The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 31, 1903, Page 6

THE SUNDAY CALL. OMEWHERE it is recorded that the instance of the taking of a trifle remembrance of a sojourn is ined in the story of Adam and lve after they received their dispos- notice. were going sorrowfully ien, Eve weeping, and the gate that was to close em forever “she put forth her hand and broke a branch from a rose tree that grew against the wall.” Those roses were immortal and of out of on They the reac behind ga & course descended from mother to daughter thyough many gern Human nature is about ries and in all a agined how that it was modified as time only was the souvenir cathed mnd with It the ability to teli a good and plausible story about it t there also came along down -t the lines of Eve’'s descendants a han- \’(‘ kering after other souvenirs than the immortal roses. This trait \ of huma was foreibly brought to mind a few months ago by - bankruptcy of the caterer who managed the Prince Hen q i He was ruined, not by the failure of people to pay =V f tickets, but simply and solely by the uncontrolled women can register their goings about for years by RS silver, cut glass, table napkins a pick: o)) p on the quiet at hotels wt they have put up and even L 2 ,uses of friends where they have been entertained. /i \ings are not taken because they are needed. To m is usually ¢ dered a joke, and women will com- hilarious over their trophies in the pres- & ings are used. Towels and napkins with the mames of wner woven into the linen are D displayed without a thought of there being anyil al possession of them. Silver, too, engraved with the and which the hotel or t ed without rs are evidence of the pace at friend reserve n ewning a hundred silver souvenirs ecretlng a soiled ribbon picked up omely nand ourseives s of zood men a read—hy though oubt there are people to whom they constitute a sou of severe sat tion. Conversely the lives of bad men have yet opear. When o the fascination of their charm at which attaches to the ab- romance it is at tells. In menageries s it is the wildest beast that tor. Jest attention turally, too. There are so few beasts now that are not ent 4 tame. By the same were never more scarc cus crime is very commonpiace. But « cnally, by acci¢ ymething out 0 inary and then even the » -, reading about here be a woman in t t is onmly. in ada o petticoats, when murder d mystery arve agreeably fused that vou feel you dre getting your money's at « matural. There is nothing so comforting as c kK £ joned wurde There nothin oetic, For behind It is an effort to outwit destiay. the at- to ¢ the course of events, and to change after the faghion of fate, indetectably But The idea of being able to Go all that is highly poetic it is Primitive man had three or four ideas. e as not many more. With this difference, how- e m disturbed in his ideas. vanished. In his place there sprang a beast. That beast civilized man has " But noct exterminated. The brute is among us still. ame that the majority of us forget that he is about h recently occurred in Buffalo r like him neozoic It takes a to remind Murder of nature. The hing resembling always iilusory shows a relapse have his appearance m yet behind appearances Through= causes generally reducible to ns the creature’s few ideas become di the being apparently civilized evapo- his place is the hyena. There is a are full of it. There are cave dweller, trogiod { the emotic Then abrupt He has gone. I A silence. The next morning the pape fs the ordinary case There are othe in which there is no atavism. There are murders to grafting in its various forms, felonies of the order. These are accidents. According to sta- nd what should we do without them?—in the Be- tates re O red last year nearly nine thousand cases appertaining to this and the former variety. Trat is a nice showing. In addition there ars murders effected by men who are not professional »r primitive, but wise. Con- cerning these we have no data. They leave none. They leave nothing except now and again a death which is attributed to natural causes. These people are mot hysnas They are men of ability. They are very interesting. There is annther class more interesting still. They form the coterle of criminals who are above the law. We will get to them in a minute. Meanwhile, in ordinary cases, just prior to the shriek, to silence and to the headiines in the papers, there occur, te tistics hted to the ULBERRY CENTER, May 2.