,247. The same report estimates a deficit for the fiscal year of 1000 of $30,048,378, or a total deficit for three years of $180,005,625. Last June the free gold in the treasury had fallen to $163,474,057, or $33,215,557 less than at the begin- ning of the Harrison administration. Thereafter the free gold was replenished, not by the protective tariff, but by the sale of war bonds, and reached its highest point October, 1808, when it stood at $245,063,795, but that exceeded the balance left by the first Cleveland administration by only $48,374,181, and that balance was the proceeds of revenue, and not of bond sales. We think that a study of these figures will convince any rqasonable man that the treasury stands as naked to a financial storm as ever, and that it is not pro- tected at all by the existing tariff, as it was not by the McKinley bill. In fact, neither the troubles of the treasury nor their cures originate in the tariff. Those troubles ebb and flow regardless of a tariff. Their efficient cure is to be sought in financial and currency legislation which will take off the treasury forever its burden as a redemption agency, and by | cutting the endless chain which can empty it at any | time, as it did during the Harrison and the last Cleve- | land administrations. | ' THE JURISPRUDENCE OF FRANCE. | the Dreyfus affair the point which has elicited the greatest surprise in this country has been the readiness with which a portion at least of the French public have accepted the condemnation of the young officer as justifiable, even though there may be doubt of his guilt. To Americans who are accus- tomed to regard with horror the mere suggestion that an innocent person may be in danger of punishment, and the whole theory of whose jurisprudence is founded upon the maxim, “Better that ten guilty men | should escape than that a single innocent one should | suffer,” this condition of the French public mind is | little less than marvelous. | Yet it is not a difficult matter to understand when | one studies the French character. Justice is not the | basis of French law, for the reason that a high senst]1 of justice does not prevail among the people. Con- | victions are in France usually the result of opinionsi or prejudices entertained by the Judges of the guilti of accused persons. Rules of evidence for ascertain- | ing the truth, and laws forbidding the cond:mna!ionf of men of whose guilt there is doubt, as we under- | | stand them, are practically unknown in France. Dur- | ing the Dreyfus excitement, it will be remembered, | the officials who prosecuted the alleged culprit fre- | quently assured the public that in their opinion he | | was guilty. An absence of proof was acknowledged, but there were certain “secret” documents upon which | the Government had predicated its opinion, but which it could not publish. The idea thus put forward was that the people should be satisfied when given solemn assurance of | | somebody’s implicit belief in the guilt of Dreyfus. The absurdity of convicting a man by this method may be iiilustratcd by supposing an American case. Imagine for a moment that the War Investigating Board, re- | cently in session at Washington should have brought in a report that General Miles was responsible for the blunders of the Cuban campaign, and without any other than a secret inquiry should have condemned him to banishment for life. Of course the country would have been convulsed. But suppose, while the people were expressing their indignation and the newspapers roaring their disapproval, President Mc- Kinley had written a card.solemnly assuring the pub- lic of his belief in Miles’ guilt! How would that have affected his reputation for sanity? Things like the Dreyfus affair are possible only in countries where there is an absence of the stern sense of justice which makes the law®ho respecter of persons in Anglo-Saxon nations. Dreyfus was made a scapegoat for what his persecutors considered jus- tifiable reasons. His Judges thought him guilty, and that was enough. It was Voltaire who said that the ccurts of France were unfit to administer justice be- cause they were governed by prejudice and were with- out responsibility. The Dreyfus affair proves that the condition which existed in France in his time still exists. The greatest necessity of France is an entire reform in its jurisprudence, the stripping of its Judges of much of their authority, and the abolition of military trials except in time of war, and then only for strictly military offenses. Doubtless the death of the senior Rosser was di- rectly due to the career of the.son. There is a possi- bility that the young man may yet receive a measure of the punishment the court refused to inflict. Whether or not Hobson was kissed from the At- lantic to the Pacific, there will be thousands of women who will claim in after years to know by personal ex- perience