The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 14, 1904, Page 15

s of a summer an trees a with col- th the soft s voicing as, thou wel- eart thou nd desper- black flag e nation 1901, him I was ad Secretary we loaded piies —I blush to 1pply of to test the guan passage to a bugologis Bishop Museum to fiora and bird life of t shipped a double crew. at the island ys before sailir fishermen ¢ Japanes who were ring and guano birds, we equipped gdmiral with a bag of Japanese yen with which to placate them, and look- to the possibility of their being able somebody—I always sus- Pirate Peacock—placed on board pe the Whalen two cases of Mauser rifie rounds of am- with several hundred munition. The schooner sailed, leaving a hole in our bank accounts that would have taken about $7000 to fill, but we were content, for if the guano proved to be there, as reported, we would all be millionaires. We never Tearned whether the guano was there or not. The vigilant Japan- Consul_at Honolul rote to the ( ul at San Francisco, gi account of our movem judicious as not to This functionary e Minister at Washington ard august offic induced Secretary to cable Minister Buck at Yeddo to send word to Captain Rosehill not t any difficulty with Japan, but e peaceful and “get out” if the s reguired it, and that the United “protect his rights atic channels.” e message sent? By an ssenger on &n American any manner of means. to a Japanese commis- the Japanese Govern- e war vessel, with e of forcibly prevent- from landing. reached the island Rosehill arrived and force of sixteen marines in nd of a lieutenant, to whom the e commissioner intrusted the er from Minister Buck to Rosehill, and the Mikado frigate then sailed away one day before Rosehill arrived. vessel war If the Whalen had been two or three days faster it would have immortal- ed Rosehill, and the chemist and the aturalist and several of the crew, for, fter landing men and supplies, the vessel would have proceeded in charge of the mate to Yokohama. Rosehill would have paid no attention to the Japanese bird skinners unless they had attempted to interfere with him, and then he would have paid a good deal of attention to them. The officer of the Japanese war vessel, when she ar- rived, would have found Rosehill in possession, with papers from the State Department authorizing him to remain, and with the American flag flying and his vessel gonme Rosehill would have relied upon his papers and not regarded the letter from Minister through Japanese channels. Japa. Buck sent Then the rould have been com- ave him alone te pur- ations, flk.r else to haul an flag, force him (Rosehill) and his crew to go on board the Japanese cruiser and carry them as prison of war to Yokohama. What the outcome weuld have, been Is difficult to predict. The Ameri- can people are not very patient at best of the incoming to America of “the little brown man” and of the aggres- sive palxcy_ of the Japanese Govern- X\I&Cnl, and it our lord high admiral of farcus had given the bird skinners a ight in defense of the American flag he might have furnished excellent ma- terial for a Democratic n high office. e As it was, he yielded, partly to su- i’:)ulx{ ;Hl-'l - and partly to the prom- oo Ris Government to protect him yq‘.uhgh diplomatic . channels.” The little Japanese lieutenant of marines }l'fusfl:i.i-\ allow the crew of the Wha- y(-;-z]' to land. He permitted the scien- hfx;s u-jgn ashore and gave them a AUt to sleep in. The chemist set about ‘ft“eflm; samples of guano, but the deposits were phosphates of lime, re- quir the use of pick and drill, and he co do little without the aid of laborers, and these were not permitted to land. At the end of three days the permission to remain further was with- drawn and all were ordered to go L-n'}a:"'. the Whalen and sail a“'a.\:g 2 A¢ ceremony of American de - tion from Marcus Island was mcgt“?na]- pressive. Nothing like it has occurred ince She expulsion of the Acadians f'j‘n‘.‘?