—Dear Hen: 1 was down to Ashland last week, visitin my old friend Fergus Mitchell. Ferg's aged considerable since 1 see fm which is foolish for a man of his year: He aint only a little older than me, and by rights ought to be just in his prime. But he’s had troubles along with a wife that never felt mfuch like trustin him out of her sight, and that tells on a man after a while. I don’t care how good a constitution he's got at the start “Ferg,” says 1, when Sarah was out in the kitchen getting dinner. “seems to me your lookin kind of poorly. Why don’t you see a doctor?” He shook his head sad like and raid: “I believ in bein charitabls, but when I've got money to give away I'll hunt up an orphan or cripple or some blind asy- lum. Most doctors are able bodied and strong enough to work. “What,” says I, “you ain’t got to be one of them cranks that go without breakfast and think mind over matter’ll cure the tooth aik, be you?” cure the tooth aik, be you?" “No,” says Ferg after sneakin to the door to make sure that Sarah want listenin, “but I just don't doctor any more. I spose you mind how [ used to keep takin all the Indian medi- cine and things with electricity into em, but I'll give ¢mr all up., Not that I've got Christian science, nor yet that I'm fol- lerin around after any of these here reincarnated prophets or anything of that kind, becausc I'm still willin to believe a doc- last, STUD in boudoir or sleeping room, or of putting up a luncheon for her “cousin” in a Luckaback towel, there is war in the in- terfor and a calling for an inventory in the lower part of the house. An instance of this sort of denouements and the’ whole expected caller. Sald caller w. cook and invited to she guessed “‘the miss ; At the head of the stairg the caller was met by the mis- ss herself. who showed signs of excitement. Oh, it's yo she said. *I thought It might be somebody else—somebody I've telephcned for. Come in here and wait a minute,” leading the way into the dining-room. There against the magnificent sideboard leaned one ser- vant girl, and by the door leading into the butler's pantry slouched another. Both were flushed of *face, flery of eye, and either sullen or defiant, the caller could not decide which. The mistress was also flushed and flery and apparently in a like state of mind. When the caller was seated the hostess said: “I'm so glad you happened in. I have a very disagreeable matter in hand, and your presence will be protection. She was interrupted by a startling peal of the bell. A man’'s voice was heard at the door, and then the cook said, came to play w let the surface in a seri witnessed by an un- into the house by the " to the parlor floor, as “Go right upstairs; the missus is busy. Tramp, tramp, tramp, came a heavy foot on the stairs and the mistress stood at the door to meet a man that the firet caller would not haye suspected of being on the visiting list of the house. He turned back his coat and showed in a flash the badge that told his business. “Oh, yes. I understand,’ said the lady of the house. *You came In answer to my telephone. Come right in, the girls are here and if they’'ll give up the things I know they’'ve got in their trunks vou needn’t arrest them.” The man opened his mouth to speak, but before he could form a word the girl leaning again the sideboard pulled open a drawer and with a great rattling, filled both hands with teble silver, and threw the lot with a crash on the Flemish o2k board in the center of the room, saving: . Mr. Piain Clothes Man, just take a look at that, will ve. anes of the owners is all over 'em: an’ the madam is proud of stealin’ so much; an' ve're welcome to look through v trunk, an’ yer won't find the wrapin's of yer finger there t iver belonged to her.” An’ here, the other girl said, putting one hand be- hind her through the swinging door and then marching to the table with hands full of linen, she spread out table napkins, lunch cloth and towels, all bearing the names of the most prominent hotels and restaurants in New York, and of sev- eral fashio e summer and winter resorts. “Since here, Mr. Officer.” she said, “vou've a right to ketch all the thieves in the hor You hain’t no call to ran- sack our poor little boxes for nothin".” The caller arose, saying, “Oh, I must go.” Or THE almost invariably, certain phenomena which are perhaps worth nothing. First is a condltion of irritability induced by a disturbance of ideas. From this condition paralysis of memory results. The patient forgets the past and its lessons, the present and its penalties. In his mind there is a compiete obliteration of all knowledge except the fact that some particular person is offensively occupled in continuing to be. That fact, in- nduces a state quasi somnambulistic. ising the irritation, e brain there is but one that is awake. 