The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 16, 1904, Page 8

PEEES - INSTRUCTIVE S TUDIES 1 )\ | \ A } For the Housemwife. BY DORA MAY MORRELL. [Copyright, 1904, by Joseph B. Bowies] The greatest difference between the house mother’s and the merchant’s management is in the matter of sys- tem. While one should not be a slave to routine of labor there Is not the least doubt that system lightens house- keeping almost one-half. She who knows just when a piece of work should be done knows also how it should be, and there will be no time wasted, nor will there be any hurry- ing or confusion. The house where the work is never done, where ironing, | sweeping and cooking come together, is the house without a head, for system is of the head. It is the appli- cation of brains to the task one has to do. Whether one is the fortunate woman who does her own work or the un- tnrlun.\;:— who has te depend upon one or a dozen servants, system is equally needed. If one lacks it let her culti- vate it diligently. It leads to rested nerves, stored-up strength and so to happiness in the home. Its sole dis- advantage is one that applies to per- sonal vanity. The woman who labors systematically, though she will accom- plish twice as much as another who does 1 never seems to the unob- servant 1o be doing much because she never has confusion about her and al- has time for what she wants ot a notable New England who was wont to say to daughters, “Don’t dawdle, make and you'll never be every too tired and never lack time.” P move tell way working compels one to be syst for the brains direct and one follows the old adage, “Let your head save your heels.” L sounds »n is not usually pro- in and week out, s which should be that day each day carried out on hold machinery is to run smoothly. There may be exceptions for special occasions, but holding to the rule brings peace in the family and keeps the strain of housework and its super- vision from deing too heavy for the housewife and the family. The nearer one's daily tasks can be prought to the point of being performed automatically the easier they become. Just as cne must forget his fingers be- fore he becomes a finished musician, one must have n wonted to th= routine of the housework, first to that planned for each day and then to thé division the tasks for each hour. The woman who takes dishwashing, the dally sweeping and dusting, lamp fill- ing, et cetera, in the same order each day will gain ease and time over the one who sometimes does cooking first, pometimes last, and so on. Minutes are wasted while one stops to decide “what to do mext.” She does better to plan ber work at the beginning and then to follow persistently the course that she has mapped out after due deliberation. There is no part of the world where housekeeping has been made such a fetich as in the smaller New England towns, and none where a woman's ap- preciation by her neighbors depends much upon her skill in housewifery. She who writes or paints is accounteq & failure if ehe does not understand the art of housekeeping. The New England woman eof a generation ago did an im- mense amount of work, yet she always had her afternoon free. The explana- tion is simpie. She worked with system. On Monday she washed, Tuesday saw the clothes ironed, on Wednesday they were looked over for rents, mended and folded away. on Thursday windows were wiped, silver polished, closets tidied or any other task that came up was attended to; weddings, parties and festivities of all kinds were set for Thursday, as it was the leisure day of the week; Friday saw. the house thor- oughly swept from garret to cellar, and Saturday was given over to extra baking so save cooking on Sunday and Monday. These were the snecial duties of the day, but every day had its share of dishwashing, bedmaking, cieaning and cooking, each in its regularly ap- pointed time, which never varied except for sickness or other calamity. The method is as successful to-day as it ever was, though it is harder to carry out, since the workers of the kitchen to-day do not work with brairs as well as with hands, nor take kindly to the introduction of some one else’s brains. In many well run kitchens there is provided a programme .of the day's work in the order of its coming. When there are several servants the sched- ule for each is provided, and where this is done the work is well ordered as is that of the big department store. Conditions differ sc greatly in families that no one can mark out such a pro- gramme for another, bui each woman knows—or ought to—what is needed in her home. and by the exercise of a little tact she can prevail upon her assistant to follow the programme, and after the Jatter finds herself with more jeisure and less weariness because of this ar- rangement she will be glad to adopt it. The programme should not be changed from week to week. Each Morday should have the same division of tasks #nd hours, and so on through all the week. The same svstem that plans one's