The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 7, 1904, Page 32

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1904 African Ceremonies. IAM STAMPS CHERRY. I rer and Big Game ‘.S‘ph B. Bowles) scribe the customs of the na- nd , and if any of 3 a 3 ) 5 2 ] ® | g 3 er travelers it will be | ions of the are rather vague, 1 that there is very mingonga, or medi- ¥ the priest of the t at first that he was d, d so he some- is also an institution portant part in se- ance. of the laws and tribe. There is more madness than at first and many of his absurd may be founded on not know. One| ine man is certain | hi in his ars hat we dc ow to keep a well-stocked est of the fish and game | appease the angry spirits, ws where they go. a sing instance in which of the medicine nfan Was} r . One evening 1| for supper. s the son Ofl be, and there- | He saw that there | r them all, so he | were far from Zoppa might by them and showed him the a goat supper. N'Yamma is 2 great beast, the dirty work for N'Zop- killing men, tipping their ng mortal man’s life mis- n. In the water he is called and swims like a crocodile. land men call him the N'Fa- herever he may be the na- feed him. The supper was mnity. Dulee and ther, ssy, were selected to the N'Yamma. I watched At about 10 o'clock that eard a peculiar noise in the alied Dulee to me. He was t and spoke in a whisper. what that noise meant, and was the N'Yamma of ng the goat. All the time noise was going on in the lark bu It sounded like some one 1 »ugh his nose. I went out to nd looked them over; they ng and excited, but Wassy Upon ng where he wa: 4 that he was at the chief’s ¢ his tr great revolver and’' went into the N"Yamma, remark- g of furnishing suppers for him ant to kill him. Before ps Dulee had caught me ding me back. What was | The N'Yamma would £ prayed me not to What an actor Dulee would make! But T must kill the N'Yamma. I could the part of an actor too. In my nt I cocked my re- Dulee forward Fearing I would that the N'Yamma | e confessed. Wassy id not afier water. I said ore, but went to my bed. rning I asked Dulee if the liked his dinner. Yes, it was They had taken it to Rim in wwered pot, the cover tied on with mal that might be lir "Yamma had eaten meat without taking off the lid. hen I accused Dulee of eating it. For long time he stuck to his story, but last owned up and explained how Wassy made the noise by putting two fin, in his nostrils and then talking. Dulee begged me not to tell the other men, as it was a professional secret which they had learned from their father, and the men would be angry it they knew how they had been tricked. Funeral customs vary somewhat in different parts of Africa, but most of the variations can be traced to the operation of foreign influenkes. Near Brassaville, where cannibalism has been long a thing of the past, thoy embalm their dead by wrapping them in mative cloth, using abundance of cam wood to paint the body red, and placing it between each layer of cloth, after which the body is left to smoke over a slow fire until the first rain. During the dry season it may smoke Yor monthe. After this process it looks jilte an Egyptian mummy. I believe the natives got this custom from the Egyp- tiansy or perhaps the Egyptians got .t from them. They put the body in a sarcophagus-looking box, cut from the trunk of a tree, but the white ants lcave nothing of 2 mummy or box in a few months after interment. The death of a chief—provided he is a great chief -~ig always kept secret as long as pos- sible, or until after the crown prince a | were painted red with cam wood, just | sister of the woman holding her hand { the nude body of the chief, painted | worked diligently to discover one of | chief makes his men mark his chil- - him. These wives had volunteered to die, and according to custom they as they were when married. Each sat in turn on the burial logs, when a half-inch rope was wound once around her neck and a strong man pulled at each end of this rope and slowly strangled her, the mother or over her mouth. It is not a hard death, they say, as the victim almost invariably faints a few seconds after respiration is cut off. The wives were buried in tiers of six, each tier cross- ways of the one preceding, and lastly red like the women, was placed face downward across the last tier.. The tombs are carefully concealed and no one except the closest relatives knows their whereabouts. I - have these sepulchers, but to no purpose. The N'Sacklaws bury their dead by digging a perpendicular hole, from the bottom of which they run a tun- nel horizontally from twenty to fifty yards. In this tunnel the bodies are laid, and as it may run in any direc- tion, a grave robber would have dif- ficulty in finding it. The Yaccomas put earthen pots to eat out of in the graves, also