The San Francisco call. [volume], January 19, 1904, Image 6

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

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Special information rappUert daily to
business houses and public men by th»
Press Clipping Bureau (Allen's). 230 -Cali
fornia street. Telephone Main IOC •
Townsend's California since fruits and
candles, 3>c a pound, tn artistic fire
otched boxes. A nice present for Eastern
friends. 715 Market at., above Call bids *
• The charges of disorderly conduct preferred against
Prince Cupid in Washington in;.. consequence of that
young- man's ambitious effort to celebrate the coming of
the iriew • year as . we ¦ do, will not '• be, pressed. This is as
it should be. We ought not to be hard on strangers who
emulate us in actions that ought to land anybody in jail.
1 Chamberlain is advocating his , tariff reform campaign
with a daily increasing insistence. The most serious dif
ficulty of the English people in connection with the mat
ter is to determine in. their ovvn minds if he be the re
former whose past warrants confidence in his predictions
and -promises of the future." .
BALLOON — Reader. Oakland. Cal.
The credit of having reachedtrw* high
est altitude in a balloon is given to
Drs. Bersen and Suring of Berlin.
They rose to rv height of 30.000 feet,
both losing consciousness for a brief
interval.^ They continued to Mcend
to 33.000 feet, when one of them.be
came completely unconscious and
could not te aroused. The other
pulled the valve and then became in
sensible. Neither recovered con
sciousness until the balloon had
dropped to 16.000 feet.
A. S is well known to all persons interested in com
mercial matters, there has been for a long time' an
urgent need for increasing the powers of the In
terstate Commerce Commission, so_ as to give it ample
authority to deal with the abuses of railway management
by " which certain shippers are given advantage over
others. The commission itself has/in its' report's to^.Con- ;
gress, .repeatedly pointed out the need of i increased pow
ers, and again and again has cited specific instances of
violation of the spirit of the law, which it is at present
powerless to punish. or to prevent.
For the purpose of clothing 'the; commission with the
needed authority, identical . bills have been introduced
in the Senate by Senator Quarles and „ in the House
by Cooper of Wisconsin, directly • conferring upon ; the
commission authority to determine, after full . hearing I of
all parttes in interest, what changes shall ;-bc ; made in .a
rate complained of/ or in any practice affecting the 1 rate,
for the transportation of persons or property, when" it
is found to. be discriminative or. unreasonable.. It- is pro
vided that the order, of the commission prescribing a just
and reasonable rate . shall , be operative within thirty days,
TO STRENGTHEN THE COMMISSION.
MAIL— Subscriber. City. If a man
occupied rooms in "a rooming house,"
leaves and does not give any direction
as to mail matter that may come after
his departure, it i3 the duty of the
person keeping such rooming house to
write on the envelope or parcel oppo
site the address, the word3 "not at"
and deposit the same' in a mailbox.
No one is authorized to hold mail for
any ane unless directed so to do."
Longstreet's Bravery.
A writer in the Atlanta Constitution
gives some highly interesting anecdotes
concerning the life of General Long
.street, the famous Con Moderate leader,
who recently passed away. Of Long
street'a actipns at Gettysburg the
! writer says:
I "Every Confederate who ever saw
i General Longstreet in battle ranks says
! that he seemed to be oblivious to dan
ger. As to the Gettysburg reports. Col
onel McBride - said: 'Longstreet, al
though a prudent and cautious fighter,
was not only always ready to fight, but
he was always anxious and wanted to
fight. On the second day he was not
slow, but was simply putting himself
in shape to do the bloodiest fight of the
; war. At least two-thirds, of the casual
'¦ ties in America's greatest battle hap
pened, in front of Longstreet' s corps.
Reports show this. " The records also
show that he only obeyed Lee's orders
! to the letter.
".'At Sharpsburg, General Longstreet
rode along the lines where, the battle
was forging thick. General Hill and
other officers begged him" to dismount
as a matter of safety^ \ He .would not
heed them. About this time a well-di
rected ball cut off -both of Hill's horse's
forelegs. The generals dismounted,
nothing dismayed, and began with their
MAKING A SHOE— Subscriber.
