Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 November 1897 — Page 4

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THE DAILY JOURNAL MONDAY, NOVEMBER '2ll, 1897. Washington Office'—lso3 Pennsylvania Avenue Telephone Lull*. Business Office 238 | Editorial Rooms...A 86 TER VIS OF SI ASCRIPTION. DAILY BY MAIL. Daily only, one month ) .70 Daily only, three months 2.00 Daily only, one year 8.00 Daily, including Sunday, one year 10.00 Sunday only, one year 2.00 When furnished by agents. Daily, )>er week, by carrier I*3 cts Sunday, single copy Sets Daily and Sunday, tier week, by carrier 20 cts WEEKLY. „„ Per year sl*oo Reduced Hates to Cluii*. Subscribe with any of our numerous agents or ■end subscriptions to THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, Indianapolis, Ind. Persons sending the Journal through the mails In the United States should put on an eight-page paper a. jONE-CENT. postage stamp; on a twelve or slxteePtpage paier a TWO-CENT postage stamp. Foreign postage is usually double these rates. All communications Intended for publication in this paper must. In order to receive attention, be accompanied by the name and address of the writer. If It Is desired that rejected manuscripts be returned, je><u ige must in all cases be inclosed for thar purpose. . . . -. THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL Can be found at the following places: NEW YORK—Astor House, j CHICAGO—PaImer House. P. O. News Cos., 217 Dearborn street, and Great Northern Hotei. CINCINNATI—J. It. Hawley & Cos., 154 Vine street. LOUISVILLE—C. T. lieerinjr. northwest corner of Third and Jefferson streets, and Louisville Book Cos., 256 Fourth avenue. ST. LOUlS—Union News Company, Union Depot. WASHINGTON. D. c7—Rijrprs House, Ebbitt House and Willard’s Hotel. Now that Senator Hanna’s election seems assured, he might cultivate political courtesies to his own advantage and that of the Republican party. Every new rumor as to the failing health B>f Mr. Gladstone and the Pope is promptly denied, but all the same they are both at an age when men do fail. Many people mistake neglect to enforce existing laws for an inadequacy of law. The perfect statute is a dead letter until given life by faithful enforcement. The year following a presidential election Is apt to furnish a large number of instances of postofflee appointments that are loaded, and the present year is no exception. If Senator Mason, of Illinois, is bent on fighting for Cuba, it is possible that the present captain general would not object to a few men of the senator’s warlike build landing on that island. The foreign secretary of Austria seems to have greater occasion to appeal to Europe to assist in holding the Austro-Hungarian empire together than in making commercial war on the United States. But two governments in the world assume to-day to make the credit money of their people—the council of India and the United States. Even growing , paternal Germany does not think of such a thing. During the month of October the total of the stock of money in the United States was increased SIS,O2(!,(X>Q. If there were free coinage of silver bullion owners’ metal the mints could not put out more than eighteen million silver dollars a month. The policeman who interfered with one of Mayor Taggart’s most useful citizens and bad his head beaten with his own club by the afores- .and useful person will not be popular at now that the mayor’s assi j.ant has been sentenced to half a *a£o*tt* in the workhouse on that patrolman’s evidence. A novel objection to free rural delivery Which comes from the merchants in some country towns is that it prevents country people from making their weekly trips to town, thus interfering with trade. But the farmers will have to trade all the same, and If they do not go to town as often they Will trade more when they do go. An exchange imagines that the construction of seven dry docks for our naval vessels in as many States will stimulate log rollihg in Congress. The secretary of the ravy shows that the docks are necessary, and he has named the points where they should be located. Under such conditions Congress should vote the money for construction upon the merits of the recommendation. The fact that Boss Croker has declared against the leadership of ex-Senator and ex-Governor Hill and in favor of Senator Murphy is causing considerable comment in the newspapers. Those who should know say that it does not mean that Murphy shall be loader of the New York Democracy, but that Mr. Richard Croker desires to be, and will be if Mr. Murphy is made the nominal head of the party. There does not seem to be any necessity for an extra session of the Legislature to legislate regarding the waste of gas. Existing laws are believed* to be ample. The trouble seems to bo that offenders are not brought into court after being indicted. No special legislation can compel prosecuting officers to do what they seem not disposed to do. Public sentiment can push prosecutions if it is made emphatic. While the Journal believes that the death sentence should bo given and executed in extreme cases, it does not believe that the crime of Burton, great as it was, deserves that penalty. He did not intend to commit murder. Doubtless lie would not have entered the conspiracy to rob Eldridge if he could have known that it would involve the probability of taking human life. He carried a pistol defend himself, as do thousands of others, and used it, but not as the result of premeditation.

