The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 2, 1906, Page 8

THE SAN FRANCISCOCALL JOHN D, SPRECKELS............ ereesasssassaasensnssssss PRODiCtOR ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO McNAUGHT. ....... JOHN BLICATION OFFICB. .. THIRD AND MARKET STREETS, SAN FRANCISCO ...APRIL 2, 1906 CONTINUED EXCELLENT TRADE EXHIBIT. RADE reports from the different sections of the country last T week were again somewhat irregular, but not unfavorable on the whole. There seems to be only one important disturbing 1t at present, and that is the coal situation, the possibilities of nmense e, involving about 500,000 men directly and prob- ions more indirectly, hanging like a cloud over a of the country and restraining merchants, railroad 1d financiers from doing many things in the regular Until the strike question is settled, one uncertainty and hesitation will interfere with many hes of business, from the Wall-street stock market several arge section business. less disturbance in railway and other traffic. Still It especially in the large Eastern financial centers, 1 of the large interest and dividend disbursements these three causes for hesitation, howeyer, the f the country proceeded smoothly enough. Even the scrutinizing the current business conditions in to complain, could have unearthed nothing turb anybody. On the contrary, the keynote reports was cheery. The staples as a rule were ovement at firm prices. The wool market ex- irmness, the spinners were active buyers of cotton, the hide r stronger, having recovered from their Arkets were recession ; Yorary the Western packing centers, the corn market showed ply offering on all the leading markets of the world. The the steel corporation, showing net earnings of about quarter of 1906, compared with $23,025,000 rter of 1905, was a great stimulus to general of 1g ¢ y. It is expected that if the earnings year run as well as during the last quarter of rst quarter of 1go6 they will amount to between nd ),000,000 for the year 1906, or over 8 per cent t capitalization of the gigantic corporation. The bank ings showed a loss from 1905 again last week, e decrease being 5.4 per cent, with the aggregate clearings down 000,000. Much of this decrease is evidently attributable liness in speculation in the New York stock market, as New of the very large Eastern cities exhibited a decrease of The other cities showed substantial gains as a rule. 1 South and Pacific Coast were especially bright, le recording a gain over last year of g7 per cent, Los Angeles 5 Spokane 31.7. San Francisco 19.1, Portland 183, and so orn. the week were 191, against 244 last year,-and in- hy of attention. The railway earnings continued ial gain over the same week last year. Crop prospects continue encouraging. Some cotton has been iled by unfavorable weather and some winter wheat has also suf- rom the same cause, but both will be replanted, and the net age therefore be largely remedied. nter wheat belt as a whole, the percentage of damage thus far has been too slight to cause a second thought. Spring trade is reported excellent almost everywhere, the dis- tribution of general merchandise going on apace. The demand for ber and other structural has been extremely large all winter, as ) per ‘cent orts from he failures for led dec show results wil on of the money market is very satisfactory. The first of April, with its heavy quarterly disbursements of about $65,- 000,000 in interest and dividends, has arrived, and thus far there s been no flurry in money rates, except on Thursday, when call 1s in Wall street rose to 8 per cent, but this rise, according to a from New York, “seemed to worry no one but the trad- The banks and other large financial interests expect easier money after these April commitments are disposed of, basing their . expectations on prospective returns of funds from out of town and the favorable outlook for imports of gold. Altogether, considered industrially, commercially or financially, the business situation is as bright and encouraging as at any time during the last six or eight years. I ers MUNICIPAL LIABILITY. T will be remembered that in discussing the distressing results of municipal ownership of a lighting plant by the town of Ala- meda The Call touched upon the question of damages in case of injury to a citizen through the operation of such or any other muni- cipal plant. A damage suit was brought against Alameda for the death of 2 woman by coming in contact with a live wire, left ex- posed by the carelessness of a municipal employe. The court held that a municipality cannot be made to respond in damages for the act of one of its servants. Numerous cases were cited to sustain that decision. If it stood as the law, then a citizen killed by a municipal wire or street car in effect killed himself, committed suicide, for as a member of the municipality he was part owner of that which destroyed him. The case went to the Supreme Court, where it has been reversed by a unanimous bengh in an opinion written by Justice McFarland. This opinion draws the line between a municipality in its political capacity as a government and one acting in the private or proprietary ca- pacity of owner and operator of a business. In the latter capacity its liabilities, arising in contract or tort, are thle same as those of a natural person or a private corporation. This decision i$ unquestionably sound and it is timely, since, before embarking upon municipal ownership and operation