«
THE JOURNAL
I.UCIAN SWIFT, J. S. McLAIN, .
MANAUEK. ;.■/■'' EDITOR. 'r
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A Strong Commission
The Journal remarked a few days
aga upon the great responsibility imposed
by the legislature upon the governor,
auditor and attorney general of select
ing a commission to revise the tax laws
and formulate a system of taxation for
this state, and is glad to be able to say
to-day that the appointing power has
manifestly recognized that responsibility.
The commission appointed yesterday, we
are very sure, will meet with popular ap
proval and command the confidence of the
people of this state in a very high de
gree. A selection unable to command that
confidence would have been exceedingly
unfortunate.
Without particularizing as to the in
dividual members, it is sufficient to say
that this commission comprises a high or
der of legal ability, a- desirable amount
of experience in public service, and such
reputation for integrity and fairness as
will cause its work to be accepted by the
public with great faith in its wisdom and
In its justice to all interests concerned.
We congratulate the governor and his
associates in the appointing power upon
the discrimination which they have ex
ercised among a number of possibilities,
come others of whom, besides these men.
were doubtless so well qualified as to
make the act of choice a peculiarly diffi
cult one.
There is this to be said about this com
mission, which might not have been said
about another, composed of men, perhaps,
otherwise as well qualified, that the
members of this commission require no
Introduction to the people of the state.
It is not necessary to say who they are,
or why they have been selected—a fact
which will cause the results of their
labor to be accepted with less hesitation,
probably, than an equally meritorious
performance on the part of men not so
generally known throughout the state.
General Halm is accused by a morning
contemporary of suaviter in modo. How
ever that may be, it is understood that
the appointing power recognized in him
a clear case of fortiter in re.
Diaz and Mexico
From Mexico come many conflicting re
ports about the illness of President Diaz,
•who is said to be insane by some, and
dying slowly from the effects of poison
administered by his enemies according to
other rumors. For some weeks, indeed,
there have been rumors of conspiracies
to overthrow Porfirio Diaz, but none of
them have been verified. The Mexicans
generally, peons and business classes,
would be the last to promote a return to'
the tempestuous and chaotic times which
preceded the usurpation of Diaz in 1877,
when he overthrew Don Sebastian Lerdo
de Tejada, the president of the republic,
•nd sent him a fugitive to foreign lands.
The most bitter enemiee of Diaz are a few
disgruntled swashbucklers who prefer
tumult to law and order, and the clerical
party, who have never forgiven Diaz for
continuing the work of the patriotic Ben-
Ito Juarez, disestablishing the church and
secularizing church property and opening
Mexico to religious freedom.
Since Diaz assumed the Mexican presi
dency in 1877. that country has been
practically transformed, so far as the
maintenance of lav.- and order and the de
velopment of commerce and industry are
concerned. The Diaz policy recognized
the value of railway connections, and one
of his first acts was to make a series of
railway concessions ro foreign capitalists,
who have been strongly encouraged to
develop the great mining resources of the
country. Diaz has brought his country
out of a condition of political and com
mercial chaos into a state of peace and a
comparatively large prosperity. Although
Diaz is practically a dictator and estab
lished his government through the effl
uent aid of a standing army of 40.000 men.
whom he has taken special pains to keep
well paid, and has been careful to look
ifter rhe needs of the landed and moneyed
aristocracy, it would seem that his usur
pation has been of the greatest material
advantage to Mexico. Since he seized the
government he has been re-elected (after
the Mexican fashion) for every term ex
cept one, when he permitted his friend
Gonzales to have an inning while he kept
his hand on the brakes.
if be should die. the minister of foreign
affairs would succeed to the presidency
under the constitution, and he is Senor
Mariscal, who formerly was Mexican min
ister to the United States, and is a man
who is likely to maintain the progressive
policy of Diaz. Senor Limoateur, the
minister of finance, and a very able man,
and a close friend of Diaz, has been
looked upon aa the probable successor of
Diaz by many, and if Diaz wills it, the
constitutional provision would hardly
prove an obstacle to such succession. The
people, foreigners and Mexicans, who
have invested much money in the Indus
tries of Mexico would not tolerate, if they
could prevent it, a return to the chaotic
revolutionary period, which for fifty years
kept foreign capital out of the country
and placed Mexico under the heels of con
tending swashbucklers. The rule of Diaz
has not promoted the political rights of
the people, as guaranteed by the consti
tution of 1857. Elections are practically
a farce, and four-fifths of the 14,000,000
people of Mexico do not know or appre
ciate the meaning of republican liberty.
If piaz should die to-day it would prob
ably be found that he has arranged for the
succession and the transfer of the mili
tary support to the man of his choice.
His plane may miscarry .and a revolution
is possible, yet the conservative element,
which has invested money in the country
and has a big stake there, is likely to
have a preponderating Influence in the
maintenance of law and order.
General Benjamin Harrison
i
Ex-President Harrison was a distin
guished example of the successful Ameri
can, who utilizes all his talents in a
wholesomely ambitious way and rises
from point to point of honor, and, if he
serves himself as an incident in his
career, also serves his country in a con- |
spicuous manner.
Descended from good Virginian stock
and inheriting the sturdy, liberty-loving
character of his English ancestors, the ex
president kept up the honors of the family
and showed himself a worthy descendant
of that Benjamin Harrison who was a con
spicuous leader in the wars of Cromwell
against the Stuart dynasty, and of the Ben
jamin Harrison who played a distinguished
part in our own revolutionary struggle and
was chairman of the committee of the
whole house when the Declaration of In
dependence was agreed to and was one of
the signers of that paper. His son was
the grandfather of the late ex-president,
distinguished as a soldier, first delegate
from the northwestern territory to con
gress, first governor of Indiana territory
and president of the United States.
