The San Francisco call., 1906-07-08

and Puget Sound to and inclusive of
by BENJAMIN c. Wright of San
Francisco, who has been a commercial
authority on the Pacific Coast for
many years. This sketch of the grain
industry must, of course, take in some
mention of the great irrigation and
Over this redemption of the desert the
writer grows enthusiastic. l quote
you this from his remarks;
1T sometimes excites wonder that
with such a limited land area in the
world so much of 1t should be COM
paratiyely worthless in the form OF
mountains, arid and semi-arid levels
and tule, swamp and otherwise over
flowed lands The Creator, of course,
could have made every acre of land
cultivable from the start. He could also
have made every tree bear bread fruit
He could also have done many other
things that would have contributed to
the Incidence of his creatures. But
he/wisely ordered things as they are,
leaving much to be done by his
creatures as their needs demanded. and
furnished them with brains and ma
terial resources for making available
for habitable comfort the planet on
which they have been placed for
comparatively short existence. God
created all things, but he left it TO
man to make the adaptation to meet
Among American writer's of our day
we know none characterized more
surely by rightness and health of
spirit than William Allen White Of
Emporia. Kas., author of I'm Our
Town" None sees the world more
Justly in its proportions as it is. None,
g kind Chari-
table. with gentier humor. or in more
everyday fashion entirely wise. He
can, with this wisdom, amiability and
amusement that are his, do things that
sitter spirits find impossible. He can
criticize with no suggestion OF hos
tility He can praise with no hint of
partiality. In his freshness. in the
openness of his manner and the
breeziness of his words, there is much
that we are proud TO call American.
Newspapers in our bulkiest towns
have often sought his services, but TO
his eye the largest difference between
Chicago or New York. for example,
and Emporia, Kas., is that neither
Chicago nor New York would give
him, in whatever figures their bribes
were offered. the pleasant stretch of
lawn that his own hand waters with
his hose. Freedom in Emporfa is his,
and the story of mankind is written
there even as in London or ST. Peters,
burg.-Collier's Weekly.
The June number of News Notes of
California Libraries" is out. and it Is
awful to note therein, by turning TO
the pages about San Francisco, how
defunct we are since the fire so far
as library life is concerned. Most of
our one-time libraries simply have
their names mentioned with the num-
Der of volumes and then the brief
'sAll destroyed" Some others have
the significant words, Report for May
not received"
About the only salvage mentioned is
the $4,000 volumes of the San Fran
cisco Public Library. Two branches
and six stations are doing business,
now in McCreery branch, Sixteenth
street, near Market. The $4,000 vol
umes are what is left out of the 12S,OO0
possessed before the fire.
Among the saddest losses of the
smaller libraries was the 400 volumes
that belonged to the San Francisco
Reading Room for the Blind. OF which
Miss H. L. Young was superintendent
This reading-room was established In
1902.
The first library to make fresh
start after the fire is the state Normal
School Library, of which Miss Stella
Huntington is librarian. That library
had a total loss of $500 volumes The
new location is the corner Of Buchanan
and Waller streets.
The June number of the News
Notes is devoted to the California
Library Association, and II gives
portrait and a sketch of the life Of
the first president OF the association,
Mr. Joseph Cummings Rowel. the
librarian of the University of Cali
fornia. The notes also give partial
fist of Mr.. Rowelrs writings. Here
are some of them: Lyric Poetry" an
essay, in Overland Monthly, April.
1887; 1.-The Sonnet in America" an
nets by American authors, in The
Berkeleyan.' 1887; Impressions of
Philobib, Pilgrim" in University Of
California Magazine, v. l, 1901; "A
Peep into the Vatican Library" in
Impressions. V. 1. 1901 Mr. Rowell
was educated in the public schools OF
San Francisco. He received his M. A.
degree from the University of Califor-
MIA in 1903 He has been librarian at
the State University for thirty years.
He is a member Of the American
Library Association Council. He Is the
head of the Summer School of Library
Methods. in connection with the Uni
versity of California This school is
to be given exceptionally thorough at
tentton this season
Professor W. ]. Rolfe has written
long introduction TO Miss Elizabeth
Wilder's translation Of Karl Werder's
study of Hamlet" which G. p. Put
nam's Sons are about to publish under
the title OF The Heart of Hamlet's
Mystery" This extraordinary piece OF
German criticism must now be re-
garded as one of the landmarks of
the literature that Is devoted to a