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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (April 24, 1910)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX, rORTLAXD, APRFL 24, 1910. V PORTLAND, OREGON. , Entered at Portland. Oregon. Postofflcs ma Eecond-Class Mat tor, Subscript ion Bate Invariably In Adrance. (BY MAIL.) pally. Eunflay Included, one year ? ?? Xally. Sunday Included. six monthi... JPaily. Sunday included, three month!. . 2-j25 Ually, Sunday Included, one month.... -JJ , Daily, without Sunday, one year..... aoo xaJly, without Sunday, six months.... S.-o ;Jally. without Sunday, three month l.To Ially. without Sunday, one month -Weekly, one year Sunday, on year fcutdaj and weekly, one year " f (By Carrier.) JJIy, Punday Included, one year g& Xally, Sunday Included, one month.... I" How to Remit Send Postofflc money rder. cxpri order or personal check on your local bank. statnna coin or currency re at the sender- risk. Give postofnce Q ' 4ress In full. Including- county and state. Postsja-e Rates 10 to 14 pases. 1 cent: 1 o 28 pares. 2 cents; 30 to 40 pages, 3 cents; 40 to 60 pases. 4 cent. Foreign postage double rate. . Eastern Business Office The S. C. Beck- wlth Special Agency New York, rooms 48- K Tribune building. Chicago, rooms 610-012 STrlbune building. PORTLAND, SCXDir, APBII. 24. 1810. ROOS EVELT AT THJS SORBOSKE, Mr. Roosevelt's address at the Sor Donne In Paris abounds with those moral remarks which to many persons seem trite but which to a keener in sight signify an abiding sense of the laws of the spiritual world. He sees everything in Its ethical relations and that is one reason why the instinct of the multitude clings to him with an abiding faith. "Let the man of learn ing," he says with all the unction of :the preacher, "beware of the queer and cheap temptation to pose to him self and others as the cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and be- 'Hefs, the man to whom good and evil are one." In another place he says equally well and equally without the possibility of contradiction that "the man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be cynic or fop or volup tuary." It Is this moral feeling which gives Mr. Roosevelt his power among Anglo-Saxons, men of a race which has won its triumphs in the world by the severe practice of ascetic virtues . and which believes In them from the bottom of the heart. His theme at the Sorbonne, "Individual Citizenship," gave him the best possible opportunity to exercise his powerful gift of preach : ing. t We may call his address a sermon without departing very far from the truth. His text falls into two divi sions, first the duty of the average man in the exceptional affairs of life. Second, his duty in common affairs. Jn all contingencies whether rare or frequent the average man must be a good citizen If the Nation Is to endure, and if that fundamental condition is attained it does not much matter about the classes which stand Very high or very low. The philosophy of Mr. Roosevelt's address is the old one of the imperishable " obligation of duty. This obligation, to his mind, falls with the same weight upon the scholar, the man of wealth and the statesman as upon the humblest toiler in the field or mill. For the luxurious idler, the ineffectual cynic, the sterile critic, he expresses unbounded scorn. They are the persons who not only contribute nothing themselves to the. common .work of the world, but they dishearten others. They are worse than a -burden lo be borne. They make the burdens of others heavier. Mr, Roosevelt's grudge against the mere critic, if it can be called a grudge, is 'of long standing. "We find it In his addresses of years ago ex pressed with the same vigor as In this la6t utterance before the Soubonne. Yet, after all, were it not for the critio things would not go on nearly so well as they do in the world. Mr. Roose velt himself, little as he might be in clined to acknowledge it, is a critic and a severe one at times. Some of his Judgments upon his fellow men lack nothing in keenness, though It must be admitted that they are usually true. He owes the confidence which the American people bear for him fully as much to the criticisms he has made on men and measures as on ac tual accomplishment. In fact, it is conceivable that history, after all, will rank him rather with the critics than with those who have constructed sys tems of law or government. His power rhttherto has lain more in the keenness of his intellectual vision and his cour ageous expression of his opinions than in anything he has done. Much as he ; .loves action, it cannot be said that Mr. 