The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-09-04
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BY HENRY JAMES.

There is delight in reading lucid
editorial, one about which there is no
obscure meaning no chance of miscon-
struction, and therefore I gladly quote
from the Report:
1t Is pretty safe to say that the peo-
pie know the cause of discomfort in
this State, and will make an effort to
remove that cause on lection day."
This editorial has the peculiar merit
of being as good for one party as for
another. Republicans, Democrats,
Populists, Prohibtionists, Socialists
may all avail themselves Of it, and
vote with clear conscience.
soldier OF the Civil War writes to
know why I have said nothing about
mismanagement of local camps while.
so much has been said as to the APP
parently grossly criminal conduct Of
those on the Atlantic. Evidently the
old soldier has missed an issue or two.
l have said considerable. The selec-
ton and retention of Camp Merritt
was an outrage, and there has been no
hesitancv in putting the opinion on re-
cord Still, there is only a subdued
satisfaction in this. The culpable Of
ficials do not seem to care.
There are manv points In newspaper
English to which I fail to take kind
ly. One is the habit of recording on
the death of John Smith that he left a
widow and certain number of chill
dren. When John was called, he left
wife, unless the happiness had been
M ,-rxr
widow to leave. To say that he left
a certain number of ex-ehildren would
be as appropriate. It is true that
after the decease of John, Mrs Smith
became widow, but the woman he
grieved at leaving, and the woman he
did leave, was his wife. No aggrega-
ton of reporters, no glitterng array of
copy readers, can make me think to the
contrary. To be exact, after a man
is dead. he has nothing. To say that
he left his widow instead of his wife
is technical lunacy. He never had a
widow, and he did have wife.
In the. immortal words of the cam
paign orator, Il yield to none in my
veneration for the old soldier" This
does not prevent the expression of an
opinion that the pension roll as now
constituted, is a shameless sham, a
fraud numbered with names which
have no right there, the names of hyp-
ocrites and bunko sharps The war
has been over for thirty-three years.
and yet there were added to that list
last year enough to swell it to II, 700
more than it had been the year pre-
cedfnQ This 10 10 FOL re or;rr l.
swindle. I would give every old SOL
der pension. The man who went to
the front, risked his life, took from his
career a portion Of its prime, deserves
anything his country can do for him.
This does not prevent me as an Ameri-
can citizen from protesting against
larceny. There are men on the pen
sion roll who were never on a muster
roll. There are women and children
not even remotely connected with any
one who ever wore the blue. There
are capitalists drawing special pensions
like those of ex-senator Henderson of
Nebraska and Judge Long of Michigan.
who should blush to look a veteran in
the face. No wonder they are afraid
to have the pension list published.
There was great cry when Cleveland
vetoed lot of special pension bills. It
befell at that time / was writing edi-
torial on a Democratic paper and felt
bound. If possible, to defend him.
Sending to Washington for copies of
the bills and the vetoes, I read them
carefully and was surprised to find
there was not bill in the bundle an
honest man could have sanctioned.
The chief fault is not with the pen
sion lawyers, most of whom should be
in Jail, but with Congress weak and
corrupt enough to pass the measures.
series of executives with too little
courage to interfere and pension ma
chine whose motive power is politics.
Somebody has called attention to the
fact that while Ambrose Bierce assails
the writer's of dialect, his best news
paper work is dialect of a pronounced
variety. Reference is had to his Lit
tie Johnny" The criticism is unfair.
The dialect artists to whom Bierce OBJ
jects, try to initiate something and
fail. Bierce does not initiate, but Gre
ates. He has right to create any,
thing he pleases, and as to whether he
avoids failure must be matter Of per-
sonal judgment, no Judgment In the lot
being better than his own. "Johnny's"
thoughts are couched in language such
as youth never conceived, and are
themselves far above the realm of boy
hood, in which they are supposed to
originate. In idea and phraseology
their like is only to be found in the
case of the wonderful child Marjorie
Fleming, whose biography, most
charmingly written by John Brown,
may fairly be rated as a classic.
liked Marjorie and I like Little
Johnny" partly for her sake. He must
have been in her confidence.
Somebody writes to ask what I re-
gard as burning issue" Possibly the
Examiner edition which goes to the
garbage crematory.
A lady asks that set forth in few
words the difference between the Re-
publican and Democratic parties. She
says the matter has puzzled herself
and many of her friends. To throw