The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 18, 1904, Page 8

THE S FRANCISCO CALL, FRI MARCH 18, 190 ) uld has been trying for '1.r sWabash line. 1In this en- r he hag had the outspoken and 4 ed opposition of the Penn- sylvania Railroad and the silent oppo- tion of the Vanderbilts. From a freight traffic point of view the Pitts- g region is counted by railroad | ren as an unfailing bonan: The | of coa d various manufactured prod- | dled at Pittsburg have ov the railroad facilities in t for several years past, vet all 1pts to build new railroads in this ntities ore, col cts ha rich fieid have been stubbornly re- sisted by powerful influences. The | Pe vivania lines and the Vander- and Lake Erie road bits” ¥ urg are the only two railroads that have accesg to the great Homestead, Bra dock and the Jones and Laughlin steel plants, Andrew Carnegie, angered at what | he termed the selfish and unconcilia- | tory policy of the dominant railway ntere: in the Pittsburg region. had plans prepared for the construction of | an independent line frgm Pittsburg to a point on Lake Erie. His insistence | pon the carrying out of this project | was one of the causes that led to the formation of the great United States Steel Corporation. Certain Wall street tereste became alarmed at Mr. 1 ~ie's defiant and aggressive attitude d J. Pierpont Morgan was appealed avert the threatened onslaught | ar- | to upon railroad harmony. Mr. Morgan | minated negie as a factor in matters by forming the steel trust, but not before the great iron- as the head of the Carnegie steel plant, had made a contract with | George J. Gould providing for the turning over to the Wabash Railroad of several millions of tons of freight as soon as the Wabash lines effect an entrance into Pitts- burg territory. The time limit of this Carnegie-Gould contract has not yet expired, but the Wabash Railroad is not in position to avail itself of the coveted traffic priv ileges. Through the purchase and ex- tension of the Wheeling and Lake Ene Railroad the Goulds have gained an ntrance into Pittsburg, but as yet the pple of promise is afar off. Notwith- standing the spirited opposition of the Pennsylvania Raiiroad the Wabash management has built a bridge across the Monongahela River and established a terminal station in Pittsburg. But thie terminal is euitable only for pas- senger traffic and is cut off from the eteel plants by the refusal of the Pitts- burg municipal authorities to grant L required right of way through the city to a connection with a small road that taps the steel plants. The Goulds have spent about $40,000,000 thus far to get into Pittsburg and establish a through line eastward to Baltimore, but until they can loosen the grip of the Penn- sylvania Railroad on the Pittsburg Council they stand little chance of getting the rich slice of freight traffic that the Carnegie contract holds up to view. Much that is untrue and absurd has been written about the warfare be- tween the Goul@ and Carnegie inter- ests. Prominence has been given to the rumors that the Rockefellers have al- lied themselves with the Goulds to in- timidate the Pennsylvania Railroad management and if necessary to force A. J. Cassatt out of the control of that great system. Actual facts, known (o most well-informed railroad men, prove the absolute falsity of these rumors. The Rockefellers, like other possessors of surplus funds, have invested in Pennsyivania Railroad stock, but in a comparatively small way. There are now about 46,000 individual stockhold- ers of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany—an increase of nearly 12,000 with- in one year. This remarkable diffusion of Pennsylvania Railroad shares does not jndicate that any effort has been made to cencentrate the holdings of i{hese securities in the fnterests of the Rockefellers, the Goulds or any other particular Interest. A confidential rep- resentative of John D. Rockefeller told ihe writer of this article a few days ago that the Rockefelier interesis had ro more igea of seeking control of the Pennsylvania Railroad than they had of buying Trinity Church in New York. George 3. Gould said just before ieav- ing New York for California: *“It is true that we have met with opposition in our efforts to obtain traffic facilities % the Wabash system in Piitsburg, but we hope to overcome all obstacies and establish a thorough line to the Atlantic Coast. We do not expect tc buy any part of the Pennsylvania Rail- road gystem in order to accomplish our purpose. There certainly has been no personal enmity engendered between President Cassatt and myself.” Experienced railroad men in the East believe that Mr. Gould will eventually carry out his plan of establishing a through line to Baltimore, but they look to see important concessions made counld Kk Sun and | ars to get into Pittsburg | murder of | gara. | colossus of South Africa, Cecil