Evening star. [volume], April 20, 1901, Page 26, Image 26

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
PRIMEVAL ANIMALS
Creatures That Crawled About on
Earth Aeons Ago,
APPEARAECE OF THE OLENELLUS
Our Earliest Ancestor of Which
Much is Knovwn.
WHEN THE MAMIMALS CAME
4'Wopyright. 11)(, by G. A. J. Cole.
Written for ine Eventim star by rrof. Grenville
A. J. tole.
Mankind has ever been as hungry for
knowledge about its past as it is and ever
will be about the possibilities of its future,
and there is an absorbing fascination in
the study of the mysterious fragments
which tell the story. Far back in that
period called the Cambrian, when verte
brate life began to exist on earth, there
crawled Olenellus the trilobite. We see his
tracks on the rocks hundreds of thousands
of years old, and wonder what manner of
world it was in which he and his kind lived
and moved and had their being.
We know from the records of the rocks
the mselves that the sun shone and the
drying sand cracked upon the shore, that
the waves beat and left little rillmarks as
they shrank away. auid that the rain fell,
dimpling the surface of the clay, in those
far-off Cambrian years, just as they do
now in the modern world around us. Moun
tains rose: above the waters, and rivers
flowir from them brought down their
burden of stones and mud to the mighty
store hous+ of the sea. Even the volcanoes
which here and there broke through the
surface. poured forth the same types of
lava as today, and were no mere catas
trophic in their action.
Yet in all the ocean not a fish yet swam;
it is doubtful if an insect yet crawled or
hovered among the mosses of the flower
less hand. The earth was there, golden
with sunlight, flecked with sea-born cloud;
the peaks rose white above the snow-line,
the ocean fioor went down into chill mys
terious depths. and the lord of all this
magnitir ence, this realm prepared. as we
are prone to think. for man's delight, was
Olenellus, the trilobite. a creature occa
sionally four inches wide and at most six
inches long.
A Slow Development.
Slowly the development moves from spe
cies to species. Olenellus gives place to
Paradoxides, also a triholite, but a much
larger creature, attaining a length of two
feet. Then in Silurian times we meet with
Stylonorus, a far more generalized marine
creature. probably allied to the scorpions,
and actually five feet long. The small but
self-assertive scorpion :Cad by this time
appeared upon the land, and has success
fully held its own thenceforth to the pres
ent day. The fishes, however, our first
true vertebrates, though often with poorly
developed backtlones, secured a hold. at
the same time on the globe, and happily
avoided the assaults of Stylonorous and his
friends. Cased in boxes of bony armor.
clumsy. but serene, they prospered and
propagated their kind: becoming more spe
cialized and more distinctly fishlike as
time went on. In the Devonian period we
thus find genuine tishes dominating the
globe, attaining the superb length of
thirty feet.
In the next period, the carboniferous
among our anti'tue coal forests, amphibia
of quaint types move: and then, in Per
mian and Triassic times, the reptiles arise.
and rapidly assert their sway. When we
write reptiles we use the word with cau
tion and respect. These early reptiles were
less reptilian. far more generalized, than
any reptile of the present day. They held
in themselves the promise of many higher
types of life. Already there must have
been some reptilian forms moving, genera
tion by generation. along a sure course to
ward the mammals: others, again, imper
fectly foreshadowed the exquisite struct
ure of the birds. There is no epoch more
absorbing to the zoologist, none more ex
citing to. the scientific imagination, than
this junction zone between ancient and
modern times.
Delijbtful Dinosaurs.
The reptiles emerged from it trimphantly.
The group of the dinosaurs, or "terrible
lizards." in their wide variety of form, soon
laid hold upon the land. Some moved pon
derously among the forests, cropping the
treetops as they raised their heads, and
often standing fairly erect on their enor
mous hinder limbs. Others were fiercely
carnivorous; and we find some of the vege
table feeders protected against them by an
almost grotesque armor of plates and
spines. Smaller and more elegant dinosaurs
hopped about between the hushes, or per
haps from branch to branch of the dark
coniferous trees.
In full and unsatistied vitality,. the rep
tiles entireid on the seas in seari'h ot food;
and huge swi-nming lizards, their limbs
moditied into p~addles. played a more alarm
ing part than any of our modern whales.
Laistly. the reptiles seizedl upon the air.
many forms flying like huge b~ats, by means
of a membrane strietchedl from 'une digit
of the fore foot to the slide. The empire of
the reptiles thus became complete arid un
disputed.
Mnunals Got a Foothold.
In this world, where might seemed domi
nant. where one huge form was followed by
another. unitil reptiles from thirty to a hun
dred fei't long trampled the river banks or
heaved their bulk across the plains, the
mammals none the less secured their place
and warily and craftily held their own.
What skill in theIr timorous little brains,
what swiftness in their twinkling feet,
saveid them anmid the horde of reptiles,
forms one of natuire's lost tales of adven
ture. We know that some mammals es
caped destruction, btut they were small
types, humbler than the opossums and the
kangaroos: we may picture them as hiding
in holes and corners of the earth. As long
as the reptilian empire !asted, the main
Froam Punch. Q SI
Lis (to annly)-"Mifnd yer, it's all roigh
byver or two. or a bit 0' npnala .mn.ew...
mals made very little progress, remaining
as subordinate creatures, incapable of bat
tle, and waiting patiently for relief.
The relief came at last, with what seems,
geologically speaking, surprising swiftness.
