22
TEN DAYS WITH THE PLEVNA LION IN HIS INTRENCHMENTS
At tbe commencement of the last
Russo-Tnrkish war, in 1877, I was honored
with an order of the Vienna i-'remden
blatt to act as its correspondent at the
scat of war. My original intention was
to become attached to the army of Osman
Pasha, who at that time (latter part of
June) was holding Widdin with 35,000
men. 1 experienced several delays in get
ting the necessary permission from Con
stantinople, and as I believed that the
omnipotent Czar of ail the Russias would
make short work in finishing the "sick
man on th Bosphorus," I concluded that
1 would be too late to see anything of the
war if I waited any longer, and therefore
joined the headquarters of the King of
Bonmania. As these lines are not in
tended to give a recapitulation ol the war,
other than those immediately connected
with Osman Pasha's defense of Plevna,
it will suffice that I narrate with a few
words the circumstances which lea to this
famous occurrence.
During the first part of July the Rus
sian advance army invaded Bulgaria and
attempted to march direct on Sofia. Near
Plevna, a small Bulgarian town of about
10,100 inhabitants, the left wing ot the ad
vancing Russians was suddenly attacked
with great impetuosity by Osman Pasha,
and completely routed after some severe
fighting, in which both sides displayed
much bravery. Before the Russians had !
time to rally Osman had taken possession
of Plevna and on July 27 attacked the
Russians, who had meanwhile been re-en
forced and were commanded by General
Schilder-Schuldner. at the little town of
Lowaiz, and vanquished them once more.
A few days later the Russian divisions of
Generals Krudener and Schr.chowskoi
Teachers and Pupils
of the Public Schools
At the last meeting of the Teachers'
Club in the assembly hall of the Academy
of Sciences Miss Carpenter opened the ex
ercises with a vocal solo entitled "I Know
a Bank Where Wild Thyme Grows,"
which she sang so sweetly that she was
forced to respond with an encore.
A. E. Kellogg, president of the club,
then introduced Professor Edward How
ard Griggs of Stanford University, who
gave ii most delightful lecture on the sub-,
ject, "Tne Relation of Literature to Lib
eral Culture."
"The tendency in the education of to
day," said Professor Griggs, "is toward
vocational training. We want to make
everything pay. Every individual now
adays is expected to be practical. He
must do something and do it well in order
to be accounted a useful member of so
ciety. This idea is certainly an advance
in our educatianal system, but we must
aiso remember that many of the best
things in life do not 'pay' immediately,
and that they cannot be termed in money
value. The man mu-t be more than his
bus.ii"£s, though a man's vocation is often
the measure of his manhood.
"Too great specialization defeats its
own end by narrowing the character of
the individual. In the reform of labor
hours we see that in many cases a man
does more work and better in a few hours
than he formerly accomplished in a longer
time. And why? Because he has now
more recreation, which, by furnishing
change of scene and new ideas, affords
him time for meditation, and renders
him capable of greater effectiveness in Lis
work.
"The true vocation of a man is living,
and education must serve this larger
growth and power in us. Specialization
is only useful in education when behind
skill is the development of larger man
hood and life. Liberal culture accom-
MISS CAMPBELL IN iB6O.
pliahes the latter, and this is the highest
education. The reading of the best vorks
in all ages supplies the individual with a
greater sympathy and appreciation of the
world about us and also of nature.
"This is the reason,' then, that we'should
emphasize everywhere in our educational
systems the need of greater liber <-;t'-
lure. But through it all we must remem
ber that the chiei study of mankind is
man. For each individual is syralo'
icaliy and potentially a microcosm where
in is reproduced in miniature the lile of
larger humanity.
"This life ie most expressed In action.
Therefore we must study history, which
deals with past action. Nor must
we forget the present, which we cm gain
by including in our education the study
of religion, of morality and moral con
duct, and of the fine art*. We find that
the latter are an expression of the ideal
of which history forms the body. Our
lives are partial failures at every point,
because- in them we can never completely
realize our own ideals. The religious
ideal we see expressed in the art of the
' and part of the Roumanian army joined
1 the command of Schilder-Schuldner, and
j the combined forces threw themselves on
» Osman's army, but were repulsed with
j great loss.