that he was. ol e Ly Germany will vainly seek the friendship of this | Under concurrent resolutions | read at every military post and at the head of every EXPANSION AND THE CONSTITUTION. HE Examiner of yesterday contained a signed Teditorial in favor of expansion, the black lines and raised letters of which stretched across a page. These eccentrical splurges of a young man who seems to have lost whatever brains he ever pos- sessed are nothing but solidified noise. Of course every American of ordinary intelligence and reading knows that neither Thomas Jefferson nor any other great American statesman ever wrote or uttered a word that could be even projected into the toleration of the extension of our institutions over Asiatic terri- tory or Asiatic populations or outside of this conti- nent and immediately adjacent islands. Mr. Jefferson was quite conscious that the ac- quisition of Louisiana, including the indis- pensable outlet of the Mississippi, was not warranted by the constitution, and so averse was he to a departure from the fundamental law that he sug- gested an amendment to cover that exceptional case. Though Texas was a most desirable part of this con- tinent, and in every respect eligible to statehood, its by all our great constitutional expounders, who re- John Hampden’s refusal to pay a small illegal tax, and that our independence resulted from resistance to @ preamble. When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States the cession was on con- ditions, having the legal force of a solemn compact, that it should be held under and not without the con- stitution, and that all the rights enumerated-in the Declaration of Independence should be inviolably maintained, and that it should be carved into States, on the exact footing of the original thirteen. These conditions were subsequently inserted in every ratified treaty under which territory was incor- porated into the Union. In Abraham Lincoln’s first | Inaugural Address he dwelt on the proposition that “all members of Congress swear their support to the whole constitution.” In July, 1861, Congress declared that the object of the Civil War was “to defend and maintain the supremacy of the constitution of the United States.” February 19, 1862, President Lin- coln recommended the reading of Washington’s Fare- well Address at all places throughout the Union. passed by Congress about the same date, extracts from that Address were regiment and corps of the army. These extracts de- clared the immutability of the constitution, except as it might be amended in conformity with its own terms. July 15, 1863, Mr. Lincoln again declared the preservation of the constitution to be the central point in the mighty conflict then raging. On De- cember 5, 1865, President Johnson in his Annual | Message said: “The constitution is the work of the people of the United States, and it should be as in- destructible as the people.” No President has deliv- AROUND THE CORRIDORS J. L. Kellogg of Lincoln is at the Grand. C. C. Van Linn of Los Angeles is at the Lick. Willlam 8. Pond of Portland is at the Grand. E. H. Warner of Colfax is at the Oc- cidental. . 3 Lorin Farr, ex-Mayor of Ogden, is at the Lick. J. D. Carr of Salinas s a guest at the Occidental. F. H. Kennedy of Stockton is at the Occidental. J. C. Plerson of Dayton is registered at the Palace. George H. Lamb 1s among the guests at the Palace. D. Mugdan of Hamburg, Germany, is at the Palace. J. A. Plummer of Stockton 18 registered at the Lick. L. E. Doon of Los Angeles is registered at the Grand. J. B. Peakes of Santa Cruz {s registered at the Palace. A. E. Nash and wife of Boston are stay- ing at the Palace. ortortoneionery Ivan de Mal- chin of St. Pe- IVAN DE MALCHIN tersburg, who 70 FIGET claims the mount- ed broadsword LOUIS TRONCHET. championship of the world, is in > the city. He is staying at the Russ. Malchin is here for the purpose of metting Louis Tronchet of the Olympic Club in a boardsword con- test. Tronchet has at last agreed to meet the doughty Russian, and the two men will fight in about three weks, just as soon as certain details of the contest are arranged. Malchin sald yesterday in speaking of the coming fight: *“I have been here three different times for the purpose of fighting Tronchet, but we never could agree on terms. At last, however, the Frenchman has consented to meet me and we will fight. I claim the champion- ship of the world by the right of my vic- tory over Captain Jennings at Seattle, April 20, 18%6. I have never been defeat- ed, but several times the referee has de- cided against me for some unintentional foul o my part. I shall go to work im- mediately and train my horse. This I can do by the time of the fight.” Machlin is one of the most expert broadsword fighters in the world and Tronchet is also a master of the sclence, so that a hotly contested argument may be looked fer. Judge John