The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 28, 1903, Page 6

8 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, MONDAY, DECFMBER 28, 19"3. — INSTRUCTIVE Training Husbands ¥ | TEDERIC K The ¥ » The loom Copyright, 1803, by Joseph B. Bowles 1 have heard married folks affirm with | great solern “We have never had a | quarrel.” But 1 always wonder if they do mot mean a “fight.” That is easy enough, of course; but a “quarrel!”| How in the world can two people with any force of character and any strong | get along for a guarter of a century or mere without some ) clash that produces cs- trangement and aitercation? They | B ™ be angels rabbits! Fatigue brings on quarrels. So don't get ove cd unless you have The whole world looks so dark to a woman | when she has washed and ironed and | baked, all in the same day. Every bone | aches. Chere is a numb- se of h ain. Her head through her nerves like the firing of a| cannon. Poor old Jobn! If he happens to forget the oysters night he is lia- ble to hear from it. For Mary isn't herseif | Worry brings on quarrels. If John hes a note com due, or has just re- ceived a bill which he had forgotten all about, or has had a strike on in his mill, he hardly knows the difference be- ar a cuff. So r‘lfln'l' other things bring on s they just seem 10 come on of the: It wou be sublime y do—and ther t import people never ore hould know how to “make up” afterward. quarrel is ever rightly “made up” without downright confession nese. The; are “patched up,” but not ‘made up.” The wound is hidden, but not healed—unless the offender gets down on his marrow bones, and the of- fended one bestows a gracious pardon. 1t is psychologically impossible for it to be otherwise. You might as well try to heal a sword gash without bringing the | edges together: or solder lead pipes | without rosin. God has ordained and decreed it to be as it is, and quarrels | that are not settled by confession and pardon ieave the barb of the arrow even if the whaft is drawn. This fact is not understood or else i is ignored, and the resuit is bitterness, agony and oftentimes divorce. The confession of a wrong is a neces- sity, both to the soul that perpetrates it and to the ome which is its victim You may wish it was not so. People wish they could escape toothache with- out filling or extraction, but nature has willed it otherwise. No wrongdoer ever feels a true self-respect without con- fession. He realizes that he ought to admit his error and that nothing but obstinacy restrains him. It is ignomin- jous and cowardly not to do it, and he is ashamed of himself. This mortification must be repressed in order to his men- tal rest, and so he puts on a bold front and bluffs it down, an act which stimu- lates his egotism and hardens his heart. He becomes proud, cold and brutal. his finer feelings die. Confession is also a necessity for the injured one. We are so made that in- Jury hurts. The soul suffers as the body does. Pain is the fundamental element in self-preservation. If it did mot hurt to be insulted and wronged we should become the passive victims of injustice and wrong. Tt does hurt, and this hurt has but a single healing Jotion. We dream of relief through revenge, but it is only a dream. Re- venge embitters and hardens. only one balm, and that is the ac- knowledgment of the wrong by the one who ha2g inflicted the wound. Nothing i& more mysterious and wonderful than the curative power of confession. It soothes the pain and draws the poison from the sere. It is water on fire and oil on water, But forgiveness is as cessity as “confessior strange, but ‘it is uneqiivocally true that a quarrel cannot be made up without a free pardon. The heart that hae been hurt can be relieved and restored to its orizinal state of good will only when that divine sentiment has exnded, as gums exude from wounded trees. The bitterness is drained out by the act of pardon. If ¥ou refuse to forgive you will feel un- worthy and be unhappy. And as for the one who has acknowledged the feult. nothing is more certain than that he will be exasperated by vour not for- giving him. It is humiliating encugh to corfess, but it is maddening not to be forgiven. And yet in spite of this psy- chological law some people pride them- selves in being vindictive. “We forgive but we never forget,” they say—too stupid to perceive the contradiction. To forgive is to forget. The soul that freely pardons gradually, loses the mefmory (or at least the painful mem- ory) of the wound. This spiritual “confession and par- don” is the most beautiful phenomenon in nature. It is the cure for all men- t4l unhappiness. Hearts capable of performing these two sublime acts will love forever The deepest and . sweet- est experiences of their lives will be “making up' eir quarrels. Just as divided clectric currents reunite when passing ithrough two poles of a battery, their Jove will mingle through confes- sion and pardon. And so when you and John read this article by the fireside open your hearts to each other. Con- fese the sin, forgive the wrong and imperative