The San Francisco call., 1898-07-31

It is always my aim to be moderate in expression. Therefore when I say that Judge Gummere of the New Jersey Su- preme Court is a fool, that he has less brains than the mosquito whose bug zing annoys him. and whose bill. I hope. will render the life of the Judge a bur den to himself as it must be to all about him, am studiously avoiding any un- due emphasis. This person, probably presenting the aspect of man, has set aside verdict of $5000 against rail- road for the killing of a child. the ground being that a child is of no pecu- niary value to the parents. I may have erred in calling so brutalized a creature fool. Rather, he is hardened and vicious knave who should be whiDDed from the bench, kicked from the pres ence of decency, and followed by the anathema of every one whose heart has ever been touched by the nrattle of babyhood. He says, this drooling, driy- cling disgrace to civilization, that a son. far from being of value, is an expense until he goes off to shift for himself: that daughter is larger expense un til she marries. The inference is nIain that parents whose expenses are les sened by the thoughtful killing off of their offspring should consider them selves indebted to the corporations do ing the killing, and I have no doubt were the corporations to bring action. they would be sustained by the un- speakable Gummere. To analyze a doc Urine so monstrous is almost impossi
 ble, because the instinct refuses to be- lieve that a Gummere can exist. For a judicial decision to declare that a child who to its parents is as bone of bone and flesh of flesh, has no value Is to prove the Judge a pervert. True this value cannot be adequately mea asured and yet 1t should have some definite recognition In law, else are we brutes each parent freely entitled to kill his own, and culpable if he neglect to do so. New Jersey is known as the rot ten asset of any corporation which has the price, but above all the reek of cor ruption, with a distinct stink of bis own, his hands in the corporation strong box, his foot on the grave of a murdered babe, Gummere can he dis cerned. It is my belief that men more worthy are hanged every day. and that the penitentiary convict not his moral superior is not within four walls Hell IS full Of better citizens. I look forward to the time, and hope it will not he lone when the devil shall come to the front door of his smoking tenement and with grin of appreciation and welcome say "Gummere"
 The portrait of General Shafter is still above the door of the Examiner. wreathed with fading laurel. Doubtless there is desire within that place of purity and Joy to turn the picture to the wall or send 1t with the next batch of sworn circulation to the garbage crematory. But this would never do. 1t would be placing the editorial heart on the sleeve for daws to peck at. and besides constitute an indecent exposure. So the paper is beginning to attack Shafter, taking its cue from the New York publication of which it is a feeble echo. It was Shafter who strictly in inc or duty had to tell the public that the editor in chief of both these daily villainies had lied. It was the same oflcer who later had to bounce the Journal-Examiner men, bag and bag gage, out of Cuba because of their malign interference and constant effort to stir up strife. Now he is being de- nounced in laroe type, of course. Mean While the picture remains over the door ana can't be taken down lesf thera re-