The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 20, 1904, Page 6

I OF THE CALL cov ONDON, June 5.—Readers #t home may be in.erested in hearing that W. H. Mallock, who wrote “Is Life Worth Living?" and “The New Repub- Jic.,” and whose latest work, “The Veil ¢ the hour a special tn ti favorite with the most Americen soclety folk in the metropos Me He is frequently & guest of the| Brad) ir town house in Chesterfield Gardens, and among his ate friends is Willlam Wal- with whom he often stays | the millionaire’s beautiful Thames, near veden, er home on the Taplow. Mr. Mallock was, in fact, the second person in London to hear of Mr. Astor's change of citizenship. He was at the house of Lady Jeune when & jJetter arrived from Mr. Astor to the wife of the famous divorce court Judge | saying that as she had been his best friend ngland he wanted her to be| t know that he had taken the steps toward becoming an shmen, and Mr. Astor added, Mallock.” If W. H. Mallock's new work, “The Ve f the Te le,” has not already | been eppearan laved here as has pro with n the United States its here is not likely to be de- ., for the work is regarded ost striking that Mallock “The New Repub-| oF put which he set phers, scientists and religious folk by the ears nearly a quarter of a century ago. As the author has gathered iently unlike people at a mate questions of the um- the main point at issue, how- eyer, being the relation of religion to science. In this book Mallock has been po less gatirical than in his much dis- cussed “Is Life Worth Living?” Parts of “The Veil of the Temple” appeared enonymously in one of the reviews, and, says Mallock in his preface, “it country, and pret |at present he finds himself in dire | derstood that the Marquis is bank- | meetings. | | o+ - ication of a letter written by Lady Hamilton, Lord Nelson's friend, in which she refers indignantly to the | reports regarding her relations with | the great i “You know,” s ays to her cor- | espondent, “the great and virtuous ection he had for me, the love he e my husband and if 1 had any in- fiuence over him I used it for the good 1 ev ep him at home? Did not share his glory? Even this last victory. it was I bid him go Did he not pat me on the back. me brave Emma, and say, T¢ i there were more Emmas there would ih more Nelsons? Does he not in his t moments do me justice and re- quest at the moment of his glorious, that the King end the nation | do me justice? And I have got his letters and near ecight hundred the Queen of Naples' letters to what 1 did for my King and | ly I am rewarded.” | Regarding her detractors, - “Emma | Hamilton,” as she signs herself, says: “Peshaw! 1 am above them: I despise them: for, thank God, I feel that, hav- | ing lived with honor and glory, glory they cannot take from me, I despise them—my soul is above them, and 1 can yet make some of them tremble by showing them how he = desplsed them, for in his letters to me he thotight aioud.” This letter was written by Lady Hamiiton to Neison's former secretary and chapla'n, Dr. Scott. HAYDEN A Butterfly's Fall. Spactal Correspondence CHURCH. HEADQUARTERS OF THE CALL. HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, June 5—It would not be surprising if the airy- fairy Marquis of Anglesey—actor, gem-collector and dandy—began to | doubt the appreciativeness of Provi- dence. Affairs with the “Diamond Marquis,” as he is called, have been| going Indifferently for some time, but straits and this in spite of having taken at least one step designed to| atone for past errors. It is now un- rupt. His lest provincial tour with his theatrical company came to a dis- astrous end, and soon after it was an- nounced that some of the ballet-danc- ing peer's Gnest jewels were to be sold by auction at a fashionable salesroom. Now the Margquis’ creditors both ‘in London and Bangor—the Welsh town near Alglesey Castle—are to hold Meanwhile his Lordship has betaken himself hurriedly to the | continent. The Marquis’ attempt to square himself, as it were, with Providence was made in this wise. It will be re- | membered, no doubt, that when first his Lordship conceived the idea of giving Christmas pantomimes at Anglesey Castle he committed the pro- | THE SAN FRA NCISCO CALL }OEND.SPEECEHS.PMLW..........AddnssAflCommmkafiomtommmfl.lamur Publication Office ... .....Third and Market Streets, S. F. MONDAY ..JUNE 20, 1904 RATHER MORE TONE VISIBLE. [ T is curious to observe the effect of public sentiment « current business conditions. It is as strongly marked as it is upon politics. Several years ago it was considered every man’s duty to/proclaim, through 4 megaphonhe, if necessary, the extraordinary activity of trade and the wonderful richness and prosperity of the country; to-day the fecling is equally pronounced that it is every man's duty to mumble the funercal word “conservatism” every little while as