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diff --git a/22419-8.txt b/22419-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8280f95 --- /dev/null +++ b/22419-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5272 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arena, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Arena + Volume 4, No. 22, September, 1891 + +Author: Various + +Editor: B. O. Flower + +Release Date: August 27, 2007 [EBook #22419] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARENA *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Richard J. Shiffer +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +THE ARENA. + +No. XXII. + +SEPTEMBER, 1891. + + + + +[Illustration: Geo. C. Lorimer. (signed "Yours' Respectfully, Geo. C. +Lorimer")] + + + + +THE NEWER HERESIES. + +BY REV. GEO. C. LORIMER, D. D. + + +It is a good thing that the Inquisition, Star-chamber, and other +compulsory institutions of the dark past have departed from Europe, +and have never been tolerated in America. Were it not so, at the +present time there would be much excellent work for the rack, the +thumbscrew, and the faggot. Heresy is in the air, especially in the +northern latitudes of the United States. We inhale it with the morning +breezes, it stimulates us to mental activity during the noon hour, and +at times stifles us as by the sultry atmosphere of a blistering day. +Everywhere it is being discussed, and by every kind of individual, +qualified or unqualified for such high contentions. Daily journals, +hitherto never remarkable for orthodoxy, have suddenly grown anxious +as to the future of the faith; and other journals, that have always +antagonized orthodoxy, are, figuratively speaking, rubbing their hands +most gleefully and smiling through their editorial columns with a most +perceptible "I told you so"; while religious papers, representing as +they do, the conservative element in this country, are apparently +staggered at the inroads which the so-called higher criticism has made +of late. Aged people ominously shake their heads, and striplings of +the limp-back Bible type are amazed at the stir which ideas are making +in the community, and which threaten to disturb the peace and quiet of +their mediocre godliness; and pious women engaged on crazy quilts, in +the interest of noble benefactions, stop with punctured and bleeding +fingers to protest against all departures from ancient doctrinal +symbols. + +Suspects are numerous, and, as in the days of the worthy Council of +Ten in Venice, no prominent person, especially a teacher, is beyond +surveillance. If he adventures just a little from the beaten path, +even though it may be to gather a thought, which, like a wild field +daisy, given by the bounty of the Infinite One for the delight of his +creatures, he has found growing on the wind-swept plain of natural +religion, honored possibly by heathen seers and philosophers, he is +likely to be summoned before the black draped, gloomy councillors and +familiars of modern inquisitorial conservatism. + +In my opinion there is no real need for the morbid anxiety that now +prevails in certain quarters, and surely no serious alarm should be +felt for the perpetuity and stability of truth. Truth is truth, and +all the bad captains that ever sailed that bark, and all the bad +navigators that ever misdirected its course, have never been able to +run it on the lee shore, or bring it to final shipwreck, and never +can; for over and above all human devices and guidings there is a +divine hand that upholds and shields that which, next to his Infinite +Self, is the most precious blessing yet conferred upon the human mind. + +Let us remember that the heresies of the hour are not of the "damnable +sort" which, as Peter declared, deny the Lord who bought us; neither +are they mixed with such immoralities as Paul condemns in his letter +to the Galatians. And if we may believe that the words of that same +apostle have any pertinency in our times, then, when he declares that +heresies or schisms must arise among us "that they which are proved +may be made manifest," we may confidently expect that out of the +present discussions and the "jangling of sweet notes out of tune" some +broader thought and some nobler conception of divine teachings, +revealed to us in Holy Scripture, will assuredly come to the church +and to the world. + +I think that the leaders who are solicitous for the ark of God ought +to try to characterize the opinions which have given rise, in these +latter days, to threatened trials for heterodoxy. It is so easy to say +that a man who differs from ourselves is not orthodox, and to avoid an +actual and exact statement of what we mean; when in fact we deal +unjustly with him, and produce a wrong impression on the community at +large. + +Let us notice the three distinctive and discriminating marks of +so-called heresy in evangelical churches, and I think you will be +persuaded that it is unwise for us to be alarmists, and imprudent "to +breathe out threatenings and slaughters." + +It will be observed that the newer heresies do not challenge the truth +of Scripture inspiration, only the form and philosophy of such +inspiration. The men who are suspected of entertaining erroneous +opinions concerning the method of Divine impartation of truth are the +strenuous advocates of the moral grandeur, spiritual authority, and +faith-sufficiency of the heavenly oracles. They, it is true, deny what +has been known as the verbal theory--a theory which owes more to the +post-reformers' fear of an infallible pope, than to any real, +intelligent cause--but by no recognized council or decree, +acknowledged by Protestants, has that mechanical conception ever been +made binding on the conscience. Modern scholarship is simply leading +us to recognize a more rational criticism than was possible to our +fathers; a mode of criticism which almost every Sunday-school teacher, +in his humble way, adopts, and which is common, and has been in the +most orthodox pulpits for unnumbered years, every man bringing the +passage he is discussing to the test of knowledge that he has acquired +and, in a sense, to the test even of his reason. I do not say that +scholars have uttered the final word upon this great subject, nor is +it possible for such a word to be pronounced at the present stage of +investigation, but I do insist that we should recognize the authority +of enlightenment, and that we should not carelessly brand as heterodox +men of eminent attainments, who are merely seeking to guide us to +foundations which, in the long run, shall prove absolutely +indestructible. + +We have to decide whether the Christianity of the immediate future +shall be governed supremely by intelligence or ignorance. If ignorance +is to rule supreme, then let us found no more universities, nor open +any new theological seminaries. Let us not go through the farce of +instructing, unless it be merely to insist on the assimilating by +students of dogmas that must never be questioned, and from which they +will swear by the eternities they will never depart, either in spirit +or in letter. But, if we believe that education means the quickening +of a man's nature so that he will investigate, and if we really +believe that God has more light yet to break in upon the world, +through the casements and windows of holy scriptures, then, in his +Divine Name, let us not be alarmed when, here and there, after +infinite weariness and labor, a little ray penetrates the darkness of +the ages and promises to give us a noonday view of the origin and +influence of God's Word. + +It should also be considered that the newer heresies are not primarily +defections from Christian doctrine, only from the creeds which assume +authoritatively to define such doctrine. Public teachers are being +arraigned for their departure from certain standards, such as the +Thirty-Nine Articles, the Westminster Confession, and the lugubrious +compilation known as the New Hampshire Confession of Faith. These +documents, with whatever excellency they may be accredited, were +prepared by fallible men--some of them, indeed, exceedingly +fallible--who were hardly qualified in their day to define the faith +of Christ for the guidance of future ages, and were adopted in most +cases by meagre majorities. Why we should suppose their statements are +to be regarded as infallible, and why thinkers of our times should be +strictly held to their formulas, is something that no one yet has had +courage or intelligence sufficient to explain. What right has any body +of men to insist on conformity to a creed prepared by beings like +themselves, even though it has been venerated for a century or two? +Who is Melancthon, and who is Luther, and who are the Westminster +divines but "men by whom we have believed"? But are we bound to their +word, or are we strictly held to the Word of our common Lord and +Divine Teacher? Is Chillingworth's cry, "the Bible, the whole Bible, +and nothing but the Bible the religion of Protestants," a mere +illusion? It certainly is, and the sacred idea concerning the right of +private judgment, if the withered hand of men long dead is to hold the +brain of the present in the grasp of death; if we respect ourselves +and our avowed belief in the adequacy of Scripture as a rule of faith, +then we had better make one huge bonfire of all the antiquated creeds, +than denounce the so-called heretics who are, in reality, trying to +bring us back to the position of the primitive saints who allowed no +human word to obscure or darken the divine Word given by revelation. + +I think that every candid soul will admit, in addition to what I have +stated, that the newer heresies are not revolts from the scriptural +high ideal of Christian life, only a noble protest against narrow +interpretations of that life. The men who have recently been arraigned +before the tribunals of various denominations are eminent for their +uprightness, their conscientious candor and tolerance. No word has +ever been uttered to their moral detriment; they are, in this blameful +age, among the most blameless of its people. They insist, however, +that all doctrine should be regarded merely as moulds in which the +life should be cast, and are valuable only in so far as they are able +to shape the life in pattern of that one career which has excited the +admiration of the ages and the adoring wonder of the heavens. + +It hardly seems in accord with any just conception of our Master's +faith that men and women who are trying to serve God and their +generation should be branded with foul names, should be sneered at as +reckless and dangerous guides, and as even denying the Lord whom they +reverence and worship. Let us be careful. Heterodoxy of conduct is a +greater evil than heterodoxy of creed, and I am free to say, though I +may not, with my convictions regarding the atonement of Christ, +understand how some eminently philanthropic people can enter the +golden gates, yet I should hardly myself appreciate a place beyond +their threshold if God could not plan, in some way consistent with His +honor, to find a radiant seat of glory for them. + +I write these things because I am not a heretic. I do not, of course, +agree with the fathers, for, like other Scotchmen, I cannot agree with +anybody else in the world; but I am perfectly satisfied with my own +orthodoxy. + +Occasionally I have been startled to find some adventurous soul giving +utterance to views, as being novel and hazardous, which I have +entertained, without any perturbation of spirit, for nearly twenty +years. I was somewhat amused, not long since, on hearing a venerable +theological professor, with tears in his eyes, perspiration on his +brow, and anguish in his voice, relate how, after a fearful struggle, +he had emancipated himself from certain of Calvin's dictums; but while +some clergymen present seemed astounded, I remarked at the close of +the meeting that I had accomplished that feat for myself some quarter +of a century agone, and what is more, though I did not say this to +him, I did so without any tears, and without any anguish whatever. +These personal references are merely to show that in taking up the +cause of the newer heretics I am not in any wise biassed by a +misdirected mind in their favor. + +Let us have freedom. Let us think it out. Let the struggle go on, and +let us not, with pallid faces and strident voices, cry out in fear; +for the only tribunal that can righteously adjudicate the lightness of +human thought is the tribunal, as Schiller has it, of history, which +unquestionably is on earth the tribunal of the infinite God. He rules +in the world of mind as well as in the globe of matter, and eighteen +centuries ought to convince us that truth slowly emerges from warring +opinions, conflicting theories, and especially from pathetic longings +of the human soul to discover its hidden meanings and its widest and +grandest applications. Alas! perhaps our ignorance and intolerance may +render it necessary that now, as in the past, the prophets of God must +first be stoned to death before we will give heed to their message or +commemorate their greatness by the homage of our mind. But seriously, +I would advise all who have any regard for their own comfort, +happiness, and even self-respect, to have as little to do with this +wretched stoning business as possible; for I have never yet been able +to discover what satisfaction there can possibly be in helping a dear +brother or sister to a martyr's crown at the expense of one's own +fairness and kindly charity. + + + + +HARVEST AND LABORERS IN THE PSYCHICAL FIELD. + +BY FREDERIC W. H. MYERS. + + +There is no living savant, one may say with little fear of +contradiction, who surpasses Mr. A. R. Wallace in generous readiness +to esteem at its full worth the work of other men. And one may add +that this habit of mind, so attractive in a man of acknowledged +eminence, is as a rule not attractive only, but actively serviceable +to science; that it stimulates effort, and creates an atmosphere in +which good work is zealously done. + +Yet there may be cases in which this ready appreciativeness may prove +a hindrance to progress rather than a help. If wrongly received, it +may lead men who have done little to think that they have done much; +it may deter others from embarking on needful tasks which they may +suppose to have been already amply performed. + +In two papers in THE ARENA for January and February, 1891, Mr. Wallace +dwelt, partly with criticism, and partly with praise, on the work +already done by the Society for Psychical Research. To his criticisms +I make no demur; they are legitimate and interesting; and indeed where +Mr. Wallace's opinions diverge from those which I have myself set +forth, I am disposed to think that we are but looking on "the two +sides of the shield,"--a shield embossed on either side with devices +so marvellous that no man's interpretation can as yet suffice to +unriddle them. + +But on the other hand, I cannot let pass without protest the sentence +(ARENA, January, p. 130) in which Mr. Wallace speaks of the thanks due +to the Society for Psychical Research, "for having presented the +evidence in such a way that the facts to be interpreted are now +generally accepted as facts by all who have taken any trouble to +inquire into the amount and character of the testimony for them,--the +opinion of those who have not taken that trouble being altogether +worthless." Now in the first place I do not think that all those who +have studied our testimony are convinced by it. I received a letter +(for instance) not long ago, from a distinguished American, an old +friend of mine, who wrote in the most cordial terms to say that out of +personal regard for me he had read "Phantasms of the Living" from +beginning to end, and that he did not believe a word of it. Our +readers' scepticism is perhaps seldom quite so robust; but +nevertheless I should say that the attitude of at least half of them +is best described by saying not that they accept our evidence _ex +animo_, but that they have not yet exactly managed to see their way to +upsetting it. + +Nor can I possibly treat as unimportant the attitude of that great +majority of _savants_ who have paid no attention at all to the matter. +Naturally, their opinion of our evidence does not affect my own +opinion thereof, but it decidedly affects my view as to what lines our +work ought to follow. Why is it that these men have not studied our +_Proceedings_? It will not do to talk about indolence and prejudice. +All men are more or less indolent and prejudiced; but _savants_ as a +class are certainly less indolent, and probably less prejudiced, than +any other class that one could name. We must not count upon finding +our _savant_ "_semper vacuum, semper amabilem_," any more than Horace +found his young ladies always in that condition of affable +receptivity. The main reason why so many eminent men neglect our work +may be stated in a much less offensive way. The minds of all of us +move in certain orbits, from which we are sensibly deflected only by +the approach of some new body of adequate mass. Now our "psychical" +experiments and observations have plainly not as yet attained +sufficient mass to be able to deflect the majority of those great +bodies, the luminaries of science, from their accustomed paths through +the heavens. _Tides_, indeed, we do create; there is a refluent +washing to and fro of magazine articles about our topic; but we have +not yet generated that wholesale perturbation of the scientific system +which our facts, if facts they be, must in time inevitably effect. + +"Some of the best workers in the Society," says Mr. Wallace again, +"still urge that the evidence is very deficient, both in amount and in +quality, and that much more must be obtained before it can be treated +as really conclusive. This view, however," he adds, "appears to me to +be an altogether erroneous one." On the contrary, I venture to say, +this assertion of the need of more work, and consequently of more +workers, is of absolutely primary, absolutely urgent importance. What +would have become of the evolution theory itself (if I may use an +_argumentum ad hominem_ of no disrespectful kind), what would have +become of that theory itself, though urged at first by _savants_ of +such surpassing merit, had no one been able to repeat and confirm +their observations? And we who are dealing, not with plants and +animals which can be held fast and observed, but, for the most part at +any rate, with phantasmal sights, subjective impressions,--surely we +must feel a tenfold need of the multiplication of centres of +experiment and observation, of the formation of fresh bodies of record +in every country, and in each year that passes by. No single small +group can ever gain leverage enough to divert the world's prevalent +modes of thought, unless it is gradually reinforced by fellow-workers +enough to make the possible mistakes or possible death of a few +persons quite unimportant to the general result. + +It has been suggested by Mr. Wallace and by other critics that we have +been too exclusively preoccupied with the idea of _telepathy_, that we +have tried to force into that category phenomena which need a +different or a further explanation. Considering the complexity of +these phenomena there may well be some truth in this criticism, yet we +should surely be unwise if we relaxed our insistence on the importance +of _telepathy_, or the transference of thought or feeling from mind to +mind without the agency of the recognized organs of sense as the very +root and basis both of experiment and of theory as concerning an +unseen world. No one, of course, can suppose that the infinitely +complex laws of which we are just now obtaining a precursory glimpse +and first faint intimation, can possibly be summarized in any single +expression. But the prime importance of telepathy lies in the fact +that here, at last, is an action of unseen, uncomprehended forces +which can be made the subject of actual experiment. Nay, more, the +very fact that in this special direction experiment turns out to be +possible, is in itself an augury that we are on a true scientific +track; for it involves a remarkable coincidence between a theoretical +conclusion and a practical discovery. + +In the first place, let us try to realize theoretically what is +involved in the supposition that any sort of invisible intelligence +can become in any way known to us. I speak of the methods of +communication only, without reference to the nature of the supposed +intelligence, beyond the mere fact of its habitual invisibility. It is +plain, I think, that the said intelligence must either so act upon +visible matter as to affect our sense-organs in the ordinary way, or +else must convey messages to our minds by some director process, not +depending on the intervention of our organs of sense. + +Now probably no one will assume that the first method will alone be +employed. Even those who insist, with Mr. Wallace, on the objectivity +of apparitions, do not, I think, maintain that it is _only_ by moving +material objects that unseen intelligences affect our minds. Few will +doubt that _if_ there be communication from unseen beings at all, it +will probably be at least partly in the second of the two modes +already specified, that is, that it will reach our minds in some way +more intimate and direct than by ordinary sense-perception. But if +this be so, then there must be in our minds a certain power of +reciprocity. We must be able to receive the message in the same +impalpable way in which the unseen intelligence communicates it. + +But if we suppose that man possesses this power of receiving direct or +telepathic messages from unembodied or invisible intelligences, it is +natural to inquire whether he is capable of receiving similar messages +from embodied or visible intelligences. If we cannot find that he is +thus capable, our belief in the supposed messages from the unseen will +be doubly difficult; for we shall have to postulate both the new forms +of intelligence and the new mode of intercourse. But if, on the other +hand, we can show that the mode of intercourse here needed does +already exist, and appears in man's relations with his fellow-men, +then the transition to messages from the unseen will be so much the +less violent. We shall only be supposing that man can receive from the +disembodied a kind of message which he already receives from the +embodied, and which has no obvious dependence on a corporeal +embodiment. One single proved transmission, direct from mind to mind, +of the most trivial fact or percept, will do more to make communion +with the unseen _scientifically_ conceivable,--I do not say more to +make it _morally_ conceivable,--than all the poetry and all the +rhetoric which has ever stirred the hearts of men. + +Such, on the one side, is my deductive argument from the very +conception of communication with unseen intelligences. + +And do we, on the other hand, find, by empirical observation of the +phenomena around us, anything which indicates the existence of a +supernormal perceptivity such as theory would suggest? It is known to +readers of the Society for Psychical Research _Proceedings_ that we do +find such indications, scattered at first, and appearing unsought-for +amid the phenomena of mesmeric or somnambulic states; but now to some +slight extent isolated into distinctness, and brought under +experimental control. + +To some slight extent only, I repeat; for the experiments thus far +made, although completely convincing to those who, like myself, have +witnessed many of them, under very varied conditions, have +nevertheless not yet passed into that desired stage at which one may +be able to repeat them before any observer, at any moment. At present +they are proved by the same kind of evidence as certain rare +pathological phenomena (I do not of course mean that telepathy is +itself in any way a morbid product)--phenomena such as those +surprising rises and falls of the human temperature which are +unpredictable, sporadic, and transitory, and must rest for their +evidence on the good faith and accuracy of comparatively few +observers. + +Yet these telepathic experiments have a very hopeful side. Experience +has already shown that the phenomena may be developed at any moment, +between quite normal persons, and with no bad effects of any sort +whatever. Only we cannot tell except by actual trial, and trial of a +patient and careful kind, between _which_ persons, out of all mankind, +these telepathic messages can be made to run. + +What we desire, then, what we ask of all who sympathize with our +efforts, is neither premature praise nor equally premature theorizing, +but active co-operation in our endeavor to improve and extend our +experiments in thought-transference. We want to get our telepathic +transmissions distant, definite, and reproducible. + +It is desirable to get them _at long distances_,--not because it is +really more marvellous that thought should thus travel a million miles +than that it should travel a millimetre,--but for the merely +practical reason that at long distances it is easy to avoid two main +sources of error, namely, _hyperæsthesia_, which may be quite +unconscious, and _fraudulent codes_, which may be hard to detect. +Most, nay, probably all, of the so-called experiments in +thought-transference which have been offered by "thought-readers," +etc., from the public platform, have really had nothing at all to do +with thought-transference, have depended either on abnormal delicacy +of tactile and other sensory perception, or on the adroit use of +preconcerted signals. It is only when the observer has complete +control of the conditions (which he never has in any public +exhibition), that it is worth while to conduct experiments between two +persons in the same room. + +And even in cases where the good faith--the _conscious_ good faith--of +everyone concerned is above suspicion, it must be remembered that +there are both unconscious actions and unconscious perceptions which +may wholly vitiate an experiment. The rule should be so to arrange the +experiment that the percipient _cannot_ profit by unconscious +indications; that he cannot (for example) see the expression of the +agent's face, or hear the sound of his pencil as he writes down a +number to be guessed. Such precautions should be a matter of course; +and when they are taken, these experiments near at hand are certainly +the easiest and best for private experimenters to begin with, although +the desirability of gradually increasing the distance between the +persons concerned should always be kept in view. + +Let A and P begin their trial, then, in quiet and calm of mind; let A, +the agent, sit behind P, the percipient, and not in contact. Let A be +provided with a full pack of cards, in which he replaces the card +drawn, after each trial, or with a bag of known numbers--say from ten +to one hundred--a range convenient for computation--in which bag he +replaces and shuffles up the number drawn, after each trial. Let him +draw a card (to take cards as our example) say, "Now!" and gaze +fixedly at it. Let P keep his mind as blank as possible, and make his +guess only when some kind of image of color, suit, or pips, in some +way floats into his mind. His first guess only must be counted, and +must be received in silence. Let A continue this process for some +prearranged number of times, say ten times, and record accurately all +the experiments made. Let him renew the process, with intervals of +hours or days between each batch of trials, until he has some hundreds +of results to analyze. Then let him send his results, with description +of the conditions under which the trials were made, to Dr. Richard +Hodgson, 5 Boylston Place, Boston, Mass. Dr. Hodgson will tell him if +it is worth his while to go on, and will advise as to modifications in +the form of experiment. + +These hints must here suffice as to experiments made close at hand. +But experiment, or observation verging into experiment, is often +possible at long distances as well. It often happens that some one +tells me that he (or she) has so peculiar a sympathy with some given +friend that what one of the pair is actually feeling or thinking at a +distance is reproduced by the sensation or thought of the other. To +such communications my invariable reply is, "Keep a 'psychical' diary. +Put down therein at once every incident which you intend to count, if +it turns out (so to say) a telepathic success, and no incident which +you do _not_ intend to count. Let your friend keep a similar diary, +without showing it to you; after a few months let me compare the two +diaries with one another." + +I am not armed with supernatural, or even with statutory powers; and +my informants have for the most part thought that they had obliged me +quite enough if they _promised_ to do as I told them. But just as I +was beginning to imitate the dictum, "Miracles do not happen," with +the dictum, "Psychical diaries are not kept," the lady termed Miss +X----, in Proceedings XIV. and XVI., came to furnish an exception, to +my rule. I shall not attempt to summarize the "Record of Telepathic +and Other Experiences" in Proceedings XVI.; but I trust that it may be +the prototype of many similar records, which can be kept the more +easily now that this example has been set. + +I will give in brief, one American example (to be found at length in +S. P. R. Proceedings XVIII.) of well-recorded telepathic transmission. +The incident thus transferred is trivial and even ludicrous; the fact +of the transference was absolutely useless. But the case is not only +none the worse for this; it is all the better. When we are trying to +prove that such transmission exists, we want to keep clear, if we can, +of emotional complications. If P is brooding over A's approaching +death, and sees a figure of A, then, even if the hour coincides, we +cannot help a suspicion that the brooding may have produced the +figure. But few, I think, will explain the following incident as a +mere outcome of morbid sentimentality. We owe it to the kindness of +Dr. Elliott Coues, who knows both ladies concerned, and happened to +call on Mrs. C---- the very day on which that lady received the +following letter from her friend, Mrs. B----. + + _Monday Evening, January 14, 1889._ + + MY DEAR FRIEND,--I know you will be surprised to receive a note + from me so soon, but not more so than I was to-day, when you were + shown to me clairvoyantly, in a somewhat embarrassed position. I + doubt very much if there was any truth in it; nevertheless, will + relate it, and leave you to laugh at the idea of it. + + I was sitting in my room sewing, this afternoon, about two + o'clock, when what should I see but your own dear self; but, + heavens! in what a position. Now, I don't want to excite your + curiosity too much, or try your patience too long, so will come + to the point at once. You were falling up the front steps in the + yard. You had on your black skirt and velvet waist, your little + straw bonnet, and in your hand were some papers. When you fell, + your hat went in one direction and the papers in another. You got + up very quickly, put on your bonnet, picked up the papers, and + lost no time getting into the house. You did not appear to be + hurt, but looked somewhat mortified. It was all so plain to me + that I had ten to one notions to dress myself and come over and + see if it were true, but finally concluded that a sober, + industrious woman like yourself would not be stumbling around at + that rate, and thought I'd best not go on a wild goose chase. + Now, what do you think of such a vision as that? Is there any + possible truth in it? I feel almost ready to scream with laughter + whenever I think of it; you did look _too_ funny, spreading + yourself out in the front yard. "Great was the fall thereof." + +This letter came to us in an envelope addressed: Mrs. E. A. C----, 217 +Del. Ave., N. E., Washington, D. C., and with the postmarks, +Washington, D. C., Jan. 15, 7 A. M., 1889, and Washington, N. E. C. +S., Jan. 15, 8 A. M. Some further letters in the postmarks are +illegible. + +Now the point is that every detail in this telepathic vision was +correct. Mrs. C---- had actually (as she tells me in a letter dated +March 7, 1889) fallen in this way, at this place, in the dress +described, at 2.41, on January 14. The coincidence can hardly have +been due to chance. If we suppose that the vision preceded the +accident, we shall have an additional marvel, which, however, I do not +think that we need here face. "About 2," in a letter of this kind, may +quite conceivably have meant 2.41. + +The _definiteness_ of the details here reproduced, is all, I think, +that we can reasonably desire. But most important, and I fear, most +difficult to obtain, of all the qualities of our ideal telepathic +experiment, is that of _reproducibility_. This is, I think, a +difficulty which inheres in the very nature of the phenomenon itself. +We are mainly concerned here with the powers not of the waking or +empirical, but of the submerged or unconscious self. The transference +of the telepathic message, though it may be helped by conscious +concentration, takes place (as I hold) mainly in strata of our being +which lie below the threshold of ordinary consciousness. It seems as +though the influence of the _percipient's_ conscious self, at any +rate, were merely hurtful to the experiment, so that to get the +percipient at his best we have to catch him in a state of original +innocence which he cannot long maintain. It too often has happened +that so soon as his own curiosity was roused, so soon as he began to +speculate on the process which was going on, and to wonder how he +caught the impression, so soon did the impression cease to travel, and +his unconscious self could send its message upwards no more. + +I am disposed to think that for the present it is to hypnotism that we +must look for cases where the telepathic message can be sent +repeatedly and at will. It is in the rare cases of _sommeil à +distance_, or such cases as those of Mrs. Pinhey, Dr. Héricourt, and +Dr. Gley, reported in Vol. II. of _Phantasms of the Living_, that +there has as yet been the nearest approach to that clock-work +regularity and repeatability which is the experimental ideal. It is, +therefore, on the medical profession that I would urge the importance +of watching for cases of this sort, which are likely to be found more +frequently as the therapeutic use of hypnotism extends. + +I have mentioned several different forms in which these telepathic +messages may be observed by careful