The Wise Men of the Land of Morning I Kadi the Judge of the true Laud hear an unjust Occidental Judge called "Kadi" In derision, and aa a term to describe his low moral standard. In truth, we western peoples who are lost in the complexities of legislation and prece dent, extending backward for ages, havs much to learn from the simple, and clear logic of the Oriental Kadi. I do not refer to the Kadi who holds court In European Turkey, or even In the western parts of Asiatic Turkey, where the subtle ties of law bare begun to make their way from civilized Europe. Western culture has touched these Kadis and tbelr education has made them largely European, because many of them have studied In German, Austrian and French colleges. They may be Oriental still In form and habits, but thoy are not perme ated with Orientalism as are the Kadis of the truo cast, where HTe still Is much like the life described by the story tellers of the Arabian Nights. Presumably, the general Occidental Idea that the Kadi Is a corrupt and cruel Judge, springs directly from the stories In those same Arabian Nights. The ' generality of people do net Btop to realize (although it la plain though) that the Oriental story teller Is a satirist, and that he portrayed not the typical Kadi, but the exceptional one. In the lands in the east of Palestine and farther east of them and In Arabia, sit the Kadis of whom I have knowledge, and who typify the Kadi of the Orient. Of course, there are corrupt and wicked and cruel and ignorant men among them, as there are in any class or profession in all parts of tho world. But, as a whole, the Kadis are re markable men with wisdom as great todaj as It was In the days when there began the tales of the wise and deep Judgments of the Oriental Judges. The story of the Jar of Olives has Its duplicate today in real life In many similar Instances of simple clear-sightedness and of verdicts that are delivered according to no Iron formula of written laws, but ac cording to the dictates of common sense, vitalised by thorough knowledge of the human heart. Among these kadis are men who never have traveled from their little villages and towns hidden away In the edges of deserts, and living still In the day of the caravan. Among them are men who have been Kadis for forty years, and who sit, ever' serene and placid, listening to Interminable stories of petty village disputes, with no sign of Impatience or weariness. Preserving the Public Domain for Actual Settlers XV I bers of senate and house met In interlcr In secret session a short time before congress adjourned. They were there at the request of the sec-' retary, and the assistant attorney general was also present in advisory capacity. The question under discussion was the rather large one as to whether congress sboulJ pass a law allowing the government to lease to the cattle and sheep rangers of the west the remaining 500,000,000 acres of public lands. The conference In the secretary's office developed the most serious differences of opinion as to the wisdom ot such a course and comments exchanged were at times by no means pleasantries. Wyoming declared emphatically for leasing; Colorado, Mon tana, Washington and other states, through their representatives present, declared their emphatic opposition for all time .against any move to authorize the leasing of the public lands. Finally Nebraska came into tbe wrangle with a proposition that a leasing law should be enacted applicable to that state alone, with the idea, of course, that It It worked well Its operations could be ex tended by congress to other states. Thus was bcrn the so-called Nebraska leasing law. At a meeting of the senate committee on public lands, held subsequent to the conference with the secretary. Senator Dietrich of Nebraska entered the room with a large bundle of papers In bis hand. Giving them to the clerk he said: "There Is the end of the Nebraska leasing bill so far as I am concerned. Tbe big cattlemen say It does not give them enough and the little cattlemen are arming to resist it." Senator Dietrich, who Introduced and stood sponsor for this bill, might have gone fur ther and told cf tbe contents of tbe papers be handed to the committee clerk. They contained protests against bis bill which ranged frcm a Joint resolution of the Ne braska legislature to the kick of a single cowman. And thus died the Nebraska leasing bill. Judge Van Devanter. the outgoing as sistant attorney general, has stated that he dce3 Dot bolieve a law can be drawn for leasing the great area of public domain which will be Just to all in'erests af fected. Peihapr this Is true, but there 1) a widespread belief that there must be some way out of what Is apparently a hopeless tangle. In time a system of graz ing licenses will be evolved which will permit Ct the scientific as well as the prac tical adniinlstratiop cf the tremendous Isnded estate of the people of thU coun try. Such a measure will create no vested These Judges are In love with