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FEBRUARY 28, 1913
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AN interesting dispatch, carried by the
Associated Press, under date of Jefferson
City, Mo., Feb. 17, is as follows: Governor
Major ' today issued a statement in which ho
attacked United States Senator Reed for not
attending to his duties in Washington. Senator
Reed is opposing. a public utilities commission
measure in the Missouri legislature. He is also
serving as attorney for the prosecution in the
murder trial of Dr. B. Clarke Hyde. At the con
clusion of a statement in which ho said the legis
lature was competent to pass upon the public
utilities bill without outside interference, ho
said: "You may add this to my statement: At
this particular time our United States senators
are needed at Washington."
S i
SPEAKING about cabinets, a "writer in tho
Washington (D. C.) Herald says: During
the evening of March 3, 1869, General Grant
took from his waistcoat pocket a list of dis
tinguished men. He showed, it to a personal
friend, asking if the initials of one of the names
were correct. This is believed to have been the
first disclosure of the complete identity of tho
cabinet whose nominations he sent the next
afternoon to the senate. Of course, there were
guesses and conjectures, but some of the men
upon whom he bestowed a portfolio were not
advised until after the appointment was an
nounced. Governor Wilson is apparently bent
upon equaling this record. Judged by recent
standards, he has been highly successful in keep
ing tho secret of his choice. No positive con
firmation has been accorded any report. Every
one believes Mr. Bryan will be secretary of
state because every one else believes it, but
nowhere is to be found any admission of this,
either, by the president-elect or by the com
mqner. The personnel of the Taft cabinet was
known long before this four years ago, with
one or two exceptions. Mr. Roosevelt in 1905
retained most of the cabinet of his previous
administration, which was a mixture of Mc
Kinley appointees and his own. Mr. McKinley
let it be known, previous to his anauguration
in 1897, who would sit at his council table.
It is now more than three months since Wood
row Wilson was elected president. Single
handed he has shaped the plans for his adminis
tration. Advice he has sought from many, but
his confidence has been given to few. He has
not deemed it necessary to accord the public an
indication of his policies through the announce
ment that this or that man representing a certain
element of his party or a certain point of view
in public affairs has been chosen. Soon after
election Lincoln asked Seward to be his secre
tary of state. Soward was then in the senate
and his effectiveness in many conciliatory efforts
made to prevent secession was heightened when
it became known that he had been tendered and
had accepted the portfolio of state. Mr. Lin
coln found the announcement of Seward's selec
tion a source of strength, but Mr. Wilson evi
dently feels no such dependence on any other
member of his party. How significantly this now
forecasts the relations of president and cabinet
only time can tell.
tff& tpfc w
THE death of Joaquin Miller removes on of
the world's notable figures. Attended by his
wife and daughter, the famous poet died in his
cabin in tho Piedmont hills in California. An
'Associated Press correspondent says: For
many years "The Heights" has been the mecca
of lovers of "Joaquin Miller's poetry. He always
received his guests graciously and loved to talk
in a vein of quaint humor of the old, adven
turous days which he memorialized in his verse.
His faculties were undimmed until almost the
end and he worked at intervals upon a poem
which he said was to be the most momentous
work of his life. He guarded the poem with
the utmost secrecy and not even his wife and
daughter knew its subject. Hope of saving his
life ended when the attending physician an
nounced that the end was only a matter of a
few days. Senility was the only cause of death
the physician could give. Of all California
poets, Miller's work is said to reflect most per
fectly the primitive grandeur of the west. Ho
wrote of tho mountains and the plains, aud
penned tho epic of the pioneers. His education
was scant, but ho did not require books for his
inspiration. From childhood his was a stirring,
eventful life. He was born in the Wabash d!s
trict of Indiana November 10, 1841, and was
christened Cincinnatus Heine. His father was
of Quaker stock. At the ago of eleven young
Miller accompanied his parents across the
plains to the Pacific coast. The family took up
a government claim in Oregon. His craving for
adventure, stimulated by stories of the gold
strikes in California, caused him to run away at'
15 to seek his fortune. Already he had parti
cipated in the Indian war, receiving an arrow
wound in the neck. In Siskiyou county ho was
adopted by a tribe of Indians and married tho
daughter of the chief. Shortly afterwards the
woman was killed by settlors in a punitive expe
dition against raiding redskins, and Miller re
turned to Oregon, whore he studied law. At this
time he had begun to write verso, contributing
to various magazines, and he met and married
Miss Minnie Myrtle, a young Oregon poetess.
Three children were born to the couple, a daugh
ter, Maude, aud two sons. The latter ran away
early in life and their names wore erased from
the family record. Miller went in 1866 to
Mexico, whore he joined Walker's filibusters and
was arrested. He obtained a pardon and re
turned to Oregon. In 1869 Miller published his
first volume of poems. Soon afterwards he was
divorced from his wife mid went to Europe.
There he became popular. Ho always dressed
in a flannel shirt and knee-high boots, a cos
tume that English of that day are said to havo
expected of Americans. Returning to America
he took up newspaper work In Washington, D.
C. While there he took a third wife, Miss'Abby
Leland, daughter of a Chioago hotel keeper. One
child was born, to her Juanita. The poet re
turned to California in 1887, purchasing near
Oakland the tract that he called "The Heights."
