The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 21, 1904, Page 6

THE® SAN FRANCISCO CALL, THURSD Literary Chat From London. Epectal Correspondence. HEADQUARTERS OF THE CALL, & HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, April 8.—Now that a novel by one of the “Magpie Club” has been published and ro- mmances by two others announced as to appear shortly, this organization finds itself rather famous, but the present writer had the good luck to ¥now the “Magpies” before any of them dreamed of a day when greatness would e thrust upon them. In con- sequence some rather interesting de- tails, of which no mention has yet been made, can be given about this wuaint little club of BEnglish girl writers. With two exceptions, all the members of the “Magpie Club” live in the country. But the English coun- try is not like the American country, anf it would be hard for an American ®irl to realize the seclusion in which these voung writers have been brought up. Most of them are clergymen’s daughters, living in village rectories, &nd until they were “discovered” in a manner to be hereafter described had depended almost entirely on the classics for their reading and had not even heard of current periodicals as famous as Harper's and the Strand | magazines. Of thése girls five were | acquainted to begin with. All of them wrote stories in an aimless sort of which they showed to each other, way &nd gradually this little circle widen- ed until it included nine or ten mem- bers. These formed the “Magpie Club” and then came the idea of the Magpie Magazine. The girls found a woman friend who was willing to a as secretary and to her each “Magpi sent every signed with her nom de plume. were written on paper of size and when all the contributions These | | | a uniform | ever eaten,” '4 Bugaboo for Pussies. HEADQUARTERS OF THE CALL, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, April 9.—Al- though the proprietor of a London boarding-house who applied to a magi- strate for a writ of ejectment against an Italian tenant on the ground that | he killed and ate cats, discovered that English law does not recognize such gastronomic eccentricities as sufficient justification for the summary dispos- session of a tenant Who pays his rent, the Society for the Prevention of Crueity to Animais has taken the mat- ter in hand to protect London's prowl- ing felines from the gridiron and stew- pot of this alien invader. For several nights a dozen of its most skillful and trusted agents have been’ stalking the squares of Bloomsbury, where the cat- | eater is reputed to do his hunting, in the hope of catching him red-handed, but thus far he has succeeded in eluding their vigilance. As an official of the society explained, cult matter to prove the guilt of & man who swallows the evidence of his crimes. It is reported that the society for the protection of stray and home- | less cats, of which her- Grace the Duchess of Bedford is president. in- tends enlisting a large force of ama- teur detectives in the pursuit by offer- ing a substantial reward for the arrest and conviction of this ruthless de- stroyer of feline felicity. Meanwhile the whole grewsome story appeal to a police court has been re- vealed. With a friend the sojourner from sunny Italy was returning home about midnight when, crossing Rus- sell Square, he espied a fine Thomas cat engaged in serenading a female tabby. 3 “What a lovely stew he would make."” he remarked, and then to the amaze- ment of his companion he crept stealthily forward and suddenly grab- | b t i e o8 ¥he_Susumieciink Azl by, the ) ernment, and prohibits them to the States. |tail. Swinging it in the air he dashed its head against a curbstone and in | another minute had resumed his way nomeward with the dead cat tucked under his arm. Half way down Guil- ford street another cat was encoun- tered and with an adroitness which bespoke long practice was similarly captured and dispatched. About mnoon the following day the landlord noticed his lodger making preparations for a meal and casually month a piece of fiction |asked him what he had for dinner. was | “One of the finest rabbits that was the response. Having previously skinned the ani- were received they were stitched to- | mal the lodger even permitted the un- gether and bound in a cover bearing the name, “The Magpie | cooked Magazine.” The magazine, by the |ity way, included a number of yages, be written, and after it was bound the periodical was sent in turn to each permanent | suspecting landlord to see how he it. As a gastronomic curios- the recipe is worth recording. blank | First the Italian cook.took & quant(ly upon which criticisms were to \of onions chopped very fine and mixed. with garlic and parsiey. - These he | boiled with buttér in a stewpan, and member of the club, who read it and |then added pieces of the animal cut ! then set down in it her opimion of its various items. I have read a number of . these criticisms and them as ‘free” and would be drawing it They about the Magpie apart from the really uncomymon literary quality of its coutents. “outspoken” mild IMagpie, too, revealed a knowledge of | life on the part of their authors which was really startling when one con- sidered these girls’ environment. The Magpie Magazine had existed in this way for a year or two before the | girl discovered it who was eventually to introduce the “Magpies” to the reading public. This was Miss Con- stance Smedley, whose novel, “An April Princess”—recently a success in | America—was not then published, but who already had attracted attention by her short siorics, dramatic er eisms and the one-act play of hers which was produced by Mrs. Patrick Campbell. NMiss Smedley became a.