the surly parrot on his perch croaks “pretty polly” at regular intervals, or the devout Mussulman mutters his prayer. From one end of the country to the other we now hear that business is quiet, that we have entered upon a period of recession, that conservatism’is the present number on the programme and that it is imperative that every go slowly and make no mercantile mistakes. It is the fashion of the day, like the Panama hat, and every man says that business is quiet, whether he finds it so or not. This is but another illustration of the old aphorism that men are sheep; that they herd together and follow each other and bleat the same refrain. As a matter of fact, business, while quiet and possibly getting quieter, is not really dull, taking the country as a whole. It is the contrast with the remarkable activity of the past five or six years that makes it appear so. The great boom is over, conditions are settiing to a more tranquil and normal plane, fewer new enterprises are being floated, and profits are smaller, while production, after a wild chase to catch up with the consumption, ex- tending over a period of years, has at last overtaken it. It has been a stern chase, which, sailors tell us, is always a long one. A keen-eyed New York banker, evidently well posted on the current situation, says in a late issue of the Wall Street Journal: “Thege is a very healthy demand for well secured bonds of municipalities, railways and cor- porations, which are offered at attractive prices. In- vestors are very discrimimating in their purchases. They insist on buying only securities of undoubted merit, and will only buy these when offered at attractive prices. n well-ordered citizen | The caution on the part of investors is a natural reaction. | from the speculative excesses of a little time ago. In- vestors are probably a little too cautious now, but it is better that they should be in this frame of mind than not cautions enough. Investors will not touch speculative securities of doubtful stability. " The bond market bene- fits thereby. Funds that formerly were put into specu- lative stocks are now going into high-grade securities. I+ traveling through the Middie West I noted signs of business contraction, but I saw nothing that should give cause for alarm. Conditions at the bottom are very sound.” This statement seems to hit the situation exactly. The public has recovered from its fever|and is going slowly, perhaps too slowly. There is such } thing as too much caution. Conservatism carried to an extreme be- comes fear, which is a great deterrent to trade. There is nothing in the condition of business in the United States to-day to justify anybody in getting alarmed or withdrawing his funds from legitimate channels of in- _vestment. Standard stocks in Wall street are down to 2 point where they are as safe as investments as they ever get, for there is nothing absolutely safe in this life, bhas been brought to my knowledge that . E 5 1 many readers were offended to a high | fane act of ‘“"“"(‘5 ";'e l"'““"h(x'h:l;" and even low values often go still lower for a time. But degree.” There is no doubt that the | there into a pocket theater,.which he | ..., money in large supply everywhere, with no fail- book is daring or that it will worry the | named the Gaiety. Naturally this orthodox, and the discussion which it |shocked the clergyman as well as all has aroused seems likely to be a|Other devout folk'in the neighborhood Snsthy one. |and frequent appeals were made to Personally Mallock is one of the most | the peer to restore the place to its| popular men in London soclety. He u:originnl state. To these, however, he seen everywhere, and they say jokingly | turned a deaf ear and the “butterfly” | that from the time he leaves London at |2nd skirt dances which the Marquis the end of one season until he arrives delighted in executing went on where again at the beginning of the mext he once his ancestors $iad offered up | sleeps nmot & single night at his own | their prayers. But not long ago—or ures heavy enough to cause alarm, with crop prospects, which, to say the least, sre excellent, with a great foreign trade and a first-rate demand for staple merchandise all over the United States, the commercial conditions of the country may be considered as sound as it is possible for them to get. Quotations for some lines of goods may go lower still, and some ought to go lower to get where they belong, but any marked decline now will almost expense. He is not one of the authors of the day who have got into society | on the strength of their works, for he is a member of an old and renowned | Devonshire family, his brother being the present owner of Cockington Hall, mear Torquay. His work “Is Life Worth Living?” has been translated into al- most every known tongue. At Oxford | he won the Newdigate prize for a poem. Mallock has now arrived in London for the season and taken up his abode in Curzon street, a few doors from the Marlboroughs’ house and in the center | of the fashionable American colony in Mayfair. “Yoa e In his introduction to his “Success Among Nations,” -just published by the Harpers, Dr. Emil Reich states that the work is the outgrowth of a suggestion made to him by Curtis Brown, chief of the London staff of this paper. 