'Roosevelt, in the constructive sense, has been a man of action. Roosevelt's great virtue thus far in his career is that he has been an extraor rlinary stimulus to the activity of oth ers. His prime gift seems to be that of the preacher and one sometimes ' guesses that he feels this instinctively himself. His sermons have not been characterized by extraordi nary originality either, though this . . . i cui iirLt.: ii in ii i in iv n on .we sit down to extract from the .'teachings of Jesus Christ, or from those of any other individual who has 'wrought powerfully on the history of the world, the portions which are en tirely original, they are found to be extremely scanty. The golden rule, for example. is to be met with in many lit eratures long before the time of Jesus. "This ad-dress of Roosevelt's, like most of those which he has made on great "occasions, insists upon the fundamen tal necessity for character in citizen ship. When the time comes that men no longer do their duty, then govern .inents fail and civilization decays. But besides character we note in this ad dress a new insistence upon equality and liberty. The liberty which Mr. Roosevelt desires is that which permits a man to develop his character unhind ered by the encroachments of others. The equality lie demands is that of op portunity. He is wise enough to per-t-eive that there never has been or can be such a thing as equality of gifts or station or property in the world, but 1 the equal right to labor, to enjoy what a man has earned, to develop his per sonality and powers, this is possible -according to Mr. Roosevelt; and hu nan affairs will never run smoothly until it has been achieved and made secure. "The good citizen will de Tnand liberty for himself," and he will also demand for others "the liberty which he claims as his. own." Hither to in the history of the world the liber ty of some fortunate class has too fre quently been built uponthe slavery of others. This was true In all the ancient civilizations. The modern world has progressed toward the ideal .of Christianity in proportion as It has broadened the basis of liberty. Mr. Roosevelt would make it as wide as the human race. X'EUCITATKXNS TO DEMOCRATS. Democrats of Oregon are not so absurd as they look and sound, after all, for they are to hold a feast or as sembly of their county chairmen in Portland, during the last flickers of the gorgeous pageant of the Rose Fes tival. This will be a fit setting for their grandeur of intellect. Patriots who can brave the Jeers of the un bossable people and hold a conference of the people's chiefs are men of more than common parts.- The 1200 Republican delegates to the Republican assembly, to be held two months later, will owe to the dozen unterrified leaders of the Demo cratic hosts felicitations of the hour. It has been declared by Democracy's foes that Democrats are always sure to do the wrong act at the right time; but. this courageous deed will forever silence such boastings where rolls the Oregon. The Democratic brethren will not talk nominations at their feast, it is said; only will they talk politics. This is indeed a notable difference. But they should not be so diffident. Their grandest achievements in Oregon have come of exchange of wisdom in as sembly notably the elevation of Chamberlain to the Governorship and then to the Senatorship. So that pat riots who "would deny Democrats the right to repeat their good works are most toad-spotted traitors to the cause. Republicans will hope to gather some gleanings from this feast of the chiefs of the unbossed people for use in the Republican assembly. SPHERE AND FLAKE. Changes In language keep pace with the progress of events. Some years ago we were always hearing about woman's "sphere." Of late the eco nomic and social position of the fem inine half of the world has' altered very appreciably and in harmony with the upheaval we now hear of woman's "plane." She is no longer enclosed In a sphere; she walks abroad freely on a flat and open plane. . President Taft, for example, in ad dressing the Daughters of the Revolu tion, wa careful not to commit the solecism of mentioning their exploded sphere. He spoke respectfully, though not very enthusiastically, of their plane. This alteration in speech is significant. While men thought of women as creatures shut up in an im aginary sphere, the old ideas of in feriority and ownership naturally clung to them. The sphere was merely a harem a little expanded, but by no means broken open. The plane is a to tally different affair. It spreads to Infinity In every direction. Its sur face is smooth to the feet and easy to walk over for long distances. The woman who tried to climb up the con cavity of a sphere had a hard time of it -all the way and was doomed in evitably to slip back before she had gone very high. She was like a worm trying to crawl out of a bottle with slippery sides and a tight cork. On the, even flatness of the plane where she now resides there is nothing to hinder her Journeying as far and as fast as she likes. President Taft may. have disappointed the suffragists a little by not speaking more ardently in favor of their wishes, but he has done the sex a. tremendous favor by recognizing, as it were officially, that they now stand on a plane Instead of being shut up in a hollow sphere. MUSICAX. TROUBLES. We may now expect to be enter tained with another, wail from the high priests of Euterpe over the ex ecrable musical taste of our country men, for, financially, grand opera seems to have 1 een disastrous almost everywhere. In Chicago there is a deficit. In Boston, even in Boston, Spring, with its verdant blooms, finds the operatic treasury empty, while the New York promoters of exalted mel ody are on the verge of bankruptcy. We do not say that this condition of things is a Judgment upon the man agers of our musical affairs for their sins, but it looks wonderfully as if Providence had chosen an opportunity to chasten them. Their conduct of the business has always been wasteful. They offer salaries to European sing ers which are far beyond the ratis in Paris or Berlin, and then to make both ends meet they must charge such exorbitant