Massachusetts.—I want to say for the encouragement of any who urge objections to the C. L. S. C. course, that I took it up to please my wife, but ’twas but a short time before I was earnestly reading and studying to please myself. It seemed quite an undertaking, but, though we are forty years old, and have four children, we have found time to keep abreast of the work as carried on by the Circle. We (myself and wife) are of the class of ’86, and began reading together, but the next year, ’83, there was a circle formed, and we joined. You would only have to glance into our sitting room to-night to learn that we are disciples firm and true in this course and its kindred branches; my wife and myself reading French History, two older children at the other end of the room reading the Home College Series, while the two youngest (seven and ten) are reading the course of the C. Y. F. R. U., and the benefits, the blessings and the pleasure we gain from all of this can never be counted in time. We are enthusiastic over the C. L. S. C., because we can see and feel some of its benefits already. We know the forty minutes a day pays better interest than any similar time spent in any secular business. We know its value can not be computed by any known tables. We recommend it to everybody, and we feel ’twill grow here among us. It is succeeding everywhere, it must succeed, and must produce good results, for “We study the Word and the Works of God.”
Massachusetts.—I am quite an invalid, so I take the reading slowly and in small doses, but I can not begin to tell the good it has done me.
New Jersey.—Life seems to me to have been lifted on a higher plane since my association with the C. L. S. C. I know I am a better wife, I love my Christian work better, I am better acquainted with the Master, and as the intellect is cultivated, the soul is pushed out into greater depths and heights and breadths.
Pennsylvania.—I enjoy the reading and study more than I can express, believing that its influence is elevating. I regret that I can not enjoy the advantages of a local circle. I did try to interest some in my own neighborhood, but did not succeed.
Pennsylvania.—It is helping me regain what I lost under the pernicious influence of novel reading. It fills many moments, that would have been spent in idle dreaming, with rare pleasure in the acquirement of knowledge. Its purifying influence is making life more real and earnest. I belong to a small circle numbering six members. Two of the number read last year, and were instrumental in the organization of the circle this year. We are all enthusiastic members, meeting regularly each week. We have real social meetings, with no formality or coldness, and they are a source of great benefit and enjoyment to us all.
Pennsylvania.—You may send me about twenty-five “Popular Education” circulars, and the same number of “Spare Minute Course” tracts, and I will try to aid the C. L. S. C. by distributing them, and speaking a word for it. I have not been able to do much for it yet, but it has done a great deal for me. The first year, and up to February of this year, I did the reading all alone. Sometimes it was very discouraging, but every month whenThe Chautauquancame, and I read the letters from other members, the circles and others, my enthusiasm received an impetus that carried me on into the next month, and so on through the year. I do not pretend to keep up with the class. Do not think I had finished over half the required readings at the close of the year. But, if the only object of the C. L. S. C. was to have the reading done, I might have done it. My conception of the “Chautauqua Idea” is growth. It has been a means of growth to me. I have grown intellectually, morally and spiritually. It destroyed a taste for lightreading, and created an appetite for real knowledge, giving enlarged views of life and life’s work.
Indiana.—This is my third year of work, and I feel much more zealous than at the start. No early training can take the place of such a course as this, yet with a foundation how easy it all appears when we once get at it. It is wonderful how the interest grows. I go out but little, my friends find my C. L. S. C. books scattered around when they come in. At first they attracted little attention, and I failed to create much interest in them by speaking, but as time goes on and they still see the same thing they begin to wonder and ask questions, until now I am frequently asked to explain “the whole plan,” and find willing hearers. There are four of us in this place who pay the annual fee, but I succeeded in getting several more to subscribe forThe Chautauquan. In another year I hope we shall have an interesting class. “We four” are not formally organized, but our sympathy brings us closely together wherever we meet. I have the complete set of C. L. S. C. books—could not get along without them.
Wisconsin.—I tried for years, ten years at least, to arrange a course of reading for myself (before I ever heard of the C. L. S. C., too), that would bepracticaland instructive at the same time; though I made many attempts I always found it impossible to pursue the courses of study I selected, but I never gave up the effort. My thirst for knowledge has always been so great I never am happy unless I feel that every day I have made some improvement, or acquired some knowledge that will be of lasting benefit. So when I had the opportunity of joining the C. L. S. C. I hailed it with delight and gratitude, and never think of its founders without thanking them in my inmost heart for the good it has done, and the good it promises in the future.
Wisconsin.—These two years of C. L. S. C. work have been the happiest of my life. Our studies lighten our cares, encourage our Christian faith, and give the future a bright and encouraging outlook. We see the good influence even in our children; if they do not fully appreciate, they are enthusiastic in their admiration of Chautauquans, and are always glad when it is our turn to have the society.
