Wicked Borroweth, and Returneth Not Again," 
 
 J. P. WRIGHT 
 
lEx IGthrta 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 When you leave, please leave this book 
 
 Because it has been said 
 "Ever'thing comes t' him who waits 
 
 Except a loaned book." 
 
 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/contemplationsbeOOhubb 
 
Copyright by H. Shervee 
 
 ELBERT HUBBA 
 
mm 
 
 Contemplations 
 
 Being Several Short Essays, Helpful 
 Sermonettes, Epigrams and Orphic 
 Sayings Selected from the lilritings of 
 Elbert Hubbard by Heloise Hawthorne 
 
 (Ubcnein loill be found thoughts that may have been 
 Expressed Before, but probably Dot Quite so (ilell: 
 with Truthful Incidents Gathered and Garnered from 
 the Experience of One iobo has Realized the Value of 
 the Passing moments and has Endeavored to get 
 as much Good from Cbem, for Himself and Others, 
 as Possible— ujbo has Hoped much, Lowed much 
 and Failed much, yet UJhose Grateful faith in the 
 Eternal Beneficence of Things is Still Unimpaired 
 
Copyright, 1902, by Elbert Hubbard. 
 
WISH to be simple, honest, frank, 
 natural, clean in mind and body, 
 unaffected — ready to say "I do 
 not know" if so it be, to meet all 
 men on an absolute equality — to 
 face any obstacle and meet every difficulty 
 unabashed and unafraid — to cultivate the 
 hospitable mind and the receptive heart. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 1 
 
 flngPjjlFE AS A KINDERGARTEN. If 
 ||§i there only were a Science of Educa- 
 iliiil tion we would run the boys through 
 the mill and the trick would be done. If edu- 
 cation were a Science we could take so much 
 boy and so much curriculum and produce, 
 without fail, so much truth and competence. 
 <LAlas! for our theories, most of the men 
 who built up and 
 
 manage our great 
 railroads, were un- 
 taught,countrylads. 
 <L Very many of the 
 strong men in all of 
 our great cities — the 
 men at the heads of 
 factories and banks 
 — were boys who 
 never had the ad- 
 vantages of college 
 training. Not alone 
 is this true of the 
 so-called "practical 
 men," but many of 
 the foremost names 
 in literature, science 
 and art are those of 
 men who never had 
 any "advantages." 
 It is surely equal- 
 ly true that a great 
 number of college 
 graduates have gone 
 to the front, but on 
 the other hand, a 
 college degree is no 
 adequate verifica- 
 tion of competence. 
 
 he might see how little the thing is really 
 worth. And I would have every man rich that 
 he might know the worthlessness of riches. 
 CTo take a young man from work, say, at 
 eighteen years of age, and keep him from 
 useful labor, in the name of education for 
 four years, will some day be regarded as a 
 most absurd proposition. It is the most 
 gigantic illusion of 
 
 T is a great blessing to be 
 born into a family where 
 
 strict economy of time 
 and money is necessary. 
 The idea that nothing 
 shall be wasted and that each child 
 must carve out for himself a career 
 is a thrice-blessed heritage. Rich 
 parents are an awful handicap to 
 youth: few indeed there be who 
 have the strength to stand prosperity. 
 <LAt last we must admit that the man 
 who towers above his fellows is the 
 one who has the power to make 
 others work for him; a great suc- 
 cess is not possible in any other way. 
 CThe sculptor produces the beauti- 
 ful statue by chipping away such parts 
 of the marble block as are not need- 
 ed — it is a process of elimination. 
 
 the age. Set in mo- 
 tion by priests and 
 preachers, the idea 
 was that the young 
 person should be 
 drilled and versed 
 in "sacred" themes. 
 Hence the dead lan- 
 guages and the fixed 
 thought that educa- 
 tion should be eso- 
 teric. The only per- 
 sons at first receiv- 
 ing education were 
 the ones intended 
 for the church. This 
 separation from the 
 practical world for 
 a number of years, 
 where work of no 
 account was done& 
 the whole attention 
 fixed on the abstract 
 themes & theories, 
 often tended to crip- 
 ple the man so that 
 he could never go 
 back to the world 
 
 And just so long as some men who are not 
 college bred take first places on the roster of 
 fame, and some men who are college bred 
 sink out of sight, most thinking men will 
 admit that there is no such thing as a Science 
 of Education. 
 
 And of the college men who succeed, who 
 shall say whether they succeeded by and 
 through the help the college gave, or in 
 spite of it? 
 
 Yet many men who win often wail, "If I only 
 had had the advantages of college training!" 
 If so, it might have ironed all the individu- 
 ality out of them. And yet I would have every 
 man have a college education, in order that 
 
 of work and useful- 
 ness. He was no longer a producer and had 
 to be supported by tithes and taxes. 
 And of course, as he did not intend to go back 
 to the world of work and usefulness, it really 
 did n't make any difference if he did sink 
 into a pupa-like condition of nullity. 
 If you wish to get a glimpse of pitiable help- 
 lessness in a man, search out an unfrocked 
 priest. Do you wonder that preachers uphold 
 the creed? It is a death clutch. 
 The priestly method of education, of trust 
 and reverence, and of repression — pouring 
 ideas in from the outside, still obtains in most 
 of the large colleges. The pupil is not taught 
 to think for himself or express himself. The 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 2 
 
 system of recitations, where the lecture plan 
 is in vogue, is such that nearly every youth 
 who stands on his feet to recite is nearly 
 paralyzed with fright— his teeth chatter and 
 his knees knock together. All that fine spon- 
 taneity which one sees in a well regulated 
 kindergarten is noticeable by its absence. 
 C, In the smaller colleges, especially in the 
 west, many instan- 
 
 ces are found of stu- 
 dents working their 
 way through school. 
 My experience has 
 led me to believe 
 that such students 
 stand a very much 
 better chance in the 
 world's race than 
 those who are made 
 exempt from prac- 
 tical affairs by hav- 
 ing everything pro- 
 vided. The respon- 
 sibility of caring for 
 himself is a neces- 
 sary factor in man's 
 evolution, that must 
 not be too long de- 
 layed. 
 
 And the point of 
 this preachment lies 
 here: that to make a 
 young man exempt 
 from the practical 
 world, from sixteen 
 to twenty-one, is to 
 run the risk of ruin- 
 ing him for life. Pos- 
 sibly you have taken opportunity from him, 
 and turned him into a mnemonic machine. 
 CL There are people who are always talking 
 about preparing for life, and preparing for 
 eternity, and preparing to meet God. We are 
 living in eternity now as much as ever we 
 shall, and the only way to meet God is to 
 have His spirit in our hearts. God is not 
 away off there: He is here, and every day is 
 Judgment Day. 
 
 A school should not be a preparation for life 
 —A School Should Be Life. 
 There will never be a science of pedagogy so 
 long as you take the pupil from his work in 
 order to educate him. Isolation from the 
 
 world, in order to prepare for the world's 
 work, is folly. You might as well take a boy 
 out of the blacksmith shop in order to teach 
 him blacksmithing. College is a make-believe 
 and every college student knows it. From the 
 age of fourteen and upward, the pupil should 
 feel that he is doing something useful, not 
 merely killing time. And so his work and his 
 instruction ought to 
 
 OMEN often make shrill 
 
 outcry at sight of a mouse; 
 men curse roundly when 
 large, buzzing, blue-bot- 
 tle flies disturb their 
 after-dinner nap; but let occasion 
 come and the stuff of which heroes 
 are made is in us all. I think well of 
 my kind^i > ^i^^^^>^^^^.^^. 
 C Strong people are not so much ad- 
 vertised by their loving friends as by 
 their rabid enemies. 
 CThe heroic man does not pose ; he 
 leaves that for the man who wishes 
 to be thought heroic. 
 CA bird in the bush is worth two 
 on a woman's bonnet. 
 C Society does not punish those who 
 sin ; but those who sin and conceal 
 not cleverly 
 
 go right along hand 
 in hand. And this 
 sort of education is 
 given out, in degree, 
 in Purdue Univer- 
 sity, in the Schools 
 of Technology, the 
 various Agricultur- 
 al Colleges, the Fer- 
 ris Institute, by that 
 strong and useful 
 man, Beardshear of 
 Iowa, and that other 
 equally great man, 
 Booker T.Washing- 
 ton, and by various 
 other excellent men 
 & women scattered 
 here and there. 
 Yet we will not ap- 
 proximate the per- 
 fect college until we 
 have an institution 
 where any boy can 
 go and earn his own 
 livelihood, & where 
 he will not be hu- 
 miliated by the op- 
 eration. Then stu- 
 dents will be paid for their work, and in 
 turn they will pay for certain advantages, 
 and thus the idea of mutuality, reciprocity 
 and economy of time and money will be fos- 
 tered and encouraged. 
 But a little while ago and men were educated 
 only that they might belong to one of the three 
 so-called "learned professions." But we dis- 
 covered yesterday that the "learned profes- 
 sions" are a good deal of a humbug— a truth 
 that the best members of the professions are 
 now quite willing to admit. 
 The best lesson in life is the lesson of Self- 
 Reliance, and the college that inculcates this 
 best will approach the Ideal. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 3 
 
 pgffEARNING BY DOING. There is no 
 | mm more preposterous admonition than 
 I sal that which has been dinged into the 
 ears of innocence for centuries, "Children 
 should be seen and not heard." 
 The healthy, active child is full of impres- 
 sions, and that he should express himself is 
 just as natural as for a bird to sing. It is 
 nature's way of giv 
 
 my interest in his garden was something 
 deeper than mere curiosity, he offered to go 
 out with me and show me what had been 
 done. So we walked out, and out, too, behind 
 us trooped the school of just fifteen scholars. 
 C "In winter we have sixty or more pupils, 
 but you see the school is small now. I thought 
 I would try the plan of teaching out of doors 
 half the time, and to 
 
 HILE I do not know any- 
 thing about it for certain, 
 it is my opinion that at 
 the Last Great Day the 
 folks who stayed around 
 home and pruned their vines and 
 tended their flocks and loved their 
 and babies will fare a deal 
 than those other men who 
 
 ing growth — no one 
 knows a thing for 
 sure until he tells it 
 to some one else. 
 We deepen impres- 
 sions by recounting 
 them, and to habit- 
 ually suppress and 
 repress the child 
 when he wants to 
 tell of the curious 
 things he has seen, 
 is to display a 2x4 
 acumen. 
 
 Last summer on a 
 horse-back ride of a 
 hundred milesorso, 
 I came to an out-of- 
 the-way "Deestrick 
 School," just such a 
 one as you see ev- 
 ery three miles all 
 over New York 
 State. This particu- 
 lar school house 
 would not have at- 
 tracted my attention 
 specially had I not 
 noticed that nearly 
 half the school lot was taken up with a gar- 
 den and flower beds. No house was near and 
 it was apparent that this garden was the work 
 of the teacher and scholars. 
 Straightway I dismounted, tied my horse and 
 walked into the schoolhouse. 
 The teacher was a man of middle age — a 
 hunchback, and one of the rarest, gentlest 
 spirits I ever met. Have you ever noticed 
 what an alert, receptive and beautiful soul is 
 often housed in a misshapen body ? This man 
 was modest and shy as a woman, and when 
 I spoke of the flower beds, he half apologized 
 for them, and tried to change the subject. 
 When, after a few moments, he realized that 
 
 wives 
 
 better tnan tnose otner men 
 made war on innocent people and 
 tried to render them homeless. Of 
 course I may be wrong about this, 
 but I cannot help having an opinion. 
 CDon't be selfish. If you have some- 
 thing that you do not want, and know 
 some one who has no use for it, give 
 it to that person. In this way you 
 can be generous without expenditure 
 or self-denial and also help another 
 to be the same,^^^^^^,^^^,^. 
 
 keep the girls and 
 boys busy I just let 
 each scholar have a 
 flower bed. Some 
 wanted to raise veg- 
 etables, & of course 
 I let them plant any 
 seed they wished. 
 The older children, 
 girls or boys, help 
 the younger ones— 
 itislotsoffun.When 
 the weather is fine 
 we are out here a 
 good deal of the 
 time, just working 
 and talking." 
 And that is the way 
 this man taught— 
 letting the children 
 do things and talk. 
 He explained to me 
 that he was not an 
 "educated" man, 
 and as I contradict- 
 ed him my eyes 
 filled with tears. Not 
 educated? I wonder 
 
 how many of us 
 who call ourselves educated have a disci- 
 plined mind, and can call by name the forest 
 birds in our vicinity? Do we know the bird- 
 notes when we hear them? Can we with 
 pencil outline the leaves of oak, elm, maple, 
 chestnut, hazel, walnut, birch or beech trees, 
 so others familiar with these trees can recog- 
 nize them? 
 
 Do we know by name or on sight the insects 
 that fill the summer nights with melody? Do 
 we know whether the katydid, cricket and 
 locust "sing" with mouth, wings or feet? 
 Do we know what they feed upon, how long 
 they live, and what becomes of the tree-toad 
 in winter? Do we know for sure how much 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 4 
 
 a bushel of wheat weighs? I wonder what 
 it is to be educated. Here was a man seem- 
 ingly sore smitten by the hand of Fate, and 
 yet whose heart was filled with sympathy 
 and love. He had no quarrel either with the 
 world or Destiny. He was childless that he 
 might love all children, and that his heart 
 might go out to every living thing. The trus- 
 tees of the school 
 
 in the presence of such a man, should we 
 not uncover? 
 
 fS IFE IN ABUNDANCE. The supreme 
 J. Sgs prayer of my heart is, not to be learned, 
 y§=2J rich, famous, powerful, or "good," 
 but to be Radiant. 
 
 I desire to radiate health, cheerfulness, sin- 
 cerity, calm courage 
 
 MERICANITIS is on 
 the increase, the Wise 
 Ones say. Americanitis 
 comes from an intense 
 desire to "git thar" and an 
 awful fear that you cannot. The ounce 
 of prevention is to cut down your 
 calling list, play tag with the chil- 
 dren and let the world slide. Re- 
 
 did not take much 
 interest in the cur- 
 riculum, I found, so 
 they let the teacher 
 have his way; and I 
 have since been told 
 that the best schools 
 are those where the 
 Trustees or Direc- 
 tors take no interest 
 in the institution. 
 A rare collection of 
 birds' eggs, fungi 
 & forest leaves had 
 been made, and I 
 was shown outline 
 drawings of all the 
 leaves in the garden. 
 This idea of draw- 
 ing a picture of the 
 object led to a much 
 closer observation, 
 the teacher thought. 
 And when I found 
 on questioningsome 
 of the children, that 
 the whole school 
 took a semi-weekly 
 ramble through the 
 woods, and made close studies of the wild 
 birds, as well as insects, it came to me that 
 this man, afar from any " intellectual center," 
 was working out a pedagogic system that 
 science could never improve upon. Whether 
 the little man realized this or not I cannot 
 say, but I do not think he guessed the great- 
 ness of his work and methods. It was all so 
 simple— he did the thing he liked to do, and 
 led the children out and they followed be- 
 cause they loved the man, and soon loved 
 the things that he loved. 
 Science seeks to simplify. This country 
 school-teacher, doing his own little work in 
 his own little way, was a true scientist. And 
 
 member that your real wants are not 
 many — a few hours work a day will 
 supply your needs — then you are 
 safe from Americanitis and death at 
 the top^^^^^^.^^.^i^^^^^^i. 
 CLMany a man's reputation would 
 not know his character if they met 
 on the street. 
 
 CThe mouth indicates the flesh ; the 
 eye the soul. 
 
 C.Talk less and listen morc-sm^^ 
 
 and good will. 
 I wish to live with- 
 out hate, whim, jeal- 
 ousy, envy or fear. 
 £1 I wish to be sim- 
 ple, honest, natural, 
 frank, clean in mind 
 and clean in body, 
 unaffected — ready 
 to say "I do not 
 know" if so it be, to 
 meet all men on an 
 absolute equality — 
 to face any obstacle 
 and meet every dif- 
 ficulty unafraid and 
 unabashed. 
 I wish others to live 
 their lives, too, — up 
 to their highest, full- 
 est and best. To that 
 end I pray that I may 
 never meddle, dic- 
 tate, interfere, give 
 advice that is not 
 wanted, nor assist 
 when my services 
 are not needed. If I 
 can help people I '11 
 do it by giving them a chance to help them- 
 selves; and if I can uplift or inspire, let it be 
 by example, inference and suggestion rather 
 than by injunction and dictation. 
 That is to say, / desire to be Radiant— to 
 Radiate Life! 
 
 fcfM PASTELLE. A folder that contains a 
 WaM device representing a locomotive en- 
 HM gineer at his post has been issued by 
 the Chicago & Alton Railroad. The picture 
 is one of the happiest inspirations of its kind 
 I ever saw. The first time I looked upon it, it 
 gave me a sort of thrill. There sits the man, 
 gloved, cap drawn tightly, one hand on the 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 PageS 
 
 lever of the throttle valve, the other free. The 
 pose is easy, natural — no intensity, no strain, 
 no fear; on the face is a suggestion of ele- 
 mental calm, and a courage that might be 
 the envy of gods and men. Behind this 
 quiet man, so calm, so poised, is a treasure 
 of half a million dollars and two hundred 
 precious lives — he holds them all in that 
 easy and unquaking 
 
 grasp. Before him V»?3l T is 
 
 are two straight lines 
 of steel, & the huge, 
 black, all-enfolding 
 Night. And into the 
 gloom, in all perfect 
 faith, this quiet man 
 forces his sensitive 
 monster, with that 
 precious cargo and 
 the priceless lives. 
 The man is fearless. 
 On the boyish face 
 care sits lightly, and 
 yet in it all the artist 
 has thrown a look 
 of experience and a 
 wisdom that betok- 
 ens Power. 
 I wonder if the man 
 who drew that pic- 
 ture ever read a lit- 
 tle book by Edward 
 Carpenter entitled, 
 Towards Democra- 
 cy. Let me quote you 
 this: 
 
 "Was this then the 
 whole sum of life? 
 "A grinning, gibbering organization of nega- 
 tions — a polite trap, and a circle of endlessly 
 complaisant faces bowing you back from 
 reality I 
 
 "Well, as it happened just then — and as we 
 stopped at a small way station — my eyes 
 from my swoon-sleep opening, encountered 
 the grimy and oil-besmeared figure of a 
 stoker. 
 
 "Close at my elbow on the foot-plate of his 
 
 engine he was standing. 
 
 "And the firelight fell on him brightly as for 
 
 a moment his eyes rested on mine. 
 
 "That was all, but it was enough. 
 
 "The youthful face, yet so experienced and 
 
 calm, was enough ; the quiet look, the straight 
 untroubled, unseeking eyes, resting upon me 
 — giving me without any ado the thing I 
 needed, and in a moment I felt the sting and 
 torrent of Reality. 
 
