The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 6, 1904, Page 15

Ry COLI FCTIONS FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALY. _— heart-breaking sobs for a loe n earth forever the f govern- ke generatio: so many g rated de f the Kanaka the hatred nditions in Honolulu are, peculiar. Imagine a DOMESTIC Fable for the Foolish ald as ¥ . ace. As this v a D 2s 2 nose could be, sh at the game board. Mr. know, that sub- akes 2 man.s the idea that which A man w know about himself is prints all or a horse race according to that outside page, comes out newspaper its news the always ips. Mr. Benedict started out by telling wife the names of all of the girls engaged to before he is in direct violation the established matrimonial canon t neither one of the parties to the contract shall have been in love be- fore. Mrs. Benedict played her part game according to Hoyle and ugh she had had numerous fish half out of the water before she finally got the landing net under John Henry, she made him belleve that he was the rst that she had ever played— and she had played him for a sucker although he never knew that. In con- of John Henry’'s rash frank- rank rashness—Mrs. Benedict d to remind him of his pre- s attempts to butt into the matri- ial fold on the occasion of domestic ses, coupled as a rule with the fer- vent wish that he had been successful. John Henry never took refuge be- hin any of pleasant subterfuges mmon to the male sex for explaining is absence from the family fireside un- 1 the witching hour of half-past twelve. Instead of explaining in great detail the pressing nature of the busi- ness which had come up at the last moment, requiring his immediate at- tention, he frankly confessed that he had fallen in with a party of his pre- trimonial accomplices tn villainy and hed enriched their exchequers to the extent of ten dollars and twenty- five cents in 2 pleasant little social game of ten-call-twenty. As a result he was persona non grata in his own household until such a time as he had appeased the wrath of the powers that be with a diplomatic application of a new hat and gown. one sequence W, REFLECTIONS ~“Or Irom1as Feron. GONG AR/ DY AR TOA COMBINATION ey PN dismayed by his experience in this direction, John Henry mentioned one evening, when he was more or less ness stand, that his new type- was a peach with red hair and a complexion that made a red rose look e a coat of whitewash. There was typewriter in the office, of the writer Benedict & Co. next day and in ac- cordance with the plans and specifi- cations prepared by the—nominally— silent member of the firm, she had a large crop of freckles and a face that made the office clock lose fifteen min- utes the first day. Still firm in his ad- herence to the belief that honesty is the best policy, when Mrs. Benedict suggested that her mother be requested to honor the Benedict domicile with a visit of indefinite length, John Henry informed his wife in firm but gentle tones that the person aforesaid was peculiarly obnoxious to him and that if she appeared on the scene he would # .« THE PARENT AS A — CHUM 2 & | + OT long ago a successful busi- ness man came to a ministerial friend of. mine and said in sub- stance, “I am greatly troubled my boys. Not that they are bad , but they seem to be growing away from me. I don't feel acquainted with them, What can I do?" The min- ister, who has boys of his own, by the wa told him not to magnify at the moment his parental authority, but to try the method of comradeship, “go to their ball games, familiarize yourself with the names of the crack players on the football team. Invite your boys’ companions to the house. Find out what ‘the fellows’ in general are read- ing and studying. Ascertain quietly the character of their amusements and if they are legitimate enter heartily your- self into their recreations and excur- sions.” The business man promptly adopted the advice and a few months later returned to his counselor with a radiant face. “You were right,” he said. ve been around with the boys a good deal the last few weeks and we are getting to be first-rate chums. I feel as if I had gotten my boys back again.” We are worrying to-day more or less over the decline of parental authority. America is contrasted to her own dis- advantage with England and the Con- tinent in the matter of home adminis- tration. Deference of children to par- ents, exhibitions of prompt and un- questioned obedience are said to be rarer than they were a generation ago. This may be true and I would not con- done a waning of respect on the part of the young toward their seniors. But if 2 relatlonship of comradeship can be established we can perhaps secure all the best results of the older and stricter regime and at the same time bridge the chasm that used to exist between father and son or between