The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 15, 1904, Page 8

T HE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, JULY 1 190. eWORLD | < | * i 1 ) ! -— ® Mariborough Is a Bad Hustler. LONDON, June 28.—Supposedly a his American wife's suggestion, the lit- tie Duke of Marlborough started in to be a rea tler ot long ago, but his effort has had rather an unhappy end- ing. It hasn't been entirely wasted, however, for it has shown over again what ¥ lucky methods obtain in the ernment service and wha pposition is likely to be any one who, like the ¥ »mptg to introduce something ney ugh's effort to stir up things ade when his Grace receiv- intment of Under Secretary the Colonies. Soon after taking hold of the reins he introduced into his department what both the per- manent officials and underlings there consid: d evolutionary departures. clock until 4 were the b by w Fro that th end of t Under Secretary ins 4 should be made 5 in future, er he found that the work e was getting behind he had osted up to the effect that nen had caught up they must their desks at 9 every morning. ¢ Duke set the example. But ir eyes of the staff this policy was simply a demand for a duty without extra pay der Secretary’s department 'e a hotbed of disaffection clerks asked to be trans- and most of the rest ed to strike. Sorest of all were called “permanent officials These elderly fossils, who previo had been in the habit of getting down &t 11 o'clock in the morning, felt that the Duke had done each of them a per-| ronal injury in introducing what they described as his “arbitrary methods.”* Before long a deputation representing the office staff waited upon the Duke to ask if the good old easy times couldn’t come back again, but the Duke declared he meant to carry out the work of his department in his own way, as he beifeved it to be to the pub- lic interest. The next move was a reg- ular conspiracy on the part of the staff 1o set about their duties in a go-as- you-pl > sort of fashion, with the re- sult that the work soon got into a sim- ply chaotic state. Undoubtedly the Duke would have seen the thing through had he met with any support from his own supe- riors, but the contrary was the case. I inderstand that it was suggested to im * 7 his chief in office that he had done so. In fact, it is said the Duke going on the other tack and at- tempting to conciliate the permanent | officlals of his department by inviting | them to Blenheim for “week ends” and “Bertie” Croker, the ex-boss’s eldest gon, Inherits his father's great physi- cal strength and is one of the most enthusiastic members of the Gaelic Athletic Asscociation of London, which recently got itself into bad odor by refusing soldiers wearing the King's uniform admission o its games. Tug- of-war is one of young Croker's favor- fte pastimes and, on account of his great strength, be generally fills the position at the end of the rope. 1 fancy «¢hat “Bertie” Croker is too much occupied with looking after his bulidogs, running his father's dairy farm and playing the man about town to spend much time in considering the wrongs of Ireland, 8o it isn’t likely that his membership in the Gaelic Athietic Association indicates any feeling “agin the Government” on his part. The members generally, however—all young Irishmen—are rather rabid on the sub- Ject and this in spite of the fact that most of them are in the English civil service. They are employed mainly in the Custom-house--outside of which they do a great deal of practicing in the way of athletics. Young Croker, of course, has nothing to do with the civil service, but comes down to take part in the tugs-of-war. It is one of the rules of the Gaelic Athletic Association that no British soldier in uniform shall be admitted 1o ite exhibition, but it seems to have been enforced the other day for the first time, with the result that the or- ganization has been sharply criticized by the English press. When she was Princess of Wales, Queen Alexandra was comparatively free with her autograph. As first lady in the land, however, she has aban- doned this liberality, and it now re- quires much irfluence to get her to sign her name. In this direction Queen Alex- andra is following in the footsteps of Queen Victoria, who during the last twenty-five vears of her life signed autogrgph books only about half a Gozen times. At the recent Victoria Hospital ba- zaar quite a number of American wom- en present were anxious to obtain the Queen's autograph, but Mrs. Henry Sie. gel turned cut to be the oniy fortunate one. Her application was supported by three of the Queen’'s most intimate friends, namely, the Duchess of Mari- borough, Mrs. Ronalds and Mrs. Arthur Paget. Much astonishment is expressed at the success of Mrs. Siegel, consider- ing that she is but a newcomer on the scene of English fashionable society. Mrs. Frank Mackey, who is also shin- ing in society now, was in the running for an autograph, teo, but her backing was not