Evening Star Newspaper, June 4, 1898, Page 23

SS VOICE OF A PEOPLE| The Wealth of Wisdom Contained in Proverbs and Maxims. a ARE PITHY AND FULL OF MEANING Frequently Replete With Real Lit- erary Quality. — ORIGINATE HOW THEY “Literature of “Prove All Ages,” by Rob From a review in Maxims and Phrases of a Washington. “Where do proverbs come from?” is a question many must have asked themselves, in wonder at the pith and point of some popular saying. Sometimes a proverb can be traced to its source, as the famous “Business tomorro’ of Archias the Spar- tan; but more commonly they seem to arise spontaneously out of the heart of a Ration Proverbs, like ballads, are the voice of a people. not of an individual person. They seem to spring up, too, at times when there is no literature; the bookmen make few and never unless they are more than book- men. The man with the seeing eye, who has his own outlook on nature and human life, who thinks upon what he sees and gives it forth again, not a mere reflection or echo, but something fresh and his own —this is the type of man that makes pro- verbs. Hence the more we read, the more we learn the ideas of others, the less this faculty is brought into play. It is not the cultivated clergyman in Adam Bede whose sayings are barbed, but Mrs. Poyser, the uniettered. And, indeed, many a peasant still talks habitually in proverbs; not the scientific artisan, or the forced product of a board school, but the rough clodhopper. And there is reason in this. The man of books has no such need co rely on his mem- ory as the man who reads nothing. What the one wants to remember he makes a ncte of; the other casts 2 thought into its most telling form, short and concise, rhyth- mic if possible, or with some assonance that will hold it fast in the mind. Many of us have known such among our peasantry, and still bear in memory many of the vivid Phrases in which they expressed them- selves. One poor woman, for instance, in answer to an inquiry touching her health, @nswered in a spint of self-complacent hu- mility, and a crust is enough for me. cribed his absence of mind by saying, “My head was as full of thought as a bee is of buzz. o trust, no mis- trust,” said the publican of a country inn hen asked for credit. Cervantes was true to life when he made Sancho Panza the man of proverbs, while his master. choke- full of reading, was somewhat impatient of them. And very acute is the implication that it may have been the poor quality of Don Quixote’s reading that made him so dull in appreciating his inimitable squire. He would probably not have cared for a really good book: for proverbs have the true Hterary quality. Not Antithet: How ts it, then, book-learning Used in book: the true literary qu: in Essence. that if proverbs and t y are yet ow can proverbs have tity, end yet reading tend to destroy the proverb-making fac- ulty? The answer is, that the two are not antithetic at all in essence, but that the Yeading of books means the assimilating of other men’s thoughts, too much of which duils creative power of any sort or kills it a ther. The composers of boo onthe other hand, are no necessarily Had Homer ever read anythiaz amount he had heard, undoubtedly i or history, gecgraphy, travel rs 1 much he had also seen; but it is sible t Homer could not read sain, if writers are readers, it ow that they read teo much. t the point; some men can read and ke no harm by it: with overb-making is their only liter- . Which will probably soon go > to reading. It was pointed out just now that good and proverbs have the sane By this is meant merely that the of each ts to choose the right words ly express a thought, and the aber of them, and to put them in Yhe right order. ‘The same principle applies sition; in dealing with a sequenc the task is to choose which are significant, and to give them place and space according to their significance, no more and no less. be unity in composition, unity the thing is naught. jot make a book; a sti does not make a poem, even rs de trivialit of if written by Walt Whitman; not even Zola can make a picture of life by ignoring the soul of man and raking the muck And just as a proverb, if expressed many word asily remembe and thus mi of its existe added with things isome, unwieldy, The same principles, then, un- these, and proverbs are seen to ing apart, but merely a class ng much of a length, thought in a proverb is al- not a for convenience, b because the Ways simple and single. Murked Characteristics. They have, however, characteristics suf- ficiently marked to make them easy to rec- ognize. One of the chief of these is rime, assonance, or rhythm. Such proverbs are often of two parts, forming a perfect anti- who goes a borrowing goes a where only one letter is dif- what can’t be cured must be en- Or, again, fe, nd Ie or no man bide, the giver is all, twixt the cup and tne in nursery rimes and nce 1 done, ne and tide gift be sm: here's many a slip But here, as ip. in baliads, there need be no perfect rime, but only a general likeness in sound: as ‘many a little makes a mickle,” often m many a mickle makes a jan might say “ and get the rime per- s of general sck invites ‘soon enough is well enough ued is forearmed.” The rhythm is al- re important than the rime + thought only is antithet the form gives no help haste “i and Thus we say “more less spe tongue short hand,” iil waters run deep.” Or again, when thoughi ‘S not thus lead on fiom cne word to another, alliteration ¢ mes in to aid Examples of this sort are “all is not gold that glitters,” “a miss is as good fective <3 a mile” the words, (where note how de- perfectly clear the thought). But the y of proverbs @re not antithetic; many are not even al- Hterativg. but depend continuance on the interest of the thought only. Fall of Meaning. be instructive to see what kinds of are most intersting to the prov- “i, to begin with, a num- oncerning every-day needs such as “make your vine r and it will make you Hich,” “red at h ih erd’s d+light. Some em- chiefly in fun; for instance, of a dog is gvod for his bite,” or » the hindmo: A step upward 4s taken by the rural inind when observa- nature is turn hw foux once of life. Some creatur t a simile, a doornail, $ and still come home to Foost.” Gut of this metaphor grows na- turaily, and we get such sayings as “th & busy bishop in his own dioce: led with daughters is a cellar our beer.” Sometimes the two the comparison are simply put ying “every land its own custom, every wheel its own Or again, only the comparison is . and the application left to the nd this is perhaps the largest limbs side by side, as in the of hearer: e of proverbs. Of this kind are many familiar friends, “birds of a