An English magazine writer on Egypt points out the difficulty which is
encountered in all the public life of the Nile country—it is the habit of
submission to personal despotic authority. The only system of government
which is possible is the old, old one—for it has unfitted the people
for any other. An enlightened despotism might give the country rest and
prosperity. But western Europe, now master in Egypt, has outgrown the
capacity to administer a despotism.
* * * * *
Professor Goldwin Smith has recently stated that Canada is becoming more
French. The French not only gain in population faster than the English
in what was once called New France, but they are spreading out into the
Canadian New England. In Quebec there are only 7,000 British people. The
Canadian Frenchmen are cultivating, he says, the relations to France with
increasing zeal. The sober truth is, we believe, that the English in
Canada never had a chance of salvation except through annexation to the
United States. We were never anxious about that; but they ought to have
been.
* * * * *
Smuggling is not altogether a lost art. It is said that it is practiced
for a livelihood on the Maine coast with some success. The fishermen are
said to be experts in the business. But it is not a large business, and
our government does not lose much, nor does any one get rich by breaking
the revenue laws.
* * * * *
Somebody says that a ranch in Texas has 25,000 more acres than the state
of Rhode Island. But don’t infer that this country is going to be a land
of large farms. We have always had some such farms; but the number of
them is decreasing. They never _pay_, and no social distinction attaches
to their proprietors.
* * * * *
In Boston, Easter morning, Dr. Withrow dwelt upon the overwhelming
evidence of the fact of Christ’s resurrection. Rev. Minot J. Savage
said, at the same hour in the same city, that we have not the slightest
evidence that any Apostle ever saw Christ after he was crucified and
buried. It seems that there is at least one theological difference of
creed extant in our harmonious time. Mr. Savage might profitably read
Paul’s testimony on this subject.
* * * * *
Mr. W. S. Hallock, the editor of the _Christian at Work_, has been in
Bermuda this season, and in a letter to his paper recalls the fact that
the first settlers of that island were a drove of hogs who escaped
thither from a wrecked vessel. They thrived so well that the next comers
found the land filled with swine. Mr. Hallock adds: “It is probably the
only successful instance of the commune to be found in all history.” The
point scored is that communism is good for hogs.
* * * * *
This spring the West Indian war is in Cuba. It is commonly held in Hayti.
An expedition headed by one Aguero escaped from Key West in April and,
being joined in Cuba by many dissatisfied persons, made some headway
as a revolution. Our government promptly issued orders to prevent the
reënforcement of Aguero from this country. The hot weather will suppress
the revolutionists—if they are natives of the United States.
* * * * *
Waiters on roller-skates is a novelty introduced into an Omaha hotel.
Labor-saving contrivances in the household seem to have stopped with
the sewing machine—and it is denied by husbands that this machine saves
labor. It is rather a means of putting more work on a dress with the same
amount of labor of the hand.
* * * * *
Herbert Spencer has been trying to prove that slavery is little different
from our ordinary social freedom. A man must work, he says, most of
the time for another person in either case. Yes, but it is a great
satisfaction to select the man you will work for. And, in freedom, the
workman is always working _for_ himself. Mr. Spencer should try being a
slave for a length of time sufficient to teach him the moral distinction
between that state and freedom.
* * * * *
One of the papers, noticing the death of a fast trotting horse, says that
he was ill only fifteen minutes. Similar statements are frequently made
respecting distinguished men; and the prayer book contains a petition
to be delivered from sudden death. We note the facts for the sake of
remarking that sudden death by disease, either in horses or men, never
happens. Diseases act much more slowly, and the man who dies of a fever
has probably been ill for months. The moral is, attend to the first
symptoms of illness.
* * * * *
The United States recently transferred a prisoner from the north to the
south _for the benefit of his health_. He was a “moonshiner,” and had
killed several men who had attempted to arrest him. The solicitude for
his health shows that we are not wanting in philanthropy toward prisoners.
* * * * *
The native Christians of India are taking the intellectual lead in that
country. At the University examinations in Madras there were 2,702
Brahmans, 1,303 non-Brahman-Hindoos, 107 Mohammedans, and 332 Christians.
Forty-five per cent. of the Christians passed, and only thirty-five per
cent. of the Brahmans, while the other classes were still lower. In India
there are seventeen million Brahmans and two million Christians. The
former increase at the rate of six per cent. in ten years, and the latter
at the rate of eighty-five per cent. These facts furnish a very striking
proof of Christian progress in India.
* * * * *
Reminiscences of Anthony Trollope continue to appear in English
periodicals. Two manly traits of his character are dwelt upon. He was
punctual in keeping his literary engagements, and he never pretended
to be indifferent about his pay for work. He made a bargain and kept
his promise—and did both like a man. The traditional literary man did
neither; he was always behind with his copy, and always pretended that he
did not care for remuneration. Trollope’s example deserves all the good
things that are said of it.
* * * * *
The _Edinburgh Review_ expresses the opinion that the novels written by
girls must be unreal and insubstantial. The girls _ought_ not, it thinks,
to know anything about life, and probably do not know anything about it.
