Indianapolis Journal, Volume 51, Number 62, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 March 1901 — Page 12
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THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 1901.
THE SUNDAY .JOURNAL j. SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 1 01.
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Tersons sending the Journal through the malls In the Unite.1 States should put on an eiht-pae paper a ONE-CENT istage stamp; on a twelve vr ixteen-pag paper a TWO-CENT postage stamp. Foreign postage 1j usually double these rates. AH communications intend-! for publication, in this paper must. In order to receive attention, Le accompanied by the name and address of tho writer. Rejected manuscripts will not be returned unless postage If inclosed for that purise. Entered as necond-class matter at Indianapolis, Ind., postotr.ce. Tili: IDIAXAPOLIS .IOI UXAL Can be found at the following places: JfcEW OUK Astor House. CHICAGO Palmer House. P. O. News Co., 217 DearLorn street. Auditorium Annu Hotel. 'CINCINNATI-J. It. Hawley & Co., l'A Vine etreet. LoriSVILLK C. T. peering, northwest corner of Third and Jefferson streets, and Louisville Llook. Co., Fourth avenue. BT. LOUIS Union News Company, Union Depot. iWASHlNUTO:.'. P. C P.lgga House, Ebbitt IIou?e and YVillard'a Hotel. Loth branches of the present Legislature liav been fortunate In their presiding officers. The Journal claims entire exemption from tho charge of having abused tho Legislature or any member thereof. 'Other Indianapolis papers can speak for themselves. Massachusetts, which has, at times, had Ita full share of tramp?, has found the labor cure most effective for the nuisance. The wanderers are arrested and made to labor on the roads. It is so unprecedented for a State to cut down Its expenditures thai: several papers are expressing surprise that the Indiana Legislature should appropriate $100,CXX) less thi3 year than two years tfgo. "'he county treasurer did right In "docking" the pay of policemen and firemen for delinquent taxes. Teople who draw pay from tho public treasury should not bo allowed to set the bad example of being delinquent in taxes. A good many years ago Elizabeth Stuart Phelps wrote a book called "Gates Ajar," and through these gr.tes offered an interested world a glimpse of heaven. Now Elizabeth is writing a . series , of wails on the servant girl question .for tho Ladies' Home Journal. Evidently, 'the prospect on the other side of tho gates no longer affords her solace. ITow much better ofT would the Filipinos be it their Independence Lad been recognized two years ago and the people turned ever to the tender mercies of Aguinaldo and his cut-throat followers? Or how much better off would Cuba be if the United States had simply expelled the Spaniards and then withdrawn Its forces? The Pennsylvania Legislature has put the cities of Pittsburg and Allegheny under a Elngle ofllcer, to be appointed by the Governor, who will be the chief executive officer. This is attributed to the Quayites as a measure of revenge, but the Pittsburg Dispatch says it is justified by the official Inefficiency and corruption in the two cities under tho present system. Primary election reform Is bound to come because it is necessary. It Is inevitable because essential. The nominating convention system, good as it may have been ct first, has developed abuses and evils which an intelligent self-governing people will not permanently endure. Whatever beginning may be made in the direction of primary election reform can be followed by further steps based on experience. Senator Agnew has accused the Journal of assailing members of the Legislature. It has assailed several measures which it believed to bo vicious. If the godfathers of such bills consider themselves assailed in the criticism therof, and so confess, they appear as self-accusers. As tho House has rejected every measure the Journal has criticised or denounced, Mr. Agnew and those for whom ho. speaks, if he speaks for any but himself, have a great grievance against tho House. The prevalence of the mob spirit throughout the country makes the support of an c flieh nt National Guard of the utmost imj.ortanoe to aid local olliccrs In protecting the lives of men arc-used of grave crimes. Governor Yates, of Illinois, cowed a mob peeking tho life of a prisoner, and the law was vindicated by his speedy trial and conviction. The very fact of strengthening the guard in differ. nt localities in Indiana will tend to que II the spirit of lawlessness which is the re .1 animus of the mob. A little cool rci.ianee? brinjrs to light the cowardice n Iiwless gatherings. It is unfortunate that a few newspapers In this country are disposed t encourage khe radical lea den In Cuba to resl.--t the preposition. embraced in th? propositions of Congress, but there Is reason to believe that the experience of tho Cubans, before Congress shall have assembled In D comber, will lead all the reasonable men on the Island to the conclusion that the best results in government for an island with 1,li,r) Inhabitants can only be reached under the : rotectlon of tho United States. There, h? not a State in the Union with a million and a half Inhabitants that is not In better position to set up an Independent government among the nations than is Cuba. The reasonable and patriotic thing for all who have the interests of the Cubans at heart Is to persuade them that this la the case. A correspondent at the City of Mexico crtB that a Mexican senator recently !?c'ared that General Diaz Is the last President of the republic vho will be able to suppress congressional debate of government measures. Perhaps, also, he Is tho last iTesltfcnt who will bo able tc give Ifexico ttabla government. Ia reality
President Diaz, who his been in office continuously twenty-four years, Is much more a military dictator than a constitutional Iresident. and the entire government of Mexico, local, provincial and national, is administered on that basis. As far as the observance or enforcement of the Mexican Constitution Is concerned It might as well not exist. Yet General Diaz is an excellent ruler for Mexico, and the country is prosperous. With hla death there will begin a stormy period.
