The San Francisco call. [volume], March 07, 1895, Page 6, Image 6

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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6
CHARLES M. SHORTRIDQE,
Editor and Proprietor.
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The Eastern oMlce of the SAN FRANCISCO
CALL (Daily and Weekly), Pacific States Adver
tising Bureau, Rhinelander building, Hose and
Xniace streets, Now York.
THURSDAY MARCH 7, 1895
Jimmy, get your veto.
The revolution in Cuba is only a blow
hole.
The Governor has a chance for a ten-
Etrike.
Third street is bad, but some other streets
are worse.
We must have clean streets as well as
clean politics.
Leave the flower-stands alone and move
the cobblestones.
If the General Government has no use for
Goat I>land, we have.
If there is any sermon in a cobblestone
it preaches damnation.
For the present at any rate, the flower
■of the period is a daisy.
No city can put,-, on metropolitan airs
that tolerates sewer gas.
We expect Los Angeles to stand in with
us on the competing road.
Don't forget that we must have proper
eewers to have healthy homes.
Nevada proposes to touch the button of
Irrigation and blossom like the rose.
About the best move we can expect from
the Legislature is a motion to adjourn.
Street improvement would be a cure for
present evils and a prevention of worse to
come.
The Governor will find his seat more
comfortable if he sits down on extrava
gance.
Candidates for the Legislature Hereafter
should be put under bonds to keep their
pled?' -.
There are some men who never get into
a combination without- making it a com
plication.
Since oleomargarine under its own name
smells just as -weet, it might as well be sold
under that name.
It may be constitutional, but it is cer
tainly un-American for a Police Commis-
Eioner to hold office for life.
Let us get the work of municipal im
provement started before the Republican
National Convention comes.
From what some Assemblymen say, it
appears that certain reformers have been
talking more than they knew.
The common saying that California got
nothing from the deficit Congress is in
itself a proof that she got a black eye.
Although there are only two Democrats
in the Kansas Senate, they have been dis
turbing the State with a faction fight.
When the Democratic Congressman gets
home he will have a hard time trying to
explain what he has been doing all winter.
The reason why a scandal circulates so
rapidly is that while everybody wishes to
get hold of it, no one is willing to keep it.
Brazil is making progress in republican
government and has got far enough along
to substitute election riots for revolutions.
Legislators who wish to evade a moral
responsibility for broken pledges will
probably plead an immoral irresponsi
bility.
The appeal of the bimetallists for a third
party comes in good time to be discussed,
decided and laid aside before the next cam
paign begins.
In consenting to reduce the misappro
priations a little the Senators acted with
as much benignity as if they were for
giving people.
Now that the war talk between Mexico
and Guatemala is over, Corbett and Fitz
simmons have resumed their long-distance
tongue punching.
The Goulds can meet any boasting on
the part of the A.stors and the Vanderbilts
%y the quiet remark that they own a count
and have no scandals.
Every step of the San Joaquin road thus
far has been wisely taken, and the election
of Alexander Mackie to the office of secre
tary was one of the best.
Mrs. Vanderbilt is now in a position to
prove that marriage is not a failure and
divorce is a success, for by the double op
eration she has cleaned up $100,000 a year.
The report that the American Church
Missionary Society is short in its accounts
leads to the conclusion that some of the
members must have been introducing
politics into religion.
When a week goes by without the
successful working of the gold-brick swin
dle in some part of the United States, it is
a very exceptional week, and yet the
American people are intelligent and "all
fired smart."
President Worthing of San Jose Grange
says that if every man, woman and child
in California would eat only ten pounds of
dried fruit annually, the entire product
could be marketed in this State, and the
suggestion as well as the fruit is good
enough to give everybody a taste for sup
porting home industry.
It is reported in Washington that in the
next Congress, Mr. Loud is likely to be
chairman of the Postoffice Committee, and
Bir. Bowers of the Committee on Military
Affairs. These positions would be well de
served on the double count that the men
are worthy of them and that it is high time
for California to be taking her rightful
place in Congress and getting her share of
the honors.
The silver men who are thinking of leav
ing the Republican party in order to start
a bimetallist party, evidently overlook the
fact that in addition to free silver coinage
we need the Nicaragua canal, the Ha
waiian cable, bounties to shipping, the re
arrangement of the tariff on the protective
principle, and the irrigation of arid lands.
A party cannot stand on one issue alone.
The people demand-many things and from
the Republican party they can get them
A POLITICAL BLUNDER.
The address of the Bimetallic League,
published in the Call of yesterday, was
undoubtedly the most important political
document of the year. Its importance
was due partly to the greatness of the sub
ject, partly to the skill of the argument
embodied in the address, but mainly to the
signatures attached to it. A cause becomes
great whenever groat men advocate it, and
the fact that such a statesman as Senator
Jones of Nevada has signed his name to
this document raises it to the rank of the
highest political manifestos of the time.
With all due credit to the document and
with all respect to those who signed it,
however, we cannot regard it as other than
a political blunder. The fundamental
principle upon which it is based is an error
in politics. Starting yith the unquestion
able statement that the money problem is
now the dominant issue in the United
States, it proceeds to argue that neither the
Republican nor the Democratic party has
taken a decided stand in favor of the re
nionetization of silver and therefore a new
party is necessay to advocate the cause of
I bimetallism and bring about that change
I in monetary affairs which is necessary to
' the welfare of the people.
