The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 11, 1904, Page 8

" _ unmusical in & very short time—a few \ wand the hammers, and by practice the L THE SAN FRANCISCO C WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 190, | “any plano is much too good for the | & good piano. | ever, some of the qualities to look for. | treble. }vtnnn is a fine one in good tune or a, shabby old thing, deficient In mausical qualities, often positively atrocious. Any plano finds friends in a family when it Is once there. Itis like a sew- ing machine; you get used to it | whether It 18 the best or less than the best. You learn how to get the best out of it if you can. It is at any rate a good deal better than no piano. And | one can concede this without going so far as a certain eminent Chicago teacher, who takes the ground that majority of people who have them.” S I do not undertake in this article| to make the readers expert judges of | 1 will mention, hn\\-' The thing which costs money in mak- | ing a plano is a long vibration in tones | | lying above C of the third space of the | When you get above the staff | then the tone is apt to be too short| for singing effect. Therefore, when I| T | { i PECTRRNE 5 S AR LSR8 Pian a Piano. BY B. MATHEWS. | (Author o Music,” “How 10 Un Mus e1c) L y Joseph B. Bowles) s ought to be sold upon the | Aual merit of the instrument, as | violins are, and not as at present by | an arbitrary scale of prices, regardless of the merit of the individual instru- | Anybody can see that this s moon as it is men-| | Yet there are difficulties in | coming round to such a state of| thing piano trade is in a state | of jon. It costs quite a little mo the average, to sell a good or * piano than it does to make it. In con-| gequence of this the makers of the really superior planos have not got proportion to their business: | of the makers of commercial | almost destitute of art quali- re far richer than the most cele- rich brated of the art makers. The late J. P. Hale, in New York. got rich by | selling commercial pianos with a profit of perhaps $10 an instrument. Je sold them by the hundred and thousand to jobbers. All the dealers who handle first-class pianos make their money by selling cheap pianos. “The first-class pianos are a good thing | the store and to brag about ements, but the money is the lower priced ones. recently, and not uni- by any means, has there ave adve made ¢ Never until wish to examine a piano I go immedi- | ately to this part of the treble and | sound one ione after another and hold | it out as long as I can. If you go into | a selling wareroom and listen vou will observe the crack salesman to attack | the piano in quick _succession of | chords, taking as varied harmonies as | possible and as fast as at least two | chords per second. Nothing is better | calculated not to show anything about | the instrument. All it shows is noise. It demoralizes the ear to such an ex- tent that you cannot hear clearly for several minutes, to distinguish the fine qualities which the piano ought to have. There are two qualities in this hold- | ing out of vibration which the good | piano has in the register I have men- | tioned. The fifst way begins the tone good and strong, and upon first hear- ing you think it holds out extremely well; but if you listen more carefully you will discover that the great bulk of the tone is gone within the first two seconds, and after that only a thin thread of tone helds our. If you will try the same experiment upon a first- class grand pilano you will observe a vast difference, the fine instrument | holding out the greater part of the vol- ume with which the tone began. Upon | the very best instruments the tone is| actually a little fuller about three sec- | onds after it is sounded. The sound- versally now been a « e piar t i rice system applied to | de. To mark an instru- | plain figures and to take that | nd no other is something which | few dealers have the nerve to do. | e abuses in this direction are shock- | 4 commercial sense. The | 0a s country agent is very glad to jret-class piano with his cu r if he can make a profit of $2 ich upon a trade aggregating nearly or quite $500 is absurdly low. The | r will not hesitate for a mo- $400 for a piano which | >t over $120. In this case highway robbery amount- | ard of $200. Two different | of different buying ca-| cost hin there ing t customers, pacity, get pianos of equal value from the same ler at prices more than a kundred dollars apart. is a . | The great majority of music teachers | are unable discriminate between | pianos of very different guality \\h(-n; the makers’ names are concealed. This | I nk, and not personal dishonesty, is t reason why in Chicago, for instance, | upward of 6000 piano pupils take their | lessons downtown upon pianos many of which are incapable of art treatment e., incapable of the fine distinctions | beionging to the fine are of playing | choice piano maisic in a musical way. | Teachers who really knew these differ- | ences would be annoyed so seriousiy and sc apered in thelr work by try- ing to force incapable instruments to | art uses beyond their capacity that they would not lend themselves to this very doubtful practice. They need a Hebrew prophet to get after them, as Elijah used to get after the weak- kneed preachers of Israel, who now and then “bowed the knee to Baal.” Piano making has now reached a state of advance where any piano in the market will sustain its warrantee, at least the legs will not fall off, the varnish nat crack too soon and the bammers and things will continue to be operative for years. Yet in many of them the tone will become impover- ished—at least will become harsh and months at most. When this happens the piano fails to give a good account of the finer things in the music. > e It is a favorite idea of many that an ordinary piano is quite good enough to be worn out in practice. So it is if one chooses that view of it. It is also true that a really fine piano shows the ef- fect of practice very soon, rather soon- er I think than an ordinary instrument; the reason, however, is entirely cred- Adtable to the fine instrument, for its beautiful tone at first was due in part 16 2 fine relation between the strings hammers get pounded down and strike the strings in a longer surface, which gives rise to different harmonics. Thus | the tone gets sharp. The poor plano had the bad harmonics all the time. The difficulty with the view that anything is good enough to practice .upon is this, that the object of prac- | notes are sounded. ing board takes a little time to get to vibrating. The next point I would seek is the ease and freedom of the sympathetic resonance. All the pianos will respond to such a very crude experiment as that of holding a bass chord—C-E-G— silently below the bass staff, and sounding with the other hand the treble | notes C-E-G above the middle C. The | bass strings will continue the chord quite strongly, even upon indifferent instruments, when they are in tune. | It is mot so invariable when single ‘When you hold a | bass key silently the string should con- | tinue any treble octave which you | strike strongly and hold about a mec- ond. It will respond better if you take the pedal about a second: then when you let off the pedal and the finger you will hear your treble note going on in the bass key you are holding. | You can prove it by letting up the bass | key, when the treble tone immediately | stops. . . In the same way all the fifths of the | bass note will respond, if sounded for- | cibly, especially the twelfth, nineteenth [ and twenty-sixth of the scale of the! bass key held. The third will respond | in the seventeenth and twenty-second, | but not generally farther and not| nearer. The third resonance is weak | anyway. If you hold the chord C-E-G in the | bass staff (C second space) and sound the octave above, or double octave above, the chord will answer in the bass strings—always the treble tone, | and never the bass one. No string re- sponds to a pitch below the one sound- ed. All resonance takes place in the unison omly. All these resonances will answer only in the opposite direction. If you hold silently C (middle) and sound C for- cibly two octaves or one octave below, your treble note will sound, rather gently, its own pitch, being awakened by the partial tone in the C sounded. | The same bass tone will call out any | of the Gs above, a few of the Es and | generally the ninths, i. e., the Ds. The ninth is the “gamey” element in the tone. All good concert planos have this element. In all piano playing of choice music these resonances take place continually, and the result is to make the tone more sympathetic. Along with what you actually play you are blessed with | a lot of companion tones, which soften the effect and make it more delicate and fusical. The problem is to have vibratory qualities of this kind—which never come out delicately and easily in the poorer instruments. Here is where the first-class pianos show their qual- ity. Almost all the cheap pianos fail to “damp” easily. If you sound the same chord several times forcibly and then stop quickly you will hear that the tone seems still going on. The sounding beard is not properly damped. This is universal among the poorer instru- ments. It is a very serious defect. The tice is to acquire the art of producing music, which means the art of pro- ducing tonal ideas and forms complete in a1l their beauty. There are three strategic points in the transaction: Lal to conceive the musical idea; probability is that to suppress this de- fect requires some of that high-priced personal supervision which the com- mercial piano cannot afford. There is nothing wrong in having so many grades of excellence in pianos. | after-dark rides and midnight mit | in mud to get it. | driven at a rate of 80O to place the fingers in the| There was a time when we did not proper places at the right time and|have them: we stopped too low down with the right force, and third, to|in the scale. And I admit that any heat that the musical ideas have been | piano almost is better than no piano at properly expressed. It all comes back | all. It is therefore a question