seekers. I certainly do not assert +that the power or agency operative in each of these cases is precisely +the same. On the contrary, I think it probable that there are +varieties and complexities quite beyond our present speculation. But +at least these cases fall for us under the same primary or obvious +category; they are all cases where a thought, a feeling, an impulse, a +picture, has been transferred from one mind to another without the +agency of the recognized organs of sense. + +There are some, both among friends and among opponents, who are +inclined to represent telepathic experiment as a petty thing. "What +does it come to," say the opponents, "even though you do get a few +silly thoughts or meaningless numbers out of one head into another?" +"Enough of telepathy!" say the friends; "go on to something of vaster +scope!" + +These friends and these opponents are not those who have best realized +the import of the telepathic claim. The true, the scientific +opposition is of a quite different type. It asserts, not that the +alleged discovery is a trifle which may be admitted with a sneer, but +that it involves a new departure in science greater than its advocates +can probably conceive, or have as yet come near to justify. Brushing +aside all our further extensions of theory, they take their stand +simply and decidedly against telepathy itself; and wisely so, for if +telepathy be once admitted, there is, as seems to me, no logical +halting-place until we reach a far-off point which I will not confuse +my present argument by attempting to specify. + +And over all this far-stretching field there is a harvest of +experiment, a harvest of observation, which only needs laborers to cut +and carry, to thresh and winnow it. The reality, the extent, the +importance of the phenomena which lie around us, unnoted and +unexplained, are more fully recognized as each year's work adds at +once to our knowledge and to our corresponding consciousness of +ignorance. Such recognition, I say, is beginning to spread; but it has +thus far brought with it all too little of active co-operation in the +work of inquiry, that work which in America Dr. Hodgson, backed by +Prof. W. James and Prof. W. S. Langley, pushes forward at once with +caution and with energy. Those who wish our work to succeed must in +some way help towards its success. No enterprise, I think, could +promise more fairly. But we are still at the beginning of that great +work and the end is far. + + + + +FASHION'S SLAVES. + +BY B. O. FLOWER. + + +The last session of the International Council of Women discussed no +question of greater importance to civilization than that of dress +reform. The fact that this world's congress, representing the most +thoughtful, conscientious, and broad-minded women of our age, has +taken up this subject with a firm determination to accomplish a +revolution which shall mean health and happiness to the oncoming +generation, is itself a prophecy pregnant with promise of a +substantial and enduring reform. It will not be surprising if in the +near future it is found that this earnest though somewhat timid +discussion marked a distinct step in the world's progress; certainly +it was the most significant and authoritative utterance from united +womanhood that has yet been made touching a problem which most vitally +affects civilization. + +To the student of sociology nothing is more perplexing or discouraging +than society's persistency in blindly clinging to old standards and +outgrown ideals which can no longer be defended by reason; and this is +nowhere more marked than in the social world where fashion has +successfully defied all true standards of art, principles of common +sense, rules of hygiene and what is still more important, the laws of +ethics which underlie all stable or enduring civilizations. + +At the very threshold of this discussion, I ask the reader to, as far +as possible, divest his mind of all prejudice arising from +preconceived opinions, and view in a perfectly candid and judicial +manner this problem upon which the last word will not be spoken until +woman is emancipated. As long as free discussion is tabooed and +conservatism finds it possible to dismiss the question with a flippant +jest, a ribald joke, or a basely unjust imputation, the old order will +stand; partly because woman feels her helplessness and largely because +so few people stop to trace cause and effect or patiently reason upon +results of the most serious character. Conservatism is strongly +entrenched in the minds of the millions, and to a certain degree +mental lethargy broods over the world. It is true that in woman's +sphere to-day mental activity is more marked than in any other age, +and the best brains and most thoughtful women of our time are boldly +denouncing the bondage of fashion and bravely pleading for such +radical reforms in dress as will secure to womanhood health and +comfort, while being genuinely artistic and graceful, breathing true +refinement and conforming to æsthetic principles rather than the +caprice of fashion. To me there is something infinitely pathetic in +the brave protests that have from time to time flashed from the +outraged sensibilities of those who represent the very flower of +American womanhood, when discussing this subject, for running through +their almost every utterance is the plaintive note of helplessness, +mingled with the consciousness of the justice of the cause for which +they plead. The talented and universally respected Mrs. Abba Woolson +Gould some years ago thus gave expression to her feelings when writing +of the long, heavy, disease-producing skirts of women: + + Do what we will with them, they still add enormously to the + weight of clothing, prevent cleanliness of attire about the + ankles, overheat by their tops the lower portion of the body, + impede locomotion, and invite accidents. In short, they are + uncomfortable, unhealthy, unsafe, and unmanageable. Convinced of + this fact by patient and almost fruitless attempts to remove + their objectionable qualities, the earnest dress-reformer is + loath to believe that skirts hanging below the knee are not + transitory features in woman's attire, as similar features have + been in the dress of men, and surely destined to disappear with + the tight hour-glass waists and other monstrosities of the + present costume.... Any changes the wisest of us can to-day + propose are only a mitigation of an evil which can never be done + away till women emerge from this vast swaying, undefined, and + indefinable mass of drapery into the shape God gave to His human + beings. + +Mary A. Livermore voices a sad and terrible truth when she observes: + + The invalidism of young girls is usually attributed to every + cause but the right one; to hard study--co-education--which, it + is said, compels overwork that the girl student may keep up with + the young men of her class; too much exercise, or lack of rest + and quiet at certain periods when nature demands it. All the + while the physician is silent concerning the glove-fitting, + steel-clasped corset, the heavy, dragging skirts, the bands + engirding the body, the pinching, deforming boot, and the ruinous + social dissipation of fashionable society. These will account for + much of the feebleness of young women and girls. For they exhaust + nervous force, make freedom of movement a painful impossibility, + and frequently shipwreck the young girl before she is out of + port. + + We have a theory, generally accepted in civilized society, which + we never formulate in speech but to which we are very loyal in + practical life. This theory, put in plain language, is as + follows: God knows how to make boys; and, when He sends a boy + into the world, it is safe to allow him to grow to manhood as God + made him. He may be too tall or too short, for our notions, too + stout or too thin, too light or too dark. Nevertheless, it is + right, for God knows how to make boys. But when God sends a girl + into the world, it is not safe to allow her to grow to womanhood + as He has made her. Some one must take her and improve her + figure, and give her the shape in which it is proper for her to + grow. + + Accordingly, the young girl comes some day from the dressmaker + with this demand: "Mme. ---- (the dressmaker) says that I am + getting into horrid shape, and must have a pair of corsets + immediately." The corsets are bought and worn, and the physical + deterioration begins. + +Miss Frances E. Willard thus touchingly refers to the bondage of +fashion: + + "But there came a day--alas! the day of my youth--on which I was + as literally caught out of the fields and pastures as was ever a + young colt; confronted by a long dress that had been made for me, + corsets and high-heeled shoes that had been bought, hair-pins and + ribbons for my straying locks, and I was told that it simply + 'wouldn't answer' to 'run wild' another day. Company from the + city was expected; I must be made presentable; 'I had _got_ to + look like other folks.' + + "That was a long time ago, but I have never known a single + physically reasonable day since that sweet May morning, when I + cried in vain for longer lease of liberty." + +Mrs. Frances E. Russell, whose significant paper read at the Woman's +Council elicited universal approbation, in the following extract from +her able essay in THE ARENA sounds a more hopeful note than her +illustrious predecessors, for she is nearer the dawn, and the horizon +of woman's freedom is broadening: + + The fiction that women have no legs is now fully discredited, for + in the show windows of the largest dry goods stores stand dummies + of the female figure dressed only in the combination undersuit + made of wool or silk "tights," covering the whole body, except + the head, hands, and feet. By this time everyone must know that + woman, like man, is a biped. Can anyone give a good reason why + she must lift an unnecessary weight of clothing with every step + she takes,--pushing forward folds of restricting drapery and + using almost constantly, not only her hands, but her mental power + and nervous energy to keep her skirts neat and out of the way of + harm to herself and others? + + Much discussion has been wasted over the question whether a woman + should carry the burden of her voluminous drapery from the + shoulders or the hips. Why must she carry this unnecessary weight + at all? + + Now let us join hands, all lovers of liberty, in earnest + co-operation to free American women from the dominion of foreign + fashion. Let us, as intelligent women, with the aid and + encouragement of all good men, take this important matter into + our own hands and provide ourselves with convenient garments; a + costume that shall say to all beholders that we are equipped for + reasonable service to humanity. + +Conservative critics have so frequently misrepresented those who have +honestly pleaded for dress reform, that it is no longer safe to be +frank, and this fact alone has constrained numbers of earnest writers +from expressing their sentiments who have felt it their duty to speak +in behalf of health, beauty, and common sense; indeed so certain is +one to be misrepresented who handles this subject in anything like a +reasonable and unconventional manner, and so surely will his views be +assailed as improper, owing to the age-long cast of conventional +thought, that were it not that this question so intimately affects +fundamental, ethical, and hygienic laws, and bears such a vitally +important relation to true progress, I frankly admit that I doubt +whether I should have the courage to discuss it. But I find it +impossible to remain silent, believing as I do most profoundly that +the baleful artificial standards so long tolerated must be abolished, +that the fetish of the nineteenth century civilization must be +overthrown, and that it is all-important that people be thoroughly +acquainted with the far-reaching and basic significance of this +problem, through courageous and persistent agitation and education, in +order that manhood and womanhood be brought up to the ethical plane +which marks enduring civilization. In the examination of this subject +I desire to very briefly notice it from æsthetic, hygienic, and +ethical points of view. It is a singular fact that every effort made +toward a healthful and common sense reform in woman's apparel has been +assailed as inartistic or immoral; while fashions at once disgusting, +indecent, destructive to life and health, and degrading to womanhood +have been readily sanctioned by conventionalism. This antagonistic +attitude toward any movement for an improvement in woman's attire +founded on the laws of health, art, comfort, and common sense was +characteristically expressed in a recent editorial in a leading Boston +daily, wherein the writer solemnly observed: + + The simple truth is, the great majority of the women _appreciate + the fact that it is their mission to be beautiful_, and the + dress reformers have never yet devised any garment to assist the + women in fulfilling this mission. + +[Illustration: From 1860 to 1865. The era of hoop-skirts.] + +[Illustration: From 1860 to 1865. The hoop-skirt era. The difficult +feat of tying on a bonnet.] + +The author of the above fairly represents the attitude of conventional +thought,--its servility to fashion, its antagonism to reformative +moves. The implied falsehood that fashion represents beauty and art, +or is the servant of æstheticism has been reiterated so often that +thousands have accepted it as truth. + +[Illustration: 1870 to 1875. The era of the enormous bustle and train +of sweeping dimensions.] + +[Illustration: 1870 to 1875. The era of the enormous bustle and train +of sweeping dimensions.] + +In order to expose its falsity, I have reproduced in this paper plates +taken from leading American and English fashion monthlies during the +past three decades, in each of which it is noticeable that extremes +have been reached. In 1860-65, the hoop-skirt held sway, and the wasp +waist was typical of beauty. Then no lady was correctly attired +according to the prevailing idea who did not present a spectacle +curiously suggestive of a moving circus tent. During this era four or +five fashionably dressed women completely filled an ordinary +drawing-room; while the sidewalk was often practically monopolized by +moving monstrosities, save when in front or behind the formidable +swinging cages moved escorts, who with no less servility than American +womanhood bowed to the frivolous and criminal caprice of the modern +Babylon. + +But fashion is nothing if not changeable; fancy not art guides her +mind. What to-day types beauty, is by her own voice to-morrow voted +indecent and absurd. Thus we find in the period extending from 1870 to +1875 an entirely new but none the less ridiculous or injurious extreme +prevails. The wonderful swinging cage, the diameter of which at the +base often equaled the height of the encased figure, has disappeared, +being no longer considered desirable or æsthetic, and in its place we +have prodigious bustles and immense trains, by which an astonishing +quantity of material is thrown behind the body, suggesting in some +instances a toboggan slide, in others the unseemly hump on the back of +a camel. This is the era of the enormous bustle and the train of +sweeping dimensions.[1] + + [1] During this period the ingenuity of man came to woman's + rescue, by the invention of an interesting, and, judging by + its popularity, exceedingly serviceable contrivance known as + a dress elevator, which enabled ladies to instantly elevate + their enormous trains when they came to a particularly muddy + and filthy crossing. + +When we examine the prevailing styles which marked this period, we are +struck with amazement at the power exerted by fashion over the +intellect and judgment of society. Imagine the shame and humiliation +of a woman of fashion, endowed by nature or afflicted by disease with +such an unsightly hump on the back as characterized the fashionable +toilet of this period! + +[Illustration: 1870 to 1875: "Suggesting in some instances a toboggan +slide; in others, the unseemly hump on the back of a camel."] + +Toward the end of the seventies, we find another extreme reached, +which if possible was more absurd and injurious than those which +marked the early days of this decade. This was the period of the +tie-back, or narrow skirts and enormous trains. As in 1860 fashion's +slaves vied with one another in their effort to cover the largest +possible circular space, now their ambitions lay in the direction of +the opposite extreme:[2] the skirts must be as narrow as possible even +though it greatly impeded walking, for as will be readily observed all +free use of the lower limbs was out of the question during the reign +of the "tie-back." + + [2] It was in the midst of the period of the tie-backs that + _Harper's Bazar_ published two striking cartoons + illustrating the poem given below. One represented a poor + man's wife, "The slave of toil," and was pathetically + powerful in its fidelity to truth; the other, drawn by the + powerful Nast, represented a society lady of the day attired + in the reigning tie-back, measuring at the hips a little + more than double the width a short distance below the knees. + This slave was chained to fashion's column. + + + SISTER SLAVES. + + You think there is little of kinship between them? + Perhaps not in blood, yet there's likeness of soul; + And in bondage 'tis patent to all who have seen them + That both are fast held under iron control. + The simpering girl, with her airs and her graces, + Is sister at heart to the hard-working drudge; + Two types of to-day, as they stand in their places; + Whose lot is the sadder I leave you to judge. + + One chained to the block is the victim of Fashion; + Her object in life to be perfectly dressed; + Too silly for reason, too shallow for passion, + She passes her days 'neath a tyrant's behest. + Thus pinioned and fettered, and warily moving, + Lest looping should fail her, or band come apart: + What room is there left her for thinking or loving? + What noble ambition can enter her heart? + + And one, the worn wife of a grizzled old farmer; + She kneads the great loaves for the "men-folks" to eat. + In the wheat-fields the green blades are springing like armor; + Afar in the forests the flowers are sweet. + She lifts not her eyes. Within kitchen walls narrow + Her life is pent up. The most hopeless of slaves, + Though weary and jaded in sinew and marrow, + She never complains. Women _rest_ in their graves. + + Twin victims, for which have we tenderest pity-- + For mother and wife toiling on till she dies, + Or the frivolous butterfly child of the city, + All blind to the glory of earth and of skies? + Is it fate, or ill fortune, hath woven about you + Strong meshes which ye are too helpless to break? + Shall we scornfully wonder, or angrily flout you, + Or strive from their torpor your minds to awake? + + Yet, Venus of old, with your queenly derision, + How you would disdain the belle's tawdry array! + _Free footsteps untrammelled_, cool hand of decision, + Sweet laugh like bells pealing, were yours in the day + When you reigned over men by the might of your beauty; + No fetters were o'er you in body or brain; + The world would bow down in the gladness of duty + Could you but awake in your splendor again. + + And, Pallas and Venus, if now you were holding + A talk over womanhood, what would you say, + The words of wise counsel while you were unfolding, + If some one should show you these pictures to-day? + I dream of your faces: divinest compassion + Would yearn the poor toiler to pity and save; + And your largeness of scorn would descend on the fashion + Which binds, unresisting, the idler a slave. + +[Illustration: 1878. The period of the tie-back, narrow skirts, and +enormous trains.] + +The reaction in favor of a more sensible dress which followed was of +brief duration. During this time, however, the long trains were seldom +seen, and thoughtful women began to hope that the arbitrary rule of +fashion was over. It was not long, however, before the panier period +arrived, and what was popularly known as the pull-back was accepted as +the correct style in fashion's world. Of this latter conceit little +need be said, for it has so recently passed from view that all +remember its peculiarity, which to the ordinary observer seemed to be +a settled determination on the part of its originators to render +walking as difficult and fatiguing as possible, while fully exposing +the outline of the wearer's body below the waist at every step. What +in '60 or '70 would have been accounted the height of indecency, is in +the eighties perfectly proper in the fashionable world. During this +time it was not enough to have the skirts very narrow, they must at +every step give the outline of the limbs [or as our Minnesota solon +would put it, _nether_ limbs], hence we find the pull-backs in which +"two shy knees appeared clad in a single trouser." + +[Illustration: The tie-backs of 1878 and 1879.] + +[Illustration: The pull-back of 1886.] + +[Illustration: Fashionable walking costume early in the seventies. +Woman appreciating the fact "that it is her mission to be beautiful." +See page 405.] + +[Illustration: Fashionable walking costume in the early sixties. Woman +appreciating the fact "that it is her mission to be beautiful." See +page 405.] + +Such have been the inconsistencies, incongruities, and absurdities of +fashion as illustrated in the past three decades, in view of which one +may well ask whether in fashion's eyes women are such paragons of +ugliness that these ever-varying styles (introduced, we are seriously +informed, to conserve to her beauty,) are absolutely essential, and by +what rule of art can we explain the fact that the ponderous hoopskirt +was the essential requirement of beauty in the sixties and the +enormous bustles demanded in the seventies. The truth is, fashion is +supremely indifferent alike to all laws of art and beauty, health and +life, decency and propriety--a fact that must be patent to any +thoughtful person who examines the prevailing styles of a generation. +I submit that the wildest extremes to which well-meaning but +injudicious dress reformers have gone in the past have been marked by +nothing more inartistic than the costume of the reigning belle in +1860. Each successive decade has been marked by an extreme which, +surveyed from the vantage ground of the present, is as ridiculously +absurd as it has been wanting in beauty Nowhere have the laws of true +art been so severely ignored as in the realm of fashion. Yet this view +of the problem palls into insignificance when we come to examine the +question from the standpoint of health and life. + +One would think that after thousands of years of sickness and death, +with all the advantages of increased education and a broadening +intellectual horizon, we would have arrived at such an appreciation of +the value of health and the solemn duty we owe to posterity, as to +compel this consideration to enter into our thoughts when we adopted +styles of dress; yet nowhere is the weakness of our present +civilization more marked or its hollowness so visible, even to the +superficial thinker, as in the realm of fashion, _where every +consideration of health and even of life, and all sense of +responsibility to future generations are brushed aside as trivialities +not to be seriously considered_. In vain have physicians and +physiologists written, lectured, and demonstrated the fatal results of +yielding to fashion. The learned Doctor Trall in writing on this +subject wisely observes: + + The evil effects of tight-lacing, or of lacing at all, and of + binding the clothing around the hips, instead of suspending it + from the shoulders, can never be fully realized without a + thorough education in anatomy and physiology. And if the + illustrations[3] here presented should effect the needed reform + in fashionable dress, the resulting health and happiness to the + human race would be incalculable; for the health of the mothers + of each generation determines, in a very large measure, the vital + stamina of the next. It is obvious that, if the diameter of the + chest, at its lower and broader part, is diminished by lacing, or + any other cause, to the extent of one fourth or one half, the + lungs B, B, are pressed in towards the heart, A, the lower ribs + are drawn together and press on the liver, C, and spleen, E, + while the abdominal organs are pressed downward on the pelvic + viscera. The stomach, D, is compressed in its transverse + diameter; both the stomach, upper intestines, and liver are + pressed downward on the kidneys, M, M, and on the lower portions + of the bowels [the intestinal tube is denoted by the letters f, + j, and k,] while the bowels are crowded down on the uterus, i, + and bladder, g. _Thus every vital organ is either functionally + obstructed or mechanically disordered_, and diseases more or less + aggravated, the condition of all. In post-mortem examinations the + liver has been found deeply indented by the constant and + prolonged pressure of the ribs, in consequence of tight-lacing. + The brain-organ, protected by a bony inclosure, has not yet been + distorted externally by the contrivances of milliners and + mantuamakers; but, lacing the chest, by interrupting the + circulation of the blood, prevents its free return from the + vessel of the brain, and so permanent congestion of that organ, + with constant liability to headache, vertigo, or worse + affections, becomes a "second nature." The vital resources of + every person, and all available powers of mind and body, are + measurable by the respiration. Precisely as the breathing is + lessened, the length of life is shortened; not only this, but + life is rendered correspondingly useless and miserable while it + does exist. It is impossible for any child, whose mother has + diminished her breathing capacity by lacing, to have a sound and + vigorous organization. If girls will persist in ruining their + vital organs as they grow up to womanhood, and if women will + continue this destructive habit, the race must inevitably + deteriorate. It may be asserted, therefore, without exaggeration, + that not only the welfare of the future generations, but the + salvation of the race depends on the correction of this evil + habit. The pathological consequences of continued and prolonged + pressure on any vital structure are innutrition, congestion, + inflammation, and ulceration, resulting in weakness, waste of + substance, and destruction of tissue. The normal sensibility of + the part is also destroyed. No woman can ever forget the pain she + endured when she first applied the corsets; but in time the + compressed organs become torpid; the muscles lose their + contractile power, and she feels dependent on the mechanical + support of the corset. But the mischief is not limited to local + weakness and insensibility. The general strength and general + sensibility correspond with the breathing capacity. If she has + diminished her "breath of life," she has just to that extent + destroyed all normal sensibility. She can neither feel nor think + normally. But in place of pleasurable sensations and ennobling + thoughts, are an indescribable array of aches, pains, weaknesses, + irritations, and nameless distresses of body, with dreamy + vagaries, fitful impulses, and morbid sentimentalities of mind. + And yet another evil is to be mentioned to render the catalogue + complete. Every particle of food must be aerated in the lungs + before it can be assimilated. It follows, therefore, that no one + can be well nourished who has not a full, free, and unimpeded + action of the lungs. In the contracted chest, the external + measurement is reduced one half; but as the upper portions of the + lungs cannot be fully inflated until the lower portions are fully + expanded, it follows that the breathing capacity is diminished + more than one half. It is wonderful how anyone can endure + existence, or long survive, in this devitalized condition; yet, + thousands do, and with careful nursing, manage to bring into the + world several sickly children. The spinal distortion is one of + the ordinary consequences of lacing. No one who laces habitually + can have a straight or strong back. The muscles being unbalanced + become flabby or contracted, unable to support the trunk of the + body erect, and a curvature, usually a double curvature, of the + spine is the consequence. And if anything were needed to + aggravate the spinal curvature, intensify the compression of the + internal viscera, and add to the general deformity, it is found + in the modern contrivance of stilted gaiters. These are made with + heels so high and narrow that locomotion is awkward and painful, + the centre of gravity is shifted "to parts unknown," and the head + is thrown forwards and the hips projected backwards to maintain + perpendicularity. + + [3] I have reproduced the admirable cuts found in Dr. + Trall's physiology, as they were essential to the + understanding of the text quoted, and also because they + convey more vividly than words the injury necessarily + sustained by those who persist in outraging nature and + violating the laws of their being by improper dress. + +[Illustration: The internal viscera.] + +[Illustration: Anterior view of thorax in the Venus of Medicis.] + +[Illustration: The same in a fashionable corset-wearing lady of +to-day.] + +In speaking of the destructiveness to health caused by woman's dress, +Prof. Oscar B. Moss, M. D., declares: + + Although the corset is the chief source of constraint to the + kidneys, liver, stomach, pancreas, and spleen, forcing them + upward to encroach upon the diaphragm and compressing the lungs + and heart, its evils are rivalled by those resulting from + suspending the skirts from the waist and hips, by which means the + pelvic organs are forced downward and often permanently + displaced. Now, add to these errors a belt drawn snugly around + the waist, and we have before us a combination of the most + malignant elements of dress which it would be possible to invent. + + The waist belt enforces the evils which the corset and skirts + inaugurate. Every proposition of anatomy and physiology bearing + upon this subject appeals to reason. Did the abdominal organs + require for their well-being less room than we find in the + economy of nature, less room would have been provided. Nature + bestows not grudgingly, neither does she lavish beyond the + requirements of perfect health. + + The same laws which govern the nutrition of muscles, apply also + to the vital organs. Pressure that impedes circulation of blood + through them must suppress their functions proportionally. With + the lungs, heart, and digestive organs impaired by external + devices, which force them into abnormal relations, health is + impossible. Every other part of the body--nay, life + itself--depends upon the perfection of these organs. The ancients + fittingly called them the tripod of life. + + Consumption, heart disease, dyspepsia, and the multiform phases + of uterine and ovarian diseases are among the natural and + frequent consequences of compressing the internal organs. Men + could not endure such physical indignities as women inflict upon + themselves. Should they attempt to do so, they would not long + hold the proud position of "bread winners," which is now theirs + by virtue of their more robust qualities. + +[Illustration: Street costume. Spring, 1884.] + +[Illustration: Street costume. Summer, 1891. (Compare waist with +anterior view of thorax of corset-wearing lady of to-day.) See page +412.] + +It is difficult to imagine a slavery more senseless, cruel, or +far-reaching in its injurious consequences than that imposed by +fashion on civilized womanhood during the past generation. Her health +has been sacrificed, and in countless instances her life has paid the +penalty; while posterity has been dwarfed, maimed, and enervated, and +in body, mind, and soul deformed at its behests. In turn every part of +her body has been tortured. On her head at fashion's caprice the hair +of the dead has been piled. Hats and bonnets, wraps and gowns laden +with heavy beads and jet have as seriously impaired her health as they +have rendered her miserable; the tight lacing required by the wasp +waists has produced generations of invalids and bequeathed to +posterity suffering that will not vanish for many decades. By it, as +has been pointed out by the authorities cited, every vital organ in +the body has been seriously affected. The heart and lungs, by nature +protected by a cage of bone, have been abnormally crushed in a space +so contracted as to absolutely prohibit the free action upon which +health depended; while the downward pressure was necessarily equally +injurious to her delicate organism. The tightly drawn corset has +proved an unmitigated curse to the living and a legacy of misery and +disease to posterity. And this cruel deforming of the most beautiful +of God's creations was said to be beautiful simply because fashion +willed it. Nor was this all; enormous bustles and skirts of prodigious +dimension have borne their weight largely upon that part of her body +which above all else should be absolutely free from pressure. By this +means the most sensitive organs have been ruthlessly subjected to down +pressing weights which for exquisite torture and for the absolute +certainty of the long train of agony that must result, rival the +heartless ingenuity of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. Beyond this +generation of debilitated and invalided mothers, rises a countless +posterity robbed of its birthright of health while yet unborn.