The ex-president lived worthily of his
ancestry. With a fine judicial mind, he
became a distinguished lawyer. When the
war for the Union came, he enlisted and
showed the fighting qualities of his grand
father and great grandfather and of his
remoter ancestor, the Benjamin Harrison
of the Cromwellian wars. His service as
senator from Indiana was marked by the
peculiar ability with which he handled the
crucial questions of the day and his nom
ination and election to the presidency in
1888 was followed by an administration
which strongly promoted true American in
terests. He stood strongly for protection,
the promotion of reciprocal trade and our
merchant marine, and for civil service re
form, while the administration's foreign
policy was characterized by a firm insist
ence upon American rights, making it a
matter of patriotism and national honor
instead of one of partizan politics.
It may be said that Mr. Harrison be
lieved in bimetallism, but he believed that
it was only possible through the co-opera
tion of all the great commer
cial nations, and he frequently de
clared that the essential of a good cur
rency is that the dollars shall have and
retain an equal acceptability and value in
all comemrcial transactions.
The ex-president was not alto
gether in accord with the hand
ling of the results of the Spanish
war by the McKinley administration. His
utterances on the subject were character
ized by unwonted harshness, but his di
vergence in this instance suggests that he
did his own thinking.
The ex-president left some fine
state papers and his speeches are
noted for their perspicuity and gen
erally logical force. Whether he spoke
in a campaign or addressed a scientific or
religious body, his language was choice,
epigrammatic and suggestive. His address
before the Ecumenical Missionary Council
last year in New York was one of his best
efforts. He showed himself as apt and
clear and finished in expression before a
great Christian assembly as he could be
before a great political body. Indeed,
there is no doubt that had he studied for
the Christian ministry, he would have
been a very distinguished clergyman. The
speeches he delivered from the platforms
of railway trains at stations, during po
litical campaigns, contained much fine
thought.
The second nomination of Mr. Harrison
to the presidency was made in the exposi
tion building in this city. it was ill
starred. Mr. McKinley could have ob
tained it if he had willed, but the time
for his great work had not come. We
may find faults in the career of Mr. Har
rison. There are faults in every man's
work. But no more fervent patriot; nd
man more thoroughly American, has
breathed the air of freedom than Ben
jamin Harrison.
Some of the more sensible Mormons are
hoping that the governor of Utah will
veto the Evans bill to protect polygamists
from prosecution for cohabiting with
more than one wife. They are wise enough
to see that this gross violation of the
understanding upon which Utah was ad
mitted as a state may lead to a consti
tutional amendment authorizing the fed
eral government to legislate against and
prosecute unlawful cohabitation regard
less of state laws, and that when Uncle
Sam gets after them the polygamous old
Mormons will adorn the inside of the
prisons from Ogden to the Colorado
canyon.
_ The initial number of
The Smash* Carrie Nation's Smasher's
er's Mail. •V!a" is & four-column, six
teen-page paper of neat ap
pearance. It contains no cigarette advertise
ments, neither are the liquor interests rep
resented in it. In faft, Mrs. Nation sounds
the death knell of all varieties of tangle wa
ter, and her doctrines would throw a sad and
bitter tinge over the columns of the Anoka
Union were they put into effect.
The publisher and business manager of the
Mail is a negro. Nick Childs, who has been
in the past quite a notorious character in
Topeka. In her salutatory Mrs. Nation says:
. I have no apologies to make for 'having
Nick Ohilds for t'ne publisher of the Smash
ers' Mail. Our Savior ate with publicans and
sinners to do them good. The servant is not
above his Lord.
Mrs. Nation also prints a picture of Mr.
Childs, with these lines under it:
Business manager of the Smashers' Mail,
THE MINNEAPOLIS JOUKNAL.
and the plain dealer who went to the relief
of Mrs. Nation when deserted by the law
arid order people.
Airs. Nation prints her mai! in extenso.
She has letters from all sorts of people, bear
ing on every phase of her crusade, some com
mending and others condemning.
"Papa" is not given very much space In
The Smasher's Mail. The indications are
that "papa" will be alowed to cut out the
poetry for the editorial page and open up the
newspapers after the train gets in.
It is not known just who the Man at Medi
cine Hat is, but his variety of weather would
make a buffalo fall dowu. In the words of
the young poet:
The present brand of spring is that
Turned out by the Man of Medicine Hat;
He goes on a meteorological bat
And winds his machine with an old fence
slat;
The blizzardo-mezzo stop and all that
He pulls wide ope at the drop of the hat;
The mercury falls with a loud slam-bang,
The coal man's mouth, like a low-water
clam.
Is stretched from one to tbe other ear;
That's what you get at this time o" year.
A passenger who ate garlic on a Scranton,
Pa., street car was thrown out by the con
ductor and landed on his face. The con
ductor was discharged. Has a man with a
violent breath a right to render a car unin
habitable to people who have paid a nickel
for a ride?
There was a temperance meeting in Har
lem tbe other night, and an infernal, con
scienceless scoundrel, void of the truth, came
in late and yelled "Free beer across the
street!" He should have been arrested for
breaking up a hitherto peaceful assemblage.
A suggested remedy for baldbeadeduess is
to rub whisky on the spot. Too many bald
headed people put this remedy about six
inches too far to the south of the afflicted
spot.
The Philadelphia Record refers to a man
of such sunny disposition that he gave you
freckles. And when he borrows five, as he
often does, it 13 a clear case that you are
sunstruck.
Maudie—No, we do not think that the way
to retain his affection Is to refer to him a3
a lobster, even in a playful way. Men are
getting more sensitive as the years go by.
The New York World says the president
and J. Pierpont Morgan have arranged for
a third term for Mr. McKinley. "Lord, Lord,
how this World is given to lying."