Conceding the dominant importance of
the remonetization of silver, we cannot
admit the conclusion drawn from it.
Political parties cannot be founded upon a
single issue, no matter how great and far
reaching that issue may be. Many things
are to be done by the American people in
the near future. The tariff must be re
formed on the protective system, the
Nicaragua canal must be constructed, the
Hawaiian cable laid, American shipping
fostered and promoted, and a vigorous
foreign policy enforced in all quarters of
the globe. To whom could the people look
for these things if they elected a Congress
pledged only to free silver? Such a Con
gress would speedily fall into warring
factions worse even than that which has
so recently passed away, and while it
might do something to settle the monetary
issue, it might also unsettle every other
issue on which the growing welfare of the
country depends.
No statesman nor any party is a more
earnest or steadfast advocate of silver
coinage than the Call. Nevertheless we
can neither follow nor approve of the pro
posed movement. There is no need of a
third party. The Republican party is firmly
pledged to bimetallism. The great leaders
of the party have espoused that cause and
the rank and rile are in hearty accord with
them. The surest and speediest way to
return to bimetallism is through the re
turn to power of the Republican party.
At the present time every aspect of the
situation and every" prospect of the future
promises a safe solution of all our prob
lems by the triumphs of Republicanism.
It is a matter of regret, therefore, that any
Republican at this juncture should talk of
forming a new party or entering upon any
untried experiments.
The way to wiu on this issue, as on all
other issues, is to remain true to the party
that saved the Union and maintained its
prosperity unbroken for thirty years. That
party will give us the Nicaragua canal, the
Hawaiian cable, the protective tariff, a
subsidy for American ships and free silver
as well.
OUR SHIPPING INTERESTS.
San Francisco ha 9 a fine fleet of coasting
vessels. Some of them were built in the
East and having come here on deep-water
voyages have been put in local service.
The greater number are the product of our
own yards. We have ample facilities for
their construction. Our fir timber is ex
cellent in quality and cheap in price. Pa
cific Coast spars are in demand the world
over. Our coasters are stanch, large car
riers and good sailors.
When we turn from our coasting to our
deep-water trade we find it mostly in for
eign bottoms. We have some vessels of
domestic build, but the big ships that
gather here each season to carry away our
wheat crop are under foreign flags. They
are mostly British iron ships.
Our navigation laws secure our coasting
trade to American-built vessels. There is
no such protection for our ships engaged
in foreign trade. The postal subsidy law
gave a small measura of encouragement to
American-built steamers. It was origin
ally intended to foster the building of
American sailing ships, but Democracy
was then strong enough in Congress to
knock that provision out of the bill.
As the emporium of the Pacific Coast
Ran Francisco should build and own a
large part of its deep-water tonnage.
Wooden ships are by no means obsolete.
Where the advantages are so great for their
construction as here, they can continue to
compete with steel and iron for most pur
poses. For that matter we have built some
of the best steel men-of-war in the world
and can do the same for the merchant ser
vice on demand. As a commercial and
manufacturing community we should de
velop our sea-power in the ocean paths of
peace. By steam and sail, with wood and
steel, we should do our own transportation
to our own profit.
The next Congress will be strongly Re
publican. It will favor the extension of
American manufactures and the develop
ment of American carrying trade. It will
be in a position to offer encouragement to
American ship building. This turn in our
National legislation comes in opportunely
with the movement now in progress in
California for increased industrial activity.
A day or two ago a Puget Sound built
whaleback steamer came into port on her
first voyage. Ships of her class have
proved very successful in the navigation of
the Great Lakes. They are an illustration
of the facility with which American inge
nuity adapts means to ends. Aa steam is
in a measure displacing sail power, espe
cially on comparatively short voyages, the
development of this type of steamer may
have its influence on the commerce of the
Pacific. With a little temporary Govern
ment encouragement, cheap coal, which
we are in a fair way to get, and the enter
prise to strike out for ourselves, we may
soon see a fleet of sea-going whalebacks
plying between San Francisco and Mexi
can, South American, Hawaiian, Australas
ian and Oriental ports. They will be built
in our own shipyards, fly our flag and
earn our own money.
THE NEW MINING ERA
The sale of a placer mine near Yreka to
a firm of capitalists moves a press corre
spondent to predict that Biskiyou is about
to enter upon a new era of mining develop
ment.
This will not surprise pioneers who re
member when Yreka was one of the lively
placer camps of California. There can be
little doubt about the mineral wealth of
Siskiyou. Compared with some other
mining counties, it has been neglected.
Yet, the judgment of the most experienced
miners is that even in the more developed
mining districts of this State there is more
gold in the ground than has ever been
taken out. How much more then is it
likely to be true of a county like Siskiyou.
During the depression of late years in
California gold mining there have been
plenty of indications that a revival would
follow. The war aeainst silver has in
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1895.
creased the demand for the yellow metal.
Improvements have been made in mining
processes. The cost of labor has fallen.
