The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 27, 1904, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1904 — ot Ostentatious Charity. Special Correspondence. HEADQUARTERS OF THE CALL, & HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GA¥ LONDON, July though the following statements reach | me from a source ususlly to be relied on, they are given with all reserve. I am told that the present scheme to en- dow the hospitals of England from the | public funds, Instead of allowing them | to depend for support on public sub-| seriptions, as heretofore, is to be fought | tooth and nail by several influential | American women cf title over here, who| will have the support of many folk | prominent in London soclety circles, as | well as that of others who would like | to be. This on the ground that the scheme would put an end to a means | of ostentatious giving, which at pres- ¢nt is regarded as one of the surest passports to royal favor. It is common | knowledge, of course, that Sir Thomas Lipton gained his present title in this | way, and the same is true of the King's friend, Sir Ernest Cassel, and others| 100 numerous to mention. Upon her ar- | itval in this country the Duchess of | Marlborough was astonished to find | that the hospitals of England practical- ly depended for their existence upon | the generosity of the rich, | but since | then her contributions to these institu- | tions have been surpassed by no one,! &nd I understand that she is one of the | most vigorous workers against state aid for them. She is said to have the ac-| tive support of the Tountess of Craven | and Mrs. Arthur Paget, both of whom | also have given largely to the hospitals. On the other hand, among the women | who are advocating the scheme of state 1id are the Countess of Warwick, Lady | Jenry Somerset, Lady Winborne and | he Marchioness of Ormonde. The “op- | position” party, however, includes it is | said the Rothschilds, the Cassels and the Neumanns, all of whom fre- quently have the Prince of Wales as their guest, and his Royal Highness’ re- | cent pronouncement condemning the jdea of state-aided - hospitals is sup- posed to have been dictated by a desire | to please the company in which he so frequently finds himself. Despite the generous contributions made to the London hospitals by those who find it affords the easiest method of gaining admission to court circles, the sums realized are totally inadequate to meet the growing requirements of these institutions, which, like Oliver Twist, are continually clamoring for more. The present outlook for their maintenance by means of the volun- tary system on a scale commensurate with the increasing demands made upon them is a black one. Between them they are at present asking the public for something like $13,750,000 in addition to the annual $750,000 which is needed merely to keep their wards open. By far the greater proportion of this vast sum is wanted for building purposes. These institutions, big and little, number about a hundred, and every week sees a fresh one in the fleld beg- ging for charity. So keen has become the competition between them that these appeals are wearying the public and breeding contempt and indiffer- ence. One of the most eloquent signs of this has been the failure of the “charity concert.” This season has provided an unprecedented number of them, and in many cases the results nave been worse than disappointing. At one concert where royaity was pres- ent and famous artists appeared the net profits were less than $45. Several others did not realize sufficlent to pay expenses. The charity concert as a “wmoney raiser” for hospitals is prac- tically dead. and there are not enough rich Americans, South African mag- nates and others ambitious for social distinction and willing to pay well for it to fill the empty hospital exchequers. For Royal Hire. The statement that Queen Victoria got her planos on the hire system reads curiously to many people, who imagine that when royaity require a thing they simply order and pay for 1. irrespective of cost. During the jatter years of her reign, however, it is & fact that Queen Victoria decided to have her pianocs on the hire sys- tem, and after her death over thirty of these instruments were removed from the different royal residences by Messrs. Erard, who had supplied them. Most of them are magnificent up- right grands, superbly decorated, and sre much sought after by ali sorts of people-—especially Americans, who would pay huge prices to secure such a relic of royaity. Only purchasers who are likely to appreciate such pi- znos properly are allowed to have them and innumerable applications from undesirable persons have been refused. His Majesty the King, when Prince of Wales, was often very glad to make use of the hire system. Particularly was this so with regard to horses, when there wWere many guests to be entertained at Marlborough House or Sandringham. Plenty of royal car- riages there glways weré, but as many of