prices for seats that none but millionaires feel able to hear more than one or two operas in a Winter. Naturally, when the cost of living rises musical audiences shrink and the managers find themselves with an expensive array of prima donnas and tenors on hand and no means of paying them. Grand opera will never be placed on a permanent -basis in the United States until our managers consent to pay prices- which bear some reason able ratio to what singers receive in other countries. As long as salaries remain at fabulous figures the busi ness will necessarily partake of the adventurous and spectacular. People will go to operas not so much to hear the music as to see the famous tenor who can command five or six thou sand dollars an hour for his voice, but they will not go very often be cause they cannot afford It. ' Thus the habit of attending the opera is, not developed in the multitude, and it Is that habit alone which can make musical enterprises successful in the long run. But there is another rea son besides . the high - price of seats why the public does not find musical entertainments attractive. Most of the singing Is in languages which they do not understand.- In all good operas and songs there is an iiftimate rela tion between the words and the mel ody and a person who does not know what it Is all about loses more than half the pleasure of the performance. A Parisian audience might tolerate as an - exceptional thing a ' series of performances in Italian or English, but nobody would expect French peo ple to patronize habitually entertain ments in a language which they, could not understand. In any foreign capi tal the public would feel affronted if its own language were systematically shunned and some foreign tongue sub stituted for it. Americans are very patient under the infliction of ever lasting German and Italian librettos, but that the ordeal does not please them is shown by their staying away from the performances. To the elect, however. It is highly objectionable ta hear an English song from the stage. Nothing less than a lied or a chanson will satisfy them. Even American girls feel obliged to forget their native tongue when they sing in public. They know that their genius would never be recognized unless they exhibited It in the languages of .Schumann and Gounod. Some time perhaps our musical peo ple will recover from this abject pro vincialism and admit that music sung in English may be Just as beautiful as in Italian or French. When that time comes and American audiences are permitted to know what the enter tainment provided for them means, if it means anything, we may expect to see music become a great deal more popular than it is now, and simultane ously more profitable to its promoters. "BAD (OMl'AM" ALDRICH. Retirement of Aldrich and Hale is said to please President Taft. It will certainly relieve him of serious em barrasshjent during the next two or three years of his "test" as Executive. Retirement of Cannon would also make an easier political situation for the President. Taft has felt that he needed the aid of these men in order to carry his measures in Congress. Their antagon ism, the President has believed, would seriously obstruct or prevent the con summation of his policies. He sought the methods of peace for fulfilling the pledges he had made to the electorate and of carrying out the Roosevelt poli cies. Once Mr. Taft had almost begun a war on Cannon, but that was before the election. Afterward, when Cannon returned to Congress and the Speaker ship, Taft deemed It necessary to co operate with the head of the House .of Representatives in the Interest of the country's legislation. Likewise, he deemed it essential to gain the aid of the powerful Aldrich faction in the Senate. , Now the Executive finds himself suffering politically from the popular dislike of the old regime headed by Aldrich and Cannon. He has not failed to discern this fact. "A dema gogue President, on making, this dis covery, would have cast them out from him with much noise and spectacular posing. But that Is not the Taft method. The country, or large part of it, is displeased with the new tariff, with high cost of living, ajid with things generally. It is "tired" and wants something new, though it knows not Just exectly what. Democrats, mak ing the most of the situation, call the demand that for tariff reform. Obvi ously the tariff is unsatisfactory, but so will any schedule of duties be that pretends to "protect" one part of the Nation or one element of the people against another, by regulating prices at which they sell to each other. The American people have not yet waked up, however, to the fallacy of protect ive tariff and therefore do not know why they are so illy pleased. Aldrich and Cannon are convenient scapegoats for the penalties of this discontent. They represent the ultra conservative elements of Congress, which include trusts and monopolies, and with them are affiliated the powers which the people hatefully call those of boss and machine rule. The passing of these two men for Can non at his advanced age, it would seem,' will not desire to continue a combat that needs the energies of a younger man may enable the Presi dent to prove to the country the mani fest sincerity of his purposes and their freedom from monopolistic control. It Is what may be called "bad com pany;' that has exposed the President to criticism. Tet the people