Communication and transportation are
easier "and cheaper. Supplies are more
readily obtained. All these things make
for the cheapening of production and the
profitable working of ground that some
years ago offered few inducements to capi
talists.
Hydraulic mining is on the way to
renewed activity under conditions de
signed to guard against injury to other in
terests. We may never have another
boom in placer mining and "poor men's
diggings," but it is very certain that cap
ital and enterprise have a great field before
them in our mining counties. Distance
lends enchantment to the mining pros
pect, but South Africa holds out risks as
well as inducements, which may be
avoided within a day or two's travel from
San Francisco. The mining population of
our mountains have no need to leave
civilization behind them. Orchards and
vineyards rind their most favorable condi
tions in the foothills within sight and
sound of monitors and stamp-milis. The
miners' ditches offer facilities for irriga
tion to the horticulturists. The grain
fields of the valleys are within a few hours'
ride. The farm, the orchard, the mine,
the home, the school and the church will
all be in touch in the new California.
A PRIMARY ELECTION LAW.
There are several bills now pending be
fore the Legislature having for their pur
pose the amendment of the existing
primary election laws of the State. There
can be no doubt that our primary election
laws in their present form require amend
ment. The reason they do so is principally
because the adoption of the Australian
ballot law so changed about the numbers
of the code sections referring to elections
in general as to make unintelligible the
chapter of the code which provides for
primary elections and which refers back to
those sections. The issue, therefore, is not
whether an amendment of the primary
elections law is necessary, but rather what
amendment among those suggested is the
best.
Two* conflicting ideas are to be found in
the proposed measures amending the
primary election law. One aims at making
primary elections compulsory, and re
quires that ' all parties shall hold their
primary elections on the same day, and
that all shall be governed as to the time,
place and manner of conducting said elec
tions by the same rules and by a non
partisan board of election officers, selected
in some non-partisan way. The entire
scope and object of this measure seems to
be to eliminate party organization, abolish
party control and banish party spirit from
primary elections.
The very statement of the scope and
object of this measure embodies the strong
est objection to its success which could
possibly be urged. It is a grave mistake to
attempt to discourage and destroy party
spirit as an element of political organiza
tion. The existence of parties is a vital
feature of our social system, and their
maintenance an indispensable element of
healthy political life". They are to the
State what the ceaseless motion of its
waters is to the sea— au essential to its
purity and a preventive of stagnation
and decay. There has been already too
much interference on the part of recent
statute-makers with the rights of men to
ally themselves in parties and to advance
their political views by means of party
spirit. The primary election ought not
to be subjected to the disintegrating
influence of non-partisanship. Every
party, in the selection of the men who
shall compose its own conventions and
nominate its own candidates, should be
free to adopt its own mode of action.
There may be some general provisions laid
down by statutes which shall so regulate
the conduct of primary elections as to
guarantee to the majority membership of
a party the right to rule it, and which shall
encourage party spirit to organize along
lines of honest politics. Further than this,
however, the law should not attempt to go.
The former statutes of this State, as em
bodied in the Political Code, contained a
simple and satisfactory way to conduct
primary elections which parties might or
might not adopt, as they saw fit, but
which, if selected, insured a reasonably
honest primary. The insertion of the Aus
tralian ballot system into the code, as we
have already stated, disarranged the sec
tions which contained this primary elec
tion law. The Republican State Central
Committee has had a measure drafted and
presented to the Legislature for passage
which proposes to restore the former law,
with certain additions which would more
completely insure the honesty of elections
held under it. If a primary election law is
to be adopted at all by this Republican
Legislature it should be this one or one
similar to it, which preserves party organi
zation and party spirit at the very foun
tain of political activity, the primary elec
tion.
NO MORE SECTIONALISM.
Our Los Angeles friends are gratified at
the interest taken by Ban Francisco
business men in the coming fiesta in the
City of the Angels. They accept it as an
indication that the sectional feeling which
has been supposed to exist between North
ern and Southern California is wearing
away, and that the people of both sections
are going to work together for the upbuild
ing of the State.
That is as it should be. There is not, and
never was, any good reason for sectional
feeling between Northern and Southern
California. There is no reason even for a
phraseology which so divides the State.
There is nothing in the topographical,
climatic, political or social conditions to
warrant any such distinction. Tehachapi
Pass is not a division but a connection
between two watersheds.
Some temporary considerations have in
times past created a certain, or rather un
certain, amount of sectional sentiment.
The question of irrigation, riparian laws,
etc., raised what was once supposed to be
an issue. We know now that irrigation is
just as necessary in some parts of Northern
California, speaking geographically, as in
the southern section; and that in some
parts of Southern California it is not needed.
There is no issue on that subject. A few
politicians and would-be office-holders
made this a handle for an agitation in
favor of State division. Then the building
of two overland railroads into the southern
part of the State, the multiplication of
minor branches, an influx of health and
home seekers, and a rapid growth in
population and business, created in the
minds of some the idea that the south was
progressive, the north stationary, and that
the vigorous new section wanted to set up
for itself.
