The San Francisco call., 1896-02-16

1t was as If little Prince Boris had received
double baptism of blood, once i'll the
murder-pit of Sassoun and once IN the
gutter in front OF the Sofia Club. Not even
in Paris do men pretend that this spectacle
IS not repulsive. Nobody is to object to
the recognition OF Ferdinand; however
More importance attaches to the impend-
Ing interview at Mentone between the
Emperor of Austria and President Faure
than is generally imagined. 1t VIII not be
surprising, indeed, If this meeting Will not
come, in after years, to be regarded as
historical event.
Berthelot was somewhat shifted at when
he left his laboratory to take charge of the
foreign affairs of the republic, but men
laugh no longer. He has already done
great things toward lifting France ont of
the ruinous chauvinistic morass in which
she had houndered, and this sign of posi-
Bile understanding with Austria promises
even more notable results; but very likely
these will soon be exhibiting themselves.
The present French Cabinet has as
many lives as the proverblal cat. On
Thursday morning the whole press of
Paris agreed in the prediction that the
Ministry would be dead by nightfall, but
when evening came, 10 and behold Bour-
geois was not only still Premier, but had a
rousing vote of confidence by the Chamber
of Deputies to show TO his enemies. That
these continued triumphs of the Ministry.
which has only a small minority of true
friends in the Chamber, has something
queer underlying them is, of course. perfect
ly well known, but there are many widely
varying explanations of what this some
thing is. There seems to be a portion of
truth in each of a dozen of these different
solutions of the problem. The Ministry
now possess such huge collection of COM
promising facts relating to any number of
separate scandals that it is believed to hold
threat of disclosure over fully 800
Deputies, which is more than half the
Chamber. 1t is said on apparently
good authority that not less than $50 are
involved in some phase of the South of
France railway and telephone contract
scandals alone, and these are only two out
OF large assorted collection. Thus it
happens that even when the present Min
lister of Public instruction is confronted
by extremely embarrassing proof of his
own bad behavior in the railway matter
the Cabinet is able to force the Chamber
of com bat with the Senate These two
bodies have not before been in open con-
flict since the constitution of the republic
was adopted and no precedent exists to
help to guess as to how the deadlock
will terminate. Under ordinary circum-
stances such a struggle might easily pre-
cipitate grave constitutional crisis, but
nobody seems to fear thatlt may happen in
the case for the simple though unpleasant
reason that the ministry is believed to
have enough secrets of personal corrup-
! tion up its sleeve to bring the Senate to its
knees If a real emergency arise.
Hungary's spirited determination to
make her millennial celebration memorable
in the history of the world, regardless OF
expense, has already produced one very
painful side result. Among the numerous
magnificent plans was one to found a mu-
scum of fine arts at Budapesth which
would make the rest OF the world green
with envy, and the sum Of 81. SOC, ,O00 was
voted for a start. OF this 100000 was in
trusted to Director Pulszsky, who is the
eldest son of one of Hungary's most cher
ished patriots of kossuths time, to travel
through Europe and buy old masters of
art with. Subsequently much more money
was sent to him, but soon it was discovered
that he was buying only absurd, pitiful
rubbish at wild prices, and not even pay
ing for that but running the Government
in debt. Then came the disclosure that he
had embezzled practically the whole huge
sum and allowed it to be taken from him
by pack of adventurers of both sexes
His conduct was so idlotic that friends of
his fathers had him certified as insane and
ran into an insane asylum, but parlia-
mentary hubbub was raised by the cleri-
Gals in revenge for the civil marriage legis-
lation, with the result that Pulszsky is de-
cided to be sane, and must be tried and
punished. A more unwelcome overture to
a years national celebration may hardly
be imagined.
Scarcely subordinate in interest to the
direct issue Of the chartered company has
! been the extraordinary capture of the vir-
tuous old Daily News by the Rhodes Bar
nato combination. The change began
| sharply on Monday, when the new editor,
! Z. T. Cook, took charge, and the amaze
ment has been growing day by day
through the week. 1t is supposed that
there must also have been some change in
the proprietorship or perhaps change in
! proprietorial investments TO explain the
thing, but of this nothing is known.
The Liberals are aghast at the sugges-
| tion that their time-honored official organ
has sold them out and are only less dis
gusted to see that w. T. Stead, who was
Cooks first chief on the Pail Mall Gazette,
has now free hand over the Daily News
columns 70 boom Rhodes, Nine Novi-
| koff, telepathy. ghosts and all the rest of
his either venal or asinine obsessions.
Whatever the explanation may be and
however soon change again may be
made it is clear enough that the Daily
| News is irretrievably ruined. One week
| has sufficed to destroy the work of fifty
years. Naturally this is advantageous for
the Daily Chronicle, which has been
climbing up over its decrepit rival ever
| since Massingham and Norman OBJ
| tanned control, and nov it steps
into the position of the chief Liberal paper
of England quite by acclamation. AL
though 1t is evident that America is fully
abreast of Europe in expanding and de-
veloping Roentgens discovery some quaint