of means, to the ear; no hear, no music. This|tastes and careful buying. The only is as sure as sure can be. Now, no | thing wrong is in pretending that the matter what the fineness of concep- | low-priced plano is excellent when it is tion, if the tone does not answer, the | not, or in selling it at a price above its ears cannot hear it, and as the ear is|class. The department stores have a the most central part of all in recti- | chance now to improve this element. fying the practice and beautifying the | And in Chicago a modification of trade playing, it follows that those who |conditions has taken place which prac- practice upon poor plandbs will remain | tically changes much for the better. permanently deficient in hearing ca-| Almost all the really first-class pianos pacity. This will show in a wery| (all but two or three) are now sold by marked menner in their progress in|one single large house. It is obviously taste, and in their being unwilling to | of no advantage to the house to sell to devote practice to tonal refinements, |a customer a piano of one make when in place of thinking enly of power | he prefers another. And he can be and speed. Therefore it Jdoes make a | given his choice, with no more than a great dilference whether the practice | fair profit. g i THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL PO e 2L SRR IR ARG R L LT e an e S B S il R P e e |JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Preprietor . « « o + « « o+ o+ Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager . «...Third and Market Streets, 8. F. A GROWING EVIL. ITH “the advent of the automobile there has W come a new problem for society to deal with. It is, moreover, a problem that grows in complex- ity with the growing use of the machine by the public and with the rapidly increasing cheapness of its use. Unless something be done to check a tendency which has already gone so far as to be clearly apparent it will not be very long beiore the “automobile for hire” will be a favorite with the denizens of the tenderloin, and night- time drives taken through the park by more or less reck- less and sometimes drunken “sports” will make our nights both hideous and dangerous, adding a new and formidable factor to the evils of the town. The speed and smoothness with which an automobile can be driven over a good road and the resulting exhil- ration constitute an almost irresistible temptation to rapid driving whenever even a seeming opportunity is offered. The effect of that temptation was shown almost from the very first appearance of the new vehicle as a practi- cable pleasure carriage; and while its use was still con- fined, by reason of the great expense, to a few very rich people, it became noted as a danger on country roads and a menace in public parks. At present the automo- bile for hire is ready for the use of almost any one who wishes to have a frolic, and as the roads are freer for speeding after dark than they are by day the natural con- sequence has been a rapid increase in the number of dventures. It is quite true that many most excellent people in- dulge in the new sensation and delight in it. It is also true that some of those who indulge it are so very re- spectable and are so careful of their respectability that under no circumstances would they willingly permit it to be known that they ever indulge. That much was shown on a recent night when a young girl seriously hurt by the upsetting of an automobile was abandoned on the dark roadside by her two companions, a man and a woman, who ran away and left her in her pain, careless of what became of her, but very anxious that no one else should know they had been with her for a harmless starlight ride. From such respectables no great harm will come to the public. They will disturb nobody, for they love quiet as a clam loves it, and they will keep it as far as possible even if like a clam they have to bury themselves There are, however, others. To some of these others notoriety has no terrors. They are will- ing to drive their automobiles through the night at the utmost speed careless of consequences, and as their num- bers are rapidly increasing it is inevitable we shall ere long be confronted with an irruption of the tenderloin into the park unless stringent means be adopted to pre- vent it. Just how the evil can be most effectively checked is not clear. No policeman, evensthough mounted on the fleetest of horses, could overtake and stop an automobile thirty miles or more an hour. Mounted upon a ponderous machine moving at such a rate, a reckless chauffeur, backed by an equally feckless party, would be something like a demon of the road, and hardly anything short of a bullet could stop him. Whatever be the difficulties in the way of dealing with the issue it is certain something must be done. It be- hooves all who are interested in automobiling to assist in the solution of the problem, for the evil concerns them more directly than any other class of people. It will be to their advantage if the use of automobiles can be so regulated as to admit granting to those who use it