evanston
Historical
Society
Nn
NORTHWESTERN
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
The Gift of
E v.i'T S TO t: Iii : 10 EI 0 al
30CIETY
Samuel Miles Hastings
THE
MARCH OF MAN
A Review of Progress from the Earliest
Ages, with Gleanings from the
Customs and Experiences
of the Human Race
"Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let us range.
Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change.
Thro' the shadow of the globe we sweep Into the younger day;
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay."
—Tennyson.
BY
P. M. HANNEY
^ 1
Author of " How to Gain Health and Long Life"
And President of the Hazel Pure Food Company
SECOND EDITION
P. G. SMYTH, Publisher
MERCHANTS' BUILDING
LA SALLE AND WASHINGTON STREETS
CHICAGO
Annex
^6 I
H ' -1 ' í
COPTEIOHT, 1910,
By P. G. SMYTH.
PEEFACE.
Here I have gathered together, with the idea
that they may he at least useful through sugges¬
tion, sundry gleanings from the past and obser¬
vations from the present with regard to the race
to which we belong.
It is a subject fascinating and vital, "the proper
study of mankind."
An era of great and rapid achievement is the
present, pointing and clearing the way for gen¬
eral betterment, for brighter and happier times,
for benignant conditions of which the world has
long been deprived and defrauded by various
causes, especially ignorance and greed.
The beacons of Science are blazing friendlier
than ever before to guide the world on its way;
the brightest brains are active in the triumphant
solution of great, new, startling problems for
the good of humanity.
It is a period of gratifying achievement that
makes us look back, and shudder, and wonder.
Out from the mists of ages see emerging the
gigantic host, in parts firm as conquering cohorts,
in parts straggling and disunited ; onward, drawn
by the alluring light of Conquest and driven by
3
4
PEEFACB
the blasts of Destiny; onward, the surging masses
intent on asserting their natural birthright to
live and thrive, yet too often confused, desperate
and unscrupulous in their ideas and methods;
onward, occasionally amid the smoke of burning
towns and ravaged countries, with the gentle sav¬
ing voice of the Peacemaker drowned by yells
of exulting rapacity, groans of the vanquished,
lamentations of women and children; onward,
eager, struggling, desperate, blindly and wildly
onward, slaying, rending and devouring one
another with the animal instinct of self-preserva¬
tion for the sake of an often miserable and sordid
existence; onward, falling in myriads victims to
the wild beasts of "War, and the serpents of Dis¬
ease, and the vultures of Famine and Poverty;
onward, through festering city slums, through
smoke-darkened air filled with the clank and
pounding of machinery ; still onward, where shin¬
ing streams furrow the green coimtry and healthy
and hearty life rejoices, secure on the kindly
bosom of Nature,
It is THE MAECH OP MAN.
A terrible spectacle, a dread review, that long
and grim procession through the mire of igno¬
rance, the jungles of doubt and superstition, the
rocks, briars and barriers of racial hatred,
mutual persecution, robber despotism ancient and
PEEPACE 6
modem. An appalling procession, yet one well
illumined at every phase and stage by noble faith¬
fulness and devotion, sublime courage and forti¬
tude, heroic self-denial, words and acts written
in fire, encouraging tokens of the origin and des¬
tiny of the race.
All of us belong in that momentous procession.
On each of us devolves the duty of taking up and
bearing the burden, be it light or heavy—and it
would certainly seem that, whenever the army
advances in the proper direction, the individual
burdens grow lighter.
Therefore should we find piquant interest not
only in occasionally observing the nature of the
progress around us, but in contemplating the
groimd that has been covered and the obstacles
that have been overcome.
Let us glance hack over the great army whose
ranks melt away into the mists and mystery of
the past. Let us realize how essentially and fra¬
ternally we belong in it. It is only a matter of
simple multiplication. Take your two parents, and
four grandparents, and eight great grandparents,
and go back only a dozen generations. You will
find that, barring intermarriages, it took more
than eight thousand ancestors, over four thousand
couples lined up about the same time, to pro¬
duce you!
6
PEEPACE
Go back twenty generations and you will gasp
with awe and bewilderment, perhaps feel a flush
of pride and importance. For you will find you
have to your credit nearly four million, two hun¬
dred thousand forbears of both sexes, or ap¬
proaching twice the population of Chicago!
And you are an epitome of all those.
Somebody has said, "Man is the sum of his
ancestors."
Think what a variety of traits, physical, mental
and moral, one must have inherited from all those
mysterious vanished millions, whose dust reposes
in the old world, much of it probably scattered
in places widely apart, from the forests of Hun¬
gary to the hills of Ireland.
As the saying is, it takes a great many kinds of
people to make a world, and these four million
ancestors of yours—^with millions upon millions
back of them—formed a world of their own, in
which there were probably the average mixture
of rich and poor, saints and sinners, merchants
and laborers, soldiers and sailors, patriots and
traitors, heroes and cowards, honest folk and
rogues. Some lived in castles or palaces and some
lived in huts. Some had thrones erected for them
—^yes, they had!—and some had scaffolds. For
they represented among them the two inevitable
fateful forces of good and evil that are ever col-
PREFACE
T
liding and struggling for the mastery in poor
human nature.
With this strong and numerous family connec¬
tion to pique and stimulate him, the reader may
find a kind of personal interest in accompanying
me in my explorations.
My particular investigations have been on the
lines of how our forerunners, both remote and
recent, were housed, clothed and fed. The scope
of view may seem ambitious in its broadness, hut
be it remembered that the world has shown won¬
derful progress. Considering the swift fiight of
the elusive and mysterious thing called time, it
is not very long since there was not a single house
on earth, nor a boat, nor a road, nor a tilled field.
Fierce wild beasts roved among forests, jungles
and marshes, and man, living in a cave or in a hut
of brambles, exercised his cunning to avoid being
devoured by them and his poor weapons to slay
them for his protection or sustenance, or both.
That primitive instinct still spasmodically asserts
itself in man, impelling him to go and shoot ele¬
phants and monkeys in the wilds of Africa.
Along the evolution of architecture I have
glanced from the rude shack in the primeval forest
to the modem steel skyscraper whose genesis was
in Chicago ; in clothing, from ancient furs and fig
leaves to the latest style in trousers ; for light on
8 PEEFACE
the food question I have tried many sources from
peeping into ancient pots to scanning the menus
of great modem hotels.
In looking into manners and customs, habits,
laws, pursuits, amusements and recreations I have
found the human problem by turns plain and diffi¬
cult, perplexing and satisfactory. I am glad to
pass it up to others.
This book is not intended to be didactic or dog¬
matic. It has no special moral tagged to it.
Where it attempts to compare or analyze causes
and effects, it endeavors to make a plain state¬
ment, leaving the results to be deduced by absorp¬
tion. It has no message to convey save Modera¬
tion, with common sense in all things as inter¬
preted by sound minds in sound bodies.
To the men of mind and energy, leaders in the
vanguard, inventors, workers, captains of in¬
dustry and progress, who have ably and willingly
assisted me in my undertaking, I tender heartiest
appreciation; also to my friend and collaborator,
Mr. P. G. Smyth, who has acted as my trained and
trusty guide in the misty domain of history and
antiquity.
And so, dear reader, let us march.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTEE I.
Through the Long Ages.
Page.
Spread of the human race—Eealities of life in the olden time
—Domestic surroundings in the middle ages and after—
Poor housing—Smoky apartments—Gloom and dirt—
Sleeping accommodations—Scarcity of window glass—
Plagues and epidemics caused by uncleanliness—Fashion¬
able use of perfumes to conceal vile odors—Lack of pri¬
vacy, even in palaces—No dentistry—Surroundings of
Queen Elizabeth—Cruel treatment of servants, appren¬
tices and the insane—Corrupt courts of justice—Torture
of accused persons—^Pressing to death—Barbarity of exe¬
cutions—Prevalence of public flogging—Whipping posts
of Boston—The stocks and piUory—Harsh treatment of
women—Perils of traveling—Country gentlemen drunken
ruflSans—No real newspapers—No postal service—No
matches—Vast number of capital offenses—Chüdren sent
to the gallows 17
CHAPTEE IL
With the Ambulance Corps.
Evolution of the science of healing—Origin of the quack—
.älsculapius and Hygeia—Sacred snakes—Hippocrates and
his successors—The Druids as healers—Ancient Irish doc¬
tors—Unique cure of Prince Teig MacKain—Celebrated
Moorish and Jewish physicians—Medical schools of the
Middle Ages—Priests as physicians—The barber surgeons
—Hangmen as surgeons—Barbarous methods of surgery—
Greatest modern boons to humanity: chloroform, antisep-
9
10 CONTENTS
PaOE
tics and the trained nurse—Cocaine—^Laughing gas—Mar¬
velous modern operations—Drugging in disrepute—Sir
Frederick Treves—Fighting microbe with microbe—^Prin¬
ciples of modern medical science—Discovery and wonder¬
ful properties of radium—Modern science to the aid of
the healer—Triumphs of dentistry—Artificial aids of see¬
ing and hearing—Substitutes for missing limbs 34
CHAPTER III.
Feísts Classic and Medieval.
Diet of primitive man—Our cannibal ancestors—Luxurious
banquets of ancient Egypt—Feasts of King Solomon—
Saturnalia of Persia, Chaldea, Babylon and Assyria—
Magnificent entertainment of Ahasuerus—A banquet in
ancient Athens—Epicurus the philosopher—Extravagant
Roman banquets—Disgusting table manners—Excesses of
Roman emperors—Barbarians eliminate fancy cooking—
Irish missionaries christianize Europe—Moderate habits
of Charlemagne—Rude feasts of the Norsemen—Horrors
of medieval dinners—Statute of Edward III regulating
dinner courses—Eating with the fingers—Dishes and
pasties as served to knights and nobles—A Scottish ban¬
quet in feudal times—The black bull's head—Table eti¬
quette at an Irish feast—Viands at a London banquet of
1582—The clown in the custard—A modern parallel.
—Dickens on London chop houses—Modern American
restaurants 56
CHAPTER IV.
The Flesh Meat Question.
Flesh versus vegetables—Flocks and herds of the ancients—
Man's carnivorous teeth—Meat from Chicago for the
Japanese army—Examination of the tuberculosis charge
—Dressing of beef—Cleanly modern methods—Advan¬
tages of refrigeration—Professor Grindley's vindication
of meat—Mistakes in purchasing—Meats of different
CONTENTS
11
Page
kinds differ little as to digestion—Fried, boiled, roasted
and boiled alike nutritious—Mistakes in purchasing—
Superior modern methods of handling fish—Charles W.
Triggs of Chicago shows the way 70
CHAPTER V.
In and oüt op the Dairy.
Benefits of buttermilk—Theory of Professor Metchnikoff—
Buttermilk microbe a destroyer of pernicious germs in
the human body—Improved modern methods in the hand¬
ling and delivery of milk—Ira J. Mix of Chicago gives
his experiences—Nutritious qualities of various fruits—
Excellence of the Wisconsin bean—Olive oil the modem
elixir of life 81
CHAPTER VI.
The Staff of Life.
Greatest of inventions, the plow—Primitive methods of hus¬
bandry—In some lands they still prevail—Ancient feasts
of thanksgiving—Ceres, pagan goddess of agriculture—■
Olden laws for the regulation of bakeries—Roman gladi¬
ators fed on barley—Decay of teeth attributed to oatmeal
—Indian corn—Explosion of some advertising canards
as to baking powder—America the great wheat-pro¬
ducing country—Improving the breed of wheat and
Wheat breeding experiments of Möns. Vilmorin—^Illi¬
nois leads in improving the breed of corn 100
CHAPTER Vn.
The Virgin of the Scales.
A signal service of Queen Science—Why the ancients placed
Libra in the heavens—Good and bad scales—Primitive
ideas of trade—Antiquity of the moneyweight system—
Weights and measures of the ancient Jews—Scriptural
demmciations of fraud—Two sets of weights—Peddlers
12
CONTENTS
Page
versus housekeepers—Systems of the ancient Eomans,
Greeks, Egyptians and Chinese—William the Conqueror's
introduction of troy weight—Establishment of the English
and American standards—Immured in the House of Com¬
mons—Unsatisfactory old style weighing machines—Thad¬
dens Fairbanks' dream realized—Computing difficulties of
merchants and dealers—Haphazard methods—Invention
and perfection of the Automatic Computing Scale—Enter¬
prise of 0. O. Ozias and Samuel M. Hastings—Science the
Virgin of the Scales 114
CHAPTEE Vin.
The Guardians op the People's Monet.
Old system of exchanging or trading—The first money made
—Iron, brass, tin, lead and leather money—Emblems
on Greek coinage—The first bank, founded in Venice,
A. D. 1171—^Banks of Barcelona, Genoa and Amster¬
dam—^Founding of the Bank of England—Eemarkable
growth of the banking business in Chicago—Some noted
Chicago banks—Savings banks of various countries 126
CHAPTEE IX.
Dress and Fashion.
Man his own clothier—Primitive garments and lack of them—
Use of colors in dress—Aristocracy of raiment—Sir
Philip and the shoemaker—Effects of militarism on
dress—Influence of the stage—Necklaces and collars—The
shirt in evidence—Invention of the trousers—Modern con¬
servatism in dress—Splendid costumes of Oriental na¬
tions—Picturesque attire of Greeks, Magyars, Hun¬
garians, Spaniards and Tyrolese—Japanese abandon na¬
tional costume—Headgear of various kinds—First stove¬
pipe hat causes a runaway—Character by the hat—Count
Harrach's crusade against hat raising—Origin of the
umbrella—Antiquity of gloves—Footgear medieval and
modern—Barbarous foUy of tight shoes—Clothing ques¬
tion still in progress of evolution 145
CONTENTS
13
CHAPTEE X.
Striving tor Health and Vigor.
Page
Vaxious forms of physical exercise—Olympic games of ancient
Greece—Sheridan throws the discus—Originator of the
German Turn Verein—American movement for physical
culture—Popularity of baseball—Pierce football of the
olden time—Irish hurling and Canadian lacrosse—^Dan¬
gerous extremes of athletics—Prevalence of golf—Presi¬
dent Taft and John D. Eockefeller—Eecreations of Chi¬
cago Board of Trade men—Introduction and growth of
golf in Chicago—Noted local enthusiasts—Samuel Miles
Hastings an expert and authority—Jacob L. Loose,
biscuit magnate, plays the game—Popularity of yacht¬
ing—Noted Chicago yachtsmen and horsemen—Swim¬
ming as an exercise—Some noted Chicago walkers—
"The poetry of motion"—Dancing as an aid to matri¬
mony—Beneficent effects of bathing—Different odors of
various races—Blondes, brunettes and historical beauties
—Dr. Cooper's analysis of dirt—^Luxurious baths of the
ancient Eomans—The dirty "good old times"—Benefits
and injuries of cold and warm baths—Bath houses of
Chicago—Hose ablutions in Kansas City slums—Snow
and rain baths—Bussian and Turkish baths—The ' ' switch
bath" in the Chicago Ghetto 164
CHAPTEE XI.
Drinks, Good, Bad and Indieterent.
An ancient and delicate question—Antiquity of various drinks
—History of cordials—Benedictine—Chartreuse—Curacoa
—Maraschino—^Ejrchwasser—Crude intoxicating drinks
of various peoples—First mention of whisky—Eum—
Grog—Gin—Immense growth of beer brewing in America
—Oldest American champagne house—Wines of Cali¬
fornia—Grape juice—Alcohol from sawdust—Bass's ale
—Dublin stout—Tea and Sir Thomas J. Lipton—Pros
and cons of the fight for prohibition 185
14
CONTENTS
CHAPTEB XIL
Evolution op the Law.
Page
Progressive or retrogressive f—American criminal law a dis¬
grace to civilization, says President Taft—Law a prehis¬
toric institution—^Ancient laws and lawmakers—Just and
elaborate code of ancient Egypt—Moses, Lycurgus, Draco,
Solon—Greek and Roman laws—Brehon laws of Erin—
The old English Folk Mot—Saxon laws relative to women
—French the language of the English law courts—Exam¬
inations by torture—^Pressing to death for refusing to
plead—^Prosecution and punishment for witchcraft—
Superstition and law go hand in hand—Prison brutalities
old and new—Growing effectuality of American law—Im¬
partiality enmeshes criminals rich and poor—Night riders
and bank wreckers—Scientific view of criminals—Too
much law—Petty and fad legislation—Small chances for
poor man in litigation—^Machinery of the corporations—
Jury bribing and jury roll stuffing—^Political partisans—
Glaring defects of present system 206
CHA.PTEB Xm.
Theough Blue Glasses.
Comparison of ancient and modern society—Enormous Indi¬
vidual wealth under the Boman Empire—The farm of
Trimalchio—Classic epicures—Apicius—Lucullus—T. P.
O'Connor on "foredoomed children of American million¬
aires ' '—Antics of ' ' high society ' '—The hunt for foreign
titles—Alienated American snobs—"Dumped heiresses"
and ' ' noble curs ' '—Diving into soot—^Bogus foreign titles
dearly bought—The newly rich in Washington and abroad
—Booth Tarkington talks—Swell European swindlers—
Moral pitfalls of European cities—The great American
divorce habit—Bace suicide—Degradation of the stage—
Diseases of crime, drunkenness and drugs—Influence of
the press—^An unsatisfactory survey 230
CONTENTS
15
CHAPTER XrV.
Thbough Rosy Glasses—A Closing Look.
Page
Exaggerated public idea of the idle rich—^Newport colony
not proper exponents of American social life and culture
—Worthy efforts of European aristocracy to reform
itself—Persons of title who work for their living—
Forces of remedy and improvement active—Great mod¬
em inventions—Marconigrams—^Application of electricity
to agriculture—New marvels coming—Kindness and tol¬
eration—Science drives disease—The airship as an angel
of peace—Wax a relic of barbarity—Dawning era of
vastly improved human conditions and triumphant
progress of the March of Man 253
THE MARCH OF MAN
OHAPTEB L
THROUGH THE LONG AGES.
From the cradle of the human race let us try to trace
it, even from the original camping ground of Father
Adam himself. No farther hack! Evolution is an inter¬
esting theory, but if a man really believes that he is de¬
scended from a monkey or a lobster he might for self re¬
spect keep the matter discreetly to himself and treat it as
a dark family secret. The only ancestor we care to recog¬
nize is Man—by turns fierce and gentle, naked and clothed,
savage and civilized, but Man.
So, emerging from the mysterious mists of antiquity,
we see the parting processions of mankind move forth to
possess the land and to multiply, some to grow sallow in
the tents of Shem, some to be by nature black-coated for
protection against the sun of Africa, and the great white
section to trickle westward in a myriad streams. The
earth is theirs and the fullness thereof, but to win it they
must fight the tremendous forces of nature. Each spread¬
ing branch of humanily is led by a strong and sagacious
17
18
THE MARCH OF MAN
member who has been made or has made himself chief
or king. By degrees clusters of primitive huts grow into
towns, and these again into mighty cities of cyclopean
buildings and ramparts. Five, ten, fifteen thousand years
ago—it is only in these days of ours, by careful paring of
the archaeological layers of ages, that skilled antiquarians
are beginning to obtain startling impression of the pro¬
fundity of their ignorance on the subject. The vast pyra¬
mids and obelisks of Egypt arise, to smile the contempt¬
uous superiority of the very ancient world on architects
and engineers of the present.
On the Mediterranean gleam the purple sails of the
exploring Phoenicians. Westward goes the march of the
tenacious Celt. Greece lights the magic torch of art—
erecting her stately Parthenon, it is conjectured, even
while our own vanished Mound Builders are shoveling up
their mysterious earthworks. Through the great Her-
cinian Forest, stretching from the Black Sea to the Black
Forest, drift brave and hardy tribes of shepherds and
hunters—Suevi, Alemanni, Longobardi, Angli, Goths,
Franks, Saxons and others—that later form most of the
nations of Europe. The proud Eoman founds his iron
despotism and starts out with eagle standard and short
sword to give the world of his time his ideas of progress
and civilization. And on the other side of the Mediter¬
ranean rise the great walls of cruel Carthage the Mighty,
queen city of antiquity, where, in horrifying notion of
religion, young men and maidens and children are cast
alive into the red hot arms of the idol Moloch.
Thence glide we onward into the Christian era.
A good many of us ride through life with our faces
THE MAECH OF MAN
19
turned toward our horses' tails, gazing wistfully and affec¬
tionately to the past.
All of us have heard of what are enthusiastically called
the "olden times" and the "good old times." Graphic his¬
torians and imaginative novelists have painted the "olden
times" for us with brushes of light on glowing canvas until
that period of history seems to us as a glorious sunset
realm bathed in the violet light of romance, through whose
shimmering haze we catch the glint of knightly armor,
the waving of gorgeous banners, the sheen of picturesque
costumes, hear the inspiring clangor of martial trumpet
or the sweet music of silver lutes, the hearty greeting of
chivalrous men and the melodies of sweet and gracious
ladies.
To the young and impulsive the comparison begets hope¬
less longing and discontent. Gray, sordid, unromantic
modern days, what are you to those when Cœur de Lion
laid lance in rest against the Saracen? and buccaneers
sailed the Spanish Main? and Will Shakespeare and Ben
Johnson clinked goblets in the Mermaid tavern? and Gold¬
smith, Fox, Burke and Sheridan flashed their wit at the
Turk's Head, in Soho? or even when celebrated effervesc¬
ing bohemiana of Chicago ate beefsteak in Billy Boyle's
or joined in ghastly eccentricities at the Whitechapel club ?
For these were all "grand old times"—all from a decade
ago away hack through the centuries—and the mistier and
more distant they grow, the greater, of course, the en¬
chantment !
By general understanding and consent it appears that
writers of flction place the beginning of the "olden times"
in the thirteenth century, when nobles and squires jour-
20
THE MAECH OF MAN
neyed in gay and glittering array to Palestine, and blithe
and gallant troubadours sang of love and war, as depicted
by imaginative novelists.
Poor thirteenth century people! Great would be our
disillusion and disappointment and sad our sense of dis¬
comfort and deprivation if we found ourselves suddenly
placed back among them. Five hundred years previously,
when St. Parrel (Virgil the Geometer) announced that
the earth was a globe, some people were inclined to regard
him as a lunatic or a schismatic and others to resent his
statement as an audacious Irish joke. People were not
much better now. They had neither looked into heaven
nor earth, neither into the sea nor the land. They had
philosophy without scale, astronomy without demonstra¬
tion. They made war without powder, shot, cannon, or
mortar; nay, the mob made their bonfires without squibs
or crackers. They went to sea without compass, and sailed
without the needle. They viewed the stars without tele¬
scopes, and measured altitudes without barometers. Lejirn-
ing had no printing-press. The richest robes were the
skins of the most formidable monsters. They carried on
trade without books, and correspondence was costly and
seldom, there being no postage system; they had surgery
without anatomy, and physicians without proper medi¬
cines.
Living accommodations were poor and bad enough to
have excited the condemnation and disgust of a denizen
of Chicago's slums, even if an inmate of some wretched
tenement owned by a university or a rich reformer.
Chimneys were a novel luxury. Queen Eleanor, wife of
Henry II., was the wealthiest and most high-flying so-
THE MARCH OF MAN
21
ciety woman of her time, seeking recreation in various
ways, from posing as a mailed lady crusader to presiding
at the infamous "Courts of Love." Yet on two occasions
she and her children were startled by the downfall of the
rickety chimney of their private apartment. In Carnarvon
Castle, in Wales, is pointed out the room in which Ed¬
ward, the first Prince of Wales, was bom in 1283; it is
remarkable because it was the first room in England to
contain a regular fireplace with a chimney—and the fire¬
place is no bigger than a quart measure. Not for cen¬
turies afterwards did chimneys come in general use. In
the middle of the living apartment or dining hall was the
fire, with burning fagots heaped against the reredosse or
fire-iron; the smoke passed out of an opening in the roof
or hung in clouds below the ceiling, making the occu¬
pants of the apartment grimy and dirty and their eyes red
and watery.
The fioor was covered with grass or hay or rushes. This
material became damp and rotted. The habit the diners
had of throwing bones and discarded remnants of food
on the fioor must have made it still nastier, according to
modern ideas.
Thomas áBecket, the great Archbishop of Canterbury,
was famed for his refinement, seemingly approaching lux¬
ury, which excited the envy of King Henry II. His
Grace put clean straw on his fioor every day in Winter,
and green branches in Summer. These facts are recorded
with wonder by the contemporary chronicler Pitzstephen.
The arrangement was appreciated all the more because
many of the Archbishop's guests had to eat on the fioor,
in his mansion, as in others of the period, there not being
22
THE MAECH OP MAN
chairs or benches enough on some occasions, to accommo¬
date the visitors.
The lord of a castle at this period lived with his family
in the keep, or innermost building, because it was the most
strongly built and the best guarded part of the stronghold.
The windows were mere slits set high up in the walls, so
that the neighbors could not shoot arrows through them
easily, and the noble family lived in darkness and gloom
as well as dirt.
The windows were devoid of glass, and—healthy feature,
as concerned sleeping rooms—wind whistled free through
them. Huddled in cloaks or draperies, people slept on a
pile of straw, not as clean as a good citizen would furnish
for his horse to-day, and they rested their heads on blocks
of wood instead of pillows. The block was cut roughly to
fit the head, a raised part supporting the neck. Pillows
were regarded as effeminate luxuries in the sixteenth cen¬
tury. The chronicler, Harrison, says: "If the master of
the farm had in the seven years following his marriage
bought himself a mattress of flock and a sack of small
straw for his head, he considered himself as well lodged
as a lord from the city."
Window glass was so great a luxury in the fifteenth cen¬
tury that a Scottish noble on leaving his castle for any
length of time had the windows taken out and laid care¬
fully away, lest they might be broken. It was not until
the time of Henry VIII. that glass windows became gen¬
eral in the houses of the rich and great. At that time
the manner of living in London, among the generality of
the people, was, according to modern notions, wretched in
the extreme. Erasmus, in a letter to Dr. Francis, says:
THE MARCH OF MAN
23
"The floors are commonly of clay, strewed with rushes;
under which lies unmolested an ancient collection of beer,
grease, fragments, bones, excrements of dogs and cats,
and everything that is nasty." He attributes the frequent
plagues which ravaged the city to the crowded manner of
building, and the almost total exclusion of light and air
from the houses. Sanitary conditions were awful. Filth
and foul smells abounded. Sickness prevailed, and the
sick were killed off in large numbers by quack doctors, who
made use of horrible and disgusting nostrums.
Plagues and epidemics constantly wiped out the popu¬
lation of cities because they were so dirty. The great
plague of London in 1665 killed 100,000 persons, or about
half the population of the city. For a long time before
that it had attacked the city on an average of every five
years.
In 1533 the streets of London were so bad that persons
frequently sank and perished in the mud. King Henry
VIII. then ordered them to be paved for the first time.
Within a very limited compass of inhabited ground was
crowded a population of constant dwellers, amounting to
not less than 130,000, being nearly twice the number of
those who regularly dwell within the same area at the
present day.
People were thrown into prison for debt, and if they
could not pay they remained there until they died. Ap¬
prentices and servants who did not satisfy their masters
were put into prison and flogged. In early times they
were branded with hot irons and their tongues, noses and
ears slit.
Eecent investigation has shown that the Bastile was not
24 THE MABCH OP MAN
only an instrument of royal tyranny in France, but a fun¬
damental social institution of which all the upper classes
approved. A father who had a disobedient or extrava¬
gant son got a lettre de cachet and had him clapped in the
Bastile. Parents all over the world were absolute iyrants
then, and disposed of their children's liberty as they
pleased. A man of rank would flog his daughter if she
objected to marrying as he ordered her.
Insane patients, or those suffering from mental disease
of any kind, were often treated with much severity, the
usual remedy applied being the lash, in endeavor to flog
them back into common sense, to drive out of them the
evil spirit that was supposed to possess them. The flrst
record in English medical literature of a home for the
insane is that of Bethlehem Eoyal Hospital, London, which
has become famous under the familiar shortened name of
Bedlam, meaning a house or place of confusion. Bethle¬
hem was a general hospital into which, during the four¬
teenth century, insane patients were admitted. Some
partly cured patients were allowed out to support them¬
selves by begging. In order that they might more easUy
work upon public sympathy, they were permitted to wear
tin plates fastened to their arms. The wearers of these
were called "Bedlams," or "Bedlamites" or "Bedlam beg¬
gars," and tradition says that they received much more
consideration than ordinary beggars. A very large part
of the hospital's income was obtained by the collection of
fees for the admittance of visitors who came to be amused
by the vagaries of the insane. The number visiting the
asylum for this purpose must have been enormous, for,
though only a penny was charged for admission, the re-
THE MARCH OF MAN
25
suiting revenue is said to have amounted to four hundred
pounds sterling a year, showing that nearly one hundred
thousand persons had visited the institution.
Sir Thomas More, though himself eminently humane,
commends the method of treatment "in which such pa¬
tients were severely scourged and thoroughly aroused from
their willfulness." Some of the insane were chained to
the wall or kept in strait jackets, or if they were par¬
ticularly violent they were beaten into insensibility with
clubs.
In modern times there has been great change and im¬
provement in the treatment of the insane, though occas-
sionally ugly rumors float out of patients having been
beaten to death or fatally scalded in bathtubs in American
asylums.
Courts of so-called justice were distinguished for cor¬
ruption and barbarism. Prisoners, innocent or guilty,
were cruelly tortured for the purpose of exacting "con¬
fessions" as to their alleged crimes—a system that still
finds a dismal echo in modern police "sweat boxes." Some¬
times thumbscrews were used, which caught and slowly
crushed the accused person's thumbs in a toothed iron
vise until often he was manually crippled for life. But
often the victim was laid naked on the floor under a stout
wooden frame, equipped with rollers and ropes to which
his wrists and ankles were attached, and by means of levers
his body and muscles were dravm taut and his hones
dragged from their sockets in diabolical legal attempt to
extort from him the story of some crime of which he might
be perfectly unaware and innocent. This was the "rack."
If an accused person brought to trial refused to plead to
26
THE MAECH OE MAN
the cha^^e ae or she was laid on the floor, with a sharp
stone under the hack, and legally pressed to death by
weights piled on the body.
Executions, particularly those of a political tinge, were
frightful, the condemned being "hanged, drawn and quar¬
tered." In France was the horrible death of "breaking
on the wheel." The spectacle of public flogging was a com¬
mon one. In Elizabethan London there were about flfty
public whipping posts. For minor offenses, such as beg¬
ging or vagrancy, men, women and children were tied up
and flogged on the bare back, until, as the law provided,
"the body became bloody by reason of such whipping." In
London in the eighteenth century fashionable parties of
fine ladies and gentlemen were made up on court days to
witness the punishment of wretched women and girls,
street walkers and others, who shrieked under the lash.
In the American colonies, under Puritan rule, the whip
was in active service, flogging being inflicted for sundry
and minor offenses, which included swearing, shooting
fowl on the Sabbath, sleeping in church during the ser¬
mon, kissing one's wife in public on the Sabbath, speak¬
ing ill of superiors, company keeping or courting, larceny,
drunkenness, perjury, and even "suspicious speeches." In
Plymouth women were whipped at the cart-tail, and the
towns resounded with the lashes of religious intolerance
dealt on the bleeding backs of Quakers. In Virginia the
whipping law was specially minute and severe. Laundry-
men and laundresses who washed linen or threw out suds
in the open street, or who took pay for washing from a
soldier or a laborer, or who returned old torn linen in¬
stead of good linen, were severely whipped. Three whip-
THE MARCH OF MAN
27
ping posts in Boston were in constant use in Eevolutionary
times. Samuel Break wrote of the year 1771 :
"The large whipping post painted red stood conspicu¬
ously and prominently in the most public street in the
town. It was placed in State street directly under the win¬
dows of a great writing school which I frequented, and
from there the scholars were indulged in the spectacle of
all kinds of punishment suited to harden their hearts and
brutalize their feelings. Here women were taken from
a huge cage in which they were dragged on wheels from
prison, and tied to the post with bare backs, on which
thirty or forty lashes were bestowed among the screams of
the culprit and the uproar of the mob."
The civil war banished slavery and the use of the lash
from every state in the Union but Maryland and Dela¬
ware, where it is retained from motives of economy and
claimed efficacy in restraint of thieves and wife beaters.
Sometimes women are among the spectators at the antique
punishment. Occasionally during an epidemic of thuggery
or other outrage, attempts have been made to revive the
whipping post in Illinois. There has been, however, a
general feeling of doubt and hesitancy about reintroduc¬
ing one of the last relics of the "good old times."
Another method of punishment for minor offences in
vogue in this country and in England up to about sev¬
enty years ago was to expose an offender to public con¬
tempt, ridicule and dangerous assault in the pillory and
the stocks, wooden frames which held the head, hands or
feet, while the mob howled and pelted the unfortunate cul¬
prits with stones and mud, sometimes maiming or blinding
them, sometimes killing them.
28
THE MAECH OF MAN
The passage of ages brought about specially hard times
for women. In ancient kingdoms, especially Babylon,
woman held considerable power. She was allowed, for
one thing, undisputed control over her own property. No
man dared to try to cheat her out of it. It is on record
on little tablets, recently discovered by Professor Delitsch,
the famous German Assyriologist, that a large class of
women were even permitted to exercise privileges of citi¬
zenship. They were allowed to vote for representatives in
certain departments of the state. No quarrel over woman's
suffrage seems to have disturbed the Babylonians. But in
later times, in England and other European countries,
women had no more rights than domestic animals. As
soon as a woman married, all her property became her hus¬
band's, and he did not have to give her one penny for
herself. She could never afterward acquire any separate
property of her own.
It was considered perfectly proper for a husband to beat
his wife because she annoyed or disobeyed him, and there
were all sorts of laws and machines for punishing trouble¬
some wives. All over England these machines may be
seen to-day in museums and other places where relics of
the past are stored. The commonest was the ducking
stool, which was used for the punishment of common
scolds. The culprit was strapped to the stool or chair
which was fastened to the end of a long plank. This
was balanced on a central support in seesaw fashion. The
support was placed on the edge of a river or pond, and
some men held the free end. The woman was projected
over the water, and the men moved the plank up and down
until she had been ducked in the water as often as she
THE MAECH OP MAN
29
could stand it. Very often she was held under so long
that she was drowned. The use of this was quite general
in the American colonies, and by a curious oversight it
is still legal in New Jersey to punish a common scold with
the ducking stool.
Another instrument for punishing over-talkative women
was the brank. This was a head piece of iron bars and
leather straps. It fitted over the head, and held the mouth
and jaw in such a way that it prevented the wearer from
talking.
All of these old punishments, the bilboes, the ducking-
stool for scolding and turbulent women, the stocks and
the pillory for plebeian and higher class offenders, words
or letters sewn to garments and advertising the commis¬
sion of some crime, he it A for adultery or D for a com¬
mon drunkard, are proof of the comparatively primitive
state of society when the liberty of the individual was cur¬
tailed very much more than at present, and when the num¬
ber of culprits was too small to make necessary, even if
the community had been able to provide one, a jail or other
place of imprisonment and discipline.
There were no real newspapers, and no "liberty of thé
press." Pamphleteers carried their lives in their hands
and were sometimes left no hands to carry them in. A
Puritan writer, for daring to protest against the rumored
marriage of Queen Elizabeth with the brother of the Kiug
of France—giving as one of his reasons that her highness
was too old to safely bear children—^had his right hand
chopped off in public and the stump burnt with a hot
iron.
The oldest newspaper in the collection brought together
30
THE MAECH OP MAN
in the exhibition at Cologne, of the early triumphs of the
printing-press, dates from 1529. There are fourteen of
these sixteenth-century papers, and all except two consist
of four small quarto leaves. The latest was evidently a
campaign extra, got up to add glory to the King of Spain.
It has a formidable title, which runs thus: "True News¬
paper, describing how the Mighty King of Spain has late
acquired, in the East Indies, an Incalculable Treasure
worth many hundreds of millions, the like of which has
never been heard of before." It was issued from the press
of Peter von Brachel, in Cologne.
There was no reasonably safe means of traveling, and
serious citizens took a long farewell of all their family be¬
fore going on a journey of fifty miles. Great families
traveled in coaches with not less than four horses, he-
cause that was the smallest number that could pull the
vehicles out of the mud and holes. It was a longer and
far more difficult undertaking to go from London to York,
a distance of 150 miles, than it is to go from New York to
San Francisco to-day. In Queen Elizabeth's times car¬
riages had no springs. Highway robbery was one of the
principal occupations in the leading countries until quite
recent times, and travelers made their wills before start¬
ing. Four-horse coaches, running on fixed routes and at
fixed times, were a comparatively modern invention, be¬
longing to the latter half of the eighteenth century, and
even that way of traveling was miserable enough.
You were robbed by highwa3Tnen in the country, and
by footpads in the city if you ventured out alone at night,
but if you chose the most public and populous part of the
city by broad daylight you were liable to be set upon by the
THE MAECH OF MAN
31
king's officers, and carried away forcibly for a soldier or
a sailor.
The houses in the cities were not numbered. There
would indeed have been little advantage in numbering
them ; for a very small proportion of the people could read.
It was necessary to use marks which the most ignorant
could understand. The shops were therefore distinguished
by painted signs, which gave a gay and grotesque aspect
to the streets. A walk through London lay through an
endless succession of Saracens' heads, royal oaks, blue bears
and golden lambs.
The danger of walking about a city like London or
Paris at night was very serious. The garret windows were
then opened, and pails were emptied upon the passers by.
Falls, bruises and broken bones were of constant occur¬
rence, for the streets were full of holes until the last year
of the reign of Charles II. Moreover, most of the streets
were left in profound darkness. Thieves and robbers plied
tbeir trade with impunity, for there were no police, and
the men forming the watch were noted for their age,
physical incapacity and utter uselessness.
Macaulay shows that the English country gentleman of
the seventeenth century was a drunken ruffian with whom
a respectable American farmer of to-day would not care
to associate. His language and pronunciation were such
as we should now expect to hear only from the most ig¬
norant clown. His oaths, coarse jests, and scurrilous terms
of abuse were uttered with the broadest accent of his prov¬
ince. The litter of a farmyard gathered under the win¬
dows of his bed chamber, and the cabbages and gooseberry
bushes grew close to his hall door.
32
THE MAECH OP MAN
As the habit of drinking to excess was general in the
class to which he belonged, and his fortiine did not enable
him to intoxicate large assemblies daily with claret or
canary, strong beer was the ordinary beverage. The ladies
of the house, whose business it had commonly been to cook
the repast, retired as soon as the dishes had been de¬
voured, and left the gentlemen to their ale and tobacco.
It would not have been safe for them to stay. The coarse
jollity of the afternoon was prolonged tül the gentlemen
were laid under the table.
Most of the commonest, every day comforts—^not the
latest wonders of science, but just the simple things—
were imknown a hundred years ago. For instance, the
postal service, "the penny post," as they call it in Eng¬
land, is a nineteenth century invention. European gov¬
ernments did conduct a sort of postal service, but you had
to take your letter to the postofiBce, and they charged from
twenty-five cents to a dollar, according to the distance, for
carrying it, and money was much scarcer in those days.
This postal service did not carry letters about cities. It
was only for long journeys. Thanks to Sir Kowland Hill,
the penny (or two cent) postage was first established in
England January 10, 1840. And now (since Oct. 1,
1908) ordinary letters are carried to or fro across the At¬
lantic for the small sum of two cents. When postage
stamps were unknown, envelopes were equally so. The old
way was to fold up your letter and fasten it with sealing
wax at the back.
The usual method of obtaining a light was by means of
a fiint and tinderbox. Friction matches were invented in
England in 1827 and were called "Congreves," from their
THE MAECH OF MAN
33
inventor. They were coated with sulphur and tipped with
a mixture of mucilage, chlorate of potash and sulphide
of antimony. They were sold at the rate of eighty-four
for 25 cents, with a piece of glass paper through which
the match was drawn to ignite it.
The inhumanity of the bygone times is something dif¬
ficult to realize. We shudder at the excesses of the French
Eevolution, for attention has been concentrated on them
by critics, but we are mistaken in considering them ex¬
traordinary, for during the same period as many persons
were executed for minor offenses in England as for polit¬
ical reasons by the revolutionary tribunals in Paris. Sheep
stealing was, of course, a hanging offense in England, and
the laws throughout Europe were of corresponding bar¬
barity. No government could think of spending money to
keep prisoners in jail (except for stated reasons), and,
therefore, they had to be hanged. The majority died of
jail fever before they ever came to trial. France sent many
prisoners to the galleys, which was worse than death.
Trivial offenses, such as stealing anything in value over a
shilling (24 cents) were punishable with death; capital
crimes were over three hundred in number; in Elizabeth's
time five people out of every thousand were hanged ; there¬
fore executions were of appalling frequency. Numerous
among those delivered to the scaffold were children. Be¬
fore 1829 it was not uncommon to hang boys of tender
age for murder or other crimes. Blackstone cites a case
in which a boy 10 years of age was convicted on his own
confession of murdering his bedfellow, and the judges
unanimously agreed that he was a proper subject for capi¬
tal punishment. Samuel Eogers mentions that GreviUe
34
THE MAEOH OP MAN
was present when several boys were sentenced to be hanged
for taking part in the Gordon riots of 1780. "Never,"
naively remarked GreviUe, "did I see boys cry so." In
1812 a boy, Abraham Charlesworth, 12 years of age, was
sentenced to death with others for incendiarism—arising
from low wages and high-priced food—and was executed
at Lancaster. It is said the little fellow cried for his
mother on the scaffold.
But it is useless and revolting to linger longer among the
horrors—^the misery, dirt, vice, cruelty and brutality—of
the so-called "good old times."
Let us extract what useful lessons we can from them,
mercifully draw the veil, and turn in congratulation and
hopefulness to the present. Let us be thankful that we
are in the twentieth century.
CHAPTEE II.
WITH THE AMBULANCE COEPS.
It is most instructive and significant, also occasionally
ludicrous and pathetic, to trace the progress and evolu¬
tion of the noble science of healing. Therefore let us
accompany the ambulances, primitive and modem, that
attended the army of mankind in its great march through
the centuries.
Occasionally, impelled by some solitary forceful genius,
the science of healing went forward with remarkable
though spasmodic leaps and bounds; then for long cen¬
turies it rested, and the gentle and benignant Hygeia,
daughter of Aesculapius and goddess of health—^from
Dr. J. A. Printy
THE MAECH OF MAN
35
whom we get the word hygiene, only of recent years grown
familiar—^was criminally left to pine neglected by the
wayside, while the tramp of barbarous humanity went past
over myriads of corpses of the victims of apathy, quackery
and ignorance.
Hippocrates, father of physicians and physic, practiced
the healing art in Greece 2,300 years ago. Many of the
remedies prescribed by him are still in use. An edition of
his works was printed at Leipsic so recently as eighty years
ago. In the main the whole venerable system of curing
or professing to cure illness or disease by the use of drugs
seems to have begun and ended with that celebrated an¬
cient philosopher.
It is only by conjecture we can discern the origin and
evolution of what is called medical science.
Sometimes in the stone age a cave-dweller suffering
from the consequences of over-eating, possibly at a can¬
nibalistic feast, casually chewed an herb and found relief,
and gladly informed other sufferers of the virtues of his
wonderful discovery.
This was the first physician.
In the same misty period, another of our rude fore¬
fathers, happening to cut his foot, found that by tying a
bandage tightly above the wound he could reduce or stop
the flow of blood.
This was the first surgeon.
Possibly a third one, with daring enterprise and impu¬
dence seething in his antediluvian brain, had the effrontery
to approach Father Adam and offer to make him a new
rib instead of the one he had lost.
If so, this was the first quack.
36
THE MAECH OP MAN
For the quack came in with mankind, and, like the poor,
he is always with us. Not only that, but at all times he
has somehow managed to mix in his ridiculous practices
with those of earnest and able seekers after medical truth.
The art of healing among the ancient Greeks best flour¬
ished on the shores and islands of the blue Mgean. Three
years ago, in the island of Cos, in that sea, were discov¬
ered the remains of the Temple of Health, wherein the
Greeks worshiped as a god the great Aesculapius. The
temple consists of three terraces arranged in steps on the
side of the mountain. The lowest of the three, approached
by a gateway, is a three-sided stoa, or portico, about 130
yards long by 65 broad. The eastern side of the portico
had adjacent to it an extensive series of baths, and a vast
number of earthenware pipes brought water to the baths
and fountains, probably from the spring of Hippocrates.
During the excavations a curious cist with a heavy marble
lid was discovered. This is believed to have been the place
where were kept the "sacred snakes." This Ophiseion, or
place of the snakes, was let into the floor of a small sanc¬
tuary in which an altar of incense is supposed to have
stood. There the priests brought their patients to sacrifice,
and to offer sacred cakai to the serpents—^for the latter
have for many ages, among the ancient Hellenes and
Egyptians as among the modern Indians, Africans and
Hindus, played a still more important part in the cura¬
tive art than the empiric.
Here I enter the logical belief, now given for the first
time, that when St. Patrick 'Vanished the snakes out
of Ireland," his act, preserved as the chief tradition of his
memory, had reference to pagan quack medical practices.
THE MABCH OF MAN
37
brought by the original Irish from Greece, and involving
imported snakes—for according to authentic ancient ac¬
counts, written before the time of St. Patrick, there were
no native snakes in Ireland.
Aesculapius, the "blameless physician" of Homer,
brought up by Chiron, who introduced the healing art into
Greece, flourished over thirteen hundred years before
Christ. He is considered the first person who made an
exclusive study of the practice of medicine. So many and
remarkable were his cures that he left a lasting memory
of awe and gratitude in the hearts of the Greeks, and when
he died they made him a god. He was, they said, the son
of Apollo and Coronis, and he could restore the dead to
life, and he kept so restoring them and so preventing
others from dying, that Pluto, god of the under world,
fearing that his realm might become depopulated, com¬
plained to Jupiter, who slew the great physician by a
thunderbolt, no doubt to the delight of every charlatan
whose pills and potions had long remained untouched on
his dusly shelves. At Epidaurus, on the coast of Laconia,
Aesculapius was specially honored, and here oriental ele¬
ments, especially serpent worship, were mingled with the
rites and ceremonies. The temples of A.esculapius usually
stood outside of the cities in healthy situations, on hill¬
sides and near fountains. A patient cured of his ailments
sacrificed a cook or a goat to the god and hung up a tablet
in his temple, recording the name, the disease and the
manner of the cure. Many of these tablets are still ex¬
tant, and Hippocrates, about 700 years after the passing
of Aesculapius, found great advantage in studying their
contents. He was a native of this same isle of Cos, and a
88
THE MARCH OP MAN
strong enemy of the ills to which human flesh is heir, as
he proved in himself by living to about one hundred
years.
Next arose among the classic or "civilized" such pillars
of the healing art as Pythagoras (460 B. C.), who made a
special study of the structure, functions and diseases of
the body; Herodicus (460 B. C.), who invented gymnastic
exercises and the use of massage; Democritus (460 B. C.),
called the laughing philosopher, who was the first person
known to dissect a human body; Heraclitus (500 B. C.),
called the weeping philosopher, who wrote a book on na¬
ture; Aristotle (323 B. C.), who wrote the first book on
physiology and anatomy; Arcagathus (200 B. C.), who
was the first regular physician in the city of Kome; and
Asclepiades (100 B. C.), who was the first to array disease
as chronic and acute.
So they pass by, in classic draperies and stately array,
those first known wielders of the pestle and the scalpel.
