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pleasant to ride on. Whether It was
ever like our asphalt when lirst laid
I cannot say, but It Is plain the Lon
doners do not wish any more of it.
They use wooden blocks shaped like
bricks, which have been treated with
some preservative which I think con
tains creosote or tar or both. The
bricks of wood are laid on edge on a
bed of concrete about live or six
indies thick. Jt looks very simple.
The wooden bricks which I have
handled are of spruce or similar wood
which is easily whittled, but 1 am
told that the blocks used on the
streets where there is heavy traffic
are of hard wood like mahogany, a
wood which comes from Australia.
The wooden pavement on the streets
certainly seem very even and satis
factory. Miss Canfield's Thesis.
Emilc Angler Playwright Moral
ist Poet, A Study, Is the title of the
graduating thesis of Miss Dorothea
Frances Can field who was graduated
from Columbia university this spring.
There is nothing more admirable in
the brochure than the few pages at
the beginning which are devoted to a
comparative view of the creators and
development of the drama in France
and England, wherein it is shown
that although dramatic art bloomed
lirst in England in Beaumont and
Fletcher, in Marlowe, .lonson and in
Shaksperc; In France, since Cornellle,
"it has occupied a greater place in
the Interests and affections of the
people, than it ever lias among Eng.
lish speaking nations." Since the
French care enough for the drama to
fill the theatres and because they
have a cultivated taste which pre
vents even the gallery from laughing
or applauding or weeping in the
wrong place, it follows that the play
wrights work with a free hand and
are rewarded for attaining distinc
tion, by a national patronage. An
other consequence of the culture and
appreciation of the drama In France
is that France, since Dumas emanci
pated the drama from the classical
and Romantic structural formulas,
has supplied England, Russia and the
United States with plays done into
English or Russian or American ac
cording to the limitations of the
several audiences. As tho richest
fruits grow where there is most sun
and where man outwits or tempers
the climate by artificial means to
their peculiarities and as these pro
ducts of a favoring clime are exported
to all parts of the world, so the
French are Indigenously sympathetic
to dramatic influences and the born
gift has been cultivated to an arti
ficial perfection. That the race is
suffering from overcultivutlon of the
dramatic tendency their theatrical
court room and parliamentary scenes
testify.
M. Emille Augier, by making the
portrayal of character of first Im
portance, and by evolving the plot
from the action and reaction of the
very well composed and ballanced
characters of the drama, has had a
healthful influence upon the French,
teaching them by means of that
which they love and respect most
highly, that to be Is essential, and to
seem serves only a decorative purpose
and that important consequences, do
not follow from seeming. To teach
this lesson Impressively has unfor
secn ellects upon the character of the
French people whoso greatest na
tional fault is a lack of sincerity and
of repose, when, as in this Dreyfus
climax truth telling and calmness
are of importance to the Republic.
In presenting, life undlstorted, In
making his characters real human
beings, In placing their fate in their
own hands and in making the action
and the denoument a logical conse
quence of the characters and of their
association, Miss Can field rates M.
Augier the master of Sardou and of
Dumas fils. Her thesis is Interesting
to the unlearned. It does not pre
suppose an acquaintance with her
subject so familiar that neither fre
quent quotations nor explanations of
French feeling are necessary. The
little book is complete in itself and
arouses an interest in M. Augier as
playwright and poet that will not
longer be satisfied with excerpts and
quotations from his work. Miss Can
field's critique is clever, original and
it is fascinating for the entirely un
conscious evidence on every page of
the author's earnestness, directness,
sincere love of learning, and the in
forming influence of a high purpose,
together with youthful distaste for
evil.
Delayed Retribution.
Captain Oberlin H. Carter who was
sentenced over a year ago to dishonor
able dismissal from the army still
waits to hear hissentence pronounced
As every body knows Capt. Carter got
the money on a million and a half dol
lars of forged warrants for work that
was never done by workmen who did
not exist, in Savannah harbor. He has
very powerful friends who have inter
ceded with the president, and the at
torney general gives no sign of an
early examination of the papers relat
ing to the case. Meanwhile Captain
Carterenjoys club life in New York.
He rises at eleven, as a gentleman of
leisure should. He wears tine linen
and fine wool, fitted to his handsome
form by the best tailors and altogether
Ills habits and appearance are exas
perating to the last degree consider
ing that he has stolen a million and a
half dollars from the United States
government, The reasons for the de
lay of the punishment he has so rich
ly earned not being apparent to the
people who travail for their living,
and the luxury with which he sur
rounds himself being so continually in
evidence, the President has the choice
of compelling the carrying out of the
sentence or facing a part of the com
munity that is sure it lias been rob-,
bed, and this part includes all those
people who are not using their influ
ence for Captain Carter's pardon. The
suspension of the sentence has become
a reproach. It is too much like
French justice to be popular in this
country.
The North-western Railroad Company.
The Club Women, ajnonthly maga
zine printed at Boston and the organ
of the Massachusetts federation of
women's clubs, urges the visitors who
will go to the Milwaukee biennial
next year, not to go by way of this
road which a few months ago dis
missed all of Its female employes, not
because they were dishonest, unfaith
ful, or Incapable but because they
were women. The management of
the road explained that the civil ser
vice rules would be strictly enforced
and that It was foreseen that If only
merit wero taken into consideration
that in the course of time It would be
some woman's turn, according to the
rules of length of service, faithfulness,
and ability, to step up higher. Here
tho management stopped, as though
the argument had reached a point
where words were unnecessary to
demonstrate the conclusion. Still
any one who believes in the intellect
ual parity of women can Imagine a
woman who had become familiar with
all the departments of a division, be
coming division superintendent and
being promoted from that office to the
one of president, ho long as her mind
and knowledge should holdout. There
are several women within the writers
knowledge capable of fulfilling the
duties which fall, say to a division
superintendent, (given the years of
training which generally precedes the
attainment of that position). Sex
has very little to do with the ques
tion of ability. A woman can not do
an engineer's or a fireman's work very
conveniently and Hie positions reach
ed from these beginnings, sex would
debar a woman from competing for.
