The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 12, 1899, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY MARCH 12, 1899 @all MARCH 12, 1899 SUNDAY, JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. Address All Communications to W. S. LEAKE, Manager. e B e PUBLICATION OFFICE Market and Third Sts., S. F. Telephone Main 1868. EDITORIAL ROOMS. .21T to 221 Stevenson Street Telephone Main 1874. DELIVERED BY CARR 15 CENTS PER WEEK. Single Coples, § cents. Terms by Mafl, Including Postage: | DAILY CALL (including Sunday Call), one year.. | DAILY CALL (including Sunday Call), § months. 3.00 | DAILY CALL tincluding Sunday Call), 8 months. 1.50 DAILY CALL—By Single Month 65c NDAY CALL Ore Year. EKLY CALL, One Year. All postmasters are authorized to receive si Sample coples will be forwarded when requested. OAKLAND OFFICE....... ... . ..ccoeenensd 908 Broadway NEW YORK OFFICE.. Room 188, World Bullding DAVID ALLEN, Advertising Representative. WASHINGTON (D. C.) T)FFICE‘»_ ....... Wellington Hotel C. €. CARLTON, Correspondent. CHICAGO OFFICE....... .Marquotte Buflding C.GEORGE KROGNESE, Ad! ing Repreeentative. BRANCH OFFICES—537 Montgor¥ery street, corner Clay, open until 9:30 o'clock. 387 Hayes street, open uhtil ©30 o'clock. 621 McAllister street, open untll 9:30 o'clock. 615 Larkin strest. open until 9:30 o'clock. 1941 Mission street, open untll 10 o'ciock. 2991 Market street, corner Sixteenth, open untll 9 o'clock. 2518 Mission street, open untll 9 o'clock. 106 Eleventh street, open untll @ o'clock. 1505 Polk street, open untll 9:30 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-second ana Kentucky streets. open ‘until 9 o'clock AMUSEMENTS. vertis a—'La Tosca. elene.” With a Past."” the Hero of Manila.” —Ellis Opera Company; “Faust,” Mon- i Iree Theater—Vaudeville every afternoon Mason and Ellis streets, Spectalties. Steeplechase. | Coursing_to-day. AUCTION SALES. Eldridge & Co.—Tuesday, Maj 4, at 12 at 638 ket street. —Thursday, March street. rch, , at 12 m., Real THE QUESTION OF EXPOSITIONS. ,d Scottish city of Glasgow there | ~ ROM the goc came to us not long ago a cordial invitation to | take part in an exposition to be held in that city | o1, and now comes Buffalo with an invitation to Pan-American exposition which she proposes to Each of these desires us to and fit California out for | c year. appr io: splay at f these invitations we shall have to return | regrets at our inability to attend as a £ California is i preparing for a Pacific Ocean exposition to 14 in San Francisco in that year, and all the ord for such purposes | rgy she can aff | this is the fact that the RACETRACK GAMBLING. F all forms in which the gambling habit pre- O sents itself the racetrack has proved most ruinous. The sport of speed contests be- tween horses is very ancient, and has been largely the’ | means of important experimental breeding of that noble animal. The American thoroughbred horse originated in this sport. Diomed, winner of the first Derby in England, was imported to this country and was the ancestor of our thoroughbred strain. Rysdyk’s Hambletonian, about whose breeding little is certainly known, but whose performance as a trotter, an unnatural gait, at high speed, marked him at once a wonderful horse, was the ancestor of the American trotter. These two strains of horses have stimulated the American love for the horse and have been the means of giving to this country certain equine families that greatly excel. But the noble trials of speed and endurance which have accom- panied this development have had many degenerate imitations and ignoble results. The rise of the horse has been balanced by the fall of man wherever open facilities for track gambling have been tolerateds The State of New Jersey long ago felt the burden of track gambling, and its eradication became an | issue in State politics. California is feeling keenly the curse of this practice. It is a form of the gambling habit the easiest to acquire, the most convenient to | practice and the most demoralizing in its results. | Women, boys and youths do not frequent the faro { game, nor the poker-room, nor do they throw dice in the public places where alone that habit is in- dulged. But they find buying pools on ~the races easy, quite possible without their personal presence and with all the fascination which the goddess ot Chance exerts upon her votaries. The result is that, inspired by this passion, good women become bad women, bo: dishonor their parents and trusted employes rob their employers. In this city the list of these offenses originating in | track gambling is a long one, and every case is black with lost reputation, the sorrow of families and losses | None of these things would be possi ble if the pools were forbidden. In the earlier days of racing such demoralization was impossible. If‘ any desired to back with his money his judgment on | of employers. mariners report hearing at this season along the coast of Washington: It is believed