The morning call. [volume], February 07, 1895, Page 6, Image 6

About The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895

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6
CHARLES M. SHORTRIDGE,
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THURSDAY FEBRUARY 7, 1895
Exit LiliuokaJani.
The calamity howlers are corked up.
■ Uneasy lies the head that has a wheel
in it.
Cleveland and Gresham should surrender
next.
Inquisition don't go but the inquisitors
must.
Home rule means reform, and reform
means home rule.
Nearly all the news that comes in these
d;;ys is good news.
Whenever San Francisco helps herself
akes the cake.
Santa Clara and the San Joaquin are
eager to clasp hands.
Inquisitions arc out of date and should
be knocked out of time.
The useless attache who doe? not wish to
lose his head should resign.
The $2,000,000 is in sight, with several
precincts yet to be heard from.
The only thing remaining in the mission
of the Democratic party is to quit.
In these <lays every man who cannot be
anything else tries to be a Park hurst.
The revolt in Ha-.vaii evidently shook
■'!._'h to settle them.
Shall we lay a cable line to Hawaii or
(Wait for little Hawaii to lay it herself?
If the news from Hawaii makes Grover
! his policy he ought to throw it up.
It is only legitimate journalism that
achieves legitimate successes in journal
ism.
The legislator who cuts the trolley wire
of the inquisition bill will make a ten
strike.
Even the Wall-street men are giving the
new bonds a bad name by calling them
"Grovers."
In the vocabulary of a community that
is capable of Belf-government, there is no
such word us Lcxow.
Lei the Legislature devote its investiga
tions to matters of retrenchment and the
people will be satisfied.
The State is with us on every proposi
tion from building railroads to practicing
complete loi al self-government.
The Democratic <ongress provided an
income tax, but it will take a Republican
ess to provide the income.
Whenever a man attempts to combine
fakes with journalism, he soon becomes
more of a faker than a journalist.
Every citizen should make himself suffi
ciently acquainted. with the proposed char
ter M recognize the new features of it.
Wheat is cheap, silver is cheap, cotton is
cheap and labor is cheap, but nothing is
feeling so cheap as. the administration.
The important news comes from the East
that the cocktail tea has had its day and
the coffee cocktail is the latest wrinkle.
In the present condition of affairs in San
iscoaState investigation would be a
farce comedy that wouldn't pay expenses.
Since the Freeholders have made the
Bew charter so long let us hope that no
©flu-i:il will over have occasion \n stretch it.
The only possible way for this Congress
to redeem itself is to drop the currency
-ion and pass the Nicaragua canal
bill.
The would-be inquisitors who have gone
to Sacramento shouting "we are the peo
ple" are not numerous enough to form a
petty jury to try a dog-fight case.
It will be recorded of Cleveland here
after that the only thing he succeeded in
doing during bis administration was to
catch bmall fish in shallow water.
The abolition of the Railway Commission
does not mean that the Legislature shall
regulate freights and fares, but that the
]>eople should do it by building competing
road>.
In bis new book Dr. Parkhurst asserts
that the pulpit is greater than the press,
but if he had really believed that he would
have contented himself with preaching his
book instead of printing it.
Tf a newspaper is not worth the price
asked for it, it is the duty of the editor
either to diminish the price or increase the
value of the paper and not try to patch up
the difference with a coupon scheme.
The prospects for retrenchment at Sac
ramento brighten daily, and there is a
growing confidence that the majority of
the Legislature will be true to the Repub
lican tradition of keeping faith with the
people and observing campaign pledges.
The sooner the Railroad Commission is
abolished and the people are impressed
with the truth that only by competition
can they regulate freights and fares the
sooner will competing: lines be constructed
and the true solution of the problem found.
The renewed report that only $50 has
been contributed in Maine toward the fund
for the proposed memorial to Blame raises
the suspicion that there must be some
thing wrong with the committee in charge.
Even if the committee were composed of
but three people, they should have raised
more than $50 before they started to pass
round the hat.
The big trolley strike in Brooklyn caused
tramps to flock to that city by thousands,
not for the purpose of helping the strikers'
light, but to make a ten strike for them
selves. Some of them managed to get 10
out of the strikers' fund by making a bluff
of applying for work. They also got more
Did than usual from servants by represent
ing themselves as starving strikers. It ap
pears, therefore, that between labor and
capital the tramp is the most impartial of
citizens, and is perfectly willing to wipe
out the one while sponging on the other.
v- ":•;■:■'-: ■ '. ■ ■":■■+,'
WILL THE KAILEOAD PAY?
The liberality which has been so notable
a feature in the management of the com
peting railway project is not the growth of
enthusiasm alone, nor is it the child of any
mean desire to injure existing railroads.
It is in fact the logical result of a process
of reasoning which for the past several
years has been evolving in the minds of
the business men of San Francisco, and it
is their response to the inquiry not whether
the competing railroad should be built,
but whether such a road, if built, would
pay.
