The San Francisco call. [volume], June 30, 1895, Page 17, Image 17

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

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
SOME OF THE BOOK-BUYERS
OF SAN FRANCISCO
BY KATHERINE DURHAM.
Far and away from its commerce, enter
prise and wealth, the most just pride and
crown of its glory, is a city's schools, mu
seums of art and its libraries.
San FranciaOtt has not passed beyond the
money-getting epoch. The blood of the
fortune-hunters and gold-seekers of '49
still rushes strong through her veins.
When great values cease to be created in a
day, when the unrest and fever of youth
are crystallized into stable forms and life
takes on the more settled habits, then the
intellectual growth will begin in earnest
i' nd mental development take up the march
of progress. Old cathedral windows sur
pass In beauty and harmony of color the
new, but time will bring out the rich am
bers.
San Francisco is. and so are all new
cities, blinded with the vanity and igno
rance of youth. Far removed from other
cities and so lacking the possibility of the
training and pruning close intercourse and
comparison give, sne grows a distinct
genius. This"is well, but possibly the type
is not perfect. Yet to beraeti she seems a
plant resplendent in its peculiar foliage,
flower and fruit — a fruit which the stranger
says is lacking in flavor or a bit crude; and
jealous, she resents comment that is not
commendation. A Haweis comes within
her golden gates and says she has no
W. B. HEABST, ONE 07 THE CBITIOAIi BOOK-BUYEKS OF BAN
FRANCISCO.
[Frori a photograph by Taber.]
music. Immediately a hundred voices are
raised in protest, although the proofs to
substantiate their arguments are few. A
Baxter turns away from our gallery of art
in disdain, for he remembers the great
storehouses of collected works of genius in
Europe. His words fall on an impervious
arm«r of self-satisfaction, and it is set
dow\i to his English conceit and perversity.
San Francisco public schools are not up to
Eastern standard, and Kansas can show
better rank and file.
Could she benold herself as others see
her; could she look with true and honest
eyes, her illusions of the efficacy of her
educational methods, her art development
and musical status, leaving apart some
notable exceptions, must dim.
But there is one thing on which no finger
of scorn can be laid: San Francisco's pub
lic and private libraries and book venders.
Libraries make and mark the mental de
velopment of a people, and are the bar
ometer of the intellectual atmosphere,
and her mercury stands high. :
An intelligent people "demand good
bookstores, and good bookstores develop
an intelligent people. There are a number
of good and large bookstores in San Fran
cisco, and it is a significant fact that while
there are in the United States bookstores I
surpassing in size there is not. one which,
in greatness of variety and choiceness of
selection can equal Doxey's, and this in the
judgment of Easterners. In the volumes
of many rare ana beautiful editions on the
shelvesof wealthy and cultured New York
ers could be found the little pink label
bearing this name, and their mates repose
unpretentiously on the back cover of
books which grace the shelves of such as
Mme. Modjeska, John Drew and John
Fiske, and some have crossed the waters
and found their way to the libraries of
Irving and Ellen Terry, and hay» invaded
Mexico, Japan and the South Sea isles.
And so the well-sustained bookstores
of San Francisco bespeak a reading public,
and it is interesting to know that the best
works of the best authors meet the readiest
Bale. Recently a "Handy Volume Series"
of Choice arid standard literature was
brought out at a very moderate price.
They were shipped in large quantities to
thiscnast. yet the demand could scarcely
be supplied, and the piles of Emerson,
Hawthorne, Poe and the like decreased
most rapidly. There is ever a hue and cry
against the perversity of taste and lack of
appreciation of whatis good by the masses,
and the select few draw their robes of
righteousness about them and disclaim the
feeble mentality of the world. But what
say they to thefact that "Marcella." "The
Manxman," "Ebb Tide" and "Trilby"
could scarce be turned out from the press
fast enough to meet the great demand, and
vanished from the venders' tables, taken
up by the thirsty public as rapidly as
the "sands drink up the waters of a
river, and the sensational and third-rate
novels stagnated upon the dust-gathering
shelves. And San Francisco's reading
public is not all for novels and books of
poems: essays and histories are not neg
lected. No less is the appreciation of the
majority for the illustrating of the best pen
draughtsmen, as Pennell, Thompson,
Abbey and Gibson.
Art in boook-making as well as weighty
content!" find response in this people. The
publishers of the tasty, unique and artistic
books in the East count San Francisco
merchants among their best buyers, and
editions de luxe and limited numbered
editions come to this coast in proportion
ately large numbers. That beautiful new
Edinburgh edition of "Stevenson" is sub
scribed for by several Sau Franciscans. It
is a good library khe. but light of weight;
printed on hand-nidrle paper in type after
the style of the first edition of the "Waver
ley Novels." The illustrations are choice
and the binding plain, suitable cloth, and
the whole presents as beautiful a set of
books as has been published of late.