the Canadian Govern- ment has requested the authorities at the national capital to interfere and stop the racket on the ground that it keeps the babies awake all along the British Columbian border. In the meantime whoever goes to the State of Washington and casually asks “What's in a name?” gets for answer, short and sharp, “The devil's in it.” I distinguished fellow citizen, Deacon Fitch, has un- dertaken a contest in which the very existence of his party is at stake. If the statute goes into operation unmolested no such an organization as that now main-" tained by the Non-Partisans can exist for a single moment. Mr. Fitch’s party consists of fifty gentle- men, mostly ultra-conservative and non-residents. The fact that a man lives in Alameda, San Rafael or even San Jose is no disqualification to serve as a dele- gate to the so-called Non-Partisan “convention.” The THE NON-PARTISAN VENDETTA, N declaring war upon the new primary law our there have been no reappointments except to fill places made vacant by death or resignation. The position of delegate to the Non-Partisan “conven- tion,” therefore, is a perpetual trust which terminates only with the existence of the man who holds it. In order to get a place upon the official ballot un- der the new primary law a political organization is required to hold an election for delegates in all the precincts of the city. Candidates nominated by com- mittees or by petition must be designated as “inde- pendent,” and unless a convention is made represen- tative by primary action it cannot rise to the dignity of being a political party and cannot get for its can- didates a position on the ballot opposite a party name. Ii the Non-Partisans hold a primary election for delegates to their “convention” Mr. Fitch will be compelled to abandon his close corporation idea and make his party a popular affair. If he do this he will at once lose control of the machine and Non- as Democracy or Republicanism.: Of course Mr. Fitch will never think of doing any such thing as this, the speed of a horse he had to find on the spot some one of the opposite opinion and the willingness to | | back it. Boys and clerks, who don’t know haw from | gee about a horse and feel no partisanship for a favor- | ite animal, for they have no judgment about it, would | 1ot be found wagering under such a system, and thel widespread, increasing and insu erable evils that now | exist would be impossible. One reply is always made | to every effort to extirpate this moral cancer. It is | vs characterized as enmity to the sport of horse- alw noblest of our domestic animals. But, set against | kind of gamblers whose | patronage pays the pooling profits and fattens those | who prey upon, the public by that means know little or nothing about horses, are ignorant of the external | points which mark the qualities of brain and nerve, of wind, bottom and speed for which the hérse is ad- | mired and bred. To them the horse is simply a} means of convenient gambling, a way in which they . needed to provide for the undertaking. that such progressive cities as Buffalo | selected 1901 as the year for hold- | r expositions is a proof the opportunities of 3 - grand displays will be s6 exceptionally good th cions gnen both in the Old World and e New are eager to take advantage of them. In- years before so iavorable a sea- son comes ag that which will follow the great | be held in Paris in 1900, and for that reason, decd, it will be many fair t can risk their own money in the hope of gain, and | when they lose it comes the temptation to forgery, theft, embezzlement, burglary, highway robbery and other criminal means for getting another stake in the liope of winning back what was lost. ‘ Not only are all these crimes against property:| caused by track ‘gambling. Other evils follow. The | excitement of the habit, its fluctuations of luck, its alternating hope and despair, undermine the nervous while we recognize the wisdom of the choice of date determined upon by Buffalo and Glasgow, we cannot | consent to postponé our exposition for the purpose of appropriating State money for theirs. It is notable that the Examiner, which opposes the | enterprise, favors an appropriation for the | lo exposition. It declared yesterday a'display at ce would be a good advertisement, while it es of late maintained that an exposi- tion home would be no advertisement at all Such views of course carry their refutation on their face, and to be answered need only to be stated. They aliar to the organ non-resident who | patronizes nothing in the city except the crematory, | 1o which he sends his paper with other garbage to be | ned, and nothing in the State outside the city ex- t the jute miils at San Quentin, from which the been in the habit of obtaining its ptiscn-made twine. From the non-resident patron of the garbage fur- nace and the penitentiary it is not necessary to take veral t oi a e pe Examiner has an appeal. The Examiner's sneer and snarl at