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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 1904)
THE SUNDAY OREGOMAN, PORTLAND, SEPTEMBER , 18, Entered at th Poxtoffle at Portland. Or., as second-class matiter. REVISED SUBSCRIPTION RATES. By mall (postage prepaid In advance) pally, with Sunday, per month (0.S3 Pally, vrltk Sunday excepted, per year 7.50 Pally, -with Sunday, per year. 8.00 Bun day. per year 2.00 The Weekly, per year 1.50 2"he Weekly, S months .60 Pally, per week, delivered, Sunday ex cepted ....... 15c Pally, per week, delivered, Sunday In cluded 20o POSTAGE KATES. United Statos. Canada and Mexico 30 to 14-page paper ..............lo 18 to S0-page papa 2o S2 to 44-page paper ...............So Foreign rates, double. EASTERN BUSINESS OFFICES. (The S. C Beckwith Special Agency) Kw York; rooms 43-50. Tribune Building. Chicago: Rooms 510-512 Tribune Building. The Oregoalan does not buy poems or stories from. Individuals, and cannot under take to return any manuscript cent to it without solicitation. No stamps should be Inclosed tor this purpose. KEPT ON SALE. Atlantic City, X. J. Taylor A Bailey, dews dealers. 23 Leeds Place. Chicago Auditorium annex: PoatoOc tews Co., 178 Dearborn street. Denver Julius Black, Hamilton & Kend rfck, 006-812 Seventeenth street. yrnTiMM City, Mo. Klcksecker Cigar Co., Jlnth and Walnut. Los Angcloa B. F. Gardner, "260 South Spring, and Harry Drapkln. Minneapolis M- J. Xavanaugh. 50 South Third: L. Regelsborger, 217 First Avenue outh. New Xork City L. Jones & Co.. Aster 'House. Ogden P. R. Godard. T Omaha Bark: alow Bros.. 1C13 Farnam: McLaughlin Bros.. 210 South 14th; Megeath Stationery Co., 1S0S Farnam. Salt Lake Salt Lake News Co TT West 'Second South street. St." Louis World's Fair News Co., Joseph .Copeland. Wilson & Wilson. 217 N. 17th St.: Geo. L. Ackermann. newsboy. Eighth and 'pllve eta Ban Francisco J. K. Cooper Co.. 740 Mar ket, near Palace Hotel; Foster & Orear, 5"erry News Stand: Goldsmith Broa, 236 Sut ter; L. E. Lee, Palace Hotel News Stand; J". "TV. pitta, 1008 Market: Frank Scott, 80 Ellis; N. Wbeatley. 83 Stevenson; Hotel fit Francis News Stand. Washington. D.C. Ebbltt House Nows Stand. YESTERDAY'S WEATHER Maximum tem perature, 67 deg.; minimum, 51. Precipitation, .none. TODAY'S WEATHER Fair weather; winds cnostly northerly. PORTLAND, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18. CASES NOT PARALLEL. Enlightened public opinion and the spirit fof modern civilization alike demand that differences between nations should be ad judicated and settled In the same manner as disputes between Individuals are adjudi cated, namely, by the arbitration of courts In accordance with recognized principles of law. Resolutions of Interparliamentary 'Union at St. Louis. The idea that war is to be superseded just as courts have superseded the bar baric situation where every man Is his own judge, jury and Sheriff, belongs with those hasty generalizations of the superficial mind which are set aside by the uniform record of human experi ence. This seems a rash thing to say, in view of the interest taken In the subject by the great, wise and good of the earth; but it is true, nevertheless. Many good and great men have be lieved in oharms and spirit-rapping1. In the first place, call to .mind that the jurisdiction of courts over private disputes is limited. If a man is dis posed to submit his grievance to the machinery of the courts, he submits it; if not, he goes ahead on his own ac count In every game of two-oldcat 'there is a point beyond which some member of the quartet will no longer play. Of course the rest of us are highly indignant especially1 the law yers constables, etc., who live off the game; but when a man goes off to play by himself there Is no preventing; him, though we can find ways to overpower and punish him. The point is that all the law in the world cannot prevent individuals from asserting themselves with violence in redress of their -own grievances. It is not the jail which keeps a rowdy from leering insolently in a lady's face near ly so much as it is a due regard for the fist of her escort, who would waste no time hunting up a policeman to avenge an insult Women shoot their assail ants and even a daughter's seducer, and men fight with fists and pistols and chair legs and beer bottles every day. It is irregular, but they do it "We get after them, but we can't stop it All this is not in extenuation of lynch law or the swift kick or the rough house. But ltjs a plain refutation of the airy assumption that disputes between indi viduals are no longer settled by private enterprise The Idea seems to be that mankind is slowly evolving: from a lower to a higher plane, and that the ordinary civil and criminal court is a rudiment ary step in progress to an international court for the settlement of interna tlonal difficulties which may be com pared to the civil or criminal tribunal as a sort of advanced grade or post graduate course-a natural, necessary and proper development in the proces slon of species. This also is a delusion. International undertakings in settle ment of mutual differences are almost as old as courts. One antedates the other no farther back than the village antedates the tribe. Both sets of tri bunals have existed side by side throughout history. The colonists found here the Iroquois federation with its general court, and the international law promulgated by Khodes 500 years before Christ was obeyed all over the world and supplied the basis of the in ternational law of Greece and Rome. That Is to say, nations have always referred to arbitration those questions upon which they did not desire to fight as they do today; and they have always reserved the right to take up arms in case the progress of negotiations ap pears too slow or otherwise unsatisfac tory to them, as -they do today. No people will submit to extinction with out a fights-look at the Boers. No na tlon will