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The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, September 10, 1899, Image 32

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THE LARGEST VINEYARD IN THE WORLD.
/""^ Hon.n the traveler from New
L England, while on his way to San
S'.n drop for from New
■is way to San
■ ■
il days at th»* station of Vina, in Te
~rf' hama county, he would see some
thins that would op -n his eyes and
cause him. upnfi his return home, to look
with disgust on the little Vermont hill-
Bide farm. hn!t :he sizr of a Mer.lo Park
garden, which it had taken his family
several generations to acquire and which
had hercir.fore appealed to him with all
the grar.dour of a principality.
The rer.son -if this change or view wc.uld
have bten found in the visit he had made
to the famous Vina Ranch; the property
of the I-eland Stanford Jr. University and
one of the representative farms of Cali-
The gentleman, whom we will suppose
has beer invited to spend h couple of days
with Man.wr I. H. Ramsay, will '(Radf
himself, upon aliEhtinj? from the tr;itn.
nut by Foreman Houseman, who places
him in a carriage drawn by a pair of
horses that would ornament the stable
of an Arabian prince, and starts him up
the roail at a record-breaking gait that
makes his hair stand on end. The town,
a merp collection of housrs which sur
round a s:;iti"n and its water tank, is al
most immediately left behind and the vis
itor enters upon a road winding through
Do /^9imals J-iave Souls?
•— -N I) animals have souls? That is the
De has That is the
that has I
I theological world for many years,
JIJ and In spite of the fact that the
most learned men have given their
most serious thought to the problem l
1 radically no nearer a solution "- da>
than it was a generation or two ago.
Of late, however, there has bee-, a very
<Widod revival of interest In this sub-
SSylffid the columns of the religious p. en.,
have be. used freely for the presentation
of theories that would never hav- J.«n
the chief difference between man and the
the chief differ.
lower animals was to be found in the .act
,haf the latter possessed ™' hln K ™ r £
than a material body, the end of winch
I"* the gravej whereas the more fortu
nate human being had been given a soul
orjsplritual body that would continue tv
exist after life should cease.
This has been the belief < f the nass of
jeliglous people and there are few chi<
dren who have not been brought to take
this view of the matter. That this .la
Jhe opinion of the entire religious world,
however, has now been shown to have
beeff far from the truth, for not » few
cergvmen have recently come J forward to
advocate their belief in the immortality
of the lower animals: and while th« Ques
tion itself is naturally one that man can
V.pvcr decide there is reason to believe
hat the world may yet change as opinion
upon the subject and that thetmemii
• „., when those who believe
... B - ,ul will b.
rity.
viva) Of
. ■
b"en taken by several cier*>menJ«J „,■„„,
Inencu in the religious world: ills itaUi:.
" tins new school of UhOUßhl ";£[>*
tai(i to be Rev. Forbes Piuuu»»; -i i<-i,..
--mar whose writing under mo nania of
-Athd Fortes." arc known where vr tie
English tongue is read.. A lew '}\™}}\*
feoithla gentleman astonished his congrej
KuUon by openly insisting thai he was of
fheiopinton that animals had Ims and
thl peri i stent manner in which he uasex
pounded his belief has led to tlio wide
spread discussion that has resulted in
■winning many converts to his tlieor>.
Mr Phil does not base his opinion
upon sentimental grounds, but usea argu
roents and Illustrations In support of hla
opinion that must appeal to v : "" :ii , used
to logical methods of reasoning. Ha qi }o tea
Scripture to prove that the writers of the
Bible fever tor a moment believed that
their animals would not enjoy Immortal
ity with them. Job spoke of the spirit of
the man and the spirit of the beu.st. and
other of the prophets made use of ex
pressions that showed Plainly that in. 1 '
was one subject upon which all men ht-ld
the same opinion. But Mr. Phillips Und
one of his strongest arguments in ti;o
origin and definition of the word • para
dise " a word always used to denote the
future life. It is found In all the ancient
languages from the Sanskrit to the Crieek,
and In every instance it Implies the same
thing— a beautiful park or pleasure «.ir
den inhabited by every kind of harmless
beast and bird. Here man may spend
eternity surrounded by those whom he
has known and loved during, his life on
sari li
The opinion is by no means a new one,
although it has not been accepted by ,
modern Christians. In nearly every in
stance the Eastern philosophers agreed
that If man was Immortal and there was
any life beyond the threshold of the shad
ows animals must be destined to enjoy a
similar fate. , . ,
Mr. Phillips does not stop with the re
ligious side of the question, however. He
calls science to his aid and from it draws
arguments that none of his opponents
have yet been able to overcome. On one
occasion he said:
"Sclonca tell* us that the structure
which we call the body i. composed of
atoms In perpetual flux, constantly disin
tegrating, constantly passing away. The
body of childhood Is not the body of early
youth. Once In a dozen years the whole
atomical structure of the body is changed.
