SELF CULTURE A MAGAZINE OF KNOWLEDGE With Departments Devoted to the Interests of Every person has two educations; one feating Tammany, it would have coalesced with the forces of reform, instead of standing aloof and contributing to the disaster which happened. But partisanship is rarely ever wise, and the Boss issue could not, of course, come home to the supporters of Mr. Tracy as it came home to those of Mr. Low; while slavish loyalty to the tariff, and possibly antagonism to puritanical reform, kept Republican voters (if the pleasantry is excused) within the traces of their or VOL. VI DECEMBER, 1897 No. 3 ganization. G. MERCER ADAM, EDITOR HOWARD P. RUGGLES, BUSINESS MANAGER THE MAYOR- In the contest last month ALTY CONTEST for the mayoralty of IN NEW YORK Greater New York, Tammany, our readers will know, has won. The issue we cannot but deplore, though we cast no horoscope, and are therefore not compromised by having hazarded an opinion as to the result. The defeat of the Citizens' Union representative, to whom we looked to save the city from four years of probable misgovernment, has not caused us to lose faith in the ultimate issue of the conflict against the power of the Boss. That issue, in the long run, must prevail, though constant effort and vigilance will be necessary successfully to cope with the menace. While party government continues, and the spoils are the prize of office, there will, of course, be the Machines, and no spasmodic or merely tentative movement of public virtue will suffice to break their power or keep the hand of the corrupter from doing evil. Though we hoped for another result, we nevertheless deem the Citizens' Union movement vindicated, and the moral effect of the organization, we feel assured, will not pass away with the failure of the effort to instal Mr. Seth Low. Nor can the Republican party which clung so obstinately to Mr. Platt and the Machine, thus playing into the hands of Tammany, fail to see the loss sustained by its partisanship and the heedlessness. and impolicy of its attitude in the campaign. If it had the good government of the city, rather than the impossible triumph of its candidate, at heart, and realized the supreme importance of de From this subserviency to Bosses, especially in municipal contests, we had hoped that all responsible and thoughtful voters in the Republican party were free. Free, in the recent election, we are thankful to say, a large proportion of them were, without being, in the least, disloyal to the party principles, or indifferent to the gravity of the issue which every anti-Tammany citizen ought to have had at heart. The returns establish that beyond a doubt, though the figures unhappily show a still large number who clung to the caucus and its manipulators, and whose votes, as we have said, had they been combined, would have turned the scale incontestably in Mr. Low's favor. That the great metropolitan city of the continent, with its vast commercial interests, will now, for some years, be at the mercy of the hardly disguised brigandage into which its administration has fallen, cannot but be a shock to the whole commonwealth; and if a period of renewed and unblushing civic plunder ensues, we shall know, poor as the consolation is, at what door to lay the dishonor and the blame. CANADIAN OVERTURES FOR RECIPROCITY The Cobden Club medal, conferred in England in the past summer on the Liberal Canadian Premier, is evidently about to be earned by its distinguished free-trade recipient. Sir Wilfred Laurier has just been paying a visit to Washington, where his bonhomie and engaging manners, no less than his fine abilities, have captivated the President and his Cabinet, and favorably impressed the statesmen of both parties with whom he has had informal conferences. The honors and distinctions paid to him in England, and his felicitous economic and patriotic speeches there during the Jubilee celebration, have not interfered with his coming, along with his finance minister, to Washington, to make himself a persona grata in official and diplomatic circles. His object in this is, first of all, to remove, as far as Canada is concerned, the chief causes of friction and unpleasantness between Britain and the United States, and, prospectively, to arrange for an enlarged measure of reciprocal trade between the Republic and the colony. The time, he shrewdly thinks, propitious on both sides the boundary line for this purpose, as it would seem to be propitious to the Canadian Liberal leader and his Government at Ottawa, since only with a Liberal administration in the neighboring Dominion could this country, with any degree of heartiness, negotiate for freer and more extended commercial relations. Among members of past American administrations, as well as of both Houses, who are inclined to liberal opinions in economical matters, there has always been a disposition to make gaps in, if not to throw down altogether, the Chinese wall between the countries and to give full scope to commercial intercourse. The same desire has also actuated the mass of the Canadian Liberals. The gain that would accrue to both peoples, even were reciprocity confined only to natural products, would be great, while the difficulty, on our side at least, need not be serious in adjusting the tariff to the altered conditions. The prosThe prosperous outlook now in Canada, which increases the buying power of the colony, and the extending field there for profitable American investment, both in mines and in the vast farming lands of the rich North-West, invite to the freest trade relations, and to closer dealings that need not imperil the political integrity of the less wealthy and more sensitive country, or fail to be of great advantage to the immense manufacturing interests of the United States. Hence, there would seem to be wisdom in giving the