them were only used once or twice « year to keep a stud of horses suf- ficlently large to draw them would bave entailed an enormous neediess expense. When occasion arose, there- fore, horses were “jobbed” or hired to fill the gap. When the Prince enter- | sorted to. - . tained large numbers of people at once, such as deputations and dele- gates, who needed refreshing and feeding, the china and glass were in- variably hired, if indeed, as was often the case, the whole thing was not put in the hands of caterers. King Peter of Servia is having an unpleasant experience of the “hire- purchase” system at the present time, as his crown is being paid for by in- stallments. This is not the bronze crown which is being made from a| cannon kept as a relic of his grand- father, but is the jeweled structure necessary for state occasions. It is to | cost £12,600, but money is scarce in Servia, so the Paris firm whichis mak- ing it agreed to accept payment by in- stallments. Two installments of £1250 | each had been paid before the King discovered that the officials entrusted | with the payments were endeavoring | to “‘square” the manufacturers to put in bogus jewels and divide the illicit| profits between them. The payment of future installments on the royal crown is to be made by King Peter | himself. . { The King of Spain Is an example of a poor wealthy monarch who is obliged to resort to the hire ,system. Gold plate, jewels, trophies, and all sorts of costly ornaments he has In pienty, but they are the property of the crown, and useless except to look at. He has a decent income—on paper—but it is rarely paid, and consequently he has | to hire right &nd left when he wants | to “make anything of a splash,” as| the Americans would say. For his forthcoming European tour, carriages, horses, uniforms—practical- | ly everything—has to be hired; and the | reason that he is not including Eng- | land in his travels is on the ground of expense. His new castle which is | being built at Guadalajara, in the province of that name, near Madrid, | is being paid for on the rent purchase, | or *“every-man-his-own-landlord” prin- | ciple. ‘ His neighbor, the King of Portugal, either from choice or necessity, also | patronizes the hire system. To celeA} brate the visit of King Edward la‘ Portugal, King Carlos presented his | consort Queen Amelia with a mag-| nificent rope of pearls, each of whicn | was separated by a diamond. A Dutch firm got the order, and accepted payment on the hire-purchase system. It is satisfactory to know that the in- stallments are being paid regularly. The King of Sweden is an ardent de- votee of the hire system. Very big reunions and elaborate functions are rare in the Swedish court, so that when anything out of the way does happen, hiring has to be largely re- A few years ago there was a great party, including Queen Alex- andra (then Princess of Wales), the King and Queen of Denmark, those of Norway, the Czar and Czarina of Rus- sia, the King and Prince George of Greece, and German grand dukes and princes without number. The reunion was held at Fredensborg Castle, and it was difficult to know what belonged to the place and what did not. Fur- niture was hired—some all the way from England—beds were hired, plate, linen even, and silver all cande from outside sources, and entertainers were fetched all the way from London to Sweden to amuse the guests. His Majesty of Sweden hit upon a happy idea to avoid horse-hire for his enor- mous number of guests and their re- | tainers. As head of the army, he| commandeered some of the cavalry | horses for the purpose. There is no evidence to show that the German Emperor himself ever in- dulged in the luxury of the hire sys- tem; but the innumerable little heads of the kingdoms and the duchies which make up his empire do. It is a well known fact that at the coronation of the Czar of Russia the display of | jewels was the greatest ever seen at one single ceremony in the world, and | the bulk of these was worn by Ger- man duchesses and princesses, who were present in huge numbers, Ger- man and Russian relations being very cordial at the time. Here were ladies wearing jewels to the amount of fifty times their hus- band’s yearly income! Where did they get them? The answer came from the Continental jewelers and | diamond merchants, whose stocks, lori the time being, were sadly ravaged | and diminished. The jewels were all hired. Not one stone in five hundred that glittered and flashed in the palace | on the Neva belonged to the woman who wore it, and many a beauty’s crowned head was aching with the thought.of how her temporary mag- nificence was to be paid for. The King of Italy is not a keen hirer. He certainly ordered a mag- | nificent steam yacht—the “Pla”—from | & British firm on the hire system; but after using it for a short season, and paying two installments he returned it, and rumor says it was then sold to Mr. Rockefeller. Tts exact where- abouts is a mystery, but it has disap- peared from