The Indianapolis journal. [volume], July 19, 1897, Page 4, Image 4

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THE DAILY JOURNAL
MONDAY, JULY 19, 1897.
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It is going to boa hard season for the
purveyors of calamity.
Mr. Taggart is for the Chicago platform,
but “agin Its enforcement.”
If the everlasting seals con roversy can
not be brought to an end in any other way,
let the seals be exterminated.
Mr. Taggart claims to have discovered
that he is unequivocally for free sliver. Per
haps he is In his equivocal way.
Because outsiders who want our markets
oppose the new tariff is the best argument
In its favor from an American point of
view'.
With steamers from Alaska bringing
down gold at the rate of a ton per trip the
talk about the world’s "diminishing supply
of,goid” is rather a misfit.
There is no reason why Mr. Powderly will
not make an efficient head of the Immigra
tion Bureau. The opposition of the steam
ship companies is in his favor.
It is not worth while for the government
to lose $25,000,b00 or any millions by selling
Its claims upon the Pacific Railroads under
the Cleveland contracts if it can do better.
It may be well to wait.
After mature deliberation his Honor,
the mayor, has concluded that free silver
will win in the city election. Asa political
prognosticator his Honor has been known
to make some dreadful bad guesses.
If the Democrats who got a duty on cot
ton and free ties and bagging for cotton
had voted for the bill on the final vote in
the Senate they might have found some of
their propositions in the conference bill.
If it should be true that the Standard Oil
Company has gobbled the Sugar Trust
Brother Rockefeller will have double the
money to use in converting the world un
less by carelessness kerosene gets into the
sugar.
Mr. Bryan may find it necessary to de
clare that the reducing of the mortgage in
debtedness of the State in which he lives
$30,000,000 the past three years in a foul con
spiracy between the lenders and borrowers
of money.
United States senators ought to realize
that members of the other branch of Con
gress are much nearer the people than they
are, and therefore better qualified to judge
of the probable popularity and effect of any
proposed legislation.
The labor organizations in this State
ought to unite in a determined effort to
secure the enforcement of the law* against
“pluck-me” stores and the practice of pay
ing oil miners in store orders. The best
law is good for nothing unless it is en
forced.
Mr. Carnegie, in speaking of trusts a few
days ago, confessed to have been in sev
eral, but gave it as his experience that they
resulted in greater competition and in loss.
Such has not yet been the fate of the Sugar
Trust, but it has of most others which
nourished for a season.
A chronic complaint of the miners
in tills State, and it is a real grievance, is
the manner in which they are robbed by
being charged an excessive price for their
powder. By organization and co-operation
they ought to be able to get their powder
at something near wholesale rates.
Hon. Whitelaw Reid ought to feel very
mucl| chagrined that while ho is in London
as the special representative and envoy of
the President his paper, the New York
Tribune, should publish a dispatch of Sec
retary Sherman sent in May last as if it
was a current dispatch, to the great em
barrassment of *he administration.
“Whoever is nominated by the Indianapo
lis Democrats for mayor,” kays the Senti
nel, “will be nominated as a silver man
and nominated on an unequivocal silver
platform. If elected, whatever national sig
nificance the election may have will be as
a victory for silver.” Sound-money Demo
crats will please take notice.
The telegram in the Cincinnati Enquirer
yesterday to the effect that the result of
the Republican city convention to elect a
chairman, of the city committee was a de
feat of the friends of Senator Fairbanks
upon an issue involving his standing at
home, is a very stupid falsehood, yhe issue
was regarding the method of
members of the city committee, pure and
vlniple. ‘
The tariff bill being practically disposed'
of the way is clear for some action on the
currency question. It is not at ail likely
that Congress will do anything at this ses
sion, but the President ought to send in a
special message on the subject, thus put
ting the question fairly before the country
and preparing the way for early action at
the regular session of Congress in De
cember.
The publication of pictures showing that
the operators of coal mines are rolling in
weulth while the miner is starving would
ba of doubtful utility if conditions
existed.. As they do not ex. Ja. tneir publi
cation at the time of the strike is positively
vicious. The coal operator has not pros
pered as a rule the past three years, and
the miner has suffered with him by compe
tition which has not greatly benefited those
who have bought the coal.
THE UNITED STATES A GREAT
POWER.
It must be evident to every person that
the foreign relations of the United States
are becoming more extended and compli
cated than they formerly w*ere. For a long
time our fortunate geographical location
and remoteness from other countries, and
'our widely separated interests enabled us
to avoid diplomatic entanglements, except
in time of war or when some special ques
tion came up for settlement. But this con
dition is changing. The rapid growth of
the United States to the rank of a first
class power, the strengthening of its navy,
the new assertion of the Monroe doctrine
and the proposed annexation of Hawaii
have opened the eyes of other governments
to the fact that there is anew and impor
tant factor in the international affairs of
the world. This does not imply that the
United States has any intention of med
dling in European affairs, although Em
peror William was foolish enough recently
to predict such an event, but simply that
the Nation has reached a stage of develop
ment when its power has to be recognized
and when it must assert and maintain its
rights with firmness and dignity whenever
occasion demands. It is evident, too, that
even our geographical location, which has
always been so advantageous to us in many
ways, carries with it some responsibilities
and complications. The maintenance of the
Monroe doctrine is one of these. The posi
tion of the United States as the one first
class power in the western hemisphere, and
its repeated assertion of the doctrine of
European noninterference among American
states, involves a continuing possibility of
foreign complications. So. too, geographi
cal location is responsible for our present
delicate relations with Spain and for what
ever complication may grow out of the an
nexation of Hawaii. If Cuba, were on the
other side of the world we should not care
any more about the insurrection there than
we do about the one in the Philippine
islands, and if Hawaii were twice as far
from San Francisco, which would bring it
much nearer to Japan than it is to the
United States, we could afford to say let
Japan have the islands and welcome. But
Cuba lies almost within gunshot of our
coast and commands the entrance to the
Gulf of Mexico, while Hawaii is much
nearer the United States than it is to any
other country, and is a point of much
more strategic and commercial importance
to us than to any other nation. It would
be astonishing indeed if the United States
should not take a lively interest in the fate
of Cuba and Hawaii. It could not afford
to wrest Cuba from Spain, but it would be
come a laughing stock and object of con
tempt among nations if it should allow
Cuba to pass under the control of any
other power. So it would if it should fail
to annex Hawaii when asked to do so by a
government which has been recognized by
all the other governments in the world.
