The San Francisco call. [volume], September 26, 1913, Image 10

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

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EDITORIAL PAGE
THE M CALL
F. W. KELLOGG, President and Publisher
JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Vice President and Treasurer
State Militia Is Part of the
Peace Movement
For Fighting Forest Fires, Own Cousin to War, Is Work in
the Cause of Civilization
The peace movement is spreading where one would least look
for it, and a theoretical prediction of the late William James seems
on its way to fulfillment.
In a short essay which is one of the most important modern
contributions to sociology. Professor James suggested that the time
may come when, with war abolished, the young men of a nation
will be drafted into industry, to serve their time of enlistment at
the forges, on the railroads, in other industries that are hazardous
and require strength and nimbleness of their devotees.
That Utopian day is far, far away, but already are our young
men, in their military organizations, put to work in the public
service.
The organized state militia is called upon now as a matter of
course to fight forest fires.
When the fire on Tamalpais was threatening the surrounding
towns and the invaluable Muir wood, the state troops and the fed
eral soldiers were called into the field, and now, in the more de
structive Napa valley fire, the national guard is on the "firing line,"
battling for the homes and orchards of the imperiled ranchers.
There are the soldiers a part of the peace movement, for the
peace movement does not mean solely the abolition of war and
bloodshed, but it means also the diverting of that great body of
men now organized in wasteful military movements toward the
work of civilization and the application to the common good of the
immense treasure now spent in unremunerative war.
War is destruction. A forest fire is nature's best imitation of
war. The gods of war, frustrated by civilization from spreading
bloodshed and carnage indiscriminately about the earth, chuckle
at the crackle of the flames. But now come the young men who
enlisted in the cause of war and fearlessly, enduringly devoting
themselves to conquering war's first cousin, the forest fire.
Market Street, a Worthy Name
For a Great Thoroughfare
? Definite Reasons Why Name of City's Famous Axis Should
5 Not Be Changed to Lincoln Way or to Anything Else.
An influential and public spirited man has written to the
board of supervisors recommending that the name of Market street
be changed to Lincoln way, because it will be the practical termi
nal of the great Lincoln highway, which is to span the continent,
and, furthermore, because in the opinion of the writer, Market
street carries with it an unesthetic connotation of "the flavor of
cabbage, potatoes, berries and more or less fresh fish."
There are two important reasons why the name of Market
street should not be changed.
The first is that Market street already is one of the world's
great streets, a distinction which it has acquired by the evolution
of San Francisco, and its identity must be perpetuated.
Secondly, no more appropriate name could be given lo the
foremost business street in any great city than Market street. It
is an epigram, an aphorism condensed in two words.
It is well to honor Lincoln, but if the memory of that great
American is not sufficiently engraved in the hearts of patriots and
will not adequately be emphasized by a broad drive that is to link
the Atlantic and the Pacific, a few miles of asphalt pavement at the
far western end can not redeem the name from an oblivion it will
never know.
But what more forceful name could be given to Market street
than that which it bears?
It is a Market street. If it will be in reality the end of the
Lincoln highway, it is now and will be for all time the beginning
and the end of the market streets of the world, the beginning and
the end of the great trade routes of the world.
There is romance in trade; romance was born along the trade
routes, for they are the highways that unite the world, just as the
military highways of olden times served as the highways that
divided the world and isolated the nations. The sand swept trails
of the camels across Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Yellow
sea, were the first Market streets of the world, and along these
trails of commerce went learning and comity. When Stanley
entered Africa to find Livingston he followed the crude jungle
trade routes of the dark continent and a light of humanity came
after him.
There are other markets than the market of fish and berries,
even while those are the indispensable markets of the world.
There are the markets where nation meets nation, there are the
markets where learning is exchanged and culture is disseminated.
It is in the market place where men meet men.
It will be in Market street, the noble highway that stretches,
as if by inspiration, from the welcoming ferry to the city's maternal
breasts of Twin Peaks, that San Francisco will meet the world
that comes from the east and the far east, and none will think the
less of San Francisco because its main thoroughfare carries in its
name the fact that it is the end and the beginning of the trade
routes of the world.
Spain Latest Among Nations
To Prepare for 1915
Country Which First Settled California and Crossed Isthmus
Will Be Welcomed for Strong Sentimental Reasons.
Spain is to take part in the Panama-Pacific international
exposition. Official word has just been received, confirming the
anticipation which California has felt from the first that the nation
which discovered the Pacific ocean and settled first in California
and gave this state its inspiring name would be with us in 1915 to
honor the present prestige of its one time domain and to celebrate
the cleavage of the isthmus which Balboa first crossed 400 years
ago yesterday.