sent that company to Congress and Taft had to work with it as ' best he could. And his intentions of square dealing would not allow him to take demagogic ad vantage of his unpopular associates. Roosevelt had used Aldrich and Can non in spite of the popular discontent with those men and yet not a word has been said that he was soiled by the contact. At heart the conservative elements that are represented by Aldrich and Cannon are not loyal friends of Taft or Roosevelt, and their dislike of those two men has borne evidence. Taft belongs properly to the radical wing of the Republican party. In try ing to conciliate the conservatives, he has earned the displeasure of a considerable-influence in his own original following, without gaining friends on the other side. It is the business of the people, however, to send right men to Con grtss. It certainly is no fault of the present Administration that the other kind are there to do the people's law making. Taft thinks the tariff the best that could be sec'ured, and is probably right to the extent -that no protective tariff law can be satisfying. The temperament of Taft Is one of harmonizing. It Is a Judicial tem perament that' works for results through methods of conciliation and compromise. Perhaps the American people do not like that kind of Presi dent. Time will show. But the Presi dent will be able to appear before the people in better light, now that the "bad company," that some of the peo ple sent to Washington for the Presi dent to work with is to be eliminated. MOVING DAY. A virulent Spring fever is incubat ing in Chicago, and will break out without fail on May day. Against it there is neither quarantine nor possi bility of quarantine. Its scheduled victims, at a conservative estimate, will equal full 35,000 families by the first of May, after which it will abate as suddenly as It came, leaving more or less evidences of Its destructive power, Lnd the 175,000 people count ing five to a family who have felt its disturbing influence to a greater or less extent, will settle down and become normal for another year. This malady is known as the "mov ing fever." We have good Dr. Frank lin for it that "three moves are enua.1 ) to a fire." This being true, some thing" like 200,000 people are the same as burned out of house and home in Chicago every three years. This is serious, especially to the extent that it affects the classes least able to afford the loss the small tradespeople and those who work for wages. The waste incident to the breaking out of the malady, even at a much lower computation of loss, must necessarily be enormous, and places the victims in the front rank of the grand army of American wast rels. And this is not all. It deprives families of the home feeling that cen ters about the place of long abode, and may readily be conceived to be the first sowing of the seed of the wanderlust that keeps half a million of tramps on the public highways of the countrj-. It is easy to agree with the press agent that this annual self-inoculation of the moving fever Is a "tragic Joke." In nine times out of ten perhaps in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the family gains nothing In comfort-i I able housing or In lower rent by the move, while in discomfort and expense due to unsettled household conditions, transportation charges, the wear and tear upon furniture and the refitting that is always necessary, the count is large. In many cities the suburban home fever has counteracted the Slay day pestilence to a great extent; but Chi cago, though stretching out for miles in the country, does not seem to have found this panacea. In our own city the thrifty laborer or tradesman who moves goes to his own home a cot tage or a bungalow in the suburbs reached by a street railway line and thereafter becomes immune to the moving fever. No doubt conditions are more favorable in the application of this remedy in Portland than in Chicago. They certainly are favor able to the stamping out of this ever where It has gained a foothold here, since no sober. Industrious man with in its wide and constantly widening limits'needs to be without the nucleus, at least, of a home which steady en deavor properly applied will In due time make his own. - ." PORTLAND'S STREET NAMES. Some citizens in Portland, evidently, don't know there ever were pioneers or town-builders here. Pioneer names of streets have no sentimental nor his torical significance nor practical util ity for them. Therefore, they want the names of the builders erased and bare numbers put in their place. But there is a large population who will not sanction this change. Besides, the present names have become lodged in the vernacular of the people. In al most all other cities pioneer or char acter names -mark the streets. Then why not in Portland? Benjamin Stark was one of Port land's founders and so was J. L. Mor rison. Each name has fitting-place In a prominent business street. The names of Dr. J. C. Hawthorne and James B. Stephens are attached to thoroughfares on the East Side. Those of Captain John H. Couch and George H. Flanders designate arteries of traf fic on t the West Side; also Daniel H. Lownsdale, Dr. R. Glisan, A. X,. Love Joy Francis W. Pettygrove and Will iam Overton. And there are many more. These street titles deservedly belong to the city's future as well as to its past. They should not be cast away as if Portland owed