The town or Plevna is situated on a low
' hill and offers no other defensive ad
vantages than that there are no other
: ground elevations within gun range. Os
j man gradually increased his army to
| about 00.0C0 men and fortified his position
j at Plevna by intelligently planned and ex
| cellently constructed entrenchments and
1 earthworks, and, in an almost incredi
j bly short time, succeeded in creating a
really strong fortress out of the hitherto
i open town. Under these circumstances
: the Russians were forced to abstain from
' any further advance, to send for strong
1 re-enforcements, ami, in fact, to concen
i trat- their main strength in the imme
diate vicinity of Plevna, which town re
j mained for many months the center of
i the war operations.
On September 11, after Plevna had been
j bombarded several days by their artillery,
I the combined Russian-Roumanian forces
', tried to capture o?man's position by as
sault, and the Russian wing commanded
by General Skobeltff and the Roumanian
' army succeeded in taking a lew redoubts;
but all these, with the exception of the so
! called Grinitza bulwark, were recaptured
! by Osman the very next day, and the
Russians had lost 16,000 men uselessly.
Grand Dike Nicholas, the commander-in
chief, now summoned Russia's greatest
strategist, General Totleben, to conduct
: in person the investment and regular
i siege of Plevna, and by the end of Octo
ber Osman's communications with the
I oilier Turkish forces had been completely
Renaissance. During the ten centuries of
chivalry it rinds expression in* Raphael's
'Madonna' instead of any particular
moral action of the time.
"But literature has peculiar value be
cause it is the most permanent expression
of the higher human life. We can never
lose the great books of the world— the
works of Dante, Goethe, Shakespeare.
We will always have the same form as
that in which they expressed themselves
to their contemporaries. The other fine
arts are not permanent. Even in music,
which seems an exception, each selection
must be re-created every time it is nlayed,
and to be properly expressed the per
former must possess power adequate to
that of the composer — which is how rarely
the case!
"Literature is also the most accessible
of tne arts. In the others we have not uni
versal opportunities to see the greatesr
paintings and works of sculpture and heat
the finest compositions. But the master
pieces of literature are brought within the
reach of all. And we should always read
the books above us; they make lesser
books easier and develop our intellectual
power.
"Again literature is different, because it
is more universally expressive of life than
are the other arts. Music indeed affects
the emotions, but literature not only ap
peals to the intellect, but to a large range
of emotions through the melody of Its
rhythm, through the drama and the
novel. Then, too, great literature is
written lor all of us; we can all under
stand it. But science is most often writ
ten for specialists.
"Thus in the discussion of the relation
of the arts to liberal culture we might sum
up all by saying that ether things being
equal literature is the most permanent,
the most accessible, universal, and most
belongs to all of us.
"The first thing we require in the high
est literature is that it shall be an expres
sion of the thoughts and emotions of
great men in beautiful forms. Not only
delicate rhythm and gems of thought, but
also ethical problems, and the deeper
speculative mysteries of human ex
istence are to be found in
great literature of all kind?. These
are to be met with not only in the far-reach
ing philosophies of Kant, Spinoza and
Descartes, but also in the Divine Comedy,
or even in Shakespeare's 'Tempest.'
'Abt Vogel' is as fine a treatment of the
subject of the relation of music to the
other arts, as is to be found in any of the
philosophies. Ami so we find that in
great literature thought is never expressed
alone, hut there is also with it that which
elevates the whole spirit, the whole per
sonality. As for the education of tho
emotions, that is the very crown of moral
culture.
"Every phase of the natural world ap
pears more beautiful to us because it hac
been sung by the great poets. Yet in
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1597.
cut off. Another Russian army under
command of General Gourko had mean
while invested Southern Bulgaria, so that
Turkey could not very well, and did not
even attempt to, raise the siege of Pievna
nor succor Osman in any way.
During all this time 1 had been with the
Russian-Roumanian forces before Plevna.
