THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, JANUARY 21, 1900.
h &gomatf
Entered at the Postornce at Portland, Oregon, as
cecond-class matter.
TELEPHONES.
Editorial Booms... -163 Business Office Wi
REVISED SUBSCRIPTION BATES.
By Mall (postage prepaid), la Advance
Ialy, with Sunday, per month 50 S5
Dai., Sundaj excepted, per year. T 50
La ij-, with Miaday. per year 8 O0
Sunday, per jear ............. ...... ...... 2 00
The Weekly, per year,.... ...... ............ 1 60
The Weekly, S months....... ... 50
To City Subscribers
JDa.ly, per week, deln-ered, Sundays excepted.l3o
Da.Iy, per week, delivered, Sundays lncluded-20e
News or discussion intended .for publication la
The Oregonian should no addressed Invariably
"Editor The Oregonlan.' not to the name of
any Individual, letters relating to advertising,
eubscripiions or to any business matter should
be addresecd simply "The Oregonlan."
The Oregonlan does not buy pooms or stories
from indn ideals, and cannot undertake to re
turn any manuscripts sent to It without solicita
tion. No stamps should be Inclosed for this pur
pose. Puget Sound Bureau Captain A. Thompson,
office at 1111 Pacific avenue, Tacoma. Box 955.
Tacoma postoulce.
Eastern Business Office The Tribune building,
New York city; "The Bookcry." Chicago; the
S C BeckWith special agency, New York.
For sale in San Francisco by J. K. Cooper, 740
Market street near the Palace hotel, and at
Goldsmith Bros , 230 Sutter street.
For sale In Chicago by the P. O. News Co.,
217 Dearborn street.
TODATS "WEATHER. Bain; east to south
"wlnoa.
yORTLAXD. SATURDAY, JANUARY SO
AN IKTERESTIXG IXQTJIItY.
A Washington dispatch to the Chi
cago Record says the officials of the
Tvar department have long known that
Senator Hoar's speech, made in the
senate more than a year ago. In favor
of granting independence to the Phil
ippines, was cabled to Eong Kong,
translated into the native languages,
and distributed among the different
tribes of the Philippine archipelago by
the junta at Hong Kong for the purpose
of inciting resistance against the au
thority of the United States. It was
cabled from "Washington to Paris, and
irom Paris to Hong Kong; and it is
known that the cable tolls, exceeding
$4000, were paid in this country by
wealthy men of the set of "anti-imperialists,"
whose spokesmen are Ed
ward Atkinson and Senator Hoar. The
Inquiry ordered by the senate into
Philippine matters should include this
transaction. It should drag to light the
names of those who cabled this speech
and paid for it, so that the country
may know who they are whose advice
and money incited the outbreak against
the United States. The Record's dis
patch says further: "The first shot in
the Philippine rebellion was fired upon
a signal from Washington sent by
Agonclllo, upon the advice of at least
two United States senators, and if they
lived in any other country they would
have been tried- for treason. This has
been known to the members of the
cabinet, prominent officers of the army
and two or three newspaper people ever
since it occurred, and it is quite re
markable that the names and facts
have not been published." The sen
ate's inquiry ought to bring this whole
business to the light.
Tet probably the Brooklyn Eagle is
correct in its statement that nothing
was further from Senator Hoar's inten
tion than the provocation of armed at
tack upon our forces in the Islands.
Senator Hoar is a sentimental and
vagarious old person, who lives in a
quixotic world. He imagines exuber- j
ant rhetoric to be the leading force in
human affairs, thinks it must always
"be beneficent, and cannot conceive that
it ever could do mischief. It cannot,
indeed, he supposed that there was any
treasonable intention on the part of
Senator Hoar; yet undoubtedly his
course did "give aid and comfort to the
enemy." The Brooklyn journal says:
"There was an Aguinaldo party in the
Philippines scheming for power. They
had been fighting the Spaniards, and
could not endure the idea of being re
tired into obscurity. Senator Hoar's
speech heartened them up." It just
preceded the outbreak. The speech was
delivered January 9, 1S99. Within four
days it was in the hands of Aguinaldo,
and became a main instrument in fo
menting the outbreak that was sprung
a few da3rs later.
The insurgent leaders, not familiar
-with the workings of free speech in this
country, supposed, as Senator Bever
idge declares, that the government of
the United States was not supported
"by the people, else it would not have
permitted such speeches to be made.
All our people, military men and civil
ians, who have visited the islands, con
cur in the belief and statement that the
course of men like Senator Hoar, Ed
ward Atkinson and John J. "Valentine
not only was a leading influence in
causing the outbreak, but has been the
chief factor in prolonging the insurrec
tion. The people of the United States would
like to know who cabled Senator Hoar's
speech and paid the charges. The sen
ate has power to find out.
PLAINLY ANSWERED.
A woman residing in Cowlitz county,
Washington, writes to suggest that The
Oregonian might do much toward pre
venting young girls who have become
weary of the monotony of country life
from coming to the city and entering
upon lives of waywardness whose steps
surely take hold on shame, if it would
give through Its columns plain reasons
""v. hy girls should stay in or not go out
alone after dark."
The reasons demanded are so plain
that the statement alone should suffice.
