The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 1, 1906, Page 26

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL: «.....Proprietor JOHN McNAUGHT... THIRD AND MARKRT STREETS, SAN: FRAXCISCO PUBLICATION OFFICE SUNDAY..L.... ) REFORM IN SPELLING. HE ' spelling of English has undergone some changes, but al- T ways, by common consent of writers-and lexicographers, with a view to retain such characteristics as indicate the derivation of words. - Therefbre there is little difficulty in selecting the Anglo- Saxon from the Greek and Latin derivatives. With the introduction of phonetic ‘spelling all this will ‘disappear. In our English’ words it often is the case that a silent letter is-a sort of epitaph to the.dead ancestor of the word in ‘which it is used. ; low comes Dr. Benjamin Andrews of Nebraska, sometime president of a coleg in' Rode lland, as the words will be spelled| when he reforms orthography, heading a movement ‘endowed by Mr. Carnegie, to bludgeon the silent: letters out of-English words, and sct up a phonetic, of, 2s it will be spelled, a fonetic, reform.. We do not desire to stand in the way of any reform, and perhaps will have to scurry out of the way.of this, but just naw,.at first inspection, it Tooks like a heartless mutilation of. the ‘language. - The changes in many cases would be&tSo acitte that in a few years onr libraries: would have to be reprinted. - ST One plea put up far this change is that it will save time in the’ schools. Children will be pushed more rapidly through ‘reading and writing if they are not confused by silent letters and by the use of two vowels where one will suffice. It is supposed that they will be invested w scholarship more rapidly if they use ruf for rough, brot for brought and ned for need.” But is it to be any easier to teach th f ust take the place of fate, and that fat still retains je grease? It is trug that read does not change its nses, but is it any easier to teach.red as its past tense from mixing with the color spelled and pronounced the e word light there are two silent letters. How long to get used to the rendition ‘of that sonorous and of Genesis, as “God sed let-thar be lit, aad thar time may be saved by-this grubbing process is order that is upon modern life. voices, spoils speech by slurring the consonants, and 1 .of the final g, for we are no longeg going n walkin. When some blessed leisurely soul comes to speak softly and honor the consonants in the in the breach, our natural ear salutes it as.if a above the hard clang of machinery. 1 2 eiving immense accretions: New words are like :debris carried down by mountaifi streéams, and arg. the delta of our speech to enrith it. - ‘Each brings rment of orthography to furnish a key to ifs etymology, by v acquire some idea of its source. . If these additions phonetic-dress only, their interest, if rot their use, is s true that phonetics have-some.use in etymology, m orthography the tracing of mere sound to the s. becomes. difficult. egie seems to be especially desirous of getting rid of we are not aware that tuf, enuf and bou, thru and trof will ¢ or style to the appearance of a printed page. James translation of the Bible-and Shakespeare with pleasure, because their text is in the English of the best age. bulary due to the adoption of new words. -But sup- re and the book were in phonetic spelling, ¢an any eliéve that they would impress the mind with that calm pledsure L they impart now? Imagine Henry atAgincourt - crying, r into the brech, der frends, wuns mor, or clos the wak tp lish ded!” APRIL. 1, 1906 | It puts a strident | We | Since then it has gained simply in the abund- | “~ NINE TIMES OUT O WHEN A APRIL-FOOL L & 50 crer 4 CQGAR. — - Yog Lavg o | | '_ Néw Mother Goose \ IF 1 KNEW THE BAD SPELLER. L_ITTEL Andru went too skool, ‘Woodent lern to spel bi-Tool, And thay spankt him, I hav herd. Whenn hie milyuns hee hadd seezed, Then e spelt just as hee pleezed " THE SAN FRANCISCO C‘A'\.LL SUNDAY, APRIL 1, 1006 AND PLACE T ¥ . . | YOUR POCKET WITH ; By'A. J. Waterhouse. F I knew the way that of old I knew, THE WAY. | to say right now, after ten years of mar- | busband, which means a true comrade "THE MOTHERHOOD. QUESTION Discussed by an American Woman, Who “Tells of Her Own Experience. To the Editor of The Call: . 2 .Fegently the papers quoted at length th growing alarm felt by the wise and great men of the country over.the refusal of the American woman to rear large families, or to rear any families. In reply women 1ot the Four Hundred—women of_ culture, wealth and refinement—have taken upon themsclves to deny the imputation, but these women represent only an infinitely small part of the great mass of American wives and. mothers. Would it not-be wise of these people to probe somewhat deeper into the matter before they condemn the mass of American women?