The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 5, 1904, Page 8

e 1" oice Control. ing.) ne of the study of the voice considered is the instrument the same se in its develop- | 11d apply to the me- | sical use chanical building of any other instru- | ment It is difficult to differentiate the purely physical from the psychical | in voice production, and yet the intel- | singer must be able to accom- | alist depends upon two great | principles, namely, sensation | And in the development oice it must become his re- | t{ do nothing that violates the | of be iful tone or the feeling! the use of that organ. | g. the voice may be | compartments—a trio Breath, the control of the and the use of the resonance | The greatest of these three In fact, a majority of the| ice production may be at- directly to poor breath contro? the same practical principles | 1= which we would use in the | g of a satisfactory bellows for | +« wind instrument irst, for a good bellows, we demand the power of taking in a large amount 1 in the shortest possible time; wer to hold that air, without to escape, and third, the| economize as much as pos- giving it out. These three ! e call, first, inspiration; allowing i power t le dr 4 or a tremolo. An excellent practice for the control of breath emission ig to take a full breath, hold it a while and | then blow through the teeth quietly and steadily, preducing a sound Hk@{ the emission of steam. Another prac- tice is to take a breath and count in | whispers quietly and staccato as many numbers as possible. Still another good | ‘ practice is to take the breath and hum {\'rr,\' quietly, watching the steadiness of tone and the sensation of having the | hum upon the lips. Besides this, there are many useful | | | exercises for the singer, sueh as hold- | ing the chest firm and panting quickly, }dlaphranm do the work. There is also /| | a most important practice for the sing- t | taking care that the muscles of the | i jer in getting control | behooves, therefore, every conscientious | tion of vocal registers and the exten- | sion of range depend upon a steady And reposefully. of the muscles of the diaphragm. First take in a breath and give it out in short puffs. At each puff let him put his hand just | below the chest and press outward with | shall F thuse muscles. This has been called a | “lung sweeper,” and has a great influ- | ence in producing a proper vocal at- tack. . The physical side of breathing is the great limitation to the singer’s art. It singer to study how best to gain con- | trol of breath and to develop its pos- sibilities to the highest perfection. It | is the fcundation of all good vocal pro- l duction, and may either make or mar | frequertly his artistic interpretation. Just as one might build a magnificent | organ \vnl an inferior bellows, so the | most splendid vocal mechanism is valueless and may in time be destroyed by the failure to breathe properly. Besides quality of tone the equaliza- | | | breath supply. Above the purely me- | chanical side of voice production, it is | essential for the proper delivery of | musical phrases to have at one’s com- | mand enough breath to successfully accomplish the composer’'s intention. | One is frequently impressed with the | fact that singers, above all classes of musicians, cut up and mar the beauty | of musical phrases in their failure to | secure a proper breath supply. | . . . Another point in the art of breath- ing properly is to breathe noiselessly Nothing is more dis- | turbing for the'public than to feel the | effort of the vocalist to secure a breath supply. Such exhibitions show im-| proper training on the part of the! singer and will Jn time impair the voice. A great blessing to the singer, | preacher or man in public life is the | fact that a full, deep breath does much —ITHE SAN FRA JOHN D. NCISCO CALL All Communications t JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager SPRECKELS, Propeidtor - - » - - - + »-s s Address Publicationp OBcS: ... Skl sth. i iR o ..Third and Market Streets, S. F. THE CONSCIENCE. HE political situation, at its Democratic end, has T changed materially in the last few days. Mr. Bryan’s declarations in his Lincoln speech and since have made it evident that he will control, and that the iast two platforms of the party will be afirmed. He graciousiy concedes the right of the coming convention to make additions, but they must be merely lean-tos, } built against the weatherworn wrecks of 1896 and 1900. This command of Bryan has been hailed by a roar of rage from the reorganizers, in which the practiced ear hears the admission that Bryan has the power to carry cut his plans, and effect his purposes. He knocked Judge Parker out at one blow, and now with confidence lays down the future law that no mapn shall be nominated who did not support the ticket in both of the last