The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 14, 1906, Page 26

26 THE SAN FRANCISCOCALL)| tesessssssassesss. . Proprietor JOHN D. SPRECKEILS. . . ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO JOHN McNAUGHT... seesessssssscscresiiaeeass... . Manager THIRD AND MARKET SBTREETS, SAN FRANCISCO ..JANUARY 14, 1906 PUBLICATION OFFICE. PROLONGING LIFE. They made unconscious use of the doctrine of of the fittest, with which evolution has made us fa- x met nature a little more than half way, and strove to hen races and nations by elimination of the weak and the pelessly diseased. When Christianity made an impression upon world the sentiment of compassion appeared, and gradually a and practice took the place of old customs, and there up a system devised for taking care of the weak, infirm, de- helpless, which is now in action throughout Christendom, s extended to peoples living under a different form of the’| 1 a. ss idiots and cretins and the incurably insane are cared nature puts an end to lives that were never useful to the s themselves, or whose usefulness and enjoyment are per- destroyed. 1f asked why society taxes itself to maintain 1s for the care of these classes, the only answer is ed by a deeply seated religious sentiment. Yet from al standpoint the lives prolonged by such means They are not lighted by a single ray of pleasure iu 1 the satisfaction of the physical appetites, and even more than the giving of fertilizing material is to a e or plant, which assimilates it unconsciously. losophers and medical men have from time to time the prolongation of life’ under such circumstanceg is thout merit, and places upon society a burden with- 1, but they have made no headway. It is pointed out t races which sought strength by euthanasia of the useless passed away. The nations they builded are gone. fittest, secured by human means, did not invest them The nations of Christendom, applying to the care of the weak, seem as strong , and give promise of longer life. raised by institutional care of the hope- another question is raised affecting the Dr. Charles Eliot Norton of Cambridge Uni- the duty of prolonging life in such cases has based in the doctrine of the sacredness of human ans agony, pain unspeakable, misery for which 1e sees no reason why a lethal dose should not se 1h(~ victim from torture. He goes further and same course in the case of the aged whose minds TEL‘: ancients made no effort to prolong the lives of the weak or delecuve. theory ssing from t issue iotic, rsue the Ve doubt whether these views will ever be accepted as of gen- T'here are so many instances in which recovery is )pe was abandoned that 1 leave behind, in many cases with no justification, eeling that it was a crime not to continue the effort to cure. in which death is delayed for a useful is impossible. There is no doubt that General | longed for weeks by artificial means, when sim- e would have permitted him to die and But those weeks were used in the com- biography, enabling him to leave to the world 1 the Commentaries of Caesar, and destined to equal cases re are other sia of the idiotic and insane and hopelessly dis- ther form of the same idea. A lady, who , proposes to chloroform the children of the poor.‘i lor and starvation. This is indeed radical. It raises a different issue entirely. tion is made in order to call attention to the such children need is not chloroform but food: i a present supply, and the draining off of con- 11 abolish the cause of much abject poverty. > greatly due to a defective distribution of he n(‘n-w( of this country were placed properly, it is t starvation would be as rare as cannibalism among us. 1 were limited so that every year would not add a mil- es ul population of our cities, the situation would | roform is not a remedy that should be considered d :i sociology have no better remedy to offer it 2 seat among the pseudo-sciences. 5 THE CHINESE COMMISSION. H inscrutable folly some \mencan newspapers are wailing e awakening of China as if it were the duty of that| to sleep while Christendom steals its lands, <|1b1ect< its nd destroys its sovereignty. It is the glory of the century 12 is aw: qkmmz with the purpose of preserving her terri- grity and using her ancient and in many respects excellent the strong foundation of 2 modern nation. Centuries as glutted with war and bloodshed. There is evidence story conquest carried her banners to the shores of the for Schliemann found deeply under the Troad the 2 Chinese city of which there was no history. But con- to be profitable or satisfying, and the nation retired territory -with the resolve not to learn war any more. of