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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1907)
6 XHJi SUM)Ai ; UKJiUqAlAA, PORTLAND,, FEBRUARY 34, . 1907. ' SUBSCRIPTION KATES. CT INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. VI (By Mall.) tlly, Eurday Included, on year $8.00 E11-. Sunday Included, ilx months 4 25 Daily, Sunday included, three month!.. Dally, Sunday Included, one month "5 Ially, without Sunday, one year " Dally, without Sunday, six months -U Dally, without Sunday, three months.. 1.75 Dally, without Sunday, one month -0 Sunday, one year s0 Weekly, one year (Isaued Thursday)... 1-60 Sunday and Weekly, ons year BY CARRIER. Dally, Sunday Included, one year X Dally. Sunday Included, one month T5 HOW TO RtMIT Send postofflce money rder, express order or personal check on your local bank. Stamps, coin or currency re at the gender's risk. Give postofflce ad dress in full. Including county and state. POSTAGE KAIKS. Entered at Portland, Oregon, PostoIIlca as Second-Class Hatter. SO to 4 Panes 1 cent 19 to 28 Pages cents 0 to 44 Pages 3 cents 46 to 60 Pagea Foreign Postage, double rates. IMroKTANX Tha postal laws are strict. Newspapers on which postage Is not fully prepaid are not forwarded to destination. EASTERN BUSINESS OFFICE. The S. C. Ueckwlth Special Agency Nw York, rooms 4D-S0 Tribune building. Chi cago, room 51U-512 Tribune building. KCTT ON SALE. Chicago Auditorium Annex, Postoftlca News Co., ITS Ijesrborn street. bt. Paul, Mlun. N. St. Marie. Commercial eutlon. Colorado Springs, Colo. Westers Neva Agency. Denver Hamilton Hendrlck. 806-01S Pe enlcenth atreel; Pratt Book Store, 121 Fifteenth street; I. Welnsteln; H. P. Han sen. Kansas City, Mo. Rlcksecker Cigar Co., Klmh and Walnut. Minneapolis. M. J. Kavanaugh, 60 South Third. Cleveland, O James Pub ha. 307 Su perior street. Atlantic City, N. J. Ell Taylor New York City L. Jonea A Co., Aator House; Broadway Theater News Stand. Oakland, Cal W. H. Johnson, Four teenth and Franklin streets; N. Wheatley; Oakland News Stand. Ogden D. L Boyle, W. O. Kind, 114 Twenty-fifth street. Hot Springs, Ark. C. N. 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It proposed, deliberately a grand .hold-up of the City of Portland through the machinery of law: It was another phase In the magnificent scheme of ag grandbiement that the local plunder bund tiae euccessfully carried forward in Portland through half a century. Franchise-grabbers and public privilege traffickers have always been able to find serviceable politicians and a host of toadies In Legislatures and City Councils who are willing and nxious to do their bidding. There were puch at Salem this time. They were, chiefly, State Senators Beach, Bailey and Hod win. They were aided by Senator Slchel, who ought to have known bet ter, but didn't. The gas company had its agents, too, in the House. Their names are not worth mentioning now. To engineer a scheme through the Leg islature that would compel the people of Portland to pay the gas company a great eu'm for a franchise which the company, cr Its predecessors, got for nothing, and out of which it has real ized great profits requires no email measure of cunning and finesse. Sind bad the Sailor would, have paid a great sum. no doubt, if he had had it, to get rid of the Old Man of the Sea. The Oid Man of the Sea would never, of course, have released his death grip for nothing. He had an exclusive and per petual franchise. On the ame theory the gas company's ingenious Senatorial trio at Salem reasoned that the unfor tunate municipality of Portland ought to be obliged to pay well If it should be permitted to thake off the perpetual burden of the gas monopoly. Hence the amazing arrangement for compen sation. No one at Salem dared raise his voice to defend the methods of the gas mo nopoly, but there was the threadbare, argument about "vested rights." Fifty years ago the Territorial Legislature gave certain citizens an Indefinite per mit to use the public streets of Port land for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing and selling gas. With this public privilege ea their chief asset, great fortunes have been made by the holders of -the franchise, present and paet. Out of the profits realized, from excessive charges to the public the business arrew until the famous eell-out in 1S92, when the original owners with drew with well-filled pockets, Port land's firpt and most illustrious eicheme of frennled finance having been success- fnllv achieved. The rrefent Portland a Company then began business and rough Its franchises now declares its n-aissailable right to hold on and mulct ihe public forever. - e shall see. It would be deplorable if It should develop that the public has no recourse. We think it has. . Success, or apparent success, of the gas company at Salem in defeating every reasonable proposal for correction mid restraint Is a victory over the whole people of Portland. The initial Ineo .lence and defiance of the gae company 1n challenging the right of public Inqui sition into Jts affairs are paralleled, only ryJ the remarkable effrontery of Its re rent proposal. that. If Us perpetual fran chise should be terminated, it should be "compensated" for recall of a priv ilege which the company has en joyed practically without cost, but with imniene advantage to itself, for