V
THE COURIER.
ttie book is the fascinating point of
view of Elizabeth, her personality,
Iter whimsical humor and her freedom
from trite custom and convention. If
6he were Eve, she would not be freer
from fear of what her neighbors might
Bay. Even the man of wrath or the
April, May or June baby does not in
terfere with her intimacy with the
garden, which she makes us believe is
her holy place.
Singing Lessons
Madame Mathilde Marches!, who
has taught all the modern great
singers, Melba, Calve and all, is con
tributing a series of ten lessons to
young singers in a woman's weekly
magazine. Like all great teachers,
madame is a martinet. She refers to
ber reputation with much surprise,
however, explaining to American
readers that herdisposition is amiable
and her class methods mild to those
pupils who exhibit a real desire to
learti. The naivete of Madame Mar
cltesi's composition is amusing to a
non-professional reader who knows
nothing about attack and the idiosyn
crasies of the glottis and the treat
ment of the vocal chords.
Co-Education.
. The University of Rochester opens
to women this fall. Two years ago
the trustees of the university agreed
to admit women on condition that
$100,000 be raised to offset the cost of
the experiment. Subsequently the
sum was reduced to 150,000. Tiie sum
would not have been raised had it not
been for Susan B. Anthonv, who, on
.the last day of grace, when $800 was
still lacking, gave $2,000 herself and
raised 16,000 by personal subscriptions
among ber friends. It was generous
of Miss Anthony, but the money
would have been better spent on a
school which was already up to the
limes. The University of Rochester
has been bard up for some time on ac
count of the new state institutions
which admit all citizen's children
free. It is doubtful if this belated
justice which the college has agreed
to sell for $50,000 will be worth the
money to women.
Matrimony and College Women.
Miss Mary Roberts, associate pro
fessor of sociology in Leland Stanford
university, has collected some statis
tics in regard to the tendency and op
portunities of college women to get
married, that may interest a few old
codgers who insist that higher educa
tion is depriving women ot the desire
to marry, and depriving her of the
charm which makes men want to
marry her. According to Dr. Roberts,
college women marry better than the
uneducated and have more children,
a higher percentage of whom are
males, and there is no difference be
tween the two classes in regard to
their own health, or the health and
mortality of their children.
The Coal Strike.
A prolonged coal strike entails more
suffering than any other kind. Mill
operators strike, and the suffering is
confined to themselves, their wives
and children, their landlords and the
merchants, of whom they obtain their
"supplies. Coal provides the energy
which turns al1 the wheels, and a
miners' strike, if long enough, would
atop the cars, empty the shops, close
the factories, schools, and place e eery
one at the mercy of the sua and a few
wooleti garments for warmth. The
coal supply which the begrimmed
miners have dug out of the earth is
only a few months ahead of the de
mand. It is literally from mine to
furnace moutli. It is, therefore, of
immediate consequence that the
140,000 striking operatives and the
operators of the Pennsylvania coal
mines agree on a system of weighing
the coal, on the method of buying the
powder, and on the standard of wages
to be paid (he miners. The operators
have acceded to a raise of ten per
cent in wages. The operatives de-mand-a
twenty-percent raise. But'
the principal demands of the strikers
are in regard to grievances. The
grievances relate to the company
stores, the company doctors and
butchers, the practice of dockage, and
most particularly, the high price
paid for powder. The powder used in
the mines the men are compelled to
buy of the companies. It costs the
companies only ninety cents a keg,
and the men are made to pay $2.75 a
keg for it. The expense of this, added
to the losses the miners suffer by rea
son of dockage and the company
stores, reduces wages in many cases
to not more than twenty dollars a
month. The mine-operators claim
that the strike is not occasioned by
any of the causes enumerated by the
workers, but is ordered by the United
Mine-Workers arbitrarily to the end of
establishing the authority of the
union for political purposes. An offic
ial statement contradicting this has
been given out from headquarters
of the Mine Workers' Union, which
recites the efforts made by the union
to adjust their differences by peace
able means, and to submit the whole
question to arbitration. These efforts
failing, the strike was reluctantly
ordered as a last resort, to the end of
securing justice to the workers.
The Chinese Situation.
