The San Francisco Call and Post from San Francisco, California • Page 12

Of Interest to Maid and Matron MIIS. FRANCES BENZECRY is a sturdy looking little woman who has probably gone through than any other woman in United States. has never suffered a in any of these illnesses, has Cos to her bed because of them. ret known one of the many diseases which she has endured to causa her a moment's weaknesa or depression. Xo, this isn't an advertisement for a proprietary medicine.

Nor is it a challenge to the sisterhood who have suffered all known ills of the flesh to come forward as rivals to Mrs. Benzecry. It is a simple statement of fact, and in spite of its truth Mrs. Benzecry is today one of the healthiest, most animated specimens of womanhood that you could possibly hope to see anywhere. ry known sort of physician has .1 to cure her of her horrid ills.

She only demands that a physician whom she patronises shall have one qualification, and that is that he shall not be a regular medical practitioner, possessed of a license to practice medicine in the city of New York. Mrs. ecry'S diseases are "fake" diseases, in the expressive vernacular, and she carries them all to the "fake" phy- BS of various sorts who are doing a flourishing business throughout the city. Incidentally, while she is being treated for her many and varied complaints she collects the evidence which Mr. Almuth C.

Vandiver. counsel for the Medical society for the city of New York, afterward uses in his prosecution of these practitioners. Fortune tellers with wonderful charms, unguents, herb teas and lucky pieces; prophets with direct messages to go a-healing from the blue empyrean itself; practitioners of strange cults, with names especially coined for the occasion; practitioners who are shielding their own irregular practices by the dishonored cloak of graduate physicians, these are among the many "physicians" whom Mrs. Benzecry consults from time to time. The County Medical society gains many convictions through the testimony of Mrs.

Benzecry, but there are always more of the unlicensed practitioners springing up to beguile the public of its money by bold promises of speedy healing. All over town her pursuit of the doctor who is practicing without a license carries Mrs. Benzecry. She climbs tenement stairs to tiny rooms where the Voodoo specialist is still combining a New Parcel Post Is a Boon to Housewives UNLIMITED possibilities are opened I to the housewife by the new parcel post, which was Uncle Sam's New Year present to the country. Now milady may order the family breakfast, luncheon or dinner delivered, ail, cooked, from her favorite restaurant, and luxuriate in idleness while the parcel post carrier staggers to her home under a burden of ham and eggs, omelets, roast chicken, salads, pie, puddings and coffee.

of the parcel post they did not devise the elaboystem for the benefit of lazy house-1 assert that Uncle Sam will give no assurance that the ham will not arrive at their tables delicately intermingled with the pie, while the eggs may have wrapped themselves about the pudding. It is hardly to be expected that a perfect system of ordering and delivering meals by mail win fte installed at once. Careful restaurant keepers hesitate to commit their best concoctions to the mercies of the inexperienced parcels carrier. Tt would he a trifle embarrassing to an onto! -atcd with frills lace or a salad over of which waved a beautiful cerise ostrich feather from the new hat buried beneath it. Although fresh meat and fish may be ordered and delivered by mail, it is hardly expected that butchers and fish dealers will at once start mail order departments.

They will come later when the new system has proved that it does not manufacture hash on the way. YVomen may be a trifle wary at first of ordering their millinery and butter, laces and eggs, lard and lingerie, fish and furbelows, silks and cheese, chicken and silk hosiery for delivery in the EC for they can not be certain that the lard and the lingerie or the butter and millinery may not arrive mixed, despite the best of postal regulations. Chief among the features urped by the advocates of the parcel post is that it will enable the economical wife to order her chicken, butter. potatoes, turnips and squash from the farm and thus put a brake on the high cost of living. Cold storage combinations, meat and poultry trusts and leagues to advance rice of everything necessary to human life are shivering in their shoes and, like the express companies, hoping for a hoodoo that will make the parcel post a failure and an object of One of the knotty problems of the new Bystem is how a farmer is going to pack an egg so that it can be hurled from a mail train passing a station at a mile a minute gait without making EDITED BY VIRGINIA SLOANE little fortune telling with a little healing and a little of everything else that is illicit and profitable; she searches out the abodes of Italian "prophets'" who are doing a paying business in holy water and medico religion; she makes her way into the consulting room of the fashionable "specialist," who has invented wonderful new cures, which are strange admixtures of genuine science and vital faith with plain, old fashioned hocus-pocus and colossal ignorance.

