Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 September 1889 — Page 4

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SUNDAY, SEPTEHIBER 29, 1899-TWELVE PAGES.

THE SUNDAY JOURNAL. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 18S0.

17ASXLLNC.TON OFF! CX 313 Fourteenth 8t P. S. Hxath, Correspondent. . Telephone Calls. Uttflaess OCee ..238 1 Editorial Rooms.. ....343 TEC2I8 OP SUBSCRIPTION. DAI IT, BT MAIL. One year, without Stmflay .$12.00 One j tax. with Sunday 14.0O Mx months, without Sunday.................... COO Fix aoontha. with Sunday 7.00 Ttiree months, wltnout Haiiday............. 3.00 Tnree months, with Sunday ....... 3. CO On month, without Sunday 1.00 One month, with Sunday 1.20 DeTered toy carrier in city, S eenta per week. WXKXLT. Per year. -. $1.00 Reduced Kates to CI aba. Putserfbe with any of our numerous agents, of tend aubacrtptiona to the JOURNAL NEWSPAPER COMPANY, IlTDLiXlPOLia, IJTD. All communications intended for publication in (his paper must, in order to receive attention, be accompanied by the name and address of the writer, THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL Can be found at the follow in places: LONDON' American Exchange in Europe, 449 btrsnd. PARIS American! Exchange la Paris, 35 Boulerard ties Capucinea. NEW TCBK Gilsey Iiouse and Windsor Hotel. PHILADELPHIA A. pTxemDle, 3735 Lancaster Tenue. CHICAGO Palmer nouae. CINCINNATI J. p. Hawiey A Co, 164. Vine street. LOUISVILLE C. T. Deerlng, northwest corner Third and Jefferson streets. BT. LOUIS Union News Company, Union Depo , and Southern Hotel. WASHINGTON, Z. O Biggs House ana ffbbltt House. TWELYE PAeM The Sunday Journal has double the circulation of any Sunday paper in Indiana Price fire cents. HTrRTTDITH'B KQVEL3. It is a real comfort, after reading the wire-drawn analysis of character and motives which aro the constant themo of Mr.Howells and Mr. James, to have the perusal of a novel by George Meredith. The plaint of old Thomas Carlyle against the current philosophy of .his and our day was that it is given up to what he called motive grinding. But there is no evidence that he ever read the Trorka of the two American novelists whom we have Darned, and it is, therefore, probable that he died without any conception of tho extreme lengths to which tho grinding out of motives may bo carried. In their exhaustive search for tho motives of human action only the most trivial ones are ever discovered, and these are shaded nnd differentiated into a state of such tenuity as to be almost inappreciable by tho average mind as factors in human conduct. Mr. Meredith has little tolerance, either for sentimentalists or realists, both of whom, ho says, are sensualists at tho bottom. So much of our conventional sentiment has its basis in sensualism, that it is odious to him, and he takes delight in exposing its ugliness. His Diana of the Crossways has been criticised as a woman we ought not to know, who would bo tabooed by our best society; nnd one who has been trained in its usages, and is accustomed to its methods and standard of judgment could hardly Jind anything in her to approve. She makes an unfortunate marriage, and lives unhappily under its restraints until they are destroyed by a separation; her imprudence and willfulness make lier the subject of grave scandals, and she almost yields to xhc urgent solicitations of a man with whom she fancies herself to be in love to enter into such a relation with him as that sustained by George Eliot to Lewes. Yet, when wo who are admitted to a view of tho seeret springs of her conduct, and before whom herwholo life and character is revealed as an open book, aro able to free ourselves from tho purely conventional way of looking at these things, and judge them for ourselves, we must admit that she was not only a bright and capable woman,, but a woman of fine and high spirit, of noble impulses, of spotless purity, whoso faults were tho inevitable defects of her admirable qualities, and who was quite worthy to be tho wife of tho best man in the book' to whom she was finally wedded. Tho irresistible inference is, of course, that our social judgments aro not always infallible, that they are superficial, content with tho outward appearance of , things, sticking in tho bark, and making no account of tho substantial traits of character that are beneath it. Perhaps tho observation is not a new one; it may be somewhat musty, but it is forced upon us with an effectiveness which makes up for its lack of novelty, and wo are made to feel the shallowness and in justice of some of these judgments in a way that they were never felt before. It is so in every one of his books; all of them are interpreters of human experience. Lifo is given new meanings through tho lives of his men and women. In his description of life there is no 6tagincss or melodrama, no playing with the emotions, no.straining for effect. Such tragedies as are in his books have the impress of an awful reality upon them which one never thinks of questioning. In the perusal of his books the reader is constuitly thrown back upon himself and made to reconsider the grounds for many a stock notion that has been held by him, somewhat loosely, perhaps, as the solemn truth, and, in some cases, compelled to abandon it; or has found his own foibles and shortcomings relentlessly pressed home upon his consciousness until ho was bound to acknowledge them. In the Ordeal of Richard Farrel tho inadequacy of any mere system of education and training as applied to human beings is made woefully apparent; in Evan Uarrington the weakness and cruelty of the spirit of caste, and the nobleness that may exist under its ban and in contention with it, is depicted; Rhoda Fleming is a plea for Justice and mercy towards erring and deluded girls; Sandra Bolloni and its sequel, Vittoria, have in their heroine an apotheosis of elevated patriotism which holds love itself in subordination; the hatef ulncss of the Egoist, who estimates everybody and everything with exclusive reference to their bearing

