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3OnTLAXD, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 15)03.
WHY IS GREAT HISTORY GREAT?
Upon one of the deepest and most fas
cinating mysteries of literature, sug
gestive If not conclusive light is thrown
by W. G. Brown in the most Interesting
paper In the November Atlantic Mr.
Brown is something of a historian him
self, having published studies of An
drew Jackson and of the State of Ala
bama, and from his further experience
as a librarian and teacher he addresses
With eome authority and much Insight
The Problem of the American His
torian." It is an essay well worth read
ing, correct In Its judgments and pecu
liarly satisfying In Its apprehension of
the spiritual life. It exposes some faults
of many writers, yet subordinates them
all to the fine loyalty of the staff officer
to his Generals the enthusiasm of the
historian for the good work done by
any and all historians. It Is a pity we
do not have more of this esprit de corps
In every division of the grand army of
literature, and less of that civil war
which resolves noetry, drama, history
and biography, each Into a scene of
Latin-American turmoil.
Who has not at some time or other
asked himself what is the secret of
great history, just as we search for the
key of poetical excellence or the mys
tery of dramatic success? "We know
that greatness has been achieved in
history by men who flouted some one
or other and perhaps more than one of
the reputed essentials of success. A
man may be a great historian and be
an arrant partisan like Froude, a pre
carious generallzer like Macaulay, a
mere topical essayist like Niebuhr, a
conversationalist like Fiske. He may
have no obvious faults at all, like Park
man or "Woodrow Wilson, and yet fall
of real greatness. To this mystery Mr.
Brown brings, as we have said, some
hints but no conclusion. He reminds
us that there is no accepted standard
of value, no common denominator of
excellence. But he makes some inter
esting guesses In the way of partial ex
planations. One is that the historian must be nat
ural. Mr. Brown thinks so much of
Flske that he ranks his simple narra
tives superior to the brilliant pages of
Woodrow Wilson. He seems almost to
resent this enviable quality in the writ
ings of Princeton's president, as he is
persuaded that they obscure the sub
ject by their own effulgence. One can
hardly see Washington for Wilson. Our
essayist gives the palm to Homer, Thu
cydldes, Bunyan, because of Iheir nat
uralness. The general truth here must
be admitted; yet Wilson Is not so bril
liant as to escape the dead level of
uniformity. There is no profound im
pression In all the pages of his five vol
umes. History must be more than fault
less. It must have distinction raised to
the high power of greatness. Mr. Brown
is doubtless right In ranking Parkman,
along with Green, above Flske, and
Flske again above Rhodes, Henry Adams
and the others he does not even men
tion. His praise of Flske is just and in
great part based on new considerations.
Wilson, he truly says, did not give him
self wholly enough to his work; Flske
did not comprehend the deep and dark
things of life; the reasoning of Rhodes
"Is not helped by his imagination and
his characteristic manner Is not easy
or graceful"; Adams Is "lacking in
sympathy and warmth."
Nowhere except in the pages of the
Atlantic monthly do we remember to
have seen the limitations of the United
States as a theme discussed with a true
appreciation of their severity. As ap
plied to fiction, poetry, drama and art,
those limitations will readily occur to
the magazine's readers. We have no
antiquity; we have no ancient tradi
tions of a church or an aristocracy. He
who would take America as his theme
is bereft at once of the color and sen
timent, the pageantry and relics, the
inheritances and cathedrals, the tombs
and trophies, the tragedies of Queens
and royal children, the myths and mem
ories of the distant past, which he who
works with European materials finds
ready to his hand. Mr. Brown has a
consciousness of this, and he expresses
It; though he seems to us to fall in the
effort to convince himself that this lack
Is counterbalanced by the hope of fu
turity which here may take Its place.
He would indeed be a genius who could
utilize the gift of prophecy to atone .for
the lost wealth ofclasslc memories.
If Mr. Brown should ever carry this
Atlantic essay upon history on Into a
more comprehensive and final form, he
would probably give more emphasis to
the necessity that a historian gives his
life work to his history, and he can
hardly fall to. suggest somewhere also
that the truly great history can only
spring from th,e great soul. When all
Is said and done, accuracy and style
and the rest occupy some such place in
history as they occupy in any field of
literature. Some day we shall st far
enough away from materialism to ap
prehend that the test of Gibbon and
Macaulay, exactly like the test of Mil
ton and Shakespeare, Is exaltation of
the spirit and not the mere furnishing
of the undei-standing. Some day we
shall pay our homage to the master
that not so much Instructs as moves us,
not so much tells us what Washington
and Lincoln did as to fnspire us to
think their noble thoughts and emulate
their mighty deeds. The greatness of
any history is the greatness of the
great soul behind it, consumed In Its
production and moving tremendously
upon human thought and act.
EDUCATION FOB SUCCESS.