Canadian delegation a ready hearing, and in considering how far this country would do well to meet the Dominion Government's views in regard to increased trade between the two kindred and progressive peoples and the maintenance of the friendliest political relations. The opportunity at least would be worth embracing did the Canadian mission, aside from trade matters, result in settling open international disputes, such as those with which diplomacy has had to deal between the countries and particularly with the Canadian motherland. POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS A widespread desire has of late been manifested throughout the country for Postal Savings Banks, in the interest of the working classes and of persons of small means. The desire may well be gratified, since it tends to economies and thrift on the part of the people and to habits of saving which it is proper to encourage, particularly when it can be done with absolute security to the depositor and with confident trust in the bona fides of the Government. The system, it must be known to our readers, has worked well in foreign countries, and especially in the British Isles and dependencies, the statistics of which testify to the large advantage taken of the system by the masses, and afford proof of the thrifty Scotch proverb, that "Many a mickle makes a muckle," or, to modernize Chaucer: "Many a small maketh a great." Much the same idea is aptly expressed in the injunction: "Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves." Concurring in the habits of thrift which the system encourages, and seeing in the establishment of these Savings Banks a beneficent enterprise on behalf of the people, the PostmasterGeneral at Washington has, we are glad to see, recommended their adoption. He moreover speaks of the system furnishing a fund, which, as it accumulates, I would find its way usefully into the channels of trade and commerce and be a valuable feeder to the financial currents of the country." That the system, if established, would bring the Government into injurious competition with private enterprises already in existence, we hardly think likely, since the facilities which the Government, it is hoped, will offer will, in the main, attract, not those who are already depositors, and investors, but the large and widespread class that hitherto has had nothing laid by "for a rainy day," or that furtively hides its little hoardings in a stocking. CRISIS THE AUSTRIAN The condition, bordering upon political chaos, at present prevailing in the dual monarchy of Austro-Hungary has, in the main, race complications as its cause. It is this that has made difficult, for many a day past, the problem of government in the Empire-Kingdom. The factors in the conflict, which find the theatre of their jarring contentions in the Reichsrath, may be readily divined by recalling the multifarious elements in the Imperial Parliament, including besides the Magyars or Hungarians, Czechs (Bohemians), Germans, Slavs, and Poles, with a sprinkling of Croats, Italians, Roumanians, and other minor subjects, each with its religious bias, Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, Greek-Oriental, Lutheran, Moravian, Gregorian-Armenian, and Jew. The scuffling of this heterogeneous mass in the Lower House of the Reichsrath has of late made parliamentary government in the dual Empire a mockery, and converted the legislative chamber into a cauldron of seething passions. The recent sessions of the House have been marked by scenes of almost incredible party hostility and outrage, and the corresponding temper in the country has been such that revolution would seem to impend and cause the whole patchwork fabric of Empire to fall to pieces. Since the formation, in 1867, of the dual Empire, after the war with Prussia, Austro-Hungary has had within her all the elements of possible disintegration, though she has managed, partly by the skilful diplomacy of Francis Joseph, to keep them hitherto from breaking violently out. That the machinery has so far run without undue friction is explained by the concession, under the Constitution, of practical home-rule to Hungary, the eastern or, as it is called, Transleithan, division of the monarchy. The Austrian Emperor is also King of Hungary, and the Kingdom has its own Reichstag at Budapest, and, though united politically with Austria under one crown, retains its own local independence. This concession was rendered necessary, owing to the difference in the language of the two peoples, as well as from a desire to gratify Hungarian aspirations. What Hungary has gained in the alliance, Bohemia, under the agitations of the young Czech party, seeks for herself and Moravia, impelled also in the desire for autonomy by antagonism to the German element in the Province. It is these national aspirations, together with the agitations that have arisen from race prejudices, opposition on the part of German Liberals to reforms in the central government, and complications occurring in respect to the financial contribution of Hungary to the expenses of the Empire, that, all told, have stirred up strife in the Vienna legislature and set orderly and harmonious government at defiance. How the difficulties of the complex situation will be met, whether by timely concession to the malcontents, or by the assumption of autocratic powers by the Emperor and the suppression of Parliament, we shall ere long, no doubt, know. THE LATE GEORGE M. PULLMAN It would be remiss in us to omit to chronicle in these pages the recent death of Mr. G. M. Pullman, of Chicago, one of the notable captains of industry of our time. A generation has passed away since he organized his great enterprise, the Palace-Car Company, and founded at Pullman, with a philanthropy that did him infinite credit, a model city of workshops, with