The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1904-07-31
MEN anazMA4>TERS IN
THE TOR.s ne WORLD

RED on by enthusiasts OF TINS nature
result in the rectification of what are
real abuses. For instance, we were all
Of US at one time, although we did not
know it, being robbed by tho water
companies.
But there appeared upon the scene a
man named Dobbs, who commenced
crusade against them by rendering
payment for his water on the rated
value of his house and declining 10
pay. as was then usual, on the gross
value.
He was promptly summoned, but,
nothing daunted. he carried the case
from court to court right UP to the
House of Lords-and won.
The result of this spirited action is
that we all Of us pay about one-third
less for our water than we otherwise
should have had to do. and the COM
panies are so many millions of pounds
the poorer.
Or take again the case of the indi
vidual who, alone and single-handed,
carried on a crusade against the dan
gerous practice of throwing orange peel
on the pavements. He was but a poor
man and without influence or friends.
But he stuck to his point for over
twenty years.
During that time he wrote thousands
of letters TO the newspapers, printed
and distributed largely at his own ex-
pense many tens Of thousands of circu-
lars and in the end succeeded in so edu-
eating public opinion in the matter that
it is quite a rare thing nowadays to see
a respectable adult casting orange peel
about recklessly, as was the almost
universal custom a. couple of decades
ago.
No matter how crowded may be
certain morning train into the city
from a certain northern suburban sta
ton, there is invariably one carriage
that contains no more than its proper
complement of passengers. Indeed, the
railway company has delegated an Of
fetal to travel in the carriage in ques-
ton for the express purpose of keeping
out intruders. And this it does, not in
the interests of its own directors, but
at the bidding of just an ordinary sea-
son ticket holder who has had the
pluck to stand up for his rights.
The gentleman in question is well
known in the city. and his one ambition
is to force the railway companies into
testing in a court of law the burning
question of t-}ercrowding.
But the companies decline to be
drawn. Not even when their adversary
changes his usual train so as to elude
the vigilance of the official whose duty
it is to see that he, at all events, among
their m, lions of passengers travels in
comfort, and then refuses to show his
ticket as a protest, will they take ac
ton. Perhaps they mentally recall the
case of Mr.. Dobbs and his disputed
water rate.
How many people are aware that,
for over a quarter of a century, an
amiable faddist has been going about
the country with a hammer. driving
down projecting tenter- hooks which
have been affixed to- fences and palings
in such a fashion as to be dangerous to
children and others. Not many. it is
to be presumed. Yet such is the fact.
Years ago, it is said, enc of his own
little ones was badly lacerated about
the face by one of these sharp-pointed
hooks It had been fixed, with a num-
Der Of others, to the top Of low fence
by a neighboring land owner, the OBJ
ject being, Of course, to keep out tres
passers.
The father sued for compensation,
but failed to get it, the Judge before
whom the case was tried holding that
d landlord was legally justified in pro-
tecting his property after this fashion.
But" added the Judge, 1.-The prac-
tice is a dangerous one, and morally in
defensibIe, and I think any person
would be justified - removing such
dangerous hooks from the tops of low
palings adjoining PIT bic thoroughfares.
or in hammering them down fat, so as
to render them innocuous."
1t was this judicial dictum which
started him on his strange crusade,
and he has kept it up ever since. y
He never, it should be mentioned, in
terferes with large iron spikes that
can be easily seen and avoided, but
only with the small, dangerous tenter-
hook. And even these latter are safe
from the attention Of his hammer if
placed on high paHngs, where children
are not likely to climb, or well within
private property. -
But, perhaps, the queerest of all
modern crusading fads is that INDUCED
in by a dainty Kensington dame, who
daily at eventide during the hot sum
mer weather sallies forth into Lon
don's outer ring to plead for the flowers
in suburban front gardens.
Slowly she walks down a road Of
modern villas, looking keenly to right
and left as she goes. And wherever
she espies A plant parched and droop-
ing for lack of water she marches bold
ly up to the front door ar calls the
attention of the inmates of the house
to its needs.
Pray excuse me-" is her invariable
formula, "but your flowers are badly in
need of water. An unintentional over
sight, without doubt; or. perhaps it is
due to the negligence of a servanlD'
Then she bows and departs, without
waiting for reply.-Pearson' Weekly,
/ London.
The NeaO Way.
A gene tion ago the king of but
I