THE COURIER.
X
tlon of triumphing over the carnal
and the rewards of righteousness and
mortification. A child thus trained
is more tLan likely to become one of
the governed", who in spite of the
system will be of value to the com
munity he is a member of.
Divine government is certainly no
less arbitrary and undemocratic The
moral law began to operate with the
first man and after society was form
ed and oecarae self-conscious the
whole body of the law was recognized.
It is in the constitution of man and
ratified or not it remains and not one
jot or title can be altered, or expung
ed and nothing can be or has been
added. If a man murders, his con
science either ossifies or it is a raw
stinging spot which keeps him awake
and finally drives him insane. A liar
lias an uncomfortable time with him
self and bears his neighbor's contempt
and bs knows It. A thief is a coward
and the prey of an imagination more
vigilant than the police or the best
detective system ever operated. All
others who break the commandments
suffer in their own bodies and minds
adequate punishment, long before
clumsy and slow man law overtakes
them.
The governed therefore have not
even the representative one fifth
directing power. It is written that
all nations must conform to the con
temporary standard of civilization.
Rebellion means destruction. For a
long time China has stood still but
she escaped urging by the procession
because of her isolation. Now Hus
sia has grown far enough south to be
inconvenienced and crowded by the
inert Chinese lump. The English are
pushing north, not necessarily ag
gressively and for land grabbing pur
poses but because they are growing
and need more room and on the south
is the ocean. Japan on the east and
Australia on the southeast have be
gun to do business like the rest of the
world and the Chinese will have to
join the procession or be run over and
crushed. Commerce is the great civi
lizing, moral force. Missionaries can
be tortured and killed, sermons are
not heeded, essays and all sorts of
literature have but little influence,
but commerce cannot be deflected by
a Chinese wall, by Chinese religion or
customs, or by Chinese inertia. The
consent of the governed has nothing
more to do with the question than it
has in the parental divine or national
system. Railroads will be built
through China, east and west, north
and south by Russians, French, Eng
lish or Americans, or by all these
people. The Chinese do not want the
foreigner, but the foreigner is good
for them. The foreigner has grown
as far as China and for centuries
Chinese inertia has turned him back,
but America is next door, England
and France are south, Russ a is north,
and Germany lias a foothold in China
itself. The hour is at hand when the
walls will fall at the shout and charge
of the nations of the world upon
China. The law of nations has been
broken. The Chinese have killed at
least one minister and perhaps all
who were unwelcome representatives
of the world in China. For the bar
barity they have dared against the
age China will either be dismembered
ur in conjunction with the most mod
ern Chinese the powers will establish
a government which is not an anach
ronism. J J
Long Range Guns.
Notwithstanding the long range of
the latest guns, their rapid tiring pos
sibilities and their smokeless powder,
reports from Africa show a smaller
death rate from gunshot wounds than
in the days when men fought hand
to hand battles with spear, short
sword or spiked clubs. The man of
the stone age who fought with a
bludgeon was deadlier than anything
that has ever been invented. Camp
life could not kill him, for he was
born in a cave if be were a member
of the aristocracy and on the damp
ground if not He was not subject
to malaria or dysentery for he had the
stomach and entrails of a gorilla.
Civiliziatlon makes men tender and
squeamish, and the rigors, smells and
unpalatble menu of an army on the
march kill more soldiers than bul
lets do. Therefore fewer soldiers are
killed by bullets and more by disease
than in the days of Alexander the
Great.
Humanitarians who have welcomed
the perfection of guns with the hope
that the increasing deadliness would
make war impossible are disappointed
at the actual results of their use.
The small bore, long range guns make
a clean, small hole in the human body
There is little danger of blood-poisoning
from the wound and bones are
mt shattered by the impact of the
ball which is in too much of a hurry
to inflict greater damage. In the old
days when armies fought not five
miles apart but within arms length
heads rolled off and bodies were cut
in two from shoulder to trunk. There
was much less work for the surgeons
after the Black Prince and his men
had done their best. In the years to
come the great peace maker will be
commerce. Wars disturb the market
and interrupt trading and the trader
will discourage gingoism and insist on
arbitration.
A Chinese Point of View.
Perhaps no country more than Co
lumbia resents outside interference
or would so unitedly and bravely re
sist an attempt to divide this country
among foreigners Every now and
then a rumour is printed in the news
papers that the Pope of Rome has
designs on this country and is in
structing the bishops and priest8 to
drill their parishoners in the manual
of arms. The rumor is, of course, un
founded but the suspicion shows how
tetchy we are about the integrity of
the American government.
Suppose the Pope, who is wise and
prescient should conclude to make
Columbia a catholic country. Sup
pose in every lmtulet there was a
priest working to convert the child
ren of protestants into catholics, and
openly endeavoring to convince the
children of this protestant country
that the re'igion of their fathers was
wrong. Suppose they succeeded in
making many converts. Suppose the
the priests gradually assumed civil
power and decided disputes between
catholic and non-catholic. Unless
the government stopped if, ttere
would be riots and it is certain that
many would be killed. Now between
the catholic and protestant re
ligion there is a greater dif
ference of form than of faith and
creed. But between Confucianism
and Christianity there is a chasm.
The nationalists amoog the Chinese
believe that the missionaries are help
ing make smooth the path of the
foreigner who is coming to divide
China among themselves. The mis
sionary has no such intention. He
has expatriated himself for love of
man and from a desire to help them.
The Chinese nationalist or boxer, be
lieves that he is a land-grabber aud is
In collusion with the powers whose
armies and countrymen wait on the
borders of China for a division of
their ancestral acres. And the China
men are frenzied with hatred of the
foreigner whether he is an ambassa-
bor or a missionary. Our country 'tis
of thee, sweet land of liberty or
tyranny, it does not matter. It is
sweet because it is where we were
born.