Other positions whose beginnings,
the capable administration of which
depends upon a faculty for making
quick and sound decisions and on
the possession of common sense which
the Creator has distributed among
men and women regardless of the
limitations which the president of
the North-western railroad company
considers so important and primor
dial. Most of the men and perhaps
most of the women who chance to
read this article will be likely to dis
agree with the writer on the question
of a woman's in telectual ell igi bill y to
the position of president of a railroad.
And in the present century where
women is denied the right to vote on
her own property except in a few
western states, I am not so sure that
the Northwestern management Is to
be blamed for accepting the general
estimate of the law which grants the
suffrage to everybody except Indians,
the Insane, women, and idiots. Not
until centuries have dissipated the
prejudice which for over two thou
sand years has prevented woman from
being estimated as an individual will
women be freed from an oppression
more galling, In many respects than
slavery. It is perhaps well enough
for the thousands of women who will
assemble in Milwaukee next year to
snub the Northwes'ern road, but in
doing so they might patronize a road
which has never employed women, nojc,
ever thought the exclusion of enough
consequence to olfer a public explana
tion. Men are not to be blamed for
falling in with the current opinions
and the gods who grind out justice
grind so exceeding slow that the rec
ognition of the woman's right to as
good a living as her capaeityjean earn
is still not within a hundred years of
expression and adoption.
We have come a shorter way than
we think, as we look back. Except In
a few spots woman's influence Is Indi
rect and depends upon her tact and
beauty. Her property is assessed and
she Is governed by whatever laws men
choose to pass and the consent of half
of the adult taxpayers Is never asked.
The president of the Northwestern
road probably does not claim to be an
advanced thinker. Ho has accepted
the conditions of his time and en
deavored to get his railroad system
into harmony with them. A ooycott
like that proposed by Miss Winslow of
The Club Woman might be an indica
tion that the worm was beginning to
reflect and to turn, bin we that suffer
Injustice ought to be careful not to
commit a grave one ourselves
Democratic Perplexity.
To a man who hopes to be the presi
dential nominee of democrats and
populists in 1!00 the uncertainty in
regard to Hie fusion platform must bo
very trying. The republicans have a
definite policy which is the basis of
national activities now. Tho Fill
pines have come to them by tho con
vention of war, and unless wo decide
upon a quixotic and Impracticable re
jection of historical precedent and of
international usage our foreign policy
must remain as it is, The anti-Imperialists
which Is a name they have
adopted themselves and means noth
ing in particular, because neither tho
administration nor the republican
party have decided on an empire, can
be counted In every town and their
sum is doubtless largo and imposing.
But supporters of the administration
are as the sands of the sea and their
sum is the people of the United States.
Since trade lias resumed its energy and
every man who cares for it has a good
job, conditions have adjusted them
selves to a single standard and It Is
questionable, even to those who be
lieve in free silver, if agitation of the
money question would not do more
harm than good. This being so the
silver republicans whose convictions
drew them away from the party in the
last campaign will vote for the re
publican candidate, next year both be
cause they realize the effect of agita
tion upon anything so sensitive as
money and because they will not vote
to change a foreign policy in the
midst of war.
Between the eastern and the west
ern democrats there is a difference of
opinion both as to the platform and
as to the man who shall embody it.
There are evidences of a secret under
standing between prominent and life
long democrats, the purpose of which
is to defeat Mr. Bryan in the conven
tion, and although their success is
more than doubtful theirconfcrencc iu
an indication that the party will not
be enthusiastically united.
Radical Temperance Reform.
When the W. C. T. U, realizes that
those who disagree with them on the
most effective and permanent method
of lessening tho sale of spirits, are
not rum fiends, Its own power will
be strengthened by the addition of
more conservative but no less earnest
opponents of drunkenness.
Children in the public schools are
taught the evil effects of liquor and
tobacco in exaggerated terras.. When
they emerge Into the world and see
men whom they know to be high
minded and accomplished, drinking
liquor and smoking tobacco, both of
which, they have been taught arc
deadly poisons, a confusion of mind
and a questioning of authorities is
sure to occur. If tho men live, whom
with horror-stricken eyes they have
watched swallow a whole glass of
beer, If they continue to be upright,
sober and sane, inevitably the child
will apply what lie was taught in
school to his observations; and if his
own original experiments fall of con
firmation the reaction is apt to drive
him to drink and smoke. The truth
is, that the excessive use of tobacco
and whiskey reduces a man's useful
ness and destroyes his health and his
temper. Nobody, except those who
are connected with an inebriate by
family or legal ties wants him around
and his family escape him when pos
Bible. To employes, friends, associates
he is a bugbear to be shaken off when
ever his company seems inevitable.
The muscular tissue ol his body, which
the school physiologies teach is reduced
to a spongy pulp corresponds with the
spongy pulpiness to which the fibre of
all his relations with human beings has
been converted. The language of the
Bchool physiologies is not exact and
exaggerates the immediate effects of
and occasional indulgence in poisons.
No wordB can paint the devastation,
physical, spiritual and social of -their
intemperate use. It it wore not for the
reaction that comes when the child finds
out that liquor and tobacco are not in
stantaneously fatal, no harm would be
done in awakening a fear of whiskey
which has killed more men than war,
fire, water or reptiles. But the dis
covery that all a beloved teacher's
words are not truo frequently discredits
all her teachings. It follows that ab
solutely candid instruction about the
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