DECEMBER 31.

ELECTRICITY ON THE COMSTOCK.

Born from nothing, it leaps into existence with the full-fledged strength of a giant, dies, is born again; lives a thousand lives and dies a thousand deaths in a single pulsating second of time.

It soars to every height, plunges to every depth, and stretches its vast arms throughout illimitable s.p.a.ce.

It plants the first blush upon the cheek of dawn; with brush of gold upon the glowing canvas of the west, it tells the story of the dying day.

At its mere whim and caprice, a thousand pillars of light leap from the dark and sullen seas which surge about the poles, while from its shimmering loom it weaves the opalescent tapestry of the aurora to hang against the black background of the arctic night.

It rouses nature from her winter sleep, breaks the icy fetters of the frost that binds the streams, lifts the shroud of snow from off the landscape, woos the tender mold and bids the birth of bud and blossom; dowers the flower with perfume and clothes the earth with verdure of the spring.

It rides the swift courses of the storms that circle round the bald crest of old Mount Davidson; cleaves the black curtain of the night with scimitar of flame; rouses the lightnings from their couch of clouds and wakes the earthquake.

Beneath its touch, the beetling crag, which took omnipotence a thousand years to rear, crumbles into dust, the mere plaything of the idle wind; it lays its hand upon the populous city with its teeming, restless mult.i.tude. And yesterday, where stood the glittering spire, the shining tower, the frowning battlement, today the cold gray ocean rolls in undisputed might.

It gathers the doings of the day from the four corners of the world, the tales of love and death, of fire and flood, of strife and pestilence, and under eight thousand miles of shivering sea, whispers the babble of two hemispheres.

It turns the wheels of peace where poor men toil, and helps the husbandman to plow and plant and reap his whispering grain.

It rides the wings of war where brave men die; and when it stalks between contending hosts, exalts the kingly crest and helps an empire plant its flag of conquest.

It glows in lonely attics where weary workers toil to earn their crust. It shines o'er scenes where feet of feasters tread the halls of revelry. It lights the mourners on their pathway to the tomb. It glares in haunts where jeweled ringers lift the cup of pleasure to the month of sin, 'mid the sobbing of the sensuous music and flow of forbidden wine; and speeding on its way illumes the dim cathedral aisle, where surpliced priest proclaims the teachings of the master, and golden-throated choirs lift their hosannas to the King of Kings.

It was the Maker's ally at the dawn of time, and when G.o.d from the depths of infinite s.p.a.ce, said "Let there be light," it sent the pulse of life along creation's veins, baptized earth's cold brow with floods of fire, and stood the sponsor of a cradled world.

SAM P. DAVIS.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

ANGIER, BELLE SUMNER, (Mrs. Walter Burn.) Special training in floricultural and horticultural subjects. Staff writer on Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Express. Writer on garden and floral topics for California newspapers and many magazines. _Author:_ Garden Book of California. _Address:_ 1036 N. Washington St., Los Angeles, Calif.

ARCHER, RUBY, _b._ Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 28, 1873. _Ed._ Kansas City High School and private tutors. Contributor of poems, translations from French and German dramas and lyrics, prose articles on Art, Architecture, Music, Biblical Literature, Philosophy, etc., for papers and magazines. _Author:_ Little Poems. $1.25. Thought Awakening.

$1.00. _Address:_ R.F.D. No. 8, Box 11-A, Los Angeles, Calif. (The Studio is at Granada Park, on the Covina Electric Line.)

AUSTIN, MARY. _Author:_ The Land of Little Rain, an account of the California Desert. $2.00. The Basket Woman, a book of Indian myths and fanciful tales for children. $1.50. Isidro, a romance of Mission days.

$1.50. The Flock, an account of the shepherd industry of California.

$2.00. Santa Lucia, a novel. $1.50. Lost Borders, the people of the desert. _Address:_ Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, or care of Harper Bros., New York.

BAMFORD, MARY ELLEN, _b._ Healdsburg, Calif. _Author:_ Up and Down the Brooks. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 75c. Her Twenty Heathen. Pilgrim Press. 50c. My Land and Water Friends. D. Lothrop & Co. The Look About Club. D. Lothrop & Co. Second Year of the Look About Club. D. Lothrop & Co. Janet and Her Father. Congregational S.S. & Pub. Soc. Marie's Story. Congregational S.S. & Pub. Soc. Miss Millie's Trying. Hunt & Eaton. Number One or Number Two. Hunt & Eaton. A Piece of Kitty Hunter's Life. Hunt & Eaton. Father Lambert's Family. Phillips & Hunt.