hilvtiiilmsm at iiojul Those who have read of the burning of the corpse of the lynched mulatto at Terre Haute and of persons, taking away portions of it and raking the ashes for bones to be used as relics can ask with propriety if the American people, after all, are more civilized than those who are called barbarians, or if, as a Christian people, we are much higher in the scale of decency than are those of whom we speak as heathens or pagans. The only difference is that those whom we look down upon as depraved do not at any time rise above that condition, while oar depravity is a sort of paroxysm which lurks in the system like the disease of a paralytic sure to break out when occasion, or, rather, excuse is offered. Remembering such degrading and fiendish acts as that at Torre Haute, we cannot turn to Chinese Uoxer or naked Hottentot and offer the complacent Pharisee's prayer. In Indiana we boast the best public school system in the world. We congratulate ourselves on the smallest illiteracy among the States, and that only the smallest percentage of the children growing up in the State are not taught to some extent in the public schools. Granted that this is true; is that real education which does- not carry to the pupil an idea of the difference between decency and such disgusting practices as occurred over the remains of the miserable victim of lynchers practices that suggest the orgies of the cannibal? Cannot the public schools be made to teach the first lessons in civilization and to do something to elevate the tastes of the young so that such exhibitions as that at Terre Haute would fill them with horror and disgust? The church is a power In the world and a great light In America, yet It seems at times as If, in close proximity to our churches there are regions lying In the darkness of heathenism. Such exhibitions as that at Terre Haute painfully disclose the fact that there are many thou sands of human beings who are as ignorant of the truths of Christianity as the Hottentots and that their heathenism is as dense and as fiendish as can be found in the world. Possibly some of the mob thtt took the life of the murderer, burned his boay and carried away portions of it as relics may imagine that they are Christians, but they are not, because the Christianity of the Sermon on the Mount is, with all else, the gospel of refinement. Can the Christian church do nothing to reach these people who can be incited to such orgies as is here referred to? Do its leaders confess inability to break down the heathenism in cities which is within the sound of church bells? Sometimes the observer suspects that such is the fact. It is not for the everyday newspaper to suggest, the methods of attacking heathenism at home. There is, however, a method of battle observed in carnal wars which might be observed by the directors of the war upon darkness by all the churches. Protestant and Catholic alike. The strong and seasoned battalions are put upon the firing line and to make the charges, while the weak and fresh troops are set to hold the lines of communication-ind the depots of supplies. The church reverses that order; it keeps the able and the eloquent in the large and strong churches and sends the weak brother to the mission church to preach in a feeble manner a future salvation. How would it do to put the churches champions on the missions? A further suggestion may be offered: It is that the Christianity that will save human beings in this life from the heathenism of vulgarity and brutality the Christ who walked the earth should be preached, and less of that soul-saving for a hereafter. It is due to Terre Haute to say that in regard to the heathenism which neither education not religion seems able to reach, it is not different from other cities. But for the vigilance of Indianapolis officials it is quite probable that an innocent man would have been lynched by a mob and that the heatnenish instincts would have led some portion of it to have seized upon portions of his body for relics. No considerable city is exempt. A TYPICAL TAMMANY PATRIOT. American citizens who live outside of New York, especially In the jungles of tho wild and woolly West, are sometimes disposed to question the patriotism and disinterestedness of tho Tammany braves who govern that city. Mr. Croker, who is now recuperating on an English country place, ..as assured tho American public that he is in favor of municipal reform, and many of hi- followers are willing to admit that they also are reformers. And j-et some people persist in questioning the disinterestedness of Tammany motives. Thl-J doubt should I o removed by the case of Col. Michael C. Murphy, the new Tammany police cornmis-sloiuT-in-chicf of New York. Commissioner Murphy is known as one of the "Old Croker Guard." His name indicates that he is not of French, nor yet of iure AngloSaxon origin. In fact, ho is a native of Ireland, though he adopted this country when he was quite a boy. He is a printer by trado and a politician by profession, and has cultivated Tammanyism so successfully that he has held olllce almost continuously for the last thirty-five years. This in itself is strong evidence of his patriotism, from a Tammany point of view, but that is not all. Colonel Murphy has held office at a great sacrifice. He was formerly a large man., weighing pounds. About twelve years ago. during an exciting political campaign, he had an attack which ended In a tightening and closing of the esophagus, and for months he was not able to swallow anything. A desperate operation was decided upon. To hea'I the stomach a silver tube was passed down the esophagus and medicine Introduced. After several weeks the colonel was abio to take nourishment, but he was about starved to death. From 240 pounds he was reduced to 86 pounds. Since then, for more than ten years now, ho has lived exclusively on liquid food, taken through tho s.lver tube. Yet during all this trying, exhausting and depressive period he has continued to hold ofllce, and has Just now been appointed head cf tho Kev. York Police Board. Tho
case Is probably without a parallel In the evidence It affords of unllagging devotion to public duty and holding office under difficulties. Colonel Murphy is a typical Tammany patriot.
