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

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 1904. Literary Gossip of London. Special Correspondence. HEADQUARTERS OF THE CALL, RIETTA® STREET, COVENT | LLONDON, June 27.—At | bb financially many English | s were at the time of their death | ntiy becomes known to the pub- | when the annual list is pub- | the Government pensions | e on Jished of which have been granted to their fam- | flles. Except In rare cases—that of | Austin Dobson, for nstance—state | grants either to authors or their de- scendants are made only when the need for them is urgent, so it was a surprise to a good many who believed | W. E. He v, the poet, to have been fairly well off to find the name of his | widow in the list of last year's bene- | ficta from the “Civil List” Mrs. Ilenley’s pension is not large, only $625 | a year. Phil May was known to have | left practically nothing and most peo- | ple were glad to see that his wife is | receiving a pension of $375, but it was | surprising again to find Leonard sndj Alfred Gissing, the late George Gis- | sing's children, down for $370 on ac- | count of “straitemed circumstances.” No living authors were granted pen- sions by the Prime Minister during the | past year with the exception of sn| William Laird Clowes, the writer on | American and naval matters, who for | some time has been in wretched health | and almost entirely unable to work. | Richard Whiteing is not one of the | English authors who spend most of | th time and do most of their work on the Continent, but his health hasn't ' been any too good of late and he has just gone to Contrexeville to drink the | waters at that fashionable French spa. A friend tells me that one of the main | causes of Mr. Whiteing not being { quite up to the mark is the fact that | he has been working particularly hard | on the novel which he has under way. | The Athenaeum, the venerable and | dignified English literary review, is al- st as much of an institution in it way 2s the Times, and there has been | a great deal of interest in the fact that | the weekly recently reached its 4000th | number. It was founded in 1828 by a | writer named Buckingham, who finally | became member of Parliament for | Eheffield and who sold his periodical to | the grandfather of Sir Charles Dilke, | who is the present proprietor, for $250. | The Athenseum is by no means pat- ronizing or over-indulgent in its review | of new books and in the last number the editor sets forth some of his prin- ciples in the matter of literary criti- cism. He denies intentional severity, but says: “Immortality is so frequently and rashly promised to the writer of to- day that such praise has almost be- come a farce and it is necessary to re- mind readers that restraint in expres- sion does not mean disparagement, nor 2 high standard a personal grudge. We are as ready as any,” he goes on, “to welcome the new man without regard to cliques or coterjes.” The success of the moment in this country as far as romances are con- cerned is undoubtedly ‘Winston Churchill's “The Crossing.” - Fully twice as many copies were subscribed for in advance as in the case of “The Crisis,” and the new novel is being largely ordered by the trade. Of course this is chiefly due to the reputation which Mr.-Churchill has made in this country. There is no doubt, however, that the great demand for “The Cross- ing” over here is owing partly to the fact that a good many people in this country still belleve that its author is the English Winston. It is hard, as Dr. Conan Doyle may find out before long, to be both a nov- «list and a statesman. Hall Caine has managed to combine the two roles pretty comfortably hitherto, but of late he has had to slight the second. Writ- ing “The Prodigal Son” took it out of Mr. Caine so much that he had to go to the Riviera to recuperate and re- cently the correcting of his proofs has kept the author so busy that he hasn't had time to appear in the Manx Legisla- ture. His constituents have been pa- tient up to now, but they are becoming rather restive, for they say that Ram- sey, the district in Man which Mr, Caine represents, is practically disen- franchised. Some dey there will be another im- portant work relating to Sir Henry M. Stanley, but it is likely to be many years before it is published. It seems that the explorer left behind him not | M portance. Most of the matter, how- ever, is of such a character as to make it impossible that it should ap- pear in print during the lives of the persons with whom it is concerned. America got tired of English mid-. die-class fiction some time ago. Ap- parently Australia is wearying of it ly. A recent copy of the Sydney Bul- letin, which has reached me, says: | Egyptian civilization. o+ Ian Maclaren! and give us again your 1 | | rogues and thieves.” " | Miss Kate Douglas Wiggin ’Nan one of several American literary folk who attended the unveiling of the Robert | Louis Stevenson memorial by Lord | Rosebery in St. Giles Cathedral, Ed- inburgh, last week, which proved one of the most interesting literary events of the year. The memorial is, of course, the work of August St. Gau- dens, the American sculptor, and was subscribed to quite extensively in the United States. In the course of his address Lord Rosebery seid that Stev- enson’s truest memorial would be in the number of those whom the speak- er described as “the readers and almost idolaters of his works.” HAYDEN CHURCH. Great Find of Antigues, CAIRO, June 14.