Regarding the matter from an American
point of view there is not a statesman in
Europe, outside of Spain, who would not
say that the United States ought to own
Cuba, and, probably, there is not a states
man in the world outside of Japan who
would not say she ought to own Hawaii.
And eventually she will own both islands.
There is not a particle of doubt of it. It is
so recorded by the finger of fate in the
book of manifest destiny. Events are mov
ing very rapidly towards the annexation of
Hawaii, and while the acquisition of Cuba
may be delayed some years yet, possibly
many years, it is certain to come. Timid
Americans fear the acquisition of these
islands will weaken the Republic and be the
beginning of the end of the government.
On the contrary, it will be a magnificent
proof of the strength of the government
and the vitality of republican principles.
These islands would be bright gems in the
crown of the Republic, all the more con
spicuous because they gravitated to it
through the irresistible force of political at
traction. Let us not despair of the Repub
lic because it is proposed to extend its
boundaries, nor of republican principles be
cause it is proposed to widen the scope of
their beneficent operation. It is time for
Americans to recognize the fact that the
United States is a great power.
THE EVERLASTING SEAL QUESTION.
The publication of Secretary Sherman's
dispatch to Minister Hay, which raised
such a hubbub in the British press, has not
prevented the British government from
agreeing to a conference in Washington for
the purpose of reaching a better under
standing and basis of action on the seals
question. The authoritative announcement
of the fact from London is as follows:
The publication of an isolated old dis
patch which has been duly replied to. much
as it may be regretted, has not retarded the
progress of the negotiations in London. As
there seems, however, to be some misappre
hension on the subject, it should be pointed
out that in the communications now pass
ing there is no question of altering the
regulations now* in force in the Bering sea
or of imposing fresh restrictions. Mr. Fos
ter, on behalf of his government, is urging
that the two experts representing the gov
ernments interested should meet and com
pare the results of their investigations
with a view* of arriving at an agreed state
of facts. That is the sole object of the
proposed meeting. Any idea, that this con
ference will deal with the question of re
vising the regulations is entirely mislead
ing.
This statement seems to have been
framed with some other purpose than
merely to announce the fact of the coming
conference. The allusion to Secretary
Sherman’s communication as “an isolated
old dispatch which has been duly replied
to,” seems intended as a notification that
it does not require any further attention.
Asa matter of fact, the dispatch was
dated May 10, and its publication at this
time, while later negotiations were going
on, was untimely. The. publication did not
come from the State Department. It first
appeared in a New* York paper and is sup
posed to have been cabled from London.
Perhaps the dispatch had some influence in
leading the British government to agree
to the conference. The foregoing state
ment is also very emphatic in saying that
the sole object of the coming conference
‘Ntrill be to arrive at an agreed state of facts
between the experts and that the question
of revising the regulations now in force
in Bering sea will not be considered. All
this looks like an attempt on the part of
the British government to show that, al
though it has agreed to the conference, it
has not yielded anything. It certainly has
yielded that point if nothing more.
The present contention turns on the point
whether, under present conditions, the seals
are in danger of extermination or not, and
whether the reports of the commissions of
scie/itists on the subject justify the con
clusion. The “two experts” referred to in
the foregoing statement are President D. 8.
Jordan, oi the Lei and Stanford, jr„ Univer
THE INDIANAPO LIS JOURNAL, MONDAY, JULY 19, 1897.
sity, on the part of the United States, and
Professor D'Arcy W. Thompson on the part
of Great Britain. They were each assisted
by several other experts. These two com
missioners were appointed in 1896 for the
purpose of making a scientific investigation
of the condition of the fur-seal herds on
the Pribilof islands with special reference
to the injurious results of pelagic sealing.
President Jordan made - his report to the
secretary of the treasury in January last.
He said, in part:
Pelagic sealing, in the judgment of the
members of the present commission, has
been the sole cause of the jpombined de
cline of the sjeal herds. It is at present the
sole obstacle to their restoration, and the
sole limit to their indefinite increase. It
is, therefore, evident that no settlement of
the fur-seal question, as regards either the
American or the Russian islands, can be
permanent unless it shall provide for the
cessation of the indiscriminate killing of
fur seals, both on the feeding grounds and
on their migrations. There can be no
“open season” for the killing of females
if the herd is to be kept intact.
The report recommended as the only
means of saving the seal industry, a total
abolition of the open season for pelagic
sealing. It said: “So long as pelagic seal
ing exists the restrictions governing it are
of slight importance.” It was emphatic
that to prevent the extermination of the
seals pelagic sealing by the ships of any
nation must be abolished. It was so em
phatic that the government w*as justified
in supposing that the report of the British
commissioner would be equally so. The
British report was not published till the
latter part of April, about three months
after President Jordan’s. It was not
nearly so emphatic as the American report,
and while it admitted that the seals ought
to be protected from pelagic sealing it tried
to evade the conclusion that there was
any necessity for new restrictions or regu
lations. Now, through the joint efforts of
Hon. John W. Foster and Minister Hay an
agreement has been brought about for a
conference of the experts with a view, if
possible, of agreeing on a joint report, or
at least on a state of facts that will fur
nish a basis for joint action by the two
governments. The United States, Great
Britain, Russia and Japan will be represent
ed at the conference, and it will probably
cover the whole question of protecting the
seals in Bering sea. It has become a vexa
tious, irritating and tiresome subject, and
ought to bo definitely settled and dis
posed of.
