The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-30
He Felicitates Himself Upor
Having Partly Achieved
His Ambition.
HUMANIZING THE RICH MAN
The Old Man Denies That He Sven.
CALLED the Trilby of the
Stock Range.

ter to the cattle king millionaire. He opens
his communication by saying:
Mr.. Henry MiIer-SIR: In my last told you
that my next might be q song or a sermon.
The publication of your interview with
Californian reporter has decided me to make
sermon OF it and TO take Tor my text, "And
Balaam's ass opened his mouth and spake."
holy Writ) But, Henry, the Biblical ass
when he opened his mouth kept his foot out OF
it, which you failed to do when you denounced
my statement as "false, maliciously false, and
seems to be prompted by a desire TO extort
money" Such charge made elsewhere, when
YOU and myself were unknown, might stand
some chance OF being believed, but in Kern
County, Henry, it does not 60. That my pur-
pose might be to extort money would appear
TO a man of your caliber, TO whom money is the
subject OF his thoughts by day and his dreams
by night, and TO get it, no matter how, and TO
hold fast TO all he gets the sole object and aim
of his life, would seem to be the natural result
OF his narrow reasoning powers, but, Henry,
you know better than that. and know that
you and all that know me give me credit for
being poss essed of better judgment than for
one moment that l would engage in such a
hopeless task.
"Extort money from you?" Men of sense OF
judgment do not attempt to gather grapes
from thorns" nor "6gs from thistles." l have
q
sire to humanize you, and have the faith and
courage of my convictions that l shall, to a
limited extent, al least, succe ed. I am encour-
aged in this hope by the fact that on your
appearance in the "pillory'' at Redwood City,
and subject to the incisiye lash of Mr.. Delmas,
you electrified both court and counsel by con-
senting to division OF the great estate with
the Lux heirs. AS this occurred Immediately
sitter the receipt of my first open letter to you,
h.
that breaks the csmel's back" so l cut notch
in my penholder and scored it Success No. /"
So much for the charge of the extortion OF
money.
Next, Henry, you say you have known me
for thirty years, and that you knew me "as
man who delighted to ride on the fioodtide of
popularity" Here, again, Henry, you "put
your foot in it," Have you paused to consider
that this charge is tantamount to an acknowl-
edgment that the course 1 have taken, the
only one left open for me, is calculated to ele-
vate me to the topmost wave of popularity in
Kern? had not before dreamed of such dis
tinction, ana you may make me think that "a
prophet may he honored even in his own
country" which l know is seldom the case
during his lifetime at any rate.
Barker denies a statement recently made
by Miller that Barker was always Lux's
man and did his business with that part
of the great firm. Barker says that Miller
is trying to put all of the disreputable ac-
tions of the firm off on Lux now, and,
citing Charles Dickens story about Jor-
kins, the wicked partner, to illustrate his
meaning, SCOTS at the idea that he was
able to get money out of Miller by sharp
practice. He says:
Now, Henry, is it possible that 1 hypnotized
you-that you played Trilby to my Svengali?
Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
"Barker's light beneath bushel far too long
has lain concealed" What have I missed,
Henry, by not having known the power of my
magnetic eye? Instead of your having to pour
out the Walls of your sorrow and sympathy for
my misfortunes and Affections it might have
been me that would have been the Cresus or,
better still, the Monte Cristo OF Kern.
Barker girds at Miller for what he con-
siders Encouragement of the lands be-
longing to the Miller e. Lux com bination.
He says:
money in Kern County. Yes, and you have
got over two hundred and fifty thousand acres
OF her best land that you got as free gift from
the State OF California, and your ."lots of
money has been expended in its reclamation
and improvement, and you are skimming it
well.
AS reply and sequel to your Boosting of all
you have done for Kern, quote from a cor
respondent OF a San Francisco journal who is
resident of Santa County. Speaking of the
land owned by you in Santa Clara and San Be-
nito counties, he writes rs follows
"The land of Miller & Lux which is being de-
voted to agriculture is being used by tenants
whose condition of living as fixed by their
landlord is little better than that of the lately
abandoned serfs OF Russia. They are obliged
20 toll from years end to years end, women
and children, for a bare coarse living giving
over their surplus productions as a toll under
the name OF ground rent, to their grasping
and unsparing landlords
A few years since, on lands owned by this
firm in Santa Clara and San Benito counties,
there dwelt large nun Der of American fami-
lies who lived according to the once glorious
standard OF American labor. They paid their
taxes, titled their land and supported their
families in comparative comfort. The chill
dren attended the public schools, had Sunday
clothes, had toys at Christmas and attended
church and Sundayschool. The families had
books, newspapers and time for the acquisition
of useful knowledge. They were poor in material
wealth, but were happy in the possession OF
food, clothing and shelter.
They were industrious and frugal, but the
insidious growth OF mortgages at last deprived
them of their homes. They became tenants of
Miller & Lux at moderate rents. For time
they prospered fairly, but soon the firm found
some recently imported Portuguese, who
had been accustomed to lower wages and
harder conditions than those at that time pre-
vailing in California, and who were, therefore,
willing to take the land at much higher
rent than the Americans were paying and
higher than they could pay. The latter were
served with notice to quit, and an ignorant,
brutal and seryile race installed in their
places.
Whata change, my eountrymeni Where are
the American families now, who were thus by
the power and aYarice of landlords expelled
from their once happy American homes? They
are on the ocean OF adversely, drifting like up
rooted seaweeds wherever the tides of priva-
ton or opportunity may draw or drive them.
They have disappeared from the communities
in which they once lived.
Swept away like the footmarks OF children
On sand where the ocean has rolled.
Henry, this is terrible indictment. The
"crime of the century," for which Americas
greatest criminal stands convicted and sem
fenced to-day in San Francisco, is not greater
than this. How does this fit in with your
assertion to the reporter, that call you asked