a ne- " It is passing | partner—not his slave nor his toy. { when an issue of no import arises and | | he asks in a kind, considerate way that {in a matter of principle, { make demands. | have not so much to do with the matter | new ho nee | and whole-hearted forgive- | All | There is | £ e you will love more deeply than you have loved before. Cure f;l Family Jars. BY MRS. VIRGINIA VAN DE WATER. Copyright, 1903, by Joseph B. Bowles. ‘What about the man who is master- ful and domineering? How is his wife to treat him? If she would not lose her own and her husband’s respect she will not quarrel, will not scold. will.not nag. She need not resort to means which are be- neath the dignity of a refined woman. Let the wife appreciate that she is her husband’s equal, his friend, his She must also have such love for him that | he have things as he wishes taem, she will gladly yield to his desires. It is al | safe rule for married life that, except if one must yield it should be the wife., But let' her de it through love, not through siavish obedience, and let it be only in mat- ters in which the man has a right to The main point is not what is asked by the man, but how it is asked. We | of the demand as with the manner of it. Every dutiful wife has the right to exact a courteous manner and gentle- manly speech from her husband. To attain this end she will discourage | at the outset any rough language. One bride within a month of her marriage | showed with gentle dignity that she would allow nothing but courteous| treatment from her liege lord. They| were entertaining a few friends in their . The bride made a statement which the husband contradicted. She hesitated a minute, then said gently: | “John, I think that was the way that | happened. 1 may, however, be mis- taken.” The savage, latent in every man, sprang—as is frequently the case, with- out sufficient eause—to the front. “Mistaken! You are not only ‘mis- taken. but you agtalking like a fool!” | The thoroughbred wife controlled | all evidence of agitation except her rising color. Tactfully changing the subject, she chatted pleasantly on until | the last guest had departed. Then, as | her husband, forgetful of what had| happened, and quite his usual good- ured self again, turned to her with miling remark, she said quietly: John, dear, there is a little matter 1 want to talk to you about. Sit down, please, here on the sofa, by me.” And as he, wondering at her gravity, | followed her suggestion, she continued: | “Dear, you know that I love you, and | that T would bear anything that was necessary for you. But there is one | unnece ry thing that I cannot prom- | ise to bear, and that is rudeness. I am not used to it. 1 married a gentle- | man, not a boor. So, John, dear, you | must not speak to me again as you did | to-night, if I am to continue to love| vou and respect you. You and I are| equals, husband and wife, not master | and slave. I know you did not mean what you said. But you cannot say such things to me. I could not resent| it where our guests were. But it cut| me—and, dear, it disappointed me. I| | am sure, knowing this, you will not | | make that mistake again.” | Being a gentleman, he never did. | Had he not been a gentleman at heart, he might have answered brutally. In| which case, silence on the part of the | wife would have been the only wise | | course. She should then have waited until some more propitious time before | speaking again of the matter, or, had | the offense never been repeated, not | mentioned it again. But most men ‘¥re gentlemen, if| treated as such. If a woman is uni- formly courteous to a man, he is—un- | less under ell his polish, of the stuff | of which beasts are made—usually cour- | teous to her. This being true, she will | oyerlook his occasional lapses into ir- ritability, and meet them with the | silence that is golden. Not with a sulky silence, but with the gentle quiet that seems to throw a mantle of charity over his ill humor and condone it be- | cause it is such an unusual thing. Then, when oportunity offers, in other words, when her husband pauses in | his complaints, she will cheerfully talk | of something else and distract his at- tention from the point at issue. But suppose he is at heart the beast above suggested. Only one course re- mains. When wifely tact, love and | pleading, followed by judicious silence, have availed naught, let the wife sys- tematically set about learning not to care, I see the shudder of shocked dismay with which the model matron meets this suggestion. But I still maintain my stand. When a wife has done her duty toward her husband—failing in nothing that can make him happy and comfortable—and he still treats her brutally, complains continually, is per- versely unjust to her and eternally nags at her, let her summon all her tact to avoid occasions for “the enemy to blaspheme.” continue to do her duty and then gather up what is left of her life. There is something in life besides |'a husband and a husband’s approval. First, and above all else with which God blesses women, there are the