But the identity of man remains the game
in spite of all. Memory will, the inner
consciousness, are ail there. We change
the material but man's true self remains.
Death is the final dissolution of partner
ship between spirit and body. If this ar
gument is sound it applies equally to man
and beast.
"Take another view of life as merely a
force. 2s*o form enn be lost in the uni
verse. What Is the relation of animal
consciousness to the mighty life which
pulses through things temporal and eter
nal? Why should It cease or come under
the exceptional law of annihilation?
Again, we believe in a just God. Surely
there Is some compensation for our dumb
friends for what they suffer here, some
reward for their loyalty, their faithful-
ness, their courage and the higher facul
ties they manifest.
'•To the practical mind and to t lie con
templative mind the same thought occurs
and is entertained. This moral convictl in
of a future, which protests against the
extinction of life with the dissolution ■ f
the atoniical embodiment, to the I
mind must also include and pi
against the extinction nf the life of other
animals as well as that of man."
With such arguments Mr. Phillips has
opened a discussion that has extended
Into every denomination of the religious
world, and it is cafe to Bay that there are
thousands ol p»ople to-day who believe In
CALIFORNIA WINES AND BRANDIES
BRING HIGH PRICES IN FRANCE,
WHILE WE ITIPORT THE FRENCH
VINTAGE UNDER THE DELUSION
THAT IT IS A SUPERIOR QUALITY.
the raich property to the cozy littU
embowered cottage which is the hon
Mr. Ramsay.
Hero he Is met by his hosl and taken
at once to his room, where iie removes
the ?tf:r,s of his long journey by rail and
ilesct-'nis to partake of such ;•• m al as
can only he found in a California farm
house, where excellence of cookl i
backed by a larder which is only limited
by the of a contii
After his meal is finished he goes on to
the veranda, and accepting a L'ood cigar,
lights It, and settlii
the spacious armchairs that ;■•
here and there, asks a few questions
while waiting for the team of t! irough
breds which is being hitched up to carr:
him about the place.
The answers ho re eivpe to his
tlons are such as to astonish him. He
thought hi mlng,
but all the rural Industrj of N<
rmt together seems small i i whai t,
hear." of this i ■ i al " rnia farm. He
learns thai the \ Ina Kr. nch covers •
acres, beside which it controls, and prac
tically owns, 100 square miles i t i
utilized for sh op and cattle grazing pur
poses ■ ■ . . •
land aro. fn addition to the natural water
ways which int. sect them, nourish'
over 200 miles of Irrigating ditches.
Tho mar. from Vermont will also lenrn
that the ranch Is devoted to a variety
of agricultural enterprises, each one of ;i
magnitude sufficient to make it an In
nce by its< if up.i rt
from the vineyards, wherein are g
the grapes from which the famous Vina
the immortality of animals who held a
contrary opinion until this English cler
gyman commenced to expouncf his doc
trines so eloquently. That he should have
met with opposition is only natural, but
at the same time he has had no lack of
support, and one of his most emphatic
apostles is Rev. Charles J. Adams of
Stat. n [aland, N. v.