Under the text of "Education for Suc
cess" Sir John Alexander Cockburn,
formerly Premier of Australia, In a
notable address tells the story of a rich
man to whom some one said: "Sir, your
son has a. marvelous talent for engi
neering. Place him in the workshop of
some great firm and I warrant you that
In time the world, will hear of him."
The father replied, "I wish my son to be
a gentleman, not a stoker.", "He may
be much worse than a stoker," rejoined
the other, "he may be a loafer." Sir
Alexander ad'ds that the boy was sent
to an expensive public school, and later
to the university", and when he grew
up he did become a loafer, "a barren
tree In the orchard, a stumbling-block
In the path." This English thinker
points out that "culture and beauty
form atmospheres which cannotexlst by
themselves, but are natural emanation
from earnest, honest work, and girdle
with ambient grace the solid orb of
useful arts and knowledge." ,
The old-time divorce of knowledge
from usefulness once permitted the
world to be cumbered with idle schol
ars and ignorant workers. The edu
cator of today believes in practical
work to counteract the school tendency
to theory, and in scientific instruction
to enlighten practice, to combine, sci
ence and art and unite the aims of the
workshopand the school. This Is the sci
ence of Sir Alexander Cockburn's pro
ject of the kind of education that makes
for success. The pursuit of knowledge
for its own sake without any relation
to the world of reality made mankind
for centuries Instead of advancing
march-In a circle until Francis Bacon
Insisted that philosophy must be judged
by its fruits; that all knowledge must
be referred to use and action. These
views have received such general accept
ance in our own day that not only util
ity is no longer a degradation but the
leaders of higher education in Canada
and Australia long ago took leave of
the Idea that a university could be held
to discharge its whole duty if it kept
itself jealously apart from the practical
Instruction of life and from the call3 of
the world's work.
The chancellor of Magill University
holds that the modern university should
embrace within its sphere of work the
higher aspects of commerce and in
dustry, which will always be linked to
the onward march of scientific inven
tions and discovery. Both new and old
universities are establishing depart
ments of commerce, engineering and
applied science. Birmingham Univer
sity teaches the science and art of beer
brewing. Cambridge teaches econom
ics. Systematic training of the mind
and eye has permanent place in the
curriculum of every efficient school, and
has been found to strengthen the pow
ers of observation and quicken generally
the powers of apprehension, and the
workshop, the garden and the labora
tory are a welcome relief from book
work. Sir Alexander Cockburn believes
in a sound stock of general training on
which the special aptitude for any par
ticular calling can be readily engrafted;
he believes la training of the senses to
appreclatethe beautiful and of the will
to choose the right; his education in
cludes the training of head, hand and
heart. Given this training, the road of
general education for success is clearly
defined. He believes In no short-cuts
to utility. He would not have the tech
nical school usurp the years which
should be devoted to preliminary edu
cation. His thought of a successful life,
however, is a well-spent, useful life,
and of the educator who measures suc
cess by mere money-making he says
this would be an infinitely more deplor
able and fatal error than the old-fashioned
view of education as the mere
acquisition of knowledge: '
Accretions, -whether of facts in the head or
gold in the pocket, are as lichens, which in
crust the bark but are not lndicatlvo of
real growth.
While he thinks a man is "a wildxand
foolish laborer, to dream and dream and
dream and never do," nevertheless this
manly Englishman bids his readers
never forget that there are things such
as love and honor, and the soul of man,
which cannot be bought with a price,
and which do not die with death and
which those who would fain live hap
pily cannot afford to leave out of the
lessons of their lives. This argument of
an English educational reform of today
is interesting because it is only the
fruit of the plant whose seed was sown
by Macaulay when in 1S26 he denounced
the great English universities of Ox
ford and Cambridge because among
their graduates there was a glut of
Greek, Latin and mathematics and a
lamentable scarcity of everything else.
These English universities In 1S26 and
long afterwards did not find It neces
sary to teach what is useful, because
they could afford to pay men to learn
what is useless. Macaulay, himself an
honored graduate of Cambridge, said it
was an every-day event for clever
young men of four and flve-and-twenty,
loaded with university honors, to enter
into life unacquainted with the history,
the literature, wlththe first principles
of the laws under which they live, un
acquainted with the very rudiments of
moral and political science. This com
plaint of the English universities was
made long ago by university men, by
Bacon, Milton, Dryden, Locke, and
afterwards by Johnson and Gibbon.
Replying to the scholar who said that
ancient literature was the ark In which
all the civilization of the world was
preserved during the deluge of bar
barism, Macaulay answered, "Wq con
fess It But we do not read that Noah
thought himself obliged to live in the
ark after the deluge had subsided."