NOW AND A YEAR AGO.
The local caiamityite will find nothing in
the local markets to illustrate his jere
miads. On Saturday 69% cents was bid for
No. 2 red wheat, while on Saturday a year
ago 54% was bid. Here is a gain of 15 cents
a bushel. It is really a gain of more than
that, because last year the Indiana farmer
fiad very little wheat to sell at any price,
while this year he has a fair crop, with in
dications of a better market. Even corn is
quoted as favorably now as a year ago in
spite of the unprecedented crop of 1896 and
the light one of 1895. Last year the same
grade of oats as were quoted Saturday at
21% cents sold for 18%. In the cattle mar
ket “shippers, medium to good,” which
were quoted Saturday at $4.20 to $4.40, were
quoted a year ago at $3.50 to $4.10. The
same grade of hogs which sold a year ago
for $3.15 to $3.35 were sold on Saturday for
$3.40 to $3.57%. A year ago the quality of
wool which sells for 15 cents now was sold
for 12 cents.
The distinctive feature in these compari
sons is that the advances have come with a
larger crop of wheat than last year, and
fully as large a croTt of other grains, cattle
and hogs. The advance is due to a larger
demand. A year ago the caiamityite told
us that if the country should vote against
free coinage of silver the prices of ail of
the commodities mentioned find many others
would decline. Asa matter of fact, the
prices of most of the products of the farm
have advanced, while the price of silver
bullion has declined, showing that the
claim that it is a general measure of the
values of the necessaries of life is a de
lusion. Commenting on the markets of the
past week the New York Financier of Sat
urday said:
The week’s most s noteworthy incident
was the rare combination of the extraordi
nary advance in wheat anil at the same
time most favorable crop advices. The ap
parently trustworthy foreign advices indi
cate a diversified shortage of crops that
promises remunerative returns for both
wheat and corn crops.
A year ago the remarks upon the mar
kets were that there was a general down
ward tendency in values, and a tone of gen
eral despondency. Frime mercantile paper
was quoted at 4 and 5 per cent, against 3
to 4 per cent, last Saturday. During the
week $3,350,000 of gold had left the country
for no apparent cause. With the smallest
aggregate of loans for a long time, so small
were the deposits in the New York banks
that tho amount of money held by them
above the legal reserve w*as $21,591,025.
On Saturday last, with the largest aggre
gate of loans for years, the banks held
more than $46,000,000 in excess of the legal
reserve. The deposits in these banks
reached last Saturday the unprecedented
total of $613,267,200. A year ago the de
posits in all banks were light, but now
they are large. This is due to the fact that
a year ago small depositors were taking
their money out of the banks because they
were alarmed at the threatening conditions.
This year people have entire confidence in
the banks and put their money where it
can be used in the business of the country.'.
Two weeks before the disheartening con
ditions of a year ago the Chicago conven
tion, controlled by the Altgeld element in
the country, had adopted a free-silver and
anarchistic platform and nominated Mr.
Bryan. It was this which frightened in
vestors and paralyzed industry and trade.
Because the Bryan programme failed the
country has the improved conditions.
-*-*
TOO MUCH PROTESTING.
The avowal of Mayor Taggart that he
stands upon the Chicago platform will not
satisfy the silver "push.” All last summer
he made such an avowal every few days.
Even when others did not express distrust,
his Honor would break out w*ith expres
sions of intense loyalty to the Chicago plat
form, which gave many of his friends the
painful impression that he was trying in
vain to convince himself that he believed
that stamping every fifty cents’ worth of
the silver syndicate's silver one dollar is
the thing to do to make the country pros
perous. Being a shrewd business man, Mr.
Taggart had hard work to make himself
believe that he believed in the free coinage
of silver. There are those who will insist
that he did not. and who will express a
contemptuous distrust when they shall
have seen the latest avowal of the mayor.
The “push” is not particularly interested
as to the attitude of Mr. Taggart to the
Chicago platform in a rhetorical perform
ance. The leaders of the “push” have their
envious eyes upon the boards which con
tain "gold bugs.” For these positions they
have the intense eagerness of the hungry
wolf. They are already saying: “Let Tag
gart turn the gold bugs out of oSice and
put those who have been faithful to the
cause of silver in their places, and we will
take stock in his protestations.” “Those”
in this declaration means the leaders of the
push who make it. They will be satisfied
with nothing less. They will jeer at the
mayor’s protesting and mock at his atti
tude. They will only be placated when the
heads of the Curtises, the Liebers, the
Holts, the Downings, gory from guillotine,
are presented to them with pledges of ap
pointment. Then they will be enthusiastic;
then will they go about the streets assert
ing that the Taggart silverism could
be more positive if his body were literally
tattoed 16 to 1.
The mayor should know that if his prot
estations of devotion to the cause of the
silver mine owners did not convince those
who know of his lack of loyalty, fresh repe
titions will not do so now. They will say,
“His Honor doth protest too much.”
Immediately after the veto of the Lodge-
Corliss immigration bill by President Cleve
land, March 2, 1897, the Immigration Re
striction League caused an improved bill to
be prepared, embodying the educational re
striction, but omitting that of contract la
bor because that most objectionable fea
ture of immigration is already covered by
existing laws. This bill was presented in
the Llouse and became House bill No. 1.
Senator Lodge has introduced his bill in the
Senate, and the committee on immigration,
of which Senator Fairbanks is chairman,
has reported it back without amendment.
It is believed there will be legislation on
this important subject during the next ses
sion.
A great clamor will be made because the
Sugar Trust will make money from
the raw sugar w r hich it imported
under the 40 per cent. ad
valorem provision of the Gorman law.