There are two ways in which this ques
tion may be answered to the satisfaction of
those who have extended or who may ex
tend to the new railroad project their sym
pathy and aid. The first, and the one
which has been most clearly perceived by
the merchants of this city, is that a com
peting railroad will so increase the amount
of business and the values of property in
ban Francisco and so augment its interior
trade that its promoters will reap their
prolit by indirection in this increase.
There can be no questioning the correct
ness of this position, and no doubt that in
the upbuilding of a greater San Francisco
the subscribers to the valley railroad
project will find ample returns for their
subscriptions.
The other view is on<- which has been as
yet but little explored or expounded on
account of the difficulty in obtaining exact
data for its solution. The question is
whether a competing railroad along the
San Joaquin and Santa Clara valleys,
uniting at or about Fresno and thence
proceeding to Bakersfield, would pay for
its construction and operation out of its
earnings. This question must be answered
affirmatively if the valley railroad project
is to be an ultimate buccess.
The bottom facts from which this affir
mation might be most easily deduced,while
existent and known to some, are not acces
sible to general inspection. They lie
snugly hidden between the leaves and lines
of the ledgers of the Sonthern Pacific Com
pany and from that safe retreat they have
never come forth to be spread upon the
reports of State or Interstate Railroad
Commissions, or to be submitted to the
inspection of the vulgar eye. It is impos
sible to learn how much the net earnings
of the Southern Pacific Company are
annually from the travel and traffic of the
San Joaquin and Santa Clara valleys. This
information having been kept carefully con
cealed, the only means left for determining
whether a railroad through these valleys
would be a paying venture is, by an esti
mate, first as to what ought to be the
profits to a railroad operating in and
through such productive and populous
sections, and, second, what the earnings of
the Southern Pacific Company therefrom
must be in order to pay the intere.-t on
their bonds, and also in order to maintain
and operate their railroad over those long
miles of desert which are part of the terri
tory through which their system extends.
The most superficial examination of
maps and statistics will discover that the
San Joaquin and Santa Clara valleys are
the most populous and productive sections,
according to their area, upon the Pacific
Coast. The census of 1890 gave to the
counties which are contained within these
great valleys a population of 27~>,000 peo
ple. The growth of the past five years
has brought, these figures easily up
to 300,000 souls. These people are
of the most industrious, most intel
ligent and most productive class of
our citizens. Within these valleys they
have built great factories and great col
leges; have turned thousands of broad
acres into orchards and gardens; have
established homes and founded cities as
material evidences of their increasing
wealth and widening desires. A railroad
which Vould undertake to transport the
products of such a people to market upon
fair and equal terms, and to carry back td
them the diversity of tilings demanded
for their daily consumption ought surely
to pay if railroads ever pay anywhere, and
there is a definite rumor abroad that they
do.
There is something more than a suspi
cion current that the existing railroad
reaps very large returns from the busi
ness of the San Joaquin and Santa Clara
valleys. The truth is that they must reap
such returns in order to pay the inter
est on their bonds and maintain
the unproductive portion? of their
road. There" is in the San Jouquin
Valley between Stockton and Bakerstield,
more than GOO miles of the track of the
Southern Pacific Company upon which
there is a bonded indebtedness averaging
$23,300 per mile, or a total indebtneps of
over $17,000,000, upon the San Joaquin
Valley Railroad north of Bakerstield. The
interest upon this enormous debt is more
than a million dollars a year, which must
be paid with unfailing regularity out of
the annual earnings of the corporation
from the people of the San Joaquin Valley.
In the Santa Clara Valley between
San Francisco and Hollister there are
about 200 miles of railroad, with a bonded
indebtedness of more than $6,000,000 and
an annual interest requisition of $350,000,
which must also be paid by the people of
that productive valley. It is idle to pre
isuine that the deserts of Arizona,
New Mexico or Nevada pay any portion of
this interest account. It is more than prob
able that the annual interest to be paid
upon the debt which incumbers these
profitless portions of the Southern Pacific
system is a charge upon the traffic of the
fertile and populous valleys of San Joaqnin
and Santa Clara.
From a consideration of these facts,
which, though few, are eloquent, it must
be concluded that a competing railroad
into these great valleys would surely pay.
That a railroad without the losses of an un
productive mileage to make good, without
a bloated bonded debt to feed with vast
annual interest payments, without the
thousand and one incidents which go to
make the existing railroad expensive, but
with the friendship and favor of the people,
by whose farms and through whose cities
it would pass; that such a railroad, with
freight and fare schedules that would be
equal and consistent, and with a manage
ment that would be honest and just, would
yield a ricn and yet a fair and profitable
return foi every dollar invested in it.
ABOLISH IT.
The prospect is fair that the constitu
tional amendment proposed by Belshaw
of Contra Costa to abolish the Railroad
Commission will be favorably received by
the two houses of the Legislature. The
sentiment of the body is that the commis
sion has failed in its object, that it has
never been of any service to the State, and
that the best thing to do with it is to wipe
it out. Members who do not entertain
this view say they may not vote for abo
lition, because that would throw the work
of fixing railroad freights and fares into
the Legislature. They seem to think that
it is an alternative between the commis
sion and the Legislature. Why ?