Moses (1500 B. C.) rigidly imposed habits of personal
cleanliness on the Jews, and Confucius (470 B. C.) on
the Chinese.
In the mysterious country of the Medes and especially
in the district of the Caucasus, Zoroaster (about 70 B.
C.) in his snowy white robes rendered active service to
the cause of hygiene; the doctrine he taught inculcated
purity of body as well as of soul, and the necessity of
keeping the earth, the fire and the water undefiled; the
heaven he showed his followers was a place of splendor,
light and cleanliness; the hell a place of filth, stench and
darkness. He is said to have foretold the coming of the
Messiah.
THE MAECH OF MAN
39
And so, ere the advent of the great Divine Cleanser and
Healer, those famous pre-Christian philosophers, doctors
and teachers, worked hard and well, showing man how to
be clean and healthy of body and soul—for health, in Ger¬
man heilig, mean holiness.
In the distant forests, far from the white-walled cities
and the temple-crested hills, and in the remote islands of
the sea, where the breakers of the Atlantic whitened
against the grim ultimate cliffs of Europe, the rugged in¬
habitants had their doctors—sundry and various kinds of
them.
The white-robed Druids were, according to Pliny, at
once priests, poets and physicians. In the latter capacity
they acted partly, as became their priestly office, by pray¬
ing and the laying on of hands, by divination and by
charm, and partly in a more scientific manner. They
also claimed to be versed in medical botany, their special
cure-all being the mistletoe, for which they claimed that,
''What living creature soever (otherwise barren) doth
drink of it, will presently become fruitful thereupon ; also,
that it is a sovereign eounter-poison or singular remedy
against all venom." As for herbs, the marshwort and
vervain were held in high repute, while the Brittanica,
whether the great water dock or scurvy grass, was known
for its medical properties all over Europe. The Druids
were fair pharmacists; they extracted the juices of herbs
and made tinctures, potions and decoctions.
Along with the Druids there were, among the ancient
Irish, independent surgeons, some of them of alleged mar¬
velous ability. Thus when King Kuada, who had led the
invading Dananns from Greece, lost his arm in the great
40
THE MAECH OP MAN
battle of Moytura, in which 100,000 men fought for pos¬
session of Ireland, Credne, the king's artificer, fabricated
an arm of silver, which the Physician Diancecht, whose
name signifies "the god of curing"—and who appears to
have been a contemporary of Aesculapius—fashioned on
the king by his surgical skill, and his son Miach subse¬
quently "infused feeling and life into every joint and
vein of it." At another great battle Diancecht and his
daughter prepared by means of herbs a great medicinal
bath, which healed the wounded warriors who plunged into
it. An extraordinary cure, in the third century, was that
of Prince Teig MacKein. He happened to receive three
deep wounds in battle, and into these, at the instigation
of one who had an interest in compassing his death, his
treacherous medical attendant secretly introduced an ear
of barley, a small black worm and a rusty spearhead. In
torture the prince drifted towards death, until a friend
brought to him a physician of renown, who soon ascer¬
tained what was the matter. But the surgical removal of
the deep-seated causes of irritation might cost the distin¬
guished patient his life. The renowned Milesian physi¬
cian was resourceful; he decided to let nature work the
cure. He directed that a ploughshare be made red hot;
then with this in his hand he rushed into the room where
Teig lay in pain and prostration and made as if he would
plunge the fiery instrument into the body of the patient.
The alarmed Teig bounded suddenly from his couch, the
violence of the shock caused his woimds to discharge their
murderous contents, and a perfect cure soon followed.
This is the only reported case in which a red hot plough¬
share was employed in the work of healing.
THE MAECH OF MAN
41
Standing brightly out in the annals of medical science
is the name of the celebrated Claudius Galen, who followed
in the footsteps of Hippocrates. Son of an architect and
native of Pergamus, in Asia, he made studious rounds of
the learned seminaries of Egypt and Greece and at length
came to Eome, where he received the world's frequent
rancorous reward of genius, the jealous local quacks hat¬
ing and persecuting him and at length having him ex¬
pelled from the city as a magician. He was soon recalled,
however, by the emperor, Marcus Aurelius, who, on quit¬
ting Eome to make war on the Germans, confided to his
care the health of his son Commodus, and thenceforth for
many years Galen was a familiar and honored figure in
the imperial city, especially in the neighborhood of the
Temple of Peace, wherein were afterwards burnt up the
greater part of 300 volumes he wrote on different subjects.
He finally returned to his native town, where he died at
a ripe old age, A. D. 203. The medicines used by Galen
were chiefiy preparations of simples, whence they have
been called galenicals, to distinguish them from chemicals.
Now comes a gray hiatus, a stark interregnum, and
poor humanity flounders along through dark centuries
mainly lighted by the lurid fiâmes of war. The science
of Aesculapius is neglected, and Hygeia pines forlorn, till
from the murk emerge dark faces surmounted with tur¬
bans, as glide in succession into the field of helpful and
humane science some famous Arabian and Jewish physi¬
cians and philosophers. Ehazes, otherwise called Albube-
car Mohammed, of Khorasan—but no "veiled prophet"—
superintendent of the public hospital at Bagdad, was the
first to give a distinct account of the smallpox, which fell
42
THE MAKCH OF MAN
disease made its first appearance in Egypt in the reign
of the caliph Omar. Ehazes died in 932. Next comes
Avicenna, or Erb Sina, who wrote many valuable works.
Over a hundred years later, another Oriental, Ehn Tophail,
wrote his Hai Ebn Yokdan, a story of an infant suckled
on an island by a roe, growing up in a savage way, gath¬
ering ideas and coming to his sagacity, by right divine
of nature, as it were. Poor Avicenna died in want in 1037.
The talents of Averroes, or Aven Eosch, another great
Arabian physician, caused him to be made chief ruler of
Morocco by the caliph, Jacob Almangor, but these same
talents also brought upon him, as a matter of course, the
jealousy of the Mahometan priests, who accused him of
heresy and caused him to he flung into a dungeon and
otherwise persecuted. Again, however, he acquired both
the royal favor ànd the popular confidence, and at the time
of his death, in Morocco, in 1198, he was in possession of
the highest honors below the sovereignty.
The writings of these distinguished Arabs and others
formed most of the medical knowledge taught in the cele¬
brated schools of Salerno, Naples and Montpellier, whither
resorted contending savants from all over Europe and en¬
thusiastic traveling students who nailed for challenge
their theses on the gates, with results of wrangling and
squabbling galore, vide Longfellow's "Golden Legend":
"First Doctor. May God confound your foolish ambition,
Your wretched, ranting culler of herbs!
" Second Doctor. May he send your soul to eternal perdition
For your treatise on the irregular verbs! "
The school of Salerno, the greatest medical one of the
period, granted, as early as the eleventh century, licenses
THE MAECH OE MAN
43
to practice as a physician, and also as a surgeon, and
adopted measures for the supervision of the apothecaries.
This, then, more than seven hundred years ago, was the
first practical attempt to draw the line of demarkation be¬
tween the professional and the quack; and a very laudable
attempt it was, particularly as the Salerno statutes pro¬
vides that: "The person examined must be 21 years of
age, and must bring testimonials of having studied physics
for five years. If to be admitted to surgery, he must learn
anatomy for one year ; he must swear to be true and obedi¬
ent to the society, to refuse fees from the poor, and to
have no share of gains with the apothecaries."
Eead those last two conditions again. Alas for the
March of Man! There are physicians and alleged physi¬
cians in Chicago and America today who have no qualms
in extracting the last cent from the sick or ailing poor and
entering into telephonic conspiracy with the apothecaries
or druggists to charge their patients or victims an extrava¬
gant price for medicine, with a view to a subsequent
division of the spoil.
The term "doctor" was invented in the twelfth cen¬
tury, about the time of the first establishment of univer¬
sities. The first person upon whom this title was con¬
ferred was Irnerius, a professor of law at Bologna Uni¬
versity.
The title was created by Emperor Lohaire II., but was
suggested by Irnerius himself. The term extended to
the faculty of theology, and was first given by the Uni¬
versity of Paris to Peter Lombard, the famous theologian.
In 1329 the college of Asti conferred the first title of doc¬
tor of medicine upon William Gordenio.
44
THE MAECH OF MAN
Many Jews, whose knowledge of Arabic gave them an
advantage in their studies, were among the physicians. So
were priests and monks, until the council of Tours, in the
twelfth century, forbade the priesthood to practice medi¬
cine, on account of the accompanying neglect, more or less,
of their ecclesiastical duties. Pope Boniface VIII., at the
close of the thirteenth century, and Pope Clement V., in
the early part of the fourteenth, issued decrees separating
the practice of medicine from the practice of surgery and
forbidding priests to practice either art. This measure
must have abandoned surgery entirely to the laity, who
were then in the main illiterate. As somebody would
have to do the work, the clergy turned it over to the bar¬
bers, whose business it was to shave the monks' crowns,
and to whose industry of shaving was now, in the four-
tenth century, added that of blood-letting. Phlebotomy
prevailed at that time and for many centuries afterwards.
Bleed, bleed, bleed was the assumed remedy for almost
every ailment, and the wholesale use of the lancet in the
hands of orthodox practitioners cost many a good man, in¬
cluding our own George Washington, his precious life.
Thus when the barbers became blood-letters, originated
the sign of the red and white striped barber's pole, the
red being emblematic of blood and phlebotomy, the white
of lather. Blue, the third color, which appears on barber
poles only in this country, was added in America from
patriotic motives. At the end of the barber's pole hung,
as a further sign, a brass basin, supposed to receive the
blood, just as a pestle-and-mortar hangs as a sign over a
modern drug store. There was a regular quarterly blood¬
letting; four times a year, through aU that foolish, semi-
THE MAECH OF MAN
45
barbarous time, everybody was supposed to go to the bar¬
ber or barber-surgeon and have taken from his veins a
certain quantity of the ruddy fluid—which, says Deuter¬
onomy, "is the life"—and the 'fl)lodblende," or bandage,
which was often of silk, was greatly in fasljion, a crimson
badge of folly.
The barber-surgeons were held responsible for mistreat¬
ment. About 1368 they cut loose from the Figaros in gen¬
eral and formed a college of surgeons. But the ordinary
barbers kept on bleeding, and in 1375 complaint was made
to the London city council that "men barbers from Up-
peland"—which would imply that even then there were
lady barbers in the business—"little skilled in their craft,
come into the city from day to day, take houses and inter¬
meddle with barbery, surgery and to cure other maladies.
Whereas, they have not known nor were ever taught how
to do such things, to the great danger and cheating of the
people and grievous disgrace of all honest barbers in this
city."
In 1463 the celebrated Barbers' company was estab¬
lished in London. Arms were granted to the Guild of
Surgeons thirty years later. By act of parliament in 1540
barbers and surgery were united in classiflcation under
the law, with the distinctions that the surgeons were pro¬
hibited from shaving men and the barbers from bleeding
them, but the barbers were allowed to draw teeth. In
1684, after they had occupied the same professional rank
for over two centuries, the surgeons appealed to parlia¬
ment for separation from the barbers, but without avail;
it was not imtil May 2, 1745, that parliament flnally de¬
clared the surgeons and the barbers separated in every
46
THE MABCH OF MAN
professional relation in life, and the former were privi¬
leged to proceed with added dignity on their round of
bloodletting and other operations.
And such operations! It is simply sickening to read
ahout them. In cases of amputation the patient, to pre¬
vent his struggling, was strapped in a chair, and stalwart
assistants drew out and held the diseased or injured limb,
while the knife cut through the flesh and the saw grated
through the bone, after which, to stop the blood, the
stump was dipped in melted pitch. Surgical instruments
were extremely crude. Wounds were treated with salt or
boiling oil, according to the taste of the practitioner. Hos¬
pitals were foul and dirty; to a person with a serious
wound entering one of them it usually meant gangrene
and death.
Hangmen also acted as surgeons, especially in Denmark
and Norway. If they did not send people into the other
world in one way they were licensed to do so in another.
The hand that put the rope around one man's neck tried to
set another man's broken bone. In 1579, Frederick II.
of Denmark, issued a license to Anders Freimut, execu¬
tioner of Copenhagen, granting him the right to set bones
and treat old wounds; he was expressly forbidden to med¬
dle with recent wounds. In 1638 the crown prince of
Denmark had a diseased foot; it was the public execu¬
tioner of Holstein who was summoned to treat it, much
to the disgust of Dr. Henry Köster, physician-in-ordinary
to the king, who complained that for two whole months
the hangman, "who is as fit to treat the case as an ass is
to play the lyre," had the case in hand, while he himself
was not asked for his advice. Frederick I. of Prussia
THE MAHCH OP MAN
47
chose his favorite hangman, Coblenz, to he his physician-
in-ordinary.
Probably in his medical connection the hangman drove
a trade in human fat and other things supposed to pos¬
sess marvelous healing properties. He was hardly a pleas¬
ant family physician to come on a professional visit. The
combination of hangman and doctor represents the lowest
depth of degradation of the medical profession.
It is only within our own time that surgery has gained
wonderful ground in helping afflicted humanity to escape
from pain. A noted doctor recently remarked: "Were
any one to ask what to me seems the greatest epoch mark¬
ing boons to humanity in the past century, I would give
Chloroform, Antisepsis and the Trained Nurse the place
of distinction. Look at the lives that to-day stand to the
honor and glory of this trio ! With the doctor, they have
been the greatest life-savers, consequently they have been
the greatest blessing to humanity."
Stovaine, belonging in the same drug family as cocaine,
hyoscine, scopolamine and other crystalline vegetable prod¬
ucts, has heen in use as an anesthetic for five or six years
in Eui'ope. Dr. Thomas Jonnesco, of Bucharest, Eou-
mania, added to it strychnine — three centrigrammes of
stovaine and one-half milligramme of strychnine—and on
his recent visit to Chicago (December, 1909) much popu¬
lar interest was excited when conscious patients painlessly
underwent severe surgical operations under the influence
of the new anaesthetic. There was later professional opinion
that much depended on the physical condition of the
patient and that what might be to one person a harmless
pain suppresser might be to another a deadly poison.
48
THE MARCH OF MAN
Woman seems to have had, on the whole, a rather long
and dubious experience as regards the profession of tend¬
ing and healing. She was in a way looked upon as a physi¬
cal mystery and puzzle, to be medically dealt with by mem¬
bers of her own sex, especially in regard to obstetrics. In
America, the first hospital for women was founded in New
York by Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, nephew of the dis¬
tinguished Irish patriot and martyr, Eobert Emmet. Since
then the diseases and surgical treatment of women have
had many successful students and specialists in this coim-
try, prominent among them being the weU-known Dr.
James A. Printy, graduate of the Iowa State University
in the class of 1882, for many years professor of his spe¬
cialty, and resident since 1888 of Chicago, where he has
attained high honor and celebrity in his profession.
The introduction, or rather re-introduction of anesthetics
has saved thousands from cruel pain. For hundreds of
years the use of various herbs to ease pain and induce Tin-
consciousness has been known and practiced among vari¬
ous peoples. The use of cocaine as a local anesthetic prob¬
ably originated from Baron Lanney, Napoleon's physician,
who applied ice to woimds to produce a state of insensi¬
bility to pain. Attempt to abate the sting of having a
tooth pulled started the new movement on its way. Dr.
Wells of Hartford, who was going to extract a tooth of
Dr. Biggs, permitted Mr. Colton, lecturer on chemistry,
to administer to the latter nitrous oxid gas, or as it was
then called, "laughing gas"—so called because its inhala¬
tion sometimes causes the patient, according to his disposi¬
tion, to laugh hysterically or scream like a maniac. The
tooth was extracted without pain to Biggs, which led to a
THE MARCH OF MAN
49
grand improvement in both dentistry and surgery. In
1846, Dr. Morton of Boston administered ether, or, as it
was then termed, sulphuric ether, to a patient, who, while
in a state of insensibility, had a tumor successfully re¬
moved from his neck. A year or two later Sir James
Simpson of England substituted chloroform for ether,
demonstrating the superiority of the former except in point
of safety—a patient occasionally succumbing to the effect
of either of these anesthetics on the heart. Dr. Stephen
Leduc of the Ecole de Médecine in Paris is now engaged
in evidently successful experiments to show that insensi¬
bility to pain can be easily and safely produced by send¬
ing a gentle current of electricity through the brain. Un¬
like the depression to which the heart is subjected by the
action of chloroform, it is in electrical anesthesia entirely
unaffected. On breaking the current the awakening is
instantaneous and the feeling that follows is one of in-
vigoration. A form of anesthesia successfully introduced
by Corning of New York is the injection of cocaine into
the spinal cord.
Pasteur showed that the air we hreathe—every square
foot and inch of it—^is thickly peopled with microbes.
Taking his ideas from the discovery of the great French
scientist and from the views of Semmelicus of Hungary,
Dr. Joseph Lister (born 1887, at Upton, Essex) concluded
that the chief danger from cuts and other wounds lay in
the exposure of the tissues of the body to these same
microbes, myriads of them malignant, that found lodg¬
ment there, causing inflammation, corruption and death,
so much so that trifling surgical operations were often
fatal and people shuddered at the name of hospital. Dr.
50
THE MARCH OP MAN
Lister decided that the fault lay not in the hospital, but
in the surgeon himself, his uncleaned and septic tools and
his germ-disseminating assistants. Therefore, he started
a little hospital of his own wherein he put his ideas into
practice, clothing himself and his assistants in rubber
gowns, using carefully antisepticed hands and instruments,
playing upon the patient a spray of steam impregnated
with carbolic acid and taking such other measures as
ensured clean treatment, clean wounds, clean dressing. The
result was immediate success and a grand saving of
mortality. In 1897 Dr. Lister was raised to the English
peerage as Baron Lister of Lyme Eegis. He still enjoys
his title.
Professor Niels E. Finsen (bom in the Faroe Isles in
1861), professor of anatomy in the Universiiy of Copen¬
hagen, presented a big boon to humanity when he dem¬
onstrated the curative power of chemical rays of light—
sunlight, electric light, Eoentgen rays, etc.—upon the ail¬
ing human body and founded the important science of
phototherapy. He died highly honored in 1904, his casket
covered with the floral tributes of savants and sovereigns
who recognized his worth and the great value of his unique
discovery.
In Chicago one of the most devoted and successful fol¬
lowers and emulators in theory and practice of both Lord
Lister and Professor Finsen is Dr. Alexander A. Whamond,
president and chief surgeon of the well-known Eobert
Bums Hospital, near Garfleld Park, an establishment
named in honor of the celebrated Scottish poet and human¬
itarian, whose imposing statue looms amid the nearby
Dr. Alexander A. Whamond
THE MAKCH OP MAN
51
trees. Dr. Whamond was born in Dimdee, Scotland, in
1871, and got his degree from the Eusb Medical College
in 1896. Skillful and progressive and equipped with the
most modem apparatus of his medical cult, he has effected
some wonderful cures, especially in cases of lupus and
cancer. In his hospital, which is the chief Scottish one
of Chicago, the chemical rays of science shed their magic
healing power for the benefit of ailing humanity and fall
impartially upon the just and unjust.
Great, sudden, magical has been the advance in surgery,
which is now saving thousands of lives that would have
been beyond hope a few years ago. Confidently curative
hands and instruments are now laid on almost every organ,
however vital and delicate, of the human body. Wounds
of the heart have been hitherto considered absolutely mor¬
tal ; a man wounded in the heart might keep up and walk
for a short time, but death was soon and inevitable. Last
year Dr. Gibbon, of Philadelphia, stitched up a knife
wound in a man's heart, and in twenty days afterwards
the patient was well and about his business. About 100
such cases have been reported since 1896, and about 40
per cent of these have been successful. Only five success¬
ful ones have been reported in this country, including
that of Dr. Gibbon. In chloroform poisoning, after the
patient is apparently dead, an opening is made, and the
heart, grasped in the hand, is massaged back into natural
action. "The heart, when threatened with paralysis from
overdistention with blood, has been successfully punctured,
with the same end in view, and its action has gone on as
before," says Dr. George P. Shrady, thirty years editor
of "The Medical Eecord" and consulting surgeon at Gen-
52
THE MAECH OP MAN
eral Grant's last illness. "The sac surrounding the heart,
when filled with infianunatory products, is likewise suc¬
cessfully treated by a skilfully directed puncture of the
chest-well, thus relieving the pressure on the walls of the
organ."
Diseased kidneys are successfully removed and replaced
by healthy ones (as was recently proved by experiments in
Chicago and Philadelphia) ; even stomachs have been re¬
moved in part or whole—^making it debatable with some
ethnologists whether the ordinary stomach is absolutely
necessary to a human being. Large portions of diseased
bowel have been successfully removed, the severed ends
being joined by stitches, maintaining the abdominal cur¬
rent; wherefore a man with a gunshot wound in the ab¬
domen is no longer, as heretofore, doomed to certain death.
Tumors are safely removed from the liver, pancreas and
kidney. Skin is transplanted, missing noses and cheeks
replaced. What was formerly called inflammation of the
bowels and considered generally fatal is now recognized
and cured as appendicitis—though many American sur¬
geons, possessed of the pernicious old Sangrado instinct
and a desire to perform the great modern American oper¬
ation, are too prone to make wrong diagnoses and resort
unnecessarily to the use of the knife. The highest aim
of the true surgeon is to obviate an operation rather than
to perform it. "I can assert from experience," says Dr.
F. F. McCabe, of London, author of "War With Disease,"
"that nine out of ten cases of appendicitis yield to treat¬
ment other than that of the knife."
As an instance of daring and wonderful achievements
in modern surgery may be instanced some recently re-
THE MARCH OP MAN
53
lated by Dr. Alexis Carrel, of the Eockefeller Institute of
Medical Eesearch, in New York. The kidneys of a live
cat were replaced with those of a dead one which had lain
sixty days in cold storage, and the substitute kidneys
promptly took up their functions and worked all right
save for a temporary soreness. The leg of a dead dog
was grafted on a live terrier in place of one of his own,
and in three weeks the terrier was running about on the
transplanted limb as if it were originally his own! Dr.
Carrel also told that in human patients arteries and jugu¬
lar veins had been interchanged, and that the patients in
such cases had not been able to tell the difference.
On the whole, the so-called celebrated surgeons of half
a century or a century ago—honored be their memory—
would gasp with awe and meekly take a back seat at a clinic
performed by some of their humblest modern successors.
While of recent years surgery has gone forward in a
rapid march of triumph, its twin sister medicine—^by
which I mean internal treatment with drugs—has lagged
far behind. The growing intelligence of the world is set¬
ting against the practice of dosing. It is beginning to be
generally recognized that Nature left to herself has in
most cases, occasionally with a little judicious assistance,
the best chance for recuperation.
Of late a powerful opponent of dosing the sick has come
to the front in Sir Frederick Treves, favorite physician to
the King of England, and a man of vigorous, original,
independent ideas, who occasionally startles the IJnited
Kingdom by his frank utterances and bright paradoxes.
A despiser of sham and humbug, he it was who called
the crowd of "nurses," fashionable and otherwise, who
54
THE MABCH OP MAN
diiring the Boer War flocked out to South Africa for sensa¬
tional advertising, "the plague of women." A few weeks
ago, speaking at the opening of an isolation hospital, he
observed that the time was not far distant when the hot-
ties on doctors' shelves would he reduced to a small num¬
ber, and that resort would he had to simple living, suitable
diet, plenty of sunshine, and fresh air. He said he looked
forward to the time when people would leave off the ex¬
traordinary habit of taking medicine when sick, and
referred to the new discoveries in bacteriological science
and the great results achieved in the reduction of the
mortality of infectious diseases.
Sir Frederick further declared that he looked forward
to the time when it would he as anomalous for a person to
die of scarlet fever, typhoid, cholera or diphtheria as it
would he for a man to die of a wolf's bite in England.
Sir John Broadhent, another advanced advocate of ration¬
alism, recently echoed the same view, prophesying an era
when such diseases as influenza, pneumonia, measles and
scarlet fever would become as extinct as typhus and cholera
through the adoption of proper sanitary measures.
According to leading authorities, the most marvelous
and valuable medical discovery of the age is radium. This
substance, an extract of pitchblende, got from copper
mines, was discovered a few years ago by Madame Curie,
of Paris. Now there are radium institutes in Paris and
London, and the virtues of the magical new curative are
being enthusiastically declared by high chiefs of the fac¬
ulty. Only a few grains of radium are procurable from
a ton of pitchblende, so that it is extraordinarily costly.
An area an inch square will hold a quantity of radium
THE MARCH OF MAN
55
equal in value to $1,800; a tiny phial about an inch and
a half long and a quarter of an inch in diameter can con¬
tain $4,000 worth of it.
It is a substance which gives off energy as a flower gives
off scent, without suffering any apparent diminution in its
power; it is the enemy and eradicator of blemishes and
evils in the human body, such as ulcers, tumors, cancer,
birthmarks and eczema. And still it is as mysterious as
electricity. Sir Frederick Treves says of it:
"At the same time, although we know that radium does
these things, we know very little else about it. Its selective
power is marvelous. It acts upon certain tissues and leaves
others unaffected. But we do not understand why. Say
you have a lump in your arm. Your arm is exposed to
radium rays. The lump is obviously reached and acted
upon by them. It disappears. Yet the skin and bone and
muscle are not affected at all. We have got to do a great
deal of research work before we can explain radium action,
or define its limits, or tell exactly what diseases it will
cure."
Botany, embryology and pathology have come to the aid
of the modern healer. Exploration of the fields opened by
Pasteur and Koch has tended to arrest and paralyze the
hand of disease. Marvelous discovery after discovery, of
the principle of baffling the disease germ, of fighting the
malignant with the benignant microbes, has come to the
aid of the human race. As Dr. W. H. Welch, of Johns
Hopkins University, says: 'What is all the money ever
expended for medical education and medical science com¬
pared with the one gift to humanity of Walter Reed and
56
THE MARCH OF MAN
his colleagues of the army commission—the power to rid
the world of yellow fever?"
Thus, in the modern prevention and treatment of many
of the ills to which human flesh is heir, the March of Man
is most decidedly and gratifyingly onward.
Sad, however, that it occasionally cools and qualifles
our optimism to see the doors of Chicago homes bearing
the red signal of warning against contagious disease. Such
signs may he looked upon as melancholy mementoes of
long ages of ignorance and barbarism.
CHAPTEE III.
FEASTS, CLASSIC AND MEDI.®VAL.
The dining question has been always a vital one with
the race. What kind of food did our ancestors eat, and
how did they eat it?
It is a very far cry from the present, back through the
dim halls of time, to the days when our primitive ancestors,
free of house rent, gas tax, water rate, grocers', tailors'
and milk bills, sat around in their rugged caves and sol¬
aced themselves with a simple but nutritious diet of roots,
herbs and fruit.
No doubt those were pleasant old times, and no doubt
those were pleasant old people, for, having nothing partic¬
ular in the way of household cares, business or politics to
trouble them, and fresh air and exercise galore, their
hearts heat in the right place and their stomachs were in
perfect condition, and if they had to battle with Mother
Nature for a living, the war was mostly pleasant make-
Stuart G. Bailey
THE MAE GH OF MAN
57
believe, for of course she was specially kind to them, her
first and favorite children.
It would have been stirring and interesting to make a
family call on our venerable relatives among the sheltering
rocks and primeval forests. The liveliness of the greeting
would have atoned for the crudeness of the accommoda¬
tions. Some of our ancestors were cannibals, who would
have made us welcome, if not to bed, to board.
With the growth of the great empires of antiquity the
art of dining was brought to high and luxurious perfec¬
tion, or rather to excess.
In the ancient paintings of Egypt are shown the guests
of hoth sexes seated at the dining table in gala attire, be¬
decked with jewels, some of them holding in their hands
the sacred lotus or lily of the Nile, while slaves, naked
save for necklace and girdle, serve them with food and
wine.
For centuries, however, in eastern countries (as in Mo¬
rocco to-day) it was the custom for the company to squat
or recline around one large common dish, from which each
helped himself with his fingers.
King Solomon, with his thousand wives and concubines,
had a corps of twelve stewards, to provide for his table,
eleven of whom were constantly traveling in search of
viands and wines. Darius and Xerxes, the great Persian
despots, gave feasts notorious for their saturnalia. Nebu'
chadnezzar of Chaldea spread a luxurious board. Bel-
shazzar, the final ruler of corrupt Babylon, feasted a thou¬
sand of his lords, his wives and his concubines the night
he saw on the wall the awful handwriting of doom. "Eat,
drink, amuse thyself: all else is vanity," was the maxim
58 ; the maech of man
which Sardanapalus, last of the Assyrian kings, directed
to have inscribed on his tomb, and he offered a reward of
a thousand pieces of gold to whoever would produce a
new dish. Magnificent was the royal 180-day feast given
by Ahasuerus of Persia—beds or dining couches of gold
and silver upon a pavement of red and blue and white and
black marble, with white, green and blue hangings fas¬
tened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings
and pillars of marble, with abundance of royal wine given
the people to drink, out of cups of gold. Nobody could
say there was anything small or skimped in the dinner
scheme of Ahasuerus.
In Prof. T. G. Tucker's "Life in Ancient Athens" the
author gives this as a picture of a typical banquet in that
city in the time of Plato (about 400 B. C.) : "When all
are in place the servants come round with a vessel, from
which they pour water over the hands of the guests. There
are brought in small tables, light and ornamental, one of
which is set down before each couch for two persons, and
on these are placed the several dishes as they come, in
order. The tables are lower than the couches, so that the
right hand can reach down easily to them. Knives and
forks there are none ; the food is taken up with the fingers.
It is true that in dealing with very soft foods or gravies
or in extracting things from shells, spoons were not un¬
known, but usually the fingers were assisted simply by
pieces of bread hollowed out for the purpose. It is clear
that there was plenty of room for neatness and daintiness
in handling food, and it was no small advantage to have
fingers not too sensitive.
"There were no napkins. Portions of soft bread, often
THE MAECH OF MAN
59
especially prepared for the purpose, were used for wiping
the fingers, and were afterward thrown to the dogs which
might he present to catch them. But, apart from the
dogs, it may be something of a shock to leam that the
fioor—which was, of course, without a carpet—was a re¬
ceptacle for shells, hones, peelings and other fragments,
which were, however, swept out at a given stage of the
proceedings. Conversation, meanwhile, must be general
The first half of the dinner consists of substantiels, particu¬
larly fish and birds, eel (if they could be got), compara¬
tively little meat (such as beef, lamb and pork), and vege¬
tables, dressed to a degree of which we would hardly
approve, with oil, vinegar, honey and sauces.
"During this part of the meal wine is not drunk. The
Athenians kept their drinking as separate as possible from
their eating. Water is then brought round again, hands
are washed, the tables are carried out, the floor is swept,
a chant is sung to the accompaniment of the flutes, a
libation of wine is poured out to the words To the good
genius' or To good health' and the second part of the ban¬
quet begins. The tables are brought in again and what
we call dessert was for this reason called by the Athenians
The second table.' On these are placed fruits, fresh and
dried, salted almonds, sweet meats, cheese and salt."
Soon the Greeks relegated the Spartan black broth to
their slaves and entered upon hypersensuous luxury in
their dining. On elegant couches, ornamented with tor¬
toise-shell, ivory and bronze, and -with purple mattresses,
they reclined on their left elbows—as was the usual un¬
healthy posture at those classic feasts—and partook of
elaborate banquets. The wines of Samos and Corinth,
60 the makch or man
Chios and Tenedos, flowed freely, fumes of incense and
strains of music arose. There was singing by pages and
beautiful maidens. Sterling simplicity had disappeared,
giving place to silken voluptuousness. It was the begin¬
ning of the end for classic Greece.
About 300 B. C. appeared Epicurus, the Athenian,
whose name has since been wrongly identifled with finical
table delights, connoisseurship of dishes. His doctrine of
pleasure being the supreme good has been much misrepre¬
sented and abused; the teaching of Epicurus was that
virtue is the essence of pleasure and that temperance is
necessary to true enjoyment.
Passing on to Home at the beginning of its decline, we
see rich and extravagant banquets, with fanciful dishes
selected more for their cost and rarity than for their
excellence as food, laid out on expensive tables covered
with gold and jeweled drinking-cups. Cicero's table of
lemon-wood cost him over $7,000. "I see," says Seneca,
"murrhine-cups, for luxury would be too cheap if men
did not drink to one another out of hollow gems, the wine
to be thrown up again."
They had very disgusting table manners, these wealthy
classic Eomans; in this respect the primitive cave men
and the later barbarians were gentlemen in comparison.
At their gluttonous banquets, when their surcharged stom¬
achs could hold no more, they had large vessels called
vomitoria brought in, and by aid of emetics—a nasty cus¬
tom which originated in Egypt—or by tickling with a
peacock's feather, they got rid of one meal to make room
for another, and so on.
The Emperor Vitellius, who would gorge himself in
THE MARCH OF MAN
61
quick succession with three or four dinners, squandered
on his table in eight months two hundred million dollars.
At one of his dinners two thousand rare fishes were served
up, with seven hundred birds. At another he had a huge
dish of thousands of tongues of birds, chiefly singing ones.
The Emperor Claudius, who usually had six hundred
guests at his feasts, died of indigestion caused by mush¬
rooms, facilitated by a poisoned emetical feather applied
at his throat. Mushrooms also despatched Tiberius, aided
by the strangle hold of his favorite Macro, who was in
turn killed by the succeeding Emperor Caligula, whose
dinner bills were immense and who distinguished himself
by giving his charger Incitatus barley mixed with wine in
a vase of gold. Nero's splendid dining-room was arranged
with moving sides and ceiling, which gave the effect of
changing skies and seasons of the year, while now and
then showers of flowers and perfume fell upon the guests.
Fashionable Eoman maids and matrons took part in
the disgraceful orgies and paid the penalty. Gout and
kindred maladies became notoriously common with both
men and women. Says Seneca: "Is it necessary to enu¬
merate the multitude of maladies that are the punishment
of our luxury? The multiplicity of viands has produced
a multiplicity of maladies. The greatest of physicians,
the founder of medicine, has said that women do not
become bald or subject to gout. Now they are both bald
and gouty. Woman has not changed since in her nature,
but in her mode of life, and, imitating man in his ex¬
cesses, she shares his infirmities."
But the dinner exploits of young Emperor Heliogabalus
eclipsed those of all the rest. In his time vice and extrava-
62
THE MAECH OP MAN
gance reigned supreme. Nude women drew his chariot
into Eome, he being dressed as a woman in stuffs of silk
and gold. His table-couches were stuffed with hares'
down or partridge feathers. His daily feasts consisted of
over forty courses, each costing ten thousand dollars.
Brains of partridges and ostriches were among his pre¬
ferred delicacies. In four years his gluttony and other
vices had looted the treasury of the empire. Then he slew
himself, practically closing the greatest and most shocking
round of imperial wining, dining and general debauchery
that the world has ever seen.
Down on the ruins of Eoman imperialism, tottering and
decrepit from infamous excess, swept the rugged barba¬
rians, with hardy physiques and normal palates, and put
sudden and stern ending to the beastly luxurious revels,
the silken couches, peacock feathers, and vomitoria. The
barbarians put the art of fancy cooking out of fashion
for over a thousand years—and the world did not seem to
suffer much by the loss.
By degrees European chaos resolved itself into order.
Cities and forests arose where once waved ragged forests,
tenanted by skin-dressed barbarians. From Ireland, un¬
tainted by Eoman dominion, stalwart and fearless mission¬
aries—hardy, though they ate not till sundown and then
but of vegetables and fish—came and spread over the con¬
tinent from the Iccian Sea to the Danube, facing martyr¬
dom and spreading Christian civilization; and at length
arises the strong and stately form of Charlemagne, great¬
est man of his time and model for all his people, in matters
of eating and drinking, as well as in general uplifting
THE MARCH OF MAN
63
and advancement. As Einhard says of him (translated
from the Latin) :
"He ate and drank moderately, but he was especially
moderate in drinking, for he had the greatest horror of
drunkennness in any man, to say nothing of himself and
his companions. He was less abstemious in eating and
would often growl that fasting was had for his body.
He very seldom gave banquets—indeed, only on the chief
festival days, but then they were attended in great num¬
bers. His daily meal was furnished from four courses in
addition to the roast meat which the hunters were wont to
bring in on spits and of which he partook more freely
than of any other dish. While at his meals he would hear
some sort of performance or reading. Histories and the
valorous deeds of the men of old were read over to him.
He was fond of the works of St. Augustine, especially of
those entitled De Civitate Dei. He drank very sparingly
of wine and other liquors, rarely taking at his meals more
than three draughts. In summer after his midday repast
he would take some fruit and one draught, then he would
doff his clothes and shoes just as was his custom at night¬
time, and take two or three hours' rest. At night he slept
so lightly that he would break his repose by waking and
even by rising four or five times."
But the halcyon days of the great emperor passed by,
and a time came when Charlemagne wept when he beheld
in the Mediterranean the black sails of the invading and
plundering Norsemen:
"They gorged upon the half-dressed steer,
Caroused in seas of sable beer;
While round, in brutal jest, were thrown
62
THE MAECH OP MAN
gance reigned supreme. Nude women drew his chariot
into Eome, he being dressed as a woman in stuffs of silk
and gold. His table-couches were stuffed with hares'
down or partridge feathers. His daily feasts consisted of
over forty courses, each costing ten thousand dollars.
Brains of partridges and ostriches were among his pre¬
ferred delicacies. In four years his gluttony and other
vices had looted the treasury of the empire. Then he slew
himself, practically closing the greatest and most shocking
round of imperial wining, dining and general debauchery
that the world has ever seen.
Down on the ruins of Eoman imperialism, tottering and
decrepit from infamous excess, swept the rugged barba¬
rians, with hardy physiques and normal palates, and put
sudden and stern ending to the beastly luxurious revels,
the silken couches, peacock feathers, and vomitoria. The
barbarians put the art of fancy cooking out of fashion
for over a thousand years—and the world did not seem to
suffer much by the loss.
By degrees European chaos resolved itself into order.
Cities and forests arose where once waved ragged forests,
tenanted by skin-dressed barbarians. From Ireland, im-
tainted by Eoman dominion, stalwart and fearless mission¬
aries—hardy, though they ate not till sundown and then
but of vegetables and fish—came and spread over the con¬
tinent from the Iccian Sea to the Danube, facing martyr¬
dom and spreading Christian civilization; and at length
arises the strong and stately form of Charlemagne, great¬
est man of his time and model for all his people, in matters
of eating and drinking, as well as in general uplifting
THE MARCH OF MAN
63
and advancement. As Einhard says of him (translated
from the Latin) :
"He ate and drank moderately, but he was especially
moderate in drinking, for he had the greatest horror of
drunkennness in any man, to say nothing of himself and
his companions. He was less abstemious in eating and
would often growl that fasting was had for his body.
He very seldom gave banquets—indeed, only on the chief
festival days, but then they were attended in great num¬
bers. His daily meal was furnished from four courses in
addition to the roast meat which the hunters were wont to
bring in on spits and of which he partook more freely
than of any other dish. While at his meals he would hear
some sort of performance or reading. Histories and the
valorous deeds of the men of old were read over to him.
He was fond of the works of St. Augustine, especially of
those entitled De Civitate Dei. He drank very sparingly
of wine and other liquors, rarely taking at his meals more
than three draughts. In summer after his midday repast
he would take some fruit and one draught, then he would
doff his clothes and shoes just as was his custom at night¬
time, and take two or three hours' rest. At night he slept
so lightly that he would break his repose by waking and
even by rising four or five times."
But the halcyon days of the great emperor passed by,
and a time came when Charlemagne wept when he beheld
in the Mediterranean the black sails of the invading and
plundering Horsemen:
"They gorged upon the half-dressed steer,
Caroused in seas of sable beer;
While round, in brutal jest, were thrown
64
THE MARCH OF MAN
The half gnaw'd rib, and marrow bone:
Or listen'd all in grim delight,
While Scalds yell'd out the joys of fight."
The confusion of war and rapine gave another great
setback to decent dining, as well as to everything decent.
Many of the medieval folk, high knights and nobles in¬
cluded, had to partake of meals that would now disgrace
the meanest boarding-house in the slums of Chicago.
Clean, fresh, wholesome, daintily served food was not ap¬
preciated or wanted by people of the olden times. Like
wild beasts they only craved plenty of meat, no matter
what its condition. Peter of Blois, a celebrated medieval
scholar and priest, gives a harrowing picture of the mis¬
eries of life at the court of Henry II., the great Plantage-
net King of England.
"A priest or a soldier attached to the court," writes
Peter, "has bread put before him which is not kneaded,
nor leavened, made of the dregs of beer—^bread like lead,
full of bran, and unbaked; wine spoiled either by being
sour or mouldy—thick, greasy, rancid, tasting of pitch,
and vapid. I have sometimes seen wine so full of dregs
put before noblemen tbat they were compelled rather to
filter than drink it, M'ith their eyes shut and their teeth
closed, with loathing and retching. The beer at court is
horrid to taste and filthy to look at. On account of the
great demand, meat, whether sweet or not, is sold alike;
the fish is four days old, yet its stinking does not lessen
its price. Indeed the tables are filled (sometimes) with
carrion, and the guests' stomachs thus become the tombs
for those who die in the course of nature. Indeed, many
more deaths would ensue from this putrid food were it not
THE MAECH OF MAN
65
that the famishing greediness of the stomach (which, like
a whirlpool, will suck in everything) by the help of pow¬
erful exercise gets rid of everything."
King Edward III. had a statute passed prohibiting any
man or woman from being served with more than two
courses at meals save on high days or holidays, when three
were allowed. It is a wonder such an Act of Parliament
was considered: one course of the foul, rotten, horrible
viands mentioned above ought to be enough for anybody.
For breakfast there was neither tea nor coffee nor choco¬
late; they had not then been introduced in western coun¬
tries. The Queen's breakfast table was loaded down with
warm spiced wines, magniffcent gout-producing bever¬
ages. The meats were as highly spiced as possible, and not
particularly fresh.
There were four meals a day—breakfast at 7, dinner at
12, supper at 4, and the fourth, called "liveries," between
8 and 9 in the evening and taken in bed. Salt junk, fried
porpoise and stewed seal were standard features of the bill
of fare. Eoast peacock and wild boar were usually served
at royal banquets. A quart of spiced wine was consid¬
ered enough for a lady at the last meal taken in bed.
Only a life of violent exercise could enable a person to
endure such a diet, and this was the kind of a life most
men led. Soon, however, old age came on, and then they
suffered from the diseases brought on by their manner of
living, for which there was no relief and no cure. Their
lives were short, whether the end was due to the head¬
man's axe or somebod3^s sword, or to the kind of dinners
they ate.
In the Ambrosian library at Milan there is a thirteenth-
6G
THE MAECH OP MAN
century MS., entitled "Fifty Courtesies of the Table." Its
author is Fra Bonvesin of Biva, a monk, and it throws an
interesting light on the table manners of those times. "Do
not," writes this rigorous censor, "fill your mouth too full ;
the glutton who fills his mouth will not be able to reply
when spoken to." The perfect diner is adjured not to soak
his bread in his wine, "for," adds Fra Bonvesin, "if any
one should dine with me and thus fish up his victuals I
should not like it."
But of the fifty "courtesies" mentioned by the ecclesi¬
astic the prize most certainly must be awarded to the fol¬
lowing: "Let the hands be clean, and above all do not at
table scratch your head, nor, indeed, any portion of your
body." After this the advice to refrain from wiping one's
fingers on the tablecloth comes as an anticlimax.
"Fingers were made before forks," is an old saying,
which now is coming into application again, especially in
reference to asparagus and salads, where fashion prescribes
the use of fingers. "Seize with three fingers all you want
to take from the table," recommends the famous Fjrasmus
(14G7-lo37). Knives were used at table to cut the meat,
for the knife is an ancient article of all-round use. Prim¬
itive man fashioned it out of stone, shell, fishteeth, any¬
thing that could be made sharp and cutting. It is said
the first iron knives were made by the aborigines of
Siberia. Spoons of copper, bronze, wood and ivory were
used by the ancients; excavators have found them in
Assyria, Egypt, Greece and Eome. But even in esthetic
France the table fork was long looked upon with disfavor,
in England it was practically unknown until the seven¬
teenth century, in Scotland its use was made a penal
THE MARCH OF MAN
6:
offense. People used knives or daggers to cut up their
food and carried it to their mouths with their fingers,
usually using for this purpose the index and middle fingers
of the left hand. These were called the courtesy fingers,
and it was considered the worst of manners to take the
food in any others. A slice of coarse bread served as a
plate, and diners finished their meal hy eating their
plates! Usually, however, king's or nobles' tables were
supplied with silver plates, which were wiped hy the squire
or page after eaeh course. The table linen was usually
costly at high banquets, and these were attended with
great pomp and ceremony. Each new course, announced
by a flourish of silver trumpets, was borne in by liveried
servants walking two and two, headed and followed by mar¬
shals bearing wands, to guard the viands against any at¬
tempts upon them hy hungry varlets in the journey from
the kitchen to the hall. The dishes were many and various,
including such strange ones as hedgehogs, porpoises, bus¬
tards, squirrels, bitterns and cranes. Finally came the
great silver nef, a vessel mounted on wheels and laden
with fruit and sweetmeats. A favorite dish was the boar's
head, with gilt tusks, and an orange or an apple in the
gaping mouth. There were pasties in the form of ships
and castles, with candy sailors and soldiers that soon van¬
ished under the attack. It was to such banquets as these
that English and French nobles and knights sat them
down in the days of Crecy and Agincourt.
A Scottish banquet in feudal times is described by Sir
Walter Scott:
"Steward and squire, with heedful haste,
Marshall'd the rank of every guest;
68
THE MAECH OF MAN
Pages, with ready blade, were there.
The mighty meal to carve and share:
O'er capon, heron-shew, and crane.
And princely peacock's gilded train.
And o'er the boar-head garnish'd brave.
And cygnet from St. Mary's wave;
And ptarmigan and venison.
The priest had spoke his benison.
Then rose the riot and the din.
Above, beneath, without, within!
For from the lofty balcony,
Eang Trumpet, shalm and psaltery:
To ladies fair, and ladies smiled."
Loudly they spoke and loudly laugh'd;
Whisper'd young knights, in tone more mild.
Their clanging bowls old warriors quaff'd.
At high Scottish banquets the placing of a Hack bull's
head on the table was the signal for some pre-arranged
bloody tragedy, such as happened at Stirling castle, when
the noble Douglases, invited guests of royalty, were treach¬
erously seized at the board, dragged forth and beheaded!
The acceptance of a dinner invitation in those times was
sometimes a matter for prayerful consideration.
The skirl of the bagpipes was the prevailing sound at
Scottish banquets. Pipers played behind the seats of the
guests. Pailfuls of usquebaugh, or whisky, were carried
around and goblets kept filled.
When, in Shakespeare's day, FalstafE took his ease in his
inn his surroundings were more quaint than clean or sani¬
tary. There were foul refuse-strewn floors, dirty tables,
poor cooking, miserable service generally. îior did mat¬
ters improve much for three hundred years afterwards,
even down to the time of Dickens, whose pictures of some
London dining places are more picturesque than pleasant.
In what he facetiously calls Geographical chop houses
"there were maps of the world in porter-pot rims on every
THE MAECH OE MAN
69
half yard of the tablecloths, and charts of gravy on every
one of the knives—to this day there is scarcely a single
chop-house in the Lord Mayor's dominions which is not
Geographical."