A Sl'KYIYAL OF IlKLIftlOl'S INTOLERANCE. There ere Indications of an approaching controversy in England which can hardly result otherwise than In a triumph for religious freedom. A London dispatch says that Cardinal Vaughan has Issued a public declaration against the anti-Catholic oath taken by King Edward on the occasion of his accession to the throne, and has ordered it to be made a subject of special service in even' Catholic church within hi3 Jurisdiction. The cardinal declares that the British Parliament alone of all the parliaments of the world brands two sacred Catholic doctrines as "superstitious and idolatrous" doctrines which are held sacred by 12,000,000 of the King's subjects, not to speak of other millions who hold the same doctrines who are not British subjects. That part of the oath taken by King Edward which is the basis of the present controversy is as follows: Lord Chancellor Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the gospel and the Protestant reformed religion established by law, and will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the United Church of England and Ireland and the doctrine, worship, iliscipline and government thereof as by law established within England and Ireland and the territories thereunto belonging, and will you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of England and Ireland and to the churches there committed to their charge all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall pertain to them or any of thYm? The King All this I promise to do. It would have been surprising indeed if the taking of such an oath at the beginning of the twentieth century by one of the most powerful sovereigns In the world, among whose subjects are many millions of loyal Catholics, had not caused a movement for Its repeal. The oath is a relic, if not of barbarism, at least of a period when religious toleration was unknown and when religious liberty was even less advanced than civil liberty. It was an outgrowth of the long and. bitter struggle between Catholicism and Protestantism for ascendancy in England. The conditions which exlstedat an early period of the struggle are thus described by an English writer: The idea of religious Toleration, though it had presented Itself as a matter of philosophical speculation, was unknown in Europe in any practical shape. Everywhere the dominant party, whichever it might be, forbade, and that in most cases under pain of death, the practice of any religion except that of the dominant party. In England, through the whole period of reformation, the existing system, whatever it was, was the only system that was allowed. Every other form of worship was forbidden under penalties heavier or lighter. And there was always some form or degree of theological error which sent its professors to the llames. And, besides burning for heresy, as heresy was understood at each successive stage, this period of English history is especially distinguished for uie cloaking of what was really religious persecution under the guise of punishment for political offenses. During the reign of Henry every man who would now bo deemed a conscientious Catholic was liable to die the death of a traitor. Every man who would now be deemed a conscientious Protestant was liable to die the death of a heretic. Under Edward and Elizabeth the standard of belief was changed, but the difference simply was that the line was drawn at a different point. Those who went beyond that point were burned by those wno a few years before might have been burned themselves. These were the conditions and this was the soil out of which a few generations later grew the best act, renunciation of the doctrine of transubstantiation as a necessary qualification for office, and the ironclad anti-Catholic oath to be taken by future sovereigns of England. Some of the intolerant legislation has been repealed, but enough remains to show an offensive survival of obsolete conditions. The oath required to be taken by the sovereign Is perhaps the most offensive feature, but an equally vicious one is that which debarred the late Lortl Chief Justice Russell, acknowledged to be the ablest chief justice that England has seen for u century, from becoming lord chancellor because lie was a Catholic. It is surprising proof of the extreme conservatism, not to say intolerance, of the British character that while the Constitution of the United States, adopted more than a hundred years ago, leaves every office in the feovernment, even that of President, open to Catholics, British laws continue to Impose the proscriptlve and galling conditions that prevailed when religious liberty was in its dawn. Therefore, we repeat, it is not surprising that the taking of the anti-Catholic caQi by King Edward should have advertised Its monstrosity and started a movement for ita repeal. LITE It A It Y C O LL A 11 0 11 ATI O X. The method of collaboration in the production of books is a mystery to most people, even including, probably, a majority of those who write books Independently of aid from others. For, undoubtedly, the greater number of the writing fraternity would find it difficult if not impossible to engage in Joint literary labor; This 'must be especially true of the writers of fiction. A man who is treating of scientific topic or is dealing with statistics, or with technical cr professional themes, may easily enough stand aside while another sets down certain facts or figures concerning which the first lacks particular knowledge, but In the production of imaginative literature the situation is different. The author of a novel must necessarily have a general plan of the work he wishes to write and may be presumed to have in mind the details, or many of them, which he wishes to incorporate in the tale. To allow another person to come in with any part of the production would seem likely to break the. unity cf thought and construction and so mar the work. And while this is true as to most writers, it is also true thit readers, as a rule, do not look with favor on collaborated fiction. The fact that two persons have joined in the work seems to take from its credibility, to destroy the illusion of truthfulness, since it gives the impression that the story is manufactured rather-than that it Hows from a single pen, a simple narrative of actual events. The fiction reader wants to preserve the illusion of realism, and that book is best liked which permits this without conscious effort. Anything suggesting the mechanism of authorship is destructive of this sense of actuality. And yet In books bearing the names of two authors it Is by no means easy to detect where the work of one writer ends and that of another begins. No one could detect the "cabinet work." for instance, in the long scries of novels by Besant and Rice; the Joints were well concealed. In the story In which Wolcott Balestier collaborated with Rudyard Kipling curious readers assumed that the former wrote the Colorado chapters and the latter those which describe events taking place In In din. but this assumption does not cxise