The paients of 3'oung girls must be in
deed unlettered in the common knowl
edge of perverted human nature and
the ways leading to its perversion, and
reprehensively unread in the record of
common events bearing upon this sub
ject, or lamentably remiss in their duty
as guardians of the young, if their chil
dren must rely upon the public press
for Instruction in the dangers that He
in v. ait for unprotected girls who have
neither the physical strength to secure
them from the assaults of the vicious
nor the wisdom to detect and protect
themselves from, the subtle devices of
smooth-tongued devil try. "Children,"
says this correspondent, "who have
been taught that God takes care of all,
and that not a sparrow falls without
His notice, and whose reading has been
carefully culled of everything sensa
tional, cannot see why father and
mother are so cranky that they cannot
go to a neighbor's house after dark."
The Oregonian submits that children
who have been taught in this manner
usually accept the parental judgment
upon matters governing their personal
conduct unquestioningiy. It believes,
however, that there are relatively few
boys and girls in this day who have
been literally thus taught, and thinks
that it would be well to supplement 1
such teaching, where it has been given
by that of sturdy common sense, based
upon facts of almost daily occurrence,
"which prove that God does not inter
vene to save a reckless person even if
a child from the results of his or her
careless daring.
If The Oregonian has a public duty in
the line of parentallsm, it here and now
discharges such obligation by repeating
the old apostolic command, "Children,
obey our parents," and reiterating the
accepted fact as true in moral as in
material lines that God helps those
who help themselves.
HOW ASTROX03IY FARES.
Popular discussion of astronomical
discovery is resumed in the January
Atlantic by Dr. T. J. J. See, whose con
tributions to this subject have secured
for him wide audience in both hemi
spheres and spread knowledge of scien
tific truth with great effectiveness. In
him are joined the capacity for original
research, a most engaging scientific
spirit and a literary style that clothes
in attractive garb the dry facts of
astro-physics. Dr. See's present paper,
which is entitled "Recent Astronomical
Discoveries in the Southern Hemi
sphere," is of more than usually tech
nical character, and the philosophical
speculations which constitute perhaps
the chief charm of his work are con
spicuously absent. This is primarily
due to the circumscribed field recent
discoveries have taken. They are not
momentous in any large way, and if
they have any common tendency or
effect, it is corrective of conclusions
hitherto accepted.
Dr. See brings before us many things
we have been taught to believe, but
which we are now finding reason to
question. Astronomers used to think,
for example, that celestial investiga
tion, given the investigator himself,
was purely a question of lenses. Now
we know the least negligible condition
is an atmosphere high, dry and quiet.
The folly of trusting the eye has been
shown by the superior observative pow
ers of the sensitive plate, and one of
the most important objects in our side
real system is a satellite of Saturn,
which mortal eye has never seen, yet
which, as photography is able to tell
us, revolves about its planet in about
seventeen months, at a distance of
7,000,000 miles. It has been supposed
that pulsations in variable stars are
uniformly due to the revolution of dou
ble stars about each other, a dark one
Interfering with the light from its com
panion, as it passes between it and our
vision. But there are cases, we know
now, where this theory cannot be held,
and where it is known to be untrue.
"In the great majority of cases, though
many temporary hypotheses have been
put forward, no acceptable explanation
has yet been made."
In astro-physics proper, or measure-
ment of receding and advancing mo-
tions of stars, corrections are almost
startling. It has been received that al
ternating manifestations of many bod
ies proved them to be not single ob
jects, but double or binary stars. Dr.
See says this whole theory may be
false. The phenomena in question may
be due to their atmospheres, charged
with strong electric or magnetic ten
sion, for magnetism is known to pro
duce just such results. Not only this,
but a man at the university of Vir
ginia has proved that "the absolute
wave lengths of the elements are mod
ified by pressure and to some extent by
temperature." Shifting of the lines
hitherto interpreted as motion may,
therefore, be produced by the pressure
and temperature of the star under ob
servation. The solar system itself has yielded
noteworthy surprises. Mercury, so far
from being like Venus and our moon,
dead through presenting the same face
continually to the sun, is proved to ro
tate. Jupiter's satellites, treated by
Laplace as spheres, are ellipsoidal.
One of them is in the form of an egg,
flattened on the sides. The new satel
lite of Saturn has been referred to, and
it is an object without parallel In the
heavens. Its small size, taken together
with the tremendous influence exerted
on it by Jupiter and the sun, give it and
its wandering orbit a peculiar interest
and a mathematical problem that may
well establish It as "the most famous
of satellites."
Dr. See treats all these discoveries as
impressive advances upon former
knowledge, which they are; but he does
not say anything about their general
trend of correction, and it is a little
striking, therefore, that the thought he
has selected to end his essay is the ig
norance that still prevails as to the na
ture of gravity. The law of attraction
has been extended and verified in the
farthest regions of the known uni
verse, but whence it comes or how It
operates is as much of an enigma as
it was to Newton and Laplace.