peace and isolation has been dispelled, and China est ceased ts own the modern world, not by conquest, but by using her r defense of-her territory while she brings her govern- and people up to the modern standard of efficiency. The Em- ss Dowager has determined that China shall no longer lag be- overnment and a constitutional form of monarchy. She preparation for this change in the most enlightened way )¢ a commission of statesmen, scholars, students and men to visit the western nations, study their civic forms and lan to be followed in the reform of China. The Empress figure in history among the great women who have sed nations to power. She looks first to the United nstruction, and her high commission comes here to make Our Government takes the place of guide, philoso- 1 to a roused race and an awakened nation. The high commission has been heartily welcomed to California as the first State visited, and the Chinese statesmen have already learned that we are a people not governed by narrow prejudice nor race partiality. Some among us, usually themselves alien born, ig- norantly judge China by one class, and that the least desirable, of its people. But that feeling is not American sentiment. Our Gov- nment knows the capacity and the strength of the average Chinese haracter, and respects it entirely. The gentlemen who compose the mmission will be welcomed everywhere. They will find the open or to every opportunity to study our institutions, and all we ask f them is to judge our Government, not by its occasional misdirec- ion or misuse, but by its successful operation of a system which ives all men equal liberty and equal opportunity and exacts from ! equal obedience to the laws which all make. Some men go to Congress and some go to jail, while a few specially avored ones appear to be entitled to berths in both places.—Baltimore Herald. . * i ST = When Mr. Cortelyou talks of running the Postoffice Devartment on a business basis, we hope it isn't 2 modern busmnl basis that he has in mind. —Detroit News. ——— e There are men who think that every marriageable woman spends all her spare time praying for a husband. This is only another illustration of the average man'’s conceit—Dallas News, the ending of life by lethal | Let us | twentieth century with the determination to take her | has decreed universal and practical education, a parlia- | — — THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 1906 PEGGING HIM DOWN. ’ ROWN has a reputation for presence B of mind. This is how he got it. One “What would you do, Mr. Brown,” said the dazzling blonde, “if a fire should break out here to-night?” Me?" said Brown. 'On, don't worry about me. I'd be all right. I have a fire escape of my own. I invented it several | years ago. I always carry it around with me.” “How lovely!” siged the d. b. you would make me one.” | And Brown said that he weuld. The | next day he bought one nundred feet of ‘ropv and constructed for the d. b. a fire | escape patterned after the ingenious de- | vice with which he hoped some day to save his own life. Within a week he had | manufactured twelve other fire escapes for the rest of the boarders and had given instructions for their use. One night, after a parlor entertainment in which Brown and the assortment of fire escapes had figured conspicuously, it occurred to Brown that although he had had his own ladder for five years he had never had a | chance to test its efficiency. He decided to find out that very night just how it would behave in case of an emergency. Brown occupled the third story back room. About 2 o'clock he fastened.one end of the contrivance to his window sill, lowered the other end to the ground and climbed cautiously down. Brown and the upper end of the fire escape reached the ground at the same time. It held onto the window sill till re- lieved of his weight, then the whole device came tumbling down about him. Brown retired to the rear of the yard to figure out some way of escape with- out arousing his own and neighboring households. As he ruminated a frizzled head popped suddenly out of an upper window and & frenzied voice cried “Fire!” In an Incredibly short time all was confusion. Engines clattered and women screamed. When the firemen | had subdued the incipient flames Brown | gathered up his fire escape and joined the hysterical group in the parlor. “Oh, Mr. Brown!” gasped the d. b. “I have been so worried about you. I thought you must be burned to a cin- der. How did you get out? Did the firemen rescue you too?" “Not on your life!” said Brown jaunt- ily. “You forget that I have my fire escape. The d b. sat up and gazed upon Brown proudly. “Well, upon