fifty years. During a great part of this time tha company paid no franchise tax whatever. For two years Its franchise has been assessed at $100,000. Does any one Imagine that $100,000 would be even a. modicum of the great sum the gas company would have required the pub lic to pay for its franchise, if the auda cious compensation enterprise had been successfully engineered through the Legislature. Investigation of the gas company by the City Council began more than a year ago. It might be imagined that under stress of universal complaint and exposure to the scrutinizing eyes of the whole public the gae company would make 'an effort to Improve its service, if not to reduce Itta charges. It has done neither. Within eighteen months. to be sure, the nominal price per 1000 cubic feet has dropped from $1.50 to 95 cents. Yet it is within the common knowledge that the cost of gas to the average consumer has not in that time decreased. On the contrary, there are many complaints that it has actually increased. The Oregonian directly im pugns the gas company's good faith in making this reduction, and declares that it has been engaged within that time in a gigantic swindle of Its patrons through methods that are a reproach and a scandal to all persons responsi ble for direction and operation of the company. ' . TAKING 1IEKD OF THE WARNING. It has been several months since pre dictions of approaching hard times be gan drifting out of the Eastern finan cial headquarters. At first these "croakings" were received with resent ment, but, now that business is still flowing along unhampered by-any re tarding influences, it is possible that the warnings issued by timid Wall street were heedd, and it may he for tunate for us that they were circulated. There has ' been some criticism over the failure of Congress to give some relief to the financial situation. The banks, however, seem to be -holding a tight rein on borrowers, and are taking no chances,' and it is this con servative policy which is doing -much to head off the threatened relapse that al ways accompanies' too much prosperity. The feature of the situation which causes the greatest uneasiness is the apparent distrust "which Kuropean in vestors are beginning to show. Despite thifc fever of unrest among our people end? the drastic legislation which may hamper development in some lines, there is plenty of safe collateral be hind all of ,th legitimate enterprises which are now seeking money; and. when the money is available, the lender is not taking any long chances. It is true we may be feeling a touch of the malady known as excess of prosperity, but the disease is only ia its first stagos and if a conservative , course is fol lowed, not only by the bankers, but by other business- men, it' will be a long time before it gets past the first stages. It might. In fact, be possible for the demand and supply of money gradually to came together on a safe, satisfac tory basis without anything being jarred "by return to an even working basis. There will be some danger when the reaction from the ever-increasing price of all commodities takes place., In that readjustment both labor and capital will surfer. The present emergency wages and emergency prices for ma terial In San Francisco have added to the cost of building and construction .work all over the Coast, and well into the interior. They have resulted in an inimense orount of -money being in vested in industrial plants, which, when the readjustment comes, must enter into competition with other plants whose cost was based on normal and not emergency prices. Kuropean in vestors are holding aloof from Amer ican railroad securities, the flotation of Which was attempted to secure money for construction purposes. That they may be warranted in their waiting at titude is shown by the cost of some of the new work on Western roads. The moi?t expensive portion of the Milwau kee road's extension . to the Coast is the tunnel through the Rocky Moun tains, and the contract -price on this tunnel 'is 75 per cent higher than" the cost of the Northern Pacific tunnel of about the same length built through the Cascades about twenty years earlier. All other branches of railroad and in dustrial construction work show simi lar Increases in cost. There will be other tunnels through the Rockies and other railroad built tocompete with those now building. :. Perhaps', the for eign investor is waiting for the oppor tunity to get in on them at a lower level. If we are not too sudden in our pause in the wild commercial flight in which we have been indulging, the evil effect will not be very serious, but it will be well at' this time for individ uals "as well as bankers to fortify themselves against possible danger. If due caution is exercised -we shall lose little or nothing by this slowing down, and when we get over this portion of poor track, with our wonderful re sources to draw on, it will not require much time again to get under full headway. THE SOCIAL FACE. Right Rev. Henry ,C. Potter, bishop of New York, in a' series of articles published In Harper's Bazaar, has one under the above head that is worthy not only of perusal, but of careful study. Beginning with a statement that needs no proof of its truth beyond the commonest observation, that- no more tremendous change has come to pass 1n the last naif