It will be remembered that England,
France and Austria sympathized with
Turkey in this war, and the war corre
spondents from tt.esa countries were
treated with scant politeness by the Rus
sians and were seldom or never permitted
to show themselves at the front, toot were
required to remain near the different
headquarters. Though correspondent for
an Austrian paper I had taken the pre
caution to present identification papers as
a German ex-officer. These procured me
the enjoyment of many civilities and
privileges, as under the reign of Czir
Alexander II the officers of the Russian
and German armies used to fraternize
very cordially, and the Roumanian*,
whose King is a German, had many of his
countrymen as officers in their ranks. I
had bought a saddle-horse and generally
employed my time riding from outpost to
outpost and bad witnessed innumerable
times in what mortal fear the Russian ad
vance guards stood of the daily repeated
sorties of small detachments of Osman's
forces. I may mention here that, as I
had actively participated in tha wars of
ISGG and 1870-71, and was consequently ac
customed to the superb discipline of the
German army, 1 could not help being
very unfavorably impressed by all l saw
of the Russian troops. Their discipline
was very loose; their armament, equip
ment and transportation facilities many
Burns, no matter how graceful the lines,
how delicate the melody, the theme is
always Life. .Literature thus awakens our
interest in and sympathy with the com
mon things of daily life. If this is true
even of humble writers, how much more
so of the great masters of the art.
"Every book Is the creative embodiment
of the man's own life. So in "Paradise
Lost,' far finer than the narrow pedantic
theology of the time, or the lay figures of
Adam and Eve.or even the magnificent pic
ture of Satan, stands out the grand old pu
ritanical John Milton himself. Thus we
can study the man through his works.
But this is not alone true of an author's
life, for his writings also reflect the char
acteristics of bis epoch, and not merely
his epoch but also the race of which the
Latin is only a moment. Back of all lies
something deeper than the race — that
which belongs to all humanity itself. "
In the Denman Grammar School, of
which A. F. Mann is principal and Mrs.
Baumgardner vice-principal, there are at
present sixteen classes, averaging fifty
pupils. The school is in an excellent con
dition and keep up with nil the modern
methods. There is, moreover, an atmos
phere of kindly feeling and good-fellow
ship about the place which warms the
cockles of men's hearts. As the vice
principal said, "It is more iiice a home
here than a school."
On the morning on which the represent
ative of The Call visitel the school a
singing lesson was in progress, the
teacher being A. L. Mann, who is himself
a thorough musician. The songs were
excellently rendered and consisted of clas
sical selections as well as patriotic hymns.
When these exercises by the ninth grade
were finished, Miss Pearl Hossack of the
Normal School favote 1 the class and vis
itors with two solos by D. Hardelot, sung
in a rich contralto voice with great pjwer
and feeling. Miss Lora L ; eb, a graduate
of last year, then sang two songs. Miss
Lteb has been studying only, a lew
months, but already possesses a soprano
voice of unusual sweetness and strength.
At the close of the morning's session
the visitors were overwhelmed with three
invitations to luncheon, to take place at
the school. First came a toast given by
the pupils of Miss Ewtng's class in her
honor, and in the afternoon Miss Soule
whs favored in like manner.
On the next afternoon occurred the
great event of the school year, the anni
versary luncheon, given by the Holly
Berry Literary Society, which contains
thirty members, publishes a quarterly
and has just completed the first year of
its existence.
A facetious toast full of wit and humor
was given by the principal, Mr. Mann,
and Mrs. Baumgardner, Mils .Smith and
other teachers were called upon. ( At the
close of the entertainment Mrs.' Baum
gardner presented the club library with a
handsome volume of select poems and also
gave Miss lna Ball, the retiring president,
a mascot in the shape of a rabbit's loot,
which promises continued prosperity to
the young lady and to the club, over
which she has so graciously presided for
the past year.
Miss Ball was also the recipient of a
beautiful enameled watch as a token of
the love and esteem in which she is held
by the members of the Holly Berry Liter
ary Society.
"Oar present high school," said Pro
fessor M. E. Dailey, City Superintendent
of the Fresno public schools, "was erected
years behind time; officer* and men were
excessively addicted to intemperance, and
in many instances obedience to orders
could only be enforced by blows. But, to
return to my story.
In the afternoon of November 30 I was
as usual at the outposts, when it sud
denly became quite dark in consequence
of a blinding snowstorm, so that I had to
rely on the directions given me by officers
of different posts, and tried to shape my
way accordingly. Believing myself to
be on the right road I was disagreeably
surprised by receiving a blow with the
stock end of a musket on my shoulder,
and before I bad. time to give the spurs to
my horse half adoz3n hands had pulled
my riding-cloak away from me from the
left side, while as many, other hands
pulled me off the horse from the other
side, and I found myself captured by
about a dozen of the much-dreaded Bashi-
Bazouks. These are a kind of irregular
Turkish soldiers, mostly from tbe Asiatic
provinces, and of which the Russians had
told me that Osman had some 25,000
in his army, while he actually had no
more than about 400, as I afterward ascer
tained.
