The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 5, 1904, Page 32

32 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 1904. [ | — London Literary Notes. Special Correspondence of The Call HEADQUARTERS OF THE CALL, 5 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDENS, LONDON, May 26.—Jac- ques Le Lorrain, whose tragedy, “Don Quichotte,” was produced successfully Paris a few nights ago, has had rather & picturesque career. A year or two ago, Mr. Le Lorrain, who previous. 1v had attracted some attention by hi: efforts, distinguished himself £ in business as a cobbler, or Le Lorrein’s father had been & cobbler, but his son tried his hand st this trade only because, though his writings had brought him some fame, they had not produced bread- and-butter with the regularity that would have been desirable. The ex- writer’s cobbling shop was in the Rue du Sommerard, and he advertised it widely in verses of his own composi- tion. Le Lorrain also wrote letters to the Paris newspapers, in which he com- pared himself with Spinoza, who made epectacles for a.living, while he laid the foundations of his great philosoph- fca! works. But the trouble was that the amateur cobbler was only an indif- ferent workman in that line, and the things he did to their shoes speedily drove ayay such customers 2s his wverses attracted. So Le Lorrain de- cided not to “stick to his last He closed his cobbler's snop and became @ schoolmaster, and it was while fol- lowing that calling that he wrote the d@rama which has just been put on the stage. literar . George Newnes & Co., who publish Tit-Bits, as well as the Strand Maga- zine, got back at W. L. Courtney, the @distinguished critic and editor of the Fortnightly Review, rather neatly the other day. Speaking on the subject of literature at the Institute of Painters recently, Mr. Courtpey said: any of our‘children read those leisurely romances of Scott? Would they not return ‘Peveril of the Peak’ with a de- sire to read something published by— I speak with all respect of a famous firm—Messrs. George Newnes?” Un- doubtedly Mr. Courtney referred to Tit- Bits, or a certain class of cheap novels of which Messrs, Newnes make a spe- cialty. It happens, however, that these publishers also issue a thin paper edi- tion of Milton, Shakespeare, Words- worth and other classics, and—affecting to misunderstand the critic’s meaning —on the day after Mr. Courtney’s speech the publishers quoted his re- mark in all their advertisements, with the list of these works underneath it. S They believe in honoring their great men on the Continent. It was not so long ago that the town of Nuremberg bought, in order to preserve it, the birthplace of Albert Durer, the artist, and now the municipality hopes to ac- quire the old home of Hans Sachs, poet, meistersinger and shoemaker. The house, which for many years was & butcher’s shop, was put up at auc- tion some time ago, and bid in, as it happened, by a butcher. Now it is coming into the market again and this time will almost certainly become the property of the town. s » Probably few of the folk at home whom “Trilby” delighted have entire- 1y lost their enthusiasm over the novel, and those who have not will be in- terested in what Val Princep, the Royal Academician, has to say this month in the Magazine of Art. Prin- cep studied art in Paris in 1859, com- mencing at the Atelier Gleyre. Speak- ing of that famous school, he says: “Du Maurler was a pupil of Gleyre's, and studied there with Poynter, Whist- Jer and Lamont. They left just as I Joined, but many of the stories in “Tril- by’ come from the Atelier Gleyre. ‘Whistler was tied to the ladder, and perhaps the president of the Royal Academy (8ir Edward Poynter) will forgive me mentioning that it was he who sung the celebrated song about ‘Zese glaaves, Zese glaaves—zey nevere belong to me.’ “The three friends in “Trilby’ were, I believe, purely imaginary—unless, in- deed, ‘The Laird’ was drawn from La- mont, who was a Scof and a fellow studeng of Du Maurier’s. Taffy was evidently the realization of Du Maurier's ideal man. He always pro- digiously admired the physical side of man's nature. Man or woman could not be too tall or strong for his ideal; and so greatly did he carry his admira- tion of physical perfection that I have heard him declare that to hear a per- fect human voice was to him the high- est pleasure, even though the possessor of that organ was not by any means & great artist. Yet Du Maurier himself sang charmingly and delighted in music.” . Rudyard Kipling, who, accompanied by Mrs. Kipling, arrived at Southamp- ton from the Cape recently, brought his motor-car with him. Kipling has done & Jot of motoring of late, or at least as much as the atrocious condition of the roads in Cape Colony make it pos- sible for one to do and remain sane. This is 2 sore point with the author of “Soldiers Three,” who told the Automo- bile Club of South Africa at a dinner recently that it might be fittingly said that motoring on their roads was pro- gressing “by leaps and vounds.” Kip- ling added that he would like to take members of the Government responsi- Ble for the roads out for six hours a day on a steam lorry at a pace of | “Could | hour. - | Eden Phillpots, who scored recently | with “The American Prisoner,” s | working on a new novel of English country life which is named, “The Farm of the Dagger,” and W. Pett Ridge tells me his new volume of short stories will be called “Next-Door | Neighbors.” 