Macaulays judgment was that in his
day while In particular cases a uni
versity education may have produced
good effects, he "had no hesitation in
saying that as to the great body of
those who receive It their minds per
manently suffer from it," because they
have wasted a deal of time needed for
the acquisition of speculative knowl
edge, and they have to enter into active
life without it, to plunge into the details
of business and are left to pick up gen
eral principles as they may. This was
Macaulays indictment of his own uni
versity in 1826, and his plea for the
establishment of a university that
would seek to be prosperous by making
Itself useful Instead of bribing one man
to learn what It Is of no use for him to
know. Macaulay began this battle for
higher educational reform more than 75
years ago, and today we see the seed
sown by Macaulay at last bearing con
summate fruit in England and her great
colonies and in the United States. The
protest against university education
that does not educate is older than
Bacon. It is set forth by that excellent
scholar and famous humorist of France,
Montaigne.
THE DIET OF THE PIONEERS.
Under the title "The Secret of Long
Life," the London Standard endeavors
to find the solution of longevity in
the fact that nearly all the public men
of Europe who lived to be very old
were men of simple and strictly
moderate fllet. The late pope lived on
milk 'and eggs, with an occasional
chicken, a few vegetables and a little
wine; he rose at 6, did not go to bed
until midnight. Cornaro, who lived, to
103, was a strict dletarlan, eating but
twelve ounces of solid food and drink
ing but three-quarters of a pint of light
wine per diem. Sic Isaac Holden, who
lived to be 91, believed n fruit and
eschewed farinaceous fare; he ab
stained from bread; smoked two or
three cigars, took no wine, but drank
a glass of hot whisky and water before
going to bed. M. Chevreul, the great
French chemist, was a centenarian who
lived on eggs and chicken for break
fast, had soup and a cutlet for dinner,
with a bunch of grapes; he never used
wine nor ate fish. The conclusion drawn
by the Standard from the record of
these old people Is that their length of
days was due something to their ab
stemiousness In the matter of meat and
the large place held by fruit In their
diet. While they were not vegetarians,
they were moderate in the use of flesh
and starchy foods.
Now let us pass from this record of
the diet of famous Europeans who
lived to be very old on a very formal,
fixed diet, to the record of the obscure
American pioneers who reached a good
old age on both the Pacific and the At
lantic slopes without knowing or caring
much about the laws of diet and of
health, except so far as they had been
formulated by the experience of the
greatest number. James R. Meade,
Kansas pioneer of 1859, writes the Kan
sas City Journal that he believes that
the.food best fitted for the human stom
ich is bread and meat washed down
with coffee. He is now a vigorous,
active man of 66; has- all his life lived
upon meat, bread and coffee; his stom
ach Is always ready for business, and
he makes casual mention of the fact
that he has an unusually strong babe
of 15 months of age. In hls pioneer
days of 1S59 he and his companions
drank on the average from two to
three quarts a day of coffee; they never
used whisky, for they cared nothing
about It, but would have as soon left
their rifles in camp as to start out on
a hunting expedition without coffee.
Coffee was a necessity In a life of
severe physical hardship, while alcohdl,
whose effect was followed by nervous
reaction, was of no value. This testi
mony is confirmed by that of Dr. Kane
in his Arctic journey, and any old vet
eran of the Union Army will remember
that while the Confederates had plenty
of whisky they were always anxious
to barter it for coffee, which was scarce
in their camps. These hardy soldiers
had discovered that strong coffee was
an Invaluable stimulant to a tired and
hungry soldier. The same story is told
by our Army officers. The American
soldier, regular or volunteer, has done
his hardest work In the field In the
South during the Civil War, in the In
dian wars, in the Philippines, on the
marching ration of coffee, hardtack and
bacon. Probably the Oregon and Wash
ington pioneers who are distinguished
for longevity could testify that coffee,
bread and meat had been their diet in
their early days of wrestling with the
woods for subsistence.
Longevity seems to come to some
men who carefully watch their diet and
formulate It as did the European cen
tenarians, who were menof physiolog
ical learning obtained from books, and
it seems to attend other men who never
watched their diet or formulated it, but
ate and drank as they pleased from the
cradle to the grave. General John
Stark, of New Hampshire, was a hunter
in his boyhood, then an Indian fighter
in the "Old French War," then a gen
eral officer In the American Revolution,
which he survived forty years, dying
at the age of 94. General Thomas Sum
ter, born In Virginia, was an Indian
fighter under Washington at Brad
dock's defeat. He became a General in
the American Revolution, which he sur
vived fifty years, dying at the age of
9S. These two .old fellows probably
never knew anything about the rules
of diet, or exercise, or the laws of
health, beyond what every illiterate
hunter or herdsman or soldier obtains
by experience. And there were others
like them, for the records show that
between 1810 and 1840 seventeen persons
died In "Vermont who had passed the
century mark, and the returns of the
census of 1840 show 'that there were
living in Vermont twenty-two persons
who were upwards of 100 years of age
and above 200 who were unirorHa r,t on
( out of a population of about 290,000.