resorts for recreation and amusement and beautiful artisans' homes. This New World "Saltaire" in the suburbs of Chicago, though it has had its vicissitudes, has, in both an economical and moral sense, amply justified the munificent forethought and largemindedness of its founder; and in this, and in other respects, Mr. Pullman's enterprise may well prompt other large and humane capitalists to follow his noble example. The Palace Car system, was, at its inception a bold, even an audacious, undertaking; yet how successful it has become, and with what alleviation of the discomforts and weariness of travel over vistas of space, we all know and are fain heartily to acknowledge. The system has, as we know, revolutionized railway travel and become an indispensable adjunct to transportation. The growth of the company, with a capital to-day of $36,000,000, is an index of its usefulness and of Mr. Pullman's skilled and shrewd management. May Charon's barque have been as luxurious and cosy as one of his own Palace Car sleepers in its ferriage of his remains over the Styx! CHRISTMAS, THE CHRIS- With the hastening close of the year, comes again the season of Thanksgiving and ChristmasMISSIONS the period of family reunions and social rejoicings. The latter festival, throughout the civilized world at least, brings with it to all reflecting minds the great, central event of history which the season commemorates. To many, however, the significance of the season, which the Church has adopted as that of the birth of Christ, is largely lost sight of in the observances and customs we keep up, and which have come down to us from early heathen days, though they have subsequently become hallowed by time and kindly associations in their transmission from our Saxon forefathers. As an ecclesiastical festival, Christmas, nevertheless, sees myriads of devout worshippers in the Churches, testifying, despite the unbelief of the age, to the unique character of the Founder of Christianity, and to the power, over reason and conscience alike, of His Gospel. With such, as human society is held by them to be a Divine institution, the impulse at the season of Christmas is very active to feel sympathy for and to extend help to the needy and distressed among their fellowmen. This is one of the many flowering virtues which we owe to the benign influence of Christianity, and leads those who exemplify and practice the virtue to recognize the great brotherhood of the human family and to think more of what unites than of what divides men. It is this human-caring aspect of Christianity that has always won benighted races when the Gospel is first brought to their knowledge, and even the sceptic is impressed by it as the kernel of practical religion. In the sufficingness for all human need, Christianity is to-day more effectively than ever appealing to the unrest and weakness of man, and, with the fastsurrendering opposition to it, the fact, together with the permanent interest that religion has for the race, is one of the chief testimonies to its power. Without belief in Christ and His kingdom, and in the government of a personal God, life would be a blank, indeed, for negation has no comfort for the spirit of man; and, without Revelation, the whence and whither of life, and of the worlds with it, would be an inexplicable and mind burdening puzzle. burdening puzzle. No purely natural religion, still less a boastful science, can help us to read these riddles understandingly, or even aid us aright in guiding our life and ruling our conduct. It is the consciousness of this, that, in an age like ours, gives value to the sphere and work of the church, as the disseminator of revealed truth and the inculcator of righteousness. We may not all, we certainly do not all, have the same conception of the value of the Christian church, or regard with like respect the clerical character. Ecclesiasticism, it is deemed by many, rather repels than attracts to the acceptance of truth, places intellectual minds irksomely under the fetters of an authoritative creed, and hinders free inquiry. This has even been the experience of its own ministers. But modern modes of thought are having their influence in broadening the church and making less dogmatic and exacting its authority, as they are also liberalizing theology and detaching from the Spirit of the Middle Ages the theologians. The gain to Christianity in this cannot be little, while it will vastly increase its general acceptance. To the many existing and remarkable proofs of the influence of Christianity, another has just been added by Mr. Julian Hawthorne, in his account of the great famine in India, and the Christianization of its subject races through the agency of the Churches' missions. Speaking of the paralysis of caste and the fetters of bigotry, which delay civilization and obscure enlightenment, Mr. Hawthorne affirms that only through Christianity can India be lifted out of misery. The beneficent result in the East of this contact of civilization with barbarism is even more strikingly illustrated by the facts elicited in the recent work which Dr. James S. Dennis of New York has just published on "Christian Missions and Social Progress." To the seekers for truth among un-Christian, and even anti-Christian, sociological thinkers, this book, which we hope to review in SELF CULTURE next month, will be found exceedingly helpful and instructive. The work, besides its other and varied interest, shows the magnitude of the sphere for the operative influences of Christianity, and is, in itself, an emphatic as well as a weighty tribute to its worth. EVENTS OF THE MONTH Sunday, October 10.