BIMBiSEH
THE COURIER.
women, seized the one opportunity in
a pallid, fut'lc life to impress his
views on a large audience. As a lec
turer in a Kansas normal school, the
unscientific, unverified statements of
an address delivered before the dele
gates from the north, south, east and
wes, he has given the country an in.
accurate notion of the standard of in
telligence in Kansas, and Kansas club
women may exert an influence which
may remove from the teaching force
of the state so Ignoble a representa
tive.... Heroines of Nineteenth Century Fiction.
It is many years now since I have
read anything written by Mr. William
Dean Howells from any other motive
than a sense of duty and a desire to
know what the most famous living
lion in America is wrltiug about. He
has discarded objectivity as immate
rial, inconsequent and irrelevant.
He has taken it upon himself to write
soul cycles. Incident, plot action he
considered in his earlier period, ne
now concerns himself with motives,
atmosphere and what he recognizes as
truth. In an imitative, spiritless, col
orless style the students of story writ
ing at the State University of Ne
braska are following him. To read
Fielding or Thackeray or Kipling or
Stevenson after doing a stint of How
ells, Jnmes or Barrie is like riding a
young, mettlesome horse over moun
tain and into the valley after a ride
on the merry-go-round in the com
pany of sophisticated city folk. Field
ing, Thackeray and the rest are free.
They are not trying to demonstrate
tjbat their way of writing novels is
the only way. They are not weighted
by self-atsumed duties as teachers and
models. They have a story to tell and
they tell it with complete self-forget-fulness,
and recklessness, for the time
being, as to its sale or storage on the
bookseller's shelves.
In ''Heroines of the Nineteenth
Century," Mr. Howells has consider
ately assumed the charm of his earlier
manner. Shrewd observation of ex
terior sights and impressions, of Miss
Burney, and of Miss Edgeworth. for
instance, as two authors with whom
he is well acquainted characterizes
these charming essays of Mr. Howells.
It is such a relief to be rid, for the
moment of the young ladies whose
outterfly agonies of speculation as to
the consequences of an action they
contemplate taking or words they in
tend saying to "him."
It Is then a great pity that Mr.
Howells and Mr. James should both
have decided it was their mission to
depict, character from the inside.
The well-bred boundaries of his hero
ines' souls cramp Mr. Howells. He
needs more room than the crowded
quarters he has chosen to occupy for
so long. As a gentleman and a fellow
craftsman should, Mr. Howells has
studied Miss Burney and Miss Edge
worth from a respectful distance.
He has not made any of those reve
lations his heroines have had "to grow
accustomed to of their intimate
thoughts. Mr. Howells has treated
these real women as an unmitigated
realist ought to portray the heroines
it is his business to create. This
most admirable thesis on the heroines
of the nineteenth century should
work an Edgeworth, Burney and Aus
ten revival. Mr. Howells' quotations
are so deftly and discriminatingly
made they do but whet a taste for
more.
The Right to YelL
Rutgers faculty is bitterly regret
ting the legacy of $1,000,000 it has
lost by not believing that the million
aire Mahlon C. Martin really objected
to noise. Mr. Martin was worth
$4,000,000 and had devised one fourth
of his property to Rutgers College.
He was an old man and the pride of
his life was Shady Cliff, his estate.
The college established the athletic
field close to his house and the shouts
and oaths of the students disturbed
the old man. He complained to the
college authorities, but they conclud
ed he was crauky to object to the
racket from the inferno of the field.
They were sure that he had made his
will and left a million to tne college,
so the cunning little student boys
were not interfered with. As the o!d
man sat on his porch and listened to
the oaths of the men whom education
was supposed to be refining and mak
ing more fit to meet the struggles and
solve the puzzles of life, the noise and
tli boys got on his nerves and he
changed his mind about the value of
a college education. Finally, seeing
how indifferent the faculty was to an
o'd man's comfort when they were
assured that the old man had willed
the college a million dollars, Mr. Mar
tin changed his mind and left his
money elsewhere.