[4] A +possible genius deformed and dwarfed by the weight of a fashionable +dress; a brain which might have been brilliant rendered idiotic by the +constant pressure of a corset, and the wearisome weight of a "stylish" +dress pressing about the hips; a child whose natural capacity might +have carried him to the seat of a Webster or into the laboratory of an +Edison, condemned to drag a weakly, diseased, or deformed body through +life, with mind ever chained to the flesh, through the heartless +imposition which fashion imposed on his mother! What thought can be +more appalling to a conscientious woman? Yet until a revolution is +accomplished and a reign of reason and common sense inaugurated, this +crime against the unborn will continue. But some argue the days of +these extremes are past. + + [4] In discussing the solemn duty mothers owe to their + offspring, Mrs. Annie Jenness Miller sensibly observes:-- + + Are women ignorant of the mischief they do to their + offspring, or are they indifferent to consequences? Has the + true maternal love become extinct, in this age of advanced + civilization, that women ignore all the laws of nature while + anticipating the glory of motherhood? We know not; yet we + often see what causes a thrill of pity in our soul for the + future of the child yet unborn: a mother laced within stiff + bones and steel, while the very instincts of being cry out + against the sin of it. Surely every child has a right to be + well born! Wealth may be a grand inheritance, but health is + a better one, as any poor suffering creature will testify, + whose misery the most expensive doctors have been called + upon to alleviate without avail. And how can a child be well + born unless its parents observe the laws of life bearing + upon the birth and rearing of children? It is impossible. If + a mother will so clothe herself that the vitality which + properly belongs to her baby becomes exhausted and + destroyed, the child is robbed, as a natural consequence, + and perhaps the weakened, puny, distorted, fretful little + creature, who is innocent of the cause of its own + sufferings, will live to become a curse to the world instead + of the blessing that it would have been had rational + conditions been observed before its birth. + + * * * * * + + Tight corsets grudgingly loosened a quarter of an inch at a + time, heavy skirts, and all the evil conditions we are so + familiar with, are still retained as the months pass, + bringing ever nearer what should be the very happiest hour + of woman's existence--that in which she is to be intrusted + with the keeping, training, and guidance of a new human + soul. Perhaps her baby comes into the world dead or + deformed, perhaps deprived of certain of its faculties; or + it may be that it possesses life and all of its special + senses and organs in such a diminished degree that the whole + of its future becomes a pain rather than a joy, while its + miserable, puny structure remains a lasting reproach to its + parents as long as they live. + +[Illustration: VAGARIES OF FASHION. PREVAILING STYLES IN WALKING +COSTUMES DURING THE PAST THIRTY YEARS. (Four images for the years +1860, 1872, 1878, and 1886.)] + +I answer not past, but they are assuming other forms. Since 1890 +dawned, the evils in some respects have been aggravated; for it must +not be forgotten that the daughters of the present decade have, in +order to be fashionable, compressed beyond all healthful bounds the +flesh of their arms, retarding circulation and inviting pneumonia and +other ills. And in order to look stylish, thousands of women wear +dress waists so tight that no free movement of the upper body is +possible; indeed in numbers of instances ladies are compelled to put +their bonnets on before attempting the painful ordeal of getting into +their glove-fitting dress waists. Many young women to-day, yielding to +the spell of fashion, place the corset next to their flesh, while a +still greater number have merely the thinnest possible undershirt +between the flesh and the corset, after which they tightly draw the +dress waist until it meets. This seems incredible, but it is vouched +for by several ladies of my acquaintance, among whom are physicians +whose large practice among their sisters gives them peculiar +facilities for knowing the absolute facts. Health, posterity, and all +the instincts of the higher self are ruthlessly sacrificed to the +fickle folly of fashion's criminal caprice. And we must not forget +that even now the sweeping train is coming in vogue and correctly +attired ladies must consent to carry the germs of death with +quantities of filth from the streets of our metropolitan cities into +their homes of wealth and refinement. The corset and high-heeled +shoes, the two most deadly foes to maternity and posterity, are also +seen at the present time, on every hand. + +If outraged nature could show the procession of mothers sacrificed on +fashion's altar during the past generation, or unveil the suffering +and deformity being borne by posterity at the present time, through +this slavery, the world would be thrilled with an indescribable +horror. Health, comfort, and human life have paid the penalty of a +criminal servitude to the modern juggernaut, before whose car millions +of our women are bowing in abject servility, knowing full well that at +each turn of its wheel new pains or fresh diseases will be inflicted. +And what power controls and gives life to this mistress of modern +civilization? At whose behest is this crime against reason, life, and +posterity perpetrated? _The cupidity of the shrewd and unscrupulous +and the caprice of the shallow and frivolous._ + +[Illustration: Vagaries of Fashion. A belle in the eighties.] + +[Illustration: Vagaries of Fashion. A belle early in the sixties.] + +The moral aspect of this subject is even more grave than the +hygienic. Anything which injures the physical body, whether it be +licentiousness, intemperance, gluttony, or vicious modes of dress, is +necessarily evil from an ethical point of view. Not simply because the +law of our being decrees that whatever drains or destroys the physical +vitality must sooner or later sap the vital forces of the brain; but +also because anything is ethically destructive which chains the mind +to the realm of animality, when, unfettered, it should be unfolding in +spiritual strength and glory. Thus it will be readily seen that any +article of clothing which presses upon the vitals of the body so as to +cause displacement of the delicate organism, or so cumbersome as to +cause general fatigue, anything, as is the case with high heels, which +throws the body out of its equilibrium, or any article of dress which +makes the mind ever conscious of the body by virtue of its +uncomfortableness, is injurious from an ethical point of view. This +fact which has been so generally overlooked will become more apparent, +if for the sake of illustration we suppose for a moment that a plant +is endowed with reason and sensation, and obeying the general law of +its being, and the persuasive and inspiring influence of the sun and +rain, is struggling to rise heavenward, and give to the radiant world +above its impearled wealth--its gorgeous bloom, its marvellous +fragrance and fruit; but by virtue of the bonds of a prison-house +below,--a small pot or a rocky encasement, its lifework is thwarted, +its bloom, perfume, and fruit, if they come at all, are stunted, +limited, and imperfect. For generations woman's condition has been +like that of the plant, the wealth of her nature has been dwarfed, the +marvellous richness of her life has been marred by the imprisoned +conditions of her body, and infinitely more sad and far-reaching have +been the baleful consequences upon millions of her offspring, dwarfed, +weakly, sickly, enfeebled in body and soul. _A mother whose thoughts +have voluntarily or involuntarily been held in the atmosphere of the +physical nature, necessarily imparts to her child a legacy of +animality which, like the corpse of a dead being, clings to the soul +throughout its pilgrimage._ Terrible as have been fashion's ravages on +woman's physical health, the curse which she has exerted when the +ethical aspect of the case is entertained, far transcends it. + +It is a curious fact that almost all the opposition from women to +proposed reforms in woman's dress comes from two extremes in society. +Those who do no independent thinking, taking all their thoughts and +opinions from the expressed views of the men with whom they associate, +and the profoundly earnest and thoughtful, but conservative women of +society. The opposition of the former class is merely the echo of +husbands, brothers, fathers, and lovers; but the others are moved by +conviction, and for this reason their views are worthy of +consideration. They fear that any radical change will exert an immoral +influence. Their minds are swayed by ancient thought which throughout +all ages has cast its baleful shadow over the brain of the world. They +are held under the spell of a conservatism which unquestioningly +tolerates established institutions and existing orders, but has no +confidence in aught that proposes to break with these, even though the +new has reason and common sense clearly on its side. Thus time and +again fashions have been tolerated, although known to be morally +enervating and singularly repulsive to all refined sensibilities; +while proposals from without for reforms based on the laws of health +and beauty have called forth the most determined opposition from this +conscientious class, merely because the proposed innovations have not +conformed to ideas entertained by virtue of prevailing fashions, and +have been therefore regarded immoral. And herein lies an important +point to be considered. Anything which is radically unlike prevailing +standards or styles to which we have become accustomed will impress +most persons as being immodest or indecent. _The unusual in dress is +usually denounced as immoral_ because we are all prone to allow our +prejudice to obscure our reason and o'ersway our judgment. This point +_must_ be recognized before any real reform can be accomplished. When +humanity has grown sufficiently wise to reason broadly and view +problems on their own merits, aside from preconceived opinion or +inherited prejudice, real instead of false standards of morality will +prevail, and we shall cease to condemn anything as pernicious simply +because it is unusual, radically unlike that to which we have been +accustomed or revolutionary in its tendency. Let me make this if +possible more apparent by an illustration, because it bears such an +important relation to the main issue. If men had for ages worn long +flowing robes, completely enveloping their bodies, but on a certain +day with one accord exchanged them for a costume similar to that now +seen throughout the civilized world, society would experience a +distinct shock; immoral, indecent, pernicious, and vulgar would mildly +express the sentiment of conventional thought, until the same society +had become accustomed to the change. To us at the present time it is +difficult to conceive how women of sense and refinement submitted to +the swinging-cage paraphernalia of the sixties, or the Grecian bend +of a later date. Yet in those days the severely plain skirts of the +present would have seemed positively indecent. It has been necessary +to dwell on this thought in order to sufficiently remove existing +prejudice to enable a fair consideration of the question in its +broader aspects. I have also introduced fair examples of prevailing +fashions during the past generation and reproductions of Greek, +Shakespearian and other simple costumes worn at the present time by +the queens of the stage, to show by comparison how infinitely more +graceful, beautiful, comfortable, healthful, and by their very +elements of comfort and healthfulness, ethically superior, are these +costumes to those which conventionalism sanctioned in the sixties, +seventies, and eighties. Is there anything immodest, indecent, or +suggestive of impropriety in Mary Anderson in the graceful Grecian +costume of Parthenia, presented on the preceding page? Of the tens of +thousands of people who have witnessed the performances of Madame +Modjeska, Miss Anderson, Julia Marlowe, or Margaret Mather in the +costumes given in this paper, it is not probable that a perceptible +number have seen aught improper or even injuriously suggestive, +notwithstanding they are so radically unconventional. Surely no mind +accustomed to think broadly and view problems on all sides, and +unaccustomed to revel in the sewer of sensualism would see in the +attire of these estimable ladies aught but costumes at once graceful, +refined, and apparently infinitely more comfortable and healthful than +those represented in any of the fashion plates I have reproduced, and +which millions of women of good sense have under the stress of +conventionalism been compelled to wear. Let us compare Miss Anderson's +Grecian costume with the dress of a society belle in the seventies, +which required from twenty to thirty yards of material, and when +completed and fitted transformed the wearer into a monstrosity with an +unsightly hump on the back, and a street cleaner of immense dimensions +trailing for several feet in her rear. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: _From copyrighted photo by Sarony._ MARY ANDERSON AS +PARTHENIA.] + +From artistic, hygienic, economical, and ethical points of view, to +say nothing of common sense and comfort, is not the simple and +beautiful costume of Parthenia incomparably superior to that which +marked the second decade of the past generation? Would not woman +to-day clothed in close-fitting garments of silk or woollen fabric, +with an outer robe or loose dress fashioned something after the order +of the ancient Grecian or Roman pattern, be far more beautiful than +she is as a slave to fashion's fickle fancy, while the requirements of +life, health, and comfort would be fully met? Again, let us compare +one of the plates of the sixties with its wonderful expanse of skirt +to the simple, graceful attire of Miss Marlowe as Viola in the +"Twelfth Night," and laying aside all preconceived opinions (with the +influence which we have seen the unusual plays in fashioning our ideas +of propriety,) does not our reason and common sense sustain the view +that the latter is far more refined, simple, and less vulgarly +ostentatious than the inflated garment of the early sixties? Or if we +compare the pictures of Modjeska and Miss Marlowe in Shakespearian +roles, or that of the former in the neat and graceful gathered gown, +and Miss Mather in the simple peasant dress, are they not one and all +far more chaste, artistic, sensible, and healthful than the +hoop-skirt, bustle, and train, or the tie-back? Do not, however, +understand that I advocate the introduction of any of these costumes. +It is for woman and woman alone to decide what she will wear, and in +this paper I am merely seeking to second the splendid work that has by +her been inaugurated, and by speaking as one of the younger men of +this decade, to voice what I believe American womanhood will find to +be the sentiment of the rising generation, whenever she makes a +concerted effort to emancipate herself from the slavery of Parisian +fashions. There are many evidences that the hour is ripe for a +sensible revolt, and that if the movement is guided by wise and +judicious minds it will be a success. Two things seem to me to be of +paramount importance. + +[Illustration: _From copyrighted photo by Falk, N. Y._ JULIA MARLOWE.] + +[Illustration: HELENA MODJESKA.] + +[Illustration: MARGARET MATHER.] + +[Illustration: HELENA MODJESKA.] + +(1.) The commission of women acting for the Council should decide +definitely upon the nature and extent of changes desired. The ideal +costume should be clearly defined and ever present in their mind. But +it would be exceedingly unwise to attempt any radical change at once. +This has been more than anything the secret of the partial or total +failures of the movements of this character in the past. The changes +should be gradually made. Every spring and autumn let an advance step +be taken, and in order to do this an American fashion commission or +bureau should be established, under the auspices of the dress reform +committee of the Women's Council, which at stated intervals should +issue bulletins and illustrated fashion plates. If the ideal is kept +constantly in view, and every season slight changes are made toward +the desired garment, the victory will, I believe, be a comparatively +easy one, for the splendid common sense of the American women and men +will cordially second the movement. _Concerted action, a clearly +defined ideal toward which to move, and gradual changes_--these are +points which it seems to me are vitally important. One reason why the +most ridiculous and inartistic extremes in fashion have been generally +adopted is found in this policy of gradual introduction, a fact which +must impress anyone who carefully examines the fashions of the past. +First there has been a slight alteration, shortly becoming more +pronounced, and with each season it has grown more marked, although +perhaps not for four or six years has the extreme been reached. At +every step there have been complaints from various quarters, but +steadily and persistently has the fashion been pushed until it reached +its climax, after which we have had its gradual decline. This was the +history of the hoop skirt and the Grecian bend, and has been that of +most of the extremes which have marked the past, and we can readily +believe that in no other way could womanhood have been insnared by +such supreme and criminal folly as has characterized fashion's +caprices in unnumbered instances. + +[Illustration: _From copyrighted photo by Falk, N. Y._ MISS MARLOWE AS +VIOLA.] + +(2.) Another very essential point is the proper education of the girls +of to-day, for to them will fall, in its richest fruition, the +blessings of this splendid reform if it be properly carried on, and if +they be everywhere instructed to set health above fashion, and seek +the beauty of Venus de Medici rather than the pseudo beauty of the +wretched, deformed invalid, who at the dictates of the modern Babylon +has trampled reason and common sense, health and comfort, the +happiness of self and the enjoyment of her posterity under foot. Teach +the girls to be American; to be independent; to scorn to copy fashion, +manners, or habits that come from decaying civilizations, and which +outrage all sentiment of refinement, laws of life, or principles of +common sense. The American girl is naturally independent and well +endowed with reason and common sense. Once shown the wisdom and +importance of this _American_ movement, and she will not be slow to +cordially embrace it. In many respects the hour is most propitious, +owing to a combination of causes never before present, among which may +be mentioned the growing independence of American womanhood; the +enlarged vision that has come to her through the wonderfully diverse +occupations and professions which she has recently embraced; the +growing consciousness of her ability to succeed in almost every +vocation of life. The latitude enjoyed by her in matters of dress in +the mountains and seashore resorts; the growth of women's gymnasiums; +the emphasis given to hygienic instruction in schools, and the recent +quiet introduction of a perfectly comfortable apparel for morning +wear, which, strange to say, has originated where one would least +expect, among the most fashionable belles of the Empire city.[5] This +significant innovation which is reported by the daily press, as +becoming quite popular among the young ladies of the wealthy districts +of New York, consists of a comfortable blouse worn over knickerbocker +trousers. Clad in this comfortable attire, the belles come to +breakfast, nor do they subsequently change their dress during the +morning if they intend remaining indoors. If a sedate or fastidious +caller is announced, a beautiful tea-gown, which is at hand, is +slipped into, and the young lady is appropriately clad to suit even +conventional requirements. The bicycle and lawn tennis costumes now +becoming so popular also exercise a subtile but marked influence in +favor of rational dress reform, not only giving young ladies the +wonderful comfort and health-giving freedom which for ages have been +denied her sex, but also by accustoming them to these radically +unconventional costumes.[6] + + [5] In speaking of this practical dress reform on the part + of the belles of New York, the Boston _Daily Globe_ recently + observed editorially: The great question now agitating the + fashionable women of Fifth Avenue is: "Do you wear + knickerbockers?" + + Stripped of all apologetic circumlocution, "knickerbockers" + are simply loose, easy trousers, above which is worn a + becoming blouse waist, and thus attired, the belles of New + York come down to breakfast. Nor are the trousers + subsequently removed while the ladies are about the house, + unless some conservative caller is announced, when a stylish + tea-gown can be jumped into in a second, and the lady is in + faultless female costume. + + That women should be handicapped in their locomotion in + their own homes is simply a relic of oriental slavery and + prudery, and the revolt against it is sensible and + wholesome. That they have come to stay is evident, while + improved costumes for shop girls, and other women engaged in + business every day in the year, are certain to follow in the + order of progress.--_Boston Globe._ + + It might be well also for the council to recommend the + formation of societies in each community where social or + society gatherings of those interested might be held at + stated intervals, at which all members would appear in + dresses made with special regard to health, comfort, and + beauty, and in which all garments would conform to the + general ideal recommended by the council. + + [6] As the paper is being set up my attention has been attracted + to a remarkably sensible signed editorial in the Boston + _Sunday Globe_, of July 26, by the brilliant writer and + sensible thinker, Adelaide A. Claftin, from which I extract + the following: + + Bishop Coxe's fulmination against the riding of bicycles by + women has attracted considerable attention, but to the + student of social movements it is not strange that Bishop + Coxe should object. The real oddity is that scarcely anybody + else, apparently, has objected. + + That young girls from the best families should within a + short time have betaken themselves to whirling through the + public thoroughfares, like so many boys, is certainly a new + departure from all old fashioned canons of feminine decorum, + at least as startling as many that have brought down all + sorts of thunderbolts from pulpit and press. Had it been a + prerequisite that an amendment to the United States + Constitution, or even a statute of a State Legislature + should be obtained, the girls would doubtless have had to + wait many a weary year. + + It is not long since another church dignitary, Dr. Morgan + Dix, objected to the entrance of girls into universities, + because it was not "proper for young women to be exposed to + the gaze of young men, many of whom were less bent upon + learning than upon amusement." + + However little she may realize it, every girl who rides her + steel horse is a vivid illustration of one of the greatest + waves of progress of this century, the advancement of women + in freedom and opportunity. + + A wise physician once said that the opinion that a good + woman should stay closely at home had killed more women than + any other one cause. In the days of our grandmothers the + suggestion of regular gymnastic training or athletics for + girls would have been received with horror. It was hardly + proper for a woman to have any knowledge of the construction + of her physical system. + + It is a curious historical fact that the first women + lecturers upon physiology were women's rights women, and + viewed by the majority of people as dangerous to female + modesty, while the Ladies' Physiological Institute in Boston + was at first much disapproved of by the clergy. So long, + too, as old-fashioned "stays" (laced up sometimes by the aid + of equally old-fashioned bed-posts) remained in vogue, + neither physiology nor athletics stood much chance with + women. + + But the often derided dress reformer has had her way, to a + great extent. Bathing dresses, gymnastic and tennis suits + which would have frightened an eighteenth century dame into + one of her favorite fainting fits. + + Meanwhile the girls have mounted their bicycles. Bless you, + my children; what endless vistas of good times are before + you! What glorious landscape views and ocean moonrises, what + freedom, what fresh, airy delight in young life and + strength! + + Already one young doctor has departed with his bride on a + wedding tour to Texas, each upon a bicycle. Other strange + affairs will no doubt take place. By and by the bishops will + see no more irreverence in bidding Godspeed to girls + starting on a journey to California upon bicycles than to + girls departing to Europe on a steamship. + +Another encouraging sign of the times is the increasing demand on the +great and fashionable house of Liberty & Co., of London, for the Greek +and other simple costumes by fashionable ladies, who are using them +largely for home wear. I have reproduced two recent styles of dresses +made by Liberty. All fabrics used are rich, soft, and elegant, and the +effect is said to be gratifying to lovers of art, as well as far more +healthful and comfortable than the conventional dress. The most +important fact, however, is the effect or influence which is sure to +follow this breaking away from the ruling fashions in wealthy circles. +When conventionalism in dress is fully discredited, practical reform +is certain to follow. The knell of the one means the triumph of the +other. + +[Illustration: Some of Liberty's recent dresses. The Grecian Costume.] + +[Illustration: Some of Liberty's recent dresses. _The Juliet._] + +Believing as I do that the cycle of woman has dawned, and that +through her humanity will reach a higher and nobler civilization than +the world has yet known, I feel the most profound interest in all that +affects her health, comfort, and happiness; for as I have before +observed, her exaltation means the elevation of the race. A broader +liberty and more liberal meed of justice for her mean a higher +civilization, and the solution of weighty and fundamental problems +which will never be equitably adjusted until we have brought into +political and social life more of the splendid spirit of altruism, +which is one of her most conspicuous characteristics. I believe that +morality, education, practical reform, and enduring progress wait upon +her complete emancipation from the bondage of fashion, prejudice, +superstition, and conservatism. + + + + +UN-AMERICAN TENDENCIES. + +BY REV. CARLOS MARTYN, D. D. + + +The monarchial conception is that a few are born booted and spurred to +ride, and that the many are born saddled and bridled to be ridden. The +republican theory is that "Everybody is cleverer than anybody," to +quote the epigram attributed to Talleyrand; and that government, in +Lincoln's phrase, should be "of the people, by the people, and for the +people." + +The United States is the only nation in history which has dared to +base itself upon an absolute trust in the people. + +There have been republics (so-called) _ad infinitum_ and _ad nauseam_. +"Greece," cries one of the foremost of our orators, "had her +republics, but they were the republics of one freeman and ten slaves; +and the battle of Marathon was fought by slaves unchained from the +doorposts of their master's houses. Italy had her republics; they were +the republics of wealth and skill and family, limited and +aristocratic. Holland had her republic, the republic of guilds and +landholders, trusting the helm of state to property and education. The +Swiss republics were groups of cousins. And all these which, at their +best, held but a million or two within their narrow limits, have gone +down in the ocean of time." + +The Spanish-American Republics are nondescripts. They owe their +existence to _pronunciamientos_. They are the puppets of successful +soldiers, and are administered by generals who follow one another like +the ghosts that walked in the vision of "Richard Third," and do not +hold office long enough to be photographed. They are based on mongrel +races, steeped in ignorance, cramped by superstition, and physically +rotten before they get ripe. + +Our fathers built a commonwealth on the foundation of manhood. They +recognized no other qualification, save for a period of inconsistency, +_color_; which, happily, is now wiped out of the fundamental law, +though not entirely out of popular prejudice. + +The faith in the people which Jefferson, Sam Adams, and the men of '76 +cherished as the distinctive tenet of their political creed, has been +justified by results. Their gigantic creation launches into the second +decade of its second century, belted with power, aggrandized with _El +Dorados_, the amazement of the world, the "Arabian Nights" translated +into every-day reality. + +Unfortunately, however, in the face of this unprecedented record of +prosperity, certain un-republican tendencies begin to exhibit +themselves among us. These may well give thoughtful patriots startled +concern. + +Half a century ago, before time had been annihilated by the telegraph, +and distance abolished by steam, nations were comparatively isolated; +and the American most of all. Europe was three thousand miles away. +Now-a-days, the old world is next-door neighbor to the new. Saint +John's apocalyptic vision is realized; there is "no more sea." It is +bridged by steamers, and flashed out of existence by the electric +cable. What is the consequence? The consequence is that while Europe +borrows many of our ideas, America borrows more of hers. With the +increase of travel, the growth of wealth, the enlargement of our +leisurely class, there is an aping of English and German habits of +thought and modes of life which are utterly repugnant to republican +institutions. While Europe should seem to be almost ready to discard +baby-house distinctions and the embroidered rags of aristocracy, +America, strange to say, appears willing to put on and wear the +disreputable finery. We are becoming disagreeably familiar with what +Mr. Gladstone characterizes in an inspired phrase, as the _classes_ in +contrast with the _masses_. + +This interchange of national customs comes inevitably from the +facilitated intercourse of our day, from the intimacy begotten by +inter-marriage, by commerce, by travel. But it is sad if we are to +borrow more than we lend, and if the balance of trade is to be +perpetually against us. We must find or invent a remedy if +republicanism is to survive. The widespread alarm felt among our +humbler citizens shows how real the danger is. Take, for instance, the +growing distrust of universal suffrage manifested by our cultivated +classes. Certain journals, the organs of wealth and monopoly; +social-science conventions, composed of pert specialists poisoned by +caste feeling; even pulpits, which should be the guardians and +exponents of democracy,--cautiously, tentatively, but as positively as +they dare, discuss the propriety of restraining the ballot, and sigh +for a property or an educational qualification. + +Now, if there be one feature of American republicanism which is +supremely characteristic, it is universal suffrage. This +interpenetrates our political system as veins run through a block of +marble. The patriots and sages who framed our Constitution grouted it +with this principle. They believed and declared that it was safe to +trust men with self-government. They recognized, of course, the fact +that in every community there would be an element of ignorance and +inefficiency. But by putting the ballot in every hand they +deliberately took bonds of wealth and culture to enlighten this +ignorance and train this inefficiency. They enlisted the self-interest +of the Commonwealth on the side of popular education. They said, +practically, to the well-to-do and to those who had interests at +stake: See to it, if you would save your possessions, that you share +them with the poorest and the lowest, at least to the extent of +lifting them to the level of self-control and self-respect. In fact, +this is the meaning of our free schools, of trial by jury, and of the +ballot-box. Tocqueville, whose insight into republican institutions +was marvellous, distinctly traces our prosperity, in his survey of +American democracy, to universal suffrage, with all that it +necessitates. So on the other side of the water, when, in 1867, +Parliament doubled the English franchise, Robert Lowe leaped to his +feet and cried, amid the cheers of the House of Commons: "_Now_ the +first interest and duty of every Englishman is to educate the masses." +Previously, if the Court of St. James stooped to put intelligence on +one side and morality on the other side of the cradle rocked by +poverty and vice, it was pity that dictated the gracious act. Now it +is self-preservation. Who does not know how much stronger +self-interest is than pity as a motive? Who cannot see the far-sighted +wisdom of our fathers in thus ingrafting this powerful motive upon the +fundamental law? + +Moreover, universal suffrage is educational in itself. Responsibility +educates. Nothing else does. By throwing the responsibility upon the +people they are necessarily lifted, sobered, broadened. Our women do +not vote. What is the result? Not one woman in a thousand has any +interest in, and not one in two thousand has any acquaintance with, +political affairs. Their ignorance would be laughable were it not sad. +Every father, husband, brother, can testify to the impenetrable +ignorance of his feminine belongings concerning matters of public +moment. It forms the topic of universal comment in male circles. It is +not because women are naturally incapable. It is because having no +responsibility they naturally have no interest. Why should a woman +inform herself of what does not concern her? Occasionally, some woman, +exceptionally placed, or born with a genius for politics, studies and +masters state-craft. But exceptions do not invalidate, they prove +rules. Women, like men, cannot be expected to take any intelligent +interest in affairs that lie outside of their life. + +Our men, on the contrary, are politicians down to the infant in the +cradle. A boy baby cries, "Mr. Chairman!" as soon as he can talk, and +calls the next crib to order. Men know that the maturing of politics, +the selection of administrations, the distribution of offices, the +adjustment of taxes, are their function. This knowledge whets the edge +of interest. The significant fact is that it is not the people who are +indifferent to politics. This indifference is found among merchants +who are too busy making money to attend to the public weal; among +scholars buried alive in their books, with no interest in any question +that is not musty; among men of leisure, aping old world aristocracy, +and out of touch with democracy; among those who _say_ that all men +are equal and are afraid they _will_ be,--never among the people. + +The plainer men are the greater is their political interest. Our +naturalized citizens, shut