The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 7, 1904, Page 8

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, TUESDAY, JUNE 1904. ! ! Reigning Queen. —Think of being able | night and see, s ROME, May 2 a in a box—Adelaide Rist This 15 a p’\\'ilegc that dwellers in | Rome enjoy, for the world famous Ital- . aliress, mhom momarchs ondé vied with each other in honoring, has lost no w t e the stage, n{ which she misses a row over 88 years o d the llfi'rh ness del G (as Ristori ate life) sense to move with T imes and judge plays and actors &ccording to modern standards, and so it is that when any new actress or play comes to Rome the eyes of all her juyal subjects are turned at once to | Ristori accepted as law. terested the other evening to see her occupy her usual box close to the stage and listening with absorbed attention t0 Gabriel d’Annunzio’s new tragedy, “The Daughter of Jario,” to which she gave hearty applause. When one thinks of the long life of this celebrated ac- tress, whose boast it was at the height of her fame that she had visited every country the world which had a theater, the Italian contention that she is the most wonderful woman living does not seem a gross exaggeration. She is now a little old woman, with pronounced features, sparkling dark eyes, and hair that is still abundant, ring under 2 head-@ress which she invariably wears. with magnificent rings and with silk witts, are as eloguent as ever, and as she uses them to emphasize her mean- ing and her beautifully modulated voice rises and falls one can realize even now glimpses of where her power lay in the past. The Marchesa acceded to my request for “a lttle talk, not an interview,” with her usual kindness, and as 1 sank inte & cozy chair in her sanctum Jaughed at my request to kmow “all™ “l am sure you do not realize what Yyou are asking,” she exciaimed with a Jaugh: “that means to go back the bet- ter part of eighty-three years, as my first appearance on the stage was at the age of three months.” As I gasped £he laughed again and went on. “Yes, eighty-three years, and you come here and expect me to tell you all about it in five minutes! “1 have really personally felt about every emotion, and I look back on the different countries where I have been according to the emotions which they chiefly yielded to me. In Norway once I was in deadly peril, though I knew nothing about my danger until it was over. We were flying along on an ex- press when we came to so sudden a standstill that we were thrown from our seats. Just before the train yawned a gulf, a bridge had been left open by mistake and we stood on the edge, stopped only just in time. “My greatest triumphs were in Eng- land and the United States. In the lat- ter 1 acted in English, and then with & German company, although I did not understand one word they said. It was Intoxication pure and simple when I heard the thunders of applause and my name called by thousands of people. apd her pronouncements are | | they 1 was especially in- | Her hands, covered | in “My purest, unalioyed joy was Italy, where I married, and wh used my poor powers to further the ‘cause,” that is the liberation and unity of my country. The supremest com- | pliment of my career came from France, when Napoleon II1 begged me | to study at the roy pense in Paris for a year and then ta the place at fe Francaise left vacant by Just think what an or, but I refused, as one of the con- | ditions was that I should act only in | France, and—I say it with pride—Italy needed me. | “The emotion I felt in Spain was of another kind, pure pity and satis- faction. A poor soldier had been sen- tenced to be shot, as I thought un- justly, and through my intercession Queen Isabella pardoned him. What joy that was! I could have kissed the | hem of her robe so glad I was and so | carried away by the thought that a human being was saved.” The Marchioness del Grillo is one of honored women in Rome. son, Marquis Giorgio, has for n one of Queen Margharita's , the Queen mo' defere: going occasional the most Her onl. er showing his aged mother and always distinguishin her notice whenever they are in the Ristori has aiso a Mme. na Bianca, beau same room. daughter, who is and is ere and scarcely iosing sight of her nt. The old lady is a slave to three little mites, | Marquis Giorgio’s children, who tyran- nize over her delightedly. They live | also in the old Del Grillo palace, and |lighten up its gray massiveness with thelr pranks and happy laughter. If can only play jokes on grand- | manna their joy knows no bounds. The Del Grillo palace is one of the | smaller ones of Rome and, like most of the others, =nrrl\undnd by small | streets, but | have been filled with mnd-—rn com- | *3 | ADELAIDE RISTORL THE RE- | | TIRED ITALIAN ACTRESS. AND | MEMBERS OF HER HOUS i H + | forts,” which is so English an expres- | sion that the Italians have no equiva- {lent and use the foreign words. One mounts & broad stairway to a turn adorned with marbles and flowering plants. From here one passes into an | ante-room and from there into the | drawing-room, out of which opens Ma- | dame Ristori’s sanctum. The sanctum is the most interesting room in the house. It is small and! comfortably carpeted and furnished. The walls are hung with all kinds of | old-fashioned pictures of the actress in various roles and as a young wife and mother, and even as a child.