It is certainly no part of the business of
the Legislature to fix freights and fares
anymore than it belongs to it to rix the
price of bread or beef. Two bodies, of
forty and eighty members, respectively,
are entirely unfit to examine into the de
tails which govern freights and fares and
THE MORNING CALL, SAN FRANCISCO, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1895.
to frame schedules or tariffs thereon.
They would make a muddle of the job,
and half the time a majority of them
would be tools of the company.
The true remedy for railroad extor
tion is competition; that is the only
remedy which is consonant with sound
business principle. When the San Joa
quin railroad is built there will be no more
complaints of exorbitant rates from people
in the valley. Transportation is a com
modity, like grain or groceries ; its price is
regulated by supply and demand; but it
differs from other commodities in that
people are compelled to use it, and thus
the people at large are entitle- to some say
in determining its value. The only effect
ive method of giving effect to that say,
however, is by constructing competing
lines; all other devices are makeshifts
which are likely to aggravate the evil they
were intended to cure. The new era of
reasonable fares and freights will date from
the hour the Railroad Commission is abol
ished.
THE EEPEBENDUM.
The bills now pending in the Legislature
for the adoption of the referendum and
the initiative will, if they pass, be experi
ments. They are in the nature of appeals
from the Legislature to the people at large;
we have cognate examples in the constitu
tional amendments which must be ratified
by the people before they acquire the force
of laws. The only country in which both
the referendum and the initiative are used
is the small republic of Switzerland, which
has a territory about as large as Maryland
and a population about equal to that of
Missouri.
The Swiss have always been accustomed
to take a direct interest in public affairs;
they are jealous of their Legislatures,
federal and cantonal. In cantons of Uri,
Appengoll and Underwald, the people
meet to this day in the open air to make
their laws, and choose their officials, just
as the Athenians used to do in the great
days of Athens. Most of the cantons, like
the republic itself, have Legislatures, but
the people keep a close suspicious watch
on them. When a given number of citizens
want a law passed they sign a petition to
that effect; this is transmitted to the Legis
lature, and acted upon by that body.
When a law is passed by the Bundes-
Versarambung, 30,000 citizens may, by
signing a petition to that effect, require that
it be submitted to the people for ratifica
tion 01 rejection; it does not go into effect
till it has been ratified.
This plan appears to be satisfactory to
the Swiss, and it certainly has the effect of
bringing thr Legislature into close contact
with the people, which is supposed to be a
good thing. It is not certain, however,
that it would work as well in this State.
It would introduce an element of uncer
tainty into our legislation. It would mul
tiply the number of elections, to the dis
turbance of business and to the diversion
of the mind of the people from their own
affairs. It is not at all certain that the
people would always prove wiser than
their representatives. As to petitions with
thirty or fifty thousand signatures, they
can be got at any time on either side of
any question. Some people in this city
seem to make a business of getting up such
documents, and scandal-mongers will have
it that the names arc sometimes copied out
of old directories by expert penmen.
On an important, clean-cut issue, to
which the answer is simply yes or no.
there is merit in the European plan of a
plebiscite, though the vote by which the
second empire was established in Fral« .c
shows that a plebiscite is not always a
reliable test of pubNc opinion. Still, ple
biscites have advantages which the refer
endum cannot claim.
It is a signal proof of the recuperative
power of the great West that its energies
have revived, notwithstanding the imbe
cility of the Government in blundering
and bungling over every problem of in
dustry and finance.
SPIKIT Of THE PEESS.
Any one guilty of bribing a jury to acquit a
murderer should be given a life sentence. —
Virginia City Chronicle.
There is but one thing to do with the Ha
waiian Islands, and that is to attach them to
the United States. Any other course will lead
to international troubles sooner or later. —
Phoenix Herald.
The present road law at least needs radical
revision. In parts, at least, it is inoperative
and cumbersome. We need some practical and
sensible road laws and some progressive ideas
in road-building.— Chino Champion.
Should the effort to foreclose the first mort
gage on the Union Pacific Railroad prove suc
cessful and the United States lose the amount
of its loan, the public will scourge this and the
next Congress that fails to compel a subsidized
enterprise to fulfill its contract.— Arizona Re
publican.
The Christian people of this sunshiny land
will to-day have an opportunity of praying for
the Arizona Legislature. Sin is abroad in the
land and vice is running riot among the law
makers of California, so let us get down on our
marrow and seek to establish a quarantine
against its appearance in our legislative halls.—
Phoenix Gazette.
California~lms indorsed by the action of its
legislative body a resolution calling upon the
Representatives of that State in Washington to
work to secure the euactment of laws for the
free coinage of 6ilver at a ratio of 16 to 1. This
is as it should be, and California is now ranked
with her sister mining States of the Pacific
Coast as true to its own interests.— Virginia
City Chronicle.
An institution has been inaugurated in Balti
more, the object of which is to train girLs for
domestic service. The great necessity of the
hour, however, is some plan by which the
heads of these girls can be trained to look upon
household work as honorable and not degrad
ing- Their hands can be attended to easy
enough. It is their thinkerß that need to be
started right. — Sacramento Bee.
