The San Francisco call., 1898-05-18
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

vICE-PRESIDENT-A o. S.. City, Hannibal Hamlin, yice-President, took the oath of office before the oath was ad- rninistered to Abraham Lincoln as Presi- dent at Washington March 4, 1861.
 TORPEDO DEsTROYERs-R and T., City, Torpedo destroyers are swift nov ing vessels. capable of making from twenty-ffve to thirty knots an hour, used to chase and sink boats that are used for either planting or sending torpedoes
 PATENTS-J. s. S., City. If you desire to ascertain if certain article has been patented in the United States patent of flee, you can ascertain that fact by look ing over the patent office reports in the reference room of the free library or this city. You can also obtain that informa- tion from any patent-securing attorney.
 AT DAWSON CITY-Fannie, Bloom field, Cal. The shortest days at Dawson City are eight hours of daylight. The sun is visible for about an hour on those days. The city is not in total darkness for the twenty-four hours. of the day; At Fort Yukon, 400 miles further north, the sun is not visible for several days, still there is daylight for several hours.
 EXPLOSION IN WEST BERKELEY J. A. L., City. The powder works near Highland station. West, Berkeley. oc- cured July g, 1892. The first shock was
 
 the third, which was the heaviest, at 9:3124. Five persons were killed. Considerable glass was shattered in San Francisco, ten miles distant, by the force of the ex- plosion.
 ELECTION BOARD-A Reader. Hay wards, Cal There is nothing in the law that says that man who has been nomi- mated for a county office shall not serve as an officer of an election board. The rule, however. has been that if candi- dot nhn fN f1n board he would send in his declination of the appointment.
 WATER RATES = Enquirer, Colusa. Cal. The law of this State on the subject of water rates says that "such rates shall be fixed at regular or special session of the Board of Supervisors or other legis- lative body held during the month of Feb ruary of each year, and shall take effect on the first day of July thereafter. and shall continue in full force and effect for the term of one year, and no longer" It is held that this means that once fixed the rates cannot be changed during the year thereafter.
 LEAVING THE STATE-Subscriber City. The law of California says that persons belonging to the military forces while attending to military duty are eX- empt from arrest on civil process" This is repeated in the section of the Political Code under the head of National Guard.
 If it had been intended to cover the Ma tional Guard only the section would have read: Persons belonging to the Ma tional Guard instead of ito the military forces" It follows from this that as a debtor who attempts to leave the State can be arrested only on civil process, an officer or any one else of the military forces cannot be arrested. Then, further. 1t is doubtful if a court would issue warrant for the arrest of an off, hcer leaving the State under orders from the War Department. The fact that he was leaving the State under orders to strued into an attempt to leave the State for the purpose of defrauding his cred itors.
 CONTRABANDS OF WAR;. S., Cherokee. Cal. It is not a departure from neutrality to furnish to either of two na- tions at war supplies which do not fall within the description of contraband of war-that Is, arms and munitions of war, and things out of which munitions of war are made. A neutral country may carry on ordinary trade with either bel ligerent, except when prevented by block ade, but ships that carry on trade in the ordinary line of commerce must not have on board articles that are contraband of war, nor must eoterminous land iron tier be crossed by such commodities By law and practice of nations, it is for the admiralty courts of the capturing power to decide what is and what is not contra band of war. At various times discus sionS have arisen whether corn, hay or coal can ever be included in the list of ar ticles of contraband of war. They are obviously articles of peaceful commerce, but they are also essential to the main tenance of an army and sometimes a supply would give one belligerent great over the other, especially as to coal in the present age of war steamers