The San Francisco call., 1899-03-12
WITH ENTIRE FRANKNESS.
BY HENRY JAMES.


goes to the front and fights II MS coun-
try needs. The rich man stays at nome
and sells rotten beef for his consurlp-
ton. The aristocracy OF money IS the
most Insecure ever reared. If matters
progress in the direction toward Which
thew now seem to have considerable
headway there will be an aWIul anu d
sudden metarnorphosis. This is a lana
! Of vast resources, and the calio useu
hands which have developed it Will not
always gather with patlehce .ne
crumbs falling from the table or anu
apca knowing as the toiler does, that
his labor fashioned the loaf or Whlch
! even a crust is denied him. l am no
prophet of i'll, but any calm viewer OF
circumstances as they exist knows
there must be a change, not radical, puC
reasonable. or a crash, and after that
chaos. Our politicians are corrupt, our
statesmen buying their station med1-
ocre. and our capitalists bent on exact
ing the utmost farthing. No fortune
built on watered stock can stand. NO
republic dominated by the conscience
less element issuing such stock can
stand either. Your grandchildren Will
wonder why you were such 1901 aS
|
Probably since the first legislative
body met there was never introduced a
bill so wholly and frankly tdiottc as
that for the establishment of bureau
of child study. The unique distinction
of being the place of its birth belongs
to California. The object of it is to
give one Gavigan a chance to draw
salary for poking his nose into the busl-
ness Of other and L hope better people
I do not propose to insult the Legisla-
! ture by assuming for an instant that
the measure can receive anything but
condemnation, but if Gavigan ever
came prowling about my house on an
official mission one of US would throw
the other downstairs This Gavigan
has been, among other things, Police
| Court attorney, and that nineteen out
! of twenty of his kind deserve to be in
that court in the capacity Of defendant
! everybody knows. I am not saying
anything against Gavigan. Possibly he
| is the twentieth.
| Occasionally it may be observed that
upon the passing away of a citizen
there is portrayed among his other
virtues that of having been a descend
ant from Washington. Mere delicacy
ought to forbid any allusion to this.
SO far as openly recorded Washington
was the father of his country, and
while this achievement redounded to
his credit it did not plant the seed for
family tree.
The fellow travelling on the reputa-
tion of being a "gun-fighter" is cow
ard So far as my observation goes
there are no exceptions to this rule.
The big, clustering bully whose pockets
are supposed to bulge with the weap-
ons of death is a false alarm. He
depends upon the terror of an un-
earned reputation, and would fall para
Iyzed with fright if his bluff happened
to be called.
By the exercise of adroitness the
Sheriff of Monterey County has pre-
vented the lynching of one Castro. I
wish he had been less adroit. Accord /
ing to all accounts Castro deserved to
be lynched and it does not seem just |
that the people should be burdened with |
the cost of his trial. There is the /
chance that he may, through the ras-
calIy shrewdness of a lawyer, be ac- |
quilted and if convicted he will be sent /
to the penitentiary, there to add to the |
burden of people who have never fol- |
lowed a mode of life leading them in |
the same direction The only objection |
1 have to lynch law is that in the haste |
of the moment the pOpulace may hang /
the wrong man. True, this is an al |
most vital objection, but in such cases
as there is no element of doubt and the /
offense has been gross as Castro's, a |
ready rope is the only instrument to
adequately meet the emergency.
1t has been no part of my duty to |
keep track of Oakland politics, but |
among the names of those to be voted |
for tomorrow in that city I notice that /
of S. w. Booth. 1 have worked with |
Booth both on the Examiner and The !
Call, and can say that he would only |
have to attend to his duties in office |
as faithfully as he attends to journal |
istic duties to be an ideal public ser
want. 1 say this for Booth gladly. with |
the resolve that if he shall be elected |
and prove in any measure derelict to
the best Of my ability 1 will skin him |
alive.
George L. Rees, a Stanford student. |
has, in large and glittering letters. |
written himself an ass. This is simply |
a personal opinion, and may be wrong. |
AS it is the only opportunity he will |
have to glitter this side of maturity |
perhaps he is not to be blamed. Rees |
was a soldier in the First California, |
and during his short term OF service |
was in the guardhouse eight times for I
disobedience. Despite the fact that he |
possesses physical courage, as his ac- |
ton on the field demonstrated, this /
record proves that he lacks the first /
requisite of the soldier Evidently he !
was of the lot who thought war pic !
mic, and believed that rations would in I
clude pie and that in every emergency i
a Red Cross nurse would be on hand |
with bottle of smelling salts. Natur- I
ally he was disappointed, but for him |
to lecture on the subject was presump-
tiOn He resented ba