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YESTERDAY'S "WEATHER Maximum tem
perature, C2; minimum temperature, 40; pre
cipitation, .27 of an inch.
TODAY'S "WEATHER Cloudy to partly
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temperature; variable- winds, mostly southerly.
i . .
PORTLAND, SUNDAY, DECEMBER IS, 1903
I
HANDICAPPED BY TEMPERAMENT.
A correspondent recently called the
attention of the public through the col
umns of the New York Evening Post
to the fact that "a New England man
whose second volume of poems was re
viewed very favorably by the New York
Evening Post, and whose poetic talents
had obtained the personal Indorsement
of Charles Eliot Norton and Professor
"William James, is keeping the wolf
from the door by acting as superintend
ent of a gang of Italian laborers in a
New York subway." He is a man of
frail physique, unfit to endure the damp
cold of the tunnel. He is a man of sim
ple tastes and without evil habits, and
yet the man whose recent book of pub
lished verses is regarded by Professor
James as the work of genius Is keeping
body and soul together by means of a
Job that is prejudicial to his body and
not calculated greatly to expand his
poetic productivity. It is easy to smile
over this tale and repeat the attenuated
platitudes that "Life is an opportunity,"
a struggle sure of conquest by a "stren
uous" man; that "every man Is the
architect of his own fortune," but there
is no lack of historical Instances to
prove that life is not seldom a lottery
even when men strive to do their duty,
even when they are tender to their fellow-men
and true to themselves.
Takethecase of Nathaniel Hawthorne,
a man who was not only gifted with
rare literary genius but was a man In
dustrious all his days with his pen. He
was a man of simple tastes, and with
out evil habits; but he did not find a
market for his work until he was about
45. When he was removed from a place
in the Salem (Mass.) Custom-House in
1849 he was so poor that James Russell
Lowell wrote a letter to E. A. Duyc
kink, of New York City, under date of
January 13, 1850, saying that "Haw
thorne has been turnedout of his office,
which was his sole support; he is now
very poor, and some money has been
raised for him by his friends about
Cambridge. Could not something be
also done in New York? You know
personally all those who would be most
likely to give." Hawthorne was then in
his 46th year, and had been steadily at
work for more than twenty years, try
ing to make a living for himself and
family with his pen. He had published
his charming "Twice-Told ,Tales" as
early as 1837, he had contributed to the
Democratic Review; he had "been recog
nized by Poe, by George Bancroft the
historian, by Emerson, Thoreau, Bry
ant, Holmes and Lowell as the most
original force In American literature.
Bancroft had twice obtained for him an
office in the customs service, but the
"Whigs turned him twice out of office.
This gifted man, industrious, sober,
pure of life, of exceptionally handsome
face and impressive, stalwart physique,
in his 46th year was as poor as the
half-starved poet that Is now working
at uncongenial labor in the New York
subway. This very year of 1850, when
Lowell wrote this begging letter for
Hawthorne, "The Scarlet Letter" ap
peared, which obtained an immediate
popularity, as did the "House of the
Seven Gables," which followed it. Haw
thorne had after twenty-five years of
hard struggle found a market, but his
suffering during rail this time had been
very great. To the last day of his life
he had a bitter memory of his financial
obligations incurred in those years, des
pite the fact that he had finally, dis
charged them all in full, with interest.
But he was a high-spirited, sensitive
man who even accused himself for ac
cepting the generous offer of assistance
from his lifelong friend and classmate.
Paymaster Bridge, of the Navy. Bridge,
who was a thorough man of business,
saw Hawthorne's rare genius, felt sure
that he must win, and with his money
he pushed "The Scarlet Letter" forward
to publication. But in one of his letters
Hawthorne reveals that he suffered all
his life from the recollection that he had
at one time been the subject of such
"begging" letters as that .written by the
poet, Lowell, in 1850.
What was the matter with the man?
He had fine face and figure, fine man
ners, was so social that old sea cap
tains at Salem who had known his sailor
grandfather loved to take" a smoke and
drink claret with him and talk about
their deep-sea voyages. He was not
timid, for he more than once knocked
down rough men who insulted him. His
life was pure. He was industrious with
his wonderful pen, and yet for twenty
years he lived from hand to'mouth, de
pendent for six .years upon the Salem
Custom-House, of which he -wrote:
"Neither the front nor back entrance
of the Custom-House opens on the road
to Paradise." The matter with this man
was that he was handicapped by his
temperament, and of temperament it
has been said, that "It makes or mars
fortunes and renders life happy or the
reverse." He was not what Is called a
"bashful" man, but he was a man of
invincibly shy nature. He was ami
able and agreeable In conversation with
his intimates J high or low, but in gen
eral society his shyness was mistaken
for moodishness and want of social
sympathy. He "was handicapped by his
temperament He did not make ene
mies, for he was always courteous and
self-possessed, but he did not make
friends easily except with ingenuous
women and artless children
There have "been many men of genius
like him; Bante, Milton, Shelley. None
of these nien could have got on In the
world any more rapidly than Haw
thorne If they had been thrown on their
own resources .to angle for opportuni
ties. Dante was always grinding his
teeth at the bitter thought that he had
sometimes eaten a patron's bread "when
he could not win his own. Shelley
fortunately inherited property which
gave him an income, but on his own
resources he would have been as shy
and isolated a man as Hawthorne.