nothing to Its founders and could cut loose from the continuity of Its history and begin as if now were the starting time and nothing were behind. Besides, the names are easily ' pronounced and have proved useful. Change would bring endless annoyance and much confusion. It is the business of newcomers in a city to learn the names of its streets. This they are required to do In other cities all over the world. They can do it in Portland in the future as they have done in the -past. THE HYDE TRIAL. Th trial of Dr. Hyde in Kansas City bids fair to present another of those exhibitions, too frequent in American courts, where the rules of technical evidence are preferred to the truth, where hysteria runs riot, and where rabid sensationalism displaces the sedate processes of Justice. The accused physician is charged with hav ing in one way and another murdered almost an entire family. The means he employed were first poison, strych nine and cyanide of potash, and then the germs of typhoid fever which he is said to have injected into the arm of one of the attending nurses. Inci dentally he also tried to bleed one of his patients to death. Dr. Hyde may be innocent of the crimes of which he is accused and again he may not be. Things look pretty black for him at present, but the rules jf evidence seem likely to stand hfm in good stead for one thing, while the sordid character of most of his accusers will necessar ily tend to impeach their testimony. The charge that Dr. Hyde tried to kill the nurse by injecting the germs of typhoid fever into her arm is Im portant because it may marl; the open ing of a new era in the history of mur der by poison. Upon reflection it sur prises one that enterprising criminals have not taken advantage long ago of the resources wljich modern science places at their disposal. The germs of diphtheria, chol era, typhoid, tuberculosis and so forth, are to be found in almost every medical laboratory, and they are not so securely guarded but that an in genious person could get possession of them if he wished. Even if ho could not get them In that way, there Is nothing to hinder him from gathering them as scientists do. from refuse, from the circumambient air where many of them constantly float about, from the discharges of the sick room. The neglect of aspiring murderers to take advantage of this potent resource cannot be ascribed to any such weak ness as pity or the compunctions of conscience. The annals of crime show plainly enough that they never have hesitated to employ any means which they understood and which seemed likely to serve their purpose. In the palmy days of the art of poi soning, say about the time of the Borgias in Italy, this -method of usher ing people Into the next world had been carried to a marvelous degree of refinement. ' It was possible to present your dearest friend with his death warrant in .the odor of a bouquet. If he incautiously shook hands with you, an invisible point which you had pre pared for the occasion protruded al most imperceptibly and gave him his quietus. A favorite method of dis patching inconvenient relatives or ri vals was to Invite them to dine. Of course, during the meal opportunity abounded. The wine offered an easy vehicle for the lethal dose, but it went almost as well with the pudding. Sometimes it was used for the flavor ing of a particular sauce which the favored guest was known to relish. At the French court, too, especially in the glad days of the Medicis and the Guises, poisoning might fairly be called a fine art. Ladies who wished to re move an enemy were very partial to a prepared fan which imparted to the airs it wafted the desired deadly virtue. It was also deemed extremely elegant to present the doomed individual with a ring which was furnished with an anointed point on the inside. When one's companion put it on he at the same time sealed his fate. These various devices for removing superflu ous people were invariably supposed to be applied with that gay r.nd light some air which so distinguishes the first society of all ages. To scowl when one murdered his wife or his mother was deemed an unpardonable solecism. Shakespeare took notice of the high development of the art of poisoning when he put the envenomed dagger into Laertes' band and made the King reinforce the dagger with a drugged drink. In this case a beneficent fate intervened to punish the intending murderers, but that unhappily oc curred more rarely than one could have wished. In the popular conception the poi soner much prefers a potion which will make his victim . feel that he is dying. He loves to see an enemy writhe in excruciating pangs. Even suicides are partial to agonizing drugs. It is just as easy to procure laudanum as carbolic acid, but ten suicides use the latter to one who chooses the former, though laudanum is not near ly so painful in its effects and Just as certain. The real reacon why murder ers have not yet made extensive use .of germs, as Dr. Hyde is said to have done, Is not so much mercy as ig-, norance. The common run of crimi nals have not yet learned the facts about' lethal germs and, better yet, they have not acquired the technical skill which their employment de mands. It is an art as difficult as it is dangerous to manipulate the minute messengers of death, propagate them and preserve their virulence. If the temperature, for instance, falls a de gree or two lower than it ought the