 "The swift nights out in the rain I felt, and 
 the great black sky overhead, and the flash- 
 ing of red and green lights in the forward 
 distance. The anxi- 
 
 T is doubtless true that 
 stupid men by remaining 
 quiet may often pass for 
 men of wisdom: this is 
 because no man can real- 
 ly talk as wise as he can look. 
 C. Mother nature is kind, and if she 
 deprives us of one thing she gives 
 us another — happiness seems to be 
 meted out to each and all in equal 
 portions j^j^js^ 
 (IWe desire at least a modicum of 
 intellectual honesty, and the man 
 who shuffles his opinions in order 
 to match ours is seen through quick- 
 ly. We want none of him. 
 tLWriters seldom write the things 
 they think. They simply write the 
 things they think other folks think 
 they think ,#^,#8*#©&,#©^#^.«smg8!> 
 
 ous straining for a 
 glimpse sideways 
 into the darkness — 
 the dash of cold and 
 wet above, the heat 
 below — 
 
 "All this I felt, as if 
 it had been myself. 
 
 "O eyes, O face, 
 how in that moment 
 without any ado you 
 gave me all!" 
 These splendid fel- 
 lows who do their 
 work and hold their 
 peace — they do give 
 us faith in God and 
 faith in ourselves. 
 <L They mind their 
 own business! Is 
 there anything finer 
 than to mind one's 
 own business? O 
 cursed spite, that 
 men are born to set 
 the others right. 
 Let us all mind our 
 own business. How 
 curious it is that men should quit their work 
 and make a business of looking after the 
 business of others! No man is ridiculous 
 excepting when he neglects his own affairs 
 to look after the business of other men— no 
 man but is splendid when he is minding his 
 own business. 
 
 Ah! That is why I lift my hat to the engineer 
 — he is doing his work. He is minding his 
 own business. 
 
 KSSgEERS, THE SILENT MAN. In cer- 
 
 P1H tain 9 uarters 1 nave seen a tendency 
 Hfrs^l to smile, sneer, and also sneeze at men- 
 tion of the town of East Aurora. To forever 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 6 
 
 put the kibosh on any such unseemliness, I 
 wish to tell of a citizen of East Aurora who 
 has received a world-wide recognition and 
 whose name will go down in history, because 
 he has done things better in his own partic- 
 ular line than they were ever before done 
 by mortal man. 
 
 The man I refer to is Mr. Edward F. Geers, 
 spoken of wherever 
 horsesneigh as"Ed. 
 Geers, the Silent 
 Man." 
 
 Mr. Geers came to 
 East Aurora about 
 ten years ago to en- 
 ter the employ of 
 Mr. C. J. Hamlin, 
 known to the frater- 
 nity as "Pa." 
 Pa is now well past 
 eighty years of age, 
 but he has an eye 
 for Calico, dearly 
 loves a horse, and 
 he loves Ed. Geers, 
 who dearly loves a 
 horse and eschews 
 Calico on principle. 
 "The horse isGod's 
 best gift to man," 
 says Pa Hamlin. 
 Pa Hamlin is not 
 especially literary, 
 for it was only about 
 six months ago that 
 he asked Mr. Brad- 
 burn, his farm sup- 
 erintendent, "What 
 is this here Philippine Magazine Hubbard is 
 printing? — that fellow always hitched a little 
 in his head, anyway, goodness me!" 
 Ed. Geers is a type of man that is fast be- 
 coming extinct. He reminds you of one of 
 those Marblehead sea-captains, who used to 
 go down to the sea in ships, and often left 
 their bones to the barracout. Men, they were, 
 of unflinching courage, loyalty that knew no 
 compromise, religious withal and dauntless 
 believers in the God of Battles. 
 Geers can never be bought, intimidated or 
 turned aside, when he thinks he is doing his 
 duty. He is as mild and low voiced as was 
 Kit Carson, and could shoot as quickly, if 
 
 needs be. I do not think Geers has ever 
 killed a man, but if not, the reason has been 
 that the opposition regarded discretion as the 
 better part of valor. If Geers should come to 
 you, and in his quiet way say, "Git!" you 
 would not stand on the order of your going, 
 but go at once. 
 
 On the face of this man is a look of reserve 
 power, an element- 
 
 Y Sheep know my voice." 
 Clothes 
 
 may deceive, 
 manner may lie and words 
 may be used to conceal 
 your purpose. The voice 
 is the true index of the soul. People 
 who are vulgar may dress correctly, 
 and speak grammatically, but they 
 continue to either screech or purr. 
 The clear, low, musical modulation 
 belongs only to the men and women 
 who Think and Feel. To possess a 
 beautiful voice you must be Genuine. 
 CPeople are always asking me to 
 follow their advice, but they are nev- 
 er willing to tell which way it went. 
 C.The recipe for perpetual ignorance 
 is: be satisfied with your opinions 
 and content with your knowledge. 
 C.Be gentle, and keep your voice low. 
 
 al calm that carries 
 conviction. The re- 
 pose of the man is 
 ominous & his poise 
 is fearsome. No one 
 takes any liberties 
 with him. His look, 
 his features, his si- 
 lence, his attitude, 
 his moderate move- 
 ments, his economy 
 of language are all 
 pure Cromwellian 
 in their suggestive- 
 ness. Yet he is a kind 
 neighbor, a good cit- 
 izen and thoroughly 
 respected by those 
 who know him best. 
 If Ed. Geers is your 
 friend, he is your 
 friend in all weath- 
 er, fair or foul. His 
 silence is the silence 
 of General Grant, 
 and in many ways 
 he is just as great a 
 man; for please do 
 not forget that Grant 
 was a grocer at Galena when he was thirty- 
 five years old, and not much of a grocer at 
 that. It was Opportunity that shook the reins 
 over him and pushed his nose under the 
 wire. Grant had gotten the flag in every race 
 he had entered up to 1861. 
 All of Geers's battles have been won by gen- 
 eralship, and I believe Pa Hamlin is right 
 when he says that Geers is the greatest horse 
 general the world has ever seen. 
 Geers is just fifty, with a complexion like dark 
 brick-dust, the result of wind and weather. I 
 make this explanation because the man never 
 touches intoxicants in any form and uses no 
 tobacco. He is a trifle lame and a little 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 7 
 
 hunched, like Budd Doble, Jack Splan and 
 Ed. Marvin ; for who would n't be after be- 
 ing in a score of mix up runaways, upsets — 
 racers falling dead, and six drivers, six 
 horses and six sulkies piled as high as a hay- 
 stack, like a game of football played by cen- 
 taurs I Four times he has been carried from 
 the track on a barn door for dead, but with 
 nothing worse than 
 a few broken bones 
 sticking out through 
 his clothes. 
 And still Geers lives 
 & works, and works 
 in joy, for his per- 
 fect health is proof 
 of that. His career 
 has just begun, he 
 says, and yet let me 
 tell you a little of 
 what stands to this 
 man's credit on the 
 stud-book of fame. 
 To begin at the last, he drove The Abbot to 
 his record of 2.03 1-4, which is the present 
 world's record for trotters. Geers drove 
 Robert J. sixty-seven heats in from 2.10 to 
 2.02 1-2, which last, I believe, is the fastest 
 pacing time ever made in a race. He drove 
 Fantasy in the Grand Circuit, giving her a 
 record of 2.06, and winning ten straight races, 
 where, in every instance, the field got away 
 first and Geers held back, biding his time. 
 At the proper moment he collared the leader 
 on the home stretch and sent his horse under 
 the wire first, on a final brush, going no 
 faster than was necessary. He has given 
 records to one hundred and twelve trotters 
 and pacers, and has made world records 
 twenty-three times. Of course, some of these 
 world records have since been beaten; for 
 instance— John R. Gentry wiped out the 
 world's record of Robert J., but some of 
 Geers's world records will probably remain. 
 He drove Belle Hamlin, Justina and Globe, 
 a triple team, in 2.14. This tremendous feat, 
 it must be remembered, could only be done 
 by driving the mile without a skip or break. 
 Three horses abreast, or two abreast, are 
 racing with each other, and if one goes off 
 his feet, it would be a miracle to get him 
 down and not drop at least ten seconds. An- 
 other peculiar feature of this last named 
 
 record is that all three of the horses were 
 the produce of one sire. 
 As strange a race as Geers ever drove was 
 when he started Milan Chimes at Hartford, 
 July 5th, 1898. This horse had never before 
 been in a race, yet Geers gave him the won- 
 derful record of 2.13 3-4 in the second heat, 
 coming home on a jog. He also won the 
 third heat in 2.16; 
 and in the fifth heat, 
 while in the lead of 
 the field, the animal 
 without warning fell 
 dead. 
 
 In 1899 Geers drove 
 twenty-three races, 
 straight, and got the 
 first money seven- 
 teen times, & a slice 
 of the purse in all 
 the rest. The cour- 
 age of the man is 
 sublime, and while 
 never courting danger, if the other fellows 
 wish to get in a mix up, they can usually be 
 accommodated. Geers drives his horse wher- 
 ever the horse can put his nose through. 
 C Some years ago I used to own a few Good 
 Ones, myself, and five o'clock every summer 
 morning found me up behind, sending 'em 
 along a bit. The serene beauty of the morn- 
 ing, when the rising sun makes the grass 
 glisten like diamonds with its weight of dew, 
 is a thing to hide away in your heart and re- 
 member long. I do not get up quite so early 
 now, not that hot suppers and fast trolley 
 rides have discouraged me, for I have never 
 indulged in such vain things, but the habit of 
 tumbling out of bed to capture an Idea, before 
 it escapes, has made the morning sleep ac- 
 ceptable. But the rides side by side with Ed. 
 Geers in the early summer mornings, are 
 mine even yet. For often at exactly 4.30 I 
 awake as I did ten years ago, when Ali Baba 
 used to feed the colts and then call me. But 
 I do not bounce out now — just turn over and 
 dream of jogging a cheerful chestnut stallion 
 in the quiet of the June morning, when most 
 of the villagers are asleep, and the hedge- 
 rows are melodious with the twitter of birds. 
 And so, though I no longer drive with Geers, 
 I dream about it, and when we meet he al- 
 ways refers to "old times." 
 
 LAIN living and high 
 thinking do not go to- 
 gether through choice, 
 for if you think high, you 
 will not have the money 
 to live high, and not having the mon- 
 ey to live high, you live plain. 
 €.To be famous is to be slandered 
 by people who do not know you,#&> 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 8 
 
 The other day Ed. Geers drove up in front 
 of the Shop and shouted "Hello!" I went 
 out to see what he wanted. He took a book 
 out of his blouse and handing it to me, smiled 
 half apologetically and drove away without 
 a blessed word. 
 
 I opened the volume and read the title-page, 
 "My Experience with the Trotters: by Ed. 
 Geers." That night 
 I read the volume 
 from cover to cover. 
 Mr. Geers's book is 
 a plain and simple 
 statement concern- 
 ing some of the prin- 
 cipal horse events 
 in this man's histo- 
 ry. That the horse 
 world wants to know 
 the facts set forth, 
 & that they are val- 
 uable, coming from 
 such a man, there is 
 no doubt. The Trotting Horse is a purely 
 American Institution, and with its evolution 
 Mr. Geers has played a most important part. 
 CLHe tells his story with a pleasing direct- 
 ness, as becomes a man who is accustomed 
 to do things and not merely talk about them. 
 Ed. Geers has collaborated his intellect, cun- 
 ning and courage with the strength of the 
 horse, and by this method a trotting speed 
 has been developed by him in hundreds of 
 horses that cannot be equaled by one horse 
 in a thousand on the run. 
 And by the way, Geers was the first man 
 ever to use a bicycle sulky in a public race. 
 When he appeared on the track at Detroit in 
 a "bike cart" in 1892, the Grand Stand lifted 
 a laugh that could be heard a mile. 
 Geers sized up the field by dropping the 
 first heat, and then went in and took the next 
 three, straight. The talent got hit hard and 
 "squealed" to the judges, declaring the 
 "bike" a diabolical invention that pushed 
 the horse along. The judges, who had put 
 up small greenish rolls on Geers's horse, on 
 the quiet, declared that the race was square. 
 C Next year there were no high wheels to be 
 seen on the Grand Circuit, and all records 
 were knocked off about four seconds in 
 consequence. 
 
 To show that Ed. Geers has a pleasing literary 
 
 style, and also to prove further that his heart 
 is right, I give the following quotation. It is a 
 fair taste of his quality: 
 "I do not believe any horse ever lived that 
 possessed more racing sense, gameness and 
 endurance than did Hal Pointer. I have often 
 seen him, after a hard fought five heat race, 
 being cooled out when another race was 
 called, and he would 
 grow restless & un- 
 easy and show by 
 every action that he 
 wanted to get back 
 to the track and take 
 a hand in the ex- 
 citement. 
 
 "Hal Pointer was a 
 difficult horse to get 
 to score fast, and 
 was always slow in 
 getting away. He did 
 not seem to be im- 
 bued with the neces- 
 sity of winning the heat until the middle or 
 latter part of the mile had been reached, and 
 then he would bend all his mighty energies 
 in an endeavor to first reach the wire, and 
 very few horses were ever able to withstand 
 his terrific rush. He never required, and 
 would not endure punishment. Once when 
 I was giving him a work-out he did some- 
 thing I did not like and I struck him with the 
 whip twice, and in spite of everything I could 
 do, he ran three miles before I could stop 
 him. I never tried it again, and in all the 
 races I ever drove him I never did anything 
 more than carry the whip over him, and when 
 I wanted some extra speed I would shake it 
 at him. I gave him a record of 2.04 1-2, which 
 was the world's record at that time. 
 "It is a lamentable fact that many good 
 horses, after their days of usefulness are 
 over, and they are no longer able to earn 
 money for their owners, are, through avarice 
 or want of sympathy, either killed or com- 
 pelled to eke out a miserable existence doing 
 drudgery for strangers, when, by reason of 
 their past services, they should be tenderly 
 cared for by those whom they have faithfully 
 served. I am glad to know that no hardships 
 of this kind are in store for grand old Hal 
 Pointer. I am giving him just enough light 
 road work for exercise, driving back and 
 
 CIENCE has explained 
 many things, but it has not 
 yet told why it sometimes 
 happens that when seven- 
 I teen eggs are hatched, the 
 brood will consist of sixteen barn- 
 yard fowls and one eagle. 
 *L Verily, in the midst of life we are 
 in 
 
Set of Roycroft Backs 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 9 
 
 forth from Village Farm to the Jewett cov- 
 ered track. I generally drive him over to the 
 hotel at East Aurora and hitch him under a 
 shed when I go to dinner. He is very fond of 
 carrots, and I always intend to put three in 
 my pocket and feed him two before I go to 
 dinner and the other when I am ready to 
 start back. If I have the carrots for him, he 
 
 seems perfectly sat- 
 
 isfied and will be | HT "/ j i mT WlF N 
 cheerful all the rest 
 of the day; but if I 
 forget them, he is 
 mad and acts as ill- 
 natured as does a 
 smoker when he is 
 deprived of the after 
 dinner cigar." 
 The writer sincere- 
 ly hopes that the fol- 
 lowing epitaph will 
 not have to be used 
 for many years: 
 "Here sleeps, wind- 
 ed, Honest Old Ed. 
 Geers. His pedi- 
 gree was short, but 
 as an individual he 
 was away up; and 
 by performance he 
 was Standard. The 
 slice he took of this 
 world's Purse was 
 ample, so he has no 
 kick coming. He was 
 never known to sass 
 the Starter, and he 
 has perfect faith that 
 when the bell rings 
 at the Last Great 
 Day, the Decision 
 will be that he trot- 
 ted Life's Race on 
 the Level, and his 
 
 Soul will then be led away to roam, bare- 
 footed, in the Cloverfields of the Blest." 
 
 ■ MODEL SCHOOL. Everything is 
 comparative. If you have not seen the 
 best it is quite easy to be content with 
 something else. Aye, men have been known 
 to wax boastful over a thing that was ex- 
 tremely faulty, and to declare that the pattern 
 
 of the thing came from On High. And so 
 sometimes you hear the orators tell of the 
 Little Red Schoolhouse, and from their de- 
 scriptions one might suppose that the public 
 school system of America was a realization 
 of the Ideal. 
 
 Before pursuing the subject further, let me 
 say that any man who would ridicule our 
 public schools or at- 
 
 toil and sweat and 
 struggle and chase the 
 seasons 'round the globe. 
 To escape the winter they 
 go to Florida, and to get 
 away from the summer, to the North 
 Cape and Alaska. Money is the thing 
 for which they tempt paresis, money 
 that they may go to Saratoga and 
 have peace, they say. Peace? There 
 is no peace unless you sit down and 
 wait for it to catch up ! 
 CLHe who influences the thought of 
 his times, influences all the times 
 that follow. He has made his im- 
 press on eternity. 
 
 C. Women under thirty seldom know 
 much, unless Fate has been kind 
 and cuffed them thoroughly. 
 CJt is only in prosperity that we 
 throw our friends overboard. 
 ClThe ideas that benefit a man are 
 seldom welcomed by him on first 
 presentation 
 
 tempt to depreciate 
 the splendid work 
 that the teachers are 
 doing, is a person 
 devoid of discern- 
 ment and lacking in 
 knowledge. It is safe 
 to say that school- 
 teachers in America 
 do more work for 
 less pay than any 
 other class of per- 
 sons with equal in- 
 telligence that can 
 be named. And the 
 love, loyalty, devo- 
 tion & patience that 
 is shown in the work 
 by many teachers in 
 ourpublicschoolsis 
 worthy of the high- 
 est esteem. And the 
 teaching timber is 
 continually improv- 
 ing — I know that. I 
 am quite aware that 
 the schoolroom that 
 does not now have 
 manytracesofbeau- 
 ty and attempts at 
 harmony, is excep- 
 tional. I know, too, 
 that kindness & pa- 
 tience are now to be 
 
 found where once 
 was force approaching brutality. The world 
 is certainly getting better. 
 However, the man who would say that the 
 public schools of America approach perfec- 
 tion, has a very crude intellect. The teach- 
 ers, for the most part, know this, but they 
 are cabined, cribbed, confined by the gro- 
 cers, butchers, busy doctors and the shyster 
 lawyers who compose the School Board. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 10 
 
 The "Board" very rarely contains a man 
 who either thinks or feels. In fact, the only 
 thing to which he usually responds is the 
 crack of the party lash. 
 In talking with a School Trustee a few days 
 ago, he remarked to me, "Why, be gosh, 
 these 'ere teachers get more pay than car- 
 penters — and lookee! they only work six 
 hours a day, and not 
 
 a tap do they do 
 either on Saturday 
 or Sunday!" That 
 remark symbols the 
 mental calibre of at 
 least one half the 
 School Trustees & 
 School Directors in 
 this land of the par- 
 tially free. This be- 
 ingthecase,themar- 
 vel is that our public 
 schools are as good 
 as they are; but the 
 salvation of the mat- 
 ter lies in the fact 
 that the average of- 
 ficial never visits the 
 school at all, and so 
 knows blessed little 
 about what is being 
 done there. While 
 the School Trustee 
 does not meddle, yet 
 his Ponderous In- 
 ertia is there, and 
 this has to be con- 
 sidered. 
 
 And yet we are mak- 
 ing good head. Such 
 fine High Schools 
 as those at Spring- 
 field, Mass., Duluth, 
 Minn., and Joliet, 
 111., are usually the 
 
 conception of one man, and are carried out 
 by an entrepreneur who can mold men and 
 things to his liking. 
 