Equipped with an Italian name and a severe affliction of the respiratory organs, Mrs. Benzecry not long ago made her way up several flights of stairs to the headquarters of a First avenue seer, who also had opened suburban headquarters entitled "The Establishment of the Holy Spirit," at Rahway, N. at which, according to the advertisement, "no answers would be given to any communication unless 10 cents in postage was Inclosed." The prophet had been also, according to the circular, especially authorized by divine power to secure diseases and assured in a miracle that it was the divine wish that he should exercise this power, which varied in value from $2 to according to the trusting nature of the patients who appeared for treatment. Mrs. Benzecry found the room in which the prophet exercised his healing power to ho an exceedingly close apartment, unlighted by any window and fitted up with an altar at one end.

Other religious paraphernalia was about the place, and a woman was present whom the prophet assured Mrs. Benzecry he would throw into a hypnotic trance so that she could discover for him the cause of Mrs. Benzecry's disease. The prophet announced that he had his power directly from God, and that he invoked the saints, the Madonna and St. Joseph.

"I am not like a priest that gets his power from the pope." he said. "I get mine directly from God." He ordered Mrs. Benzecry to sit in a chair directly in front of the altar. He then waved a stick about two feet long over the patient bead and made three crosses with an iron bar on her body. After this he poured some water into his hand, which he declared was holy water, and that he had obtained it from a church on Holy Saturday.

He placed his hand, moistened ith this liquid, on the back of Mrs. Benzeery's neck. "You are getting treatment direct from heaven." the prophet assured Mrs. Benzecry. "You are much bettor." everything in the mail bag look as if a custard pie were vhrown at it.

Experts of the post office who I have struggled with that problem are accumulating gray hairs and the solution still is missing. Perhaps a new, breed of hens that will lay unbreakable eggs may be the result. Probably the most unpopular phase of the regulations of the new system is that prohibiting the transportation of intoxicating liquors by mail. A vast sigh of disappointment was heard from end to end of the state of Maine when this edict was promulgated. Lovers of wet goods in that state who had been licking their chops in anticipation of receiving their favorite red eye by early morning mail suffered a severe shock.

Not only Is their'favorite beverage barred, but, as an added insult, it is classed among such other prohibited articles as poisons, snakes, insects, infernal machines and disease germs. Notwithstanding these few tions and possibilities of disaster while the food and wearing material is on the Way) the new parcel post opens great possibilities to merchant, farmer, manufacturer and consumer, which some declare will he the most effective Mow which could be struck at the combinations responsible for the increased cost of living. It cuts express rates in half in many instances and provides for prompt deliveries and thus earns the everlasting hatred of the express monopolies. Its inventors hope that it will thus win the unending gratitude of the common people, for whose benefit it was Intended. Enabling the housewife to order most of the products of the farm delivered in small quantities as she may need them without the addition of a prohibitive express charge, the system is called a boon both to the farmer and to the woman who makes his products into table delicacies.

To the department stores the parcel post is expected to open great possibilities by reducing the cost of delivery on small parcels and at the same time insuring promptness of delivery. It will enlarge their field of deliveries, and, it Is expected, add vastly to the amount of goods ordered from department stores by mail. Preparations already are being made in many of the big stores of the country and other cities to increase the mail order departments when the new law takes effect. To mail order houses whose customers are among the millions and who order goods from great distances the parcel post is expected to be a splendid New Year present. Their customers may rely upon Uncle Sam for quick and safe deliveries at the lowest possible rate.