Byron, on the other hand, was a man
of the world, a man of keen business
sense; he was born a poor lord and made
himself rapidly well to do. But Byron
was handicapped by temperament, by
being born of a crossgralned, unhappy
mother, and was surrounded by unfor
tunate influences. No man is really
master of his own fate, for we think as
our temperament inclines us, and, as
Horace Greeley always said In sub
stance, fate lays a heavy hand upon
some men at the very outset of exist
ence. ,
IF JAPAN SHOULD nOHT.
The news from London indicates some
apprehension that Russia and 'Japan
might yet go to war over Corea, which
is really the storm denter. Japan cares
nothing about Manchuria, for it is too
late to Interfere in that quarter, but she
cares a great Seal about Corea, and
she insists upon complete safeguards
againstRussian expansion In that quar
ter. The ultimatum of Japan requires
that Corea shall not be absorbed by
Russia. Japan wants Corea as an out
let for "her own population, which is in
creasing beyond the capacity of the
Island Empire. But Russia needs a
Corean port, -and so the interests of
Japan and Russia are irreconcilable.
This situation may be transiently qui
eted until Spring, but It will never be
settled short of a war between Russia
and Japan. Russia,-knows that Japan
will be driven by passionate popular
feeling to appeal to arms if she does not
concede to Japan the same supremacy
in X3orea that she claims for herself in
Manchuria.
If Japan appeals to arms, no result
can reasonably be anticipated but the
ultimate defeat of Japan, a defeat that
will be ruinous to Japanese expansion
on the mainland of Asia. For Corea
Japan will fight to the death, but at
best Japan could not hope to exhaust
Russia or turn her from her purpose
to absorb the Corean Peninsula. Japan
might win a few victories; she might
beat the Russian naval squadron, per
haps, and hold command of the sea;
she might worst Russia in the initial
fighting if there should be a Winter
campaign in Manchuria, but while
Japan might enlarge her present high
reputation as a warlike people of re
markable military altitude, she could
administer only a temporary check to
Russia's resistless advance, which is as
slow and as sure as the movement of
a Vast glacier In Alaska or the Alps.
The only hope for Japan lies In the
possible Interference of the great pow
ers of the Western world. This Inter
ference Is not likely to take place.
France wllj not Interfere; neither will
Great Britain, unless supported in her
protest by Germany.
The United States is too remote from
the scene of possible war to interfere in
behalf of Japan. Japan has the good
will of Europe and the United States
because of her brilliant leap from medi
evalism into enlightenment, but none of
the great powers of Europe are likely
to support the Island Empire in her
coming struggle with the Russian bear.
Russia has hitherto always won when
she seriously underto6k to succeed.
Sweden, even when her soldiers were
led by a military genius, Charles XII,
was wrecked in war with Russia; the
unquaillng, resolute temper of Russia
made her a great rock against which
the storm and fury of Napoleon's great
Invasion broke In vain. Russia's war
ships in 1856 were shut out of the Black
Sea, but today .she is the dominant
naval power In those waters, and could
pass through the Turkish straits and
waters to the Mediterranean tomorrow
if she thought "the game was worth
the candle."
Russia today is supreme with the Sul
tan; Russia's motto has beenr "Slow but
sure," but against such a power and
such an Inflexible policy of territorial
enlargement and absorption Japan can
not hope to make anything but tran
sient opposition. Russia has all the re
sources necessary for crushing success
save money. Japan cannot hope to or
ganize the vast population of China Into
a weapon of military efficiency. There
Is no Chinese nations there Is no patri
otism in China in the sense that Ameri
cans or Japanese are patriotic Japan
not only will be "beaten in a struggle
with Russia, but she will suffer so
greatly by her repulse that she will
sink greatly in worldly power and con
sequence, because she will have lost all
chance of advantageous expansion by
the loss of Corea. The Western pow
ers could save Japan, by calling a- "halt"
on Russia, but they are not willing to
do so.
The Empire of Japan, therefore, be
fore another year, will have to fight or
submit to a dispute over Corea wltn
Russia, and whether she fights and Is
forced to surrender or surrenders with
out a fight, the Empire of Japan has
reached Its imperial zenith in territorial
extent and military strength. Russia
Is determined to have and to hold
Corea; and when that design is wrought
Japan will be remitted strictly to her
Island Empire to reflect and mourn
over what "might have been" If the
powers of Europe had Interfered In her
behalf. Sweden rose to be a great and
formidable military power under Gus
tavus Adolphus and his successors until
Russia Jwas organized v by Peter the
Great. Since that day Sweden has de
clined and Russia has steadily expand
ed. Japan, without help from the
Western powers, will fall as miserably
In opposing the progress of Russia as
Sweden did In her resistance to Rus
sia's supremacy on the Baltic Sea.
.THE MORAL "FORCES BEHIND BATTLBS.