Some things, then, we learn only to
unlearn; and others seem to baffle us
aswith an insurmountable wall of mys
tery. The surest conclusions may be
set aside. Dr. Draper supported his
"conflict between religion and science"
by citing antipathy of churchmen to
the plans of Columbus, whereas re
search has shown that but for the aid
rendered him by enlightened and deter
mined prelates no such expedition as
his could have been authorized by
Spain. Gibbon was sure that Chris
tianity is the "one religion where the
God and the sacrifice are one"; but he
would know today that vicarious
atonement is a common phenomenon of
early religious development. No ex
periences of scientific investigation are
more common than discovery of error
in accepted theory and encounter of
impenetrable mystery; and through the
training thus undergone the true man
of science is always careful in his con
clusions. Study of nature often im
parts humility to those whose minds
are impervious to the appeals of re
ligion. Few things are more definitely
ascertained in this world than the
truths divined by ancient seers who
caught as by inspiration the needs of
the human soul. The old message of
justice and mercj-, love and faith, sci
ence was not the first to announce and
can never supersede. It can only ex
plain how they have been apprehended
and why they are necessary. It can
only furnish supports for spiritual
truth to those whose old foundations
of superstition and authority were
crumbling away.
The empress dowager of China seems
to have heard in some way that events
threaten the partition of her ancient
dominions between the aggiessive
powers of the earth. "They are cast
ing upon us looks of tiger-like vorac
ity," says this sagacious old China
woman, adding: "They think that
China, having neither money nor
troops, would never venture to go to
War with them." Though having had
strong intimation of the danger, it is
evident that suggestions of its true
magnitude have not reached the inner
most recesses of Peking, since the em
press declares that the governors of
the several provinces will be held
strictly responsible for foreign aggres
sion upon their territory. The child
doubling Its tiny fist in the face of a
giant would not be more suggestive of
puny defense or impotent protest than
the marshalling of the barehanded
hosts of a Chinese province against a
military contingent of Russia, England
or Germany, sent in to occupy it in the
name of czar, queen or emperor. The
evil plight of the Chinese empire has
been made more clearly manifest
through this decree of the empress
dowager than by the suggestive en
croachments of the powers upon her
domains.
A MAX OP ERRATIC GENIUS.
John Buskin, the greatest writer of
what might be called poetic prose in
the Victorian age, is dead within a few
days of the completion of his 81st year.
He was the son of a wealthy London
wine merchant; was educated at Ox
ford. His taste for art was early man
ifested; and after his graduation in 1842
he studied painting. He never became
a famous painter, but his studies and
his literary genius made him the most
eloquent art critic, of the century. He
established his position that modern
landscape painters are superior to the
old masters, and his famous work, I
"Modern Painters," will always be an
English classic, because" of the poetic
charm and versatile beauty of its
thought and expression. This work of
Ruskin's prime will live forever in Eng
lish literature. Frederic Harrison holds
that Cardinal Newman and John Bus
kin are the greatest writers of English
prose that this century has produced.
In his later years Mr. Ruskin passed
from the discussion of art and aesthetic
principles to the emission of eccentric
theories of political economy and
Christian communism, which have de
tracted much from his early fame. He
knew art through study, natural criti
cal taste and acquired culture, but he
did not know any more about political
economy and social reform than any
other man of poetic mind and imprac
ticable egotism. The flaw in the dia
mond' of Mr. Ruskin's remarkable gen
ius is the same that is found in that
of the great Russian, Tolstoi. It is an
attempt to assert a theory of human
life and a government of human soci
ety that would mean the backward
march of mankind. Tolstoi's theory of
sexual righteousness would end in the
rapid extinction of the human race, and
Ruskin's gospel of manual labor, op
posed to all modern mechanical and
manufacturing processes, would remit
us to the industrial civilization and its
nn1nriripnf r?-iil1nc:Q nnrl flpernrlfitlnn nf
th e!ehlnth nflrit,lrv.
-0r.-, . .
Ruskin was a very noble-minded,
pure, unselfish man, but he was a man
of poetic feminine genius, utterly inca
pable of seeing that the every-day gov
ernment of human society, if replaced
with his Utopia, would only make the
wretched more miserable. Like all
feminine-minded men, he was an in
flexible egotist. If you conceded the
existence of an evil, he could not or
would not understand that it could not
be promptly cured by .an arbitrary
statute. As an exhorter, a stimulator,
a writer of lay sermons, Ruskin did a
great deal of good; but his sphere was
that of an Idealist, for as a responsi
ble ruler and lawmaker he would have
been as much of a "holy terror" as
Wendell Phillips, Thoreau, or any other
man of erratic poetic feminine quality
undertaking to govern a great state.
Ruskin ought to have been at the head
of the famous "Brook Farm" commu
nity, for his ceaseless conversational
eloquence would have diverted Haw
thorne, who complained that he expect
ed to "find an Arcady, but found my
self in a barnyard up to my chin."
Ruskin married a beautiful but poor
girl many years younger than himself,
and when he found that his wife and
the artist, Millais, were in love with
each other, he helped her to secure a
divorce, approved of the marriage, and
remained their friend, a performance
worthy of Tolstoi.
PERMANENCE IN LITERATURE.