How seriously the express companies will be affected by the system can not be foretold, but the officials fear a tremendous falling off in the amount of After a second application of the' moistened hand to the back of her neck the patient agreed with him that she was so much improved it hardly seemed necessary to continue the treatment that day. A physician who announced himself in his advertisement as the possessor of "a diploma de luxe" from "the New York Institute of Science at Rochester" was recently consulted l.y Mrs. Benzecry for nerve and stomach disorders. There were three members of this medical firm, whose methods of treatment blowing on the shoulder blade of the patient, passing their hands over her body and ordering her to think of nothing but sleep. One of the doctors waved in front of the patient's eyes a small glass globe, about one and a half inches in diameter.

which contained a preen powder with a piece of wire in tlie center. "You will get very sleepy," said one' within the limit of the parcel post law, which is 11 pounds. Most notable of the features of the new law is that it permits the transportation of foodstuffs in the mails. Butter, lard, fish, fresh meats, dressed fowl, vegetables, berries and similar articles likely to decay quickly may be sent short distances when safely packed. Eggs, properly packed in a container, will be accepted for local delivery or may be shipped for any distance when each egg is separately packed in a perfectly secure manner.

But no one knows as yet what kind of a container or what kind of packing will be required to induce I'ncle Sam to stand sponsor for the safe delivery of an egg. Various inventors are coming forward with devices guaranteed to keep an ess intact when tossed at a mail bag, and to all of them the postal experts are giving an audience. No restriction is placed upon the mailing of salted, dried, smoked or cured meats. Fragile articles such as millinery, toys, musical instruments and things composed of glass must be carefully packed and marked "fragile." Live poultry, live or dead animals, revolvers, matches and other inflammable and poisons are among the things barred. It will be worth while for the public to Rive close attention to the limitations imposed on the new System.

I Eleven pounds in weight is the limit for all articles. No package which measures more than 72 Inches in combined length and girth will be accepted. All perishable articles, such as fish, meats, fowl, vegetables, fruit and berries, must be wrapped so as to prevent damage to other parcels. Such articles must be inclosed in an inside wrapper and an outside one of wood, metal, heavy corrugated pasteboard or other suitable material and so wrapped or packed that nothing can escape or leak from it. To recompense Uncle Sam for entering the parcel post business the government has adopted for the first time since the civil war the system of fixing postage rates by zones.

While a letter or any article in the first, second or third classes of mail matter is carried to San Francisco for the same price as to a nearby city. Uncle Samuel fears he will lose if he carried a pound of merchandise from New York to Seattle for five cents, so he raises the cost to 12 cents, which rate is far below the express companies' charge. The rates for delivery within the territory served by New York post office, which is called the local rate, are fixed and unvarying at one cent for four ounces, five cents for any weight above that up to and including a pound, and one cent for each additional pound. Outside of New York the whole country is divided into eight zones. The first of the circles covers all territory within a radius of 50 miles from New York.

The rates from any point to another, both within this circle, are five cents for the first pound and three cents for each additional pound. Beyond this circle is the 150 mile zone. Next in order are the 300 mile, 600 mile, 1,000 mile, 1,400 mile and 1,800 mile and more than 1,800 mile zone, reaching to Alaska. For each zone approximately one cent Mrs. Francis Benzecry, Nemesis of "Fake" Physicians of the doctors; "think of nothing but sleep." Presently he told the patient tljat she was as well and calm as she had ever been.

The physician with the "de luxe" diploma advertises to cure neuralgia, Saint Vitus dance, loss of memory, locomotor ataxia, kleptomania, jealousy, nervous diseases, hysteria and wickedness. There are other things which he also cures, but those are his specialties. It isn't all smooth sailing for the woman detective who is looking after the unlicensed doctors of the community, for often these practitioners have a little clique of their own, and when the practitioner who has been "He Waved a Stick About Two Feet Long Over the Patient's Head." detected at his illicit practice and successfully prosecuted l.y the society faces his accuser in court and discovers i for each pound or fraction of a pound jis added to the rate of parcel postage, jso that the rate for more than 1,800 I miles ir; 12 cents for each pound. Ordinary postage stamps can not he used on the parcels nor can the special parcel postage stamps be used on mail in the first, second or third classes, such as letters, books and newspapers. A special series of stamps has been printed for the parcel postage, ranging from cent up to 11, with designs as follows: 1 cent clerk.

