The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 29, 1904, Page 8

N FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 1904 In sen- se-paint- penal servi- e and Magistrates of receiv- recall- nd his ju- respects vity than villain. Fagin W vm a had to pry making | = way,” this you get in- #, pick up all the ur hands on, and areful you don’t make when you think »ck in the morning come you get the street f you were going to straight hems roy when cly as se to ru If was simply riator of mak! clock on Mon- entered the opening the window by the sideboard drawer,” evidence, a carving & catch knife] a sugar sifter, twb silver-plated knife Fests, one pair of silver salad serverg, one silver skewer, two =i plated dish bottoms | an? four shill in money—the latter in a parse, which I left behind. I put the stuff in a bag, left the house and went st home with it. When I got there I whistled angd €ather threw | the key on window to me and f the n. As soon as I entered live and sieep in the room—father said, “Don’t make stuff rattle or the people down- will hear you'"” A fex days later young Everitt's father set him another house-breaking job. As before the boy made his en- trance at night and this time hid him- self in an empty chicken coop. So sea- soned hud he become to crime in this brief period that he actually slept there until past 5 o'clock. Then he entered the bouse by the drawing-room win- dow. Her~ he found three silver boxes and twelve silver Spoons. He next tackiid the kitchen window and appro- priated the plum pudding“that he found in the larder. Hungry thousgh he was, he tosk the plum pudding home with him in & sack with the regt of what he had stolen. Less than a fortnight after this ex- ploit the little lad was started on an- other burglarious enterprise. .As on the twe previous occasions the house chogen was one in which the father had worked. He had ascertained that there wgs no dog kept there and tha: the kitchen contained most of the househoid silver. That night the boy siept in s shed in the.vear of'the prem- ises. effected an entrance through the scullery window next morning and ootes the culinary gpajtment of the silver he could find. . But while obey- ing his father’s instrugtions to walk ‘off quickly 258 though he’ was hurrying. to work he wa stopped by an inquisitive roliceman, who insisied on txl.mlnln‘_l the contents of the sfck. And then the gecret of the mysterious burglasies that had alarmed and puzzied Enfield was sog out. But the-boy, with a loy- alty to his @ather which he was far from deserving, did not betray his complicity in the crimes unMl he had led the police a long wild goose chase in search of a s&ppositious individual :—ho he said had intrusted the sack to im. In sentencing the father the chair- man of the Board of Magistrates said he hoped that the imposition of a se- vere sentence wpuld f deter “other brutes of fathers” from following his example. The boy was sent to & re- formatery for four years to undo, if possible, his father's teaching. The Heart of @ Hcro. Special Correspondence. PARIS, April 16.—No more dramatic ceremony has taken place in France in reeent years than the reception to the heart of La Tour d'Auvergne, “The First Grenadier of France,™ which occurred at the Invalides the other day. This cherished relic of the heroic soldier, famed in French song and story, has had a history hardly less strange and romantic than that of the man who left behind him so inspiring an example of patriotic de- votion to his country. The heart has figured on many a battlefield as a =timulus to the courage of the soldiers of France. Often it has been lost and miraculously recovered. It has been the subject of ignoble contests in the | leaden case, which the quartermaster " | place. heve cut short | om win- | be avoid- | One | limbed over the vie- | father had shown him. | law courts. And row at last it finds a fit abiding place among the honored memorials of the Marshals of France. La Tour was born at Carhaix, in Auvergne, in 1743 and died as he wished to die, fighting gallantly for his country at Oberhausen in 1800. But the heart, “le coeur du heros,” as it is proudly called, instead of being buried with the body, was sealed up in a of the famous regiment, the Forty- sixth, carried wherever the command went, always close to the flag. Napo- leon subsequently ordered it brought to the chancellery. But under the Bourbon regime it was no longer re-| garded as a prized memento and for several years was lost track of, like Richelieu’s head. After that, when it | had been found and identified, family litigation for its possession continued for 2 long period. In 1840 M. du itavice de Heussey secured the urn preserved it in his castie of La | , near Carhaix, the hero’s birth- Thus it came into the pose | session of M. du Pentavice's grand- | son, Colonel du Pentavice de Heussey, who offered it to