XII 



POT-POURRI 



IN the West all men, women, and children read 

 the daily papers — between the lines ; but they 

 want the lines exaggerated, particularly the head- 

 lines, which faithfully interpreted tell the busy man 

 all that he cares to know. I shall never forget 

 what was said of a certain governor of California at 

 the time of the great strike at Sacramento. The 

 militia had been called out, and everybody expected 

 serious trouble. To some, civil war seemed impend- 

 ing ; traffic was suspended ; business was at a stand- 

 still. During this crisis, the Chief Executive, for 

 reasons which he has never given to the world, was 

 lying safe and snug at his country place in the 

 South, pursuing a policy of what may have seemed 

 to him masterly inactivity. Commenting upon his 

 absence, one of the big San Francisco dailies said 

 in the editorial column : " Oh, what a tower of 



strength Governor M has been to the State of 



California in the hour of her need ! " That — aiid 

 nothing more. The history of this strike is a con- 

 crete example of the contention that the Press 

 reflects humourously public opinion, a mirror of 

 invisible convexity which distorts things and per- 

 sons seen therein. On the Pacific Slope generally 

 the sympatliy of the people hovered above the 

 strikers. It appeared to them a case of the Man 