City. With improved' machinery used
in tlfe manufacture of . shoes it re
quires but a very short time to make
a pair of shoes. During a recent speed
test in a factory in Lynn. Mass.. a pair
of shoes was made in thirteen min
utes. In that time the "raw material"
was started and passed through the
hands of fifty seven operators.
HEAT— H. P. T., Alameda, Cal.
The human system can endure heat to
212 degrees, the boiling point, because
the skin; is a bad conductor, and on
account . of the perspiration cooling
the* body. Men have withstood 309
degrees of heat for several minutes
without injury.
PASSPORTS — A. B. C, City. The
laws of the United States prohibit the
granting of. a passport to any one not
a citizen of the United States. A per
son who has only made declaration of
intention to become a citizen cannot
obtain a passport.
March of the Muscovite.
There's a quarrel on the Muscovite
border.
The legions are marching to war.
Afar from the banks of the Neva.
Upholding the Peace of the Czar.
The Lust of the Ages is loosened,
Fierce, unquenchable, wild —
A Mastodon beating the crust of the
world,
A Lion that plays with a child.
There's a storm on tho Muscovite
border, v '. '< -
The fields are covered with slain;
The legions swing silently on
Through the beat of the iron rain.
Down o'er the Steppes of the Tartar —
A vast, immeasurable horde
On like the tides of winter.
Upholding the Peace of their lord.
Peace, at last, on the Muscovite border;
Hushed are the thunders of war.
Back to the banks of the Neva
The legions are marching afar; /
The world looks on in silence
At the new King come In the land.
As Roman and Grecian and Saxon yield
To the march of the Muscovite band.
• * « • * « ,
A Day not ours to see. Sir, • s
But a glimpse of the Ages to be:
When a Slav rules over tho land, Sir,
And a Muscovite rules o'er the sea
PAUL. DU SHAY.
Answers to Queries.
FISH — Subscriber, San Jose. Cal.
It is impossible to tell If the supply of
fish will ever give out. It is esti
mated that every square mile of tha
sea contains 120,000,000 flah.
Following the Leader.
At- one of the industrial establish
ments at the Potrero there is a rule
that all men late In reporting for work
must enter on a book fo- that purpose
the reasons why they were late. "It
invariably happens that the first man
makes an entry that "his wheel broke
down" or that "the car was stopped by
an accident." The men who follow use
this excuse by marking underneath
"ditto," "ditto," without stopping to
see^what the heading is.
Olie morning recently the first man
made an entry thus: "Wife had twins."
As usual the' "ditto," "ditto" marks
followed, until the last of these entries
made was that of the office boy, aged
11 years.
Cat in Sick Ward.
The London Mall tells the fo'Iowing
odd story of a cat at a receiving hos
pital: ".r!> .'...>
" 'Lady Gertie' is one of the model
patients of the London Hospital. Sha
is at present in the Sisters' room in a
children's ward, and although she is
only a subdued-looking black kitten
with her tail in a white bandage, hei
admission is quite regularized by thi
fact that she has a 'card,' a tempera
ture chart and visitors.
"A boy brought her to the receiving
room a fortnight ago, witn the simple
explanation that she had been run over
by a cart, so pussy was given a card
marked 'P. F. O.' (prepare for opera
tion), and was attended to by* a housa
surgeon.
"At first there was little hope of sav
ing the tail, which had been badly
crushed, but bandages and boracio
dressing did wonders, and Lady Gertie
will only be abbreviated by about an
inch and a half."
WHILE old and weather-worn Democrats, sea
soned and scarred by the vicissitudes of many
seasons and skilled in observing the direction of
the wind and in the flavor of. pie at the official counter,
are feeling around for an issue for this year the boom of
Mr. William Randolph Hearst goes on booming like a
whistling buoy.