—Unnoticed and com- paratively unknown, there now are ly- ing at the new Museum of Antiquities | here over a hundred recently unearthed statues and statuettes, the results of one of the richest discoveries yet made | of ancient Egyptian works of art. The | specimens range from the fifth| dynasty to the Graeco-Roman period and thelr value is greatly enhanced by | the fact that they are all in an ex-| cellent state of preservation. Fresh accessions to- the collection are con- | stantly arriving. They come from Thebes, that city whose temples and monuments, even in | their ruin and desolation, reveal as| nothing else does the glories of ancient | ‘When Ptolemy | Soter I1, about 50 B. C., decreed the de- | struction of the city, the priests of the | great Temple of Amon, in their despair, | collected all their most precious works of art and buried them underground: {r. Legrain, who has for a long time been engaged in the restoration of the fallen columns of the Hypostyle Halli of Karnak, found two years ago some | fine statues lying under the Nile sand ' and mud in 2 stretch of ground about | 100 yards square which had no build- ings upon it. It was just such a spot | as the priests would have been likely to choose for concealing their treasures. | The extensive excavations begun on! this same spot in the latter half oli‘ December; 1903, seem to fully jusmy; this supposition. Since that date some- | thing like 140 statues or statuettes have been here recovered. For over 2000| years the waters of the Nile have risen over them with each recurring season, but though this has destroyed | the paint and loosened the gold leaf, | no injury has been done to the beauti- | ful carving on diorite, granite, alabas- | ter, green basalt or blue slate. Sir Wil- liam Garstin, Under Secretary of State for Public Works in, Egypt, chanced to be at Karnak when some of the best of | them were brought to light. and or-| dered their immediate removal to Cairo | lest some wily dealer, aware of their great value, might tempt the workmen | to purioin them. The work of arrang- ng and labeling these precious acquisi- | ions has been postponed until the re- turn to Egypt of Mr. Quibell, one o('; the curators of the Museum, who is| now at St. Louis looking after some | specimens of Egyptian art that were| sent to the World’s Fair. i Meanwhile, at Karnak, workmen are | making fresh discoveries daily. From | the black waters of the Nile recently | one of them fished up a beautiful statuette of Isis nursing Horus, a superb specimen of the finest eight- eenth dynasty art. Another interest- ing find was a seated statue of a scribe | of the twenty-second dynasty, carved | in alabaster and as clear as wax. On | the back of this figure is a list of | kings, which Mr. Legrain says will| clear up much that is mysterious ‘“i this period of Egyptian history. An- other unique discovery, made about the same time, was that of the orig- | inal model of the famous statue of Rameses II, now in the museum at Turin. It is half life size, exquisitely | carved in green basalt, and in perfect | condition. It is a matter of congratu- lation that all these relics of ancient Egypt, instead of being scattered far and wide, will be deposited in the museum at Cairo.. Spacious and airy and admirably arranged as the new building is, it will soon need to be en- larged if treasures continue to pour in as they have during the last twelve months. Nile tourists will be delighted with the results of Mr. Legrain's labors at Karnak. It is real restoration on which he is engaged. He has with | him an army of fellahs, who, under his direction work as the ancients did, witkhout mechanical appliances, lifting enormous blocks on inclined planes of sand. In a short period he will have | finished his task of replacing the columns of the Hypostyle Hall. Flogged England’s Primate. An amusing reminiscence of a flog- ging he once gave the Archbishop of Canterbury was recalled by the Rev. Canon Bury, rector of Harleston, at Northampton, yesterday. Commending 2 recent speech of the Primate on missionary work, he incidentally ob- gerved that he was at school with the Archbishop. Randall Davidson was one of the puplls of his (Canon Bury's) father, and he could not recall that the futire Archbishop was remarkable for anything save his inordinate impudence. Though himself con- spicuous for his exceptional for- and gave him a very severe thrashing. The future Archbishop did not take it “lying down.” On the contrary, he at once complained, and so got him into trouble, and, not content with that, he Canon Bury's father into trouble. Thus it was that their mutual remini- he would say he was profoundly convinced—that the THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor . . . . » '+ +« . Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager PUBBCRHION OMOP .5 coescesnenscsrarse sassstesssnusnesssssasssessisansesesasan s Third and Market Streets, 8. F. WEDNESDAY. i il bocs i il e, g e L T T U i od i THE SPEECH OF MR. WILLIAMS. R. WILLIAMS of MissisSippi was put forward M by the Democratic National Committee to make the keynote speech at St. Louis and answer Mr. Koot's speech made at Chicago. This duty was per- formed by Mr. Williams under circumstances somewhat unfavorable, due to lack of presence and voice, and more to lack of attention in the body he was addressing. Only once did he get from his audience a response effervescent with enthusiasm. When he denied Republi- can instrumentality in securing the gold standard, he claimed that it was established “by the dogged persist- ence and indomitable will of Grover Cleveland.” The mention of the ex-President’s name brought the first hearty, human and unrepressed expression of feeling. The same party that in 1896 had called him a thief, in terms, had accused him of fattening his estate on the misfortunes of his country, and that has since refused a place for his portrait in its national, state and county conventions, and has in every way sought to destroy his fame, mutilate his record and has even defamed his family and lied about his domestic life, stood up' and cheered and demonstrated for a considerable fraction of an hour when his name was mentioned. After this it was entirely appropriate that Mr Williams proceeded to praise McKinley, though every one who heard him knew that, were McKinley living, the Missis- sippi fire-eater would have been denouncing him. But in order to get a blow at Roosevelt he accused him of abandoning McKinley's policy “in twenty respects,” and then proceeded to praige that policy. All that may de- ceive some folk down South, but in the North, where freedom of opinion is a birthright, it will deceive no- body. S The Call said that the opening speéch of the Demo- cratic National Convention would, of necessity, be a nagging criticism of what the Republican party has done. It has had to do things. It has had charge of the Government, by controlling the executive department or Congress, for forty-four years, except during two years of Mr. Cleveland’s second administration, when the De- mocracy had Congress and the Presidency, and became responsible for the Government. Now, a party in power has to administer the Government, and of course has to do things. In the two years of Democratic control one thing only was done. Mr. Cleveland protected the pub- lic credit. He forced the repeal of the Sherman act, and he restrained his party from radical silver legisla- tion. But he did this against his party, and it repudiated and spat upon him. Mr. Williams is leader of the minority in the House, and has sat silent while the Democratic side hissed Cleveland’s name. It is amazing now that, in a keynote speech to a Democratic National Convention, the ouly public act in forty-four years claimed to the credit of the party, is one which it repudiated, execrated and de- famed! Every other act in our public history in that period has been the fruit of Republican policy. Mr. Williams addressed himself to a nagging and rather small smart criticism of that record. The most striking part of his speech is the reference to the disfranchisement of the negro in the South. He said: “Disfranchisement of a negro in Mississippi tor ignorance is a horrible thing; disfranchisement of a white man in Massachusetts or Connecticut is a part of New England education.” Mark now that sneer at New England. slavery, wheén Bob Toombs was calling all Northern men “mudsills,” and declaring that he would call the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill monument. Mr. Williams knows the difference between the edu- cational qualifications in the ballot laws in the North and those in the South. He knows that in the Southern con- stitutions the “grandfather” clause provides that no unqualified voter shall cast a ballot unless his grand- father voted. He knows that this clause is intended to unconstitutionally disfranchise the negroes, whose grandfathers were slaves, and at the same time permit the densely ignorant “mean whites” to vote, though they don’t know “B” from bullsfoot. Now, note what follows, remembering his sneer at New England and the North. Threatening that if the