- quainted with Miss Agaes Weekes, whose novel, “Yarborough, the Pre- mber,” has just L.en publisned, anl, through her with the Magpie Club, of which Miss Wezies is a member. A regular feature of the Magpic Magazine is a serial story. “Yar- borough, the Premier,” ran in the Mag- pie. and to it Miss Smedley, who =oon became an enthusiastic member of the club, contributed her “April Princess.” Oddly enough, in spite of the amount of writing that was done by the “Mag- pies” not one of them ever had thought of publishing their stories. Miss Smied- ley, however, after having read a few numbers of “The Magpie” told. herself that the stories therein were distinctly salable. Among the Magpie produc- tions which struck her as perhaps most promising were three novels which had run as seriale in the amateur maga- zine—“Yarborough, the Premier,” by Miss A. R. Weekes, “Love in Chief,” by her sister, Miss R. K. Weekes. and “Lance in Rest,” by Miss L. A. Taibot. The Harpers had recently published Miss Smedley’'s book of essays, “The Boudoir Critic,” and so this young writer advised her Magpie friends to send their books to the American firm. They followed her advice and the three romances were accepted almost im- mediately. Another Magpie novel, “The New Eden,” found a publisher in Dublin, and the early notices of it have been flattering. One reviewer, in fact, declared that at last a successor to “The Duchess” had appeared. Miss Smedley tells me that a number of short stories originally contributed to the Magpie Magazine have been liter- ally snapped up by different London periodicals, and says that the files of the periodical written by these English girls for their own amusement con- tain much work that needs only to be made public to be recognized as un- commonly good. . . The announcement of the impending sale of the original warrant on which John Bunyan was arrested two hun- dred and thirty years ago and clapped into Bedford jail for a canting, crop- headed vagabond has evoked many ex- pressions of fervent hope from English bibliophiles that the document will not be allowed to cross the Atlantic. In- terest in Bunyan relics is very keen mamong collectors and it is sure w fetch a big price. ’ P Mest of the stories in the | | { | | { up as is customary with a rabbit. Over | the dish he sprinkled flour. poured in to simmer over the fire for three quar- indeed. | ters of an hour and ate it with great were the most striking example | relish. Next day he had another “rab- bit” for dinner. It was the discovery of the skins that gave the thing away to the horrified landlord. And in turn the Italian was astonished that his partiality for cats as an article of |diet should be regarded with abhor- rence. How anybody who would eat | | with relish an animal of such nolon- ously filthy habits as a pig could turn up his nose at a cat which performs its ablutions several times a day was beyond his comprehension. Italian’s logic was lost on the British landiord. He ordered his tenant to leave at once, and when the tenant re- fused had recourse post haste to a magistrgte to learn that British law was on the side of one who chose to regard his temporary lodgings as his castle for the time ‘being. S In Northern Italy, according to an Italian resident in London, cats are regarded as a dainty among the poor people and, the state forbidding their sale for food, they are called “rab- bits” by the butchers. “They are bought as rabbiis and eaten as cats,” said the Italian. “I have eaten them many a time and can vouch for it that they taste much bet- ter than the English hare, the meat being exceedingly tender and as sweet as a nut. Many people in Italy keep cats as the English do rab- bifs—to kill and eat. And their skins are worth more than those of rabbits. “The proper way to eat cats is to roast them in an oven until brown, with onions, garlic, parsley, bay leaf, red wine and some herbs peculiar to Italy. They are not nearly so good when boiled. As food English bred cats are not to be compared with Italian cats. The latter are much bet- ter cared for and fed on the best milk. I tried an English cat once, but that was enough. I have never eaten an- other.” It is probably because cats are luch favorite pets with