1 the cells of or Over the others sleep has slipped. But in that cell is an in- citement inciting atient to kill. Then it is that there ensues the shriek and the succeed- ing silence. But before the reporters get to work other phe- nomena have occurred. Paralysis subsides. Somnambullsm ceases. There is an immediate awakening of the entire brain. The past with its lessons returns. On its heels the present and its penaltles troop. In their sudden rush the troglodyte dematerializes. “ivilized man what he has done, and, must have dope it He is right. The mind has many a cellar. In them strange tenants owl leneath the brain are the caves of subcon- sciousness. There, influénces that we know nothing of, tm- pulses which the majority of us never feel, watch and wait. reappears. The™ patlent sees eeing, it seems to hi that another “No, no,” implored the hostess. “Do wait a minute. This is a dreadful misunderstanding. Officer, you must know that this is a vile plot. . You know I've no need of stealing.” The man grinned. “Course, lady,” he said, Maybe vou're one o' | them clep-to-mani- % ES cures. lIs that the ou got all this ‘I know you don’t need to steal. loot 7" “Many’s the time I've heard ‘er tell | how she got ‘em,” said the girl of tne | silver. | “An' so'veg I.” the other one snap- ped. “I'm the chil- | dren's nurse, an’ there’s lots of other things about the | house—"" “Oh, pity's up to the children. “No, thank ve, | ! | | looked at the man,[_ He shifted about un- * easily, put on his hat, then took it off—this was probably be- fore the era of police reform in New York—and said: “How about these things, lady?" pointing to the linen and silver on the table. “These girls know all about 'em, an' T ma'am; I may have to go to the station know. Now, we don’t want to be made accessories, as it were, What'll ye do about it for o hush, sake, and house”: and the wretch actually winked at the grin- ning detective. “No, go upstairs,” repeated the mis- tress. “Go on, and be a good girl and we'll say no more about it You go back to your sewing, Katy. Neither one of the girls moved; both AND THAT P THATS SO M}’}‘Zfl \/AITIN ACROSS THE CRICK... ° dual. Half our being is unaware what the other half is about. In normal condition man is a bundle of idens and sensations arranged in order and sequence. But in certain crises of the emotions the orderly arrangement gets twisted, ideas and sensations become displaced, and from the individual ordinarfly normal emerges the human hyena. Usually the beast is subordinated, contrclled, but never banished. Tt Is there, crouching in the caves of the soul. A distinguishing trait of the gentleman is that he never be- travs his presence. A thinker is too philosophic. Hence .the value of blue blood. Hence also the beauty of sound logic. But when in pathological conditions induced by causes as yet obscure to the other, the simian, the secreted self, breaks then there is the devil to pay and something to read about in the pape: That, perhaps, is the psychology of every night murder. Among savants there is nothing of this. A trick merely with gged dice. Among professionals there is ssmething of the first and much of the latter. In the criminals who are above the law both elements are present with power added. Power consists in having a million bayonets behind you. Tts diffusion is not general. But there are people' who possess it. For one, the German Kaiser. Not long since, somebody or other diagnesed in him the habitual eriminal, We doubt that he is that. But we suspect that were it not for the press he Our individuality is loose IDEALS AND THE WAY TO TREAT TTIE (Copyright. 1903.) T'S a gcod time as we cross the threshold of another week to reflect a moment on this matter of ideals. Perhaps some of do not think so much about them as we used to when we were dreaming the dreams and seeing the visions and thinking the long thoughts of youth. Per- haps this so-called materialistic age rather hides the ideal from view. When we can supply so many of our wants simply by pressing a buiton or pulling a chain we are not so prone to dwell upon that which seems distant and shadowy. But i will not believe that the ideal has perished from the earth because we are surrounded on every side by modern inven- tions and facilities. I could not become a disbeliever in it if T would, for too often do I hear it said of this person: *“He's an ideal busin man,” or of that person, “He’s an ideal City Councilman of Colonial Governor,” or of still another person, “She’s an ideal mother.” No, we are not all tramp- ling down the weak and fattening at the public