A keen critic of Kipling's last volume
says in the current number of the At
lantic .Monthly that his political poetry
differs from that of Milton, Shelley,
Lowell or Whlttler in this, that "his
whole gospel is the Neolithic one of car
rying a big stick." This Is a just criti
cism. He is a great story-teller, but
his philosophy, so far as he has any, is
a glorification of brute force quite as
repulsive as that preached by Carlyle,
who believed In nothing so much as he
did in the doctrine of "the beneficent
whip." This was not the philosophy of
English civilization when Byron was at
his best; it was not the philosophy of
Wordsworth when he wrote "My theme
is justice, and my voice Is raised for
mankind." The civilization of the future r
to Kipling is nothing but the civiliza
tion that can be wrought by a; big club
wielded, by a muscular arnu Kipling
has no voice for Justice except such
parsimonious justice as the mailed hand
of England or America chooses to dole
out. -
The philosophy of brute force marks
the limitations of Kipling when he ven
tures beyond the province of a story
teller, a domain in which he is a man
of genius without a peer in our day.
His political philosophy is common
place; It dates back to Bismarck in Ger
many, and to Napoleon the Great In
France, who expressed It In his famous
saying that God was on the side of the
most cannon, or perhaps, to more accu
rately quote It, on the side of the larg
est battalions. Napoleon knew when he
uttered the epigram that he spoke a
'most flippant falsehood. In his youth
he had seen the troops of the first
French republic beat back all Europe
Spain, Italy, Austria, Prussia and Great
Britain. From 1792 to 1796, before Na
poleon's star had become ascendant,
the raw levies of the first French re
public tore the disciplined armies of the
allied sovereigns to tatters. Ragged,
outnumbered,"ill-armed, ill-paid, these
heroic peasantry of France had for a
leader the thought of the "Marseillaise,"
and they followed It to victory against
tremendous material odds.
Macaulay sayB that the reason why
Great Britain was beaten was because
William Pitt could not understand that
the France "he fought In 1792-95 was not
the France ruled by fops and fools and
harlots England had encountered under
Louis XV. In other words, Pitt did not
understand that he was fighting not the
mercenaries of Kings but the organized
moral forces and popular passion of the
French people. Macaulay further points
out it was this frantic republican en
' thuslasm that made the army which
Bonaparte led to Italy In 1796 one of
the finest that ever existed. In the
Franco-German War of 1870-71 France
fought less physical but greater moral
odds than in 1792-95, for while its troops
still sang the "Marseillaise" mechan
ically its thought did not lead them.
Napoleon HI hadx educated France to
be what it was under Louis XV, lux
urious, money-getting, cynical, corrupt;
she was a rich argosy or Venetian
merchantman, while Germany was a
battleship, "with ports all up and battle
lanterns lit and her leashed thunders
gathered for their leap." Napoleon, Car
lyle, Bismarck and Kipling are wrong;
God is not in the long run on the side
of the most cannon, nor on the side of
the most dollars, unless they are used
for just , ends; for outrage the moral
forces long enough and they will turn
on you as surely as they at last turned
on Napoleon, and when the moral forces
have once turned on you, the cannon
and material forces will soon follow the
forlorn hope of humanity brought to
bay. This Is the story of history; It Is
the story of "The Retreat of the Ten
Thousand'; the story of Marathon and
Plataea; the story of Bannockburn, the
story of Prussia under Frederick the
Great; the story of the American Revo
lution, as told by Sir George O. Trevel
yan, Macaulay's nephew. In his history
of our Colonial struggle for Independ
ence. This able Englishman makes it clear
that not1 in America alone but in Eng
land the strongest spiritual forces were
ranged on the side of America. We
owed our final success more to the
moral and spiritual forces In England
ranged upon our side than we did to the
money, the ships and the soldiers of
France. The defeat and surrender of
Burgoyne In October, 1777, was the turn
ing point of our struggle, and that was
accomplished before France had lent us
'a dollar or sent us a ship or a single
soldier. The stars in their courses fought
for Slsera, and outside of Great Britain
the sympathy of Europe was with the
Colonies. Catharine n of Russia re
fused to lend her soldiers -for the subju
gation of our forefathers'1, and by join
ing the so-called League of Neutrals
contributed to the pressure which
obliged George HIffo acknowledge the
independence of the American Colonies.
Frederick the Great of Prussia used his
influence with the Russian court to per
suade the Empress to refuse to lend her
soldiers to England, and Catherine
adjured the English Minister to see that
his master settled the dispute with
America by constitutional methods.
The great City of London voted against
the coercion of the colonies, from first
to last. Distinguished officers in the
British army and navy flatly refused to
serve against the colonies. Sir George
Trevelyan makes it clear that a major
ity of the British people were opposed
to the attempt to coerce the American
colonies. Burke, Fox, Burne, Conway,
the Duke of Richmond, Lord Shelburne,
the Marquis of Rockingham, were lead
ers of the moral and spiritual forces In
England on the side of America during
the whole contest. In America the
spiritual forces of the people as well as
the moral forces were stimulated by the
apprehension of Episcopacy. Of this
fact Edmund Burke warned the House
of Commons.