The shirt-waist man will not blossom this
year, say the fashion reviews. This, how
ever, does not interfere with mannish, wom
an's vested rights.
Honore Palmer, son of Mrs. Palmer, who
owned the world's fair and the Paris expo
sition, is running for alderman in Chicago.
Mrs. Mary Bulger, an Atlanta woman, in
sists that she is dead. There are a lot of
politicians who are not so knowing.
Admiral Schley has reached the point
where he refuses to discuss any subject what
ever. Wise admiral.
General Miles has gone to look over the
Cuban situation. This should arouse the sus
picions of General Corbin.
Messrs. Chandler and Carter are taken care
of, but Mr. Pettigrew will have to look out
for himself.
THE TRIBUTE OV A FRIEND
In the death of General Harrison the coun
try sustains an almost irreparable loss. In
tellectually he was the greatest man of the
generation to which he belonged. He was
the most vigorous and original thinker of
the younger members of that school of states
men developed by the civil war and the re
construction period.
Two periods in our national history have
been particularly powerful in developing the
latent patriotism of American manhood. In
none of those in whom this lofty spark was
kindled by the second period—the civil war
did patriotism become more the controlling
force of his life than it did in General Harri
son. From the day he resigned a lucrative
office, to which he had just been elected, an
office which gave him his first opportunity
to rise in his chosen profession and to earn
something more than a meager living for his
little family, to put on the uniform of a
volunteer soldier, up to the hour of his death;
whether in public service or in his personal
or profesisonal relations, patriotism was the
guiding influence of every act of his life.
I had the good fortune to form the ac
quaintance of General Harrison soon after I
became a man. I met him first in 1876, when
he had been selected by the republican state
central committee of Indiana to lead the for
lorn hope of that party after its candidate
for governor had been compelled to with
draw from the ticket. That fall, as a student,
1 entered the law office of Major Gordon, his
friend and neighbor. From that time on I
have enjoyed his acquaintance and friendshin.
In the various relations in which I have
known him I have had unusual opportuni
ties of forming an estimate of the real char
acter of the man. Ever since he was presi
dent it has been universally recognized that
he was an intellectual giant; but It has been
sometimes said that he was lacking in the
qualities of heart. This opinion could only
tome from a superficial knowledge of the
man. It is true he did not possess those
qualities which sometimes give to a man an
evanescent popularity. He was never effu
sive; never gushing. He could not be, for
he was always sincere. He never made a
promise until he was certain he could fulfil
it. He. therefore, found the close of each
Vay with but few unfilled promises. He was
never, during either his term as president
or senator, compelled to appoint a bad or
unworthy man to office because he had prom
ised to do so.
He had the lofty contempt of a great soul
for the modern art of personal advertising.
He knew that his great talerfts naturally
called him into that large field in which the
public has a constant interest, and he was
always desirous that his public acts should
have the widest publicity and be generally
discussed, but he shrank from personal noto
riety, and disliked to have his name men
tioned except when necessary in connection
with matters of general public interest. This
strong chracteristic was manifest in his re
quest to his physician in his fatal illness.
It was these noble qualities that some
times left in the superficial mind the impres
sion that he was a cold man and deficient in
the qualities of heart; but such was not the
case, for in those greater qualities of heart,
kindness, charity, generosity, those who knew
him well, knew he was as pre-eminent as in
those qualities of mind vfcleli gave him a
place in the front rank among the thinkers
of the age.
Like many another, he died at the zenith
of "his greatness and when his work scarce
seemed finished. Eight years ago, when he
rode up Pennsylvania avenue with his suc
cessor, he realized that his work in public
office was done, and his intimate friends
knew then how keenly he enjoyed the feel
ing of freedom and relief which came with
this knowledge.
But, although out of office, his work was
not finished. In wisely guiding public thought
into right channels he was, when the flnal
summons came, performing a service to his
country greater even than those performed
in the more active periods of his life. H's
great intelligence, his long experience in pub
lic service, his loftly patriotism, combined
with the disinterested position which he oc
cupied, to give his dignified opinions, freely
and frankly expressed, greater influence than
those of any other American. But while we
cannot help but feel that there was work
in this line left for him to do. we know he
has done his full share of life's work. Ills
was a busy life, crowded full of great
achievements; and the influence which he
exerted upon the world in which be lived,
the country which he loved and served and
the political party to which he gave his alle
giance, will be felt and appreciated so long
as the world, the country and the party shall
endure. -Eugene Hay.
Minneapolis, March 14, 1901.
One Thing- Done.
It appears that 171 legislators In Missouri
have been sitting for sixty days and have
done nothing but the state.
Some Surprise.
The surprise of the writers who ere not
gentlemen at discovering that Theodore
Roosevelt is a gentleman is making some
journalism more vulgar than valuable.
New York Daily Letter.
BUREAU OF THE JOURNAL,
No. 21 Park Row.
New Tenement Ideas.
March 14. —A new tenement settlement has
been opened at No. 50 Henry street under the
auspices of Bishop Potter, and the house has
been given the name of Jacob A. Riis, the
newspaper reporter who has done so much
work for the social improvement of the East
Side. Mr. Rite appears in the peculiar posi
tion of a newspaper reporter who is at the
same time a philanthropist. H« has been
associated with the most disheartening forms
of huin*n depravity in his work, in the police
courts,' and with this experience as a founda
tion he has come to be an Authority on all
questions concerning tenement life and social
conditions of the lower sort. It,was ho who
organized the first settlement?^ the King's
Daughters at No. 48 Henry street, In 1890,
and he has long been prominent in every sub
sequent movement having for Us object the
amelioration of East Side conditions. One of
his warmest frieuds is Vice President Roose
velt, from whom the newspaper man received
an appointment to head the tenement house
commission which did such excfltent work in
the city. The only condition under which Mr.