The first indication of a determination
on the part of San Francisco and the North
ern part of the State to throw off the fet
ters of monopoly, and grasp and utilize its
facilities for development, has put a new
face on the situation. A few months ago
when the valley railroad proposition was
languishing for want of support, Southern
California talked of tapping the upper San
Joaquin Valley and drawing it away from
San Francisco Bay. To-day the talk is,
and soon the action will be, for a through
line that will develop the valley and tie
San Francisco and Los Angeles together in
business bonds. Within a few weeks
brains, energy and co-operation have
shown the people that California is one
State and one community, with a common
interest in the present and a glorious pros
pect for the future.
There is no sectionalism in business.
When the construction of competing rail
roads under the control of our own people,
the clearing of our rivers, the revival of our
mining industries, the multiplication of
our farms and orchards, the development
of our manufactures, and the rapid and
cheap exchange of our products in domes
tic trade become accomplished, there will
be no more talk of sectionalism. The
sense of solidarity and the pride of state
hood will silence it. The only rivalry be
tween the North and the South will be in
the promotion of the interests of Cali
fornia; the noble emulation as to which
can best work and best agree.
Baron yon Gotta is reported to have sub
mitted to the German Husbandry Council
a resolution demanding the refusal of the
most favored nation treatment to countries
outside of Europe competing with Ger
many and the eventual establishment of a
customs union of the European husbandry
states. This, of course, is designed to ex
clude American agricultural products from
Continental Europe, and while the design
is not likely to succeed, the consideration
given to it is sufficient to impress upon
our farmers the importance of building up
a home market for their products and
thus making themselves independent of
Europe.
The good ship Progreso, that sailed yes
terday with 108,000 gallons of wine and
18,000 cases of canned fruit, carried* with
her a mighty evidence of reviving pros
perity and also a proof of the need of the
Nicaragua canal.
STAGE ADVICE.
BY EDGAR SELDEN, COMEDIAJJ.
When a man knows what his own line is,
either in theatrical or literary work, the best
thing he can do is to stick to it, lest worse be
fall him..
At least that was what I told Archibald
BKLDEN WILL BTICK TO COMEDY.
\From a photograph.']
Gunter when he proposed that we should write
an opera in collaboration, and he would prob
ably own now that it was sound advice. At
the time he made the proposition though, he
was infatuated with the idea of winning lyric
honors— an idea he had got hold of from a
song he had written for Annie Pixley, called
"At the Washtub." The refrain was, "Wash,
wash, wash," a sort of parody in fact of Tom
Hood's "Song of the Shirt." I set the song to
music, and Gunter laid great stress upon the
fact that it must be rendered in a pathetic
enough manner to wring tears from the eyes of
the audience.
Now Archibald is a successful and original
novelist, but he is as heavy as dough outside
his books, so knowing that his judgment could
not be relied upon in the matter of stage effect,
we persuaded him to let Annie Pixley sing
"The Washtub Song" for the first performance,
in a lively, spirited way, that was in ac
cordance with her part. The thing caught on
tremendously, and Gunter was so delighted
he wanted to write the libretto of an opera
right away.
"You promise to compose six melodies,
Selden," said he, "and I'll make the book."
"Yes, and who will produce it when the
opera is written and composed?" I asked, for I
knew that sort of thing very seldom pays.
You want a company of fifty or Rixty people
to bring out an opera, and even if it- is a suc
cesß you cannot do more than pack the thea
ter, and a play that has only five or gix princi
pal characters and does not cost a tenth as
much to produce is just an likely to do that.
Besides, though I did not tell Gunter so, I knew
that his specialty was novel-writing, and mine
Irish comedy.
When I was a little fellow, only 4 years old,
I remember being soundly trounced for show
ing the first germs of that passion for inter
preting Irish character which has followed me
all through life.
They had taken me to a panorama where a
man named "Barney, the guide," had a good
deal to say.
After coming home I looked around for a
suitable costume for re-creating the part of
Barney, and remembered that in my father's
study was a handsome green table-cloth that
he set great store by. Half an hour later when
my father went in to think over some mathe
matical problem he found me draped in his
table-cloth .declaiming with a rich Irish brogue,
and he pave me a whaling that he thought
would cure me forever of trying to act charac
ter parts, but the passion was too deeply rooted
for that.
Well, it was no use arguing with Gunter, he
was determined to write the book of an opera.
When he found I would not go in with him he
set to work on the libretto all the same, and in
time got it set to music. The work was called
"Debs of Chicago."
Dixie produced it. The work was a great and
glorious failure, and I expect that Gunter has
learned now to let well enough alone and be
content with the novel writing for which he
is so pre-eminently fitted.
PERSONAL.
Dr. G. Heussy of Sutter is staying at the Lick.
Dr. R. W. o'Bannon of Hollister Is at the
Palace.
Dr. A. S. Niffin of Trenton, N. J., is a guest at
the Grand.
T. G. Yancey, a merchant of Newmans, is a
guest at the Lick.
D. D. Whitbeck, a capitalist of Sacramento, is
now at the Grand.
E. C. Farnsworth, an attorney of Visalia, is
registered at the Lick.
H. Prlnz, a lumberman of Monterey, was at
the Grand last night.
F.A.Schneider, a capitalist of College Park,
is at the Lick with his wife.