The Huguenot families In America,
the sons of the old English Puritans and
the Irish Presbyterians of Scottish de
scent all had a hereditary distrust of
bishops. The clergy of the Presbyter
Ian, Baptist and Congregational
churches all embraced the cause of the
Revolution, saying that there was -not
a single Instance In history where civil
liberty was lost and religious liberty
preserved entire. The American Col
onies won over Great Britain, which
was afterward strong enough when
united to hunt Napoleon to death, not
because America had the most cannon,
but because the strongest moral and
spiritual forces were behind her banner
both in England and America. So in
our Civil War, the North won not be
cause she had the most cannon but be
cause the moral and spiritual forces of
the world were alienated from the
.South by the anachronism, of a govern-
J ment with human slavery for a corner-
stone. But lor this the Southern Con
federacy would, have been recognized
by Englandcv, '
l
HIGH-TRICED COTTON.
If the. Government report on the cot
ton crop is correct, It Is not Improbable
that the price record which was broken
In the speculative flurry last July will
in turn be replaced by .a new record for
the 1903 crop. The cotton supply of the
world last year was 12,707,000 bales, of
which 10,701,453 bales were produced In
the United States. These figures show
the extent to which the American crop
controls the world's markets. This
strong American situation last year
was assisted by' a very heavy world's
consumption, which called for 13,986,000
bales, or over 1,000,000 bales in excess of
the world's production for that year.
Last year at this t)me cotton sold as
low as 8 cents per pound, but, taking
advantage of the strong statistical po
sition and reported damage to the crop
now coming to the markets,, specula
tors forced the price up to 13 cents
per pound. Unfortunately for the plant
ers, nearly all of the crop was out of
their hands before the advance began
last season, but this season they have
not sold freely, and as a result it is
estimated that the growers in the South
will this seasorireceive $200,000,000 more
than they received last year.
The bears In the cotton market are
Inclined to discredit the Government
report, and state that it is fully 1,000,000
bales too low, and if cotton-crop experts
are no more reliable in their reports
than the men who make up the gro
tesque Government wheat reports, the
situation will eventually lose some of
its strength. An error of 1,000,000 bales,
equivalent to more than 10 per cent of
the crop, however, does not obscure the
fact that the world is sailing pretty
close to the wind "on its cotton supply,
and that the Increasing demands of an
increasing population, and advancing
civilization across the Paclflc, will for
the present at least prevent low prices.
This narrow margin between supply
and demand, which has existed for -a
number of years, has caused much un
easiness In Europe, and strenuous ef
forts have been made on the part of for
eign manufacturers to secure release
from the bondage in which they are
now held by the cotton-growers and
speculators of this country.
The Old World occasionally suffers
from a short wheat crop In the United
States, but such occasions in recent
years have been very rare, for they
have to a considerable extent emanci
pated themselves from the 'American
wheatgrowers-by encouraging the pro
duction of wheat In India, Argentina
and other countries which cut but a
small figure in the world's wheat mar
ket In the old days when dollar wheat
was not uncommon In the United States.
The Europeans are now pursuing the
same tactics in regard to cotton. Fairly
successful experiments are reported
from Ceylon, and the Russians are
growing it in Central Asia, while Ger
many Is experimenting in West Africa.
This desire on the part of the Euro
peans to open up new fields for secur
ing cotton supplies need not alarm the
American planter, however, for a large
proportion, and perhaps all of the new
supplies of raw material may be need
ed to supply the increasing demand.
High-priced cotton, even though It
does add quite a number of millions to
the wealth of the planters, Is not an
unmixed blessing, for already manu
factured goods are advancing, and con
sumers are complaining, mills are clos
ing down, and employes' wages are be
ing, reduced. Europe is this year secur
ing the bulk of her wheat supplies from
countries which are willing to sell their
surplus for less money than the Ameri
cans will sell for, and yet there are no
signs of hard times among the wheat
producers of the country. For exactly
the same reasons It does not follow that
cotton-growers would experience much
hardship if the world's supply of that
great staple was enough larger to make
prices a-llttle lower, so that the con
sumer, mill-owner and mill hand could
all share in the proceeds on a little more
satisfactory pro rata than is afforded
them with 13-cent cotton.
"T1TE HIGHER rAKIRISM."
Under the name of "The Higher Fak
lrlsm" the mysteries of popular faiths
that are accepted in sincerity by mul
titudes, while to yet other multitudes
they remain preposterous, were dis
cussed quite entertainingly and indeed
lucidly In a late number of the New
York Independent. During the last half
century strange Individual Ideas have
grown into .beliefs, and these have ex
panded under various names Into a fol
lowing tlia't would be astonishing but
for the fact that the human mind,
reaching after the unknowable, Is prone
to credulity. It Is moreover dominated
by the ego In man which refuses to be
set aside In the discussion involving
great universal truths.
These latter-days faiths irr which men
have from time to time, for a time, mas
queraded with great clamor and much
running to and froj have not all been
religious. Some have been political, and
yet others economic, but those of the
religious cast have been more numer
ous, though equally evanescent.