women that not- withstanding the general masculine aversion to them any species of cru- elty practiced against them raises such a prodigious outcry. A lost or defunct cat has been the means of adding $2000 to the fund of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, as was stated at its recent annual meeting. A few years ago a woman left the insti- tution the residue of her estate, amounting to that sum, with the pro- viso that it was to be paid on the death of a youthful feline, the inter- est meanwhile to be applied to the maintenance of the animal and the payment of the person left in charge of it. Up to 1901 puss appeared to enjoy excellent health and spirits, but the caretaker changed her residence and the cat did not take kindly to the new house. It wandered away several times, but was recovered when re- wards were offered. About two years ago, however, it vanished entirely. After much red tape business the au- thorities decided that the cat might be presumed to be legally dead and paid over the capital to the institution on receipt of a solemn undertaking to provide for it, as originally stipulated, should it ever turn up again. it is a diffi- | But the | THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor . .. .. .. ... Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager Publication Office = sessscasmacens ' JUDICIAL POLITICS. WEDNESDAY HE New York Sun is quite violent in its opposition T to President Roosevelt, and misses no chance to advise ways and means to effect his defeat. Its counsel was evidently iollowed in making the placebmc platform of the New York Democratic conventlon. The Sun declares: “The usurpation of power by Congress has never been so outrageous as since McKinley’s death. What is needed most of all is to put the ship of state back again on the right tack and compel it to be steered hereafter as the constitution has prescribed. Give back to the State governments and prohibit to the National Government the regulation of things which Marshall de- clared do not come under National cognizance, and all will be well. The three Democratic Justices of the Su- preme Court have recently, by the vivid pen of Justice White, declared the boundary line between State and Na- tional affairs. Does the Democracy intend to vindicate or repudiate that boundary line?” 1f the New York convention set the pace Justice White will probably be followed. But this being so, what is the fuss about? The much-respected boundary, on which the Sun shines in order that it may be distinctly seen, is on the hither side of the interstate commerce and Sherman anti-trust laws. Yet the Sun says that if that boundary be respected, “Difficulties over corpora- tions, trusts, labor, capital and interstate commerce will disappear from Congress and will trouble it no more than marriage and divorce.” So, it appears that the simple recipe for taking away all trouble, about those issues, from Congress, is by de- nying National jurisdiction over them in any form. While labor and capital are thrown in for padding, the real issues are the trusts and, interstate commerce. When of what led to the landlord’s futile | did Marshall decide that Congress has no jurisdiction over interstate commerce? The Sherman anti-trust law derives all of its vigor from that clause of the constitu- tion which gives Congress the power to regulate com- merce between the States. The Supreme Court held that this means that Congress may use that power as prescribed in the interstate commerce law. If not by such means, how? What power is given the States’ to regulate commerce beyond their own borders? The constitution grants powers to the Federal Gov- Its proper interpretation is that the Federal Government may ex- | ercise all the powers granted to it, and the States all that are not prohibited to them. In the nature of things, one State cannot project its regulative power within the jurisdiction of another State. If this were possible, Cali- fornia could regulate the domestic commerce of Nevada, prescribe the rates of transportation in that State and in every way interfere in that alien jurisdiction. No State, in other words, can assume powers granted to the Fed- eral Gopvernment, nor can it go beyond that grant in | the invasion of powers not prohibited to the States. The E ! to describe |a bottle of claret, allowed the mixture | regulation of interstate commerce by the States them- seives is, therefore, an impossibility. Trusts affect interstate commerce and are, therefore, subject to Federal regulation. They may also be regu- lated within the jurisdiction of a State by its authority, in so far as they affect its domestic commerce. To illus- trate: If the Standard Oil Company uproot competition in California by a reduction of rates below the cost of production, at a competing point, it is entirely competent for the State to enact that it shall sell everywhere within the State at the same rate, and shall not again raise its rates