J. Marion Brooks, an attorney of Los Angeles,
is registered at the Grand.
T. J. Peachey came down from Angels Camp
yesterday and is at the Grand.
Lieutenant T. G. Phelps Jr. of the cruiser
Olympiais a guest at the Palace.
D. B. Hall of the Land of Sunshine Company,
Merced, is registered at the Palace.
Captain A. W. Thompson, a prominent resi
dent of Everett, Wash., is at the Palace.
Thomas G. Peachey and M. Rose, of Angels
Camp, are in the city on mining business.
They are staying at the Grand.
AROUND THE CORRIDORS.
"I noticed in the Call," said Captain Theo
dore Niebaum yesterday, "a statement that the
distance from San Fraucisco to New York by
way of Cape Horn is 7827 miles. While the
figures given are probably correct when used
to designate the air line distance, they are un
satisfactory to the mind of one who does not
know what a vast difference there is between
an air line and the track of a s,team or sailing
vessel. Here are the fastest records ever made
by sailing vessels between New York and this
city around the Horn:
"From New York to San Francisco: 1852,
Flying Cloud, 13,010 miles, 89 days 19 hours;
1854, same vessel, same route and distance, 89
days 19 hours; 1852, Swordlish, same route
and distance, 90 days, to inside the Farallones,
Wiww the vessel was becalmed; 1853, Flying
Fish, same route and distance, 92 days; 1800,
Andrew Jackson, same route and distance,
90 days 12 hours.
"From San Francisco to New York : 1853, Con
test, 13.610 miles, 79 days; 1853, Trade Wind,
same route and distance, 7s days; 1870, Young
America, same route, 13,580 miles, 80 days 20
hours.
"All these vessels were built with one object
in view— speed— and carrying capacity was sac
rificed to that end. Of course a modern skip
per wouldn't have these vessels as a gift, but
the money in shipping during pioneer days
was made by the man who got here first."
James A. Murray, banker, mine-owner and
pioneer of Montana, is at the Baldwin. He is
on his way home to Butte, from a tour of Mex
ico and Central America.
"The development of transportation in the
West is remarkable," said Mr. Murray, as he
sat in the brilliantly lighted hotel corridor last
night, studied the motion of the elevator and
talked Spanish with John Maguire. "You
leave Butte one night and reach Salt Lake the
next, Denver the third, El Paso the fourth and
two days later you anive in the City of Mexico.
Within thirty days one can travel from Mon
tana, do Mexico and adjoining republics nicely
and return home by way of San Francisco. The
American system of transportation is really
wonderful.
"Do I think Mexico and Guatemala will fight?
Well, no. The fact is neither country
is seeking war very badly. One well disci
plined American battalion could clean out
the whole Guatemala army. No, the war cloud
has passed away and the two nations are wor
shiping before the altar of peace. They are
really in no condition, financially or otherwise,
for hostilities."
Mr. Murray is a keen observer and student of
affairs, has traveled extensively and talks en
tertainingly on all the great issues of the day.
He is particularly interested in silver legisla
tion and believes that the white metal will
eventually get justice.
"In the several trips I have made to San Fran
cisco I have encountered some difficulty in
getting the run of your streets," said S. E. Wil
liams, a Chicago electrician, at the Grand yes
terday, "but in Salt Lake City the streets, or
rather the manner of running them, is enough
to drive a visitordistraeted. The street system
of that city originates at Temple Square, within
which stands the tabernacle, and the streets
forming it were originally named East Temple,
South Temple, West Temple snd North Temple,
but East Temple being the principal business
thoroughfare its name has been changed to
Main street. The first street south of and par
allel to South Temple street is named First
South street, and east of Main it is East First
South street andwe^tof Main it is West First
South street. Continuing south each street that
crosses Main is numbered in rotation— Second
South, Third South and so on, all being further
divided into East and West. The system is the
most confusing in existence, I believe."
R. S. Whitney of Los Angeles, who is at the
Lick, says that the desert mining country north
of Indio has recently been making some very
large yields. "Only a few days ago," said he,
"while I was in San Bernardino, a prospector
named McHaney brought a lot of gold amalgam
in to have it retorted. It produced about $700
in the precious metal. Mr. McHaney said that
it represented the product of four tons of ore,
which he mined unaided in nine days. The
property from which this ore was taken is
located about ten miles north of the Lost Horse
mine, in the Pinon Mountains. The location
has undergone no development and the results
obtained are entirely the product of surface in
vestigations. There is likely to be a good deal
of prospecting in the locality mentioned this
season, as reports indicate that there are very
rich and promising grounds there."
8. S. Marshall, who is at the Occidental, and
who attended the recent Mardi Gras at New
Orleans, says that the festivities there were the
means of bringing to that city at least $9,000,
--000 in money. He estimates that there were
300,000 strangers in the city during carnival
week, and' that the average amount of money
spent was not less than $30. "It has always
been a source of surprise to me that San Fran
cisco did not attempt something of the same
character," said Mr. Marshall. "Your climate
in the winter season is splendidly adapted for
it, Market street would be a splendid thorough
fare for the procession, and then what an ad
vertisement it would be for the city!"