We have had for example the spec
tacle of men selling all that they had to
take up life In a desert as followers of
a self-proclaimed prophet. Led by him
from religious liberty back Into bond
age to priestly authority, and from the
social organization of a ripe civiliza
tion back Into the patriarchal system
of barbarism, a self-denying multitude
accepted the word of the prophet. a3 the
word of God, and yielded him Implicit
obedience. Stranger still, women who
had been married In love and purity of
.heart were found fanatically consenting
to the Introduction of other wives Into
their homes and loyally helping their
husbands to solve or attempt to solve
the incongruities and difficulties of a
polygamous household.
Again, there have appeared before the
astonished public men and women too
skeptical to assent longer to the estab
lished creeds of Christianity, yet be
lieving, and carrying with them a large
following; that the spirits of good men
and great seek and find communication
with mortals through the medlumshlp
of the Ignorant and vulgar. Yet again
the astonishing possibility has been re
vealed that keenly Intelligent persons
in the very centers of Western civlllza
tlon can go daft in spiritual submission
to Hindu swamis, while the Brahmins
of Boston, turning their faces from the
light of Asia, burn American Incense at
the. Occidental shrine of Mrs. Eddy.
Last, or latest of all, we have seen an
entire City of Zlon shut up shop to jour
ney half way across a continent at the
command of a. self-proclaimed Elijah
who drives $3000 horses as nonchalantly
as if he were a Chicago pork-packer.
Invading the realm of economics, this
type of faklrlsm but now vaunted the
conviction that prosperity can be cre-
ated by paper money and the repudia
tion of debt. Appearing in the political
creed 4 subverted temporarily the alms
of a great political party and led It to
defeat, while It bewailed the crucifix
lop of humanity upon a cross of gold.
These things, says the journal' above
quoted, become comprehensible ,onIy
through those analyses of the more or
less unconscious side of mental action
which modern psychology has achieved,
and through broad comparative studies
In. sociology, which have, disclosed the
factors universally present in unreas
oning popular excitements. In the
knowledge thus gleaned three or four
elements stand out sharp and clear. The
masses of men, even In these days of
riotous prosperity, of liberty and hap
piness, have not been able to eliminate
from their lives the note of tragedy.
Suffering, disappointment, failure, death
are still the human lot as in all ages
of the past. Only to the few Is given
the power to find In straightforward
thinking, in scientific comprehension, in
philosophic acquiescence In the order of
nature a 'steadying "force that enables
them to go quietly forward In their
dally tasks, content to do their duty as
they see It, and to achieve such happi
ness as they may. The majority must
have alleviation and promise. In this
quest they grasp any assurance that is
authoritatively presented. It Is thus
that they accept unquestloningly the
leadership of any self-confident guide,
whose steadfast faith (even though It
be in himself or herself) is full of reas
suring comfort. It Is upon this hunger
of the spirit, this unquestioning faith
that the apostles of the higher faklrlsm
play.
There Is a radical distinction In the
racks of emotional fakirs. Those who
for material gain play upon human
fears and longings, by mere trickery,
are vulgar wretches whose thin deceits
quickly yield to intelligent inquiry.
Fakirs of a higher sort lead the really
great delusions. The distinguishing
mark of these is their own unmistak
able faith in themselves They are truly
amazed when men doubt their honesty.
Their minds teem with thoughts that
are distinctly different from the ordi
nary. These are catalogued, heralded
and finally accepted as visions of re
demption or reform, and they speedily
moet response in faith from the multi
tude that Is seeking after a sign or lis
tening for a promise.
Concluding, Jt may well be said that
in all human history there has been a
no more powerful force In operation
than that denominated the "higher fak
lrlsm," and to all appearance many
ages must still pass before it will cease
to "play Its part in the affairs of men.
Whether it takes the form of "mother
eddyism," with Its insinuating process
of piety, humility and perfect trust; or
assumes the bold front of Dowlelsm and
hurls anathema and defiance at those
who refuse to accept the authority of
the prophet, its basis and superstruc
ture are practically the same. The first
Is in the hunger of the unphilosophlc
mind which seeks after promise and
alleviation; the second is the undis
guised and unmistakable faith of the
fakir extraordinary In himself.
PresldenC Diaz, of Mexico, was first
elected to his present office In the same
year that Hayes succeeded to the Presi
dency of the United States, and has
continued to be President ever since,
with the exception of the brief interreg
num of "Gonzales In 1880. An orderly
and peaceful Mexico Is hard to think of
apart from Porfirlo Diaz. It is accord
ingly of much Interest to learn that
the President proposes to resign at an
early date In favor of Limantour.
Diaz was a Brlgadler-GeneraT In the
patriotic war against Maximilian, and
once elected President, he has contin
ued his power by autocratic methods,
under republican forms, to the great
advantage of his country, which seems
hardly ripe yet for representative in
stitutions. He has placed tfte economic
development of Mexico above all other
considerations, and has virtually re
created the country Industrially. Ma
terial progress has been achieved In a
most striking degree. By means of
subsidies and guaranties he has se
cured the building of numerous needed
railways, and with the railways has
come the opening of mines and other
enterprises. The revolutionist, with his
pronunclamento, has been abolished by
summary means which it would not be
courteous to describe in detail. It Is
sufficient tha.t President Diaz's regime
has made Mexico an orderly and pros
perous state. Whether his successor
will be able to "keep the country In
equally good orde,r remains to be seen.
