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