 Yet exceptional and superb as are the schools 
 I have mentioned above, they are only called 
 "complete" by the man who does not know 
 something better. Very rarely can one find a 
 High School where the building is not over- 
 crowded, the teachers overworked and un- 
 
 derpaid. I have a fair knowledge of the 
 schools of America, and I believe the only 
 High School in the United States that ap- 
 proaches completeness in plant, plan, curri- 
 culum and teaching force, is the Stout School 
 of Menomonie, Wisconsin. The buildings, 
 furniture and apparatus at this institution 
 represent an outlay of a quarter of a million 
 dollars, and this in a 
 
 HE success of every great 
 man hinges right on that 
 one thing — to pick your 
 men to do the work. The 
 efforts of any one man 
 so very little! It all de- 
 
 count for 
 
 pends on the selection and manage 
 ment of men to carry out your plans. 
 In every successful concern, wheth- 
 er it be bank, school, factory, steam- 
 ship company or railroad, the spirit 
 of one man runs through and ani- 
 mates the entire institution. The 
 success or failure of the enterprise 
 turns on the mental, moral and spir- 
 itual qualities of this one man. And 
 the leader who can imbue an army 
 of workers with a spirit of earnest 
 fidelity to duty, an unswerving de- 
 sire to do the thing that should be 
 done, and always with animation, 
 kindness, courtesy and good cheer, 
 must be ranked as one of the great 
 men of the earth^^^^^b,^^^^ 
 
 village of four thou- 
 sand people. And 
 just bear in mind 
 that twenty thous- 
 and dollars builds a 
 pretty good school- 
 house, and even half 
 this sum provides a 
 very good brickpile. 
 CThis school has 
 the best that money 
 canbuyinthewayof 
 sanitary appliances; 
 the building is heat- 
 ed with steam, and 
 lighted by electrici- 
 ty from a plant on 
 the premises. 
 Here is the Kinder- 
 garten, Sloyd, Man- 
 ual Training in way 
 of carpentry, black- 
 smithing, molding, 
 lathe work, and an 
 electrical laborato- 
 ry. In addition, for 
 the girls, are sewing, 
 garment cutting and 
 cooking. In the High 
 School department 
 is the regular curric- 
 ulum, such as is al- 
 ways found in any 
 well appointed High 
 School, with the ad- 
 dition of a very excellent chemical and phy- 
 sical laboratory; and a department of draw- 
 ing and clay modeling, quite as good in 
 degree as are to be found, well, at the Chi- 
 cago Art Institute. 
 
 All this is free for the use of pupils residing 
 in the township. It represents a course of 
 fifteen years' study. And the pupil, who, say, 
 graduates at the Masten Park High School in 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 11 
 
 Buffalo, goes for two years to Phillips' 
 Exeter, and four years at Harvard, cannot 
 get as much as the pupil can get right there 
 in the village of Menomonie, leaving out, of 
 course, the advantages of associations and 
 traditions; but these, I believe, are offset by 
 the Art and Manual Training. 
 The cleanliness, order, solidity, excellence 
 and beauty of this 
 school are unsur- 
 passed. And when 
 the new gymnasium 
 —at a cost of fifty 
 thousand dollars — 
 is complete, with its 
 swimming pools & 
 apparatus, all under 
 the care of a compe- 
 tent physician and 
 physical director, 
 Menomonie can ex- 
 hibit a bit of Athens 
 in the time of Per- 
 icles. €1 This beau- 
 tiful dream is being 
 realized through the 
 munificence of one 
 citizen — which, of 
 course, is under- 
 stood, for the tax- 
 payers in no com- 
 munity would sub- 
 mit to such "extra- 
 vagance." And yet 
 in hundreds of our 
 towns & cities there 
 are men who could 
 do for their places 
 of residence what 
 this wise and gen- 
 erous man has done 
 for Menomonie. 
 One more item con- 
 cerning the Meno- 
 monie School may be of interest, and this is 
 that it is the intention of the management to 
 pay the men teachers and women teachers 
 the same, and this amount means man's pay, 
 not woman's. 
 
 fgm MAN AND HIS DAUGHTER. Five 
 W£M miles up the creek from East Aurora 
 UBa is the village of South Wales. Society 
 
 F COURSE we shall all 
 die (I '11 admit that), and 
 further, we may be a long 
 time dead ( I '11 admit that), 
 and further, we may be 
 going through the world for the last 
 time — as to that I do not know — 
 while we are here it seems the part 
 of reason to devote our energies to 
 that which brings us as few heart- 
 pangs to ourselves and others as pos- 
 sible. We are here, and some day we 
 must go, and surely we would like 
 to depart gracefully J£&&^> 
 CWhen two men of equal intelli- 
 gence and sincerity quarrel, both are 
 probably right. 
 
 CHave n't you ever felt that the 
 prince is as good as the pauper, even 
 if he is no better? 
 
 Cln ethics you cannot better the 
 Golden Rule. 
 
 CReserve your best thoughts for the 
 elect fa\v&^&®>&®>&&&®>&8:>&®!> 
 
 there centers around a schoolhouse where 
 the Presbyterians hold service each Sunday 
 morning, and the Methodists in the after- 
 noon. South Wales has two stores, a black- 
 smith shop and a town pump where you 
 always water your horse and get a drink for 
 luck. The first turning to the left after the 
 four corners, where the pump stands, up on 
 the hillside, second 
 house on the right, 
 lives a fine Philis- 
 tine, beloved by all 
 who can appreciate 
 plain,hard, common 
 sense, a dash of wit, 
 and stern honesty 
 of purpose. 
 This good man was 
 a Forty-niner, but 
 for some unknown 
 reason things with 
 him never panned. 
 His motto once was, 
 "Pike's Peak or 
 bust." He reached 
 Pike's Peak & man- 
 aged to get back to 
 East Aurora busted. 
 CiSome one loaned 
 him money to buy a 
 team and a few im- 
 plements, and he got 
 a farm where boul- 
 ders grew lush and 
 lusty. There was no 
 market for boulders 
 then. When crops 
 were good, things 
 did not bring any 
 price, and when the 
 prices were high 
 there was nothing 
 much to sell. 
 However, the man 
 and his wife managed to get a living, and 
 send their boy and girl down to East Aurora 
 to school — the boy going in the winter and 
 the girl attending the spring and fall terms. 
 C And so the years passed, as the years will. 
 CBut there came an evil day when Deacon 
 P. closed in on his mortgage, and the occu- 
 pants of the old farm found themselves just 
 exactly where they were when they took the 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 12 
 
 place twenty years before. C Then it was 
 that the Philistine and his family moved to 
 South Wales, first turning after you leave 
 the town pump, second house on the right. 
 II They raised bees, and as the mother was 
 now the business man, they got along first- 
 rate— why, their income one year was three 
 hundred and eighty dollars— think of that! 
 Yesterday I water- 
 ed my saddle-mare, 
 "Garnet," at the 
 South Wales town 
 pump, & then took 
 the first turning to 
 the left. At the sec- 
 ond house on the 
 right an old man 
 with white hair and 
 a long white beard 
 sat in a chair on the 
 front veranda. By 
 his side, just below 
 him, seated in the 
 doorway, her hand 
 in his, was an au- 
 burn haired young 
 woman, say thirty 
 years of age. 
 
 Don't speak, don't 
 speak!" called the 
 old man in a loud 
 voice, as I reined 
 in. "Don't speak! 
 I 've bet Maud fifty 
 cents that it is Col- 
 onel Littlejourneys; 
 I know the one- two- 
 three-four step of 
 thathorse— Oh!you 
 can't fool me! "said 
 the man cheerily. 
 The man and his 
 daughter are blind. 
 <ll tied my horse, 
 
 and went in. There were merry greetings, 
 much asking after the folks, and urgent de- 
 mands that I should put my horse in the 
 barn and remain to dinner. 
 "Oh, but that Mozart was bad!" said Maud. 
 "Why did n't you give the colored man a 
 dollar and let him throw it after the first 
 one!" 
 
 "What 's the Ashtabula Disaster got to do 
 
 with Mozart?" demanded the old man in 
 pretended wrath. 
 
 'What business have you to know anything 
 about literature, music or art?" I demanded in 
 turn. "Why, you are nothing but a farmer! " 
 11 "I used to be a farmer, but now I am a 
 literary critic. I 'm what you call a dilettante, 
 for I even have some one to read for me!" 
 
 C "Surely, Papa is 
 
 ND if you ask me what a 
 millionaire is I 'd say, he 
 is one who has discover- 
 ed a weakness in mankind 
 and then fans and feeds 
 
 it for a consideration. You may make 
 a good comfortable living supplying 
 the legitimate wants of men, but you 
 cannot accumulate a million dollars 
 until you know how to prey upon 
 the hopes and fears of your fellows. 
 4L It does not make much difference 
 what a man studies — all knowledge 
 is related, and the man who studies 
 anything if he keeps at it will be- 
 come learned. 
 
 I Sing Sing has several men who 
 were sent there simply because they 
 had Axminster desires and rag car- 
 pet capacities. 
 
 €L Man creates both his god and his 
 devil in his own image. His god is 
 himself at his best and his devil is 
 himself at his worst 
 
 right, Colonel— we 
 are not only dilet- 
 tanti, but aristo- 
 crats—why, we 've 
 a bank account!" 
 said Maud. 
 "Indeed," I replied. 
 4l "Why, yes, you 
 know Jack is get- 
 ting along famously 
 at his work. He is 
 the supervising ar- 
 chitect at San Fran- 
 cisco for a govern- 
 ment building that 
 will cost a million 
 dollars. And then he 
 built the Crocker 
 Hotel, & when the 
 Crocker Estate gave 
 him a check for nine 
 thousand dollars for 
 his services, whatdo 
 you think he did?" 
 C"I could never 
 guess!" 
 
 Why, he sent us a 
 New York draft for 
 a thousand dollars 
 — that 's the way we 
 got our large bank 
 account." 
 
 The old man got up 
 and I followed him 
 into the house. He 
 groped his way to a bureau drawer & brought 
 forth the book which he insisted I examine. 
 C "How much is it to our credit?" he de- 
 manded. 
 
 "A thousand dollars," I answered. 
 "What did I tell you!" was his proud an- 
 swer. 
 
 It was n't the money so much, either; it was 
 the consciousness that Jack was succeeding 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 —Jack who had plowed and sowed and 
 reaped and cultivated stone bruises! Jack 
 who had gone to the East Aurora "Acade- 
 my" in winter and then taught school, and 
 gone to the Boston Tech, and won a Foreign 
 Travel Scholarship, and worked in McKim, 
 Mead & White's (because they wanted a first- 
 class man) and then had gone to San Fran- 
 cisco and was mak- 
 ing a fortune — that 
 is what made Jack's 
 sister and Jack's fa- 
 ther so proud and 
 happy. There was 
 only one thing that 
 blurred their joy — 
 Mother did n't live 
 to know of Jack's 
 success. Of course, 
 she knew he would 
 succeed, but she 
 grew tired, so tired, 
 and fell asleep and 
 did n't awake, and 
 that was four years 
 ago. 
 
 "Let us show you 
 our photographs of 
 some of Jack's fine 
 buildings," said the 
 old man. 
 
 He arose & started 
 for a little side bedroom, the spare room. 
 Maud was going after the photographs, too, 
 and they met in the door-jamb and stuck 
 there like Humpty Dumpty and Pantaloon. 
 There were mutual apologies and finally the 
 photographs were brought forth, the father 
 leading the daughter and the daughter lead- 
 ing the father, and each cautioning the other 
 to look out for the big rocking-chair. 
 I took the photographs in my hand, and sight- 
 less eyes gazed into vacancy over my head. 
 I tried to look at the pictures, but could n't 
 see them for the tears that were running down 
 my nose. Luckily no one saw me mopping, 
 fl Why did I cry? Really I do not know — 
 perhaps I cried because I am a fool, and 
 think sometimes I have troubles, when there 
 is no trouble and no calamity excepting 
 to those who think trouble and recognize 
 calamity. 
 
 I bade my dear friends good-bye out there 
 
 Page 13 
 
 on the little veranda. The summer breeze 
 stole through the wistaria and kissed the 
 flowing white locks of the old man, and car- 
 essed the golden hair of the young woman, 
 as they stood there hand in hand. 
 I mounted my horse and rode away down 
 the dusty road. I took the first turning to the 
 right, and looked back as I passed the corner. 
 
 C The father and 
 daughter were still 
 standing there, mo- 
 tionless. Their faces 
 were raised, & they 
 were looking away 
 over me, complete- 
 ly over me, looking 
 clear to San Fran- 
 cisco, where Jack is. 
 €l I thought of a lit- 
 tle book that was in 
 my side pocket. I 
 had been reading it 
 that very morning. 
 I took the volume 
 out and read the 
 title: Where Love 
 Is, There Is God. 
 
 MmORK IS FOR 
 II Wl THE WO R K- 
 IHjlER. Work is 
 for the worker! Did 
 I say that once before? Very well, I think I 
 will print it twelve times a year. Work is for 
 the worker. 
 
 We become robust only through exercise, 
 and every faculty of the mind and every 
 attribute of the soul grows strong only as it 
 is exercised. So you would better exercise 
 only your highest and best, else you may 
 give strength to habits or inclinations that 
 may master you, to your great disadvantage. 
 41 Work is for the worker, and work is a 
 blessing. The Bible does not teach that — it 
 teaches that work is a form of punishment, 
 and only a very grim necessity at the best. 
 Even the new testament is full of sympathy 
 and condolences for the bearer of burdens 
 and those who are heavy laden. There is 
 much about looking forward to sweet rest in 
 heaven, but not a word about getting on to 
 your job. Heaven, to many, is a long rest, 
 and no religion has ever pictured a paradise 
 
 III 
 
 HIS world of ours, round 
 like an orange and slight- 
 ly flattened at the poles, 
 is the home of a class of 
 men and women who 
 make up the Holy Order of the 
 Elect. The initiates, strange to say, 
 know not of their membership and 
 for the most part never heard of the 
 Order. They may be rich or poor, 
 college-bred or unlearned, bond or 
 free, but between their spirits ever 
 is a mystic tie of brotherhood — they 
 recognize each other at sight. They 
 are the people who preserve the 
 receptive heart and hospitable mind. 
 
(M)NTKMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 14 
 
 m 
 
 where happiness came through useful activ- 
 ity. No wonder that the jolly, jolly mariners, 
 sitting forevermore on the windless glassy 
 floor, grew a-weary of the monotony. 
 C There are no glad congratulations in the 
 Bible for the man who has found his work 
 —only pity. And then, where in holy writ 
 do you find the statement of this patent truth: 
 There is a certain 
 amount of work to 
 do in the world, and 
 the reason some 
 folks have to work 
 from daylight until 
 dark, is because 
 many other folks 
 never work at all. 
 It was a Philistine 
 who had to discover 
 that, and voice that. 
 C A certain amount 
 of work is very nec- 
 essary to growth. 
 Work is a blessing, 
 not a curse, because 
 through it we ac- 
 quire strength — 
 strength of mind 
 & strength of body. 
 To carry a respon- 
 sibility gives a sense 
 of power. Men who 
 
 Q But Paul was blind and deaf to love in its 
 essence. He regards love as a weakness and 
 says, "It is better to marry than to burn." 
 All he has to say on equality is, " Let women 
 learn in silence in all due subjection," and 
 "If a woman would have knowledge let her 
 ask her husband." No wonder the thought 
 is appalling of a woman reduced to the mea- 
 a , , gre source of gain- 
 
 Y KAN N Y and intolerance ing knowledge from 
 
 her husband! And 
 nothing about the 
 woman who teaches 
 her husband lots of 
 things he never be- 
 fore guessed! Then 
 what of the women 
 who have no hus- 
 bands—must they 
 forever sit in dark- 
 ness? 
 
 C Woe are we — ca- 
 lamity is upon us! 
 And even that wis- 
 est of Americans, 
 Benjamin Franklin, 
 did n't know much 
 about the subject, 
 for in his Advice to 
 a Young Man, he 
 gives this astute 
 "All cats 
 
 always drive from their 
 homes the best : those who 
 have ability to think, cou- 
 rage to act, and a pride 
 that cannot be coerced. 
 CThe Peace Congress can cease its 
 labors, for the question of war is 
 gradually solving itself in this coun- 
 try: no man but a janitor will go to 
 war in defense of a flat. 
 CThe selfish wish to govern is often 
 mistaken for a holy zeal in the cause 
 of humanity. 
 
 CTo be gay your life must be one 
 that suffers no surfeit 
 
 have borne responsibility know how to carry 
 it, and with heads erect, and the burden well 
 adjusted on their shoulders, they move stead- 
 ily forward. Those who do not know better, 
 drag their burdens behind them with a rope. 
 CWe grow strong through assuming re- 
 sponsibilities—by bearing burdens and do- 
 ing things, we acquire power. 
 CLove is for the lover — Love for Love's 
 sake. That is just as new, just as modern as 
 that work is for the worker. The Bible says 
 nothing about the love of a man and woman 
 being a blessing for its own sake. The men 
 who wrote the Bible knew no more about it 
 than they knew of the practical value of 
 electricity. Love for its own sake is a new 
 proposition. 
 
 C Solomon knew nothing of it. The New 
 Testament is not wholly silent, however, for 
 it gives a glimmer when the Master defends 
 the woman by saying, "She loved much." 
 
 aphorism, 
 
 are grey in the dark." CLove for propagation. 
 CLove for gratification. 
 CLove for a home and darned stockings. 
 COne of the above reasons, or a mixture of 
 all, was the highest philosophy that George 
 Washington could bring to bear on the sub- 
 ject. And he failed in each and every count, 
 if Paul Leicester Ford is to be trusted. 
 C And yet the wisdom of Washington in this 
 line represents the wisdom of the ages, until 
 yesterday. 
 
 CNow we add a fourth reason and we place 
 first on the list: Love for Love's sake. The 
 other reasons remain for those who wish 
 them. The embrace of a man and woman in 
 a thought is sublime. Few men, comparative- 
 ly, have known this joy, for the reason that 
 St. Paul's doctrine has been accepted by 
 men and women alike, and the idea has been 
 everywhere held that women were lacking 
 in think capacity. Women thought they could 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 15 
 
 not think, and so they did not. This is shown 
 in the use of the word "obey," and the man- 
 ifold legislation everywhere that has disfran- 
 chised women. 
 
 Yesterday woman was a chattel; now she is, 
 in law, a minor; to-morrow she may be free 
 — or partially so, that is to say, as free as man. 
 CL These changes have gradually come about 
 through isolated 
 discoveries that a 
 woman might be a 
 man's comrade and 
 friend — that a man 
 and woman might 
 be mental mates. 
 Then for the first 
 time there existed 
 honesty in the rela- 
 tion, for surely, I 
 do not have to prove 
 that honesty be- 
 tween master and 
 slave is either an 
 accident or a bar- 
 ren ideality? 
 Love for its own 
 sake can only ex- 
 ist between a man 
 and woman men- 
 tally mated, for on- 
 ly then is complete, 
 unqualified, honest 
 and frank expres- 
 sion possible. 
 Men who marry 
 for gratification, 
 propagation or the 
 matter of buttons & 
 socks, must expect to cope with and deal 
 in a certain amount of quibble, subterfuge, 
 concealment and double, deep-dyed prevar- 
 ication. And these things will stain the fabric 
 of the souls of those who juggle them, and 
 leave their mark upon futurity. 
 The fusion of two minds in an idea has 
 given a new joy to the race, a zest to life, 
 and a reason for living. 
 Love is for the lover. 
 