right- ly the full freedom of the main driveways. It will be to their disadvantage. if reckless driving of the machines and their use by fast denizens of the half world be car- ried so far that the Park Commissioners in defense of the rights of the public be compelled to virtually close the park against all automobiles except under severest re- strictions. To the owners of automobiles the issue is plain and clear. It is for them to decide whether they will incon- siderately by their example and their influence encourage the hoodlums, or by something in the way of united ac- tion assist the park authorities in checking the evil at once and bringing to prompt and severe punishment every offender against the park regulations. Public interest was noticeably excited recently by the announcement that a judge, sitting to determine the equi- ties of a case, so decided as to inflict upon himself heavy financial damages which by his own decree he will pay. The wonder lessened, however, when it was known that the judge was an amateur in the law, a man of the sea and not of Blackstone. He knew so little of law as to be inspired by an instinctive sense of justice. T city have drawn attention to our rivals in wine making. ese rivals are not all in Europe. The Monticello Wine Company recently held its annual meet- ing at Charlottesville, Va., and declared a nine per cent dividend. Other Eastern wine companies seem to be thriving, though not a grape grown in the East contains within itself the elements necessary in a sound wine. Those wines are all stretched with cane sugar, tartaric acid and grain alcohol. Mr. Allen, secretary of the Pure Food Association, in his last report says that sixty per cent ofs the French still wines and eighty per cent of French champagnes are adulterated, though the French grape crop of the last two years has been large and na- tural wine very cheap. Much of the wines’in the sixty per cent of adulterated product never saw a vineyard and grape juice forms no part of their composition. The still Wines and champagnes are adulterated with new grain alcohol and acids deleterious to health. The use of cane sugar in French wines is encouraged by the Goy- ernment. The consumption of such sugar in the wineries of that country amounts to 80,000,000 pounds per year. In 1883 the French Government began a system of re- bates on sugar used in wine. The law recognizes “suc. rage” of wine. True, it pretends to prohibit their expor- tation, but examination of French wines imported to this country proves that this prohibition is ineffective, as it was probably intended to be. z The marketing of these mixtures, domestic and im- ported, directly affects the wines of California, The final effect upon our vintage will be that our vintners, com- pelled to compete with these stretched wines, will begin to stretch their own. Weak musts will be sugared, their color brought up with drugs, and the vinous effect forti- fied with tartaric ‘acid, while the strength will be forti- fied by grain alcohol. If a vintner can use cane sugar in his must he will pay less for grapes that show the re. | quisite quantity of grape sugar in the sacchrometer, and OUR WINE RIVALS. HE grocers’ convention and pure food show in this the grape grower suffers just in proportion as the natural elements of the grape can be replaced by sophistication. It is also true, 'we believe, that these sophisticated wines are easier handled and kept and marketed than a natural wine, so that every temptation of cupidity is present to effect the degradation of our wine. Mr. Bell, member of Congress from one of our wine districts, proposed to meet the emergency by an act of Congress imposing a tax on compound wines. This was met by the objection that a tax must also be put on pure wines to meet possible constitutional objections. The New York, Ohio and other Eastern winemakers op- posed the bill on the ground that they cannot make wine without the use of cane sugar, and it was proposed to compromise by an amendment permitting the use of sugar. This means the beginning of Government au- thority for the making of compound wines and degrades | the whole industry to the French level. As for the con- stitutional objection, Congress found no difficulty in put- ting a tax on oieomargarine and other artificial butters and compelling these to be labeled and sold for what they are. With the grape growers of California lacking a proper profit on their product and the pure wine mak- ers of this State suffering, it is not pleasant to read ot the dividends secured by the makers of sophisticated wines in the East. It would seem that legislative wis- dom should be aimed at protecting the maker of pure food products, and the protests of those who admit that they make impure should have no weight. The Eastern protesters who oppose the bill because they cannot make wine without stretching with sugar and corn spirits should be met by telling them that their product is not wine at all. One of the great centers of that so-called | wine industry is at Hammondsport, N. Y., on Keuka Lake, using as a base the light