No more handsome books are made than
two sets lately received by a San Francisco
bibliophile. One, the scaVce and beautiful
edition of Burton's Arabian Nights, for
which binding was specially designed and
done in London, in full levant, dark blue
like the Arabian skies at midnight, and
inlaid with stars in gold; and the more
magnificent set of books, owned by the
came, is Mennier's.Paul et Virginie, Paris,
1887, illustrated by LeJoir, large Bvo, full
blue levant, and the inside covers lined
with sky blue morocco. The outßide and
inside covers are decorated with foliage,
flowers and birds in mosaic, with different
designs for each of the four surfaces. It is
of an edition limited to fifty copies. It is
done on Japanese paper, and for illustra
tion contains an original water color by
Leloir on the bastard title, proof's etchings
in quadruplicate, separate impressions of
the woodcuts of the text, and the series of
Lalanzi's and Hecloen's etchings, artists'
proofs. This last named edition rises to
the highest art in bookmaking of the
present day.
Public libraries may be the result of the
earnest endeavors of a few, and be the ex
pression of some leading minds. Not so
the private libraries. If one not acquaint
ed with the facts might have a look at the
bookmen's ledgers they might be surprised
to see the hundreds of monthly accounts
kept as regularly as the household ex
penses, and in many cases exceeding them,
and they would need conclude that the
intellectual man is as well cared for as the
physical. And there might be greater sur
prise in finding that women are in a large
majority among the book-buyers: and
some young women, scarce out of their
teens, possess some of the largest and most
carefully and critically selected libraries.
Have we not already the new woman
with us?
Individuals display different tastes and
interest in the selecting and general plan
of their libraries. Miss Kate Dillon's, even
yet in its infancy, is a type of the young
woman's library. The general plan is to
embrace all the standard works of history,
poetry and fiction in pood and substantial
binding, and to also add rare, beautiful,
limited and original editions of some of
the choicest works. Her special pride is
an edition of Oliver Twist, illustrated by
Cruikshank in his inimitable style.
William H. Mills' taste is for essays and
history, and so these volumes are in excess
in his library, although the poets and
novelists are not without good representa
tion.
S. G. Kellogg's library is the type of the
man's who is abreast of the times. While
its backbone is the standard works, every
new book on finance, political economy,
socialistic and religious questions are wel
comed to its daily increasing ranks.
Dr. E. R. Taylor is among the most
critical book-buyers. He has fine editions
of nearly all classical literature, and pos
sesses a copy of every edition of Homer in
translation and many of the important
originals.
W. R. Hearst is not satisfied with books
as he finds them, and their covers are
stripped off and extra illustrations are
added, and the bookbinder's art is taxed
in devising new encaaihgs. The illustra
tions of several- may be united with the
lest printed text to form a new copy. His
extensive, costly and beautiful collection
of books is rarely equaled.
And these are the types of the large
liKraries, and there are few homes among
the upper classes that do not have their
collection of books, even though it is
small in.innnber. All this argues well for
San Francisco and her people, and to
her remarkable growth in other lines will
be artiied her more important intellectual
growth. .
NEW THINGS
IN ELECTRICITY
Effective Elec
tric Lighting. — In
the early days of electric lighting people
were, apt to think a great deal more of the
mere fact of using an electric lamp than of
the actual efli< iency of the light given by
it. Nowadays, however, the consumer is
probably perfectly able to tell whether he
is getting full value in light for the money
he is paying the central station, and be
tween the strict fraction of the consumer
and the competition of. rival, lighting sys
tems, the electric light company can only
hope to succeed by the best service. Much
attention has been drawn of late to ob
taining the most di sirable results from
different methods of lighting, and the sub
ject has been brought down to two main
considerations, namely— reflection and dif
fusion. In factories and large shops it is
likely that the old practice of allowing
the light of the arc lamp to fall downward
will be discarded. It is found that by in
verting the lamp and throwing the light
to the roof (preferably of white) by a
powerful reflector, the rays are so diffused
throughout the building as to give the
maximum efficiency without straining the
eyes of the workmen. The prevailing
methods in outdoor lighting, too, are con
demned as crude and unscientific. The
present street arc lamps dazzle the eye,
throw sharp shadows and waste light!
The next improvement in street lighting
will probably be to use lower candle
power lamps, placing them proportionally
nearer together, at say the height o f an or
dinary gaslamp, using suitable reflecting
hoods and making the bottom half of the
globe semi-opaque and possibly tinting it a
deep orange color. There would be no
glare, as at present, and the effect would
be suggestive of the soft and artistic lleht
of the Chinese lantern. For incandescent
lamps a luminous enamel is used which
entirely hides the filament and at the s:ime
time disperses the light thoroughly. The
enamel is made in various colors, but the
white is to be preferred for general pur
poses. In domestic lighting dioptric
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 1895.
shades having prismatic corrugations on
their surfaces are coming into vogue.
