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diff --git a/23802.txt b/23802.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93619fd --- /dev/null +++ b/23802.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5599 @@ +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. 23, October, 1891 + +Author: Various + +Editor: B. O. Flower + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23802] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** 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. XXIII. + +OCTOBER, 1891. + + + + +[Illustration: James Russell Lowell (signed J. R. Lowell)] + + + + +JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. + +BY GEORGE STEWART, D. C. L., LL. D. + + + With loving breath of all the winds, his name + Is blown about the world; but to his friends + A sweeter secret hides behind his fame, + And love steals shyly through the loud acclaim + To murmur a _God bless you_! and there ends. + +When Longfellow had reached his sixtieth year, James Russell Lowell, +then in his splendid prime, sent him those lines as a birthday +greeting. Lowell, since then, received in his turn many similar +tributes of affection, but none that seemed to speak so promptly from +the heart as those touching words of love to an old friend. To himself +they might well have been applied in all truthfulness and sincerity. +Of the famous group of New England singers, that gave strength and +reality to American letters, but three names survived until the other +day, when, perhaps the greatest of them all passed away. Whittier and +Holmes remain, but Lowell, the younger of the three, and from whom so +much was still expected, is no more to gladden, to delight, to enrich, +and to instruct the age in which he occupied so eminent a place. +Bryant was the first to go, and then Longfellow was called. Emerson +followed soon after, and now it is Lowell's hand which has dropped +forever the pen. At first his illness did not cause much uneasiness, +but those near him soon began to observe indications of the great +change that was going on. At the last, dissolution was not slow in +coming, and death relieved the patient of his sufferings in the early +hours of Wednesday, August 12th. Practically, however, it was conceded +that his life-work had been completed a few months ago, when his +publishers presented the reading world with his writings in ten +sumptuous volumes, six containing the prose works, and the other four +the poems and satires. He was, with the single exception of Matthew +Arnold, the foremost critic of his time. Everything he said was well +said. The jewels abounded on all sides. His adroitness, his fancy, his +insight, his perfect good-humor, and his rare scholarship and delicate +art, emphasize themselves on every page of his books. His political +and literary addresses were models of what those things should be. +They were often graceful and epigrammatic, but always sterling in +their value and full of thought. Long ago he established his claim to +the title of poet, and as the years went by, his muse grew stronger, +richer, fresher, and more original. As an English critic, writing +pleasantly of him and his work, in the London _Spectator_ said lately: +"His books are delightful reading, with no monotony except a monotony +of brilliance which an occasional lapse into dulness would almost +diversify." + +James Russell Lowell was descended from a notable ancestry. His father +was a clergyman, the pastor of the West Church in Boston. His mother +was a woman of fine mind, a great lover of poetry, and mistress of +several languages. From her, undoubtedly, the gifted son inherited his +taste for _belles-lettres_ and foreign tongues. He was born at +Cambridge, Mass., on the 22d of February, 1819, and named after his +father's maternal grandfather, Judge James Russell. After spending a +few years at the town school, under Mr. William Wells, a famous +teacher in his day, he entered Harvard University, and in 1838 was +graduated. He wrote the class poem of the year, and took up the study +of law. But the latter he soon relinquished for letters. His first +book was a small collection of verse entitled "A Year's Life." It gave +indication of what followed. There were traces of real poetry in the +volume, and none who read it doubted the poet's future success in his +courtship of the muse. In 1843 he tried magazine publishing, his +partner in the venture being Robert Carter. Three numbers only of _The +Pioneer_, _a Literary and Critical Magazine_, were published, and +though it contained contributions by Hawthorne, Lowell, Poe, Dwight, +Neal, Mrs. Browning, and Parsons, it failed to make its way, and the +young editor prudently withdrew it. In the next year he published the +"Legend of Brittany, Miscellaneous Poems and Sonnets." A marked +advance in his art was immediately noticed. His lyrical strength, his +passion, his terse vocabulary, his exquisite fancy and tenderness +illumed every page, giving it dignity and color. The legend reminded +the reader of an Old World poem, and "Prometheus" too, might have been +written abroad. "Rhoecus" was cast in the Greek mold, and told the +story, very beautifully and very artistically, of the wood-nymph and +the bee. But there were other poems in the collection, such as "To +Perdita Singing," "The Heritage," and "The Forlorn," which at once +caught the ear of lovers of true melody. A volume of prose essays +succeeded this book. It was entitled "Conversations on some of the Old +Poets," and when Mr. Lowell became Mr. Longfellow's successor in the +chair of modern languages and _belles-lettres_ at Harvard, much of +this material was used in his lectures to the students. But later on, +we will concern ourselves more directly with the author's prose. + +In December, 1844, Mr. Lowell espoused Miss Maria White, of Watertown. +She was a lady of gentle character, and a poet of singular grace. The +marriage was a most happy one, and it was to her that many of the love +poems of Lowell were inscribed. Once he wrote:-- + + "A lily thou wast when I saw thee first, + A lily-bud not opened quite, + That hourly grew more pure and white, + By morning, and noon-tide, and evening nursed: + In all of Nature thou had'st thy share; + Thou wast waited on + By the wind and sun; + The rain and the dew for thee took care; + It seemed thou never could'st be more fair." + +She died on the 27th of October, 1853, the day that a child was born +to Mr. Longfellow. The latter's touching and perfect poem, "The Two +Angels," refers to this death and birth:-- + + "'T was at thy door, O friend! and not at mine, + The angel with the amaranthine wreath, + Pausing, descended, and with voice divine, + Whispered a word that had a sound like death. + + Then fell upon the house a sudden gloom, + A shadow on those features fair and thin; + And softly, from that hushed and darkened room, + Two angels issued, where but one went in. + + All is of God! If He but wave His hand, + The mists collect, the rain falls thick and loud, + Till with a smile of light on sea and land, + Lo! He looks back from the departing cloud." + +A privately printed volume of Mrs. Lowell's poems appeared a year or +two after her death. Mr. Lowell's second wife was Miss Frances Dunlap, +of Portland, Maine, whom he married in September, 1857. She died in +February, 1885. + +Mr. Lowell was ever pronounced in his hatred of wrong, and naturally +enough he was found on the side of Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and +Whittier, in their great battle against that huge blot on +civilization, slavery in America. He spoke and wrote in behalf of the +abolitionists at a time when the anti-slavery men were openly despised +as heartily in the North as they were feared and detested in the +South. He wrote with a pen which never faltered, and satire, irony, +and fierce invective accomplished their work with a will, and moved +many a heart, almost despairing, to renewed energy. + +"The Vision of Sir Launfal" was published in 1848, and it will be read +as long as men and women admire tales of chivalry and the stirring +stories of King Arthur's court. Tennyson's "Idyls" will keep his fame +alive, and Lowell's Sir Launfal, which tells of the search for the +Holy Grail, the cup from which Christ drank when he partook of the +last supper with his disciples, will also have a place among the best +of the Arthurian legends. It is said that Mr. Lowell wrote this strong +poem in forty-eight hours, during which he hardly slept or ate. +Stedman calls it "a landscape poem," a term amply justified. It +contains many quotable extracts, such as, "And what is so rare as a +day in June," "Down swept the chill wind from the mountain peak, from +the snow five thousand summers old," and "Earth gets its price for +what earth gives us." We are constantly meeting these in the magazines +and in the newspapers. The vision did much to bring about a larger +recognition of the author's powers as a poet of the first order. He +had to wait some time to gain this, and in that respect he resembled +Robert Browning, at first so obscure, at last compelling approval +from all. + +The field of American literature, as it existed in 1848, was surveyed +by Lowell in his happiest manner, as a satirist, in that clever +production, by a wonderful Quiz, A Fable for Critics, "Set forth in +October, the 31st day, in the year '48, G. P. Putnam, Broadway." For +some time the authorship remained a secret, though there were many +shrewd guesses as to the paternity of the biting shafts of wit and +delicately baited hooks. It was written mainly for the author's own +amusement, and with no thought of publication. Daily instalments of +the poem were sent off, as soon as written, to a friend of the poet, +Mr. Charles F. Briggs, of New York, who found the lines so +irresistibly good, that he begged permission to hand them over to +Putnam's for publication. This, however, Mr. Lowell declined to do, +until he found that the repeated urging of his friend would not be +stayed. Then he consented to anonymous publication. The secret was +kept, until, as the author himself tells us, "several persons laid +claim to its authorship." No poem has been oftener quoted than the +fable. It is full of audacious things. The authors of the day, and +their peculiar characteristics (Lowell himself not being spared in the +least), are held up to admiring audiences with all their sins and +foibles exposed to the public gaze. It was intended to have "a sting +in his tale," this "frail, slender thing, rhymey-winged," and it had +it decidedly. Some of the authors lampooned took the matter up, in +downright sober earnest, and objected to the seat in the pillory which +they were forced to occupy unwillingly. But they forgave the satirist, +as the days went by, and they realized that, after all, the fun was +harmless, nobody was hurt actually, and all were treated alike by the +ready knife of the fabler. But what could they say to a man who thus +wrote of himself?-- + + "There is Lowell, who's striving Parnassus to climb + With a whole bale of _isms_ tied together with rhyme, + He might get on alone, spite of brambles and boulders, + But he can't with that bundle he has on his shoulders. + The top of the hill he will ne'er come nigh reaching + Till he learns the distinction 'twixt singing and preaching; + His lyre has some chords that would ring pretty well, + But he'd rather by half make a drum of the shell, + And rattle away till he's old as Methusalem, + At the head of a march to the last new Jerusalem." + +Apart from the humorous aspect of the fable, there is, certainly, a +good deal of sound criticism in the piece. It may be brief, it may be +inadequate, it may be blunt, but for all that it is truthful, and +decidedly just, as far as it goes. Bryant, who was called cold, took +umbrage at the portrait drawn of him. But his verse has all the cold +glitter of the Greek bards, despite the fact that he is America's +greatest poet of nature, and some of his songs are both sympathetic +and sweet, such as the "Lines to a Water-fowl," "The Flood of Years," +"The Little People of the Snow," and "Thanatopsis." + +But now we come to the book which gave Mr. Lowell his strongest place +in American letters, and revealed his remarkable powers as a humorist, +satirist, and thinker. We have him in this work, at his very best. The +vein had never been thoroughly worked before. The Yankee of Haliburton +appeared ten years earlier than the creations of Lowell. But Sam Slick +was a totally different person from Hosea Biglow and Birdofredum +Sawin. Slick was a very interesting man, and he has his place in +fiction. His sayings and doings are still read, and his wise saws +continue to be pondered over. But the Biglow type seems to our mind, +more complete, more rounded, more perfect, more true, indeed, to +nature. The art is well proportioned all through, and the author +justifies Bungay's assumption, that he had attained the rank of +Butler, whose satire heads the list of all such productions. Butler, +however, Lowell really surpassed. The movement is swift, and there is +an individuality about the whole performance, which stamps it +undeniably as a masterpiece. The down-east dialect is managed with +consummate skill, the character-drawing is superlatively fine, and the +sentiments uttered, ringing like a bell, carry conviction. The +invasion of Mexico was a distasteful thing to many people because it +was felt that that war was dishonorable, and undertaken solely for the +benefit of the slaveholder, who was looking out for new premises, +where he might ply his calling, and continue the awful trade of +bondage, and his dealings in flesh and blood. Mr. Lowell's heart was +steeled against that expedition, and the first series of his Biglow +papers, introduced to the world by the Reverend Homer Wilbur, showed +how deeply earnest he was, and how terribly rigorous he could be, when +the scalpel had to be used. The first knowledge that the reading +world had of the curious, ingenuous, and quaint Hosea, was the +communication which his father, Ezekiel Biglow, sent to the Boston +_Courier_, covering a poem in the Yankee dialect, by the hand of the +young down-easter. It at once commanded notice. The idea was so new, +the homely truths were so well put, the language in print was so +unusual, and the "hits" were so well aimed, that the critics were +baffled. The public took hold immediately, and it soon spread that a +strong and bold pen was helping the reformers in their unpopular +struggle. The blows were struck relentlessly, but men and women +laughed through their indignation. There were some who rebelled at the +coarseness of the satire, but all recognized that the author, whoever +he might be, was a scholar, a man of thought, and a genuine +philanthropist, who could not be put down. Volunteers were wanted, and +Boston was asked to raise her quota. But Hosea Biglow, in his +charmingly scornful way said:-- + + "Thrash away, you'll _hev_ to rattle + On them kittle-drums o' yourn,-- + 'Taint a knowin' kind o' cattle + Thet is ketched with mouldy corn. + + Put in stiff, you fifer feller, + Let folks see how spry you be,-- + Guess you'll toot till you are yaller + 'Fore you git ahold o' me!" + +The parson adds a note, sprinkled with Latin and Greek sentences, as +is his wont. The letters from the first page to the last, in the +collected papers, are amazingly clever. The reverend gentleman who +edits the series is a type himself, full of pedantic and pedagogic +learning, anxious always to show off his knowledge of the classics, +and solemn and serious ever as a veritable owl. His notes and +introductions, and scrappy Latin and Greek, are among the most +admirable things in the book. Their humor is delicious, and the mock +criticisms and opinions of the press, offered by Wilbur on the work of +his young friend, and his magnificent seriousness, which constantly +shows itself, give a zest to the performance, which lingers long on +the mind. The third letter contains the often-quoted poem, "What Mr. +Robinson Thinks." + + "Gineral C. is a dreffle smart man: + He's ben on all sides that give place or pelf; + But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,-- + He's ben true to _one_ party,--an' thet is himself:-- + So John P. + Robinson, he + Sez he shall vote for Gineral C. + + * * * * * + + Parson Wilbur sez _he_ never heerd in his life + That th' Apostles rigged out in their swaller tail coats, + An' marched round in front of a drum an' a fife, + To get some on 'em office, an' some on 'em votes; + But John P. + Robinson, he + Says they didn't know everything down in Judee." + +Despite the sometimes harsh criticism which the Biglow papers evoked, +Mr. Lowell kept on sending them out at regular intervals, knowing that +every blow struck was a blow in the cause of right, and every attack +was an attack on the meannesses of the time. The flexible dialect +seemed to add honesty to the poet's invective. The satire was +oftentimes savage enough, but the vehicle by which it was conveyed, +carried it off. There was danger that Lowell might exceed his limit, +but the excess so nearly reached, never came. The papers aroused the +whole country, said Whittier, and did as much to free the slave, +almost, as Grant's guns. In one of the numbers, Mr. Lowell produced, +quite by accident, as it were, his celebrated poem of "The Courtin'." +This was in the second series, begun in the _Atlantic Monthly_, of +which he was, in 1857, one of the founders, and editor. This series +was written during the time of the American Civil War, and the object +was to ridicule the revolt of the Southern States, and show up the +demon of secession in its true colors. Birdofredum Sawin, now a +secessionist, writes to Hosea Biglow, and the poem is, of course, +introduced as usual, by the parson. The humor is more grim and +sardonic, for the war was a stern reality, and Mr. Lowell felt the +need of making his work tell with all the force that he could put into +it. In response to a request for enough "copy" to fill out a certain +editorial page, Lowell wrote rapidly down the verses which became, at +a bound, so popular. He added, from time to time, other lines. This is +the story of the Yankee courtship of Zekle and Huldy:-- + + "The very room, coz she was in, + Seemed warm f'om floor to ceilin', + An' she looked full ez rosy agin + Ez the apples she was peelin'. + + * * * * * + + He kin' o' l'itered on the mat, + Some doubtfle o' the sekle, + His heart kep' goin' pity-pat, + But hern went pity Zekle. + + An' yit she gin her chair a jerk + As though she wished him furder, + An' on her apples kep' to work, + Parin' away like murder. + + 'You want to see my pa, I s'pose?' + 'Wall,--no--I come dasignin'--' + 'To see my ma? She's sprinklin' clo's + Agin to-morrer's i'nin.' + + To say why gals acts so or so, + Or don't 'ould be prosumin', + Mebby to mean _yes_ an' say _no_ + Comes natural to women. + + He stood a spell on one foot fust, + Then stood a spell on t'other, + An' on which one he felt the wust + He couldn't ha' told ye nuther. + + Says he, 'I'd better call agin;' + Says she, 'Think likely, mister;' + Thet last word pricked him like a pin, + An'--wall, he up an' kist her. + + When ma bimeby upon 'em slips, + Huldy sot pale ez ashes, + All kin' o' smily roun' the lips + An' teary roun' the lashes. + + For she was jes' the quiet kind + Whose natures never vary, + Like streams that keep a summer wind + Snow-hid in Janooary. + + The blood clost roun' her heart felt glued + Too tight for all expressin', + Till mother see how matters stood, + An' gin 'em both her blessin'. + + Then her red come back like the tide + Down to the Bay o' Fundy, + An' all I know is they war cried + In meetin' come nex' Sunday." + +During the war, Great Britain sided principally with the South. This +the North resented, and the Trent affair only added fuel to the +flame. It was in one of the Biglow papers that Mr. Lowell spoke to +England, voicing the sentiments and feelings of the Northern people. +That poem was called "Jonathan to John," and it made a great +impression on two continents. It was full of the keenest irony, and +though bitter, there was enough common sense in it, to make men read +it, and think. It closes thus patriotically:-- + + "Shall it be love, or hate, John? + It's you thet's to decide; + Ain't _your_ bonds held by Fate, John, + Like all the world's beside?' + Ole Uncle S. sez he, 'I guess + Wise men forgive,' sez he, + 'But not forgit; an' some time yit + Thet truth may strike J. B., + Ez wal ez you an' me!' + + 'God means to make this land, John, + Clear, then, from sea to sea. + Believe an' understand, John, + The _wuth_ o' bein' free.' + Ole Uncle S. sez he, 'I guess, + God's price is high,' sez he; + 'But nothin' else than wut He sells + Wears long, an' thet J. B. + May larn, like you an' me!'" + +The work concludes with notes, a glossary of Yankee terms, and a +copious index. The chapter which tells of the death of Parson Wilbur +is one of the most exquisite things that Lowell has done in prose. The +reader who has followed the fortunes of the Reverend Homer, is +profoundly touched by the reflection that he will see him no more. He +had grown to be a real personage, and long association with him had +made him a friend. On this point, Mr. Underwood relates an incident, +which is worth quoting here:-- + + "The thought of grief for the death of an imaginary person is not + quite so absurd as it might appear. One day, while the great + novel of 'The Newcomes' was in course of publication, Lowell, who + was then in London, met Thackeray on the street. The novelist was + serious in manner, and his looks and voice told of weariness and + affliction. He saw the kindly inquiry in the poet's eyes, and + said, 'Come into Evan's and I'll tell you all about it. I have + killed the Colonel.'" + +So they walked in and took a table in a remote corner, and then +Thackeray, drawing the fresh sheets of manuscript from his breast +pocket, read through that exquisitely touching chapter which records +the death of Colonel Newcome. When he came to the final _Adsum_, the +tears which had been swelling his lids for some time trickled down +upon his face, and the last word was almost an inarticulate sob. + +The volume "Under the Willows," which contains the poems written at +intervals during ten or a dozen years, includes such well-remembered +favorites as "The First Snowfall," for an autograph "A Winter Evening +Hymn to My Fire," "The Dead House" (wonderfully beautiful it is), "The +Darkened Mind," "In the Twilight," and the vigorous "Villa Franca" so +full of moral strength. It appeared in 1869. Mr. Lowell's pen was +always busy about this time and earlier. He was a regular contributor +to the _Atlantic_ in prose and verse. He was lecturing to his students +and helping Longfellow with his matchless translation of Dante, +besides having other irons in the fire. + +It is admitted that the greatest poem of the Civil War was, by all +odds, Mr. Lowell's noble commemoration ode. In that blood-red struggle +several of his kinsmen were slain, among them Gen. C. R. Lowell, +Lieut. I. I. Lowell, and Lieutenant Putnam, all nephews. His ode which +was written in 1865, and recited July 21, at the Harvard commemoration +services, is dedicated "To the ever sweet and shining memory of the +ninety-three sons of Harvard College, who have died for their country +in the war of nationality." It is, in every way, a great effort, and +the historic occasion which called it forth will not be forgotten. The +audience assembled to listen to it was very large. No hall could hold +the company, and so the ringing words were spoken in the open air. +Meade, the hero of Gettysburg, stood at one side, and near him were +Story, poet and sculptor, fresh from Rome, and General Devens, +afterwards judge, and fellows of Lowell's own class at college. The +most distinguished people of the Commonwealth lent their presence to +the scene. There was a hushed silence while Lowell spoke, and when he +uttered the last grand words of his ode, every heart was full, and the +old wounds bled afresh, for hardly one of that vast throng had escaped +the badge of mourning, for a son, or brother, or father, lost in that +war. + + "Bow down, dear land, for thou hast found release! + Thy God, in these distempered days, + Hath taught thee the sure wisdom of His ways, + And through thine enemies hath wrought thy peace! + Bow down in prayer and praise! + No poorest in thy borders but may now + Lift to the juster skies a man's enfranchised brow. + + O Beautiful! My Country! ours once more! + Smoothing thy gold of war-disheveled hair + O'er such sweet brows as never other wore, + And letting thy set lips, + Freed from wrath's pale eclipse, + The rosy edges of their smile lay bare. + + What words divine of lover or of poet + Could tell our love and make thee know it, + Among the nations bright beyond compare? + What were our lives without thee? + What all our lives to save thee? + We reck not what we gave thee; + We will not dare to doubt thee, + But ask whatever else, and we will dare. + +"The Cathedral," dedicated most felicitously to the late James T. +Fields, the author publisher, written in 1869, was published early in +the following year in the _Atlantic Monthly_, and immediately won the +applause of the more thoughtful reader. It is a poem of great +grandeur, suggestive in the highest degree and rich in description and +literary finish. Three memorial odes, one read at the one hundredth +anniversary of the fight at Concord Bridge, one under the old elm, and +one for the Fourth of July, 1876, followed. The Concord ode appears to +be the more striking and brilliant of the three, but all are +satisfactory specimens, measured by the standard which governs the +lyric. + +"Heartsease and Rue," is the graceful title of Mr. Lowell's last +volume of verse. A good many of his personal poems are included in the +collection, such as his charming epistle to George William Curtis, the +elegant author of "Prue and I," one of the sweetest books ever +written, inscribed to Mrs. Henry W. Longfellow, in memory of the happy +hours at our castles in Spain; the magnificent apostrophe to Agassiz; +the birthday offering to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes; the lines to +Whittier on his seventy-fifth birthday; the verses on receiving a copy +of Mr. Austin Dobson's "Old World Idyls," and Fitz Adam's story, +playful, humorous, and idyllic. + +In his young days, Mr. Lowell wrote much for the newspapers and +serials. To the _Dial_, the organ of the transcendentalists, he +contributed frequently, and his poems and prose will be found +scattered through the pages of _The Democratic Review_, _The North +American Review_, of which he ultimately became editor, _The +Massachusetts Quarterly Review_, and the Boston _Courier_. His prose +was well received by scholars. It is terse and strong, and whatever +position history may assign to him as a poet there can never be any +question about his place among the ablest essayists of his century. +"Fireside Travels," the first of the brilliant series of prose works +that we have, attract by their singular grace and graciousness. The +picture of Cambridge thirty years ago, is full of charming +reminiscences that must be very dear to Cambridge men and women. "The +Moosehead Journal," and "Leaves from the Journal in Italy, Happily +Turned," are rich in local color. "Among My Books," and "My Study +Windows," the addresses on literary and political topics, and the +really able paper on Democracy, which proved a formidable answer to +his critics, fill out the list of Mr. Lowell's prose contributions. +The literary essays are especially well done. Keats tinged his poetry +when he was quite a young man. He never lost taste of Endymion or the +Grecian urn, and his estimate of the poet, whose "name was writ in +water," is in excellent form and full of sympathy. Wordsworth, too, he +read and re-read with fresh delight, and it is interesting to compare +his views of the lake poet with those of Matthew Arnold. The older +poets, such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Dryden, and Pope +in English, and Dante in Italian, find in Mr. Lowell a penetrating and +helpful critic. His analyses are made with rare skill and nice +discrimination. He is never hasty in giving expression to his opinion, +and every view that he gives utterance to, exhibits the process by +which it reached its development. The thought grows under his hand, +apparently. The paper on Pope, with whose writings he was familiar at +an early age, is a most valuable one, being especially rich in +allusion and in quality. He finds something new to say about the bard +of Avon, and says it in a way which emphasizes its originality. +Indeed, every essay is a strong presentation of what Lowell had in his +mind at the time. He is not content to confine his observation to the +name before him. He enlarges always the scope of his paper, and runs +afield, picking up here and there citations, and illustrating his +points, by copious drafts on literature, history, scenery, and +episode. He was well equipped for his task, and his wealth of +knowledge, his fine scholarly taste, his remarkable grasp of +everything that he undertook, his extensive reading, all within call, +added to a captivating style, imparted to his writings the tone which +no other essayist contemporary with him, save Matthew Arnold, was able +to achieve. Thoreau and Emerson are adequately treated, and the +library of old authors is a capital digest, which all may read with +profit. The paper on Carlyle, which is more than a mere review of the +old historian's "Frederick the Great," is a noble bit of writing, +sympathetic in touch, and striking as a portrait. It was written in +1866. And then there are papers in the volumes on Lessing, Swinburne's +Tragedies, Rousseau, and the Sentimentalists, and Josiah Quincy, which +bring out Mr. Lowell's critical acumen even stronger. Every one who +has read anything during the last fifteen years or so, must remember +that bright _Atlantic_ essay on "A Certain Condescension in +Foreigners." It is Mr. Lowell's serenest vein, hitting right and left +skilful blows, and asserting constantly his lofty Americanism. The +essay was needed. A lesson had to be given, and no better hands could +have imparted it. Mr. Lowell was a master of form in literary +composition,--that is in his prose, for he has been caught napping, +occasionally, in his poetry,--and his difficulty was slight in +choosing his words. + +As a speaker he was successful. His addresses before noted gatherings +in Britain and elsewhere are highly artistic. In Westminster Abbey he +pronounced two, one on Dean Stanley, and the other on Coleridge, +which, though brief, could scarcely be excelled, so perfect, so +admirable, so dignified are they. The same may be said of the +addresses on General Garfield, Fielding, Wordsworth, and Don Quixote. +Mr. Lowell on such occasions always acquitted himself gracefully. He +had few gestures, his voice was sweet, and the beauty of his language, +his geniality, and courteous manner drew every one towards him. He was +a great student, and preacher, and teacher of reform. He was in favor +of the copyright law, and did his utmost to bring it about. He worked +hard to secure tariff reform, and a pet idea of his was the +reformation of the American civil service system. On all these +subjects he spoke and wrote to the people with sincerity and +earnestness. When aroused he could be eloquent, and even in later +life, sometimes, some of the fire of the early days when he fought the +slaveholders and the oppressors, would burst out with its old time +energy. He was ever outspoken and fearless, regardless, apparently, of +consequences, so long as his cause was just. + +As professor of _belles-lettres_ at Harvard University, he had ample +opportunity for cultivating his literary studies, and though he +continued to take a lively interest always in the political changes +and upheavals constantly going on about him, he never applied for +office. In politics he was a Republican. His party offered him the +mission to Russia, but he declined the honor. During the Hayes +administration, however, when his old classmate, General Devens, had a +seat in the Cabinet, the government was more successful with him. He +was tendered the post of Minister to Spain. This was in 1877, and he +accepted it, somewhat half-heartedly, to be sure, for he had +misgivings about leaving his lovely home at Elmwood, the house he was +born in, the pride and glory of his life, the _locale_ of many of his +poems, the historic relic of royalist days. And then again, he did not +care to leave the then unbroken circle of friends, for Dr. Holmes, +John Holmes, Agassiz, Longfellow, Norton, Fields, John Bartlett, +Whipple, Hale, James Freeman Clarke, and others of the famous Saturday +club, he saw almost every day. And then, yet again, there was the +whist club, how could he leave that? But he was overcome, and he went +to Spain, and began, among the grandees and dons, his diplomatic +career. His fame had preceded him, and he knew the language and +literature of Cervantes well. It was not long before he became the +friend of all with whom he came into contact. But no great diplomatic +work engaged his attention, for there was none to do. The Queen +Mercedes died, during his term, much beloved, and Mr. Lowell wrote in +her memory one of his most chaste and beautiful sonnets:-- + + "Hers all that earth could promise or bestow,-- + Youth, Beauty, Love, a crown, the beckoning years, + Lids never wet, unless with joyous tears, + A life remote from every sordid woe, + And by a nation's swelled to lordlier flow. + What lurking-place, thought we, for doubts or fears, + When, the day's swan, she swam along the cheers + Of the Acala, five happy months ago? + The guns were shouting Io Hymen then + That, on her birthday, now denounce her doom; + The same white steeds that tossed their scorn of men + To-day as proudly drag her to the tomb. + Grim jest of fate! yet who dare call it blind, + Knowing what life is, what our humankind?" + +In 1880, he was transferred to London, as "his excellency, the +ambassador of American literature to the court of Shakespeare," as a +writer in the _Spectator_ deliciously put it. He had a good field to +work in, but, as the duties were light, he had ample time on his +hands. He went about everywhere, the idol of all, the most engaging of +men. Naturally, his tastes led him among scholars who in their turn +made much of him. He was asked frequently to speak or deliver +addresses and he always responded with tact. The universities of +Oxford and Cambridge conferred on him their highest honors and the +ancient Scottish University of Saint Andrew elected him rector,--a +rare compliment, Emerson only being the other citizen of the United +States so marked out for academic distinction. Some of his compatriots +hinted that his English life was making him un-American. Others more +openly asserted that the United States minister was fast losing the +republic feelings which he took from America, and was becoming a +British Conservative. The reply to those innuendoes and charges will +be found in his spirited address on Democracy, which proves undeniably +his sturdy faith in American institutions, American principles, and +American manhood. Mr. Lowell maintained to the letter the political +and national views which had long guided his career. His admirable +temper and agreeable manner won the hearts of the people, but no +effort was made to win him away from his allegiance, nor would he have +permitted it had it been tried. In addition to being a great man and a +well-informed statesman, he was a gentleman of culture and refinement. +His gentleness and amiability may have been misconstrued by some, but +be that as it may, the fact remains, he never showed weakness in the +discharge of his diplomatic duties. He represented the United States +in the fullest sense of the term. In 1885, he returned to America, Mr. +E. J. Phelps