| There are many portraits, too, of celeb- | rities and royalties, who have person- ally presented their photographs. By the window, well in the light, stands the famous woman's desk, scattered over with elegant trifies in silver, let- ters and papers, and adorned by large photographs of Queen Margharita and Queen Elena, with dedications in their band writing. Here the aged actress sits, meditating, reading and writing. The daily life of the celebrated ac- tress is simple in the extreme. She rises somewhat late, after a cup of coffee in bed and, if the day is fine, goes for a drive in a closed carriage, together with Donna Bianca. She re-| turns after an hour or two, has her| grandchildren in to amuse her and about noon they all have lunch to- gether, the children this the | | most_cheerful hour of the day for their | grandmother. After lunch she rests and usually does not go out again. She often has some one read to her while she sits, gometimes knitting, sometimes ' dreaming. In the evening she seldom There she 1wofien to be secn, eapeciatly | es] on first nights. She mndem:-pecldm e!! fort when King Edward was in Rome and went to the English embassy on purpose to be nresented to his Majesty, | whoge father had been one of her most | fervent admirers, and who had pre- sented her with a souvenir. ISABELLA COCHRANE. | | 4 ‘T { it meets the obstructive effect of the tides. | canal, beginning at an altitude sufficient for the purpose, | any ¥ search of a remedy, which must be found in Keeping the THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL IOKND4SPRE(IE.S Propnctor..........AddrmAfl('anmmiuflmto]OflN IcNAUGHT.lamgu Pnbllcm.lon OMee THE RIVER PROBLEM. HE CALL has published the statement of the flood probiem made by Mr. William H. Mills of the State Board of Trade. It is an example of the profound study and intelligent attention given by the members of that organization to the great hysical problems which uffect the material welfare of the State. Whether en- gineers agree with its conclusions or not, they must all admit that it presents concisely and forcibly the elements f the situation with which engineering science must deal. The floods, originating at altitudes running 1ip to 6000 feet, are rapidly delivered at a common point near tide level, where their progress is barred by the tidal opposi- tion. The flood water is in effect stored at that point by tidal influence and must wait on slow drainage into the oesin. The overflowed region becomes a reservoir for these arrested waters. The problem is different from shutting out the ocean itself as in Holland. There it is only necessary to levee against the sea and the influence of tide and wind, and there are no great floods delivered briskly from high altitude on the landward side to be guarded against. In our valley that flood water is the greater problem of the two. Heretofore the treatment of our floods by draining them into such depressions as the Yolo basin has been pro- posed in recognition of the very difficulties so plainly stated by Mr. Mills. But when the flood water is in such volume as to cover the valley from the foothills of the Coast Range to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada it all becomes a flood basin and depressions like the Yolo basin are simply a part of the whole expanse. For the purposes of treatment the flood waters that come down the Sierra Nevada only may be considered. 1f these are taken care of and held back from their pres- ent zero or meeting of the influence of the tides the Coast Range water will not cause any appreciable dam- age. Therefore, we have to consider the control of that world of water that falls upon the great range and runs down its sides like rain off a roof. If that water can be intercepted on the slope of the roof and kept from reach- ing the eaves there will be no floods in the valley, and the zero point will be lifted to the new point of interception. The floods of the McCloud, Pitt, Feather, Yuba, Bear and American rivers, if diverted or arrested before they reach the Sacramento, will not overtax the drainage capacity of the lower reaches of that main stream where A grand wounld intercept the floods, carry the water along the foothills and distribute it to a system of reservoirs in which it could be held for gradual discharge through the These reservoirs would store water for irriga- tion and for power. If