upon himself, is portrayed in the novel of that uaiiicj while Beauchamp's Career celebrates the virtues of an unselfish devotion to popular rights by the scion of an aristocratic family, in the teeth of its active and violent opposition, its conservative traditions and social prejudices. ; - ' Such a brief characterization of these novels of George Meredith necessarily fails to convey any adequate idea of their contents, their spirit and purpose. Their great value is as a commentary on daily life, as an exposition of its inmost meaning and purport as disclosed in homely and unpretentious acts; as, in short, a philosophical treatment of it instead of a sentimental or realistic treatment of its varying phases. As such, they are not simply a literary recreation for the jaded mind, but they are helpf ul in its development and in making its own experience intelligible.

CONCEEHDfa HUMAN EQUALITY. Dr. Holland, of St. Louis, seems to have caused something of a sensation in the Brotherhood of St. Andrew's convention at Cleveland. We do not know exactly the nature of this organization, but if Dr. Holland's remarks had not created some sensation and considerable disapproval, there cannot be much brotherhood in the order. In a discussion on the status of workingmen he is reported as saying: All men are not equal: we aro not bora equal, and we never can ho equal. Tho idea that God created men equal grew out of the superstition and the ignorance of an age that has passed away. It is God s law that some men thall bo greater than others, and all the anarchy, and the communism, and the atheism of the world cannot chr.nge it. Here in this country we are ruled by a government that upholds this defctrine of equality, and onr politicians and rulers are afraid to speak tho truth, because the lower order of society has a vote. I pray to heaven that the clergyman may not also bo ruled by this fear of votes. The absurdity of this utterance is only equaled by its bad temper and vicious doctrine. In denouncing tho idea that all men are born equal in respect of mental equipment and capacity to excel, Dr. Holland is fighting a man of straw. Tho familiar passage in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equaP does not mean that they come into the world with the same mental and moral outfit, and with equal aptitude for success in life. It means, as of course all well-informed persons inow, that all men are created equal in respect to personal rights. The concluding part of the sentence in the Declaration shows what kind of equality was meant, for after declaring that all men are created equal, it adds: "That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these aro life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.'' To deny the equality of men in this respect is to destroy the cornerstone of human liberty and individual rights. Tho only other conclusion is one that would assert the divine right of kings, and the divine origin of slavery.. Dr. Holland seems to have fallen into the very superficial error of supposing that an equality cf rights means an equality of mental -quipineut. When it comes to that there is indeed great disparity among: men, as there is also in their physical and moral temperaments, their hereditary qualities, their inherent tendencies, and all the conditions that go to make success or failure in life. All men have an equal right to do the best they can and make the most of themselves, but it doe. not follow that all men can do equally well, or that some will not succeed while others fail in the race of life. The vicious tendencies of Dr. Holland's false philosophy arc shown by other parts of his declaration, which, as a whole, is thoroughly pessimistic and devoid of humanity. THE BALTUIOBE IDEA. In response, no doubt, to tho exhaustive discussion upon two continents of the stupendous problem, "Is marriage a failure?' ? there has arisen in Baltimore a secret organization whose end and methods arc entitled to more than a flying smile. The object of the association, so far as made public, is the complex task of protecting its members from unfortunate .marriages; and tho system of Nsuch preservation, as indefinitely re vealed, is based in the regulation that each member who feels that ho is falling in love is to confess his condition to his fellow-members. Thereupon a committee is appointed to investigate tho matter and advise the matrimonial candidate as to his prospect for weal or woe in the proposed alliance. Necessarily, tho Baltimore idea is calculated to arouse criticism, and, in certain strata of society, aggressive antagonism. Primarily, a world of devoted adherents of the gTcat and only Cupid will relinquish but reluctantly and resentfully tho belief, albiet mere tradition, that his affairs aro of heavenly guiding, and, therefore, not to be meddled with by mortal man. Not until tho matches made in Baltimore prove themselves of finer texture and more enduring quality than legendary sky-born ties, will the innovation merit even respectful' consideration. From other standpoints it presents a vulnerable front. Admitting the members of such a club tq-be, in their primal state, men of sense, what warranty has the man who submits his heart affairs to their scrutiny that such' investigation and verdict will be honest and loyal! The young lady in the case may have rejected some one of the committeemen, and thus, biased him forever against her claims to wisdom and discrimination. 'Again, another member might bo deeply enamored of her himself, and thus disqualified to behold in her the proper bride forhisbrotherman. Yet more serious objection arises. Man is by no means the wisest student of that intricate problem, woman. As an inquirer into her financial well-being, her personal present ability, her social status, her outfit of relatives and other trifling details, ho might perhaps pass muster; but as an unprejudiced searcher into feminine character, and the mental and moral graces which go to the creation of the perfected helpmeet, his powers of estimate have been known to warp. After all, however, there is solaco in the thought that the Baltimore scheme