century than that which has occurred in woman's realm, Bishop Potter says: v Two forces have been at work -in connection with the status of women, one of them pro gressive and the other conservative one of them demanding for both sexes equal rights and privileges, the other appealing to the Bible for the warrant for regarding woman as an inferior and for keeping her in bondage. Finding much in this change to ap plaud, much in the extended industrial opportunities of woman that Is legiti mate reason for rejoicing both for the sake of the Individual and ' society; much in the enlightened view of wom an's capabilities that is of tenent to the race in Its development, the bishop de plores the "social pace" that is an ac companying feature of this change, which keeps a multitude of women in a whirl that leaves little time for true enjoyment none for rest. . Does any one who reads these lines, he asks, find any difficulty in recalling that young matron who bursts into a room with eager and effusive salutations, w-hich she fondly imagines will make up for the unseemly haste with which she makes thm and who, as she wrings your hand and holts out again, says: "Oh, I do wish I could, stay; but I have eight receptions to go to this afternoon and I don't know how 1 am to get through." She is quite unconscious that she has left behind her no other Impression than one that vexes and ir ritates. k. At this pace, and the example given is fairly representative of its nervous, restless stride, it is not too much to say that all the social dignity, courtesy and charm of social life are likely soon to be distanced. Haste Is on the box; haste cracks the whip and my lady sets out to make a round of calls possibly with a bellboy along to leave cards on people' who have left cards on her. Returning ; after two ' wasted hours, she finds cause for rejoicing that the task is over and that she found so many on the afternoon's circuit "not at home." ' - Bishop Potter is convinced that, as our cities grow and social demands mul tiply we shall he forced to adopt some such convenience as commerce long ago resorted to, and which has proven an enormous economy of time and temper. This plan he outlines as fol lows: Let" us suppose that there were a social clearing-house, in which each one had a little box, like a letter-box. into which my social neighbor who wishes to call upon me could drop a card. I go, two or three times a week, and open my box, take out the cards, note the names, etc.. and -ahen, referring to the catalogue of the numbered boxes, walk to and fro in front of them and drop my own cards Into such boxes as bear the numbers belong ing to the cards found in my own box. Will any one explain to me how this differs, except in its much greater economy of time and labor, from the process of ringing a door-bell and handing cards to the servant? Contemplating the prevalence of this spirit of haste that pervades all depart ments of modern life; that keeps the woman who tries to keep up with what she mistakenly calls her "social duties" In a perpetual whirl; that sends the clever, broad-minded woman hither and thither, pulled a dozen different ways at once by her ardent sympathies with as many beneficent undertakings; daily and hourly overtaxing her strength in 'these activities, we can but regard this spirit as the demon of un rest nd deplore the extent to which the social world has become obsessed by it. So many of our women have been made physical wrecks by enter taining this demon in the guise of duty that a new malady called "nervous prostration" has become alarmingly prevalent in American homes a mal ady for which "rest" is prescribed af ter rest end relaxation and even sleep has become impossible. The claims of sewing classes and kindergartens and hospitals; of young women's and young men's Christian associations, and teachers' associations, and development clubs, and literary clubs, and church societies, drag women hither and thither earnest, eager, anx ious to do but sadly crippling their own efforts by haste and striving that lead inevitably to exhaustion. The thing that tells in good results is not "raw haste, half-sister to delay," but steady tenacity of purpose and calm, serene resolution, that refuse to own failure or know defeat. BACK TO NATURE. In that fascinating excursion ,of fancy, "The War of Worlds," Mr. H. G. Wells describes en Invasion of the earth by the inhabitants of Mars. Arrhed as these strange creatures were with powers and weapons unparalleled in our experience, mankind could offer no effectual resistance to their attacks. The empires of the world suecumbed to them so easily that the invasion was little more than a hunting excursion with human beings for game. Our race was, in fact, upon the point of exter mination when an unexpected savior intervened. The Martians were at tacked by a, mysterious malady. Their howls of misery resounded by day and night and presently they expired. Not all their skill, and science were com petent to save them. Who or what was this occult and timely rescuer of the human race?. It was the invisible, de spised and hated microbe. In Mam. Mr. Wells tells his readers, there are no microbes; hence the Martians have acquired no immunity to their assaults, and, having ingested the minute foe with their food and drink, they forth with perished,, while