THE MOKKDJG- OEEGONIAN, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1900.
Entered at the Postofllcc at Portland, Oregon,
as eecon-J-class matter.
TELEPHONES.
Editorial Booms 1G0 ' Business Office. ,.G57
REVISED SUBSCRIPTION HATES.
"By Usil (postage prepaid). In Advance
Dally, with Sunday, per month S S5
Dally, Sunday excepted, per year. .. 50
Daily, with Sunday, per year 0 X
Sunday, per jear 2 00
The "Weekly, per yar 1 50
The Weekly, 3 month 50
To City Subscribers
Dally, per week, delivered. Sundaj excepted.l5c
Dally, per -week, delivered, Sundays included.20c
POSTAGE RATES.
"United States, Canada and Mexico:
10 to lC-page paper Ic
10 to 32-page paper 2c
Foreign rates double.
News or, discussion intended for publication
In The Oregonlan should be addressed lnarla
bly "Editor The Oregonlan." not to the name
of any Individual, letter relating to advertis
ing, subscriptions or to any business matter
should be addressed simply "The Oreganlan."
The Oregonlan do not buy poems or stories
from Individuals, and cannot undertake to re
turn any manuscripts sent to it -without solici
tation. No stamps should be inclosed for tblb
purpose.
Puget Sound Bureau Captain A. Thompson,
office at 1111 Pacific avenue, Tacoma. Box 035,
Tacoma Post office.
Eastern Business Office The Tribune build
ing, New Tork City; "The Rookery." Chicago;
the S. C Beckwlth special agency. New Tork.
For sale in San Francisco by J. K. Cooper,
74G Market street, near the Palace Hotel; Gold
smith Bros- 236 Sutter street; F. VV. Pitts,
1003 Market street; Foster & Orear, Ferry
News stand.
For sale in Los Angolcs by B. F. Gardner.
239 So. Spring street, and OU-er & Haines, 103
So. Spring street.
For sale In Chicago by the P. O. News Co..
217 Dearborn street.
For sale in Omaha by H. C Shears, 105 N.
Sixteenth street, and Barkalow Bros.. 1012
Farnam street.
For sale In Salt Lake by the Salt Lake News
Co., 77 "W. Second South street.
For sale In New Orleans by Ernest & Co.,
115 Royal street.
On file in "Washington. D. C, with A. W.
Dunn. 600 14th N. W.
For sale In Denver, Colo., by Hamilton &
Kendrlck, 600-012 Seventh street.
TODAY'S "WEATHER. Occasional rain;
southerly winds.
PORTLAND, MONDAY, DECEMBER 3.
Accurate knowledge of the Intricacies
of Multnomah County politics cannot be
expected from newspapers throughout
the state. "We shall forgive, therefore,
a vote of censure passed upon Mult
nomah County by the Salem States
man for the reduction in real estate
valuations made by Assessor Greenleaf
In 1899. Whatever the fault in this
transaction, it? was not the Multnomah
taxpayer's. Mr. Greenleaf had two ob
jects in view one was his own re-election,
and how much sympathy he
gained by the act is revealed In the
fact of his defeat by Charlie McDonell,
a young man without experience. The
other object was a plan of the Mitchell
ring, of which Mr. Greenleaf was a
part, to put the Simon ring In a hole.
The Simon element had limited the
city's rate of taxation to 8 mills, and
It was conceived good politics by the
Mitchell element to make this 8-mlll
limit ridiculous by reducing valuations
so that the resultant revenue "would be
Email. For these purposes the tax
payers of Multnomah County are not
responsible, and are therefore unde
serving of the censure visited upon
them. Perhaps we should do Mr.
Greenleaf the credit of belief that valu
ations were too high; but, however
much this conviction was shared by
taxpayers, they regretted the reduc
tion, because of their certain knowl
edge that It could only provoke re
prisals from the rest of the state.
The Statesman discovers a short
memory in Its observation that no dis
position to "cinch Multnomah County"
ever existed before the reduction in
valuation. Has it forgotten the regime
of our State Board of Equalization, so
called, when Multnomah County was
represented by only one member, and
when, despite the fact that this county
was paying about one-third of the
state tax, outside counties combined
and put up its assessment about 20
per cent, In face of the fact that
greater depression and greater shrink
age of values existed in Portland than
In any other part of the state? Human
nature, let us remember. Is pretty much
the same In city and country. No peo
ple in any part of the state are more
willing to pay their just share of state
taxes than is the business community
of Portland. Multnomah County would
be satisfied with any Board of Review
not organized -with an unfair combina
tion in view. So long as a city gov
ernment must be maintained here,
valuations must be kept up to a fair
point, or the city Itself will suffer. The
reduction made by Mr. Greenleaf has
fallen upon the people of Multnomah
County with a multitude of burdens,
which they are trying the best way
they can to shoulder. They trust no
added punishment is in store for an
offense that was not of their commis
sion. If alliance between ownerships of the
transcontinental railroads proceeds at
Its present momentum, and there is
every reason to expect that it will,
what will become of some of our local
agitations? In general, we may be
sure that costly quarrels will be elim
inated. The allied ownership of the
transcontinentals will feel that it can
not, with its Great Northern, conduct
a disastrous fight over Seattle terminal
facilities with itself, as the Northern
Pacific. This allied ownership will clear
ly see the folly of building parallel lines
ftrr the Northern Pacific, to compete In
territory it already reaches with the
O. R. & N. Without prejudice between
routes, it will be apt to see the impro
priety of haggling as Northern Pacific
with Itself as the O. R, & N. over the
price of trackage arrangements from
Wallula to Portland. It will agree
with itself on valuations and cost of
maintenance, perform a simple opera
tion in percentage, and the thing is
done. Questions that people lie awake
nights and tear hair over now will
be settled amicably then In half an
hour at Mr. Morgan's office, at the cor
ner of Broad and Wall streets. Such
wares as the Northern Pacific wants,
to haul to Portland this allied owner
ship will prefer to have hauled In the
cheapest way that is, down the Colum
bia River. That is likely to be. more
over, a dark day for the "common
point" So long as taxation keeps the
Columbia River open to Portland, this
allied ownership will see no point in
hauling grain to Astoria by rail, when
it can be stopped and loaded on the
chip at Portland.