strong enough, although she had the support of the Dowager Duchess of Roxburghe and Mrs. Willie ter knuckle under and he now has| them up the river in his steam | James, the latter of whom is one of | the Queen’s particular cronies. It is| pretty certain that Mrs. Siegel will en- joy the distinction of being the only American lady who will carry her M i jesty's autograph back to the United States this season. Apropos of her| Majesty's autograph, she insists upen writing it diagonally acrcss the page, 80 as to preclude the possibility of any other name appearing on that parlicu- lar page. Queen Victoria adopted the same method during her iater years. HAYDEN CHURCH. Asian War Hard on Horses. If the war is rough on men it is rougher still on horses, if the ghastiy | stories which slowly reach St. Peters-| burg from Mukden, Kharbin and the| Baikal are worthy of credence. And | ‘as they appear in the local press, which { |is subject to Government censorshin| t+there are no good grounds for doubting [them. In the Baikal the lot of the| | wretched horse was and is peculiarly | doleful. Owing to the vast number of | | them required to draw the tralns over ! the ice of the Baikal Lake, and to con- | vey sleighs full of soldiers and cars {laden with war material, the prices| of hay and oats rose by leaps and| bounds. It soon_ became unprofitabie | for the owner of one of three over-| worked quadrupeds to invest any money | in fodder, and lucrative to let the ani-| mals work on almost unceasingly with nothing but cold water to keep up their strength until at last the horse dropped down dead from exhaustion. The rea- son is, writes the Eastern Review, that the prices for the labor of horses are) abnormally great—so great that they enable the owner to purchase a new one and to lay by a large percentage | for himself. The heartlessness of these | | men is described as revolting. Ema-‘: ated with hunger and jaded with ex- hausting, almost uninterrupted work, | many of these miserable horses were abandoned to their fate before they \actually fell dead in harness. Hardly able to put one foot before the other, | | they wandered aimlessly over the| | Baikal ice, vainly seeking for grass or| other fodder, and “at the sight of hu- man beings neighing piteously.”—Lon- don Telegraph. Bell as a London Sign. | The English are a music loving na- itiun, and they love to hear music even when going about their daily occupa- tions, and so it is that the spires and | towers of their mighty cathedrals are | | hung full of glorious bells. So fond of | bell ringing is “Merrie England” that Handel once said the bell is her na- tional instrument. It is not strange, | therefore, that we find this instrument frequently adopted as a public sign. | From early in the seventeenth century ]Bell Inns were numerous in London. In | Knightrider street there was an old inn, the walls of which were prefaced | with a giant bell carved in bold relief, | the keystone had the initials “M. T. A.” and the date 1668. This fine speci- men is now in Guildhall. But a little step away, in Carter lane, there was another Bell Inn, which has the proud distinction of being the hostelry from | which Richard Quyney wrote, in 1588, to his “loving good ffrend and coun- treyman, Mr. Wilm Shakespeare,” the | only letter addressed to the Bard of Avon now known to exist. The letter is preserved in Stratford, the home of | the world's greatest poet. Not far | | away, again, there is a modern bell | tavern, a place where it is said Dickens {loved to go when making notes for | “David Copperfield.” One of the most ancient and reputa- ble wholesale druggists in the city, while rebuilding on his old site, dug out of the foundations of the ancient house an old sign of “The Bell and Dragon.” It had lain there for more than 200 vears, having been used on a prior building before the disasters of the great fire, and had fallen through into the general ruins. The peculiarity of the situation is that the firm had adopted “The Bell Dragon™ for their trademark before the discovery of the fire-touched relic. This splendid old stone bas-relief is jealously preserved, and occuples a prominent place in the entrance of the Holborn branch of the firm.—St. Nicholas. “Sealed Pesos.” Every one knows that Mexican silver dollars circulate in the Far East, espe- | cially in China. But it seems the Mexi- ] can minting is not enough of a certifi- 1 i | | cate of character. A peso that has long | j been in circulation in China is covered with Chinese characters. The bankers, of whom there are hundreds in China, who receive Mexican dollars afiix to them their seals to guarantee their legitimacy, and as pesos circulate and go from one bank to another they are being marked bv all banks which re- ceive them. In case the peso proves to be illegal the banker who sealed it last | has to change it for good money and withdraw it from circulation. When the pesos are completely covered with seals they are sent back