E. Davis of Jackson is stay- ing at the Palace. R. J. Northam and wife of Los Angeles are at the Palace. Mrs. C. B. Smith of Honolulu is a guest at the Occidental, Charles F. Price, from Kentucky, is a guest at the Palce. B. A Ogden, a miner from Sonora. is staying at the Grand. F. Christianer, who is in advance of ered a message which was not based on the necessity | of keeping strictly within the express and implied% powers granted by the people to the Federal Go\'-; ernment, and in all the official business of the nation | and of the various States, and in the decisions of the | courts, from Justices of the Peace up to the Supreme } Court of the United States, the limitations of the con- | stitution are observed and enforced day by day. In| fact, without the constitutions, State and Federal, the | United States would cease to exist. | Every naturalized citizen of the United States is compelled to swear that “he will support the consti- tution.” The general form of oath to be taken by per- sons in the civil, military or naval service is “to sup- port and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” and to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” Fifty- six articles of the Revised Statutes of the Unite States are “provisions common to all of the Terri- tories.” Fourteen articles, applicable to “all per- sons” in every State and Territory, secure to them ab- solute equality of rights, which are specifically enum- erated, and expressly abolish peonage and all con- tract service of that character. These laws were framed in pursuance of and under the constitution. It is this constitution, absolutely binding, expressly and inferentially, upon every citizen of the United States, which, in the interest of dishonest and treasonable speculators, it is deliberately proposed to violate in the acquisition and government of the Phil- ippines. It is this constitution, framed, interpreted and applied for more than a century and constituting the Government itself, against which the young man of the Examiner lifts his puny arm, and to escape from which he prints falsehoods and fake suggestions in relation to Thomas Jefferson. It is this constitu- ion that General Merritt declares we have “out- grown.” It is this constitution that Julian Hawthorne derides when he asserts: “It is time to cut loose from the apron-strings of Jefferson, Washington and the rest of that giant conclave.” Hearst has called men like Hoar “old grannies.” We now learn that ' the Fathers of the Republic wore aprons, to which their masculine successors can no longer be tied. It would seem that these treasonable utterances are | Sousa, is at the Palace. Attorney Carl E. Lindsay of Santa Cruz is a guest at the Grand. E. Rich and 8. Dixon of Sydney, Aus- | tralia, are guests at the Palace. A. H. Birrell of Portland and John Bir- rell of Dundee, Scotland, are at the Occi- dental. Alexander Brown of Milton, the recent- ly elected member of the State Board of Equalization, is staying at the Lick. Attorney George A. Sturtevant, who is one of the assistants in the office of At- torney General Ford, is at the Lick. EXIT THE CANNIBAL. Oh, the blithe and eager cannibal has seen his brightest days; They are fading out forever in Old Glory’s coming rays, And the happy missionary will not dread the fatal broth, As he drops that ragout feeling which was common to the cloth. Oh, no more the paunchy savage will set up his steaming pot, Out of which the fragrant parson will be forked or ladled hot; And no more will grinning henchmen squat beside the chief while he ‘With nice discrimination hands around the late For the Yankee's swep the ocean, and the polishers of bones In the Philippines and Sandwiches and far away Ladrones, z Must _resign their meatly diét and come down to plainer things, For there'll be no more man eating ‘neath the eagle's sheltering wings. —Cleveland Plaindealer. A QUAINT CORNER IN BOSTON. Nothing but sheer modesty prevents Trinity Court from being one of the show places of Boston. It is as far from the usual commonplace habitat as this side of the Atlantic knows anything about, and the wonder is its construction is not imitated in other cities where “apart- ment” houses abound, for it is both quaint and convenient. One must enjoy the pic- turesque corners in European cities to appreciate this little court, surrounded by | halls -that might have sle}gped over from some Tudor mansion, so English is their architecture, but which, be it said, is adapted to ease-loving American ideas. The Tudors would simply be the wonders if they could see what comfort we mod- erns demand for our every-day living. But there is nothing like combining the past with the present styles. It makes a in themselves convincing evidences of the liberality of the institutions under which they are tolerated. Fortunately, they do not represent the people, who, as Mr. Cleveland