2 eighteen miles an 5. 2 HAYDEN CHURCH. Chemists to Visit America. ‘ Special Correspondence of The Call. HEADQUARTERS OF THE CALL, 5 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT | i GARDEN, LONDON, May 25.—For the | | first time in its long history, the British Society of Chemical Industry, which is the parent of similar socleties the world | over, will hold its annual meeting out- | side Europe this year. Arrangements are now in progress by which at least 200 members of the society will, under the presidency of Sir Willlam Ramsay, | K. C. B, of radium fame, proceed to | America early in September next. They | will reach New York on September 6 and on the 7th they will be received | by the Chemists' Club of that city. | The soclety’s annual meeting will be held on the 8th at Columbia University, and in the evening the annual dinner | will take place at the Waldorf-Astoria. | The members willfremain in New York and vicinity for four days visiting all the works of importance in connection with their particular branch of indus- try. They will afterward proceed to Philadelphia, Washington and Pitts- burg. They expect to reach St. Louis | on September 18, where they will re- | main a week attending the Inter-| national Chemical Congress in the | meantime. They will afterward visit Chicago, Detroit, Niagara Falls and | Buffalo, returning by way of Boston— | where they will spend two days—to New York. A number of ladies inter- ested in chemical science will accom- pany the members and they will be es- pecially provided for by Mrs. Charles E. Pellew, under whose direction a | committee will be formed in New York. | Some of the most eminent men in | | chemical science in the country, in- | cluding Dr. Ludwig Mond, Charles G. | Cresswell, the general secretary of the | society; Dr. Joseph W. Swan, F. R. S, | and Max Muspratt are going out to the | meeting. Clemens in Italy. | Z At the Villa di Quarto Mr. Clemens” | | daughters take long rides under the | | shade of the great old trees that over- | hang the broad and easy roads. They |are both accomplished’ and ardent horsewomen, Miss Jean has recently | | bought a supetb white horse. Her sis- | ter, Miss Clara, has a beautiful \'olce,‘ and sings ‘with exquisite grace. On | the Sth of April she took part in a con- | cert given by the Philharmonic Society of Florence, and made a deep impres- sion on the audience. The possession of two such daughters is a great com- fort to Mr. Clemens. They go every- where with him, surround him with affectionate attentions and take a gentle and tender care of him. Miss Jean, for instance, helps her father not a | little with his daily work. When he does not dictate, he leaves little sheets of manuscript scattered everywhere; it | is Miss Jean's task to collect and ar- range them and then to copy them on the typewriter. Mark Twain’s cor- respondence is naturally very large. A man is employed to gc¢ into Florence twice a day to bring the mail, and | always returns loaded down with let- ters, papers and books. It is uncertain how long the famous humerist will remain in Italy. His lease of the Villa di Quarto is only for | vear, but Signora Marsili, the owner, | thinks that he will renew it when it expires, since he is so well and com- fortable in Florence, ana since his wife’s health has already shown a marked improvement. Mrs. Clemens, his faithful companion for twenty-five years, unilke her hus- band, is an enthusiastic student of the | masterpleces of art ‘and of historical associations. Mark Twain has his own ideas about art, which are a subject of | frequent controversy with his wife. —Raffaele Simboli, in the June Critic. Snowballs and Roses. Although California is the land of flowers to which snowballing, except in the mountains, generally is forbidden, exceptions to the rule may be com- pelled. Such an exception, during the past winter, or rainy season, was wit- nessed in San Jose. One of the stage- drivers to and from Mount Hamilton brought from there a barrel carefully packed with snow, and presented it to } the pupils of the C-2ut school in the | Garden City. Then the fun began. | Most of the children had not seen | snow before except on the distant mountain summits. They wanted to enowball, but they didn't know how, and they approached the problem ten- tatively. And—here is the crowning absurdity of the situation—some of their teachers didn’t know how to teach them; although they were adults, never before had they come in con- tact with snow. Some of the little ehaps, after cautious investigation, de- clared that the strange white stuff burned their fingers, it was so hot, and others, who had read or been told about it, feared that their hands would be