Last January, during the coal fam
ine, Congress enacted a bill providing
that the Dlngley tariff act should not
be construed -thereafter as authorizing
the collection of any duty fin anthracite
coal, and that for one year from the
passage of that act a full rebate of du
ties on other kinds of coal should be
made. This law will expire by llmltar
tlon on January 14 next, when, unless
the present session of Congress makes
the suspension of coal duties perma
nent, the old tax of 67 cents a ton will
fall back on soft coal. The Boston
Associate Board of Trade has unani
mously adopted a resolution recom
mending that the suspension of the coal
duty be made permanent. The board
fairly says that the soft coai comblira
tions need no protection, and that the
best protection of the people against
these combinations Is the permanent re
moval of the customs tax on foreign
coal.
Great Britain's happy-go-lucky sys
Tem of letting her army look out for
itself, and keeping supplies in one place
and the men for whom they were des
tined in another, has apparently been
adopted "by the Admiralty, for the Lon
don correspondent of a Canadian news
paper says that the battleship Cen
turion, recently dispatched to Chinese
waters. Is fitted with gun slghts-that
give the trifling error of 600 yards In
the range; As'the Centurion has gone
to the most likely scene of naval hostili
ties the providence of the Admiralty Is
fully appreciated by the men that will
have to serve the ten-Inch guns when
the navies cjear for action.
If material progress is to be measured
by the consumption of Iron and steel,
the United States is easily first. It pro
duced 17,820,000 tons of the 43,574,000 tons
of pig iron produced in the world last
year and consumed 18,600,000 tons, or
about 529 pounds per capita, leaving1
only 6J. pounds per capita for the rest
of the world. But this per capita Is
raised by the consumption of England
and Germany, which consumed 10.00Q,
000 tons, or a little more than half as
much per capita as the United States.
This left only 15,000,000 tons for all the
other countries of the world, or less
than 24 pounds per capita.
KIPLING'S "RED .GODS;"
As racy a war of words as ever fought I
on paper, nas oeen going on over xjp
llngfs "Red Gods," just published In his
now volume "The Five Nations." The pith
of the controversy lies In these lmes:
"Who hath smelt wocd-smokc at twilight?
Who hath heard the birch log burning?
"Who Is quick to read the noises of the
night?
Let him follow with the others, for the
young men'ii feet are turning ,
To the camps of proved desiro and known
delight.
' X
"Do -you know the blackened timber? Do
you know that racing stream
"With the raw, right-angjed log-Jam. at the
'end.. ' .
And the bar of sun-warmed shingle, where
a man may bask and dream
To the click of shod canoe poles round.
the bend? '
It is there that we are going with odr rods
and reels and traces.
To a silent, smoky Indian that we know;
To a couch of newpulled hemlock, with the
starlight on our faces.
For the Red Gods call us out, and we
must go."
A contributor to Forest and Stream
who also writes verses and is a sports,
man of no small pretensions, vbtit Is lost
to fame through the Ill-starred cognomen
of Brown, goes Into a spasm of horrified
Burprlse over Kipling's characterization
of a Maine "log-Jam." Under the heading
"Spurious Writings About Angling and
Nature," he makes a furious arraignment
of the poet for almost every kind and
degree of violation of truth In the verses,
"The Feet of the Young Men" the most
violent diatribe, It Is said, that has ever
appeared In the columns of Forest and
Stream. Others join In the assault. The
cudgels of defense are taken up by Mr.
Kipling's friends, among them a book
man, well-known to Oregonlans, C. H.
Ames, secretary of D. C. Heath & Co.,
Boston, who has eaten roast venison and
bandied jokes with Mazamas around their
blazing campflres on Mount Hood.
Omitting invectives and .reducing the
screed of the assailants to the level of
fairly polite and rational critlclsm, some
of the arguments against the poet run as
follows: t
Kipling -peaks of a log-Jam as "raw,"
using the word as synonymous with un
finished. A log-Jam is an aggregation of
tree-trunk sections. No more finished and
exquisitely fashioned creation of naturrJ than
a tree trunk! No painter ever evcii ap
proximated the Indescribable fineness and
delicacy of the lines and work on the trunk
of a tree. As Ruskin says: "Nature has
taken wonderful pains with Its forms, sculp
turing it into exquisite variety of dint and
dimple, rounding or hollowing it into con
tours which for fineness no human hand
can follow; then she colors It, and its whole
sub3tance Is full of hidden histories, con
cealing wonders of structure which, in all
probability, are mysteries even to the an
gels." Kipling, in his blindness to, and
Ignorance of. Nature, calls such a structure
"raw." Texture of bark, anatomy of muscle
beneath reflected lights in recessed hollows,
stains of mosses and lichens, and wonderful
delicacy of hues all this Is "raw." By
similar; reasoning the rough board sawed
from that log, which Is raw, should be
called finished. As well call a steak cut
from a quarter of beef finished.