work will insure the means of Aaing it. The servant will not begin | that should be dore in the morning. | quite unjust to the eve, for, while the | | era no just comparison is possible, for | —_——— her Monday task to find that soap, starch or other essentials have been forgotten—an experience only too com- mon in the average ill-organized house- hold. To avoid this let a slate and pencil be hung in kitchen and wash- room, so that a note may be made of any article which is getting low. The time to buy is befere one is out of the necessity. Time spent in waiting for one's tools is time wasted in the worst way, for it is taking from the hours that shouid be spent i rest and amusement, and is carrying into the afternoon the work Toc many housekeepers proceed after Amy March's motto and “take time by | the fetlock,” therefore they find them- | selves perplexed over many things without finding that the cause as well as the possible remedy for the trbuble | lie in themselves. The Camera of the Eye. LATSON, M. D., BY W. R C. (Bditor “'Health Culture” Magazine, New | York.) Copyright, 1904, by Joseph B. Bowles i Of all the wonderful mechanical de- | vices of the body the most complex | and beautiful is undoubtedly the hu- man eye. The human eye is frequent- | Iy compared to & camera, but this is | principle is the same in each, the com- | era when compared to the eve is a ! very crude and imperfect affair. Between the living eye and the com- | the living eve is capable of a large} number of adjustments which are im- | possible to the camera. We may with | more justice compare the camera to the dead eye. If we take the eye of | an ox, removed from the body, and scrape off the coats on the back part | of the eyeball; if we replace the coat- | ings so removed with a thin plate of | mica, we shall see a tiny inverted im- age of the object in front of the eve— | shall see exactly what the photogra- | pher does when he ducks his head un- | der the black cloth and says, “Look | pleasant, please.” % 4 Both eye and camera are merely dark chambers with a lens in front to | admit the light and make an image | by refraction. Both are lined with a | material impervious to light. For if | light were allowed to enter elsewhere | than through the lens it would blur the image. Beyond this, however, the analogy | between the eye and the camera does | | not go. The eye has the power of au- | That | tomatically adjusting itself so as to throw the image upon the retina at whatever distance that image may be; | 2lso of regulating the amount that en- | | ters; and then the two eyes by fo-| yry of doing a piece of work | ; well, | ng or comfortable re- | if the house- | | | | | these cusing upon an object, not only gain | the opportunity of seeing it from two ! sides—of seeing partially around it, as | iy were—but can also judge pretty | closely as to its distahce. i Now the mechanism by which all| this is accomplished is very complex; | and to understand it one must know | something of optics. Optics is a large | subject and we cannot hope in the - at our comand to make it clear. 1y say, however, that rays of Jight travel in a straight line, and that rays falling against a lens are so affected that they converge at & certain point beyond the jens. Now the farther away the ob- ject from which the rays come the | farther from the lens will be the re- flection. Thus, in the ordinary éam- era, the distance of the plate from the lens is regulated by the distance of the object to be photographed, and the photographer slides the plate back and forth until he has found the ex- aét point at which the rays from the object focus. But there is another factor which affects the focus of light rays passing} through a lens, and that is the shape of the lens. The flatter the lens the | farther away will be the focal point. | So we see that there are two ways | by which the rays from a distant body | may be brought to a focus. One is| by moving the plate until it is at the | foeal peint, which is the method of | the camera. The other is by chanxing; the shape of the lens itself, which is| the method of the human eye. The Deadly. i Locomotive whistling has in our| country become a menace to public comfort, sleep and health. We do not | mean the whistling of the engineers | at grade-crossings in the country | (which should also be done away with | by abolishing the grade-crossings). but | that of the switching engines in or, near towns and. cities, at work sall night, and which is done solely for the convenience of the trainmen. In no other country in the world is this nius- ance aliowed. In some of our cities stringent laws exist against it, as e. g., in Philadelphia, but they are utterly ignored by the officers sworn to exe- cute the law. The officials seem to prefer to execute the people. There can be no'doupt that a majority of the people of cities, especially in summer, are injured ‘in health because of loss of sleep, and that the sick and conva- lescent are dangeroucly ha. aed. All physicians know how necessary sledb is to the maintenance and re-estab- lishment of health. The whistling is wholly unnecessary = and often against the rules of the company. Thus because it is “nobody’s duty” to stop it, a ha!f dozen workmen disobey the railway rules and the city ordinances without check. But it is somebody's duty—and that somebody is the local Board of Health. Protests from physi- cians would soon prove effective—and surely from their patients!