The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 5, 1899, Page 6

HE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 1899 @all MARCH 5, 1809 JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor.. 5 e Address All Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager. = L e S b s e Bl o PUBLICATION OFFICE Iharket and Third Sts., S F. Telephone Main 1865 EDITORIAL ROOMS.. 217 to 221 Stevenson Street Telephone Main 1574 DELIVERED BY CARRIERS, 18 CENTS PER WEEK. Single Copies, & cents. Terms by Mall, Including Postage: DAILY CALL (including Sunday Call), one year. DAILY CALL (including Sunday CRiD, 6 months. DAILY CALL (including Sunday Call), 3 months. .$6.00 . 3.00 . 1.50 DAILY CALL—By gle Month . 63¢ SUNDAY CALL One Year. s A0 WEEKLY - CALL, One Year, -1 All ‘postmasters are suthori subscriptions. Fal copies will be forwa: when requested. .....908 Broadway OAKLAND OFFICE. NEW YORK OFFICE. Room 188, World Building DAVID ALLEN, Advertising Representative, WASHINGTON (D. C.) OFFICE.... ....Rigge Houss C. C. CARLTON, Correspondent. CHICAGO OFFICE ..Marquctte Bullding C.GEORGE KROGNESS, Adver! ing Reprosentative. BRANCH OFFICES—527 Montgomery street. corner Clay, ‘open until 9:30 o'clock. 387 Hayes street. open untll 9:30 o'clock. 621 McAlilster strest, open until 9:30 oclock. 615 Larkin street, open until 9:30 o'clock. 041 Mission street, open until 10 o'clock. 2291 Market street, corner Sixteenth, open untll 9 o'clock. 2518 Mission street, open until 9 o'clock. 106 Eleventh strect, cpen until § o'clock. 1505 Polk until street, oper, NW. corner Twenty-second andg open until 9 o'clock. 9:30 o'clock. tre or the Magic Kiss." udeville. he Girl I Left Behind Me.” is Opera Company, Monday evedh- s and Zoo—Planka, the “‘Lady of Lions.” Mason and Ellis streets, Specialties. Steeplechase. & Park—Coursing to-day. AUCTION SALES. at 10:30 a m., ary street. ay, March 6, at 11 o'clock, MUNICIPAL ECONOMY. 1t on local taxation was discussed e the Street Committee of the Supervisors ay in an informal manner, but several were developed which are somewhat interest- Supervisor Perrault said that if the limit were rced this year the amount raised by taxation not meet the ordinary expenses of the muni- -overnment, let alone paying for the improve for which petitions have been filed to the num- -three by improvement clubs and prop ners in different portions of the city. A. S. Federation of Improvement Perrault by saying that if ised in the management of the levy of $1 on the $ro0 of ion would be s ient to conduct the city and ywvide for all needed improvements. Both gentlemen are right and yet wrong. Under the present law the local government cannot be con- ically. Eighty per cent of its appro- ced by law, and the Supervisors could ge them if they would. The other 20 per cent 1 be cut down. The important department, for which a reasonable appropriation is demanded, 15 the Strect Dcpartment, where the bulk of the i the Mission Gucted econor ey is needed. The appropriation for this depart. ment is flexible. Salaries of deputies and the expen: ditures of most of the executive departments are fixed by law, and if an appropriation is not made for them they may draw the money from the treasury anyhow. Supervisor Perrault is entirely correct in saying that the city government cannot be conducted for $1 on the $100 and the improvements petitioned for car- ried out. The Supervisors have attempted during several years past to make necessary repairs on worn- out public buildings and dilapidated public streets, with the only result of producing a deficit in the treasury. Deficits have now become a regular thing, and it does not appear possible to avoid them under the present system. If a sufficient amount of money i ied in the tax levy to be imposed this year incl the improvements asked for by the improvement 1bs will have to be postponed. In other words, if Supervisors are going to conduct the government , they cannot do more than meet necessary cur- rent expense Doubtless the municipality can and ought to be run on a tax I of $1 on the $100, but the experience ral years has proved that this is impossible un- Under the new charter it may If it is, of se the present law. le to make a change in the system. ly ought to be done. 3y the amount of pipe being sent to Manila it may be judged that that town will have a sewer system long before San Francisco shall have progressed to the point of draining itseli. Then we can send com- oners to the Philippines and find how to put sanitary methods into operation. mi Milton Green is not anxious to answer any ques- tions at the bar of the. Assembly, and there do not scem to be many who are anxious to ask the ques- tions, anyhow. Probably the date set for the Green matinee might as well be canccled. The latest revoiution in Costa Rica only lasted thirty minutes. Heretofore a revolution there was ex- pected to endure at least for a day. The new plan, however, gives an opportunity for several of the events between sunrise and sunset. The bicycle rider’s idea that