everything Californian and its laudation of every- thing in New York a part of the habit acquired by | non-residents who lose all State and civic patriotism and look upon California as an outlying province whose industries and interests can be advertised only by making them subordinate features of an exposi- | tion held in Europe or the metropolitan East. The issue is one the people and the Legislature will clearly understand. ~The intelligence of world recognizes that 1901 will be exceptionally fa- vorable for exposition purposes, and the intelligence of the State recognizes that California should in some way profit by the opportunities it will afford. The sole question is, Shall we expend our money for expositions abroad. or for an exposition at home? Shall we send samples of our industries to be mingled aried displays in far-away States, or shall we attract the attention of the world to California and the Pacific Coast? Non-residents may haggle over such questions, but “alifornians will not hesitate a moment in giving the answer. Whatever money we have for exposi- tions in 1001 must be devoted to the home enter- prise A female swindler in New York is likely to es- cape a second trial because the prosecuting witness while on the stand the first time was so shamefully abused that he does not propose to undergo the ex- ‘perience again. There ought to be a lesson in this to courts. To be a witness is really no crime. When city ordinances forbid expectoration on the sidewalk the offense of spitting in a man’s face is natiirally regarded as much more serious. Just as likely as not the next victim will consider it a capital crime. There will be a considerable risk regiments , of ipinos. teach them how to shoot, and they might be awk- ward to handle. in organizing The person who stole from a bookstore a copy of | “Potter of Texas” and “Barnes of New York” can- not plead that his literary taste led him into error. The: people of this city will be.glad to see that the spirit of improvement has mnot street. It has merely been on a vacation. Wisely enough, the Legislature did not forbid can- ! didates to “treat” their friends. Such a law would have been foolish and ineffective, the | Once give them guns and | deserted Kearny | system and resort is had to drink and opium. The ] use of the latter is a most common result of track | gambling, especially in the case of youths and women. | To put a stop to the source of these crying evils is the first duty of the economist and moralist alike, It/ is a promoter of vice and crime to a degree not en- tirely known to the public.. The record, of its blight is in domestic discords, on the slabs of the morgue, in the insane asylums and prisons. Let it be abol- ished. f\ d back and forth, the rattling press among, | the live thunder. Out from Tacoma | flashes the lightning of a fiery wrath. Seattle, from her misty shroud, darts electric charges back and answers her aloud, while all the necighboring towns and villages array themselves on one side or the other and echo with manifold reduplications every sound of war that roars tumultuous through the moist and foggy air. Now the cause of all these frequent repetitions of taunt and threat, of all these wild reverberations as of thunder in the mountains, is merely a name. Shall the Government reservation just laid out on the shores of Puget Sound be called “Mount Rainier Park” or “Mount Tacoma Park”? That is the ques- tion. To outsiders the settlement of such a question | would appear simply a matter of taste, but to the in- | siders it is not a matter of tasting. It is something | they have to chew, swallow and inwardly digest. | Hence the agitation of the issue has reached such 4 | degree of violence that it shakes the State, makesi the overarching welkin ring until the cerulean dome | is nearly cracked, and so disturbs the sommolent clam | in his oozy bed on the Puget shores that he has the nightmare, imagines himself a sea-serpent and joins the cry for gore. ! In her calmer moods Tacoma asserts that to call‘l the park “Rainier” would be a wrong to herself, al | mockery to the State, an offense to the nation and an l insult to American manhood. This fellow Rainier, she declares, was an unnaturalized foreigner, a blarsted Britisher of French descent, who came rubber- necking around the Sound many years ago and went away again without settling, laying out a new town | or even publishing a boom pamphlet, Why name a park after that vagabond? Tacoma | says if the country cannot rise to the height of a | genuine poetic nomenclature and call the reservation Tacoma Park, it should call it Washington Park, or Puget Park, or any old park, but not Rainier-—and incidentally not Seattle. | ! All these allegations of wrong, mockery, offense ! | and insult Seattle treats not with silent contempt, but hurls them back with scorn. It is the process of hurling back that makes the noise. -Not the hurtling of cannon-balls, the shriek of shells; the roar of lions