\ ova Scot It needs a new Longfellow to write a new “Evangeline’” t. In the foreground was the Rosehill and two of his bully g him was the little the Mikado. The eternal credit be it on a pair of pantaloons, but e sixteen marines behind him were chl and Dbarefooted. Behind were the resident fisher- 1umber, clothed like ainly in their chastity. The read a translation from a manuscript which he held in hand, while he pointed with his see, which he held in his right the American schooner r with a limp stars and ping from her masthead ejected droop of the tail of a nhearted dog. “These unworthy subjects of his ghtiness the Emperor of Japan,” lie itenant, “to pursue their ustry are distressed by your pres- ce. Tt makes it therefore that you the ted States get ount of here quick. ble self wonders at the good- that permits me to occupy rld as your Excellency, but all th that your high Sxcellency shall go ard of your worthy little ip and sail away quick.” Now, look here,” said Rosehill, “I'm partly because my own Govern- s me, but principally because 3 1 of war will be here in a few days and I cannot fight her, but as for « and your gang of breech-elouted ¢ nd the pot-bellied bird skin- d them, I'd engage to come crew and drive the ned lot of you into the sea ing pins in fifteen minutes.” And thus delivering himself the An- cient Mariner boarded the Whalen and returned to Honolulu empty handed and dejected. The Marcus Island Guano Company presented its case to the State Depart- ment in order to obtain the promise " “relief through diplomatic channels But the Secretary of State had a &gl of islands and seemed to have no inter- n protecting the American acqui- ion of Marcus. It will be an act.of gracious clemency if he refrains from suing Peacock on his bond given to the United States for ,000, that he would open the guano deposits on Mar- cus within a year. To cap the climax Peacock, the hi- larious hotel-keeping buccaneer, was sued by the United States and a judg- ment was rendered against him for $2000 for having, when he registered the Whalen, declared himself to be a United States citizen before he was completely naturalized. Peacock’s citizenship was for a long time a good deal like Lord Dundreary’s conundrum—-"one of those things that no fellow can find out.” He was born a blooming Britisher. He went to Australia, then he came to Henolulu and became a denizen but not a citizen of Hawaii. er the Hawaiian constitution denizens were accorded all the rights of citizens, including the right to vote, without being called upon to abjure allegiance to their native land. Under the act annexing Hawaii all persons having the right of citizenship under the republic were made citizens of the United States. Just here was the dilemma of lueck- less Peacock. Unlike Edward Everett Hale's “Man Without a €ountry,” he vas a man with an assortment of coun- tries. When King Edward was crown- ed our pirate flooded his stomach with bitter beer. The next day he was a dyspeptic Yankee with a nfsal twang and a full supply of remorse. And so he alternated. On Tuesday the hotel rates at the Moana were $4 a day. On Wednesday they were “six- teen bob.” On Tuesday, when the territorial band played the “Star-spangled Ban- ner,” our pirate arose from his seat and waved his hat in honor of his $2000 citizenship of this great and glorious republic and sang loudly: Hall to the American eaxle, To the proud bird of freedom all hail, The bird that no tongue can irvelgle, Or put salt on his beautiful fail. But on Fridays, when asked what countryman he was, he usually replied that he was a conglomerate combina- tion, a dod-gasted, measly Anglo-Saxon Ornithorhyncus, an English beast with an American bill—a bill for $2000 pre- sented by his Uncle Samuel. And then he would softly sing to himself, to the tune of “Little Maud”: Two thousand dgliars out, two thousand dol- lars out, ‘Was the game that my Uncle played on me. When Captain Rosehill-master mar- iner—in 1889 went upon this uninhabit- ed island in unexplored seas, and at his own cost claimed- it in the name of and for the United States of America, and sailed away leaving his Stars and Stripes flying from the summit of a THE v cocoa palm, and when the United States afterward accepted the acquisition by recording the claim in the archives of the Department of State, just then un- der the law of nations the right of sov- ereignty of the United States over Marcus became as vested and as per- fect as it is over the keys of Florida or the Aleutian agchipelago. -Rosehill by subsequent neglect to comply with the act of Congress might have for- feited his own right to the guano de- posits, but he could not forfeit the rights of his Government to the island. When the United States accepted Rose- hill's excuses, condoned his neglect, ex- acted from him a bond of $50,000 that in removing the guano deposits he would comply with the act of Congress, and issued to him