has observed, are ultimately gov- erned by their sober second thought.” The time has not yet arrived for the transplantation of Caesarism to American soil. The American Eagle will not flour- ich in the torrid region of the Philippines. The American flag will only be permanently hoisted where the constitution blazes through its stars and traitors writhe under its stripes. There is to be a new Grand Jury, and it ought to devote itself to patient study of some of the juries which have preceded. Unless these, now fading as they are into oblivion, can be snatched back long enough to serve as horrible examples, then does their existence represent absolute waste. A court-martial to decide whether Miles knows what he is talking about, and, if so, why Eagan is permitted to hold a job, could do no harm and would afford one of the gentlemen concerned a satisfaction so great that the country could freely share it. Mrs. Botkin’s plans for spending New Year's at Healdsburg show her at least to be a person whose serenity is of a brand hard to ruifle. Still, stranger things than the carrying out of the project happen right along. Dbl Many inmates of local jails fared better Christmas than many who never so conducted themselves as to know what the interior of a jail looks like. The moral of this is deliberately suppressed. With Don Carlos threatening to assail Spain and Weyler threatening to save it, that country is in a worse way than could have been brought about by a mere foreign war. — Lillian Russell announces that her heart has turned to stone, which is probably an intimation that the next suitor for it is going to get a marble article. It would seem that by selecting detached excerpts from the writings of Jefferson almost any theory of country while she continues.to heap contumely upon lthe American hog. !governmcnt can be sustained. But it can’t. charming association. of ideas. In the | afternoon, when the western sun is shin- | ing under that arch and the early English iron ornaments and gateway are silhouet- | ted against the light, it must be a very | indifferent observer who does not admire | the effect or have it recall some foreign | neighborhood 3000 miles at least from | Dartmouth street. And it should be added | that Trinitys Court has the advantage in | point of cleanliness to any place, however | historic or picturesque, abroad. It is so | swept and garnished, and the little iron balconies, with their gardening vines and potted plants, are so unlike story book decorations that there can be no mistake | that this is really typical American order. The clocks vis-a-vis on the towers are purely Bostonese. It is fancied they think themselves the Gog and Magog of this city, and while they are voiceless they keep up a devil of a thlnkjni about. what goes on around them. The flight of time is a serious matter with these two big dials; but watch them as you may, one never gets ahead of the other. They are twins with but one single thought and hands that beat as one.—Boston Herald. —_—————— SALE OF HORSEFLESH IN PARIS. The annual statistics published by the French Ministry of Agriculture indicate that the consumxuon of the flesh of horses, mules and aonkeys is steadily in- creasing in Paris. The number of stalls at which it is offered for sale now reaches 193. The number of horses brought to the shambles for slaughter was 21,667, of mules 52 and of donkeys 310, but 734 horses, a mule and 7 donkeys were con- demned as unfit for human food, so that the total killed and consumed was 20,933 horses, 51 mules and 303 donkeys. The prime cuts fetcheu about a franc a pound, some of the inferior parts maklnfiouttle 'xrnore than 10 cents per pound.—London 'imes. ———— PENNY RATE PROPOSED FOR CABLEGRAMS, Henniker Heaton, who {s now visiting his constituents at Canterbury, states that his next effort will be to establish perfect electrical communication between every part of the empire. ‘“‘At present,” he says, “it costs half a guinea a word to telegraph to some parts of the world, but 1 think that people who are in constant communication with each other are less likely to quarrel than those kept in sav- age isolation. You wwuld. h y belleve that out of every 110 messages received from Australia by telegraph only one is of a social or family character, while from India there is only one out of 300. I believe that a penny-a-word electrical telegraph system would be so utilized that it would draw the peoples of the British empire still closer together. Im- fterlej communication never will be per- ect until we can telegraph to the an- tipodes as cheaply as we can telegraph | dependent of wind, between London and Kent. Bear in mind this great fact, that during the last fif- teen years a quarter of a million of peo- ple have annually left this country for various parts of the empire and 'America, and it is of the highest possible impor- tance to make communication between these people and their friends in the old country as easy as speech, and as free as air, and thus retain their lovalty to the country of their birth.”