This is not the fault of the House, for
which the Republicans are responsible, but
of the Senate, and particularly of such
senators as Vest, Jones of Arkansas, and
Allen, who wasted days in frivolous speech.
If the bill had been passed by the Senate
as promptly as it was by the House the
Sugar Trust would have gained nothing by
importing under the ad valorem duty of the
present law.
The new Debs movement, in the interest
of social democracy is not creating any
enthusiasm among workingmen. Asa
labor leader in St. Louis said: “Most work
ingmen will insist on the old fashioned
right to the'product of their own labor, no
matter how small it is. They want a
chance “%> work for themselves, not for
other people.” The best system for self
respecting workingmen is one that, while
enabling them to enjoy the proceeds of
their own labor, also makes them inde
pendent of sharks and drones and walking
delegates.
The decision of the Lexington (Ky.) judge
who discharged from custody a man w*ho
shot and killed his lover may be
good law in that State, but many persons
will agree with Col. W. C. P. Breckinridge
that “It is indeed dangerous to hold as a
matter of law that any man has a right
to waylay and assassinate another upon his
own conclusion as to the testimony or his
own conception of his right.” The proper
thing to have done in this case was to have
let it go to the grand jury, and ultimately,
perhaps, to a trial jury for a sifting of the
facts.
Japan is an insular empire composed of
four large islands and. more than 3,800
smaller ones. Their combined area, includ
ing the island of Formosa, which Japan ac
quired from China in the late war, is about
200,000 square miles—less than six times the
area of Indiana. Perhaps little Japan fears
that if Uncle Sam annexes Hawaii he may
acquire a fondness for islands and annex
some of hers. No danger.
The Dominion of Canada, whose treasury
receipts have not equaled the annual ex
penditures for years, fyas voted a subsidy
of $570,000 a year to establish a line of
steamships between Halifax and South
ampton, and Great Britain has added
$250,000 to Canada's appropriation. If the
United States should make such an offer
every free-trade paper in the country would
join in a chorus of protest.
George Vanderbilt is carrying on experi
ments in scientific farming on his estate in
North Carolina, which will be of great
value to the country. He is now building a
hospital at Asheville, whichwwill be in the
hands of expert physicians and wiil be
maintained for patients who are unable to
bear the expense of a serious illness.
In an article printed on Sunday. July 11,
on the “Slayers of Lincoln” omission was
made of the name of Gen. T. M. Harris.
He was one of the members of the commis
sion. This was unintentional. The general
is now eighty-four years of age, and is liv
ing at Harrisville, W. Va He is the author
of a history on this subject.
BUBBLES IN THE AIR.
Moral Courage.
Weary Watkins—Say, what is moral cour
age, anyway?
Hungry Higgins—l heard a preacher say
it was the power to say “no.”
Weary Watkins—When you're asked to
drink, or to work.
Elucidation.
Teacher —Tommy, can you more fully ex
plain the adage, “old men for council and
young men for war?”
Tommy—lt means that the old men do the
quarreling and then let the young men do
the fighting.
The Lion and the Lioness.
“Didn’t I hear you making a roar about
something just now?” asked the lioness.
“Well,” admitted the king of beasts, “I
was making a bit of a beef.”
Proudly, he pointed toward the newly
slain ox.
Just ilia file Phrase.
“Here,” said the editor, “this won’t do.
‘The ruined gambler was as a man of ice.’
It is positively idiotic.”
“It is not,” dissented the novelist on
salary. “I meant to convey the idea that
no matter how badly broke he was, he re
mained cool.”
The Struggle of the Negro.
W. E. Du Bois, in the Atlantic.
The history of the American negro is
the history of strife—this longing to attain
self-conscious manhood, to merge his doub
le self into a better and truer seif In this
merging he wishes neither of’ fie older
selves to be lost. He does not wish to Af
ricanize America, for America has too
much to teach the world and Africa; he
does not wish to bleach his negro blood
in a Hood of white Americanism, for he
believes—foolishly, perhaps, but fervently—
that negro blood has yet a message for the
world. He simply wishes to make it pos
sible for a man to be both a negro and
an American without being cursed and spit
upon by his fellows, without losing the op
portunity of self-development.
Wan Hurled.
Springfield Republican.
Every one will recognize the Reed touch
in this sentence from an article by the
speaker on an old-time congressional lead
er: "His reputation, made in the House,
translated him to the Senate and then ne
became a senator." It is not said, but the
inference clearly Is that nothing more was
vw tutaurd at him.
VJEWS OF INDIANA EDITORS.
With the tariff disposed of, no one will
dispute that the currency becomes the par
amount issue.—Elwood Call-Leader.
Protection and prosperity have been good
friends in the past which is a guarantee
that they will be on equally good terms
in the future.—Logansport Journal.
If the coal operators would work as hard
for an adjustment of the strike difficulties
as the arbitrators do, the miners would all
be at work in twenty-four hours.—Evans
ville Journal.
The free-silver shriners, when they read
of those fabulous finds of gold in Alaska,
will be compelled to admit that the Creator
is not on their side of the argument.—Fort
Wayne Gazette.
With a foreign demand for wheat and
the market price rising, the American
farmer will not complain that the dollars
he receives are too dear and buy too much.
—Lafayette Courier.
The Republican party is carrying out its
pledges rapidly, more rapidly indeed than
any party ever performed the acts promised
in its platform in the memory of the pres
ent generation.—Muncie Times.
The hopeful tone which newspapers of
all parties are showing when speaking
about the business outlook in the fiscal
year which has just begun is significant.
No such note of encouragement has been
heard before for several years.—Laporte
Republican.
The McKinley administration is proving
business like, and gradually but surely
sending the croakers and obstructionists to
the rear. While business has only begun a
gradual increase, there is great courage
and hopefulness in business circles.—Green
field Republican.