® Perhaps the following little experience, .which is simply the average one of a mil- lion or more of American wives, will prove to be something of a revelation to these deep thinkers and speakers: Born in a comfortable home and brought up in the old-fashioned way that the mid- dle class daughter is usually brought up, I went a couple of years to the high school, learned to play “Blue Bellw—or was it “Down Went McGinty"'?—on the piano, made many of my cheaper dresses and cooked my father’s dinner. Like I went to the theater, occasionally to a dance, visited my girl friends, attended the services of my church and worked faithtully on one or more of the mission-{ ary committees“or other socleties of the church, and gave the rest of my time to my beloved books. ‘When John and I settled down life was very much' the same, only I cooked John's dinner now—and, parenthetically, I want ried life, John is just the ldeal°American and the very best husband in the world. ENTER, BABY NO. ONE. After a year or so we were joint pos- sessors of the dearest little pink morsel of humanity that ever graced a home. And what an upheaval she created! No6w, John has just $100 & month, which forms. the income of a great many merc families thail any larger sum. When the rent is paid for the small flat, consisting of kitchen, dining-room, bedroom, lving- room and the tiny, seven-by-nine called spare room; good, wholesome. food; plain, neat clothing. and other. expenses are met, and a little put away, for the rainy day, there isn't anything left for a ser- vant, 8o, in common with a féw million other women, I do my own work. With the coming of the little lady I found it necessary to wash her clothing (having scruples against sending it to| the public laundry with ours), to bathe | and dress her on Monday, Tuesday, Wed- | nesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. From 6 a'clock in the motning | till 6 o’clock in the evening, at intervals of two or three hours, I had te stop dust- | ing or sweeping or ironing or cooking or dishwashing or sewing or any of the| other small daily dutles, to; nurse her or | gossip, a funny story he had heard or something I had seen. 2 Now all this was changed. I was tired when John came home. Of course he wanted to see his little girile first thing and she was sfeepy and wanted mamma. Joha Wwas openly, aggrieved. love me,” he said more than once. Then our hour was spent in preparing her for bed. John took to reading. As for me, I had stagnated long ago. I was too tired to read and my conversation- became limited to the facts that “baby is cutting a new tooth,” ete. Sometimes I saw no “She dom’t = on® to speak to, but the butcher boy, for - days at a time; when the gas cellector came it was an event. maeeting and escorted Miss C. home, while Mrs. B. minded the bables, and a ot other things, and In the second the second baby came and things worse. John and I would have ed apart, for he thought I aid not love With the common sense of ninety-nine out of "every hundred married couples John and I talked things over and agreed two littla ones God gave us. We now have what might be called the ideal home. The hour after dinner Is spent by papa and mamma and the little ones In recounting the events of the day. “Between the dark and the daylight, When the night is beginning to lower Comies a pause in the day’s occupations That is-known as the children’s hour.™ NOW ALL IS SERENE. Then two happy little tykes are tucked into bed at half-past seven, while father and mother have a quiet evening—a game of cards, a book, a little music, a visit with friends. Ome evening John goes to lodge, one evening I devots to some young girls whose mothers are so busy with numerous small progeny that they havé no time fdr their growing daugh- ters. In return’ they gladly give ome evening a week to taking care of my own little. ones while John and I have an outing together—theater, concert, lecture or emtertainment. And ere many more years are passed away the little home, with its twelve by fourteen bedroom for the childrén instead of ‘the somewhat crowded flat with its seven by nine spare room will be an as- sured fact. Two happy. hearty, healthy, loving children, adored and. adoring, be- ing "brought up in a simple, wholesome American tasfiion. Compare this Nome with the same sized flat next door. A bed im every room; an oterworked mother putting- the baly to bed; the tired three-year-old being give her other needed