chil- dren. Let our disappointed wife live for them and in them. Let her allow the side of her heart with which she would grieve over her husband's injustice be so fuil of that which is worth all of life that she cannot take time to brood over her great sorrow. She still owes the man her duty, her fidelity and, if she be a good woman, she will pay what she owes to the uttermost farthing, but let her not cast her pearls of love-and feeling before swine, or waste her heart’s blood upon that which profiteth not. She may be one with her boys and girls, she may read, study, enjoy her friends, keep her sympathies fresh, re- joice with the joyful, grieve with the sorrowing. Can she be happy? That depends upon the woman. If she be one of the women of w¥qom the Irishman spoke as “three-halves mother” she will be al- most cuntent. The part of her that longs for husbandly sympathy, for the ideal understanding that may and does exist in some iives, will go to her grave hungering. Many widows know the same longing, the same heart-hunger. To the sensitive soul their lot n seem easier than hers. Ah, wen.l/.lx both there is a world that sets this right! JOHN PnbllcnlonO“Ice...................4....A.......@ THE SAN FRANCISCO CAL D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor . . . . . . . . . . Addréss All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager vessvesesssrss-..Third and Market Streets, S. F. MONDAY.. ..DECEMBER 28, 1903 CLOSING DAYS OF THE TRADE YEAR. ONDITIONS in trade last week were rather ‘ mixed, but on the whole satisfactory. It being Christmas week there was naturally little doing in wholesale lines, nor will there be until after the turn of the year and perhaps well along toward the end of January. Business is always quiet at this season. With the turn of the year comparative statements from the different lines will begin to come in and we will then know definitely how 1903 stood as compared with 1902. It is not expected to make the brilliant showing of 1902 —the banner year, whose record will probably stand for some time to come. Commodity prices have shrunk more®or less this year and there has been a vast decline in the stock market, which will cut down the aggregate figures from those of 1902, but the situation now is really better than last year at this time, according to present indications. Then we were looking with apprehension for the appearance of same kind of financial or mercan- tile storm, the consequences 6f which could not be fore- seen, but which would create more or less disturbance. The storm came as expected, but fortunately was con- fined to a decline in the stock market, general trade be- ing little affected, and then only at the close of the year and only indirectly. Now that the storm has gone and the inflated and abnormal conditions in Wall street have been corrected we are on a sounder basis than at the close of 1902. The annual figures when they come in may show smaller totals in many lines, but the shrinkage has not been serious and has been a benefit rather than a detriment to trade. Hence we may look forward to a good though perhaps quieter year in 1904. At any rate, as far as present signs go, we will feel less uncertainty, except from the shadow of the Presidential election, which is now appearing on the horizon of trade. Private reports from Wall street received at the close | of the week said that the January disbursements for dividends. interest, etc., would fall about $2,000,000 below those of the preceding year and that they would prob- ably not be over $134,000,000, whereas $145,000,000 had been expected. This of course is surmise. The amount will be large in any event and will tend to still further ease an already easy money market. In fact the predic- tion is now being made that money will presently be a glut. Whether this prediction will provd true or not, | the course of the money market since last summer has been an agreeable surprise in all quarters. A serious stringency had been feared during the crop moving period, but it not only did not appear, but money was actually easier than for some preceding years. We are well supplied with funds everywhere, no particular tight- ness being reported from any quarter. General trade conditions show little change. One en- couraging feature last week was an improvement in col- lections, but against this it was noted that the suspen- sion of manufacturing plants for the annual stock tak- ing, repairs, etc, was more pronounced than for some vears. The failures for the week were 284, against 209 last year, while owing to the decrease in speculation the bank clearings at New York were 16.7 per cent behind those of 1902. The iron and steel industry reported a better outlook all along the line, with the general opin- ion among the controlling interests in the trade that fur- ther reductions in quotations were no longer necessary, especially as orders for the early part of 1904 were showing an increase. From this it was inferred that the lower prices had begun to stimulate trade. The showing in cotton was sensational. Although