The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 26, 1899, Page 6

—— 1899 ...MARCH 26, JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor. ations to W. S. LEAKE, Manager, ...Market and Third Sts., S. F. Telephone Maln 1568. EDITORIAL ROOMS. ...2{7 to 22! Stevenson Street Telephone Main 1574 CARRIERS, 15 CENTS PER WEEK. s, 5 cents. | luéing Postage: ress All Communic: ;’UELIC,\TSUN OFFICE ay Call). one year. 00 | v month 2.00 | 150 65¢ 1.50 1.60 ions. | requested. 2 508 Broadway | Room 1SS, World Building | DAVID ALLEN, Advertising Representative. | WASHINGTON (D. C.) OFFICE.........Welllngton Hotel | C. C. CARLTON, Correspondent. .Marquette Building CHICAGO OFFl C.GEORGE KROGNESS, A« ing Represontative. QAKLAND OFFICE.. NEW YORK OFFICE dvertisi teptgomery street, corner Clay, | 387 Hayes strect. open until McAlllstar street, open untll 9:30 5 Larkin street, open untll 9:30 o'clock: | on street, open until 10 o'clock. 2991 Market strect, cormer Sixteenth, open until 9 o'clock. 2518 | street, open untli 9 o'clock. 106 Eleventl | open untll 9 oclock. 1505 Polk street, open | 920 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-second anq streets. open until 9 o'clock. | BRANCH OFFICES: open unt 9:30 o until AMUSEMENTS. -morrow night. Marie. ne Southwell Opera Company,-Sat Y t Tuesday, te. farch 21, at 12 o'clock e. March, 25, at 2 m., & C Real Esta THE FIRST DUTY OF THE CITY. THOUSAND things in the way of improve- d reform await the action of the off cials or the citizens of San Francisco, and may be per me time, but there is one itted to wait for so: o be at once—a better home and abiding- | the | lost their lives by disease to one lost by battle. | does from disease. ared for the unfortunates who are ntial diseases. cse dread pests are not criminals, munity for its own.protection im- a hospital shit cut from the world | nature of their affliction deprives ashionable ministrations ot be visited by the members , nor cheered by the consola- or relatives. They are cut off from rcourse of men, and in their isola- overlooked and almost forgotten. 1 world neglects them, and it would | of the pale of humanity. | »osed upon them is not in itself y for the general good. Science yrizes ' it, and religion approves science, law and religion alike de- 1ld be accompanied by every alle- on can provide. The home of s should be comfortable, it should be | le to the needs of the sick. It | of brightness to lighten the to relieve as far as possible ion that falls upon its inmates in their n int h San Francisco has provided for the very reverse of all. that it s not one redeeming quality. It is | ty, and is a very dilapidated er of The Call staff who vis- ited the place reports that the walls are so insecure pped up to prevent them from fall- ters cannot hold the roof boards d upon them. The shingles are e to e by the wind, and when have to be pr The decayed r. hingles n; ing. and the swept off from t e rains come the water drips into almost every apartment in the building he scenes described by our reporter need no strong language to make them impressive to the un- derstanding. On beds upon which sick patients are | lying, to prevent the whole bed from being saturated buckets have to be placed to catch the water as it drips. In the dining-room the table has been crowded to one corner to avoid the rain. Pools of water lie upon the floors in bedrooms, dining- rooms and corridors. The whole place is in a state of | dilapidation and recks with the foulness of decay which the best efforts of the nurses and those in charge are unable to overcome. q It is not worth while to say of this that it is a dis- grace to the city. Any comment would but be a waste of words. The only thing to say is that a new home for pest-stricken patients must ‘be provided at once. The case appeals to municipal duty and to pri- vate charity, and before another Sunday dawns upon us something should be undertaken to relieve the sufferings of those who have so many claims upon humanity. Ttory. Now comes the pipe of discord, a per- son named Smith having smoked it in an Ore- gon sanctuary during service, and, having been bounced therefrom, ultimately fetching up in the Police Court. What his sentence will be the world waits to hear. Smith ought to have known better. If he went to church in contemplation of ensconcing himseli in a pew and there enjoying a smoke he might at least have paid to the place and occasion the tribute 6f a new pipe and some miid tobacco. But no. Smith had ‘the sort of pipe which encountered in the open air jars the senses, which in a close room, reposing un- lighted in the pocket, is a thing of terror, but which going full tilt makes strong men turn pale. Smith was guilty of the further solecism of using a grade of weed suspected of containing leather, wool, rubber— in fact, almost anything but tobacco. Doubtless the wretch also scratched a match on the seat of his pew. We have no desire to interfere with the adminis- tration of justice in Oregon, or to advocate the obliteration of Smith under a crushing penalty. We merely suggest that even if he escape mundane pun- ishment, the man who smokes in church seems in a fair way to get, ultimately, more smoking than he likes. Perhaps his better nature can be appealed to and the sinner induced to do his loafing in a tannery, where his environment would match him, and there THE "PIPE OF DISCORD. HE pipe of peace long ago won a place in his- unmolested run his little garbage crematory. B . It seems that Bryan still has the privilege of dining with one of the Belmonts, anyhow. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY. MARCH 2 !WMM +HOHOPO S SPIbOd B s S R e 2R WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS. THE FATALITIES OF WdR. T the beginning of the Spanish war The Call fl roused attention to the .peed of Red Cross work, not only for the battle-field and the sui- ferers in action at arms, but for those sickened with the diseases-of the camp. In that connection we said the deaths by disease would be five to every one in battle. The officials have compiled the casualties from the outbreak of the war to the first of the current month. In that time the army lost in battle and by wounds 472 men and the navy 18, making a total of 490. In the same period the navy lost by disease 56 men and army 5277, a total of 5333. Nearly eleven men This is an unusually high percentage. An enlisted man stands a better chance, by 1I to 1, in battle than he This is largely due to the scene of the, war being in the tropics. All temperate zone nations that have carried on war under a vertical sun have had the same trying experience. In all ages the tropical cli- mate has been a powerful factor in equalizing the na- tives with a superior force and better equipments composed of temperate zone soldiers. This is the sorry part of the Philippine problem. Since the fighting began the reports are generally confined to casualties in battle, and the deaths by disease are not transmitted, but it is highly probable that the proportion of 11 to 1 will be maintained or exceeded. Before our land forces moved into the tropics there was propagated a wrong idea about sanitary conditions, due to the excellent health of the naval forces. Dewey’s men on shipboard in Manila Bay were in constant good health, and people at home jumped to the conclusion that the climate was whole- some. But on shipboard the diet and habits of the men are under strict discipline and regulation. They drink only distilied water. Their rations are under rigid inspection. The preparation of their food is excellent. Their personal cleanliness and immunity from the filth accumulations of a camp are great factors. All these things were not considered, and even the medical officers of the army gave out re- assuring statements about the salubrity of the cli- mate. But experience has shown the difference be- tween ship and shore. On land the thirst of the men is inordinate and is quenched with water that is filled with germs of disease. Regulation of a soldier’s diet is not possible as in the case of the sailor’s. Con- tact with the poison of tropical soil and exposureto the vertical rays of the sun are unavoidable, and no sani- tary precautions can overcome the natural condi- tions, which are fatal to our race, though the natives withstand them without injury. Some surprise has been expressed at the anxiety of the parents and relatives of the First California Vol- unteers for their return from the Philippines. As| readers of the daily papers are aware, this has taken the form of an organization of parents, which has Leld meetings and formally requested the Govern- mert to release that regiment and send it home. This feeling is due to the information written home in private letters that are not published, which are | expressive of the miseries of that service. | While the fighting is on letters that tell of organ- ized or individual acts of heroism, or that give cpinions about the campaign, are written and read | and published, and there is less information about | cenditions that are not related to action in the field. .l of Supervisors the commission which for upward of twenty years has been engaged in completing | the City Hall will turn it over to the Building Com- | mittee. The architect of the commission is going to | make a report upon what it will cost to put the edi- | fice in good condition, which includes the adding of | a wainscot of California marble to the main cor- | THE ‘“‘COMPLETED” CITY HALL T is reported that at the next meeting of the Board | | ridors. When this report is presented Supervisor | Holland, as chairman of the Building Committee of | the Supervisors, will move to accept the City Hall and thereafter responsibility for maintaining and completing it will be transierred from the City Hall | Commission to the Board of Supervisors. Early in January last the City Hall Commission presented its final report and asked .the Supervisors | to take the municipal elephant off its hands, but the | latter declined to do so on the ground that the plumb- | ing is in bad shape, that the iron cornices are falling | away, that many of the rooms are unfinished, and | that a great deal of money will have to be exgendcd | before the building is completed. It seems, howeevr,'\ that the Supervisors have not been able to make“ their point. The commissioners have no money with | which to comply with their demands, and it is a case | of either accepting the hall or leaving it without an owner. In connection with this matter it is interesting to refer to the historical data which appears in the final | report of the City Hall Commission. The work of excavating for the structure began on | March 28, 1871.