8 6P “My little book,” wrote Charles Dar- win, in a hitherto unpublished letter of Ris that has just turned up in Lon- don, “will not be ready until the au- tumn.” By his little book, the great paturalist meant “The Origin of Spe- @les.” The letter in which this remark occurs was addressed by Darwin to a friend in Jamaica, who had sent him a Jamaican bechive, and in commenting upon it the naturalist observes that the cells zre larger than those of British combs, in the proportion of sixty to fifty-one. He goes on, characteristic- ally, “The size of the cells of European combs I8 so uniform that I think I re- member that some wild man proposed them as a standard unit of measure- ment. The walls of the cells are, I am sure, considerably thicker than in our cells, but I have as yet made no precise measurements.” R George Sand’s centenary occurs next month and will be celebrated, in Paris, by & performance at the Odeon of her play, “Le Demon au Foyer,” by an ex- hibition of portraits and other objects touching upom the life of the novelist, | and by the unveiling of a new statue of Mme. Sand by the sculptor Sicard. This shows herseated upon a favorite bench in Nohant in her native province of Berri. The marble figure is charm- ing and coquettish, has a rose in its bair, and is considered much more I hear privately that David Christie Murray, author of “One Traveler Re- turns” and many other movels, is se- ricusly il just when times began to get hard with the lavish-handed nobleman—a | more determined divine called at the | castle, who declaréd to the Marquis that his troubles would Increase and | multiply if he did not instantly repair | his desecration of God's house. And | the story goes that the peer, made ap- prehensive perhaps by what aiready had befallen him, promised obedience, and ordered the chapel changed back forthwith. At last accounts there were under- stood to be several writs out for the | Marquis, whose endless extravagances are said to have been responsible for his disastrods finish. Even an income of $1,000,000 a year, which the noblé- man was said to possess, could not! stand Christmas trees with their | branches encrusted with small dia- monds and hung with larger ones, such as the Marquis provided for his guests at Anglesey last Yuletide. The magnificent motor car which he bought some time ago and whic.. was said to be the most sumptuous on earth, has not yet been paid for. Weapons That Kill. Those picturesque weapons—the bay- onet, the saber and the lance—things of bulk and glitter, figure more largely in war news, ne doubt, than they do In the casualties of the Russians and the Japanese. Coid figures have long gif- fered radically from word pictures and battle paintings as to the damage done by “cold steel” under the conditions of modern war. The Army and Navy Journal has published data bearing upon this question which is 6f especial interest while the struggle between Russia and Japan is still young and its chances are the subject of universal speculation. It Is shown that in the Civil War out of 240,712 wounds treated by the surgeons of the Union army only 922, or about four-tenths of one per ‘cent, were caused by bayonets and sabers. Who could have guessed any- thing like that very small proportion from the literature of the war perfod? In the Crimean war, where the Russian tendency to get to close quarters was encouraged by the conditions of the con- flict, the saber and the bayonet were more active, causing 23 per cent of the wounds received by the British and French soldiers. But in the Franco- German war of 1870-71 the bayonet and the saber together could claim less than one-third of one per cent of the casual- ties suffered by the German armies. It surely be followed by an upward reaction later on. This is the view taken By the ablest financiers of the country, and they ought to know. Hence their surprise that the public do not take advantage of the present reasonable prices to invest in the standard securities which are paying their 3, 4 anl 5 per cent dividends right along. Indeed, there have been indications of late that such an investment movement is now on the eve of starting. Take the New York stock market, for instance. What appeared to be the beginning of an up- ward movement was under way last week when the Southern Pacific Company, without a word of warn- ing, launched a huge bugaboo on the market, as a malicious boy frightens tHe baby with the precipitate apparition