And Kipling calls a log-Jam "right
angled." When one side of an angle is per
pendicular to the other, it Is a right angle.
And It is manifest that no log-Jam can be
right-angled either to itself or- the stream;
nor can Its logs be" right-angled to each
other, for the ends jpolnt In all directions.
And of course no- log-Jam was ever "at
the end" of a "racing stream." Kipling
states that this is where his Impossible
lo-Jam is located.
And Kipling's "Indian" used "shod" poles5
Tho genuine Indian certainly does not use
them. Instead, when he has to, pasV up
rapid water that precludes paddling, he se
lects and c a pole from the nearest suit
able tree, auu uses that In its "raw" state.
"When he reaches quiet water again, ovar
board goes the pole. He would no more
think of carrying a canoe-pole on a trip
than he would think: of carrying tent-poles,
lie makes them as the occasion requires.
And this "versatile" writer- masking as a
gentleman sportsman has his "couch" of
"new-pulled" hemlock! placed so that he lies
on it to sleep. It will be "with the starlight
on our faces." Balderdash! The real
sportsman sleeps under his canoe, in a tent,
caKo, "shack" or "lean-to," or at least
while protected by thick foliage above his
bead, to keep off dews and rain. He likes
the starlight on his face as he angles at
night for big trput, or mingled with the
light from the camp-fire as he smokes with
a comrade beside it, or as he sits In tho
canoe while he and his guide return to tho
camp; but never while sleeping on,' his bed
of boughs.
And now for the other side.
Ever since Chaucer wrote of the "Longen
to gon on pilgrimages," ears Mr. Ames, and
probably long before that overslnce the
feet of young men have turned Irresistibly to
adventure In the wilderness, there have been
those to whom Kipling's words would have
come with ample response and answering
thrill.
I will not say there is no flnor descriptive
poetry than this of Kipling's, but really. If
challenged at the moment. I could not read
ily put my finger on anything better. It is
"right as a trivet," every word of It. yet
not a word of it escapes the railing abuso
of Mr. Brown.
He claims to know all about log-Jams and
canoe-poles, not only at "Sand Lake. Michi
gan." but in the whole "United States" and
also in "India, Norway, British Columbia
an3 the Maritime Provinces of Canada," and
will have It that "no actual log-Jam Is raw,'
"right-angled, or 'at tho end"1" of the vista,
and that "not one canoe-pole in a thou
sand" is "shod" or "clicks." Ho has never
heard of a sand bar in his life, but de
liberately states that "a 'bar is always a
deposit of alluvium earth-sediment which
has gathered and formed a mud bank or
island!"
After such a statement no sort of state
ment can be too extraordinary, and we need
not be surprised at his saying that "there
never was a -'bar of 'shingle,' " and if
there w'ere, "no sportsman would ever
dream of reclining on such a hard, hot un
comfortable seat as a 'sun-warmed shingle.' "
He says there is no "smoky Indian," evi
dently supposing that Kipling's exquisite
epithet refers to the Indian's complexion
alone, although It is true of that.
I am unable to Infer from any one. of his
strictures on Kipling's words that Mr.
Brown has any famlHarlty whatever with
camp life or experiences In the wilderness.
His assertion that campers do not "sleep
on a couch of hemlock twigs if they can get
spruce boughs" Is the exact reverse of the
facts in the case as I have known them.
Even If Kipling had committed the
trifling inaccuracies with which he is
charged, they might well be forgiven him
In view of the vivid and true pfcture he
presents on the whole, with a few bold
strokes of the brush; there Is atmosphere,
color, close kinship and camaraderie, with
nature. The, lines, as Mr. Ames says,
have "lilt and go"; their swinging, free
hearted jubilance carry the bracing fresh
ness and cheer of a wind from the pine
forest. GERTRUDE METCALF.
A Song.
A. E. Housman in McClure'e.
Far In a -Western brookland ,
JThat bred me long ago
The' poplars stand and tremble
By pools I used to know.
There, In the windless night-time.
The wanderer, marveling why, "
Halts on the brldsre to hearken''
How soft the poplars sigh.
He hears; long since forgotten
In fields where I was known,
Here I lie down In London
And turn to rest alone.
There, by the starlit fences.
The wanderer halts "and bears
My soul that lingers sighing I
About the glimmering weirs. t
NOTE AND COMMENT.
The Travels of Meriwether Lewls
York Is becoming very surly on ac
count of the proposal to erect a statue
to Sack. He says thai a colored gentleman
has as much right to monuraentery fame
as any squaw that ever lived. I favor
the Idea, for Sack has helped us out often
enough, and even among the Clatsops It Is
a common thing to hear her called a
"bird." Clark Is fighting the proposal, be
cause he Is afraid the sculptor will put
his face en tho basement of the statue,
and If his girl should visit the Exposition
It would be all off with her.
TcdayM tried to settle the question of
Sack's name. She can't spell it herself,
and I never was any good. One man says
it should be Sakakakia, but that sounds
too much like a man that stuttered. Sack
Is good enough for me. and for her, too,
she says. She cut It on a tree yesterday
to see how it would look on the statue.