PEKSONALS.
S. Meyerstein, a Ventura merchant, is at the
Lick.
Frank A. Cressy of Modesto is registered at
the Lick.
R. M. Shackelford of Paso Robles is a guest at
the Occidental.
J. D. Biddlc, a banker of Hanford, is reg
istered at the Grand.
T. J. Field, the railroad man, of Monterey, is
at the Palace with his wife.
S. W. Knowles, a prominent farmer of Clover
dale, is registered at the Russ.
Henry R. Levy, a merchant of San Bernar
dino, is in the city on business.
Lieutenant T. S. Phelps Jr. of the new cruiser
Olympia is a guest at the Palace.
Hugh Hume, a well-known journalist of this
city, leaves to-day for Chicago.
Colonel George Hager and daughter, of Co
lusa, are registered at the Palace.
John Mulroy, a mining man of Grass Valley,
is among the guests at the Grand.
F. P. Chandler, a capitalist of Elmira, accom
panied by his wife, is at the Lick.
Dr. J. A. F razor and bride, of San Jose, are
among the guests at the California.
W. J. Daggett, lately engaged in the livery
business in Santa Rosa, is at the Russ.
Frank Mattison, Assessor of Santa Cruz
County, arrived at the Grand yesterday.
George T. Dunlap, who owns a large ranch
near Gilroy, is registered at the California.
Thomas Couch, one of Montana's leading
mining men, is a late arrival at the Palace.
Samuel R. Stern, counsel for Pinkerton's De
tective Agency in Spokane, is at the Palace.
H. J. Small, general roaster mechanic of the
Southern Pacific at Sacramento, is at the
Grand.
UP TO DATE IDEAS.
Louis Gathmann, the Chicago man who has
invented the sectional lens lor large tele
scopes, has written the following to the Chi
cago Times:
Having read an interesting article by Pro
fessor Barnard on "The Possibilities of Future
Great Telescopes," I beg to differ with him in
regard to the number of working hours of the
future great instrument, and also in regard to
his theory of hindrance due to atmospheric dis
turbances. Every intelligent person interested
and posted in the science of physics and of op
tics should know the reason of the oft occurring
distortion of the true image of large telescopes,
while smaller instruments used at the same
time still give very satisfactory results.
Any instrument using two objective lenses
can obtain a true focus under one temperature
only, viz. : that under which it was manufac
tured and corrected. This cannot be other
wise, as the difference in expansion and con
traction of crown and flint glass is consider
able. To more clearly understand I refer to
Figure 1, which shows the large lenses as used in
telescopes of the day. Now, suppose these
lenses, manufactured and corrected'at a tem
perature say of 60 deg. Fahrenheit. At
this temperature the center lines of both
lenses, one of which is of flint glass and the
other of crown, coincide with line of focus and
center of instrument. Now assume the tem
perature to fall 30 degrees (a common occur
rence in the most favored climes) this variation
of temperature will cause an unequal expan
sion or contraction, in this case unequal con
traction, of the two lenses. This throws their
centers out of the true position and thereby
causes the blurred or poorly denned image
that Professor Barnard attributes entirely to
the unsteadiness of the atmosphere.
I am convinced by the practical experiments
that ni ne-tenths of all the dirliculty encoun tered
by Professor Barnard, and for which he holds
"atmospherical disturbances" accountable, can
be and should be directly traced to the un
equal expansion of the glass of the lenses.
It is, therefore, not the atmosphere to which
the trouble should be laid, but the present un
mechanical construction of large telescopes.
Figure 1 shows the general achromatic con
struction of the two object lenses at the tem
perature of correction. Figure 2 shows exag
geratedly the two lenses after a considerable
decrease of temperature. Therefore, it is not
surprising when such great accuracy is* re
quired, as is claimed by Cla^k and Brashear,
that such blurred and distorted views should
be obtained. Now let us compare with the
sectional lens system, against which so much
pressure and opposition is brought to bear.
Figure 3 shows two such lenses. The frames
or matrix of each lens holding the glass sec
tions has the same co-efficient of expansion
and contraction, on an increase up or down the
same distance. This insures the center of each
opposing section being still relatively in the
same proper straight line. In other words,
each pair of sections will be similar to the
small telescopes which the professors claim are
not so much affected by the atmospherical dis
turbances. By a careful examination of these
simple illustrations we can readily see that
changes of temperature, combined with the
unmechanical construction of the large tele-
scopes, is the principal difficulty, and explains
why on such beautiful, clear, crisp nights,
when the stars are bright and sparkling, Pro
fessor Barnard should find his large telescope
almost useless, and that on such a night "the
images are a mass of boiling and quivering
light." But on such a clear nieht, or any
other time when an instrument of, say six
inches disk, gives a good result, a tele
scope of any size built on the sectional
lens system can also be used at
it> full power. This is one of the principal ad
van i ages o£ the sectional lens, besides the well
known fact that in using small pieces of glass
a finer and superior quality can be employed.