Rhodes. | | cerning matters in the territory that | Justice Lang and D. Pennsylvania Railroad system is unique. Although he is only a *‘hired man” he has practically unrestricted control of the properties in his charge, | and his power to make and carry out policies is as unquestioned as is that of w. Vanderbilt, E. H. Harriman, - J. Gould, J. Pierpont Morgan | or James J. Hill, each of whom is ac- customed to regard ordinary rallroad | dents as mere puppets to come at and ‘call and obey orders without | asking the reason why. | Nobody understands the scope of A. | J. Cassatt’s power Mmore accurately than does George J. Gould, and per- { haps no railroad man comprehends Mr. Gould's capabilities better than Mr. Cassatt. The test of strength between th two men is now in its last stage, | t is only reasonable to believe that ! the result ¥ a compromise with- | out humiliation to either and produc- | tive of real advantages to the inter- ests of both as well as the greater inter- ests of the shipping and the traveling { public. It i indisputable fact that of almost unbroken congestion freight . trafiic has prevailed in the | Pittsburg region for the past three | years use of inadequate railroad facilities. | The Western Union-Pennsylvania railway controversy, which has bee | much exaggerated, is an incident of the | Gould-Cassatt railroad fight. A Bucket of Diamonds. su The sequel to the tre e~ seeking expedition the Transvaal, furnished by the sentence to death at Johannesburg of Phillipus Swartz, the of the expedition, for the one of his companions, | Stephanus Van Niekerk, has brought to light a story so strange and romantic, and dealing with such fabulous hid- | den wealth, that recalls some of the South African romances of Rider Hag- It starts appropriately with the tragic in orgz r In 1890, fresh from the conquest of | the Matabeles and the acquisition of Rhodesia, he received an invitation to | visit Magato, a renowned and power- ful Kaffir ch known as the “Lion of the North,” and the unconquered foe of the Bo Magato wished to have a pow-wow with the “Lion of the South.” as he desighated Rhodes, con- | had just been colored red on the Brit- h map. At the Kaffir chief’s strong- hold, on the top of a high mountain, the two strong men met, Rhodes being accompanied by Sir John Wilioughby, de Waal. When they had finished discussing | affairs of state, the wily old Kaffir, wishing to impress Rhodes companions with his wealth as as his power, showed him a bucket | filled with diamonds — magnificent 1 ones. Rhodes was not a man to ex-| press surprise at anything. fore he had seen a bucketful of di monds, which playved an part in the amalgamation of the Kim- | berley mines. of the stones he made a mental esti-] mate of the value of the contents ot | 000,000 and $20,000,000. Then h(:‘ | agked the Magato where he got them. The chief answered that they ha to time by his native subjects, who had | worked in the diamond mines. meant, stolen and that Rhodes himself, as one |of the largest owners of the mines, had had his pockets picked to the tune of a very large fortune. Rhodes always had a great respect for men who did things on a large scale. Besides, in dealing with sav- ages, he always exercised diplomacy. erefore he did not denounce Magato as a receiver of stolen goods. He con- tented himself with intimating that their possession might possibly—at some future date—get the chief into trouble. is said. that it would take more than all the Transvaal police to get them fcom him. Magato did not swear Rhodes and the cther spectators to secrecy, and some things leaked out. This led to the formation of several private syndi- cates to try to obtain the diamonds from the chief—by purchase or other- wige. But all efforts failed. And as to getting them any other way—Ma- gato in his mountain stronghcld, with thousands of Kaffirs ready to fight for him, was a very dangerous man on whom to attempt anything approaching burglary or highway robbery. But no white’man in the Transvaal would ever have long survived the story that he possessed a bucketful of diamonds which were not locked up in a burglar- proof safe. After a while, among the few who had heard of it and failed to get even a glimpse of the gems for the money they had put up, the story of the buck- etful of diamonds was\generally re- garded as a myth, and emissaries of the syndicate ceased to trouble Ma- gato. Then there came a day when the “Lion of the North” fell sick, and real- ized that the hand of death was upon him. He hated Mpefu, his nephew and the heir to the chieftainship. He had tried to get him set aside in favor of one 6f his own indunas. Balked in this, he resolved that he would at least prevent Mpefu from getting the bucket of diamonds in his clutches. Summon- ing four of his most trusted chiefs, he directed them to divide the dia- monds into four lots, take them far