France. The body was removed from its original burial place in 1889 and interred in the Pan- | theon. Standing in the doorway of the| famous soldier’s home, in front of { Napoleon's tomb, President Loubet re- ceived the solemn procession which | escorted the four grenadiers from La Tour’s regiment who bore “Le Coeur |du Hero.” It has been placed in the “Tombeau des Gouverneurs,” the| burial place of all the Governors of the Invalides, whence in a few days it will | be removed to the chapel, which is to be its permanent resting place. | Although most of the surviving vet- erans of La Tour’s regiment are spending their last days in the In-| valides, whenever the command as- sembles, the roll call officer, who | knows the famous grenadier only through histpry, calls his name. In- stantly another soldier replies, “Dead on the field of fame.” | The Isle of Unrest. 3 “San Domingo, thoretically a re- public,” writes William Thorp in the |May World's Work, “covers two-| | thirds of the largest and richest isl- | {and in the West Indies, except Cuba. | | Its population &an only be guessed at, | {for the official - figures are untrust- | worthy. There are, probably, 500,- 000 negroes and mulattoes scattered over the 18,000 square miles. They are often half-starved and always liv- ing from hand to mouth, for there is little incentive to honest industry when a party of soldiers may come along at any moment and eat up the fruit of a man’s labor. The country | could easily support 5,000,000 people |in prosperity and comfort. But it has | been at war, with hardly any consid- erable intermission, for about a hun-| dred years. There is no other country | in the world, not eveni Venezuela, with | such a record. “The disparity in numbers between | women and men is even greater in the | country villages than in the cities, for | the men are apt to flock to the towns| or to be marched off to fight by one | of the numerous guerrilla bands. | | Polygamy results in the country dis- | tricts. A peasant usually has four or five wives, who live in common and work for him and the children. Yet the population does not increase. That is the most striking testimony to the condition of the country. The men are steadily thinned down by the wars, and three-fourths of the chil- dren die in infancy, owing to the ig- norance of their mothers and the lack of medical care. I have seen babies a few months old given raw plantain to eat when they cried. I have known babies, too, to be killed by Government soldiers, before the eyes of their mothers, because their fathers were fighting in the ranks of the revolu- tionists. Fifteen women and children were slain in cold blood in the town of San Pedro de Macoris, an import- ant seaport, in 1900, with the deliber- ate purpose of deterring other men from joining the revolutionists.” Elements of Life. Ten years ago the injection of salt water as a restorative to patients dying from loss of blood aroused general in- | terest. The discovery of this quality of salt water probably suggested to the French savant, M. Quinton, a long and patient research concerning sea water, the conclusion of which throws unex- pected light on and adds support to the Darwinian theory of evolution. M. Quinton maintains that sea water is the natural source from which, as Professor Haeckel believes, elementary bodies rise which develap into all the species, including the human. The en- vironment wherein the anatomical ele- ments of living creatures exist is neith- er more or less than a marine one. Our tissue and cells continue to exert their functions in & fluid where the composi- tion bears the closest resembl;nce to that of sea water. Hitherto the number of elements en- tering into the composition of the living body was considered about fifteen. M. Quinton has shown the existence of traces of at least fourteen others, which are also found in sea water, such as copper, lead, silver and gold. Further, if an animal is bled to the point of ex- haustion and the place of the blood supplied with sea water the animal re- gains its strength in one day, and there is complete recovery in five days. M. Quinton injected into animals a quan- tity of sea water greater than their own body weight without toxic effect. The injection of pure water rapidly causes death. Thus sea water appears to be the true nutrient fluid for ani- mals—in. fact, their natural plasma.— New York Sun. Queen’s Englu‘h. The following l'pedmen o! Babu Eng- lish, extracted from the report of a Punjab civil service employe, is going the rounds of the press: “The sub- postmaster reports that last evening a mice dame out from behind the office door, and, after walking a little, stam- mered and breathed its last in the prresence of the sub-postmaster there. As these are the prognostics of plague, 1 beg you will kindly arrange to have the office disinfected at an early date.” THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor . .. . . .. . . . Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager Publication Office ...... B> .Third and Market Streets, S. P. I*R[DAY.....,...A. RECTIFYING THE RIVERS. HE River Convention, to be held on May 23, will T have under consideration a matter of very great in- terest to the whole State. River islands and delta and bottom lands are everywhere the most fertile. In this State such lands are of peculiar value because of the friendly climate and the constant succession and variety of crops. In the Mississippi Valley, on its lower reaches, sach lands are of so much importance and their crops of cane and rice are so valuable that they supply to the Federal Government its motive for the large expendi- tures made necessary to protect them from annual flooding. Nature made some provision in tLe many bay- cus on the west side of the river, which assist in the drainage. In this State the problem is practically confined to the Sacramento. That river carries the greatest flow. The Tuolumne is second. Its floods, hoyever, come in June, and by adding to the flow of the San Joaquin tax its carrying capacity. future to be controlled very largely by the diversion of the June flood at La Grange for use in the new irriga- tion districts of Modesto and Turlock. So, it may be safely said that when the Sacramento is rectified the flood damage will be reduced to a minimum. We discuss the subject without pretense of expert knowledge, but for the purpose of inciting those inter- ested and the experts to an examination that will put prattical plans before the convention to the end that its deliberations may issue in a plan that will work. There are two general plans. One is to let the floods reach the region of Sacramento and take care of them by increas-- ing the carrying capacity of the river below that point of concentration. The other is to divert the surplus water above Sacramento, take it out of the channel and carry it to Suisun Bay. A bill to effect this diversion has been proposed in the Legislature and was favorably reported by the committee, but was not acted on.’ The plan, proposed by an engineer, is to construct a waste weir two thousand feet long, about two miles above Butte City, to spill the floods into Yolo Basin. There the water is to be confined by embankments two thousand feet apart, and through this canal to conduct the flood to the bay. The fall is ninety-five feet in the hundred miles from weir to bay. The only obstacle is a low ridge, about two feet above grade, at Knights Land- | ing. But its excavation is easy. The embankments will be substantial and broad enough for an ordinaty high- way or a bed for an electric road, thus furnishing a transportation facility and means of communication. The canal would also intercept all the drainage from the west side and carry it off without reaching the river. It will be seen that this is, in effect, the creation of an artificial bayou to relieve the river as the natural bayous relieve the lower Mississippi. It will also be a reclama- tion proposition, for it will protect from overflow many thousand acres of bottom land now not used at all or subject to destruction of crops by flood. We do not know whether the fall is sufficient for the purpose or whether a waste weir can be constructed so as to withstand flood pressure. The plan presents no estimate of the cost, but proposes that bonds be issued | under State guarantee, and that they be taken up by a sinking fund derived from a tax levied on the lands that are protected from overflow. The proceeds of this tax are to go into the State treasury as a bond fund to take up the As the Modesto and Turlock districts stand a first cost for irrigation of $10 per acre and the delta and bottom lands of the Sacramento and San Joa- quin a cost for levees of $15 to $25 per acre, it is probable the acreage relieved by this artificial bayou could bear a issue. | bond tax sufficient to do the work. It is claimed that such a diversion of the floods, by leaving the Sacramento River only its banks full of wa- | ter, would maintain its scouring current and deepen its channel to the improvement of its navigability and gen- eral usefulness. This seems reasonable, as when the wa- ter overflows the banks and spreads over the country the currents are not confined to the channel, and instead of scouring it receives the silt, which precipjtates as the water, the carrying medium, runs more slowly. If the proposed canal keep the floods from spreading over thé Yolo Basin all that land this side of Sacramento, which is covered with water every spring for months at a time, would be reclaimed, and it is very fertile and valuable. We have no doubt that if the plan is feasible private enterprise could raise the capital, buy all the region to be protected, put in the canal and make a handsome profit by selling the reclaimed