It Is happy for many of our poli
ticians, local as well as National, that
the free-silver craze has recovered.
When the malady was rampant, like
true valetudinarians, they shunned
mental exercise. With utmost solici
tude they forbore from opinions. It is
well they did, and it will be better for
them If they shall stay imperturbable.
Events still are such that politics .are
more potent than opinions. The con
clnnlty of the past and present shows
the folly of opinions and the wisdom of
having none. Several of these gentle
men want to be Senator. Only one
man who offers himself to the public
has convictions. Mr. Corbett has
stated them clearly. Unlike other as
pirants, h had them before, he has
them now, and he will have them In
the future. It will be seen whether he
would be wiser to have none, like our
little men.
UNSANITARY HABITATIONS.
The recent death from typhoid fever
of Prince Christian Victor, of the se
vere Illness of the Czar of Russia from
the same disorder, has led the British
Medical Journal, one of the most au
thoritative organs of the medical pro
fession of England, to call attention to
the very marked proclivity of the royal
families of Europe to attacks of this
distinctively "filth disease," and to the
numerous fatalities in their ranks that
have resulted therefrom. This procliv
ity the ordinary means of prevention
are apparently powerless to ward off,
It being pointed out that Prince Chris
tian Victor, and possibly also Prince
Henry of Battenberg, were Inoculated
against typhoid on the trip to Africa,
notwithstanding which both contracted
and succumbed to the disease.
The predisposition of the reigning
families of Europe to this malady is
ascribed as largely due to the fact that
their homes are almost exclusively
castles and palaces, the foundations of
which were laid many years ago, and
which, notwithstanding intelligent and
costly attempts to modernize them in
the matters of sewerage, ventilation,
etc., are, from a sanitary point of
view, scarcely fit to live in. Modern
conveniences have been engrafted, so
to speak, upon theBe royal and Imperial
residences, and they have been supplied
with luxuries of every kind, but the
foundations remain, reeking with the
accumulated filth of bygone ages, when
sewerage, as ndw understood and ap
plied, was practically unknown. There
are, indeed, few royal residences the
subsoil of whose foundations are not
reeking with the sewerage of centu
ries. Various attempts have been made to
remedy this condition, but In the very
nature of things they have been only
partially successful. After the death
of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales
from typhoid some years ago, and the
subsequent almost fatal Illness of his
brother, the present heir-apparent to
the British throne, Marlborough House,
the town residence of the family, was
subjected to a searching investigation,
when It was found that this palace, 200
years old, was resting in a very marsh
of sewage; a few years before inves
tigation showed that Buckingham Pal
ace, the Queen's town residence, in
which the Prince Consort died from
typhoid, was In a similar condition, the
deadly miasms in this case being ren
dered more noisome by the proximity
of a metropolitan sewer, built of brick
and serving St. George's Hospital,
which, owing to faulty construction,
was leaking in every direction. Em
peror William spent an Immense sum
of money a few years ago In providing
a new system of drainage for his Pots
dam Palace, and it is said his Berlin
residences stand in great need of simi
lar attention. Windsor Castle Is fa
vored to some extent in this respect,
'as it stands on high ground; but It is
still far from whplesome as a place of
residence. The uniform good health of
Queen Victoria and her gratifying
length of years are due to her long
sojourn each year at Balmoral and Os
borne, relatively new palaces, and with
healthful surroundings.
Other royal residences that are from
a sanitary point of view unfit for hu
man habitation are those at Madrid,
Stockholm, the Winter Palace at St
Petersburg, the older portions of the
Haufborg, Vienna, and the palaces at
Turin, Florence and Naples. The Mar
quise de Fontenoy, in a recent press
letter, refers to these matters somewhat
in detail, adding a warning to wealthy
Americans who are prone to lease Eng
lish and Continental country seats of an
cient construction, where the same dan
ger from typhoid lurks In defective
drainage and consequent accumulation
of filth. Accurate information upon a
matter at once so dangerous and so
revolting in its possibilities should suf
fice to leave these old country seats
tenantless as far as Americans are
concerned. It Is doubtful, however,
whether even the authoritative state
ments and Implied warnings of the
British Medical Journal will enable
royalty to protect Itself from its hered
itary environment these palaces, upon
their noisome foundations, being a part
of an inheritance from which they can
not entirely escape, in spite of their
deadly influences.
OSCAR. WTLDE.
