The San Francisco call., 1898-01-30
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By HENRY JAMES.

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 When people see fit to find fault with my way of filling up allotted space, it IS not much to ask them to clothe their poor thoughts in words not actually shocking. Welcome to totally disre gard me, they ought to have respect for the parts of speech. There is rash ness in criticizing the English used by contemporary writers of the daily press and so l refrain, admitting, however. that to do so is a hardship. But it may be permitted me in humility to suggest that the old rule prescribing the presence of a Bible and a Shake speare lacks perfection in that it fails to include spelling book and gram mar. By this remark I avoid being personal, injure rio pride, excite no re- sentiment; nevertheless I manage to modestly insinuate that any lapses in the direction indicated, if found in this column, will clearly be the fault of the printer.
 The circumstance that young wo- man has gone daft from breeding over what the critics said of her book | seems at first glance an evidence of heartlessness on the part of the critics. Let 1t be said that most of the critics have been driven to drooling insanity by the books they have had to read, and the seeming crime becomes only the saddening token. of misfortune. | Whether or not Professor Schenk's theory of controlling the sex of gener- 1 ations yet unborn has any sound basis ha tnl hon fa~xy yoYlfI that it has not, that Schenk is merely the meddlesome crank he gives symp- | toms of being, and that the people who have purchased his right to relieve the Creator of responsibility have paid for gold brick. The prejudice against | girl babies is one of the most wide spread of heather fallacies prevailing among people partly civilized and prid- ing themselves upon being entirely SO | We have never gone to the length of throwing the feminine infant to the crocodiles, providence having in it's benign wisdom checked us by with holding a supply of crocodiles. If Schenk methods come in vogue they must in time produce such social state that the girl will be at premium such as her brother can never hope | to touch. The brother develops to a condition of usefulness. He consumes cigarettes, is an ideal hoodlum, and in | instances makes a satisfactory con- | vict. his inferior sister not being in the competition. Anybody who can look | upon the girls of California, fair, ath- | letic, queenly, and then vote for con- | stituting a Schenk a subcreator is a bigger fool than I am, a statement which, am assured by friends, reaches the climax of emphasis. I can see no beauty in a scheme to make women so scarce that men must be depended on | for every duty short of wetnursing. And some new Schenk may rise up in the fullness of time to announce that by a patent system of his own devis- | ing he can equip them for this delicate office
 The proposition the gentlemen in charge of the Miners Fair have made to the ministers strikes me as having many points of excellence. They would have the ministers close their churches at least. two Sundays while the fair is | in progress, and not only give their parishioners a chance to attend, but att | such a proposition has been made in good faith shows broad and fraternal spirit. I do not see how the ministers can decline without confessing to narrowness and tacitly declaring that they do not wish to be fraternal. The preachers, accepting, would come into contact with men of affairs, but men who seldom go to church. They would acquire an influence among these by showing a recognition of the half-for- | gotten truth that there are ways of worshiping God outside the formal ser mon and prayer It seems to me the ministers could not find better way to achieve popularity-not in the vul- | gar sense known to sensationalistS, but a genuine eSteem-than to become the guests of the miners. The miners would | feel hurt to have their hospitality viewed in any light save that in which | it appears to them. They meet the ministers more than half way. One of their plans is to show the pastors just what a mining camp was like in '49. Could not the pastors draw from this exhibition a lesson? Would not 1t send them back to their pulpits with new ideas of the progress of the church and be an inspiration? The minister needs keep in touch with a world which in some instances is growing away from him. Here, apparently. Is an oppor- tunity. It may be there are preachers who will not only decline to attend. but will even object to having the fair open on the day they have come to re- gard as their own. Happily, such min isters are few, and growing fewer. They are the spiritual silurians, and people, growing better as they mentally expand, have left them behind. These ministers hang at the rear of the ad- vancing throng. and moan of wicked ness which they have trained them selves to imagine. California prefers the kind that keeps up with the pro- cession. I am mistaken if the ministers do not take the miners at their word and the result be mutually profitable
 
 Probably it is with pang of regret | that the Examiner occasionally pr{nts