away and bury them, and tell no man where they had hid@en them, under penalty of being haunted in this world and tortured in the next. The chiefs promised to obey, and when the dia~ monds had been parceled out among them two of them set out for Matabele Land and the ®wo others, according to the story, trekked toward the Se- lati, in which region the remains of Van Niekerk were subsequently found. And to obtain this treasure, or some portion of it, Swartz got together the search ’ the prospect of finding gato's bucketful ‘of diamonds is likely to start numbers t-easure hunt- tragedies are mmn -Washington Post. Cassatt's position as president of the | | eral Chipman's Once be- l important | After_examining some | the bucket as something between $12,- | | been given him as “presents” from time ‘ That | of course, that they had been | To which Magato replied, it | }THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor « « ¢ o « o0 o . « Addrcss All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager Publication Office «+....Third and Market Streets, S. F. ..MARCH 18, 1904 NO SECTIONALISM. HE annual year book of the State Board of Trade T is a statement of the facts concerning the State’s | production for each year. As such it is an invalu- able part of the State’s industrial literature. Every sec- tion of California, the south below the Tehachapi Pass, the central from that point north to the delta country, and Northern California embracing the Sacramento, are faithfully reported, and each gets credit for its merits and the enterprise of its people. The State is injured by sectional claims of peculiar re- gources denied to other regions. Southern California has had a wonderful development that holds high rank in all comparative statements, because it began later and pro- gressed long after the rest of the State had feltothe im- pulse of its capacities. No.one is jealous of that prog- ress, and no good Californian would minimize it in the least degree, for it all melts into the alluring perspective in which the State is seen from beyond its borders. The Los Angeles Times has been such a considerable factor in the development of Southern California that it can afford not to bite the thumb at the rest of the State. In a recent issue it attacks the State Bourd of Trade year book and incidentally the people north of the Te- hachapi. It says: “It is remarkable how averse the good people of Northern California are to giving full cfedit to the southern part of the State for its wonderful achieve- ments in the line of development during the past twenty years, and especially during the last decade.” Then the Times proceeds to a specific review of Gen- report in the year béok to this effect: “The statement of General Chipman that ‘the south still | claims superiority in orange and lemon production’ h in view of the facts. The citrus fruit shipments | from Southern California this season will prebably amount to 30,000 carloads. We are willing to admit that orange planting in the north is rapidly increasing, as it has been for over twenty years, greatly to the advantage of Southern California nurserymen if not so much to that of the planters.” = That is not a candid statement of the facts. The.ship- ment of citrus fruits from north of the Tehachapi in 1903 amounted to nearly 2300 carloads. That is small in com- parison with the magnificent production of Southern Cal- ifornia, but it is a great increase over the shipments of ten years ago. Its chief significance is that it proves the | orange producing capacity of Central and -Northern Cal- ifornia, and it proves also that the region adapted to profitable citrus production north of the Tehaéhapi is much greater in area than south of that dividing line. The northern citrus belt runs from Porterville to Oro- ville on the east side of the valley, goes up the mountains | as high as the Loomis and Ward ranches on the Merced River, and stretches across the Sacramento Valley from | is | Placer County, passes the spurs of the Coast Range and | appears in Sonoma County, as is proved by the annual citrus fair at Cloverdale. Butte, Yuba, Colusa and Sut- | ter counties are all arange producers, and up to this time | | there has been no damage to trees or fruit by frost or drought since planting began about fifteen years ago. The northern citrus belt produces -ripe and market- able oranges nearly three months earlier than Southern California, for reasons permanent in their nature which The Call has already explained. This advantage is not boasted to decry Southern California, but to present the great and interesting fact that this State has the longest orange season of any part of the world. Our early northern way interferes with the later It meets a market that the south cannot for its oranges are green at that time. The southern crop meets. a market that the north cannot | supply, for its oranges