The Sunday Oregonian., January 14, 1900, Page 4, Image 4

THE SUNDAY OKEGONIAN, PORTLAND, JAUAEY ,14, 1900.
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3?OR-rE,AD, STJKDAT, JAXUARY 14.
SEJ-GOVERronSTT A GROWTH.
The llmitatiQns of the mind are such
that it never understands the meaning
of its owa time. Comparison with
something: else la the way we appre
hend any object, a, law that lies deep
down in the foundations of conscious
Intelligence. Only through knowledge
of tire nebulous planets did we learn
our Wstory; only through study of the
moon do we discover our destiny. The
past and future, thus revealed explain
the present. Kb present- is comprehend
Bible without reference- to what lies be
hind and what is to come after. The
world just begins to comprehend Crom
well and Napoleon as world forces. For
what end his voyages were made, Co
lumbus died in ignorance. For whom
he trudged his weary way to Augs
burg, Xnither had no conception. None
ean foresee the future, and few, until
this .century, knew the historical imag
ination that alone can bring the past,
with its counsel and warnings, to bear
on the -present hour.
As contact with savagism and bar
barism was needed to teach civilised
xnan the story of his past, so is contact
with barbarism in a different field to
teach us today the meaning of self
government as an institution, not in
herited of right, but a growth built up
by insensible accretion from impercept
ible beginnings. The founders of the
American republic did not recognize in
themselves the product of 4000 years of
civilization. The history of the race
was then unknown. The modern mind,
formed -by Buckle and Lubbock,
Spencer and Darwin, was as Impossible
as" it was non-existent. It doubtless
seemed to them that as a woTld had
Issued complete from the hand of its
Maker, with lands and seas fashioned
In their present aspect, so man himself
had been endowed with civil privileges
and responsibilities in an hour, and the
governed entrusted by deity with in
alienable rights and duties of sover
eignty. They doubtless had little -conception
of the truth that rule is always
to the capable, just as any tool is only
to the hand that can wield it, and that
the masses grasped at power only when
time and discipline had fitted them for
its exercise.
Self-government has been the accept
ed programme for Puerto Rico; but
Governor-General Davis, who is evi
dently anxious for its application, re
gretfully finds no way of putting It into
operation with safety. Not one man in
a hundred, he says, is fitted for the
responsibilities of self-government. It
is -possible, of course, for one to shut
his eyes to the truth and maintain with
skill and resolution that he sees Nearly.
Mr. Atkinson's and Mr. Hoar's successes
In this line compel admiration. But
the opes and discerning mind can see
the same principle of action iHcumbeht
upon us in Cuba and the Philippines
that has -been found necessary in the
South, in Hawaii, in our dealings with
the Indians, and in the educational and
other limitations with which suffrage
has been surrounded In half the states
of the North, conspicuously In Massa
chusetts, where no "governed" is asked
for his consent or refusal, -unless he
can demonstrate his fitness for the
franchise.
Self-government is not a thing to be
handed to a man or a people on a plat
ter, any more than you can give a
man wit or judgment or an artistic
temperament. Self-government is a
structure to be laboriously built up by
a people, just as character is a posses
sion to be painfully acquired by the in
dividual. Self-government by the unfit
Is a contradiction in terms, for it could
have no permanence. The descent to
no government would be swjf t and the
substitution of government by the
strong would he inevitable. Govern
ment is not a Christmas present; it is
an employment. A man can no more
govern, without capacity to govern, In
herited or acquired, than he can teach,
or run a locomotive or sail a ship. Be
hind the self-governing American to
day stand all the thoughts, experiences
and labors of dead centuries from the
dawn of history.
Upon the ruins of Assyrian and
Egyptian learning roe the acumen pi
Greece., the military and legal power of
Rpme. Constantinople rose and fell,
Gaul "was subdued and transformed,
Teuton worked out his problems in
pain and fear. Northmen sailed and
fought, the monks, of the middle ages
pondered and wrote, discovery spread
Its sails and the Renaissance arose all
as ministers to the civilised mind of
today and tomorrow, in which inherited
fietfcontrol, enlightened through his
tory and literature, is at length fitted
to govern itself, and to discharge the
duties of guardian to those thrown into
its charge. This nation earned. Its In
dependence, not in the Revolution, but
in the training that had gone before it.
There is no other way. No one governs
the man who can govern himself. And
to a people that cannot govern itself no
one can give self-government.
"Do you know," says the Baker Dem
ocrat, "'that it requires 50 per cent more
wheat to buy a stove than it did In
1S96?" The statement Is not quite true,
but suppose it true. Then how can it
be an argument, as the Democrat in
tends it to he, against the gold stand
ard? Suppose silver your mpney. Then
if you get a higher price for your'
wheat, measured in silver, you will
pay, correspondingly, a higher price for
your stove, measured In silver1; and In
this shuffle of Inflation the manufac
turer, money broker and retail dealer
trill have an advantage ever the wheat
grower and stove-buyer, that he does
not -possess now. Can anybody be so
dense as to suppose that if the value of
the wheat is measured In silver the
value of the stove will not be measured
m silver, too?
