The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 14, 1904, Page 6

| *. - + When Age Comes. "Y CHARLES FREDERIC GOS§. D.D. (Auther of “The Redemption of David Corson,” ete) (Copyvight, 1904, by Joseph B. Bowles.) Talk about the dangers and tempta- tions of youth! They are mere popguns 10 the Mauser rifies of oid age! Youth tries the flesh, Lbut old age tests the £oul. When a man runs up against gray hair, wrinkies, disiflusionments, ad- vancing shadows, bursting bubbles, n graves—he begins. to know what al strain of life is. And age tests institutions as well as individuals. Take marriage. It is hard for a young couple to love unbrokenly through poverty, child-bearing and the period of discovery, when a thousand undreamed of faults and even vices re- veal themselves. But the real pinch comes when a woman begins to have to brush the dendruff and pick the gray hairs off from the stooped shouiders of an old man. In this the young hero to whom she gave her budding affections— this old dotard who is losing his mem- and manners? What is there to e about him? And it comes to the man even sooner. What a cold chill those wrinkles and that false front send down his back. He married red cheeks and bright ey. &nd pearly teeth and a plump figure— rot this thin, sallow, faded old woman! As for himself, he feels as young as he ever did. His eye is not dim and his 3¢ natural force is not abated (or so he thinks, the dunce), and the idea that be, who is still so young and hand- some (and who could still have any 16- year-old girl for the asking), must pass the rest of his days bound by the chains of matrimony to this venerable female person excites a spasm of re- bellion. It is & good thing that these tremend- ous changes do mot come all at once, like lightning out of a clear sky or a enowstorm in August. Nature is merci- less sometimes. It isn't an easy thing to discover evidences of kindness in her letting these shocking alterations come at all. But if they have to come it is at least an act of grace upon her part to afford little premonitions now and then, as a single leaf falling at intervais fore- tells the naked tree. They give us a start. The heart stands still at even these slight intimations of the ap- proaching winter of old age. But it is at least not like having the flowers frosted in a single night. There is a very dramatic story of a young woman whose lover fell into the crevasse of a glacier and who remained unmarried in the fond hope of seeing his body when at the end of fifty years the fiuw of the ice river should bring it to an open place in the mountains. The day arrived, the body appeared 2nd the wrinkled old lady received a fatal shock at sight of the pink-faced boy whose countenance she imagined would be wrinkled like her own! Well, it is to be said that if she found it hard to love this beardiess boy, she would have probably found it still harder to have loved .a parchment- faced old man. The great problem of married life is old age! It is not the problem as to whether grizzied old couples will sepa- rate or be divorced. There comes a time when sheer inertia will keep them together. But the problem is, will they continue to love? Upon this problem let us advance an observation. In the first place, the sooner we recognize the futility of our efforts to maintain a hold on each other by mere bodily charms the bet- ter. The delusion -that love is phys- ical dies hard. There is evidence enough to support it. We seem to know the soul by its material mani- festation alone. How can a beautiful soul be in an unbeautiful body? When the body is old, will not the soul be old also? Reasoning thus, we resort to “hair dyes” and “plumpers” to feed the dying fires of “passion.” But it is like feeding fiames with cold water or gray umists. INSTRUCTIVE | STUDIESS | N_AND as great a failure. it should have a rea- a vital reason, for upon it depends self-control of the individual. May it not be claimed that in sc far as home d line tends to this it is good, in so ' far as it falls below this it is bad? | Taking this, then, as the starting point, ho®% many In: nces of proper home training can you number? The discip- | Jine th s punitive or coercive Is nutt rare, worthiess in the higher | Unless one does right without forced irto it he is gaining noth- | J | i it b bes ! ing in himself, though, perhaps, for the | family, as later for the world itself, a | forced goodness may be better than | none at all. Yet in considering the in- | ! dividual himself that need not be counted. In many families one finds | this kind of training. It shares punishments and rewards with equal | lavishness and folly. It takes no ac- count of the spirit which moves one to the aet, vet it is not the spirit of the | doer which is of greatest importance. Many a mother shows by her course that she comsiders it worse to break | a bit of bric-a-brac thap to be mali- cious or untruthful, for she punishes severely the unintentional breaking of a dish, passes with small attention the lie or unkindness. That is, she places things above principles, the material above the spiritual, the temporal above the eternal. Does this not seem to be a mistake? Are