The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 23, 1899, Page 19

SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 23, 1899. 19 MILLION-DOLLAR FIRE S THEN TOLLOWED A LAW- SUIT THAT CALLED FOR \5®L°M°N A A miena " //h'l o ) e y = CSUSHED wero . THE STREET "TO SAVF THER PET . ., ter [0 a dan Francisco Merchant elling How the Singular Case Was Otarted, - B e e e R R R T T e + + + BOMBAY, India, Js 8, 1899.—Frederick W. Peters, Esq., San 4+ o r. S. A.—Honored Sir: In answer to yours of the 10th of 4 - 1 state that our ho is no way involved finan- 4 » ged to suspend certain lines of our foreign + + 2 of our cf shall have settled a certain ques- 4 D v h have accrued through a fire which destroyed + + our g o K Rs 2,000,000 ¢two million rupees). A friendly + + i who may be at fault for this disaster, as + N the overturning of a lamp by a pet cat be- + - + " fed from the counting-room to the warehouse 4 < C oned animal. i + t a matters rearranged within the next + - s + + nored by a continuance of your trade, we re- + g MANOCKJEE, POONJEAJEE & CO. + + . FTEAE 2444444444444+ 4444444449494 94+ OUGH the kindr S0 much for the business methods of our Bombay merchants. Now for the nge tale of the cat. The ancient house of Manockjee, Poon- ajee & Co. is situated in Borah Bazar ‘ s a Street Fort, Bombay, and it is clalmed T by the members of the present firm that r oof r thelr ancestors have carrled on the same ani ess, with a few modifications to rresp e meet necessities of the European for more centuries than the United s has been known to the map of the r The firm is made up of four ers, and thelr counting room and { their warehouses are in this build- particular storeroom contains lks and other precious stuffs iich the house is noted in trade all er the world. there strayed into the count- where the four sedate and dig- ts sat smoking their pipes spe 1 merch a prett t Little attention was pald 1 had made the round of m, rubbed her soft fur against { each member of the firm and n 1 irely over to the ea # box which stood in one cor- ner. Here sh a moment and seemed to xamine its fasten- a cs ings. he seemed quite satisfied as derstand that a With the t of the safe, and fire d by the over- *when she n reached the door t ¢ counting-room, Side playful leap, rappe e : have been carried bunch of keys with her velvet lins dyu:‘\:' 2 cat. After Stretched herself comfortably beside the = ekt o curfous and began to purr a little cat-like e . 100King at the four ‘partners with ¢ ” expre to say: o £t gentlemen, v rest perfect- Goalt : rre. I will assume all the respon- ., g 7 of this business mysel." nif s “Brothers!” exclaimed one of the par e ¥ “this is surely a good omen. Unbidden ters this pretty © creature comes in to our g : s ace of business; without ceremony she introduces herself to each member of the A aims as firm. Next she examines our property to v ar 1 but none should see if we are solvent and in good nding 3y ame th with the With the world of trade. May this not ho I s knowledged king of a visitation from heaven, disguised in = strange form? Let us adopt the little pe stranger and give it & home in the great house of Manockjee, Poonjeajee & (i Should we Tefuse her shelter it. is pog: sible we offend the Deity. What say you my good brothers?" S Solemnly the remarks were considered by the other three partners. Finally one the firm the faults of the said: “Brother, what you say may be ex: one member of the true. You are well known for your wis. f > a flyer the pow- dom: you have studied long in our na. r memb of the tional university; you have also listened red it an unsafe busi- reed that the hou it that the ind this innovation w for any damage t might e of explosion not due to of the other members. In to the wise teachings of the mysterious men who live on the mountains. But first let me ask you one question. Is this request that we adopt this strange visitor the result of your occult training, or imply a playful thought? You say it seems a good omen and that it may be a ysec this particularly bold mem- message from the other world. Why these t > proj recompensed for odd thoughts?” ‘b as to have one full The first speaker was silent for a period om the sale of the three timid members remaining one-half. of minutes. Puff, puff, puff, puff, came from all four pipes. ‘Brothers,” he re. plied at last, “Just before this little cre: powder, while the were to divide the <X ‘n poc. [\ BROTHERS),'THIS IS SURELY A GOOD OMEN"w N ture entered our counting-room T was en- over our house. This means that we are rubbing its back agalnst my robe. Now gaged in deep meditation, possibly T was to sustain a great loss. From out this take the strange circumstance, or chain half asleep, the weather IS vi warm, so ominous cloud there c e a beautiful of circumstances, as you will, I have this may be a.day-dream. But this Tdld white dove, which I read, means peace nothing more to say.” see in the dream or vision, whichever you and prosperity %fter the misfortune. *“Well,” said another member of the wish call black to it, a cloud hanging When I awoke this little white kitten was house, “I am quite willing to admit that D e e e e e R AR SR SR A R R R R R B T TR S SN SR S SRS : THE WAY TO TELL FORTUNES WITH CARDS. : D e T e e T o S e A o e e e e T S e Rttt SR IR R R SR SR SR S SRS R & & F there is one thing more than an- Now to explain the proper laying of a his power to give her annovance. For- I