An old Indian chief, Cabazon, at the
age of 105 Is now an applicant for aid
to the Supervisors of San Bernardino
County, California; and there is an old
negro pauper in North Carolina who is
105 who In reply to questions concern
ing his diet says that he always "drank
all the whisky he could get." These
old-time centenarians did not reach
longevity through the absence of de
structive diseases, for records show
that New England was fearfully
scourged with diseases. Diphtheria,
influenza, dysentery, scarlatina, typhus
fever, were more universal than they
are today. The spotted fever (cerebro
spinal meningitis) in 181Li2 was a fatal
malady, and epidemic pneumonia in the
Winter of 1813 carried off 6000 persons,
or one death to every forty Inhabitants
in Vermont Pulmonary consumption
was more common and more fatal than
it is today. It was not for lack of ex
posure that the pioneers of the Atlantic
and Pacific Coast Included In their
ranks so many cases of longevity. It
Vas because they were "shot proof."
It is said that an absolutely healthy
human stomach Is proof against even
cholera germs, and these long-lived pio
neers of New England and Oregon were
so absolutely vigorous by native con
stitution that they were "shot proof."
They were doubtless exposed repeatedly
to contagion. They must at times have
drank polluted water and eaten at
times of tainted food. They must have
been exposed to contagious and Infec
tious diseases, but they knew nothing of
microbes nor bacteria nor the germ the
ory of disease, and they lived a stirring
Hfeand obtained a serene old age. The
natural query is, Would not the edu-
cated, distinguished dietarlans of Eu
rope have lived just as long If they had
known less about diet and eaten more;
that is, eaten, like the ' old American
pioneers, whatever they craved and as
much as they wished? It is doubtful
if a formulated, scientific diet ever pro
longed a healthy man's life, Titian,
who was no saint, lived to be 100, and
Voltaire, who was an anti-Christ, lived
to be 84. On the other hand, Cardinal
Newman lived to be about 90. The con
clusion Is that .some men like certain
varieties of trees, are, wet or dry, in
variably tough timber.
THE PHtST INDIAN PKJEST.
Up to the present year there never has
been a full-blooded Indian admitted to
the priesthood of the Roman Catholic
church. There have been thousands of
v zealous Indian converts since the first
days following the discovery of Amer
ica, but none has reached the priesthood
until Father Negahnquet completed his
four years' course In the Propaganda at
Rome last June. Father Negahnquet
was born in 1874, on the Pottawatomie
Indians' former reservation near St
Mary's, Kan. The oldest of ten chil
dren, at a tender age he was taken to
the Church of the Assumption at To
peka for baptism.
At the Government school for Indians
In Indian Territory he attracted the at
tention of his teachers by his unusual
intelligence. At the School of the Sa
cred Heart, maintained by the Catholics
in Oklahoma, he came under the notice
of Mother Katherlne Drexel, a member
of the celebrated Philadelphia family,
who, seeing his qualifications, interested
her sister, Mrs. Morrell. Through their
efforts he completed his studies at the
Sacred Heart and was sent to Carlisle
and later was transferred to .the Cath
olic University at Washington to enter
upon his studies for the priesthood
proper. He Is now ministering among
his people In Indian Territory.
It is a singular fact that no Indian
convert has before reached the priest
hood, for Indians have been grad
uated from West Point Military Acad
emy, from Dartmouth College and
other colleges with distinction. The
famous Mohawk chief, Joseph Brandt,
was a man of excellent English schol
arship and a devout Christian. His
theological learning and his piety at
tracted attention and won respect in
educated circles when he visited Eng
land. The devotion of the Catholic
Church to tho Indian from the first set
tlement of Canada Is one of the bright
est roses in Its chaplet of fame. The
Jesuits lived for the welfare of their
flocks, and died with them when they
were massacred by the Iroquois in Can
ada or by the English Puritans in
Maine. The Jesuit fathers not only
cared for the souls of their Indian con
verts, but they were their physicians
and surgeons when sick or disabled by
wounds. They cared for the poor Indian
woman in childbirth, and altogether the
Jesuit missionary was at once hero,
martyr and philanthropist.
The Iroquois murdered the Jesuit
fathers that fell Into their hands more
because the priests had been devoted
to the welfare of the Hurons, their her
editary foes, than because Jthey were
white men. If the record of the Catho
lic church In its efforts to ameliorate
the condition of the heathen nations of
America, Asia and Africa has been more
successful than those of any other
Christian denomination, it Is because,
while the Protestant missionaries have
given the wretched heathen a life of
duty, the (Catholic missionary has treat
ed him with more affection.