to Mexico to be re- coined, the expense being paid by all the bankers whose seals are seen on the | coin. It is in accordance with a recent agreement. But it often happens that dollars, although marked all over their two faces, continue In circulation and are highly esteemed, as the seals are s0 many guarantees that they are gen- uine. The decision to seal pesos was taken because illegal coins began to cir- culate in China. A London “Bobby’s” Memory. The best memory has its moments of bewilderment or aberration; and the other day a policeman at the Guildhall Irish Exhibition, London, had his sus- picions retrospectively aroused, he hardly knew how, as he stood before| the first picture on the line. It was the wholly innocent face of a lady, a lady, too, who is a favorite with all the innocence of England, that loves stories free from cruelty or any such stain. The portrait was “No. 1” in the cata- logue, and it represented Miss Kath- @rine Tynan. The city policeman was baflled in presence of his vague uncom- fortableness. Then he remembered. | He was back again in the days -of dynamite, when another “No. 1” was a terror—and bore, too, the name of Ty- nan, | JOHN D. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL SP’RF.(}ELSK Propeietor > o s o giv o es s Address All Commanications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manage: Publication Office ....... .Third and Market Streets, S. F. NOT REORGANIZED. PRIDAY . i i FTER all the political hullabaloo of the last four A years the Democratic party is not reorganized. It is in the hands of the same men who led itinto the wilderness in 1896. A bunch of millionaires—Ben Cable of the Rock Island Railroad family, August Bel- mont of the trusts, and Henry G. Davis, coal magnate— have succeeded in nominating a colorless and conserva- | tive gentleman, of fine character, for the Presidency, but the lost party has not changed nor abjured a single heresy that it wore through the two campaigns. Parker is the candidate, but Bryan is more powerful than he. When he dared the committee on resolutions to put a gold standard plank in the platform, it did not dare. When the New York World nagged Judge Par- ker into a sense of the situation, and he wired that he was a supporter of the gold standard and would not run if“the convention did not wish him, the leaders had hot conference. And who were they? John Daniel of Vir- ginia, Tillman of South Carolina, Vardaman and Wil- liams of Mississippi, Carmack of Tennessee, and Champ Clark of Missouri. They decided what should be done | in the matter. While the committee on resolutions was discussing the platform, David B. Hill was asked if Judge Parker favored the gold standard and he answered: “No one knows; no one has ever heard him express an opinion on that subject.” Hill was the manager of Parker’s fight; he is Parker’s most intimate friend, and gave him his first appointment to office, and yet he declared that he did not know his friend’s position on the gold standard, and that no one knew. When the New York World had compelled Judge Parker to send the declaratory tele- gram, and the group of leaders, all from the South, ap- peared before the convention, Mr. John Sharp Williams was selected as a common mouthpiece to introduce the subject, and said: “There was not in this vast assem- blage one single man who did not already know that Judge Parker was a gold standard man.” Yet David B. Hill was there, and the one interrogation that ran like a fugue through the convention related to Judge Parker’s position on the standard, and no one knew. For months before the convention the demand rose from the party everywhere that his position be made known, but was unanswered. Then when the commit- tee on platform and the Southern leaders had inventgd | the convenient fiction that the monetary standard was not in issue and therefore need not be referred to, Judge Parker proved that it is in issue by his declaratory and defiant telegram. His approval of the Republican policy of a gold standard put his party in a humiliat- ing if not contemptible position. Did he keep silence on that question so long by advice of Dawid B. Hill? Was it not known that if he declared for gold before the nomination his selection would be impossible? Was not the platform omission a trick to quiet the silver men, get control of the convention, nominate Parker and then spring the trap when it was too late to go back? It has every mark of a trick—an expert, fony @nd scientific trick such as Mr. Hill is in the habit of | playing. To make it possible he told the platform com- mittee that no one knew Judge Parker’s views on the standard, and that they had never been uttered. This permitted the play which was intended to bring out the supersensitive honor of the Sphinx of Esopus, and the Southern jury that sat upon the situation all walked over on that single thread stretched by the Wizard of Wolfert’s Roost. The convention was a silver convention; every