papers under the seal of the Department of State, defin- ing his rights, it assumed an obligation to protect him-against all the world in the exercise of his rights. What did it do? After Rosehill sail- ed from Honolulu the Japanese Govern- ment asserted that it claimed Marcus by right of occupancy only three years old. Some wandering Japanese went ashore there ten years after Rosehill's visit, destroyed the evidences of his claim, occupied the shack he built, and engaged in killing and skinning the birds. Upon the basis of these acts Japan annexed Marcus to the Bonin oup, 800 miles distant, and with frigid c‘gmxfiacency informed the TUnited States that it was about to dispatch a war vessel to Marcus to prevent Cap- tain Rosehill from landing. Obviously the course of our Govern- ment should have been to: cable this strutting turkey cock of the Aslatic walk that it would order two war ves- sels to Marcus with orders to blow the Mikado's navy out of the water if it attempted to interfere with Captain Rosehill in the peaceable enjoyment of the rights it had granted him. But so far from taking this course, Secretary Hay surrendered immediate- 1y, without proof and without objection, to the demands of the Mikado’s Gov- ernment, and he humbly requested the privilege of sending by the Japanese war vessel & note to Captain Rosehill directing him to “get out” and leave it to the United Btates to “protect his rights by diplomacy.” And the captain “got out.” He might 15 have stood off the sixteen pot-bellied Japanese marines and their thirty un- armed bird-skinning allles, for there were fourteen men in his party, each armed with a Mauser rifle and a revol- ver, and inspired with the spirit of Pea- cock, the pirate, But he could not fight Japan and the United States both, with a Japanese man-of-war liable to return any, day, so he turned the prow of the Juifa E. Whalen homeward. We are a great nation. There is no doubt of it—the very greatest of the great. Fram the icy mountains of the Arctic to the coral strands of the Orient our flag flutters and flutters and flut- ters like the splendid tail of a lonely \turkey cock strutting across an uncon- tested lawn. But when another turkey cgck jumps over the fence and contests our right of way we say: ‘“Why, certain- ly, my dear fellow, you are our friend; we want no trouble with you; we will first give you what you propose to seize and then trust to diplomacy to deter- mine whether you had the right to take what you have taken.” Under the administration of Frank- 1lin Pierce, Captain Ingraham forced the Emperor of Austria to surrender Kos- ta. Under the administration of James Buchanan, Hayti was notified that her gunboats would be shelled and sunk if she ventured to interfere with Amer- fcan possession of the island of Na- vasso—a guano island acquired exactly as Rosehill acquired Marcus. Andrew Johnson defled the allled forces of France and Austria in order to save Mexico from European absorp- tion, and it is still fresh in our memo- ries how Grover Cleveland went to the verge of a war with England in order .to protect the Monroe doctrine. John Hay is a great statesman—no doubt. It is largely due to his splendid diplomacy that we owe the privilege of expending $200,000,000 per annum in “ having our soldiers killed by bolomen and bubonic plague, with not enough returning revenue from the Philippines to supply the army with Manila cigars. But notwithstanding his greatness oth- erwise his action in the matter of Mar- cus Island was cowardly and evasive, that does not protect its disgrace for a cff is a to the map own of the world, SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. LAY 1S SNICKARSEE O WHERE THe pOlNTED wWiITH AT ANCHOR. By Sidney H. Cole CONCERNING A VOWEL | (Copyright, 1904, by M. Wood.) R. MARK TIRRELL swung his horse into the bridle path that ran along one side of the avenue, and to the finutterable surprise of Nancy, who was something of a loafer in the line of horseflesh, he permitted her to drop into the gait he was wont to term ‘funereal” As a general thing when they reached” the bridle path in the gray of these early winter mornings, Tirrell would say briskly, “Come, Nancy,” touch her with the crop, and they would go galloping smartly toward the reservolr in a fash- fon which made the occupants of the early cars turn about to catch another glimpse of them. There was no “Come, Nancy,” this morning; no touch of the crop. Tirrell sat