submit to indignity without a fight look at Japan. And it is no mat ter what "enlightened public opinion and the spirit of modern civilization alike demand," so long as they demand something which seems to the power affected to be less worthy or desirable than the appeal to arms. Another vital spot where the Inter parliamentary Union's parallel breaks down is in this: That the ordinary court can enforce its decision while the international court cannot If a man is ordered to let his divorced wife alone and he won't do it we send out a po iceman with a gun and club and bring him to jail in the patrol wagon. If en lightened public opinion and the spirit of modern civilization order Russia and Japan to He down and be good and they go on belaboring each other over the head, neither the public opinion nor the modern spirit has policemen or pa trolrwagoh to send out All we can do Is to get out of the way of the flying missiles Having ordered -the miscreant to stand and receiving the nigh, sign in return, we can only resort to the rule laid down by that eminent authority, "William Shakespeace, Much Ado About Nothing. IH, 3: Dogberry You shall comprehend all vagrom men. You are to bid any man stand, In the Prince's same. Second Watchman How, If a will not stand 7 Dogberry Why. then, take no noa of hlmt but let him go; and presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave. FLAWS IN THE DIAMOND. There are exacting persons who pro fess to account it a reverse for Japan because Kuropatkin escaped from Ltao Tang Instead of being exterminated with his entire command. There are men to whom the drawbacks of life in the United States are more impressive than the free air of our democratic In stitutions and the inspiration of equal ity before the law. These are expres sions of the critical spirit run riot If there are Imperfections in the American life, they are not to be compared with the Joy of freedom. If Japan might have delivered a still more crushing blow at Kuropatkin, she is neverthe less entitled to the meed of a great victory. Ask Russia if she would have felt despondent in case her army in Manchuria had stood its ground and hurled Okuma back upon Niu Chwang. It is a critical age we live in, and they who cannot organize a victory or construct work of literary power feel competent to pass censorious Judgment upon the shortcomings of the efficient in action and the great in thought It a critical age we live in; and yet while we may not be justified in de manding exhibits In the creative fac ulty equal to those of the ages gone by. Is not criticism run to seed when It undertakes to envelop the wonders of ancient and modern times in so dense cloud of corrective and qualification as almost to obscure them from tne gaze? It Is a critical age we live in; and yet it sometimes seems as If our clever analysts have actually mistaken criticism for achievement and fancy that to produce a diamond Is after all no great arrair, compared with him who, microscope in hand, can find some flaw there which he can exploit in much pomp and circumstance if not in glee. There Is a flood of adverse comment on Jyron. Mis revival that was to come doth not yet appear. He, was not a great poet, and at best but a magnifi cent versifier. He was misanthropic, conceited. He failed for this, that and the other reason, which the critic will set out for you in admirable method and seductive style. But when all Is said and done, what of it? Are all the tomes of Byronic criticism which the age has produced fit to be compared for a moment with Don Juan or Chllde Harold, or even the Prisoner of Chil- lon? To know that there are flaws In your diamond Is interesting and per haps Important; but their discoverer has added very little after all to the beauty of any ballroom scene or starred with eloquent gem any betrothal hour. Few men that ever lived have en riched human life more than this same condemned and censured Byron. The ocean's shore is infinitely more raptur ous since Byron came and In the path less woods there Is a pleasure that was not there before. "Wherever liberty is bound in prison, there sits also Bonnl- vard to comfort and inspire. The Coli seum Is Imbued with grander memories and Greece herself is hajf what Byron has sung into the thought of her, just as "Wordsworth has left a glory on the lake region and Southey has lit the waters at Lodore with a new and subtler light, and Shakespeare has softened every bank whereon the moon light sleeps and Mopre has taken the poor little streams of Avoca and touched them with ethereal beauty never seen before and Shelley has con secrated the Gulf of Spezia and Keats has made the Protestant cemetery at Rome a sacred spot There are newbooks and estimates of Ruskin; and nearly everything that Ruskin taught Is pronounced a mis take. In later years he himself came to disown his early religious Ideas, call ing them ridiculous and even harmful. His notions about painting have long ago been rooted out of the schools, and science can only mention his social philosophy but to condemn. Yet not one nor even all of his judges and de tractors togetner nave contributed a tenth part of the lmpulseho contrib uted to urge the soul of man along Its upward way. All there Is worth while In painting and sculpture, archaeology and scenery, books and philosophy it self, is contained in its spiritual signifi cance and power for the individual life; and before he dipped his pen in the rainbow colors of consecration and love of -humanity, there was no such thing as spiritual significance of art and Na ture in the sense we know it now. The critic who sits down to dissect and cen sure the products of Ruskin is worse than a total failure unless he first thanks Heaven for what Ruskin has done for him and calls every reader to witness how great a prophet he Is ven turing to describe. It Is so with Dickens. Somehow it seems as if every reference to that wonderful being in