Rits would accept the appointment was that
no salary should be attached to the office.
The new settlement was organized for the
purpose of visiting and comforting the sick
and relieving the needy, as well aa instruct
ing them and bettering their conditions.
There is a kindergarten attended by forty
eeven children. Girls aTe instructed in sew
ing and cooking, and free baths and summer
excursions will come in season.
Venezuela* Wu«p Navy.
The government of Venezuela Is seeking to
double its navy. The sea fighting force of
this opera bouffe South American republic at
the present time consists of one small cruiser,
the Restaurador, which was formerly the
Gould steam yacht Atalanta. Now it desires
that the force be Increased by the acquisition
of the Astor ateam yacht Xourmahal. The
Atalanta was purchased from George J. Gould
last fall, refitted and sent to Caracas in
charge of Captain Jeremiah Merrithew, who
delivered the vessel. The captain is back in
New \ork with information that President
Castro of Venezuela wishes to effect the pur
chase of the Nourmahal from Colonel John
Jacob Astor. The Venezuelan president evi
dently believes his country should acquire the
full floating stock of New York millionaires,
and it has been suggested that the members
of the New York Yacht Club offer their hold
ings in a body. Such a fleet in possession of
the little republic would, after conversion
prove a powerful fighting force of the '"wasp
order. The New York Yacht Club has on its
rolls many steam yachts that could be speed
ily altered into fast cruisers of light arma
ment. These are vessels that would not stand
a heavy fight, but could swoop dowu suddenly
on a force of equal or even greater strength
strike a quick blow and be away out of the
danger line before retaliation could be at
tempted.
The Old Line Democrats.
The Manhattan club, long regarded as the
home of democracy in the metropolis is
losing no opportunity to outclass the Demo
cratic club as the New York home of Us
party. Within the last four months many of
the most prominent democrats of the coun
try, men who have been identified with the
old-time democracy, such as Grover Cleve
land. John G. Carlisle, Frederick R. Cudert
Daniel Lamont and David B. Hill, have
Joined" the club, the strength of which wa<*
admirably illustrated by the dinner given
Wednesday night in honor of Judge C. H.
Truax, its president. David B. Hill was
probably the most important guest at thf>
dinner. He was uproariously received and
made a speech in favor of the old-line demo
crats that placed him high in favor.
Kyrle Bellew Again.
Kyrle Bellew, whose English and American
reputations were established largely with
Cora Urquart Potter, will be seen in this
country next year as a star under the man
agement of Liebler & Co. At the present
time Mr. Bellew Is Id England preparing to
start for Australia, bm he will reach America
early in the fall. His management has se
lected as a p.'ay for its star, a dramatization
of Stanley Weymau's "A Gentleman of
France," the rights of which were but lately
secured. Miss Harriet Ford, the author of
Sarah Cowell Le Moyne's recent play, "The
Greatest Thing in the World," Ires been en
gaged to make this dramatization. She will
undertake the work as soon as she completes
"Rembrandt," the play for Richard Mansfield
on which she is now working. Messrs. Lieb
ler & Co. indicate that Nov. 1 will be about
the time for the presentation of A Gentle
man of France."
St. Patrick In Marble.
A splendid marble figure of Ireland's patron
saint will be formally dedicated on St. Pat
rick's Day, when Archbishop Corrigan will
bless the statue just placed in St. Patrick's
cathedral on Fifth avenue. The services at
tending the dedication will be witnessed by a
large number of prominent Catholic citizens
and assisting the archbishop, will be a big
delegation of the clergy of this city. The
statue is the work of Joseph Sibbel, a sculp
tor, who recently finished it at his studio, No.
214 E Twenty-sixth Street. It is of heroic
size, standing eight feet high, is three fe«t
wide and two and one-half feet thick, weigh
ing 7,000 pounds. The sculptor contracted for
it one year ago through the archbishop with
John D. Manning, who is presenting it to the
cathedral. It is cut from a block of the finest
Carrara marble. _X. x \
AMUSEMENTS
Foyer Clint.
For the lovers of good drama who have
seen "Arizona" at the Metropolitan this
week, it is a comforting reflection that these
United States are many so that Augustus
Thomas still has some forty-odd sovereign
commonwealths to include in the. geographical
school of the drama which he has established.
So far he has used Alabama, Missouri and
Arizona.
The sale of seats for Collamarini and
Colonel Thompson's Boston Lyric Opera com
pany opened at the Metropolitan this morning
and the take so far indicates that the busi
ness will be unusually large, especially on
the grand opera evenings. Monday and
Thursday nights, when "Carmen" will be
given, seem to be the favorite performances,
although "11 Trovatore" is a close second!
The engagement is for the entire week, com
mencing Sunday, and Collaramrini will sing
four times, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
and Saturday.
"King of the Opium Ring" at the Bijou the
current week, treats of the phases of life in
San Francisco's Chinatown. The story is a
very interesting one, with a deal of comedy
and sufficient sensation to blend together into
a performance of merit.
The sale of seats opened this morning at
the Bijou for the engagement next week of
Wm. H. West's Big Minstrel Jubilee, which
for three years has been winning golden opin
ions. Th« first part is said to be a revelation
of magnificent stage settings and accessories,
and introduces some of. the greatest come
dians and most famous singers heard in min
strelsy. The combination of voices, the artis
tic renditon ot each number, the concerted
singing and orchestral effects are strong fea
tures. Among the principal comedians are
Billy Van, Ernest Tenney, Charles Whalen
and Raymond Teal, while the vocal corps in
cludes Richard J. Jose, Wm. Hallett. Manuel
Romain, John P. Rodgers and a large chorus.