their pro fession; power and prosperity do not weigh With them against their ardor In the study of man; they are not impatient nt the pet tiness of a case, because to them no act of humanity Is petty. It Is the man whom they Judge and not his trivial acts. I have seen these men sit In Judgment. Day after day they are as calm and self ooutalned as the sands that stretch away from their gates. The secret of it Is that they have no doubts. No tangle'ot previous decisions ot conflicting statutes or constitutionality or policy confronts them. Every Judgment goes back to the fountain head the Koran. It answers all their questions. It is the compass that guides the ship ot law In the true Orient. These Kadis do not venture to sit la Judgment If thej are 111 or perplexed by private affairs or unhappy because of mis fortune, of themselves or friends. They will not even sit In Judgment If they are hungry or thirsty. They will not Judge it they are In haste to be gone. Not long ago I saw a witty article written by a really experienced and keen traveler, in which he told about the calm ness with which an Oriental kadi ad journed his court because he wished to take some refreshment and smoke his pipe. I suppose that this story, which was en tirely correct as to facta, Imprrssed those who read It with the autocracy and bar baric clmpllclty of Justice In Arabia, where the traveler witnessed the scene. But, as a matter of fact, that occurrence was a typical prcof of the conscientiousness of the Oriental kadi. For what says the Koran for his direct guidance? "Thou shalt not Judge, oh. Judge, hast thou pain within thy bedy. dost thou feel thy spirit troubled for thy son, doat thou sorrow for thy friend! Thou shalt not Judge, oh, Judge, feclest thou hunger or dost thou thirst, until thou hast reached a spring to refresh thee! Thou bhalt not Judge, oh. Judge, feclest thou In thy soul that Uod bath not willed It to let thee Judge!" "What!" ea!d an old kadi to me when I praised a certain German Jmlg end, in poof of It, told how he had sit awake all night studying a case and then hid sat for twelve hours to hear It In court. "What! Do you mean to tell me, O Glur, that he dared to alt In Judgment whori he was weary and fatigued so that his soul and mind were not at peace? Unhappy Judges of the Evening Lands, to whem ths sweet est duty of man means wretchedness! For rights for temporsry occupants, will give no shadows ot titles, no monopolies, and will help rather than hinder tettlcnient by homesteaders. All legislative battles are not fought on filings. When It is realized that no land the flocr of bouse or senate. In thi pages of tbe Congressional Record or even In the committee rcom. Many really serious and Important contests never ccme closa enough to the surface to receive official recognition even In the preliminary stages of congressional procedure. For years past there has wagod a relentless campaign for the control of the great landed property ot Ihe United States. Beginning with an area of over 1,000,000,000 acres ot land held In trust for the people by tbe representatives In congress, these vast possession have been decreased year by year through sale, grant, gift and ether innumerable ways In -which land can be transferred from one owner to another, until tbe unappropriated public domain tcday amoun s In r:ur.d num bers to about 600,000,000 acres. After a struggle, only equalled In the history of land legislation by the great fight which resulted in ths tna ttnent of the homestead law In 1862, congress passed the national reclamation act ot a year ago and created a revolving fund, which will shortly amount to abcut $20,000,000, to reclaim the fertile but arid territory ot the western states. President Roosevelt In bis first annual message laid down tbe principle that "suc cessful home-making is but another name for the upbuilding or a nation." In bis message of last December be again called attention to the notorious and outrageous ur.e of tbe present land laws. Great, bow ever, Is the political power of the landed interests of the sparsely settled western states. In the years of the great trek to the west, when thousands upon thousands of native-born Americans and incoming for eigners were pushing tbe line of settlement west of the Mississippi, where the earth needed but tickling with the plow to- pro duce sure harvest. It was then believed that the land business of Uncle Sam bad reached Its highest point. This belief was Justified by the events ot tbs few yesrs following the 80s, tor Instead of alienating 25. 