Bryan is running around over the country
telling the people about “hard times” and
the “hopelessness of prosperity” at the rate
of $25,000 a year. As he receives his pay in
what he calls 200-cent dollars his income is
equal to the salary he was after last year.
—Crawfordsville Journal.
The real farmers of Indiana are not put
ting in their time growling now. For weeks
they have been working with might and
main to save an immense hay crop and
get a great wheat harvest into the shock.
And now the hum of thedhrasher is heard
and the golden grain is pouring into mar
ket.—New Castle Courier.
Whoever thinks the subject of the free
and unlimited coinage of silver is mere
superficial political drift is greatly mistak
en; it is a question of the moral integrity
of the Nation, and has its foundation in
truth, justice and duty. To elect a Congress
and President who may decree fifty cents’
worth of silver shall be a legal-tender dol
lar, would be to enact a crime against
moral law.—Noblesville Ledger.
Those gloomy pen pictures drawn by the
free-silver orators during the campaign last
fall have failed to materialize. Instead of
the farmer sitting on the fence “weeping”
while the bailiffs sold him out and his wife
and children “carried away into captivity”
he is up to his ears in work. The land
smiles with plenty and behind it all is that
greatest incentive to all effort—the visible
evidence that times are indeed becoming
better and the hard work will not be in
vain.—Wabash Tribune.
\\ ith the tariff bill out of the way the
question of reforming our currency system
should be taken up, and so settled that
there would no longer be danger of a dis
parity of the several kinds of dollars in
circulation. Every dollar should be main
tained to the value of one hundred cents
and there should be no possible inability
of the government to maintain each and
every dollar under all circumstances at an
exact parity.—Middletown News.
The currency commission proposition sug
gested by President McKinley has met with
very favorable comment from the people
of the country, irrespective of party. There
is a general feeling that the entire cur
rency question should be taken into con
sideration, and a plan of revision worked
out if practicable, and that a specially se
lected commission from among the business
men of the country could accomplish this
result better than any single committee of
Congress goes withouT saying.— Greeneastle
Banner-Times.
aboit people and things.
There is a movement on foot in Charles
ton, S. C., to erect a monument to Maj.
Robert Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame.
One of Buffalo Bill’s periodical visits to
Paris has given Rosa Bonheur, who is now
seventy-five, and has for years done little
work, an opportunity to study the bison
and the result was a large picture repre
senting a herd browsing on a snowy plain.
German papers comment on the ’enterprise
and business sense of the city government
of Lahr. The gas works being the prop
erty of the town, the a rihoriti’es have dec
orated all the gas lamps with large signs
in red letters reading: “Cook your meals
with gas.”
Threfe young women in Germany have
been recently commended for their thor
ough work in pharmacy, and Fraulein Eva
Bosse, a daughter of the German minister
of public worship, has been pronounced by
Dr. Fraulich, president of the Imperial
German Pharmaceutical Society, to be one
of the most excellent and gifted scholars
he has ever met.
According to the Hamburger Nachrichten,
Prince Bismarck’s health is comparatively
good. He walks a great deal and drives
every day, but he has not yet quite got rid
of his n’euralgia, the severity of which
sometimes makes speaking very difficult
He would like to go to Varzin this summer
but Dr. Schweninger will probably dissuade
him, as- he did last year.
Ben Butler, in a cas’e in the Massachusetts
Supreme Court involving damages for fa
tal injury—Senator Hoar being on the other
side—quoted Job: “All that a man hath
will he give for his life.” “That.” said Mr
Hoar, “was a plea of th’e devil in a motion
for anew trial, and I don’t think the court
will be more impressed by it on account of
its modern indorsement.”
The Queen of Italy is called the most
“queenly” queen of Europe. She is fond of
study and music, has done much for the
arts and is well beloved by her people. In
summer time, when she goes for a holiday
she drops ceremonials and becomes only
Margaret of Savoy, wears light summer
gowns, goes for long walks alone, and en
joys herself as would any other woman of
fashion.
At a recent sale of curios in Brussels
one of Victor Hugo’s straw hats sold for
$340, and the goose quill with which he
wrote “Napoleon the Little” brought $720.
It was fastened to a sheet of paper on
which w ! as written th’e following: “i beg
M. Victor Hugo to certify that it was with
this pen that he wrote ’Napoleon le Petit ’
(Signed) Camille Barru. “It was." (Signed)
Victor Hugo.
The National Sculpture Society announces
that, through th’e generosity of Mr. T. Kel
ly, of New York, it will offer a prize for the
best and second-best design for a sun dial,
to be competed for under its direction the
designs to bv* exhibited in the society’s ex
hibition in 1898, and the award to be made
at that time. The prizes are SSOO for the
best design and $250 for the second best, the
competition to be open to sculptors only.
When Fridtjof Nansen passed the day
with Emperor William the Emperor intro
duced his children to his guest in a charac
teristic manner. After dinner the young
princes were called. They filed in and stood
“at attention” in military style. “Shake
hands with this gentleman,” said the Em
peror. “Look well at him. Some day you
will be able to understand what his work
is, and then you will be glad to be able
to say you have met him.”
Once when he was asked if he was not
afraid of a temperature of 10 degrees be
low zero, the late Tolman Willey, of Bos
ton, said: “Where I was born, sir, my
father one Sunday took me into a meeting
house which set on four stone posts with
no other underpinning. I sat in that church
and listened to a sermon on hell for sixty
minutes, with the wind blowing under
neath the church and blowing forty miles
a minute, with no fire in the stove and the
mercury degrees below zero. Do you
think 1 was born in a sugar box and nursed
on helitropes?”