he is always right and thus constantly at liberty to go ahead has resulted in at least one death recently. However, this will not lesson the prevaience of the idea among surviving wheelers. Spain has never in all her shameful history done anything so idiotic as the present course of putting the gallant Montojo in jail for the offense of having fought bravely and been honorably licked. A Coroner’s jury has censured the Electric Light Company for so disposing of its live wires as to kill a man, but the company is not reported to be suffer- ing greatly. == = There is a report from Manila that Aguinaldo wants $7.000,000 for the release of Spanish prisoners, but as, Creelman confirms the report, it is probably untrue. The State quarantine service will never be missed save by the officials it has supported and the private citizens it has annoyed. and | THE BURNS PRONUNCIAMENTO. HE Burns Junta at Sacramento, borrowing a custom from Mexico, has issued its Pronun- | ciamento. In this document the party is lec- | tured upon its duty and the will of the majority is lauded as the only rule of action. The statement is :put in this precise form: “This country has a rep- resentative government; all selections of officials are ! decided by a vote of the persons entitled to act \’thercon, and the selection of a majority, no matter } | { | | | | how small numerically, becomes, by the force of law, | | the selection of all. This law of the land has become | by usage the law of political parties.” ' i Very well. The persons entitled to act in the Leg- | islature, representing the Republican party and |c | been acting according to the law of the land for the | last eight weeks. The majority of the “persons en- | titled to act” have every day during that time acted. | A majority decides affirmatively and negatively at | once. Every day of the session the majority has de- cided against Burns. On no ballot taken has he had | even a plurality of the votes cast. On no ballot has he | had the highest number of votes cast for any candi- f‘ date. Up to the day his Junta assumed to instruct the party on the sacrosanct nature of a majority “the persons entitled to act” for the seventieth time acted | and cast against him an overwhelming majority. | For the seventieth time “the persons entitled to act” icu:t against him more than a two-thirds majority. | For the seventieth time the majority of over two- | thirds declared that Colonel Burns was not the choice i of the party nor of “the persons entitled to act.” | Now, the Junta’s Pronunciamento continues | says: “The selectjon of a majority, no matter how | small numerically, becomes by force of law the selec- | tion of all.” Therefore the rejection by a majority, i no matter how small numerically, becomes by the force | of law the rejection of all. Colqnel Burns, having been seventy times rejected by a majority of two-thirds, | should, according to the reasoning of his Junta, step | aside. His minority of less than one-third should re- spect the will of the majority and cease to oppose that will. Its refusal to obey the will of the majority is | likely to lead to disastrous and wide-reaching results, | for the Burns Junta says in its Pronunciamento: “It | i5 absolutely necessary to the preservation of a politi- cal party that this law (submission to the majority) | should govern the deliberations of its members, for without it a party becomes a mere mob, without co- | hesive power, a rope of sand only powerful to injure | itself.” The majority, having decided that it does not | want Burns for Senator, his contumacious resistance of that decision, according to his own Junta, is likely | to turn the party into a mob capable of injuring only itself. Surely there can be no stronger reason given for his immediate obedience to the will of the more | than two-thirds majority seventy times cast against him. Majorities act by natural instinct, first against | the point of greatest danger, and then toward the | point of greatest safety. Instinctively the majority | has seventy times acted against the candidacy of Burns. Seventy times he has returned to the attack and thereby has compelled continuance of the resist- | ance. Let him obey the principles laid down by hi | own Junta, let him bow to the majority, and then that | majority, no longer compelled to defend itself against his assault, no longer compelled to protect the party | against his rebellious refusal to obey the majority, | will address itself to the duty of electing a Senator and can do it on one ballot. 