The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 10, 1904, Page 30

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SU AY, JANUARY 10, 1904 —— . - = Congo Slave Traders. M STAMPS CHERRY . Explorer and Blg Geme Hunter) 1004, Joseph B. Bowles.) ne backbone of the slave trade in en broken, but it dles estimated that before the of the European powers tives were taken from the nnually and sold into most of these wefe de- Arabia, Persia and | very cheap was hu- ,000 more were killed | to the | e « d on the wa T k of over a thousand | A ngs killed or taken into cap- ! But, although the ave trade has been re- Arabs still carry on their Their former operation was to employ whom they sent on in ad- villages. These emis- | ceived as friends and | ir advantage and repaid | ness shown them by forming | tack. Shortly after their he villages were invaded, burned, and the natives ered marketable were The Arabs have a more excellent way. gage in the slave raid- | y get the chief to d they buy the when they secur- ily conducted r advantages in | pness. There keeping free | they make fewer enemies. | oo evident that in former 1 thorough work in raid- | north of the Mobangi, e districts entirely de- business. the r aves. ar has sometimes been charged that the Arabs have been severely dealt with b Belgians and other Eu- an, p 1 do not think so. are a bad lot and have been the scourge of Africa. From first to last I have had a great deal to do with | them. Whes stanley Falls in 1890 | 1 had my ters in a house built by Tippo Ti he Arab chief, who had been placed as governor of the falls | and region around for the purpose of | e slave trade west of the | When our party arrived there great excitement. Rashid had from an expedition east which was in reality a a gigantic scale. He had scellaneous company of about a thousand people, $00 of whom | were slaves. They had traveled up-| ward of a thousand miles and as they came into camp they presented a woe- . pressing just come it | | | | | of the fall with him a begone appearance. Hunger and forced marches had re- to duced them the appearance ,of Smallpox had also n out among them. And whata 1t the camp presented! Anderson- | 1l must have been a paradise com- | pared to it. The filthiness was inde- scribable. Owing to a failure in the rice and manioca crops the food sup- ply, which was scant enough before their arri’ was utterly inadequate to keep them from starvation. The deaths from smallpox and hunger | over twenty a day. The! ained unburied ahd were own aside into the bush or the river. Every few hours body might be seen floating by. Great as was the destitution at the falis at the time of Rashid’s arrival, the event was celebrated by a banquet upon scale of royal magnificence. The material for the feast had been carried from Zanzibar on the heads of men for eix weary months. During the progress of the feast a curious dish was served up. Several Arabs entered the banquet hall, ac- companied by slaves carry sacks | which contained round-shaped objects | which looked as if they might be pine- apples. The newcomers proslrattd: themselves on their faces in oriental fathion. and when commanded to rise they ordered their slaves to present | their offerings; when opening their sacks a number of human heads rolled on the floor. This ghastly course did not help to whet one's appetite. The evident purpose of this bit of panto- mime was to impress all present with the sure retribution that would befall the traitor. The heads were those of revolters in the Nyangua territory. Rashid showed himself to be a man of genius, with administrative gifts like those of his old Uncle Tippu Tib. The Arabs under his command, like Arabs generally, were hospitable peo- ple, refined>in manners and scru- pulously clean in their personal habits. They look cool and comfortable’ in their loose, flowing robes of immacu- late whiteness. How they manage to keep them so clean is a marvel. A troe Arab is a strange contradiction. He will not stoop to do a mean thing; his slaves do that for him. Except in remote districts bordering on the desert Arab slave raiding is a thing of ihe past, but the Arab siave trading fourishes in Congo Francaise. After a war between two tribes the Arabs are soon upon the scene barter- ing for the captives. 1 have seen hun- dreds of siaves taken from Bangassou, 2cfai and Semio fastened together with sharckles, bent so as (o form an inge- nions puzze. It was impossible for the captives {o take them off. The slaves were chained two and two, so that the ‘outer foet were free. Very few of them were men The Arabs prefer women and children, the former when good; ¥ cast into ad INSTRUCTIVE | addea | my men slept the sleep of the just. I | I | low any | I told him th vhi 3 | 2o e White men did not be- | (jreshed out by the papers and the political leaders, but | be utterly false. They had merely scat- /1 STUDIES N AND 4 looking supplying the harems of the Waddai—and, like the Sabine women whem the Romans took captive, they | become the mothers of a race superior to their own. On the upper Mobangi slaves are cheap. 