culture loses its power to kill in many cases, as Pasteur showed. We may thus feel moderately safe from the use of germs as poisons by Illiterate mur derers simply because it is beyond their capacity, but what a field it pre sents for the enterprise of the edu cated and intelligent. THE WOLTER CASE. "Albert Wolter, a degenerate youth, who gloated over lewd pictures and was 'crazy about women,' must die in the electric chair for the murder of Ruth Wheeler, a 15-year-old sten ographer." So says a dispatch from New York. All who have followed the story of Wolter's abhorrent crime feel that, even with the execution of this penalty, scant Justice will be done. Not since the crime of Theodore Durrant shocked the world has a more horrible murder been brought to pub lic light than that for which this per vert will suffer the extreme penalty. Inconceivable in conception and dia bolical in execution as was that of Durrant, Wolter's crime is at once hor rible and astounding. First making love to the young girl, himself a youth of tender years, Wolter decoyed her to his room -and strangled her and burned her body In his fireplace. So, in brief runs the dreadful tale. Appeal is made in vain to sympathy in such a case, and even pity turns dry-eyei from the scene wherein this disnatured criminal was the central figure, as he arose, follow ing his attorney's eloquent plea for mercy, and stolidly received the ver dict "Guilty of murder in the first degree." The evidence in the case, as in that of Durrant, was purely circumstantial. Of necessity it had to be, but in his summing up District Attorney Morse declared that there were no unex plained circumstances in the case. The lesson, though a broad and open one, is one that will do little for the class to which it most strongly ap peals young girls who, without the faintest knowledge of what is neces sary for their protection in thei- re lation with the other sex, scout inter ference on the part of their elders and permit themselves to toe lured to ruin perhaps to death. KING EDWARD'S INVESTMENT. The first quadruplets to enter Can ada were four blue-eyed children of David Grant, a Scotchman, and his wife. The parents of seven, these people found themselves In straitened circumstances. The situation was brought to the attention of King Ed ward, who thereupon gave the father J 500 for each of the four babies that in a single night were added to his family. The thrifty Scotchman, learn ing that oats made a fine crop in Can ada and that the wheat yield was un failing and abundant, put the $20Q0, minus the price of tickets from South ampton to Ottawa, in his pocket and hied him to the land of promise. Far ing on to Alberta, he secured 320 acres of His Majesty's eminent domain and settled himself down with his numer ous young family to grow up with the country. Emigrants in Job lots like these, with every incentive to make the most of opportunity, are a blessing to a new country, especially where they take to the open and live from the products of the soil. A family of this type in a manufacturing community would, in ten or twelve years, develop into a palefaced, tallow-fingered, wage-earning squad, whose lives were bounded by the walls of a crowded home and those of an overcrowded factory. On the wide Canadian prairie, however, they will grow into sturdy farmers and independent freeholders. King Edward builded better than he knew when he made it possible for this sturdy Scot to come out to Canada and establish himself there with his young family. The investment was one that will pay dividends to his American realm in increasing volume as the years go on. JTTLES VERtNK ECUPSED. The public demand for the product of the muckrakers Is either on the decrease or the readers of the yellow magazines are insisting on something more sensational than anything that has yet been attempted. A few years ago almost any kind of a fulmlnation from Jimmy Creelman, Likkum Stuf funs, . Bray Bannard Stoker or any other of the charter members of the Muckrakers Club would create an immense demand for the publications in which they appeared. These ex plosions were very interesting at first, but the public soon tired of the, ex hibition of shooting gnats with ele phant guns and for some months we have beard but little from the muck rake wielders. Now comes to the front one Ben B. Hampton, owner of a magazine of his own, and accord ingly not hampered by space regula tions or rtrtrictlons as to the size of the yellow streak in his stories. Mr. Hampton has scented a great conspiracy by which the Morgan Guggenheim interests are beginning right where Captain James Carroll left off, when the Government refused to sell him Alaska at the original pur chase prlco of about (7,000,000. Rea soning from some fantastically con structed theories which arc a part -of the formula for all articles of muck raking manufacture, Mr. Hampton assures the public that our gold-bearing, scandal-producing Northern pos session is about to become a "Morgan heim Barony." By a system which is rapidly-approaching perfection, all the wealth of that great treasure house will flow Into the coffers of the Mor gans and the Guggenhelms. It is not in this direful predictldn of a coming system of slcvery and serfdom in Alaska that we find the chief feature of interest in this renaissance of muckraking. It is in the wonderful figures which Mr. Hampton has compiled. No