The San Francisco call., 1898-04-17
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By HENRY JAMES.

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 Perhaps an apology is due Pioneer
 of whom I spoke last week. He has
 written again, and in such a way as tc
 indicate that the sending of anony-
 nous letters Is his worst fault His declaration that he will vote himself
 an old fool' is unduly harsh. On the
 contrary he appears to be an old gen.
 tleman of kindly intent, led into meth ods which do not meet with approval
 because the same as adopted by the
 meddler and the timid or malign mal- content. l can assure Pioneer that a
 signed message from him would re-
 celve consideration such as he can
 never hope to get by bombardment of
 nameless effusions, however well in- l tended.
 Not long ago I noticed that an inte-
 rior paper had presented it's salutatory
 under the label ''Valedictory." Now
 comes the new Press of Riveria and
 ing of frankness toward the craft can
 only express the hope that it may be so. Some papers have affirmed that the
 war scare was raised as a deliberate
 scheme to sell lot of old ships to the Government. I would not call a person making such a statement a fool be-
 cause he might be only a liar, nor
 liar because he might be only a fool.
 Besides l have liking for benignity
 of expression. But supposing, for the
 sake or argument or anything else,
 that the charge is true, every plotter
 should be hanged, and the carcass of
 him pelted mellow by bricks.
 It had been hoped that the Craven
 woman had got out of sight for keeps,
 but she bobs up again, as usual the
 central figure in an unsavory episode. It will be remembered that she was re- tained as teacher long after the fact was known that she was utterly unfit 10 have the direction of the young or to associate with them and at last per- mitted to resign from position in which she had been a disgrace to the schools and to the community. I hear tily wish she had secured enough of Falrs money to have taken a fifty years tour of Europe.
 Collis P. Huntington has reached nearly four score. He is a large man, physically and financially, wonderful in his industry, unutterably selfish, sordid beyond expression. He says we have no occasion for war with Spain. Per haps it is presumptuous in me to take issue with person who can command a million dollars as readily as I could command a nickel, and who would cling to the nickel as I might to the million. But I cannot shake off a be- lief that Huntington is a disgrace to the land which produced him. To my mind he lacks no essential of the traitor save the courage to risk hanging. do not say this in anger that he has more unearned money than any indi- vidual has a right to possess, but because l have no respect for man who thinks more of a dollar than of his country, his soul and his God object to his statement because it is cowardly, un-American and untrue. If we have no occasion to fight Spain then never did nation armed in righteous ness go against nation since the be- ginning of the world. For half a cen tury Spain has arrogated to herself the privilege of capturing and killing Americans. For this she has scarcely been rebuked, and shame has been put upon us under which the people have chafed. But laying aside the past, even the murder of the crew of the Virginius, a recent event as his- tory goes, the last few weeks have fur nished ample cause. When the Maine was sunk a whisper of fear went around that if another ship were sent to Havana it, too, would go to the bot tom of the harbor. That the whisper was needed was due to the Hunting ton influence which has in a measure corrupted the land. Instead of delay 1 there should have been instant action, | instead of one vessel, fleet, and under | the protection of our own guns the in | vestigation should have been carried | on. An hour after the verdict had been | reached the Stars and Stripes should | have been floating above Morro Castle | or the process of raging Havana to the | last foundation stone have been in pro- gress. The war would have been begun | and ended. We do not build a navy | that our Spanish friends may have the | pleasure of blowing it up and drinking | wine as our dead are carried ashore | to be placed in graves to whose poor | shelter they are not welcome. But the | treatment of Consul General Lee con- | stitutes a second ground for war. A | nation must share the odium heaped | upon it's representatives. A nation which would calmly accept the insults offered Lee and other ConsulS, some of | whom were forced to retire secretly to avoid being murdered, is not fit to be a nation. It should get itself annexed to Hawaii and beg Dole for protection. I am glad to say that Huntington Is al- most alone in his gross and humiliating of the situation confronting us It would be a sorry land that brought forth many of his kind, land devoid of patriotism, fit only for sub jugation, deserving the sneers of the world, its flag an emblem of dishonor.
 George Hayford, declaring himself to be an attorney, writes five pages of bad English to show a vague insinuation