The record-union., 1896-05-03
SAN FRANCISCO PAPERS
AND THE
WARS THEY CARRY ON.
Arthur McEwen's Sarcastic Pen
He Deals With Several Subjects.


California it is, ON occasion, so altruls-
tic as to drive the cynic in on himself
for files to gnaw. For example, there
isn't one in ten thousand of the popula-
ton that ever saw John Hays Ham
mond. the mining engineer, yet when he
he was arrested for treason to the
Tranvaal Republic we were shaken
from stem to stern. He knew this, and
with perfect confidence called on every
body here by wire to protest against the
Beers treating him like a common per-
son. We petitioned Senators White and
Perkins in his behalf, and they ad-
vanced upon Secretary of State Olney
and President Cleveland to let 1t be
known that on no account must any
thing unpleasant be permitted to hap
pen to John Hays Hammond Had he
been brother to everyone Of us we could
have been no more concerned, and could
not have bestirred ourselves in his in
terest with greater earnestness. Yet
he had never done anything for us, and
was not likely to do anything to lay US
under an obligation except to continue
to be John Hays Hammond. He was
quite unknown to the generality of
CalifornianS until Cecil Rhodes en-
ployed him at $4,000 year, or some
like towering sum. There are sordid
observers who say that it is the popular
respect excited by that unprecedented
salary which accounts for the warming
of California's heart toward Hammond,
but that's a rather absurd theory, for it
is not likely that Mr.. Hammond would
part with any of his annual $4,000 to
strangers, however affectionate and en-
1Cio ct if mis-
sumed that, being an American, he had
kept out of South African politics,
minded his own business and was in
nocent of the charges made against
him. But it seems not His plea of
guilty took the admiring Californian
masses aback, but his sentence to death
has so horrified US that we quite over
look his confessed guilt. One Curtis and
some other Americans are in the same
plight with him, but they, somehow,
do not stir our emotions. Our unselfish
hearts go out to Hammond alone. His
execution would desolate this State,
and infuriate it, and raise a clamor for
the extirpation of President Kruger and
the last Of the Beers. They may hang
all the rest of the prisoners, but Ham
mond must be spared
There are men endowed by nature
with the power to awaken in their fell
low creatures this unrefecting, this pure
ly uncalculating sense Of guardianship.
Unknown as he is, his salary being his
only claim on renown, John Hays Ham
mond in his distress inspires the aver
age Californian with an impulse to
shoulder a rifle and go to his rescue.
Why? I can't say. His whole family
has the same power. His father, Ma
Tor Hammond, came out here in early
days as something Federal and con-
tinued to be something Federal for
long while He made no deep impress
sion upon his time, and his services to
the commonwealth were not conspicu-
Gus, but when the National Govern
ment found it could get on without him
the Democratic party recognized that
il must provide for the Major. The Ma
jor expected it to do this, and that was
sufficient. He died in office. That he
ever did anything for his party except
to permit it to provide for him on gen
teel scale history does not record. Then
there is General Dick, son of the Major
and brother Of John Hays, the African
hero. The General always has had an
office He was Surveyor-General,
which gave him his military title, and
he has been a Park Commissioner time
out of mind. The party understands
that it will not do to leave the General
out when the prizes of victory are be-
ing apportioned. The party doesnt
want the General to help it win prizes,
for he is not an orator who charms.
And his conversation is Of the kind that
inclines people to remember they have
engagements. He is not liberal Will
anything save smiles, and his intellect
is of an order that causes him to be
overlooked when councils are called.
Nevertheless, were an accident to hap
Fen and the General to find himself
without an Office, l believe the Demo-
cratic party, from Eureka to Yuma,
would be oppressed with a sensation of
guilt and a spurring consciousness that
something would have to be done imme-
diately.
AT this writing John Hays Hammond
is still under sentence of death. But
he will not be hanged. His fellow-pris-
oners may all go to the scaffold, but
If President Krueger has ever met
Hammond, and is human, he is certain
to feel that he must confer favor on
him. Mere change of locality cannot
destroy that strange family power TO
inspire in everybody else an instant in
clination to get up and rush around in
the interest of Hammond.
Because General Spreckels has pref
erence for Allison a base attempt has
been made to have ii appear that he has
resolved on preventing Major Mckinley
from becoming President of the United
States. To repel this imputation the
General addresses the country through
the Call" He lets it be known that he
has no hostile designs against any of
the aspirants for the Chief Magistracy;
that he has no ambition to hold office
himself and that 1.-The good of Repub-
ncanism and of California is his sole
desire" The Generals style is at once
modest and convincing. He says in his
simple. difident way: Il ask the Re-
publicans of California to consider well
their own interests. am
for the whole Republican party OF Cali
fornia- / represent and seek to repre-
sent no faction My only purpose is to
advance the party's interests and,
through its success, the interests OF the
people of California, of whom" adds
the General, II am one" In his annoy
ance at the persistence of Mahoney and
Kelly in remaining in politics when he
does not want them to, General Spreck-
els is betrayed into an unkindness, not
TO say rudeneSs, toward brother
officer. Speaking of the kelly-Mahoney
movement, he says:
1t seems to be aided and abetted by
NJ r. DeYoung. I should judge SO