not the things which count for character greater than those | ich are superficial? Are not those which iead a child to see right ! for himself rather to be chosen than those which punish him for what he did know? The occultists define sin as ignorance, therefore it should be the aim of those who govern childgen to help them to ely and thus avoid wrongdoing. How far this is from the usual course | of discipline you may learn in an hour’s | observation of parents and children. Following a natural and proper desire to increase his knowledge, a boy m-| vestigates the working of a clock, to the subgequent detriment of the article concerned. His motive was as correct as when he magde the water mill for! which he was praised, but does he get ! praise for tinkering with the clock Probably not. More likely he is greet- ed with “You bad, wicked boy, tear- ing my clock to pieces. You ares the most destructive child I ever saw, and | I shall let your father settle with you when he gets home.” { That reproof is a model of all a good | disciplinarian would avoid, because it | treats what really was a commendable motive as a wickedness. The only evil was the disregard of the rights of the | property of another, and that was through ignorance which could be en- iightened by a few just remarks. Then to “let your father settle with you” is a confession of weakness on the mother's part. She should settle her own accounts, for her own sake and for the child’s. He should not feel| that his mother is a moral weakling. Had she talked with the boy, show: | ing him that she appreciated the spirit | that had animated him and pointing out to him why he should not have taken another’s property, even for the sake of gaining knowledge, she would have brought him to a condition of mind much more for his welfare. Most people punish to relieve them- | selves.. They call it doing good to the child, but it is not. If a parent er ! teacher can punish only when the of- fense is fresh his punishment is use- | less, for it is merely a gratification of ! his own need to let wrath, escape more | jor less violently. One of the finest disciplinarians had this rule for his| government: Never punish until the | offense is a day old. Then justice dealt, and there was no personal irritation teo | see W weaken the forge of the reproof. | The difficulty with home government lies in the undisciplined nature of the mothers. They cannot control them- selves; how then can tney .act wiln | justice toward their children? The | woman who snatches"a little child Yrom | scmething it is interested in, saying | fretfully, “Why in the world don’t you | let things alone?” is hardly prépared to | teach that child patience and self-re- straint. A teacher who was unusually suc- cessful in getting hold of her pupils | | was once greatly troubled by a boy | who made flippant, impudent speeches. She waited a while to find the reason | for these, and then she had a talk with | him in private. She said: “Ernest, you | have a way of saying impertinent/ | things which is very disagreeable. I, think; however, you do it because you | | regard them as witty, and feel that the smile that sometimes follows is of ap- | preciation.” He admitted that this was | | true. “Well, you are mistaken. Your| | classmates have spoken of this habit In the second place, we can ouly keep ©f Yyours as ignorance on your part,; love alive by becoming more beautiful A and asked me to excuse it for the pres- in character. Do you not know that ent.” This presentation of the matter kindness is always beautiful? Unsel- | cured him. The same method will prove fishness will transfigure even a de. | Successful in many perplexing cases. formed body as the candles bn an altar transfigure dark and ugly catWedral windows. If you have been kind be- fore, be doubly kind when you are old. If you want to keep love captive, you must bind him now, not with red cheeks. but with gentleness and devo- tion. This is the time to let all your graves effiorezce. If you are sour and frritable, as well as wrinkied and gray, your doom is sealed. Nothing can be so beautiful, but nothing can be so ugiy as old age! be adorable was so easy when your step was light and your figure was round and vital force was issuing from every pore. To be adorable now de- mande toii and consecration. Be courteous! Courtesy is (in the es- sence) sppreciaiion, and therefore be- longs in its brightest manifestation to advanced vears. There is no chivalry ifke that of the old gentleman! There is no courtesy like that of the old lady! Gentle Discipline. BY DORA MAY MORRELL. (Formerly Editor “The Household,” York.) W (Covyright, 1904, by Joseph B. Bowles.) In noting earefuily the various exhi- bitiuns of home discipline 1o be found by the observant everywhere, what seems to be the object served by it? Unless discipline has a purpose it is as ‘worthiess a8 all purposeless things, and | In the home the baby is laughed at | and called cunning for doing the things that later he is punished for doing, ' which is a puzzle to him, and also shaies his faith in his parents. A good | gardener will not plant anything which he will want later to destroy. Neither will a good disciplinarian. Prevention | is much easier than cure in dealing | with the faults of children, Perhaps the greatest mistake conscientious par- ents make in dealing with children is in attaching too much weight to trifles, | end in emphasizing the wrong things. | The power of suggestion is reason for passing with small notice the faults one | wishes to have outgrown. Cure them by praizsing their opposites. Speak | often of the good that should grow. | Find that and encourage it. Govern | through admiration of the worthy, not | by fault finding. Children will grow | uneonscicusly to like the models before them, and the personal atmosphere of | | their parents wijl count for more than much preaching at them. When the spirit is most vexed within . you go into seclugion before you express your ! opiniens. It will be well for you as for | | the others concerned. Teach a child | 1 | to govern himself and you are a good | disciplinarian whatever the method | yousfollow. Teach him to see for him- | | self why one course is wise and right | and the other course wrong. Help him to train himself, remembering that “he who his own spirit is greater +*n he who taketh & city.” ] THE SAN JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Froprieto: . . . THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, MONDAY, MARCH 14. 1904 FRANCISCO. CALL 08 e BRSNS L D H D SRR S B TR AT, +«ee... Address All Commaunications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager Publication Office . <. ......Third and Market Streets, S. F. \IOND;Y\IARCH 14, 1904 HILE a furious storm of wind and rain has W;wept over California, prostrating telegraph lines, washing out railroad tracks, driving vessels ashore, flooding lowlands in the country and impeding transportation over country roads, the wecather has dis- tinctly improved over the rest of the country during the past week, to the marked betterment of general business. its effect is seen in a decided increase in the demand for merchandise, which shows that the delayed spring trade is at last under way. This spring trade is now where it should have been no ter than the first of February. The latter date is late enough in average| years, but when the spring revival is deferred to the middle of March the country feels the lull. The improvement seems general. Collections are re- ported better, the distributive trade is expanding, build- ing operations are being resumed and there is an air of briskness and activity all over the country. Railway transportation is still impeded by local bad weather at some points, but this is a condition always expected during the winter months, and is unawoidable in a country <o wide in area and comprehending so many different climates as the United Stutes. The railways have suf- fered rather more than usual from severe weather dur- ing the winter now drawing to a close, and the earnings for February showed a loss of 7 per cent from the cor- | responding month in 1903. The bank clearings have been making an unfavorable exhibit for some time past, and those last week lost 26.2 per cent, as compared with the same week last year, with New York 37.3 per cent and Philadelphia 18.8 per cent in the wrong column. But the situation in these bank clearings shows this improvement, that most of the other important cities showed a gain for the week, , whereas of late the whole line has been practically run- ning behind. Even Baltimore, with her disastrous fire, exhibited a gain last week of 13.8 per cent, while Pitts- burg, the center of the iron and steel industry, gained 10.3 per cent. This may be taken as an affirmation of the mére cheering reports now coming in regarding the condition of iron and steel, the demand being better and prices firmer, with a very good movement in structural material for building, bridge work, ete. The loss at New York may be largely ascribed to the abnormal lassitude prevailing in Wall street, where busi- ness is duller than for many years, there being no de- | mand of any consequence for any class of securities. In fact, business in stocks and bonds declined to such a degree during the week that the trading on Thursday was the smallest since 1806. There were long intervals of complete idleness, and some minutes between trans- actions. It was like the exchange of a second-rate coun- try city on a dull day. The previous record of dullness was 86,000 shares on August 22, 1900, but the sales on Thursday amounted to only 73,800 shares. The fact is the liquidation in Wall street, about which so much was said last year, has been even more severe than heretofore thought and has driven thousands of | active patrons of the stock market out of the market, not only for the time being but forever. A large per- | centage will never again regain their speculative feet, and it now seems as if a new crop of public speculators must grow before the Stock Exchange can resume its wonted activity. So much for booms. Conditions, too, are rather favorable than otherwise for stock specula- tion, which emphasizes the present stagnation just so much more. Money s plentiful, values are undeniably low and the chances for a rise are better than for a