out in their native land from all +participation in government, and hence appreciating citizenship here, +are among the most alert. These are they who crowd the halls during +the recurring canvasses, and who are always early at the polls. And is +it possible to overrate the instruction they get at meetings where +they hear great questions discussed by master minds, when issues are +torn open and riddled with light? Thus universal suffrage is itself a +normal school, the people's college. + +It is often said that, judged by its power to govern great cities, +universal suffrage is a failure. This is true. The failure, however, +is due to local causes. It does not come from the inherent incapacity +of the masses, but is the spawn of accidental and removable evils. +Chief among these is the corner grog-shop. This is the blazing +lighthouse of hell. Here it is that morals and manners are debauched. +It is over this counter that what an old poet calls "liquid damnation" +is dealt out. If the _quid-nuncs_, instead of railing at universal +suffrage, would combine to help shut that door, republicanism would +speedily lose its reproach. The constituency of the grog seller is the +ready made tool of the demagogue. A true democracy can only exist on +the basis of sobriety. A drunken people cannot be trusted with the +dearest rights and most vital possessions of freemen. Better the +merciless tyranny of the Czar, or the military despotism of the +Kaiser, far better the class rule of England, than the staggering, +hiccoughing, bedevilled government of the groggery! + +Aside from the great centres of population, the common people are more +trustworthy than the corporations, the colleges, or the newspapers. +The selfishness, the preoccupation, the anti-republicanism of these, +are proverbial. We know that editors are echoes, not leaders, printing +what will sell, not what is true. Landor declared that there is a +spice of the scoundrel in most literary men. Everybody understands +that a corporation's gospel is a good fat dividend. Who would exchange +universal suffrage for college suffrage, or corporation suffrage, or +newspaper suffrage? + +Our danger to-day does not lie in universal suffrage. It lies in the +steady encroachments of wealth, in the multiplication of monopolies, +in the too rapid growth of fungus millionnaires, in the increasing +number of well educated idlers, in the sinister prominence of the +saloon in politics, in the tendency of the country to submit to +bureaucracy, in the transformation of the national Senate into a club +of rich men, housed and fed at the national expense, in the change of +the House of Representatives into a huddle of clerks to register the +decrees of greedy capital, in the chronic distrust of the people felt +among book-educated and professional men; in one word, in the +appalling gravitation towards government by "boodle" in the hands of +unscrupulous minorities. + +The only hope of deliverance lies in the people,--in their honesty, +fair play, and decision, No; it is not universal suffrage that has +brought disgrace on the country. If the rancor of party spirit, if the +dry-rot of legislative corruption, if the tyranny of incorporated +wealth, if the diabolism of intemperance are to be curbed, it is +universal suffrage which must hold the reins. Talk of taking the +ballot out of the hand of the poor citizen! As well fling the revolver +out of window when the burglar is in the house. One of the keenest +critics of American life has said: "Corruption does not so much rot +the masses; it poisons Congress. Credit mobilier and money rings are +not housed under thatched roofs; they flaunt at the capital." The real +scum is the so-called better class. If anybody is to be deprived of a +vote, it should be the railroad king, the mill owner, the indifferent +trader, and the Europeanized Yankee who spends abroad what his father +earned at home, and mistakes Paris for Paradise. + +As another illustration of the un-republican trend, observe the +obsequious attitude of our government towards monarchs and monarchies. +We are to-day cheek by jowl with the despots of Europe. Instead of +being the torch bearer of freedom we occupy a position of apology for +what we are and of gaping admiration for what they are. When an +opportunity offered the other day to recognize the new Republic of +Brazil, the toadies at Washington equivocated and postponed. One would +suppose that the disappearance of the last monarchy from the new world +would have been greeted in the great Republic with the ringing of +bells and the blaze of bonfires--would have been answered by a regular +Fourth of July outburst. Bless you, no! The Czar was displeased. The +Emperor of Germany was in the sulks. Queen Victoria put on mourning. +Why should the Dons at Washington be out of fashion? + +On the other hand, when Carlos I. was crowned at Lisbon last December, +the American Squadron of Evolution was in the harbor, and behold! the +officers of the Republic's war-ships paraded side by side with the +other flunkies of royalty in honor of the coronation--thus showing +that they belonged to the Squadron of Reaction. For so misrepresenting +their country they ought to be cashiered. Republicans refusing to +recognize a new republic, but hastening to recognize a new king! What +a spectacle! Spirits of Otis and Franklin, of Jefferson and Hamilton, +what think ye of such democracy as this? + +No one would have the United States play the role of a bully, or enact +the demagogue. But surely there is a medium between that and the +despicable inconsistency of unfriendliness towards those of our own +political faith, and of lackey serviceableness towards a crowned head. +Kings do not hesitate to discourage republicanism everywhere. A +republic should not hesitate to encourage it anywhere. Self-respect in +such a matter would win the respect of the world by deserving it. But +when Americans sell their daughters to European profligates for a +title, and pay millions to boot; when republicans in profession become +tuft-hunters in practice, and haunt the back stairs of palaces; when +the United States government, the eldest born and guardian of +democracy, decredits its own political creed and parades in royal +processions,--is it not time to cry a halt? + +We need in this country a revival of republicanism. There is a +tendency to flunkeyism at the bottom of human nature. Most men "dearly +love a lord," as Burns affirmed. Hence, a full-fledged aristocrat +attracts flunkies as a magnet draws iron filings. Lucian tells of an +exhibition in Rome in which monkeys had been trained to play a human +part; which they did perfectly, before the beauty and fashion of the +city--until a wag, in the midst of the performance, flung a handful of +nuts upon the stage, and straightway the actors were monkeys again. +Some of our republicans are monkeys in human attire. They get on well +enough until the nuts of class distinction are flung among them,--then +they are on all fours. + +Let us make democracy the fashion. Send devitalized Americans to +Coventry. Make an unrepublican word or deed the unpardonable political +sin. Do this: or else ship the statue of Liberty Enlightening the +World back to France, and ask her to set it in the harbor of +Marseilles. + +Another of these un-republican tendencies is the current movement for +civil service reform. Every thoughtful citizen perceives and laments +the evils attendant on the present spoils system. It is the quartering +of the conquerors upon the conquered. It makes public office the +reward of party service. It loads half a dozen men (the President and +his Secretaries) with the responsible but impossible duty of filling +hundreds of thousands of offices, on the grab-bag principle. + +With the best intentions, the civil service reformers would make a bad +matter worse. On their plan, the un-American method of fixed tenure by +competitive examination and appointment by irresponsible cabals would +replace the method of political appointment for party service. Thus +they would fasten upon the country a great army of permanent +officials. It is out of harmony with our whole system. Every other +officer is elected, and for a specified term. Why, even in the +ministry, the tendency is to break up the life-pastorate. The largest +of our religious denominations has deliberately adopted the principle +of rotation. And the other bodies, while nominally retaining the life +theory, have practically borrowed the Methodist plan. + +No wonder civil service reform is unpopular. It goes to work at the +wrong end--works away from instead of towards republicanism. In +England, in Germany, where families reign, and where governmental +servants might consistently hold office for life, such a system has a +warrant--though even there it is found to be obstructive and +reactionary. But in a republic, where universal suffrage is the law, +nothing more intolerable could be conceived. The idea of creating a +class distinct from all other classes, independent of the +administration and unaccountable to the voters, fixed and immovable +save for causes proven--why, it is, not a _step_, it is a _stride_ +towards absolutism. Such a proposition, like "Hamlet's" case, + + "----makes us rather bear those ills we have, + Than fly to others that we know not of." + +That the civil service needs reform goes without the saying. But the +reform should be pushed along consistently republican lines. The +proper, the democratic method would be a further and broader +application of universal suffrage. Make _all_ the offices elective. + +Instead of _appointing_ Custom-House officials and postmasters, +_elect_ them. Put the responsibility where it belongs upon the +respective communities they serve. Then, men that are locally known +and respected would be selected. If the people are capable of electing +their own presidents, governors, representatives and judges, surely +they might be trusted to elect Custom-House officers and postmasters! +Otherwise, our republicanism is a humbug. This would abolish the +Washington grab-bag. It would also avoid the creation of a class of +life-officials than which nothing could be more dangerous and +unsavory. + +If our fathers, with no precedents on the file, could announce their +sublime faith that all men are endowed by their Creator with the right +to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; if they could discard +the probate-court idea, and adopt universal suffrage; if, in spite of +inconsistencies and imperfections, their conception has flowered in +the best, and happiest, and most prosperous nation on the +globe,--cannot their children show a faith as serene, a courage as +brave? One thing is certain, the European experiment has failed, while +ours is a miracle of success--and most successful when most +consistently worked out. In such circumstances, shall we exchange this +for that, and go back from the nineteenth century to the fourteenth? + +When Hume derided his mother's faith, and exhorted her to get rid of +her Christian prejudices, she answered: "My son, can you show me +anything better?" + + + + +EXTRINSIC SIGNIFICANCE OF CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT IN JAPAN. + +BY KUMA OISHI, A. M. + + +All students of history are aware that the revolution of 1688 +succeeded in consolidating constitutional government in England; that, +though toward the middle of the last century it had not yet assumed +its present admirable aspect, the English idea of political liberty +and religious toleration attracted the attention of Montesquieu and +Voltaire, who introduced it to their country; and that, since then, +accelerated by the establishment of the federal government in America, +and the triumph of the revolutionary principle in France, the theory +has spread over the continent with astonishing rapidity. + +Now that constitutional government is established in Japan, will she +not exercise the same influence over the Asiatic continent as that +which England has exercised over the European? To this, three great +objections may be raised. I. The pervading conservatism of Asia. II. +The prevailing ignorance among the Asiatic nations. III. The +doubtfulness as to their adaptability to the representative form of +government. We shall try to answer these objections in the above +order. + +I. If it be argued that the Asiatic people are conspicuously +characterized by the conservative spirit, that they seem well +satisfied with their present social and political organizations, such +as they are, it must be remembered at the same time, that this was +also the appearance which the French people presented, before their +attention was called to the political superiority of England. "In +general," says Lecky, "there runs through the great French literature +of the seventeenth century a profound content with the existing order +in Church and State, an entire absence of the spirit of disquiet, +scepticism, and innovation that leads to organic change."[7] + + [7] Lecky's History of England, Vol. V., p. 301. + +[Illustration: Kuma Oishi (signed "Cordially yours, Kuma Oishi")] + +That the conservative spirit and the seeming contentment of some of +the Asiatic nations are not in themselves forces strong enough, +when the time comes, to dispel the charm, as it were, possessed by the +theory of representative government, that in short, conservatism is no +match for "progress," as such a movement is popularly called, can be +illustrated by the history, not of the European nations alone, but of +some Asiatic nations themselves. To the general conservative tendency +of Asia, Japan was no exception until about twenty-five years ago. No +rational being would have then believed that in the course of a few +years, Japan would become one of the most progressive nations on the +face of the earth. The revolution of 1867, from which the birth of New +Japan is dated, was originally a dispute between the Mikado and the +Shogun for the _de facto_ sovereignty, and not the struggle of the +lower classes to rise to political eminence. The tottering dynasty of +the Shoguns came to an end, not because they were tyrannical, not +because the people felt the special need of social amelioration, but +because they saw that the Shogunate had been the instrumentality of +usurping the imperial authority, while the nominal Emperor was shut up +in his palace, and closely watched by the agents of the Shogun. In +Japan loyalty and patriotism meant one and the same thing; therefore +the people could not long tolerate this state of affairs. They needed +only an occasion to deprive the Shogun of his political power, and to +restore it to the Emperor. At last the occasion came. The demand of +the Western nations to open certain seaports of the country, +accompanied by the threats of armed force, compelled the Shogun to +yield. But this step proved fatal to him. If the people were opposed +to the Shogun's usurpation, they were still more opposed to his new +policy, simply because it was new. They were blind to the innumerable +advantages that could be derived from international commerce and +communication. As a hermit nation, the people looked down upon the +foreigners with mingled distrust and disdain. Knowing nothing of the +Western civilization they were determined that no "savage strangers" +should step upon the "sacred land of gods." To them the admission of +the foreigners signified nothing less than unprecedented disgrace and +possibly more--a prey to the ambition and treachery of the "foreign +devils." The conservative spirit of the people carried them to a pitch +of excitement as high as the exactly opposite principle carried the +French people during the revolution. The Emperor became doubly dear +to them, because he was a sovereign _de jure_, and because he was +opposed to the new policy. Thus the revolution which followed owes its +triumph to the conservatism of the people. Even with their zealous +attachment to the Emperor, and their deep hatred of the Shogun, it is +an open question whether events would have taken the same course, if +the Mikado had advocated and the Shogun opposed the new policy, so +strong was prejudice of the people. No more unfavorable condition and +time could have been chosen for the introduction of the European +civilization. However, in spite of their abhorrence of the Western +people, the Western ideas and customs, in spite of all their efforts +to shut them out, the appearance of some formidable men-of-war, +floating the flags of different nations, compelled Japan to enter into +the terms of treaty with them. Twenty years have passed since then, +and within that short period, the nation has undergone a marvellous +transformation under the magic touch of progress. It would be telling +an old story to enumerate the series of innovations that have been +written socially and politically, until the promulgation of the new +constitution, in which culminated the national pride of the people. +The matter to be noted here is that the European civilization +encountered but a few obstacles, notwithstanding its inopportune +introduction, and was soon adopted with determined zeal. The like +progressive phenomenon on a smaller scale is also recurring in Korea, +but of this later. + +II. Having thus seen from well known historical examples in Europe and +Asia that the conservatism is not in itself a force strong enough to +resist progress, which leads to the establishment of constitutional +government, let us proceed to meet the second objection, namely: the +prevailing ignorance among the Asiatic nations. Here the nature of our +inquiry involves three distinct topics. 1. Was the general +intelligence of the Japanese people, before they came into contact +with the Western civilization, higher than that of the other Asiatic +nations? 2. Is there not a peculiar characteristic among the Japanese +which impels them to progress? 3. Consequent upon the exposition of +these two topics, investigation must also be made as to why the +Chinese Empire does not show a similar progressive tendency. + +1. Besides being the most dangerous enemy of representative government +after its establishment, ignorance is most hostile to its +establishment. _Prima facie_, people must possess a certain degree of +capacity, mental and moral, to understand what civilization is and +what representative government is. The Batta of Sumatra may have their +own alphabet, and the Fans of the West Coast may excel in iron +work,[8] but even these fall short of the pre-requisites, not +intellectually only, but morally also. We cannot conceive of them, +seated around a camp-fire, discussing the merits of two chambers +system, or defining the rights and duties of a citizen, while their +vile lips are stained with the blood of their fellow-man, whose flesh +they have just devoured. Not to expatiate further on this self-evident +fact, it is certain that the Japanese people were sufficiently +intelligent to understand and appreciate the Western ideas, when they +were thrust to their notice. Certain, too, that in some branches of +æsthetic art, they were somewhat superior to the neighboring nations. +But beyond this, thirty years ago, a careful observer could have +detected in the Japanese people no conspicuous intellectual +attainment, except, of course, such points of dissimilarity as exist +between any two nations equally civilized. Japan, Korea, and China had +the same system of education and the same "classics," and each was +composed of followers of Confucius and believers in Buddhism. True, +Japan was then under the feudal system, and China and Korea were and +still are under monarchy, but in point of absolutism, their +governments were all alike. The greater differentiations were the +facts that the Japanese had their own system of religious belief +besides, called Shintoism, that the Japanese and the Koreans each had, +in addition to the Chinese characters, their own syllables, and that +the styles of their dress were different in no small degree. But the +former, being a belief, principally concerned with the hereafter, has +no more connection than the latter two with the subject of our +inquiry, which relates to the intellectual phases of these people only +in so far as they influence their political ideas. + + [8] Peschel's, "The Races of Man," p. 163. + +2. Nor can we find any peculiar characteristic in the Japanese people, +to which we may ascribe their progressive tendency. The only +predominant characteristic that we know is their imitative power. This +they have remarkably exhibited in their adoption of the Chinese +civilization, which they modified and made their own, and more +remarkably in their recent adoption of the Western civilization. Let +us examine what relation this bears to the conservative and the +progressive spirit of the people. Mr. Herbert Spencer attributes two +motives to imitation, either reverential or competitive.[9] It is with +the latter that we are concerned. This, coming as it does from a +desire of an imitator to assert his equality with the one imitated, +implies the recognition of superiority of the latter, and the +acknowledgment of inferiority of the former. Conservatism, in the +sense we have been using the term, defies any recognition and +acknowledgment of this sort; therefore it defies imitation. In other +words, a man does not imitate what he dislikes or scorns, and since +conservatism is aversion to, or contempt for, say a new political +institution, the imitative trait has no part to play, while that +aversion or contempt continues. Evidently, then, the imitative power +of the Japanese was not the force which served to make the +conservative people progressive; only when conservatism gives way, and +admiration for what is new is awakened, can this power assume its full +activity. + + [9] "His Principle of Sociology," Vol. II., p. 209. + +Were we to admit for the sake of argument that the Japanese people +were far superior in intelligence to the other people of Asia, or that +they possessed a peculiar characteristic which impelled them to the +adoption of the Western civilization, or even both, our position will +not be altered, for the progressive idea of Japan has already reached +across the sea to the continent of Asia, giving rise to an event in +Korea. In December, 1884, the two political factions of that country, +one of which was liberal and the other conservative, respectively, +representing the Japanese and the Chinese principles, disputed for +supremacy. The positive and negative currents, as of electricity, met +at the peninsula, and produced a spark of revolution.[10] + + [10] There was another agitation in Korea in 1882, but this was + a mere uprising of the mob against the Japanese staying in + that country, and not of grave political importance. For + the details of both these events, the reader is referred to + "A Korean _Coup D' Etat_," an entertaining article by + Perceval Lowell, _Atlantic Monthly_, November, 1886. This + poverty-stricken country, with an imbecile sovereign at the + helm of state, and with no organized array, is practically + under the control of the Chinese government, though + nominally she is independent. Some European powers, who seem + to consider that the greatness of a nation is commensurate + with its success in its territorial aggrandizement are + casting eyes at her, in vain let us hope, for the sake of + Korea. While the influence of China is so predominant, she + cannot accomplish much. A _coup d' état_ might be needed a + few times more, before she can become an independent nation + in the fullest sense of the words. At any rate, her prospect + is dubious enough at present. + +Although, unfortunately for Korea, the liberals were vanquished, and +its chief leaders were banished from their native country, the +significance of the phenomenon does not lose its weight on that +account. The tidal wave of progress, once repulsed, is not likely to +subside forever. Meantime, it is worth while to notice, that even +under the undisputed administration of the victorious conservatives, +the nation could not remain aloof from the rest of the world. Besides +entering into treaties with some western and eastern nations, Korea is +availing herself of the services of European abilities, for the +purpose of internal improvement. + +3. "But," some one may ask, "if the establishment of constitutional +government in Japan is due principally to the inherent excellence of +the institution itself, and not to the superior intelligence of the +Japanese people, nor yet to their peculiar characteristic, how can the +non-progressive tendency of China be accounted for?" The vast extent +of her dominion,[11] the immense number of her population,[12] and her +almost inexhaustible national resources, all combine to make the +question in regard to her future policy a momentous one. With the best +form of government, and under the guidance of an able statesman, it is +within her power to promote the advancement of whole Asia, and mould +the destiny of the world. Yet, to all practical intents and purposes, +she is evidently indifferent to the possibility of such a noble +mission. Nay, more; she ignores it. She reminds us of an opium smoker. +The world is awake, but she reposes in profound slumber, and little +does she care what others are doing. The doctrine of _Laissez-Faire_ +is the sinew of her policy toward the European states. She lets them +alone so long as they let her alone, leaving them to wonder for what +she was born. When some one comes and strikes her on the face, she +stands up, still half asleep, slowly gathers whatever strength is in +her, returns blow for blow, but the moment her enemy disappears +torpidity again overtakes her, she relapses into dreamy indifference. +Of what is this opium composed that she smokes? + + [11] About 4,179,559 sq. miles.--_The Statesman's Yearbook_, 1891. + + [12] About 404,180,000.--_Ibid._ + +I must not be understood to mean _absolute_ irresistibility of +constitutional government. Already I have touched upon one exception, +viz: inadequate capacity, mental and moral, of people. Instead of +excepting Japan from the pervading conservatism of Asia, I am inclined +to make causes resisting or retarding the establishment of +constitutional government in China exceptions to its irresistibility, +side by side with ignorance. Such causes are, doubtless, +multitudinous. Nevertheless, a careful observer will be able to single +out two principal ones among many others: territorial and +intellectual. + +We have seen that the average intelligence of the Chinese people is +not much inferior, if at all, to that of the Japanese, previous to the +revolution. Even those Chinese who come to this country for manual +labor, can read and write to some extent. Undoubtedly there is a large +number of illiterate and brutal outcasts, who are a standing disgrace +to humanity at large, but they can be found in every nation at +present. The average intelligence of the middle class in China is, +next to Japan, perhaps, the highest among the Asiatic nations. But the +greatest evil from which Chinese intellect is suffering is its +bombastic antiquarianism. This differs from conservatism, in that it +is not the cautious distrust of new institutions for the improvement +of the existing ones, but an effort to move backward, and to revive +the ancient order of things, which crumbled into dust a thousand years +before, from its inadaptability. The goal toward which modern +civilization is striving, is the attainment of justice, the security +of property and of the lives of individuals. The ideal society of the +Chinese is one in which the simplicity of primitive tribes makes the +administration of justice unnecessary, in which the possession of +property and the protection of lives are unknown. Eulogies are +lavished throughout their literature to the peaceful reigns of the +primitive kings, when no one locked his house at night, or touched +another's article which he happened to find on his way. To them +antiquity is adorable instead of venerable. They consider themselves +insignificant by the side of their godly ancestors. No doubt the +doctrine of Confucius, which the Chinese people endeavor to carry out +to a letter, has played a large part in producing this effect. Instead +of unfolding the possibilities of the future, he recapitulated the +virtues and achievements of the past. I am not attempting to +depreciate the inestimable service, which his system of philosophy has +rendered toward enhancing the standard of rectitude among his +disciples. But for him Asia might have sunk into the depths of moral +chaos. This much at least must be said in justification of his +doctrine, that evidently it was not his intention to reproduce an +exact duplicate of the primitive Chinese civilization. "Let each day +bring a new order of things," and "A sage's principles change as +time," are among the precepts he enunciated. But these aphorisms, upon +which the Anglo-Saxons would have laid a great stress, have been set +at naught by his followers to the detriment of their own welfare. + +This antiquarianism also existed in Japan, before the introduction of +the European civilization, but here it had lacked much of its +intensity, through its non-originality. The Japanese had no inventive +pride, and it was with little reluctance that they abandoned their old +theories which they borrowed from China, and adopted new civilization +of the West. The Chinese cannot forget that whatever civilization they +possess is their own, and that, at one time, theirs was the "Celestial +Empire," which gave law, literature, and art to the neighboring +nations. Every one knows that all the people still believe their +civilization far superior to that of Europe. And since they do not +care to compete with the civilization which they regard as inferior, +they are striving to model themselves after the features of their own +ancient civilization, which, for aught we know, might have been purer +because younger, but which, existing in the less developed stage of +society, must have been necessarily cruder. They are not aware that a +society developed to any extent is a composite organism; that an +originally simple cluster of people had grown into a complex +community, through double methods, the multiplication of its own +offsprings, and its union with another cluster or clusters of +people.[13] This gradual growth of a society is followed by a +corresponding diversity in the division of labor, thus making the +social structure also complex.[14] Whatever else they can do, the +Chinese will never realize their ideal of ancient simplicity, with +their present complex social structure and system. A human society can +either fall backward or progress forward, but it cannot _progress +backward_. In China the active movement for social and political +amelioration is restrained by the erroneous idea that they will +aggravate evils and increase the distance between the present and the +past. The unemployed energy of the nation, like an unemployed human +muscle, is losing its vitality. Unable to go backward, unwilling to go +forward, the nation is at standstill, and its civilization is stagnant +with vices of the worst sort, the growth of which is checked by no +iron hands of heroic reformers. + + [13] Spencer's "Principle of Sociology," Vol. II., pp. 436-458. + + [14] Ibid, pp. 459-472. + +Another cause acting against the susceptibility of China to the +European civilization is the vastness of her territory. The power of +resistance being equal, a force requires longer time to travel larger +distance, but when the power of resistance against the force of +civilization is much stronger, as in the case of China, in comparison +with Japan, the required length of time becomes still greater. The +vast and thickly populated Empire of China naturally contains the +various aggregates of people, with diverse inclinations and +antagonistic interests, which makes their joint effort for any +achievement extremely difficult, especially when the central authority +is weak. The disadvantages are further multiplied by the difficulty of +travelling and communication. On account of these hindrances, the +Western civilization has not as yet time to permeate the whole Empire +of China, and give the people an impetus for progressive movement. It +may be well questioned whether "the fathers" could have succeeded in +organizing the federal government, if the colonies were as large, and +contained as great a population as the present United States. As it +was, several States refused to enter into the confederation at +first.[15] Taking into consideration her better facility for +communication, and her proximity to the other European powers, perhaps +Russia owes to the size of her territory, the successful maintenance +of her absolute monarchy as much as China. But here the decisive +battle is already impending. At this moment she is trembling with +apprehension lest the palace of the Czar be at any moment levelled to +its foundation by the terrible explosion of a nihilist's bomb. The +more the employment of force is resorted to as the means of +suppression, the greater the violence of resistance. It may take the +Chinese people generations before they are seized with such political +fanaticism, but judging from precedents, it is a rational probability +that the absolute monarchy of China may yet become the object of +furious attack by her now inert and abject populace, apparently in +happy ignorance of the nature of sovereign authority, the free and +unrestrained exercise of which they may learn to covet too soon. + + [15] New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. + Bryce's The American Commonwealth, Vol. I., p. 32. + +Ignorance, antiquarianism, and large territory, then, are some +principal causes which retard the march of progress. There remains +only the third and last objection to be met--the adaptability of the +Asiatic people to the representative form of government. + +III. If two thousand years of Asiatic despotism has given her people +one lesson, that lesson is obedience, and obedience is, according to +John Stuart Mill, a quality essential to the people under +constitutional government.