Republican party enforce the constitution in respect to counting disfranchised negroes in the basis of repre- sentation the South will retaliate, he said: “The mercantile class would be the first to suffer, but as they owe debts to the North and buy from the North and as nearly everything they sell is manufactured in the North, they would not be alone in their suffering.” Which means of course that if the constitution is en- forced they will repudiate the debts they owe in the North. Mr. Williams, who is from the first American State that repudiated its debts, may as well be informed that if the South is violating the constitution the North will enforce it, though his constituents ‘rob the North of every dollar they owe to its merchants and manufac- turers. After the bloviant effusion over thé South it is amus- ing that- Mr. Williams does not see the humiliation of his section that is in the admission that it is dependent on the despised North for its merchandise and manu- factures. The Southern head seems to need soaking, as Mills of Texas once advised. The Democratic posi- tion, as stated by Mr. Williams, is, “If you don’t let us violate the constitution, we won’t pay our debts.” —_— The Legislature of Louisiana has decreed that all poolrooms, the most dangerous and insidious corrupters of American youth, must close within the borders of the State. We have a similar law of our own, but no one reasonably awake in San Francisco ever would suspect it. Louisiana will probably find as we have that the gamblers are strong enough and persistent enough in pursuit of their ill-gotten gains to rise superior to laws and those chosen to enforce them. TACOMA’S SWEEPING CLAIM. asserts that it is “the home city of the North- west.” It challenges, by means of an array of figures, the cities of Portland, Seattle and Spokane to contest this claim. To be the city of homes is surely something very desirable. A stable population is there- by insured and a high degree of civic pride, relatively, ought to result from stability. There is little doubt that the cities of the Northwest will at once take up the con- troversy that is thus opened and the outcome will. be that the attentive observer will learn much that will in- fluence him in the choice of a home if he has any desire to locate in the Northwest. From this point of view there is a business interest concerned that will lend keenness and piquancy to the men who shall take up the THE city of Tacoma, through the Tacoma Ledger, It reminds one of the piping times of cudgels to prove that the “homeland” is theirs and not Tacoma’s. - That there may be no misunderstanding relative to the exact significance of Tacoma’s averment, a few statis- tics are supplied from the columns of the Ledger. In the returns of the last United States census, as the figures are construed from the Tacoma aspect, 84.8 per cent of Tacoma’s total population was found to be in private families; Spokane was second in this respect, having in families 80.7 per cent, while Portland had 75.1 per cent and Seattle but 67.9 per cent. The average size of the families in Tacoma, Portland and Seattle was 4.2 persons. Spokane, so the figures would seem to ngove, had but 3.9 persons to a family on the average. By the same census, according to the same analyst of statis- tics, the school attendance at Tacoma amounted to 18 per cent of the total population, at Seattle to 12.6 per cent, at Spokane 16.6 per. cent, and at Portland 14.7 per cent. 5 Since the United States censiis figures were made up Tacoma has had a new source of information about its own population, the facts being supplied by a just-issued city directory. This contains the names of 26962 in- dividuals, excluding all names of firms, corporations, streets, buildings and the like, which appear in the list. Married women and children are not named in the direc- tory. The multiple applied at Tacoma to find from the directory the actual population is 274. This makes the present population of Tacoma 67,405. The same multi- ple is employed by directory makers in rating the other northwestern cities. Reiterating that Tacoma is the home city, the Ledger asserts that Tacoma had, at the last census, the small- est population of male residents of full age to the total population, and the largest ratio of married women and children of any northwestern community. In fact, the males twenty-one years and more old in Tacoma were but 37.1 per cent of the total population, leaving nearly two-thirds to be classed as legal infants. the males 21 years and more old were 42.2 per cent, at Seattle 48.0, at Spokane 40.6 per cent. 1f Tacoma can make good its statement that it is now the “home city” among its compeers, it will appear from the statistics of relative juvenility that it has good rea- son to expect a continuation of its ascendency in this particular, for young people are naturally the