campaigns, That disposes of Olney, Judge Gray, Cleveland, Governor Francis, Gorman, Mar- ield, and every one that has been mentioned ex- cept General Miles, William Randolph Mearst and Bryan himself. The Iroquois of Chicago—not the theater that was burned, but the Democratic club that is still burning—has dropped Field and taken up General Miles. He has cer- tain elements of eligibility. In 1804, while he was gen- eral of the army, he rebuked President Cleveland for calling out the troops in the railroad strike. But this makes him a direct rival of Hearst for union labor sup- port, and Hearst's backers in the South®are already in the field, reminding the ex-Confederates that Miles put Jefferson Davis in irons in Fortress Moaroe, where he was a prisoner. That affair, with its painful incidents of the aged prisoner’s forlorn fight with his jailers to re- st the indignity, disposes of Miles, and only Hearst and Bryan are left in the eligible list. The only remaining question is, What will they do with and to each other? Will Mr. Bryan vaccinate Hearst with his brand of conscience and moral sense, which he is now advertising as a national antitoxin, warranted to cure all the evils which are flecking the skin of the body politic, and present him as the incarnated con- science and moral sense of the United States. warranted to wash, not to crock, rip or fray and to stand in all weathers, as an example, domestic and public, of what the nation ought to be? There is no doubt that Mr. Bryan is expected to do this, and the party has its eye fixed on the mount of transfiguration, expecting to soon see the white robes of Mr. Hearst fluttering on its summit, to be introduced | by Bryan as the national conscience. Those who know Mr. Hearst well are ready to affirm, from information gained in his own newspapers, that he is nlreédy sub- limated and fit, even without receiving the chrism at the hands of Bryan. But these admit that a little painting of the lily will not hurt it, and that the fine gold of Mr. the battle for civilization against an armed and aggres- sive China' is curious, but not devoid of reason. Should Russia rule China the military control needed to arm, drill and set her millions marching would be furnished from St. Petersburg. Perhaps, too, in the not distant future the successor of Caesar and Napoleon might arise to use that immense power for the conquest of the world. It is at any rate an issue quite within the range of probability, should the Russian establish himself firmly in Manchuria, and for that reason this specula- tion of Wolseley is not without its valye and pertinence to the news of the day. Observers of the complicated affairs of Russia and Japan, shedding a little of their radiant wisdom upon the situation, gravely announce the expectation that events will soon move rapidly in the Orient. Most of us have been laboring under the impression that events have already moved so rapidly that it has been only by the exercise of the most critical diplomacy by one or both of the contestants that the crash of war has been postponed. IN OUR NAME. HILE the political opposition to protection is W crying out against our “robber tariff,” and ask- ing the country to give it a chance to “revise” protection out of our national policy, other countries are looking upon our condition with envy and demanding for themselves the advantages which good policy has given to us. Notably is this the case with our nearest neighbor, Canada, like unto us in institutions and in the genius of her people. Her resources of soil, stream and forest are like ours. Over most of her area nature duplicates the climate of many of our prosperous States, and she pre- sents the same field upon which to exhibit the resuits of industrial encouragement. Under these circumstances the Canadians desire to develop their country, as we have ours, and they turn to our example and look upon our methods, and flatter our industrial policy by de- manding that the Dominion adopt it. he leading Canadian press keeps standing on the editorial pages, well head-lined, an address “To the Government of Canada,” asking that it “Give the manu- facturers, workingmen and farmers of Canada the same kind of tariff as that which has made the United States the home of the most prosperous manufacturers, work- ingmen and farmers in the world.” It continues: “To the manufacturers of Canada— Force the Government to give you as good a tariff as that which has made the American manufacturers rich, and then pay your Canadian workmen American wages.” “To the workingmen of Canada—Take a leaf out of the book of American workingmen. Help your employers .