The San Francisco call., 1896-03-02
BEWARE OF TYPEWR|TERS
DR.. Harmon's Philosophical State
mentS About His
Woes.
DECISION OF JUDGE YORK.
How the Water Companies Methods
Have Proved a Detriment
to the City.
OAKLAND OFFICE SAN Francisco CALL,


OAKLAND OFFICE SAN FRANCISCO CALL
908 Broadway. March 1.
DR.. Harmon, late of San Leandro, has
given expression and weight to phrase
that cannot help but ultimately eclipse the
famous utterance OF Sam Weller relating
to widows. DR.. Harmon's philosophical
bon-mot is beware of typewriters. This
gentleman's litigation shows how speedily
cases can be attended to in the Alameda
courts when no politics are involved in the
issue and when twenty thousand dollars
in good treasury notes is one of the ex-
hibits in evidence waiting to be distrib-
uted. 1t did not wait long. The details
of the case have been told at intervals, but
they can be summed up in very few words.
DR.. Harmon was anxious to avoid paying
alimony, so be turned all available assets
into cash and was arrested while trying to
leave the State. The groundlessness of
the charge is best proved by the fact that
it has been Withdrawn in the Police Court.
But it sutficed to hold the doctor till he
could be taken-with his $4,000, of course
to the Supreme Court. A reques. was
made for a receiver for the estate and it
was Immediately granted. The receiver
had TO get bonds.
Ten minutes later he had them, and
few minutes later the divorce case was Sc.
for trial few days hence. At the ap-
pointed time the parties and the $4,000
were in court. After little talk the court
adjourned. Before his marriage with his
typewriter DIR. Harmon was worth about
$4,000, and his typewriter was, according
to the doctor, without a waterproof roof
over her head. When the doctor walked
out of court few days ago he was worth
$4,000, his ex-wife had 1900 in cash, the
San Leandro home beautifully furnished
and two and half acres of land, the little
boy, an absolute divorce. Her brother also
has dental education, for which DR.. Har-
man says he paid over $4,000 and an office
furnished worth $500, which the doctor
says he also paid for and for which he has
receipts. When the doctor finished telling
his story TO reporter he said: sit is the
old philosophy. 1000 years old. Never lay
your wlfe's family under great obligations
to you, and-beware of typewriters."
Many hard things we're said OF Judge
York OF Los Angeles the day he sent Oak
lands boy burglars to Folsom for ten
years, but now the majority of people
think the sentence was just. 1t is very
probable that the pressure brought TO bear
on the prosecution and the bench TO have
the lads sent to a reform school would
have been rewarded had the case been
tried by an Alameda County Judge. Under
the circumstances home Judge would
undoubtedly have attached as much
weight to the witnesses on the boys be-
half as to their testimony, and indeed no
other course could be expected. Judge
Y ork, who was sitting for Judge Greene
during the latter's illness, knew nothing
of the witnesses and Judged the case solely
on ha II ,an 81,
circumstances, but did see before him two
lads who confessed that had they been
molested during any of their raids they
would not have hesitated to use the pistols
with which they literally armed them
selves. His conclusion that to send such
young desperadoes TO reform school
would be an encouragement to romantic
youngsters TO go and do likewise is gener-
ally approved. There are many, how
ever, who would like to see the lads kept
out of State prison on account of their age
and lack of proper training.
The Council meeting tomorrow night
will be one of unusual interest to every
property holder in this city. The rates
for the next fiscal year are to be fixed and
the two rival water companies will be on
hand to show why rates should not be
made as high as they want them. The
question of water rates, and the virulent
war that has been waged between the two
companies for the past year has feature
that is not yet known TO one person in
thousand. During the past year hundreds
of col umns of matter in the local papers
have been devoted to the different water
| com mpanies. These statements were in the
! form Of analyses OF The various waters sup
| piled from different sources. One COM
| pany would publish the most damaging
,t,x 4.
| water and vice versa. The people of Oak
land-whose health statistics show it to be
almost the healthiest city on the coast
merely laugh and congratulate themselves
| that they were reaping the benefit of cut
rates. The following portion of a conver-
| sation with real estate dealer of standing
held recently, puts the water fight in a
new light
Il was in Los Angeles recently" said
! the realty man, "and / met gentlem an
! who had Just invested thousands of dollars
lnlCalifornia property. He told me that
| his original intention had been to locate
in Oakland, but that he had read so much
! that was detrimental to the water supply
| of this CITY that he had decided to 90 else
where. | asked him how his attention
had been called to these reports, and his
reply was somewhat of surprise. He
said that the realty men interested in sell
ing property outside of Oakland we're re-
printing and circulating thousands of
| these newspaper reports and suggesting
| that Oakland is good place to pass bv.
Not being acquainted with the methods
employed in this City, where one corpora
ton tries to undermine another, they be-
lieyed what they read, and every body suf-
fers in consequence"
Where so much is involved there is need
for much discretion. Whether the two
companies ultimately com mbine or not will
not affect the rates. The real values on
which to base estimates are pretty we'll
known, but there should be some way
found to force the competitors to abandon
com bative methods of rivalry that are in
furious to the whole community.
S. w. B.
nnQlllIll Qc lIlAArlh