America has taken the lead in clean and wholesome
restaurant service, and Chicago holds first place in this
important respect in America. Prominent in the class of
up-to-date Chicago restauranteurs is Mr. Stuart G. Bailey,
whose persevering enterprise in providing wholesome food,
well cooked and daintily served, amid cleanly and attractive
surroundings, has won hearty public recognition and well
merited success.
Numbers of lives have been sacrificed and are still
sacrificed to the inconsiderate folly, sometimes perhaps to
the grim necessity, of eating the wrong thing, at the wrong
time, and in the wrong place. The efforts of able and
conscientious restaurant men like Mr. Bailey are helping
to minimize the evil and scandal. Men such as he are as
important and useful in their province as physicians. A
native of Memphis, Tenn., he has been for nine years
practically pursuing and studying the restaurant problem
in Chicago, with the view of bringing it as near as possible
to modern perfection. At present his best known place
is the spacious central lunch room at 192-94 Clark street,
but he has laid plans on a most generous scale for the early
starting, at the northeast corner of Van Buren street and
"Wabash avenue, of an establishment that for cuisine, service
and general high-class equipment will outrival the famous
Delmonico's in its palmiest days. The opening of The
Stuart, as the new restaurant will be called, will be one
of the noted Chicago events of 1911.
68
THE MABCH OP MAN
Pages, with ready blade, were there.
The mighty meal to carve and share:
O'er capon, heron-shew, and crane.
And princely peacock's gilded train.
And o'er the boar-head garnish'd brave.
And cygnet from St. Mary's wave;
And ptarmigan and venison.
The priest had spoke his benison.
Then rose the riot and the din.
Above, beneath, without, within!
For from the lofty balcony.
Rang Trumpet, shalm and psaltery:
To ladies fair, and ladies smiled."
Loudly they spoke and loudly laugh'd;
Whisper'd young knights, in tone more mild.
Their clanging bowls old warriors quaflf'd.
At high Scottish banquets the placing of a hlack bull's
head on the table was the signal for some pre-arranged
bloody tragedy, such as happened at Stirling castle, when
the noble Douglases, invited guests of royalty, were treach¬
erously seized at the hoard, dragged forth and beheaded !
The acceptance of a dinner invitation in those times was
sometimes a matter for prayerful consideration.
The skirl of the bagpipes was the prevailing sound at
Scottish banquets. Pipers played behind the seats of the
guests. Pailfuls of usquebaugh, or whisky, were carried
around and goblets kept filled.
When, in Shakespeare's day, Falstaff took his ease in his
inn his surroundings were more quaint than clean or sani¬
tary. There were foul refuse-strewn floors, dirty tables,
poor cooking, miserable service generally. Nor did mat¬
ters improve much for three hundred years afterwards,
even down to the time of Dickens, whose pictures of some
London dining places are more picturesque than pleasant.
In what he facetiously calls Geographical chop houses
"there were maps of the world in porter-pot rims on every
THE MARCH OF MAN
69
half yard of the tablecloths, and charts of gravy on every
one of the knives—to this day there is scarcely a single
chop-house in the Lord Mayor's dominions which is not
Geographical."
America has taken the lead in clean and wholesome
restaurant service, and Chicago holds first place in this
important respect in America. Prominent in the class of
up-to-date Chicago restauranteurs is Mr. Stuart G. Bailey,
whose persevering enterprise in providing wholesome food,
well cooked and daintily served, amid cleanly and attractive
surroundings, has won hearty public recognition and well
merited success.
Numbers of lives have been sacrificed and are still
sacrificed to the inconsiderate folly, sometimes perhaps to
the grim necessity, of eating the wrong thing, at the wrong
time, and in the wrong place. The efforts of able and
conscientious restaurant men like Mr. Bailey are helping
to minimize the evil and scandal. Men such as he are as
important and useful in their province as physicians. A
native of Memphis, Tenn., he has been for nine years
practically pursuing and studying the restaurant problem
in Chicago, with the view of bringing it as near as possible
to modern perfection. At present his best known place
is the spacious central lunch room at 193-94 Clark street,
but he has laid plans on a most generous scale for the early
starting, at the northeast corner of Van Buren street and
Wabash avenue, of an establishment that for cuisine, service
and general high-class equipment will outrival the famous
Delmonico's in its palmiest days. The opening of The
Stuart, as the new restaurant will be called, will be one
of the noted Chicago events of 1911.
70
THE MAECH OF MAN
Looking back in the light of historical gossip over the
long and varied array of royal or aristocratic dining tables
and dining floors, tlie prospect, though at times dazzling
and bewildering in its barbaric magnificence and extrava¬
gance, is on the whole more interesting than attractive.
Extending over twenty centuries it is not indicative of
progress in matters prandial, so vital to the health and
comfort of the human race. The modern American paral¬
lel it suggests, as between the classic and the medieval,
is a comparison between a monkey dinner of the "smart
set" at Newport and a political reception in a river ward
of Chicago.
CHAPTER IV.
THE FLESH MEAT QUESTION.
An English vegetarian proposed to a woman, whereupon
she promptly rejected him with scornful and scathing
words :
"Go along with you! What? Be flesh of your flesh,
and you a-living on cabbage? Go along and marry a
grass widow !"
It is an old, old story. The dispute between meat eat¬
ers, vegetarians and fruit eaters, of health faddists and
food faddists, is not one of races and countries but also
of acquaintances, friends and families. Some authorities
claim that the preadamite man was frugivorous. Some
of them say that no meat should be eaten at all. Others
will allow meat if you chew each bite thirty-two times.
Still others include meat and other foodstuffs in their
prohibitions, and there are some who condemn meat and
fish and eggs, and tea and coffee and spirituous liquors.
J. Ogden Armour
THE MAECH OF MAN
71
and limit themselves to milk, cheese, grain, nuts and
fruits.
Yet if vre turn our gaze backward upon the men and
women who lived when the race was young, we shall see
them as they migrate from one land to another always
driving their flocks and herds before them.
When Abraham and Lot separated after their return
from Egypt, it was because their herds had so increased
that they needed more pasturage. And though the de-
crier of meat may urge that Lot's flocks led him to the
wicked Sodom—whence he escaped only with his life, his
character and a pillar of salt in place of a wife—it must
be remembered that Abraham, who was even richer in cat¬
tle and sheep, became the father of the Chosen People.
When history and tradition are forsaken for their proofs
and an appeal to physiology is made, great stress is laid
by some on the fact that the teeth which seemed to have
been planned for the mastication of meat are fewer in
number than those fltted to perform the shredding of
fruits and vegetables. It is great logic—or it would be—
if it did not overlook the important premise that, although
they are fewer in number, the teeth which seem intended
for the mastication of meat are there. And nature has
a way of giving man only those things which he needs for
actual use.
No less an authority than AVoods Hutchinson in a recent
informing article on delusions regarding diet says:
"So far as we can judge from the structure of man's
teeth and alimentary canal, his diet in the past has un¬
questionably been a mixed one with a considerable lean¬
ing toward the carnivorous side. A close look at his large
72
THE MARCH OP MAN
'eye' or canine teeth, his full set of incisors and the clearly
cuspid edge of his molars would indicate that animal food
had played a large part in his diet in the past. * * *
His stomach is barely distinguishable from that of a dog
or a great cat of somewhere near his weight, while it is
separated by a thousand leagues of biological distance
from the pouched and ballooned one of the fewer herbívora.
His intestinal canal is only about five times his body length,
as in the pure carnívora, instead of from ten to twenty
times as in the herbívora. If man is to become a pure
and blameless vegetarian in the future his stomach and
alimentary canal will have to be reconstructed."
Observation will prove that the great races of men—
those who have pushed the ball of progress farthest along
the grooves of Time—have been eaters of meat. The
decadent days of the people have not been those in which
they went out among the fiocks and killed a lamb and
ate it, but those in which the strong and simple foods were
disdained for strange delicacies to arouse and pamper an
appetite jaded by over indulgence and unsharpened by
healthful work and wholesome exercise. In India there
have been peoples who have abstained from the eating of
meats for centuries. They have thrived—in a way—and
they have been the marvel of the world—in a way. But
the way is not our way. And leaving aside the Pharisaical
prayer of thankfulness that we are not as other men, we
may be thankful that it is not. For there are many things
in the world of more value than the fine-spun esoteric
philosophy which the savants have promulgated or the
sorcery with which they delude our eyes and befog our
reasoning.
THE MAECH OF MAN
73
The triumphant entrance of little Japan as one of the
characters upon the stage where the world's destiny is
heing shaped, has heen the signal for the wildest applause
from the vegetarians. They proclaimed the men of Nip¬
pon as meat haters and flourished reports of the wonder¬
ful work which they did and the glorious victories they
won on a simple diet of rice. The smitings which they
gave to the pride and prestige and the power of Kussia
—^were they not made possible by a bill of fare which ex¬
cluded all flesh? It sounds like good argument. But the
trouble with those who know that the Japs are a great peo¬
ple because they eat no meat, is the same trouble to which
the humorist referred when he turned sage and said it was
better not to know so many things than to "know so many
things that ain't true." For it is not true that the Japs
are straight vegetarians ! And there is proof positive that
the soldiers who won the admiration of the world in fight¬
ing "the bear that walks like a man" had other things to
eat than rice and vegetables.
Where is the proof ? Upon the ledgers of Armour & Co.,
for one place. For there are the written orders for meats
to supply the Jap armies in the field. One million cans
of meat were sold by this one firm for the consumption
of the Japanese army. So important did the Japanese
government consider the purchase of meat that it sent a
committee across the thousands of miles of sea and plain
and mountain which separates Tokio from Chicago to
negotiate for this supply.
Not content with claiming that life can he sustained
without the use of meat as food—a statement which has
never heen doubted—the strict vegetarians have gone to
74
THE MAKCH OE MAN
great lengths to prove that most, if not all, of the dis¬
eases which assail men are the direct result of meat eating.
Eecent investigations have led experts on the treatment
of tuberculosis to declare that the disease is not common
among those who have been hearty eaters of meat, but that
it assails those who have confined themselves more largely
to a vegetarian diet. A marked dislike for meat is usually
found among consumptives.
This point that tubercular patients are not often meat
eaters is especially important in view of the sensational
stories which, from time to time, are printed concerning
the extent to which cattle are afflicted with tuberculosis
and the ease with which the disease is transmitted to the
human beings who eat the meats.
There never has been a single recorded case of tubercu¬
losis which has been traced to infection from meat. There
may be cases, but they have never been established. But
there has been one fact established by pathologists of emi¬
nent standing, and that is that other foods are far more
favorable for the culture of the tubercular bacilli than
meat, llilk, concerning the wholesomeness of which most
vegetarians are enthusiastic, has been proved by rigid tests
to be more than one thousand times more susceptible to the
bacilli than meat. There is one advantage which meat has
over milk in the matter of resisting the bacilli, which is
most important. Cooking often destro3's the bacilli—as
water which is unfit to drink may be made safe by boiling.
Except in rare cases, meat always is cooked before it is
eaten, and milk is not. Heating the milk makes it un¬
palatable to many people, and so it lacks the saving grace
of sterilization.
THE MARCH OF MAN
75
In cases where beef contains the germs of disease, in¬
teresting experiments have been made and it has been
found that full 90 per cent of infected cattle are cows
which have been used for dairy purposes and which, hav¬
ing outgrown their usefulness in that capacity, have been
slaughtered for beef. Such meat is obtained from the
farmer or the small country butcher only. The great es¬
tablishments, from which go out most of the meat prod¬
ucts, do not kill such cattle, for one very good reason, if
for no other—that they are not sold to them. The dairy
man is wise enough to know that his worn out cow will
not bring him the market price and that it would be a false
economy to attempt to foist it upon any large meat
handling house.
The man who said, "Slaughtering is not a pretty busi¬
ness" was not speaking of these latter day methods only.
What is the story of the delicate young woman from the
city, whose chief hope for her visit to the country was
that she should have fried chicken for every meal and who,
having been so unwise as to watch the farm boy wring the
neck of one broiler, could never be induced to eat of chicken
again? It is true that the sight of blood is not pleasant,
even to those who are not especially squeamish. But there
are many things which are not pleasant. When your small
daughter, on whom you are fitting a dress which has not
progressed beyond the state of raw seams and basting
threads, expresses her disapproval of it and knows it never
can look at all right, you laugh at her lack of imagination,
which might enable her eyes to see the completed frock.
In a word, unfinished processes are seldom pretty or at¬
tractive. But processes should be taken for what they
76
THE MARCH OF MAN
are. It is the end, the completed thing, which should
always be held in view.
In the matter of killing animals for food, the same gen¬
eral principles may be said to obtain which were in vogue
when Abel made his offering which was "acceptable in the
eyes of the Lord." A knife thrust, the shedding of some
blood, a few struggles and the deed is done. It is in the
care which is given to the carcass after the killing that
science has done its work.
Eefrigeration is a word which was used but little a few
years ago. It is a word which has revolutionized the
meat industry and made it one of the greatest in the world.
A low temperature is necessary for the preservation of
meat and despite all the lurid stories told of chemicals and
acids used to ward off' or disguise decomposition, refrig¬
eration is the great universal agency of meat preservation.
In order to have its nutritive and palatable properties de¬
veloped to the greatest degree it is necessary that meat
should hang for some time. Without a perfect system of
refrigeration, this would he impossible. With it, this
delicate process of "ripening" becomes a simple matter.
There is one word which means death to the diseased
germs which may find a lodging place in meat. That
word is refrigeration. For the development of the germs,
warmth and moisture are necessary. They cannot live in
a cold, dry atmosphere. Eefrigeration cannot suspend al¬
together the laws of nature and in time decomposition will
set in. But for a period which is reasonable and which,
until a short time ago would have been thought to be im¬
possible, the spoiling of the food may be warded off. From
the time that the animal is killed until it is placed over
THE MAECH OP MAN
77
the fire preparatory to serving, there is but the short time
of the delivery from the market to the house, when the
meat is off the house which preserves it.
As for the cleanliness which is observed in slaughtering
houses, the question may go back to individual concerns.
It is not only foolish, it is manifestly unjust to impute to
all concerned the lax methods which some may observe.
Because some blonde women may be found lazy and care¬
less in regard to their homes are we to believe that the
thrifty Gretchen is slovenly? Putting aside the question
as to whether any firm with business acumen sufiScient to
build up a large business would be so foolish to risk its
success by allowing careless methods to prevail, it must be
remembered that in all the larger establishments, there is
an inspection which goes over the head of the individual.
It has the stamp of the government upon it and imless
all virtue has gone out of the power of the government, its
investigation and the guarantee it gives should be an ef¬
fective answer to the fears of the housewife.
Some time ago Dr. H. S. Grindley, professor of general
chemistry at the University of Illinois, prepared a bulle¬
tin which was issued by the Department of Agriculture,
at Washington.
The bulletin (Uo. 193) is one of the most sensational
ever issued by the federal authorities and recounts a series
of experiments Dr. Grindley conducted on a "digestion
squad" of which he himself was a member. Dr. Grindley
says the protein in meat is much more thoroughly digested
than that in vegetable foods.
But this is by no means all, for, according to the doctor,
the degree and kind of work a man does makes no differ-
H8
THE MARCH or MAN
eoce to the ease with which he ean digest a meat diet.
The clerk, the society belle and the laborer toiling with
pick and shovel from morn to night are placed in the same
category, and each is frankly told that meat, and plenty
of it, in all forms and cooked in all manner of ways,
is best calculated to build up the wasted tissues and give
him day by day the strength needed for his own peculiar
task.
Discussing the relative merits of ditferent kinds of meat
the doctor delivers a staggering blow to diet faddists. "It
is commonly said that meats of different sorts vary decid¬
edly in digestibility; for instance, that red meat is less
digestible than white meat, or beef than pork, or that a
cheap cut is less digestible than a tender steak. As re¬
gards the thoroughness of digestion, the results of the ex¬
tended series of tests reported show that such differences
do not exist in any appreciable degree and that meat of
all kinds and cuts is to be classed with the very digestible
foods."
So, too, with the different methods of cooking. Fried
meat, against which certain classes of food reformers have
been accustomed to disclaim in horror, is found to be as
nutritious and digestible as boiled or roasted or broiled
meat.
The net result of Dr. Grindley's experiments seems to
be to eat all the meat you like, cook it as you like, and if
your pocketbook rebels at the prices of porterhouse use
round steak or ffank steak. Whatever you do, as long as
you eat meat, your stomach will not know the difference
and will thank you in increased bodily strength and less
THE MAECH OP MAN
79
dyspepsia for abstaining from loading it down with vege¬
tables which can only be digested with difficulty.
In relation to the vital question of proper living it
must be admitted that the claims of fish as an article
of nutritive and wholesome diet have been strangely over¬
looked. On this subject, says the veteran English physi¬
cian, Sir James Crichton Browne, F. E. S. :
"What we have to complain of is that the consumption
of fresh fish has not kept pace with the increase of popula¬
tion. The different classes consume it as a breakfast and
dinner dish, but there are still numbers of people, espe¬
cially in rural districts, who rarely taste fish and those
who do not recognize the nutritive value of what are 'un¬
fortunately' called the coarser kinds of fish.
"The despised bloater contains the largest amount of
nutriment for a given sum of any animal food, and two
salt herrings contain as much animal protein—the only
food constituent which will repair the waste of the tissues—
as need enter into the dietary of an ordinary working
man.
"The working man's fried fish is, from the nutritive
point of view, one of the best forms in which fish can be
offered for human consumption; its sudden exposure to
a high temperature in the act of frying retains the rich
gelatine in fish, and also all those extractives which give
their different flavors to all the different kinds of animal
foods. Frying and browning it, it has been declared,
brought out flavors in fish agreeable to most palates.
"The increased use of fish by the poorer classes would
enable them to better resist tuberculosis. 'Nitrogen starv¬
ation,' as it is called, helps the disease, but fish yield plenty
80
THE MAECH OF MAN
of nitrogen; indeed, one successful means of cure for this
dread disease is forced feeding with nitrogen."
Thus recommended by a leading food authority of the
day not only as a builder up of the system, but a pre¬
ventative of consumption, fish ought to be a most honored
and popular article of diet.
In inland districts, such as Chicago and its surround¬
ings, the chief diflficulty in the fish business was for a long
time the proper transportation, care and presentation for
sale of a highly perishable commodity. The methods used
were crude and unsanitary. At length, some years ago,
a wholesome new departure was made by that well-known
fish firm, the Chas. W. Triggs Co., Chicago, in bringing
about the building of a model wholesale market house on
North Canal street, between Lake and Fulton streets, a
building equipped with the necessary cooling rooms and
every facility for the handling of fish so as to retain and
even to improve its quality. By the proper installation
of drainage, concrete floors and sanitary walls, by the
unvarying use of clean new boxes and the adoption of all
up-to-date hygienic methods and precautions, the Chas.
W. Triggs Co., with its jobbing house, the Lake Superior
Fish Co., has successfully demonstrated that it can deliver
fish to the trade centers as fresh and wholesome as when
the fishermen drew them from the water.
To properly demonstrate the new method of handling,
it was necessary to begin at the producing point, and to
convert the old-time fishermen to the new way of handling
was no little task. The Triggs Co. established a station
at Sheboygan, Mich., which is located on the Straits of
Mackinaw, and the center of a vast fishing territory ex-
Charles W. Triggs
THE MARCH OP MAN
81
tending many miles over both Lake Michigan and Lake
Huron. In this territory the fishermen that produce for
the Triggs Co. adhere closely to the latest sanitary and
expeditious mode of handling laid down by them, and as
a result in a single season a million pounds have been
shipped in refrigerator cars and every pound has reached
the consumers in prime condition.
The company also shows marked success in the handling
of oysters; it superintends the transport of these in such
a way as to protect them against all contamination or
anything that might detract from their natural flavor.
CHAPTEE V. "
IN AND OUT OF THE DAIRY.
Drink buttermilk, and plenty of it. That is the chief
health slogan of the day, raised by distinguished physicians
the world over, especially by the celebrated Professor
MetchnikofE, of Paris. They advocate the copious drink¬
ing of buttermilk as one of the greatest aids to a long and
healthy career. Hot buttermilk is recommended for colds.
Boiled buttermilk is a nourishing and very palatable
drink. It is exceedingly good for growing children or for
those who have lost their appetite during the hot weather.
It is an uncommon drink, a good one and easily made.
Use fresh and very sour buttermilk. Boil it, season it
with a pinch of salt and thicken with a little Indian meal.
But it is as a preventive and driver out of disease
that buttermilk is chiefly recommended. Said Dr. Frank
82
THE MAECH OF MAN
S. Johnson in a lecture under the auspices of the Chi¬
cago Medical Society:
"Medical science in recent years has discovered that there
is one microbe that is a benefit to mankind. That mi¬
crobe is the one found in buttermilk. This little fellow
aids immensely in the digestion of food. He goes down
into the stomach of the human being in buttermilk. There
he finds millions of other mircrobes of all kinds carried in
the food that has been eaten.
"The buttermilk microbe is a fighter. He pitches into
tlie other germs as soon as he reaches the scene of battle.
There is a glorious fight. But the buttermilk microbe
comes off victorious. He leaves millions of dead on the
battlefield. That's why he is a good microbe and that's
why it is a good thing to drink fresh buttermilk."
But where to get it ? For very many years the people
of Chicago have been victimized and dealers made rich
by the sale of bogus buttermilk—skim milk worth but two
cents a gallon as food for hogs brought to the city and sold
as buttermilk at six cents a quart.
Of late, however, by the operation of the Pure Food
law, it is understood that the spurious article has been gen¬
erally driven out of the market and that people are enabled
to obtain what is professionally lauded as the modern
Liquid of Life.
There can be no doubt that the mother's milk is the
best food for all infants, and if they get a sufficient sup¬
ply from a healthy mother, the best foundation for a strong
and ^^gorous adult life is effectually laid. It is this nat¬
ural food for infancy that has maintained the life and
vigor of the countless millions of India, China, Japan
THE MAKCH OF MAN
83
and Eussia, in spite of poverty, famine, plague, pestilence,
floods, wars and the horrible insanitary conditions under
which many of those peoples live.
But cow's milk as an article of diet for grown up chil¬
dren and adults has its dangers. Bad milk has killed
myriads of babies. Milk can be more quickly contam¬
inated than any other fluid; it is easily affected by the
weather; it is in many cases difficult of digestion; when
other descriptions of food are taken with it, they fre¬
quently cause certain changes to take place in the milk
which cause biliousness and many stomach disorders, be¬
sides very severe. headache, bad temper, and a host of
other evils. Against this must be placed the fact that
those people, such as the Scotch, who lived on oatmeal and
milk, and the Irish, who lived on potatoes and milk, were
healthier and stronger than they have been since they
have taken to tea and bread. But, then, their diet in those
old days used to be absolutely simple; whereas our diet
in those days is extremely complex.
Chicago has some milk concerns which in the scrupulous
and systematic cleanliness of their methods afford a shin¬
ing example to both America and Europe.
Prominent among these is the well-known Ira J. Mix
Dairy Company, at 361-865 East Thirtieth street.
There is none who has done more to elevate and purify
the milk business than Mr. Mix. In 1871, he started in
business in a small way, selling about 300 pounds of milk
daily, representing the product of twelve cows, and having
only one horse and wagon. Today his company runs
fifty-three wagons and is the largest wholesale dealer of
milk in Chicago, doing an immense business, supplying
84
THE MAECH OF MAN
numerous hotels and restaurants, also furnishing a ma¬
jority of packers at the Union Stock Yards with absolutely
pure milk and cream, which is used in the manufacture
of butterine. The company is also the South Side agent
for Kieckhefer's Certified Milk and ISTatoma Farm Milk,
recommended by leading physicians.
The bottling department of the firm, invitingly open for
public inspection, is a pleasing and striking revelation in
modern methods of cleanliness. The bottling plant, al¬
ways kept clean and sweet, is on the second floor of the
building, well lighted and ventilated, in every respect
sanitary. No room here for objectionable germs; the
bacilli have the worst possible time of it. Strict cleanliness
of person and clothing is observed by the employes; they
do not use tobacco in any form. The mük is tested in
accordance with the ordinances of the health department of
the city of Chicago, and also pasteurized. It gives good
health to its users, and those who use it once become and
remain customers.
Speaking of the great industry he has succeeded in
building from a small beginning, and of the milk business
at large, especially in reference to the alleged enormous
profits of the milkman, Mr. Mix says:
"I would say that the farmer, on the average, gets
$1.66 2-3 for 100 pounds of milk, which, under the present
six months' contract, will average about four and a quarter
pounds of butter, if the milk comes up to the full standard
of percentage of cream, which it does not always do, for
all cows' milk is not alike in the richness of its cream.
Now, at present the average wholesale selling price of Elgin
creamery butter is 30 cents. Add to that 20 cents per
THE MAECH OF MAN
85
100 pounds, which the milk dealer gets for casein or for
cheese, which gives a total of $1,471/2, which he gets for
100 poimds of milk, the average price of which is $1.66 2-3.
"This shows a loss to the milk dealer of 20 cents per
100 pounds of milk, besides adding the expense of doing
his business, including factory, butter tubs and the other
et ceteras. Every dealer must have a surplus of milk at
some season of the year and there is no system that can
avoid it. We must have enough milk to meet the public
demand and when the shortage comes we have to find the
milk where we can, yet we take the farmers' overplus,
which results, naturally, when his cows 'come in, or are
fresh, their offspring just having been taken from them.
No, the ways of the milkman may seem devious to some
persons who do not understand the business, but milk
today is the cheapest article of diet for the money expended
and is better and as clean food as there is on the Chicago
or any other market of the country. I insist, that nowhere
is there better or purer milk sold than right here in
Chicago.
"If I should tell the people that we are paying the
farmer $1.40 for eight gallons of mük, on which we run
short at least three pints after each emptying, it might
sound strange. Yet this is a fact. And is caused by ex¬
cess bottles. And then what? Well, in November and
December we paid $1.45 for a can of eight gallons, and
during February we will pay $1.35. What of it ? you may
say. This, simply; Since 1906 the rates for conducting
our business have increased fully 40 per cent. Everything
we use in the conduct of our business has increased, and
within the last year it has raised 15 per cent over 1908.
86
THE MAECH OP MAN
''Wages are higher—that is one item; horse feed, bed¬
ding and repairs cost more; harnesses cost more; it costs
more to buy horses, and this Winter we have had more
horses crippled than in any year since we have been in
business. Then taxes have increased and we are burdened
in addition with a wheel tax. 'All is not gold that glit¬
ters,' not even the milkman's. He wants to make interest
on his capital as well as any other merchant. He is part
of the commercial interest of this great and throbbing
metropolis and he is as anxious to have the good opinion
and the confidence of his fellow citizens as any other
business man.
"Tlie milk dealers have no combination to boost prices,
but they ask only a fair deal and no more. They want to
comply with all laws governing their business, no matter
how stringent, so they are just and are in the interest of
the public. The milkman is reaping no great, golden har¬
vest. If he is holding his own, under present conditions,
he is doing well. I invite anyone interested to come to my
office and look over my books and my annual statement,
and then judge if I have not stated the facts as they really
exist, without the least coloring or prejudice in favor of
the much abused milkman."
On many tables butter finds a competitor and substitute
in butterine or oleomargarine, which dates from the Franco-
Prussian war. At the same time that Grunberg was mak¬
ing his famous sausage cartridges for the Germans an
eminent chemist was, at the behest of Hapoleon III., whose
object was to supply especially good articles of food for his
troops, manufacturing butterine for the French. This chem¬
ist, Mege Mouries by name, reasoned that fat of cattle could
THE MAECH OP MAN
87
be rendered into butter without going through the process
of milk formation in the animal and then being churned
into butter. The result of his experiments was the in¬
vention of oleomargarine. The new discovery was soon
known in America and American ingenuity has brought
oleomargarine to its present state of perfection.
Oleomargarine is churned from cream, milk, oleo oil,
neutral and salt.
Oleo oil is the pure sweet oil containing the same
chemical constituents as butter fat, extracted from the fat
of prime beef cattle. The carefully selected fats are
cooled in ice water to remove all animal heat, then go
through a cutting machine which breaks up the tissues
and reduces it to a consistency similar to ice cream. Then
it is heated to the proper temperature and the result of
this treatment is oleo oil, the edible nutritious part of the
fat.
Neutral is made from selected leaf in a similar man¬
ner. These two ingredients are churned with properly cul¬
tured cream and milk at high temperature. When the
churning process has been completed the contents of the
churn are turned into tanks of ice-cold water. This sud¬
den chilling gives the granular texture of butter grain.
When taken from the water the oleomargarine goes through
butter workers where all surplus moisture is extracted.
Salt in proper amount is then added.
The entire process of churning is under the supervision
of the TJnited States Government and United States inspec¬
tion stamps are on every package, thus giving the consumer
a guarantee of purity. In addition to thus supervising the
churning and guaranteeing the purity of oleomargarine.
88
THE MARCH OP MAN
the United States Government serves oleomargarine at the
National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and con¬
tracts for over half a million pounds every year. The
government, as is well known, buys only the best for the
nation's wards; hence this official endorsement of oleo¬
margarine should interest every consumer. The most
eminent chemists in the world and the highest authorities
on foods and food values unite as follows in praise of oleo¬
margarine :
Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, the chief chemist of the United
States Government : "It is clean, wholesome and digestible.
On shipboard or in distant mining camps it is preferable
to butter, because it has but little tendency to become
rancid;" the chief chemist of The National Provisioner
Laboratory: "Oleomargarine is the equivalent of butter,
the practical difference being in butyric ñavor. It is of
high food value and absolutely pure;" Prof. H. 0. At-
water, of Wesley an University, the known authority on
foods: "It contains essentially the same ingredients as
natural butter from cow's milk. It is perfectly wholesome,
and has a high and nutritious value ;" Prof. Chittenden, the
great authority of Yale College, said in substance : "Oleo¬
margarine is wholesome and free from deleterious sub¬
stances. It is, scientifically speaking, butter;" Prof. G. C.
Caldwell, of Cornell University: "It is free from animal
tissue or other impurities. It possesses no qualities what¬
ever that can make it in the least degree unwholesome;"
Prof. Geo. P. Baker, University of Pennsylvania: "Quite
as valuable as a nutritive agent as butter itself;" Paul
Schweitzer, Ph.D., LL.D., professor of chemistry. Uni¬
versity of Missouri: "Carefully made physiological ex-
THE MAKCH OF MAN
89
periments reveal no difference whatever in the palatability
and his fortune was made. He made himself a good
and digestibility between oleomargarine and butter;" the
Scientific American : "Hine-tenths of the dairy product
that is marketed is more impure than oleomargarine."
In 1902 a law was forced through Congress imposing a
tax of ten cents per pound on all butterine artificially
colored by the manufacturer. To deny the chumer of oleo¬
margarine the privilege of coloring his goods so his pro¬
duct could be placed before the consumer in its most pleas¬
ing form while allowing the butter maker to color his
goodSj is class legislation of the most unfair sort. Color
adds nothing to the intrinsic value of butterine but does
conceal many inferiorities in butter; it pleases the eye,
however, and makes the article more palatable. This dealt
the industry a most serious blow and the business was
quiet for a time, but as people became familiar with the
merits of butterine the demand constantly increased. As
an illustration of this growth 4,000,000 pounds more oleo¬
margarine were churned in Chicago in October, 1909, than
in the same period last year. This immense business could
not have been developed if the goods were not pure, nu¬
tritious, wholesome, healthful and just as good as butter.
The most favorably known brands of butterine are the
famous Holstein and Good Luck, churned by John P. Jelke
Company, Chicago, the largest churners of butterine in
America. Holstein and Good Luck are churned in the man¬
ner described in this article under the strictest sanitary
conditions with most improved methods from the highest
quality materials. They cannot be distinguished in flavor.
90
THE MASCH OF MAN
texture and taste from the best creamery butter and will
give the same satisfaction.
The John F. Jelke Company takes a just pride in their
Holstein and Good Luck brand. Anyone interested in pure
foods and the process of manufacture will be welcomed at
their churnery, Hortli Union street and Grand avenue, Chi¬
cago, and will be shown the methods under which the goods
are churned.
Skimmed milk has a better use than swindling or poi¬
soning people. Made into milkstone or galalith it forms
a substitute for bone, ivory, celluloid, etc. In Austria
about 100,000 quarts of skimmed milk are used daily in
making this material. Who would think that the door
handle one turns or the piano keys one plays could be
made of milk?
Ice cream is a popular dish, yet one often hears of sick¬
ness and death following its use. It is all in the making.
Metallic poisoning, caused by the use of two difEerent
metals in the freezer; impure flavoring compounds; im¬
pure milk or cream; carelessness in allowing any of the
ice, salt or water in the bucket to mingle with the cream—
these are the sources of danger.
As a companion to the buttermilk movement comes the
and wet in tropical countries. The most popular way of
raw egg diet, which has achieved popularity among the
serving the raw egg is with sherry Avine or with vinegar.
A very little of the wine or vinegar is required in a glass
fashionable Hew Yorkers. The fresh egg is declared by
some pure food advocates to be the only pure food known.
The raw egg eaters declare that the egg is spoiled by any
kind of cooking; by dieting on raw eggs, they claim, ex-
THE MARCH OF MAN
91
plorers have successfully borne trying exposure to heat
merely to give a zest to the flavor of the egg. Its beneflts
would doubtless be greater without any of these ac¬
companiments. When served with vinegar a drop of
the liquid is first poured into an empty wineglass. Into
this the egg is broken. Then the top is covered with an¬
other drop or two of vinegar, and a sprinkling of salt
and pepper. The egg is then swallowed whole. Persons
who have not tried the diet will be surprised at the ease
with which the egg slips down the throat, as well as the
pleasant taste it leaves in the mouth. It is declared that
half of the benefit of the egg is lost when the yolk is
broken in eating. The egg should he eaten before meals,
especially before breakfast, but not every day. An every¬
day diet is said to he dangerous, because of the super¬
abundance of sulphur it would produce in the system. It
is advisable to discontinue the diet for as much as one or
two weeks at a time and then to keep it up steadily for a
few days or a week again.
The judicious use of fruit is one of the greatest aids to
health and strength. Of late the orange has come to the
front as a favorite with athletes, especially in England.
It was said that a daily diet of eggs gave Cambridge
the victory in the university boat race. The Cambridge
crew, it is believed, has saved itself from influenza by the
use of oranges, and now they form a regular feature in
the diet of the Oxford men. They squeeze the juice of
oranges into tumblers and drink it before or after their
meals. Some doctors have a great belief in the hygienic
virtues of the orange. It is said to act as an antidote to
the influenza germ and to tend generally to improve the
92
THE MAECH OE MAN
health. If it does not actually supply muscle to men in
training, it at least assists them to form muscular tissue.
The lemon, contemned by recent slang, is the healthiest
fruit that grows. The hygienic properties of lemons,
which contain citric acid, have been well known for many
years, but it is only lately that scientists discovered the
acid was powerful enough to kill the germ of iyphoid fever
in twenty-four hours. Some typhoid-fever bacilli treated
with raw lemon juice and placed in the sunshine were
killed in two hours, the sunshine proving a quick agent
in connection with the medicinal properties of the fruit.
Lemons have been found beneficial in the worst forms of
smallpox and cholera, so it is well to know the medicinal
properties of a harmless yet powerful fruit acid.
There is a Chinese proverb that says, "Eat an apple
every night and live forever." The Spaniards call the ap¬
ple the "golden" fruit because of its supposed curative
qualities and its wholesomeness.
L. A. Goodman, an eminent pomologist, says that the
man who raises apples is a public benefactor.
"The way to eat an apple is to eat it any way you like,
just so you eat it," he asserts. "When eaten raw the apple
is conducive to health in many ways. There are certain
acids in apples that have a curative effect on the stomach,
stimulating to digestion, greatly laxative. These same
acids have a prophylactic effect on the teeth, gums and
mouth generally, destroying the animal organisms.
"But you can eat apples in any manner with good effect
upon the health and with pleasure. Eat plenty of apples
and live long."
THE MAECH OF MAN
93
Nearly all the growers agree that the raw apple is best
for the health.
Some kinds of fruit, especially the prune of South
Water street and hoarding house fame, ofEer on their sur¬
face a rapid breeding place for germs. "Just rub a bit of
the outside of a prune or fig on a bit of glass," said Pat¬
rick J. ("Fish") Murray, when chief food inspector of
Chicago. "What you see will make your hair stand on
end." However, we are almost continually eating large
quantities of nasty looking microbes without knowing it
—perhaps just as well for our peace of mind.
The most nutritious fruits are grapes, dates, figs and
bananas. Mr. C. F. Langworthy, in charge of the nutri¬
tion investigation for the Department of Agriculture, says
that ten cents' worth of fresh fruit will ordinarily furnish
as much energy as the same value of lean meat, and of
dried fruits more.
Potatoes, cultivated by the Incas of Peru, were brought
to Europe by the Spaniards in the beginning of the six¬
teenth century. They were brought to England from Vir¬
ginia in 1563 by Sir John Hawkins, father of the African
slave trade; and Sir Francis Drake brought some over in
1586—for which a statue was erected to him at Offen-
burg, in Baden, in 1853. The potato came to Ireland in
1610. In 1728 it was cultivated in Scotland by a day
laborer named Thomas Prentice, who met with the re¬
ligious opposition of his countrymen because potatoes
"were not mentioned in the Bible." In England, where
it came to be largely cultivated. Sir Humphrey Davy es¬
timated that "two pounds of wheat afford as much suste¬
nance as seven pounds of potatoes." In California, in 1849,
94
THE MAECH OP MAN
the eating of raw potatoes, said to have sold at a dollar
apiece, cured miners of scurvy. In mid-England men
carry raw potatoes in their pockets as a specific against
rheumatism. Lately at Tulane, a Pittsburg man
claimed that by abstaining from potatoes he cured him¬
self of rheumatism. Large quantities of artificial bone and
ivory are made by treating tlie common potato with acids.
Truly an extraordinary and bewildering tuber.
Potatoes, owing to their poorness in protein and over-
richness in starch, are of account only when reinforced by
nitrogenous foods.
Beans, rich in protein, are very nutritious, as is the
bean's younger brother, the pea, which helped to win the
Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. It was Grunberg, a Ber¬
lin cook, who invented the savory and nutritious pea sau¬
sage, consisting of pea meal, best beef suet, bacon (two
parts lean to one of fat), onions, salt and spices, filled into
specially prepared cases, food designed to keep for years in
any place. The Prussian government made the inventor
a present of $10,000 and built him a factory in which
were employed 2,400 male and female help, the product
of pea sausage being 150,000 per day.
In reference to leguminous foods it may be mentioned
that of late the Wisconsin pea has appeared as a strong rival
for popularity to the famed Boston bean. The well known
brand of canned peas put up and sent out by Mr. William
Larsen, of Green Bay, Wis., has achieved a high reputation
for excellence, which has placed it in great and ever grow¬
ing demand, demonstrating the fact that a superior article
of food, properly supplied and placed, has assurance of
deserved appreciation and success.
THE MARCH OF MAN
95
It is only in these latter days that olive oil is obtaining
proper recognition as one of the greatest aids to health
and longevity. It is also in these days of onrs that the
people of America, by the operation of the pure food law,
have been enabled to obtain what they may safely con¬
sider pure olive oil—the real, genuine, health-giving ar¬
ticle, the modern elixir of life. It is becoming generally
and fortunately known that drinking olive oil will cure
many and various diseases, restore health, build up tissues,
fill out the figure and cause the countenance to glow with
the radiant beauty of health and exuberant spirits. The
result is that pale, emaciated, almost hopeless men and
women are rushing to the olive-oil treatment by thousands
in every city in the country. Feverish lips seek the re¬
storing fluid with hunger and thirst, as for the breath of
new life. Under the beneficial influence of the great new
food-drink, pallid cheeks take on warm tints, dark hollows
in sunken jaws fill with flesh, dingy hollows around dull
eyes fade away as the eyes grow bright with the joy of
new-born health and vigor.
Olive oil is superior to lard or butter as a frying me¬
dium. Meats, potatoes, in fact everything to be fried in a
skillet, taste better for being cooked in oil.
The olive tree grows in the southern countries of Eu¬
rope, also in Syria and other parts of Asia. It is the em¬
blem of Spain, and the Spanish olive is twice as large as
the French olive. It grows'to splendid perfection in Italy.
The olive-berry is a popular food in the countries where
it grows, making a pleasant and nutritious accompaniment
to bread. After pickling in salt-water or lime-water it is
exported in large quantities. It is eaten to stimulate the
96
THE MAECH OF MAN
appetite or digestion, and with us it is an inevitable fea¬
ture of the great American saloon sideboard.
But it is in the production of its inestimable oil that
the olive is of special benefit to humanity. The olives,
stones and all, are first crushed in a stone mill; thence
the mass of pulp is transferred to an oaken press, from
which the oil oozes into a vat beneath. The oil from the
first pressure, called virgin oil, is the purest. Next fol¬
lows a purifying process, after which the oil is clear and
pure and ready for use. Of course the inevitable adulter¬
ator, not content with a legitimate profit, increased the
quantity and deteriorated the quality by the addition of
cheaper oils—those of the ground-nut and monkey-nut of
Africa, of various seed oils and even lard oil. But under
our new law the purchaser has full guarantee of what he
is getting when he sees on the bottle the announcement
pure olive oil.
Quaintly interesting, with picturesque peasants workmg
under the blue sky and radiant glow of Italy, are the
scenes at harvest time in the olive groves and at the oil
mills, none more so than at San Vito dei Normanni, in
the pleasant province of Lecca, the center of the Italian
oil trade. Thereby hangs a tale of both romance and com¬
merce, concerning the remarkable boom and development
of the trade in that particular localHy.
It happened that some time ago a young Italian noble¬
man of ancient family, namely the Count Carlo Dentice
di Frasso, visited America. Amiable, observant, progres¬
sive, he was cordially received everjrwhere, and everywhere
he went in the great American industrial world he was
more attracted by its marvelous energies, resources, pos-
THE MAECH OF MAN
97
sibilities. He gained a valuable stock of sound business
ideas; incidentally he gained the band of a young, bright,
accomplished American lady. Miss Georgine Siegel, daugh¬
ter of Mr. Henry Siegel, the well known merchant of New
York, Chicago and Boston. When Count di Frasso (who,
by the way, was fêted at the Chicago Athletic Club in
February, 1908) returned home he devoted himself with
renewed energy to the development and improvement of
the olive crop of his ancestral estate of San Vito. To the
exposition of olive oils in Eome he sent some samples of
the product of his mills, with the result that, out of all
of 300 competitors, he was awarded the gold medal.
Thus, in scientifically selecting, developing and prepar¬
ing the best the earth affords, the world certainly keeps
moving, with increased benefit to the human race.
Among the distinguished physicians of progressive ideas
who scout at the administration of nauseous old fashioned
nostrums is the well known veteran. Dr. J. A. Printy,
long well known in the foremost ranks of healers, and
whose office is still in the Heyworth Building, Chicago.
In Dr. Printy's up-to-date prescriptions olive oil holds
a prominent and honorable place. He has this to say
in regard to its merits;
"The superior healthfulness of olive oil as compared with
animal fats has been known for ages, but its remedial
value has been most strangely underrated. Patients and
their physicians preferred drugs.
"Prescriptions are valued by the laity in proportion to
their repulsiveness. When fat was recognized as a specific
for the cure of pulmonary disorders, drug mongers probably
hesitated between hog lard and hyena extract, but finally
98
THE MAKCH OF MAN
agreed upon cod liver oil, all in all perhaps the most
hideous product of the animal kingdom.
"French and German chemists and physicians, too, at
last revolted, and now experiments have established the
fact that all the effects that the cod nuisance promised and
missed can be obtained by the most palatable of all fats,
viz., by pure olive oil.
"When the patient's stomach rebels against all other
fats, olive oil is freely tolerated and perfectly digested.
Certain dishes prepared with butter and lard that are in¬
tolerable to the patient, become quite palatable when pre¬
pared in olive oil, and in this way the patient is enabled
to assimilate and absorb fat in remedial quantities. Fat-
hunger is instinctively present in patients suffering from
all pulmonary disorders and can be best satisfied with olive
oil. The oil when kept free from rancidity is a poor cul¬
ture media and maintains a certain antiseptic standard in
its purity that renders it quite amenable for use on all
surfaces and membranes of the body, whether intact or
broken as solution in continuity.
"Olive oil occupies a distinct place in massage or fric¬
tion bathing—owing to its peculiar properties it supplies
more of the elements necessary for building up the white
corpuscles of the blood at a slighter expenditure of vital
force than any other form of nourishment.
"Olive oil, besides possessing the highest nutritive quali¬
ties of all fats, is emollient, demulcent and laxative in its
action in the body.
"The stimulating of cutaneous, capillary action, the cor¬
rective action administered to nerve irritation and diffi¬
cult circulation when olive oil is used topically is without
THE MAKCH OF MAN
99
therapeutic parallel. In its effect olive oil is reconstructive.
All articles of food are not nutrients ; all nutrients are not
equally assimilated ; and all assimilation is not reconstruc¬
tive. Some nutrients are assimilated slowly by healthy
systems, and not at all by weak systems, and there are
on the frontier for twelve years, during which time he
some forms of assimilation more stimulative than con¬
tinuous of repairs. But with pure oli-e oil none of these
objections can be raised, for it is so easily digested, or, if
skin that it stands quite alone. Its use is attended with
no intricate manipulation. The sense of relief following
the application is almost immediate, especially when it
is used as an inunction—a strengthening reconstructive
effect upon the tissues is immediate and permanent,
bowels, causing gripe and exhaustion, its action is pleasant
and supporting ; it is a food, it sustains life for weeks when
"In tuberculosis, its action collectively can be noted in
its simplicity—first it is a laxative—not by irritating the
it is but rubbed into the skin ; when administered by mouth
it soothes an irritable stomach; absorbes readily and by so
doing increases the heat of the body as well as the fats,
thereby giving strength and vitality to those too weak to
assimilate sufficient nourishment from ordinary diet.
"It is hematinic, it increases the blood cells in number
thereby enriching the blood and increasing its germicidal
power."
100
THE MAECH OF MAN
CHAPTEK VI.
The Staff of Life.
"It is not known where he that invented the plow was
bom, nor where he died; yet he has effected more for
the happiness of the world than the whole race of heroes
and conquerors who have drenched the earth with tears
and manured it with blood, and whose birth, parentage
and education have heen handed down to us with a pre¬
cision precisely proportionate to the mischief they have
done."
So says an anonymous writer of about half a century
ago, himself now as sadly unknown as the first plowman
whom he so eloquently eulogizes.
In many countries, however, notably Egypt, India,
Palestine, Algeria and the Philippines, the methods of
the primitive plowmen still prevail. An American farmer
would regard most of his brethren of the calling in these
countries as a good many centuries behind the times. The
plow used in Egypt today is the same as those seen carved
on the tombs of some of the Pharaohs who died ahout 5,000
years ago ; it consists of a pole about six feet long, fastened
to a piece of wood turned inward, the latter, shod with
iron, forming the share. The pole is hitched to an ox
by means of a yoke and the farmer walks along behind
the plow holding its single handle, which consists of a
stick set almost upright into the pole. It is much like
scratching the soil with a sharpened stick. Various rea¬
sons are given. One is the ancient one that, the popula-
THE MAECH OP MAN
101
tion consisting largely of a class of men unfit for anything
save farming, the government, here as in India, discoun¬
tenances the introduction of labor saving devices as likely
to result in the pauperization of many workers; another
is that the soil being full of silted salt, care must be taken
lest the salt might be raised from below and ruin the
crops. Anyhow, if a personage of biblical times were to
revisit Egypt or Palestine he would find the familiar old
plow of his day still at work.
