The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 29, 1904, Page 6

FRANCISCO CALL, EBRUARY = MONDAY — : [NJTRUCTIVE J‘TUDIN i | —e— of David Cor- opyright. 1904, by Joseph B. Bowles) What a profound tragedy it is that the advent of a little child (the m-wl; touching and the most sublime phs nomenen in the world) may excite re-| gret and even anger in a2 home! Did you ever stop to think that the ecstacy with which a baby is welcomed is an 2cquired and not a natural joy, and o is the highwater mark of human evelu- | tion? Last summer while lying in a hospital nurse a powerful description of horror at the discovery that babies were not always welcome. She learned this hideous lesson in a New York in- stitution where the homeless women of | the great metropolis came to give birth to their offspring. When =he saw with her own eyes that these perverted wretches had to be watched for fear they would deser? the seed of their own bodies, or even kill them, she said that the very world seemed to rock beneath | her feet, and she discovered with| amazement that the love of children (I eay “love” jn ,the Christian sense) is the finest fruit of countless centuries of the education of the moral and spir- ftual nature of human beings. The race will never go back to bar- barism and paganism, but individuals are constantly doing so. It is not only the miserable outcasts of the slums and the tenderloins who hate their off- spring, but the occupants of hotels, flats and “houses that are not homes” are | manifesting the same repugnance to children. 1 know of a group of young couples married some eight or ten 1 who were ears agn. and there are only three among them—all in the same dren house! . This i€ not the place to discuss the duml- of this revival of paganism. The | i of the antagonism to i replete with warning. For married people in great numbers to be | their advent is to threaten of human society and to »meelves individually into hostile the stat t to set forth in sing But this is the place the glowing colors of truth the ! the child in the home and to bid bands and wives hail its advent ith such joy as that with which wan- a wildernees greet the rising ipwrecked mariners the ves- tening to their aid. The traditional difficulties and em- harrassments of motherhood are mers maginary than re There is not a better authenticated or more wonder- ful #nd ‘more besutiful fact in life than this—that men and women with large families of ldren do mnot have to work perceptibly harder nor to deny themselves many more of the real com- | forts of life than those who have none. It may be an open question how many children families ought to ha but there is no auesti that they ought to have some. And when peo- ple deliberately refuse to bid these tle bearers of all the best joys of life a hearty welcome, you may set it down | in your book that only krnaves, but fools. they are-not The baby introduces us to joys that are not only unknowable but unimagin- able, without its presence in our lives. There is a feeling of wonder at its ad- vent which is deep: than our wonder at stars and flowers. There i= a kind of tenderness in our souls that no other object can awaken .but a child. There is an ineffable han- piness in seeing ourselves mirrored in a little boy or girl that can be caricatured and made appear absurd, but it cannot be over- looked in taking stock of life's values. One time a litie “upstart” intro- duced his family of eignt children to Susan B. Anthony in these words: My wife has presented me with eight sons. Do you not see that her mission is grander than your: “Sir,” she replied, surveying him con- temptuously, “I have seen very few men worthy of being reproduced eight times.” There are resources of power and wisdom in our souls that nothing has «ver called out but a child. And the exercise of these new powers and this higher wisdom produces a divine sat- isfaction. It is the bee who makes possible the bloom of flowers, and it is this little buman bee who =0 fertilizes var human souls as to. bring them to their noblest perfection. But above all, there is a love in the soul that wakens only at the voice of the child. Love is of various denom- inations and magnitudes. There are the loves of friends, of parents, of sveethearts, of fiowers, of birds,,of : ic, of country and of God. But no one who has cver feit the love of a little child can put it second to any other emotion ef the soul. “Tae clew of our destiny, wander w lies at the cradle foot.” Lildren are God's apestles sent forth day by day | tc preach of love and hope and peace.” e And what of the future? Can you not see that those tiny hands which clutch at your fingers are some time to * minister to your old age; to close your eyes when you die and tenderly to lay in the erave? If you had and upattended and begin life over again, ;: ‘would ‘everything a scn dsughter to hold your hard in the "é bed 1 heard from the lips of a young| her | and mere jnynus‘; It is a h;.ppm-ss} supreme moment when your