THE COURIER.
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care and feeding, set them to serve
him as counselors and to stand be
fore him as objects of beauty. Daniel
who was selected by the eunucti .for
his beauty and wisdom, refused the
meat and wine and asked the chief
eunuch, who was ordered by the king
to see that he ate the prescribed
menu, to try liim on pulse for ten
lays and if hi countenance did nnt
shine more than the meat eaters and
vine drinkers, at the end of that
time, he would eat what the king
commanded. The eunuch 'acknowl
edged that Daniel and his three
friends were the best looking men in
his charge and allowed him to order
his own meals. A little while after,
and before the expiration of the three
years of preparation, the king had a
dream which made a strong impres
sion upon him but which lie forgot be
fore he woke."Then the king command
ed to call the magicians, and the as
trologers, and the sorcerers, and the
Chaldeans, for to show the king his
dreams." But the sorcerers were
amazed at the king's assurance in
requiring them to tell him his dream.
They professed to be able to read it
when he should relate it to them.
Thereupon the king was enraged, be
cause he paid them a high salary for
soothsaying, fed and'lodged them in
a palace, and finally had not required
their services for months before, fie
sent them to the executioner and
ordered their heads cutoff, all for
pretending to do what they could not
do and taking pay for it. Then as
Daniel had read dreams for less ex
alted persons about the palace, and
read them correctly, the king's cap
tain proposed Daniel at this time as
an interpreter of the king's dream.
The vegetarian appeared before him
and after praying, the dream was re
vealed to him, so that when he told
it to the king, "Nebuchadnezzar fell
upon his face and worshipped Daniel,
and commanded that they should of
fer an oblatiou and sweet odours un
to him. Then the king made Daniel
a great man, and gave him many
great gifts, and made him ruler over
the whole province of Babylon, and
chief of the governors over all the
wise men of Babylon." Every body
knows the dream that Nebuchad
nezzar had as he slept that one night;
the dream, whose interpretation
made Daniel the second man in the
kingdom.
The dream itself does cot belong in
this review of a book of dreams, al
though the great image that Daniel
and the king saw is a powerful, true
-symbol of the stages of national
decay. "This image's head was of
fine gold, his breast and his arms of
silver, bis belly and his thighs of
brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of
iron and part of clay." It was a po
ntic, prophetic dream, and the sig
nificance and power of It impressed
the king when he awoke, even though
lie could not remember the image.
Mr. Quiller-Couch says that his
stories "are of 'revenants;' persons
who either in spirit or in body re
visit old scenes, return upon old
selves or old emotions, or relate a
message from a world beyond percep
tion." He has a literary style that is
charming in itself and by the curious
intuitions that have taught him the
substance of which all our dreams
are wrought he has madeafascinating
book. I feel king Nebuchadnezzar's
gratitude towards the revealer of
dreams. "Q" may yet sit in the gate
of the king and wear a silken robe,
the gift of someone to whom he has
revealed a quest long since abandoned
in despair; but robes, place and the
signet ring of Nebraska are said to be
in the gift of Senator Dietrich or of
bis "control," Mr. D. E. Thompson,
who has gone to Europe. And neith
er of these potentates care for litera
ture. We are possessed, 'all grown-up
people) by the spirit of the past. The
author who reveals the meaning of
our dreams to us, who recalls the love
ly past and makes it fairer still is
quite in the way of becoming our
favorite author. Du Maurier in
Peter Ibbetson began to attach the
sentimental dreamers of the world to
him but he is dead anc we are for
gettingso volatile is gratitude that
lie quickened our imagination and we
saw again the rain bow and heard the
birds again. "Q"' is less graphic than
Du Maurier. We do not see his
ponds and trees in such a clear light,
his skies are wetter and his atmos
phere requires sympathy to make it
real. "Q"' is more of a snob than the
beloved Du Maurier whose name I
never hear that 1 do not reverently
think "God rest him." "Q" keeps his
distance and we keep ours, patiently
waiting fur a little manifestation of
sociability. Bat his selection of an
initial for a nom-de-plume shows a
desire for a veiled personality, espec
ially in a time when it is the custom
for authors to sign three full names
and spell them out in every communi
cation to the public. "Q" is a Welsh
man bred, if not born. His stories
are laid in Wales and he is too mod
ern an author, his style is convincing
and his stories have too many open
air effects not to have been studied
for a scholarly season from life.