men under the same circumstances would have experi enced no inconvenience.' This fable is not without Its warning. May not our efforts to eliminate the microbe from our food and drink, be carried too far? Perhaps not if one could always maintain strict control over his diet; but this he cannot do, for everybody travels more or. less. Every body cats food which ,has been pre pared at hotels and restaurants with out much" effort to get rid of the germs. A person who should devour food laden 'wi'tl microbes after a long course of dietiifg1- upon germ-free substances might find, himcelf in the situation of the unhappy Martians. He would "have lost his immunity and might become a helpless victim to their ravages. It Is possible, perhaps, to be too clean. It is possible to cleanse too thoroughly tiie' -air -.vwe bre.atbe.i5 tha... .garments" we weary-mrui the ftodr-;,ve eat.;' For;, we mustv'niake .provision, not only for the routirre of efur habitual controlled; and guarded livfcs but1 for exceptional in cidents, for1 Cra ver and- visits when we are'only too likely to be left, like: the famous Cardinal, naked ; to our ene mies. . The ' philosopher Locke held, that it was best to harden infants for the in clement circumstances' of adult life by exposing them to cold, hunger and neg lect. ', This would, of course, kill off a certain proportion but think' how ro bust Kthe remainder would become. Rousseau taught something of the same doctrine. In his opinion children were beet nurtured in the state of na ture, which, clearly implies hunger, coid and dirt, with microbes innumerable. There is a whole schoo' of ptesent-day wise men who hold doctrines of the same sort, teaching that we are unwise to expend the care we ,do to preserve the lame, the halt and the weak. Let the drunkard drink himself to death, they tell us. Let the feeble child per ish of his feebleness and the foolish man die of his folly. Thus we shall eliminate from the race the weak, the foolish and the sickly and approach the goal of perfection. "Let the fit sur vive," is the watchword of many of our. thinkers, "and let Nature choose the fit by her own rough methods." By . finicky attention to cleanliness and disinfection it may "be that we tend to make ourselves unfit for survival; the unfitness lying in a lowered power of resistance. The trend of medicine of late years has been in the direction of removing the causes of disease; it is possible that the correlated work of indurating the human frame and forti fying it against the action of those causes has been somewhat neglected.. As our sewer systems become perfect it is more than likely that we lose an im munity whose absence makes, a little filth as dangerous as a great deaf was previously. Perhaps the comparatively few microbes left in hygienic food and drink are as deadly to our .unfortified frames as th; multitudes were in un purified rations. There seems to be 1r. this matter some sort of a law of com pensation at work, which Mr. Wells suggested in his story as he has sug gested many other vital truths. What is the anti-diphtheritic serum but an attempt to afford artificially the same protection against a certain germ which Naure afforded before we became so delicately civilized? The serums of f modern medicine are obtained by mak ing horses and cattle undergo vicari ously the sufferings which man had formerly to endure. Whether the pro tection which we thus obtain is as per fect as tho Individuals fit to survive se cured by the method of Nature is a question which experience has not yet answered. The latest treatment of tuberculosis is a return to the method of Nature. It consists in Immunizing the body to the germs by air, sunshine and nutritious food. Tuberculosis Is a disease of civilization;, the remedy, and apparently the only one, consists in an escape from the conditions which civi lization has imposed. It took the med ical men many- years to. make this dis covery. 'Perhaps they will some time, discover 'that cancer is also caused by some of the deprivations or indulgences of civilized life. At any rate, the far ther we advance from the state of Na ture in our appliances, food and hab its, the more frequently cancers occur. This most dreadful of diseases has In creased almost in proportion as the conveniences of modern life have mul tiplied. Each new labor-saving inven tion introduces, if it does not cause, a new harvest of cancers. Perhaps the cure will be found. like that for con sumption, in the abandonment of some of the habits of civilization, and a par tial return to Nature. - LONG FELLOW. - . . With .the possible exception of Tenny son, Longfellow is the most popular of modern English poets. His rhymes jar, his meters halt, the melody, of his verse Is thin and monotonous; yet he has a thousand readers to Swinburne's one, whose long, rich cadences sweep like the sounding sea. In all his poems there Is not a trace of that haunting sweetness which was Coleridge's nat ural mode of expression.. In "The An cient Mariner" or in any single page of "Christabeli' there is more of the elu sive charm and mystery of poetry than in Longfellow's complete works. For that "flush of rose on peaks divine" which illuminates the , Impassioned verse of Shelley we seek in vain throughout .."Hiawatha," "The Voices of the Night" and "The Tales of a