in their 1uagles, the bellow of the bzhemoth, or even | the screaming of the whangdoodle in the mounteins of Hepsidam, moves the currents of the atmosphere to such eddying whirlpools of horrid sounds as dnes the raucous voice of Seattle answering Tacoma on this proposition, and with an uproar quite as dréadful does Tacoma thunder back. e | When it is added that to the tort and retort of the | chief combatants there are joined all the echoing itera- tions and reiterations of the lesser Puget settiements, | WHAT'S IN A NAME? LL around Puget Sound rages a wordful war, | lea | hell broke loose.” Such, then, is the cause of the strange noises which it will be understood that the result can be expressed | only in John Milton’s terse, tumultuous phrase, ”A]Il and, like an able politician—which he is—he started aiter the primary law via the Supreme Court. Te has appointed a committee of five to investigate the legal phases of the subject, and doubtless this will result in the employment of attorneys and the in- auguration of a contest designed to put a quietus upon the statute. We shall watch the vendetta between the Non- Partisans and the primary law with great interest. If the former’s attempt to fasten their committee of be another indication of the power which can be ex- ercised by a lot of property-owning citizens banded together for the purpose of disturbing the peace of the professional politicians. Were the Non-Partisans all residents of San Francisco, or were they in favor of anything but stagnation and silurianism, they would constitute a powerful element in our politics. l writer in a newspaper to sign each article from his pen we would say naught in malice. . Surely if Morchouse has the courage to back and thus forward such a freak the journalistic scribe whose business is to present sane ideas, clothed in the language sug- gested by common sense, has no reason to complain. Neither would we refer harshly to the Senate for having passed the measure, for it is more in sorrow than in anger we realize that body has put its intellec tuality on display. Nor, since one must speak well of the dead, is it seemly to give the dying too lusty a biff. Aside from being devoid of the element of reason, tased on splenetic affection of the mental parts, silly, useless and ridiculous, the measure may have much to commend it. No writer for a daily paper is afraid to sign his work. The reason he does not sign it is that he is working under orders. Often- times he passes to print matter directly contrary to his own judgment. He does it with a clear conscience, knowing himself to be no more responsible than the mechanical typewriter through which the words may reach print. The proprictor of the paper is respon- sible for its contents. No matter if another indi- vidual be drawn into the vortex of the thunderous eddy of Morehouse wrath, the ultimate penalty would fall upon the man who paid the salary. Much of the comment in a modern daily paper ap- pears under or over the name of a special writer, and MOREHOUSE MANIA. N writing of the Morehouse bill requiring every | this without compulsion, but the general editorial has a place beneath the name of the editor and proprietor. This would seem to definitely fix responsibility. The | Senate evidently is of another opinion, and to bow to the opinion of a body so august is the blessed privi- lege of us all. Possibly there is behind the measure some hope that the obligation to drag into the light the names of bashful contributors, who from possession of the un- Senatorial quality of modesty like to do their good deeds on the quiet (or something to this effect) and blush to find it fame, will scare these writers into a different pursuit. There is no need to build a hope on this conjecture. Not all the Morehouses this side of the place whither the Morehouses are going can pre- vent the expression of a single fact nor cause the altering of a phrase. The writers do not know what Morehouse takes them for, but they take him for a joke. ‘When the Colorado Legislature had advanced a certain bill to second reading there were policemeén in the chamber to dissuade the statesmen from slaying one another. Women vote in Colorado and the gentle influence of their presence in politics floats through the Assembly halls like a benediction. There has been legislation in favor of the Santa Fe because of the demand for competition. Now up- rises the doubter and proclaims that this legislation is | really in favor of the Southern Pacific. The possibil- ity that the enemies of the Santa Fe started this rumor are too apparent to be overlooked. A man who bought a saloon and found that the liquid he supposed to be whisky was nothing but weak tea has a right to protest. There isn’t a snake in a whole shelf full of tea. If that anti-cartoon law had gone into immediate cffect the world, which faithfully scrutinizes The Call, would have missed some of the best work that ever cheered it. An Omaha banker lost $5000 from