The San Francisco call., 1899-01-01

pens to be some person with the SontdFy
recommendation, If it be such, OF haV-
ing possession of unearned and un-
merited millions is so difficult to. un-
derstand that the attempt to do so is
futile. Here is a row raised over the
runor that Miss Fair is to become the
wife of a Vanderbilt. and the papers
are full of it. As these people are old
enough to attend to the matter and as
the union would be that of the COM
monplace to its kind, there is not the
slightest occasion for Mysteries.
One thing made certain by view and
a smell of the political situation IN
that there must be reforms, including
election of Senators by popular vote,
or this republic will sink under the
weight of internal corruption. Anti
expansionists may howl as they please
about the danger of acquiring foreign
territory. overriding the constitution
and governing without the consent OF
the governed, all of which may be con-
siderable but the real peril to our in
stitutionS is from domestic rot. 1t mas
come even now to the pass where the
word of a professional politician is
worthless A pledge is nothing, II the
other man has the price, and this fact
is painful particularly in the election
of Senator'S 1t is not possible to buy
the people of a State, but that it is
possible to buy the members of Leg
islature has been demonstrated again
and again, and to this demonstration
California has added more than her
loo lot m
have no idea but TO put himself on the
bargain counter. SO long as TINS
shameful condition shall continue there
can be no confidence in the stability
of the government. 1t is no longer
government of the people, but the ar
bitrary rule of moneyed rascality The
people are, in fact, pOwerless. The leg
islator is not wholly to blame. When
a man. elected to the Assembly from
some walk where he has never earned
so great an income as that constituted
by his legitimate salary in public life,
finds that he can make extra thousands
by voting for a particular man for
Senator, the temptation is sore one
1t is right that he should be protected
against it. 1t is grieVous wrong that
he should be subject to inducements to
betray a trust and sell his honor"
The only way 20 shield him, to balk
the corruption which clinks alluring
gold, is to put into the hands of the
sometimes fooled but always unpur-
chasable public the power Of election
now concentrated in the hands of few,
the majority of the few unworthy, the
minority in part morally weak and if
icr++
There seems to be trouble, to the ex-
tent of about two illustrated columns
daily, in the Sloane family of New
York. These domestic broils are always
saddening, particularly when they get
SO mixed up with legitimate news that
sensible people in scanning the latter
cannot avoid getting a glimpse of them.
For my part Sloane and his wife may
undsturbed throw the dishes at each
other, or in peace, run race to the
divorce court. Their quarrel is as i'm
portant as that between the cOachman
and the cook.
The pardon of ex-Cashier Flood was
not surprising. Indeed he stole so ably
and so much that the fact of his con-
viction constitutes the only puzzle in
the case.
I freely confess to lack of admiration
for the medical students who decorated
a Christmas tree with the CHASTITY relics
of the dissecting room, the skulls of
babes, the half-feshed hands of the
pauper subject, or between The grin
ming teeth of the desecrated dead set
ribald jests. 1t would appear that by
ordinary effort a medical student
might cultivate the ways of decency,
and fail to find joy in being a brutal
buffoon.
Congressman-e Roberts thinks
the possession of three wives does not
disqualify him for taking his seat, and
cites Abraham and others of similar
repute as a bolster to his way of living.
1t does not appear to me that the po-
lygamist's choice of models has been
fortunate. Abraham may have been a
worthy man in some respects, but so
far as | can learn these respects failed
to become of record. He certainly did
not deport himself toward his Sarah as
a gentleman should have done, and his
scheme for sticking a butcher knife
into his son does not win the approval
of the thoughtful despite it's beauteous
effectiveness as a Sunday school text.
1 have always wondered at the ambi-
ton to secure final refuge in Abrahams
bosom, as the experience would seem
to me to be one to avoid. However,
this is apart from the main issue. Rob
erts has been chosen by the people of
Utah, where women are voters. That
the choice was an insult to the nation
which made the mistake of supposing
the Mormons sincere in the avowed re-
nunciation of Objectionable tenets, that
it was even an insult to Congress,
which is a body not easily insulted,
there can be no question; and yet there
seems probability that the nation and
Congress will have to swallow the af-
front. If Utah is fit to be State, it
is fit to choose it's representatives, and
such disgrace as may be involved will
rest upon that commonwealth.
Murderer Dunham is said to be in Jail
in Ohio and in Iowa, manifest impos-
sibility even for a person of his at