My pockets were emptied like lightning,
my papers, revolver and everything 1 had
were taken from me, and my boots were
pulled from my feet but returned to me,
minus the spurs, alter the fellows had
convinced themselves that nothing was
hidden therein. Two sandwiches which I
had In my pockets were devoured with
evident appetite before my eyes by the
officer in charge, but, strange to say, a bot
tle lull of very good cognac merely made
the iound of all my captors, who smelled
at it and then gave it back to me with a
last yerr at a cost of $75,000 and is consid
ered one of ihe finest high school build
ings in the Slate. There are now 225
pupils in attendance and we have but re
cently, instituted a department of manual
training.
"In the primary schools of the city,"
continued Mr. Dailey, "there has been a
change made in the first and second years
which takes out all ormal number work
and puts in more reading. L' st week the
board purchased $200 worth of books on
FRESNO HIGH SCHOOL.
various subjects, raos.ly history, biogra
phy and science, which will be used for
supplementary reading in the first and
second grades. ■■• : j
"Besides our High School we have lour
ward schools in the city, with an attend
ance of some 1850 pupils in ail, and about
44 teachers, the majority of the lattsr be
ing normal or college trained. Those in
the High School re; resent four different
State universities. Besides all these we
have special teachers for all the schools in
both music and drawing, and this year
W. A. Tenney comes to us from the Uni
versity ul New Mexico to teach manual
training. . .
"Four weeks ago the meeting of the San
Joaquin Valley Teachers' Association was
held in Fresno, and it was voted to con
tinue to meet annually in our city."
*** . •
There are 550 girls at present attending
the Girls' High School in San Francisco.
Miss Henriette Burns has recently been
M. E. DAILEY, CITY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS AT FRESNO
assigned a position as substitute in tie
library. Several months ago the girls
gave a musical and literary entertainment
for tho benefit of the library lund, which
proved a great success and netted tbam
$300. This sum has lately been used to
purchase a large number of reference
books in the history and English depart
ments.
In speaking of the high-school course
of study Principal Elislui Brooks said:
"We aro trying to accomplish here in
three years what is done elsewhere in
four, which, in my opinion, is both un
smile. My military passport was studied
with much attention, upside down as I no
ticed, and the men did not know what to
make oi it. After the first rough han
dling 1 was treated with tolerable cour
tesy, and led into the fortress without 1
having my eyes tied. I call it fortress,
but it had to me more of the appearance
of a subterranean labyrinth than any
thing else. I passe i intrenehment after
intrenchment, all very deer, but the
earthworks before them were low and so
constructed that even at a distance of only
a few feet nobody would suppose that he
was right in front of redoubtable bul
warks. At the first redoubt I, my horse
and everything belonging to me were
turned over to the regular officer on duty
there, who. after sending for a relief, con
ducted me in person to headquarters,
which was in a house just outside of the
town.
After waiting half an hour in an ante
room I was brought before two officers in
undress uniform, whom I found occupied
in studying my papers. One of the of
ficers — a medium-sized, middle-aged man
with a fez and short-clipped, full beard —
advanced toward me and, extending his
hand, asked in a jovial manner and in
fairly good German after the health of
General Moltke. As I took the man to be
a captain at the most, I gave him a hearty
handshake and assured him that the great
strategist had looked quite well when I
last saw him several years before. Just
then several pashas in full uniform en
tered the room, and I now- became aware
that the man who had addressed me was
the famous and hitherto invincible Osman
Pasha. lat once assumed a military po
sition, placed my cap, which I had in my
necessary and unjust. I allow girls who
wish to take the course in four years, but
only about 10 per cent avail themselves of
the privilege, for the majority struggle
along to keep up in their classes, fearing
otherwise to incur the humiliation of be
ing thought less bright than the rest of
their classmates."
In speaking of the high school course of
study Principal Elisha Brooks said: "We
are trying to accomplish here in three
years what is done elsewhere in four,
which, in my opinion, is both unnecessary
and unjust. I allow girls who wish to take
the course in four years, but only about
1 per cent avail themselves of the privilege,
for the majority struggle along to keep up
in their classes, fearing otherwise to in
cur the humiliation of being thought less
bright than- the rest of their ciissaiates."