for tho perfection of matrimony will never bo fatally far-reaching in its influence. To tho sensitive view of the sentimentalist, marriage nnder such auspices would out-horror seeing Europe as a "personally conducted." Tho genuine Cupid, with all his vagaries, will still do business in the old, old way at tho old, old stand. Man shall love blindly, thrash about rashly, until obstacles have been conquered, .and then relapse into a provokingly mildmannered creature, who has to be reminded when his wedding anniversary rolls round. Woman shall fall into tho orthodox state of adoration, with its tears, torments and follies, Only to waken in that world of commonplace, in which the object of her worshipings shall behold her in crimps and Mother Hubbard. So be it; the Baltimore idea must go to; it is not for a world in which imperfection must supplant idealized perfection, that man may look

heavenward from this earthly paradise of unsubstantialities. AUTHORS AND THEIB LOOKS. Writers of books have been known to complain because the public, which theV declared had no business with them as individuals, 'persisted in taking a per sonal interest in them and in discussing their peculiar characteristics. It is very likely that, as a matter of abstract right, the people who read books have no just cause, by reason of such reading, to demand acquaintance with the authors. Theoretically, the author gives, through his writings, such information about himself as he wishes tho world to know. Practically, whether right or wrong, tho world declines to be satisfied with the glimpses into a niind which a book affords and insists upon something more tangible. Particularly, it wants to know how the mind is clothed, how the author looks. It may be doubted, too, whether the literary personages resent this curiosity as greatly as they sometimes pretend, especially as it ex ists in exact ratio to tho popularity and circulation of their books. At all events, this curiosity is recognized by publishers, and authors' portraits are produced on every hand. One publishing-house has found that the chief attraction of its catalogue is the portraits, and the list of these is added to with each issue of the manual. It is unquestionable that these pictures are studied with much interest. It is also true that few persons look through such a collection without feelings of surprise or disappointment. No amount of acquaintance with literary people, or familiarity with the fact that the authors they know are in nowise peculiar in personal appearance prevents reading people from picturing the writers they do not know as bearing marks of high intellectuality Avhich at once distinguish them from the common herd. To ono filled with such fancies a first inspection, of the illustrated catalogue alluded to is disenchanting. There, to begin with, is Edward Bellamy, a very respectable looking young gentleman, without indications of very strong character, and who might be a book-keeper ov head salesman in a dry goods house, but who, from his portrait, would never be selected as a social scientist, or one who might evolve visions of a golden age. Robert Browning suggests a worthy, burgher with his beer rather than tho author of "Beautiful Evelyn Hope" or "Fcrishtalvs Fancies." John Burroughs looks like tho keen, enterprising man of tho world who makes the world move his way, rather than like one submissive to fate who sings: I stay my haste, I make delays. For what avails this eager paccl I stand amid the eternal ways. And what is mine shall know my face. Joseph Cook's face is that of an ecclesiastical John Sullivan, and not that of one who "makes for righteousness" through ways that are meek and lowly. "Charles Egbert Craddock" may wear an intellectual brow, under the unmistakable "store" bang, but there is no look in her faco suggesting power to pidl tho moon so picturesquely over "Old Baldy." Margaret Deland bears a matronly expression, as of one considering domestic problems rather than the awful question of divine retribution. Arthur Sherburne Hardy might be a commercial traveler, but why should that wide-awake American face belong to the writer of philosophical novels and medieval romance! Joel Chandler Harris is one face that does not deceive. Ho looks like a newspaper man, and resemblance can bo traced to the boy who sat at the feet of Uncle Remus and listened to tho tales about Brer Rabbit. Blanche Willis Howard gives no hint in her placid "society" face of the power that wrought tho dramatic situations in "Guenn." And 60 it goes through the list. "Bulging brows," lofty "domes of thought," distinctive intellectual signs of any kind are wantiner. The authors, as a class, are respectable and intelligent in looks, but have no marks distinguishing them from their commonplace fellow-citizens. This fact gives encouragement to the idea that if they can write and gain fame and fortune, any of tho rest of us may do the same. It is a little unfortunate that appearances are so deceptive. THE NEW ENGLAND EXODUS. The practical abandonment of farms and farming lands in parts of New England has for some years been a matter of comment. Elsewhere throughout tho country farms "change hands," owners grow tired, or families scatter, but new-comers take possession and the agricultural processes go on without interruption. In New England, in latter j-ears, families are sure to separate; tho sons "go West," or to the cities, and tho daughters follow them; not one is willing to remain and cultivate the acres that have been tilled by their ancestors, perhaps, for generations. The old homes are for sale, "but no one comes to buj The extent to which this abandonment exists is shown by the state ment of the Vermont Commissioner of Agriculture, noting in detail the loca tion, characteristics and prices of such laud in that State. In one township four thousand acres are described as abandoned, and for sale at from ono . to four dollars an acre. Of this tract one-half is in farms of from seventy to two hundred acres,

many with buildings; the other half is divided only by tumbling stone walls and marked by old cellar-holes. In another county is a, farm of two hundred acres that can bo bought for one hundred dollars, buildings and all, and the soil is said to be good. In another region from-thirty-five to forty farms, contiguous, or nearly so, aro abandoned and unoccupied. Of course, it is easy to explain this desertion of old homes and ancestral acres on the theory that the acres are mostly made up of rocks, and that with the fertile prairies of tho West tempting them, young men of enterprise cannot be expected to remain where the work is all "up hill," in more senses than one. This is the explanation usually made, and as often accepted, though it is not quite satisfactory, since New England soil is not altogether infertile

