The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 13, 1904, Page 8

IEE———— e Jam Pot and the Fly. Epecial Correspondence. HEADQUARTERS OF THE CALL, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT N, LONDON, May 2.—"Be- vidders.” The wisdom of that piece of advice given by Weller to his son is striking- B GARDE vare of hle display made in the window a feminine tobacconist's shop in ury evenpue of a huge jam pot, around which a big artificial fiy is bus- ging together with “Breach of Promise hich 2t present are seiling hot cakes at six- Shaft proverbial pence The proprietor of the shop, Mrs. Georgina Ada Frasier, is a widow The jam pot typifies herself. The fly stands for the man from whom she obtained $2000 the other day for breach of prom- §se. The particular appropriateness of the allegorical illustration of the case lies its reference to & letter which was court wherein the victim of her ripe charms had likened himself to “a fiy buzzing about a jam pot and occasionally getting a bit.” The cigars &t sixpence each represents the price which those who see the joke are ex- pected to pay for it. Evidently Mrs. Frasiepl wits have been considerably sharpened by over forty years' experi- en of life's joys and sorrows. And though age has ripemed, it has not n . . diminished her beauty. The story of the idy! which termina- ted so unfortunately is almost as fun- py ae the means which Mrs. Frasier | bas taken recently to make still more | f it. To begin with, it was mpathetic guise of rent cols James Outridge Spindelow Mrs. Frasier's shop and— wWn expressic d the “jJam pot.” As a mere everyday rent collector Mr. would have received any- thing but a warm welcome from the at widow. But as he speedily disclosed to her he was an individual of much greater importance. He is, in faet, a species of paroch “Pooh Bah.” In his own person united the func- tions of parish constable, sexton, ver ger, vestry messenger, sub-inspector of nuisance, ( officer, licensing | clerk and cle 1 impertant firm of solicitors. Probably, however, what 1 this dazzling array of of- ed Mrs. Frazier to encourags ‘buzzing” was his statement that his me from these various sources amounted to considerably over $5000 a year. Epindelow ackrowledged that thers existed an_impediment to speedy mar- riage the shape of a wife. Mrs. Prasier says he told her that he could et worce, but intimated that such a course might give offense to the church peo- ple and especially the vicar on whose 008 ziaces he was dependent for some of his numerous offices. Besides, his wife was sickly and likely to be re- moved by some dispensation almost apy time. The widow concluded that $5000 a year was worth waiting for. As a pledge of good faith, to be redeemed when nature had removed the legai ob- siacle, Spindeiow went through a form of mock marriage with her and drew up ihis extraordinary document: 1, James Outridge Spindelow, do take oath that I love you, Georgina and me other, that 1 love you sincerely | gnd devotedly and no other, and that 1 shall be kind and loving to you always, sharing with you your joys and sor- rows, and shall keep to you and you eonly as long as we both shall live.” This was in J898. Mrs. Spindelow did not die until three years later, and then the fly that had so pertinaciously buzzed around the thoe began to fight s says Mrs. Fras might shoot him if she liked, but never would he marry her. But a2 widow over 40 never seeks so- lace In gore for Dbiighted affections when the man in the case is worth $5000 a year and the inevitable breach of promise zuit followed, after Mr. Spindelow had married somebody else. Perhaps it was the belief that Henry Fielding Dickens great noveiist, it. Finally, must be possessed of great hereditary talent for exposing the ways and wiles of artful widows, " which induced Mr. Spindelow to place his defense in the hands of that clever King's counsel. It availed him nothing, however, The widow was goed-look- ing and the jury impressionable. And with an eye seemingly to possible fu- ture contingencies she had faithfully preserved 21l his letters. “] want to be your silly little baby and spoiled darling.” cried out the Jove-lorn Spindelow in one missive. In snother be sent Mrs. Frasier, 40,000,000 - kisses.” “WWhat puzzies me,” remarked the Judge, “is that anybody should keep #uch rubbish.” ~“] always keep my letters,” replied Mrs. Frasier, innocently. “Fet you fied in the story that les be- | —began buz- | rid of his wife by means of a di- | “jam pot™ ail this her that she as the son of the 5 out at about 1 cent for every 126 oscu- lations which she failed to receive. Or figuring it the other way about, he was taxed at the rate of 1 cent for each six and two-thirds of a kiss which i he had presumably delivered. Either} way the tariff was not a high one. Mrs. Frasier is reported to have re- celved twenty-nine offers of marriage since