attention. Be-|ptnched by five; eight-year-old always leving that the sun and fresh alr in my | sick and needing doctor and medicine; eleven by twenty foot back yard were| two older omes running the street to be healthier than the dusty street or heated | out-of the way: tired, careworn father, rooms of my friends I got Into a way of | finding solace- in the cheap saloon and spending afterndons out there with a | tencent show. needed bit of sewing: besides, somehow | Do you wonder, wise and great meo, or other I seemed to be too tired to| that the American woman has gome to dress up and go visiting and carry baby | the extreme in a small percentage of the ews may succeed in inducing some writers.to use the And mo wun sed a wurd. ' Ever and ever so long ago, . abridged and bobtailed spelling, but we doubt whether he can im- press its-necessi son the mrasses, or upon the ‘makers of school- books. We take words-into our mouths and like other things that go into same cavity we like to know where they come from. It is opinion that the Doctor will not by his reform add his to “The. fu, the imortal nams that wer not born to di.” % THE SEASON’S RAIN. farch storms. were the severest of the season, causing fldods on the San Joaquin' plains and -inflieting some injury upon the railroads. But the land and crops were far more 1 d than harmed, and 2 good year seems to be promised: Cali- fornia is sa vast in extent that a local storm or frost may do some damage to the yield in fruit or field crops, that is more than made up by abundance elsewhere. R i The interference with railroad traffic and temporary stoppage rail exports East reveal the dependence of that section upon us. The orange crop. of Scuthern California is going forward by train loads at this season. - Washouts stopped this export and the East- ern orarge matket.was soon ‘sucked so dry that prices advanced 100 per cent. As the roads are repaired and opened the April -export will strike a bare and hungry market, and the good prices will add to the expected profits of the season. So, it is'an-ill wind that blows no gopd. Great relief is felt that the season of floods is past and the ahle reclamations in the Sacramento River have not. been breached. “The reclamations . leveed on the south side of the San Joaquin and Olid River have been greatly enhanced in importan’ée by the fact that the greatest flood in the San Joaquin for thirty years left them intact and unharmed. It is in that region .that the last considerable tract of tule land that is reclaimable sold recently for $35 per :acre. 2 . 3 The lessons and experience of this rainy season are of more valueto California than ‘ever. “The- orange grdxvers' have learned that it is.well not to.gorge the market, and the whole ‘State has learned not to despair-if -thé early rains fail, for tlie latter rains make good. The reservoirs in:Southern California are full, and these who. depend on them know now that they can tide over some dry seasops, in the cerfainty that abundant rains. will come in time. Our Horn of Plenty will need enlarging to hold the varied harvests of the year. P i ; HE T IMPROVED SEED CORN.: OUBLE. price i$ ‘being obtdined by: the breeders of pedigreed D séed corn from- the Connecticut-farmers, ‘and.the breeders 7. hdve scarcely been:able to supply the demand for the better seed. A recent bulletin from the Connecticut Agricultural Expen- mént _Smtion gives some interesting explanations of why this high price is paid and of the metheds by which .the successful breeders produce the valuable strains. : The .information given makes such' a fine showing for the value of this comparatively-new- branch of agriculture that it is worth be- ing sowed broadedst. among the farming community. While the results as' a whole are of interest, there is one point in particular. which -will, be noted by California farmers, namely, the success of the ‘careful breelling ndt orily to incréase the yield but actually to greatly change the average composition’ of the corn grains. This brings.the nature of the experiments right into line with what we require to ‘do here, and demonstrates by analogy that we can, by giving attention to the breeding of pedigreed grain, replace in our wheat the gluten which it has of Jate years been losing. Sq clear cut, in this way, has the improvement of Connecticut ‘corn been accomplished, that the protein content of a dent variety was raised from 70.9 to almost 15 per cent. A remarkable feature of this is that althpugh the increase of protein in the variety of corn of mearly 30 per.cent is. wonderful enough record in itself, the more wonderful result is.that the imprayed corg is richer in protein than 5 ) | TOMMY LAWEON." OMMY LAWSON got no fat, .. 