They give a good diffusion of light with
little absorption, and when made of either
plain or tinted glass have a brilliant effect.
In decorative lighting many new ideas
have sprung up in the distribution of
masses of light in interiors, but none have
yet superseded in beauty and effectiveness
the system introduced last year of putting
the lamps out of sight and lighting the
room entirely by diffused and possibly
colored lights. Tins will probably be the
method of illuminating churches in the
future. In churches wh ere it has already
been adopted the effect is described as so
infinitely restful and appropriate that in
comparison the ordinary method of church
lighting seems garish and barbarous.
Sending Letters by Telegeaph.— After
laboring for fifteen years on the problem
of rapid telegraphy by means of the type
writer, an inventor claims to have solved
it. The system is said to print telegraphic
messages at the rate of 200 words a minute.
The message is dictated straight to the
typewriting operator. By a device at
tached to the typewriter a paper ribbon
about an inch wide is perforated by a
series of holes, varying in position and
number according to the character repre
sented. The actual perforation of the tape
is not done directly by the operator; if the
right letter is struck on the keyboard, the
machine automatically does the "rest. When
the message is finished the ribbon is fed
into another machine. In its passage over
a roller, small metallic fingers press upon
it, and as different holes come under the
fingers electrical connection is made with
the metal roller beneath, which produces
the necessary letters. This machine is in
synchronism with another machine at the
other end of the line, and whatever letters
are produced on one machine — say in New
Yorlc — are instantly reproduced on the
other machine — say in Washington. The
invention can be applied to any standard
typewriter. In the case of large business
firms newspaper correspondents or others
using the telegraph extensively punchers
and ribbon would be attached to the type
writers in their offices and the messages
would be delivered to the teleeraph office
on spools ready for instant dispatch. By
the new method all possibility of tapping
or robbing the message is obviated. The
system is ten times swifter than the Morse,
and has the additional advantage of turn
ing out the message on page form ready
for delivery. The cost of transmission is
brought very low, and the possibilities of
the system are suggested by the fact that
business men, instead of sending their let
ters by mail, can have them sent by wire
at the same cost as special delivery.
Telephoning to the Moon. — Both Edi
son in America and Precce in England
have long maintained that it is possible to
establish on the earth a record of the elec
trical disturbances that take place on the
sun. An electrician now holds that it -is
easily feasible to telephone to the moon.
He bases his belief in the possibility of this
communication on the well-known laws of
ether vibration. The ocean of ether quivers
to every touch. It binds the planets together
with an iron hand, flexible yet firm, solid
yet infinitely elastic. It is the ideal medium
for the transmission of signals. When it
moves, even to an extent inconceivably
small, our sight is affected ; we see. These
ether waves are eight minutes coming to
us from the sun, traveling at the enormous
velocity of 192,000 miles a second. It is
possible to produce waves moving at this
terrific speed by electrical means, as, for
instance, in the telephone, which is actu
ated by infinitely small pulsations. When
an iron mass is in the vicinity of these elec
trical vibrations a buzz or hum is given
out. This noise may be distinctly heard
in some systems of street-lighting appara
tus where the current is transformed from
a high to a low pressure. In accordance
with this principle it is proposed to send
electrical pulsations far out into the ether
and have them act upon any metallic mass,
like iron, with sufficient force to produce
sound. If the moon contains iron, and
there is reason to believe that it does, the
striking upon it of these marvelous vibra
tions would give rise to a murmur of
sound. It is suegested that this daring ex
periment could be carried out by means of
a gigantic coil, mounted vertically, with
its axis in line with the moon.
What Blackens the Globes of Incan
descent LAiars. — An Italian scientist has
been trying to add to the comparatively
small available store of information as to
how the blackening of incandescent bulbs
is caused. He found that under the micro
scope the surface of a used filament has
little humps, resembling in miniature those
on the carbon of an arc lamp. They seem
to. have been produced by some melted ma
terial. In places the filament is furrowed
by transverse cavities out of which rise
ramifications of lampblack. The iilm col
lected on the inside of the lamp shows
under the microscope as a very thin coat
ing of lampblack in which are distin
guished larger grains irregularly distrib
uted, and also yellowish crystals. His
explanation of the blackening" is that cer
tain mineral substances contained in the
carbon filament become fused by the high
temperature and evaporate. This causes a
gradual disintegration of the carbon, some
very minute particles of which are pro
jected on to the glass. When the explosions
of the little humps on the filament are at
all violent, entire fragments are detached,
and at those places where detachments
occur most frequently the filament breaks.