The issue of a new life of Thackeray
by Lewis Melville brings up anew for
discussion the question of his personal
worth as a man and his place as a per
manent powerful literary force in the
Victorian age. It is clear that Thack
eray was not only a man of genius, but
he was a sincere artist, so devoted to
the truth that he would not violate his
art sense to make a quick market for
his books. Tet it is also clear that he
was not only a man of genius, but a
true, honorable and humane gentle
man in private life. He never gushed
sentimentalism, but he was a manly,
generous man, who never hesitated to
rebuke a friend's weakness or folly, but
nevertheless was an open-handed man
to any decent appeal of distress to his
sympathy. Thackeray's comparatively
slow rise to literary fame was like that
of our own Hawthorne, and due largely
to the same cause, that neither of them
could endure to bring his great literary
genius down to the level of writing
comparatively tawdry, melodramatic
stuff for the popular market. Haw
thorne, always an fndustrious, consci
entious worker, never really captured
the public until 1850, when he was 46
years old, and Thackeray was nearly 40
years old before he was recognized in
literature through "Vanity Fair" as
among the foremost men of his day.
Hawthorne had written excellent work
before the "Scarlet Letter," and Thack
eray had produced "Barry Lyndon,"
clearly the work of a man of genius.
We shall look in vain for any expla
nation of Thackeray's astonishing lit
erary force and purity of style in his
scholastic career. He was. not a grad
uate of the greatEnglish public schools,
Harrow, Eton or Rugby; he stayed
two years at Cambridge and then went
down without taking a degree, as did
Byron, Wordsworth, Tennyson and
Shelley; he was never a first-rate clas
sical scholar, but he was "a prodigious
reader of history." The same is true
of Hawthorne, Emerson and Wendell
Phillips; they were never first-rate
classical scholars, but they were enor
mous readers of all kinds of sound
English books, in their college days.
Style is the man, and sensibility to the
various and delicate meaning and force
of words which gives artistic shape to
style is born with a man; it is a gift
from the gods. Some great thinkers
have had it, and not a few great think
ers have lacked it. Shakespeare had
this fine sensibility to the artistic
beauty of style and expression. He
snatched his thoughts from everybody;
was a great poacher in other men's
preserves, but his style is his own. The J
music of his blank verse no man at-
tained before his -day, and no man has
reproduced since his day. The power
and beauty of his poetic expression is
without peer in literature. On the other
hand, Herbert JSpencer, our greatest
and most original thinker, lacks the
sensibility to style and expression
which a thinker of far less original
power. Professor Tyndall, possessed in
a remarkable degree. If neither Haw
thorne nor Thackeray had ever received
a nominal classical education, they
could not have helped writing other
than inimitably pure and beautiful
English, any more than Napoleon could
have helped being a gerat general if he
had never had any more nominal text
book instruction in military mathemat
ics than Cromwell.
Hawthorne and Thackeray rose slow
ly into literary fame, but their fame
has endured the test of time. In this
there is really nothing remarkable.
The perfection of style and expression,
which is sa large a part of permanent
literary fame, does not appeal to a
young reader even of bright parts and
decent experience, because it takes a
mature mind to care more for power of
style and artistic expression than it
does for the rattle of stage thunder in a
cheap melodramatic fiction. "The Scar
let Letter" and "Vanity Fair" will al
ways appeal strongly to a class of intel
ligent, mature readers who know some
thing of life and human nature, and are
sensitive to the charm and power of
Thackeray and Hawthorne, which re
sides in the absolute simplicity and pur
ity of their English and the artistic
strength of their delineation of char
acter. Thackeray was ever true and tender
to women. He had but four years of
married life, and then, after the birth
of her third child, his wife became
hopelessly demented. In one of his
books Thackeray says in memory of his
great bereavement:
Canst thou, O friendly reader, count upon the
fidelity of an artless heart or tender or true,
and reckon anions' the blessings which, heaven
hath bestowed on thee, the love of faithful
women-? Purify thine own, heart and try to
make It -worthy of theirs. All tho prizes of life
are nothing compared to that one. All the re1
wards of ambition, wealth, pleasure are only
vanity and disappointment, grasped at greedily
and fought for fiercely, and over and over again
found worthless by the wearied winners.
So genial, noble and kindly a spirit as
Robert Stevenson, prince of pure story
tellers, has said of Thackeray's philos
ophy: I call it a gospel; it is tho best I know. Error,
and suffering, and failure, and death, those
calamities that our contemporaries paint upon
so vast a scale, they are all depicted here, but
In a more true proportion. We may return, be
fore this picture to the simple and ancient
faith. We may be sure (although we know not
why) that wo give our lives, like coral lnsecta,
to build up Insensibly, In the twilight of 'the eeas
or time, the reef or righteousneeo. And we may
be sure (although we see not how) it Is a thing
worth doing.
HISTORY HITHERTO UNWRITTEN.
Major J. A. Watrous, U. S. A., who is
the author of a recent communication
in The Oregonian, whose professed in
tent is "to condense the facts of his
tory, to refresh the memories of the
old," is so far distant from the civil war
that his own memory would seem to
sometimes play him false.