With the United States holding the
' sea the Colombians cannot possibly In
vade Panama, The obstacles to a land
march are absolutely Insuperable. There
Is no valley leading from the ends of
the Isthmus to the neighborhood of
Panama and Colon. From the banks
of the small unnavigable streams to
the tops of the hills and mountains is
found a dense, Impenetrable jungle,
consisting of grasses, sedges, wild plan
tain and trees. This Is the reason why
expeditions exploring in the interests of
the several canal projects have followed
stream valleys from either coast and
turned back defeated at water partings
between the Atlantic and Pacific drain
age basin. The only exceptions to this
vubiqultous jungle are a few small and
widely separated areas near the Pacific
Coast and extending from the Gulf of
Panama to Costa Rica, The various
towns and villages of Panama are sit
uated on these uplands near the Pa
cific or scattered along both coasts or
along the line of the railroad between
the two chief ports. The Interior Is a
jungle, without resources to feed an
army and without even continuous
paths as means of communication. The
Isthmus has no coastal plain, like that
bounding the eastern or southern coasts
of the United States, along which an
army can move. A well-informed cor
respondent of the New York Sun writes r
There aro a few stretches of beach ex
posed at low tide, like that at Panama, but
their continuity la interrupted by cliffs and
mountains that "fall precipitously to the sea.
Both coasts aro generally marked by Jagged
and abrupt bluffs, against which tho sea
beats; and the continuity of the rugged
coastline Is frequently broken by swamp
lands, malarious and impassable.
A number of the streets in this city
are in a condition that is fitly described
as "Impassable." And this notwith
standing the fact that some of them at
least have been "improved" at heavy
cost to the property-owners quite re
cently. This Is notably true of portions of
East Burnslde and East Tenth streets,
which were lately graded and treated to
a covering called by courtesy gravel,
but which, where they are not an ex
panse of mud that causes them to re
semble nothing else so much as a coun
try road in mid-Winter under the prim
itive methods of road-building, are
torn up for the purpose of laying
street-car tracks. Of course there is
some outlook for Improvement In the
latter case, but the former Is absolutely
hopeless. Other streets for lack of Im
provement, notably East Twenty-eighth
street between East Stark street and
the Sandy road, and still others In which
sewer construction Is In progress, are
also fitly described as impassable. So
it seems, in spite of the knowledge of
what the rains will do for us in No
vember in the line of making mud of
the Summer's dust, and notwlthstandi
ing the employment at large expense to
property-owners of engineers for the
purpose of overseeing and planning
street and sewer work In accordance
With modern methods and speedy con-
structionT wo are destined to a contin
uance of Impassable, streets. Upon
them gangs of mud-bedaubed men labor
assiduously with pick and shovel, If the
particular point of attack has been "Ira
proved," or with scrapers and flounder
ing, wretched horses, It by reason of
dilatory tactics the "Improvement" or
dered in the early Summer does not
get well under way before November.
And so, also, teams mire every day, and
many times a day. In the mire of our
Impassable streets; the impassable
street crossing is the rule, and streets
are torn up In November for the pur
pose of extending street-car service the
franchise for which is fully six months
old. This Is' not said In a complaining
spirit What is the use of complaining?
It is merely a simple statement of the
condition ofnany of our streets from
November to April, Inclusive, with a
hint at the probable cause but without
hope of remedy.
The committee of the American Pub
lic Health Association on car sanita
tion at the recent annual session of that
body in New York criticised with much
severity the lack of sanitary precau
tions In the railway sleeping cars. It
was stated that the blankets used on
sleeping cars were washed but once in
six months, and in the opinion of the
convention this was a menace to the
health of the traveling public. Especial
stress was placed upon the fact that
consumptives sleeping In these blan
kets for longer or shorter periods were
more than likely to leave to the next
occupant of the berth the seeds of the
malady from-which they were vnlnly
strlvlng to flee. Owing to inadequate
ventilation and for other reasons that
will suggest themselves to observant
people, the committee held that sleeping
cars, as generally managed, were po
tent factors In the transmission of com
municable though not actively conta
gious diseases. The results of the In
quiries and findings of the committee'
will. It Is believed, lead to measures,
compulsory if necessary, for more fre
quent and effective cleaning and disin
fection of berths and car bedding. This
opinion is founded upon the hypothesis
that railway managers and other men
and corporations who control business
enterprises of various kinds may be
thoughtless in regard to matters af
fecting the health of their patrons and
employes, but they are not inhuman.
This assumption being true, they are
ready to correct conditions that are a
menace to health when their attention
Is called to the facts In the premises by
men who are not Idle meddlers bift san
itary scientists Instead.
There has been no criticism of Mr.
Williamson by Mr. Moody or his friends,
still less any attack upon him, that
could justify the bitterness of his let
ter regarding Mr. Moody. The Ore
gonlan greatly regrets that Mr. Wil
liamson has made this very serious
mistake. Mr. Williamson has been told
that Mr. Moody's friends regard his
indictment as the work of his political
enemies. There seems to have been no
special reference to Mr. Williamson in
their statements, but Mr. Williamson
assumes that he is meant because, as
he says, he defeated Mr. Moody for re
nomination. It is a most violent sup
position that men are or should be
"enemies" because one of them suc
ceeds in getting a nomination over the
other. Mr. Williamson's extreme ani
mosity is not creditable to him. He
also says; "I was in Crook -County
when the grand jury convened, attend
ing to my personal affairs, and when
through there, went directly to The
Dalles, bundled my family up and start
ed for Washington, and never heard of
the proceedings of the grand jury until
the day after I arrived here." As a
matter of fact, Mr. Williamson was In
Portland on Saturday, the 24th day of
October, the very day when the grand
jury was considering Mr. Moody's case.
