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6 SAN ANTONIO LIGHT AND GAZETTE Founded January 20. 1881. Evening Daily. Members Associated Preea Sunday Morning O D. ROBBINS Publisher — 4 - TELEPHONE CALLS. Business Office and Circulation Department, both phones.. 176 Editorial Department, both phones TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. By Carrier or Mall. Dally and Sunday, one vear (in advance) 15.00 pally and Sunday, one month 50c •Sunday Edition, one year 2 "0 Single Copies, Dally or Sunday »c Kntered'aT the Postoffice at San Antonio. Texas, as Second-class Matter. The S. C. Beckwith Special Agency, Representatives '’‘Kate'e 13 New York. Tribune Bldg. Chicago. Tribune Bldg. TO SUBSCRIBERS. It Ie important when desiring the address of your paper changed to give both old and new addresses Should delivery be Irregular, please notify the office. Either telephone 176 PUBLISHER’S NOTICE. Subscribers to The Light and Gazette are requested to pay money to regular authorized collectors only. Do not pay car riers. as errors are sure to result The Light and Gazette Is on sale at notels and news-stands throughout the United States. IMF (UMIM OF W PAPER III SAN ANTONIO _— — The sewer farms gang It Must Be that is for P rofit s el ,in g Stopped through retailers the filthy products of their putrid fields to the people of San Antonio have ’ found a champion in the San Antonio Express. It appears to be a defense of the few against the many and the strongest argument put forth in the laudation of the sewer nurtured vegetables is that onlv when eaten green and improperly washed is there any grave danger. The mayor and the board of health MUST stop the sale of these vegetables in this city. If the sewer raised truck is banished from the peddlers' wagons, some of the friends of the administration may lose a few dollars, but if the sale continues the lives of many thousands are daily endangered that protec tion may be afforded the few. Any newspaper that will put the wellfare of half a dozen stockholders in , a corporation ahead of the health of a city is in an indefensible position. You are told that if you are VERY VERY careful and wash the vegetables WELL that the danger is trifling and you will prob ably escape eating filth and avoid typhoid or some , of the other diseases fostered by this uncleanliness. By doing this you will not disturb the profits of the sewer farm and sewage selling crowd. If the people will inform themselves as to the owners of the city sewage they will learn the names of the men who are back of the effort to hush up the scandal and kill the crusade for cleanliness. Brand ing the efforts of this paper as sensational will not stop it; telling the people that the danger is a small one will not stop it. The blindness of the mayor when he rides out with the chief owner of the sewage and the lessor of the sewer farms will not stop it; the health officer who sees what the mayor sees and no more, will not stop it. The Light and Gazette intends to stop the sale of sewer grown vegetables in San Antonio whether the city officials have the nerve to co-operate with it or not. This outrageous and mercenary assault upon the health of a community by a small band of, men must cease even though the officials charged with the care of the city and its people haven’t the tourage to raise their voices. This paper expects to be called sensational by the sewer farm daily and told that it is! injuring the city, and have hurled at it all the threadbare excuses that have been in favor with mossbacks for the past ten years; it expects the morning defender of the sewer farm to do every thing to stop the crusade except EAT sewer farm lettuce and radishes. One of the owners of the Express owns about $40,000 worth of stock in the company that controls the sewage and the sewer farms. This may explain to the people of San Antonio just why that news paper desires them to continue eating the products of that reeking bed of filth. It’s up to the mayor to get his eyesight and his nerve back. Wonder if Dr. Brumby will make good and come down and look over that sewer farm. If he does, he surely cannot over look it, " ' — 4* ■ - Of course when a man cannot see a cloud of dust it is hardly to be expected that he could see twenty acres of radishes. But then he ought to smell them. 41 ——— —All the agitation for re. It Takes I torm wil1 an,ount t0 „ .... I 90 1° D B a9 the agitators are Votes tO Win I not voters. Many fine re- " ‘ ' forms fail because there is ro practical politics in the ranks of the element seeking a change. It would appear from a glance at the poll tax list that those who wish for a commission form of government ■will be obliged to take it out in wishing. The voters are ar rayed against them and a poll tax receipt is mightier any day than a barrel full of high ideals. If anything is to be accomplished three years hence the people who wish to see San Antonio in the ranks of those cities doing well, should