South- ern leader that slobbered about Judge Parker’s super- sensitive honor is a silver man. The party was not re- organized. It was jobbed in a masterly way by Hill, Cable, Belmont and Davis. It is a radical body with a conservative head. The convention bit its thumbs and obeyed orders, but nine-tenths of the delegates went away cursing the man it nominated. The ticket is a composite. It has a judicial head and a trust tail, for ex-Senator Davis has increased his fortune by syndi- cating coal mines and iron mines, and the roots of his millions run to intertwine with the interests of every combination in the country. That is why he is nomi- nated. According to the platform the head of the ticket is expected to bite the tail, and we have introduced into politics that amusing spectacle often furnished by a puppy when he discovers his tail and goes chasing it. The head of the ticket is expected to be conservative and respectable, while the tail, ordered by Belmont and Cable, will see that the trusts which want Roosevelt’s head put up the wherewithal to make a campaign. But above the jingle of the coin is the conviction of every honest man that Judge Parker’s character has suf- fered an injury by his post-nomination declaration. Had he made a sign six weeks ago he would not have been considered in the convention. After his nomination his declaration was equivalent to a demand that the party take him or commit suicide, as it would have done by dropping him, as he deserved, and trying to find a new man. Redding peace officers have been much disturbed to solve a perplexing problem presented in the surrender of a self-confessed burglar who cannot be convicted but who is too dangerous to be set at liberty. Why not trap him into the commission of a new offense, and, dis- guising the motive, send him where he belongs to join the band of incotrigibles in a penitentiary? Witl way and arrives in this city or, inbued with an exploring turn of mind, announces its arrival here by presenting a bill of a size to make a tailor despair, its succulent San Francisco victim smashes desperately at the culex pipiens in a strenuous endeavor to make its Yrief life briefer. The San Franciscan recks not that his wild and fruitless swing into space simply serves to nag his uninvited guest to more spirited efforts to eat him and perhaps tends to locate its lumpy work in a spot less desirable than that first provided for in the specifications. - Instead of waxing wroth at being served raw through the business end of the culex, let him give thanks that his guest didn’t bring along its whole Simuliidae family, from the little toddling culexes up to the old bald-headed vampires and gallinippers with their trunks and suit cases, to spend a summer outing on,him like they dd® back East. The Baltimore Herald of June 30 prints the following warning to its inhabitants: “The latest news is that a vast army of mosquitoes is advancing on the city from the south, and already the easy-going fishermen and idlers on Light-street bridge have been routed. The cool BALTIMORE MOSQUITOES. HEN an occasional migratory mosquito loses weather will probably delay the attack on the city for a few days, but the horde is surely coming, and the health department and owners of coal oil cans must pre- pare for the worst. There is no stagnant water at Light- street bridge, so that the army has sprung from the swamps farther back in the country. In the burnt dis- trict there is stagnant water in many of the lots, and when the swarm reaches that section the July sun will contribute sO strongly toward multiplication that it is suggested the new cork hats the police; are to wear be made extra thick to protect all of the bald-headed force.” That the suggestion proposed for the comfort of the police will be welcomed here as well as in Baltimore is evidenced by the popular indignation at the attempt made the other day to awaken the Oakland force by shooting a Spanish cannon at them. Among the many difficult duties the police have to perform, the feat of sleeping on foot is one of the most uncomfortable, and at such a time they should not be disturbed by mos- quitoes, burglars or anything else. ; The Herald finishes its article by suggesting that the school children be engaged at twenty-five cents a head a week to top-dress with coal oil all the Baltimore pools of stagnant water to lessen the suffering anticipated from the bites of the unwelcome visitors. When Judge Parker learned the conditions upon which his candidacy is to be supported by William Jen- nings Bryan how earnestly he must have exclaimed, “God save me from my friends.” Bryan's indorsement of the Democratic leader cannot even by a stretch of sympathetic courtesy be included in that category which damns with faint praise T a committee to find out how California wheat can be so improved in its percentage of gluten as to insure to itself exclusively the home market afforded by flour mills, of this State. The fact