taking his place, under President Cleveland. Though a +Republican, Mr. Lowell differed from his party on the presidential +candidate question. He favored the election of the Democrat nominee. +Had he been in America during the campaign, he would have been found +with Mr. George William Curtis, and his friends, opposing the return +of Mr. Blaine. From 1885 to the date of his death, he added little to +the volume of his literary work. He spent part of his time in England, +and part in the United States. A poem, a brief paper, or an address or +two, came from his pen, at irregular intervals. He edited a complete +edition of his writings in ten volumes, and left behind him an +unfinished biography of Hawthorne, which he was preparing for the +American Men of Letters Series. + + + + +HEALING THROUGH MIND. + +BY HENRY WOOD. + + +Truth may be considered as a rounded unit. Truths have various and +unequal values, but each has its peculiar place, and if it be missing +or distorted, the loss is not only local but general. Unity is made up +of variety, and therein is completeness. Any honest search after truth +is profitable, for thereby is made manifest the Kingdom of the Real. + +During the fifteen years just past, but more especially within the +last third of that period, a widespread interest has been developed in +the question: Can disease be healed through mental treatment? If so, +under what conditions and subject to what limitations? Has mental +healing a philosophical and scientific basis, or is it variously +composed of quackery, superstition, and assumption? In the simplest +terms, how much truth does it contain? Any candid inquirer will admit +that even if a minimum of its claims can be established, the world +needs it. If it can be of service in lessening or mitigating the +appalling aggregation of human suffering, disease, and woe, it should +receive not only recognition, but a cordial welcome. + +At the outset, it is proper to state that I have no professional nor +pecuniary interest in any method of healing. The evolution of truth is +my only object. To this end, critical and impartial investigation is +necessary. While a personal experience of great practical benefit +first aroused my interest in the subject, I have cultivated +conservatism and incredulity in forming opinions, which are made up +from a careful investigation of its literature, its philosophy, and +its practical demonstrations. + +The first point noticeable is the peculiar attitude of popular +sentiment toward this movement. The unreasonable prejudice which has +been displayed, and the flippant condemnation that it has generally +received in advance of any investigation, illy befit the boasted +impartiality and liberality of the closing decade of the nineteenth +century. When the "Fatherhood of God" and the "Brotherhood of Man" +are so much on men's lips, and when the spirit of altruism is supposed +to be at the floodtide, here is what claims to be the essential +quality of them all denied even a hearing. The testimony of hundreds +of clergymen, philanthropists, Christians, and humanitarians, is +classed as "delusion," and the experience of thousands who have +received demonstrations in their own persons [information of which is +accessible to any candid investigator], is passed by as an idle tale. +It furnishes material for satire to the writer for the religious +weekly, and a prolific butt for jokes to the paragrapher of the daily +journal. The news of its failures is spread broadcast in bold +head-lines by the sensational press. The fact that other kinds of +treatment denominated "regular" also fail, seems never to be thought +of. The mental healer, regardless of his success, is looked upon as an +enthusiast, or worse, and even the citizen who modestly accepts the +theory of possible mind-healing, is regarded as credulous and +visionary by those who pride themselves upon their practicality. Why +does this prejudice exist, when advancement in physical science +uniformly meets with a friendly reception? + +Perhaps the most important reason why "there is no room in the inn" +for truth of the higher realm, is the prevailing materialism. Our +western civilization prides itself upon its practicality; but +externality would better define it. We forget that immaterial forces +rule not only the invisible but the visible universe. Things to look +real to us must be cognizant to the physical senses. Matter, whether +in the vegetable, animal, or human organism, is moulded, shaped, and +its quality determined by unseen forces back of and higher than +itself. + +We rely upon the drug, because we can feel, taste, see, and smell it. +We are color-blind to invisible potency of a higher order, and +practically conclude that it is nonexistent. + +One reason for the prevailing adverse prejudice is that this new +thought disturbs the foundation-stones of existing and time-honored +systems and creeds. The literalism and externality of formulated +theology are rebuked by the simplicity of the spiritual and internal +forces which are here brought to light. The barrenness of intellectual +scholasticism is in sharp contrast with the overflowing love and +simple transparency which reveal the image of God in every man, and as +an incidental result, possible health and harmony. + +History ever repeats itself in the uniform suspicion with which +advanced thought has been received by existing institutions. It seems +difficult to learn the lesson, that the human apprehension of truth is +ever expanding, while creeds are but "arrested developments, frozen +into fixed forms." As might be inferred, the clergy and the religious +press, as a rule, are distrustful of this advance, and see little that +is good in it. It is fair to admit that this disposition is often due +more to misunderstanding, than to intentional injustice. + +Another cause for its unwelcome reception is that it distrusts the +dominant medical systems. All honor to the multitude of noble and +brave men who from the old standpoint have battled with disease, and +who have ever been on the alert to utilize every possible balm, in +order to restore disordered humanity. But systems are tenacious of +life in proportion as they are hoary with age. They mould men to their +own shape; to break with them is difficult: tradition, pride, +professional honor, and loyalty, and often social and pecuniary +status, are all like strong cords, which bind even great men to their +conventional grooves. + +A further ground for the general unbelief is found in the +peculiarities of the apostles and exponents of the new departure. A +division into schools and cliques, the out-cropping of personality, +exclusiveness, and internal criticism, statements of doctrine in forms +likely to be misunderstood, and a technical phraseology have, in a +measure, prevented a free and full understanding of principles, which +are really simple and transparent. + +Popular distrust is also awakened by the fact that, as a rule, mental +healers have not regularly studied pathology, nor even anatomy. But it +will be seen that if the principle of mental causation for disease is +once admitted, mentality rather than physiology should furnish the +field for operations. In order to heal, the mind of the patient must +be brought into unison with that of the practitioner, and therefore, +the latter must wash his own mind clean of spectres and even of +studies of disease, and fill it to overflowing with ideals of health +and harmony. + +Another reason for misapprehension is the fact that mind healing is +not demonstrable by argument. It is not intellectually apprehended. It +concerns the inner man and can only be grasped by the deeper vision of +intuitional and spiritual sense. It is like a cyclorama, the beauty of +which is all inside. An outside view is no view at all. + +Is there a necessity for some radical reinforcement to conventional +instrumentalities to aid us in our warfare with human ills? Is it +desirable to find some new vantage ground, and some more effective +weapons? There can be but one answer. While surgery has been making +rapid strides toward the position of an exact science, confidence in +materia medica is on the wane. The surgeon is only a marvellously +skilful mechanic who adjusts the parts, and then the divine, +recuperative forces vitalize and complete his work. He only makes the +figures, while the principle solves the problem. The adaptability of +drugs to heal disease is becoming a matter of doubt, even among many +who have not yet studied deeper causation. Materia medica lacks the +exact elements of a science. The just preponderance for good or ill of +any drug upon the human system is an unsolved problem, and will so +remain. The fact that a fresh remedy seems to work well while it is +much talked about, and then gradually appears to lose its efficacy, +suggests that it is the atmosphere of general belief in the medicine, +and not the medicine itself that accomplishes the visible result. It +is well known that bread pills sometimes prove to be a powerful +cathartic, even from individual belief; but general belief would be +necessary in order to make them always reliable. General beliefs often +have a very slight original basis, but gradually grow until their +cumulative power is enormous. If scientific, the same remedies once +adopted should remain; but instead, there is a continual transition. +Fashions and fads are not significant of exact science. Elixirs of +life, lymphs, and other specifics have their short run, and then join +the endless procession to the rear. Many lives are sacrificed in +experiments, but no criticism is made because the treatment is +administered by those who are within the limits of the "regular" +profession. After centuries of professional research, in order to +perfect the "art of healing," diseases have steadily grown more subtle +and numerous. Combinations, distillations, extracts, and decoctions of +almost every known material substance have been experimented with, in +order to discover their true bearing upon that ever-receding ideal, +the banishment of disease. If materia medica were a science, disease +should be in a process of extermination. It does not look as if this +were expected, for doctors with diplomas are multiplying in a much +greater ratio than the population, and already we have more than three +times the proportionate quota of Germany. As our material civilization +recedes from nature and grows more artificial, diseases, doctors, and +remedies multiply. What can be more beautiful and perfect than the +human eye; yet how commonly this organ requires artificial aid. The +human senses are losing their tone, and if present tendencies +continue, it seems almost as if the future man would be not only bald, +but toothless and eyeless, unless he receives an entire artificial +equipment. Only when internal, divine forces come to be relied upon, +rather than outside reinforcement, will deterioration cease. + +Scores of the most eminent physicians, who have risen above the +trammels of system, have vigorously expressed themselves regarding the +utterly unreliable character of the drug system. Emerson affirmed that +"The best part of health is a fine disposition." Said Plato, "You +ought not to attempt to cure the body without the soul." A +distinguished doctor of to-day remarked, "Of the nature of disease, +and from whence it comes, we still know nothing, but thanks to +chemistry we have new supplies of ammunition. For every drug of our +fathers, we have now a hundred. We have iodides, chlorides, and +bromides without number; sulphates, nitrates, hydrochlorates, and +prussiates beyond count. But we do not believe in heroic doses. We +give but little medicine at a time and change it often." With such +supplies of "ammunition," people within range are liable to get hit. + +A mere sketch of the rise and progress of the mind-healing movement +may be proper before considering its philosophy. Its novelty having +worn off, it is perhaps less prominent as a current topic than +formerly, but its progress, though quiet, has been remarkable during +the past five years. Careful estimates by those in the best position +to judge place the number of those who accept its leading principles, +in the United States, at over a million. Owing to the distrust of +public opinion, a large majority hold their views quietly but none the +less firmly. But a small fraction of its adherents are identified +with its organizations, and yet within the limits of one school [those +distinctively known as Christian Scientists], there are about thirty +organized churches, and also one hundred and twenty societies which +maintain regular Sunday services, though not yet having church +organization. There are also between forty and fifty dispensaries and +reading rooms, and a rapidly increasing literature, both of standard +works and periodicals. One of the other schools, distinctively known +as Mind Cure, has also a large number of organizations similar in +character. The number of regularly graduated practitioners cannot be +accurately estimated, but they are numbered by the thousand. Of the +million more or less of believers in the principles of mind healing, +it may be admitted that perhaps a large majority, in the event of +severe acute illness, would still make some use of old remedies, or +would combine both where circumstances would allow. Life-long habits +are tenacious; to defy the force of public opinion, the importunity of +friends and the overwhelming aggregation of surrounding belief, is a +trying ordeal. Until public opinion softens, mental healing in its +purity will be mainly employed in chronic troubles, or at least for +those which are not of a sudden and acute nature. Mind healers would +differ in acute cases, as to how far those who have had no previous +growth of trust in unseen forces should be left to those alone. In the +present stage of progress in mind healing, there should be nothing +which would require anyone to dispense with reasonable nursing nor +with common sense. Some things which are ideally and abstractly true, +can only be fully realized in the future, and it is not well to +prematurely use them before the conditions are fully ripened. + +All new innovations, no matter how much needed, have had to pass +through a period when "they were everywhere spoken against." The time +is not distant when personal liberty in respect to choice in one's +method of healing may be enjoyed without unpleasant criticism or +notoriety. + +The more important schools which agree in the one cardinal principle +of healing through mind, designate their respective systems as +Christian Science, Mind Cure, and Christian Metaphysics. These terms, +in common use, are somewhat interchangeable. There are also those who +combine mind healing with Theosophy, and still others who differ in +non-essentials. What is distinctively known as "Faith Cure" has +little in common with those before named. Its theory is that disease +is healed by special interposition in answer to prayer. None of the +other systems accept anything as special, but believe in the +universality and continuity of orderly law. + +There are many leaders, authors, and workers in this movement, who are +eminent; but as principles are more important than personality, their +names need not be enumerated. + +Why did this movement originate among women, and why have so large a +proportion of its exponents belonged to the so-called weaker sex? +Because the intuitional and spiritual senses of women are keener than +those of men, and mental healing is not the result of profound +reasoning. It is the seeming "weak things of the world which confound +the strong." Men are largely immersed in intellectual and formulated +systems, and when the time was ripe for new light and attainment in +spiritual evolution to dawn upon humanity, it might have been expected +that its first delicate rays would be detected by woman. + +The one great principle which underlies all mind healing is contained +in the assumption that all primary causation relating to the human +organism is mental or spiritual. The mind, which is the real man, is +the cause, and the body the result. The mind is the expressor, and the +body the expression. The inner life forces build the body, and not the +body the life forces. The thought forms the brain, and not the brain +the thought. The physical man is but the printed page, or external +manifestation, of the intrinsic man which is higher and back of him. + +Materia medica deals with effects rather than primary causes. It seeks +to modify the expression, which can only be done through the +expressor. It is axiomatic that to change results we deal with causes. +This principle is so widely recognized that it is seen in an endless +variety of phases, even among barbarous and half-civilized races. The +charms and incantations used for healing among Indian tribes have this +significance. With all their barbarism they are near to nature and +keen in locating causation. With nothing more than a superstitious +basis, charms, incantations, dances, images, ceremonies, and shrines +have a wonderful influence for healing. They divert the mind from the +ailment, and stimulate a strong faith which awakens the recuperative +forces to action, and thus cause a rapid recovery. + +A traveller in Algiers relates the following conversation he had with +a Moorish woman of high class: "When ill do you go to the doctor?" he +asked. "Oh, no; we go to the Marabout; he writes a few words from the +Koran on a piece of paper, which we chew and swallow, with a little +water from the sacred well at the Mosque. We need no more and soon +recover." + +If a skilful exercise of baseless superstition upon mind can be so +efficacious, what results are possible by a judicious use of the +truth? Mental causation is abundantly proved by the well-known effects +of fear, anger, envy, anxiety, and other passions and emotions, upon +the physical organism. Acute fear will paralyze the nerve centres, and +sometimes turn the hair white in a single night. A mother's milk can +be poisoned by a fit of anger. An eminent writer, Dr. Tuke, enumerates +as among the direct products of fear, insanity, idiocy, paralysis of +various muscles and organs, profuse perspiration, cholerina, jaundice, +sudden decay of teeth, fatal anaemia, skin diseases, erysipelas, and +eczema. Passion, sinful thought, avarice, envy, jealousy, selfishness, +all press for external bodily expression. Even false philosophies, +false theology, and false conceptions of God make their unwholesome +influence felt in every bodily tissue. By infallible law, mental +states are mirrored upon the body, but because the process is complex +and gradual, we fail to observe the connection. Mind translates itself +into flesh and blood. + +What must be the physical result upon humanity of thousands of years +of chronic fearing, sinning, selfishness, anxiety, and unnumbered +other morbid conditions? These are all the time pulling down the cells +and tissues, which only divine, harmonious, and wholesome thought can +build up. Is it surprising that no one is perfectly healthy? If man +were not linked to God, and unconsciously receiving an inflow of +recuperative vital force, the multitudinous destroyers would soon +disintegrate his physical organism. Can the building forces be +strengthened, stimulated, and made more harmonious and divine? Yes, +through mind. The mind surely but unconsciously pervades every +physical tissue with its vital influence, and is present in every +function; throbbing in the heart, breathing in the lungs, and weaving +its own quality into nutrition, assimilation, sensation, and motion. + +A conscious fear of any particular disease is not necessary to induce +it. The accumulated strands of the unconscious fear of generations +have been twisted into the warp and woof of our mentality, and we find +ourselves on the plane of reciprocity with disease. Our door is open +to receive it. What is disease? A mental spectre, which to material +vision has terrible proportions. A kingly tyrant, crowned by our own +beliefs. It has exactly that power which our fears, theories, and +acceptances have conferred upon it. It is not an objective entity, but +our sensuous beliefs have galvanized it into life. "As a man thinketh, +so is he." Realism to us may be conferred upon the most absolute +non-entity, if we give it large thought space, and fear it. As a +condition, disease is existent; but not as a God-created entity, in +and of itself. It appears veritable to us, because we have +unconsciously identified the Ego with the body. + +The material standpoint is false. We are immaterial; not bodies, but +spirits--even here and now. Having lost spiritual consciousness, we +practically,--though not theoretically,--feel that we are bodies. To +grasp our divine selfhood and steadily hold it, disarms fear and all +its allies, and promotes recuperation and harmony. When the intrinsic +man dethrones the false and sensuous claimant, and asserts his divine +birthright of wholeness [holiness] the body as a correspondence falls +into line and gradually expresses health on its own plane. Normally +and logically, that which is higher should rule the lower. The body, +instead of being the unrelenting despot, then becomes the docile and +useful servant. In its subordinate position, where it rightfully +belongs, it grows beautiful and harmonious. Men live mainly in their +bodily sensations. Such living, though apparently real, is a false +sense of life. There is a profound significance in the scriptural +injunction, "Take no thought for your body." The dyspeptic thinks of +his stomach, and the more he has it in mind the more abnormally +sensitive it becomes. The sound man has no knowledge of such an organ, +except as a matter of theory. The body, when watched, petted, and +idolized, soon assumes the character of a usurper and tyrant. +Retribution is sure and inherent under such conditions. + +A change of environment often cures, simply because novelty diverts +thought which before has been centered upon the body. The improvement, +however, is often credited to better climate, water, or air. Human +pride seeks for its causation without rather than within. Secondary +causation is really effect, though not often so diagnosed. The draft +occasions the cold, but it gets its deadly qualities from cumulative +belief and fear. Who has not seen persons in which this bondage and +sensitiveness have become so intense that even a breath of God's pure +air alarms them. In this way a great mass of secondary causation has +been invested with power for evil, and mistaken for that which is +primary. Noting the tremendous power of grown-up accumulations of +false belief, we may glance at the modus operandi of mental healing. + +There are two distinct lines of treatment which may effect a cure; one +by intelligent and persistent self-discipline and culture, and the +other through the efforts of another person called a healer. Often +there is a combination of both. The power does not lie in the +personality of the healer, nor in the exercise of his will-power. +Neither hypnotism nor mesmeric control are elements in true +mind-healing. The healer, in reality, is but an interpreter and +teacher. The divine recuperative forces which exist, but are latent, +are awakened and called into action. The patient is like a discordant +instrument containing great capabilities, only waiting to respond in +unison to active harmony. His distorted thought must be elevated and +harmonized, so that he will see things in their true perspective. The +healer gently guides him up into the "mount of transfiguration," where +he feels the glow of the divine image within, and sees that wholeness +is already his, and will be made manifest as he recognizes it. A +successful healer must be an overflowing fountain of love and +good-will. He is but a conduit through which flows the divine +repletion. He makes ideal conditions present. He steadily holds a +mental image of his patient as already whole, and silently appeals to +the unconscious mind of the invalid, to induce him to accept the same +view. The patient's mental background is like a sensitive plate, upon +which will gradually appear outlines of health as they are positively +presented. Improved views of his own condition spring up from within, +and seem to him to be original. As they grow into expression in the +outer man, his cure is complete. + +Do failures occur? Undoubtedly, and often. Even infallible principles +can have but imperfect application because of local limitations. The +failure of a particular field of grain does not disprove the universal +principle of vegetable growth. The imperfection of the healer, and the +lack of receptivity in the patient, are local limitations. There are +sudden cures, but as a rule recovery will be in the nature of a +progressive growth. Lack of immediate results often causes +disappointment, and leads to an abandonment of the treatment before +the seed has had time to take root. The healer is the sower, and the +patient's unconscious mind is the soil. Often rubbish must be cleared +away before any fertile spot is found. The cure must come from within. +Sometimes the patient is cherishing some secret sin, or giving place +to trains of thought colored with envy, jealousy, avarice, or +selfishness. These are all positive obstacles to both mental and +physical improvement, for thoughts are real things. The patient must +actively co-operate with the healer, and make himself transparent to +the truth. That which is misshapen has to grow symmetrical. Even if +the mind could be instantly permeated with the belief of health, the +body will need a little time to completely change its expression. +Should these limitations discourage anyone? Not in the least, but +rather the reverse. The fact that the cure is in the nature of a +growth, is evidence that it is normal and permanent, rather than +magical or capricious. Limitations are present, but they can be +surmounted. + +The phenomenon of pain, so commonly regarded as an evil, is only a +warning voice to summon our consciousness from its resting-place in +the damp, morgue-like basement of our being, to the higher apartments, +where sunshine and harmony are ever present. It is beneficent when its +message is heeded, for it is thereby transformed into blessing. Our +resistance to it, and misunderstanding of its significance, prevent +that possible transformation. The process of cure through mind, though +in itself a steady growth, often appears to the consciousness of the +patient as vibratory and uneven. + +Many could heal themselves without the aid of another, if they +appreciated the tremendous power for good of concentrated mental +delineation of the ideal. By such exercises of mind, a wholesome +environment can be built up, even if at first the process seems almost +mechanical. But instead of such self-building, out of an infinitude of +divine material, the average man is inclined to vacate the control of +his being, put his body into the keeping of his doctor, and his soul +[himself] into the care of his priest or pastor. + +Efficiency for self-treatment is increased as the power of abstraction +is cultivated. Hold a firm consciousness of the spiritual self, and of +the fact that the material form is only expression made visible. +Firmly deny the validity of adverse sensuous evidence, and at length +it will disappear. Silently but persistently affirm health, harmony, +and the divine image. Give out good thought, for thoughts are real +gifts. In proportion as you pour out, the divine repletion pours in. +Look upon the physical self as only a false claimant for the Ego. Hold +only the good in your field of vision, and let disease and evil fade +out to their native nothingness, from lack of standing-room. Even a +warfare against evils as objective realities, tends to make them more +realistic. At convenient seasons, bar out the external world, and +rivet the mind tenaciously to the loftiest ideals and aspirations, and +for the time being forget that you possess a body. Oh, victim of +nervous prostration and insomnia, test these principles and see if +they are not superior to anodynes, opiates, bromides, and chorals, and +be assured that they leave no sting behind. The great boon which they +bestow is not limited to nervous and mental disorders; its virtue +penetrates to the outermost physical limits. + +The whole atmosphere of race thought in which we live is sensuous. +This vast unconscious influence must be overcome. The mental healer is +like one rowing against the current of a mighty river. Humanity is +"bound in one bundle," and it is with difficulty that a few can +advance much faster than the rythmical step of the mass. Even the +Great Exemplar in some places could not do many mighty works because +of surrounding unbelief. + +Man is peering into the dust for new supplies of life, which are +stored around and above him. Is it not time that he should make a +serious effort to throw off the galling yoke of cruel though +intangible masters, and achieve freedom and emancipation? + +Turning to the religious aspect of mental healing, it is seen to be in +harmony with revelation, and also with the highest spiritual ideal in +all religions. While rebuking scholastic and dogmatic systems on the +one hand, and pseudo-scientific materialism on the other, it vitalizes +and makes practical the principles of the Sermon on the Mount. The +healing of to-day is the same in kind, though not equal in degree to +that of the primitive church. It is in accord with spiritual law, +which is ever uniformly the same under like conditions. The miracles +of the Apostolic Age were real as transactions, but their miraculous +hue was in the materialistic vision of the observers. Healing is the +outward and practical attestation of the power and genuineness of +spiritual religion, and ought not to have dropped out of the Church. +The divine commission to preach the gospel and heal the sick, never +rightly could have been severed in twain, because they are only +different sides of one Whole. By what authority is one part declared +binding through ages and the other ignored? Who will assert that God +is changeable, so that any divinely bestowed boon to one age could be +withdrawn from a subsequent one? The direct assurance of the Christ, +that "these signs shall follow them that believe," is perpetual in its +scope, because "them that believe" are limited to no age, race, or +condition. As ecclesiasticism and materialism crept into the early +church, and personal ambitions and worldly policies sapped its +vitality, spiritual transparency and brotherly love faded out, and +with them went the power--or rather the recognition of the power--to +heal. + +Wonderful works are not limited alone to those who accept the +Christian religion; but in proportion as other systems recognize the +supremacy of the spiritual element, and catch even a partial glow of +"that true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," +their intrinsic qualities will be made outwardly manifest. A right +conception of God, as infinite present Good, strongly aids in +producing the expression of health. "In Him we live, and move, and +have our being." An abiding concept of such truth directly promotes +trust, harmony, healing. Seeming ills are not God-created powers, but +human perversions and reflected images of subjective states. As a +higher and spiritual standpoint is gained, apparent evils dissolve, +and then in bold relief is seen the fair proportions of the Kingdom of +the Real. + + + + +[Illustration: MR. AND MRS. JAS. A. HERNE.] + + + + +MR. AND MRS. HERNE. + +BY HAMLIN GARLAND. + + +In May last, in a small hall in Boston, on a stage of planking, hung +with drapery, was produced one of the most radical plays from a native +author ever performed in America. Mr. and Mrs. James A. Herne, unable +to obtain a hearing in the theatres for their play, which had been +endorsed by some of the best known literary men of the day, were +forced to hire a hall, and produce _Margaret Fleming_ bare of all +mechanical illusion, and shorn of all its scenic and atmospheric +effects. Everybody, even their friends, prophesied disaster. In such +surroundings failure seemed certain. But a few who knew the play and +its authors better, felt confident that there was a public for them. +It was a notable event, and the fame of _Margaret Fleming_ is still on +its travels across the dramatic world. + +There were two reasons for this result, the magnificent art of Mrs. +Herne, which "created illusion by its utter simplicity and absolute +truth to life," and second, because the play was, in fact, as one +critic said, "an epoch-marking play." It could afford to dispense with +canvas, bunch-lights, machinery, as it dispensed with conventional +plot and epithet, and as its actors discarded declamation and mere +noise. + +The phenomenal success of Mr. and Mrs. Herne brought them prominently +before the literary public. Interest became very strong in them as +persons as well as artists, and from an intimate personal acquaintance +with them both, I have been asked to give this brief sketch of their +work previous to _Margaret Fleming_, for epoch-marking as it was, it +was only a logical latest outcome of the work the Hernes have been +doing for the last ten years. + +Mr. Herne is a man of large experience, having been on the stage for +thirty years. He has been through all the legitimate lines. He has +been a member of a stock company, manager of theatres, and author and +manager of several plays of his own, previous to the writing of +_Margaret_ _Fleming_. His first real attempt at writing was _Hearts +of Oak_. The home scenes, and notably the famous dinner scene, which +became such a feature, showed the direction of his power. This play, +produced about twelve years ago with Mrs. Herne as "Crystal," was +their first attempt to handle humble American life, and was very +successful. + +Mr. Herne's next venture was an ambitious one. It was the writing of a +play based upon the American Revolution. In the spring of '86 he +produced at the Boston Theatre _The Minute Men_, where it was received +with immense enthusiasm. It was somewhat conventional in plot, but in +all its scenes of home life was true and fine. The central figures +were Reuben (a backwoodsman), and Dorothy, his adopted daughter. +Whatever concerned these two characters was keyed to the note of life. +Like all Mr. Herne's acting, Reuben was utterly unconscious of +himself. He went about as a backwoodsman naturally does, without +posturing or swagger. With the sweetness and quaintness of Sam Lawson, +he had the comfortable aspect of a well-fed Pennsylvania Quaker. + +Mrs. Herne's Dorothy was a fitting companion piece, faultlessly true, +and sweet, and natural. Her spontaneous laugh is as infectiously +gleeful as Joe Jefferson's chuckle. Those who have never seen her in +this part can hardly realize how fine a comedienne she really is. + +Mr. Herne's next play was simpler, stronger, and better, though less +picturesque. _Drifting Apart_ was based upon the commonest of life's +tragedies--the home of a drunkard. It is the most effective of +sermons, without one word of preaching. The drifting apart of husband +and wife through the husband's "failin'" is set forth with unexampled +concreteness, and yet there is no introduction of horror. We +understand it all by the sufferings of the wife, with whom we +alternately hope and despair. I copy here what I wrote of it at the +time when I knew neither Mr. and Mrs. Herne, nor any other of their +plays. + + The second act in this play for tenderness and truth has not been + surpassed in any American play. A daring thing exquisitely done + was that holiest of confidences between husband and wife. The + vast audience sat hushed as death before that touching, almost + sacred scene, as they do when sitting before some great tragedy. + + What does this mean, if not that our dramatists have been too + distrustful of the public? They have gone round the earth in + search of material for plays, not knowing that the most moving + of all life is that which lies closest at hand, after all. + +Mrs. Herne's acting of Mary Miller was my first realization of the +compelling power of truth. It was so utterly opposed to the "tragedy +of the legitimate." Here was tragedy that appalled and fascinated like +the great fact of living. No noise, no contortions of face or limbs, +yet somehow I was made to feel the dumb, inarticulate, interior agony +of a mother. Never before had such acting faced me across the +footlights. The fourth act was like one of Millet's paintings, with +that mysterious quality of reserve--the quality of life again. + +In this play, as in _Hearts of Oak_, there was no villain and no plot. +The scene was laid in a fishing village near Gloucester. I can do no +better than to give you a taste of the quaint second act. + +It is Christmas eve and Jack and Mary have been married a year. Jack +is preparing to go out. Mary is secretly disturbed over his going but +hides it. "Mother" sits by the fire knitting. Mary is sewing by the +window. + + _Jack._ Say, Mary! D'you know, I can shave myself better'n any + barber thet ever honed a razor? + + _Mary._ I always told you you could, Jack, if you'd only try. + + _Jack._ Feel my face now--ain't it as smooth as any baby's? + + _Mary._ (_Feeling his face._) Yes, Jack, as smooth as any _old_ + baby's. + + _Jack._ Oh! say, look here now, thet ain't fair; a feller don't + know nothin' till he's forty, does he, mother? Old baby's! + (_sitting on the arm of Mary's chair_) I ain't too old to love + you, Mary, that's one thing. I've loved you ever since you was + knee-high to a grasshopper. I rocked you in y'r cradle--I'm + blessed if I didn't make the cradle you was rocked in, didn't I, + mother? + + _Mother._ Yes, Jack, an' d'ye remember what yeh made it out of? + + _Jack._ A herrin' box. (_General laugh._) + + _Mary._ (_Tenderly._) I married the man I love, Jack. + + _Jack._ Honest? + + _Mary._ Honest. + + _Jack._ (_Kissing her._) Then what'n thunder you want to talk + about a feller's gettin' old for? Where's my clean shirt? Say, + mother, don't you t' hang up them stockin's. + + _Mary._ Oh! Jack, what nonsense. + + _Jack._ No nonsense at all about it. Christmas is Christmas. It + only comes once a year an' I'm goin' to have th' stockin's hung + up. So for fear you'd forgit 'em I'll hang 'em up myself. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + _Mary._ Please, Jack, give me those stockings. + + _Jack._ Now it ain't no use, little woman. Them stockin's is + a-goin' up. Mother, you give me three pins. + + _Mary._ Don't you give him _any_ pins, mother. Suppose the + neighbors should come in and see those stockings hangin' up. + + _Jack._ Let 'em come in, I don't care a continental cuss. Why, + Mary, everybody wears stockin's nowadays, everybody that can + afford to. I _want_ the neighbors to see 'em, then they'll know + we've got stockin's. (_Holding up the three stockings._) Got one + apiece anyhow. + + _Mother._ Oh, Jack, Jack! you'll never be anything but a great + overgrown boy, if you live to be a hundred (_goes off_). + + _Mary._ (_Tenderly._) Jack! + + _Jack._ Hey? + + _Mary._ (_Putting her arms about his neck._) Did you never think + that perhaps next Christmas there might be another stocking, just + a tiny one, to hang in the chimney corner? + + _Jack._ Why, Mary, there's tears in your eyes. (_Goes to wipe her + eyes with the work she has in her hands; it is a baby's dress._) + Bless my soul! What's this, Mary? + + _Mary._ (_Falteringly._) Do you remember Bella and John in "Our + Mutual Friend" that I read to you? + + _Jack._ Yes. Warn't they glorious? + + _Mary._ Well, these are sails, Jack, sails for the little ship + that's coming across the water for you and me. + +[Illustration: Mr. Herne as Reuben Foxglove in "The Minute Men." See +page 544.] + +I quote a few lines from another scene. + + Christmas morning. Hester and Silas, some young friends, have + come in to take breakfast. All are seated at the table with much + bustle and laughter. Lish Mead, Mary's foster father, pokes his + head in the door. + + _Lish Mead._ Wish you Merry Christmas. + + _All._ (_Hilariously._) Merry Christmas! Come in. + + _Lish._ Can't less some on ye hol's th' door open. + + _Silas._ I'll hold it, Lish. (_Lish enters, hauling a warehouse + truck on which is a barrel of flour and a large hamper._) + + _Lish._ Mister Seward wanted I should hand ye these with his + complements. + + _Mary._ Oh, how kind of Mr. Seward, and how good of you to bring + 'em. + + _Jack._ Set down here, Lish, and have a bite o' breakfast. + + _Lish._ (_Taking off mittens, cap, comforter, etc._) Whatcher + got? Chicking? Waal, that's good 'nough. (_Seats himself at + table._) Say, Jack, d' you know, you left a goose a-layin' on Jim + Adamses bar las' night? I was goin' to fetch it along but Jim + said you gin it to him, swore you made him a present on it. + + _Mother._ Jack Hepburn, did you give that goose-- + + _Mary._ (_Interrupting her._) Have a cup of coffee, mother. + + _Lish._ Jack, have you got the time o' day? (_Chuckles._) Here's + y'r new Waterbury. The boys wanted I should fetch her 'round; ye + went off las' night without her. + + _Jack._ Ye can take her back again; I don't want her. + + _Mary._ O Jack! + + _Jack._ No, Mary, I don't. I wish the durned ol' Waterbury 'd + never been born. + + _Mary._ The boys meant well, Jack; I wouldn't send back their + present. + + _Jack._ All right, Mary, if you say so, I'll take her. There's + one thing sure, every time I wind her up she'll put me in mind + how durn near I come to losin' the best little wife in the whole + world. + +This play brought me to know Mr. and Mrs. Herne. It needed but an +hour's talk to convince me that I had met two of the most intellectual +artists in the dramatic profession, and also to learn how great were +the obstacles which lay in the way of producing a real play, each year +adding to the insuperableness of the barriers. Mr. Herne was at that +time (two years ago) working upon a new play, in some respects, +notably in its theme, finer than _Drifting Apart_. It was the result +of several summers spent on the coast of Maine, and is called +_Shore-Acres_. The story is mainly that of two brothers, Nathaniel and +Martin Berry, who own a fine "shore-acre" tract near a booming summer +resort. An enterprising grocer in the little village gets Martin +interested in booms and suggests that they form a company and cut the +shore-acre tract up into lots and sell to summer residents. + +Martin comes with the scheme to Nathaniel. + + _Martin._ I'd like t' talk to yeh, an' I d' know's I'll hev a + better chance. + + _Uncle Nat._ I d' know's yeh will. + + _Martin._ (_Hesitates, picks up a stick and whittles._) Mr. + Blake's ben here. + + _Uncle Nat._ (_Picks up a straw and chews it._) Hez 'e? + +[Illustration: Mrs. Herne as Dorothy Foxglove in "The Minute Men." See +page 544.] + + _Martin._ Yes. He 'lows thet we'd ought to cut the farm up inter + buildin' lots. + + _Uncle Nat._ Dooze 'e? + + _Martin._ Yes. He says there's a boom a-comin' here, an' thet the + lan's too valu'ble to work. + + _Uncle Nat._ I want t' know 'f he dooze. Where d's he talk o' + beginnin'? + + _Martin._ Out there at the nothe eend o' the shore pint? + + _Uncle Nat._ Yeh don't mean up yander? (_Pointing with his thumb + over his shoulder._) + + _Martin._ (_Slowly._) Y-e-s. + + _Uncle Nat._ Dooze 'e calkalate t' take in the knoll thet looks + out t' Al'gator Reef? + + _Martin._ I reck'n he dooze. + + _Uncle Nat._ Did yeh tell him thet mother's berried there? + + _Martin._ He knows thet 's well 's you do. (_Sulkily._) + + _Uncle Nat._ What's he calkalate t' do with mother? + + _Martin._ He advises puttin' her in a cimitry up to Bangor. + + _Uncle Nat._ She'd never sleep comfort'ble in no cimitry, mother + wouldn't. + + _Martin._ He says thet's the choice lot o' the hull pass'll. + + _Uncle Nat._ Then who's got so good a right to it as mother hez? + It was all her'n once. Thet's the only piece she ast t' keep. Yeh + don't begrutch it to her, do yeh, Martin? + + _Martin._ I don't begrutch her nothin', only he says folks hain't + a-goin' to pay fancy prices 'thout they hev ther pick. + + _Uncle Nat._ D'ye think any fancy price hed ought to buy mother's + grave? + +[Illustration: Mrs. Herne as Mary Miller. "Here was tragedy that +appalled and fascinated like the great fact of living." "Drifting +Apart." Act IV. See page 545.] + + _Martin._ Yeh seem to kinder shameface me fer thinkin' o' partin' + with it. + + _Uncle Nat._ Didn't mean to. Law sakes! who'm I thet I should set + my face agin improvemints, I'd like t' know? Go ahead, an' sell, + 'n build, an' git rich, an' move t' Bangor, unly don't sell thet! + Leave me jes' thet leetle patch, an' I'll stay an' take keer th' + light, keep the grass cut over yander, an' sort o' watch eout fer + things gin'rally.... + + _Ann._ Sakes alive! Martin Berry, bean't you a-comin' to your + dinner t'day? Come, Nathan'l, y'r dinner'll be stun cold. I say + yer dinner'll be stun cold. 'T won't be fit f'r a hawg t'eat. + + _Little Mildred. (Going to Nat, looks up into his face._) He's + cryin', momma. + +This estrangement, and the results that flow from it, form the simple +basis of _Shore-Acres_, a play full of character studies, and +permeated by that peculiar flavor of sea and farm, which the New +England coast abounds with. The theme is the best and truest of all +Mr. Herne's plays of humble life. + +Mr. and Mrs. Herne have lived for twelve years in Ashmont, a suburb of +Boston. They have a comfortable and tasteful home, with three +children, Julie, Crystal, and Dorothy [aged ten, eight, and five], to +give them welcome when they come back from their seasons on the road. +Mr. Herne is very domestic and lives a very simple and quiet life. And +he enjoys his pretty home as only a man can whose life is spent so +largely in fatiguing travel. He is fond of the fields which lie near +his home, and very many are the long walks we have taken together. He +is very fond of wild flowers, especially daisies and clover blossoms, +and in their season is never without a bunch of them upon his desk. +Books are all about him. He writes at a flat-top desk in the room he +calls his, but his terrific orders to be left alone are calmly ignored +by the three children who invade this "study," and throw themselves +upon him at the slightest provocation. He is much tyrannized over by +Dorothy, whose dolls he is forced to mend, no matter what other +apparently important work is going forward. + +[Illustration: Mr. and Mrs. Herne in "Drifting Apart." Act II. See +page 545.] + +Mrs. Herne is a woman of extraordinary powers, both of acquired +knowledge and natural insight, and her suggestions and criticisms have +been of the greatest value to her husband in his writing, and she had +large part in the inception as well as in the production of _Margaret +Fleming_. Her knowledge of life and books, like that of her husband, +is self-acquired, but I have met few people in any walk of life with +the same wide and thorough range of thought. In their home oft-quoted +volumes of Spencer, Darwin, Fiske, Carlyle, Ibsen, Valdes, Howells, +give evidence that they not only keep abreast but ahead of the current +thought of the day. Spencer is their philosopher, and Howells is their +novelist, but Dickens and Scott have large space on their shelves. All +this does not prevent Mr. Herne from being an incorrigible joker, and +a wonderfully funny story-teller. All dialects come instantly and +surely to his tongue. The sources of his power as a dramatist are +evident in his keen observation and retentive memory. Mrs. Herne's +poet is Sidney Lanier, and she knows his principal poems by heart. +"Sunrise" is her especial delight. But to see her radiant with +intellectual enthusiasm, one has but to start a discussion of the +nebular hypothesis, or to touch upon the atomic theory, or doubt the +inconceivability of matter. She is perfectly oblivious to space and +time if she can get someone to discuss Flammarion's supersensuous +world of force, Mr. George's theory of land-holding, or Spencer's law +of progress. + +[Illustration: Mr. and Mrs. Herne in "Drifting Apart." Act III. See +page 545.] + +Her enthusiasms bear fruit not only in her own phenomenal +development, but in her power over others, both as an artist and +friend. Wherever she goes she carries the magnetic influence of one +who lives and thinks on high planes. Her earnestness is tremendous. + +They are both individualists in the sense of being for the highest and +purest type of man, and the elimination of governmental control. +"Truth, Liberty, and Justice," form the motto over their door. Mr. +Herne has won great distinction as a powerful and ready advocate of +the single tax theory, and they are both personal valued friends of +Mr. George. It is Ibsen's individualism as well as his truth that +appeals so strongly to both Mr. and Mrs. Herne. They are in deadly +earnest like Ibsen, and _Margaret Fleming_ sprang directly from their +radicalism on the woman question. The home of these extraordinary +people is a charged battery radiating the most advanced thought. As +one friend said: "No one ever leaves this house as he came. We all go +away with something new and vital to think about." + +I give these personal impressions in order that those who saw them in +_Margaret Fleming_ may know that its power was certainly a reflection +of the high thought and purity of moral conviction and life which Mr. +and Mrs. Herne brought to its production and its performance. It +voices their love of truth in art, and freedom in life, and +specifically their position on the woman question. + +The story of _Margaret Fleming_ is briefly:-- + +Philip Fleming is a fairly successful business man in a town near +Boston. He has a devoted wife, a child just reaching its first year's +birthday. The first scene develops the situation by a conversation +between Fleming and his family physician. Fleming offers a cigar which +Dr. Larkin refuses. + + _Philip._ You used to respect my cigars. (_Laughing._) + + _Doctor._ I used to respect you.... + + _Philip._ Why not, for heaven's sake? + + _Doctor._ Because you've no more moral nature than Joe Fletcher + has. + + _Philip._ Oh! come now, Doctor, that's rather-- + + _Doctor._ (_Looking sternly at him._) At two o'clock last night, + Lena Schmidt gave birth to a child. + + _Philip._ (_His eyes meet those of the Doctor, then drop to the + floor._) How in God's name did they come to send for you? + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + _Doctor._ I don't believe she'll ever leave that bed alive. + + _Philip._ Well, I've done all I can to-- + + _Doctor._ Yeh have, eh? + + _Philip._ She's had all the money she needed.... If she'd a' done + as I wanted her to, this never'd a' happened. I tried to get her + away six months ago, but she wouldn't go. She was as obstinate as + a mule. + + _Doctor._ Strange that she should want to be near you, aint it? + If she'd got tired of you and wanted to go, you wouldn't have let + her. + + _Philip._ (_With a sickly smile._) You must think I'm-- + + _Doctor._ I don't think anything about it. I _know_ just what + such animals as you are. + + _Philip._ Why, I haven't seen her for a-- + + _Doctor._ Haven' t yeh! well, then, suppose you go and see her + to-day. + + _Philip._ (_Alarmed._) No, I won't. I can't do that! + + _Doctor._ You will do just that. + + _Philip._ (_Showing temper._) I won't go near her. + + _Doctor._ (_Quietly._) Yes, you will. She sha'n't lie there and + die like a dog. + + _Philip._ You wouldn't dare--to tell-- + + _Doctor._ I want you to go and see this girl! (_They face each + other._) Will yeh or won't yeh? + + _Philip._ (_After a pause subdued._) What d' ye want me to say to + her? + +[Illustration] + +Fleming had been unfaithful to his wife at the time when he should +have been most devoted. The next two scenes show us Margaret in her +lovely home with the baby crowing about her. Fleming, with the easy +shift of such natures, has thrown off his depression, and is in good +spirits the following morning. Dr. Larkin calls to warn Fleming that +he had better take Margaret away at once. She has trouble with her +eyes which a nervous shock might intensify. He promises to do so, but +the act closes with Margaret's departure to visit Lena Schmidt, who +has sent for her. The third act takes place in Mrs. Burton's cottage, +where the girl is dying. Dr. Larkin enters, finds Mrs. Burton holding +the babe in her arms. I quote the conversation as a fine example of +its truth and suggestion. + +[Illustration: Mr. Herne as Joe Fletcher in "Margaret Fleming." Act I. +"Can't I sell ye a bath sponge?" See page 553.] + + _Mrs. Burton._ O Doctor! I didn't hear ye knawk. Did I keep y' + waitin'? + + _Doctor._ No. How're the sick folks? + + _Mrs. Burton._ Haven't y' seen Dr. Taylor! Didn't he tell yeh? + + _Doctor._ Haven't seen him. I suppose you mean-- + + _Mrs. Burton._ Yes. + + _Doctor._ Humph! When'd she die? + + _Mrs. B._ 'Bout half an hour ago. + + _Doctor._ I had two calls on my way here. When did the change + come? + + _Mrs. B._ Ther' wa'n't no change t' speak 'f. About two hours + ago, she et a nice cup o' grule, and asked me to fix the pillers + so's her head 'd be higher. I done it. Then she asked f'r a + pensul 'n paper, an' she writ f'r quite some time. After that she + shet her eyes an' I thought she was asleep. She never moved till + the Doctor come, then she opened her eyes 'n smiled at him. He + asked how she felt, an' she gave a l-o-n-g sigh--an' that was all + there was to it. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: Mrs Herne as Margaret Fleming. Act II. See page 554.] + +Margaret comes in and Dr. Larkin, horrified, tries in vain to get her +to return. Maria, the dead girl's sister, comes out of the bedroom, +with a letter in her hand, and with barbaric ferocity turns upon +Margaret. A scene of great dramatic power follows, and under the +stress of her suffering, Margaret goes blind. It all ends in the +flight of Fleming, and the destruction of their home. Several years +later a chain of events brings wife and husband together in the office +of the Boston Inspector of Police. Joe Fletcher, a street pedler, and +husband of Maria, the sister of Lena Schmidt, was the means of +bringing them together again. Fleming runs across Joe on the Common, +and Joe takes him to see Maria. Margaret has found Maria and her +child, which Maria had taken. Philip's altercation with Maria brings +them into the police office. After explanations, the inspector turns +to the husband and wife, and voicing conventional morality, advises +them to patch it up. "When you want me, ring that bell," he says, and +leaves them alone. There is a hush of suspense, and then Fleming, +seeing the work he had wrought in the blind face before him, speaks. + + _Philip._ Margaret! + + _Margaret._ Well! + + _Philip._ This is terrible + + _Marg._ You heard the inspector. He calls it a "common case." + + _Philip._ Yes. I was wondering whether he meant that or only said + it. + + _Marg._ I guess he meant it, Philip. We'll be crowded out of his + thoughts before he goes to bed to-night. + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + _Marg._ Ah, well, it's done now, and-- + + _Philip._ Yes, it's done. For four years I've been like an + escaped prisoner that wanted to give himself up and dreaded the + punishment. I'm captured at last, and without hope or fear,--I + _was_ going to say without shame,--I ask you, my judge, to + pronounce my sentence. + + _Marg._ That's a terrible thing to ask me to do, Philip.... (_She + hesitates._) + + _Philip._ Of course you'll get a divorce? + + _Marg._ Don't let us have any more ceremonies, Philip.... I gave + myself to you when you asked me to. We were married in my + mother's little home. Do you remember what a bright, beautiful + morning it was? + + _Philip._ Yes. + + _Marg._ That was seven years ago. To-day we're _here!_... + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + I _am_ calm. My eyes have simply been turned in upon myself for + four years. I see clearer than I used to. + + _Philip._ Suppose I could come to you some day and say, Margaret, + I'm now an honest man. Would you live with me again? + + _Marg._ The wife-heart has gone out of me, Philip. + + _Philip._ I'll wait, Margaret. Perhaps it may come back again. + Who knows? + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + _Philip._ Is it degrading to forgive? + + _Marg._ No; but it is to condone. Suppose _I_ had broken faith + with you? + + _Philip._ Ah, Margaret! + + _Marg._ I know! But suppose I had? Why should a wife bear the + whole stigma of infidelity? Isn't it just as revolting in a + husband?... + + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + + Then can't you see that it is simply impossible for me to live + with you again? _Philip._ That's my sentence.... We'll be + friends? + + _Marg._ Yes, friends. We'll respect each other as friends. We + never could as man and wife. + + As they clasp hands, something latent, organic rushes over her. + She masters it, puts his hand aside: "Ring that bell!" + +[Illustration: Mr. Herne and his daughter Dorothy as Joe and little +Lena on the Common. See page 557.] + +Played as Mrs. Herne plays it, this act is the supreme climax toward +which the action moves from the first. It is her knowledge of its +significance, her belief in its justice, and her faith in its +beneficence that makes her reading so intellectually powerful and +penetrating. She seems to be all of the woman, and something of the +seer, as she stands there as Margaret whose blindness has somehow +given her inward light, and conviction, and strength. She seemed to be +speaking for all womankind, whose sorrowful history we are only just +beginning to read truthfully. It is no wonder that Mrs. Herne appealed +with such power to the thinking women of Boston. Never before has +their case been so stated in America. + +One of the most noticeable and gratifying results of Mr. and Mrs. +Herne's performance was the forced abandonment by the critics of +conventional standards of criticism. Every thoughtful word, even by +those most severe, was made from the realist's standpoint. It forced a +comparison with life and that was a distinct gain. + +[Illustration: Margaret. Act V. "It is simply impossible for me to +live with you again.... Ring that bell." See page 557.] + +The critics got at last the point of view of those who praise an +imperfect play simply for its honesty of purpose, and its tendency. +My own criticism of _Margaret Fleming_ is that it lacks the simplicity +of life. It has too much of plot. Things converge too much, and here +and there things happen. Measured by the standard of truth it fails at +two or three points in its construction, though its treatment is +markedly direct and honest. Measured by any play on the American +stage, it stands above them all in purpose, in execution, in power, +and is worthy to stand for the new drama. It was exposed to the +severest test, and came out of it triumphantly. What the effect will +be upon the American drama, it would be hard to say. Certainly whether +great or small, that influence will be toward progress, an influence +that is altogether good. + +Already it has precipitated the discussion of an independent American +theatre, where plays of advanced thought and native atmosphere can be +produced. It has given courage to many who (being in the minority) had +given up the idea of ever having a play after their ideal. It has +cleared the air and showed the way out of the _cul de sac_ into which +monopoly seemed to have driven plays and players. It demonstrated that +a small theatre makes the production of literary plays possible, and +the whole field is opening to the American dramatist. The fact that +the lovers of truth and art are in the minority, no longer cuts a +figure. The small theatre makes a theatre for the minority not only +possible, but inevitable. + +In the immediate advance in truth, both in acting and play-writing, +Mr. and Mrs. Herne are likely to have large part. The work which they +have already done entitles them not only to respect, but to gratitude. +They have been working for many years to discredit effectism in +acting, and to bring truth into the American drama. They have set a +high mark, as all will testify who saw the work in Chickering Hall. +Now let who can, go higher. + + + + +SOME WEAK SPOTS IN THE FRENCH REPUBLIC. + +BY THEODORE STANTON. + + +Last autumn the third French republic completed the second decade of +its checkered existence, and has thus proved itself to be the most +long-lived government which France has known since the advent of the +great Revolution a century ago. No previous government has been able +to stand eighteen years, so that the present republic has outstripped +all its predecessors, whether republican, imperial, or monarchical, +leaving even the most fortunate of them two or three years behind, and +bidding fair to increase the distance indefinitely. Its longevity has +been greater than the first and second republics taken together, which +covered a period of a little over sixteen years; while if we combine +the existence of all three republics, equal to about thirty-six years, +we again find that no other regime has shown such prolonged +vitality,--the two empires having lived for only twenty-eight years, +and the two monarchies for about thirty-three and a half years. + +But the early years of the third republic--from 1870 to 1879--like the +declining period of the first and second republics, were more +monarchical than republican. And again, there are so many weakening +influences in the present institutions of France, that the decisive +conclusions which might otherwise be drawn from the foregoing +considerations need, I regret to say, to be considerably qualified. +Previous to the election to the presidency of M. Grevy, in 1879, the +government was happily styled "a republic without republicans." But +since that date the same party--the republican--has had supreme +control. Practically, therefore, the third republic has been in +operation about twelve years, and has, therefore, still to pass that +dangerous turning-point in the history of French governments, the +twentieth year. + +I now come to the consideration of some of the more serious causes of +lack of faith in the duration of the present regime. But it should be +pointed out right here at the start that many of these blemishes, most +all of them in fact, have characterized every government in France, so +that they are not peculiarly republican; and I hasten to add that my +object in pointing them out, in analyzing them and dwelling on them, +is not for the purpose of belittling or ridiculing the estimable +government now controlling the destinies of France. As an American and +a republican who has observed contemporary French history on the spot +since 1874, who has been an eye witness of many of the crucial +episodes of this critical period, who has known personally several of +the leading actors and who wishes well for the present institutions, I +take up this subject not so much in order to find fault with what is, +as to endeavor to discover how far these imperfections and weaknesses +endanger the existence of a form of government in which all Americans +take such a lively and sincere interest. Nowhere else in the civilized +world, not even in France itself, would the fall of the third republic +cause such deep regret as in the United States. Hence it is that we +desire to know what likelihood there is of such a disaster being +brought about, in the hope that by calling attention to the dangers, +we may, perhaps, do something to prevent such a lamentable +catastrophe. + +The greatest peril that has threatened the republic since its +foundation in 1870, was the recent Boulanger adventure. Though this +rather addle-brained general is now quite dead politically, the causes +which gave him strength and nearly plunged France once more into a +chaos whence would probably have issued a tyranny of some sort, still +exist and are continually on the point of cropping out again. The +principal one of them is the lack of union among republicans. Just as +the republic owed its final triumph to the circumstance that the +royalists and imperialists could not coalesce during the years +immediately following 1870, so Boulanger, backed by these same +royalists and imperialists, nearly won the day two years ago, almost +wholly because the republicans were divided among themselves. Union +among republicans is scarcely less necessary to-day than it was during +the dark days of Marshal MacMahon's presidency and the threatened +Boulangist _coup d'etat_. + +Since the republicans have had control of the two houses, the +minority, especially in the chamber of deputies, has been very strong, +the Right to-day numbering about one hundred and seventy deputies, and +the Boulangists about thirty more, making a grand total of two hundred +in a membership of less than six hundred. That is to say, the +Opposition, mustering more than a third of the chamber. And when it is +borne in mind that this minority is not simply a constitutional +Opposition, that its advent to power would mean the eventual overthrow +of the republic, we perceive how radically different such an +Opposition is from that found in the parliament of other countries, +where whether the outs come in or the ins go out, no vital change +occurs in the nature of the government. + +The existence of this recklessly revolutionary minority and the +fickleness of republican union are the chief causes of ministerial +instability, one of the worst features of the present regime. The +ministry has changed so often during the last twenty years, that many +republicans have been led to doubt the advantages of the English +parliamentary system, and have turned their eyes toward its +modification in the United States, where the existence of the Cabinet +is independent of a vote of the House. It was this admiration of the +American system which led M. Naquet and M. Andrieux--once prominent +republican deputies, and the former still a member of the Chamber--to +espouse Boulangism, and the general obtained not a little of his +popular strength from his oft-repeated assertion that he would put an +end to ministerial instability. That this evil is not exaggerated, +though the proposed remedy would probably have been worse than the +disease, is shown by the most casual glance at French cabinet history +since the fall of the second empire. + +Since September 4, 1870, up to the present day, there have been no +less than twenty-eight different ministries, which makes, on an +average, a new ministry about every nine months. There were three +ministries in each of the years 1873 and 1877, while in 1876, 1879, +1882, 1883, 1886, and 1887, there were two each. The longest ministry +was the second, presided over by M. Jules Ferry, which lasted from +February 21, 1883, to April 6, 1885, or a few weeks over two years. +Gambetta's famous ministry--called in derision "_le grand +ministere_"--lasted two months and a half. M. de Freycinet, the +present prime minister, has been in power four times since 1879, the +first time for nine months, the second for six months, the third for +eleven months, and the fourth since March of last year. Among the +shortest ministries were those of M. Dufaure, from May 18 to May 25, +1873; General de Rochebouet, from November 23 to December 13, 1877, +and M. Fallieres from January 29 to February 21, 1883. + +The persistency with which the reactionists refuse to recognize the +legal government of France, is another source of weakness in the +present institutions. When M. Carnot gives a reception at the Elysee +Palace you never see a deputy or a Senator of the Right advancing to +salute the president and his wife, and when he offers a grand state +dinner to parliament, he does not invite members outside of the +republican party because he would run the risk of receiving a curt +regret.