feather fléck together,” “fine feathers make fine birds,” “let sleeping dogs Hie,” with others less . S not learned to keep s straight,” for example. Many ‘more embalm the popular views of life, and ere shrewd, humorous, sareastic, or sen- fentious. Thus man that is born to sorrow | provi says ‘fewer his years the fewer his tears, or refiects, “I wept when I was born, and every day shows why;” the niggard ex- cuses himself with “charity begins at home:” the idle lavghs, “Take-it-easy and Live-long are brothers;” the synic sneers, ‘of soup and love soup is the best,” or “count siller after a’ your kin. Humor and Sarcasm. Humor plays a great part in proverbs, and many of this sort are coarse. Sarcasm makes its butts not only of things in gen- eral, as “the noisiest drum has nothing in it but air,” but in particular of certain professions, and of womankind. The church does not come off scathless, for “‘a priest's pocket is not easily filled.” Greed seems to strike the peasant as the most prominent mark of the cleric. As for the army, “dom- inies come for your wine and officers for your daughters.” But law and physic are the best abused of the professions; we may keep clear of the church six days in the week, but these are always with us. “Laws catch files and let hornets go free,” “as the man is friended so the law is ended,” “hell and chancery are always open’’—such are u few out of scores. The peasant observe: tco, that “the doctor seldom takes physic, end is of opinion that “the best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet and Dr. Merryman.” He would agree with Montaig: “Thanks be to God," says the essayist, “there is no cormerce between us. . I do ever de- spise it, and when I am sick, instead of entring into league or composition with it, I then begin to hate and fear it most; and arswer such as urge me to take physicke that at least they will tarie til such time as I have recovered my health and strength again, that then I may the better be en- abled to endure the violence and hazard of their potions.” The worst of all, however, is reserved for woman; against her hun- dreds of gibes are aimed. “A bag of fleas is easier to watch than a woman,” says the polite German; and the Englishman is little better—‘a man of straw is worth a woman of gold.” Her love of gossip is con- stontly girded at; “a woman conceals what she knows not,” “a woman's tongue wags like a lamb’s tail." Most cruel of all is the Frenchman, who says, “It is nothing at all, only a woman drowning.” There re- mains one last class to speak of, in which untettered philosophy rises to its height. In this €§ ation it is delivered of high mcral maxims, such as “honesty is th best policy.” “virtue is its cwn reward. These are rare as compared with the rest, and are more numerous among the medita- tive orientals than among our practical folic. History Reflected. ‘There is in the few last mentioned some indication of national characteristics, and there are a great many more in which the history or the surroundings of a people are reflected in its proverbs. In the old ys it was natural for an Englishman to talk of a “long-bow man,” or to say “plain s a pikestaff;” and not so many years > he thought it “as well to hang for a sheep as a lamb.” A Dutchman says, better lose the anchor than the ship Fren n, ‘eb'tter lose the wool than the sheep: and Italian, “better lose the sad- die than the horse.”” ‘The Chinaman recog- rizes that ev ever daughter-in-law cannot cook without rice;” but a Hebrew, or one who knew the Hebrew Scriptures, would rather speak of making bricks with- out straw in nt the Frenchman, ff being cured at all, nny celestial ins with his doctor, “No cure, no tod Keep me from judge and ‘doc- the Turk’s prayer; and he has he sultan’s interdict lasts three » can guess in what country “drunk as a lord.” All the: is to say, they ari among the peopl arent des no one knews how, p Probably many heads go to the making of a proverb, and they change (as we know and airs dey by an unconsciou n, until the residue ed down most conventent shape. But those literary men who have the fa ulty often make new ones, which may be- come as common in books as the popular though they rarely, if ever, come into use among tie folk. We do not, of course, now speak of those who, like Cer- vantes, reccrd proverbs, but of those who make thei. Full of Phrase vare Sha but bet is a very storehouse of such, is by no means alone. The E in the freshness of their vigor, of phrases of the true stamp. ans, full sh. >oor as a sheep new shorn,” George Peele; “‘curst as a wasp s mouse would make a foul hole in a fair che tis merry in hall when bi wag all,” “law is like a plaice, a black s and a white,” “gently takes the gentleman what oft the clown would scorn.” Or again, these taken almost at random from Robert Greene's prose: ‘“Wishers and woulders were never good householders,” “neighborhood craves charity,” “all_his corn was en the floor, all his Sheep clipt, and the wool sold,” “buy an ounce of pieas- ure with a ton of mishaps,” “sat down on Penniless Bench.” Now hear Thomas Nash: “I can ke2p pace with a Greenwich barge, “no barrel better herring,” “a churl cannot Ghoose but prove ungrateful,” “as hoary as the fox can tell a fair " “he that hath no money in his purse must go dine with Sir John Best-be-Trust, at the sign of the Chalk and Post.” Wel ster, too, is full of these things, and, deed, it is difficult to light on an author of the time who has not the trick; al- though, in our opinion, the trio of friends just spoken of are most racy of all the less- known authors. Some of these sayings are popular proverbs, but the greater number were clearly made up on the spot. A High Compliment. The book before us, from which we have strayed in Pindaric fashion, is a collection of proverbs which cannot fall far short of two and twenty thousand, slightly less than Bohn’s two collections together. They are drawn from a great number of sources, from most European languages and some eastern, but, unfortunately, the list of au- thorities is not given, nor are exact refer- ences. there are a great number of poetical quo- tations, from Shakespeare, Byron, Tenny- son aad others, many of which are rather epigrams than proverbs, but the less-known Elizabethans do not seem to have been drawn upon. This is a pity, for, as we have peinted out, there 1s a rich harvest wait- ing for the reaper. Their mantle would seem to bave fallen upon Punch, from which many excellent maxims are taken, but we do not share the editor's admira- tion for the rather poaderous phrases of Biackwood's Magazine. However, we have no wish to carp and find fault. "The book is extremely interesting and