Tiger Shooting by Electric Light. —
Night fishing is evidently not to be the
only sport in which the electric light plays
an important part. A scientific journal
gives a graphic illustration of the snooting
of a royal tiger in an Indian jungle by the
light of a 16 candle-power incandescent
lamp. The sportsman is supposed to be
sitting in a machan or platform a little
distance from an animai which has been
left on the ground as bait. Near him are
six cells of battery, which supply current
for the lamp suspended from the branch of
a tree over the spot where the dead animal
has been placed. The wires are brought
up to a convenient place on the rifle, and
when the terror of the jungle is unmis
takably engaged in discussing his quarry,
the sportsman, with a Blight pressure of
the thumb, makes the electric connection,
and the light opens right over the tiger.
The subsequent developments are thus
described: "As the tiger is not in the
habit of looking up, it is a second or two
before he can make out where the sudden
light has come from, and by that time
he has a shell well in his ribs and
further proceedings have no interest for
him." It is stated that the principal diffi
culty in this method of besting the man
eater is the weight and size of the battery
needed, and the use of a small battery
which can be carried in the belt like a
cartridge is proposed. It is estimated that
thirty of such batteries would supply
enough current to light a 16 candle
power lamp long enough for the purposes
of shooting.
Does Electricity Kill?— when the
killing power of electricity Is supposed to
have been proved, officially and conclu
sively, '■■: the whole question < has been re
opened in a startling manner. A reputable
physician, who was recently engaged ,by
the authorities of New York State ;to in
vestigate into the effects of electrocution,
showed by facts, figures and 'photographs
that the shock as given to criminals from
the prison dynamo was invariably; fatal:
In the face of this, an electrician i stated
positively, that a, person exposed to the
severest "shock can be recovered by proper
treatment. Now, a lineman has en ap
parently killed -by 5 the V passage . through
him of the frightful charge of 3000 volts,
and yet resuscitated 'after two hours.
■ ' ' .■•' . ".' • — — • ' " '
:.\ On \ Good >. Friday, at a Socialist . banquet
in Paris, a scene of blasphemy was enacted
in \ the presence \of * two Deputies, Ernest
Roche and ' Clovis { Hugues. A .'pig was
placed ; r in ■ a." 1 coffin, revolutionary songs
were ; sung over it, parodying a . requiem,
and it was then carried around the room in
procession, preceded by a red cross and a
red flag. When I Cbaumette tried |to per
form similar acts in 1794 Robespierre
stopped him. • j
■>■■■"■ ■.'■.. ■
JOINING UNCLE SAM`S NAVAL SERVICE
BY TOM GREGORY.
Passing the doctor is the crucial test of
fitness when the recruit seeks to enter the
naval service. He may take in the enlist
ment officer on the question of age, nativ
ity, and also morals, unless he is so con
scientious that his tongue cleaves to the
roof of his mouth — a possibility somewhat
remote — but weathering the doctor is a
much more difficult bit of sailing, for the
medicine-man of the navy is especially
fitted — in fact he has taken a post-graduate
course — in finding a man sick just when he
would be well, and well when he would be
sick ever afterward. Doctors may some
times agree with one another, but they
always disagree with sailors. There is
endless war between the two professions.
Generally the extent of an army or navy
surgeon's practice in the piping times of
peace is bromo-seltzer for officers and sul
phate of magnesia for the men. The
physical organizations of the two are, of
course, different, necessitating widely
separate modes of treatment. In the
realms ot therapeutics there has been found
only one drug that will have the same
effect upon officer and private, and that is
alcohol. Alcohol, as a leveler of distinc
tions, knocks out death, which erroneously
has been thought to be pre-eminent in that
work.
The citizen and citizeness — bless the
French revolutionist for those noble terms
— have very extravagant ideas about the
military. The artist, the musician and
the poet have done much to raise war out
BEFORE AND AFTER "PASSING THE DOCTOR."
[Sketched by a " Call" artist.]
of the blood and dust and sweat and reek
ing slaughter-pen odors of battle, but the
tailor has done more. Homer could hurl
boulders ana javelins through the air and
tumble the Grecian heroes down to Plutus
in lordly hexameter, and we long to war
ourselves around the Trojan walls, but let
the man with the needle of steel sew a few
inches of buLlion on a coat and we are mad
for butchery. So the painter and the fid
dler and the rhymer, led by the tailor,
have rushed nations away to death. A
minority, doubtless, have benefited the
earth by dying, but a great majority would
have been of more use above the ground
than under it.
The man who could best give expert tes
timony on the broad question of war is the
man who never came back from the battle.
All the other evidence is incompetent.
But the scribe who notes the parade and
the review from the bandstand writes rot,
which, in the eternal fitness of the thing,
is in perfect ke' ing with the burlesque he
sees moving before him.