from a change in the literary style of the respective chapters or from any awkwardness in Joining the part3 together. In the current number of the Bookman It Is related that in a recent book of sketches by Josiah Plynt and Francis Walton Fiynt's experiences in tramp life are supplemented by Walton's, experiences with tramps as he encountered them in police and court work In Denver. The one portrays the tramp hirase If;, the other covers the legal episodes In which this irresponsible member of society occasionally figures. In this way realism Is sustained rather than diminished. All methods of collaboration are not alike, however. Those who engage in this form of literary production are usually reticent as to their plan of operations, but it is said that in some cases where two names appear one of the two ha3 actually done all the writing. The other has, perhaps, supplied the plot or certain technical or professional lore necessary to Its development. On the other hand, one with a knack at story telling, but no literary art, may write the tale out In full, after which his partner takes the completed work and revises and polishes it, thereby giving a necessary literary finish. It is not well for the reading. public to inquire too deeply Into these mysteries of authorship. It Is better when a good readable tale comes along to accept it gladly and not attempt to "go behind the returns." And since collaboration Is possible and even successful In certain cases, it seems rather strange that it is not more often resorted to. Lawyers, for example, have command, if they only realized It, of abundant material for fiction. But a lawyer, even if he had the time for literary work, seldom possesses literary ability, either as to construction or style. A partnership J between a skilled Writer with imaginative power and a lawyer with a store of curious facts as a basi'i for fiction ought to afford attractive possibilities. The same is true of the united efforts of a doctor or a minister and an author. Many a frood plot lies buried in the musty papers of a law office or in the unwritten records of the physician and preacher, both of whom know, through
J their intimate acquaintance with sick and sinful humanity, that fact is often stranger than fiction. But in order to please the reader best it will be well for one of the partners In such literary enterprise to remain a silent one. HOXGIl FOR THE YETEIt AX'S. President McKlnley's request that th3 veterans of the Grand Army shall servo as his personal escort In the Inauguration day parade was a graceful and tactful proceeding, showing as it does his high regard for his old comrades and settling what promised to be a disagreeable episode. It is no more than right that these veterans should be given the place of honor on this occasion; the position is, in fact, so obviously their due that it seems strange that those in charge of the arrangements for the day should not have given to them at once, and without waiting to be forced to do so. President McKinley was a soldier of the civil war; he is probably the last veteran of that war who will serve . in this high office. On this account, and because of tho unquestionable fact that no soldiers were ever deserving of more respect and honor from their countrymen, especial distinction belongs to them in this parade a fact that the committee in charge should have recognized without making it necessary for the President to Interfere. The failure to place them in proper place at first was rot due, cf course, to a purpose to inflict intentional slight, but rather to obtusene?s or stupidity. The years are growing fev.r in which civil war veterans can take part in public parades, and it should be the care of everyone who has to do with such events to see to it that they are not driven to the disagreeable necessity of resenting disrespectful treatment a necessity that causes irritation, not only to all members of their organization, but to all who remember what service that great army which it represents rendered to tho country. Lieutenant C. A. L. Totten is a graduate of West Point and .a man of learning in more than one branch of science, but his attempt to Identify the recently dSeovered "new star" as tho original star of Bethlehem is more sentimental than scientific. The recurrence of, disks or cycles, which he cites to sustain his theory, resembles the remarkable coincidences in Ignathfs Donnelly's Shakspeare-Baconian theory. In the first place it Is not accurate to call Nova Tersci a "new star." The creation of new matter has ceased. There are many dark stars in the sky, stars, which from absence of intense heat or some other cause have a cold crust like the earth and do not shine. These dark stars revolve with others, but are not seen. Finally a grazing collision with another body, as happens at long intervals, supplies the heat that causes the star to shine and It becomes visible. It Is new to observers on earth, but in that fcense only. If the heat subsides the star diminishes In brightness, and if the heat fails It becomes dark again. The story of the star of Bethlehem, beautiful and interesting as it is, is nothing more than a sacred tradition which has no recognition In science. If the wise men of the East were guided by a moving star It was a miracle, and Is not available as a fact-in astronomical discussion. Its use by Lieutenant Totten is misleading, to say the least, and calculated to raise a cloud of foggy and emblematical speculation. Level-headed astronomers will see no more connection between 1 the Nova Persei and the star of Bethle hem than they do between solar eclipses and the plague. At a large meeting of parents and teachers In Chicago a prominent educator maintained that a boy ought not to be taught tc. reason things out until he is twelve years old. "If a child asks why a thing must be done before that age," said the speaker, "tell him 'because it's right.' Argument does a child no good, and the discipline of unquestioning obedience is one of the best parts of a child's training." There Is enough truth in this view' to make It plausible, but many parents will be apt to differ from it on some points. Discipline and unquestioning obedir nod -are valuable training for a child, but so Is reasoning and development of the power to discern between right and wrong on other grounds than blind obedience. A boy does a lot of reasoning for himself before he Is twelve years old, whether he Is taught to or not, and It Is best that he should be helped to reason straight. If the modern Idea Is correct, that 'development of the individual Is one of the most Important parts of education, the nroccss can ha nil v beirin too earl v. I If a boy is treated as a machine until tha