We do not know how the reptilian empire
fell: whether the enormous forms exhaust
ed the vegetation, became weakened, and
fell a prey to the carnivores, which in time
were forced to feed on one another, or
whether a plague, some bacterial disease,
smote the reptiles and spared the hardy
and oft-tried little mammals. The passage
from cretaceous to eocene time sees, in any
case, the last of the old dinosaurs; the rep
tiles that remain, crocodiles and serpents
and so forth, are virtually the specialized
reptiles of today.
Their Rise to Power.
Directly the field was open the mammals
proved worthy of their far triassic ancestry
and seemed to realize that their inherit
ance had come to them at last. In turn
they grew monstrous, and became adorned
with horns and hoofs, or with rending
claws and aggressive teeth: some, in light
fairy forms. flew through the air as bats;
others to-)k to the water, and gave us the
race of whales, surpassing in bulk the
largest reptiles of the past.
And so through long series of forms we
reach the mammals of our own time; the
saber-toothed machairodus gives way to
our lions and our tigers, the mastodon to
the mammoth, the mammoth to our modern
1 elephant. And here at the summit of the
whole, we have that strange being, Pith
ecanthropus, the great man-ape of Java,
and man himself, the primitive cave
dweller, whose course is only now begun.
Still More Primitive.
From such a field it may be healthy to re
turn to what is not only probable, but
proved. Humble as the fauna of the ole
nellus beds appears to us, its complexity
assures u I that it was preceded by others
still more primitive. In many lands thick
series of stratified rocks underlie the low
est Cambrian, and fossils may now at any
time be found in them. If we follow Mr.
H. M. Bernard, who traces the trilobites
back into the worms. and who has called
the Olenellus a "browsing annelid"-a
sniewhat unkind aspersion-we may re
gard worms as fairly primitive creatures;
but what of the ancestry of the worms
themselves?
Is it, however, at all likely that the
earth's earliest inhabitants have been any
where preserved, amid all the stresses and
movements that the rocks have undergone
since their formation? Minute jelly-like
masses, each one endowed with life, and
of the most complex molecular organiza
tion when compared with the inorganic
world around them, may have lived and
multiplied for aeons before the arrival of
a single worm upon the scene.
We are at present on the eve of discov
eries in the dim pre-Cambrian realms: but
it is safe to assert that the first forms of
life have long passed beyond pursuit. The
fascination of the faunas that preceded the
dynasty of Olenellus is, however, surely
strong enough to stir the imagination and
to promote the most strenuous research.
We are still like travelers on some moun
tain crest at sunrise, watching the unfold
ing of the upper levels of the hills, and
seeking to peer into the dark hollows that
lie thousands of feet below. Here and
there,a peak emerges from the enveloping
clouds, but we cannot as yet survey the
landscape as a whole. At length some skill
ful observer, some subtle spirit, will dissi
pate the mists at one point, and will allow
a shaft of light to penetrate down to the
abyss, and this one discovery will be for
him the glory of a lifetime.
ART NOTES.
Mr. Carl Gutherz is executing a large and
interesting piece of work in a frieze six
feet in height for the court room at Fort
Way ne, Ind.. which is sixty feet in length
and forty in breadth. It is painted on a
\. ry light canvas, of the color of old
parchment, in four sections, and can be
readily rolled over a frame as the work
progresses. The first section, which is to
be placed over the rear pediment, is now
completed, and gives an excellent idea (seen
with the preliminary sketch) of what the
whole will be. The conception of the de
sign is very beautiful, poetical and appro
priate. It is so simple that it tells its own
story, yet so original and thoughtful that
it possesses great dignity and stands for
the truest art. As of necessity it is to be
placed in that portion of the room which
is darkest, Mr. Gutherz has keyed it rather
high, using for it colors that will effective
ly assist in lighting it without themselves
being in any way intrusive. Thus the main
tone of the background is yellow, but of
such a quality that it is merely express
ive of atmospheric light, and with which
the rich colors of the detail combine with
exquisite harmony. In fact, throughout
there is no discordant note, for the paint
er has kept in mind not only the purpose
for which it was intended and the har
mony of architectural ornament, but also
the influence it should bear upon observers.
Back of the rostrum to the right and left
of the pediment, when put in position, will
be seen the figures of Moses and Justinian
giving to their people the great Mosaic and
Roman laws, upon which all modern law is
based, examples of Roman. Byzantine
and Hebraic architecture appearing in
the distance, and branches of laurel
and other purely symbolic detail in
the immediate foreground. Opposite
this, and thus facing the judges'
Iseat, will be the portion of the frieze which
is now finished, in which two women of
noble presence andl great beauty are seat
ed on either side of the pediment, the one
to the right receiving the law from a di
vine messenger, the other to the left de
livering the Great Book to the recording
angel, thus conveying the thought of the
source of wisdom, divine commission and
final judgment. The long side walls are
each divided into three pIctures by orna
mental divisions, connecting architecturally
the wall and the ceiling, and each central
lianel is in itself subdivided into three
parts, making in all fourteen pictures, but
one continuous whole. These side portions
typify Justice and Arbitration-righteous
judgment and loving mercy, the reason for,
the instruments and the wisdom of both.
All are portrayed with charmIng directness
and with a keen sense of decorative effect.
*
* *
The portrait of Mr. C. C. Glover which
Mr. J. McClure Hamilton painted while in
Washington will shortly be put on exhibi
tion In the Corcoran Gallery. It is a
strong, three-quarter-length portrait, done
OF TASTE.
t sofra tge.AlIssii at
with much breadth and freedom and in the
style characteristic of the eminent painter.
