The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 27, 1904, Page 30

THE SA!;I FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 1904, | | F O— Science and Invention. Other creatures than the camel are ,abie to-get along for extended periods * without drinking. Sheep in the south- western days in winter without drink, grazing on the green, succulent vegetation of that season. Peccaries in the desert of Sondra Mve in little dry hills, where there Is Do netural water for long periods cannot possibly find waver, In fact, for months at a time. ey The only moisture they can oblalnl comes from roois and the fruits of | cact! 3 But the most extraordinary case is shgt of the pocket mouse, one of the rodents of the desert. This , has a gen- r-lined “pocket” the outside of its cheek. When it is hungry it takes foad from this pocket with its paw, just as & man would pull a ham pocket. has been kept for 10 other food than the *mixed. birdseed of commerce. During it had not a taste of either food. Other experi- d, In fact, that these ¥ refuse such treats, o know that water is The birdseed put before ed not more than 10 which is less than r digestion. Stuff so dry t even be swallowed until ened by saliva. Yet this re- othing but his sclence. He h or spirits common 'little ‘creature, by the way, o u sandwich from ©One of these raised is provided with by which it orb molgture from the at- t night and In the burrows s much higher than in the bove ground, but it never dew point.—New York nas been making a s to show why the do not attack the 1 organism: which carry on digestion y ferments which are king and dissolving h are introduced, but y have no action upop ce of these organs or upon the h-often’ lodge there. The reason s has not been clear. In 861, J gave the opinion that the parasites were protected by an anti- fermént which they secreted, and this could ccount o the fact that tape- seorms, for instance, could take up their iging in such orgs M. Weinland made some experime: ich are of imterest He took = certain quantity of fibrin and placed it in a pepsin solution in order to dis- solve it same time adding = small gyantity of liguid obtained from the tape-worm (taenfa). He found that in this case no digestion of the fibrin occurred, even though it was left in contact for an indefinite period, but otherwise it would be dissolved in a few hours. He thus considers that it is not the living tissues themselves which resist the action of the digestive liquids, but the secretions with which they are impregnated. The anti-ferment which he succeeds in extracting is very power- ful in its action, and it keeps its prop- erties for many months; it loses them hy bolling, however. A temperature of 60 deg. C. for 10 minutes has but little effect, but at 80 deg. the activity is Jessened. The active principle can be precipitated from the juice of the taenia by micohol. Althopgh it opposes the action of pepsin, a ferment and anti- ferment can be put in presence without destroying each other. The latter seems to exert only an opposing and mot a destructive action on the fer- ments, and when removed the ferments commence to act as usual.—Scientific American. ifferent A well-known oculist, who has an office on West Seventh street, while discussing some of the various defects of the human éye which are not notice- able to the ordinary observer, has this 1o say about color-blind people: “The world must be a curious place o color-blind people, of whom there are forty males and three females to every 1000 persons. Some are blue-yellow blind, and everything seems either red, green or gray to them; others are red- green blind, and all things appear to them to be vellow, blue or gray of various shades, and others again per- ceive no distinction of color at all, but the whole world wears an unchanging aspect of duil gray. “To these last a visit to a picture gal- Jery would reveal merely a collection of engravings or photographs. But the two former have the compensation of seeing their own two colors much more brightly than ordinary people. “The color blind do extraordinary things at times. An officer of the navy went one day to buy marterial for a coat, vest and trousers. He bought a blue coat and red trousers, believing them of the same color. A British ad- miral painted a landscape and,\Wwas very proud of his performance, but he made the tree red, thinking it was the same color as green. When he purchased a deserts go for forty to sixty | pair of trousers he chose green ones, suspecting them to be brown. “An architect’s pupil, being directed to copy the picture of a brown house, made the room green, the sky scarlet | and the roses blue. “A postoffice clerk was always short in his acccunts because he could not distinguish the different cclored stamps. | And a sedate Quaker has been known to buy a green coat for himself and a red gown for his wife, thinking they were both brown. “If you see a man in the street with a preposterous display of colors, charit- ably believe him to be one of the color blind. “Just why the eyes of women are less defective in the matter of distinguish- ing colors than those of men is one of the things in nature that is unex- | plained. The construction is the same, vet the woman's superiority,in match- | ing colors has always been recognized, | | even when man has had the advantage | of long experience.”