European waters, Comprehensive. A publisher in Austria, it is said, has brought out a calendar which, naturally, claims to be the completest of its kind. The date of the day oc- cupies the center of each leaf. On its left is the name of the saint to whom the day is dedicated and on its right some “golden maxim.” The lower part of the tablet is divided into two columns. From January to June the left hand column contains a course of lessons in six modern languages, while on the right hand are printed Schil- ler's poems. For the other half of the year one column is filled with a novel by Jules Verne and the other half by a translation of the foreign words used most frequently in German and an epitome of history from Charle- magne up to the present time. At the back of the leaves are notes on myth- ology geography, law, arithmetic, cooking and housekeeping recipes, The leaves are also so prepared that during the summer they can be | and not throw the burden upon the local people. | since the world has seen San Jose through the Lick tele- | the future, even if the people refuse its offer to gather | Chamber of T steeped in water as fykillers, and from October to April they can be made into cigarettes. Wild horses shall not drag from us the name of the publisher.—Weekly Irish Times. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL| Sl e T SO SR S B I JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprietor . < « < . <« .. . Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager Publication OfICS ........wsseescsoosecer Third and Market Streets, S. F. == = THE CHICO PLANT STATION. WEDNESDAY . HE people of Northern California have been un- T pleasantly affected during the last week by learning that the location of the great Federal seed and plant experiment station at Chico is endangered by the failure of the people of that city and Butte Coun.ty to respond with the $9000 required to purchase the land that is needed. We are persuaded that they are not fully aware of the importance of the prize that is within their grasp. Some one among them has raised the cry that if the United States wants such a station it should buy the land It is astounding that such an argument should be made in such a matter. If the Government were locating a fort or an arsenal for its use in operating one of its defensive functions, it would be proper to say that it should buy the ground. But this is an entirely different matter. ‘This station is not required by the Government, which can get on without it and never miss it. It is primarily and mostly a direct benefit to the people who are nearest to it. It will be the greatest of its kind in the world. The world first heard of the capital of Santa Clara Val- ley through the San Jose scale. But this is forgotten scope on Mount Hamilton. The world will in the fu- ture see Chico, Butte County and the Sacramento Valley through this new garden, which will be the Eden of Northern California. It will tell more of soil and cli- mate, of capacity and products, than can be told by bil- lions of pages of advertising. Already the seeds and stocks to plant it are coming from every grand division of the globe, and from every | zone where nature produces plants useful to man, neces- sary to his existence and profitable to his purse. In a brief time, in the stimulating climate of the Sacramento Valley, there will rise there a garden that grows a greater variety of plants than can be grown elsewhere on the earth. Their growth is not necessary to the Govern- ment of the United States. It has existed more thar a century without them, and will continue to exist far into useful and novel plants from all over the world and plant and tend them there, provided the petty sum of $0000 is furnished by Chico to buy the land. The Gov- ernment ‘will finally spend ten times ten that sum on the planting and maintenance of the station and in aiding planters to utilize the plants it will grow there. We are told that in a meeting of the Sacramento f Commerce some glee was expressed over the prospect that Chico would lose the station by failing to raise the money, as then Sacramento would make a bid for it and get it located near that city. This was not merely the exhibition of a mean spirit. It was fool- ish. The Government experts made a survey of the whole State and found two locations that filled the con- ditions, one at Chico and one in Southern California. 