anywhere within the State without the assent of public authority. That would be a proper exercise of lo- cal jurisdiction. But suppose the Standard Oil Company affect interstate commerce and suppress interstate com- petition, by a conspiracy with railroads by which it se- cures exclusive rebates in freight, where is.the power in a State to prevent it? Only the Federal Government has that authority, and has used it in the interstate com- merce law. From this digest of the matter it appears that the Sun sees in Justice White’s opinion judicial politics, which by reviving the obsolete issue of State rights, as these were understood before the Civil War, will take the Federal grip from the throats of trusts and corporations, under the pretense that they can be choked by the States. The good understanding between the Sun and itf trust clients was established in the New York Democratic con- vention. Its platform cries out against “usurpation” and “alarms that check industrial growth,” and that “cor- porations chartered by the State must be subject to just regulation by the State, in the interest of the people; no government partnership with protected monopolies.” If all that mean anything, it means that every trust, being incorporated under State law, shall submit only to State control, and that the sole Federal control is by re- moving tariff protection from everything in which a trust can deal. It is a Sangrado prescription, which peo- ple will refuse to take. At 1 o'clock sharp on Saturday, April 30, in the east room of the White House, President Roosevelt” will press a telegraph key which will start every wheel to re- volve at St. Louis in the greatest show in all history. Here’s to its\success. ELECTRIC ROADS IN SANTA CLARA. ORD comes from San Jose that a big project for W the construction of several interurban electric railways in Santa Clara County is already, un- der way. With San Jose as the center, it is the reported purpose of the capitalists who are behind the scheme to construct a network of traction lines which will extend to Los Gatos via Campbell, connect Berryessa and Ever- green with the base of the system and oj)en up a route to Palo Alto by way of Santa Clara. According to ad- vices the sum of $75,000 has already been pledged by local and San Francisco capitalists for the prosecution of the plans and it is almost a definite surety that before leng constructive operations will be commenced. The news of an undertaking such as this comes as a cistinct augury of good to the country which is to be the field of the extensive traction system proposed. Al- ready there is nearing completion a similar line of rail- way which is to connect Hollister and Watsonville with the ccast. and provide the fruit raisers of the Pajaro Val- ley with a direct freight service with San Francisco through an auxiliary steamer line from Port Rogers. What this traction belt will do for the Watsonville dis- trict the projected system in Santa Clara County may accomplish for the ranchers there. With direct and.rapid transpcrtation for their fruits into the San Jose markets and thence to the central point of consumption in this city, the mew electric lines will offer to the growers therezbouts redoubled. opportunities for profit. The expansion of the electric railway into interurban | | systemns is ccmething which must come to the Sute if we wonld keep abreast of the times. In the south they have caught the Eastern idea quite thoroughly, and Los Angeies and vicinity has a network of electric lines which is well in the fore with similar systems in the New England States. Back in Massachusetts and Con- necticut the country freight service has been transferred from the steam railroads to the electric lines to a de- gree which makes the latter almost the sole carriers of | local produce. When all of our bay cities are united by a complete electric railway system we will witness a cevelopnient of the country along the several routes which will be astonishing. A new use has been found for the Capricornis vulga.ris'or William Goat, and Nanny Vulgaris, his help- meet. They are being imported to the logging districts of Western Washington to eat the treetops—after cut- ting. When the Vulgarises have finished luncheon it is-said the native ‘Washington jungle looks like a cross between a skating rink and an asphaltum pavement. T he air.” HEARST IN CONGRESS. HE New York Times says that Hearst has been recorded on only five roll calls during this session of Congress, and that when present in the House “sits on the small of his back with one knee in the What would the Times have? Does it expect him to sit on his shoulders with both knees in the air? He sets the fashion, and soon the minority side of the House may be resting on its rear gallus buttons, with one knee ap for each member. The Times also affirms that Mr. Hearst is “shy, and suffers in the presence of men.” Just what form his sufferings take before the face of his own sex is not