of a hairy and ferocious jack-in-the box, and the upward movement got a shock that took its breath away, and it came to an abrupt halt. This was the announcement that $100,000,000 in pre- ferred stock was to be issued, that it would pay a 7 per cent dividend and that $40,000,000 of this would be issued immediately. As this would put a stop to any contem- plated dividends on the common stock, the announce- ment fell like a wet blanket on the market and for the time being paralyzed it. An immediate recession all along the line of stocks took place. London thought it over a day or so, came to the conclusion that it did not like it, and began to sell the two Pacifics, Union and Southern. New York took up the cue and the bull move- ment in stocks was nipped in the very bud, for some days, at least. But general business was not appreciably affected by this setback in Wall street. As mentioned in this column last week, the condition of the crops is the controlling factor in the trade situation this year, and what the Southern Pacific does with its stock has no effect on the growth of the wheat and corn in the fields. They grow right along just the same and are doing so well that the banks, railroads and large exporters of farm products are looking forward to a very fair fall trade in conse- quence, in spite of the usual deterrent influence of the coming Presidential election, which seems to have been pretty well discounted and is not causing much talk this year. Nobody expects any abnormal activity during the rest of 1904, but the condition of the crops and the gen- eral status of the industries almost guarantee a fair average movement of merchandise and farm products. Stocks of many lines of goods are now even with the consumption, but there is no serious accumulation re- ported in any line, and while stee! and iron, textile and fiour mills are closing down every few days all over the country, it will be observed that they always start up again in a few days, and thus far there have not been any prolonged shut-downs in any important manufactur- ing districts. Wages of operatives have been reduced at a number of centers, but the reductions have not been severe, and as a rule have been accepted by the men without much murmur, as it is realized that the manu- facturer and the railroad shareholder are taking their medicine, too, in the form of decreased dividends. The staples show little change. Provisions have beex\: doing somewhat better of late, as the packers at the Western centers are showing more disposition to sup- port the market. Wool has been moving off briskly and a fortnight or so ago prices for the raw wool ad- vanced 1c per pound all around. Wheat, corn and cot- ton have sought lower values, but the declines have not been violent. The iron- and steel situation remains as for some weeks past, business being quit, while quota- | tions do not show much change from day to day. Lum- !aflalrl on the Pacific Coast, should be ber is reported dull in the Eastern and Western slopes of the country, but fairly active in the Northwest. The bank clearings are runming along about the same, last week’s figures showing a loss of 15.6 per cent from last year, with aggregate clearings of $1,863,000.000, which are below the normal. The failures for the week were 257, against 213 last year. The railway earnings thus far received show a loss of 7.1 per cent in May, which is an unfavorable exhibit, as the decrease for the two or three months preceding May had been only about 3 or 5 per cent as a rule. This decrease in railway earnings shows the current contraction in business. While dearth of accurate news and palpable partisan- ship have served to destroy the war in the Far East as a special pleader for the attention of newspaper readers, the great.but unknown oriental conflict must now take a back seat in the affections of Amerigan readers, what- ever may happen in the theater of contest. ican national political pot has commenced to boil, and everything else is secondary until the fires of enthu- siasm are out. T out a preliminary report of the progress of irriga- tion in this country during the year 19o2. That question is of more thap usual interest to people of the West just now, owing to the recent appropriation by the General Government of the sum of twenty-seven mil- lions of dollars for irrigation in their territory. The re- port says: “The acreage reported as irrigated in 1002 exceeds that of 1899 by 1,704,889, acres, the length of canals and -ditches by 14,361 miles, the cost of irrigation systems by $21,;07,672 and the number of irrigated farms by 23,480." That showing is gratifying when it is remem- bered that in many parts of the United States it was made under discouraging conditions. The crop year of 1902 in the arid portion of the West was a poor one owing to the snowfall in the mountains being unusually