Major Watrous is a recent acquisi
tion of the regular army. He was ap
pointed paymaster, with ,the rank of
major, June 15, 1898; was born in New
York, and was appointed from Arkan
sas. His appointment would appear to
have been purely political, as his record
in the volunteer service during the civil
war is not cited in the Army Register
in support or extenuation of his ap
pointment to a place that ought to have
been given to an old officer of the leg-
ular army of sterling service, who had
earned the right to occupy a place that
in the old army was filled by such edu
cated soldiers as General David Hun
ter and General James Longstret. In
other words, Major Watrous is pay
master ill the army today because he
had sufficient political pull upon the
president to secure a position that
properly belongs to an old officer of the
regular army.
While Major Watrous' record in the
civil war is not recited in the Army
Register for 1899, he. appears to have
served in that conflict long enough to
remember some things that have hith
erto had no historic record.
Major-General Joseph J. Reynolds Is
described as having "lost a leg" during
the civil war, but as he remained on
the active list of the army until June
25, 1877, when he was retired as colonel
of the Third cavalry, it is probable that
whatever else General Reynolds lost
during the civil war, he did not lose his
leg. General Paul is described as hav
ing "received a wound at Gettysburg
which caused his death," but, as Gen
eral Paul did not die until 1886, some
twenty-three years after Gettysburg,
and was 73 years of age, his wound
did not cause his death, although it did
destroy his eyesight.
Major Watrous also remembers that
General James C. Rice was killed at
Laurel H1U, Va., May 10, 1864, and that
"General Hays was killed a few days
later," when as a matter of fact Gen
eral Hays was killed- May 5, at the
Wilderness.
Major Watrous' memory of military
facts is poor,, even for a paymaster ap
pointed from civil life. It is almost
ppor enough to furnish ground for a
pension or retirement.
PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE.
The Oregon Bar Association is not
making as much as it might of its op
portunity for serving the state and the
legal profession. It has been talking a
great deal and accomplishing little. It
keeps up an impressive organization,
meets in Portland once a year and lis
tens to learned discourses on various
abstruse matters, and sometimes it dis
cusses measures that ought to be en
acted into laws by the legislature. In
these discussions the association floats
about in a delightful atmosphere of re
condite wisdom and benevolence. Thore
is beautiful agreement as to the base
ness of things present and the great
need for Improvement in various lines.
Committees are appointed to embalm
in legal phrases the sentiments of the
association. Then comes trouble. The
committees may fail to agree on de
tails, and the association is Sure to di
vide when the report or reports are
submitted. And so ends each effort.
That there is room for advancement
in the Oregon bar, and that it could
and should do much to improve the
statutes and the legal practice of the
state is conceded. It has done some
thing toward raising the standard of
attainments for admission to the bar;
it has done something toward ridding
the profession of unworthy members.
But the show of effort put forth to ac
complish the small advances in these
two directions seems to have been alto-
gether out of proportion to the results
attained. The lawyers can have a love
feast any day over the general provis-1
Ions gf reforms to be wrought, but they
fall out most lamentably when it comes
to crystallizing their Ideas in concrete
terms. Too many lawyers want laws
that will suit their particular cases.
Standing committees for the coming
year have just been appointed by the
new president of the association. They
include a cdmmittee on legislation, al
though the association has resolved, in
view of the numerous failures in the
past, not to undertake the promotion of
legislation. This resolve, however, was
probably made In a moment of disgust,
and is not to represent the settled pol
icy of the organization. The fact is
that the State Bar Association has a
power that it is not using wisely. It
is too much dominated by vain theoriz
ing. Its hard-headed, practical mem
bers ought to Insist on making prog
ress, and not permit themselves to be
bamboozled to a standstill whenever
measuras of general Importance to the
state and the profession demand action.
More would be accomplished if the as
sociation should get out of the rut cf
ponderous amity and do something, S
if it had a reason for existence. More
vigor is needed in the Oregon Bar Association.
WORK FOR A DRYDOCKT.
Seattle advices state that the disabled
steamship Elm Branch is at a yard in
that city, undergoing temporary re
pairs, preparatory to going on the dry
dock either at Quartermaster harbor or
Port Orchard. Thus again is the need
of a drydock in this city emphasized in
a manner which should appeal to every
one interested in the welfare of the
port. The Elm Branch, at the time of
the accident, was en route for Portland,
under charter to a Portland firm, and
had the accident happened less than a
day later, she would have been picked
up off the mouth of the Columbia, in
stead of off Cape Flattery. The under
writers, as usual, would have ordered
her to a drydock for repairs, and as the
dock is still missing from this port, she
would have been compelled to go to San
Francisco or the Sound, and the money
spent on repairs disbursed in one of the
cities fortunate enough to possess one
of these most necessary adjuncts to
marine commerce.
The case of the Elm Branch is not an
exceptional one. Wherever ships and
steamers move, accidents are happen
ing, and while there are certain ports
in the world of such small importance
that none of the equipment for quick
and cheap repairs on a vessel are avail
able, those ports are tabooed alike by
shipowners and underwriters. An
owner will always hesitate about send
ing his ships to a port where a possi
ble accident will result in delays which
will not be as great at another port
better fitted for handling disabled ves
sels. In failing to provide a drydock
Portland is indirectly damaging the
otherwise good reputation of the port.