stated. He is described as mixing with no one in the House, and during the sole debate that kept him in his ,seat, that on the eight hour bill, he issued orders to his lieutenants as if they were details to reporters, and when it was over he put his hands in his pockets and slouched out of the chamber. These Plutarchian particulars about the ways and man- ners of the great are interesting. The admirers of the tenderloin member have, in some of the back districts, attacked Speaker Cannon for not putting him on more prominent committees, intimating that it was feared his light would so shine before men that they wouid fly to it as moths to the night lamp. Therefore, the Speaker put it under a bushel. But Uncle Joseph has not been in politics sixty years for nothing. When the Democrats selected Mr. Williams as their floor leader, he gave that gentleman the task of assigning the minority to com- mittees, and every Democrat is placed just where his own leader put him. Williams made up the minority of the Committee on Labor, and when Hearst wanted that place was com- pelled to decline to put him there. One of the Demo- crats made way for him by resigning and in that way he landed on the committee. When he wanted the McClel- lan vacancy on the Ways and Means, Williams refused and 'gave it to Cockran. In every case Mr. Hearst has worked from the outside, bringing ' pressure to bear on Williams from labor organizations and Hearst clubs. But the Mississippian is a hard formation and refuses to be influenced. Whether this has anything to do with Hearst’s infrequent presence in his seat, and with his sitting on the small of his back when there, is unknown. The resolution passed by the Board of Supervisors directing the City Attorney to proceed against all par- ties liable for the recovery of the money stolen by W. H. J. White while cashier of the Board of Public Works is @ move in the right direction. There is no justice in permitting a loss of this character to fall upon the peo- ple when others are directly responsible and liable under the law. T interest to all of its readers and especially to those whose wanderings may lead them to Europe. Within the last week it has opened a London head- quarters with an accredited representative stationed therein, and arrangements have been made not only looking toward securing a daily news service from that quarter, but with a view to making The Call office in the English metropolis a place where San Francisco visitors may go to get into touch with one another and to learn of California through the files of The Call there displayed. The address is 5 Henrietta street, Co- vent Garden. The news The Call will receive from its London of- fice will be in the nature of gossip, literary, diplomatic and social, from the English metropolis and the great capitals on the Continent; news of the hour, which is pruned of all but its essential facts in the cable trans- mission, will be sent to us in full by our agent; the doings of Ministers of state and the underground work- ings of parliamentary lobbies—matters which are vir- tually forbidden to the telegraphic news service by cable tolls—will be presented in an entertaining style. Besides this, the advent and departure of San Francisco people from London hotels will be made a matter of comment, and the doings of any of our citizens in the social whirl will be a feature of the news service, which will be superior. to that of any other, California paper, St s 8 Any philologist of the future who discovers a base- ball report of to-day and reads that “the Tigers eat the Commuters and the Seals met the Angels and swatted them, while the Webfooters doped the Siwashes,” and can believe the report had anything to do with baseball, could have solved the Egyptian hieroglyphics without the aid of the Rosetta stone. 5 —_— e The railroads estimate that 100,000 strangers will come to Califormia accompanying the six big conventions to be held this year. Four of these great gatherings will be held in this city, and intending visitors may be as- sured in advance that the latchstring to our hospitality will be within easy reach, with a California welcome awaiting them -inside. g —_— g The cheery information to newlpaper correspondents at the seat of war that they will be shot as spies for ‘using wireless telegraphy is at least some balm to the ;rmy of correspondents who wanted to go but didn’t. —————— A Chinese prisoner at San Quomn attempted suicide with a pen, but failed. Many an American ‘has been more sumuful in mih}hlm. ‘himself with that dan- THE CALL’S LONDON OFFICE. HE CALL is pleased to make an announcement of 2 .Third and Market Streets, S. F.