most numerous home builder: A few days since a woman of this city, driven to the last extremity of desperate illness, pleaded vagrancy that she might be sentenced to the County Jail and there receive ministration that had been denied to her in the City and County Hospital. The unfortunate’s request for imprisonment was granted by a Police Judge and the people of San Francisco must accept her as a humiliating object lesson of the inability of the municipality to per- form one of the primary duties of its organization. A dreds of applicants for positions as teachers in the public schools in that city are engaged in a frantic struggle either to put on flesh or to work it off so as to fit themselves for a beauty test. The report goes on to say: “A rule of the Board of Education that applicants shall satisfy the medical examiners that they are of ‘proper size, height and weight’ and the announce- ment that candidates will be graded according to their prhysical development has led to the tissue building struggle.” It appears the trouble originated in a report from the BEAUTY AND BRAINS. RECENT report from Chicago says that hun- “Child Study Laboratory” that experimental investiga- | tion and research have demonstrated that mentality and physical beauty are closely related; or as one of the au- thorities puts it: “The healthy person develops symmetri- cally. Beauty and brains go together. In the test speci- mens it is found that a fine mind generally goes with a well-proportioned body.” At the time the rule was announced there were upward | of 650 young women enrolled as applicants for academic examination. Naturally enough the springing of the rule caused a flutter and a splutter. Some of the applicants are said to be “scrawny” and others are said to be “fat,” and as they have but little time to fit themselves for the test of comeliness, they have one and all had to | get to work vigorously, one class eating patent breakfast foods’ and the other doing overtime in massage rooms and sweat baths. Out of the ‘agitated and agitating discussion resulting from the new rule we learn that up to this time the Chi- cago Board of Education Ras had to accept teachers of a low grade of beauty because there were not enough beautiful ones te fill all vacancies. With the present large numbers of applicants, however, it is believed the board can fill the schools with teachers not one of whom will fall below the second of the three grades of physical perfection into which they are to be classified. It is quite probable the rule will work some benefit for Chi- cago and that in the course of a few years the higher beauty grade of school teachers in that eity may ap- proximate the average standard of teachers in San Fran- cisco, and if so the enterprising authorities of the Child Study Laboratory will deserve a vote of thanks from the community. ——— The emissary of Uncle Sam to Abyssinia carried rrith him on his mission of peace and good will a treaty of commerce and two small rapid-fire guns. It is well perhaps to teach the untutored black man that trade and war make their progress to success hand in hand. Either without the other must fail. Wé show wuncon- ventional candor in admitting this startling fact of twentieth centary civilization to our new found friend of Africa. He will be able to understand our actions later on. ) A Coroner’s jury, rising in its wisdom to the considera- tion of a prob important to the community, has de- cided that no one was to blame for the horrifying death of an aged, paralytic patient who was recently trampled to death by a lunatic inmate of the City and County Hospital= If the logic of this jury would not permit of censure the marvel is why somebody was not com- mended for the tragedy. Surely serious blame must attach to some one for such an incident in a public in- stitution. A war has been declared in London upon the tea ’ei‘arette._: Mnluly refined and dangerous .dissipa- tion that fashionable women of the great metropolis have discovered and adopted. While the evil was confined to its discoverers and patronesses no great harm was being done, but now its publication offers a temptation to worthy women whose lives have capacities for greater At Portland | % Valuable Indian Ancestry. A romance that has come down through several centuries has recently developed as the result of the Dawes | Commission awarding allotments of valuable land to two St. Louis young women, the Misses Jessie Mae and Blanche Hall. It was necessary in the cases of the Misses Hall to trace their ancestry un- mistakably to an Indian parent. The romance that has developed began when their great-great-grandfather came to America as a French voyageur. Thomas Condray was a member of a wealthy, aristocratic French family. | His health failed early in life and the | trip to America was advised by physi- cians and finally agreed to by the “lnrmed