1 knew a Frenchman who had bought a woman for 32 sous, and was proud of his bargain. Another had to his harem a new wife for whom he-had given an old muzzle- loading gun. The regular price for a good slave iz from 10 to 100 gingaw. ! When bought with beads & few hand | fuls are given—possibly & or 6 francs’ worth. A gun will buy five slaves in thé Banda region, and if they are small | more. When slaves are plentiful “i good afticle ean be bought for 200 gun caps, and can in turn be traded off for ivory. Nothing is cheaper in the north- western Congo than human flesh. In the village of Moinga, a Veadire chief who had made friends with the Arabs, I was surprised to run into a Arab settlement of about 1000 souls. Some of these Arabs were passable looking, but most of them were a scaly | lot, and some of them were among the most villainous looking specimens of Arab humanity I had ever seen. Had | I known of this cobra's den 1 would | have given it a wide berth. I was any- | thing but comfortable, knowing that my throat might be cut at any moment if they only had the courage to do it. I| found a few hundred native women | and children in their camp. They had been selected with good taste; the boys | and girls were bright and intelligent | looking, and the women young and well formed. They did not treat them badly, any more than a man treats an animal | badly that he wishes to keep in good condition and sell at a large price. They wore no shackles, but had heavy ank- | lets that impeded their locomotion and | kept them from running away. Arabs swarmed around me like bees, examining my firearms. 1 indulged i a little target practice to show them | the use I could make of them. I told the Sultan that he had better warn his people not to come to my camp | after nightfall, as it was my habit to | shoot without asking questions. I never | permitied any one near after dark. I| loaded my guns and kept watch while | was a long night, and I was glad when | the moon came up so that I could see the sights of my gun. In the morning Was again Dbesieged by my Arab friends, but I took good care not to al- of them to get behind my | back. I never realized before what a convenient thing for concealing a knife | | these big flowing robes are. After con- | siderable parleying I was thankful to | get away with a whole skin, and I did | not feel easy until I had reached- th village of Madda, where the people hate | the Arabs and had given evidence of | their hatred by massacreing four of them the night before. 5 | On my way back from the Kotta 1| met a caravan of Arabs. They had a | number of native women whom they had bought &t the rate of one tusk for two young girls of marriageable | age. And as one gun of the old muz- | zle loading musket order sold among | lheA Veadires for three or four tusks | of ivory, this made some six or eight women for 15 francs, the value of a gun here, a cheap enough bargain sure. | Iyl A poorly blooded pPup at home ould cost more S maiden. When at Sangaly an Arab wanted | to sell me his greegree, or sacred | (~harn:x. which consisted of a portion of | the Koran and a prayer, sown up in | leather and fastened to a belt. It was ! too biz to wear around the neck, be- ing about the size of a pocket Bible, | than an African | lieve in charms. He swore by all the holy grophets that this particular gree- ? gree had saved his life many a time, and he stoutly maintained that no rifie | ball could hurt him while he had it on. I told him to stand back a hundred paces and let me test it, and if it with- stood my rifle ball T would give him what he might ask for it. He declined | the test. He, however, agreed to hang it on 2 tree and allow me to shoot at it, for he said that the ball could not touch it, but would fall harmless to | the ground. After praying to the Allah he hung it up, and I shot it to pieces with my big g The Arab was fu- | rious, but the ratives yelled in deri- sion. They had often been duped by the Arabs, who had worked off many greegrees upon them for their big ivery. But while I am at it T want to chron- icle my opinion that the effects of slave | raiding, terrible as they are, have often been greatly exaggerated. If any one was to pass over a district recently vis- | ited by the slave raiders, as I have often done, he would exclaim: “How great the havoc; how complete the des- olation!” But things are not quite so bad as they seem. On the first alarm they, in all probability, hid their ivory and fled into the bush, where you could find them just as easily as you could find the proverbial needle in the hay- stack. Some, of course, were captured in the act of flight, but the majority got away. Looking at their desolate and smoldering villages, you might conciude that they had been wiped out of existence. The fact that not a single native was in sight might confirm this impression, but your conclusion would