bows, arrows, spears and | other personal belongings. But the common man has very little planted in his grave. He goes through the world with very little, and he has very little to take out of it. When the burial of a chief is" comfortably over the successor marries as many of the remaining wives as he sees fit. The ceremony takes place on the family log, where he sits with each woman in turn while they paint one another red with cam wood. I tried to find out whether there was any underlying principle in the prac- tice of tattooing or any general types to which the practice conformed, but I could find traces of neither. Each dren in a particular way, and when a chief dies the mark {s sometimes changed. There ‘seems to be in the custom a suggestion of the mark of ownership. There is also the idea of ornamentation, and the styles of tat- tooing change as gdo the fashions in civilized countries.® It is an evidence of bravery, they think, to see deep cuts and large self-imposed scars. Some tribes tattoo to a great extent; others | scarcely any. Slaves are detected by | a hole in each nostril; freemen have other tattoo markings, according to tribal customs. The African uses no | ink; the marking is made by scars| cut time an@ again in the same place, until the scar becomes embossed in extreme cases @ quarter of an inch. | Many of the designs look well on the | African skin. Almost all African tribes pull out the eyebrows; some take out all the hair on the face. But the greatest slaves to style are the tribes who distort the lobes of the ears until they look like | the handles on a water pitcher. Others | istort the nose and lips with conical | wedges to such an extent as to im- | pede enunciation, thus changing the en- tire language. Sometimes a tribe will file and cut the front teeth to sharp points, giving a most savage appear- | ance. Another will pull out the two upper front teeth in infancy. Ordeal by fire by holding red-hot iron | in the hands is said to be practiced in | the Congo. I have never met with it, but ordeal by poison is common all over the Congo. The poison used is the same throughout the whole of Western Africa. It is made from the root of | the nkasa tree, which is found only in spots, one of the places where it is abundant being an island above Koan- go. The bark of the root is scraped off with a knife and placed in water. After standing a short time the water turns red from the color of the bark. There is a yellow bark as well, and some tribes prefer the one and some the other. The liquid is then given to the accused party. The poison is given in different ways among different tribes. In some tribes when any one is accused of witchcraft, adultery or theft, in order to find out whether or not he is gullty, the poison is first of all given to a chicken. If the chicken dies the accused must sub- mit to the poison test; if the chicken lives he is-acquitted. Once when near the village of By-Barri I was told that the chief of the Yaccomas was about to | administer the poison, in order to find out which of the two women who had been pected of witchcraft was re- sponsible for his swollen foot. I ran to the village as fast as my legs could | carry me, but before I got there the | poison had been given. I found a large crowd of people gathered together. They were in the form of a circle, their attention centered upon two women, who were jumping about in wild ex- citement. In about ten minutes one of them began to vomit, and soon re- covered. The other was thrown into convulsions, and lay prone upon the ground until death ended her agony. The medicine man was going through a lot of mumbo jumbo, and through it all I could hear him asserting that the poison never failed to find out the guilty. The woman who vomited wup the poison was received back by her friends with great rejoicing. The relatives of the dead woman were the loudest in heaping maledictions on her name. It was evident that all the people had the most implicit faith in the accuracy of the test. But justice surely miscarries in those cases where the medicine man has been bribed to give a mild dose, or where too large a dose has been given. In slight offenses, such as theft, if the party who had been wronged was willing, an antidote may be given. The Pope and His C:zp. Another story of the new Pope’s sim- ple habits and ways is told by a Rome paper. An aristocratic lady was re- has been fairly instalted; this usuaily tzkes place the same éay. When a big chief is buried accord- ing to ancient rites his favorite wives, claves and even his edvisers are placed in the grave with him. I arrived at Bosagee rapids a few days after Ban- ga, chief of the Dendys, had been luried with great pomp and cere- mony. Fourteen of his favorite wives and twenty slaves were buried with ceived in audience recently by his Holi- ness. Encouraged by his affability, his visitor offered him as a small present a little calotte or cap which she had made in &ilk with her own hands. On his acceptance of her gift the lady asked if Pius X would not give her as a memento of her visit the one he was then wearing. Taking off a very plain, coarse cap from his head his Holiness said: “When you bring me one jus like this we will make the exchange,” | equilibrium. T JITHE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor « <« « « » o o . . Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager Publication Office SUNDAY.....coeucaiooncccocssosocsonsssosascssrsasenssasscssssssassasssssssasssssesssd... . FEBRUARY 7, 1904 .Third and Market Streets, 8. F. THE BALKAN OUTLOOK. OR some time past comparatively little public at- F tention has been given to the progress of affairs in the Balkans. It seems to have been forgotten that at this time last year the portents of war were far more threatening there than in Manchuria. Diplomatists were kept busy night and day trying to maintain peace through the concert of Europe, while in Austria and in Turkey troops were mobilized and held in readiness for immediate action should it be necessary. The crisis, however, was passed without an outbreak, and of late events in Manchuria have been of such a nature as to absorb attention, so that for a time Macedonia and her troubles have been well nigh forgotten. The shifting of interest from southeastern Europe to northeastern Asia has been due wholly to the increas- ing strain upon the relations between Japan and Russia, and not to any diminution in the critical nature of the situation in the Balkans. As a matter of fact the danger of war in that part of the world is fully as threatening now as it was a year ago, when everybody was looking for an uprising in the spring’ The powers that direct the concert of Europe repressed the discontents of the Balkan people last year, but did not remove the causes of them, and as a consequence the eclements of strife exist there as full of potency as ever. It is even proba- ble that a conflict between Russia and Japan might Ieu; to war in the Balkans, by removing from the hostil races the strong hands of the powers that have hitherto kept them in order. A recent report from Constantinople, after reviewing the delay of the Turk in instituting promised reforms, and the increasing dissatisfaction of the Christian pop- ulation of the empire, says: “The reluctance of the Turks to act arises, no doubt, from their dislike to the whole of the project imposed by Europe, but it is largely increased from their hopes of a struggle between Russia and Japan. If this should take place it would indeed be térrible news for the Christian population of the Balkans. Probably all pre- tense of intention to carry out the reforms would be thrown aside. The Turkish newspapers give ample evi- dence of the intense interest which the Turks take in the question between Russia and Japan. Usually the space devoted to foreign news is very small. For weeks past, however, the Turkish papers are so crowded with state- ments on the Japanese question as to leave the impres- sion that French, Russian and English journals are care- fully examined and extracts given from all which can afford any indication of what is likely to happen in the Far East. From that and from similar statements coming from Constantinople or from Vienna, it is evident that a war in Manchuria would dangerously increase the chances of war in the Balkans. In the passage quoted, we are given the Macedonian view of the situation, but other writers, who are studying the crisis on the spot, declare that an outbreak of war in Manchuria would be followed by an immediate uprising in Macedonia, no matter what the Sultan’s .government may do or leave undone. Indeed the whole Balkan peninsula is in a state of unstable The present status is maintained solely by the concert of Europe, and should the concert be broken up or even weakened by a war of first-class magnitude, the chances are that nearly the whole of the Turkish dominions in Europe would be involved in confusion, leading to a war not less portentous than that between Russia and Japan. When the worthy guarcians of the peace and property of the people of Oroville inspected a set of burglar-proof cells, which the town had been at considerable expense to obtain, the startling fact was discovered the other day that the bars could be cut in twain by an ordinary saw. Yet no burglar had escaped. Let us hope that if we must be afflicted by burglars it will' be by the rustic Oroville brand. CHILD LABOR. HE age at which the law will permit a child to do any gainful work is an issue in many States. The evil of toil, especially indoors, by children, affects not the victims