frozen by the first contact with it. The experimental stage soon was past, however, and then the fun was fast and furio It was such ecstasy as Eastern children know, with the zest of novelty added to it. For a brief time school traditions and the proprieties maintained between teach- ers and pupils were thrown to the winds, and there was none so high or 8o low that a snowball might not batter him when least expected. The white missiles whizzed through bushes laden with roses or clipped the stately calla lilies from their stems as a knife might have done. It was a touch of winter introduced into a garden of bloom and beauty, and, ah, but the boys, big and little, enjoyed it. For all of which some sort of reverence might be done to the Mount Hamilton stagedriver— he has not forgotten that he once was a boy.—Sunset Magazine for June, | tumacy of the railroads. THE SAN FRANCISCO' CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor . . . - + « « - - - Addtess Al Commonications to JOBN McNAUGHT, Manager PUDUIGAtION OMICO .. ... .0xs0secses o csionnstoseussssesias sapasnsvesssensaass, Third and Markec Strects, 8. F. SUNDAY .}.. .JUNE 5, 1904 AMERICAN RAILWAYS. § ! UBLIC POLICY, the ablest of American publica- P tions devoted to the discussion of economics, re- produces The Call’s recent editorial on the report of Mr. Priestly, the superintendent of East Indian rail- ways, on American roads. and also an editorial on the same subject from the Wall-street Journal. The Journal concedes the justice of all that Mr. Priest- ly says about the enterprise and genius of American railway management, which has succeeded in giving the best and cheapest service, while paying the highest wages in the world. But the Journal says: “As regards the relations of the railroads to the rights of the public a notable lack of wisdom and frankness has been dis- played. Speakifig broadly, they have fought every inch of the way in an effort to prevent publicity and reason- able governmental supervision of the railroads. They have generally failed to appreciate the difference between stupid and partisan anti-railroad agitation and an in- telligent insistence upon public rights. / The railroad managers have seemed to include both the political agi- tators and the economic critics of the railroads in the same class, and to have presented a constant antagon- ism to both.” By way of proof and specification the Journal says that: “A retired railroad official, who some years ago was at the head of one of the great American systems, { his name known from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but who is now peacefully engaged in the pursuit' of farm- ing, spoke of the change in the point of view which his retirement from the railroad business had brought about. He is now in the position of a shipper of freight, not a transporter, not a maker of rates. He spoke of some of the annoyances to which he -has been subjected by the railroads over which he has to ship his goods, of the difficulty of bringing his complaints to the high officials of the company and of obtaining redress for such wrongs and losses as he had suctained.” S This reminds us of a reported experience of the late Senator Stanford when he was president of the Central and Southern Pacific roads. In the operation of his large private estate at Vina in Tehama County, it be came necessary to ship to that point on his railroad a He had to go to the freight départment for cars, classification and rates, and en- countered so many difficulties that he finally revolted and ordered flatboats built to carry his freight up the river in tow of a tugboat. The sequel to the story is that thereafter no bulliness man appealed to him in vain for redress in any issue caused by the policy of his roads. As to the other branch of the Journal’s article, resist- ance to economic and partisan agitation alike, we must, in fairness, partly excuse it. The economic critics of the American roads admit that if all the partisan propo- sitions for legislation against the roads became the law it would be impossible to operate the roads at all. Very large quantity of freight. | naturally the railway managers treat every proposition to legislate as the entering wedge for measures that so impair their control of their property that first it will cease to be profitable to its owners and finally will ‘be crippled as a public convenience and necessity. When | the latter happens the agitators who have brought it about stand ready to charge it not to the ignorant and defective legislation they have secured, but to the con- Then they will demand more legislation of the same kind and increase a difficulty for which they and not the railroads are responsible. From our point of view it is desirable as much as pos- sible to avoid political action by legislation. The econo- mic critics of railway management should be encouraged to address themselves tc that management only. If the rcforms they propose are valid, if they bring the roads and the public interest more at one, if they facilitate rather than impair the operation of the roads