 And in this new condition, where the men- 
 tal equality of woman is being acknowledged, 
 there will be no tyranny and therefore no 
 concealment and untruth. There will be sim- 
 plicity and frankness, and these are the 
 
 LL men recognize in their 
 hearts that they must have 
 the good will of some 
 other men. To be sepa- 
 rated from your kind is 
 death and to have their good will is 
 life — and this desire for sympathy 
 and this alone shapes conduct. We 
 are governed by public opinion, and 
 until we regard mankind as our 
 friends and all men as brothers so 
 long will men combine in sects and 
 cliques and keep the millenium of 
 Peace and Good-will a very dim and 
 distant thing. 
 
 H Responsibilities gravitate to the 
 person who can shoulder them, and 
 power flows to the man who knows 
 how. 
 
 CL Cultivate poise r$s& 
 
 essence of comradeship. And where there is 
 comradeship there can love and reason walk 
 hand in hand. 
 Love and Reason f 
 
 Love for its own sake, with honesty and truth 
 for counsel and guide, is the highest good. 
 It is the supreme endowment of God. And 
 under these conditions he who loves most 
 is most blessed, 
 ft. Love and owner- 
 ship. 
 
 Love and "rights." 
 C Love and finesse. 
 CLove and man- 
 agement. 
 
 These things are 
 very old, but Love 
 and Reason is a 
 new combination. 
 And it can only ex- 
 ist where there is 
 the unconditional 
 admission of equal- 
 ity. Such a partner- 
 ship means a doub- 
 ling of every intel- 
 lectual joy, and an 
 increased sympa- 
 thy with every liv- 
 ing thing, a oneness 
 that knows no limit. 
 It means Univer- 
 sality. 
 
 We reach God 
 through the love of 
 One. We can gain 
 the Kingdom of 
 Heaven by having 
 the Kingdom of Heaven in our hearts. 
 CL Love for Love's sake — there is nothing 
 better. 
 
 It sweetens every act of life. 
 
 Love grows by giving. 
 
 Insight, sympathy, faith, knowledge and 
 
 love are the results of love — they are the 
 
 children of parents mentally mated. 
 
 Love for Love's sake. 
 
 f||fllANDICRAFT IN PRISONS. Inmost 
 iral Penitentiaries and prisons manufac- 
 MjBbI turing plants have been installed by 
 the State. The object of the plants is: First, 
 to work a reformation in the prisoners by 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 16 
 
 useful industry. Second, to make the institu- 
 tion self-supporting. 
 
 CThis scheme, introduced with the best of 
 motives, has failed in its intent on both 
 counts. I will grant, of course, that any kind 
 of work is better than idleness, and it is fur- 
 ther admitted that a certain profit has been 
 realized from the labor of the prisoners, 
 that has gone to 
 
 ward the mainte- 
 nance of the institu- 
 tion. But the origi- 
 nal proposition 
 stands, that work as 
 carried on in pris- 
 ons is not a success, 
 either morally or 
 financially. 
 CThe cause of the 
 moral failure lies in 
 the fact that work in 
 every prison is re- 
 garded by wardens, 
 keepers, overseers, 
 and prisoners as a 
 form of punish- 
 ment. The guards 
 do not work — the 
 prisoners do. 
 <l The financial fail- 
 ure, I believe, is be- 
 cause the industries 
 introduced have 
 been, almost with- 
 out exception, of a 
 kind and quality in 
 which competition 
 has been most keen 
 
 & profits too close for an easy management. 
 41 The work has demanded little skill, and 
 provided the largest amount of monotony. It 
 has been assumed that "jail-birds" are not 
 skilled, & so the articles manufactured have 
 been of the cheapest and most flimsy sort. 
 ii Men are set to work on parts and kept 
 there without hope of promotion. Furniture 
 of the cheapest kind now forms a staple in 
 many prisons; and the men who work at it 
 feed things into machines day after day, 
 month after month, year after year. They are 
 not allowed to talk to other prisoners, nor 
 even to carry materials. They do not express 
 themselves, excepting by stealth. They do 
 
 one thing, and nothing else, and this a thing 
 that affords no mental stimulus, and adds 
 nothing to the man's usefulness. 
 CThe man who stands there at that machine 
 has no interest or pride in his work. He is 
 given a stint and compelled to do it; and as 
 he works he is conscious that a guard with 
 loaded rifle, death in hand, is watching him. 
 
 ft, Only one man is 
 
 TRANSPORT of power, 
 
 bursting from pent-up 
 feeling, carries us along 
 on its tide and compen- 
 sates for a deal of what 
 an Oxford man pointed out to me 
 as "bad taste." Over-culture pro- 
 duces a weak effeminacy; and were 
 it not for those strong, vital, "rude" 
 people that God sends into the 
 world, spiritual life would perish as 
 rose trees perish when the cunning 
 gardener turns pollen to petal. The 
 flower cannot reproduce itself — 
 its reserve has been expended in 
 this one production. Too much cul- 
 ture kills. 
 
 C.A pedigree may be a matter of 
 pride, but it is not consoling to am- 
 
 suffering deteriora- 
 tion faster than the 
 prisoner, & that is 
 the piece of moral 
 punk who holds the 
 rifle. Every guard 
 in every prison is 
 elected to be damn- 
 ed^ the prisoner's 
 chances of reforma- 
 tion are not much 
 better. In passing it 
 is well to note the 
 fact that in point of 
 virtue a prison 
 guard stands about 
 on a level with the 
 prisoners, and in 
 mental acuteness he 
 lags a little behind. 
 Men become by do- 
 ing, and the man 
 who holds a gun as 
 a life-work, never 
 becomes anything, 
 not even a necessary 
 part of a machine. 
 C There is no mon- 
 ey in the present 
 plan of prison industry for anybody, for the 
 output is of a sort that is bought only by 
 very poor people. This man in the prison is 
 in competition with women and children 
 who do the same work in factories outside. 
 He is a sweat-shop pawn, and is adding to 
 the general misery of mankind; and if he is 
 intelligent, he knows it. No skill is acquired; 
 there is no mental growth; and the man's 
 chances of getting work when his time ex- 
 pires, are very faint. Thousands of men, un- 
 handicapped by a prison record, outof work, 
 can do his task as well as he. The only 
 change in the man is that when he entered 
 prison he represented crime, and now he 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 17 
 
 mirrors nullity—weakness. Sin is misdirect- 
 ed energy, and the capacity for wrong means 
 also the capacity for good; but weakness is 
 the capacity for nothing. 
 To such a degree of cheapness have prison- 
 made goods been carried that the name 
 "prison-made" has become a stigma and a 
 synonym for the tawdry. The sales agents 
 in certain instances 
 taking advantage of 
 the cheap produc- 
 tion, have under- 
 sold "free labor," 
 and the result has 
 been a fine hulla- 
 baloo from the 
 Trades Unions, 
 with reasons more 
 or less cogent and 
 conclusive. 
 Of prisoners in 
 state penitentiaries, 
 not over five per 
 cent are any more 
 vicious in their in- 
 stincts than the men 
 outside. We find, on 
 acquaintance, that 
 the man in a striped 
 suit is very much a 
 man like ourselves. 
 He has done some- 
 thing, while we have only thought it. He 
 often lacks caution and he lacks will. Yet 
 through the right influence at the right mo- 
 ment — his will supplemented by another — 
 he might be outside; and a temptation com- 
 ing to us when impulse was strong, we might 
 now be in his place. 
 
 "What kind of men compose the House 
 of Commons?" asked Oliver Goldsmith of 
 Ursa Major. 
 
 "Sir," said Dr. Johnson, "take the first fifty 
 men coming down Fleet Street." 
 The prisoner is a man and a brother. Our 
 desire is to help him to help himself, and 
 thereby help ourselves. Grant that he must be 
 restrained and a limit put on his liberty, yet if 
 we can make restraint largely moral and a mat- 
 ter of psychology, the greater are we. When 
 we give this man back to society, we hope to 
 give back a man that society needs, not one 
 whom society would shun or gladly spare. 
 
 Revenge and punishment are things of the 
 past. Revenge belongs to the savage, and the 
 germ of punishment lies in the act. "Ven- 
 geance is mine, and I will repay," saith the 
 Lord. And the Lord needs no help. 
 This leaves us free to teach. 
 And so I am brought up to the vital point 
 of this paragraph: Set prisoners to work at 
 . hand-work. Do not 
 
 T IS a great thing to keep 
 thout 
 
 silence without being 
 glum — to down your crit- 
 ics without saying a word, 
 and add to your friends 
 by holding your peace! And since 
 language can never explain to one 
 who does not already know, and as 
 words are never a vindication, si- 
 lence, when ballasted by soul, is 
 effective beyond speech. 
 C Abstinence is not enough, you 
 must make life positive — do some- 
 thing. 
 
 <L Churches, likeDepartment Stores, 
 carry the wares that are. asked for. 
 
 suggest revolt by 
 placing the man on 
 a treadmill. 
 We grow through 
 expression, and the 
 only way to reform 
 a man is through 
 the right exercise of 
 his faculties; thus 
 allowing the man to 
 reform himself. 
 Education should 
 be through self-ac- 
 tivity, not through 
 punishment and re- 
 pression. 
 
 The Kindergarten 
 Idea has been par- 
 tially introduced 
 at the Illinois State 
 Reform School at 
 Pontiac, Illinois, 
 and the results have 
 been most encouraging — a marvel, often, 
 even to the teachers. And if boys from twelve 
 to eighteen can be managed by kindness, full 
 grown men can also. In fact, the youth of, 
 say, sixteen, is the hardest proposition that 
 confronts either the pedagog or penologist. 
 The lad who is neither a man nor a boy, and 
 considers himself immortal, is much more 
 dangerous than a criminal of mature years. 
 Even in many "good" boys, just turned 
 into adolescence, revolution is rife, and dis- 
 cretion and caution are at low ebb. 
 I am positive that I can take, just as they 
 come, twenty-five Sing Sing men, and by 
 the Kindergarten Method manage them, in a 
 room alone, day after day, without arms or 
 a guard, in a perfectly orderly & decent man- 
 ner. I can teach them to express themselves 
 in useful work, and can gradually develop 
 among the most of them a degree of deftness 
 and skill that will make them self-supporting. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 18 
 
 41More than this, I can secure, in a week, a 
 hundred men and women who can teach just 
 as well as I can. And I am not sure but that 
 men prisoners can be taught best by women, 
 and women prisoners taught best by men. 
 *LThe Kindergarten Method should be used 
 in its entirety— that is, there should be music, 
 singing, marches and calisthenics to relieve 
 nerve-tension. Also 
 there should be oral 
 expression under 
 proper regulations, 
 instead of the grim, 
 deathly silence of 
 the present prison. 
 CMen can be led 
 away from the bad 
 by making life affir- 
 mative ; & so these 
 men should be set 
 to making things 
 with their hands, 
 and gradually pro- 
 moted from the sim- 
 ple work to the more 
 complex. 
 
 For grown men 
 Sloyd would be the 
 simplest form of 
 work, & this would 
 lead to carpentry, 
 wood-carving,, cab- 
 inet work, ornamental blacksmithing and 
 weaving. The simple weaving of "home- 
 spun" and bed covers would lead some 
 straight to tapestries, just as wood-carving, 
 modeling and drawing would lead the elect 
 few to art. 
 
 Such industry would surely work a re- 
 formation in great numbers, and a just and 
 proper pride would gradually grow up where 
 before there was only a patibulary acquies- 
 cence that masked a dangerous crater. 
 As for the hand-made fabric, there can 
 never be a glut in the market. It would have 
 to sell higher than the machine-made article, 
 and therefore the Trades Unions would be 
 appeased. Competition would be overcome 
 by making things better, not cheaper. If the 
 thing is unique and beautiful, no stigma of 
 "prison-made" would be attached. Prison- 
 made now stands for sweat-shop and shoddy, 
 and these things we do not want. Time is the 
 
 one thing that the prisoner is long on. Why 
 this hot haste to get the thing done by Satur- 
 day night! Let the man be taught to do his 
 task well. Not how cheap, but how good, 
 should be the motto. 
 
 But best of all, hand-work In prison, in- 
 stead of machine methods, would give us 
 back men for criminals. The reason there is 
 no place now for 
 the man who has 
 "done time," is be- 
 cause we believe he 
 is incompetent. He 
 cannot do anything. 
 He is helpless as a 
 craw-fish that has 
 just sloughed its 
 shell. We have all 
 the incompetents 
 now that we can 
 manage, and so we 
 turn the jail bird 
 away with a letter 
 of recommendation 
 or a certificate of 
 character, and we 
 ease conscience by 
 rubbing into him a 
 little trite advice 
 about bracing up & 
 living an honest life. 
 Mr. Booker Wash- 
 ington has well said, "The color line disap- 
 pears when a negro has something which 
 other folks want." It is the same with the 
 ex-prisoner: if the man can do something 
 really worth while, all prejudices are waived. 
 Very, very few skilled artisans are ever sent 
 to prison; and when in prison a man does 
 acquire skill in a useful line, it is always by 
 accident, and in spite of the keepers. 
 I know of one case at Auburn where a 
 prisoner begged the privilege of making a 
 chair of his own design — simply the craving 
 for self-expression. Permission was granted, 
 and the man produced a very creditable 
 piece of work. In fact, the skill he possessed 
 was a surprise both to himself and those in 
 authority. Other prisoners saw what this 
 man had done and prayed for a like privi- 
 lege. This was denied, because there was no 
 precedent or authority for such work. But 
 the powers wanted the things that this skill- 
 
 O ONE knows a thing for 
 sure until he has told it to 
 someone else. We deepen 
 impressions by recount- 
 ing them, & to habitually 
 suppress and repress the child when 
 he wants to tell of the curious and 
 wonderful things he has seen, is to 
 display a 2x4 acumen. 
 C Lovers of truth must thank exile 
 for some of our richest and ripest 
 literature. Exile is not all exile. Im- 
 agination cannot be imprisoned. 
 Amid the winding bastions of the 
 brain thought roams free and un- 
 trammeled ^> 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 19 
 
 ful man could make, and so he was given a 
 separate room where, without guard or re- 
 straint, he follows his inclinations and works 
 up his ideas into beautiful and useful things. 
 Knowledge of the health, mental growth 
 and skill that have come to this prisoner, 
 accidentally caught the attention of a manu- 
 facturer. He wanted just such a man; and 
 this manufacturer is 
 now putting forth 
 an effort to secure 
 a pardon for this 
 man. And although 
 the prisoner is un- 
 der life sentence for 
 murder, there is no 
 doubt that the par- 
 don will be secur- 
 ed; for the primal 
 reason for keeping 
 a man locked up, is 
 because he is not 
 wanted outside. 
 Convince a Board 
 of Pardons that the 
 man can & will do a 
 valuable service for 
 society, and pris- 
 on doors fly open. 
 CLIdleness is the 
 only sin. A black- 
 smith singing at his 
 forge, sparks a-fly- 
 ing, anvil ringing, 
 the man materializ- 
 ing an idea — what 
 is finer! I saw such 
 a sight the other 
 evening through a window. It gave me a 
 thrill, and I said to myself, "The only saint 
 is the man who has found his work!" 
 
 I1HE DISCIPLE. A woman of rare in- 
 II tellectual worth once told me that the 
 IH most miserable month of her life was 
 the first four weeks of her marriage. 
 "Proceed!" I said, and settled myself back 
 in the William Morris chair. 
 And then she told me this: "I have a fair 
 intellect and a passable education. I was a 
 school teacher — had saved a little money 
 and been to Europe. I painted a little in 
 water colors, gave private lessons in 1 expres- 
 
 sion ' and physical culture, & was thoroughly 
 interested in the history of art. Of course an 
 art collection for one of my limited means 
 was quite out of the question, so I contented 
 myself with an investment of a hundred dol- 
 lars in photographs of masterpieces. 
 "Art in Des Moines, in 1890, was rather a 
 new thing, outside of Oliver Perkins' bach- 
 elor apartments; so 
 
 BELIEVE that no one 
 can harm us but ourselves; 
 that sin is misdirected en- 
 ergy; that there is no devil 
 but fear; and that the Uni- 
 anned for good. On every 
 
 verse is p 
 
 side we find beauty and excellence 
 held in the balance of things. We 
 know that work is a blessing, that 
 winter is as necessary as summer, 
 that night is as useful as day, that 
 death is a manifestation of Life, and 
 just as good. I believe in the Now 
 and Here. I believe in You, and I 
 believe in a Power that is in Our- 
 selves that makes for Righteousness. 
 C Secure freedom by holding fast to 
 the truth that there is no devil but 
 fear and that the Reality (God) is 
 on your 
 
 I found myself quite 
 famous, for when I 
 exhibited my pho- 
 tographs at the High 
 School, and gave a 
 little general talk on 
 Art, there were a 
 number of visitors 
 present, friends & 
 kinsmen of my 
 scholars. 
 
 "Several said my 
 little lecture was 
 great, and a young 
 man present de- 
 manded the privi- 
 lege of procuring a 
 set of lantern slides 
 of my pictures so I 
 could give my lec- 
 ture in the Assem- 
 bly Room. I tried 
 to smile the matter 
 off, but did n't 
 succeed. 
 
 "The young man 
 belonged to one of 
 the first families of 
 the place, and I was 
 proud of his attentions, for you know plain 
 school ma'ams are a little outside of the 
 social pale, and are only allowed beyond 
 their Ghetto by grace. 
 "The public lecture went well, for I was 
 full of animation, and my audience was gra- 
 cious and sympathetic. Then I gave the 
 same thing at the little towns around, the 
 young man acting as my impresario. There 
 was even arranged a class of Grown-ups in 
 Literature and another in Art, and I of 
 course was the leader. I doubtless acquired 
 considerable skill as a public speaker, and 
 this being before the day of woman's clubs, 
 I was looked upon with local wonder and 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 20 
 
 pointed out to visitors. Well, suffice to say that 
 my impresario proposed to me, proposed 
 explosively one evening on the way home 
 from one of my classes. I had always said, 
 that a man who pops the question is a very 
 small and insignificant creature; but now it 
 seemed different. 
 
 "I was flattered— any woman is flattered 
 to have any man lay 
 
 K3SBBB& 
 
 his all at her feet. 
 Then I was just 
 fresh from my lec- 
 ture, and you know 
 the intoxication of 
 public speaking! I 
 placed my head on 
 his shoulder in the 
 proper way. He 
 kissed at me, smack- 
 ed too soon, smash- 
 ed my hat, and 
 rubbed his whis- 
 kers in my eye. I 
 had always said that 
 a man who kisses a 
 woman explosively, 
 is worse than one 
 who pops a pre- 
 mature proposal. 
 C "In five weeks I 
 married that man. 
 He was three years 
 my junior, the son 
 of a wholesale gro- 
 cer, and so had a 
 family name; and 
 his wealth was no 
 objection. I was 
 twenty-nine and growing yellow. There was 
 no promotion ahead for me in my profes- 
 sion — school teachers are just worn out and 
 buried. I was tired, over-worked and hun- 
 gry for love, as all good women are. I had a 
 chance, and I took it. 
 