° The cornerstong was laid on Febq ruary 22, 1872, and the building was “completed” on | December 30, 1898. The original estimate of the cost was $1,500,000. The amount received from the sale of the City Hall lots, which it was thought would pay for all the work, was $953,000. Up to December 30 last the edifice had cost $5,723,087. It is estimated’| that it will take $100,000 more to “‘complete” it. The total cost so far does not seem extravagant when everything is considered in connection with the City Hall. If we had a building constructed on a modern plan and furnished with modern improve- ments, supplied with ventilating and heating sys- tems and with rooms adapted for conducting the pub- lic business, perhaps the people would have no ground for complaint. But in place of a modern City Hall we have a dark and dismal pile of masonry, un- healthy, cold, unsupplied with ventilation or artificial heat, designed to exclude sunshine and air, and ar- chitecturally a horrible nightmare. Under the cir- cumstances the public has a right to begrudge the nioney. . { | A FLOOD TIDE OF PROSPERITY. OW that abundant rains have fallen to assure N good crops and brisk business in the State for | the coming season, the people of California can with full sympathy note the evidences of prosperity that come to us from other parts of the Union. Nor is there any lack of such evidences. They come to us from every side and from almost every branch of in- dustry. : So notable, indeed, has become the upward ten- dency of all the great interests of the country that the record of the facts by which the tendency manifests it- sclf has grown to be one of the conspicuous features of the news of the day. In the Eastern States, where the depression of the Democratic tariff days was more | acutely felt than here, there has been a particularly marked improvement in trade and industry, and with the increase in the profits of capitalists a proportion- ate increase in the wages of workingmen. The current number of the American Economist Acasuzll:iea slip by. Pedple will begin to doubt him. reviews the condition of manufacturing trades in the Lastern States and notes a large number of instances ‘where wages have been increased, or notices given of an increase to take place in the near future. A still more comprehensive summary has been made for the Southern Mississippi Valley States by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and the showipg: there is not less prosperous than that in the East. In many of the instances cited the increase of wages affects large numbers of workingmen.. Thus it is re- ported from Boston that cotton né‘i]Is representing nearly half the spindles in New England will raise wages on April 3 by an average of 11 per cent for all grades of employes. These mills employ nearly 63,- 000 hands. Several of the largest iron and steel manu- facturers of Pennsylvania have raised wages 10 per cent, and a single one of these, the Bessemer Furnace Company, has 4000 employes on its payrolls. Similar good reports are ‘given from the mapufacturing dis- tricts of New York, Ohio‘and West Virginia. The review made by theé Globe-Democrat shows that since the enactment of the Dingley tariff there have been establishéd -in Missouri new industries representing aninvestment of $7,682,000 of capital, employing 8002 persons and paying $3,710,000 an- nually in wages. In Illinois the new .industries have a capital of $2.821,000, employ 3033 persons and pay $1,351,000 annually in wages. In Kansas $2,084,000 new capital ‘hds been invested, furnishing work to 2604 persons’ and ~paying annually $1,313,000 in wages. In Texas the investments amount to $915,000, the number of hands employed to 664, and the annual wages to $360,000. In Arkansas the new capital in- vested equals $1,279,000, persons employed 1213, and wages $1,421,000 annually. These statistics are very far from representing the magnitude of the increase of industry and wages, but they serve to show the tendency now prevailing from New England to Texas. They attest the vaiue of the protective tariff to all parts of the Union and to all classes of citizens. William McKinley has fully justi- fied the people who during the campaign of 1806 gave him the title, “The advance agent of