the high prices for the staple jare checking the demand and the mills are buying no more than is positively neces- sary to fill current orders and are steadily decreasing their output, and the Chinese and other export demands have fallen off sharply, the volume of business in this staple during the past two months has been enormous. The price has advanced above all records for a quarter of a century and option trading to the amount of a million of bales per day has not been unusual. - Again in November, while our merchandise exports aggregated $160,000,000, or $35,000,000 more than in November, 1902, nearly the whole of this increase, or $32,000,000, was in cotton and was due to high prices and the backwardness of the crop. Conservatism now characterizes every de- partment of the cotton goods market. As to the general export movement, while our No- vember exports were only twice exceeded, our imports amounted to only $77,000,000, compared with $85,000,000 last year. This left an excess of exports this year of $83,000,000, against less than $40,000,000 a' year ago. So favorable a trade balance easily explains the recent in- flux of gold and suggests its further continuance for a period, the present tendency being for diminished im- ports regardless of the export movement, although the latter promises good results for the current month. The New England footwear factories are receiving few new orders, but Eastern wool buyers have reap- peared in the market and are purchasing with more free- dom and the wool market is accordingly showing more activity. The purchases by tanners have absorbed the moderate offerings of hides and the lower grades of leather are reported firmer. Provisions remain about as they were during the preceding week, with supplies ample for all requirements and the market showing no especial activity. The far Western railroads are moving over 10 per cent more tonnage than a year ago and the decline east of the Mississippi is not over 3 per cent, so there is still a net gain of about 6 per cent for December over 1go2. The reports sént to the mercantile agencies by the different cities of the country continue cheerful and are accompanied by confident expectations of another good year-in trade. The reports from California, notably San Francisco, tell of excellent conditions in the wholesale trade. The southern part of the State is sadly in need of rain and if it does not get a good wetting soon the bean and cereal crops down there may turn out short next year. The State north of San Francisco has thus far received plenty of moisture and reports farming op- erations proceeding as usual, with cheerful indications everywhere. To summarize, the condition of trade in the Upnited States at the close of 1003 is satisfactory and there are no sinister signs apparent anywhere. Prosperity is still with the country and on a more stable, even if quieter, basis than in 1902. THE HOME OF THE APPLE. HEN the padres came to California they W brought with them the seeds of fruits that thrived in sunny Spain. To them is due the discovery of the fact that the olive, the orange and the grape would thrive on California soil. In later days, when the Americans arrived, they profited by the ex- ample of the sage friars. The great citrus and decidu- ous fruit crops, in their agreeable variety, is the result. The product of the strictly temperate zones less at- tracted the attention of Junipero Serra and his followers. It remained for the later comers to the land to attempt the cultivation of the apple on a large scale. Now the Monterey New Era, after an investigation of the apple producing capacity of Santa Cruz- and Monterey counties, announces that Carmel- Valley is “the ideal place for the growth of apples.” Of course, there are Jocalities that will challenge the claim of the New Era that Carmel Valley is superior to all others, but at the same time its excellence will be generally acknowledged. The New Era describes Carmel Valley, where one of the most picturesque of the early missions still stands, and says “that the entire valley will be planted to apples | at no distant date may be deemed certain and all who engage in apple growing here may congratulate them- selves, for the lot of the apple grower is happier than that of any other tiller of the soil. Trees bear abun- dantly here and a tract of fifteen acres will afford a good living for the average family and permit the sav- | ing, of a good sum of money every year. Here the grow- | ing of apples is yet in its infancy, and although great quantities of this fruit are shipped annually to all parts | of the world, there is still unplanted a large area of land suitable to apple gulture. The section offering the prob- ably the greatest opportunity for the growth of apple production in California is the Carmel Valley.” There' is no more picturesque spot along the coast of California than the Carmel Valley. If the predic- tions of the New Era are fulfilled concerning its prolific | production of the apple the entire State will be glad. | The apple industry cannot be