well printed, and it is easy to find what you want. It is impossible to dip into !t anywhere without seeing some jewel wo-th the keeping. and it is not easy to put the book down. Take it all in all, it is the most satisfactory book of the kind we know. mate Linguist. From the New York Tribune. John was an ambitious Chinaman. He had made money in Chinatown, San Fran- cisco, but had devoted himself to bustness so thoroughly that he remained totally ig- norant of English. - He came to New York determined to avoid his fellow-Chinamen, so that he might learn to speak English during his six months’ stay in the metropolis. He took a room in an East Side house, paid promptly, made himself agreeable to his landlord, who allowed him to wait on customers in his little grocery store, and he never went near Pell or Mott street. After several months’ residence in New York and many hours of study, the Chinaman ven- tured forth among his people, where he proceeded to give an exhibition of his pro- ficiency in the English language. What he said sounded strange to the other China- men, and the ambitious one nearly swooned when he discovered that he had learned German by mistake. His New York home was In the German part of the city where English is an un- known tongue, and the poor fei: nad to begin his linguistie work over again. ee Work at Gibraltar. From the London Chronicle. Considerable anxiety has been felt m Gibraltar as to the effect of the war upon the progress of the immense harbor works there, on which England is spending mil- lions of meney. The 10,000 Spaniards put to work on them each morning are each evening rigorously excluded from British territory, and the gates barred upon the: —a geruine “lockout” until the next day. Fear was felt that these able-bodied men might be requisitioned by the Spanish gov- ernment for service; but it is now imagin- ed that they will be taxed rather than en- rolled as conscripts. ‘They have been at- tracted by “English wages,” but Spanish officials will probably appear before long at the gates to levy an impost on the work- ers. —— ‘THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1898-24 PAGES, ODD TYPES IN GIBRALTAR A Curious Lot of People From All Over the World. Britain’s Stern Fortress on the Thres- hold of Spain—Where Many Ships Pass. From the London Mail, On the western slope of the rock of Gib- raltar is the town. In the pictures it looks like a little scattering of houses, because its size is dwarfed by the Titanic pile rising behind ft. When seen from the harbor it lcoks as if it had been tumbled down the side of the mountain and had settled like a snowdrift at the base, with little patches of white scattersd and caught in the rocks high on the slope. As a matter of fact it is a city of 25,000 inhabitants, not counting the military force, which numbers nearly 6,000, and the hundreds of people from all ts of the earth who linger there a day or two in passing. There is no place in the world where so many ships pass as go daily through the Strait of Gibraltar, and as a consequence the people seen on the narrow streets of the town comprise nearly all known varieties of the human species. The town, which formerly was almost entirely Spanish in its population, still has the distinct marks of Spanish occupancy in the character of its architecture, and a large part of the present city directory is made up of names in the cigarbox ian- guage. The Spaniards who have their homes within the walls are naturalized Britons now, for there is an ironciad mili- tary regulation that makes it imposstble for a Spantard to live on the rock unless he has signified his allegiance to the queen and the British flag. There are thousands of them, however, who work in the town during the day, but who live across the narrow strip of neutral ground in the Span- ish iown of Linea. Every morning they troop across from Spanish territory, when the gates of the fortified city are unlocked, and every evening at sunset the firing of a gun tells them that they must get out, and the thousands of senors and senoras hurry out of the portals and stream in a motley procession back to sunny Spain and the dirty streets of Linea. They are the real Spaniards, and while they may not elevate the social tone of Gibraltar they certainly fill the streets with comic-opera costumes and add an interesting ingredient to the mixture of nationalities. Then there is the large population of En- glish, and nothing is more picturesque than the costumes of an Englishman. The uni- forms, full of color and smart trappings, of the different military regiments that swarm over the rock are bright spots in every street crowd, and it would seem the one object of those who control Gibraltar is not to let any one forget that the place is a military post, and the English are the stars of the piece. There is a constant display of military splendor in the streets and squads of soldiers are marched back and forth as if a siege was to be declared that afternoon. Officers on horseback ride up and down through the town, retur with monotonous regularity the salutes of the soldiers who stride briskly along the walks, Young English officers in riding suits, others in pink hunting coats and others cantering in from the polo grounds, give a social tone to the conglomerate throng of the street, and young English girls on siender and spirited-looking hoi or in dogearts, add a really festive the spectacle. You can tell one of the English, the inevitable mass of hair called “bun” Ittle straw hat, and with the of health in their faces that comes from lots of out-door exercise. They walk with a swinging stride, and their shoes are as a man's med to be wearing a bluish-gray sort of dress, which must be the er thing now with young with the jutting far out under the lee of a fresh glow pre they were accompani n walking, by fox terriers. One girl, like the kind of young lady Du d to draw, cari stick, and ly seemed -to sho amount of wonder at it. pus in lace, in whit simple tunic with fla Ss, and pillhe caps, ride briskly through the town, jostling the little don- keys and rubbing against the yellow one horse hacks that rattle over the clean cobblestones. Moors in flowing and volum- arb and in various conditions of cleanliness and respectability — straggle along in barelegged dignity, causing won- der among the tourists fresh from the west. Sailors from the different men-of-war in the harbor, having a day's liberty on shore, lureh along with the approved swing of a sad sea dog, in their best blue clothes and with the names of strange ships worked in their caps. Pretty Spanish girls look down from under the green shutters that swing out from the windows, and