are all harvested and the orchards | are blooming for the next crop. | Now these are facts. To state them is not derogatory | to any part of the State, but is creditable to California as a whole. They seem to furnish no reason for the Times | for saying: “We do not believe in narrow prejudices, holding that all true Californians should take pride in | the prosperity and progress of this magnificent State as a whole. San Francisco is the leading delinquent in this direction. The people of San Francisco resemble the in- habitants of Paris in many ways, among others in their self-satisfied assumption that San Francisco is Cali- fornia, just as your true Parisian believes that Paris is | France. The average San Franciscan also knows as littie | of the resources and natural features of the State, beyond the picnic resorts around the bay, as the boulevardier knows of provincial France.” That is an uncalled for rebuke from an incompetent source. When the Times learns enough about that part of the State that is not in sight from Mount Lowe to know that Northern California has ten acres of orange country to one in Southern California, and that in Northern California the date ripens the farthest north in the world, it will be equipped to sit in judgment upon the ignorance of others. There should be no sectional- ism in this State. There is room for emulation and com- petition, out of which issue benefits to all. crop in no -; southern crop. i supply, An interesting sidelight upon the stress of conditions at Port Arthur has been cast by the announcement, in- tended to be sensational and startling, that cabmen in the shell-assaulted town are charging three dollars for. a fifteen-cent ride. This dispatch was never intended for San Francisco. We have been submitting to the same I normal school on this coast before. | other 18s. JAPANESE CIVILIZATION. HE tumult of war sounds in Eastern Asid, where condition for years /and have never even suspected war. Tmedieval Russia meets modern civilization in Ja- pan. China and Japah were opened to the world ostensibly that they might be modernized and take on Western civilization as far as it might prove to be adapted to their racial character. Japan proceeded to completely 4ssimilate that civilization. She has a com- plete system of jurisprudence, based on the common law, a system of public education and a representative gov- ernment. It ts for the Western nations to decide whether it is preferable that these institutions extend to Eastern Asia or that the brutal and gloomy and hopeless autocracy of Russia shall fall like a shadow upon that part of the earth. The combat is between the ideas of the twentieth century, represented by Japan, and the | world of the time of Ivan the Terrible. The tendency and genius of a people are shown in small matters as well as in great. One incident of this war should not escape notice. The Japanese ‘have re-. spected women, cared for their wounded enemies and conducted themselves in the most m'lumnhy manner toward prisoners. In exploring the mck-of the Rus- sian man-of-war Variag, which their lhota had de- -fluences toward intellectual work. | shore buried them with the honors of war. An Ameri- can read over them a Christian burial service and their. coffins were drawn on caissons that were manned by " Japanese sailors, and the Yankee and French blue jack- ets responded to the Japanese request and served as a guard of honor. When the dead Russians were lowered into their graves the Japanese soldiers fired a volley over them and the bugle sounded taps. It was an impressive scene, the soldiers of what we call a pagan nation giving Christian sepulture to their dead enemies under a guard of honor furnished by the war ships of two Christian republics, and rendering all the honors of war to those who had withstood them in battle and had fallen and could fight no more. It is in sharp contrast with the humiliating parade of Japanese officers captured in skirmish to be insulted in the streets of Dalny by the savage Cossacks, who have | made no advance in civilization since the time of the Kahzars and are practically the same as their Scythian ancestors. The burial by the Japanese of the Russian dead is a theme for the poets who will write the lyrics of this war. It equals any incident in the history of warfare and puts Japan high in the respect of the world. America, it is said, are Central chafing under the restrictions of long continued peace. Our mercurial southern friends should not unnecessarily The republics of distract themselves. They know what to do to excite war, and the rest of us have learned in the bitter and abused school of experience what to do after war has commenced. The world has ceased to consider the in- ternecine squabbles of Central Americans as war. T country has been remarkable. For less than ten years have regular courses been offered by the