tered, to recombine and come back again to their old haunts when things settled down or to move to a new place. The expedition of mmandant Mo- rain raided and burned two villages of 10,000 people, and, although some of the villages were taken by surprise, not more than eight or ten natives were killed, and when I returned up the river some months after all the villages were rebuilt on the same sites. Slavery as it exists among the na- O THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor « « « o« « o . o . . Address All A e Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager | l L2 Publication OiCe. . .eeeeessesssssnccones ....Third and Market Streets, S. F. SU Goisoaynaiisesns bl aceisnonssve st FANMUARY 10, 1004 —_——— THE MAYORS APPOINTMENTS. HAT the appointments of the Mayor will be sub- T No one will like all of them, perhaps even the Mayor himsell does not do that; some people will not like any af them.- Dislikes of that kind go without say- ling, ch is the mature of man. Taking the commu- | nity whole, however, the appointments will be ! judged in the light of practical politics, and the Mayor | will have no reason te be dissatisfied with the tone of public sentiment with regard to them. the people at this time is for a good municipal government conducted along lines which will be sufficiently beneficial and progressive to assure a feel- ing of harmonmy among all classes of the population. We have been riding the crest of a high wave of pros- perity, and we cannot reasonably expect to continue in- definitely in that fortunate condition. Already in the Eastern States there are signs of a comiflg depression n trade and in industry, and eventually we shall feel the effects of what happens there. It would be a very bad thing for us if the ebb of the tide of industrial activity, that is now threatened, should find us menaced by any political or social disturbance to aggravate the evil. An era such genuinely good local government as will help to assure and continue industrial peace is what is needed, and fortunately every move of the Mayor’s new administration thus far has confirmed the hopes of good citizens that such is,the kind of government he is going to do his best to give us. Gloomy as are some of the portents in the East, where stocks are tumbling.- prices falling and wages diminish- ing, there can be no question that California and San Francisco can safely pass the crisis if only a proper care be exercised by those who are either officially or financially the leaders of the people. We are about to enter upon what is for us an unexampled era of public mprovements. The sums of money to be expended in that way by the municipality will encourage further en- erprises in the way of improvements by private capital and energy. In addition we have the promise of good crops and of a further increase in our Orientdl com- merce. Thus we shall have strong forces to assist us in counteracting whatever movements are now tending to check our recent prosperous progress. About all that we need just now is good government nd public harmony, and we have said the Mayor's ap- pointments show a desire on his part to provide them. Minor criticism upon the wisdom of this or that choice will not affect the attitude of the community toward his administration as a whole. The people wish it well, and will uphold the Mayor in all his efforts to make it an era of municipal progress, prosperity and genuine good feeling. for s as> a I The desire of i of The world is now watching the astounding spectacle and a French warship hovering ominously the coast of Hayti, to terrorize that republic into the sentence imposed upon rascally bankers caught in gigantic dishonesty and properly punished. This conduct of Germany- and France may be consid- ered by diplomats as within the legitimate province of nations, but to a layman it looks like a cross between piracy and the bluff of a highwayman. L =, e CHAMBERLAIN'S CAMPAIGN. WING to the number of extraordinary events that have occurred to distract attention from the progress of politics in Great Britain, com- paratively little heed has been given of late in this coun- try to the contest going on over Chamberlain’s proposal to safeguard British industries. by the establishment of a protective tariff. In Great Britain itself, however, there has been no diminution of interest in the cam- paign. The main issues involved have long since been still the eagerness of the people for further information is such that every new speech on the subject draws large crowds, and the daily journals continue to give a great amount of space to speeches, to letters and to edi- torial comment on every varying phase of the campaign. A recent issue of the Lendon Globe in noting the rousing reception given to Chamberlain on his recent address at Leeds says: - “The city, like Yorkshire at large, has in its popula- tion a solid body of hard-fighting Radicals, hitherto steeped to the lips in Cobdenism of the most ‘con- vinced’ character. It is a remarkable and significant change, therefore, that the citizens of this great and busy town should have accorded to the champion of fis- cal reform, not only a closely attentive hearing, but a welcome which, for heartiness, could not be surpassed. The audiences cannot have been attracted by the ex- pectation of hearing some new thing. * * * It is | a growing conviction among all classes that he is in the right that chiefly draws together these enormous meet- ings.” It must not be supposed the campaign is one sided. | The free traders, or “Free Fooders” as they prefer to ic.