[1] What is true of M. Carnot and the Elysee holds good also +for all the ministers and other high functionaries: they are left +severely alone by Monarchists and Bonapartists alike. + + [1] There is a slight modification to be made in this statement. + When the Bureaux of the two Chambers are invited either by + the President of the Republic, the President of the Senate, + or the President of the Chamber, no distinction is made in + regard to politics, and on these occasions the members of the + Right condescend to break bread with the republicans. I + should explain that the Bureaux are composed of a president, + four vice-presidents, and eight secretaries, chosen each + session by the senators and deputies. Two of the + secretaryships are given by courtesy to the Right. + +This sulking in the tent on the part of the reactionists has in it +something worse than their simple absence from all official social +ceremonies. The talents, experience, and patriotism of this _elite_ +are almost wholly lost to the country, and to the government. From the +ministries, the judiciary, the foreign embassies, the prefectures, and +the rectorships of the universities, they are necessarily excluded. +The ancient nobility of the old regime with its wealth and traditions, +and the younger nobility of the first and second empires; the blue +blood _bourgeoisee_, especially of the provinces, and the aristocratic +ladies of all classes, turn their backs, almost without exception, on +the new order of things, and sigh for court and king or emperor. + +In the provinces this detestation of the republic sometimes becomes +ludicrous. In Montpelier, for instance, "polite circles" absolutely +boycott the republican official world. The prefect has a palatial +residence but does not dare to throw open his _salons_, for none of +"the first families" would respond to his invitation. When the mayor +of the city, before whom all marriages must be performed, is invited +to the reception at the house, none of the reactionary _coterie_ will +have a word with him and none of their young men will dance with his +daughter. I have heard similar stories from Pan, Castres, and Albi, +and doubtless the same thing is true of many other cities. But +royalists and Bonapartists would not feel too much out of place in the +French republic, for it is astonishing, at least to an American, to +see how many monarchical customs have been preserved by the present +government. And this brings me to the consideration of a new source of +weakness of the republic. I refer to its unrepublican features. A few +examples will explain what I mean. + +The "military household" is one of the imperial institutions which the +third republic accepted and continued. The first president, however, +did not revive it. "M. Thiers never had a military household," M. +Barthelemy Saint Hilaire, his private secretary and _fidus achates_ +writes me; "however, in order to honor the army, he had two +orderlies." But when Marshal MacMahon became president in 1873, it was +only natural that he should surround himself with soldiers. At first +the "Cabinet of the Presidency" consisted of three officials, one of +them being a colonel. In 1875 this cabinet had grown to five members, +two of them colonels, and one an artillery officer. In 1879 the +"Cabinet of the Presidency" was reduced to two members with a +colonel at its head, but was supplemented with a "military +household"--the first appearance of this institution under the third +republic--consisting of six officers, so that Marshal MacMahon had +seven officers in all as his immediate attendants. + +At this point M. Grevy enters the Elysee. He throws out the military +member of the Cabinet of the Presidency, but increases by one his +military household, so that there were as many officers at the Elysee +under the lawyer president as under the marshal president. Nor has M. +Carnot, the engineer president, departed from the example set by his +two predecessors. + +When I asked M. Barthelemy Saint Hilaire the explanation of this +custom, he answered: "Our kings were always provided with a military +household, in which marine officers also figured. It is doubtless this +precedent which has surrounded civilian republicans with a body of +officers. The custom is due less to necessity than to a desire to show +respect for the army and navy." + +This same military parade is seen at the senate and chamber. During a +sitting of either of these bodies a company of infantry is kept under +arms in a room adjoining the legislative hall, and when the president +of either house enters the building, he advances between two files of +soldiers presenting arms, and is escorted to his chair by the +commanding officer. + +This military element in the present government is as unnecessary as +it is dangerous and pernicious. It is dangerous because it might be +turned by an ambitious president against the very constitution he has +taken an oath to defend. Two instances of this danger are afforded by +the action of Napoleon I. on the 18th _Soumaire_ and by that of +Napoleon III. on the 2d of December, 1852. It is pernicious because it +keeps alive in France that love for military display, and that thirst +for conquest, which have been the curse of the country since the days +of Louis XIV. + +Another one of these monarchical growths which still flourishes under +the republic is the excessive reverence and even awe which the public +shows to its high officials. When President Carnot appears anywhere, +his reception scarcely differs from that shown to Emperor William in +the course of his numerous journeys. The president is allowed six +hundred thousand francs for "entertaining and travelling," and his +balls and dinners at the Elysee, and especially his official tours +through the country smack of royalty to an extraordinary degree. A +year ago I had an opportunity at Montpelier to study one of these +official visits in all its details, and I was astonished at the royal +aspect of the whole affair. The conferring of decorations, the +dispensing of money to deserving charities, the cut and dried speeches +of the president and the mayors, the military honors,--all this is far +removed from that "Jeffersonian simplicity" which Americans at least +associate with a republic. + +One of the most noticeable characteristics of these tours is the +excessive manner in which "the republic" is kept to the fore. In his +speeches while "swinging around the circle" President Carnot is +continually informing expectant mayors and delighted citizens that +"the government of the republic" is watching over their every +interest, and he then hastens to thank them for the enthusiastic +welcome which they have given to "the republic" in his humble person. +The phylloxera has destroyed the vineyards of this or that region, but +"the republican minister of agriculture" is successfully extirpating +the injurious insect. The new schoolhouses of another city owe their +magnificence "to the deep solicitude of the republic for the education +of the masses," while the recently constructed bridge over the river +is the work of "the engineers of the republic." In a word, the farmer +and his crops, the mechanic and his house-rent, the schoolmaster and +his salary, the wine growers and their plaster, the day laborers and +their hours of work, and of course the politicians and their +constituents, if the former be republicans, are, according to +presidential oratory, the special care of the republic. + +Nor is it President Carnot alone who thus proclaims the extraordinary +virtues of the ever watchful republic. The ministers, who are +continually indulging in brief tours into the provinces, doing _en +petit_ what M. Carnot does _en grand_, are even more assiduous than +the president (because their political position is less secure,) in +sounding on all occasions the praises of the republic. + +Nor is this ringing of the changes on the word republic confined to +the oratory of presidential and ministerial junketings. The obtrusion +is brought about in many other ways. Thus M. Carnot is always spoken +of in the newspapers and elsewhere as "the president of the republic." +M. Waddington at London is "the ambassador of the republic." The +district attorney is "the attorney of the republic." An official bust +of the republic is given the place of honor on the walls of the town +council chamber, the public schoolroom, and the courtroom. A new +bridge will have carved on its arches the monogram R. F. (Republique +Francaise) while the same familiar letters stare at you from the +fronts of all the public buildings erected since 1870. + +The practice is impolitic, to say the least. We have already seen how +large and powerful is the body of enemies of the present institutions. +It is a mistake thus to force them to admit, at every turn, that they +are being governed by a regime which they detest. At a sitting of the +Chamber of Deputies, the Minister of Foreign Affairs declares that +"the government of the republic," not France, is negotiating this or +that matter. The Minister of the Interior is called upon to explain +some rather high-handed measure against obstreperous agitators, and he +informs the deputies that "the republic" will not permit laws to be +broken with impunity. The Minister of Public Instruction presents a +bill for the reorganization of the university system, and in his +speech in its support dwells on "the solicitude of the republic for +the education of the masses," thus exciting the opposition of a third +of the members of the Chamber. Some of the stormiest and most +disgraceful scenes that have occurred in the Chamber of Deputies +during the past twenty years are traceable to this foolish parading of +the word republic. The republican party could cut the ground from +under the feet of their opponents, and bring over thousands of fresh +recruits to the new institutions if they would only speak less of the +republic and more of France.[2] + + [2] When, during the _Seize Mai_ crisis, MacMahon's message + adjourning the sittings for a month was read to the Chamber, + the republicans protested with repeated cries of "Vive la + Republique!" to which the Right responded with "Vive la + France!" A month later, when the decree dissolving the + Chamber was laid before the Chamber, the republicans + shouted: "Vive la Republique! Vive la Paix!" and the Right + answered with "Vive la France! Vive le Marechal!" When it + was announced in full Congress that M. Grevy had been + elected President, and again when M. Carnot's name was + proclaimed in the same way, the republicans once more + hurrahed for a form of government, while their opponents + posed as the defenders of the country and the nation. + +Another grave error of the republic is its break with the Catholic +Church. I have no space here to place the blame where it belongs. I +wish simply to point out the lamentable fact that the whole powerful +organization of Rome is arrayed against the present government of +France. The danger from this source cannot be exaggerated. It has made +the whole body of women enemies of the republic, and "a government +which has the women against it is lost," says Laboulaye. And if +Cardinal Lavigerie and the Pope are, at the eleventh hour, coming +around to the republic, is it to be wondered at that the Radicals +declare that the Church is changing front for the purpose of capturing +rather than supporting the republic? + +Attacking the purse is quite as grave a mistake as attacking the +religion of the thrifty, economical, and provident Frenchman. The +financial policy of the republic is unpopular. The annual deficit and +the increasing taxation are crying evils even more difficult to handle +than are religious troubles, while conservative republican statesmen, +like Senator Barthelemy Saint Hilaire, tell me that the national debt +keeps on increasing at such a rate that the bankruptcy of France seems +sure in the more or less distant future. The present tendency towards +a high protective tariff is an attempt to bring money into the +national treasury, and thus relieve the peasant and manufacturer not +only from foreign competition, but from the disagreeable claims of the +tax-gatherer. + +The Alsace Lorraine imbroglio must, of course, be mentioned in any +list of the dangers threatening the French republic. But it is not so +dangerous as might appear at first blush, for, although it is quite +true that a war with Germany, especially if it should terminate +disastrously, would shake the republic to its foundations, and perhaps +topple it to the ground, this same Alsace-Lorraine difficulty is, in +home affairs, almost the only question in whose consideration all +parties unite on the common ground of patriotism. A republican orator +is sure to win the applause of the Right when he refers in eloquent +terms to the "Lost Provinces," "about which," as Gambetta said, "a +Frenchman should always think but say nothing." + +My picture is full of dark colors. But I do not think that I have +exaggerated the faults and weaknesses of the third republic. But it +should be borne in mind that in this brief paper I have dealt alone on +the faults and weaknesses. If I were to go farther and examine the +merits and strong points of the present government of France, I could +easily prove that notwithstanding these faults and weaknesses, it is +highly probable that the various royal and imperial pretenders, their +children and their children's children, will, live and die without +ever being able to set up again in France the throne of the Capets or +that of the Bonapartes. + + + + +LEADERLESS MOBS. + +BY H. C. BRADSBY. + + +Office-holding politicians who have heretofore led the people, are +leading them now, until we, the hapless voters, find ourselves +confronted with the following so-called issues, or rather +absurdities:-- + +Protection with reciprocity--_Republicanism._ + +Free trade with incidental protection--_Democracy._ + +The Democratic ex-President and the Republican President are in +perfect agreement on the question of remonetizing silver and many +sub-leaders and able party newspapers on both sides are in accord with +these two successors of Washington, and the sub-lieutenants pass the +word around, "Do not discuss the silver question, it is an immaterial +issue." + +These are the anomalous conditions of American politics stated in all +seriousness as they appear to a layman. + +A professional politician, even the man who hopes for future office, +understands that real issues are things to be avoided, because he +would rather placate than antagonize, and he needs friends and +supporters, both in the nominating convention and at the polls; and he +is in his best form when he can campaign without a real issue and help +select his adversaries "in buckram and Kendall green" to have it out +with, on the stump. He knows that a plump, simple issue would reach +the average voter's comprehension, and compel him to a simple "yes" or +"no" that might blast his hopes, destroy this happy equilibrium of +voting parties, and the trade of politics might actually go out of +fashion. Pricked by his fears of all real issues, he becomes a genius +in inventing handy apparent ones that are usually glittering +nothings--impalpable shadows about which he can talk so learnedly by +the life-time, and say nothing and mean nothing. So rapidly has this +expert developed in our land of politics that one man shouts, "I am +for tweedle-dum" and the other answers defiantly back, "I am for +tweedle-dee," and the "campaign of education" is on, the jockeys +mounted, the race begins, and as the cloud of dust rises, "the greasy +caps" fill the air. "Spotted Free Trade" is ridden by the "Old Flag"; +"Revenue Only" by the "Screaming Eagle," and the excited voter stakes +his future hopes on "Flag" or "Eagle," most probably as did his father +before him. + +It seems this is the wretched outcome of the hundred years of American +education in politics--making of every man not only a sovereign, but a +possible candidate for President. What is it all but a roaring farce? +If we could forget that this is real government coupled with all the +pains and penalties which are the heritage of ignorance, and not mere +child's play, then even serious intelligence might smile though +commiserating the follies of grown men. Have we finally reached the +condition tending toward national political dementia, or is there no +meaning whatever attached any longer to the name of statesman? + +Let us look a little further into the absurdities over which American +statesmen are so vehemently wrangling. Our government assumes the old +time function of all governments to make and regulate the currency or +money for the transaction of business--a mere convenience for the +measure of values in buying and selling--in another way a thing +performing functions similar to the yard-stick in measuring, and the +great statesmen are wrangling over the problem of what particular +material that convenience shall be made. And our nation, through +Congress and the President, is ever tinkering, changing, altering, and +reversing regulations concerning this "value measurer"--this +convenient representative of property, and the basis of all commerce, +gold, silver, copper, nickel, and paper to-day, and on this basis +contracts and multitudinous transactions are based; then apparently +that confusion and ruin may follow, an act of Congress may be passed +to-morrow changing the whole thing by demonetizing one or remonetizing +the other; and the government finally opens a junk-shop, and is +engaged actively in the "second-hand" trade, or is in sharp +competition with the rag-picker. And our great political educators +fall to wrangling about a proposition, that could be paralleled only +by some phenomenal crank beating up recruits for a new party upon a +platform that all yard-sticks must be made of hickory wood, and he +shall be deemed a counterfeiter who dares to use any other, and the +length of the yard-stick must be flexible so that "a yard shall +always contain a yard's worth of cloth." The children open a play +store, and there the legal tender for all goods is pins, where the +size of the pin or the exact composition it is made of are never +considered. There is, to my mind, no question but the children should +teach our great statesmen some of the fundamentals of common sense. +These are specimens of the economic problems evolved from our hundred +years of voting experiment--the ripened fruit of self-government. +Books and papers are filled with discussions of whether both gold and +silver should be legal tender for debts or only gold. And the rank +sophistries that mark the flood-tide of a campaign discussion either +of this or the problem of taxation are surely to be considered among +the curiosities of our civilization. Just why men should range +themselves on respective party lines on these questions and shut their +eyes to evils that are eating their way to the heart of government and +that unchecked must end in common ruin, passes comprehension. + +The organization of a powerful party machinery with the authority to +discipline recalcitrant or discordant members is a natural outgrowth +of our universal voting. The active politicians and place hunters will +control the machine, and when office, and place are made glittering +prizes, then comes the inevitable scramble, the selfishness, trampling +the weak by the strong, corruption, chicanery, the unspeakable crimes, +and finally the Pandora's box is opened, and the swarming evils darken +the heavens. Inferior men with greatest cunning and least scruples +soon push their way to the front; all sight of good government is +eventually lost, the Washingtons and Jeffersons in time disappear with +a constantly increasing ratio from public life, and the end is the +great Leaderless Mob and bloody chaos. Even at best our politicians +and party publications sing in unison, all struggling to the same end, +victory at the polls and the elimination, as far as possible, of real +issues. Their quadrennial platforms are ever coming nearer and nearer +together--not omitting a plank expressing "profound sympathy" with the +poor, persecuted people of some part of the Old World. A large +majority of the Democracy are openly in favor of free trade and free +silver, while the average "favorite son" is only in favor of "reform" +in tariff, and hence you can find men in favor of a prohibitory +tariff calling themselves Democrats; while many of the lay members of +the Republican party are the earnest advocates of free trade and free +silver. If our statesmen do not use words to conceal ideas, then there +is no question but that the rank and file, those caring nothing about +the offices personally, are in advance of their leaders and party +publications. Unfortunately the average voter studies the science of +politics--good government,--only when thumb-screwed by bad +legislation. When happy and revelling in plenty, this cunning thrift +of politicians is good enough "statesmanship" for pretty much all of +us; then we can really admire the brightness of the great "Magnetic" +when he says, "Boys, I am a model high tarriffite, and in favor of +reciprocity;" even the vitriolic ravings of the iridescent--sparkling +phrases without ideas, torchlight jeremaids about the poor Southern +negro, are all brilliant statesmanship; so long as the waters are +smooth and prosperous, plenty is coming to everybody. But when the +pinch of misgovernment comes in the form of the gaunt wolf then the +people rise up, and without a "statesman" to lead, without a newspaper +to educate, but with a holy wrath, crush out these official puppets. +For at least sixteen years the unbiased intelligence of the Democratic +party (not politicians) has been urging party leaders to take the bold +stand for free trade. During the same time the Republican voters have +urged their leaders to declare for "protection for protection's sake." + +In 1888 the Republican Convention boldly challenged Democrats to the +open issue of protection absolute versus free trade. The best voters +on the other side were eager to pick up this gauge of battle, but +their leaders, covert protectionists, and makeshift office seekers, +bade them nay, and a Democratic "stump speech" in that campaign was a +curiosity. Part first would demonstrate the infamy of all "protection" +taxes; part second would demonstrate that the orator was in favor of +"protection" to a certain degree. Thus handicapped, the Democratic +office seekers fought out the long campaign and lost as they deserved. +Happily for the country, because that victory convinced every +Republican in the land, except the man of Maine, that the people +wanted prohibitory tariffs, all foreign commerce destroyed, and that +they honestly believed there was such a thing as "home markets" to be +regulated by statute. And the "three Bow Street tailors in Congress" +proceeded in all sincerity to carry out what they, in their +simplicity, judged to be the instruction given by the people at the +polls. The "great secretary" alone of the "smart" men of the land, +understood the people in the '88 election better; he, it seems, well +understood that "protection" carried to prohibition was the yawning +grave of any party responsible for it without providing some loop-hole +of escape in the burial ceremony, and this unequalled politician +in the nick of time startled the country with the cry of +"Reciprocity"--spotted free trade. His messmates turned upon him with +objurgations deep, yet he had saved them from themselves, by the bold +dash of a "plumed knight." Had he been in the Kansas senator's place, +Kansas would have been again cajoled and humbugged into silence, and +possibly have given an increase on its 82,000 Republican majority. + +Mr. Blaine was constantly defeated in his ambition to be President. +General Harrison was successful and fills the place that _ex-officio_ +makes him leader. He is nominally the party captain, while in truth +there is more real power in one hand of his armor bearer than there is +in the loins of the Executive. Now the author of the bill increasing +taxes thinks he is on the road to the White House by campaigning Ohio +on the beauties of protection--with reciprocity or "free trade in +spots" left out entirely,--Blaine's happiest invention and the only +thing that will save "the Napoleon" if saved at all, from crushing +defeat this Fall in his own State. The Democrats have put up against +him Governor Campbell with the plankless platform of the "McKinley +bill," and an internal discussion on the silver question. Thus the two +parties of that great State are marshalling in battle array their +lines under banners that might be labelled "Tweedle-dum" and +"Tweedle-dee." The last Democratic President was a product of the long +successes of the Republican party and its mistakes, chief among which +was the covert act demonetizing silver in 1873. It brought its train +of wrong and disaster to our nation; while the people were unconscious +of the cause, yet they could feel the pangs, and results ripened in +1884 in the election of the Buffalo mayor. As President and as +ex-President he is the natural party leader, but he has endorsed the +monstrous act of 1873 in regard to silver, the very mistake that +chiefly made him President, and now should that bar forever the door +of the White House to his re-entry therein, the result would not be +one of the seven wonders of the world. + +These happenings, so fresh and patent, remind one of the sworn +testimony of an eminent general of the late war before the Senatorial +Committee in describing the battle of Gettysburg: "After the lines are +formed and fighting commences all is confusion and hap-hazard." +Apparently there is no science in statesmanship, and our politics are +but a ruthless trampling on the simple maxims of political economy. +These were the forces that secretly working through the patient years +of misrule and folly caused to bloom and fruit in a night, this +stalwart tribe of rural statesmen who so remorselessly struck down the +Republican party in its State of largest majority, and so disfigured +the fortunes of the master polytechnic orator. A hayseed sprouted and +grown in a night like unto Jack's beanstalk, and without leaders--all +concert action mere incidents, the people marched to the polls in +Kansas and amazed the world and themselves. The leaderless mobs met +other leaderless mobs--that proved to be mere skeletons of +organizations led and composed chiefly of wrangling, quarrelling, +purposeless, and nearly idealess politicians. The leaderless mob was +in profound earnest while the "statesmen" as usual were merely +masquerading, with no other weapons of defence against attacks save +that of Samson's when he fought the Philistines--all jaw. + +Politicians discuss with amazing brilliancy their beautiful issue of a +little higher tariffs or a little lower tariffs, while the people +bluntly talk of protection to the full, or absolute free trade. +Politicians really enjoy having made gold the only money, and then +talk learnedly about the government buying so much metal monthly and +coining it, so that silver will be both money and not money, while the +people talk about free silver or gold only. + +These are the conditions existing on the only two national questions +now under consideration. To a layman's mind neither of them should +have ever been made a national question at all. And men called "great +statesmen" who have pushed aside all real economic questions worthy of +consideration among civilized men, and forced these figments forward, +are neither statesmen nor safe politicians. Look at them! Their +discussion of tariffs is whether we must have higher or lower taxes +_per se_. Their contentions on the money question are simply the +vicious acts of Congress that are the same as if we should pass laws +every two years changing the length of our yard-sticks. These are the +great issues breeding our wonderful race of "great statesmen"--the +mountain labored and the little mouse came forth. + +There are vital questions that should, especially in our experimental +voting government, be ever present to all our people for investigation +and permanent settlement, to wit:-- + +How to turn back this stream of paternalism in government--the monster +criminal, the murderer of the dead nations and civilizations, the +river of woe flowing forever round the world. + +How to make the best of governments by ever-lowering taxes? + +How to perfect a "civil service" by burdening officials, lessening +fees and salaries, abolishing patronage, and sealing salaries below +the pay of similar private employ? + +How to better education and thereby check this stream of "learned +ignorance"? + +How to reach the consummation of the best government because the least +governed? + +How to reform our judiciary until justice between men shall be nearly +instantaneous and the next cheapest thing to air and water? + +How to save the weak (the majority) from the strong and selfish? + +How to be the freest and therefore the best people that have ever +lived? + +How to prevent crime and suffering by removing causes? + +How to destroy this struggle for government employ, this passion to be +a public parasite and live off of others' toil? + +How to make and regulate nearly all government institutions upon the +principle of our postal system--self-supporting by the voluntary tax +from those who use its powers or its offices? + +How to eradicate all this flunkeyism that makes idols of +office-holders--mere fetiches producing a species of the lowest order +of hero-worship--a nation of snobs who can meanly admire mean things? + +How to call out statesmen and abolish demagogues? + +How to understand that real statesmen repeal and never enact? + +How to prevent governments from inflicting upon the innocents +unspeakable wrongs, under the monstrous plea that the few must suffer +for the good of the many? + +These and similar questions that are as deep as life itself, and that +should come even to our little children in their romps and plays, the +same as they learn to avoid the pit, or to fear a vicious dog, are the +vital problems of mankind. These are questions essential to the +preservation of life, and touching the progress of civilization; the +natural economic problems that real statesmen should set before the +people. Intelligent study and voting upon these and similar questions +would give us real statesmen for present demagogues. + +The average American is always more than satisfied with his perfect +surroundings so long as he can point out his advantages over the +wretched victims of paternalism in Europe. This is both a low and +ignorant self-laudation. Of course, wretched though you may be, you +are incomparably better off than the miserables of cruel Russia, +because our national government could not possibly be as outrageous as +is of necessity that of the Czar. It has taken many centuries to +evolve such a monster cuttle-fish as the Russian government that has +fastened its tentacles upon its millions of people, and is slowly +crushing out their lives. _This is but government paternalism full and +ripe._ Who shall say that if paternalism in this country goes on as it +is to-day, growing and strengthening, the time is not coming when we +no longer can boast over the people of the God-forsaken land? Mankind +is much the same to-day and forever; _so is government paternalism; +once a foothold gained, it can only be washed out in blood_. The +Russians have been giving over their souls and their lives to their +national fetich which has accepted their patriotic and contrite +offerings, and is now leisurely devouring them. The ancient migrating +barbarian when he camped at night, got his supper by cutting it out of +the hams of the ox that had all day borne him and his load on the +weary journey--he had to have his supper, and just so it is with +Russian government. Just so it will be in any government when it is +impossible longer for the Leaderless Mob to spring into existence and +into power. + +Therefore, rural statesmen, all hail! Grant it that one of your +political measures is rank imbecility, your acts in exposing the +essential knavery of our phenomenal humbugs are beautiful and full of +goodness and wisdom. And your worst, in the face of all jibes, is so +incomparably superior to those of the "great statesmen" that they may +be esteemed actually respectable. When the two parties had become +Leaderless Mobs, because even their fictions or absurd issues had +reached a common point, then arose the people in the might of their +Leaderless Mob, and turned the river into the Augean stables. Who is +it anyhow of the "magnetic" tribe that may cast the first stone at the +"haystack"? They simply broke party shackles and struck boldly for +justice,--blindly it may be--as well it should be, because they could +not well hit amiss. In this scramble and hurly-burly where is the +"statesman" who can point to any similar act of his own in behalf of +his fellow-man? Their most arrant follies at least are not mean +compared to the "issues" as made up by our "great statesmen" of a +little higher tax, or a little lower tax, or a frequent change in the +money standard of the country. + +It is time for intelligent men to tire of all this burlesque of +politics and this solemn joke of calling it "great statesmanship," +that is breeding these ungainly toadies--squat and warty. A country is +great only as her political institutions are good and wise--not merely +when it is strong in numbers, large in acres, and swarming with +politicians and parasites that are worshipped as great and good +statesmen. That is not the kind of greatness of country that I hanker +for very seriously. I would wish a better education for our children +than we have had--one that would cure them of this disease of +ignorance in politics, worship of demagogy and admiration of that +cheap and nasty politics that is our national disease, and that is +making on our body politic abhorrent warts and angry sores. The +mistaken fanatics who are striving to put "God in the Constitution" +are not to blame; they are the offspring of this growing paternalism, +this fetich worship, this public education by these relays of "great +statesmen." + + + + +MADAME BLAVATSKY AT ADYAR. + +BY MONCURE D. CONWAY. + + +When Madame Blavatsky was on her way to found the Theosophical Society +in India, I met her in London, at the house of an American +family,--devout spiritualists. She had a reputation for picking up +teapots from under her chair, and our hostess seemed somewhat +disappointed that she did not accord me some miracle. Although nothing +unusual occurred, Madame Blavatsky was herself sufficiently phenomenal +to make the evening interesting. She was not then, 1878, so huge as +she afterwards became, and was rather attractive. She was humorous, +entertaining, affable; she had the air of a woman who had tried every +experience,--the last person I should have suspected of interest in +spiritual or other philosophy. We next heard of her as the high +priestess of a new cult in India. Rumors reached London, where I was +residing, that this new religion was spreading among the Hindus, +giving much trouble to the missionaries, and that Madame Blavatsky was +suspected of being in the pay of the Russian government. That way of +meeting the new movement was silenced by threats of prosecuting any +who should make personal charges against the leaders of Theosophy. It +was presently reported that Madame Blavatsky had made converts of A. +P. Sinnett, editor of the _Pioneer of India_, and Mr. Allan Hume, +formerly connected with the Indian government. Presently Mr. Sinnett +came to London, and gave us lectures in drawing-rooms on Theosophy. He +expatiated on the wonders performed by Madame Blavatsky with the aid +of certain "Mahatmas," who by secret knowledge, had gained powers of +prolonged existence, and of appearing in their "astral" forms at vast +distances from their retreat in the Himalayas. + +As I was contemplating a journey round the world, which would bring me +to India, I asked Mr. Sinnett, in private conversation, whether I +could make a pilgrimage to the abode of these mighty Mahatmas, and +converse with them. "Do you mean?" he asked, "as you now converse +with me?"--"Yes."--"No."--"Why not?"--"Oh, it would take too long to +explain." Thereafter I tried to find out something that would aid a +practical investigation from Mr. Sinnett's books, but found them +uninstructive and sensational. In the autumn of the same year, I was +in Australia, and found there a good deal of excitement about +Theosophy. At Sydney, where spiritualists and secularists had formed a +curious alliance, Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott were mentioned +as grand personages,--she a countess, he a famous warrior of the +United States army. The marvels they wrought were of only English size +in Australia, but on the approach to India they loomed up in oriental +magnitude. Madame had only to walk in any garden to pick brooches from +flowers, and find rupees at will, like the fabled tree that yielded +whatever was asked of it. + +At length I reached the headquarters of Theosophy, at Adyar, some +fifteen miles out of Madras, and not far from St. Thome, where the +doubting disciple left his footprints blood-stained on the spot of his +martyrdom. Entering Madame's park I passed the pasteboard carcasses of +two blue elephants which had stood at the gateway on the occasion of a +recent Theosophist anniversary. Through the large and leafy park, +luxuriant with palm and mango, I drove up to the handsome mansion, +with a growing suspicion that too much had been said of the sacrifices +made by the New York journalist and the medium in founding their new +religion. While awaiting Madame's appearance, I sat in the veranda, on +a cushioned sofa of fine Indian work, beside a table holding the +newest books and magazines, receiving an impression of the charms with +which self-sacrifice has been invested since the days of poor St. +Thomas. Presently I was approached by a young Hindu, dreamy and +picturesque, who said Madame Blavatsky would soon be with me. Next +there advanced a youth who almost seemed an apparition; he proved to +be a "lay chela," and his snowy garment gave a saintly look to his +delicate beauty. He sweetly apologized for not taking my offered hand, +saying he was forbidden by his "Guru" (Mahatma) to shake hands, this +being one of the conditions of his farther development. + +Madame Blavatsky gave me a cordial welcome. She sent off my carriage, +and urged me to pass the night. She had already been informed by our +friend, Professor Smith, of Sydney University, that I was coming, and +regretted Colonel Olcott's absence. Her dress was the white gown, +without belt, which makes a noon costume of Russian ladies in summer. +Her manner was easy, her talk witty, and she disarmed prejudice by her +impulsive candor. In addition to the two Hindus already mentioned, +others joined us, among these Norendranath Sen, editor of the _Indian +Mirror_, and relative of the Brahmo apostle Keshub Chunder Sen. All of +them spoke good English. Another person present was W. T. Brown, an +educated young Scotchman, and Dr. Hartmann, of Colorado. These young +men, the Hindus especially, were eager to relate their marvellous +experiences in receiving from the distant Mahatmas immediate answers +to their letters. The letters, it was explained, were placed "in the +shrine," and I at once proposed to write a note, referring to some +matter known to myself alone, in order to carry home evidence of the +existence and knowledge of the Mahatmas. + +"What a pity!" broke in Madame Blavatsky, who had not participated in +the conversation, "only three days ago I was told by my Guru that the +shrine must not be used for letters any more!" + +"It has generally been my luck," I said, perhaps betraying vexation. +"For thirty years I have been unwearied in trying to test alleged +phenomena, but have always happened to be a little too late or a +little too early. I was assured that it would be otherwise here!" + +The young Hindus had eagerly approved my proposal to test the Mahatma, +and had evidently heard nothing of the prohibition. Madame Blavatsky, +who betrayed no embarrassment whatever, presently arose, invited me to +accompany her, and led me to a secluded room. Here she shut the door, +lit a cigarette, offered me one, and sat serenely awaiting my next +move. I told her that I had a sincere purpose in coming. Some of my +valued friends were deeply interested in Theosophy. If extraordinary +events were really occurring, none could be more ready to acknowledge +them than myself. I had a congregation in London, and we were not +afraid to recognize new facts if verified. "Now," I said, "what do +these rumors mean? I hear of your lifting teapots from beneath your +chair, summoning lost jewels, conversing with Mahatmas a thousand +miles away." + +"Your questions shall be answered," said Madame Blavatsky. "You are a +public teacher and ought to know the truth. It is glamour; people +think they see what they do not see. That is the whole of it." + +I could not repress some homage to the sagacity of this unwitnessed +confession. Forewarned that I was coming, Madame had received from her +Guru a convenient prohibition against further use of the shrine as a +post-office; and now, by one clever stroke, she altogether forestalled +an inconvenient investigation. Obstruction to experiments, or evasion, +would have been such confession as I could use. Failure to obtain +phenomena that could be verified might subtly awaken skepticism in the +simple-hearted Hindus around her. But this secret confession, which +might be repudiated if necessary, raised my whole siege at once.