The San Francisco call., 1898-12-25

Sonoma County. Comparatively feW college presidents have ever done any thing like this In fact there may De heads of universities so set Tn thelr ways that the chance to be under sheriff would not appeal to them. oo- noma County is to be congratulateo. It's writs will be couched ln CLASSIC terms and notices of delinquent sales so corr eetly worded as really to make pleasant reading.
 There is a person addicted hopelessiy to the crime of writing who proclaims that I have no more sentiment than a mule. But even mule would KICK that particular person. 8
 The literary gentleman of the Ex- aminer is trying to discourage Kipling, but I hope the virile Englishman, who writes better fiction and better poetry than any other author of the genera tion will keep right on. To be sure he has given us a few things lately not up to his own incompetence stdi,uoio, hut these were not the ones selected for condemnation. A erltlc WHO l" to see beauty in "The BrushwGod Boy mas DrOken COS III lilO 0NNN---O = of his perceptive faculties.
 
 A dispatch from St. Louis states that an ex-cenvict there has committed sui eide because private detectives, aeSplt0 his desire to lead an honest life, hound- ed him from place to place ana Woula not permit him to earn bread. A proper sequel would be the report ot the sui eide of some of the private detectiVes, It is a melancholy circumstance that 10 the private detective suicide seems 10 present but meager attraction. Wlthout doubt there are honest men who go ihte this calling, but while as newspaper reporter I have had to meet ana kho" many of the sleuth hounds, ao not te- call that ever had the pleasure ot rui- ming across one of this variety 1He average private detective IS worse than the man whom he arrests or piackiaailss a choice of course being decided upon after the weighing of the prospective profits. There should be something done to suppress the craft. An ex-conVict has rights and among them that or making an honest living if so inclined, There is a tendency to damn person who has, been in the penitentlary, whereas, the truth is, he may De morally and intellectually the superior of his neighbor who has never been there but ought to have been. l could name men of national reputation and influence who should be wearing stripes, men who have millions and never an honest penny, men who have position secured never by unpurchased votes, men who aspire to office but have not been purged of thievtng ree- ords, and have escaped the punishment which a hungry citizen stealing ham cannot hope to escape. l have known men who under some sudden impulse have committed a crime and repented of it bitterly before the hand of the law had touched them and other men who have deliberately committed greater crime, scoffed at the idea that the law could reach them, and kept right on being respectable. I do not think that private detectives should hound any man to death, but if they cannot resist the inclination to attempt something of the kind, wish they might try it not on persons who have been convicts, but upon those who ought to be convicts with terms so long as to have no chance of acquiring the ''ex."
 
 When ladies gravely declare that the mistletoe is out of date. with all respect to them I am inclined to believe the -dateness does not apply to the mistletoe.
 To friends everywhere I send Christ mas greeting, and suggest on behalf of this excellent family journal that now is the time to subscribe. Not that I care much, being certain they will get the paper even if necessary to borrow it, but the wisdom of cultivating the good will of the business office is known to every newspaper writer.