the diversion be at a point high enough that water could even be carried in great pipes or by open and elevated flumes to the west side of the season. | San Joaquin to bring into cultivation great areas that are now uncertain in their yield for lack of irrigation. Perhaps such a canal and reservoir system would have to have the aggregate capacity of all the rivers it would intercept” The cost would be great. But if it be the only means to effectively control the floods there is no choice between its adoption and the wasteful expenditure of al- most equally great sums on plans made ineffective by the very nature of the problem. The great value of Mr. Mills’ discussion of the ques- tion is its clear presentation of the confluence of all the rivers in one great river, beginning at Suisun Bay and emptying into the ocean at the Golden Gate. As he puts it forcibly, the many plans centered on the lower reaches of the Sacramento mean the fallacy that a river may be relieved by delivering its flood current into its own chan- The tide level of Suisun Bay cannot be changed by We must go farther #p stream in nel. such process. great floods out of the river entirely. Those floods come down the mountains at right angles to the general course of the river. If they can be intercepted and carried in a | waterway paraliel with the river and drawn off and | stored the solution is complete. The ancient river system, that existed before the moun- | tain upraise, was such that the stream ran generally | north and south. Gravel mining has revealed the beds of those ancient rivers. When the mountain chain was raised the direction of the line of drainage changed and the new water courses cut the old approximately at right angles. If it be within the capacity of engineering science and within the power of any available sum of money to make a new river following the general course of the ancient streams to intercept the existing rivers ‘he relief sought wiil be attained. When we see the Chicago River upset and instead of | running into Lake Michigan made to run out of it, and when we consider the diverting works that are to carry | the waters of the Truckee over into the sink of the Car- son, and the not less significant diversion of the water of the Tuolumne into the grand canals of the Modesto and Turlock districts, and of the Merced into Lake Yosemite, it cannot be said that this proposed interception of the floods of the Sacramento is impossible. The Board of Education, encouraged by the suggestion and active support of local educators, is agitating the wisdom of allotting 10 per cent of municipal taxes to the public schools, the change thus indicated to be secured by charter amendment. Such a plan has been found ad- mirable in connection with the State University and cer- tainly recommends itself as of advantage to the schools of this city. A fornia are to the fore with an experiment looking toward the establishment of a new industry in the State. Professor Arnold V. Steubenrauch has se- cured from the Sahara Desert a consignment of 140 shoots of the date palm of commerce, which, under his careful supervision, will be planted and tenderly cared for in the land obtained for the purpose at Mecca, Riverside County. If the desert trees fulfill in any measure the hopes of the college scientists additional plantations are to be made and California will be the future date market for the United States. The expgriment that is being inaugurated by the pro- fessors over at Berkeley is not a novelty in the records of California horticulture, Previous experiments made by private individuals have been productive of only in- different results. In several places throughout the desert region of Riverside and Los Angeles counties adventur- ous fruitraisers have planted the tender green shoots and too often watched them wither into premature decay or shoot up in barren leafage. =S When the agricultural experts take hold of the project we may be sanguine of happier results. An agricultural DATES FROM OUR DESERTS. GAIN the agriculturists of the University of Cali- bulletin upon the possibilities of date culture in Califor- nia issued from the State experiment station at Berkeley some time ago finds that the soil conditions and atmos- pheric influences of the Colorado desert are all that the most finical Sahara date palm could demand. Patience and careful study seem to be the only requisites for successful growing. When we remember the years of fruitless endeavor and the frittering away of fortunes which preceded the discovery of the little insect that made our Smyrna fig the golden fruit it now is, we will not be too ready to abandon-the date if it show a shy contrariness at the outset. It would seem that the establishment of the date as a fruit for export will add the capstone to California’s rec- ord as a State of wonders. When we shall find within our limits the