his pocket re- cently. He should have known better than to try to have a roll and a rent in his pocket at the same time. For China to appeal to America can hardly be ef- fective. We listened to an appeal from Cuba once, and see what we got. As we u_nderstand it, the Harbor Commission was | never instituted for paying the political debts of | Colonel Burns. members were originally appointed by Mr. Fitch, and | Partisanism will become just as public an institution | has | forty i & + b A writer in the Argonaut last week devoted some space to Kipling. I gather from a careful reading of what he said that Kipling is regarded as a fair second to the writer in the Argo- naut. To let such consideration go without mention is impossible, there- fore I mention it. e For the short month of February there were five murders in San Fran- cisco, being considerably too many. There will be advanced in behalf of the murderers the plea either of self-de- fense or insanity, and probably, if jus- tice were to be consulted, neither plea would be found good in auny instance. If the homicidal tendency so frequently displayed is the result of insanity this must be the craziest town on earth, and if it can be traced to the neces- sity of self-defense there is an inex- plicably large proportion of the popula- tion in need of killing. The plain truth is that people here commit murder be- cause they know that to do so will cost them less inconvenience than to steal a ham. And all the while there is across the bay an excellent gallows through the trap &f which a number have dropped, but -not enough. Hang murderers promptly and surely and there will be far fewer of them. o enow The welfare of the schools must in- terest every citizen and to see them so often under the management of in- competents and rascals is a source of irritation and regret. The subject of free school books is being discussed. I believe that books should be provided for every pupil, whether rich or poor. At present there is a way of supplying them to such children as make open declaration that their parents are un- | able to perform the office. This puts the children coming from humble homes at the disadvantage of being regarded by their wealthier playmates as pau- ipers, and on this subject the careless tongue of yputh administérs many a sting. The result is that wage-earners | who cannot afford to do so buy books | for their children and the burden is | hard to bear. There are many ex- | pensive and useless books, and frequent | changes, the latter precluding the possi- | bility of disposing of second-hand arith- | metics and geographies or passing them | from child to child as the elder enters a new grade. For the State to buy the books would entail a considerable racing and intended to destroy public interest in that | fifty upon the politics of the city triumphs it will only | cost, but the extra expenditure would come easily within the amount now | wasted or stolen. With honest direct- | ors there would not only be an end to | larceny, but to the common and frivo- | lous substitutions now in vogue. In my | opinion the text book is as properly a part of the furnishing of a school as is | the desk or the map on the wall. o Taeic e A poem entitled “Sweethearts and ‘Wives” has appeared in a number of prints with the credit “Anon.” There is no particular excuse for such care- lessness. The poem was written by the |late Dan O’Connell and there was no | seerecy in its publication. except such as hedges about the work of all obscure { authors. . . An Indlan paper in describing the charms of Lady Curzon says that her voice resembles the voice of a cuckoo. |1 would advise the lady to restrain her | speech. Somebody might mistake her for a $2 clockA‘ . I observe that one of the evening papers will not permit any of its num. | erous talented writers to say “to-day | such a thing happened, but the obliga- | tion exists to say “Friday” or “Satur- | day,” as the case may be. This is an ‘('xce!lent idea. It permits the item to | stand for at least a week and therein is the virtue of it. For an evening | paper an item not more than seven days | of age is young and beautiful. | o s | The police have “arrested the wrong | highbinder.” There is something about the statement hard to believe. There |is not a highbinder in Chinatown who i(l(\es not deserve to be arrested, con- | victed and sentenced to be hanged at least once. i . . Some Eastern publication has gone to | the trouble at this late day to review | Beatrice Harraden’s “Remittance Man.”, The story was not worth this trouble even when fresh from the press. Save for the fact 'that the woman had written one creditable book she could not have found a publisher for this one, and every publisher who accepted it realize” that he had made a bad bar- gain. The yarn is crude, uninteresting, untrue to life, amateurish, and, more- over, vixenish. There is nowhere in it a gleam of purpose nor sense. It is worse even than Atherton’s worse stuff, and to say this I regard as the climax of disapproval. . The trust may be a necessary evil, but it can reach a point at which, while it remains potently evil, it is no longer necessary. Some of the recent aggre- gations of capital have been startling enough and that of the Eastern coal interests, now being manipulated by J. Pierpont Morgan, promises to be ap- palling. The combined capital, it is stated, will be more than $889,000,000. 