1 Lixewise 1ittte lean; - And that is why he wagged his tale JICK McCURDY'S gone to sea For a visit to Paree. . He'll come back some day to me. Or my name is M. U, D. “ %5, To the brighter world of a New York World. NEVER BE SORRY. —For —For —Fof —For —For —For -—For standing by your principles. stopping- your ears to gossip. . being generous to an enemy. being courteous’ to all. asking pardon when jn error. being honest. in business dealings. —For putting the best meaning on the acts of others.—Sunday School Advocate. WHAT BOBBY MISSED. The shade of Burns was rallied for be- ing downcast. “Hoot mon!” was the response, “dinna ve ken Morgan's bought ‘Auld Lang Syne’ an’ a’ sic truck for a matter o’ twal' thou- can’ pun? Think of the braw time I micht a’ hae X Then the discontented shade passed on.— | Philadelphia Ledger. That only the elves and the even wheat. The average amount in wheat is 13.3 per cent. -At that rate it was considerably richer than the corn at 10.9, but now it is its turn to take second place in regard to protein content since the coming of the improved corn with 1§. The high average of pro- tein makes such corn very valuable to g!airyrnen, . In other ways the pedigreed corn has shown itself worthy of the care it takes to produce it. Pure-bred.strains have yielded from five to fifteen bushels more per acre, under the same conditions of environment, than have the unimproved seed. It-is to be noted that this is a clearer gain than can be had from any of the other methods of improved agriculture; for better tillage, irrigation or more ma- nure all' add to the cost as a fixed charge, but in the finely bred corn you get your gain direct from the power of heredity within the kernel of the corn. So great is this force of heredity that the varia- tion between different breeds of seed is all the way from forty to eighty bushels per acre. | ' Another notable effect of grain breeding is that by crossing the stock, that is by preventing inbreeding through self-pollination or too close pollination, an average increase of ten bushels per acre was made. This is accomplished by.a process o%deuueling alter- nate rows. Plant breeding is being discovered to be an art so closely allied to stock breeding in its governing principles that farmers who understand the latter will find the lessons of the former come very easy to their comprehensio ' : Scientists have discoyered that an Alaskan glacier is moving at the rate of two inches a year. Let’s match it for a ten years’ race against the Panama canal—Denver News. { RS VA < The woman who declared a wife was entitled to half her husband’s pay displayed a generosity often missing in others of her sex.—Detroit Free Press. - \ gt oy 525 When the grass was green and the skics were blue, And I dreamed that the heart of the world was true, I would backward turn through the n1ist;;-heigho!— I would backward turn, though my head turns gray; brighter day, And ever my wayiorn feet showld stray In the Land of the Long Ago. If I knew the way, I would call to me, doing -your level best. : Tier beltw MInd:t5-tHaTo0be From the mists of the Long Ago, —For hearing before judging. The boys who came with their shouts of glee, —For thinkiog before speaking. When the nod of the master had set them free— If 1 knew the way—heigho!— - And again we would play by the babbling brooks, And fish for minnows, with pins for hooks. £ VRGO AU eate. Dogeon & For they heed no_wait how the future looks —For promptness in keeping your prom- Who dwell in the Long Ago. If I knew the wéy, we would search, };ga_ifi, We boys of the Long Ago, For mandrakes hidden in some deep fen urchins ken— If I knew the way—heigho!— And we'd drop the:burden of worry and care, And the garment of trouble no more we'd wear, For “A merry heart” was the password there, In the Land of Long Ago. POV SIS S R e S S M e P T B DI 'EASTER LILY LEGEND. i Syl et s el .—ub;nlnaon'-‘. : “I refused this poem not over six months ago,” _thn gdlm. “Why.do you again “I thought that Yyour taste had a:‘::m.wtgq unl:du?- poet, “M sal — "| parting with it. and get home and cook supper. Once when we went to a wedding the old nurse who cared for her fed her gin | instéad of the bottle of sterilized milk I! had left to be warmed; another day my | dear old auntie told me with deep Joy | how baby had sipped so miuch strong | black coffee in my absence. Even the best baby wakes once In the night and sometimes I could not sleep for an hour or two, and so was cross and frritable the next morning. In our earlier married life the hour after dinner was the most dearly prized by John and me Then we discussed the principal items in the daily paper, the books we were- reading, the last concert or per- formance we had seen, some good-natured population. and refuses to have any.chil~ dren? Would it not be better to educate the men and women of the tenements and of such.races that are producing large familles of sickly,. ill-nurtured, half-cared for children, to give fewer and better children ‘to the world?. Then the pendulum will swing again.