nor its hillsides barren, and thrifty farmers who do remain are known to live comfortably and "layby." But the reason for the abandonment has, without doubt, to do with tho prevailing desire to get on in the world with rapidity, and the striking feature 6f the movement is the prominence given to tho practical, not to say tho sordid, side of the American character a3 opposed to the sentimental. All the written poetry and rcmanco distinctively American centers in New England. Much of the ground of those States, including some that is "for sale, cheap," is historic. Longfellow and Whittier have .cast the glamour of their verse over bald facts of history. Hawthorne, with the wand of the magician, brought romance into relief upon the ruggexT Puritan background; Holmes, Mrs. Stowe, and a host of minor writers have immortalized the Yankee characteristics, but not one of all these writers has failed to depict the charms of rural New England life. In prose and poetry alike the farms, the orchards, the hillside homes, the har vests, the "snow-bound" firesides have had their praises sung. It is a region of poetic, historic and literary associations. To people who live outside of it it has a charm that no other part of the country can have. Sometimes, possibly, tho prairies, the plains and the Western lakes and mountains may share the attraction, but as yet no such affection for them exists. Plainly, to thc-people who do live there sentimental considerations have no weight. Placed in tho balance with the realistic necessities of picking yearly crops of cobble-stones from meadows and plowing steep hillsides, they fly into tho air. The time has not yet come, even in New England, for the American bump of locality to grow prominent, or for the leading American idea to be other than commercial. A little six-year-old girl, gazing out of a window on a green lawn decorated with flowers, fringed with a border, and inclosed with trees, drank in the beauty of the scene awhile, and then quietly remarked: "Mamma, I think God has such good taste." A pretty good sermon, that. What a dreary world it would be without colors or any of the beauties of nature. Certainly, to adopt the little girl's philosoph', the Creator showed very good tasto in making the grass green, and in providing so many different . kinds and colors of flowers 'to gratify the- eye and develop tho love of the beautiful.' Doubt less tho world might get along "without flowers, without green and graceful foliage, without colored plumage in birds, without the rainbow, without anything to feed tho sense of sight but it would be a very dreary world. A gextlemax who gives occasional em ployment to an old colored man, said to him the other day: I suppose you haven't always been a free man, Abnerl" "No, sah, no; I wasn't always a free man." "Who owned you!" T wasn't owned by no pusson, sah; I jes' belonged to the estate." On this being related to a visitor from the East, he capped it by saying that he has in his office an old colored man who bought his freedom shortly before the war and has ever since regretted itnot because he hasn't enjoyed being his own master, nor because he paid more than the market price for his liberty, but because if he had only waitedfor the Proclamation of Emancipation, he would have got himself for nothing. More than fifty-six years ago the cornerstone of a monument to Mary tho mother of Washington was laid at Fredericksburg, Va. It was expected that the shaft would be raised in a short time, but before this was don the New Yorker who projected the monument as a means of gaining favor with a young lady descendant of the Washington family, lost all his money, and the last known of the shaft it was in the mud of the river flat. Some antiquarian has revived these facts, and wants to know what is to bo done about the matter. Whatever is done, tho monument should not be moved to New York unless all hope of finishing it is first abandoned. At the meeting of the American Humane Association in Louisville, last week, tho interesting fact came out that since the adoption of the high-license law in Philadelphia the number o? cases of cruelty to children in that city have diminished 28 per cent. This statement was made by tho secretary of the Philadelphia Society for the Preven tion of Cruelty to Children, who attributed it directly to the decrease in the number of saloons. So far as remembered, this is the first statistical evidence ever adduced showing a direct connection between the liquor traffic and cruelty to children. It furnishes a strong and pathetic argument in favor of restricting tho traffic. A leading musician and composer of Now York, who has jnst returned from a trip to Europe, where he associated much with musicians, says there has been a great change of opinion among them in regard to musical culture in this country. Formerly our efforts were sneered at; now the best musicians of Europe admit that we have made great progress in musical culture. This New York musician says American orchestral music is now thervst in tho world, and that this country is getting to be the paradise of musicians. The British-American Association of Boston has resolved that "no BritishAmerican can vote for Mr. Brackett, the Republican candidate for Governor in this campaign and be true to the principles of the British-American Association." This action is based upon tho statement that Mr. Brackett was invited to attend the Queen's jubilee banqnet and refused. There seems to be an imperative demand for the services of the fool-killer in Boston. Mkissonier, the famous French artist, is said to be anxious to'come to this country. He has been inspired by the WTildWest show, and believes that we have here picturesque types worthy of his brush. Meisso-

nierwillbe apt to feel disappointed after he has scoured the streets of New York, Chicago and San Francisco and finds not a single Buffalo Bill or Indian in war-paint A London paper speaks of Mr. Fred Gebhard as Mrs. Lang try's "financial adviser." whereupon the New York World remarks: "It is a matter of general gossip among their friends that Mr. Gebhard is and has long been opposed to Mrs. Langtry's signing her name to perfume and soap testimonials and selling the privilege of her photographs." Slnce the Wong Lee vendetta has broken out in all its bloody fury on the other side of the Pacific the question naturally arises as to whether China got its education in matters of family "honah" from Kentucky or Kentucky got its boasted civilization from China. "Shall hides be protected!" asks a Chicago newspaper. It is the opinion of the average small boy that they should, particularly at that point where the old man's shinglo is wont to playfully gambol. The next time Corporal Tanner wants to pour out his soul in confidence to a friend he will probably go out in the woods and commune with nature. It's much the safest way.

