The San Francisco call., 1899-06-11

EDITORIAL VARIATIONS.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. ~*~*~*@*~*~*@*@*@*@x
BY JOHN McNaUGHT.

ment, it is evidently something IN the
nature of a centipede.
That the denunciation was witty goes
without saying, for was there ever
Yorick who was not fertile OF jest ana
iibe even when the heart had turned to
CLAW and the skull was full of dust?
1t is the joke of this writer to assert
that in all California there is no artist
capable of designing a monument that
would be creditable to this generation
or an ornament to the city; and he ar
CUES therefore we should have no mon
ument.
A falser statement or a more Illogical
| deduction from it would be difficult to
| find. AS matter of fact, California
has better artists in all arts than critics
in any, with the exception Of tho
drama. where we are fairly strong in
criticism, but weak in production.
It is good to be witty; 1t is good to
be anonymous; 1t is good to be cent?
pede, but it is never good to be ridicu-
lous and false at the same time. A nom
de plume may hide from the wrath Of
men, but the Yorick should remember
the devil sees it.
There are other Yoricks than ours,
and all Of them are not centipedal nor
given to assuming the names of dead
testers, though they assume everything
else. One of them has recently arisen
to speak his mind in the East. The
name of him is Henry B. Fuller, and
he has been described as "the most ar
tistic of Chicagoans," and by a Chicago
paper at that
In the course of his yorickings this
Yorick said, according to report, that
"the average American is cheap; that
the texture of the American mind is
f1imsy and whining; that the soil of
American character is light and
sandy; that "as Americans we have
the climate against our artistic aspira-
tions." He is reported to have said also
a great deal more of the same kind.
Evidently Mr.. Fuller would object to
monuments and would be both f1ippant
and severe if any were suggested in
Chicago. 1t is to be noted, however,
that his condemnation of such projects
is based upon different grounds from
those taken by the local Yorick. He
does not deny that we have a few art
lists, but maintains they cannot flourish
because the soil is sandy and the eli
llldlt DdQ OIl lIS SIlOWlHS VI SuCu
criticism we are much better off than
the metropolis of the lakes. We might !
by swapping Yorick get an artist in |,
exchange, but who can ever hope by
any means to change the climate of !
Chicago?
While we are talking of Dewey, it is !
worth noting that in nearly every land |
where he may chance to go in Europe !
he will be claimed as a long lost son /
and find himself furnished with a fam
lily tree proving that his ancestors |
hailed from that country and he is a |
man of that race.
That the Irish will greet him as |
descendant of their early Kings, and |
that the British will welcome him as |
brother Anglo-Saxon are matters of .
course. These insular pretensions. |
however, will not be permitted to go /
undisputed. A French authority as
serts the hero's name was originally /
De Houy, and that he is the offspring /
of a HuguenOt family. The Belgians |
trace his descent from a certain De /
Wey, and claim to have record Of the |
first of the family that came to this /
country. The Germans as yet have not |
put in a bid, being evidently in doubt |
as to what the Kaiser thinks of his /
treatment of the German war vessels /
at Manila; but in due time we shall |
hear from them. When we build our
monument we shall have to make it as |
many sided as Yorick has feet in order
to get all the family names on it.
Now that school examinations are
under discussion, a puzzle in the way
of grammatical construction will prob
ably be interesting to a good many peO-
pie and therefore it is worth while call
ing attention to the following extract |
which the Little Rock Democrat has |
exhumed from a brief filed by the At
torney General of Arkansas in the |
noted insurance cases which have oc-
cupied to so large an extent the at
tention of the people of that common
wealth. 1t may be stated at the start |
that the puzzle lies in disentangling the
pronouns and determining to what they
refer the other pecul1arities of the ex-
ample don't count:
$50 that we see from this decision !
that fire insurance corporations, and |
the contracts issued by them, stand in /
bad odor before the law. They may
exclude them from its borders. They |
are neither commodities nor transac-
tions of commerce. They are outlaws !
upon the face of the earth and the State
in it's sovereign capacity nothing! In
the nature of sex they are neuter gen
der, and cannot even propagate itself
without artificial aid. 1t is the Wan |
dering Jew of business. 1t cannot enter |
a State only as a sneaking robber on
his peril, or by going to the gates of
the commonwealth as a mendicant. and
like Lazarus licking the sores of the
sovereigns for permission to scavenge.'
An Oakland clergyman, the Rev. J.
T. Sunderland, has preached a sermon
upon the theme, IF l Were Twenty
Again; has published it in pamphlet
form and circulated it far and wide.
IT is a good sermon. 1t tells many good
things that a middle aged man would
do if he could start over again and live
differently. He would lead a. simple.
wholesome life; would make worthy
f-;o 1e.