my word,” 'she said. “None of the rest of us thought of ours. ‘What wonderful presence of mind you have!” And to this day even Brown believes that he really has. . ROAD INCIDENT. As he limped along the path parallel with the railroad track Graft presented # sorry spectacle—both eyes blackened, nose broken, arm in sling, legs in the unsteady shape of the Russian empire. “Whom have we here?” he cried, pausing by a prostrate figure. The battered and bloody stranger, aroused by the sympathetic sound of a human voice, sat up. “Don’t you recognize me?' he said, huskily. “I'm your own brother. I'm Free Press.” “Good heavens!" groaned Graft, “what's happened? Who threw you off the train?" ‘Cassatt himself—none other!” “And to think,"” sald Graft, mourn- fully, “we who never did a day's work in our lives have both been thrown upon a cold and cruel world!”"—Phjla- delphia Record. —— gl e, NOT HER BILL. Bill Jones, a 'emrn merchant, went to Kansas City to buy Some of these he shipped home ahead of his own arrival and nearly frightened his wife out of her wits. The neighbors heard her ehriek, and running to her rescue found her frantically endeavor- ing to remove the cover of a big box-, all because the box “Bill inside."—Boston *1 wish night the conversation in the board- | | ing-house parlor turned on fires. [ BY A J. WATERHOUSE. \X/E have laurel forsplcndld heroes, for those, the princely brave, Who fling unto Death defiance, nor pause for a yawning grave. By the papers their names are bruited ; we give unto them acclaim, And they know the bliss of the deathless kiss of the phantom men call Fame. Their days and their deeds are written in the lives and the hearts of men, And our babes we tell how they did right well what others may do again. But, oh, for the nameless heroes whose lives are an unheard song, Who go their way unseen of the day, patiently brave and strong! These are the ones who ever the bidding of duty do— Ah. manv are they, but I tell you to-day oaly the tale of two. ORN to the lot of labor, Pinched were their lives, and bare, And ever they saw the saber That swings in the hand of Care. Wedding, they married worry And the toil of the little farm, And the motto they knew was “Hurry, For Hunger doth lurk to harm”; And their hands grew hard and harder As ever the toiler’s do, And the pinch and nip of Penury’s grip They knew, and ever they knew. AME to these careworn toilers : Babes whom their love might bless, For Love may dwell in a palace, But he lives in a cot no less. From the warp and woof of our hopeless lives : ) God weaveth a fabric fair; He touches the clay of a common man, And, lo, a hero is there! !/ And now these two toiled harder, Assured that it must be so, To pinch and to save, like a dual slave, For “the children must have a show.” T HEIR lives a long, long giving, A sacrifice shorn of grace; Callous and hard their fingers, Wrinkled and worn the face; And the people passed them lightly, _ Nor e'er did the laurel strew, And only the God who heeds us That they were his heroes knew. Missing the joy of living, Only its care to know, Their days crept by like a long-drawn sigh, But “the children had a show!” NOW by the great God o'er us, brother and friend of mine, These are the regal heroes! These are the ones divine! The glory we win in battle> One ‘moment with spectral Death, And then we:mgsueforem,psudhkedneflemng breath. ’Tis an impulse born for dying, and reapet}j its quick reward; Bugohidrdnnaaélqsmuwboselivingthegodsrmd! Who patiently do their duty, and ever unheeded go Ground twixt the grinding stones of life that dne:r “chldrmmyhveanho-" Ay, by t thc grut Godoerw.mheund&mddmn, :SAVEI%EB‘ES‘E;‘SAPE: % % OUR NAMELESS BRROES % 4 | J‘ stentorian 5 A A TALE OF A WIFE AND A TELEGRAM ¥ —_— P HEN the man who had been married before took unto him self a second wife he laid down for her guidance just one rule deduced from his previous matrimonial experience. “Neither of us,” he said, “will ever meddle with the other's letters. I shall never think of opening your letters, and you, of course, will observe the same re- spect for my correspondence.’ And wife No. 2 said she wouid. It was because of that pre-nuptial agreement for each to respect the epistolary rights of the other that wife No. I was so wor- ried about a certain telegram. It was ad- dressed to the man. A telegram, in her opinion, meant sudden death. She wanted to know who had died, and for the first time In her life was tempted to open a communication addressed to her husband Being a woman of strong will, however, wife No. 2 promptly subdued that unholy desire and set about satisfying her curi- osity by more legitimate means. She took the telegram to the man's office. He was not in. Her next move was to telegraph to his mot.er and brothers and sisters in Chicago. “Is anybody deaa!” she asked. “Wire immediately at my expense.” Within three hours the answers began to arrive. “Nobody dead. Why you ask?” Wife No. 2 then put several telephone wires into commission. About 3 o'clock one of the clerks in the office locat lh. man in Yonkers, “Say, Bert,” he sald, ‘there is some- thing doing up at your house. Your wife has been looking for you all day. It must be serious business. She has been |n telegraphic communication with your folks in Chicago.” The man at the other end of the | wire, turned pal “Good heaven he cried, “what's | wrong? I am just about to close this | @ea:, but Il chuck it and hurry down as fast as trolleys and trains can take ma." It was 5 o'clock when the man who had been married before came home. His wi'e met him at the door with the tele “Read "1t she said. T am nearly trantic with an.‘le').” The man opened the envelope. | “IWeil, Fll be blessed!” he said. “Why | didn’t you open it yourself?” | “How could 1" “she retorted, “after | what you said?” “Hut the telegram is yours, " said the | man. “It says so, as plain as day. You | @ian't read straight. I sent it myself learly this morning. 1 told you I had t0 go to Yonkers and might not ba | back ¢l 1ate to-night.” “And just to think.” sighed wife 2, “that [ spent $2 %0 to find out—that. NARROW ESCAPE. Ex-Mayor Thomas Strahan of Chel- sea, when passing a well-known | store in Boston, saw in the window handsome painting which he admired. Upon inquiry he learned it was to be sold at auction at some later day and made note of the hour the sale was to take place, thinking if he was fortunate enough to secure it for $65 he had judt the place for it In his dining-room. On the day of the sale the ex-Mayor was a little late, and on his arrival the tones of the auctioneer's voice were heard saying Who says 07" “f am offered 4. Mr. Strahan promptly responded “Fifty.” Mr. P. bid 5. The ex-Mayor bid 6. Mr. !P bid . The ex-Mayor thought he | would go $5 beyond the price he had { tended to pay for the pict and bid | Mr. P. then bid 7. The auctioneer, after | several vain efforts to draw out a higher | bid. finaily exclaimed: “Sold to Mr. P. for $975.” 1t took the ex-Mayor several minutes to recover from the shock—Boston Herald. TWO BARBARIANS. Professor Starr, the famous ethnolo- gist, was in his humorous and whimsi- cal way accusing woman of barbar “And she is not only barbarous; s is illogical and inconsistent,” he claimed. “I was walking in the country one day with a young woman. In a grove we came upon a boy about to shin up a tree. There was a nest in the tr$ and from a certain angle it was p¢ sible to see in it three eggs. “‘You wicked little boy,’ said my companion, ‘are you going up there to rob that nest?’ “‘] am,’ the boy replied coelly. “‘How can you? she exclaimed. “Think how the mother will grieve over the loss of her eggs. “‘Oh, she won't care’ ‘She’s up there in your hat. HALE'S COSTLY BOYS ‘When Senator Eugene Hale married the daughter of “Zack” Chandler, the latter, was a great lover of children, said: “Now, Gene, I have no use for people who don't increase the census returns. I want you and Mary to caise a fami and I'l settle $10,000 on every boy you have.” Time passed, and the Hales were =0 regularly blessed with children of the male persuasion that the frequency witd which “Zack” Chandler was called upcn to redeem his promise with checks be- came a jest among his friends in Wash- ington. One morning the President cefved the following telegram from Sen- ator Chandler: “For God's sake give Eugene Hale a foreign mission! His wife has got an- other boy."—Boston Herald. WISCONSIN “PICKELS.” Frank Pickel attended the Xilbourn fair and brought back his sister Gena, who had been visiting among relatives for three weeks, also thelr cousin Lizz2 Pickel came back with them, and '3 here yet and expects to go home ti3 week. said the boy. Glen Pickel has an engine and a new sawing machine and is sawing up father's wood at home, and has also up & nice woodhouse there and ex; to get a feed mill soon. While Fred Wheeler was blasting out stumps for Fred Pickel Friday. some of the pieces flew over the fence and nearly killed some of his stock.—Reeds- burg (Wis.) Free Pr ANSWERS TO QUERIES. PANAMA CANAL—Subscriber, City. Work on the Panama canal was com- menced in 1881 MAPS—A Subscriber, City. For such -mumd-dr\nuuncam\ the United States Geodetic Survey h the Appraiser’s bullding, this city. Pl hentteny Townsend's Califernia glace “m*—u—g“‘l&rlfi.{‘: [t