The C. L. S. C. on the Pacific Coast.
The following is a report of C. L. S. C. work on the Pacific coast, sent us by Miss Norton, the Secretary of the Pacific Branch. It contains so much information and inspiration that we publish it as an editorial. The growth of which it tells is marvelous; the enthusiasm it breathes is as sunny, vigorous, and fruitful as the fair land from which it comes. It is such broad views and high endeavor that are accomplishing the great results in our work. To know that far away ranches and lonely camps are finding growth, life, happiness in this work, ought to inspire every earnest heart to work, as our friends of the Pacific coast are doing, that “its influence may go out to needy sections where even school and church have failed.”
At the reunion held recently at the University of the Pacific, the following report was read by Miss Norton:
As San Jose contains the largest local circle on this coast, with a membership of about seventy-five, it seems fitting that our members should be made acquainted with a few facts respecting the general work of the society.
The Pacific Branch of the C. L. S. C. was organized under the name of the California Branch, four years ago, while Dr. Vincent was on this coast, and during these years about 1,500 members have been enrolled. We have representatives of this branch in Oregon, Washington Territory, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Mexico and the Island of Jamaica, and hope soon for a local circle on the Hawaiian Islands. During the present year 290 new members have been received thus far, and it is hoped that the number will exceed 300 before the close of the year. This is an excess of 100 over those received last year. The active local circles have also increased, and now number twenty-six, with two or three more to be heard from. Of these circles fifteen have been formed the present year. The progress of the work in the southern part of the State has been unusual, the largest circle of the State except that of San Jose, being at Riverside, with an enrollment of sixty members. The president of this circle, Dr. Whittier, is a graduate of the C. L. S. C., and a nephew of John G. Whittier, the poet. The secretary, Miss Alfaretta Wood, is an enthusiastic worker, and Riverside proposes to have the “largest circle in the United States,” so that San Jose will have to look well to her laurels.
Oakland sustains three active local circles with an aggregate membership of about sixty, and under the leadership of Dr. J. H. Wythe is doing excellent work.
Sacramento stands next in numbers, and has a most energetic and enthusiastic circle; Rev. I. H. Dwinell, D. D., Mrs. L. J. Nusbaum and Mrs. Brewer being the officers.
The largest of three circles in San Francisco is the “More Circle,” numbering twenty members and composed of young people.
In its beautiful work as well as its name it does honor to its first leader, Mrs Prof. More.
Ukiah has two local circles doing enthusiastic work.
In our smaller towns the C. L. S. C. often becomes the center of literary interest, representing a large proportion of the population, taking deeper root, and bearing better fruits than in our cities. But the richest rewards of the Secretary and other officers for much unrecognized toil, come from mining camps and lonely ranches, from mountain tops and deserts, and sick-rooms, where solitary students are cheered and uplifted by our C. L. S. C. To such it goes with benedictions, inspiring new hopes and noble aspirations. If, amid our crowding duties and interests, we of the San Jose Circle find but little room for individual work, or for the rich, intellectual feasts which are often spread for us at our monthly meetings, may we not gather courage to persevere, from the thought that this influence has gone forth to needy sections of our coast, where, in some instances, even the church and the school have not been organized. During the first year of its existence, the parent society received 8,000 members, and of this number 1,700 graduated last summer. During the first year of the Pacific Branch, under the wise and efficient leadership of its secretary, Miss L. M. Washburn, ably seconded by President Stratton and the executive committee, the first class numbered 700. Of this number about 100 are active members, or have paid their annual fees and ought to graduate the coming summer, if they have not fallen behind in their studies. All who hope to graduate should promptly report to Miss L. M. Washburn, Chairman of the Committee on Graduation. In closing, I would earnestly invite the ex-members to once more join hands with us, and help forward the work of the Pacific Branch, as it reaches out its helping hand to so many earnest students. Especially let us urge upon the citizens of San Jose, the duty of sustaining the work of this local circle, a work which we believe would be an honor to the literary centers of our Eastern States, or even to the “Hub of the Universe.” We hope that the coming assembly at Monterey will be the most interesting and largely attended of any yet held upon this coast, and that San Jose will be worthily represented on the occasion of the graduation of our first C. L. S. C. Class of 1883.
Trial by Jury.