| brought from across the seas incor The Persian Cat. To the truth of this story there stands | ready tc attest ome Robert Wells of | 2546 Hyde street. It is only upon strong | urging that he has consented to allow | the following remarkable circumstance | to appear upon the authority of his | sworn word. 1 Near the western crest of Russian Hill there stands an ancient mansion. | relic of the early sixties. Until the last | few months it was occupied by a cer- | tain Mr. Blank, a wealthy Australian } whe had come to San Francisco with his young wife five years ago, and with her, Robert Wells, his servant and a | Chinese cook he had lived in this old mansion on Russian Hill in great se-| clusion. According to the statement of Wells, the Australian seemed to be | passionately fond of his wife, a beau- tiful young woman who spoke a for- eign tongue. From her appearance, the strange ornaments of gold and jade | which she wore and the peculiar stamp which was borne by the letters she re- ceived, Wells concelved her to be an Indian woman of high caste. | One of the members of this peculiar | household, and the one which came to play a weirdly terrible part in its his- tory, was a great Persian cat, the in- separable companion of the woman. So | | fond of it was she that she was rarely | without it either sleeping or awake. | A full length oil painting of the mis tress of the household which had been | porated the great Persian cat in it rich canvas. On the 3d of last November—Wells remembers the date well—a remark- able thing happened in that old man. sion on the hill. It was foggy and the bell upon Alcatraz—that weird gong- like bell—was tolling off the spaces of | the night. It was about 11 o'clock. The lady had retired with her precious Persian and Wells had just entered the library to carry to his master, sit- ting there, his bedtime toddy, when there came from the dark hall upstairs the queer, clicking cough of a cat. It was repeated again and again in an| incessant” monotone, and then sudden- | ly there came a scream, fearful, rasp | ing like the grate of a broken bone. Wells and his master leaped up the | darkened stairs and into the dimly | lighted bedroom. There, half seated, half reclining upon a divan, was the mistress, clad in her night clothes. Her head, with its great pile of raven black hair, was bent back upon her shoul- | der. Upon the whiteness of her bosom, | just over the heart, there were the | tiny marks of three tgeth, each with its trembling jet of blood. The woman ¥ | And what care 1 for L P pected to cost about $145,000,000. Ves- sels will navigate this channel at a rate, including lockage, of four ‘miles per hour. All sailing craft will be towel not only through the canal, but upon the Pacific side for a long dis- tance out to sea. The aggregated probable tonnage is placed at about 10,000,000 tons. Of this business 20 per cent will consist of coal. To what extent the canal will prove profitable above the cost of acministra- tion, cannot now be stated. The Suez Canal, under British control, repays hs' ost every flve years.—Booklovers’ Magazine. My Dearie. My dearie is a little one, with arme around me twining— With eyes like woodland violets, and ightly shining: e | os poldse dtove: 18 Fortune has not found me, Am I not rich with such a rare, ‘swul necklace clasped-around me —Atlanta Constitution. Taft's Plain Duty. A. Maurice Low. writing in the Jane uary 30 issue of Harper's Weekly, re- calls some interesting reminiscences of William H. Taft, the new Secretary of War. Mr. Low tells of the way in which Judge Taft came to be Governor | of the Philippines, as being a typical instance of his lofty conception of duty: “Judge Taft was asked to come to Washington. In Washington a con- vers.tion somewhat like this took place hetween Secretary Root and Judge Taft: ‘You are at present on the Cir- cuit bench, where you have a life posi- tion at a fair salary, a dignified and honorable place, with a pension fer life after you reach the retiring age. You can count with a reasonable de- B S toward establiSshing a mental poise and w. ead. | gree of hope on being appointed to the expiration. P | was dea 1 act of breathing itten and discussed. eathing means natural and is as much a means of the cardinal principle of A prominent phy- ¥ id to me that if he ty my musical ears so much U send me at least 150 patients whose physical condition reqZired prop- er breathing more than medicine. . Now, as to the faults commonly en- countered in the use of breath. First of all, we are fan®iiar with those singers | who when taking a breath elevate their shoulders and chest with great physical cffort and who as a result are always short of breath. This use of the upper | chest and - the , shoulders, commonly | giving them a sense of repose before | the public. The healthful effects of g00d breathing recommend themselves | to us when we look over the list of ! great singers. The artists of the opera who visit us yearly are almost as |'splendid physical specimens as one | | Woulc care to see. The student of voice will find out- door exercise most valuable, especially | |long walks, and he should cultivate ! hejding his chest high, breathing slow- ly-through his nostrils and occasional- Iy walking a few paces in one breath. |He will find himself invigorated all day by a short walk of this kind.