lands. This implies, of course, the willingness of present holders to sell at a figure that would justify the investment. THE CALL’S EXPOSITION SOUVENIR. HE events that are to take place in St. Louis to- T morrow, fraught as they are with significance to the whole nation, have an especial appeal to the people of the West, for it is distinctly an epoch in the history of the West which the Louisiana Purchase Ex- position serves to commemorate, and the display to be made there by California and the other States that lie “in what was so recently the frontier of the republic is the element that is to give to the fair its distinctive char- acteristic. To its readers throughout California and the coast, who have so lively an interest in all that pertains to the St. Louis/Exposition, The Call will offer in its Sunday publication a compendium of facts and a budget of news appertaining to every feature of the exposition that will be in every way commensurate with the im- portance of the occasion. Mr. Paul Edwards, our resident correspondent at the exposition, who has been on the grounds for several weeks past, will furnish readers with a detailed and lively account of all the ceremonies that are to mark the open- ing of the great fair. From his pen also there will be an exhaustive account of the exposition as it is prepared for the coming of the throngs of visitors to-morrow, To the California exhibit, both as it is displayed in our own State building and as segregated into the general Horticultural, Agricultural and Mining buildings, our representative will devote an elaborate and faithful re- view. The San Francisco exhibit, installed as it is in our own building, will be given special mention. Aside from the telegraphic accounts of the immediate news happenings at St. Louis, The Call’s special exposi- tion edition will ))ortr:i both pictorially and graphically the character of the fair, its history and significance. The momentous ‘event that transpired in Napoleon’s office at Versaillbs one hundred years ago, which the ex- position aims to commemorate, will be recited; the gen- eral outlay of the whole grounds will be given both by a birdseye picture and by text; a condensed guide to cvery part of the great display will b: a fe.ture of lhe roll, But the Tuolumne floods are in the | edition. Added to this a full page allegorical drawing, representing the genius of the fair, and photographs of the California and San Francisco buildings as they stand to-day will serve to round out a souvenir of the exposi- tion’s opening as artistic as it is enlightening. A pawnbroker was arrested the other day because he, had entered into an agreement with thieves to purchase stolen goods. While it would be absurd to question the morality of the arrest, it is safe to doubt its policy. If we know that thieves have an emporium for their ili- gotten property we may communicate the fact to the police and perhaps secure the return of what is our own. In this way even the police might be assisted in capturing the' malefactors. SEATTLE OPPOSES TRANSPORT SERVICE. | HE local steamship companies that transact busi- T ness on the line between Seattle and Alaska are of- fering objections to having soldiers shipped to Alaska by army transports from San Francisco. The Seattle newspapers are taking up the cudgel in favor of Seattle. The arguments that are made against the trans- port service in this connection are summed up by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which alleges that the quar- termaster’s department seems inclined to favor San Fran- cisco at the expense of Puget Sound. The question will naturaily be asked by the disinter- ested citizen: “What is the transport service for if it be not to move soldiers?” And if the Government finds it advantageous to have the service established at San Francisco, the great port of the Pacific Coast, where the largest population and the greatest number of facilities for carrying on business are centered, the military au- thorities will not be diverted from an appreciation of such :dvanugel by any local fault finding on Puget Sound or elsewhere. It would be difficult for the Post-Intelligencer and the people of Seattle to show that it is wrong to use the Government transports to take soldiers to Alaska if it is right to so use them on the line to the Philippine Isl- ands. If it is both right and expedient, then the Seattle newspapers will have a hard time trying to convince the Government that its transportation policy, as applied to the movement of troops, is imiproper or unwise. Unfor(unatd;', the Seattle Post-Intelligencer betrays something more than the judicial spirit when, in this con- nection, it goes out of its way to attack San Francisco as a commercial port, alleging that “San Francisco can- not pretend to compete commercially with Seattle in Alaska business.” Also it is alleged that “this is flat