3 This is the first time in the history of parties that a | rebellious minority, seventy times outvoted, seventy | times rejected, seventy times defeated, seventy times | refusing to obey the will and law of the majority, has | had the presumption to accuse that majority of being | inn rebellion against the minority! | The Junta’s Pronunciamento amounts to just that. | Tt is a distinct insult to .the majority. The | two-thirds and more of the Republican mem- | bers” of the Legislature have stood with | unbroken front against Burns. Incidentally they | have cast their votes for other candidates, all of whom | have avowed themselves ready to get out of the way | as soon as the defensive campaign against the re- { bellious minority is over and let the majority combine | on a proper candidate. It is only Burns, the seventy | times rejected aspirant, who refuses to release the majority from its defensive duty and permit its affir- mative action. < | So much for this self-condemning Pronunciamento | of the Burns Junta. There is left of it merely the | pretense that the will of the majority is operative only | through a caucus. That pretense has been disposed of | already. The majority has expressed its will seventy | times, in the way provided by the laws of the United | States and of the State, and Burns, having seventy | times refused to obey it, cannot be.permitted to dic- | tate the terms on which he will obey it. | and ! THE SUPREME COURT @AGAIN. N January 10, 1899, Senator Dickinson intro- O duced a bill covering proposed amendments to the State constitution and designed for the | relief of the congestion in the Supreme Court. The bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, which has now reported a substitute bill to which every objection already stated by The Call to the creation of three new courts of appeal is dis- tinctly applicable. To the matter of expense we have already adverted. This objection would probably de- feat the proposed amendments at the polls. - But there are other reasons against their submission to the peo- ple. The effect of their adoption,.if our views are | correct, would be to defeat their avowed object by in- creasing the labors of the Supreme Court, deprived of two of its members, and establishing three tribunals that would be practically sinecures. ~We have no | doubt that the existing Justices would be glad to ex- | change their present offices for the new positions the Senate Judiciary Committee proposes to create. The direct appeals authorized by these amendments from the Supreme Court embrace constitutional questions, State and Federal, taxation and assessments, eminent domain, proceedings for usurpation of or intrusion into publfe franchises, certain municipal controver- sies, and criminal cases where death or imprison- ment for life is involved. In addition to this formid- able array, in every case where the decision of a court of appeals conflicts with a decision of the Supreme Court or of another court of appeals it is to be heard | in the Supreme Court. A singular feature in the text of this part of the amendments is that it seems t6 re- quire a decision in advance of a transfer. The Su- | preme Court itself, moreover, is invested with “dis- cretion” to order any case decided in the courts of appeal to be heard before itself, and the applications under this head alone would probably occupy a large part of the time of five Justices. i Under this plan we suggest that confusion would be worse confounded, and that, while nine judgeships would be available to the numerous candidates for such offices, with the certainty that they would not be overworked, the burthen thrown upon the Supreme bench, already overweighted, would be simply in- tolerable. Whatever new jurisdiction is created should be final, within its own limits, to which it should be rigidiy held. One court of appeals, of three l harged with the function of electing a Senator, have | | Justices, vested with exclusive and final authority in the appeals set apart for its consideration.and deter- | mination, would meet all the present necessities of the til the time comes, as is inevitable, when our entire judicial system and methods of administering the law shall be remodeled. . A FiN DE SIECLE EXPOSITION. OME high and mighty ladies of London have S devised for the entertainment of that city during the last year of the century a scheme suffi- ciently novel and attractive to be worthy of Parisian brains. They propose to open a grand international exposition of woman’s work and her caprices in all lands, in all ages and of all kinds. The promoters and patrons of the movement are dames of high degree and wide renown. The honor- ary committee, as given in a recent number of the London Chronicle, includes the Duchess of Devon- shire, the Duchess of Marlborough, the Duchess of Sutherland, the Marchioness of Tweeddale, the Mar- chioness of Zetland, Lady Cowper, Lady Warwick and Lady Cadogan, and it is further announced that the giited and smart Miss Tessa Mackenzie acts as secretary. From that list judge the rest. The whole array of titles and names is more suggestive of a grand ball than an exposition, but that is the charm of the enterprise. It is to be fin de siecle. It is to show that the dames of fashion in these days can manage entertainments larger.than masquerades and more exciting than high teas. The scope of the exposition is to be universal so far as women are concerned. Particular attention is to be given to the historical section, which is to in- clude relics, works and