The constitution of the United States guarantees that every American citizen shall have the privilege of having his cause tried and decided before a jury of twelve of his peers. For centuries this jury system has prevailed among the English. The framers of our constitution modeling their laws on the basis of English jurisprudence, incorporated it into our judicial system. Its purpose is to secure in every case a just and impartial verdict, and one that is in accordance with the evidence adduced in the progress of the trial.
It is the duty of every government to see that justice is meted out to all its citizens, that their rights are duly respected, and that the poor and weak among them are placed on at least civil equality with the rich and the powerful. Many centuries of trial has proven it to be the best means of securing these desirable results. The juror is supposed to take his place in the jury-box with his mind wholly unbiased with reference to the case to be tried. In many instances the jurors have never heard of the case which they are summoned to try. The parties in the suit are entire strangers to them, or at least are usually persons in whom they have no especial interest. Under such circumstances a jury of fair intelligence is pretty sure to bring in a righteous verdict.
But the matter of ignorance in reference to the case to be heard by the jurors may be, and of late in many instances has been, carried to an unreasonable extent. In many cases which are of public interest, and which are of sufficient importance to be discussed by the press, familiarity with what has been said is deemed sufficient to bar an individual from sitting as a juror during their trial. As a result of this it is often difficult to secure a jury in a case which has excited much comment, and which has been the subject of discussion by the press. The mere fact that a man has read newspaper accounts of events that have transpired, or even editorial comments upon them, does not necessarily disqualify him for being an impartial juror.
All intelligent men are to a greater or less extent readers of newspapers, and to hold that knowledge thus obtained disqualifies one for sitting as juror when the case is brought to trial, virtually excludes men of even ordinary intelligence from the jury-box, and, too, in those very cases where they are most needed in order to secure just and righteous verdicts. The legitimate fruits of the exclusion of the reading classes from sitting as jurors are such verdicts as that rendered recently by a Fayette County (Pa.) jury, in the Dukes trial, where, disregarding the charge of the judge,—the evidence set forth,—the opinion of an entire community,—the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty. The whole country was horrified and disheartened, that a man clearly guilty could under this system be cleared. Such outrages on right and justice are sure to result whenever ignorance takes the place of intelligence in the jury-box, and will sooner or later bring the whole matter of trial by jury into disrepute. It is not intelligence, but ignorance, prejudice, and partiality that should be excluded. The only question in this regard which a jury when impaneled should be expected to answer is whether, under their oaths, they can take their place on the jury and render an honest and impartial verdict.
There is another grave danger in this custom. Not only are the non-reading and ignorant classes disqualified for rendering a fair and intelligent verdict, but they are for the most part sadly deficient in principle and integrity, and hence are more readily corrupted, more easily bribed, and more likely to be influenced by designing lawyers than men of average intelligence and general information. The numerous acquittals of individuals adjudged guilty by the popular verdict, and in the very face of the evidence adduced, is proof positive that in such instances the twelve men in the jury-box are in no sense the custodians of the law or the mouthpiece of justice. If, for any reason, intelligence is ruled out of the jury-box, the jury system will cease to be regarded as a reliable instrument for the administration of justice.
Stevens’s Madame De Staël.
This book, the American edition of which was published in two handsome volumes by the Harpers, some little time ago, will perpetuate the fame of a woman of regal intellect and immense influence upon her times. In Byron’s judgment she was “the greatest woman in literature;” Macaulay called her “the greatest woman of her times;” and many others, whose opinions carry weight, could be quoted as giving her a foremost place among the worlds gifted women. The biography fills a want; for, while numerous pens have written of this woman, there has been before no adequate portrayal of her career. The author, Dr. Abel Stevens, whose reputation as a writer in history and biography is high and secure, has for some years been living in Switzerland, where he has enjoyed excellent facilities for the preparation of the work, “Madame De Staël, a Study of her Life and Times, the first Revolution and the first Empire.” The work is called, and in its completeness it will probably remain, the standard biography of this illustrious woman, and will need no successor. It shows great research and pains-taking, as well as a skilled literary hand. A complete, much-needed biography, it is more than this, it is a valuable history of that marvelous epoch in the annals of France. It is of great value for its sketches of other eminent persons, contemporaries of its subject, and for its intelligent narration of events as sensational as any ever witnessed upon the theater of Europe.