The green and bloom of vegetation
springing from the red-reeking soil of
battle may coyer the graves and trenches,
but not the wide gulf that lies between the
civil and the military. The civilian, with
the fire of a noble activity pushing the
world on from change to change, cannot
understand why the bebuttoned and be
gunned soldier should stalk around his
quarters like a manikin pulled, by a string,
a parody on war in time of peace ; and the
soldier, only an order-obeying machine as
he is, cannot understand that he is an out
of-place figure in the landscape. The
civilian, among his peers upon a social
equity, cannot understand why in the
military the officer is a lordly aristocrat
wearing the belt and spur of knight won
more frequently off the field of valor than
on it. Neithercan the citizen understand
why the man in the rank and file must
forever wear the livery of an inferior social
and mental grade, and saint* and "sir"
with proper humility should somebody a
little above his low level deign to notice or
approach his locality.
All these caste mannerisms of the mili
tary are undemocratic and un-American
and belong to the monarchic and titled
class. They came down the «ges from the
feudal day, where the robber-baron had
his retainers quartered in hovels around
him. When he meditated a raid upon
some neighbor whose female slaves and
fat cattle excited his cupidity he called his
captains and lieutenants into the castle
courtyard and after a council of war the
blooming ga.ng all marched out together
with flags and drums — and guns after the
villainous saltpeter had been dug from the
bowels of the earth.
War is only a horrid emergency, and so
is the warrior. It is- a period of destruc
tion, and he is the destroyer. Both are to
be put away and hidden like the graves
they dig. The soldier in peace is a non
producer and adds nothing to the develop
ment of a state. Cooped up in his post,
where he prances for the glorification of
his superiors, he is not a fraction as useful
and not nearly as reliable as that often
abused and long-suffering official— the
policeman. The professional trooper idling
in his barrack has .comparatively no part
or parcel in the great world going by. His
only duty is to salute and "sir" and minis
ter to the tinsel splendor of his officers
without being in the slightest a portion of
that tinsel splendor. He is not a bad fel
low; he is only a grain of wheat under
the upper and nether millstone of
that system called military discipline,
which forever crushes and grinds him,
and he goes to dust. The deplorable cir
cumstances that environed his life escort
him to his grave, and the meager honors
he receives there are about what he got in
life. Nothing can be so dead as a dead
soldier. The peculiar conditions of his
end, unnoticed in the mad contention
around him, his departure in common
with many others who melted out of the
thin red line being about the usual thing.
The monopoly by his superior of the larger
slice of the glory, leaving so little to go
around among the privates, makes him
horridly and atrociously dead. His grand
finale is so commonplace that few note the
passing of him. So much for war.
Where did this yarn drift from? Oh,
yes — the recruit and the doctor.
The would-be tar if he succeeds in haul
ing off from the snares the man of science
sets for him must steer amid dangerous
questions skillfully. He must explain that
there is no hereditary disease in his family
(the surgeon always asks if there is,
although lie knows that no answer but a
negative one was ever yet returned), and
that he is not subject t.o fits, headache,
heartache (that comes afterward), and in
fact not subject to anything but an in
curable (will probably be cured) desire to
serve his country. It is not amiss to ex
hibit this patriotic characteristic, not that
the medical inquisitor will taKe any stock
in the recruit's professions, but the in
tended deception shows sincerity of pur
pose and that covers the other sin. The
doctor is not a casuist — none are. In the
dissecting-room he never found a soul nor
any pathological evidences tnat one ever
existed. A few well rounded off lies may
be only due from an unusual muscular
movement among the vocal organs.
The man will be turned over to the chap
lain after enlistment.
When the surgeon takes the tapeline in
hand to measure the chest expansion,
which mvist be a, certain number of inches,
the recruit must carefully empty his lungs
until bis breastbone falls against the spine.
After that measurement is recorded ne is
told to "expand," and then he must take
in over a million cubic feet of atmosphere
if possible. Many promising Decaturs,
Hulls and Farraguts have missed stays on
the expansion test, and have gone Sown
unwept, unstoried and unsung, as
farmers, merchants or professional men.
They might have expanded their chests
the necessary three inches and have trod
den the path of fame. It is not quite plain
why chest expansion is a necessity in a
sailor unless, during his dramatic posings
on the snowy deck for the uses of litera
ture "his breast should heave, and his
eye ," etc., as sung in "Pinafore," and
by such warish attitudes strike terror into
the heart of the bumboat-man alongside
with a stale stock of pastry, pipes, hair
oil, iackknives and other ship chandlery,
or of the grocer's clerk coming on board
with a bill for the captain.
The next instrument of torture which
the doctor uses on the candidate is the
stethoscope. If there is anything that
goes to the heart of man it is the stetho
scope. It gets right down to the source of
motion and counts the beat and heave and
swing of the engines of life. The hiss of a
clogged vein, the gurgle of a defective
valve, the discordant murmur of the
diastole within a ventricle may consign
him to a long life ashore, in the very in
ception of his sea career.
The candidate is then examined for
color-blindness. The possession of this
visual defect may assist him in disasso
ciating the banner of his country from the
flag prodigally displayed during the Horid
flow of political stump-oratory, or waving
from the center pole of the circus tent.