uni- versities during the summer. Last year all the leading Eastern universities offered full courses by regular in- structors for a term of six weeks or more.. The success | of the university summer school idea has no doubt‘ caused the Eastern normal schools to adopt the plan. i One year ago President Dailey of the San Jose State Normal School presented to the Joint Board of Normal Trustees at San Diego the plan of a summer session to be held at the San Jose Normal. It met with the unani- mous approval of the entire joint board. Governor Par- dees State Superintendent Thomas J. Kirk and the | presidents of all the other State normals indorsed the | movement. It was an experiment, as it had not been tried by any | The argument then offered was that there was a distinct need for such sum- | mer school, because over half of the elementary tedchers of California had had no professional training and nn} opportunity had been offered to them so long as they continued in school during the year. It was also argued 1‘ that this would meet the needs of all those who were en- | gaged in the primary and grammar schools better than | the university summer school, which was not intended especially for grade teachers. SUMMER SCHOOL MOVEMENTS. HE growth of the summer school movement in this TALK OF THE TOWN OF AHL Judas. The much abused but necessary poundman finds himself the target for so much epithet and oftentimes vio- lent interference with his duties that he is compelled to resort to much sub- terfuge to carry on his very important public office of cleaning the thorough- fares of stray animals, notably the homeless dogs. Across the bay in Oak- land the poundkeeper has enlisted the services of a dog, a cleverly trained mongrel, that can be seen daily trot- ting behind the wagon that serves as a cage for lassoed canines. This particular dog plays the part i of decoy to the wayfaring waifs of dog- dom that come within the poundman’s | ken. So cleverly does this homely brute do his work that many an unfortu- nate, yelping cur is lured into the lariat’'s noose, all unaware that his brother has so basely betrayed him to his doom. Observers of the way the decoy dog operates have discovered that he knows a collarless, licenseless dog as far as he can see ome. And he never dis- turbs those that wear the legal author- ization to roam at will. But you should see him nab a canine waif of .the streets. Very quietly he drops behind, letting the wagon run some distance ahead to avert suspicion, for these | street dogs are very cunning and know the poundman well. Then the decoy ambles up to the unsuspicious object of capture. There is some “dog talk” that becomes interesting—so interest- ing, in fact, that the candidate does not notice the approaching lariat thrower. The noose tightens and the canine prisoner is cast into the per- ambulating cart to be borne off to sure death. Sometimes the decoy meets a much bigger dog than himself. Deliberately he will engage in a, fight that unfail- | ingly brings the lassoer, who quickly adds one more to the catch of the day. The poundmen say their low bred de- coy is worth many a dollar to them, for he will lure to capture many a dog that otherwise would escape the pur- suing dog-catcher. Tricks That Are Vain. Bret Harte's poetic declaration con- cerning the ways of the “heathen Chi- nee” has become almost axiomatic. Tourists and globe-trotters returning from the Orient give testimony to the clever schemes that are successfully worked by the slant-eyed denizens of the seaports to win the dollar of the strangers. Among the sampan traders in Honz- kong there is a great traffic in ds. | The coolies offer the canary or thrush in little hand-made cages of bamboo and guarantee the feathered prisoners to be songsters of high degree. The birds are purchased by many a home- coming traveler and the buyer finds that the bird merchant has not lied-— The summer school at San Jose opened June 29, 1903, and 175 teachers were enrolled. Regular normal school work was offesed in all lines. The fact that one half of | those who " enrolled have since entered the normal | school as regular students proves conclusively the popu- : larity of the movement. The history of the summer sessions of the Eastern normals shows in every case a large increase from year to year. Of the eighteen Eastern normal schools hold- ing summer sessions last year some show an enrollment of from 600 to 700 students. Only two normal schools in this country enrolled more students for the first sum- | mer term than did San Jose. One enrolled 180 and an- | There is no reason why a large pl:‘mt where several hundred thousand dollars has been invested | should lie idle one-fourth of the year. The whole function of a normal school is to prepare the best possibly equipped teachers for the State. The only excuse a normal school has for asking for an ap- propriation for support