The pose is easy and natural, and if the
color is a little cold and hard the fearless
way In which It is handled may be thought
to make amends for the lack in that re
spect.
*
* *
Mr. Lucien Powell has spent a busy win
ter, and as a result has some five or six
fine canvases to show. Two of these are
of the grand canyon of the Yellowstone,
one looking toward and the other away
from the falls, painted from sketches made
last summer. Both are exceedingly large
canvases and vividly realistic. They are
rich in color, showing not only the irides
cent mist, but also the tinted cliffs of al
most dazzling brilliancy, and are very at
mospheric. Both are full of the awesome
majesty which that strange phase of nature
possesses. A bit of tl% same feeling like
wise pervades another of these paintings,
which represents a western cattle ranch,
lying at the foot of the range of "Snow
mountain." It has an air of bigness about
it which is very natural and jmposing. The
remaining pictures are more in Mr. Pow
ell's usual style: for one of these is of a
Venetian scene, with its quaint water craft
and sparkling sea bathed in the light of
the setting sun. The other is an Irish
landscape, showing an emerald field,
thatched cottages and returning sheep, be
neath a glowing evening sky. All are in
teresting and most attractive.
*
* *
In the sixty-fourth annual exhibition of
the Boston Arts Club, which is now in
progress, the work of two of our Washing
ton artists has received high praise and
recognition. The Herald, in Its review of
the exhibition, gave most prominent men
tion of the two paintings sent by Mr. W.
H. Holmes, "In the Colorado Desert" and
"Cloud Wreaths on Santa Catalina Crags,"
and spoke enthusiastically of the work of
Mr. James Henry Moser. The latter, the
Transcript says, "are the most noteworthy
small pictures in the exhibition." This
from the "city of critics" is very flattering
to our logal art.
*
* *
A collection of water colors by Mr. Moser
was on Thursday placed on exhibition and
for sale in the Woodward & Lothrop gal
lery. It is composed of about one hundred
drawings, made in Virginia, at Cornwall,
Conn.; in the Berkshire Hills, the White
mountains and in and about Washington,
and represents a period of over ten years
of work. In this lies its chief Interest, Il
lustrating not only the several styles, but
various steps of progress made in the evo
lution of the artist. Seldom will pictures
be seen under such trying circumstances,
for the improvised gallery Is not only too
small, but poorly lighted, and its over
crowding permits no opportunity for har
monious grouping. Yet in spite of all these
disadvantages a number of them not only
hold their own, but proclaim aloud the
skill of the painter. For though Mr.
Moser's portfolios have been emptied, this
collection contains some of his best work.
One picture comes straight from the acad
emy in New York and others have been
previously shown in the local exhibitions.
Some of the evening scenes are specially
atmospheric and poetical. Many of the
others are rich in qualities of tone and true
interpretations and all are well worth see
ing. It may be added as a fact likely to be'
gratifying to Mr. Mosher that already a
number of the drawings have been marked
"sold."
*
* *
On Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday of
this week a collection of paintings by Mr. Ed.
Siebert, Mr. Sanl. Hodgkins, Mr. W. M. Rou
zve, Mr. Emil Meyer, and other Washing
ton artists, was exhibited at Sloan's,previous
to the sale at auction on the evening of the
17th. The majority of these were by Mr.
Hodgkins and Siebert, and the entire show
ing was above that usually found in an
auction room. Among the lot was here
and there an old friend of the exhibition, to
be pleasantly recognized, notably Mr. Sie
bert's "Moonlight in June." Several of Mr.
Hodgkins' marines were very good, and
two tiny canvases of his painting, a bit of
meadow and a bright, warm sunset, were
quite the gems of the collection.
*
* *
The late spring has kept the landscape
painters in their studios longer than usual
this year, but with the appearance of these
first warm days many have begun out of
door work. Mr. Max Weyl is painting a
most attractive picture from the foot of
17th street. It is a broad view of fresh
green fields with a little cottage, sur
rounded by the still' bare but awakening
trees, while beyond is the blue Virginia
shore with just a glint of the river between.
The sky is clouded, and the whole is
strongly suggestive of the sober, chilly days
of early April.
*
* *
The Capital Camera Club opens its rn
nual exhibition in the hemicycle of the
Corcoran Gallery on Monday. It will con
tinue until the 30th, and promises to be
most interesting.
*
* *
The thirteenth annual exhibition of the
Chicago Art Institute will open on the 23id
of this month, In which a goodly number
of our local artists will be represented.
*
* *
The exhibition of Elihu Vedder's works.
which were shown here In February, has
just closed at the Art Institute of Chi
cago, where it has attracted general ntten
tion, and where his large painting called
"The Keeper of the Household" was pur
chased for the Carnegie Gallery in Pitts
burg.
*
* *
Mr. Besser's friends will be Interested to
learn that his little study head entitled
"Judith," which was In the late exhibition
In the -Corcoran hemicycle, was bought by
Mr. S. H. Kauffmann. The same gentle
man bought also the "December Thaw,"
by Mr. Everett L. Warner, a former Washi
ington boy.
*
* *
In New York the exhibition of the So
ciety of American Artists is at present the
principal event of interest. QX the 1,300
pictures which were submitted to the jury
for admission only about 200 were accept
ed. John La Farge was elected president
of the board of control for the coming
year at the annual meeting of the society,
held last week; Kenyon Cox, vice presi
dent; Samuel Isham, treasurer; Bruce
Crane. secretary, and H. Bolton Jones, a
member.
*
* *
The Art Teachers' Association will meet
in Philadelphia the first week In May.