 "My husband idolized me. He fed on my 
 words, followed me with his eyes, and feast- 
 ed on my every action. He thought that my 
 little water color daubs were gems, consid- 
 ered my opinion on literature as final, and 
 quoted my words on art to those who really 
 knew better. In short, my husband did not 
 know me at all, and never could. Yet we 
 were tied for life. He never guessed my lim- 
 
 itations. To say that he was my Disciple I 
 think covers the matter, if you add to this a 
 goodly dash of animality. 
 
 And all the time I knew that there was 
 going to be a fearful awakening. My husband 
 knew nothing of art or literature — knew less 
 than I, and all I knew was names, dates and 
 labels. I was a mere dabster, but he was n't 
 big enough to de- 
 
 HE desire for the expres- 
 of sentiments and 
 
 sion or sentiments 
 emotions is very much 
 akin to sex. Each is a 
 reaching out for perpetua- 
 tion, a bid for immortality, a protest 
 against extinction. The gratification 
 of an artistic success is the finest 
 intoxication that comes to a mortal. 
 But like all pleasures it must be 
 shared to be complete. "When I 
 have sung well," said Patti, "and 
 the curtain is rung down, I want 
 Someone to just take me in his 
 arms and tell me it was good — I 
 don't care so much for the applause 
 of the audience." 
 
 C God does n't need us so much as 
 his children do; so let us help them, 
 and let God shift for Himself 
 
 tectit, nor allow me 
 to confess to him." 
 "I '11 have to go 
 pretty soon," I said, 
 and shifted my po- 
 sition in the Morris 
 chair. "I see you 
 got tired of your 
 husband." 
 "I did n't say that," 
 she retorted. "But 
 a woman wants to 
 serve a man, not be 
 crawled to. I could 
 forgive a beating, 
 but my husband 
 used to cackle ap- 
 plause at my most 
 common-place re- 
 marks, as if they 
 were scintillations. 
 C "Judge Water- 
 man of Chicago di- 
 vorced us on our 
 first anniversary. 
 Mary Baker Eddy 
 had almost a paral- 
 lel experience, you 
 
 remember, and if 
 she had not secured marital freedom just as I 
 did, in the courts, she would never have 
 reached the sublime heights of Christian 
 Science." 
 
 "Keep to the theme and cut out C. S. for 
 the present — how about the alimony?" I 
 ventured. 
 
 "It is one hundred and fifty a month, and 
 comes quite convenient," she said. 
 "Thestoryisinteresting,butcommon-place," 
 I answered. "Only one flash of philosophy 
 is in it all and that is what you suggested 
 
 about the Disciple. It is like this" 
 
 "I thought you had to go?" she said. 
 "That depends upon who is doing the 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 21 
 
 111 
 
 talking," said I, and rebuked her by a look, 
 and continued, thus: 
 
 A Disciple is a man who does not under- 
 stand. He thinks that he does, but he does n't. 
 And the reason of his obtuseness lies in the 
 fact that he is willing to be a Disciple, and 
 has n't the phosphorous to be an indepen- 
 dent Ego, as every man should. The true 
 token of the Disci- ___________ 
 
 pie is that he is will- i « i| mj |ABBITS are very much 
 
 ing to let the other 
 man do all the think- 
 ing. He is one who 
 accepts the opinions 
 of another without 
 digesting them. He 
 has such faith in his 
 master that he ac- 
 cepts every word, 
 and does not stop 
 to analyze, weigh, 
 sift or decide. 
 A Disciple is an in- 
 dividual who is hot- 
 ly intent on hitching 
 his ice-cart to a Star. 
 C That Man who 
 had Twelve Disci- 
 ples had twelve too 
 many; no wonder 
 that He used to send 
 them away; no won- 
 der is it that He 
 went alone up into 
 the mountain. The 
 Disciples were be- 
 coming a nuisance 
 with their childish 
 
 would never either idolize nor hate. C. Any- 
 one who idolizes you is going to hate you 
 when he discovers that you are fallible. He 
 never forgives. He has deceived himself and 
 he blames you for it. 
 
 "I hate him!" said Dr. Johnson of a cer- 
 tain man. 
 
 "Why, how can you say that, when you do not 
 even know him?" 
 
 like folks in that they are 
 never really so happy as 
 when they are mis'ble. If 
 Rabbits have n't any real 
 sure-enough troubles, they always 
 chew the cud and conjure forth a few. 
 CMen who are well traduced and 
 hotly denounced are usually pretty 
 good quality. No better encomium 
 is needed than the detraction of 
 some people. And men who are well 
 hated also have friends who love 
 them well — thus does the law of 
 compensation ever live. 
 C It is a great and beautiful thing to 
 be patient if wrongfully accused; to 
 be so strongly girded 'round with 
 right that you can meet slander by 
 silence, and calumny with a smile. 
 
 questions and quibbles and petty jealousies 
 about preferences. He saw that they were 
 going to make Him trouble. None of them 
 rendered Him any service of which we 
 know. A Disciple is a traducer in the germ. 
 One of the Twelve betrayed the Man, an- 
 other denied Him, a third doubted Him, and 
 what the others did, nobody knows. Personal 
 relationship is sure to transform a Disciple 
 into an enemy. 
 
 Your enemy is a man who does not compre- 
 hend you, and your Disciple is the same; 
 they mark different stages of the chrysalis, 
 that 's all. 
 
 If men could only know each other, they 
 
 asked Goldsmith. 
 «L"Sir," Ursa Ma- 
 jor answered, "that 
 is the trouble, if I 
 only knew the man 
 I would doubtless 
 respect him." 
 To know all is to 
 forgive all. 
 Your comrade and 
 friend! Well, that is 
 something different. 
 Your friend knows 
 your limitations, re- 
 spects your foibles, 
 realizes your weak 
 points. He sums up 
 your character; he 
 casts a balance and 
 finds so much good 
 to your credit; then 
 he gives to you his 
 faith and his loyalty. 
 CBut your Disci- 
 ple neither knows 
 your best nor worst. 
 He just invests you 
 with a halo and be- 
 stows on you vir- 
 tues you do not possess. You never dare tell 
 a Disciple the truth— nothing but a miracle 
 satisfies him. A Disciple, in short, is an in- 
 different person who has been indiscreetly 
 allowed to come close enough to strike a 
 Good Man. 
 
 Your mental mate inspires you to nobler 
 endeavor; he comprehends you at your 
 best, appreciates your flights, detects your 
 lapses, deprecates your aberrations, and his 
 presence constantly tends to conserve sanity 
 and a proper balance. On the other hand 
 the Disciple tempts in the direction of extra- 
 vagance and hypocrisy. He is easily imposed 
 upon, and as he demands the impossible, 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 22 
 
 there is a strong temptation to give it to him. 
 C.A11 good men and women crave comrade- 
 ship; but to have any one accept your word 
 as holy writ, is a dire calamity. We want 
 love and sympathy, and we want the right of 
 being forgiven. We do not want to be idol- 
 ized, we want to be pardoned. Flee the Dis- 
 ciple on your life! Limit him to correspond- 
 ence and communi- 
 
 The Law of Wages is as sure and exact in 
 its workings as the Law of the Standard of 
 Life. You can go to the very top, and take 
 Edison for instance, who sets a vast army at 
 work — and wins not only deathless fame, 
 but a fortune, great beyond the dreams of 
 avarice. And going down the scale you can 
 find men who will not work of themselves, 
 and no one is able 
 
 RT is the expression of 
 man's joy in his work. 
 You must let the man 
 work with hand and brain, 
 and then out of the joy of 
 this marriage, beauty will be born. 
 And this beauty mirrors the best 
 in the soul of man — it shows the 
 spirit of God that runs through him. 
 Hit is foolish to say sharp, hasty 
 things, but 'tis a deal more foolish 
 to write 'em. When a man sends 
 you an impudent letter sit right 
 down and give it back to him with 
 interest ten times compounded — 
 and then throw both letters into the 
 waste basket. 
 
 CA retentive memory is a great thing, 
 but the ability to forget is the true 
 token of greatness a&&> 
 
 cation by telephone. 
 If forced to it, do as 
 the Sibyl of Con- 
 cord does, — show 
 yourself for about 
 two minutes, once a 
 year in the gloam- 
 ing, from a high bal- 
 cony,whiletheNon- 
 Cogibund stand on 
 the lawn, ten thous- 
 and strong, & tramp 
 on the shrubbery. 
 
 ,pfS|HE PRICE 
 
 mm ofincom- 
 
 mM PETENCE. 
 All employees pay 
 more or less for su- 
 perintendence and 
 inspection. That is 
 to say, a dollar a day 
 man would receive 
 two dollars a day 
 were it not for the 
 fact that some one 
 has to think for him, 
 look after him, and 
 supply the will that 
 holds him to his task. The result is that he 
 contributes toward the support of those who 
 superintend him. Make no mistake about 
 this: incompetence and disinclination require 
 supervision, and they pay for it, and no one 
 else does. 
 
 The less you require looking after, the more 
 able you are to stand alone and complete 
 your tasks, the greater your reward. Then 
 if you can not only do your own work, but 
 direct intelligently and effectively the efforts 
 of others, your reward is in exact ratio, and 
 the more people you direct, and the higher 
 the intelligence you can rightly lend, the 
 more valuable is your life. 
 
 to make them work, 
 and so their lives 
 are worth nothing, 
 and they are a tax 
 and burden on the 
 communityinwhich 
 they live. Do your 
 work so well it will 
 require no supervi- 
 sion; and by doing 
 your own thinking 
 you will save the ex- 
 tra expense of hir- 
 ing some person to 
 think for you. 
 
 mm GREAT IN- 
 
 wMm vention. 
 
 Within twen- 
 ty years a silent evo- 
 lution has been go- 
 ing on in the meth- 
 od of teaching chil- 
 dren. The changes 
 have been so great 
 that they have truly 
 amounted to a revo- 
 lution. 
 
 This change in man- 
 ner and method has sprung principally from 
 the influence of one man. 
 That man is Friedrich Froebel. 
 Froebel was the inventor and the originator 
 of the Kindergarten. 
 
 The Kindergarten is the greatest, most im- 
 portant, most useful innovation of the Nine- 
 teenth Century, save none. 
 No rapid transit scheme of moving men from 
 this point to that with lightning-like rapidity 
 (with nothing special to do when they get 
 there); no invention of calling up folks five 
 hundred miles away and talking to them 
 (with nothing really worth while to commu- 
 nicate), can compare in value with that which 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 23 
 
 gives love for bru- 
 tality, trust for fear, 
 hope for despair, — 
 the natural for the 
 artificial. 
 
 The Kindergarten! 
 The Child-Garten 
 — a place in which 
 the little souls fresh 
 from God bloom & 
 blossom. 
 
 Youcannotmakethe 
 plant blossom. You 
 can, however, place 
 it in the sunshine 
 and supply it ali- 
 ment and dew; but 
 nature does the rest. 
 C So it is with teach- 
 ing — all we can do is 
 to comply with the 
 conditions of growth 
 in the child, & God 
 does the rest. 
 We are strong only 
 as we ally ourselves 
 with Nature: we can 
 make head only by 
 laying hold on the 
 forces of the Uni- 
 verse. 
 
 Man is part of Na- 
 ture — just as much 
 as are the tree and 
 bird. In the main, 
 every animal & ev- 
 ery organism does 
 the thing that is best 
 for it to do. Froebel 
 thought that human 
 nature in all its ele- 
 ments is as free from 
 falsity and error as 
 Nature is under any 
 other aspect. The 
 idea that man is con- 
 stantly prone to do 
 that which is hurt- 
 ful to himself, was 
 revolting to thiswise 
 and gentle man. 
 The Kindergarten 
 System is simply the 
 
 O obtain a place, a free 
 field, a harmonious expan- 
 sion for your powers — this 
 is life. To be tied down, 
 pinned to a task that is 
 repugnant, and have the shrill voice 
 of Necessity whistling eternally in 
 your ears, "Do this or starve," is to 
 starve — for it starves the heart, the 
 soul — and all the higher aspirations 
 of your being wither away and die. 
 C Until we have a school of litera- 
 ture that will combine all schools 
 and give the liberty to a full expres- 
 sion of every mood, there will be a 
 warfare between the "sects" that 
 give free rein to imagination and the 
 sect that, having no imagination, 
 merely describes. When one school 
 driven by the jibes and jeers of the 
 other tilts up t' other side, a heavy 
 man will start the teeter back, and 
 he is the man we crown. And let us 
 ever crown the heavy man when we 
 find him. 
 
 CYes, a persecution has its com- 
 pensation. In its state of persecu- 
 tion a religion is pure, if ever; its 
 decline begins when its prosperity 
 commences. Prosperous men are 
 never wise and seldom good. Woe 
 unto you when all men shall speak 
 well of you. 
 
 C Art is beauty, and beauty is a gra- 
 tification, a peace and a solace to 
 every normal man and woman. 
 C A bird in the bush is worth two 
 on a woman's hat 
 
 utilization of Play 
 as the prime factor 
 in education. Froe- 
 bel made the discov- 
 ery that Play was 
 God's plan of edu- 
 cating the young, so 
 he adopted it. 
 Long before Froe- 
 bel's day every bo- 
 dy seemed to think 
 that play was a big 
 waste of time in the 
 children, and a sin 
 in grown-ups. That 
 which was pleasant 
 was bad. Some peo- 
 ple still hold to this 
 idea, but such folks, 
 I am glad to know, 
 are growing a trifle 
 lonesome. 
 In 1850, the year be- 
 fore Froebel died, 
 he said, "It will take 
 the world four hun- 
 dred years to recog- 
 nize the truth of my 
 theories." Only fif- 
 ty years have gone 
 (three hundred and 
 fifty years are yet 
 to our credit), and 
 already we find the 
 Kindergarten Idea 
 coloring the entire 
 scheme of pedago- 
 gics. Like a single 
 drop of aniline in a 
 barrel of water, its 
 influence is shown 
 in every part. 
 Napoleon's charac- 
 ter stands out sharp 
 and clear, etched 
 against the sky. He 
 killed a million men, 
 made homeless and 
 houseless five mil- 
 lion women & chil- 
 dren, and left a trail 
 of death and deso- 
 lation behind him. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 CWe may admire 
 the power of the 
 man, but his life 
 does not influence 
 us: we do not imi- 
 tate him, & between 
 him and us there is 
 nothing in common. 
 He stands away out 
 yonder with folded 
 arms, upon a barren 
 rock, at St. Helena, 
 lookingoutuponthe 
 sad and solemn sea; 
 and we are here. 
 CTwo men of mod- 
 ern times have influ- 
 enced the inner life 
 of the race to a pro- 
 found extent. Yet 
 they are not widely 
 known, norare their 
 names household 
 words. They have 
 mingled their lives 
 with ours, and the 
 river of their exist- 
 ence is lost in the 
 ocean of our being. 
 C There is not a sin- 
 gle home — among 
 the better class of 
 homes — in Europe 
 or America but that 
 shows the influence 
 of William Morris. 
 The simplicity, gen- 
 uineness, truthful- 
 ness, and quiet good 
 taste of Morris have 
 influenced the en- 
 tire housekeeping 
 world. 
 
 Not a school-room 
 in the world of civ- 
 ilization that does 
 not show the influ- 
 ence of Friedrich 
 Froebel. The Kin- 
 dergarten Idea has 
 also crept into the 
 homes and is influ- 
 encing and educat- 
 
 HE idea of "divinity" is 
 strong in the mind of ev- 
 ery great man. He recog- 
 nizes his sonship, and 
 claims his divine parent- 
 age. The man of masterful mind is 
 perforce an Egoist. When he speaks 
 he says, "Thus saith the Lord." If 
 he did not believe in himself, how 
 could he ever make others believe in 
 him? Small men are apologetic and 
 give excuses for being on earth, and 
 reasons for staying here so long, and 
 run and peep about to find them- 
 selves dishonorable graves. Not so 
 the great souls — the fact that they 
 are here is proof that God sent 
 them. Their actions are regal, their 
 language oracular, their manner af- 
 firmative. 
 
 CThis life is full of gladness, and 
 mayhap it is the gateway to another; 
 and to live well here, is surely the 
 best preparation for a life to come. 
 God is good and we are not afraid. 
 <LMan will some day find that the 
 exercise of the spiritual or emotional 
 nature through music, or the con- 
 templation of beauty, is a necessity 
 as much as food and drink. 
 
 We are men and women, and our 
 hopes and aims and final destiny are 
 at last one — where one enjoys, all 
 enjoy; where one suffers, all suffer. 
 C. Life is a movement outward, an 
 unfolding, a development. 
 <L There is a time to teach things as 
 well as a way ^^^^^>^^^s^^^ 
 
 Page 24 
 
 ingthe parents, too. 
 CThe use of pict- 
 ures as a means of 
 excitingself-activity 
 is seen everywhere; 
 children are being 
 taught to observe 
 nature, and they are 
 encouraged to bring 
 totheschoolthecur- 
 ious things they find 
 in woods or fields — 
 birds' nests, fungi, 
 flowers — and these 
 things are discussed 
 with animation in 
 open court. 
 Therearelessbooks 
 and greater inter- 
 change of thought 
 and feeling— more 
 expression and less 
 introspection. 
 Disgrace thro' the 
 dunce-cap; "stand- 
 ing on the floor"; 
 humiliation through 
 corporal punish- 
 ment, when the en- 
 tire schoolroom quit 
 study to look on; 
 use of the ruler on 
 the open hand on 
 account of lessons 
 not memorized— all 
 these things are be- 
 coming beautifully 
 less. Naggings, pro- 
 hibitions, chidings, 
 & stern threats now 
 have no legitimate 
 place in any school. 
 CLBut the things I 
 have just mention- 
 ed, and which ev- 
 ery man of, say, 
 forty years, so well 
 remembers, are as 
 nothing compared 
 to the inquisitorial 
 horrors that child- 
 hood of a hundred 
 years, or even fifty 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 25 
 
 years ago, had to endure. Thomas Carlyle 
 once wrote: "Most people seem to think that 
 when Jesus said, 'Suffer- little children to 
 come unto Me and forbid them not,' He held 
 a rod behind Him and was only trying to 
 coax the youngsters within easy reach." 
 C It is not my purpose here to catalog the 
 villainies of the past, done in the name of 
 education; but the 
 
 fingers. C Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye 
 have taken away the key of knowledge: ye 
 entered not in yourselves, and them that 
 were entering in ye hindered." — St. Luke, 
 IX Chapter, verses 46 and 52. 
 In mousing over Mary Cowden Clarke's 
 Concordance of Shakespeare, I find that the 
 man who so successfully ran the Globe 
 tttt- , Theatre had small 
 
 IVb so to get the approba- 
 tion of your Other Self, 
 and success is yours. But 
 pray that success may not 
 come any faster than you 
 are able to endure it. 
 €L Everybody should make a will, 
 and write it himself, even if he has 
 nothing to give but a silver watch 
 
 and a kind word 
 
 matter was summed 
 up by a friend of 
 mine, an English- 
 man, a few weeks 
 ago, when he said: 
 "I most emphatical- 
 ly believe in hell, 
 for I 've been there. 
 When I was seven 
 years old my par- 
 ents placed me in a 
 boarding school for 
 boys, & I remained 
 there fiveyears.The 
 fagging and beastly brutality of the big boys 
 toward the little ones, was only a reflex of 
 the mental attitude held toward us all by the 
 head master and his wife, who were neither 
 better nor worse than the average teacher of 
 the time. They were 'educated' folks, and 
 piled up forty lines of Virgil on you for 
 trivial acts or omissions; and when you were 
 hopelessly bankrupt they cancelled the score 
 with a cat-o'-nine-tails and the dark room 
 with bread and water. My life there seared 
 my very soul, and filled my heart with so 
 much hate that I am at times a victim to it 
 yet. The only compensation for that night- 
 mare of my childhood lies in the fact that I 
 saw the wickedness and atrocious error of a 
 system that sought to repress and break the 
 spirit, instead of giving it wings." 
 And that is the kind of education the Froe- 
 bel System has supplanted. We have kind- 
 ness now, and faith and love; and he who 
 has the most sympathy, the greatest patience, 
 shall be crowned with honor, and above all, 
 he shall feel the approval of his Other Self. 
 We will call him Teacher. 
 