Madame De Staël lived from 1766 to 1817. Her full maiden name was Anne Louise Germaine Necker. Her father was the great Necker, for a time Minister from Geneva at the French court, and afterward the powerful French Minister of Finance. Her mother was the daughter of a Swiss pastor, and a woman of beautiful person and fine accomplishments, with whom, while Mademoiselle Curchod, the historian Gibbon fell in love, and for whom he always cherished a tender regard. The love of Madame De Staël for her father approached idolatry, but for her mother was much less ardent. She was an only child, and received a careful training and the highest advantages. She was born and died in Paris, and this was the place always where she loved best to live, though for many years, through the persecutions of Napoleon, she was an exile from France. As a child she was very precocious; a girl in her mother’s salon, she astonished the people by the brilliancy of her conversation; she very early tried her hand at writing, and showed marked literary gifts; when fifteen years old, she had the maturity which might be looked for in a young woman of twenty-five. At the age of twenty she became the wife of Baron De Staël. The baron was thirty-seven. It was a marriage of convenance, such as in France were customary, and on her part, at least, there was no love. For a number of years they lived apart, but she went to the baron in his last illness and remained with him until his death. When she was forty-five years old, she made a second marriage, with a young French officer, Rocca by name, twenty-two years her junior. Strange as it may seem, this was a true love-match, and the two, notwithstanding the disparity of age, lived together in great devotion and happiness until her death. The marriage was secret, and was known to but few persons in the life-time of Madame De Staël. Of three children, offspring of the first marriage, one was killed in a duel while the mother lived, and the others survived her and did her honor. A son was also born from the second marriage.
What eventful years were those for France in which this woman lived. If one with such a theme as our author can not make an interesting story, the fault surely is not with his subject-matter. Madame De Staël saw her father, whom she idolized, the idol of the French people; she saw him—and it was a proud time in her life—after the jealousy of rival ministers had brought about his retirement from the office of finance minister, recalled by the king, and welcomed back to his old position by such demonstrations of popular homage and devotion as have been accorded to but few; and later she saw him again seeking the retirement of his Swiss home execrated by the same fickle populace of France. She saw the downfall of Louis XVI. and deplored this ill-starred monarch’s fate, whose head was one of the trophies of the guillotine. She saw the First Revolution with its horrors, and ardent champion as she was for human freedom and popular rights, her heart was sickened at the spectacle. She saw the hero of Corsica arise from nothingness to be the terror of all Europe; the strides of his ambition she witnessed until he stood the first monarch of the world, with crowns in his hands as baubles to give away. She saw his “vaulting ambition o’erleap itself” at last, and the tide of his fortunes reversed; the exile of Elba and that of St. Helena passed before her view, and while she rejoiced to see Napoleon crushed, she sorrowed as a true French woman over the humiliation of France. She saw another Louis upon the French throne, and was his trusted adviser and friend. Napoleon she hated with all her soul. Acknowledging his consummate military genius, she loathed him as a monster of selfishness—a tyrant whose god was self. The emperor feared her pen in the cause of popular freedom, and after trying in vain to gain her support he showed in various ways his malice toward her. He banished her from France at length, and the story of her years of exile—bravely borne with all its hardships, though she could have escaped it by writing in praise of Napoleon—is very affecting. Dr. Stevens uses as the appropriate motto of his book the saying of Lamartine: “This woman was the last of the Romans under this Cæsar, who dared not destroy her, and could not abase her.”
And mighty was the influence of Madame De Staël upon her age. To say that it was equaled by that of no other woman is not to say enough. Kings and queens were her personal friends. With chief men and women in different lands—statesmen and warriors, persons distinguished in science and letters—her relations were intimate. They admired her, and bowed to her genius. In political affairs her influence was great, and in the world of letters she made an impression deep and abiding. As a writer, perhaps no woman of any time will be accorded equal rank with her, unless some would concede it to George Eliot and Mrs. Browning. Her best known works are “Delphine,” “Allemagne,” and “Corinne,” though others have had a wide reading and been much admired. The “Allemagne” produced a profound impression. Great as this woman was as a writer, some have freely said she was greater as a conversationalist. With wonderful brilliancy she shone in the salon. Her own salon in Paris would be thronged by distinguished men and women, and the great attraction was herself. She would dazzle with her eloquence, as she discussed various questions, some of them deep questions of philosophy and religion. Her love of society was a passion. Her power of affection was mighty, and her attachment to her friends most strong. When the light of her life was quenched at the comparatively early age of fifty-one, the number was large who mourned, not simply for a rare woman of genius lost to the world, but for a friend, true, sympathetic, loving, whose place could not be filled. More than one have said of her that she was a man in intellect—though we do not make the remark our own—but it is certain she was a woman in heart. Let our readers turn to the new and best record of her life, which Dr. Stevens has given us, and find delight from its perusal.