alone, but is passed on to future genera- tions. No nation, wise in the things that concern its welfare and permanence, can afford to permit the phy- sical deterioration of its people. But the question has many sides and many difficulties, and a hard and fast rule will do good in some ways and harm in others. It is under discussion inNew Jersey be- tween the Governor and representatives of the Feder- ated Trades, who put the limit at 13 years of age. The Governor sought to amend the law so that the son of a widow, under that limit, needing his help, might be per- mitted to earn and 2id in his and her support. To this it was answered that such a widow and her children should be supported as paupers by the public. This raises an- other question of importance to society. Is it well to start children in the world with the blight of pauperism upon them? If such children can, by labor that is not es- sentially injurious to them, aid in supporting themselves and their mother, saving her the humiliation and them- sclves the injury of pauperism, is it wise and well to for- bid it? Of course there is present the difficulty of choosing an occupation for them that is fitting. But in the myriad activities required by our many industries there should be such places for this class of children. The physical and moral superiority of children reared in the country on farms is often noted. It would be well if the grend of our population to cities were turned back to the country. On a !ll’f‘l there is non-injurious occu- pation for children, from the beginning of their physical activity. In the tending of fowls, light work in the gar- den, attending to the fire wood, doing chores, helping in the kitchen, picking fruit, and scores of other ways, the boys and girls on a farm get a knowledge of nature, learn useful employment of their time and acquire habits of industry which lead them on to independence. The country school is in. many ways superior to the city school, as a means of acquiring the book knowledge which is the foundation of all education. Secretary Hay, in his oration at the m#morial exer- cises in Congress, in honor of the memory of President McKinley, sketched in charming phrase such a life, when he said of McKinler: “He belonged to a generation of boys who were unconscious of any superior and of any inferior. They knew no want their wn labor could not satisfy, and they learned the lessons of patriotism and acquired a taste for letters in the excellent school read- ers of that day, which often constituted the famil;‘v 1li- brary.” X The stubborn tendency of our large foreign immigra- tion to huddle together in cities, with large families, is increasing the complexity of the child problem in those dense populations. This immigration consists too much of a non-rural population. Foreign conditions separate people too much from the soil, and throw them in the major and minor trades and into unskilled labor ‘that is employed in cities. They bring with them no experi- ence in rural life and no taste for its occupations. The sense of isolation from the place of their nativity impels them to herd together, so that they may socially asso- ciate with those who speak their language. If* they were separated they would be compelled to learn English, and that knowledge would put them in touch with our institutions. For lack of it they learn but little of the country or its people and adhere, for genera- tions, to the mariners and customs, the habits and the institutions of the lands whence they came. If their tastes were rural and they would take land as renters even, they would live better and would reccive the in- expressible benefit of assimilation. But they congest in cities, where their presence hardens the problem of life for themselves and those among whom they seek an asylum. Child labor and training is one of the issues that they at once precipitate upon us. A resort to rural life is part of its solution. In an acrimonious debate in the House of Representa- ana and Kentucky respectively were the subjects of heated discussion. As was to be expected the affairs of inal that the Indianans might have talked for a week and still have left their subject with mines of reminiscent CHINESE FINANCE. M R. CONANT, a financial expert, representing of getting an agreement of the nations in re- ceipt of indemnity from China, incident to the Boxer agrees to use what she will save by such an arrange- ment in adopting the gold standard and securing for the nations concerned have all agreed except Italy, and Mr. Conant is in Rome negotiating with that Gov- If this arrangement is made, it will furnish a con- spicuous case of great good coming out of evil. It has try can progress nor its people rise into prosperity and go forward in civilization unless they have a stable has had a most