000,000 or 26.OC0.0O0 acres of land a year to settlers, grantees and others, the amount disposed of annually fell to not over one bait, or even less. In the year 1900 public attention was first thoroughly aroused to the great value for the future of the remaining public land aa an outlet for Increasing population, a rem edy for scclal disorder, and as the future sourrn of a food supply, which, from present ' Indications, will become absolutely neces sary within a few brief years. Speculation surely no man ran do Justice unless ha I happy and at rest with himself and ths wcrld!" "And are you never unhappy?" I asked, "when you fare a complex case that puixlce you?" "Nay," said he. "We are never unhappy when we Jud(,e. It we be unhappy, we do not Judie." And so they sit, white bearded, undis turbed, patient, while fifty witnesses swear before them concerning a missing camel bridle or the right to get water at a welt. And when all the evidence la In they Judge as carefully and conscientiously as If the fate cf the Moslem world depended on their verdict. These men are truly at rest. They have made the good fight, for they can become Km) Is only after they have made It. They huvc no ambitions save to fulfill the words rf the Kcran. They smile at the strife that plays brforc them, and maintain their own souls in quietness. Therefore the Kadi is not merely a Judge In cases of law. He Is the WUo Man of the distil;;. Men come to him with their quarrels tnd disputes and embarrassments to be Judged, even when the cases are not at all within legal Jurisdiction. In Arabia and the Eastern Asiatic Tur key a man cannot become Kadi by accident ot birth and station or by favor of politics or other Influence. He must choose the profession and train himself to It from early youth. When the Oriental boy Is 12 years old he must enter the Medresn, a theologlual government school. If he wishes, to enter either the theological or legal profession. There he learns tho Koran by heart. It la expounded for him minutely, passage by passage. He Is known as a Uofta while he Is studying. When he knows the Koran thoroughly, so that he can hold his own In arguments with the teachers, he as sumes the name of Hafls. and preparea for bis examination. A atudent rarely rises to the degree of Halls until he Is 20 years old. When ho passes the examination be must choose at once between theology nod the law. Having chosen the latter, bo faces fire years of study even harder than any that baa gone before. During that time be must make himself proficient In logic, rhetoric, morals, phllsophy, theology sd lav. Then be Is ready to pass the examination which shall entitle him to become a kadl. But be Is not advanced to that dignity im mediately after he baa passed the examina and discussion became rife as to how beat to conserve these values for present and future home-makers. Tbe owners of lar . herds &nd flocks, land and timber specula tors, and others who saw benefit direct or Indirect In controlling large areas ot real estate, recognised in this agitation a serious menace to their operations and sot about the task of anticipating any action congress might be induced to take. The land grabbe-rs found it easy to accom plish their purpose under the present land laws and tbe methods of administration which prevail In the land office. In the first place tho government requires only that the legal forms Involved In securing land shall be letter perfect, and the receivers and registers of the land offices In the various western districts look no further Into the practical application of the law f.ian might bo included In a view frcm their office win dows. Under the present system they are machines for filling out blanks and not con servators or guardians of tbe people's In terests. The prlnclplo underlying all land legisla tion ot the Untied States from the begin ning has been that each citizen should be given a farm in return for which he was to live upen the' land or so improve It as to benefit not enly tho new community of which he thus formed a part, but thu coun try as a whole by Increasing tbe aggregate wealth. That this principle has ceased to govern the land office in its disposal of the public land, except purely In theory, la a notorious fact proved by figures startling and compelling. Of all the thousands cf desert land en tries, for iustance, whlih have been filed In the last ten years, the land office only Investigated 472, and out of these 297 were found fraudulent and eventually cancelled. The highest number of fraudulent claima Investigated were upon tho one point of speculative Intent on the part of the set tler, and In this respect Wyoming holds an unenviable position at the head of the Hat. Of twenty-three cases investigated In Wyoming nineteen of them were found fraudulent, or about 85 per cent of the filings are Investigated except tboM In re gard to which special contest or Informa tion Is filed, and that In most cases there Is no one so Interested or so adventurous as to contest bis neighbor's claim, tbe per centage of fiaud In the cases actually in vestigated becomes of startling significance. In lfcJO tho government of tbe United States deeded away over 13,500,000 acres of land; in 1901 these disposals reached a total ot 16.000.COO acres, a figure which startled tho country In its enormous pro portions. In 1902, however, there was a gain of 4,C00,CK acres, and