—Cincinnati Com- mercial Tribune. . . Alexander Thayer. United States Vice | Consul at Venice, Italy, has sent a re- | port to the Department of Commerce and Labor of a new invention which may have a great tendency toward the assurance of safety in rallway travel- ing. The report says: “I recently attended the official test { of an automatic electrical invention for th of raflway trains in transit, made by Attilio Beer, an engineer of | this city (Venice). “The trial was held on a2 branch line of the Societa Veneta fitted with the apparatus. About eighty guests had been invited to witness the experiment, | among whom were representatives of the Governments of France and Russia, of the munjcipalities of Venice and | Padua, of scientific societies and of the | press, as well as many engilneers. A special train carried the guests from Padua to Castelfranco, where, upon arrival, the operation of the new s tem was demonstrated by means of a minjature electric railway constructed |in a freight house opposite the sta- tion, and which, when explained by the inventor, showed in a clear and de- | tailed manner the method whereby no- tice is given to a locomotive in motion when there is another on the same track within a distance of half a mile. “The apparatus itself was tesfed in all its particulars and exhibited such a | complete and timely method of giving warning of the proximity of another train that should it prove practical | when applied to entire railroad sys- | | ters Mr. Beer’s invention would reduce {to a minimum the large loss of life | 1d property which is now annually { due to collisions. Another feature was also shown, namely, a dial which can be placed in | | railway stations and officés of train | dispatchers. This dial indicates the | exact position of all trains on the line | within a certain distance, and whether they are stationary or in motion. The usefulness of such an instrument is readily seen, as by means of it no- tification of an obstructed track is at cnce given by the indicator. “The test was in every way a suc- cess the system working smoothly, as was predicted by the inventor.” . . The Electrical Review calls attention | to the fact that hardly a day passes in | which several telephone companies are not incorporated in the smaller cities and towns throughout the country. In the West it appears that farmers are finding the telephone very useful not only in conducting their household af- fairs, but in marketing their produce. Formerly the farmer stored his grain | in elevators, waiting for an advant- | ageous time to sell. Now he stores it | himself, receives the market quotations | over the telephone, and disposes of his | grain by telephone whenever, in his/| judgment, he can do £0 to the best ad- vantage. He does this without loss of | time, and has the satisfaction of closing a bargain at once at current prices. According to statistics compiled by | the Bell Telephone Company, there were, in 1802, 2,525,606 telephones in the | hands of licensees under rental in the United States. There was a total of 1,020,647 stations, and the number of ex- change connections daily was 7,531,761, or a total per year of over 2,425,000,000. | The entire capital invested In telephone systems in this country was estimated at $350,000,000. The statistics for 1903, | of course, will show a great increase in | the number of stations installed and | number of instruments under rental.— | Express Gazette. . 3 The new White Star liner Baltic is probably better equipped electrically | than any other boat either afloat or building. Tn addition to the usual elec- trical appliances to be found on board present-day ocean liners, the Baitic is cquipped with an electrical device for yreventing collisions with other ves- sels. The moment another ship enters the “magnetic field” of the Baltic the needle of the indifating Instrument points’in the direction of the vessel ap- proaching or being overtaken, and the steersman knows at once what course to take. Even the rhythmic beats of AN unseen steamer’s screws are regis- tered by means of this delicate ap- paratus. Another safeguard is an elec- trical contrivance to show if the ship’s lights are burning properly. An elec- tric-log for ascertaining the speed of the ship i« another acquisition, and an clectric lead for ascertaining the depta of the water is also on the list. There is, further, an electric device for reg- istering all signals, including steam sirens. The Baltic is equipped with electric refrigerating as well as elec- tric cooking apparatus.