grapes of Yates and sur- rounding counties. It is natural, therefore, that we find the Hammondsport Herald protesting that the Bell bill will give California winemakers a monopoly and that “it behooves the Eastern people to get together and not only defend their interests, but secure such favorable : legislation as the merits of their products so richly de- serve.” What the Herald really means is that the bill, in its original form, was intended to give pure and genuine wines a monopoly of the market for such wines. If it be the good luck of California to be the only producer of such wines, that is a natural advantage inhering in our soil and climate, of which our wine growers should have the advantage. Already there are signs that our winemakers feel driven to resort to the methods of their rivals. Low grade Hawaiian sugar is available for use on pomace which supplies the tannin. The mixture resulting is de- ficient in color and this is found in so-called “cherry | juice,” an importation of which was recently refused en- try at the San Francisco Custom-house because analysis showed it to be coal tar dye that had no acquaintance with a cherry tree. With foreign and Eastern competition of sugared and compounded wines and the Mexican output incfeasing in Aguas Calientes, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas and Saltillo, | it is high time that our California winegrowers assert their right to protection in the production and marketing of pure, natural wines. E. H. Harriman was ejected from the New York build- ing at the St. Louis Exposition a few nights since by a watchman who didn't know the railroad magnate and who evinced every indication of an emphatic refusal to enlarge his sphere of acquaintances. Mr. Harriman is probably philosophic enough to reflect after all that en- vironment makes the man. In these hurly burly days of modern progress we have to label even our men of note. I that the principal business of our officials is telling Eastern people the names of our fruits and other products. Many varieties of our plums are not grown nor known there. The East does not know the loquat, kaki, pommegranate, guava, sinshiu orange, medlar nor hundreds of our varieties of grapes. It stares at our silk cocoons, our fiber plants and our peculiar varieties of vegetables. It is amazed at string beans with pods three feet long and at cucumbers with a longitude of two feet. In the mineral department it is up against alabaster, mica, asbestos, rare crystals of enormous size and rocks colored like sunrise and sunset. The proper knowledge 1s put abroad by our exhibit. The people will learn once for all that ro other part of the earth produces as great a variety of the things useful to man, and ornamental, as California. It is told that a California girl, expatriated by an Eastern marriage, had besought her husband in vain to visit California. She OUR FRUITS AT ST. LOUIS. 5 » : T is reported from the California exhibit at St. Louis Puer de la Mort. The pangs at his heart were grow- ing more severe every day; every night was becoming more and more an agony of blackness and terror. Living as he did up there on the crest of the hill in the little house, which had known no accupant save him for these many, many years, the old gray- beard was beginning at last to feel the nameless dread .of the unseen thing that was at his elbow day and night without ceasing. It was the fear of death—death stealing in on the wings of the black night. S . Ah! there was the terrific wrench at the heart again and the clock down at the church had just struck 1—it will be five hours before the light comes, and with the light a possible him there, suffering—see him and run for assistance. Two o'clock booms out from the church tower. God! an hour of this terrible burning at the heart, this racking of life itself and yet the dark- ness—the terrible darkness—shutting him in there alone—alone with death. Slower, slower pulses the blood in the vein pressed tight under his sentient thumb. Like the beat, beat of the paddlewheels out there on that belated bay steamer, come those twinges of agony at the failing heart. Alone— alone in this great city, with thousands sleeping all about him, and yet he must, die there in the solitude of a wilder- ness. Three times the bell rings—three times and there is a lightening of the pall of darkness at the window ledge. But the agony of it! Will each breath be the last and will the next five min- utes see him—where?