[16] Not only they must be obeyed, but also +they must obey. Law, which is constitutional, commands their +obedience, so long as it is not repealed, whether it promotes, or is +detrimental to, their welfare. This is especially the case in England, +where parliament is supreme and not the constitution, as in the United +States, though in both countries _vox populi_ will tell in the end. On +the other hand it may be disputed that if long despotism taught the +Asiatic people to be subservient to public authorities, it also made +them meek and slavish, entirely eradicating the spirit of +independence, indispensable to self-governing people. Granted, but how +shall this defect be remedied? Because they are too slavish and not +sufficiently independent, are they to crawl under absolute despotism +for another two thousand years, which would make them all the more +slavish, and all the less independent? Slavishness is obedience plus +something more. If political liberty were given the Asiatic people, +when they had just learned to obey, slavishness would never have +become their fault. The very fact of their being slavish proves that +despotism should have ceased to exist long before, and should cease +now, in order to cure them of this despicable disease. As far as this +question is concerned, then, the slavishness of the Asiatic people, +instead of being against their adaptability to constitutional +government, is for it. In the words of Macaulay, "If men are to wait +for liberty until they become wise and good in slavery, they may +indeed wait forever."[17] + + [16] His Representative Government, pp. 85, 86. + + [17] His Essay on Milton. + +There may be a thousand other infirmities among these people, but most +of them doubtless are, or were, found among the highly civilized +people of to-day. Every nation can point with pride to some men of +admirable achievement, of brilliant genius, of saintly virtues, but +that same nation also contains the countless number of inebriates, +robbers, and murderers. Differences in environments and in the stage +of civilization have contributed much in differentiating the +inhabitants of the globe, but we must bear in mind that they are all +made by the same hand of the Creator, and are, in general, striving to +do good according to the dictates of their conscience. What +characterizes civilization is not so much the quality of goodness +revealed, as its quantity. Between aborigines and highly advanced +people, there exists a wide gulf, but that gulf becomes perceptibly +narrower between the so-called semi-civilized and the civilized, much +narrower than the word "semi" indicates with the force of scientific +exactness. But behind all these arguments, there lays the most +fundamental condition of the adaptability, namely: that the people +should be desirous of establishing it. No other Asiatic nations beside +Japan have expressed their desire to this end, either by words or by +action, and therefore they are incapacitated. + +This objection would be fatal, if we were advocating that the Asiatic +people ought to have constitutional government. But we have not been. +We have been arguing that since constitutional government has +irresistible attraction to those who can understand what it is, and +since it has already been established in Japan, the other Asiatic +nations will begin to desire it, notwithstanding their seeming +ignorance and conservatism; and because they are adapted for it in all +the respects but one, the want of desire to establish it, when that +desire is enkindled within their breasts, then a "great democratic +revolution," which De Tocqueville said was going on in Europe,[18] and +which is still going on there, will also go on in Asia. We may observe +in passing, that Sir Henry Maine's arguments against the +irresistibility of popular government[19] have no connection with our +position, being directed against the ultra-democratic tendency of +modern times which is beyond the scope of our present discussion. + + [18] His Democracy in America, Vol. I., p. 2. + + [19] His Popular Government, pp. 70-74. + +But will this new institution of Japan possess permanency? +Constitutional government has shown in many cases the lack of +stability. In France and Spain especially it has been established and +overthrown again and again.[20] Can _Tei Koku Gi Kai_[21] prove itself +above such frailty and stand for ages a majestic monument of the +people capable of self-government? Or must it pass away in ignominy +and gloom through its own weakness, or of the constitution, or of the +people, or of all these combined? Hitherto we have been discussing the +extrinsic significance of constitutional government in Japan, but this +important question introduces us into the field of its intrinsic +excellence. To answer the question we must examine the constitution +itself in its details, besides tracing the steps which led to its +promulgation. Perhaps a volume may be necessary for this most +interesting and profitable study. At any rate, the space which we have +already occupied renders a further discussion of the subject +impossible for the present. But we cannot lay aside our pen without +expressing our fondest anticipation, and most earnest desire, that +guided by statesmen of genius, and supported by the prudent and +patriotic people, this first institution ever founded on the Asiatic +soil for the development of political liberty, may be crowned with +brilliant success, not only for the sake of Japan, but for the sake of +all Asia, whose myriad sons it is her noble duty, as well as +privilege, to rescue from the yoke of ever-detestable bondage. + + [20] Ibid, pp. 17, 18. + + [21] Literally, "The Deliverative Assembly of the Empire," being + the comprehensive name for the two legislative chambers of + Japan, corresponding to Parliament of England or Congress of + the United States. + + + + +UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. + +BY PROF. WILLIS BOUGHTON, OF OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. + + +University extension is a movement intended to bring the people at +large into closer communion with the college and the university. +Though it had a lowly birth in England, it has become a great +institution permanently wedded to Oxford and Cambridge. For some years +the idea has been growing that our American colleges ought to be doing +something in this same line. The world is full of students who are +unable to attend the university; some are prevented by family ties, +and some by business relations; but mature though they be, there are +everywhere real students who are lamenting the fact that they seem +forever shut out from the light of knowledge as it is shed abroad from +our higher educational institutions. To such are added those young +people who have been by circumstances early forced into industrial +pursuits, but who are hungry after such training as will enable them +to command better situations and better salaries. The success of the +Chautauqua movement indicates how many there are that are bent upon +improving themselves. + +This Chautauqua movement is only an attempt to Americanize university +extension. In various ways, however, it fails to perform the full +function of the latter institution. While Chautauqua work is carefully +planned, it is elementary; the student is left almost entirely to his +own, often misdirected, efforts; and there is little or no chance of +his coming into personal contact with the experienced educator and +specialists. Though the circles have, through lack of direction, +sometimes neglected education for entertainment, the organization as a +whole has accomplished a wonderful work in the elevation and the +instruction of great numbers of people. + +University extension, on the other hand, profiting by the experience +of Chautauqua, proposes not only to plan courses of study, but to +direct, supervise, and test the work of its students as well. In doing +all this, it employs the lecturer, the syllabus, the class, the +travelling library, and the examination. It has adopted methods +whereby it can reach people of as varied occupations as those reached +by Chautauqua, and it can thus furnish them with information having a +positive educational value. + +The lecturers are college-bred men or women, and specialists in +different lines of educational work. If actively engaged in teaching +at some reputable college or university, their chances of success are +greater, and the character of their work is of a better grade. It +promises well for the future of university extension to record that +some of America's most popular and celebrated professors have added to +their already heavy duties the burdens of some line of extension +teaching. But all college professors are not adapted to this work. The +successful extension lecturer must be of a versatile nature--a good +lecturer, an earnest student, a practical teacher. It is his duty to +interest a mixed, popular audience in an educational subject, and to +inspire numbers of his hearers with a determination to enter upon a +systematic and thorough course of study. The teacher who can do so +must have within him the spirit of the reformer, and the earnestness +that will enable him to arouse and to enthuse to action the numbers +that are dying of lethargy and ennui. The teacher who can do this has +here a field of labor extensive enough for the highest ambition, and +may be repaid by a success grander than can be attained in the limited +circle of the college or the university. + +The work of the lecturer arranges itself into unit courses. The unit +course consists of a series of six related lecturers, so arranged that +they will cover a definite field of study. Though less comprehensive, +the unit course may be compared to a course of study in a college +curriculum. As extension students are the busy people of this world, +these lectures occur only at intervals of one week, thus giving the +student time for the extra reading and study that he is asked to do. A +unit course, then, will cover a period of six weeks; and four unit +courses, extending over a period of twenty-four weeks, constitute an +extension year. It is superfluous to attempt to estimate how much the +earnest solitary student may accomplish in a year through the +assistance and the impetus thus given his efforts. Much, however, +depends upon the personal effort of the student, and the syllabus is +intended to direct his private study. + +The syllabus is much more than a carefully prepared outline of a unit +course. It must form a skeleton for the student's diligent work; it +must recall and elaborate the points brought out in each lecture; it +must give a comprehensive list of reference books upon the course--a +bibliography of the subject--with information as to the best editions +and as to how to use the books to the best advantage; it must suggest +lines of research--comparisons and parallelisms; it must outline for +the student paper work with full instructions as to how to write upon +the subject; it must, in short, be a sort of teacher, full of methods +and of suggestions, supplementing the work of the class. + +The class immediately follows the lecture and is conducted by the +lecturer himself. It is here that the student comes into the most +direct contact with the educator. Just as the lecture is for the +popular audience, many of whom seek pleasure rather than information, +so the class is preeminently the earnest student's workshop. It is +here that he has the privilege of turning questioner and of putting to +the lecturer such queries as have puzzled him in his private work. The +papers that have been prepared during the week are criticised and +discussed, and experienced lecturers claim that some extension +students can and do prepare papers which show as deep an insight and +as broad an understanding of the subject as are manifested by the +ordinary college student. The class then is, from the student point of +view, the select portion of the audience, and still it often happens +that only a small proportion of this class even can be induced to do +systematic and thorough work; they are regarded as the fruit of the +lecture and measure the speaker's ability to interest a popular +audience. + +As an adjunct to class work, the travelling library is proposed. In +order to do effective work, the student must have books, and +university extension proposes to arrange with public libraries so that +the necessary volumes can be furnished the isolated student at a cost +little in excess of that of transportation. There is such competition +among express companies that there will be little trouble in getting +rates of transportation which will render this feature of extension +teaching practicable. What Mudie's Circulating Library is to England, +the extension travelling library may be to America. The result will be +to place in the reach of all the best copyrighted books, and to +strangle the reprints of worthless publications that are bought only +because they are cheap. + +Finally there comes the examination. For the assurance of timid and +sensitive persons, it may be stated that extension work is optional, +and may be carried to any desired stage of completion. The many enter +upon the work because it is popular and interesting; and as soon as it +assumes the character of study, the class will often dwindle down to a +small portion of the audience. The requirements for an examination +will weed this remainder until there is found but a handful that will +submit to the test. These workers are usually mature, and often prove +themselves to be thorough and proficient students. The examination is +intended to be a thorough test, and if it proves the work to have been +creditably done, a certificate to that effect is awarded. + +Any community that arranges for one or more unit courses is termed a +local centre. In order to introduce and conduct this plan of work, +there must be some kind of a local organization. Often there already +exists, even in a small town, some literary club or other society +organized for purposes of education or culture. Such societies, if in +a thrifty condition, may be utilized for extension purposes. If they +prove to be responsible for the expense of one or more unit courses, +no further organization is needed; but in towns where no such society +exists, a local centre may be formed by the co-operation of a few +citizens. A public meeting may be convened or other means taken to +elect a local committee consisting of a half dozen members, with at +least a chairman, a secretary, and a treasurer as its official board. +The first work of the committee is to raise a guarantee fund to cover +the expense of one or more unit courses. Responsible persons are +willing enough to subscribe to such a fund upon the assurance that it +will not be used except in case of a deficiency caused by a limited +sale of student or course tickets. Experience in Philadelphia has +proved that, ordinarily, enough tickets will be sold to more than +cover the expense of the course. + +The guarantee fund raised, the local committee is ready to secure the +services of a lecturer, and is brought into business connections with +the nearest branch, as the next higher stage in the system is +denominated. The branch is located at a railroad centre, and in the +vicinity of some college or university. For example, the Philadelphia +branch is the business centre for the entire region within a radius of +fifty miles. It draws its lecturers from the faculties of the +University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and +Swarthmore. The branch acts as the middle man between the college and +the local centre. Its functions are to supply a competent corps of +lecturers, to systematize the work within its jurisdiction, and to +organize new local centres. Already the Philadelphia branch has formed +twenty-five local centres, some of which another season will give a +full year's work consisting of four unit courses. + +Located in Philadelphia in the midst of colleges, this organization is +purely national in its aims. It brings with it system out of chaos. +While university extension was groping aimlessly about, it came to the +attention of one of the leading educators of our country. As provost +of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. William Pepper has proved +himself to be a man of great executive ability. Comprehending to the +fullest extent the future of our educational system, with wonderful +foresight, he saw in the extension movement a future far more +important than for a mere matter of missionary diversion for certain +charitably inclined professors. He at once suggested plans for uniting +the efforts of those engaged in the work and of harmonizing them +throughout the country. Accordingly Mr. George Henderson was sent to +England to study the movement in all of its bearings, and to gain a +thorough insight into the English system. Upon his return the American +Society was organized with Dr. Pepper as president, and Mr. Henderson +as Secretary. But Dr. Pepper, already burdened with the executive +duties of a great university, as well as with the labors of an +extensive profession, was soon obliged to withdraw from the active +presidency, and Dr. Edmund J. James was elected to that office. Such, +in brief, is the origin of the National Society. + +This American Society comes in as a helpmate to the local centre, the +branch, the college, and the university. Its functions are distinct +and various. Coming forward with the accumulated experience of a +quarter century in England, it can enable extension workers in this +country to profit thereby. It has employed a corps of practical +business men to systematize the work, and to attend to the necessary +details; it is publishing a monthly journal called _University +Extension_, for the purpose of gathering and disseminating information +regarding the movement; it publishes syllabi and furnishes them to the +student and to the public at the lowest possible cost; and employs +organizers to help in the formation of local centres, and to get them +in working order. It must be recognized at once that no single +educational institution can do this general work, and that the +American Society, instead of becoming a competitor with the university +in extension work, renders it practical for even the smaller colleges +to enter this field of usefulness. + +In the performance of its functions, then, the National Society must +ordinarily deal with the greater centres of organization; still when +it is impracticable to form a branch, it may deal directly with the +local centre. Nor is its influence bounded by any conventional +barriers. It can enter the home where the solitary student sits by his +evening lamp, and direct his work. In this home work, of course, the +student rarely comes into direct contact with the educator, but +through systematized correspondence his work may be directed and +finally tested. It can thus be given a true educational value. It must +not be ignored that a startling proportion of our great business men +are what are termed self-educated. So will it be in the future; but it +is far from visionary to believe that university extension will open +paths whereby the solitary student need no longer employ an expensive +tutor nor waste his time, groping in the labyrinth paths of knowledge, +without a thread, at least, to direct his wanderings to pleasanter +fields of light and learning. + +While this system of study is popular, and has all the glitter of +novelty, many insincere persons will enroll their names. Some will +seek only entertainment, and will be satisfied with the popular +lecture alone. Others, through timidity and lack of self-confidence, +may attend the class but will not attempt the paper work or the +examination. But in every community are scores of earnest, hungry +students anxious to learn but knowing not how to get the knowledge +that they crave,--mature students settled in homes and in +business,--to such university extension offers chances for improvement +and refreshing labor that were never known before. Then it is no +longer imperative to reside in the vicinity of the university, or to +forever remain ignorant of university learning, for wherever a score +or more of students may congregate, there can be brought from college +halls a master workman to direct the work. + +It is easy, then, to realize the scope of the American society. It can +stretch its influence into every corner of the country; it can enter +every town and city; it can enter even the isolated home. Ordinarily +colleges and universities of the country are anxious to work with the +National Society, for in this way even the small college becomes a +link in this great chain of organization, and the efforts of its +faculty may bear fruit, whereas unsystematized work is little better +than a failure. By such co-operation the work of extension teaching +may have come to have such a positive educational value that its +certificates, when awarded by the members of a college faculty, may, +in that institution, at least, pass current for a definite amount of +the work required for a degree. At Cambridge, England, students from +centres that are in affiliation with that institution can thus save +one year's residence at the university. Is it, then, visionary to +expect as much here? + +University extension, however, offers no royal road to learning; it is +as yet, as it were, laying the ties for a broad gauge track where only +those that have the strength to work their passage may travel. But +when operated by the American Society, it is far in advance of the +overland or Panama routes of the forty-niners in extension travel. +This society seems to have solved the problem, and promises to become +the great American University that Washington proposed, Jefferson +planned, and scores have, since the founding of our government, +prophesied and awaited. + + + + +POPE LEO ON LABOR. + +BY THOMAS B. PRESTON. + + +In reading the encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII. on the condition of +labor, one is chiefly struck by his earnest desire for the welfare of +all mankind, his clear recognition of the existence of a grave social +problem, and the singular want of logic which he exhibits in his +attempt to solve it. His views on this subject certainly deserve +careful and thoughtful analysis on account of the influence which they +are bound to exert in the world, owing to his peculiar position as +head of the largest of the Christian churches. They should be read +without bias, each argument being given its due weight irrespective of +any conclusions but those of common sense and right reason. +Unfortunately there is much division of opinion as to the value of the +document. Those Catholics who are superstitious give to these opinions +of the Pope the force of a revelation from God. And on the other hand +there are many so-called liberals who regard these utterances as the +words of a crafty old man, ambitious of acquiring wealth, power, and +fame in the world for himself and for the hierarchy of his Church. +Putting aside all prejudice of either kind, let us examine what Pope +Leo says in the light of reason, having faith enough to believe that +the interests of true religion cannot suffer in the slightest degree +from such an examination. + +In his opening sentences the Pope speaks in a tone of regret of the +"spirit of revolutionary change" predominant in the nations, and seems +to connect it with "a general moral deterioration." He does not appear +to have considered that the change may be evolutionary rather than +revolutionary, and that the "general moral deterioration" is quite as +much due to the efforts of reactionary politicians and churchmen who +aim to retain for the classes all the constantly increasing +wealth-producing power of the world, keeping the masses down to the +same bare level of subsistence as formerly, while their capacity for +enjoyment has been vastly enlarged through the increased general +average of civilization and refinement. This naturally produces on the +one side the piled-up accumulations of individuals garnered by the +few, an inordinate display of wealth and luxury, and the vices of +intemperance and immorality; while on the other, maddened and starving +crowds are likely to resort to violence, and the poorer population to +indulge whenever they get a chance in the same pleasures as the rich. +But with all these disadvantages in the modern economic situation it +may fairly be questioned whether the general moral deterioration is as +great as in the good old times, the "ages of faith," when the +Inquisition flourished along with the Borgias, the _droit du seigneur_ +was a recognized custom, and bribery and violence were everywhere +prevalent. + +"Public institutions and the laws," says Pope Leo, "have repudiated +the ancient religion." But is not this repudiation in large part due +to the refusal of the ministers of the ancient religion to accommodate +themselves to new conditions in the world's history, so that with the +growth of modern civilization the world has moved more rapidly than +the Church, and the latter has become dissociated from the masses, +chiefly owing to the ignorance and intense conservatism of her rulers +and their entirely unnecessary distrust of the discoveries of science? +Pope Leo admits that this is "an age of greater instruction, of +different customs, and of more numerous requirements in daily life," +but he cannot divest himself of the trammels of ecclesiasticism which +seem to mould his thoughts and lead him to consider it "essential in +these times of covetous greed to keep the multitude within the line of +duty." With him it is "the multitude" who seem possessed of an insane +desire to break out of the line of duty. His theory is like that of +the man who accounted for the overcrowding in large cities on the +ground that the poor and unfortunate had a strange and uncontrollable +propensity for swarming in tenement-houses. He does not give +sufficient force to the influence of conditions upon human acts, and +apparently is chiefly anxious that "strife should cease," forgetting +that until justice be done the worst thing that could happen would be +the cessation of strife. + +The flattering surroundings and aristocratic training of Pope Leo +cannot, however, dull the generous sympathies of his heart, or blind +his clear vision of "the misery and wretchedness which press so +heavily at this moment on the large majority of the very poor." He +says: "The condition of the working population is the question of the +hour." This will be a rude awakening to those conservative Catholic +churchmen who have in recent years been insisting that things as they +are were altogether lovely, and that the talk about the misery of the +poor was only the exaggeration of a few cunning agitators who wanted +to excite the people so that in a general upheaval these agitators +themselves might personally profit. Pope Leo's voice of sympathy is +heard declaring that there is a social problem, and that "it is +shameful and inhuman to treat men like chattels to make money by or to +look upon them merely as so much muscle or physical power." + +Charity, as Pope Leo frequently understands it, would indeed effect a +wonderful amelioration in the world. But it is that charity "which is +always ready to sacrifice itself for others' sake" and the chief +characteristic of which is the love of justice. It has been degraded +in these later years into the sense of alms-giving, so that the +Christian pulpits of every denomination have too often thus been +preaching charity while ignoring justice. + +Is it any wonder the world rebelled? The victories of the Church were +won when she possessed the sublime strength of weakness, and when her +martyrs and saints in language only matched by that of the radicals of +to-day were proclaiming the essential liberty, fraternity, and +equality of all men, and denouncing the iniquities of imperial Rome. +But when she took the fatuous step, and placed on her own brow the +crown of the Cæsars, then she too became conservative, then the words +of her popes began to be regulated by policy, then charity became +alms-giving, and piety degenerated into ecclesiasticism. Authority was +strained until it snapped, and a suffering world revolted from the +outrageous assumptions of ecclesiastical power. A return to +Christianity is, indeed, needed, but the Church will have quite as +much of a journey to go as the world, so far as her methods are +concerned. + +With regard to the position of the family in the state, Pope Leo is +the advocate of freedom as against the interference of public +authority in domestic affairs. He admits, however, that the state +should interfere in cases of family disturbance "to force each party +to give the other what is due," herein differing from the +philosophical anarchists. He discerns clearly that the interests of +labor and of capital are not antagonistic, but what he does not see is +that the interests of labor and capital may both be antagonistic to +the interests of monopoly, and that until the latter is destroyed the +two former will be continually forced into positions of seeming +antagonism. He denounces "rapacious usury," and says that it was "more +than once condemned by the Church," conveniently overlooking the fact +that the _usuria_, which was condemned, was not only "rapacious" but +was all taking of money for the use of money, all interest on loans--a +condemnation which, if insisted upon by the Church to-day, would soon +empty her sanctuaries. He refers to the "greed of unrestrained +competition" but does not grasp the idea that under conditions of +justice unrestrained competition would be an advantage, constantly +leading men to emulate each other, and becoming a sure guarantee of +progress. It is the competition of those who have nothing but their +labor, or their brains, or their capital to sell with the owners of +vast monopolies who exact from production an ever-increasing toll that +needs to be restrained, and this not by abolishing "the custom of +working by contract," or by state interference and legislative +tinkering, to which the Pope leans in spite of his protests against +socialism, but by the abolition of the monopolies or their absorption +into the functions of the state. + +The Pope is almost a Spencerian in his bias towards individualism, but +he forgets that individualism can never be maintained in practice +except through the assumption by the state of those monopolies which, +if left in private hands, would benefit the few at the expense of the +many. True individualism requires equality of opportunity. The instant +the idea of monopoly enters, equality of opportunity becomes +impossible, and individualism is destroyed. It is through want of +seeing this fact that the Pope, in common with most political +economists, goes floundering round in a sea of contradictions, now +proclaiming principles almost like those of the anarchists, and again +favoring extreme socialism, while all the time imagining himself an +individualist. Their theories remind one of the labored attempts to +explain the solar system by the old Ptolemaic method of epicycles and +deferents, when the one simple law of centripetal and centrifugal +force was enough to account for all the majestic movements of the +universe. What other outcome can there be of this want of a regulator +in economics--like a governor in machinery--than an endeavor to patch +up the machine of humanity, adding a little here, taking off a little +there, doing the best that occasion seems to allow, and all the while +impressed with a profound and sad conviction that the machine is in a +bad way, and certain to smash up, whatever is done? Consequently we +have just such weak documents as this encyclical letter, emanating now +from an eminent agnostic scientist, now from a millionnaire +"philanthropist" and now from the Pope--all conflicting with each +other, the first denying that man has any more rights than a +rattlesnake, the second lauding a "triumphant democracy" which has not +the courage to attack the monopolies through which he has acquired his +millions, the third writing a long paper full of pious platitudes and +injunctions to the rich to give to the poor, and to the poor to be +contented, and then everything will be lovely. + +The main portion of the encyclical letter is directed against +"socialism," and the Pope's arguments are effective as against what he +evidently means by socialism. They are sadly weakened, however, by his +want of a logical conception of what constitutes private property. He +shows in more than one place that he believes private property to be +only the result of human labor, but when he comes to apply his ideas, +he admits of its extension to land and other monopolies, without +realizing that because such monopolies are not the creation of human +labor they cannot therefore be rightfully considered as private +property. He is like the man who would divide the human race into men, +women, and poets, or in enumerating the New England States would +include Boston after having mentioned Massachusetts. His arguments are +still further weakened by his evident leaning towards compulsory +Sunday rest, and an eight-hour day, trades-unionism, and regulation by +church societies, all of which savor of the very socialism which he is +combatting. + +He argues well, however, against the theory which proposes that the +state should administer individual property as common property for the +benefit of all. This would be more correctly termed state socialism +or, in its extreme form, communism. But the Pope fails to recognize +that there is such a thing as public property, created by the mere +presence of large communities, and which those communities have a +perfect right to administer. While endeavoring to uphold the rights of +private property, he impugns what Father William Barry called in a +recent review article, "The Rights of Public Property." His Holiness' +ignorance on this point can be best shown by a quotation:-- + +"If one man hires out to another his strength or his industry, he does +this for the purpose of receiving in return what is necessary for food +and living; he thereby expressly proposes to acquire a full and real +right, not only to the remuneration, but also to the disposal of that +remuneration as he pleases. Thus, if he lives sparingly, saves money, +and invests his savings, for greater security, in land, the land in +such a case is only his wages in another form; and, consequently, a +workingman's little estate thus purchased should be as completely at +his own disposal as the wages he receives for his labor." + +It would be interesting to know what the Pope would say if the +workingman invested his savings in a slave, and whether the Holy +Father would consider the slave only the workingman's "wages in +another form." Pope Leo certainly never could have intended to state +that the mere purchase of a thing was sufficient to convey ownership. +Yet that is just what the last sentence quoted amounts to. The justice +of the ownership depends entirely upon whether the thing purchased