our day is one of belittlement and detraction. One would suppose that his melodramatic mood and unlovely mannerisms constituted his entire equipment Mr. Lawrence Hutton, whose memories of the novel ist's American visit are given in the Critic, must have been sorry on the whole that Dickens ever lived, he suf fered at his hands so much pain and grief. But we should have much more regard for these critics if some of them in a leisure hour would give us, out of their abounding resources and superior vision some better thing than. "Chuzzle wit," for example, or "Oar Mutual Friend," bad grammar and all. For we will guarantee In advance to absolve them from any censure on the score of diction or melodrama or streotyped character, if only they will undertake to stir the soul as Dickens did. Otherwise it will be far more worth one's while to take down "Pickwick Papers" and read it again than to pore over all the arid and unprofitable miles of detraction that have, been written about It For the spiritual life re quires, not so much guidance as incent ive, not so much faultfinding as im pulse to all noble and generous deeds. And among the writers of all genera tlons few have so stirred the soul out of callous neglect and idle scorn and cruel indifference to the lot of the lowly and the poor as Charles Dickens. By the pathetic deathbed of Little Nell; on the heath where Lord Frederic Veri sopht lies dead by a villain's hand un der the sky of dawn; in the room where Paul Dombey watches the golden water come and go upon the wall; at the door where Agnes Wlckfleld stood with uplifted hand amid a rain of tears J by the damp churchyard steps where Lady Dediock's daughter' found her mother cold and dead, and in every pang- that wrung' the heart of Little Dorrltt Jn the abode of misery and grief the enchanted reader feel3 his heartstrings quiver with all sweet strains of gentleness and truth and turns again to life's battle more etoutly girded for the fray, more pit!-, ful to the weak, more impatient of wrong, more zealous in the cause of right THE VELDT IN "VERSE. "Whatever effect the occupation of South Africa shall have upon British policies, there is no denying its bene ficial effect upon British minor verse. The "great spaces washed In sun" daz zled the eyes of men whose widest land scape hitherto had been the green checkerboard of an. English hillside or the drowsy valley of a water-lilied river. They had the sense of a world different from any they had known, vast lonely, apart; and of a life unlike the ordered pettiness of an English country-side, where for generations men have walked the same paths, done the same tasks, and sunk into the same churchyard. Of the effect of this ex perience upon the "red-neck" of the barrack-room we have- evidence in Kip ling, for Kipling is, above all, the poet of the man in the street What your beef-eating, bus-riding Englishman feels, Kipling feels and tells us of. To him the great open spaces are some thing to be wondered at He feels that . here Is' an essential beauty, but it is not the heart-drawing beauty of Eng land. He admires the dawn and the sunset, the plains and the ridges, but his feeling Is merely admiration. In Chant Pagan" Kipling sings of the soldier who has returned to England: Me that 'ave watched arf a world Eave up all shiny with dew, - Kopje on Kop to the sun. ... Me that 'ave rode through the dark Forty mile often on end. Along the Ha'olllsberg Range. With only the stars for my mark An' only the night for my friend, An' things runnln off as you pass. An' things Jumpln' up In the grass. An' the silence, the shine an' the size Of the 'igh, Inexpressible ekles I am taking some letters almost As much as a mile, to the post Another returned soldier Is made to sing of "plains which the moonshine turns to sea," and "mountains that never let you near, an stars to all eternity." The Settler, "in a large and sunlit land," speaks of the plains: Where tha heallnir stlllnres llwi. And the vast benignant sky restrains Ana tne long cays make wise. "Violet peaks uplifted through the crystal evening air" are another mem ory of Kipling's, and he speaks of th'em again in "Bridge-guard In the Karoo." Sudden the desert changes. The raw glare softens and clings, Till the aching Oudtshoom ranges Stand up like the thrones of kings. Thus Kipling. He is not in sympathy with veldt or Karoo; while he admires he longs for the land where "leaps ashore the full sou'west." His soldiers have the feeling Henry, Newbolt gives a fallen soldier of the Devons in "April on Waggon HiU" "You dream of De von yet" Ay. ay. the year's awaking. The lire's among the ling. The beechen hedge is breaking. The curlew's on the wing; Primroses are out, lad. On the high banks of Lee, And the sun stirs the trout, ladY From Brcndon to the These dream of Devon yet But there are singers of another note. Of late the English periodicals have been publish ing a remarkable quantity of verses, on South Africa, and the verses have the spirit of the land. They are not writ ten from the standpoint of the soldier or of one who gazes curiously at an un familiar country. How different, for example, from Newbolt's "Waggon Hill," with its soldier, who, "while fame's fame," Is Devon, Is -this stanza. The mail train from Cape .Town to Jo hannesburg passes "up, to the many- mlled Karoo, along the spreading sea like veldt" The ruined blockhouse gapes beside; The empty food-tins, red with rust. Blink from the sod, or from the wires " Prate, Idly, to each passing gust Meager memorials of hard days Here home, and ending here In dust Hard days and old fights, however, are forgotten in the best verses. It is the land, the new home-land, that prompts the song. Anna Howarth's j. wo nomes" m me spectator Is a beautiful example: My homo was In the Island that we love Set In the Eeas. The heaven alternate smiles and frowns above; ua uiaieiy trees Beset the hedgerows, and the fields are ray While still the gray sea washes, night and day. w i in oioeeom-suire : auo wiiue-cuuea snore. My home Is In the solemn, wide Karoo, The boundless veld. Spanned o'er with infinite dome of stainless oiue. Here have I dwelt Until the giant hills, the arid plain Of sand and stone. .The thorny bush, a thirst for tarrying rain. Are nomeuae grown. Sometimes my heart looks back, and yearning encs To eeek once more The fragrant hedgerowa and the changing sjues. The lanes of yore.