Missouri.—I presume this year will end my four years’ course; there are a number of books which I had not the time to read, but I shall keep on takingThe Chautauquanand reading all I can, for my whole soul is in it, and I have gained more information and practical knowledge through this systematic course of reading than I have in twice the length of time before. I think we shall gain members here to the C. L. S. C., and I shall do all I can. I think we ought to have a strong circle here. I work in the railroad shops, and I readThe Chautauquanto the men nearly every noon.
Colorado.—I am, like many another member of the C. L. S. C., a “busy mother,” but I have always been able to find time for my required reading, and for a good deal more that seemed to be suggested by the readings. To say the course of systematic reading is a delight to me, is to but feebly express my appreciation. It is a continual benefit, and an abiding stimulus to self-culture. The study of astronomy in last year’s course started me on what has since been the greatest pleasure I have ever known, that of learning the face of the heavens, till I know the stars, and really greet them each night as dear, familiar friends. The air is so clear here, and our evenings so uniformly cloudless, it is a constant source of enjoyment.
Texas.—I am a lone member, having found no one yet to join me in reading, yet I prize the course so highly that nothing but necessity would induce me to relinquish it. Last year, in much physical weakness and suffering, I partially accomplished the course, and felt a kind Providence had given me this to turn my mind from gloomy thoughts. How I wish the young, the middle-aged and the old would give time for the good thoughts, knowledge and discipline it contains.
Students and graduates of the C. L. S. C. will examine with interest and with much satisfaction the course of study for next year printed in this number. It does not appeal to the jealousy but to the pride of the alumnus to know that Alma Mater is providing better things for the student of to-day than she did for him. Certainly the work of next year is so constituted as to yield most satisfactory results. It is neither too wide nor too narrow; neither too deep nor too shallow. It is admirably arranged, embracing most important and attractive subjects, by authors of highest qualifications for their work.
That which impresses us most is the scope and thoroughness of each department. Let him who has imagined that this work is “smattering” surface work, scrutinize the single department of Greek in next year’s study. True, there are not four or six years of drill in translating the language, but we do not hesitate to say that the student whostudiesthe works prescribed here will know more of the Greek life and thought than the average graduate after his six years’ translating. He will also be able to stand comparison with the latter in his acquaintance with the Greek literature. Nor is this designed as a criticism of the work done by the college, but as a word to that particular critic of the C. L. S. C.
In the department of science the titles of the text-books themselves indicate that the C. L. S. C. is abreast of the times in repudiating the absurd notion that science can be learned by the memorizing of descriptions and definitions. Such titles as “Home Studies in Chemistry,” “The Temperance Preachings of Science,” and “Studies in Kitchen Science and Art,” bespeak the scientific method which requires the observation and arrangement of facts and phenomena by the learner himself.
We are glad to note the liberal attention bestowed upon our English in the curriculum of the coming year. “The Art of Speech,” by Dr. Townsend, “Talks about Good English,” inThe Chautauquan, and “Lessons in Every Day Speech,” by Professor MacClintock, are a quantum of English quite beyond the fashion of these times. No study has been so inexcusably neglected by our schools of every grade. Just now there are signs of repentance in some quarters. President Eliot of Harvard is pleading for its admission to a place equal with Greek and Latin. If what should be will be, not many years hence will witness it so.
Prominent also, as heretofore, is the aim to keep before the C. L. S. C. both the moral and the religious. No one can read “The Character of Jesus,” by Bushnell, without mental and moral profit, without the awakening of a deeper homage of soul for the world’s Redeemer. Then there is Mrs. Field’s work on that perplexing, every-day question, “How to Help the Poor.” Bishop Hurst’s “History of the Reformation” isamong the very best works on that eventful period in church history. These are to be supplemented by the continuance of those well-chosen Sunday Readings inThe Chautauquan. Beside these classified departments we are promised a series of articles on miscellaneous subjects, such as Memory, Self-Discipline, Thinking, Selection of Books, etc. Taken altogether, a course of study for a year which, faithfully pursued, is an education in itself. We predict for the C. L. S. C. a year of increased interest, pleasure and profit.