—American Medicine. Octopus Food. The octopus is very largely used .as an article of food in Southern Italy. Its long tentacles are cut transversely, so that when served at table they have the appearance of rings. The fish when taken by day are lured from the crev- ices of the rocks by a piece of red flan- el at the end of a bamboo, which they attempt to grasn, and they are then speared with a tridenf. At night an iron cradle with a bright flame of resinous wood is fixed to the bow of the boat. This attracts the fish and leads him to his doom. * | of others. | first place has absolutely no right on earth to make it, (and in the second we know her well enough to have T is |- THE SAN FPRANCISGD CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proptietor « « ¢ + + .+« « « Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager Publication Office @ ....Third and Market Streets, S. F. ANUARY 16, 1904 THE PLEA FOR HARMONY. SATURDAY.. AYOR SCHMITZ, in his annual message sub- M mitted to the Board of Supervisors on Monday, very properly directed attention to some of the signs of the times that are omineus of a conflict between labor and capital before ‘the year is over. The issue is not directly one that concerns the municipal administra- tion, but none the less it was right that the chief execu- tive of the city should give earnest consideration to it, since upon him will rest the heaviest burden of responsi- bility to maintain the peace and good order of the com- munity, with all the rights of person and property should such a conflict take place. The Mayor, of course, makes a plea for harmaony. That was to be expected from one in his official position and of his political sagacity, even if it were mnot prompted, as it doubtless was, by his sense of duty to his fellow-citizens. He has nothing to gain by industrial disturbance, for his administration will be creditable and honorable exactly in proportion as its influence counts on the side of continued prosperity based upon unin- terrupted industry and enterprise. His language on the subject bears the evident impress of sincerity and shows a conviction on his part that an overwhelming majority of those who were his partisans in the late campaign ex- pect him to direct his administration along conservative lines and fulfill his pledge of acting in office as the repre- sentative of the whole people, showing no favoritism on the one hand, nor antagonism on the other, to any class or element of the population. In making the plea for harmony, the Mayor does not stand alone. From all sides and from all parties, classes and elements of the people are to be heard voices mak- ing the selfsame plea. Everybody, except the few who | see some prospect of personal gain or notoriety from a period of strife, is on the side of peace. The community has been very prosperous, and as the Mayor points out the past two years have been “essentially years of peace and of freedom from violent strife.” Al who have profited by that peaceful prosperity desire its continu- ance. All will be well, therefore, if those who sincerely desire harmony can agree upon a policy of maintaining it, and adhere to that policy no matter who oppose it. The danger of disturbance lies in the pdssibility that there may be a disagreement as to the best policy to pursue, and rival leaders may precipitate a conflict by their very desire to assure peace. There are lines in the Mayor's message that raise a fear that he himself may | fall into that error, and accordingly the issue cannot be ignored. 3 ’ That the conditions of the time are full of danger points is beyond question. The flood tide of industrial prosperity that has borne us forward so buoyantly shows signs of having reached the highest level. There is danger that the inevitable ebb may set in with the spring, and coincide with the bursting forth of partisan excitements that invariably attend a Presidential elec- tion. Should that happen, it is not unlikely that even in San Francisco, where we have had such fat years for labor and capital alike, and where there is little proba- bility of any $uch slump in work and wages as menaces the East, we may have a very critical period to pass through. before the year is over. It is, therefore, in the highest degree important that the plea for har- mony be made and be listened to with a full understand- ing that there is to be a mutual give and take all along the line, to the end that substantial justice may be done to all parties interested in every issue