Those who know the most about
the Chinese affair confess that they
know nothing. If the generals and
diplomats are making progress, it is
at the rate of a glacier. The only way
to be positively sure we are moving is
to measure the situation with that of
three months ago. The result will be
decided by the powers who are dis
cussing China, its relation to them
selves and their relation toeachother,
with China between them, as though
they had Chinese leisure to argue
it. Russia and France has informed
our state department that through
concurrent action they will withdraw
from Pekin. M. de Giers. the Russian
minister, and M. Plchon, the French
minister, are consulting as to tte
most favorable time for this with
drawal, and French. 'and Russian
troops will move simultaneously. The
intention is not to evacuate China,
but only to leave Pekin. The troops
will await at Tien Tsien the re-establishment
of the Chinese imperial gov
ernment at Pekin. General Chaffee's
orders are to leave Pekin also. It is
evident that Li Hung Chang still
holds the confidence of the Chinese,
however foreigners may suspect him
of treachery. An imperial edict has
conferred upon him unlimited discre
tionary power to make terms with
the nations according to his own
judgment, without referring the
terms back to the emperor for ap
proval. A later edict associates Prince
Ching and Yung Lu with him as
peace envoys. The former is pro
foreign, and defended the legations
during the siege of Pekin. But Yung
Lu's appointment is defiant of the
powers, as he was chief instigator of
recent troubles, and he was the leader
of the boxers throughout the siege.
He has been a member of the privy
council for six years, and, as the em
press dowager's favorite, he has been
the ruling spirit of that body. He is
the one man in the Chinese adminis
trative government that the powers
can identify as a leader of the boxers
and an encourager of the movement.
Yung Lu left the privy council to be
come commander-in-chief of the
army of the north, operating in and
about Pekin. It was his force which
held back the Seymour expedition,
and under him the imperial troops
kept up their three months' siege of
the legationers in Pekin. Germany will
not-reepgnize him as a commissioner,
with Li HungCbangand Prince Ching.
The other powers are not so impera
tive, and may recognize the fact that
there are two pro-foreign commission
ers to one Yung Lu. His appoint
ment shows China's entire ignorance
of the fact that foreign armies are
occupying China, and that the nation
is a suppliant.
Quang Hsu has.-at last, put the Em
press Dowager in her place, and if he
succeeds in making bis revolt perma
nent, the prospects for a settlement
are very largely increased.
Mr. Bryan in St. Louis.
Editor Marion Reedy of the St.
Louis Mirror has not made up his
mind whom he will vote for, but
knows that he will not vote for Mr.
Bryan. The description of the Bryan
meeting in St. Louis applies to the
Bryan meetings anywhere, except
that in smaller places there are fewer
people.
When Mr. Davis appeared there was
an uproar. When it subsided he be
gan to talk. His talk was a great dis
appointment toeverybody. Talk about
Roosevelt's book on the Rough Riders
deserving the title "Alone in Cuba,"
Davis' remarks might have been
labeled "Alone in South Africa." As
he went along I thought continually
of a parody of the Bourdillon poem.
"The night has a thousand Is." From
one to four Is peppered every sent
ence. Mr. Davis' Ego was on the
rampage. He elected McKinley, he
saved Mark Hanna. He was not only
tearful himself in their cause, but was
the cause of tears in others. And now
Messrs. McKinley and Hanna and all
the rest of them are villains. Well,
they are what they were when he
served them.
Mr. Davis is an oratorical archaism.
He talks high-fa!utinese altogether.
He is an eagle-screauer. No
trace of logic is in him. Bis view of
the Boer war bears not the slighest
trace of a judicial study of the ques
tion. His story of it was one of rank,
extravagant, utterly unqualified as
sertion. The reading persons in his
audience had to smile at his highly
colored special pleading. The talk
was one unintermittent gush of flub
dub, with Davis more important than
Great Britain or America or the Trans
vaal. It was Davis, Davis, Davis, for
subject, predicate and object of every
sentence. His patriotism, his sacri
fice, his devotion made up the real
theme.
The audience received him well at
first. There was frequent applause,
but it petered out. Gradually the ap
plause was prolonged at the conclu
sion of his periods, but it began to
last so long that it was evident the
people were wearying.
Before he finished he was practically
drowned out by his audience.
The crowd didn't care about
the Boers; at least, they didn't care
about the Boers solely as a background
for Mr. Davis enlarged projection of
his conception of his personal import
ance. The golden tongued orator was
emphatically snubbed, was told that
he was a bore, and the crowd was not
one of bore sympathizers.