overdone in California" for many years to come, as the demand for the fruit is | enormous. A lingering suspicion has found late expression in the wise men who direct the destinies of China that if‘; Russia and Japan go to war the Flowery Kingdom will suffer whoever wins the wreath of triumph. The statesmen of Peking should calm themselves. They have only just found out what all the rest of us have knpwn for a long time. To a man doomed to death a reprieve should be some consolation. G Alaska consists almost wholly of a vigorous de- | mand upon the Government for a better treat- ment of the district in every department of govern- mental work from transportation to the erection of the district into a self-governing State without compelling it to pass through a probationary condition as a Territory. The report is, in fact, a good boom document for the district, while at the same time it conforms strictly enough to the common form of official reports. All along the line Governor Brady sees our Govern- ment neglecting in Alaska interests which the Canadians are promptly and liberally fostering in their Yukon ter ritory. The difference between the two Governments is strikingly shown in the matter of providing transporta- tion, for while the Canadians are undertaking vast works to open up the Yukon and connect it with the ocean, very little has been done to provide transportation in Alaska. Fortunately private enterprise on the American e is doing much to provide railways in some portion of the district, for were it otherwise we would hardly | be able to make any showing at all to o7set the big en- terprises which Canada has under way to bring the whole Yukon into close relation with the rest of the Dominion. Another notable point of difference between American neglect and Canadian care is pointed out by the Gov- ernor in reviewing the outlook for mining. He says: “If a stranger comes into the country seeking informa- | tion he cannot be dirccted to any Government office | where he can obtain accurate and reliable information on the mining enterprises in this district, but if he should stop at Victoria, British Columbia, and make the same kind of inyuiry, he would be directed to the office of the Minister of Mines, where he could learn every important fact concerning any kind of mining in any district of the | Province.” The Governor himself does not undertake to give a complete review of the mining industry of the district, but contents himself with saying: “From the length and breadth of the land, from Ketchican tirough to Cold- foot, beyond the Arctic circle and down to Nome, come encouraging reports. Capital is coming in from various States and we hear of a Georgia, Minnesota, Indiana, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ohio company. It is not possible any longer to give an adequate and true de- scription of development of this industry in the Gov- ernor’s ‘annual report.” % Taken as a whole the official statements with the ac- companying statistics make a striking showing of the rapidly increasing wealth of the district. It is now cer- tain that it is to be something more than a mining and fur hunting country. It contains the material for sup- porting a large population, and experience has shown that the climate is by no means too severe for the estab- lishment there of a high degree of comfort accompanied by all the accessories of modern civilization. AN AGGRESSIVE ALASKA. OVERNOR BRADY'’S report on the affairs of | Before leaving the scene of his administrative tri- umphs in the Philippines Governor Taft pardoned many offenders who had made life uncomfortable and unneces- sarily precarious for the American dispensers of law and order. This is hardly a wise precedent to estab- lish. Our Filipino fellow citizens may learn to honor administrations in the shortness of their duration and in the hope of frequent pardon for frequent offense. The arch conspirators of the ship-building trust are greatly incensed at the publication of their letters, which condemn them before court and public as con- scienceless rascals in high station. How fortunate it is to the seekers after criminals that these specu!_ting scoundrels forgot the admonition never to write a letter and never to destroy one. —_— . The Mayor of Boston has emphatically refused a Ideal spots are manifold. | | steward. | and she seemed to be in deep thought. request to permit a poultry exhibition in Faneuil Hall The Mayor is evidently of the opinion that there is a place for everything and everything should be in its place, and that there are places without number outside of Faneuil Hall for the proper exhibition of old hens. The Mayor is eminently right. . Secretary Mgody is authority for the assertion that we are building our fighting ships very rapidly, and need consequently a corresponding celerity in the manufacture of armor. Perhaps if we built the boats ‘more slowly we would take fewer chances of making life on board of them so distressingly uncertain. Lively Joaquin. “Joaquin Miller died to-night at Oak- land” was the brief but