The olio is exceptionally strong. The street
parade is entirely up-to-date and includes
some novel features.
The I utiirc of the Capital.
President Macfarland, in The Saturday Even
ing Post.
The future of the national capital is as
bright as the future of the nation. It is cer
tain to grow in size and beauty, and to have
continued prosperity. At the end of its sec
end century it may have a million inhab
itants, and it will certainly have such wealth
and attractiveness as can hardly be imagined
now. It may become necessary to enlarge
the present District of Columbia not only
by securing again what Virginia gave and
then took back, but perhaps by enlarging the
i riginal boundaries, with the co-operation of
-Maryland ani Virginia. It will be the most
spleudH capital in the world. J
A RAILROAD SPOOK
BY GEORGE H. MINTURN.
Copyright by A. S. Richardson, 1901.
What was known as "the railroad spook"
from end to end of the G. & S. road made its
first appearance on Aug. 9, 1881. At 10 o'clock
at night, as the Atlantic express was driving
aloni? at the rate of forty-flve miles an hour,
a riderless white horse turned in on the track
ahead of the train from a country road. This
highway was only half a mile from the river,
with the tracks elevated to cross low ground,
and as soon as the horse appeared the engi
neer shut off steam. The animal must be
given a show to get off the rails, or there
would be a bad accident. As the train slack
ened speed the horse looked back and whin
nied defiance. The alarm whistle did not
seem to frighten him in the least, and he
pawed the earth and lashed out with his heels
as if he thoroughly enjoyed the situation.
The train went ahead at alow speed, the white
horse keeping about fifty feet ahead, and
what was the astonishment of engineer and
fireman on reaching the bridge to see the
animal make straight across it. It was a
trestle work without roadway, but the horse
passed along at a sharp trot, and on reaching
the far end disappeared in the woods.
It so happened that the superintendent of
the road was on the train, and inquire was
made as to what had caused the delay. When
told of the horse crossing the bridge he ex
pressed his disbelief, and when the train ar
rived at R. the engineer and fireman were
sharply reprimanded. They knew they had
seen a white horse on the track, and they
knew that the horse had made its way across
the bridge, but they did not "talk back."
Two nights later, at midnight, at a point
twenty miles from the first, the whit» horse
was seen again. A freight train bound east
was booming along to reach a station and
side-track for a special bound west, when the
spook suddenly made Its appearance on the
track ahead and not thirty feet in front of the
pilot. The whis-tle was blown, but the horse
did not even look back. As there was fear
that the animal would tumble into the first
cattle guard and ditch the train, speed had to
be reduced. For six miles he held his place,
clearing the cattle guards with the greatest
ease, and his disappearance was as sudden
as his advent. The freight had lost time, and
the conductor was hauled over the coals. Th 9
five men of the train crew had seen the
horse, and all swore that they had, and so
the complaint was dismissed.
When the white horse turned up again,
which was four nights later, he established
his reputation as a spook. He turned in
ahead of a pasenger train and caused it to
lose time, and as a result of this lost time a
rear-end collision was averted by the nar
rowest chance. Engineer, fireman, conductor,
baggageman, two mail clerks and the express
agent had seen the horse, which had kept the
track for miles, but two watchmen at cross
ings and a watertank man had failed to make
him out, though they had their eyes wide
open and were wondering what ailed the
train. The investigation resulted in a lay-off
for conductor, engineer and fireman, and then
employes began to talk of "the spook" and
wonder where it would be seen next. There
was Just mystery enough about the thing to
appeal to everybody, and the public got hold
of it through the papers and made the case
more entertaining.
During the week of the investigation the
■white horse did not appear, but no sooner had
it closed than he made his fourth appearance.
This time it was not the horse alone, but
there was an old man on his back. On a
bright moonlight night, while a heavy freight
train was running west on a double track,
horse and rider came up from the rear on the
free track and gradually passed the train and
then cut in ahead of the engine. The con
ductor was in the caboose, and he had a fair
sight of horse and rider. The two brakemen
on the roois of the cars had a clear view, and
the engineer and fireman had the spook right
under their eyes. All these men agreed as to
details. The man looked old and venerable.
He had long gray hair, long gray whiskers,
and was bareheaded and rode without a sad
dle, while his suit seemed a rusty black. At
brief intervals for eleven miles the whistle
was sounded to clear the track of ghostly
horse and rider, and the conductor had to re
port twelve minutes lost time.
It was determined to kill "the spook" busi
ness at once. The whole train crew was sum
marily discharged, and orders were issued
that any employe who saw the horse again
would be bounced within twenty-four hours.
I was on a western newspaper at the time,
and had been assigned to keep track of the
ghostly case. I had sought to ascertain what
the officials of the road thought about the
queer incident, but they had gruffly repulsed
me. It would not do for them to admit that
a spook was upsetting the routine of things,
but. on the other hand, they would not say
that a dozen of their employes had suddenly
become idiotic. I was sent over the road
three times, that I might get sight of the
specter should it reappear, but I was doomed
to disappointment. Ten days and nights
passed, and the gossip had begun to die out,
when "the spook" returned to the old stand.
There were engineers who had made up their
mind to keep full headway should the specter
1-uru in ahead of them. The engineer who
had seen the riderless horse on the first occa
sion now saw it on the fifth. It turned in on
the track from the country highway, but it
was not the horse alone, and neither the
horse and rider. This time the animal was
harnessed up to a buggy, and in the vehicle
were an old man and his wife. They came
off the highway like a flash, with the white
horse going at full speed, and for an instant
the engineers heart was in his throat. His
hand was on the lever to shut off steam when
his fireman caught sisht of the outfit on the
track ahead and said:
"There's the white horse, Tom, and If you
don't run him down we'll get the sack."