The familiar associates of Mr. William
Dean Howells report him to be swelled
with paternal pride over the crop of dis
tinctions that begins to be gathered by his
son John. Mr. John Howells, who has just
received his diploma in architecture from
the Beaux-Arts, has lately been asked to
join the Soefete des Architectes Diplomas
par le GouWrnement. He is the fifth Amer
ican diplome, and has got his diploma in
five years, the usual term being seven
yvars. To see to it that an American ar
chitect is trained up in the way he should
go is a good and patriotic work, especially
when the student takes as kindly as Mr.
John Howells does to his training.
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
The Literary History of the Amer
ican Revolution.
A valuable and interesting addition to
the history of revolutionary period is
anew work entitled “The Literary History
of the American Revolution,” by Prof.
Moses Coit Tyler, of Cornell University.
The work is the product of a method
which, if not wholly new, certainly has
never before been so fully applied in the
critical treatment of the American revolu
tion. The outward history of that famous
procedure has been many times written,
and is now, by anew generation of Amer
ican scholars, being freshly rewritten in the
light of larger, evidence, and under the di
rection of a more disinterested and a more
judicial spirit. In this work of Prof Tyler's,
for the first time in a systematic and a
fairly complete way is set forth what
might be called the inward history of the
revolution—the history of its ideas, its spir
itual moods, its motives, its passions, even
of its sportive caprices and its whims, as
these expressed themselves at the time,
whether consciously or not, in the various
writings, of the two parties of Americans
who favored or opposed independence. The
author's plan has been to let both parties
to * 'e contest, Whigs and Tories, revolu
tion. sts and loyalists, tell their own story
freely in their own way and under the
impulse of the time in which they lived.
For the purpose of historic representation
the author has recognized the value of the
lighter, as well as of the graver forms of
literature and consequently has given full
room to the lyrical, the humorous and the
satirical aspects of our revolutionary rec
ord—its songs, ballads, sarcasms and liter
ary humors. In short, the entire body of
American writings relating to the revolu
tion. from 1763 to 1783, whether serious or
mirthful, in prose or in verse, is delineated
in its most cnaracteristic examp’ ~ for the
purpose of exhibiting the sever. ages of
thought and emotion through i the
American people passed during t event
ful period. Asa result of this tn one
reads in this work very little of -he do
ings of Congress and Parliament, of states
men and generals, but learns a great deal
of the motives of the people, of the
spirit of the times and of the spiritual pow
ers that shaped events. The work is full
of curious and valuable information, and
is written in a style conspicuous for its
vigor, clearness and fine literary quality.
New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
Mr. Logan’s Rook on Russia.
For a beginner in literature and one who
does not make any particular professions
as a literary man, Mr. John A. Logan, jr.,
has made an interesting and readable book.
“In Joyful "Russia” tells a great many
things about Russia and the Rusians that
people will like to read. True, it deals
chietly with the bright side of things, but
that is because Mr. Logan saw only the
bright side. He was a guest at the coro
nation of the Czar, and afterwards
was treated with the utmost courtesy and
consideration. He had a good opportunity
to see Russia through rose-colored glasses,
and he describes it as he saw it. The book
is all the more pleasant reading because
the author finds so much to praise—such
love for the “Little Father,” such loyalty
to the Tsaritsa, such contented peasants,
such splendid wealth of color in tne archi
tecture, such gorgeous glitter in the pa
geantry. The Russia Mr. Logan saw was
the “Joyful Russia.” He does not write
politics or any except present history. His
creed in these two directions is that the
moujik is entirely incapable of self-govern
ment at this period, and that, on the whole
the governing aristocracy rule him well
and kindly. He departs from the usual
path, also, in telling in clear, simple, good
style about the intimate life of the Russian
people. The ikons, the baths, for instance,
are both described at length and both well
done. We get at the daily molding forces of
the classes when we find apparent godliness
and actual cleanliness, which is next to
godliness, so intimately connected. The
Russian peasant’s Saturday steam bath is
as obligatory as his Sunday's church. Mr.
Logan has good descriptive powers and a
lively narrative style, and has made a de
lightful book of travel and sightseeing. It
is handsomely illustrated. New York: D.
Appleton & Cos.
Populism In 178 G. t
The spirit of agrarianism and discontent
which now prevails to so considerable an
extent throughout the country is not anew
thing. From the close of the revolutionary
war until 1787-SS the agricultural class, es
pecially in N ew England, were in very
much the same frame of mind as are the
farmers cf some of the Western States to
day. Their farms were heavily mortgaged,
they were deeply in debt and they had the
same real and imaginary grievances that
we hear about now. Then, as now, those
who imagined they had a grievance against
capital w r ere ready to adopt any foolish or
desperate remedy. One of the mischiev
ous and dangerous leaders of that period
was Daniel Shays, of Massachusetts. He
had been a captain in the revolutionary
army and had in him some of the elements
of a leader, but more of an agitator and
defier of law. He figures as the leading
character in “Captain Shays, a Populist
of 1786,” by George R. Rivers. The scene
of the story is laid in Massachusetts, and
it deals with events of the period named,
following historical lines to a considerable
extent. Besides the interest of a well-writ
ten story the book has historical interest
in its pictures of the life of the period and
sketches of actual events. Boston: Little,
Brown & Cos.
Jules Claretie.
Jules Claretie, for many years connected
with the Comedie Francais, in Paris, was
“a student of actors.” In “Brichanteau,
Actor,” he has drawn the actor who has
never been successful; who, when he has
once acted Hamlet, Ruy Bias or Louis XI,
never after forgets that he has once trod
the boards as a hero or a king; who has
his own hero in the sculptor Montescure,
for whom he once posed as a “Roman pass
ing under the yoke:” who sees the sadness
of the life of the girls of the stage in the
provinces, and yet who preserves his youth,
his illusions, his innocent, natural affec
tions and his good heart, even after he
is forced to become a starter in bicycle
races. "Brichanteau” is a study which
only one who had passed his life among
actors could complete successfully. The
character has so much individuality that it
was probably drawn from life, or at least
built up on a foundation of the actual men.