prosper- ity.” The flood tide of industrial activity and good wages has fairly started in' the East and is flowing westward fast. Californians this season may expect not only good crops but good prices. The outlook dustrious. EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW. I upon the plan of blacklisting adopted by rail- road corporations, and prominently mentions a United States, in which the word “liberty” as used in the fourteenth amendment to the constitution was following any legal calling. Tt also fully refers to a case lately tried in Chicago in which a‘former employe shows something of promise to every hope of the in- HE Arena for March contains an able article case recently decided by the Supreme Court of the construed to include the right to earn a livelihood by of.the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company | 1899 2 + 4 © Collector Jules Gamage of this city recently drove over an old man and killed him. The victim was an inof- fensive old man, too, and so far as re- corded did not owe Gamage a cent. One of the pleasures of driving seems to horsemen of, a certain negative intelli- gence that of making pedestrians jump. Probably the persop at the reins does not intend to kill anybody. He mere- 1y garners joy from observing the nar- row escapes. When the pedestrian fails to jump quickly enough or far enough and dies in his tracks the horseman is temporarily disconcerted, and this seems to be the measure of his discomfort. ‘It is time for an ex- ample to be made, ahd as raw material for the manufacture of an example Gamage s available and promising. The owner of a horse, unable to con- trol the animal, has no business to essay his fatal, ineffectual attempts on a crowded thoroughfare. Probably the fact has never peered above his men- tal horizon that footmen have rights, but they have. I would not have such offenders hanged for the first homicide, but to be sentenced to a boxstall for ten years or so, there to be fed on a Whitehat McCarty ration of hay, would not be too severe. There are bi- cycle riders, also, furtive, cunning and treacherous violators of the laws of de- cency and common sense, unbelled, un- lamped and unarrested, scorching their way to a place where the scorch- ing business is supposed to have no in- termission, apparently eager to add to the mortality list. They have not yet scored a Gamage triumph, but with cripples, children and nervous women exposed to their high-geared assaults soon or late they will. e Several kindly disposed people have written to this department under the impression that they were addressing the Henry James who writes beautiful books, in ‘which he says nothing, but says it so charmingly; who breaks into the magazines, portrait and all, and tries to be as English as his good fa- ther was Yankee. The announcement must be made, and perhaps should be made with regret, that there is a dis- tinction so wide I can see it myself. The James I allude to is_a literary flower blooming in the garden of phrase. When a breeze of sentiment strikes him he lets flutter a petal or two. I never liked his work, save as specimens of flawless shading, but it suits many discriminating readers both here-and in the country of the author’'s adoption. Few of them could give a reason for it. On the contrary, the humble architect of this column never had a verdict against that corporation for $21,666 33, | broke into any magazine and proba- of which $1850 was for actual and $19,816 33 for ex- f bly could more easily break into a safe. emplary or. punitive .damages, because during strike of the American Railroad Union in 1894 the | | the | His portrait was never printed, in all likelihood never will be, and I am mighty certain never with his consent. plaintiff, a freight conductor, had quit work' and was | e never wrote a book, expects never afterward discharged from the employment of the | to, and couldn’t get it printed if he did. Chicago Great Western through an agreement that | He is a plain newspaper man, writing no striker should be employed unless he obtained what is called a ‘“clearance,” | with only the merit of sincerity and fully assuréd that nothing he pens will * that is, the written con- | po remembfered a day, and that he him- sent of the corporation the.service of which he had | self would be forgotten in a week were abandoned. It is satisfactory to note that on the question of blacklisting, as in other directions, there is some prospect of a return’to equality before the'law. Here- tofore there has been decided inconsistency in the judgments of the courts upon controversies identical in principle but affecting different interests or differ- ent classes of persons. dryman, deprived by an invalid municipal order of the opportunity to follow his vocation, the late Judge Lorenzo Sawyer of the United States Circuit Court delivered an eloquent vindication of the divine in- junction that in the sweat of his face man should eat bread. But when the Mussel Slough settlers formed an