be +rightfully capable of ownership, in the first place, and whether it be +obtained from the rightful owner, in the second. + +"As effects follow their cause," Pope Leo says a little further on, +"so it is just and right that the results of labor should belong to +him who has labored." + +There he strikes the key-note of the right of property upheld alike by +the best churchmen and economists in all ages. That is the natural law +of labor. It is opposed to the theory of State socialism, and to what +many in this country understand by nationalism. If the Pope had +adhered to that proposition, he would have been saved from his +illogical position. It is undoubtedly true that a man is entitled to +that of which he is the producing cause. And in some branches of labor +which are more intimately associated with the earth than others, such +as agricultural operations, it is true that the results of labor, and +the improvements made upon land, become physically inseparable from +the land itself, so that he who would own what his labor has produced +must also have security of tenure, and exclusive possession of "that +portion of nature's field which he cultivates." + +It is for want of distinguishing carefully between possession and +ownership that the Pope falls into his ludicrous economic blunders. +This part of his encyclical is absolutely self-contradictory. He is +arguing for the securing to the laborer of the fruits of his labor. +The workman on land must have ownership of those things he has +produced, and hence must have exclusive possession of that part of the +earth which he tills. He must have such disposal of it as will enable +him by the exertion of his labor to secure a proportionate reward. But +this is not ownership. Ownership carries with it something more than +this. Once "divide the earth among private owners," as the Pope puts +it, and you have this condition of things: that those who do not +happen to be among the private owners must compete for the privilege +of living on the earth, they must pay a part of the results of their +labor for permission to work, and on the other hand the fortunate +owners receive something for which they themselves render no labor. It +is strange that the Pope did not see the absurdities of his own +propositions. He says:-- + +"Moreover the earth, though divided among private owners, ceases not +thereby to minister to the needs of all; for there is no one who does +not live on what the land brings forth. Those who do not possess the +soil contribute their labor; so that it may be truly said that all +human subsistence is derived either from labor on one's own land, or +from some laborious industry which is paid for either in the produce +of the land itself or in that which is exchanged for what the land +brings forth." + +Pope Leo is mistaken. All human subsistence is not derived either from +labor on one's own land or from some laborious industry. Some human +subsistence, as the Pope says, is derived from labor on one's own +land. Some human subsistence is derived from laborious industry on the +land of others. And--what the Pope seems to ignore--some human +subsistence is derived by owning land and letting others work upon it, +taking from them part of the fruits of their labor in exchange for the +mere permission to labor. By no construction can such ownership be +classed as a "laborious industry." Yet such owners generally enjoy the +very best of "human subsistence." + +Nevertheless, a few sentences further on, the Pope naïvely asks: "Is +it just that the fruit of a man's sweat and labor should be enjoyed by +another?" Had the Pope pondered over that question more profoundly, he +might have come to far different conclusions from those which he seems +to have reached. + +It is unfortunate that the Pope through a desire to uphold the just +rights of property should have been led to maintain the privileges of +monopoly, and still more unfortunate that so many Catholics will +consider his blunder an article of faith and feel it binding upon +their consciences to oppose all further efforts to impair private +ownership of land by taxation--the only way in which individual +possession can be reconciled with the common right of all mankind to +the earth. + +In one place the Pope seems to doubt the extent to which the principle +of private ownership is applicable to land, for he says: "The limits +of private possession have been left to be fixed by man's own industry +_and the laws of individual peoples_." But if the laws should tax the +monopoly value out of land, then the holder of land would not be able +to get any profit out of it except by his own labor. It would be no +longer such ownership as exists to-day which allows private owners to +confiscate the results of other's labor. The Pope here abandons the +unqualified ownership which he elsewhere maintains. It might well be +asked if he is prepared to excommunicate the legislators and assessors +who, in nearly every civilized country to-day, do tax land, and thus +to a certain extent impair ownership. And if the same principle were +extended so that the tax would equal the entire rental value there +would be no chance for the land monopolist to exploit the earnings of +labor. Man's means should not be "drained and exhausted by excessive +taxation," as the Pope seems to fear, showing that he has a vague idea +of the method by which it is proposed to destroy ownership. But as the +rental value to-day is already paid by labor, the proposed plan could +not drain or exhaust labor any more than at present, while such a tax +falling upon lands held for speculation would cause their abandonment, +and thus open new fields for labor. Workingmen would then be really +"encouraged to look forward to obtaining a share in the land," and +that prosperity which the Pope hopes for would result. He seems to be +ignorant of the fact that taxing land, unlike a tax upon any product +of labor, makes it cheaper and easier to obtain for possession and +use. + +More than all does he forget that what labor needs is not the +protecting arm of Church or State, but equal opportunity and the +fullest possible freedom of access to Nature's bounties. He is untrue +to himself and talks like the veriest socialist when he says: "Among +the purposes of a society should be to try to arrange for a +"continuous supply of work at all times and seasons." Bountiful nature +in the great storehouse of the earth has provided a "continuous supply +of work" for the whole human race for all future ages. Make monopoly, +by taxation, loosen her grip upon the earth, and labor would have +abundant opportunity for all time to come without the necessity for +paternal, socialistic tinkering on the part of either State or +Church. + + + + +THE AUSTRIAN POSTAL BANKING SYSTEM. + +BY SYLVESTER BAXTER. + + +There is a possibility that the plan for the establishment of postal +savings banks, so ably advocated by the postmaster-general, may result +in a radical change in our entire banking system. The demand for +postal savings-banks is so popular that it is not likely that there +will be much further delay on the part of Congress in realizing the +project. Now it happens that among the new political issues that have +arisen, the question of the currency has assumed a most prominent +place. There can be no doubt of the intensity of the feeling that has +developed against the national banks, which have supplied a large +proportion of the circulating medium since the war, and the demand for +a currency issued directly by the government, without the intervention +of the banks, is growing both in volume and in force. + +The sense of the inadequacy of the national banks to the financial +necessities of the country is by no means confined to those who, by +theory or experience, have been made hostile to them, and regard them +as detrimental to our institutions, and as dangerous instruments for +the oppression of the common people. It extends to those who recognize +that the national banks have been of invaluable service to the +country, and are a vast improvement over the banking system that +preceded them. Nevertheless they feel that grave defects are showing +themselves, and that for the security of the community something +better is needed. There is not the confidence on the part of the +business community that there should be, and events like the recent +occurrences in connection with the Keystone National Bank, in +Philadelphia, are not likely to enhance that confidence. One of the +most frequent of surmises is as to how many similar cases there may +be, and a very commonly heard query is that as to the state of affairs +that a general financial panic might reveal, with the banks loaded +with collateral upon which it would be hardly possible to realize at +such a time. + +Then there is the moral aspect of the case, so well expressed in an +essay[22] by one of the soundest philosophical and political thinkers +whom America has known, the late David Atwood Wasson. Said he: "At +present the government permits itself to become indirectly,--or, +if we speak of the State governments, worse, sometimes, than +indirectly,--confederate with those who amass fortunes by making +credit precarious, and forcing the hazards of the gaming-table into +all the legitimate operations of business. The comptroller of the +currency has publicly said that about one half, on an average, of the +means of the national banks, in one chief city--institutions, observe, +created by government, and charged, in effect, with one of its most +distinctive functions, that of supplying a medium of exchange--are +loaned to speculators; that is, to men who subsist largely on +artificial disturbances of credit, upon corners in the stock market +and money market, upon alternations of inflation and stringency, the +ups and downs of a disordered constitution. Without going into the +matter closely, which is aside from my present purpose, I leave before +the reader the main facts of the case: that the system of credit +centred in the modern banking system plays a vast and increasing role +in our civilization; that while of a utility not easily overstated, it +affords peculiar opportunities of fraud and exaction; that aside from +these, its unregulated condition is dangerous, resulting in +alternations of inflation and depression, like the alternate extremes +of fever and ague; that vast and growing combinations exist for +producing artificially this disorder; that those institutions which +credit has created under the express sanction of government, at once +to supply its necessities and hold it healthily in check, are managed +only as private property; that much oppression, alike of labor and +capital, and also, I fear, much demoralization--which is an interior +and worse oppression--are suffered in consequence; and that hitherto +our statesmanship wants the studious leisure, and our method of +government the stability and precision of operation, which these +exigencies demand." + + [22] "The New Type of Oppression," in "Essays: Religious, Social, + Political." Lee & Shepard, Boston. + +A truer statement of the case never was made, and these words should +be well pondered by patriotic citizens. + +Probably the reason why the feeling against our present banking system +has not yet taken shape in legislation is because no sound +constructive measures have been proposed. Faulty as the system is, +what is there better that can take its place? is asked, and to this no +satisfactory reply has been given. Even though the notes of the +national banks should be retired, and currency issued directly from +the national treasury should take their place, we must have banking +facilities of some kind. + +Absolute security of bank deposits is what is desired, and any measure +that would secure that end could hardly fail to be joyfully welcomed +by the business community, with the exception of the small minority +either selfishly interested in present banking corporations, or whose +prosperity is derived from operations based upon a state of +insecurity. Powerful as these interests are, there is no reason why +they should be permitted to stand in the way of the realization of a +better condition of affairs, should that prove attainable. + +The leading merit of the national banking system comes from the +absolute security of its circulating medium, proceeding from the +governmental guarantee. Meanwhile the interests of the depositors, in +supplying whose convenience the bank derives its business, remain +inadequately guarded. Is not some system possible whereby in place of +this partial guarantee we may have a complete guarantee, covering both +circulating medium and deposit? + +Fortunately, with the experiences of other countries furnishing +examples so available as they do nowadays, we are not left entirely to +our own resources in devising solutions for problems that confront us. +We have but to look to Austria for a most successful example of a +truly national banking system, that completely meets the demand. When +Austria established its postal savings bank, in 1882, a regular check +and clearing system was made a feature thereof. This, offering +substantially the same convenience as our ordinary private or national +banks in this country, together with the additional advantages of +absolute security of deposits, and checks good in all parts of the +country, has become enormously popular with the mercantile public, so +that the regular banking department has quite overshadowed the +savings department, important as the latter is. + +Every post-office in Austria, therefore, has the function of both a +savings-bank and a bank of deposit. A permanent deposit of one hundred +florins, or forty dollars, is sufficient to make a person a member of +the check and clearing department. No limit is placed on the amount +that may be deposited, but a single check cannot be drawn for more +than ten thousand florins [four thousand dollars]. Interest is paid on +deposits at a rate not exceeding two per cent., while the interest on +savings may not exceed three per cent. A charge of two kreutzers +[eight mills] is made for each entry, together with a commission of +one fourth per mille. Another function of the postal bank is the +buying and selling of government securities, for which a commission of +two per mille is charged, with a commission of one per mille for the +cashing of coupons. + +It is interesting to learn that two years before the adoption of this +system by Austria, a very similar plan was advocated by an able +American student of finance, the Hon. L. V. Moulton, of Grand Rapids, +Michigan. In his book, "The Science of Money and American Finances," +published in 1880, he said: "The government ought to provide a deposit +system of absolute safety to depositors for all who choose to avail +themselves of it. A system of postal savings-banks somewhat similar to +the British should be adopted. The government receiving a deposit, and +allowing the depositor to check out at the same or any other office, +paying no interest and doing no loaning, receiving the use of the +funds while on deposit, as compensation for storage and transportation +of funds. No actual transportation would, of course, be required, +except to settle balances between offices. This would be the safest +possible deposit and most convenient exchange system, and is quite as +proper for the government to undertake as the postal or money-order +business. As it is, the government coins money and transfers money, +but will not take it on storage, which is absurd, and forces the +people to deposit with loan and discount concerns, liable to explode +at any time and leave them penniless." + +Although interest on deposits is paid in Austria, there appears to be +no good reason why it should be paid were the system adopted in this +country. There is no need of it as an inducement, for the absolute +security and the greatly increased convenience of the system would be +sufficient for that. The present national banks pay no interest on +deposits, the facilities afforded being adequate to secure all the +deposits needed. + +It appears desirable, however, to pay interest on deposits of savings. +In the bill prepared by Postmaster-General Wanamaker, it is provided +that this shall not exceed 2.4 per cent. This low rate is fixed upon +in order that the interest may be considerably less than the average +paid by private bankers to depositors. The great obstacle to the +establishment of postal savings-banks in this country has been the +lack of available means for the investment of the funds, the rapidly +decreasing national debt making government bonds out of the question +for the purpose. Mr. Wanamaker proposes to overcome this obstacle by +loaning the funds to national banks within the State where the +deposits are made. The objection to this course lies in the objection +to the national banks themselves, as heretofore stated. To give them +disposition over such a vast amount--it is estimated that the deposits +in the postal savings-banks would soon reach $500,000,000--would be to +increase vastly their power for harm. + +Mr. Wanamaker's alternative proposition, to utilize the funds in the +direction of greater and much needed expenditures for public +buildings, particularly post-office structures, is, on the other hand, +a sound one. They might also be employed to advantage in providing the +means for the much needed extension of the postal service now so +widely demanded, as in the adoption of a parcels post equal to that of +Germany, England, and other countries, and in nationalizing the +telegraph and telephone and incorporating them into the postal +department. + +The deposits in the proposed check and clearing department would place +an enormous amount at the disposal of the government, in addition to +the postal savings-bank funds. Paying no interest on these deposits, +the government might utilize the money in its own expenditures, and +thus to a considerable extent reduce taxation. Or, just as the +ordinary banks loan their deposits, the government might loan this +money for mortgages on land and on staple products, somewhat as +demanded in recent agitations. + +A person so eminent in the discussion of these questions as Mr. Edward +Atkinson has recently stated, in substance, that, increase the volume +of the currency as we may, still it would not be adequate to certain +exigencies of regular recurrence, like the annual moving of the crops. +He thus practically concedes the justice of the farmers' demand, as +formulated in their "sub-treasury project," but he would supply this +want through private banking institutions organized expressly to loan +money for this purpose. + +Such institutions would, however, naturally take advantage of the +necessities of the farmers by obtaining the highest rates of interest +possible, while the underlying purpose of the other plan would be that +of making the loans at the lowest rates consistent with the expense of +the transactions. Is it not better, it may be asked, and more in +accordance with the principles of true self-help, for the people thus +to supply their own financial needs in the cheapest way possible +through the instrumentality of their governmental organization, rather +than depend upon "private enterprise" organized to take advantage of +their necessities for its own profit? + +At first glance there might seem to be an objection in the fact that, +while the government was lending money at two per cent. it was paying +on savings deposits interest possibly as high as 2.4 per cent., which +would appear to be an unbusiness-like and unprofitable proceeding. But +on striking an average between the sums on which it was paying that +rate and the large amounts on which it was paying no interest, but +receiving two per cent., it would probably be found that it was +getting the whole at a rate considerable less than two per cent. + +A more valid objection to the lending of money by the government at a +fixed low rate of interest, instead of at whatever rates it might +obtain according to the state of the money market, as private banking +institutions would do, might be found in the liability that the +parties to whom it was loaned might reloan it at higher rates, and +thus use the good offices of the government as a means of personal +profit. The measure could hardly fail, however, to lower very greatly +the general rate of interest in the business world. It would be +important, of course, to keep this large sum in circulation, and thus +avoid the evils arising from hoarding. Its utilization for the +regular expenditures of the government would be likely to do this, and +the consequent reduction of taxation would be a great public +advantage. Although the idea of loaning money at fixed low rates upon +certain securities, such as land and staple products, might prove +impracticable from various considerations--such, for instance, as the +injustice of discriminating in favor of any particular classes in the +community, as such a scheme would appear to do--there should be no +difficulty in devising some practicable system for using to the +advantage of the entire public the extensive funds which thus would be +placed at the disposal of the government. + +The postal banks would doubtless very largely take the place of +present institutions of deposit. To what extent this would be the +case, it is, of course, impossible to say. For all ordinary purposes, +and for the needs of the average business man, their advantages could +not fail to be great. Their effect would probably be to withdraw from +the market large sums now available for speculative purposes, and +divert them to legitimate uses. The speculative tendency would, +therefore, be likely to be discouraged by so much. Necessary +limitations might make the postal banks unavailable for those whose +financial transactions are conducted on a great scale, and their wants +would continue to be met by private institutions, which would offer +special inducements to large depositors, just as the trust companies +now offer special inducements over the present national banks by +paying interest on deposits. + + + + +ANOTHER VIEW OF NEWMAN. + +BY WM. M. SALTER. + + +I suppose I should never have felt toward Cardinal John Henry Newman +as I do, had I not been once in a certain state of mind. It was my +lot, as a divinity student, to feel under the necessity of examining +into the grounds of my religious belief. I could not accept what my +teachers gave me, simply because it was taught, much as I revered some +of them. I had to test, examine, and conclude for myself. I evidently +felt the difficulties of belief, as most of my fellow-students did +not. At New Haven the main outlines of evangelical orthodoxy, at +Cambridge the fundamental ideas of theism, were accepted, as a rule, +without serious question. I envied my fellows their assurance; I, too, +craved assurance, but I had to get it in my own way, and I was plunged +into investigations, and beset by doubts that did not seem to occupy +or perplex them. The question was, where could I find a point to start +from; not what was the whole truth, but what was the truth I could be +immediately sure of,--what was light that I could not question (or, at +least, reasonably question)? For, once in possession of that, other +things might naturally and logically follow. It seemed to me, that if +there was any sure ground for the Christian believer, it was to be +found in Christ himself; that if ever a voice from another world had +spoken to this, it had been through him. The fundamental problem was, +Was his consciousness to be trusted? It was after three years of +examination into the origin and trustworthiness of the gospel records, +of effort to form a faithful picture of Jesus' mind, of weighing of +probabilities as to whether he could have been mistaken, and a +decision that he could not have been, and that he was, under God, my +appointed Lord, and Saviour, and Judge, as he was that of all men,--it +was at this time that I fell in with the writings of Newman, and that +he began to exercise a charm over me, which, amid all my subsequent +changes of thought, I have never been willing to disown. + +I felt in the first place that he had a profound sense of the +difficulties of faith. There was no evidence that certain questions +had ever been open questions to him (such as the being of God and the +reality of a revelation), but he seemed to be as keenly aware of the +difficulties attending them as if they had been. He believed and yet +he knew the other side. Few are the apologists who have dared to say +what he has said; few are the unbelievers who could state their case +more strongly than he has stated it for them. It was this width of +imagination that, for one thing, separated him from the ordinary +theologian. One of his precepts to a zealous follower was, "Be sure +you grasp fully any view which you seek to combat." Let me illustrate. +Newman admitted in so many words that it was a great question whether +atheism was not as philosophically consistent with the phenomena of +the physical world as the doctrine of a creative and governing power. +He allowed Hume's argument against miracles to be valid from a purely +scientific aspect of things, and doubted the conclusiveness of the +design argument (though not the argument from order) for the being of +God. He knew to the full how hard it was to hold one's faith in God in +face of all that seems amiss and awry, purposeless, blind, and cruel +in the world. He held this faith, he believed there were reasons for +it (chiefly in man's conscience), it was the starting-point of his +religious system, and yet when he looked out of himself into the world +of men, the lie seemed to be given to it and the effect was as +confusing, he said, as if it were denied that he was in existence +himself. "If I looked into a mirror [these are his words] and did not +see my face, I should have the sort of feeling which actually comes +upon me when I look into this living, busy world and see no reflex of +its Creator.... Were it not for the voice speaking so clearly in my +conscience and my heart, I should be an Atheist, or a Pantheist, or a +Polytheist.... To consider the world in its length and breadth, its +various history, the many races of men, their starts, their fortunes, +their mutual alienation, their conflicts; and then their ways, habits, +governments, forms of worship, their enterprises, their aimless +courses, their random achievements and acquirements, the impotent +conclusion of long-standing facts, the tokens so faint and broken of +a superintending design, the blind evolution of what turn out to be +great powers or truths; the progress of things, as if from unreasoning +elements, not towards final causes; the greatness and littleness of +man, his far-reaching aims, his short duration, the curtain hung over +his futurity; the disappointments of life, the defeat of good, the +success of evil, the pervading idolatries, the corruptions, the +dreary, hopeless irreligion, that condition of the whole race so +fearfully yet exactly described in the apostle's words, 'Having no +hope and without God in this world'; all this is a vision to dizzy and +appall, and inflicts upon the mind a sense of profound mystery which +is absolutely beyond human solution." To have one's doubts, one's +misgivings, one's own blank confusion portrayed with such appreciation +and in such vivid detail by another--how could it fail to powerfully +affect me? Surely, I said to myself, whether this man's faith was true +or not, he did not hold it because the tremendous obstacles in the way +of it had not been brought home to him. Similarly he appreciated the +difficulties in connection with revelation itself, as when he said +that God "has given us doctrines which are but obscurely gathered from +scripture, and a scripture which is but obscurely gathered from +history," as when he admitted the real obstacles in the way of the +Jews admitting that Jesus was their Messiah. + +But I will not linger over this point, and pass on to say that Newman +impressed me as one of those few men, in any age, who have an +intellectual life of their own. His was no hereditary belief; he had +faced the problems of religion for himself. What looks like faith in +many cases, he himself said, was a mere hereditary persuasion, not a +personal principle, a habit learned in the nursery, which is scattered +and disappears like a mist before the light of reason. His own +admiration went out evidently to the "bold unworldliness and vigorous +independence of mind" shown by one of his early teachers, Thos. Scott; +to the type of mind illustrated by an Oxford associate, who had an +intellect, he says, "as critical and logical as it was speculative and +bold." Whately, he records, had taught him to see with his own eyes +and to walk with his own feet; he thought of dedicating his first book +to him, in words to the effect that he had not only taught him to +think, but to think for himself. It was a first hand dealing with +almost all the problems he took up, that I had the sense of in +reading Newman's pages, however far ahead he was of me in the line of +(what seemed then) religious advance. + +And because he had thought, he had moved, he had had a history. He +started with certain truths (as he supposed them to be), but instead +of accepting them mechanically, he thought them out; he studied to see +what they implied, what other truths were consistent with them and +what were not; in other words, he gradually worked his way out to +something like a system, and therein consisted his history. The +ordinary idea of Newman (leaving the past tense for the moment) seems +to be that he sacrificed his intellect, that out of weariness he threw +himself into the Catholic fold. Such may be a true account of some +conversions, but it is a pitiable travesty of the facts in the case of +Newman. Newman went into the Church because it seemed rational to him +to do so; and it is still the great question, whether once assuming +certain fundamental ideas held by Protestant and Catholic alike, any +other course is rational. The "trouble" with Newman, as with his +brother Francis (in some ways also a remarkable man), was simply that, +as the London _Truth_ banteringly said, neither was able to swallow +the Athanasian creed in a comfortable and prosaic way, as good Britons +should; or, as the _Saturday Review_ in all seriousness urged, that he +did not hold as his supreme principle pride in the Church of England +as such, determination to stand shoulder to shoulder with others "in +resisting the foreigner, whether he came from Rome or from Geneva, +from Tübingen or from Saint Sulpice"; in other words, that he opened +the windows of his mind, instead of keeping them shut; that he set out +on living a life of reason instead of one of prejudice; that he +determined to seek out and follow the truth on whatever shores that +quest should land him. + +"Most men in this country," Newman once wrote, "like opinions to be +brought to them, rather than to be at the pains to go out and seek for +them." But Newman himself was cast in another mould; rationality, +consistency, were an imperative craving with him; and feeling that the +popular religious creed lacked these things, he went in search of them +and started, as it were, on a journey. A memorandum, written down at +the age of twenty-eight, speaks of himself as "now in my room in Orell +College, slowly advancing, etc., and led on by God's hand blindly, +not knowing whither He is taking me." His touching verses, beginning +"Lead, kindly Light," betray the same feeling. Gloom did encircle him, +but in the midst of it there was a light, which he strove and craved +to follow. Though mystical, in a certain sense, by temperament, he +resolved, he tells us, to be guided, not by his imagination, but by +his reason. He had once a strange emotional experience, but when it +was over he wished that it should not unduly influence him. "I had to +determine its logical value," he says, "and its bearing on my duty." +"What are we doing all through life, both as a necessity and as a +duty," he wrote many years afterwards, "but unlearning the world's +poetry and attaining to its prose? This is our education as boys and +as men, in the action of life and in the closet or library; in our +affections, in our aims, in our hopes, and in our memories. And in +like manner it is the education of our intellect." This is little more +than saying that the supreme rule of life is reason, that it is our +life-task to bring all the varied motions of our minds into harmony +with this ideal. The fact is that he became ultimately persuaded that +the Catholic creed was that rational and consistent creed of which he +was in search--rational and consistent that is, in the sense of being +in harmony with, and an outgrowth of, those fundamental ideas of a God +and of a revelation with which he started; and in addressing others +after he became a Catholic, he said, "Be convinced in your reason that +the Catholic Church is a teacher sent to you from God, and it is +enough. I do not wish you to join her till you are." + +Yet while he was in search of the truth, while he was on the journey, +he excited no little suspicion and distrust. The very thing that lends +him charm to those who love to see intellectual movement and +development allowed apostles of prejudice and good, but narrow-minded, +men to think of him as insidious, leading his disciples on to +conclusions to which he designed to bring them, while his purpose was +veiled. But, says Froude, who tells us this, and was himself at Oxford +in those early days, he was on the contrary "the most transparent of +men. He told us what he believed to be true. He did not know where it +would carry him. No one who has ever risen to any great height in the +world refuses to move till he knows whither he is going." Such are the +words of one who, though he felt the spell of Newman, soon struck on +a different intellectual path. Matthew Arnold, too, experienced the +spell. "Who could resist," he says in a lecture on Emerson, "the charm +of that spiritual apparition, gliding in the dim afternoon light +through the aisles of St. Mary's, rising into the pulpit, and then in +the most entrancing of voices, breaking the silence with words and +thoughts which were a religious music--subtile, sweet, mournful." To +Arnold, he was a man "never to be named by a son of Oxford without +sympathy;" and this, though Arnold, too, regarded his solution for the +doubts and difficulties which beset men's minds to-day as impossible. +Once Charles Kingsley brought against him a charge of intellectual +dishonesty and falsity; but, as