The San Francisco call., 1898-06-19

l portion of the stuff is in relation to a necessary change of the national col ors to red, white and green. The wri- ter says this would be delicate com pliment to Ireland. With all respect to that beautiful isle from which na- tives escape as rapidly as they can acquire the price of passage across, I do not see that 1t needs a deicate compliment. If there is rampant a desire to show that the United States and Ireland are one and indivisible a few stars and stripes grafted on the emerald banner of Erin would fulfill the purpose. We have become so ac- cuStomed to the national colors just as they are that we really like them, and do not feel eager to alter them even for so laudable purpose as the paying compliment, doubtless de- served But the extraordinary and unnamed individual proceeds to dem onstrate to his evident satisfaction that the red. white and blue do not harmoniZe, that they constitute a bad color scheme, "jarring the aesthetic apprehension" If this is the variety of apprehension that ails him he would be wise to make a change. Not being an expert as to color schemes I con- suited several artist friends They were so enthusiastically unanimous in calling the unknown an ass that I had to conclude them right There are shades of blue and red that do not harmonize, but the man who can look at the flag and not detect harmony is artist frin flag is new, and the white glaringly White, there is sometimes a lack of tone perfection. But when the white has been slightly yellowed by time there is no combination of hues more pleasing. Green is but a tint, a mix ture. Blue is the pure stuff It is in the sky, in the pillow, in the starry flag, and it will remain. My friend of aesthetic apprehension" would better be employed in searching pink pas lures for a purple Burgess COW than in telling people with minds and eyes how to think and see.
 It Is not with thrill of pride one reads that "six men killed all their birds" They were men from the Olympic Gun Club, reckoned good members of society and not as a rule thirsting for gore. What did they kill the birds for? I am unable to state It seems to me this sport is cruel and ineXcusable. To loose a scared pigeon from box in front of a gun ready for aiming, to slay the bird, even to break wing or leg, does not seem to me a brave achievement. I think the birds have as much right to live as the men who consider it a delight to kill and mutilate them. If the making of laws were left to me, the next individual to shoot trapped bird would spend sev- eral subsequent seasons in breaking rock on the highway. We abhor the Spanish bull-fght, but to face a bull in the ring demands courage. The bull has at least chance to make things interesting for the opposition. Occa- sionally one of the torturers is gored to death, a circumstance whereat all rightminded people rejoice. But the pigeon is helpless. The person who slaughters the innocent flock seems to me but a larger and worse edition of the boy who impales a fly on a pin. Catching flies for this purpose requires a degree of skill and the fly at liberty is a nuisance. So from an ethical standpoint the bird-killer is an in- stance of degeneration.
 been, on his wife's complaint, arrested for perjury. I had expected this for long time and hasten to congratulate the colonel on the inexplicable delay His affairs, of course, are none of mine, but in the capacity of rank outsider I have taken the liberty to wonder if a rich man would be allowed indefi- nitely to swear that he was poverty stricken, everybody knowing that he was rich and not poverty stricken. I am not qualified to give advice in these delicate family matters, but as a busi- ness proposition it would seem reason able for the colonel to pay the price like man, even if this involve the tell ing of the truth.
 An Orinda gentleman, who shows ap- preciation of the truth as set forth here, writes to know what I meant by the insinuation that Tom Reed had es- capped the Southern Pacific branding iron through moving from California. If have done Reed an injustice I am ready to recant. I did not want to say that Reed had been branded, but to give him the benefit of the doubt. Ac- cording to my friend there Is no doubt
 
 For a time saloons at Richmond, near Camp Merritt, sprang up, not like mushrooms, but like toadstools. There Is something of good about mush- room. One hall which had been de- voted to religious services was taken from the regular tenants so that it might be used as a place for dancing. Underneath there was to be a grog- gerry. I am glad to say the groggery failed of getting license. The peo- pie who were expelled naturally felt righteous indignation, but I hope not to the degree that they will be pre- vented from getting another place and continue to devote themselves to the upbuilding of the morals of the vicin- ity. What, with the 1axness of mili- tary discipline and of the Supervisors,