association to protect themselves against the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, which, by vir- | tue of a local track from Goshen to Huron that hap- | penied to be on the line on which the Southern Pacific railroad ought to have been constructed, claimed their farms under the grant from the United States, it required a fearless jury to acquit them of a charge of conspiracy, to which very severe penalties were at- tached. When the great strike of the American Rail- way Union occurred, that combination to paralyze the railroad business of the country, which produced much violence and caused severe. commercial and financial derangement, was justly held to be illegal, and, for the protection of property and of good or- der, injunction after injunction was issued and en- forced. But for years the equally objectionable al- | liance between the railroads to drive their former em- ployes to pauperism or crime by depriving them of employment, unless they secured the written consent of the corporations they had formerly served, was permitted to stand without question. 1t is idle to talk of equality before the law as a birthright of American citizens, protected by the Fed- eral constitution, when the same fact is declared legal in one case and illegal in another, when a railroad combination to oppress labor is sustained and a lahor combination to assail capital is destroyed. There is | but one law in the United States for all, and every in- dication that inequalities in its administration are being rectified is an additional evidence of the suffi- ciency of our institutions. v i e ‘When the people of the South start out on a negro hunt they may have some shadow of excuse not dis- cernible at this distance, but they ought not to say that the negroes had deliberately planned the inaug- uration of a race war. That sort of a story might go in the section which hunts colored men when ’pos- sums are out of season, but it doesn’t go here. When the negroes decide to indulge in suicide they will doubtless choose some less distressing method. There is an explanation due, of course, but when it involves that the negroes down there are all idiots, and the white men-elsewhere as markedly deficient, it is not acceptable. A There is now a school furniture combination, and if it can do a thing to the taxpayers of the community that the late Board of Education didn't do, it is an alert and powerful affair. e Gavigan does not seem likely to get that soft job so cleverly worked through the Legislature for him. What's the matter with his going to work like other | people? ey 1i the Czar yearns for peace he ought to spend some of the money now going for arms and munitions of war in buying bread for his starving subjects. There is a possibility that the Younger brothers may be paroled from prison. The idea is that they are older brothers now, and know better. The press censor at Manila ought to let a few more On behalf of a Chinese laun- | | blame for Robbins. | he to abandon present pursuits and en- ter upon some useful industry like the digging of ditches. He understands, furthermore, and so in modesty drops the first person, that this is considera- ble space to devote to a matter not of general interest. He merely desires to square himself with the other Henry James and state that the occasional confusion in identities is without con- nivance on the part of this office. The local man has no desire for credit for the books and magazine articles of the Londoner, and he doesn’t propose that the Londoner shall have credit for roasting rogues, and telling people out this way how to be good. Neverthe- less, it is the only name he has, and when the Londoner conceives the name to be overworked, he can take another, for there will be no change at this end of the line. . Kitchener of Khartoum explains that the wounded Dervishes were killed with every consideration for humanity. I assume from this that no instrumen- tality more violent than chloroform was employed. Or possibly the Der- vishes were not reckoned as constitut- ing a part of humanity. . » e . The pesthouse here is a tangible bru- tality, a shame and a disgrace. The unfortunates confined there, many of them with no prospect of leaving un- -til borne to more acceptable quarters in the cemetery, have fewer comforts and worse accommodations than the vagrants and thieves in a jail. They are treated as no humane person would treat a dog. The blight of leprosy, often a curse bestowed upon the inno- ¢ent, leaves some of them no shadow of hope, and to most of these death wolld be so welcome that were they to seek it none could rebuke the impulse. Yet the very rain which the State regards as a blessing and for which good peo- ple prayed adds to the misery of their lot. The poor creatures have not so much as a whole roof to shelter them. They sleep in beds which catch the drip from many a leak. Every breeze carries away shingles from a covering that has long been ineffectual against a shower. There is