stifly in the saddle, gazing straight ahead—at nothing, apparently. So Nancy poked along in her shufiing walk, her head thrust out and her ears 1aid back in a manner which, on any ordinary occasion, could not have failed to rouse Tirrell’s ire. 1t was a dull, cheerless morning. Low hanging clouds were in the sky, and through the branches of the elms the wind whistled a prophecy of snow., Tir- rell smiled grimly. The morning cor- responded admirably with his mood. He was gray and cheerless enough, heaven knew. Last night, when he had quarreled with Amy Linton, it had seemed to him that with very proper dignity he had offered able defense of a principle; this morning, as he mentally reviewed the affair, he stamped his whole course of action as asinine. Miss Linton was not the sort of girl who flew into temper one moment and repented it the next. Her anger ma- tured slowly and was deep-rooted. Tir- rell felt sure the end had come. No more jolly evenings with her before the library firs 0 more rides with her in the crisp of the winter mornings. He shut his teeth and threw back his head. “‘Close ranks here,” he growled to himself, and to the mare, “Come, Nancy.” He struck her smartly with the crop. Nancy responded with a sidewise spring which wopld have un- seated a less experienced rider, and galloped up the path at a pace that sent the blood surging to Tirrell's cheeks. But neither the pace of the mare, nor the chill of the morning, nor his own determination to forget the whole affair could drive Amy Linton from his mind. He could see her standing, as she had last night, on the other side of the library table, her face white and her eyes flashing fire. He could hear her say again, “There is really nothing more to be sald, Mr, Tirrell. Good night,” and he pictured her to himself as she swept from the room, her head poised proudly above the perfect shoulders. Tirrell felt something tighten In his throat. “Darn it!” he exploded, and urged the mare into a breakneck run. Tirrell was well out toward the reser- voir, and still riding recklessly, when he saw a riderless horse galloping down the bridle path. He pulled Nancy up, and heading her in the opposite di- rection, he rode slowly along, awaiting the arrival of the other horse. As it came up he leaned from the saddle and grasped the bridle of the runaway. The horse carried a side-saddle, and there was a white star on the forehead that brought Tirrell’'s heart to his mouth. It was Miss Linton's horse. He turned Nancy, and leading the other horse beside him, he rode up the bridle path again. They had gone but a short distance when he espied Amy Linton walking unconcernedly down the path. Tirrell heaved a sigh of gen- uine relief. © “I was afraid you were hurt,” said ounting. _he, dismx - “No,” she said, “I was tightening the girth when he left rather unceremoni- ously. Stand still, Tony, you idiot,” she said to the horse. “I—I'm glad I happened along,” sald Tirrell. He felt rather embarrassed. “It was kind of you to catch him,* she said. Tirrell assisted her to mount. “May I finish out the ride with you?™ he asked. Miss Linton’s eyebrows were raised s trifle. “If you wish,” she said, coldly. For awhile they galloped along In si- lence. Tirrell suddenly drew his horse nearer hers. “Have you any idea where I was headed for?” he sald in low voige. “I'm afraid I haven’t,” she sald, still frigidly. “You remember the little hill just past the reservoir,” he pursued, “the one where we used to ride mornings and watch the sun sparkle the snow on the opposite slope?” Miss Linton regarded him steadily ° for a moment. “Yes,” she said quietly. “I was going out there,” he said, “and I—er—~felt—oh, hang it!—as if 1 were going to a grave,” he blurted. There was silence agaln. Then Miss Linton spoke, her head turned from him. “I was going out there, too. I—1 think I felt much the same.” “Amy!” he cried, and caught her hand in his. Her head was still turn- ed from him, but the little ear nearest him was very red. “I am a brute,” he asserted. She laughed softly. “You are,” she averred, “but it's half the fight if you know it.” “I'm going to reform,” he s need you to help me, though.” He felt her hand tremble in his. “Let's ride this bridle path,” he said, “oh, say a month from now: and let’s change it a bit. Let's make that final ‘¢’ in ‘bridle’ an ‘a’ and put it before the I." She -turned her head toward him, her face flushed scarlet. “Let’s,” she said simply. id. “I