that arises. It is timely now, while as yet there is no near menace of disturbance, for all conservative citizens to fix their minds firmly on the right side of the general question, so | that they may not be turned aside into a disordered partisanship by any agitation that may burst forth later on. We live in an age of organized associations of all kinds, and must learn to tolerate alt combinations of | citizens, whether capitalists or laborers, so long as they | obey the laws and respect the person and the property 1f that be not done our fat years will but fur- nish fat to feed the fire of strife. The plea for harmony then must be accompanied by a broad sympathy with the rights of every class of citizens, and a recognition of the | truth that nothing is to be gained by infusing the coming political campaign with any taint of class prejudice one way or the other. Russia has ‘announced to the powers that it is her purpose to respect all treaty right$~that have been estab- lished by China with other nations of the world. This declaration is interesting for two reasons. Russia in the learned that while she is profuse in promises she is lam- entably poor in performance. ALASKAN DEVELOPMENT. HE report upon the progress of Alaskan develop- ment made to the Senate on Tuesday may not have the effect of rousing Congress to take action at this session for the _pyomotion‘of the interest of that great Territory, but it will undoubtedly serve as an im- portant document in the campaign of education to thag end. Senators Dillingham, Burnham, Nelson and Patter- son did their work well. Their investigations appear to have been as comprehensive as was possible consider- ing the vast area of the country and the limited time at their command, and the conclusions they have drawn from their observations and the testimony presented to them at different points constitute an able summary of what ought to be done in the way of legislation to facilitate the exploitation of the great wonderland .of the north. Governor Brady in his annual message directed the attention of the Washington Government to what the Canadian Government had done, to promote Yukon Ter- ritory, and contrasted the efficiency there with the lack of it in Alaska. He dealt chiefly with the subject of mining, and pointed out several important features of Canadian policy which we would-do well to follow for the benefit of Alaskan miners. The Senate committee, like the Governor, finds in the Canadian administration much that should _excite our emulation. The committes, however, devotes most of its attention in that respect to | the question of transportation, and cites figures to show the advantage the miner in the Yukon has over the Alaskan miner in the way of cheap food by reason of the good roads on the Canadian side of the line and the lack of them on’ours. - : We are so accustomed to speak of ourselves as the most | enterprising people on earth and to mock at the Cana- | dians as being slow that the revelations of the superior’ enterprise of Canada in the development of the north ought to affect our pride, if nothing else. There are! wany regions of Alaska, however, rich enough to justify ' our Government in promoting their exploitation, even if we had no rival to stimulate us'to the task. Governor Brady reports the mining industries of the Territory to be already so large and so varied that he could not ade- h Senate committee itself undertook hardly more than a summary In 1902 the output of gold for the Terri- tory reached-the value of $8,345,800, and as yet the sur- face has been hardly more than scratched at any point quately deal with them in his message. The of the whole. in the gold fields. Referring to the gold districts the committee re- ports that Seward Peninsula, of which Nome is the cen- ter, is the richest of the gold districts so far as is known, and that fext in order come the gold districts of South- eastern Alaska, aron{d Juneau, and, third, the Yukon district. It is-noted that the Nome district has the ad- vantage of cheap supplies because it can be reached by ocean steamers. The Yukon country is handicapped in that respect to some extent, but the committee re- ports it to be a land of great possibilities. Takenaltogether, the report can hardly fail to impress Congress with the importance of our rich possessions in Alaska and incline the more statesmanlike members to feel a pride in assisting in its development. Favor- able legislation may therefore be expected from time on. The probability thus given of an increased cnergy in the.exploitation of Alaska ought to be a mat- ter of interest to San Francisco merchdnts and manu- facturers, for the field is a vast one and the market that will ere long exist there for all kinds of goods is worth | seeking out diligently and earl There seems to be a general impression that within the last few days something has dropped in the City Hall. The sympathies of sorrowing circles of friends i have gone out to those who lost their