- And then the wide, wide veld far-stretched DC10W The high, blue dome. Holds me with mighty arms, and whispers, XJOl I am thy home." "A thirst for tarrying rain." Rain (as a memory) is the greatest beautifler of a day, and persons from a country where, as the Southern Irish say, "the weather Is fond of the rain," can never forget the skies of clouded blue. And another memory Is that described In the verses "In a strange land" Ana above the frowning mountain you can listen To the mighty thunder-crash. But may never .hear the sighing of the willow. Or the rustle of the ash. The singer may miss the "lisp of leaves and the ripple of rain," but the wide, wide veldt holds him with mighty arms and whispers "Lol I am thy home:" NEED FOB HOME-MADE PLATS., Though no notable productions marked it, the dramatic season at the Nation's histrionic center Is In full burst with an average assortment of Importations, mainly rfrom England the output of reputable second-class factories which attract the average early run of customers. When Charles Frohman, the heaviest buyer on the London Dramatic Exchange, returned in late Summer from this year's pur chasing trip, he gave out to the dra matte editors of the New York papers a list of aearly half a hundred selec tlons which he believed to be an am pie supply for his Autumn, Winter and Spring trade. Some of the most at tractive patterns are heia in reserve for such season when demand is certain to fall off at one ormore of his business emporiums. No American product fig ures c5nsplcuously in Mr. Frohman' otock. Why? Certainly not for want of indigenous material. The tneory that this country Is too new, too "raw, Is not sound. It took fifty, years to dls cover the dramatic possibilities of "The Scarlet Letter," and the genius of Mansfield to present It Nor Is it true that there is a lack of respectable ere ative dramatic talent Our playwrights fortunately have small opportunity for the emotional" drama because violation of the seventh commandment i3 not here as in France a familiar topic for the pen, but in heroism, devotion, sac rifice, humane humor, eccentricity, ro- j mantle love, conjugal affection and es pecially the homely things of homely life, America presents a veritable mine ; from which the dramatist may extract untold .treasure. We have always been quickly responsive to everything native In book or play, or book-made play that touched the heart For the classical drama the Ameri can stage has narrow room because the masses do not care for it and theaters, after all is said, are conducted on a. business basis. Art figures in the case, and let no one. berate the art of Alice Hegan,who created "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch," which recently found its way to the New York stage, where It was received with marked favor. This lovable and eccentric woman is likely to amuse and entertain us for years, just as did "Pudd'rihead Wilson," Solon Shingle," "Uncle Josh Whit- comb." "Colonel Sellers," "David Harum," "Davy Crockett," and a host of others whose career on the stage covered periods much longer than nine teen out of twenty London Importa tions that were forgotten the day after their withdrawal from the stated "run." The American theater-sroer Is ever eager for an American type that he knows is genuine and the. "woods are full of 'em." What the American stage needs is not more native material, but more men and women to fashion what we have into plays. Augustus Thomas only un covered the lead when he wrote "Ala bama" and "Arizona"; De Mille did not exhaust the mine of New York society with "The Charity Ball," "The Wife" and "Men and Women"; Bronson How ard in "Shenandoah" and William Gil lette in "Held by the- Enemy" did not consume all. the Civil War material; Mliss" is .not the only creation of Bret Harte worthy of a place in drama, and it is worth while to ask why some one hasn't dramatized "Mr. John Oak- hurst"; Mary Wilkins' Yankw tv.nps nod invitingly to the playwright and Charles Egbert Craddock's real Tennes see folk present a combination of heroic and humorous that ought to tempt as good talent as Sardou's. And Oregon Is not barren Looking for Inspiring atmosphere and a site in nature, where will the story-teller with dramatization In view or the dramatist pure and simple find a more fascinat ing field? Among the early pioneers Marcus Whitman, Dr. McLoughlln and Joe Meek naturally present themselves; yet every loghouse settlement had some American tj-pe which the play wright, employing skillful combination of the real and the Ideal, can fashion into a character that will not only meet modern demands but add permanently to the National dramatic fiction. There is only one way to account for the notable lack of American plays. Those who wrote successfully made so much money that they got lazy, like Bret iiarte, and the. new generation of play wrjgbts have not yet found themselves. HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS. To a long list of picturesque Western Governors, runninsr from Wisconsin through Minnesota and Montana to Washington, there must now be added Peabody of Colorado, who has won a great personal triumph in his renoml nation over the misgivings of friends and the machinations of foes. The sus tention of such a man, despite any er rors of judgment or Infirmities of tern per, Is as. necessary as the approval of a Steunenberg or the discredit of Bloody Bridles Waite and anarchistic Altgeld. uovernor