begin their educational campaign along the right lines at this moment. The most important committee that such an organization could create would be one that has the force and energy to see that every man of voting age is the possessor of a poll tax receipt. The whole city may be worked into a ferment; there may be an over whelming majority in favor of the commission form of gov ernment or any other form, but so long as the are not there, there is no hope. We have been told ever since the founding of'the republic that a business man is a busy man and has little time for politic* and that it takes time from business to triulge down THURSDAY, to the city hall and the county court house and pay the tax, but if anything is to bo accompli’■lied, these trials must be borne. It is the price that must bo paid for victory. There are some 7000 polls paid in the city of San Antonio today and there are probably 12.'00 men qualified to vote. Political sharps have been doing some figuring and the most conservative estimate that any r< orm measure submitted to the people today would be defeated by a majority of elose to 500 votes. These figures slier that San Antonio is care less of its rights and that until the men of substance take away from the men of shadow < e power to rule the eity through the ballot, little reform may be expected. A lit tle practical politics will do the trick. No one seems to be surprised to find Senator Lodge de fending the tariff. He is one of the makers and is a ready sponsor for his own child. Nevertheless some ignorant and vulgar people who dwell close to Senator Lodge in Massa chusetts seut a democrat to congress, wiping out a republi can plurality of fourteen thousand and making it a demo cratic plurality of six thousand. The mayor gives promise of becoming an expert chauffeur and will soon know the difference between a spark plug and a five inch stroke. . The men who irrigate with artesian water are certainly en titled to some protection from the sewer made vegetables. The present dilatory attitude of the city government in fail ing to stop the sale of the latter is hurting the man with the clean green goods. It won’t be long now before we'll all have that crick in the neck from overwatching of aviators. It's called aero planitis of the main stem. Ran Antonio has achieved added fame. It is the first to declare for Roosevelt in 1912. Barrill, the original Cook accuser, is now out with his branding iron again And says that the Fairbanks expedition never reached the top of Mt. McKinley. Ed must have sec ond sight. The average man seldom lives up to the opinion he has of himself. Governor Patterson of Tennessee, is achieving new notori-, cty. He was burned in effigy, which however mortifying it may be, is considered much nicer than being burned in per son. Letters From the People Editor Light and Gazette. Sir—I am a retired lawyer from Mississippi. My wife and I moved here to 1019 8. Presa street over two years ago on account of impaired health. The dust on this thor oughfare is something terrible, and while the dust nuisance is being agitated I would like to make some suggestions in regard to it. The only permanent remedy I see is oil. There is no oil in the air. Therefore oil does not evaporate. It sinks into the ground. It is lighter than water. Therefore it swims. If the surface of the earth be damp, the oil would remain on top. but as the dirt becomes dry the oil follows the moisture down until the water becomes of suffi cient density to hold it up. Hence one or two oilings is not much better thtan water. It takes several. The oil itself protects the dampness from the heat of the sun’s rays, and after the soil had been sufficiently saturated to meet the moisture on or near the surface then no more oil would be needed for a long time. As I understand it, after a few oilings then it would be necessary, as in some of the western cities, to oil the streets once or twice a year. It would be expensive at first, but in course of time the expense would decrease until it would amount to very little. There are other plans. The plan in Hot Springs, Ark., is one. The traction company has a franchise to run its cars over some of the streets, but it has no right to create a nuisance, and the dust is a nuisance, and most of it on the street car lines is created or raised by the cars, and they can be required to at least help abate this nuisance. In Hot Springs the traction company has sprinkling cars and tanks which are run over their lines twice a day, and -they have no dust there. The city could bear a part of this expense, and the traction company of right should bear the other part in proportion to the amount of dust they raise. This could only apply to some of the principal streets. Take, for instance, the Hot Wells line. As it is a benefit to the Hot Wells, they ought to contribute to the expense of watering or oiling that street, and the city and traction company should do the balance. It benefits