FETUttE OP HtniAMTT.
Bo -Quickly the years -come and go, so
hurriedly the centuries jostle each
other into tha past, it is no wonder cnn
of reflaetlon pause sometime, look up
from their separate tasks and ask each
other what the end shall he. '"Whence
end "Whither are questions as old as
civilization, and older, for through all
the degrees of barbarism and een In
the middle .and upper stages of sav
agery we find evidences of gropings
after these mysteries. In the childhood
of the race such questions were inevi
tably referred to the religious instinct
and they were answered by the cus
todians of the .supposed truths- of myth
ology. The scheme -of the universe and
the history of our own planet were
matters given out by authority, and in
a few generations they became part of
accepted truth. Columbus drew assur
ance of the reality qf his westward vis
Ions from Holy Writ, and Vespucius
was almost .inclined to dispute the evi
dence of his senses when he discovered
lands in the South Atlantic, because no
authority for their existence could be
found in the writings of the ancients.
Discoveries like those of "Vespucius
exerted profound influence in under
mining the power of tradition -and au
thority in the field -of material knowl
edge. But the Renaissance turned
men's thoughts to literary and -artistic
rather than scientific pursuits, so that
hundreds e years passed before men
learned to cease searching in old hu
man chronicles for the records that
were to be found only In Nature. This
profound labor of physics, geology, pal
eontology, biology and astronomy, with
the incidents of philology and embryol
ogythe noble galaxy of modern sci
enceshas been done, and all there is
to do now is to fill in the details. The
mind has been emancipated, and It
turns to science for hints of the future
as it has had to do for records of the
past. A number of scientific men have
recently given their Impressions, of the
physical future of mankind. The points
of departure in such speculation are
not many, but very certain. The fu
ture of the planet is death. The day is
coming when the globe shaH "swing
cold within a rayless void." Its rota
tory motion will cease until It presents
but one side continually to the sun,
and .then life will become impossible.
Down that long journey to oblivion a
few steps can be distinctly seen. Along
with the retardation of movement
comes gradual decrease of tempera
ture. The Eskimos, remnants of the
r ice age, will perish or else be driven
southward past their ancient haunts in
Central Europe and our Middle Atlan
tic states. Men will slowly be com
pelled to retreat from north and south
toward the equator. Along with this
thickening density, multiplied eomtnu-
ifiicatlon, instantaneous throughout all
parts of the earth, will steadily obliter
ate differences In races, religions, lan
guages and customs. Barbarians will
perish or be amalgamated Into a uni-
Lversal white race, speaking one com
mon tongue, composite of all that have
ever been preserved, and creeds will
be powerless to enslave the free be
liefs and worship of the Individual
mind. As rapid transit increases, thtf
tendency of lofty buildings will be re
versed. Custom will enforce sanitation
and prevent reproduction of iraperfeet
and diseased individuals, and we shall
more and more seek, in oceans the food
the thickly populated land can only
supply with increasing difficulty.
As to man himself, it has long been
recognized that evolution Is practically
done with his physical frame. When
the day came that on the earth ap
peared a species whose mind furthered
his advance more than his. body did,
that day the evolution of the body
ceased and the evolution of the mind
beeame all. Arrested development pos
sessed our frame, and left us with all
the vestiges of our lowly descent, where
they will remain to the end. The little
toe may disappear, or the wisdom
teeth, or the vermiform appendix. But
the body will be substantially the
same. Science will strengthen the eye,
telephones will develop the hearing,
bustle of cities will sharpen all the
senses, and athletics will rescue the
whole frame from that decay which
civilization has frequently threatened.
This upward movement would not be
possible unless we could see the begin
nings of remedy for the deteriorating
Influences at work. Something must
appear to check the tendency Of Iiq
individual to rely upon society for his
support, and to bitme society for his
faults. Something must appear to take
the place of supernatural dogmas that
have held Immorality in check. The
beginnings of the corrective for each of
these are already here. Things will
look dark If We leave out of account
the pervasive influences of such master
minds as those of Herbert Spencer,
Lecky and Emerson. These men have
no popular following, but they have
formed the minds that are forming so
ciety. Upon the coming generations
will be stamped the necessity of sell
reliance and the necessity of morals-.
Science hap destroyed the errors of the
old regime, It is competent to find and
apply the saving grace of the new -dispensation.
"Love God and love one an
other' was not only spoken in words
of spiritual meaning. It is written on
the tablets of creation itself.
THE SOCIAL EXPERT.
The world still moves, and thetevoIve
ment of the "expert" continues. Ex
perts In law, in finance and in medicine
have held the boards sq long that they
have become a part, In thefr several
spheres, of our communtly life, but the
"social expert," though perhaps JOng a
part of that pretentions something
known as "genteel society," has but re
cently beeh uncovered. We find Miss
Mary B. Howe, grand-daughter of the
late Ellas Howe, the pioneer seWing
machlne manufacturer, before a New
Tork court as claimant for 24,750 as
"social expert" in the interest and em
ployment for several years of Frances
Augusta, wife of Samuel Perry Skin
ner, of New Tork city. Mrs. Skinner,
as appears from the testimony given in
support of the plaintiff's contention,
was in the social swim without know
ing how to keep afloat.