pictures of famous women, and a vast hall is to be given up to an exhibition of feminine dress, fashion and adornment in all nations and from the earliest ages. It appears that for these features of the exhibit there are to be no temporary structures erected, but that some of the stately his- ‘toric buildings of the city are to be used. Thus the Chronicle announces the display of dress and orna- ment is to be made in the Ducal Hall, and the his- térical exhibits are to be in the Royal Galleries. While the management of the enterprise is at pres- ent in the hands of the noble coterie described, it is irtended to make it thoroughly democratic as soon as the movement is fairly launched. It is not to be an affair of the Four Hundred. The Duchesses are not afraid they will lose prestige by associating with working women, and propose to invite the co- operation of women of every part of the globe. Men, however, are to be rigidly excluded, not only from the management, but even from the service of the exposition as far as possible, as the prospectus an- nounces that in every department women are to be | employed wherever the work is of a kind that women can do. The novelties proposed for the exhibit are numer- cus. They include a children’s fairyland, a nurses’ department, a picturesque home and a realistic hall. The latter is suggestive. What manner of exhibit the combined worhen of the world will make in a reali tic hall is a question calculated to excite the curiosity | of even the dullest minded man that ever lived. For the answer we shall have to wait until the exposi- tion opens. In the meantime it is just as well to take rote of the fact that London does not propose to let Paris have all the crowd in the closing year of the century, and the Woman's Exhibition is not going to be a sideshow to the World's Fair in the French capital, but a great moral circus and family amuse- ment of itseH. AN @BERRATION OF ENTHUSIASM. UR esteemed contemporary, the New York Mail i O and Express,-admires the President’s speech at Boston, and so, indeed, do most people in the country; but the admiration of our contemporary rcaches the degree of an aberration of the intellect and has led it to give to the youth of the nation some counsel far below the level of the normal horse- sense advice usually given by newspapers to aspiring young men. . g Full of the enthusiasm generated by the President’s address, the Mail and Express actually advises young men to take to oratory for a living.. With something | like a dithyrambic fecundity of utterance it ex- claims: “It is said all the stores are full, and fathers even pay for the privilege of placing a son behind the counter. It is said even the new profession of elec- ticity has become hopelessly overcrowded. ‘What | shail we do with our boys? has long been a hard | question in good English families. It has not of late been a simple one here. But there are other callings than the commercial. There are other rewards than riches. To speak well. It must be, as we take it, an ex- quisite joy to the speaker himself to nobly sway for noble ends great audiences of his fellow-men, and there are so many causes now for which one might expect God's blessing on his tongue.” At all that one is tempted to exclaim, like Hamlet to the ghost, “Art thou there, old truepenny?” The counsel is most excellently well uttered, but yet it will fare ill with the young man who turns from com- merce and electricity to achieve fortune by speaking well and invoking a divine blessing on his tongue The oratorical professions are about as overcrowded as ‘any other vocations, and while most of these elo- quent talkers receive “other rewards than riches,” the rewards do not pay the tailor, the landlord, the grocer, the laundry, nor even the bar bill. Let all who will cultivate oratory and feel the ex- quisite joy of nobly swaying to noble ends large au- diences of their fellowmen, but let no young man take to it as a means.of earning a living, or he may have to lend his tongue to strange causes and the money- grubber will use him, and when all is said and done it is doubtful if God will bless him even if he hires a hall. The gentleman who had the thoughtlessness to ob- serve worms in the meat furnished the soldiers in Cuba, and the further thoughtlessness to mention the fact, evidently failed to realize the scopé of the in- quity. The purpose is to find, not that the meat was wormy, but that it was a first-class article, at the re- zeipt of which the soldier was in duty bound to render up his soul in thanks. Some -of the colored residents of Cuba have de- cided to work no more, but rely upon the generosity of Uncle Sam for enough to eat. We prophesy a change of heart or a touch of famine. o SRETR N A Board of Inquiry with a fixed purpose not to in- | quire if the answer is likely to be displeasing will | reach adjournment ultimately, but nothing else of im- portance. % Dewey refuses to write for publication, whefeat the ‘belief that the Admiral is a great and good man takes _even firmer hold