and inexcusable discrimination in favor of one city and against another, done with a deliberate disregard of the Government’s financial interests.” In this frame of mind the Post-Intelligencer demands an investigation. In addition to the fact that the Government is the best judge of its own business, and generally acts in accord therewith, it should appear to the Seattle people that the military policy of largely concentrating troops at San Francisco and in much less degree in the military de- partment to the north has long been established and for obvious reasons. Climate is one leading consideration. Convenience is another. The transportation of troops to and fro between the United States and the Philippines in private vessels was discontinued just as soon as the Government ac- quired a fleet of troopships adequate to all present de- mands. If Seattle dreams there is any discrimination in pot handing over the moving of troops to the Seattle transportation companies it must see that a rule has been established here and elsewhere and presumably after a full consideration of all the facts. It is hardly good policy for Seattle to abuse the quar- termaster’s department. That department is in the ad- ministration of men of ability and fairness, whose first duty is to the Government that they serve. HEARST VICTORIES. ET us not deceive ourselves. The Hearst boom is booming. When Rhodope took a dip in the Nile and left her toge on the bank an eagle swiped one of her shoes and flying away dropped it before the King of Egypt. The King picked it up and declared that the lady whose foot fitted it should be his tootsy-wootsy and his queen. He went forth, shoe in hand, and when he found her Rhodope got her shoe back and also a new Easter crown. Just now the American eagle is flying around with Lincoln's boots to find the man who fits them. Mr. Hearst has announced that he is the man and exhibits his feet to prove it. Does any one suppose that such a mixture of Rhodope and Cinderella in politics can be beaten? May the thought go away and die of stomach trouble. The latest dispatches announce that he has carried Kittitas County, Washington. As goes Kittitas so goes the Union. True, his enemies have New York and Mass- achusetts. But he has Kittitas. Scheming and sinister Tom Taggart of Indiana has taken that State away, and from Michigan City to Logootee it is prostrate before Wall street. But Hearst has carried Kittitas. * In Iowa Johnny Walsh is driven to the extreme of or- ganizing a bolting convention, because the regulars are against Hearst and the regular convention is lusting for the flesh pots that are boiling in the kitchen of David B. Hill at Wolfert’s Roost. Let Hill have the flesh pots. Hearst has Kittitas. New Hampshire, shameless as her granite hills, with blood as thin as her sterile soil, goes against Hearst with Yankee stubbornness and self-will. But he carries Kittitas. In Wisconsin the heathen rage anmlt him and Usher and Vilas and Mitchell imagine a vain thing and refuse the State to Hearst. But his boom goeth forth jocund, for he has the delegation from Kittitas. California, honored as the State of his nativity, is in revolt. From Trinity to Los Angeles the Democrats re- fuse to know Israel and sit up nights to smite Hearst, and he is withstood from Plumas to Petaluma, from Mono to Milpifas. But he has Kittitas. When John C. Breckenridge became a candidate for United States Senator from Kentucky two events were concurrent: a son was born to him and he carried his first county. Tt was Breathitt County, and he imme- diately named the boy Breathitt. After that every county went for him and he was elected. The day Hearst carried Kittitas his son was born. May we ven- ture to suggest to Mr. Hearst that his fate is in his own hands? Honor Kittitas as Breckenridge did Breathitt and all things may be added unto him. Kittitas Hearst has a fetching sound. It is better than Hoke Smith, or Dink Jones. or Svued Calvert, all of which are on the census TALI\ Of Was It Dynamite? One drink of Scotcht whisky did it all. When the liner's officer said “Say when,” the visiting landlubber who held the glass mistook the gurgling fluid for white wine. The glass was of the high-sided, round-bellied kind, one of the largest members of the tumbler family, and the sort in which John Bull prefers to have his “Scotch” served. He withheld his “when” until the fluld almost reached the tumbler's brim. With a cheery “here’s how™” he downed the draught. “Gee whillikins! white wine.” “Yes,” said his host, dryly, “it'’s im- ported.” The visitor from shore had boarded the liner Gaelic from a newspaper launch. His friends of the press had invited him out to take a look at Prince Pu Lun. An introduction to the ship's officers had been followed by the in- vitation to “say when.” After the drink the gentleman who didn't know whisky wandered into the officer’s