'Years ago Great Britain was the only government which had any hold upon Chinese territory. For a long time its power In tnat quarter was undisputed. It controlled 90 per cent, of China’s trade. A few years ago Russia secured a terminus for its vast railway at a port of China, but it was in. the north, and was ice-bound four months in the year. Since that time Russia has secured Port Arthur, and this has increased her warlike measures on the eastern coast of Asia. The French had possessions in the East, about some portion of which there is a quarrel with England. Now comes Germany, and. under the pretext of seeking indemnity, seizes one of 'f j most desirable harbors on the coast of China. It is evident that Germany propuses to hold that portion of China. This has been done to keep pace with its rivals for the commerce of China. Thus China, to the north and south of the portion of country in which Great Britain Is Interested, is held by Russia and Germany. Years ago this occupation would have aroused violent opposition in Great Britain, but thus far xu> protest is made to an occupation which

at all times will be a menace to England, because it means that the commerce of China has been partitioned as effectively as if its territory had been parceled out to the four European powers. HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF. The two striking features of the Cuban situation at present are the readiness of the Spanish government to make large concessions to the insurgents and the almost fierce determination with which the latter reject all overtures and declare they will have nothing but independence. If Spain had ofTered two years ago what she offers now the insurgents would have accepted the terms gladly; If the insurgents had demanded two years ago what they demand now they would have been deemed crazy. Yet the indications are that the present offer of autonomy will be spurned and that the insurgents will win. This would be a repetition of history. It is not more true that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” than it is that long-continued oppression breeds insurrection and paves the way for larger liberty or complete independence. This has been the history of many rebellions and revolutions. It was pre-eminently true of the American revolution. George Washington is rightly called “The father of his country,” but George 111 might be called the father of American independence. It was his short-sightedness, his pigheadedness, his Bourbonism, his contempt for popular rights, his insane determination to assert his authority and make no concessions to those who owed unquestioned allegiance—it was these qualities of George 111 exercised in the most offensive way during a long term of years, that drove the American colonists into rebellion and sowed the seed and prepared the soil for independence. Even after hostilities began the “rebels’’ could probably hav? been placated and the revolution avertecl by some retractions and concessions. Comparatively few of the leaders thought of Independence at the beginning of the trouble. Benjamin Franklin said a few days before the fight at Lexington that he “had more than once traveled almost from one end of the continent to the other, and kept a variety of company, eating, drinking and conversing with them freely, and never had heard from any person, drunk or sober, the least expression of a wish for a separation from the mother country, or a hint that such a thing would be advantageous to America.” Thomas Jefferson wrote: “What, eastward of New York, might have been the disposition towards England before the commencement of hostilities, I know not; but before that I never heard a whisper of a disposition to separate from Great ‘Britain; and after that its possibility was contemplated with affliction by all.” In 1774 'Washington approved the Fairfax county resolves, which complained that “malevolent falsehoods” were propagated by the ministry to prejudice the mind of the King; “particularly that there Is an intention in the colonies to set up for independent states.” James Madison said: “It has always been my impression that a re-establishment of the colonial relations to the parent country, as they were previous to the controversy, was the real object of every class of the people, till the despair of obtaining it,” etc. With the people and leaders feeling that way a wise King could easily have placated them. All the colonists wanted at that time w T as a liberal measure of autonomy and to be judiciously let alone. But George 111 had no notion of anything of that kind. He would show the colonists that he was King. His authority should be vindicated and they should be humbled. After hostilities began he wrote to his prime minister, means of distressing America must meet with my concurrence.” He strongly supported the employment of Indiana The war was called in England the “King’s war.” There was no Weyler at hand, and the “reconcentrados” and starvation policy could not be used against the Americans, but every means was tried to grind them into the dust. Every means except concession, and this came too late. In 1778, after three years of fighting and nearly two years after the declaration of independence, the King consented that new propositions should be made to the rebels. These overtures, made through three accredited commissioners who came to this country, were promptly rejected. The time was passed for the war to be ended by concessions. It was no longer home rule the colonists wanted; they demanded independence. Three years before they would gladly have accepted autonomy; now it was liberty or death. Put 1897 for 1776, Spain for Great Britain, the Spanish Queen for George 111, Cuba for the United States and Cuban insurgents for American colonists, and history is repeating itself. There has been the same long period of oppression and denial of justice by Spain towards Cuba that there was by Great Britain towards her American colonies, only longer and worse. There has been the same pig-headed determination to crush rebellion, enforce obedience and vindicate the crown and the “divine right of kings.” There has been the same refusal to make any concessions to rebels, and the same determination to suppress the insurrection by bribery, starvation, fire and sword. Now, after nearly three years of fighting, almost exactly the time taken by George 111, the Spanish government comes forward with overtures for peace on a basis which would have been gladly accepted at the beginning of the war. It is too late. The answer of the Cuban insurgents is identically the same as was that of the American colonists. They say to Spain, “Your concessions come too late. The time has passed to have tulked about autonomy, home rule or reforms. We will have independence or nothing.” The indications are very strong that they will get it. and when they do it will be another instance of royal oppression and stubbornness paving the way for liberty.

TIIE EVIL OF LIFE TEN! HE. The recent publication of the number of clerks in the Treasury Department at Washington from the respective States in connection with the number to which each is entitled, upon the basis of population, calls to mind the surprise of a representative on ascertaining that in all the departments his district had not only a much larger number of clerks and other employes than it is fairly entitled to, but that many of them were unknown to lifelong residents of the locality. He ascertained upon examination that a number of them had been so many years absent from the district that they had no knowledge of it as it is to-day, and no associations which cause them to regard it as home. As often as there is a change in administration which they suspect may endanger their permanency they appeal to the man who represents the dis-

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1597.