fruit of the snow lands and the fruit of the desert, Lebanon cedars and dates of Joppa, we may in- deed say with the prophet that verily this is the land wherein “the mountains'shall drop new wine and the hills shall flow with milk.” The vagaries of the American mind are hard to fol- low and extremely difficult to understand. Creditors of Sully, the collapsed and throneless cotton king of New York, are seeking to make the deed to a church pew an asset of the chaotic affairs of the great gambler. the public must wonder what in the name of morality Sully wanted with a church pew or what in common sense his creditors wxll do with it if it can't be ne- gotiated. M somewhat hysterical appeal to the Christian world against Japan in view of “the yellow, peril” which will follow the defeat of Russia in the present struggle. The writer says that “if Japan is successful she will rot repeat the mistake which she made at the conclusion of her war with China, when she permitted the European powers to rob her of the fruits of her victory. She may be trusted to take advantage of the popular sen- timent in her behalf throughout Asia to carry matters with a high hand.” / This naive confession that Japan was robbed, as she was, and that being put on notice now she will not be robbed agzin, does not seem to impress Mr. Cuniif-Owen that the best way to avert any yellow peril, real or fancied, will be by dealing justly with the Asiatics. The United States has-dealt justly with Japan and the result is her assimilation of our civilization. She has our pub- lic school system and our system of jurisprudence com- plete. The common law. except as modified by statutes, is the law of Japan and her trained jurists are the peers of any in this country or England. Suppose that Japan- ese influence shall raise Eastern Asia to the same level? What peril is there in it? The Western world pretended that it was for that purpose that it broke by force the seclusion of China. Mr. Cunliff-Owen’s final appeal against Japan is based upon his statement that education has not entirely de- stroyed the belief of the people in the supernatural quality of the Mikado. If he will go a little into Russia he will find millions of the vodka soaked and soddenly ignorant people firmly believing in the supernatural powers of the Great Czar. Indeed, if superstition is to be the test, the Russians suffer, for they are the only people in these days JAPAN’S POLICY. R. CUNLIFF-OWEN publishes in Munsey's a that believe that charms and amulets and holy images | can protect a battleship or defend a city. Japan has done more for the rise of Asia to a modern plane than all the missionaries and all the Western natiofis combined. Let Asia rise. let China be enlightened, and then let us treat them justly, and there will be no peril. The Board of Supervisors is favorably considering a proposition to limit the height of all frame buildings that may be hereafter constructed in this city to forty-five feet. The suggested restriction recommends its¢lf as admirable. San Francisco is becoming far too densely settled to take any chances of a widespread conflagra- tion. A fire in some of our residence districts would inflict enormous damage and bring death to many. THE WORLD’'S PEACE. HE conference at Lake Mohonk on international T arbitration is intended to define and prepare the American position that will be urged upon the in- ternational conference at St. Louis. That position will favor arbitration treaties between all countries, with a view to progressive disarmament. It is believed that this country has now reached such a position among the powers of the world that its choice and advice in the ill influence them all. This re- sult is directly aided by the warnings sounded by cer- tain French and German publicists against what they call the ambitious designs of the United States. governments believe the alarm to be weil grounded, and that we are 2 power to be reckoned with, they will be all the more ready to attend a greater conference matter ¥ than The Hague, in which the work that followed lhE| Czar's call will receive its necessary supplement. While it cannot be admitted that the analogy between the disputcs of nations and the disputes of individuals is complete, yet the parity is sufficient to justify the in- stitution of just and lawful methods, for the settlement of most of the international dlspul:s/ Individuals form- erly settled all differences by personal combat, In those days the physically weak had no rights because they could not defend them. When a system of jurisprudence arose and law and justice were judicially enforced, the strong and weak were equalized, and the weak were panoplied with protection for their rights. Observation compels the admission that a large part of the causes of war between nations can be subjected to "the same process by arbitration, and war will thereafter