no spot in which a bed can be placed so as to certainly escape a deluge. The dining room is floored with a series of puddles. Could anything be more scandalously heart- less? If this city were to have a visi- tation of smallpox or other plague, such as sweeps away distinctions and sends rich and poor to common isola- tion, the people appalled would awaken to the fact that there is only this in- adequate abode for the stricken, an abode so fearful in the desolation of its decay that to one of delicate rear- ing mere exile to it might be fatal. I do not know who is responsible, but where the responsi’ lity rests there is a heavy burden of guilt. For the dere- lict to be so afflicted that they would have to be carted to this den and there share the wretchedness they have helped to emphasize would be a far finer example of justice than the scheme of making leprosy a crime and the leper doomed to an ordeal of de- spair unlighted by any gleam of human sympathy. . A man named W. G. Robbins recently killed himself, leaving a pathetic note stating that he was hungry, penniless, without a friend, and could find no work. I do not know how other people feel about it, but I have no word of It seems to me he took the only honorable course there was left to him. It was better than begging, better than stealing, and I doubg not the God who gave him life iforgave him when, after hope and + By HENRY JAMES. HHO40+0+040 4 0+0+ 040+ 044D+ O $04 S +O4OOHI$O40404 404 B ¢ + @ + ® + health had fled, he laid it down. % ST O Explorer Reid intends mnot only to penetrate Thibet, but to invade Lhassa, the sacred city, where, so far as re- corded, no white man’s face has been seen. Perhaps Reid is not a fool, but he has the symptoms. - He might as well keep out of Thibet, for if he start and return he will come out earless, minus at least one eye and bearing other marks of native disapproval. As to Lhassa, if he look upon that the mutilated remains of him will never escape and there will not evens be left the arctic comfort of sending ‘a rellef expedition after him. “A person of or- dinary discernment might conéhide that the ladies and gentlemen of Thibet are “not at hdme" to foreigners, and to try’} to set. aside this rule, which seems to | please them, and to enforce which is | their _distinet right, is a piece of im- | pertinence. I hope, not that Reid will | be de-eared, but that Be will ‘be kicked back to the arms.of the civilization” he adorns. Some day, of course,-as en- lightened nations lick all the compara- tively easy wicked people there are yet to subdue, they will send their armies to instruct and.edify and butcher the | people of Thibet until the “roof of the | world” shall be red to the last rocky shingle, but before the arrival of that happy day Refd would -better either keep away or make his. peace. If he feels that he must -do-semething with a spice of danger in it he might come here and explore our Chinatown while the highbinders are conducting nego- tiations with a hatchet. A Rockefeller is reported to have said that to any man capable of taking charge of his business he would willing- ly pay a salary of $1,000,000 a year. If| Rockefeller ever said this he was bluf- | fing, for he would not willingly pay anybody a million a year of the hard- | earned money for which he has toiled, } and there are scores of men capable of | | | filling the position. I myself know plenty of people who make a point of managing everybody’s business, not to | the neglect of their own either, for they | have none. A thoughtful man, by name Henry E. Allen, has written a pamphlet with | the title “In Hell and the Way Out.” That the people are in that unpleasant place, with greed fanning the coals, he demonstrates clearly, but the way out seems to me beset by impassable bar- riers. In other words, I agree that we are in hell, but think we are destined to stay there until the receptacle en- | | gulfs the last of us, even to those now | outside, and our after fate must for the | | present be left to the prophets. There is not space here for an.analysis of the book. Evidently it is the work of a person who has devoted much time to | the study of social conditions. He per- | ceives the ills, apparent to all; the blight of monopoly spreading over the | land like a shadow of impending disas- | ter; the rearing of great fortunes which must come from the earnings of the toiler, who meantime grows poorer and more poor; the heartless task-masters of the sweatshops—all these are among the conditions he mentions in terms more profuse than mine.. He thinks selfishness the root sin. - So it is; the basis of all sin. Yet selfishness has al- ways been the rule of human action, | and always will be. There is no help for this save the making over of the spiritual essénce of man to conform to the spiritual essence which from the Mount taught the lesson of love. How hopeless this task! For hundreds of vears the church has formally sought to impress the lesson, and the church to-day, while