is that the teachers of the State may thereby be made more efficient. If by holding a summer session the efficiency of the teaching force of the State may be increased with a com- paratively small increase in expense this movement should meet with the unqualified approval of all tax- payers. As planned for the coming summer the session will be six weeks in length, closing the first week in August. No tuition will be charged. * All regular work is to be given in the forenoon, leaving the entire afternoon for labora- tory, library work, etc. A number of interesting excur- sions have been planned for the afternoons and Satur- days. A trip to Mount Hamilton, the seat of the famous Lick Observatory, also a yacht ride on San Fran- cisco Bay, besides shorter excursions to near-by places of interest, will be made. The work is so arranged that those desiring credits leading to a normal school diploma will be allowed to take two subjects and by doing extra work be given a term’s credit in those two subjects. Many teachers have already signified their intention of attending again this year and from present prospects 300 teachers are likely to enroll. The location of the school is an ideal one for the pur- pose, as San Jose is not only a beautiful city in itself, but is well equipped with libraries, parks, schools and churches, has a highly cultured society and is full of in- Joseph F. Smith, the Mormon, summarizes his impres- sions of United States Senators, gained while on the grill in the Smoot inquiry, by characterizing the solons of Washington as good fellows. This is the subtlest and cruelest attack yet made upon our national legislative luminaries. Anybody that rests in the opinion of Joseph F. Smith as a good fallow will do well to find time to mend his fences. Something is wrong somewhere. One of our local actors, possessing something more than local fame, says he intends to close his career as a farmer in the peace and quiet and rest of rural life. Why at least for a couple of days out from | port. But invariably the little warblers mysteriously lose their warble after forty-eight hours or so and forever afterward are minus the feeblest sort of a chirp. Investigation has discovered cause of the peculiar lapse been traced to one of those are dark and tricks that are vain.” The Chinese dealers have learned that to stuff the throats of their birds with red pepper will make them glorious singers as long as the effect lasts. After that passes a bird, not naturally a singer, relapses and is silent and often dies from the effect of the burning powder, It's a trick in tune with that of the man who invented wooden nut- megs. For mind you, that while the natural singing canary has a big mar- Ket value the bird that can't sing is not worth beans and no one has learncd that better than John Chinaman in his dealings with the unsophisticated traveler. The Pied Printer. You sa¥ that my thoughts are all pied, sir, And my sanity shattered to bits? That 7 case will come up in the morn- Wh en the doctors will pass on my Well, you know, we wero printers—on space, sir, As happy as doves at a feast, Till they sent me some copy one evening. ‘When lthe trouble broke out in the East. It is said that the troops left Slobod- skoi For Starodub, Brzese, Wlozlawek; And the peasants of Ofverkumingi, Mszczonow, Ostrogojsk and Butchek Had gone by the way of Tchemakhlm- skaia, Down to Solvitchegodsk and Ugliteh, Past Tchelyklai. Schvekshni and Lazi, To die fighting Japs in the ditch. If that were the end of the story I wouldn’t have minded; but when It began with the heroes of Szezuezyn, Slnbodlshlchl Szydlowiec and Tlmen: Of Tcharevokokshaish and Trubtchevsk And fair Tchernocholunitswop—— Then I quit my career as a printer And gave myself up to the cop! G. H. R. The CTook’s Fault. long ago the Emperor of Korea had the misfortune to break a tooth. His angust Majesty at once threw the chief cook and all the latter's assistants into pris- on. A dentist who was touring the her- mit kingdom heard of the trouble and gave relief to the royal sufferer, and was paid 1000 yen (about $300) for his services. Then the imprisoned kitchen force was set at liberty, but the chief cook was sentenced to serve three months without pay. The Emperor or- dered another feast to celebrate the tm;: dtha.t the imperial jaw no longer ached. Russian Lethargy. In wealth, numbers and capacity of equipment the advantages in the pres- in the good name of all that is thespian can’t he induce some of his fellows to take this highly charitable course at once? We can well afford to miss a few f:rmers now on the boards. An unfortunate fellow was sentenced recently to five yurnv imprisonment in San Quentin prison for stealing an. mreost. This surely is one of the cases where crime is synonymous with ‘idiocy. The man that profits thus 5")19?" n&oulil Mcbrficbcmn ‘4‘ ent war are all on the side