• Already East Oakland was organized for him, with an
irresistible club of ten charter members, and the 'Steenth
Ward Club of Los Angeles had painted a transparency
expressive of his public and private virtues and ascriptive
to his statesmanship. But there was something lacking, a
long felt want, an aching void like that caused by an
omitted lunch. His friends had noted, with pained sur
prise, that of his fellow members of Congress only three
had declared for him.
Judge Wade, the lone member of the party from Iowa,
in drawing seats got one next to Hearst, and in Novem
ber-had said to his constituency that to sit beside such
an augustness was a greater honor than to have -been
elected to the opportunity. He has sat within catching
distance of Hearst's statecraft and had every chance to
get it if it is contagious, but now finds it necessary to go
home and deny to his constituents in Davenport that he
will support Hearst for the Presidency. He also says that
Iowa is hopelessly Republican and may as well follow the
band, wagon and not try to drive the team.
This positive repudiation of his November attitude set
people to wondering. They asked themselves in whis
pers if close acquaintance with Mr. Hearst dispelled the
illusion of his greatness? What ailed him was what both
ered those that read in his newspapers that he is the
greatest thing that ever happened in this country. Had
they not read that he gave every constituent a turkey on
Christmas; that he had gone out and busted. the trusts
like they were egg shells; that. he was mapping out the
policy of the party in Congress, and that Senator Jo
Bailey was merely a brazen trumpet through which
Hearst's ideas reached the world? So what was the
matter any way with this .phenomenon among the phe
nomenal phenomena of the world of statesmen?
If he could not carry more than three votes in Con
gress, what could he do in the District of Columbia,
where nobody votes at all? Surely the non-voting folk
of the district see him come and go. They note the
brazen statue of General Rawlins turn uneasily on its
'pedestal as he goes to his daily duty up Pennsylvania ave
nue'. They see the marble statue of Ben Franklin smile
and bow to him as he goes by, while the nude female fig
ures at the base of the peace monument at the foot of
Capital Hill call for the police when he approaches and
the Jovian statue of Washington, shivering shirtless in
the cold, cries out, "Eclipse, penumbra, shade, shadow
and forgetfulness are mine. Hearsed am I, and Hearst
doth bestride my fame!" and have hoped that these mar
vels would impress the people.
Well, they have. . We read in the* Examiner that Mr.
James Bilkey of. South Washington called his neighbors
in to form a William Randolph Hearst Presidential Club.
William Soar and Robert Head, Philetus Legge and Jef
ferson Davis Grub responded and the club flung its de
fiant banner and candidate to the breeze. We have not
room for the eulogy pronounced by. Mr. Grub. It may
be found in full in Mr. Hearst's papers. His modesty
forbade him to give it to the Associated Press. It merely
says what every one may run and read in the Hearst
papers, to wit, that Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln
were well-, meaning, people, but /have been greatly over
rated in history, while Grant. Cleveland and McKinley
were- accidents and disgraces to their country.
The Goddess of Liberty has waited ever since 1776 for
a man of , her size to take charge of the Temple of Free
dom, keep the plumbing in order, have the lawn mowed,
stand off bill collectors, shake down the furnace and keep
the place fit. Such a man has now evolved and is to be
put at work at once N unless the people wish to be serfs
and perhaps worse. Of course his name in full is Wil
liam Randolph Hearst..
This ends widespread anxiety. The leader of. leaders
leads m South . Washington, D. C. His boom is real, it
is earnest and the waste basket is not its goal' The
movement- will now proceed. to. spread witji all. four feet.
ANXIETY RELIEVED.
'An III Wind.
He and she drifted into the County
Clerk's office in Oakland, targets for
the gaze of the curious. It was a 100
to 1 shot they wanted the cupid bu
reau. To a newspaper man who spied
the pair they figured for a story. The
reporter approached them.
Yes, they wanted to be married.
They had run away from home and
had come to Oakland, but, alas, at
the last moment the bridegroom learn
ed that a marriage license cost $2 and
his pockets yielded only $1 05.
"Tell you what I'll do," said the re
porter. "If you'll come up the street
with me and sit for your photographs
I'll buy the license and will see that
you are married without a cent of
cost And more than that, you shall
be my guests at a wedding breakfast."