upon the people. The Legislature will pass comparatively few bills, but it cannot be deprived of credit for its failure to situation, and would be satisfactory to the people un- | |passa lot which were introduced. H+O+0404040 40404040 §W®#W¢®WOW WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS. 4 ® + S + S By HENRY JAMES. + 3 © + @ + DK B BHO+0404040 4 0404040+ O+O++0 0+ 0 +04 0404043404044 N In New York a woman has been con- demned to electrocution. I have mno idea the sentence will be carried out, and hope it will not be. Even to be- lievers in capital punishment there is something unspeakably repulsive in the idea of visiting upon a female murderer the extreme wrath of the law. In the first place, women do not need to be held in check as men do. Without of- ficial statistics at hand, I venture the assertion that a thousand wanton mur- ders are committed by men to a soli- tary one by women. In the second place, no woman falls so low that she does not seem to masculine human Judgment to merit more consideration than a member of the sterner sex. It is a phase of the same feeling that causes a gentleman to yield his seat in a street car to a lady, although he may be tired and have no reason to think her leg-weary. The position is perhaps not one to be upheld logically, but belief in the principle is deeply im- planted. . . The Rev. Frederick C. Lee of the Cal- ifornia M. E. Church preached last Sunday a strong and practical sermon, in which he paid attention to the mem- ber of society known as a criminal law- yer. It is a pleasure to agree with what he says concerning this person. I do not think that a lawyer who takes the case of an assassin whom he knows to be gullty, and endeavors to clear him by keeping out evidence, by abus- ing witnesses or twisting the law, is one whit better than the assassin; but 1 do think the pair should be hanged on the same scaffold. . My good friend, Edward Cahill, a Frenchman, as his name implies, has been indulging in mixed metaphors. He was inspired by the circumstance that a babe had been ordered out of court, charged with being a disturber of jus- tice. He, as the proprietor of a lot of babes, objects. He wants to know if the ordinary babe is calculated to make Jjustice slip a cog. There is no answer to this, as no parents ever yet have confessed to the possession of an ordi- nary baby. Then he wants to know if Justice sits so unsteady on her throne that the hand of a child may upset her ballast. I cannot conceive of Justice silpping a cog and then sitting on a throne and having her ballast upset. 1If all these things happen to Justice she will be in a bad way. 5 R . » . Some person writing for an afternoon sheet recently termed the dramatic critic of The Call “Miss” Ashton Ste- vens. Splendid! Ha, ha! Ho, ho! This was taken to be the climax of jest until the same person in an unparalleled fit of jocosity changed the designation to “Mrs.” Ashton Stevens. What a merry wag! Meanwhile Mr. Stevens, as the best dramatic critic of San Francisco, goes on about his business precisely as though nothing had happened. His time is too much taken up to be di- verted to the rabble vipping at him, but having a little leisure to-day, I have ventured to employ it to show that their success in the attempt to be funny has not gone unnoted. sie Mrs. Dora Fuhrig seems to possess many, of the essential elements of a pestilence. There have been charged against her lately the deaths of four women, and urged on by his grief, the husband of one of these victims has taken his own life. Mrs. Fuhrig can with propriety add him to her list of triumphs. Just why offenders of the Fuhrig type should be arrested is not clear, however. The process is never more than an idle and expensive for- mality. To be sure, they ought to be sent to prison for life, but to be sure, they never are. On the contrary, they have no more need to be afraid of the courts than has Piggott, the pocket- picking scoundrel, to whom arrest is merely a joke. . Expert evidence given by doctors is a weariness. When a physician of ex- | perience views the wounds on a dead body, and swears their result must have been of a certain specific charac- ter, which he minutely describes, the layman . naturally thinks the doctor knows what he is talking about. Where the mystery comes in is at the advent of the doctor swearing for the other side, and who from the same set of facts deduces conclusions exactly con- trary to those already pointed out. It is impossible to avoid one of two be- | liefs, neither of them to be entertained with pleasure. One is that doctors are painfully ignorant, and the other, that there are members of the profession willing to perjure themselves for hire. This has been demonstrated anew in the Brandes murder trial, which from the first has been conducted in a fash- ion reflecting no credit on the lawyers for the defense. One set of experts 18 certain that the child, Lillian Brandes, died from the impact of blows on the head, and that her body was subjected to post-mortem hanging, none