The reception of Mr. Davis' alleged
eloquence and be it said right here
that the grave defect of his eloquence
is that it is not eloquent seemed to
me to be a sign that the Boer jssue in
the present campaign is not going tq
cut much of a figure. If a talk for
the Boers should excite interest any
where it should do so here in Mis
souri, but Saturday night's spectacle
convinced me that the subject has
no strong hold upon popular interest.
When Mr. Davis sat down the cheer
ing was decidedly tame.
Mr. Bryan appeared amid a great
demonstration. Then occurred a curi
ous thing. The people strained to see
him, while he stood by the speaker's
desk awaiting the subsidence of the
cheers and the small storm or flags.
They saw him and his pleasant, frank
smile. And then they began to leava
the hall. The fact was pat
ent that the crowd had largely come
out ot curiosity to see him.
Then he said he would read his re
marks about "Trusts,' instead of
speaking extemporaneously. Instant
ly there was a rush, rattle, clatter and
rumble all over the hall, caused by
vthe departure of people byth& hun-dreds.-He
was not into, hia manuscript
until the galleries were practically
emptied, and the crowd in the arena
was reduced one-half. The box-crowds
thinned out. The women in the boxe
"stuck." You could hear them say
ing, "Ah, poor Mr. Bryan. Don't let
us leave him this way."
Mr. Bryan read his piece He read,
and readt and read, and read, and
Lord but it was wearisome! The people-yawned.
Some of them actually
slept. Many of them held merry con-s
verse in quite loud tones.
Now and then some one gave forth
long whining or yelping yells without
regard to the matter of the reading.
The evening was a lesson. It taught
me that the people are tired
of politics. The people have a curi
osity to see Mr. Bryan. They have a
curiosity to hear him, because he has
the reputation of an orator. They
do not care for what he says so much
as for how he says it. They like the
man. There is no denying that they
have an affection for the Bryan per
sonality, for the physical charm of
him, for some pleasant memory or in
stinct or subtle prepossession he
arouses in them. But the great ques
tion of "Trusts," which I have
thought, and have said in these col
umns, was the one closest their hea-ts,
actually does not concern them so
much as I thought. 'Ihey
care for Mr. Bryan as they care for a
popular actor or a preacher who has a
nne delivery. luey do not
regard him as great, as they did in
189G. They like him. In a general
way they agree with him; they love
to hear him assail the things whicli
are. They would like to believe that
tilings would be different, but they
seem to feel and know, somehow, that )
what he promises is a pretty dream -
like the New Jerusalem of the preach
er or the Phaeacia of the poets of old
time.
He is a sort of troubadour
singing men songs that make them
sorry for themselves, picturing them
the possibilities of transforming the
world into a place where their ideals
will be realized. But they know that
the ideal is not realizable. They de
light to hear hfin assail those who are
mighty and in high places, to see him
fighting dragons or oclopi, but, some
how, in a dim sort of way they realize
that the mighty and the strong in
high places are only made ogres and
gruesome giants by his fancy, while
the dragon or the octopi are in reality
harmless against a spell of the popu-
lar will that will protect the people.
The people say he fights a gallant bat
tle, but it is a battle like like that of
heroes in novels and poems and plays.
The stage is fixed for the hero to win.
The villains are not villains after all.
They are painted as such to throw
forward the hero. 1 should rank Mr.
Bryan with John Drew, Hackett, Fa
versham, Henry Miller. Mr. Bryan iss
the manifestation of the romantic T
school in politics. In another way
Colonel Roosevelt is a manifestation
of the same thing, but Colonel Roose
velt has a strong flavor of the prac
tical. He poses, but he has done
things. He is an egotist, but he is
not so much of a theorist. He lacks
Mr. Bryan's blandness of idealism, be
cause he has rubbed up harderagainst
the realities and has had a somewhat
disillusionizing, though not cyniciz
ing familiarity with history. The
world is all new to Mr. Bryan. To
Colonel Roosevelt it is an old, old
world but still fair and growing fairer
in its old, old way and by virtue of
the very processes which seem to Mr.
Bryan all evil.
Mr. Bryan is not a politician at all.
He is a sort of moral evangelist, tell
ing us of the millcnium as he would
have it, but without a practical plan
for bringing it-to pass. Mr.
Bryan is a popular hero, but he, some
how, seems to the people to be fight
ing with the ghosts and ogres and
djinns of his own conjuring. Mr.
Bryan appeals to the emotions of men
and uplifts them temporarily, when
he abandons his manuscript. But
when the evening is over he leaves no
much more permanent effect in the
minds of those who heard him than
'
A