—out there in the. darkness, a shade flying upward toward the great light as he had once been taught to believe? One— two—three—four—five; the heart still bounds against the burning ribs. One-—+~two—three—who would believe that there could come a time when each beat would sound the promise of life or the black puzzle of death? Yet if the morning does come what sign can he make so that some blessed mortal face may look in on his agony; voice is gone, sight is going: how to signal the world of his helplessness? Ah! if he could only get to the win- dow and hang out that red feather duster—the old lady down below had given him that once and laughingly said that it was a good danger signal. It must be done. The /agony, the rending torture of that walk across the floor to the win- dow! Surely those streaks of blood across the sky over yonder—those streaks of blood that waver and shoot —must be the coming dawn. Now that the red feather duster is clinched be- low the lowered sash of the window it will be a signal that will bring help. When the long night is done and— they see—they see—that signal—they see that signal, help will come— and—— Renunciation. We met in a garden of crimson; it was ages and ages agone, As measured in aeons of misery by one left to suffer alone. Each blossom that budded and faded, each rose with petals outcast. Was a sign that reunion was advent, ;hat_ pain in my heart would not ast. The odorous foam of the fountains in this garden of yours and mine, In the light of a lucent moon shining, forbade me to grieve or pine. But the years that have slipped and the silence of you, with a world be- tween, Have sent me upon a journey from a life that was once serene. I have traveled to this strange country, with much of rebuff and paln, And my tender feet on the trallways were cut and cut again. Think not, my love, I seek you, to burst in a bitter swell; 'Tis only to gaze on your face more, only to say farewell. once We are alien in language and color, but once our hearts spoke true; The memory of you is fainter and I place no blame on you. You were led to your kin by remem- brance, my memory dies with our ove, But I always ask benediction on you from my God above. Naught do I ask for my journey, only one simple plea, Midway in maddest revel, you'll think of me. Back to our crimson garden, with bleed- sometimes took him to St. Louis and turned him loose in our ex- hibit, with the result that he is hurrying home to pull up stakes and come here. Our native daughters may do much missionary work by going East and marrying hus- bands who can be induced to make a home in California. We suggest that our State building at St. Louis is a good headquarters for that kind of missionary effort. Eastern people who go to Europe every year because they want to spend time where the olive and the orange grow and the sun shines warm at the winter solstice will look upon us at St. Louis and spend their next winter here. ing feet I part; Only one simple message, “Farewell, farewell, sweetheart.” ) —Dan McLaughlin. When a King Visits. The visit of King Edward and Queen Alexandra tg Denmark recalls the fact that in 1700 an act was passed prohib- iting the British sovereign from being out of the three kingdoms without the consent of Parliament. No such con- sent is now necessary. The act of 1700 was repealed in 1715. It is noted by the (Pall Mall Gazette that the first two The first reports of the effect produced by our exhibit are most satisfactory. As the season advances and our fresh fruits are added to the exhibit in jars, the Eastern eye will open wider and wider. It is already apparent that California carries off the honors in the exposition and our people will see to it that we hold the lead we get at the start. In placing liability for the financial results of the wreck of the Rio de Janeiro the Circuit Court of Appeals has enunciated a law the tremendous value of which cannot be overestimated. The court decides that the owners of vessels employing crews which do not understand Eng- lish assume all the hazard involved in such an imperfect service. The spectacle of a shipmaster giving commands to a crew of coolie sailors that understand no English is terrifying in conjunction with any danger to the lives of passengers on shipboard. ‘ SO BN IR SRR 3 The California Promotion Committee has sent a repre- sentative to Germany to extol to the farmers and the gar- deners of the Fatherland the immense natural advantages of the State. This step commends itself as a wise one. Those that are to tell the glories of the Golden State should talk only to men of intelligence and of practical, experienced good sense. And the societies of farmers and gardeners of the Kaiser's realm have proved to be such in every competition of methods or results, Georges were frequently out of the country. George III was never more than 100 miles from London. George IV was abroad in 1821. Willlam IV never left the realm. In pursuance of an old law, the King was required to appoint a commission of the lords jus- tices, or a guardian, to exercise royal authority during the King's absence. In 1845, when the late Victoria was about to yisit Germany, the opinion of the law officers was taken as to wheth- er the law still required the appoint- ment of a commission. The officials decided that inasmuch as there had been no commission since 1821, the practice had become obsolete. “In the debate of 1845 it was pointed out that the great facilities for travel had re- moved the expediency of such a pro- ceeding. This, of course, is even truer to-day.” . Railroads in the ‘Andes. Of the engineering enterprises in Chile, other tnen mining or the de- velopment of water powers, the most important and most immediate