Mr. Conway remarks, Kingsley's sword +broke in his hands and on all sides the demolition which he received +in Newman's reply (the _Apologia pro Vita Sua_) has been regarded as +complete. Even the _Saturday Review_ says, "His conversion was +transparently honest; no one, save the most contemptible of party +scribes, can ever hint a doubt of that." "He deliberately shut his +eyes," an "intellectual suicide," "his sympathies and sensibilities +were always his ultimate test of right thought and action." Such are +the comments of a recent reviewer; but on the morning of the day in +which Newman was received into the Catholic Church, he wrote to a +friend, "May I have only one tenth part as much faith as _I have +intellectual conviction_ where the truth lies! I do not suppose any +one can have had such combined reasons pouring in upon him that he is +doing right." + +But how can Newman have had _reasons_ for his course? we may +incredulously ask. And here I revert to my particular state of mind +years ago. The question for me was, holding as I did that in Jesus, +God had spoken to the world, and that under God he was the Lord, and +Saviour, and Judge of men, could I remain standing in such a position? +It was a starting-point, but did it not lead somewhere? Holding so +much, despite the difficulties, was it not possible that consistently +therewith, I must hold more, despite further difficulties? Looking +about me among Unitarians, with whom I was then associated, I felt +that even this faith had scant acceptance among them. For example, +taking a country church for a year, I found that not in a decade or +more had there been any additions to the church membership, or even +efforts in that direction; the church was, practically, simply an +assemblage of pew-holders. My own efforts to induce persons to confess +Jesus as their Lord, to take his name, to become his avowed follower +before the world (i. e. to join his church), were something novel; yet +a church, an assembly of followers, was essential to my idea of +Christianity,--Jesus having said, "Whoever will confess me before men, +him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven," and a king +without a kingdom (or right to a kingdom) being in itself absurd. I +could not help the foreboding that Unitarianism was not a finality or +more than a camp for a night; nay, the question was whether +Unitarianism was not doing more to dissipate Christianity, than to +build it up in any historical sense of the term. + +Moreover, Protestant orthodoxy did not have any firm hold on some +fundamental parts and evident implications of the faith I already +held, and was struggling to keep. The idea of the Church itself was +weak in most Protestant mind; they "spiritualized" it, as they said; +but when Jesus spoke of confessing him _before men_, he evidently laid +the foundations of a visible Church. Again, Jesus felt that he spoke +with Divine authority, and as he was commissioned, so he commissioned +others to stand for him before the world, and to speak in his name. He +left them to be his witnesses, to continue his message and his work +after he should be gone. He had the power to forgive sins, for +example, and he conveyed it to others, solemnly saying that whatever +was bound or loosed on earth, should be bound or loosed in heaven. Was +it exactly natural, I asked myself, that divine light and guidance and +forgiveness should be thus present, as it were, on earth for a few +years, and then become entirely a matter of history and antiquarian +research? If there was reason for Jesus' commissioning the apostles, +was there not equal reason for the apostles commissioning others who +should take their places? Protestants said the revelation was in a +book; but Jesus never spoke of a book. If something else was +authoritative in the apostolic days, what absurdity was there in +supposing that something else might be authoritative in later days? +And yet, no Protestant church or synod or council ever claimed to be +such a living witness of God on the earth. The most zealous +Protestants were careful to say that they gave only their human, +fallible interpretations of the distant revelation; that it was even +blasphemous for a man to claim to forgive sins; that the Bible, and +the Bible only, was their religion. And yet, the Bible, it was +severally claimed, gave the basis to the Presbyterian creed, to the +Methodist creed, to, one might say, a hundred creeds, even including +the slender one of Unitarians. How certain words of Newman came home +to me in the midst of such reflections! "There is an overpowering +antecedent improbability in Almighty God's announcing that He has +revealed something, and then revealing nothing; there is no antecedent +improbability in His revealing it elsewhere than in an inspired +volume." I do not mean to say that I was converted by Newman; but I +was open to light on that side. I did not shut my mind, as most +Protestants seemed to, and I dimly felt, I had a sort of foreboding +that, if what I already held was true, reason might be on his side. +And it was reason--the demand for a set of views that should be +harmonious and consistent--that made me dissatisfied; and so I could +give credit to the idea that Newman in his changes, and in his final +act, was influenced by reason. + +To Newman, the main difficulty of all lay in the being of God. If +there was a God, it seemed rational to him that there should be a +revelation, taking into account the actual condition of men. If there +was a revelation, the Catholic Church presented more signs of being +its bearer and custodian than any other body or institution of men. I +think if we are disposed to question the rationality of his course, we +shall find, if we examine the matter carefully, that it is because we +question his postulates, not his reasoning or results. Granted that +there is a God, as men ordinarily understand that term, and I think +that a revelation is antecedently probable; granted that a revelation +has been made, as Protestants (save Unitarians) are agreed, and I +think it but reasonable to suppose that some such body as the Catholic +Church claims to be should be its bearer and unerring interpreter to +men. We are mistaken if we think that Newman devised any short-cut to +mental peace, or used any other instrument or method for arriving at +his results than we ordinarily employ in sound reasonings of every +day. He claimed no intuitions, no vision of theological truth, and he +was less arbitrary and fanciful in defending Catholic dogma than I +have known "philosophers" to be in defending the being of God and the +immortality of the soul. He tells us in his _Apologia_ that he +believed in a God on a ground of probability, that he believed in +Christianity on a probability, and that he believed in Catholicism on +a probability, and that these three grounds of probability, distinct +from each other in subject-matter, were still, all of them, one and +the same in nature of proof, as being probabilities--probabilities of +a special kind, a cumulative, a transcendent probability, but still +probability. + +But did he not by some magical metamorphosis turn these probabilities +into a certainty? No; he simply claimed that they were sufficient to +produce certitude, which is a different matter. Certitude, he held, +was a quality or habit of mind; certainty, a quality of propositions; +and probabilities that did not reach to logical certainty might +suffice for a mental certitude. We are mentally sure almost every day +of many things which could not be demonstratively proved; we are +practically as sure of them as if they could be proved; we are ready +to act on the basis of them, and that is the test of practical +certitude. The word of a friend on a matter of which we are ignorant +is an example; we may be as sure of what he tells us as if we had seen +it ourselves; yet he may be mistaken; strictly speaking, his word is +only probable evidence. But did not Newman substitute faith for +reason? Yes, in a sense; but not in a sense in which it is of itself +irrational to do so. How much could the reason of any of us tell us of +Central Africa? We know of it by testimony, do we not? not by reason. +From our own notions alone we could not tell whether it was a desert +or a forest; whether it was inhabited or uninhabited; whether +full-grown human beings or dwarfs lived there; but a Livingstone, a Du +Chaillu, a Stanley, tell us, and we accept their word. The fact is, +that trust in testimony is what we daily practise. We learn of what is +going on in a neighboring town, of much in our own town, of much in +our own house (unless we are there all the time, and in every part of +it at the same time) not by reasoning about it, any more than by +sight, but by faith in what others tell us. "Why should we be +unwilling to go by faith?" asks Newman. "We do all things in this +world by faith in the word of others. By faith only we know our +positions in the world, our circumstances, our rights and privileges, +our fortunes, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our age, our +mortality; why should religion be an exception? Why should we be +willing to use for heavenly objects what we daily use for earthly?" +There is really nothing mystical about faith; it is not peculiarly a +religious principle, nor is it the ideal way of getting knowledge. As +Newman says, "The word of another is in itself a faint evidence +compared with that of sight or reason. It is influential only when we +cannot do without it." + +Now it may be difficult to suppose that God has ever spoken in the +world. But if we think He has, it cannot be irrational to take His +word and believe it; it cannot be absurd to trust a Divine message, +when we are every day trusting human messages. And one thing further. +When we trust a friend's report, we do not make our previous ideas of +what is probable, a test of how much we shall believe of what he says. +If we were already competent to say what happened, we should not go to +him for information. Unless it is impossible, or against all the laws +of probability, we assent to what he says, however much it may +surprise, or startle, or alarm us; if we cannot do this, we have not +real trust. But trusting it is irrational "to pick and choose;" to say +this we will accept and that we will reject, according as it seems +antecedently likely or not. Surely this must be also true of divine +testimony. If God, the perfect, the unerring intelligence, speaks, we +are at least to give Him the same respect we should show to a +fellow-man; we are not to say, "this is credible and I accept it; that +is strange, mysterious, and I must reject it." If we knew beforehand +what was true, to what end would God give the revelation? And if we do +thus sit in judgment, we simply show (unless we are dishonest) that we +do not believe that God has spoken. Hence, what is called the +submission of reason, which, in the large sense of the word, it is +only rational to give, if God has indeed given a message to the world. +Protestants so submit to the teachings of the Bible; Catholics do to +the teachings of the Church. If God really speaks in either, it is as +rational to do so as it is to trust Stanley's reports of the lakes and +jungles, the weird forests and strange inhabitants of Central +Africa--yes, as much more so as Stanley is a man, and God is God. Most +simply and frankly does Newman say, in speaking of early converts, +"The Church was their teacher; they did not come to argue, to examine, +to pick and choose, but to accept whatever was put before them." This +attitude of arguing, examining, picking, and choosing in relation to +things of which we really know nothing, and can know nothing, in our +mortal state (though supposedly God knows and has given a certain +amount of light) Newman calls Rationalism; and if God has spoken, +surely such Rationalism is irrational. The doctrine that there is no +positive truth in religion, that one creed is as good as another, and +that all is opinion, Newman calls Liberalism; but if God has revealed +the truth such Liberalism is false. + +In writing of Newman as I have, I have been moved by old attachment +and personal veneration. But if I have incidentally contributed to +show that a Catholic need not necessarily be either a weak man or a +dishonest one, as is sometimes taken for granted among Liberals, I +shall not be sorry. My opinion is that Newman differed from the stock +Protestantism of his day, largely because he sought out light and +sought it with a mind which for eagerness, keenness, subtlety, depth, +has rarely been surpassed; that he left the Church of England because +it was neither fish nor fowl--and rationality and consistency were not +in it; that he went to Rome, because, taking his premises for granted, +reason pointed that way. And yet the guarded way in which I have +spoken has probably been noticed by my readers. I have not said that +reason, abstractly speaking, was on his side, but that starting from +his premises his course was reasonable--his premises being those to +which most Christians hold. The difference was that he took them +seriously and they became living principles, germs of ample growth in +his mind, while others held them unthinkingly; that he had the rare +power of realizing his ideas, while others took them as mechanically +as we often take the stars at night--points of light they are to us +and nothing more. But whether his premises were really sound is +another question. My mature judgment is that they were not; had I been +able to hold my Christian faith as I once held it, could I have +resisted the solvents that science, and criticism, and philosophy were +bringing to bear upon it, I should have gone I know not where; as it +is, I am a Liberal (though not in Newman's sense). The ordinary idea +of God I cannot hold, nor does it seem likely that I shall ever hold +an idea of God with which the idea of a special revelation would be +congruous; and even were the ordinary idea of God a true one, I think +that the matter-of-fact evidence of a revelation through Jesus is +insufficient. Reluctant as I was to admit it, struggle as I might +against it, the share of Jesus in the errors and illusions of his time +(the sense of which grew upon me) made it impossible for me at last to +absolutely trust his consciousness; however great, however sublime a +figure he was, it appeared that he belonged after all to our fallible +humanity. Hence in my view we were thrown back on ourselves; we may +have great and consoling beliefs about life and its purpose, about +death and what lies beyond, about the fathomless Power from which we +come and on whose bosom we rest; but a revelation we have not; they +are beliefs which we ourselves form and do not receive from without. +Rationalism, though not in the sense in which Newman used it, becomes +the only method; and Liberalism, in the sense that whatever creed one +may hold none can claim to be infallible, or of exclusive divine +authority, and that good men of different creeds should respect and +tolerate one another, becomes at once a necessity and a duty. + +Newman has taken his way; other men, let us trust, with the root of +piety in them as truly as it was in him, have taken theirs; the ways +are far apart--which is truer, time, the future, perhaps the ages +alone can tell. But we are bound not to revile him, as he in sober +truth never reviled us. + + + + +INTER-MIGRATION. + +BY RABBI SOLOMON SCHINDLER. + + +The immigration problem, which I have been discussing in previous +numbers of THE ARENA, cannot be unravelled without considering one +important thread which adds to the entanglement. I shall apply to it +the term "Inter-migration," a word not found in the dictionary, +because it is freshly coined for the purpose. Let me try to define its +meaning. + +A person is said to migrate when he leaves his native land, seeking a +new home in some other country. Around the word emigrant or immigrant +hovers always the idea of an exchange of habits, customs, and language +of one country with those of another. The immigrant, when he arrives +at the place which he has chosen for his new settlement, appears by +his dress, his language, his manners, yea, even by his features, a +stranger; one who has apparently no right to press himself upon the +community; one who must not feel offended if he is mistrusted, until +he has shown that his arrival will not prove dangerous to the old +settlers. Around the word emigrant hovers the idea of distance; he +comes from far-off countries, from a place which cannot be easily +reached, or from which information concerning himself cannot be +readily obtained. We call a person an immigrant who comes to us from a +distance of at least a few thousand miles, and from a country that +differs from ours in the forms of government as well as in customs and +manners. We would surely not call a person an immigrant who comes from +a village of Maine or New Hampshire to Boston, nor even if he should +come from the far South or from the extreme West. + +Yet, what is the difference? He is a person who has left his native +home, who is as much a stranger among us as the one who comes across +the ocean. His manners may be as different from ours, his features may +show at a glance, whether he is a southerner, a western man, or +whether he comes from down east; even his language may be strange on +account of the peculiar accent which he gives his words, and the +idioms which he uses. It may frequently happen that two people, who +both think they speak the English language will be unable to +understand each other, on account of the difference in dialect. The +new-comer may prove to be as much, or even more, of an undesirable +element among us, as the one who comes from Ireland or China; his +presence in the labor market may tend as well to reduce the rates of +wages as if he had come from Hungaria or Bulgaria. There is no denying +the fact that a locomotion has taken place, that an individual has +transplanted himself from one place to the other, either on account of +the urging of his venturesome spirit, or for the sake of finding a +better market for his abilities, or driven out by force of adverse +conditions. There is little difference whether a person leaves Russia +on account of his dissatisfaction with the government, or an arbitrary +legislation which deprives him of his opportunities; or whether he +leaves a village in Nebraska because he finds he is unable longer to +withstand the grinding process of the land sharks, or the sweating +system of the factory owners. His intentions are to better his +condition; precisely the same as are those of him who crosses the +Atlantic. The one will sell his all to pay his passage on the steamer, +the other to pay for his railroad ticket, and both will arrive +penniless. Yet the one is called an emigrant or immigrant, and the +other is not, although the distance from which the latter comes may be +the same or even greater than that from which the former hails. + +In order to distinguish between these two classes of migration, I call +this latter one "Inter-migration," and desire the term to stand for a +change of habitation occurring within the boundaries of a land that is +under the same government. + +Inter-migration, although it has never before reached the development +to which it has risen in the present, is not a new form of the +migratory habit of peoples. Ancient records tell us that a forced +inter-migration has frequently taken place. The conquerors of old, +desirous of making one nation out of the many peoples they subdued by +their valiant sword, would transplant large numbers of individuals +from one province to another distant one, giving their land and their +possessions in exchange to settlers, whom they drew from some other +country. Their scheme, however, rarely succeeded, because the +difficulties of a long journey made it impossible for them to +transplant a sufficiently large number of people; the masses remained +undisturbed, the few new-comers were soon absorbed by them, and the +desired change of sentiment was not produced. The moment the +government was attacked by a new conqueror, all provinces would at +once rise in revolt, and thus hasten the downfall of empires, such as +was, for instance, the Persian, before the onslaught of so small an +army as that with which Alexander the Great crossed the Hellespont. + +The golden era of the Roman Empire, and the prosperity and the culture +which then prevailed, were made possible solely through the facilities +which were given to inter-migration. Good roads connected the ends and +dissected the width and breadth of the great Roman Empire. Travel was +well protected. A well-drilled army suppressed highway robbery, and an +excellent navy put down piracy. A resident of Gaul could with ease +settle in Syria, while the Syrian, if he so desired, could find with +ease a home in Gaul. The residents of Brittania and Greece could with +comparative ease inter-migrate, and had not the floods of barbarians +which deluged the Roman Empire put an end to civilization, and with it +the possibilities of inter-migration, we might stand to-day on a much +higher round of culture, and our knowledge might have been much +greater than it is. + +If the inventions of the nineteenth century have made possible +emigration to such an extent to-day as never before existed, it has +still more facilitated inter-migration. It has almost destroyed the +equilibrium between the centripetal and centrifugal forces, giving the +advantages to the latter. The facilities of locomotion have made +people restless; the times have passed by when grandchildren would +live in the same house in which their grandparents lived or when they +consider it a hardship and misfortune to move out of such a +habitation, or to see it change owners; time has been, when only the +adventurer left his native place, and when it was considered dangerous +to go into the world, which at that time could be circumscribed by a +radius of a few miles; time has been, when people lived for +generations in the same house, in the same street, in the same village +or town, when even the household furniture became venerable on account +of its antiquity and the remembrances connected with it. What boy or +girl in our day plays around the chair which their great-grandfather +used to occupy? To sell one house and move into another; to leave one +city and seek settlement in another, is now the rule and not the +exception; and it is mainly this inter-migration, stirring up the +masses, to which is due our increased prosperity and our progress in +all branches of knowledge. Inter-migration keeps us from stagnation; +it removes shyness and fear at the sight of a stranger, accustoms us +to an intercourse with different people, removes prejudices and +superstitions, and facilitates the exchange of thoughts and ideas. + +On the other hand, it cannot be denied that intermigration has also +its drawbacks; that it will easily flood the labor market so as to +screw down wages; it will foster the venturesome spirit, induce people +to risk a certainty for an uncertainty, and especially has it tended +to draw people from the rural districts to the large cities. + +All the complaints heard against immigration, and all the pressure +that is brought to bear upon the government to restrict it, do not +come from the rural districts, but from the large cities; and it is +generally overlooked that the competition, which presses down the +compensation for labor to such a degree that the wages earned for hard +work are sometimes not sufficient to support one person, and far less +a family, is not brought about solely by the immigrant who comes from +abroad, but is, to a very great extent, the consequence of +inter-migration, of the influx of villagers into the cities. While in +country places there is a scarcity of labor, thus in New England, for +example, while many farms are vacant, there are people starving in the +cities, unable to obtain work. The increase of large cities and of +their population is beyond the proportion in which it formerly stood +to that of the country. This has aroused the thoughts of many +long-headed people, and investigations are being made on every hand, +especially because some people are moved by fear that city life will +corrupt morality. They take it for granted that country people are +virtuous, and that vice finds its domicile only in the large centres +of population, and having established these premises, they argue that +the tendency of country people to move into cities shows a degeneracy +on their part, or that the abnormal growth of cities is a sure token +of the moral depravity which has taken hold of the people. This, +however, is not true. There is as much iniquity in proportion in small +communities as in large ones, and not unfrequently wickedness and +viciousness are attributed to actions which, after all, are neither +wicked nor vicious, but merely strange to one who is not accustomed to +them. The tide of inter-migration, which swells the population of the +cities, has its natural causes, of which moral corruption is the +least. + +The philosophers of the individualistic school will take exception, +when I name as the first cause of the tendency to leave the village +for the city, the fact that the more society becomes organized, the +more each individual becomes a part of a system, the easier it is to +obtain comfort, and that, having found the proper place, one can more +easily excel in that sphere of life. True, a man living in a village +may be able to secure for himself, without excessive labor, food that +would keep him from starvation, and raiment and fuel to protect him +against the inclemency of the weather; but man needs more than bread +and meat, a coat and a pair of shoes. There are a thousand other +things which bring cheer to him and make his life worth living, that +he cannot obtain in rural solitude. He claims a right to these +comforts, and tries to obtain them by seeking them where they are to +be found. If simple support, which rustic life insures, was preferable +to the insecurity of earning a livelihood in the city; if plenty of +coarse food and the healthier habitation which the village offers, +were sufficient to induce the over-worked, half-starved, and +ill-tenanted city laborer to give up for them the other comforts which +city life offers him, we should soon behold an exodus from the city to +country places, instead of observing the growth of the centres of +population. It is the tendency to work in a system and with a system +which increases as the human being rises in culture and civilization. +This is the magnet which draws people to large cities, and holds them +there, despite the many drawbacks which naturally adhere to it. + +The facility of locomotion and of transportation have made possible an +interchange of commodities which has never been so before. The world +has become one marketplace, upon which the commodities are thrown, and +in which he who is able to sell an article of the same quality at the +lowest rate will have most customers. When grain can be produced in +large quantities in the West, so that it can be sold at a lower rate +in the East than the cost of its production would be there, it is +quite natural that the Eastern farmer must go to the wall, and it is +no wonder he deserts his farm. The less the raw material can be used +in its natural state, and the more our refinement demands a long +process of converting it into a commodity, the more does it require +systematic, organized, skilled labor to perform that conversion. With +sufficient land a few people can raise such an abundance of raw +material that the labor of thousands of people will be called for to +change it into useful articles. It is the system, the developed social +organization, which draws the villager to the city, and as an +illustration I shall point to the sudden and unparelleled growth of +the city of Berlin. + +Twenty-five years ago Berlin was not quite as large in population as +is Boston to-day, and its area was much smaller. Berlin is situated in +a sandy, sterile country; so to say, in a desert. There is no +navigable river to connect it with the ocean, nor are minerals or coal +found in its immediate neighborhood. When Berlin was made the seat of +the German government, the first result was that thousands of +government officials were removed from other places to this city; then +the garrison was enlarged. More commodious roads were built to connect +the capital with the provinces. This attracted business men, as well +as thousands whose services in all branches of life were required. The +manufacturer soon followed, and Berlin became in a short time a +commercial centre. Leipsic lost its prestige and Nuremberg its renown. +The organized net-work of labor makes it possible now for a million +and a half of people to live and prosper on that sterile ground. Let +Berlin cease to be the capital of Germany, through any unforeseen +event, and its population will melt away at once. Like iron filings +hanging on a magnet, in which one particle attracts and holds the +other, thus are people attracted to and held in places where society, +and with it labor, is organized. + +Another and weighty reason to account for inter-migration, and +especially for the increase of population in cities, is that +agriculture, too, has undergone a change. The inventive genius of our +age, which keeps on creating labor-saving machinery, has not left this +branch of occupation untouched. As the mechanic had to go in order to +be replaced by the factory owner, thus the small farmer can no longer +exist beside a syndicate which will systematically cultivate large +tracts of land. The tendency of the time is to apply system also to +agricultural pursuits, to take that art out of the sphere of instinct +and to transplant it into the sphere of science. + +In this paper I have merely sought to bring before the mind of the +reader important facts which are usually overlooked in the discussion +of the problem under consideration, believing it to be necessary to +adduce all the important evidence which bears upon the subject in +order that he may form a just and enlightened opinion on a great +living question of the first magnitude, as a frank statement of a +problem is of far greater value to the honest investigator than any +amount of ingenious reasonings from a narrow or distorted point of +view. + + + + +HE CAME AND WENT AGAIN. + +BY WILL N. HARBEN. + + +He was the humblest man in the world. He wore ragged clothing and +lived in the filthiest tenement-house in New York. He was unlettered, +had never opened a book, and seemed to know little of the ways of men. +His hair and beard were long, and like golden silk; his eyes held the +blue of infinite space. + +When wealthy people passed him they shook their heads and said, "He is +demented;" but the poor, who knew him, lowered their voices when he +was near and whispered that he belonged to a better world, for in his +eyes they saw a strange light of eternal kindness. + +"Why are you so good to me?" the poor would ask, marvelling over his +tears of sympathy. + +"Because I love you," he would answer, "and love is the mother of all +that is good. If you will love men as I do your way of life will be +strewn with roses from heaven and your vision know no end." + +He had never been in a church nor heard one word in the Bible, and +yet, with a far-away light in his eyes, he used to talk of immortality +and infinite love. "Love is everlasting life," he would say, "love is +eternal." + +His poor old mother did not understand him, and she was often troubled +on his behalf. She used to plead with him to stay with her more and +not to give up his life so completely to others. + +"Why," she would argue plaintively, "even the great clergymen who +preach in the grand churches, and who are said to be the best of men, +do not risk their lives and love others as you do. They seldom come +here where everybody is so poor." Once he asked her to tell him what +the clergymen taught, and when she tried to explain the creeds of the +different denominations, he shook his head and turned pale with +perplexity and pain. + +"I cannot understand," he said sorrowfully. "It all makes my heart +ache. It seems to me that the church-members, too, are in the dark. +Love is food for the soul and they are starving. People everywhere are +dying in crime and pain and no one offers to help them." + +One day, after he had been laboring for a week without sufficient food +and sleep among the fever-stricken poor, he fell ill, and his mother +thought he was about to die. She ran, her gray locks streaming in the +wind, to the parsonage of a little church near by and inquired for the +minister, but was told by his wife that he had been gone for several +weeks to a watering place in the mountains. The old woman ran on +further, till she came to a great church whose majestic spire seemed +to touch the clouds. A stately rectory was near. Soft music, mingled +with merry voices, came out to her through the open doors. Awkwardly +and tremblingly she went up the polished marble steps and rang. A +servant in livery told her gruffly that his master was dining with his +bishop and other distinguished personages, and that she would have to +wait. + +She replied with a groan that she feared her son was dying. The man +went to his master and came back saying, "He cannot see you now." + +She sat down in the great hall and tried to pray. Before her hung a +costly painting representing Jesus with a child in his arms, a lamb at +his side. She smelt the fragrance of flowers, and heard the clinking +of wine-glasses, the tinkling of silver and rare china, short speeches +and laughter. + +"The dean, it seems," she heard the bishop say, "was reproving one of +the young clergymen for becoming intoxicated. The young scamp's reply +quite took the dean off his feet. 