From the sentimental viewpoint we would miss Spain more
in 1915 than any other nation of Europe. In time we shall know
that all the nations will participate. Germany and England are
coy now, but they will hurry to Harbor View before February,
1915, and the family of nations will be complete at that time. Now
we must welcome the nations as they come. France has been
greeted, Brazil and the other great republics of South America
have been received. Spain is the latest officially to declare that it
will participate.
The relation of California to Spain is the relation of a son who
early left the house of his father, who sought new worlds, who
learned much that his father, sequestered in his home, did not
consider important, and who made for himself a different estate
and manner of life, but who, in the day of his triumphs, desired
that his forebears come and make merry in his house. California
was a rebellious son to Spanish government, but we feel still a
sentimental attachment.
THE- SAN FRANCISCO CALL
Marry the man you love, girls, the man who interests you, the man of whom you never tire, the man with
whom you have every thought and sympathy in common, though he be as poor as a church mouse.—DOROTHY DIX.
The latest appeal for more decorous fashion is based upon the need of
protecting the "weaker sex"—man.
* * *
Mexico might be called the "stenographer country"—it always has a
dictator over it.
* * *
The box score is the casket in which arc embalmed many baseball
hopes.
* * *
There shouldn't be much trouble in raising the heiress born to the
baking powder prince.
* * *
Xow we know that Barrie barked up the wrong Tree when he tried to
sell "Peter Pan" to Sir Herbert.
* * *
The duke of Connaught is to resign his office as governor general of
Canada. Now what will the poor duke do for a living, there are so few
vacancies among the governor general jobs?
Somewhere walk men upon whom lies the curse of manslaughter
the men whose has been responsible for fatal forest fires.
Senator Ham Lewis might have added as a sign of the decadence of
America in comparison with ancient Rome that some Americans even
wear side whiskers, which no Roman dared to do.
PILING UP
Which ?
SEE ARTICLE ON THIS PAGE BY DOROTHY DIX.
Evening Calls
The hens around New York have stopped laying. What villainous
egg trust magnate has bribed them with promises of fresh earth worms
eight feet long twice a day?
* * *
The girl who says she took a ring as a jest will find it was a rather
im-prnctical joke.
* * *
Fate, that stages the, world's vaudeville shows, is" finding that the
Th aw case and the Sulzer case make one too many acts for simultaneous
presentation.
* * *
A great grandnephew of Robert Emmet, the Irish patriot, is an elec
trical expert. Another score for heredity—uncle used to electrify various
and sundry folk in the old days.
* * »
Now the progressives in congress want-to develop the spineless
caucus.
* * *
The man who was married by five justices of the peace will be con
tent if only one judge divorces him.
* * *
Eves the ocean appears in fashionable "blue surges."
* * *
Writer- ol popular songs should first prove their alibis before they
pnnt dedications of the muaical tributes. L _
SEPTEMBER 26, 1913
Which?
Shall a Girl Be an Old Man's
Darling or a Young
Man's Slave?
DOROTHY DIX
LOOK at the picture on this
page, girls. It shows a
maiden trying to solve the
problem that confronts many of
you—the problem of whether it
is better to be an old man's
darling or a young man's slave.
All the worldly wise old
women with hard faces and
keen eyes, say to the girls:
"Take the old man. What
does it matter if he is fat and
bald headed, and has a figure
built after the similitude of a bay
window, and if the touch of his
hand makes your flesh creep,
and the heavy tramp of his feet
coming toward you makes you
want to take to the tall timbers?
What if his conversation makes
you yawn yourself to death?
"He can give you automobiles,
and a fine house, and* imported
clothes, and trips to Europe, and
everything to make life easy and
soft. Love? Pooh! Nice to
read about in books and to see
in plays on the stage, but it
won't pay bills, my dear, nor
keep you from being shabby and
poor. Romance? You leave
that at the altar, anyway, so why
pay an extravagant price for it?
Believe me, my child, that all
husbands are alike as soon as
the honeymoon wanes, and then
a woman's happiness in life de
pends on what sort of an estab
lishment she has got."
Has Only to Say "Yes"
and Luxury Will Be
Lavished on Her
So say the worldly wise old
women, and the girl listens to
their words, because site craves
the good things they enumerate.
She would like to roll about in
her limousine. She would like
to have her opera box, and won
derful gowns, and ropes of
pearls, and diamond tiaras. She
would like to travel and see her
picture in smart society jour
nals, and she knows that she has
just to say one little word and
all these things will be hers.
Her head assents to what the
wise women say, but not her
heart. That cries out for some
slim youth with the curl of boy
hood still in his crisp hair, with
his eyes full of dreams and his
pockets empty, whose lightest
touch thrills her from head to
foot, and the sound of whose
step coming toward her is the
music of the spheres to her ears.
But this is a practical age,
when even Cupid has to take ac
count of the high cost of living,
and so the girl is torn between
the temptation of love and
plenty. Which shall it be—the
old man who can give her a
shopping ticket, or the young
man who can give her little but
romance? Which shall it be,
bread and cheese and kisses, or
truffles and champagne and bare
tolerance?