difficult money system, with the tael as a unit, and the taels differing in value according to of exchange. The people bandle only the brass “cash,” of insignificant intrinsic value, while in larger trans- China’s financial system has held her back and kept her people on a low scale of life. She needs a stable cur- all parts of the empire, which will facilitate her domestic and -foreign commerce. she will save by payment of the foreign indemnities in silver. That the indemnified nations consent to this gold campaign of 1896. They seeck commerce in China. They desire to promote there an expansion of the wants standard of life. And they recognize that the beginning of all this is in an efficient financial reform. than all the armies and all the missionaries that could be sent to her. It will give her strength to retain excuse of other Governments for possessing her terri- | tory in order to do this very thing, which she will have tives recently the criminal and political records of Indi- Kentucky are so criminally political and politically erim- information yet to explore. this Government, is abroad engaged in the task war, to take the same in silver, provided that China herself the use of stable money. It is understood that ernment. come to be admitted as a fact in economics that no coun- money on the foundation of a sure standard. China the towns or the provinces where they are the medium actions the Mexican dollar is the currency of commerce. rency, whose units are of equal and common value in It is estimated that she can secure this by using what shows the great advance made by the world since our of the people, which can come only by raising their The proposition accomplished will do more for China autonomy and resist dismemberment. It will end the! the power to do for herself. After what appears to be a great deal of unnecessary delay and an unseemly display of official hesitation we have won for San Francisco out of the Iroquois horror of Chicago one sad benefit. It is now settled in the opinion of our authorities that several of our theaters are veritable death traps in the event of fire or panic. It will be interesting td note how long it takes to sug- gest and make effective a remedy. FEED THE BRUTE. : CLUB lady in Chicago, in a meeting of mztrons! A to discuss the great issues of life, when asked how to manage a husband so as to secure domestic tranquillity, promptly answered, “Feed the brute plenty of good well-cooked food,” and the club ladies all made a note of it, and it is believed the experiment is now on extensive trial in the windy city. This recipe for domestic happiness suggests a menag- erie view of married life, and may furnish a reason for the tendency to board rather than keep house, that is so strong upon many married people. In this view it is complimentary to the sense of justice of the brute. For what dyspepsia he gets at a boarding-house table he does not blame his wife, but the Jandlady. She cares nothing for the growling of the animals at feeding time, pro- vided they don’t die in the house and will be buried from the undertaker’s melancholy parlors. This new plan for peace foreshadows also the perma- nent disarming of the domestic forces, since young ladies about to assume the task of marrying one of the brutes will be impelled to acquire a knowledge of the mysteries of cooking in order to live happy ever after. When this art is generally attained the boarding-house landladies will be overtaken by lack of trade and will be punished for their many transgressions. So a beautiful vista opens in front of the American home and the dove is likely to build her nest in the stomach of that brute, the American husband. A railway train was wrecked in Colorado a few days since by a terrific gale. In these little affairs the elements should not disturb themselves. If there-is anything on earth in which we have displayed extreme proficiency and a success long past the degree of most alarming de- sire it is in wrecking railroad trains. We need no con- tributory violence from nature, —_— The startling discovery has been made that certain ores of Colorado yield radium in quantitics large enough to excite the highest hope of a ‘rez‘t and valu- able field. This should create neither surprise nor en- thusiasm. If there is anything on earth worth having you will be sure to find it somewhere in‘the United States. i s ~ ‘where ‘& young law student, aged 23 Nemesis. | A group of well-dressed, prosperous- appearing men was standing at the cor- ner of Third and Kearny streets a few days ago. The tallest of the group seemed to be In particularly good spir- its, and his companions evidently found him congenial company, for they laugh- ed uproariously several times at his remarks. Just as the group was about to break up a crowd gathered across