The engineer's hand fell. He did not even
sound an alarm. No living horse could have
turned In ahead of him like that, and he need
not fear that he would be taking life. On
thundered the train, and on thundered the
horse, and when the bridge was reached the
outfit continued right along and only dis
appeared as it reached the far side. No offi
cial report was made, for fear of discharge,
but it soon became known all along the line
that "the spook" had shown up again. Next
day after the occurrence I proceeded to the
spot and made a close examination of the
.roadbed and the bridge. Not the slightest
sign could be found of the passage of horse
or vehicle. I could not believe that the engi
neer and his fireman were liars or fools, nor
could I believe In the existence of ghosts.
Had "the spook" been seen only at that
spot, and as a riderless horse, one could
have believed that shadows had something
to do with it someway, but it had been else
where, and with additions. It was a tough
proposition to figure out, and I got no satis
faction.
There had been no accident yet on account
of •'the spook," but the idea spread among
train men that this uncanny thing would not
quit the road until it had brought about n
tragedy. This naturally made everybody a
bit nervous, and there were night engineers
who felt a sinking of the heart as they were
called to go out. The sixth and last ap
pearance of the specter took place on the
eleventh night after the fifth. A heavy ex
cursion train left C. at 9 o"clock In the even
ing for Niagara Falls. The engineer was a
man named Roberts, and he had been fifteen
years in service on the road. He hadn't ex
actly condemned the men who had seen "th 3
spook," but he didn't bejieve in its exist
ence. In a half-laughing way, before pulling
out for C, the conductor had warned him
that they could lose no time that night for
ghosts, and Roberts bad answered:
"Not a second shall be lost. If the white
horse shows up in front of me, I'm going
to do my best to catch up with him and ex
plode these stories."
It was half an hour after midnight, and
the train was speeding past highways and
farmhouses, when the white horse appeared.
The engineer always stuck to it that the
white horse leaped the fence to reach the
tracks. The old man and woman of the bug
gy were now seated on his back, and as the
horse was no more than twenty feet ahead
of the pilot and in full glare of the light,
engineer and fireman had a good view of him,
as they also did of the back of the old man.
The woman was seated in fronl, and, there
fore, but little of her was seen.
"What are you going to do?" asked the
fireman as he turned to the engineer witn
white face and startled look.
There was a straight track for ten miles.
Roberts answered the query by letting on
more steam. In the run of ten miles, as was
afterward shown, he gained three minutes
over hla schedule time. He did not come an
luch nearer the horae, however. It kept its
distance over culverts and cattle guards, and
was still ahead of him as he entered the vil
lage of R. His train was not to stop there,
but a freight train was to take the siding to
let htm pass. Had he been on time, or only
two minutes over time, all would have been
THUKSDAY EVENINO, MARCH 14 1901
MINNEAPOLIS JOURNAL'S CURRENT TOPICS SERBS
(Copyright, 1901, by Victor P. Lawaon.)
PAPERS BY EXPERTS ANTJ SPBCIA LISTS OP NATIONAL. REPUTATION.
THE ART OF
LIVING A HUNDRED YEARS.
IV—VALUE OF EXERCISE ; IN; PRO
LONGING LIFE. .
(By Dr. J. William White, John Rhea Bar
ton Professor of Surgery, University of
Pennsylvania.) - ' %
My belief in the value of exercise and ath
letics in the prolongation of life baa Its foun
dation In certain scientific principles when
are connected with the early life history of
the race.
If we begin at the real beginning, we should
understand that we are animals : very much
like other animals, and that we are made up,
as they.are, each of us, of myriads of cella
that are practically Identical for ■ all animals
and have probably not changed materially for
countless ages. The health and vitality of
these cells—and of the aggregation of cells
that make up ■ the individual - animal —which
have enabled them to multiply, to survive the
struggle for existence and to bring about ani
mal life as it exists to-day, result from quali
ties that have been developed through untold
centuries of fierce competition for food, for
shelter, for the preservation of family or. tri
bal relations—in fact, for life itself. In this
way the necessity for bodily exertion for the
full development of the. powers of the individ
ual became established as a basal condition in
relation to the health of the human race. - The
comparatively brief period covered by "-his
tory" and the still more insignificant time as
signed to "civilization" have not affected in
the very least the primal attributes of an ani
mal organization whose essential qualities are
the result of immeasureable ages of strife
with other animals and with the elements, of
exposure without covering to eun and wind
and rain—to conditions, in other words, the
conquest of which was necessary for the
preservation of the life of the individual and
the perpetuation of the species.
The effect of these ages of struggle, when,
to use the phrase of the day, life was truly
"strenuous," has been that every separate
cell of the millions that make up a given hu
man organism is the descendant of similar
cells that owed their life and their ability to
reproduce their kind to a resistant power to
the attacks of disease and injury and expo
sure, developed under conditions of extreme
physical stress and exertion.
Primitive Requirements of Health.
It is inconceivable that in the comparatively
few years of which we have any knowledge
any essential change should have been
wrought in the primal qualities developed in
the organism through the infinitude of centu
ries during which the race was developing to
its present status. There has not been time
yet lor us to lose entirely even such groas
and now unessential structures as the mus
cles that in some of our ancestors —the car
nivora, for example—were used for pricking
up the ears, but are valueless to us; the little
crescent-shaped fold of skin at the inner an
gle of the eye, useless to us, but of great
value to the sharks and other primitive rela
tives of ours; or the appendix vermiformis,
worthless and dangerous to us, but larger and
most useful in the digestive processes of our
vegetarian predecessors. It is evident to the
scientist, whether he studies disease and
notes the fact that some of the most deadly
enemies to life, as the bacillus tuberculosis,
for example, die or are powerless in direct
sunlight; or studies health, and observes the
victory over such microscopic intrud
ers obtained by the living cells
of the body when they are
young and vigorous and active, that in the
advancement of civilization many elementary
hygienic principles have been lost sight of.