of the visible effects produced by strangula- tion having been present. Another set declares that the child hanged herself, .and the bruises on her, head were not caused by blows which in themselves could have had serious effect. A third, with rare intelligence, ascribes the un. happy girl's taking off to pneumonia. This last theory has peculiar features. If she was a victim of this malady, did she hang herself before or after? Had death been due to natural causes, on what hypothesis would any one have subjected the little corpse to.the indig- nity of suspension? As to the guilt of the father, I hold an opinion which, while the trial is in progress, there would be perhaps indelicacy in express- ing. However, I do not believe that a frail and suffering child often turns to suicide for relief, nor that having died from any cause, retains the ability or desire to create a mystery by simulat- ing self-destruction. Supposing that Lillian died of pneumonia and was afterward discovered apparently stran- gled by suspension from the bedpost, it is clear that the wretch who performed this ghastly office thought himself or herself the author of murder, and was trying to hide the evidence. But com- ing back to the subject: of experts, there are honest and able ones of course. The difficulty is in selecting the fools and liars and judiciously throwing out their deceptive babble. e That Kipling is recovering is a cause for gratitude. The race could ill spare him. To say that the Anglo-Saxon people could not in the death of any other individual sustain so great a loss is merely to expréss a sentiment that has been voiced wherever the language of which Kipling is master and magi- cian has been spoken. For Kipling is the genius of our age. Every genera- tion brings forth bright men, men of talent and learning, who command re- spect and even veneration. Only the centuries produce a genius. Christ was one of these, a magnificent personality who spoke with inspired wisdom, and whose matchless teachings form the safest, noblest guide to human conduct. Shakespeare was a genius, writing as though he drew upon the fount of ab- solute knowledge, inscribing imperisha- | ble lines, appalling mankind by the profundity of his intuitive learning. | Such men are not to be understood. We merely accept them, thank God for them. and wonder. Philosophy cannot explain a Kipling. He is, and that is all we know. His grasp of life is be- yond ordinaty ken. The charm of his pen enthralls. He builds a poem, and the world beats time to its cadence. He tells a story, and entranced we watch the portrayal of emotions which had thrilled us, but which we could not define; of desire, aspiration, love, pat- riotism. He exalts the commonplace or from the sublime strips the glamour. He tells of the sea, and we hear the beating of surf on a distant shore. He tells of ships, and we listen to the throb of their mighty engines, while the foam flying from their prows as they cleave the waves smites the very brow. He tells of war, and the din of battle awes us, the groans of the wounded break the after silence, and before us there spreads in fascinating horror a vision of the dead. He tells of the beasts of the jungle, and we perceive that the secrets of the forest have been revealed to him. He carries us from the tropics to the northern floes, and we go with | him content. Kipling towers above his | literary fellows a splendid giant. His work has a mystic, marvelous touch 10 other intellect now framed in mortal clay can give, and the reader is dware that through the august phrases of a | modern writer the Infinite is finding ex- pression. I observe with pleasure that a man who was engaged in robbing an eagle’s nest was attacked by the mother bird and received some scratches. The rob- bing of nests always seemed to me on a plane with the robbing of hen roosts. L i The Rev. Charles Locke, for whom I entertain a deep respect, says that a Sunday law is necessary. Yet the peo- ple to whom he preaches would under such a law have only the freedom to worship that is already theirs, while people outside the narrow world of creed would not pay to such a law the slightest attention. The reverend gen- | tleman can sustain his position only on the hypothesis that everybody among the upright occupies the same point of view as that from which he studies the universe. Were this true, he would have no occasion to sus- tain it. Captain John McCafferty has written several columns about the situation &t Manila. Concerning this article there aré two strange things. One is that any paper should have given it space, and another, that anybody should have read it, as I must ¢onfess having done. The article possessés no value, wunless as a symptom of dyspepsia, and to be regarded with interest from a medical standpoint. I judge that the captain | while in the Philippines told the men | in authority how to run things, and | that they failed to be impressed. il It is a shameful and sorry circuni- stance that scandal should have come out of the war with Spain, and