Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 28, Number 9, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 28 August 1897 — Page 3

GEN. HOWARD'S VIEW

INTERVIEW WITH THE DISTINGUISHED MILITARY COMMANDER.

HI* Judgment Concerning Two Great Hatties—Cuba aud Hawaii—The Department St«tre— Prosperity and Silver—The Rights of American Citizens In Turkey.

[Special Correspondence.]

Bitruxoton, Vt., Aug. 24.—General O. O. Howard is living here in peace aud quiet, but not in idleness. General Howard has chosen the literary career, and most of hi* time is spent now iu writing for newspapers and magazines or reviewing books on the late war. Somt of it he spends in fighting bis battles over apiiu. "I often think over the battle of Chaucellorsvilip." he said to me in con|toosoon," versation the other d. y, "and try to determine with iny more mature judgment it' there is anything I would do differently today if I were in the same position, aud, though I have been attacked very often for the 'mistake' of Chanrellorsville, I cannot see today why I should have dono anything differently, considering the information I had*" "Why is it," I asked, "that no authorities apr«i3 iu giving credit for the splendid deeds of the Federal commanders ii.i our great war?" "It has b''en ho with all great wars," said the general. "There have been controversies after every one of them over the credit aud blame due to those in authority. The desire of men to gain a little more credit than they deserve is responsible for it, in part at least. Then two men never see an incident in just the same way or remember it alike. It bus been my experience since the war to find about all the things I did in some engagements credited to some one else, while I have never claimed credit except for my men. Take the Gettysburg case. General Walker, in his account of that battle, credited Hancock with everything I did on the field.

MAJOR GENERAL O. O. HOWARD.

Hancock's monument stands at Gettysburg where my headquarters were. I heard General Walker lecture some y«?ars ago, and when ho got through I went up to him and congratulated him on his splendid tribute to Hancock. •You could not say too much iu his praise,' said 1» 'and I have only one fault !o find with your lecture—you attribute to Hancock everything that I did at Gettysburg.' Well, Walker turned red and then white, and finally he said, 'You know, general, we must take our cue from our commanding officer.' By that ho meant to intimate, I suppose, that Hancock was his authority for what, ho had said, but I don't believe Hancock told him anything of the kind."

General Howard has been busy lately nient, reviewing the work of the schools for negroes at Washington, Hampton and other places in the south. He was at the head of the frcedmen's bureau in Washington for many years, and when he undertook to establish these schools he l'ound serious opposition. "They said I was an amalgamationist," h-' said to me, "and so I was, but noi an extreme amalgamationist in their sense. I did not, advocate marriage between the races, but I believed in the recognition of the manhood of the black man and in protecting him in that manhood, in recognizing the womanhood of the Idack womau and protecting her in her womanhood. The establishment of educational institutions for the colored people served to remove much of the prejudice against the black man in the south and to i:ivo him au equal cpf.ortcnitv with the white man according to hisabiiity."

Cuba »»ii Hawaii,

"Do von Sieve with a gve it nmny persons that the freeing of Cubawiii mean the etahli-hna nt of a black republic, ami do you think thepvoHo of :i :i CapaM" of w.. I *.\i. "I au» stri ugly in sympathy with the Cubans." said General Howard. "1 hope they will gain their fieulom. I think th^ immediate outcome of the freeing of Cuba will be the inauguration of a good, strong local government, iu which our own people will have a large if not a controlling interest. Our people ore peculiar. The news of gold discoveries in Alaska or British Columbia sends Su.OOt men in that direction. Oklahoma is opened to settlenieut, and towns arc built up there in a day. Our surplus population is increasing all the time, aud ..heuands of our people are waitiug for the freedom of Cuba to rush to iha* island aud settle there. These men •Jiui the native American# who will go into Cubit

are

quite capa

ble of self gov ii!n nt. »i will help to create stilsio gov«Tn:n«*nt on the island. ami in ime it wui be taken into the I'lnt- Stales. "Don't you think the L'nited States is rimuiug a risk adept ng the colonial a tv taking iu Cuba m.d Hawaii: "There an" *bjeelirus to it & veil as tiguui« nts in its favor 1 400

*ries who went in there did a grand work. They made thousands of converts, bat their descendants have not sufficiently supplemented that work by cultivating the home spirit among the Hawaiians. The home is the salvation of a nation. Now these descendants of the missionaries, as I understand it, are the people who want annexation. I fear the natives, who are a majority of the inhabitants, don't want it. I think it won Id be better if it were postponed until civilization was more general on the islands and a majority of the people of the islands asked for annexation." 1 A Friend of Silver.