The girl knows less of the world than the boy of her own age, and nobody
expects the boy to write a novel. Yes, but then the girl often does
produce a good story and the boy never does.
* * * * *
Art is _still_ long. Steam has not yet been successfully applied to it.
A parent said to a teacher of music: “How long will it require to fit my
daughter to appear in public? Will nine months do?” The teacher replied:
“Nine years, madam. Even a boot-maker takes seven.” Hurrying to the front
inflicts upon society a great deal of very poor art.
* * * * *
The vexed question has set in with great vigor in the coal country. Some
very “heathenish and filthy” people, called Hungarians, have come in and
are competing with low wages. They use no soap, and save all the cost of
cleanliness. The question we refer to is whether American labor is to
keep its high level of decency, comfort and education. It is noticeable
that the Chinese are rapidly climbing to that level. Perhaps these
Hungarians will.
* * * * *
Russia finds it increasingly difficult to live in the same house with
modern civilization. Count Ignatief killed five newspapers during a year
when he was Minister of the Interior. Count Tolstoi has killed nine in
two years. Nihilist plots have made some sympathy for Russia; but the
fatal disease of that country is despotism.
* * * * *
Our medical colleges, in some sections if not everywhere, need an
improvement in the standard of requirements. A story is told of a western
one at whose examinations a student answered correctly only three out of
twenty-five questions, and was affably informed that his examination was
“entirely satisfactory.” It is intimated, too, that the questions were
very easy.
* * * * *
Dr. James A. H. Murray, the editor of the new English Dictionary, is a
hard worked teacher in a non-conformist school in the suburbs of London.
His good work on the first part of the dictionary, recently published,
has attracted attention, and it is said that Oxford will give him a good
place, and that Mr. Gladstone will add a government pension. The British
eye is very quick to detect rare merit.
* * * * *
The British press is dealing severely with this country for tolerating
dynamite conspirators. But up to this date no proof is furnished that
there is any dynamite conspiracy here. Some indolent gentlemen in New
York raise money for use against England and profess to be at the bottom
of the dynamite business. But it is plain enough that they would not
boast of it if they were really guilty, and that they collect the money
for their own use. “Liberating Ireland” by taking up collections is an
easy mode of gaining a livelihood.
* * * * *
The French have won another victory over the Black Flags in Tonquin. A
very gratifying fact is that thus far the Chinese have not turned upon
and maltreated the foreigners within their gates. A general massacre of
traders, travelers and missionaries was feared when this trouble began;
but it would seem that contact with Europeans has modified the Chinese
feeling toward foreigners. It is reported that high officials have lost
their offices, perhaps also their heads, but the foreign population has
not been disturbed.
* * * * *
The political cauldrons are boiling. But an acute observer still sees
that the general public is less partisan than it was ten years ago, or
even four years ago. It is a wholesome state of things. Good men will
stand the best chance of election, provided that they have some capacity
to win popular affection. In politics, at least, there are no good
icebergs.
* * * * *
A city marshal was shot dead in Dakota last month by a liquor dealer
resisting an attempt to close his place at midnight. Lawlessness and
recklessness are becoming more and more prominent characteristics of the
liquor traffic; and this is a good sign in a bad situation. The decent
men got out of the traffic some time ago; the semi-decent men followed
them. The class remaining in the business can not have many friends, and
will be disposed of by and by as nuisances.
* * * * *
It is said that the educated Chinese are rapidly becoming materialists.
They have lost their old religion and are taking refuge in European
scientific materialism. The meaning of this fact is that in Japan, as
in America, the fight is between Christianity and materialistic dogmas.
It is the same the world over, where enlightenment exists. These two
struggle for the dominion of the world.
* * * * *
Actors and actresses have made a scandalous record on the question of
marriage during the last four years. Any newspaper reader can make his
own catalogue. That theater life is a terrible one for a virtuous woman.
The horrible surroundings of an actress—the trial by fire which she
undergoes, and so rarely survives, is a crushing argument against the
stage.
* * * * *
One of the striking things to an American traveling in Europe is the
cheap cab. After many trials and failures that great convenience has been
introduced into New York under very promising conditions. A new company
has organized the system and seems to be on a solid foundation. The cheap
cab is a sign of civilization which has hitherto been wanting in our
large cities. The world moves.
* * * * *
A relic of the battle of the Boyne appeared in Newfoundland last month.
Orangemen were fired upon by Catholics. It is a pity that the battle of
the Boyne can not be confined to Ireland. There seems to be no propriety
in transporting it to this continent every year.
* * * * *
New York and Brooklyn are to be the Chinese center in this country. The
yellow men are not persecuted there. The number of them now in those
cities is estimated at from 3,500 to 5,000. Christian schools among them
are growing rapidly. There are now twenty-two schools, with 910 scholars.
Most of these schools were organized last year; only three of them are
more than four years old.
* * * * *
Prince Bismarck recently said: “The telegraph fearfully multiplies my
work.” Does it not multiply the work of all men in public positions? The
telegraph travels fast and helps to make us work fast.