The panic in Wall Street has not extended to the whole country in the same form and intensity as the great crises of 1857 and 1873; but, no doubt, the effect of the shock at the money center will distribute itself gradually over the entire country. The country is not any worse off now than it was at the beginning of May; it is, rather, better off, because an evil has been uncovered and a remedy applied. We did not think ourselves on the verge of ruin on the first of May, nor do we now know that we were. The evil we have discovered in action we knew to be in existence then. But having been forced to take medicine for the sickness, we shall experience some inconvenience from the drastic dose. It is hardly possible to make an 1873 over again. None of the factors of a great general depression exist (so far as we can see); but the cure of the speculative disorder, from which the whole economical body must more or less suffer, may be exasperatingly difficult. All chronic maladies yield very reluctantly to medical treatment; and our economic maladies are equally stubborn. The seat of the present trouble is the organization of railroad property and its management; the principal owners and managers of railroads are speculators in their own property. This disorder has existed from the beginning of such property. It is a twist which the property was born with. It has tortured the patient for fifty years. And to this date no one has applied any adequate remedy. Reformers abound, but the patient does not hesitate to call them quacks; and, denying that there is any serious trouble, it asks to be let alone.
We can estimate the evil by a comparison of three groups of figures. Take first the figures which show the cost of railways. Take next the figures for the nominal capital in stocks and bonds; add the figures which show net income. It is not necessary here to give the actual figures in either group. The fact is that the net income is less than a fair interest on the actual cost of the roads, and perhaps not one per cent. on the nominal value as shown by capitalization. A road has cost five millions; the nominal value is twenty millions; the net income is six per cent. on four millions. Take out a dozen corporations which are wholesomely managed, and the rest of the companies are, in varying degrees, bankrupt as to their nominal capitals and unprofitable as to their actual cost. Speculation trades upon the delusion that the roads are presently, or in some “sweet by-and-by,” to pay dividends upon all their capital. To economize this delusion, the speculative owners of the lines carefully conceal the facts about the condition of their property, or pour out these facts in a torrent of apparent losses—according as they themselves are long or short of the property. The real condition of a railroad property can not be known except when it is bankrupt. At other times railroad book-keeping is too confusing for average brains, and exuberant hope makes the future out of the “astonishing growth of the country.” To remove the railroad property from the sphere of speculative manipulation is the pressing demand of all legitimate interests vested in such property. Until this is done this kind of property will be a squalling baby in the financial household, falling into convulsions periodically and alarming and distressing the whole family of industries and investments.
It is understood that the largest fortunes in the country are made by magnifying this kind of property. It is known that a panic seldom strikes its fangs into the manipulator. It is believed that the public is usually the bitten party in the gambling circle. But in the present case it is not probable that any but the Wall Street men have much suffered, or that any fortunes have been made in the street. What has had to be done is to distribute through the street a large aggregate of losses incurred since 1881. The sum total exceeds five hundred millions, according to some statisticians. This sum is divided into two parts: 1st, losses from July 1881 to January 1883, estimated at three hundred millions; 2nd, losses from January 1883 to May 1884, estimated at two hundred millions. We mean losses as measured by the fall in market price of railroad paper of all kinds. It is believed that before 1883 the public at large had suffered a loss of perhaps two hundred millions, that since that the said public has had little to do with the Wall Street market, and that the street (including all the men doing business on the stock market) has had to distribute a loss of three hundred millions. It is presumed that the public has, since January 1883, recovered from its losses, but the street is in the agony of its punishment. It was inevitable that some of the losses should be thrown on the banks; and through these losses the panic directly reached the public, in the double form of impaired confidence and stringency. The country has borne both evils with good sense. The impairment of confidence did not become general distrust: the stringency, which for a day or two made money worth four or five hundred per cent. per annum, passed off in a week. The fact that the troubles concerned one kind of property only, and was localized in Wall Street, was quickly understood by the country at large. The wounded banks were relieved by their neighbors, and the brokers on whose books the bad balances are found have been left to settle up their business as they may be able to manage it, while business in general goes on as before, with, however, a considerable increase of caution. The first effect of this caution will be depressing. Nor is it to be denied that considerable depression already existed in legitimate trades. The trouble is not serious, but it is annoying. At bottom it is based on an excess of enterprise in a part of the manufacturing and trading public. Anxious to be rich, they aim at impossible growth in business. They make certain kinds of goods in larger quantities than the public will consume them. This trouble may be called over-production or under-consumption; it does not much matter. Whatever name we give it, the thing is self-corrective, and involves no large disaster. It compels men to content themselves with less than they wish, teaches us that we can not all be millionaires, cuts down our ambition for social importance or ostentation, but it does not tend toward a crash. It is painful to go slow when we desire to go fast; but the breaking of bones occurs when fortuitous combinations permit us to drive on like Jehu. It may be dull, but it is safe to be dull in the economical world. It is the roaring activity of prosperous times that makes our financial ruin.