* » * •
Miss Malloy is one of our early pioneer
teachers, she having served thirty-three
years in the department. Miss Mallo
came to San Francisco from Brooklyn, N.
V. , in 1863 and tha next year was ap
pointed to the Lincoln Primary. This old
building was afterward moved to Seventh
street, and then demolished. • Later M'ss
Molloy taught in the old Mission School,
from which she was transferred in 1871 to
the Webster School, on Fifth streei, near
Market, which then stood in the midst of
sand lots. Miss Malloy remained in this
school just twenty-five years.
Mias Cornelia E. Campbell is another
teacher who remembers the early days in
San Francisco, when the schools were few
and far between. Originally from Indi
ana. Miss Campbell came to* California In
1857. She lived for some years in El Do
rado County and vividly remembers the
occasion of her first visit to this city,
when there were no car lines anywhere to
be seen except one horse car on Jackson
street.
After attending district school in El
Dorado Miss Campbell taught for a short
time in Sonoma Valley within Bight of
hand, on my head and saluted by putting
two fingers on my cap ana remaining in
this position throughout the interview.
Osman smiled when he saw it ana said
it reminded him of the time when he was
in Berlin many years ago. Hs conde
scended to ask many questions in regard
to German military matters, but neither
he nor any of his officers ever inquired
about the strength or position of tbe
enemy. Osman told me that I had to re
main his guest as long as the siege lasted,
but added with a shrug of the shoulders
that that would not be lon .. I should be
allowed full liberty to walk wherever I
pleased as long as I remained well inside
of the first line of fortifications. With
that I was dismissed and turned over to
the charge of a gentleman who served in
the quartermaster's department.
During the following ten days I saw
Osman Pasha several times each day and
ho always acknowledged my salute, but
did not speak to me any more. He was in
defatigable in visiting the fortifications all
around the town, which he did most
times on foot. 1 never saw him give any
orders to the commanders of the different
posts, but he frequently gave instructions
to bis adjutant, who always accompanied
him and noted in a book whatever the
pasha told him. Osman is a typical Otto
man soldier, fanatical, frugal and brave,
and he kept his men well disciplined. As
long as the army remained in Plevna I
did not see an intoxicated or badly behav
ing soldier or officer, and from a military
point of view they made a much better
impression than the Russian soldiers,
though their uniforms did not look half
as martial. Their frugality was admir
able. They lived almost . entirely on
General Vallejo's old home. In 1864 she
moved to San Francisco to attend the
Normal School, and three years later was
appointed to teach in the South Cosmo
politan on Post street, between Kearny
and Dupont. where a well-known com
mercial house now stands. The primary
portion of the school was called "Assem
bly Hall" and was used by the State Leg
islature during the flood of '61 and '62 in
Sacramento.
This school was afterward moved
farther up Post street and then finally de
molished as the tide of trade swept
through that region.
"Liter I taught for ten years at the
North Beach in the Greenwich-street
School, which was considered a very nice
LAST OF THI OLD BAILEY.
London's most famous criminal court,
the Old Bailey, is doomed and the great
Central Criminal Court of the city and
county of London will in future be held at
the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand.
The building itself is wretchedly plain
and monstrously ugly and so far as the
appointm nts of the interior are con
cerned it is safe to say that there is not a
Justices' Court in the whole of the United
States that could not compare more tnan
favorably with this, the chief criminal
court of the greatest city in the world.
Badly ventilated, badly lightel and un
utterably miserable in every way, one can
imagine what a terrible damper must be
put on the prisoner in the dock by his
wretched surroundings and almost forgive
the rather frequent attacks ot choler and
spleen with which the Judges are afflicted.
Let us take a peep at tie court on the
day of a great trial. Having procured the
necessary passes from the Sheriff, or
anointed the itching palm of the "bobby"
on duty at the door with some golden oil,
you pass through the doors of the court
and find yourself standing on the edge of
what appears to bo a deep well, the sides
of which are terraced with seats. At the
bottom of the we.l is a long table for
members of the bar, a smaller table in
lront of the long one for Queen's counsel,
or barristers who have taken "silk," and
in front of and dominating the bar and
the dock is the bench, on which a kind of
a throne is built, its only ornament
being a huge sword of justice, which is
suspended just over the Judge's head. At
the back of the bar and facing the Judge
is the prisoners' dock, which is connected
by an underground passage with the an
cient prison ot Newgate, where prisoners
awaiting trial are detained.
