The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-02
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BY HENRY JAMES.


lie any reason for believing that the
death of Gregoire in Oakland was the
result of suicide. To be sure, the man
was oddly constituted, both mentally
and physically but the human being
never hVed who could fire five large
and lmpulsive bullets into his own
breast The murderer, however, was
| thoughtless enough to go away from
there without leaving. his autograph,
address and latch key to his apart
ments. Therefore the suicide theory
is easy and comfortable 1 do not
blame the Oakland police. They nat
urally pattern after the superior va
riety controlled by Lees, and these find
relief in suicide every time an assassin
neglects to call around and become con-
! fidential.
| 1t is far from my purpose to get into
a religious controversy. My belief is
! that each should be permitted to wor-
ship God In his own way, provided this
way does not interfere with the pat
| tern of worship pleasing to the con-
science of another. Yet I venture, in
humility, a remark concerning COM
munication appearing in a recent mum.
| Der of the Pacific Churchman. The
writer advocates the changing of the
name of the sect to which he adheres
to THE Church of the United States
l cannot help but entertain admira-
ton for his presumption. 1t approaches
| subEmity. The idea of any one body
! of sectarians clubbing themselves 'the
church" of country which, among it's
most benef1cent regulations, has one
| placing gulf between church ard
state, but none supplying bridge, is
the climax of cheek. Even the supe-
rior nerve of the gentleman from whom
l quote would fail to span the chasm.
Perhaps there is no law which could
prevent the members of church call
ing themselves anything which strikes
their fancy, but it is to be hoped that
| common sense will check the implied
impulse to become ridiculous
| 1t is time for rigid enforcement of
| the law against suicide OF course
when a successful attempt is made
there is nothing of human avail The
person who kills himself is beyond re-
| Duke. 1t is the one who tries it and
/ fails for whom / cherish a warm dis
| regard. He should be sent to prison
| for as long term as though he had
made murderous assault on another Or
| perhaps an asylum is the place for him.
Surely the community is entitled to re-
| lle1 from his presence, for a man who
| wants to commit suicide and can't do
it is too big fool to be at large.
| There should never be an overhead
| trolley line on Market street. The
| scheme to permit the building of one
deserves killing. 1t is enough when
| the cable cars are given the privilege
of double track. The overhead wire
is an abominatfon. There is no excuse
! for 1t. 1t is blot, unsightly and dan
| gerous. 1t mars the view, creates
fires, interferes with f1remen. The
necessary poles are hideous. There
should not be an electric wire of any
sort above ground In San Francisco
Telegraph, telephone and trolley, bury
them all: IT, in the future, there shall
be some proposition for an electric line
on Market to take the place of the
present cable, and the proposition in
clude underground wires, it may per-
haps be reasonably entertained.
There is seldom recorded ain incident
more pitiful than the. death of Mrs. Da-
vose Of Alameda. A young and happy
wife, she had just left the home her
presence made beautiful to her hus-
band, when she became entangled in
dangling electric wire and died there
miserably her agony prolonged. There
was no possibility of aiding her. Even
had she not been alone at the fatal
moment, to have essayed to save her
would but have deepened the tragedy.
Overcome by the horror, the reason of
the husband is in the balance, and per-
haps he may never FULLY realize the
aWfulness of the bereavement which
for him swept the sunlight forever from
the skies I do not call the death Of
this poor woman an accident It was
murder. That wire had been dangling
long where it constituted a trap
/ Doubtless there are employees of an
electric concern who understand that
under certain conditions electricity is
a dangerous thing. Nevertheless, the
wire was permitted to dangle. AT last
it caught a victim. That it would do
so sooner or later was a certainty Why
was the trap maintained? Nobody
with deliberate malice sought to slay
Somebody with a criminal carelessness,
for which there should be condign 7un-
ishment, brought about the slaughter.
People who live precariously in cities
fairly rooted by wires laden with the
agent of death cannot afford to regard
this affair as visitation of, Providence.
shudder sympathetica1ly and consider
the incident closed.
The fellow who sent friend box
of fleas by mail exceeded precedent ser
by criminals in misuse of the postal ia
cilities. Heretofore no. offender has
mailed more than one internal machine
at a time.
a.
With difficulty I ). have generally
checked the impulse to put politics
into this column. The election of a
Mayor, however, is Something which
concerns us ALL 1t seems to me that
as candidate Patton is in every way
superior to Phelan. i do not mean to
intimate that the present. Mayor is not
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