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About The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1901)
THE COURIER v " 17'"- X. lafef- . -- is - t " ; s i-" I- , snobbery though his opinion and practice in regard to the relation of gentility to ability, and promotion therefor, is responsible for much of the popular dislike of Sampson, -and the popularity of Schley. The latter is good natured and modest where the former is stiff, pompous and ex acting. As for ability, the unanimity of naval opinion in favor of Sampson is probably trustworthy and capable. Alfred the Great Of all the kings of the West Saxons only Alfred the Great's name is well known to this century. A scholar, a statesman and a great general, Alfred is respected by students of his life as one of the great and moving forces in the development of institutions. His life and deeds are bidden by the veil of a thousand years. He ruled a small kingdom not larger than Lan caster county, Nebraska. The leg ends which have grown around his name and the reverence with which the English people and their descend ants look back to him and the size and importance of the British Em pi re make bis place in real history and influence out of proportion to the actual size of the territory which he saved from Danish usurpation. It is only another instance of the fact tbat a Ban's reputation and bis influence upon bis generation and succeeding ones depend not so much upon tLe size of the kingdom he saved as upon the difficulties and obstacles he con quered. If the independence of the United States had been easy toa chleve, ir there bad been no Valley Forge, no half-naked soldiers making forced marches with bleeding feet, if there bad been no cabals against -Seorge Washington, if he bad had oooey enough to equip perfectly a Mgnificent army, if a united and powerful people bad placed him at the bead of their army, he would not have been called the "Father of his Country." The heroic qualities which enabled him to make a nation out of a few settlers who bad made up their minds to remain Englishmen aod to pay allegiance only to an Eng lish king were only revealed to his countrymen and to reverent genera tions by the obstacles which he over came and which only a man of heroic build and a prophet's love and zeal and patriotism could conquer. Who but scholars know anything about Alfred's predecessors? In read ing the story of his most interesting life, a life whose influence has out lasted that of men born a thousand years later to much larger kingdoms, I find that Ina, a kinsman of King Caedwalla, caused the laws of his peo ple to be collected, and it was this compilation tbat Alfred revised about two hundred jears afterward. But in King Ecbert, King Etbelbald, King Ethelwulf, as well as the kings who succeeded Albert, we have only a mod erate, easily satisfied interest. Doctor Pauli in his history of Al fred the Great says: "In the history of the world there is one of ten-recurring fact, viz, the saviour of a whole kingdom and the repeller ot its foreign conquerors has sprung from some remote province left rude by nature, and uncultivated access. From the unimportant mountain ridge of Asturia, Felayo, the last off. shoot ot the Goths, and the wonder accompanied hero of Spain, took the first step towards the expulsion of Moors from the Peninsula. From the eastern borders of Prussia resounded the first call to arms which had for its result the driving of Napoleon's army from Germany. It is a beauti ful trait in the character of a valiant nation when after centuries have elapsed it holds in grateful remem brance the spot whence its salvation from great danger once proceeded and which must be to it as the cradle of its freedom. And thus to this day when Alfred, bis sufferings and bis deeds are the themes of conversation, the Englishman points out with pride to the stranger the low lands of Som erset." Id the marshes of Somerset Alfred bid for months subsisting on the scanty nuts, berries and succulent roots of that section of England. The wives and children of the little band that remained faithful to him bid themselves in the thickets and some times for the crying of the helpless ones for food, Alfred and his band made a foray on the surrounding country. An outlaw in his own kingdom, Al fred resolved to win it back from tbe Danes. For this purpose he and his followers built a fortress at Atbnel ney, near Somerset. This island is east of the Parrot at the point where it joins the river Thone and consists of an eminence rising high above tbe surrounding country. The place is always damp and frequently over flowed by tbe tide. Owing to its dif ficulty of access the spot required little labor from human hands to make it impregnable. The choosing of ft natural place of vantage is one of the "qualities of a great general. Alfred remained here for some time. He made successful skirmishes into his kingdom occupied by the Danes. Every successful assault on the enemy resulted in accessions to his own forces. As soon as he bad thus col lected an army he assaulted the Dan ish army at Atheldune, and gained an overwhelming victory, of course. This was followed by the capture of the principal Danish fortress and the capitulation of the Danish King Guthorm. who in a few days re nounced bis pagan worship of Woden and was baptized into tbe Christian religion, with Alfred as his god father and bearing tbe new name ot Athelstan. Tbe convert agreed to take himself, the remainder of his army and his family out of Wessex and become Albert's inoffensive neighbor. There is nothing harder to regain than a throne once lost. A king whose only retreat is a marsh, whose people are agricultural rather than warlike, whose throne is occupied by a viking whose only profession and pride and reputation is in fighting, a king without an army, without funds, a ragged, hungry king, must have all the qualities of greatness in order to inspire tbe farmers to fight and to believe in their fugitive leader. All this Alfred accomplished, and laid the foundations of England in that; little west Saxon kingdom. In making new laws for his king dom Alfred adapted the new to the old. He was not a reckless innovator, but in all cases kept whatever part of tbe old law tbe people themselves had not outgrown and discarded. In scholarship he was as modern as the brothers Grimm. The old songs acd tales his mother had told him in his childhood be wrote down and pre served. "Alfred was a German, and the influence," says Pauli, "of his de scent was strong. Those powerful German songs which the boy had re ceived as a lasting gift from his be loved mother, often rang in his ears. The youth, passionately following tbe chas2, rejoiced in the gigantic images of his traditionary ancestors, of whom poets sung in all lands from the Dan ube to the Rhine, from the Appenines to his own island; the king in the most troubled hours of his sovereign ty strengthened and confirmed his anxious heart by