When we remember Oscar Wilde's
genius and early promise, his obscure
and wretched taklng-off approaches the
dimensions of a tragedy. His talents
were prodigious, his philosophy had
elements of great utility. His prose
and dramatic writings are creations of
genuine power and grace. His verse
has the Indefinable charm of poesy.
For example:
For e'er yon field of trembling gold
Be garnered Into dusty sheaves
Or e'er the Autumn's scarlet leaves
Flutter like birds adown the wold.
I may have run the glorious race
And caught the torch while yet aflame.
And called upon the holy name
Of Him who now doth hide his face!
Wilde's philosophy was the extreme
of a sound Idea. He carried too far
the righteous protest against enthrone
ment of didacticism In art He drew
men's attention to the truth, almost
forgotten since the mortal part of
Greece passed away, that the bestowal
of pleasure Is a legitimate end of
poetry, painting and sculpture, music
and the drama, dress and conversa
tion. Thus he was the antithesis, need
ed, of the Puritan. We must not com
plain of his tatreme position. We do
not expect the truth at either end of
the pendulum's swing; we can only ex
pect the apostle to set out boldly the
aspect presented by his side of the
double shield.
Unfortunately, the writer and think
er iff overshadowed by the unspeakable
morals of the man. The sacrifice of a
gifted mind on the altar of sensualism,
revealed In the career of Oscar Wilde,
is among the catastrophes of litera
ture, wickeder than Poe's, more abom
inable than Villon's. The displeasure
. visited upon nis wona may not cave
been just; it was certainly salutary.
Society's Instinct of preservation rises
up at such times and vows that no
quarter shall be shown to the moral
wretch who defies Its canons. The race
refuses to view the handiwork separate
from the man. It will not imperil Its
Ideals by giving countenance to his
immorality through recognition of his
genius. All this Wilde knew, or should
have known. He brought upon himself
his own degradation.
THE CASE OF ROSS.
Those Independent and accurate
molders of public 'opinion throughout
Oregon and Washington that find out
what their views are on public ques
tions so soon as The Oregonlan ex
presses a contrary opinion are begin
ning to be heard from on the subject of
the removal of Professor Ross at Stan
ford University. Having said the other
day that the removal served the pro
fessor right and Improved the univer
sity, we are gratified to note that our
pestilential critics hereabouts who had
heard nothing of the matter before
bristle with defenses of Ross and are
sure that The Oregonlan Is in this case,
as always, against free speech and
honest thought We shall do these
neighbors the favor of reiterating that
In his enforced resignation Ross got
exactly what he deserved. As
head of Stanford University's de
partment of economics. Professor Ross
preached the doctrines of silverlsm in
1896. He preached Bryanlsm and so
cialism to his classes in direct hostility
to the purpose of the founder and Sup
porters of the university. He was re
monstrated with in vain, and was then
very properly requested to resign. He
was got rid of by Stanford University
for the same reason that Brown Uni
versity forced the resignation of Pres
ident Andrews in 1896.
When President Andrews was forced
to resign his friends raised a loud out
cry to the effect that Brown University
had assailed "freedom of speech." This
outcry was baseless. A college presi
dent or professor Is free to hold any
opinions he chooses, but if he teaches
economical doctrines Intolerable to the
institution and those supporting it, and
conflicting with the doctrines they
would have taught there, he has no
more business to remain in his place
than a clergyman has to occupy an or
thodox pulpit and preach the rational
Ism of Spencer or the agnosticism of
Huxley. The trustees of Stanford Uni
versity and the widow of its founder do
not deny the right of Professor Ross
to hold any opinions he pleases, but
they have the clear right to say that
he shall not preach them from his pro
fessor's chair at the cost of the Univer
sity and with the sanction of Its author
ity. Suppose Ross saw fit to preach so
cialism or nihilism, or anarchism or
free love should he be retained on the
plea that freedom of speech was In
vaded by his removal? Free sliver
and Bryanlsm have no more scientific
standing with reputable scholars and
thinkers in either Europe or America
than ha3 nihilism or free love, and the
advocacy of such views by Professor
Ross was a fair indictment of his utter
unfitness for the chair of economics in
any University outside of Laputa.
Another thing that rendered Ross
persona non grata at Stanford was
his militant Infidelity. It used to be
considered quite the correct thing for
undenominational schools to be offi
cered and facultied by aggressive ag
nostics. For a long time it was about
as hard for the scientist to see any
good in religion as for the theologian
to see any good In science. The error
of each Imperfection has long been ap
parent What Ross believed, however,
Is neither here nor there. It is a mat
ter for the management of a university
to determine, not what Its professors
shall believe, but what they shall teach,
and If they want to teach infidelity,
they belong where that Is wanted. Mrs.
Stanford thinks that, as Christianity
Is the ruling and accepted religious
faith of this country, good taste, as
well as sound morals, cannot abide at
tacks upon it in instructors of the
young, who, if they have not Chris
tianity in some of Its various adapta
tions, will have no religion at all. The
successful university. In a word,
doesn't want Its chairs filled by cranks.
Mr. Ross seems to have been a crank
of varied and multitudinous crotchets.