On such a beautiful cold, clear night as Pro
fessor Barnard mentioned 1 recently had occa
sion to compare the Eranston 18.5-inch instru
ment, "the one with which Alvan Clark discov
ered the companion ot Sirius." With ray 7
inch sectional-lens telescope, principally mak
ing observations on Jupiter, I was surprised to
note the superior definition of my much
smaller instrument. The sectional-lens system
is entirely in accord with the laws of physics
and optics, and it is yet too early to place any
limit to the power to which instruments can
be built according to this method. lam sorry
and surprised to note the stand that Professor
Barnard and a few other gentlemen have taken
in regard to the sectional lens. The least that
they should have done in the advancement of
science was to accept my invitation to make
observations with my instrument. Had they
taken this slight trouble I am sure that their
views would have been changed, and that they
would now be the hardest workers in this most
interesting field of progress.
Some one in New York has invented a ma
chine to melt the snow in the streets. The
Herald says of it:
The Street Cleaning Department yesterday
experimented with two of the new snow-melt
ing machines at the corner of Washington
square and Fifth avenue. Street Commissioner
Waring's deputy, Mr. Moore, expressed him
self as perfectly satisfied with the work of the
engines.
In appearance they look much like large
sized iron fire engines', with large perpendicu
lar screens on the rear end and barrel-like
reservoirs on the front. These hold the naphtha
by which the machines are operated.
When the snow is shoveled up in heaps along
the sidewalk ready for the melting the engi
neer touches up a double row of jets ranged
along underneath the perpendicular screens
and a sheet of flame shoots up. Then the men
shovel up snow against the screens and the
heat me Its it and it trickles out into the gutter
and runs into the sewers.
The operation is very simple, but last night
it appeared very slow. The explosions of naph
tha in the engine make a great noise, and this,
with the intense glare of the fire, frightens
horses, and as the machines have to stand well
out in the roadway traffic is partially congested
while the work goes on.
The question to what extent the pneumatic
tire, so familiar on bicycles, will be adopted
on the wheels of other vehicles is one of con
siderable interest. According to a London sci
entific journal for cabs and broughams in Eng
lish cities the rubber tire, with an iron hoop
outside, is steadily growing in favor, and thou
sands of them are seen. Since, even on the
smooth wood and asphalt pavements of Lon
don, the rider knows at once whether his han
som has elastic or rigid tires, the contrast must
be still more marked on macadamized roads or
streets paved with granite or cobblestones.
ABOUND THE COEBIDOKS.
N. C. Norton, _ mining man of Phoenix,
Arizona, who was at the New Western yester
day, says that much excitement was recently
created in mining circles in that Territory by
the discovery of the Lost Frenchman mine.
"It was reported that the mine nad been
located at a point near Falomas on the Gila,"
said he, "and there was at once a noticeable
movement toward the locality among pros
pectors, speculators and others. Investigation
proved, however, that the discovery was only
that of an old mine which had been relocated
and the mineral in which was only lead and
copper. The Lost Frenchman mine is one of
the hidden bonanzas which has been sought
for years. Some thirty years ago a Frenchman
brought $7000 in gold into Yuma and left it
with a merchant while he and two companions
returned to the mine. The gold was never
claimed after that time and not one of the
three men was ever heard of afterward. In
conversation with the merchant with whom he
left his gold the Frenchman stated that the
mine showed fabulous richness and was located
in the Apache district. The tribe was very
warlike at the time and it was supposed that
the miners were murdered. Many efforts have
since been made to locate the mine, but with
out avail."
"The action of your merchants in taking the
matter of cleaning the streets of your city into
their own hands reminds me of a similar oc
currence which came under my observation
down in Florida some years ago," said F. B.
Lord, a guest at the Palace, yesterday. "It was
in a good-sized town about thirty or forty miles
below Jacksonville, on the Tampa road, called
Pleasant Lake, I believe. The women and not
the men were the prime movers in the work of
securing clean streets there. Large wooden
receptacles were placed at convenient points
along the streets, alt of them painted in bright
colors and bearing such appropriate signs as
'Cleanliness is next to godliness— throw your
rubbish inside.' If a stranger chanced to drop
an orange peel or piece of paper on the street
some resident would hastily pick it up and
place it in one of the barrels, doingthisinsuch
a manner as to attract the stranger's attention
and still not offend him. The streets of that
town were a marvel of cleanliness as a result
and invariably provoked favorable comment
from visitors."
C. M. Cook, a wealthy sugar-planter of Hono
lulu, was among the passengers on the Aus
tralia yesterday, lie has been identified with
the annexation measures hitherto discussed in
that country, and visited Washington with a
view of bringing such an event about as a
member of the committee sent over for that
purpose some months ago. He says the feeling
in Honolulu is strongly in favor of executing
the insurrectionists now under arrest, and that
he believes such a step will be taken unless
foreign powers should interfere.
O. L. Lynch of Los Angeles, who was at the
Occidental yesterday, says that the Los Angeles
and Pasadena electric road will probably be
extended to the ranch of E. J. Baldwin and
that a carriage road from there to Wilsons
Peak is also projected. Mr. Baldwin is said to
have agreed to pay one-half the cost of the
latter if he can 6ecnre enougli land on top of
the mountain on which to build a hotel.