have its principal excuse only in the refusal of the loser to abide | by the judgment. As there is no higher judicial tribunal than the arbi- tral court, the only appeal from it will be to arms. Un- less the appellant nation have a very strong case the world’s sympathy will be denied it. We i;lcline to the opinion that the Mohonk plan, if carried out, will elimi- nate war as far as that desirable result can be obtained. The Moors have found occasion for great fear in the demonstration which this Government is making over the kidnaping of Perdicaris by the bandits of Morocco. It is well for the world to,know that the time has passed when a little national rascal may insult and browbeat American citizens without conscience and then like a little blackguard expect to escape punishment on account of his size. If a nation is powerful enough to commif an injury it is big enough to pay for it. And | 1i their | TALK OF THE TOWIE Fisherman's Luck. Fishing is the quiet and eminently respectable wing of sports which even a Bishop can indulge without en- dangering his dignity and ecclesiasti- cal standing and probably that is the reason why Louis H. Eaton, organist at Trinity Church, makes coquettiog with the tittlebat and flounder a spe- cial and ever recurring pleasure. Whenever the organist can find the time he hies himself to Tiburon and, accompanied by a veteran boatman, rows out toward Angel Island and casts his lines well and temptingly baited. For Eaton to return to San Fran- eisco without the sign of a fish would | be tantamount to daubing a blurring blot on the family escutcheon. A local wit, who is also a patient fisherman, met Eaton recently en route fot San Francisco and in charge lof a bag weighted with the results of a day’s sport. The wit had not caught even a sprat, but it occurred to him that it would be a good joke on his friend were he to change bags, and while Eaton was glancing over the latest news of an- other Kuroki vict over Kuropat- kin the bags were changed. A lit- tle later Eaton, putting aside his paper, remarked that the Russians — ——— THE _RESULTS OF HIS DATYS ‘ CATCH BROUGHT SURPRISE TO EATON. ETRE SEnciiEiane o seemed as easy fish for the Japanese | as the fish which had come so abund- |antly to his hooks that day. “Just let me open the bag and show you what luck I've had,” said Eaton, swell- ing with the pride that alone belongs to the fortunate fisherman. The wit eagerly engaged Eaton on some foreign matter totally uncon- nected with the subject of fish and consequently the bag was not opened. Arriving at the ferry the pair sepa- | rated with good wishes for future ex- cursions. Eaton never felt more anxious to arrive at his destination as on that evening. When he did arrive he called upon the whole household to be witnesses to his good fortune, and throwing his bag on a table opened it to find not even a sucker, but instead, and to his horror, a quantity of fish- ing tackle, two large bottles, scattered and superfluous sandwiches, a slouch hat and a pair of overalls. Organist Eaton is composing a dirge which he hopes to play at some one’s funeral in the near future. How nearly akin are tragedy and | its opposite extreme, the ludicrous, is not better demonstrated than in the | unconscious humor which is be- | ing daily disseminated by an aged cripple on Market street. !She is an old woman, bent and twisted with the weight of years | and of sickness—it is charity, indeed, ! to believe this much atleast. She crawls along the sidewalk with a peculiarly { appealing half hitch and double schuffle, accompanied by groans and much twisting of the mouth. Two canes tump-tump the signal of her coming to the ears of the throng. Truly she is a tragic ruin. But to ! make assurance doubly sure she has | hung about her neck by a white | cotton string a piece of shoe box upon which is scrawled this legend: F AM PARALYSIS. Japanese Prints. The Chinese exercised the art of printing centuries before it was known in Europe, and this applies also to il- lustrations by means of engraved blocks. When the Japanese adopted it from them is not certain, but engrav- ings are extant which date from the thirteenth century. - Xylography was first employed in the service of religion for reproducing texts and images of the Buddha. This was followed by the production of pub- lications such as romances and novels, in which the illustrations were about on a par with those in uld-time chat books. These were followed by single sheet prints, and by that large class ot productions which emanated from the theater as advertisements. Chroma-xylography originated in Japan at the commencement of the eighteenth century with single sheets, printed from three blocks, black, pale green or biue, and pale pink. A fourth block was added in 1720, and two others were’ added about forty years later. The art was brought to perfection be- tween 1765 and 1785 