éll themselves, are making a united and vigorous ef- | fort to fasten upon Chamberlain the charge of advocat- | ing a tax upon the bread of the poor. In their attempts to explain away the prosperity that prevails in protective tariff countries, like the United States and Germany, they have no hesitation in resorting to the most extraor- dinary statements. Thus Winston Churchill is reported by the Daily News as saying: “Why, then, it will be asked, do these clever Ameri- cans, these scientific Germans hold to a system which is found to be so inferior? It is because once a protec- tiohist system takes root in a2 country it cannot be torn up except with terrible loss and suffering, and all the forces of wealth, monopoly and privilege are banded to- gether to prevent it being torn upatall. * * * Byt our industries stand on the solid earth. They do not de- pend on acts of. Parliament, or the caprice of powerful politicians, or the appetites of great millionaires, but on the resources of our island and the skill and intelligence - . | i tives themselves will be a hard thing to stamp out. It is part and parcel of the social order. One thing which ren- ders the slave problem perplexing is the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of an escaped slave returning to his tribe. Every native has peculiar tribal marks: he is also in possession of the legends of his people, 80 that if he at- tempts to pass through strange tribes he is clgsely examined, and if he can- not stand the tests applied to him he is retained as a slave, and more than likely ke is fatted for a feast at the next full moon. A nction must be made between slavery as it s among the natives themselves and siavery under the Arabs, of its people. And the peopic of America and Germany —the poor people I mean—know that they are being cheated and bled on every article they buy for the un- natural and jllfidt. profits of a few rich manufacturers and speculators.” i That is a very fine piece of _rau!,-,‘b;ut'it would not take Chamberlain very long to expose the absurdity of it, since the conditions of workingmen who are alleged to be “robbed” mpmrica by the fi;otgptive tariff are far superior to t! ~of the workmen in Great Britain, who ‘under a regime of free trade and so-called “free food” g tle food. The Daily “Willing ‘but W ing how large a percentage ' of articles under the title ject to inany adverse criticisms is to be expected. | country are even now secking for employment without being able to find it. Some of the statistics that have been brought out to show the effect of iree trade upon British industries are very striking. For example, the silk manufacturing in- dustry of the kingdom was protected down to 1860 by a duty of 15 per cent, but in that year the duty yas re- pealed. Statistics of the Board of Trade show that in 1857, when the industry was protected, Great Britain im- ported 12,000,000 pounds of raw silk and exported manu- factured silk to the value of £2119,000. After forty- five years of free trade the industry has been so far de- pressed that the importation of raw. silk amounted in 1902 to less than 1,300,000 pounds and the exports of manufactured silk were virtually nothing. Such has been the effect of free trade on' tha« industry. Many other examples of the kind are being cited and the cry is going up “England expects every foreigner to pay his duty.” Inthe face of such facts conservative Demo- crats are planning to make a campaign for free trade in this coungry this fall. Did ever the Democratic capacity for blundering go further? President Roosevelt’s message, defending the con- duct of the United States in everything that has led to the creation and protection of the republic of- Panama, ought to make interesting reading at Bogota. It is the turn now -of the warriors—not the statesmen—of Colom- bia to know what is in prospect for them if they seek to disturb conditions which came into being solely upon the responsibility of theiy fellows. S the recent banquet of his Congressional colleagues to point out that the prospects of the coming Pres- idential campaign are highly favorable to the Repub- lican party, but at the same time to give warning tRat the very brightness of the outlook might prove a source of danger by engendering among Republicans a sense of security that would lead them to fall short of the efforts required in the campaign to make success