"The officers of the Monterey are becom ing
quite popular as entertainers, and the ship will
always be a welcome visitor on Bellingham
Bay," said A. P. Moore of Fairhaven, Wash., at
the Lick yesterday. "A number of receptions
have beeu given aboard shin since the Mon
terey has been in the waters mentioned, and
ihese social events will long be remembered
by the residents who participated."
T. M. Alwood.a gentleman from the East,
who is making an inspection of Riverside
County with a view of sinking some oil wells
there, was in the ouy yesterday. He says that
the conditions in Riverside appear favorable to
him and that he has about concluded to put
down several test wells.
J. D. Hammond, an attorney of Buffalo, N.
V., who is at the Occidental, says that during
the coming spring the erection will be com
menced in that city of the largest and finest
office building in the world, the cost of which
wil be $3,500,000.
PEOPLE TALKED ABOUT.
Li Hung Chang seems to be rapidly becoming
the Liliuokalani of China.— New York World.
The most showily dressed woman in Europe
is the Empress of Portugal. She buys costumes,
bonnets and hats wholesale. Her pale com
plexion and auburn hair permit of any kind of
headgear.
Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, president of the
Woman's National Suffrage Association, Spring
field, Ohio, with her husband, has left for the
Holy Land in pursuance of a marriage agree
ment to take a big trip annually, with a view
of seeing the whole civilized world.
General Nieh, the Chiuese commander in the
recent fighting at Kaipling, enteied a carriage
and was leaving the field in a dignified way
when the Japanese killed his horses and
wounded him in the thigh. By some strange
chance several plucky Chinamen surrounded
the general and bore him away to a safe place.
Nieh has sworn to leave such adventures as this
to his substitute in the future.
SUPPOSED TO BE HUMOROUS.
Mr. Ulser— l have always been afraid of being
buried alive.
Dr. Pnlser— No danger, man, I am your doc
tor.—Philadelphia Inquirer.
"Can I write my name under the received
payment of this bill?" asked the collector who
likes to put things as delicately as possible.
"No, thank you." said Mr. Brokely, "I'm no
autograph fiend." — Washington Star.
Waiter (to gentleman who is looking at nap
kin half full of holes)— I'll bring you another
napkin.
Diner— Never mind. The holes seem to be
clean.— Tit-Bits.
The decision of a Baltimore Judge that steal
ing a cat is not larceny was doubtless influ
enced by the probability that the cat would
come back.— Kansas City Journal.
Buggins— Does Goldstein take much interest
in business?
Muggins— l should say he did. He's a pawn
broker.—Philadelphia Record.
"Who killed cock robin?"
"I," said the sparrow.
"Well, who hypnotized you?"— Detroit Tri
bune.
"This," remarked the rat as the trap fell,
"this is the worst I ever had sprung on me." —
Indianapolis Journal.
Civic Federation.
A joint meeting of the Civic Federation
and the auxiliary committee composed of
the pastors of all the churches represented
in the Civic Federation will be held
this afternoon in the Mills building to
take action in regard to matters now be
fore the Legislature.
Crystallized ginger, 25c lb, Townsend's. ♦
Bacon Printing Company, 508 Clay street •
Ctrß-rr-TTr heals wounds, burns and sores as
If by magic. It cures chilblains and poison oak
in one application. It relieves all pain. •
Since the organization of onr mint in
1793, it has coined, of gold, $1,612,405,375,50,
and of silver, $6159,929,323.
After diphtheria, which weakens and exhausts
the whole system, a health-giving tonic Is needed
like Hood's SarsaparilU, which purifies and en
riches the blood and gives strength. Try it.
Thf Genuine " Brown's Bronchial Troches"
are sold only in boxes. They are wonderfully
effective for Coughs, Hoarseness or Irritation of
the Throat caused by cold.
Ladies are greatly benefited by the use of Dr.
Siegert's Angostura Bitters, the renowned South
American tonic.
Do topr feet trouble you? Consult the best
Chiropodist, Bkbnard, 21 Powell street; elevator.
Music and Musicians
Lady Halle (Mine. Norman-Xeruda), who is
perhaps the best known of woman violinists,
has just told an interviewer the story of her
first efforts on the violin. She was born at Bre
men, Ernst's native town. Her family had been
musicians for generations, and her father was
the principal teacher of music in Bremen. As
a child Lady Ilalle could not be persuaded to
take any interest in the piano, though she was
greatly attracted by the violin, an unheard-of
instrument for a woman at that time. Her little
brother played the violin, and the child took it
into her head to practice while the others were
out of the way. This went on for some time,
until, one day, her father came in suddenly
and hearing, as ho thought, his son playing,
remarked, "My boy certainly makes great
progress." Judge of "his astonishment when he
discovered that the musician was really his
daughter, who had never had a lesson in her
life. The little girl was terribly frightened,
and, thinking she had done wrong, burst into
tears and cried, "Oh, I won't do it 9gain." Her
father, who was highly pleased, at once decided
LADY HALLE.
that she should be taught the violin, and the
career she has made is now a matter of musical
history. It was certainly Mme. Norman-Xeruda
who tirst made it the fashion for girls to learn
the violin.