other that fascinates women, and hand. tunately the nive of clubs on her other men, too, for the matter of that, it is Choose out the thirty-two cards, which Side points at unexpected moneyresources like hearing is that “the dark gentleman which we have already indicated—taking unwise proceeding, we submit) or other- with the black eves is dying for love of ace for highest and en for lowest wise by pecuniary means rid herself of influence. Counting seven cards from the repre- value; shuftle and cut them with the left I hand, if you are operating for yourself, them,” that “‘a large fortune will shortly be left them,” or something equally de- lighttul. They do not shrink, or pretend or cause it to be done with the left hand jEii3L%e,we reach the ton of diamonds— not to, from listening to prognostications of the person concerned, if you are op- the seven of hearts on either side denote of evil, but on the whole are naturally erating for another. Perhaps for the sake sp erity both in money matters more inclined toward the sybil Wwho of clearness it will be best to speak tions—the journey. will be promises them a rosy future. Fortune throughout as though the operator were ablc et il ; telling by cards Is now the absorbing the Individual whose fortune was being e e s pastime of certain smart sets of society, sought. RBE TRy 10 Do Picaily ot and many a mal chieving a sur- Cut and turn up a card to represent s case, counterbalanced by the prising popularity because she can read yourself during the transaction; then ht of llxoztrts (the suit of the Gleverly the mystic signs and symbols shuffie and deal the cards into two ST ey Sympn ; the ten signifies satisfaction after nce, the eight a voung and friend- ly_relative’to the representative. We may conclude that mischief or hin- drance contemplated by the elderly widow woman is put a stop to by the young con- nection, a blonde person, by-the-by, and packets of sixteen cards’ each and choose one of the packets for the fortune. The first card of this packet which you turn up must be laid aside; it s known as “'the surprise,”” and will be wanted later. Range the cards In a neat semicircle the black and red spo in vogue are the Parisian, he Vingt et Un and the Et- teilla. W to describe and follow the Parician as being the least compli- 1t is the system most frequently shown cated. yste quent 4 2 o that great relief and satisfaction ensues. met with, and is famillar to lhe”B)p ies bnf:)re._ you; if your representative card Proceeding to the of clubs we have of all nations as the “Sevenfold. (we will call it the representative’) good news; but the ven and ten of &y be remembered that no small does not turn up in the packet chosen Spades proclaim it to be transitors and is are necessary for card-laying; the you must repeat this process until it 500N turned to mourning—there is even a e of the cards is rated thus: Ace, does; If by any chance it should be Suspicion of T R T highest, then king, aueen, knave, ten, drawn first as “the surprise” you must Riorm’ L0 Wil be found to be a false e eight and seven the lowest. equally repeat the process until the fif- ~ The king of hearts and the knave of e neral character of the sults is teen cards are spread before you, in- clubs side by side are two Berbons whe i cluding the representative. play a strong part in the fate of the rep- as follows: | highest. and denote every- From the representative you proceed Tésentative—the king is blonde and prob- thing that is good and lucky; Whatever to count seven, and thus iight on the 301 & Felation, or perhaps an old and in- I¥ position or surroundings, they pre- first card to influence your fortune; LInate Rt e A e eneT ¥ t‘,,,- £ood fortune, and no environment of evil can alter this altogether. Hearts are next in good odor; they de- getic and quick at seizing an opportunity; the nine of diamonds on the other side foretells family talk and interest evoked by the circumstance of the two men's in- you must consider first its simple sig- nificance and then its relative significance as influenced by the cards on either side i ss, family it. fluence on the representativ ve, kindness, family affections, of it .« g ;ff,eq,l:e and the genialities and beautles When the meaning of this card has 2t difference of opinion. How P lite. but they may be tempered by rel- been Qhornugl';ly investizated "you ‘can_ tiie'King to ihe repressntative te n mas ative cards and untoward situations. count on to the next seventh card, al- riage, and the fact of the suit being sym- Diamends signify quarreling, opposition, Ways remembering to count from left to pathetic is of the best augury, and closes hlnd‘r’lucn and every possible drawback right; it is rather a good plan to draw this hand, for, as it will be seen, any a card that has been investigated a lit- tle above the exact line of your semi- circle, or you may use counters or scraps of paper to show which cards have al- ready been treated as seventh cards—in the latter case do not put the counters on the cards, but opposite them, on the outer edge of the table, for, though the card as a simple seventh card has been inves- tigated, it still has its significance and relative effect on the others. Readers must understand that every card has a precise and definite individual meaning, with which, if we would be good cartomancists, it is absolutely ne- cessary to tax the memory. We propose in a future article to give a complete list of