 ||l|BOUT LAWYERS. "Woe unto you, 
 WmM lawyers ! for ye lade men with burdens 
 HHl grievous to be borne, and ye your- 
 selves touch not the burdens with one of your 
 
 use for lawyers. He 
 refers to attorneys 
 just eleven times, & 
 seems to hold that 
 to take a tainted plea 
 and season it with 
 gracious speech so 
 as to obscure the 
 show of evil, to set 
 decrees at naught, 
 pluck down justice, 
 trip the course of 
 law and blunt the 
 sword that guards 
 these things are the 
 
 the peace and person,- 
 work and occupation of lawyers. 
 To put it more briefly, Shakespeare regards 
 a lawyer as one whose business it is to show 
 people how to evade the law. 
 The only lawyer that Shakespeare speaks 
 well of is Portia. And then, as if to take it 
 all back, he allows this woman-attorney to 
 deal in subterfuge, evasion and quillets that 
 are pure quibble. Shylock is the peer, in 
 point of dignity and worth, of anybody in 
 the court room. The gang that got him in tow, 
 robbed him of every ducat that he possessed, 
 and kicked him penniless into the street. 
 C They borrowed money from him and then 
 found an excuse for not paying it. Not only 
 did they fail to return Shylock the money 
 they had borrowed, but they resurrected a 
 Blue Law for the occasion, confiscated all 
 of his property, giving half to the man who 
 was owing him and half to the state. The 
 original loan was for the benefit of Bassanio, 
 so he could marry Portia. This fact one 
 might imagine would have touched the wom- 
 an's heart, but no — she wanted all the money 
 Shylock had. And how much of the final 
 swag went to Portia, Shakespeare does not 
 say — he simply allows us to imagine. 
 The stealing of the "Broadway Franchise" 
 or the lifting of the "Missouri Pacific" was 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 26 
 
 UMANITY is growing in 
 intellect, in patience, in 
 kindness, — in love. And 
 when the time is ripe, the 
 People will step in and 
 take peaceful possession of their own. 
 C I desire to radiate health, calm 
 courage, cheerfulness and good will. 
 C, Do your work to-day as well as 
 you can, and be kind 
 
 not in it a minute with this deal.C See Irv- 
 ing in his latest conception of the Merchant 
 of Venice and your heart will be wrung with 
 pity for this poor old man whom roguery 
 and law have so entrapped. The rascals who 
 offered him twice his bond never intended 
 to pay him a single centesimo. They first 
 openly insulted him upon the public street, 
 called him cutthroat 
 dog, spit upon his 
 Jewish gaberdine & 
 voided their rheum 
 upon his whiskers. 
 Thenhavingcajoled 
 him into making the 
 loan, they abducted 
 his daughter, rifled 
 his strong box and 
 even carried with 
 them the wedding- 
 ring which in his 
 youth he had given 
 to his beloved Leah, 
 now dead. They taunted and goaded the 
 poor man into a frenzy of hate. Nothing bet- 
 ter reveals the truth that geese go in flocks 
 than the commonly accepted opinion that 
 Shylock stands for greed. Rather is it Portia 
 who symbols greed, — Shylock stands for 
 pride of race, driven by insult into revenge. 
 CThe detestable characters in the play are 
 "Christians" — the only man who wins our 
 sympathy is the Jew. And of all the charac- 
 ters in the Merchant of Venice, the unwom- 
 anly woman-lawyer, snapper-up of trifles, 
 preacher of mercy but devoid of all pity, 
 as she is of truth, — is the most unlovable. 
 C William wrote from experience— all liter- 
 ature is a confession. He was not a profes- 
 sional writer — he was, first, a business man, 
 like my friend, Luther Laflin Mills of Chi- 
 cago, sometime Secretary of the Exterior, 
 but recently appointed Minister to Altruria. 
 <IMr. Mills not long ago seated himself over 
 the tripod and threw off the following fetch- 
 ing aphorism: "The man who is his own 
 attorney has a fool for a client; but as most 
 clients for attorneys are like the folks who 
 cross London Bridge, what boots it?— lum- 
 ety, dumety, dimity dee!" 
 In King Lear is a reference to something ex- 
 ceeding bad which "is like the breath of an 
 unfee'd lawyer." 
 
 In Timon of Athens is this : " Crack the law- 
 yer's voice, that he may never more false 
 title plead, nor sound his quillets shrilly." 
 Cln Romeo and Juliet there is an allusion 
 to " lawyers who straightway dream on fees." 
 The grave-digger in Hamlet picks up a very 
 crooked skull and says, "Why may not that 
 be the skull of a lawyer?" And so it goes. 
 
 References to the 
 "law's delay" are 
 numerous, but nev- 
 er a complimentary 
 word for the mem- 
 bers of the Learned 
 Profession. 
 Every lawyer is an 
 officer of the court, 
 & yet fully one half 
 of all the lawyers in 
 the land are thor- 
 ough rogues. And 
 the curious fact is, 
 all lawyers admit it. 
 A lawyer is a moral strabismic, who revels 
 in sharked up reasons. Lawyers are the jack- 
 als of commerce, and get their living by 
 preying on the people. 
 Lawyers are men whom we hire to protect 
 us from lawyers. 
 
 Don't you know that? Well, then, your ex- 
 perience in the business world has been very 
 slight. If you have never had an obese attor- 
 ney, who never did an honest day's work in 
 his life, try to despoil you of your earnings, 
 and threaten to turn the genial current of 
 your life awry unless you would come down 
 with the cash, there is something yet for you 
 to live for. The average attorney has but 
 two objects in life, grand and petit larceny. 
 <Lln nearly all the large cities of America 
 there are lawyers who work with the police 
 and divide the spoils. Then there are suc- 
 cubi lawyers whose sole business is to drink 
 the blood of corporations and railroad com- 
 panies. Their grip is that of the horse-leech 
 — their hunger as insatiable. They chase am- 
 bulances and thrust their cards into the hands 
 of dying men, or next of kin. Then at the 
 trial they flash up witnesses who were on 
 the spot — waiting for the accident to occur. 
 C Many lawyers there be who thus feed on 
 calamity, and fatten on strife. If an estate is 
 ever settled without dividing a part among 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 27 
 
 lawyers, there is a mad chorus of indignation 
 from the attorneys who swear they have 
 been tricked of their rights— undone! 
 It is a pleasure to realize that no lawyer who 
 reads these lines will take any exception to 
 what I have herein stated; for he will at 
 once range himself up on the side of the vir- 
 tuous—the side of the Good Lawyers— and 
 run over in his own 
 mind all the Rogue 
 Lawyers who be- 
 long with the Goats. 
 <Lln order to show 
 that I am without 
 prejudice — purely 
 Zangwillian— in the 
 matter, I may state 
 that I am under ob- 
 ligations to a pudgy 
 pettifogger who pur- 
 chased a little claim 
 against me from a 
 party that I did not 
 owe. This precious 
 pair evidently went 
 snucks on it, & the 
 action of the Pestif- 
 erous Pudgy Pea- 
 scod was for just five 
 thousand plunks. 
 The very fact that 
 I have a reputation 
 for meeting my ob- 
 ligations promptly, 
 made me a shining 
 mark for blackmail. 
 CThe Jaggers ac- 
 cepted forty -two 
 dollars and fifty cents, however, and signed 
 satisfaction. 
 
 This was very kind of the Skeezics Tumble- 
 Bug, because he might have made me sit it 
 out three days in a court room thick with 
 the effluvia of his kind. 
 Then there was that suit brought against me 
 for ten thousand dollars damages by Rud- 
 yard Kipling. I compromised with Tommy 
 Atkins' Attorney for sixty-three dollars, " for 
 expenses," and bought the beer. A few 
 weeks ago I received a letter, postmarked 
 Pretoria, from the man famous from an In- 
 ternational Pneumonia, saying the Attorney 
 had kept the sixty-three dollars, and in ad- 
 
 dition had demanded one hundred dollars 
 for securing an injunction against me, re- 
 straining me from issuing Kipling's Complete 
 Works — a thing I never contemplated doing. 
 ill wrote back to the Absent-Minded Beg- 
 gar to send a check to old Adam-Zad, the 
 lawyer that walks like a man, without de- 
 lay, and count it joy. CPnce I sent a claim 
 to a New York law- 
 
 the man who 
 
 APPY is tne man 
 conserves his God-given 
 energy until wisdom and 
 not passion shall direct it. 
 So the younger in life he 
 makes the resolve to turn and live, 
 provided he is a man, the better for 
 him and the better for the world. 
 CJEvery spirit makes its house; but 
 as afterward the house confines its 
 spirit, you would better build well. 
 CBe patient with the boys — you 
 are dealing with Soul-stuff. Destiny 
 waits just around the corner. 
 CThe fine irony of an entailed no- 
 bility is so obvious one marvels to 
 think it still endures. 
 C Violence symbols weakness — 
 strength shows itself in patience 
 and poise ^^>^^^^^^^^^^^^^> 
 
 yer against a man 
 who owed me a trifle 
 of twenty dollars. 
 The lawyer collect- 
 ed the amount, but 
 he forgot to remit. I 
 then sent my claim 
 against the lawyer 
 to another lawyer 
 with orders to bring 
 suit. Lawyer Num- 
 ber Two happened 
 to be Edward Lau- 
 terbach, a Good 
 Lawyer and a vir- 
 tuous. Colonel Lau- 
 terbach wrote back 
 that he had sent for 
 Lawyer Number 
 One and receipted 
 the bill without ask- 
 ing the man for pay- 
 ment; and if I would 
 likewise balance all 
 my accounts against 
 attorneys and not 
 bother trying to col- 
 lect, it would aid my 
 digestion, ward off 
 nervous prostration, stimulate the ganglionic 
 cells, and tend to sweet sleep o' nights. 
 Brother Lauterbach then added that his fee 
 for the advice was ten dollars. 
 I sent the Ten and have been thankful ever 
 since that I made the investment. 
 And now I am firmly convinced that Lauter- 
 bach is on to his job; and I have extended 
 his advice, striking out the word "attorneys" 
 and inserting "anybody" instead. There is 
 no money in bringing suit, and still less in 
 defending one. 
 
 So this is to notify all parties, pestiferous, 
 politic and pudgy, that if they have claims, 
 real, fancied or pretended against me, to 
 
CON T E INT P I, ATIONS 
 
 Page 28 
 
 write stating the smallest amount they will 
 accept in full, and I will order the Red- 
 Headed Bursar to mail check. 
 Furthermore, this is to notify all parties who 
 are owing me, that they need not pay if they 
 don't want to. I am too busy doing good to 
 humanity (and myself) to either defend claims 
 or enforce them. Beside that, I 'm mangy 
 with money — so It 's 
 
 no difference either 
 way. 
 
 My Lords: I have 
 finished. Or in the 
 words of my friend, 
 Luther Laflin Mills: 
 lumety, dumety, di- 
 mity dee. 
 
 ! rl HE VIOLIN. 
 
 ■ There is no 
 0Jm nation so far 
 advanced, nor sav- 
 age tribe sunk so 
 low, that it does not 
 produce music. And 
 no tribe has ever 
 been found that did 
 not make music by 
 stretching strings on 
 wood and then vi- 
 brate them by the 
 handsorwith sticks. 
 The principle is as 
 old as man, and old- 
 er far than history. 
 Every child makes 
 the discovery for 
 himself that a string 
 drawn tight will "sing"; and the thought of 
 making a musical instrument in this way 
 doubtless originated with the hunter who 
 twanged his bow. In Africa, Stanley noticed 
 that his guides who were armed with bows 
 and arrows, would strike the strings, one 
 man after another, so as to produce a wierd 
 sort of music, and this music acted as a rest 
 to the nerves on the long march. 
 Who the man was that thought of placing a 
 sounding board behind the strings and ad- 
 ded the bridge and suggested strands of 
 horsehair as a vibrator, are questions that 
 are shrouded in mystery. And was he re- 
 garded as an infidel and destroyer of the 
 
 faith in thus seeking to improve on a good 
 thing? Probably, however, it took a good 
 many men, and a great many years to work 
 these changes. But the fact is pretty well es- 
 tablished that swords have been beaten into 
 plowshares, and spears into pruning-hooks, 
 and the deadly bow has transformed itself 
 into a musical instrument that shoots sweet 
 sounds into the lis- 
 
 E take an interest in the 
 lives of others because 
 when we think of another 
 
 we always imagine our re- 
 lationship to him. Then, 
 too, other lives are to a degree rep- 
 etitions of our own life. There are 
 certain things that come to every 
 one, and the rest we think might 
 have happened to us, and may yet. 
 So as we read, we unconsciously 
 slip into the life of the other man 
 and confuse our identity with his. 
 To put ourselves in his place is the 
 only way to understand and appre- 
 ciate him & so enrich our own lives. 
 It is imagination that gives us this 
 faculty of transmigration of souls; and 
 to have imagination is to be univer- 
 sal; not to have it is to be provincial. 
 
 tener's heart. 
 There are in exis- 
 tence manuscripts 
 which show draw- 
 ings of a musical 
 instrument called a 
 rebec, used by the 
 monks in the Sixth 
 Century. The rebec 
 had a bridge, a tail- 
 piece, screws used 
 for tightening the 
 strings and a sound- 
 post. Some of these 
 instruments had but 
 two strings & some 
 twenty, and were 
 manipulated first by 
 a genuine hunter's 
 bow. In fact the bass 
 viol & the bow that 
 used to play it, is a 
 combination which 
 goes away back to 
 the very dawn of 
 morning. The harp 
 was first only a war- 
 rior's bow with a 
 few strings added. 
 And several centuries before the birth of 
 Christ, they told of harps with a thousand 
 strings, which gentle fiction was doubtless 
 based on the idea that the more strings you 
 have the finer the music; but this is an error 
 in judgment, for the violin reached perfec- 
 tion with four strings, and when three of 
 these broke Paganinl went right ahead and 
 produced ravishing music on one. 
 From the harp, the strings of which were 
 picked with the fingers, or smitten with the 
 hand, arose a great number of similar stringed 
 instruments; and these gradually evolved 
 into the claver or clavichord; then the harp- 
 sichord; and finally the grand piano. Musi- 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 29 
 
 cal savants have recently told us that the 
 modern piano represents the acme of skill, 
 and human ingenuity can go no farther. But 
 we remember that Sebastian Bach made a 
 similar remark two hundred years ago con- 
 cerning the clavichord, and as the varnish is 
 hardly dry on the best "Chickering" we can 
 afford to simply enjoy the music — and wait. 
 CBut not so with 
 
 the violin. Thepiano 
 & violin trace back 
 to a common par- 
 ent, yet they belong 
 to different families. 
 CL Herbert Spencer 
 has explained that 
 Darwin never said 
 man was descended 
 from the monkey. 
 Darwin did say that 
 man and the mon- 
 key were cousins — 
 long centuries ago 
 one of them took to 
 the plains and be- 
 came a man and the 
 other stuck to the 
 woods and is a mon- 
 key yet. 
 
 The violin and pia- 
 no are cousins. A 
 piano is bigger than 
 a violin, but it does 
 not know more on 
 that account. The 
 best violins are now 
 worth as much as 
 half a dozen of the 
 best pianos. The pi- 
 ano has kept right 
 along growing — in 
 size— and may get 
 bigger yet, but Stra- 
 divarius & his play- 
 fellows in the Kindergarten of God, about 
 the year 1690, at Cremona, struck the right 
 key, and the "Cremona violin " in size, shape 
 and construction admits of no improvement. 
 CMost instruments and tools used by men 
 last the length of life of a man, and no longer. 
 But the violin is handed down from genera- 
 tion to generation, and is loved as a human 
 soul by men who grow tottering and feeble 
 
 and bequeath the beloved instrument to a 
 babe in arms, who in turn becomes a man, 
 grows old, and dying transfers the precious 
 instrument to his grandchild. The good vio- 
 lin may be patched, mended, taken apart and 
 glued together again, but the wood once 
 soaked with sunshine, dipped in the silence, 
 and charged with the melody of bells calling 
 men to prayer, gives 
 
 EATH-BED repentances 
 may be legal tender for 
 Salvation in another world, 
 but for this they are below 
 par. And regeneration that 
 is postponed until a man has no fur- 
 ther capacity for sin, is little better; 
 for sin is only perverted power, and 
 the man who has no capacity for sin 
 has no power to do good. 
 CWhen a man wrongs another he 
 wrongs himself more; and so is an 
 object of pity, not revenge. 
 C Unrest and ruin wrought through 
 overtaxed nerves, come largely from 
 owning too many things. 
 €L Happiness and a reasonable con- 
 tent follow a just and proper exer- 
 cise of one's faculties. 
 €L Matter is only mind in an opaque 
 condition; and all beauty is but a 
 symbol of spirit. 
 
 <LFor the Sanitarium Habit there 
 is no cure save poverty 
 
 out its sacred sound 
 whenever it is car- 
 essed by a sympa- 
 thetic hand and is 
 held closely to the 
 heart of one who 
 loves it. 
 
 CONCERN- 
 
 M ing right 
 
 hFM THINKING. 
 There is a nervous 
 disease called para- 
 noia. CThe belief 
 that someone is try- 
 ing to undo you is 
 its first symptom. 
 The holding of such 
 a thought feeds the 
 malady. 
 
 We believe things 
 first and look for a 
 proof later; &when 
 the idea is once fix- 
 ed in a man's mind 
 that some one is his 
 enemy, reasons as 
 light as air are to 
 him confirmation 
 strong as holy writ. 
 The individual who 
 thinks he is hated, 
 will be hated, in re- 
 ality, very shortly. 
 CHate is catching. 
 CThe person who thinks another hates 
 him is, while in that mood, most unlovable. 
 CLLove only responds to love. 
 Incipient paranoia manifests itself in suspi- 
 cion, distrust and jealousy. Acute paranoia 
 reveals itself in pronounced hallucinations, 
 and efforts in the line of revenge, even to 
 the taking of lives of persons entirely dis- 
 interested. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 30 
 
 Every police captain is familiar with that 
 phase or paranoia where persons with star- 
 ing eyes and cold sweat upon their foreheads 
 demand protection from supposed enemies 
 that are upon their track. 
 The psychologist can look down the para- 
 noiac's past and see the time when the dis- 
 ease was only the germ of a distrust or glim- 
 mering suspicion. 
 ii Goethe said, "I 
 have in me the germ 
 of every conceiva- 
 ble crime." And so 
 are we all potential 
 paranoiacs. To har- 
 bor the thought of 
 wrong is to warm 
 and vivify the germ. 
 <[ If a person in- 
 jures me accident- 
 ally, I am quite will- 
 ing to forgive him. 
 If I think he did it 
 purposely I want to 
 fight. The matter lies 
 with me & not with 
 him at all. My men- 
 tal state controls the 
 situation — it is vio- 
 lence or peace, just 
 as I think. It is quite 
 possible for me to 
 attribute an evil in- 
 tent where none ex- 
 ists. If we can think 
 wrong we bring the 
 wrong into being, & 
 thus create a condi- 
 tion of hate out of 
 nothing. 
 