Welshmen have a coolness and sepa
rateness, a reserve that reminds one
of the New England form of self
possession. Such reserve is not with
out charm and challenge, but if per
sisted in "Q's" hauteur is likely to
reach the Henry James stage and
that is fatal to popularity. Thack
eray's confidential asides to the read
er are out of style, but the manner
flatters a people, each one of whom is
sure he could write a book or an epic
if he had time and opportunity.
Indignant Kansas.
Miss Willa Cather's story in the
New England Magazine for June,
called "El Dorado; A Kansas Reces
sional" is enraging the Kansas peo
ple as Mrs. Peattie's Nebraska stories
enraged us. if writers would tell
the truth about us, meaning Kansas
and Nebraska, nobody, not even the
largest real estate dealers in the two
states, would object, for the truth and
the whole truth would be a magnifi
cent advertisement of the resources
and wealth-producing capacity of
this region. A few nerveless settlers
who can talk longer than they will
plow, ascribe their scanty crops to
the soil, climate and to the trusts.
A story-writer who is looking for ma
terial is not difficult to convince of a
tragedy. Miss Gather, however, has
lived long enough in Nebraska to
learn the truth about this region.
Mrs. Peattie lived in Omaha, Miss
French lived in Iowa when they com
posed moving tales about arid, sun
dried plains that failed to raise a
crop oftener than once in five years.
Miss Cather's early home was in Red
Cloud, Nebraska. According to this
review in the Kansas City Journal, it
appears that she never visited the
spot of which she writes with her cus
tomary grace and picturesqueness.
"Of all the slanders designed to de
fame a region as fair as the Garden
of Eden this story in its descriptive
features is the worst ever. 'People,'
itfcays, 'who have been so unfortu
nate as to have traveled in western
Kansas will remember the Solomon
valley for its unique and peculiar
desolation. The hot winds and the
little river have been contending for
the empire of the valley for years,
and the river has had decidedly the
worst of it. Never having been a
notably ambitious stream, in time it
grew tired of giving its etrength to
moisten barren fields and corn that
never matured. Beyond the river
rose the bluffs, ragged, broken, cover
ed with ragged red grass and bare of
trees, save for a few stunted oaks that
grew'upon their steep sides. They
were pathetic little trees, .that sent
their roots down through thirty feet
of hard clay bluff to the river level.
They were as old as the first settlers
could remember, and yet no one could
assert that they had ever grown an
inch. They seldom, if ever, bore
acorns. The tilled fields were even
more discouraging to look upon than
the unbroken land. Although it was
late in the autumn, th2 corn was not
three feet high. The leaves were
seared and yellow, and as for tassels,
there were none. Nature always dis
penses with superfluous appendages;
and what use had Solomon valley for
corn tassels? Ears were only a tradi
tion there, fabulous fruits like the
golden apples of the Hesperides; and
many a brawny Hercules had died in
hi own sweat trying to obtain them.'
"Yet, after all, it will be difficult
for the people of the Solomon valley
to get angry with this historian or
topographer. His ignorance of the
valley or which he writes is so colos
sal that it is excused by the humor
which it cannot fail to suggest. His
idea that corn doesn't find it worth
while to tassel out in a region where
fields of this grain average fifteen
feet high and yield three to four ears
to the stalk, is so anachronistic as to
make one laugh, while one may search
in vain on the green or orown prair
ies for samples of that 'red grass.'
And his description of the pathetic
little oak trees which cannot bring
themselves to bearing acorns is all the
more touching lrom the fact that oak
trees do not grow at all along the Sol
omon bluffs in western Kansas. But
it is the psople or the Solomon valley
and the author for it. And here, by
the way, we are probably in error our
selves in using the masculine pro
noun, for the author is given the
name of Willa Sibert Catber indi
cating a woman, who, according to
the chivalrous code of western Kan
sas, cannot be killed and scalped."
The Dayton Strike
Trades unions have had in Dayton,
Ohio, the most favorable environ
ment for rational development. The
president of the National Cash Regis
ter company, Mr. John Patterson, is,
or was before this last strike of his
employes, in favor of labor unions.