trict to make special efforts to retain them. On such rare occasions they are Indianians. In the Treasury Department Indiana has ninety-six clerks, which is eight more than its share. A list of them, with the dates of their appointments, would be interesting, if not instructive. It seems to be assumed by those who advocate a practical life tenure in the subordinate positions in Washington that a system which permits men to disfranchise themselves and to alienate themselves from active citizenship is not open to serious objection on that ground. Nevertheless, others who believe in a rigidly competitive system as against the hedged-in system of executive orders see very serious objections to a scheme which transplants a citizen to the District of Columbia and permits him to fall into a life which removes him as long as he shall live from every duty of active citizenship. Dissociated from communities whose interests are a part of the life of the country, and whose attachment to locality, to county and State stimulates patriotism, the lifelong clerk in Washington is soon beyond such influences. The ups and downs of business and industry do not affect him. His stipend is secure, and, being out of touch .with any part.of the country, he mpst lose all interest in its welfare. This is not* surmise; it is what congressmen and others have, discovered. Looking to the best interests of the public service, it is fair to assume that men who may be said to be expatriated cannot be as efficient during a long period of years as those who are assured that, in time, unless their services are of great value, they will return t the life and struggles of citizenship. Because life tenure is certain to make aliens, in the most significant meaning of the word, of department employes, many who believe in the merit system are convinced that appointment to such service should be for a term of years. No man should be so long in the public service in the District of Columbia as to lose his local Identity in the State from which he received his appointment. THE LESSONS OF BURTON’S CONFESSION. The account which the convicted man Burton gives of his early life could be given by thousands who have closed careers of disgrace and crime. He was given a good education and a moral training. His opportunities at the outset were good. The influences of a good home and careful instruction were lost upon him. He was not vicious at the outset, but was the victim of idleness. The good teaching at home, and, doubtless, of the Sunday school, could not counteract the pernicious influences of the days of idleness. His kind friends did not see the necessity of putting him at some regular employment when he was fourteen or fifteen years of age. They did not realize the importance of teaching him, during earlier years, that labor in some sphere is the duty of every young man and the part in life he must assume if he is to come to anything. It is not improbable in his case, as in thousands, that fond but foolish relatives gave him the impression that what is called toil was not for such as he, because parents or guardians had toiled so effectively that he could lead a life of leisure until some light and congenial employment, with large compensation, should come to him. So, during the years in which character is forming, and in which the boy and young man should be acquainting himself with some vocation, Burton was turned over to aimless idleness. He found companions, for there are enough idle boys in every village in the country who should be put to some employment to make a company of idlers. Such companions are to be found in every community, and a goodly portion of them is furnished by the best people, who imagine that it is a kindness to boys not to put them at some kind of work a part of the time when out of school, and not to trouble them with views of the serious concerns of life. These associations begin in innocence, but in time they become more or less vicious. Their members come to be known as fast and then as tough. This is because aimless idleness is an abnormal condition, at war with—well, the Divine economy. After a time they no longer expect to engage in useful occupation, because they have come to abhor it, so they turn to anything else to get subsistence. Out of the ranks of such associations come the worst criminals and sharpers, rather than from those who are born in squalor and its vices. The prospects of boys and young men who in early years go to the factories with dinner pails and return at night with grimy hands and faces are vastly better than those of boys and young men the condition of whose parents makes it possible for them to grow up in aimless idleness. The wonder Is that those w’ho are inquiring into the causes of criminality fail to discover the potency of idleness in filling the ranks of crime.

There is talk in Ohio of repealing what is known as the corrupt practices act because it is not enforced. The law is based on the English purity of elections law and aims at securing the'purity 6f the ballot'by preventing bribery and corruption in elections. To this end it prescribes the purposes for which money may be expended in political campaigns and requires an itemized report by candidates and campaign committees of all expenditures made by them or through their agents. After the recent state election the Democratic state committee filed a statement showing that it had expended only $1,200. The statement is so glaringly false on its face that many persons are sugesting the repeal of the law on the ground that it were better off the statute books than to remain there a dead letter. The reasoning seems unsound. If the law is right in principle the fact that it has been vidlhted is no reason why it should be repealed. If it is weak at any point it should be amended, but what is needed seems to be a stronger public sentiment in favor of its strict enforcement. Several States have a similar law, and its enforcement is found to be decidedly conducive to honest elections. The best law, however, is worthless unless it is enforced, and right here is where public officers and the people themselves fail in their duty. An exchange complains that what is called “spiked flour’’ is being sold as the pure article when it is an adulteration. Spiked flour is a mixture of wheat and corn flour. It is not necessarily unhealthful, but those who pay r the price for wheat flour should have it. One objection to the corn flour is that it is composed almost entirely' cf starch, the coarser and more nutritious portions of the cereal having been eliminated. Mixed with low-grade wheat flour, it gives it a whiteness which it does not possess, but when it is made into bread it will be soggy and every way inferior to a bread made of the flour of the wheat. Chemists say that starch, in order to be digestible, should be cooked much longer than wheat flour. Good cooks say that corn starch needs to be cooked twice as long as wheat