1 To explain the occasion for this the SR | fact is set forth that there will be an |annual saving in expenses amounting to $3,200,000. Think of it! The owners ! of the mines, with more money than they know what to do with, made rich by the sweat of underground toilers far worse conditioned than the slaves jof the South ever were, can save all | this money. Perhaps they will devote | it to charity, for in the absence of char- ity the now half-fed employes will be | certain to starve. Maybe they will de- | vote it to the endowment of a chair in | some benign university dedicated to the | betterment of the race, but mighty lit- ille of it will be laid up in heaven. I 1 did not intend to start out by saying anything about trusts. They came in incidentally. The subject in view was | the yowl raised about the appropria- tions made by the last Congress, amounting to a billion and a half. In reality, this is a trifie. There are twenty men in this country who never earned an honest penny in their lives who could foot the entire bill, and these are the men who will most loudly protest. The common citizen pays his taxes without grumbling. His only plaint is due to the fact that his rich neighbor refuses to contribute. The man with a small house, furnished out of his earn- ings, pays all the tax-gatherer de- mands. The man of millions lies out of the responsibility. The more pro- nounced the concentration of capital becomes the wider are the rifts in the Lbody of the republic. The poor man $0404O+OHD 4 OHDHOHE+ 4444 4Iy 04O $OHIHIFOFIFOFOROY WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS. By HENRY JAMES. HHO40404040 4 0404040+ 04040t O 404 40404+ O$I4O4O$O$OH L4 + @ + goes to the front and fights if his coun- try needs. The rich man stays at home and sells rotten beef for his consump- tion. The aristocracy of money is the most insecure ever reared. If matters progress in the direction toward which they now seem to have considerable headway there will be an awful and a sudden metamorphosis. This is a land of vast resources, and the calloused hands which have developed it will not always gather with patience the crumbs falling from the table of afflu- ence, knowing as the toiler does, that his labor fashioned the loaf of which even a crust is denied him. I am no prophet of ill, but any calm viewer of circumstances as they exist knows there must be a change, not radical, but reasonable, or a crash, and after that— chaos. Our politicians are corrupt, our statesmen buying their station medi- ocre, and our capitalists bent on exact- ing the utmost farthing. No fortune built on watered stock can stand. No republic dominated by the conscience- less element issuing such stock can stand either. Your grandchildren will wonder why you were such a fool as not to have realized these things. e e Probably since the first legislative body met there was never introduced a bill so wholly and frankly idiotic as that for the establishment of a bureau of child study. The unique distinction of being the place of its birth belongs to California. The object of it is to give one Gavigan a chance to draw a salary for poking his nose into the busi- ness of other and I hope better people. 1 do not propose to insult the Legisla- ture by assuming for an instant that the measure can receive anything but condemnation, but if Gavigan ever came prowling about my house on an official mission one of us would throw the other downstairs. This Gavigan has been, among other things, a Police Court attorney, and that nineteen out of twenty of his kind deserve to be in that court in the capacity of defendant everybody knows. I am not saying anything against Gavigan. Possibly he is the twentieth. . T OccaslonaHy it may be observed that upon the passing away of a citizen there is portrayed among his other virtues that of having been a descend- ant from Washington. Mere delicacy ought to forbid any allusion to this. So far as openly recorded Washington was the father of his country, and while this achievement redounded to his credit it did not plant the seed for a family tree. 2 The fellow traveling on the reputa- tion of being a “gun-fighter” is a cow- ard. So far as my observation goes there are no exceptions to this rule. The big, blustering bully whose pockets are supposed to bulge with the weap- ons of death is a false alarm. He depends upon the terror of an un- earned reputation, and would fall para- lyzed with fright if his bluff happened to be called. e By the exercise of adroitness the Sheriff of Monterey County has