age of twelve years a good deal of time has been lost. Unquestioning obedience should not be inculcated or enforced at the expense of Individual reasoning powers. The boy who "stood on the burning deck, whence all but him had fled," gave a better exhibition of unquestioning obedience than of common sense. An American boy would have saved himself without asking anybody's permission. When one generation after another of a singlo family follows the same calling especial excellence in the distinctive line of work has come to be looked for and Is usually found. In the course of tim heredity is an influence in the matter. Members of the successive generations Inherit a taste or a talent for the particular occupation or profession followed by their ancestors, and sometimes this talent is marked. Oftencr, however, proficiency Is due less to a special talent than to. familiarity-with the work and association with those engaged in it. This acquaintance with the Ins and outs of the occupation, hatever it may be, serves as a training of the greatest value. This is particularly true of the actor's profession. One could hardly look, for instance, for any member of tho Drew family to be other than a success cn the stage. It might be that the natural histrionic gifts would not be great, but the tradition, the inevitable and unconscious assimilation of stage ideas and the knowledge of stage methods and demands would in' themselves be an education that-would go far toward fitting such person for the actor's life. The fact that dramatic success is sometimes won by persons who have had little training or experience does not alter the fact that as a rule in this, as in all other callings, long and careful training is both desirable and necessary. The recent professional debut of the daughter of John Drew is a case in point. Her career will be watched with interest, but there will be few to predict failure for the member of the fourth generation cf a family of actors. Now the Senate has decided not to sell St. Clair Park, but to have it fenced in. Presumably its idea is to have a high board fence, which it can rent for bill-sticking purposes, In order to bring a revenue to the State. The Senate must regret its lack of authority to fence the town in. Admiral Cervera, who has been made vice admiral, has won his honors before Sampson and Schley have had their reward for capturing him. Verily, republics are ungrateful.
FltOM HITHER AND YON. HoNpitalile. Kansas City Star. "Do make yourselves at home, ladies," said the unfortunately careless hostess one day to her visitors. "I'm at home myself, and I wish you all were." Dark. Detroit Journal, "lie Is evidently a man with the bark on." "Why evidently?" "Well, for one thing, he goes about so much with his coat off." The Itctort Courteous. I met a goat, and said to him, "The question, pray, excuse. Why do you always wag your chin' Quote he, "Because I chev.s!" Life. In the Stilly Mcht. Philadelphia Press. "What can I do for you?" asked the druggist, who had been aroused from his sleep by the violent ringing of the night bell. "Why, m fr'en'," said De Kanter, "I want look at yer city dlrect'ry, an shee what my 'dresh lsh, sho I can go home." Lookiue Ali end. Catholic Standard. "Here's an advertiser," Faid the Western editor's asitant, "who offers one of his jatent sad-Irons for shirt bosoms in exchange for advertising space." "Accept it, of course," replied the editor. "Soma day we may acquire a sh?rt in the same way." For One So Yoimg. Chicago Tribune. "On the contrary." contended the little Posten boy, "I have always thought that even the writer of slang has- a high mission to fill. He faves the language from the dry rot Into which it would lapse In the hands of the half-educated purists." Then he went out and amused himself by examining the snow crystals through his microscope. LITERARY KOTES. Pichard De Gallienne announces that "An Englishwoman's Love Letters" are made up of "high-school skittishness and tedious brilliancy'." "The Young Man Eloquent" is to be the rather striking title of Mr. George Gissing's new novel. The hero Is a youth with political ambitions. English writers are wreaking themselves on biographies of Queen Victoria. Between forty and fifty are already available, and at least twenty more are on the press. And all are more or less rehashes of the first. Jules Verne is seventy-three years old. He has written a novel for every year he has lived, although his first book did not appear until less than forty years ago. It was "Five Weeks in a Balloon" and scored an instant success. "Victoria, after all," says the New York Tribune, "did not do very much for literature. The only writers who received honors during her reign were Lord Tennyson. Sir Walter Besant, Sir Lewis Morris and ir Theodore Martin. The list has its absurdities. And yet the reign was glorious in its literature." Tolstoy is getting his name spelled right at last in his old age. Many, says a New York writer, have clung to the spelling Tolstoi in this country with great persistence, as If there were a protective tariff on that doubly dotted i. keeping" out the y. But even th : Tolstoy clubs are beginning to defer to the author's manner of spelling his own name. The book reviewer of the Brooklyn Eagle Is much Impressed by the striking and novel plot of "Tho Penitentes," by Louis How. He considers the book a remarkable one and says: "Curiosity will be rife to se where Mr. How will get his next plot. It does not seem probable that he can secure so original a theme, and. failing that, it remains to be see-n how he will handle a more ordinary subject. He Is a fortunate young man, but he is aiso an exceedingly clever one, and the literary world will await his future work with interest. Literature is "looking up" In New York, to judge from this paragraph from a paper of that city: "There is a great deal more reading of books In street cars In .this city than there used to be. Can it be because this Is now the literary center of the United States? A somewhat careful observation for quite a long period of girls reading in surface, cars shows that serious books of history and biography are quite as likely to be in their hands as fiction. Twice in a month two different girls have ben teen reading Latin poetry with evident enjoyment on a Broadway car." There Is a fctory that Mr. Kipling has p,m for the serial rights of his novel "Kim." He retains the copyright also. This tale." says the Tribune, "will be heard with astonishment, of course; yet, it it were a new and remarkably popular brand of soap or baking powder nobody would wonder. Why should there be in existence that queer feeling that authors ought to live on a i)ittanc and leave their families nothing when they die? A successful author must eat. wear clothes and sleep under a roof, as roust a successful soap manufacturer," George Bernard Snaw tells why he writes prefaces In the preface to his r.CT? tDc! "TLres Tlaya fur PuritcJ.3:,
MODERS FABLES' by Clccrzc A Je.