is announced that it is necessary to import to California from South Dakota and Kansas large quantities of their wheat to mix with California grain in the manufacture of strong flour for the Oriental trade. By strong flour is meant that which has sufficient gluten. Not all wheat produced in this State is deficient in this constituent, but enough is lacking in it to make wheat importation unavoidable as the matter now stands. There are vast areas in California that are ca- pable of producing wheat in large quantities. The soil is adequate to the growing of strong wheat. The dif- ficulty would seem to be, in large part, as represented by Horace Davis, who was called in to advise with the State Board of Trade, that the farmers are not using the proper seed to raise the right sort of wheat for milling purposes. The interest of the Agricultural College connected with the University of California has been enlisted in the inquiry that is now about to be made by the com- mittee of the State Board of Trade. The personnel of the comniittee includes the president and general man- ager of the State Board of Trade, Professor Shaw of the University of California, Horace Davis and T. C. Fried- lander, the last named being the secretary of the Mer- chants’ Exchange, which is largely concerned in the fu- ture of California wheat. In a preamble that the Board of/Trade has adopted it is set forth that wheat is brought from Dakota and Kan- sas to be mixed with the California product to raise the grade of flour manufactured in California; that Cali- fornia flour for export to the Orient would bring a higher price if it contained a larger percentage of gluten than can now be obtained from California grown wheat; and that if California farmers would maintain their position in competition with wheat grown in any other State it is important that the quality of their product be made as high as possible. There are few topics of more live interest at home than this. From the inquiry good effects reasonably may be expected. In some sections, so it is said, the quality of the’ wheat can be easily raised by fertilizers. The wheat of former years in California had more gluten, as a whole, beeause it was of other stock. Club wheat, so called, does not fill all the requirements, although it is popular among farmers for various reasons, one of which is that it is less easily whipped out by high winds than other varieties are. Horace Davis informs the State Board of Trade that there is not enough new seed brought in to keep up the gluten. The tendency of wheat is to run down in gluten and to get a growing percentage of starch. lfursued to its logical end the present inquiry ought to throw on the subject of wheat-growing in California a flood of scientific knowledge, based on experience, which will in the long run be of value to all wheat- growers. As soon as accurate information is reached as to the exact requirements there will be little difficulty in providing what is needed. The fact that gluten was not formerly lacking and that it was sufficiently abun- dant for nearly half a century of farming in California conclusively prove that some methods and not the con- ditions are at fault. The sooner the remedy is applied the better for the State at large. The State Board of Trade is doing good service in coming to the front in this matter. IMPROVEMENT OF WHEAT. HE California State Board of Trade has appointed China has announced her purpose, after a rapid but thorough inquiry, that she will pay the twenty-five thou- sand dollars demanded as indemnity for the murder of | Louis Etzel, the American newspaper correspondent. This disposition on the part of oriental authorities is healthful and encouraging. It is a sign of the times that perhaps the raid of the allies upon Peking was not altogether in vain in bringing to Mongol notice an em- phatic purpose to protect or avenge American lives. AR The Socialist parfy has placed its nominees for Presi- dent and Vice President in the field, and far from New York comes the feeble voice of the campaigners. It is well, to note the fact as an incident of current political history, as we probably will not hear again of either the party or its nominees. The roar of living issues is too great in American politics to distinguish the whisperings of theorists. Six boy burglars, equipped with three quarts of whisky and an alarm clock, were captured the other day in Oakland and they now await the dire vengeance of the law. A combination of bad boy and worse whisky, to say nothing of an alarm clock, certainly should be enough to awaken even Oakland to an indignant sense that something was doing within the geaceful" limits of her authority, Can’t Fool Heacock. United States Commissioner Heacock of the Northern District of California enjoys the distinction of being the best judge of Chinese liars in the United States. He has had before him thou- sands of Chinese who had been refused admission by the Chinese Bureau