In this serious dilemma she called
Miss Howe to her aid. The latter had
realized from her grandfather's Ingenu
ity and thrift, in the form of a resi
dence for some years in Europe and an
education in musis, French,- German,
dancing, etc., her accomplishments in
cluding a knowledge of the art of en
tertaining from being entertained, and
of costuming from seeing ladies of
quality on dress parade. Her duties in
I Mrs. Skinner's home were along th&
lines of these accomplishments. She
helped her employer to entertain, fur
'nished music for guests, accompanied
Mrs. Skinner shopping and calling, and
raade herself generally useful In a gen
tee w.ay. She was finally dismissed,
her empleyer declining to pay her for
services which covered a peried of sev
eral years, hence this suit.
The Gase has created quite a sensa
tion in social oircles of th great me
tropolis. An attempt was made, to ex
clude reporters -from the courtroom, on
the plea that in the course of the pro
ceedings the names of certain society
women who were forced to earn their
Irving as ".social experts" might have
to be mentioned a plea which the un
sympathetic judge eurtly refused.
When, however, the plaintiff's counsel
introduced Mrs. Elizabeth Wirrthrop
Stephens, "descendant of the late Alex
ander Stephens and a relative of the
late Governor Stuyvesant," who as ex
pert In such matetrs was called as wit
ness for Miss Howe, the shifts and
straits to which "society women" are
reduced in maintaining their position
were laid bare. Mrs. Stephens eon
ducts' a. "soeial requirements and- intel
ligence bureau," through which she
gives advice to society wornen in the
management of their homes, teaches
them how to entertain and hpw to be
have in society; furnishes list of guests
for private receptions and functions,
and details ' suitable young women to
assist perplexed hostesses in making
things go off properly at swell' func
tions. The responsible nature of these du
ties, as viewed from the standpoint of
the expert, may be surmised frdm the
estimate that $5000 a year is a reason
able salary for the services alleged to
have been performed by Miss Howe.
And why not? Though disdaining to
be called working women, and closely
guarding the dread secret that they
are compelled to earn their fh lihood,
are not these laborers worthy of their
hire? And arp not their duties multi
farious enough, and perplexing enough,
and withal distasteful enough, through
the covert lines along which they ile, to
command first-class salaries? Who
would not rather be president' of a raE
road, on the simple basis of responsi
bility, than social purveyor to a woman
who has money without breeding and
position without intelligence?
BREAKERS AHEAD.
San Francisco papers report sales of
Sonoma hops at prices ranging from C
to 8 cents per pound, with more moving
at the minimum than at the maximum
price. This perhaps accounts for the
difficulty experienced in selling Oregon
hops at anything like satisfactory
prices. Sp long as California growers
are willing to dispose of their crop at
these figures, and New Tork growers
are sellng in the East at substantially
the same prices, it will be a difficult
matter for more money to be realized
on the Oregon product. In endeavoring
to advance prices under such circum
stances, the Oregon Hopgrowers' Asso
ciation Is in a similar position to that
of Mr. Joseph Leiter, who attempted to
advance wheat prices two years ago by
securihg control of vast quantities of
the cereal.
The Hopgrowers' Association Is re
ported to have secured control of about
30,600 bales of Oregon hops. In com
parison with the total production of the
United States, this is an amount of no
mean proportions, and in temporarily
removing it from the market It has had
the effect of preventing the price from
dropping to lower levels than now, ex
ist. To this extent the hop eombine
may be termed a success. To a similar
stage Mr. Letter's wheat deal was a
success, but when he had secured con
trol of several million bushels of wheat
and had manipulated the market so
that prices rose to dizzy heights, a
large amount of outside selling com
menced. Not alone in this country did
the farmers scrape their grain bins to
meet the demand from consumers; but
from India, Russia, Australia, Argen
tina in fact, from all over the world
wheat was forthcoming. In vain leiter
sought to let go of the wheat he had
accumulated, but every time he made
a move to sell a few thousand bushels
the market was frightened into a slump
which forced him to buy back every
thing that was thrown on the market
in order to prevent a ruinous loss on
the millions of bushels which he was
carrying.
Sad the harvest of 1898 proved a fail
ure the world over, Mr. "Letter's wheat
deal would have been the most colossal
financial suecess that has ever been re
corded. Unfortunately for him, hut
fortunately for the consumers, by the
time the outside farmers had cleaned
out their stoeks in meeting the demand
another harvest was at hand. The
young Napoleon had handled the crop
Of a nation with some measure of suc
cess, but the crop of a world was be
yond Uls capacity, and the Inevitable
result followed. This result, whether
rt follows the manipulation of wheat,
hops, corn, wool, or any ether product
which Is in general use, and for which
there is general demand all over the
world, Is merely the supplanting of un
natural trade conditions by the invinci
ble law of supply and demand. Letter's
wheat deal-wag temporarily of great
benefit to the farmers of Oregon and
Washington, and the hop combine
would prove of equal value to the hop
growers if the crops of the world could
be withdrawn from the market -as have
the 30,000 bales mentioned.