Wayside Inn." Longfellow is almost devoid of passion. He walked in the paths of the shadowy forest; he pon dered by murmuring brooks; he plucked the flowers of thought from Euripides, from Lope da Vega, from the mighty mystic of Paradise and Hell; but of the tidal passions which ebbed and flowed In those cosmic souls he felt nothing more than the ripples which kit" a the sheltered sands in some far receding bay. His mood is perpetual calm. He rejected the strenuous doc trine of Shelley, who made his chained Prometheus ' hurl eternal defiance at the Olympian tyrant. The Miltonic Sa tan who chose rather everlasting pain than submission to Jehovah had no charms for Longfellow. His cult was passivity. :In his feeling he was Ori ental rather than .Western. He teaches con triteness. "Into each life some rain must fall," he sings, pensively. "Be still, sad heart, and 'cease repining," for "some days must be dark and dreary." The motive of hie song is res ignation to the Inevitable. It is of no use to repine: struggle is unavailing.' "Let us be patient," he says. We can not escape sorrow; doubtless it is sent for our good. "Oftentimes celestial benedictions assume this dark dis guise" of pain and sorrow and the loss of friends. He is ancient, dreamy, melancholy. Byron strides in full pan oply of war across the arena challeng ing the demons of wrong and defying the gods of superstition. Longfellow stroll,? contemplatively among them and does homage to them all. He i Oriental in feeling, but not in thought. The philosophy of the East did not attract him. Wordsworth sang of the immanent God, the power "more deeply interfused, whose dwelling is the light of setting suns."' But Longfel low's God was conventional, not to say sentimental; a benevolent ruler not un like h. good King to "whom we all owe fealty. There is no trace in his writ ings of that pantheism which marches co-ordinately with democracy to vic tory over mental and political tyranny. His theology 13 primitive, childlike, as cetic. Of the problems which per turbed the thought of Tennyson and in spired his greatest verse Ingfellow knew nothing. He gives no hint of the universal trend of the times toward some "far-off divine event." Nature "ravening with tooth and claw" does' not .interrupt his pensive musings. The story . written on "scarped cliff and quarried stone" moves htm not. His unchanging mood is that of Tennyson's weaker period, when he wrote the sen timental "May Queen." Longfellow wrote nothing but May Queens all his days. But if Longfellow teaches Oriental submission to fate, he never teaches despair. He Is melancholy, but no pes simist. "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After" he could not have written. He might have ansented to its statements, but he would have added gently that it was all for the best. Things may be pretty bad. he' would have agreed, and they are likely'to get much worse, but let us not. repine over it; in heaven all will be made right. Tennyson had serious doubts whether there was such a place as heaven; to Longfellow it was as real as Boston Common. In his imagination the Reaper whose name is Death cuts the flowers of earth with his sickle keen only to transplant them to fields of light where they shall 'be nurtured by a loving gardener. Death meant to Longfellow nothing more than a passage to a better country; where "these light afflictions" are to be compensated by "an exceeding and eternal weight of glory." . To Tennyson death was a problem, dark, fearful, in soluble. 'He met it without fear; manly and stern was his aspect before the king of terrors; but his misgivings were deep. Death was the beginning of a Voyage -which led no man knew whither. "To Longfellow the graveyard is the "place where human harvests grow," and from its furrows we "shall rise again when the archangel's blast shall winnow, like a fan, the chaff and grain." Longfellow Is the poet of the conven tional. He sings the trite. His poems are an unfailing source of lovely ex tracts for autograph albums. Mottoes for tombstones may be found in almost every line. He is popular because he Is commonplace. He says nothing start ling. He never shocks us. Shelley, singing of the brotherhood of man, out raged all proprieties and shattered all conventions. Longfellow never dreamed of the brotherhood of man. . He be lieves in the good old organization of society where the many serve and the few enjoy, trusting that the balance will swing even in heaven. His learn ing was great, but it was .t the same time shallow. 'He never looked, and never cared to look, beneath the sur face. And In his verse the allusions are not to the disturbing thoughts of his authors, but always to what soothes, quiets, pacifies. Bryant saw in Nature something frosty and despair ful. To Longfellow it was a well trimmed garden, fragrant and dewy. Bryant perceived the deeper truth and sang it in .more enduring measures. To Poe life was all mystery and passion. To Longfellow it was a ramble, on a day of sunshine and shower, by coun try lanes. He sang of it in soothing lullabys tinged with complacent sad ness. Poe's verse surges with passion ate questionings. He sang for the im mortals, Longfellow for the . nursery and the young ladies' boarding school. Poe is the Chopin of American litera ture; Longfellow the Sankey. The other day the