Miss Sartarin will give an account of the
international congress on instruction In
drawing, which was held in Paris last
August, and to which she was an official
delegate from the United States.
*
* *
The Paris Salon will open on May 1, and
the Royal Academy, London, on the 6th.
*
* *
The joint spring exhibition of the Rich
mond Art Club and the Richmond Educa
tional Association will be held in the Ma
sonic Temple in that city from Tuesday
next until the 3d of May, inclusive. It will
include, In addition to an exhibit of the
best work done by members of the club
during the past few years, an extensive
loan collection of oil paintings, water col
ors and other artistic work, and also a
large number of photographia reproduc-.
tions of the best painting's In the most
noted European galleries. Trhe proposed
exhibitipn is already attracting much at
tentioi and bids fair to be a great suc
cess.
A Test of Salty,
From Tit-Bits.
A gentleman was once being taken over
an Idiot asylum. He asked an attendant
how they knew when an idiot was consid
ered to be sufficiently restored to sanity to
be discharged.
"Oh," said the attendant, "it is easily
managed. We take them into a yard where
there are several troughs, We tuER on the
tape and then give the Idiots buckets te ball
out the water and empty the troughs.
Many of them keeps bailit away while the
taps keeps running, -but themn that Isn't
ioto'aStOp the tan.
DEVERY AS A JUDGE
New York's Ex-Chief of Police
Maker a Hit.
HE IS STRICT A1 IIPARTIAL
Already There is a Marked Im
provement in the Force.
SOME TYPICAL CASES
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK, April 19, 1901.
After all, this Devery policeman is not so
bad. Devery-it is almost needless to say
is the former chief of the New York police,
who was legislated out of office at Albany,
and who, by a master stroke of the Tam
many officials, was reinstalled in what is to
all intents and purposes his old billet, al
though he is now called deputy commis
sioner of police. The "deputy" is mere po
liteness-a concession to the gentlemen who
legislate in Albany. Devery is' just as
much chief of police today as he was be
fore the Albany legislators, who had long
been gunning for him, erased his other
title and swept him out of office-for a cou
ple of days. There is a commissioner of
police, of course. But Devery is the boy
down on Mulberry street, for all that.
During his entire incumbency as chief of
police and up to the time that he began to
rotate on his new axis as deputy commis
sioner of police Devery was surely the
most roasted official in this neighbprhood.
He was charged with gross incompetency,
and worse. He was lambasted by all the
newspapers, irrespective of their political
leanings. Committees of five, committees
of fifteen, committees of sixty-five, shrieked
aloud that Devery must be decapitated and
that everything would then be all right.
Devery, reported the committees, was the
root of the cancer. And so on. The popu
lace in general got to believing that Devery
was really a pretty bad lot. There were
low growls even from the better Tammany
element when Devery, after being let out
as 'chief by legislative enactment, was
hurled back in the teeth of the Albany
legislators in his new and equally puissant
capacity-that of deputy commissioner of
police.
Again in Favor.
But the current is changing. Folks are
beginning to rather fancy Devery. "This
Devery duck doesn't appear to be such a
bad guy, after all," is the colloquial way
you'll hear the New Yorker on the car or
on the street expressing the matter. Many
others formerly prejudiced against him are
even proclaiming Devery "all right." Dev
cry is looking up. It is not impossible
that he will one day become the most pop
ular man in New York. This populace is
almost as mercurial and volatile as the
populace of Paris, and stranger things have
happened here.
The reason why Devery is coming on in
the public estimation is that, in his new
capacity as trial judge of the cops who
come before him for violations of the rules
and regulations, the deputy commissioner
of police is handling them, not without
gloves, but with skin-tight gloves, which
is worse. There is no stronger instinct
actuating the average New Yorker than
his positive detestation for the cop on the
beat and for all cops whomsoever. This
does not indicate much civic virtue on the
part of the average New Yorker, but it is
the fact. The New Yorker's dislike of the
policeman is inherent and inborn. He can't
help it. He doesn't want to help it. It is
only fair to say that the policemen them
selves have created this universal feeling
against the cop uniform.
Be that as it may, Devery is making his
hit simply because he is keeping the sloth
ful and bulldozing and dead-beat cops who
come before him on the jump and making
their lives miserable, indeed. This delights
the average New Yorker. It makes him
feel that, after all, there is something in
life. The spectacle afforded by a trimmed,
hang-dog cop is so cheering to the vision
of this populace that large crowds assem
ble around the Mulberry street headquar
ters on trial days for the purpose of gloat
ing over the clipped cops as they emerge,
flattened and wabbly, from the Devery
ordeal.
Used to Be Mere Farces.
Before this job of trying the offending
policemen was turned over to Devery upon
his assumption of his new office the po
licemen were tried before the full board of
police commissioners, which was wiped out
by the Albany people. Most of the trials
were farcical. Most of the policemen on
trial lied boldly and brazenly, and most of
them made their lies stick. The policeman
cited for trial would appeal to his district
leader, or to some other influential friend
at the Tammany court, and the business
was, as a rule, all cut and dried. Each
cop on trial would employ a lawyer, and
there would be wranglings, and long sus
pensions of judgments, and mysterious
quashings of indictments; and most of the
no-account policemen got off with "warn
ings.'' A policeman who was fined three
days' pay by the old board of police com
missioners was looked upon by his brother
cops as having been handled with terrific
severity. It was an unusual punishment,
only meted out for flagrant offense., Po
licemen who had been haled before the
board as often as forty times. for breaking
the rules were dismissed with "warnings."