The Modern Fable of the WUc TiKcr Who Had the KJnd of TalK IShai Went Z Jfr Jo I
J Copyrighted, 1901, by Once there was a man who wore a Six and three-quarters Hat and had been so busy staving off the People who needed it right away because they had some Bills to meet that he never found time to sit down and absorb Culture. Yet he had to go out and meet those who wore Specs and had these high Mansard Foreheads. Sometimes he found himself In the Front Room where every one was expected to discuss Literature, Art, Music and the Difficulty of getting good Kitchen Help. This Man was a Pin-Head In a good many Pespects, but he. was as Wise as a Serpent. X man does not have to be stocked up with Information In order to be Wise. This Man was what Edmund Clarence Stedman would call a Piker. A Piker is one who gets into the Game on Small Capital and Lets On to be holding back a huge Reserve. A Piker is usually Safe when he sagatiates among the Well-Bred, because they are too Polite to call a Bluff. A Piker always has his entire Stock of Goods in the Show Window. When it came to Music the Piker did not know the difference between a Fugue and a Cantata. Such knowledge of Literature as h-j could boast was picked up by reading the Posters in front of Book Stores. The average Katydid had about as much Aft Education as he could have Spread if it had come to a Show-Down, but he never allowed it to come. He had about as much Business in an Assemblage of cultivated Chautauquans as a man with a ragged Two-Dollar Bill would have in Wall Street. Yet he managed to cut Figure Eights over the Thin Ice and ho had the name of being one of the Brainiest Gentlemen that ever accepted an Invitation to the Evening Session of the Olympian Circle of Hens. The Piker knew the Value of the Stock Phrase. -And the way he could raise a Dut and dodge out of a Tight Place was a little Bit of All Right. One evening the Tiker went to call on Mrs. Hester Kazam, author of many unpublished Poems and the boss Diana of the Tuft Hunters. At tho Kazam Home, which is rigged up with Red Blankets and Green Lamps so as to be Oriental, he bumped into Henrietta Hunter Haw, who will be remembered as the Young Lady who poured at the Afternoon Reception to F. Hopkinson Smith. Miss Haw reclined at half length in the Turkish Corner and asked the Piker what he thought of Sienklewicz. The Piker knew that he had heard that name sprung somewhere before, but if he had tried to Pronounce it he would have gone to the Floor. He didn't know whether Sienklewicz was the author of "Lovers Once but Strangers Now" or "The Gentleman from Arkansaw." However, he was not to be Feazed. He knew the kind of Conversational Parsley that is needed to Garnish a full-blown Intellectual Vacuum, and he passed some of it to Henrietta. He said he liked Sienk so far as the Psychological Analysis was concerned, but it sometimes occurred to him that there was a lack of Insight and Broad, Artistic Grasp. This is the Style of Vapor calculated to keep a Young Woman anchored right In the Turkish Corner and make her believe she has met the Really and Truly Gazip. The Piker unreeled a little more of the same kind. He said that the Elaboration of Incident showed a certain Modicum of Skill, but there was not enough Plus-Hu ashamed neither of my work nor the way it is done. I like explaining its merits to the huge majority who don't know good work from bad. It does them good; and it does me good, curing me of nervousness, laziness and snobbishness. I write prefaces as Dryden did, and treatises as Wagner, because 1 can, and I would give half a dozen of Shakspeare's plays for one of the prefaces he ought to have written. I leave the delicacies of retirement to those who are gentlemen first and literary workmen afterwards. The cart and trumpet for me." WISDOM OF CURRENT FICTION. Adversity winnows one's friends like a sieve. Tho Old Gentleman of the Black Stock. The eyes speak more plainly than the Hps at great psychological moments. A Lady of the Regency. A man is as old as he feels, and there are times w:hen a man ages twenty years in as many minutes. A King's Pawn. She was made on that large, calm plan on which an all-wise nature creates the maternal woman she whose destiny it is to bear strong children to a stalwart sire. Hard Pan. A man who really loves his wife is apt to be the first to want the companionship of another woman when absent from home. Such are safest for a grass widow. Confessions of a Grass Widow. When we expect something disastrous we generally keep In reserve the hope that because we expect it it will not happen, thereby proving our faith in the fallacy that it Is always the unexpected that happens. Babs the Impossible. When sorrow enters our doorway how varied are the looks we cast upon the darkbrowed stranger. The