 Then if we can at- 
 tribute wrong intent 
 to others, of course 
 they can to us. Yet 
 we know that at the last, what we desire 
 most, is to be loved and trusted. And yet 
 this person who attributes malice to us, can, 
 if we are not guarded, control us through a 
 wrong thought, so as to make us unlovely 
 and unlovable. 
 
 In certain physical conditions we think less 
 of people than in others. I know a man who 
 hates everybody and everything until about 
 
 HE world will never 
 again pay much good 
 money for being defamed. 
 There are no tidings of 
 great joy in the thought of 
 lell and damnation — no one ever de- 
 served them. The big reward is for 
 the man who will lighten our bur- 
 den, and give us courage. We want 
 hope, and hope for every one — sal- 
 vation for a few and death for many 
 will not do. If you wish to preach 
 hell you can do it now only on half 
 rations. And to meet the issue all 
 sensible preachers are talking less 
 about the next world and more about 
 
 thiS r€&> 
 
 C Yesterday's triumphs belong to 
 yesterday, with all of yesterday's de- 
 feats and sorrows. The Day is here, 
 the time is Now. 
 
 il If we are ever damned it will not 
 be because we have loved too much, 
 but because we have loved too little. 
 
 ten o'clock in the morning. By noon he is 
 quite approachable, and for an hour or so 
 after dinner he is usually gentle and generous. 
 *LDoes not the amount of wrong and injus- 
 tice in the world vary with us all according to 
 the time of day and our physical condition? 
 €l We do not fear anything but the evil. 
 The fear of evil is largely, if not entirely, a 
 morbid and there- 
 fore insane idea. 
 From these things I 
 gather that each one 
 is really the Crea- 
 tor of the World in 
 which he lives. And 
 what is more, every 
 man creates in his 
 own image. Without 
 an evil thought there 
 never would have 
 been any evil in the 
 world. Banish evil 
 thought, & thought 
 of evil, and there 
 would not now be 
 anyevilintheworld. 
 ClThe thought of 
 evil is born of fear. 
 Paranoia as a dis- 
 ease is the direct re- 
 sult of fear — we 
 fear some one is go- 
 ing to harm us, and 
 then we hate. Hate 
 is a manifestation of 
 fear, and therefore 
 is a species of cow- 
 ardice. 
 
 Fear affects the cir- 
 culation, even at 
 times to stopping in- 
 stantly and forever 
 the action of the 
 heart. A faulty cir- 
 culation affects every organ, and most of 
 all, the organs of digestion. And impaired 
 digestion at once affects the mind. 
 Impaired digestion means impaired thought. 
 C The treatment we receive at the hands of 
 others is very largely the reflection of our 
 own mental attitude toward them.CPrefix a 
 "d" to evil and you get a personality. CAs 
 a man thinketh, so is he. {[Think no Evil. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 31 
 
 ANNED LIFE. "How do you man- 
 age to keep so young with all your 
 manifold duties?" I once asked my 
 friend Bath-House John. 
 "Say," said the Statesman, "I '11 tell you how 
 I keep young, I live Perfunk— see?" 
 To live Perfunk is a fine art. It usually means 
 sound sleep, good digestion and length of 
 days.fL The man 
 
 that a youth can shut him- 
 self away from the actual 
 world of men, women and 
 things, in a college for a 
 few years and then come forth and 
 direct mortals in the way of life. 
 C The only men who should preach 
 are those who can and who have 
 done things. 
 
 CThe sense of humor consists in 
 knowing a big thing from a little one. 
 
 that is much before 
 the public, who is 
 meeting many peo- 
 ple, must do so in 
 a perfunctory man- 
 ner. To give issue 
 to a genuine emo- 
 tion when shaking 
 hands with each 
 would deplete one's 
 life in a day. Hence 
 canned goods are in 
 order, and you give 
 outcapsuleNumber 
 SixorNumberTen, 
 as the case requires. 
 The woman who is 
 in society has a whole little round of stock 
 phrases that meet every requirement, other- 
 wise she could not keep her plumpness, and 
 conserve her ambish — see? 
 The Canned Life has many advantages. This 
 thing of doing the same thing every day at 
 the same time, and taking all pleasures and 
 recreations perfunk, of placing your duties 
 in a row, with no worry beyond having a 
 can-opener handy, is all very good. Most 
 lives are Canned Lives, for we know exactly 
 what the person will do or say under certain 
 conditions, and where he will be at a certain 
 hour. I have attended meetings of a whist 
 club where not a remark was made the 
 whole evening that had not been made at 
 some former meeting. 
 
 You step on a dog's tail, and you may safely 
 wager on what the dog will do. Just so you 
 can anticipate the little neighborly whist club 
 players. A certain hand brings out certain 
 remarks and certain results liberate certain 
 expressions in way of exultation, apology or 
 disappointment. In all this you get the Ca- 
 reer Perfunk— that is to say, Canned Life. 
 C However, there are some disadvantages 
 that naturally accrue where any one policy 
 
 of life is carried to an extreme.COn this 
 last point the learned Dr. Sulzkeimer, Phy- 
 sician to the King of Siam, has recently con- 
 tributed a little pamphlet, a copy of which 
 the Doctor was so kind as to send me. 
 In this booklet the claim is made that all dis- 
 eases are caused either by too much excite- 
 ment, or not enough. Excitement of course 
 , increases the heart- 
 
 T is ridiculous to suppose 
 
 beat — thepulseruns 
 up, the eyes begin 
 to glisten, thought 
 flows, — all the se- 
 cretions are active. 
 To a certain point 
 this is well, for the 
 digestion is aided, 
 lungs expand, and 
 the glands, through 
 exercise, are in con- 
 dition to do their 
 perfect work. 
 But of course if the 
 excitement is con- 
 tinued beyond this 
 certain point the bo- 
 dily functions become deranged, the nerves 
 get tired of the tension, and eventually we 
 will have a case of "Nerves," variously 
 known as Americanitis or Nervous Prostra- 
 tion, with a fine array of local symptoms, 
 covering every sort of twinge, tired feeling 
 and bearing down sensation mentioned by 
 the celebrated Doctors Munyon and Pierce 
 in their exhaustive and exhausting Wurx. 
 CLOn the other hand are the diseases and 
 complaints that come from lack of excite- 
 ment — that is, too much Canned Life. The 
 prevalence of insanity among the wives of 
 farmers is caused by too much Canned Life. 
 The poor creatures perish for the lack of a 
 fresh thought. First in the list of diseases 
 caused by lack of excitement our learned 
 author names cancer, which he explains is 
 caused originally by a faulty circulation. A 
 stoppage occurs, and nature tries to relieve 
 the distressed point by sending more blood 
 to the spot. Then we get congestion and next 
 inflammation. A certain amount of excitation 
 at the right time the author avers would have 
 freed the system from all congestion and 
 made cancer impossible. 
 There are also a whole round of maladies 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 32 
 
 that can be cured by a new thought, a new 
 sensation, new surroundings. A little excite- 
 ment or a new experience often clears the 
 cobwebs from the brain. 
 Elizabeth Barrett was suffering from partial 
 paralysis, and a low degree of nerve force 
 that was fast pushing her in the direction of 
 melancholia. In fact she was suffering from 
 too much Canned 
 
 1 
 
 ALTER BESANT AND SOME OF 
 HIS CRITICS. In London, where 
 live all sorts and conditions of men, 
 
 hind which we hide our 
 ignorance; and our forced 
 dignity is what makes the 
 imps of comedy, who sit 
 aloft in the sky, hold their sides in 
 merriment when they behold us de- 
 manding obeisance because we have 
 fallen heir to tuppence worth of 
 talent >e^€^e s ^e3g!v€&>»e&*#&»»#&> 
 <L Many people cannot adjust them- 
 selves to new conditions withoutpain. 
 
 Every- 
 
 Life. Love came to 
 her, and she liter- 
 ally, as well as po- 
 etically, ran away, 
 and got well. 
 This, of course, is 
 an extreme case, but 
 there are times in 
 the life of every one 
 when people pall, 
 liver strikes, aches 
 intervene & visions 
 open of an operat- 
 ing table, sterilizing 
 pans, nurses with 
 white caps, and a 
 doctor with bushy 
 whiskers and rolled up sleeves, 
 thing seems going to the devil. 
 When lo! there comes one bearing glad tid- 
 ings. A new thought takes possession of us 
 —we laugh and listen to a story or two and 
 tell one — we go for a walk, the clouds lift 
 and we forget we ever had a doubt or pain. 
 C. Is n't this the Healing Principle in Chris- 
 tian Science — simply good news? 
 God is good, there is no devil but fear, 
 nothing can harm us, the Universe is planned 
 for good! Ah! a new thought — all life is one, 
 and we are brothers to the birds and trees. 
 Our life is a necessary and integral part of 
 the Energy that turns the wheeling planets, 
 and holds the world in space. 
 All life is One— God is on our side. We are 
 freed from fear, emancipated from appre- 
 hension, and filled with kindness toward 
 every living thing because all is ours, and 
 we are a part of all we hear and feel and see. 
 C Circulation is increased, secretions flow, 
 eyes brighten, beautiful thoughts animate 
 us— saved by an Idea! 
 New thoughts are hygienic. 
 Love is a tonic. 
 
 All Life is One— God is on our side. 
 
 once lived one Sir Walter Besant. 
 Sir Walter often took a walk out through 
 Hyde Park. At the entrance to the Park there 
 used to crouch an old beggar woman, who 
 held out a grimy hand and mumbled a woe- 
 m\TTTv • « . , ful tale of a dead 
 
 IGNITY is the mask be- 
 
 soldier husband & 
 hungry mouths at 
 home. 
 
 Sir Walter always 
 gave the woman a 
 big copper penny as 
 he passed. 
 It grew into a habit. 
 C After a time Sir 
 Walter and the old 
 woman were quite 
 friendly: he nodded 
 to her and spoke of 
 the weather as he 
 gave her the penny, 
 and she showered 
 on him her bless- 
 ings with a tongue needlessly glib. 
 One day as he gave her the penny he stopped 
 to talk a moment, as he occasionally did, and 
 the old woman handed him back the penny. 
 "Guv me siller or nawthink," said the wo- 
 man, "the idea of a gent like you guvin a 
 poor old woman like me a dirty penny — 
 guv me siller!" 
 
 The woman came close and stuck her face 
 up close to his and waved her arms in threat. 
 CSir Walter started to go. 
 Her voice shot up into a cracked and vicious 
 falsetto, she grabbed the lapel of his coat 
 and screamed, "Guv me siller, you rascally 
 rogue! Guv me what you owe me!" 
 Other beggars began to crowd around. Cab- 
 men came running from across the road; 
 pedestrians stopped. There was a mob gath- 
 ering. 
 
 The woman made her appeal to the crowd. 
 "Look at him now! Just look at him — he 's 
 the man that did it! He ruined me self-re- 
 speck — he ruined me self-respeck!" 
 The cabbies gathered close and began to 
 mutter threats — they were clearly in sympa- 
 thy with the old woman. " He ruined me self- 
 respeck! He guv me dole— he guv me dole!" 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 33 
 
 C. Sir Walter reached into his pocket, and 
 taking out a handful of small coin, scattered 
 it among the crowd. 
 
 During the scrimmage he made his escape. 
 C The next day Sir Walter took his walk in 
 another direction. 
 
 Once after that in Whitechapel he was star- 
 tled by a shrill voice, calling, "There he 
 goes, there he goes. 
 
 -the man wot ruin 
 ed me self-respeck! 
 Look at him, the 
 fine rascal — he guv 
 me dole — he guv 
 me dole!" 
 Sir Walter saw a 
 bus approaching, & 
 barely reached the 
 ladder & climbed to 
 
 N 
 
 but perhaps his act was wrong— who knows! 
 <L Anyway, keep sweet— in the main human- 
 ity wish to do what is right. For a few days 
 that old beggar assumed a place in Sir Wal- 
 ter's horizon quite out of keeping with her 
 importance. But in this transaction you 
 should pity the woman, not the man. 
 She forfeited the friendship of Sir Walter 
 Besant. 
 
 Nature there are no 
 
 such things as reward and 
 punishment, as these 
 terms are ordinarily used. 
 There are only good re- 
 sults and bad results. We sow, and 
 we reap what we have sown. 
 the"toprwhen"there Art is the beautiful way of doing 
 was a gang of urch- things. Civilization is the expeditious 
 way of doing things. 
 C To be your brother's keeper is 
 very excellent, if you do not cease 
 to be his friend. 
 
 C Teachers are those who educate 
 people to appreciate the things they 
 need >4^rt^j^,G^&&&&&&r&®> 
 
 ins and old women 
 behind, pointing at 
 him, thus, "That's 
 Mm— the fine rogue 
 wi'the long wiskers 
 —the bloke in the 
 Mgh 'at!" 
 
 Sir Walter's exper- 
 ience is not unique 
 among philanthro- 
 pists. Everybody 
 who is anybody has gotten the hatred of 
 people by trying to help them. Your enemies 
 are those you have helped most. 
 This sort of thing is what so often turns the 
 milk of human kindness to bonnyclabber. 
 But if we were strong enough we would 
 never resent it; and Sir Walter, big, gener- 
 ous soul that he was, did not complain of his 
 treatment— it was all a queer little comedy, 
 with a touch of pathos in it, as all true com- 
 edy has, just as tragedy itself is flavored by 
 comedy. The world is not made up of beg- 
 gars, ingrates and fools — it is the patient 
 workers and the active, kindly, sympathetic 
 men and women who hold the balance of 
 things secure. 
 
 No man who does a good deed should ex- 
 pect gratitude. The reward for a good deed 
 is in having done it. And possibly Sir Wal- 
 ter made a mistake ever to give that first 
 penny to the old woman. His heart was right, 
 
 God help all those, 
 who through ignor- 
 ance or folly, push 
 from them the gen- 
 erous hearts that 
 might help & bless ! 
 
 mil HITESLAV- 
 IMI ERYINTHE 
 tAJJ SOUTH. Af- 
 ter Massachusetts, 
 there is more cotton 
 cloth manufactured 
 in South Carolina 
 than in any other 
 state in the Union. 
 The cotton mills of 
 South Carolina are 
 mostly owned and 
 operated by New 
 England capital. 
 In many instances 
 the machinery of the 
 cotton mills has been moved entire from 
 Massachusetts to South Carolina. The move 
 was made for the ostensible purpose of be- 
 ing near the raw product; but the actual 
 reason is, that in South Carolina there is no 
 law regulating child labor. Heartless cupid- 
 ity has joined hands with brutal ignorance, 
 and the result is child labor of so terrible a 
 type that African slavery was a paradise 
 compared with it. 
 
 Many of the black slaves lived to a good old 
 age, and they got a hearty enjoyment from life. 
 C. The infant factory slaves of South Caro- 
 lina can never develop into men and women. 
 There are no mortality statistics; the mill 
 owners baffle all attempts of the outside 
 public to get at the facts, but my opinion is, 
 that in many mills death sets the little pris- 
 oner free inside of four years. Beyond that 
 he cannot hope to live, and this opinion 
 is derived from careful observation, and 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 34 
 
 interviews with several skilled and experi- 
 enced physicians who practice in the vicinity 
 of the mills. 
 
 Boys and girls from the age of six years and 
 upwards are employed. They usually work 
 from six o'clock in the morning until seven 
 at night. For four months of the year, they 
 go to work before daylight and they work 
 until after it is dark. 
 
 41 At noon I saw 
 them squat on the 
 floor & devour their 
 food, which consist- 
 ed mostly of corn 
 bread and bacon. 
 These weazened 
 pigmies munched in 
 silence, & then top- 
 pled over in sleep 
 on the floor in all 
 the abandon of ba- 
 byhood. Very few 
 wore shoes & stock- 
 ings; dozens of lit- 
 tle girls of, say, six 
 years of age, wore 
 only one garment, 
 a plain linsey-wool- 
 sey dress. When it 
 came time to go to 
 work the foreman 
 marched thro' the 
 groups, shaking the sleepers, shouting in 
 their ears, lifting them to their feet, and in a 
 few instances kicking the delinquents into 
 wakefulness. 
 
 The long afternoon had begun — from a 
 quarter to one until seven o'clock they had 
 to work without respite or rest. 
 These toddlers, I saw, for the most part did 
 but one thing — they watched the flying spin- 
 dles on a frame twenty feet long, and tied 
 the broken threads. They could not sit at 
 their tasks; back and forward they paced, 
 watching with inanimate dull look, the fly- 
 ing spindles. The roar of the machinery 
 drowned every other sound — back and forth 
 paced the baby toilers in their bare feet, and 
 mended the broken threads. Two, three or 
 four threads would break before they could 
 patrol the twenty feet — the threads were al- 
 ways breaking! 
 
 The noise and the constant looking at the 
 
 flying wheels reduce nervous sensation in a 
 few months to the minimum. The child does 
 not think, he ceases to suffer — memory is 
 as dead as hope: no more does he long for 
 the green fields, the running streams, the 
 freedom of the woods, and the companion- 
 ship of all the wild, free things that run, fly, 
 climb, swim or burrow, living their own lives. 
 
 He does his work 
 
 DO not see how any man, 
 
 even though he be divine, 
 could expect or hope to 
 have as many as twelve 
 disciples and hold them 
 : f or three years without being doubt- 
 ed, denied and betrayed. 
 C. If pleasures are greater in antici- 
 pation, just remember that this is 
 true also of troubles. 
 <L Poetry is an ecstacy of the spirit, 
 and ecstacies in their very nature are 
 not sustained moods. 
 CA splendid woman is generally 
 the daughter of her father, just as 
 strong men have noble mothers. 
 
 like an automaton: 
 he is a part of the 
 roaring machinery: 
 memory is seared, 
 physical vitality is 
 at such low ebb that 
 he ceases to suffer. 
 Nature puts a short 
 limit on torture by 
 sending insensibil- 
 ity. If you suffer, 
 thank God! — it is 
 a sure sign that you 
 are alive. 
 
 At a certain night 
 school, where some 
 good women were 
 putting forth efforts 
 to mitigate the con- 
 dition of these baby 
 slaves, one of the 
 teachers said to me 
 that they did not try 
 to teach the children to read — they simply 
 put forth an effort to arouse the spirit through 
 pictures and telling stories. In this school I 
 saw the sad spectacle of half the class, of a 
 dozen or more, sunk into sleep that more 
 resembled a stupor. The teacher was a fine, 
 competent woman, but worn-out nature was 
 too much for her — to teach you must make 
 your appeal to life. 
 
