The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-11-06
tent to write prose and sell 1t at space

Religious papers representing certain
sects are discussing with some ANNA
ton the custom of tithe-giving. There
seems to be tendency to decry 1t, and
this tendency is worthy Of encourage
ment. On the basis Of devoting a GER
tain proportion of income to charity
and good works the burden will fall
upon those whose incomes are small.
The rich would object to it on princi-
pie. Let the amount to be exacted
from them assume the form of a def
mite tax, and to eyade it would not be
regarded as a sin, but an evidence OF
financial acumen. People who feel like
giving will give, and those who dom
won't, and that's all there is to the
matter.
A current bit Of newspaper gossip is
that a South African nabob is having
constructed a bicycle for which he will
pay $275, 900. This he intends to pre-
sent to his wife. Probably the story is
untrue, but If true, I hope the lady will
accept the wheel, get a divorce and
marry somebody whose brain pan is
not filed with mush-
Now that Biographies Of the Rev.
John Hall have ceased to float through
the daily prints, l would like to ask
what Christ and his disciples would
have done with the $4,000 income Of
the late preacher. It interests me to
speculate how they would have fitted
their environment If with Sandaled feet
they had strayed into the splendid edi-
flee where rich men sat sedate while
their thoughts turned TO the market,
and rich women bowed heads adorned
with the latest in millinery. l do not
think that, save for a divine prescience,
they would have known what sort of a
place they had struck. Certainly there
would not have been in the surround
ings any suggestion of meekness and
lowliness. 1t is the blessed privilege OF
each to participate in such form Of
worship as may to his own conscience
seem good. Perhaps there Is warrant
for all the magnitlcence and fubdub. /
certainly do not venture to say 1t is
not the highest and best as 1t Is the
most comfortable and stylish metnod
of Offering praise and petition. Yet IT
can hardly be believed that the fisher
men of old, wandering by the sea OF
Galilee. and each touched with the gift
of prophecy, ever looked forward ~
seeing the gospel SO beautifully staged.
II is pleasure to note that the
Searchlight of Redding has grown
AWAY from a condition which it de-
scribes as piematic. I have not been
able to ascertain what this condition IS
like, but evidently it is less satisfactory
than the one which has been reached,
and therefore congratulations are freely
rendered.
Perhaps If the editor of the Davis
vile Enterprise were to think again he
would not say this: There are not
enough quiet, womanly women in our
country to-day to supply the demand
that exists for them, and the men are
compelled to take what there Is, or go
without" / am not conscious Of any
thrill of sympathy for the poor men
suffering for lack of worthy compan-
ionship In fact, it seems to me that
women in becoming wives run risks
even more serious than fall to the lot
of the male who, with fear and tremb-
ling lest he draw blank, permits him.
self to be coaxed to the altar. If the
average wife is not better than the av-
erage husband, more faithful to her
vows. more devoted to the home life in
which she becomes a central figure, my
study of human relationship has led to
wrong conclusions. When man mar
ries, the likelihood is that he will get
somebody too good for him, and If he
is worrying about the possibility of
awarding his precious self to a woman
not deserving of the honor, let him
calm his fears. The woman also takes
chances. However, the Davisville edi-
tor may be in a measure excused He
had been inspired to write by having
read of the females who wear belts
made of human skin.
An Eastern woman, who having wit