she won the case. But for the present she prefers to devote her at- tention to business at the sign of the “Jam Pot and the Fly.” It is fast mak- | ing her rich. | Peace for the Jgis. An official circular recently issued in | Russia manifests a more lenient dis- | | position toward the Jews. It is a “Con- fidential Circular” Issued from the Min- istry of the Interior, Department of | the Police, Sixth Section, on March 18, 1904, and numbered 728. The circular is addressed to the Gavernors of prov- inces and towns, and the chiefs of po- | lice, and says: | “The measures that have been taken | | at diverse epochs by the Minister of | | the Interior for the purpose of expell- | | ing Jews from the localities which they inhabited, and which are outside the ! zone established for their residence, | caused different local authorities to| | adopt various dispositions that were | more or less rigorous. Their object was | to bring thé Jews once-more within this zone. The very numerous com- pluints sent by these expelled Jews to the Ministry, and also the informg- ‘uon supplied in regard to this matter by the local authorities, all went to show that the measures taken by the | Governors and the authorities under | them to enforce the laws confining the‘k Jews within their residential districts sometimes entailed painful conse- | quences to individuals. But it is evi- dent that, in certain cases, it is neces- | sary to endeavor to discover the cause | which led these Jews to live where | they had no legal right of residence. | The law on this head is so far recog- I nized as defective by the superior au- | ‘xhormes that preparatory studies have | | been made with a view to revising the | restrictive laws to .which the Jewish population of the Empire is subjected. | | The lack of precision in these enact ments gives rise to most varied inter- | pretations and this occurs even in the superior institutions of the State. It | was, therefore, inevitable that the | measures taken in virtue of these laws | by the superior authorities, and more especially those taken by the inferior | authorities, should be lacking in that | | regularity and uniformity necessary to produce a favorable effect. “In these circumstances it would seem scarcely in harmony with the principles of justice to throw on the | Jews all the responsibility for the con- | sequences resulting from their ijlegal | residence. outside the zone where they | should be confined. This is especially | the case at the present time, when lhe: | unhappy situation <of the expelled | | Jews is aggravated by “the military | | events occurring in the Far Bast— | events which have rendered mobiliza- | tion necessary in certain military dis- tricts and the calling up for active ser- vice of the reservists, among whom there are also =~ members which have been expelled from their, homes. i “In view of this state of affairs, and | | being anxious to remove all that, at the present difficult moment, might disturb the normal course of life in the interior of the Empire and provoke, in | | 2 number of cases, discontent among | | the population, 1 consider it necessary | to suspend, till peace is restored, the expulsion from their actual places of | | residence of those Jews whom the local | | authorities have reported as living Il-‘ legally in localities where they were | formerly authorized to settle.”—London | Times. ‘Emeralds have been discovered in al- most every country in the world, but there is not an emerald mine being | werked to-day. The reasons for this are manifoid. but the principal one is | that there is only one mine in the | | Scarcity of Emeralds. i . ] | worid to-day that is worth the ex-| | pense of operating. This mine is ted up tecause of the political disturd- | ances ir Colombia. | The best emeralds of modern times' have been taken from the mines about | eighty miles northwest of Bogota. These mines were discove] in 1555 and were worked by the Spaniards in 1558. Until recently they were worked under a Government: concession to a French syndicate. The method of mining is crude and has made little progress in the past | half dozen centuries. This is due! Jargely to the fact that the natural | wealth of the various mines has not! made it advisabie to introduce ex-| pensive machinery. A good emerald is worth several times as much as a diamond of the same size. General George W. Mindil, precious stones expert for the United ' States at the port of New York, says that fewer emeralds. have come into the country during the past year than ever before, and that the importation of them is diminishing yearly. Precious | stones merchants say that they are! unable now to obtain good emeralds, | and the price on them has advanced ! more than 100 per cent in the past three or four years. London is the market.center, and the tan-colored royalty of India and the Orient is the source of supply for emeralds. The goods purchased repre- sent the labor of months and often- | times years In the’collecting of them. ! As there are none being mined, the only way to get them is to send out agents among the natives. But the na- tives are slow to surrender their | wealth, and if the agent, after weeks | of travel ard living among them, re- | turns with 75 or 80 karats, he is doing extremely well.