flour. This being the case, bread made of “spiked flour” must be more or less indigestible. It is said that a glucose sugar refining company in Chicago is responsible for most of the spiked flour in the market. Thus far the mixture has been marketed in the South and Southwest. Corn is a great cereal. It is often called king. Considering its' manifold uses, the title is well applied. It is too bad to turn it to dishonest uses, such as glucose to adulterate sugar, and flour to adulterate the natural product of wheat. The correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, who ha.s been visiting the Indian Territory, .declares that there “are too many WJhjte This is due to the increasing value of the reservations and the distribution of large sums of money among the tribes by the government. The title of thousands to be Indians depends upon a very small strain of that blood. The fact that the Indians are the richest people per capita has stimulated marriages with whites. Not only have white men become “squaw men” by marriage, but white women who are thrifty have married Indians or half or quarter Indians, and their nearly white children are filling the schools which the government supports. It is believed that something must be done to stop this white-Indians movement. A law defining the degree of blood which shall constitute an Indian has been suggested. The speaker who introduced Senator Foraker as the toastmaster at a political banquet in Cincinnati, Saturday night, said: “He is a gentleman who is admired in every quarter of the globe for his dash, his wit, his courage, his noble manhood, his statesmanship, his loyal Republicanism and his true and patriotic Americanism.” No doubt the Ohio senator possesses all those qualities, but is it not putting it rather strong to say he is admired for them “in every quarter of the globe?” An enterprising citizen of Colorado claims to have discovered that “Mother McKinley” is joint heir to a large fortune in Scotland. “The estate,” says a dispatch, “is worth several million dollars, and was willed to the American heirs years ago, with the understanding that it should not be transferred until a stated period had elapsed. The period expired some time ago.” The enterprising citizen of Colorado is evidently reaching after a pull. There is no sensible reason why the fact that a millionaire had married his housekeeper should create a sensation. Thousands of men in their right minds marry housekeepers every year, and many of those men, strange as it may seem, are just as good as that California millionaire. If any one feels like disputing this last statement, it's dollars crullers that he won’t say so to the aforementioned housekeepers. Santa Claus will have as many followers as usual this year. While the army of his loyal subjects shall have been increased by the addition of several thousands of new devotees, yet perhaps just as many more have reached the age when the appalling information has fallen upon their ears that the old reindeer story is a fake. The antipodes are having trouble of their own. What with typhoons, railway wrecks and belligenent uprisings of natives, the people of eastern Asia might almost as well be civilized and have presidential elections and football. The way that jury at Greenfield got at the Burton case and settled it does the lawabiding citizens of the world good. Such things are much better and more popular than the militia when' to preventing mobs. That was a mighty mean man who suggested that it was for the health of the public, rather than that of Hall Caine, that the latter was adjured to let up on his writing for a long, long time. It is really comical, in a Sort of uncanny way, for a murderer, in fcjs, “signed statement” to talk wisely and knowingly of “moral courage.” If “procrastination is the thief of time” there is a good case of “receiving stolen goods” against Hawaii in her Japanese deal. >, . If they want a presiding officer in Vienna who can preserve order in the Reichsrath they had better send for Thomas Brackett Reed. 11l BRLES IN THE AIR. Misrepresented. “I hear,” said the zephyr, “that you have been raging through the Northwest.” “Never was a worse mistake,” howled the blizzard. “I was quite cool.” Misleading; Data. “The bravest tenderest,” quoted the youngest neophyte. “No doubt,” said the Cornfed Philosopher. “But don't you get the idea that every tough is a coward.” Stopping tlie Attraction. “Our cities are overcrowded,” said the confirmed pessimist. “They ( draw the youth of the country as the candle does the moth.” "It is that very overcrowding we are trying to stop,” said the. earnest reformer, “by making the town just_ as moral as the country.” * y\ Suspicious. “Clever idea of mine,” said young Mr. Fitts, “sending you a typewritten letter; wasn't it, dear?” “Was she pretty?” Mrs. Fitts demanded. “Who?” “The typewriter girl.” “Er—why—yes.” “1 thought so. The love passages in that letter seemed absolutely* inspired.”

THE INDIANA PRESS. Bryan is to study the silver question down in Mexico. His return to the ranks of the men who study must be a great disappointment to his followers who had concluded that he knew it all.—Seymour Republican. When you corner a. cheap-money man he plants himself on the trusts, but fails to show what the trusts have to do with the money' question or how free silver will do away with a single syndicate.—Fort Wayne Gazette. Some excellent Republicans in Clinton county wandered away from the party' fold last fall and voted for free, silver, but many of them have long since seen the error of their way, and, while they are making no noise over it, have returned to the party of patriotism and progress.—Frankfort News. There must be some mistake in the report that ex-General Master Workman Sovereign, of the Knights of Labor, intends to be a free-silver candidate for President. He knows very well that there isn’t room enough for two performers like Mr. Bryan and himself in a single tent.—Vlndennes Commercial. Under the present law the “endless chain’’ makes It possible under some conditions to deplete the United States treasury of gold by preesenting greenbacks for redemption over and over again. The practice of passing in greenbacks at one window and taking out gold at another, then exchanging legal tenders for greenbacks and repeating ad libitum the operation ought to be stopped by some means.— Lafayette Courier. Republicans should begin active work for next year. The same old battles will have to be fought over again, but from the trend affairs are taking now we are of opinion that the old general. William Jennings