[3] +And the confession itself, while it admitted the unreality of the +miracles, left a marvel,--namely, her power to cause the +hallucinations. I remembered the legend of Glam, from whom came our +word "glamour," and had a droll feeling of being defeated, like +Grettir, in the moment of his victory over that moonshine-giant. As +says the Saga, "even as Glam fell a cloud was driven from the moon, +and Glam said, Exceedingly eager hast thou sought to meet me, Grettir, +but no wonder will it be deemed, though thou gettest no good hap of +me." Even so it proved lately, when I told my friend, Anne Besant, +that Madame Blavatsky had admitted it was glamour. She reminded me of +the power still left unexplained, to cast the glamour. + + [3] Although this interview is here printed for the first time, + I mentioned it to some of Madame Blavatsky's friends so that + she might have an opportunity of giving her version. I am + told that she said she gave me an answer as directed by her + Guru. I must conclude therefore that unless the Gurus are all + glamour, they must be raised by their superhuman merits above + the obligations of truth. + +The remaining hours of my visit at Adyar were occupied with study of +the subjects of Madame's hypnotic powers,--as I supposed them to be. +The young Hindus, with their refined faces and symbolical draperies, +conveyed an impression of being like the magical mangoes which the +jugglers evoke, looking at them from time to time to see how they are +growing. There were phases of chelahood, with precise terms for each. +I was invited to visit the shrine. It was in a small room, and stood +against the wall, reaching nearly to the ceiling. It was decorated +with mystical emblems and figures, and a breath of incense came when +the doors were opened. The Hindus prostrated themselves on the floor, +and hid their faces; it was explained as their oriental custom, but it +is certainly favorable to Thaumaturgy. Two days afterwards I was told, +being then at sea, that while we visited the shrine a mysterious bell +had sounded. No such incident was mentioned at the time, and I felt +quite sure that Madame Blavatsky and myself were the only persons +present whose testimony would be trustworthy. The interior of the +shrine was inlaid with metal work. There were various figures, Buddha +being in the centre, and framed "portraits" of Mahatmas Koothoomi and +Moria. Each portrait was about seven inches high, and if drawn, as I +understood, by astral art, it may be hoped the process will remain +occult. Koothoomi, who somewhat resembled an old London portrait I +have of Rammohun Roy, holds a small barrel-shaped praying-machine on +his head. + +A considerable company surrounded the dinner table, and included one +or two whom I had not seen. Madame Blavatsky was a genial hostess. +When a disciple told some miraculous experience she would turn to me +and say, "Now think of that!" She ate little, but smoked a cigarette +during the repast. Late in the evening, as I insisted on leaving, she +ordered her carriage for me, and promised me an astral apparition of +herself after I should reach London. I did not find in Madame +Blavatsky the coarseness of which I had heard, and suspect it is +mainly due to a prejudice against ladies smoking. + +Our ship between Madras and Calcutta was a floating epitome of the +world. There were missionaries contending with pundits, and world +travellers lazily amused by discussions involving the eternal welfare +of the human race. But the disputes had a hollow and perfunctory +sound, and the cultured Englishmen stood apart. Mozoomdar, of the +Brahmo-Somaj, preached us an ordinary Unitarian sermon. In private he +expressed to me a horror of Madame Blavatsky, but he did not appear to +me possessed of such religious enthusiasm as Norendranath Sen, whom I +had met at Adyar. The latter reproved me for wishing to see Madame +Blavatsky's wonders, instead of recognizing in Theosophy a movement +that was saving India from being dragged into revolting dogmas called +Christianity, its superstitions, discords, inhumanities. Even +admitting that some delusions, or impositions, have been connected +with the movement, they would pass away if liberal men did not make so +much of them, and would help to develop Theosophy into a religion +related to the devout and poetic genius of the oriental world. The +words of this thoughtful Hindu impressed me much. I need only look +about me on the ship to recognize the fact that the West is +overturning the deities and altars of the East, but has no religion to +give these instinctive worshippers. The scholarly English Church would +appear to have become conscious of this, and is leaving the work of +propagandism to vulgar and ignorant sects. There seems to be nothing +offered the young Hindus graduated in the universities of India except +a repulsive "Salvationism" on the one hand, and a cold Agnosticism on +the other. I had conversed with a company of students at Madras, and +found them hardly able to understand the interest with which I +followed the processions of "idols" about the streets, such things +being looked on by them much as a march of the Salvation Army might be +regarded by Oxonians. They had little interest in Christianity, but +some of them spoke reverently of Buddha, and probably Theosophy has +done something to revive in India love for that long banished teacher. + +On the whole, I found the little company in their beautiful retreat at +Adyar becoming more and more picturesque in the distance. It seems a +hard, precipitous fall from visions of Indra's paradise to a +materialistic world of predatory evolution. The youth at Adyar, +dreaming of Mahatmas in mystical mountains, and evolving a natural +supernaturalism, may be dwelling amid illusions; but, as Shakespeare +tells us, our little life is rounded with a sleep,--a dreamland. If +Madame Blavatsky had recovered Prospero's buried wand, and amid the +dry and dusty realism of our time raised for her followers a realm of +faerie, beguiling them from scenes of falling temples and fading +heavens, were it not cruel to break her wand, even though it be +glamour? I remember at Concord, in my youth, a little controversy in +which miracles were critically handled, some ladies present being +distressed. Emerson had remained silent, and on our way home said, +"After all it appears doubtful whether, when children are enjoying a +play, one must tell them the scene is paint and pasteboard, and the +fairy's jewels but glass." + +So I bore away from Adyar a slight sprinkle of Madame Blavatsky's +moonshine. But it was rudely dispelled in Calcutta and Bombay, where +the priestess had worn out her welcome by attempts at fraud. One of +these instances was related by Mr. J. D. Broughton, a gentleman +connected with the Indian government, to whom I carried a letter of +introduction. Unwilling to accept any such fact without verification, +I afterwards corresponded with those cognizant of the facts, and have +before me now their letters establishing the statements of the +following from Mr. Broughton. + + "I was in Calcutta, and a friend was staying with me, Mr. H. + Blanford, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and head of the + Meteorological Department,--a practical man, not, I think, + disposed to judge wrongly one way or the other. We both know Mrs. + Gordon [a spiritualist] the lady to whom Mr. Eglinton [a + spiritualist medium of London] wrote--or says he wrote--from the + Vega, while at sea; and I am on friendly terms with her, as is + Mr. Blanford to the best of my belief. She called at my house a + day or two after the Vega had left Colombo, and produced a + letter, an envelope, and two or three cards. The letter was from + Mr. Eglinton. It was not in the envelope, but was attached to it + by a string in the corner, which was passed through the corner of + the cards. These cards had writing upon them, which we were told + was the writing of Madame Blavatsky, then at Poona. The writing + on the cards referred to the contents of the letter. The envelope + had three crosses on the back of it. Mrs. Gordon stated that + these letters had been brought to her the day before by what are + called astral means, having been conveyed from the Vega, then on + the way from Colombo to Aden, first to Poona, and then from Poona + to her residence in Housah, a suburb of Calcutta. I have not the + slightest doubt that Mrs. Gordon firmly believed this, and I am + under the impression that she believes it still. Mr. Blanford and + I, however, ventured to ask a few questions as to the + circumstances under which the letters made their appearance at + Housah, and the replies led us to form an opinion that the lady + might have been imposed upon. The circumstances, which were, I + believe, considered to amount to strong proof in favor of the + astral theory, were published in a paper called _Psychic Notes_, + in Calcutta. + + "I wrote to my wife [who had travelled on the Vega to England] + and sent this account to her. She replied that Mr. Eglinton had + brought a letter to her [during the voyage] to be marked,--that + it had a cross upon it, and that she had been asked to mark + another or others, and that she did so, crossing the first + cross. + + "I will add that when my wife left Calcutta I accompanied her in + a steam launch, and she embarked on board the Vega at Diamond + Harbor. I was the bearer of a letter to Mr. Eglinton. It was + given to me for him by Mrs. Gordon, I think, but I won't be + positive. I had known Mr. Eglinton; he was in the habit, when in + Calcutta, of giving exhibitions of his powers in private houses, + for a fee. He came to our house in this way, but nothing + occurred; I think he considered it a failure." + +Mrs. Broughton writes that she was with her friend Mrs. Eddis when +Eglinton brought the letter. Both ladies observed that the letter +which Koothoomi was to convey across the sea contained no allusion to +anything that had occurred since they left--nothing that might not +have been written before they started. Instead of marking the +envelope, for identification, in the way Eglinton suggested, she made +his cross into an asterisk. But the envelope published in India to +prove the power of Koothoomi was marked, as Eglinton had requested, +with three separate crosses. All efforts to obtain explanation of the +difference between the marks on the letter sent and the letter +received were vain. In reply to my question Mr. Sinnett said, "All I +can tell you now is that Mrs. Broughton acted very badly." I was +present when the Hon. Mrs. Pitt Rivers pressed Colonel Olcott for an +explanation. He replied, "The tone of your question suggests collusion +between the Theosophists of India and Mr. Eglinton. To such a charge I +am, of course, dumb." It was the only prudent answer he could make. + +This incident lowered my idea of Madame Blavatsky's powers. It was not +clever to rest so much on the pliability of a "society lady" with whom +she was unacquainted. I presently found that at Bombay she had failed +in several performances, but was shielded by a theosophistical +argument that mere jugglers never fail.[4] There was a pretty general +feeling in Calcutta and Bombay that no glamour or magnetic mystery was +needed for Madame Blavatsky's thaumaturgy, which would soon collapse +in Madras as elsewhere. Nearly the first thing I heard after reaching +London (1884) was of that collapse. Mr. and Mrs. Coulomb, the former a +skilled mechanic, had confessed at Madras that they had all along +been assisting Madame Blavatsky in frauds; elaborate contrivances were +discovered behind the shrine, and compromising letters written by the +high priestess were produced. Madame Blavatsky declared that the +contrivances were put in the shrine to ruin her; but Coulomb could +have done that by a small mechanism, whereas the arrangements were +extensive and expensive, requiring such time as must have assured +detection, and money which he had not. The letters, mainly efforts to +prevent the Coulombs from revealing the frauds, were pronounced +forgeries; but no expert reading them can fail to perceive that to +forge them would require a genius far beyond even that of Madame +Blavatsky. The letters are brilliant, and Mrs. Coulomb is sometimes +worsted in them. Mrs. Coulomb, after her confession, wrote me a long +letter, which shows no trace of the style or ability disclosed in the +Blavatsky letters. However, it was a sufficient confession that the +Theosophists receded from a proposal to test all these things, +including the handwriting of the letters, before a law court, for +which the Coulombs were eager. The result was that Madame Blavatsky +left India and established herself in London. + + [4] Commissioner Grant was awakened by a telegram and requested + to look for a cigarette in a certain part of the Prince of + Wales' statue, in Bombay; he went and found nothing. Mrs. + Coulomb now says she was Madame B----'s confederate, and that + she was afraid of being taken up as a lunatic if she climbed + to the unicorn's horn where the cigarette was to be placed. + So she said the rain must have washed it away. Madame + Blavatsky showed mental weakness in not considering the + difficulties, and her fondness for cigarettes made her set + them too high in dignity as well as position. + +At the very time that I was at Adyar, and despite a certain repugnance +to "occultism," sympathetically appreciating the serene harmony of the +Theosophists in their beautiful retreat amid the palms, the place was +turbid with discord, Madame Blavatsky at one end of the table and the +Coulombs at the other were even then in mortal combat. I have often +marvelled at the self-possession of the woman under the suspended +sword that presently fell. + +The most curious thing about this turbaned Spiritualism is its +development of the Koothoomi myth. I asked Sir W. W. Hunter, +Gazetteer-General of India, and other orientalists, about the name of +this alleged Mahatma, or Rabat, and they declared Koothoomi to be +without analogies in any Hindu tongue, ancient or modern. I was +assured on good authority that the name was originally "Cotthume," and +a mere mixture of Ol-_cott_ and _Hume_, Madame Blavatsky's principal +adherents. Out of Madame's jest was evolved this incredible being, who +performed the part allotted to the aboriginal "John King" in America. +Sumangala, chief priest of the Buddhist world, though not unfriendly +to Theosophy, told me that it was a belief among them that there had +been Rahats in the early world. I gathered from him and others that +they are thought of as Enoch, Seth, Elias, etc., are in Christendom. +The Coulomb story is that a pasteboard doll, with half-shrouded head, +superimposed on the shoulders of Mr. Coulomb, himself orientally +draped, moved about in the dusk at Adyar when an "astral" apparition +was wanted. In an accession of conscience, Mrs. Coulomb, who is a +Catholic, smashed the effigy. She says she had not cared much so long +as Hindus only were cheated, because they believed such things anyway, +but she could not stand it when European gentlemen and ladies were +subjects of the imposture. Perhaps it was because of this moral +"strike" that Koothoomi was not tried on me. + +What will be the future of Theosophy? Its age of miracles has passed, +and is more likely to be repudiated than renewed. It may easily be +held that even if Madame Blavatsky was sometimes tempted, in the +absence of her potent Guru, to satisfy the demand for signs and +wonders with devices, she performed wonders not so explicable. In one +of Madame Blavatsky's letters to Mrs. Coulomb, she says, defiantly, "I +have a thousand strings to my bow, and God Himself could not open the +eyes of those who believe in me." Elsewhere she quotes a letter she +(Blavatsky) has from Colonel Olcott, saying: "If Madame Coulomb, who +has undeniably helped you in some phenomena, for she told this to me +herself, were to proclaim it on the top of the roof, it would change +nothing in my knowledge, and that of Dr. Hartmann, Brown, Sinnett, +Hume, and so many others, in the appreciation of Theosophy and their +veneration for the brothers. You alone would suffer. For even if you +yourself were to tell me that the Mahatmas do not exist, and that you +have tricked in every phenomenon produced by you, I would answer you +that YOU LIE, for we know the Mahatmas, and know that you cannot--no +more than a fly on the moon--have produced certain of the best of your +phenomena." It should be stated here that, in the whole correspondence +revealed by Mrs. Coulomb, Colonel Olcott appears as the dupe of Madame +Blavatsky, and in no case accessory to imposture unless by an amazing +credulity. + +We may assume that Colonel Olcott will continue his propaganda, and it +remains only to consider what vitality there is in Theosophy, apart +from its "occultism," and what competency its leader has for such +work. I gathered up in India a number of Colonel Olcott's addresses, +circulated in cheap form, and find them much like "The Veiled Isis" +ascribed to Madame Blavatsky. They contain a medley of Buddhist, +Brahmanic, and Zoroastrian traditions, interpreted in a mystical and +moral way, the only thing systematic being a Buddhist catechism. This +catechism was printed by the favor of a Singhalese lady, and approved, +for use in schools, by the Buddhist high priest Sumangala. Colonel +Olcott's theosophy on the negative side aims to combine all oriental +religions against Christianity. He has not "any belief in, or +connection with, Christianity in any form whatsoever." (_Theosophy and +Buddhism_, p. 2.) But he maintains the oriental philosophies, and to +some extent the mythologies, of eras corresponding to the discredited +biblical doctrines and legends. It is not, indeed, a literal +restoration; but no esoteric interpretation can make it very different +from an attempt to rationalize for Europeans ancient Druidism, or for +Americans Aztec fables and symbolism. This kind of revival appeals in +a certain way to the Rajahs whom English rule has reduced to +antiquarian curiosities; they too are survivals from primitive +religious and social systems. Colonel Olcott had patrons among the +Rajahs who used to send elephants to meet him, and entertain him in +their palaces. But young India is not going that way. English freedom +and English colleges have emancipated Hindu youth, and they look upon +the cruel idolatry under which their fathers groaned as Colonel Olcott +does on the Puritanism he fiercely denounces. + +But if Colonel Olcott should give up his Rajahs and elephants, and fix +his headquarters in Ceylon, there would be, I believe, fair prospect +of a fruitful alliance of Theosophy with Buddhism. In this island, now +the centre of the Buddhist world, I found Madame Blavatsky +comparatively unimportant, the great personage being Colonel Olcott. +The Buddhists are a mild, speculative, unambitious people, easily +overborne by the aggressive missionaries, and were without any leader +to defend their rights before Olcott came. He came to their rescue in +a case where their procession was attacked by Catholics, while +enshrining relics of Buddha,--the Catholics thinking it a mockery of +their own processions. Colonel Olcott appealed to the government and +obtained redress. The Catholics (Portuguese) presently found some +holy well, pointed out, I believe, by a vision, where ailing pilgrims +were said to be healed,--among these a number of Buddhists who were +deserting their temples. Colonel Olcott announced that he would try +and heal sufferers in the name of Buddha, and it is said his success +quite eclipsed the holy well. Several eminent Buddhists told me that +he had healed members of their families. He is a robust man, of +powerful will, and in these days of hypnotism his influence over the +most passive of people may appear less wonderful to us than to them. +No Christian was found willing to meet him in debate. By lectures, in +which Ingersollism blends with Arnold's "Light of Asia," the Colonel +brought about a sort of Buddhist revival. The Singhalese saw the +Theosophists as wise men from the West, bringing frankincense and +myrrh to the cradle of their prophet. Although their high priest, +Sumangala, expressed disbelief in the Mahatmas, he valued the services +of Colonel Olcott. He was especially moved by a request from this +American for his permission to administer the _pansala_ to another +American. The ceremony took place at Madras. The two Americans, amid a +crowd of witnesses, went through formulas unheard there since the +ancient banishment of the Buddhists. "I take refuge in Buddha! I take +refuge in religion! I take refuge in Truth!" The Colorado doctor +(Hartmann) pledged observance of the Five Precepts (_pansala_): +abstinence from theft, lying, taking life, intoxicating drink, +adultery. All of this has profoundly impressed the Buddhist world, but +that is a world of humble people. It remains to be seen whether +Theosophy, which has hitherto shown an affection for titles in India +and London, is willing to take its place beside Buddha under his Bo +tree, and share the lowliness of his followers. This may be rather +hard after the rapid success of Theosophy in India, where in four +years from its foundation (1879) it counted seventy-seven flourishing +branches; but these are withering away under the Blavatsky scandals, +and if Theosophy is to live it must "take refuge in Buddha!" + + + + +EMANCIPATION BY NATIONALISM. + +BY T. B. WAKEMAN. + + +The usually very liberal and skeptical Reverend Minot J. Savage has +become astonishingly, and it may be prematurely, certain on one +subject. In THE ARENA for August (p. 321) he declares that, +"Nationalism, freely chosen, would be the murder of liberty, and +social suicide." To which the usually impartial editor cries Amen, +thus:-- + +"I most heartily _and_ cordially endorse Mr. Savage's position." For +this sudden and decisive foreclosure of the future and of THE ARENA +upon Nationalism the world was not prepared. We enter a protest and an +appeal! Able "Gladiators are ready to fight for it," with aid and +sympathy from the leading reformers--the world over. The contest has +hardly begun. A Bunker Hill or a Bull Run does not end the war. + +He who opened _an Arena_ must keep it open, and like "the God of +battles" wait for the best cause to win. + +Suppose it be found, as we propose to begin to show here and now, that +Nationalism, under the laws of Sociology, is not the murder, but in +fact and theory, the only condition of liberty, and the only way out +from social suicide,--what then? Would it not have been better for THE +ARENA to have been kept open, as if by the aforesaid Deity, with a +level head and a stiff and silent upper lip? + +For the Reverend and exultant Mr. Savage his exasperating situation is +his excuse. For, with the inbred and lethal instinct of a Theolog he +was put upon the trail of a brother Theolog to bring in his scalp. To +return without _some_ scalp would be a disgrace. But on coming up with +his reverend brother Bellamy, instead of finding him ready for fight +or "treed, like Capt. Scott's coon," he finds him already down and +explaining in the blandest style: That, whereas, "this difficulty" was +a secular one, not at all theological, but quite within the bounds of +"the Knowable," there was really no necessity for one brother to scalp +the other, although both were clergymen. He even proposed ways by +which the manifest benefit of both, and of all, could be secured if +they should hunt together, being sure to go no further than such +benefit justified. But an accommodation was just what the Reverend +Savage was not out to find. Shaking his war feathers, he says, "You +are too fair,--I must kill you, _or something_, though it may be +'cruelty to animals.' Stop,--I sniff 'paternalism'! It must be you or +yours!" And without waiting for an answer he bangs away at that old +skunk which hasn't a friend on this side of the world. Then, inflamed +by smell of powder, blood, or something worse, he goes it wild, +mistakes even the good social domestic animals for wild beasts, and +his reverend friend as their protector. His slaughter of these purely +imaginary enemies is accompanied by a self-approving wit, which only +exhales when, as Mephisto says, the Parson and Comedian are happily +combined, and inspire each other. But, alas! neither prayers nor +laughter can settle the industrial and political difficulties of our +day. They may do, and are doing, much to prevent such settlement, +which must come from people who do not live in another world, and +therefore are not free to ignore or to make a joke of this. There is +hope, therefore, when our reverend friend "ties his legs," and in his +said article settles down to steady numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4. For by them, +we can at least get hold of him, and all points in his prior antics +can be thereunder disposed of. + +He delivers his first fire, thus:-- + +"1. The world began in Socialism. In the barbaric period the tribe was +all, the individual nothing. Every step of human progress has kept +pace with the rise of the individual." + +Most true! But that is half of the truth. If you had told the other +half your article could not have been written, for it would have been +answered beforehand from a to z. The other half is: That the rise of +the individual has always been because of, and the result of, the +concomitant and ever-increasing Socialism. The two have ever gone, and +must ever go, hand in hand. Integration is the inevitable counterpart +of individuation. + +This is the fundamental law of history and Sociology, recognized the +world over, as much as the law of gravitation. To blink it, is to go +wild or blind. This is the law of progress upon which all human +affairs expand, and there is scarcely a difference in wording it. +For instance, in the last book out on "Economics,"--that of +Prof. George Gunton, he says (p. 22): "Progress is an _integrating_ +differentiation. Only that differentiation is progressive which +results in _new_ integrations and greater complexity of social +relations." Comte's, and Fiske's, and Herbert Spencer's statements of +the same law are the same in substance, but too well known to quote +here. So Professor Huxley in his "Administrative Nihilism," Henry +George in "Social Problems," and indeed pretty much everybody who +touches the subject, except Mr. Savage. He, however, has the grace to +admit that "The world began in Socialism,"--and, by the law referred +to, it will continue in an ever-enlarging, integrating Socialism, till +the rise of "the complete individual" will result. Yes, man's origin +was social; from the "Social Anthropoids,"--says Professor Huxley; and +to omit the continuance of this social fact and law in sociology is +worse than talking pre-Copernican astronomy. That should be left to +our metaphysical anarchists, who chatter as if man was a solitarily +created "Adam," defying the social "compact" of Rousseau, or dickering +as to the terms upon which he will "come in." + +From Henry C. Carey's noble work, "Social Science," Americans should +have heard, if not read, enough of this law of enlarging integration +never to forget it, or to let those address them who have. He +illustrates it not only by human history, but by the fundamental law +of biology from Oken, Goethe, and the evolutionists generally. This +application has been continued by them to the present day; the last +instance I noticed is that of Prof. Ernst Haeckel, translated in Dr. +Paul Carus' late work, "The Soul of Man." This law measures the +progress of organisms from the homogeneous jelly-fish to the complex +elephant or man; from the savage tribe to the Roman Empire, or the +future "Federation of Mankind and Parliament of the World." +Integration is the mother, nurse, and protector of the individual. + +In history and politics this law stands, however expressed or applied, +as the door which opens to the mental vision, the river of human +evolution and progress,--a sight grander far than Niagara. Those who +see not this fact, law, vision!--are socially blind. + +In industrial and economic evolution the same law of progress holds. +The tribal homogeneous industry, when one man did work at everything, +became heterogeneous, special, and complex, as society enlarged and +advanced into higher integrations, and as the life of the individual +became more and more advanced through Fetichism, Polytheism, +Monotheism, to our modern inception of Humanism. + +Do you stop this lecture to say that all this is a truism--a +"chestnut"? + +Yes, but everybody who talks against Nationalism forgets it. So follow +a step farther. + +"People will buy where they can buy the cheapest." But the cheapest +can only result from the highest integration of capital, machinery, +labor, intellect, and means of _wholesale_ production. Thus industrial +integration and progressive civilization, where the people can have +the means of a higher life, are indispensable parts and complements of +each other. But the result and the difficulty is, that _while_ the +people get their travel, oil, sugar, and necessities of life cheaper +and better than ever, they become the dependents, wage-slaves, and +political and social underlings of the _industrial Feudal System_ +which that integration of transporting and producing monopolies builds +up. For, those who can and do combine to control the conditions of the +people's life and welfare have the people and their Republic in their +power. Under the integration of the Roman Empire and Papacy the +"Republic" was continued, but as a name only. + +The lesson of history is, that Republics and Liberty always go down +when the necessary integrations of civilization and progress, military +or other, pass from the control of the people. In a word monopoly in +war, politics, industry, or in any form of integration, has been the +murder of Liberty, ending in social suicide. Nationalism proposes to +prevent this murder and suicide under the law above stated, thus: +Whenever the necessary transportation and production are integrated +into monopolies beyond the power of competition to control them, then +the people must control and operate them, or become the dependents of +those who do. Such is the difficulty, the danger, and the remedy, +concisely stated. Critics like Mr. Savage can only reply: "The +difficulty does not exist; the remedy is worse than the disease; there +is a better remedy." But Mr. Savage admits the difficulty. In an +evasive way he says, "the industrial condition of the world is not all +that one could wish." But he has no remedy, and concludes by saying +the remedy proposed would kill the patient sooner than the disease. +This is the diagnosis of an ostrich who tries to escape by burying his +head in the sand. It simply abandons the patient and there is no +solution, no health in that. Let our lecture proceed and see if there +is not a scientific remedy. + +"Capital is the condition of production and the controlling factor of +modern civilization." Those who control it are the masters of the +world. The contest of the monopolists of this capital with the workers +and producers, that is, the people, is a burning fever which can only +end by the healthy triumph of the people. There is not a railroad, +mine, or factory, where this is not the daily issue upon which an +internecine war is being waged or smothered. In literature, religion, +politics, economics, ethics, everything turns upon the relations of +these contending parties, from the Pope's Encyclical to the Platform +of the People's Party. When we speak of our age, as the age of iron, +silver, gold, or of steam, electricity, intellect!