as a quas public agency, then they should be adopted by the roads without waiting for or requiring legislation. In this way the agitator and economist will be differentiated. It goes without saying that the greatest cause of public complaint will be removed by the roads furnishing a prompt access to some place of authority to patiently hear and justly decide the grievances of shippers. The experience of the retired railroad official is very sugges- tive on that point. He undoubtedly knows that railroad business cannot be exempt from the incidental disagree- ments that are found in all business. They require set- tlement before they degenerate into a grudge. When they reach the grudge state then those who suffer them naturally gravitate to the side of the partisan, demagogue anti-railroad agitator. In this State we have pioneered in the matter of get- ting the people and the railroad together. After wasting many years upon all sorts of fantastic legislative propo- sitions, it has become the practice of the departmental managers of our railroads and the producers and ship- pers to get together and without heat or recrimination discuss the issues that arise between them. Examples of this are seen in the meetings between the citrus fruit men and the railroads to discuss their mutual interests. The citrus men do not always get all they want, but they feel that they have been heard. They have had that “day in court” which is the highly prized right of Americans. When compelled to there state their case, as a business proposition, it often looks less attractive to them than it did, while it was cherished as a grievance. On their side the railroad managers find that in such contact they also must give reasons for their policy, and it frequently suffers when a reason must be given. As far as publicity is concerned, this California method seems to us to secure the most desirable publicity, far more beneficial than that which crudely considered statutes seek to compel. Upon the whole there is little to encourage pessimism in the American railroad situ- ation. The service being the cheapest and the best in the world by reason of voluntary action of the roads and not by the compulsion of legislation, there should ibe reason to hope that other causes of complaint will disappcar in the amicable friction of reasonable tlisv:us-l sion. ' e — THE WOMAN WITH THE HOE. HE widow Perkins was hoeing in her garden in the T rich soil of Los Angeles when she heard a burglar ransacking her house. With her hoe for a weapon she defied his gun and knocked him down and out, split- ting his scalp and playing a hoe down on his criminal countenance. 4 We offer this woman with the hoe to the poets. She is no kin to the ox and no heredity let down her jaw. She let down the burglar’s jaw and saved her hairpins and purse. When the battle was over she did not scream nor faint, but went back to hér garden and her cabbages with her bloody hoe, and reduced the weeds and mel- { . lowed the soil. Let it be known that that is the kind of women we have-in California. With a hoe, or rake, or rolling-pin, they can knock out and put to flight the boldest burglar in the business, gun and all. The record of the last year will show that California women, of the widow Perkins kind, have captured or routed more burglars than all the men in the State, in- cluding the police. In our hours of ease, uncertain, coy and hard to please, these ladies, hoe in hand, are minis- tering angels of vengeance upon the hard heads of law- less men. Mrs. Perkins deserves some public recogni- tion of her ability to hoe her own row, rgainst all the porch-climbers in the southern citrus belt. Dalny is in the victorious hands of the Japanese, and even now the conquering hosts of the Mikado are within range of the threatening guns of Port Arthur. Perhaps the Russians are trying to give us an illustration of something new in warfare and intend to present to an admiring and wondering world the most gigantic series of splendid failures in history. LEWIS AND CLARK EXPOSITION. HE plans for Portland’s Lewis and Clark Centen- T nial Exposition are developing into tangible shape and are already in such condition as to justify the statement that the fair will not only be creditable, but with the exception of ‘he great Chicago and St. Louis | fairs, will be one of the largest and finest ever held in | this country. It will open in just about a year, that is, os June 1, 16035. Like our own Midwinter Fair, follow- | ing as it did the Chicago exhibition, the Portland fair will have the advantage of following the St. Louis Ex- position, and will thus profit by obtaining many of !hci exhibits that will have been shown there. The Lewis and Clark Exposition will represent an outlay of about $35,000,000, which amount will cover the expense of laying out the grounds, construction of build- ings and installing exhibits. The United States Govern- ment has appropriated $473.000 and will have an exhibit valued at over $300,000 more. Oregon alone has appro- | priated $430,000, which is at the rate of about $1 per capita for