de- cline, but the public cannot be induced to take hold of the market. A¢burned child fears the fire. Aside from the improvement in iron and steel the staples show little change * from the preceding week. Provisions are quiet at Chicago, with most of the stock in the hands of the outside trade, and the packers selling rather than buying. The hide market seems to be look- ing up, and more steadiness is shown by quotations. Wool is steady enough, but the manufacturers are buy- | ing only from hand to mouth, even though stocks are not large. The excitement in cotton continues to subside and the recent agitation in the coffee trade is passing into history. In fact, all of the great staples have quieted down considerably during the past fortnight and no longer exhibit any sensational features. Conservatism, supplanted by a spasm of speculation during the past month or two, is reasserting itself, and even the Oriental war, with its underlying possibilities of commercial disturbance in some form or 9ther, has ceased to be a dominant factor in any line. Even wheat, which for years has been particularly sensitive to even a bare prediction of European complications, does not re- spond to the daily war news, and at present is governed almost wholly by the natural law of supply and demand and the condition of the crops. There is plenty of this grain on hand and in sight all over the world, and the market is unusually quiet and featureless. Conditions in California and its two northern sister States remain satisfactory and about as previously stated. The recent rain succeeded -finally in extending to the southern counties, giving them a good wetting, and with a few spring showers the region south of Tehachapi will yield good crops. As for the central and northern counties, they have been drenched. In most of them the farmers are already crying enough and clamoring for dry weather, even as a month ago they wanted rain. Our crop prospects for 1904 are now prac- tically assured, and what is especially gratifying, a great demand for our field products seems to be opening up. The Oriental war demands are calling on our mar- kets for large lines of barley, oats, hay and other forage, and if they continue we will hardly have enough left for our own consumption and our regular export trade. This, of course, means good prices for an indefinite period and consequent good times all over the coast. Hence the feeling of confidence which has prevailed during the past five years continues undiminished and everybody expects another good year. There is certainly nothing in sight now to lead anybody to expect otherwise. ROOSEVELT ON PARTY’S MISSION. RESIDENT ROOSEVELT has broken the en- P forced calm of his literary endeavor by publishing in the current Critic a brief monograph entitled “The Mission of the Republican Party.” Though pub- lished in advance, this latest written word of the Presi- dent is designed to be a foreword to “The History of the Republican Party,” by Frangis E. Curtis, shortly to | be published. No more dignified ;qd wholly unprejudiced preface for a book of this character could be written. The keynote of the President’s few didactic paragraphs upon the duty of the Republican party is that little: known speech of Abraham Lincoln, delivered after his re-clection to the Presidency, wherein the great Repub- lican advocated with all. th‘c mative power of suasion which was his the speedy obliteration of campaign dif- ferences, the campaign being once over, and the union of all in the work of prospering the Government. This idea Roosevelt expands into a party creed of honest en- deavor for the right and a wholesome sentiment, deep and fundamental, for a sane and conservative party prin- ciple. % “It is of course the merest truism,” writes Roosevelt, “to say that a party is of use only so far as it serves the nation, and that he serves the party best who serves the nation best. In 1856 and in 1860 the party was of use because it stood against the extension of slavery; in 1864, because it stood against all slavery as well as against the destruction of this Union; in 1868, because it stood against those who wished to undo the resuits of the war. These are now dead issues; but we can learn Low to face the live issues of the present day by studying in good faith how men faced these dead issues of the past. We must act with wisiiom, or else our adherence to right will be mere sound and fury without substance; and we must act high-mindedly, or else our wisdom will in the long run prove to be but folly in the eyes of the just and far-sighted.” A This calm, high-minded call of the head of his party for probity and temperate action on the part of all those whose names swell the roster of Republicanism has nothing in it of a partisan ring, nor does it sound the Pharisee’s “I am better than thou.” It could as well be taken as the watchword of any party, for it is the arm- orial device of an ideal Americanism. ¢ A New Orleans politician was convicted of a felony a few days since and sentenced to a term in a penitentiary. Is it required to draw the necessary conclusion of logic and locality and add that the convicted man is a Repub- lican? The