The Educational Problem.
One of the gravest matters claiming the attention of the American people to-day is indicated by the above heading. It is a truism that popular education is a prerequisite to the success of popular government. We may be said, as a nation, to have done grand things already in the way of the education of the people. Nearly fifty years ago there was a wonderful awakening to the importance of this matter. The people must be educated, was the thought which took possession of the soul of Horace Mann, and his beneficent work has lived and grown. Our common school system was set in operation. It has become our pride and boast. In a way very gratifying we have seen the cause of education advancing in our land. Compulsory education in late years has been introduced to some extent.
At the present time, however, we are confronted with facts of a nature to excite alarm. The late census shows a condition of things in popular education in America over which it is impossible for citizens to feel self-complacent. These facts have been set forth in a most impressive manner by General Eaton, National Commissioner of Education, and by Senator Blair, of New Hampshire, whose speech in the United States Senate last summer on “Aid to Common Schools” has attracted much attention. Some of the things we have to consider are as follows: In a population of fifty millions in the United States, five millions of people over ten years of age can neither read nor write; six and a quarter millions can not write. There are two million of illiterate voters here, in a total of ten millions. The number of illiterate voters in the last presidential election was large enough to reverse the result in all of the States but five. In illiteracy the North of course does not approach the States of the South. In the latter there are, in round numbers, five and a half millions of persons over ten years of age unable to write, the number of white illiterates being to the colored in the proportion of two to three. Nearly one-third of all the voters in the South are illiterate, and more than two-thirds of the colored voters. But with regard to the States of the North, the showing is far from being what we could desire. From a recent report to the Massachusetts Legislature, by Hon. Carroll D. Wright, it appears that in this State even—the State of Horace Mann, and the vanguard always in the cause of education—there are nearly seventy-five thousand persons more than ten years of age, in an entire population of less than two millions, who can not read. These are startling facts, and the alarming truth is, that illiteracy in our land, instead of diminishing, is on the increase. Ex-President Hayes, in his address at Cleveland in October last, made this statement: “In more than one-third of the Union the ignorant voters are almost one-third of the total number of voters.” And the number of the illiterate voters is growing larger. It was swelled in the South, in the decade from 1870 to 1880, by nearly two hundred thousand. In the country at large the number of children not attending school is increasing at a rate which, it is affirmed, if it continues, will in ten years make the aggregate of children of school age outside of school larger than of those within.
Surely, in view of these things, one of the greatest problems before this nation is the educational problem. As a national safeguard the people must be educated. If this mass of ignorance continues an element of our population, and if it goes on increasing, how can we hope for the perpetuity and prosperity of this “government of the people, for the people, and by the people?” There must be compulsory education. The different States must adopt the principle, and enforce it. It is not strange that our statesmen are turning their thoughts to the great question of national aid to education. Hitherto the national government has done but little in providing ways and means for the education of the people. It has been left for the several States to look to the educating of their citizens. But it can hardly be doubted that the time has fully come when the nation on a grand scale should provide for this cause of such vital moment—popular education. We are very ready to agree with General Eaton, when we consider the astounding statistics he adduces, in the judgment that none of the measures proposed by statesmen thus far are sufficiently large and liberal in their devising. Enormous is the work to be done, and vast is the expenditure of money needed. But whatever the nation expends to elevate her people and fit them for citizenship is an investment for her own safety, and is well expended. Joseph Cook, in the prelude to one of his lectures, dwells upon such facts as we have cited. He affirms that America is doing less for the education of her people, in proportion to her wealth, than certain European nations. We fear that what he says is true: “Instead of being, as a whole, at the front of the educational advance of civilization, our proud nation is gradually dropping into a laggard place.” Let us trust the time will come in the near future when this can not be truthfully said; and while we may regret the delay of needful national action, let us honor individuals who are giving so nobly to make ignorance less in our land. If the generous scheme of Mr. Slater for the good of the benighted millions of the South were to be duplicated by other millionaires, how grand the results might be.
[EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.]
The Chautauqua University is the latest development of the Chautauqua Idea. It has been incubating for ten years, and just as we come near the tenth session of the Chautauqua Assembly the New York Legislature passes an act granting a charter for the new University. Dr. Vincent says that hereafter it will be the “C. L. S. C. of the Chautauqua University.”
Dynamite has excited the fears of people in London. Dennis Deasy, who carried a box containing explosives and infernal machines, and a railway porter named Patrick Flanagan, supposed to be his accomplice, were arrested in April in Liverpool. At Flanagan’s lodgings were found a number of explosives and a false beard, besides a revolver and other equipments for doing mischief to life and property in London. The most interesting evidence given during the examination was that of expert scientific witnesses, who testified that the explosive material in question was known as “lignine dynamite,” an article that could not by any possibility be connected with commercial or business transactions, and which was not made for any legitimate purpose.
A number of gentlemen who have recently come here from Europe, and most of them from England, have determined to buy land for grazing purposes in Virginia. It seems strange that Americans go to the far West to invest in great farms, and thus locate their herds of cattle thousands of miles from the sea coast, while in the Eastern States, near to markets at home and abroad, may be found hundreds of thousands of acres of lands good for nothing else but grazing.
The first reunion of the Christian and Sanitary Commissions was held at Chautauqua several years ago, amid a blaze of enthusiasm. This year, from July 22 to 24, they will meet at Ocean Grove, in New Jersey. The chaplains of the Federal and Confederate armies will meet with them. Mr. George H. Stuart, president, and the Rev. John O. Foster, of Waterman, Ill., secretary, issue the call.
Joseph Cook has closed his Monday lectures in Boston for the season.
The Postmaster General, Timothy O. Howe, died within the past month. This is the first death of a Cabinet officer since 1869. General Howe served as a judge, in Congress, and in the Cabinet. He was a warm friend and admirer of General Grant. He did not support civil service reform. His name was never connected with frauds or scandals during his public life. Judge Walter Q. Gresham, of Indiana, has been appointed to fill the vacancy in the Cabinet. His record as a soldier, citizen and judge has been of the best, and those who know him say that he will be one of the strongest among the President’s secretaries.
Arrangements are being made to institute a Musical Reading Circle, in connection with the Chautauqua movement, which shall be to musical literature what the C. L. S. C. is to general literature. The plan is being wrought out by Prof. E. E. Ayres, of Richmond, Va., and when the details are perfected they will be duly announced. Any inquiries or suggestions concerning this matter may be addressed to Prof. Ayres. Other musical attractions are in contemplation which will be announced in the July number of The Assembly Herald.
The Rev. D. H. Wheeler, D.D., LL.D., of New York, was elected president of Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pa., on the 4th day of April. This action on the part of the authorities will bring into this section a gentleman who has reached a high position as an educator and a religious journalist. In the Northwestern University, at Evanston, Ill., he distinguished himself by his abilities as a teacher, writer, and preacher. He served for five years under President Grant’s administration as United States Consul at Florence, Italy. More recently he made a brilliant periodical of The Methodist, in New York, which, though it died, went down with its colors flying, and because no editor could keep it alive. Dr. Wheeler is a local preacher, and not in the regular order of the ministry. We congratulate the friends of Allegheny College on his election, and predict that under his administration the college will have a new lease of life and be favored with renewed prosperity.
The Longfellow Memorial Association of Cambridge, Mass., has received a letter from Mr. Bennock, in London, which says that all the preliminaries for placing a bust in Westminster Abbey are now arranged, sufficient capital having been subscribed, the sculptor engaged, and the position for the bust selected. The latter is a column standing between the memorial niche of Chaucer and the Independent bust of Dryden, with a full and uninterrupted stream of light falling on the position, so that the bust will occupy a central and conspicuous place in the poet’s corner.