—Boston Herald. Scholar — Professor, your mnemonic system is wonderful, and I am sure that any one, after mastering the rules, can learn to remember anything. But T am handicapped by one difficulty. Professor—What is it? . Scholar—I can’t remember the rules. —Town and Country, | try. of families | ¢ OHN THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, MAY 13, 1904 THE SAN- FRANCISCO CALL « s oo Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor . . - —— - <e...Third and Market Streets, S. P. —— OBJECTIONS TO PARKER. OME time ago we noted the. criticisms of Hearst by S the Colusa Sun, the leading Democratic paper ot the State, but predicted that the Sun would finally shine on Hearst and would support him if nominated. This prediction is verified by a recent editorial in the Sun, in which it'is admitted that Hearst’s nomination would be the death of the party, but there were reasons given for his nomination, which were in the prejudice of the rank and file against Judge Parker, Eon This prejudicc‘is declared to have its origin in the in- stincts of the people against the money power. Then follows an indictment cf the money power, which is charged with “the crime of 1873” in dem_onetizing silver and giving control of the volume of currency to the na- tional banks. The policy of a protective tariff is also charged up to the same influence-and the Democracy is declared to be for iree trade, intending, however, to ap- proach it gradually. The conclusion from the editorial is that the Democracy should take a strong position for silver and greenbacks against the national banks and for ultimate free trade. Then follows the admission that: “It would requife great statesmanship to earry out this policy without breaking down the business of the coun- Any sudden change of any system is bad for the financially weak.” We accept this statement as a frank declaration from an able source which represents the intentions of 'the party,+that those intentions are dangerous to the coun- try’s interests and especially to those who are financiaily weak. That means the enterprise of the country, which is always in the hands of those who borrow capital. Every important railway system is a large borrower and borrowers. Who are the lenders? Where does the bor- rowed money come from and who are its owners? It comes out of the savings banks and financial trust com- panies and belongs to the people. It is mostly the sur- plus wages of labor, deposited with trustees in order to secure interest as income. It builds railroads, factories, ships and the great buildings in cities. It is the arterial blood that nurture$ the country and symmetrically de- velops all of its resources. It is the money persistently referred to as “the money power” by that class of Democrats who have taken counsel of socialism, and by advocating legislation inimj- cal to this money power are the proponents.of the level- ing programme of the socialists. They mistakenly con- sider the visible properties and activities created by the people’s moneysas the money power, when'it is all the creature of that power which is merely the surplus gains wof labor. Acting upon that error it is proposed to destroy the power of the creature to pay interest to the creator. When this occurs the people who own the money not only lose their income from it, but their security is im- paired and their capital is lost to the extent of that im- pairment. The Democratic position seems not to have changed since Mr. Bryan dictated it in 1896. For three years prior to that date the country had been in the grim grip of a panic, the worst ever suffered by any country. It certainly had one cause, established by Democratic tes- timony, and that was the Democratic tinkering with- sil- ver. Mr. Cleveland has clearly stated this in his recent article on the bond issues. From the Republican side an- other reason appears in the assault upon the protective system. It is evident, therefore, that just what is now ated to be Democratic policy was the cause of that panic, and the Sun admits that the same cause will pro- duce the same effects again, but insists that it shall be tried gradually. . By 1896 the full effect was upon the country. The people, the owners of the money invested in enterprise, were in distress. Their income had ceased; their securi- ty was destroyed; their trustees, the banks, were insol- Mr. Bryan proceeded to organize the resulting discontent and make the Democratic party its exponent. As good times have