the street. The gathering was explain- ed by a passer-by, who volunteered the information that a woman had fallen off a car and was badly hurt. “Oh,” sald the tall man in a care- less and even contemptuous manner, “I suppose she was drunk.” Then he turned to his companions, and, with a laugh and a parting, joke, bade them good-by. When he arrived at his office In 2 near-by sky-scraper he noticed that everything seemed to be in confuslon. He demanded to know the cause of the turmoil, but no one seemed anxious to tell him until finally his stenographer, ‘with tears in her eyes, called him into! the inner office and said: “Your mother is badly hurt. She just fell off a car at the corner. You are wanted at the hospital.” Candlemas. | The hedge-rows cast a shallow shade Upon the frozen grass, But skies at evensong are soft, i And comes the Candlemas. Each day a little later now Lingers the westering sun; Far out of sight the miracles Of April are begun. O barren bough! O frozen fleld! Hopeless ye wait no more. Life keeps her dearest promises— The spring is at the door. 'CHUY, in the February Atlantic. Napoleow's Spies. The recently discovered memolirs otl a certaln Captain d'Aubigney of Mar- | shal Soult’s army relates an Interesting | anecdote of the times of the great Na- poleon. During the reign of Emperor Napo- leon I at a dinner in Paris the conver- sation turned upon the Emperor and his Government, according to the" story. One of the company remarked | that he was a great man, but was too fond of war. When the party broke up a gentleman who was present re- quested to speak in private to the per- son who had made that observation. “8ir,” said he, “I am sorry for it, but 1 must request you to go with me to the police.” “Why?"” said the other, in the greatest apparent alarm. “I have said nothing against the Em- peror but what every one must| acknowledge—that he is too fond of war. There can be no harm in that.” “With that I have nothing to do. You must go with me to the police.” The other now began to show the | strongest symptoms of fear; he en- treated the police agent in the most pa- thetic language to have compassion on him. The other, however, stood un- moved by all his solicitation, when sud- denly the man rose from his knees and burst into a laugh, to the utter aston- | ishment of the informer. “You think | you have caught me,” said he. “You | are a spy of the police; so am I, and 1 was put over you to see whether you would do your duty.” Causes of Cynicism. 1 Cynicism is never a native quality | of the mind; it always has its birth in | some unhappy experience. The young | man finds that the girl who has nth.l ered up for him all the harmony and | melody of earth rings hollow at the| test; and he drops his lyrical language | and becomes cynical of women. The citizen of Boston has naturally grown cynical of newspapers. The candidate for public office who has been definitely retired to private life by being “knifed” at the polls distrusts party politics. A man publishes a novel and thenceforth | is cynical of the publishers of novels. | Yet these misfortunes have their salu- tary aspect. The disappointed lover, generalizing bitterly upon the sex, is| not always implacable; a cooler judg- | ment tempers and restores his passion, | gives it another object, and so guides him to a safer, if less gusty and emo- tional, love. The citizen of Boston, the betrayed candidate, the blighted young novelist, all have for their condition, even though they know it not, a valu- able compensation; for the very event that has brought them to this pass of | reasonable cynicism has stirred their | indignation; yes, in spite of their seem- ing inertness, indignation is now smoldering.—Arthur Stanwood Pler, in the February Atlantic. Rarities. The appearance of a real whale any- where along the North Atlantic Coast | is an event these days. Like the buf- falo or bison of the Western plains the | whale is almost extinct. It is no longer | profitable to send out ships, and the result is that whalebome has practically vanished. Many satisfactory substi- tutes for whale oll and whalebone have recently been put on the market. An- other popular denizen of the sea which Is no longer sought is the codfish. The scarcity of cod liver oil, a great tonie for persons with weak lungs, is owing not to the fact that fewer codfish are caught, but that the fish have little or no livers any more. This is thought to be caused by lack of sufficient nour- ishment, as the tiny sea creatures on which the cod feed are disappearing from the Norwegian waters. The livers of the fish, when caught, are found to be shriveled badly and in some cases totally lacking. Where formerly it took only about fifteen thousand cod to make a barrel of cod liver oil it now re- quires at least forty thousand. An “American Duel.” A foreign paper relates that a tragic affair just happened in Hungary, years; named Koloman Misic, shot him- - spoke rudely of the girl, whereupon Misic struck him in the face. Both the young men decided to have recourse to the “American” duel, when a white and blnckb-.llmphcedln;mud drawn for. Mislc was unlucky enough to draw the fatal black ball, which sig- nified his death within a year. A few days before this date fell dus he re- ceived a letter from his adversary warning him of the approaching date. Punctually on the appointed day he | took leave of his friends and relatives and took a journey td a place called Neutra, where his own father had pre- viously committed suicide. Thers he shot himself. Our own American conception of an “American duel” does not agree with this romantic scheme of self-destruo- tion. There’s Nothing New ? The delicats operation of trephining was known to “the Neolithic age.,” when men lived in caves and fought with stons hammers, says the Neow York World. Savage tribes perform the same operation to-day. Eighty per cent of the cases treated in New Britain with a plece of stone or shell as a sur- geon’s knife recover. George Washington’s famous set of false teeth, which fitted so badly that they gave his mouth the square look noted in his later portraits, were almost the only ones in the country in ihs day. The art of making them had been rediscovered for perhaps the hun- dredth time by a French doctor. Yet false teeth have been found in Et- can graves made long before the his- toric period. The newest model of “double sauce- pan,” to prevent food from burning while being cooked, has been dug up In the ruins of Pompeil. An ancient vase in a Roman muleur thade no one knows when, and repre- senting Homer’s heroes resting during the period of the Trojan war, repre- sents one of the young fellows as busy with a “punching bag” hung at the Hmb of a tree. Answers to Queric.. NAPOLEON'S EYES—Enq., City. The histories and lives of Napoleon I do not make any mention of the color of the eyes of the “Little Corporal.” SOLE SURVIVOR—Subsecriber, City. The sole survivor of the commanders of the great armies of the Civil War is Major General O. O. Howard, now 73 years of age. DIVORCE—Subscriber, San Jose, Cal Under the old law in California a per- son obtaining a divoree could not mar- ry within a year in the State . fter the decree of divorce. Under the present law a person cannot obtain a decree of divorce until one year after the court has decided to grant the diverce. After the decree is made of record the di- vorcee is at liberty to marry again BORDER STATES—A. HE. 8, Saa Jose, Cal. “Border States” was a name applied to the slave States of Delawares, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Mis- souri as lying next to free States, and sometimes North Carolina, Tennessee ‘and Arkansas were included in that term. Of the border States only Vir- ginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas seceded. TRI-COLOR—Subserfber, City. Tri- color is a national emblem of three col- ors. The tri-color took its rise at the outbreak of the French revolution as the badge of the National Guard. The red and blue were selected as the arms of France and the white was added as the color of the army to show the inti- mate union which should subsist be- tween the people and the armed force. THE “A. B.” PLOT—A. BE. S, San Jose, Cal. The “A. B.” plot was one to destroy Willlam Harris Crawford's pop- ularity and political power by accusing him in 1824 of malfeasance in the office of Secretary of the Treasury, which he then filled. A series of letters appeared in a Washington newspaper signed “A. B.” reflecting upon Crawford's integ- rity and asking for an investigation. Ninan Edwards, who had just been ap- pointed to the Mexican mission, admit- ted the authorship of the letters. After an examination Edwards failed to sus- tain his charges and Crawford was ex- onerated. ENLISTMENT IN NAVY-—Citizen, City. The term of enlistment of all enlisted men of the navy is four years. Minors over the age of eighteen may be enlisted without the consent of parents or guardians, byt minors un- der, but claiming to be over eighteen years of age, are liable, if enlisted, to punishment for fraudulent enlistment. Only such persons shall be enlisted as can reascnably be expected to remain in the service. Every person, before being enlisted, must pass the physical examination prescribed in the medicai instructions. Applicants for enlistment must be American citizens, able to read and write English, and when enlisted must take the oath of allegiance. Townsend’s California’ glace fruits and candies, 50¢ a pound, in artistic fire m boxes. A nice present for Eastern self, declaring that he was the victim 715 Market st., above Call bldg. *