Jfeatoody's- career Is al30 noteworthy for the hope It holds out to a hitherto hopeless bunch of our fellow- uiLi4ciis. j: mne nas resiea on many humble callings, but never until now on the bookkeepers. It has been a sure passport to eminence to have begun life on a farm or as a newsboy. No one not a mlllboy of the slashes, or the driver of a mule on a tow-path, or a rali-splltter, or a tanner, or at least a younger son In the large family of a widowed mother, has ever hlth nan me sngntest encourage ment to look for business success or political preferment' But Governor Peabody, it appears, began life as bookkeeper. x This is a tremendous Innovation, for It hits the social organism In one of its most vulnerable spots we had almost said below the belt For the bookkeep er has never been permitted to Indulge one of the most distinctive earmarks of genius slovenliness of attire. Our Gov ernors and Presidents Invariably recur with pleasurable pride to the time when they hadn't a clean shirt to their back. They wore trousers bagging at the knee, overalls preferred, attached, to their person by a small stick thrust through the end of their galluses. They usually walked in shoes full of holes and If In anV moment of weakness they bestrode a horse, it was bareback and without a bridle. It has been the bookkeeper's painful lot to be restrained by Inexorable Cus torn from these hallmarks of future greatness. Imagine a Denver book keeper showing up In the morning with a red flannel shirt, corduroy breeches tucked into hiB boots arid a -two-weeks old bunch of lilacs on his countenance No, sir; his cuffs must be freshly turned, his $25 hand-me-down painful ly brushed, his patent leathers re splendent from the union stand, his necktie artistically disposed arid his hat correctly adapted to the calendar. Even the office-boy could foretell the finish of the head accountant who should undertake to array himself In the semblance of those great and glori ous youngsters whose names subse quently became household words In this glorious land of the free. And yet these external tokens of greatness which Governor Peabody's rise has set at defiance are, after all as nothing to the Insurmountable ob stacles of the soul and spirit, which his success has shorn of ancient and un challenged terrors. What has kept the bookkeeper down is not so much his clothes as his enforced intellectual habit Nothing is so mentally dwarf ing, we- have been led to understand, as posting the journal and taking off the trial balance. What the world demands Is bold Initiative, and this Is forbidden the bookkeeper on pain of extinction The sum of the balances In personal accounts must equal the sum of the balances in representative accounts Every time anything Is charged to an account an equivalent must be credited to some other account, arbitrarily and without reference to the justice of the case or the bookkeeper's ingenuity. If the boss takes $2 out of the drawer for lunch without putting in a tag, it is considered, the proper thing for the bookkeeper to sit up all night trying to find out what is the matter with the cash. If the trial balance is three cents off, the bookkeeper's reputation Is at stake and his hope of heaven Imperiled until the paltry three have been duly run to earth and there are twenty- eight or thirty days of peace and honor ahead till the next period of agony and suspense. It Is no slight service which. Gover nor Peabody haa rendered to an im portant section of downtrodden human ity. Hereafter we may hope to hear less of the overworkedphrase "only a bookkeeper." Hereafter we shall not so frequently and heartlessly be ad monished that you can get 1500 answers to an ad for a bookkeeper and only one for a cook. Hereafter when the tired victim of method and iron system open, the door timidly, hangs up hi3 Knox or Dunlap unobtrusively' and draws on his working coat apologet ically, a murmur of suppressed awe may properly run round the waiting assembly, as the bill clerk observes to the typewriter, ''He may yet be Gov ernor." Nothing so revolutionary has disturbed the National traditions since George B. Cortelyou, stenographer, be came Secretary of Commerce and La bor and afterward chairman of the Re publican National Committee. Novels with a purpose are not infre quent, and, although the "purpose" usually overwhelms the Interest and brings the story to speedy oblivion, there axe several well-known instances of reforms aided by works of fiction. 'Oliver Twist"ls perhaps, the chief of the novels deliberately planned to end abuses, and the tribe of Bumbles had their days shortened by its publication. Charles Reade In "Foul Play" attacked the old regulation, or lack of regula tion, of insane asylums In England with almost equal success. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is credited with having aided a great work. Comparatively frequent as are novels with a purpose, it -is rare to find a play with a purpose. and therefore it is surprising to find that "Woof and Warp," which is now running in London, Is provoking a cru sade against the sweatshops. Mrs. Lyttleton, the author of the play, is the wife of the Colonial Secretary, and her high social position gave the play an adventitious Interest which brought it plenty of patronage. In the drama the author holds up to contempt the wealthy people who purchase costly garments made by overworked and in humanly treated sempstresses, and, while the play Itself is condemned as inartistic, its, pictures of sweatshop life have already caused the arrest of sev eral dressmakers for overworking their employes. Fifty bushels of wheat per acre are reported In the Oak Flat country, in Klickitat County, and in spite of the pooryield in other districts the large in crease in the acreage of Fall grain will bring the aggregate up to more than last year's yield. Much of this new acreage is due to the facilities offered by the Columbia River & Northern for