these damsels generally are so attractive that one is in great danger of running into somebody or else being run over by a don- key cart or a yeilow hack. Tourists with Norfolk jackets and guide books a id glasses hung over their shoulders huddle around the tourist agency reading letters from home or waiting for other members of their party who at that moment are buying photographs at a bazaar up_ the street or watching soldiers drilling down on the parade grounds. It is said that Aden and Singapore the most varied assortment of people in the world, but Gibraltar ought to be ad- ded to the list, for an hour on Waterport street on a sunny afternoon will show you almost as many kinds of people as one saw on the Midway Plaisance during the Chica- go fair. VOLUNTEERS OF HAVANA. How They Were Won With a Pocket- Handkerchief Promise. Frcm the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1868, when the revolution of ten years in Cuba began, no volunteers existed in Havana worthy of being called such. There was only one old regiment, and when Gov- ernor General Lersundi, then of the island, tried to cemplete this regiment he found the task difficult of-accomplishment on a count of the prevailing unwillingness to enlist. But just at this time, most provi- dentiaily for the relief of his dilemma, scme unknown hands covered the walls of Matar zas near Havana, with huge posters promising each Speniard his passage home and the privilege of carrying away with him whatever his pocket handkerchief could contain in the event of his enlist- ment. The effect of this stimulus to the flag- ging pulse of the public was electrical, end the enrollment of 50,000 men foliowed with- in forty-eight hours. The volunteers thus came into existence with their chiefs in the majority. But the ruined merchants of the city of Havana soon found out and objected to the newly risen power. This opposition increased upon the arrival in Cuba of the new governor general, Dulce, who came in 1869 as representative of the revolutionary government in Spain. He was a man of good faith, empowered by the government to grant Cuba all the re- form she coveted and that has lately been offered. He would undoubtedly have put a term to the revolution, averting all the ruin and devastation which followed. But such an easy.and magnanimous course did not suit that class which faced inevitable finaneial ruin as a consequence of such a Policy. Seg eee Japanese Luitation. From Lippincott’s. The Japanese are almost universally con- demned by writers for the imitation prac- ticed by them of late years of western Miterature, art, science and invention. And yet this imitation seems natural and right. Imagine, if possible, the nation of Japan leaping across the civilization of hundreds of years in half a century. Think of her emerging from the darkness of the middle ages and standing suddenly forth in the light of the nineteenth century. Would it not have been worse than madness for her to have said, ““This new civilization is bet- ter than ours, yet we will not imitate it. We will retain our originality, and perhaps in ages to come we shall reach the en- lightened state now enjoyed by the rest of the world.” But fortunately the Japanese did not say this, but gave themselves up to the acqui- sition of the wonderful stores of knowledge opened to them. I RANDOM , VERSE. i 2 Hymn Before Action, as The earth is full of anger, ‘The seas are dirk with wraths ‘The nations {thee harness Go up against ourspath: Eie yet we 1 g:one— Ere yet we draw the binds, Jehovah cf thé "thubiers, ‘Lord, God of Battles, ald! High Jort and form: mad Beart, ret 5 bow Deaf car and’ ronl nucartn; We seek thy “erc? now; ‘The sinner thst fo swore thee, ‘The fool that pessed thee by, Our times atepktowp b fore thee= Lord grant us strength to die! bearing, For those who knea} beside us, wh ae Roe seine, nagenl Vho lack the is -that guide Lord, let thefr faich atone. = If wrong we did to them; By honor bound thy cam Let not thy wrath b-fall them, But deal to us the blame. From panic, pride and terror, Revenge that knows no 1ein— Light haste and Jawl-ss error, Proteet us yet again. Cloak thoo our und. sersing, Make fir the shuddering’ breath, Io silence and urswerving «7 taste thy leesor death: E’en now thelr vanguard gathers, E’en now we face the fray. As thou didst help our fathers, Help thou Felfilled of © In life, in death made clear— Jehovah of the Thunder: Lord, Goa of Battles, hear! —RUDYARD KIPLING. ———_+e+ The Graduate. Frank Walcott Hutt In the Home Magazine. A youth today, with victories elate, Seeks knightly tourney with life's larger part; And, with a courtly speech at temple gate, Draws the first’ bolts from round the world’s closed heart. 5 ——_+ e+ ___ “The Torpedo Boat. From McClure’s Magrzine. She's a floating boiler crammed with fire and steam, A toy, with dainty works like any watch; A working, weaving basketful of tricks— Eccentric, cam and lever, cog and notch. She's a d lashing, tumbling shell of steel, A headstrong, kicking, nervous, plunging beast! A long. lean ocean liver—trimmed down stall; A bucking bronco hainessed for the east. She can rear and toss and roll Your bedy from your soul, And she's most unpleasant wet—to say the least! But see her slip in; snenking down, at night, All a-tremble, deadly, silent—Satan-sly. Watch her gather for’ the rush, and cateh her breath! See her dodge the wakeful cruiser's sweeping eye. Hear the bumming! Hear her coming! coming ast! (That's the sound might make men wish they ere at home r the rattling Maxi See her afos: m, barking rapid fire!) wom out throngh the fog with bows sand fleas in the sand; tubs reposing in the loain!) She's 2 floating boiler crammed with fire and stenm, A dainty toy, verks just like a watch; A weaving, orking basketful of tricks-- A pent voleano and stoppered at top potch. She ts Death 1 swift De: m in a case (Not the Unseen, plain in sight). Dread that must halted when afar; he's a ¢ trated, je form of Might! he’ ring, vis thing, vith a rending, d ly sting And she asks po odds nor quarter in the fight! gS — ishiag Time. ya From the Syracuse Standard. When the snow has diqappoared before the bright- ness of the sun, And # sniff of balmy,ozone tells you springtime bas bi J * It is louging stilkes you and you find your- a-wishin’ to come,arouyd again when you ean fishin’, 7 For the ti Ko Then polish up your tackle and get your fly-rod ou 1 time is vary gear at hand when you can yout é d shine on ihe river bank, as lazy as you From the Atunta Conatituts ‘They've named a cruiser 1 papers say— An’ T bear they've goin” that wore the gva, Good. news! It sorter thrills me want ter be Whar the ban’ is playin’ “Dixie,” an’ the “Dixte”” puts to sea! ixie"—that's what the to man-cher with the boys an’ makes me tmed a erulser “Dixie.”” FU be bonn” You're i see some fightin’ when the Dixie swings eroun! Ef any o” them Spanish ships shall strike her, East or West, Just let the ban’ play “Dixte,”” an’ the boys'll do the rest! An’, fellers, T want ter see that Dixie—I want ter take my stan’ On the deck of her, an’ holler, “Three cheers fer Dixie Jan'!’” She means we're all united—the war hurts healed away, An’ “Way Down South in Dixie’ is national to- day! I bet you she’s a good ‘un! FN stake my last red cent Thar ain’t no better timber in the whole blame settiement! An’ all thelr shiny battle ships beside that ship ure tame, Fer, when it comes to Dixie, thar’s something in a namet Here’s three cheers and a tiger—as hearty as kin be; let’ the ban’ play puts ter sea! 5 ake ber way an’ win the day from shinin’ An’ “Dixie” when the Diste East or West— z Just let the bau’ play “Dixie,” an’ the boys'll do the rest! In the Sweet o° the Year. From the Sunday Magazine. Merrily piping a carol of mirth, And of thanks for the life that was dear; Glad of the breath of the Spring o'er the earth, Sung a bird in the sweet o° the year. Singing a message of death as 1 Woe ‘is me for the life that w Swift from the string flew an arrow, and dead Feil the bird in the sweet o' the year. +o +-———_ : A Lullaby. From the Beston Pilot. Rock-a-bye, hush-a-bye, bahy, my sweet, Pink little ‘fingers and pink little feet, Soft is your pillow, your cradle is wlilte— Rock-a-bye, bush-w-bye, baby, good night! byc, bush-a-bye, sleep and grow strong; is a journey, the pathway is long; Soon must the baby feet up and awzy— Rest, little pligrim, oh, rest while you may. Drop the whit fe curtains with fringes of brown, ‘This ts the uto dim Slumbertown, Six misty bri¢ges that melt as we pass, And street after street that is waving with grass. Rock-a-bye, bush-a-bye, baby is gone, Sandering ar till the ‘peep of the dawn, Soft every Ycotstep that passcs the sill! Smile and be dumb when the cradle hangs still. - cee ‘Traitors Gate.” Altce D'Alcho in the New England Magazine. Under the shadow of Bondéw’s Tower, er Avching out o'er the! watdt's brim, Stands 2 portal, of evil dower, With rusted bars ané ah epect grim, Around its base the rifér's lime, gs, Ike a record ofvmbanetul crime Of long, long years defies with blosd: When the viver casried) a human fretght Under the arch of the Traitor's Gate. = oe Under it passed the good. ‘the brave, The wise in counefl, the young and fair; But hope shrank back»from that living grave, Nor roth, nor pity entered-there— Where patriot hearts their work laid down, The soldier fought bin last!dread fight, And gentle lives, in suinshigie reared, Were quenched’ in darkest, ‘saddest 'night— While the river mourned for! their bitter fate, As it lapped the steps of tthe Traitor’s Gute. 5 Under its arch with a sigh ‘The murky watets cop and Hows jenrks gO by, And thousand careleany cS ‘et few its tragic st We But in highest heaven they kent well— That mournful record af blood and tears— And mark with Joy-lit eyes, the new, iter things, of these later years; And perhaps :p the books that for judgment wult ‘They see it written: the Martyr's Gate. — Night in Venice. Love, in this summer night, do you recall Midnight, and Venice, and those skies in June Thick eeoes wie ‘stars, when from the stilt We glided nolectess thi the dim canal? A sense of some belated festival | eae pa i tic ee passionate memories Lit up.on dome and tower and palace wal We ‘camed that ghosts of vanished loves made MADRID IN WAR TIME A Frenchman’s Impressions of the City and Palace. ‘The Old Latin Gayety is Still to the Fore—Dissembling Distrust and Disquictude. Pierre Loti in Figaro. Three o'clock in the afternoon. As the evening appreaches the streets of Madrid grow more and more animated, filled with @ crowd gay end vivacious. Before the palace, in the avenues, offi- cers and soldiers ride about in uniforms of charming elegance; white hussars; blue hussars; red hussars. At the old historic palace the white hussars are on guard. Un the staircases, in the courts, pace up and down the halberdiers, striking with their weapons the carpet or the sounding stone when some prince or dignitary passes befure them. And see, down there, uraversing the inner galleries and announc- ed by the respectful salute of the halber- aers, a very novle woman, with a beauti- Tut fae ana white hair, with the bearing vf a queen—her imperial nighness, tae Afuauchess isabel, mother of her majes- ly, the Queen Hegent. ashe lacade of tue palace gives on a sort of circusar garden, pordered with antique siatues, Which seem to be drawn up thus about tne trees, to dance some stateiy old- ume aaner. On the opposite side, the royal windows everlook tue country—a country which as- (cmsnoes becuuse tuere, 80 near the ci it has already the aspect of a desert; no houses, apparenuy uo roads; woous, under- brush, a vast halt-savage extent, which ends at the far-off mountains, and through which winds the melancholy Mancanares. pucn a view, seen between curtains of brocade, the colors of which age hus de- licivusiy subduea, gives to tne sump- lucus solitary apartinenis sometaing more ot melancholy and of grandeur. A whole PeSt Of magnificence and ot glory seems lv sieep in tnose dusky salons which sue- ceed oie another in an interminable vista, Giversified at this point or that by the fan- lasy of the arusts of other days, so that one finds in walking through them a series of surprises. ‘Ihe lofty casmgs of the qavors are all made of agates cr of rare Burbles whose colors, strangely veined, harmonize with the brocaded tapestries of the walls. There is the salon of Charles III, all in soft blue starred with silver. Other salons, hung with exquisite old satins, are of a aying rose, with the blazonrtes of Louis XV, or of an inimitable old rose embroidered in goid, with an exuberant Henaissance ornamentation; or else of a green bizarrely mixed with saffron yellow, or again of royal blue emblazoned with brilliant yellow, with furniture of which magnificent stiffness dates from the A certain grand salon, with a ceiling all in towers and scrolis of faience, has mural panels in pearl-gray satin, em- broidered apove and below with garlands, rose-colored or white, which must have consumed the lives of a legion of patient workwomen. And one feels that all these precious thirgs, respected by human revo- lutions, have dwelt here immobile during years and ceniuries. The ghosts of the monarchs lying in the Escurial would find here again, intact and only a little faded, the splendors which they knew. The throne room, the most