The record-union., 1897-09-18

| superintendent is brutal to extremes,
and that his course is greatly impair
| ing the usefulness of the institution.
| 1t is more than a mistake. it is
| crime, to thus make our State institu-
tions mere vehicles for the payment of
political debts. 1t is an injury not only
to the inmates directly concerned, but
| to the commonwealth generally. 1t
tends to make our reform schools
schools of vice Our dependents, the
i insane and other helpless classes. are
/ by virtue of common humanity entit-
led to the best that can be given them
| in the way of kind treatment, with re-
strictions. education and enlightened
methods of treatment, at the hands
of competent officials.
| CALIFORNIA; GOLDEN FRUIT.
Chico Daily Record: All along the line
! California products are bringing hlgh
prices. The farmer and the orchardlst
alike are jubilant, for while wheat IS
hopping around the dollar mark, our
prunes and dried apples are swelling
with Importance due to the rapidly
/ growing evidence of their wide popu-
| larity.
I The general public may not be cog
:
pie crop is the barometer of dried fruit
prices: but it is nevertheless true that
when Eastern apples are abundant the
rate Tor all kinds of dried fruits take
tumble, and when apple shortage oc-
ours on the Atlantic coast all kinds or
dried fruit scramble to their feet again,
/ link arms and dance up to the cholce
positlCEs in the market.
side Of the Mississippi are able to real
/ ize only half a crop of their favorite
product, and as a consequence our
dried fruit is now 30 per cent. higher
than it was last year, while some of the
fancy grades have more than doubled
in price.
| Then, there is Europe demanding
more of our dried fruit than ever. She
/ is developing an enormous appetite for
it, and evidently can't get as much as
/ she wants, on account of the largely
increased consumption of our Eastern
relatives.
| SINGULAR.
San Jose Mercury: Singular, how
these Bryanites argue. Last year they
| dOleful!y declared that the depressed
condition of the country conclusively
demonstrated the necessity of adopting
free coinage of silver. And now comes
! the free silver Herald of Los Ange-
les with a declaration to the effect that
the very advent of the much-vaunted
prosperity is a stronger argument for
domestic bimetallsm than any which
can be theoretically produced, it is
demonstration that should convince the
most stupid and obdurate."
WHO PAYS THE DUTY
Los Angeles Times: The advocates of
the free trade system stOutly maintain
that in all cases the consumer pays
the duty levied upon imports under
protective tariff system. They seek to
support this contention in the face of
the most positive proofs of its false
ness Having formulated a theory,
they stick to that theory through thick
and thin, regardless of the accomplish
| ed facts of commerce. AS an iluStra-
ton, the free trade doctrinaires demon
strated to their own satisfaction that
tin plate could not be manufactured in
the United States. They were loud
and voluble in the PRONUNCIATION of this
declaration when the Mckinley law
was er acted in 1890, placing a pro-
tected duty upon imported tin plates.
! The Mckinley law created the industry
of tia-plate manufacturing in the
United States, and four factories, to-
day, are fully equipped for the manu-
| facture of every pound of tin plate
used in this country, with a handsome
surplus for export, and at prices far
below those Of the English manufac-
turers This is but one illustration.
among many, of the wide divergence
between free trade theory and protec-
ton practice.
A SERIOUS REFLECTION.
Riverside Enterprise: That the scenes
now being witnessed among South
Carolina negroes of religious mania and
absurd ceremony known as "burying
! the devil" are possible in America, is
a serious reflection upon the Christian
/ demo mihations among us. Here is
perversion of the universal religious
sentiment of the race rivaling the wild
est scenes of darkest Africa, but among
a colored population that, for upward
of a century, has been surrounded by
and presumably permeated with a Wig
orous Christian spirit Annually mill
! lions Of dollars go to heather lands for
the purpose of supplanting superstition
in the minds of benighted savages,
while the need of such teaching exists
at our doors, as shown by the doings
in South Carolina, and, indeed, in va
rious ether sections of our colored pop
ulatiOn.
OF CARICATURISTS
Stockton Independent: The Alameda
Argus scores the caricaturists who
always represent the farmer as
slochy, gawky, unkempt ignoramus A
class of alleged artists seem unable to
perceive what is plainly visible to
everybody, else, that the average farm
er is very presentable person, and
! they seize upon the rare exception of