There are quite a number of prominent Mon
tanans in San Francisco just now. Ex-Con
gressman W. W. Dixon, James McGovern, John
R. Reed, editor of the Inter-Mountain, and R.
Watson, all of Butte, are in town. The three
latter, who are just back from the South, are
at the Palace, and Mr. Dixon is at the Occiden
tal. Colonel Merrill, who is known at Wash
ington for his good work in connection with
the saving of valuable mineral lands to Mon
tana—lands that the Northern Pacific coveted
and thought to rob the State of— is also one of
the Montana contingent now doing San Fran
cisco.
PEOPLE TALKED ABOUT.
Professor Lucien I. Blake has succeeded, it is
said, in establishing electrical communication
by wire between the land and a vessel anchored
several miles out in the ocean. Professor Blake
is a Kansas man, and occupies the chair of
physics and electrical engineering at the Kan
sas State University.
Ten thousand dollars has already been raised
by the Greek committee on the Olympian
games, of which the Duke of Sparta is chair
man, in order to clear the rubbish and put in
order the Stadion, the ancient racecourse at
Athens, where the international games will be
held.
During his four months' sojourn General
Booth has traveled 18,453 miles, spent 1847
hours on the cars, has written 210 letters and
11 articles on his work, spent 429 hours in
army business and made 47 short and 293 long
addresses to 437,500 persons.
In Paris it is said that France is now gov
erned really by the President's daughter, Mile.
Lucie Faure, who has been already nicknamed
Mile. Lucifer. She is clever, ambitious and de
termined, rules her family completely, and has
published a book.
Mile. Rejane receives $1600 every time she
plays, and her expenses are paid, besides
which she is allowed a maid and dressmaker.
SUPPOSES TO BE HUMOROUS.
"If," said her father, "you succeed in mak
ing $50,000 during the next two years out of
your business you shall have my daughter. If
you lail"
"But I shall not fail," interrupted the youth
ful suitor, enthusiastically.
"Will you kindly tell me," queried the old
financier, coldly, "how you intend to make
such a sum of money without?"— New York
Herald.
Visitor— l am the Populist member of Con
gress from the 'Steenth Kansas district. In
yesterday's paper you called me a demagogue
Editor— Well, sir?
Visitor— What would you charge me to mail
500 marked copies of that paper to my con
st! tuen ts.— Puck.
"I wouldn't swear that way," said the kind
looking old lady, raiidly. "Bless your soul,
ma'am, you couldn't. It takes years years of
truck drivin' to come anywheres near it," re
sponded the gentleman whose team had balked
across the car track.— Cincinnati Tribune.
"Do you intend to pay an income tax?" "No;
I've had my salary reduced t0 53400." Then,
of course, you'll expect a Christmas present of
about $500 or $t>oo from your employers."
"Yes, that is about the size of It."— Boston Bud
get.
MUSIC AND MUSICIANS
Walter Damroseh is, musically speaking, a
very imi>ortant personage to-day. II? has out
grown the youthfuliiess which was once
charged against him as a crime, and his gifts
have found recognition i:i spite of the prover
bial stigma which attaches to the sons of
celebrated men. In the short season of Ger
man opeia which he is conducting at the
Metropolitan Opera-house, New York, he is
enjoying one of the chances of his life. Dam
rosch has succeeded in gathering together a
company of really great Wagner singers, and
though his conducting has not so far created a
sensatio:i it has given general satisfaction.
New York has rallied round him, and the per
formances are paying well, although opera,
instead of being a social function, as it was
during the Abbey and Gran season, is now a
serious business; almost a Lenten devo
tion, in fact. It is only the obsti
nate devotees of "bel canto" who listen
WALTF.H DAMROSCH, CONDVCTOK.
[From an engraving.]
coldly to the great music dramas that Dam
rosch is conducting, but even the most rabid
Wagnerians have to own that there is one fail
ing in his star singers, and that is scarcely one
of them sings all the time in tune. Reginald
de Koven says of the great tenor, Herr Alvary :
"He looks and acts his parts exceedingly well;
his singing is another matter." Marie Brema
is a great actress, with a splendid voice, but
she sings sharp. Another critic says of the
gTeat lyric actress Rosa Sucher, "her supreme
ecstacy in the duo, with its fine, exalted real
ism, more than atoned for the occasional lapses
In intonation"; and so on through the list of
most of the singers, though for Emil Fischer
all the critics have unqualified praise. As a
writer in a musical paper, however, observes:
"Singing of the old-fashioned sort avails not in
seething, surging scores like these. It is in
tensified speech that is sung and declaimed to
us." But though Damrosch is not to blame for
the proclivities of Wagnerian singers, "Wag
ner's seething, surging speech" would be more
acceptable in tune.