each of her inhabitants. California, Montana, Utah and Idaho have already ap- propriated money, and Nevada, Colorado and Arizona have exhibits ready, and only await legislative appro- | priation for transportation and maintenance. Missouri, | Minnesota and North Dakota have set aside a fund to send their St. Louis exhibits to Portland, while Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota are awaiting action by their Legislatures to enable them to do likewise. New York and Massachusetts haveyalso made appropriations. Every one living on this coast should take\xridc in seeing Portland’s effort a success. There is and should be a fealty existing between California and the adjacent States which it is well to foster. We have, with them, many interests in common and the building up of one locality tends fo the prosperity of those near at hand. | San Francisco in particular should take an active inter- est in the matter. Professional tourists, strangers gén- erally, and the inhabitants of other States, will be at- tracted to this coast who would not otherwise come, and they will not be likely to leave without paying a visit to the metropolis. Aside from that fact, however, we_owe to Portland the moral and material support | which should prevail bet\‘v:en good neighbors. We | should aid her in presenting the best side to visitors at | her reception, and to that end should send of our fruits, ] flowers and many other good things. In short we must ! recognize the fact that so far as the East is concerned | the exposition will be known as a Pacific Coast enter- | prise, and the whole Pacific Coast will profit by the credit of it. A race trac%:mbler madé oath in court the other day that he was a Dersistent patron of the hazardous game and had ended the season without losing money. This testimony borders How anybody with foolhardy temerity enough to measure intelligence with the bookmakers can escape without disaster is one of those inexplicable affairs of modern life that leaves us wondering and incredulous. I and Labor at Washington, A. M. Thackara, United States Consul at Havre, France, sounds a note of warn- ing for our California prune exporters. He declares that the recent greatly increased sale of prunes abroad has re- sulted in fraudulent methods of trade on the part of unscrupulous fruit packers, which have served to under- mine the confidence of French importers of our prunes and to bring the price of the best products down to the level of the spurious qualities’ that are shipped abroad under false labels and i unfair weights. N “A serious abuse which has crept into the trade,” says Consul Thackara, “is the selling and branding as Santa Clara prunes fruit which is grown in other districts. This fruit is of inferior\quality and can be purchased for considerably less than the genuine Santa Clara product. The difficulty of detecting the fraud has facili- tated this dishonest trade, but the result will undoubtedly be that Santa Clara district will not only lose its repu- tation but also the premium which its prunes have hitherto commanded.” This warning of our Consul should demand the imme- diate attention of all our prune growers who desire to hold to the very successful market which they have established for their product in France. Not only has the Santa Clara prune already forced itself into strong competition with the French fruit in our markets, but in the land of the French prune itself the California product is becoming a dangerous rival. During the year 1003, 524,413 boxes of California prunes were imported into Havre; up to March 20, the date of Consul Thack- ara’s report, 285,000 boxes mark the trade of the first few months of this year at that port. Such favorable aspects of trade should not be allowed to be blighted by the methods of unscrupulous packers here. As was the expedient of the New York cheese makers whose brands were being used on inferior products of the Middle West, Santa Clara prune packers should appeal for a careful system of inspection and proper labeling of all dried pruries shipped out of California, in order that their fruits may not be cheapered by inferior imitations flooding the foreign market.. Should the Santa Clara producers be able to detect the parties responsible for the fraud speedy legal proceedings should be employed by them in,order that their label may con- tinue to be the guarantee of high value in the markets of France. The continued success of their trade with foreign markets depends upon speedy and efficient reme- dial measures. 