the city, be cause all tourists wish to visit thpse celebrated wells. There is another way of helping to raise the necessary funds on this line. It is notorious that the automobiles raise their share of this dust, and the city might issue bonds and establish a toll gate on the Hot Wells line, and each automobile should be required to pay a certain toll. This of itself would pay the interest on the bonds. It is also eminently fair, because the automobiles help to raise the dust, and those who own the automobiles are best able to help lav the dust thev help to raise. Respectfully, R. C. BECKETT. As Others View It THE SOUTH AND MEAT PRODUCTION. It is claimed by a representative southern newspaper that the southern people could, if they would, raise their own meat supply, and do it more cheaply than it can be done for them in the northern states. In jiartial support of these claims, it is asserted that live stock in the gulf states can live out of doors all the year round, and will always be able to find an abundance of food. The native grasses and herbage for grazing animals, it is asserted, and the vast profusion of wild nuts and edible roots for hogs, fur nish subsistence for stock in an abundance unknown in the north. These statements are incontrovertible, and yet. ex cluding Texas, the south is a small contributor, compara tively, to the nation’s meat food supply. In this particu lar, the south has not kept pace with its own general ad vancement nor with the increased production of the country at large. It has not, in fact, regained the position it occu pied previous to the rebellion, when it had 50 per cent of all the beef cattle of the country. The theory advanced by the Manufacturers Record for this state of things is that the south after the civil war was practically without live stock, and without the means whereby it could replace the animals lost during the war period. As the most available means of obtaining a liveli hood, ih? southern people turned to cotton raising. With this they soon glutted the market as it then existed. When the diversified crop movement took hold of them they had fallen into the custom of depending upon the north and west for their meat supplies. The long and short of it is, therefore, that nothing save neglect of a great industry by the south now stands the nation at large and a more plentiful supply of meat, with much lower prices. There is absolutely no question as to the south’s ability to increase the meat supply of the country immensely. It etill has extensive ranges of fine grazing land; it has plenty of chean fattening feed, a favorable climate, and all the othr-r advantages necessary to the upbuilding of a great traffic in live stock. All that is lacking, according tn the southern newspapers, is the disposition nnd the enterprise which the development of a great industry calls for. and it begins to look as if these would not be lacking long.— Christian Siience Monitor. SAN ANTONIO LIGHT AND GAZETTE THF. DUST. ALL SORTS Copyright. 1909. by S Pqst Publtehlnz Co 2 By NEWTON NEWKIRK • A SPRING LIMERICK. Dear Newt—’Tis with pleasure I note That you wish some spring nomes to be write; But I can’t do a thing About writin’ on spring ’Cause the Bock Beer Man borrowed my goat. —FUZZY WUZZY. Josh Wise Says: “When an actqr's a stick we infer he’s rank as glue." SWIPED HIS TROUSERS. Jacob Sanger of New York, had a humiliating experience the other day. Now Jake has but one suit, a .d lately his trousers have been bagging at the knees. Borrowing an iron from his land lady, Jacob pressed his pants in his room while he waited in decollete at tire, and having put a pair of razor edge creases in the aforesaid garment, he placed his trousers on the fire escape to dry thoroughly before climbing back into them. When Jake wasn’t looking some fiend in human form (name unknown) coaxed Jake’s pants from the fire escape and escaped with them. When Jake discovered his loss he was amazed, surprised and chagrined, but more especially chagrined. However, he made up his mind he wouldn’t spend the rest of his life in that ballroom, so he visited the next room on the same floor and found a woman's shepherd plaid skirt. Donning the skirt and top ping off with his coat, vest and derby hat set rakishly on the back of his head, he sallied forth to the nearest police sta tion. followed by a mob of morbidly curious people who thought they never saw such a funny joke on two legs. When Jake entered the police station to report his loss, the sergeant at the desk didn't know whether he was Dr. Mary Walker or some gentleman iu feminine disguise. The sergeant, who weighs 240 pounds, took pity on Sang, who weighs about 115, and gave him an old pair of his own trousers, which Sang wore back to his room. They made almost as big a hit with the populace as the plaid skirt. As we go to press Jake’s pants have not been recovered, but he says there is enough material in those the ser geant gave him to make two pairs; then