It was only a few years ago that ani
mals were regarded as brutes incapable of
feeling the Joys and sorrows that went to
make up life for that superior animal,
man. Gradually, however, thia opinion
has been changed. It has been found that
animals possess a remarkable memory. It
THE SUNDAY CALL.
brandy is made. <>n further inquiry
he will learn thai there is enough land
planted in peaches, pears and prunes to
produce n ■ op of ovei -•■■ ; tons, for which
a price of $45, delivered ai the cars, was
receh ed thi; i m; I ha) the dairy,
w hich pn iduci ~ : p >unds of butter
month, is supplied by -'^ j.. ur»
blooded Holstein cow;; thai give each
month illons of milk. Tlm- grain
ol the farm hi will b( told
sacks each b< ason; and over 60 I i -
. f wool Is ' I lamed from p that
graze on tin i ange. M i ; i 'his
the fan h*ad
00 l lules and
c\\i( ks, chli k< m
ich numbers as to defy all
computation.
To attend to all ;..•;!.■ i n fi om New
Ei gland will learn thai • ■ ces ol
about SOO men are required and the ex
■ or (10,000 per month.
"Bui this Is the season for harvesting
the grape crop and the team Is now
standing ready to take Mr.. Ramsay and
his visitor to the vineyard, 3800 acres In
extent, where the lons rows of green
vines stretch away and away until their
color seems t« merge and lose itself in
the shadows of the distant horizon.
In this vineyard the visitor will see over
two hundred men busily engaged with
scissors sepa ting the purple clusters
from the stems which droop under their
v:.?;ht and casting them Into boxes
vrl-jh are- lifted into wagons and hauled
to the winery, where they are dumped
Into elevators ■ ratine: on much the
same plan as those in the grain store
has beer: decided that they have the power
of reason, sometimes developed to a con
siderable extent. The> are benevolent or
otherwise, criminal or honest, and these
traits of character are just as fully estab
lish.-d in the animal n* they ever are In
man. The monkey may be a criminal,
with hatred In his soul. To-day, therefore.
the man of practical mind h:is a very dif
ferent opinion of animals than that which
he in Id ara ago, and it is far from
Impossible, h the light of past events,
that the belief in the Immortality of these
animals should vet become the general
opinion of the thinking world.
S. RUSSELL HOOKER, Ph.D.
houses of Chicago, by which the fruit 1>
d icted to ihe crushers situated on the
thin; Boor of the fermenting house. Here
the grapes are crushed, separated from
the stem and conducted by gravity to the
numerous fermi nting tanks on a lower
There they are allowed to come to
the proper stage of fermentation, when
the liquid is drawn off and either pumped
Into the fortifying tanks or the distillery.
The pi inducted to the hydraulic
presses, where any residue of liquid it
retains is extracted and pumped to the
distiller;.. The remaining portion of tho
pumacc is then hauled away and used aa
hog f>-. d.
The visitor will get a pretty fair Idea
us' the immensity of this work when he
is told thai sometimes fioO tons of grapes
X" through this process in one day. It
takes about 200 men to do the picking and
ty-five mule teams to haul what
pile up.
The grape crop 'his season is expected
to amount to ahout 10,000 tons, which will
produce about 1.500,000 gallons of wine,
from which will lie made about 75,000 gal-
Luis of brandy. This wine Is stored in
a wine cellar which has a capacity of
about 1,750,000 gallons.
Th>- brandy goes to a special bonded
warehouse on the place, where It is looked
aftei and guarded by a United States
storekeeper. The rapacity of this store
house is not exactly known, but some
id* a of its size may be obtained from the
fact that over 600,000 gallons of the popu
lar liquor has been stored there at one
time.
All tins the man from the East will
learn as he goes from field to meadow,
from orchard to vineyard and from cellar
to distillery, under the guidance of Mr.
Ramsay, who, though but 29 years of
age, manages this great concern and
whose knowledge of the vine and fig tree
Is so thorough that he has been chosen to
award the medals and prizes for the hor
ticultural and viticultural exhibit at the
Paris Exposition.