If Mr. Williamson meant to convey the
Impression that he had nothing to do
with tho Indictment because he was
not here, the alibi fails. Possibly the
animosity displayed In his letter has
Sjlouded his recollection.
Closely following the Thanksgiving
proclamation of the Governor comes
the appeal from the various charitable
organizations of the city for food, cloth
ing and fuel to eke out the supplies
necessary for the comfort and mainte
nance of the Inmates and caretakers of
homes that they have established. The
extremes of life, infancy or early child
hood and old age In destitution, appeal
to the humane instincts with special
force at this time, and from the abund
ance of thrift these two classes gath
ered In ihe institutions that are main
tained for them are usually generously
remembered at the Thanksgiving sea
son. This Is well. The able-bodied pau
per, the man rendered homeless and
destitute by dissipation and the woman
brought Into sore straits through way
wardness must upon occasion receive
the dole of. pity, but the hearty free
will offerings of benevolence and sym
pathy go out, and justly so, to the help
less who have not yet attained to the
ability to do, and the helpless, the fruits
of whose endeayors have fallen from
their hands. These two classes, as rep
resented by the inmates of the Baby
Home, the Children's Home, the home
of the Boys' and Girls' Aid Society, the
Old Ladles' Home and the Home for the
Aged, will no doubt be generously and
cheerfully reiriembered by our citizens,
who from the abundance of a prosper
ous year and Its tireless endeavor find
themselves at the Thanksgiving season
with enough and to spare.
Rev. R. J. Campbell, who has suc
ceeded Dr. Parker In the London City
Temple, has avowed his belief in the
final salvation of all men. Supplement
ing this statement the Congregationalist
says: "We are glad we live In a time
when Mr. Campbell, and men like him,
are welcomed into fellowship In all
Christian denominations." This, says
the Independent, "is a frank statement
of a wide change of view as to toler
ance." While the average ministerial
association would probably not admit
Mr. Campbell to its fellowship, the
great thinking public will see in the in
dorsement of these two orthodox jour
nals, as well as in the succession of a
Unlversallst to the pulpit of Dr. Parker
in London significant Indications of the
coming of the time when an angry and
vengeful God will no longer find place In
religious creeds and the plan of salva
tion will no- longer tax the Ingenuity of
the doctrinaires or puzzle the minds of
the simple 'seekers after truth.
Residents of Western Oregon who wish
to add to their rose gardens should
plant bushes or put out cuttings this
month. Now is the very best time to
gain a year's growth. In another col
umn Frederick V. Holman, who knows,
tells how to do It
BAFFLING SALMON PROBLEMS.
The record-breaking Increase this season
in the number of chlnpok eggs taken in
the salmon hatcheries of this state
throws unusual emphasis upon a rather
baffling problem In the llfe-hlstory of the
salmon. It Is nowia generally accepted
fact that salmon. Impelled by an instinct
that is resistless, return after a few years
from their ocean playgrounds to the river
of their birth. Have they a special in
stinct, denied to man, that guides them
toward the pebbly, snow-fed mountain
pool where they first saw the sunlight?
There 13 a widespread belief among the
fishermen of this Coast that the salmon
do possess some incomprehensible gift of
nature which enables them when spawn
ing time arrives to find their way from
the vast and trackless deep, over the toss
ing surf, up the water course of their
choice, a thousand hard-fought, tortuous
miles perhaps, until the home shallows
that cradled them are reached. The same
rocking shadows that sheltered them in
their Infancy are supposed to shelter their
progeny. Tho ancestral pool with Its
riffles and its shingled sands is theirs by
birthright, reaching back through count
less generations.
David Starr Jordan, who is of all men
on tho Pacific Coast best able to speak
the final word of authority on fish life,
ruthlessly upsets this pretty theory in
the November number of the Popular
Science Monthly. His observations for
more than 20 years lead him to believe
that salmon return to the "same river,
but not to the same branch of that river,
and have no special lnstlncttp guide them.
It Is known that many-! the rivers of
this Coast are characterized by well
marked differences in the appearance of
the salmon that annually resort thither.
