The San Francisco call., 1898-02-20
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By HENRY JAMES.

>i S6isi-o. Sc 8 5. 8 s 8 g :s g. g s g :. 8 5. s. 8 s: you whole drove of asses? Perhaps some heartless jester has slipped a bite of seductive loco weed into Dunc's daily bale of hay.
 It must remain puzzle to people outside of official life why diplomats place. so much reliance upon the eff ficacy of lying. They lie when, accord | ing to Judgment untrained in the art | of misrepresentation, the truth would seem to better serve the purpose. Re | gently orders were received at this point for the troops stationed here to exercise extra precautions, to double | the ordinary guard, and otherwise be prepared for the emergency of war. A | natural interest was felt in the matter and inquiry elicited the information | that such orders were being acted | upon. No copy of the telegram could | be procured from a local source, and a | request was sent to Washington for copy. The War Department did not | in dignified manner decline to make public it's acts, but simply sought ref uge in tangle of falsehood. The As sistant Secretary, who was in charge. declared that no such orders had been sent, and yet he knew they had been, and had spurred the army to notice | able activity. I would like to be in formed as to what Meiklejohn thought he was accomplishing by this subter- fuge beyond making clear the fact that hic. ic pended in formulating it.
 
 MT. Roosevelt of the navy has been charged with indiscretion. It appears that he was guilty. He forgot for time that the citizens of the United States have no right to display interest in public affairs, and that an insult to the flag is a matter concerning alone the officers of the Government. During this reprehensible period of absent mindedness he expressed his opinion freely. Of course his superiors rebuked him, and now the penitent Roosevelt is both lamblike and clamlike, an honor to the service.
 Attorney Nougues has been endeav- bring to demonstrate to a patient court that a cat is not property in the eye of the law. If he succeeds in establishing this point he will show that the eye of the law is in need of the service of an oculist. Attorneys may argue until they are black in the face, but the do- mestic feline will still be property, and anybody who doesn't believe it can find his error by trying to steal sin gle cat of the six who sleep under my kitchen stove.
 A gentleman who has been in Cuba expressed the belief shortly after the sinking of the Maine that large pro- portion of the sailors had immediately thereafter been swallowed up by sharks. I am not surprised that noth- ing happened to confirm his theory. The shark is creature made up large ly of appetite and not noted for mental development. Still it is not devoid of intelligence, for 1t permitted the gen. tleman in question to return uneaten to this country. While its quicknessi of mental perception may not be strongly marked the shark would cer- .tainly intuitively grasp sthe Knowledge tudl d lOuu CAPiOSioii lctioN Sd py o glare of fire and a tumult of waves suggested the advisability of being somewhere else. It is a safe bet that any sailor who will, to the accompani- ment of large report, blow himself sky-high can come down with entire immunity from the danger of being swallowed, and that every shark within a mile will have tail turned toward the scene and be leaving wake like liners.
 Probably the Congressman who pro- poses to have the letter eliminated from the alphabet desires to cripple the critics who have been endeavoring to properly characterize him.
 In a recent number of The Call there was an account of the disappearance from England of Arthur Percival and the cheering information that a for tune awaits him there. From the same number it was learned that Arthur Percival was sick with the grip in Lodi. Perhaps there are two Arthurs Percival, but anyhow I would advise the Lodi gentleman to shake off his 
 strong bluff as possible.
 
 If to be indignant when the country is affronted, to feel the impulse of re- sentiment when the flag is trampIed upon and the national honor assaiIed. is to be a 'jingo," the term, applied in contempt, is one in which the citiezn meriting 1t may justly take pride. The man meekly turning the other cheek after having been smitten on the first deserves to be whacked so hard that a shower of stars will suddenly illumi- nate his intelligence. He is despica- ble character. Failing to defend him. self, he proves that he is a coward do not see that a nation stands on a different moral plane. It is inconceiv- able that the United States can find a pretext for submitting to further indig- mites from Spain. Because this nation is bigger and stronger than Spain does