NO SECTIONALISM AFTER SURREN
DER. The question whether General Robert
EL Lee ever asked for a pardon has
been settled by the publication of a
letter written to President Johnson
June 13, 1865, In which he applies "for
the benefits and full restoration of all
rights and privileges extended to those
Included In the proclamation of am
nesty and pardon." He was not Indi
vidually pardoned, but under a gen
eral proclamation of pardon to all who
were not under Indictment he was In
cluded. General Lee, as everybody
knows who has read his life by his
nephew. General Fltz Hugh Lee, went
Into the war with great reluctance, as
did Joe Johnston, Longstreet Bragg
and Albert Sydney Johnston. None of
these men was a secessionist All of
them declared that, while they would
feel obliged to fight with their states
if they seceded, they did not favor or
justify secession. Lee wrote his sister
that he saw no justification for the se
cession of Virginia, and that he had
never approved of slavery, but had
considered it a great evil, from which
he had always wished there was some
constitutional deliverance. A man of
Lee's eminence, holding such opinions,
would naturally be one of the first as
was Longstreet, to recognize that the
war was over, and that It was the duty
of the Southern people to render obedi
ence to the Government
It Is an Interesting fact that the Con
federate archives at Washington con
tain a letter of August 11, 1S63, in
which Jeff Davis refused to accept the
resignation of General Robert E. Lee
as commander of the Army of North
ern Virginia. Lee tendered his resigna
tion August 8, 1863, just five weeks after
his defeat at Gettysburg. Lee in his
letter of resignation, and Davis in his
reply, make it clear that Lee desired
to abandon the Civil War, since the
fall of Vjcksburg had made the down
fall of the Southern Confederacy only
a question of time.
It is clear, from the promptness with
which General Lee sought for complete
political rehabilitation, that he was not
a man of Intense sectionalism, like
Davis, Toombs and General Early. He
was, like Longstreet determined, when
he sheathed his sword, to keep the
peace between the sections, in spirit as
well as In letter. Lee survived the war
only five years. Had he been granted
the same length of days as his class
mate. General Joe Johnston, he would.
like him, have always cast his influ
ence against sectionalism In the South.
Had Abraham Lincoln, who enjoyed
the confidence of both North and South
as to his integrity of purpose, and
Robert E. Lee, whose influence over
the Southern people was very great
both survived the war ten years, it
Is quite probable that many serious
political mistakes on both sides would
have been avoided. The dearest wish
of both these Southern-born men would
have been to heal the wounds of war
as rapidly as possible, and with the
Confidence which both these men en
joyed In their respective sections, and
the public respect with which both
were universally regarded, they would
have persuaded their people on both
sides to approach the problem of re
construction with freedom from pas
sion and prejudice, compared with the
bitter strife that took place under the
demagogic administration of President
Johnson. Had' Lee survived the war a
dozen years, he would have been found
with Lamar, and Bayard, a stiff Gold
Democrat for he came of conservative
Federalist stock. He would no more
have been a free-sllverlte or a Populist
than Longstreet or Buckner; for, like
them, he knew no sectionalism after
surrender.
"Christian Science cannot Intelli
gently be handled by one who does not
know anything of Its nature," says
somebody. The statement is proved
both by malpractice and by mortality
of the science. Healers evidently can't
handle It because they don't know any
thing about it The only objection to
the science Is that It Is far In advance
of human evolution. After we shall
have lived a few million years more
and sloughed off our physical being,
we shall be all spirituality and never
sick. Our great handicap Is that we
have lived so many years before ac
quiring spiritual consciousness that our
grosser nature is a fact When we shall
have reduced Christian Science from an
lmpolpably inane to a tangible concept
we may have a medicine. Christian
Scientists are quite proper in their ar
raignment of citlclsm. If the concept
is hazy and heterogeneous for Us ex
ponents, perhaps criticism is likewise.
Because state money is not equally
distributed, by all means let us dls
trioute it as unequally as possible. This
wisdom seems to Inspire certain of our
wiseacre citizens. Certainly, If Marlon
County has a graft, let us give another
to Crook County. If Lane County gets
a fat share, let us give -a fatter one to
Union or Baker. Let us remove con
siderations of expediency from appro
priations and substitute others of
profit Let us change the purposes of
legislative acts from those of govern
ment to others of gain to individuals.
Our all-wise propounders of govern
mental function seem to labor under
the idea that our public Institutions
serve personal Instead of state objects.
They confess thereby an unenviable
frame of mind.
Taxpayers get more injustice out of
petty litigations than litigants get Jus
tice. A backyard fracas between
housewives or a squabble over a hen
roost Is elevated to a sublime question
of justice by self-seeking lawyers.
Their business Is to exalt molehills to
mountains. Consequently their opin
ions about the blessed quality of un
strained Justice should be balanced by
others which are not charmed by busi
ness perplexities. Absolute Justice Is
more feasible by squelching backyard
altercations than by cinching taxpay
ers. To be sure, a certain amount of
justice Is extracted by adjudication of
petty squabbles, but nobody yet has
been able to compute the measure of it
Sad ghost of Jefferson! Democrats
will have a worse nightmare than the
other. If they don't watch out Re
publican Jefferson of the common peo
ple! A specter which In flesh made
Kings and Princes quake may rise
some night to point Its avenging finger
at the scions of Democracy. What
would Jefferson say, should he see a
Royalist in Congress? Democrats truly
should not sleep these nights. This
break-neck pace toward imperialism is
faster even than they who devised the
stays and balances of the Constitution
apprehended. The Royalist delegate
from Hawaii a Democrat! Our friends
should not sleep these dark, wintry
nights.
We are getting, to be well educated.