It was a way out of trouble that
the smiling pair had not dreamed of.
A nod from the miss settled it. Oft
the reporter and his guests hurried.
Quickly a photographer posed the bri
dal couple. That done, the newspaper
man filled on his end of the contract,
bought license and got the services of
a Justice of the Peace. After the wed
ding the party repaired to a restaurant
and celebrated.
The following day a pretty runaway
marriage story was given to the news
paper's readers, but the secret of its
getting has been buried until now.
The Korean press has unswung its goose quills and
in language variously objectionable urges that' all for
eigners within the confines of the hermit kingdom be
killed as a lesson to the powers that are striving to make
the. nation a scene of disastrous war. It should be made
manifest to the Emperor of Korea that he has too many
editors with their heads in the wrong place.
The District School.
The old story about the dull school
boy reappears occasionally in new
dress. A Xew England paper says that
a Springfield school teacher received
the following note from the mother oi
one of her pupils on Monday: "Deal
Mis. You writ me about whlping' Sam
my. I hereby give you permission to
beet him up eny time it ia necessary to
learn him lesens. He Is Juste like his
father— you have to learn him with a
club. Pound nolege into him. I wants
him to git it. and don't pay no aten
shion to what his father says. I'll han,
die him."
Again from Indian Territory comet
this good one:
"The following remarkable essay on
the horse is said to be from the pen ol
an Indian student: The horse is a
very noble quadruped, but when he ia
angry he -will not do so. He Is ridden
on the spinal cord by the bridle, and
sadly the driver places his foots on the
stirrups and divides his lower llmba
across the saddle and drives his animal
to the meadow. He has four legs; two
are on the front side and two are after
ward. These are the weapons on which
he runs. He also defends himself by
extending these in the rear in a parallel
direction toward his- foe, but this hi
does only when he is in an aggravating
mood. There Is no animal like tha
horse. No sooner they see their guar
dian or master than they always cry
for food, but it 13 always at the morn
ing time. They have got tails, but nut
so long as the cow and such other Ilka
animals.' "
Age of the World.
cv «. FnnDEni<riv wright, a. m.. ll. n.
IAurhor of "Msn nrd the Glacial Period,"
•¦Asiatic Russia." Etc.]
«Co?yrJcht. tSO<J b>- Jji=e^h B. Howies.)
To the casual observer the moun
tains seem a type of eternity. We nat
uralJy speak of th? hills as "everlast
ing." A favorite mode of expressing
future eternity is to say "as long as
the world endureth." Even to the
j stronomer, with h!s most perfected
instruments for measurement of both
space and force, no variation in the
diameter of either the earth or the
sun has been discovered. This, how
ever, is not because no changes are
taking place, but because they are so
slow a^i man so shprt lived that they
do not make themselves perceptible to
our dull senses. In reality there is no
absoluie uniformity in nature. Every-*
thing is changing. To-morrow will
not be like to-day, and to-day is not
like yesterday. What were the con
ditions a million years ago and what
they ¦will be a million years hence are
largely matters of conjecture. Still
we have data enough to make specula
tion interesting, if not perfectly con
clusive.
That the whole solar system is pass
ing through changes which would
have made the world uninhabitable r.t
some timo in the past, and will make
it uninhabitable in the future, follows
from the recently established law of the
"conservation of energy." According
to this law force is as indestructible
as matter. Heat, light, gravitation,
electricity and all other forms of force
are interchangeable without loss. The
force that runs a steam engine is
transformed heat. The power de
veloped by placing a wheel under
Niagara is transformed gravitation,
and in the ultimate analysis trans
formed heat of the sun. The water
was lifted through ' evaporation to a
height from which it could fall and
so transfer the force of gravitation
acting upon it to a revolving wheel,
which in turn transforms it into elec
tricity, which runs the streetcars of
Buffalo and furnishes light for its
halls and homes.
But every one knows that heat is
not uncaused. It must have a source
of supply. The coal bin is not inex
haustible. The glowing stove will cool
if there is not a constant supply of fuel.