immense and most superb of ail, hung entirely with ancient cramvisy Velvet, embroidered in gold, is peopled the length of its walls by great black stitues holding in their hands «old embiems, and standing out in strangely agitated poses from the bril- liane of the red pedestals. Four lions in bronze guard the steps of the throne of Spain, where on solemi sceasions is seat- ed, also in the garb of ancient days, that queen and admirable mother whom Euro ut this moment seems to wish to abandon in the face of an unlooked-for peril, of re- volting aggressions. This evening the approaches to the palace are comparatively tranquil and si lent. But, as more than anywhere else happens in Madrid, the crowd swells from moment to moment, invades the streets and the pro at the approac! tation, perk certain grou des, like a sea, mounting of dusk. One divines agi- 8 anxiety, in the attitude of which are stationed before the places where the telegraph brings news. But the whole people is determined and full of confidence in its good cause; the whole people shows a beautiful and Joyous courage. The old Latin gayety which is common to the Spaniards and the French covers out of sight those dis- quietudes so bravely dissembled. One guitars, songs and laughter. ise, Which one takes for the of a fete, increases ever as the right falls. ese MATANZAS, One of the Deligh Places of Resi- dence in Cuba. From the Fortnightly Review. Matanzas, although far smaller than the capital, ts decidedly better built, the streets being much more regular; Santiago de Cuba, the old capital, is situated on one of the most iovely bays In the world, but it is nothing like as clean and prosperous look- ing as Havana, although it has much hanJ- somer public gardens. Puerto Principe has the advantage of a charming natural posi- tion at the head of a lovely bay, and its Alameda, or public promenade, is marvel- ously beautiful, with its stately rows of peacock acacias, orange trees and cocoa balms. Matanzas is, after Havana, by far the most agreeable place of residence in the island, and is situated in a delightfully fertile district. Independently .of its fa- mous crystal caves, which are of great ex- tent, and formed of the purest and clear- est of rock crystal, Matanzas, close to the valley of the Yumuri, has the good for- tune to be the most Eden-like spot in the West Indies. It is impossible to describe the charm of this “happy valley,” so rich in its vegetation, and so delightfully is it watered by the River Yumuri and tributary streams, so delicious, even on the hottest summer days, is its atmosphere tempered by the Atlantic breezes. If the environs of Matanzas are attractive, I cannot say much for those of Havana itself. The two principal suburban resorts, Marianao and Carn:elo, are not particularly pretty. They boast of a number of wooden restaurants, and public gardens blazing with every Sort of gorgeous creeper, the blue convoi- vulus major and the trumpet vine being the Inost prevalent. Here of a Sunday after- noon the European clerks, the Germans and their belongings, especially, foregather to dine and sup. Hitherto no governor has had sufficient enterprise to make a road by the sea on either side of the port. This might be casily done, and would be of the greatest advantage to the city. it Havana were ever to fall into the hands of a more enterprising nation than the Spanish it could be easily converted into a first-class winter station. From No- vember to the beginning of April the cli- mate is most enjoyable, and the city has many resources, such as a magnificent op- era house, the Tacon; theaters, clubs and several fairly good libraries, and scientific and literary institutions. ——__—_~-.-__ FRENCH AND ENGLISH NAVIES, Weakness of the Former Shown Up by One of Her Admirals. From the London Times. Rear Admiral Dupent, writing today in the Gaulois on French and English navies, says: “The speech of Mr. Chamberiain, the campaign waged against us In the English press, the attacks of the British minister on Russia, the general ill humor of the English merchants, menaced everywhere in their interests, constitute disquicting symptoms which it would be pueriie to ig- ‘nore. The question naturally arises, there- fere, in everybody's mind, is the French navy ready for an eventual struggle with the English navy? As regards the number of ships now available, as regards facility of concentration of forces, the judicious chcice and the preparedness of naval bases, our inferiority is notorious. Since the ap plication of the naval defense act our | neighbors have doubled their resources by constructing, with a feverish haste. They have been able to launch within a 12,600 to 15,000 i enti and twenty-two smaller vy: disproportion, already great, which existed Sore oe two navies pln Be ine ovsly increased. England can now to Une thirty-four battle ships of from 9,000 to 15,000 tons, fifty-two large cruisers, E @ very large number of smaller vessels, among which should be noted a numerous flotilla of very rapid torpedo boat destroy- ers. Besides these vessels, twenty older battle ships, for the must part remodeled, may be reckoned a solid reserve to this aiready formidable force. ‘What have we to set against this array? Sixteen new battle ships, eight good coast defense vessels, about ten old battle ships of mediocre value, and twenty-three rod- ern cruisers. Reckoning on both sides the vessels that are of no use for service, and taking into account breakdowns and acci- dents, we may say, on the whole, that the strength of our navy is betwe a chird and a half of that of the Englich navy. The quality of the similar vessels in both ravies is about the same. The inxlish vessels have in general a look of greater Strength, they can go greater distances, ard their tonnage is greater, whica en- ables them to be better armed and equiz ped. Their guns are well placed, but less Powerful at an equal caliber. The speed is usvally inferior to ours and can be less easily kept up, in spite of the nominal fig- ures to be found in the numerous Has pub- Ushed in both countries. “In a word, the value of similar types is approximately the same, but we remain in presence of a crushing numerical super- jority. And our inferiority is incroased by the inadequate preparation of statioas cut side Europe. While England is strongly pcsted at the outlets of all the great mari- time lines of the globe, we are reduced to utilizing a few indifferently placed posi- ticns. “We shall patiently bide our time, and it will certainly come. Meanwhile we shall organize an implacable system of priva- teering against the trade of our eventual enemy. I know not what diplomatists think of the convention