Farmers raise a rumpus when anything
is subsidized except farming. Manu
facturers do likewise when the matter
of business' comes up to them. Ship
builders think subsidization of any in
dustry other than theirs Is opposed to
public policy. It is good there is such
a thing as life. Otherwise we could not
be educated in the school of political
economy.
The Spooner bill 13 not as Important
now as it was a year ago. The elec
tion has virtually given by popular
vote to the President the authority It
was sought by resolution to confer upon
him through Congress, and the Repub
lican party Is not under the necessity
of declaring a definite policy.
Since there are thirty-three" counties
in Oregon, it follows logically that
state bounties, appropriations and in
stitutions would serve public Interests
better in one place than in another.
The Jews as Drinkers.
The Humanitarian.
The nations who are most sober at the
present day, in whom this craving for
excessive alcohol is least in evidence, are
those .who have been drinking it longest
The inhabitants of vine-growing districts
are peculiarly sober, but this has not
been always so, for the records of Scrip
ture clearly give account of scenes or.
drunken debauchery among the Jewish
and other Eastern peoples, which, even
in our own drunken country, would be
held to be disgraceful. The warnings
against the vice, moreover, run through
both the Old and the New Testament At
the present day, however, the Jewish na
tion is remarkable for Its sobriety, and
this in spite of their being scattered
abroad in all countries, and consequently
under varying climatic conditions. Their
poverty and squalor, in many Instances,
are extreme, and yet the craving to drown
their sorrows in alcohol is a thing almost
unknown among them.
Moderate drinkers most of them arc, but
the tendency to excess, the tendency to
use the drug not as an article of diet
and for the pleasurable- sensations it pro
duces, but as a means of satisfying an
inordinate and uncontrollable craving,
prevails among them only to a very lim
ited extent They have remained for ages
an almost pure race, intermarriage with
members of .other nationalities and re
ligious persuasions is not common among
them, and the explanation of their present
sobriety is that, as in the case of tuber
culosis, alcohol has worked out its own
salvation by killing off, directly or Indi
rectly, those who had the hereditary In
clination toward it
SAVE THE TRASH.
The great Englsh library economist, Ed
ward Edwards, Is responsible for the dic
tum, "The trash of one generation be
comes the highly prised treasure ot an
other." My appeal la In behalf of the
coming generation, as well as the pres
ent when that which may now be regard
ed as "trash" will be counted as treas
ure. That great mass of unorganized
materials, some of which are constantly
getting in the way of the busy worker
of the present, accumulating In the counting-house
and the office, or littering up
the library and study at home. Is large
ly made up of matter that If saved, would
sometime be of value to the historical in
vestigator. This Is so by virtue of the
well-understood fact that ev.ery scrap
ot writing or printing, every record of
a fact becomes, by the mere passage of
time, a historical document Its value
may be much or little, as the fact it re
cords is mora or less Important and as
the difficulty of obtaining It from any
other source is greater or leas.
Now, the importance ot the facts re
corded depends on a variety of circum
stances, practically impossible to antici
pate. Generally speaking, we may be cer
tain that any material which happens to
be saved will find its use sooner or later.
So well grounded is this belief that all
of the great European and American li
braries which collect documentary ma
terials have long since abandoned as sheer
folly the policy of discriminating among
the papers offered. They simply receive
everything. To illustrate, la looking
over my bibliography of Oregon materials
In he library of the Wisconsin Historical
Society. I notice, among tho pamphlets,
such things as theBe pamphlets of the
Board of Agriculture, of the Board of
Irrrlgatlon, of the Portland Board of
Trade, "Portland Illustrated," etc Clip
pings from Oregon, newspapers, for ex
ample, "Astorla'B Gala Day," from The
Oregonlan, clippings from religious pa
pers containing notices of the work of
the early Oregon mlssslonarles, etc., etc
These are simply examples taken at ran
dom from a list of several hundred
pamphlets on Oregon, carefully filed
away In the fireproof racks of the mag
nificent new library building erected at
a cost of more than half a million dol
lars by the people of the State of Wis
consin. There they will be seen and used
by the historian of 500 years hence, in
all probability much more than, they are
used now by students In Pacific Coast
history. Much of this matter Is of the
kind commonly regarded as trash, and
its destruction ordinarily goes on at an
extremely rapid rate. But for public in
stitutions whose business It is to col
lect copies ot everything In the shape
of printed matter, and for an occasional
private collector, these things with their
high value in certain lines of Investiga
tion, would very soon be as completely
lost to the world as though they had
never existed. The above applies equally
to newspapers, which If they can only be
saved for a qquarter of a century or
more, become highly Important historical
documents. The difficulty Is to save them,
a difficulty which present day collectors
of Civil War papers sufficiently appreci
ate. Accidentally copies are saved here
and there, which, when gotten together
at great cost, may possibly make a file.
But I desire especially to call atten
tion in tltis connection to written rec
ords, of which presumably only a single
copy has ever existed. Here the chances
of accidental preservation are exceeding
ly small. Unless special efforts are made
to preserve them they are almost sure to
be lost It Is for this reason that public
officers are required by law to keep rec
ords and transmit them to their succes
sors in office; for this reason our court
house officers are provided with the iron
safe and fireproof vault, where current
records can be kept and the archives of
the county, with their wealth of possibil
ities for local history, saved to the gen
erations of the future to whom their
value will be progressively greater and
greater. In every community which pro
vides proper facilities for the purpose. Its
public records are reasonably safe. But
there are still In our newer states many
wooden or brick courthouses, without
proper vaults. In such cases it Is by
no means unusual to And valuable collec
tions of records In garrets and out of the
way places where they are In more or less
danger from the" whims of unhiatorical
Janitors, and are always liable to be con
sumed by fire. I have even learned of one
county officer, a superintendent of
schools, who deliberately made a bonfire
of tho accumulated records of bis 'office
on removing from an old courthouse to a
new one. I trust however, that this Is
a unique case.