The old school of statesmen are represented at Washington by Senators John Sherman, of Ohio, Anthony, of Rhode Island, and Bayard, of Delaware. Of the more recent and vigorous school since President Garfield’s death, are ex-Senators Blaine, Windom, and Kirkwood, with ex-Senator Conkling, who have retired to private life, while Senator Edmunds is still recognized as a leader in the Senate. A new generation of statesmen is gradually appearing—President Arthur, Secretary W. E. Chandler, Robert Lincoln, Frank Hatton, and others, no one of whom has been tried except in routine duties. The new administration is one of peace and quiet, but it is not vigorous on lines of reform.
President Arthur made a trip to Florida in April. This is the first journey of any extent he has made from Washington since his inauguration, and he is the first President who has visited the Southern States so long and so extensively since the war.
The trial of the Phœnix Park murderers, in Dublin, commenced April 9. The dynamite criminals in London will be tried before a jury, perhaps before these lines go out from the press, while in Washington the Star Route trial drags its length along as a trial to patience, and for the humiliation of every true American citizen.
The Committee on Public Education in the New York Legislature, led by Mr. Abel Goddard, made a report on a “Dime Novel Bill,” recently, in these words: “Any person who shall sell, loan, or give to any minor under sixteen years of age, any dime novel or book of fiction, without first obtaining the written consent of the parent or guardian of such minor, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment or by a fine not to exceed fifty dollars.” Objection is made to this bill, that it is indefinite, in that it fails to explain what a dime novel is, and that we can not deal by legislation with the injurious influences of any form of literature. In reply, it may be said, there are more than forty thousand miles of railway in this country from which the sale of certain pernicious publications are excluded. Mr. Anthony Comstock and his co-laborers have been explaining for several years what the “dime novel” is, and how injurious it has been to boy and girl readers. This bill is a new ray of light on a dark subject.
Karl Marx, the father of modern socialism, has recently died. He was a former correspondent of the New York Tribune, and the author of “Capital.” He has been expelled from half the countries of Europe, and proscribed in nearly all of them. The fruit of the seeds he has sown can not now be told.
The motto of M. De Lesseps seems to be—excavate. After giving us the Suez Canal and beginning a scheme for linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, he tells us that Sahara shall cease to be a burning waste, and be made to furnish vapors and cooling winds; that the desert shall become a sea. The project is not a new one, but has presented such monstrous obstacles that no one but engineers of the wildest imagination have contemplated it seriously. M. De Lesseps announces that, let him have one hundred machines of a power equal to one hundred thousand men, and the work shall be accomplished. The scheme will be discouraged. M. De Lesseps’s trip to Tunis has already been called “a fool’s errand,” but when we see the mountain tunnelled, the continents joined, the oceans about to join hands, it is best to consider before we say that any project is impossible, especially when M. De Lesseps is the engineer.
Apropos of the Panama Canal, the work is begun; ten thousand men are there, and out of these but a few are sick, thus largely disarming the statement that men can not work there. It need not be feared that the international squabbling will in any way interfere with the canal company’s work. The son of De Lesseps recently stated in an interview that that canal company was simply a business firm, and was there to dig the canal—all other questions were for the nations to settle.
As wise and true a policy as has been advanced on the Irish question, is contained in a remark by Lady Frederick Cavendish, whose husband was murdered at Dublin. She says: “I pray that neither the unspeakable greatness of my sorrow nor the terrible wickedness of these men, may blind either myself or any of the English people to the duty of patience, justice, and sympathy, in thoughts, words, and deeds, with regard to Ireland and its people at large.”
The greatest achievement of the telephone is talking over the six hundred and fifty miles between New York and Cleveland. To make the test complete, it was asked in New York that something be read in Cleveland from the Herald of that morning. Several items were read and written down at the New York end of the line. A day or two following, on receipt of the Cleveland paper, the items were compared and found to correspond exactly. The wire used on this line is of recent invention, composed of steel and copper, and remarkable for its conductivity. This great enterprise has been accomplished by the Postal Telegraph Company, who are finishing a line from Cleveland to Chicago. By the time The Chautauquan for June is issued, New York will probably be able to talk to Chicago—one thousand miles distant.