Devery has changed all this, He thinks
no more of handing out "thirty days' pay"
to a cop whom he considers guilty as in
dicted than he thinks of lighting a cigar.
Not only that, but he has the old offenders
fired from the force without any beating
about the bush whatsoever. It used to be
as difficult to get rid of a no-account New
York policeman as to impeach a mayor.
But it's not difficult for Devery.
"I'm goin' t' break youi," says Dev'ery to
a worthless policeman, and a uday or so
later the no-account one gets his walking
papers.
Up to All the Trick.
The beauty of the matter is, however,
that Devery is eminently just as a judlge.
He was a policeman for such a great many
years himself that he knows all the tricks
of the business, and he can't be hoodwinked
or jollied. He has not the judicial mind nor
the judicial temperament, but he gets at
the nub of the matter by instinct, ar.d lke
a flash. His trial room Is a veritab~le hop
per. He wastes no time. He won't stand
for lawyers appearing for the cops on trial.
On the very first day Devery sat as judge a
lawyer bobbed up when an old offender on
the force was at the bar. It was really
very amusing.
"Mr. Commissioner." squeaked the law
yer when the came was called, "I would like
to make a state-".
"G'wan, you," growled Devery, without
so much as looking -at the lawyer.
The lawyer sat down. No other lawyer
has sInce appeared for any defendant be
fore Devery.,
An Impartial Judge.
The huge, very masculine-looking man In
the judge's chair Is- absolutely impartial.
He doesn't accept 'the roundsman's com
plaint against the patrolman offhand. Nor
the sergant's complaint against the rounds
man. Nor the captain's complaint against
the sergeant. Devery handles them all with
abpgolute impartiality. They are all "buck
privates" to him; just policemen, no mat
ter of what composition is the metal of
their shields. An hour spent In watching
Devery dishing out justice to the offending
cops is enough to convince any reasonable
man, no matter how prejudiced, that Dey
ery ham an extraordinarily developed bump
of justice.
For example, a captain of plice haled
one of his patrolinen 4,efoevery and
complained that the cop had failed to pre
vent a blurglary on his beat. A safe had
been lifted bodily from a store on ..the
policeman's beat. Now, the captain himself
had frequently been transferred for neglect
of duty. He also ha~d a reputation for shift
ing his own responsibiity onto the shouldiers
of his inferiors, Moreover, the record of
this particular patrolman was excellent.
"Charge 'smisse&'" said Devery, address
ngthe Ratrolnan. "Bay, look a-here, you,"
he cntinedaddressing the captain, "?
don't want you to make no mtore frivolous
charges aenat your men. You can't make
no bft with me a-doih' that. You never was
much a 'gun'-eatcher yourself, when it
comes to that, I want you to be fair with
your men. ,They's some of you felerg with
an.A shisi-Um-Muranude ante um -
less catch 'guns.' Letpotne o' them rounds
men and sergeants o' yours pound th' walk.
H'ist 'em out in th' 'wee sma' hours. If
you don't get the work out of 'em that
they're paid to perform I will. Don't you
fergit that. That's the second safe stolen
over there in your precinct. If you ain't
careful they'll be swipin' your station house.
You get next, that's all. This policeman
wasn't neglectin' his duty. 'Smissed."
Knows Their Duties.
Devery is such an expert in the duties of
policemen of every'rank from that of pa
trolman up that he can't be bamboozled. A
patrolman was up for having permitted a
robbery to occur on his Broadway beat.
"Me beat's too big," whined the police
man. "It can't be covered by wan mon. It
oughter be split in two."
"Don't you tell me that," roared Devery,
shaking his finger at the cop. "I pounded
that beat twenty years ago myself, an' a
policeman with eyes in his head can see
from one end to th' other of it. No 'gun'
ever got away with a nickel's worth .while
I hammered that walk. Don't you try no
cock-an'-bull stories Like that on me. Fif
teen days' pay."
A couple of weeks ago a neat-looking lit
tle woman with a sadly discolored eye ap
peared as complainant against a policeman
who had abused her. ,The policeman be
longed to the masher type. He had bor
rowed several hundred dollars from the
woman and then invited her to take out a
quarter section in the lower regions. The
woman went to him to see if she couldn't
get some of her savings back, and the cop
punched her mercilessly and then arrested
her for disorderly conduct. The true story
came out in the police court, and the magis
trate roasted the policeman and preferred
charges against him.
The battered little woman handed Devery
a packet of "love" letters the cop had
written to her. Devery glanced over them
and his huge face flamed with anger. It
was some moments before he could trust
himself to speak to the cop.
"I see," he said, finally. "You got tired.
You'd had yer fun an' gone yer distance,
an' you were tired. You tell her t' come
an' meet you, an' when she asks f'r what
you've taken from her you punch her on
th' jaw an' pinch her f'r disorderly con
duct. You've took from her everything she
had, an' this is th' way you pay her back.
Now," with actual ferocity. "I'm goin' t'
fine you th' limit-thirty days' pay. An'
if you ever lay a hand on this little woman
ag'in or ever come before me ag'in f'r any
cause, just you look out, that's all!"
Up the Second Time.
Well, this same cop did come before Dev
ery just one week from that day. It
seems that a discouraged old Hebrew on
his beat had taken a big dose of carbolic
acid with suicidal intent, and several of
his grown children had rushed to the po
liceman and begged him to ring up an am
bulance.
"Aw, don't bother me," the cop replied
to their entreaties. "Let him go to h-l!"
The result was that it was a long time
before an ambulance could be summoned,
and the old man died, whereas his life
might have been saved.