mother and daugh- ter. This is certainly the natural relation- ship. When our children are young and helpless before the novelty and wonder of their presence in the home have faded away we do not begrudge the time and the pains it requires to keep pace with their advancing life. Every added pound of flesh, every new tooth delights the fond and admiring parent. For the sake of tossing them in Ris arms a man will leave his busi- ness a little earlier at night than he used to do when a bachelor. But why should this close touch with the child cease or relax when it gets beyond the need of the parents’ constant physi- cal protection or of their direction in every little detail of its life? There are multitudes of homes in America where this ideal of intimacy has been maintained through gram- mar and high school days and long after the growing boys and girls have gone to college and professional school. 1 go into such homes and find the pa- rents conversing at the dinner table about the subjects the children have that day been studying. I see on the center table textbooks and reference books which tell of common work to- gether. I note a disposition to do things together, to play games in which all can share, to have evening com- panies made up of young and old alike, to plan as a family and not as indi- viduals for little outings and excur- sions. Here we find a shining illustra- tion of what sociclogists call the soli- darity of the family. It is not broken up into small and competing cliques. Each member of the home seeks and promotes the welfare of all the others. It is a splendid thing for the children when the parents are disposed to be on terms of comradeship. It keeps them out of bad company, fosters a due amount of family spirit and draws out latent possibilities. For no touch upon the plastic life of a young child can be quite so tender and potent as that of a father or mother. A man of thirty- five told me last week that one reason why he enjoyed shopping with his wife is that his mother used to take him when a lad on shopping expeditions, explained to him about different fab- rics and helped him to acquire a skill and wisdom in the expenditure of money that has been of incalculable value ever since he set up housekeeping for himself. And the parents get a good deal out of the relationship, too. It keeps them young and hopeful and happy to be sharing the emotions and ambitions of enthusiastic and purposeful boys and girls. Wrinkles and gray hairs, doubts and fears, pessimism and cynicism come less quickly to the man or woman in mature life who has even one down- right good friendship with somebody under twenty-five years of age. There- fore I say to you this Sunday morning, “Take time to be chummy with your children.” THE PARSON. o == erie de Lilas in Pari London concert hall sir the choir and singing “Johnny ( Mardliing Home” in an Episcopal thedral. Imagine a Salvation A captain with a rooster under his and Alkali Jake with a Bible fastene to his cartridge belt going arm in arr to a combinaticn cockfight and praye meeting, and you may of one phase of conditions lulu. The old missionary spir unyielding, ford of power and 1 promising—still rules in the publi fairs, in business and in social life advenfurcus Californian who here after annexation frets at ary restraints and wa and, opposition and deflance a wea profitless pursuit, seils out his bu ness to the old-timers and returns to San Frarcisc The Portuguese, thrifty. industrious living unto ‘themselves and imdiffer to American citizenship, which th=y will scarcely ke the trouble to ac- quire; the . Chi e, pattent and y quiet and gradually returning to Ch' the Japanese, proud, aggressive relsome, self-seeking, ambitious and reliable—these make up the cosmopol- itan Tife of the Paradise of the Pacl The social life outside of the regular "American society is a queer medley. There was, before it was oroken up b private effort, a great bagmio, which was practically licensed and under open police protection. Among its six he dred inmates there were Japanese, nese, Portuguese and French women but not a single Hawalian. And the Hawaiian women do not pretend t be strict observers of the moral law There are hundreds of households In which the birth of the elder children were entered upon the family record before the marriage ceremony was per- formed. But neither their own visiting list nor that of their parents was the by restricted, and in the olden days | was considered by a husband a dis- tinguished honor to have a chief for the father of one of his children. The Hawailan idea of duty was expressed by an indignant native when the superintendent of public works was removed from office by the Gov nor for having “swiped” public s under his control. The defaulter, after being di money, but removed him the native rem a- ed