of public utilities, is well that the full responsibility of such action be known. Municipal cars and wires will kill just like private or cor- porate wires and cars, and the usual damage suits will follow, with results more significant than when they lie against a private cor- poration, for the city can hardly adopt methods for enlightening the jury that may be used by a private corporation. A municipality when it goes into business has to drop all of the immunity it enjoys as a political representative of sovereignty, and is-exposed to all of the vicissitudes that beset the business in which it embarks. Associate Justice Brewer of the United States Supreme Court is the latest convert to spelling by ear instead of by.the spelling book and the dictionaries. The Judge has handed down his opinion on the subject, but he may be overruled.in the Court of Public Opinion.—New York Tribune. CIITISRRN At On political questions Senator Tillman stands by his party. On general questions he frequently seizes 2 hymn book and joins the vox populi—St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 3 - SRR RS L, A St. Louis philanthropist is to establish a retreat for habitual cigarette smokers, and the world will be brighter and sweeter when it is filled —New York Herald. ——s " Those two Kentucky women who fought a duel with pistols and shot an innocent man 2 block or two away should have tried hatpins.—Buffalo Express. . i il " Andru Karnagy is pleeding for simpl spelling und wil bare the expens ov making it universl, thus betering his chants of dying ‘poor.—New York World. provisions were firm and well sup-| 1d wheat held its own very well, considering the enor- | as showing continued activity and expansion in | Taking the | he open weather has favored extensive building throughout the | SCHEME 13 WORTH WHILE WE QUGHT | GREAT .SCOTT! HERE (VE 07 0 GO WAY. BACK DOW | ABAIN 10 THE LeveL OH! COLD DRINK ElOF ANYTHING. Maoow REST I RJCERTAINLY oK CORYRIGNT. 1908, BY THE nvurpummnmr [CLMBING" THATS) AL e BEen o > CHME ON. UNCLE /A0 (ineres T T0pt ITHE SuUMMIT You CA THEN. HAVE A HICE REST TAKE o EASY, WELL SOUN 7iBE THERE FEEP / Q CLUMBING. 'WHEQ® QHI M DOIMNG TOR FIVE HOURS, STRNGAT D GO CRAZY. T WONDER IF (10 HIT OR MISS — s 01 | ~+ 1 THE ENTHUSIAST | | By Dorothy Fenimore i | HEN she was a very little giri she W began her enthuslasms upon her dolls. One day she dearly loved | Arabella and hated Araminta. The next day when Arabella was consigned to the far corner, Araminta reigned supreme in her child’s heart. There were those who said that she was fickle; and although she did not| under- stand exactly what they meant by the word she was dimly consclous that it carried opprobrium with it. She resented the accusation when she did come to have an inkling of its real meaning. For in her own consciousness she knéw that she had been really and sincerely attracted by Arabella’s golden curls until Araminta’s blue eves had exercised a later fascina- tion. And ever since those days of dolls she has gone from one enthusiasm to another with the airy inconsequence of a butterfly flitting from flower to flower. She im- presses on any one whom she can corral as a listener the fact that she is inter- ested, heart and soul, in whatever this fancy of the moment may be. Perhaps, | for that matter, the butterfly has the same interest in the flower. Not long ago she was engrossed in the | old English drama. At a reception she talked to one little woman for exactly twenty minutes on the influence of one Ralph Royster-Doyster on Shakespeare. “Who was Ralph Royster-Doyster?” asked the little woman at the end of the discourse. ‘“Was he a friend of Shakes- peare?” W'he contemptuous glance the exponent of the old English drama gave the un- enlightened one was sufficient to send her L LORD MAYOR—S8ubscriber, Oakland, Cal. The salary of the Lord Mayor of London, England, is the same as that of the President of the United States, $50,000 a year. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS—Inq., City. The Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., the largest in the Western Hemis- phere, contains 1,300,000 printed books, pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, charts, pleces of music, photographs, prints, en- gravings and lithographs. Of the printed books about one-sixth are duplicates not in use. MARRIED OR NOT-—E., Oakland, Cal. ‘Whether you are married or not, under the conditions you name in your letter of inquiry, is a matter for judiclal de- termination. The only way you can have the matter determined is to lay your case before a reputable attorney and have him bring an action for divorce if you be- lleve that you are married. What the cost would be will be told you when you see the lawyer. FOURTH DISTRICT-C. F. K., City. Prior to the act of March 13, 1883, the Fourth Congressional District of Cali- fornia was composed of the following named counties: Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, e to the public library with the laudable intention of discovering the identity of the gentleman in question. After she had made out that “Ralph” was one of the earliest English comedies she searched still farther into the rcalms of mystery and miracle plays in order to impress the malden with her knowledge. But the enthusiast was fairly scintillat- ing with the delight of horseback riding when fortune next placed her in the path of the little woman; and the latter has never had a chance to show that