Nothing shows the simplicity and gentleness
of Benjamin God&rd's character more than the
account of his funeral. By his own wish the
gitted French composer was not buried at
Cannes, where he died, but his remains were
taken to Saintlen-Taverny to be interred
among the simple country people he had loved
60 well. No invitations were sent to Parisian
celebrities and only the dead man's most inti
mate friends were aware that the funeral was
to take place. Paul Vidal of the Grand Opera
presided at the organ of the little village
church, playing fragments from several of
Godard's works, including among others his
new opera, "The Vivandiere," which he lived
to compose but not to hear performed. He
had labored at this work in his last
moments till sometimes weakness com
pelled him to drop the pen. Among
the beautiful floral tributes on the casket was
a wreath from the Opera Comique, where "The
Vivandiere" will soon have its initial perform
ance. Another large crown was from Godard's
pupils in the conservatory. Although entitled,
as a Knight of the Legion of Honor, to military
honors, it was one of the regretted musician's
last wishes that no troop of soldiers should
attend his funeral. Godard's death seems par
ticularly pathetic when it is remembered that
he was only 45 years of age, and had it not
been for the consumption, which sprang from
a neglected cold, he probably would have had
a brilliant future. His operas are little known
in the United States, but some of his chamber
works, particularly his pianoforte composi
tions, are very popular. A little song oi his,
"Chanson de Florien," hag been literally sung
to death.
The London Truth says that if the habit of
getting good musicians to write incidental mu
sic for new plays has to be abandoned the fnnlt
must be attributed to modern society manners.
It matters not whether as analytical pro
gramme writers the music is intended to pre
pare the mind for the proper reception of the
drama. Modern society prefers to chatter
about dress, about its friends or its enemies,
about notable persons or nobodies in the house,
and about anything that will make the entr'
acte music inaudible. Many noted musicians
have suffered in this way, and Sir Arthur Sulli
van has at last rebelled. In "King Arthur,"
which Henry Irving is playing at the Lyceum,
Sullivan has carefully avoided any risk of dis
turbing the conversation during the entr'actes
and has limited his task to the purely inci
dental music. Even this has been cut short,
though what is left is very agreeable, artistic
and appropriate, assisting rather than retard
ing the dramatic action.
News comes from Dresden that William
Keith, the California barytone, has just had a
greet success there in a grand concert given by
Horr Stottenberg. William Keith was put for
ward as the chief attraction. The concert was
a subscription one, the tickets being $2 50
each, yet the house was packed and great
enthusiasm prevailed. Keith was recalled
eight times and made to siug six encores, the
house going particularly wild over Gounod's
"Easter Eve," which was greeted with cries of
"Bravo, bis." This tribute to an American was
all the more remarkable, as there are so many
good 9ermftn barytones. Herr Ludwig Hart
mann, the well-known musical critic, gave
Keith great praise in his paper the following
day, remarking upon the ease with which the
Californian took notes that were phenom
enally high for a barytone, the resonance of
his voice and the perfection of his style and
training. Keith has recently been studying
oratorios in London, as well as singing there
on special occasions.
Some translations have just been published
in Le Figaro of letters by Richard Wagner,
which were first made public in the Deutsche
Bundschau. The most interesting ones were
written In the early sixties, when the provi
dential intervention of the young King of
Bavaria had sudienly changed the artist's
destiny and saved him almost from despair.
Speaking of the King, Wagner says in one of
the letters: "He is unfortunately so handsome,
so intelligent, so ardent and so great that I fear
his life will fade out of this vulgar world as a
fugitive, divine dream fades. He wishes me to
stay always near him, to finish the 'Xibelun
gen' and have them performed as I wish. All
pecuniary care will be taken from me, I shall
have all I want, on condition that I stay with
him. What do you think of that? Can it be
more than a dream?"
There may possibly be a few changes in the
choir of St. Ignatius Church in this city before
long. One of them will probably be the reduc
ing of the professional triple quartet to a
double one. It is believed that this change
would not detract from the efficiency of the
choir, while it would lower the expenses, which
are at present very heavy. No change is con
templated, however, in the large amateur
choir. As soon as funds will admit of it, Father
Allen is anxious to purchase a fine new organ
for the church. In that case the top gallery
wonld probably be lowered, or removed alto
gether, a3 the height at which the present or
gan is placed weakens the effect of the music.
At Santander, one of the most important
towns in Spain, "Miss Helyett," a trivial opera
which was sung some time ago in San Fran-
Cisco at the Baldwin Theater, was produced.
One of the newspapers, La Atalaya, had i;a
prudery so shocked at the work that it declared
the people who assisted at such a spectacle
were monsters, and threatened to publish tho
names of all those families wko dared to wit
ness "Miss Htlyett." A number of the towns
people of Santander were so indignant at this
impertinence of the Atalaya that they went in
a body to the editorial-rooms and held an in
dignation meeting in front of the office.
