The San Francisco call., 1898-03-06
ss.:.:.s. 5. . . g: 8 8 8 8 8 s s' . $
 WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS.
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By HENRY JAMES.


 recognized now as any other time. Pre- senting. smiling face as a target for expectoration is as policy out of date. Meanwhile, an occasional peace con-. gress is a pleasant affair, marked usu- ally by some speeches of excellence.
 
 | correspondent sends in the sugges- tion that the New York Journal blew up the Maine While disliking to dis agree with so good fellow as the cor respondent seems to be, do not believe it.
 One of the correspondents now en- gagged in sending from Key West vivid accounts of things which never hap pened is Alfred Henry Lewis. He is noted for an absolute abhorrence of facts, regarding them as incubi which would hamper his flight. So he shakes them off and scars above them jubilant in the realm of fiction, sustained by the gauzy wings of falsehood. Lewis is no ordinary, vulgar liar. He evades the direct use of truth with a zest born of instinct and a skill nothing but prac- tice could have produced, but he does it so artistically, with such evident joy in the feat that it is inn possible not to admire him. Besides, he does not rob the intelligent reader of any information, and the robbery of the other kind is immaterial. A student of events has but to read after Lewis a short time to know how to take him. The only course is to note every state ment made, reverse it and there is the truth. Lewis has written much of pub- lie men and measures. He never made an estimate of either approximately correct. Whether his judgment is al- ways bad or he is simply swayed by detestation for veracity does not mat ter. Results are the same. Lewis is just the person to be in Key West now, although the dating of his letters from that point is fairly good evidence that he is somewhere else.
 It Is pleasure to note that Auditor Broderick has sat upon a demand by Attorney Gavigan for $490. The public does not need to know anything about l the merit of this particular claim. The | official intelligence which grasps every opportunity to sit upon a Gavigan claim merits no less title than gumption.
 
 Hanna may be an admirable person, but l wish he were less prominent. He is an astute politician, not of the va | riety, however, to which the heart warns. If some friend would suggest to him the wisdom of remaining in the background and then would jam the foreground so full the background could not be seen, he would be doing Hanna a good turn.
 A question has arisen as to whether Nat Goodwin is married or merely | thinks 1t, but it does not seem to me worth public discussion. So long as the pair who went through the wedding 1 ceremony are satisfied there is no need for anybody else to fret, and when they | pine for freedom, as is inevitable. it might be an actual relief to them to find that the bonds were bogus.
 There have been some expressions of doubt as to the necessity for a City Hall commission, and these it is 1 pleasure to set at rest. I had myself wondered if. when a building had grown so decrepit from age that time had pierced it's roof the gentlemen in charge of it's erection would not be justi- l fable in refusing longer to be bur- | dened with the effort of clinging to the payroll. But no. With a faithful de- vOtion beautiful to see the commission still meets and adjourns Proceedings | of recent meeting were constituted of the auditing of the salary account of the secretary. The next meeting | will be marked by the reading of min uteS, showing the accomplishment of | this benefaction. So the commission | is necessary for the auditing of the secretary's salary. and the secretary is necessary to record the fact that the salary has been audited. I think noth- ing could be plainer. The brutal pub lie seldom pauses anyhow to reflect how | it's servants are overworked never during a month having more than thirty-one days for repose. Probably the thought has not even occurred that they must have suffered much in Feb ruary, that brief span affording only twenty-eight days in which to battle against brainfag.
 | Since the French Cabinet refuses to be criticized at short range I take the advantage of distance to remark that they dT6 dCllIB llhS d lOC or pdr6llcS stimulated by absinthe to a state of useless activity. If I knew how to express this idea in French each mem Der of the Cabinet would receive a marked copy.
 Into every life, however lowly, there comes some inkling of romance In the garb of vagabond may rove one who was born to marble halls, while feet which unshod have trod the cobbles of an inhospitable city may in later time sink into the carpet of it's most splen- did mansion. The ordinary life is com monplace, with only here and there a touch of the exceptional, passing con- tact with the experiences which leave i the impression not of reality, but as | though the mind, wandering in dream land, had lost itself amidst the visions of fancy's realm. This is not true of all; there are lives romance through out. The writer of tales, searching | for material to be woven into fiction