ertb and biting and devouring one another. ldeals of business and professional henor of public serviee and of personal life still exist and still exercise a mighty fascination over men. It is absurd to think that the idea of that which is fair and beautiful and true has faded out of the modern world. Sunday comes to us again in the interests of the ideal. It serves other uses, to be sure, but one of its greatest boons is that it gives a man a chance to recall himself to the ideal. Take the best thought you have ever cherished about life, about your life, and bring it out into the open again. Nay, do not smile at it as a foolish fancy of your far-away childhood or as an iridescent dream of your early and unsullied man- hood. Respect what is left of it even though it be only a us sORACLE*MULBHRRY tor might come in handy where a person had a laig broke or a bile that wouldn't come to a head, but I'm through gettin prescriptions filled. “You see my wife was took down three vears ago in a ter- rible bad way, and everybody sald there want a ghost of a show for 'er. We had three doctors here from up to the county seat, costin me $6 a trip, and every time I got to count- in up the cost and throwin out hints about it bein really time for us to get along with a smaller force of them they'd tell me they expected the crisis in a day or two. Did you ever notice how long it takes for a crisis to come after it zets a start? It's like waltin for a person's weddin day or mebby a train that they say is an hour and a quarter late after you get to the depot, all out of breath. Kvery httle while you think that's it, but’ when you run to look it's a switch engine. “Weil,” says Ferg, “the doctors kep comin for about a menth, and T was pretty anxious. Not that I begrudged any price it might take to puil ma through, only I couldn't help but think of the waste if she didn't git well. One day they got to suspicionin that the crisis might be passed while they want lookin. So they got another medical chap from the city to come down. They sald he was a specialist in them kind of diseases and they held a consultation. “I suppose I ought of told you in the start,” he‘says, “that Mary Warner, one of the pleasantest little widows in six town- ships, lives in Joe Braddon's house over there on the other side of the crick. Now ma's been what you might almost call jealous of Mrs. Warner for a long time, without the least rea- son for it either. I dunno why it is that the women always secm to take it as a sort of an affront if widows aimt old and homely. If a widow's young and good 100kin like the one over yonder every woman that knows her appears to think it was nothin but a piece of brazen impudence for her to get left alone In the world, and if she wants to get them to havin any sort of a decent opinion of 'er she'll just up and pine away and die as soon as possible. I'm not that way. I never had anything agin a widow yvet for havin a face that would kind of make you like to set next to 'er in church What's more when & widow’s good lookin I like to see cr bear THE PARSON" fragment. There's encugh left to make you over vet. It's tremendously hard to kill—this ideal of yours, but it may need considerable furbishing up. The luster on it, we must ad- mit, is dimmed because it has been dragged in the dust once and again. Never mind, ¥ Is still your ideal and you can bet- ter afford to part with vqur houses and your lands than to let it go, stalned and marred though it may be. Besides respecting and burnishing our ideals we need to put them at work. That in the last analysis Is what ideals are for. We are to live in the presence and under the control of them. This is what Charles Kingsley, the English preacher and poet, had in mind when he sang: be Be good, s let who will clever, Do noble things, cet maid, and not dream them all day long. Wa are to brood over our ideals until they fire us to action. Thus to quote from another English poet, the two lines which some critics call the finest in our language: Tas| in hours of insight willed, y be in hours of gloom fulfilled. in the presence of ideals is it 's work under their Ma Better than basking too long to go forth into the busy world and do one's constraint and inspiration. In this connection I want to recommend as the most help- ful thing on the subject of ideals a little book, or rather four lttle books, any one of which may be read through in an hour. They tell of a life which not only itself clung to and realized great ideals, but had a marvelous power In awakening in oth- ers a passion ufter those same idecals. The reputed authors of these Mittle books are Mdtthew, Mark, Luke and John, and they are really very interesting. Dip into them if you can some time before the day ends. THE PARSON. up under it just as o = bravely as though she was homely enough to stop a cherry tree from blossomin.” 