Ifme. Patti is in Berlin. Before leaving Lon
don she gave Sir Augustus Harris a promise to
appear during the coming season at Covent
Garden as Violctta, Rosina and other of her
favorite parts. Except for a solitary perform
ance at Drury Lane in 1886, and another single
representation at Her Majesty's in 1887, Mmv.
Patti has not appeared in opera in London for
ten years. In Berlin, despite the fact that the
prices of places have been raised almost six
fold, there is a big demand for seats.
A ludicrous incident recently occurred while
Albani was playing Marguerite in Gounod's
"Faust" in Berlin. In the last act, where Mhn
guerite is seen ascending to heaven, Albani for
got to throw herself on her straw bed, which ;*
drawn away from the stage, and was conse
quently left lying in full view of the audience,
while her other self ascended skyward Fhe
step from the sublime to the ridiculous sent
the public home in a good temper, however,
which was fortunate for Albani. as her singing
had given anything but satisfaction.
"A violinist went to the manager of a certain.
London paper," says Le Menestrel, "stating
that although he had told the reporter of that
paper that the violin on which he played was a.
Stradivarius, the fact was not mentioned in the
report of his concert." The manager replied,
'If Mr. Stradivarius wants his violins puffed
up in our paper, tell him he must advertise
with us' and gave the astonished violinist a
card with his advertisement rates."
The date of the production of Paderewski'g
opera is uncertain. The libretto is at present
in Polish, and the opera unnamed. The work
is in four acts, and the story modern, tho
scene being laid in the Carpathians, on the
Hungarian frontier. The music in piano scorn
has been finished for some little time, and
Paderewski expects to complete the orchestra
tion early in the spring.
Handel's "Messiah" was recently performed
at Buenos Ayres for the first time, it is be
lieved, in South America. There was a chorus
of 309 voices, and an orchestra of fifty per
formers. Special trains were run; the houso
was sold out an hour and a half after the open
ing of the box-office, and the proceeds were
$7500.
Verdi's "Falstaff" at the Metropolitan Opera
house is a certainty. In addition to this Mr.
Grau says that Saint-Saens' "Samson et Delilah"
will certainly be produced. If that is bo, the
managers will have put to their credit four
novelties in the course of the season, which
will be a very respectable record.
At the recent conference of musicians at
Dublin, a capital anecdote is told of Sir Joh;i
Stainer. That erudite gentleman read «. paper
entitled "Does Music Train the Mind?" The
printers, who knew better, set It up, "Does
Music Strain the Mind?" One commentator
says he thinks the printers were right.
Lectures on music, with, vocal or instru«
mental illustrations, are only just beginning in
San Francisco, though they have for some time
been very popular in the East and in Europe.
The Baroness Anna yon Meyerinok will give
a chat next Monday on vocal matters, at the
Century Club. Admission, however, is only by
invitation.
A concert, at which over 1700 people were
! present, took place at the First Congregational
Church, Oakland, last Thursday. A number of
new songs, by John W. Metcalf, were intro
i duced and well received.
Ever since the advent of Sybil Sanderson at
the Metropolitan Opera-hou^e SenorTerry, with
a heavy black mustache and a contented coun
tenance, has been a nightly attendant at the
opera.
A choral society has been organized at the
First New Jerusalem Church in this city. Re
hearsals of the cantata "Daniel" are being
actively carried on every Friday night.
IS!:
mraattim
GRAND CREDIT SALE
-OF-
Ol^b
AJSINESS AND RESIDENCE LOTS
COMPRISING A PORTION OF
SIJ-VER TERRACE.
This property is reached by Kentucky,
•treet Electric road (now under con-
struction), aud also by the Fifteenth
avenue and San Bruno Road horsecar
lines, via Potrero avenue (to be changed
to electric power). The lots lie on
level and gently rolling ground: per-
fectly dry, sandy soil, and have good
drainage, beautiful view of the bay and
surrounding hills, extensive and valu-
able improvements in the immediate
• vicinity, and large manufacturing
plant* near by. THE NEW ELECT-
RIC ROAD brings this property with-
in TWENTY MINUTES OF MAR-
KET STREET. *«***■
DDIPCQ 8225 to $1,000. Terms, *5O
rnlwCO Cash, balance can be arraneed
In payments to suit the purchaser. In
t.rest at the rat* of 7 per cent per annum >
on deferred pay incuts.
TO SEE THIS PROPERTY,
Take HOWARD ST. CABLE-GABS and transfer to
Potrero-avenue horse-cars, either at Howard and
Tenth streets, or at Twenty-fourth street and
Potrero avenue. Ride to the end of the line at
Fifteenth and Railroad avenues, where our
branch office is located. Salesmen will be in
attendance every day with carriages for the pur-
pose of showing the lots to any one desiring to
view them. Maps and further particulars at our
branch and main offices.
FOR SALE BY •
Syniiicate Investment Company, :
64 acad 65 nH&ONIOLE BUILDING.
1000
STATEMENTS
1000
Business Cards
$1.75.
SEiND FOR SAMPLES.
Pacific Printing Co.,
543 Clay Street, S.F.