The warming pan will not be of ser
vice long if its heat is not renewed.
Hence we infer that the sun must be
a cooling body; for heat is radiating
lrom it at an enormous rate. Only a
little of this heat is arrested by the
earth. When we think of the scorch
ing rays of the sun which fall con
stantly upon the tropics, it seems as
though it were a great deal. But when
we reflect how small a space the earth
fills in the solar system we shall bet
ter appreciate how great is the amount
of heat from the sun which is con
stantly being wasted. So small is the
world that where it receives one unit
of heat from the sun -2. 1.70,000, 000
units go off into space to be lost for
ever.
This brings us to the question,
whence does the gun. derive its suppiy
of heat, and is that supply inexhausti
ble? Astronomers and physicists with
one accord tell us that its heat is not
inexhaustible, but differ somewhat in
guessing what the source is. Some
have thought that the sun was heated
up by having a constant stream of me
teors falling into it. We know that
whenever the motion of a solid body is
suddenly arrested this motion is
changed into heat. I have seen a cold
piece of iron made red hot in a minute
by the rapid lusty blows of a black
smith's hammer upon it. Meteorites
when they fall to the earth are always
pmoki'ig hot. This is caused by the
friction of the air. But if meteorites
were falling through space thick enough
to keep up the heat of the sun so many
would strike the earth that it, too,
vould ho red hot. '
Allied to thl3 theory is that of the de
rivation of the sun's heat from the con
traction of its dianieter. The present
siz* of the sun is maintained by the
expansive power of the heat within it.
But as the rim slowly contracts
through the constant action of gravi
ts.t!oa the dtgree of heat is kept up,
and indeed intensified, so that the sun
is now hotter than TF~used to be, but
being also smaller does not radiate as
much as it once did. It- is estimated
that to produce the present amount of
heat the diameter of the sun must con
tract 2ZQ feet per year, <or a mile in
twenty.flve years— four* miles a cen
tury. Though this is too small an
amount to have been noted by i any
¦present -means of measurement since
accurate observations -began .to be
made, it is by .no means , an . insignifi
cant amount, andpoints to limits both
in the past and future.
It Is estimated that if all the matter
in the Eolar system had been moving
from the utmost bounds of space to
ward the' center of the sun It would
furnish heat at the present rate for
only IS.000,000 years. But It is probable
that formerly the radiation of the sun,
when it filled mnch larger space than
now, was greater than at. present. It
is a rather startling fact that if the
sun's heat were increased by 'much
more than one-half it would boil away
all the v.?.lor on the globe. As water
i? necessary to life on the globe. Pro
fessor rCcv.-corr.b, our great authority
at Wnsbinstcn, thinks that ."the bal
ance of c2urcs which would result in
the sun radiating heat just fast enough
tc preeene the earth In its present
own hands at once to help the men tc
manage the artillery, thereby savin?
Lee's army at this Juncture from de
feat.' "
WE regarded the first protests against, seating
Apostle Smoot as, a Senator as f idle, for the
reason that it could not be proved, that he° was
constitutionally ineligible. We adhere to. that convic
tion. According to the requirements of the constitution
lie is a citizen of the United States and of the State of
Utah. He is eligible to a seat in the Senate. Since the
first grounds upon which the denial of his seat' was
asked, there has been added the charge that oaths taken
in the secret ceremonies of the Morton church, in the
''Temple work," so called, conflict with a Mormon's alle
giance to this Government. This may well be so, since
the secret ceremonial and the ritual part of Mormonism
was enriched with the hatred that was caused by the per
secution of the church at Nauvoo and during the hegira.
Reasoning simply from the conjunction of human na
ture and religious fanaticism with such circumstances,
we do not doubt that oaths and obligations went into the
ritual that put the church above the state. But, even if
the text of such oaths is revealed and put in evidence,
we know of no way by which Congress can divest a man
of his citizenship for taking such an path.