hardly acquired knowledge. For the latter has passed from equestrianism to Buddhism, from political €conomy to golf, from Ibsen to cooking sehool, from occult. science to law; but she has never returned to the old English drama. And so they go from day to day, these enthpsiasts, always just touching upon the rim of every pursuit, every interest that the workers of the world find real. They are far more earnest than they are given credit for. It may be that they are seekers for congenial sphere of activities and that, falling to find it, they must search the world, restless spirits of the mental universe. They always impress the casual ob- server with their devotion to their fad of the moment. He is likely to believe them charming on the occasion of the first meeting and .terrible bores on the fitth. But he must needs admire the con- stant optimism that is theirs in expect- ing to find In each new fleld what they have failed to find in the old ones. Some day they. may find it. Here's wishing them luck; and may they tell us once, and once only, how they came to attain it. — ANSWERS TO VARIOUS QUERIES. Monterey, San Benito, S8an Bernardino, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, Tulare and Ventura. From that date up to the vassage of the act of March 11, 1891, the district was a portion of San Francisco. MINING LOCATION—J. 8. W. Elk Creek. Whether a person has a right to take up a placer claim or work a ledge on the property of another who holds a patent to the land is a question that can- not be answered in a general way. The question should be submitted to the near- est United States land office, with a full statement of facts. The question of the right te use mineral waters that flow from the land of another should be sub- mitted to a reputable attorney, for it is a question that cannot be answered off- hand. . WOMAN'S EVEN AGES. (Not Gibson’s.) Cribbage; Loveage; Marriage; Parentage; —Baston Post. g CONCERNING THE CLOCK. S ID you ever take time to consider Dthe clock? You should have done so it you have not, seeing. the clock glves you the time whenever you ask it. (No, this is no joke. It is a plain state- ment of fact.) THe clock is so sensitive that it con- stantly keeps its hands before its face. This is due to the fact that through no fault of its own it has been doing time for many years in the most public manner. It may be that as the face of the clock has no eyes, nor mouth, nor nose, nor chin, nor chkeks, nor any of the usual faclal appurtenances, it keeps its hands over it to hi these defects. But this can scarcely be, we fancy, because its hands have no fingers nor thumbs, nor has it any arms, and any attempt to con- ceal one defect would only expose an- other. Most clocks have only two hands, but many have three, and it is somewhat re- markable, anatomically as well as nu- merically, that tue third hand is the second hand. It may also -be remarked that the minute hand is not the minute hand, for it Is longer than the hour hand. The clock has neither feet nor legs, but it runs just the same. It may be fast or slow, but it does not walk. It always runs, and it never runs up. It runs down unless it {s kept running round. Providence wisely did not give feet to the clock. The clock has a key, but no lock, and for that reason even the most ignorant person never tries to open a clock with the key. Some clocks strike and some do not, but no clock ever strikes with its hands. Just why a clock should be so peculiar is no affair of ours. (Of course this is no joke. The striking of a clock may be an affair of hours, but it is not spelled the same way. We are not trying to be funny. This is a dignified article. Please do not interrupt us again.) That passage In Scripture which says “By their works shall you know them” does not refer to clocks, but it might well have done so, because that is the way a good clock is known. , The clock speaks a universal language, and no matter whether it is a German clock, or French or Spanish or Itallan, it can tell you the time just as distinetly as if it were plain Yankee. The clock differs from all other human affairs in that while their operations end when they are wound up, the clock’s do not begin until they are wound up. There are no clocks. in heaven, because there is no time there. Neither is there any night, and an eight-day clock would not know when to stop. EVERYBODY LAUGHED. Representative Payne of New York was gullty of perpetrating a pun in the House recently. He asked for the re-enroliment of a bill concerning a dam, which he ex- plained had in some way been lost. Mr. Alexander of New York asked if it ‘was not a bill which had been sent to the President and returned. “‘Oh, no,” replied Mr. Payne, “it is not that dam bill, it is another dam bill."" The House laughed and Mr. Payne laughed.