2 cents carrier. 3 cents postal clerk. I carrier. 5 cents train. 10 and mail tender.

15 service. 20 cents carrying mail. 26 cr 50 75 growing. These stamps measure one by one and a half inches and are all printed in red. As an instance of the saving to the public, a 1 pound parcel mailed to the 600 mile zone would cost the Bender 24 cents.

By express the rate Would be about 60 cents. For deliveries on rural routes it is expected special pared post automobiles of a light type will be used. On the routes where traffic is lightest it is believed that three wheeled motorcycles, with a box for the parcels, will be pressed into service. The ordinarytwo wheeled motorcycle now used on many routes may have to be abandoned. This will be real competition with the express companies, whjch have monopolized the shipment of fruit from California to New York.

Determined to hold the business and to beat Uncle Sam at the game the express companies have cut their rates. To put this great and expensive system into effect congress appropriated only $700,000, the inadequacy of which seems to be evident when it is known that it cost the postal department to buy the sales alone for weighing, packages up to 11 pounds. As it is, no one knows what will happen when the great burden of transportation is thrown upon Uncle Samuel's broad shoulders, but it is promised that he will be equal to the task. Boxer Who Can't Be Knocked Out VERY much like a children's toy that has been used from time immemorial is a device now employed in gymnasiums to teach boxing. A life sized dummy figure is mounted in the cavity of a wooden bowl.

When the boxer strikes this figure It gives way, rocking over on its bowl foundation, but it immediately returns, and no matter how hard he hits, the boxer can not knock it out. The principle is much the same as that used in many toys which are mounted on spheres or half spheres, these spheres being weighted so that when the toy is rocked it does not go over beyond a certain point and immediately returns to an upright position. Bombardier Wells, the English boxer, uses the device in the Hampstead gymnasium. in her one of his meekest patients his feelings, which are not particularly kind, are soon shared with the other medical practitioners of equal standing In the profession. One of the many courses of treatment which Mrs.

Benzecry began to take during the last year included ten "adjustments," the impressive name used to describe a method of manipulating the spine. "Consultation and spinal analysis" was advertised as free, and the patient was informed that the work was done on "the human switchboard, the spine." Mrs. Benzecry, as Mrs. Helen Huntington, felt that she needed the treatment for severe pains in the limbs, and so she paid her $10 fee and started the course. Unfor- tunately for the detective, before the second treatment had been given another practitioner, who already had Fruit Bouquets Are Now in Fashion FORMAL nosegays are now made of fruits, nuts and raisins instead of flowers and the effect when small, beautifully colored fruits are used is charmingly decorative.

The fruits are arranged like the flowers in a debui tante's nosegay such as is now in fashion and is a revival of the formal old time nosegays. The fruit nosegays follow the same formation as those of flowers. They are arranged in a shallow pyramidal shape, the different colors in circles and the whole framed or mounted on a circle of white lace paper, exactly like that used for the flower nosegays. These fruit bouquets are used at luncheon arid dinner parties; a bouquet is provided for each guest usually. A large centerpiece of fruit may be used with the small bouquets at the individual places.

Small bouquets of nuts and raisins are also made up to be placed at each guest's plate. The most charming effects are obtained with these latter bouquets as well as with those of fruit. An attractive arrangement of the small fruits Includes small red lady apples with tiny kumquats. The lady apples are placed in the center and formed into a pyramid and the kumquats are arranged around them in two or three circles. Then the white lace paper is used for a mount for the bouquet.

Two kinds of grapes, the clear dark red and pale green translucent varieties, make a most attractive bouquet. The bouquets have the advantage of being edible as well as decorative. When the recipient gets tired of looking at her nosegay she can take a bite of it. A Frank Admission Washington suppose you are interested in reform," said the conscientious citizen. "No," replied Farmer Corntossel, "I approve of it.