light, materially reducing the flow in the irrigating ditches. As an evidence of the growing interest in Western territory being shown by home seckers, the report states that: “In the last stwenty years there has been a great awakening to the opportunities which lie in the arid West for the home maker, and a remarkable transforma- tion has taken place in many parts of this region. The irrigation of to-day, through lessons of experience and observation of theresultsobtained bythe pioneers,evinces a more ready adaptability to conditions. Great problems of water storage and diversion, involving features never before considered, are being worked out to practical solution.” One of the features auxiliary to irrigatjon, the value of which is coming to be better understood and ap- preciated, is the possibility of utilizing the force of the water as a2 motive power and for the development of elec- tricity. Under that head it is stated: “The great dams which impound the floods once wasted furnish abundant electric power for all purposes. Every available stream is now a potent factor for good. The flow of the canals turns wheels which lift Jarge quantities of water to fields above the line of gravity supply.” . The mining industry has profited very largely by the inauguration of irrigation systems. Where water has been brought upon the land intended primarily for pur- poses of agriculture, it has in many instances been used also to develop mines, which otherwise could not have been worked successfully. As to the number of farms irrigated, California is given first rank, with Utah second and Colorado third. while in the matter of total irrigated area Colorado stands first, California second and Montana third. The aggregate mileage of main canals and ditches in this country in the year 1902 is reported as being more than enough to encircle the earth twice, their combined length being 50.243 miles. GROWTH OF IRRIGATION. HE United States Census Bureau has just given The captain of the South Portland, which was re- cently wrecked with the loss of eighteen human lives, has been censured by the highest existing Federal au- thority as unskillful, negligent and wholly to blame for the disaster. In penalty he must suffer suspension. It is interesting to inquirs, under the circumstances, what offense a sea captain must be ghilty of to warrant his removal from a post for which he is adjudged morally and mentally unfit. ——— et The drug clerk who killed a customer recently by mis- take has been duly censured by a Coroner’s jury and the recommendation, customary in such cases, to draft laws raising the standard of protection against careless dis- pensers of poison has been made. It is high time for the authorities chosen to guard public health and life to make carelessness a crime, punishable as such, in cer- tain occupations where mistakes may mean injuv or death. i s Annually, for many years, the single survivor of an Illinois regiment, which fought gallantly in the Mexican War, holds a reunion, calls the roll of the dead, and in a single, solemn audience with himself pays tribute to those gone and to the deeds of valor that distinguished his soldier band. The old fellow probably feels that if he is lonesome he is still in pretty good company with him;elf and his memories of the olden time. ——— If the assassination of the Governor General of Fin- land does nothing more for humanity than to remind the world once more of the desperate condition of a cruelly oppressed race it will have done much. The Finns, worthy of the good will and the highest consideration of their political masters, are offering to-day an example of twentieth century oppression as evil in its aspect as any that blackens the pages of sixteenth century history. ———— — An Oakland Judge has demonstrated to a suffering and patient public that it still has some rights which must be respected. He has decreed that bicyclists must not usurp the walks provided for pedestrians, but must take their chances on the broader thoroughfares given to the trafic of teams. This involves an injustice to that worthy servant of man, the horse, but it insures 2 ma- terial measure of re%ef to inoffensive humanity, . The Amer- | | of the Alaska i | | | t | | A Judge Despite Himself. That William R. Hume, son of George W. Hume, the millicnaire head Packers’ Association, with other extensive Interests that place him in the forefront with men of entitled to the distinction of writing his name Judge Hume will come as a surprise to the young man’s wide circle of acquaintances in this city as well as in 'Oakland, the Hume family’'s place of residence. That young Judge Hume is a real swearer of the judicial ermine is a fact will be a greater surprise. But fact it is and a jolly story of a joke is behind it alL In his ordinary business relations, Will Hume is vice president and gen- eral manager of