The legal question involved is •novel 'and. of. great in
terest. A man may be divested of his citizenship, by
conviction of crime. But Apostle Smoot has not been con
victed of crime, and no lawyer has j'et said how a crimi
nal information or indictment can be framed against him
for taking the secret oath with which he is charged.
Crimes are statutorj', and there is no statute defining the
taking of such an oath as a crime, therefore no indict
ment can lie. Treasfcm is denned by the constitution as
"levying war against the United States, or giving aid
and comfort to the enemies thereof." But the statute of
treason which enforces that provision of the constitu
tion does not include the alleged oath. r:As John G.
Carlisle will present the case against Smoot/ .the popular
knowledge will be greatly enriched by information on' a
subject involving an aspect of citizenship of the greatest
interest. '¦¦ ¦
Passing from that phase of the question 'with 'the "cer
tainty that he can be divested of eligibility to his seat
only by divesting him first of citizenship, which can be
done only by his judicial conviction of a statutory crime,
we cannot overlook other issues raised in the apostle's
very diffusive defense. He, in effect, puts .the Mormon
church on trial in his rejoinder to the charges against
himself. A lawyer whb reads it will be amazed that a
lawyer wrote it.- The only issue raised which the Senate
could act upon being the guilt or innocence of the apos
tle of the statutory crime oi\ polygamy, the answer im
pleads the whole practice and policy of the Mormon
church. It denies that, polygamy is any longer sanc
tioned by the church, but admits that it is practiced by
a few individuals on their personal responsibility and lia
bility to answer to the law. 'Now how can a Mormon
make a polygamous marriage except by the sanction of
the church? He must receive the church sanction and
go through the, church ceremony.
It is alleged that . the present head of the church,
Joseph Smith, lives with- five^wives and has become
the father of twenty-two i-chilprcn since' the church
manifesto receding from polygamy, which was the key
that opened the door for Utah to enter the Union. The
apostle's answer makes it incumbent upon the Senate to
inquire into the domestic arrangements of the president
of the church. It is true that the document protests
against any evidence being introduced except uponSmoot's
personal eligibility, and declares evidence on other issues
to be irrelevant, impertinent and immaterial. But he has
not the power nor the right to limit evidence, having
himself raised issues that are necessarily controvertible.
He does this by denying that he has- ever countenanced,
aided, honored or preferred any person who has violated
the law. This makes necessary an inquiry by evidence
into his relations to the president of the church, and in
quiry into President Smith's alleged continued practice
It is evident that in the future we are to have a suc
cession of such issues as have been raised by the apos
tle's election to the Senate, and that prospect should
cause now the fullest examination into every question
raised in his answer, and there should be a decision
which will settle the permanent policy of the Senate. In
the case of Brigham Roberts, the House blundered. It
began by depriving him of his constitutional right to ;
take the oath and his seat upon presentation of his cer
tificate of election, which is prima facie! evidence of title,
to the seat. This initial blunder made the subsequent
action of the House valueless as a precedent. The Sen
ate is avoiding that error and will furnish a precedent
useful to the country. * ; *;,' v ; '"/•''•.*¦*
Apostle Smoot and the Mormon hierarchy do not un
derstand the sentiment of the country, which is that po
lygamy is morally wrong, that is malum in.se and not
malum prohibitum— wrong in itself and not wrong only
because it is prohibited. Therefore the country perfect
ly well understands that in the Mormon mind and teach
ings there is a conflict between what the church con
siders to be moral and what the law and the Gentile
conscience consider immoral. Under such circumstances
it is well understood by the country that the church has
the most powerful motive for controlling the politics of
enough States to prevent polygamy being made a Fed
eral question, as it can be by an anti-polygamy amend
ment to the constitution. When they can prevent that
they are at liberty to repeal the anti-polygamy statutes
of a State and conform the law to their fdea of morals.
This is the great question at issue, and it is of, equal
gravity with the former question of "slavery, which was
domestic to the States until the thirteenth amendment
made it a Federal concern.
'A Talc of Whiskers.