and |who had taken out writs of habeas corpus, alleging that they were born in the United States. The witnesses and the applicant have the same story to tell. All the witnesses remember plainly that Ah Jim, the petitioner, was born at 721 Dupont street, in room 27, second floor, at five minutes after noon on the sixth day of the seventh month of the fifteenth year of Kwang Suey. They remember when he was taken to China by his parents and they remember seeing him in his uncie's house in the village of Sam Suey on the occasion of his uncle's weddfng. On all such hearings the Commis- sioner allows only the witness on the stand to be in the room. Everything goes on smoothly until Judge Heacock takes up the cross-examination. He requires the witness to draw a diagram of the uncle’s house, showing the loca- tion of the several rooms. Then he asks whether the house stands on a hill or on the level, the number of guests present at the wedding and oth- er details about which the witnesses are not likely to be coached. Then the adaptability of the coolie temperament for perjury becomes apparent. In one case some of the witnesses swore that the house stood on a hill, some on the level ground, some in a swamp, others around the corner and any old place; that the house contained four rooms, six rooms, seven rooms; that there were ten, twenty, forty and fifty guests, etc. In the face of so many contradictions the Judge decides that the witnesses are liars and that the ap- plicant is not a native son of the Unit- ed States and must be sent back to China. Item of Interest to Carnegie. “In an old book of Scottish ballads,” sald an antiquary of Chicago, “I found the other day a song that would inter- est Mr. Carnegie. The song is called —— 'The Garland,” and it begins: 8ir Carnegie's gane owre the sea, And’'s plowing thro’' the main, And now must make a lang voyage The red gold for to gain. “The ballad, which is 200 or 300 years old, describes pretty well Mr. Carne- gie's life. It is the story of a well- born Scottish lad who goes abroad to make his fortune, and who succeeds beyond his utmost hopes. He marries the lady whom he loves, and his wealth and generosity make him in his old age a hero among the people. It is Mr. Carnegie's life, you see, all over, and it is especially his life in the two middle stanzas, which run: Sir_Carnegie has gained the gold He gaed sae far to seek; It haspa made him hard o’ heart; He still is kind and meek. And muckle gold the gude man has, But more he gi'es awa'. To this and that, to right and left He gi'es his gold to a'. “The writer of this ballad of Sir Carnegie,” saldthe antiquary, “was no less a prophet than a poet."—Ex- change, ‘A4 Fault of Commission. [“The odious practice of toutin; orders in socity shows no decrease. young girls increase their by ‘recommending’ certain friends."—Evening Paper.] for ven cket-money rms to their Though tactfully reluctant to employ the word “affection” About her present feeling for the wri- ter of the rhyme, Undoubtedly Amanda shows a certain predilection ‘Which rather makes him fancy that the rest may come in time, I'm bound to add, however—and it near- “ 1y drives me frantic— Whenever 1 attempt to give my aspi- ration wings, And make my conversation sentimental or romantic, She will insist on talking of the most prosaic things! I spoke of lyric poetry; my words were not at all meant To bear upon the topic which she strove to introduce— The plain advisability of buying (by in- stallment) A “‘Helicon'—the typewriter for every poet’s use”! “The fire of my emotion"—as I still sub- mit, with deference— Is not the sort of phrase which leaves you doubtful what it means; At any rate, it need not have elicited a reference To Somebody's abominable “Putitout” machines! Already I begin to feel 3 trifle apprehen- sive; 'To be with her is pleasant, but I really wonder why She always talks of bargains—which are far from inexpensive, ‘Which—here's the dreadful part of it! —she wishes me to buy. She begs me, and of course I yield; she smiles—it's pleasant, ver;; know, a To gain her smile is worth, lot of sacrifice; But why should it assume the form of writing off for sherry— A rather common sherry, at a most uncommon price? Perplexed why dear Amanda should be bent on my undoing, I come across this paragraph—and do not like its sound! ‘Well, either I must manage to accelerate my 'Oflhll‘ ) Or pay a final dividend of Pthe ‘pound! po’ o No More Calls for 6 O’Clock. He was a new clerk in one of our down town hotels and while not a novice in the business there was some things he had not yet learned. He got along quite well, nevertheless, until he began to put down the “calls” for the next morning left by the guests who desired to be awakened early in order to catch trains. For this purpose blank lists were fur- nished the clerk with the various hours printed at the head of each column under which the number of the room occupied by the guest leaving a call is written. There