* | served on a vessel with him, say, ity years ago. TALK OfF d‘ -~ ‘A Lasting Impression. — Captain Drake, chief of the bureau of ordnance at the Mare Island Navy Yard, has such a good memory that he is able to call by name nearly every enlisted man who has ever been “ship- mate” with him. He has not been on | sea duty for quite a few years, but oc- casionally while making a tour of the navy yard he sees some bluejacket who twen- Then in answer to the Jjackie's salute Captain Drake gives a pleasant smile, returns the salute and says: “Jackson, isn’t it? You were with me on the Saginaw?” or “Wilson, what are you on now?” Some months ago a big, strapping sailor was working about the ordnance building. Captain Drake noticed him to the office. “Are you not Gilmartin?” when the sailor stood in front of his desk. “Yep, sir,” said the tar, pleased at the recognition. “I was with you on the Saranac twenty years ago.” “I thought so,” said Drake. “You ‘were an apprentice then and they called you ‘red socks,’ because of the lurid color of your footgear.” “Yes, sir,” replied Gilmartin, with a grin. “It’s a long time, though, since I heard that name.” Summary Action. At a banquet given a few evenings since by a local court of Foresters one of the Superior Judges of this city, who is a member of the court, was called upon to respond to “The quden State.” He spoke at some length of the pio- neers of California and their trials and then said: ‘“Those pioneers were a pe- culiar people in one sense of the word— they formed a fraternity such as never before or since existed. It was a fra- ternity that was ready at all times to help each one who belonged to it with- out question and without reserve. It was not a fraternity of limited contri- butions in case of need, but one of whole-souled donations.” The next speaker, an old-time Cali- forfian, was called upon to respond to “Fraternity,” and he took up the line of thought of the Judge, saying: “I re- member well the fraternity spoken of y the Judge. Every one was welcome o belong to it without initiation, but he had to be what he represented him- self to be, and woe betide him if he made a false pretense. If he pretended to be a doctor and proved to be a quack he was not brought before an arbitration committee for trial upon charges formulated in legal form, but he was walted upon by a committee that told him that the fraternity had decided that by reason of his false rep- resentations he was mnot a desirable member and that he had just six hours to get out of the place. If he was found in the place at the expiration of the time limit he was not given a second notice. The committee simply marched him to the nearest tree and hanged him. That is the way that fraternity got rid of undesirable members.” Watching the Ships. These winged sea-birds outward slip At twilight-tide; I view them—with a trembling lip, And wistful-eyed. Ah, happy sails! For you attain ur bright Cathay! The harl A rs of my hope remain dim Some Day! A face T loved is lost in mist Of fallinz tears; And where are lips, with laughter kissed, O robber vears? and sent a messenger to summon him i he sald ,iive was dazzled by a succession of THE TOWN OF 4HE able jeweler. The diamonds of St Petersburg are famous. Your represen- solid precious stones whose weight could only be reckoned in avoirdupois. “The jewels one sees at Covent Gar- den are slim and puny baubles by com- parison. St. Petersburg seems to buy its diamonds by the pound and the wealth of ‘Ormuz and of Ind’ scintil- lates in the ears and round the slénder throats of its fair women. “Where the great ladies of Russia are not beautiful, they are vivacious. Most often they are beautiful, but vi- vacity is their supreme distinction. Their faces are animated: when they speak they live their words and the bored look of London and the weighty amiability of Berlin are nowhere visi- ble. Theits is a certain primitive health that not even several cubic inches of diamond and a Paris gown can dislocate. “To tell the truth your representa- tive, much as he admitted the beauty of St. Petersburg womanhood, was even more enchanted with the men. Such men! These had made quite ra¥- ishing toilets. The Cossacks of the Guard would give quality and savor to any gathefing. Picture to yourselves bronzed and bearded heroes in ankle- long overalls, cartridges made of silver flligree work running along their breasts, Oriental swords and yataghans hanging on belts of silver, and crosses and medals won on strange battlefields nestling below the cartridges. With these were generals whose wide trous- ers were met by leather boots knee- high. All wore their orders—crosses in brilliants, in enamel or in gold, rews of them. In England one would put the alphabet after their names. “Hussars, infantry, artillery, dra- goons, and riflemen were all here, frog- ged and braided and astrachaned and decorated. Smart students, sword on hip, mingled with these and the mere civilian in black evening clothes wore a string of decorations in miniature on the lapel of his coat.” Tapestry of Price. Probably the largest single sale of tapestries on record in this country has just been recorded in New York. John R. McLean of Washington and Cincinnati was the purchaser. For ap- proximately $100,000 he has