feet touch the waters of the dark river. Oh! bid the baby welcome! Let the day of its advent be a day of joy! Let it come amidst the songs of the angels, as the Christ child did! Devote your- | selves to it! Gaze into Its eyes. Press it to your heart. Listen to its inartic- ulate disclosures of the mystery and | meaning of life. Itis a s °r, an oracie. It has come from God, bringing its “trailing clouds of glory.” Mistress and Maid. BY VIRGINIA VAN DE WATER. (Copyright, 1904, by Joseph B. Bowles.) Mistress and maid were not fore- ordained from all eternity to be sworn | enemies. Could that fact be im- | pressed upon the mind of each there wouid be less friction between them. | The maid sees in the mistress a pop- | e tyrant, one who will exact the pound of flesh, and, if the owner | thereof be not on her guard, will in- | s1st mpon a few extra ounces thrown in for good measure. The mistress sees the suspicious girl a person who will, if the chance be offered her, turn | against her employver, will do the | smallest amount of work possibie for | the highest wages she can demand, ‘hrt»ak chin smash glass, shut her | eves to dirt in the corners, and ac- | cept the first opportunity that offers | itself to leave her present place and | get one that promises fewer duties | and larger pay. | The system is all wrong, and it| grows worse. The hatred of the | housewife for the maid-of-all-work, | | the suspicious attitude of said maid | toward her nominal mistress, increase | | with each passing year. | The evil is so great that the *only | | remedy lies in each household doing | | by itself the best that lies within its | | power to change the current. Were each housewife in the land to strive | to better matters, the change would | | goon be apparent. It is a fact that by appealing to the | best in human nature—be that nature | American, Irish, German or Scandi- | navian—we elicit the best from our | | fellow creatures. Let the mistre: | then, try te believe in the good inten- tions of her servant, or if she cannot | really believe in them, let her pretend mo0. Her attitude of mind will, [to do unconsciously to felt upon her hireling. it for granted that the “new girl” | means to stay, is honest, trustworthy | | and anxious te please, and let her talk to her as if all these things were fore- | gone conclusions. She m: show by | gentle manner and kindly considera- | tion that she appreciates that Norah | | or Gretchen is a sister woman, not a | | machine. If the washing or ironing | happens te be heavy, let her suggest a mple dessert of fruit ifistead of the herself, make itself Let her take pudding that had been planned. And| the maid’s heavy eyes and forced | smiles show that she is not well, let | the mistress for a brief moment put | herself in the place of her hireling, and think what she would want done | for her ‘under similar circumstances She will then suggest that some of the work that can be deferred be laid | aside until the following day, or offer | to give a hand in making the beds or | usting the rooms. But,” declares the systematic house- 1 “I do not hire a servant and the, .A' do my own work!” | No. my.dear madam, but neither did | | you hire your maid of all work to be a sick nurse, but were you ill it would be | he who would cook your meals, carry | up your tray and take care of you un- | less you were so ill as to need the ser- of a trained attendant. Bear | in mind, and show the maid that | do bear it in mind. vice It 1s a more difficult matter to get the average servant to look at the matter | | from this standpoint. She has not been | | educated to regarding things from both | | sides. It is the custom of her cult to| | meet and in conclave assembled to | | compare the faults, follies and failings | | of their employers. And when they do | | commend an employer for kind treat- i ment it is, as a rule, only to make the lot of another servant look darker by contrast with the bright one depicted. “Oh, me .dear!” exclaims Bridget | upon entering Norah's kitchen at 8:30 in the evening and finding her still | washing dishes. “And is this the hour | that a poor, hard-working girl is kept| up to wash the dinner things? There | are no such doin’s in my Kkitchen, 1| | tell ye! My lady knows that I ain't made or iron, and she knows, too, that | |1 would net put up with such an im- | position.” i The fact that Norah’s mistress has | helped her all day with the work, that | she is herself the victim- of unexpected company, that she regrets as much as | Norah that the unavoidable detention | at the office of the master of the houss | has made dinner later than usual, does | not deter the suddenly enlightened girl | from feeling herself a martyr, and me‘ seed of hate and distrust is quick to| bear fruit in an offensive manner and | a sulky style of speech. She does not pause to take into consideration that, | while she may just now be doing 'extra work, she also receives daily extra ! kindness which were not agreed upon | in the contract