Part 19

General Gordon’s proclamation of freedom for slave-holding and slave-dealing in the Soudan has created a great surprise. It is even suggested that his religious enthusiasm has toppled over into insanity. Perhaps we can not hope to understand the case. But we need not misunderstand the facts. Slavery was never practically abolished in that country. Even in Egypt it continues to exist. General Gordon has not reëstablished slavery. Starting from that fact, we may easily reach the inference that the heroic and simple-minded Gordon has merely done away with one of the pretexts by means of which corrupt Egyptian officials plundered the natives. Slavery can not be abolished by slave-traders, and their ways of enforcing any law which naturally renders it odious and despicable.

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John Ruskin is not always exactly level with common sense, but perhaps he is nearly right in saying “Never buy a copy of a picture. It is never a true copy.” It would probably be much wiser in people who pay considerable sums for copies of old paintings if they spent their money upon inferior original works by living artists. We have come to a place where the tide should turn in favor of our own young artists; and we believe the turn in the tide is not far ahead.

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The weather prophets have let us alone this winter. But on the Pacific coast a sidewalk philosopher has tried to explain the cold weather of the sunset slope. He says that an earthquake off the coast of Japan has filled up the Straits of Sunda, and so diverted the warm current that should flow to the coast of Oregon. This is an improvement upon the last prophet, who regulated the weather astrologically—by studying the positions of the stars. The new man comes back to the earth and is chiefly at fault in his facts. We welcome him in the room of the astrologer of last year.

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“Ruined by speculation.” They have to keep that “head” standing in the newspaper offices. The last case which has fallen under eye is that of a bank in Philadelphia, whose manager speculated in tin. When a bank fails, or a trustee betrays a trust, we always ask: “What did he speculate in?” The story is trite. We know of nothing better to write than the laconic advice of General Clinton B. Fisk: “DON’T!”

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Sir James Caird was part of a commission to study the causes of the great famine in India in 1876-7, and has written a book on the subject. The trouble of course is that the farmers are poor, their methods bad, and that population keeps ahead of the food supply. One mode of relief is emigration. This reminds us that Charles Kingsley, who studied the Hindoo laborers in the West Indies, wrote very enthusiastically of their qualities. Will the Hindoos come into our own South, and what will come of it? In the West Indies, Kingsley says that negro and Hindoo lived and worked together peacefully. We may not like it, but that side of the world is top-heavy with humanity, and steam will go on distributing the people among the less crowded nations.

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What is money worth in this country? The discussions at Washington, and the prices of government bonds, seem to show that it is worth between two and three per cent., and there is not much doubt that a hundred-year government bond bearing only two per cent. would sell at par. An incident in New York City confirms this opinion. A recent call for bids on city bonds bearing three per cent. interest, and payable in five years or thirty, at the will of the city, was answered by bids for six times the amount required at from par up to 103⅓. If short New York threes are at a premium, a long government two would be worth par. Why, then, it will be asked, do _we_ pay from six to ten per cent. in different parts of the country? The answer is that _risk_ and superintendence of _short loans_ makes the difference. The real value of money is found by taking for a measure long loans, in which there is absolutely no risk. The _Times_ of New York expresses the opinion that thirty-year threes of that city would sell at 115.

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A correspondent of the New York _Evening Post_ furnishes some interesting incidents in the life of Joel Barlow, the father of American epic poetry. Redding, Conn., was the early home of Barlow, and the visitor is shown the house in which the poet constructed his commencement poem in 1778. It is said that Barlow’s one romance was a common one among college students. He fell in love with a sweet girl whom he privately married soon after graduation. He served as a chaplain in the Continental army, but at Redding he is best remembered as the promoter of several industrial enterprises designed to promote the welfare of the town. Barlow was not a great father of our epic, but his sons have, perhaps, not greatly surpassed him.