When the man from the East has been
shown the workings of this great industry
and driven over mllf-s upon miles of road
way, as he goes from place to place tasting
pears here and grapes there, taking a sip
of wine from this storehouse and a little
brandy from that one, patting the glossy
skin of a racing thoroughbred as a host
ler holds open the door of one of a long
row of box-stalls, or subjecting himself
to th« contemplative scrutiny of a mild
eyed, kind-faced, motherly looking Hol
stein. who seems to regard him with a
kindly Interest aa In; watches her tran
quilly chewing her cud, when the New
Englander has seen all this he will find
that It has consumed so much time, not
withstanding the hurried nature of his
Inspection, that the shadows of night are
beginning to diop down and mingle with
the shadows cist by the foliage of the
magnificent oaks that are dotted over the
entire place.
Then it will be time for an excellent
juipper, which will precede the evening
smoke and cnat in me ranch office— a
two-storied building wherein labor the
dozen or so that constitute the farm's
clerical force.
Here the traveler from the ice-bound
coast of wintry New England will be
told the history of the place-. He will be
told that the central portion of the prop
erty was originally a part of the old
Bosequyo Spanish land grant. The orlg
Secret Leagues
of the Czar
A wild panic seized the court circles at
Bt. Petersburg after Alexander's death,
Bays Prince Krapotkin In the September
Atlantic. Alexander 11, who, notwith
standing his colossal stature and force,
was not an over-courageous man. refused
to move to the Winter Palace and retired
to the palace of his grandfather, Paul I.
at Gatchina. I know that old building,
r>lanned~as a Vauban fortress, surrounded
6y moats and protected by watch towers,
from the tops of which secret staircases
lead to the Emperor's study. 1 have seen
the trapdoors in the study for suddenly
throwing an enemy on the sharp rocks
Into the water underneath, and the secret
staircase leading to underground prisons
and. to an underground passage which
opens on a lake. All the palaces of Paul I
had been built on a similar plan. An un
derground gallery was dug around the
Anichkoft palace of Alexander 111. and
was supplied with automatic electric ap
pliances to protect it from being under
mined by the revolutionists.
A secret league for the protection of the
Czar was started. Officers of all grades
were induced by triple salaries to join It.
and to undertake voluntary spying in all
classes of society. Comical scenes fol
lowed, of course. Two officers, without
knowing that they both belonged to the
league, would entice each other into a dis
loyal conversation during a railway Jour
ney and then proceed to arrest each other,
only to discover at the last moment that
their plans had been labor lost. This
league still exists in a more official shape,
under the name of Okhrana (Protection),
and from time to time frightens the pres
ent Czar with all sorts of concocted dan
gers" in order to maintain Its existence.
A still more secret organization, he
Holy League, was formed at the same
time, under the leadership of the brother
of the Czar. Vladimir, for the purpose of
opposing the revolutionists in different
ways, one of which was to kill off those of
the refugees who were supposed to have
been the leaders of tne late conspiracies.
I was of this number. The Grand DuKe
violently reproached the officers of the
league for their cowardice, regretting that
there were none among tnem who would
undertake to kill such refugees; and an
officer, who had been a page de chambre
at the time I was in the corps of pages,
was appointed by the league to carry out
this particular work. Skobeloff, the hero
of the Turkish war, was asked to Join
this league but hp blankly refused.
« ♦ ■
Perhaps the most extraordinary family
in the world is one now living at Arkan
sas City. The mother has been married
five times, and for each husband she has
had a child. The five children are living:
with her and each bears the name of its
father.
lnal gTant was much larger tnan tne pres
ent ranch. In fact it was of greater ex
tent than the average county. The por
tion which is now the center portion of
the university property wad purchased by
some one who bought it for a mere song
that its amorous owner might bestow a
few jewels on some dark-eyed senorita.
After passing through various hands it
became the property of Joseph S. Cone
of Red Bluff, who "in turn parted with
it to Senator Leland Stanford in May.
1881.
From time to time the Senator added to
it by purchasing adjoining properties un
til, at his death, it had assumed Its ; res
ent magnificent proportions. It was orig
inally intended by the Senator and Mrs.
Stanford as a present for their son l.< -
land. He died and the broken-hi
parents saw their plans shattered a-nd
their hopes broken. Then the L-eland
Stanford Jr. University was built as a
monument to commemorate the memory
of the son who would have inherited all
this vast estate had he lived, and in
cluded in the princely fortune with which
it was endowed was the Vina ranch.