these meanings, but for the present we must speak as If our readers were al- ready conversant with them. Let us take the queen of hearts as the representative. She stands for a loving and attractive woman, but her position at the moment beside the knave of dia- monds signifies that she ought to beware of an unfaithful servant or inferior—or possibly of a soldler boy who has it in further choice of.the seventh card would only regci\t the operation on the old lines. We have given our explanation as shortly as possible, but any expert who cares to go more in detail into the matter can easily amplify the meanings derivable from the *‘sevenfold” method— for instance, in the hand before us, the young or energetic lover (or “influencer”) has for seventh card the deceitful servant or inferior, whose machinations the rep- resentative was called upon to meet earli- er in the day. The significance of such relative points is simply inexhaustible, and can only be brought out by experi- ence and practice. A handful of cards on the table— The fortunes have all been told, With doubtless, many a fable Of lovers with plenty of gold, That hid in the spots red and sable— Mystic signs which the fufure unfold. She thinks as the cards lie there idle How very like people they are. Knaves often take queens to the bridal Clubs bring gallant hearts to the bar, ‘While kings to the diamond will sidle, ‘And spades put us all on a par. ~—McCall's Magazine for March. of a militant character. Spades presage sadness, illness, loss of money and reputation and death. ‘These are the general characteristics of the four suits; it must be clearly under- stood that the best cards may be modi- fled by the circumstances of their posi- tions. Happily, too, the worst cards are capable of improvement in the same way. or example, the king of hearts may be s a man of good fortune, open- d and open-handed, and endowed with plentiful means to indulge his gener- ous qualities, but if the card be drawn upside down it signifies that all his good Juck will be of short duration, that his very good qualities will be the cause of his ruin. If he be piaced (in dealing out the cards) between two lesser cards of the same suit, he may lose his source of income, his friends or his reputation, ac- cording to their individual significance. It 18 necessary, therefore, to weigh very carefully the juxtaposition of the cards as they drop from the dealer's hands, Rrabs LIKE AN Oru.{ THE BIG IRON SAFE MARKED THE SPOT ¢ « 4 as the animal seems part of our brother’s dream, we rea have no right to turn it away. Suppose, as has been suggested, we take the little thing, and in order that the good or ill-fortune it may bring be equally divided, we will consider it one of the assets of the firm. Now, how shall we divide the ownership of the animal?”’ “Oh, well!” exclaimed the others, “we will follow the regular precedent of our people. You, Manockjee, may claim the left foreleg: T will take the right, and so on till the cat is equally divide Is this arrangement satisfactory to all? Th heing no objection to this mode of distribution, it was so agreed. The bookkeeper was called into the counting- house and the ownership of the cat was duly entered on the books of the firm as one of its assets, each quarter of the ani mal being designated as the property of some individual member of the firm. All went well with the house of Manock- Jee, Poonjeaiee & Co. for a year or so, and pussy became a great favorite with the whole household. It was often remarked by different members that they had cer- tainly made no mistake when they adopt- ed the stray little kitten, for surely never for centuries had the great house been S0 prosperou Trade with the West had almost doubled. Connections had been established in parts of North and South America, all of which were successful. Yes, there could be no mistake, the Kkit- ten had been a harbinger of good luck. Some time during the month of De- cember, 18 while puss. was playing in the street in front of the store its atten- tion was distracted by some little moving object and it did not notice a bullock cart coming from an opposite direction. In a moment poor kit was under the heavy wheels and before it could extri- cate itself one white paw was crushed and broken. The accident was witnessed from the store by two members of the firm, who rushed wildly into the street to save their pet. They carried the suffering cat into the counting room and carefully examined its injuries. It was found that the bones of the left foreleg were broken and that the animal was in great pain. “We must send for a doctor,” said one. “‘Of course,” was the quick response of all the others. “But first let us consider whose portion of the cat has been injured.” This was easily settled. The left fore- leg of the cat belonged to Manockjee, so it was the duty of Manockjee to send for the physician and foot the bill. A doctor was accordingly sent for and did all in his power to relieve the suffer- ings of the injured animal. The leg was wrapped in bandages soaked in turpentine liniment, and regularly each day the doc- tor made his professional call at the great house to hasten the recovery of the mas- cot. But it is no easy matter to weld a broken bone when a cat is the patient. Pussy would put her foot to the ground once in a while and undo all the work of her doctor friend. In the early part of January, 1898, the cat was walking about over the tables