Thus of two streams flowing into tho
ocean near each other, one stream, will
be known for its runs of large salmon,
while in the other the salmon will bo
much smaller. The salmon of a small,
rapid stream are more wiry than those
of a neighboring large stream, which in
dicates that the fish return to the same
river to spawn during successive genera
tions. The test has frequently been tried
of marking newly hatched fish, and al
most invariably they return to the parent
river. If the young fry are let loose In a
new stream flowing directly into the
ocean, in whlch.no salmon have ever been
found, the majority will return in due
time, even though the stream. Is so unfit
that no self-respecting salmon should be
seen In It
All of theso arguments are met byPresi
dent Jordan, who believes that salmon
have no special homing instinct, but enjoy
their sea revels within such short range
of their parent river generally from 20 to
40 miles from it that when the migratory
passion seizes them they are drawn
through familiar channels and runways to
the home stream.
"There la no evidence," he says, "that
a salmon hatched In one branch of a river
tends to return there rather than to an
other." If this is true, one wishes that
President Jordan would explain why the
salmon which enter the White Salmon
River have, from time beyond the memory
of man, been of such peculiar wan and
colorless aspect and so notoriously Inferior
as food a peculiarity that has given the
river its name. Many matters are left
unexplained; thus he concedes that salmon
are occasionally taken well out at sea,
and that the red salmon runs of Puget
Sound come from outside the Straits of
Fuca. And, indeed, he admits that an
ultimatum should not be pronounced till
more evidence has been taken.
The life of the salmon in the ocean is
still a virgin mystery. Huxley explained
Its rapid and wonderful growth on the
theory that It spends Its time gormandiz
ing on semi-solid masses of tiny crusta
ceans found on the surface; that In fact,
the salmon swims about in a sort of ani
mal soup, whero he has merely to open
his mouth and swallow what enters it
It is hard to believe that so. active and
fearless a fish, swift In motion, adapted
in so many ways for successfully eluding
Its enemies, and possessing, moreover, a
well-known taste for exploration, should
spend from two to four years in a stupid
and supine existence around the bay of its
parent river. This is the more surprising
-since the salmon Is of a peculiarly in
quisitive disposition, and when in fresh
water will take the angler's fly appar
ently out of curiosity alone, at a time
when it refuses all other food. The steel
head, which differs radically from our Pa
cific Coast salmln, since it Is a represen
tative of the genus belonging to the At
lantic Ocean, Is the only salmon we have
that feeds In fresh water.
No doubt the larger and more robust
fish would naturally seek the longer river
Which can be easily recognized by its
warmer waters in the bay, having stored
more sun heat on its way from the dis
tant snow fields. Such fish having a
longer Journey before them, wouTd neces
sarily start earlier in the season, and this
In turn would entail quite a noticeable
difference In appearance between them
and the fish that enter the shorter rivers
later; for salmon undergo rapid, well
marked changes about the time they enter
the streams. The superiority of the Chin
ook (qulnnat) may be a direct result of
tho great length of the rivers It fre
quents, the Columbia, the Yukon, the
Fraser, tho Sacramento. And probably
many minor differences fn size and ap
pearance may be accounted for in this
way among the salmon of the various
rivers.
But why deny to the salmon tho well
proved and marvelous instinct which birds
possess, as yet beyond the grasp of man's
intelligence that unerring sense of direc
tion and restless passion to return to the
ancestral home where they were nursed
Into life, although it may entail a journey
of '3000 weary miles?
Thero are many points In tho life his
tory of our Pacific Coast salmon that are
still withheld fromus the remarkable
powers of abstinence that enable it to
keep an unbroken fast for months when
ascending the rivers; the seemingly con
scious, Intelligent and matchless co-operation
with nature in her supreme effort to
perpetuate the species at the price of the
life of the parent; the utter surrender of
tho Impulse of self-preservation at the
close of the spawning season, the accept
ance of death as the inevitable corollary
with no thought of life except for the off
spring, a self-immolation as complete ag
any that has marked the history of man
kind. Why our Pacific Coast genus
should differ In these vital points from
the salmon of the Atlantic Is one of the
unsolved problems of science.
GERTRUDE METCALFE.
A Rainbow.
William Wordsworth.
My heart.leaps up vyhen I behold
A rainbow In the sky;
So was It when my life began.
So la It now I am a man.
So be It when I shall .grow old
Or let me die I
The Child Is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound eaca to each by natural piety.
NOTE AND COMMENT.
The Wedge in Boston.
The City Council of Boston has passed
a resolution In favor of teaching Gaelic
In the schools.
O tongue behoved of Emerson,
O speech precise and prim.
Before the Gaelic boys have dona
Thy lustre will be dim.
Thou'lt hear, by Infant speakers hu
'ruld,
"They flr-r-red the shot-hear-r-d roun
the worruld."
O Boston bean, tho scholar's food.
That swell'st the bursting- brain,
Bewaro of man's, ingratitude.
And steel thy soul to pain;
Soon may thy virtues be forgot.
And Irish spuds boll In thy pot
O ancient fish. O sacred cod.