Take the Poor Young Man
and Love Rather Than
the Old Man
Take the young man, girls, the
poor young man and love, rather
than the old man without love,
although every hair on your el
derly suitor's head be strung
with diamonds. Marriage, at
best, is no picnic. It is a stren
uous undertaking, full of trials
and tribulations and troubles,
and the only thing on eartli that
can gild its fetters and make
it endurable is love.
You never know how cranky a
human being can be, and how
many of the fifty-seven different
varieties of frailties and weak
nesses he or she can possess un
til you are married to the said
imperfect party, and nothing but
seeing this individual enveloped
in a halo of tenderness keeps
you out of the divorce court.
Marriage without love and with
out romance is a hell on earth,
and the whole Standard Oil
crowd combined haven't got
THE COMER
WILLIAM F. KIRK
ffT* HE only baby in the world!" his parents both exclaimed.
I "Our friends don't show their children here, bccr.ase ttcy are
* ashamed.
Look at the little darling! See the deep look in his eyes!
You'd never dream a child of two could be so really wise.
Come. Cecil, say some little words, you cunning little tad;
Say 'good' for the nice gentleman." And Cecil answered "bad!'
"Just listen!" cried his parents, "the precious little dear
Will say at least a dozen words when nobody is here.
I don't know whom he gets it from; we started talking late;
He must take all his brightness from his dear old Grandma Kate.
He always seems to love her when she comes here to the liat.
Say 'doggie' for us. darling." And Cecil mumbled 'tat.'
"He's going to be a president," his mother proudly said.
"The little rascal seems to think at play or in his bed.
His father was a stupid child. When he was tv 0 years old k
He couldn't make a single sound, that's what his mother tob;.
Now, darling, .show the gentleman how little birdies peep;
Come, Cecil, do what birdies do." And Ccd went to sloep.
enough money to pay anybody
for going through a lifetime
of it.
The girl who marries for a
home or for the luxuries some
man can give her has no right
to draw her skirts away from
any woman of the street. She
has sold herself just as truly
as any of that sorrowful sister
hood, and with less excuse.
Moreover, no woman earns
her living in a harder way than
she who marries for it and who
must make all of the inevitable
sacrifices of matrimony, not
through love which sweetens
them, but because it is her duty
as a wife.
Also remember this, girls,
that the old proverb's theory
that being an old man's darling )
is a sinecure that was evidently
first propounded by a doddering
old widower trying to marry a
debutante. Tt is a misleading
guide to go by. The rich old
man is willing to dress his
pretty young wife up like a fine
doll and show her off before his
friends, but beyond her milli
nery no one need envy the old
man's darling her luck.
The Old Husband Always
Adds Jealousy to Other
Unamiable Qualities
Old people are almost invari
ably tyrannical and set in their
ways, and narrow, and selfish,
and opinionated, and to these
unamiable qualities the old hus
band invariably and justifiably
adds jealousy. The young wife
of an old man earns all she gets
by putting up with the crabbed
ness of age, by having all her
actions spied upon, and by hav
ing to nurse the rheumatism
and the gout when she would
like to be enjoying the pleas
ures that belong to her age.
Look at the young wives of
old men that you know, the
girls who have married for
money. Is there one happy
looking one among them all?
Did you ever see wearier, more
bored looking faces? They do
not look alert and alive as work
ing women look. They have t
not the smiling, contente*!
faces that the wives of so many
poor men have.
You see these women have
found out what a terfible thing
it is to have nothing but money,
and how little money really
buys. It doesn't take you long
to get all you can eat and wear,
and then the purchasing power
of money stops. It won't buy
you love, nor a single solitary
thrill, nor brighten by one de
gree the dreary,"soggy, endless
evenings that you spend te,tc
a-tete with a husband whose so
ciety bores you to extinction.
Marry the man you love, girls,
the man who interests you, the
man of whom you never tire,
the man with whom you have
every thought and sympathy in
common, though he be as poor
as a church mouse. Youth call
to youth, you must match enthu
siasm with enthusiasm, bopi
with hope. You must enjoy the
same things, like to do the sam
things, to have any comradeship,
and comradeship between hus
band nnd wife makes the only
enduring tie. It is the only
thing that brings happine--
Better is a dinner of herbs
that two happy young hearts
can laugh over than a dinner al
Delmonico's with an old gour
met whose jaded palate
can tickle. Better a
flat with love than a Fifth ave
nue palace and an empty heart
and an empty life.
Besides, girls, it's lots more
fun to help a young husband
make a fortune than it is lo
spend an old husband's money.
Marry the young man. and may
Heaven bless you, but Heaven
never blesses the union of May
and December.