secured a series of eight seventeenth century pieces formerly in the Barberini pal- ace. Cardinal Barberini was a devoted admirer of tapestries and had looms of his own. This series was woven for him in Rome from designs by Roman- elli, a famous artist. All are in excel- lent condition, woven in light colors, and so large that few private houses have the wall space for their display. They were brought from Italy some The 'ships devart—joy-confident Ot ports to Shall I await, in like content The ebbing sea? N verybody's Masgazine. . Bucking the Center. A New York paper prints a cable- gram from Zanzibar, East Africa, which tells of a remarkable “collision” which occurred on the Uganda raift road that would be possible nowhere else on earth. A huge bull rhinoceros rushed from the bush and charged at full speed at the so-called “up mixed” train, which was slowing down, Febru- ary 14, as it approached the station Sultan Hamond, 218 miles from Mom- basa, on the coast, where the road starts. It was still dark, just before daylight. The train was ¢ traveling eight or ten miles an hour when the infuriated pachyderm attacked it on the flank. Perhaps the great brute had been aroused from sleep by the greater mon- ster, whose one big shining eye nearly blinded him. But the rhinoceros, lord of the region, caring nothing for the huge bulk of the unknown intruder. hurled itself upon it. The engineer felt a series of shocks, of which the first was so violent as to throw two passen- gers from their sleeping berths to the floor. The train was stopped and the passengers turned out, most of them in their “robes of night!’ and some of them badly scared. The ‘“rhino” was discovered about 100 yards down the track. The impact with the train had felled him, but had not cooled his rage. Slowly he raised himself and stood de- fiantly shaking his head. Some of the more “sporting” passen- gers got their fifles and opened fire on the rhinoceros, but the light was uncer- | tain, and probably the mighty beast was not hit. Slowly he returned to the jungle and was lost sight of. He did not escape unharmed from the strange encounter, for pleces of his thick skin were found adhering to the train. But the fierceness of ‘his assault smashed the engine step and splintered the inch and a half thick footboard of the first carside. Brave Women and Fair Men. In deseribing a court fete held re- cently at St. Peterfburg, the corre- spondent of the London Daily Mail takes occasion to make some remarks upon the dazzling splendor of Russia’s men and women of the higher rank He says: “St. Petersburg society is brilliant, not only by reason of the diamonds and beauty of its women, -but a!.lo owing to the blazing decora- ladies wore such diamonds as are only seen at exhibi- mwhmmusm years ago, having been sold to a resi- dent of Washington by the Princess Barberini. Answers to Queries. FIRST ANNIVERSARY—A Sud- scriber, City. The first anniversary of a wedding is called the cotton wedding. Any article made of cotton would be an appropriate gift for such an anni- versary. WORLD'S FAIR—A Constant Read- er, San Rafael, Cal. The Call's query department will endeavor to answer the following if the correspondent will state which World's Fair: “Please give an estimate of the number of people who visited the World’'s Fair during the opening month.” A PICTURE—E. R, City. The pie- ture that was presented with The Call March 20 was a reproduction of a weli- known. painting by Jean Baptiste Camille Carot. The biographies of this painter do not describe the scene, but allude to it as “La Danse des Nymphes"” —the dance of the nymphs. SOLD FOR TAXES-—S. Y. 8., Castro- ville, Cal. If a real estate owner in the State allows his property to be sold to the State for taxes he may redeem the same according to the provisions of the Political Code within a period of five years. If not redeemed within that time, a deed is made to the State. The redemption must be within the time stated. RUNNING—H. A. W, Willlams, Cal. The world’s record for man running one hundred yards is held by E. Donno- van, professional, made at Brockton, Mass., September 2, 1895, thirteen inches down grade, in 9 3-5. A. F. Duffy, amateur, made the same distance in the same time on the Berkeley oval, New York, May 31, 1902, INTESTATE—F. F., Petaluma, Cal. If in California a man dies intestate, if there survive him his wife and one child, or the issue of one child, the wife rgceives oneshalf of the property: if he leaves wife and more than one child or the issue of ghildren, then th- wife receives but one-third of the es- tate: if there are no children or issue of children, the wife gets one-half, the other half going to the heirs. On the death of the husband one-half of th: community property goes to the sur viving wife. ————— Townsend's California Glace fruits and choice candies, artistic fire-etche! boxes. A nice for Eastern friends. 715 Market street. above Call building. e —— tlu- -wud dally v Special m—