—Scientific American. Women as Sailors. Among the Danes, Norwegians and Finns women’ are employed as sailors, and prove themselves to be expert mar. iners. In the smaller sailing ships, when there is a woman on board, whethet she be the wife of the lk.lppel" or the stewardess, she is expected to take her turn at the ordinary work of the sailor, not even excluding the dy- ties of the man at the wheel or of the night watch. Denmark employs sev- eral women as State officials at sea. Experienced captains assert that the women make excellent sailors, and are equal to most seamen in dexterity ang power of endurance.—St. James Gaz- ette > e e T . — F THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL)| OHN D. SPRECKELS, Propriefor « . . . . .. ... Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager Publication OffiCe ........cevescsevecscscscons vewessssrasse..Third and Market Strects, S. F. BUNDAY...c--. i thi s i o o T THE LENTEN MEETINGS. AR back in the history of the race men set apart a portion of the year in which to give special at- tention to the great issues of life. Whether it be the Jewish Passover, the Mahometan Ramadan or the Christian Lent, this pause in the busy occupations of the people is evidence furnished by many races and under divers forms of the religious idea, that men feel the need of introspection and that serious examination of their master motives which lead to better living and the cleaner discharge of their duties toward each other. We believe that so far no race has been found that has not some idea of a power external to man. The conception may be crude. It may be disfigured by super- stition. ' It may be productive of nothing more than an idol or a fetich, or it may be refined to a high and in- effable abstraction, but its existence is universal. As this conception rises in refinement, man rises in civiliza- tion. But he never outgrows it, nor ceases to feel the need of belief in a power greater than himself. That power is the final cause of righteousness, whether in the individual or in the state. A We speak of the ancients as pagan. But who can read the orations of Cicero, in which he called upon the great Jove to witness the integrity of his purpose and the pur- ity of his patriotism, without feeling that the Roman statesman was as sincere as an American Senator who appeals to the higher power under a different name? Who can doubt that the Roman found in his belief the same motive toward righteousness that the American finds in the same belief under a changed form? The business men of San Francisco have made good and proper use of the Lenten season, by meeting daily in the Chamber of Commerce, to listen to a brief and non-sectarian service, and then to consider in sober- mindedness the duties of the citizen to his family, his neighbors, his country and his city. In the range of questions considered, everything that relates to the re- sponsibility of man in the social state has been consid- cred. The addresses have been delivered by university presidents, labor leaders, clergymen, jurists and men of | affairs. 4 There is a growing complaint that men do not attend church. It is often said that this abstention from the formal observance of rqligion is evidence that they are drifting into a condition of indifference to the serious things which bear upon conduct, and that they are astray even from the ethical impulse which gets its strength from religion. These noonday meetings in Lent seem to negative the serious conclusions derived from the lapse of the church-going habit. Is it not true that men are simply less interested in the fine distinctions between forms of faith and the rivalry of creeds, and under the guidance of reason are learning to respect more the great and single idea that is the foundation and source of them all? In these days, when the world rises in wrath against those who maltreat the Jews, and when the most de- voted Christian idealists see in Japan the defender of the essentials of Christianity, and illustrating them in the truthfulness of her statesmen and the discipline of her soldiers, may we not conclude that men are less in- terested Tn dogmatic religion because they are more in- terested in that agreement of opinion which works out in righteousness of life and conduct? > Perhaps not many of the busy men who have given an hour daily to the meetings in the Chamber are regular church-goers, but who shall say that they are less inter- ested in all that the church can teach, for the benefit of the home, society, business and the state? It has been customary to single out San Francisco as a city conspic- uously indifferent to serious things. The religious dia- lecticians have even called this the wickedest city in the Union. We who live here know how little these char- acterizations are deserved. We have a cosmopolitan population, gathered from many countries and the far islands of the sea. Here may be found