The great statue of Liberty is affording the committee some trouble. They have eighty thousand dollars with which to commence the erection of the pedestal, but no engineer has been found willing to undertake the work. The statue weighs about eighty tons, and presents an enormous surface to the wind, while its pedestal is not large. How to secure it becomes a problem. The American Architect gives a method used in Japan for securing the light pagoda towers. A pendulum is hung from the top of the tower, and reaches nearly to the floor. This method was used by Sir Christopher Wren in securing the spire of Salisbury Cathedral, a heavy wooden framework being suspended, free to swing in any direction. The Architect advises a trial of this plan for the statue.
Julian Hawthorne has recently given us three inscriptions for the modern novelists. They will be useful to many others. Here they are: “Be cultured. Be cultured, ever more be cultured. Be not too cultured.”
The Vanderbilt ball is said to have cost twice the amount that the city of Moscow has devoted to the coronation of the czar. It is not pleasant to reflect that the most prominent feature in American social life is extravagance. “Extravagance” and “folly” would have been proper words inscribed over the Vanderbilt doorways that night.
In July the new postal order will take the place of the expensive and inconvenient money order, while in September we will be allowed to send a letter for two cents which now costs us three.
Perhaps no recent story has caused more comment among the young than Mrs. Burnett’s “Through One Administration,” recently finished in The Century. The story follows the modern plan of leaving hero and heroine in a hopeless, helpless state, and to all appearances perpetually so. There can be no question about both the artistic and moral value of such a finale. It is inartistic because unfinished; immoral in influence because it leaves the impression that the great end of life is human love, and that lost, all is lost. We contend that the story is incomplete. The whole plan of life, the teaching of individual and national history, is that one thing taken from life another will be found to fill the want. To teach through the medium of the novel, and especially a novel so well written and captivating as Mrs. Burnett’s always are, that the end is misery, is a wrong to the young, and an argument against the school of novelists to which this writer belongs.
Peter Cooper died in New York City on the 4th of April, in his ninety-third year. Not since the death of Lincoln has the city witnessed such general mourning. He has been a man of great business ability, of mechanical skill, of the broadest philanthropy. His business transactions have been marked by the strictest integrity, his philanthropy by unostentation. The greatest work of his life has been the Cooper Union, where, free of cost, the poor may obtain instruction in industrial arts. To this great institution he gave $1,592,192, and quite as important, the best thought and plans of his teeming brain. One can only appreciate the wide-spread benefit of the Union when they know that 40,000 men and women have been fitted there for lives of usefulness, and free of cost. His life and character were above reproach, and present a type of what an American man should be,—energetic and successful, yet simple, kindly, and noble.
The late Gustave Doré frequently compared his head to “a witch’s cauldron, always boiling and shooting up blue flames.” Anybody who studies his illustrations of “Dante’s Inferno,” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” will be likely to agree with him, yet he was the great genius among artists of his times.
John G. Whittier says that he is still one of those who hope that the dreadful evil of intemperance may be checked, and finally abolished, by legislative action. He believes in the right and duty of the community to protect itself by legal enactments, whenever there is a public sentiment strong enough to enforce the prohibition of the liquor traffic. “I despair of any direct assistance from politicians,” he writes, “but the great majority of the individuals composing these parties have a moral sense that may be awakened into action by precept and example.” Looking at the drinking habits of New Englanders sixty years ago, and at the general temperance among them at the present day, he sees reason for the greatest encouragement.
The following items belong to Dr. Vincent’s page, C. L. S. C. Work, but were received too late for insertion in their proper place:
“We notice in the spelling of many Greek names of our history, ei where i was formerly used. We do not know the proper pronunciation.” Prof. T. T. Timayenis replies to the above as follows: “Names spelled with ei are pronounced as English i in kite. Those spelled with i are generally pronounced as English i in the word in.”
The memorial days for May are Addison’s Day, May 1; Special Sunday, May 13.
The studies for May are Evangeline, by Longfellow; English, Russian, Scandinavian, and religious history and literature, with readings in Physiology, in The Chautauquan.
[EDITOR’S TABLE.]
Q. How long was the Long Parliament?
A. From October, 1640, to April, 1653.
Q. Which is the oldest town in the United States?
A. St. Augustine is said to be the oldest town. A fort was built there in 1565. It is not known when Santa Fé was settled by the Spaniards, though they visited it in 1542, and the town was then a populous Indian pueblo; but the actual settlement was not made until some time later.