The good work done on the river and
bar, the reduction in towage, the abol
ishment of compulsory pilotage and
other needless charges, have had a
good effect in attracting ships to this
port, and in reducing the carrying
charges which are levied on our ex
ports. With the single exception of a forty
foot channel between Astoria and the
sea, the greatest need of the port today
is a drydock of dimensions sufficiently
great to handle the largest ships which
ply in the trans-Pacific -trade. This is
an enterprise in which it is unneces
sary to b content with indirect results
and benefits, for as soon as it is com
pleted there will be plenty of work to
keep it profitably employed at all times.
Every year dozens of vessels enter the
port after many months at sea, during
which their hulls become clogged with
marine growth, which it is impossible
thoroughly to remove without a visit to
a drydock. In order to leave port with
a clean hull, nearly all of these ves
sels would make use of a drydock, and,
with the large number of coasting
steamers which are periodically obliged
to come out of the water, the enter
prise would be almost supported by the
business of ocean-going craft alone.
Add to this the work of scores of river
steamers which would use the dock at
times, for periods ranging from a few
hours to several days each, and there
would be but a small portion of the
time during the year when the dock
was not in use.
The direct and indirect benefits to the
port through having a dock will be enor
mous, and the enterprise, from a finan
cial standpoint, can hardly be other
than profitable. All things considered,
then, no time should be lost in placing
the port in a position to avoid the em
barrassing possibility of sending a dis
abled vessel from this port to a rival
port for repairs which should be made
here.
Colonel Bryan is reported to see the
"danger to his party" if the Kentucky
legislature shall oust Governor Taylor.
The letter of congratulation by him to
Blackburn, on the latter's election to
the senate, is said, by a special dispatch
from Frankfort to the St. Louis Globe
Democrat, to have contained this para
graph: It appears to me that the action of the demo
crats in Kentucky is without precedent. The
republicans have been given certificates, and it
would appear to on outsider that the best in
terests of tho democratic party demand that
the republicans be allowed to serve out the full
terms of the state offices. In fact, I believe that
tho salvation of the party, to a certain extent,
depends upon the abandonment by the demo
crats of the contest proceedings.
Presidential Candidate Bryan looks
at the matter from one standpoint;
Gubernatorial Candidate Goebel sees it
from another; and events of the ten
days since Bryan wrote to Blackburn
are conclusive that Goebel has more
concern about the salvation of the ex
ecutive office, with its patronage for his
unscrupulous supporters, than he has
for the salvation of Bryan's purposes
and ambitions. If the robbery of Taylor
be consummated by the Kentucky leg
islature, the country will ring with de
nunciation of the crime. Then it will
be highly proper for the virtuous Bryan
to recall to the public mind his reputed
suggestion for abandonment of the
contest proceedings. The alleged para
graph in his letter to Blackburn makes
a pretty fair anchor to windward.
The plague has assumed somewhat
serious proportions in Honolulu suf
ficiently serious, at least, to justify the
heroic efforts that are being made to
dislodge it, and the most stringent
quarantine of Pacific ports of the
United States, that are in close com
munication with those of Hawaii. If
the contention of the English medical
and sanitary authorities of Bombay
that rats carry the infection is cor
rect, an effective warfare will certainly
be waged upon the scourge in the burn
ing of Honolulu's Chinatown,- which
was in nrogress at latest accounts.
:
Though not unduly alarmed, the Intel
ligent people of the Pacific slope, and of
the nation as well, recognize the pru
dence of enforcing measures sufficient
ly strict to prevent the Introduction
upon the North American continent of
this most persistent of all filth diseases
in the catalogue of human ills.
The late Rev. Dr. James Martlneau,
the most eminent exponent of the
spiritual and ethical Christianity of our
time, lived to be nearly 95 years of age,
and, while consenting to be known as a
Unitarian, he held that the religious life
depended, not upon any theological
opinions, but transcended them in im
portance. To him Cardinal Newman,
of the church of Rome, whom he knew
well and loved, was a genuine voice of
devout religious life, despite the fact
that Newman could accept an authority
which Martlneau rejected. In his early
years Martlneau was a keen Unitarian
controversialist, but In his later years
he had preached only the spiritual wor
ship of God, of which moral life, truth,
virtue and love is but the expression.
Martlneau was nearly related spirit
ually to Dr. Channing, for, like him, he
brought to one ideal the religious and
ethical conceptions of divine and hu
man life. Dr. Martineau's sermons are
without peer in this century for nobility
of spiritual thought and poetic beauty
of style. As a great liberal religious
thinker and teacher, James Martlneau
will enjoy permanent fame.
As the British make their advance
the Boers gradually retire, with little
actual fighting. They do not want to
meet the British in open field; and In
this they are wise. It is good tactics
on their part to fight only when they
have the advantage of position and
cover. Hence it Is a safe prediction
that they never will meet the British
forces "when the conditions and chances
are equal; for, whatever their bravery,
they have not the men nor the re
sources for such encounters. They can
not afford to fight under "condltans
which would require them to exchange
man for man. Besides, In any fight in
the open field, the spirit of the British
troops would be superior to their own,
and they know it. Therefore their pol
icy is to make a desultory fight, to
pursue a system of skirmishing war
fare, and to retire as the British forces
press their advance. The latter, taught
by experience, are moving cautiously,
so as not to fall into traps. But they
are making steady progress.