Parsee and Puritan, Jew and Gentile, Buddhist and Confucian, but we may claim with confidence that the quality of mercy and justice, faith and charity, is common tg them all. Our Christian citizens, nominal and professed, rightly march at the head of this procession of many races, but they all have hands on the same life line, and are ready to sacrifice for what in its essence is the same ideal. We doubt whether in any city in the world during this Lenten season men have listened to more devoted expounders of human duty, or have felt more keenly the impulse toward all good, than here. The addresses might be printed in a tract that every church could with profit distribute to its members, and point to as evidence that San Francisco takes the great and simple principles of religion as its guide to all individual and civic right- eousness. The Board of Public Works, wise in its consideration of municipal betterments, has decided upon the necessity of improving the City Hall. Can it be possible that the venerable pile is to be razed and removed from our sight? An intelligent imagination fails to conceive of any other scheme of improvement for the struéture. THE CHICO STATION. E regret td note the existence of some doubt, about the Agricultural Department being able to secure the fifty acres of land required at rectly to the people of Chico and Butte County. Let ‘them give that land and give it quickly, for opportunity knocks at their door only once, and then passes on. The department waits, ready with plants and projects that mean more variety and diversification of the prod- ucts of field and orchard. .Every addition of that kind is another reason why people should come to California. Man goes where his industry has the best opportunity for reward, and that is, where it may be addressed to the greatest variety of objects. This station may well mean millions for the Sacramento Valley, and its loss would be a capital mistake. The approach of the yellow peril in the Democratic camp has now become so menacing that even many of the stanchest Bryanites are calling for Cleveland to come in and save them. ITHIN the coming summer the wonders of the UNDER IMMEMORIAL TREES. W Big Basin Park, in Santa Cruz County, the new pleasure ground that has been provided by the State of California, will become known, through per- sonal observation, to thousands of Californians. The State’s commissioners, who are empowered to provide rules and regulations, have determined upon certain safe- guards against fire, that the giant sempervirens trees may be entirely safe. Selected sites are designated for campers and there will be no camps at any unauthorized place in the basin. By this provision it will be possible’ for the park warden to keep watch on all fires that are started. No fires will be permitted except at particular spots. The safety of the trees is the first consideration. The State has appropriated a large sum of money that they may be preserved and that is naturally the first care of the commissioners. The entire Big Basin Park’ will now be opened for summer occupation by whoever desires to summer there- in. The announcement in this regard will awaken inter- est far beyond the borders of California, and among those who will camp in the shadows of the immemorial trees will be wanderers and sight-seers from many lands. In this aspect the Big Basin Park will advertise this State and will be another certain lure to draw within the borders of California many very desirable persons. Botanists say that some of the sempervirens trees now growing in the Big Basin are 4000 years old. They were growing in the days of the Pharaohs, gaining strength from the climate and from the abundance of water for their roots which the configuration of the Big Basin as- sured. Century after century their stature has in- creased. To them lovers of nature, the tourist, the art- ist, the student,”and men, women and children in search of a wholesome outing amid congenial surroundings, may resort. Their broad arms and generous shade will give welcome to all classes and conditions of men, women and children, all of whom may be refreshed and invigorated. The commissioners for the park have several ideas for the general improvement of the new pleasure ground. There are streams of good size that flow through the wooded area. Among these are the east and west forks of the Waddell creek. It is proposed by the commis- sioners to make slackwater in one or more of the streams this season by damming the flow at convenient places. This device will resuit in giving sufficient depth for ca- noes or other small boats of very light draft to float up and down for some distance. The courses of the sinuous creeks, so to be enhanced in volume, lie under the shad- ows of the sempervirens. There one may drift and dream and build “castles in Spain” or elsewhere and be conscious of surroundings that antedate the governmen- tal forms and customs of any nation of earth. Santa Cruz County has already taken cognizance of the need of direct communication by carriage roads on an easy grade with the Big Basin Park. One favorite drive for visitors to Santa Cruz will be the Big Basin. Other roads wil! be constructed into the basin. Santa Clara County will undoubtedly provide its own means of getting to the basin by private conveyance from San Jose and other points. Certain Santa Cruz County papers are advocating the construction of an electric road EASTERN WEATHER. 