compilation of values of timber, agricultural land or silver, lead and a number of other minerals is made, but, according to this eminent author ity, the coal which is about to fall into the grasp of the "Morganheims" is worth at the mine $33,750,000,000. The most conservative estimate on the gold yield gives them $1,125,000,000, and the same amount is credited to the copper mines, although it is ex plained that this figure is based on a comparison with the Montana output and the reader is invited to "Add to that sum as your fancy suggests, for the future production of Montana, for the great deposits of Arizona, for the certainty that Alaska contains vast stores of copper yet undiscovered and you may make any estimate you like of the billions upon billions of copper wealth which will pour out from Alaska's mines." As an example of a wholesale return of fancy for a small investment of fact, Mr. Hamp ton's article Is more "classy" than anything yet turned out by his paid muckrakers. It is scarcely conceivable that the excessive smoking in which Mark Twain indulged twenty cigars dally and innumerable pipes did not shorten his life by a few years'. It is true that he was an old man. since even in this day a man cannot be said to be young at 75, but he was not an aged man when his length of years Is compared with that of many others the late Judge Williams, for example, who but now went quietly to sleep without pain, at 87, and Dr. Parsons, who survives in good health at 90. Mr. Clemens had the appear ance of an aged man for a number of years Its uncertain step, pathetic thinness, whitened locks and color less face. If, however, the excessive use of tobacco contributed to these marks of age and feebleness he as sumed to be willing to pay the penalty in the pleasure he derived from smok ing. This estimate, since it was his own, who shall question? Besides, with family gone, middle age con signed to the unrefunding tomb of time, his fund of humor run low and his mental vigor in eclipse, why should his friends wish for him why should he wish for himself a few more lag gard, uncertain years? Life under such circumstances is a debtor to death. When the payment, as is fre quently the case, becomes long over due the involuntary holder of the mortgage is an object of pity rather than of cong-atulation. Oregon City will be host to the Open River Convention next Tuesday. Three hundred delegates, from nine counties in Western Oregon, the counties di rectly interested in maintaining the Willamette as an open river, will as semble on that day in the historic city by the falls to inspect the canal and locks on the west side of the river at that place. Later the delegates will report their findings as to the advisability of the purchase of the present locks by the United States Government, or the construction of new locks cn the east side. Oregon City was 'the center of hospitality in the Pacific Northwest, in early days. In this role, the names of Abernethy, Dement, Barlow, Hedges, Moss, Pope and Caufield come out as flashlights from the past, while In a niche above all the rest shines steadily the name of Dr. McLoughlln. A reflection of this hospitality, more properly speak ing, perhaps, a continuation of this hospitality, will be off' red by the pres ent residents of Oregon City upon an occasion that means much to them, and much more to the people up and down the Willamette Valley. George Bafus, a wealthy Palouse farmer, is in jail at Colfax, charged with the murder of his brother-in-law, who was slain during a drunken row The men were on friendly terms be fore the whisky got in its work, and the murderer has a family of seven children, who witnessed the tragedy. There is a powerful object-lesson In this murder, and It will hardly fail to aid the cause of temperance. If the boys and girls of the San Francisco public high schools are as tenacious along useful lines as they are in holding to their sororities and fraternities, they will stand a chance to make something of themselves in industrial pursuits later on. There is unfortunately, however, no reason to suppose that this will be the case. Thousands of rosebusl.e through out the city, in foliage of tender green and bronze, and with tiny buds upon all the new shoots, give promise of a gorgeous display at the Rose Carnival In June. Hetty Green's son despairs of mar riage, for he would be loved for him self alone. He might yive away every dollar and get a job. Greater fools than that are finding wives every day. The tremendous popularity of Mark Twain's writings is witnessed in the fact that his estate i3 worth $1,000,000. And this though he was practically bankrupt twice. Some census takers are said to be omitting the kitchen cook from the count. They must be well-fed hus bands or hopeless bachelors. Now Mr. Bryan wants the Indiana state convention to nominate a can didate for United State Senator. Is Bryan a Democrat? It ought not to make delay if the. census counter doesn't find the folks at home. The neighbors know all about things. Still one dark spot in all this bright promise of Democrats Mr. Bryan has failed to say he would not be a candidate. We wonder if the suffragists learned that hiss they gave President Taft from the serpent in the garden of Eden. If that Lloyd party found it easy to climb Mount McKinley, why so many doubts about Dr Cook? When the sun 'first shines warm the fool and his underwear