The San Francisco call., 1898-08-14
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 WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS.

By HENRY JAMES.

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 Some people object to the title of this column. Some go so far as to object to the general style of it. I call at tention of the malcontents to the fact that there are many other things to read. There is Shakespeare and the Bible, and the rest of the paper.
 Charles B. Hill writes to me a gentle note of correction. MT. Hill is an as tronomer who has the peculiar advan- tage of being so tall that he gets right among the stars without any neces- sity for using a telescope. I have for him the greatest respect, but he can't call me down without exciting a few remarks. He says, does this towering Hill, that I said in the game of crib bage four fours and seven count twen- ty. Now I never said anything of the sort. The man who said that four fours and a seven count twenty was somebody else, and he is off on va cation. I never assume to say any l thing about matters of such serious import, and couldn't tell a game of cribbage from a sewing circle. Ac- cording to all mathematical rule, four fours ought to count sixteen, and seven more ought to make twenty-three. Ac- | cording to Professor Hill, the total is twenty four I don't see how he fig ures it. But argument is useless. will give Professor Hill the address l of his adversary as soon as it can be | ascertained, and am certain the pro- lessor will get the worst of 1t. There is no wisdom in @ mere scientists buck ing against trained query editor, whose business is to know all that anybody else knows and a great deal that nobody else ever thought of.
 The Alameda EncinaI refuses to be- lieve the doctrine that God made the law of the survival of the fttest. We'll there may be room for doubt. The Encina1 survives.
 It is a circumstance to be deplored that Mary E. Martin is to be freed from the penitentiary. The pretext seems to be that the woman does not have the best of health. She was sentenced for one of the meanest bunko games ever perpetrated, and did not happen to notice that the Judge in passing sentence said, For four teen years, or as long as agreeable to the lady"
 There is somebody who writes in the Fresno Watchman Ideas of the Hour" There are enough ideas to prove that not a minute of the hour has been wasted.
 It is not surprising that the lepers supposed to be incarcerated in the pest house should be walking the streets. Leprosy, as I understand it, iS a mis- fortune, rather than a crime, and the victims of it have some right to be regarded as human beings. The place provided for them Is not fit to shelter a sick dog. I do not know who are re- sponsible for the outrage, but whoever they are deserve to have the malady, and I trust the lepers will look them up and endeavor, with success, to com municate it. Occasionally Governor Budd says much in few words when he would be wise to use more words and say less. For instance, he wrote of the First
  record under fire: What else could we expect? They are Californians." It seems to me that they are also Americans, and that this would have been the better view to have taken.
 The man who writes his own epitaph is apt to make mistake. There have been exceptions, as when Stevenson penned the beautiful lines marking his resting place, but Bismarck was no ex- ception. "A faithful German Servant 1 of the Emperor, William l." Such was the word he left to be inscribed upon his | tomb It is not a proud epitaph. Bis marck was great in life, but the ap- | proach of death seems to have en- smaIled him. A life devoted to being | the faithful servant of any individual | would be in great measure wasted. | move that the epitaph be revised to | read: "The faithful master of the Emperor, whose servant he was SUD- posed to be-
 A man named James writes to the Visalia Delta to explain that the war with Spain was a horrible mistake. I |
 
 such an excellent name should be so | distressingly off his base.
 
 The correspondent who speaks of | Tight refreshments being dispersed" | probably has reference to the guests.
 
 To touch upon politics has never been my province in this column, but now | that the war Is over, and Publicola. | having devoured me, is quiescent while | the Visalia poet is singing low, I want | to make an incursion into the untried | domain. I think this will be per mitted, the attitude of the Examiner being excuse enough, and its ridicu- lous efforts to stir up. discord, or make | people believe 1t has, supplying the pre- else text. Now what is the Examiner anyhow? A journalistic buffoon, jing ling it's bells and drawing attention to |