happened to be a run on the 6 o'clock calls that night and the column was filled up in a short time. Just then a guest came along and expressed a desire to be called at 6 o'clock. The new clerk glanced at his list, saw that there was no more room TALK OF THE \ l left in the 6 o'clock column and then said in guileless accents to the guest: “T am very sorry, sir, but we are all out of 6 o'clock calls. Wouldn't one for half past six do as well?” The Dead Sea’s One Vessel. Since the earthquake Iin Palestine last April some one circulated the story that the mouth of the river Jordan had been so affected by the shock that the level of the river had been altered to such an extent that at the place where the historic river goes Into the Dead Sea there was now a waterfall of con- siderable depth and strength. This is altogether false, and no change what- ever has taken place at or near the mouth of the Jordan. The writer has just spent some days there and has made it his special busi- ness to investigate this matter. Much has also appeared in periodicals about steamboats navigating the Dead Sea. This, too. is a fabrication. The only boat on the Dead Sea is a small sail- ing boat, about twenty feet long. This vessel makes trips as the wind allows, from the north end of the sea to the bay on the eastern side of the tongue that divides the water near the mid- dle. Here at this terminus some Jews are located. The whole concern is, in fact, in the hands of the Jews, who, at a low rate, buy wheat and barley from the Arabs, to be delivered on the seashore. From there it is shipped to the Jericho side and carried on don- keys to Jerusalem, where it finds a ready sale at a good price. ‘When adverse winds blow the little craft is In danger of being swamped, for the so-called Dead Sea becomes a living mass of waves. The writer re- cently spent four nights such as never will be forgotten on these waters, and the smartness of the old man at the helm and his boy with the three sails saved us from being shipwrecked again and again. A charge of one mejedie (three shillings and fourpence) a trip is made for each passenger, and for such a unique voyage it is not exorbitant. There is some talk about a small steam. tug being put on the sea, but the au- thorities are loth to grant permission. It will be a great boom when, if ever. it does arrive, as it will bring the east and west sides of Jordan nearer to one another for communication and trading purposes.—London Graphic. Away From Temptation. Several lawyers hereabouts vouch for this story: A Government official was appointed to a certain post on the ground of his undoubted integrity. His predecessors had all succumbed to the graft of the place. The officlal did well. But at last, after a year's service, he handed his chief his resignation. “Why,” asked his chief, “isn't your salary sufficient?” “Everything is perfectly 'satisfacto- ry,” repiled the official, “but, as you know, I am frequently approached with offers of bribes. The otner day a man offered me 335,000, and that's too near my price, so I want te resign.”"—New York Sun. ‘Answers to Queries. NOT IN THE LIST-F. V., Berkeley, Cal. The name of “Golden Colorado College of Mining and Civil Engineer- ing” does not appear in the list of col- leges In the United States. but is lo- cated in the town of Golden. in that State. RELATIVE RANK IN THE ARMY. F. H. G, City. The relative rank of superior officers In the [nited States army is: Lieutenant general, major general, brigadier general, colonel, lieu- tenant colonel, major and then follow captain, first lieutenant and second lieutenant. PANAMA HATS—Subscriber. Eu- reka, Cal. What are known as Panama hats are made from the immature leaves of a palm tree indigenous to South America and Cuba. There are different grades of hats of this char- acter and the value depends on the fineness of the materfal used in the manufacture. STRAWBERRIES — Sub., Berkeley, Cal. The usual way of propagating strawberries is by means of runners, which have root buds at intervals, and if cut off and put in the ground wiil take root and form new plants. Propa- gation by seed is to produce new varie- tles. The seed is planted as soon as ripe, and the seedlings come up in from feur to six weeks. BOER LAND—S8. W., City. What was known as the South African Re- public or Boer land has ceased to exist. for since the termination of the Boer- English war by the terms of the treaty of peace, the territory has become British. Under the terms of that treaty the Boers were allowed to return to their homes and farms and have pos- session of their property as before the war, but they now are British sub- Jects. e Good specs, eyeglasses, 15c-50c,79 4th st.. front of Key's Cel. Oyster House. * H —_——— | Townsend's California Glace fruits In artistic fire-etched boxes. 715 Market st.* ———e e Speclal information supplied daily ‘o business houses and public men the Press Cl Bureau (Allen’s). 238 Cal- ipping u (Allen’s =