Desertion.
If Admiral Dewey had sailed out of
Manila Bay after destroying the
Spanish ships be would have done
what the anti-imperialists now say
this government should have ordered
him to do. Then there would have
been an oriental slaugnter of Spanish
residents, combatants and non-combatants,
and the United States would
have been the mock of history.
When one government is destroyed
either anarchy or another government
will take Its place. Had Admiral
Dewey left the peaceful residents of
Luzon to the oriental cruelty of
Aguinaldo and his followers, Mr.
Bryan might have brought an un
answerable Indictment against Presi
dent McKinley's administration.
. J
The Noise Nuisance.
Since the beginning nothing has
been done to lessen the noise in large
cities until lately. To be sure or
dinances have been passed but police
men were not instructed to enforce
tnem, and policemen, the world over,
are very strict interpreters of their
duty except when a fee is in prospect.
New York physicians are prescrib
ing isolation cures for the patients
whose ear drums have been shocked
to the point of nervous prostration.
In so small a place as this there are
more and louder noises than business
requires. If the policemen were so
instructed a reprimand would greatly
lessen the" sum of the noises. For in
stance the men who deliver ice an
nounce their arrival by a curdling
yell that for the moment by its un
expectedness and fierceness paralyses
the nerves. It is a purposeless yell,
because the icemen put the ice into
the refrigerators themselves and the
noise only gratifies the human in
stinct for conspicuitv. The boys who
hawk papsrs on Sunday mornings in
trude upon 'the householder's right
to peace. It is doubtful if they sell
more papers for the disturbance and
they have losl many a sale to many a
tired man who makes up his mind
never to purchase anything from a
leather-lunged, cavern mouthed boy
who can make a noise like that which
disturbs Lincoln every Sunday morn
ing. The street fruit and vegetable
merchants might bn compelled to
hawk their wares less loudly. An
earnest buyer will be attracted by a
mild invitation and indifferent ones
cannot be convinced by jells. To
effect reforms such as these requires
time. It is easier to teach youth. If
this city in her youth is taught the
gospel of quietness, it will learn the
lesson more easily than a metropolis.
The Constitution in China.
A writer in l'he Kev York Sun ex
plains why it is that the Chinese, the
learned Chinese, have so clear a com
prehension of the constitution of the
United States. It seems that an at
tache of the first Chinese legation
that accepted our invitation to Wash
ington, whose name was Tsai Sih
Yung, was a scholar, a graduate of
Doctor Martin's college in Pekin and
had also taken his bachelor's degree
in the Chinese examinations, in
Washington he formed a close friend
ship with Doctor Edward S- Hojden,
an astronomer at the United States
naval observatory. Tsai told Doctor
Holden that the legation had come to
this country to effect a treaty between
the emperor of China and the presi
dent of the United States. "When
told that the treaty must be ratified
or rejected by congress he was in
terested and expressed a desire to
study our constitut'on. Eventual'y
with the help of Doctor Holden and
the advice and comment of Justice
Bradley of the supreme court, the
document was translated with a mar
ginal commentary into Chinese and
Tsai sent it home where it has been
deposited in the library of the for
eign office, or tsung 11 yamen in Pe
kin ever since. A copy of it was also
deposited in the library of the uni
versity of California. Tnere is no
other such declaration of federation
in the Chinese collection and the
Chinese being a literary nation, witli
great reverence for the .written word
have studied the constitution of this
country very carefully. It is the only V
constitution of a foreign country with '
which they are familiar. When the
time comes for an adjustment, Ameri
ca will have the advantage of being
understood bv the Chinese even if we
do not understand them. They know
that we are not anxious to acquire
new territory, and there is no inci
dent of recent- history to contradict
this sound conclusion. The writer
already quoted say:
" ur opportunities at the present
crisis are unique. Every Europeim
government is distrusted by ail the
officials at Pekin by those friendly to
foreign inventions as well as bj those
who ha'e and despise the foreigner
and all his works. We desire and we
mean to have the freest opportunities
for trade and above all things the
fullest protection for our citizens in
foreign parts. It may be necessary
for our troops to join with those of
Europe and Japan in a punitive ex
pedition. It may even be necessary
to raze the walls of Pekin to the
ground, to plow the site and to sow it
with salt, as the Tartar Chief Jeniiiz I
Khan was used to do with the rebel-
isus cities of Bokhara and lurkistan.
All this will be understood s a de
served punishment for acts which
even the Chinese cannot defeud. But
in the final adjustment of relations
America may hold a unique place;
and this position of mor 1 vantage
should be safeguarded in ail our acts.
The Lectern League.
Ministers and other church officers
frequently complain that the women
of the congregation whose time and
energy were devoted to church
work before the club movement, now
only give to the church odds and ends,
unconsidered fragments of their time
and in consequence, the church work
languishes. A club of more than one
hundred and twenty five of the repre
sentative women of Denver- have re.
cently been formed for "The perfect Sr
understanding of the holy catholic
and apostolic church in its universal
relations, divine and human." It was
started In May just when club work
ceases, the club-world over, but it
met an instant reception and wel
come, from members of all churches.
The name and the constitution imply
an exclusive study of the history ot
the chuich of England and the church
of Rome, and its meetings have been
addressed by bishops of the English
caurch, but I am informed that the
members are not preponderantly cath
olic or episcopalian. The study is
divided into five departments: bib
lical, historical, liturgical, mission
ary and art and music. Meetings
will, be held on the first and third
Fridays of every month, from Oct
ober to June, when relevant papers
will be read and discussed. The bib
lical group has outlined a three year's
course of study, and the old plan has
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