1f Chico fail, that ends all prospect of any station in Northern California. The commercial drainage of the Sacramento Valley is to Sacramento. That city, instead of exulting over the failure of Chico, should rally liber- ally to help her neighbor out. Tt is no time for petty jealousy or selfishness. All of the Sacramento Valley may well make common cause with Chico. Such an opportunity to make a final dem- onstration of such economic factors as soil and climate does not come twice to a region. It knocks once and passes on, never to return. Let the door be opened by the opening of many purses and the returns will be many times the investment. The Vladivostok squadron of the Russian fleet has made traveling on the high seas somewhat too uncertain and unsafe to be included in the category of summer reercation. In the general uproar of protest and trepida- tion, however, it is easy to discern the voices of our British cousins rather than our own. If we calculate on a basis of relative tonnage, we have just about one chance in ten of being injured that the British have. Let us not be too hasty to espouse the cause of our friends. CALIFORNIA AGAIN TO THE FORE. HE National World’s Fair Commission deplores the fact that the big exposition is not attracting the crowds merited by the magnificent exhibits, and gently prodding the managers urges them to stand up and do a little more shouting about the “greatest show on earth.” Now, if the worthy gentlemen who are di- recting things at St. Louis will only scatter broadcast news of what California is doing at the fair there will certainly be an increase in the attendance, and the Gov- ernment’s representatives will be rapturously extending the joyous hand instead of giving vent to disappointment over “small houses.” The State’s active commission has been extremely-suc- cessful in attracting the fair’s visitors to the wonderful displays in the Palace of Agriculture and in the Califor- nia building, and to-day there are thousands of good Americans who know more about the splendid golden citrus fruits, the fine olives, the famous prunes, the great grain crops and the luscious yield of the vineyards of California than they did before the gates of the exposi- tion opened last April. The visitors have delightedly dailied with the luscious prunes and they have smacked their lips after sampling our sparkling wines. The Cal- ifornians have given their guests something choice to eat and to drink, and like Oliver Twist, those that have partaken of their hospitality have come back for more, The latest and most novel attraction of the California commission was a watermelon feast. This took place a few nights ago on the lawn in the rear of the California “building, and the refreshing melons—a half carload of them—were served, flavored with several kinds of Cali- fornia wines. The feast, naturally, in sweltering St. Louis, struck a popular chord and another has been planned for an early date. With the thermometer sprint- ing in the direction of the 100 mark and thousands con- stantly in quest of cooling refreshment, it is safe to pre- dict that the next melon spread will be an overwhelming success. When this interesting function. holds the boards the balance of the exposition will perforce find it advisable to shut up shop, as everybody will hurry to the alluring feast in the fervent hope of getting a whack at the luscious fruit flavored with the juice of the grape of the Golden State. The resourceful commissioners deserve warm commen- dation for this innovation that has won new friends for the greatest State in the West. They have opened the eyes of the other commissioners, who will have to hustle if they do not want California to carry off all the honors for unique surprises. Now, if the managers of the fair are really eager to improve the situation they should lose no time in giving out some information to the gen- eral public about California’s watermelon-wine feasts, making them the headliner of the list of attractions. Such an announcement will bring crowds as readily as molasses draws flies. The attendance will be all that could be desired, the gate receipts will grow surprisingly, everybody will be happy, and California will have saved the day. —_— French capitalists have undertaken the construction of a railroad 500 miles long in Bolivia to tap some of the highly productive districts of the South American re- public. We should accept this enterprise as a hint of our own delay and procrastination and a warning that something more commercially tangible than the Monroe doctrine is necessary to conserve and promote our in- terests in Latin America. LABOR FOR PANAMA. UITE as important as the engineering problems and admitting of no solution by trite mathemati- | cal formula is the question that must soon con- front the Panama Canal Commission—whence a contin- wous supply of labor? If ten years is the limit set, in the popular mind at least, for the completion of the great ditch, 20,000 laborers will have to be in constant employ according to estimates of the experts. Where is this army to be marshaled, and how is its number to be steadily recruited? Dr. C. A. Stephens, long familiar with the climatic con- ditions of Panama, and formerly a close student of the medical problems presented to the French canal com- pany, declares in a recent pamphlet that “no sensible person can spend a day, even an hour, in the heat of the Culebra cut without coming to the conclusion that this is not a white man’s job. No white laborer from the United States can or would endure it.” , Dr. Stephens