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The enthusiasm of science, in alliance with the passion of boys for killing birds, is making trouble in Massachusetts. The taxidermists want birds to stuff, and average boys want to slay birds. The law is loose, and any boy can get a license to kill birds in the service of science. The dead birds are oftener eaten than stuffed. The song birds and insectivorous birds are rapidly diminishing. Of course the boys rob the nests of the birds and kill the young in the nests. There is a period in a boy’s life when he loves such work. Maine has abolished the system of licensing taxidermists, in consequence of the wholesale slaughter of birds that went on under that system.

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There is no doubt that the tobacco habit, or any other bad habit, can be more easily overcome with the aid of prayer than without it. But there are two objections to a common way of stating the case. The first is that many tobacco users have ceased using it without the aid of prayer. The second objection is that there is danger of teaching that men cannot reform bad habits without _special_ divine help. The word we spell c-a-n-t has two meanings, and both are present in the plea of helplessness. It is understood, of course, that God helps men who help themselves; that is the reason why a wicked farmer can raise good crops by being a good agriculturist, though he is a bad sinner.

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Congress is struggling with a foreign copyright bill. The bill is a bungling one and really opens the American market to free trade in books. This _may_ be desirable, but it is well to keep distinct measures in different baskets. The free book question belongs in the tariff bill. International copyright means putting a foreign author on a level with the home author. We ought to do it without delay, but we need not confer any favors on foreign publishers in a copyright bill. We have international patent-right, but we did not think it necessary when we protected the foreign inventor to put the foreign maker of the inventor’s machines under shelter of the “Free List.”

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John Bright is still the most vigorous handler of a rhetorical club in all England. In the course of the great debate, last month, in the House of Commons, the Tories of high birth were badly represented by two or three orators of their rank. Mr. Bright crushed them fine by saying that “the brothers and sons of dukes use language more virulent, more coarse, more offensive and more ungentlemanly than is heard from a lower rank of speakers.” We suspect that the sentence is the reporter’s, not Bright’s; but the rebuke which he administered made a sensation which reminded Englishmen of the days when he described the political “Cave of Adullam” and its inhabitants.

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The Prussian Chamber of Deputies recently debated the question of dueling, especially in the universities. A critical member began it by complaining of the idleness, drinking, gaming and dueling of the students. The curiosity which the debate brought to light is the fact that though dueling is forbidden by law, it has powerful friends in the Chamber and the government. Germany has forbidden the barbaric custom; but young Germans grow up in the belief that dueling is manly, and their seniors remember that they had the same disease in the universities. The German people are very sensitive to foreign criticism on this point; and probably the other civilized nations will by and by ridicule German dueling out of existence.

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Curiosities of speech are always interesting, and it is a delightful business for grammatical people to scold their neighbors. The New York _Tribune_ has had a bout with a few score correspondents on the duties of the neuter verb between subject and predicate; which must it agree with? The _Tribune_ says with the real subject; the other folks say there are two subjects, and that the verb must agree with the last. All the malcontents quote “The wages of sin is death.” The _Tribune_ has three or four answers; its best is that _death_ is the true subject; its second best is that wages used to be singular. In “The Contributors’ Club” of the _Atlantic Monthly_, another class of errors is discussed, such as the dropping of _h_ in _which_ and _when_, a common thing in and around New York, and the suppression of _r_ in many words. The English say _lud_, we say _lawd_. While just touching this interesting topic we call attention to a Meadville eccentricity. It is the rising inflection at the end of questions, such as, “Is he _sick_?” Can any reader tell us whether this locution (or rather inflection) is a localism only?

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There is a lamentably large number of illiterates in the United States. Let us reduce the number as fast as possible. But let us stop assuming that the spelling book will rub the Decalogue into the conscience. Our immediate troubles and dangers come from literates who are as bright as lightning, and almost as destructive. We shall not get moral education by way of the spelling book. The statistical proof that we do is defective. We may count up the illiterate rogues in prison with much satisfaction, if we forget that the literate rogues are too smart to be caught and caged. Moral character does not result from intellectual training. Thirty years ago we had this straight, and taught that an educated bad man was a much more dangerous beast than an uneducated bad man.