BREAKFAST-TABLE CHAT. Miss Braddon has written fifty-seven novels. Most of WTilkie Collins's property goes to a close friend. The London police are now ordered to wear India rubber or noiseless boots at night always. t A Detroit version of the Star-spangled Banner is, "Olong may it wave o'er the schools of the free and the homes of the brave." Hamilton McK. Twombley, of New York, has paid 25,000 for 3,500 acres of land in the- Adirondacks, which he will hold for a park and camp. George Kennan has been made an honorary member of the National Polish Alliance for showing up Russia to the satisfaction of the children of Poland. The wife of George FrancisTrain, jr., has sued her husband for divorce, but refuses to tell upon what grounds or give any information concerning her action. Mr. Labouciiere, the editor of London Truth, attempts to be the pioneer in a reform of portentous difficulty. He wants to abolish the chimney-pot hat for use in London. The Kev. J. L. Burrows, D. D., says: "I once turned to Dr. Jester and asked: 'When will all the fools be dead?' lie replied in his inimitable way: "Not as long as you and I live.''' The old double log cabin, long ago occupied by Andrew Jackson, near Nashville, Tenn., has been repaired and preserved for another century at least bv the enterprise of a local association of ladies. It is said that General Boulanger's autograph, which was worth $2.50 in France a little while ago, can now be bought for $1.25. The General writes so many letters that his signature will soon be a drug in the market. Pkixcessily Dolgorouki has a Russian female orchestra at the Paris exposition. The young women are dressed in tho national costume a white blouse and skirt with bands of embroidery and a spangled red velvet coronet. Even the player of the bassoon is a woman. Zola says, regarding the attempt to popularize George Eliot's novels in Franco an endeavor to find a middle term between purely imaginative literature and the naturalist formula that the brilliant English woman's philosophy is too sad and dull for the Latin races. A lady in tho Ladies' Home Journal offers the authority of "a lady physician of extensive practice" for the statement that spanking, from its effect upon the spine, is more injurious to the health of children than cuffing, even. Thus Mr. Beechor's celebrated advice is undone. Ex-Postmaster-general James declares in the October Forum that the most important reforms in the postal-servico have all been made by men who had journalistic experience, tho three most important reformers being Benjamin Franklin, Amos Kendall and Montgomery Blair. England is the only country of Europe in which the noxious weeds of anti-Semitism and race hatred havo not taken root. Two Jews David Solomon and Benjamin Philips have been Lord Mayors of London; and Henry Isaacs, a Jew. will next year hold this highest municipal ofiice of tho great metropolis. Mary Anderson has been staying for some time at Iban,with William Black and his wife. Mr. Black, the famous novelist, is in his element in tho Scotch highlands. One day.dnring Miss Anderson's visit she, with her host and hostess, joined the excursionists on the steamer Grenadier and visited the islands of Staffa and Iona. The actress is in excellent health and spirits. M. Pasteur delivered an address, tho other day, in Paris, to the members of tho Society of Practical Medicine, and in it declared with much emphasis that rabies is ' never spontaneous. The microbe producing it, he said, was invariably transmitted. This means, of course, that no dog ever goes mad unless he has been bitten by another mad dog, a fact at once important and reassuring. Financier Ferdinand Ward, late of Wall street, New York, has risen to tho dignity of being classed as a steam jobprinter. His little printing-office in Sing Sing prison has recently been equipped with an addition to the plant in the shape of a half-medium Gordon press. It is run by steam power, a belt being attached to the shafting which runs the sewing machines in the clothing shop overhead. Ward is highly pleased with his acquisition, and spends much time in polishing it up. p i . A cast-steel gun weighing 235 tons has just been shipped by Messrs. Krnpp from Hamburg for Cronstadt Tho caliber of the gun is thirteen and one-fourth inches, the barrel is forty feet in length. The range of the gun is over eleven miles, and it will tire two shots per minute, each shot costing between $1,250 and 1,500. At the trials of the gun held in the presence of Russian officers at Meppen. the range of the Essen firm, the projectile, four feet long, and weighing 1.800 pounds, propelled by a charge of 700 pounds of powder, penetrated 192 inches of armor, and went 1J12 yards beyond the target. The gun is the largest in existence. One of Edison's chiefs lives in Newark in a bouse all agog with wires.' As one approaches the front gate it swings open and shuts automatically. The visitor's foot dfx the steps of the porch rings a bell in the kitchen and also one in the master's study. By touching a button he opens the front door before the stranger has time to knock. An electrical music-boxlays during dinner. When the guest retires to his bedroom the folding bed unfolds by electricity. When he puts out the gas a strange, mockin tr display of skeletons, grave-stones, owls and other hideous phantasmagoria dances about on the wall at his feet, reappearing and disappearing in a ghostly electrical, glare. Hon. John Qctncy Adams Brackett, who was nominated by the Massachusetts Republicans for the governorship, is a native of Bradford, N. H., where he was born on June 8, 1S42. He was graduated from Cclby Academy in 1861, and from Harvard College in 1865. He studied law in the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1868. His first public office was in the Boston Common Council, where he served from 1873 to 1870, the last year as president. He was at once promoted to the lower branch of the Legislature, where ho sat for live consecutive terms. He returned to the Houue in 1884, being chairman of the judiciary committee. In the two years succeeding he was chosen