followed bad, work idleness, and in- dependence dependence, the causes of discontent have decreased. Democratic expediency requires that they shall increase. Therefore the whole strength of the De- mocracy is invested in the manufacture of discontent and -accusations against the money power are the means chosen. A small part of the party is trying to be conservative and is reinforced by another element that wants to win. These two influences support Judge Parker. The Sun says that there must be a reason for the prejudice against the Judge, “and it can only be found in the determina- tion not to have a man who will lie still under the pres- sure of a privileged class. We are not prepared to be- lieve that Judge Parker will do this, but it will take some explicit declarations to get the people out of the idea that he might do it.” That is to say, that the party demands a candidate who wiil repeat the experiments that caused the panic of 1893, ‘and will take Judge Parker only upon an explicit declaration to that effect. ‘It needs no seer to see that if Parker were nominated and elected the party will do vent. just as it did to Cleveland. He opposed destructivel measures and had much constructive statesmanship. But great as was his strength the party broke from his lead- ership and turned its guns upon him and all who sup- ported him. Tt should be understood that the lessons of the past move the thoughtful voters, who elect Presidents, to look past the candidate to the,party. The country had | confidence in Mr. Cleveland, but when he attempted to invest his party with that confidence it refused it and spurned him. The Sun is not the only witness that praves that the spirit of the party is unchanged and it deserves the confidence of the country as little now as it did in 1806. Ernest Terah Hooley, hero of a host of scandals and shady finance, is under arrest in London on a charge of conspiracy to defraud. While this predicament is nothing new nor startling tg Hooley the experience of Whitaker Wright may be expected to throw a gloomy shadow of uncertainty on the situation. British justice is appalling in its primitive and uncompromising conception of what constitutes guilt. THE PERILS OF RUSSIA. N’ Sunday last The Call published a significant O dispatch from St. Petersburg in which Sergius Volkhoffsky, a correspondent at the Czar’s capi- tal, tells at length of the blows that have been delivered at the.stability of the Russian anese in their surprisingly successful camp: ‘both on land and sea. “It is an open secret here,” writes the cor- respondent, “that the situation in the Far M Suins oyl iy campaigns spired the Czar, the imperial family and the members of the Government with grave fears fog the future of the Russian empire.” It needs not the correspondent’s further description of how two Finnish regiments at Viborg and Sveaborg had to be deprived of their arms and marched to the .train for Manchuria at the point of the bayonet to assure the kworld of what has already been guessed, while the stories of the scores and even hundreds of young Russians who have fled the country to escape the military draft do but add confirmation ing/the morale of the Russian-army and the sentiments ' to the opinion already formed concern- of the people from which that army is drafted. Before the present war broke forth The Call showed, both edi- torially and through its press dispatches; the alarming | rate at which disaffection had been growing in the Rus- si‘an army, both through the spread of radicalism and as a result of the oppressive imilitary meastures pursied by the Government itself in Finland and elsewhere. That the bitter bread cast upon the waters has returned to the Czar is due to nothing but the workings of the inevitable. Scarcely a difficult thing is it to figure before the mind | the state of sentiment that must exist in the hearts of thousands who pay grudging allegiance to the Czar, when now their blood and their treasure is being requisitioned relentlessly in order that the double eagle may not fall in utter ignominy away off somewhere on the other side of Asia. In Russian Poland, for instance, or in the more lately “assimilated” Finland, where in.both inst:@es every effort has been made to stamp out the last vestiges of a national entity, even to the interdiction of the na- tional tongue, can it be imagined that the C:ar's mis- fortunes are to be regarded in anything but the light of ) P a present opportunity for fanning into flame the latent all of the great activities of the country are promoted by ¢pirit of revolt. _Nicholas cannot look for undivided patriotic support to the peoples who have been subjected to his bitter tyranny. Anything in the nature of a revolt on the part of any one of the Czar's subject nations cannot be a probability yet awhile. thousands in the The fear of that blind force that has crushed prisons of Siberia still holds and will hold unless greater disaster comes to Russian arms than has yet been scored. But this truth is manifest: that the strength of the great empire of the north, which has so long been a matter of awe and fear in the eyes of the nations, has been 50 suddenly unmasked and the cankers in the system so thoroughly revealed that the world may see the plight of the Muscovite and cease to fear him._ ‘Under the benign influence of American institutions and the patronizing effect of American methods Hawaii may now be regarded as safe within the protected sphere ! of twentieth century political civilization. chief clerk of the Honolulu Water Works Bureau was recently indicted on thirteen charges of embezzlement. 