When we come to the records mad 3 by
minor public officers, such as school
clerks, for example, there Is much greater
danger of loss. This Is true for the
double reason that there is no safe place
of deposit, as a rule, and these records
are not always sufficiently prized to in
duce the best care possible. I.baVe in
my posssesslon a teacher's register cov
ering the years 1859-1S67 in a rural school
in Grant County, Wisconsin. It was res
cued from the mildew and vermin of an
old garret, whereas it should have been
kept as a precious thing. In, the office of
the district clerk. But this case of dere
liction Is in Its turn surpassed by cases,
also coming under my direct observation,
where school districts and cities 40 years
old and more, have preserved only a
small portion of their school records
through th regular official channels.
The trouble has been that such rec
ords have not been appreciated at their
full value. The school register In my
possession, contains matter of the high
est historical Importance, throwing
light not only on the local con
ditions in that district but also
upon the general educational his
tory of Wisconsin. It Is, or will be in
time to come, so valuable to the student
of Wisconsin institutions, that I mean to
turn it over to their state historical so
ciety. I have mentioned but a few classes of
"trash." There are many more that
might be mentioned. The study of 'his
tory Is rapidly beng transformed from the
merely political to the truly Institutional
character. We in America are no longer
satisfied to have a bare sketch of the po
litical progress of our country and our
states; we know that here something more
is possible, and we are demanding it We
want to know how our several Institu
tions, the elements in the great complex
of modern life, came Ut be what they are,
and how they have contributed to the
total result Therefore, the historian
must study separate institutions, educa
tional, religious, manufacturing, commer
clal, as well as political, and this last
must be studied with a minuteness not re
quired In the past
All this means a vastly increased de
pendence upon local records and docu
ments of every description. If these be
found In abundance, the historian can
make the past live again in the mind of
the present generation, and speak to It
of the strivings, the successes, the fail
ures, which all life Involves. It is only
when studied in this careful minute way
that the past can afford sure and safe
guidance to the present But when so
studied history becomes the true chart
by which to direct the forces- of social
progress.
I cannot forbear to cite one Illustration
ot the way In which progress in a certain
line has been hindered in nearly all of our
American states, on account of the fail
ure to bring forward the teachings of his
tory, as developed in the older common
wealths. About 1S30-40 occurred the so
called "education revival." having Its cen
ter In Massachusetts and Its personal em
bodiment in Horace Mann. The common
schools all over New England were in a
deplorable state. What were the reasons?
They were various. But standing out
among them in perfect clearness was one
yrhich, might b deemed fundamental.
That was the great evil of small dis
tricts. Every student ot education saw
It; It was a patent fact The remedy was
equally clear. The trouble had come
about in Massachusetts and Connecticut
by their departure from the Colonial pol
icy of township schools under a town
ship board. The remedy lay In reversing
the process, in centralizing where de
centralization had wrought the evil. But
it was hard to retrace the steps ot the
downward process, and while something
Was soon done in that direction, it was
not till 1859 that the dlstrlot system was
abolished in Massachusetts, and it was
still later when the fully developed town
ship system took Its place. Now, it would
scan that the newer states In their edu
cational arrangements would have avoid
ed this failure shown to be so pernicious
In the old. But not so. Custom and habit
rather than philosophy based upon experi
tnce, controlled, and the process of di
vision and subdivision went on in the
newer states, just as it had gone on in
the oldor with the same Inevitable result
the deterioration of the rural school. Then
after awhile, when the evils of the sys
tem became absolutely unendurable In a
particular state, the tide would turn In
the other direction, the natural remedy
would be applied, and always with suc
cess. Wisconsin i3 still struggling against
the evil, although she has now been work
ing" toward the township system for many
years.
I know of no more striking illustration
of the fact that in the absence of a clear
historical demonstration of the folly of
doing eo, men will reproduce the evils
of the institutions familiar to them, as
well as the good. Had tho history of
education In our American states been
thoroughly worked out, or had It been
worked out at all, when the newer states
adopted their systems of education,
it would simply have been impossible for
such stupendous mistakes to be made.
As It was, the knowledge of the evil was
confined to tha few, and they the men
who had little Influence In the making
of the laws.
Society everywhere needs to know its
past better than lt,has ever known it be
fore. In order to do this, the body of the
people must co-operate with the historical
investigator by saving up for him ma
terials from which alone the truth can
be obtained. JOSEPH 8CHAFER.
Department ot History, University of
Oregon.
STATUS OF THE CANAL.
Davis Amendment to Ha.y-Pa.nnce-
fote Treaty Still Fendi In Senate.
New Tork Commercial Advertiser.
All the mass of material relating to
this canal that has been accumulating
these 10 years past has boiled down to
the treaty negotiated last Winter by Mr.