in in- terest is the Transandine Railway, which after half a century of stagna- tion or very slow progress seems at last on the point of energetic prosecu- tion to completion. The Chilean Gov- ernment has called for tenders (which neighbor who will step in and see | [ SR are to be opened at Santiago in May, 1904) for the building of the one re- maining link necessary to connect the Chilean lines with the Argentine rail- ways, which now are reported com- plete to the boundary. The section to be let by Chile is about twenty-flve miles in length, but a considerable part of this distance must be in tun- nel. It extends from Saito del Sol- dado (4100 feet above the sea) to the “cumbre,” or summit (12,860 feet) The Transandine Railway proper is the entire stretch between Mendoza and Los Andes, but the line is bulit from Los Andes eastward to Salto del Soldada, and from Mendoza westward to the “cumbre,” the route being that known as the Uspallata Pass. When this last link is closed the journey from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso will be made in forty-eight hours, though differences in gauge of various por- tions of the line will necessitate two or more transfers en route. The line is expected to be a paying one, pas- senger traffic being an important item and the cattle business very profitable, thé movement being westward Into Chile from the Argentine pastures.— Engineering Magazine. Rubber. Although the production of india- rubber has largely increased during recent years, the demand still ceeds the supply, owing to the ma- terial having come into use for many fresh purposes. Prices consequently continue to rise, especially for the finer qualities from the Upper Ama- zon. But the inferior sorts share the appreciation to a sufficient extent to stimulate those engaged in the indus- try to put forth fresh efforts to aug- ment the supply. Some idea of the inflation of consumption may be formed from the quantities sold at Antwerp, the chief European market. Public sales are held there at month- ly intervals, and, in spite of higher ex- prices, between 300 and 400 tons change hands, being considerably fmore than in that “palmy” year, 18909. At present the Congo State fur- nishes by far the largest quantity, thanks mainly to the pressure of- ficially applied to the native collectors to accept starvation prices. But it cannot be long before Europe will have to look elsewhere for a supply commensurate with its ever-growing requirements. Here, then, a most promising opening presents itself for our African territories within the tropical belt. There are several in which both climate and soil are in every way suitable for scientific pro- duction on the non-exhaustive sys- tem, and it is gratifying to learn that steps are already being adopted in some instances to establish the highly profitable industry on a permanent footing.—London Globe. r . ‘Answers to Queries. A VERDICT—J. B. R, Conejo, Cal A verdict rendered by a jury in Califor- nia is not invalld because the jury was a mixed one composed of Christians and infidels. SCRIPTURAL MONEY—A. H. T, Taylorsville, Cal. A silver talent, Jewish money, mentioned in Scripture was $1707 United States value, and talent of gold was $27,320. CEILING—A. O. S, City. Celling is not derived, as you suppose, from coelum, the canopy of heavem. It is. from seal, to close up, and was for- merly used to describe walnscoting generally. That which we now call the ceiling was in the long ago called the “upper seeling,” to distinguish it from that which “seeled” the sides of walls. THE CABINET—The members of the Cabinet of President Roosevelt are; Secretary of State, John Hay of Ohio; Secretary of the Treasury, Leslie M. Shaw of Towa; Secretary of War, W. H. Taft of Ohio; Attorney Generai, Philander C. Knox of Pennsylvania; Postmaster General, Henry C. Payne of Wisconsin; Secretary of the Navy, William H. Moody of Massachusetts; Secretary of the Interior, Ethan A. Hitchcock of Missouri; Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson of JIowa: Secretary of Commerce and Labor, George B. Cortelyou of New York. GEORGIA DIVORCE—J. K., City. In the State of South Carolina there arc no divorce laws. If a party went from that State to Georgia in order to ob- tain a divorce such party would have to reside in the last named State one year before commencing an action for legal separation. The concurrent ver- dict of two juries at different terms of court must be obtained before an abh- solute divorce is granted in that State, and in addition the jury fixes the disa- bility, which, however, may by a court be removed on presentation of proper testimony to warrant the removal of such disability. When an absolute di- vorce has been granted to the wife that terminates the marital relations be- tween the parties, and there is no rea- son why the husband should “com- ‘mence an action to be divorced from the wife who was divorced from him.” ————— ‘Townsend's California Glace fruits in artistic fire-etched boxes. 715 Market st.* P — formation supplied daily z"n:unnumhr u;: fornia street. Telephone Main 1043, &