The record-union., 1897-08-21

J II GREAT QSdl lS1is anu lildl4y OCA4CNEa tl4S
crop was ruined, but time has proved
| this to be a mistake, and now the gen
eral opinion is that the output will
greatly exceed that of last year"
CORRECTLY STATED.
San. Jose Mercury: The State Board
of Agriculture has ruled the book
makers off the State Fair track, which
action the Sacramento "Record-Union"
says gives great satisfaction to breed
ers of fine horses, as they have felt
that the bookmakers are reducing the
race track to a simple gambling propo-
sition, which would in the end ruin their
business" This is a correct statement
of the situation. The breeders have
undoubtedly injured their industry by
permitting it to become associated in
the public mind with one of the worst
forms of gambling.
THAT FOOL DUEL.
Los Angeles Times: The duel between
the Orleanist Prince, Henri, and the
Italian Count of Turin was a Sabbath
breaking episode, but, as is usual with
French duels. was but little else. 1t is
an extraordinary idea that the honor
of a man or a nation can be satisfied
by sword prick that is little more than
a scratch, and yet that is the way it ap-
pears to be considered nowadays by
our friends on the other side.
Why the Italian army is avenged for
an alleged insult because the insulter
has lost few drops of blood would ap-
pear to be a question that would try
the logic fthe most expert logician,
but why the people of Rome should go
cheering through the streets about it
and demanding that the bands in the
public squares play the national hymn
/ in another feature of the affair that
seems not only extraordinary, but fam
tastic, to the American understanding.
The whole matter is ridiculous, in
fantile and silly. If the French Prince
told the truth about the conduct of the
Italian soldiers and officers in Abys
sinia, it is no less the truth now than it
was before his meeting with the Count
of Turin; and if he lied about the matter,
the small bit of blood-letting on Sunday
morning last has not changed the status
of the lie one iota
In order to make the whole thing
straight, the two duelists should now be
prosecuted for breaking the law against
duelng and should be made to pay the
same penalty as two ordinary street
brawlers would have to pay for a like
offense. This would cool the blood of
these fiery and foolish combatants, and
reduce them to the level of the common
malefactor. where they belong. The
world has outgrown the duel, and those
who engage in the practice should be
made to suffer for endeavoring to glorify
an obsolete and defenseless medieval
custom.
A CONVENTION CITY.
Riverside Press: Every citizen is de-
sirous that San Francisco shall become
in fact a convention city. r. H. Good
man, on behalf of the Southern Pacific,
has expressed an enthusiastic desire to
bring about that result: and the trans
Iportation companies hold the key to the
situation. The recent Christian Endea-
Ivorers' Convention gives the railroads a
practical knowledge of the profits of a
low rate to San Francisco. AS the News
Letter" declared last week, New York
City is organizing a series of great ex-
cursions to that place this fall, and has
the cooperation of the railroads as far
West as the Mississippi, and from far
lsouth to the Canadian line. Moving
along practical lines taking the rail-
roads in on the ground floor, San Fran
! cisco should become the great conven-
tion city of the United States. We can
furnish lands to the homeless lungs to
the consumptive, and valuable expert
ence to the tenderfoot. The immigrant
Ineeds California and we want the immi-
grant. Indeed the climate here is so
mild and encouraging that moss grows
the year round on the backs of a great
majority of old residents.
LYNCHINGS.
Santa Cruz Sentinel: OF eighty lone
cases of lynching reported in the first
six months of this year seventy -eight
have occurred in the Southern States.
The lynching belt has not permanently
| shifted northward, Notwithstanding the
Urbana, o., episode. Still, leaving out
| all prejudices of q. sectional kind, the
question arises, why should there be
any lynchings at all? Much of it comes
from the uncertainty of punishment and
its delay. 1t took the courts in Aus
tralia three days to try murderer But
Ter, and something over three weeks to
| hang him after he had been tried 1t
took the courts of San Francisco three
|
if he is to be hanged within the next
three years there is not yet the remotest
sign of it. They certainly do some
things better under English laws That
is one reason life is safer where the
red flag flies and lynchings fewer.
SAN FRANCISCO PROSPEROUS.
Alameda Argus: A person passing
| along the streets Of the business
portion of San Francisco cannot miss
being impressed by the increased COM
mercial activity There is something
doing Merchandise blocks more of the
sidewalk than formerly, and there is
no objection from any quarter. The
old-tine protest and growl of the indig-
nant pedestrian, so frequently to be
seen in the papers during the flourish
ing times previous to 1893, is now likely
to be missed, though the cause for it
is recurring. The sight of business ac-
| tivity is so blessed to the eyes that
one and all viii patiently go out in the
/ roadway to get around merchandise
that blocks the sidewalk There is no
| doubt of a revival. The tide of it is
not yet very swift, but it is increasing,
| and it will not be so very long before it
| is running full and strong. And there
is no reason why it should recede here
after There should be enduring pros
perity to San Francisco, a city so ex-
ceptionany situated as it is, and being
/ the gate through which most of the
| great western worlds commerce must
pass.
BARGAIN WEEKS.
Los Angeles Express: The proposition