The prostitution of the National ensign for
private advertising purposes is one of the
highly prized liberties of a free people.
The public is given to know that a candi
date for constable is capable of serving a
subpena, or that some freak show is the
best - on - earth - or-money-refunded-at-the
door, by the exhibition of the sacred sym
bol of a state fluttering around the prem
ises.
After the recruit has passed the doctor
he is figuratively chalked 0. X., like a cus
tom-house rifled valise guiltless of contra
band, and enlisted. Then he is ready for
other victories. He looks up the masts to
the truck pointing into the clouds above
him and wonders when he will be sent up
there to nail a flag to the slender stick.
That is one of the jobs of a sailor, he
knows, because he has seen so often on
tobacco packages and show cards the
lofty tar with his legs twined around the
royal pole with a shoemaker's hammer
driving nails through the colors into the
timber. That means "no surrender" to
the blooming tar and to the quality of
goods for sale. He begins to hear sounds
around him. They are the explosions of
preconceived notions of life on shipboard.
Sailormen don't talk as the novelists have
paragraphed, nor act as the dramatists
have cast them. He is the most written and
worse written man within reach of a pen.
He is either portrayed as a frolicsome colt
flinging his voluminously trousered legs
around like the ship's pennant when the
wind is unsteady, or as a mindless old
human hulk warpped and weather-beaten
and ready to be pickled away in his deep
sea tomb.
There is nothing in common between the
man before the mast and the man abaft it.
A shift from one locality to the other may
be called an organic change. Put the fore
castle hand on the quarterdeck and, presto!
he is au officer. Even the way he advanced
is lost. He instantly feels that he is in a
different place, and they as quickly forget
that he was ever in any other. It's the
way of the sea — the deep, inexplicable,
spell-workine, mysterious sea.
Jack drinks grog, becomes drunken and
sleeps. It is his only escape from the self
contemplation of the eternal hopelessness
of his social condition. No sailor loves his
calling, and most all hate it. Few escape
that life which promises nothing but a
shot and a winding sheet, my lads — a shot
and a winding sheet ! The ship is the last
resort. Old sailors go to it because their
lives are ruined for things better, and the
recruits because of a temporary failure on
land, and because of ignorance of what
awaits them when the mystic influence of
the ocean has wrought in them a condition
unfitted for the shore.
The new navy-man gets into his togs,
which are supposed to clothe the wearer
in a sort of wild freedom of action, and
the hilariousne«:S of the idea coming sud
denly upon him runs him quickly afoul of
some rule or regulation— sometimes one,
sometimes the other; frequently both. In
every square foot of a man-of-war is woven
deep in the fiber of wood or steel a rule or
regulation — sometimes one, sometimes the
other; frequently both. In every cubic
fo^t of air a bluejacket breathes is con
tained a rule or regulation — sometimes one,
sometimes the other; frequently both.
This method of discipline-drill is perfect,
and is not a very onerous practice upon
the recruit, but the monotony of it wears
upon his nervous system. The wisdom of
it gradually unfolds as the patient sinks
down in a sort of apathy. It destroys his
nerves. These things are painful luxuries
and out of place on the sea. The painful
necessities occupy pretty muck of one's
time there. The negative pole of a war
vessel is forward among the crew. Every
thing in that locality is "no" and "not."
One is kept so busy not doing things it's a
wonder anything ever is done.
But it is the way there and is a part of
the internal government of the ship. The
powers that be on the quarterdeck of a
man-of-war are in nowise personally re
sponsible for a system they had no part in
bringing aboard, neither are they need
lessly harsh in executing commands that
have come down to them from a source
they dare not question. The remedy, if
remedy there be, is beyond them, but the
system is monotonous, vexatious, irksome
and tiresome all the same. It makes the
enlisted men discontented to see the acci
dent of rank carry away so many privi
leges while their few favors are doled out
to them with reluctant hand. The naval
apprentice system, with its possibility of a
small insignincantpromotionto the Hardly
perceptible elevation of gunner, and which
shoulder-strap writers in the Naval Insti
tute Journal considered enough reward for
the ambitious boy who won his way from
forward, aft, is a failure.
The sensible youngsters see nothing in
the life but an inferior position all tneir
days and an asylum to die in. They gen
erally take their final discharge at the
expiration of their term of enlistment, and
the service is not only drilling the boys to
a calling they learn to hate, but is getting
no return for the time and care expended
upon them.
When the real friends of the service arise
in their places in Congress and enact that
the bright naval apprentice boy may work
his way aft into an officer's commission,
then the flower of the American seafaring
youth will be found wearing all the blue
dhirts in the white cruisers. That system
may not make quite as good officers as the
system at present in use, but it will make
better crews. The Government should do
more for the personnel of the navy and tit
it for the native-born boy alone. There is
nothing for him in the merchant vessels ;
that service has long gone begging for flags
and men in foreign seaports.