2 on the marvelous. OUR PRUNE EXPORTS. N a recent report to the Department of Commerce e e T ! ‘A Judicial Jokester. Off the bench Superior Judge Frank Murasky is not the staid and quiet in- dividual his demeanor on the bench would indicate. He is quite a joker at times, as is evidenced by the following: A few nights ago Attorney Frank Kierce happened to be out quite late. As he was waiting for’ the last car a well-known insurance man, home- ward bound also, asked him into a near-by resort to have a -~night-cap.” ‘Well, they had the “night-cap” and missed the’ last car, and as a result, remained in the place for quite a little while talking over various topics. Now, the insurante man is well known for his habit at certain times of fingering the watch chain of the person to whom he is talking, so during the entire con- versation Kierce made no objection when his friend accentuated his re- marks with numerous vigorous tugs at his watch fob. Judge Murasky heard of the late ses- sion the next day, and being well ac- quainted with the lawyer and the in- surance man, saw a chance to have a little fun. He went to a telephone and called up the insurance man. When the latter answered, the Judge said: “Hello. *This is Kierce. How about my watch?” “Your watch?” came in a surprised tone of voice from the insurance man. “I know rothing about your watch.” “That's strange,” said the pseudo Kierce. “You tock it out of my pocket last night while we were talking and I forgot to ask you for 1t when we parted because I thought you would send it to me the next morning. It's not a very valuable timepiece, but I regard it highly because it is an heir- loom. Just take a lock through your clothes when you go home.” ‘Well, to make a long story short the insurance man looked through every | pocket in every suit of cicthes he had at home. He searched his house from top to bottem, but could not find the watch, and he so told Judge Murasky, still posing as Kierce, when he called up the next day, and the next. The affair worried the insurance man | considergbly, and he began to wonder | what he could do to placate the evi- | dently very angry Kierce. A thousght struck him, and he immediately called | up the lawyer. | “Hello, Kierce,” he said over the | phone, “this s Blank. I wish you | would come right down to my office. | T have a big suit here I want you to | handle.” And then as he hung up the | phcne, he remarked sotto voce, “that | ought to square matters.” Kierce appeared at the office in a very few minutes, greatly pleased, for the suit promised a large fee. Very npervously the insurance man greeted him, and he lost no time in giving the attorney all the facts con- nected .with the suit. The attorney made copious notes during the conver- sation, leaving his friend biting his nailg and squirming abcut in his chair, hoping almost . gainst hope that the subject of the watch would not be brought up. It was not and Blank breathed a sigh of relief when Kierce rose from his chair and reached for his hat. Then he almost fainted as Kierce asked him what time it was, saying, as he @id so, “I am du€ at the City Hall at 4 and my watch— “It's a quarter of 4, almost yelled Blank, taking the time from a large clock on the wall.” “I have ample time,” said Kierce, unbuttoning his coat and taking a watch from his vest pocket. “My watch is a little bit slow.” “Your watch,” gasped the insurance man, “when did you get it?” Explanations, of course, followed and the pair started out on a still hunt for the man who did the phoning. The first person they met was Judge Mu- rasky and the guilty grin on the latter's face ended the search. Other Side o’ Jordan. O, the other side o' Jordan may be bright as brignt kin be, But I ain't a-faultin’ this old world; She's bright enough for me! You've got,to be a swimmer when you strike that Jasper sea, Yonder, on the other side o’ Jordan! 1 make no doubt the country is a coun- try out o' sight, With all them fields o' livin' green an’ rivers o' delight; But I jest ain’t in no hurry fer to rise an' takg my flight Yonder, on ?he other side o' Jordan! I know, the time they're havin’ in the sweet old by-an’ by, Must set the stars to dancin’ in the blue bend o' the sky; But I'm jest no good at flyin'—an’ a angel’s got to fly Yonder, on the other side o’ Jordan! O, no matter what the trouble—an’ no matter where I roam. This world to me is Sweeter than its sweetest honeycomb, An’ I never all resign it till they holler, “Come on home!"— Yonder, on the other side o' Jordan! —Atlanta Constitution. Ancient Millionaires. A writer in a Jewish magazine has ‘been looking into the Agadic history of the Talmud, and believes that there were richer men before the Christian era than there are now. We know that Croesus was rich, and that there were huge Roman fortunes in the times of the empire. The Talmud stories go back further still. The great corner in corn that Joseph managgd.was fabu- lously profitable. Tradition says that Joseph, acting for Pharaoh, got his hands on pretty much all the ready money there waf in his day, and buried three enorgmous treasures, one of which was found by Korah, whose for- tune, estimated according to the mod- ern standards of value, is rated by the magazine at three billion dollars. Solo- mon’s stable, with its horses, chariots and horsemen, is said to have repre- sented a sum the mcdern equivalent of which would be three or four hundred millions, and he spent {wo hundred and fifty millions on his temple. Herod's temple cost more still. In Jerusalem in Roman times there were three Jews, who between them, felt able to face an expenditure of a hundred millions a year for twenty-one years. They offered to feed the million inhabitants of Jerusalem for that length of time gather than surrender the city. One AAE3nRAR ARRATEIFTTRAIFRTRSRAEIRE TALK OF THE TOWN @)} his Nikodemon, daughter a dowry of $425,000,000. There were other Jews of whose enormous wealth the Agadic history makes rec= ord.