to the speakership. Hewas for two years ei Vienant'g0Veni0r n 1 serving during the three terms with Governor Ames in that office, IC2WSro.VsthpJtack3"ar Pate i ? "l,th0 0l( dome tic , elj As Ophelia calls to Kate. Can t you make your Jelly JellT - Springfield Homestead. Pk tcr artpr hlnk. Tint May and J ane and Hannah Should practice law and medicine And not on the piannah. , New York Commercial Advertiser.

A REMINISCENCE OF COLLINS. Pessimistic Views Held by the Author of the "Woman In White. Philadelphia Inquirer. t "Wilkie Collins, to those who met him on his visit to this country, was a very curious personality," said a veteran theatrical agent, who was talking yesterday to soruo friends in the reading-room of the Conti" nentaL "I shall never forget the first and the only time that I came into communication with him. It was in December, 1S73. I had gone after midnight into the bar of what was then Tommy Rvan's hotel, at the corner of Broadway and Onion square. New York, and is now the Morton House. Perched on a high stool before the eating counter, with his knees drawn nearly upto his chin, was a little man in solemn black clothes. The position in which he sat, his small body, his large head, his strong features, his gold spectacles, and his bushy hair and beard, then showing more silver than black threads, would have attracted anybody's attention. Ho was eating an enonnous mess of roast oysters anddrinking Dublin porter. Presently Mr. Dolby, who was first known in this country as the man who brought Charles Dickens over here for his reading tour inlSOS, came in and the little gray man hopped off" his stool to join him in a drink at the bar. I knew Dolby, and Dolby's friend was introduced to mo as Wilkie Collins. "Two or three newspaper men camo in afterward and joined the party. There was some chat as we stood their drinking, and then we all sauntered out into Union square. It was a warm and soggy winter night, and Mr. Collins declared that ho was in no hurry to go to bed. For more than an hour we sat on a bench in Unionsquare while he poured out snch a monologue as I never heard before and never ex-! pect to hear again. He did not make the' slightest allusion to himself or to any of his work, but it was easy enough to see that he was drawing his talklrom the foundations of his novels. It was strongly pessimistic. He was a moralizer on the frailties and foibles of men and women, and he delivered his opinions in short epigrammatic sentences that 6eeraed to me to ring like musketry fire.T especially remember him quoting the Spanish proverb that The smiles of a pretty woman are the tears of a rich man's purse.' and the fragment from the French that 'The female mindisnotcapapable of enduring memories of love or friendship.' "Toward 3 o'clock in the morning we. all became thirsty and some one suggested a movement over to a concert, saloon in Sixteenth street, which was at that hour the only drinking place open in the neighborhood. When we reached it Mr. Collins stood for fully five minutes gazing through his spectacles npon the dissolute men and women who filled the place. 'Fools, idiots, asses.' he ejaculated in his husky voice, as ho stood with his glass in his hand. Then,' as we reached the sidewalk once more, he nttered a remark that I committed to memory and put down in my note-book as. soon as I got home. It was this: 'If we could but persuade thn world that morality is the foundation of wealth and success this would be a happy universe.' " THE GARRETT FAMILY. Miss Mary Garrett Has Taken Care of the Estate During Her Brother's Illness. Philadelphia Record. Robert Garrett's recovery of mental aud physical health is the first gleam of snnshfne that has come to the Garrett family for more than live years. No household with millions in its possession has ever been so afflicted as the Garretts. Within half a decade Mrs. John W. Garrett has been thrown from her carriage and died of her injuries; her husband soon afterward suc cumbed to a malady that was aggravated by the death of his wife; then their elder son. Robert Garrett, lost his mind, and while his physicians were taking him on a tour of the world in the hope that this would restore his mental powers his brother, Harrison Garrett, was drowned by the collision of his yacht with a steamer in Chesapeake bay. But the friends of Robert Garrett have never ceased to predict that he would one day bo himself again and re-enter the railroad and finance held with vigor and wisdom. That prophecy may soon be realized. The increase of the Garrett capital during the illness of Robert Garrett is an accepted fact in financial circles, notwithstanding that the family holdings of Baltimoro &. Ohio railroad stock have drawn no dividends for three years. This increase is duo altogether to the sound business sense of Miss Mary Garrett, the only daughter of John W. Garrett, and sister of Robert. "It seems incredible, but it is tho truth," said a Baltimore lawyer to a Philadelphia friend, recently, "that this young lady has virtually handled the Garrett railroad and banking interests ever since one of her brothers was attacked with disease and the other lost his life. . She is not yet thirty years of age, and is a handsome woman of the blonde type. She obtained her business training from her father, to whom she was a constant companion in his later years, and she turned it to good account when the Garrett family was actually deprived of a male head. No woman has ever had such a responsibility of this kind placed npon her as that which Miss Garrett voluntarily shouldered, and if the whole story If her work could be told it would be a narrative of the most extraordinary business qualifications that any woman has ever shown. Tho millions of the family have been added to during her stewardship. She possesses some three millions in her own name, and she has made Robert Garrett a wealthier man than he was when he inherited his father's seat as president of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad." NEWTORT BARN DANCES. The Summer's Chief Fad at the Great ResortIncident of One of the Parties. ' Brooklyn Eagle. . A man just back in town from Newport has been telling me a rather odd and picturesque incident at one of the barn parties given there lately, just before the ending of the season, which has been the gayest ono seen there for ten vears. These barn parties, as they are called, though stable parties would be a more correct, if less euphonious title for them, have been very popular there this summer, and thev are really the only form of amusement that in any degree partakes of the unconventional in that home of fashionable formalities. Even these no not in any degree resemble the barn parties of the New England ancestors of many of these folk the barn parties where two or three hours' hard work at corn husking preceded the "hoedowns" and reels and the supper of pie and cider. The modern version of this sort of entertainment takes place in the stablo of a millionaire, which is generally larger and very little less sumptuous than his own dwelling the men are in evening dress, the women wear imported silk and tulle gowns, the music is by Lander and the supper is furnished by Pinard. It is simply a Delmonico ball transported to a stable, with perhaps just a suspicion of added merriment and abandon from that fact. On this particular occasion there was a suggestion of the surroundings carried through the whole affair. Tho walls were decorated with sheaves of golden rod thrust through horse collars and looped reins hung on the wall. Crossed coaching horns and whins decorated odd spaces. Chineso lanterns lit the scene, and the ball opened with a hunt quadrille, the men in hunting pink aud the women in wnue wun scane sasues. ine cotillion favors were silver spurs for the men, and atiruDS for the Women, huntine crons. nnd pins and bangles made in devices of whiftletrees, bits and whips. 1 he ball wound up with a Virginia reel, as all these balls do. and when the hostess, who was in the hmd duple, was about to go down the middle, a groom suddenly appearea leading a smart looking little polo ponlintterine with rosettes and ribbons. The lady seized its 6ilken halter, and, aeserting her partner. went down the middle with the gay little nag. who trotted along as if he quito entered into tho lark of it and liked the fun. The applause was deafening, ami after that not a womnn among them would go down the middle with her own party, but insisted uuon d. 1 ing the picturesque act by Hying down the