Deputy Coroner Streightif over In
Berkeley is renowned the county over
for the fearful and wonderful growth
of whisker which adorns his official
countenance. It is waist-long, a fiery,
uncompromising red. pugnacious. When
j Streightif presides at an obsequies the
beard leaves no adornment to be de
sired.
Recently one of the Berkeley corre
spondents for a city paper caught a
fleeting glimpse of Streightif with most
j of the . whisker apparently gone; It
i seemed that some cruel hand had shorn
j him like Samson and only a mere wisp
j of the former glory remained in mourn
! ful mernoriam of what had once been.
Wildly the reporter rang up his chief
with the startling announcement,
j "Streishtifs lost his whiskers." Im
j mediately the message came back hot
j over the wire: "Will send a cartoonist
I from . the city. Write a comic of at
j least 500 words — history of the whis
! kers, how the college town mourn3
their loss, etc."
The cartoonist arrived and together
the two newspaper men went around
to the branch Morgue to interview and
| sketch the shorn deputy. Streightif
Ifhad his back turned from the door
when the twain entered. Merrily the
reporter hailed him. "Oh, Streightif,
we want to learn all about how you
I lost your whiskers."
The official gravely turned about and
with one hand drew forth the flaming
insignia from where it had been snugly
tucked away under his vest. "Young
man," quoth the Injured Streightif,
"don't you get too fresh."
THE SMOOT CASE.
state has probably not existed more
lhan 10,000,000 years," and that this is
therefore "near' the extreme limit of
time that we can suppose water to have
existed on the earth in the fluid state."
'. Eut, though (he. mathematicians in
s'st that some, such limit as 10.000,000
or 23,003,000 years must be placed upon
the existence of even the lowest forms
of life on the earth, geologists still con
tend for a longer' lease of time. Rea
soning from the known rate at which
f*rms«of 15fe change, Darwin and Lyell
assumed that It must have been on the
earth for many hundred million years.
Darwin, indeed, in his earlier editions
of "The Origin of Species," speaks of
366,000.000 years as a mere trifle of geo
logic time. But the geologists of the
¦present day are more modest in their
demands, and would, apparently, be
Fatlsn>d with 100.000,000 or •twice that
number of years. Alfred Russell Wal
lace, however, from geological evidence
calculates that 30,000,000 years is all
that reed be demanded for the facts
ot geology.
Wallace's estimate is an interesting
one. Taking the thicknera of the sedi
mentary rocks at 117,200 feet, which is
8n extreme estimate, and reckoning the
coast line of the globe at 100,000 mile;?,
and that the sediment brought into the
sea is d«ocsitea on an average over a
belt thirty miles wide, he finds that at
the present rate the total thickness of
rocks would be formed within the above
mentioned length of time. For, at the
present rate of erosion of the conti
nents, the whole land surface of the
parth is lowered one foot in 3000 years
and the sediment deposited along the
shores of the continents. One foot from
57,000,000 square miles (the land surface
of the earth), is equal to nineteen feet
deposited in 2000 years over the bait
stretching thirty miles out from 100,000
miles of shore line: 177,:00 divided by
19 multiplied by 3000 equals 28,000.000.
Such is the reduction to the age of
the world made by more recent investi
gations both of astronomers and geolo
gists. Assuming the truth of the nebu
lar hypothesis, Professor George H.
Darwin obtained results remarkably
rimilar from calculations, concerning
the relations of the moon to the earth.
The moon produces tides upon the earth
and conversely the earth must pro
duce tides upon the moon. As was long
ago shown these tides retard the daily
motion of the revolution of these bodies.
The tides are equivalent to a wave on
the earth about three feet high, strik
ing twice a day on the eastern shore
of the continents. This has the same
effect as a brake on a wheel, and im
perceptibly but surely retards its mo
tion. As the moon is much smaller
than the earth and hence has less mo
mentum, its motion has been affected
much more by its tides than has that
of the earth. Whereas, the moon once
revolved on its axis very rapidly, it now
requires a whole month to revolve, and
so keeps the same face toward the
earth all the time. r .'u/ :
By Darwin's calculation it was shown
that formerly the earth revolved on its
axis once every eight hours, but was
reduced to its present rate by the same
process that has reduced the moon.