organ of monopoly and privilege in Portland said that The Oregonian, which now criticises that method, had supported and approved nomination of the State Railroad Com missioners by the state board. This statement was shown by The Oregonian to be false. Now the organ says The Oregonian Indorsed this method of se lection, "inferentially," and quotes from this paper a statement of January 15 that on its face disproves its impu dent and untruthful contention. ' The Oregonian on January 15 mentioned among other things certain reasons why the friends of. the Democratic Governor opposed other methods of ap pointment, and one of them was that in their opinion the "Legislature was unfit or incompetent," others that the "state board, which often names com missions, will betray the people., or that the people are not to be trusted." The Oregonian then made no sugges tion of its own as to the state board, no more than it said for itself that "the people are not to be trusted." for it has uniformly held, as every reader knows, that the people should elect the commission. On February 8 The Ore gonian said: "Of course ttiere should be temporary appointments, and it is proper that the Governor should ap point them. Rut It Is not best, in the opinion of The Oregonian, that they should hold office after the people shall have had an opportunity to elect their successors." This is and has been the uniform position of The Oregonian. For the first time since the young Queen of Holland made Prince Henry of the Netherlands "Prince Consort" he has appeared before the people and the world in a role of usefulness. It is gratifying to note that he "plied the oar with lusty limb" in the rescue of passengers from the wreck of the steamer Berlin on Hook of Holland. A strong, muscular man, he used his strength to some purpose in. this dire stress of wind and wave and human misery. Wilhelmina's subjects, who have silently detested him since the young Queen's illnes -and the loss the-eby of an heir to the throne early in her married life, was charged to his brutal treatment of her, will now doubtless look upon him with a forgiv ing spirit, since there seems to be no question of his bravery and usefulness upon this occasion. The faculty of the University of Washington seems to be imbued with the old-fashioned Idea that students attend college for the purpose of giv ing conscientious and intelligent atten tion to study. In this view students are forbidden tq indulge, during the re mainder of the college year, in dances, comic opera, minstrel shows and other forms of entertainment. It is strange to what extent old fogyism will go at times. It does not mean a decadence of pa triotism that there Is no celebration of Washington's birthday. The Nation is in the bustle of business and "hasn't time.'' Yet let some one shout "Re member the Mainel" and there is an answering whoop that shows that busi ness is a very thin veneer on the patri otic pride. The House made a big mistake in killing King's bill for a bridge across the Snake at Ontario. There is a large section of irrigated country in that part of Idaho naturally tributary to the Malheur metropolis thjt is now served by a current-power ferry when coming over to trade. Mr. Hammond plays no favorites. He sold one part of his railroad symem to Mr. Hill and the other to Mr. Harriman. If he had any part of a railroad left, and if there was anybody else to sell to which there isn't he would impartially knock the remainder down to the high est bidder. The Legislature, which once decided to cut off two normals, leaving two, lias appropriated $:55.000 for Weston, $27,000 for Drain,' $40,000 for ' Ashland and $45,000 for Monmouth. If we can count correctly that makes four nor mals, no less. The Yoncalla Courier having got down to'nine subscribers. Editor Brown quit and went to work. And yet it is more the town's loss than the editor's. A small town is judged by its newspa per. Cleveland's Mayor now proposes free streetcar ride for everybody. Sure. Free water, free lights, free rides, free everything. Nobody pays but the tax payer. Let's have the whole free pro gramme also in Portland. If short -weight groceries are all right, why are not clippec coins all right? A true solution would seem to be a legislative act authorizing exchange of short-weight coins for short-weight goods." - Mr. Gates says it's a mistake about Rockefeller. He owns only one fifth of Standard Oil, and he has an income of only $20,000,000 a year. We apologize. Senator Depew comes grandly to the fore once more and defends Forester Pinchot. Depew' has been lost in the woods for two years, and knows all about it. If the Italian comet ,due to destroy the world -next month carries out Its programme, there w-ill be lots of things "continued -in the next." This latest Chicago murder, in which Mrs. McDonald killed. Mr. Guerin, seems to have started at the wrong corner of the triangle. The. gas company would also want to be "compensated" for the lobby it has maintained at Salem, and for other leg islative expenses. , . t A perpetual franchise is forever. The public did not always know It. but the gas company did. But the public is learning. ' ' " . Now .that the session is ended. Edi tor Geer, late chaperone of the Legis lature, can return to his muttons. Tou will miss it from your paper to day; but