I asked General Howard if he shared the fear of many Republicans that dissatisfaction with the administration would result in Bryan's election in 1900. "Those people are making predictions he said. 'If prosiWt:y should fail to develop under the new adminisI tration, it is quite likely the extreme silver men would elect the next president, bnt the new administration has not had a fair trial yet. The first of the measures to which it was pledged has now become a law. President McKinley is going ahead on the lines of the Republican national platform. He is a man who makes friends, and he has accomplished what they

Baid

was impos

sible. He has got a tariff bill through congress. He has appointed a currency commission, too, and I have greater hopes of the result of that commission's work than I have of the new tariff. I am a friend of silver, and I think the best thing that could happen to this country would be the agreement between England, France and the United States for the greater use of silver. Let it be in an amalgam—I don't care how it is—but let us have silver recognized as a money metal by international agreement, and wo shall certainly have

good

results. Prosperity will be enhanced by removing contention." "Prosperity for all means a better understanding between capital aud labor, does it uot?" "The conflict between them will end when there is a decided change in the conditions which govern capital and labor, but that change cannot be brought about in such a revolutionary way as Mr. Debs proposes. It must come gradually and from small beginnings. Are you interested iu the 'Junior Republic' in New York? I mean something like that. Perhaps some form of co-operation is the ultimate solution of the problem —not a community of goods, but a community of interests in labor and its results. That is a very big question, though, and one with many sides. The department store is doing much to disturb business conditions. It is crowding out of bnsiuess all the smaller tradesmen and concentrating commerce in the hands of a few men." "You don't expect to get rid of the department store by legislation, as they have tried to do in Illinois?" I said. "No," said General Howard. 'That evil must be corrected by public sentiment, but I don't know now who is big enough to turn public sentiment in the right direction. I saw a department store iu Chicago which was open to none of the objections brought against most of tliera. In this store each department was managed by one man. He did the buying, fixed the prices and looked after the selling of the goods, aud he was interested in the profits. Thus each tradesmau in the store was independent of the others in that store, and his profits depended

011

his own business

acumeu. Perhaps that will be the form of the department store iu the future. The American people are resourceful. They quickly adapt themselves to new conditions. When silver mining failed in Colorado, the people began to look for gold. When a change iu business conditions throws a man out of employhe fits himself for something

else. A constant readjustment is going

on and always will go on, aud we must expect to seo some poverty aud some distress among those whose trade or business has ceased suddenly to be profitable. Iu time tbey will flud new occupations and new forms of, prosperity."

The Turkish Question.

General Howard's name was one of those considered by the president iu connection with the Turkish mission. If Dr. Augell had not accepted the appointment, it was understood at Washington, his name would have gone to the senate. General Howard is qualified for the foreign service by a familiarity with most of the dead and living languages, a classical education, a standing in military circles which has made his name well known abroad and by an experience in dealiug with men aud affairs which covers more than 40 years. He says he does uot regret the fact that he is not going abroad, though his lively iuterest in the missionaries in Armenia made him anxious to see their wrongs redressed and to help redress them. When I

suggested

that the Unit

ed States was a small figure at Constantinople since it had no interest in the concert of the powers, General Howard said: "The trouble with the United States in Turkey is the rank of our representative there. We should have an embassador at Constantinople, and we should allow him money enough to make a creditable appearance. When I was in Constantinople, General Lew Wallace was minister. He had to live in a place far up the Bosporus because he could uot afford to pay for quarters where the other legations were, and when I was invited to attend entertainments given by the British embassador and otiters he excused himself from going with me, "If I go.' he said, *1 must accept other invitations, and yon know & departcre. I cannot afford to reciprocate this bos-j blue waters of Puget sound and well on pi tali ty.'