BIMETALLISTS MEET.
Sub-Committees Appointed for the
Coming Convention.
The executive committee appointed by a
meeting of binietallists, held recently at
the Palace Hotel for the purpose of mak
ing arrangements for a bimetallic conven
tion, to convene in this City August 19,
met yesterday afternoon at the headquar
ters of the American Bimetallic League in
the Mills building, George "VV. Baker pre
siding. There were present: W. C. Price,
N. W. Spaulding, W. L. Dickinson, Her
mann Zadig, Julian Sonntag, August Water
man and George P. Keeney.
The secretary read a number of com
munications from bimetallists of the inte
rior relative to the proposed convention,
expressing hearty indorsement of the
proposition, and predicting a successful
meeting. Many other letters asked for
bimetallic literature, especially the consti
tution of the American Bimetallic League,
and copies of the late call issued for a State
convention. In order to supply this want
the committee decided to order printed
several thousand copies of the call in pam
phlet form for general information and
distribution.
Upon motion Chairman Baker appointed
several sub-committees from the general
committee, and assigned each a certain
held of labor in making reparations for
the coming meeting.
Subscriptions are coming in from many
quarters, and the committee members feel
assured that the convention will be the
biggest silver meeting ever held on the
coast.
Secretary Keeney has figured out that
the newspapers of California stand ten to
one in favor of free silver. "Party con
ventions," said he, yesterday, "on the
financial problem are of no use. The con
vention called for August is not of one
party. It is absolutely non-partisan. We
hope to get Republicans and Democrats
in about equal parts. Each county is en
j titled to ti ve 'delegates at large, and one dele
i gate for each 500 voters as registered at the
| last general election. The only test is that
i a delegate must be an elector in the county
i which he claims to represent, and be in
| favor of the free and unlimited coinage of
| gold and silver."
PHILBROOK'S OLD CASE.
It Is Decided in His Favor by the Su- i
preme Court.
The case in the Supreme Court -which
cost Horace W. Philbrook his position as
an attorney has been decided by the court
in favor of the contention advanced by
Philbrook and the lower court is to render
judgment in favor of the plaintiff for
$662 40.
The suit was brought by the executors
and administrators of the estate of John
Levinson against "William J. and Benjamin
Newman, surviving partners of the firm of
Newman & Levinson. for an accounting.
In that case Philbrook made serious
charges against Justice Harrison, who
was an attorney in the case before he was
elected to the Supreme bench. For this
Philbrook was disbarred. Harrison does
not participate in the opinion, nor is that
controversy mentioned in any way. .
-— ; '.* -*.*'. — —
Charlemagne made a law punishing with
death a man who should insult or beat his
mother, and with imprisonment and
stripes the son who should neglect to pro
vide for her who brought him into the j
world.
|NoneTooQoodl
T No shoes are too good for T
boys and girls. While S
• they're young, their feet are f
f made sound and healthy or 5
a ruined for life. 0
Goodyear Welt Shoes aref
1 1 easy and comfortable, haveS
Ono tacks where they willf
( [hurt, do not press the feet?
S out of shape, bring no corns, S
• — just the shoes for boys#
5 and girls, as well as grown- 5
Sup men and women. a
Sask your shoe man. I
f 33T* Goodyear Welts are LEATHER J
J SHOES— not rubber.
50 TIMES A YEAR comes the inevitable weekly clothes washing.
1000 TIMES A YEAR comes the perpetual tri-daily dish wash-
ing. No help for the weary washer, until — The Pacific Coast Borax
Co. lends its 20-Mule Death Valley Borax Team, to make this heavy
work light and easy.
BORAXAID, their New Washing Powder, is just the right com-
bination of Soap and Borax to soften water, loosen dirt, heal the
hands and save the clothing. For sale everywhere.
- NEW TO-PAT. >
THE REASONS WHY
[he $5 Rate Can Be Maintained at
the Copcland Institute.
Mot Only the Cheapest Rate.
But the Very Best Treat-
ment, Scientific, Painless
. and Efficacious.
Whoever pays more than $5 a month pays
oo much. This is the charge of the Copeland
reatment. By universal admission this treat-
nent is the best. This low rate has been the
neans of making the practice of Drs. Copeland,
*eal and Winn the largest in the world. The
arge practice makes it possible to furnish only
he best treatment and the very best medicines
it that low rate.
The public in its cordial reception of the $5
ate, in its generally voiced conclusion that
'whoever pays more pays too much," has made
he maintenance of the rate a possibility. As
o the efficacy of the treatment thousands have
estitied to the fact that they have been cured;
nany more whose testimony has not been pub-
lshed have been cured. They are your friends
md neighbors, and what they say can be taken
'or the truth. Why neglect a disease which,
lot only endangers your life, but makes life not
worth living when the best treatment can be
lad for so little money ?