The right to quiet is never assured
in a college town. This posthumous
revenge for the destruction of the
pace of an old man's last days seems
to the students and faculty of Rut
gers like persecution. But there are
thousands of people whose days have
been disturbed by the noise of stu
dents, who are enjoying the discom
fiture of Rutgers.
The Telephone Ordinance.
The Independent Telephone Com
pany is dissatisfied with the ordi
nance granted by the city council be
cause the right to the streets and
alleys is only granted to the company
and not to its assigns and successors.
Members of the company say that
there is a telephone syndicate in New
York (name net given) with a capital
stock of $60,000,000 which might wish
to buy their franchise after it is
secured. This being so, so large a
company is surely not hard to locate.
Why should the city not ssll a fran
chise directly to this company with
sixty millions to Invest? The Idea, as
I gather it from newspaper interviews
with ingenuous members of the
disappointed new company, is that
the franchise is very valuable it they
are allowed to sell it after they have
received it from the city for nothing
and valueless if they are not allowed
to sell it. This is clear enough to
financiers, but to the great common
peop'e it is mixed. The rejection of
the franchise as granted by the coun
cil demonstrates definitely that the
Independent company desire the fran
chise for a speculative purpose. If
the franchise with a selling clause is
so valuable to outside people why
should not the city receive the price?
The alleys and streets belong to the
people. The telephone poles are
placed at the sides of the streets
greatly disfiguring them and without
the slightest regard to the tastes or
the views of the abutting property
holders. The people, as a whole re
ceive nothing for this disfigurement
of the streets. The telephone com
pany now installed here is making an
abnormal rate of interest on the in
vestment. It charges four dollars a
month for urban telephones and three
dollars a month for suburban tele
phones. Illegitimate returns from
any investment, except the diseovery
of a mine, are only secured by an ar
rangement with the people who sup
ply the interest, to grant the investor
or iuvestors certain privileges. Fran
chises have been granted hitherto by
the people or their representatives
without adequate compensation or
requiring bonds from the company
that when the investment paid fifty
percent or o.'er the city which alone
makes the plant valuable shall re
ceive a share of the returns.
In directing the attention of the
council and people to the rates which
the Bell company is charging and the
value of the franchise they are en
joying for practically nothing the
agitation for the admission of a new
company has already accomplished
something worth tabulating.
The New Inferno.
Hiprah Hunt's journey through a
modern inferno is illustrated in the
current Cosmopolitan with pictures
apparently sketched on the spot by
Arthur Young, a draughtsman of
imagination. The men and women
who make the world a place of ex
piation for their companions are
shown in the world of spirits getting
their punishment in kind for the sort
of misery they Inflicted on others in
the material world. Mr. Hunt, dress
ed as the caricaturists always dress a
missionary, in a straight linen duster
effect, an antique beaver bat, a bun
dle, a slovenly umbrella that looks
like a small tent folded, gaiters and a
solemn, depressed look, watches a
hypnotist wearing a long chain about
his body, grasping a heavy ball of
iron, and carrying on his shoulders a
fat and coarse skinned imp with
spurred hoofs who beats the hypno
tist up a hill. There is a picture of
the married man who passed himself
off as single, yoked to a stalwart,
bearded woman imp and chasing down
a rocky hill pursued- by stones and
yelling imps with pitchforks. Fur
ther on Dante Hunt sees a naked old
man, hitched to a post by a halter.
It is an arctic region and though he
cannot die again, he suffers the ago
nies of freezing to death. The man
who walked over others is the bridge
between two crags. The man who
climbed up in the world and then for
got his friends is compelled to climb
a spiked pole, surrounded by ubiqui
tous imps with devilish pointed ears
and forked tail like a serpent's tongue.
Mr. Hunt is chaperoned by an imp
instead of Virgil. In lieu o'f the schol
ar's robe the imp is dressed in black
wings and carries the classical purga
torial pitchfork. Crag and cactus,
stoues, boiling water, ice and all
sharp pointed things are the proper
ties of Mr. Hunt's inferno for latter
day sjnners.