face of one is hardened by the marks of defiance, while the calm features of another are softened by the tenderness of resignation. Maya. She was one of those impressionable women who fall a prey to plausible Impostors with volublo talk about ethereal vibrations, telepathic energy, the odic fluid and the rest of such rubbish, unless strongminded male friends intervene to prevent them. Linnet. The meal was cold and extremely nasty, as h the manner of most meals served in private sitting rooms in hotels, so that It has always seemed to mo remarkable that visitors should eontentedlj' pay extra for this chilly luxury instead of declining to pay for the meal at all. The Alonk Wins. Why should I go to hear a young man of far le-ss experience than myself holding forth to worldly people worldly considerations to induce thorn to embrace a religion of which the Founder preached the blessedness of sorrow? 'ine poorest preacher, sir, is impressive so long as he believes himself the minister of God. I may not accept Ms mcsisafre, but if he believes In his mission I shall resnect him. If, however, he questions his own credentials I will not listen to him. The Old Gentleman of the Stock. ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS. Other things being equal, the forward seats in a street or railway car are the most healthful. The forward motion of the car causes a current of air backward, carrying with it the exhalations from the lungs of those In the forward end. Queen Victoria, a few months ago. had a conversation at Osborne House with one of the clergy of the Isle of Wight. She aid to him: "I hope, you get on well with the Nonconformists. You will have to get on with them in heaven, you know." Mrs. Julia Dent Grant, widov of the general, recently denied the stories cf her husband's dislike for music. "He did not." Fhe fald, "care for musical gymnastics, as hfc called them, but he was most fond uf music, and often asked ma to sing for him." "The Tompkins family are all under on roof cgaln. Mrs. Cornelius and the daughters q re back from abroad, and Mim! Wattrmrn has com' out with Nan from New YorU to visit his Mother. Adele and Min. Vaterrnn were always svct eirla, and iV.-i Tc.-rpldna farr.ily thtnU a heap of her
ltobert Howard Kussell.
man Sympathy in the Cj'.'.rlr.r f th Subtle Motives. When the IY.ir ; .: rii of this he was always Relieved. f r it iAwful Thing to Memorize and carry : r with you. Afterward MIs Haw went r.ut'wr.-l z, her Girl Friends that the Piker w::a inble Deep. When they brought up Music thu -..is where the Piker lived. He cvukl ; :; early and stay late und nevtr Trip in-:. . . up. He had attended a couple of ' :. :n and at one time boarded with u Lady i. j played the Aut'diarp. One Evening when he was out with r, w People who were such Thoroh M;.-i ; i:. s that they seemed Sour about si nu the time a Tall Mf.n with a L v C .: .r asked him if he had heard tiv.it ha- .-t Thing by Tschalkowsky. If he had made it Charles K. Iarr;.- t!.o Piker might have been with him. Iui l.e never turned a Hair. "Impressive, Isn't it?" tie sal), h.nivg learned how to Spar for Wind v.iti. -t leaving an Opening. "Yes, but it didn't get into nie : tl.e way Vogner does," replied the Tall l.rty. This was the Cue for the Piker to i:e:t his Speech on Vogner. He said he preferred Vogner any d.iy in the Week on account of the litln -t Ap', r.l to the Intellectual Side and tho Atu.u.i;.. ie of Mysticism, whatever that was.4 IK .v. he couldn't listen. to Vogner without g i: into a Cold Sweat and Chewing the r.i:tt.v.s off his Gloves, particularly if the Ir.tn rotation was made with a Broad :;nd Comprehensive Virtuosity and Mich M.ist ry f Technique as to abolish all sup;r sti..the Intermediary ;md bring one in :in-ct Communion with the Soul-Mocds. Then the Tail Man would know jut as much about it as the Piker did. Among the Acquaintano s was a Lady named Wigley, who was Crazy about Art. In her Parlor she had one of lur own Works entitled "Sunset on the Little Miami River," with a Frame that cost I.V.. It w:.s Ml:-s Wfgley who read the Pap r bf.re the Raphael Suburbanites, setting forth that the Highest Effects could not bo obtained by the Use of Crayon. Hho Iov -.1 to hear the Piker cut loose about Art. liv n when he got In over his Head she was right there swimming along after hi:a and taking Chances. Mrs. Wigley was stuck on his Conversation because he said so many thinps that could be Thought About later on. NY.irly every one who hoard him wnt Hom -uid Thought about what he had said arid Wondered what he had been Driving at. Mrs. Wigley had a Theory that an Artist who is any Good at all should be aide to suggest through the Medium Color- all that he or she felt and suffered during the Throes of Execution. So she called in the Piker to size up her Picture of the Little Miami River at Sundown and as kid him what Emotion, if any, was stirred up within hi:n as he gazed at the E1 rt. Th PihT said it gave him a touch of Sadness. Thin she knew he was a real Critic all rUht. Tho Piker kept it up until ;:f:tr a whi he began to think that p.