positions, but no one seems to think it worth while to pity the men that i have violated the lettgr and. spirit of wise laws and have_L re-established in the local government the specter of the spoils system and its attendant evils. Tthat should have been taken before, and if taken in time would have prevented the theateér horror. He claims credit for protecting life by closing all the theaters in that city. He is the same sort of life-saver as pins, which save the lives of a great many people by not being swallowed. The revelations already before the public show conditions in the theater that burned, and in others that have not, that were apparent to the most casual official oversight. on the gravestone of every victim of the fire. It is in evidence that the members of the city govern- ment were alert to conditions anly when they were re- fused free tickefs to the theaters, and that then they had not the skill to direct their correctional discipline to the things required for safety. One officer, whose ex- actions were burdensome, sent in an order for twenty- five free seats for a theater party. The manager refused the seats. Immediately he was disciplined in the matter of the porte cochere at the entrance to his place and was hauled up for advertising on billboards in front. In many other ways, in matters non-essential to the safety of his patrons, he was persecuted until he surrendered, and then all official discipline ceased. This scems to have been.a common policy pursued by every department of the city government except the police. All managers testify to the abstention of the police from any of these forms of graft. The money drain on theater managers for the benefit of official grafters was so serious that naturally they sought to make good by omitting expense in matters that con- cerned the safety of the people. Asbestos curtains were omitted entirely or were imitations made of cotton. A few chemical fire extinguishers were provided in the in- flammable scenery, when safety required ten times as many. The top ventilators, needed to draw flames up- ward, were omitted. so that fire instantly followed the air draught from the stage toward the exits.” Audiences are familiar with the cold draught that sweeps through the auditorium when the curtain goes up. It is the breath of death. It means the lack of top ventilation over the stage. Any official inspector with sense enough to sign a payroll who feit that draught should have known its meaning. But his sense of duty was subor- dinate to his free pass to the show. We do not pretend that Chicago has the only unsafe theaters. In nearly every city in the country there is careless and criminal omission of the most obvious pre- cautions. The Mayor of Chicago is doing his duty late, too late to save the 600 lives lost by neglect, but it is ta be hoped that his belated activity will warn other May- ors that they, too, have been unmindful of the life-saving precautions which prudence requires shall ‘be taken in all places of assembly. Tt is better that every theater, hall and chureh should be closed for a year, while they are made safe, than that another horror shall chill the blood of the world. . e — AFTER THE FACT. HE Mayor of Chicago is taking active steps now Some miscreant destroyed a painting of great histori- cal and intrinsic value in the Capitol at Topeka the other day simply because a brewer had given the work of art to the State. It is such disgusting intemperance as this that injures so seriously the cause of what advo- cates are pleased to call temperance. A good purpose is not accomplished by bad expedients. Ea S The British killed a thousand howling Dervishes a few days ago, but the Mad Mullah escaped to continue his campaign of terror and destruction. There is always an element of compessation in these little affairs. They give the British a chance tq shout and effect no particular diminution in the howling of the Dervishes. ’I'he authorities of Oakland have chosen a woman to design one of their most important public buildings. OQur municipal architecture has evidently excited enough attention among our neighbors to suggest that if such is an illustration of men’s efforts in the art of building there certainly can be no harm in giving women a chance. Within the short period of a month more than seven hundred human lives have been snuffed out by fire and flood, by accidents on sea and land, in cities and in the black stillness of night on the highway. How pitiably small humanity seems after all in the dreadful light of these disasters! ' - ‘A woman masqueraded as a man for twenty-five yeacs in Idaho, and death only exposed her secret. It is strange, considering her unenviable rccord as the quar- reling ground for ‘mismated couples and the Mecca for marital derelicts, that the State can't tell a she sees ope, : this ! Official neglect is written | woman when Who Was Brutus? stone State. One of the big companies struck oil on his farm and, like a wise gentleman, he