r I k
Conservative.
Colonel Robert
. . ,
erly an attorney
and lecturer of considerable prominence ,
told an audience the other day that ho
"did not thank God" for the victory at
Manilla ; ho thanked "George E. Dewey ,
the bravest admiral that over trod a
deck. "
There are doubtless a number of people
ple there were twenty years ago who
regard Colonel Ingersol as a courageous
champion of truth , and a immber who
consider him a dangerous enemy to the
welfare of the race ; it must make a
painful impression on members of his
audiences , of either of these parties , to
hear him utter such meaningless lan
guage as this. As to his opinion of the
Deity , it is of no particular interest to
anybody ; they may safely bo loft to do
justice to each other in the long run ;
but his characterization of Admiral
Dewey is hardly complimentary to the
intelligence of the audience which he
expected to applaud it. Without either
denying that Admiral Dewey is as brave
as anybody , or that ho thoroughly un
derstands treading the deck , it may be
submitted that it was neither of these
qualities that primarily determined the
outcome of the battle of May 1st. It no
doubt requires courage for a man who
is reasonably sure of winning to engage
in combat , but at least an equal degree
must bo conceded to him who knows
that he will probably lose. The quali
ties that won the battle of Manila were
rather those , only developed to an ex
treme point , which are required in the
man who has to build a high bridge ,
move a five-story building or make up
time in drawing a passenger train ; the
overy-day American virtues of appreci
ating your task , and then so employing
your resources that the result shall be
what you were set to do. Of all prob
lems that have thus far been presented
to the mind of man , the management of
a fleet of modern war-ships would seem
to be the one to demand the most varied
ability ; and it is for demonstrating en
tire mastery of this problem that the
English-speaking peoples grant unstinted
praise to Admiral Dewey , and not for
courageously treading decks.
The United
OUK ONE ISLAND e4.nf0 ( . "
IN THE SAGE-
. more thnn
BRUSH SEA.
years been the
possessor of an island dependency. It
has caused commercial perturbations ,
financial discussions , party disorganiz
ations and reached out with frenzied
fervor to readjust the social and mone
tary conditions of all the people of this
republic.
The island of Nevada , centrally located -
cated in the mid-continental sea of sage
brush , was annexed to the United States
; for political purposes in the yearlSGi !
In the single year 1870 the argenti
ferous soil of Nevada produced more pig
?
r
silver than nil the other silver produc
ing countries of the whole world pro
duced in the twenty preceding years.
In addition to its mineral output Ne
vada has from time to time extruded
from its mental organism some remark
able economists and statesmen. But
the Nevada Island brand of lawgivers
has been silver-
always silver-tongued , -
plated and tempestuous. The Sage
brush Sea which surrounds Nevada has
not made the senators from that island
sage. And the interminable and per
petually talking Stewart and his never-
endingaspeech - of - less - than-six - hun
dred-pages colleague Jones are a constant
admonition as to the possible political
evils which may come to the American
people in the shape of senators from the
islands of the Pacific. The island of
Nevada and its senators and other
statesmen are a headache after the first
carousal which involved annexation for
a party purpose.
In reading the
SURVIVAL greflt 110VclistS Of
oUlv > JL J\Ltt
the last century ,
one is struck by the vast distance that
separated the classes of society ; the
gentleman on the one hand ; on the
other the non-gentleman , the rolurier ,
the lout , the "lowed man , " as Chaucer
called him , the plain homo vulgaris.
The gentleman would as a matter of
course order the lout about , beat him ,
chuck Ms wife under the chin , or do as
ho pleased with anything that was his ;
and the institution runs straight back to
the times of conquest , when ho might
hang him at will into the bargain.
Now , it has recently come to light
that the same two classes exist in the
same relative position in this country ;
but a swift guesser could work at it
from sunrise till sunset , and never guess
who they are ; and wo fear most of our
readers may think it a joke , when they
learn that it is the officers of our army
who are the gentlemen , and all the rest
of us the louts. Any of our .soldier-
boys can tell plenty of stories in point ;
a very apt one is of some privates , who
having to undergo a court martial , re
quested that two fellow-privates , who
were lawyers of particularly high stand
ing at homo , might act as their counsel.
And this was refused , on the ground
that the officers composing the court
martial , being gentlemen , could not
meet those lawyer-privates , who wore
not gentlemen , on any such common
footing.
We will evidently have to take this
into account in bringing up our sons
henceforth. If wo have a sou whom wo
wish to see a gentleman , wo will have to
get him by hook or by crook , a pair of
shoulder straps to wear ; his less fortun
ate brother , though ho should become a
college-professor , a railroad-president era
a judge of the supreme court , is not and
can not be a gentleman.
The Review of
THE DIF
FERENCE. Reviews prints a
picture from a
Spanish paper , which the editor com
ments on as significant. It shows a
Spanish peasant mowing his bit of
meadow , and the inference is that ho
wishes to be loft to that occupation , his
heart not being in foreign wars nor do
mestic risings.
This peasant is a fine sturdy typo of
man , and looks as if he might bo capable
of a good deal if he had a show ; but his
scythe is of the pattern of five hundred
years ago , and a rake and a big basket
lying near show how he expects to get
his hay homo ; whereas in America , the
poorest Indian on a reservation mows
his wide field with improved machinery ,
and a few of his many horses draw his
affluence of hay to his big barn for him.
A tax is the money demanded by the
government , of a citizen , for a service
rendered. And the service which the
government is supposed to have ren
dered before making the demand for the
taxes is protection to the property , the
life , and the liberty , of the citizen.
Everybody ought to pay for such pro
tection. Those who have property pro
tected should pay for the protection in
proportion to the value of the property.
Those who have only life and liberty
protected should pay likewise for that
protection.
All taxation , by all forms of govern
ment , to be just and righteous , must bo
levied and collected for the solo purpose
of protecting property , life and liberty.
That sort of protection is the hole busi
ness of good government. The sooner
county commissioners , common coun
cils , state legislatures and the national
congress understand that to be the only
business for a popular government the
sooner taxation will be lessoned.
THE CHUUCHES WOKSE THAN THE
POLITICIANS.
Church influence is oftenanfliteembar-
1 - * < A4j l
rassing to a superintendent than politics ,
and I have myself been hampered in my
efforts to do the best thing for the
schools by deacons and pastors , a school
superintendent confesses in the Novem
ber Atlantic. Ministers , through a mis
taken sympathy , often allow themselves
u
.
to indorse incompetent teachers , and so * "M.i
s
help to block the way for better things
in the schools. This is so generally felt
by superintendents of schools that a
recommendation of a teacher by her
pastor is seldom given any weight what
ever. I usually throw such documents
into the basket when
waste-paper appli
cants send them to mo unless I am per
sonally acquainted with the minister
and know that he is competent to form
a critical judgment of a teacher's work.
This is a professional secret which it
may do no serious