V tV q
ANSWERING an inquirer who desires to know
if there has been a Baptist president of tho
United States, the Richmond Times-Dispatch
says: There has not. There have been eight
Episcopalians: Washington, Madison, Monroe,
William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, Pierce
and Arthur. There have been sir Presbyterians:
Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Lincoln, Cleveland,
Harrison, and to these Woodrow Wilson must
soon be added. There have been four Methodist
chief magistrates: Johnson, Grant, Hayes, Mc
Kinley, Van Buren and Rooseveltwerc adherents
of the Reformed Dutch church. 'John and John
Quincy Adams were Congregationalists. Fill
more and Taft were Unitarians. Garfield was a
Disciple. Seven religious bodies have been rep
resented by the twenty-six presidents.
fV V 0&
AN unusual scene occurred in the Indiana
legislature, report of which is made by the
Associated Press as follows: Lieutenant Gover
nor O'Neill caused a sensation- in the senate
when he stopped Rev. E. R. Henry of the Em
manuel Baptist church of this city, who was
malcing tho opening prayer, and said: "Stop
making a political speech." Tho minister had
prayed for the separation of the "rum traffic"
from the state and for "the coming of the day
when Indiana would refuse to sell to men the
right to make other men drunkards." The lieu
tenant governor, who had been showing signs
of impatience, vigorously banged the marblo
slab with his gavel and commanded tho minister
to stop. He ordered tho journal to be read
and Mr, Henry immediately left the chamber.
1t 1&r$ ?
THE GERMAN EMPEROR surprised his
hearers recently, in a sermon. A Berlin
cablegram to the New York World, says: De
claring that the Prussians were "oppressed and
dismembered folk" in 1806 as a consequence of
God's judgment because they had lost faith in
Him, the German emperor at a memorial ser
vice at Berlin university delivered a characteris
tic address warning tho present generation of
Germans not to forget the faith of their fathers.
The emperor emphasized his words by pounding
his right fist on tho desk repeatedly. Ho was
often Interrupted by applause. He asserted
that the Germans of today were inclined to be
lievo only in tangible things and to placo dlfll
cultlcs in religion's way. They should study his
tory, he snid, and see how tho Prussians re
gained thoir old faith and fought the war of
liberation, whoso glorious result was not man's
work but God's work. "So," continued tho
emporor, "wo havo in the history of the post
cortaln proof of God's guidance and that fie was
and still Is with us. And with this teaching of
the past all German youth can forgo in Its fire
the tried shield of faith, which must never bo
lacking In the armory of Germans and Prus
sians. With such weapons, looking neither to
tho right nor to the left, we will go our direct
way, eyes upliftod and hearts uplifted with trust
in God. Then we can all repeat tho gKcat
chancellor's words: 'We Germans fear God
and nothing else in the world.' " A storm of
applause followed the emperor's speech, which
was impromptu and unexpected, surprising the
rector of the university, who had started for
tho rostrum to close the exorcises.
V tJ J m
A WRITER in tho Now York World says: Tho
cabinet selected by Washington in 1789
comprised Thomas Jefferson aB secretary of
state, Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the
treasury, Henry Knox as secretary of war,
Sampel Osgood as postmaster-general and Ed
mund Randolph as attorney-general. Tho first
secretary of tho navy was named In 1801 under
Jefforson; tho first secretary of tho Interior in
1849 under Taylor; the first secretary of agri
culture in 1889 under Cleveland. The depart
ment of commerce and labor was created during
tho first Roosevelt administration, bringing tho
cabinet up to nine members. Jf congress now
creates a department of labor the cabinet will
bo twice the size of Washington's cabinet.
THE POWER OF IMAGINATION
A man is above his time In proportion as ho
possesses tho power of imagination the attri
bute that enables him to look beneath tho sur
face of things and from the eternal elements of
thought construct a new order, a now system,
a now philosophy, or from tho crucible of his
Intellect fashion something useful in the in
terest of mankind.
The man of imagination can grasp your Idea,
and from this promise frame for you whatever
you may wish. Ho can take a rock and from
the knowledge he may have of science show its
relations to the universe, or from a bone burled
beneath tho dust of centuries show the form
and nature of the animal of which It was onco
a part. He can look into tho science of lan
guage, traco a word to Its root, take a number
of them and, following back to tho origin of
all languages, show from that language the
thoughts of the people who uttered it, and out
line to a wondering world, their hopes, their
aims and their institutions. If to this origin he
can trace the name of a divinity he knows
something of their religious aspirations. If he
follows back to this people tho word "plow" he
knows that they were cultivators of the soil.
So with music and with song.
The man of imagination may search the
heights and depths of human thought or the
secrets of nature, and from an understanding
of natural law, he will construct a new civili
zation, a new religious philosophy, a now
science of life. He Is the one who has pointed
tho way to every achievement ever made by the
hand or mind of man. Ho is the light of tho
.world of every age, and from his fertile brain
emerges all the blessings of mankind. He is tho
father of all arts and sciences, tho designer of
every Invention, tho builder of every avenue of
commerce, tho thought that preceded tho con
struction of every vessel that ever drove its
furrows through ocean wastes and builded tho
commerce of the world the peace envoy of all
time.
All hall to tho man of imagination. Laurlo
J. Qulnby in Omaha Chancellor.