-inly ;,. was something- of a Sassy Savant. He was elected Director a Museum and wa invited to sit on the Platform at L.dur. s. And at last ho departed this Life with onlv a few Relatives and Intimate Friei.ds being on to him. - Moral For Parlor Use the Vague Generality is a Life-Savtr. too." Society njto from St. Louis 'JiobcLemocrat Mrj. Marie Mulholland Jorda n Strut' r, of Michigan, who claims to be tho mot lur of the Princess Chimay, says: "Six month. after the death of my husband. John J. :- tian, Maude (Princess Chimay war, barn (o me. Though twenty-eight years ;4go 1 i . -member the incident weil," Sum a f. at ;f memory should Invite the attention el psychologists. According to the eminent statistician; Mr. Carroll D. Wright, the decrease in marriages during recent years has b en g. neral and striking. Of 1 7. 127 r. pr-v ntative workingmen in twenty-two cities, thr.fourths of whom wire umbr tw-nty-iiw years of age, it was found that, according to tho lift census. J.'i.SJT were ur.n' trri -.1. These figures are declared by Mr. Wright to be "appalling." . On becoming head of the depa-tmcut of law of the Columbian Correspondence 'Allege, of Washington, Judge Chail. s. A. K.. formerly ot Indiana, retired from tin a ;. e iractlce of tho law and from auth t-.': p. except as to books written for thi r..!;. . He has the personal sup, rvisii n of t:i law courses or all the siudei-ts, :o wl.; ho devotes his entire time and att t! n, and is th. court ot last resort for th- decision or all questions cf law which un-i in th. course of their studies. Some one In France has discovered that ; President Loubet has among his an? j a saint! "A holy virgin r.ura.d Lou: . :te," I so the legend is told in a Paririm .1 a;r: al. i "after being long in the LnrTevs :l i Vs service tine motner or tjons; aniiü . ;:na having been present at tho di-t ev ry ef the true cross in Jerusalem. wi! 1 t? r turn to Brittanj, her birthplace. The tJrnj-ris j gave her a piece of t l.e tru- tross and if i the crown of thorns. Thereafter Saint Lou- ' bette worked miracks and founded a convent in Poitou." i A firm in Toronto. Cr. id i. has "made a j large sum of money by a sharp MdwrtiMnc I .?1fT Tl,,... .ifii-nrf iv. ,1 "t tri r.rr-'-.t 1 VilSlil. 1 li j 1 J k l i l I .. -'II - j i , 4 we will send, securely sealed, a be;vutiml!y bound book of 4 i-.t't s. of - i things. Iviry snort sho'iai ha v.- oi.e. T;.. ! most wonderful aook ever writ'ft;. Fr : h I and Enpiish translation. I'r.i'ii!,!". ..-n j -countries. Write at once." 7he f't.ctiv department, .ve ntiag th" cir uiuti-'.i ot" proper literature, j-ect 1 and ree.-i..: t 13-cent 15iMc. They luve r.;,; irjUrMi l with 'the sale. Senator Vest older than. ';!? years, in fact, a:- well as in Lppcara::e' lb- is ill and despondent, and refuses to t,V.o a efceerfui i-w of bfe. N ( rh - hi rr.ind is en- of the brightest ir. s:. i i. I Oi" day h-- sank into his, chair, s ivJ:--i,to j his r.ei ;hl or: "i am an .M -r. :;. .'.r d I'M I never g t ova r this." "Onf. cnai., V. - ! brace up." feplhd his neighbor: "r - ; i and you Ii De ;ui right. Look at :!:ri:; cvir th'-re: he's nearly ninety ;!nd spry as man of for v." 'il-.rrid .:--r-rli:" said Vest. "i.e's s.-t f r rt ri.!t. They'll have to shoot hir.i on the d:v of judgment." Mis- J..ne Addams. cf Hull H i: . 'h; cago. and Mn Joseph T. Low en will b-.;id a larrre modl tenement in the Nir.ett .r ta vard of Chicago In thr spring. T.. ! i'dir.g will contain one hurdr I r -n-. U i ulil be of stone and brick and four st r. s i high Six .'ulditlor ai sto.lt wi:! be .. 1 - . I if th x: orinient mea ts with : -. I'Loorrs will b rented for frorn ! t. f i , month. hpi each room 1 to hav t heat, a r.as range, electric lig'it. and ..1 .nd col l water. A Irithn 0:2 1- t provided for every threv ro !?. Th t- . floor is to be g:ea over to nvj.e nn A central roart v.ill contain u f.. ;-.tain. r'ovrrr, and a playground for chlldi r:n Mr. nttnnM 3lnrillite !)ulIr. Johnson City (Tenn.) Comet. Cut oil old Jack Iteaves's whUkerr. meat hi face with a weak Solution of v.h. tows rh, hang a few corkscrew cur! around his red marble brow, drefs hlra up 'n woman's clcthc Lr.d porch a b.r.r.tt t t p of his cranium and h wou'd b? a dead ringer for Aunt CjirTio Nation. Or d:k Aunt Carrie up in iart? and a prtree Albert and a föouch. bat. pa?? ferae '!.' kers on hor counter. urc;. r.i surround lur v. 1th a vixnetti of b.a- bot tM :.:.d We would have tho dmd Image of the tamoui editor of the llordc-:r.an 're Preü