goes on to cite the experiences of the French excavators. According to the estimates the French lost about 50,000 laborers during their period of construction. Not only did the common diggers succumb, but the sudden deaths of men in higher places-were continually causing en- forced delays on the part of gangs of diggers. Many are the expedients that have been advanced to relieve the difficulties of the labor problem in Panamas. Some have advocated the wholesale importation into the canal zone of negroes from the Southern States, others have declared that upon the working classes of Jamaica and other Carib islands, negroes and half breeds all of them, rest the only hopes of the commission. But to the first of these propositions it has been strongly objected by the South that taking away a great army of negroes for work on the canal would so alter the field of labor | in the cotton belt that the cotton industry would suffer seriously. Against the Jamaica suggestion it is main- tained that there are not enough reliable laborers in any of the adjacent islands to fill the steady demand. There remain, then, the Japanese or the coolies. On the Hawaiian sugar plantations,where climatic conditions very nearly approximate those of Panama, the bulk of the heavy labor is done by Japanese. Hardy, inured to excessive heat in conjunction with constant humidity, over-willing to work according to the word of the over- seers, these little brown fellows would seem especially fitted to endure the grilling tasks in the great ditch. The close of the war will see thousands of them free to take employment. As to the coolie, well, he is at least a last resource. Prejudice may have to be put aside if it be that we can find no one else to wield the shovel in Panama. The unique manner in which William Jennings Bryan and his followers in the radical wing of the Democracy are “supporting” Parker for the Presidency makes one shudder to think what they would do if they decided to oppose the gentleman from Esopus.. Punic faith is an ideal of virtue and loyalty in comparison. T ninth annual picnic of the Old Folks of Utah there were assembled at Spanish Fork more than two thousand persons in one grove at one time, all of whom were aged at least 70 years. This took place last week. On one special train from Salt Lake City there were 845 persons wearing red badges, indicating the age of 70 years, 111 persons whose eighty years entitled them to wear blue badges and four with white badges, over whose heads the winters and summers of ninety years have rolled. All the Utah counties sent in their old peo- ple and so swelled the number of congregated septua- genarians to two thousand. Nathanial Hawthorne, in his search for the unusual, never imagined an assemblage so striking. The Tribune says that the frosty polled party had “a frolic” and a “merry time,” with “youngsters” 50 years or so old to wait upon them. They indulged in reminiscences; they feasted at long tables in the shade of a grove; young people sang, played and performed in an amusing way for them. Conspicuous among the decorations that were provided for the occasion was a banner on which was the A UTAH PICNIC. HE Salt Lake Tribune asserts that at the twenty- i i | granite rock. TALK T “You Come Fliday.” Jin Tum Ling considers himself a white man and keeps a white man’s restaurant up on Washington street. Frequently in the past he has lost meals and money to the improvident and faithless “Melicanmen” who have volunteered to patronize him, conse- quently the “T’ll-see-you-to-morrows’ are now below par with Jin Tum Ling. He meets the moneyless visitor with his usual urbanity, but with no meals. Last Monday a man who had de- celved Ling before came in. The Chinese recognized him, but bowed politely and directed the fellow to a table. “Good morning. You want dinna? Al-lite. Plenty dinna. You hungly?” “Yes, Ling. Heap hungry. I am broke to-day, but to-morrow me have plenty money. Then me come see you.” “Al-lite. You Demclat? You vote for Hlurs? I think Russha-man lick Jap. What-chu—" “Oh, never mind the Japs, Ling; you give me dinner. Too much hungry.” “Al-lite, al-lite. Plenty time. What- chu like?” “Anything, anything.” “Al-lite. Like flish? but, sam’n, tlout?” “Yes, yes—trout—just the thing.” “Al-lite, you come Fliday.” More About W heat. SANTA CRUZ, July 25. Editor of The Call—Dear Sir: There have been several articles in The Call lately concerning California wheat and its lack of gluten. Permit me to ex- press my views on the subject. I have been a wheat farmer for more than thirty years in California. Though not at the present time actively en- gaged in farming I still own a wheat farm. In my opinion the real trouble lies in our mode of harvesting. There was no complaint from the millers un- til some ten or twelve years ago, after we had come to using the combined harvester. Previous to that we used the header and cut and stacked our wheat, the wheat standing in the stack from three to six weeks, during