* * * * *
A correspondent asks us to make an itinerary for six months’ travel in
Europe. Such a plan of travel would require too much space. Write to a
New York publisher for a small book on the subject. There are many such
books. To “read up” for the journey, procure two or three of the best
books on the subject of European travel. Harper & Brothers publish a good
one; there are several others. If you are about to invest from $600 to
$1,000 in such a journey, you will do well to begin with an outlay of
from ten to twenty dollars for special books.
* * * * *
The French have spent four years and $20,000,000 on the Panama Canal,
and have not made great progress. An American who worked for a year on
the canal, and got off with his life, reports that fever is the great
enemy of the undertaking. He says that five thousand deaths of workmen
occurred in three months. The company kept fifteen thousand men at work
by bringing in shiploads of new men as fast as death destroyed its
workmen. If the canal is ever finished it will have cost a hundred and
fifty millions of dollars, and as many thousand lives.
* * * * *
General Gordon is at this writing still shut up in Khartoum, and
England seems to be doing nothing to save him. Egypt is politically and
financially bankrupt, and Mr. Gladstone’s ministry is threatened with
overthrow because it has not managed the unmanageable Nile question.
There is only one easy settlement of Egyptian affairs, and that is an
English government of Egypt.
* * * * *
The drunken man is an increasing nuisance. Recently, in a Brooklyn, N.
Y. theater, he cried “fire,” and caused a frightful panic. In a New
York City theater he was an alderman, and interrupted the performance
long enough to get arrested and marched off to the lock-up. He is
always engaged in quarrels in which blood is drawn. In a western city,
last month, he killed his best friend. We all have other business, but
we ought not to neglect this drunken man, or the places where he is
manufactured.
* * * * *
Something new in the matter of mixed metaphor appears in the New York
_Times_. A correspondent, writing of a political organization, described
some elements of it as “cancerous barnacles.” We notice, too, a new verb
in politics. A dreary and egoistic speaker at a convention is said to
have “pepper-sauced himself over an impatient audience.”
* * * * *
A wealthy New Yorker, recently deceased, disposed by will of some two
millions of property which he had gained chiefly through the rewards
and opportunities of public position. He bequeathed only $15,000 to
benevolent causes. A man has the right to dispose of his estate as he
will; but then the public has a judgment as to whether he disposes of it
in the right way. And less than one per cent. to benevolence is not the
right proportion.
* * * * *
There is a bad type of independence in politics. It is that whose
shape is made by personal malignity, and whose method is slander and
vituperation. Just at this season this sort of independence is noisy. It
is a kind of politics which should have little influence.
* * * * *
A recent writing criticises the wealthy men of the country for negligence
in the matter of making their wealth minister to philanthropy. Probably
most of our millionaires are too busy to see the point, but the point is
sharp and will stick in the world’s remembrance of many of them. The only
moral justification for holding a large property is philanthropic use of
it. Neglect of the kind mentioned breeds socialists and weakens the moral
safeguards of all private property.
* * * * *
For two years, Mrs. Carrie B. Kilgore, a lady holding a diploma as
bachelor of laws, granted her by the University of Pennsylvania, has
been endeavoring to gain admittance to the bar, but has been refused, on
the ground that the law was out of woman’s sphere, that it had been put
there by custom, and that the aforesaid “sphere” could only be enlarged
by action of the legislature. A Pennsylvania judge with a different idea
has, however, been found. He declares, and very correctly: “If there
is any longer any such thing as what old-fashioned philosophers and
essayists used to call the sphere of woman, it must now be admitted to be
a sphere with an infinite and indeterminable radius.” Mrs. Kilgore can,
at last, use her hard-earned right to practice.
* * * * *
The late A. F. Bellows excelled in landscape, and the value of his
productions has doubled since his lamented death last year. Four charming
landscapes from his brush are among Prang’s forthcoming publications.
They are in his happiest manner, with the tender poetic treatment that
especially distinguished his work. Essentially American in feeling, his
choice of subjects was always of quiet home scenes, and he is without
a rival in the delineation of landscape, seeking his theme among quiet
meadows and in pastoral districts, in preference to the wilder mountain
views which tempt so many of our American artists. The house which is
sending out this artist’s work has given us this year a large amount
of very valuable productions. Their Easter cards, we remember, were
unusually fine; among them the mediæval cards printed in red and black,
and the prints and cards on old hand-made paper, encased in parchment
paper, were the most attractive novelties.
* * * * *
Mr. Matthew Arnold had some unpleasant journalistic experiences in his
late American trip. Flippant newspaper men punned and joked and told
malicious stories about this dignified and scholarly gentleman until
he has been driven to the opinion—and perhaps it is a correct one—that
“mendacious personal gossip is the bane of American journalism.”
* * * * *
An unavoidable delay prevented our getting the following names into the
list of graduates of the class of ’83. We are glad to be able to insert
them now: Mrs. Sarah McElwain, Martin, Kansas; John R. Bowman, Iowa; Mrs.
Matilda J. Hay, Pennsylvania; Mary S. Fish, California; Lucyannah Morrill
Clark, Wisconsin; Annie M. Botsford, New York; Frances W. Judd, New York.