4 Can anything more distinctly American be suggested? THE A public. PAY OF TEACHERS. LL over the United States the public school teach- ers are the poorest paid of all‘lhe servants of the Indeed, the same thing is true about all educators, and college and university professxrs are no exception. We pay our other civil servants and the offi- cial grades in the army and navy much more liberally. Yet it may be said with confidence that public school teachers are the serve the public economizes all the other expenses of government. most useful and important of all who for a salary. It is their work that If it is well done there is less cause for spending money on courts, almshouses, jails and penitentiaries. The public school is where character is developed and determined. There are laid the foundations of citizen- ship and there the lessons of patriotism are taught. The schools prepare our citizens for the practical duties of life. liberty, of the public welfare. The schools are the nurseries of freedom, of civil When the teachers are | poorly paid, subjected to erratic and mutable political control and disturbed in their poise of mind by financial necessities due to poor compensation their work is im- pressed by these conditions and its defects are stamped upon the future citizenship of those in their care. It is a brutal view to take of their compensation and work to say, as is often said, that they work only five days in the week. We affirm that in those five days they do more work, more important and more exhausting, than any other public servants do in ten days. Yet their pay is the poorest of all. At the present scale of wages a hodecarrier in San Francisco makes more than the principal of one of our schools. A stable hostler makes more than the average teacher in the grades. Yet the teacher has expenses for dress and living that are not re- quired of the hodcarrier and hostler. ¥ In another view of it the high wages paid in the vari- \ous productive callings work out in the cost of living. The teachers’ incomes remain stationary while the cost of living increases. and inelastic. living at all. represent a wage encouragement. salaries than we present. level. Wonders will never cease even in San Francisco. hardly credible that the president of the Board of Educa- tion has suggested an increase in the salaries of public school teachers to a sum commensurate with the impor- tance of the services rendered to the community, but the interesting fact remains that the recommendation is of record in the proceedings of the Board of Supervisors. If this wave of suggestion continues we may even come to look upon pedagogy as skilled labor. »Thg Imqm TFlhieater of Chicago is to be remodeled in accordance with municipal regulations and reopened for public patronage. however, will never (* but a house of horror in the memories of the American People. Commercialism cannot yet so completely over- ride sentiment in the United States. —————— T In the mint at Philadelphia twenty-four tons of gold are now under the precess of speedy transformation fi_:%mmflg@u of the coin of the realm. It is always well to know that there is plenty of Their incomes are fixed incomes They are fixed, too, not by any scale of They do not expand as the necessaries of life rise in price, nor contract as they fall. They now adjusted to the minimum cost of living 1 under conditions long obsoleted. The average margin of savings possible for teachers has become very narrow, and, we have reasoms for believing, has disappeared en- | tirely in a large number of cases. A movement has been started to increase the compen- sation of teachers in this State. It should have general We can better afford to reduce other can afford to keep teachers’ pay at its Ttis All the architects in the country, able to make the ‘place anything money in The former | fortifies our endeavors to System. “I never fully -appreciated the real valu of the close attention to detail that railroad systems give until an ex- perience in the claims department con- vinced me that nothing should be over- looked, no matter how minute,” said a Southern Pacific Company department head the other day. 