The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church held in Philadelphia last May was in several respects remarkable. It was in the first place a picturesque body for the eye of a moral artist. The “war horses” of older days were there with the sound stentorian neigh which one expects to hear at a camp meeting. Probably there were more of these than in recent sessions of the body. There was William Taylor from everywhere, Ram Chandra Bose from India, and the venerable men of a former generation who are called Trimble and Curry. But the moral picturesqueness of the Conference lay rather in the variety and independence of young Americans from all sections. There was a very lively Bear from Wall Street, a still livelier lay preacher from New Jersey, a choice collection of young pastors from all over Zion, and a sprinkling of college men and newspaper men, bankers, railroadmen and physicians, ex-generals, ex-chaplains, and farmers. The face of the body was so variegated and its separate limbs so independent that some spectators said it was not a body at all because it had no community of life and no head. Its independence of traditions and its refusal to be led by anybody added to the picturesqueness of the assembly. Nothing could be thrust down its throat. It threw all the men who successively tried to lead it. It voted with reference to an order of ideas and aspirations which no one can find written down in the press of the denomination. We believe there was but a single caucus, and that was a gathering of the colored delegates. It was a piece of most adroit management. It will probably be the last of that series of caucuses; and if it had been held half a day sooner, it would have defeated its own purpose. The white delegates would have defeated anybody who had asked them to go into a caucus. A very manly and self-respecting independence of dictation or management was in the air.
Another striking fact was the form which the independence of the body took on—the results which it reached. It might be called the Missionary Reform Conference. From the first it was clear that this branch of church work would receive a push forward on new lines. The single large debate of the session was over the proposition to locate a regular bishop in India. The bishops opposed it vigorously. The special adherents of “presbyter writ large” opposed it. And yet the measure received a majority of votes, and was defeated only by “dividing the house” and getting a lay majority against it to kill a clerical majority for it. After that defeat by a formal device for distributing a minority so as to give it veto power, the Conference had its own way. It made Chaplain McCabe Missionary Secretary, and elected William Taylor a Missionary Bishop for Africa, and it lifted Daniel Curry, who had led the movement for an Episcopal residence in India, sheer over the heads of all the editorial staff and set him down in the chair of theQuarterly Review. Each of these facts means more than meets the eye. Chaplain McCabe is the prince of collection-takers. The best man in the church to raise money is set to increasing missionary collections. William Taylor has been a bishop for thirty years—a bishopde facto—he is now bishopde jurein Africa. We doubt whether he will confine himself to Africa; but it will certainly require all of Africa to hold him. The Liberian grave-yard ceases to be the Methodist Africa. Bishop Taylor will lay siege to the whole continent—the Nile, the Soudan, the Congo, the Cape, as well as Liberia. Nor is this all. He believes in self-supporting missions, and will give a great impetus to the movement toward self-directing independence in all missions. Some time or other a mission must become a church; that time, many believe, is at hand in India, Africa and Europe. The reversal of judgment in Dr. Curry’s case is a conspicuous proof of the independence of the Conference. Eight years ago he was retired from theChristian Advocateat New York for insubordination. Part of his offense was a singular freedom of pen on this same subject of missions. For example, he once wrote (concerning the return visits of missionaries in the other hemisphere): “We need a few graves of missionaries in heathen soil,” or words of this significance. The General Conference was persuaded to vote him out in 1876; but the act emancipated the paper, and under Dr. J. M. Buckley it is independent in a wider sense than Dr. Curry ever dared to make it. And now with the burden of seventy-five years upon him, Dr. Curry succeeds the other venerable Daniel as the editor of the chief and only universal organ of the denomination. “Whedon on the Will” will probably cease to be the conspicuous feature of theQuarterly Review, and if it should drop out of the “course of study” for young ministers, the loss might be a gain.
The choice of the Conference for new bishops will probably be approved after some experience. Bishops Ninde and Mallalieu are probably universally popular selections. Bishops Walden and Fowler are yet to be approved by the intelligence of the denomination. But from one point of view the last two are better selections than the former. Bishops Ninde and Mallalieu have to be seasoned to a life of travel and hardship. They have lived in the study; and men past fifty (Bishop Mallalieu is 56) usually break down in the Methodist Episcopacy. The other pair of new bishops have long been inured to travel; and their physical preparation for the hard work before them may prove, on trial, that these werealmostthe best selections that could have been made. If Ninde and Mallalieu should soon follow Kingsley, Thompson, and the two Havens, the effect would probably be to direct the choice of the denomination in future elections to men accustomed to real itineracy. But, after all, on that view, or any other proper view, the largest bishop chosen by the last General Conference is the one who must write “Missionary” before his title. William Taylor has long been a bishop; his church has merely recognized, at rather a late hour, a fact which has long been conspicuous. Whether or not there is a great bishop, or more than one, among the other group of four remains to be proved by their work. There is little doubt that the judgment of the Conference was perplexed in the matter of voting Dr. J. H. Vincent into the Episcopacy, and so voting him out of that vast work which he supervises as the head of the Sunday-school organization. His friends will see in the vote of 178 for bishop, a proof that the Conference wanted him on the platform; they will see in the fact that for his old place the Conference gave him 316 ballots—all but nineof its votes—the reason why he was not made bishop. The figures are in both cases the highest possible compliment—both votes were complimentary.