for her hire. | There are just two rules that make | the relations of mistress and maid tol- erable or pleasant. One is that every- thing be put on a pure business basis— an arrangement, we may remark, that | the maid would be the first to resent. If she is willing to give only what she | is paid for, she must be willing that | no margin be allowed her and that she | be expected to live up to her part of ihe contract, fulfilling every duty as well as any servant possibly could, ex- pecting no allowances or indulgences and receiving just the “times off,” etc., for which she bargains. Only that, and no more. She would soon weary of the bargain. | The other rule, and the better one, is that a little practical Christianity be brought into the relationship, that the maid do all she can, cheerfully and willingly, and that the mistress treat her in the same spirit, giving her little pleasures when it is within her power to do so, trying to smooth the rough places and to make crooked things straight. Then let each respect the cther and make the best of the situa- tion. | | | . | | been greatly benefited. llllil,td with the dominant cereal and have moved up to | to easy collections. | present. THE SAN FRANGCISCO £ALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor « o« « « o+ « » . Address All Commanications to JOHN BcNAUGHT, Manager Publication Office . @mmmsms.r SPECULATION IN STAPLES. HILE general trade throughout the country is W satisfactory and on a solid basis, there are some unsatisfactory features. Inclement weather is still retarding spring trade, while there is too much spec- uiation in the necessary staples for their good. Coffee, cotton, provisions, wheat, corn and oats are now the sub- jects of a speculative fever that pertains more to the New York stock market than to those conservative magts where the necessaries of daily life are bought and sold. "Part of this speculation has been superinduced by a general opinion that any foreign war would naturally enhance the price of the food commodities, and disre- garding the fact that the present war between Russia and Japan had already been largely discounted, the specu- lators rushed into the arena and, being mostly bulls, as outsiders usually are, have made these markets lively of late. This is especially noticeable in provisions, which the outsiders continue to buy in the face of the fact that the packers are not supporting the market and that the regular traders are inclined to be bearish on the goods. As a result of this persistent buying, the outsiders find themselves loaded up with goods at rising prices, while the packers, seeing how matters were going, have given them all they would take, and at their own figures. The same thing happened in cotton on a larger and Reports of a short crop, true m- more sensational scale. enough in the main but considerably exaggerated, the market and the result was a fevered bull campaign which sent the quotations skyward and demor- flamed alized the trade, not only in this country but in England. | The Government report, showing that the situation had been exaggerated and that the shortage was not as acute as supposed, took the heart out of the wild | boom, a sharp reaction set in, quotations tumbled, for- | tunes (many of them on paper) were swept away in an hour and for days pandemonium reigned on the Cotton Fhe price of the manufactured goods ad- change. { vanced in sympathy with the future quotations, which in turn drove the manufacturers out of the market and | rendered buyers of cotton goods cautious as to their operations, and the whole situation in cotton became un- settled and unsatisfactory. The rise in wheat was more reasonable, though itself largely speculative, and thus far has been justified by re- | sults. The demand for the grain continues good and no- body has been hurt by the advance, while the farmer has The minor grains have sympa- the benefit of the producer and collaterally to the public at large. But, as a general proposition, unbounded spec- ulation in the great staples of the country turns out a bad thing in the end. The distributive trade is showing the effects of the un- favorable weather and continues backward in most sec- tions, resulting in slower collections at most of the North- erfi markets. Railway earnings are decreasing, owing to | weather-delayed business and to the cutting of grain | freights. The best, reports-are coming in from the South, where the rise in cotton has put more money into the pockets of the planters and interior storekeepers and led The Pacific Coast is al§o sending in good reports, as the three States are receiving a good | many orders for grain and. forage for Russian and Jap- anese account, in addition to a good commercial export demand for almost everything produced on the farm. where the United States have the farmers done better during the past five years than on this coast, and as far as apparent this prosperity 1s likely to continue for some time to come. The recent copious rains have