"Breeding Social Revolution" is the title of an editorial in the Wilkesbarre Record of November 22, in which it recites the fact that after the death of a dog in Cincinnati, the carcass was laid out in the best room of the palatial mansion of its owner, in a coffin that cost as much as the casket of a well-to-do human being. A profusion of flowers was sent in by friends of the distressed mistress, and the carcass was conveyed to the cemetery in a hearse followed by a procession of carriages. Four veterinary surgeons were in attendance at the sickness of the dog, and the cost of treatment footed up three thousand dollars. In addition to this, it notes that in Chicago a few days ago a society matron issued invitations to a dog party. The guests took their pets to the home attired in costly robes, and bejeweled with diamonds—that is, the dogs were. Nurses attended the animals, and a line of automobiles was in waiting. And the Record asks the question, "Is it any wonder that there is an ominous condition of unrest against the accumulation of vast wealth, and that Socialism is menacingly on the increase?"
The Woman's Baptist Missionary Union meeting in Augusta, Georgia, November 14, expresses in a resolution the great humiliation they feel in the present styles of dress among American women, which in many cases are destructive of health and comfort, are immodest, suggestive of evil, and therefore inconsistent with the character of America as "a Christian nation;" and the union pledged itself to throw the whole weight of their influence toward the rejection of frivolous and changing fads in dress, and toward the adoption of a modest form of dress which will be beautiful, and at the same time above criticism and ridicule, which now assail the dress of women in "Christian America." All of which is splendid, if they will drop the "Christian nation" and "Christian America" idea. It is these styles of dress, together with ten thousand other evils on the part of both men and women, which demonstrate to a fraction that America is not a Christian nation. God does not convert by nations, but by individuals.
The French Association for the Advancement of Science has been investigating the question of sitting positions in writing, and has found that the attitude necessarily assumed in vertical writing causes curvature of the spine,—in fact, a double curve, compressions on the upper and lower groups of vertebrae. The article states that there is not a board of education in the country but what, if its members knew how this vertical system of penmanship actually deforms the tender spines of the children, would order the system changed without a day's delay. The investigation was carried on by X-ray photographs.
Remains of a very large bird have been found in Wyoming, thought to be the largest bird that ever existed in North America or the world, somewhat the same as the New Zealand moa. The scientific guess is that it existed something like three million years ago. The great probability is that it was among the animal life that was overwhelmed at the time of the Deluge.
A British "lady" is over on this side, a society writer tells us, with a supply of six hundred cigarets, smokes them, and boasts of her smoking of them. And she tells us that good people are smoking them everywhere, and more and more will we see women smoking them. Cigaret smoking has meant degeneration in boys and men. Will it mean less than this on the finer nerves of women?
A Vain Hope.—Dr. Washington Gladden, of Ohio, recently lectured on the Pacific Coast. He is predicting a great world's commonwealth, in which he believes public wars will be outlawed. We can understand how men who do not believe in evangelical Christianity can look upon such a thing as possible; but for a gospel minister, one belonging to an evangelical church, to look for such an ideal government in this world, is a practical denial of the Word of God and its positive declarations. If all the world were converted to Christ, this could be. Man is unregenerate; and as long as he is unregenerate, the great scheme of selfish spoliation will go on. Men have always admitted their folly, just as statesmen are admitting the folly of war to-day; but man has always gone on in his follies, just as the nations will go on in war, and just as the Bible declares that they will.
M. Poincare, the French Prime Minister, at the left, and M. Sazonoff, the Russian Premier and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, at the right, discussing conditions in Europe. The two governments have affirmed the fact that complete agreement prevails between them, and both are using their power and influence to preserve the peace in Europe. The Russian Premier is said to be an ardent supporter, not only of the alliance with France, but of the Triple Entente which includes England.
The "Christian Science Monitor" of November 8, 1912, says that the International Time Congress now being held at the Paris observatory has, according to the "Matin," arrived at a decision which will give immense satisfaction to France, in making Paris the great time center, connecting with the Eiffel Tower various stations all over the world by which the time can be communicated; altho the official time will still continue to be that of the meridian of Greenwich, and from this the local time will be determined at the various stations by astronomical observation. The stations selected are Paris; San Fernando, Brazil; Arlington, United States; Mogadisco, Coast of Somali; Manila, Philippines; Norddeich, Germany; Massaoah; and San Francisco. This is not universal as yet. Ireland holds to Dublin time, and Greece to that of Athens.
There is a very illuminating article in the Watchman, of Nashville, Tennessee, in its December issue, on the Berlin Congress, which is of special interest just now, in view of the troubles in Europe.
A Pertinent Question.—The Christian Science Monitor, editorially, raises the question, "Will American educational and religious interests flourish better when Slavic and Greek adherents of the Greek Catholic Church rule where the church has so long held sway?" Russian influence has steadily worked against American institutions in the Near East, and against American commercial advance as well; hence it may be that with a strong Balkan federation controlling what is now European Turkey, the United States may face diplomatic complications more serious than any which have perplexed pioneer educators in Turkey, whether men like Hamlin, Washburn, and Bliss, or diplomats like Angell and Straus.