Hay and Lord Pauncefote, the Hepburn
bill, rassed by the House and pending
In the Senate, the report of the Walker
Commission, nearly ready to be made, and
the treaty with Nicaragua and Costa Rica
giving the United States control ot the
right of way for the canal, which the
representatives of those powers In Wash
ington are said to be prepared to make
whenever our State Department is ready.
Out of these or, rather, out of the two
main acts, the treaty and the bill, when
each shall have been modified to fit the
other the final legislative authority to
build the canal will come.
The treaty preceded the bill. It was
signed February 5, when the canal bill of
Senator Morgan was pending in the Sen
ate. The Senate seemed eager to pass
the Morgan bill without waiting for a
treaty amending the Bulwer-Clayton
treaty. It was Induced to wait for the
Walker report, and In the meantime Mr.
Hay and Lord Pauncefote did their work.
It gave to the United States the right re
nounced by both powers In 1850 to build
and own and control exclusively an Isth
mian canal, but adopted to govern it the
rules of neutralization of the Suez Canal,
in the treaty of Constantinople in 1833,
to which the adherence of other pow
ers was to be asked. American public
opinion made no objection to the clauses
safeguarding commerce in time of war
and securing equality in use to all na
tions in time of peace; but there was
outcry against the prohibition of defen
sive works and the implied right given
an enemy's warships to enjoy the same
security In the canal as our own. Tes
timony of high military and naval au
thority that these objections were futile,
since the real defense of the canal lay in
sea power, did not convince, and the com
mittee on foreign affairs reported the
famous Davis amendment to remove
them. That added to the treaty a provis
ion, also copied from the treaty of Con
stantinople, where It safeguarded the Ot
toman Empire, providing that none of the
neutrality conditions and stipulations
should apply "to nteasures which the
United States may find It necessary to
take for securing, by its own forces, the
defense of the United States and the
maintenance of public order."
This amendment was reported early In
March, but no action was taken on it
up to the time Congress adjpurned. It
remains with the treaty as unfinished
executive business in the Senate. Mean
while the House had passed the Hepburn
bill. This was a simpler and clearer
measure than Senator Morgan's. It Is
only two pages long, and empowers the
President to obtain right of way from
the two republics, build and protect the
canal, and authorizes the Secretary of
War to make contracts for its "excava
tion, construction, completion and de
fense," at a cost not to exceed $140,000,000.
The original draft had been modified In a
report of Mr. Hepburn, February 19, ,by
softening the authority to "fortify" to
"protect" and "defend," and it was be
lieved by the friends of the Davis amend
ment that its reservations had brought
the bill and the treaty into harmony.
The Senate, however, let both go over to
this session, when they will come up for
consideration, together with the Walker
report and the treaty with the Central
American states.
Give Tbem Four-Footed Targets
Pittsburg Dispatch.
Late reports from the Adlrondacks and
other hunting regions raise the question
whether it is not necessary to preserve
the uame more strictly In order to pro
vide the hunters with a supply abundant
enough to save them from the present
disposition to bag each other.
PLEASANTRIES OF PARAGRAPHERS
The Innocence of Childhood. Papa (reading)
And there was a man who fell anions thieves,
Little Harry "Where? Did he est sent to the
Legislature? Chicago Times-Herald.
Different Views. She (at football game, as
player Is carried oft field) iTO't It perfectly
awful? He I should say It is I Why, that tel
low is no more unconscious than I am he's
playing" to tho gallery. Brooklyn Life.
A Lack of Faith. Mose Ah bad mah rab
bit's foot right in mah pocket, and still she
refused mo! Pete Doan he rash, nlggahl
Does yo' reckon yo-' knows bettah what am
good fo yo' dan dat rabbit's foot does? Puck.
Spring: ot Conduct. She What is it you
like so much about football? He Oh, tha
vigorous exercise and the fight for victory.
She Nonsense! Tou like the way we girls
praise you when it Is all over. Indianapolis
Journal.
Enjoyment Worth the Punishment. "Wil
lie," said the elder sister at the juvenile par
ty, "you'll he 111 if you eat any more, and
then you -xon't be able to go to school tomor
row," "Well," said Willie, with a sigh, "it's
worth It." Moonshine.
Boy Please, sir. may I have the afternoon
off? My grandmother Is to be buried. Em
ployerThis is the eighth grandmother you
have buried since the football season opened.
Boy I know It, sir. I come of a very old
family, and my ancestors can't stand the ex
citement of the game. They're dying off very
fast. Tit-Bits.
At one of the railway-construction works In
tho vicinity of the city a Roman Catholic cler
gyman takes a great interest in tho mem
bers of his flock who are engaged at the cut
ting. On Saturday he saw one of them, enter
ing a "pub." Tind hailed him. hut Pat simply
looked, and walked in, "Waiting till .be came
out. the reverend gentleman accosted him
thus: "Pat; dln't you hear me calling?"
"Yes, your ravrlnce, I did, but but I bad
only the price of one." Glasgow Evening
Tunas.
NOTE AND COMMENT.
Kruger defies England as effectively as
terrier behind a picket fence does a
bulldog.
Maybe Kruger meant to except himself;
when he declared the Boefrs will fight to
the death.
The survival of the fattest is a doc
trine which does not apply to our friend
the turkey. .
If the Sultan savs. "Call around tomor
row," It will be because he never heard
of Kentucky.
Croker has been taxed In England. This
Is poetic Justice, for he does tha taxing
in New York.
The I-told-you-so man has droDDed the
election and Is getting into training for
next Summer's yacht race.