3 from the city of Santa Cruz to the basin. ARCH has been an. unpleasant month in Cali- M fornia. It is not a pleasant month anywhere in the world. ,Here its unpleasantness is by contrast with other months. Our March weather would set Eastern people bragging about their climate, if they could have it. While our March is a brawling, bluster- ing month, with rain, which we need, it is not the cold breakup of winter,” for we have no winter to break. It is a month of verdure and’outdoor flowers, with no frozen ground nor zero temperature. The contrast between it and the Eastern March is great. The Eastern people are just getting over their frost bites and chilblains, when the cyclones come along and complete the cure by killing the patients. From the gulf States to the lakes, whirling winds are besom- "ing town and tountry, and lightning is destroying life and property. It is hard luck to tote wood and coal all winter to keep from freezing to death, only to be blown into giblets or struck by lightning in the spring. Yet that is the luck of our friends in the East. Those Chico for the proposed agricultural and horticultural ex-.| who escape now will, in about three months, be exposed periment station. This matter should be attended to at once. The matter is of too much importance to permit a failure. - The_sclection of the Sacramento Valley for such an important plant si{ould impress the people of the whole valley. The matter of location was long and carefully considered. Experts in climate, soils and all the require- ments of such a station made careful and scientific ex- amination. The purpose was to find a location friendly to the greatest possible variety of useful plant life. Nothing of greater significance has occurred in the his- tory of that great and splendid valley than its selection as the spot most favored by nature. How sordid would be the outcome if the plan should fail through the greed or indifference of the people! The Sacramento Valley Improvement Association can have no more important business on hand just now than seeing that there is no failure. The State Board of Trade would seem to have a duty in the premises. Its president, General Chipman, is a large planter in the val- ley. Its leading director, Mr. W. H. Mills, was long.and usefully identified with that fertile region, and surely his interest has not lapsed. The whole State wants this station where it will do the most good to agriculture and horticulture, It s a happy conjunction that the department decides that it should go where there is most need of the impulse it will =ive to every interest related to the soil. We appeal di- L to sunstroke, and in chased by mad dogs. March has cut up in California, and acted the bull in the china shop of our climate. But through it all the roses have bloomed, tl}e violets have scented the rude winds and the palms have flaunted their defiant fronds. Our outdoor gardens have continued their pro- duction of tender vegetables and the orange trees have bloomed in the latitude of Chicago, as have the almonds and cherries. Fresh asparagus as big as corn stalks is in the markets, with-new 'potatoes and green peas. Our minimum temperatures run from 44 at Cloverdale, in the northern citrus belt, to 40 at Los Angeles, in the southern citrus belt, and from 42 at San Francisco to 48 at San Diego—chilly, but not freezing, and the lowest of the winter., This State is a mercy seat for Eastern folk, who mope by a red hot stove all winter and sleep in a August will be running to cover cyclone cellar all summer. We have neither sunstroke" nor mad dogs, and even tramps enjoy comforts that would be called luxuries in the East. Our earthquakes are no harder than those of New England, and as they are more frequent we get used to them, and really miss them when they take a vacation. Our best immigra- tion agent is our climate, and even our March weather could 8o business in that line.among a people to Wwhom March is a terror, with all of the mean traits of both | winter atid epring, T Fmo ST e T Practical Politics. A well-known Dpolitical heeler tells an amusing story of how he helped work a corporation bill through the State Legislature about fifteen years ago. Incidentally it may be noted that the “sacks” were much wider and deeper in those days than at present, and the task of making laws was cor- respondingly more agreeable for the grafters. o It happened that a big corporation wanted to secure