messroom, where dinner was awaiting the navigators. Picking a half chicken from a platter the native started for the hurricane deck. “Prinsch P'lun mushbe hungry,” he volunteered as he set forth. Unable to find the Prince, he bal- anced himself against a stanchion and attempted to bufld a cigarette. To have both hands free he placed the‘ chicken between,his knees. His hands had lost their cunning, however, and struggle as he would he only tore cig- arette papers and scattered tobacco in all directions but the right one. As his hands strove with the cigarette his knees squeezed the chicken, the grease from which trickled indelible ruination down the legs of his Sunday best. If he found Prince Pu Lun he has no recollection of the meeting. When he | came to himself he was standing at Third and Market streets gazing at the dome of the Claus Spreckels building. It was dark and the street was desert- ed. In one hand he held ‘a crumpled mass of torn cigarette papers, in the other a chicken bone. He stood in bewilderment, trying to gather together his wits. He remembered. As he start- ed for home the policeman on the cor- ner heard him say: “White wine be damned. It was dy- namite.” that's scorching ‘A Doubtful License. | “I have had some queer experiences | during my incumbency of this office,” | sald Marriage License Clerk Danforth | as he patiently awaited the appeauncm of the next applicant for matrimonial | fetters. “The one, however, that struck me as the most peculiar happened in the case of a man who came in here recently looking for information. He | was a solemn looking sort of an indi- vidual and the last man in the world that looked as though he wanted to get married. And he didn’t, for he had al- ready been wedded, as the sequel will show in the following colloquy: * “‘Is this the marriage license office? asked the man as he came forward. ““ ‘It certainly is,” I replied. “ ‘Well, what I mean is, do you issue marriage licenses here?" “ ‘Of course I do; why do you ask? “‘Well, I got one here two months ago, and you must have made a mis- take and given me a dog license, for to tell you the truth, I have been leading a dog’s life ever since.’” The Joy. The joy is in the doing, Not the deed that's done; The swift and glad pursuing, Not the goal that's won The joy is in the seeing, Not in what we see; The ecstasy of vision, Far and clear and free! The joy is in the singing, ‘Whether hear@® or no; The poet's wild, sweet rapture, And sona’s divinest flow! The joy is in the being— Joy of life and dreath; Joy of a soul triumphant, Conqueror of death! Is theee a flaw in the marble? Sculptor, do your best; The joy is'in the epdeavor— Leave to God the rest! —8mart Set. Boll-W eevils and Cotton. Now that it is clear that the boll weevil can never be esterminateq it is evident that the methods of cotton cul- ture must be radically changed. The weevil damages the late or main crop. ¥enceforth every effort must be made to get an early crop. Cultivators must destroy by plowing up, windrowing and burning all the cotton stalks in the field as soon as the weevils become so numerous that practically all the squares and bolls are being punctured. Of greatest advantage is the reducing for the next vear of the number of the weevils by the destruction of the plants in the fall. The advantage thus gained is followed by bending every effort to- ward procuring an early crop the fol- lowing season. The other measures are of a general nature—early planting, thorough tillage, planting the rows far- ther apart, thinning the plants in the row and a freer use of fertilizers. The advent of the boll weevil is perhaps the greatest event in cotton culture since the invention of the cotton gin, except- ing, of course, the Civil War. Like the Chicago fire, it may prove a blessing in disguise.—Country Life in America. The Man of War. . Every district, every hamlet is con- tributing its quota of fighting men and that a great army may be massed will be understood when it is said that, in Japan; there are 630,000 men who have had actual military tralning, and are available for immediate service if it is so desired. This number represents only one in every nine men who have been drawn by lot, from the physically able, to serve either the one or three years' enlistment in Japan's compulsory military service, and there- fore it does not even touch the several millions of able-bodied men who are subject to conscription at a moment’s notice. The conservative Japanese feaders of affairs believe an army of 300,000 suffi- cient to win success with Russia, and the enthusfasts say, “If need be, we will put a million and a half to two million men into the field.” From all the discomforts suffered in a train, sullenly bumping over the 1ails on flattened wheels, and creeping £rom station to station with prolonged THE - -“TOWN ) waits, one gains the positive mugn that an army is moving