--we simply say it +is the age of integrated capital, material and mental. To destroy this +capital is impossible, and if possible would be the suicide of +civilization. + +The question then urges upon us in every direction: Shall the people +become the slaves of this capital, or its masters? The watchman on the +towers of our Boston Zion who fails to see the gathering storm clouds +seems strangely out of place, when we recall 1775 and 1861. +Nationalism says, the "Conflict is irrepressible," between labor and +individualized capital; and that the conflict will be fatal to +liberty, unless a remedy is found under the law of our national +evolution. This remedy that law gives as follows: That the people must +defend their liberties and "the rise of the individual," against this +industrial despotism of money kings, railroad barons, political +bosses, etc., better than they defended themselves against the foreign +tyrants in 1775, or the slaveocrats of 1861,--to-wit, by organizing an +army for their _peaceful_ protection and safety--_A free Army of +Industry_--before an army _for war_ shall be needed, and as its +preventive. + +But this name, "Army of Industry," fills our peaceful Mr. Savage with +horror--a remedy worse than the disease? For thus he lets off his +second charge:-- + +"2. Military Socialism, such as Mr. Edward Bellamy advocates, would be +only another name for universal despotism, in which the individual, if +not an officer, would only count one in the ranks. It would be the +paradise of officialism on the one hand, and helpless subordination on +the other." + +Mr. Savage has been taking novels and poetry literally, and has gone +into a fright at a ghost raised by his own excited imagination; or +else, he makes an objection out of a figure of speech because hard up +for a real one. Who does not see that an "industrial army" has nothing +to do with a military army, or a military despotism, except to prevent +both. There is no war, military compulsion, or "military" at all, in +the army of peace. The word "army" is short poetry for the order, +economy, punctuality, and reliable co-operation and co, not +_sub_-ordination of the public administration of industries. Remember +that we are in America, where this administration will be quite +different from that proposed in Europe where the Revolution of 1776 +was not, and where "government" is one of divine right, authority, and +force, and covers the all of life from the cradle to the grave. + +Nationalism is purely an American product, to be exercised as a +popular benefit, and having no mainspring or motive power but that. It +is the co-operation and co-ordination of equal partners, and while by +a figure of speech _fraternalism_ might be used to describe it, +_paternalism_ can never be properly so used. When Mr. Savage says, or +implies otherwise, he is simply imposing upon, or trading upon an +ignorance he ought to correct. He must know that the attempt to load +up American Nationalism with European despotism, Paternalism, or even +Socialism, is to bear false witness against his neighbor. + +Before writing on this subject, he must have become acquainted with +the late writings of Prof. Richard T. Ely, and _The New Nation_ of +Edward Bellamy, whose standing motto is: "The industrial system of a +nation, as well as its political system, ought to be a government of +the people, by the people, for the people." And further it says (Aug. +1, p. 426): "This step necessarily implies that under the proposed +national industrial system, the nation should be no respecter of +persons in its industrial relations with its members, but that the law +should be, as already it is in its political, judicial, and military +organization,--from all equally; to all equally." Equality, +Fraternity, Liberty, are the words. + +Pages with similar import can be cited from every exponent of +Nationalism. It all means that our "government" will not be of force +or of authoritarianism, but simply public conveniences and needs +regularly secured, without being farmed out by franchise laws to +monopolistic corporations for their benefit. + +Notice further, that the extension of this government--action of the +people is not to do nor to extend to everything nor to anything, but +to the _material needs_ and _industries_ of the people, beginning with +those natural monopolies like railroads and telegraphs, ending with +trusts, etc., which have passed beyond competition. This simple limit +makes the cry of "universal despotism" absurd. The tyranny and robbery +of the few is simply abolished by the people, in equitably resuming +the franchise granted by them, and doing the work for all cheaper and +better. There is no tyranny to the few in this; and as to the many or +all,--the tyranny of having things you want done for you is laughable. +Our anarchists invariably submit to the tyranny of our free +nationalized Brooklyn Bridge instead of swimming the river, or using +the ferry company, as they are at full liberty to do. We had a hard +fight to get this bridge, for it displaced monopolies. When the other +monopolies, we have referred to, are displaced by the people, there +will be the same wonder that their tyrannies and exactions were ever +submitted to. We have found, and will find, that that government is +the best which serves and administers the most, for it will cost and +restrain the least. The government that serves and protects the people +will not need to compel them. Now its main business is to hold them +down while they are being robbed. + +But, says Mr. Savage, these advantages would be attended by a +frightful "paradise of officialism"--a helpless subordination--in +which "the individual if not an officer would only count one!" We +cannot appreciate the horror of having more of "a paradise" about +officialism than we have in our present corrupt, inconstant, and +servile system of political Bossism, even if the individual could only +"count one." But Mr. Savage does know, or ought to know, that the very +first step of Nationalism is to nationalize our "politics," so as to +restore the initiative of political action to the people, and render +the abuses to which he refers impossible. He seems to suppose that +Nationalism is to be executed by Tammany Hall! Indeed, his capital as +an opponent of Nationalism consists in loading it up with European +paternalism and American political corruption, both of which it was +invented to render impossible. Suppose the "politics" of New York +were nationalized so that the City should no longer be a mere annex of +Tammany Hall, but so that every citizen might "count one," under legal +provisions for the vote and expression of the people without regard to +party or boss--who would be wronged? Politics must be annexed to our +government by such legal provisions, instead of being left to boss +monopoly or mobocracy. There is no freedom possible without a common +law and order to ensure and protect it. The trouble is now that all of +our politics are _outside_ of any law or order. "Count one!" Even that +is now impossible. We don't count at all, no more than if we lived in +Russia. But how many does Mr. Savage want an individual to count? His +idea of political freedom seems to be that of our old "free" Fire +Department, which was a monopoly entirely "voluntary." It gave us a +fire and _free_ fight nearly every night, developed its "Big Six" +Tweed into a "statesman," and consolidated Tammany Hall into the model +political "combine" of the world--as a monopoly. The custom is to +dispose of the offices of the people as profitably as it can _with +safety_, and to divide the proceeds for the benefit of the combine. +One of our purest and best judges publishes his last contribution as +$10,000, besides his other election expenses. This is the model to +which the State and Nation _must_ conform, for such is the condition +of success. Under that plan Governor Hill manages the State of New +York, and President Harrison, through "Boss" Platt, has just removed +Collector Erhardt from the New York custom house, under the imperative +necessity of the same method. + +As long as our Government is run by partisan politics, outside of law, +there is no other alternative but this way or defeat. The pretence, +under this method, of civil service reform or fair tenure is sheer +hypocrisy. The Tammany method is the only condition of success, and +every practical politician knows it and adopts it. Nationalism +proposes the only remedy. It would remove every department from +political control, and restore the political initiative to the people +by requiring their common action under general laws for that purpose, +and suppressing as criminal the Boss conspiracy system, which causes +the counting of less than one by anyone. Do you say it cannot be done? +Well! look at that Fire Department. The indignation of "the State" +finally replaced it by a paid civil service, "nationalized" +department. Since then our fire affairs have run cheaply, effectively, +smoothly, though in a most trying environment. Fires seldom occur, and +seldom extend beyond the building in which they occur. The old abuses, +political and other, have stopped. The men, appointed and promoted for +merit, are highly respected and secured against causeless removal, +accident, sickness, and old age. "Helpless subordination" ended by an +appeal to the law which gave prompt redress. The heads of the +departments and the officers count one and the attempt to count more +would be an assumption not submitted to for a moment, for no one +_needs_ to submit. Extend this method _mutatis mutandis_ over our +Cities, States, and Nation, _and_ also over legalized political +election departments for the whole people,--and the nail will be hit +on the head! The last nail in the coffin of party monopoly and +corruption. + +To excuse himself from not aiding this reform Mr. Savage cries, +visionary, unpracticable! Thus he says:-- + +"3. Nobody is ready to talk definitely about any other kind of +Nationalism ["Military Socialism" meaning], for nobody has outlined +any working method. If it is only what everybody freely wishes +done,--and this seems to be the Rev. Francis Bellamy's idea--then, it +is hard to distinguish it from individualism. At any rate it is not +yet clear enough to be clearly discussed." + +All this shows Mr. Savage to be strangely misinformed. The Rev. +Francis Bellamy is right. Every impartial person does want the kind of +Nationalism Nationalists are after, as soon as their minds are +disabused of this foolish talk about military despotism, and helpless +subordination, etc., for every one can see that it works for the +liberty, equality, and welfare of all. + +Misinformed, is the word for Mr. Savage. For if he had kept but one +eye on this world, as Humboldt said every well regulated chameleon and +priest is in the habit of doing, he would have known that every word +of this "No. 3," above quoted, is exactly wrong: To wit: The other +kind of Nationalism, which is not military despotism, has not only +been definitely talked about but definitely put in practice, not only +in the New York Fire Department, but in our schools, roads, canals, +waterworks, post-office, and in many other ways the world over! And +never ("hardly ever") has monopoly been able to recover its chance to +tyrannize and rob! + +"No definite talk"! Yet our present Postmaster-General is asking +Congress for the postal telegraph; and the Interstate Commerce Law is +to be made practical to head off the People's Party? Let Mr. Savage +pick up the very same August ARENA which contains his article, and +read the clear and definite articles of _C. Wood Davis_, "Should the +Nation own the Railways?" and of _R. B. Hassell_, on "Money at Cost," +and then tell the Editor with a straight face that _they_ are not +"clear enough to be clearly discussed!" The facts, laws, and arguments +are definitely _there_, and clearly discussed. Why have we not the +discerning eyes and impartial brains of Mr. Savage to read them? + +We ask Mr. Savage to bring such eyes and brains to bear, and we defy +him to show any other plan by which the fatal monopolies, which are +_natural_ or _beyond_ competition, can be usefully and safely checked, +controlled, or destroyed. The attempts to do this by legal +prosecutions have notoriously failed. How to replace monopolies and +yet increase the benefits they have conferred is _the_ question of our +age, and Nationalism answers it. Mr. Savage, as we have shown, admits +the difficulty. We are entitled then to a practical answer, or to +silence. Ridicule, however witty, is neither answer nor remedy. + +But instead of silence we have his amusing "fourth and lastly," +thus:-- + +"4. Nationalism, as commonly understood, could mean nothing else but +the tyranny of the commonplace." + +The way in which Nationalism is _commonly_ understood or +misunderstood, is not the question; but how is it _correctly_ +understood,--that is the concern of every fair mind. When thus +understood it seems to be just what Mr. Savage wants. For he agrees +with Mr. Bellamy that if "it is only what everybody freely wishes +done," then it would be his "individualism" and all right. Thus he +approves of democracy; for, he says, "it only looks after certain +public affairs, while the main part of the life of the individual is +free." This is Nationalism to a dot! Yet he strangely concludes: "That +Nationalism, _freely chosen_, would be the murder of Liberty, and +social suicide." But if "freely chosen" will it not be the same as his +individualism? and what everybody wants,--and so all right? Such would +be his democracy certainly, but then how can this Nationalism also +"freely chosen" commit murder _and_ suicide, and both at once? +Strange! That certainly would not be the tyranny of the commonplace. + +Neither would Nationalism in any correct sense be such tyranny; and +for these reasons:-- + +1. Government would for the first time in the history of the world, +evolve beyond paternalism. It would be industrial cooperative +administration, for the equal benefit of all, protection of the +liberty of all, and such defence and restraint only as these main +objects require. Government would thus be the material foundation upon +which liberty, originality, and the original--the uncommonplace--could +stand and be protected. The key to liberty is the "separation of the +temporal and spiritual powers;" but Nationalism does even more than +that. It limits Government to the provision of the common needs +of all, and then protects all, in the enjoyment of their +"uncommon-place." Read for instance the remarkable article of _Oscar +Wilde_ on "_The Soul of Man under Socialism_." He expresses the +feeling of the artists and poets of the world. They want Nationalism +so that originality and free healthy development may at last have a +chance,--and an audience. What the people need in order to become an +audience is the same thing that originality needs, emancipation from +drudgery and from the dependence of parasitism. + +2. This emancipation can come only from the great saving of time and +of waste by Nationalism; and the division of labor by which it will +enable each to follow the occupation to which he is inclined, and to +which he will be the best prepared by nature and education. Man is an +active animal, and the condition of life is that of some work. _Now_ +the work is imposed by the tyranny of man and circumstances; then it +will be rather a matter of choice. In the _order_ instead of the +anarchy of industry there will be some relief. To use the grand +prophecy of Fourier:-- + + "When the series distributes the harmonies, + The attractions will determine the destinies." + +Given a material foundation for man and his education, so that he may +have the mental and material means of acting his part, and continuing +his development, then the individual will have inherited an +environment in which life will be worth living, and which only the +favored inherit now. Civilization will certainly have ever new demands +in order to equate its ever changing conditions; and ambition, +heroism, and originality will simply rise to newer and higher fields. +The idea that the temporal state will not continue to encourage and +protect liberty, genius, and originality is most absurd. That has been +its general course against the sects and monopolists of religion and +opinion which have ever been the persecutors. Mr. Savage throws down a +queer jumble of names, viz.: "Homer, Virgil, Isaiah, Jesus, Dante, +Shakespeare, Angelo, Copernicus, Galileo, Goethe, Luther, Servetus, +Newton, Darwin, Spencer, and Galvani,"--and says, "consider them," +where would they have been before the "governing board" of +Nationalism? We consider and answer: every one of them would have been +free, and protected and encouraged in the exercise of his highest +gifts. + +Even under such defective government as _then_ existed, each had its +aid and support, and each was persecuted by the monopolistic sects and +factions sure to get authority in the absence of some general temporal +control, which is absolutely necessary for the purpose of protecting +freedom of thought, of expression, and of action. From Homer's +chieftain, Virgil's emperor, Goethe's duke, on to the end of the list, +we owe all they have done for us to the _temporal_ governments of +their time, with a possible exception of Spencer, more apparent than +real. Even the Roman Pilate (if we are to take the reports?) let Jesus +have a freedom to tramp and preach in Palestine that would not be +allowed in Boston for a day, and then stood by him, and when +compelled, by the unnationalized nature of his office, to give up to +the Anthony Comstocks and the priestly Monopolists and Pharisees of +that day, he nobly said, "I find no fault in him," and publicly washed +his hands of the whole bloody affair. So was it with Servetus. +Temporal, much less a nationalized, Switzerland would have rescued him +from the clutches of the Calvinistic monopoly of Geneva. "Toleration?" +repeats Mr. Savage tauntingly. We reply, yes! We want a general +temporal government which will protect liberty, and ensure that every +priest, sect, fanatic, and phase of thought and opinion shall +_tolerate_ every other. This Nationalism only can do. + +We insist, and have for years, that the government monopolies of +opinions, morals, and force, farmed out to amateur societies of +Comstocks and Pinkertons, should be withdrawn. If necessary to public +safety, let power be exercised _only_ by the government directly +responsible to the people. It is this attempt to govern by monopolies +in the interest of sects or industrial classes that gave rise to every +one of the abuses to which the editor of THE ARENA has well called +attention as "outrages of government." They are only outrages of +government _by_ monopolies _for_ monopolies, and which it is the +fundamental condition and mission of Nationalism to end forever. In +all these cases, and in every case, the advocates and apologists of +Anarchy, or of _Laissez-faire_ must not mistake their position, they +are inevitably _the allies of the oppressor_. The integration of +special classes, sects, and interests, is the natural law making +"toleration" more and more impossible. The integral integration, then, +of all for the equal support, and for the equal protection of all, in +mutual harmony and progress, is the only condition of our liberty, +peace, and safety. No rule in Arithmetic is plainer than this law of +Sociology, and Nationalism is its expression. + + + + +"RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD PLAY-BILLS."[5] + +BY CHARLES H. PATTEE. + + [5] Copyright by Charles H. Pattee. + +In offering to the public my recollections of old play-bills I cannot +be said to be travelling over familiar ground. For it is worthy of +remark that while many bygone periods of theatrical history have found +their chroniclers, their panegyrists, their enthusiastic remembrances, +the space filled by the events of the Boston stage of 1852 to the +present day has remained without a comprehensive survey, without a +careful retrospect of its many notable and brilliant illustrations. To +supply this void, to endeavor at once to preserve the memories of past +grandeurs (already fading with the generation who enjoyed them), and +to furnish to the younger portion of theatre-goers some conception of +what the stage has been in its "palmy days," I have employed my +leisure in putting together this history of old play-bills. The +changes which have overspread modern society, vast and manifold as +they are admitted to be, are, perhaps, nowhere more perceptible than +in the region known as the theatrical world. To one who has formed a +link in that chain which formerly connected the higher ranks of +society with the taste for dramatic art--with the cultivation of the +beautiful and imaginative in both opera and drama--to such a one the +contemplation of the altered relations now between the patrons of the +drama and the ministers of art suggest many comparisons. The first +stage performance I ever witnessed will not easily be forgotten. It +took place in the Boston Museum in 1850; the plays were "Speed the +Plough," and a local drama (now happily banished from the stage) +called "Rosina Meadows." Thomas Comer, who was leader of the Museum +orchestra, a gentleman, actor, and musician, took me under his charge +and seated me in the orchestra near the bass-drum and cymbals, where I +remained until the end of the performance. The time flew in unalloyed +delight until the fatal green curtain shut out all hope of future +enjoyment. William Warren, W. H. Sedley Smith, Louis Mestayer, J. A. +Smith, Adelaide Phillips, Louisa Gann, who became the wife of Wulf +Fries, the celebrated 'cello player, residing in Boston, Mrs. Judah +and Mr. and Mrs. Thoman, all of whom are dead with the exception of J. +A. Smith, who is now an inmate of the Forrest Home in Holmesburg, +Penn., and Mrs. Thoman, who was a charming actress, and for several +seasons a great favorite with the Museum patrons. She was divorced +from Thoman and became the wife of a Mr. Saunders, a lawyer residing +in San Francisco, who died some years since. Mrs. Saunders is now +living in the above city in retirement, and through the kindness of +her cousin, Joseph Jefferson, is enjoying the ease of a genteel +competence. + +William Warren and Adelaide Phillips were the first performers who +ever made a lasting impression upon me. William Warren, great as an +artist and as a man. With pleasure do I pause from the record of +events to present a description of the illustrious actor. He has now +passed away, and to future generations the faithful description of one +who delighted their fathers, and who can never be replaced, will +surely prove welcome. He made his first appearance in Boston at the +Howard Athenaeum, Oct. 5, 1846, as Sir Lucius O'Trigger in the "Rivals" +(the same character that W. J. Florence is now personating with the +Jefferson combination). Mr. Warren remained at the Athenaeum but one +season, and during that time commanded the admiration of his +audiences. Mr. Charles W. Hunt, a very good actor, had held the +position of comedian at the Boston Museum for several seasons, but +owing to some misunderstanding, left the establishment. Mr. Warren was +engaged to fill the vacancy, and on the night of the 23d of August, +1847, he made his first appearance on the stage of the Museum as Billy +Lackaday in the old comedy of "Sweethearts and Wives," and as Gregory +Grizzle in the farce of "My Young Wife and Old Umbrella," and from +that time, with the exception of one year's recession (1864-5) to the +termination of the season of 1882-3, was a member of the Museum +company. Thirty-six years is a long test applied to modern performers, +and he that could pass such an ordeal of time, must possess merits of +the very highest order, such as could supersede the call for novelty, +and make void the fickleness of general applause. All this Warren +effected. The public, so far from being wearied at the long-continued +cry of Warren, elevated him, if possible, into greater favoritism +yearly. But his place is not to be supplied. No other actor can half +compensate his loss. Independent of his faculties as an actor, so +great a lover was he of his art that he would undertake with delight a +character far beneath his ability. Other actors will not condescend to +do this or else fear to let themselves down by doing so. Warren had no +timidities about assuming a lesser part, nor did he deem it +condescension. Artists of questionable greatness may deem it a +degradation to personate any save a leading part. Warren felt that he +did not let himself down, he raised the character to his own +elevation. From this it follows that no great actor within my +recollection had undertaken such a variety of characters. He was found +in every possible grade of representation. His acting forms a pleasant +landing place in my memory. As I wander backward, no other actor has +ever so completely exemplified my idea of what a genuine comedian +ought to be. He gained the highest honors that could be bestowed upon +him in Boston, and established his claim to be considered one of the +most chaste and finished of American actors. From Sir Peter Teazle to +John Peter Pillicoddy, from Jesse Rural to Slasher, from Haversack to +Box and Cox, he was equally great and efficient. I have heard it +remarked that the late W. Rufus Blake stood without a rival as Jesse +Rural, while Henry Placide was the best of Sir Peter Teazles. Never +having witnessed the performances of those gentlemen, I am unable to +speak of their merits, as older writers have sounded their praises for +a generation. Saturday, Oct. 28, 1882, was the fiftieth anniversary of +Mr. Warren's adoption of the stage. The entertainment consisted of an +afternoon and evening performance. The "Heir at Law," constituted the +bill for the day performance, and "School for Scandal," was given in +the evening. It was impossible indeed for the arrangements to be more +perfectly accomplished. The character of the audiences was even more +gratifying than its numbers. Never had been such an assemblage in any +theatre. A great number of elderly persons, both men and women, +interspersed with the younger people, gave a beautiful shading to the +amphitheatre picture, as it was seen from the boxes. It was a tribute +of respect to one who had been so long the pride of Boston. As a +matter of record I give the complete cast of the plays:-- + + HEIR AT LAW. + + Dr. Pangloss Wm. Warren + Dick Doulas Chas. Barron + Zekiel Homespun George Wilson + Daniel Doulas A. Hudson + Kenrick Jas. Nolan + Steadfast J. Burrows + Henry Moreland J. B. Mason + John Fred Ham + Waiter J. S. Maffitt, Jr. + Cicely Homespun Annie Clarke + Deborah Doulas Mrs. J. R. Vincent + Caroline Dormer Norah Bartlett + + SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL. + + Sir Peter Teazle William Warren + Charles Surface Chas. Barron + Joseph Surface Geo. Parks + Sir Oliver Surface A. Hudson + Sir Benjamin J. B. Mason + Crabtree Geo. Wilson + Moses Wm. Seymour + Careless Geo. C. Boniface, Jr. + Rowley J. Burrows + Trip J. Nolan + Snake F. Ham + Sir Harry J. S. Maffit, Jr. + Servant to Joseph A. R. Whytal + Servant to Lady Sneerwell Geo. Cohill + Lady Teazle Annie Clarke + Mrs. Candour Mrs. Vincent + Marion Norah Bartlett + Lady Sneerwell Kate Ryan + + + +Mr. Warren remained at the Museum during the entire season, and made +his last appearance on any stage as old Eccles in "Caste," in May, +1883. From that time to the day of his death, which sad event occurred +Sept. 21, 1888, Mr. Warren made Boston his home, residing at No. 2 +Bulfinch Place, the residence of Amelia Fisher, where he had lived +since the departure of his cousin, Mrs. Thoman, for California, in +1854. Mr. Warren left property to the value of a quarter of a million +dollars. He made no public bequests, but bequeathed his entire estate +to his relatives. Who is there in Boston that has not heard of Miss +Amelia Fisher, the "dear old lady" of Bulfinch Place, where she has +lived so many years, and at whose hospitable board so many have been +welcomed? Miss Fisher, accompanied by her sisters Jane, afterwards +Mrs. Vernon, who was for many years the "first old woman" of the New +York stage, and Clara, afterwards Mrs. Gaspard Maeder, married in +America in 1827, and made her debut at the Park Theatre, N. Y., +singing a duet, "When a Little Farm We Keep," with William Chapman. +Miss Fisher was for several seasons attached to the Tremont Theatre in +Boston, and although possessing respectable abilities both as singer +and actress, never attained the prominent place in the profession +accorded to her more talented sisters. Miss Fisher retired from the +stage in 1841, and for some years was a teacher of dancing in Boston. +For over thirty-seven years Miss Fisher has entertained at her home a +swarm of dramatic celebrities. Here Mr. and Mrs. James W. Wallack, +Charles Couldock, Peter Richings and his daughter Caroline, Mrs. John +Hoey, and Fanny Morant, dined together where, in later days, Joseph +Jefferson, George Honey (the celebrated English comedian), Ada Rehan, +Annie Pixley, Mr. and Mrs. McKee Rankin, and Mr. and Mrs. Byron, ate +their supper in the old kitchen, and were merry with wit and song. +Since the death of Mr. Warren, Miss Fisher has not enjoyed good +health, although her hospitable board is still surrounded by her +friends and guests. + +With the name of Adelaide Phillips there are many dear associations. +When at seven or eight years of age I went to see her at the Boston +Museum, the days she began to sing in "Cinderella" and the "Children +of Cyprus." How the old days rise up before me now. She was then in +the spring of life, fresh, bright, and serene as a morning in May, +perfect in form, her hands and her arms peculiarly graceful, and +charming in her whole appearance. She seemed to speak and sing without +effort or art. All was nature and harmony. Miss Phillips was a great +favorite in Boston where she made her debut at the Tremont Theatre in +January, 1842, in the play of "Old and Young," personating five +characters, and introducing songs and dances. Although very youthful, +she displayed great aptness and evinced remarkable musical talent. On +the 25th of September, 1843, she first appeared on the boards of the +Boston Museum, which then stood at the corner of Tremont and Bromfield +Streets, where the Horticultural Hall now stands. The character which +she assumed was Little Pickle in the "Spoiled Child." At the opening +of the present Museum, Nov. 2, 1846, Miss Phillips was attached to +the company as actress-danseuse, and doing all the musical work +necessary in the plays of that time. She was a most attractive member +of the company, and as Morgiana (Forty Thieves), Lucy Bertram (Guy +Mannering), Fairy of the Oak (Enchanted Beauty) was greatly admired. +Her first decided success was as Cinderella. She was now about +eighteen years of age, and the tones of her voice were rich and pure. +She did not aim at "stage effect," and her singing and acting were +exquisite. At that time, 1850-51, Jenny Lind was in Boston. Miss +Phillips was introduced and sang to her, and her singing was so +brilliant, so ringing, so finished, that her hearer was astonished, +and uttered exclamations of delight. The noble-hearted Jenny sent her +a check for a thousand dollars, and a letter recommending Emanuel +Garcia, who had been her own teacher, as the best instructor, and amid +all the triumphs of her professional career, the affection and +kindness which was showered upon her by Mlle. Lind, and her Boston +friends, who came forward to show their willingness to aid Miss +Phillips, was never effaced from her mind. After remaining abroad +several years, she returned to Boston, appearing at the Boston Theatre +Dec. 3, 1855, as Count Belino, in the opera of the "Devil's Bridge," +supported by the popular favorite, Mrs. John Wood. She first appeared +here in Italian opera a year later as Azucena in "Il Trovatore," +Madame La Grange being the Leonora. In this opera Miss Phillips was +heard with great effect and never were her talents as an actress more +conspicuously displayed. At the conclusion of the performance, the +favorite singer received an ovation, applause rang through the +theatre; the emotion which was evinced by her friends and admirers was +evidently shared by herself. The character of Azucena remained a +favorite one with Miss Phillips to the last. The characters in which +she excelled were Maffio Orsini (Lucrezia Borgia), Rosina (Barber of +Seville), and Leonora (Favorita). In 1879, she joined the Ideal Opera +Company, and carried into it her vocal and dramatic culture. She +continued with this company until December, 1881, when she made her +last appearance on any stage in Cincinnati. Her last appearance in +Boston was at the Museum, the home of her earlier triumphs, in the +role of Fatinitza, a few months before her departure for the West in +1880. Ill health compelled her to relinquish all her engagements, and +on the 12th of August, 1882, accompanied by her sister-in-law, Mrs. +Adrian Phillips, who was the Arvilla in the early days of the Museum, +sailed for Paris. After a few days' rest in that city, they reached +Carlsbad, and took apartments at Konig's Villa, a pension for +invalids. A few weeks thus passed until suddenly, on Oct. 3, 1882, the +change came, and Adelaide Phillips was gone. The death of this gifted +and good woman produced a painful sensation in Boston, and, indeed, +all over the country she was deeply regretted. In private life she was +amiable and kind-hearted, ever ready to assist the distressed. By her +family and friends she was idolized, by the public she was respected +for the purity of her life, and admired for her talents. Herewith I +give a copy of the "bill" of Miss Phillips' last benefit at the +Museum, prior to her departure for Europe. + + + BOSTON MUSEUM. + + FAREWELL BENEFIT OF MISS ADELAIDE PHILLIPS. + + Re-engagement of the eminent artists, MR. CHARLES + PITT and MRS. BARRETT. + + FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 27, 1851. + + THE HONEYMOON. + + Duke Aranza C. D. Pitt + Rolando L. Mestayer + Jacques W. Warren + Lampedo J. W. Thoman + Count J. A. Smith + Balthazar J. L. Monroe + Lopez G. H. Finn + Campillo A. Bradley + Lupez S. F. Palmer + Juliana Mrs. Barrett + Volante Mrs. Thoman + Zamora Miss Adelaide Phillips + + In which she will sing "Ah, What Full Delight," from + the opera of the "Bohemian Girl." + + Hostess Miss Rees + + Fancy dance - Miss Arvilla. + Comic dance - Masters Adrian and Fred Phillips. + + Conclude with + + THE SWISS COTTAGE. + + Corporal Max L. Mestayer + Nat. Tick W. Warren + Lisette Miss Adelaide Phillips + + In which she will sing "France, I Adore Thee," and + "Liberty for Me." + + +A great attraction in Boston, way back in the fifties, was Anna Cora +Mowatt. Her engagements were always very successful, the theatre being +crowded with fashionable and intelligent audiences. Mrs. Mowatt was +not a great actress. Delicacy was her most marked characteristic. "A +subdued earnestness of manner, a soft musical voice, a winning +witchery of enunciation, and indeed an almost perfect combination of +beauty, grace, and refinement fitted her for a class of characters in +which other actresses were incapable of excelling." Mrs. Mowatt was +born at Bordeaux, France, during the temporary residence there of her +parents about 1820. She married very young, and for a short time +enjoyed every luxury that wealth could purchase. Her husband's +bankruptcy drove her to the stage, where she made her first appearance +at the Park Theatre as Pauline, in "Lady of Lyons," June 13, 1845. Her +engagements here in Boston were played at the Howard Athenaeum, then +under the management of Mr. Wyzeman Marshall, who still lives, and can +be seen upon the principal streets of Boston almost daily. The +"houses" were very large, tickets being sold at public auction. At the +termination of her engagement she was serenaded at the hotel, and +throughout the country she met with the same flattering reception. +Mrs. Mowatt's favorite roles were Viola, Rosalind, and Parthenia, +characters now fresh in the public mind, made so by Miss Julia +Marlowe. Mrs. Mowatt made her last appearance on the stage at Niblo's +Theatre, N. Y., on the 3d of June, 1854. On the 7th of that month she +became the wife of W. F. Ritchie. Mrs. Ritchie died in Paris a few +years since, where she was much regretted by the social circle of +which she was the admired star. + +In 1852, at the National Theatre, which was situated on Portland +Street, Charlotte Cushman commenced her farewell to the stage in the +tragedy of "Romeo and Juliet." Charlotte Cushman was now at the summit +of her art. She was universally allowed to be the greatest tragedienne +of the day. And this recognition was due to her fine genius. She owed +nothing to artifice or meretricious attraction. Nothing was left to +chance, for the indomitable spirit and zealousness with which she had +sustained herself under adverse circumstances had done not a little to +elevate her in the regard of her countrymen and admirers. This was the +first of a series of "farewell engagements," inaugurated by Miss +Cushman, and continued to her real and positive farewell in 1875. + +I have always had an objection to ladies personating Romeo, but I +waived that feeling in favor of Miss Cushman. Her personation of Romeo +was beautiful and even pathetic. The passionate grief of young +Montague in the third act was subdued by a tearful pathos. Nothing +could surpass her reading of the character: it was a triumph, and in a +word it would be difficult to conceive anything more grand than this +impersonation. It is difficult to conceive a character more highly +dramatic or more impassioned than that of Lady Macbeth. The conflicts, +emotions, and power of the ambitious queen were portrayed with a +truth, a grandeur of effect, unequalled since by any actress. Miss +Cushman's impersonation of Meg Merriles was one of the finest +illustrations of originality the stage ever witnessed. There was no +effort to resemble the character. She entered the stage the character +itself, transposed into the situation, excited by hope and fear, +breathing the life and the spirit of the being she represented. In my +opinion, when Charlotte Cushman died, so did Meg Merriles, and it will +be many a day before the old gipsy queen will produce that +indescribable effect upon an audience, as in the days of Cushman. At +the Boston Theatre, June 2, 1858, Miss Cushman as Romeo, her