came West to spend his money. He has taken up his abode on Post street, and gets his chief enjoy- ment out of life at a half finished ho- tel around the corner, where he solves all abtruse diplomatic and political problems for the argumentative labor- ers. His early education, said, was sadly neglected. Colonel Ju- modernized oracle. { One of the laborers had been read- ! ing a magazine article in which a great | Buropean statesman was referred to |as a “twentieth century Brutus.” The ;question before the house was, “What |is a Brutus. An idler asseverated that | “Brutus” was a misprint and the word | was intended for “brute.” Some one lelse once knew a bull terrier named Brutus. Others had different opinions which might well have given ugrest to the departed soul of the ancient wielder of a dagger. Colonel Julius look- ed on with supreme disdain. When the | rest had finished he opened his mouth | and “spake as one having authority.” “Brutus was a man.’ he declared. “I knew him well back in the oil dis- trict. His name was Abraham Lincoln | Brutus—named after the President— and spent most of his time when he | wasn't drunk picking chickens. Your | twentieth century Brutus was a chick- en picker, my son,” concluded Colonel | Julius, as he sawed off another dream | from his piug of “‘Lonely Star.” ! e Vagaries of Insane. Arm in arm the two women walked into the hospital for the insane at the City Hall. They were both large, handsome women, well dressed and having about them an air of refine- ment. The larger of the two requested an interview with the matron, and ‘into her room with her, leaving her | companion in the room where are held ! the examinations of the insane. Presently the steward came along, | and, seeing the woman sitting there alone in the examination-room, asked | her if she desired to see any one. { “Yes” she replied, “I wish to see | the doctors.” | “They are not in just now,” replied the steward; “perhaps I can furnish { you with what information you seek. “Well, you might,” said the woman. “You see it is this way: My sister | thinks that I am crazy. As a matter L df fact, she is the one who is out of | her mind. This morning she asked me |to come down here with her so that | the doctors could examine me. Now I want the doctors to examine her, so I fell right in with her suggestion and came along. She is in there now, talk- ing with the matron about me.” “Very well, madam,” said the stew- ard, “T will speak to the dogtors when they come, if you will try to keep her here until they arrive. You would her hallucinations so that they will know how to proceed.” “Well,” whispered the woman, “it is ! a very sad case. Two months ago she was as sane as I am. One day she went around to our neighbors and with tears streaming down her cheeks ‘told them all that I was out of my mind because I said I had been se- I have Victoria's stead. Of course, been, but- e Poor Brown. “Yes,” said Cupid Dariforth a few ‘dayu ago, at a time when the mar- riage license business was not very { brisk, “this is 2 good office for stories. Hardly a day passes that something does not happen that woulll prove of interest to the reading public. For | ipstance, this morning shortly after I opened up, a great, big stout woman, well dressed and bearing all the ear- marks of the rule or ruin kind of woman came in and asked me if she could get a license. I told her she cer- tainly could if there were no legal re- straints. ** ‘What do you mean by legal re- straints?’ she inquired. “I told her that the law required that the persons about to embark on the sea of matrimony should be able to show that they had reached the age of majority and that they had not been divorced within a year. ) “‘Humph,’ she said, ‘a woman can get a license, can't she?" . “‘Certainly,’ 1 said, and then pro- ceeded to fill in a blank with the in- formation she gave me. The name of the man was Brown and when I had signed the license, collected the fee and handed it to her she gave me a snappy and ecurt ‘Thank you' and walked out.” “Five minutes later a meek and humble individual fairly sneaked in. He walked up to the desk and in a voice shaking with fear asked me if I had just issued a license to a big, stout woman. I told him I had and gave him the woman's name. “He was trembling like a leaf and in a voice that was husky with emo- tion he asked me the name of the pros- pective groom. 