in the single sheet | S pictures, Tori Kyonaga, Suzuki Haru- nobu and Katsugawa Shunsho. The technique of Japanese engraving and printing is thus described: The picture, drawn for the engraver on thin transparent paper of a particular kind, is pasted face downward upon a block of wood, usually cherry, and the su- perfluous thickness of paper is removed by a process of scraping until the de- sign is clearly visible. The, borders of the outline are then inclsal—very light- ly in the more delicate parts—with a kind of knife, and the interspaces be- tween the lines of the drawing are finally excavated by means of tools of various shapes. The ink is then applied with a brush and the printing.ls effected by hand pressure, assisted by a kind of pad, te which procedure may be attributed much of the beauty of the resuit. Cer- tain graduations of tome, and even polychromatic effects, may be pro- duced from a single block by suitabls application of ink or color upon the wood; and on carefully examinivg these prints it is often apparent that a great deal of artistic feeling has been exercised in the execution of the picture after the designer and engraver had finished their portion of the work. A Radium Clock. A radium clock, which will keep time indefinitely, has been constructed by Harrison Martindale of England. The clock comprises a small tube, in which is placed a minute quantity of radium supported in an exhausted glass vessel by a quartz rod. To the |lower end of the tube, which is | cglored violet by the action of the radium, an electroscope formed of two long leaves or strips of silver is ate tached. A charge of electricity in which there are no beta rays is transmitted through the activity of the radium in- to the leaves, and the latter thereby expand until they touch the sides of the vessel, connected to earth by wires, which instantly conduct the electric charge, and the leaves fall to- gether. This simple operation is repeated incessantly every two minutes until the radium is exhausted, which in this instance it is computed will occupy 30,000 years.—Scientific American. Burning Without Cease. A score of the most expert mining men in the anthracite region are fig- uring upon a plan by which the de- vastating fire in the Sioux Colllery of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company at Wilkesbarre may be quenched. It is now spreading and threatens to con- sume several million dollars’ worth of coal owned by the Lehigh Valley and the Susquehanna Coal companies in the rich Shamokin basin. This week & score of mining superintendents and mine inspectors went over the ground, examined the conditions thoroughly and spent some time over the exten- sive maps on which the fire zone has been marked imn its various stages since it started a year ago. Its rapid growth has been unusual. A year ago a carload of hot ashes emptied on “the dump” set it on fire, the fire communi- cated with the slope and the mine fire was started.—New York Sun. Answers to Queries. GRAMOPHONE —Subscriber, City. There is no law that this department has been able to discover that will prevent an individual from “playing™ a gramophone in his own home later than 10 o'clock at night, even though the windows are open. But there is a law that prevents any one from pro- ducing any noise that will have a ten- dency to disturb the rest of the people in the neighborhood. You might “play™ your gramophone at late and unusual hours of the night and if such “play- | ing"” became a nuisance you would be held responsible in law. MORTAR—F. R. D, City. If com- mon mortar is protected from the alr i§ will remain without hardening for many years. It is stated that lime, still in condition of a hydrate, was found in the pyramids of Egypt. When the ruins of the old castle of Lands- berg were removed, a lime pit that must have been In existence three hundred years was found in one of the vaults. The surface was carbonated tc the depth of a few inches, but the lime below this was as fresh as if just | slacked and was used in the laying of ithe foundation of the new building. STATES AND TERRITORIES—Sub- scriber, Stockton, Cal. There are at this time forty-five States in the Union, thirteen original and thirty-two added, { the last being Utah, added January 4. 1896. The Territories of the Union and the dates of thetr oPganization are: Dis- trict of Columbia, 1790, reorganized in llm; Indian Territory, 1534; New Mex- fco Territory, 1850; Arizona, 1863: Alas- ka, 1868; Oklahoma, 1890, and Hawaii, 1900. The insular possessions of the United States are: Porto Rice, the Philippine Islands, Guam, Tutuila, ‘Wako and the other smaller islands. e Townsend's California Glace fruits in artistic fire-etched boxes. 715 Market st.* e —— v — Special information supplied daily to business houses and public men the ; Press Clipping Bureau (Allen's), Il‘?l— ifornia street. Telephone Main 1048