cre- in ated fine crop prospects, and as the grain and hay mar- kets are high and firm there is general expectation of at Jeast another fine year. over the coast, collections are good and the wholesale and retail trades are both in excellent condition. Wall street is about the quietest spot in the country at The stock market is dull, tame and featureless, with the public indifferent and the professionals indis- | posed to plunge. The liquidation in stocks during the past year or so has been so drastic and has wiped out so | many fortunes (especially those on paper) that some months yet must elapse ere the general speculative pub- lic can-be induced to re-efiter the market. War and ru- mors of war, too, have conspired to keep people away from stocks, and the depressed condition of the foreign bourses, where the decline in European and Asiatic gov- ernment bonds and attendant failures of sundry banks | and brokerage houses have cgused a semi-panicky feel- ing of late, has cast a feeling of doubt and instability over the New York stock market. The money market, | however, has passed through these breakers much better than expected and, in fact, has shown no agitation of any consequence. The supply of money all ovér the world is | singularly large and this tends to preserve the equilib- rium of the markets. But in spite of these reassuring conditions the general condition of international trade is unsettled. As long as | the Oriental war continues there can hardly be any really stable markets. There are too many contingencies in favor of unsettled conditions. It is impossible to say | whether other nations will be drawn into the conflict or | not, and this possibility hangs like a cloud over the dii- ferent markets. There is a smoldering fire in the Bal- kans which is liable to break out into-flame without no- tice and the persistent enlargement of armaments by the | European powers is not calculated to extend to the pub- lic well-founded hopes of continued peace on the Euro- pean continent. All #hese things, of course, keep trade more or less unsettled. The statistical situation remains about the same. The country’s bank clearings continue to show a loss com- pared with the corresponding period in 1903, the decrease last week being 14.2 per cent. The failures for the week were 240, against 211 last year. STATE OF THE PIANO. HE superintendent of the Berkeley public schools l reports that the average boy and girl of Berkeley has been much in evidence during the past year as a social factor. Indeed, the boys and girls of the beau- tiful and growing city across the bay have so devoted ' some of their energy to the public good that nearly every schoolroom in Berkeley is now equipped with a good piano. Daily as the sound of fresh young voices singing the songs of patriotism arise in the several places where the school children are congregated there can be heard the cadence marking music of the piano. And this brings up a consideration that will be new even after the ground of the utility or inutility of the piano has been threshed over repeatedly. We have heard that there will soon come a time _wlieg the piano will go Money is abundant and easy all | ) into disuse, but there is no substitute for it in the home or in the classroom that has yet been devised, and it is doubtful if any instrument can ever be found to supplant it for ordinary use. A large proportion of the homes of California harbor the utilitarian piano. Violins may thrill and compel tears or gayety, horns may warble like birds in the thicket, the soaring clarionet may sing its reedy madrigals; the cornet, which Walt Whitman styled “the heart’s lament,” may be frequently a solo voice or glittering integral part of the ensemble; the thundering organ may jar the air and cause rafters to vibrate with its power, but in many ways the piano has not and never will have a rival. Not while the children who have contributed to buy the many Berkeley school pianos live wil its popularity abate. It is the center of the home singing, of the music that fur- nishes the time for dancing; a faithful and sympathetic | accompanist and musical comrade of the vocal artist on the concert platform, the ever obliging instrurgent that yields a true tone to all degrees of competency or in- competency, requiring less skill than any other impor- tant instrument to produce results that give average sat- isfaction. X Beethoven, who created such wonderful symphonies for brass, reeds and strings, still holds his pre-eminence largely by reason of his piano sonatas. Chopin wrote principally for the piano. Orchestral conductors like Anton Seidl and Damrosch have used it to interpret to audiences their conceptions of the subtle meanings of | Richard Wagner. Mozart and Mendelssohn composed very largely for it. Symphonies arranged for four or eight hands are, through its agency, brought within the reach daily of thousands of hoges removed from musical | centers. Operas owe to the piano an extension of knowl- edge of their