2, /“A heavy claim for damage to dry goods wet by rain in transit came to me,” continued the S. P. man. “It came, too, from a large wholesale house. The usual routine was followed, and we | traced the car that had contained the so-called damaged freight through a dozen States. In fact, the matter was resolved down to a question of weather. The claimants declared flatly and posi- tively that rain had donme the injury. We prepared to combat the claim on the absolute proof that the car had not been rained on since it was loaded and left the East. “How do you imagine we could make such a showing? First, we followed by the records every day’'s movement of that car. We knew precisely at every hour Wwhere that car was en route. Then we referred to the very elaborate me- teorological reports that every railroad carries, and we demonstrated by chron- | ological compdrisons that not a drop of rain had fallen over the country dur- Jdng the transit of this car. “The claim was rejected by the de- partment, and after we made our show- ing the merchants withdrew their de- mands.” Why and W herefore. Several years ago, before the “Owl” train was run between Ozkland and Los Angeles, Thomas Gaffey and W. C. McGregor, two of the oldest rail- way postal clerks in the service, were together on the night run through the valley. As was then the custom, the watches were “split.” After the train was fairly on its way one man would stand” watch while the other slept, and it was incidentally through this fact that McGregor became the victim of a joke at the hands of Gaf- fey, which has net vet been forgotten among the employes of the postal de- partment. Just before going out on one of the runs McGregor had secured a setting of thoroughbred eggs to take to a friend in Los Angeles. He took them |to the car, carefully packed in saw- | dust. Soon after leaving Oakland Gaffey’s attention was drawn to the box, which was set aside in the car. “What have you got there, Mac?” asked Gaffey. “Oh, I'm just taking a setting of thoroughbred egss to a friend of mine | down south,” answered his partner. Gaffey took one of the eggs out of | the box,and held it up to the'light. He shook his head and, in answer to an inquiry as to what was wrong, said: “Those eggs will never hatch, Mac.” | “Won’t hatch! I'll bet you $5, the price of the setting, they will,” said | McGregor. “All right; I'll take you,” answergd Gaffey. Nothing more was said and soon afterward McGregor turned in for the first watch off. | About four weeks afterward Mec- | Gregor came to Gaffey and, holding jout $5 said, “You win, Gaffey; the ! eggs didn’t hatch;*but now, old man, 11 wish vou'd tell me how you knew | they wouldn't. “Well, Mac, if you wan! to know I'll tell you. While you were asleep | that night I boiled the eggs at the |same time with my coffee.” Yosemite Indians. Galen Clark, custodian of the Yo- | semite Valley, the discoverer of the cel- ebrated Mariposa grove of big trees, has taken up the cudgels in behalf of | the despised “Digger” Indians of Cali- fornia, and in a little book published : by himself, with the title of “Indians ot the Yosemite Valley and Vicinity,” ap- | pears as the unylelding champion of | mpch-wronged peoples. His work 1s | something more than an addition to ! controversial literature, however, for it embodies many facts of especial in- terest to the ethnolégist and abounds in suggestions to the prospective tour- {ist. Mr. Clark’s writes from an ac- | quaintanceship of half a century's | standing, having made his home in Yo- | semite since he emigrated thither from ENew York in 1853. Perhaps the most | interesting chapters of his book are | those giving details of the “Diggers’ " | industries and paraphrases of their le- i gends and myths. His “Hints to Yo- semite Visitors” contain some good | specimens of unconscious humor: Men will find flannel or negligee shirts the most comfortable. Short skirts are most convenient. Something absolutely soft for neck- wear will be found a great comfort, both by men and women. Smoked glasses will sometimes save the wearer a headache. Take a little more money than you think will be needed. You may want to prolong your stay. There is a laundry in the valley. There is a barber shop. The Nerves of the Road. Few travelers realize what energy and nerve are put into the labor that makes their travel comfortable. Mr. Spearman, in his article on “The Nerves of the Road,” in the May magazine number of The Outlock, likens the train dispatcher to the chess-player. He writes: “Yet the work of this marvel, fixing for a moment the attention of the world, is only the work of the train dispatcher, who, sitting under his night lamp, blindfolded by four whjte walls, his right hand on the key fastened on the figures of a train sheet, forces his mind, when other men are asleep, to visualize the long, winding miles of his division—its trains, its