—London Standard. —_——— SCISSORED FUN. Green—The teams used to drive on our golt grounds and nearly ruined them, so we put up that sign, “No driving on these links.” Redd—But, dear boy, I thought driving was part of the game!—Yonkers States- man. “When my wife starts in to give me a lecture, I just tell her to keep quiet, I do. “And does she?” “Say, look here, you are getting alto- ether too inquisitive!”’—Indianapolis ournal. “Didn’t you miss your horse?” asked the mfls‘h. yelsl..dro lied the Rough Rider, “but then we ve Western Mayors in our troop.'—Philadelphia North American. “I feel a little dull to-day,” sald the arvi ife. & “Ar?dg #:;x tired of this perpetual grind myself,” remarked the whetstone. '—Cin- cinnati Enquirer. “What's that you're reading so hard, Mr, Cashier?” “‘Oh, mel'elyH Ix{xprovln‘ myselt, sir; it's ile's ‘Self 7% ’ s?‘lflsm!. !?ou c;np draw your month's sal- ary and leave at once, Mr. Cashier. We wray_n( no one in charge of the cash who has corrupted his mind with such perni- clous_literature. ‘Self Help,’ indeed. Plck Me Up. “Is your husband a man Wwith much agination?” m‘l‘lgt'lidn't think so before he married me, but since I have heard the reasons he ives for not coming home to supper and for staying at the club until nearly day- light I've changed my mind.”"—Chicago Post. Annoyed Father—Late to breakfast aga.ln!o ‘em going to have Solomon’s prov- erb about the ant and the sluggard framed and hung up at the foot of your b ed. Educated Son—Indeed, sir, I think if that presuming fossil had had a trans- parent insight %nto his own multitudinous shortcomings and glaring discrepancies he would have been more wary in trans- mitting his savage advice to a cultivated posterity like us.—Life. “I'm ready,” shouted the speaker, *to meitm ca..lml)}" any emergency that may Arins . At ‘this moment the platform collapsed and the speaker exhibited great pertur- tion. bl“!-?:w about that one?” they asked him later. a“Elz-hat one did not arise.””—Indianapolis Journal. “Bixby is the most rabid anti-annexa- ever met.” “His wife had ‘floating Islands’ the other night for dessert and he wouldn't touch 'em.”’—Cleveland Plain Dealer. Mudge—I was just reading about how the !;)0{59 w‘x‘a’s lf'z,asung. v —Well? lzls\txdsgal wish some of the horses I bet on would pass something.—Indianapolis Journal. —_———————— WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY AT SEA. Obviously, the chief ihterest to us at- taching to Signor Marconi’s invention is the question of its applicablity to vessels at sea. Can they be enabled to tele- graph to other vessels or to the shore; and if so, can they do so under circum- stances of certainty and utility? It goes without saying that Signor Marconi him- self, together with his board of directors Zprincipally sanguine Irishmen—has ev- ery faith in the applicability of the in- vention to all sorts and conditions of things. Mr. Preece, the Government tel- egraphic expeft, has pronounced upon its feasibility under certain conditions. Still,| sensational as have been the results ef- fected, we prefer to keep an open mind as to the tness °§ tlfi S{s;em to meet irements of shipping. n"leh:e%‘;st noteworthy practical test of the invention in matters nautical was at the Kingstown regatta, in July last, when the details of a yacht race were suc- cessfully wired as they transpired. Since then experiments have also been made at Bournemouth and at Alum Bay in the Isle of Wight. These two stations are| elghteen miles apart, and the electrical | communication between them is said to | be perfect. Lord Kelvin visited the Alum Bay station and sent miessages—we pre- sume to Bournemouth, whence they were transmitted by ordinary land wires. We | believe, too, tfiat the Carisbrooke Castle, | on her first voyage, was signaled by the new system from Bournemouth. Exper- iments made in the Bristol Channel were successful, as were others In which a transmitting apparatus was fitted on a tug. Further, an installation put up for “Ijoyd’'s,” between Rathlin Island and Bully Castle, is said to work satisfac- o hus 1t would appear that the invention is applicable in the case of outlying sta- tlons, from which passing vessels may be signaled. We understand that the elec- trical pulsations or vibrations can pass through any condition of atmosghete— i. e., their transmission is altogether in- hail, rain, snt:iw‘hol; 4 m this it has been suggeste a {?