which time it went through the sweat and, being protected from the hot sun, di1 Sea-bah, hal- | not lose its gluten and turn to starch. But the combined harvester superseded the header. The grain is not now stacked; it stands in the fleld until it is ripe and as dry and hard as it can get. Then it is cut and threshed and a great deal of it is in the warehouse the same day, or I should say the greater part of it by the close of the second day—at least I think that is the result in the San Joaquin and Sacra- mento valleys, the great wheat belt of California. I would also add that a great deal of wheat stands In the field until Septem- ber and October. Most sincerely yours, E. E. UNDERWOOD. Pelee To-Day. A recent visitor to the fated isle of Martinique gives the following de- scription of the aspect of Pelee to- day in a Montreal paper: “Where the city of St. Pierre once flourished,” he says, “there is a thick bed of land, which is already assum- ing the appearance of a vast gray About nine years ago I passed close by St. Pierre in the evening and saw its white roofs, its towers and cupolas gleaming between the fronded crests and lithe gray trunks of the royal palms and heard the crash of bands in its squares and the tinkling of mandolins upon the French ships lying in the roadstead. But now the scarred mass of lava cov- ers completely the gay Paris of the Antilles with all its life and color and music as though it were buried under a massive mausoleum of granite. There are no ruins—nothing at all to indicate that a city of 25,000 people had once flourished there. “Before you rises the gaunt and co- lossal cone of Mont Pelee, with its awful head veiled in lazy and pestif- erous vapors, its scarred lava-streaked slopes rent with gigantic fissures and wild gorges and its base piled up in primeval confusion masses of the blown out crest and sides. The im- pression which the sight of Mont Pe- less, brooding in its uncleanly clouds of smoke above its hideous and aw- ful works, makes upon you is difficult to define. . You are awed, but hardly horrified. In the presence of such evi- dence of nature's forces you are so impressed with the grandeur and ma- jesty of her efforts that you do not think of the blotting out of such an motto, “All honor to the aged.” Men and women of all climes. looking forward from | middle age to the period when the tduch of age shall be | upon them, entertain the wish that their hearts and minds may retain their freshness so that they may en- joy with the keenness of unimpaired senses their closing | days. This large collection of Utah septuagenarians | would seem to have left within them still the sources of | enjoyment. The first gathering of this sort, which Utah | says can be found in no part of the world outside of that State, took place at old Peter Clinton’s place near Lake Point in 1875. One of the originatars of the idea is still living and was at Spanish Fork with his hoary-i headed colleagues the other day. There were present old people of nearly every color and nationality known to mankind-ga chieftain from the South Pacific, Samoans, Hawaiians, colored people, English, Welsh, Irish, Germans, Scotch, Americans, Scandinavians—a cosmopolitan gathering of a very un- usual character. They were all alive when Queen Vic- toria was crowned. They were able to discuss from memory events in the war with Mexico and the old days on the Missouri and Mississippi prior to 1846. Even one of the original party of Mormons that entered Salt Lake City in July, 1847, was at the picnic. That one is Thomas P. Cloward, who was born in 1823 and is still hale and hearty. Among the gay picnickers of advanced years were Mary Hart, aged o1; Mary Carter, aged oo; Benjamin M. Beer, aged 92, and Miriam Chase, aged or .—all residents of Salt Lake City. After a day of pleasure the veterans proceeded to their several homes, and it is a.greeable to learn that no one met with an accident or was harmed by a day of pleas- uring extraordinary. lg =~ | insignificant thing as a city of men and their works. “To the southward, where the su- burbs of the city stretched over a level plain, the earth washed down from | the mountain sides by the rains has | formed a soil inewhich grass and trees are beginning to grow in patches. In a few years, no doubt, the tomb of the | city will be covered with the vegeta- tion of the tropics and the now giant and scarred sides of Pelee covered with forests of green. All the rest of the island has emerged from its cov- ering of ashes in new beauty and greater luxuriance.” £ A Mild Magyar. The municipality of the Hungarian capital recently authorized a series of bullfights, and the populace were in- stantly and suitably entranced. A troupe of Spaniards, the Pouly at their head, were engaged and came on for the affray. The first evening the show was something grand. The Hungarians were properly astounded at the gaud and tinsel, the carriage and coverings of these Spaniards. There was the call for the