The San Francisco call., 1898-08-07
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By HENRY JAMES.

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 men who, making believe they are more
 bankers than brokers, loan money ar
 extortionate rates. These fellows
 thrive here like buzzards in Cuba. l
 notice that one E. W. Lick has brought
 suit on a note for $500 bearing per
 cent per month, the interest to be
 compounded monthly. Perhaps l mis-
 judge an honest gentleman, for in the
 reading of human nature I profess no
 infallibility, but my idea is that no 1 honest person ever advanced money on these terms to the needy. and that mo-
 body doing so should be permitted to
 collect more than the bare principal, l and deserves to lose even this. The State provides that ''pawnbrokers' shall not charge above ? per cent month, and their business is regulated
 with some austerity. There is a large
 class of money sharks made up of men
 who are in reality nothing but pawn brokers, and the pretense of being
 something else but adds to the gray ity of their offending. By disgusting | their actual status these come under
 protection of a law which permits the
 charging of any interest that may be
 agreed upon, and which, so far as it
 affords this undue protection, becomes
 an iniquitous law. The unfortunate
 forced to negotiate a loan is robbed as | surely as though the more courageous
 variety of footpad had stayed him on
 the highway through the agency of a
 pistol.
 According to the Stockton Record 1 they seem to have patient variety of
 pauper In San Joaquin County. h. mates of the poorhouse have long borne the trial of diet not to their liking, and
 now that they have broken into pro-
 test, they have from me the fullest
 measure of sympathy they deserve | One woman has told the Supervisors
 that for breakfast she and the other 1 guests were allowed nothing but nut l ton chops, biscuit, coffee, eggs and vegetables, of course with toast for the more delicate No wonder the guests threaten to walk out. Such a break
 fast, to be sure, is far better than the ! family of the average citizen gets, but then, when people work, their appetites 1 do not need to he pamDered. I would l suggest that army rations be issued to | the San Joaquin pauper. This might not satisfy. but it would be tolerably
 apt to kill, and with a transfer to 1 heaven the pauper might again be happy.
 By a few strokes of his pen Colonel Roosevelt has scratched his name from | the lists of the esteemed, and has writ l ten himself an ass 0-nploying charac- ters so prominent that his own impress ] sive verdict must be accepted. His letter to Alger was a boorish imper-
 thence. In this document he praised l his own men, and the world has also praised them; but he made a nasty l fling at other troops, Tatriots who had 1 fought as bravely and as well. The | act was inexcusable, and will not be | forgotten. The reply of Secretary AL | ger was a masterly rebuke. I think I can say this fairly for I have long | admired Roosevelt, and never was i touched before by the remotest inn pulse to admire Alger. Teddy seemed | destined for great things, but he has killed his prospects, and no memory of valiant deed performed will remove the recollection that he insulted some of the dead in the trenches before Santi- ago, and tried to impeach the worth of soldiers who had survived, and even as he wrote were with courage unflinch- ing facing the plague of fever. For Roosevelt to seek perferment again would be useless. To his political ca reer he has chosen to write "Finis."
 If the young lady who announces that she has caught a German Baron will make known when she has managed to let go of him, I will tender congratu- lations, but in the meantime defer them. There are unfortunate associa- tions connected with that title out here. One German Baron went wooing, cut the throat of his lady love and eloped with her jewels. He fingered for a while to enjoy the antics of the po- lice stirred to activity by the impro- priety of his conduct, and then went to Texas, where he partly redeemed him. self by suicide. Another was lately charged with murder but established his innocence, though not before the fact had been made clear that an av- craze murderer would be more desira- ble. A third was fraud, his title be- ing bogus, but he cut wide swath, and is now in an Enelishsj jail. So, as worshipfully as the free born Ameri- can views a title the German Baron is at little discount, unless he comes with certified pedigree.
 It may be observed that comment on the war continues unabated, but the war does not appear to pay to this cir cumstance the attention that the com mentators expect. It seems to be set tied that campaign cannot be directed by means of the stump of lead pencil from distance of thousands of miles. have been one of many to essay the task, and the only one in the 1ot to reach the conclusion that 1t ought to be left to the administration and the army.
 If the police detailed to watch China town cannot catch the Chinese offend CTS, at least they could do much for the moral betterment of the city by arrest ing each other and filJiur tba Cbiaf,c