In Algeria, especially among the French settlers, about
$3,000,000 worth of agricultural machinery and imple¬
ments is imported every year, about $100,000 worth of it
coming from America. Nevertheless the farming is so poor
that the average wheat yield of Algeria is less than eight
bushels per acre, as compared to thirteen in America and
twenty-five in the wheat belt of Canada.
From the earliest ages there has been most special con¬
nection between the growing of corn and the March of
Man. Among the ancients of both the Old World and
the New, thanksgiving for the harvest had prominent place
in religious celebrations. At the Passover the Hebrews
brought the first sheaf of the harvest as a thanksgiving
offering to Jehovah, and at the Pentecost, or Harvest
Feast, loaves of unleavened bread were brought with re¬
joicing before the Lord. Mesopotamia, between the Tigris
and Euphrates, is the supposed original home of wheat
and barley. There dwelt the Ass3rrians, the monument
of one of whose kings (859 B. C.) shows him offering in
sacrifice a kid and an ear of wheat. About 2700 B. C. an
emperor of China originated the annual royal ceremony
102
THE MAECH OF MAN
of seed planting. In ancient Mexico the Nalmans offered
the first fruits of their cornfields to their goddess of maize,
Centoatl; while the ancient Peruvians carried in proces¬
sion a large bundle of maize wrapped in rich garments
and implored the protection of their harvest deity, Perua,
In ancient Greece and Pome the harvest festivals were
specially imposing. Cereals, or corn plants, include wheat,
barley, rye, oats and maize. Of late years the name has
become a very familiar one in America, as applied to
various kinds of breakfast foods. It is derived from Ceres,
the pagan goddess of agriculture, to whose temple, in
ancient Eome, white robed processions of worshippers
brought offerings of incense and honey, with cakes of
wheat and barley, in April and August of every year.
The Eomans borrowed this form of worship from the
Greeks, who founded it on a legend illustrating the growth
of corn.
Proserpine, the lovely and only daughter of Ceres, was
admired and abducted by Pluto, god of the underworld,
who made her his queen. Searching in distress for her lost
child, Ceres came to a place in Greece called Eleusis, where
she was found at nightfall by a poor man and his wife,
who, thinking her to be a mortal, took her to their home
and tried to entertain and comfort her. Grateful for their
kindness, she healed their only son, Triptolemus, who lay
sick unto death and promised to teach him some day what
would make him honored by all mankind. Eesuming her
search Ceres came upon a bunch of withered flowers and
the girdle which Proserpine had let fall when taken by
Pluto into his golden chariot. Convinced from the ap¬
pearance of a huge crack in the ground that the earth
THE MAKCH OP MAN
103
had here opened and swallowed her daughter, the goddess
cursed the land and brought on drought and famine.
Great suffering prevailed, but, through a general fear of
Pluto's wrath, Ceres remained uninformed of the true
state of affairs until at length she learned it from the
nymph of a fountain that flowed from the underworld,
whereupon she hastened to the throne of Jupiter, chief
of the gods, and implored him to give command for the
release of Proserpine. This he agreed to do, provided
the maiden had eaten no food while in the underworld,
such being the rule of the Fates. But it appeared that
Proserpine had tasted of the pulp of a pomegranate, given
her by. Pluto, and taken six of its seeds into her mouth,
wherefore she was doomed to remain six months of every
year beneath the earth, coming forth in spring to spend
with her mother the months of sunshine, growth and
harvest. Satisfied with this arrangement, Ceres renewed
the fertility of the land. In fulfilment of her promise
to the youth Triptolemus, she taught him to plow and
sow, raise and reap, which valuable knowledge he conveyed
to mankind.
This poetic imagery of the annual coming of the corn
plant was annually celebrated with great magnificence by
the Greeks at Eleusis, the home of Triptolemus, in the
ceremonies known as the "Eleusinian Mysteries." These
degenerated into orgies as declined the glories of classic
Greece.
The tombs of Egypt yield up specimens of grain and
other food products of thousands of years ago. In the
National Museum at Naples may be seen bread taken
from the ruins of Pompeii, loaves blackened by the separa-
104
THE MAECH OP MAN
tion of the carbon, but still retaining their shape, and in¬
scribed with details of their manufacture.
For ages, in various forms and colorings, bread was a
leading article of diet; and numerous and curious were
the laws for the regulation of baking. In the thirteenth
century, under King John, the bakers of London were
forbidden to bake at night in consequence of devastation
of the city by fire. Under Kichard II. they were prohibited
from heating their ovens with fern, stubble or straw. In
1287, Eobert Basset, mayor of London, caused bakers to
be set in the pillory for giving light weight, "as also one
Agnes Daintie, for selling of mingled butter." In some
countries short-weight bakers were burnt to death in their
own ovens.
The ancients fed their athletes largely on barley bread,
in the belief that it was specially strengthening. Hence
the stalwart gladiators who hacked one another to death
in the arena for the delectation of patricians and plebeians
were called hordearii, or barley eaters, much as the stocky
old Yeomen of the Guard, in London, are called beef eaters
—though the latter name is a corruption of bouffetiers,
they having formerly guarded the royal buffet. Eye, the
poor man's grain, which will grow on soil too poor for
other cereals, affords black bread, tough and coarse, for
the peasantry of many districts of Europe. Oats, in the
form of oatmeal, have long been a favorite food with the
hardiest people of northern Europe. The chief campaign¬
ing ration of the Irish clansmen was a helmet of oatmeal
with a chunk of butter thrown in. The Scotch bake oat¬
meal into large flat cakes. It contains more proteid or
muscle forming substance than the average wheat flour.
THE MARCH OF MAN
105
Yet it has its drawbacks. Says an editorial in the Chicago
Journal: "For many years scientists have speculated as to
what caused the entire Scotch nation to be afläicted with
poor teeth. At last the trouble has been traced to the uni¬
versal diet of oats porridge. This soft, pasty food leaves
the mouth dirty and gives the teeth no exercise.
"Experts who have been investigating the Scotch dental
difficulty say that Scotland must stop eating oats porridge
or become a land of toothless beings."
When Columbus landed in the West Indies he received
from the natives a sort of bread made from a grain they
called mahiz, whence comes our word maize, Indian corn.
In later years the red woman taught the colonists the cul¬
tivation and preparation of maize—although their own
rude implement of agriculture might be merely a shell, a
buffalo bone, or a wooden mattock. They showed them
original ways of making hoe cake and corn pone, and,
mixed with beans, succotash, called by the Indians msicTc-
quaiash. On the maize the colonists often depended for
their existence.
In Mexico the Spaniards found the natives making
bread from maize by soaking the kernels in hot water,
rolling them into a paste and baking it in layers into
thin cakes. Such cakes, to which the invaders gave the
name tortillas, are still in Mexico a favorite food of all
classes. By itself, maize is not much of a flesh former, but
when used with milk its deflciency is to some extent sup¬
plied.
Millet, so called from its innumerable little seeds (mille,
a thousand), has been cultivated in southern Europe since
the days of the ancient Greeks. In Eussia and India it
106
THE MARCH OP MAN
forms a staple article of diet, and in both countries it has
been a favorite though fragile resource of the people in
times of famine. To make good bread of it a combination
of wheat flour is needed. Millet is capable of yielding per
acre about four times as much quantity as wheat.
For thousands of years rice has been the staple food of
the peoples of the Orient; used properly it is an excellent
adjunct, but of itself its nutritive qualities are of a low
order. About a century and a half ago it was introduced
to the American colonies from Madagascar. Among the
poorer classes of the East, especially in India and China,
the occasional failure of the rice is as terrible a calamity
as was that of the potato crop to the Irish in the "Black
Famine" of 1847, when Ireland lost about three millions
of her people.
Hard, unleavened bread, trying to the teeth and the
digestion, was found on the tables of the ancients. The
Gauls leavened their bread with the lye of beer, but this
process of fermentation soon went out of fashion and was
not revived until the seventeenth century, when physicians
condemned it, and in France in 1666 it was prohibited by
law. Again the process of raising bread by means of yeast
was revived, and now in America in the present whirlwind
of food fads, it is condemned by a certain cult, which pro¬
tests against it as a nasty use of deleterious bacteria. But
among American housewives, who generally prefer their
bread light and spongy instead of granitic, the use of
yeast as a leavening element has evidently come to stay.
The simplest method of bread making practiced by
primitive people in prehistoric times consisted merely of
soaking the grain in water until softened, expressing the
THE MAKCH OF MAN
107
water as well as possible and baking or drying by artificial
or natural beat. A very considerable step in advance was
made in this crude method when the grain was crushed
between stones or "brayed in a mortar." This meal or
flour, simply made into a paste with water and baked,
formed the unleavened bread of the Bible and it survives
to this day in the Passover-cakes of the Jews and the
"damper" of the Australian pioneer.
Bread of this kind, however, is very hard, difficult of
mastication and digestion, and it is the universal practice
to overcome these objections by causing carbonic acid gas
to be generated in the kneaded mass which in escaping
leaves the dough of a spongy texture ; it is leavened, "made
light." This evolution of carbonic acid gas in the dough
is accomplished in two principal methods—(1) by fer¬
mentation, and (2) by the use of one of the various forms
of baking powder. The mechanical result of this operation
is the creation of innumerable cells within the dough which
are subsequently distended by heat, the whole mass being
encased during baking in the crust of dextrine formed by
the action of the heat upon the starch of the flour. Thus,
instead of the formation of a heavy and sodden mass a
spongy crumb is obtained, easy of mastication, readily per¬
meated by the saliva and the gastric juice and of high
digestibility.
Leavening has been practiced from time immortal in the
East ; from the Egyptians it passed to the Greeks and then
to the Komans, whose conquests extended the art.
It probably consisted in the first instance of a natural
fermentation of the dough by leaving it to become sour;
but to hasten the process it became usual to add to new
108
THE MAECH OF MAN
dough a portion of the old fermented paste or "leaven."
In modern times yeasts have been substituted for the piece
of leaven. These are various, such as the dry hop yeasts,
the compressed or German yeasts, etc. The action of the
yeast is caused by minute organisms which propagate at
the expense of the materials of the flour on which they
feed. These organisms in leavening dough convert the
carbohydrates, the starch and sugar, of the flour into car¬
bonic acid gas and alcohol.
Bread prepared in this way is of splendid quality, light,
wholesome, digestible. There are but two possible objec¬
tions, however; the time and skill required in its prepara¬
tion and the fact that a portion of the valuable constituents
of the flour are destroyed in the process of fermentation.
The other method of leavening dough is by the use of
baking powder. The advantages of baking powder over
yeast are : The time required is much less ; and a person of
very little skill is certain of satisfactory results. A baking
powder raises food as does yeast by generating carbonic
acid gas in the dough, hut in a different way. The baking
powder carries the carbonic acid gas locked up in itself
ready to be set free when the proper conditions of moisture
and temperature are obtained in the dough.
It depends for its efficiency upon a chemical reaction
which takes place between the materials which compose it,
a product of which reaction is the carbonic acid gas neces¬
sary for leavening. But carbonic acid gas is not the only
thing produced in this reaction.
Other substances are formed the nature of which depends
upon the class to which the baking powder used belongs.
And right here let us try to make one point very clear.
THE MARCH OP MAN
109
We have said that a baking powder did its work because
a chemical reaction occurred. Whenever a chemical re¬
action occurs the nature of the substances taking part in it
is entirely changed. The substances left after the reaction
are not those present before ; they are entirely new bodies.
Applied to a baking powder this means that the substances
out of which the baking powder is made, the substances
after which the baking powder is often named, are not at
all the substances left in the food to be eaten. Take for
example the class of baking powders called cream of tartar
powders. These powders contain cream of tartar, but when
used in the baking the cream of tartar is destroyed as such
and changed into Eochelle salts, which remains in the
food. In the case of the so-called alum powders, the alum
is completely destroyed as such and not one particle of
alum or anything similar to it is left in the food.
There are four classes or types of baking powders—the
cream of tartar powders, the alum-phosphate powders, the
alum powders and the phosphate powders. The first two
mentioned types are by far the most important. There is
probably no product entering into the preparation of food
about which there is as much misapprehension and about
which as much nonsense has been written. There are two
all-important points to be considered in comparing baking
powders—the amount of carbonic acid gas it is capable of
evolving and the nature and quantity of the substances left
in the food to be eaten. The first point is easily disposed
of; unless a baking powder contains from 12 to 14 per cent
of leavening gas it will not produce satisfactory results.
The so-called cream of tartar powder consists of soda, cream
of tartar, starch and often a little tartaric acid. When this
110
THE MARCH OF MAN
mixture is moistened in the dough, the cream of tartar and
the soda combine chemically, setting free carbonic acid gas
and forming Eochelle salts, which remains in the dough.
Eochelle salts is the cathartic medicine contained in seidlitz
powders. These baking powders leave about 70 per cent
of their weight of Eochelle salts in the food.
The so-called alum-phosphate powders consist of soda,
acid phosphate, alum and starch. These powders leave
about 35 per cent of their weight of alumina and phosphate
and sulphate of soda in the food.
The alumina has been proven by elaborate physiological
experiments to he insoluble in the digestive tract, to be
eliminated unchanged and to be without physiological
effect. The phosphates and sulphates are mild cathartics.
In the Layton case in St. Louis in which the wholesomeness
of alum baking powder was attacked and at which trial
the highest physiological authorities in the country testified,
Judge Willis H. Clark, in his decision, said : "I am unable
to find in the evidence in this case any just ground for
ruling that alum baking powders when used in the prepara¬
tion of food are in anywise less wholesome than any other
variety of baking powders."
In this connection we quote from the report of Dr. J. S.
Abbott, State Dairy and Food Commissioner of Texas : "It
seems absurd to us that so much pure-food literature of an
unfavorable nature to alum baking powders has been pub¬
lished. Even the manufacturers of cream-of-tartar baking
powders have endeavored, and are still endeavoring to cre¬
ate a prejudice against the use of alum baking powders, in
order to increase their own business.
"This method of advertising seems to be peculiar to such
THE MARCH OE MAN
111
manufacturers. The public is aware that it is an extremely
uncommon thing for one merchant to advertise the defects
of his competitor's goods to further the sale of his own
goods.
"An indication of this vicious method of advertising is
shown in the following advertisement of one brand of
cream of tartar baking powder; ' baking powder
for nearly a half century has been giving the people pure
food—long before a pure food law was thought out for
either state or nation. Made from grapes—pure and health¬
ful. No alum—no phosphates. Chemical tests show that
alum baking powders leave unchanged alum, an injurious
metallic acid, in the food. Be on your guard. Alum pow¬
ders may he known by their price—10 or 25 cents a pound,
or 1 cent an ounce.'
"The first absurdity in the above advertising matter is
that baking powder was made from grapes. This, of course,
is absurd, for the reason that there was only one product
in the baking powder that could have come from grapes,
and this did not come from grapes in their natural state,
but was one of the products resulting from the fermentation
of grape juice. The second absurdity is that alum baking
powders leave unchanged alum in the food in which it is
used. This may or may not be true ; it depends altogether
upon whether or not the ingredients of an alum baking
powder have been mixed in the proper proportion.
"Another absurdity is that alum is an injurious metallic
acid. It is true that aluminum hydroxide shows both a
basic and acid nature, but its acid properties are not at all
so pronounced as might be inferred from the advertise¬
ment."
112
THE MAECH OE MAN
Wheat was brought to America by Columbus, and today
this country produces more wheat than any other in the
world. It keeps on producing it in greater quantities and
of better quality. A few years ago Sir William Crookes,
president of the British Association, predicted gloomily
that by 1931 the world would have ceased producing
suflBcient wheat for the use of its inhabitants. He knew
not of the great wheat lands of Canada, to which there is
now such a grand rush of farmers, especially of Ameri¬
cans. Neither had he a proper idea of the ingenuity of
modern agriculturists, to whose aid has come chemistry
and biology.
It appears that since the beginning nothing was done
to improve the breed of wheat until Möns. Henry Vihnorin
,of Prance took up the idea and did some good experiment¬
ing. About fifteen years ago the workers of the Minne¬
sota State Experiment Station followed suit. They began
by artificially cross-breeding various wheats. To do this,
we are told, they went into the fields of blossoming wheat
at 4 a. m., transferred the pollen of one sort to the flowers
of another, tied the heads so treated in tiny bags of tissue,
to keep out insects or birds, and marked them with record
tags. When these heads of wheat matured the seed grains
were harvested, registered and planted by themselves.
Some of these little crops gave disappointment, some
encouragement, but out of hundreds of wheats thus bred
some eight or ten showed marked advance. It took about
ten years of patient test. In most cases the new wheats
yielded at least two bushels more to the acre than the
standard wheat, and were vigorous and healthy. In one
THE MAKCH OE MAN
113
case, where the average yield was fifteen bushels, the new
"Minnesota ÎSTumber 163" yielded forty-two bushels.
It is right to mention that the breed of com has un¬
dergone and is undergoing vast improvement. In Illinois
the Agricultural College at Urbana has been working on
corn by selection and careful breeding. Discoveries made
in the last six years have had a marvelous result upon the
increase of yield and also the quality of the product. In
June, 1900, the Illinois Com Breeders' Association was
organized—the beginning of a widespread movement to
put corn-breeding on a similar basis with that of live¬
stock improvement, as it were, applying the same principle
to the vegetable kingdom as to the animal one—and sev¬
eral other states soon followed the lead of Illinois. The
method adopted was the choosing of the finest seed from
a given race, the isolated planting and special cultivation
of the same; repeating the process in the following year,
this time planting only the middle kernels of the most
perfect ears of the preceding crop; and so on. On a trial
of the pedigreed corn in southern Illinois, where an average
field yielded about thirty bushels to the acre, those planted
with the improved seed yielded sixty bushels to the acre.
Such achievements in agriculture must tend greatly to
the benefit of mankind. A "comer" or "flurry" in the
wheat pit, a combine on the Board of Trade, is only too
often made a pretext for sending up foodstuffs, increasing
the price of the barrel or the sack of flour, making two
loaves of bread cost what three cost before—and when the
price goes up it is kept up. ISTew conditions will bring
food prices to a rational level, and the world will be vastly
the better for it. s
114
THE MARCH OF MAN
CHAPTER VII.
The Virgin of the Scales.
Hand in hand with health goes honesty.
One of the most signal services which Queen Science
has rendered and is rendering the world is the promotion
of honesty and rectitude. This is a significant and satis¬
factory feature of modern progress—of the March of Man.
Conscience points the way, justice commands it, science
compels it.
A good pair of scales—that is not only an emblem but
a surety of fair dealing between man and man.
The ancients esteemed the scales so much that they
placed them in the heavens, as Libra, among the signs of
the Zodiac. A bad pair of scales has been a curse and an
abomination to Jew and Gentile since Solomon's time,
and long before—some think since the time of Cain, who
was, says Josephus, the inventor of weights and measures.
It is surprising how many bad weighing machines are
in existence. In Chicago they ever keep giving trouble
to the City Sealer's office, whose function is to see that
instruments of ordinary trade are correct, and whose opera¬
tions are now and then seen in a pile of broken scales or in
a heap of fraudulent measures blazing on the lake front.
Like counterfeit money, a bad pair of scales represents
false values. Sometimes it means a loss to the buyer,
sometimes to the seller. At all times it is an infamous
relic of ignorance and a blot upon civilization.
It is interesting to trace, even through the mists of
antiquity, the evolution of our modern methods of weigh-
p. M. Hanney
THE MAECH OF MAN
115
ing and measuring. Our remote ancestors, when on fair
terms with their neighbors, traded their cattle for corn
and vice versa, and carpenters bartered their crude skill
for food in the dim old days when the first tramp cut his
first wood for his first hand-out. With the increase of
the communities the demand for certain commodities be¬
came greater than for others, and the field of exchange
became greatly extended and complicated, with the result
that the first middleman or broker made his appearance,
to facilitate, at a profit to himself, primitive matters com¬
mercial, making bargains and exchanges and telling of
"a good thing" when he saw it. With the development of
precious metals and their use as certain values in ex¬
change, the primitive method of barter lost its hold. Then
came the original scales in the form of balancing sticks
either held in the hand or suspended from a tree or pole,
with the articles of exchange hung on each end. With a
development of standard weights these devices were made,
as far as current knowledge went, to conform to certain
principles of weighing, either by notches in which a poise
would hang or by placing weights at one end of the bal¬
ance. The principal object of this device was to give true
weight or value for weight or value received; and so the
balance scale came into existence. By increasing the
length of the arms and fine adjustment of the fulcrum, or
support of the beam, great precision was obtainable.
Highly developed scales of this principle are used today
for the weighing of precious metals and jewels.
As to the subject of weights, the IMoneyweight system is
the oldest. About the first weight mentioned is the shekel,
which was also a coin, value 62^ cents, in circulation
116
THE MAECH OF MAN
among the ancient Jews. In 1860 B. C. Abraham, in pay¬
ment for some land he bought, paid to Ephren 400 shekels
of silver. A shekel weighed half an ounce avoirdupois and
was equal in value to twenty gerah—a small coin worth
about three cents. One hundred shekels made a mench,
or mina, and three thousand shekels made the celebrated
talent of Scripture, weighing 93 lbs., 12 ozs. avoirdupois
and in value $1,870. Silver, as is here seen, was as popu¬
lar in Scriptural times in Palestine as it was a decade or
so ago in some western states of America.
For measures the Jews had the omer (six pints), the
hin (ten pints) and the ephah, or bath (seven and a half
gallons, or sixty pints).
That the children of Israel had frequent recourse to the
unjust manipulation of weights is evidenced by the fre¬
quent warnings and denunciations in Scripture. The
weights were carried in bags, often two sets of them—
heavy ones for buying and light ones for selling. Strictly
and repeatedly were the chosen people warned against
such practices, in solemn and sacred words that have come
down to us through the ages and that might with moral
effect be framed in the offices of some modern merchants
and dealers : "A false balance is abomination to the Lord ;
but a just weight is His delight" (Proverbs, iii) ; 'TDivers
weights are an abomination to the Lord; and a false bal¬
ance is not good" (Proverbs, 20-23) ; "Just balances, just
weights, a just ephah and a just hin shall ye have: I am
the Lord your God, that brought you out of the land of
Egypt" (Lev. 19-36).
But if some Jewish dealers and peddlers craftily used
two sets of weights and measures in their business, some
THE MAECH OP MAN
117
shrewd Jewish housekeepers whom they dealt with also
kept two sets in their houses for emergency. The prac¬
tice on both sides was contrary to the precepts of the
Jewish law, though it helped to equalize matters. To such
an extent, however, did the weights and scales fraud pre¬
vail in Jerusalem that "merchant" seems to have become
synonjrmous with cheat and oppressor : "He is a merchant,
the balances of deceit are in his hand ; he loveth to oppress"
(Hor. 12-7).
The model or standard of weights and measures which
were in earliest use were preserved for a long time in the
Jewish Temple, but were destroyed with that sacred edifice,
and afterwards the Jews adopted the weights and measures
of the people among whom they dwelt.
Proceeding from ancient Judea to ancient Greece, we
find here also the Moneyweight system, at least approxi¬
mately. In commercial weights of the brave days of Leó¬
nidas and Demosthenes an obol equaled 15.29 grains; six
obol made a drachma, one hundred drachma a mina, and
sixty mina a talent, equaling 75 lbs., 5% ozs., 1.469
grains.
Of course the ancient Eomans had their scales, weights
and measures, all of them more classic than accurate or
reliable. A collection of these, unearthed from the ruins
of Pompeii, may be seen in the Eoyal National Museum at
Naples. It was to obtain better quantity, in this class of
scales, of the treasure he exacted from the conquered
Eomans, that Brennus the Gaul threw his sword clashing
among the weights with the poignant explanation, "Woe
to the conquered." Obviously the haughty barbarian sus¬
pected that the polished Eomans were short-weighting him.
118
ÏIIE MARCH or MAÎi
in acting as though he had had experience with some
modern Chicago coal dealers.
Yet those ancient people had such respect for a true
scales, reverencing it even as a sacred emblem, that they
placed it not only in the hand of the strictly impartial
Justitia, their goddess of justice, hut also in the heavens;
Libra, or the Balance, is one of the fairest signs of the
Zodiac.
The Eoman pound was called libra; it is still in use
in Italy, Spain and Portugal; originally 5,046 grains in
weight, it varies in different localities.
In ancient Troy, before the fatal days of Helen and the
wooden horse, a grain of wheat was taken as a standard;
600 of them made an avoirdupois ounce.
The mystic land of the Pharoahs had its own elaborate
system of weights and measures. A daring and ingenious
writer of the year 1745 professes to deduce them from
the water capacity of the tomb of Cheops, in the pyramid !
But the more the archaeology of Egypt is investigated, the
more the investigators believe they are only in the be¬
ginning.
In the days of Confucius, about 570 B. C., the Chinese
had their system of weights and measures, and in other
respects the yellow races were abreast—and in some ahead
—of the whites.
To England, after his successful invasion of A. D. 1066,
William the Conqueror introduced the troy weight, so
called from the city of Troyes, in his native Hormandy.
Its basis was simple and bucolic: 640 grains of wheat,
taken from the middle of the ear and well dried, made an
ounce, and twelve of these ounces, or 7,680 grains, made
THE MAKCH OE MAN
119
a pound. In 1266 an English standard was established,
with wheat still as the basis, mixing weights, money and,
liquid in curious fashion, viz.: 32 wheat corns made a
penny, 20 pence one ounce, 12 ounces one pound, 8 pounds
one gallon of wine, 8 gallons one bushel, and 8 bushels one
quarter.
So matters stood down to the time of Henry VII., of
penurious memory (who gave the man who discovered
North America for him the munificent reward of $50), who
reduced the pound weight to 5,760 grains, dividing it in
12 ounces of 480 grains each, at which the troy weight has
continued to the present day. In 1509, Henry VIII. in¬
troduced the pound avoirdupois of 7,000 grains, dividing
it into equal parts of sixteen ounces. In 1558, in the
reign of Elizabeth, both troy and avoirdupois weights were
established by law; the former was gradually adopted by
jewelers and druggists, the latter being assigned to
butchers and for the sale of commodities in frequent de¬
mand, such as groceries, etc.
In 1758, by directions of a royal committee of weights
and measures, standard brass weights of one pound troy
and one pound avoirdupois were made, in order to prevent
variations, and placed in charge of the elerk of the House
of Commons. A standard yard measure was also made.
In 1824, these weights were confirmed as standard by aet
of parliament, and a new imperial standard weight was
constructed in the following year; but in 1834 the houses
of parliament were destroyed by fire and with them the
precious models, and lo, England seemed threatened with
commercial chaos, left without a standard weight !
Soon a royal committee was appointed to repair the
120
THE MARCH OF MAN
loss, and after profound and prolonged deliberations it
was decided that the standard of weight should he a piece
of platinum weighing 7,000 grains, thus replacing troy
weight by avoirdupois.
Since then extraordinary precautions have been taken
to preserve in their integrity the standard British weights
and measures. They are guarded almost as sacredly as
royalty itself. In pursuance of the Standards act of 1855,
the standard of British yard measure and the British
pound weight are immured in the wall of the staircase
leading to the upper hall of the House of Commons, and
parliamentary copies are deposited at the Koyal Mint,
Greenwich Observatory, and with the Eoyal Society of
London. The immured standards are tested every twenty
years in presence of the Speaker of the House of Com¬
mons, the President of the Board of Trade and the Secre¬
tary of the Lord High Chamberlain. The last test took
place on April 2, 1892, when it was found that, compared
with the test of 1872, the yard differed 0.0000152 inch,
and the pound 0.00064 grain. It was a source of some
mystery and uneasiness, but finally the examiners decided
that the previous test must have been erroneous and that
it was only a trifling difference anyhow, so they made the
statutory declaration that the imperial standards had not
been in any manner destroyed, defaced or otherwise in¬
jured, after which the precious articles were carefully re¬
placed as follows : The platinum pound was wrapped in
Swedish filtering paper, then placed in a silver gilt case,
which was packed in a square solid bronze case, which was
deposited in a mahogany box, the lid of which was screwed
down and sealed; the gun metal yard was placed on eight
THE MARCH OP MAN
121
rollers within a mahogany box, then both mahogany boxes
were placed within a lead case, the lid of which was sol¬
dered down; lastly, the lead receptacle was placed in an
oak box, which was deposited within the cavity in the
stone wall and the aperture cemented up. No royal poten¬
tate that ever lived had such distinguished interment.
In 1827, copies of the British standards were secured
and brought to America, where they have since governed
business dealings.
The avoirdupois pound of 7,000 grains is employed in
the United States and England in the weighing of all
ordinary commercial commodities.
The troy pound of twelve ounces, 5,760 grains, or more
commonly its fractions, is employed in both countries in
weighing bullion and jewels.
Eeturning to the subject of scales, never were they al¬
lotted more impressive and sinister import than in the
marvelous trial scene in The Merchant of Yenice. If one
may judge by the critical conditions named by Portia, of
very delicate and accurate poise must have been balances
in the time of Shakespeare:
Portia: It is so. Are there balance here to weigh the fleshf
Shylock: I have them ready {Produces scales) . . .
Portia: Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
Shed thou no blood; nor cut thou less, nor more.
But just a pound of flesh; if thou tak'st more,
Or less, than a just pound,—be it so much.
As makes it light, or heavy, in the balance.
Or the division of the twentieth part
Of one poor scruple; nay, if the scale do turn
But in the estimation of a hair,
Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate.
But it is more than doubtful if balances of such ex¬
quisite precision as that specified by the fair amateur law-
122
THE MARCH OF MAN
yer existed in the days of the Bard of Avon, when the
wilful or unintentional use of false or defective scales
often brought men to the stocks, the pillory and the scaf¬
fold.
The original or simplest form of balance is a beam sus¬
pended exactly in the middle, with a scale or basin of pre¬
cisely equal weight hung to each extremity. Another form
is that of the ancient Eoman balance, our modern steel¬
yard, suspended near one of the extremities, to which ex¬
tremity is hung the scale for holding the object to be
weighed, while on the longer arm of the beam is a weight
that slides along numbers graduating low to high as the
weight moves further from the suspension point. Spring
balances are also used, in which the body weighed pulls
down a spring, to which a pointer it attached that moves
over a graduated scale, thus indicating the weight.
It seems to have taken the American mind a long time
in turning to the critical subject of improving the method
of weighing. But when it turned, it turned with a ven¬
geance. The records of the United States patent office
show that from 1790 to 1895 the patents issued on various
kinds of scales amount to 1,044. About eighty years ago
the scale-making industry received a sudden and special
boom through the invention of Thaddens Fairhanks (born
in 1795 in Vermont). Dissatisfied with the clumsy and
inadequate kinds of weighing machines then in existence,
he set himself to devise improvements. His repeated at¬
tempts were failures, but at length one night he dreamt
out an idea that, when put in practice, proved a success,
of the same kind ; before he knew it he was in the scale-
THE MARCH OE MAN
123
making business, and now the Fairbanks weighing ma¬
chines are known all over the world.
But still there remained an unsupplied want, which
pressed severely on storekeepers and retailers in general.
Their weighing methods remained as primitive as if they
stood behind a counter in Pompeii; they were about as
helpless in getting precise value weight, satisfactory to
themselves and their customers, as was Shylock when he
stood, scales and knife in hand, gnashing his teeth at the
decision of Portia.
The worry of complicated computation of the price of
an article dazed their brains at many a sale. They would
undercharge or overcharge for their goods, and they could
not very well help it. It was found that many merchants
who were proficient in the art of selling goods and build¬
ing up trade were at times deficient in securing correct
mental computations. There were cases where the com¬
plications were enough to drive an average man to insan¬
ity. In some parts of the country remote from the com¬
mercial centers, the ancient and ordinary forms of barter
were still in existence. A farmer would go to market with
a quantity of butter or eggs, for which he would take
goods of various kinds from the merchant, and the balance,
if any, in money. The condition was aggravated when the
customer asked for a certain money's worth instead of a
certain quantity, say 50 cents' worth instead of a
pound and seven ounces. It would then be necessary to
figure out in pounds and ounces what weight would repre¬
sent that value. Under these circumstances inventive
used in operating the scale without showing itself to be
124
THE MAKCH OP MAN
geniuses set their brains to work to devise a computing
scale that would save time, trouble, temper and trade.
The first patent for an automatic calculating scale was
taken out August 21, 1866, by J. Johnson, of Saco, Me.
A patent for a calculating beam scale was issued Febru¬
ary 18, 1868, to C. A. Smith, of Eeading, Pa., and one
for a computing arrangement for weighing scale February
1, 1870, to H. D. Lathrop and 0. Gray, of Bedford, 0.
Other inventions along the same line followed in slow
and mainly unsatisfactory succession.
At the Philadelphia Pure Food Show of 1890 the at¬
tention of Mr. Orange 0. Ozias, of Dayton, 0., was at¬
tracted to the model of a computing scale there placed on
exhibition. He was so struck by the evident merits of the
device that he bought the patent rights from the inventor,
Mr. E. E. Hull, and fonned a company to place the new
machine on the market. Then came disappointment and
loss of thousands of dollars; finally improvements, perfec¬
tion, success. At the Chicago Columbian Exposition of
1893 the new scales was noticed by Mr. Samuel Miles
Hastings, of Chicago, who on examination saw for it a
great future. He immediately got in touch with the
manufacturers and formed an agency, and the merits of
the 'long felt want" soon created for itself an extensive
market.
Careful tests of the most representative types of scales
used in butcher shops, groceries, delicatessen stores, etc.,
showed a loss of from one and a half to two ounces in a
pound of sugar or other commodity when weighed in
ounces. It was found that part of the goods retailed was
THE MAECH OF MAN
135
part of the weight, a condition which the dealer could not
obviate save by taking a gambler's chance by shortweight-
ing. In the automatic computing scale this defect is satis¬
factorily absent; it stands with the impartiality of strict
justice between the seller and the buyer.
One of the earlier forms of the new scale was a shallow
drum from which was suspended a baU and pan, which
bore the goods on sale, whose weight moved the indicator.
Another was a horizontal cylinder from which hung a
similar pan, the value of the goods weighed being shown
by means of a revolving chart through a slot in the front
of the cylinder. Later the scale was constructed with a
stationary base, and the system of computing weight
reached its highest modem perfection.
Here, as regards honest weight, there is no caU for
Scriptural denunciations. Queen Science stands by the
scales, enforcing fair play for both merchant and customer
and insisting that commercial rectitude is the path to
progress and prosperity. Science is the modern and real
virgin of the scales.
As an infant the moneyweight system went forth from
the cradle of the human race. After wandering in many
countries, encountering many vicissitudes and much ne¬
glect, it gradually reached development, attaining full per¬
fection in America, whence it has returned to receive ap¬
preciation with open arms in the lands whence it originally
came.
126
THE MARCH OF MAN
CHAPTER VIH.
THE GÜABDIANS OF THE PEOPLE'S MONEY.
A remarkable stage in the jSIarch of Man was reached
when he first ventured to trust his property in the shape
of money, in the keeping of a fellow mortal.
In imagination we can see that daring first depositor
nervously or confidently handing over his little hoard of
Lacedemonian iron money, or Syracusan tin money, or
Carthagenian leather money, or Lydian electrum staters,
or Greek and Hebrew silver shekels, or gold coin of the
eastern and western Roman empires, into the custody of
some primitive financier, who possibly tempted him by
undertaking not only to faithfully care for it but to make
it increase and multiply at a marvelously get-rich-quick
rate, and ended perhaps by disappearing with his trust into
the recesses of the primeval forest.
We have no record of that initial momentous bank trans¬
action, which, although the preliminary to abuses and rob¬
beries that have been productive of immense ruin and
misery in this world, at the same time paved the way for
the great upbuilding of communities and nations and the
systematic advancement and betterment of the human race.
To have banks it was necessary to have a medium of
exchange. The old system of exchanging or trading per¬
sonal property—^horses, cattle, provisions, clothing ma¬
terials, arms, ornaments, etc.—became, as human needs
grew more defined and human taste more fastidious, de¬
cidedly out of date. It was complicated and embarrassing
—ridiculous and mildewed as are many of our modern
THE MAECH OP MAN
137
customs, though we see it not. When a man wanted to buy
a cow or a pig to feed his family and the owner of the
animal did not want the fine bearskin cloak or the splendid
spike-studded war club that was proft'ered in exchange, it
was a distressing predicament, and the first party might
in desperation be impelled to resort to violence to enforce
the deal. No doubt ancient exchanges and transfers in¬
numerable were carried on through the agency not of a
broker but of a battle ax. Under such pressing conditions
money came into existence.
Some traditions, especially the Celtic, disparagingly
denounce the devil as the father of money. When the
known scarcity of certain bright-appearing metals ren¬
dered them precious, they were used—^bars and ingots of
gold and silver—as a circulating medium of exchange.
The Chinese claim that they coined bronze cash, with a
square hole in the center, over three thousand years ago,
or B. C. 1130. The wife of Midas, king of Phrygia (clas¬
sic legend charges that his majesty had the ears of an ass),
is credited with the invention of money. So are the Lydians
(B. C. 1300), who made gold coins in the city of Sardis.
Phidon, king of Argos (B. C. 800) coined money, and the
first silver currency was sent forth about that time from
Aegina, an island in the Grecian archipelago. Lycurgus
banished all gold and silver from Sparta in favor of iron
money. Ptolemy Soter made the first Egyptian money.
The Hebrews had none of theirs until the time of the Mac¬
cabees, when Antiochus issued the shekel and half shekel.
The early Eomans used copper and brass in their coinage.
MTien Julius Caesar landed in Britain coins of brass and
iron were found in use. Dionysius I., tyrant of Sicily,
128
THE MARCH OF MAN
coined tin money; and even lead, basest of all metals, was
dignified as a circulatmg medium. A kind of leather
money was in use in Carthage; Numa Pompilius, second
king of Eome, made money of the same cheap material,
also of wood. Frederick Barbarossa, of the Crusades, and
John the Good, kiug of France, also used leather money.
Marco Polo, famous traveler, of the thirteenth century,
foimd in China a money made of the inner bark of the
mulberry tree, cut into round pieces and stamped with the
mark of the sovereign.
Simple devices were stamped on the first Greek coins—
images of animals, fishes, objects emblematic of the gods
of mythology, Bacchus by the design of a bunch of grapes,
Diana by a stag, Mercury by a tortoise, Jupiter by a thun¬
derbolt, Ceres by an ear of barley. Heads of kings and
rulers were placed on coins after the passing of Alexander
the Great. The beauty of coins made in the golden age
of Greek metallic art—^the fourth century B. C.—are
tmsurpassed by the best efforts of modern artists and
gravers.
In the time of Servius Tullius, B. C. 578, the Eomans
began first to coin money, that rider causing the plain
copper ingots until then in use to be stamped with the
image of a sheep, ox, fowl or other animal (probably of the
species they were used to help sell or barter), whence is
derived the Latin term pecunia, money, from pecu, cattle.
The aes, first Eoman circular copper coin (B. C. 385)
weighed originally a pound, later reduced to ounces.
In 269 B. C. came the first Eoman silver coin. It was
called the denarius and was of the weight of the Greek
unit, the drachm, until then freely circulating in Eome,
THE MARCH OP MAN
139
and it valued ten bronze aeses, as shown by the numeral X
which it bore, behind the stamped head of Pallas or Eoma.
Fractions of the denarius were the quinarius, denoted by
the numeral V, and the sestertius, denoted by S II, meaning
two and one-half aeses.
Later each country had the head of its chief ruler on
its coins and so on through the centuries down to our own
times in America, to the great and befuddling 16 to 1
silver coining controversy ; to the strenuous excitement over
decorating our coin with the profile, as goddess of liberty,
of a pretty Irish waitress; to the newspaper story of the
last counterfeiter caught by federal sleuths among the sand
dunes of Indiana.
Among the ancients the term banker implied something
different from its modern signification; it meant an agent,
a broker, a money lender. The bankers of imperial Eome
were called argentarii and numularii; they loaned out the
money of private persons on interest, wrote deeds, engi¬
neered the buying and selling of all kinds of property.
But the banking system as we know it—with features
somewhat altered in the course of centuries—is a child of
the Queen of the Adriatic. It had birth along the canals
of medieval Venice. It was in the middle of the twelfth
century that Duke Vitale, Mitchel II., who was engaged
in war with the empire of the west and the Grecian Manuel,
found himself in urgent need of money. To raise it he
imposed what he called a "forced loan" upon the citizens,
the lenders to receive interest at the rate of 4 per cent per
annum. A chamber of loans was formed for the manage¬
ment of this fund and regular payment of the interest, and
this department ultimately formed itself into the celebrated
130
THE MABCH OP MAN
Bank of Venice, with a starting capital of 5,000,000 ducats'
or $4,800,000, mother of all banks in the world, supplying
them with commercial systems that practically obtain today
between all trading nations. By an edict of the state all
payments for wholesale merchandise and bills of exchange
had to be made in banco, or bank notes, and all debtors
had to lodge their money in the bank so that their creditors
might receive payment, which was done by writing off the
sum from the accoimt of the debtor and placing it to that
of the creditor, payments being thus made without the
intervention of gold or silver—exception, being made in case
of foreigners who desired to be paid in the precious metals.
All the riches of the state thus ffowed into the bank, and
through various channels were again diffused among
traders, giving immense facility and impetus to trade and
making the Queen of the Adriatic for centuries the greatest
commercial city in the world. It is but a sorry compli¬
ment, considering the general character of their majesties,
to say that the notes of the Bank of Venice were more
esteemed than the bonds of kings.
Spain came next. In 1401, the magistrates of Barcelona,
pledging the city funds as security, established what they
called the Table of Exchange, a bank of exchange and
deposit, in which foreign bills were negotiated with the
same liberality as those of the citizens and accommodations
were extended to strangers as well as to natives.
The Genoese claim the merit of establishing a bank as
early as the Venetians. The republic borrowed large sums
of money from the citizens, assigning certain branches of
the revenue for the payment of the interest, a board of man¬
agement composed of leading citizens being appointed to
THE MARCH OF MAN
131
look after matters. These became so complicated that to
avoid further confusion all the funds were consolidated, in
1407, into a bank called the Chamber of St. George, which
was governed by eight protectors, annually elected by the
creditors and stockholders. In 1444, it was decided, to
avoid the inconvenience of total annual successions, that
only two of the protectors or directors should go out of office
each year.
Thus, beside her great contributions to the liberal arts
and science, Italy was the first great pioneer in banking,
six and a half centuries ago, and high in the annals of
commerce shine the names of the Medici, the Acciajuoli,
the Periuzzi, Bardi and Pitti.
Another famous commercial nation adopted the banking
business when the Bank of Amsterdam was opened, Jan¬
uary 31, 1609. The magistrates of that city, under au¬
thority of the states, opened the bank, through which all
payments over a certain amount had to be made. This
was partly to make provision against the debased state of
the currency which its extensive trade brought to Amster¬
dam from all quarters of Europe. The light, debased and
worn coin was taken by the bank at its intrinsic value in
the good* money of the country and gave credit for the
amount in its books, thus establishing a standard that
greatly helped the operations of commerce. The money of
the Bank of Amsterdam soon bore a premium, or agio—
meaning the difference in price between the money of a
bank and the money of a country—of generally 5 per cent.
King William III., who left England the embarrassing
and seemingly permanent legacy of a national debt, ever
growing heavier, granted a charter, July 27, 1694, for the
132
THE MARCH OF MAN
establishment of the Bank of England, with an original
capital of £1,200,000, in consideration of its lending his
government exactly that amount, at interest of 8 per cent.
Previously a vague attempt in the banking direction seems
to have been made by the noted financier and philanthropist
Sir Thomas Gresham, for whom Queen Elizabeth opened
the Eoyal Exchange of London in 1570; but systematic
banking was first realized in England by the institution
which eventually became the greatest of its kind in the
world. Its highly respectable affairs were conducted with
stolid conservatism ; nevertheless it parted with four million
pounds sterling for South Sea Company stock when came
on the scene the notorious John Law, most picturesque
scheme promoter, finance juggler and stupendous confidence
man in history. Law was a goldsmith's son of Edinburgh,
Scotland, with a strong turn for finance. Money being
scarce in Scotland, he proposed the establishment of a bank
with paper issues to the amount of the value of aU the
lands of the kingdom, but the scheme was rejected. Having
wronged a young lady in England and slain his brother
in a duel, he fled with his get-rich-quick schemes to the
continent, but was driven from town after town as a
designing adventurer. In 1716, by royal authority, he
established in Paris a bank to which was joined the Com¬
pany of the Mississippi, and brilliant inducements were
offered which lured over half a billion dollars out of the
pockets of both high and humble, shares rising from 500
livres each to 10,000 livres. Money was never so abun¬
dant in France ; agriculture, manufactures, commerce flour¬
ished. The brains of the great business might have event¬
ually succeeded—^who knows?—and made matters sound
THE MAECH OP MAN
133
and staple but for the interference of a greedy king and a
meddling government. The bubble burst, causing general
panic and ruin. Law escaped to Italy. He died in Venice,
the mother of banking, in 1729, at the age of 48.
In 1804, under the auspices of the republican govern¬
ment, the Bank of France was started with a capital of
$8,000,000. Since then France has been very lucky in her
financiering. As stated by Mr. Oscar 6. Foreman, of
Chicago, president of the Bankers' Association of the State
of Illinois, at the annual convention of bankers at Cairo,
111., October 26, 1910 : "Though no country has had so
many political troubles, more wars, more revolutions, in the
last hundred years or so, none has had less financial trouble.
On the contrary, France always has been in a position to
help other coutries out of financial difficulties. Within a
century French bankers have twice helped the Bank of
England out of a serious situation."
Imagine a pending empire-staggering crash for the great
Bank of England, and England's old enemy, France, com¬
ing magnanimously to the rescue !
Through the energy and genius of Eobert Morris, the
father of credit and paper circulation in this country, the
Bank of North America was started, by virtue of resolu¬
tions passed by congress May 26, 1781, with a capital of
$400,000, in 1,000 shares of $400 each. Thus came into
existence the first bank in the United States. With our
subsequent complicated banking history,' occasionally check¬
ered with panics, failures and wreckings, there is no room
here to deal; there is naught to do but sweep down, aero¬
plane-like, to contemplation of modern methods and
conditions.
134
THE MAECH OE MAN
Example of the marvelous growth of the banking busi¬
ness—^how it would have amazed the fathers of the repub¬
lic !—is afforded in Chicago. By first statement following
the great fire of 1871 the city had nineteen national banks
and seven state banks, each with a capital of $100,000 or
over. These twenty-six institutions, together with the mis¬
cellaneous banking concerns, had a total capitalization,
surplus and undivided profits, of $14,391,133, with deposits
aggregating $37,218,536.
At the beginning of 1909 the city had sixteen national
banks and forty-four state banks ; the total of capitalization,
surplus and undivided profits was $113,000,000 and the
total deposits were $740,000,000—about twenty times the
amount of thirty-eight years previously.
By a statement issued by Lawrence 0. Murray, comp¬
troller of the currency, the increase in the banking power
of the world between 1896 and 1908 was 185 per cent, that
of the United States 233 per cent, and of foreign countries
161 per cent. The amount of coin and other money in the
country had grown from $1,905,900,000 to $3,378,800,000.
The year 1897 marked the beginning of a very rapid
growth of banking in the United States. Special impetus
was given by the legislation of 1900 to the formation of
national banks, with the result that the number of these
almost doubled in the course of eight years. It is reported
that there are now approximaely 25,000 banks in the United
States—^national, state, private and trust companies.