The story has a strong flavor of French
theatrical life, and is written in a style
that helps to maintain the interest. Bos
ton: Little, Brown & Cos.
Life of General Grant.
The latest life of Gene/al Grant, and one
of the best, is by Gen. James G. Wilson,
himself a distinguished soldier. The au
thor’s acquaintance with General Grant be
gan at Cairo, 111., in 1861, and continued for
nearly a quarter of a century. In addition
to this, he had the advantage of refreshing
his memory by consulting a war diary con
taining many interesting conversations and
incidents of his service' under General
Grant in the Vicksburg campaign and else
where. The proofs ot the book were read
by a member of the Grant family. Among
the valuable papers Included are letters
from Generals Franklin, Reynolds, Long
street and French; a most important cor
respondence with the Hon. E. B. Wash
burne, covering the four years of the war,
and reproductions of the ’’Uneondltionai
Surrender” letter, the appointment as lieu
tenant general signed by Lincoln, and other
valuable papers. The book is issued in the
Great Commanders series edited by Gen.
Wilson and published by Appleton & Cos.
Some New Novels.
“A Fool and His Heart” (New York: Geo.
H. Richmond & Cos.), by F. Norreys Con
nell, introduces the reader to a lot of peo
ple not worth knowing and a mode of life
not worth living. The atmosphere of the
book is Bohemian and unwholesome.
“The Son of Saratoga” (D. Appleton &
Cos.), by Joseph A. Aitsheler, is a historic
romance, the scene of which is laid during
the revolutionary war. The hero plays no
small part in the campaign which resulted
in Burgoyne’s surrender and his adven
tures make a lively story. Paper covers,
50 cents.
“When the Century was New” (J. B. Lip
pincott & Cos.), is the title of anew novel
by Dr. Charles C. Abbott, author of “A Co
lonial Wooing.” The sceifc* of the story is
laid in Philadelphia and vicinity about the
beginning of the century, and the pictures
of Quaker life and character are interest
ing. The story culnvnates with a pretty
romance.
llotvelld’H “Landlord at Lion'* Head.”
Joy and congratulations. William Dean
Howells, for having written an interesting
novel onco again. Howells is like Moliere,
Shakspeare and other good delineators; he
makes no comments on his characters, but
places them before the reader, to be liked
or not at pleasure. When a writer makes
comments on his figures he spoils the ar
tlstic effect. The opening of the
you looked at the mountain from the pst,”
and so on. Is fine, and gives an imprtpsion
of coolness, of silence, of the black gTeen
of pines and spruces, the yellow greets of
maples and birches, in unbroken forests Tike
a sea, and of a high altitude. A sense of
cleanliness and of pure air runs through the
story. The tale begins while the hotel of
Lion s Head, is still a farmhouse, with the
arrival of the first boarder. His bedroom
smells stuffy, though with a sense of clean
liness, and he opens his window and feels
the sweet breath of the mountain coming
In so cold that after he goes to bed he pulls
a second quilt over him and then sleeps deep
and long. When the boarder goes back in
winter pure air makes the tide of sleep to
bear him down again the moment his head
touches the pillow, and he rises in the morn
ing with a gayety of heart which he knows
to be returning health, and he jumps cut
of bed and stuffs shavings into his stove
from the woodbox beside it and slides the
damper open, and then lies down again,
listening to the fire that shows its red teeth
through the slats and roars and laughs to
the day which sparkles on the white world
without. When he gets out of bed a second
time he finds the room so hot that he has
to pull down his window sash, and he
dresses in a temperature of 20 degrees below
zero, without knowing that the dry air is
more than fresh. Summer or winter the
Lion's Head Inn is a delicious sojourn for
the novel reader. The ir.cidenis of the story
form a pleasing drama. The people at the
hotel are sketened with a light, deft, prac
ticed hand, and a second reading brings
out the delicacies of the work still more
sharply. Howells was always good at draw
ing hotel women. He knows now to depict
their having to be quieted in their anxieties
concerning their baggage and the letters
and telegrams they nave sent about their
rooms, before they can settle down to an
exchange of apprehensions among them
selves. their thin chit-chat about the
scenery, and their talk about things in gen
eral. Among the hotel women at Lion's
Head is a Airs. Marven, an officious, self
approving kind of woman who manages the
picnics with a brisk efficiency irom begin
ning to end, and inspires others to help, in
strict subordination to herself.. Another
woman there, a Mrs. Vostrand, is an Amer
ican lady who lives principally abroad,
while her husband lives in Seattle. She and
her daughter are very graceful, have soft,
caressing voices, talk very politely to each
other, as if they were strangers, or as if
strangers were by, defer to each other, com
pare the New England mountains around
Lion’s Head with Switzerland, are bothered
with questions of propriety, and in the
course of the tale are looked down upon as
foreign Americans generally are by their
fellow-countrymen. Howeiis has a lucky
hand with the artists at the inn. An artist
of forty—one of the boarders—is strongly
dragoned around by a wife almost as old,
who has taken great pains to se
cure him for herself and who works
him to far greater advantage in
his profession than he could possibly have
worked himself; she gets him orders, sells
his pictures even in Boston, finds him
pupils and keeps the boldest of these from
flirting with him. Another of the artists,
named Westover, is highly immaculate, and
Cynthia, the housekeepr of the inn, is a
beautiful, shy, pure, proud, cold New Eng
lander. Whether Howells thought these two
were prigs is a question.
The country folks of the novel have a
lively interest. Their talk is never a bore.