Disease has been lessened, it is true, by the
discovery of technical methods of prevention
and cure, but the needs of the body, the es
sential and primitive requirements of health,
as old as the race itself, are constantly for
gotten or ignored. The air breathed by
crowds, the dust and dirt of great cities, the
covering of the body surface so as to exclude
the direct rays of the sun. the substitution of
sedentary and slothful habits for a life of in
cessant activity, the modification in diet and
drink —in other words, the changes in envi
ronment with little or no change in the or
ganism ' itself, are responsible for much of
the disease and death with which the physi
cian has to deal, and for many of the failures
and not a few of the crimes that concern so
ciety at large.
Some Disadvantages of Progress.
The diminished general death rate due to
the labors and discoveries of the medical pro
fesalon is, of course, gratifying, but it should
be remembered that even this has another
aide, and that it necessarily means the pres
ervation of thousands of weaklings, who, if
they perished in childhood, or soon after mid
dle age was passed, would, at least, not per
petuate their imperfections in coming gener
ations.
The lowered price of meat hi many coun
tries has put within the reach of the labor
ing classes an amount of animal food vastly
larger than ever before In historic times. This
has be«n in some ways an obvious advantage,
but their are keen observers who associate
the comparative excess of meat eating, and
the coincident lessening of the hours of labor
and of physical effort required to procure a
subsistence, with the increase in cases of can
cer that is thought to be taking place In most
civilized countries.
Education in modern times is far more gen
eral, is begun earlier, is continued until later
in life, and embraces a curriculum which has
widened with the development of human
knowledge until it has perforce been divided
and subdivided so that the fear ha* arisen
that the days of a really broad education are
numbered, and that we are on the eve of de
veloping only specialists. There can, at any
rate, be no doubt that the stress and strain
have increased, examinations with the attend
ant nervous tension have multiplied, competi
tion has become keener and rewards greater,
and disappointments have been correspond
ingly more bitter and depressing. AH this
occurs during the developmental peri«d, when
■the foundations of health and strength should
be laid and when the nervous system espe
cially is most sensitive to external Impres
sions. A child will have a general convulsion
from an attack of indigestion that would give
an adult only a stomach ache. Mental indi
gestion produces correspondingly grave re
sults in other portions of the brain. With all
the good that flows from the comparatively
wide diffusion ot education and of knowledge
at the present day comes the counterbalan
cing evil, the increased percentage of insan
ity, associated undoubtedly with the substitu
tion of mental for physical strain In the
struggle for existence and having its founda
tion, In too many eases, in the period devoted
to education. It must be noted here that it is
strain, not activity, that causes mental dis
ease. The proper utse of the brain. Just as
that of the body, tends to the preservation of
health.
The Cave Man's Legacy to Modern*.
Mr. Treves has called attention jocularly to
the fact that with precLseiy the same ali
mentary canal as served the cave man after
his meals of raw hyena meat we attack the
aldermanlc public dinners of the nineteenth
century. It is equally true that while our
lives depend upon the health and strength of
the same sort and kind of cells—each in a
sense an individua —that made up the bodies
of our ancestors thousands of centuries before
the t-ave man appeared, the race to a great
extent has changed its habits and methods of
living, with no reference to the basal habits
and needs of the cells which compose it. The
les3 we conflict with theae habits, the more
we recognize and meet these needs, the high
er will be the average health of mankind.
This line of argument may seem to take me
far afield, and yet it is the scientific Justifica
tion for the belief in the value of exercise.
Uarwin has shown us that the chain of life
has begun in the simple and ended in the
complex. Haeckel has demonstrated that un
der the influence of heredity the human em
bryo still passes during its development
through the stages of fish and fowl, as well
as of various forms of 'flesh" that we speak
of as "inferior" before it takes Its final
shape. Even the effect of tie rise and fail of
well; but that one extra minute caught a
portion of the freight train still on the main
track, and there was a smash-up which re
sulted in a terrible loss of lire. Over forty
people were killed, and hardly a person on
the train escaped injury. The station bouse
was wrecked, the water tank torn down, and
It was a scene of wreck and slaughter al
most without parallel. "The spook" bad
the tides on the nutrition of our marine an
cestors is thought still to be shown in th>
periodicity of some of the functions of th>
human species.
Indissoluble ties link us to all the rest of
organic nature, and the four moat primitive
requirements of health—sunlight, oxygen,
food to replace worn-out cells, and (as aooa
as we reach the animal kingdom) motion, or
"exercise"—are the same now as they were
when the pulse of life first began to beat on
this planet.
Keeping: the Tissue. Healthy.
Health in a human being to-day, aa always,
consists in such a condition of growth and
development of all the tissues and organs of
the body as enables them to fulfil their func
tions easily and completely, respond prompt
ly to occasional unusual demand* upon them,
and resist effectually the attacks of disease.
It depends upon the activity with which ths
numberless atoms or cells that constitute the
body are cast off and replaced by others,
and upon the strength and vitality of the lat
ter, and this strength, there is every reason
to believe, is in almost direct proportion to
their newness. The young cell, like the
young person, has reserve force, an energy,
a vitality, a power of resistance that inva
riably begins to diminish as soon as full de
velopment has been attained. The physi
ologist or physician, who, Aladdin-like, could
offer "new cells for old," would have dis
covered the secret of perpetual youth.