pre- vented the lynching of one Castro. I wish he had been less adroit. Acecord:" ing to all accounts Castro deserved to | be lynched, and it does not seem just | that the people should be burdened with | the cost of his trial. There is the chance that he may, through the ras- cally shrewdness of a lawyer, be ac- quitted, and if convicted he will be sent to the penitentiary, there to add to the | burden of people who have never fol- | lowed a mode of life leading them ln! the same direction. The only objection I have to lynch law is that in the haste of the moment the populace may hang | the wrong man. True, this is an al- | most vital objection, but in such cases | as there is no element of doubt and the | offense has been gross as Castro’s, a ready rope is the only instrument to | adequately meet the emergency. ST e s It has been no part of my duty to keep track of Oakland politics, but among the names of those to be voted | for to-morrow in that city I notice that | of S. W. Booth. I have worked with Booth both on the Examiner and The Call, and can say that he would only have to attend to his duties in office as faithfully as he attends to journal- istic duties to be an ideal public ser- vant. I say this for Booth gladly, with the resolve that if he shall be elected and prove in any measure derelict to the best of my ability I will skin him alive. ey e George L. Rees, a Stanford student, has, in large and glittering letters, written himself an ass. This is simply a personal opinion, and may be wrong. As it is the only opportunity he will have to glitter this side of maturity perhaps he is not to be blamed. Rees was a soldier in the First California, and during his short term of service was in the guardhouse eight times for disobedience. Despite thg fact that he possesses physical courage, as his ac- tion on the field demonstrated, this record proves that he lacks the first requisite of the soldier. Evidently he was of the lot who thought war a pic- nic, and believed that rations would in- | clude pie and that in every emergency | a Red Cross nurse would be on hand with a bottle of smelling saits. Natur- | ally he was disappointed, but for him to lecture on the subject was presump- tion. He resented the authority of his official superiors, and if all soldiers were to do this armies would be useless for everything but the devouring of rations, “In foreign countries,” says this se:;:: soned sage, “the general leads the army to victory. In America the army leads | the general to victory.” All of which s | aggravatingly stupid nonsense. An army made up of Americans is a mat‘ch | man for man, for any army the world | has ever produced, and it gains much of its strength from the fact that offi cers lead it and inspire it by a dmpla- of fearless and patriotic enthusiasm. A{ the battles fought in Cuba the pra;‘)or tion of casualties among officers was s‘ great as to excite the astonishment :m; even the reprobation of Buropean mili t.“ry authorities. From general to th- lieutenant fresh from West Point ome cers took every chance and enc‘lurec; every hardship that privates wer called upon to face. Young Mr Reez does not seem to realize that n;erc is in an army necessity for discipline, al- though his terms as a prisoner e\‘xght to have given him an inkling of its existence. I have no doubt that in the ranks he was a mischief-maker and that the regiment is well rid of him, As :](:m}tlls n:}legnuans of outrageous ‘con- on the part CalibeEats: i of officers of the First I deem them as false and | malicious, as they -assur dly are co temptible. Rees is evidently an egotist to the point of actual mania. With careful nursing he mlgl:t outgrow it, L The medical student who throws the head of a human subject into a garbage heap to be carted away with offal 1 cremated with dead cats is worse t a brute. If the latest degenerate to ba guilty of this outrage will forward his picture I will use all my influence to get it published. It would form an ex. cellent start for a rogues’ gallery. . . = Good Russell Sage is pained at what he chooses to term the extravaganc of the rich. I do not think the rich ca have any extravagances. The only p ple who are capable of this fault are those who expend on luxuries so much that they may suffer for mnecessitic Money is good only for the th can be made to do. In itself it is w less, and to me the man who heaps up million upon million, with thought beyond seeing the pile grow, a fool. Sage makes the mistake of o founding God Almighty, whom he pr fesses to worship, but doesn’t, with the god money, which he professes not ts worship, but does. P To several: Please do not send poetry to me. I have troubles of my ow e AROUND THE CORRIDORS Charles Bosey, of Portland, Oregon, {s registered at the Lick. George E. Sylvester, a Crippla Creek mining man, is at the California. Charles T. Lindsey, a mine and owner of Visala, is registered Grand. W. A. Holabird. one of the old estate boomers of the