Thoughts of My Dumb Neighbors. Phillips & Hunt. Eleanor and I.

Congregational S.S. & Pub. Soc. Talks by Queer Folks. D. Lothrop Co.

Jessie's Three Resolutions. Am. Bap. Pub. Soc. In Editha's Days. Am.

Baptist Pub. Soc. Three Roman Girls. Am. Baptist Pub. Soc. Out of the Triangle. D.C. Cook Pub. Co. 25c. Ti: A Story of San Francisco's Chinatown. D.C. Cook Co. 25c. The Denby Children at the Fair. D.C.

Cook Co. _Address:_ 621 E. 15th St., East Oakland, Calif.

BANCROFT, HUBERT HOWE, _b._ May 5, 1832, Granville, Ohio. _Ed._ Granville Academy until sixteen years of age. Clerk in bookstore in Buffalo, N.Y. Came to San Francisco March, 1852. While building up a large book-selling and publishing house, Mr. Bancroft worked for 30 years on the colossal history which bears his name, issued in Vols. as follows: The Native Races of the Pacific States, 5 vols. History of Central America, 3 vols. History of Mexico, 6 vols. North Mexican States and Texas, 2 vols. California, 7 vols. Arizona and New Mexico, 1 vol. Colorado and Wyoming, 1 vol. Utah and Nevada, 1 vol. Northwest Coast, 2 vols. Oregon, 2 vols. Washington, Idaho and Montana, 1 vol.

British Columbia, 1 vol. Alaska, 1 vol. California Pastoral, 1 vol.

California Inter Pocula, 1 vol. Popular Tribunals, 2 vols. Essays and Miscellany, 1 vol. Literary Industries, 1 vol. Also Book of the Fair, Book of Wealth, Resources of Mexico, The New Pacific, etc. _Address:_ 2898 Jackson St., San Francisco.

BANDINI, HELEN ELLIOTT (Mrs. Arturo), _b._ Indianapolis, _Ed._ in public schools. Came to California in 1874 when father was president of Indiana Colony, which founded Pasadena. Writer for newspapers and magazines. _Author:_ History of California (Am. Book Co.) The Romance of California History (in press.) _Address:_ 1149 San Pasqual St., Pasadena. Calif.

BARTLETT, DANA WEBSTER, _b._ Bangor, Me., Oct. 27, 1860. _Ed._ Iowa College (Grinnell, La.,) 1882. Attended Yale and Chicago Theol. Sems.

Pastor Phillips Church, Salt Lake. Since 1896 pastor Bethlehem Inst.

Church, Los Angeles, which now covers six city lots. _Author:_ The Better City: "Our Government in Social Service." _Address:_ Bethlehem Inst.i.tutional Church, Los Angeles, Calif.

BARUCH, BERTHA HIRSCH, _b._ Province of Posen, Germany. Came to New London, Conn., with father in 1876. Wrote poetry in her teens and was encouraged by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop in her literary efforts. Active in College Settlement and Univ. Ext. work. Attended Penn. Univ. and Yale. On editorial staff Los Angeles Times. _Address:_ 1168 W. 36th St., Los Angeles, Calif.

BASHFORD, HERBERT, _b._ Sioux City, Ia., 1871. Contributor to leading magazines on literature and the drama. _Author:_ The Wolves of the Sea; The Tenting of the Tillic.u.ms: At the Shrine of Song, etc. Writer of several successful plays, The Defiance of Doris, etc. _Address:_ San Jose, Calif.

BINGHAM, HELEN, _b._ San Francisco, Aug. 23, 1885. _Ed._ private tutors, with special reference to Archaeology. _Author:_ In Tamal Land. $2.00. _Address:_ 785 Cole St., San Francisco, Calif.

BLAND, HENRY MEADE, _b._ Suisun, Solano Co., Calif., April 21, 1863.

_Ed._ public schools, University of the Pacific (Ph.D., 1890), Stanford University (M.A., 1895). Professor English Literature since 1898 at State Normal School, San Jose. Contributor leading magazines.

_Author:_ A song of Autumn and Other Poems. 1908. $1.00. _Address:_ State Normal School, San Jose, Calif.