Waldersee reports he is pacifying the
country around Pekln. He should avoid
getting the situation well In hand.
"Four years more of the full windbag"
was not a popular sentiment even In Ne
braska, where they are used to those
things.
When the French feel that England .'a
sufficiently Insulted, they will mark tha
boundaries of their country "exhibit A."
and point them out to Kruger.
That Zimmerman girl may have done a
better Job than Anna Gould, after all.
Manchester Is a far prettier name than
Costellane, and Infinitely more uppish.
The Democrats accuse the Republicans
of wanting to reorganize the Democratic
party, but the Republicans are perfectly
willing to entrust that Job to Bryan and
Jones.
Our esteemed contemporary, the Con
gressional Record, has missed a number
of issues, but we understand it is making
arrangements to resume publication n
the near future.
If the victims at the Stanford-Berkeley
football game, last Thursday, had
been players, a great many facetious peo
ple would have trenchant things to say
about the mortality of the sport
Bryan says he feels good because he re
tains the confidence of his associates.
Perhaps he has not heard the talk of re
organizing the party or Jones' declara
tion that he is out of it
A municipal ordinance which assumed
to prohibit any woman from going into
a building where there Is a liquor sa
loon, or from standing or loafing within
50 feet thereof, has been condemned as
unreasonable and unconstitutional by the
Kentucky Court of Appeals. It Is sug
gested that the ordinance might bo
valid if its operations were confined to
disreputable characters, but It would
probably bo somewhat difficult to define
such characters so that the police would
know whom to arrest and whom to let go.
The court declares that it knows no rule
of law which prohibits a well-behaved
woman from going Into or near a saloon,
where her purpose and manner are lawful.
Some people who have read the ac
counts of the tremendous slaughter o
deer by Indians in Wyoming have an
idea that if deer are so numerous there
as reports indicate they really need
thinning out Granting that the slaugh
ter is all that has been reported. It Is
nothing compared to the slaughter of
deer in Southern Oregon a few years ago
by "skin hunters." The skin of a deer
when thoroughly dried only weighs a
few ounces, yet it was no Infrequent thing
in those. days to see heavy truckloads of
these skins in bales, hauled through the
streets of Portland. These skin hunters
killed deer by thousands, and left their
carcasses to rot where they were skinned.
Sln.ce this killing of deer for their skins
has been practically stopped, the ani
mals are becoming more numerous and
presently there will be hosts of them. A
venison cutlet or haunch, from ' a good
fat buck. Is a very agreeable change
from the eternal beef, pork and mutton,
but lean deer are not worth cooking.
President Judge Arnold, of Court of
Common Pleas No. 4, In the City of
Philadelphia, has recently expressed him
self very emphatically In favor of the
divorce laws ot the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, which are more liberal
than those of the State of New York,
where marital infidelity is the only cause
for absolute divorce, permlttng the inno
cent party to marry ag.'ln. "Our divorce
laws are wise and Just," says Judge Ar
nold in a recent opinion. "I do not agree
with those persons who occasionally de
nounce them. The hatred, misery, sin and
crime, which so often flow from ln
dlssolute marriage connections, require a
remedy. "Wife-beaters and deserters
should be deprived of the opportunity of
inflicting further misery on their part
ners. Desertion as a cause of divorce has
milch warrant of scripture. In St Paul's
first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter
vll, verse 15, he wrote: 'But if the un
believing depart, let him depart A broth
er or a sister Is not under bondage in
such cases'; and commentators on the
Bible have held this text to mean that
desertion dissolves the marriage."
The Veteran's Last Battle.
"W. T. Dumas In Atlanta. Journal.
The veteran sits In his easy chair on his
porch at the hour of noon.
And looks thro' the clouds of his long
stemmed pipe o'er the bountiful mead
ows of June,
Till the fire dies out of the odorous leaves
that under their ashes are hid.
And the fire Is quenched in his yet keen eye
by the drop of its tremulous lid;
Then he nods and he dreams, forgetful of all
the mortgage, the crops, and the rain;
For the bugles and drums of the long ago are
echoing loud In his brain.
Let the busies and drums call on, call on,
shrill blast and voluminous roll;
For they sound to the conflict enacted again
on tho field of the slumberer's sout
Although In the trenches they've moldered
away for many and many a year.
In rank upon rank, resplendent with arms,
the men and their leaders appear
For phantasy marshals those squadrons of
ghosts that sweep o'er the hoof-cut plain.
And the keen, bright swords ot the long ago
are flashing anew In his brain.
Let the bugles and drums- play on, play on,
the scintlllant sword blades wheel;
The battle runs riot In tempests of lead and
terrible whirlwinds of steel;
And onward the riders thro columns ot smoke
sweep down In the heart of the fray.
The veteran borne In the midst of the charge
on the back of his strenuous gray;
But he falls' from his saddle, still clutching
at air, and the battle Is over again;
By the bullet that wounded him long ago
today he is stretched with the slain.
The bugles and drums have ceased, hava
ceased, the cannon roar not on the bill;
The stillness of noon has been broken alone
by the pipes of the locust shrill;
He slips from the arms of his easy chair and
lies outstretched on the floor.
As he fell from his horse in bis younger days
and lay in the dust and the gore.
The doctor will come and mutter "his heart."
but never a doctor can know
He was killed by the bullet that wounded Elm
ones In a. battle of long ago.