conviction of any other brand of patriot in the Southern city would be a novelty little less than a sensation. T anese struck at their- burly antagonist, paralyzing the naval arm of Russia’s service and completely clearing the Japan and China seas within the short space of a month, has come like a bomb into the councils of naval strategists. From the rapid events of the last thirty days in the Far East there have arisen startling facts to make something like a revolution in the ac- cepted standards of natipnal defense. Naval authorities NEW WAR PROBLEMS. HE lightning-like rapidity with which the Jap- both in England and on the Continent have been forced | suddenly to sit up and take notice of what the little brown men have to teach them. The first lesson to be learned and one which comes with painful suddenness to the strategists of Europe is that a sudden blow, coming without the preliminary warning of official manifesto, may make havoc such as no long and arduous campaign could do and is calcu- lated to produce a state of demoralization from which the assaulted power has difficulty to raise itself. When Japan withdrew its legation at St. Petersburg Russia was, on paper at least, its superior in point of number of ves- sels and armament massed in Eastern waters. By the dagger thrust at Port Arthur on the night of February 8 and the ovérwhelming advance in force upon Chemulpo on the same date the Russians had two first-class battle- ships, two protected cruisers and a gunboat either sunk or put out of use. This one stroke alone gave Japan con- trol of the seas and forced the erstwhile superior fleet of the Czar to remain, divided in two parts, shut up under the protection of batteries commanding land- locked harbors. Drawing a useful lesson from this piece of strategy, F high naval officer in the British fleet recently astounded England by declaring that London was absolutely un- protected from a similar sudden attack which might be made upon it by a small fleet of gunboats flying either the French or German flag. Were the French to adopt like tactics with the Japanese, three light draught gun- boats or cruisers could leave Dieppe under cover of darkness, sail past Gravesend before midnight, shell London and be back in the channel before dawn. That may be true. Correct or not, the .voicing of such a prognostication indicates the British realize that Japan has set a new standard for the solution of war game problems. Crowded closely together as they are, with their ports not twenty-four hours’ sail from one another, Great Britain, France and Germany must realize that the innovatioh set them by the fleets of the Mikado could be practiced with startling results in the waters of the channel, the North Sea or the Baltic. It needs no more evidence than that forthcoming from the short month of fighting in the Orient to demonstrate, had not the fate of the Philippines already proved it, that the protection of dependencies at a great distance from the sovereign country is a matter fraught with stu- pendous difficulties. Already Australia has begun to send home demands for an independent fleet to protect its'shores in case of attack. Well may Great Britain be- gin to take stock of the resources she has at hand with which to defend provinces'on the other side of the globe. The political campaign has been launched in Califor- nia by the call for the Republican State Convention. It will not be long, therefore, before' we are wondering how so many men, generally considered to be above re- proach, have succeeded in keeping out of jail so long. We always have the satisfaction of knowing, however, that our political orators mean nothing by their abuse and influence nobody by their praise. B —_— Riotous students have been making martial law almost a necessity of late in Prague and Vienna, and the au- thorities of both cities are distressed to discover a rem- edy. The tendency of the European collegian to act like a ruffian and to demand the treatment of a gentleman has been one of the unsolved enigmas of the age. Per- haps some normal occupation, such as breaking stone in a prison quarry, might prove efficacious. —_— The Russians have lost another of their Port Arthur torpedo-boats. The fact is worth comment because the loss was not sustained through mistake, ignorance or in- sufficiency, but in actual, honorable combat with the Japanese foe. It is high time that the sailors of the Czar were up and doing even if they have to lose. The example of their heroes at Chemulpo should spur them as it thrilled the world. s Out of the maze of conflicting reports that float to us from partisan and prejudiced sources in the Far East there is one that seems to be so universally aécepted as to be the truth. It is that the Retvizan and the other torpedoed warships of Russia at Port Arthur are again intact and ready for service. What must we say now of the effectiveness of the torpedo in modern warfare? Their Rude Awakening. A rude awakening has been the lot by this time of at least three men who shipped at this) port on vesseis of the whaling fleet. No sober sailor, and few white men of any kind, could be in- duced in moments of mental