beauties to a vast number of people whose means do not permit them to be seen where fashion congregates to await the spell of baton and vocal effort. The Berkeley boys and girls have therefore selected | the right instrument=to lend itself to their uses. There | is no other solo instrument that embraces so much of | music with an equal degree of availability. With this goes commendation for the boys and girls who clearly | | see that musical education, even in a slight degree, has its claims upon them. . The French bourse, after its spasm of excitement over the ghost of a European war, is calm again. There is always s@mething refreshing in the expression of French opinion. It is everything or nothing. One wonders sometimes what the French would do if called upon to | face a great emergency when they go so to extremes in the contemplation of a small one. O ernor of Porto Rico, sent to the insular Legisla- tive Assembly his annual message. To those who | have kept a watchful eye over the development of the insular government in our new possessions—a growth | significant not only to the people of Porto Rico but to the history of the United States—Governor Hunt's mes- sage carries the sure note of success in the fulfillment of | our scheme for colonial control. To the Legislative Assembly, new as it is and still un- | used to the spirit and forms of autonomous government, | Governor Hunt gives solid advice upon the conduct ol'} the exchequer and the necessity for economy and more | efficient expenditure of money in the conduct of the va- | rious branches of the island government. So tenaciously ! cling the old Spanish methods of conducting financial affairs that the American Governor has to warn the na- | tive legislators that to bring the government of the is! and up to its full degree of efficiency expenditures all along the line will have to receive closer supervision. “The experience of the past year,” says Governor Hunt, “has made it clear that even with the exercise of due economy the income received by the municipaliflies. is insufficient to meet their legitimate and necessary ex- penditures. Although there has been a reduction in both | floating and bonded indebtedness, many of the munici- palities are at the present time suffering from the lack ! of funds. In some cases the salaries of municipal em- ployes have not been paid in full for several months. The municipalities are now receiving one-half of the property tax of 1 per cent. I recommend that they be given threc—qu’arters of th® property tax, or three-fourths of 1 per cent. This would mean an increase in yearly revenue of approximately $200,000.” In order to furgher relieve the municipalities from their burden of indebted- uess, the Governor spggests that the school tax be re- moved from the shoulders of the municipalities and made an insular tax to be expended directly by the Department of Education. The local government of the municipalities themselves receives considerable attention from the Governor. Con- trary to his advice given in a former message, the Leg- | islative Assembly sought to institute a general scheme | for the government of the municipalities whereby smaller communities were merged with larger ones in the vicin- ity and made to share the burden of taxation equally with their more pretentious and more favored neigh- | | bors. By this act twenty of the smaller communities were disenfranchised and merged with their more pop- ulous neighbors. Such legislation, Governor Hunt takes pains to point out, works a hardship upon the residents of the disenfranchised towns who have to support a bur- den of taxation from which they receive none of the di- rect benefits. “In my judgment,” reads his message, “it would be | both wise and expedient to place in one class all the towns of the island whose population is less than a cer- tain number, to be agreed upon hereafter, and to confer upon them autonomy in local affairs, to be exercised through a simplified form of the governmental machin- ery provided by the municipal law now in force.” This suggestion on the part of the Governor introduces into Porto Rico for the first time the American idea of vil- lage, town and city government. AFFAIRS IN PORTO RICO. January 12 the Hon. William H. Hunt, Gov- | A highwayman was hanged in Montana the other day under the due form and process of law. The incident is timely as a suggestion to us that in some things we may imitate Montara safely and to6 our advantage. Or perhaps relief might come more quickly by exporting a few °‘, our murderously inclined citizens to Montana. The movement of California exhibits to the exposition at St. Louis has aircady begun. Every section of the State has contributed enthusiastically to the cause, and we have the satisfaction that the resources of the Golden State will be splendidly represented in a vast field, where only the best will be noticed and remembered. | hain’t got no re-coil—not a derned bit | to make sure that it would be a success | in a big