Devery was almost speechless with wrath
when the cop came up before him again
on this charge. But he held himself in
long enough to say:
"You're th' feller that I give thirty days
to a week ago f'r punchin' an' then arrest
in' a. woman you'd robbed, ain't you?"
"She lied to you," replied the cop, sulkily.
"Don't you tell me that," roared Dev
ery. "I know better. I believe her, an'
not you. An' look a-here, half 'n hour after
leavin' this court room I seen you, dressed
up like a dude, gettin' on a Fulton street
car with another woman, didn't I?"
The cop stood mute.
"You loafer!" Devery fairly hissed.
"You're as good as broke!"
And broke that cop was the very next
day, despite his "pull," of which he had
been in the habit of boasting for years.
Hates Dead Beats.
Next to the no-account policemen who
habitually shirk duty, Devery hates the
dead beats on the force. "Them fellers,"
he calls them, "that git th' people's change
an' food an' booze an' joolery an' every
thing they can git th' people t' give up on
th' stre'th o' their shapes an' their brass
buttons." He is absolutely merciless to
cops of this stripe. But he is without
bowels of compassion for habitual offenders
of any stripe.
"Say," he growled at a cop who was up
last week for a raw case of neglect of duty
on post, "ain't you tired? Why don't you
quit? Why don't you pass it up? They
ain't no room f'r born-tired cops in this
town nowadays. You won't do. I'm goin'
t' have you bounced."
"Well, I guess I'll hand in me badge,"
replied the cop, and he did.
Won't Have It.
Another thing that Devery utterly de
clines to stand for is personal animus on
the part of one bluecoat against another.
A couple of weeks ago a roundsman up in
the Bronx borough appeared against a pa
trolman whom he charged with being off
post. The patrolman, who was a young
fellow and new on the force, admitted that
he'd been off post, and the affair seemed
to be all settled in Devery's mind, when
the roundsman thought to curry favor by
saying:
"Mr. Commissioner, this man wasn't on'y
off post, but he was 'way off in th' next
precinct, an' th' excuse he give me was
that he'd been t' a hotel t' git some fresh
eggs. Fresh eggs from a hotel."
Devery rounded on 'the roundsman like
a tiger.
"Umph!" he growled. "Knockin'. eh?
Rammin' it in, ain't cher? That don't go!
I was jes' goin' t' fine this officer five days'
pay. Officer, your case is dismissed. No'w."
to the roundsman, "don't you ever try that
ag'in with me. You cut out yer knockin',
or somethin's liable t' happen t' you."~
And for all his severity--which, neverthe
less, is proving so salutary in its effect
upon the New York police force, that less
than a third the number of cops now ap
pear weekly before Devery as appeared be
fore the old board of police commissioners
-there is a soft side to this huge trial
judge. It exhibited itself a couple of weeks
ago when a veteran policeman on the force
stood before Devery charged with violating
some trivial rule. Devery appeared to for
get the charge in the contemplation of the
veteran's many service stripes and his gray
hair.
"Say, you," said he to the old-timer,
"come an' see me on y'r day off. I'll try
an' git you a day detail where it's easier.
Let th' young fellers pound th' pavement."
In view of all of which it may be re
peated that there surely are worse than
Devery. C. L. C.
Hard to Find.
From Pack.
Diogenes-"I was called up by a party at
a seance last night."
Plato-"What did he want?"'i
Diogenes-"Wanted me to take my lan
tern to Shanghai and look for a truthful
newspaper correspondent."
Assistance to a Bahtm Suitor.
From Fliegende Blaetter.
NEW PUBLICATIONS. | NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Another"icar L ~ree "l.
d*, tIm ~anmmm '
Koe~ th". ?
"Like Another Helen"
is like another "Alice."
"' LIKE ANOTHER HELEN,' the new novel by GEOaGE Hoa-rom , is an exquisite
creation-not unworthy to rank with 'Alice of Old Vincennes.' Time and scene are widely
different;-both books have the same healthy vitality, rapid movement and breathiess in- w
terest. 'Alice' is an American girl, an exquisite creation of singular charm and beauty.
' Helen' is a Greek, beautiful, desolate, defiant-pure as snow."-Chago Chroni-le.
JUST PUBLISHED. FO SALE EVERYWHERE.
NEW PBLICATIONS.
THE ARISTOCRATS. Being the Impressions of the
Lady Helen Pole during her Sojourn in the
Great North W ssls, as spontaneously Irecorded
in her Letters to her friend in North Biritain.
the Countess of Edge and Ross. New York:
John Lane.
Considered as a novel, this book of the
American "impressions," supposedly of an
English woman, is a mere trifle. While
undeniably skillful in the description of the
bearuties of the Adirondack region, it is
hardly to be classed as a "nature book." It
only remains to regard the anonymous pro
duction as an attempt to portray the higher
phases of American society in time of relax
ation, as a substitute for the usual processof
acknowledged, signed "American notes." Be
ing unidentified, the author may be held
to be a man or a woman, an American with
spleen to vent or an Englishman with
prejudices to uncover. There is no satis
faction from any point of view, yet the book
is cleverly written and, despite its hamper
ing epistolary method, interesting. It vir
tually propounds the question of which
class in American society constitutes the
aristocracy of this democratic land, the
intellectuals with a devoted "cultured" fol
lowing and moderate wealth, or the heredi
tary Croesuses, with small pretensions to
the higher mental development. Into a
group of each of these the narrator, a
young Englishwoman of noble lineage, is
cast successively. She abhors the first and
accepts the second. She has occasion to
display a strong distaste for distinctively
American literature, a wondering contempt
for the national declaration of human equal
ity and a tendency to condone the immoral
phases of European social life. The book
arouses no human interest and reaches no
climax. It simply stops. at a convenient
point, much as though the writer had defi
nitely reserved to him or herself the right
to resume upon any provocation.