clearness to join the mixed company of a blub- ber hunter’s forecastle. For this rea- son, outside of the Portuguese and Hs- kimos, the crews of whalers consist largely of green hands. If shipping masters told even these green hands the unvarnished truth most of the whalers would be tied up for lack of | erews. Most successful shipping mas- ters could win fame in the realm of fle- tion. To the brilllance of their imag- ination and the convincing nature of their imagery hundreds can testify. When the fleet now out returns there will be at least three new witnesses. One hese is a blacksmith. As he left master in search of men for a whaler. The sailor-dealer engaged the husky smith in conversation and in ten min- utes had hired him to accompany & whaling expedition to the Arctic. He would receive a high salary and his work would be to shoe the ‘““decoy whales” with corrugated steel plates to enable them to make better time over the ice. Another of the trio is bound north to drive the eight-ox teams used in tow- | ing the whaling bark through the Arc- | tic canals. The third will make water ecolor sketches of Arctic sunsets for the cap- tain’s collection, and between whiles will aid the mate in designing the cor- sets he constructs from the whalebone. When the three return the chances { are many to one that each will regeive | $1 in sole pecuniary compensation for many days of hard toil. But they all will be wide awake. When Mrs. Fiske Was Young. “Have you noticed the ciistom thea- | ters have of closing for a week or so to | clear the atmosphere, as it were, for | the coming of a big artist?” asked one | of the older of San Francisco's orches- tral violinists as the conversation | turned on the closing of the Grand in | preparation for Mrs. Fiske. “Well, 1 ! was just thinking that they sometimes close for other causes. The only time, however, that I can remember of play- ing in a theater which had to close be- cause not a living soul could be coaxed | | to the show—oh, don’t you go and print | ! this, now—was when I was playing in| | old Dietz's Opera-house, in Oakland, back in the '8¢'s. The play was | “Caprice,; and the leading lady was a| | slender young girl named Minnie Mad- | dern. The play was billed for a week‘; | but after two nights the frost rusted the hinges of the doors, 1 guess, for | they didn’t open till the next show | came. | “It was not that the girl's show was | poor, mind you—far from it, for that's {why I remember the incident so well. ! She was very charming and so perfectly | natural that I was much impressed | with her possibilities and have often | spoken of the shame of the thing—to | have to close the house. After all these | years I can play from memory a song !ending with the words, ‘Well, maybe {you will, but T doubt it,’ which she | sang as an incident to the play, togeth er with the old song, ‘In the Gloaming.’ | I have never seen the woman the | American public calls the great Mrs. | Fiske,.and T don't know whether she | ever sings, but I was one who was not | surprised when Minnie Maddern Fiske | came ‘into her own. I often wonder if | the successful woman remembers the | struggling girl and the time we had the | house closed on us because no one ‘ would come to the show.” Saw the Cop. | A few days since one of the teachers | in the Buena Vista Primary school ad- | dressed her class of young boys on the | subject of heroes and explained to them | in simple language that it was the duty | of every boy to be a hero at some time | and after she had concluded said that | the following week she would ask them | if any one had done anything that en- | titled him to be known as a hero. On the day appointed she again ad- dressed her class and asked if any one had been a hero. For a few seconds there was no response. “What,” asked the teacher, “has no one done anything heroie?” One little fellow raised his hand and when given permission to speak said, “Teacher, I guess I did.” “What did you do?” The little fellow straightened up and replied: “I was om the street with lot of boys who were stoning a Chin: man and I picked up a stone to throw," but I dropped the stone.” “That,” said the teacher, “was a kind of heroism which shows a good trait— the ability to restrain the inclination to do a wrong. Now tell the class what prompted you to drop the stone.” “I saw the cop coming,” said he. Personal Journalism. One of the exchange editors of the New York Evening Post recently ran across the following picturesque sur- vival, or revival, of old-fashioned per- sonal and independent journalism— country style. It was in the Salisbury (Maryland) Courier, a Republican party organ, whose editor a few days before, on his wedding trip, left his as- sistant in charge. The subeditor as. sumed his new duties without embar- rassment and greeted his readers with the following leading editorial: ““The patrons of this paper will nctice a decided improvement in its cortents— for this week only. We (tkat is, the editor pro tsm.