Kanaka ecutive tyrants public sentiment when he exclaimed “What a s to turn John out of h Didn’t he put back the money “This beautiful dress for Brown, is it?” said the native wife ggling lawyer in lu to her dressmaker. “W there is nothing luck o e people. My hus- Just Brow Bo a lawyer as , but he cannot afford to e. He has been makes a living, wn, who n , jumped into a big practice at once. You say that he cases. Well, of & but that is eas Colonel buy such dresses fc here for years and o been while Colonel Br here but a few m he wins his case: counted for. the mainland with a one of the ot ng about and of co He came down h lot of new law While there is no dist count of race, col cree in Hawali, there is a bar it is a bar that seems to be All those v in thes fore the overthrow of tt are “Kamainas” and all come since “‘Mal comer who is here tourist is received with ef For there is p: luau and hula hula. But if bec es a sojourn, if tempted by cli- mate and kindness he emb .rks in com- merce, or manufactures or agriculture. or seeks to practice law, medicine dentistry, then the glad hand is at once — all these factors accounted oty pregent ond ne. We m beg an -— + o DIPLOMACY By Nicholas Nemo consider it a decidedly unfriendly act and would at relations with his own such time as the cause should be removed Of course, ded him that all e and practice unmen- of once se family until friction Mrs. men of natu by tionable brutes and that he was one were best specimens of the class now and that furthermore her dear mother should always be w come in the Benedict mansion and should stay as long as might seem de- sirable to the partles in interest. When the matter was presented to him in this aspect of sweet reasonableness John Henry promptly withdrew from his aggressive position and announced that any female ancestor of Mrs. Benedict's was a firm friend of his. As a consequence of this particular plece of truthfulness on John Henry's part he was forced to hear his many short- comings pointed out to him by the said female ancestor morning and night for six weeks. This was the straw that changed the whole current of John Henry's life, so to speak. He had given the bright god- dess Truth the best chance in the world to make good and she had ut- terly failed to deliver the goods as or- dered. He now determined to try what a little judicious diplomacy would do. When an old and tried friend of his youth blew in one afternoon and ex- pressed a desire to see how the town looked after the lights were turned on, John Henry ealled up Mrs. Benedict and broke the news to her as gently as possible that Jones of Kalamazoo " is in town with a large consignment of business that must be attended to be- fore the banks opened the fext morn- ing and for this reason he would be unable to gladden his household with his presence until a very late hour. The only alloy of truth that this statement contained was that there is such a town as Kalamazoo—even the residents admit that—and that there is probably a man or two named Jones concealed somewhere in the city directory of the place; the rest was a product of John Henry's active Imagination. This fact, the in capti when he a distinct on, and condoling e was s h had been John Henry's h that he ac- om of a blush. The remainder of John Henry's ca- reer proved the om he new policy which he had inaugurated. Whe: the s estion was tentat! y ad- vanc hat another visit from the an. cestor alluded to above was e he deftly evaded the invasion by poinmt- ing out that when two people were so happy together it was a pity to ring in a non-union ha When a type- writer who could w along the street without frightening the cab horses settled down John Henry's office, he never mentioned her and, from his co versation, the casual observer might have infer that she never came within the effective range of his ob- servation. The sa to all the domest les and worked like a charm, so that where once was discord and dread war's alarms, un- alloyed peace and happiness now reigned. The white-winged dove of peace elbowed the grim visaged god of war off the nest and everything was as lovely as a meeting of the national campaign committee. In order to round out this domestic Iliad, it cessary to state that Mrs. Benedict was on to John Henry with both feet all the time and could tell when he was lying without the aid of a 4microscope or a spirit level, but this did not prevent her from attribu his mendacity to a commendal sire to save her feelings, and in quence John Henry received praise an honeyed words where all “was stern o sure and ve s that flew straight to the mark. of which goes to prove that as long as truth crushed to earth can be counted on to rise again, it isn’t absolutely necessary to be so everlastingly careful of it on all occasions. (Copyright, 193, by Albert. Britt.)