are soon parted. Mark Twain Is also receiving praises too late to hear them. Poems by Sam. L. Simpson Reprinted from the- Advance Proofs of the Forthcoming Edition of that Oregon I'twt's Work. We leaned on our guns and looked over the city, Enthroned in the days that eternally thrill: And one stood in silence and one hummed a ditty Of a love that was lost and a wheel that w-.s still. "The pick and the shovel are rusted and broken. Faded the fires rf thj cabin and tert. The long: roll lias soun led, the Chief tain has spoken. The owl sobs i.lone on the hills that were rent. "There's a sn.oke on yon hillside that somehow will linger Like a mist on the shore when, the title has gone down. Have you marked It a luminous vlelet column On the crold and the bronze of tl.e frost-tinted tiees Soaring to victory, saintly and solemn. With the wreathed Immortelles that Fidelity weaves? "He was only an- Indian, the son of Old Mary, Swarthy and wild, with a midnight of hair. That arose as he sped to the Lethean ferry Like n. raven of doom In the quiver ing air.' And his crime? I've ' forgotten it was something of ot:.er Judge Lynch's decisions were i.ever compiled ; But we left him at last, with his forest-horn mother. Ana she camped by the tree that had strangled her child. "Te Deuins t.. -11 in the gloom of old arches. And the white-handed preacher co quette with his God. But truth finds her own in long battle and marches. And the flowers will bloom en that tear-sprlnklcd sod. When the tire has gone out and the vigil is ended. Poor Mary may sleep with the loved and the leal. For the stars will mount guard o'er the ashes she tended. And the beauty of morning return there to kneel." The Mother's Vigil. The night is near and the twilight falls . In bannere: gloom from the sapphire walls: A crape of shadow is looped and hung From star to star, and the moon Is swung, A funeral lamp from east to west To hallow the earth's hibernal rest. The peaks that glistened, the hills that crept Away and down to the vales of green That slept in beautiful peace between. Are as sere and dark as the faded page Of some sweet tale of the golden age A pale leaf stirs, with a rustling slgh "I tarry late, but my rest is nigh!" And day will come. In his crown of gold. With rosy dawn on his banners fold And mystic night will be sailing soon In sweet pursuit, with his crescent moon Bent like a glimmering sheet of light Through star-set seas that are blos soms bright: The sheeted hills will awake again -The brook will laugh as it leaves the glen To chase the birds, and to pray and plead For a lily's kiss in the clover mead The dimpling river will loiter long By banks of roses and groves of song. And in and out. with her crystal feet, Agleam in many a gay retreat Will taunt old ocean, and sing and say: "I come, I come." and yet still delay. But what of us, and the loved of ours The hopes that fell with the leaves and flowers? 0 Science, thou that hast born the torch From world to world, and within the porch Of God's arcana, 'tis surely thine To teach of heaven and grace divine Shall years renew, end the seasons chase In cloud and sunshine o'er Nature's And only we, with a world at stake, face. Lie down, and slumber, and nrr wake? And white, like a warning finger laid Across the murmurous lips of night. Shines down a glimmering track of light. The mists are parted, and hark, behold, A star leans out with a brow of gold: And bright and fair as a falling beam. And sweet as an angel's earthward dream, The voice that fell upon Galilee. Sounds yet again over land and wt: "The Savior llveth; come, follow me." What Death May Be. Asleep I was. and softly dreamed. As shaded lamplight o'er me streamed. And flowers, white and calm. Wreathed on my silent bosom seemed To steep my soul with balm. 1 heard faint whiepers, and a tear Dropped on ray forehead I could har A sobbing, far away And only those sweet flowers were near That on my bosom lay. The Old Newspaper. The past rolled back like a rainbowed vapor, As you read again the old newspaper. Found today. Faded and frayed, and dearly olden. Its thoughts are sainted, its speech is golden. . Prose and rhyme; 'As it wakes again, like a Rip "Van Winkle, With a heritage of rag and wrinkle. The jest of time. As soft as the tress of the bashful maiden, Tou stole one day when the tress was laden With tassled bloom. It seemeth now, and your touch is ten der. Tender as love, for the thread is slender That stays its doom. Comings and goings, wedding and dying. Week-day traffic, and rumors flying Round the marts In the mezzotint of the types reflected In the long, low light of years perfected Reach our hearts. Forever. In Bculah a ringleted river. That danced In a garland of pearl. First sang the refrain of "Forever," With many a wimple and swirl; And the flag-flowers bent In the rushes. For a touch of the fanciful stream. And the roses in redolent blushes Were aflame with tho magical dream, "Forever, forever, forever." Was the song of the ringleted river The refrain of a beautiful theme. The garlands I twine by the river Are fillets of flame on my brow. And the crystalline chime of "Forever" Is therdirge of Kljsium now. "Forever, forever, forever.' Was the chant of the musical river, That sang me a treacherous vow. There's an odor of death in the flowers That droop in this chaplet of mine Believe mo, in sunnier hours They breathed an aroma divine, .