HYl'NOTISM AND SUGGESTION; In Therapeu
tics, Eduation and Reform. By R. Osgood
Mason, A. M.. M. D., fellow of the New York
Academy of Medi'ine and author of 'Telepa
thy and the Subliminal Self." New York:
Henry Bolt & Co. Washington: Wm. Ballan
tyne & Sons.
Dr. Mason's researches and experiments
in the field of reformatory and curative
hypnotism have attracted wide attention
to the growth of a comparatively new
school of scientific thought. Much has
been done in this way in France. of which
the specialists have, of course, kept them
selves fully informed. But the American
public has been somewhat slow to accept
the "psychic" on the same plane as the
physician. Perhaps this attitude is in part
due to the undeniable prejudice prevailing
against the various cults of "faith cur
ing." And, again, the word "hypnotism"
has even yet too familiar a suggestion of
the mountebank "demonstrator," with his
profespional "subjects;' his performances
more or less appealing to the risibilities of
an audience, and tending to no wholesome.
practical end. Thus the serious modern
worker in the field has to contend against
a double handicap. Yet enough is now of
record to show that hypnotism, the appeal
to the subconscious mind, the arousing of
latent elements in the human composition,
has acquired a place among the factors
for curing available for the use of scien
tific practitioners.
THE FOURTH ESTATE. Authorized translation
Rion the original of A. Palacio Valdes. author
of "The Joy of Captain Ritl,,t." etc. By
Rachael Challice. New York and Washington:
Brentano's.
Valdes' novels are regarded as offering
the most authentic account of modern
Spanish life. His "Captain Ribot" was
delightful in its wholesomeness, It con
trasts sharply with "The Fourth Estate,"
which is a tragedy, revealing the darker
s!de of the Spanish nature, its faithless
ness, immorality, spleen and factionalism.
Sarrio, a Biscayan town, placid at the
opening as a summer sea, is visited in the
course of the novel with many evils, and
at the end a tragic climax to a lamentable
love story, typifies the wreck of the charm
ing pastoral relations of the townspeople,
caused by the itching desire of certain
leading citizens to become journalists.
There dire some striking episodes, well
defined characters and suggestive scenes to
illustrate the provincial life. The fidelity
of the translation has preserved many
amusing instances of the habit of the nov
elist to become personal and familiar with
his reader to an extent not customary with
writers in English.
BRIEF STUDIES IN FRENCH SW' =Y AND LE~T
TERS LN THE XVI C'TURY--THE FRENCH
ACADEMY. By Leon H. Vincent. Boston:
Houghton, Mitin & Co. Washington: Wm. Bal
lantyne & Sons.
A study of the French Academy is a
study of French literature of several cen
turies, for, although that Institution was
not founded until i2-officially in 1634-37
ts traditions and its early work of com
piling a dictionary of the language em
braced the best in the nation's letters that
had already developed, and it has immor
talized not only the successive generations
of its own "forties," but many of their
most-and in some cases more-Illustrious
predecessors. The present work is a brief
survey, albeit interesting and complete, of
the conditions surrounding the organiza
tion, the nature of the "recognition by Car..
dinal Richelieu, the purposes and the work
of the immortals." It Is evidently based in
the main-though With many collateral
referencee''o the monumental "paw~
of Paul Pellisupo, which earned for ht.
the siev~er-repeated rank of suJpernunerary1
Academician, or forty-first inuetal.
THE MATEE-ENOt (3F KUMAN FATE. Dy gggu
Meredith. _Juston: Little, Bara & Ca,
"The Master Knot" is a startng concep-.
tion, a man and a woman of the present
day confronte4 with the responsibities of
Adamn and Eve, They datmb a Reetry
mountain peak near the summer resort
they have been visitn ad are nUdely
Isotedm freom all the rest of the world-.
I any other pat he saved, indeed-by an
overhdminc eataelyi of inature which
oesesm their peak tm ismerm the se, s
ar as ther -a meo. the selS smrvter et the
iand et the p-nt The dt"-"l- steep.
petit aee Maory of ama~wda.ml
--an-M I ehm stye. and hmain to
. b .gsm maa asaen -n
flashes of humor and some profound con
versational dissertations upon the problems
which the catastrophe presents. the su
preme one being whether these ap'parently
solitary remnants of the race should un
dertake the responsibility of its' restora
tioin. The book has several highly drn'.
matic phases and is one of the most strik
ing productions in late fiction.
ON PETER'S ISLAND. Itv Arthur It. Ropoe cnes
Mary E. Hopes. New Fork: 4'tarle S.-rltne-r's
Sons. Washington. Wm. l::llantyne & So..
This story relates to and describes life in
St. Petersburg twenty years ago, and
while, as the authors state in their preface.
conditions have changed materially at the
Russian capital meanwhile, a new czar has
come into power and the activity of the -
Terrorist secret societies has diminished,
the picture is doubtless fairly accurate
even yet. There is a mingling of love and
business, intrigue and tragedy to give the
tale many interesting phases. It is a lit
tle slow of action in the early chapters and
would be improved by the elimination of
the rough, dull humor of the Rogers fam
ily. Some of the scenes pertaining to the
nihilists are mediaeval in the force of their
suggestion.