Bryan, will not lead the forces. Being ready means much. Activity Is what won the day in 1896.—Plainfield Progress. Mr. Bryan should not be censured for insisting that the Chicago platform be indorsed and kept alive. The Chicago platform is all that connects Mr. Bryan with hope. A man would be foolish to kick from under him the ladder on which he stands, even though it be a crude and imperfect one.—Muncie Times. The late rains have had the effect of putting the wheat crop in this section in good condition. The fears of the fanners a few weeks ago that their t*ime in sowing wheat this season was all lost have been allayed. \\ heat that was put in the ground at the proper time is now in first-class shape. —South Bend Tribune. , W ifh a national, state or private bank in every community needing such an institution; with numerous savings institutions in large cities, where needed, and with building and loan associations scattered all over the country, it would appear that there is no crying demand for government postal savings banks. No matter how successful the plan has been abroad, the same conditions do not exist here as in European countries.—New Castle Courier. It is the '‘endless chain” that makes it possible, under certain conditions, to deplete the treasury of gold by presenting greenbacks for redemption over and over again. The secretary ought not to be compelled to pay out these greenbacks again as fast as redeemed, and, moreover, he ought to reissue them only against deposits of S°id. This simple but effective provision would snap the “endless chain” at once and make the treasury independent of Wallstreet conspiracies.—Evansville Courier. Our system of local governments should be so revised as to provide for fewer rather than more officers. The tendency of the age is to create new offices, that faithful party workers may be given places and be paid by the public. Against this the public should protest. There are too many officers now. Revise tne system and let officers do the work, which they could easily do. Bet the press and the people take this matter up and create a sentiment against which politicians would not dare to stand. In the reduction of officers wi.l be tound one way of reducing the expenses of the government and a consequent lowering of the rate of taxation.—Middletown News. THE WASTE OF GAS. Save the gas lands for the use of our own industries. There is more in home markets, resulting from increased population, than Horn oil leases.—Anderson News. If the Governor should call an extra sesf, h e Legislature-a thing that he is i ot at all likely to do—then there would be a waste of gas.—Terre Haute Express. The natural gas interests of Indiana should be protected from the reckless invathe oil speculators without doldy. What law there is on the subject should be enforced.—Seymour Republican. Any man who has the welfare of Madison county and its vast manufacturing Institutions at heart will not be a party to permit the precious fuel to be wasted in the wholesale manner practiced for the last six months.—Elwood Call-Leader. A special session of the Legislature which is now being petitioned for by residents in the gas belt would mean an expense to the State of at least $50,000, and then there is no assurance that a law would he enacted that would meet the requirements to stop the waste of natural gas.—Goshen News. A petition is circulating in the Indiana gas belt region asking Governor Mount to convene the General Assembly in extra session in order to pass a law regulating the waste of natural gas. To call the Legislature together for this purpose will prove a very expensive luxury for the great majority of the people in order that a comparative few might receive a benefit.—Warren Republican. Governor Mount has the right Idea of the proposition to call an extra session of the Legislature to provide additional legislation to prevent the waste of natural gas. He says: “If the courts do not enforce the laws in effect, why make other laws?” The penalties now are sufficiently stringent. Any new law that might be passed could be held up pending full judicial inquiry, and that would be as costly delay as is being experienced under the present laws.—Kokomo 1 ribune. There is just one way to stop this waste of gas summarily, and that is for the person in possession of the lands adjoining to or in the vicinity or neighborhood of the wells from which gas Is allowed to escape to take possession of them and pack them and tube them and shut off the gas. Have called the attention of parties interested in the natural gas industries to this section of the law time and again, but have been unable to get anything done. If the law gave me the power to take possession of these wells, I would certainly do so and stop the waste at once.—State Natural Gas Supervisor Leach. While Lafayette and every other place in Indiana that draws on the gas fields for a contribution tq their comfort are greatly interested in the preservation of the fuel, It certainly is of greater direct importance to the towns of the gas belt that its wanton waste be stopped. The vast amount of newspaper talk now going on, the holding of public meetings to adopt resolutions, the street-corner discussions on the subject, and all that sort of thing, seems to be a useless and is certainly an ineffective waste of effort. Tqo much of all kinds of gas is going to waste in that district. Less talk and some positive action is what is needed. —Lafayette Courier. The movement to stop the waste of natural gas is commendable. It should have begun sooner. From the day natural gas was first developed In Indiana to the present time, there has been a reckless, senseless waste of the precious fluid. Hundreds of good producing wells have been drilled, and many of them allowed to run indefinitely, without being properly anchored and capped, and millions of cubic feet of gas have been permitted to escape through carelesssness and indifference to its value. * * * Before the Legislature is called to pass anew law on the subject the efficacy of the law on the statute books should be more thoroughly tested. The law passed by the last Legislature sems to provide all the safeguards possible. and if it does not stand the test of the courts, it Is probable that another Jaw enacted by the Legislature would fail.—Marion News.

THE TARIFF IX THE COLLEGES. Free Trade Xot Making Progress in Those Institutions. Boston Journal. It is undeniable that in some of our New England institutions of learning the English theory in political economy is still expounded with vehement partisanship, and it may win some temporary converts among tho immature or the uniformed. But there is ample and conclusive evidence that it makes little premanent impression upon the students at large, for in their political sympathies they are overwhelmingly Republican. Indeed, there is proof that the Republican preponderance is now stronger than ever. Take Harvard, for instance. The president of the university is a free-tfade Democrat. So are some of the professors, notably those of foreign birth or affiliations. But President Eliot himself recently acknowledged that “most of our students are Republicans.” Os the young men who graduated at Cambridge between ISBS and 1892, when the "tariff reform” propaganda was in the heyday of its energies, 712 signified that they sympathized with the party of protection, 365 with the party of free trade. Since then the Republican majority at Harvard has very heavily increased. In other New England colleges the same proportion holds. At Williams the last class which enjoyed the radical free-trade instruction of Professor Perry contained forty Republicans and fourteen Democrats. The next class contained fifty-six Republicans and eight Democrats. A recent canvass of Amherst showed that 80 per cent, of the students at that sterling institution were Republicans. At Princeton the Republicans, when last enumerated, stood to the Democrats as three to one, and three to one is also the ratio at the University of Pennsylvania. Yale used to be regarded as a perfect “hotbed of Cobdenism,” and with reason. There was a time when Yale's senior classes contained more free traders than protectionists, but the American side of the tariff controversy now receives more consideration at New Haven, or the students have developed more ability to think for themselves, for the statistics of recent classes show a steady and strong gain for protection. These are the figures, as the Yale Class Book gives them, for recent years up to the time when the silver issue began to be a disturbing factor: 1889. 1890. 1891. 1892. 1893. 1894. Free trade....... 55 40 49 42 37 44 Protection ....... 43 36 70 83 71 144 Clearly the American idea “wears better" than the British Idea in academic as in political discussion.