Women have accomplished a great deal in
the arts and sciences, but there is one field
where they have utterly failed to hold their
own against the sterner sex, and that is in the
field of musical composition in its broadest
and grandest proportions. Mile. Augusta
Holmes, whose lyric drama, "The Black Moun
tain," has just been produced at the Grand
Opera in Paris, is the latest example of the oft
made statement that women cannot quite suc
ceed a? composers. Miss Holmes' opera almost
succeeded, but not quite, and the critics, even
the ones most noted for their severity, have let
her down very gently. One of them
says; "Miss Holmes rs already a well
known composer, and a less vaulting ambition
than hers would have been satisfied with the
celebrity already achieved. But she seems to
have taken for her motto, 'What height can I
not scale?' She forgot, however, that it is not
enough to scale heights, the ambitious climber
must be able to stay there, and while genius
can breathe easily at great altitudes, simple
talent gets out of breath and falls back. Never
theless one cannot help admiring the audacity
which inspires one to say, 'I do not mind the
risk of breaking my neck.' Now when Miss
Holmes, who has considerable fame at stake,
undertook the ambitions task of producing a
lyric drama at the Grand Opera, she actually,
morally speaking, ran the risk of this misfor
tune. All honor to her pluck."
The music of "The Black Mountain" is com
pared to one of those transparent lakes which
reflect the grand panorama of nature without
having any color of -their own. Miss Holmes'
music reflects turn by turn 'Wagner and Masse
net; indeed, her admiration for the former
caused her to write her own libretto. The ac
tion is supposed to pass in Montenegro, though
it is the old, old story of Hercules giving up
everything for a designing woman. Mirko, a
Montenegrian chieftain, just returned from a
skirmish against the Turks, is about to wed a
village beauty, whom he calls "the gold
of his soul," when a Turkish dancer
Is brought in and accused of being
a spy. Mirko, touched by her voluptuous
grace, pleads for this dancer's life, and she is
given to his mother as a slave. The perverse
creature soon wins Mirko away from the vil
lage beauty, and most of the second and third
acts are taken up with their flight and love
making. Asler, another Montenegrin, tries to
rouse his renegade friend «to a sense of honor,
and failing to do so, stabs him, while the
dancer seeks safety in flight. Some of the love
scenes are set to graceful and really original
music, though others recall Rubinstein's
"Persian Melodies." The patriotic airs, songs
of victory, etc., are good, though not always
free from banality." _
Emily Crawford, the well-known English cor
respondent in Paris, says that "The Black
Mountain" would have not been declared a
failure if a man had written it. "I pity a
French woman," she says, "who has to strike
out in an out-of-the-way and ambitious path.
There is nothing harder than for a man as fa
mous as Gounod was or Verdi is, to get a four
act opera received at the Grand Opera-house.
But when the composer is a woman the diffi
culties are simply appalling. Augusta Holmes
is twitted with having been patronized at
the opera-house by the all-powerful Mme.
Strauss and an exotic Princess, who rolls in
riches and is a bosom friend of that lady and
of herself. They may have helped her! But
trust Bertrand not to bring out a four-act
opera if he did not think it had first rate quali
ties. The work Augusta spent on it was sim
ply prodigious. The rehearsals at the opera
house were the least part of her labors. Every
one who had a part was drilled in it at her
house. In some parts the orchestration is
weak, but the opera in many rosprcis hn.s tt»k
ing characteristics, and could I\hm< Uen com
posed by no commonplace musician."
A number of the newest unit most popular
composers have lately made cautmets with the
Berlin Opera-house to produce their works in
the German capital. Quito mhMimilv this enter
prising policy has been abandoned and the
works that Berliners wcro eagerly looking for
ward to hearing have boon ecimcroil to a num
ber of other opera-houses. Mascagni's mnch
talked-of "William Ratcliffe" has not been pro
duced in Berlin at all, but at the Scala, Milan.
Humperdimk s new opera, "The Royal Chil
dren"—another fairy story— will see the foot
lights at Munich under Hermann Levi's direc
tion, and Sullivan's ••Ivanhoe" has been
brought out in Liverpool instead of Berlin.
Meanwhile the disappointed Berliner* are bit
terly complaining that they ur»- do.-cd either
with Wagner or the eternal ''Hansel and Gretel."
According to a new theater edict issued In
Berlin, agencies for singers are classified as
servants' registry offices, and the ''servants"
wh«n registering have to give their age, reli
gion, amount of wages required, etc. The
Standard remarks that one might imagine nne
self back in the Elizabethan age when "play
actors" were proud to be designated as u Hei
Majesty's servants." The leading agencies
have protested, but with small prospect of suc
cess. Will a Nordiea, a Lillian Russell, an
Albani, a Patti, let alone the male artists, sub
mit to such indignity? So long as this insult
ing ukase remains in force the Berliners have
little hope of receiving ri Tit-class foreign artist*
who have any respect for themselves.
A visitor to Japan says the most curious
thing he saw during his travels was the band
maintained by the town of Hakodate, which
played every evening in the public square and
won the applause of large and enthusiastic
throngs. In the band were just nve perform
ers. They knew only one tune, '-.Marching
Through Georgia," and that they repeated in
numerable times every night, and night after
night. Neither the musicians nor the auditors
seemed to tire of this stirring melody, and
everybody manifested a proud confidence la
the thoroughness of the 'new civilization."