parents. He came with the | view of returning to France after a few months, but a beautiful Cherokee maid- en interrupted his plans. He paid court to her, married and ever afterward lived in America with his Indian wife jand children. Through Florida he had drifted into Georgla, and there met the Cherokee girl, whose blood still courses sufficiently in the veins of these two i St. Louis young women to entitle them to equal rights with the full-blood tribesmen of to-day. The ancestry was traced directly by the Dawes Commission, and upon their investigation of the alleged rights of the Misses Hall was established thelr title to the land. They have 600 acres of as valuable land as is included in the domain of the five tribes. The young women are but one-sixteenth Indian blood.—St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Mission Medical Work. | During the ninety-four years of its iexlalence the American Board has com- | missioned 137 physicians;” thirty-eight | of these physicians were ordained men, | and twenty of them were women. At the present time fifteen of our twenty missions have one or more physicians on their staff, numbering in all forty, of whom twelve are also ordained men | | and twelve are women. By the latest ! enumeration there were connected with | these several missions of the board forty-two dispensaries and twenty-nine hospitals, as follows: In Turkey, eight dispensaries, six hospitals; in India and | Ceylon, sixteen dispensaries and eleven { hospitals; in China, tgn dispensaries and eight hospitals; in Africa, seven dispensaries and three hospitals, and in Japan, one dispensary and a mission- ! ary physician in one hospital. By the [ 1ast report there were a little over 250,- | 000 patients treated the previous year in these various instituions. This med- ical work is perhaps more nearly self- supporting than any branch of the mis- sionary enterprise. For although the poor are treated in multitudes of cases without any charge, yet in other cases those who are able to make payment either in the form of a fee, or of a gift out of gratitude for the good they have received. Many of these hospitals are entirely self-supporting, and some of them, like the one in Madura City, have been furnished with good build- ings by the free offerings of natives, jonly a few of whom have as yet pro- i!es!ed the Christian faith. The total | cost of this medical branch of the mis- | sionary service to the American Board, aside from the salaries of the American physicians who are In charge, has been not far from $12,000 a year.—American | Medicine. The Norsk Philesopher. Vat for should dis spirit of mortal ban roud? Man valk round a minute and talk purty oud. | Den doctor skol coming and say, “Ay can't save.” | And man have to tak running yump into grave. | To-day dis har mortal swelling around; His head ban so light that his feet ant | touch_ground; | To-morrow he light with his face in the T T SUCUSREROR in a position where it is exposed to the sun's rays for a while, and thén remove it to a dark room. If the dia- mond is genuine it will glow in the darkness with a distinct phosphor- escence, but if it is imitation it will have no phosphorescent qualities whateyer — will look in the darkness Jjust like a piece of glass. “The third test is undoubtedly the best of the three. A diamond has only single refraction; that Is, it gives but a single image of any object viewed through it. When the diamond is held before a candle or bright light but the one light will be visible to the eye through its substance. An imitation diamond, no matter how cunningly it has been contrived, will give a myraid of images, just like a plece of cut glass.,”"—Washington Star. ‘A Woman's Time Schedule. An article published yesterday In this column under the title “Wants a Woman's Schedule,” has led one of the leading educators of the city to ad- dress to the railroad company the fol- lowing letter: “United Railroads of San Francisco: Gentlemen: Inclosed herewith is a clipping from to-day’'s Call, picturing the woes of a Castro-street car con- ductor and pleading for a woman's time schedule. A ‘woman’s time sched- ule’ is a timely topic for your company to consider. You claim that you run on Market street during the hour from 5 to 6 all the cars the tracks will ae- commodate. How about the hour from 4 to 5, when the cars are crowded with women coming home from shopping? During that interval you do not run as many cars as you run from 3 to 6. Even if you cannot take care of the traffic from 5 to 6, why not relieve the conges- tion from 4 to 5? The same query ap- plies to Sundays and to certain hours of the evening—say 10 to 11 “And the road-bed. It is torture to ride on a Castro-street ear between Va- lencia street and Seventeenth, on ac- count of the bumping at every joint of the rails. It has been so for a long time. What hope for improvement does