1 couldn’t help but sympathize with Ferg there because 1 never had hard feel- ings agin a woman myself just because it's her fate to be lookable. “I've been kind to the Widow Warner,"” says Ferg after tak- in another listen at the door, ‘“because the Bible says it's no more’'n right to let your neighbor know you're not mad or anything like that, because she’s alone in the world, but, bless yvour heart, 1 her and me was to be the only ones in this room this min- ute, she’d say: “ ‘Hasn’t this been a pleasant month?" or something of that kind, and I'd mebby answer: “Yes, but T think it was pleasanter along “i* about this time last year,” and then we'd figet around and try to think of conundrums or riddles and not be able to remem- - PN “Why, what can I do you know already.” “Well, since ye ask me what ye can do, I'd jest suggest that\to Keep other folks from knowin’ as much as we know, the girls might take a month’s wages extry, an’ go or stay, as vou an' they agres. For myself, I'm a poor man with a family to support; say for myself, something like a one two oughts, ‘Oh, T can't do i any such price As ye please, ma'am. notify the ownes ® ; 1 ca give yvou the money. 1 can't prevent your knowing what = 1 haven’t the money. I can’t possibly pay Then 1 must take these things and t allow that. T1'll return them myself. I'll I'll go to my room and get my check- “Send one of the girls,” said the man. “You stay right here with the propity. “Katy, vou know where to find my checkbook. Bring pgn and ink, too. Here, Nelly, put these things away—no, leave them—I'll take care of them myself. Three checks were written and received with grins and thanks, and then the three purchased people went to their several employments. The subdued collector gathered her sou- venirs and carried them to her room and locked them in her own special safe with her thousands of dollars’ worth of ewels. N hen came the relief of a mild attack of hysteria. VWhen that had subsided, the caller, after recelving the oath of the crecy, went raight to her next-best friend and related whole matter. Then these two recalled many instances where a like ex- triend e had There was their commo posure might occur any day. What a queer story on West Seventy-third street. told_not long ago. £ She had nearly ruined her sight in embroidering elaborate monograms on a set of dinner linen. The set was used for the first time 2t the housewarming when the family took pos- session of their own dwelling. The next morning the dining room girl reported but eleven napkins, nor could the twelfth be found. though the household sought it, sorrowing. In every nook and corner. It was not long before in the series of dinners and teas given in return for this that one hostess gave an entertainment out of the ordinary. She announced to her guests that plece of china, glass, silver and linen on the table had its his- tor 4 Each napkin, too, had its history. and some of these pro- voked smiles that came dangerously near to being sneers. One guest glanced at her own but once, then kept it fow in her lap and joined in the general conversation. She asked for no history of her own napkin, but managed to secrete it, and the next morning when the souvenirs were counted one was missing and a set of table linen on West Seventy-third street wi again complete. . BY EDGAR SALTUS would show more of primitive man than he has thus far though judicious. Tsi An., the Empress Regent of China, has been less circumspect. As you may remember, a few summers ago. this lady succeeded in throwing us all into fits. Subsequently we derived much pleasure from an article by Lombroso, in which he catalogued her foremost among historic beasts. The naivete of that seemed to us refreshing. The lady is not, perhaps, one whom we should care to meet in the dark, but there are corridors in which we have encountered a number of people beside whom she is quite an engaging person. Take, for instance, Caligula. There you have an artist in blood, a connoisseur in crime, a ruler to whom general fiendishness was both a governmental ne and a personal delight. And take Caracalla. A th said that no mortal is wholly vile. Caracalla was. He the treachery, the guile and the cruelty of a wildern tiger cats. He had not a taste, not a vice that was not washed and rewashed in blood. Beside a savage such as he and a saurian such as Caligula, the old