he will have one pair extra in case of emergency. A “PEARL” OF GREAT WEIGHT. Out in Abilene, Kah., is a young lady by the name of Miss Pearl Ram bo, who is not yet quite sweet 16. While Pearl is young in years, she could not truthfully be called a “slip of a girl.” No one after taking a casual look at Pearl would be so reck less as to say that she weighs five pounds less than a straw hat. The last time Pearl was weighed on a wagon scale, she tipped the beam at 625 pounds and that was nearly six months ago—she has probably taken on considerable additional weight since then. An enterprising newspaper reporter recently paid a visit to Pearl’s coun try home for the purpose of interview ing her. He writes that when he ai rived at the house, Pearl’s mother told him that she was out at the barn feed ing the calf, and at his request the mother called her daughter and the reporter says, 4 * She came tripping into the room like a dancing sunbeam.” (A short intermission is here given, during which the reader is earnestly ( requested to imagine 625 pounds ‘trip ping like a dancing sunbeam!’ ) Upon being questioned Pearl told the ' reporter that she had not always been Iso large and her mother verified this bv stating that on the dgy of her birth she weighed only '/Kk pounds. Pearl says that if she continues to in crease in weight as in the past, she will, when she is 30 years old, weigh in the neighborhood of half a ton. The reporter asked Pearl if she had ever had any offers from circus managers to travel as the “Plump Lady” in a side show and Pearl said she had, but had declined them all on the grounds that when travelling it would be necessary for her to get off and walk over the hill whenever the train came to a tun nel. Pearl’s father is a carpenter and he has made for her a chair to order. It is about five feet wide and as heavy as a piano. But the best news of all is that Pearl has a beau, who thinks she is just the sweetest thing that ever happened. Pearl says that they are engaged and some day he is going to marry her— all of her. Pearl could sit on a sofa between two gentlemen admirers and if both kept quiet enough, neither would know the other was present and the tips of their fingers would never meet as they en deavored to pass their respective arms around the young lady’s waist. LIKE OATS AND DOGS. “What makes that continual racket in the woods!” asks the visitor. “Racket! I don’t notice any,” an swers the native. “Listen. Don’t you hear that whip ping and scratching sound!” “That! Oh, I’ve got so used to that I never notice it. You see. down yon der in the hollow there’s a couple of dogwoods grow in a clump of pussy wil lows.”—Chicago Post. LAP SERVED “I sec you only have one chair in the kitchen. Alary. I must get another one for yon.” “You needn't mind, ma'am. 1 have none but gentleman callers.”—Buffalo Express. Can You Blame Him? Obsert an! Citizen | A lady out ou Laurel Heights has an Irish cook who has all the wit peculiar to that nationality. At the same time she is impartial whom her shafts hit. The other day the mistress was talking with her and said: “Bridget, why is it that the crankiest mistresses always have the best cooks! ” “Aw gwan wid your blarney,” was Bridget’s disconcerting reply. “Say kid, the old man wants to see you in his office,” said the bookkeep er in a Houston street business office this morning, to the red-headed office boy. “I guess it’s you to be fired this time.” “Nix,” said the kid. “He’s hear! that McIver is to play left field this season again and wants to know if it’s true. That's all.” “When I go to Houston,” said a traveling friend of mine, yesterday, “I always take a train that goes only that far.” “Why do you do that!” I asked. “Well, you see. I don’t like the blooming town, but if I take a train that only goes that far, I have to get off anyway. Otherwise I’d ride right by.” SAH ANTONIO 21 YEARS AGO (From The Light, April 15, 1889). The results of the games played in the Texas state league yesterday after noon were as follows: Fort Worth, 13, Austin, 5; Galveston, 7, Waco, 2; Hous ton, 9, Dallas, 3. James McDonald and wife, who conduct a little store on the St. Hedwig road, 15 miles from San Antonio, were attacked at their home Saturday night by some unknown person. Mr. McDon ald was found lying in some brush near the bouse with his head badly bat tered. The store had been set on fire. The body of Mrs. McDonald was res cued from being entirely consumed by the flames. Sheriff McCall and his depu ties are working on the case. The drummers of the city enjoyed a picnic on the river bank about a half; mile south of the Second mission yes terday. The Italian society held its annual meeting last night and elected officers for the ensuing year. James P. Hickman, Jr., has sold his half interest in the Southern hotel tol C. C. Conley. 