bulls, then. But the trifling little Spanish animals that had been shipped on gave the spectators small satisfaction. They whnted real excitement. They ordered that Pouly and his men should try their lives against the Hungarian breed. Piqued to the quick, Pouly accepted the conditions, a Hungarian bull was procured after two days, and the real fight was announced. prepared himself, and Gye- toreador ——ee———p mant—such was the name bestowed upon the bull—was turned into the arena. He entered, calm and phleg- matic. He proceeded leisurely toward the middle of the arena and turned to survey the audience with a look that said: ‘“Indeed, I believe I have never met yoa before.” Then gravely he made a tour of the inclosure, once, twice—flve laps he made, taking no notice of red flags, of picador, of banderillo who sought to engage. After this little constitutional he returned to the center of the stage and emitted one sound. It was a sigh. “Oh, call a carriage for Bim and play him the national anthem,” cried a volce out of the wits in the gallery. That was the end. The arena at Budapest has been nalled up forever and the newspapers excuse .Gyemant with the explanation that while he had a Hungarian sire, his dam was Swiss. And Switzerland has objected.—Bos- ton Transcript. Mixed Again. London papers are often Hluminat- ing on things American. “In de= nouncing the policy of the Republi- can party as one of ‘standing fat,’ ™ says the London Chronicle, “the chafr- man of the St. Louis Democratic con- vention was kind enough to give the unitiated some hint of-the mystic phrase’s significance. It came from the gamblers’ table, he said, and ‘stand fat’ was a precept of. passivity and inaction born of coward! A ‘fat hand’ in the game of poker is g hand which its holder considers satisfac- tory as it is, so that he does not take the chance of improving it by buying any fresh cards from the dealer. To ‘stand fat, presumably, is to’ play a defensive game with whatever is dealt to you, leaving the other players .to take risks. But it is doubtful whether ‘stand fat" will pass into common ac- ceptance as ‘bluff has. Thousands speak of ‘bluffing with no thought that they are using a metaphor from poker.” Worth Something. The most extraordinary pearl, or rather cluster of pearls; known as “the southern cross,” is owned by a syndicate of Australlan gentlemen, who value it at $500,000. So far as is known it occupies an absolutely unique position. It consists of nine pearls, naturally grown together in so regular a manner as to form a per- fect Latin cross. The pearl was @is- covered by a pearl fisher .at. Roe- bourne, West Australia. The first owner regarded it with so much su- perstition that he buried it; but it was discovered in 1874 and five years later was placed on exhibition in Australis Answers to Queries. REVERDY JOHNEON—A. 8§, City. Reverdy Johnson, who was Minister to Great Britaln In 1869, was born in An- napolis, Md., May 21, 1796, and dled In the same place February 10, 1876. JAPANESE—R. O. C. What the Japanese population is in San Fran- cisco at this time is very uncertain, as since the war now In progress in the Orient many left to enroll in the Japa- nese army. THE BYRNE MATTER—HE. M., City. As this department has never received any communication signed “Ellen Mun- roe” in reference to the “Byrne mat- ter,” or any other subject, it could not answer the questions asked. DRAW POKER—J. E. T, Agnew, Cal. If In a game of draw poker all players anted, the dealer opened and some of the players stayed and the cards were drawn again, the first of | the stayers to bet was the one on the left of the dealer., CABLE STEAMER—A. 8, City. The name of the steamer that was employed to lay the cable in 1379 between France |and the United States is The Fara- | day, launched at New Castle, February 17, 1873. Her dimensions are 300.4 feet length, 52.3 breadth and 43.7 depth; tonnage 2132. THE ALHAMBRA—A reader, City. The .Alhambra Theater In San Fran- | cisco, lccated at the corner of Eddy and Jones streets, was opened September 3, 1598, with Del Puente, Corinne, Edith Hall, Sidney and Mrs. Drew, the Ro and others. In the seventies there was an Alhambra Theater on Bush street, between Kearny and Montgomery. SCRAPBOOK PASTE—M. 8. S, City. A fine paste that may be used for scrapbook pasting is made of a solu- tion of 2% ounces of gumarabie in two quarts of warm water, thickened to a | paste by wheat flour. To this is added ! a solution of alum and sugar of lead, | 1% ounce each in water. The mixture | Is heated and stirred until it begins to | boil, and then it is allowed to cool. It {may be thinned, if necessary, with a | gum solution. A few drops of oil of cloves in the mixture will prevent it from souring. You will find it less | Townsend's Californta Glace fruits In artistic fire-etched boves. 715 Market st.* . ——— e Special information supplied daily ‘o public business houses and men - Press Clipning Bureau (Allen’s), an: ifornia street. Telephone Main 1043 *