As has been stated, prlees have been
held fairly steady since the formation
of the combine, but there has been no
advance, nor will there be so long" as
the growers of California and New
Tork are satisfied to put their hops on
the market at prices which consumers
will pay. The New Tork Journal of
Commerce and the San Francisco Com
mercial News, both journals of unques
tionable repute in their respective
fields, have printed from time to time
throughout the season details of sales
of hops, frequently giving the name of
both buyer and seller, number of bales
sold and price paid. This is convincing
evidence that there are plenty of grow
ers who are satisfied with existing
prices, and until all of the stock held
by these sellers Is disposed of, with a
demand still unsatisfied, the hop com
bine can achieve only partial success.
The Oregonian would be pleased, to
chronicle sales of Oregon hops at more
than double the prices they are now
worth. It would also regret to see the
consumptive demand filled by the
growers of California and New Tork at
present prices, and our own stock car
ried over and sold next year at lower
figures than are now obtainable.
i jfDWwmM l,llliilli
THE CR-T OF AA8KA.
Alaska suffers because she has no one
to speak for her. The delegates she
sends, without authority, to the house
of representatives -are denied seats.
Turned out of congress, ail exile in his
own country, the best the delegate can
do is to employ among members the
arts of the lobbyist, in vague hope, of
creating a sentiment in favor of much
needed legislation for his dlsrrlet.
"Among the great territories of the"
Wst," ran a memorial to congress,
adopted by the re-publican convention
which mat a Juneau in the fall of 1S39,
"we stand atone a monument of com
plete and utter isolation and non-repre-sehtatien.
With an area sufficient to
form a dozen states, with resources un
numbered and unlimited, with no man
ner of expressing our just needs or. to
demand our just rights, . . . we
come to you for relief." This demand
for justice has been repeated time and
again, but congress adheres to the stu
pid Russian policy of deeming Alaska
unworthy o fair laws because too far
removed from the center of, govern
ment. Without representation in con
gress, Alaska is trot in position to urge
its' claims for recognition. Tet no blame
san attach to the house for denying
admission to one who Is not legally one
of its members. Mottrom D. Ball was
refused a seat in 1S81, Thomas S. Now
ell In 1894, and J. G. Price now. Minor
Bruce went to Washington with a me
morial for relief In 1S89, and Captain
James Carroll with another in 1890.
Captain Carroll opened the eyes of the
country to the value of Alaska with his
offer of $2O,e0O,C00 for the district in
case congress was not disposed to
grant its people proper laws. The only
representation Alaska has ever had
was in the democratic national conven
tion of 188S and the republican and
democratic national conventions of 1892
and 1896. Both the democratic and re
publican national conventions of 1896
adopted planks favoring congressional
representation for .Alaska.
It is exceedingly doubtful If the peo
ple of Alaska are serious in their de
mand for territorial government. They
cannot afford it. Minor Bruce, who is
an authority o Alaskan affairs, wrote,
as late as April, 1899, that, among the
people of the district, there was wide
spread opposition to territorial organ
ization, on account of dread of taxes
and the expense of maintaining that
form, of government. The vast area
and scattered settlements make a fair
system of voting very doubtful of real
ization. Peculiar climate, remoteness
from Washington and transient char
acter of population furnish added
doubts as to the practicability of ter
ritorial organization. The principal
needs are removal of the prohibition on
the cutting and export of lumber; pro
tection of the salmon industry, in which
between $10,eOQ,000 and $12,000,004 Is in
vested in buildings and machinery, and
the output of which was $4,120,000 last
year; extension of the laws regulating
the purchase of coal lands; a more
comprehensive judiciary, and survey of
the public lands. The question Is
whether these cannot be secured other
wise than through territorial govern
ment. What Alaska requires more than con
gressional representation is protection
to life and property. This can be best
accomplished by a larger judiciary, or,
as Governor Brady expresses it, in his
December report to the secretary of the
interior, "by the creation of additional
courts so elastic that the department
of justice can adapt them to the needs
of the population." More courts
granted now will save the disagreeable
alternative of. martial law in the near
future, for there will certainly be great
disorder if present conditions are al
lowed to continue indefinitely. The 24,
000 white persons in the district should
have white men's laws, and the 31,000
natives and Russian Creoles are entitled
to lEeir measure of protection. Con
gress cannot longer turn a deaf ear to
the cry for relief which has come from
Alaska for twenty years
AW AGNOSIC METHOBSST.
A,t the recent congress of the Meth
odist Episcopal church at St. Louis, the
most notable paper was read by Pro
fessor M. D. Learned, of Pennsylvania
university, on "The Message of the
Church to Men of Culture." Professor
Learned is known as "a free lance in
Methodism." He lamented the tend
ency of' men of cnltme to keep aloof
from the church, and the reason he
gave for their departure was that there
Is "a startling consensus among schol
ars, scientific men and men of culture
in general, as to the valueiessness of
dogma." Professor Learned contended
that the "church, in order to hold men
of culture within its fold as active
Christians, must change Its attitude
toward many questions"; that the sci
entific man is an Inquirer, a learner,
but haust not, cannot formulate dog
matic finalities. Because the scientific
man will not and cannot believe with
out scientific demonstration, which is
Impossible in the domain of the super
natural, Professor Learned would give
up the whole case of the church to
satisfy "eulture." He leaves to scien
tific analysis and judgment every mlra
cle on which theology Is founded, the
incarnation, the resurrection, and an
revealed religion, and, of course, these
dogmas eannot Stand the test, for they
conflict with modern scientific knowl
edge and experience.