-Secretary Long will ask an appropriation for the navy for the next fiscal year of $31,991,727....Secretary Gage, Senator Mason, Mayor Carter H. Harrison, and others, made speeches at the celebration of Illinois and Chicago Day at the Tennessee centennial exposition....The sixth anniversary of the death of Charles Stewart Parnell was the occasion of a demonstration at Dublin; 5,000 nationalists marched to his grave and heaped it high with flowers. Monday, October 11.-The monetary commission met in Washington; about 100 communications on the general subject of currency reform have so far been received....It is reported that Miss Cisneros, who escaped from a jail in Cuba, will go to Washington and enter the convent at Georgetown; Miss Cisneros, being a political refugee, cannot be surrendered under the law....The executive committee of the federated trades in Great Britain has decided to call out all its members in sympathy with the engineers; it is estimated that 400,000 men will then be out of work....The Irish independent league, organized by John Redmond, M. P., the Parnellite leader, opened its first convention in Dublin; there were 800 delegates; among the resolutions adopted was one reaffirming that the Irish Question can only be settled by the concession of national self-government....General Weyler has issued an amnesty decree, which includes nearly all the deported Cubans. Tuesday, October 12.-Secretary Sherman has invited Great Britain to take part in a seal conference in which Russia and Japan will not be represented....The Turkish government has sent to the Powers a circular proposing the disarmament of both Christians and Mussulmans in Crete, the appointment of a governor by the sultan, and the formation of a gendarmerie corps....The troops forming the Mohmand punitive expedition have destroyed twenty-six fortified villages, and have killed many of the insurgent natives. Wednesday, October 13.- Associate Justice Field, of the United States supreme court, will soon retire and be succeeded, it is said, by Attorney-General McKenna. Señorita Evangelina Cossio y Cisneros, who escaped a week ago from a Spanish jail in Havana, was brought safely to New York... Señor Moret, the Spanish minister of the colonies, will offer the chief political and administrative posts in Cuba to Cubans. ....Leading men of London are signing a letter objecting to action by the British government in the direction of bimetallism... An Abyssinian army has been annihilated by Somalis. The serious illness of Mme. Adelina Patti, the singer, is announced. Thursday, October 14.-The resignation of Justice Stephen J. Field, of the United States supreme court has been accepted by President McKinley, to take effect on December 1.... The Russian delegates to the seal conference are represented as favoring the most stringent regulations for the protection of the animals.. A banquet was given in Paris to President Faure in commemoration of his visit to Russia.. Captain-General Weyler has granted amnesty to forty-six more Cuban political prisoners.... It is reported that a filibustering expedition has been landed in the province of Santa Clara, Cuba, and joined the insurgents....Reinforcements for the army in Cuba are being hurried forward from Spain. Friday, October 15.-The warship Yantic, against which there have been many protests in the Canadian press, sailed from Boston for Detroit, to be used as the training ship of the Michigan naval reserve... The British government intimated to Ambassador Hay that it would take part in a sealing conference in Washington, in which Japan and Russia would not participate. The London "Globe" reiterates that the Government may be depended upon to maintain the gold standard inviolate. Saturday, October 16.-There were fewer new cases of yellow fever, and only one death from it in New Orleans... The British cabinet met; no decision as to the answer to be given to the American monetary commissioners was reached, but the answer, it is believed, will be unfavorable to the proposals of France and America. The German government is collecting statistics with a view to entering into a reciprocity arrangement with the U ited States General Azcarraga, former premer of Spain, reiterates that the Spanish ministry will receive the support of the Conservative majorities of the chambers. Sunday, October 17.- Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York "Sun," died at his home, in Glencove, Long Island, aged 78....The town of Windsor, the seat of Hants County, Nova Scotia, thirty-five miles from Halifax, was destroyed by fire; few buildings in the town were left standing and 3,000 people are homeless. The losses are roughly estimated at $3,000,000.... Negotiations between the Spanish government and the chiefs of the Cuban autonomist party have not produced the desired result. Monday, October 18.-The secretary of the navy has ordered the Detroit to proceed at once to Livingston, on the gulf coast of Guatemala, to protect American interests...A German newspaper quotes Prince Bismarck as saying that the Monroe Doctrine is "uncommon insolence towards the rest of the world, and does violence to the other American and European states with American interests."....It is believed that 150 persons perished in the wreck of the steamer Triton off Cuba. Tuesday, October 19.- Receipts from customs were $681,423, the largest for one day since the new tariff law went into effect... At the meeting of the cabinet it was decided that each department should adopt regulations to carry out the civil-service order recently promulgated by the President... George M. Pullman, president of the Pullman Palace Car Company, died suddenly at his home in Chicago. A new movement has been started in London opposing the bimetallic league, and asking a new ratio of I to 22, or 16 pence per rupee....It is reported that negotiations for an alliance are in progress be tween the governments of Spain and Portugal. Wednesday, October 20.-Secretary of War Alger issued an order establishing a military |