farewell +to the stage. At the same theatre, in 1860, another farewell, Miss +Cushman as Romeo, who with the aid of Mrs. Barrow as Juliet, John +Gilbert as Friar Laurence, and Mrs. John Gilbert as the nurse, made up +a very strong cast. Here, at the Howard Athenaeum in 1861, then under +the management of that talented actor (who, by the way, was the best +Hamlet I ever saw,) Edgar L. Davenport, Miss Cushman was announced +April 11, 1861, positively her last night in Boston, when Romeo and +Juliet was given with a remarkable cast. E. L. Davenport was the +Mercutio, John Gilbert the Friar, John McCullough, Tybalt, Frank +Hardenbergh, Prince Esculus, Dan Setchell, Peter, W. J. Le Moyne, +Capulet, Miss Josephine Orton (a very brilliant actress, and now the +wife of Benj. E. Woolf, of the _Saturday Evening Gazette_), Juliet, +Mrs. John Gilbert as the nurse (she had no superior in this role), and +Charlotte Cushman as Romeo, truly a fine array of talent, all of whom +have passed away with the exception of Miss Orton and Mr. Le Moyne. +This was Miss Cushman's last performance of Romeo in Boston. In the +spring of 1875, Miss Cushman played another farewell engagement, which +proved in truth a reality. It was at the Globe Theatre, and Saturday, +May 15, 1875, was announced as Miss Cushman's farewell to the stage. +Macbeth was the play, with Miss Cushman as Lady Macbeth. As an event +worth remembering, I give the complete cast:-- + + + Macbeth D. W. Waller + Macduff G. B. Waldron + Banquo Chas. Fyffe + Malcolm Lin Harris + Duncan James Dunn + Physician C. Pierson + Drunken Porter E. Coleman + Rosse S. Clarke + Seyter G. Conner + Sergeant John Connor + Donaldbain Miss Wilkes + 1st Witch E. Coleman + 2d Witch Mrs. A. Hayes + 3d Witch J. H. Connor + Gentlewoman Miss Athena + + +A most inefficient company, exceedingly weak in the masculine +department, while the actresses were barely tolerable. The highest +anticipations of a brilliant engagement had been indulged in by the +management, and bitter was their disappointment, and great the chagrin +of Miss Cushman to find that this "positively farewell engagement" +failed to create anything of a furore. The public had been so often +deceived by these announcements, that they failed to respond to the +box office. In this special performance of "Macbeth," Miss Cushman was +hailed with prolonged acclamations. Old admirers were there who still +recollected her when she was the greatest ornament of the stage. +Younger ones assembled to catch the last rays of a genius which had +filled Europe and America with its splendor. The former sought this +memory of days gone by, the latter came to pay deference to the +verdict of a previous generation. At the close of the performance Miss +Cushman was called to the footlights, there to receive the tribute due +to her name and fame from the not over large audience. The spectacle +was interesting, yet it was melancholy, not to say painful, to all who +could feel with true artistic sympathy. Her last appearance was soon +forgotten in the turmoil of dramatic events, but her name still +gleams with traditional lustre in the annals of dramatic fame. Miss +Cushman never again appeared in Boston, for on the 18th day of +February, 1876, she breathed her last at the Parker House, Boston. Her +funeral took place at King's Chapel, in presence of a large concourse +of people, and her body rests in Mount Auburn. Miss Cushman was a very +wealthy woman, but her generosities were not numerous; even the little +Cushman school, named in her honor, was forgotten in her will. Her +relatives (nephews and nieces) reside, I believe, in Newport, R. I., +and are the sole possessors of her large estate. I omitted to mention +that Charlotte Cushman's last appearance in public was as a reader in +Easton, Penn., June 2, 1875. + + + + +THE MICROSCOPE FROM A MEDICAL, MEDICO-LEGAL, AND LEGAL POINT OF VIEW. + +BY FREDERICK GAERTNER, A. M., M. D. + + +When the microscope was first invented, it was regarded as a mere +accessory, a plaything, an unnecessary addition, and an imposition +upon the medical profession and upon the public in general. But since +1840, when the European oculists and scientists began to make +microscopical researches and investigations, not only in the medical +profession, but also in botanical and geological studies, etc., and +since 1870, when, throughout the civilized world, the microscope came +into general use in chemical analysis and other studies, it ceased to +be considered an accessory, and is now regarded as an extremely +necessary apparatus, especially in minute examinations and +investigations; also in the advancement of every branch of science and +art. + +Had Galen, Celsus, Hippocrates, and the other great scientists of old, +known the use of the microscope, they would have made no such grave +blunders as in the advocation of the theory that the arteries of the +human body contain and carry air during life, instead of oxygenized +blood only. They were of the erroneous opinion that the blood stayed +in the extremities, not to nourish and sustain the tissues, but simply +to act as a humor in lubricating the same (tissues). + +Then, again, had it not been for the microscope, the great English +surgeon and physician, James Paget, would not have discovered that +deadly parasite, the trichina-spiralis, which had already slaughtered +thousands upon thousands of human beings. And yet the existence of +trichina-spiralis may be dated as far back as the time of Moses, who +even then advocated prohibition of the use of pork as a food, and who +considered pork not only an unwholesome food, but dangerous and even +poisonous. + +The microscope is certainly the best friend that a scientist can have. +A physician without a microscope is like a man without eyes: he is +uncertain and unprotected and must be considered incompetent, simply +because he cannot arrive at a correct and positive conclusion in +diagnosing and prognosing his case. + +The value of the microscope cannot be overestimated, at least in the +examination of the sputa of a human being, and thus being able to +state positively whether or not the man is suffering from consumption +(Tuberculosis). How important it is to be able to state with certainty +at an early date whether or not the patient is suffering from cancer +of the stomach, by examining the vomits microscopically. + +The microscope is composed of a simply constructed horse-shoe or +tripod base with a column, tube, reflector, and lenses of different +magnifying powers, ranging from one to five thousand diameters. It is +a most extraordinary and at the same time a most simple apparatus, an +invaluable instrument, whose use any person with a little skill can +learn in a few hours' practice. + +Much has already been published of late years concerning the +microscope applied in a medico-legal sense (examinations). This surely +is a very broad field and much remains for future observation and +investigation. Everything that concerns medical examinations in a +legal sense or legal examinations in a medical sense can be +facilitated and accurately determined by the use of the microscope. +For instance, let me call your attention to the world-renowned +"Cronin" case of Chicago, in which the medical experts demonstrated to +a certainty that the blood, hair, and brain matter found in the +Coulson cottage and sewer drop were those of a human being. And what +was still more remarkable they demonstrated by the microscope +accurately and positively that the hair and blood found in the cottage +and fatal trunk were those of the late Dr. Cronin, only in a modified +condition. + +Without a doubt the microscope is the most advantageous and most +efficacious apparatus that a scientist has ever invented and +constructed. It is an especially powerful factor in enlightening +complex and difficult cases concerning medico-legal examinations, +where the combined efforts of an attorney and an expert microscopist +are required. Within the last decade, scientists have demonstrated to +a certainty the possibility of distinguishing old and dried human +blood spots, whether on clothing, wood, iron, or any other object, +from those of animal blood. Scientists, especially pathologists and +histologists, have demonstrated the great value of the microscope in +distinguishing not only the skin, blood, hair, and brain matter, but +also the excretions and secretions of the human body from those of +animals. + +Again, the microscope applied in medico-legal practice, particularly +in malpractice suits, suits for damages, those requiring the detection +of adulteration of food or drink, is of the greatest importance. It is +not less valuable in determining the purity of an article, especially +whether or not the food or drink has spoiled or undergone +fermentation, and in detecting the accumulation and development of +microorganisms such as germs, bacilli, etc. Prominent among these uses +are of course the detection of oleomargarine, the adulteration of +drugs, liquors, milk, groceries, sausages, etc. + +The utilization of the microscope as a factor in the solution of legal +difficulties is as interesting as it is valuable, and in that +connection I wish to cite a few lines from an exhaustive paper read by +the Hon. Geo. E. Fell, M. D., F. R. M. S., before the American Society +of Microscopists, relating to the "_Examination of Legal Documents +with the Microscope_." + +"This subject is of practical importance, in which the value of the +microscope has again and again been demonstrated. On several occasions +have we been enabled to clear the path for justice to ferret out the +work of the contract falsifier, and shield the innocent from the +unjust accusations of interested rogues. The range of observations in +investigations of written documents with the microscope is a broad +one. We may begin with the characteristics of the paper upon which the +writing is made, which may enable us to ascertain many facts of +importance; for instance, a great similarity might indicate, with +associated facts, that the documents were prepared at about the same +time. A marked dissimilarity might also have an important bearing upon +the case. The difference of the paper may exist in the character of +the fibres composing it, the finish of the paper whether rough or +smooth, the thickness, modifying the transmissibility of light, the +color, all of which may be ascertained with the microscope. + +"The ink used in the writing may then be examined. If additions have +been made to the document within a reasonable time of its making, +microscopic examination will in all probability demonstrate the +difference by keeping the following facts in view: Some inks in drying +assume a dull, or shining surface; if in sufficient quantity, the +surface may become cracked, presenting, when magnified, an appearance +quite similar, but of a different color, to that of the dried bottom +of a clayey pond after the sun has baked it for a few days. The manner +in which the ink is distributed upon the paper, whether it forms an +even border, or spreads out to some extent, is a factor which may be +also noted. The color of the ink by transmitted or reflected +illumination is also a very important factor. This in one case which I +had in hand proved of great importance and demonstrated the addition +of certain words which completely annulled the value of the document +in a case involving several thousand dollars. And in a certain case +where the lines of a certain document were written over with the idea +of entirely covering the first written words, the different colors of +the inks could not be concealed from the magnified image as seen under +reasonably low powers of the microscope." + +The value of the microscope in this field of research is so great and +the facts elicited by it so vital, I wish to emphasize its practical +utility as strongly as possible. Of course the principal object in +such an examination of written or printed documents is the erasures or +additions; then the coloring of different inks applied and the mode of +their execution. As to erasures, this can be accomplished in two ways, +either by the use of a penknife or by a chemical preparation. The +former is the one most commonly resorted to, and is effected in the +following manner. With a well sharpened knife blade the surface of the +paper is carefully scraped until all objectionable lettering and +wording appear to the naked eye to have been effaced; but under a +microscopical examination the impression made by the strokes of the +pen may easily be detected, while the different colors of the inks are +still plainly visible under the microscope. + +The second method is by the application of a chemical preparation by +which the ink is made soluble and is then easily removed from the +paper by means of a blotter or absorbent cotton. Of course this method +is also an imperfect one and the letters can easily be traced by close +observation. When a chemical preparation has been used for erasing +purposes, I find that in most cases it leaves a stain and also that +the fibres of the paper are more or less destroyed by the chemical +used; thus always leaving evidence that the document has been tampered +with. + +George E. Fell in his excellent paper says: "The eye of the individual +making the erasures is certainly not sufficient, and even with the aid +of a hand magnifier, the object might not be effectually accomplished. +We will find that the detection of an erasure made by the knife is a +very simple matter and may be detected by the novice. An investigation +may be made by simply holding the document before a strong light and +this is usually all that is necessary to demonstrate the existence of +an erasure of any consequence. + +"This is, however, a very different matter from making out the +outlines of a word or detecting the general arrangement of the fibres +of the paper, so as to be able to state whether writing has been +executed on certain parts of the document; and again, when we enter +into the minutiae of the subject, we will find that the compound +microscope will give us results not to be obtained by the simple hand +magnifier." + +On several occasions I have had the opportunity for demonstrating with +the microscope additions made to certain documents, two of which were +wills (testaments); these additions were made in the following +manner:--First an erasure was made and then the additional matter +written over the erasure. With the microscope I could at once detect +the erasure beneath the addition; also the different colors of the +inks. Then, and this is the most important result of the microscopical +examination, by close observation, I could discern the strokes of the +pen in the original lettering as well as those of the additional +lettering, and finally the general mode of their execution. + +In regard to the examination of legal documents, United States +currency, printed and written matter, mutilated documents, including +forgeries, etc., from a legal point of view (as to their genuineness), +it will suffice to say that the principal features are, as already +stated, first, the detection of erasures and additions; second, the +comparison of the colors of the different inks used in the original +and in the additional lettering, and finally the mode of their +execution. This includes of course a careful observation of the +original writing as to the general and comparative expression. In the +observation of the characteristics of the letters constituting the +document, I will call attention especially to the shading and general +formation of the letters, that is, the stroke of the pen either in a +downward or upward movement. This comparison includes both capital and +small letters and even punctuation. + +All these things, as well as the grammatical and orthographical +relationship and comparative differentiations, must be taken into +consideration in order to enable the microscopical examiner to give a +positive opinion. + +A microscopical examination of paper documents, such as wills, notes, +checks, etc., as to whether or not they have been mutilated or forged, +is certainly the most reliable test, and by far the easiest and +simplest method of determining the authenticity or spuriousness of a +document. An expert microscopist and observer can at once arrive at a +correct and positive conclusion as to the genuineness of an autograph. + +The use of the microscope in the examination of United States currency +is invaluable, and I believe the only perfectly reliable test for +distinguishing counterfeit currency from the genuine bills. In this +examination the following observations are necessary, to the last of +which I wish to call special attention: First, the quality of the +paper used; second, the general execution and finish of the bill; +third, the ink used for the printed reading matter as well as for the +autograph; fourth, the two red lines; these lines in a genuine bill +are produced by two red silk threads woven into the paper, and running +lengthwise of the bill. In a counterfeit bill these lines are not of +silk thread, but are simply two lines drawn with red ink. This is the +crowning test in the detection of counterfeit currency, and I have no +doubt that the same tests will hold good in the examination of foreign +currency. + + + + +A GRAIN OF GOLD. + +BY WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE. + + +Everybody said he would go to the bad; everybody expected it of him. +Whether it was the fulfilment of the promise, "As thy faith so be it," +or whether he felt any conscientious obligation resting upon him not +to disappoint public expectation, nobody knows. Nobody was surprised, +however, when news went over the town that Jim Royal was going to the +penitentiary. + +Going to "the pen" at sixteen years of age. Nobody thought of that. +Moreover, the old Tennessee prison contains scores of boys _under_ +sixteen, for that matter; and if they do not work satisfactorily, the +lessees of the prison have made no complaint of them; therefore, they +_do_ work satisfactorily; for the lessees are not likely to pay the +State for the privilege of feeding worthless hands. But as for +vagabond Jim, if anybody thought of him at all, it was something after +this wise: + +"Safe place. Keep him out of mischief. Protect other people's boys. +Bad influence, Jim's. Town's scourge. Bad mother before him. +Questionable father. Made to work." + +Now there were two considerations in this category, concerning which +the public opinion was exactly correct. More so, indeed, than public +opinion is usually known to be. Namely: Jim would "be made to work." +No doubt about that. There were straps for the obstreperous, the +water-pump for the sullen, the pool for the belligerent, the lash for +the lazy, and for the rebellious--the shotgun. + +Oh, yes; Jim would be made to work. The town was quite right about +that. + +The other consideration, although not altogether so important, was a +trifle more interesting. Jim's "questionable father"! + +It was his mother's fault that public _interest_ (?) was not +gratified. And it never forgave the poor outcast for leaving the +world with that seal of secrecy still unbroken. The heart broke, but +not the seal. They cast her off utterly when, poor girl-mother, she +stubbornly refused to reveal the name of her betrayer. To them there +was nothing heroic in the answer, "Because _my_ life is ruined, shall +I ruin his?" + +So they treasured it against her in her grave, and against her son +after her, in his grave too, that living, loathsome sepulchre, the +State prison. + +But they had surmised a good deal regarding Jim's paternal parentage. +They searched for resemblances, birthmarks, peculiarities of feature, +owning that nature always set her brand upon the bastard, and that the +features, as well as the iniquities of the father, are always visited +upon the illegitimate. If this be the case, Jim must have come of some +strange blood. And yet, knowing him and his history, some might have +traced the poor mother in the boy, although of that mother he knew +very little. He had been told--oh, yes, he had been told--that she was +found in a garret one December morning with a vagabond baby nursing at +her dead breast. And old Nancy Piatt, the only one who ever seemed to +dislike talking to the lad about it, had told him that she was "a +pretty corpse, as pretty as the grave ever held," and that the dead +lips wore a smile, those dead lips that never would, and never could, +give up their pitiful secret. Poor lips; death had granted that which +life denied them--a smile. Stubbornness, the town gossips called the +woman's silence. In other circumstances it would have answered to the +higher term of fidelity, or, perhaps, heroism. Jim was very like his +mother, old Nancy said, despite Dame Nature's habit of branding. +Surely Nancy ought to be authority, for when the boy was left, at two +months old, on the town, old Nancy Piatt, a drunken old crone, who +washed the clothes of the rich all the week, and drank her earnings +Saturday evenings, was the only one who offered to "take the cub" whom +the authorities were ready to give away. + +A sorry chance had Jim, although he never realized that. At ten he +could drink as much liquor as Nancy herself, and outswear the ablest +lawyer in the town. At twelve he could pick a lock better than a +blacksmith, and was known as one of the most cunning sneak thieves in +the place. At fourteen he beat a little boy of eight unmercifully. +(Did anybody expect old Nancy to tell him that was the crown crime of +cowardice?) + +Then someone suspected Nancy of a crime. One of those nameless crimes +concerning which the law is very jealous, not considering the slander +prevented, the "good name preserved," and the disgrace averted. All in +high circles, and all set in the scale against a useless little +baby,--a wicked little illegitimate baby, that is so heartless as to +be born, and thereby bring a world of trouble upon wealthy and +respectable people. + +That old Nancy--for handsome considerations--had made away with the +selfish baby, Jim knew as well as anybody. And when he was offered +quite as handsome a sum to tell all he knew about it, his reply was to +plant his fist in the eye of the man who had made the offer. Not that +he cared for the cause the babe's coming had disgraced. He only meant +to stand by old Nance, and not all the money in the county's coffers +could have forced his lips to speak that which would hurt her. He was +afterward arrested and brought before the magistrate, together with +Nance, and swore, not by the calendared saints,--he hadn't made their +acquaintance,--but by "George," by "Gum," by "Gosh," and even by God +himself that he knew nothing at all about the matter. They knew he was +lying, but there was no way to prove it, as he attempted no dodge. He +was merely ignorant. Nance hadn't asked him to do this; she knew he +would do it if necessary. She had not attempted to win his love, his +confidence, or his gratitude. Perhaps she believed, in her blind way, +that these things are born, not won, like respect, and honor, and +admiration. He was fifteen when this happened. At sixteen Nance died +from the effects of a blow from a policeman's club while trying to +arrest her. Two weeks later the policeman died from the effects of a +blow from Jim's club while trying to protect old Nance. Two months +later the prison door closed on Jim, and the town took breath again in +a long, relieved sigh of "_Safe at last!_" As if vagabond Jim's +salvation had lain a weight for sixteen years upon their consciences. + +It was certainly the face of a hardened creature that followed the +sheriff to the railroad station that June morning. June, sweet, old +love-laden, rose-burdened June. Of all the year to give up one's +freedom in June. And how many years before he would breathe the free, +rose-haunted air of another June. Twenty. Why, the twentieth century +would be dawning before he would be free again. Would his face be any +the less hard at the expiration of his term? _The penitentiary isn't a +hotbed of virtue_, and Jim wasn't wax. Nobody wasted any hopes on +him,--except the lessees, who, finding him able-bodied, young, and +healthy, sent him to the Branch prison to dig coal. + +There an old gray-bearded warden offered a plea for his youth, and a +protest against the associations of the Branch, and was promptly +reminded that the Tennessee State prison was not a reformatory +institute, but that it had been leased as a financial speculation, +which was expected to yield at _least_ ten per cent. on the money +invested by the lessees. + +So Jim went to the coal mines in the mountains, leaving his life, his +poor, puny sixteen years of dust and degradation, behind him. If there +was anything of brightness, any softening memory, any tender touch of +the human--_dream_ touches are they to the castaway--which Jim carried +with him, it was the memory of old Nance, drunken, filthy, murderous +old Nance, and the face of the gray-bearded warden who had lifted his +voice in his behalf. + +It was noon of a day in June, early in the eighties, that Jim trudged +across the coal-sprinkled ridge upon which rose the great gray, +weather-beaten, rat-infested fence, which was dignified by the name of +stockade. To go out of life into a dungeon like that, and at noon of a +day in June. That Jim made no sign was accredited to his hardness of +heart. That, having registered and heard an official sneer at the +name, Jim Royal, and having passed through the hands of the barber, +and being duly entered at last among the State's hired help, and +dropped down on his ill-smelling bunk, a rat came and gnawed his ear, +and the vermin crawled unmolested over him, and still he gave no sign, +was set down to the account of his laziness. + +"He won't be vicious," the warden said, "he is too lazy," and he +thought yearningly of the raw-hide lash hanging in the office. That +the stupor might be the result of weariness had never once suggested +itself. If it had, why still there was the lash. The lessees' ten _per +cent_. must be gotten out of that herd in the stockade, even if it +should be necessary to beat it out. + +But when, the next morning, Jim fell into his place as brisk as any, +the warden began to waver between the lash and the pool. If he did not +need the one, he was fairly seen to require the other. All of them +needed some one, may be two, of the prison's medicines, and the warden +made a special point of spying out the diseases of new arrivals, and +applying the remedy as soon as possible. It told them, more plainly +than words, precisely the manner of treatment they were to expect in +case of any appearance of any of the several moral diseases with which +all convicts, young, old, rich, or poor, were supposed to be +afflicted. + +Therefore, the warden "had his eye on Jim." And when the gang started +from the stockade across the black, coal-dusted mountains, to the +blacker mine beneath, he called to the new arrival, draining the last +of some sloppy coffee from a dingy tin cup at the greasy, board table +of the shed room that served for dining-room, and laundry, during the +week, and for chapel on Sundays. + +"Come here, sir; what's your name, sir? At least what one did you +leave on the book out there?" + +"The only one I've got," said Jim. "The clerk down there made it to +spell Royal." + +"Royal." A sneer curled the lips of the official. "Here Black"--to the +guard,--"add this royal renegade to your company. Here, you fellow, +fall into line here, and be quick about it." + +To Jim, accustomed from the day his dead mother's nipple had been +taken from his toothless gums to having his own free will, the surly +command came like a threat. He hesitated. + +"Will you come, you bit of carrion, or shall I fetch you?" + +Jim stood like a young lion at bay. His hands unconsciously drew up +into fists; one foot moved forward; the prisoners stood in wondering +groups, some recalling the day, five, ten, fifteen, aye, even fifty +years before, when they, too, had thought of defence. They, too, had +stood at bay. But they had learned the folly of it, and they knew Jim +would learn too; but still they half hoped he would get in that one +blow before the lesson began. + +Such fists! such strength! And he came on like a young tiger, his eyes +ablaze, his nostrils quivering, his arm poised, his full chest +expanding, perfectly aware the officer was feeling for the pistol at +his belt, when, quick and noiseless, a small hand, white and delicate +as a woman's, reached out and drew the clenched fist down; a soft +voice, softened by despair, said: "It isn't any use; they'll down you +at last, and you only make it harder." + +It was all done so quickly, the guards around had not had time "to +draw," else the rebellious one had received the reward of rebellion. + +The warden replaced his pistol, with a curse upon it for not obeying +his effort to draw it. The young convict had ceased hostilities, and +stood submissive by the side of his unknown friend. He had not once +glanced at him, but something in his voice had controlled and subdued +his passion. + +"Away with him," cried the officer. "To the pump, and afterward to the +pool. Get the straps ready there. We'll show our _royal_ friend who is +master here." + +Again came an idea of resistance, but the same small hand was laid +upon his arm. + +"My friend, it isn't any use. I tried it all. Go on and be punished. +It is part of life here. You receive it whether merited or not." + +They dragged him off, strapped him, hand and foot, and writhing, +foaming, like the untamed wild beast that he was, they thrust him +under the great prison pump. + +"That will cool his royal blood," laughed a guard, as the fearful +force of the cold current beating upon his shaven head knocked him +senseless. + +Drenched and beaten, utterly exhausted, he lay like a limp rag, until +three men had spent their strength upon the pump. Then to the pool +they dragged him, and "ducked" him three times into the dark, stagnant +water. Then back to the warden who asked if he "thought he had +enough." + +"Not enough to make me take your jaw," was the foolish answer. + +"The lash," said the warden, and the miserable, half-drowned creature +was taken away to be beaten "into subjection." + +The guard overlooked the punishment. A stout, burly convict was +required to perform it. He would have refused, being in like strait, +only that he knew the uselessness. He had been there a long time, +forty years, and according to his sentence would be there for fifty +more. He had picked up a little scripture at the prison Sunday +school, so that when he lifted the whip above the back they had made +bare for it, he whispered, by way of apology:-- + +"And one Simon, a Cyrenian, him they compelled to bear the cross." + +But Jim didn't understand even if he had heard. All he heard was that +low, patient voice calling him "friend." + +In the afternoon he was sent down to the mines, subdued, but not +conquered. Every evil passion of his nature had been aroused, and +would never slumber again. + +After that first day's experience he seemed indeed a wild beast. He +fought among the prisoners, rebelled against the rules of the prison, +would have nothing to do with any but the worst of the men, shirked +his work until he had to be strapped and beaten, in short, made a +record that had never been surpassed by any previous man on the prison +record. + +Yet, when there was danger of any kind, he was the first there. One +morning there was an explosion in the mine, and more than a score of +prisoners were in danger of being suffocated before help could reach +them. Indeed everybody was afraid to venture in that black hole from +which the hot, sulphurous gases were pouring. Everybody but Jim. Even +the warden had to admit Jim's courage. "He aint afraid of the devil," +he declared, when he saw the boy jump into an empty coal car, call to +the mule to "git up," and disappear in the gas and smoke with the +empty cars rumbling behind him. It was a long time before he came out, +but he brought ten insensible convicts in his first haul. The lessees +recommended him for that, and promised to make it good sometime if he +kept on at that rate. + +Another time there was a fire. The rumbling old rat-hole was +threatened with destruction, and with it three hundred and +seventy-five of the State's charges. The men glared like beasts +through the cracks of the tottering stockade. Liberty, it would come +surely in some form. The fire was confined for a time to the wing +where the hospital was. But when it mounted in a great blood-dappled +sheet of flame to the top of an old rotten tower above the main +building, where the prisoners were huddled, it became evident that all +must go unless the old tower could be torn away. Up the uneven, +rickety wall went Jim, nimble as a squirrel. Crack! crack! fell the +dead boards, then with a clang and clamor, down rolled the old bell +from its perch, carrying with it the last of the burning tower. + +Jim climbed down as sullen as ever. He didn't care to save the old +shanty, or to win any praise from anybody. He was simply not afraid, +and his courage would not permit him to do other than what he did. + +Nobody cared for him specially, although the soft-voiced man with the +small, womanish hands spoke to him often, and always kindly. Jim never +forgot that he had called him friend. The memory of it stayed with +him, like the kiss of a first love that lingers long after love is +dead. Most of the men were afraid of him, so fierce was his temper, +and so easily aroused. Even the warden had learned that he could not +tame him. The strap, the lash, the pool, the pump, had been applied +times without number. The warden was still "looking around" for the +time to apply the last resource, the shotgun. It was pretty sure to +come, for the boy was entirely "unscrupulous." + +Summer set in again. Again June came, and tried to bloom even on the +coal-tracked mountain about the mine. Somewhere up back among the pine +and shadows the wild roses were blooming, and the grapes. Their odors +came down to the men as they tramped across the hot, bare, coal-strewn +way between the stockade and the mines. + +With the coming of June came a number of strangers to the mountain. +They always came in the warm season, but they quartered themselves +over in the town, beyond the stockade, and the stench, and filth, and +crime found there. + +Only one, a young man, a minister who had been expelled from the +church in the city where he had preached, found his way to the prison. +He went out one Sunday afternoon, and asked permission to preach to +the convicts. It was freely granted. Such wild heresy! Such odd, +eccentric ideas! Such flights of oratory! Such fiery brands tossed +into the old tabernacles of religious belief! Such blows upon the old +batteries of narrowness and impossibility! They had never heard +anything like it. Had he preached thus anywhere else he would have +been promptly silenced. But a lot of convicts was not an audience +likely to be injured by the too free circulating of the doctrine he +advocated. What if he should convince them that eternal punishment was +a myth, and an insult flung in the face of the Creator? A slur upon +His justice, and a lie to His divine goodness? What if he snapped his +finger at a lake of brimstone and of eternal fire? And his wild +ravings about an inconsistent Being, accepted as the head of all +wisdom, and tenderness,--and mercy, and at the same time as the +perfection of all cruelty and injustice, in that He creates only to +destroy,--what if the seed scattered should take root? What if those +old sin-blackened souls should comfort themselves with the new +doctrine, the idea that no good can be lost? God cannot be God and +destroy any good thing. It is wicked, it is devilish to kill that +which is good. God cannot be wicked and be the good God, the kind +All-Father, at the same time. Nor has He created any so vile as to be +without some one virtue. In the dust