® The Ameri- can woman will not look forward to end- less years of drudgery. She will net shrink from motherhood, knowing that when two or three little ones have clus- tered -about her knee she hds done her duty, and may then look forward to years of emjoyment and self-education in the soclety of growing soms and daughters, and to being “the true com- rade of her husband. s HELEN CHARLOTT. San Francisco, March 3L —— ¥ 'VALUABLE DOG. Mark Twain is immensely popular with the farmers Iiving around “Quarry Farm,” his symmer home near Eimira, N. Y. He and his neighbors exchange experiences and both profit thereby. The genlal humorist tells of one farmer who ‘purchased a hunting dog that was highly recommended to him by a man who did not seem particularly reluctant about ‘When the dog was de- livered the farmer looked it over with considerable misgivings. It seemed shy and bashful and hardly the animal it was cracked up t@be. Anxious to give it a trial, however, he took it out shortly afterward and, as luck:would have it, ran across a fox. The dog took after the fox and the two were soon out of sight, the farmer following as rapidly as he could. Finally he met another farmer who, In response to his inquiry, stated that they had passed in his direction. Asked as to how they were running the second farmer replied: “Wall, it was nip and tuck, but I think the dog.was about three feet ahead.”—Lippincott's, FULL PARTICULARS. A small boy who had recéntly passed his fifth birthday -was riding in a sub- urban car -with his mother, when they were asked the customary question: “How old is the boy?” . After being told the correct age, which dld not require a fare, the conductor passed on to the next person, relates Mbther's’ Magazine., ° The Boy sat quite still, as if pondering over some question, and then, concluding that full information had not been given, called loudly to the conductor, then at the other end of the car: “And mother’s thirty-one!” IN TERRA COTTA. Mrs. Greening—And what does this statue represent? Mrs. Browning—That is Psyche, exe- cuted in terra cotta. Mrs. Greening—Poor thing! But they are so barbarous In those South’ American countries.—Cleveland Leader. i oy SRR WILLING TO TESTIFY. Mrs. Nexdore-A prominent judge of vo- cal music tried my daughter’s voice today Mrs. Peppres—Well, if he'had dalled me o ANSWERS TO QUERIES. CITY HALL TO CLIFF—Subscriber, City. The distance from the City Hall.to the CHff House in an air line is 25,000 feet or five miles 1600 feet. —p— CHAMPAGNE—Subscriber, City. The nuimber of cases qf champagne imported into the United States during 1906, ac- cording to the Custom-house reports, was 376,959, as against 366,245 for 1904, and 407,- 94 in 1903. 3 NANCY HANKS-J. S. S, City. Thers is no record of Nancy Hanks ever having. trotted a mile in race ‘or private test in two minutes or undes. Lou Dillon holds the world's record, having trotted that distange at Memphis, Tenn., Octcber 2§, 1906, in 158%. NEW YORK SIDEWWALKS—Subscriber, City. The widest sidewalks in the eity of New'York arg on Fifth avenue and West End avenue, thirty feet. On Broad- way, where thdt thoroughfars is eighty feet wile, the walks are nineteen feet wide, X e WHITEWASH—A. F., Pruitvale, Cal. This department does not know of a lime wash called “White House whitewash.” " You probably have reference to white-. wash ‘used by the lighthouse board. “The recipe for this was published in this de- p:-mr t, in The Call vf March 3, ‘current year. McKINLEY—A. F., Bishop, Cal. Henry T. Scott did not “invite* President Mc~ Kinley during his visit to San Franeisco , to stay at his home as his guest and then put in a bill for the President’s enter- tairment.” When the committee that undertook to éntertain Fresident McKin- ley ascertained that Mrs. McKinley was the a business prope! agreed to accemmodate The President and guests of Mr. Scott in his home by his special presented a bill to the committee was allowed and paid. . ——— 600 varieties Easter Novelties. send’s, 787-Market sireet, —_—— p Townsend's Califoynia glace fruits and choie in ai Town~ - ) A est candles rtistic fire- etched boxds. New store, 767 Market. * -, / —_————— Press.