Conservative.
The violcut silver
THE SILVER agitation of the
FEVERI years 1893 to 1890
is a piece of con
temporaneous history , which thus far
has not been given the attention it de
serves by the psychologist. The very
intensity of the silver-furore of those
years was highly interesting from the
standpoint of the alienist , and presented
a series of strange phenomena.
Nations as well as persons possess a
soul. A composite photograph of a
L
number of people
Its Psychological furnishes the aver-
Aspect. . ago type ; and the
sum and substance
of sympathies and antipathies , of hopes
and fears , of loves and hatreds in the
hearts of the individuals , who form a
commonwealth , make up the soul of
the nation , a composite typo of its
physical status. This national soul is ,
just as much as the soul of man , prone
to suffer from emotional and hysterical
disturbances and from delusions. The
world's history demonstrates the fact ,
that great national disasters prepare the
soil for the outbreak of widespread
popular delusions.
In the middle ages pests , famines and
great wars brought on violent mental
manifestations in Germany , France and
Italy.
Public life in the modern acceptation
of the term did not exist in those times ,
and as religion was
Disasters and the dominant fao-
Deluaions. tor , the idea of an
offended Deity
gained ascendancy in the minds of men ,
and the desire to pacify the Almighty
swayed the folk-soul , leading to strange
doings. For instance ten thousands of
so-called "flagellants" wandered aboul
tne country , chastising themselves pub
licly in the most cruel and bloody man
ner , hoping to conciliate God thereby
and to stay the scourge.
We moderns are apt to speak half-
pityingly and half-oontemptuously of
the delusions and follies of former
generations , but we should not forget
that through the course of ages human
nature and human weakness remain the
same they only appear in different
forms hi accordance with changed en
vironments. Nearly perfect methods o :
transportation have done away in our
times with famines ( except in some re
mote and ill-favored lands ) , deadly
man-destroy ing firearms shorten' wars
and an improved way of living , hygiene
and preventive medicine have prac
tically stamped out pestilence in civil
ized countries. But still we are no
altogether happy , because every age has
its own distress and disaster. .
Fierce industrial competition , over
production and causes of a politica
nature bring o n
Panic a panics. If famine
Modern Peit. war and pestilence
were the horrors o
the middle ages , the panic is ours
" : \ r
'olitics in our times are strenuous and
all-penetrating , and the mediooval idea
of an offended Deity having vanished ,
; he public mind seeks a remedy against
the panic our modern economic pest
from the hands of the politician , and
; urbulently demands a change. Politics ,
strongly interwoven with industrial
questions , are the dominant factors of
our times , and the transient psychic
aberrations of the national soul are
therefore necessarily of a politico-indus-
irial character.
The most violent and widespread
manifestation of this sort was the silver
delusion of the
Outbreak of 1896. years 1893-90. The
times were exceed
ingly hard , drought prevailed in the
western states , and the flooding of the
country with under-worthy silver dollars
lars brought on the disastrous consequences
quences predicted by prudent and con
servative statesmen ; other causes co
operated to make the resulting panic
the most terrific and overwhelming one
in the history of our country. The
people were suffering , they brooded over
their troubles , and the soil was well
prepared for a morbid outbreak. Then
like a "deus ex machina" the Silver-
Messiah arose and his plausible fallacies
were readily accepted as the truth , the
gospel of 1G:1 : spread like wildfire and
the climax was reached when the Na
tional convention of a once great his
torical party accepted the new creed in
a paroxysm of hysteria. The followers
of the new faith were a motley crowd ,
the old greenbaokers flocked to its stand
ard , schemers and visionaries abounded ,
populists and that class of men , best
described as "cupidi rernm novarum , "
( wanting a change , ) swelled the mass ,
there was the man eager to scale his
debts via the "dollar of our fathers"-
route , and the whole thing was engi
neered by cunning politicians , scenting
office , fame and fortune in the game.
A great many people , of course , voted
the silver ticket actuated by business
and private reasons , as their self inter
est demanded , or prompted by a strong
feeling of party allegiance. From the
day of that convention unto the day of
election the country was turned into a
perfect bedlam.
In every hamlet prophets and sons of
prophets arose. Everywhere "states
men" turned up , solemn of mien and
gesture and loud and declamatory of
voice , who dealt out.with a free hand.to
ever-willing audiences the most stun
ning financial theories.
And here the fun came in these
"statesman" took themselves perfectly
serious , presenting ,
Violent Symptoms , to the man with a
particle of humor
in his make-upa never-ceasing spectacle
of the grotesque and comical side of our
politics , in fact the words "difficile
est satiram non soribere" became true.
Life got to be a burden. Demagogues
masqueraded as patriots , men who
appealed to reason and common sense
were insulted , and President Cleveland ,
who stood , a veritable "rochor de
bronze , " in that roaring sea of human
prejudice and fury , a rook of patriotism
and firmness , on which the fool-craft of
the time went to pieces , was denounced
as a traitor of the common people. A
storm of vituperation and hatred swept
through the land. A perfect frenzy
prevailed and even persons of more than
average intelligence caught the infec
tion. The minds of men were in a state
of the highest tension , and abnormally
and morbidly receptive , therefore the
words and precepts of the leaders acted
upon the masses , coming under their
influence , like a hypnotic suggestion.
After a long time of intolerable tur
moil the election day happily brought
relief , reason tri-
Relief. umphed , the coun
try was saved from
a great disaster and the roaring silver-
tornado soon declined into a gentle
zephyr.
This silver-excitement will go into
history as one of the greatest delusions
of the age and it will offer a thankful
field to the professional psychologist , to
study , analyze and describe the curious
and widespread phenomena developed
in those turbulent days.
Such a book would be a valuable con
tribution to what the Germans call
" Voelker-Ps y o h o-
Historian and logic , " that is , the
Psychologist. psychology of na
tions , and a boon to
the future historian who is to write the
history of our times. E. W. S.
POETRY.
Mary French Morton's "Leaves from
Arbor Lodge" show accurate observa
tion of nature , a good ear for rhythm ,
and a sufficient felicity of phrase.
These are evidently the poems of a
woman content and cheerful in her
station , convinced that this is a good
world and growing better , and satisfied
if only her songs please without much
desiring them to stir. The following
stanza , cited not because it is the best ,
but because it is a fair average , and has
also the interest of association with a
movement which the writer's father
officially inaugurated , may be given as
a specimen :
To one who lists when lie plants a tree
Gomo melodies so full , so sweet ,
As if the years from the future called ,
Though far away , their Joys repeat ;
As if the birds from trees to come ,
Beside each peaceful , sheltered nest ,
Sang out their glee of the morning time ,
Sang softly notes of evening rest.
A number of excellent pictures of
scenes about the Nebraska country
home , whose beauties several of the
poems celebrate , add to the attractive
ness of the volume. ( Blakely Printing
company , Chicago. ) Chicago Inter-
Ocean.