THE HESPERIAN.
among all people will give icalism the widest possible field
for its influence.
These arc some of the evils of realism. For what good
is it? Not for beauty, for it reproduces the beauty in nature,
man and man's works blotted and disfigured as we sec it, and
docs not believe that the beauty and the disfiguration are
separate things aim that it is the province of the mind to re
fine the one and remove the other. Neither is it for good
ness, for the basest traits of character and the most ordinary
circumstancss arc represented, and this without any other
purpose or end than analysis. Is it for truth, then? Some
bay, "Yes!" "To follow truth where'er the truth may lead,
with bosom franchiscd and allegiance clear." IJut what if
the truth docs not lead anywhere? What if it is a meie col
lection of unconnected facts not capable of being added to
gether by any human arithmetic to form any sort of a whole
and therefoie barren of result? What good is there in that?
It is not even counting the pebbles on the sea shoie to find
out what the shore is like; it is counting the pebbles without
any purpose at all. I may believe that in the first place real
ism had a purpose, that it desired to show that common and
waste things contributed their part to the general stock of use
and beauty, and consequent cncigy and hope. Hut this idea
has vanished and in lace of it we have a mere transcript of
a great many pieces of things.Thcsc seem to be valueless even
allowing that there is any intention of putting them together
to torin atiuth, for in mental phenomena the whole is not
equal to the sum of all its parts. A man's life is not all that
he has ever done in the world, but all that he has done that
tended in one direction, and the world tendency which may
lead us on to a glimpse of its final aim is not what every
body is dointr, but what is everybody is doing to a common
end.
Neither in the indirect value of amusement nor in the
direct value of use docs realism seem to me to offer adequate
answer to the question why it should exist. And if it offers
none, 1 protest against it as earnestly and forcibly as I may.
We have only to look around us to see that in spite of the
aids of civilization; human nature is too weak to spare any of
the forces that save it from straying into bye-ways where
there is no road onward and no glimpse of any road onward;
but only stagnation and decay. In spite of our boasted pro
gress we arc yet so near the edge of barbarism and brutality,
and petty, shallow scoffing incancss that wc dare not risk a
single plank which separates u from the abyss, except in the
hope of getting a better one. When realism may assure us
of a better thing than the pursuit of the highest form of the
good, the true and the beautiful, it will liavs a substantial
purpose oi which we may take hold. In the meantime these
arc thousands of things in the world which arc not worth
knowing and would not be worth knowing if we might live
hundreds of years instead of three score and ten. I cry out
against the attempt to distract us with needless, beautiful,
purposeless details, when there arc so many things to be
learned which wc must kiow, if wc are to be anything more
than vegetables or brutes, if the sum of us is to be anything
over the growth and decay of non-effective civilizations. Wc
need every force wc may get, mental, moral and physical. Is
realism a force in any of these directions? If it is not, it is a
weakness, and wc had better put it aside. I. u,
CURRENT COMMENT.
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Persons preferred who can furnish a horse and give their
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H. F. JOHNSON & CO., 1009 Main St., Richmond, Va.
The condition of the Jews in Russia today is creating a
great deal of excitement and enlisting the sympathies of
nearly all civilized people outside of Russia. Ever since
Russia adopted a system of annexation she has had a great
deal of trouble as to what she should do with hci Jewish
population. In all probability the late czar, Alexander II,
would have settled the problem if he had lived a year or two
longer for he had consented to emancipate the Jews; but his
death occurcd before the plan was consummated. His son,
and successor, had a dislike for the Jews and succeeded in
retarding the settlement of the dispute so that it is no nearer
a settlement now than it ever was.
It is very hard to determine what object Russia has in
view in pel scenting the Jews so relentlessly. Probably
jealousy has a great deal to do with it (or the Jews arc un
doubtedly of a higher order of civilization than theii C'lirr
tian pcisccutors. If it is not jealousy that causes this hatred
on the pert of Russian authorities, why do they forbear to
persecute these Jews that forsake their religion and adopt
the orthodox one? If Russians think that the race is more
susccptibc to the influences of civilization, why do they
allow Jews obtaining an education to compiisc only one
tenth of the total number of students? Such a law exists
and it seems to us that when that law came into existence
it was one of the cruellest measures that was ever enacted
It forced many Jews to give up the work and desire of
their life, and return to their "vile" psoplc to live and die.
Jews are human beings as well as Russians, and when they
were separated from that which they most cherished, it was
but enacting over again the scenes that took place when
slavery was practiced in this country; when, at the auction
block, membcis of families weic torn from each other and
sent to endure tortures away Irom the sight and companion
ship of each other.
The fact that the Jews will not be persecuted if they for
sake their religion, places them in the condition of the
Christians during the time of Polycarp, who, when brought
befoie the emperor at the time of the persecutions, was told
that he would be saved from death if he would curse Christ.
What the Russian officials want, is to extirpate Judaism,
root and branch. They aie afraid of its power, and hence
they grind the Jews down in every manner possible. They
impose on them a system of taxation that is simply baiba
rous, worse than tho extortions at Rome during the pciiod
of cmpiic. Jews have to pay a certain percentage on flic
lent they 1 cceivc from their houses, shops, stores, and gran
aries; they pay a percentage on the gross income they
icccive from the sale of wine in public inns. Finally they
have to pay a fine for wearing certaain Hebrew apparel .is
the following quotation from the statute book indi:alcs;
"All Jews who desire to wear a skull cap arc hereby subjected
to permanent tax of neither more nor less than five silver
troubles a year each."
It is to be deplored that such a stale of affairs exists. In
every way possible the Jews are foiled and checkmated 011
every side until it is no wonder that they resort to trickery
and every cunning scheme their imaginative brain can devise
to thwart their persecutors' plans, and gain their own ends.
It is to be hoped that foreign nations may have some in
fluence over Russian authorities, and prevail upon tlicin to
give up this vile work, and accord to the Jews the position
they desire in civilbcd society.
Call and see Cope at 117 North Twelfth sticct.