| Games and outdoor exercises are all valuable, provided they are not over- done, and provided further they do not cause him to use his voice in calls | Hearst’s character may be gilded and still not be mis- taken for brass. The party should be thankful. Its course is marked out for it, and it needs only to walk humbly therein. Wherever there is any disposition to side-step Mr. Hearst will start a newspaper, as an organ of the gospel according to Bryan, and the platforms of 1806 and 1900 will need only the addition of Hearst himself to make them political structures superior to Magna Charta and the Declaration of Independence. As far as known this is the single new idea that Mr. Bryan found abroad. It probably came to him while he was hobnobbing with the immoral monarchs of the Old , World. There must have dawned upon him the vision of his country’s need of a man whose detergent character | would serve as sapolio to scour clean the national { morals, and he said to himself, “Hearst is the sand soap to obtain for themselves and for you a Canada-for Canadians tariff.” “To the farmers of Canada—Profit by the experience of the American farmers, the wealthiest farmers in the world, who support a high tariff and prosper under it and because of it.” That is very direct. The classes in Canada to whom it appeals are as intelligent as are the people on this side | of the line. They know keenly their domestic condi- tions, as keenly observe ours. They have the same ma- terial resources, a form of government that is as liberal as ours, industry and genius equal to ours, and yet we ex- ceed them in the volume and general distribution of prosperity and our rate of progress. They have studied us and know why this is. Crazed into the frenzy of a wild man, | the master seized a pair of iron tongs from the grate and began to search | the room for the Persian, muttering meanwhile some words which Wells tock to be Indian. The cat had dieap- | peared absolutely. As the master approached that dark- | | ened portion of the room where hung | | the oil portrait of his dead wife, he | | suddenly stumbled back with a shriek | of fear and waved frantically to Wells. [ The servant approached and the sight | | which he saw is what he is willing to | swear to. | The eves of that Persian in the oil | wood, Ind. free trade doctrinaires who want to revise the vital prin- | of green and smoked as if with phos- | ciple ont of our tariff system. They have the means for | PPOTUS- comparison of results. They see themselves lag behind | | bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, the ambition of every lawyer. We want you to go to the Philippines. The work is difficult, la- borious, perplexing; there is little that can be offered you in the way of re- | ward, there is much that will be un- pleasant—which will you take, the easy place or the hard ome? ™ As all the world knows. he took the hard one. Answers to Queries. CALIFORNIA AS IT IS—G. T., Glen~ No edition of “California As It Is” has ‘been published by The They pay no attention to the | portrait were lit up by a lambent flame | Call since 1888. RIFLE-T. F. H, City. The official arm of the Russian and Japanese army and cries. | Metcalf Hoaxed. known as “clavicular breathing,” is | is not the same. The former has adopt- detrimental to the voice and is | ed the Mauser and the latter the Mou- . - - | which in my hands will scrub my country clean.” in manufactures, in wages, in rural development, while Indoor exercises are most valuable, | productive of serious faults otherwise. Then comes the “breathy” tone, where the air seems to escape over the vocal chords. And, third, the worst of all the | vocal faults, the deadly tremolo. causes for these defects are many, but the most usual cause is an overloading of the lungs with breath in the act of inspiration. In the case of the tremclo besides being the result of bad breath control and a weak diaphragm it may sometimes be produced by relaxed muscles in the throat itself. e But now, as to correct breathing. Na- ture has constructed the upper chest ot of firm bones and cartilages, which are more or less unyielding. Below the chest proper the ribs branch out, the breast bone stops and the abdomen, composed of muscies which are capabile of tension a@d relaxation, begirs. Be- #ides this the jower lobes cf the lungs are more spongelike and capable of ex- pansion and contraction. It is the sing - er's first aim to acquire control of thes: muscles in deep breathing. This is not difficult to do, and the rewards, both vocally and physically, are very great. In singing