It is fitting that, in this last number of the Chautauquan year, we should remind our readers that the gathering of our students and teachers is at hand, and that the opening of the sessions of our schools and the breaking of silence on our platform are to occur this year under auspicious circumstances. Our columns afford indications that the class of this year is unusually large; our correspondence shows that the interest of the public in our work is enlarging its boundaries; the program for the sessions is the richest and most attractive ever furnished. Dr. Vincent has taken great pains in the selection of topics, teachers and lecturers. Old and tried men and women remain in the force, and it has been increased by addition of talents approved by excellent work and good fame in other fields. The Chautauqua Idea is still peculiarly Chautauquan. No other place or organization does its work. It is a school for all—a university in which, by joining self-instruction with the schools and platform of Chautauqua, a man or woman of any age may pursue knowledge in almost any field with profit and pleasure. The original impulse to this work of ours was given by providing for the wants of those who had not good advantages in early life; but it has been found in the actual work that an arrangement of subjects and lectures could be made which enables any man to add to his knowledge and quicken his interest in personal study. It has come to pass that our best patrons and friends are those who have graduated in other schools, while we continue to increase the usefulness of Chautauqua for those in whose behalf it was founded. The success of the “Idea” along the whole line is not merely a satisfaction; it is a promise and a prophecy. There is every reason to believe that its broad, philanthropic, refining and elevating tendencies will continue to develop new methods of giving knowledge to all. But, of course, a benevolent enterprise like ours depends upon the sustained interest and enthusiasm of its friends. We are just as liable to flag in this as in any other benevolent work. It is not carried on to make money; money is made to carry it on. All the conditions of failure which must surround an undertaking which hasnot the force of self-interest behind it, exist of course in this large and expensive enterprise. Therefore we may properly remind the friends of Chautauqua that their patronage and coöperation in many ways are essential still, and must always be, to its progress. We make these suggestions, not from any doubt of the fidelity and perseverance of our friends, but, to recall attention to the fact that the Chautauqua Idea is a philanthropic and not a commercial one. Chautauqua does not exist to enrich any one, but to increase knowledge and spread culture in the land. It has no antagonisms, and need not have, but it can not dispense with the active zeal of its numerous friends.
The managers have done their whole duty in making preparations for the approaching campaign. Let every high private emulate their industry and zeal. Bring your friends to the Lake. Remember that we want the coöperation of the sober, thoughtful and earnest people. The Chautauqua season is not a picnic; it is a season of rest, because a change of scene and occupation always refreshes mind and body. But our patrons are expected to bring their heads with them—and their consciences—that when they return home they may carry back new force and larger power to influence their neighbors. Chautauqua is ready to receive its pupils and guests. It has wide arms and a generous heart. The season will be what its patrons choose to make it. We are confident that they will choose to make it the best of the series.
The fourth volume ofThe Chautauquancloses with the present number. In the month of August we shall issue at Chautauqua theAssembly Daily Herald, with its numbers of invaluable lectures, its racy reports and varied sketches of Chautauqua life. For the advantage of our friends we make an attractive combination offer of the fifth volume ofThe Chautauquan, and theAssembly Daily Herald, for $2.25. See advertisement.
Among the great figures missed at the Republican National Convention this year was that of ex-Senator Roscoe Conkling. Not having admired him politically, we are the more free to express our respect and admiration for the courage with which he declined a seat on the supreme bench, and the splendid success he is achieving at the bar. A certain intense ardor which marks him as a man give assurance of still higher success and permanent fame in his profession.
The unveiling of an imposing statue of Martin Luther, in Washington, is one of the events which reminds us of the granite character of Luther; and in the same breath set us thinking of the solidarity of humanity. Luther is a great way from home in Washington, four centuries after his birth; but he is among his own people and as much alive as he ever was.
The cap-sheaf of official negligence is put on in the case of a bank which wallows for years, perhaps, certainly for months, in insolvency, and is never in all the time honestly and thoroughly examined by the various persons whose duty it is to know the facts.
“Men were giants in those days.” The five hundredth anniversary of the death of John Wyclif was celebrated in England in May last. The Bishop of Liverpool preached, dissenters of all denominations were represented. The public was told again that Wyclif was the first Englishman to maintain the supremacy of the Scriptures. The Lord Mayor of London presided over a great conference, and a fund was founded to print and circulate Wyclif’s works. After five centuries of all kinds of progress that man’s memory is still as fresh as a May morning.