The concessions which his employes
have thought fit to demand he has
invariably granted. To improve the
condition of its employes the com
paoy has annually expended two per
cent of the amount of the pay rolls.
About four years ago the company
voluntarily reduced the number of
working hours of all employes from
ten, to nine and one half hours, with
out reducing the pay. When the
twenty-seven molders quit work
they were receiving from four to four
and one half dollars a day, of nine
hours. Ihey were all working on
piece work and doing as much work
per day as the union allowed men to
finish. According to the rules of the
union to which the molders belong
ed they could not receive any more
per day nor do any more work. At
eleven o'clock on the morning of May
3rd, the molders' union demanded
that the N. C. P.. company reinstate
four men two of whom were discharg
ed last January because there was not
enough work in the factory to keep
tbem busy, and two were discharged
last April, one for excessive losses in
his product and one for using bad
language in the shop and for insubor
dination to the foreman of the shop.
The last two men were not dismissed
on the recommendation of the fore
man without a comprehensive inves
tigation conducted personally by the
president of the company. The de
mand for reinstatement was met by
an invitation to arbitration; the
molders to appoint two men, the com
pany two-men and the four to choose
one more. The molders ignored the
offer of arbitration and on two o'ch..
of the day on which they bad pr.
ferred their request at eleven, walkt I
out. Soon after the works shut dow i-.
Dayton. Ohio, has been the nioci-1
town. The example of the amity an J
good will existing between John H.
Patterson and his employes has bee i
written and talked about in even
recent discussion of factory labor
The Dayton door-yards have been
pictured in the magazines, the Day
ton cottages belonging to the Ca-ii
Register company's employes have
not been slighted by the magazine
and illustrated papers. Ameliorators
of all kinds have talked with a pa
thetic break in their voices about the
love between John Patterson and his
employes. It is hard to believe that
this perfect welding has at last crack
ed. Or it would be difficult to credit
it, were it not for the story of par
adise lost and the discontent of the
devil even in heaven. O everlasting
coincidence and repetition! the trou
ble in Dayton is the same as it was in
heaven. Lucifer was not dissatisfied
with the Lord's treatment of the
other angels although he made them
think that it was a noble concern for
them that induced him to leave heav
en. There was nothing wrong with
the hours of praise or with the instru
ments or supplies with which the
heavenly choir was furnished, for it
has been concluded that Satan's job
before the fall was chorister and first
tenor, but he objected to a subordi
nate place and to taking orders from
some one from aeon to aeon. Another
thing he could not endure was the
continual praise. And this latter ir
rigation has affected Dayton em
ployes. Even the first set of angels of heav
en revolted against authority. John
Patterson is suffering the reflex ac
tion of petting. Job was the first
victim to being quoted too often and
praised too much. He was the oc
casion of the devil's second revolt
against pets. And the Lord must
have recognized some justice in his
plea, for he delivered Job into his
power. Then there was Hobson and
at last Dewey, and even Teddy's day
may come. At any rate the hero of
San Juan is keeping still in these, the
days of his vice presidency. Ameri
cans are kings in their own right and
a too-prolonged elevation of one man
threatens the supremacy of each in
dividual and they begin casting about
for a pretext to dethrone him. John
Patterson was canonized before his
death, and some of bis employes tired
of the sight of his halo, and the song
of his virtues. Notwithstanding the
distance of Nebraska from Ohio, we
confess that we were tired of hearing
about the goodness and kindness of
John Patterson, too.
His beneficiaries dependent upon-y
him for their daily bread, decided to '
try his piety and patience even as the
devil tried Job. They were getting
discouraged in their attempt. He
yielded to every demand. To this
last one he offered arbitration, and
they walked out in triumph at last.
He has provided for his employes free
baths, free coffee, free reading rooms
and a library, free recreation of vari
ous kinds and, last great boon to the
women, a free laundry. The Ameri
can workman's good will is not to be
bought. Pullman tried to make all
his employes good and clean and tem
perate, in his model village which he
set out on a green prairie just as a
child sets his Noah's ark houses, ani
mals and people about on the carpet.
It nearly broke Mr. Pullman's heart
because his people wanted to arrange
their own dooryards, to have them
dirty and not nearly so nice, as his
plan. It is so in Dayton. The peo
ple feel that they are being used to
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