cheer up. The Thaw trial w ill be resumed Monday. The birds will continue to bite an occasional cherry. FAMOUS POEMS OF HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW On Wednesday, Tebruary 27, the American Poet THK VII.LAGK BLACKSMITH. Under a spreading chestnut-tree The village smithy stamis: The smith, a mighty man is he. With laree and sinewv hands. And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as Iron banus. His hair is .crisp, and black, and long. His face is' like the tan: His brow is wet with honest sweat. He earns whate'er he can. And looks the whole world in the face. For he owes not any man. Week in. week out, from morn till night, Tou can hear his bellows blow: You can hear him swing his heavy sledge. With measured beat and slow. Like a sexton ringing the village bell. When the evening sun is low. And children coming home from school Iook in at the open door: They love to see the flaming forge, And hear the bellows roar,. And catch the burning sparks that fly Like chaff from a threshing-floor. He goes on Sunday to the church. And sits among his hoys; He hears the parson pray and preach,. He hears his daughter's volOe, Singing in the village choir. And it makes his heart rejoice. It sounds to him like her mother s voice, Singing in Paradise! He needs must think of her once more. How in the grave she lies; And with his hard, ranch hand he wipes A tear out of his eyes. Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing. Onward through life he goes: Each morning sees some task begin. Each evening sees its close: Something attempted, something done. Has earned a night's repose. Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, For the lesson thou hast taught! Thus at the flaming forge of life Our fortunes must be -wrong-lit: Thus on its sounding anvil shaped Each burning deed and thought! EXCELSIOR. The shades of night were falling fast. As through an Alpine village passed A youth who bore, 'mid snow and ice, A banner with the strange device, Excelsior! ! His brow was sad: his eye henealh Flashed like a falchion from its sheath. And like a silver clarion rung' The accents of that unknown tongue. Excelsior! ' . In happy-homes he saw the liEht Of household fires gleam warm and bright; Above, the spectral glaciers shone, And from his lips escaped a groan. Excelsior! "Try not the Pass!" the old man said; "Dark lowers the tempest overhead. The roaring torrent Is deep and wide!" And loud that clarion voice replied. Excelsior! "O stay.' the maiden said, "and rest Thy weary head upon tflis breast!" A tear stood in hi-" briKht. bin eye, . But still he answered, with a sigh. Excelsior! ' "Beware the pine tree's withered branch! Beware' the awful avalanche!" This was the peasant's last Good-night, A voice replied, far up the height. Excelsior! At break of day. as heavenward '. The pious monks. of Saint Bernard Uttered the oft-reieated prayer. A voice cried through the startled air, Excelsior! A traveler, by the faithful hound. Half-buried in the snow was found. Still grasping in his hand of ice That banner with the strange device. Excelsior! There, in the twilight cold and gray, Lifeless, hut beautiful, he lay. And from the sky, serene and far, A voice fell, like a falling star. Excelsior! A I'xnlm of 1.1 fe. Tell me not. in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers. And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal: Dust thou art. to dust retnrnest. Was not spoken of the soul. v Not enjoyment, and not sorrow. Is our destined end or way: But to act. that each tomorrow Find us farther than today. Art is long, and Time is fleeting. And our hearts, though stout and brave. Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave. , In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like luinb. driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife! Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! 1 Act act, in the living Present! Heart within, and God o'erhead! Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime. And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time. Footprints, that perhaps another. Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seei-g, shall take heart again. Let us. then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate: Still achieving, still pursuing. Learn to labor and to wait. Flnda Champion of 8-Hour Day. Success Magazine. A Chicago teacher recently gave a boy; pupil a question in compound proportion for home work, which problem happened to include the circumstances of "men working ten hours a day to complete a certain job" The next morning the unsuspecting teacher, in looking over his pack of ex ercises, found one pupil's problem unat tempted. and the following note attached to the page: ."Deer Sir. I refoose to let my sun James do this sum you give him last night as it looks to me like a slur on the 8-hour sistem, enny sum not more than S hours he is weicum to do but not more. Yrs trooly, "SAMUEL BLOCKSBY." Prene Gallery Oyiitem Arrive. Philadelphia Ledger. Harry Llbby, of Hampton, Va., has sent his annual gift of oysters to the members of the press gallery in Wash ington. Mr. Libby was in the House dur ing the Forty-eighth Congress, and about this time every year since then he has sent to Colonel Mann, superintendent of the press gallery, a bounteous supply