your company hold out to its pa- trons In that neighborhood? “You go to the trouble and expense of publishing a paper for distribution on the cars, in order to reach the eyes and ears of your patrons. Why not try to reach their hearts? Good service is all that will acquire their good will.” Anstvers to Queries. GOLDENSON — Subseriber, City. Alexander Goldenson shot and killed Mamie Kelly November 10, 138; was found guilty March 28, 1387, and was hanged September 14, 1833, AGE OF BIRDS—Subscriber, City. It is the opinion of writers qn bird life that the swan, the ravsn, the crow and the eagle attain the age of 100 years, and that parrots live to the age of 63. ARROWROOT—Subscriber, City. Ar- rowroot, the name of a plant from which is produced an article of com- merce of that name, grows in the West sand, | And h:stl@ lak hal to get gude helping a Ay see lots of fallers who tenk dey ban vise; | Yu see dem yurself ef yu open yure eyes; - Dey tal 'bout the gold dey skol making some day, | And yump ven the vashvoman come for her pay. 1‘ Dese har millionaires who give libraries vay, Ay tenk dey skol get yolly bump some fine day. gude And maybe dey look for frend, ay tenk, To tak dem round corner and buy little drenk. some Ay tal you. dear frends, purty sune ve ban dead, So ay tenk ve ben suckers for getting swelled head. It ant wery far from Prince Albert to shroud; Vat for should dis spirit of mortal be proud? —Milwaukee Sentinel. Best Tests for Diamonds. “This {s an age of imitations, particu- larly of gems, and the amount of imi- tation precious stones on the market is enormous,” I am told by W. A. Gill, the Well-known jeweler, “and the as- sertion is continually made by dealers in these commodities that it would re- quire the services of an expert to de- termine the real from the false. With regard to diamonds, the belief is gen- eral that this is entirely true, but never did the general public entertain a greater error. “There are certain simple tests to which any one may submit a stone alleged to be a genuine diamond and determine almost instantly the truth or falsity of the claim made for it. A real diamond will not be acted on by acids or alkalis in the least, and may be placed in a liquid containing these substances without injury to it. There are other simpler and easier tests, however, which require nothing in the way of testing materials that a person cannot find in any household without the need of a visit to the These, too, are practically infallible, for I have never heard of an imitation that would answer fully to them. “In the first just take a small piece of silk and rub the alleged diamond vigorously for a moment, and it will acquire a sufficient amount of positive electricity to attract bits of wool, cot- ton or paper, exactly as a magnet will attract particles of metal. “In the second test place the diamond Indies, and was considered as a specific for wounds caused by poisoned arrows, hence its name. MILITARY TRACT—A. M., City. The tract of land in San Luls Obispo County which the War Department may acquire for military pyrposes and known as the Henry ranch contains 22,265 acres. It is situated seven miles from the ocean and lies between Tem- pleton and Santa Margarita. HOLIDAYS—J. B., Alameda, Cal There are no national hollidays in the United States. Congress has never de- clared any day a national holiday. It has, however, declared Labor day & legal holiday in the District of Colum~ bia only. It has on different occastenw appointed special holidays. SETTING ON FIRE—A. S, Wrights Station, Cal. In the ordinary accepta- tion of the phrase “To set the Thames on fire” means “to cut a figure in the world” or “to become distinguished for ability.” It is sometimes used as a term of derision. The origin of the phrase is probably from a corruption of the old English word temse, a sieve or bolter— the suggestion being that a very dili- gent and energetic workman might, by his rapid work overheat the wood Wl of the bolter and so set it on fire. To “get the temse on fire” to the modern phrase “to set the Thames on fire” was an easy transition. THE EYE STONE—Subscriber, City. What is known as the eye stome is taken from a species of small shell fish found principally on the South Ameri- coast. It is the mouthpiece or front door, so to speak, of the shell and is shaped with a convex surface on one and is flat on the other Humboldt, great traveler, found this little stone wused by the South Americans to remove foreign sub- stances from the eye. It s still col- lected and exported for that purpose. ‘When put under the lid of the eye the stone is moved by the motion of the eyeball and little particles which It touches adhere to it and may be re- moved with it. e —— i ee——— Townsend's California Glace fruits in artistic fire-otched boxes. 715 Market st.* ———————e business h’:‘u:’:‘“ S s o the th 1 - and public men ° 's). Cal-