'If I mistake not, sir,' said the +young priest, 'the liquor I drank came from your celebrated +art-gallery and bar-room.'" + +This story was greeted by hearty laughter, and then the old woman +heard the bishop giving a description of a new yacht which he had just +bought. By and by the rector came out. His cheeks were slightly +flushed, his manner betrayed impatience." + +"Well," said he to her, "what is it? I am very busy." + +"I am afraid my son is dying," she said timidly, abashed by the +splendor of his dress and abrupt manner. "I thought some minister +ought to see him." + +"Where do you attend church?" he asked, looking down at her tattered +attire. + +"I do not go to any," she faltered. + +"I have as much as I can attend to in my own parish," he frowned; +"besides my bishop is here as my guest; there is a young theological +student with me who will go." And he went back to the dining-room and +sent a young man out to her. + +"Show me the way," said the student, and he shrugged his shoulders, +and blushed because the footman seemed to comprehend the situation. + +Without a word she led him through the squalid streets to the house, +and up the narrow stairs to her miserable room. The sick man lay alone +on a hard couch. + +"What can I do for you?" asked the visitor. + +A look of hope came into the pallid features of the one addressed. His +voice was low and eager when he replied:-- + +"A poor woman downstairs has fallen and broken her spine. I fear she +is without attention, I was trying to reach her when I fell ill. +Perhaps you will go to see her; I need nothing." + +"His mind is wandering," said the student, turning to the mother. "He +could not comprehend anything I might read or say now. He needs +medical treatment. You should apply to the public charities." And he +went away, brushing the sleeve of his coat which had caught a cobweb. + +At her son's request the mother went below. Presently she returned +with the information that the injured woman's needs had been attended +to. Then she got a Bible and began to read to him for the first time +in life. When she had read a few passages he asked her what it was, +and she replied:-- + +"They say it is the Word of God, and that it shows us how to live." + +When she was reading of the life of Christ he listened with a profound +look of perplexity on his pale face. But when she pronounced the +words, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," he uttered an exclamation of +surprise, and sat up in his bed. + +"I have spoken those words before!" he cried, "but in a different +language. It was in another life which seems like a dream. I lived +long, long ago, in a far-away land. I had another mother there, Mary +was her name, and a good father whom the people called Joseph. I lived +there as I do here, but the world mocked me because I tried to teach +them to love one another--they could not understand. They put me to +death. They made a cross, and hung me on it, on a hill in the +direction of the setting sun from Jerusalem. A multitude gathered to +see me die." + +Amazed at his radiant and transformed countenance, which held in it +the light of eternity, she fell down before him crying:-- + +"My Lord! My Master!" + +He lifted her up, his weakness gone. + +"Rise," said he gently. "Call me not 'Master,' for I am but the son of +God, as you are His daughter. The Father of us all, in His love, is +not better than the humblest of His children." + +She was going out to cry aloud in the streets that Jesus, the son of +God, had come to earth, but he prevented her. + +"Speak not of me to them," he said softly; "they could not understand; +it would be even as it was before." + +That very day he went about according to his humble wont, among the +poor and the miserable, spreading joy and comfort everywhere. +Wan-faced courtesans, with death and hate in their eyes, despairing +thieves, murderers, and would-be suicides, listened to his words of +hope and began life anew. He went to the houses of the wealthy and +plead in the behalf of suffering men and women, misguided children, +and mistreated animals, but was called a tramp and sent away. + +One day his mother lead him to the corpse of a dead friend. "Make him +live again," she whispered. + +He looked down at the dead and smiled infinitely. He took a flower +from a vase, and put it into the hand that was cold. "This is the +birthday of our friend," he said. "Should I wish to alter the work of +my Father, in whose eyes all things are perfect? Our friend is this +day delivered from the womb of earthly travail." + +One bright morning she came and laid herself at his feet. + +"I have heard strange things to-day," she said, "things I have not +learned before because I am so ignorant. They say that all the great +and good churches in Christendom have grown up upon the teachings of +Jesus of Nazareth." + +"Nazareth," he repeated dreamily, "I lived in Nazareth." + +"They worship him that was crucified on Calvary; ah! they would listen +to you now, my Master. You have lived in their memories for centuries. +Hear, the bells are ringing. It is the Sabbath, the Lord's day!" + +"My Father's day has neither beginning nor end." + +"Come, go with me," went on the woman eagerly, "we shall hear them +praise your name." + +"I will go with you," said he, a strange look in his eyes. + +She ran from the room and presently came back with a suit of new +clothes which she had borrowed from a dealer: Her face was aglow with +pride and joy as she spread them before him. + +"What are they for?" he asked in gentle surprise. + +"For you," she said, "that you may go into the house of the Lord robed +as--as others are." + +A blended look of wonder and pain passed over his face. + +"The spirit of the man is not clothed with the wool of the sheep that +was slain," he said gently. "I will go as I am, and fear naught in my +Father's presence." + +She led him down several streets till they reached a grand +thoroughfare. Along this they went side by side, jostled by the +fashionable throng, till they came to a stately church. Going up the +broad stone steps they entered the great Gothic doors. A group of men +in the vestibule laughed at his long hair and ragged attire. Elegantly +dressed ushers were seating the people as they entered. They did not +speak to the woman and her son, but smiled at one another, and passed +some jests in undertones. After awhile one of them drew near, and said +to her:-- + +"Have you not made a mistake, my good woman? This is St. ---- Church. +St. ----'s is the next below." + +Tears were in her eyes as she led her son away. By and by they came to +another edifice. In a niche in the stone wall near the entrance was +the figure of Jesus on a cross. He paused and looked at it for several +minutes, murmuring, "Strange! Strange!" + +In the vestibule she was so awed by the imposing interior of the +structure and the fashionable congregation, that she drew him to one +side. + +"Perhaps we had better stand here," she whispered. "We seem to be +unlike the rest. We shall not be in the way out here, and through the +door we can see and hear the service." + +He made no answer. He was looking at a grand window on which stood a +representation of Jesus, in a stream of light from heaven, bearing the +words, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." "Strange, +very strange!" she heard him whisper, and tears were in his eyes. + +No one offered to give them seats, and they remained standing in the +vestibule against a wall. A grand organ began to peal out the music of +Gounod's Saint Cecilia Mass. Presently it died down; there was a short +pause, then, like the rising of a musical storm came the subdued +voices of the choristers from the closed vestry. The door was +gradually opened, and the music swelled out into the church. The +crucifer, a beautiful lad, attired in a blood-red cassock and a white, +lace-trimmed cotta, entered. Behind him, chanting, came a long train +of choir-boys, followed by two acolytes who swung by chains of brass +censers from which rose clouds of fragrant smoke. Two priests brought +up the rear; one, the celebrant of the Holy Communion, was +magnificently garbed. He wore a trailing black cassock of richest +silk, and over it a short lawn cotta trimmed with priceless lace, an +enormous cloth-of-gold cope on the back of which blazed a cross +wrought in jewels. About his neck he had a white stole, over an arm a +snowy maniple, upon his head a priestly beretta. + +"Is it not beautiful?" asked the poor woman of her son. But he did not +hear her. His eyes, blinded by tears of infinite sorrow, were resting +on the white statue of the Virgin near the snowy altar of marble, on +which burnt a constellation of tapers and candles around the red lamp +of the "Holy Presence." + +His breast heaved; a sob escaped him, and his head sank upon his +chest. + +"And they do this in the name of love," he said, as if in prayer. +"They make an idol of my memory while my brothers and sisters are +dying for the lack of love and kindness. They do all this to praise me +whom they have so little understood. O God, my Father, let this trial +pass, or make me as you are that I may, this time, set them right, for +I suffer past endurance." + +The short sermon ended. The celebration of Mass began. The wafer and +the wine were consecrated. The priest raised the wafer before the +eyes of the congregation and said, "This is my body," and all heads +bowed low. + +"At the very instant you hear the bell strike," whispered a man to a +boy near the mother and son, "at that very instant the Saviour will be +there--listen!" + +"Father, forgive them," the woman heard her son say, and she followed +him out of the church. They had reached the street when three strokes +from a silver bell was heard. + +A few minutes later, as they were passing through a squalid street on +the way home, they came to a little church. He read her wishes in her +face, and they went in. A man approached and showed them to a back +seat. On a platform a preacher was striding to and fro shouting, +singing snatches of hymns, and praying. In his excitement he would +fall on his knees and raise his hands heavenward; again he would +spring up and beat himself with his hands, and violently kick the +floor, preaching, singing, and praying alternately. + +"Save yourselves from the eternal wrath of an angry God!" he cried. "I +tell you that hell is yawning for you; the burning breath of countless +devils is about you. Christ died to save you; will you not trust in +him? Now is the only time; to-morrow it may be too late!" + +After awhile the congregation began to sing a hymn, and the preacher +went on: "Come forward all who want the prayers of the church. Come +now, and embrace salvation!" And men, women, and children trembling +with fear, and weeping and groaning, went to the altar and threw +themselves on their knees. + +The poor woman looked at her son. His face was pale and set as with +the agony of death. She glanced over the congregation. People sat +there wrestling with the greatest problem of their lives, their faces +white, their eyes dilated. Others were smiling as if highly amused at +the preacher's actions. Members of ritualistic churches, who had come +out of curiosity, were frowning contemptuously, and congratulating +themselves on the dignity of their own form of worship. + +"I must go," said the son to his mother. "I must be with those that +need me. Here they teach that the Eternal Father hates His children. +If only they knew Him they would not be afraid." + +He never entered a church again. He continued his life as he had begun +it, teaching human love and gentleness to all he knew. Once he was +trying to save a half-demented drunkard from being beaten by an +inhuman policeman, and was put into prison. While he was there his +mother died, and when he was released, his health was broken. + +A week passed in which he could get no food to eat. He was starving. +One moonlit night he rose and staggered out to search for bread, +suffering indescribable tortures. His voice had gone. He stood on the +corner of a street, and mutely held out his hands to passers-by, but +they paid no heed to him. Along the street he tottered till he came to +a brightly lighted building. A church was holding a festival. +Beautiful women in the height of fashion, children in the daintiest of +dresses, were promenading about. He looked in at the door, and when he +saw the long tables filled with eatables, his eyes gleamed with the +desire of a famished animal. He staggered across the threshold, but +was stopped by the door-keeper. "Ticket," said the man. The outcast +did not understand, he could see nothing but the food within. A +policeman stepped forward and laid his hand on his arm. + +"This is no place for you," he said roughly. "You have no money, move +on!" + +"He looks hungry, wait!" said a little girl, who was pinning some +flowers on the lapel of a young minister's coat, and she ran to a +table and brought a piece of bread to the starving man. He hugged it +in his arms, and tottered out into the night, chuckling to himself in +joy. A square where trees and flowers grew was before him. He entered +it, and sank on to a bench near a fountain. He looked at the bread, +and a savage content captured his features. He was about to break it +when a man arose from a seat across a walk, and came and sat down +beside him, eyeing the food covetously. He touched the thin hand that +held it, and the two men looked into each other's eyes. + +"I am starving," said the breadless one. "I have no means. I belong to +a family who have descended from kings; I cannot beg. I thought you +looked as if you did not want it. I am dying." + +The other clutched the food tightly in both his hands for an instant. +A look of ferocious desire wrung his face, and he raised it to his +lips. Then a divine smile dawned in his eyes, and he proffered it to +the other. The man took it eagerly, and slipped into the darkness, +that he might eat it unseen. As he turned away the head of the giver +sank slowly to his breast. + +Brightly lighted streets stretched away in several directions. A +procession of men and women bearing banners and beating drums and +tambourines passed along, singing hymns, and pausing now and then to +kneel on the cobblestones to pray or to urge the little clusters of +idlers to join them in their march to safety. Above the wondrous stars +and moon were shining as they had shone at the dawn of eternal +thought. They shone on the Vatican at Rome, the imperial cradle of +saints; on the comfortable homes of ministers in the church; on the +"palaces" of gentle-blooded bishops; on assemblages of men who were +wrangling over creeds; on gatherings where earnest searchers after +truth were being tried for heresy; on prisons where inmates of dark, +silent cells were praying for a gleam of light, for but the voice of +an insect to keep madness from their tortured brains; on millions of +suffering human beings--on the cold, dead form of one who understood +naught but love. + + + + +O THOU WHO SIGHEST FOR A BROADER FIELD. + +JULIA ANNA WOLCOTT. + + + O thou who sighest for a broader field + Wherein to sow the seeds of truth and right, + Who fain a nobler, wider power wouldst wield + O'er human souls that languish for the light; + + Search well the realm that even now is thine! + Canst not thou in some far-off corner find + A heart, sin-bound, as tree with sapping vine, + That waiteth help its burdens to unbind? + + Some human plant, perchance beneath thine eyes, + Pierced through by hidden thorns of idle fears; + Or, drooping low for need of light from skies + Obscured by doubt-clouds, raining poison tears? + + Some bruisèd soul the balm of love would heal? + Some timid spirit faith would courage give? + Or maimèd brother who, though brave and leal, + Still needeth thee to rightly walk and live? + + Oh, while _one_ soul thou find'st that hath not known + The fullest help thy soul hath power to give, + Sigh not for fields still broader than thine own, + But, steadfast, in thine own more broadly live! + + + + +AN EVENING AT THE CORNER GROCERY. + +A WESTERN CHARACTER SKETCH. + +BY HAMLIN GARLAND. + + +Colonel Peavy had just begun the rubber with Judge Gordon of +Cerro-Gordo County. They were seated in Robie's grocery, behind the +rusty old cannon stove, the checker-board spread out on their knees. +The Colonel was grinning in great glee, wringing his bony yellow hands +in nervous excitement, in strong contrast to the stolid calm of the +fat Judge. + +The Colonel had won the last game by a large margin, and was sure he +had his opponent's "dodges" well in hand. It was early in the evening, +and the grocery was comparatively empty. Robie was figuring at a desk, +and old Judge Brown stood in legal gravity warming his legs at the +red-hot stove, and swaying gently back and forth in speechless +content. It was a tough night outside, one of the toughest for years. +The frost had completely shut the window panes as with thick blankets +of snow. The streets were silent. + +"I don't know," said the Judge, reflectively, to Robie, breaking the +silence in his rasping, judicial bass, "I don't know as there has been +such a night as this since the night of February 2d, '59, that was the +night James Kirk went under--Honorable Kirk, you remember,--knew him +well. Brilliant fellow, ornament to western bar. But whiskey downed +him. It'll beat the oldest man--I wonder where the boys all are +to-night? Don't seem to be anyone stirring on the street. Aint +frightened out by the cold?" + +"Shouldn't wonder." Robie was busy at his desk, and not in humor for +conversation on reminiscent lines. The two old war-dogs at the board +had settled down to one of those long, silent struggles, which ensue +when two "champions" meet. In the silence which followed, the Judge +was looking attentively at the back of the Colonel, and thinking that +the old thief was getting about down to skin and bone. He turned with +a yawn to Robie, saying:-- + +"This cold weather must take hold of the old Colonel terribly, he's so +damnably thin and bald, you know,--bald as a babe. The fact is, the +old Colonel aint long for this world, anyway; think so, Hank?" Robie +making no reply, the Judge relapsed into silence for a while, watching +the cat (perilously walking along the edge of the upper shelf) and +listening to the occasional hurrying footsteps outside. "I don't know +when I've seen the windows closed up so, Hank; go down to thirty below +to-night; devilish strong wind blowing, too; tough night on the +prairies, Hank." + +"You bet," replied Hank, briefly. The Colonel was plainly getting +excited. His razor-like back curved sharper than ever as he peered +into the intricacies of the board to spy the trap which the fat Judge +had set for him. At this point the squeal of boots on the icy walk +outside paused, and a moment later Amos Ridings entered, with whiskers +covered with ice, and looking like a huge bear in his buffalo coat. + +"By Josephus! it's cold," he roared, as he took off his gloves and +began to warm his face and hands at the fire. + +"Is it?" asked the Judge, comfortably, rising on his tiptoes, only to +fall back into his usual attitude, legal legs well spread, shoulders +thrown back. + +"You bet it is!" replied Amos. "I'd'know when I've felt the cold +more'n I have t'-day. It's jest snifty; doubles me up like a +jack-knife, Judge. How d' you stand it?" + +"Tollerble, tollerble, Amos. But we're agein', we aint what we were +once. Cold takes hold of us." + +"That's a fact," answered Amos to the retrospective musings of the +Judge. "Time was you an' me would go t' singing-school or +sleigh-riding with the girls on a night like this and never notice +it." + +"Yes, sir; yes, sir!" said the Judge with a sigh. It was a little +uncertain in Robie's mind whether the Judge was regretting the lost +ability to stand the cold, or the lost pleasure of riding with the +girls. + +"Great days, those, gentlemen! Lived in Vermont then. +Hot-blooded--lungs like an ox. I remember, Sallie Dearborn and I used +to go a-foot to singing school down the valley four miles. But now, +wouldn't go riding to-night with the handsomest woman in America, and +the best cutter in Rock River." + +"Oh! you've got both feet in the grave up t' the ankles, anyway," said +Robie from his desk, but the Judge immovably gazed at the upper shelf +on the other side of the room where the boilers, and pans, and +washboards were stored. + +"The Judge is a little on the sentimental order to-night," said Amos. + +"Hold on, Colonel! hold on. You've _got_ 'o jump. He! he!" roared +Gordon from the checker-board. "That's right, that's right!" he ended, +as the Colonel complied reluctantly. + +"Sock it to the old cuss," commented Amos. "What I was going to say," +he resumed, rolling down the collar of his coat, "was, that when my +wife helped me bundle up t' night, she said I was gitt'n' t' be an old +granny. We _are_ agein', Judge, the's no denyin' it. We're both gray +as Norway rats now. An' speaking of us ageing reminds me,--have y' +noticed how bald the old Kyernel's gitt'n'?" + +"I have, Amos," answered the Judge, mournfully. "The old man's head is +showing age, showing age! Getting thin up there, aint it?" The old +Colonel bent to his work without reply, and even when Amos said, +judicially, after long scrutiny, "Yes, he'll soon be as bald as a +plate," he only lifted one yellow, freckled, bony hand, and brushed +his carroty growth of hair across the spot under discussion. Gordon +shook his fat paunch in silent laughter, nearly displacing the board. + +"I was just telling Robie," pursued Brown, still retaining his +reminiscent intonation, "that this storm takes the cake over +anything--" + +At this point Steve Roach and another fellow entered. Steve was +Ridings' hired hand, a herculean fellow, with a drawl, and a liability +for taking offence quite as remarkable. + +"Say! gents, I'm no spring rooster, but this jest gits away with +anything in line of cold _I_ ever see." + +While this communication was being received in ruminative silence, +Steve was holding his ears in his hand and gazing at the intent +champions at the board. There they sat; the old Judge panting and +wheezing in his excitement, for he was planning a great "snap" on the +Colonel, whose red and freckled nose almost touched the board. It was +a solemn battle hour. The wind howled mournfully outside, the timbers +of the stove creaked in the cold, and the huge cannon stove roared in +steady bass. + +"Speaking about ears," said Steve, after a silence, "dumned if I'd +like t' be quite s' bare 'round the ears as Kernel there. I wonder if +any o' you fellers has noticed how the ol' feller's lost hair this +last summer. He's gittin' bald, they's no coverin' it up--gittin' bald +as a plate." + +"You're right, Stephen," said the Judge, as he gravely took his stand +behind his brother advocate, and studied, with the eye of an adept, +the field of battle. "We were noticing it when you came in. It's a sad +thing, but it must be admitted." + +"It's the Kyernel's brains wearin' up through his hair, I take it," +commented Amos, as he helped himself to a handful of peanuts out of a +bag behind the counter. "Say, Steve, did y' stuff up that hole in +front of ol' Barney?" + +A shout was heard outside, and then a rush against the door, and +immediately two young fellows burst in, followed by a fierce gust of +snow. One was Professor Knapp, the other Editor Foster, of the +_Morning Call_. + +"Well, gents, how's this for high?" said Foster in a peculiar tone of +voice, at which all began to smile. He was a slender fellow with +close-clipped, assertive red hair. "In this company we now have the +majesty of the law, the power of the press, and the underpinning of +the American civilization all represented. Hello! There are a couple +of old roosters with their heads together. Gordon, my old enemy, how +are you?" + +Gordon waved him off with a smile and a wheeze. "Don't bother me now. +I've got 'im. I'm laying f'r the old dog. Whist!" + +"Got nothing!" snarled the Colonel. "You try that on if you want to. +Just swing that man in there if you think it's healthy for him. Just +as like as not, you'll slip up on that little trick." + +"Ha! Say you so, old True Penny? The Kunnel has met a foeman worthy of +his steel," said Foster in great glee, as he bent above the Colonel. +"I know. _How_ do I know?" quotha. "By the curve on the Kunnel's back. +The size of the parabola described by that backbone accurately gauges +his adversary's skill. But, by the way, gentlemen, have you--but +that's a nice point, and I refer all nice points to Professor Knapp. +Professor, is it in good taste to make remarks concerning the dress or +features of another?" + +"Certainly not," answered Knapp, a handsome young fellow with a yellow +mustache. + +"Not when the person is an esteemed public character, like the Colonel +here? What I was about to remark, if it had been proper, was that the +old fellow is getting wofully bald. He'll soon be bald as an egg." + +"Say!" asked the Colonel, "I want to know how long you're going to +keep this thing up. Somebody's dumned sure t' get hurt soon." + +"There, there! Colonel," said Brown soothingly, "don't get excited, +you'll lose the rubber. Don't mind 'em. Keep cool." + +"Yes, keep cool, Kunnel, it's only our solicitude for your welfare," +chipped in Foster. Then addressing the crowd in a general sort of way +he speculated, "Curious how a man, a plain American citizen like +Colonel Peavy, wins a place in the innermost affections of a whole +people." + +"That's so!" murmured the rest. "He can't grow bald without deep +sympathy from his fellow-citizens." The old Colonel glared in +speechless wrath. + +"Say! gents," pleaded Gordon, "let up on the old man for the present. +He's going to need all of himself if he gets out o' the trap he's in +now." He waved his fat hand over the Colonel's head, and smiled +blandly at the crowd hugging the stove. + +"My head may be bald," grated the old man with a death's-head grin, +indescribably ferocious, "but it's got brains enough in it to 'skunk' +any man in this crowd three games out o' five." + +"The ol' man rather gits the laugh on y' there, gents," called Robie +from the back side of the counter. "I haint seen the old skeesix play +better'n he did last night in years." + +"Not since his return from Canada, after the war, I reckon," said Amos +from the kerosene barrel. + +"Hold on, Amos," put in the Judge warningly, "that's out-lawed. +Talking about being bald and the war reminds me of the night Walters +and I-- By the way, where is Walters to-night?" + +"Sick," put in the Colonel, straightening up exultantly. "I waxed him +three straight games last night. You won't see him again till spring. +Skunked him once, and beat him twice." + +"Oh git out." + +"Hear the old seed twitter!" + +"Did you ever notice, gentlemen, how lying and baldness go together?" +queried Foster reflectively. + +"No! Do they?" + +"Invariably. I've known many colossal liars, and they were all as bald +as apples." + +The Colonel was getting nervous, and was so slow that even Gordon (who +could sit and stare at the board a full half hour without moving) +began to be impatient. + +"Come! Colonel, marshal your forces a little more promptly. If you're +going at me _echelon_, sound y'r bugle; I'm ready." + +"Don't worry," answered the Colonel, in his calmest nasal, "I'll +accommodate you with all the fight you want." + +"Did it ever occur to you," began the Judge again, addressing the +crowd generally, as he moved back to the stove and lit another cigar, +"did it ever occur to you that it is a little singular a man should +get bald on the _top_ of his head first? Curious fact. So accustomed +to it we no longer wonder at it. Now see the Colonel there. Quite a +growth of hair on his clap-boarding, as it were, but devilish thin on +his roof." + +Here the Colonel looked up and tried to say something, but the Judge +went on imperturbably. + +"Now I take it that it's strictly providential that a man gets bald on +top of his head first, because if he _must_ get bald it is best to get +bald where it can be covered up." + +"By jinks, that's a fact!" said the rest in high admiration of the +Judge's ratiocination. Steve was specially pleased, and drawing a +neck-yoke from a barrel standing near, pounded the floor vigorously. + +"Talking about being bald," put in Foster, "reminds me of a scheme of +mine, which is to send no one out to fight Indians but bald men. Think +how powerless they'd--" + +The talk now drifted off to Indians, politics, and religion, edged +round to the war when the grave Judge was telling Ridings and Robie +just how "Kilpatrick charged along the Granny White Turnpike," and on +a sheet of wrapping paper was showing where Major John Dilrigg fell. +"I was on his left about thirty yards, when I saw him throw up his +hand--" + +Foster in a low voice was telling something to the Professor, and two +or three others, which made them whoop with uncontrollable merriment, +when the roaring voice of big Sam Walters was heard outside, and a +moment later he rolled into the room, filling it with his noise. +Lottridge, the watchmaker, and Erlberg, the German baker, came in with +him. + +"_Hello_, hello, _hello_! All here, are yeh?" + +"All here waiting for you--and the turnkey," said Foster. + +"Well, here I am. Always on hand like a sore thumb in huskin' season. +What's goin' on here? A game, hey? Hello, Gordon, it's you, is it? +Colonel, I owe you several for last night. But what the devil yo' got +your cap on fur, Colonel? Aint it warm enough here for yeh?" + +The desperate Colonel who had snatched up his cap when he heard +Walters coming, grinned painfully, pulling his straggly red and white +beard nervously. The strain was beginning to tell on his iron nerves. +He removed the cap, and with a few muttered words went back to the +game, but there was a dangerous gleam in his fishy blue eyes, and the +grizzled tufts of red hair above his eyes lowered threateningly. A man +who is getting swamped in a game of checkers is not in a mood to bear +pleasantly any remarks on his bald head. + +"Oh! don't take it off, Colonel," went on his tormentor hospitably. +"When a man gets as old as you are, he's privileged to wear his cap. I +wonder if any of you fellers have noticed how the Colonel is shedding +his hair." + +The old man leaped up, scattering the men on the checker-board which +flew up and struck Judge Gordon in the face, knocking him off his +stool. The old Colonel was ashy pale, and his eyes glared out from +under his huge brow like sapphires lit by flame. His spare form +clothed in a seedy Prince Albert frock towered with a singular +dignity. His features worked convulsively a moment, and then he burst +forth like the explosion of a safety valve:-- + +"Shuttup, dumyeh!" + +And then the crowd whooped, roared, and rolled on the counters and +barrels, and roared and whooped again. They stamped and yelled, and +ran around like fiends, kicking the boxes and banging the coal-scuttle +in a perfect pandemonium of mirth, leaving the old man standing there +helpless in his wrath, mad enough to shoot. Steve was just preparing +to seize the old man from behind, when Judge Gordon, struggling to his +feet among the spittoons, cried out, in the voice of a Colonel of +Fourth of July militia:-- + +"H-O-L-D!" + +Silence was restored, and all stood around in expectant attitudes to +hear the Judge's explanation. He squared his elbows, shoved up his +sleeves, puffed out his fat cheeks, moistened his lips, and began +pompously:-- + +"Gentlemen--" + +"You've hit it; that's us," said some of the crowd in applause. + +"Gentlemen of Rock River, when in the course of human events, rumor +had blow'd to my ears the history of the checker-playing of Rock +River, and when I had waxed Cerro-Gordo, and Claiborne, and Mower, +then, when I say to my ears was borne the clash of resounding arms in +Rock River, the emporium of Rock County, then did I yearn for more +worlds to conquer, and behold, I buckled on my armor and I am here." + +"Behold, he is here," said Foster, in confirmation of the statement. +"Good for you, Judge, git breath and go for us some more." + +"Hurrah for the Judge," etc. + +"I came seekin' whom I might devour like a raging lion. I sought +foemen worthy of my steel. I leaped into the arena and blew my +challenge to the four quarters of Rock--" + +"Good f'r you, settemupagin! Go it, you old balloon," they all +applauded. + +"Knowing my prowess I sought a fair fout and no favors. I met the +enemy and he was mine. Champion after champion went down before me +like--went down like--Ahem! went _down_ before me like grass before +the mighty cyclone of the Andes." + +"Listen to the old blow-hard," said Steve. + +"Put him out," said the speaker, imperturbably. "Gentlemen, have I the +floor?" + +"You have," replied Brown, "but come to the point. The Colonel is +anxious to begin shooting." The Colonel, who began to suspect himself +victimized, stood wondering what under heaven they were going to do +next! + +"I'm a gitt'n' there," said the orator with a broad and sunny +condescension. + +"I found your champions an' laid 'em low. I waxed Walters, and then I +tackled the Colonel. I tried the _echelon_, the 'general advanced,' +then the 'give away' and 'flank' movements. But the Colonel _was +there_. Till this last game it was a fair field and no favor. And now, +gentlemen of Rock, I desire t' state to my deeply respected opponent, +that he is still champion of Rock, and I'm not sure but of Northern +Iowa." + +"Three cheers for the Kunnel!" + +And while they were being given the Colonel's brows relaxed, and the +champion of Cerro-Gordo continued earnestly:-- + +"And now I wish to state to Colonel the solemn fact that I had nothing +to do with the job put up on him to-night. I scorn to use such means +in a battle. Colonel, you may be as bald as an apple, or an egg, yes, +or a _plate_, but you can play more checkers than any man I ever met, +more checkers than any other man on God's green footstool.--With +one-single, lone exception--myself." + +At this moment, somebody hit the dead-beat from Cerro-Gordo with a +decayed apple, and as the crowd shouted and groaned Robie turned down +the lights on the tumult. The old Colonel seized the opportunity for +putting a handful of salt down Walters' neck, and slipped out of the +door like a ghost. As the crowd swarmed out on the icy walk, Editor +Foster yelled:-- + +"Gents! let me give you a pointer. Keep your eye peeled for the next +edition of the Rock River _Morning Call_." And the bitter wind swept +away the answering shouts of the gang. + + * * * * * + +[Transcriber's Notes: + +Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as +possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other +inconsistencies. The transcriber made the following changes to the +text to correct obvious errors by the publisher: + +1. p. 412, "tranverse" changed to "transverse" + +Also, several occurrences of mismatched quotes remain as published. + +End of Transcriber's Notes] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arena, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARENA *** + +***** This file should be named 22419-8.txt or 22419-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/4/1/22419/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Richard J. 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