of Russia. True, they are fighting at an enormous distance from their base and have to depend on a single, badly laid line of rallway, which traverses 1556 miles of unfriendly territory, whose people may conceivably regard the Japanese as lib- During a feast which he gave not | * vent them from sdoubling or trebling that force if necessary. Again, the Rus- slans, like the British, always lose at first. The corruption which does un- doubtedly permeate the beaurocracy and the impossibility of getting so gi~ gantic and unwieldy a machine into working order at short notice make de- feats at the outset inevitable, and in a sense self-inflicted. Russia invariably needs time to pull herself together. The Turkish war was a synopsis of all Russian wars—the hasty and imperfect preparations, the run of disasters so swift and complete that Czardom seemed for the time to be toppling over, and then the slow gathering up and concentration of all her resources, the evolution and discovery of the right man—Russia is never without her Tod- lebens, and at a erisis nothing can keep them down—and the overwhelming and persistent pressure of all that huge em- pire. It means, therefore, little or noth- ing that so far the Japanese have sub- stantially triumphed. They have placed themselves in a commanding naval po- sition and secured their shores from invasion; but they must expel Russia from Manchuria and Korea before they can claim the final victory. And that is an enterprise compared with which the Crimean war becomes a mere episode.— Sydney Brooks, in Harper's Weekly. The Latw in German) In a fit of temper a kitchenmaid on a Rhine steamer threw overboard all the pots and pans she had to clean. There were two previous coavictions against her for theft and she was ac- cused of stealing the pots and pans. The Cologne Judges held. however, that as she had only thrown the uten- sils overboard, the charge of theft could not be sustained and they fur- ther decided that she could net be econvicted of .damaging her employer’s property, inasmuch as the pots and pans were probably reposing uninjured at the bottom of the river. Against this judgment an appeal was made to the High Court in Leip- sic. The Judges there also came to the conclusion that the case could not be dealt with as one of theft, nor could they see that any evidence of dam- age to property had been adduced. But at the same time the High Court declared that the sentiment of jus- tice imperatively demanded the pun- ishment of the guilty girl and the mat- ter was accordingly referred back to the Judges at Cologne, with instruc- tions to ascertain whether, after all, the pots and pans might not have been damaged by rust, or by the splitting of the enamel, or by the shifting of the pebbles on the bottom of the Rhine! The end of the case, which has al- ready lasted nine months, has not yet been reached.—London Truth. Answers to Queries. WOOL—S., Alameda, Cal The product of wool in the United States during 1903 was 287,450,000 pounds. CONSERVATORY FIRE—Subscrib- er, City. The conservatory in Golden Gate Park was destroyed by fire Jan- uary 5, 1383. CONCLAVE—K. T, City. The con- clave of the Knights Templars held in San Francisco in 1883 was the twenty- third. It opened August 20. GERMAN PROVERB—Subseriber, Centerville, Cal. “Watching a woman is labor in vain” is a German proverh, but the author’'s name is not given. PICKLES—Sub., City. The harmless articles used for greening pickles are: Vine, cabbage, spinach or parsley leaves in the vinegar, their color being imparted through the vinegar to the pickles. The process is one that re- quires great care and patience. SELAH—E., City. Selah, a He- brew word used’ in the Psalms and by the Prophet Habakkuk. is probably from the Hebrew word salah, to rest. It is supposed by some that the word is intended to denote that there is to be a pause in the singing of the song. while others maintain that it is to de- note that there Is to be an increase in the sound. GENERAL SHIELDS—City Sub- scriber. The late General James Shields, at one time a resident of San Francisco, who was a brigadier gen- eral of volunteers in the Mexican war and held the same position during the Civil War and won the battle at Win- | chester, was a native of Dungannon, | County Tyrone, Ireland. He was born in 1810 and came to the United States in 1826. GUERRERO — P., City. "r\-{::hrfi Guerrero, the last Mexican prefect at San Francisco, or Yerba Buena, as it was formerly called, was found dying on the old Mission plank road on Satur- day, July 12, 1851, and he died the fol- lowing day without having recovered consciousness. It was at first supposed that he had been thrown from his horse. but subsequent investigation proved that he died from wounds inflicted with murderous intent. candies, 's. A nice presen: Market street, al hror—uou supplied daily to pre- | froemia street T e b m&’:fl &