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A few kind-hearted people have for several years conducted a crusade against horse-shoes. They claim that the horse-shoe is a piece of unprofitable cruelty. They furnish examples and drive their own horses unshod. Among their examples is this: “In Africa, a horse working in a post-cart does, barefoot, over hard ground, twenty-four miles in two hours.” One view is that our horse-shoeing bill would pay off the national debt in a few generations. It is rather remarkable that these reformers do not receive more attention. We hope they will soon get the general ear; hence this note.

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President Eliot, of Harvard, in a recent address, makes a suggestion which is likely to arrest attention. The clergy are likely to have a monopoly of classical education, perhaps of liberal education, if present tendencies are not overcome. One of these tendencies is to give candidates for the ministry a monopoly of Greek study in colleges. President Eliot thinks that increased and more thorough study of English may help in resisting the tendency toward purely mechanical education. English study of a thorough sort requires and promotes classical study. We add our thought that real liberal education is a fruit of study _after_ the school-boy discipline, and that a classical revival and an English literature revival are both clear possibilities of the Chautauquan organization and methods. The most thorough study, with the best helps, is within the plan of our university.

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Salmi Morse was last year at this time struggling to exhibit his “Passion Play” in New York. The religious feeling of the country won a conspicuous victory in defeating the purpose of Mr. Morse. Near the end of last month the dramatist drowned himself in the East river, and an actress whose relations to him were questionable, is trying to gain notoriety by a theory that a rejected suitor of hers murdered Mr. Morse. There are a dozen good morals in the story.

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Frederick Douglas having at 70 married a white wife, the public has had to listen to a great many homilies on the general subject of inter-marriage among races. We are not about to add another to the long list of sociological essays. We suggest two things: First, it is best to leave the whole matter to individuals. Therefore, the laws which forbid marriage between whites and blacks should be repealed. Second, the real evil—if there be one—is scarcely touched by the prohibitive laws. As Mr. Douglas puts it: It is permitted to white men to beget children by dark-skinned mothers, provided they do not marry these mothers of their copper-colored children. The nobler of two ignoble white men—the one who marries the black mother of his children—should be left in peace until we can invent some means of punishing the ignoble wretch who does not marry her. The former is a very rare man; the growing lights in the African face show us that the other men are numerous.

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Everybody has heard of the “Great Eastern” steamship, an eighth of a mile long and thirty feet under water. The great ship was a failure, and after an unsuccessful pursuit of genteel occupations for many years, she has gone to Gibraltar to be used as a coal hulk. If any sailor ever loved this leviathan, he will feel “the pity of it” in this unromantic end; and most of us feel a touch of sadness in reading the story.

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The honors paid to the dead Arctic explorers in New York, on Washington’s birthday, lost none of their significance by the association. The flags were at the peak in honor of the father of his country, in the morning; in the afternoon they dropped to half-mast in memorial mourning for the heroes of the ill-fated “Jeannette.” To young eyes seeing both memorial honors, the spectacle must have been inspiring—as showing that the paths to glory are still open to heroic souls. The booming guns, the wistful and reverent throngs, the military tramping along the streets, all had the same cheering lesson. We do not measure men or honor them by success; for utter failure heroically faced we have the funeral pageant and the historic record. We are not at all interested in the North Pole. We soberly think the Arctic exploration business a foolhardy one. But we forget our indifference, and our sober judgment, when we meet the cold corpses of those who have vainly fought the cruel North—and say, “Well done; like heroes you died; like heroes you shall be buried.”

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In the graduating list published in the February CHAUTAUQUAN, the name “J. Van Alstyne,” from New Jersey, should be Wm. L. Van Alstyne, Jr.; also the name Emily Hancock, which appears under New York, should be under Indiana, and “Mrs. John Romeo,” of New York, should read Mrs. John Romer.

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A correspondent kindly calls our attention to two errors in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for February. We “stand corrected.” Whittier’s birthday comes on December seventeenth, instead of the sixteenth, as stated on page 302, and there are thirty-eight states in the Union, not thirty-nine.