The New Isnglander having been told all
this would then ask as to the market for
the farm's products. He would be sur
prised to learn that while the orchard,
wheat and dairy outputs are disposed of
locally— thai is." within the boundaries
the State— the .vine and brandy is a
all sold in the East, being shipp id In train
load lots, tin.' :ars loading at the irery
doors of the warehouses running on spe
cial tracks that have been built upon the
ranch property for that special purpose.
The reason that the goods are mostly
shipped East is that the people of this
State, through a mistaken idea of excel
lence, patronize French wines and bran
J-lou/ Do<£s f\re
"I wonder who christens all these
dogs," remarked the License Collector's
deputy wearily, as he entered for the
thousandth and odd time the name, ad
dresb and full particulars of a two-dol
lar canine In the register.
There was a long siring of people of all
sorts and conditions waiting to contri
bute {2 to the city treasury, merely to
secure their pet dogs against the pre
datory poundman. Some of them, well
dressed ladles, carried Fido or Jip, or
whatever its name might be, under
their arms, evidently under the impres
sion that it is necessary to produce
your dog in order to register it. The
men, being more practical, for the most
part left their dogs at home, and the
work of registration went merrily on.
A roughly dressed, horsey looking
youth, with a peculiarly stupid face,
blocks the way for ten minutes. He
was sent by his employer the day be
fore to register two dogs, and in some
unaccountable manner gave the names
of two wrong animals.
"Do please alter the papers," he
pleads, with tears in his eyes, "or I'll
lose my job if you don't."
The request is altogether Irregular, it
involves the erasure of several lines on
the neatly kept register; but at last,
out of sheer pity for the distressed
youth the deputies yield, and he de
parts rejoicing, having, it is to be
hoped, saved his job
Then the waiting line surges forward
cue step, and ;i well-dressed business
man, wearing an air of contented pros
perity, iteps to the desk. Just sut ii a
man as one would expect lo be tht
owner of a champion Dane or a St.
Bernard of high lineage. Hut when
asked the breed of his dog. he describee
it as yellow, and as bearing the fiuing
name of Tramp.
"Must be a valuable yellow dog to be
worth a $2 fee," I remarked.
The man smiled indulgently. "Well,
it isn't much of a dog, 1 admit, rather
a bit of a sooner, in fact. But my
little boy's fond of it. You needn't
laugh at me for keeping a yellow dog.
1 had the finest fox terrier in the city,
an., it turned up its toes and died with
out any reason that 1 could discover.
Then I got A beautiful Irish setter, and
it took a walk one morning and never
came back. Now I've got a yellow dog
that you can't kill or lose and I'm
happy."
At first sight it seems rather super
fluous to enter the names of dogs in
the register, because the knowledge is
not of any particular value as a means
of identification.
"We do it to prevent fraud," explains
the deputy. "People who either find or
steal a tag come up here to get dupli
cate certificates, and then we ask them
what the name of their dog is. The
question floors them. Anybody, if they
have their certificate, can get a dupli
cate tag on payment of J5 cents, but it
cannot bo used on another dog."
As a matter of fact, however, it often
is. Lots of people who have two or
more dogs apply for duplicates, pre
tending they have lost the original.
They save $1 75 by this little device.
Another plan is to make one tag do
duty for several dogs by changing the
collar. The Inconvenience of this
method, however, is that you can only
have one dog free at a time. The Li
cense Collector is powerless to check
these evasions, nor can the poundman
help him. If a dog has a tag on it is
exempt from capture, and the pound
dies to the exclusion of all others, wriUa
the real judges of the East and Europe
send thousands of miles to procure from
California those goods, which they say
are superior to anything of the kind pro
duced anywhere else In the world. A
curious phase of affairs Is that a very
lar^r the Vina brandy Is
shippi :■ '. ! 'ii one occasion
a sing] gnmeni to France was the
- it from this country to
any port in the v,
The period of the stranger's visit having
come to a close lv- Is driven to the train
and pui abi ard the cars by his hospitable
tie tag* r Ramsay, who climbs on
the platform to bid him '■ age and
to insist upon him repeating his visit aa
;nnn as an opportunity shall present it-
Thi train draws out of the station.