bringing the wheat to market. There Is still a considerable area of new land In the territory tapped by this new "feeder" to Portland, and when it is brought under cultivation the wheat re ceipts from our nearest Washington wheat county will show heavy In creases. The new road which the O. R. & N. Is building into Arlington will also heavily Increase the amount of wheat available for shipment from this port and at numerous other points along the O. R. & N., and the Columbia and Snake River short branch roads thrown back Into the country will create a traffic which will some day grow into big proportions. Another San Francisco grain firm has gone - to the vall with "injudicious speculation" given as one of the rea sons for the financial catastrophe. Eventually the Bay City traders, who In their efforts to bear the market sell large quantities of wheat which they do not possess, will all be retired from the business. There was a time when San Francisco dominated the wheat trade of the Pacific Coast but that was long ago and the buying and selling of the Bay City traders no longer has any effect on prices in the world's mar kets. The Callfornlans, who are now so bearlshly inclined on account of the gilded reports of a 60,000,000-Jbushel crop in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, are scheduled for a rude awakening in the near future, as fully 15,000,000 bush els of the amount will be of such an evanescent nature that It will be un suitable for filling contracts or any thing else except hot-air balloons. Wheat took a four-cent drop in Chi cago yesterday, but is still above a parity with foreign markets, and far above the highest point reached In any former year since 1898. The reason given for the heavy slump yesterday was drastic liquidation on the part of holders, who had not the courage of their convictions. The recent sensa tional advance would have . been checked much earlier had It not been supported by an enormous speculative movement. When these "outsiders" have all been shaken out and more bad crop reports come in, it Is not improb able that there will be some recovery. Four cents decline is too much for one day, and, unless the market aefs conT trary to precedent, there will be suffi cient professional support forthcoming to stay the break for a brief .period at least. ' The Oregonian thinks that public opinion will sanction the award of water-pipe contracts to be filled In Portland,- as against the Bast. A good way not to build cities Is to send away for things that can be made at home. Certainly no exorbitant bid should be accepted, but quite as certainly this is not necessary, even if fresh bids have to be called for. The matter of $7000 to $8000 In wages is not to be despised. Besides, there is a principle to be ob served. Invention Had One Drawback. Galveston Tribune. "Inventors, with all their originality and brilliance, are often naive, childlike and Impractical," said General Wallace, Fl Randolph, of the General Staff of the Army. "An Inventor called on me one day to talk about an explosive he had originated " 'It is the most powerful explosive the world has ever seen,' he said, 'and it Is my idea to send it up in a balloon, with a lighted fuse attached to it The bal loon will be sent over the camp of the enemy, the explosive will go off, and the victor' will be ours. " 'Yes,' said I, 'but suppose a current of air should blow the balloon back over our own army? What then?' " 'Then,' said the inventor, laying his hand on my arm, 'I tell you what it is. General, our army would have to get up and run for all It Is worth." APHORISMS OF ROOSEVELT. It Is almost as Irritating to be patronised as to be wronged. American wageworkera work with their heads as well as their hands. This is not and never shall be a Government I either of a plutocracy or ofi a mob. , . The criticism of those who live softly, re- I mote from the strife. Is of little value. ! a j The loyalty that counts Is the loyalty which shows Itself In deeds rather than in words. Bade of tha laws, back of the administration. ! bade of tha system of government, lies the man. In every Instance how the after events of history have falsified the predictions of the men of little faith! When tasks are all-Important, the most Im portant factor In. doing them right Is the cnoice of the agents. It la difficult to make our material condition better by the best laws, but It Is easy enough to ruin it oy Daa laws. Down at bottom we are the same teot)le all through. That Is not merely a unity of oec tlon, it Is a unity of class. Stability of economic policy must always be the prime economic need of this country. This stability should not be fosslllzatlon. No nation as great as ours can expect to escape the penalty of greatness, for greatness does not come without trouble and labor. The National Government should demand the highest quality of service from Its employes; and In turn it should bo a good employer. There- Is no worse enemy of the wagework- er than the man who condones mob violence in any shape, or who preaches class hatred. The woman who has borne, and who has reared as they should be reared, a family of children, has in the most emphatic manner de served well of the Republic Every man must be guaranteed his liberty and his right to do as he likes with his prop erty or his labor, so long as he does not In fringe on the rights of others. There is no room in our healthy American llfo for the mere idler, for the . man. or the woman whose object It Is throughout Ufe to shirk the duties which life ought to bring. In the history of mankind many republics havo risen, have flourished for a less or greater time, and then have fallen because their cit izens lost the power of governing themselves, Thero are many different, kinds of work to do; but so long as the work is honorable, la 'necessary, and is well done, the man who does It well is entitled to the respect of his