What we need more than any- his way to Juneau And Dyea, bat Seatthin^ else at Constantinople* though, is tie is not the only city that has gone a man of firm charactrt who will de- clean daft over these discoveries, though mand n-pect for the rights of American die is reaping the richest harvest, to citizens The Turk has a wholesome be sure. There is certr:r.iy method in fear of our navy, and a firm assertion her madness, for, whetb.i the advenof our rights would be treated by the turers find gold or find death, she stands porte with prompt consideration. to win.

SEATTLE IN A WHIRL,

DEPARTURE OF GREEDY GOLD SEEKERS FOR THE KLONDIKE.^

Vessels Depart Laden to the Gunwales With New Argonauts—Seattle's Streets Alive With Eager, Hustling Men—Her

Hotels Crammed With Fortune Hunt*.!*-

[Special Correspondence.]

Seattle, Wash., Aug. 18.—Seattle is sizzling, not with the beats of summer, for here the temperature is exceedingly agreeable, but with the Klondike fever. San Francisco was pretty well worked up, I thought. Portland was in the throes o£ a mild excitement. But here at Seattle the fever is at its height.

The train I came on from Frisco wa9 loaded to the guards, as it were, main ly with miners, real and prospective, bound for the new El Dorado. The "smoker" was fairly aflame, men shout-

AN OUTFIT,

ing, disputing—and all talking Alaska, and the millions that had recently arrived from there. Glorious Mount Shasta, which was in sight during the greater part of a day, suggested to us only the snowclad peaks of Alaska. The train could not move fast enough. There were gold seekers on board whose flights of fancy outstripped the wind, whose impatient longings looked ahead, over the broad seas, to climbing the pass of Chilkat aud the running of the White Horse rapids.

The ignorance of these new argonauts was as pitiful as it was astouuding. Most of them seemed only to know that they had to go to Seattle, step aboard a steamer there and fate would do the rest. Few of them had their outfits very few had any but the moqji meager knowledge of the country or the route thither. Some of them were to take passage on steamer the very night of their arrival at Seattle.

Still, there has been disseminated, during the past week or two, accurate and authentic information about the newly discovered goldfields, which is now available aud which may check this wild rush for the frozen north. Nothing, however, will delay the gold seekers at this moment. They seem to recognize oniy one important fact—that the last boat from Seattle which is likely to give them entrance into the coveted territory before navigation and the passes are obstructed sails the last of this month. I need not enumerate the different boats that have already departed, laden to the water's edge with men and their supplies. They have been impressed all along the Pacific coast, from San Diego to Seattle, and consist of all sorts of old hulks, as well as safe seagoiug steamers.

I was here when the Alice, a very small steamer, set out with a full cargo of horses for use over the newly discovered ronu by the way of Skagguay bay. Hitherto all the packing had to be on the backs of the meu going in by the way of Dyea aud the Chilkat pass. I am not certain that it has been conclusively proved that horses and donkeys can be profitably used, even on the new route, but there have beeu many shipped there, as well as vast quantities of fodder.

Tons here, living among aud talking with the returned miuers who came back loaded down with the dust, it seems hardly credible that scarce a mouth has passed since the first reports of the rich sirikes reached us. Gold has been known to exist in Alaska for many years, the first find having been made a dozen years ago, but that it existed in enormous quantities was not really known to us until the arrival of the Excelsior ou the 15th of last month. Then, only two days later, came the Portland with a cool million iu dust and nuggets.

That started the exodus—uot only from the Pacific states, but from all over our country. The former secretary of the Young Men's Christian agsocia,tiou here brought out $67,000. Another Seattle man, Mr. Stanley, $112,000, after having been gone less than a twelvemonth.

