The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-08-29

not control himself and legislation does not make it
any better
KING OF THE STEWS
There is or was divided sovereignty OF the
Los Angeles tenderoin, king and pretender to
the throne. Nick Oswald was king, but he was
driven into exile Tom Savage was the pretender.
The Los Angeles superior court is trying the
former chief OF police for taking brides from Oswald
who wanted protection" 1t is a squalid recital,
the details of the meanest business known to man,
but the trial has developed salty bit OF humor.
Oswald wanted to drive Tom Savage out OF business.
Like other magnates, he desired to create a
trust, and that end he devised ingenious plan.
Being close up" he had the police at his service,
and he employed of the city detectives to stir
up the Rev. Wiley ]. Phillips, editor of the Cali
fornia Voice, prohibition newspaper, to start
crusade to close up the dens operated by Tom Saw
age. This the testimony:
AN ASTONISHED Dominic
Didn't you employ Paul Blair get evidence
4 had him for a time and paid him from 500
And you employed Blair to induce Rev Mr.
Phillips to raise row about houses of i'll fame in
Com IN d;d street,
Were you trying to purify one part of the
tenderlon at the same time that you were trying to
81 never tried to purify anything, said Oswald,
and laugh around the courtroom.
With considerable relish the witness told of
Al GTeene%ad to canvass business houses With
petition which called for the closing OF Savages
WAS Rev. Mr. Phillips working for you?' in
.quired Appel
Upon redirect examination Oswald said his
object in getting up the campaign against vice
to arouse public opinion to the extent OF demand.
Alameda, should be closed. He said he assured
OF protection for his district.
The children of Mammon are wiser in their
generation than the children of light. Dr. Phillips
was doubtless the most astonished dominic in the
state of California when he read in the papers that
he had been engaged asagent for Nick Oswald.
GOVERNMENT BY NEWSPAPER
Another ingenious confession by Oswald rela-
tive to methods of government and the regulation of
the social evil told how Mayor Harper took poll
of the newspapers. The testimony:
Deputy District Attorney Ford asked the wit
ness he had talk with Harper about the attitude
of the newspapers opening new district OF
bawdy houses Oswald stated ne had several con-
Did Harper call conference of neuspapermen
at the city hall to discuss the segregation Of houses
He told that some of the papers would not
stand for the segregation OF houses OF prostitution
lie told me that the Times, Herald and Record
would not oppose the estabEs hment of such dis
trict, but that the Examiner and Express would
Thus IS exhibited government by newspaper
financed by procurers. Oswald paid about 81, 500
OIs
THOSE QUOTATIONS
Some curiosity has been expressed concerning
the authorship of the quatrains quoted in these
columns last week. They had a certain Omarian
swing, but they are not Persian but Syrian in
origin, and translation by Henry Baerlen of
the work of Abu'l-ala, published by E. P Dutton &
Co. Here are few more:
Abandon worship in the mosque and shrink
From idle prayer, from sacrihcial sheep
For destiny will bring the bowl of sleep
Or bowl of tribulation-you shall drink
The scarlet eyes of morning are pursued
By night who grows along the narrow lane;
But as they crash upon world the twain
Devour US and are strengthened for the feud.
A deed ma gnaninous a noble thought
Are as the music singing thro the years
When sury time the tyrant domineers
Against the lutte whereoutof 1t wrought
If have harbored love within my breast
Twas for my comrades of the dusty day.
Who with me watched the lettering stars at play.
Who bore the burden OF the unrest.
For once the witcheries maiden flung
Then afterward knew she was the bride
Of death; and as he came so tender eyed
II rebuked him roundly, being young.
Yetif all things that vanish in their noon
Are but the part Of some eternal scheme.
OF what the nightingale may chance to dream
Or what the lotus murmurs to the noon
| think they compare favoraby with the best OF
Omar Khayyam. The Syrian poet lived hundred
years before Omar, and his mystical philosophy
supports the inference that Asiatic civilizations were
far advanced at time when Europe was obscured
in the dark ages.