startlingly newsy bulletin flashed into the San Francisco newspaper offices one night not long ago. There was a bustle and rush from telegraph editors to the news editors, thence to the city editors. city editors promptly called on their re- spective 'cross-bay correspondents. Along about midnight a procession of reporters headed for “The Heights” in the Fruitvale fobthills, where the verse writer makes his domicile. The news- paper men were out to verify the story, which was a “big’ one from the news- paper point of view. About 1:30 o’clock 4. m. the crowd arrived at Joaquin's picturesque habitat. Knocks at the door. No response. More knocks, and then a gruff: “Who's there?” “Newspaper men. It's reported that Joaquin Miller is dead,” was the reply. | “Dead!” came a husky exclamation, quickly followed by a command: “Come in.” It was from the shaggy Californian himself. Wrapped in his bear robes and lying prone upon his cot, the poet | was seen by the flicker of a candle | flame. Joaquin almost shouted: “Dead! Who said T was dead? I'm not dead, and I want you to go back as quickly as you came and say so. Good night.” That was all. But the bulletin had been wired throughout the Kastern States and it was too late that night to | correct it there. When the mails brought | many of the cross-mountain journals to the coast the poet had the unusual ex- | perience of reading some very enter- taining if not altogether accurate ac- counts of his passing across the great divide. | Cheap Turkeys. With a warning “shsh” he walked over to the cornet of the operating room at the Central Emergency Hos- pital on Christmas day. He stood for a moment, and then with head thrown backward and arms stretched above his head, he leaped into the air. He | came down on all fours, rose to his | feet, and then with arms raised again and his head bent backward to an amazing degree, he ran to the other corner of the room and again jumped ceiling-ward. Again he fell, and then once more, in'a different corner he re- peated the jump. “What chumps you fellows are.” he said to the steward and the doctor a: he regained his feet, “to keep these tu keys here when you can get forty cents a pound for them. What will you take | for these three?” “‘One dollar apiece,” answered the | “Come in here and I'll wrap | them up for you,” he continued, leading the man into the D. T. ward. ‘A Puzsled Child. It was the morning after Christmas. The children of a prominent merchant who resides in the Western Addition | were sitting about the large open fire- | place around which the night before, | hopeful and exp&ctant, they had hung their'stockings. The stockings were now on the floor, while strewed all about the room was ample evidence that Santa Claus had not overlooked the | little ones. The youngest one of the four children, a little girl, barely twp years of age, sat | a lttle apart from her brothers and | sisters. Her lap was full of toys and the pretty little things that,go far to | make glad the heart of a child. But she did not seem to be as joyful as the others. Her little brow was puckered Finally her father noticed her lack of cheerfulness and picked her up in his arms. “What's the matter with my little pet?” he asked her. “Aren’t you satisfled with what Santy brought you?” “Yes, papa,” the little one replied. “T was jest wondering why we don’t wear stockin' on our handst e Retrospect. Dost thou remember the days that for ever < Are unforgotten, the days gone by? Canst thou not see them where, over the spaces of Hr‘l)’w. in the sunlight, they dreaming | lie? 1 Bright in that dreamland their still enchantment Sleeps like a ray from the rift of a cloud, 5 A garden of sunhine unbosomed, whose radiance Gleams 'mid the gloom of the gathering shroud. ‘Which, far as the eye in its vision may wander, Stretches.away to the shadowy shore, That gathers about in its dim enfoldings The wide unknown and the never more. —Westminster Guzette. Assailed by Stwordfish. A fatal injury by a swordfish is re- ported from Sierra Leona .Some fish- | ers were returning to Narborn, and one | sat on the gunwale of the boat. Sud- | denly there was a disturbance of the | water and the man fell into the bottom of the boat, crying that he was wound- ed. They found that he had been struck in the back by the serrated snout | of a swordfish, for the paint of th sword was left in the wound. The body of the man in fact was pierced through and through. A doctor re. moved the broken saw, which wi about fourteen centimeters long, but the patient expired afterwards. The fisher- men cannot recall a similar case in that country.