\% sl?;toem will enable vessels overtaken by thick weather in a crowded waterway to signal their course and helm move- ments to_ craft in their vicinity. But ainst this contention there are very obvious objections. In thesfirst place, as we understand the matter, the receipt of a message—that is, supposing, of course, that the two vessels concerned were duly fitted with transmitting and receiving ap- paratus—would afford no evidence what- ever as to the point from which it had been dispatched. The waves or impulse travel, we take it, through space, and like all other forces emanating from a point, will diminish in intensity with distance from that center. Thus, their radiation would of necessity prevent the receiving vessel from forming a conclusion as to the exact location of the producing source. So far we think that wireless telegraphy has demonstrated that its chief possibility of utility lies in the direction of its adapt- ability to outlymil lightships and light- houses, enabling them to signal to a re- celving station on shore the passing of vessels and other messages. Thus, the system may solve the vexed question of electrical communication between light- ship and shore. If it does this it will con- fer an undoubted boon on the maritime community.—Syren and Shipping. —_———— Are We a Military Nation? A military nation, strictly speaking, s one that fosters, encourages and main- tains at all hazards a strong and ever- ready military force to which every peaceful interest of the citizen is sub- ordihated. Of course we are not that. On the contrary, so far as the State itself is concerned, it has manifested little, if any, tendency in the direction of military purpose or ambition. Therefore, it goes without saying that we are not a mill- tary nation in the general accepted inter- pretation of that term. But a military eople we are, always have been, and bid air always to be. As a nation, except in the emergency of war, less has been done to stimulate the military tendencles of our people, and still less to formulate any uniform plan for military organization, than in almost any other Government in tha w& 1d. & 3 oh n the contrary, we have had preache to us since the days of the Declaration o‘} Independence doctrines most emphatically opposed to a standing military establish- ment, and, despite the oblliatlons im- posed by the constitution, the Govern- ment has persistently negleced the or- gn.run,uon& -law jof the military bodies within the States. Indeed, this apparent aversion to a military establishment, based as it was upon early experiences in our history, seems to have furnished some ready leaders of a narrow political school opportunity and pretext for the fallacious doctrine that the ‘theory and principles of our Government were from the beginning opposed to a military es- tablishment of any kind. Despite this doctrine, however, it must be admitted by those who read the constitution of the United States that Congress was vested with fullest ;owen “'to raise and support armies” and to provide for organizing, arming and disciplining militia to an ex- tent not limited. That same instrument made the President the Commander in Chief of the army and navy of the United States and of the militia’ of the States when called Into the service of the United States, all of which provisions clearly show that even the makers of our constitutional laws foresaw necessities o which thelr successors have already been largely blind.—Military Journal ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. A DAY IN 1884—Prudence, Oakdale, Cal. The 19th of June, 1884, fell on @ Thursday. WORTH FIVE CENTS—G. H. 8., Point Arena, Cal. A f-cent piece of 1832 is not a premium coin. HIGHEST MOUNTAIN—P. L. M., South San Francisco, Cal. It is believed that the Deodhunga, one of the Himalayas, {s the highest mountain in the world. Its height is given as 29,002 feet. OLD COINS—A. 8., City. Half-dollars of 1832 and quarters of 1838 are not of the class of coins for which dealers pay pre- miums. The selling price of half-dollars of 1832 with small letters in the legend is 75 cents and those with large letttrs in the legend is from $2 50 to $3 50. Quarters of 1838 sell for 50 cents. VOLUNTEERS—N. N., City. The ques- tion, “What are the United States volun- teers allowed by the Government?” f{s rather an indefinite one. If the writer will make himself a little more explicit an answer will be given. The volunteers in a general way are allowed pay, cloth- ing, rations and transportation. SOME BACK DATES—C. G. H., Point Arena, Cal. The 1st of March, 1880, fell on Monday; July 4, 1881, on Monday; July 21.