The author must have often grinned with
relish for their words while he was writing
them—the talk about the "trance medium”
and “her control” and about the man who
knows how to run a hotel being “always
on the mean side in politics.” The little
country house smelling of rats, mold and
coal oil. is well done. The landlady of
Lion’s Head seizes the attention with a
sharp grip. She stands straight at her
work, she has a massive beauty of ligure
and a heavily molded regularity of feature
that impresses such as have eyes to see her
grandeur among the summer folks, she rises
with a sudden lift of her powerful frame,
she has never been lonesome a minute in
her life, and she calls the summer boarders
“tonguey.”
However absorbing the other characters
may be, we rush with greediness at the
hero, Jeff Dargin, the landlady's son, the
jay, the country jay of the book. His jo
vial humor, his sallies of irony, his love
of the theater as a Harvard student, and
his rough, good criticisms and something
native and primitive about him, his
statuesque beauty, his Herculean strength,
his thick, dark yellow hair, his yeomanly
vigor, his love of dress, his entire living and
breathing personality, make him the more
enjoyable. Jeff does everything that a jay
can do. and yet is likeable. He behaves
with great indifference to the kindnesses
meant him, when invited out to dine ex
cuses him easily, and never pays his
dinner call; he believes lurid things of
sdfciety, he thinks Boston houses are scenes
of riot and that fashionable ladies go to
champagne suppers and opium joints, but
he does not "stay all the kinds of fool
that he was at first,” as he says. He goes
to Europe on a cattle ship and brings hortte
nothing but hard-headed observations of
the facts of life and a wholly adequate and
intelligent study of innkeeping. It would
be hard to find a better bit of dialogue
than Jeff’s talk with a country neighbor
about Europe after he comes home. The
novel reeks with good talk. * We can all say
with Sir Andrew Aguecheek, “Ay, ay, I
care not for good life!” at least in novels.
We hurry by the perfections of Westover
and Cynthia. We are interested in the af
fairs of Bessie and Jeff. Bessie is drawn
with that strange facility for creating a live
girl possessed in perfection by Mr. Howells
alone. She stands, a slender girl, swayed
a little backward, in a graceful curve. She
has a thick complexion, liquid eyes, and
a mouth beautiful and vividly red like a
crimson blossom. She sits with a partial
yielding of her figure to the luxury of a
deep easy chair. She leans forward with
her elbow on her knee and her chin in her
hand, and softly kicks the edge of her
skirt with the toe of her shoe. She drums
on her rich mouth with the tips of her
fingers. When Bessie meets Jeff, instead
of disliking him promptly and decidedly as
the other girls do she is pleased by his
strange massiveness, his rust-gold hair, his
thick yellow' brows, his mocking blue eyes
and his jaw squaring itself under the
rather insolent smile of his full mouth,
and after this meeting the dialogue of thq
story becomes a brisk fencing that
out sparks in every direction. Not that
there is anything wicked in the book; trust
Mr. Howells to be moral. The worst thing
Bessie does is to get herself kissed once.
Whew! Never was such a fuss made in a
novel about a kiss! Miss Lynde, Bessie’s
aunt, is one of the best things! She thought
that the w'orld was made up of two kinds
of people—people who were like her. and
people who were not like her. The life of
me country people who move to Boston to
live is like a piece of reality. For example,
Mr. Whitwell did not dare to taste wine
at dinner: he was afraid of forming in
stantly the habit of drink if he touched it.
The book does not contain much of the
moralizing on sociology, or of the notions
on commerce like those of cloistered
monks in the dark ages, which Mr. How
ells sometimes wreaks on his readers, caus
ing them to shout “Why can’t the man
go and take a course of lectures on eco
nomics if he will talk about them? W|gy
should a poet and novelist try to rub in
verted idea., of the dismal science into our
heads?” No. “The Landlord at Lion’s
Head” is pure story telling. May we re
ceive many more such books from the dear
author’s kind hands. MARY DEAN.
Publishers’ Note*.
The Century Company have in prepara
tion a child’s book on Joan of Arc. illus
trated in color by Boutet de Monvel and
printed in Paris by Boussol. Valadon <& Cos.
Mary Hartwell Catherwood’s novel. "The
Days of Jeanne d’Arc,” now appearing in
the Century, will also be Issued in the
autumn.
A translation of a modern Greek novel
will be issued from The Bodley Head
(John Lane, New York), within the next
week or two. It is the work x>f Gregory
Xenopoulos, who is perhaps the leading
figure in the not very large group of pres
ent-time Greek novelists In Greece the
people as a rule marry early, and here a
certain study is made on that text. The
title of the novel is “The Stepmother,” and
it has been translated by Mrs. Edmonds,
who thoroughly knows the Greek kingdom
and its language. In many of his writings
Xenopoulos has taken Zola as a master,
but "The Stepmother” is hardly Zolaesque.
Os the “Romance of Arenfels and Other
Tales of the Rhine,” by C. Ellis Stevens,
just issued by Putnam's Sons, a literary
critic who has made poetry a specialty,
says: Jlere is the work of a true poet,
in contrast to the prevailing artificial verse
of the clay. These tales of the Rhine are as
dramatic and interesting in their way as a
modern work of fiction, and breathe the
picturesque mediaeval spirit. The new poet
is. at times, as graphic as Rudyard Kipling,
without the roughness to which the latter
occasionally descends. The Putnams also
announce for early issue "Some Colonial
Homesteads and Their Stories,” by Marion
Harland. In this volume the author tells
the stories of some colonial homesteads
whose names have become household
words.
Whooplug It I'p.
Philadelphia North American.
"I want to say this,” shouted John Jingo,
“as a State in the great galaxy of Com
monwealths Hawaii will simply be a jim
dandy."
“You bet," echoed Hon. Rouser Down,
“a regular Hono-lulu."
Not the Effective Weapon.
New York Post.
No spectacle now visible to the world Is
more fantastic than that of the European
powers trying to settle the eastern question
by t hurling an ultimatum at the Sultan. It
is as if a man attempted to calm an ob
streperous mule by reading quo of Emer
son's essays to him.