The days of blind, irresponsible
strikes of railroad employes may be
held to have ended. When important
questions bearing upon the wages and
hours of service are pending, a con
ference of the responsible heads of the
various organizations of railroad em
ployes Is called for the purpose of ad
justing the grievances of the several
classes upon a resonable basis. Such
a conference is now sitting at St. Louis,
with such men as A. B. Garretson, chief
of the Order of Railway Conductors;
W. G. Lee, chief of the railway train
men; P. M. Arthur, chief of the loco
motive engineers, and P. F. Sargent,
chief of the railway firemen, in attend
ance. The conference is considered the
most important of its kind that has
taken place since the memorable strike
of 1894. Railway managers await its
findings and demands without appre
hension of trouble.
The esteem in which the late Hon.
John Myers was held by those who
knew him best was attested in the uni
versal expressions of regret at his sud
den death and the large concourse of
his fellow-citizens that attended his ob
sequies. His interment took place at
Oregon City, in the historic cemetery
where repose the ashes of so many
brave men and women whose names
are written in the annals of the state.
The most active and responsible years
of his life were spent in Oregon City,
and it was fitting that his grave should
have been made on the beautiful
heights overlooking that historic town.
Few theatrical organizations have
left behind them in Portland more sin
cere well wishers than the admirable
company headed by Mr. James Neill.
For conscientiousness of acting and
smoothness of dirr 'on, their perform
ances have been a., that could be de
sired. A word should also be said for
the clean and wholesome character of
their repertoire. Companies like this
and plays like these will do more than
anything else to remove what prejudice
still lingers against the stage as an in
stitution. The finding of the San Jose scale on
a few fruit trees in Eugene has very
properly invited agents of the State
Horticultural Society to active efforts
for the extermination of the pest. In
telligent vigilance is the price of clean
orchards and perfect fruit, in even the
most favored sections of the country.
This pest is to the fruit Interests what
the bubonic plague is to the health in
terests of the country. It is easier to
keep it out than to stamp it out, though
the former necessarily involves much
trouble and expense.
The attention of the Tacoma and! Se
attle papers, which are frequently of
fering unsolicited sympathy for "poor
old Portland," Is called to the fact that
over 100,000 bushels more wheat was
sent foreign 'from Portland in the week
ending yesterday than has been shipped
from Tacoma and Seattle since Novem
ber 1, 1899, a period of eleven weeks.
In this connection it might be men
tioned that the men who sold the wheat
to Portland shippers also buy their
merhcandise, etc., in this city.
In one respect the record of 1899 was
an unenviable one. The fire loss in the
United States and Canada reached the
vast total of $126,773,000. This was an
increase of $17,000,000 over that of 1898,
and of more than $26,000,000 over 1897.
This does not quite beat the record, but
there have been few years in which the
total was exceeded. It would seem
that carefulness and prosperity do not
go hand in hand theory to the con
trary notwithstanding.
There Is no present probability of
agreement between the democratic and
populist parties in this state, for the
coming election. Apparently the re
publicans will face an opposition al
most evenly divided. The danger of
this is that there will not be a suffi
cient opposition in the legislature to
check the tendency to one-sided meas
ures. If you want to vote in the coming
election, you would do well to go and
register, and go at once. There will be
a great press to register after a while.
This suggestion Is not merely for Port
land and Multnomah county. It ap
plies to the whole state.
THE VOICE O THE NATIONS
Leave our rurrin frens tu ahatt&r, let 'am Cut
ter roan', an fuss,
'Taln't their oheerlir or their saeerla' tfeet can
help or binder us:
Let 'em hope we're doomed tu failure, let 'em
say we're- crushed an eowed;
Prhaps they think the swi's extinguished when
it's struggHn' through a. eloutl?
They air nurryln ta beneve us alt their hatred
can desire.
But the blows tfeey fancy fatal only clinch, our
courage higher;
Talkln's easier work than cMa', yew may take
your oath o tae4
Boys! git on, an' let 'em chatter but we ain't
doie yet!
Air their hearts so small an eraven thet tliey
cannot uaderatan
How we're game- tu take a Hektetf an then
lick the other man?
Whut's their gauge fer measurta? greatness,
how did they achieve renown.
Tfcet they think whene'er we stusatete wa muat
keep on lyta down?
Du they dream an empire's-conjwed up by easy
cbaSrmo an' sweet?
Ours, at Jeast. was shaped and bHced from
disaster an? defeit.
An' we'e made It whut It Is, through all the
cent'rles thet bev gone,
Not without a. slip or blunder but by atlli
goinf on!
It la good to git the fust Wow in but beet tu
hev the last;
An they'll see ue still go ftnrrard ea they'va
seen us in the past.
Fer each. loss we hev tu suffer, caeh. defeat tfcet
marks our way,
13 a clarion call tu victory, an' we hear It
an" obey;
In the end. we hit the boil's-eye, though, It's
arter many a ratas;
Ef a llekm could nv beat us. we'd? aev fallen
long ere this;
Some may find- a knock-down Wow aa bad ea
pisen In their cup.
But we never stop tu taste 1b ao, we Jest git
up!