NASAL POLYPUS.
rtieae Tumors Are Removed Without
Pain or Loss of Blood.
In no one thing have Drs. Copeland, Neal and
tVinn gained s/> much fame as in the removal
)f polypus tumors from the nasal cavities.
formerly the operation was attended with
niich pain and loss of blood. By the operation
>f these specialists it is comparatively painless
md bloodless and withal permanent.
The case of Mr. F. A. Pust, whose place of.
business is at 220 Bush street and who lives at
JO7 California avenue, is a typical one. He
says: "About the first week in May my left
aostril became completely filled with tumors
polypi), causing severe pains over my left
and effectually stopping breathing through
F. A. PCST, 220 BOSH STREET.
that nostril. A friend of mine had been suc-
cessfully treated at the Copeland Medical Insti-
tute and I immediately placed myself under
their care. After one week's treatment they
removed the polypus without causing the least
ait of pain. I continued treatment for few
weeks longer and now feel perfectly cured,
breathing through my nose with greater ease
than ever before. They are very kind and cour-
teous and it is a real pleasure to be treated by
them. I feel very grateful to them for the cure
they^have effected in my case."
HOME TREATMENT.
Every mail brings additional proof of the
success of the home or mail treatment.
E. C. Peart, Colusa, Cal., writes: "I am
pleased to say your treatment for throat and
i-atarrhal troubles proved' beneficial to me.
You can refer, any one to me."
If you cannot come to this office write
for a symptom blank.
$5 A MONTH.
— - : . •
No fee larger than $5 a month asked for any
disease. Our motto is: "A Low Fee. Quick
Cure. Mild and Painless Treatment."
Tie Copelani Medical Institute.
PERMANENTLY LOCATED IN THE
COLUMBIAN BUILDING,
SECOND FLOOR,
91 6 Market St, Next to Baldwin Hotel,
Over Beamish's.
W. H. COPELAND, M.D.
; J. G. NEAL. M.D.
A. C. WINN, M.D.
SPECIALTIES— Catarrh and all diseases of
the Eye, Ear, Throat and Lungs. Nervous Dis-
eases, Skin Diseases, Chronic Diseases.
Otlice hours— 9 a. M. to 1 p. si., 2t05 p. m.,
7to 8:30 p. m. Sundav— lo a. m. to 2p. m.
Catarrh troubles and kindred diseases treated
successfully by mail. Send 4 cents in stamps
'or question circulars. .
For Whom ? I
Hurried, busy, nervous women are the I
ones for whom Paine's Celery Compound [
was especially prepared. These men and i
women with nerves all gone and feebly f
nourish need just the invigorating,
strength-giving effect of Paine's Celery '
Compound. Use It now and keep well. •' ! .
DE.MGNULTY.
THIS WELL-KNOWN AND RELIABLE SPB.
1 cialtst treats PRIVATE CHRONIC AND
NERVOUS DISEASKS OF MEN ONLY. He stops
Discharges: cure* secret Blood and skin Diseases,
Bores and Swelling*: Nervous Debility, Impo-
tence and other weaknesses of Manhood.
He corrects the Secret Krrorsof Youth and their
terrible effects. Loss of Vitality, Palpitation of the
Heart, Loss or Memory, Despondency and other
troubles of mind and body, caused by the Errors;
Excesses and Diseases of Boys and Men.
lie restores Lost Vigor and Manly Power, re-
moves Deformities and restores the Organs t«
Health. He also cares Diseases caused by Mer-
cury and. other Poisonous Drugs.
Dr. McNulty's methods are regular and scien-
tific. He uses no patent nostrums or ready-mid*
preparations, but cure* the disease by thorough
medical treatment. Hit New Pamphlet on Prt-
rate Diseases sent Free to all men who describe
their trouble. Patients cured at Home. Terms
reasonable.
Hours— o to 3 dally; 6:80 to 8:30 evening* Sub-
day*. 10 to 12 only. Consultation free aad. sa-
credly confidential.. Call on or address
P. KOSCOE McNOLTT, M. D.,
2 6' 3 Kttrnjr St., San Francisco, Cal.
M3~ beware of strangers who try to talk to yon
about your disease on the streets or elsewhere.
They are cappers or steerers for swindling doctors.
GRANITE JIOM3MTS.
and Imported by ) JONES BROS. 0 GO.
and Imported by f uUfILO dHUO. « bU.
(lor. Second and Brannan Sts., S. F.
US" Superior to ALL OTHERS and the latest
designs. Strictly wholesale. Can be purchased
through any Retail Dealer. , ;
ira IPS Ul» HJT (SEALED) MAILED FREE, 17%
fiLS? uUaalVI paces, cloth-bound, on i-rrors of
l~ HJa Ii MW\ Youth and Diseases of Men and
'ear W Hia Women. Address Dr. LOBB, 829
North Fifteenth Street. Philadelphia, Pa, -
17