BOOKS OF THE TIME. Prof. Calvin Thomas's \ew Edition of Goethe's “Faost.” Heretofore, justice has rarely been done in English-speaking countries to Goethe. It is true tfiat Carlyle, Scott, Wordsworth, Byron and some other eminent English authors rendered Goethe public and enthusiastic homage in his old age; and well might they do so, seeing what they owed him; and that Carlyle especially, in his peculiar fashion, proclaimed himself a zealous admirer of the German poet. But the reading public at large, along with its acknowledged guides and mouthpieces in the realm of literary criticism, revealed but scant understanding of Goethe’s true greatness. What particularly attracted Carlyle to Goethe was the latter’s force and originality as a thinker. Now, it is hardly possible to overestimate his merits in this respect, but when Carlyle, lacking, as ha was, in appreciation of poetry as such, eulogized and emphasized the importance of the philosopher in Goethe, it was but natural that lesser spirits should continue in the same direction, with the fatal result that the commonly accepted conception of Goethe in England, and, to some extont America, came to be that of a man of undeniable wisdom, who was in the habit of printing this wisdom in broken lines with rhymes tacked on to the ends. Thu next inevitable step was for people that, very justly Indeed, wish poetry to be above all poetical, to reject Goethe wholly, or almost wholly, as a poet, acknowledging him only as a man who said many good things in his conversations with Eekermann and his letters to Schiller, and besides wrote abstruse verse that nobody nowadays need bother about. This is the view gr-pvely maintained by Matthew Arnold in “A French Critic on Goethe”—that amazing essay which makes it forever impossible for any admirer of Goethe to acce^ f Arnold as a literary critic of high order. One reason for this colossal misapprt hension must doubtless be looked for in the well-known ignorance of foreign languages that prevails even among such Englishmen as lay claim to scholarship and familiarity with foreign literatures. Evidently most British critics of Goethe knew him only through translations-—and what translations! Os all the versions of “Faust” made by Englishmen only two possess any value at all—Sir Theodore Martin’s, which is, upon the whole, a conscientious and tasteful piece of work, and John Anster’s, which is abominable wherever pathos or sentiment is to be expressed, but reveals undeniable cleverness and wit in the humorous parts, Mephistopheles’s speeches In particular. Even here, however, the superficial acquaintance with German idioms crops out over and over again, as the present writer has reason to remember, having on a certain occasion, with no German text at hancf, been obliged to borrow a few quotations from Anster for a printed essay on Mephistopheles—afterwards to discover that they contained one or two blunders. It is* to the abiding nonor of the American people that by far the best English translation of “Faust” was made by one of them, Bayard Taylor, and that there has just been completed an edition of the German text for the use of college pupils and private students, which is not only far and away the most useful of all of its kind, here or in England, but holds its own very creditably if compared with those made in the fatherland itself. The manner in which foreign texts are edited for the use of Americans is by no means always gratifying to the national pride. I am acquainted with a series of German texts, edited within the last few yeairs by a man in a high educational position in a large Eastern city, published by a widely known firm, which teem with evidences of slovenliness and, perhaps, downright ignorance. But signs of improvement are everywhere perceptible. And of them all, none, to my mind, is of such wide significance as Prof. Calvin Thomas’s edition of Goethe’s “Faust,” of which the second and last volume has just been published by Heath & Cos., Boston. Such an edition proves two things, viz.: that we have people here in America who desire to know the whole of “Faust.” and, secondly, that there are native scholars among us—or, at any rate, one native scholar—capable of meeting this desire with all the encouragement and assistance required. Professor Thomas rightly avers that the days are past when people with a claim to sincere interest in Goethe and his masterpiece might afford to leave the second part of “Faust” unread. That there are weak passages in the second part Thomas allows. He might, perhaps, a trifle more emphatically have warned critical readers not to be discouraged by the dreary “Masked Ball” and the Homunculus episode. I believe many students of the second part, after having duly gone over the whole of it once or twice, henceforth read but Mephistopheles’s adventures in the Pharsalian fields, the Helen scenes and the divine fifth act. But these portions they read and reread more often, probably, than anything else in the nature of printed matter. For nothing more beautiful, nothing more inexhaustible, has ever been written. The present writer has more than once had gratifying experience of the growing interest in Goethe, and particularly in “Faust,” which is manifested almost everywhere in Indiana where particular care is at all bestowed upon the things of the mind. Unfortunately, large numbers of the members of our literary clubs and societies, being unable to read German with ease, have to be content with English translations. It is. however, possible to make the study of Goethe profitable even In this manner, at any rate, as far as “Faust” is concerned—the English translations of novels, and especially of the best of these, “Werther,” being Unfortunately very unsatisfactory. My advice to Goethe readers unacquainted with German, would be to read Taylor’s version and use Thomas’s notes. Even though the latter are written for the German original, they are only for a small part linguistic. What they give is in the main a running commentary on the poem which, in connection with the editor’s introductions to the two volumes, should enable any one to understand and enjoy “Faust”—any one, that ts, whose mental capacity is larger than strictly needful for the comprehension of the merits of Messrs. Conan Doyle, Savage, Gunter and Nick Carter. However, It goes without saying that far more delightful will “Faust” prove when read in the original, and that in this case Prof. Thomas will render still greater service. Happily, the study of German, in Indiana as elsewhere in the Union, is growing every year in width and thoroughness. As for criticising Thomas's work in detail, it would be out of plaqe in the columns of a daily paper. Throughout it is sane, concise and clear. That one mav differ with him here and there is not to be denied. But only two small, though not wholly unimportant, matters ought here to bo mentioned: Page 46, of the introduction to the second volume, Ottilia is spoken of as Goethe’s “daughter” instead of “daughter-in-law.” Worse is it that on P. 44 of the introduction to Yol. 1, the editor prints, with apparent approval, Gustav Freytag’s designation of Mephistopheles as “the most lovable of all devils.” Witty, smart, interesting, Mephistopheles is more than all other devils and, 1 fear, human beings, too. But lovable is the one thing he is not. Perhaps there is no greater proof of Goethe’s genius than that he was able to make the devil at once equally interesting and detestable. This. I take it, is the only point on which anybody would like to take serious issue with Professor Thomas. But American students of Goethe are so heavily indebted to him that the one growl of dissatisfaction would be sure to be drowned in an ever swelling chorus of praise. JO AKIM REINHA RD, Associate Professor of German, Purdue University, Nov. 27.