At the time when the moon and
earth were revolving so rapidly they
were much nearer to each other than
now; indeed, so near that the tides
they produced on each other were many
times as great as those now produced;
so great, indeed, was the tidal wave
which then rolled over the world that
it is hardly possible to suppose that
any form of life could have endured the
conditions.
Going further, Darwin proved that
the moon was originally thrown off
from the mass of the earth by the In
creased centrifugal motion of the con
tracting sphere of the earth, as water
is thrown off from a grindstone. Fur
thermore, by his calculations of the re
tarding influence of the tides, he
proves that this could not have oc
curred less than 50,000,000 nor more
than 100.000,000 years ago. All geologic
time, therefore, must be brought much
within these limits, for after the birth
of the moon an immensely long period
must have elapsed before the condi
tions were such upon the earth that
life could have endured them. So that
his calculations agree in a remarkable
manner with those of Mr. Wallace and
of Professor Newcomb.
But 1,000,000 years is a long time, and
slowly working causes produce im
mense results within that period. As
Darwin remarks, "Few of us know
what a million really means. Take a
narrow strip of paper S3 feet 4 inches
in length and stretch it along the wall
of a large hall: then mark off at one
end the tenth of an inch. This tenth of
an inch will represent 100 years, and
the atrip a million years." Bearing this
in mind, we shall appreciate the fol
lowing calculations concerning the
great length of the geological periods
even on Mr. Wallace's estimate of the
total length of geological time, and
they. will seem sufficiently long for all
necessary purposes.
Vignette of Dickens.
Charles Dickens, it was often said,
was above all things an actor. He was
indeed an actor, and a consummate one.
He wa3 never when in public what in
the ordinary sense of the word is
"termed natural." I saw him again and
again at these Guild meetings; I heard
him address various public assem
blages, and I listened, I think, to each
of his public readings, and in all he had
consciously an ideal in his mind, up to
which he may be said to have acted. His
characters have been counted, and th»»y
run Into hundreds and hundreds. He
must have created them as he walked
and 1 ode and conversed or mused. The
situation in which he found himself
for the time became an ideal one forth
with, and his part a part with the. rest.
I once saw him hurry forward. In St.
James Square to help a policeman who
was struggling with a desperate fel
low whom he had arrested for stealing
lead. My friend Mr. J. C. Parkinson,
well known to and much liked by Mr.
Dickens, was with me, and .we hast
ened to assist. I really trembled, for
the man looked savagely at Mr. Dick
e:is. and in another moment a blow
might have fallen. "I'll go. with you to
the station," said Mr. Dickens to the
policeman, and he did. Even then his
voice, his air. his walk made me think
of pome accomplished artist called upon
to represent all this 6a the stage.-—
Cornhill Magazine
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cases under the act are given precedence over all except
criminal cases. '^V : '
The- bill, is clearly a fair one, and thoroughly safe
guards the rights of transportation companies from any
possible unjust ruling or order of the commission, while
at the same time it gives the commission power to ren
der really valuable service to the community by the cor
rection of abuses which up to this time have escaped re
dress. It is to be noted that the authority thus given is
by no means new, for it was exercised by the commis
sion for some time to the general satisfaction of the
public. The right of the commission to exercise it was,
however, denied by the Supreme Court on the ground
that it was not expressly conferred by the terms of the
interstate commerce act, and since that time' the com
mission has been powerless to prevent the wrongs com
plained of. The matter is one of great importance to
well nigh every interest of the country, and the needed
authority ought to be granted by Congress during the
present session.
THE SAN FRANCISCO v CALL, TUESDAY, JANUARY 19; 190J.
THE SAN. SIR AN CISCO CAjLL
JOHN D. SPRECKELS,, Proprietor jij. ... .£*.> > .... ' Address ;AII Communications to JOHN HcNAUGHT, Manager
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TUESDAY .....:.: .....; .."JANUARY 19, 1904
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