What Shall We Call This?
By Editor
The United States paid Spain $20,000,000 for the Philippines, which Spain did not own nor could not deliver. The native inhabitants are counted insurgents and rebels because they will not yield to a government of which they were never subjects; and thousands of them have died for liberty. But there is a tribe of Mohammedan Sulus on the islands, the sultan of which possesses a harem, and holds slaves. In other words, slavery and polygamy are established by law. He has negotiated a treaty with this government, whose "subject" he is under the purchase from Spain, by which this government has the right to garrison certain seaport towns, said to be of "no consequence to him, and he is promised that this government is not to interfere with his sovereignty or with slavery or polygamy, but is to pay him a subsidy of $6,000 a year, agreed upon by Spain before she sold him out to us." The question is put, Why not buy Aguinaldo's allegiance? Would it not be cheaper than the price now being paid? DRUNKENNESS AND LUNACY IN FRANCE.
LAST December Le Temps, published in Paris, said:— "According to the official figures, the Department of the Seine contained in 1867 7,805 lunatics; in 1896 there were 21,700; in 30 years the number of insane persons in Paris and the suburbs had tripled. "To what must we attribute this terrible increase? No doubt there are several causes, but the medical men say that the steadily-increasing habit of alcoholism is the most fruitful one. "Last year, at Ville Evrard, out of 100 new patients 22 were there through alcoholism, that is to say, nearly 25 per cent. "We must not imagine that this increase of lunatics is peculiar to the neighborhood of Paris; it is the same in Picardy, in Normandy, in Bretagne, and in the center of France; even in the South, which seemed to have escaped until recently, the same phenomenon is recorded. Almost all the departments are complaining of the insufficiency of the asylums. Alcoholism—this is the enemy." In line with the foregoing, Dr. Laborde, of the French Medical Faculty, says, in his recent book:— "Unless something is quickly done to remedy the present state of affairs, within a relatively small number of years, the whole of the working class will have become habitual drunkards." The foregoing facts in regard to the condition of things in France emphasize the degrading influences that are so actively working there. We have more than once called attention to these things through the SIGNS, and would earnestly invite our readers to ponder well what they signify. And your personal observation has shown you that France is not alone in this plunge downward. The whole world is being filled with corrupting influences, that are not merely filling the prisons with criminals, but are filling public offices and various places of trust with men who are both dishonest and vile. And while the criminal class is being greatly increased, the asylums are being crowded with lunatics, and the plague of suicide is spreading everywhere. Is righteousness increasing? Or, on the contrary, is not the Word of God being fulfilled which tells us that the last days shall be made perilous because of abounding evil? Ponder these things. Think carefully upon the evidence that God gives in His Word as to the meaning of the events of this time. Make no mistake in drawing your conclusions. The eternal issues are now upon us.