Men with sums ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 were almost as common as "pebbles on the beach, "and as tbey made light of the dangers they had encountered and held forth promise of yet greater finds to be had in that remote auriferous region, the "sacred flame": was soon alight, as we know, from the Pacific to the Atlantic. "InsaneSeattle" Joaquin Miller called our city after he was afloat on the

•S-Ii

Georok GraxthaxBacs. 1 She has bees languishing In sad ek-

peotancy ever since the overblown boom some years ago filled her with empty honses and vacant lots, but now the star of her coming greatness is rising above the horizon. Once more her streets are alive with eager, bustiing meu, her hotels cramu.ed to overflowing with excited fortune seekers, her warehouses bursting with goods aud her wharfs lined with shipa

The gold fever is infections. I myself have bad to summon all

iy reason and

remind myself of duties to home aud friends to withstand it As it is, I canJiot keep away from the wharfs and the warehouses, from the assemblage^ of sanguiue adventurers and the throngs of would be millionaires. There is something tonic and iufecfious in the very air, and the longer one regards this madness the more likely he is to become imbued with the sanguine sentiments of these happy go lucky explorers.

I went down to see the Rosalie gooff, her decks crowded to the gunwales, and helped to swell the chorus of farewells wafted after the hardy lot of men going to brave the dangers of an almost unkuown region. Then we sent off the Cleveland, the Willamette, the Portland again, and so on, each ship loaded deep with eager, expectant humanity.

There were tears as well as laughter, sad forebodings as well as happy hearts, but the dominant note is hope and a firm belief that, though many hapless individuals may never return, yet in the aggregate all will be enriched by the golden flood that next season will inundate our shores.

Fred A. Ober.

CABIN BOAT DWELLERS.

A Curious Class Whose Members Live Along the Banks of the Great Rivers. [Special Correspondence.]

St. Louis, Aug. 23.—No general census has ever been taken of the cabin boat folk, but their numbers must reach well into the thousands. Doubtless, too, they have increased notably, as the tramps have, iu the lean years that have lately been our portion. Their queer habitations, consisting of little cabins mounted 011 some sort of float, sometimes with some skill, and neatly painted, but ofteuer knocked together in the roughest way, are scattered along the banks of the Mississippi from St. Paul to the gulf. All aloug the Ohio and far up the Missouri they are also to be found.

Next to the out and out life of the tramp the cabin boat man's must be closest of all to an ideal existence for the vagabondishly inclined, while at the same time it possesses certain advantages over the hobo's. It is true that in the beginning the cabiner must provide his home, but after that has been done his life is far more independent than the tramp's and certainly requires much less exertion than the latter expends in tramping. A few boards, which he can gather up somehow, a few nails and a sash or two fitted with glass, a few thrusts of the saw and a little hammering, and bis shelter is ready for him. Or if he can get together a ridiculously small number of dollars to pay the carpenter ho can have a really smart appearing home from hif point of view. Neither rent nor taxes does he have to pay, since few begrudge him the use of the small space required along the muddy river's edge for his cabin boat when it is not afloat, and he is of too little consequence for the no-

A CABIN BOAT.

tice of the assessor. If he finds his presence on the shore unwelcdmc in an^ locality, be can anchor out iu the stream or float down to some other place along the bank.

Once he has his boat the cabiner has small need for money. One personal quality is necessary, however, but nearly all men, including cabin boat men, possess it, and that is a liking for fishing, for it is mainly by the fish they can catch that cabin boatmen must live. No one need starve when good fresh water fish may be had for the taking, and if enough may be taken for his own table enough of a surplus for sal can also be caught to provide tobacco, what few clothes are needed and au occasional change of diet. On most of the rivers a'«ig which the cabiners dwell sufficient fish may be pulled out of the water for all these purposes in a few hours a day, and so there is plenty of time for delicious loafing in the sun in warm, clear weather and for toasting the shins in the shine of driftwood fires when it is cold and wet

Of course the average cabin boatman is lazy and shiftless and of no account He chews tobacco and smokes unspeakably foul pipes bis habits are not cleanly, he sometimes gets bowling drbnk and bis dress is of the slouchiest. When there is a Mrs. Cabiner, she is usually pretty coarse and rough, and if there are any children they grow up sadly lacking :n the qualities that would make tlwm of value as citizens of the republic. No doubt the whole class of cabin boat folk is a nuisance and should be alr'fKhed. especially as the pre-carioa-L_sa of their life often leads them to commit depredations on chicken coops and smokehouses. But they seem to have to-? y—at least, no apparently ie ^u fear doing away with them, any more than the hoboes, has yet been brought to light

M. Dextkb.

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