and desks of the counting-room when she overturned a lighted lamp. The flame from the lamp ignited the turpentine with which the bandages were soaked, and pussy flew in terror through the counting- room, into the warehouse. The agony of the burning bandage about the leg kept the poor beast going at top speed, evi- dently hoping to find relief in some of the snug corners among the bales of silk, where she had taken many a quiet nap on other occasions. Before help could be summoned the great warehouse with its valuable contents was in flames, and three hours after only the big iron safe marked the spot where once stood the old, old house of Manockjee, Poonjeajee & Co. The partners took their loss with all the stoical forbearance of the confirmed fa- talist. All things were ordained in the be- ginning. This was merely a decree of fate. So they bowed deferentially to fate and calmly proceeded to rebuild upon the ruins. But now came the important question of settling for loss. ‘Who was at fault? A business meeting of the firm was held and it was soon de- cided by the other thre~ partners that the whole damage was caused by the burning bandage wrapped about the left foreleg of the cat. That left foreleg was the indi- vidual and separate property of Manock- Jee, which made decision an easy matter. Of course Manockjee was responsible for the destruction of the warehouse. There was no room for doubt. Although Manockjee did not dispute ORIENTAL ROMANCES BRUT RUSINESS & CORRESPONDENCE & COURT ARCHIVES CONTAIN THE STORY this assertion outright, still he asked for time to reflect before assuming the entire responsibility. At t he asked his partners if they would object to a friendly suit in the courts to decide for a certainty just where the blame should be lodged. “In this manner,” said he, “‘we may settle the matter for all time and it will leave no room for hard feelings.” This was agreed to, with the following somewhat strange result: The case was presented falrly and with- out prejudice. Manockjee had retained one of the brightest pleaders before the Indian bar, and through his shrewd ef- forts the Judge handed down the follow- ing remarkable decision: A cat being owned severally by four men, each being proprietor of a designated section of the animal, overturned a lamp and set fire to a bandage on the left foreleg. The cat in fright ran into the ware- house and communicated the fire to the goods stored therein. Held, that the owner of the sec- tion of the cat which included the bandaged leg is not responsible for the damage caused by the fire, be- cause the three other owners, pro- prietors of the three other legs, were guilty of contributory negli- gence In that it was by the assist- ance of the legs owned by them that the cat was enabled to run into the warehouse and spread the flames. Judgment for defendant. w. Ex-Superior Judge Sanderson was asked his opinion of the decision of the learned Indian Judge. He said: “I quite agree with his Lordship. It was mpossible for the wounded animal to car- v itself into the building without the as~ sistance of three sound limbs, consequent- 1y the other three proprietors of the other three legs were responsible for the dam- age “Contributory negligence is an expres- sion rather hard to understand; it does not always mean exactly what it says. However, the other partners were gullty of contributory negligence in this in- stance. “I read the decision in one of the nu- merous foreign legal journals a short time ago, but it was only a synopsis of the judgment and at the time I considered it simply a legal joke. But now that I come to think of it the article was in an English publication, and as a rule they are not given to joking on such serious subjects. “Superior ‘Judge J. C. B. Hebbard concurs, and is positive that if the same case were presented to one of our local courts the result would have been the same except, possibly, the Judge might have been tempted to throw the whole thing out of court. Still, if the ownership of the cat were entered on the books of the firm, with the segrezation of the property as here rer ed, it would probably become the painful duty of the court to listen to the case. “I know that the courts of the Indlan empire are noted for their knowledge of technical law, and many of their deci- sions hinge on the same minute principles. However, the court decided wisel UEn R e e The Pride of Genius. MODERN scientist assures us that men of real genius are always proud, and he gives the following examples as proofs of the truth of statement. When Mirabeau was dy- ing he said to his servant: “Prop up my head carefully, for it is the most remark- able head in all France.” Michael Angelo wrote in 1 ““All the differences between me and Pope Julius arose from the fact that Raphael and Bramante were jeal s and tried to overthrow me hing that about art he learned from :_n( hi sini addressed some letters to 2 s. Rossini, the mother of the distinguished master Schopenhauer, when he w: asked where he would like to be burie replied: “The place does not matter posterity will know well enough w to_find me.” These are certainly striking exam in some respects, but it would not be dif- ficult to find ot quite as striking of real men of genius who were noted for their modesty. After all, the entire mat- ter evidently hinges on the crucial ques- tlon, What Is real genius, and how can it be unerringly distinguished from the pree tentlous talent?