South, Palace. R. A. Boggers, proprietor of the A? | mine at Sulphur Creek, is 2 g t Occidental. Mrs. George B. Sperry of Stockton T engaged apartments at the Occidental for herself and two sons. J. A. Franklin Jr., a V: chant, and wife, and Duncan McF a Santa Cruz rancher, and guests at the Grand. W. O. Blasingame, a Fre er; H. A. Heilbron, a catt ramento, and Dr. J. P. Cavanat ma, are among the arrivals at tr W. D. Pennycook, a Vallejo ne man; C. H. Beers, a Chicago banker wife, and J. E. Cann, paymaster, United States Navy, are registered at the Occl- dental. George W. Boyd, assistant general pas- senger agent of the Pennsylvania Rail- road at Philadelphia, arrived yesterday in his private car Olivette with his wife and registered at the Palace. Miss Hilda Newman entertained a number of her friends at her residence in Oakland Thursday evening by a delight- ful musicale. Those who contributed to the evening's enjovment were: Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin, Mr. and Mrs. Putnam Griswold, Mrs. N. Cameron, Mrs. New- man, Miss Beresford Joy, Miss Alma Berghuid, the Misses Hirschberg, the Misses Brinn, Miss Newman, John Roth- childs, J. Smith, T. G. Clavering, George Reinhart, F. R. Howard, Sam Freishman. The affair was a success and was one of the principal social events of the season. — ——e———— CALIFORNIANS IN WASHINGTON WASHINGTON, March 1L.—M. L. Had- ley of San Francisco is at the St. J:\mf-s. L. v, Holcomb of Los Angeles ‘= at Wil- lard’s. ——————————— CALIFORNIANS IN NEW YORK. NEW YORK, March 11.—L. H. Allen of San Francisco is at the Imperial. — e ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. SPIDER KELLY—W. H., Waupin, Wis. The true name of “‘Spider Kelly” is James Curtin. “The Harlan Spider” and *‘Spider Kelly” are not one and the same man. 7 THE TIGER LILY—A correspondent wants to know who wrote ‘‘The Tiger Lily” and where it can be found. Can any Teader of this department oblige the cor- respondent? COAL—M., Oakland, Cal. The latest tabulated figures on coal of the world are those of 1896. From these it appears that the production in the United States was 186,186,611 tons and that of the United Kingdom 195,361,000 tons. SAN FRANCISCO TO IRELAND-—L. M., City. The distance by water from San Francisco to Ireland, not going around the Horn, is 19,000 miles, going from the first named place to Sydne: then rounding the Cape of Good Hop Ireland. % PAWNBROKER'S CHARGES—J. City. A pawnbroker in California is permitted to charge in excess of 2 per ¢ per month on articles that he ta pledge. If he does he is liable to a and upon conviction'is punishable in penalty provided for misdemeanor. OAKLAND FERRY—Truth, City. The question asked by another correspondent in relation to the ferry-boat Oakland was “Was the Oakland now in the Oakland and San Francisco ferry service ever in the Sacramento river trade? Where was she built?” The answer given was correct. The ferry-boat Oakland never w the Sacramento River trade, and. according to the official list of United States vesse] issued by the Bureau of Navigation of ¢ Treasury Department of ~the Uni States, she was built in Oakland in The question did not involve any quest as to the Oakland having been built U from the old Chrysopolis. When that question is asked it will be answered. INCINERATION. — A corre who Is interested in one of the ries writes to state that the cently given in this department strictly correct, and sends a « which there is the following: ° erally understood and believed process of cremation the remains taken from the casket and wrapped in & winding sheet, many being under the im- pression that even the clothing is 1¢s moved, and while the former true, all modern crematories have changed the method, and except in lic caskets are used, the rem. touched or handled, being erated In the casket as recel: and metallic trimmings only n moved; otherwise, they would melt fuse with the ashes.” While ‘ll t ma v tha t ¥ b & hi ket and that burial robe placed over bodies are re those who desire to preserv their dead will have the 2 with_ashes of cloth, wood, silv u fused nalls, screws, tacks and the like. _————————— Without seeing Townsend's Californis Glace Fruits would be like visiting £ without seeing Paris; f0c Ib, in fire etcheg boxes. 627 Market St., Palace Hotel Blds. —_———————— Special information supplied daily to business houses and public men Ly the Press Clipping Burcau (Allen’s). .leAMm'l(— gomery street. Telephone Main 1042, —_—————— In the island of Minora, one of the Phil- ippines, the humming birds are pugna- ious Hittie creatures. Thousands of them frequently attack huntsmen without the slightest = provocation, mmmmliar some- times serious wounds on the e and neck. —_———————— California Limited, Santa Fe Route. Leaves Sundiys, Tuesdarylg and Fridays. FElegant service. Vestibuled observation cars. Harvey's Dining sleepers, rs through from Call out change. Get full particul office, 628 Market st. fornia to Chicago withe lars at company's