At about half-past 9 in th 9 morning the
court begins to fill, and despite the vigi
lance of police and ushers a motley crowd
finds its way into the seats of this dread
lul theater, where the curtain has been
rung down at the end of hundreds of hor
rible tragedies. The public in this court
is unlike any other public. Workmen out
of work, loose women, haunters of taverns
and hells, thieves at the commencement
or close of their career, convicts just re
leased from prison, the lazy, the good-for
nothing and the good-for-nothing-else
squeeze their way to the foot of the stair
case which leads to the best seats. No
sooner is the staircase wicket opened than
they rush down. They press each other,
i hey elbow, they jostle, they stand on tip
toes and look from a distance like a black
living mass, which sends forth rude ex
clamation--, slifled cries, coarse jokes and
a brutal hubbub of offended decency,
angry oaths and strange slang. The
swindler and the assassin have come here
to learn how a witness may be thrown
out, how a question may be evaded, how
an alibi may be invented, how a fact may
be distorted and how the criminal code
may be interpreted. Another man comes
in there from mere curiosity, and goes out
with the temptation of crime in his heart,
a fruitful though tainted seed. The mania
of imitation drives more paople into
crime than all the machinery of the law
and the terrors of punishment can deter
from it. The Central Criminal Court is a
detestable school ol immorality.
By 10 o'clock the barristers in wigs and
gowns have filed into their places at the
bar, their clerks carrying brief bags and
legal volumes, which they deposit on the
iible. The clerk of arraigns takes his
seat immediately beneath the Judge's
bench, and the ushers, in stentorian
tones, call tor "order in the court."
Having quieted the din, the ushers pro
ceed to open wide the door through which
the Judge passes to take his seat on the
bench, and the head usher orders every
body in court to stand up as the Judge
enters the court, at the same time calling
out the Judge's title and dignity in the
following manner: "Sir Forrest Fulton,
Knight, one of her Majesty's counsel,
Common Sergeant of the City of London,
and Judge of this present Court of As
size!" As soon as the Judge is seated,
following an ancient custom, a small
bowl of flowers is placed before him. This
custom i- a relic of the period when New
gate and the Old Bailey were without any
sanitary system, and the whole district
was constantly afflicted with the dreaded
jail fever— typhus. The rosemary and
thyme, which were then placed on the
Judge's desk, were supposed to have the
power ol keeping the disease away from
him.
boiled rice and weak tea and received only
occasionally a small ration of bread and
meat. Still they were always cheerful
and well contented.
On the 9tb of December I was informed
that there were not victuals enough in
Plevna to last through two days, and that
the ammunition was nearly exhausted.
Early the next morning the above-men
tioned officer told me tint the army would
try to force its way through the Russian
lines, and that, being a non-combatant, I
! would do wise to remain is the town. At
7A. M. Osman sallied forth with his en
lire army of about 40,000 men, exclusive
of the officers, leaving all his wounded
and sick soldiers in Plevna. The result is
a well-known historical fact. Osman
could not cope in open field with the vast
ys uperior antagonistic forces, who out
numbered his soldiers four to one, and
was compelled to surrender, with ail his
men, after a few hours of desperate light
ing.
Osman remained a prisoner of war un
til peace was conc'udoU at Adrianople
and was treated with great honor by the
Russians. When he returned to Turkey
' the Sultan honored him by adding the
| title of Ghazy, which means the victorious,
! to his name, and he has held several im
i portant positions since then, among oth-
I ers that of Minister of War. Till this day
j he is considerea the greatest soldier in
Turkey, but he is extremely avaricious
and this vice has led him repeatedly to
look more for the benefit of his own purse
than for the welfare of the public finances.
William DT M A R
■» ♦- — ■»
Evry square mile of sea contains 120,- 1
000,000 fish of various kinds. J
part of town in those days," said Mis s
Campbell. "The name of the Street
has since been changed to Cooper. From
that time on I taught successively in the
Starr King Primary, then four years in
the Potrero — there were no car lines out
there then and after we left the buses
we had to wade on out to the school in
the mud and slush — and in several other
schools in various parts of the city.