BOHAN, MRS. ELIZABETH BAKER, _b._ England, August 18. When 4 years old came to Milwaukee, Wisc. _Ed._ in public schools. Married in Milwaukee and began to write short stories, poems, and philosophical articles.

_Author:_ The Drag-net, 1909, C.M. Clark, Boston. The Strength of the Weak, Grafton Co., Los Angeles $1.50 each. _Address:_ 1844 Santa Cruz Street, Los Angeles, California.

BOOTHS, CHARLES BEACH, _b._ Stratford, Conn., July 3, 1851. _Ed._ Stratford Acad. 1894 came to Los Angeles. Pres. Nat. Irrigation Congress, 1896-7. Writer on Conservation of National Resources.

_Address:_ Los Angeles, Calif.

BRANNICK, LAURENCE, _b._ Scardene, Co. Mayo, Ire., May 24, 1874. _Ed._ St. Jarlath's College, Tuam and Maynooth College. B.A. 1907 Univ. S.

Calif. Writer for papers and magazines. Especially interested in perpetuation of Gaelic language. _Address:_ Station K., Los Angeles, Calif.

BRIGMAN, MRS. ANNIE W., _b._ Honolulu, Dec. 3. Came to California in young girlhood. Writer of verses to accompany her own artistic photographs. _Address:_ 647 32nd St., Oakland, Calif.

BRININSTOOL. E.A., _b._ Warsaw, Wyoming Co., N.Y., October 11, 1870.

Attended common school until 17. In 1887 learned printer's trade. In 1895 came to Calif. In 1900 began to write humorous verse for the Los Angeles Times, Record, Examiner and Express. Since 1905 on Los Angeles Express in editorial paragraphs and a short column of verse and miscellaneous matter, dubbed, "Lights and Shadows." _Address:_ The Express, Los Angeles, Calif.

BROOKS, FRED EMERSON, _b._ Waverly, N.Y., Dec. 5, 1850. _Grad._ Madison (now Colgate) Univ., 1873. Lived in S.F. 1873-1891. S.F. Call styled him California's Celebration Poet. Writer of plays, magazine articles, etc. _Author:_ Old Ace and Other Poems. Pickett's Charge and Other Poems, (both by Forbes & Co., Chicago.) _Address:_ 564 W. 182nd St., New York.

BROWN, HENRY HARRISON, _b._ June 26, 1840, Uxbridge, Ma.s.s. _Ed._ at public schools, Nichols Academy at Dudley, Ma.s.s., and Meadville, Penn., Divinity School. Began to teach school when he was 17, and with the exception of three years in service during the Civil War continued teaching till he was 30. Preacher in Unitarian churches for 7 years; lectured for 17 years on reformatory topics. _Pub._ in San Francisco from 1900 to 1906, _Now: A Journal of Affirmation_. Is contributor to progressive magazines and lectures extensively. _Author:_ Concentration: The Road to Success. 50c. and $1.00. How to Control Fate Through Suggestion. 25c. Not Hypnotism, But Suggestion. 25c. Man's Greatest Discovery. 25c. Self Healing Through Suggestion. 25c. The Call of the Twentieth Century. 25c. Dollars Want Me: The New Road to Opulence. 10c. _Address:_ "Now" Home, Glenwood, Santa Cruz Co., Calif.

BRUN, SAMUEL JACQUES, _b._ Mime, Province of Gard, France, of Huguenot parents. _Grad._ French Univ. Instructor in French at Haverford College, Cornell Univ., Stanford Univ. Now an attorney. _Author:_ Tableaux de la Revolution (a French reader, 9th ed.) Tales of Languedoc (Folk Lore.) $1.50. _Address:_ 110 Sutter St., and 1467 Willard St., San Francisco.

BRUN, MRS. S.J., nee Hanna Otis, _b._ Auburn, N.Y. Writer for magazines. _Address:_ 1467 Willard St., San Francisco.

BURBANK, BLANCHE M., _b._ West Troy, N.Y. Has lived most of her life in California. Has written poems for the magazines. _Author:_ Reed Notes, 1905. _Address:_ Union Square Hotel, San Francisco, Calif.

BURBANK, LUTHER, _b._ Lancaster, Ma.s.s., March 7, 1849. _Ed._ at Lancaster, and in the schools of adversity, Nature, and prosperity.

_Author:_ The Training of the Human Plant. _Address:_ Santa Rosa, Calif.