certain. Among the portents of the time, said the Senator, are signs that the Democratic party is becoming “sane and dangerous.” The signs are well known to the public and have been frequently commented on. It seems clear the party will have just about enough sanity this vear to nomipate a candidate of known conservatism whose personality will be attractive to a good many of that large class of people who are more or less indiffer- ent to political principles and are fond of voting for a change whenever they think they can do so without dan- ger to the country. If such a nomination be made the party will undoubtedly be dangerous, and it is none too early to warn the public of the consequences that would follow. + Another dangerous element of the situation is one which the Senator has learned to recognize by reason of his long experience in politics. It is a danger whose statement involves something of a paradox.' Senator Platt put it thus: “The Government, under President Roosevelt, has been strong and wise: but it often happens in politics that a politica! party whi®h has had a long lease of power is never so much in danger as when nobody has any- thing in particular to complain of, for it is then that many people vote not with regasyd to great political prin- ciples, but with regard to trivial events.” Under such circumstances it becomes important to remind the public of the often proved incapacity of the | Democratic party to govern well, or even effectively, whether well or ill. Supposing a strong candidate were nominated by the party and through some aberration of the popular mind were elected, he could do nothing in office without the support of his party, and his party is strongly tainted with a radicalism that tends to social disturbance as well as to wildcat finance. No soonet would the supposed conservative Demiocrat take office than the radical Bryanites would be raging about him demanding recognition, place and power. The result would be cither a surrender of conservatism to the radi- cal wing or else a self-stultified administration like that of the second term of Grover Cleveland, when the Presi- dent was denouncing the tariff of his party as a measure of “perfidy and dishonor” and the party was denouncing the financial policy of the President as a betrayal of the people and a ‘surrender to Wall street. This country has had ample experience with tariff smashers and currency debasers, and no intelligent patriot can have any desire for further experiments of that kind. For that reason it is timely to remind the curious ones who would like to see a change of what the nature of that change would surely be. Or, as Senator Platt put it, “We must through theé coming campaign keep constantly before the people the o,ften proved in- capacity of the Democratic party to conduct public af- fairs and the menace to business which proceeds from its very constitution.” / The Supreme Court of Ohio has struck high water mark in the flood of American legal absurdities. Sim- ply because a jury listened to the confession of a fiend A WARNING FROM PLATT. ENATOR PLATT of New York took occasion at Murphy’s Secret. Two bits of wooden slats, to which was roughly tacked a faded branch from one of those ornamental ever- greens, formed the Christmas tree. From a eastaway tomato can the label had been stripped and slashed into irregular pieces, the bright red furnishing color. These were ltled to the three with cotton twine, borrowed or begged from Hugo at the | corner grocery. The can had been laboriously cut into bits and the shiny tin stuck on to the meager follage. A couple of pleces of ordinary tallow candles, also drawn from Hugo, served as finishing touches of decoration. A pair of red apples, a scaly orange and a gaudy bandana handkerchief | loomed amtd the sickly light, symbolic of “Peace on earth, good will toward | men.” Policeman Murphy peeked through | a crack in the window of a southside basement tenement and what he saw has been described, except for three mites of raggedy urchins, who were | gleefully romping about that homely i i consists of shipwrecked sailors with their wives and families, who have now made the island their permanent home. One of his Majesty's ships pays an annual visit to the island. Now, what a blessing those fifty Bibles will prove to be to sixty marooned sallor altar. The tears came to the rugged | patrolman’s eyes. Softly he stole | away. Down to Hugo's he went. An | hour later the rosy-cheeked German was knocking at the tenement door. | A pale faced, thin woman responded. | “I'm sorry,” she said, “but Tom's‘ been sick and out of work this three | months. We'll pay you as soon as w can. We're honest, you know; only we are awftil hard up just now.” | “Pay? I don’d vant pay. Here'sa| Christmas box for you,” replied the | grocer’s boy. Indeed it was a box, for Murphy had | ocdered a store of things that had iong becn absent from that cupboard.’ There was a Christmas indeed that night in the humble tenement. But | they never knew whence it came. And | for Murphy, why he will go down un- | sung, for Murphy isn't his name, and be has flatly refused to let it be made | public. | Young America. ! A few days ago twelve boys, rang- | ing in age from 8 to 15 years, occupied the chairs in the jury box in Judge | Murasky's courtroom during the ses- | sion' of the Juvenile Court. There | were traces of tears upon the cheeks | of eleven of them and the head of | each and every one of the eleven drooped in shame. But the twelfth, a ragged urchin about 10 years of age, | sat bolt upright in his:chair. Not a tear bedimmed his eyes and the looks | he gave the Judge and the spectators | contained no trace of tears or shame. He watched his eleven companions go up to the Judge as they were called, and when each of them burst into tears at the first question asked by the Judge, he snickered aloud and cast at them a scornful look. Af last his turn came. When the clerk called the name of Mickey Du- gan he ‘arose and with no sign of haste - swaggered up to the Judge. Every one smiled and even the Judge had to hide his mouth behind his hand. Boldly the little street arab stared at the Judge and there was scorn in the glance he gave the two big officers | who stepped forward to tell the court what the boy had done. “Mickey,” said the Judge, were you arrested for?” Mickey pointed a dirty forefinger at the larger of the two officers and grin- ning said: “I punched him in der jaw.” f “what | Women as Lawyers. | To-day women are admitted to the bar on'equal terms with men in thirty- four States of the Union. That woman | is intellectually as capable of studying | law as man is the belief of Clarence D. Ashley, dean of the New York Univer- sity Law School, who contributes an in- teresting article on the subject to Har- | per'’s Weekly for January 2. Professor | Ashley sees nothing to deplore in the| tendency of women to enter the law.| “They lose thereby.neither charm nor | any true womanly character; no study- | ing or training can change a genuine woman to anything eise—she will be after, as she was before, the same gen- uine woman. As far as education is concerned woman is in the law to stay, and the world will be the better for it.” New York University has a regu- lar law cqurse for women, and has graduated some sixty-eight with the| degree of bachelor of laws. The work of these women in the law school is| said to be generally excellent, and in| some cases brilliant. 'The Fatal Finger Mark. Gloves will soon become an indispen- sable part of every burglar’'s outfit. The | i | who boasted that he had murdered five people a new trial has been granted. The astounding reason is given that the jury must have been prejudiced against the de- fendant by the recital. One may say with as much jus- tice that the thoroughness with which the prosecution presents its case creates inevitable and illegal bias against an accused. The doctors in the Dunsmuir case, now moving its spir- other day Mr. Denman of the London| courts sentenced a man to twelve months’ hard labor on the sole evidence of the impressions of the middle finger of his left hand. This method of identi- fying a prisoner, far more certain than photography, was in use we believe in China years before its adoption in any FEuropean country, and in conjunction with the Bertillon system has been used in France successfully for a decade or ited way in the courts at Victoria, have decided to disagree upon what properly constitutes a case of alcoholism. It would seem, because of the value of the stakes at issue, that the learned men of pills and pellets might have | guise can alter the face until a photo- thought of importing one of our unmistakable speci- | 8raph, however careful, is useless for mens collected after the celebration of the coming of the new vear. The bmtali and unpunished outrage perpetrated by a negro soldier upon a defenseless woman a few days ago, while riding on a street car, has suggested to the au- so. It is a strange thing that nature should have so provided every man with a witness against himself—a wit- ress which he cannot be rid of. Dis- identification, and even the elaborate men! ' [ ‘A Ballade of Jeanette. Jeannette has found another fad— She’s joined the literary crew! More evanescent dreams she’'s had Than any girl you ever knew. But whatsoe'er she plans to do, No contradiction will she brook; And she assures me it s true That she's resolved to write a book! Society and I are sad— She scorns our favors, and in lleu Thereof, she takes her seribbling-pad, The path of glory to pursue; Though from her head she ecannot screw A plot, by any hook or croak, Her pencil she delights to chew— For she's resolved to write a book. In ink-splashed cambric, now, # Her hair is plaited in a quew Strictly sub rosa, I may add Her stockings are Bostonian blue; The shops, the play, the “private view” alady | Now win from her no passing look, Nor will she listen when I woo, | For she’s resolved to