C. L. S. C. NOTES ON REQUIRED READINGS FOR APRIL.

PREPARATORY LATIN COURSE.

P. 174.—“Havelock.” (1795-1857.) A British soldier who in 1823 was sent to India. He served in the Burmese war, in the Ava campaign, in two invasions of Afghanistan, and in 1856 in a war with Persia. On his return to Bombay he was sent to Calcutta to aid the British in the Sepoy rebellion. After raising the siege of Cawnpore, he started toward Lucknow, where the garrison was closely beset. Havelock was two months in fighting his way to the city, and when there, the relievers and garrison had to stand a siege until the arrival of Campbell with forces. Havelock, however, lived only a few days after succor came, being worn out by sickness and hardships. The arrival of Campbell has been celebrated in a touching and popular poem—“The Relief of Lucknow.”

P. 177.—“Ardennes.” See “Notes” on page 185 of THE CHAUTAUQUAN for December.

P. 180.—“Hector.” The chief hero of the Trojans in the war with the Greeks, the eldest son of Priam, king of Troy. Having slain Patroclus, the friend of Achilles, the latter was aroused to revenge, and came out to fight. Hector remained bravely without the walls until he saw his enemy, when he took to flight, but he was finally pierced with Achilles’ spear, and his body dragged into the camp of the Greeks. Hector was the stay of the Trojans. He is represented by Homer as a man of all virtues, and is claimed to be the noblest conception of the “Iliad.”

P. 184.—“Boll of grain.” The Scotch formerly used a measure called the bōll, or _bole_. Its capacity varied with the article measured. A boll of wheat or beans held four bushels; of oats or potatoes, six bushels.

“Cevennes,” sā-venˈ. A mountain range of France, separating the valleys of the Garonne and the Loire from those of the Saone and the Rhone.

P. 187.—“Santa Scala,” or the holy staircase, called also Pilate’s staircase, is a flight of twenty-eight marble steps in a little chapel of Rome. They are said to be the steps which Christ passed up and down in going before Pilate, and that, like the Holy House at Loreto, they were transported by angels to their present position. Multitudes of pilgrims crawl up this staircase, kissing each step as they go. It is related of Luther that wishing to obtain the indulgence promised by the pope for this devout act, he was slowly ascending the steps when he suddenly heard a voice exclaiming, “The just shall live by faith alone.” He was so terrified by his superstitious folly that he at once fled from the place.

P. 190.—“Aulus,” auˈlus hirˈti-us.

P. 194.—“Protagonist,” pro-tăgˈo-nĭst. The first or leading actor in a drama.

P. 196.—“Obsolescence,” ŏb-so-lĕsˈcence. The going out of style, becoming old, obsolete.

P. 202.—“Lucius Catilina,” lūˈci-ŭs catˈi-liˌna.

P. 205.—“Spurius Mælius,” spuˈri-us mæˈli-us. A rich plebeian who in the famine at Rome in B. C. 440 bought up corn to distribute to the poor. His liberality won him the favor of the plebeians, but the hatred of the patricians. In the following year he was accused of a conspiracy against the government. Having refused to appear before the tribunal when summoned, Ahala, the master of the horse, rushed out with an armed band and slew him.

“Opimius.” A patrician, the leader of his party in the proceedings against Caius Gracchus in 120 B. C. Through his violence some three hundred people were slain after the death of Gracchus.

“Saturnius.” A demagogue who in B. C. 102 was elected tribune of the plebs. He allied himself with Marius and his party and won much favor by his popular measures. He was twice reëlected, but the third time it was feared that his colleague, Glaucia, who had held office during each of his tribunates, would be defeated. The friends had the rival candidate murdered. This act caused a reaction against Saturnius, and the senate ordered that he and his associates should be slain. Marius endeavored to save his friend, but the mob pulled the tiles from the senate house, where the parties were concealed, and pelted them to death.