generally a moral in- fluence, cannot conquer even Wwithin itself the traits the Master stamped as base and wicked. Some of the rich- est men in the country, adding to their store by unclean methods, by crushing rivals, by usury, by grinding the faces of the poor, by selling rotten beef for | our soldi€rs, are pillars in the church. Yet did they live as they profess to desire to live the would regard money only as a means to-aid them in doing good. And the ministers go where sal- aries are highest. Were they not told to take no thought for the morrow? After all these centuries the root sin has grown an¢ flourished so that it in- vades the sanctuary as well as the mart. If to inaugurate material reform selfishness must be banished the future holds no glimmer of millennial dawn. Chief among the cures advocated by Mr. Allen is that of direct legislation. As set forth by him it seems feasible; judged by reality it is a dream. Capital has so long held sway that so far as peaceful means are concerned it is in- vineible. Does legislation threaten it? It buys a legislature. Would a just construction of a statute be an injury? It buys a court. Does a faithful public official brave {t? It casts him from place and seats one of its oawn .creat- ures. Under the existing status there can be no enactment inimical to capital and at the same time effective, for it will be declared null. The fact might as well be acknowledged that capital is the ruler and labor the ruled, and that labor can't help it, for it is just as selfish as capital and its individuals will never act in harmony nor invar- jably resist a bribe. I do not write these things in the effort to say aught that is new, and yet in the beating of | old straw a sound grain may fall to the threshing floor. Where is a real remedy for potent evils such as mentioned? There is none. This nation will go its course as other nations have done, and at last, hell overflowing, there will be between the patricians of fortune and the plebelans of toil a crash more ter, rible than that marking the fall of Rome. Then there will be chaos, grad- ually crystallizing into such relations as now prevail, and in due season the same programme over again. There will-ever be an earthly hell, simply new races to people it. . | | R Somebody professing to be an admirer of Kipling gravely asks the question: “Is Kipling a great poet?” which ques- tion he proceeds with equal gravity to answer in the negative. The géntleman could have considerable fun debating with himself and at the same time afford a jaded world a chance to smile. I counsel him next to tackle: “Wud a duck swim?’ and to maintain con- sistency by proving that it wudn’t. T A recent number of the Black Cat seems to have been inspired by the mews of California. It can justly be said of the articles that some of them were ‘worse than others, though those not so bad were better. | son, mate; | son, that Liliuokalani wili be amply recom- pensed for the erown lands taken from her by farce. Thf§ is a big government and ought to be above the small busi- ness of larceny. <. PR The latest prizefight is reported as having been a bitter disappointment be- cause of having been “fixed.” I do not know of any reason why this should have so much as excited comment. ‘What did the spectators expect? When wen get so they would, if in the ring, fight honestly, they will have_ been so elevated morally that they will be en- gaged in some decent business. ———— THE CAMANCHE. Brought to San Francisca ip Sec- tions and Launéhed Here ;55 _ Years Ago. ne . more,of the yessels built for the n;(:'y during: the Civil War of 1861-65 has outlived her usefulness. The old’ monitor Camanche, the first jronclad launched in San Francisco, has beer s6ld ‘for: the sum of $6581 % to an Oaklund' frm. . The Ca- manche was one of a lot of ten monitors designed by Johin Erfcsson i 1863 and this particular-vessel was built at Jersey City v Donahue,, Ryan & Secor for the sum of $513,164 98. The hull was titkef apart and ' stowed ‘into- the- hald: of the. ship Adquilla, - which .arrived safely fn Sau Francisco November 10, 1863, bt a few days .later the ship sank at Hathaws wharf during a storm and it took the divers mealy five months. to take out tho -Camanche ant raise the Aquilia. The only shipyard proper in San Francisco m\(_hg early '60's. was Steamboat Point in Mis- sion Bay, between Third and Fourth stréets, and there the Camanche waa‘ again put up and during thé term she was-under copstruction an admission of 25 centsiwas charged to the public, the money being turned over to the Sanitary Fund committee. November 14,; 18: ;l;e unching, -was _4lmo; - sdelrs;'e?it n"‘seral‘f‘l'mllda}g in San Francisco, fully one-fifth or over 20,000 of the popu- lation being down to witness the launch, which was marred by one man losing his life by becoming entangled in a hawser. Tn ihe course of several months the Camanche was towed s‘i‘gnw Z\Ifiriié:‘lg:d ace commission,- with Li = = Blaced Mer Charles J. McDougal as n Adams, master; J. H. Jack- and .M. 8, Tornbohm, chief captain; Joh engineer. Of these o : at the age obf close l(()inr:-?