Within recent years in Chicago there has been a remark¬
able merging of big banks, a building up by alliance of
great financial citadels.
In 1900 the First National Bank bought the Union
THE MASCH OP MAN
135
National Bank and two years later absorbed the Metro¬
politan National Bank.
In 1902 the Corn Exchange National Bank absorbed the
Merchants' National Bank.
The National City Bank absorbed the Hamilton Na¬
tional, and among the state institutions the amalgamation
of the Central Trust Company and the Eoyal Trust Com¬
pany was a notable example of the same trend.
The smaller depositories of the people's money did not
look upon this uniting and merging of the big fellows with
disfavor; on the contrary, they hailed in it an opporturdty
of better extending their business acquaintance with the
class of small accounts whose owners like to be on friendly
and familiar terms with the guardians of their money.
Not that the modern big banker is a haughty, reserved,
retiring individual, an unapproachable prince of plutocracy.
Such a proud and superior being did indeed exist and
flourish for a considerable time, but he and his style have
gone or are fast going out of date. As the aforementioned
Mr. Oscar Foreman said at the aforementioned Cairo
convention :
"In former years the banker was a person somewhat
apart from others. He was always very much on his dig¬
nity, publicly and privately. If he could surround himself
with an air of mystery, so much the better. He was acces¬
sible to only a privileged few. As a rule his manners were
cold and distant. He did not care to know your business
himself; he left that to a subordinate, who usually knew
very little about it, which, of course, accounted for the
many banking failures of these years. For a banker of the
old school to solicit a man's account would be unthinkable.
136
THE MARCH OF MAN
But such a thing as advertising in the press for business
was not dreamed of. Generally speaking, the old-time
American banker thought he was doing you a favor by
taking your account.
"We have changed all that for the better. We have taken
a lesson from the French banker. The French banker is
indeed very close to the people. He is his depositor's
adviser in about everything except religion and politics."
Which somehow recalls the ideal banker facetiously
painted by Col. H. C. Carbaugh at the farewell banquet
given to Joseph T. Talbert, former vice-president of the
Commercial National Bank, previous to his departure to
take office in New York :
"He is kind because he does not charge for receiving
deposits, if they are large. He is timid and gets behind
iron bars, sometimes for ten years or more. He is sympa¬
thetic because the moment you enter his bank he wants to
know if you are all right. If you are not, you get
sympathy."
A recent remarkable merger is that of two big banks
closely identified with the modern financial history of Chi¬
cago. It is a striking example of the current trend, yet
Little did the founders of these typical Chicago institutions
dream that they would ever put their money, with that of
others, in the same safe.
The Continental National Bank was organized in 1883,
with special regard to the peculiar interests that have so
helped to build up the West and Middle West, interests
indicated by the fact that chief among the associates of
President John C. Black was Mr. Philip D. Armour. Firm
to the programme it had marked out for itself it plodded
THE MARCH OF MAN
137
sturdily along, gaining friends and deposits, until 1897,
when came in, as cashier, from Des Moines, la., where he
had been president of a national bank, Mr. George McClel¬
land Eeynolds, hearty, energetic and resourceful, with prob¬
ably a greater personal acquaintance of leading financial
lights than any other man in America and a knowledge of
western business conditions second to none.
In 1903 President Black relinquished the hehn to Mr.
Eeynolds, and the ship sailed steadily before the continued
wind of good fortune. In 1909 a consolidation was
brought about with the American Trust and Savings Bank ;
the capital of the latter, $3,000,000, was bought by the
stockholders of the Commercial, but its savings, trust and
bond business was carried on as usual. Then the Conti¬
nental looked around for fresh enterprise and conquest.
It was forty-seven years ago, or in 1864, in war times,
when downtown Chicago—and the city was mostly down¬
town then—daily resounded with the tramp of boys in blue
marching to the front, that the Commercial National Bank
was organized, with a capital of $200,000. In that very
year there was a daring yet feasible Confederate plot to
surprise Chicago, release the 9,000 Confederate prisoners
at Camp Douglas—where now is Thirty-first street, near
the lake—loot the banks of the city and the city generally,
then sweep southwards with about 30,000 Southern veterans
gathered from various prison camps and stop Sherman's
march to the sea. Over 2,000 armed Confederates, includ¬
ing hundreds of desperate bushwhackers, were actually
smuggled into the city, and everything was ready for the
raid, when the plot was suddenly frustrated by the arrest,
on the night of November 7, of General Grenfell, Colonel
138
THE MAECH OF MAN
Mannaduke and other chief conspirators. The banks,
stores and warehouses were saved.
The first president of the Commercial was P. E. Westfall,
who served two years. To him succeeded, for a period of
thirty-two years, Henry P. Eames, who guided the concern
through many perilous crises. The bank was burned out
in the fire of 1871. It resumed business in a temporary
frame building, grappled with many difficulties, but
retained its clientele of representative merchants and bank¬
ers and helped in the rebuilding of the business of its
patrons and of the city. It passed unscathed through the
trj'ing financial ordeals of 1873, '93, '96 and 1907. In
the last year it moved into its building at Clark and Adams
streets, in the heart of the financial district. To Mr. West-
fall succeeded James H. Eckels, ex-comptroller of the cur¬
rency, president from 1898 to 1907, followed by George E.
Eoberts, ex-director of the mint. In February, 1905, leav¬
ing his position as cashier of the National Bank of Cedar
Eapids, la., Ealph Van Vechten came to the Commercial as
its second vice-president, bringing with him the ripe experi¬
ence gained by many years' active business relations with
bankers all over the Northwest and indeed all over the
country as treasurer of the American Bankers' Association.
The Commercial had built up $50,000,000 in deposits of
its own acquisition when, in 1909, it consolidated with the
Bankers' National Bank, increasing its capital to $7,000,-
000, ils deposits to $70,000,000, and gaining fresh and
active brains in the president and vice-president of the
annexed concern, namely, Hon. E. S. Lacey, former comp¬
troller of the currency, who became chairman, and John C.
Craft, who became a vice-president, both men of strong
THE MAECH OP MAN
139
character and unswerving devotion to sound banking prin¬
ciples. On April 1, 1910, the capital of the Commercial
was increased to $8,000,000,
Meanwhile, under the skilled guidance of George M.
Reynolds, the Continental National Bank went ahead at an
amazing rate, its deposits rising from $13,000,000, as they
were at the time he took charge, to $98,000,000, its growth
during his presidency being $85,000,000, or over $7,000,000
per annum.
Thus matters stood when, August 1, 1910, the Conti¬
nental and Commercial joined hands and forces financial,
forming the Continental and Commercial National Bank,
with George M. Reynolds as president, Ralph Van Vechten
as vice-president and a directorate showing an atray of
such commercial towers of strength as J. Ogden Armour,
of world fame in the provision business ; Albert J. Earling,
the good service and profit creating president of the Chi¬
cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company; Henry
Botsford, of old and high celebrity in the meat packing
business; B. A. Eckhart, honored in politics and more so
in business, president of the Eckhart & Swan Milling Com¬
pany; William C. Seipp, the notel brewer; Frank Hibbard,
one of the vice-presidents of the big Hibbard, Spencer &
Bartlett wholesale hardware firm ; Edward Hines, president,
of the great lumber company; F. E. Weyerhaeuser, of
another lumber firm owning a vast region of timber land
in Minnesota; E. H. Gary, of United States Steel Cor¬
poration; W. J. Chalmers, C. T. Boynton, E. J. Buffington,
E. P. Ripley, president Santa Fe Railroad ; Darius Miller,
president Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad; M. H.
140
THE MAECH OF MAN
Wilson, of Wilson Brothers; Jay Morton, and many others
of like caliber.
The Continental National sees prosperity and helps to
make it. Said President Eeynolds recently: "During the
past two decades the bank deposits of Chicago have in¬
creased nearly ten fold and the banking resources of the
territory surrounding this metropolis of the West have
probably grown in a still larger measure. From whatever
standpoint one may view these facts, they proclaim the
national independence of the West and emphasize its
growing power and influence in the affairs of the nation.
"The prodigious wealth which finds expression in bank
reports and clearing house statistics in these western com¬
monwealths represents the tribute of a fertile soil to hmnan
industry and its legitimate employment in the fields of
commerce and manufacture gives profitable employment to
millions of workers.
"The most potent factor in the development of this great
city and its financial importance is its intimate relation
to the grain trade, both as a trading and distributing center.
Its geographical location makes Chicago the natural clear¬
ing house and distributing point of the products of the
soil, and this position, by Nature's decree, will he hers for
generations to come.
"The banking interests of Chicago are not unmindful
of their obligations to the farming and grain trading inter¬
ests of the West and stand ready to do their share for the
further upbuilding and development of a territory from
which it has benefitted so much."
Coming to the subject of savings banks, some say they
are comparatively young, infants of only a hundred years.
THE MAECH OF MAN
141
The centenary of the alleged first was celebrated in Scot¬
land last year. May, 1910 (founded in Dumfries by Eev.
Henry Duncan), though the French claim the idea goes
back two centuries previously, to when it was suggested by
Hugues Delestre in 1610. Savings banks existed or were
founded in Brunswick in 1765; in Berne, 1787; in Basle,
1792; in Geneva, 1794; and in Hamburg, 1798. But none
of them was like the modem savings bank. The Hamburg
one, for example, merely received the savings of domestic
servants and other wage earners, and gave annuities to the
members of its association when they reached a certain age.
Co-operative charitable banks were established, in England,
to help protect the depositors in sickness or want, and these
gradually grew into regular savings banks, with interest
usually of 4 per cent. The idea spread rapidly over France,
Germany, Denmark and Italy, thrifty people in humble
circumstances hurrying to take their little hoards out of
old stockings and hiding nooks and place it in the new
depositories.
In 1861, mainly through the efforts of George Chet-
wynd, who became first comptroller of the new system, post-
office savings banks were established in England. These
within two years received in deposits more than $10,000,-
000. Their deposits now amount to over $780,000,000.
Thrifty Massachusetts led the way for savings banks in
America. The Christian Disciple, a Protestant monthly,
started the proposition, which received the cordial approval
of Bishop Cheverus, one of the earliest Eoman Catholic
prelates of Hew England. In 1817 an act incorporating
the Provident Institution for Savings in the town of Boston
passed the legislature. The bank was organized and began
142
THE MARCH OP MAN
business in the following spring, promising to divide with
depositors 1 per cent quarterly, and more if practicable.
At first the popular response was faint, the general people
were not used to the banking idea, but in 1822 the deposits
of America's first savings bank amounted to $600,000; in
1832, to $1,442,000. Out of that beginning has grown
a system embracing present total deposits of about
$3,000,000,000.
Not long ago the Bowery Savings Bank of New York,
known as the largest institution of its kind in the world,
passed the $100,000,000 mark. There are reported to be
about 1,500 savings banks in the country, most of them,
and 80 per cent of the deposits, being in eastern states.
There are some notable savings banks in America, which
in trying emergencies have well proved their stability and
their title to public trust and confidence.
A savings bank of comparatively recent establishment but
one which holds high public confidence on account of its
extensive clientage and strong financial backing, is the Con¬
tinental and Commercial Trust and Savings Bank, at the
corner of Monroe and Clark streets, Chicago. Its origin
was simple and logical. On April 1, 1910, the Commercial
Trust and Savings Bank organized with a capital of
$1,000,000, and W. Irving Osborne, who had established an
enviable record as a financier and trust officer, was made
president. Three months later this bank was consolidated
with the American Trust and Savings Bank, under the
above title, with Edwin A. Potter as chairman of the board
and W. Irving Osborne as president. It has a capital of
$3,000,000, a surplus of $500,000. George M. Eeynolds is
now president of this bank.
THE MAECH OF MAN
143
The Harris Trust & Savings Bank is one of the best
known in the country. It possesses age, rank and stability.
It was organized in 1882 as N. W. Harris & Co., and for
twenty-nine years it has been conducted under the same
conservative, progressive and responsible management.
Nigh three decades of experience by the institution in im¬
portant financial affairs enables it to select safe investments
for customers and insure every possible safeguard for money
deposited in its care. The concern was incorporated in
1907. The capital and surplus amount to $2,500,000. The
Harris Bank still occupies its old quarters in the Marquette
building, but its vastly increased business demands increased
accommodations, which it will obtain when it moves. May
1 next, into its magnificent new building, now in course of
construction in Monroe street, between Clark and La Salle
streets, Chicago.
The leading bank on the West Side of Chicago, with its
name long a familiar word in tens of thousands of homes
and its vaults holding large deposits, covering the terri¬
tory from the Indiana state line to Evanston, is that of
Graham & Sons, which has recently moved into handsome
new premises near Madison and Union streets. Its present
flourishing business, founded on conservative but pro¬
gressive methods, has been practically built up through
the energy and industry of Mr. Andrew J. Graham.
Associated with him at the present time are his two
oldest sons, Frank J. and Kalph E. Graham, to whom
he has turned over the active running of the business.
Striking manifestation of high mercantile confidence in
Mr. Graham's sterling ability and integrity was recently
given by the urgent pressure made on him to apply the
144:
THE MARCH OP MAN
same for a time in the interests of public business. This
pressure was brought by a large and earnest army of rep¬
resentative West Side business men, with a pressing request
that be allow himself to be placed in nomination for the
highest office in the gift of the city of Chicago. After due
consideration Mr. Graham spiritedly accepted, much to
popular satisfaction and the hope of the many who believe
that a banker mayor would be a most acceptable experi¬
ment in bandbng the financial affairs of a big city.
The Graham institution also bandies an extensive and
long-established transatlantic steamship agency.
A banking system which proves acceptable in one country
may not suit the requirements or ideas of another. Forty
years ago Japan tried the American system of national
banks, but found it did not suit, and the Bank of Japan
was founded—a central, semi-official bank that issues all
the bank notes of the country and with which all the other
banks of the country have connection save a few small pri¬
vate hanking concerns. The Bank of Japan is capitalized
at $15,000,000. Its circulation is more than $170,000,000,
while the deposits exceed $200,000,000.
In 1906 the Chicago Clearing House Association inaugu¬
rated the practice, since adopted in many cities, of employ¬
ing its own examiners and maintaining its own system of
supervision over the affairs of its members, in addition to
aU official supervision, in order to ensure generally fair
and legitimate dealing. The result has been most satis¬
factory, although the method of supervision, as pointed out
by Mr. James B. Forgan, has its limitations.
THE MARCH OP MAN
145
CHAPTER VIII.
Dress and Fashion.
What is a gentleman? Is it a thing
Decked in a scarf pin, a chain and a ring,
Dressed in a suit of immaculate style.
Sporting an eyeglass, a lisp and a smile;
Talking of races, of concerts and balls.
Evening assemblies and afternoon calls.
Sunning himself at "at homes" and bazaars.
Whistling mazuraas and smoking cigars?
Among the ways in which man differs from other ani¬
mals is the notable one that he must provide his own cloth¬
ing. The beasts and birds have their hair, fur or feathers
provided for them without seeking and without tailors'
bills, but nature gives proud man the alternative of finding
his body covering or going without it. Sometimes, as in
parts of Africa, he prefers to go without it, and it is
claimed that the fashion—or utter lack of fashion—does
not hurt either his faith or morals. "Unclothed peoples,
accustomed to see the human body nude, are less vicious
than clothed nations among whom clothing adds allure¬
ment to the mystery of the body," said Mrs. 0. A. Janes.
This is a rather startling and shocking statement, espe¬
cially coming from a lady, yet Winston Churchill in some
of his recent writings helps to confirm it, remarking that a
certain tribe living on the borders of the great Uganda
game country, whose members wear no shred of clothing,
is noted for its high standard of morality.
These, however, are ways and ideas of fantastic retro¬
gression ; the March of Man is not out of but into proper
146
THE MARCH OF MAN
clothing, and it seems we have yet a considerable way to
go in order to get there.
Possibly if primitive man had gone without clothing,
nature would in course of time have come to his rescue,
but the experiment seems never to have been tried, save per¬
haps in the solitary case of the "hairy Ainus" of Japan.
After the figtree leaf period, as he passed to colder climates,
man tore his clothing from the carcases of the beasts he
slew and arrayed himself picturesquely in the trophies of
animals fierce and gentle, from lion to rabbit, according to
his prowess as a hunter. Later he invented looms and pro¬
duced cloth of various kinds, ranging from the roughest
fabrics to the most elegant silks and satins.
But for numerous centuries, regardless of wealth or
power or available dress materials, the white race, both
men and their monarchs, seemed almost as regardless of
clothing as are the present unreconstructed tribes of Cen¬
tral Africa. On ancient monuments polite and powerful
kings of Egypt are shown sitting half or mostly naked on
their thrones. In the Olympic games of Greece the ath¬
letes competed nude—a reason, perhaps, why women were
excluded from the stadium. The ancient Britons and
their northern neighbors the Picts or "painted nation"
confined their attire mainly to coats of paint, like the red
men of America. Clothing or non-clothing was largely a
matter of climate, and there was little opportunity for sar¬
torial display of "fit, style and finish."
During the ancient periods of Greek and Eoman civiliza¬
tion red played a large part in the life history of the peo¬
ples. Warriors coated their bodies with the color when they
returned home as conquerors; they also celebrated the
THE MAECH OE MAN
147
event by daubing the statues of Jupiter and of the lesser
gods, while great lords adopted the same custom to empha¬
size their power and superiority. In ancient times, as in
the present day, especially in Italy, sex was distinguished
by color. When art was in its infancy it was customary to
paint the garments of the males red and of the females
blue; thus it happened that the Madonna and other holy
women were always clothed in the latter color, while St.
Joseph, the apostles and masculine saints are generally rep¬
resented as dressed in the former. This dedication of color
still exists in Eome and other parts of Italy; an infant
when it is baptized has a ribbon of the special color of its
sex pinned on to its robe. Eed is also indissolubly asso¬
ciated with the pomp and splendor of empire and with all
the national sentiments which in England cling to royalty.
This was probably the reason which caused King John,
while conferring certain privileges on the Jews, to insert
in the act a special clause forbidding them to buy, and pre¬
sumably to wear, scarlet cloth on any pretext whatever. It
is curious that red should also be symbolical of anarchy.
During the French revolution scarlet was the color of the
apostles of liberty, equality and fraternity. They wore it
on their heads as caps; they waved it in their hands as
flags.
As the color of the Stuarts, red was adopted in the uni¬
form of the British army, and as such it remains save in
war times, when it is substituted by khaki—red making the
wearer a too easy mark to shoot at. It is also well known
as the color of anarchy.
In ancient Ireland laws regulated the number of colors
148
THE MAECH OF MAN
allowable in dress, ranging from seven for the royal and
learned to two for a slave.
White was originally employed in many countries to indi¬
cate reverence for the dead. The custom obtained in France
as late as the reign of King Charles VIII. And in Italy,
too, it lingered, though for women only, the men wearing
brown. In Ethiopia the white soon changed to gray and
in Egypt to yellow. China, however, employs it to this
day. Other colors have had their vogue—^blue, for instance,
which even now is used in Turkey, Armenia and Syria.
Blue signifies the heavenly region; white stands for purity;
gray and brown typify the mother earth; and black, most
repellent of mourning colors, would seem to suggest an
eternity of night.
The study of color will be one of the sciences of the
future. Experts say that every known shade has its
effect on health and character, and the most valuable are
the primary hues—red, blue and yellow. It is worthy of
note that all women who have made history have clothed
themselves brilliantly. Cleopatra—the "serpent of old
Nile"—loved yellow; Madame de Pompadour invented
the charming mixture of pink and blue; and the ill-fated
Empress Josephine used to wear black and white and
emerald green—that smartest of all color combinations.
Says Dion C. Calthrop: "Give us a man in his clothes
and we can tell what his age thought. The semimonastic
appearance of the Middle Ages, the gay exuberance of the
Elizabethan, the lolling daredevil of the times of Charles
II., the Dutch rigidness of William of Orange, the brutal,
snuff-stained Georgian stocks, the facetious primness of
Beau Brummel—all these down to our queer new fashions
THE MABCH OE MAN
149
of to-day are as important to the study of mankind as
any written books."
At all times people loved to outshine other people in
matters of dress; where they had power they forbade it
in those they considered their inferiors to dress even as
well as they did, overlooking the consideration that "imi¬
tation is the best flattery." In illustration may be cited
the incident of Sir Philip Calthorpe and the shoemaker
of Norwich. It occurred in England in the time of Henry
VII. Sir Philip sent a piece of flne French tawny cloth
to the tailor to have it made into a gown. John Drakes,
the shoemaker, seeing this, instructed the tailor to make
him out of similar cloth a gown exactly similar to Sir
Philip's. On this coming to the knowledge of the knight
he directed the tailor: "I will have mine made as full of
cuts as thy shears can make it." "It shall be done," said
the tailor. John Drakes, through attending on his cus¬
tomers, was unable to go to the tailor's until Christmas
Day, when he hoped to wear his new gown. On receiving
it and examining it he found it to he full of cuts from
collar to hem, whereupon he began to swear at the tailor,
who protested:
"I have done nothing hut what you bade me do ; as Sir
Philip Calthorpe's gown is, so have I made yours."
"By my latchet," said John Drakes, "I will never wear
gentleman's fashion again!"
The cutaway form of the morning coat, and also the
dress coat, comes from the army. Somewhere in the reign
of George IV. the long coat was introduced into the army.
It was soon foxmd that the sword, having to be worn under
the coat, made marching uncomfortable and ungainly, and
150
THE MAECH OP MAN
it became the practice to turn the ends of the skirt of the
coat up and fasten them behind the back. The buttons
men have at the back of their coats survive from this,
and not, as generally supposed, from the "sword buttons."
In time the long coat was curtailed; but the practice of
fastening hack the corners of the skirt remained until the
dandies of the day were inspired by it and had their coat
skirts cut away till something like the modern morning
coat was obtained. The swallow-tail quickly followed, and
to this day has remained correct evening dress.
It is surprising to learn that one of the most generally
recognized patterns for men's sleeves should have heen
adopted in imitation of military fashion when it was
introduced into the ranks to check a disagreeable habit
then common among men.
The two buttons adorning the cuffs of most men's
sleeves are as purposeless as anything could well be; but
they were placed on soldiers' sleeves to prevent the enlisted
men using their cuffs in lieu of handkerchiefs, as it was
found that the cuffs of the uniforms became shabby and
soiled long before the rest of the tunic showed signs of
wear.
"Stage clothes," as seen in the drama of contemporary
life—those serious plays in which various "modern in¬
stances" are faithfully presented to large audiences to-day
—do certainly have a certain "influence" on the men of
our time. It is not at all an unusual thing nowadays for
a man to see some special cut of coat, some waistcoat or
unusual scarf, some new brand of shoe or some striking
shades of socks, worn during a performance in the theater.
TKB MARCH OR MAN
151
that "looks good to him," and which he will try to dupli¬
cate for his personal use before many days are past.
A remarkable light blue dress suit which Sir Charles
Wyndham wore in "Bellamy the Magnificent" caused some¬
thing like a sensation in the world of men's fashions.
The editor of the Tailor and Cutter, of London, says
that some years ago a very decided attempt was made to
introduce a plum-colored evening suit, but it soon died a
natural death. "Although stage fashions undoubtedly do
affect the public," says the editor, "they are usually
brought into general use in a modified form, for the
actor has naturally to exaggerate his costume in order to
make it fit in with the character he is impersonating. The
tendency in men's dress nowadays seems to be to err on
the side of neatness and simplicity, and even our military
uniforms are becoming more and more devoid of super¬
fluous ornamentation."
The number of non-theatrical celebrities who have
started new fashions is also a large one, probably the most
heroic of iconoclasts being Mark Twain, whose famous
white dress suit has been the talk of two continents. The
humorist has a great dislike for the conventional evening
garb. "I do not like to see men in evening dress," he has
said; "they remind me of a flock of crows. Dark clothes
always make me sad, and when a man has reached the
age of seventy it is time for him to cheer up." But Mark
Twain's wit is more popular than his attempts at fashion-
making, and he has not found his tailor's hill increase
very rapidly in consequence of his sartorial invention. At
a banquet in New York some time ago a friend approached
him and asked him in surprise why he was not wearing
152
THE MARCH OP MAN
his all-white suit. "Hush!" whispered Mark; "don't say
a word, but I've only got one, and it's now at the laun¬
dry !"
As "the apparel doth oft proclaim the man," the neck-
vear is an important index in the proclaiming.
It is true that the early collar was more like a necklace
and that it was made of teeth or cowrie shells, the teeth
being the spoils of some enemy, such as a man of another
tribe or a wild beast which it was a credit to have kiUed.
And it is a curious thing that the neck should have been
the first part of the body to be decorated. It comes before
the head, with the hand of grass or hide into which
feathers were stuck, and which evolved into the crown in
one direction and the hat in another. It comes before
the wrists, on which bangles have developed into brace¬
lets and the kindred cuffs; before the waist and long
before the fingers. The more important man became the
greater was the number of strings of shells or teeth that
he put around his neck, until he became as swathed as
Beau Brummel or the prince regent, and no doubt as
, dignified.
But then comes the curious gap in history. The ancient
civilizations were not habitual collar wearers, but that was
probably because they lived round about the Mediterra¬
nean, where it is too hot to wrap up the neck, and because
they looked on it as a barbarous thing to do, a habit to be
left to the outlandish tribes. In fact, the Babylonians,
Greeks and Eomans classed collars, with trousers, as
things which no one but a barbarian would wear.
The white or linen collar is quite a modern invention.
I^ turned up suddenly in the middle ages in the form of
THE MARCH OP MAN
153
the raff, which was said to have been invented to hide a
scar on some royal personage's neck. It reached its height
in Elizabethan times and then sank down into the lace
collar of the cavalier and the plain linen one of the Puri¬
tan. In New England there was a pious objection to hav¬
ing the collar starched, and a tasty young minister who
ventured to have his "made up" was severely "called down"
by a pious old lady of his congregation. Broad white col¬
lars such as men wore some two hundred and fifty years
are now in general favor with ladies, under the name of
"the Buster Brown."
In Georgian days the collar was merged in the stock,
only to come to the front again in B3rronic times, when
the poet wore the turned-down collar, which almost pro¬
claimed its wearer a free-thinker. Next came the regency
collar, upright and reaching almost to the ears, with its
folds upon folds of cravat, which was worn in a modified
form by old gentlemen even in the 'YOs, though twenty
years before smart young men had worn a small all-
around collar, just like that which is known to-day as the
"military."
Then in the '60s there was a lapse into the Byronic col¬
lar, which for some reason or another was called the
"Shakespeare," perhaps from a linen draper's idea that
one poet was as good as another. For the last thirty years
the all-round stiff collar reigned supreme, with such little
eccentricities as turned-down corners and butterfly fronts.
In late years this has been generally succeeded by the
deeply overlapping or double collar, in various styles and
brands.
A-t the wrists, in lieu of the barbaric bracelets, appeared
154
THE MASCH OP MAN
lace ruffles, which later gave place to our modern linen
cuffs.
"We taught you Irish to wear ruffles," was the taunt
of a French courtier to an old major of the Irish Brigade
in the service of France.
"We taught you French to put shirts to your ruffles,"
was the ready retort.
The shirt, or many plaited linen timic, which often
contained more than thirty yards of linen, and was some¬
times dyed saffron, was the naticmal garment of Ireland—
still celebrated for its linen. It was worn over the bracea
or close fitting trousers, and over it was sometimes worn
a large frieze cloak or mantle. It is said that shirts were
introduced in Europe in general by the crusaders return¬
ing from Palestine, the underwear of the common people
till then being leather jerkins, usually greasy and un¬
wholesome. In make the shirt has undergone no particular
change in centuries. It is made in various materials—
linen, French percale, madras, etc.—^white and fancy pat¬
terned, dress and negligee, plain and plaited.
The question of how best to cover the nether limbs has
long puzzled humanity, and it yet remains unsettled.
Some ancient peoples lapped theirs in cloth, which was
held on by crisscrossed bands, as still in vogue among
peasantry in the south of Europe. To this succeeded skin
tight coverings, breeches and stockings all of one piece, of
yielding material, graceful and becoming, especially to peo¬
ple with symmetrical limbs. By some this article of dress
was called pantaloons, whence the vulgar shortening
"pants," from 'Tantalone," a masked character in an
Italian comedy, who helped to popularize it, and by others
THE MARCH OP MAN
155
truis, trousses (originally breeches worn by pages) and
trousers. A king who had a deformed leg invented
trousers as we wear them in order to hide his afiQiction,
making them loose from thigh to ankle, and so they have
been worn for nigh a hundred years. They might be
more easily kept in shape if they were knee length. Dur¬
ing the bicycle craze of some years ago there was a gen¬
eral adoption of knickerbockers or knee breeches, but
this passed with the bicycle, and there was a reversion to
what is considered the ugliest garment, of unpicturesque
tubular design, no matter of what material or pattern, or
wide or narrow, or turned up at the bottom, with the ri¬
diculous and unsightly "cuffs on the ankles."
In the prevailing dress of our period and country taste
and grace have been largely sacrificed to what is considered
personal comfort and facility in dressing. Every proposed
artistic improvement or innovation in style or color is
promptly sneered at and frowned upon, and the prevalent
ugliness of attire among the great white race is conserved
with a timidity and jealousy unqualed since, as Mr. Dooley
says, "King and tailor jined together to rule the wurruld."
Prominent thinkers and writers have not been unobservant
of this. It was the distinguished novelist "Ouida" who
wrote: "The attire of the men is the most frightful,
grotesque and disgraceful male costume which the world
has ever seen. When the archaeologists of the future dig
up one of our bronze statues in trousers, they will have no
need to go further for evidence of the inaptitude and
idiocy of the age. A man who cannot clothe his own
person reasonably is surely a man incapable of legislating
166
THE MARCH OF MAN
for himself and for his kind. This rule, however, if acted
on, would disfranchise Europe and the United States."
Hats for men were invented in Paris by a Swiss, in
1404. They were first manufactured in London by Span¬
iards in 1510. Before that time both men and women
in England wore close knit woolen caps. P. Daniels re¬
lates that when Charles II. of Ei-ance made his public
entry into Eouen, in 1449, he wore a hat lined with red
velvet and surmoimted with a plume or tuft of feathers.
He adds, that from this entry, or at least from this reign,
the use of hats and caps is to be dated, which hencefor¬
ward began to take the place of the chaperons and hoods
that had been worn before in France.
During the English civil war and afterwards the Cava¬
liers wore over their fiowing curls broad leaved hats semi-
circled with Jaunty plumes, while their Eoundhead oppo¬
nents were bell crowned ones, in keeping with their somber
puritanical attire. Later, under James II., the hat was
turned or looped up on one side, and again on three sides,
making the three-cocked hat of the eighteenth century, fa¬
miliar in pictures of Washington and his contemporaries.
At length, about a hundred and fifty years ago, came
on the scene the stovepipe, or beaver—so called because
it was made of the fur of that animal—a huge affair, with
broad brim and heavy nap. It is said that a man named
Hetherington was the first to wear a stovepipe hat in the
streets of London. A horse saw it and ran away. Hether¬
ington was arrested, but the Judge discharged bim on the
ground of the inalienable right of an Englishman to dress
as ugly as possible. For some cause the fashion took.
Englishmen wore the stovepipe even when playing the na-
THE MARCH OF MAN
157
brimmed headgear of Abraham Lincoln—and today the
tall silk hat is de rigmur for a gentleman.
A learned scientist. Professor H. Gross, in a new book
on criminal psychology, discusses the subject of character
in its relation to hats. His observations, he teUs us, have
convinced him that a hat worn exactly perpendicular to
the vertical axis of the head is a sign that a man is up¬
right but a pedant and a bore. A hat worn much on one
side is a mark of insolence and swagger. Wearing a hat
on the back of the head proves that a man is reckless and
in debt. The farther back the hat is worn the nearer to
bankruptcy is the wearer. A hat worn low over the fore¬
head indicates a man of sulky temper.
Count Johann Harrach, one of the greatest nobles in
Austria, who can trace his ancestry back in unbroken line
to 1389, recently started a vigorous crusade against hat-
raising as a form of salutation and to substitute the mili¬
tary salute. The supporters of the movement declare that
the frequent exposure of the head in all kinds of weather
induces colds, influenza and other ailments, besides caus¬
ing hats to become limp of brim and otherwise worn out
much sooner than they would otherwise be.
Austrian etiquette requires a man to raise his hat to all
his acquaintances, male and female alike, as well as to his
social inferiors, such as cabmen and servants. Hence any¬
body with a tolerably large bowing acquaintance has to
keep his hand continually going to the rim of his hat, and
in Vienna the hat-raising business is overdone in a con¬
stant and universal exchange of salutations. Count Har-
rach says this may be all very well in a moderate clime,
but in the cold winters and broiling summers of Vienna
158
THE MAECH OP MAN
it is not at all a healthy practice. And so the count, despite
the fact that he is nearly eighty years of age, is working
for the abolition of this time-honored custom.
Count Harrach, however, is not the real originator of
the movement. A few months prior to the count's enter¬
ing into the crusade, the authorities of a small town in
Bohemia attempted to deal with the same question in a
summary manner. Convinced of the physical evils result¬
ing from thus exposing the head, the council passed an
ordinance prohibiting the practice under penalty of a fine
of one crown (30 cents), the money to go to charity. But
the citizens ignored and violated the new law, which in
consequence became a dead letter. Habits may be gradu¬
ally broken off, but they cannot be suddenly abolished by
laws.
The hat-raising or head-uncovering habit is a very an¬
cient and venerable one. As twin brother of the hand¬
shaking one it has come down to us as a mode of saluta¬
tion from a remote period, when police arrangements were
crude and vague, and for protection or hostility men went
with helmets on their heads and swords by their sides. In
those romantic but critical days two warriors on meeting,
especially strangers or opponents under truce, would clasp
each other by the right hand, so that neither might have
the opportunity of using a weapon, and bare their heads
in mutual token that they were off guard and liable to get
'Tmocked on the sconce." Such was the origin of the
commonest act of modem courtesy. Men in amity uncov¬
ered their heads not only to men but to women—^who were
themselves redoubtable fighters—and so was evolved the
custom which we see every day in full swing, in place and
THE MABCH OP MAN
159
out of it. The man who ostentatiously takes off his hat in
the presence of a strange woman in a public elevator is
probably the same individual who will refuse to yield her
his seat in a street car and leave her hanging on to the
strap.
An article of sartorial equipment that suggests itself
in connection with the silk hat, as specially demonstrated
in political parades, is the umbrella. Umbrellas and para¬
sols were used by the eastern nations many centuries be¬
fore the Christian era. The oldest chinaware shows pic¬
tures of ladies and mandarins shaded by parasols of pat¬
terns similar to those now in use. So little knovni, how¬
ever, were those articles to Europeans that a dictionary,
published not more than a hundred and fifty years ago,
defines the word "umbrella" thus: "A portable penthouse
to carry in a person's hand, to screen him from violent
rain or heat." The first umbrella ever áeen in the streets
of London was carried by the philanthropist Jonas Han-
way, who died in 1786.
For many years after the introduction of umbrellas a
man could not be seen carrying one without being hooted
for his effeminacy, particularly when passing a hackney-
coach stand. The drivers of these vehicles regarded the
umbrella in the light of a rival. For a long time coffee
houses and inns were accustomed to keep a single umbrella
of great magnitude, for the purpose of shielding customers
from the rain as they passed from the door to their car¬
riages.
It was not until about the year 1800 that the use of the
umbrella became so general throughout Europe and Amer¬
ica that a man could carry one without attracting the at-
160
THE MAECH OP MAN
tention of passers-by to a disagreeable extent. In Spain
and Italy the article was first domesticated and France
adopted it next.
From hats and umbrellas we naturally glide to gloves.
The origin of gloves can be traced to the farthest antiquity.
The English scholar Dawkins discovered on a bone dating
from the prehistoric cave period a design which he claims
is the picture of a glove. On the monuments of the Phara¬
ohs in Egypt there are represented among the tributes
paid by the subjected peoples gloves of the shape of the
long suede worn by modern women. The Greek poet
Homer also speaks of the glove that old Laertes used when
doing his garden work, and, though by this a crude mitten
may be meant, there can be no doubt that the ancient
Greek also knew the fingered glove.
The first clear accoimt of gloves comes from Xenophon.
This writer speaks of the Persians wearing gloves on their
hands to.protect them from the cold. Homer describes
Laertes working in his garden with gloves upon his hands
to protect them from the thorns, and Varro mentions this
apparel as being worn by the Eomans.
Gloves have been tokens of solemn and important things
from the ninth century. They were adopted as a rite of
the church, and later the transferring of lands or titles
was always attended with the presentation of gloves. In
the eleventh century the method of challenging to single
combat by throwing down a glove was instituted, and this
custom still remains in some countries. Gloves were not
worn by women until after the Eeformation.
The glove was of practical use at meals, when spoon and
fork were yet unknown. About 1000 A. D. the silk glove
THE MARCH OP MAN
161
began to compete with the leather, and served specially as
a distinguishing mark of princes and church dignitaries.
Later on the presentation of a glove became the symbol
of feoffment, while its being thrown before the feet of an
adversary was interpreted as announcing a feud.
The gloves of noblewomen were adorned with em¬
broidery and jewels, and sprinkled with odorous powders,
so that in kissing a woman's hand the nose too had its
share in the pleasure. But these perfumed gloves were
also a means for poisoning. It is said of Catharine de'
Medici that she poisoned Joanna of Navarre, the mother
of Henry IV., in this manner.
Prom the hands we go to the feet—the feet of the vast
army of humanity that has marched to us down through
the centuries. Of course, primitive man went barefoot,
as do myriads of his present descendants, who, horny soled
by nature, walk the earth with free and elastic tread.
Nevertheless boots and shoes are of respectable antiquity,
going far beyond the days of St. Crispin, patron of the
shoemaking craft, and even those of Moses, who "put off
his shoes from off his feet" before the burning bush. Many
are the styles of footgear that have trod the trying path of
life, from the sandal of the monk and anchorite to the
pearly satin slipper of the noble ladye and the jackboot
of the dragoon, from the rawhide pampootie of the Arran
islander to the wooden shoe of the Hollander.
Eoyalty often set the fashion in feet covering. Henry
Plantagenet, Duke of Anjou, had an excrescence on one of
his feet which made the wearing of an ordinary shoe pain¬
ful if not impossible, and to hide his defect he wore shoes
with points two feet long, which speedily became the rage.
m
THE MAECH OP MAN
Bidîculous and clumsy such shoes must have been, yet
for space and ease they were superior to the tight, un¬
yielding instruments of torture that have long crushed
and deformed the human foot.
The cruel experience referred to usually commences at
an early age and is continued through life to an accom¬
paniment of corns, bunions and other evils. High caste
Chinese women are reported as discontinuing the barbar¬
ous fashion of binding up their girl babies' feet to make
them aristocratically small, hut a similar practice still pre¬
vails in white countries, where the feet of children are
often inhumanely prevented from proper development by
being crushed into such coverings as nature never in¬
tended, and adults voluntarily subject themselves to the
same barbarous treatment. Custom frowns on our going
barefoot or even wearing sandals in public ; therefore Tvith-
out a well-fitting pair of shoes, suited to the shape and
movement of the foot, there is no pleasure in life.
Henry II. of France was the first man to wear a pair
of silk stockings, though cloth hose had been worn for
some time. Silk stockings originally came from Spain,
and it is said that Henry VIII. considered a pair of silk
Spanish stockings a great luxury and wore them on state
occasions.
Edward VI. was the first to wear silk stockings in Eng¬
land, his first pair being a present from Sir Thomas Gres-
ham, who had imported them from Spam, but it was Queen
Elizabeth who put on them the final seal of fashion. When
Mistress Montague, one of her tirewomen, presented her
majesty with a pair as a New Tear's gift in 1560 she went
into raptures over them, declaring: "I like silk stockings
THE MARCH OF MAN
163
so well, because they are pleasant, fine and delicate, that
henceforth I will wear no more cloth stockings."
Socks or stockings are not worn in the East, they being
regarded as a western invention, and bare brown ankles
are seen over the native slippers.
Thus far the clothing question as affecting the progress
of mankind. After the passage of ages, that question is
still in a stage of indétermination or slow evolution.
164
THE MAECH OF MAN
CHAPTEE IX.
STRIVING FOB HEALTH AND VIGOR.
Trained physical exercise has much to do with the up¬
building of a man, also of nations of men. Its great value
in this respect was practically recognized by ancient
Greece, as it is by modern Germany.
Eepresentative forms, in different ages, of physical train¬
ing, are the Grecian, Gaelic, Medieval or Knightly, British,
German and Ling or Swedish.
In ancient Greece athletic contests entered into the
worship of gods and heroes. The lapse of time was
reckoned in Olympiads to mark the recurrence of the
celebrated sacred games. Gymnastics had an important
place in the training both for peace and war, of every free-
born boy and youth. The codes of Lycurgus and Solon
provided for bodily training; and the management of it
was assigned to distinguished and ambitious men. It fur¬
nished themes for poets, philosophers and historians.
Sculptors and painters sought the palaestra and g3m!inasium
for their fairest models; the greatest of Greek physicians
approved of exercises which had been originated by paedo-
tribes and gymnasts.
The Greek training was severe, that of candidates for
the Olympic games lasting for ten months. It was mostly
conducted in the open air, often under a blazing sun. In
their practice exercise and in their matches the athletes
were oiled and sanded before their exercise and scraped
THE MAECH OP MAN
165
with a strigil, shampooed and hathed after it. Their
dietary was as carefully regulated as their hours of sleep
and practice.
The Greek gymnasium was much more than an aggre¬
gation of wrestling pits, running tracks, exercise halls and
bathing establishments, surrounded by colonnades and
shady walks. The Athenian gymnasia were clubs and
schools as well, provided with lecture halls and quiet nooks,
to which the young men and elders of the city resorted
for instruction and social intercourse. It is noteworthy
that, even among the Greeks, the word "palaestra" came
to mean a school. The German term their secondary
school "gymnasium." The French word "Lycée," de¬
rived from Lyceum (the name of the gymnasium in which
Socrates and Aristotle taught philosophy), is used in the
same sense as the German "gymnasium." Antisthenes,
the founder of the Cynic school of philosophy, taught in
the Kynosarges gymnasium.
One rule of the original Olympic games could not be
followed nowadays without provoking serious troubles.
Women were not allowed to be present or even to be any¬
where in the district when the games were being cele¬
brated on pain of being hurled from a precipitous rock.
This rule is believed to have been defied only once, when
the offender was pardoned in consideration of the fact that
her father, brothers and son had been victors in the games.
One particular priestess, however, was not only exempt
from this law, but was accommodated with a special front
seat on an altar of white marble and women were allowed
to enter chariots for the races, though they might not be
present to see them win.
166 the maech op man
The Gaelic system, which was introduced into Ireland
by the Gaels on their migration from Greece, much re¬
sembled that of the latter country, particularly in its be¬
ing closely allied with militarism and practiced by the
Fianna or national militia. It mainly consisted of run¬
ning and leaping, hurling matches, throwing the javelin,
weight throwing, horse racing and chariot racing. Ee-
cent years have seen Irish and American athletes com¬
peting with Grecian ones in the stadium at Athens and
even wresting laurels from them in their national game
of throwing the discus, as poetically told by Joseph I. C.
Clarke, of "Kelly, Burke and Shea" fame, in describing the
strange victory of a Kew York "copper" over modern
Spartans :
Hushed now the judges and thousands of onlookers
packed on the benches,
Sheridan poises his body and glances along to the sky¬
line.
Slowly he raises the discus, and, balanced an instant,
seems pausing.
Swift as a panther then, whirling his arm and his body
and bending.
Hurls the broad discus that rises and sweeps through the
blue like an eagle.
On, ever on, till it seems it would never more touch the
green sod of Athens.
Silence! A pause, then a shout like the thunder that
roUs on Olympus.
Never in Greece of the pagan has cast of the discus
outreached it.
Never in Greece of the Christian has cast of the discus
come near it!
Thousands are shouting the praise of the victor and
hymning his glory.
Green flag and gold harp are floating above the green
turf of old Hellas.
THE MARCH OP MAN
167
Sheridan! Sheridan! Erinn in MUda will lore you
and cheer you:
Feast of the Greeks, you have made their Olympia the
goal of the Gael."
Germany leads among the nations as a systematic and
successful promoter of athletics. At length, feeling deeply
the humiliation of his Fatherland at the hands of the first
Napoleon, one Friedrich Ludwig John (born 1778) con¬
ceived the idea of regenerating the whole German nation
by means of athletics. He started an open-air gymnasium
at Hasenheide (Eabbit-Field) in Berlin. In 1813 he
joined the famous Luetzow corps and helped to free the
land from French oppression. The German kings and
princes, after regaining their positions with the aid of
John and thousands like him, ignored their liberal
promises to the people and revived their old-time despot¬
ism, and the patriotic John, denounced as a democrat,
spent several years in prison. He died in 1853 in Frei¬
burg. He is remembered as the "Turnfather" and the
idea he furnished has grown tremendously. In every
German city and town there is now at least one turnhall,
wherein bearded men and callow youths develop or pre¬
serve brain and muscle by means of gymnastic exercise.
Every school has a turner society and aU students are
obliged by law to join; the Government gives medals to
be competed for in athletics, and at intervals the turners
of various villages get together and contest for prizes.
This Turn Verein is one of the most impressive features
of modem Germany. It is one which every country ought
to adopt—which would mean a general improvement in
168
THE MABCH OP MAN
the physique of the human race and a decided forward
move in the March of Man.
The Deutsche Tumerschaft, the German Gymnastic
Union, has now about a million members. It has spread
to all parts of the world where Germans are to be found.
There are Turner halls on the North, South and West
Sides of Chicago.
Sweden also practically recognizes the value of physical
training for her young men. Only a short time ago (May,
1909) the Swedish government appropriated for the use of
the central committee of the Swedish Gymnastic Sport
Association the sum of 235,000 kroner ($63,450), with
which to build a gigantic stadium for the Olympic games,
to be held in Stockholm in 1912. Sweden is aiming to
make a record on that occasion, and the Gymnastic Sport
Association will have the cordial cooperation of the leaders
in the political and social life of the country.
In America interest in physical development, particu¬
larly of the young, is widespread and progressive. Schools,
colleges and Christian associations are building cositly
gymnasia, while athletic organizations, ball clubs, boat
clubs, tennis clubs, etc., are forming in many of our towns
and cities. Fifteen thousand dollars is expended annually
to bring the Yale and Harvard boat crews together, and
it is estimated that fifty thousand dollars does not meet
the yearly expenses of the athletic organizations of these
two universities. Add to this sum the cost of athletic
sports to the smaller colleges and city clubs, and the total
would foot up in the millions. Yet of late, in Chicago, at
the recommendation of Mrs. Superintendent Young, an
economical attack has been made on the school gymnasium.
THE MARCH OP MAN
169
Originally, it appears, a Scottish game, golf has taken
great hold in this country. Large numbers of professional
and business men take pleasure and recreation in whacking
and following the small ball over green fields, meanwhile
finding good exercise and training for limbs and eyes.
Golf requires patient study and practice; it is described
as a "royal and ancient game," yet, like Euclid, there is
no royal road to it. To many it affords a crucial test of
temper; indeed the stock English and Scotch golf joke,
threadbare and mildewed, is that it needs a running ac¬
companiment of profanity. However, little of the latter
questionable embellishment prevails on American links.