The State Superintendent in New York has decided that no religious exercises are in order in public schools. The schools are for all, and until some common system of religious instruction is agreed upon, there should be none. This is the substance of the decision, and we can not help thinking it sound. Religious instruction is amply provided in other ways; and in order that Protestant and Catholic children may study together in peace, it seems wisest to let each class be religiously instructed elsewhere, according to the wishes of their parents.
The most effective speech in the late Methodist Episcopal General Conference was made by a colored delegate, the Rev. Dr. Taylor of Kentucky. The effectiveness came of the fact that he had not only considered what he had to say, but also meditated on the best way of saying it. We are often told that oratory is a lost art. Is it not a faded art merely because speakers give too little attention to the manner of their speech?
Charles O’Conor, the greatest jury pleader of the century, died in May, at the age of eighty. Four years before his death, having been very ill, he had the pleasure of reading the longest obituary notice that any convalescent ever perused with personal interest. His power over juries was such that cases were often given up by the other side in advance of the pleading. He was an Irish Catholic whose warmest friends were American Protestants.
Several additions have been made to the evidence that it does not destroy women to educate them. Professor Seelye of Amherst is among the new witnesses. We are at a loss to know why it ever needed testimony. Professor Seelye gravely says that some hard-worked women students were carefully examined by a competent woman and found to be perfectly healthy! When our readers recover from their astonishment let them enter their girls for the C. L. S. C.
The new scheme for registering time seems to encounter a resistance which in physics is called thevis inertia. Most towns of any size—except the largest cities—still maintain local time. We respectfully hint to the almanac makers, that they have a great opportunity to spread intelligence on this subject. It will not be long before all towns within the meridional divisions will have common time. Why protract the agony of computing a dozen times a day the differences between several standards of time in the same community?
They continue to find Charley Ross. One was found last month. But each time it is not the true Charley Ross. What an amount of agony his parents have suffered! What a mercy were the knowledge that the boy died long ago! But reflect, too, on the uses of that tragedy. Thousands of children are watched over with more diligence because that tragedy recurs daily to the minds of parents as a solemn warning.
Psychologic classification is getting into disorder. Sir William Thompson has defined a “Magnetic Sense,” and a critic of him says: “We might as well be logical and liberal, and add to the present senses the touch sense, the self sense, the power sense, the logical sense, and the psychic, muscular, and electro-magnetic senses.” We suppose it is a wise thing to be “liberal;” but it is better to be accurate, and this use of the wordsenseis not accurate.
The nomination by the Chicago Republican Convention of the Hon. James G. Blaine, of Maine, for President, and Senator John A. Logan, of Illinois, for Vice President, seems likely to precipitate a political contest over the tariff. Mr. Blaine and the platform on which he stands speak for protection, while the opposition will favor free trade.
Members of the Class of ’84 who expect to be at Round Lake, N. Y., on C. L. S. C. Day (Wednesday, July 10), and who wish to receive their diplomas there, should report to Miss Kimball, at Plainfield, N. J., by July 10.
We burn up, in this country, three hundred and fifty-nine hotels in a year. In the last eight years the aggregate is set down by the National Board of Underwriters as two thousand eight hundred and seventy-two. Here is another wound in the economic body through which our life-blood is pouring in a great stream, and nothing will stanch the wound but a better moral character in the people. Unsafe buildings are built for the most part by people who are smart and wicked.
All over the country Salvation-army captains, lieutenants and corporals are getting into trouble, and the organization is falling into disgrace. The movement may as well be voted a failure. It is, however, the only religious failure of any importance in the last two decades. In London, where it is held in vigorous hands by General Booth, it is still a respectable success; but no one else has been able to work it on a large scale. Petty successes here and there do not disprove the general rule of failure.
In Baltimore, last month, the fourth floor of a warehouse fell and six persons lost their lives. Accidents in buildings are becoming far too numerous. In such cases, as well as in broken banks, we have a proof that our complex civilization requires a higher grade of conscientious character—or more of it—than we are producing. Our brains are good enough; we want better morals.
It is reported from Europe that Prince Napoleon and his son Victor are both “running” for the office of Emperor of France. The office does not exist at present, and there is no prospect of its being created—the gunpowder facilities are lacking. But father and son are said to be quarreling over the matter. If France wants a monarch she now has a chance to get a gentleman in the person of the Count of Paris, who was with our army of the Potomac for some months, and has written a capital book on the civil war in our country.
It was a pleasant thing to see the Governor of Pennsylvania taking the lead in the Methodist General Conference when the resolutions against polygamy came up for discussion. Governor Pattison was a lay member of the body, and made a vigorous speech in favor of energetic measures to suppress this evil.