tfie singer should elevate his chest and strive to keep it elevated ulways. A good practice is to put both hands behind the head and take in slowly a full breath without overload- ing the lungs. In contrast to this an- other useful practice is to gasp a breath and hold it awhile. Again, to take a long, slow breath through the nostrils, hold it awhile and expel the air sud- denly. In the act of inspiration the greatest care should be taken not to overioad the lungs and not to raise the shoulders. The body while taking the air should be relaxed, and especial care should be taken that the muscles around the neck and chest are not con- tracted. Another much neglected point i breath control is holding the breath. By practicing how to maintain the lungs full of air their elasticity and | strength are much helped. It is useful for a singer to practice holding his breath continually. But the great art of the singer lies principally in know- ing how to give out breath properly. Taking it for granted that he has taken in the air properly and filled the lower lobes of his lungs, then comes the proper emission of breath. The mus- cles of the diaphragm and the ribs #hould be so controlled as to quietly and steadily supply a stream of breath to the vocal chords. Having reached the vocal chords, breath turns into tone and must be properly guided to the va- rious resonance cavities, such as the 100f of the mouth and the nasal cav- ity. besides many other auxiliary cham- bers. By overcharging the lungs it wiil be casily seen how one loses control of the muscles and blows cut too much air for the vocal chords. This will pro- duce frequently singing off the key, 1 The | especially in cold and disagreeable weather. The best attitude for the body i breathing is to lie flat on one's | back with the hands under one's head: | The chest, through this means, is ele- | vated and the muscles of the abdomen | are brought into play. Another pose for the body during breathing is to | put a stick on the shoulder and hold | it with both hands, thus throwing the chest out. Still another good practice is to stand with the back and the hend against the wall and go through the | exercises above mentioned. Besides the actual act of breathing, there are some good exercises for strengthening the muscles of _the diaphragm. In general, there is very little danger of breathing too much, and the student of voice will find in case of cold or hoarseness that he will still occupy | himself with his breathing exercises, which in many cases will be of benefit to the cold itself. In singing his songs the student should cultivate the art of reposefully giving out his phrases and should try to make his hearers feei the same sense of an un- limited breath supply. Precedence in. England. I knew a young American girl who, going to England under the care of an Embassador’s family and attending her first large dinner party and looking about her, selected as the guest in the room who most interested her one man of distinguished aspect, whom she re- solved to/watch. When the guests were ushered into the dining hall ac- cording to the laws of precederice, she found herself at the very end of the brilliant procession as one of two un- titled plebelans in the room, assigned to the escort of the very man who had interested her and who turned out to be Samuel Rogers, the poet and patron of art and the gecognized head of Mt- erary society in England. She always said that she secured two things at that entertainment, namely, the most delightful companion that she had ever had at a dinner party and, moreover, a lesson in the outcome of mere hered- itary rank that would last a lifetime. Rogers’ poems are not now read so much as formerly, but at that time the highest literary honor a man could have was to dine with Rogers. He was also one of the richest bankers in Lon- don and was very possibly the only per- =on in the room who had won for him- self a reputation outside of his own little island; but he was next to no- body in that company and the little American girl was the nobody.—Thom- as W. Higginson in Atlantic Monthly. Ernie—No, she isn’t going to marry Claude, after all.~ g lda—But they say he can quote Emer- son and Browning. “Yes; but the other young man can quote Sugar and Steel.”