Ef our Empire Is a-shakln itfa a steadyln- sort
uv shako
That'll warm our bleed an? rowse hs tML our
oteepin strength's awake;
The storm shall break its might on us. an
tv hen. R's hour 1 o'er,
Te'll And ue standta", roek-ltrke, ruther firmer
than afore;
An our furrin freca. I'm tslnkiaf, may look
wiser et they wait.
Stead of castln' up the total "ftwe tho sum, la
on the elate;
They've hed cause tu know us better, an It's
strange thet they Jorget
Boys! get on, an let 'em chattr but we ain't
done yet!
Hosea. Jr., in the Spectator.
A WOMAN'S LOVE.
A senUnet angel, sittin: high in glory.
Heard this shrill wail ring oat from pwrgatory:
"Have merey, mighty angel. her ray ryi"
I loved and, blind with paeelonate love, I fell.
Love brought me down to death, and. data to
hell:
For God is Just, and. death, for sin is welL
"r do not rage against this hh ilseree.
Nor for myself do aelc that gaace shall be;
But for ray love on earth wno mourns fiormo.
"Great Spirit! let me see-my love again.
And comfort Mm one hour, an I were Jain
To pay a thousand years of Are and pain."
Then said the pitying aagel: "Nay, repeat
That wik vow' Look, the dial-finger's bent
Down to the last h.our of thy puatehraent!"
ButstlU ehe walled. "I pray thee, let ma got
I cannot rleo to peace and tovo Mm 3;
Oh, let me soothe him la his- bitter weel"
The brazen gates grousd- sirilenly ajar.
Andi upward. Joyous, like a rlalwc star.
She rose and vanished In the her far.
But soon adown the dying sunset salltefir.
And like a wounle& bird her ptntens trailing.
She fluttered back, with brokwfc-heacted wall
ing. Sho sobbed. "I found hum by the swamer eea
Reclined, his head upon a matylenTs knee
She curled his hair and ktaeed. him. Woo la
me!"
She wept. "Now let my ptmfcnent begtal
I havo been fon andr feoMss. LeC me tot
To expiate my sorrow and. my slnl"
The angel answered. "Nay, sad soul, go hlgserl
To be deceived 1ft your truo heart's teeire
"Was bitterer than a thousand years of Srey
John Hay.
two woansx.
She crept Into the vacant church
Through empty aisles and bare;
A faint perfume hung o'er the gteem.
Vague as an unprayed prayer;
In robe and crown each; saint looked down
And frowned to see her fihere.
Each gazed upon her from nls place
Peter and John and! Paul;
Sho found nor peace nor paln'3 surcease.
So coldly looked they all.
As she faltered lone to the altar eton
Where shono the candles taM.
And there enthroned, immaculate, (
Tender and pure and; wise,
Sho saw the grace of a woman's faco, ft
The love of a woman's eyes;
And Mary's emlle bent down tho while, .
Above her muto surprise.
Not hers to know the might that Ilea
In throned majesty;
She could but guess tho tenderness,
The sister sympathy;
She made her prajer to Mary there
"With lowly heart and knee.
The tall saints watched her as sho weir
Each in his gold and blue
Aloof from her, a trespaoser.
Stern men they stood, and true.
But Mary smiled, and the clasped Child
He understood and; knew.
Theodosia P. Garrison In New Llpplncottfa.
3IY LODGIXO IS ON" THE COLS
GBirX.
My lodging It lit on tie Cold; ground,
and very bard te raiy fare.
But that which troubles me moot, Sa
the unkindness of ray dear;
Tet stHI I cry, O tunn Loe.
and I pretheo Love turn to me,
For thou art the Mara that I long- for,
and alack, what remedy?
I'll Crown thee with a Garland of straw, taej
and I'le Marry thee with a Rush ring;
My frozen hopes shall thaw then,
and merrily we will Sing.
O turn to me, my detir Love, J
and prethee Love turn to me.
For thou, art the Man that alone canst
procura my Liberty.
But If fchou wilt harden thy heart, still,
and be deaf to my pfe&tyful moan.
Then I rpuet endure the smart stlH.
and tumble in straw tatone.
Tet still I cry. O turn Love,
and I prethee Love tusn to me.
For thou art the Man thrtt alone art
the cause of my mieerj"
Frola the Rivals, leesl
3IT FIBE.
It starts; 3
X sinuous eyelash from tltt sun,
A golden, leaf-shaped etaneing-. tWngv
Bendlne- fern-like- in a maio breeze--
And grows,.
And saps the virgin foreot's strength,
"With writhing, biting arms;
And with Its red Jaws through the gleoai
Casts elfin ahadovra 'round tlte- room,
And waxing still.
It lashes 'round the knotted wood
With soft but cruel sting;
Till, gorged with strength, lb fades away
Beneath, a coverlet of gray.
And now.
Like molten- sunset front the west.
Pulsates as with living breath
Till dying midst the bones its breed has mads
Its heart la still, and ashes nuu k the grave.
--A R. AHas.
OX THE PAVTJMEa TV
Through the rain and sleet
And tho pavement all swimming.
Stepped Natalie neat;
Through the rain and the sYsat,
And I saw well her feet
And a lot of lace trimming
Through, the rain and the ateet
And the pavement ell awliamfasgl t
The Criterion.