in the land of the Mikado. Every station seems to be giving up its fathers and sons. They stand huddled on the short plat- forms of the smaller stations, in wide- sleeved and padded kimonas, each with his bundle of clothes wrapped loosely in a knotted cloth and suspended upon his back. Their slant-eyed faces liter- ° ally beam with satisfaction, as they smilingly or solemnly indulge in end- less highly automatic genuflections from the hips, to one another and to their surrounding friends, the aspect of the visage and the number of bows being apparently determined by the rank of the person addressed or the | size of the compliment which has been uttered. —William Dinwiddie in Har per’'s Weekly. Primitive Books. The oldest books in existence are doubtless those of the Babylonians, hut the great permanency of these is explained by the material of which they are composed, and it does not neces- sarily follow that they were the.first books to be made. We know that the Egyptians employed a papyrus roil from the earliest historical periods, and that the Hindoos made their palm leaf books at a very early day. In short, every civilized nation is discov- ered at the very dawn of its history in full possession of a system of book- making. It is impossible to decide the ques- tion as to whether one nation borrowed from another in developing the idea of bookmaking. Limiting our view strictly to the his- toric period, we find, as has been said, the five types of books in general use. We have now to consider briefly the distinguishing characteristics of each of these types before going on to note the steps of development through which the modern book was evolved. First fet us give attention to the papy- rus roll of the Egyptians. As has been said, this type of book was employed in Egypt from the earliest day of the historical period. As is well known, payprus is a species of primitive paper —the word “paper” being, indeed, a derivative of “papyrus”—which was made of strips of the papyrus plant placed together to form two thin layers, the fibers of one crossing those of the other and the whole made into a thin, firm sheet with the aid of glue and mechanical pressure. The strips of papyrus were usually from eight to fourteen inches in width, and from a few feet to several yards in length. This scroll was not used, as might per- haps have been expected, for the inser- tion of a single Jcontinuous column of writing. A moment’s consideration will make it clear that such a method would have created difficulties both for the scribe and for the reader, therefore the much more convenient method was adopted of writing lines a few inches in length, so placed as to form trans- verse columns, which followed one an- other in regular sequence from the be- ginning to the end of the scroll.—Henry Smith Willlams, LL.D., in Harpers Magazine for May. < HAnswers to Queries. WEIGHT—S., City. A troy ounce weighs 480 grains and an avoirdupols ounce 4371 grains. AMBER—L. F. K., City. Amber is slightly brittle, emits an agreeable odor when rubbed and meits at 550 de- grees Fahrenheit. It burns with a bright flame and emits a pleasant smell. BALLOON—E. €. H., Woodland, Cal. Hydrogen gas is that which is used to inflate balloons, as it s fourteen and one-half times lighter than atmos-, pheric air. Coal gas is sometimes used, dut it is only two and one-half times lighteg than air. B WHEAT-E. L D. L, City. Califors nia wheat does not as e rule reguire wheat from foreign States to mix with it in order to make good flour. There have been times when the wheat crop was short that wheat has been import- ed from other States. RAILROAD SURVEY—A. S, @ity. Some time ago there was a survey for a railroad from Oakland to Haywards, thence to Dublin, thence to Livermore, thence through the Altamont Meun- tains #0 the San Joaquin Valley, shence to Stockton, but there is no such line contemplated at this time. DIPLOMATIC QUESTION¥-B. J. L., Fresno, Cal. The questions asked about Russia, Japan and China are such that the greatest diplomats of the present day have been unable to satis- factorily and thare has been a resort to to maintain the superior- ity of right. In view of this The Call's Query Column cannot set up its judg- ment against that of the great men of the nations named. THE BAD LANDS—Subscriber, San Jose, Cal. The Bad Lands, or “Mau- vaises Terres,” are an extensive barren tract in Dakota, Wyoming and North- western Neb: between the morth fork of the River Platte and the south fork of the Cheyenne River — west, south and southeast of the Black Hills. Geologically speaking they belong to the miocene period. The surface mate- rials are for the most part white, yel- lowish and indurated clays. Water and grass in the Bad Lands very mt!. ——— ‘l‘md" California Giace fruits and w‘ a artistic fire-etchad nice present for Eastern friends. 715 -lrh! street. above Call building. * ——e