the passage of a bill which provided for a large Invol- untary contribution from the general public. The measure was strongly op- posed. After the fight had been in progress for a week it became ap- parent that a block of five votes from a southern county could turn the vic- tory either way. A retired mission- ary was the leader of the delegation, and what he said was law to his fol- lowers. The corporation’s lobbyists were nonplused. Who would undertake the task of buying the missionary’s support? The practical politiclan who tells the story was summoned. He listened quietly, and after a moment of thought said that he ought to turn the trick with $5000. A telegram was sent to San Fran- cisco asking if that amount of money should be put up. The reply was “Any- thing up to $10,000.” The heeler took $5000 in bills and called upon the mis- sionary. Once out of hearing of pos- sible sples, the politician sald: “Don’t you think that bill ought te pass, Parson?" “Certainly not. It 1s a case of rob- bery, pure and simple,” was the re- sponse. A Drawing & $ note from his vest pocket and twirling it around his fin- gers, the briber continued: “It will do California a great deal of good.” “How Is that?” sald the reverend gentleman, eying the greenback. “Because it lets the people know how valuable the State is getting," re- turned the heeler, as he extracted a $10 bill and twisted it up with the $5. “Perhaps 1 don't know all about the measure,” observed the missionary with Increased interest. “Look the thing over carefully, Par- son,” was the brief rejoinder, and then another “ten-spot” was playing tag v(lth the other bills. “The more I think of it the more it seems to me the corporation may be right in this thing,” remarked the missionary meditatively. “Will you and the rest of your dele- gatlon vote the right way to-morrow?"" said the heeler, extending the $25. “Yes, we will,” was the assurance, as the greenbacks were transferred to the pocket of the legislator. The practical politician reported: “It was a hard job, and I had to do & lot of talking. I thought for a while I should need more, but the $5000 was just enough.” Her ‘Advice. ‘A’ well-known mining man of San Francisco who has a country home in San Mateo County is the father of a “sharp as a steel trap.” A few days since, about to leave home for the city when his wife, in the presence of the child, asked her husband for some money. The mining man slowly put his hand in his pocket and, taking therefrom a half dollar, remarked “Darling, that's all I've got just now.” The mother pouted, looked &ispleased and was about to say something when the little one, looking up into her mother’s face, said: “Mamma, if you didn't go to that whist club so often you wouldn't have to ask papa for money. The husband patted the little girl on the head and gave his wife a glance that meant “didn’t I tell you to keep away from the club,” while there was a look of supreme satisfaction on his countenance. But that soon faded away lwhen he heard the child say: “Now, papa, if you didn't smoke so many two-bit cigars you'd have money to give mamma when she needs it.” Jt was then the mother’s turn to smile. . His Package. - I got a Christmas package, It was a costly gift; Indeed, that Christmas package -/ ‘Was all that I could lift. I did not get that package All at a single store; That package I collected At fifteen shops or more. I earrled home that pacl And rang the front door My wife beheld that package, But did not greet it well. She gazed upon that package And fcily she said, “Where did you get th.:etd package? You monster, go to A ~Nome News. » o 11y Nerve Timing. A curious instance of the care and minuteness with which the human body is now- studied, in the effort better to understand its powers and functions, is furnished by a paper read recently at a meeting of the Royal Society in London ‘'on the “Rapidity of the Nerv- ous Impulse in Tall and Short Individ- uals.” Even the difference in time re- i quired for a “nerve telegram” to tra- verse the bodies of different people is regarded as a matter of scientific im- portance. A series of observations has shown that the lengfh of the nerve does affect the velocity with which an impulse passes between the brain and the extremities, and consequently that more time is needed if the path is long than if it is short. It follows that a short man should feel a step on his corns quicker than a tall man, but the difference is so slight that the of- fender has no better chance of escape in one than in the other. India’s New Vice. An Indian paper reports that the drug cocaine has laid such a hold 6n the natives of India that the author- ities are making strenuous efiorts to prevent its unrestricted distribution. Within the last few ‘weeks a shipment of cocaine worth a lakh of rupees (£6,666) was shipped to Calcutta, and the Excise Department intervened. five-and-a-half-year-old girl who is as | the shop for