5 former stockman. George Hines of the -Belknaps has been elected captain of the Maverick Rffies. The shoot to have been held yester day afternoon by the Lone Star Gun club did not take place, because of the bad weather. Mina was rehearsing a little piece she was to recite nt school, one on the “Hey, diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle” order. “Is that story so!” she inquired. “Whv. i»o. ’ replied her mother. “It isn't actuail* true.” Texas Talk COMLPETE. The A. M. college has installed a chair of good roads. This is a move in the right direction. If the man agers of the state’s farms in the future can be made to see the ben efit of good roads, and at the same time given a knowledge of how these are to be obtained much has been accomplished.—Beaumont En terprise. And a few financiers to show how the wherewithal is produced and you have the combination complete. BETTER STILT, Eight thousand Houston school children waving Texas flags 011 San Jacinto day will be an instructive reminder that Texas is the only state in the Union that was ever really a free, sovereign and inde pendent country. —Houston Chron icle. And she is freer and more indepen dent, and fatter and sassier than she ever was in all her glorious history. NO NAVY PLAY. Congressman Gregg of Texas is one of those who do not believe in the larger navy, and he is not afraid to express his opinion on the matter in forcible English.—• Beaumont Enterprise. Texas will do well without any navy and if the rest of the country wants one let ’em have it—a little one. It takes a lot of cotton and hogs to buy a battleship. FLY BOY. It looked like an impossibility to do away with the mosquito, ’ but when it was undertaken systemat ically and scientifically it was found that his mosquitoship did not command such a strong position and that proper efforts were alone needed to rid the city or town al most entirely of his presence. What has proved true of the mos quito can likewise be made true of the fly. It is a case of getting busy and staying busy.—Denison Herald. Perhaps the mosquito was not so fly. THE TREMELO BOY. There is nothing like spirited ri valry in the production of news. The" courthouse reporter came to hat the other day with a sobby story in which “me cheild, me eheild” figures prominently. Now the state house journalist finds one written to slow musie and the tremelo stop. —Austin Tribune. Put the tremelo boy on the state house job when the legislature is in ses sion and you’ll have ’em fighting for the papers “wet from the press, ’ as they say in the stories. APRIL 15, 1910. Little Stories AN HONEST DEMOCRAT. One of tie best known democrats in New Jersey—known for his enthusiasm for the party day in and out —is an in surance man, known legally and other wise as Frank Tilden McBride. Mr. Mc- Bride is vice president of the Jefferson ian club, Jersev'g leading democratic club. Mr. McBride is never anxious to have this story told about him because it may bring to light a phase of his character that might cause an injury to his business—as a fire loss adjuster for a large company. The door of his office was opened the other day and a shabbily dressed in dividual came in. “Are you the man who advertised that he had found a purse containing a cinsiderable sum of monev!” The insurance man nodded his 4 4 yes. ’ ’ “You mentioned the fact that the owner could have the purse by apply ing and describing the pocketbook.” “Yes. ” “Thank you, that is all I wanted to know. 4 ’ “But you must give me a descrip tion before you can claim it.” “Oh, I haven’t lost any purse,” was the reply as the shabbily dressed per son edged to the door, “I merely wish ed to see what a democrat and an insur ance man looked like who will find a large sum of money and advertise for the owner instead of having a good time with it. Good day.”—National Monthly. THE CONAISSEUR. Mr. Gluggenheimer, newly rich, en tered a book store in his native town with a pompous air. A dapper clerk stepped forward: “What can I do for you, sir!” he inquired deferently. “Oh just send out 500 books to my house,” Mr. Gluggenheimer replirti nonchalant ly. “WhatF’ gasped the clerk, “500 books!” Then recovering himself, “ What kind of books sir!” “Oh anv kind,” Air. Gluggenheimer returned grandly, “just so they’ll loom up on a self.” Sometime had elapsed, the books had arrived and were placed un opened in the Gluggenheimer library. One day a friend of Gluggenheimer’s, a noted literary critic, came to see the master of the house on business and was formally ushered into the library. “Why, John,” he said, noticing the books, 4 * I didn t know you went in for literature, and he proceeded to exam ine them. “Didn’t you!” said the se cretly pleased John, “I j ust picked those books up here and there while traveling in Europe.” “But John, old man,” -returned his now thoroughly amused friend, 44 What does this mean, these books are ail Arithmetics.”—National Montblv. AN END OF SERVITUDE. Mrs. Bloomer—Did vou ever! Miss De Talent, the wonderful actress, has married her manager. Mr. Bloomer I presume she got tired of being managed.—New York Weekly.