These views of Professor Learned,
whieh do not make him an outcast
from the Methodist church, really
mean nothing but agnosticism as an
ultimate, for they eliminate supemat
uraiism from religion, which is the
sheet anchor of priestcraft. Professor
Learned's Methodism Is a distinct de
parture from religious faith, for he
says that ''the chureh must not resist
scientific inquiry, but must rather
adopt the scientific method and wel
come Its results," and "rather turn the
light of Christian truth upon the social,
moral and religious problems of mod-j
era life," in order to Induce the world
to "begin to believe in its sincerity."
There is nothing exceptional in this
ehange in the Methodist church; it is
clearly in evidence in all the old-time
orthodox churches, and also in the Uni
tarian church. Theodore Parker in 1845
was treated as a heretic by the "Or
thodox" Channing school of Unitarians
of Boston, but today the leading Uni
tarian pulpits are occupied by meh who
are more "liberal" than even Parker.
The Methodist church, and the Baptist
chureh, the two great popular churches
of the country, have not been able to
resist the impact of increased popular
intelligence against hidebound bigotry
and' emotional ignorance. The old vio
lence of Religious excitement has passed"
away, outside of the illiterates and im
beciles of the country, and religious
meetings have become as a rule sober
and serious assemblages that are no
longer terrified by pictures of hell fire
and torments of lost sculs, such as Jon
athan Edwards preached to his flock
at Northampton until he wore oat his
welcome and was invited to gat out and
stay out.
The change is very great; it has come
by no Jesuitical design or practice; It
has taken place gradually. The change
has not come because of corrupt and
mean motives; it has come because in
a free eountry every pulpit must voice
its pews. The pews will not pay for
spiritual food that their stomachs have
come to rejeet, and so long as the paws
rule the pulpit rather than the pulpit is
the infallible pope of the pews, we may
expect radical changes in the pulpit ac
cents f all the orthodox churches. The
pulpiteer who is not ready to be a wan
dering religious minstrel er itinerant
must be prepared to have his tongue
touched with Pentecostal flame from
his pews. .
When the state board made the levy
of state taxes last year, the legislature
had not yet assembled in regular ses
sion. When the appropriation bfil had
been passed, .it was found to contatn a
number of appropriations not provided
for In the tax levy already made. On
the other hand, several items were pro
vided for in the levy that did not finally
get into the appropriation bill, and the
surplus thereby remaining on hand is
517,285 77. The. figures published In the
la3t two days show in ponsiderable de
tail where the state gets Its money and
where it spends it. It may aid to a
clearer understanding of the table
printed yesterday to know that bf the
three columns of figures the first repre
sented the biennial appropriation for
eaeh item, the second the amount pro
vided for in the levy last year, while
the third represents the expenses for
which the state is liable in this current
year, including those authorized by the
legislature but not provided for in the
levy of last year.
The presence of Continental officers
ih the Boer armies is undoubted, and
has never been otherwise. German of
ficers did the business for the Turks in
1897 British fought with us In our war
with Spain, and Americans are now
trying to get into the Transvaal strug
gle on both sides. In one sense this is
nothing new. The soldier of fortune is,
an ancient type. The change Is In
practical obliteration of the old relig
ious and racial conflicts. Holy wars
and Protestant leagues are things of
the past. McKlnley the Methodist
sends a Catholic prelate to Luzon, and
England helps to found a Mussulman
college at Khartoum. "We draw the
sword today, not to convert unbelievers
or placate Jehovah by extermination of
heathen tribes, but to advance Ideals of
civilization. Men of different language
and religious belief will be found,
therefore, undpr one flag, as their real
or supposed interests lie. The Irish
Catholic, who is hardly a human being
in the eye of the Boers, bestirs himself
to aid their cause.
The Hepburn bill contemplates gov
ernment construction Instead of a lump
contract with a syndicate. This step in
largely dictated by popular aversion to
corporate influences, which breaks out
in ridiculous places sometimes, but is
based upon a sound Instinct. It is bet
ter that the canal should cost some
what more under government as com
pared with a contract, thar that any
immense corporation can get what it
wants of congress for the asking. Here
we see popular government at work,
imperfectly, it is true, but to noble
ends. It ig a companion 'phenomenon
to the dread of militarism In England
and the United States, one of whose
awkward manifestations Is the unpre
pared state we are found in at every
war. .
Mr. Warde, with his excellent com
pany, has completed one of the most
successful dramatic engagements irt
the history of Portland; and he emi
nently deserves all he gets. His quali
ties of mind and heart, and they are
those of a courteous and high-mmdad
gentleman, and an actor of unsur
passed conscientiousness, are such as
tj make for him wherever he goes
friends who wish him every success.