tbe disposals made by the government reached the enor tion, for the most Important and dis tinctive part of th training has still to com. He must become one of the poor and Irarn their dally life, their tempta tions and their scrrows, by hard, personal experience. This stage of his career lasts three years and almost all Us conditions are rigidly prescribed. He must practice In court dur ir,, that time, taking the esses of the poor. Ills Income from tills source la almost nom inal and he must keep hhnsrlt nllve by earning a petty Income with all kinds ot hard, mean toil. So he learns tho world In which he is to be a Judge, for be struggles for exlutenre as do the people who will come before blm some day to be Judged. But though he experiences their priva tions and their temptations he may not stumble liko them. "To become a Judge, ch Halls, the green cloth that thou wearest around they fes must be ever unaolled." la the law. It la bitter, hard service. But they who go through It untarnished are wise when they emerge. They are what the koran demands when It says that only a human being who has bworao a true man shall dare to Judge other human be lnr.s. Hans Forsten, the Oriental's', who knows tbo true eastern Judge better, probably, than does any other European today, tells in a recent work ot his talk with kad of Bated a tnlk which Illustrates what I have said here about tho class.' " 'Poor Judges ct tho unbelievers,' said the kadl of fiafeil. Harsan Hey, to roe, after ho had reud several articles from tho Turkish law to me, and I had. In turn, explained to him about the duties of our Judges. 'Poor Judges of tho unbelievers! How often you must ruffer painful hours owing to your duties!' "That was strange to beer from tho lips of a man who had been a kadl bidden away In that little hamlet In Palestine for firty years and in that time had heard little or nothing about Eurcpean Judges. When I asked him If he had never, for even a moment, repented his ch-.iloe cf a profes sion, tho aged man smiled and answered: " 'Not for a moment. How can one feel repentance tor that which gives blm Joy?' "A-rd that truly Is tho rccret ct the Judge of the Orient," concludes Forsten. "They- are peaceful. I know more than one. Their .prfsion gives thmn Joy. We ready pretty Arabic etorlcs of tho as tounding Judgments of the kadis. The stories are true ot today. The kadis are ho wise men of tbo I-andJ of tho Morn ing." LUDWIO II. SOUOEN. mous aggregate of nearly 20,000,000 acres. At the rate which has prevailed during ths first six months of tho fiscal year of 1903 the disposals will probably amount to at least 2o,C00,0C0 acres, or fully as much as was alienated at any time lr!rig the great rush of emigration to tho west. The population of the west Is not In creasing proportionately with this present rate of lard dlspconl. In fact. In states where millions of acres have been deeded away to Individuals there has been an ac tual decrease of the agricultural population. All this simply means that under the homestead law as It stands today, under the desert land act, a measure born In selfishness and chicanery, and under ths timber and stone act the people of the United States are being robbed of their landed estate, whlefe. Lord Macauley said, Is the only thing which stands between ths people of this country and the time when will come the real test of republican In stitutions. In the city of Washington, about the lob bies of the hotels, In the corridors of the capltol. In tbe ante-room of the president's office, signs of this great struggle for ths control of this tremendous empire wert ap parent dally during the session of congress. The tide surges from one end of the capltol to the other. The big tango Interests ot the west have done and are doing everything In their power to get a measure through con gress which will enable them to Inclose with fences great areas of land upon which In time thousands of cabins can and will be built by homescekers If these fences do not materialize. During the last winter quiet but effective work has been done by those who are aware of the pernicious use to which the present Isnd laws are being put, and, as public sen timent has been aroused to tbe real situa tion, the demand for a change of method is becoming more general. Tbe situation Is such today that It would practically be Im possible to get any bill through congress which violated tbs now well-established principle of the conservation of the publlo land for homeseekers so clearly set forth by President Roosevelt In his two messages to congress. He Cleared It "Will you allow me a moment to cloar my threat?" huskily begged the con demned borsethlcf, with tears In bis eyes. "Yes," said the leader of ths vigtlanco committee. With a quick movement ot his hands, which they had neglected to tie, he slipped the rope from his neck, leaped from ths barrel on which he was standing, mounted the fleetest horse la ths lot and was off like a shot. Chicago Tribune. '