Q. What is the exact area in square miles of Europe?
A. 3,733,008 square miles.
Q. Were the Kimmerian Kelts mentioned in History of Russia for October the same as the Celts mentioned by Prof. Sherman?
A. The latter tribe were of the Aryan race, and settled England and parts of the continent. The origin of the Kimmerians has never been decided. For further information see the authority given by Mrs. Robinson.
Q. Who is the author of the German Reader and Grammar used by Prof. Worman?
A. Prof. Worman is the author. Information concerning text-books can be best obtained from him—Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Q. What is the period of the moon’s revolution?
A. Her mean sidereal revolution is accomplished in 27.32 days; the synodical revolution, or lunar month, in 29.53 days.
Q. What legend or story has fastened the scallop, or cockle-shell, as an accessory to the pilgrim’s dress, and made it an emblem of St. James?
A. Pilgrims formerly went in great numbers to the tomb of St. James, at Compostella, in Spain. They were often poorly provided with utensils, and, as the adjacent sea shore was covered with the scallop-shell, they gathered them to use as spoons, cups, saucers, etc. Naturally, upon their return, they carried the shell as a relic, often fastening it in their hats; and thus it became part of a pilgrim’s outfit, and the token of St. James.
Q. What is the best work on Florida?
A. A good work is “Florida: Its History, Growth, Condition, and Resources,” by S. A. Drake. Published by Messrs. Little, Brown & Co., Boston, Mass.
Q. What is the origin of St. Valentine’s Day?
A. It is said by some that St. Valentine was so lovable a man that the custom of choosing valentines upon his festival took its rise from his character. Others derive the custom from a Roman fashion of placing the names of young women in a box, from which they were taken by the youth, by chance. This always was done during the festival of the Lupercal, in February, and afterward the day fixed was the 14th of February. This account declares the connection of the day with St. Valentine to be accidental.
Q. What is the meaning of the word fjord?
A. It is a Scandinavian word for arm of the sea—the bays or inlets extending into the land from the sea.
Q. Who was Froebel?
A. A German educator: born 1782, died 1852. The inventor of the kindergarten.
Q. Pronounce Cœur-de-Lion; Hengist.
A. Kur-de-Lī´on; Hĕng´gĭst.
Q. Correct the sentence, “The crafty king asked time to consider of it.”
A. The crafty king asked time to consider the request.
Q. In the sentence, “If it is time,” is the verb correct for subjunctive mood?
A. It is not. If subjunctive, the sentence should read, “If it be time.”
Q. Are the “Golden Fleece” and “Gideon’s Fleece” identical?
A. They are not. The Golden Fleece is said to have been taken from a ram which Phryxos sacrificed to Zeus, in Colchis. The fleece was given to the King of Colchis, and afterward stolen by Jason.
Q. How came Greek to be the language of the New Testament?
A. At the time the New Testament was written, Hellenistic Greek was used by most Jews, owing largely to the number of Greek cities in Palestine. It was the language of Christ and the disciples, and, naturally, the language of the disciples’ writings.
Q. What brought out the difference of the Greek language that existed at the time of Christ’s advent?
A. We suppose the question to mean what caused the difference between the Greek of the New Testament and classic Greek. As spoken by the Jews, Greek was modified by Syro-Chaldaic, which had been spoken by them since the Babylonish captivity. The changes were in orthography, the spelling of words, introduction of new words, and in rare and novel construction.
Q. Who are the Roumanian peasants?
A. The peasants of Roumania—a country consisting of the Danubian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. The country contains about 200,000 gypsies who constitute a large part of the peasantry.
Q. What are the epic poems of the different countries?
A. Greece, “The Iliad;” Rome, “The Æneid;” Italy, Tasso’s “Jerusalem;” England, “Paradise Lost.” The above are recognized as the chief epic poems.
Q. What is an agnostic?
A. One who professes to know nothing absolutely, neither asserts nor denies; especially those who neither affirm nor deny the existence of Deity.
Q. How much larger is the earth around the equator than around the poles?
A. The equatorial diameter is 7,926 miles; the polar diameter is 7,898 miles.