Books for Young; People. The fact that juvenile literature multiplies and improves indicates that it must be profitable. If it were not so authors would not continue to write and publish stories for boys and girls. Certainly the field is large and the army of young readers very numerous. There has been, also, a marked improvement in recent years in the character of these stories, and the best seem to be the mo3t popular. Among those received by the Journal are “A Successful Venture,” by Ellen Douglas Deland, an author who knows girls and young women and how to write about them. “A Successful Venture” tells the story of a family of girls who found it necessary to make their own way in the world. “Over the Andes,” by Hczekiah Butterworth, one of the most popular writers of stories for hoys, is a story of travel and adventure in South America, Instructive us well as interesting. Both of the foregoing, prettily illustrated, are published by W. A. Wilde & Cos., Boston. The following are issued by Estes & Lauriat, Boston: “Eunice and Cricket,” by Elizabeth W. Tlrnlow, a bright and wholesome story for quite young girls.

“The Signal Boys of *75,” by James Otis, a tale of Boston during the siege of that city by the British, full of stirring adventure and patriotic sentiment, based on historical facts. ’Under the Cuban Flag, or the Cacique's Treasure.” by Fred A. Ober, a thrilling story of adventures with the Cuban insurgents, admirably told. “The City of Stories," a collection of delightful stories by Frank M. Bicknell, well known to the readers of St. Nicholas and Harper’s Young People as the author of many clever fairy tales. “Chatterbox for 1897.” issued in the usual style of this i>opular annual, full of bright reading and pictures for little folks. All of these books are illustrated, handsomely bound and would make pretty gift books. Messrs. Roberts Brothers. Boston, publish “The Resolute Mr. Pansy,” by the vete: an story writer, John Trowbridge. It telates the experience of a young schoolmaster with an unruly class or boys at a village school. Ho finally conquers by Interesting them and teaching them something about electricity and showing them how to construct a dynamo in an old neglected forge, by whose aid the village streets are lighted. The X rays have their part, and a burglary is detected and a wife is won by scientific means. "Torpeanuts.” (Roberts Brothers), by Lily F. Wesselhoeft, is a story of a little girl who got the odd nickname of “TOrpeanuts" by applying it to a torpedo with which some boys tried to frighten her. Another l|ttle girl figures in the story, along with some pet animate—a pleasing story for children. “Rich Enough” (Roberts Brothers), by Leigh Webeter, author of “Another Girl’s Experience,” is a. story of a Boston family who were kept In hot v. r ater by. their extravagance. Finally one of the daughters hits upon a sensible plan to reform matters by moving to the country. The account of the way in which this was brought about and the results make an interesting story for young people. “The Secret of the Black Butte” (Roberts Brothers), by William Shattuck, is a story of the discovery, by a mysterious process, of a long-sought and very valuable mine in the Big Horn. Some young people figure in the story and the (Ascriptions of wild life in the far West supply an interesting feature of the story, which is one to be liked by young readers. “In Indian Tents” (“Roberts Brothers), is the appropriate title of a volume of stories purporting to have been told by Penobscot, Passamaquady and Micmoc Indians to Abhy L. Alger. They arc stories of Indian ‘ r adltions, folklore, witchcraft, etc., and are i much out of the ordinary that older eaders as well as young ones may find them Interesting. The Penn Publishing Company, Philadelphia, publish the four books following, viz.: “Miss Wildfire,” a book for girls by Julie M. Lippman, in which the heroine gets into all sorts of troubles through her own fault, but finally comes out all right. “The Girl Ranchers,” by Mrs. Carrie L. Marshall, showing how some girls succeeded in the management of a sheep ranch in the far West. “Trus to His Trust,” by Edward S. Ellis, a story for boys, in which the hero, a brave and honest lad, makes friends and win a success by being unswerving in the discharge of duty. “At the Siege of Quebec,” by James Otis, a stirring story of camp life and military adventure, written specially for boys. From I*e & Shepard the Journal has received “Queer Janet,” by Grace lue Baron, author of “Little Miss Faith" and other stories popular with children. "Queer Jaret” is a story which can be read by boys as well as girls with equal pleasure, and older readers too can derive an enjoyment from it not always found in juvenile stories. Young: Pnrltnns. Child nature is essentially the same In all ages and climes, save as modified somewhat by surrounding influences. The tale of the two bad boys who cried, “Go up, thou bald head!” to Elijah, to be speedily devoured by, “two she bears,” was doubtless inserted in the Hebrew narrative of Bible times because there were Hebrew boys then and there needing such an admonition. So there were in the early Puritan days of New England. From Sewali’s diary we learn that the boys of Boston, in 1662, "seeing Captain Breeden in a strange garb, made an outcry from one end of the streets to the other, calling him a devil. The people came out of their houses to see what was the matter.” And on April 1 Sewall records: “I have heard a child of six years old say within these two or three days that one should tell a man his shoes were unbuckled (when tYiey were indeed buckled), and then he would stoop down to buckle them; and fhen he was an April fool.” So we find that child nature, like human nature, is practically the same in all ages. This idea, pervades “The Young Puritans of Old Hadley,” by Mary P. Wells Smith. The book essays to depict the life of Puritan children for young people. The author, herself of Puritan descent, is very conversant with Puritan ideas and modes of life, and in this book she has'applied her knowledge very pleasantly to a description of Puritan child life. The story seems to be based, partially, at-least, on historical facts, and has enough'of adventure in it to interest young readers. Illustrated. New York: Roberts Bros.