The game is a leveler. In a letter to a New York golf
club President Taft has declared that there is nothing more
democratic than golf, that "there is nothing which fur¬
nishes a greater test of character and self-restraint, nothing
which puts one more on an equality with one's fellows—
or, I may say, puts one lower than one's fellows—than the
game of golf." He adds that if there is a game which
will instill in one's heart a more intense feeling of self-
abasement and humiliation than the game of golf, he
would like to know what it is.
It is not very many years since there were but few
golfers in Chicago. One of the original trio was Mr.
James B. Porgan, president of the First National bank.
There is now in the city and neighborhood 32 golf clubs,
averaging a membership of 300, each with a pretty large
waiting list. Among the enthusiastic golfers of the Gar¬
den City are Eichard C. Hall, president of the Commercial
club; Walter H. Baldwin, of the Adams & Westlake com¬
pany; George M. Ludlow, of the Moneyweight Scale com-
170
THE MAECH OF MAN
pany; Eollin A. Keyes, president of the Franklin Mc-
Veagh company; Charles B. Pike, president of the Hamil¬
ton National bank; E. Hall McCormick, capitalist; John
Cudahy, Milton H. Wilson, president Wilson Bros.; John
Wilder, former president of the Association of Commerce;
W. A. Alexander, insurance; Frank H. Jones, secretary
of the American Trust and Savings bank ; Eugene U. Kim-
bark, president Paper Mills company; Alfred L. Baker,
Chauncey Keep, trustee of the Field estate; John G.
Shedd, president of the Marshall Field company; Harry
E. McElwee, bank director and capitalist; John Gould,
real estate; Lawyers William J. Hynes, E. F. Dunne,
Walter L. Fisher, Thomas Taylor, Jr., master in chancery;
Charles F. Morse, etc.
Prominent in golfing circles is Mr. Samuel M. Hastmgs,
president of the Computing Scale Company, a typical
Pennsylvanian of colonial and revolutionary stock, di¬
rect descendant of John Hastmgs, who wore the blue and
yellow uniform and carried musket imder his kinsman.
Captain Enoch Hastings, in the famous First battalion
Lancashire county militia in the fight for American
liberty, and through him from Eobert Pottsgrave of
Hastings, adherent of William the Conquerer and ancestor
of the Marquis of Huntingdon. On the maternal side Mr.
Hastings is descended from the noted clan of Kerr, famed
in history and romance, whose mosstroopers played a lead¬
ing part whenever the frontiers of England and Scotland
were astir with raidings, and red with burnings, and "aU
the blue bonnets were bound for the border." Possibly it
is from his Scottish forbears that he derives the passion
for golf that makes his stalwart and weU knitted figure
THE MARCH OF MAN
171
familiar on the links at Lake Forest and Highland Park
—though many a man with no claim to a clan plaid has
realized the physical advantage and keen interest and
exhilaration given by whacking and pursuing a ball from
hole to hole over green fields. He is a member of the
Onwentsia and Exmoor clubs and has this to say on his
favorite recreation:
"Golf is a wonderful stimulant of mind and body. It
imparts physical development, purifies the system, enables
one to deeply breathe the pure air that floats over the
meadows and fields, expands the lungs, develops and ex¬
tends the range of vision, drives away dull care and makes
better dispositions. It brings one in contact with a su¬
perior class of men, of excellent habits, of unquestionable
integrity, and develops honesty and fairmindedness. It
is also a test of character. A prominent banker remarked
to me recently: 'If I could play golf with every one of
my customers I would know exactly how far to trust each
and all of them.' It develops more quickly than any game
I know the latent possibilities of human nature. It makes
the smaU man big and the big man wholesome."
Another votary of golf is Mr. Jacob L. Loose. The
game shares his affections with automobiling. Along with
this he is an enthusiastic traveler, has been around the
world, and to Europe a great many times. But, he fur¬
thermore states in reply to my inquiries on this score, "my
greatest pleasure is in managing and conducting my busi¬
ness and bringing it to the highest point of development
and success."
Yachting as a healthful pastime continues to attain in¬
creasing popularity in Chicago and to entice fresh crowds
172
THE MAKCH OF MAN
of adventurers to seek recreation on the beautiful inland
sea that lies invitingly at our doors.
One has only to look over the rosters of the yacht clubs
that have their habitat along the lake front from Jack¬
son park to Waukegan to realize the fact that the sailing
game has taken a firm hold upon thousands of devotees
and that a good number of the names enrolled are those
of men who are famous in the business and professional
world.
Various sports are often taken up as fads, only to be
dropped when some new diversion appeals to the faddist,
but it is a fact easily proved that yachting loses but few
followers. In Chicago the lure of the lake is so strong
that the ranks of the amateur sailors are rapidly being
augmented.
Yachting has a subtle way of bringing men close to¬
gether. It is a great leveler. The eminent surgeon who
may have just come from performing a 'steen thousand
dollar operation upon a merchant prince; the lawyer who
may have successfully prosecuted a suit of international
fame, and the board of trade operator who tomorrow may
start a campaign that ultimately will corner the country's
wheat supply, are equally companionable and happy be¬
fore the mast.
These men listen to the whispered promises of the lake
breeze as it is wafted into their downtown offices. Then
each locks the office door upon his responsibilities and
trials and is whirled across the clay steppes of Grant park
to his favorite club. Later he hails his yacht; the alert
professional sends the dingy flying shoreward across the
intervening water to the clubhouse landing stage and
THE MABCH OF MAN
173
shortly your man of affairs appears on the deck of his
craft clad in comfy old sailing clothes.
He "tails on" to the mainsheet, perhaps assisted by a
young man who holds an obscure position in his office, or
sets up the topmast backstays as the case may be; the
mooring line is slipped, and, as the helmsman sings his
"Hard a lee" warning and the yacht fills away for the
open lake, the yachtsman, every inch a democrat and an
optimist, throws his cares overboard and smilingly watches
them sink.
If you join a "seeing the harbor" expedition—^whether
it is conducted by the engineer-helmsman of one of the
many asthmatic gasoline boats that ply between the shore
and the perch fisher's roost on the government breakwater,
or by a member of the power boat contingent of one of
the clubs in his sharp prowed speed launch—the guide
is likely to start out by running circles around a big white
schooner yacht that gracefully swings at its mooring line
at the Chicago Yacht club anchorage.
You may show your ignorance as to the boat's identity
and doubtless will receive a reply something like this:
"That's the Valmore; you know—Thompson's yacht, the
one that came near foundering in the Bay of Fundy on
its way to Chicago a year ago this spring. What Thomp¬
son? Why, William Hale Thompson—Bill Thompson,
ex-football player, ex-cowboy, ex-alderman and ex-president
of the Illinois Athletic club.
Mr. Thompson has long taken energetic part in the pro¬
motion of athletic sports and all pertaining to them. Dur¬
ing the World's Fair year he came into prominence through
his active connection with the Chicago Athletic Associa-
174
THE MAECH OP MAN
tion, and afterwards as captain and manager of the Chi¬
cago Athletic football team. His great fight in 1896 for
pure amateur athletics convinced his friends that he pos¬
sessed in a marked degree all the qualifications great
leaders are made of, and the members of C. A. A. have
reasons to be pleased with the choice they have made. Mr.
Thompson planned and originated the national swimming
championship contests which took place in the Lincoln
park lagoon in July, 1897, imder the auspices of the 0.
A. A. He is eldest son of the late Colonel William Hale
Thompson, and has full charge of the large estate left
by him, and also manages large real estate interests on
the West Side. Mr. Thompson was in 1898 elected vice-
president of the Chicago Athletic Association on the mem¬
bers' ticket. He was founder and first president of the
Illinois Athletic Association. He is a thorough athlete,
and a young business man of great ability and sterling
character.
Followers of yachting will recall the spectacular voyage
of Valmore from New London, Conn., to Chicago, in
April, 1908. Yalmore was overtaken by a sou-westerly
gale near the southern end of Nova Scotia. It blew like
the Bull o' Barney—seventy miles an hour was the esti¬
mate made by Thompson's professional skipper just be¬
fore William Hale and his fellow club member, George
E. Peare, sent him below decks for showing a yellow streak
in the face of extreme danger. "We are lost," the captain
shouted, as he staggered down the stairs. Then Thomp¬
son took charge, "and they anchored safe in harbor"—
eventually.
They scudded before the gale imder jury rig and with
William H. Thompson
THE MARCH OF MAN
175
a Spanish windlass doing service in place of the rudder,
which had been carried away. When daylight came the
Bay of Fundy rocks were showing their fangs under the
yacht's quarter, but, inspired by the courage and skill of
the Chicago yachtsmen, the crew managed to claw the
schooner oif the reefs, and two days later Valmore, badly
battered and with its sails in ribbons, managed to limp
into the little harbor of Digby, Nova Scotia, without the
loss of a man.
During that same Atlantic gale many a stanch ship
scores of tons larger than Valmore went down with all on
board. All of which eloquently attests to the seamanship
and grit of Chicago's amateurs.
The judgment shown in the selection of the sixty-five
foot Valmore and the ability of her owner in handling
her was proved by her repeatedly winning the Lipton cup
in the 331-mile race from Chicago to Mackinac, the great¬
est fresh water race in the world. In July, 1910, she made
the race in the record-shattering time of 31:24 ;06.
"Bill" Thompson is modest withal and recourse to a
dark lantern and jimmy would be necessary to obtain any
suitable information from him anent his biographical
data. Not so, a garrulous boon companion, who speaks
as follows:
"As a callow youth. Bill received his first lessons in
navigation on the hurricane deck of a Spanish broncho
while punching cows in Wyoming and Montana. The en¬
durance, the daring, the picturesque language, the judg¬
ment, and the executive ability which in the amateur com¬
mander of a yacht must always call for reverential con¬
sideration, these and other good points were incidcated in
176
THE MARCH OF MAN
Thompson's makeup while he acted in the obscure capacity
of a cattle puncher, a thousand miles from water."
Among other prominent Chicagoans who ply the waters
of the lake in their steam yachts are Fred W. Morgan,
whose ram-bowed Pathfinder probably has done more
cruising in western waters than any other local craft ; An¬
drew Crawford, who, accompanied by his wife, spends the
greater part of the early spring, summer and early fall
in the Cornelia; Lucius G. Fisher, who owns the big La-
gonda and divides his time between cruising in eastern
waters and on Lake Michigan; Ogden T. McClurg and
H. H. Wait, owners of the Sea Fox; Edward E. Meyer,
who owns Manzanita and William A. Lydon, owner of Ly-
donia, the largest steam yacht on Lake Michigan, being
175 feet in length.
Commodore John B. Berry man of the Chicago Yacht
club owns the yawl Veruna, which he purchased in the
east. George Tramel is known as the owner of the fifty-
five foot sloop Vencedor, which has won more races than
any other yacht on the great lakes. Ever since Vencedor
was launched—and that was several years ago—^the big ma¬
hogany sloop has almost invariably led the other yachts
over the finishing line and the trophies won by the craft
would fill a good sized room in the clubhouse.
No yachtsman gets more genuine enjoyment out of his
craft than does Charles A. Burton, owner of the Juanita,
one of the largest yawl rigged yachts on the great lakes.
Below decks the big craft is as roomy as a good sized flat
and when vacation time comes, Mr. Burton, accompanied
by his family and perhaps a few privileged friends, pro-
THE MARCH OF MAN
177
visions the boat for a long cruise and sets sail for north-
em waters.
Fred A. Price is a "bred in the bone" yachtsman, if
there ever was one, and from the time navigation opens
until the boats go into winter quarters he gives but little
time to other diversions. During the last ten or twelve
years he has at various times owned the sloops Charlotte
R. and Vencedor, the yawl Juanita, and the steam yacht
Manzanita, in addition to being managing owner of several
twenty-one footers that have been prominent contenders
for the Lipton cup. Last year he bought Spray, the cham¬
pion twenty-one footer of the great lakes and extensively
and successfully raced the boat in Chicago, at Detroit, and
at Put-in-Bay.
Swimming holds high place among the best physical
exercises. It develops grace and strength beyond belief.
Persons devoted to it as a recreation invariably enjoy good
health. Among its ablest advocates and exponents is
Robert T. Laughlin, son of the distinguished ex-Judge
H. D. Laughlin, of Chicago. "Bob," who holds a congenial
position as manager of the championship prize manufac¬
turing firm of Dieges & Clust, in the Schiller building, Chi¬
cago, whence he dispenses medals, cups and badges even as
his arms fling the glittering spray when buffeting the
surges of Lake Michigan. He has made analytic examina¬
tion of swimming, evolutionary study of its movements in
animate nature from the pollywog to the hippopotamus.
He has enthusiastic belief in its merits both as an exercise
and a protection, and he believes that every boy and girl
should be taught to swim. His graduation as a champion
178
THE MASCH OP MAN
swimmer of the Chicago Athletic Club gives him diploma
thus to speak:
"It is only of recent years that wonderful possibilities
have been revealed in the useful science of swimming.
Hitherto its votaries have been chiefly known by their
fatalities—like poor Leander perishing in his swim across
the Hellespont and Captain Webb meeting his death in the
rapids of Niagara. Holbein, making the world's record
for long distance swimming, swam a little over fifty miles
in thirteen and three-quarter hours without leaving the
water, and at the close of this exploit he showed no more
signs of exhaustion than an ordinary bather at the seaside
after a quarter of an hour's gamboling in the surf. Horace
Davenport, British amateur champion swimmer from 1874
to 1879, in 1884 swam five hours and twenty-five minutes
in a choppy sea, without resting. And two years ago
George Shine, 55 years of age, swam from Woolwich to
Gravesend, a distance of eighteen miles, in five and a half
hours. There are also some noted female swimmers. Miss
Lydie Winterhatter swam for forty-one minutes, all the
time holding up an open umbrella in her right hand, and
in her right hand only. And Madame von Icacescu, prob¬
ably the greatest lady long-distance swimmer in the world,
swam in the Danube from Stein to Vienna, a distance of
about forty-eight miles, and from Pressburg to Vienna
and back, a distance of thirty-six miles.
"But these are uncommon, out-of-the-way feats, to
excite wonder rather than emulation. The real uses of
swimming are for health and safety. It is impossible to
teach or learn the science from a book. I am aware that
our venerable friend Ossian Guthrie invented a device to
Robert T. Laughlin
THE MARCH OF MAN
179
teach children on dry land the movements of swimming,
and I know that there are other swimming machines, as
also rowing ones and riding ones—like those of Colonel
Eoosevelt and President Taft. But the very best way to
start learning to swim is to get into the water, for without
water there would be no swimming and no necessity to
swim, no piers, no fishing, no bumbooats, no City of
Traverse.
"No, how to swim may not be learned out of books nor
anywhere on dry land. However, the process of reviving
the drowning may to a certain degree—and, the more per¬
sons that know it, the more lives there will be saved, espe¬
cially in the summer time. Here is the way :
"When a drowning person is taken from the water the
first object of treatment is to make him breathe. Sending
at once for a doctor, blankets, dry clothes and stimulants,
quickly open the clothing of the patient about the neck,
turn him on his face, clasp your hands tightly beneath his
stomach and lift as high as possible, letting the head hang
so that the water can run out. Then turn the patient on
his back, wipe out the mouth and back of the throat with
your fingers covered with one or two thicknesses of a
handkerchief. If it be at hand, apply smelling salts to
the nose, tickle the nose with a feather or straw, dash cold
water on the face and chest, give the patient a severe slap
on the chest with the open hand. All this must be done
quickly; if unsuccessful, resort must be had to artificial
respiration.
"Place the patient on his back, the shoulders resting on
a roll of clothing. The tip of the tongue must be drawn
forward out of the mouth and secured in that position—a
180
THE MARCH OF MAN
good way being to run through the tongue, ahout half an
inch from the tip, a large pin or needle. Kneel beside the
patient, grasp his forearms half-way between the wrists
and elbows; draw his arms up over his head quickly but
steadily until his hands touch the ground or floor behind
his head; hold them thus for two seconds; reverse the
movement, pressing the forearms firmly downward and
inward against the chest for one second; repeat this back¬
ward and forward movement of the arms at the rate of
about sixteen a minute.
"Stimulants should be employed during and following
this treatment. If there is continued difficulty in causing
breathing a large mustard plaster should be applied to the
chest.
"If these methods of restoring respiration should fail
there yet remains another—one strongly recommended by
Dr. E. G. Jones, who says it has restored life when all else
had been tried in vain and the body was forty-five minutes
out of the water. Place the body in a bathtub, with the
water so hot as just to be below the point of scalding or
injuring the skin. With a pitcher pour hot water from a
height upon the head and shoulders, meantime seeing that
the tongue is kept drawn and the throat passage unob¬
structed. In a few moments—^if any life remains—^the
patient will make an effort to breathe and soon begin to
breathe regularly. Then take the patient out of the tub,
rub the body dry and wrap it in warm blankets.
"And if anybody reading the foregoing will effectually
remember it in case of need it will be immeasurably more
gratifying to me than if I had contributed to The March
THE MAECH OP MAN
181
of Man the most elaborate theoretical essay ever written
on the ancient and noble science of swimming."
A simple, rational, excellent exercise—indeed, the king
of all exercises—is walking, so curiously avoided by dwell¬
ers in American cities, although so enthusiastically lauded
by those who have tried and ascertained its benefits.
"When you feel down and out, and feel there is no use
living," said Edward Payson Weston, the veteran pedes¬
trian, "just take your bad thoughts with you and walk
them off. Before you have walked a mile things will look
rosier. Just try it."
People have danced for thousands of years, and will
probably continue to do so for ages to come. This custom
is of ancient origin. The first people to dance were the
Curetes, who adopted dancing as a mark of rejoicing in
1543 B. C.
In early times the Greeks combined dancing with the
drama, and in 22 B. C. pantomimic dances were introduced
on the Eoman stage. At the discovery of America, the
American Indians were holding their religious, martial and
social dances.
The ancient Eomans brought bathing to a higher pitch
of luxury than any people have ever done before or since.
The ruins of the baths built at Eome by the Emperors
Titus, Diocletian and Caracalla, respectively, give one an
idea of the vast extent of these establishments. The out¬
side walls of the baths of Caracalla extend about a quarter
of a mile on each of the four sides, and contained 1,000
people. Those of Diocletian had 3,200 marble seats for
the use of the bathers. In the largest of the thermae there
was a stadium for the games of the young men, with
182
THE MAECH OP MAN
raised seats for the spectators. There were open colon¬
nades and seats where philosophers and literary men could
sit and discourse or read their productions aloud, and
where ordinary persons could discuss the latest news.
There was also a sphaeristerium, or place for playing ball.
We do not have to go far hack to find the time when
stationary bath tubs and running water were imknown.
Even New York houses of the beginning of the nineteenth
century were innocent of both.
There is a large variety of baths, suitable to various
physiques, temperaments and idiosyncrasies — the tub,
shower, plimge, hot, cold, ice water, salt water, snow, rain,
sun, sand, mud, bran, Turkish, Eussian, switch—^their
name is legion.
Prominent among the best known bathing estab¬
lishments of Chicago and enjoying select and regular
patronage is KerchePs, at 324 Wabash avenue, near Con¬
gress street. The most modern and unique resources and
appliances of the twentieth-century hath are here available,
showing the remarkable progress which has been made in
the important art of cleansing and invigorating the human
body. Massage, electricity, light, heat, hydrotherapy and
the Swedish movements are variously utilized to produce
the best tonic and curative effects. Various kinds of
physical diseases and defects, from rheumatism to obesity,
are promptly relieved, and the recipient of the treatment
usually re-issues into the outer world "like a giant re¬
freshed"—^buoyant of step, hounding of pulse, elate of
spirit, fit to energetically renew the battle of life.
The Japanese are fond of bathing in extremely hot
water. They are, in fact, the most cleanly, according to
THE MARCH OP MAN
183
our western notion, of any of the eastern peoples. Their
bath is taken as frequently as twice a day, often at a tem¬
perature of about 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
The use of Louisenbad reduction salt in the bath tends
greatly to the removal of corpulency and to build up a
firm and healthy form. Merely use a little twice a week in
warm water when taking a bath. No need of taking drugs
or starving yourself; no need of devoting hours to tire¬
some exercise, or of wearing uncomfortable reducing gar¬
ments. Louisenbad Eeduction Salt enters the pores in a
natural way, prevents the formation of superfluous fat and
reduces it where it exists by transforming the fat into
strength-giving blood and muscle. It brings to your own
tub the salts such as are found in the reducing bath springs
of Europe—patronized by royalty, famous for centuries.
The Chicago representative for this celebrated imported
bathing salt is Mr. Karl Landshut, with office Eoom 306
Dickey Büdding, 40 Dearborn street, Chicago.
Occasionally snow baths become a fad, when hardy
young ladies don their bathing suits of the previous sum¬
mer and plunge in piles of snow in the back yard. The
rain bath, claimed by some to be beneficial, consists in
donning light clothing and standing out in a heavy shower.
In the Eussian bath the bather enters a chamber of hot
air surcharged with vapor, and here he swelters until he
can stand it no longer. Then he plunges into a tank of
cold water, after which comes a cold shower bath, conclud¬
ing with vigorous rubbing and massage. Once a week is
about sufficient for the indulgence.
Borax is the greatest cleansing agent known. Half a
cupful of it, added to tepid water, makes the ideal bath.
184
THE MAKCH OP MAN
But the borax must be pure—^not adulterated with soda,
which causes irritation of the cuticle. Pure borax, which
imparts a soft velvetiness to the skin, has had its place
among cosmetics since the days of the Greek beauties of
magnificent proportions and exquisite complexions. It
softens the water, which then finds no difficulty in combin¬
ing with the acids and saline fiuids, and the body is left
fresh, clean and glowing.
THE MARCH OF MAN
185
CHAPTEE XI.
DRINKS, GOOD, BAD AND INDIFFERENT.
The Anglo-Saxon and English have long been considered
prééminent masters of the art of brewing liquors. In
1585 there were twenty-six large breweries in London,
which brewed 49,000 barrels of beer annually. In 1892
over 32,000,000 barrels were brewed.
Queen Elizabeth of England is reputed to have drunk
a quart of ale every day with her breakfast. Within fifty
years of her death the practice of ale drinking appears to
have become. practically universal in that country.
Some of the sweet, perfumed alcoholic beverages called
cordials have a history extending over centuries. The most
ancient of liqueurs is benedictine, which is said to date
from 665 A. D. But it was not till 1500 that Dom Ber¬
nado Vincelli, a monk resident in the Abbey of Fecamp,
who had a profound knowledge of the plants and herbs
used in the preparation of medicinal cordials, succeeded in
making a cordial which preserves the name and fame of
the order. It is said that the monks, when weary from
their studies, restored their strength by taking the simple
cordial.
Chartreuse is named after the original Carthusian
monastery founded in the eleventh century in a wild, ro¬
mantic valley forming a portion of the French department
of Isere.
On a dizzy Alpine height there is now a vast deserted
palace. In a chaos of gigantic rocks, a wilderness of
186
THE MAECH OP MAN
lightning blasted pines, above the clouds, its pointed towers
swim in a silent sky. For 1,000 years no woman might
set foot inside the outermost wall of the vast palace guard¬
ing the snow line, under its 40,000 square yards of roofs
and covering twelve acres.
During 900 years the entire desert territory was for¬
bidden the approach of women—epitomes of the vanities
and disorders of a world which its inhabitants had fled.
They were great men. Among them, in all ages, could
be found illustrious names of Europe, princes, statesmen,
warriors, living here as cenobites and anchorets, dead to all
human conversation—the aristocratic fathers of the
Grande Chartreuse.
In 1903, the monks, expelled by the French govern¬
ment from their ancient monastery, took refuge at Tarra¬
gona in Spain. It is said that on their departure the
senior abbot carried the receipt for the famous liqueur in
a casket of tempered steel, and this was never for a moment
out of his possession. In the open market afterward, the
formulae for the twin liqueurs, the green chartreuse and
the yellow, were sold for $1,600,000.
Perhaps the next liqueur in popularity is curacoa which
received its name from one of the West Indies (Dutch),
where are grown the oranges from the dried peel of which
the liqueur is made. Most of the liqueur is imported
from Holland, the center of its manufacture. The orange
peel, after being carefully dried, is macerated with water,
and afterward distilled with spirits and water. When taken
from the still it is sweetened with sugar, and to make it
a little more palatable a little Jamaica rum is added. Those
who have experimented say that a very good imitation can
THE MAECH OF MAN
187
be made with the fresh peel of bitter oranges and whisky.
The Nanis of Zara, in Dalmatia, possessed as one of their
heirlooms a family receipt for a drink distilled from the
the marasco, or wild cherry. When they finally consented
to part with their secret, they received in return a large
sum in cash and land to the extent of several thousand
acres. This is the cordial popular the world over as maras¬
chino. Kirschwasser is rapidly becoming popular as a
choice liqueur. It is distilled from the bruised cherries,
and the stoned kernels taken from the cherries are gathered
when they are quite ripe, and, having been stemmed, are
then pounded in a wooden vessel, but so carefully that the
stones are not broken. In this condition they are left to
ferment. As soon as fermentation begins they are stirred
two or three times a day. Later the stones are broken
and the kernels thrown in with the fruit. Kummel, an¬
other sweetened spirit imported from Germany and Eussia,
gets its name from the German word for the herb cumin,
with which it is fiavored, though caraway seeds are used
for the same purpose.
Anise seed cordial, which is often taken as a stomachic,
is not a distilled spirit, but is made by fiavoring a weak
spirit with anise seed, coriander and sweet fennel seed.
Coriander has an agreeable aromatic smell and a sweetish
aromatic taste. It is the essential ingredient of the cor¬
dial, which is sweetened with clarified sirup or refined
sugar.
It is curious to note some of the means and resources
which man in all parts of the world has used in order
"to get a drink." Nothing actually quenches thirst better
than cold water, yet man has ever sought and generally
188
THE MAEOH OP MAN
found something that gave him pleasure as well as satis¬
faction in the taking—a glow of warmth, a sense of ex¬
hilaration.
The Hindus have their soma, claimed to be the original
intoxicant of the human race and praised in the writings
of the Brahmins. It is made by squeezing out the latex
or milky juice of the convolvulus or climbing bindweed
and allowing it to ferment by standing. The ancient Per¬
sians revered this drink under the name of haoma.
Thus man originally looked on the sap of trees, flowing
from roots to leaves and flowers, as healthy and nourishing,
and so proceeded to utilize it. Pulque, the favorite drink
of the Mexicans, is the sap of the maguey, or false aloe,
drawn when the plant is flowering and allowed to slightly
ferment. From time immemorial sotol wine has been
distilled in Texas ana Mexico from the root of the sotol
plant, which on the border grows profusely and in drought
is fed in lieu of grass to sheep and cattle. It is said to
nerve men for desperate deeds and as such was a favorite
with highwaymen and train robbers. Physicians praised it
as healthful and taken in moderation a builder of the
system. Its manufacture has been prohibited by the
United States Government.
Birch wine, which effervesces like champagne, is a
favorite drink of the Eussians. In 1814, at the siege of
Hamburg, nearly all the birch trees in the neighborhood
were kiUed by the semi-barbarians in the Eussian service
by being tapped for their sap.
The cider tree of Tasmania gives the bushmen a drink
similar to pulque. The Patagonian makes an intoxicating
drink from rotten apples, and the women steal the knives
THE MAECH OF MAN
189
ind hatchets of the revelers and hide until the orgy is
over. The Polynesians drink the potent kava, made by
macerating in water part of the root and stem of the piper-
iceae—^the pepper family. Formerly it was prepared by
the women, who carefully chewed the plant. Saké, dis¬
tilled from the best kinds of rice and in appearance re¬
sembling a very pale sherry, is the national drink of Japan.
The Indians of the Andes make a maize beer called chica.
Dowra is the name of a very intoxicating beer made by
the KafiBrs in various parts of Africa by soaking grain in
water till it sprouts a little, drying it in the sim and mix¬
ing it with unsprouted grains, pounding it in wooden
mortars and fermenting it in jars.
A different class of beverage is made from effervescent
milk, such as kephir, drunk by the people of the Caucasus,
and koumiss, by the Tartars and other races of the steppes
of Asia. Going to the frozen North we find the natives
of Kamchatka making from a mushroom called the false
orange a liquor which is with them a favorite beverage, al¬
though it produces deliriiun and convulsions.
Climatic conditions have much to do with taste for
various kinds of drink. The Italians like their light wines,
the Germans their beer, the Hollanders their gin, and
further north, amid the cold and mist, there is a demand
for more ardent liquors. Says Dr. Edward Smith, LL.B.,
in his book on foods (1895) : "No one can have traveled
in the hills of Scotland or Ireland without being sensible
that he could drink whisky with an impunity impossible in
the lowlands or in England; and even ladies, who turn
from it with disgust at home, relish the whisky-and-water
which is handed to them several times a day after a long
190
THE MARCH OP MAN
walk in Scotland, or after exposure to the drenching rains
of Ireland."
That the reason for the Scotch taste or necessity for
whisky, like that of the Eskimo for blubber, lies largely
in the climate, is also confirmed by Arthur K. Hudson, of
the San Francisco Board of Trade : "Of all depressing
places in the world I put Glasgow, Scotland's chief city,
in the front rank. The reason lies in the beastly climate.
In the year I was compelled to remain there by business
reasons it must have rained 300 days out of the 365. Ho
wonder the average man in Glasgow has an appetite for
ardent spirits and that many of its women are habitual
tipplers. With skies that are eternally weeping and with
an atmosphere eternally reeking with moisture it is natural
that people seek the comfort of artificial stimulation. If
they had our sunny skies they wouldn't drink half so
much."
But whisky is also the national beverage of Americans.
It is named from the Irish word uisge, meaning water.
The Irish, in appreciation, or humor, or sarcasm, called the
liquor uisge bJieatha (pronounced ishka vaha), or Water
of Life. At Christmas time, A. D. 1405, Eichard Mac-
Eannall (modern name Eeynolds), chief of Muinter Eolais,
in Leitrim, indulged so unwisely in the potent spirit that
he died from the effects of his libations; and a punning
Celtic chronicler remarked that it had proved not the
Water of Life but the Water of Death (not ishlce vaha, hut
ishJce iaha) to Richard MacEannall. This is the first
mention of whisky.
The history of the manufacture of whisky in America
probably goes haek to the days when Cromwell transported
THE MABCH OF MAN
191
large numbers of Irish to work on the plantations, and
Irish poteen became American moonshine. Which reminds
one of a recent court experience of United States Judge
Emory Speer of the southern district of Georgia, when he
had before him a typical Georgia mountaineer on the typ¬
ical Georgia charge of illicit distilling.
"What's your name?" demanded the eminent jurist.
"Joshua, jedge," drawled the prisoner.
"Joshua, who made the sun stand still?" smiled the
judge, in amusement at the laconic answer.
"No, sir, Joshua, who made the moon shine," answered
the quick-witted mountaineer.
And it is needless to say that Judge Speer made the
sentence as light as he possibly could, saying to his friends
in telling the story that wit like that deserved some recom¬
pense.
Chief among the liquors of respectable antiquity and
reputation that are still imported from Ireland despite
the adverse effect of the recent budget, is Powers' pure
pot-still whisky, the product of the famed distillery that
was established in Dublin by James Powers one hundred
and twenty years ago (1791). Extraordinary care is taken
in the manufacture of this whisky, now well known all
over the world, familiar from the British House of Com¬
mons to the Capitol of Washington. It is distilled in a
pot still from the wash derived from the fermented worts
of home-grown malted and unmalted barley, with wheat
and oats in small proportion. It goes through at least
three successive distillations before it becomes whisky. The
Powers plant is an immense one ; the distillery covers about
eight acres, reaching from Thomas street to the quays, on
192 the march of man
the south side of the Lifley, and having an annual capacity
of 900,000 gallons.
The sole agency for the Powers whisky in Chicago is
held by the weU-known firm of Delany & Murphy, 10
Wabash avenue, dating from 1872—first as Keeley & Ker-
win, continued in 1883 as M. W. Kerwin & Co., and re¬
organized in 1888 by Daniel Delany and M. W. Murphy,
old employes of the concern. To the firm of Delany &
Murphy also belongs the distillery at Coon Hollow, Ky.,
where is made the popular 8-year-old Willow Springs bour¬
bon, distinguished for flavor and bouquet, the result of
carefid selection of the grain and skilled attention both
before and after distillation. The firm is also well known
in Chicago as sole handlers of the Ben Franklin rye, dis¬
tinguished for its high standard and purity.
There are instances on record where whisky was made
in the state of Kentucky at the time of the Eevolution.
Of course whisky is today made in a great many states,
some of them producing quite heavily, but the bulk of the
history of the manufacture of this article centers in the
state of Kentucky.
For the past twenty-five years the production of whisky
in Kentucky has averaged 25,000,000 gallons per annum.
The value of the whisky distilled in Chicago last year
was $17,000,000. The total wholesale trade in the city
for the same time, in wines and liquors, amounted to $50,-
000,000. The average yearly Kentucky output is valued
at from $35,000,000 to $40,000,000.
Dr. Wiley, the government expert, is positive that 90
per cent of the whisky that is sold is not real whisky.
Who gets the other 10 per cent ?
THE MARCH OP MAN
193
People have been drinking whisky, or usquebaugh, or
aqua vitae, for over five hundred years, and probably they
will continue to do so. If so they ought, however, to avoid
all deleterious stuff and be sure to get in rational modera¬
tion a good brand of the liquor.
"Brandy is or should be the choicest and most agreeable
member of the class of ardent spirits. It should be pre¬
pared by distillation from wine; when 1,000 gallons of
wine yield from 100 to 150 gallons of brandy, consisting
of about 50 to 54 per cent of absolute alcohol." So says
Dr. Edward Smith, late of the Eoyal College of Physicians
of London, one of the best living authorities on food. He
points out that a very large proportion of the brandy con¬
sumed over the world is, however, made with little or no
wine, and is simply alcohol distilled as in the preparation
of whisky and flavored with oil of Cognac. Fiery potato
spirit in large quantity is sent from Germany to Prance
to be redistilled and shipped as French brandy.
Under such circumstances one should be careful in the
selection of a genuine and reliable article. Prominent
among the best brandies is the Geo. Fabert brand, bottled
and shipped by the leading French firm of Grandsaignes,
Pionneau & Co., Cognac. It is guaranteed under the
National Pure Food and Drug Act of June, 1906, and duly
registered at Washington, D. C. (Serial No. 3591). The
exclusive sale in America of this pure grape brandy, the
choicest product of brandy land, is controlled by the well-
known importing firm of L. Ottenheimer & Son (estab¬
lished 1865), with offices at 38 and 40 South Water street,
Chicago.
"The Demon Bum" is the special object of denuncia-
194
THE MAECH OF MAN
tion by teetotal platformists, yet, strange to say, rum is
now one of the least used of liquors, probably on account
of its strong and pungent odor, which lasts long and
carries far. Bum is almost exclusively a West Indian
product, made from fresh cane-juice and the scum which
rises in the production of sugar, and containing volatile
and essential oils. Grog, as served in the British navy, is
a mixture of three parts water and one part rum. It was
substituted for ale by Admiral Edward Vernon, the cap¬
tor of Portobello, who from his favorite naval cloak of
grogram grey, was called by the sailors "Old Grog." The
admiral died in 1757. Hot rum pimch, taken at night
going to bed, is fairly warranted to heat the body and
break up a cold.
Beer is a beverage of very ancient origin. The ancient
Egyptians used "barley beer." Zenophon, who wrote about
400 B. C., speaks of "bowls of barley beer in which the
grains were floating." Tacitus, writing about A. D. 100,
mentions beer brewing as an accomplishment of the women
of Germany. The Scandinavians made beer from heath.
In 1860 the sale of beer in the United States was 3.22
gallons a head; in 1908 it was twenty-one gallons—two-
third of a barrel. The alcohol sold in this form was a little
less than a pint a head in 1860 ; in 1908 it was a little more
than three quarts. Since 1850 the volume of this industry
has increased fifty times; it is eighteen times larger than
it was in 1860. This growth of the American beer trade
bas constituted one of the wonders of the liquor business—
commented on in trade circles all over the world.
The capital invested in it is over ten times that invested
THE MABCH OF MAN
195
in distilleries, and the value of its product two and a half
times as great.
Made from malt and hops and sterilized water, heer is
produced so cheaply that there is no incentive for adultera¬
tion or substitution and any color desired from light to
dark can be easily obtained by varying the process of malt¬
ing, making the use of coloring matter unnecessary. Beer
is, furthermore, about the only article of commerce that
can not he tampered with by the trade. If a bottle is
opened it is soon flat and worthless. If a keg is touched
its contents are lost. Almost every other beverage can he
and often is tampered with by unscrupulous retailers. The
very nature of beer makes this impossible.
Prominent among the beers that have asserted them¬
selves most in public favor is Budweiser, bottled at the now
celebrated Anheuser-Busch brewery at St. Louis. Not only
is it a pleasant and refreshing drink in itself, but, because
of its tonic qualities, it is highly healthful. In it the
traveling public recognize the digestant qualities of a
high-grade beer, consequently on the dining cars of the
American railways more Budweiser is served than all other
beers. The tired traveler finds it soothing and invigorating
and it is a shield against ill health.
The grape, whose purple flood man for century after
century has converted into wine, is a Persian by birth. Its
cradle was on the sunny hills to the south of the Caspian
Sea, and there the ancients ate it and enjoyed its acid
taste. The men of Caubul ground it to a dry powder and
ate it with relish, half as a medicine, half because they
liked it.
The renowned grapes of Palestine grew in immense
196
THE MARCH OF MAN
clusters and weighed fifteen pounds to the bunch. Noah
planted the vine immediately after the Deluge; the hook
of Genesis mentions bread and wine; and the Israelites
complained that Moses and Aaron had brought them out
of Egypt into a dry and barren land where there were
neither figs nor vines.
The ancient Eomans had a saying to the effect that a
long life and a pleasant one depended on the free use of
two fluids—olive oil without and wine within.
Charlemagne introduced viticulture by transplanting
choice vines from his vineyards in Burgundy to the borders
of the Ehine and Moselle.
France produces as much wine almost as the rest of the
world. For digestion a Lafitte from the Eiver Gironde is
preferable. The mellow Chambertin from the Cote d'Or
has of all wines the richest flavor and inspires the gayest
conviviality. Good wine improves, poor wine deteriorates
with age.
When, in A. D. 999, Leif Ericson and his fellow Norse
adventurers sailed their Viking ship from Greenland to
the present Massachusetts, they settled on the banks of the
St. Charles river. From the grapes they found they called
the district Yinland the Good, and there they cut timber
and made wine—the first wine recorded made in America.
In New York State there are vineyards nearly a century
old, belonging to the Pleasant YaUey Wine Company, of
Eheims, N. Y., the oldest champagne house in America.
There expert cultivation of the soil has developed an ideal
wine grape—the same quality grape that the best French
makers use. Confidently entering into competition with
French wine even in the land of the latter, the American
THE MARCH OP MAN
197
product—^the Great Western Champagne, Extra Dry—
was honored with a gold medal at the Paris Exposition
of 1900, it being the only American wine so honored—
and discriminating Parisians generously and honestly
acknowledged Great Western to be as good as select French
brands of champagne.
This famous American brand costs half the price of im¬
ported because there is no duty.
California is preëminently the wine-making and vine-
growing state of the union. It was the profusion of the
wild vines that led the Franciscan Friars to plant cuttings
of the old Spanish vines which they brought with them
from Lower California. Climate and soil conditions are
very similar to those of the grape-growing districts of
Europe. The north central section, comprising the coun¬
ties bordering on the bay of San Francisco, produce grapes
and wine of a character like that of France, Germany and
Northern Italy, while the central and southern sections
(warmer belt) produce the sweet wines and such as are
made in Spain and Portugal. Almost every variety of
grape is found here, there being hardly a new variety or
hybrid produced in Europe but cuttings of it are promptly
obtained and their culture carefully tried under California
skies. In the young and vigorous soil results are naturally
better. Experienced wine makers from Europe are em¬
ployed, and the most modem methods used. The result is
often productive of amused puzzle and embarrassment to
professed connoisseurs with assumed epicurean preference
for the wine products of the old world. Again and again,
with a glass of the domestic and another of the imported
placed, without telling him which was which, before one
198
THE MARCH OP MAN
of these discerning judges, he has sagaciously smacked his
lips and selected as the better the imported—no, he thought
so, but—^the domestic article.
The maturing and aging cellars from which shipments
are made are located at or near San Francisco for the
reason that the climate here shows the least variation of
temperature and can be spoken of as being uniformly
cool.
In Europe cellars with stocks of 100,000 to 200,000 gal¬
lons of wines are considered very large ; in California there
are several establishments that carry stocks in their aging
cellars of a million and a half to two million gallons and
even of larger quantities, permitting, of course, of a larger
variety and selection.
Prominent among California wine firms is the well-
known one of C. Schüling & Co., San Francisco, the ex¬
cellent output of whose immense vaults is well known
throughout the United States.
A sober sister of wine is gentle, pleasant, healthful grape
juice.
Unfermented grape juice has no doubt been used to
some extent ever since the discovery of making wine from
grapes. The ancients discovered that by arresting the pro¬
cess of wine making at a certain stage before fermentation,
they could produce a delightful beverage, containing all
of the rich value and nutritious qualities of ripe grapes
without the alcoholic effect produced by the finished wine ;
but owing to the crude methods employed at that day and
time, it was only possible to preserve the unfermented
grape juice in small quantities.
In Europe many physicians formerly sent their patients
THE MAECH OF MAN
199
to the wine-growing districts during vintage time to take
daily rations of the fresh grape juice as it came from the
presses; but now with the improved process used in the
manufacture of grape juice, it is available at all seasons,
and is so beneficial in its effect upon the human system,
that many people make it a part of their daily diet and
with universally good results.
The grape contains from 13 to 38 per cent of sugar,
about 8 to 3 per cent of nitrogenous substances, and some
tartaric and malic acids. The skins contain tannin, cream
of tartar and coloring matter. The seeds contain tannin,
starchy matters and fat. The stems contain tannin, di¬
verse acids and mucilaginous matter. The value of the
juice made from any grape is determined by the relative
proportion and composition of these various parts.
The grape juice sent out by the Harris Grape Juice Com¬
pany, of Harrisburg, Pa., (Edwin L. Bergstresser, presi¬
dent) is made from the finest ripe grapes and within
twenty-four hours from the time the grapes are picked
from the vines. After passing through a special process the
juice is put in hermetically sealed jars and stored in cool¬
ers, to be bottled later. The process is scientific and
cleanly from start to finish, and no cost is spared to pro¬
duce the finest purple grape juice in the world. In the
bottling process only the best grade flint glass bottles are
used, with a sanitary sealing cap. The juice is bottled cold
and then sterilized in the bottle, thus preserving all of the
delightful aroma of the fresh grape and preventing the
formation of mold. It contains absolutely no preservative
or artificial coloring matter of any kind and is a pure,
healthful and wholesome beverage tonic and is delicious
200
THE MAKCH OF MAN
in flavor, beneficial in effect and is simply rich, ripe grapes
in liquid form. The uses of grape juice are many; it is
used in sickness, convalescence and good health, as a pre¬
ventive and restorative. People at all ages enjoy it—the
young, those in the prime of life, and those in old age.
It pleases the eye by its color, the sense of smell by its
aroma and the palate by its pleasant flavor. It is food
and drink, refreshment and nourishment all in one.
Tea was first introduced from China to Eussia in the
year 1653. Forty years later Russia entered into a direct
treaty with China to promote and regulate the commerce
in tea, a treaty which was renewed by Peter the Great,
who permitted a regular service in caravans to be es¬
tablished by the Siberians between Makarieff and the
Chinese frontier. Tea is used by all the nomadic tribes
of Central Asia; they infuse it in milk, adding a little
maize or mület, and thus rather eat it than drink it. At
its introduction into England it was a luxury, costing
over $50 a pmmd, and was served in the homes of the
wealthy in tiny cups, as shown in Hogarth's caricatures
and illustrated in a certain revenge taken by Dr. Johnson :
"the lady asked me for no other purpose than to make a
zany of me, and set me gabbling to a parcel of people I
knew nothing of ; so madam, I had my revenge of her ; for
I swallowed five-and-twenty cups of the tea, and did not
trouble her with so many words."
There is no man of this or any other century whose
name is so identified with tea as Sir Thomas J. Lipton,
enterprising business man and distinguished yachtsman.
His ability has succeeded in building up an enormous tea
trade, and he has placed a superior article at a reasonable
''ff
THE MARCH OF MAN
801
price on the tables of both rich and poor. While he honored
his nationality by naming his racing yachts after the sham¬
rock of his native land, he gave recognition to the source
of his commercial success by adopting as his crest, on re¬
ceiving the rank of knighthood, a hand grasping a tea
plant. Failing, after repeated spirited attempts, to lift the
American yachting cup, he gave simple and sportsmanlike
expression of his feelings in the matter, saying: ''While
I have failed so far to lift the cup, I have won that which
I prize much more than any cup, namely, the respect
and esteem of the American people."
And here I may casually interject some characteristic
remarks, as having much bearing on the March of Man
and his proper and effective deportment therein, which this
popular and accomplished tea master dropped during his
recent visit to this country :
"My idea," he said, "and I differ from many good peo¬
ple, is that it is a very decided advantage for young men
to be born poor, if they have the right stuff in them. If
they haven't, it doesn't matter, anyway.
"Suppose a good lad is bom rich and goes into business
—a business that has been made for him. What is his first
disadvantage? Why, of course, he is handicapped at once
by the fact that he can never realize the value of money.
Suppose the young man is bom poor and has to work for
every penny he has—doesn't he realize the value of money ?
"The young man who is born poor keeps green about him
the memory of what he was once ; he can feel the tme na¬
ture of things; he can grasp the idea of the man who is
stmggling to come to the front. Opportunity is much.
If the right sort of a young man only gets the opportunity
802
THE MAECH OF MAN
—and many young men create the opportunity themselves
—^he proves himself worthy of it. Were he bom rich the
chances are that he would miss the opportunity or, realizing
it, fail to grasp it.
"And then, again, a man who makes his own money has
more independence. He can see the world in a wholly
different light—^the right light. You can enjoy what
you've made yourself far more than the money thafs made
for you.
"The young man who is horn rich is very apt to be par¬
ticular about his hours of labor—^not so the young man
who has been brought up to work, early and late. The
young fellow who wants to get along in the world and is
particular about his hours of labor is on the wrong track.
Employers don't like the man who is always watching the
clock—who is always looking for 5 or 6 so that he can get
away. Eich or poor, he stands little show to succeed.
"It's wonderful—the confidence it inspires in an em¬
ployer when he realizes that his employe is pulling at the
same end of the rope that he is pulling at, in the way of
making a success of the business. Again, the poor young
man after business hours is more apt to try to improve
himself than is the rich young man. The rich young man
feels that he has no need of improving himself in the way
of education; the right kind of a poor yoimg man feels
that he must. And that is just the spirit which is going
to make him succeed.
"And then, there's the temptation of drink. The rich
young man is called upon to face it all the time, and how
often does he shun it? The poor young man has not this
constant temptation unless he seeks it out. Beware of
THE MABCH OP MAN
203
strong drink—I say it to all young men. Eemember cork¬
screws have sunk more young men than cork jackets will
ever save. I have never discharged a man for keeping
sober.
"The poor young man is more apt to have a civil tongue
in his head than the rich one. Necessity makes it so. Al¬
ways be civil. Is not the poor man's twenty shillings as
good as the rich man's pound?