;md as the traveler sits near the window
- Pullman and looks on the great
: "i vineyard that borders the track
on either side he hears a gentleman in the
n ah ad explaining something to a
ii<~s who are eagerly gazing out
ol the car windows. The sontleman Is
now speaking a little louder, and the trav
eler hears him say: "These great
thai you see are
the Vina vin< • re Ihe largest
• world."
"The Vina vineyards the largest in the
world?' J says the traveler to himself.
"Yes, 1 remember of reading that as a
statistical fact."
T!ir<n the eye of his fancy wanders hack
to Ins Vermont home and the little plat
of land surrounding it. How small and
poor and mean i; now api^nrs to him as
he remembers that the Vina vineyards,
lnrere as they are. are hut a ymall, very
small, section of the California farm he
has just been visiting.
man, of course, cannot ascertain
whether the animal is the rightful li
censee or not.
Still, if entering the names is of no
particular value, it has one unexpected
effect. The register is converted into a
huge comic annual, full of the most ex
traordinary titles ever invented. What
do you think, for instance, of a butch
er who names his coach dog "rihin
bone." still more appropriately minded
is a bootblack who has called his black
dog Shine. A Gordon setter rejoices- in
the extraordinary name of Bangs, and
a cocker spaniel is fittingly entitled
Charcoal.
The deputies, in their own little way,
do their best t" make the register a
humorous document. It seems strange,
but in lots of cases people who are will
ing to pay ?2 for registration do not
know the name or breed of their dog.
Some owners, with cheerful self-abase
ment, enter their animals as mongrels.
The deputies help others out by resort
ing to the time honored legal Doe. Thus
a dog may be of the John Doe breed—
"don't kno\." would have sounded bet
ter. Or an animal, accord'ng to its sex,
may be either John or Jane Doe. One
dog of the John Doe breed Is fittingly
named Muggins.
In view of the popularity of the hero
of Manila Hay one would have natur
ally expect' 3 , a large number of
Di .■••ys. But there are only three on
the list, and on of them, 1 regret to
say, is . mongrel. Certainly this in
sult to our only admiral should not
have beer, permitted. Nor have poli
tics been entirely neglected. Governor
Gage will be lad to learn that he is
repi »se ted by an Irish setter while
Jim Budd has to be contented with a
pup as a ni
The first fortnight of July is natur
ally the busiest period, for on the 15th
of the month the poundman'a wagon
Will acain be seen in the streets, and
no morcy will be shown the unfortu
nate dog without a tag. The two dep
uties engaged in the work. J. J. Crow
ley and J. White, registered between
th'pm l"" 1^ dogs during the first week
of this month. The total will probably
exceed 2800, which means tn the . ity
a nice, easily earned revenue of $6200.
Half of this goes Into ttv treasury, and
half to the police pension fund. "Tt
b< ems tn me," r narked Crowley, "that
the quality of do?? in thi= city is stead
ily Improving. Judging from the regis
ter, more people own good dogs than
in former years."
J. F. ROSE-SOLTSY.
Carefully collected figures sbow that th*
proportion of cavalry to other arms has
been steadily diminishing for a long pe
riod. The artillery has been increased,
the cavalry diminished. Austria. Turkey
and Spain' are the only countries whose
cavalry exceed? the artillery force.
The authorities of Lille, France, have
concluded some exhaustive tests of the
efficacy of ozone for purifying water.
They "find this method applicable on a
scale and mperlor to any hitherto
used All pathogenic or saphrophytlc mi
crobes inhabiting the waters experiment
ed up >n were destroyed. After treatment
the water is weakened in organic matter,
less liable to pollution and more palatable.
The beet sugar industry is assuming
respectable proportions. Last year 33,960
"long" tens were produced in this coun
try. California was by far the larger con
tributor, her nearest rival being Michigan.
It id estimated that these States will dur
ing the coming season manufacture 04,000
and o2,00<; tons respectively, the estimate
for the whole country being 122,000 tons.
The height of the Rock of Gibraltar is
about 1437 feet.
31

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