procession. | Dominick Ratto, the boss Italian of the | It worked to perfection. | from sunny Italia had been herded into | Ratto, in all the splendor of glittering | behinda, leta she go-a.’” | the work of one of his men did not | piease him and he swore softly at him. | As misfortune would have it, the lan- Recoil Forward. General William Tecumseh Sherman was one of the best raconteurs of his time. He had a fund of dry humor and a sly enjoyment of a good yarn that was infectious. During his later years, when he became a lion of Washington and New York society, he was much petted and monopolized by the ladies, but occasionally the old warrior would be found at a favorite club with a small circle of men friends about him, de- lighting them with incidents of the Civil War. “When the war began,” he said one day at the New York Union League, “every officer in the Union army was beset by sanguine inventors, who sought his influence with the Govern- ment to procure the adoption of their | . devices. The majority of these inven- tions were in the line of arms and ord- nance, and if you listened to their pro- moters you were assured that the art| of warfare would be revolutionized forthwith. “One of these irrepressible fellows tackled me a few days after the assault on Sumter, begging me to help him get a Government contract for the manu- facture of his new gun. “‘The point about this here cannon. general, is jest this’ he declared. ‘It of re-coil. If anything, it re-coils a leetle bit forward.” ™ And the gray old fighter lay back in his chair and chuckled over the recol- lection of the gun that upset the laws of physics. Patriotic America. They were telling mining camp stor- jes at the Lick House the other day and one pioneer from Calaveras con- tributed the following: “We had agpanged for a big Fourth of July celebration at San Andreas and we planned to get all of the miners out Among the under- ground workers were hundreds of Ital- jans. To gain their interest we named district, grand marshal of the parade. “The morning of the Fourth hun- dreds of our swarthy skinned friends semblance of order along Main street. regalia and mounted on the best horse we could find, was imposing. Every- thing was ready for the pageant to move. Ratto, conscious of his im- portance, made one last survey of the hosts, and, turning in his saddle, let forth in broken but sounding English: “‘Alla righta in fronta, alla righta, Not His Fault. Captain Neil Haig, .the herculean English poleist, who has been so pic- turesque and so popular a figure on the fleld at Burlingame and at Del Monte this season, has a slight impediment in his speech. In directing the work of the players| on his team he sometimes uses lan- guage which comes under the head of “terse and vigorous English.” | While playing before a fashionable | gathering on an English field last year guage was used in front of the mem bers' stand and was plainly heard b the ladies and others there. The of: ficials felt that something had to be' done, and asked the doughty captain to explain why he took that inopportune time to use such language. f The captain said in explanation: | “Y-y-you s-s-see, 1 st-st-started to s-s-swear away d-d-down the field, b-b-but I d-d-didn’t g-g-get it out un-| til I r-r-reached the s-s-stand.” The captain’s apology was accepted. Friend and Enemy. My friend was perfect in my sight And all he did was done aright; I saw in him no flaw or blot. When men assailed him I was hot .His dear perfections to defend. Because he was my trusted friend. Mine enemy was wholly bad. 1 saw each weakness that he had, 1 wondered what men saw to praise And heard approval with amaze. No worth or goodness could I see, Because he was mine enemy. Yet I was wrong, for after all In him T thought was wholly small I've found so many greatnesses. T've found so much of littleness In him who had my perfect trust That time has made my judgments just. And now with keener eyes I see That neither friend nor enemy Is wholly good or wholly ill. For botli are men and human still. In both is much the years shall prove That we should hate—but more to love. —Leslie’s Monthly. All for Us. The San Francisco Call is rapidly coming to the front as the leading home paper among the big dailies. No better evidence of this could be | cited than the fact that of its issue of Sunday, January 31, there were | cates the possibilities of a trade | and Central C! | says that 1 b¥ a handsome monument. N 0. proves fatal in less than twelve days. The method has been tried on the rats in the Paris sewers and those of th | Bourse de Commerce, which attack the grain supplies. It is now rec ized that if the rats can be destrd¥ed is possible to keep plague and other diseases from Europ nd the civilized portions of the Eas it Comment on Slang. SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 26. Editor of The Call: 1 have been much interested in the articles you have been publishing for some time under the heading, “Instructive Studies.” The