The World says of the first night of German
opera in New York: "All the Wagnerites
were present. The society that bears the great
master's name in its entirety are the German
musicians and professors, the rhapsodizing
maidens, all those who have learned to under
stand Wagner, the emotionalism of his music,
its psychology and its physiology. And th«
others were also there— adherents of the lyric
and romantic operas, the devotees of the art of
bel canto, the lovers of melody pure and sim
ple, of mere vocal exhibition. The former
came to applaud, the latter to scoff."
Massenet's works, which were very little ad
mired in Italy a few years ago, are now becom
ing popular. "Manon's Portrait" has just been
produced with great success at the Pergola
Theater In Florence. The Prince of Naples and
his suite, as well as all the rank and fashion of
the popular winter city, were present, and the
music was continually applauded and encored
by the whole assembly.
Montenegro is the most fashionable spot at
present in which to lay the scene of a lyric
drama. The latest libretto written with Mon
tenegrin local coloring is by Axel Delmar, and
is entitled "Szula." Carl yon Kaskel, a German
musician, is writing the music.
The Treble Clef Quartet will make its debut
at Golden Gate Hall on the 11th inst. It is
composed of Miss Beatrice Priest, Miss Jeanette
Wilcox, Miss A. M. Noble and Mrs. J. A. Bir
mingham. Miss Alice Ames, a society violinist*,
will assist at the concert.
The Musical Courier is authority for the
statement that the pianiste, Fannie Bloomfield
Zeisler, will remain in this country foranother
j year, and may possibly begin her season in
| San Francisco next September.
Saint-Saens is traveling in the Orient, and a
dispatch from Cochin China states that he
has just completed his new opera, "Brunhilda."
The work will be produced in Paris during the
autumn.
The municipal authorities at B.iyreuth have
decided not to purchase Herr Oesterlein's
Wagner Museum, and in all probability tho
collection will come to America.
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Our needs would seem to require cheap
freight rates from West to East and high
freights from Bui to West, whereas the inter
ests of the East are quite otherwise. Still, if
we can get cheaper power on this coast by
mean? of harnessing our waterfalls and trans
mitting electricity to where it is wanted, man
ufacturing enterprises may be able to produce
most that we ourselves consume if nothing
more. The manufacturers' convention which
is to meet at San Francisco this month will, it
is to be hoped, throw much light on this dark
subject— Tulare Register.
When the Legislature was new 'and its mem
bers were scoring for position in the retrench
ment race the press was ready to say and the
people to admit that the electors of California
had caught just the body of lawmakers they
had been looking for. There is less harmony
of sentiment on that point just now, and the
fact is attributable in great part to the carrying
at Sacramento of a large and expenstveand
useless army of attaches, and the disposition to
save at the spigot while a free flow is permitted
at the bung.— Napa Register.
The question of giving pupils of public
schools military training is being discussed at
the present time by the press of the State,
which recalls to mind that Fortuua grammar
grade pupils were given such instructions a
year ago. Patriotism and military tactics are
two things that could be profitably taught, is
the opinion of the Advance.— Fortuna Advance.
The Call publishes a list of the clerks and
other employes of both the Senate and the
Assembly drawing wages ranging from $21 to
$56 per week. In the Senate there are 163 and
in the Assembly 147, or a total of 310. Thus
there is an expenditure for this army of nearly
$ 11,000 per week, the greatest in the history of
the Legislature.— Quincy Bulletin.
No country can be thoroughly prosperons
•while its farmers have to depend on dirt roads
to reach railroad stations. Numerous and
competing railroads will help them, but their
help will not be great as- long as farmers have
to flounder through mud to reach the stations.
—Stockton Independent.
The announcement that the famous Bidwell
ranch in Butte County is to be leased to a syn
dicate of wealthy San Francisco Chinamen may
well carry dismay to the hearts of all who had
hoped to see the influence of the Chinese upon
California industries reduced.— Stockton Mail.
If a man passes a bad bill on our streets he is
arrested, if he can be caught. Ii a legislator
passes a bad bill, and legislators pass lots of
them, he is generally paid by some one ior hu
services.— Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Discoveries of new and extensive deposits of
gold in various parts of the State are among
the most encouraging signs of the times for
California.— Oakland Tribune.
All the reform measures introduced with
such a flourish of trumpets in the Legislature
are figuratively as dead as doornails.—Wood
laud Democrat.
The people are not being fooled by the
economical yells at Sacramento.— Quincy Bul-
Bacon Printing Company, 508 Clay street •
Crystallized ginger, 25c lb, Townsend'i. •
CCR-iT-tr; heals wounds, burns aud sores as
if by magic: one application cures poison oak;
it relieves pain and abates inflammation. •
Those who contemplate building can do so
ndvantiigeous.ly to themselves by entrusting
their building improvements to Jas. E.Wolfe
architect, Flood building. Specialties in flats.'
But little has been done by the Legislature,
though the high hat and woman suffrage bills
ought to make it memorable.— Lodi Sentinel.
Evkrt form of suffering has a cause. Remove
the cause and the suffering will cease. Nervousness
ia due to poor blood. l'urify the blood with Hood's
Sursaparilla and nervousness will disappear.
Ladies take Dr. Siojert's Angostura Bitters cen
orally when they feel low spirited. It brigUten.
them up immediately. ■»«.•.«■!■