The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-06

it, public trust, a servant and guardian Of the
people and their rights. 1t is editorially
strong.'
"And its policy, Mr.. Fitch, in the matter of
being faithful to Californian
"Now you are touching upon the most i'm
portant point. That is the keynote of THE
CALLS growth and prosperity. tits friendly TO
the country. For instance take the way THE
CALL has doomed and written of the growing
cities outside of this place without charging so
much line. That is one of its grandest works
and it demonstrates to me that my fears were
groundless.
''Such action should commend the paper to
the entire State and have no doubt it does.
eyes, indeed" resumed Mr.. Fitch, after a
moment of silence and reflection, ''it's good;
it's clean; it's strong. watch it day by day
and see that it is true to its nativity. You
know got to be perfect crank about a news
paper practically being public trust and I
always conducted THE CALL on those lines.
"By the way. There Is another feature of
THE CALL that strikes me very well. 1t is its
independence. 1 was afraid it would fail on
that issue, but it has stood the test in grand
shape. / like The CALL. I have ceased to
bother my head what becomes of it. have
studied it carefully and found that it is doing
its duty WELL"
John Powers, a mining man who has been in
most OF the mining districts of the world, was
lately down in British New Guinea, and tells
of curious state OF the labor market on the
| island of st. Agunan, where there are rich de-
posts OF gravel. "St. Agunan Island" he said
yesterday, t'is only about twenty-five miles in
diameter and is about 800 miles from Cook
town. Mining has been going on there for only
two or three years, and the work is mostly
done by the natives. They do not know the
| value of money and have no use for gold.
They will do great deal of work for trinkets of
little value to us. While 1 was there an old
! man and his two sons worked ten days for
| jewsharp. They will do great deal of work
| for few red and white beads. One of the ma
| tive women will work twenty days for a calico
dress. The natives feel very friendly toward
| the whites For a pound of tobacco a lot of
| them will pitch in and build q good-sized
house. But the missionaries are spelling
| them somewhat. in teaching them to work for
gold and to bring the gold 10 their stores to
make their purchases. One day we came upon
camp of native miners being worked by the
missionaries. 1t was a Sunday, and we re-
monstrated, saying that we had not worked
our men on Sundays. We were told that it
didn't make any difference in this case whether
| the men worked on Sunday or not, as they had
not yet been converted"
The decision of the Supreme Court in the
Hale d Norcross case revives "reminiscences of
the times when fortunes in great mining specu-
lations were made and lost in a day. Andrew
J. Moulder, Superintendent of Schools was for
many years secretary of the Pacific Stock Ex-
change. Among the men he knew intimately
was the millionaire Edward Barron, whose es-
tate yet figures in the courts. Down at Bar
ron's delightful place in San Mateo County the
millionaire once told Mr.. Moulder this story of
strategy:
81 was the owner of 10000 shares of Con.
Virginia. 1t was worth about 800 share.
My stock was in Floods safe, and knew that
there was no way could get it with Floods
consent, as he was bending every possible en-
ergy and employing every influence at his
command to control the mine. He knew that
the stock was there, and wanted it there
instead OF on the street. I reasoned
this way to myself: Here is a million
dollars invested This is wealth beyond
my earliest dream of affluence. Shall I make
1t secure to myself or risk it in this swirl of
gambling excitement?' Resolving, If possible,
to realize by selling without Floods knowledge
l began to ponder over some strategic plan. At
that time James 81. Latham, brother of Milton
s. Latham, was the money-lender having the
largest transactions on the street / went 10
him, told him the story and asked ii he could
deliver 1000 shares on my order to sell. He
| reflected for while and replied:
3" This is very large transaction. Come in
tomorrow and will give you an answer
"At the appointed time on the morrow called
and Latham said:
/" Yes, we can deliver the stock
advised him to scatter the orders among
brokers', giving the largest transactions
to wel[known broker whose hostility to
me was common talk Gradually the
sales went on ana Flood could not account
for the stock. Finally, when the burden
OF taking 1t in came very heavy he came
TO me IN great excitement, saying: