Mesa free press., 1899-08-25
PACIFIC COAST NEWS
Important Information Gathered
Around the Coast.
ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST
A Summary Of Late Events That Are
Boiled Down to Suit our Busy
Readers.

STdpulCdl OulOu III SCSsuOA mere sent u
message to Governor Gage, requesting
the appointment of it's president, A. J.
Reed, as labor commissioner
Seattle, Wash.-Six hundred boxes
Of pears and four hundred boxes of
apples shipped from Sacramento were
condemned by Fruit Inspector Brown,
who said the fruit was infected with
Goblin moth.
The Fresno Republican says editor
tally: "Watsonville has abolished the
nickel -the-slot machines-not mere
ly prohibited, mind you, but abolished.
In fact, this is one of the few cases in
which prohibition prevents. And the
wave of prevention is rolling onward.
Will it strike Fresno last, or next to the
last?
In such an enlightened and progress
sive community as Fresno this matter
should be taken up at once. Faro,
poker, shell games, cards, keno, policy,
even green goods and gold bricks, give
a little to the victim occasionally, but
the cursed slot machine, never. Deceit,
treachery, lying to parents, self1shness
and several other things are developed
in boys by the slot machine, and the
community that fosters such an agency
of ruin must sooner or later regret it.
Drive it out!
A Docoto dispatch says the vineyard
lists of Washington township,as we'll as
other parts of California, are alarmed
over the fact that theis vines are de-
stroyed by the dreaded phylloxera. The
ravages of the disease can be plainly
seen, and immense harm is being done.
1t is only matter of Shor time when
all vineyards not of resistant stock will
be destroyed. The only remedy is to
take up every vine in the vicinity af-
fected, and put in new stock. The vines
have become diseased in the last two
years.
At San Francisco N. T. Coleman, an
ensign on the battleship Iowa, who was
to have been court-martialed on a
charge of having been Intoxicated
while the vessel was at Puget Sound
Naval Station, attempted suicide by
shooting with navy revolver. Cap
tain Terry heard a shot in Coleman's
room and entrance was Immediately
effected. Coleman was found with the
pistol in his hand. He had aimed at
his head, but the muzzle of the heavy
weapon was thrown upward by the re-
port and the ball grazed his head.
A Stockton man proposes to ship
green fruit in vacuum cars-iron or
steel air-tight cars-and thus save the
great expense in ice and construction
for refrigerator cars, and, incidentally
knock the wind out of that trust. There
is hue and cry of "lunatic" raised
against him, but there are long-headed
men engaged in shipping fruit, and it
is earnestly hoped that this mans de-
vice may be used successfully, for
though it should afterward become a
trust like the present method, it would
be much cheaper and tend to encourage
fruit growing by better returns.
Our coast exchanges are burdened
with the cry of daylight robberies and
burglaries, and no section of Southern
California seems to be safe from such
visits. The thieves know the practice
of families who lock up the house and
go to the beach for long period, and
take advantage of it. A handful OF
pencils, bunch of envelopes or bot
tie of some imaginary cleaning prepar-
ations opens the way to inspect the
premises, and, finding them untenant-
ed, the rest is simple. This class of
crime is common in all communities
and police protection cannot be
blamed. Honseholders could remove all
valuable portable things to safe storage
and render the visits empty of plunder,
as possible, to the thief.
The Asiatic heather is known to be
an imitator of western civilization, and
almost always of its meaner features;
but now comes San Jose and presents
a Japanese preacher, Rev. DR.. Kimura,
who has begun work in that city
like that which made DR.. Parkhurst
famous in New York. He confines his
work to his lost countrymen and wom-
en-, of whom there are many, which
does not speak we'll for such a great
church town. His reason for not
spreading his protecting wing over the
common white trash of that town is
not given, but it is safe to assume that
it is because of the fact that anything
lost in San Jose, from preachers bike
or a Democratic victory, up to the souls
of San Jose sinners, is so eternally and
irretrievably gone that to attempt to
4 L H.