NEW EDUCATION REAlERS; A Synthetie and
'honic Word Method. liy A. J. i-mareist,
Superintendent of 'ubli instruction. Itotsken,~
N. J., and Wm. M. Van Sickle. $ulwrintend.-ut
of S-hools, North Bergent N. J. it.s.k Thre.
IDevelopment of tehseure Vowels. Initials and
Terminals. New York: Aunertean Bo..k t'orn
Ipany.
THE MANTAr. OF STATISTICS; Stock Exchange
Hand Book for 1lail iTwenty-thitt Year.. Ital
roads. Industrial Se.urltlies. rain and Pro
visions, Cotton, Mining. ltroleum, Bianks and
Trust Companies, Street Hallways. Henry IE,
Wallace, editor. New York: Charles I.
Nicoll.
F'I-II NG ICHRIST; Practical Thought is f,.r
Daily Christian Living. By lioyd '. Tom
kina, It. T. I).. rector of the ('hureb of the
Holy Trinity, Philadelphia. author of "Tle
"bristian Life," etc. Philadelphia: George
, W. Jacobs & O.
THE GREAT MYSTERY; Two Studies on the
same subject; one Is the Book of nevelatie.,
the other In the Book of Nature. By Elisattih
Miller Jetferys and Wm. liamiltn J.'rerys.
A.M., M.D. Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs
& Co.
TILE iON'R BROOD; an Historical Novel. By
Dufimeld Osborne. author of "The Splal of Ask.
taroth." etc. Illustratios by Walter Satterlee. ,
New York: Doubleday, Page & Co. Waubiag
ton: Wm. Ballantyne & !funs.
THE WAYS OF THE SERVIdm: Short St.,ries of
Army and Navy Life. By Ilderi.'k Palma.
Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy. New
York: Charles Serihner's Suns. Washington:
Wm. Ballantyne & Sons.
BRIEF STi'DIER IN FRENCH SOCIEBrV AND
LETTElt IN THE XVU' CENTI'RY -e'orttIle.
By Leon H. Vincent. Boston: Hosughtos,
Mitflin & Co. Washington; Wei. Ballanutyne
& Sons.
THE STORY OF EVA; a Novel. By Will Payne.
Boston: loughton. Mifflin & C.. Waahingt.ut
Wm. Ballantyne & Sons.
STREET BEGGA'S ARM REST.
Bow me Was Able to Hold Out Mi. Cup
for a Loeg Tmane.
From the New Orleans Times-Democrat.
"I stumbled over a curious trade secret
the other day," said a veracious citizen
who has a gift for seeing things. "it be
longed to a beggar, and I wouldn't give it
away if he had attached the least valut
to it himself. He is a man of at least sixty
and evidently quite decrepit. but time and
again I have been amazed at his extraor-4
dinary immobility, and particularly the en
durance he displays in holding out his hand
hour after hour in substantially the same
position. He takes his stand early in the
morning at a corner on the edge of th''o
business district and falls immediately into
a pose that is most expressive of supplica
tion and distress. His shoulders are raised.
his head sunk forward and turned a little
to one side, while his right arm, bent at
the elbow, is rigidly extended, with his bat
tered tin cup clenched in his hand. ' He "
scarcely budges for hours, and the extend
ed forearm is, to all appearances, as mo- "
tionless as a rod of iron.
"At first blush," continued the veracious,
"there may not seem to be anything very
remarkable in this, but if you will take the
trouble to try the experiment, you will
soon see that it is a feat to stagger an ath
lete. The average vigorous man will find
it simply impossible to hold his bent fore
arm at right angles to his body for as long
as half an hour at a time.
"But, to come to the point. I was passing "
the old beggar a few days ago, when I
happened to catch a glimpse of what looked
like a metal rest of some kind under his
outstretched wrist. I looked again, and
that time there was no possibility of mis
take. Beneath the rigid forearm there was
undoubtedly some species of support. My +
curiosity was sharply piqued. I had
scraped up an acquaintance with the old
fellow long ago, so I had no hesitation in
stopping and asking him frankly what
sort of a rest or brace he had in his sleeve. *
'Why, that's a kind of support that artists
use sometimes with models,' he replied,
and, pushing up his sleeve, he showed me
a flat iron bar that extended back as far
as his elbow, where it joined a vertical
rod which hooked over his shoulder.
"Then he went on to explain that years 4
ago he had picked up many an odd dollar
posing for artists In the Old Quarter. One
of the maembers of the fraternity-an eccen
tric Frenchman. who had a great
mnany queer tools and instruments
had painted him as a maonk cona
templating a skull, and the pose
being difficult to bold, he had used this
curious mnetal res. Bomnehow the old -an
had fallen beir to the device, and long a
terward it occurred to himn one day that I
big~ht relieve himn from fatigue is holding
out his cup. Sinee then he has adbped it
Into his sleeve evtery mssming and foud it
a good thing. *It keeps -e from gettin'
tired,' he said simply. I gave imh a siar.
tar for his 'siory, ad if I ever' adopt paen
diaeya apoesssm I shali byhi
bresfsam edto any heals.".
--'- --.-a
rFam tas assesm lesws
sever invita hiehems." Again: *13ent eau
I~. aingaer *NW -eet eet uim hae
get amea the sier." Them. tesi Mtet
Besn'at Uk. to see aether thief wnk s
leag hag."
Thee ae oatme of the matsepmuete
Bammis, as Mr. T. 3. Wa sbi.
1;A~s deMuhe amnas at th