of 1856, but as for us sailors, let the Erglish be assured be- forehand that we shall carry on privateer- ing against them, and let them rake the ruin of their maritime trade into their forecasts.” ——--+ e+ --___ GOING INTO COMMISSION, Preparations and Ceremonies Board of a Man-of-War. From the San Francisco Call. There has been much talk of late about putting vessels of the navy “into commi: sion.” The full meaning of the term is something of which few have any ade- quate conc2ption. To put a modern war ship into commission involves an enor- mous amount of work, which can ie fully appreciated only by one who has observed the process from beginning to end. When a vessel of the navy is laid up in reserve, “in ordinary,” as it is called, it ts far from an attractive object, and could hardly be recognized as the same ship when in thorough trim with crew aboard. The ship ts anchored at a convenient navy yard; the stores are sent ashore, her en- gines and suns covered with oil and an anti-rust paint; her decks are allowed to become di her sides dull and stained from rusty chains. Thus she lies perhaps for months, and then an order comes from the Secretary of the Navy, through the chief of the bureau of navigation, directing the commanding officer of the yard to get her ready for sea. The first thing to be done is to bring as many men as possible from the receiving ship which lies hard by, and these, with the force of the yard, under the direction of whatever officers are available, begin at once to put things to rights and remoy the accumulated dust and dirt from the different parts of the equipment: the en- gineer’s force goes at once to the engines and boller rooms; the anti-rust paint is re- troved from the engines; new packing is put in the valves and joints; the pumps are tested; the rust and dirt Knocked from interiors of fire boxes and boiler tu)2s and grate bars renewed. Outwardly everything is now in fair con- dition, but this is only the beginning. it remains to get up steam in some of th boilers, turn over the engines to see if : are in proper trim, start the dynamo. the electric lights ‘and pilot hou: nals; turn on the searchlights, start the fens, work the ste ring gear and steering 8, sei the hoisting machine tion, and put the boat cranes in op Every engine, boiler, wire, tube, bolt, nut and plate is carefully i and, if found unservie from any repaired. Next the equipment stcrehouse is visited ab’ ané a fail allowance ot beef, po beans, pctatoes, coffee, sugar, salt. flour, meal clothing, shoes. hamnreks, blankets, pain’ tobaceo—in short, the whole assortment of the comm: is placed on board. ‘The p ship is respon: for every article reseiv- 5 strict acccunt is kept vf cacn. Then the gulley or couking stove nz exemined to see whether it is com: all its findings. The outfit of a gail ally consi.tis of two coppe: gallons each, a fifty iron jacket and copper-hinged cov steamers for vegetabl pacity of thi Saucepans, # tine set of to lifting and firing and the ordinary cooking imple- ments. The line officers look after the condition of the guns, the rigging, the boats, th> ca- bles, the anchors, the flags, and signal: the charts, the nautical instrumenis other parts of the ship's equipment. ¥ this means ean only be apprecia who has actually undertaken the t volume might be written in reg: signals alone. When all this work has been done the ship is ready to go into commission, and up to this time everything has been under control of the commandant of the yard, so that when the captain of the ship arrives and reports himself to the yard commander little remains for him to attend to. In whe meantime men have been brought together to constitute the crew. Sometimes they are enlisted particularly for the ship which is about to go intc serv- ice, at other times they are withdrawn from other ships which have just been pat out of commission. The crew and marincs re- pert aboard with bags and hammocks; the captain orders the crew to be drawn ap on the spar deck promptly at noon upon the day on which the ship is to be put formally in commission, reads to them his orders from the Secretary of the Navy detailing him to the commend, hoists the commission pennant to the main truck and the stars and stripes to the gaff or staff at the stern and all is ready. The ship is now in commission. ee a arn India’s Forest Reserve. From Tit-Bits. Few people have any {dea of the immense forest area in British India—a valuable as- set, which is now being systematically pre- served. At the present time the reserves of the forest cover an area of nearly 75,000 square miles, and they may hereafter be further extended in Madras and Burma, where the work of reservation is as yet incomplete. Outside these reserves are about 56,000 square miles of state forests, some of which will eventually be brought within the reserve area. This means that there are in India, practically for all time, forests which would completely cover the United Kingdom. The mountain slopes of the western Ghauts are still covered with the splendid vegetation of primeval forests of the tropics and include the following trees: ‘Teak, ebony, ironwood, Indian ma- hogany, sandalwood and the ubiquitous bamboo. In the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, north of the ‘St. Lawrence river, there is one great continuous tract of for- est, which extends northward to Hudson and“ Labrador and which measures alto- gether about 1,700 miles in length and 1,000 miles in width. miscellan sary deparun ymaster of tie two t © sk. A te the se+-—__ Invention of the Boomerang. From Blackwood’s Magazine. Of all man’s inventions, the boomerang seems the strangest and least likely kind of weapon for the natural man, with no knowledge of mechanics, to have hit upon; and yet it becomes intelligible enough when we hear that in Australia, where the boom- erang was discovered, there grows a tree that sheds a seedpod of such a shape that it whirs away in the air and returns again as it falls. But how maaf “black fellows” had watched these seedpods whir and gy- rate—our own ash throws down things that try to emulate the gyration—vefore one of \e 23 ARE ANGLO-SAXONS People of Washington Compared With Those of New Yor ction COMMENTS OF AN ENGLISH WRITER With Us the War Means Only Conscientious Work. > NO SIGNS OF Hy —_—-_-— Washington Correspondence of the London Mail When I climbed aboard the sleeping car at New York the wild yells of the news- boys were filling the air, and people were talking poster-type headlines. When L woke up in the morning a couple of hun- dred miles south I Jooked out of the win- dow and saw an English rural winter scene. There was snow six inches deep