log floor leading the little hors in his finery. One young fellow, who had tb courage of his soldier father in him, would not be left, but took a llyin leaD on the pony's back and made it a party of three, while the coach-house roof rang with laughter and cheer. It is so rarely that New lorkers the fashionable set ever do' anything so original and spontaneous as this, even in the country, that the little incident seems worth a lino or two of chronicle. A SNAKE'S TTOXDROCS APPETITE. He Swallows a Stone Pnjj Dog and Succeeds In Digesting Part of It. NafchriMe Banner. "No. there haven't been any bears in this city for a long time, and thero ain't many enakes," said Andrew Jackoon Switzer, o'f the natural history branch of the Bureau of Information, to a reporter. "We haven't many snakes, but what few we have aro singularly free from dyspepsia, and their size is fair to middling. 1 remember on interesting snake that formerly resided in the vicinity of the Urbana cellars. A pood many people had seen it and talked about it so much that some folks thought it was funny to ask them whether they had seen it before they went to tho wine-cellars or after they camo away, but I knew thero wasn't a snake as big as a baby tishworm in a whole cellarfnl of the articlo we had on hand, and no I kept my eye skinned for that much-talked-of serpent, t M had a nice lawn whero I lived, and among the ornamental fixtures that I had. to make things look, as if we were up to snntf, was one of these crockery ware pug dogs as big as life and just as natural. This dog had been made in a reclining position as if he were asleep. I had him lying in a nice sunnv place, not far from the piazza. 1 used to like to 6it on the piazza and look at that pug, and one day as I sat looking at him 1 heard a noise on tho gravel walk, and, turning my head, what should I seo but a black snake as big a one as any per- j son has a right to see sneaking along ' toward that 6tone pug. I made up mvl mind that this was the euake 1 had heard , so much about, nnd 1 6t stock still to seo what ho would do. He stole up on that I pug like a shadow, and when within ten feet of him glided forward quicker than i lightning, andthe next thing I baw was the-' pug wrapped in the folds of the snake, and' the snake just more than wrestling it-' around on the grass and trying to crush it. Of course, it didn't need any one to tell me that the snako had been fooled into think ingthat the stone pug was a live one. and he had set out to havo .the dog for his dinner. I never wanted to howl with mirth as I did when this situation struck me. but I suppressed myself, because I wanted to 6ee what the upshot would be. "After the snake had wrestled the stone dog around on the grass for a minute or so, and strained himself so hard to crush it that bis eyes hung out on his checks, he unwound himself, and dropping the pug backed away and looked at it. There lay the dog, sleeping as sweetly as he had been i when the snake first stole npon him and ' smote him, and not a break or crease in his' skin. I could see surprise burst out on. the snake's face just as plain as L can see a shadow run across that lake yon-1 der. He gazed on that stone dog as if ho couldn't believe his eyes. He went around on all sides of it, and, satisfying himself ; that it must be all right, he pitched into the pug again and had another little- rough-' and-tumble with it on the lawn. Then he ; released the dog again, and this time, as he ' saw it still asleep and intact, tho snake act-j ually looked scared. He backed off twenty ' feet or more and hissed at the dog like a steam engine. The dog never paid any attention to him, of course, and that seemed to make the snake mad. He shook his head like a mad bull, and his eyes glared so that it made my tlesh creep. Then th snake made another rush for the pug. This time he came at him with his month wido open. He grabbed the pug by the head, pulled himself together and gave a few vicious gulps. Slowly the 6tone dog disappeared down the snake's throat, and fifteen seconds later was lying as comfortably in the snake's stomach as if he had been a reg-ular-mado live dog. The snake crawled away across the lawn and disappeared, among some bushes. "As I expected, of course, that he wouldn't get far with that load of stone dog on his stomach before ho would keel over dead. I went over to a neighbor's to have him come along and bo a witness when I found tho dead snake, sol wouldn't be shunned by my fellow-citizens when 1 told the story. Tho neighbor and I went to tho bushes, but tho snake wasn't there. Nor could it be found anywhere in the vicinity. 1 could see that my neighbor suspected me, and there was a