"As a young fellow I always had in mind to improve
my parents' condition. I made that my study and my goal.
I'm sure that is what brought success to me. Bear this in
mind always—anything that really pleases a man's mother
is sure to be right."
The coffee plant, originally a native of Arabia and
Abyssinia, has been extensively naturalized in the tropics.
It is a nerve food, also an excitant. In some persons, when
taken at night, it causes sleeplessness, probably by exciting
the heart's action. It has a crystallized nitrogenous ele¬
ment called caffeine, upon which its quality as an excitant
depends.
The war over liquor goes on between the users and the
abusers, and between both and the Prohibitionists and the
Anti-Saloon League. In Chicago, the $1,000 saloon license
has combined with the Pure Food Law to reduce profits
on the sale of drink and to place inferior and injurious
kinds of whisky on the bars, wherefore many people have
begun of prudence and necessity to leave strong liquors
alone and to regale on light wine and beer. A little more
than 2 per cent of Chicago's population is arrested every
year for drunkenness. This seems a small proportion, but
it means over 40,000 persons. Besides large numbers of
204
THE MAEOH OP MAN
those "under the influence," if not too disorderly, are al¬
lowed by the police to make their way honîè if they pos¬
sibly can. It is estimated that of all these sufferers from
alcoholism fully seven-tenths are victims of improper
nourishment, of scarce or poor food, badly cooked, which
creates a yearning for stimulants.
For every person in Chicago there is consumed in the
city every year sixty-two gallons of beer, besides a large
amount of whisky, etc. Yet over half the population never
touches intoxicating liquor.
Large numbers of well-meaning persons and others of
the inevitable busybody class, whose delight is to dictate
reform and morality to others, are determined to make a
thoroughly "dry" country from liquor-law-dodging Maine
to wine-growing California. Through the efforts of the
Prohibitionists and their askance and critical ally the Anti-
Saloon League (founded in 1893 by Eev. Howard 0.
EusseU, of Oberlin, Ohio), 11,000 saloons were voted out
of existence in 1908, and there are now eight prohibition
states in which no man, woman or child of a population of
43,000,000 can get a sip of intoxicating beverage.
Of course this sweeping arid deprivation is largely hy¬
pothetical. The Maine liquor law has become a sort of tem¬
perance joke; there, in Lewiston and many such places,
any toper who has the price can regale himself ad lib. on
poison composed of alcohol, tobacco sweepings and stupe¬
fying drugs. In Florida "blind tigers" have supplanted
the banished saloons. In Georgia under the pretense of
selling "near-beer"—with a percentage of alcohol just a
grade or two under the amount prohibited—they circum¬
vent the law. One single whisky distiller in one single town
THE MAECH OF MAN
205
in Alabama now sells two hundred cases of whisky a month,
where he sold only sixty cases before prohibition had its
way. Such are some of the after effects of the emotional
wave that recently overspread the South.
It shows the futility of persons considering themselves
moral dictators endeavoring with a high hand to interfere
with the liberty of others. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst of New
York, whose opinion is entitled to the respect of even the
most ardent prohibitionist, protests: "Morality cannot be
secured by legislation. It is a rude interference with per¬
sonal liberty for the law to tell me what I shall eat; it is
just as rude for it to prescribe what I shall drink."
Light and healthy beers and light American wines to
take the place of strong alcoholic liquors ruinous to health
and morals are among the remedies proposed on this sub¬
ject by advanced thinkers of liberal views and close ob¬
servation, among them Professor Hugo Munsterberg, of
Harvard Hniversity, who says in a recent magazine article :
"Above all, the social habits in the sphere of drinking
must be entirely reshaped. They belong to a period where
the Puritan spirit considered beer and wine as sinful, and
relegated them to regions hidden from decent eyes. The
American saloon is the most disgusting product of such
narrowness; its dangers for politics and law, health and
economics, are alarming. The saloon must disappear and
can be made to disappear perhaps by a higher license taxa¬
tion and many other means. And with it must disappear
the bar and the habit of drinking standing and of mutual
treating. The restaurant alone, with the hotel and the
club, is the fit public place where guests sitting at tables
may have beer and wine with their meals or after meals—
206
THE MABCH OF MAN
and all controlled by laws which absolutely forbid the sale
of intoxicants to certain groups of persons, to children, to
inebriates, and so on."
On the whole, intemperance is greatly and gratifyingly
on the wane. Few people now consider it fashionable or
even excusable to be "as dnmk as a lord." And so the
world doth move.
CHAPTEE XII.
EVOLUTION OF THE LAW.
There is one remarkable product of the mind of man,
that is, of the minds of many men, long assiduously en¬
gaged in building up and tearing down, enacting and re¬
pealing, constructing and destroying, a product that, by
general and weighty opinion, has not at all kept pace with
the progress of the human race.
It is the thing called law.
Only recently, speaking in Chicago, President William
Taft, of these United States, said (Sept. 17, 1909) : "It
is not too much to say that the administration of criminal
law in this country is a disgrace to our civilization, and
that the prevalence of crime and fraud, which here is in
excess of that in the European countries, is due largely
to the failure of the law and its administrators to bring
criminals to justice."
THE MABCH OF MAN
207
And this in this great twentieth century, of ours, after
all the elaborate efforts of the long line of lawmakers,
ancient, medieval and modern, who have been hammering
out code after code and statute upon statute for the
government of nations and the enforcement of justice in
dealings between man and man !
Law is founded on the human conscience. Originally
every man was a law unto himself, and in many respects
he still is so, when he has money enough to buy legis¬
latures and fix juries.
The chief modem opponents of and defiers of law are
the anarchists.
The modern application of the term is misleading. The
ideal anarchist—advocate, as the name implies, of "no
government"—was merely a gentle theorist, a humani¬
tarian philosopher, who yearned for an arcadian, altru¬
istic, blissful time when the kindness and charity of man
to man would render government unnecessary, when there
would be no need of soldiers, or police, or bench or bar,
or scaffolds, prisoners or poorhouses. His aspirations
were noble, but his splendid vision went pitifully far ahead
of his time.
The ordinary so-called anarchist of today is a law unto
himself above law, resenting and defying law. He is of
two classes, bitterly opposed to each other—the fierce,
intolerant, generally impecunious anarchist who throws
bombs at kings and emperors and shoots presidents of
republics; and the suave, wealthy, unscrupulous anarchist,
lawbreaker for lucre, who oppresses and defrauds the mul¬
titude by means of corrupt legislatures and unjust judges.
208
THE MAECH OF MAN
There is a way of getting rid of the former class, though
the cure is a very costly one and worse than the disease,
iiamely to make them substantial and rich, when they
would invariably become wealthy anarchists, haughtily
intolerant of law and popular rights, in due accordance
with the adage, "Put a beggar on horseback and he'll ride
to hades." As to the latter class, our present wealthy anar¬
chists, there is as yet no known way of getting rid of them ;
therefore they remain, strong opponents and scorners of
law of every kind.
The origin of human law is curtained by the mists of
the prehistoric past.
Kecent archaeological researches have shown that in very
ancient times, so remote as to give the impression that
human society was but then forming itself into crude and
semi-barbarous communities, some nations had for their
government and guidance codes of law at once elaborate
and admirable. Said Professor J. H. Breasted of the
University of Chicago, in a lecture delivered Oct. 23,
1909, to the students of the John Marshal Law School on
ancient Egyptian law:
"Thousands of years before Christ was born Egypt
was governed by laws that were wonderful for their thor¬
oughness and justice. The essential points of legal
practice today have descended directly from the customs
in vogue then. Deeds, conveyances, wiUs, were as common
then as now and cases had already been divided in crim¬
inal and civil divisions.
"In some points, the very ancient law practice surpassed
the present system. No juries existed, but judges ab-
THE MARCH OP MAN
209
bolutely uncorruptible decided cases from the evidence
presented and no lawyers were in existence.
"Law courts existed in every village in Egypt and at
the nation's capital a supreme court held session every
day. The grand vizier of the country was judge of this
court. He acted with dispatch. Ho twenty-year 'Tioga'
cases could drag out in his court, for by law he was given
a certain length of time to make decisions. In land
cases, where the property lay in the capital city, three
days were allowed the case, and where it lay outside, even
to the boundaries of the country, but three months could
be used in litigation."
Yet, even in ancient Egypt, as in modem America,
there existed "graft" in connection with the administra¬
tion of the law. There was at least one case wherein the
dusky skinned guardian of the papyrus archives in an
Egyptian law court was bribed to tamper with the records
in his charge that the verdict in a lawsuit might favor
the guilty defendant. After many years the plot was
uncovered and defeated. Its story remains hewn on the
tomb of the winner of the suit.
The Mosaic written law was given to the Israelites in
the year of their departure from Egypt (B. C. 1491).
About six hundred years later came Lycurgus, son of
Eunomus, king of Sparta, who, after traveling in order
to investigate the institutions of other lands, gave the
Spartans their celebrated code of laws, strict, harsh and
socialistic, which made them a great nation of warriors,
if nothing else in particular. He deprived parents of
the care of their offspring, caused weak or deformed
children to be thrown as useless into a pit, made iron
210
THE MARCH OF MAN
coin the only currency of the country, had the people eat
their meals at public tables, each contributing his share
as at a picnic, forbade them to follow any trade or severe
occupation—^the helots or slaves tilling the ground and
doing the other hard work—suppressed individualism and
home associations, taught each man that he was bom not
for himself but for the country, and so gave the Spartans
the hardy, courageous, semi-unnatural characteristics that
for ages made them notable and formidable.
A famous lawmaking contemporary of Lycurgus was
King Ollioll, also called Ollave Pola, or the Scholar of
Pola (Ireland), who established the celebrated parlia¬
ment of Tara, at which the three estates of nobility, mili¬
tary and gentry were represented and the laws codified
under which Ireland was governed for 2,500 years, or
until A. D. 1600. These were called the Brehon Laws,
from the Brehons or judges who administered them, who
were provided with land for their support. A special
feature of these laws was the imposition of a fine or
eric, payable to the family of the victim, by parties re¬
sponsible, accidentally or otherwise, for the taking of
human life, though in case of murder the friends or
relatives might insist on the death penalty. The do¬
mestic and property rights of woman were specially safe¬
guarded. She was placed about on an equality with man
and like him, down to the seventh century and the "Law
of the Innocents," exempting women and clergy from mili¬
tary service, had to take up arms in time of war. The
office of judge was hereditary. Judges who were convicted
of rendering unjust decisions were branded with a hot iron
on the cheek. The clan system of government, productive
THE MARCH OP MAN
211
of jealousies and disputes, left the country temptingly
open to foreign invasion, which eventually prevailed.
Meanwhile new legislators appeared along the Mediter¬
ranean, trying according to their lights to improve laws
for public order and betterment.
It is a wonder that the criminal laws made by Draco,
the Athenian (B. C. 623), did not depopulate ancient
Greece. He made nearly all offenses, from stealing a few
apples to murder and sacrilege, punishable with death.
"When asked the reason for such sweeping severity to¬
wards offenders he replied:
"Small ones deserve it, and I can find no greater for
the most heinous."
His code, described as written in blood, would at the
present day have made appalling havoc in Chicago, mak¬
ing vast gaps in all social circles from the Ghetto to the
Lake Shore Drive, and even creating huge vacancies on
the police force. The Greeks did not appreciate being so
excessively executed, so one day, when Draco visited a
theater, the audience provided an impromptu performance
by sitting on and smothering him.
Next the celebrated Solon came to the front, abolishing
most of the cruel Draconian legislation and giving the
Athenians a constitution founded on the principle that
the supreme power resided in the people. He released
persons who had been enslaved for debt, but made things
critical and unpleasant for dishonest people, also for
fortune hunters : he prohibited dowries and forbade young
men marrying rich old women for the sake of support
and ease. He fined slanderers and backbiters, dividing
the fine between the injured party and the public. He
212
THE MARCH OF MAN
allowed persons to will their property to whom they
pleased: previously they had to leave it to their kindred.
He discouraged extravagance among women, encouraged
the Olympian athletic games by means of valuable prizes
to the winners, promoted the cultivation of waste lands
and the destruction of beasts of prey, allotting a reward
of five drachmas—the value of an ox—^to whoever caught
a he-wolf. A dog that hit a man had to be delivered up
bound to a heavy log. He forbade the freedom of the city
to foreigners save such as came to stay.
These and other laws for the good of the people and
the country Solon had engraved on wooden cylinders.
He bound the Athenians by oath not to make changes in
his code for ten years. Then, to escape being pestered by
friends and others who wanted him to make various
changes, he took ten years' leave of absence, after which
he returned, to find the city rent by party politics, and a
rich man, his own kinsman, successfully trying to buy him¬
self into power. For his peace of mind Solon went
quietly away. He is supposed to have died in Cyprus at
the age of eighty.
The laws of ancient Eome, in whose practice that great
lawyer Cicero displayed his matchless eloquence, were
eventually codified by direction of the Emperor Justinian,
of peasant stock, in the sixth century, and in them he left
to humanity a valuable legacy.
A revival of legal study took place in Italy towards
A. D. 1200, the principal agent being the school of
Bologna, famous for many generations afterwards. The
books of Justinian, which had before then been superseded
in the Eastern Empire, were lectured and commented on
THE MABCH OF MAN
213
in the universities of France, Spain, England and Ger¬
many, and have continued to be so down to the present.
Canon Law had wide jurisdiction in the Middle Ages. Its
rules were drawn for the canons of Councils and the
decrees of Popes, and these rules were first consolidated
into an ordered body by Pope Gregory IX. in the middle
of the thirteenth century.
The Eoman law was largely introduced in Germany,
where, since the time of Otto the Great (A. D. 973), the
king was deemed to be Eoman Emperor, and there the law
was promoted by German lawyers trained in the Italian
universities. Frederick II. of Prussia directed the prepa¬
ration of a code which became law after his death, in
1794. After twenty-two years of labor a new code for the
whole German empire, combining the principles of the
Eoman law with Teutonic rules and customs, was adopted
in 1900.
The process of codifying the laws of France was com¬
menced under Louis XIV., in 1667. The five Codes of
Napoleon were promulgated from 1803 to 1810. The
French code has been taken as a model in Belgium, Italy,
Spain, Portugal, Mexico and Chile. Eoman-French law
survives (save in commercial matters) in Quebec.
The Eoman law, which has lasted for twenty-five cen¬
turies, prevails today in all the European countries which
formed part of the ancient or of the mediaeval Eoman
empire—Italy, France, Greece, Turkey (so far as the
Christian population is concerned), Spain, Portugal, Ger¬
many (ineluding the German and Slavonic parts of the
Austro-Hungarian empire), Belgium and Holland. The
leading principles of Eoman jurisprudence also extended
214
THE MAEOH OF MAN
into Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Eussia. It was
carried to European colonies in Asia, Africa and America.
Scotland, since the time of James V., who established the
Court of Sessions in 1532, also followed the Eoman law.
The old English had their Polk Mot, or lawmaking
assembly. The Norsemen had their Thing, or assembly of
freemen to discuss matters of common interest, and es¬
pecially lawsuits, which they introduced around the English
and Scotch coasts and even to Iceland after the departure
of the Irish monks or Papas. Primitive and barbarous
was the code of those fierce sea rovers. Wives were sale¬
able, like cattle. A father might sell his child to slavery
for payment of his debts. Insolvent debtors were made
slaves. Death punishment was not prescribed for homi¬
cide or murder, which were very common occurrences,
but if a murderer was unable or unwilling to pay the fine
pronounced against him by the Thing he might be fol¬
lowed and kiUed by the murdered man's friends—if they
could. Litigants fought each other to prove which was
in the right—the slain one was adjudged in the wrong.
Women were drowned for witchcraft, as in Puritan days
in America.
Sensitiveness of these hardy Norsemen and some re¬
semblance of their laws to the early Eoman ones was
shown in their treatment of libel and slander. Truth was
no defense for defamation. Banishment was the punish¬
ment for nicknaming a man. No verses could be made
on a man without his consent, and any amorous poet who
dared indite a love poem to a lady was courting not only
the object of it but a lawsuit for heavy damages.
When, at the break up of the Eoman empire, the
THE MARCH OF MAN
216
Eoman legions were withdrawn from England, Eoman law
practically disappeared from that country. What is called
English law is variously claimed to have lasted from the
days of the Saxon kings Ina and Alfred and the Norman
Henry II. It is still in force in England and Wales and,
except with regard to land and marriage and sundry
penal enactments to enforce subjection, in Ireland. When
the Normans conquered England and established French
as the language of the law courts they found large num¬
bers of men wearing brass collars, like dogs, inscribed
with the names of their masters, whereupon they
established the feudal law over thanes and thralls. Later
the Norman barons compelled King John to sign Magna
Charta, for their own sake and the alleged sake of the
common people. The great provision of this, to wit, trial
by jury, is distinguished for the great abuses it has ex¬
perienced and is still experiencing on both sides of the
Atlantic.
In ancient England there existed quaint and rude laws,
some of which pressed peculiarly hard on women. Under
the Saxon law for stealing a free man was fined, a free
woman was drowned or cast down from some high place
to roeks beneath. Under the feudal system, for stealing
the value of $2 a man was punished by being burned on
the hand and then set free, a woman for stealing the value
of 50 cents was sentenced to death.
Every feudal lord could choose a husband for his fe¬
male ward, and if she refused his choice he could seize
and enjoy the profits of her lands until she was twenty-one
years of age. For some offenses women were stripped to
the waist, tied to a cart's tail and flogged through the
316
THE MAECH OF MAN
streets. The last of these punishments was inflicted in
1827. The public whipping of female vagrants lasted
until 1792. Until 1674 the husband had power to beat
his wife, so long as he did not endanger her life, but in
that year Chief Justice Hale gave as his opinion that
castigation meant only admonition and confinement to the
house. This confinement to the house was legal until the
Jackson case in 1892, when the judge decided that a
husband could not lock up a sane wife.
In England also, until the Married Women's Property
act was passed, in 1870, a married woman had no power
over her own property, but even then her position was
not as good as that of a single woman until 1882, twelve
years later, so that one may truly say that a great power
was denied to married women, the power of holding and
using her property as she desired to. At present she
is still not the free agent that a male holder of property
is, since the Court of Chancery, by the device of restraint
on anticipation, denies her the power of raising money
on an anticipated income, for no money lender can safely
advance money, no matter how much her business requires
it, as he cannot have a legal claim on her income.
Formidable and effective as is the law, as formidable
and effective are the forces ever at work for the baffling
and prevention of justice.
Forcibly and piquantly in this connection speaks the
well known Chicago lawyer, John J. Cobum, brilliant and
prominent in his profession, a typical product of rural
Illinois :
"Justice is blind. That is her alleged and traditional
reputation for strict impartiality, for even-handed ad-
John J. Coburn
THE MARCH OF MAN
217
ministration. Therefore sculptors, ancient and modern,
love to represent her as an imposing looking lady with a
bandage on her eyes, a balance in one hand and a large
sword in the other. To many no doubt this is poetic
and impressive; to others it may convey the suggestion of
a butcher's wife, with weapon and pair of scales, about to
join in a fantastic game of blind man's huff.
"This effigy, familiar on legal documents and in temples
of the law, is in a sense truly figurative. For it has only
too often happened that Justice has been blind, wonder¬
fully and sadly blind.
"What could a poor goddess do, blindfolded like a
frightened horse or a candidate for the third degree, when
such ministers were forced upon her as Coke and Jeffreys
in England, and Fouquier Tin ville in France, and Nor-
bury in Ireland, and even in our own America some who
might have given pointers in subserviency to Pontius
Pilate?
"Wliat can the hoodwinked lady do when a perjured
ruffian sits in the jury box with a bribe in his pocket for
his promise to Tiang' the jury or have it bring in an un¬
just verdict?
"The principles of conscience-founded law, as they have
come sifted and multiplied and complicated to us through
the ages, with a piling up of volumes more inexplorable
to the many than Mount McKinley, are admirable in the
main; the great difficulty lies in their satisfactory appli¬
cation. An ordinary modern legal contest, with snares
and obstacles artfully employed on either side, is like a
fight through a jungle of barbed wire. This, however, to
one of natural legal bent, is rather an attraction thaa
218
THE MARCH OF MAN
otherwise ; a lawyer of proper mettle loves a fair and lively
forensic encounter wherein he may meet 'a foeman worthy
of his steel.' But it is quite another matter when unfair
weapons are used, when illegal and criminal methods are
employed to bring about a miscarriage of justice, as they
are occasionally employed in both civil and criminal cases,
to rob the widow and orphan of the recompense due them
for the killing of the breadwinner or to railroad an inno¬
cent man to pri'son or the scaffold. Prototypes of the
Egyptian grafter who distorted court records seven
thousand years ago may by persistent accounts he found
today in Chicago haunting the civil, criminal and munici¬
pal courts, and the ofiBces of the Jury Commissioners, and
alert and expert in the art of 'fixing' juries and witnesses.
"Law is a rule of action. This is about the simplest
and shortest definition of it. Man was originally a primi¬
tive savage. As a savage he was a law unto himself. There
were but two necessities in his life, those of existence and
reproduction—and we can hardly refrain from the reflec¬
tion that the twentieth century presents to him, at least
from the material standpoint, no greater incentives. In
his savage state, in his struggle not only with wild beasts
and nature in her primitive form, but also with his fellow
savage, he found that the strong overcame the weak and
took away from him his humble belongings, his wife, may¬
hap his life. Consequently the savage who had a danger¬
ous neighbor in a stronger savage, fearing to meet the lat¬
ter in open struggle, preferred to resort to compromise and
strategy, and if possible to make terms with him. This
more powerful antagonist was generally open to arguments
that would lead up to a treaty, because forsooth he hap-
THE MARCH OF MAN
219
pened to know of a more powerful savage than himself, as
in the very nature of things it has been abundantly dem¬
onstrated that no matter how powerful a bully may be, he
is apt to meet his match or over.
"These overtures and treaties between our remote pro¬
genitors formed the foundation of government. Tribal
government followed closely upon the heels of the individ¬
ual savagery, and was but little removed therefrom. The
most powerful man in the community, the one of greatest
stature or he who could wield the biggest stone or the larg¬
est spear, was made by common consent chief of the tribe,
just as the Jews selected their first king because he was
head and shoulders above the people. This chief was
endowed with absolute despotic power; his word and com¬
mand was the direction and the law of the tribe. He had
the power of life and death over his subjects. As man
multiplied on earth, tribes became numerous. It became
necessary for some of them to make treaties and combina¬
tions, offensive and defensive, to unite in a common cause.
As a natural result, it became necessary to have a head of
governing authority over the combination. This head was
made absolute ruler and was called a king. The fullest
culmination of monarchical power was serfdom. The chiefs
or nobles were subservient to the king, and the common
people were absolutely subservient to the chiefs or nobles;
they were all slaves to the king. The common people
received no compensation for their labor ; they were allowed
just enough to live on, because if they did not eat they
could not work for their masters.
"Next came the feudal system. This was a step in ad¬
vance of serfdom. Under this form of government the
220
THE MARCH OE MAN
subject, while he owed obedience and service to the king
and his nobles, still was permitted a small measure of lib¬
erty. When he had done all the work that his governors
required of him he was permitted, if he had any time left,
to do a little work for himself, and the result of that labor
he might keep for himself and his family.
"This was followed by a still further improvement.
Sometimes when the subject had performed all of his
duties to his superior and such work as was required for
the support of himself and his family, it not infrequently
happened that, if a particular expert toiler, he had time
to spare, and under the just rules of government this time
was his own. His superiors negotiated with him for this
spare time, agreeing to pay him a stipend for his services.
In this way the wage system originated.
"A form of government which we have to-day is the
result of the wage system. Its evolution is interesting.
Employers vied with each other to secure the services of
those who could turn out the best results for the lowest
wage, and there was a still sharper competition for the
disposition of the products of their labor. In this way
what is ordinarily known as business was established in
the world — merchants, traders, commercial men, store¬
keepers, huxsters, manufacturers of all classes became a per¬
manent part of the body politic. Competition at times be¬
came ruinous. At other times it was so sharp that there was
little or no profit to the competitors in business. It became
apparent among the so-called business men, just as it
became apparent to the two savages who made the first
treaty, and afterwards to the tribes who formed the first
kingdom, that something must be done to abolish this
THE MARCH OF MAN
221
ruinous system of competition. As a result, combinations
of business men were made, called co-partnerships. This
did not altogether suit their interests, so they went a step
higher and formed corporations, which may be defined as
a combination of co-partnerships. Corporations multiplied
to such an extent that sharp and ruinous competition still
remained. A further step in the evolution of wage gov¬
ernment became necessary. This step was the formation
of pools, trusts and monopolies—nothing more nor less
than a combination on the same principle that led the sav¬
age to form the tribal form of government and the tribes
to form kingdoms.
"The natural selfishness of man at all times since the
government under the wage system has been established
into the world prompted the employer to endeavor to se¬
cure from his employes the greatest possible amount of
work and the largest possible amount of production at the
lowest possible cost. In this way the employe got the worst
of it; m other words, he found himself living under a form
of government a little better than that of the savage, supe¬
rior to the tribal relations, somewhat of an improvement
on serfdom and the feudal system, but still oppressive in
the extreme. The employes have formed combinations,
known as labor unions, calculated to force the employers
to pay a higher wage, the result being continuous clashing
and friction and general conditions of unrest. In America
both leading political parties declare that these combina¬
tions of capital should be so controlled, regulated and cir¬
cumscribed by law that even-handed justice might result.
The wage system has produced in the wprld an intricate
222
THE MARCH OF MAN
maze of commercial interests which has resulted in practi¬
cally the conquest of the earth.
"These changes necessitated from time to time numer¬
ous and in many cases novel enactments known as laws,
all of which go to make up our modem system of juris¬
prudence. These laws are not by any means uniform;
there is so much conflict of law that it is a common saying
that any shrewd lawyer can find authority on any side of
any case. The socialist party contend that while the wage
system has served its purposes in the world, its usefulness
is at an end, and that in the evolution of things it should
be abolished and give place to a more intelligent and satis¬
factory basis of government. Even socialism has its vary¬
ing sections and theories. But necessity with iron hand is
steadily pushing to the front the supreme principle that
the best form of government that can be devised by the
mind of man is that which first gives mankind the right
to toil, and second, permits him to keep the result of his
labors."
Criminal law still remains largely crude, stupid, cmel,
even savage.
Brutalities exist in connection with our prisons, reforma¬
tories and asylums, although they are usually heard of only
in course of spasmodic recriminations between warring
political leaders or factions. For various offenses prisoners,
handcuffed and bent over, are beaten on the flesh by strong
guards with wooden clubs or paddles soaked in water;
stripped naked, bound and shackled, and a stream of cold
water from a hose forced into the face ; compelled to carry
a ball and chain to and from work—punishments reported
to be prohibited in the Ohio penitentiary by Warden Brown
THE MAECH OF MAN
223
last October, but still presumably in general vogue else¬
where. A common form of punishment is to handcuff
prisoners in an upright position for hours and days to the
bars of their cells.
Female prisoners are subjected to feudal dungeon treat¬
ment in some of our institutions for the alleged reform
and uplifting of the erring or fallen. Mrs. Florence May-
brick, herself long an inmate of an English prison on
charge of murdering her husband, told, in an address before
the League for Political Education, of New York :
"In one of our prisons I visited recently I found twenty-
eight women confined in a dungeon fourteen feet below the
ground. There were holes in the fioor opening directly
into the sewers beneath, and rats were running up out of
the sewers and eating the crumbs in the straw. The air so
reeked with sewer gas that, though I stayed there only a
short time, I had a racking headache the rest of the day.
In this dungeon those women were confined every day,
month after month, from 6 o'clock in the morning till 8
in the evening, with no work and no visitors.
"In another prison, in the mining districts, I saw a boy
confined down in a dark cell below ground, chains on his
wrists and chains on his ankles. I asked what he had done.
The answer was that he was lazy'—wouldn't do his work ;
he was required to pick three cartloads of coal a day, and he
picked only two; so he was punished.
"The next day I asked an old miner if it was much of
a day's work to pick three cartloads of cçal. 'Why,' he
said, 'no one but an expert miner and a hard-muscled man
could do it. A soft-muscled boy from the city slums, like
224:
THE MAECH OF MAN
the one you describe, couldn't do it any more than he
could fly.' "
Miss Kate Barnard, state commissioner of charities and
corrections for Oklahoma, exposed the way in which the
state of Kansas cared for the prisoners intrusted to it by
Oklahoma, with the result that the contract was broken
and Oklahoma now has a model penitentiary with a night
school and a baseball team.
In juvenile institutions, such as the school at St. Charles,
111., boys are flogged with a section of rubber hose. In
September, 1909, a St. Charles boy named John Cockel-
been, who ran away to Chicago to see his sick mother, and
returned again, received fifty lashes with the hose, which
the school trustees (Judge Tuthill excepted) approve of
as a "humane" instrument of correction.
Verily, our methods of dealing with offenders against
society, male and female, young and old, do not seem to
have progressed very far beyond the medieval. There are
few of the olden instruments of torture missing from our
modem penal system save the red-hot pincers and the boil¬
ing oil, the rack and the thumbscrew.
But more dreadful and trying to the convict than his
period of incarceration is that which follows his release,
when he finds himself a pariah, an outcast, the prison
stigma upon him, few or none willing to trust or employ
him, the suspicions of the police directed towards him,
the blighting shadow of the penitentiary ever following
him. Strong may be his desire to lead an honest and indus¬
trious life, but serious the obstacles in his way. The after-
experience of a certain man released from San Quentin
prison. Cal., is that of many. He says :
THE MAECH OF MAN
225
"I was a street ear conductor, a decent enough sort, when
one night I got drunk and hit a man. Unfortunately for
both of us, it nearly killed him. I got four years. I paid
the penalty. Should I be let alone now or not? I gave
more than four years out of my life to the state. I lost
my health. For that reason I thought that, being 'free,'
I would go out into the country and work there until I
got my strength back. From county to county I have been
told to 'move on.' The first man to whom I applied for work
gave it to me ; then I took my honorable discharge out of
my pocket and showed it to him. He picked up a cane that
lay across his desk and yelled at me : 'You get out of here
or I'll knock your brains out.' "
Sentimentalism in the treatment of crime is not to be
encouraged, but injustice is still worse. Fortunately, va¬
rious agencies, among them the Prison Gate Mission, are
quietly at work to aid released prisoners and give them a
fair and honest new start in life.
In Chicago, Cleveland and Denver the parole system
has been productive of good results in preventing the turn¬
ing of transient offenders into hardened criminals, like the
changing of moderate drinkers into confirmed drunkards.
Science has come to the aid of humanity in dealing with
the erring. Some time ago, when Professor Elmer Gates,
of the Smithsonian Institution, philosopher and inventor,
suggested that criminals might be cured by means of a
surgical operation on certain diseased brain cells, people
laughed at him, just as they laughed at Columbus and
Stephenson and Fulton and Wright. Yet it is generally
acknowledged that, with vices and passions and follies in¬
herited from an army of barbarous ancestors, crime is often
226
THE MAECH OF MAN
hereditary, Just as it is often the result of environment, of
disease of the mind caused by bad associations and disease
of the body caused by bad eating or drinking. No per¬
fectly normal, healthy man ever desires to commit a crime.
If his body be sound, his mind is inclined only to kindness
and harmony.
But how many are perfectly normal and healthy, espe¬
cially in this time of race suicide?
When the mother of a youth who had killed a man cam(
before the court and pleaded to he hanged in place of hei
son, she disclosed doubtless the cause of many murders.
"I am the real murderer," she said, "because I gave the
impulse to kill to my child before he was born, by doing
everything in my power to destroy the life."
Therefore the advance guard of humanity is looking
for causes and effects in dealing with crime and criminals.
This, for instance, is the object of the American Institute
of Criminal Law and Criminology, whose useful work, by
the way, is treated by the very persons who should aid it
in a way to make the administration of criminal law in
this country, though not in the sense intended by President
Taft, "a disgrace to civilization." Eecently the Institute
sent its bulletin, with a personal letter asking for certain
data, to 800 prosecuting attorneys. How many of them
answered it? Just two.
Of strong and advanced opinions on this vital subject is
Dean John H. Wigmore, of Northwestern University Law
School. He said, in a recent address to the Chicago Bar
Association (Nov. 24, 1909) :
"The old and still dominant thought is that crime is
caused by the inscrutable moral free will of the human
THE MAECH OP MAN 227
being, doing or not doing tbe crime, just as it pleases.
As to treatment, there are just two traditional measures
used in varying doses for all kinds of crime and aU kinds
of persons—jail or a fine (death being employed in rare
cases only). But modem science recognizes that crime
has natural causes, and that penal or remedial treatment
must be adapted to the causes and to the man as affected
by those causes.
"This means that we must study all the possible data
that can be causes of crime—^heredity, physical make-up,
emotional temperament, environment and all the influ¬
encing circumstances. The effect of different methods of
treatment must be studied, experimented and compared.
This has been going on in Europe for forty years, and in
limited fields in this cormtry. All the branches of science
that can help have been working. But our legal profession
has remained either ignorant of the entire subject or indif¬
ferent to it."
Something like a revival of the ancient Gaelic law of eric
is suggested by Dean Wigmore—namely, that the victim
of crime or his relatives should receive redress from the
aggressor. The absence of such a law he denounces as a
great moral wrong. "The state must provide a way to
redress wrongs in the same proceeding where it punishes.
The money or labor of the wrongdoer can be used to make
compensation." It is a shame and a mockery of justice
to see the family of a slain man in want, with no redress
from the homicide, whether common murderer or wealthy
man in his automobile, who has deprived them of their
bread-winner. Humble life is held too cheap.
Eussia is supposed to be far behind other civilized nations
228
THE MARCH OF MAN
in matters of justice, and we of America especially pride
ourselves on our superiority. But is Eussia inferior in
all kinds of justice? Last April the ferryboat Arch¬
angel sank in the Neva river and thirty-nine people were
drowned. The millionaire who owned the steamer was
sent to prison because he had not compelled the managers
of his boats to take proper precautions against such a dis¬
aster. It might be a good thing to have a little of this
kind of Eussian "injustice" in America.
It is said that the worst possible use a man can be put
to is to hang him. And here arises the oft-discussed ques¬
tion of capital punishment.
Various countries have already abandoned the death
penalty. Its abolition was long a subject of consideration
in France. "Let Messieurs the assassins commence," sug¬
gested, with polite cynicism, the Frenchman. At length
the law against executions went into effect, the guil¬
lotine was laid away, and Monseiur de Paris mourned
the loss of his gory job. But France, largely deprived of
moral or religious influence through gross atheistic mate¬
rialism, was unqualifled for the change. Soon came some
atrocious murders that elicited a successful popular demand
for the restoration of the death punishment, and mobs
again howled with satisfaction at the severing of human
heads.
Capital punishment—^legal murder—is the deepest dis¬
grace of the present stage of human development. Oliver
Wendell Holmes summed up its shameful wickedness in
saying: "It is unjust as applied to moral idiots; im¬
moral considered as revenge ; useless as a means of intimi¬
dation; and dangerous to society by cheapening the value
THE MAECH OF MAN
229
of life." To the same effect speaks Lawyer Henry E.
Nothomb, of Chicago, thinker, scholar and humanitarian.
He says : "Since the founding of Chicago there have been
almost sixty hangings. Why were they necessary? What
good have they done? Do they scare people into obeying
the laws? If so, why not then have the execution out in
the public square where more people can witness the awful
event and take the lesson to heart? Such a conclusion
would be absurd. Executions do not scare any one into
obedience of the law, and some states have recognized that
publicity regarding them is harmful rather than beneficial,
and have prohibited the publication of the details. The
bare possibility of executing an innocent man; the bare
possibility of executing one who is insane, even tempora¬
rily; the bare possibility of condemning to death one who
has been made a criminal by environment—these are all
sufficient grounds for doing away with capital punish¬
ment." The slayers of Presidents Garfield and McKinley
were probably insane, as was Prendergast, who killed Mayor
Harrison. Had they killed ordinary citizens, their lot
might not have been the scaffold, or the death chair, but
the lunatic asylum.
In many respects modern laws are miserably behind the
times and a hindrance rather than a help to human
progress.
230
THE MABCH OF MAN
CHAPrBE XIII.
THEOUGH BLC^E GLASSES.
Comparing the present with the past, we are astonished
to find almost similar social conditions existing in so-called
classic times in the old world as now in America—on the
one hand enormous concentration of wea'th and power in
the hands of one man or set of men, proi. ' and prodigal
display, voluptuous pleasures, luxury and excess; on the
other, toil and drudgery, too often accompanied by biting
want and poverty; both conditions attended by vice and
degradation, springing on one side from luxurious excess,
on the other from squalor and misery.
Here is a picture of one Eoman estate, or rather part
of an estate, in the time of the Emperor Caligula, whose
reign began A. D. 38. It is an extract from the official
gazette—Acta Diurna—published in Eome:
"On June 25th, in Trimalchio's farm by Cumae, were
born 70 children, of whom 30 were of the male sex. The
same day 50,000 modii of wheat (about 12,500 bushels)
were removed from the threshing fioors to the granaries;
ßOO young oxen were broken. The same day one of the
slaves, named Mithidates, was executed by crucifixion, be¬
cause he had cursed the sacred name of the Emperor
(Caligula), and lastly, 10,000,000 sesterces (about
$400,000) were deposited in the safes."
That was about eighteen hundred and seventy years ago.
What a population that farm must have supported ! Sev¬
enty children bom in one day ! What herds of cattle, when
THE MARCH OF MAN
231
five hundred young oxen were broken on a single day!
Twelve thousand five hundred bushels of wheat put into
the granaries—in days of crude agriculture—and four
hundred thousand dollars put in the safe!
At the present day, despite the enormous wealth and
continuous scheming and grasping of trusts and corpora¬
tions, we have no condition to exactly parallel the above,
which seems the acme of despotic opulence.
The Emperor Caligula, for cursing whose "sacred name"
the slave Mithidates—probably a John Mitchell or a Sam¬
uel Gompers of his day—^was crucified, was a vicious de¬
generate, one of whose pleasures was to see men tortured
or put to death in his presence as he sat at dinner. We
do not crucify toilers nowadays, at least not in that primi¬
tive way.
Trimalchio the Sicilian, the owner of the wonderful
farm, was distinguished for the luxury of his banquets and
the skill of his cooks. He was of the eat-drink-and-be-
merry order. He originated "the skeleton at the feast,"
not as a warning or a menace, however, but as an encour¬
agement to festivity. At a celebrated banquet given by
him his servants brought in a silver skeleton, ingeniously
constructed, which when cast upon the table wriggled in a
ghastly manner, assuming various postures.
"Of such are we," cried the host—"let us live while we
may !"
There were other noted demonstrators of the luxurious
life. Says the Eoman satirist: 'Tiook at Homentanus and
Apicius, who digest all the good things, as they call them,
of sea and of land, and review upon their tables the whole
animal kingdom. Look at them as they lie on beds of
232
THE MAECH OF MAN
roses, gloating over their banquet and delighting their ears
with music, their eyes with exhibitions, their palates with
flavors."
Apicius, a noted epicure in the start of our era, gorged
himself with costly things until out of over twelve million
dollars he had only a couple of hundred thousand dollars
left; then he poisoned himself through fear of starving.
There were two other epicures of the same name ; one who
lived in the time of Sylla, B. C. 81 ; and the other, whose
extravagance and gluttonous propensities were less enor¬
mous, in the time of Trajan. Perfumes took the place of
tobacco at Eoman dinners. Pompey the Great and Lici-
nius Crassus strove in vain to check the riotous table ex¬
travagances. "Today," said Pliny, "a cook costs as much
as a triumph, a flsh as much as a cook, and no mortal costs
more than the slave who knows best to ruin his master."
Lucullus (born 115 B. C.), an able general of the Marl¬
borough type, was deprived of his command when his sol¬
diers mutinied on account of his avarice and covetousness.
Eetiring to private life with the immense riches he had
brought with him from Asia, he became a great patron of
learning and the arts and the king of epicures. At his
splendid Neapolitan villa he had a huge aquarium for sea
flsh, so they might be obtainable when desired. His carvers
at table were paid each $4,000 a year. He had various
dining rooms, the most sumptuous being that of Apollo,
where the cost of dinners was $2,000 a plate.
This recalls that on a modem occasion in New York
there was a plutocratic magnates' dinner at which the cost
was said to be $1,000 a plate. Too cheap ! General Lucul¬
lus and his gastronomic chums would have turned their
THE MARCH OF MAN
833
backs upon it with contempt. Yet many wealthy Ameri¬
cans do their best to emulate the degenerate ancients in
the way of gluttonous extravagance. Costly and luxurious
feasts are hourly spread in the homes of the rich, while
the tables of restaurants, cafés and hotels groan with
delicacies, luxuries and vintages brought from the four
comers of earth. It is not uncommon for a society leader
to give a banquet at which the floral decorations alone cost
from $10,000 to $50,000. Every day in New York City
men give dinners to their friends and acquaintances cost¬
ing thousands upon thousands of dollars. And when these
Americans visit Europe they delight to make the for¬
eigners stare and especially to attract the interest and
favor of persons of title, no matter how disreputable,
by their ostentatious display of prodigality.
The Eoman women participated, with moral and physical
disaster to themselves, in the revels and riots of the men,
and the sad example duly impressed their unhappy chil¬
dren. As Juvenal says:
"The baffled sons must feel the same desires,
And act the same mad follies as their sires.
Vice has attained its zenith."
Eotten to the core, the Eoman empire perished, and its
degenerate and worthless aristocracy was swept out of ex¬
istence.
What of our wealthy American incubus that is called
"society" ? A not inconsiderable element of it is traveling
the same road to extinction as was trod by the Eoman
aristocracy. The millions of sweat-stained dollars yearly
yielded to them by toiling myriads are paving for the feet
234
THE MAECH OF MAN
of numerous wealthy American absentees the way to de¬
struction and extirpation. T. P. O'Connor, of London,
keen observer and indefatigable newspaper man, also mem¬
ber of the British Parliament, has this to say:
"I have never seen a race that appeared to me so hope¬
less, worthless and foredoomed as the children of American
millionaires. This, of course, is by no means a universal
—I would not go anything like the length of saying it is
a general—rule, but it often occurs. We are beginning to
know this type of American in Europe. He is sometimes
a wanderer over the earth, and though he may be a dilet¬
tante, a hypochondriac, and an idler, he is generally a man
of cultivation, refinement, and an exquisiteness of manner
which puts to shame even the best-bred men of English-
speaking societies. Sometimes the son of a millionaire does
us the honor of settling among us in England, and then
he becomes a more thorough seeker after idle pleasures
than anyone can produce outside of our social wrecks, and
is more distinguished—he, the child of a republic—^by a
contempt for popular right and public duties than the most
courtly conservative of our native growth."
Both amusing and ridiculous are the antics of "high"
society, whether displayed at "nasty Newport," with its
petty jealousies and bickerings, or in Chicago's exclusive
Ontwentsia club, with occasional loss of wife or fortune
or both among its polo players and "fox hunters." Gro¬
tesque and extravagant social functions; vulgar and os¬
tentatious display of wealth; frequent divorce and other
scandals; chasing of foreign titles; squandering in for¬
eign countries of large amounts of money made by hard
and ill paid toilers in this; finally, perhaps, scornful re-
THE MAECH OF MAN
235
nunciation of American citizenship—these are some of the
dirty footprints of the thing called "society."
On this subject it is illuminating to hear from that
observant young novelist, Joseph Medill Paterson, himself
a son of the rich and consequently one who ought to know.
Writing in the Woman's World, he says:
"The great mass of hard-working, honest-living Ameri¬
cans do not seem to grasp the fact that in the social cen¬
ters of this country we have what really amounts to a
royal court—a lot of idle rich people who ape the manners,
the pleasures and the vices of royalty and aristocracy.
"The only function which these butterflies of our Ameri¬
can court life do not delegate to Their inferiors' is that of
having children, and this they exercise sparingly, or not at
all. Perhaps this is just as well, for if the stock cannot
be improved it had better not be perpetuated.
"In the counterfeit courts of America money is the thing
which talks. There are other requisites, to be sure, but
wealth is the cardinal consideration. In the case of the
society woman, if she has personal charm, beauty, talent,
she is, of course, doubly acceptable; but if millions are at
her back and the disgrace of labor is several generations
removed, the eye of the courtier is not too critical on the
minor points of beauty or accomplishments.
"The simple truth of the whole matter is that the money
which is wrung from the people who work—the farmer,
the laboring man, the working woman, the shop girl—is
spent by social aristocracy in maintaining mock courts and
in hanging about the fringes of the courts of the real roy¬
alty of Europe."
The ways and ambitions of this element work untold
236
THE MAECH OF MAN
misery to many, not only to the toilers and producers who
have made the squandered millions here, but to most of
the silly daughters of plutocracy for whom the foreign
titles, mostly bogus ones, have been bought. If the Van-
derbilts had not spent many millions to make one of their
girls an English duchess and another of them an Hun¬
garian countess—^who now learns that, for all her parents'
wealth and social ambition, she cannot be presented at the
exclusive Austrian court—^there would have been no need
to cut the wages of their employes. And so in many other
cases.
American women have, within a few years, captured
twenty-three titled Englishmen, twenty-six titled Germans,
fourteen titled Frenchmen, seventeen titled Italians and six
titled Bussians.
Few of these international titled marriages have proved
successful. Out of 174 American heiresses of more or less
note who have brought foreign husbands $231,000,000 in
dowries there are less than twenty from whom reports of
unhappiness have not come to America. Perhaps $200,-
000,000 has been scattered among foreign husbands who
have mistreated and humiliated the women who trusted
them—^men whom Marie Corelli describes as "lazy noodles
of aristocrats who spend their time first in accumulating
debts, then in looking about for a woman with money to
pay them ; a woman upon whose income they can afterward
live comfortably for the rest of their worthless lives."
They do not afford much of an uplift to European so-
ciely, those wealthy American dames, from the Countess
of Granard (who was Miss Beatrice Mills of New York),
exciting envy by flaunting a dazzling display of jewelry,
THE MARCH OP MAN
287
to Anna Gould, successively countess and princess. Ap¬
parently the children of wealth have not kept pace with
the March of Man.
Prominent among the alienated Americans who cause an
enormous annual financial drain upon this country is one
whose persistent, fawning, tuft hunting advances are said
to have made even King Edward of England declare "that
man Astor makes me tired"—that is, William Waldorf
Astor, or "Walled-off Astor," as the Cockneys contemptu¬
ously dubbed him when he built a jealous high wall around
his London mansion. This seK-elected alien, who threw
off and trampled on his American citizenship with the
view of basking in the smiles of English aristocracy, owns
in New York real estate worth three hundred millions of
dollars. This property yields him an immense yearly
rental, produced in America only to be spent in England.
A rather unsatisfactory arrangement this, from an
American point of view. It is high time to make sensible
laws for alien owners of property in this country. And
there ought to he other laws to deal with title-hunting
heiresses of the kind that have got away with $200,000,000
of American money.
Eich Americans who have identified themselves with
fashionable English life are often subjects of hitter con¬
tempt and resentment by English people of title, of whom
the socialist Lady Warwick remarks; "We are not a rich
aristocracy. We are, many of us, deadly poor, little better
than splendid paupers." In which connection a London
newspaper asks : "Are these splendid paupers, long owners
of rural England, and worthy sustainers of the traditions
of a noble race, giving way to American manufacturers,
238
THE MABCH OF MAN
to South African speculators, to German merchant princes ?