fellows. Corruption, in the gross sense In which the word Is used in ordinary conversation, haa been absolutely unknown among our Presi dents, and it has been exceedingly rare In our Presidents' Cabinets. The worth of a civilization is the worth of the man at its center. When this man lacks moral rectitude, material progress only makes bad worse, and social problems still darker and more complex. We are bound to recognize this fact, to re member that we should stand for good citizen ship in every form, and should neither yield to demagogic influence on the one hand, nor to improper corporate influence on the other. I ask that we eeo to it in our country that the line of division in the deeper matters of our citizenship be drawn, never between sec tion and section, never between creed and creed, never, thrice never; between class and class. There are many qualities which we need alike in private citizen and In public man; but three above all three for the lack of which no brilliancy and no genius can atone and those three are courage, honesty and com. mon senss. While citizens die, the Government and the Nation do not die, and we are bound in deal ing with the forests to exercise the foresight necessary to use them now, but to use them in such a way as will also keep them for those who are to come after us. No action by the state can do more than supplement tha InlUaUve of the individual; and ordinarily the action of the state can do no more than to secure to each individual the chance to show under as favorable conditions as possible the stuff that there Is In him. In otir country, with Its many-sided hurry ing, practical life, the place for cloistered vir tue is far smaller than Is the place for that essential manliness which, without losing Its line and lofty side, can yet hold Its own in the rough struggle with the forces of the world round about us. I The man or woman who, as a bread-winner and home-maker, or as wife and mother, has deno all that he or oha can do, patiently and uncomplainingly, Is to be honored; and Is to bo envied by all those who havo never had the good fortune to feel the seed and duty of doing such work. It seems to me that it Is a good thing from every standpoint to let the colored man know that if he shows in marked degree the qual ities of good citizenship the qualities which in a white man we feel are entitled to re ward then he will not be cut off from all hope of similar reward. m The base appeal to the spirit of selfish greed, whether It take the form of plunder of the fortunate or of oppression of the unfortunate from these and from all kindred vices ' this Nation must be kept free If it Is to remain In Its present position in the forefront of the peoples of mankind. In the employment and dismissal of men In the Government service I can no more recog nize the fact that a man doca or does not be long to a union as being for or against him than I can recognize the fact that he is a Protestant, or a Catholic, a Jew or a Gentile, as being for or against him. It la a base and an Infamous thing for the man of means to act in a spirit of arrogant and brutal disregard of right toward bis fel low who has less means; and it Is no less in famous, no less base, to act In a spirit of rancor, envy and hatred against the man of greater means, merely because of his greater means. The good citizen Is the man who, whatever his wealth or his poverty, strives manfully to do his duty to hlmeelf, to ' his family, to his neighbor, to the state; who is incapable of the baseness which manifests Itself elthor in arro gance or in envy, but who, while demanding Justice for himself. Is no less scrupulous to do Justice to others. We need every honest and efficient Immi grant fitted to become an American citizen, every Immigrant who comes here to stay, who brings here a strong body, a stout heart, a good head, and a resoluto purpose to Ho his duty well In every way, and to bring up his children as law-abiding and. God-fearing mem bers of tho community. Capitalist and wageworker alike should hon estly endeavor each to look at any matter from the other's standpoint, with a freedom on the one hand from tho contemptible arro gance which looks down upon the man of less means, and on the other, from the no less con temptible envy. Jealousy and rancor, which hates another because ho la better off. The slightest acquaintance with our indus trial history should teach even the most short sighted that the times of most suffering for our people as a whole, the times when busi ness is stagnant, and capital suffers from shrinkage and gets no return from its invest ments, are exactly the times of hardship, and want, and grim disaster among the poor. The law is to be administered neither for the rich man as such, nor for the poor man as such. It is to be administered for every man. rich or poor. If ho Is an honest and law-abiding citizen; and it is to be Invoked against any man, rich or poor, who violates It, with out regard to which end of the social scale he may stand at, without regard to whether his offense takes the form of greed and cun ning, or the form of physical violence. All other qualities go for nothing, or for worse than othlng, unless honesty underlies them honesty In public life and honesty In private life; not only the honesty that keeps its skirts technically clear, but the honesty that Is such according to the spirit as well as the letter of the law; the honesty that Is ag gressive, the honesty that not merely deplores corruption It is easy enough to deplore cor ruptionbut that wara against it and tramples It under focr ' NOTE ANDC0MMENT. To Cook Carp. Many persons have been dubious hitherto about the food value of the carp, which Is so abundant In the Co lumbia. As much of the flavor i3 lost through careless cooking, It is impor tant, to enjoy the fish, that a good re cipe be strictly adhered to. The fol lowing method, which is in use at a well-known local