But I can't say that it's generally expressed in a way that makes it as interesting as the continued stories." been convicted in the court of special sessions of practicing medicine without a license on Mrs. Benzecrys testimony, appeared at the office of the spinal switchboard specialist and declared that Mrs. Benzecry wasn't Mrs. Helen Huntington at all, but was Mrs. Benzecry.

"And she's a detective from the County Medical society," declared the former physician of Mrs. Benzecry. "She's got more names than you can shake a stick Ross, Mrs. Hunter, Mrs. Huntington." The switchboard specialist declared that he would let Mrs.

Benzecry a hundred dollars she had not made out a complaint against him, but when the case was brought up before Magistrate Freschi he thought otherwise, and he held the central operator of the human switchboard for trial at special sessions. Although some of the cases of illegal practice of medicine on which Mrs. Benzecry is sent as a long suffering patient reveal all that is horrible in greed that preys upon pain and suffering, there are others which are almost comic in their aspect. One such case was that of a negro doctor, one of the class known as "tea doctors" whose "old yarbs," although not even genuine of their kind, are still believed in as a cure-all by many ignorant persons, principally of their own race. In a visit to one of these doctors Mrs.

Benzecry climbed up to the top of a tenement house in a none too savory quarter of town and found herself at the door of a small dark chamber to-which she had been directed as the doctor's office as well as living quarters. The room, small as it was, was not crowded with furniture. A small bed. a chair on which sat a woman, and a small table were all the evident worldly goods of the "yarbist." Mrs. Benzecry spoke into the darkness: "Is the doctor in?" To her horror a voice coming from the blank wall opposite answered her.

The doctor was in and had been sitting there all the time, but he was so very black, such an absolutely ebon specimen of humanity that she had not been able to see him at all. Whether he suspected that she was not a perfectly genuine patient or not the doctor did not reveal, but at any rate he was very thorough in his treatment and insisted on Mrs. Benzecry buying and bearing away with her a gallon bottle of alleged herb tea which was nothing in the world but ordinary croton water. Then there is the woman doctor who cures all manner of things by hypnotic Candy Salesgirl Hears Some Secrets MANY'S the romance that the demure girl behind the candy counter has a hand in. A girl is very popular In society was having a birthday recently, and every young man of her acquaintance was trying to find the way to her heart by gifts of candy.

One of them rushing into the candy shop about the middle of the afternoon asked: "Do you think you can possibly get a five pound box of candy to Miss Blank this afternoon? I want the best you have in an awfully nice box, tied with red ribbon." "I beg your pardon, but you're the twentieth gentleman who has ordered candy for Miss Blank today," replied the girl. "Don't you think you had better make it flowers?" Another youth had an account at the store and always telephoned his orders. He was exceedingly generous in his bestowal of candy and did not limit it to any one person. His orders were that the boxes ordered by him were always to be tied with a certain shade of pink ribbon. Often he would have boxes sent to a dozen girls at the same time.

In a little more than a year he spent $2,500. Then one day, after having given a large order to be sent to a certain girl, he telephoned a countermand at the last minute. "Send it to the other girl," he said, giving her address, "and tie it with blue ribbon instead of pink." That was the last order for candy received from that purchaser. One of the strangest happenings in this candy shop was that of the man who selected one of the largest and most expensive baskets in the shop and haa" it filled with fine confectionery. On the top he laid an envelope.

Later in the day the woman to whom it had been sent appeared carrying the basket of candy and the envelope, which contained $40. She had never heard of the man whose card was inclosed, but the candy store folk knew nothing of him either. Is a Wife a Family? 15 a wife a "family?" Married men laughed right out loud when they learned that the court of appeals had been asked to answer this question, the lower courts being unable to agree in the matter. That the valuable time of the highest tribunal in the state should be taken up with a question which any benedict could answer with his eyes shut and both hands tied behind his back has provided no end of merriment for the matrimonial captives. "The wife is always the family," said one married martyr.