He has everything unless it be genius;
and if Nature has withheld this, the
denial reflects no credit upon her judg
ment. British subjects who fought In our
Cuban army are being enlisted at Lon
don. These are the men aimed at, ap
parently, In the proposed amendments
cutting off pensions from pensioners
living abroad. It Is easy to Imagine
cases where deserving pensioners,
whose homes were in Europe, should
naturally return to their homes thfcre.
This would not vitiate their desert as
pensioners, but would effectually dis
qualify them In congressional estima
tion. They would have no votes.
The assertion that Bryan has indi
cated to Utah men a preference for a
tariff on wool is not confirmed; but
even If It could be proved, it would be
unfair to ask him to tallc that way to
his free-trade supporters in other sec
tions. He ean hardly be expected to
rise above the McKinley principle,
which favors civil service reform to its
friends, and to the Ohio politicians
winks the other eye and turns a few
more places in the classified list over to
the spoilsmen.
There Is not the slightest doubt that
mpney paid to members of the legis
lature carried Clark Into t-he United
States senate. But where is the sena
tor, who is the senator, whose skirts
are clear? "The jury has among the
sworn twelve more than one guiltier
than him they try."
Justification of the Natal censorship
is found hi the fact that news of Brit
ish movements are promptly cabled to
the Boer authorities. Buller does not
intend to tip his hand to the enemy.
This is not pleasant for the stay-at-homes,
and does not sell papers. But it
Is war.
Department stores are failing occa
sionally here and there over the coun
try. This is not because they are de
partment stores, but because they are
outwitted by some more clever compet
itor. There's nothing in a name to
make a business lose or prosper.
Malletoa Tanus is the ehampion antl
of the modern world. Civilization is to
him an aggregation of fallings off from
barbarism. This is anti-ism at ita log
ical extreme.
SHYtOCK AND RICrlARD III.
Tlra presentation ot Shylock; and Rich
ard HI on the theatric stage sts
gests the question often dipeusrod, whether
Shakespeare ment to portray an absolute
villain in Shylosk as he unquestionably did
hi Richard.
Shylobk Js the -rrhole play, even as Rich
ard is the overpotr erlng magnetic attrac
tion of the play. It is common to hear
the "Merchant of "Venice" spoken af as
Shakespeare "finest comedy." . Without
Shylock's trsraendous shape, the "Mer
chant of Venice" hears no comparison
m beauty and Interest frith such comedies
as "Twelfth Night," "As You Like It."
"The Tempest," "Measure for Measure,"
"Yvinter's Tale," or "iJuch Ado About
Nothh-." Portia Is an artificial, rirosonte
worcan compared with Olivia, Isabella,
Cordelia, Desdemona jrl Imogen, while
Jesslcp. is a pretty, trivial toy of a woman
compared with Ylala, Miranda, Juilet,
Rosalind or Beatrice. Without Shylock'a
tenifle shape of Intellectual penv er and
passion, the "Merchant of Venice" wonld
be worse than "Hamlet," with the part
of Hamlet left out.
So of "Richard HT." Without that
subtle, eatanW shape of majestic because
deliberate, ruiflmehlng, unrepentins and
to the last unrepentant, villainy, the play
would be as intolerable as "Don Quixote,"
with Sancho Panza omitted.
To return to Shylock. In our judgment,
while bis name has become a sidewalk
synonym for a hidebound miser and merci
less money-lender, he cannot be counted
among the absolute villains of Shake
speare's art. He la not a villain at all,
unless to become vindictive under the
stress of ehameful abuse and indignity to
hiB whole race is to be accepted as proof
of villainy.
The natural view of Shyloek Is that
Shakespeare meant to pahit In him a man
of powerful Intellect and intense pas
sionate nature, who had been goaded Into,
a state bf Inexorable and insane vindlc
tlveness by the oppression, abuse and In
sult that it was the brutal, ignorant habit
of Christian Europe during the Middle
Ages, after the first erusafie, to inflict
on the Jew. The only absolute and hope
less ingrained villains, villains from "the
ground up," in Shakespeare, are Richard
and lago. The other great villains o
Shakespeare were all men who becamo
demoralized through temptation and stress
of clrcunistances. That is. they were nor,
from childhood, utterly destitute of moral
sense, but had once promised better than
their ultimate performance. Macbeth
always speaks In language that proves
him to have been naturally a man of fine
poetic Imagination and nervous sensibility;
he had been for years a leyal and valiant
soldier, and his conscience, his ambition
and hi3 courage are always in a curious
state of chaos. His ambition Is great, his
courage is so high that It rises clear
above his superstitious terrors in his fight
with Macduff, but his conscience shrinks
from Duncan's murder so strongly that
but for his wife's superior nerve and
ceaseless promptings, Macbeth would
hardly have been a murderer. To Richard
or lago murder was a mere matter of
mathematical calculation of chances that
involved no mental or moral struggle, but
with Shakespeare's other villains, there is
always some humanity left. The dying
Edmund, in 'ear," Is repentant enough
ef his crimea, so that he Is anxious to
save the lives of Lear and Cordelia, whose
execafclon he has ordered. Angelo, in
"Measure for Measure," the king In "Ham
let," and even King John show some
capacity for repentance and remorse for
wrong already wrought. But Shylock can
not be considered as a picture o the vil
lain absolute, like Richard or lago, or
the villain conditional, like Macbeth.