that it should have touched both the army and navy. As to the army, there is a cnarge that soldiers were fed on rotten meat. The charge was brought by Major Gen- eral Miles. There is not the slightest reason for belleving he would have brought it had he not been certain it was true. He had nothing to gain by making false accusations, but much to lose. He had, save the respect of his countrymen, nothing to gain by laying bare the truth. The investigation which has resulted has been from the first a farce and a sham, directed not to the ascertaining of facts, but to an effort to besmirch Miles and proteet his of- ficial superior and a lot of rascally con- tractors for whom hanging would be too good. Since Miles has been tra- duced and belittled, it would be a fit- ting recompense were he to see the Sec- retary of War turned from office, and there being no politics in this column, I do not hesitate to say this is what the | Secretary deserves. During the Civil ‘War he was never a good soldier, an unpalatable verity known to Milzs, and in political life he has not beea spot- | less. As to the navy, Sampson and the people behind him have so clearly been trying to job Schley that Sampson ought never to have been advanced an- other peg. He had been advanced sud- denly once over the heads of better men, and he showed his appreciation by trying to diseredit those who calmly submitted to the injustice and faith- fully strove to “erform their dutfes. Sampson has been spoiled, and his goody-good friend Long also eauses that tired feeling. Neither one could pay a finer tributé to the exigencies of the occasion than by resigning. . % dernd The police are being blamed for a lack of effort to rescue a woman who had attempted suicide by #urning on the gas. 1 do not blame them in the least. For my part I would consider it a presumption to so much as turn over my hand to prolong the life of one who was anxious to die, unless that person were near to me, and 1 had reason to believe that to her or him life would be sweeter than deatn. I do not advocate suicide. It is the refuge of the coward, but when one has striven vainly and long, and failed; when the best that nature bestowed has been exerted without reward; when the future holds no promise and ths past is a.procession of haunting regrets, I do not censure one who snuffs out the candle, nor question the right to venture a new existence for the exist- ence which has been a disappointment. There are theories about life having been divinely bestowed, and so a ‘sa- cred thing, but they do not appeal to me. The majority of human beings come into the world unwelcome. Ex- perience teaches them that they are superfluous. They must fight or fall, and the benign power whieh gave them breath did not equip them for fighting. There is no kindness in keeping in the world one who has grown weary of It, and each must be judge in his own case. e the State flower. I regret to '!seacyte?h:i the editor was writing, ‘[ may be allowed the figure, th{nugh his hat. The poppy has no official exist- ence. It is still & golden flame l_xghum the hills and valleys of California. The State ought to.have a flower. After having secured this it needs a Ferea.}, a vegetable and a fruit. Then it will be fixed. 1 would suggest that the poppy come forward again for the first place. For the cereal let us have wheat; for the vege_.mble the immortal potato, flanked by a cabbage and dec- orated with radishes and sprouts. Then there is no finer fruit than the prune, the delicious, leathery prune which car- ries joy into every boarding house, gives the humorist a chance for funny business and brings the grower a good price, excepting in the years he has a crop. If he happen to have a crop, of course he does not expect anything for it. These are merely suggestions. Pos- sibly a levislator might find more im- portant topics, but with the great State of California fairly yearning to have a flower of its very own, certainly a break in the direction indicated may - be looked for, and there is no reason why it should stop at the flower. —— e AROUND THE CORRIDORS. J. H. Mansfield of Chico is at the Grand, W. C. Good, a Santa Rosa fruit packer, is at the Grand. ’ Frank Dowdy, a Gilroy stock raiser, is staying at the Ru! E. C. McClellan, a civil engineer of Re- no, is staying at the Lick. W. A. Howell, County Clerk of Bakers- field, is a guest at the Lick. F. C. Mahony and wife of St. Paul, Minn., are guests at the Occidental: W. W. Middlecoft, a Stockton attorney, is making the Lick his headuarters. S. J. Scott and D. D. Knapp, business men of Porterville, are located at the Grand. C. R. Gilbert, a prominent merchant of Los Angeles, is one of the arrivals at the California. Senator J. H. Seawell, the well-known attorney and politician of Ukiah, is lo- cated at the Grand. John Sparks, @ cattleman of Reno and owner of extensive cotton plantations in Texas, is registered at the Palace. W. D. Sewall of Bath, Maine, son of Arthur Sewall, who was the Democratic candidate for Vice President with