1 was little prepared for the startling change that came over him when I told him it was Brown. “He breathed a sigh of relief that could be heard out in the corridor and almost shouted a fervent ‘Thank God.” 1 suppose I looked puzzled, for sud- denly he grinned, grasped my hand and almost shook it off. “‘You see,’ he said, with another convulsive shake of thé hand, ‘she had two of us on a string, Brown and me. Poor Brown!” ’ Theater Architecture. The development of the hotel and lamusement - section of Manhattan, ‘which began in 1900, has resuited in the erection of six mew theaters. In all these new buildings some more or less Colonel Julius is a native of the Key- it must be lius does not appreciate the fact, how- {ever, but poses as the only genuine when that lady appeared she walked better teil me a little something about | I P expensive buildings recently construct- ed in New York, have had their influ- ence on the playhouses also, and the truth of this statement is illustrated as much by the reformation which has been effected in some of the older thea- ters as by the character of the new de- signs. The Belasco, the New York, the Fmpire and the Manhattan have all been remodeled and redecorated, so that the changes which have taken place are visible in fully one-half of the theaters of the better class ig Manhat- tan, and the total effect of the new | theatrical architecture has not been enly to gjve the public & number of in- teresting iInterfors which they can ob- serve and discuss between the acts, but also to establish a standard of play- house design which will have its effect hereafter. Music Hath Charms. Francis Darwin's story of the plants and the bassoon emphasizes once more the old truth that flction is often. the forerunner, of fact, as well as the cir- cumstance that the humorist is apt to describe in irresponsible frivolity what the grave scientist may later embody in his thought-out system. According to Mr. Darwin, it was many years ago that his illustrious father made him play the bassoon to plants in order to test whether they were semsitive to sound: and it is certainly thirty years since the American humorist Max Ad- eler described for the amusement of countless thousands Judge Pitman's musical experiment in natural histogy. The Judge had read in the Atlamtic | Monthly, it may be recalled, that the ignana was susceptible to music, and that some professor had caused it to arise and come to him when he played to it on the piano. The worthy Pit- man, not quite catching the name of | that which had proved so amenable to { harmony, thought he would give the | thing a trial; and, going to his barnm, | he tried the effect of the fiddle upon a bag of guano. “A Life on the Ocean Wave,” “Old Hundred”| and “Mar Blaine” were alike fowerless to move the inanimate object, though dach tune was played “backward and side- ways and cat-a-cornered,” -as weil as given “a passel o’ extra sharps and flats and exercises.” But “narry time did that guanner bag git up off that floor”; and the .Judge's opinion of writing men in general and scientists in particular was sadly lowersd by the failure of his experiment.—Westminster Gazette. t 1 } Answers to Queries. GOAT ISLAND—H. €. City. The lected to reign over England in Queen | area of Goat Island in San Francisco Bay is 140.9 acres. MANICURING—Subscriber, Salinas, Cal. Any bookseller can procure for you books on manicuring and treat- ment of the hair, shampooing and the like. BANANA—D. E, Antioch, Cal. The banana is not extensively grown in California, although ft does remark- ably well under favorable conditions. The plant is of easy culture. A NAME—F. V., City. If a number of young men have formed a soecial club and desire to select a name for the organization, they ought to submit names and then take a vote. THE PALACE—A. O. 8, City. The original court of the Palace Hotel was lighted for the first time Oetober 2, 1875. That was the date of the opening of the hotel. Warren Leland was the first manager. PALE—P. B. P, City. The word “pale” in the following sentence: “That the other powers find capital for the establishment of the redundant Jewish population now multiplying in the pale,” means within the circumscribed Timit. SANTA CLAUS—B, City. Santa Claus is derived from the Dutch, Santa Klaus, the name of S'. Nicholas, the patron, saint of the boys. In Tnglish- speaking countries the name has been changed from Klaus to Claus. CRUELTY—H. 8, City. If a man in the employ of a firm that owns horses drives such horses when lame and un- fit to work the driver is liable to pros- ecution for cruelty to animals. The owners are also liable for, permitting the animals to be worked. — CALIFORNIA DUELS—A. M. R, City. The last duel fought _a California under the rules of the code “-ello took place near Kershaw’'s Landing in Ma- rin County, September 14, 1870, hetween a man nemed Gardner ana named Smedberg. The cause that re- sulted in the meeting was a soeclety affair which was followed by 1 cow- hiding in the old Cosmopolitan Hotel. Both parties were slightly wounded. The last fatal duel in the State tock ficulty that grew out of words spoken during a debate in the meetiag was near Me! Marin County. 9 Charles W. Piercy of San Bernardino, fell dead at the second fire with rifles. — present both a braver and better ap- Tv-yu:t-;:um.rhmw pearance to the public than had been hed “'-.."" artistic fire- the case with the theaters previously | friends. 715 Market st shons ory omiern erected, writes A. C. David in the Arch- i 2T O e, itectural Record for January. The hi Special inf s daily to