article on “Slang” in last Thursday’'s Call is worth more than a passing notice. The universal use of slang at the present time most deplorable. It grates on the sen- sibilities of all who love to hear pure English. Would it not be a good idea to organize anti-slang clubs? It seemg to me that some movement should be started to kill the evil I have an idea in my mind of what ought to be done, but content myself for the present with simply throwing out the thought. I could shape some- thing that seems to me to be practic- able if the suggestion is seconded Clubs of the kind"I have in mind could be formed to . promote the study of pure English and literature, and his« tory might be added. It seems to me that it is time to set in motion some movement to stem the tide that threat- ens to smother our mother tongue. A SUBSCRIBER. Rope for Manchuria. China is a land of immense rivers and other waterways, and there is no country in the world Where boats are used so generally for all imaginable purposes. A large proportion of the Chinese people practically live on the water ail the time. In the single port of Newchwang 2000 junks were regis- tered last year. All this makes a large demand for sail-cloth, roping and other accessories for small boats. The sea-going junks use great quanti- | ties of rope, especially of large sizes, instead of anchor chains. The fact that considerable quantities of Ameri- can rope are being ordered for Man- churia—some for Chinese junks—indi- in this line. If sales can be established throughout North China they may grow to wonderful propeortions. ir, in addition, it would be possible to get a part of the rope trade of Southern ina, the volume would be suifficient to keep several large plants in operation. Our Consul at Newchwang, Henry B. Miller, if samples and prices are sent to him he will gladly give the matter attention and endeavor to in- troduce the goods.—Leslie’'s Weekly. Auswers to Queries. CABLE—A. 8., City.—There is no direct cable from Manila, P. L, te San Francisco. Messages are transmitted via Manila to Guam, Guam to Midway Midway to Honolulu and Honolulu to San Francisco. ROBINS—A. O. C., Vallejo, Cal. Under the general law robins are not protected in California. You should write to the Seolano County Board of Supervisors to ascertain if there is ar ordinance protecting the song birds in that part of the State. MINT AND DIMES—A. O. C., Val- lejo, Cal. The United States Branc: Mint in San Francisco never has of- fered a bonus for a United States dime coined in 1894. In that year the San Francisco Branch Mint coined but twenty-four dimes and it is for any od these that collectors have offered a premium. Dimes of that year ('o\ng‘l in other mints are as plentiful as | blackberries in summer. s gl «COLUMBUS—A. O. C., Vallejo. Cal The remains of Christopher Columbus are now buried in the city of his birth, Genoa. Italy, where the spot is marked In 1536 the remains were carried to San Do- mingo; in 1796 they were transferred to the Cathedral of Havana, where they reposed until July, 1887, when they were placed on board of an Ital- ian man of war and conveyed to Genoa printed and distributed 85,440 full and complete copies of 44 pages each, re- quiring the use of over 50,000 pounds of paper. We are pleased to note the rapid strides of The Call in the mat- ter of circulation, as it is one of the brightest, cleanest and newsiest of | newspapers and deserving of the in-| creasing support which it is receiving. —Livermore Leader. ' Science and Rats. The spread of the plague in the East has been shown to be due to rats which are carried from infected ports on vessels. A preventive method, which promises to be efficacious in checking the plague, hds recently been devised by M. Danysz, of the Pasteur Institute in Paris. The plan is thus described in the current Harper's Weekly: “M. Danysz has found the bacillus of a disease which is peculiar to rats and extremely fatal to such.as are inoculated with it. A culture can be made of this bacillus bouillon in which bread or grain is soaked. This is. exposed for the rats to eat, and has been found a ssful means of com- municating disease, which usually and there buried with great cere- monial pomp. DECIMAL SYSTEM—A. E. 8., San Jose, Cal. In 1782 Gouverneur Mor- ris, assistant financial agent of the Continental Congerss of the United | States, reported a decimal currency system designed to harmonize the moneys of the States. He estimated that the 1440th part of a Spanish dol- lar was a common divisor for various currencies. With this as a unit he proposed the following: 10 units 1| penny; 10 pence 1 bill, and 10 bills 1 dollar. 1In 1784 Jefferson, chairman of a comimittee of Congress, proposed the following: $10 gold plece, silver dollar, 10th of a silver dollar and 100th of a dollar in copper. Congress adont:: hhdnromuon hence the cent, dime, dollar and eagle (310) of the United Ctates currency. Vel T e TMIC‘MM R U L 5 culnd‘nuu. A nice y s friends. 715 Mark u’!.fllttgr“mnn \