coolness between us for a week. 1 hen ono day, on going through one of onryineyards, a mile or more from my home, I saw somethin g tret iid and move lcisurelv awav among tho vines. I followed it. and discov ered a blacksnake. With the aid of a ten-' pound stono I killed tho snake.' It was somewhat swollen in the middle. I investi gated, and found the head and part of tho neck of my stono pug. The rest of the do had been digested. I didn't measure tho snake, for its size was but a small surprise to me when I thought of the digestive apparatus with which the snake was fitted up. Health is a great thing, even in snakes.' DEVELOP3IEXT OF THE RACE-IIORSE. Some Figures to Show that Speed and En durance Are Constantly Increasing. Hop ton Transcript. Horsemen say. or at least some celebrated ones do, that the horse is not improving; that while the record has been lowered tho better timo is due to the appliances of legboots, toe-weights, etc.. which have been introduced or popularized since the days of Lady Suffolk: and 1 aeon v. Dan Mace is) quoted as saying that with the aid of such appliances he believed that Flora Temple, would have lowered her record to the best made by such speeders as Rarns. However that may be. there has been a steady lowering of uest-time records for the last forty years. Lady Suffolk's timo in lS43-ono, mile in wG was deemed something won derful until lacony broke the record ten-, years later with 2:25ie. Flora Temple's per-4 formance in ltviG, a1. was the best until ' she broke her own record by making 2:19:t in 1S"9. Since that time Maud S.. Jay-Eye-See, Goldsmith Maid, Dexter and a dozen other hcrses have brought the trotting1 record down to within a few seconds of two" minutes. When Flora Temple made her, J:1934. horsemen said that it was nonso; trying to beat that, that the trotting horse', speed had been fixed and determined.Whatever the fastest of trotters may make, the conclusion that tho record has been established will be busty, though it muifc be obvious that many considerations must; be taken into recount in estimating th possibilities of the trotting horso. As trotting horses aro being constantly rushed to make faster time, the limit of speed 1 will probably be found in th end to be parallel to tho limits of endurance. What speed the racehorse is capable of is apparent when it ii remembered that Flying Childers, the celebrated ppeeder of tho last century, and still held by some turfmen to have been the fastest horse ever bred of w hich there is record, ran four miles infiru-lSa, orat'ths rate of 25 miles an -hour, carrying ICS pounds weight. The pacers years ago got their record down to 'J.07;,4 by the performance of Westmont. with running mate. Altogether there is, good reason for believing that tho horse grows faster as the world grows older. Certainly tho speed record has shown wonderful advances since the times when it was wild that the railroads would cause tho deterioration of horse-rlcsh to such nn extent that hordes would be of little value, hardly paying tho cost of rear mg. The Fate All Trusts Must Meet. Omaha Republican. The great copper combine is practically dead. As usual, one of the parties to it was the Judas, and the representatives of tho' Rothschilds are accused of the deed. Ono by one the summer fiowers fade. One by one the railroads cut rates and the shippers get. justice. All things come to thosa who wait. tm The 'National Game 8 till Flourishes. Memphis Avalanche. 'i The sound of revelry by nfght in the Memphis gambling-houses is temporarily hushed. The great American game if poker, however, is still to be had. The privilege .of drawing to four of a kind against two pair, lis not to be denied to any citizen who can command a private apartment Waste of Democratic Drain Power. Peoria Transcript ! Major Warner has gone back to Missouri and savs he will not accept tho commit sionership of pensions: As there is no law compelling him to do so. it is probable the bottled-up abuse the Democratic papers were reserving for him will spoil befox snrinir onena.