P. 220.—“Minucian Colonnade.” A portico built about 100 B. C. by the consul Minucius, in memory of the triumph which he received after waging a successful war against the Thracians.

“Pan.” In Grecian mythology, a god who watched over flocks and herds; was the patron of hunters, bee-keepers and fishermen, and the inventor of a shepherd’s flute. He is represented with horns, goat’s beard, feet and tail, and often as playing on the flute. The Romans worshiped him under the name of Faunus.

P. 221.—“Lupercalia,” lūˈper-cä-li-a. Lupercus was a name applied to Pan, and a feast given in honor of the god by the Romans was called _Lupercalia_.

“Tarquinius,” tar-quinˈi-us. Surnamed _Superbus_, was the last of the Roman kings. Though he was cruel and tyrannical, he is said to have greatly increased the power of the city. Brutus, his nephew, was aroused against the royal family because of an outrage committed upon his wife by Tarquin’s son. He stirred up popular feeling against the king, and succeeded in driving him from Rome. Consular government was then substituted for the monarchy.

“Spurius Cassius,” spuˈri-us casˈsi-us. A famous Roman of the fifth century. He was three times consul. In his last consulship he passed a law which provided that the patricians should receive only a portion of the public lands, and that the rest should be divided among the plebeians. The next year he was accused of aiming at regal power and was put to death.

“Manlius.” Consul in 392 B. C. In 395 he defended the plebeians against the higher classes, but was accused of aiming at kingly power, and was thrown into prison. The plebs showed such indignation at this that Manlius was liberated. He only became bolder in his support of the people, and in the following year was accused of treason, condemned, and thrown from the Tarpeian rock.

P. 228.—“Dante,” dănˈte. (1265-1321.)

“Inferno,” in-ferˈno; “Purgatorio,” pur-gä-toˈre-o; “Divina Commedia,” dee-veéˈnä com-meˈdee-ä.

P. 230.—“Mincius,” minˈci-us. A river of northern Italy emptying into the Po, a little below Mantua, which is situated on an island in the middle of a lagoon formed by the river.

P. 232.—“Bucolic,” bu-cŏlˈic; “Eclogues,” ĕkˈlogs.

“Dactylic hexameter,” dac-tylˈic hex-ămˈe-ter. A verse of poetry consisting of six feet, parts, or measures (hexameter means of six measures), the first four of which may be dactyls, that is feet of three syllables, one long and two short; or spondees, feet of two syllables, one long and one short: the fifth must be a dactyl, and the sixth a spondee.

“Theocritus,” the-ŏkˈrĭ-tus. Was born in Syracuse about 250 B. C. He is known as the creator of pastoral poetry. About thirty poems by him are still extant, and several epigrams.

P. 234.—“Sibyl,” sĭbˈyl. A name given by the Greeks and Romans to several women who were supposed to have been able to foretell, to avert trouble, and to appease the gods. Some writers mention four Sibyls, others ten. The most famous of all was this Cumæan Sibyl, and to her the Romans traced the origin of the “oracles.” It is fabled that she offered to sell to one of the Tarquins nine books, but the king refused. Going away she burnt three, and then offered the six at the same price. Being refused again she destroyed a second three, and at her first price the king finally took those remaining. These were carefully preserved, but burnt in B. C. 83. A new compilation was made by consulting the various oracles of the world. The “Sibyline oracles” mentioned here are in eight books, and were collected after the second century; they consist of a mixture of heathen, Christian and Jewish poems.

P. 235.—“Lucina,” lu-ciˈna. The goddess who was supposed to preside over the birth of children.

“Tiphys,” tiˈphys. The pilot of the “Argo.” He died before the ship reached Colchis. For the story of the “Argo” see Grecian history.

P. 236.—“Fates,” or Parcæ, were mythological beings who cared for human life.

“Linus.” The personification of the dirge.

“Calliope.” The muse of epic poetry. She usually appears with a stylus and a wax tablet.

P. 237.—“Hesiod,” heˈsĭ-od. Greek epic poet; 800 B. C.