the Tongue Point Lumber Company, with headquarters at Astoria, Ore. Hundreds of men are employed there, the comcern being one of the large interests controlled by the Hume family. At the general State | election in Oregon last week it occur- red that a ticket was to be elected in Clatsop County. There was a Justice of the Peace to be chosen for John Day Township in which the Tongue Point Lumber Company's mills are lo- cated. | A few days before election George E. Jackson, the Oakland attorney, who | was visiting Hume, determined to thrust his host into politics. Unknown to Hume, Jackson quietly circulated among the men and by vigorous cam- paigning passed the word along that Hume desired to be chosen to the Jus- | ticeship. The joke worked like a _charm. Elec- tion day came and Hume received the unanimous vote of several hundred mill men and was duly elected. Hume was the most astounded man in the county when he saw the returns. But it was all as regular as clockwork and for the ensuing term it will be Judge Willlam R. Hume of John Day Town- ship, Clatsop County, Oregon. ‘As an Easterner Sees Us. Benjamin H. Miller Esq., a prom- inent business man of Quincy, IIl., who lately made a six weeks' tour through the West, wrote a very interesting ac- count of his trip for the Quincy Jour- | nal of June 8. The following, con- cerning San Francisco, is an excerpt from his article and shows the good | impression made upon the gentleman | by what he saw here: “The bay of San Francisco is almost completely encircled by land. The Golden Gate is the tideway narrow | passage between the extremities of two peninsulas; on the point of the most southern the city stands. “Few bays are more picturesque. At the head of San Pablo Bay is the Mare Island navy yard; nearer the city is Mount Tamalpais, the summit of which is reached by steam cars and affords a most magnificent view for | | miles around. Alameda, Oakland, Alcatraz, Point San Quentin, Angel Island on the south of Raccoon Straits, Hospital Cove, the quarantine station, are all interesting points in and about San Francisco Bay. “San Francisco is the Western great city. The business there is simply enormous. The labor situation is !m- proving. Each are taking the sensw:e view of their respective sides. The facilities for transacting and hand- ling every possible kind of business are second to none in the world. Every brand of industry and commerce is represented in San Francisco. Its people, its merchants, its manufac- turers, its banks and financial insti- tutions, boards of trade, its capital- ists, its newspapers, its laboring classes, its schools—in short, every- thing required to make up a strictly up-to-date and model United States city is found in San Francisco. Its train service is fine and connections are reliable. “There are no finer people on earth than the people of n Francisco. They meet you with a 'cheerful face, give you the glad hand, and say, ‘What can we do for you?" Her streets are clean and her city government as perfect as any in the world. Her Chief of Police, Captain Wittman, and his entire force of 700 men are an example for any modern American city. Enough praise cannot be given in respect to the courteous way a stranger is received in this great West- ern metropolis.” A Bocr Boy Hero. Major Seely, D. 8. O, tells a pathetic story of a little Boer lad who pre- ferred to die rather than give any in- formation likely to result in the cap- ture of his fellow countrymen. On one occasion during the war, Major Seely said, he was insgructed to get some volunteers and try to capture a com- mandant at a farmhouse some twenty miles away. He got the men ready and they set out. It was a rather des- perate enterprise, but they got to the | farmhouse all right, only to find, how- ever, that the elusive Boer had cleared out in an unknown direction. It was vitally important that the British force should get some information, for it became a question perhaps of the Boers capturing them and not they catching the Boer commandant. At the farmhouse they saw a good look- ing Boer boy and some yeomen. Major Seely asked the boy if the command- ant had been there, and he said in Dutch, taken by surprise, “Yes' “Where has he gone?” was the nest question, and the boy became sus- picious and answered, “T don't know.” “I decided then,” continued Major Seely, “to do a thing for which I hope I may be forgiven, because my men's lives were in danger. I threatened the boy with death if he would not dis- close the whereabouts of the general. He still refused, and I put him against a wall and said I would have him shot. At the same time I whispered to my men, ‘For heaven's sake, don't shoot.” The boy still refused, although I eould see he believed I was going to have him shot. I ordered the men to renu boy. ‘Now,’ I said, ‘before I give the word, which way has the general &one?’ I remember the look in the | | | | | boy’'s face—a look such as I have ! never seen before but once. He was | transfigured before me. Something | greater almost than anything huma | shone from his eyes. He threw back | his head and said in Dutch, ‘T will not say.” There was nothing fordt,” ¢ ! cluded the major, “but to shake hands with the boy and go away.”—Johan- nesburg Star. | | | | The Useless Guillotine. When the first Queen of the Belgians lay dying she expressed a wish to her | eldest son, Leopold, that when he suc- ceeded to the throne he should never sign his name to a death warrant or | give his consent to the execution of a capital sentence. Leopold was only 13 years of age at the time. He was about 20 when he became King and he is near 70 to-day. But though regarded as in- capable of any lasting affection and credited with an amount of cynicism unrivaled in the annals of Old World { royalty, he has always remembered his mother’s request and has so invariably refrained from sanctioning the exec tion of death sentences that Belgium is to-day cldmsed as ome of the countries where capital punishment has been abolished. Yet the death penalty re- mains on the Beigian statute book. though few people outside the kingdom are aware of the fact, and in every case where criminals are convicted of murder without extenuating ecircum- stances the Judges solemnly pass the sentence of death, which, owing to the refusal of the King to sign the death | warrant, is ipse facto commuted to im- prisonment for life. There is a gre difference between life imprisonment of this kind taking the place of capital punishment and the penal servitude for | life resulting from a sentencethereto | by the Judges. The criminal condemned to be executed is regarded as dead in the eyes of the law from the moment that the sentence of death is passed on him. The scaffold for his execution is actually erected: the executioner. at- | tends with his assistants to carry out | the sentence of the law. The guillotin and the victim only are wanting. In their place the executioner carries a | great sheet of paper bearing the full | name and the sentence of the eriminal {and this he nails up om a post and | leaves in public sight, that obloquy may fall on the offender’s name.—La Mar- quise de Fontenoy. Big Guns. Some experiments carried out near Cherbourg this week with the new model big French fortress guns show that this question of gun calibers touches Interests , outside the purely military sphere. '1419 guns are of 12 4-5- inch caliber and although only three shots were fired, it had been judged | prudent to warn the neighboring in- habitants to leave their windows and doors open as a precaution against the tremendous concussion expected. In fact, the first shot did great damage to the earthworks around the gun, and as there was no time to warn the offi- cer in commafnd, the next two dis- charges completely shattered them. Luckily, the men ordinarily serving the | sun had been kept at a distance until | the effects had been tested. In the re- sult, new service rules will have to be devised and a larger uninhabited area around these guns will be necessary. Answers to Queries. BODIE—Subscriber, Oakland, Cal Bodie, Mono County, Cal, is at an ele- vation of 8248 feet above the sea level. City. The first savings bank incerporated in the United States was the Boston Provi- dent Savings Institution, incorporated December 13, 1818. CELEBRATION—G. C. B, City. The management of tHe Chutes states that it has no record of any celebration at that place of amusement during the month of May, 1303, at which there were fireworks. ONUS PROBANDI—Subscriber, Ala- meda, Cal. Onus probandi is Latin and means the burden of proof. In law and | In ordinary life, if Jones makes a state ment which Smith disputes, the o probandi lies upon Jones, who has ¢ prove what he asserts. DRAW PEDRO—Missionite, City. If in a game of draw pedro A and B have each one point to go, A bids five and makes high, jack. game and pe- dro, and B makes low, A goes out because he, by reason of having made high, is entitled to count first and hav- ing made high, jack, game and pedro, made more than his bid and the point required to make him win. CRIMEAN WAR—M. and Veterans' Home, Cal. During the Crimean war. 1553-55, it is estimated that the total loss of besiegers and besieged amounted in the aggregate to 150,000 killed in ac- tion and died from wounds. It is also stated that the British lost in killed. died of wounds, of cholera and other diseases 26878, the French from the same causes, 63,500 and the Russians from all causes 90,000 —— Townsend's California Glace fruits in artistic fire-etched boxes. 715 Market st.* —_—————— Special information supplied daily to business houses and public men the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen’s). 230 Cal- ifornia street, Main 1042. *