The chief passion of Shylock Is provoked
by the wrongs done his people, "our sacred
nation," as he terms It. Shylock shows
intense love for his daughter, and natural
disappointment, rage and anguish at her
having robbed him to marry and enrich
one of the hated race of Christians
that never lost a chance to grind the
face of a Jew. Shyloek clearly care3 much
for his daughter and the memory of his
wife, his lost Leah, whose ring Jessica
has heartlessly sold for a monkey. These
are not the traits of a mere miser or
merciless usurer, and the exaction of a
pound of flesh shows that Shylock cared
nothing for maney compared with his de
sire to be revenged upon an arrogant, bru
tal, Ghrlstlan merchant, who had spit upon
his beard, kicked him as If he was a
strange dog, called him misbeliever and
cutthroat. Antonio tells him that even IJ
he lends hla friend the money he Is like
to call hhn dos, kick him and spit upon
him. The Jew naturally feels vindictive,
and plots how he can, within the law, cut
Antonio's heart out. In our day, Antonio
would be in great danger of having hjs
heart cut out, but Shylock had no rem
edy at law against Antonio, and his only
remedy, his only chance of revenge on his
chronic perseeutor and insulter of his
"sacred nation" was to intrigue within
the law against his life.
Antonio deserved death for his habitually
brutal treatment ef Shylock, whose whole
bearing and speech show him to have been
a man of powerful mind, of high dfg-
nlty and standing among his tribe, and on
the whole, the most majestic figure In the
play when ho pronounces his Impressive
defense, beginning, "I am a Jew." In thla
eloquent invective, Shakespeare meant to
show hdw brutal must have been the treat
ment of the Jews of his day, who were
driven from England by the edict of Ed
ward I. and not recalled until the
time of Cromwell. Shakespeare meant to
rebuke his age for inhumanity to Jews,
when he mafie Shylock voice the wrongs
of centuries. If Shakespeare had meant to
degrade the Jew, he would have made
Shylock a mere Sir Giles Overreach; but
he did not make him either mean cr
merciless, except as every patriot is mer
ciless to a tyrant.
-in
THREE AXGEIiS.
They say this life Is arren, drear and cold.
Ever the same, sad eong was euns ol ofd.
Ever the same long weary tats Is told.
And to our Hps is held the cup of strife.
And yet a Utile love can iweeten life.
They sar cair hands ma erasp but Joys de
stroyed, To-th has tut dreams, and age an adMn? void.
Whose Dead -Sea fruit, lone, "long ago has
cloyed.
Whose nlcht -with wild tempestuous storms la
rife
And yet a little hope can brijjhten life.
They cay we Sine ourselvca In -wild despair
Amldet Che broken treasures scattered there,
Where all Is wrecked, where all once promised
fair;
And atato ourselves with sorrow's two-edged
.knife
Aod'yet a little patience strengthens life.
Is It then true, this rale of hitter grief.
Of mortal anguish finding no relief?
to! mu3tthe winter shlnca the laurel's leaf:
ThTee angels share the lot of human strife.
Three angela glorify the path of life,
Jxve. Hope and Tatlence cheer us on our way.
Love. Hope and Patience form our spirit's stay.
Love, Hope and Patience watch us day by day.
And bid the desert bloom with beauty vernal
Until the earth fades la the eternal.
F. S., In Temple Bar.
THE SEA IS THINE. AXD THOU
1LU3EST IT-
Lord of the vast Inconstant sea.
Lord of Jts creatures, great and small.
Thy Etaadfaat arm unaaaalagly
With Isrirg-klndncatr keepefh all.
TMne are the aisles emlwwered m palm
Rlng-glrt with -now-white coral sand.
Sesmtms with aromatic bairn
The trade-wind traversing- the land.
Where, mirrored In the still lagoon.
The ecco and pandanns rise,
And, driven by the 0trong monsoon.
The Icapl r breaker smites, and dies.
The ceaseless challenge of the seas
Thy reefs. Impregnable, defy;
Sfely defended, thas at eas
Sunlit, thy psacefal atolts Mv
Thtne are the Islands ot the north,
3an!d -with comber spruce and pln.
WTose reeky buttresses Jut forth
Into the chill and ethtagr brine.
There dripping rr-ckwee Mfta and falls
In cadence, za the surges beat.
Hesonndlng, where the pea-gull cb!13.
And beetli-g cliff and shiAgie meet.
Thy flowtnir tide acrass the stralta
With rippled front make good its way.
And. while the eager salmon waits.
Unlocks the shallows e the bay.
Or, where the hlue and splintered wall
Of glacier-foot defends the shore,
The Ice-front topples to lta fall.
The black cliffs echoing Its roar.