Perversions of Protestants.—The work still goes on in England among the high church men. The "Western Watchman" of October 24, in its "London Letter," says: "The conversion of the Rev. W. Hewison, B. A., an Anglican clergyman, well known among the poor of Birmingham and London as a preacher and worker, has caused a stir in Anglican circles. He was received a few days ago by the Dominican fathers of Haverstock Hill, and will shortly commence his studies for the priesthood. It is rumored that his conversion will soon be followed by others still more unexpected." Referring, then, to the remarks and position of the archbishop of York, the writer says, "Many people feel deeply distressed at the thought that it may one day come to something more than plain clergymen whom Rome fiches from them—who knows?"
Austria, who is at present making its big bluff at Servia, has not the strongest coherents as an empire. It is simply endeavoring to hold together a great mass of nationalities, more or less of whom are dissatisfied. For instance, she has twelve million Germans, nine million Magyars, eight million Czechs and Slovaks, five million Serbs and Croats, four million Poles, four million Rhutenes, three million Rumanians, a million and a half of Slavonians, and a million and a quarter of Italians and other races. And these are sometimes hopelessly divided. For instance, the Czechs alone have seven political parties among them.
It would seem that a type of insanity possesses one branch of the suffragettes in England which would serve to prolong indefinitely the day when they would be allowed to vote. The last criminal act on their part is pouring into mail-boxes black, sticky fluids, or corrosive acids, thus injuring mail and in some cases burning the mail. Such acts are decidedly disgraceful as well as criminal. How could such persons be trusted with government?
A report from Ashtabula, Ohio, tells us that in a school in that vicinity the pupils came to school with guns. The teacher protested, but the parents defended the children. The teacher, in her letter of resignation, remarked that "I can not sacrifice my life and happiness for people who do not need a teacher, but instead a person who can enforce the laws of Ohio."
The fashionable hotel in Jersey City, the Fairmont, admits dogs, but an expected baby was positively prohibited there. The management has made an ironclad rule against children.
A report from Manila, of November 21, says that a typhoon has razed many homes and wrecked steamers in the Philippine harbor, killing many persons.12
Notes
There are many ways of getting around law. Many of the bootblacks in this country are Greeks — Greek boys — and one paper tells us that they are under a slavery far worse than the Negroes were. The padrone, or the one who governs them, engages them in Greece, furnishes them money for their passage, and they are compelled to work a year to pay that $50 or $60 advanced, rising at about five o'clock in the morning, making a breakfast of dry bread and black coffee, and a scanty lunch of bread, cheese, and olives; and do not get to bed until 9:30 or 10 o'clock at night, packed into crowded beds to rest. And this goes on for seven days in the week. A Presbyterian paper of New York wants something done to abolish this peonage, or practical slavery; and there ought to be.
It will be well for our readers to note that the "holy war" in the Balkans was first cried by the Bulgarians, and that the Turkish slogan was in response to that. Really, there is nothing holy about the war, on the one side or the other. It is wicked, and only wicked. The true holy battles that are fought are those which men are fighting within their own lives, against sin and the inherent corruption of humanity. As the Springfield Republican remarks, "It is not a holy war; it is a crisis in an age-long struggle, in which religion has a part, but also racial, economic, and political rivalry, and we need not assume that all the right is on one side, and all the wrong on the other."
The British Royal Commission on Divorce extends the basic grounds for divorce throughout the kingdom. Archbishop of York dissents. Divorce cases may be heard by the judge alone, and the public excluded. The extension of the grounds for divorce, the commission believes, will not tend to lower the standard of morality, but will have a contrary effect. It recommends that the sexes be placed on an equality before the law, with regard to the fidelity, desertion for three years, incurable insanity after five years' confinement, and habitual drunkenness found to be incurable after three years.
One of the charges brought against Governor Woodrow Wilson before his election, was that he was a member of the Knights of Columbus; but the American Citizen, of Orange, New Jersey, publishes a letter from Dr. Wilson in which he repudiates it. He says: "I have not been asked to join the order, either as an active or honorary member, and am not eligible, because I am not a Catholic." "I am . . . trying to treat every creed and class with impartiality and respect."
Philadelphia public grammar schools are teaching boys how to cook, and the lady in charge is enthusiastic. She says they have literally taken her by storm. They are not so timid as girls; they are more willing to risk something; that they handle cooking utensils with more adroitness, and in originating dishes, the test of the real cook, the boys are far ahead of the girls. It certainly is not a bad thing, in teaching the boys how to cook.
Homer R. Dill, of the University of Iowa, declared in an address November 16 in New York that thousands of albatrosses are imprisoned to die of starvation, by Japanese feather poachers in the Hawaiian Islands. The National Audubon secretary, T. Gilbert Pearson, says, "There seems to be no limit to which the feather manufacturers will not go in their desire to get bird feathers with which to trim women's hats."
It is a hard sort of story, if no more than one tenth of it is true, that McManigal the dynamiter is telling in Indianapolis in the trial there for the dynamite conspirators, and it looks as if it might involve some of those who are high up in the unions. If men refused to unionize a plant, explosions followed, and the men who were carrying them on did not seem to be confined to the McNamaras alone.
While Italy has Tripoli, she has not by any means peace there. When Turkey turned it over to the Italian government, she did not insure peace with the Mohammedan Arabs, and nobody knows when peace will be obtained. Italy doubtless has a long, slow conflict with the desert tribes, which are naturally led and inspired by fanatical Mohammedan priests.