up- on the ground, and the trees by the side of the line were covered with the thick soft shroud of snow we are accustomed to see on Christmas cards. In Washington it was not snowing, but it was raining with a steady, persistent, patient, thoroughly Anglo-Saxon style. I unfurled my umbrella to the breeze and felt at home. I walked along the weli-paved, broad Pennsylvania avenue, and the f ing intensified. There were English names over the doorways of the quiet little shops, and through the open doorways the Joneses and Jamese d Wilkinsons were to be seen behind their counters quietly attend- ing to their busthess. The polyglot hordes of New York, the rushing and yelling. the poster-type jingoism, had all been left b hind. But for the slowly-moving, placid- faced negro men and women, the yello ish-black children, the swiftly-gliding elec- trict tram cars, the wooden sun shutters to the windows, and the glorious gray dome of the Capitol floating above t trecs at the end of the vista of the bo: vard, why, it might have been Worcester or Exeter instead of Washington. Washington Newspapers. There are newspapers here, and they had their bulletin boards. But instead of lurid pictures and nightmare announcements, there were posted on the boards sheets of paper bearing in manuscript brief sum- maries of a were regarding with sober only one night's journey from New York, but In the night I had traveled from one country to another. I had gone to sleep in New k and awak- ened up in America. The nge was like sing from the betting ring of a suburban meeting into the reading room of a ervative club on a Sunday afternoon. My business was at the government ¢ fices. I wanted to sce in what form of frenzied energy the seething war fev the New York crowd would expre the seat and center of government the offices great handsome blocks, in. the famillar governmen ‘tvle of architectu standing near to the White H midst of pleasant green parks and gardens in the outskirts of the city. But where was itement? Outside, a al look were not drawn their temperatures med normal; they looked like men who, ving important business to attend tc were going about it in a business-like way with level minds, calmly and good- humoredly, conscious of their ability to at- properly to it. A light brougham, n by a pair of fine horses, with a smil- driver half asleep on the box, was wait- ing at the entrance to the army office. One or two handy little buggies were in waiting, No Signa of Hysteria, The War Department was so calm ex- ternally that I thought surely some scene of excitement must have drawn every one inside the bvilding. I entered, No exci t, no noise, no rush nor hurry. Down the long, cool corridor of the Navy Depart- ment men in broad-brimmed slouch hats and loose clothes were chatting in groups outside the light swinging bamboo screens that serve as doors to the various office: Messengers were passing along briskly, but without scurry. Now and then one of t swinging screens would open and an elderly, grave, high official weuid pass out with a nod and a “howdy, colonel?” or a “howdy, senator?” to one of the broad-brimmed ones. This did not look very frenzied. It did not look like the crystallization of the vapors of the New York crowd. It did not look like the high pressure of war times. i thought I would like to look in one of the offices, and I asked a messenger who was sitting at a little table in the corridor. “Why, of course,” he raid, when I diffi- cently explained, “step right in; which one wculd you like to see? Unexpected Courtesy. Emboldened by his complaisance, I said I should like to see the office of the Secre- tary. Even then he did not drop dead or show any of the distressing symptoms Which would have been manifested by an admiralty official to whom a t ing American had covlly expressed a desire to see the under clerk of the second assistant private secretary of Mr. Goschen. On the contrary, he pointed to another bamboo door, and said, “Right there; step right in.” I stepped in. A big room, solidly and handsomely fur nished, with pictures of Presidents and na- val cormmanders on the walls. At a desk one of the chief departmental officials steedily working away at a pile of papers; by his side a typewriter rapidly clicking: on the ottomans running along the wall half a dozen or more of middie-aged re- sponsibie-looking men were sitting discuss- together details of the naval opera- ing tions; at the end of the room was an- other swinging door. It opened, and a pleasant-faced elderly gentleman came out, accompanied by several others, with one of whom he walked along arm in arm, chat- Who was the easy-mannered gentleman? I asked. It was Mr. Long, the Secretary of the Navy Department. He was on his way to attend a conference of high naval authorities. Not much of the Fester-type headline about this, I thought. I asked to sea the private secretary to Mr. Long, from whom I desired to obtain an official permit to see the naval opera- tions. ting at ease. Shock to an Englishman. It was quite a shock to find that there was no printed form to be filled up explain- ing who I was and whom I wanted to seo and what I wanted. The gentleman I want- ed was pointed out, and I was at liberty to go and taik to him.’ I did so. A keen-faced, bright-eyed young gentleman stepped smil- ingly forward. In two seconds he under- stood what I wanted; in “two minutes the thing was as good as settled. There was only one difficulty; the nation at the pres- ent time was at war, and certain necessary precautions must be taken. So it would be, unfortunately, necessary for me to make written application, and furnish proof of {my identity. That having been done, would I call aro.nd a couple of hours later, ani he would have the Secretary in the mean- time sign the order?—not much sign of fever here. I looked inside other swinging bamboo door screens. Everywhere calm- faced men were steadily at work, unexci edly carrying out the orders which had been issued by their chief. I walked along another corridor and came to the army dc- partment. Here everything was going on just the same. Every one, from Gen. Alger @ownward, was busily and thoughtfully and composedly at wyrk. Among Anglo-Saxons. In the midst of the mob at New York one could not help now and then wondering whether, after all, America was quite so sure to win. Here at Washington one be- gan to understand why America could not lose. For, while in New York the polyglot crowd was shrieking ignorance and swal- jowing lies, and cheering the empty bom- bast that passed with it for patriotiem, here in Washingion men with good old that everything that was necessary to be done knows who they all were, or whence they