—London Globe. Those unfortunate ones who are daily at the mercy of the lordly waiter can- not fail to read the following sugges- tions of W. H. Brainerd in Leslie's Weekly with interest. Says Mr. Brain- erd: * “On several occasions 1 have seen diners take up the tip they have offered a waiter, who has made manifest dis- The | TALK: OF THE TOWN F e might be some feeling shown by these caterers for the reason that none would care to be classed second. But there should be a way out of it, and lhels d | should be at the bottom of the bill fare the words, ‘Tips must not exceed 10 cents,” or ‘25 cents,’ as the case might be. Perhaps such places as have menu cards would not be willing to bave their places cheapened by so | small a tip as 10 or 25 cents. For such places a higher seale could be arranged. Certainly, there should be some rem- edy for the protection of the man who has to live in restaurants, and the casual frequenter as well.” About Canals. The Suez Canal is usually considered the most important example of ship canals, though the number of vessels passing through it annuaily does not equal that passing through the canala connecting Lake Superior with the chain of the Great Lakes at the south. In length, however, it exceeds any of the other great ship canals, its total length being ninety miles, of whiciy about two-thirds is through shallow lakes. The canal connecting the Bay of Cronstadt with St. Petersburg is a work of great strategic and commercial importance to Russia. The canal and sailing course in the bay are aboxt sixteen miles long, the canal prop#® being about six miles and the bay channel about ten miles, and they to- gether extend from Cronstadt, on the Gulf of Finland, to St. Petersburg. The next of the great ship canals con- necting bodies of salt water in the or- der of date of construction is the C inth Canal, which conneets the Gulf o Corinth with the Gulf of Aegina. The canal reduces the distance from Adri- atic ports about 175 miles, and from | Mediterranean ports about 100 miles, Its length is about four miles.—Har- per’s Weekly. Theatricel Hard Times. It is a significant indication of the present condition of hard umes in the theatrical world that in New York alone 3,000 actors are without employ- ment, and that 800 companies have dis- banded for the season. An interesting article by W. W. Harrison on this un- usual situation is published in the cur- rent Harper's Weekly. It seems that art and rubbish have suffered together; neither Shakespeare, with one of our most popular actors in the cast, uor the kind of farces and musical come- dies which have usually appealed to the publio, have met with success. It is said that the receipts for one night's performance of “A Midsummer Night Dreamd,” with Nat Goodwin as Bottom, ran as low as $7.00. “The fact is,” con- cludes Mr. Harrison, “that people are not in a theater mood, and that the plays which are called triumphs this year are playing to only small houses. Nowadays to pay expenses is a mattes of congratulation.” “4nswers to Queries. OLD QUARTERS—Devoted Reades, City. If this correspondent will send & self-addressed and stamped envelope & list of the American quarters that com= mand a premium will be forwarded. TWO ADDRESSES—A Subscriber, Sebastopol, Cal. The address of Andrew Carnegie is 51 West Fifty-first street, New York City. That of Mrs. Phoebe Héarst is La Hacienda del Pozo de Verona, Pleasanton, Alameda County, | Cal. VALUE OF DIMES—Mrs. C. H. G, Napa, Cal. This department does rot publish the value of dimes or any oth- er coins. Questions of that character must be accompanied with self-ad- dressed and stamped envelope for reply by.mail. RAILROAD TICKET—L. A. W., Hay- wards, Cal. A railroad ticket, if limit- ed, must be used within the time limit or it becomes void. There is no law §o prevent a passenger from offering suc a ticket after the expiration of the time limit, but it would be like offering a piece of blank paper—the conductor § would not only not recognize it, but would require the passenger to pay fare. TENANCY—R., Dimond, Cal A month to month tenancy may be ter- minated by the landlord at any time on giving the tenant a menth's notice f desire to terminate the same. The andlord, if he desire to change the terms of the rent, must give the tenant t least fifteen days’ notice of intention to do so, the change of terms to take ifect at the end of the month for which the premises were rented. Un- der the law the te¢nant must comply with the new conditions or vacate at the end of the month. If premises are not habitable, as, for instance, leaxy roof, and the landlord after due notic2 to renair the same does not do so, the tenant may have repairs made to an amount not exceeding the amount of a | month’s rent and deduct the same from the rent. ————— Triplicate mirrors, standing mirrors and toilet sets, beautiful and inexpensive pleasure at its smallness, and replace it in thei® pockets. There should be, it seems to me, and I may add to many other persons who have to eat regu- larly in restaurants, a regulation of 'tips.’ The practice is here to stay and should be regulated by the hotel men and restaurant proprietors. There New Year's presents.. Sanborn, Vail & Co. B —_——— Townsend's California glace fruits x candies, c a pound. in artistic etched boxes. A nice present for Eastern friends. 715 Market st., above Call hidg. * —————— Special information supplied daily to business houses and public men by the Clipping Bureau (Allen’s), 230 Cali- Telephone Main o * i Press « fornia street. 1 4 ’