—New York Sun. e i S BEHIND THE SEATS AT A PROFESSIONAL MATINEE. | head. T Of: OH! R AKX HEMALD CO) ~ OCCIDENTAL l By A. J. Waterhouse | ACCIDENTALS FABLE OF MAN WHO REFORMED. NCE upon a time there was a cer- O faln nian who led a Wild and Riot- ous Life and Painted 'er Red, and could draw a map of the Primrose Path from memory at any time and drank with the Boys and Girls the night before, | and took Bromo Seltzers with himself the next morning and knew how exceedingly | Gifficult it is to fit a No. 7 hat on a/No. 19 In short this certaln man w: Dissipated, so very dlssipated that every- body felt that he either was Tralning for Practical Politics or else was N. G. You may judge how Real Dissipated he was when I tell you that at last it came to such a pass that all his acquaintances said: “He is such a Brilllant Man and so Good-Hearted! And he might do so much it he would! For such is the world, and if a man is a Worthless Character who neglects his family and blows in his shekels on Booze | it almost always freely admits that he Is a Brilliant Man and so Good-Hearted. Did you never notice it, Agamemmon? But after a while the certain man con- sidered the matter and Took a Tumble to Himself, saying: “Go to! will forsake the Giddy, Mount the Water Wagon and Travel with the Truly Good.” So he Forsook and Mounted and Traveled as aforesald. At first he could find no Joy in Church Socials, but at last he real- ized that they are full of True Bliss if one only can Place his Finger on it. So it finally came tp pass that this cer- tain man became as Good as They Make Them, and would Shy Violently if a Breeze from the Primrose Path was Wafted in His Direction, and he was rec- ognized as a Great Hand at instructing dear little children in the Way They Should Go, and he was Extremely Sue- cesstul and gathered to himseif Dollars Galore and became a Prominent Citizen. But in so doing his Success got in the way of other people who also were Lay- ing for Success, till, one and all, they remarked, “T'ell with him! He merely is a Common, Ordinary Chump who is Playing in Great Luck, and, as far as his Brains are corcerned they might as well be selected from the Mollusks on’ the Beach. Moreover, his Heart is but a Pet- rified Organ which never suggests any- thing to him.” And this sort of comment ran ciear down the line. Moral—If you wish to be described as Henceforth I| of the X. Y. Z railroad, on which recent collision took place.” “Oh.”” sald the thin man. the “She did not wish to marry him, but in a rash moment she had given him her promise to do so, and so she felt in duty bound to keep it. “That was very honorable on her part.” “Yes, but I know one person who s Real | Wishes she had been less so.” “Who is 1t P “Her husband.” B FELLOW WHO NEVER TRESD. A zong for the fellow who stanchly tries, And never surrenders to doubt, Who does what he may. ere the moment fies, Though the effort may end in rout. Hie way may be strewn with the wrack of time, The failures each year supplies, But be sure in the end he will higher climb Than the fellow who never tries. | On, the road to sucesss is a hard old road, | And the best of us stumbles oft, { And we may not heed what var doubts forbods | It the banner we'd bear aloft. | We have lost somewhat on the weary way, And often In pain we've cried, ! But the only loser at close of day Is the fellow who never tried. Then here's to the fellow who does his best, Whatever that best may be, ‘Who meets each day With a new-born est, Though the ghost of success may flee! For wken it comes to the final sum By never a mortal defled, To the untouched mark he will nearer come Than the fellow who never tried. IT IS BASIER— To sit down and rest In front of an ob~ stacle than it is to surmount fit; To utter the foolish word you thought of speaking than to throttle it; To go with others, though you are con- vinced that they walk an unwise way, than to walk a lonely path; To bufld a castle in Spaln than a three- room cabin on this planet; To find the faults in your neighbor than the virtues, for the former stick out the most; To heed a handbook of etiquette than to observe the Golden Rule. But do you suppose it pays so well in the long run? TRY IT YOURSELF. 1f you think that it is pleasant, digging out = screed like this; If you deem that it insures me quite & perfect road to bilss, Or it you were born a critic, and remark, “The merit's small’— brilllant and good-hearted stand in the way of nobody’s success but your own, and the chances are that you will win out'in the game—if you are satisfled with that sort of a winning. “I look with reprobation, loathing and abhorrence upon the dailly papers,” said the portly man, “I don't see why you should,” remarked the thin man. ‘“Why, they paint casualties and catas- trophes to human life as faithfully and vividly as black ink can depict red gore.” “But why should you object to that? Is it not a part of their province and duty?”’ was the inquiry. “8ir,” the pompous man exclaimed, with much haughtiness, “I presume that you are not aware that I am an official — Which is where I stand beside you and do not 4 dissent at all-— If, the while your brain is stagnant, you im- agine you could write, gome witty, pretty jingles could with readiness indite, ‘Weil, I do not wish to jar you, nor & note dis- sentient bring, But I'm feeling somewhat wobbly and—I wish you'd try the thing. And “The orator delivered himself of a most eloquent panegyric, but his voice is un- pleasantly metallte.” “I guess I catch the idea—sort of a tin- panegyric, wasn't it?” “The doctor says he may recover ‘[ he is carefully attended.” “What is the trouble with him, ary- way?” “Why, he had an ear for music, and in an unguarded moment he dropp:d into a concert hall and listened to one af the m'l‘l." 2 “He is one of the fellows who are not at all attractive to most of the girls.” “Why not? He is bright and not bad- looking, and I should think that he would be ™ “He has neither a dark nor a mysteri~ ous pest.” He—I do not believe in kissing, She—Why not? “I am convinced that microbes may be disseminated in the act.” “Oh, but there are so many excelent