A distinguished Israelite of New York said to a reporter last month that he expected to see the synagogues opened for religious services on Sunday. The movement would begin with the religious use of both sacred days; but it will probably end in the general neglect of the seventh day. The inconvenience of having a different Sabbath from the rest of the people is doubtless a great embarrassment to the religious teachers of the Hebrews.
It is a proper prayer, “Remember not against me the sins of my youth.” But it is as well for young people to remember that human society does not readily forget our errors. And somebody has said that “God can afford to forgive when men can not afford to forget.” Perhaps he is not quite right; to forgive is not to give a man an office or a farm. We have forgiven all who have wronged us, if we are good Christians, but that does not oblige us to indorse their notes.
An ungracious thing is the fault-finding with Mr. George I. Seney, because, before the late troubles in Wall Street, he gave away some two millions of money to philanthropic uses. People who never give away things seem to think that, having given largely, Mr. Seney should have rolled himself into a safe nest and remained there. It occurs to us that no man has a better right to risk his own money than the man who has acquitted himself generously of his obligations to humanity. We have seen no proof that Mr. Seney was guilty of even an irregularity in the conduct of his business, or that he is not able to meet all his engagements.
Mr. Ferdinand Ward is the most picturesque and romantic figure in the late crisis in monetary New York. His success in Wall Street, by which a poor youth laid his hands on a dozen or more millions of other men’s money, appropriately climaxed by his enforced visit to the cell formerly tenanted by William M. Tweed, is a romance of rascality; and yet no one can tell just how he succeeded in using the cupidity of mankind to blind their eyes to the plainest principles of finance. The scheme was simple enough: Loan $70,000 on securities worth $100,000. Then take the securities to a bank and hypothecate them for $90,000. To a thief the profit is just $20,000. But the genius lies in concealing the simplicity of the business.
It was not strange that General Grant was deceived by young Ward. No one supposes that the General is an acute and expert man of business. But men who ought to be acute and expert men of business—for that is their calling—were as completely deceived as General Grant. There are always hindsight philosophers and small-eyed sons of detraction to seize such an occasion as the late panic to criticise great and good men. General Grant’s vindication lies in the fact that there are very few moneyed men in New York whom Ferdinand Ward did not deceive.
The zeal with which some persons labor to make benevolence unpopular is one of the worst manifestations of human nature. Why can not the critics remember that very few men ever catch the disease of giving away large amounts of money? So uncommon a disorder ought to be given the benefit of a corner of that mantle of charity which is usually employed to cover a multitude of sins.
One of the most remarkable statements we have lately seen was made by the president of a brewers’ convention recently held at Rochester, N. Y. He said: “Our hope is based on the fact that prohibition can not last in a progressive state.” We have tried to analyze this “hope,” and the result is this: A progressive state is one in which the drink-sellers are powerful enough to overthrow prohibition.Progresshas a peculiar signification in the drink-seller’s dictionary. We are at a loss to conjecture what truly progressive elements of a population should rise up to put down prohibition.
Among our reformers no class deserves more support than those who seek to improve the health of mankind. Some of them have exaggerated the value of this or that means; but the end they seek is a very useful one. We are coming to agreement on everything but food and sleep. We shall agree about these by-and-by. Plenty of sleepin the night—and wholesome foodin moderation—these are two articles of the coming man’s health creed. The italicised words express the best evidence on the subject of longevity. A recent writer says that gluttony kills more people—who it may be said by parenthesis know no better—than tobacco and drink. Eating too much is the next evil to be reformed; then sleeping too little.
One of the beautiful customs of Brooklyn, N. Y., is to have a parade of the Sunday-school children of all denominations on one of the first warm days of May. This year fifty thousand children were in line, and the city kept holiday. The custom would bear transportation to other cities and towns.
We have a new candidate for the honorable position of expounder and teacher of English.[E]It is for those who desire to learn, and have no teacher; for the tens of thousands whose school advantages have been limited, or mis-improved, and who are now studying out of school, and seek by self-exertion to acquire the culture and practical knowledge they need. It will not be found in the technical sense a grammar, but a series of familiar and most entertaining letters, in which the author discusses the principles and usage of the English language. The style is conversational, and remarkable for its perspicuity. The vigorous sentences are clear as sunbeams, and as purely English as Cobbett himself. The editor’s well considered and generally incisive notes are good reading, and add much to the value of the work.
One of the most able, scholarly and exhaustive commentaries on the New Testament is now in process of publication by Funk & Wagnalls, New York. It is a translation, with notes by American editors, of the expositions and critical analyses of the well known German scholar and exegete, Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer. The whole work may require ten or more volumes of fair size, eight of which are promised during the year. The one on the “Epistles to The Corinthians”[F]is now before us. As a philologist Meyer has certainly but few equals, and his grammatical expositions of the Greek text give evidence of much patient research, acute discernment, and a thorough comprehension of the subjects discussed. The work will prove an invaluable aid to all who critically study the New Testament in the original language, and even lay readers may, if they will examine, find much that is refreshing in the author’s incisive criticisms, and clear, concise statements of evangelical doctrines.