- 1883, on Friday, January 1, 1885, on Thursday; May 19, 1888, on Saturday; February 5, 1888, on Wednesday; January 15, 1862, on Friday; November 26, , on Sunday, and October 24, 1895, on Thursday. ENLISTMENT—An Anxious Subscrib- er, City. If a man enlisted during the war in a battery of the regular army of the United States for a period of three years he will have to serve his full term unless the authorities should so decide that those men who enlisted during the war to fill up the quota of the regiments of regu- lars should be classed as those volunteers who enlisted for a specific time or for the war. CRIMINA.. TRIALS-H. B, City. In the State of Caiifornia a person accused of a crime committed within the State must be tried in the county in which the crime was committed; but if it should appear upon competent evidence that the accused could not obtain a fair trial, say, for instance, by reason of strong preju- dice against him. he would be entitled to a change of venue. MRS. A. HERRMANN-R., Oskland, Cal. Mrs. A. Herrmann, widow of the well-known magician, was born in Eng- land. Her name before marriage was Ad- die Sarcy. She started on her professional career about twenty-five years ago. In the early days of her career she nf— peared with the Brown troupe of y: Bicycle Riders. She went to Australia and, it is sald, there met and formed the acquaintance of Mr. Herrmann. ADOPTION OF A CHILD—A. 8., City. If a child is abandoned on a doorstep the person taking in such child can, by ap- plication to the Superior Court, adopt tha same, if upon a hearing it appears that the party applying is able to bring up the child. If there is no application for adoption papers the mother of the child could at any time of the child’s minority claim it, but she would be liable to the party who brought it up in the amount of money expended on the child and a rea- sonable” sum for the care thereof. ‘Whether the child would be awarded to the mother under the circumstances is something that would depend on the facts of the case and condition of the mother as to being a proper person to have its care and custody. If the part who brought up the child had secured adop- tion papers the mother would have no claim on it. If the mother was known within a year after deserting the child and could be arrested, she could be pun- ished for & misdemeanor, namely, cruelty. CHANGE IN THE CALENDAR—Sub- scriber, City. The Roman calendar was introduced by Romulus, who divided the year into ten months, comprising 304 days, 738, B. C. That year was of fifty days less duration than the lunar year and of sixty-one less than the solar year, and its commencement did not correspond with any fixed season. Numa Pomgllius, 713 B. C., added two months, and Julius Caesar, 4 B. C., to make it more correct, fixed the solar year at 35 days and & hours, every fourth year being bissextile or leap year. That calemdar was defec- tive, as the solar year consists of 365 days 5 hours and 45 minutes, and not 365 days 6 hours. That difference in the sixteenth century amounted to ten entire days, the vernal equinox falling on the 1lth instead of the 21st of March. To obviate rror Pope Gregory XIII ordained in 1582 wnat e that that year should consist of 356 days omy (October 5 became October 15); to prevent further irregularity it was de- termined that a year beginning a century should not be bessextile, with the excep- and tion of that beginning each fourth cen- tury; thus 1700 and 1800 have not been bissextile nor will 1900 be so, but the year 2000 will be a leap year. three days are retrench because makes three days in about that period. Upon the change from old style to new style in 1582 the last date was Thursday, October 4, and the following day, was the 15th of October. n this manner in 400 years, of eleven miuutes the lapse Friday, Cal. glace fruit 50c per 1b at Townsends.® — o ————— 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—— “I llke that young Hicks,” sald Hthel's father. ‘He's the kind of man that doesn’'t know more than I do.” “Yes,” returned Ethel’'s mother; *“but do you think a young man who knows as little_as that will ever get on in the world?”—Exchange. — MOKI TEA POSITIVELY CURES headache, indigestion and constipation. r lightful herb drink. Removes all eruptions of the skin, producing a perfect complexion of money refunded. At Owl Drug Co. No New Years table Is complete without a bottle of Dr. Siegert's Angostura Bitters, the great South American tonio of exquisite flavor, —_———————— Tired Treadwell-I'd hate to be a hero over in England. Sockless Sim—Why? Tired Treadwell—'Cause as soon as ever a feller ever does anyt'ing worth mention- in’ over there they go and put him in de Bath.—Cleveland Leader. ADVERTISEMENTS. 1899 is with us, and we are prepared for him with new kinks and ideas to add to our superior methods of fine laun- dry work. You will always find us up-to-date in the lead with all the new improvements in this line. Make a good resolution and bring us your shirts, collars and cuffs to renovate, and we will do them in a manner that is unapproachable anywhere. “No saw- edges.” The United States Laundry, ofice 1004 Market street Telepione South 420 ard Faclal Cream. Use Faclal Soap The Grandest Toilet Combinatior Known for the skin, complexion and teeth is WV '8 Facial Soap Fuclal Cream and facial and Tooth Powder. The daily use of @ese articles will protect a fair compiexion ani cure & bad