The Chart and Compass.
Boer sympathizers are in the habit
of dilating upon the educational in
stitutions of their favorite poople.
Cronje is a brave man, a very clever
fighter and his English captors are
singing his praises as a modest, sim
ple gentleman. The British trans
port Milwaukee carried General
Cronje, Mrs. Cronje, and tha General's
staff officers to St Helena, where they
are now lodged in one of the military
fortresses on the island. On the
passage across the ocean the General
spent most of his time in the apart
ments alloted himself and wife and
maintained a stolid silence. That
Cronje bore out the idea that the
Boers are a simple, unaffected people
who live their lives out in their na
tive land, rarely ever visiting other
countries was shown by the fact that
Cronje one day asked Captain Web
ster: "How do you go from one port to
another with no land to steer by?"
The Courier has repeatedly said
that Kruger had not yet accepted the
fact that the, world was round and
that it whirled through space. This
statement is not a figure of speech
but a fact, Kruger thinks such doc
trines unbiblical. Think how far be
hind the brightest of the Boers are.
Cronje does not yet know what Co
lumbus had to know before he start
ed out to discover a northwest
passage.
Eliot Hubbard's Gentleman.
In the Independent Mr. Hubbard
gives a receipt for a gentleman. He
says that a gentleman must have
three qualities and Mr. Hubbard
spells them all three with a capital
so: ''Sympathy, Knowledge, Poise."
There are plenty of ignorant men
possessing the first and last that are
gentlemen essentially. Knowledge
applied to conduct and speech makes
a man more cf a gentleman if his
spirit be gentle; it increases his sym
pathy and directs it judiciously.
Poise is self control and a sense of
humour. Without it a man is either
a lugubrious egotist or a practical
joke pun-making cad that is worse
than no attempt at a gentleman.
That knowledge has little influence in
transfcrming a bor into a gentleman,
any undergraduate assembly, any su
perficial observation of undergradu
ates will demonstrate.
The Fourth Biennial.
The convention of delegates from
all the federated Woman's clubs in
this country will meet in Milwaukee
next week. Several auditoriums are
necessary to provide for all the meet
ings that have been planned and
which will be held simultaneously.
Aside from the interesc the delegates
have in the programs the biennial
assembling of women from all parts
of the country strengthens the Union
because it proves the unity of the
whole country. Just exactly what the
Federation will accomplish has not
yet developed. But it seems certain
that such numbers, so large a company,
with so strong a purpose to elevate,
teach, learn and assist must even
tually have a dynamic influence upon
the race.
A full, report in detail of all the
meetings and speeches is of course
impossible, but a summary of minor
meetings and details of the more im
portant ones will be printed in this
paper from the club editor's reports.
Missionaries in China.
Angry, hostile Chinese follow the
missionaries about the streets of Pe
kin. The movement against all for
eigners is in sympathy with the poli
cy, if not with the wishes of the
Empress. Russia, France, England
and the United States are at the
door. The Boer war has demonstrat
ed that a force only one eighth as
large as an invading army can win,
for a time at least. With his genuine
objection to war the Czar is not likely
to precipitate one, even with so small
a foe as a Chinaman. The war in
Africa has made all nations afraid of
war as they never were before. So in
spite of the attitude of the Chinese
"Boxers'' to all "foreign devils'' and
in spite of the signs of peril to all
foreign residents Russia, France,
England and the United States do
not venture to put an armed force
into China even for the purpose of
protecting their own countrymen.
The Chinese cooly Is superstitious
nd densely Ignorant. Witnesses who
have seen a Chinese mob testify that
It is more terrible and sanguinary
than any French Revolution demon
stration. Oriental cruelty is a thing
apart. To the western mind it is in
conceivable. The Record says on this
subject:
"That every nation of influence hav
ing a representative at Pekin should
be prepared to use force at a mo-
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