An ingenious portfolio[G]has been invented by a member of the Philadelphia bar, for those who may not have studied thoroughly the laws of thought and composition, yet wish to know how to work up a subject. On the side of a neat little slate are placed certain typical questions which are to be applied to the subject of contemplation, and space is given under each to jot down the points to be considered under each heading. Thus in one’s pocket may be carried a scientific outline by which one may classify immediately the scraps of illustration, the fancies or thoughts which they pick up on any given subject.
Miss Emily Raymond, of Toledo, has written a very pleasing, comprehensive, and satisfactory account of the Chautauqua Idea and its home. This little volume, entitled “About Chautauqua,” is probably the most complete report yet given of this modern movement. The price of the book is 50 cents. Address Miss Raymond, 48 Bush Street, Toledo, O.
A collection of first-class short stories by American authors has been begun by Charles Scribner’s Sons.[H]They are being gathered from the great number of stories which have been sent out in the leading magazines of the country during the last twenty years, and promise to make a remarkably entertaining collection. Many of the foremost writers of fiction of the day are in the list of authors.
The entertaining volume, “Our Famous Women,”[I]will be, we think, a decided success. Thirty of the prominent women of the times are discussed most pleasantly in as many easy and appreciative essays. The papers are not critical or comprehensive, but gossipy, entertaining, and very well written. One finds in most of them exactly the facts they want about such favorites as Mrs. Burnett, Louisa M. Alcott, Rose Terry Cooke, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Mary A. Livermore, etc. As far as possible, the writers have been wisely chosen from the ranks of the famous women themselves. The book will be worth a great deal to women who are trying to win position and a livelihood by their own exertions. Its heroines are striking examples of what bravery, earnestness, cheerfulness and faithfulness will do in a life.
Another volume of Charles Scribner’s Sons’ new edition of “Ik Marvel” is out. “Rural Studies,” first published in 1867, has been revised and reissued under the title of “Out-of-Town Places.”[J]The book was not more timely fifteen years ago than it is now; perhaps it will be even more useful now, for the last fifteen years have taught us more of beauty and its uses than we had ever before had time to learn. Mr. Mitchell’s little book gives many capital suggestions to farmers and owners of country places about practical improvements. It is not a book for horticulturists, or for fancy stock or high-art farmers, but it will be very useful to people who by their own labor and planning are trying to beautify their homes.
A good book on etiquette—and, as it often happens, a very ordinary one—is pretty sure of finding a wide circle of readers in America. A sensible, reliable guide-book into the mysteries of the best society has lately been published by the Harpers.[K]We like it. The writer knows exactly what her readers need and is competent to supply their want clearly and reliably. What more could be asked of the writer of a book on etiquette?
Uncle Remus[L]has become the representative of a vanishing type of American life. It is a matter of congratulation that so much of his humor, shrewd sense and peculiar dialect has been saved to us in “His Songs and His Sayings,” a little book which, though we are apt to consider it merely humorous, really has much material for interesting study. The aim of the author was as he says: “To preserve the legends [of the plantation] in their original simplicity, and to wed them permanently to the quaint dialect—if indeed it can be called a dialect—through the medium of which they have become a part of the domestic history of every Southern family.”
How the Bible was Made. By Rev. E. M. Wood, D.D. Cincinnati: Walden & Stowe. 1884.
The Exodus and Other Poems. By Rev. T. C. Reade. Cincinnati: Printed by Walden & Stowe for the author. 1884.
Quicksands. From the German of Adolph Streckfuss. By Mrs. A. L. Wister. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1884.
Standard Library: The Fortunes of Rachel. By Edward Everett Hale. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. 1884.
Standard Library: Chinese Gordon. By Archibald Forbes. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. 1884.
There was Once a Man. A Story. By R. H. Newell (Orpheus C. Kerr). New York: Fords, Howard & Hurlburt, for Our Continent Publishing Co. 1884.
A Palace Prison; or, The Past and The Present. New York: Fords, Howard & Hurlburt. 1884.
Rapid Ramblings in Europe. By W. C. Falkner. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1884.
One Thousand Popular Quotations. Compiled by J. S. Ogilvie. New York: J. S. Ogilvie & Co.
Ballads and Verses Vain. By Andrew Lang. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1884.
Essays and Leaves from a Note-Book. By George Eliot. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1884.
Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel. By Ignatius Donnelly. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1884.