—Chicago Daily News, E: So we have this combination that is going to clean up | the Temple of Liberty and make it an abiding place for virtue. —— General Wood. in explanation of an apparent indif- ference, says there are some islands in the Borneo group that we do not want. Let his opinion thrive to a con- viction. It is a safe wager that we can find a few more islands in the South Seas that we don’t want, although they now owe nominal sovereignty to the United States. And it won't require the services of an exploration party to discover the fact. ——— WOLSELEY ON CHINA. ORD WOLSELEY has ceased to be a notable fig- L ure in the world, and China is not supposed to count “for much more than the spoil of battle in the approaching conflict between Russia and Japan; nevertheless the former eminence of Wolseley and the undoubted possibilities latent in the Chinese race and empire are sufficient to give interest to ‘the opinions of the one concerning the probable military development of the other. The British general passed some time in the Far East studying the races there, and came away with a high degree of admiration for the Chinese and a great respect for the part they may yet be called upon to play in the politics of the world in the immediate future. The London Mail has recently published some ex- tracts from the writings of Lord Wolseley on the sub- ject of China, and prefaced them with a note from him, saying: “I feel quite confident—knowing from my own experi- ence what a brave and clever fellow the Chinaman is— that were 1 acorded the necessary, power and given an absolutely free hand in the Chinese Government, I could, in the space of two or three years, provide the Chinese Empire with an army that would be second to none in the world.” This declaration recalls to mind that in his autobi- ography Lord Wolseley, in commenting upon the possi- bilities of the Chinese, says: “There is no nation numerically as great as China whose customs and modes of life are so generally com- mon to ail parts of their vast empire. To me they are the most remarkable race on earth, and I have always thought and still believe them to be the great coming rulers of the world. They only want a Chinese Peter the Great or Napoleon to make them so. They have every quality required for the good soldier and the sailor, and in my idle spetulation upon this world’s fu- ture 1 have long selected them as the combatants on one side at the great battle of Armageddon, the people of the United States of America being their opponents.” That estimate may be nothing more than the specula- tion of an old soldier dreaming on wars to come, but it | is of at least a passing interest at this time when the na- tions appear to have reached the conclusion that China is an exhausted empire, fit only to be the prey of such ‘strong nations as choose to seigcum any part of it. In the old days, when a lot of law: yers, newspaper men and other good fellows used to assemble daily for lunch- | eon around a huge table in'the back we go forward irresistibly. Therefore this concerted | address demanding that our destiny be duplicated in| theirs, by duplicating the means. All over the Do- zin. NAVAL MILITIA—A. 8, City. Ac- | cording to the latest reports filed in minion ‘the cry is, “The present affords the opportunity | of a nation’s lifetime.” Suppose that some of our free trade doctrinaires go over and tell them how wrong they are, and see what | sort of hearing will be granted! The Canadians are right in believing that, given like conditions, like causes pro- duce like effects. They have the like conditions and de- sire that like causes shall touch them into the vigor of life that they see on‘this side the line. Their movement is a loud call to the people of the United States, and a reminder of the final cause of what they have accom- plished. In testimony recently submitted in a local case an effort was made to prove that a man was weak-minded because he clung to a belief that he had a chance of some day marrying a young and beautiful heiress. This is one of those affairs where the hopes, if not the rights, of an individual become the concern of the community. In this ambitious age of ours many men must be weak- minded. PR e e i Russia, it is said, has been playing fast and loose with the opinions of the world and having taken her own good time is now prepared and ready to fight. There seems to be much of the fox in the constitution of this strange bear of the East. Among all the monarchs, of the Old World the Czar of Russia more than any other seems to pin his hopes and perhaps his honor to the mOrrow. The final word appears to have been spoken in refer- ence to the Alaskan boundary dispute, over which our Canadian friends displayed such unseemly petulance. Lord Lansdowne says that the islands we gained in Portland Canal are strategically worthless. He therefore is pleased, we will give every assurance that we are, and the Canadians will have to be. ¥ e 3 Gudgeons that waste hard-won money striving for a ‘capital prize in lotteries have still one more great chance against them. A fellow was convicted the other day for cheating a man out of the first prize, most strangely won. The lottery promoters appear to be the most aggrieved for having permitted the winning ticket to be sold. A young rascal, graduate of Whittier, returned to the institation the other day with the avowed, desperate purpose of murdering an attorney formerly