write a boox. Girls, here’s a splendid chance for you To take the place Jeannette forsook: I'm looking for a sweetheart who Has not resolved to write a book! —Smart Set. Remarkable Promotion. Sir John Harrington, who has just been advanced to the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary, enjoys the distinction of being the only British envoy who has literally risen from the ranks, hav- ing enlisted in 1384, at the age of 20, as a private in an infantry regiment. At the age of 24, after successively holding the grades of corporal and ser- geant, he received a commission as sec- ond lieutenant of the Middlesex Regi- ment, and fifteen months later he was transferred to that picked body, the Indian Staff Corps. Before long he vol- unteered for service as vice comsul at Zailah, a pestilential place, which is one of the seaports of Abyssinia, tha post in question being avolded as ch as possible by the other members offthe Indian Staff Corps by reason its loneliness and unhealthfulness. | So good was the use which Harrington made of his opportunities that he was able to render invaluable assistance to the special mission of Sir Rennell Rodd to Emperor Menelik in 1897, striking up a great friendship with Lord BEd- ward Cecil, the soldier son of the lats Lord Salisbury, and who formed part of Sir Rennell's staff. The result was that when the British Government re- solved to establish a permanent lega- tion in Abyssinia, where British in-" terests are exceedingly important, both Sir Rennell and Lord Edward warmly recommended Lieutenant Harrington to Lord Salisbury for the post. He has since received military promotion to the rank of colonel, and the influence which he has been able to acquire over the dusky potentate to whom he is ac- credited is so remarkable that it has completely relegated into the back- ground that Russia and of France, which formerly predominated. 34 Answers to Queries. QUOTATION—Reader, City. The quotation, “'Tis with o.r judgment as our watches; none go just allke, yet each belleves his own,” is from Pope on “Criticism,” line nine. VOTING—A Subscriber, Richmond, Cal. In a number of the States of the Union aliens who have declarcl their intention to become citizens are allowed to vote at all elections, provided they | have been residents for a fixed period | varying from six months to a year. In those States the allen who has declared { his intention can vote for Presidential electors. SALUTING WARSHIPS—Subscriber, City. The origin of forts or warships in a harbor saluting a foreign war ves- sel on entering the port is traced back to very ancient times. The discharge of guns was to show the approaching strangers that those in charge of the fortifications or war vessels had such faith in their visitor's peaceful mission and intentions that they did not think it necessary to keep the guns loaded. €T~ “STMAS TREES — Old Subseri- ber. The gustom of the use of trees at Christmas time springs from a period far anterior to the revelation of Chris- tianity and seems proXimately to be dérived from the custom prevalent dur- Bertitlon system can be upset by the deliberate infliction of some new mark on the body. But if a criminal mutilate the end of his finger such mutilation alone would suffice to make him sus- pected. In attempting to avoid its evi- dence he practically confirms his guilt. thorities the necessity of more police officers in the | —Londdén Pall Mall Gazette. neighborhood of the Presidio. It might be wise also to suggest to the street car companies the advisability of securing conductors courageous enough and able to pro- tect their patrons from insult and assault. 3 : ’Bile womotm of the race tn’d:_’at‘ Los Angeles fear that their venture will fail miserably unless the authori- ties permit them to sell intaxicating beverages within Bibles io the Needy. The Westminster Gazette says that for the inhabitants of the island of mumemmummm“ has made a_free grant of fifty Bibles and Testaments, which are being sent out, by request, to “Peter Green, the chief man of the island.” This island, the inclosure swhere races are lost and won. 1t is noth- | which'is the loneliest and least know:, ing new to the public to be informed that anybody who goes agai fragment of our empire, lies in the Atlantic Ocean. midway between the Cape and South America. The pop- k. w- California, fi fruits ing the Sc‘urnalia of the inhabitants of Rome in decorating their temples and dwellings with green boughs. In Ger- many, away back in early history, and in Holland, it was some one to appear as Canta or Kris Kringle about Christmas time and re- ‘ward the good children of the household with gilt nuts. sweetmeats and other presents, and if the child for whom a presént was intended did not respond the ~“* 'Was hung on the branch of a decorated tree. From this sprang the modern custom "o': placing presents on and fire- n H %n . We a pound, i arj A aster friends. 115 Market at) aboes Call bldg. Special information daily fornia T v