of bivalves to be served to newspaper workers at a luncheon. Mr. Libby is Postmaster of Hampton, and owns large beds of oysters in the James River. Centenary of the Birth of the Great Will Be Celebrated. THK HnilMiK. I .stood on the bridge at midnight. As the clocks wort striklne the hour. And the moon rose o'er the city. Buhind the dark church tower. I saw her hrislit reflection In. the waters under me. Like a golden goblet falling And sinking into the sea. And far in the hazy distance ' Of that lovely niclit in June. The blaze of the flaminsj furnace Gleamed redder than the moon. . Among the long, black rafters The wavering p'narlows lay. And the current that came from the ocean Seemed to lift a;id bear them away: As. sweeping and eddying through them. Hose the belated tide. And. streaming into tho moonlight. The sea-weed floated wide. And like those waters rushing Among the wooden piers. A flood of thoughts came o'er me That filled my eyes with tears. Mow often. O how often. In the days that had gone hv. I had stood on that bridge at midnight And gazed on that nave and sky! How often. ) how often, I had wished that ebbing tide Would bear me away on its bosom O'er the ocean wild and wide! For my heart was hot and restless. And my life was full of care. And the burden laid upon me Seemed sreater than I could bear. But now it 1ms fallen from me. It is hurird in the sea; And only the sorrow of others Throws Its shadow over me. Yet whenever I cross the river On lis bridKe with wooden piers. Like the odor of brine from the ocean Comes the thought of other years And I think how many thousands Of care-encumbered men. Each bearing his burden of sorrow. Have crossed the bridge since then I see the long procession Still passing to and fro. The young heari hot and restless And the old subdued and slow! And forever and forever. As long as the river flows. As long as the heart has passions, As long as life has woes; The moon and its broken reflection And its shadows shall appear. As the symbol of love in heaven. And its wavering image here. THK DAY IS DOK. The day is done, and the darkness Falls from the wings of Ntuht As a feather is wafted downward From an eagle In his flight. I see the lights of the village. Gleam through the rain and the mist. And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me That my soul cannot resist. , A feeling of sadness and longing. That is not akin to pain. And resembles sorrow only As the mist resembles the rain. Come, read to me some poem. Some simple and heartfelt lay, That shall soothe this restless feeling And banish the thoughts of day. Not far from the old masters. Not far from the hards sublime. Whose distant footsteps echo Through the corridors of Time. For. like strains of martial music. Their mighty thoughts suggest Life's endless toil and endeavor; And tonight I long for rest. Read from some humbler poet. Whose songs gushed from his heart As showers from the clouds -of Sum mer, Or tears from the eyelids start: Who. through long days of labor And nights devoid of ease. Still heard in his soul the music Of wonderful melodies. Such "songs have power to quiet The restless pulse of care. And come like the benediction Tiiat follows after prayer. Then read from the treasured voluma The poem of thy choice. And lend to the rhyme of the poet The beauty of thy voice. And the night shall be filled with music, And the cares that Infest the day Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs. And as silently steal away. THK RAIXY DAY. Tiie. day is cold, and dark and dreary: It rains, and the wind is never werfry: The vine slill clings to the mouldering wall. But at every gust the dead leaves fall, . And the day is dark and dreary. My life is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary: My thoughts still cling to the mouldering past, Hut the hopes of youth fall thick in tha blast. And the days are dark and dreary. He still, sad heart: and cease repining: Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life some rain must fall. Some days must be dark and dreary. Senator Slntart In Rich Again. Now York Sun. Eight years beyond the allotted three-score and ten. V. M. Stewart, of Nevada, who retired from the United States' Senate a poor man, has again won fortune. When he was beaten for re-election by an adverse political coalition he returned to Nevada, went to Tonopah. hung out his shingle and began again the struggle for a law practice. He found competition keen, and at first things did not come his way. Then his successor and political t rival. Sen ator Nixon, gave him a tip on a cer tain stock, and he bought at SO cents a share. He now has about 150.000. Cnibrraon of Texas For President. Kansas City Times. A quiet but determined movement is . soon to be started to present Senator Charles A. Culberson, of Texas, to the country as valuable nresidential ma terial for 1908. As yet the movement is nascent, but there Is excellent rea son to believe that it will be given lively impulse within the next fev weeks. It may be that the suggestion will take definite form and direction' before this session of Congress expires. It has been .already discussed some what broadly by the Democrats in Con gress, and it is not unlikely that he fore they depart from Washington for their homos a tentative programme will have been decided upon.