I had a request for a signed article to
day from a magazine. I wrote to the
President about It, and he said that If I
yielded there would be no Exposition, as
the fame of anyone who wrote magazine
articles never lasted a year. He asked me
if "Washington ever published Illustrated
articles on hi3 fights? I telegraphed back
to thedltor that such articles as he
wanted were not In accord with the spirit
of true Jeffersonlan Democracy, and I
chipped the palat off Fort Clatsop, as a
Populist party was being organized in
protest against Its "monarchlal splendor."
Astoria Is expecting Astor, who Is hust
ling to make money for William "Wal
dorf, named after an Inn of New York. It
Is hoped that he will extend the railroad
to Tillamook, as the people there want
to butt In with their butter. .
The Deadly Linotype.
The nimble linotype, with even face.
Is making readers blase.
But there may be a change who knows?
Upon the heels of this well-meant expose.
It seems to me that type, nowever neat.
Is verging sadly to the decollete.
And. tans the accents that have kept It safe.
Resembles more the dancer In a cafe.
The "v, ell of English," that soma poet chap
Once told of, now Is absinthe frappe;
The country tongue, that once was clean
and sweet.
Is dlzjned like tho wench at some poor
tawdry fete
A miserable wretch, a fly-by-nlght,
"Whose mere appearance galls the Lord's
elite;
In short, not lusty as a country lass.
But like some sour old maid, extremely
passe.
These metaphors are mixed, I freely state
But so are things that form a luscious pate;
The truth dwells in them, as in pates the
truffle, "
Or tongue-surprising Ice that lurks beneath
a souffle.
The linotype Is not the muses' liege,
But rather Is the devil's own protege.
And he who these well-meant remarks de-
1 rides.
Believe me, lacks completely bona fldes.
For once Nat Goodwin couldn't complain
of his support
Lots of girls wouldn't mind being hyp
notized If It would make them Nance
O'Nells.
The small boy with a big brother un
derstands Panama's position as well as
anybody.
There Is absolutely no accounting for
tastes. There are people that don't like
the bagpipes. .
Of course it is the consumers' loss and
the growers' that they do not appreciate
Oregon prunes,
Had he gone over the bridge, Nat Good
win would have regretted most that his
exit was ungraceful.
The Mullah's men have turned cannibals
to get some benefit out of their fellows
before the British eat them up.
Deathbed repentances must be common
er than Is supposed, judging from the
numbers of men that get shaved on Sat
urday night.
Hearst must contemplate a yet greater
Increase In the amount of drivel that sup
plements his Sunday editions, or his par
cels post bill Is meaningless.
There was an old woman who lived In a
shoe,
She had so many children she didn't know
what to do;
"When she heard that they mustn't appear
on the stage.
She spanked them all soundly, so great was
"' her rage.
"When radium first attracted attention
In the department stores at a price of
$2,721,000 a pound, the improvident buyer
was cautioned to wait for a bargain sale.
And now sure enough radium Is on the
counter. It has been discovered In car
nolltc, and Utah radium may now be had
for 5450,000 a pound. It must be con
fessed, however, that the Utah brand
shows only 1500 activity as compared with
7000 activity shown by the European brand.
"What 7000 activity Is may be learned by
addressing the German Emperor.
Mrs. Lizzie Johnson, of Oregon City, 13
worrying over the question of whether a
hen "sits" or "sets." Far be it from the
most foolish to rush In where lexico
graphers tread, but there can be no harm
in quoting an authority. Yamhill stands
pat on "set," for the Telephone-Register
In its Gopher news has the following item:
-William Klrby i3 tired of. tho old style of
setting and never hatching. He now ha3
purchased a late improved Incubator. Look
out for future results.
Is it possible that Mr. Klrby, before
purchasing the Incubator, took the eggs
to bed with him? And while eggs are un
der discussion, didn't those King's Valley
hoodlums make a dead set against the re
vivalist? A Portland critic of Miss Lulu Glaser's
recent performance In "Dolly Varden"
alludes with evident gusto to her "juicy
personality." Sir John Suckling, who has
been tucked away under the daisies these
three centuries, must have met a girl
like Miss Glaser that May morning In the
meadowsat Charing Cross now, worse
luck, the site of a busy railway station
when he came home and described her to
"Dick." The bride In Sir John Suckling s
verses may not be the most beautiful
girl in all poetry,' but she Is the greatest
"peach." Here Is the earlier critic's ren
dering of the idea:
The maid, and thereby hangs a tale.
For such a maid no "Whltsau ale
rViulrl cvpr vet oroduce.
'no grape that's kindly ripe couldbo ,
So round, so plump, so .soft as she.
Nor half to full of Juice.
It is in "The Bride" that the comparf.
son of feet to mice occurs:
Her feet beneath her petticoat.
Like little mico stole In and out
As If they feared tho light.
And the famous description of a lip:
Her lips were. red: and one wai thin.
Compared to that was next her chin.
Some bee had stung It newly.-
But, Dick, her eyes so guard her face,
I durst no more upon them gaze;
Than on the sun in July
"WEXFORD JONES.
Xctijua , aJLtiJiiAj
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