\rwx\' son_of that brave o! z 1 fcDougal, was drowned about sixtcen vears ago on the Mendocino coast; John Adams died in 1867, and Tornbohm pre- ceded his friend and schoolmate, John Ericsson, by twenty years, The subsequent career of the Camanche has been uneventful, although she came very near making history for the navy during her first commission. It was the ractice to take her down the Mare Island trait in the morning and enter San Pab- o Bay for gun practice. The high bluff at the lower end of the yard, opposite the old Starrs Mills, presented a good tar- et for the two 15-inch smoothbores of the “amanche and the shells buried in the soft rock. One day, however, the eleva- tion of the guns was higher than usual and a couple of the 400-pound empty shells sailed over the bluff, landed on the slnge and rolled down in_close proximity to the naval magazine. This put a stop to that kind of target gra.ctl(‘e and the two 13- inch guns of the Camanche have been ’kson alone survives o McDougal, a dmiral, David o | silent for over thirty-three years. Of the ten monitors of the Camanche type the:Patapsco and Weehawken were torpedoed_during the war and the other seven still exist, none of’ them, however, in a more ‘eficient -condition than the Ca- manche, The others are the Passi Lehigh, Montauk, Catskill, tucket and Nahant. ~Four of “them lain at League Island for over twenty-fiv years, battle-scarred and interesting ob- jects, but they are all_slow and against modern guns. The turrets are eleven thicknesses of 15-16inchiron andthe sides. of five layers, making a total thick- ness approximately eleven and five inches respectively. The engines and boilers, al- though well cared for, are only fit for the scrap pile, but the hull proper may be made useful for any other purpose than that of deep-sea navigation. as. the plating_is practically’ indestructible; and thirty-five yvears has not reduced the thickness to any material extent. AROUND THE % CORRIDORS Dr. J. H. Barr of Marysville is at the Grand. C. R. Noyes, U. S. A, is a guest at the Occidental. D. F. Vail of St. Paul is a guest at the Occidental. ‘Willlam Spiers of Calistoga is staying at the Lick. George T. Prince of Louisville is a guest at the Palace. Dr. S. R. Mather of Woodland is regis- tered at the Grand. R. L. Macleay of Portland, Or., is reg- istered at the Palace. ‘W. H. Remington of Salt Lake City is a guest at the Palace. George W. Johnson of Martinsburg, W. Va., is at the California. F. A. Boole, who has lumber interests at Sanger, is at the Grand. Arthur Smith and John Costello of San Diego are registered at the Lick. Mr. and Mrs. F. S. Wensinger of Free- stone are staying at the Occidental. F. G. Berry, proprietor of the Grand Central Hotel at Fresno, is at the Grand. Willlam Dinwiddie of New York was among the arrivals at the Palace last night. . Alexander Livingstone of. Boston was among the arrivals yesterday at the Palace. - i Michael Cudahy, the well-known pork packer of Chicago, is staying at the Palace. 3 James Hegney and Miss Hegney of Salt Lake City‘'are among the guests at the Lick. $ ‘W. A. Semp and wife and Miss Elsa Semp of St. Louis have taken apartments at the Palace. O. H. Barrett and wife of Malden, Mass., were among’the arrivals yesterday. at the California. S Miss Adelaide Nason and Miss Ora Harkness, both of Salt Lake City, are registered at the Palace. 0. J. Woodward and T. C. White, two prominent bankers of Fresno, are stay- ing at the Lick for a few days. Attorney S. L. Hogue and C.,B. Shaver, of the Fresno Flume and Lumber Com- pany, are guests at the Grand. Both are residents of Fresno. > ‘W. H. Bancroft of Salt Lake City, gen- eral manager of the Oregon Short Line, and W. T. Anderson of the same place are at the Occidental. Miss Freda Ortman, daughter of John F. Ortman, and Dr. 7. E. Shumate will be married on April 12 at the residence of the bride's father, corner California and Scott streets. Miss Ortman is one of San Francisco's clever and charming society belles, and Dr. Shumate is also highly esteemed in society circles. The young lady was .educated at St* Rose's Academy and is gifted musically. Her betrothed has risen highly in the rank of physicians since his graduation five years ago. The bridal tour will include the principal cities of the East and Europe. Rev. Father Martin of Benicia will of- ficiate at the wedding ceremony. e C.ALXIOBN:IANS IN NEW YORK. NEW YORK, March 25.—T. M. Schu- macher of San Francisco is at the Hoft- man; F. J. Symmes of San Francisco is at the Holland. . Cal. glace fruit 50c per ib at Townsend's.* —_—— Orpheum and Tivoli tickets free by buy- ing your music, etc., at Bruenn's, 208 Post street. o] Special information supplied daily to R Every fair-minded man must hope business houses and publi Press Clipping Bureau l?Amz‘r:\';l)‘.e fiobfiqfi‘tfi gomery street.. Telephone Main 1042. &