Every time we move or breathe, or even,
think, certain cells die, are disintegrated,
and must be replaced by others. This work
is done by the blood, which lays down the
new material and carries off the old, to be
thrown out by the lungs, the skin and the
kidneys. The succession of events makes up
"life," and, reducing the statement to the
simplest possible terms, we may say that
the health and sterength of any Individual
are in direct proportion to the thoroughness
and celerity with which these occurrences
take place. Consequently, -we are able w
understand how an agent of any sort which
influences these processes favorably must be
one whioh will promote at the same time
the destruction of the old cells and their
rapid replacement by new ones; In other
words, on which, while it hastens the death
of certain tissues, will at the same time send
them an increased amount of material with
which to repair damages, or which may even
enable them to improve upon and add to the
original structure. Now, when we look for
such an agent, discarding drugs, of course, as
inapplicable and injurious, and assigning food
to its proper place as fuel which may be
transformed into force, but Is useless alone
and unassisted, we find that there Is but one
means within our reach for effecting this
purpose safely, continuously and healthfully,
and that is exercise.
The Chief Agent in Prolong inn- Life.
We have voluntarily, perhaps necessarily,
cut ourselves off (by our clothes and our
houses and our habits) from the sunlight la
which the entire bodies of our ancestors—
not alone their bands and faces—were bathed
continuously—not on litUe occasional "out
ings." Let the critic study the bacteriacidal
effect of sunlight, the climatic treatment of
consumption, the open-air treatment of sur
gical tuberculosis, the relation to the per
centage of sunlight to the mortality from in
fluenza and similar subjects, before he dis
misses this argument as Irrelevant.
The supply of oxygen to th« individual has
been similarly limited by the greatly in
creased time spent indoors, often in poorly
ventilated rooms, and among crowds of fel
low-beings, congregated for work or for
pleasure.
Food is probably better in quality and
quantity than ever before, but relative over
eating has followed, and as a result special
diseases, not only cancer, as has been stated,
but gout and Bright's disease, are thought
to be increasing. ■ • -•■
We thus have left of the four elementary
requirements only exercise as practical agent
for procuring or preserving health, and pro
longing-life, -t-; —■.._ ._ js*l
- By'"exercise"; la meant certain movements
made- by means -of .the. contraction of the
voluntary muscles—those ' muscles which are
under the control of the will— made with
sufficient force and' rapidity to quicken the
breathing and the circulation of the • blood;
that is, -to augment the action of the invol
untary muscles concerned in those functions,
chiefly the heart and the diaphragm.
What Exeroise Doei for the Body.
Exercise Increases the breathing power,
rids us of carbonic acid and purifies our
blood; increases the action of the heart, send
ing a larger quantity of this purified blood
to all the tissues of the body, removing their
waste, supplying the material for their re
newal, and quickening all the vital processes;
it thus fulfils all the conditions necessary in
an agent which is to Increase health and
strength. The most obvious but least useful
effect of exercise la the increase in the size
and power of the voluntary muscles; tho
most important effect is a strengthening of
the involuntary muscles concerned in the
processes of respiration aad circulation,
which enables us to use the increased power
of the voluntary muscles with comfort and
safety, and to influence through these proc
esses not only the health and strength but
also the growth and development of the whole
body, and even the a.ctivixy and. force of the
mental processes. With these conditions is
associated an increased resistant power to
the attacks of disease and a postponement
of the degenerative processes Inseparable
from advancing years, that, taken together,
render irresistible the conclusion that we
have for the prolongation of life no more
valuable factor than judicious exercise.
In the opinion of the writer, exercise is
beneficial largely in proportion to what Ham
erton calls the 'faith" in exercise—the firm
conviction of its value and necessity which
makes one go out in all weathers, or take
time under all circumstances for the discip
line and hardening of the body, even leaving
for that purpose the most urgent intellectual
labors. Individual examples might b« ad
duced without end, but to take only two
from the records of the two great English -
speaking races—when we hear that William
Cullen Bryant, a moat remarkable examplo
of the preservation of undiminished mental
and physical vigor to advanced years, Attrib
uted it to a habit formed in early Ufa of de
voting the first hour or two after leaving his
bed in the morning to moderate gymnastic
exercise, his allowance of which he had not
reduced "the width of a thumbnail" in his
eighty-fourth year; and when we read that
Mr. Gladstone, on the morning that he intro
duced his home-rule bill, while all England—
Indeed, the whole world—was to b« his au
dience in few hours, and while the fata of
great parties and of an entire- race was in
volved in his presentment of his case, in
spite of his advanced age. "spent an hour
In his private gymnasium, after which he
bathed and ate a light breakfast," we may
well believe that exercise has something to
commend it to thoughtful attention.
( o*tly Reanlta of Indifference.
I believe that, as a rule, it does not re
ceive this attention to the degree it merits,
either from my profession, from parents or
guardians, or from the governing bodies of
educational institutions. Physician* and sur
geons too often advise it in a merely per
functory manner, and, their real lndifferenca
being reflected in the conduct of the patient,
turn to drugs to stimulate skin or kidneys or
i heart or lungs—work infinitely better don*
by exercise.
The generally accepted axiom of to-day.
that too much food is one of the most nota
ble factors in causing fatal disease, should
in the majority of cases, read 'too much
food relatively to the amount of exercise."
Less food, even in the absence of exercise,
would save many lives; the same amount of
food with abundant exercise would save many
more; but the most useful text from which
to preach to modern communities would be
"much less food and much more exercise."
Jv^zi^e*^ £&&&.
caused it all. In his excitement the engineer
forgot the freight train which was to »iU«
track for him. ' -" ?
:,- ; A Reatleaa Soul.' "•
"!-."" Atlanta * Journal.
: Teddy :. betrays . symptoms : of,' an": unwilling
ness ito ; lie ) quietly in } the vie* ; presidential;
Tault In which Mr. Hauna has placed him.