With eggs all In a roe,
Bostonlans leave their salty god,
And after strangers go.
Tho herring from the Irish main
May waver on the State House vane.
O culchaw, who unmoved hast seen
The 'world around thee beat,
When students dhraw the black dhudeen
Where shalt thou And retreat?
O culchaw, bean, O cod, O tongue.
Beware, beware, before you're stung.
The Blazed Trail.
Ha had returned the day before to civ
ilization from the Northern woods, and
had celebrated his return with potations
deep and strong. He was sitting under
the shade of a palm stuck in a green
box, when he conceived the Idea of go
ing to the bar for his next drink. Very
unsteadily he aroso to his feet, and with
great deliberation pulled a huge clasp
knife from his pocket "Whash yer gon
do?" asked his companion. With a smila
of infinite wisdom, the woodman made
a slash at the palm. "How think I ga
back here, don' blaze trail?" he said.
War is something hot enough to bake
crackers.
Anyway, Christian Science has an ad
mirable name.
If -the window glass trust doesn't give
you a pain, this should.
College songs are likely to add a new
terror to the football field.
In Chicago they sing:
Punch, brothers, punch with care;
Punch with a cop as passenjare.
Illinois Prohibitionists have wrecked a
saloon only to put up a bar to their
progress.
Free Food is an attractive campaign
cry but there would be more efficacy in
Free Beert
When doctors fall out as in Yakima,
why, things go on much as usual with the
rest of -us.
Russia and Japan are still upon tho
map, and know they're safe to stay thero
by dodging from a scrap.
The kid that crawls under the bed when
chased by some one with a slipper Is
able to understand Panama's position.
Mommer can't got at either of them.
Senor Bunau-Varllla, speaking for tho
Republic of Panama, declared theso
United States to be the mother of tho
American nations and France to be tho
mother of the Latin nations. O Rhetoric,
what rubbish is shot in thy name.
The government of Colombia intrepidly
declares that the last drop of Colombian
blood will be shed to prevent the success
of Panama and that the last Colombian
cent will be expended In the same cause.
Well, the blood, of course, is their own
affair, but tho cent is borrowed.
Dr. Maker, of Aberdeen, who has a
paper called tho Sun, recently sent
abroad marked copies thereof spotted
luminaries, as it were calling attention
-to an expedition said to be contemplated
by one Falconer, of Aberdeen. Now it ap
pears that the story was published by Dr.
Maker as a "Joke." There aro joke
makers and joke-Makers.
From Salt Lake comes the news that
one negro was admitted Into heaven, and
that the gates were closed against all of
his color. Salt Lake is possibly nearer
heaven than Portland is, and tho infor
mation, may be authentic If so think
how lonely the poor colored man must bo
amongst people that don't care for rag
time. How many Booths and Irvings aro
doomed to a mute, inglorious life among
the big spuds of Yakima, who can say?
The pupils of North Yakima High School
have been forbidden to take part in dra
matic entertainments, however great may
be their desire to melt the hearts of ad
miring relatives with their portrayal of
Romeo's woes or of Rosalind's doublet-and-hoslness.
Tho drama may not bo
pernicious in itself, but what does it
teach of potato-growing? Or of dairying?
Nothing at all; therefore down with tho
drama.
Tho "American breakfast" Is said to
have passed. Of course it has, among
those who no longer invade tho forests
with an ax. City life does not render
people capable of eating beefsteak In the
morning, more beefsteak at noon and stilV
more at sunset. But go Into a logging
camp and see If the "American break
fast" has passed. Not much. The cook
dishes up his mush and potatoes and
steak and hot cakes with all the profu
sion that marked the breakfasts of tho
early Americans, who got up with tho
sun and wrought mightily with their
hands.
It is natural for the poet to boost his
own properties, the scenery, people, and
so forth- of his own land, but why should
he knock those of other lands? The
poetic nature 'should be large enough to
admire all beautiful objlcts and to seo
the Inherent qualities that make each a
separate and distinct contribution to the
world's happiness. It is therefore with
regret that we observe Oregon's natural
beauties knocked by a poetess on tho
other side of the Columbia. In the last
issue of the Vancouver Columbian there
is a poem on Cape Hqrn, not tho Horn
that is thrust into the warring seas of tho
Great Southern Oceanjbut one along the
river. The poetess begins:
When you sail up the broad Columbia
As it flows on its way to tho sea,
You admire the noble beauty
Of Cape' Horn, that lies on the sea.
She continues:
For tho" scene that meet3 your vision
Aro the rock3 that rise high and proud.
Gigantic and terrible In their height
That you. so much smaller, aro cowed.
And then comes in the knock. Oregon's
proudest possessions are thrown in tho
shadow of a rock:
Talk of your Multnomah.
Horsetail and Bridle Veil Falls
Tho' Oregon's beauties are many,
Washington has best of all.
'TIs an ignoble blow.
WEXFORD JONES.