Forth -on the besom of the tide.
Out to the eddies of the sea,
Sfajestical. the Iceberg ride
Toward transformations yet to be.
Out by the reefs where otters slept.
By rocks where herded walrus groan.
Where the great auk aforetime kept.
Last of the race, her wateh alone;
Into the Immemorial deep
They pasn. and vanish, dropping slow
Their harvest, garnered on the steep.
Into the silent depths below.
And stilt thy steady tides gow on,
Responsive to the whirling spheres
Celestlan; and their courses run
1 Threugh the Innumerable years.
Food for thy ereatarei small and great
In every clime they surely bear.
However paltry Its estate.
To each one Its appointed share.
XJuly thy boundaries are set
For all thy broad, unfathomed seas.
Nor may the towering surge forget
The smallest of thy mysteries.
Lord of the breaker and the reef.
Lord of the wide abysmal main.
We read thee in each rustling leaf.
Each atom from the dusty plain.
Thy wondreua artifice we know ,
In all thy handiwork to be; ,
Tet, above all. thy glories show
Supreme In thine eternal sea.
William "H. Dall In Chrtattan Register.
Behrlngr Sea, July, 1800.
"JUSTUM ET TEXACEM."
The quiet clouds, the quiet air.
The calm that haunts us everywhere
In these broad fields, where sunlight sees
Our homely cattle at their ease;
The woods, whose leaves of golden brown
Glide noiseless; as they flutter down;
The full, smooth river, seldom 3tlrrd
Save from within, that flows unheard
In Irresistible advance;
And. over all this fair expanse.
The steadfast hills, that silently
Stand up against a silent sky;
Are these the things for you and ma
To look upon, or care to see
Amid the tumult of a. war?
yes; for they tcaeh us what we are.
Or what we should be; every charm
Of outward Nature, every warm
And tender passion that expands
At sight of these familiar lands.
Speaks of the duty that we owe
To what we feel and what we know.
Were It not well to have at length
Silence, and steadfastness, and strength;
Like Nature. In her woods and hilts.
To stand' unscared by doubt and ills.
Or. like her river?, move akrac
Ineffably serene and strong;
Tranquil. In victory or defeat.
Until the day's work be complete?
Fools may make merry o'er our leas.
And even the wise may reel across
That line, so often tinged with blood.
Which parts the-evil from the good;
But we, a nation such as we.
United, and resolved to see
A Present worthy of our Past.
We through each startling thunder blast
May still In confidence abide.
Untouched by petulance or pride.
Till happier years shall make It plain
That we, too. have not wrought In vain-
Arthur Munby. In The Spectator.
3IY FAIR rHPEIUALIST.
The policy of conquering
She said she thought was right;
Our starry banner she would flteg
To universal sight.
'Twas "destiny" quite "manifest,"
And ours, by right of race.
Each alien eountry to Invest:
Yes, we should set the pace.
The doctrine-, "might makes right." she vowed.
Should be emblazoned high;
Of car success we stjould be preud
We rule, while others Ife.
'Twas wtcked to be critical.
Perfection to expect;
She thought that "territorial
Aggresolon" was correct.
She's too ambitious In her pride
Of race and policy;
In conquering, I'd be satisfied
II she'd begin on me.
Tom Masaon. In tha New Llpplncott.
LOVE A7TD JOT.
I sing of love that sorrow ne'er has known.
Love that has dwelt with gladness from Its
birth.
Love that has made more bright the gracious
earth. And given every scng a tender tone.
Within my heart have I upreared. a, throne
And set this Iote thereon with buoyant mirth.
And much that seemed before c Mttle worth.
Soft-3unnad by it to beauty stranga has- grown.
That which was I erewhlle Is I no mora;
The alchemist love a wondrous change has
wrought.
And In my roul now lurks no base alloy.
I hdve cast off the bands that thralled before;
The gold of love hath purlfled my thought.
And joy my sovereign, for love te Joy.
Clinton Scollard.
THE DAT OF BATTLE.
Far I hear the busle blow
To call me where I would not go,
And the grins begin the song.
"Soldier, fly or stay for leng."
Comrade. If to turn and fly
Made a soldier never die.
Fly I would, for who would not?
"Tls sure no pleasure to be shot.
But since the man that runs away
Lives to die another day.
And cowards' funerals, when, ithey eome.
Are net wept eo well at home.
Therefore, though the best ia bad.
Stand and do the best, my lad:
Stand and fight and see your slain.
And take the bullet In your brain.
-From "A Shropshire Lad," A. E. Houaman.
A GRAY DAT.
All day the sea, dull-hcavtag;
Moaned low like one who alls.
While specter handa were weaving
A veil o'er distant sails.
All day with drooping feather
And wiB3 devoid of gleam.
The seablrds. grouped together,
Forcbere to wheel and scream.
Salt-arms and river-reaches
Were glazed and leaden-hoed.
And haunting sodden beaehes
Went gray-haired Solttude. . .
Lest loves end sins long hWden,
Through eome unguarded e&te.
Entered the soul unbidden
And made men desolate.
Roderick Quton,
I