repairs. father was Ahe T 29| Mr. Riordan says he will sit on the R B ot LI s A N o * with the result that the cocaine had to be sent back to England. The results of taking cocaine regular- ly for any length of time are dreadful. The fmmediate effect is a delightful feeling of languor; the ultimate effect is the ruin of mind and body. In Europe and America the drug is usually taken by injection, but the Indian has found another method. “Pan supari” was already an institu- tion. “Pan supari” was a kind of na- tive chewing gum. It consisted of a leaf smeared. with lime and rubbed with areca nut, cloves and various aromatics. Then the native added co- caine, and found “Pan supar!” an ex- cellent means of taking the drug. The abuse of cocaine by the natives grew to such an alarming extent that two years ago a measure was intro- duced prohibiting the sale except by I« censed persons. Native offenders against the law have been prosecuted in large numbers. The Lone Fisherman. 4 A story of daisastrous amateun theatricals in the burg of Millburng N. J, is printed in the New York Tribune without comment. This is its One of the actors in an amateus play, “The Lone Fisherman,” at a church entertainment here last night, nearly met with a watery death in the most thrilling part of the drama. His involuntary “turn’ proved to be the hit of the evening. When the curtain arose Mr. Riordan was discovered sitting on a “rock” that Jutted out on the bank of the “ocean.’ The bank was homemade and It was not long before there was a landslids and Mr. Riordan was precipitated inta the “ocean” just as he was uttering some of his most soulful sentiments, There was a prodigious splash as Mr. Riordan took to the water and a mild panic among the audience. For a mo- ment nothing could be seen but a few faint bubbles rising from the depths, ‘The stage manager came to the edge of the “ocean” and gazed inte tha depths. ‘“Where are you, Barney?” said he, “In the tub; where did you thinik I was—on the roof? Give me your hand.” Others came to his assistance and the submerged one was rescued, with his costume sadly bedraggled. He was safe, but the show had to be taken to The play will ba repeated, it was so succcessful, but floor next time. 4 Masterful Leader. General Kuropatkin's hold over meny is due to the fact that he has a reputa< tion for absolute fearlessness. Five years ago hd received the information that the great powder magazine at St. Petersburg and that at Toulon, were to be blown up within twenty-four hours. The general was in bed when he heard the news, but he at once got up and started for St. Petersburg without los- ing a moment. He summoned all the staff of the magazine and went on a round of inspection. He found every- thing in order and as a proof of his satisfaction ordered every onme in the magazine to take three days’ hollday and to leave at once. He then col- lected a new garrison and a new staff and set a ring of sentrles all round the magazine. The consequence was that nothing happened to the St. Pet- ersburg magazine, but that at Toulon was blown up the next day.—Vanity Falr. L Answers to Queries. ——iy FEBRUARY—O. S., Oakland, Cal. A# no time in the past ten years has thers been “a month of February with only twenty-seven days.” GOVERNMENT LAND—Subscriber, City. For information relative to Gov- ernment land in the State of Nevada that may be opened to settlers address letter of inquiry to the General Land Office, Washington, D. C. CIGAR BOXES—Subscriber, Los Ba- nos, Cal. Havana cigar boxes are made of Barbadoes cedar, a native of the ‘West Indies and of the warm parts of America. Such wood is obtainable from any dealer in fancy woods. THE PHILIPPINES—S., City. Tt is asserted that only about one-ninth of the surface of the Philippine Islands is under cultivation. It has been esti- mated that in view of the fertility of the soil, even after deducting the mogntalnnus area, with cultivation ex- tended, the islands can support pu- lation of 42,000, . RIS TSSIAN RIVER—Subserib Russian River was so n-med"inmllrré early days from the fact that in 812 a number of Runhn‘ working in 'the interests of the Russian-American Fur Company, settled near Bodega Bav, on the bank of a river. For the -naming of Russian Hill see this department 5 The Call, January 26, 1904, HALFBREEDS—A. S, Seven-Mile House, El Dorado County, ¢ N ifornia_the children of & W:I’I.IEI?IS:L and Indian mother are called halr- breeds. There are occasional instances of white men m: ng Indian women, but this departmént does not know of “any nation composed of white men and Indian women exclusively.” —_———— ‘Townsend's California Glace fruits and choice candies. in artistic fire-etched boxes. A nice present for Eastern friends, 715 Market street. above Cail building. ¢ ——— Special Information supplied daily to business houses and public —:’ the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen’s), 230 Cals Afornia street, Telephone Main 1043, & 3