—cml there is only one of us, but, to be an editor, must use the ‘we’) are left in full charge to do as we please. We had some thought of making a radical change in the political complexion of it and issuing a real, simon-pure Democratic paper for the members of that party who are tired of taking mixed drinks and would like to try a little straight. There is a na-fide opening here for such an en- terprige, but the time at our command ‘would be too short to undo the teach- ings of Bryan and others of his ilk. ‘We could tell the ‘Repubs’ many things for their individual good, but that is what Alan (the editor) gets paid for, and, with his new responsibilities, we the St#kton beat he met a shipping | cannot and will not work him out of a ! Job. He is now at Atlantic City holding a caucus (secret, you bet) on the state of the nation, and I-I mean we—are simply expected to amuse the patrons until he returns. As his pass expires on Tuesday, February 2, we expect him on or before that date.”—Current Literature. The Code Napoleon. A few days hence France will cele- brate with befitting ceremony the cen- tenary of that Code Napoleon which in the eyes of all thoughtful people constitutes the most enduring, as well as the grandest, memorial of the first Emperor of the Preach. Other of his creations have crumbled into the dust. But the code of laws with which he provided France is in existence to this day, and has, moreover, been adopted more or less completely by many other of the old world nations, while in this country it is in force, I believe, in the State of Loulsiana. Strictly speaking the Code Napoleon was not promul- gated in its entirely completed form until after Napoleon had been several years on the thromé. But, naturally, the republic does not wish to promots the cause of the Bonapartist Pretender by extolling the founder of his dynasty and so it takes advantage of the fact that the most important portion of the code having been promulgated on March 21, 1804, at which time France was still a republic and Napoleon its “first consul,” to celebrate the cen- tennial on March 21 next. In this way whatever honors are pald to the first Napoleon as the creator of the code will be accorded to him as chief mag- istrate of the first French republic, and not as Emperor. Students of French history will recall that he only assumed the title of Emperor some weeks after the promulgation of the Code Civil, namely, in May, 1804, The Czar's Presence. “In personal conversation with the Czar one is struck immediately with the shrinking shyness and softly apprehen- sive, almost feminine sweetness of the Russian Emperor,” says Arnold White in Everybody's Magazine for March. “The contrast between the melancholy and reflective Czar and the exuberant- ly vital Kaiser, bubbling and boiling with unexpended life power, can be ap- preciated only by those who have con- versed with both. It must not be sup- posed that Czar Nicholas II is des- titute of strength because his habitual outlook on life is rather one of Oriental resignation than of -the hopefulness that might be expected from the head of a great Christian nation. The Czar is remarkable for a dignity which is the more noticeable because he is small in size, and his voice is gentle and womanly. The dignity is like the dig- nity of Queen Victoria, which impress- ed every one who entered her presence.” Answers to Queries. GRANT—A. O. R, City. U. 8. Grant was born on a Saturday. FREEZING — Subscriber, Alameda, Cal. Water freezes at 32 Fahrenheit and olive oil at 50 degrees. HYDRAULIC MINE — Subscriber, City. The Malakoff mine in Nevada County, California, is sald to be the largest hydraulic mine in the world. TWO WRECKS—Subscriber, City. The steamer Northerner was wrecked at the entrance to Humboldt Bay Jan- uary 5, 1360. The steamer Golden City was lost off Cape San Lazaro February 22, 1870. AMMUNITION—Inquirer, Alameda, Cal. What is meant by a round of am- munition in the army is one cartridge to each man of a command. If the men had sufficient cartridges to load five times that would be five rounds of ammunition. CIVIL ENGINEERING—A. B. C., City. The chances for a graduate of the University of California “obtaining a position in one of the big corporatiens * would be the necessity for such. A person desiring such a pestion should file an application with the corpora- tion and furnish reference as to cap- ability and standing. THE GREAT FLOOD — Subscriber, City. The great flood in California which inundated the city of Sacra- mento and forced the State Legislature then in session to remove to San Fran- cisco was during the thirteenth ses- sion, which ovened January 6, 1362 The flood pccurred December 9, 1861, and when the Legislature met nearly a month later the city was not in a destrable condition for legislative busi- ness. On the 10th of January, when Leland Stanford was inaugurated Gov- ernor, there was another flood, and in the latter part of the month both houses decided to hold the balance of the session in San Francisco, and it was held in the Merchants’ Exchange building. on the northeast corner of Battery and Washington streets. —_—————— Townsend's California glace fruits and maui 50c a pound. in artistic fire- etched es. A nice present for Eastern friends. 715 Market st.. above Call hidg.* —_—— m} information supplied daily to Rouses and public men by the