restaurant. Is the best in fact, the only way to cook carp so that' it will be appreciated: Take a good-sized carp and clean It well. Get some etlff clay, make a paste of It, and plaster around the carp to a thickness of two Inches. Bake In oven until clay Is very hard. Then get a hammer and knock off the clay Throw the carp away and serve the clay. Creffleld has rolled home. The Anglo-Thibetan treaty secures a large number of privileges to Bri tain. Seventy per cent of tho immigrants from Ireland last month v-were girls. Americans of the next few generations will have small excuse for not being beau tiful. According to the Globe, Atchison boasts a woman who wears such high- heeled shoes that when she sits down and puts her baby on her lap it rolls off. The victorious cruiser Lena has now moved to Mare Island, so the Rus sian papers have another chance to plume themselves upon the national daring and success. You can't Xaxe an Oregon boy. Sev eral specimens of the breed were standing by tho automobile that ex ploded at ilcMlnnvIHe and. according to the report, they were hurled through tho air, "but lit running." No measly gasoline explosion could damage a Yamhill lad; he .will still "light run ning." It is to be hoped that Kuropatkin and Oyama will heed the pleadings of Ma, and avoid fighting Mukden, where the sacred tombs might be dis turbed, and tho sacred ghosts aroused feby tho roar of artillery, although we have no doubt that neither the Rus sian soldiers nor the Chinese would at heart object to seeing the ghost walk at Mukden or anywhere else. That d. f. nothing else seems strong enough the Marquis of Anglesey, not content with having to sell his black linen, gem-handled walklng-stlclcs and womanish frippery, is now offering presents sent him by the King. This Is the hardest knock that the King has ever had that ho should have been foolish enough to present the play acting heir of the Paget3 with any thing but a swift kick. The president of the Washington State Liquor Dealers' Association Btrikes no uncertain note in his an nual address. He is no mute, like Par ker, nor is he a hedger. High license he briefly and forcibly characterizes as robbeiy, and the protection of the business, he declares, is above party politics a sentiment that will be echoed by others than Hquordealers. As to local option, well; local option Is prohibition in disguise. Pasta these aphorisms in your hats, brother liquor dealers, says the president, run your saloons as lawablding clubs for the rich and poor, and you will make money and be respected. Wo confess that to us algebra seems part of gramarye, and the person who by Juggling with x's and y's can solve questions about ages and the speed of trains and when one hand of a clock will pass the other to be on a par with the conjurer who brings wobbly rabbits and flapping doves out of an empty hat Therefore, when correspondents send In solutions to the problem, conundrum, riddle or whatyoumaycall it, about a husband's age being three tlme3 his wife's age, we have to take them on trust So the following letter, offering a "really short solution," may be only a Joke, although its tone of superiority Indicates otherwise. The concluding part appears to us to smack of the black art: Castle Rock. Wash., Sept 16. (To Note and Comment.) Referring to the age problem In Wednesday's paper, here Is a really short solution. If X Is the man's age and Y his wife's age, we have X:Y::9:3 and X plus 15:Y plus 15::16:8. Solving. X equals 45. X equals 16. It Is surprising what simple problems find their way Into tho papers under the Impres sion that they are difficult. Before sending them to a dally paper to find a solution, wouldn't It be a good plan for the sender to find the relation of the arc of an angle to Its sine by tho method of undetermined coeffi cients Just to see if he is competent to tell a hard problem when he sees It? W. P. ESAVELTj. Here is another letter on the same sub ject: Portland, Or., Sopt. 18. (To Note and Com ment.) Observing the answer under the head ing of "A Curious Coincidence" has led me to a similar discovery under different cir cumstances and which works out a little dif ferent. In this year of 1904 I am three times as old as my little girl. After living a cer tain number of years each I will be only twice aa old as she. How old are we now, respectively, and hpw long will It take us at this rate to reduce the difference to twice as old in place of three times as old. ANOTHER SUBSCRIBER. If one may Judge from his verses, Odell TT Fellows, of The Dalles, must have had a narrow escape recently from an automobile, for he opens up on the "gory and red devil-wagon" with a vehemence that must be born of personal experience. It Is too bad that the fair country and the streets of The Dalles should not be free from such dangers to navigation. Here is what Mr. Fellows has to say about the autos: THE DEVIL-WAGON. I am the wagon that's gory and red. Out of my path If you value your head! Panting, I long to be off and away. Like the fierce charger that thirsts for the fray. Strength, mighty strength, surges hot In my veins! Oh, to be gone o'er the hills and the plains! Highway and byway to strew with the dead Way! Make a way for tho wagon of red! Age I spare not, 'tis my mission to kill. Childhood and youth are the sport of my will. Chariots of old? They were weak and supine! Warriors ne'er areamed of such carnage as mlncf Sweeping I come, like a wolf on the fold. Gathering my victims, the young and the old; Through the fair country and streets of tha town, Fearfuly, Joyfully, trundle them down. Pleasure and "business I'm bearing today: Love waits upon me, and urooks no delay. Speed is my motto and death la my dole; Think you a wagon like this has a soul? Triumph of genius and symbol of might, On do I roll with the speed of the light. Stand from the path, all ye slow-moving I throng; Way! Make a way as I trundle along. WEXFORD JONES.