—Harper's Weekly. these Jews, gave How a Spider Thinks. It you anchor a pole in a dody of water, leaving the pole above the sur- face, and put a spider upon it, he will exhibit a marvelous intelligence by his plans to escape. At first he will spin a web several inches lopg amd hang to one end while he allows the other to float off in the wind, in the hope that it will strike some object. Of course, this plan proves a failure. He waits until the wind shifts, perhaps, ‘and then sends another silken bridza floating off in another direction. An- other failure is followed by several other similar attempts, until all ths points of the compass have been tried. But neither the resources nor the rea= soning powers of the spider are ex< hausted. He climbs to the top of the pole and energetically goes to work to construct a silken balloon. He has no hot air with which to inflate it, but he has the power of making it bueoyant. When he gets his balloon finished he does not go off upon the mere suppo- sition that it will carry him, as men often do. but he fastens it to a guy- rope, the other end of which he at- taches to the island po'e upon which he is a prisoner. He then gets into his aerial vehicle, while it is made fast, and tests it to see whether its dimen- sionse are capable of bearing him away. He sometimes finds that he has made it too small, in which case he hauls it down, takes it all apart, and constructs it on a larger and better plan. A spider has been seen to make three different balloons before he be- came satisfled with his experiment. Then he will get in, snap his guy-rope, and sail away to land as gracefully and as supremely independent of his sur- roundings as could well be imagined.— Frank H. Sweet, in June Lippincott's Magazine. Social Amenities. One of the favorite charges against New Yorkers is that they are inhos- pitable; that having received courtesy in some smaller city, they are apt t> forget it when their late hosts visit the metropolis. There is undoubtedly Ms- tice in the charge, and yet how are ladies who are never in their uwn housps during the daylight hours o entertain their acquaintances ' there? Or how can they, engaged six weeks ahead, find an evening for people Who are to be perhaps two weeks in town? The answer that they could find time if they wanted to is true emough, but what a fabulous amount of wanting would be implied! Ladies who see their children passing through the halls, and their husbands in the carriage going out to dinner, and their mothers on'y when the old lady is brisk enough to drop in before 11, can scarcely be ex- pected to put the stars in a passion in order to get a glimpse of a casnal stranger, who once asked them te Jins in another city. - They might, you say, give up one of their engagements: but censider what you are asking thems to give up; a musical to hear ‘he world’s great artists, or a dinner with a semi-royalty—always something too good to sacrifice, something which it would be a lifelong regret to have missed.—From “The Social Side of New York,” in the June Ainsiee’s. Anszweers to Queries. THE POUND—A. C. R., Alameda, Cal. The public pound in San Fran- cisco is at 1464 San Eruno avenue. IN' THE NAVY—W. F., City. Chief gunners and boatswain’s mates are not line officers in the navy. They are war- rant officers. No officer in the navy holding a rank lower than that of en- sign is commissionéd. INDIANA'S VOTE—Subscriber, City. At the Presidential election in Indiana in 1904 the total vote was 664,094, of ‘which McKinley received 336,063 and Bryan 309,584. At-tie election In 1396 the total vote was §37,305. Then Mc- Kinley 323,754 votes and Bryan 305,573 WAVE POWER—E. D., Watsonville, Cal. Several attempts have been made in the vicinity of the Cliff House, San Francisco, to utilize wave power for the purpose of working machinery or furnishing power, but none have proved a success. If such power could be used it certainly would be of value. CASINO—J. G. J., City. The rule of is that: “Should a.player build up a card to a certain denomination and his opponent decline to build it up higher, he, the first player, may not alter his build, but must take it with a card of the same denomination; he is, hewever, at liberty to make an- other ‘build’ either of the same or of any other denomination, or he may pair or combine any other cards be- fore taking up his first ‘build,” but he must comply with ong of the above conditions before playing a card that will not do either. This week gen. eyeglasses, 15&50c. 79 4th st., front Key’s Cel. Oyster House. * —_—e———————— Townsend's California Glace fruits in artistic fire-etched boxes. 715 Market st.® —_——————— information supplied W‘: Prese Clipping Bureau (Allen’s), Cade ifornia street. Telephone Main 1043, * |