principal of the school. This incorrigible should be hastened to the last stage of his education in crime by being imprisoned in one of our penitentiaries. — A Keswick thief stole a watch worth two dollars and fifty cents the other day, was caught, pleaded guilty and received a sentence of four years’ imprisonment. He 15 now in"a position certainly to regret that curiosity yard at Barnum’s restaurant, Oakla: there was a constant effort to “stick™ | some member of the party for liquid | i refreshments. It was the law of the table that he who “bit” at a “sell” must buy. Hon. Victor.H. Metcalf, on reaching the table a little late one day, | found a number of his companions | humming the air, but not the words, of a popular tune. This occurred be-| fore Mr. Metcalf had been chosen to| represent the Third District in Con- gress and he did not regard it beneath his dignity to raise his voice (a very good one, by the way) in merry song, so yielding to the natural impulse to join the wordless chorus he ecaroled forth in his manly barytone, “O, give us a drink, bartender!” and then the crowd howled to the expectant waiter: | ““George, Mr. Metcalf wants you to/ take the orders!™ | | Our Panama Bargain. ‘What has Uncle Sam actually bought | or contracted to buy at Panama? Let | u: take account of the stock. Them: are the items* i Thirty thousand acrcs of ground at terminals and along the route. Two thousand four hundred and thir- ty-one buildings, including offices, quarters, storehouses, shops, hospitals | and terminal sheds. An immense collection of dredges, tugs, barges, excavators, cars, loco- motives and other machinery and ap- pliances, not considered of much pres- ent value. Work done by the old and the new French companies, with an estimated removal of about 36,000,000 cuble yards . of material at a cost of ‘a little more | than $88,600,000. Maps and drawings, and the records gathered by the French engineers, val- ued at $2,000,000. The Panama Railway, three steamships. For these several items the second; or new, French company is to receive $40,000,000. Twenty-four milllons of this amount, less obligations, will be turned over to the old company, which had spent at the time of its col- lapse nearly $250,000,000, largely in pro- motion. The Republic of Panama is to re- ceive immediately $10,000,000, and an- nually after nine years the sum of $250,000. The United States receives fror. Panama the grant of a strip of land five miles wide upon each side of canal. We are also to become sponsors for the continuance of good order throughout the new republic. The total excavation yet to be done is estimated at about 95,000,000 cubic including 1 the United States Navy Department, the aggregate strength of the United States Naval Militia is 435 officers and 4679 petty officers and men. TREATIES—D. H., City. all diplomatic As a rule business relative to treaties between nations is carried on in the French language. To ascertain in what language the treaty negotia- tions of peace between the United States and Spain was carried on wrile to the Department of State at Wash- ington, D. C. OBERAMMERGAU—A Subscriber, City. The late Josef Mayer, whese death was recently announced, was the original of the character of Christ in the passion play at Oberammergau, and he appeared in that character at a number of per- formances. It may be that on the pre- sentation of the passion play In 1900 Mayer was unable to appear and that his place was taken by Anton Lang. This department has no information to the effect that there were two im- personators of Christ during the year named. BEATING THE RACES-D. J. M, City. There are some men who have a system by which they claim they can beat the races, but it is a remarkable fact that these men, who ought to be able to make all the money they want, are all poor. The system by which the races can be beaten has not yet been discovered. VICTORY AND DEFEAT-R. E. ., Sebastopol, Cal. Robert Fitzsimmons, when he was an amateur, defeated four men in his first appearance in the ring in New Zealand in 1830, winning the amateur championship of that country. The following year he defeated five men, including Herbert Slade. Since then he has defeated Jem Crawford, Bill Slavin, “Starlight,” Arthur Cop- per, Jack Murphy, “Brinksmead,” Ja: Greentree, Dick Sandall, Jack Conway, Wr West, Pablo Frank, I. Ridell, « r” Dick Ellis, Billy MecGrath. Arthur Upham, 'k Pearl, Jack Dempsey, Abe Congle. Peter Maher (first time), James Farrell, Joe Godfrey, Jerry Slattery, Millard ', Jack Hickey, Jim Hall, Phil Mayo, J. War- ner, Frank Keller, Dan Creedon, Al Allish, Peter Maher (second time). James J. Corbett, Jeff Thorne, Jim Daly, Gus Ruhlin, Tom Sharkey, Con Coughlin and George Gardener. He loat matches with Jim Hall, on a foul with Sharkey, Jim Jeffries in 1897 and 1902 HBad a draw with Choynski, ne decision