"When there is no children she is the head of the family. If the judges of the court of appeals doubt whether one woman can constitute a family I'll send them a few assorted Christmas bills. They'll be convinced that my wife is a colony. If they wanted to give the court some real work why didn't they try to find out what part of the family the husband is?" The San Francisco Sunday Call suggestion; the fortune telling doctor who sells charms and love philters. cures rheumatism; the religious doctor who indulges in absent prayer which is only to be had for fees in advance; the nature doctofr who attributes all ills to civilization, including the necessity for a physician's license, there are hosts of them, and Mrs.

Benzecry has tried them with good effect, too. She is always cured for the time, but she doesn't staycured. She is still looking for new ills to carry to new-physicians who have queer brands of healing to purvey and no place on the medical register. London Motor Omnibuses More Popular Than Streetcars ACCORDING to estimates which have bean made covering approximately the last 12 months, the motor omnibus in London has made a phenomenal advance, while the streetcar systems have declined. During the 23 weeks ended on September 4 the passenger receipts on the tramway system operated by the London county council showed a decline of some $233,592, while those of the seven streetcar systems of London ji Greater London have shown a declln during the last six months of $311,456.

In contrast to these figures the omnibus companies have shown remarkable increases. In the case of the London General Omnibus company it Is estimated that for the 11 months ending September 30 the increase will amount to some $2,501,351. while the National Steam Car company in 44 weeks has more than doubled its receipts, which are $214,126 above the corresponding period a year previously. There are 2,000 omnibuses operated in London by two companies, and the type of vehicle is so noiseless and is operated with such speed that it is becoming more popular all the while as a method of travel. South African Scholarships in Agriculture THE South African union has awarded five government scholarships in agriculture for study abroad.

The holders of these scholarships will receive $750 a year during the three or four years for which provision is made. The successful applicants were obliged to pledge themselves to enter the service of the South African union after completing their studies, and to remain in the service for at least three years at a salary of not less than $1,500 per annum. Only sons of parents permanently domiciled in South Africa were eligible for the scholarships. Chinese Health Method 4TyT TE need more doctors of He health than mere doctors of medicine," F. B.

Dressier in a bulletin, "The Duty of the State in Medical Inspection of Schools." just issued by the United States bureau of education. Dr. Dressier pleads for the kind of medical Inspection that seeks to promote health rather than that which hunts for ill health. "Our system of paying doctors to do something for us when wo are sick ought to be largely discarded for the Chinese system of paying them to keep us from getting sick," Doctor Dressier decdares. Medical inspection, he says, in the hands of carefully trained men with the right spirit has proved to be an educational agent of great value, by stimulating parents to give more attention to food, clothing, sleeping rooms and general home sanitation, and by disseminating better ideals of hygienic living.

Doctor Dressier concludes that health officers are needed whose chief delight is in finding and developing beautiful cases of physical perfection rather than in finding some obscure and rare disease; health officers whose philosophy is based on the gospel of physical vigor, on the sanctity of personal purity and the godliness of clean living; "doctors of health" who will be concerned witli exhibiting, not a long list of physically defective and diseased, a large list of healthy, well developed children. Nosing Out That Cheese Trust ENTER, the cheese trustl Yes, sir, Edam, Roquefort, Camembert, Brie, Stilton, cream, Swiss, pineapple, Gorgonzola, Neufchatel, American and all the other popular little cheeses are now banded together, appearing under the one management. At least that is the charge that has been made by a man who has spent most of his life mingling with them and who now asks the government to investigate the pungent combination. Better resolve to refrain from eating cheese during the present year if you wish to fool the trust, because this expert advances the startling; information that the heartless cheeses, magnates have decided to boost the price until most persons will be unable to afford a smell of the delicacy. Limburger is the only cheese that has stuck to the common people.

Two reasons are given for its independent attitude. Some uncharitable persons say the other cheeses refused to associate with it, but the limburger manufacturers say they felt their product was strong enough to stand on its own feet. There is something in this. One report has.it that the trust has millions of tons of brie cheese stored away. It doesn't seem possible that this evidence can be concealed from Attorney General Wickersham.

Even the police should be able to discover it,.