the examples of pa tient endurance which this poetry revealed to him and caused his own and bis people's children to learn the poetry of their ancestors." Alfred's was not so much a creative genius as an appreciating -.and pre serving one. He translated and col lated and assisted the monks in their efforts to preserve the history and literature of the people. He was without conceit and he desired only to preserve for his people and to translate for their quicker apprecia tion the most valuable works there tofore concealed from them in Latin, His was a temperament and an in spiration like McKinley's: constructive and able to avail itself of all knowl edge and wisdom- collected by tbe men of his time or by tbe ancients. J Jt The Portion of Labor. Miss Wilkins' serial story now ap pearing in Harper's Monthly is the most sympathetic and tbe least one sided presentation of tbe side of labor, not against capital but against our system, that I have yet seen. After all Whistler and tbe rest of the new est artists can say against making a picture too real, their strictures-can not lessen the admiration of tbe artis try which can produce such real people with such real griefs. Miss Wilkins' old factory worker, discharged be cause his fingers are stiffened by middle-age and can no longer move rap idly enough to produce the establish ed percent of profit for the manu facturer, is tbe most pathetic, the most moving figure In contemporary literature. Honest, industrious, sober and devoted to his family, of average capacity and of unusual faithfulness, still the man loses bis job and can get no other because Le is too near the border of tbat time where the grass hopper is a burden. This spectacle of the man who is not old but who -has. lost the facility and elasticity of youth without firmly establishing himself in some business where the prevailing preference for youth is in effectual, is a frequent and saddening spectacle. If employers only knew it tbe elder man is more likely to be valuable than tbe younger one. True the former is not so quickly respon sive to new situations, but be has bad large experience of the various com binations which produce difficulties, and be is not so likely to make ir reparable mistakes as tbe younger man. Perhaps not over clever or self confident, he has laid by in tbe course of forty years' generalizations of established value. Such a man is like an old country doctor of originally slight acumen. Modestly and con scientiously keeping track of physi ological phenomena for half a cen tury be is at last ot great value to his patients just at tbe time when be is scornfully dismissed for being too old to keep up appearances. The manufacturer who dismisses an old hand because his fingers are no longer supple loses sight of the recklessness so often inherent in youthful fingers, and he also forgets the profit he has made for so many years from the work of tbe same fingers. Miss Wilkins' shoe manufacturer has no modern notions of the respon sibilities of an employer to bis men. He regards them as machines and when one gets a little worn he is dis carded as if he were a thing of cogs, bars and straps. There is no mu tualness or reciprocity in his rela tions with his employes. He con siders that his obligations are en tirely discharged by the wages. In the young man, his nephew, the lover of the story, there Is a dawning con sciousness of responsibility, of some thing besides services and wages. Tbe heroine is a New England girl with the usual conviction that If she does her duty and repels all forms of temptation, tbe world is certain t. e better perceptibly. But even tins small touch of levity is unworthy Miss Wilkins' heroine, who is a sub limated maiden; beautiful in body and soul and with the extra tine in dependence of the New England workman's child. The account of the moment when the daughter discovers tbat her fat her has lost his job acd has been tbe rounds of the other man ufacturers and cannot get another on account of his age, and that he lias also lost his bank savings speculat ing in mines, is drawn with splendid dramatic power. Mr. Howells asseverates that Amer icans are over-fond of dramatic scenes and tbat true novelists, like himself and Mr. Henry James, no longer se lect newspaper moments for descript ion, although it is admitted that they are more interesting. Miss Wil kins has not lost her liking for crises and scenes and may it be a long day before she does. Mr. James has a strictly psychological tragedy in the same number of Harper's that for futilitv, mystery and far removal from anything of interest to his coun trymen in America and to the mom ent is in striking contrast with Miss Wilkins' story. J Jt The Solitude Cure. Doctor Dedrick of the Peary Re lief Expedition preferred to be put ashore at Etab, an Eskimo tillage of .one ice but, rather than return in the steamer in company be detested to tbe United States, warmth, comfort and family. Tbe officers of the ship report that Doctor Dedrick took his gun and went ashore saying tbat he was going to bunt. When the steam er was about to start, tbe Doctor told those who cameashore for him that be was going to stay all winter and that they could not get him on the boat again except by main force. As he was well armed and appeared to be' desperate they thought best to let him alone. This, is only an extreme instance of what often happens in expeditions. The human animal is gregarious, but when a number of men are confined in a ship for months it is likely that one or more not entirely devoted to tbe object of the expedition will be willing to adopt any expedient, short of murder or suicide, to rid himself of his shipmates. Small companies of friends frequently go on hunting, camping or sightseeing expeditions: they start hilariously with every demonstration of abiding friendliness and trust. When they return some members of the party believe that their eyes have been opened and they never resume tbe relations which may have continued unbroken ft r vpnra hAfrtrA t.fiAV woro nnnfinprl In each other's company for a term of Y months, weeks or days. The most restoring tonic to the nerves is soli tude, more medicinal than mountains, ocean or springs, solitude is a cure which nearly every one can try. With several thousand nerves more delicately adjusted than the strintrs and stops of the finest instrument, ." are played upon by ignorant peform ers, for long intervals without tun ning. People who have been played till every note flats plan an expedi tion for rest and tuning in company with other instruments badly out of repair. They return tired and niK anthroptc but still unconscious of the tonic power of solitude, and the risk? of constant association with a group. There have been a few monks and devotes to religion or science wh' could seclude themselves and see with equanimity the same individuals dav after day. But the monks had cel. in which it was their duty and prh- $.zrz? -jrz3C3:'n-r-'va Xi&MMktsi