Our old aristocracy absorbed the Rothschilds and Bentincks
of previous generations and made them part of itself. The
new millionaires threaten to absorb it. From Skibo castle,
near Dornoch firth, down to Norres, by Cowes, the cosmo¬
politans of capital are seizing some of the fairest spots of
our land."
This is a slap at William Waldorf Astor, Andrew Car¬
negie, Anthony J. Drexel, Bradley Martin, J ames E. Keene
and many other Americans of wealth. "Half a dozen of
the invaders count their yearly gains at from $1,000,000
to $2,500,000. The men who make $1,000 a day are a host.
Meanwhile, in at least one case, the English aristocrat
with a family history of 800 years behind him has to bury
himself in a $300 a year semi-detached villa in some quiet
town near London. The rent of his old mansion goes to
satisfy mortgages, leaving him perhaps $2,500 a year for
himself. This is no fancy picture."
When Miss Beatrice Mills married the Earl of Granard
and went to England it was assumed that she would at
once become one of the most brilliant and popular hostesses
in British society, for was she not the daughter of Mrs.
Ogden Mills, leader of the most exclusive set in Hew Tork
and a person of unapproachable social dignity?
The Countess was concerned in opening a bazaar at Mus-
well Hill, a suburb of London, in aid of the Hornsey Lib¬
eral and Radical Association, in which her husband, as a
member of the Liberal Government, was interested. She
was adorned, in the full light of afternoon, with a double
row of large pearls, many yards in length, hanging from
her neck to below her waist, and worth at least $150,000.
THE MARCH OF MAN
239
At her neck was a big diamond brooch that glittered in the
sunlight like an old-fashioned cut-glass chandelier. The
spectators gazed with amazement at her colossal hat, tower¬
ing two feet or more above her head and built of blue
straw, with magnificent ostrich feathers encircling it and
waving in the breeze.
"An ostrich farm, a score of oyster beds, a diamond
mine and a conservatory were ransacked to adorn the
American Countess," said an amazed observer.
The Earl of Eonaldshay, oldest son of the Marquis of
Zetland, and member of Parliament for Hornsey, the dis¬
trict in which the Countess opened the bazaar, said in a
public speech:
"The Eadicals got up a great bazaar to replenish their
depleted war funds, and had a 'dumped' American heiress,
who has been fortunate enough to secure a title, to perform
the opening ceremony."
The phrase "dumped heiress" applied to the American
Countess is a reference to the constant complaints made in
England that American and German manufacturers are
in the habit of "dumping" their surplus products, which
they are unable to dispose of at home, in the British mar¬
ket at any price they will fetch, thus ruining their British
rivals.
It did not improve matters much when a London news¬
paper called Eonaldshay a "noble cur," and King Edward
instructed him to apologize.
As for the titled material on the bargain counter it must
be an extremely critical matter for the "dumped heiresses"
to make a satisfactory selection, judging from the alleged
habits of some of the noblesse, their cheating at bridge and
240
THE MARCH OP MAN
baccarat, even from their outdoor pastimes and amuse¬
ments. Let me take—though, I cordially admit, not for
example—his distinguished personality the Marquis of
Anglesey. To see a man jump head first into a pit filled
with soot and ashes from chimney sweepings has been
tickling the Marquis of Anglesey as an unique means of
amusement.
Grouping a number of his guests near a great pit
into which the sweepings of the castle chimneys long have
been dumped, the young Marquis signaled for the appear¬
ance of a dozen yokels whom he had summoned to the
castle stable.
As these young fellows appeared, expectant, the Marquis
took a handful of sovereigns, crowns and half crowns and
threw them broadcast into the soft soot, where they sank
out of sight. At a signal the group of young countrymen
plunged head first into the soot, groping blindly and sput¬
tering, finally to appear, choking, gasping, and covered
with the black ash, but most of them clutching either gold
or silver coins. Twelve Welsh yokels, with eyes, noses,
mouths and ears choked with soot, threw the Marquis'
guests into such laughter that the sport has been adopted
as a castle feature, "which warm weather promises to make
more amusing than ever."
As the yokels of Anglesey's stables dive into the soot pit
for coins, some of our American heiresses dive into a
blacker and dirtier pit for titles. And many of them find,
after the high price has been paid down, that what they
have secured is a bogus title and a worthless man.
This is especially the case in France. If reports from
the legislative haUs of France are true the whole structure
THE MARCH OP MAN
241
of the defunct French nobility is to he razed. With the
agitation of national recognition of the dukes and counts
a number of American heiresses will awake to the fact
that they have bought nothing for something.
At present, titles are recognized but not legalized in
France. The state cannot confer them, but it does con¬
sent to register them. Ever so many men who have titles
refuse to use them, maintaining that they are an anomaly
under a republican form of government.
If the law should pass, then the Duchess d'Arcos, who
was Miss Lowery; the Marchioness de Choiseul, who was
Miss Coudert; the Duchess de la Eochefoucauld, who was
Miss Mitchell; the Marchioness de Eoziere, who was Miss
Tilghmann; the Baroness d'Este, who was Miss Brown;
the Coimtess de Constant-Biron, who was Miss Leishman ;
the Countess de Luhersac, who was Miss Livermore, and
all the others would he reduced to simple mesdames, and
the titular glory of the international marriage, so far as
France is concerned, would be gone forever. Of course,
there are certain names which carry distinction with them,
but an alliance with the noblest house without a title
would appeal to few of the enterprising matchmakers who
go abroad in search of social distinction.
Vicomte de Boyer thus states the amounts of American
money paid out for French titles and the real value of the
considerations the American purchasers respectively re¬
ceived :
Gould estate, for Castellane title, $15,000,000. Bogus.
Collins' estate, for De Giers title, $7,000,000. Bogus.
Singer estate, for Decazes title, $2,000,000. Valueless in
France.
242
THE MAECH OF MAN
Ward estate for De Chimay title, $2,000,000. Bogus.
Heyward estate, for De Eohan-Chabot title, $300,000.
Bogus.
Livingstone estate, for De Villars title. Bogus.
Coudert estate, for De Choiseul title, $250,000. Genu¬
ine.
No estimate is set upon the Frenchman who was thrown
in with the title, hogus or genuine, hut that perhaps would
involve a great deal of very delicate and complex figuring.
Count de Eohan-Chahot, who married Miss Heyward, is
not a count either. His name is Chabot. The name de
Eoban he took from his first wife.
There is no Baron de Giers, although the man whom
Dr. Chauncey M. Depew's ward. Miss Collins, married,
bears that name. Due Decazes, husband of Mary Singer,
of New York, is the son of a police prefect, and bears a
title of no value in France, it having been granted by the
king of Denmark.
Count de Villars, who married Carola Livingstone, has
no right to a title. He is descended from a man who came
to Paris, started in the hotel business, and quietly assumed
the title of count.
Clara Ward married an alleged Prince de Chimay.
There is no original Prince Chimay. A Chimay married
a princess and took the title of prince. Due de la Eoche-
foucauld, who married Mattie Mitchell, has a right title,
but it is now too new to he valuable, for he is a descendant
of a blacksmith.
I have noticed that during the past twelve years the
rich men of the big cities of this republic have been buying
suitable sites in Washington, and building on them palatial
THE MARCH OF MAN
243
residences. They are moved to do so, not for business
considerations, but by social environments. Papa bas been
a pawnbroker, or bas killed bogs, or manufactured soap ; be
bas sold patent medicines, canned vegetables, shod horses,
half-soled shoes or balf-soled trousers; be has driven dray
or driven cabs for a living; be has done almost anything
of a menial nature or served in trade. But after papa has
developed the money-making faculty and become rich, be
wants to shine among men, while bis wife and daughters
want to shine among women. Mamma takes the initiative
and papa comes trailing along. They must go to Wash¬
ington, where people do not know the details of their early
and honorable struggles; and there, with plenty of money,
they can give swell entertainments, and forge to the front
in the social world.
Once there they go angling after titles, and they find
plenty of pretenders who are anxious to work off their
bogus or genuine titles for vulgar American money-bags.
The holders of titles do not care particularly what kind
of a girl they are required to marry, in order to get the
money.
Still looking through the blue glasses I see our ambi¬
tious wealthy Americans trailing with their daughters,
their trunks and their red guide books through the cities
of Europe, in pathetic yet shameful quest of titles and
coronets. I have seen and met them abroad, therefore I
hesitate to write of their sorry goings on; but I will give
my endorsement to the sentiments of Mr. Booth Tarking-
ton, the celebrated author-dramatist of Indiana.
"I am ashamed of my fellow Americans," says Mr. Tar-
kington. "I am disgusted with the idiocy that possesses
244
THE MAECH OF MAN
a certain number of them when they find themselves
abroad. I speak of that class with more money than good
sense—that makes hysterical attempts to misally its daugh¬
ters to the morally strabismic and financially decrepit titu¬
lar excrescences of the old world. Eespectahle, God-fear¬
ing, plain Americans, whose grandfathers fought tooth and
nail for the abolition of monarchical forms and fads, may
be found prostrating themselves before a shallow-pated
holder of an indifferently well polished coronet.
"I do not wish to be placed in the position of making
a wholesale denunciation of European forms and usages,
nor of asserting that all the hearers of titles are unworthy,
nor yet that all international marriages are mesalliances,
for that is far from my thought. But I do say unequivo¬
cally that the majority of American fathers and mothers
of a certain class—those whose familiarity with social af¬
fairs is comparatively of recent origin—are almost certain
to be deceived by the class of adventurers that frequent the
best hotels in the most fashionable resorts, and are to be
found on terms of apparent equality with some of the best
people."
The most unscrupulous swindlers in European countries
are, as ofiBcial statistics prove, penniless noblemen, who
resort to fraud to spare themselves the necessity of working
for a living. Noblemen of this type select all classes of
the community as their victims. Some sponge on fellow
aristocrats of more substantial financial means, winning
money from them at cards, generally by cheating, or by
other methods which would not bear investigation. Others
victimize tradesmen, taking large quantities of goods on
credit by virtue of their proud names and titles and never
THE MARCH OP MAN
245
paying for them. Others choose to defraud hotels by tak¬
ing expensive suites of rooms and eating and drinking
most luxuriously till the day of settlement comes, when
they vanish to repeat the trick in another part of Europe.
Others again, the vilest of their kind, systematically vic¬
timize women and girls, who, dazzled by their high rank,
their titles and their seductive manners, easily fall into
the trap laid for them by the aristocratic adventurers.
Sometimes the noble parasites marry their victims to ob¬
tain possession of their fortunes, after which they mal¬
treat the unhappy wives mercilessly and squander their
riches to the last cent. In other cases they deprive women
and girls, who are credulous enough to believe their state¬
ments, of their money under promises of marriage, and
cast off their dupes as soon as they have spent their entire
fortunes. In this case the defrauded women have not even
acquired a title by marriage by way of compensation for
their lost dollars, while in cases their infatuation has gone
so far that they have sacrificed honor as well as fortune
to their betrayers of noble birth.
It is an astonishing fact that nine-tenths of that most
degraded class of men who live on the earnings of the
shame of fallen women in Berlin are of noble birth, and
a similar proportion of aristocrats has been found to exist
among the same order of men in Vienna and Budapest.
Verily the paths of many of our American girls abroad
lie in dangerous places, abounding in deadly traps and
snares. Much safer would some of them be in the dingy
ancestral shack on the prairie than in the swellest hotel in
Berlin, Paris or Vienna. Providence give them the pro-
246
THE MAECH OP MAN
tection they fail to receive from their silly parvenu par¬
ents !
As for the fashionable perils and vice of London, the
celebrated preacher, Father Bernard Vaughan, himself of
aristocratic caste, says: "People may contend what they
please about Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Eome, but, what¬
ever villainy flourishes out there, you may be quite sure
that there is more of it in this mammoth metropolis, which
is called on the continent 'Europe's nursery of vice.' "
And Sir Oliver Lodge, one of the most earnest living
workers for the betterment of humanity, declares that in
so far as society in England is deteriorating humanity, "it
is performing the functions of the devil."
Springing from the polygamous practices of "socieiy,"
but adopted to an appalling extent by the general people,
is the evil of divorce. To every twelve marriages, one di¬
vorce ! The United States has granted more divorces than
all the European countries combined. It is an ugly blot
on the fair fame of America, a blow at the very founda¬
tions of society. In twenty years we have in the United
States divorced 328,000 couples, thus affecting the desti¬
nies of 656,000 married persons and thousands of chil¬
dren. This is on an average of 16,000 couples yearly. In
ten years Chicago has divorced 16,388 couples. New York
stands next of our cities with 5,231.
Various causes are assigned for the prevalence of the
divorce habit—hasty marriages, incompatibility, drunken¬
ness, affinities, spiritualism. As to the last two causes I
quote from two well known Chicago preachers. Said Eev.
James T. Marshall, of Oak Park, in a Simday morning
sermon :
THE MABCH OP MAN
247
"We have been hearing a great deal lately about afiSni-
ties. The papers are reporting cases of men who suddenly
discover afiBnities in the wives of other men and put their
discoveries into practice. Of all the base bloodhounds of
hell that have slipped their leashes, these are the meanest.
Compared with them the common murderer would make a
good Christian Endeavor president."
Said the well known Dr. Torrey: "The teaching of
modem spiritualism is not supported by the word of God.
You don't get me into any dark-room tomfoolery to hear
from my mother. Ninety-nine per cent of spiritualism is
trickery and fraud. The rest of it is demonism. Demons
assume the forms of our departed loved ones and pretend
to converse with us. This is another 'ism' that breaks up
homes. It has caused more of that devilish thing called
'aíSnit/ than all else."
Hand in hand with the divorce habit stalks the hideous
twin evil of "race suicide." The rich, intent upon reveling
in the luxury afforded by their riches, do not want the
"bother of children"; the poor, or comparatively poor,
shirk the responsibility and break the laws of nature and
religion on account of the dreaded risk and the expense.
A couple of years ago it was stated by a prominent local
physician that 50,000 criminal operations are annually per¬
formed in the city of Chicago. In the so-called fashionable
residence districts the birth rate is abominably low. The
destruction of 50,000 infant lives each year deals a deadly
blow to the legitimate growth of the city's population.
And the condition is largely due to the teachings and prac¬
tices of certain doctors, or rather quacks, who are woefully
ignorant of anatomy and physiology.
248
THE MARCH OF MAN
The proletarians are the common people—specifically,
they who rear children. In the Eoman commonwealth, ac¬
cording to a law of Servius Tullius, persons who had little
property or none, yet served the state in lieu of taxpaying,
were called by this name. Hence it became a designation
of the common people. The radical signification of the
word is "progeny," especially of human beings. Our up¬
start aristocrats and autocrats, given over to selfishness
and self-indulgence, don't want to be bothered with chil¬
dren. As a writer on the subject remarks : "It may not he
a bad thing, however, for some vain and selfish people to
quit the world without offspring."
The stage, which should he a powerful factor in the
improving of society, has of late had part in depraving
and vitiating it. There has been a plethora of vicious and
unwholesome "problem plays," others with salacious dances
of the Salome type. Unscrupulous managers cater for
prurient audiences, exhibiting a sectional moral decadence
in matters theatrical. Some of our theaters have become
by vile suggestion and illustration, colleges of abominable
vice.
Come we to the subject of crime.
Statistics show that there are 600,000 criminals in this
country, and that only 75,000 of them are incarcerated.
Of this 600,000, one-third are under twenty years of age,
one-half under twenly-one years of age, and the chances
are that all of them will continue criminals through the
remainder of their lives. It is plain that the ranks of the
criminals are recruited from young persons, and it is this
fact that makes the question. What shall we do with our
criminals? such an important one.
THE MARCH OF MAN
249
If the jails and lockups in our country—4,000 or 5,000
in number—are in truth, as they have been often aptly
termed, in most cases compulsory schools of crime, main¬
tained at the public expense, we shall have from this quar¬
ter alone an accession to the criminal classes in each decade
of perhaps 50,000 trained experts in crime. Surely, al¬
most any change in dealing with the young, with the be¬
ginners in lawbreaking, would be an improvement on the
prevailing system. Jails and prisons, so constructed and
managed as to keep separate their inmates would afford
an adequate remedy for the evil. Until this can be done
it would be far better to cut down largely the number of
arrests and committals of the young.
There has been an appalling increase in the percentage
of murders proportionately to our population in the last
twenty years. Ten times as many murders are committed
to every million inhabitants as are committed in Great
Britain and Ireland. Since the year 1896 the murders
and homicides in the United States number more
than twice as many victims as we have soldiers in our
standing army; equal to the population of the whole ter¬
ritory of Arizona; three times the Japanese loss killed in
action in the Eusso-Japanese war ; and more than twice the
combined losses of the union and confederate armies in
the slaughter at the battle of Gettysburg. The number of
murders in the United States during the three years of
1902, 1903 and 1904 aggregate 26,292, or a number far
in excess of the loss of the entire British army in the
Boer war. Their loss in the Boer war was 22,000.
During the year 1906 the average murders in the
United States were a fraction over 29 each day for every
250
THE MAKCH OF MAN
day in the year, in the year 1895 they averaged 28 each
day, and the average every year since and at the present
time in the United States is about 25 murders per day.
A strong incentive to the disease called crime is the dis¬
ease called drunkenness, which is still largely prevalent
despite the sweeping wave of prohibition. Every year there
is about 2 per cent of the population, or 40,000 persons,
arrested for drunkenness in Chicago alone.
It is estimated that six million people in this country
are "dope fiends," or users of cocaine. Dr. L. Blake Bald¬
win, city physician, estimates that there are 100,000 of
these in Chicago.
Let us turn towards the American press.
Some newspapers of this country are often filled with
detailed accounts of revolting crime and vice. The
unfortunate thing about it is that even many good people
have been said to have declared that the publication of
such news is not harmful, since it shows people that crime
receives its punishment even in this world; that "the
wages of sin is death." Any one who argues thus, however,
forgets entirely that—
"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face.
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
This is as true now as it was in Pope's time or for many
centuries before. Familiarity breeds contempt for the
awfulness of crime and suggestion leads to its commission.
Peculiar suicides are always imitated by others who
might not have taken the fatal step of self-destruction but
THE MARCH OF MAN
251
for the alluring influence of this story of another who
ended all the pains of life so readily. There is even a
morbid attraction in the notoriety consequent upon such
striking acts that tempts some people to their commission.
The double crime of murder and suicide has become so
frequent of late years mainly because of this awful famil¬
iarity with its details in the reports of the newspapers.
They have become in this an unmitigated instrument for
evil.
Says Horatio L. Seymour, long well known in Chicago
as a newspaper man;
"Elopements, runaways, betrayals, divorces, marital dis¬
agreements and scandals, suicides, domestic tragedies and
adventures gathered from the four corners of the con¬
tinent convey the idea that from one end of the country to
the other there is little of importance in progress except
the miseries, the follies and the crimes of men and women
growing out of the sexual relation. When the supply of
wretched material at home runs short there is always in
hand a bountiful stock of aristocratic foreign scandals
which may be presented anew on the slightest pretext."
Papers that publish such dirty matters should not be
admitted into Christian or decent households.
But, as Secretary MacVeagh, late of Chicago, now mem^
her of President TafPs cabinet, remarks, "Even for these
faults of the newspapers the people must blame themselves,
because newspapers are what people expect them to be,
nothing in the world being more dependent upon public
taste and approval than the press."
Idle, worthless, amusement-hunting rich, aping de¬
generate aristocracy, making ostentatious display and dis-
252
THE MASCH OP MAN
sipation of wealth wrung from the ill-paid toil of myriads
—silly American dames and damsels struggling for social
prestige in the mire of foreign fashion—the demon of
divorce tearing up every twelfth hearth, high or humble,
in the land—the desolation of childless homes—contami¬
nating stage plays and unwholesome social problems made
a fad—over two dozen murders a day—educating in crime
by familiarization—all of it makes an ugly, depressing,
repulsive picture, and fain do we drop our blue glasses to
rest and refresh our eyes with a pleasant and cheerful
view of life.
CHAPTEE XIV.
THEOUGH EOST GLASSES—A CLOSING LOOK.
We have looked at conditions through blue glasses. Let
us now glance at them through red ones. The roseate
prospect will pleasantly surprise and encourage us.
In the first place, there is no need to worry over the
doings of the idle rich. Although continuously exploited
by its press agents that element really forms hue a small
and insignificant section of the community. Who cares
whether one ambitious American woman lunches with a
king in London or another dines with a monkey at New¬
port? The vast majority of people have no social aspira¬
tions for either kings or monkeys. As compared with
the general population, the persons who compose the New¬
port set are so infinitesimal as hardly to he worth the men¬
tion. And it is the same with the toadying American
cliques and coteries who seek publicity or notoriety in
London and elsewhere. As my friend, Mr. George Wheeler
THE MARCH OF MAN
253
Hinman, of the Inter Ocean, remarks in reference to the
silly rich :
"The newspapers print a good deal about them at times,
just as they print the news about anybody else who does
something to make himself conspicuous; but the attention
bestowed by intelligent newspapers is regulated by the news
Outside the result of taking hundreds of millions of
interest of the outbreak and is certainly not to be con¬
strued into a recognition of the Newport colony as the
proper and sole exponents of social life and culture in
this country."
Through the prominence and occasional exaggeration
given its doing, this thing called "sociely" has indirectly
worked misconception and wrong abroad, as regards the
character of the American people. Cardinal Gibbons re¬
marked recently, after his return from Europe : "The for¬
eign critic sees only the superficial life of one social set.
He reads of scandals and divorces in the newspapers. You
know you never print one line about the millions of happy
homes."
American dollars out of the country there can be little
objection to international marriages wherein the two parties
are good and honorable and well matched—although too
many of these marriages are happy only in the sense as de¬
scribed by a Bostonian to Andrew Carnegie: "The bride
was happy, her mother was overjoyed. Lord Lackland was
in ecstacies, and his creditors were in a state of delirious
and absolutely uncontrollable bliss."
It is hard to blame a vivacious and enterprising Amer¬
ican girl if, spurred by the representations of her ambitious
parents and the example of some of her former comrades.
254
THE MARCH OF MAN
she yearns to place a pretty coronet, all gold and plush
and pearls, on her plutocratic head. For years and years
American heiresses have been marrying titled foreigners.
During all of that time, so far as the information goes,
no titled foreign woman has married an American. That
seems a little odd if it is true that money is the basis of
international marriages. It would seem that European
women of title would be as anxious to gain money through
marriage as European men of title are. The difference
may lie in the fact that the title goes with the man and
not with the woman.
Somebody has, more or less facetiously, suggested that
we create titles in America. The idea was meant to be
flippant. But, seriously, it might have the effect of keep¬
ing a lot of money at home and of giving our marriageable
millionaires a better showing with the duchesses and the
princesses. Our girls, it seems, hold steadfastly to the
opinion that titles are necessary to their happiness. Why
should they be obliged to buy them from foreign paupers ?
Why not start a home industry in this line ?
But even for the infatuated American girl who goes
abroad in company with papa and mamma and the money¬
bags in quest of a title with a male incumbrance there is
now a ray of gloom in the darkness, especially on the con¬
tinent of Europe. For there the aristocracy has actually
started on the great and desperate work of reforming it¬
self! Kings and queens, princes and princesses have cor¬
dially joined hands in a movement for cleaning their nests
and driving out or reforming the dirty birds.
''Vice and immorality are rampant in the aristocracy
of Europe. Swindlers and cheats abound among them. In
THE MAECH OF MAN
255
proportion to their numbers they yield a far larger per¬
centage of criminals than are drawn from any other class
of the population. Destitute of any vestige of honor,
many of them live by levying toll on the wages of sin and
infamy."
These statements are made not by socialists, but by a
league formed by the best of the aristocrats themselves for
the regeneration of their decadent order. No such slash¬
ing indictment of the nobility as a whole has ever before
been published.
The new league was founded in the early days of 1908,
at a private meeting held at Frankfort-on-Main under the
presidency of Princess Marie Maximilianovna of Baden,
who in her opening speech declared that the growing im¬
morality of the aristocracies of all European countries made
it imperative for those noblemen and noblewomen who
believed in the motto "noblesse oblige" to bestir themselves
on behalf of their decadent fellow aristocrats. In Germany
royal patronage and support has been extended to the
crusade by the queen of Wiirtemberg, Princess Marie An¬
toinette of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a young and beautiful
woman, and by Prince and Princess Charles of Thurn and
Taxis.
Prince Andreas of Greece, a dashing young ofiBcer of
hussars, has accepted the leadership of the crusade in his
own little country, and Countess Alicia Oldofredi, one of
the famous beauties of Hungarian high society, has ac¬
cepted the general secretaryship of the entire movement.
Letters and messages of approbation have been received
from the German emperor, the emperor of Austria, the
king of Italy, the king of Eoumania, the king of Denmark,
256
THE MARCH OF MAN
the king of Greece, the king of Sweden, the king of Nor¬
way, and no less than forty-eight royal princes and
princesses of various reigning dynasties in Europe.
What the course to be pursued by this royal uplift league
towards the numerous black sheep of aristocracy—whether
subjecting them to a course of moral lectures and pious
exhortations or collecting them securely in some royal re¬
formatory—is not stated, but for the sake of our title-hunt¬
ing American girls I cordially wish the movement success,
and I send my best regards to Princess Marie Maximilian-
ovna—may her tribe, if not her name, increase.
For there is much material for good among the blue-
blooded aristocracy of Europe—even more, probably, than
among the sons of our own millionaires. Many of them
are models of business ability. Many of them lead lives
of usefulness and afford valuable examples of industry.
The Kaiser of Germany has set a fashion which many of
his nobles were quick to follow. He became the first royal
tradesman some time ago by conducting an extensive pot¬
tery works at Cadinen, in East Prussia. Now there are
no less than ten German noblemen who have embarked
in some kind of business and who cater to the general
public. The list of occupations the royal tradesmen are
engaged in shows a great variety, from the delicatessen
establishment owned by Prince Frederick of Weed to the
brewery owned and operated by Prince Maximilian Egon
of Furstenburg. Duke Leopold Friederich II. of Anhalt
is a dealer in coal. Prince Johann Georg of Saxony manu¬
factures soap. Prince Leopold IV. of Lippe is famous
throughout Germany for the new-laid eggs from his hen¬
nery, every egg bearing the royal stamp. Prince Albrecht
THE MAKOH of MAN
257
of Chaumburg-Lippe is a trader in timber; Prince Charles
of Urach is director of a silk factory. The Grand Duke
Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar is a dealer in meat, candles, hoots,
hosiery, glass and furniture. Prince Arnulf of Bavaria,
owner of a champagne, and the Duke Ulrich of Wiir-
temberg, dealer in cakes and oatmeal and maker of Hohen¬
lohe corsets, also are numbered among the royal tradesmen
of Germany. Count Dentice di Prasso of Italy has the
champion olive oil producing district of the world.
The recent discovery that a French nobleman has been
working as a "docker" in London recalls similar instances
to a journal of that city. The Marquis de Beaumanoir is
a laborer at a flour mill near Nantes; the Comte de St.
Pol is a gas bill collector ; the Vicomte de St. Megrin drives
a cab in Paris; the Baron d'Aubinals and the Vicomte de
Monoliers are employed as searchers in French custom
houses; the Marquis de Poligny is an omnibus conductor,
and the servant who waits on M. Doré is a Marquis, who
prefers to pass under the name of Emile, but whose real
name is Gaspard. He can trace his direct descent for
1,200 years.
As to the idlers and non-productives, rich and poor, at
home and abroad, useless tramps and millionaire loafers,
nature exercises her penalty on them. Some are killed in
freight trains, some in automobiles. Excesses of self-
imposed privation and luxury are ever pruning the human
tree of its worthless branches. When the straight white
road of moderation is departed from "the way of the trans¬
gressor is hard."
The wheels of progress keep ever moving, moving, their
revolutions superintended by such able engineers as Edi-
258
THE MAECH OF MAN
son, Marconi, Eoentgen, Metchnikoff, Burbank, Westing-
house, Zeppelin and the Wright brothers.
Invention after invention, discovery after discovery, has
come to give humanity a sterling promise of better times
and to do battle with the reactionary forces of stupid con¬
servatism, ignorance, avarice and greed.
Of course present-time manners, customs and conditions
are in many respects decidedly unsatisfactory. They are
even bad enough to satisfy the most lugubrious pessimist
that delights in seeking faults and flaws in the general
social system, as if, invited to inspect a noble jree, he
ignores the spreading branches and glossy foliage and pre¬
fers to stoop and hunt for insects in the bark.
Conditions may be bad, but they are capable of remedy
and improvement, and never were the forces of remedy
and improvement more actively at work than at present,
when the world is being thrilled and encouraged with mes¬
sages of useful discovery, every one of them a harbinger of
better and happier times.
Take, for instance, that wondrous recent acquisition that
enables messages to be sent unerringly through space, the
boon to the world of the marvelous young Italian. Gug-
lielmo Marconi, the wireless telegraph wizard, is only 35
years old, as he was born in Bologna in 1874. He produced
in 1896 the flrst wireless telegraph capable of sending and
recording electric waves across long distances. In that year
he could send intelligible messages 200 feet. By 1900 he
had perfected the process so as to be able to transmit mes¬
sages 200 miles. In 1902 his ship, the Carlo Alberto, kept
in touch by wireless with a station on the coast of Eng¬
land at distances up to 2,800 miles. In December of
THE MAECH OF MAN
259
that year wireless messages were exchanged between Eng¬
land and Canada. In 1907 a regular transatlantic wire¬
less service was inaugurated.
In January, 1909, the value of Marconi's device was
most strikingly demonstrated. On the stormy Atlantic,
in fog and blackness, two great ships and more than a
thousand human being were in peril, destined, apparently,
to destruction. Above one of the ships there towered a
thin mast. From the mast's tip there streamed forth over
the vast ocean's surface an inaudible, invisible call for help.
Over ^d over again the wireless operator flashed out over
the ocean the three letters, "C Q D," the international
signal for help from a ship in distress. The message that
goes on a telegraph wire goes from one spot to another
spot only. That marvelous message without wires spread
out over that ocean as the sunlight and the fog spread,
going everywhere. From half a dozen different points
came answering signals and help. Wireless stations on
shore heard the signal, got the exact location of the ships
on the ocean's surface, and sent out boats. Five ships at
sea, some more than a hundred miles away, received the
message and hurried to the wreck, sending wireless mes¬
sages ot comfort as they raced. More than a thousand
human beings were brought safely to shore.
The old saying, "There is nothing new under the sun,"
is as true in these days of invention and progress as it
ever was. The aeroplane, the wireless telegraph, the print¬
ing press, the telephone and the myriad machines employed
in manufacturing have all of them been slow developments,
one brain taking up the work where another had left it off,
only commenced, carrying it as far as was possible in the
260
THE MABCH OF MAN
span of one brief lifetime, then leaving it for others and
still others to carry to completion.
The theory of the automobile was known to Solomon de
Coste of Normandy in 1641. He wrote a book on the pro¬
pulsion of carriages by steam power, and was cast into a
Paris madhouse for it.
The theory of telegraphing by wire was practically illus¬
trated in 1775 by Arthur Young long before Professor
Morse was born.
Although to Eobert Pulton, the American inventor, is
given the credit of navigation by steam power, Blasco de
Guerere, a Spanish sea captain, propelled a ship by a steam
engine before the king of Spain in 1543. The age was not
capable of appreciating his feat, and he died in exile.
No doubt the invention of wireless telegraphy was fore¬
shadowed by a book of philosophy which appeared in 1617.
This work mentions communication between two persons at
different points by means of a loadstone and a needle placed
upon a metal dial.
The discovery of the circulation of the blood is accredited
to Harvey in 1619, but from a passage in Longinus we
learn that this was known two thousand years before.
Newton was preceded in his knowledge of the law of
gravitation by Dante and Shakespeare or Bacon.
Laennec discovered the stethoscope in 1816; but one
hundred and fifty years before Eobert Hooke had shown
a knowledge of its principle. The theory of the Stereo¬
scope, which we consider a comparatively new invention,
was known to Euclid.
But what of it ? If the present is not an era of original
inventions it is one of revived and practically applied ones.
THE MAECH OP MAN
261
the application being usually made under circumstances of
much difSculty. For the world has ever accorded but a
chilly and skeptical reception to the inventor. Sir Eichard
Arkwright (horn 1732), inventor of machinery which
made England a cotton manufacturing country, was
knighted not on account of his inventions hut for present¬
ing a laudatory address to George III. Twelve years James
Watt carried round with him proofs of his great invention
in steam engines, only to be met with doubt and refusal.
George Stephenson met with fierce prejudice and oppo¬
sition in making his first railways. Eobert Fulton and
his steamboat excited ridicule. There has been no man
who really sought to do something for his fellow who has
not been derided and ridiculed and opposed till he was
well-nigh driven from his purpose. Alexander Graham
Bell hawked his telephone, perhaps the most wonderful
invention of this wonderful age, about from place to place,
and with difficidty found the money to demonstrate its prac¬
ticability. And in our own day and generation, until the
Wright brothers had demonstrated absolutely their ability
to fiy with a machine heavier than the air, they were re¬
garded as cranks unworthy of admittance into the exclusive
scientific society composed of gentlemen with elaborate edu¬
cations in technical schools.
Yet the forces of science go steadily and sturdily march¬
ing on, and great the benefits and improvements they bring
in their train.
Wireless telegraphy and wireless telephony will be per¬
fected, and communication over distance will be infinitely
more easy and pleasant than at present. The microphone
and the telephotograph will render it possible for persons
26Z
THE MASCH OF MAN
a hundred miles or more apart to see and hear one another
as clearly as if they were seated side by side. The sub¬
scriber, sitting at home, by merely pressing a button or
turning a switch, will be enabled to see and hear the per¬
formers in plays and concerts.
The application of electricity to agriculture will make
the farming of the future more productive, more remun¬
erative and more pleasant. Stations scattered throughout
the country districts will furnish power to all the farms
in the neighborhood, as in many portions of Germany to¬
day. Cutting, churning, grinding, pumping, threshing,
and all other farming activities will depend almost abso¬
lutely upon electricity. Auto plows, auto harrows, auto
harvesters will drive the horse from the fields, as he will
have already been driven from the cities. Electric lights
of great brilliance will make night work as convenient as
work by day. Agriculture wül have become a science hav¬
ing to do not only with electricity, but also with chemistry,
by means of which the soil will be made more fertile. New
and more nutritive food products will be obtained.
Crime will be abated by proper remedies, including, in
certain cases, surgical operation.
The pestiferous and dangerous creatures, who, in guise of
professors, teach immorality in our colleges and univer¬
sities, expounding the doctrines of atheism, free love and
general license, wül be driven forth as the unclean things
they are, and students will have wholesomer minds.
There will be general kindly toleration in matters of re¬
ligion. Indeed, that worthy feeling is now being strongly
established in our midst. The growing sentiment in this
direction is the generous one expressed by gentle Oliver
THE MARCH OP MAN
263
Wendell Holmes to a friend in a letter written in 1860:
"I have not the least personal desire to change any other
person's faith who lives in peace with God and man, except
jnst so far as he is an aggressive spiritual neighbor. One
of my young women goes to Mr. Kirk's, a very good young
woman, I think. Two others are Eoman Catholics; both
of them are models. I have no disposition to meddle with
the belief of either. Heaven has more gates than Thebes
ever had, I believe, and I can not suppose that these people,
or any others, must borrow my key."
Disease will vanish before the advance of modern medical
science, stimulated by liberal grants of public funds for
the detection of the malignant germ that creates the disease
and the benignant germ that kills it and saves the patient.
Ay, this good world of ours is moving at an increasingly
rapid rate into a brighter orbit. It is passing, under the
benign guidance and pressure of science, through a period
of contemplation, expectancy and purification. It has be¬
come so small that it can easily see itself aU over and be
amazed at its antique silliness and infatuation, its awful
and unnecessary suffering and sacrifices, its suicidal inter¬
national and racial jealousies and hatreds. Every wireless
telegram that speeds its wondrous course over sea or land,
every airship or aeroplane that cleaves the air tends to
show this once great, stupid, ignorant world its smallness
and the smallness of some of the men who are allowed to
think for it and govern it. In course of time, enlightened
by the searchlight of science and stimulated by the long-
suppressed and befooled instincts of humanity and com¬
mon sense, it will cast off the rags of savagery and folly.
264
THE MARCH OF MAN
soiled and stained by oceans of human sweat and blood,
and don the clean white ones of real civilization.
War will be made too terrible to engage in even by the
most wealthy and powerful nations. The discovery of ex¬
plosives of tremendous force, the extraordinary develop¬
ments in gunnery have been important factors in this
direction—forces capable of blowing cities, forts, ships and
armies to pieces. And the great power for peace will be
the airship, which has rushed into prominence with be¬
wildering rapidity and now stands, as it were, poised in the
heavens over wondering humanity, a menace or a blessing
to the world according to the way men will regard and
use it. A future war, with hawks of death and destruction
sweeping through the air, would be one of such fearful and
wholesale ruin and destruction as was never witnessed in
the history of the world. Therefore, thinking men of the
earth are looking towards a scheme of arbitration and
even federation among the nations of the earth for the
warding off of appalling and unprecedented calamity.
Therefore, the airship comes as a guardian angel of com¬
pulsory universal peace, bringing us nearer to the condi¬
tions yearned for by Longfellow ;
"Were half the power, that fills the world with terror,
Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error
There were no need of arsenals or forts."
"The warrior's name would be a name abhorred!
And every nation, that should lift again
Its hand against a brother, on it« forehead
Would bear forevermore the curse of Cain!"
The homes and surroundings of the humble toilers and
their families shall be vastly improved, so also shall their
THE MARCH OF MAN
265-
diet. Formidable factors in the cause of cleanliness and
wholesome food are ever even now active where most
needed. Better than a host of profound doctrinaires are
brooms and shovels under direction of an efficient ward
superintendent, like Mrs. Immogene Paul, or a can of
kerosene in the hand of a competent and determined food
inspector—as was, in his memorable and useful period of
office, my esteemed friend "Fish" Murray—^to rid the mar¬
ket of putrid meat and fish and cans of ptomaine poison
and prevent the unscrupulous commercial slaughter of the
innocent.
Health, kindness, toleration, progress, ambition for hon¬
orable success, intelligent study of social conditions—^these
are among the leading principles of the grand, honest,
confident army of mankind that is marching onward and
upward towards the glorious goal destined for it by the
great Creator.
Firmly and steadily that army treads its appointed way.
Heroic leaders, misunderstood and unappreciated, but faith¬
ful and devoted to the last, perish in the ranks; but their
places are taken by others, who pick up and wave the fallen
fiags, and still that great host presses resolutely onward,
ever increased by battalions of new and ardent recruits,
faces to the light, hearts aglow with the sacred fires of
brotherhood and achievement, ears open to the animating
trumpets that are proclaiming advance after advance, vic¬
tory after victory.
It is a missioned host, animated and inspired by modern
miracle after miracle, drawn on its mysterious way by the
harnessed lightning of the heavens, guided by the Omnip¬
otent Being who endowed the human mind with the spark
266
THE MAECH OF MAN
of divine fire that lights and consecrates it on its won¬
drous way.
Valiantly the chosen vanguard of that army has traversed
noisome swamps and jungles and death valleys.
It has braved snarling wild beasts and hissing, poison¬
ous snakes.
It has rescued slaves who hugged and kissed their chains
and showed their foolish reluctant eyes the cheering light
of liberty.
And now it is gaining the mountain crest, its conquering
banners fiaming in the sun, telling of repeated yet incom¬
plete victory over the powers and passions of darkness—
Barbarity, Ignorance, Avarice, Vice and Disease.
Aid it, speed it, thinker and philanthropist!—on its
successful progress depend the fondest hopes of humanity.
It is THE MAECH OE MAN.
[the end.]
TOLD OUT OF COURT
STRANGE, TRUE STORIES
BY LEADING LAWYERS OF CHICAGO.
In cloth, gilt top, 8vo, $1.00; illustrated cover, 60c; free by post.
The collection includes striking, amusing and unique personal
experiences narrated by the following:
judoe Gibbons,
Judge Bíavanagh,
Judge Tuthill,
Judge Baenes,
Judge Brentano,
Judge Keesten,
Judge Houdom,
Judge Olson,
Judge Maxwell,
Judge Scanlan,
Judge Newcomer,
Judge Petit,
Judge Going,
John C. King,
John J. Cobuen,
Edward P. Dunne,
Joseph A. O'Donnell,
William J. Htnes,
Edward Maher,
Thomas A. Leach,
State's Attorney Wayman,
Stephen B. Gregory,
Elbridge Hanecy,
John E. Kehoe,
John P. McGoorty,
Hugh O'Neill,
John E. Caverly,
Joseph B. David.
COMMENTS OF THE PEESS.
From, the Chicago Inter Ocean.
One hundred and odd living Chicago lawyers have here written
their most interesting personal experiences. Each one has signed
his story. The names of the authors include the best known
and most distinguished members of Chicago's bench and bar.
Some of the tales are touched with pathos. Others are grimly
realistic. The majority are humorous. "Told Out of Court" is
a unique volume, interesting alike from the personalities of the
story-tellers and the piquancy and vivid charm of the tales them¬
selves. Few better stories are to be found in books than some of
these yarns of real life told by men who have lived the experi¬
ences they describe. The book will entertain all classes of readers,
but will have a particular appeal for lawyers.
267
368
THE MAKCH OF MAN
From the Chicago Evening Post.
More than a hundred lively stories of humorous or pathetic
nature are included in this volume, the story-tellers being some
of the best-knovpn Chicago lawyers and judges. They have often
a very real interest, presenting the tragedies and comedies of real
life briefly and forcefully. The story of the man under indict¬
ment for burglary who could not pay his lawyer a retainer and
went out and murdered a milkman in the effort to get it—this
and other of the stories would furnish good material to a pro¬
fessional writer of fantastic tales, though in their present form
they are interesting enough. The titles are attractive. "Convicted
by a CoflBn Plate," "The Metamorphosed Mules," "The Way the
Door Opened," "The Dust in the Jar" and "The Indian
Oculist" are especially good.
From the Chicago Becord-Eerald.
"Told Out of Court," comprising some interesting personal
experiences of the Chicago bench and bar, contains a number
of crisp and spicy anecdotes related by well known Chicago
judges and lawyers. A long list of famous names and good
stories.
From the Chicago Journal.
A volume of varied and interesting stories, most of them
humorous, some pathetic, all interesting. The stories are too many
to enumerate all their authors, who are well known judges and
attorneys. The quotation, "iSill of wise saws and modern in¬
stances," is apt.
From the Chicago Examiner.
It would appear that practically the entire Cook County bar is
represented in the book. Lawyers are good story-tellers, take
them as a rule, and Mr. Smyth has succeeded at least in producing
a good collection of anecdotal literature.
From the Chicago Baity News.
AU possess a certain homely and authentic interest. Collect¬
ively speaking, they bear out the prevalent notion that lawyers
have multifarious experiences and that they write a better than
average English.
THE MARCH OF MAN
269
From the Chicago Eagle.
One of the breeziest and most readable books ever gotten out.
It is published by P. G. Smyth, the popular and well known Chi¬
cago newspaper man, and relates some personal experiences of
members of the Chicago bench and bar. It is chock full of real
wit and humor, and everyone that starts to read it will not leave
go of it until he has finished it. Mr. Smyth has placed his book
on aU the leading book stands, where it can be had for one doUar
a copy.
From Dunlop's Satitrday Evetiitig Despatch.
One of the most entertaining books that has appeared in a long
time is "Told Out of Court," a handsomely printed volume of
250 pages, edited and compiled by P. G. Smyth, a well-known
Chicago newspaper man. The volume is made up of a large num¬
ber of short stories told by leading members of the Chicago bench
and bar. Many of these stories are fraught with tragedy and
pathos, while others are brimming over with humor, but all of
them are deeply interesting and will be read by all Chicagoans and
others who l^e good stories well told. There is not a dull page
in the book and Mr. Smyth is entitled to great credit for giving
the public a volume which is sure to be widely read and appreci¬
ated. Every citizen of Chicago should have a copy of "Told Out
of Court" in his library.
From Standard Opinion.
Henceforth no one dare say that Chicago lawyers are not
adepts in the valuable and entertaining art of story-telling. In
this respect the book, ' ' Told Out of Court, ' ' is, in its way, a
most welcome and interesting revelation. Able and erudite jurists
on the bench and brilliant pleaders at the bar contribute gener¬
ously to its pages. They are all well represented, from the popular
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to the alert and energetic
State's Attorney. The stories are brimful of human interest,
humor and pathos. Among those who tell them we notice Judges
Gibbons, Eavanagh, Tuthill, Kersten, Barnes, Holdom and Scan-
Ian. The Municipal Court is represented by a corps of able
raconteurs, headed by Chief Justice Olson. Among the personal
reminiscences we are pleased to find those of such distinguished
lawyers as John J. Coburn, Joseph A. O'Donnell, W. J. Hynes,
John C. King, Elbridge Hanecy, Stephen S. Gregory and others
whose legal fame redounds to the honor of Chicago. It is a book
for laymen as well as for lawyers. To be up to date one
270
THE MAECH OF MAN
should read it. It deserves a place in the library of every lawyer
worthy of the name, not only in Chicago but America. The pub¬
lisher, our friend, P. G, Smyth, is to be congratulated on the
scope and success of his collection.
From the New World, Chicago.
"Told Out of Court" is the title of a new book compiled by
P. G. Smyth, of this city, published last week. It is a fascinating
series of anecdotes told by lawyers of the Chicago bar, each
tale representing a personal experience of the narrator. As a col¬
lection of stories from life it is unique. Being lawyers' stories,
they, of course, deal with court experiences, but this statement
does not mean that they are dry. On the contrary, they make
splendid reading. Frankly, we believe Mr. P. G. Smj^h has
produced sometMng unique at last.
From the Catholio Standard and Times, Philadelphia.
This is a book for the summer season or the winter fireside;
one to make one laugh when the heat drives away all mirth, and to
add to the laughter when the mirth is general around the happy
hearth. It is a large collection of stories of real life, told by
living men—^members of the bench and members of the bar in the
"Windy City"—and the collection is breezy, but not windy.
Some of the anecdotes are delightfully droU. Mr. Smyth's style
of narrating them is chic. He has a delicate satiric touch which
gives to each storyette the requisite Attic fiavor. The book ought
to be swiftly popular.
From the Bosary Magasine, Somerset, 0.
The publisher of this collection of stories of real life is well
known to readers of the Kosary, to which he has long been a
valued contributor, and they will be ready to believe that a book
edited by him could not fail to be interesting. !^mance, sup¬
ported by truth, always appeals very strongly to readers with
imagination. This book then, for this reason, is sure of a wide
circulation. The stories are all well told, and full of interest.
Their complexion is varied, also, humor and pathos blending most
harmoniously.
THE MAKCH OF MAN
271
From the Catholic Columbian, Columbus, 0.
One of the most entertaining works ever produced. These
stories of the bench and bar are all distinguished by that attribute
which makes the soul of wit. Yet each contains in crisp words
and clear diction that which either points a moral or adorns
a tale. There is a flavor about them of the old famous O'Connell
court stories, told of the days when the great Irish liberator
electrified the world with his forensic genius and his masterful
ability in the legal arena, and put the whole English and Irish
bar upon their mettle to meet him.
P. G. SMYTH, Publisher,
59 Merchants Building, La Salle and Washington Streets, Chicago.
901 H244
llllllllii
3 5556 008 785 834