passing tracks and curves, its towers and stations, its semophores and ‘| switches. At twenty points in the darkness of his night, and depending ::: safety on the clear, instant work- of his mind, are swiftly moving sleeping men and women whose waking ¢ NS rests with him alone. This man is no genius; he Is the plain, everyday Amer- fcan that one meets in the street car or in the crowd. He cannot choose his days for playing his games; he plays every day from $ a. m. till 4 p. m., OF from 4 till midnight; or he takes his transfer at midnight and sits in his chair through the last watches of the night. He cannot play twenty zames |and rest: he must for eight hours be | ready steadily for every same that | comes over the wires against him, whether of ‘storms, blockades, break- downs or wrecks. He cannot load up with coffee or strong cigars for the strain of one might, because he must meet the same conditions on the next night and on every night. No one mar- vels concerning him; no ene coddles him; no one pays any attention what- ever to him, until, after perhaps a thousand or five thousand such nights successfully passed, he makes one night a mistake, a fatal mistake, and from those people who themselves never forget anything a cry for venge- ance goes up. Other men may make mistakes; not the dispatcher. His nerves must be irom and must never fag, never wear. Sitting in his den, he directs his train- movements every day, and his life, burned out like the electric current at his key, s one of the little sacrifices we exact as the price of our living in the country and doing business in the city, of crossing 1a continent in days instead of weeks, of getting our letters with the speed of telegrams and our papers and maga- zines wet from the distant press. Fearless. “A young man, evidently of German extraction, entered my courtroom one day last week,” sald Justice of the Peace Lawson, “accompanied by a nice looking girl. Both appeared to be rather bashful and it was only after diligent coaxing on my part that they informed me that they wished to get married. I told them I was ready to proceed with the ceremony, but the prospective groom blushed and hesi- tated.” “‘You see, Chudge, I yust bought de marriage license and to tell you de truth I have rot any momney to pay your fee.” ™ “ “Well, don't you think it is a rather risky thing for you to get married and not to be able to pay the fee? How do you expect to live when you are mar- ried?" ™ “‘Oh, dat's all righdt. We'll get along, for yvou see Wilhelmina earns $15 2 month and I make $25, and both salaries will be sufficient.” ™ “Being impressed with their blissful ignorance of the responsibilities of married life I married the couple, and being resolved that such self-sacrifice should not go unrewarded I not only remitted the fee, but gave the German an order on my grocer for $10 worth of household necessities.” Answers to Queries. . PHELAN FOUNTAIN — Constant Reader, Elmira, Cal. The fountain and statue presented by ex-Mayor Phelan to the city of San Francisco stands on Market street, opposite Mason. LICK OBSERVATORY —W. F. B, City. The Lick Observatory om top of Mount Hamilton, Santa Clara County, is 4209 feet above the sea level. . The top of Tamalipais, in Marin County, Is 2375, JEWISH POPULATION—A. 8., City. It is estimated that the Jewish pepu- Jation in the United States aggregates 11,127,268. That is according to the American Jewish Year Book edited by Dr. Cyrus Adler. POSTAGE STAMPS—S. J., City. If you will look in the classified part of the city directory you will find the names of those who, in this city, deal in cld postage stamps. This depart- ment cannot advertise any one engag- ed In business. Correspondents who de- sire business addresses should always enclose, with the question, a self-ad- dressed and stamped envelope. ON THE RETIRED LIST—Subscrib- { er, Sausalito, Cal. The question of the appointment of officers on the retired list to pesition of lower rank than the one upon which retired was forwarded to the office of the Adjutant General at Sacramento and the reply of Briga- dier General Lauck is as follows: “Regarding the question as t¢ wheth- er an officer once placed upon the re- tired list, as colonel, for instance, can be commissioned as major, captain or in a lower grade, will say that 1 am aware of no law .on the subject. As there is no law against it, there would seem tc be no law to prevent its being done if desired. The only question to be considered would be as to whether the colonel desired to accept such a commission. In other words, your cor- respondent’s idea secems to be that it would be all right for a man to accept a higher commission, but there must certainly be something against his ac- cepting a Igwer. I imagine this feel- ing only occurs from the fact that it is such an unusual proceeding for an officer to descend in the scale of mili- tary rank.”