Seven on the Highway. “Seven on the Highway” is the rather odd title of a collection of seven short stories by Blanche Willis Howard. Fifteen or twenty years ago Mis£ Howard wrote a pretty, cheerful little story of American life called “One Summer,” which at once attracted attention and established her literary reputation. She then went abroad and later wrote the story of Breton peasant life called “Guenn,” a masterly production in its way, but so depressing from its sadness that it never attained popularity. Since then she has published other stories, but none that leaves the reader with an impression that the world is other than a sorry place to live in. This collection of short stories can hardly be called an exception to the rule, since but one of the seven has a happy Incident for its theme. That one Is the story of a young man who lived by his wits and kept himself and an unsuspecting companion from want and even supplied with luxuries until the day of prosperity dawned anew. There is in it so much of the gayety and inspired hopefulness of youth that it goes far to redeem the tragedy and the melancholy of the others. It is not in the power of every writer of fiction to lighten pathos with the comedy that in reality always accompanies it in one form or another, but Miss Howard has proved her talent in this direction, thus making it greater matter for regret that she gives unrelieved gloom the preference. ((no VadiN. The publishers of “Quo Vadis,” Little, Brown & Cos., Boston, have just Issued a beautiful holiday edition of Sienkiewicz's remarkable novel. It is in two volumes, is bound in rich purple cloth, with outer cover of purple, and inclosed in a decorative box of the same color. The volumes are illustrated with original drawings representing scenes from the story, and with reproductions of portrait busts of Nero. Poppaea and other characters. Maps of ancient Rome and vicinity and diagrams of the Interior of Roman houses are useful additions, reference to them making evert more vivid the striking descriptions of Roman life which are such a feature of the work. Although these descriptions are, in a literary sense, the most effective parts of the novel, it is probably not these, but the religions element involved, that nas given it its great popularity, for, notwithstanding the flood of decadent fiction and the pessimistic, theory entertained by many that it meets a prevailing taste, the fact remains that a fairly well-written tale with a religious coloring or with the moral element prominent is sure to win readers where the other kind fails. Certainly tho success of this tale from the Polish, so well translated by Mr. Curtin, justifies the American publishers in issuing a handsome special edition. The price of the two volumes is SG. Uncle Sam's Secrets. The title of this book is well chosen. It deals with some of the Inside workings of government machinery which most people know very little about, Including some interesting features of its administrative and detective work. The author, Mr. O. P. Austin, is a well-known literary worker of Washington, D. C. "Uncle Sam s Secrets” is a book for young people, especially for boys, and It has evidently been written with the praiseworthy purpose of Interesting the rising generation in national affairs, both by supplying such Information as they may naturally seek and by awakening interest in the history of the Nation. This is done in the form of a conversational story, which is at once interesting and instructive for young readers. No other book has been published that contains as much accurate information concerning a variety of governmental affairs conveyed in a manner so well calculated to Interest and Instruct young readers as “Uncle Sam’s Secrets.” New York; D. Appleton & Cos. Dnnte's "Divine Comedy.” The test of great literary works Is their reproduction in successive generations and editions. Translations into other languages is also a test. Dante’s "Divine Comedy” has stood ull these tests. The recent revival, or rather spread, of Interest In the work has brought forth a new edition of the Rev.;