woman in China looks rather cheap. There are others! In particular there Attila. Where he passed, the earth remained for ages bare. The whirlwind that he loosed swept civilization like a broom. In the echoes of his passage you catch but the crash of falling cries, the cries of the vanquished, the death rattle of nations, the surge and roar of seas of blood. In their reverberations Attila looms, Grag- ging the desert after him, tossing it like a pall on the fac the world. In the fury with which he pounced upon antiquity there is the impersonality of cyclone. By comparison to the havoc which he wrought the contortions of Curacalla become unimportant caprices. Beside this human avalanche Caligula dwindles ridiculously. “But who are you?' a startled preiate found the strength to gasp. Sald Attila, “I am the Sccurge of Ged.” Another fine fiend was Tamerlane. In the menagerie of history he is entirely red—red with what Marlowe called war’'s rich livery. It was part of him. When he was born his hands were full of blood. Subsequently, when he did not wade in it it formed his usual bath. In his career is the monotor the Infernal reglons. It is made up of groamns. Yet ther knew but one thing—how to kill. Seen through contemporaneous records, Tsi An is a woman. But women, however bad, are never as bad as men. They may have the desire, but they lack the nerve. An could not face the allies. The feminine in her took fright. A male hyena would have stood his ground, only to lose it perhaps, and his head as well. But though he fell it would have been in the roar of cannon, he in the shriek of shell, defiant and hyenasque to the last. It is of such stuff as this that fiends and heroes are made. They are not afraid. Tsi An was not, either. Except of danger. It is that exception which debars her from mounting to the glo- rious menagerie where the other beasts are. What is glory? young barbarian asked an old Roman. “To create splendor,” the latter replied, “or to destroy it.”” The destructive ability is lacking. Power, even when backed by bayonets, is powerless before the press. There you have the deterrent. The press is not destructk It stands for much that is. It is for this reason that crime, though contin- ued, is commonplace. In descending the centuries it haa de- generated, a condition sometimes interesting, cccasionally ex- citing, but automatic of a disease, for which, in the advance of therapeutics, prophylactic some day or other will be devised. What that day comes—when it does—the triteness that the morning papers display makes us yawn in advance. B> S.E KISER ber a single one. That's all there is between me and the widow, except that once I left my team standin in the road, to go and pull her caif out of a muck pond, and the horses run away and smashed the wagon. Ma lays it up against the wid- ow because I wouldn't listen to having her pay for the repairs, me tryin conscientiously to live a Christian life and not take the widow’s mite. “So the doctors held a consultation on ma, and when they come out in the settin room where I was waitin to hear the worst, they looked solemn, and when T told them I wanted the truth, even if it was goin to be almost more than I could bear, without any beatin around the bush, they said I'd be a wid- ower inside of two weeks. There want the slightest hope, they said. She couldn’t be saved by operations nor climate nor nothin. “It made me feel blue enough, but I never was much of a hand to blubber when I knew it want no use, so [ managed to keep the tears back, and they whispered not to let ma know about it, anyway, because it would only hurry the end if she found out about it. “As soon as they had went away she called me into her room and I went pretendin to be cheerful and tryin to act as though T had just heard the best kind of news, so she wouldn't susplclon anything. Well, sir, as soon as she seen my face she hopped out of bed. Them words ain't no exaggeration. She riz right un and fairly lep out into the middle of the room maddern a hornet and callin for her clos and gottin well. z “ ‘Ferg Mitchell,’ she says, ‘I heard every word them doctors told you. Mebby vou didn’t notice that somebody knocked the stuffin out of that stovepipe hole up there, so the door might almost as well been wide open when they was tellin you about me. And here you come in smilin like a basket of ps aknowin that I ain't got two weeks to live! But I'll fool you.’ she says, grabbin a skirt down offm a hook—'T'll %ol you and that puson that’s so anxious waitin across the crick, now you jist watch and see if 1 don't! “She ain't had a sick day since.” JEFFERSON DOBBS.