"I well remember the erection of the
Palace Hotel, and how I named it Ral
ston's monument. In 1877 I saw Kin.- Kal
akaua at a fair. At other times I saw Gen
eral Sherman, Sheridan, Logan and Hayes
and it seems but yesterday that all iho
school children marched out to Wood
ward's Gardens to see General Grant, and
I shook bands with him there."
The clerk of arraigns now rises and call
the first case, and like a jack-in-the-box,
the accused springs up literally out of the
ground, for he comes un through a trap
door in the floor of the dock.
The clerk then reads the indictment,
i and asks the prisoner to plead — guilty or
j not guilty. The accused having pleaded*
i the first witness is called and sworn, the
j oath being administered in the following
j phraseology: "In this case between our
I sovereign lady the Queen and the prisouer
I at the bar, I swear to speak the truth, the
j whole truth and nothing but the truth, so
■ help me, God I" And then the trial com-
I mences.
Women of the world are not cruel, but
; they are the most curious creatures in the
, universe; they live on emotions; they dieX
of emotions every five minutes; they V
have lovers for their verses and verges for /
their lovers; they must, forsooth, suffer/
to enjoy and enjoy to suffer. Your woman'
of tha world dreads nothing so much as
regular hours, a sleepy existence and the
genial indolence of the boudoir and the
| easy chair. She is forever on the wing
I from noon to night; at the theater, at the
| Senate, at church, in the park, at balls
she is always in search of whatever may .
j excite, or amuse, or shake, or convulse, or
j upset her wretched body or her still mo i
wretched sou!. Everything she touches
multiplies her existence. She rushes.
j with all her passion and all her- spirit,"
into every sensation that chances to cross
her— obstacles are nothing to her. She
has made up her mind to see a thing and
i she will see it. She will write a dozen
three-cornered notes on pink, perfumed
j paper to the Sheriff to obtain the favor of
an admission and a seat— a chair— nay, a
I stool— at the trial.
At daylight she leaves her scft and
1 warm bed to wait at the door of the court.
! There she stands, with a keen northeaster
! in her teeth and her feet in the mud.
| She shivers all over. The door opens;
she darts on; she presses forward, she
crowds, she rushes, and at last she gets
in through the ushers and the polite and
the black gowns of tne bar. She hangs
on to the skirts of a policeman's coat,
talks to him softly in his ear, and does
not let him go t 11 she is placed and
squatted at her ease, with her eyeglass at
j her eye, close to the prisoner and neat:
| the Judge. *a
! If a woman in court faints she rushes
up, cuts the lace and offers her smelling
salts—another sort of emotion. But un
less the solid pillars of the court give wny
she will not give up her s>at. Her eves
are riveted to the eyes of the prisoner;
she clings to his lips; she feasts upon the
ineffable terrors of a human sou!. The
hours fly, night is coming on, the jury has
retired— still she waits— she wait* to hear
the fatal sentence and the wretched con
vict's sigh; she catches the last flutter of t
that tattered conscience; she listens for
his slightest exclamation for bis stithd*
groan; she follows him with one long
look when he is removed from the dock
till the prison doors turn upon their
hinges, and : t then she falls back on her
chair, absorbed, overpowered by what she
has seen. The usher is obliged to tell her
that the court is cleared and to show her
the way out. She drags herself along the
passages of the building ; she gets home
worn out, tired to death.
The public prosecutor has accomplished
his task, the Judge has dene his duly and
passed sentence, and the court is cleared.
Not quite. Do you see that man dresed
in black, resting his head on his hands?
He is the prison chaplain, who has at
tended the trial that the culprit might
see that he had one friend on whom he
could lean for strength and consolation.
Verily, this minister is a father to his
flock. In his pious attendance at the
scaffold, where he will accompany the
criminal who will in a few days suffer the
pain of death, what resignation, what
courage, what strength of mind are re^
quired to comfort, with looks and word,-/
of hope and peace, that miserable bein*
who has almost irretrievably lost all _o\f_
of pardon from his offended Maker. Ts
there one among us, even move! by the
most Christian feelings, and endowed at
the same time with the power of resisting" •
the strongest agitation, who could bear
nay, who would undertake by choice, that
terrible duty which the pastor accom
plishes with such majesty, even when his
nature, betraying the torture of his mind
drops of cold sweat appear on his fore
head? 1 thin* not. Fexest Forbes.