of the evil He has not failed to +drop one grain of gold to glisten, and to make glad the dull waste of +life. The grain is there, planted by God's hand, in _every_ soul. It +was in _their_ souls, poor, old, sin-covered, forsaken souls, toiling +up to the light through those begrimed walls among the filth, and +dust, and mould. Not one of them but was God's work, and bore His +grain of gold. None would be lost, not one. What matter if the prison +registrar's table of deaths did record so many, Found dead! Drowned! +Killed! Shot! Blank! Blank! Blank! Meaning they disappeared, nobody +knows how or when. + +It was a strange, sweet hope to them, that came in that wild sermon of +a bishop-silenced young heretic. They thought about it a good deal, +and began, some of them whose terms were to expire with life, to dig +down into the rust and mire with the spade of conscience for the +hidden grain. + +The minister was at the stockade often, cheering, sympathizing, and +always comforting the convicts with the certainty of eternal love, and +the folly of eternal punishment. One day he stumbled upon a man who +was being strapped and prepared for punishment at the pump. His face +was sullen, and there were splotches of blood on his clothes, and he +limped when he attempted to walk. Still there was something in the +old, young face, that neither cruelty nor threats could kill. They +might turn on the icy water, and exhaust themselves with lashing him, +but that stoic determination would not yield. They might _murder_ him, +but from his fixed, dead eyes, _it_ would glare at them, that same +heroic, immovable _something_ that had shone in the staring eyes of +his dead mother. + +No visitors were allowed in that part of the prison, so the minister +held back until, fearing the limp figure under the pump would be +beaten to death by the cruel pour of water upon his head, he stepped +forward to interfere. + +"In God's name, I beg you stop," he cried, his hand uplifted, his eyes +full of tears. "Your punishment is beastly. What has the fellow done? +Is someone murdered?" + +"Someone ought to be," sullenly replied the man at the pump-handle. +"And someone might be if this sneaking rascal was the only hope of +preventing it." + +There had been a plot among the convicts to batter down the shaky old +stockade, and break for freedom. They had secured a gun and some +ammunition, where, no one could tell, and the plot had well-nigh +succeeded. The guard on the wall had been killed, three men had +escaped, and the prison bloodhounds were lying in the kennel with +their throats cut. + +Already the governor of the State had telegraphed freedom to the +convicts not in the scheme who would give the names of those engaged +in it. Even the leader's name; for _that_ freedom was offered, pardon +unconditional. + +Something let fall discovered to the warden that Jim, while not in, +was familiar with the whole history of the insurrection. The offer of +freedom had no further effect upon him than a careless refusal to +comply with the terms set forth. But when force was suggested, he set +his lips in that old way that belonged to his mother, and said +nothing. Three days they gave him to "knock under." But the only +change noticeable during that time was a more decided sullenness, a +look in the cold, gray eyes that meant death rather than yielding. + +Once the soft-voiced young man who had put out his hand in his defence +the day of his arrival at the stockade, and had afterward called him +"friend," the only time he had ever heard the word addressed to +himself, once he came over where Jim sat cleaning the warden's boots, +and motioned him. + +Jim shook his head, and went on blacking the big boots. But when the +young convict drew nearer, and tried to take his hand, he drew back, +and struck at him viciously with the blacking brush. + +"Git out, will you! And don't come a-fooling with this brush, lest you +want your d--n head broke." + +He had seen a guard spying upon them at a half open door in the rear +of the young convict. At Jim's outburst of temper the guard entered. + +"Come away from him, Solly," he said, "the surly beast is as like as +not to knock your brains out." + +The convict turned to obey, but the glance he got of Jim's face +carried a full explanation. The temper was affected to keep down +suspicion. After that came the punishment at the pump, the merciless +beating, and then, all things proving unavailing, he was put in the +dungeon to have the "truth starved out of him." + +After three days he was brought out, faint, pale, ready to die at +every step, but with that same immovable _something_ shining in his +eyes, and his lips still set in the old way that he had of his mother. + +His hands were manacled, and an iron chain clanked about his feet as +he dragged them wearily one after the other. For three days he had +tasted no food, except a rat that he had caught in the dungeon. He ate +it raw, like a dog, and searched eagerly for another. Just as he had +found it, and skinned it with the help of his teeth, the guard peered +through the grating, and seeing what he was doing, entered, and put +handcuffs upon him, after first removing the raw flesh to a point +where he could see, but not touch it. And there it lay, torturing him +while he starved. And there it lay until it became carrion, and +tortured him again. And then they had dragged him out again, out under +the blue sky, where the trees--the old sweet-smelling pines--were +waving their purple plumes upon the distant mountains, and the wild +grape filled the air with perfume, and the wild roses were pink as +childhood's sweet, young dreams, and over all was bended the blue +heaven. And heaven spread before him, heaven; behind him lay hell, +fifteen years of it less one. And they gave him choice again betwixt +the two. They even crammed a bit of moral in the offer. "It was +right," they said, "to tell on those who had broken the prison +regulations, mere justice to the lessees." Right! too late to talk to +him of right. He glanced once at the pines, going farther away, +whiffed at the pleasant odor of the grape blooms, waved his hand to +the roses, in farewell, perhaps, lifted his face to the blue +heaven--he had never looked heavenward before in all his wretched +years,--then, wearing that same old look of his mother's, he turned, +without a word, and re-entered the prison. + +Back to the pump, the lash, and at last to the dungeon. + +But he no longer dreaded it. It was the Sabbath, and the shackles had +been removed, but he was too weary to notice the rat that came out and +sat peering at him, nibbling at his wet prison clothes, and his feet +and hands. Even the carrion did not disturb any more. The scent of the +wild grape blooms was still in his nostrils. And when the day wore on, +and the two o'clock bell sounded, calling the men to Sunday school, he +started up with a cry of "Here." He had thought the bell a voice at +the dungeon door, and fancied that it said, "friend!" + +He dropped back, with a smile on his lips. Could old Nance have peeped +in at that moment she would have pronounced him very like his mother +with that smile, and that stanch old heroism shining in his wide, dead +eyes. + + * * * * * + +Down in the office the registrar entered upon the death list: + +"James Royal--Natural death." + +Natural? then God help the unnatural. + +"The worst one ever fell into our hands," the warden told the minster +as he came out of the chapel with the soft-voiced friend of the dead +man's. "Not a spark of good in _him_, parson. Jim Royal knocks your +theory all to pieces." + +But the friend had been telling the minister a story. And as he passed +out at the rattling stockade gate, he, too, glanced up at the blue +sky. His doubts were gone, if there had been any, his faith was +planted in God's eternal goodness. + +"Can such die?" he mused, "such faithfulness, such magnificent +courage, such glorious fidelity? Is it possible that such can pass +away into eternal torment?" + +The soft wind touched his cheek and bore heavenward the prayer he +breathed:-- + +"Forbid it, Almighty God." + + + + +EDITORIAL NOTES. + + +RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE TO-DAY. PERSECUTED FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE. + +The decision recently handed down by Judge Hammond, of the United +States District Court, in the celebrated case of R. M. King, is rich +in lessons of vital importance to thoughtful minds at the present time +of unrest, when conservatism is seeking on every hand, even under the +cloak of radical movements, to secure statutes and legal constructions +of laws which may at an early day be used to fetter thought, crush +liberty, and throttle the vanguard of progress. Briefly stated, the +important facts in the case in question are as follows: Mr. King is an +honest, hard-working farmer. He is charged with no breach of morals; +in fact, it appears that he is a remarkably upright man. But he is a +Seventh Day Adventist; that is, he does not hold the same religious +views as the majority in his State. He stands in the same relation to +his countrymen as that occupied by the early disciples of Christ to +Roman society when Nero undertook to punish Christians by kindling +nightly human fires for the delectation of conservative or majority +thought. He is of the minority, even as the Huguenots were in the +minority when the Church tortured, racked, and burned them for the +glory of God and the good of humanity. He is of the minority, as was +Roger Williams when, in 1635, the popular and conventional thought of +Salem banished him. Mr. King is not an infidel or even a doubter. On +the contrary he is ardently religious, being a zealous and +conscientious member of a sect of Christians noted for their piety and +faith. The Adventists, of whom he is an honored member, it must be +remembered, hold somewhat peculiar views about the second advent of +Christ. They believe they find in the Bible commands making it +obligatory upon them to keep holy the seventh day of the week, or the +Hebrew Sabbath, instead of Sunday, the holiday and rest day observed +by most Christian denominations. Now it was shown in the trial that, +conforming to his belief, Mr. King strictly observed the Sabbath on +Saturday, but being a poor farmer he could not afford to rest two days +each week, or over one hundred days in the year, and, therefore, after +having kept the Sabbath he plowed in his field on Sunday. This aroused +the pious indignation of the narrow-minded and bigoted members of the +community who profess to follow that great Leader who taught us to +judge not, to resist not evil, and to do unto others as we would have +others do unto us. These Christians (?) who, unfortunately for the +cause of justice and religious liberty, are in the majority in +Tennessee, had this conscientious, God-fearing man arrested as a +common felon, and convicted of the heinous crime (?) of +Sabbath-breaking by plowing on Sunday. He appealed to the Supreme +Court, and the sentence was affirmed. Then the Adventists and the +National Secular Association took up the case. Hon. Don M. Dickinson +was engaged as counsel, and the case was taken to the Federal Court +last November on a writ of habeas corpus, the contention being that +the conviction was contrary to the bill of rights of Tennessee and the +Constitution of the United States, and that the defendant was held +prisoner by the sheriff without due process of law. The application +was argued several months ago, and Judge Hammond has had it under +advisement until recently, when his decision was given in which the +defendant was remanded back to the custody of the sheriff to pay the +fine or serve the time according to the sentence. This decision holds +that malice, religious or otherwise, may dictate a prosecution, but if +the law has been violated this fact does not shield the law-breaker. +Neither do the courts require that there shall be some moral obloquy +to support a given law before enforcing it, and it is not necessary to +maintain that to violate the Sunday observance customs shall be of +itself immoral to make it criminal in the eyes of the law. + +Suggestive, indeed, are the lessons of this great judicial crime +against liberty, justice, and God. In the first place it illustrates +the fact which must long since have become apparent to thinking men +that the guarantee of the Constitution of the United States, which, +more than aught else, has made this Republic the flower of all +preceding nations, is yearly becoming less and less regarded by the +small men and narrow minds who interpret law and who, instead of +showing how unconstitutional any law is which violates the great +charter of right, yield to the present craze for Governmental +Paternalism, paying no more heed to our Constitution than if it was +the ukase of a Czar. In numerous instances during the past decade has +this solemn fact been emphasized, until it is evident that with the +reaction toward Paternalism and centralization has come the old time +spirit of intolerance and moral obloquy on the part of the governing +powers which has been one of the chief curses of the ages, entailing +indescribable misery on the noblest and best, and holding in +subjection the vanguard of progress, which always has been and always +will be the minority, regarded by the majority as dangerous innovators +or disseminators of false theories and doctrines. In my article on +Socialism I noted the case of Mr. King, observing that:-- + + He in no way deserves the shameful imprisonment he is suffering; + yet the prejudice of the majority sustains the infamous law that + makes criminals of the innocent and takes not into consideration + the rights of the minority. _And what is more, the religious + press is so dominated by bigotry and ancient prejudice that it is + blind alike to the Golden Rule and the inexorable demands of + justice._ If in any State the Adventists, the Hebrews, or any + other people who believed in observing Saturday instead of Sunday + should happen to predominate, and they undertook to throw + Christians into dungeons, and after branding them criminals + should send them to the penitentiary for working on Saturday, + indignation would blaze forth throughout Christendom against the + great injustice, the wrong against the liberty of the rights of + the citizen. The only difference is that poor Mr. King is in the + minority; he is the type of those who always have been and always + will be made to suffer when the government is strong enough to + persecute all who do not accept what is considered truth and + right by the majority. + + +In replying to my paper Mr. Bellamy thus flippantly dismissed this +case: "Of this it may be remarked that had it happened two centuries +ago it would have been symptomatic; to-day it is a curiosity." It will +be observed that in order to minify the dangers of Paternalism, Mr. +Bellamy entirely ignored the point I had italicized, viz.: the +Christian sentiment of society was not outraged and what was more, +"_the religious press was so dominated by bigotry and ancient +prejudice that it was blind alike to the Golden Rule and the +inexorable demands of justice_." To-day we are told that this great +judicial crime is a curiosity, although the religious bigotry of the +majority has been upheld by the lower, the federal, and supreme +courts, while the religious press has, with rare exceptions, +sanctioned the persecution or ignored the case. + +In vain the long-cherished idea that this country was to pass down the +cycle of time known as the land of freedom; that it was to be forever +the asylum for religious liberty and the cradle of progress, unless +the sober thought of our people be at once aroused to stem the rising +tide of Governmentalism and the steady encroachment of religious +organizations and despotic foreign thought. + +Comparatively few of the leading secular journals[6] have deemed this +outrage sufficiently important to call for editorial comment, +notwithstanding it marks the establishing of a precedent which must +inevitably work great misery to innocent people at the hands of +religious fanatics, unless there is a sufficient agitation to cause +the repeal of many iniquitous laws which are a menace to the rightful +freedom of citizens as long as they remain on the statute books. + + [6] Among the few papers which have denounced this judicial + crime are the New York _Commercial Advertiser_ and the St. + Louis _Republic_. The former journal observes: "It seems + that the glorious clause of the Constitution can give no + protection to men who conscientiously believe they should + literally observe the Fourth Commandment.... It seems that + when a State seeks to enforce religious duty all consciences + must bow before it. That is to say, if, for example, the + Catholics of Louisiana were to pass a law that no man should + taste meat on Friday, the act would be no infringement of + religious liberty. + + There can be but one opinion upon this decision among all + liberal-minded men. It is odious sophistry, unworthy of the + age in which we live. And under it an American citizen has + been condemned to spend the rest of his days in a dungeon + unless he shall stoop to deny the dictates of his own + conscience and dishonor his own manhood. + + The _Republic_ in an editorial of August second says: "Not + being able to leave his crops unworked for two days in the + week, Mr. King ploughed them on Sunday, after having kept + the Sabbath the day before. He was arrested under the Sunday + law, and in order to make it effective against him it was + alleged that his work on his own farm on Sunday created a + public nuisance. On this entirely untenable ground he has + been harassed from court to court. He was a poor man, but he + has been supported by the friends of religious liberty. Mr. + King has been greatly wronged, but his only remedy at law is + under the law and Constitution of Tennessee. It appears that + for the present his remedy is denied him, and this being the + case he has no better recourse than to submit to the + oppression and go to prison--to the convict camp, if it + suits the convenience of his persecutors to send him there." + + +SOCIAL CONDITIONS UNDER LOUIS XV. A LESSON FOR THE PRESENT DAY. + +To the superficial observer who, as guests of royalty, loitered +through the sunny days which marked the closing years of Louis XV., +France presented the aspect of a gay, thoughtless, happy, butterfly +nation, whose government on the whole satisfied the requirements of +the rich and powerful, and was sustained by the strong arm of the +army on the one hand and the impregnable influence of the Church on +the other. Small heed was to be given to the pamphleteers, whose +brilliant satire, biting sarcasm, and pointed logic afforded amusement +at the Louvre, rather than struck dismay to the hearts of those who +fondly believed that the Church still held in thrall the brain of the +masses, and that as for centuries the people had been content with +slavery and vassalage, it was absurd to imagine they had now come to +man's estate, had, Phoenix-like, arisen from the ashes of old-time +sullen obedience or ignorant content, into the tumultuous atmosphere +of intellectual activity. It is true, some far-seeing brains beheld +the coming storm and warned the king, urging him to either suppress +the philosophers, or concede to the masses a greater meed of justice, +but their views were scouted by the ruling or conventional thought of +the court, and life at the Louvre continued a merry whirl of carnal +and selfish delight. The morning brought the chases, and evening the +banquet, the theatre, or the ball; while at intervals grand +polytechnic exhibitions delighted the populace, being given, probably, +in the vain hope that they would satisfy the rising discontent, much +as the gladiatorial shows satisfied, while they still further +brutalized, the degraded populace of ancient Rome, making possible the +toleration of such colossal iniquity as marked the decline of the +Empire. Such, then, was the aspect of court life, while above the +social and political horizon were gathering clouds which prophesied +the greatest cataclysm civilization had witnessed. The wilful +short-sightedness, the supreme indifference to the principles of +justice, liberty, and fraternity; the conspicuous absence of the +spirit of humanity, which characterized those who might have averted +the coming baptism of blood, was the legitimate result of the +anaesthetizing of the soul of the Court and aristocracy with the lust +of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. The divine +spark had disappeared. The spiritual nature had given way to the +sensual. Ambition and pleasure were enthroned in the seats of justice +and humanity. Selfishness was the keynote of aristocratic life. And +with this fact kept in view, the short-sightedness of royalty in the +presence of the rising tide of intelligent discontent is by no means +strange. Indifferent to the fate of the masses in any struggle that +might be precipitated, guided by none of the higher impulses of life, +and possessing implicit confidence in the impregnability of that +triple bulwark of conservatism, the army, the police, and the Church, +the ruling party of French aristocracy drifted down the stream +garlanded with roses, revelling in wine and music, abandoning itself +to pleasure on life's lowest plane. + +To the student of social conditions, who might have been a guest of +the philosopher Rousseau, the picture photographed on the mental +retina would have been far different. Above he would have beheld the +round of selfish, thoughtless gaiety, in which the images and +intrigues of Madame Dubarry and Marie Antoinette, of Choiseul and +Rohan, of Louis and Richelieu, were strangely mingled and distorted by +exaggeration, as they sifted down from the Court through several +layers of brains until they reached the world of the newly awakened +laborer. Below him would have yawned, in all its hideousness, the +blackness of the pit, the social cellar into which he would have seen +thousands and scores of thousands of his fellow-men crowded or driven +by want, misfortune, or the avarice of the more powerful, and from +which so few who once fall ever rose to the noble estate of true +manhood and womanhood. Around him he would have noted still another +world, more interesting and yet more terrible in its ferocity and +power than those above and below--the realm of the common people--the +sphere of the masses--the _current_ which passed over the darkest +dregs and bore on its surface the scum. In this world the strange and +interesting phenomenon would have met his eye of a newly awakened +brain, an intellect which after ages of semi-unconsciousness, had, in +a surprisingly short time, been aroused by the intellectual brilliancy +of thinkers who had flooded a nation with new ideas, who had kindled +the fires of justice, who had spoken in the _ear of all the people_ +the doctrine of the essential brotherhood of man, the kinship of the +throne and the shop, the idler in the palace and the idler in the +cellar; the cormorant who dined off the labor of others at Lucerne, +and the low-browed outcasts occupied in the same way but pursuing +different methods, in the social sewer. And he would have noticed an +unusual activity in this working world; secret meetings were being +held on every hand. The great philosophical works of Rousseau +breathing a new hope and a larger life into the soul of every reader, +and the withering satire of Voltaire falling against the battlements +of the church and the throne--these were the text-books and watchword +of the new revolution. Tens of thousands of men who a few years before +had accepted unquestioningly the assurance of the priests and obeyed +as children the decrees of Royalty, were now thinking as never before +on justice and equity, were students and intelligent expounders of the +master brains which blossomed forth on every hand, in spite of priest +and police. Heresy and liberty, justice and freedom, progress and +equity had joined hands; conventionalism was doomed. The cry for +justice went up from every hand to the crown and the aristocracy, only +to come back with a mocking laugh or a royal restrictive decree. Thus +the flame was fanned. The noble teaching of the great apostles of +light and justice which illuminated the brains of the people and at +first filled their hearts with holy love and wonderful tenderness, +making them ready to accept and only desirous of receiving that +measure of justice and consideration to which they knew they were +entitled, later changed to feelings of hate and desire for revenge +which ever grows as mushrooms in the average mind when justice is +denied and oppression bears down more relentlessly at each complaint +that comes from the oppressed. It is a law of life on the lower plane +that selfishness, indifference, and heartlessness coming from above +are photographed upon the sensitive intellect of the struggling minds +below, which vainly ask for justice, only to return in time +intensified a hundred-fold--selfishness becomes active and is +complemented by an insane desire to destroy. Indifference calls forth +unbridled ferocity. Heartlessness awakens sentiments of cruelty and +brutality as relentless and destructive as the cyclone. + +The social sewer or cellar of Paris at this time presented as +interesting and suggestive a study as the toiling world above. Here +were thousands of human beings dwelling in the atmosphere of crime and +brutality, hungry, cold, and well-nigh hopelessly vicious by virtue of +want, association, and environment, and ready for, if not eagerly +anticipating any social upheaval which would afford them an +opportunity to plunder and pillage. This world presented then, as it +ever must, the saddest and most hopeless spectacle in the kaleidoscope +of life. There were scores of thousands in this social sewer and new +recruits coming daily. The avarice and extravagance of the Court +pressed upon the great stratum of middle life, which in time bore down +upon the lower sphere with crushing weight, while many of its numbers, +weary of the eternal struggle, relaxed their hold on respectability +and fell into the pit of crime and moral death. The inhabitants of +this realm presented a picture of ferocity and despair, which must +necessarily prove a frightful element in a revolution. The social +cellar was only waiting for the signal when its hideous throat would +belch forth death as surely as cannon or mortar ever hurled the +life-destroying bomb. Such was life in France in the world of the +wealthy and the world of want; while Louis drank Dubarry's health; +while Marie Antoinette longed for her childhood home, and the Dauphin +busied himself with geography, lock-making, and clock-repairing. + +When Louis XV. died the scum had so thoroughly poisoned the great +current of life in France that it is probable that even had there been +far wiser heads at the helm of State than Louis XVI. and his +councillor they would have found it difficult, if not impossible, to +prevent a bloody reckoning, for the love of peace and reverence for +justice, the cool judgment and mature wisdom which swayed the popular +mind at an early day was well-nigh drowned in the rising tide of angry +discontent and intense hate. A settled conviction pervaded the soul of +the masses that the hour had come when might should make right the +age-long wrongs of the people; and when an idea of this character +possesses the rank and file of a nation it is almost impossible even +by a liberal policy to avert a bloody issue. + +I have dwelt upon this striking passage of history because it bristles +with suggestive lessons and warning notes to the great Republic at +the present time, and because the grave evils, which are as +symptomatic to-day as were the signs of the times portentous in the +reign of the easy-going, sensual Louis, are being met by those who +have it in their power to avert a social catastrophe in precisely the +same short-sighted spirit as characterized the conservative +aristocracy when it denied the existence of the universal discontent +among the masses and flippantly dismissed the angry muttering of the +coming storm as merely the expression of a few shallow-brained +malcontents. To-day we find the same brutal indifference and +selfishness as was so conspicuous at the Louvre in 1770, exhibited by +our mushroom aristocracy of the dollar, composed of those who form and +control the great monopolies, syndicates, trusts, and combines, which +are so cruelly oppressing the many that the few may grow many times +millionnaires; together with the great railway magnates, who have +through watering stock on the one hand, and plundering the +commonwealth of farmers by exorbitant freights on the other, +dishonestly amassed colossal fortunes. And that still more baleful +communion which forms such an important part of America's shoddy +aristocracy, the Wall Street gamblers, they who rule "the street," +paralyzing healthy business, causing panics at will, and annually +sweeping to the wall, to ruin and to death numbers of victims who have +been lured into their snares by deceptive reports industriously +circulated and extensively published by paid agents of these same +brigands of the commercial world. + +This mushroom plutocracy, whose representatives hold colossal fortunes +acquired rather than earned, practically rule our business interests +by virtue of the enormous opportunities afforded by their great +wealth. And year by year are they increasing the rising tide of +indignation in the hearts of millions of hard-working men and women, +by grinding down more and still more hopelessly the multitude +dependent on them, whom they can reduce to starvation if they rebel. +Another element, which, viewed from the plane of justice and equity +may be rightly termed _criminal_, is the popular and conservative +economist who caters to the plutocracy and with brazen effrontery +denies facts susceptible of proof, while he denounces every reformer +who seeks to expose the iniquities of the present. This course is +precisely a repetition of the policy of those who minified the real +danger and misrepresented the grave facts to the Court of France, at a +time when an honest, truthful representation might have averted the +most terrible revolution in the annals of civilization. Only a short +time since a popular economic writer denounced a Boston clergyman for +unveiling the horrors of the sweating system in the modern Athens. He +could not deny the truth of the sickening facts described, but termed +the minister a member of one of the "_most dangerous class_" of +citizens, merely because he spoke the truth with a view to bettering +the condition of society's exiles. + +At a recent meeting of the Rhode Island weavers, a distinguished and +popular conservative economic writer addressed the hard struggling +workingmen. During his remarks he sought to make them blindly and +contentedly accept their lot by saying in honeyed tones: "_Why, my +dear friends, the production of the country only furnishes $200 a head +annually, and it is hard to make it go around. It is only by hard +pinching and careful economy that we can make it do so;_" while almost +within gunshot of the speaker rose the palaces of America's +millionnaires, at Newport, where gigantic fortunes are annually +squandered with lavish hands; where Mr. McAllister and his butterfly +coterie of wealthy gourmands eat, drink, and dance away the summer, +and illustrate how _these_ children of idleness and wealth have to +"_pinch and plan_" _to make their share_ "_of the $200 go around_," of +which the distinguished conservative economist spoke. If the masses of +our people were unable to read or write, if they had been accustomed +to centuries of oppression, a policy so glaringly unjust and +disingenuous might succeed for a time. But with conditions as they +are, the persistent crying of peace when there is no peace, and +attempting to juggle with facts is more than foolish, it is +_criminal_. One who does not regularly read the labor and agricultural +press of this country is incapable of forming an intelligent idea of +the nature or extent of the discontent at the present time. Then +again, beyond this commonwealth of struggling toilers rises another +commonwealth, the frightful condition of which no careful student can +ignore. I refer to society's exiles, or the contingent of the social +cellar. This element grows more powerful with each year. It is not +securing justice at the hands of civilization and must some day be +reckoned with. + +In every agitation, every crusade against wrong, every battle for +humanity, every contest for a broader sweep of justice, conventional +critics have arrayed themselves on the side of the evil conditions, +and denounced as dangerous agitators those who have sought to arouse +the higher impulses of the people to right the crying wrongs of the +hour. The treatment of Garrison and Phillips by this class in Boston, +even in the shadow of the Cradle of Liberty, during the anti-slavery +agitation, is of sufficiently recent date to emphasize this point, +which has been paralleled in every important agitation for a higher +civilization and a more just condition. To ignore the serious social +unrest of the present, and the bitter cry of the weak for justice, is +to follow the fatal precedent set by the French government. To deny +the reality of the wrongs complained of, or lightly dismiss them as +our popular economists are doing, is to pursue the ostrich policy with +the certainty of being overtaken by the results of the evil which +might have been averted. It matters not whether our "eminent" +authorities are ignorant of the true social condition in city and +country life to-day, or are wickedly juggling with truth in order to +curry favor with plutocracy and conservatism, the fact remains that +they are deceiving their masters as courtiers have often deceived +thrones at moments when deception meant ruin. The duty of the hour is +to _turn on the light_, to compel the thoughtful among our wealthy and +powerful people to know the truth as it is, and to seek such a just +and equitable revolution as will save a baptism of blood. The day for +prophesying smooth things is past; we are face to face with problems +and conditions which will not brook dishonest treatment. The +exigencies of the present hour demand that we frankly face the social +problems as they are and honestly discuss them in all their bearings. +That we call to witness the impressive lessons of history and if +possible, avert the repetition of the cataclysms of the past by prompt +measures, marked by wisdom and justice. It is not too late to prevent +a revolution of force if _wealth and power_ will heed the cry of _want +and weakness_; if justice, courage, and duty supplant self-interest +and indifference in the hearts of those who see and feel the rising +tide of angry discontent. To-day if we would demonstrate that a +century of civilization and free government has lifted us to a higher +ethical level than humanity had attained a hundred years ago, we must +face conditions as they are and promptly adopt measures that will +secure such a meed of justice for the weak as shall take from his +heart the bitterness of injustice and establish a feeling of common +brotherhood and good-will. + + * * * * * + +[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. 589, "Samangala" changed to "Sumangala" +2. p. 603, "Lassez-faire" changed to "Laissez-faire" +3. p. 607, Both "J. S. Moffitt, Jr." and "J. S. Moffit, Jr." appear + on page 607. +4. p. 622, "nothng" changed to "nothing" +5. p. 632, "Even he carrion" changed to "Even the carrion" +6. p. 633, "Sabbath or" changed to "Sabbath on" + +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 23802.txt or 23802.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/8/0/23802/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier, Richard J. 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