Bryan, is at the Palace. He is interested in ship- building with his father. Rev. M. P. O'Connor. a parish priest of Harrison, N. J., has come to this coast on a pleasure trip and is a guest at the Pal- ace. He will celebrate mass in St. Pat- rick’s Church this morning at 8 o’clock. _—e—e———— CALIFORNIANS IN NEW YORK. NEW YORK, March 4—V. H. Perrin ot San Francisco is at the Grenoble. —_——————— CALIFORNIANS IN WASHINGTON WASHINGTON, March 4. — Senator White leaves to-morrow for New York City, where he will be engaged for several days on legal business, and will then Jeave direct for Los Angeles. Senator Perkins will leave for Oakland direct in a day or two. Judge Maguire will spend a few days In New York, will return here for a day or two and then leave for San Fran-, cisco. Mr. Loud will remain here several weeks on postal business. Representative Castle has already departed for home. Mr. de Vries goes in about a week. He wants to try and get work on the Stock- ton postoffice started before he leaves. Victor Metcalf will remain several days. J. D. Spreckels and ex-Senator Felton are* at the Hotel Walton, Philadelphia. Mr. Felton will remain sdme time in Philadel- phia. Mr. Spreckels will return to San Francisco via New York in a few days. e A CHARITY BAZAAR. Coming Fete by the Catholic Ladies’ Aid Society. The Catholic Ladies’ Aid Society wiil hold a grand charity bazaar in. Native Sons' Hall on Mason street, near Post, about the last of April. This is the first appeal of the society to the public, but the great demands for aid on its funds have necessitated this call in the cause of benevolence. The ladies in charge of the affair are arranging many novel and pleasing feat- ures, such as a tea garden framed of bamboo and covered with tropical vines. This_pretty Oriental corner will bé pre- sided _over by Miss Blanche Dean and Mrs. D. F. Ragan. Miss Mary Ford and a bevy of assistants will people a floral bower, while Mrs. C. Casassa will super- intend a splendidly arranged luncheon de- partment. In this the menu of each day will include soups, salads, roast and boiled meats, vegetables and desserts. Mrs. Casassa will be assisted by Mrs. Ed= ward O'Neil, Mrs. M. J. Kelly and Miss Margaret Curtis, the grand secretary of the Aid Society. There will be a large number of valua- ble articles disposed of by ticket, one being a lot 40x100 feet, in the Santa Maria del Mar tract at Santa Cruz. It is sit- uated near the hotel and is a pleasant place of residence. A GRAIN PORT. Santa Fe Road Will Establish One at Point Richmond. One result of the conferehce held in this city by the Santa Fe officials is the deci- sion to make Point Richmond a great ‘wheat port on _the same lines as that of the Southern Pacific at Port Costa. The point_has many natural advantages for the_object intended, as it is on the open ba: nd ships will be able to come direct ]¥l p to the waréhouses. The elevation of the point is such that grain-laden cars may have their freight discharged by gravity into the holds of the ships. No plans have as yet. been devised in regard to the proposed improvement. but contracts have been let for the removal of nearly 300,000 cubic yards of earth from" the hills to be used as a foundation for future_ferry buildings. The contract was let to Foley Bros. & Muir, who have sub- let it to James McMahon. A camp has been established on the top of the point, and forty men have been put to work. A piledriver will begin the construction of the trestle for the embankment across the cove to th€ north and a steam shovel will load the earth and rock into dump cars running along the trestie. With this steam shovel at work progress will be much more rapid than it has been. —_————————— Lecture on Human Cruelty. The Rev. T. A. Caraher will deliver the third discourse of the series being held under the auspices of the Calvarian So- ciety at 3 o'clock this afternoon at St. Mary’s Cathedral. His subject and text will be “Human_ Cruelty”—"Then, there- fore, Pilate took Jesus and scourged him, and the soldiers, platting a crown of thorns, put it up on his head with a reed, and they did spit upon him” (St. John, xix:1-2.) There will also he the “Way of the Cross” and benediction. _—e——————— Cal. glace fruit 50c per 1b at Townsends.® —_—————— Spectal Lntornmu%n supplied dally to business houses and public men b; Breta Elipping Bureau (Allen's). 310 Mobt gomery street. Telephone Main 1042 NO FREEZE. “I think it would be well,” said the ‘decorator, “to have your dini bordered by a t.flalei"yt i gl it S0 no,” remonstrated the had only recently struck it. “I g;!‘:h K:'R ro:gl. n!s{;ve all 0“1“;51‘, l}oflhave a warm €02 appearance.’’—] a Y Fenatrse elphia North —_——— Califarnia Limited, Santa Fe Route. Leaves Sundays, Tuesd and Fridays. Elegant service. Vestibuled There was an editorial in this paper a few ‘days ago based upon the sup. nosition that the poppy had been se. sleepers, observation cars. Harvey's . Dial Cars through from Californfa to Cblet‘ovvl;‘- out change. Get full particulars at company’'s y + @ i