 The parents of the children sent them there 
 so they could be taught to read, but I was 
 told by one who knew, that no child of, say, 
 seven or eight years of age, who had worked 
 in the mill a year, could ever learn to read. 
 He is defective from that time on. A year in 
 the mills, and he loses the capacity to play; 
 and the child that cannot play, cannot learn. 
 3iWe learn in moments of joy; play is edu- 
 cation; pleasurable animation is necessary 
 to growth ; and when you have robbed a child 
 of its play spell, you have robbed it of its life. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 35 
 
 C The reason that thought flags and stupor 
 takes possession of the child who works at 
 one task for eleven hours a day, is through 
 the fact that he does not express himself. We 
 grow through expression, and expression, 
 which is exercise, is necessary to life. The 
 child in the mill never talks to any one — 
 even if the rules did not forbid it, the roar 
 of all that machin- 
 
 HE author who has not 
 made warm friends and 
 then lost them in an hour 
 by writing things that did 
 not agree with the precon- 
 ceived idea of these friends, has 
 either not written well or has not 
 been read. 
 
 Clf you could make men believe 
 that peace, truth, honesty and indus- 
 try were the best standards to adopt 
 — bringing the best results — all men 
 would adopt them. 
 C-The Conservative is a man who 
 puts on the brakes when he thinks 
 Progress is going to land Civiliza- 
 tion in the ditch. 
 
 C I wish to meet all men on an ab- 
 solute equality: to face any obstacle 
 and meet every difficulty unabashed 
 and unafraid. 
 
 <LThe poetic mood is transient. A 
 composition by Chopin is a soul ec- 
 stacy, like unto the singing of a lark. 
 CI To make a good impression means 
 to make a man pleased with himself. 
 C, There is no copyright on stupidity. 
 
 ery would make it 
 impossible. All or- 
 ders are carried out 
 in pantomime, em- 
 phasized by punch- 
 es, pinches, pokes, 
 shakes and kicks. 
 This wee slave loses 
 all relationship with 
 his fellows and the 
 world around him. 
 CLl thought to lift 
 one of the little toil- 
 ers to ascertain his 
 weight. Straightway 
 through his thirty- 
 five pounds of skin 
 and bones there ran 
 a tremor of fear, and 
 he struggled ahead 
 to tie a thread that 
 was broken. I at- 
 tracted his attention 
 by a touch, and of- 
 fered him a silver 
 dime. He looked at 
 me dumbly from a 
 face that might have 
 belonged to a man 
 of sixty, so furrow- 
 ed, tightly drawn & 
 full of pain it was. 
 He did not reach for 
 the money — he did 
 not know what it 
 was. I tried to stroke 
 his head and caress 
 his cheek. My smile 
 of friendship meant nothing to him— he 
 shrank from my touch, as though he expect- 
 ed punishment. A caress was unknown to 
 this child, sympathy had never been his 
 portion, and the love of a mother who only 
 a short time before held him in her arms, 
 
 had all been forgotten in the whir of wheels 
 and the awful silence of a din that knows no 
 respite. 
 
 There were dozens of just such children in 
 this particular mill. A physician who was 
 with me said that they would all be dead, 
 probably in two years, and their places filled 
 with others — there were plenty more. Pneu- 
 monia carries away 
 most of them. Their 
 systems are ripe for 
 disease, and when 
 it comes, there is 
 no rebound — no re- 
 sponse. The medi- 
 cine does not act 
 — nature is beaten, 
 whipped, discour- 
 aged, and the child 
 sinks into a stupor, 
 and dies. 
 
 There are now only 
 five states, I think, 
 that have no laws 
 restricting the em- 
 ployment of child- 
 ren. Child labor ex- 
 ists in Georgia and 
 Alabama, to an ex- 
 tent nearly as bad 
 as it does in South 
 Carolina. In each 
 of these states there 
 are bands of brave 
 men & women who 
 are waging war to 
 stop the slaughter of 
 the innocents; and 
 these men and wo- 
 men have so forced 
 the issue that the 
 mill owners are giv- 
 ing way before them 
 and offering com- 
 promise. But South 
 Carolina lags and 
 the brave workers 
 for liberty there seem a hopeless minority. 
 CFor these things let Massachusetts an- 
 swer. South Carolina weaves cotton that 
 Massachusetts may wear silk. 
 South Carolina cannot abolish child labor 
 because the mill owners, who live in New 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 36 
 
 mi 
 
 England, oppose it. They have invested their 
 millions in South Carolina, with the tacit 
 understanding with Legislature and Gov- 
 ernor that there shall be no State inspection 
 of mills, nor interference in any way with 
 their management of employees. Each suc- 
 ceeding election the candidates for the Leg- 
 islature secretly make promises that they 
 will not pass a law 
 forbidding child la- 
 bor. They can nev- 
 er hope for election 
 otherwise — the cap- 
 italists combinewith 
 the "crackers," and 
 any man who fav- 
 ors the restriction 
 of child labor is 
 marked for defeat. 
 ii The cracker, cap- 
 italist and preacher 
 live on child labor, 
 and the person who 
 lifts his voice in be- 
 half of the children 
 is denounced as a 
 sickly sentimental- 
 ist, who is endeav- 
 oring to discourage 
 the best interests of 
 the State.The crack- 
 er does not reason 
 quite thus far — with 
 him it is a question 
 of "rights, sah," & 
 he is the head of 
 his family and you 
 must not meddle, — 
 his honor is at stake. 
 <i So at every elec- 
 tion he is jealously 
 guarding his rights 
 — he has n't any- 
 thing else to do — he 
 has lost everything 
 else but "honor." 
 
 If women could vote 
 in South Carolina they would wipe child 
 labor out with a sweep, but alas! a woman 
 in South Carolina does not own even her 
 own body. South Carolina is the only state 
 in the Union that has no divorce law. In 
 South Carolina the gracious, gentle woman 
 
 married to a rogue has him for life, and he 
 has her. The State objects to their getting 
 apart. The fetters forged in South Carolina 
 never break (in South Carolina), and the 
 key is lost. 
 
 I say these things with no prejudice against 
 the people of South Carolina as a whole, for 
 some of the bravest, gentlest, sanest, most 
 loyal and most hos- 
 
 reformer is a savior pitabie friends that 
 
 I have in the world 
 live there. I make 
 the mention merely 
 as a matter of fact 
 to show that the ma- 
 jority of the people 
 in South Carolina 
 have a long way to 
 travel and are good 
 raw stock for mis- 
 sionary work. 
 I learned from a re- 
 liable source that a 
 cotton mill having a 
 pay-roll of six thou- 
 sand dollars a week 
 in New England, 
 can be run in the 
 South for four thou- 
 sand dollars a week. 
 This means a saving 
 of just one hundred 
 thousand dollars a 
 year: and the mill 
 having a capital of 
 one million dollars 
 thusgetsacleargain 
 of ten per cent per 
 annum. 
 
 One mill at Colum- 
 bia, South Caroli- 
 na, has a capital of 
 two million dollars. 
 In half adozen other 
 cities there are mills 
 with a capital of a 
 
 HE 
 
 or a rebel, all depending 
 largely upon whether he 
 succeeds or fails. He is 
 what he is regardless of 
 what men think of him. 
 *LWe can go forward only as we 
 leave hate behind. If we sow hate 
 we must reap hate. We awaken in 
 others the same attitude that we 
 hold toward them. 
 €L To be modest and gentle and kind, 
 as we all can be, is just as much to 
 God as to be learned and talented, 
 and yet a cad. 
 
 it A good time to laugh is when you 
 see a mighty bundle of pretense and 
 affectation coming down the street. 
 <L Everything is comparative; that is 
 the only way we realize anything — 
 by comparing it with something else. 
 *L Reformers are often merely "ab- 
 stainers" — they abstain from things 
 and call it "virtue." 
 ilThe pathway to success lies in 
 serving the public, not in affronting it. 
 it Let us be Radiant! 
 
 million dollars or 
 more. These mills all have Company Depart- 
 ment Stores, where the employees trade. 
 A certain credit is given, and the employee 
 who has a dollar coming to him in cold cash 
 is very, very rare. The cashier of one mill 
 told me that nineteen families out of twenty 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 37 
 
 never see any cash, and probably never 
 will. The account is kept with the head of 
 the house. Against him are charged house 
 rent, insurance, fuel — three things the man 
 never thought of. Next, the orders drawn on 
 the Company must be met. Then come gro- 
 ceries, clothing and gew-gaws that the young 
 women are tempted into buying, providing 
 the account is not ^ v . 
 already overdrawn, tl IOU can only 
 Sometimes it occurs helping 
 that the account is 
 so much overdrawn by the last of the month 
 that the storekeeper will dole out only corn 
 meal and bacon — just these two things to 
 prevent starvation and keep the family at 
 work. 
 
 The genial cashier who made this explana- 
 tion to me, did it to reveal the pitiable ignor- 
 ance of the "poor whites," — the cracker 
 cannot figure his account — it is all a matter 
 of faith with him. "To manage a cracker you 
 have to keep him in debt to you," explained 
 my friend, "then you can control his vote, 
 and his family." 
 
 The ingenuity displayed in securing the la- 
 borers reveals the instincts of Connecti- 
 cut," to use the phrase of Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson. There are men called " Employing 
 Agents" who drive through the country and 
 make the acquaintance of the poor whites — 
 the "white trash." This expression, by the 
 way, was launched by the negroes, and then 
 taken up by the whites. No white man will 
 acknowledge himself as "trash," but he ap- 
 plies the epithet to others who are supposed 
 to be still more trashy than himself. 
 No matter how poor these whites are, they 
 are always well stuffed with pride — they 
 are as proud as the rich, and they would 
 conduct themselves just like the F. F. V's, if 
 they had the money. They are F. F. V's, 
 slightly run down at the heel. 
 They apologize for their poverty and lay it 
 all to the war. All consider themselves very 
 much above the negroes— they will not work 
 with the blacks. 
 
 The Employing Agent drops in on this poor 
 white family and there is much friendly con- 
 versation — for time is no object to the cracker. 
 Gradually the scheme is unfolded. There is 
 a nice man who owns a mill — he will not 
 employ negroes — they are not sufficiently 
 
 intelligent. The visitor can get work for all 
 the women and the children of the house- 
 hold with this nice man. There will be no 
 work for the man of the house, but he can 
 get odd jobs in the town. 
 This suits the cracker— he does not want to 
 work. A house will be supplied gratis for 
 them to live in. A photograph of the house 
 , , in i is shown — it is a 
 
 help yourself by veritable palace in 
 comparison with the 
 place they now call 
 home. The visitor goes away, promising to 
 call again the next week. He comes back 
 and reports that he has seen his friend, the 
 house is ready, work is waiting, wages in 
 cash will be paid every Saturday night. 
 CCash! 
 
 Why, this poor white family never saw any 
 real cash in all their lives! 
 A printed agreement is produced and signed. 
 Clf the cracker has n't quite energy enough 
 to move, the Employing Agent packs up his 
 scanty effects and advances money for car 
 fare. The family land in the mill town, are 
 quartered in one of the company's cottages 
 and go to work — the mother and all the 
 children over five. The head of the house 
 stays at home to do the housework, and be- 
 ing a man, of course, he does n't do it. He goes 
 to the grocery or some other loafing place 
 where there are other men in the same happy 
 condition as himself. Idle men in the South, 
 as elsewhere, do not feel very well — they 
 need a little stimulant, and take it. The cracker 
 discovers he can get whiskey and pay for it 
 with an order on the Company. 
 He is very happy, and needless to say, is 
 quite opposed to any fanatic who would like 
 to interfere in his family relations. He is not 
 aware of it, but he has sold his wife and 
 children into a five years' slavery. The Com- 
 pany threatens and has the right to discharge 
 them all if one quits — even the mother is 
 not free. 
 
 But the cracker knows his rights — he is the 
 head of his family, the labor of his children 
 is his until the girls are eighteen and the 
 boys twenty-one. He knows these things 
 and he starts them off to their work while it 
 is yet night. 
 
 And at the mill the overseers look after 
 them. These overseers are Northern men — 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 38 
 
 ers 
 
 sent down by the capitalists. In war time the 
 best slave-drivers were Northerners — they 
 have the true spirit and get the work done. 
 If necessary they do not hesitate to "re- 
 prove" their charges. 
 
 But the cracker wants to be kind; he wants 
 to accumulate enough money to buy a home 
 in the country — it will take only a few years 1 
 The overseers do 
 not wish to be bru- 
 tal, but they have to 
 report to the super- 
 intendents,— there must be so much cloth 
 made every day. The superintendent is not 
 a bad man — but he has to make a daily re- 
 port to the President of the Company; and 
 the President has to report to the Stock- 
 holders. 
 
 The Stockholders live in Boston, and all 
 they want is their dividends. When they go 
 South they go to Pinehurst, Asheville or St. 
 Augustine. Details of the mills are not pleas- 
 ant; they simply leave matters to the good 
 men who operate the mills — it is against 
 their policy to dictate. 
 Capital is King, not cotton. But capital is 
 blind and deaf to all that is not to its inter- 
 est: it will not act while child labor means 
 ten per cent dividends on industrial stocks. 
 Clnstead of abolishing child labor, capital 
 gives a lot, near the mill property, to any 
 preacher who will build a church, and an- 
 other lot for a parsonage, and then agrees 
 to double the amount any denomination will 
 raise for a church edifice. 
 Within a quarter of a mile from one cotton 
 mill, at Columbia, South Carolina, I counted 
 seven churches, completed or in process of 
 erection. 
 
 And that is the way the mill owners capture 
 the clergy. In talking with various preachers 
 on the question of child labor they all, I 
 found, had arguments to excuse it, blissfully 
 unaware that the entire question had been 
 fought out in the world's assize, and that 
 Civilization fifty years ago had placed her 
 stamp of disapproval on the matter. One 
 preacher put it in this way, with a gracious, 
 patronizing smile (I quote his exact words): 
 Oh, of course, it is pretty bad — but then, 
 dear brother, you know the children are bet- 
 ter off in the mill than running the streets!" 
 C It is assumed that there are only two oc- 
 
 CGod made flowers only that lov- 
 might make suitable gifts 
 
 cupations for children — working in the mill 
 and running the streets. And then this man 
 of God confessed to me without shame that 
 many of the men whose whole families 
 worked in the mills, subscribed one-tenth of 
 their income to the support of "the Gospel," 
 and gave him an order on the Mill Company 
 for the amount; and this amount was with- 
 held from the wages 
 and paid to him reg- 
 ularly by the cash- 
 ier of the Company. 
 C The majority of the clergy of South Caro- 
 lina have always stood for slavery. The 
 clergy never move faster than the people, 
 usually lagging a little behind. To get ahead 
 of the pews is to separate from them, so the 
 average clergyman will not champion an un- 
 popular cause. The clergyman who speaks 
 his mind for freedom has to get out of the 
 church. Luther, Savonarola, Emerson, Mc- 
 Glynn, Beecher, Prof. Swing, Dr. Thomas 
 and all that band of preachers who have 
 stood out and voiced the cause of freedom, 
 have been regarded by their denominations 
 as renegades. Exile and ostracism have been 
 the lot of freedom's champions; and their 
 ostracism and social disgrace have been the 
 work of the respectable element in the church. 
 C And the reason the church has always 
 sided with slavery is because she has thrived 
 on the profits of slavery. 
 We have heard much about the danger that 
 follows an alliance between church and 
 state; but what think you of a partnership 
 between grasping greed and religion — the 
 professed religion of the suffering, bleeding 
 Christ, the Christ who had not where to 
 lay His head! 
 
 The Orthodox Protestant preacher is an in- 
 stitution in the South. You see his well-but- 
 tered face on every train, at every station — 
 he attends every gathering — nothing can be 
 done without him. He preaches "the blood 
 of Jesus," and nothing else. His gospel is 
 the promise of a perfect paradise hereafter 
 for all who believe as he does, and hell and 
 damnation for all who don't. There has not 
 been a patentable improvement made on his 
 devil in two hundred years. 
 The South is priest-ridden to an extent that 
 should make Italy and Spain jealous. The 
 preacher is a power. One of them explained 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 39 
 
 to me that most of the heads of families that 
 worked in the mills were "Christian peo- 
 ple." He seemed to think that Jesus said, 
 Suffer little children to come unto Me and 
 forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom 
 of Cotton." 
 
 If the child workers of South Carolina could 
 be marshalled by bugle-call, headed with 
 fife and drum, and 
 marched through 
 Commonwealth 
 Avenue,outpastthe 
 statue of William 
 Lloyd Garrison, 
 erected by sons of 
 the men who drag- 
 ged him through the 
 streets at a rope's 
 end, the sight would 
 appal the heart and 
 drive conviction 
 home. Imagine an 
 army of full twen- 
 ty thousand pigmy 
 bondsmen, half na- 
 ked, weazened, half 
 starved, yellow, de- 
 formed in body,and 
 all with drawn faces 
 that show spirits too 
 dead to weep, too 
 hopeless to laugh, 
 too pained to feel! 
 Would not aristo- 
 cratic Boston lock 
 her doors, bar the 
 shutters and turn in 
 shame from such a 
 sight? I know the sweat shops of Hester 
 Street, New York; I am familiar with the 
 vice, depravity and degradation of the White- 
 chapel District; I have visited the Ghetto of 
 Venice; I know the lot of the coal miners of 
 Pennsylvania; and I know somewhat of 
 Siberian atrocities; but for misery, woe and 
 hopeless suffering, I have never seen any- 
 thing to equal the cotton mill slavery of 
 South Carolina — this in my own America! 
 CMiss Jane Addams recently wrote: "A 
 few weeks ago I stood at 10.30 at night in a 
 mill in Columbia, S.C., controlled and owned 
 by Northern capital, where children who 
 did not know their own ages were working 
 
 from 6 p. m. to 6 a. m., without a moment 
 for rest or food or a single cessation of the 
 maddening rack of the machinery." 
 For the adult who accepts the life of the 
 mills, I have not a word to say— it is his 
 own business. My plea is in defense of the 
 innocent — I voice the cry of the child whose 
 sob is drowned in the thunder of whirring 
 wheels. The ini- 
 
 GREAT sorrow at one 
 stroke, purchases redemp- 
 tion from all petty troub- 
 les; it sinks all trivial an- 
 noyances into nothingness 
 and grants a lifelong freedom from 
 all petty, corroding cares. 
 CHe who influences the thought of 
 his time, influences the thought of 
 all the time that follows. He has 
 made his impress on eternity. 
 CA pension often means that the 
 receiver shall not offend nor affront 
 the one who bestows it. Pensions 
 are usually diplomatic investments. 
 CThere are two qualities that are 
 the property of only strong men: 
 confidence and resignation. 
 CWhat is best to-day cannot fail to 
 bring the best results to-morrow. 
 
 quity of this New 
 Slavery in the New 
 South has grown up 
 out of conditions for 
 which no one man, 
 or class of men, it 
 seems is amenable. 
 The interests of the 
 cracker, the preach- 
 er, the overseer, the 
 superintendent, the 
 president, and the 
 stockholders, are so 
 involved that they 
 cannot see the truth 
 — their feet are en- 
 snared, & they sink 
 into the quicksands 
 of hypocrisy, de- 
 ceiving themselves 
 with specious rea- 
 sons. They must be 
 educated, and the 
 people must also be 
 educated. 
 
 So it remains for 
 that small, yet val- 
 iant band of men & 
 
 women in theSouth, 
 who are fighting this iniquity, to hold fast and 
 not leave off in their work until the little cap- 
 tives are set free. Right will surely win. And 
 to these earnest men and women who are 
 braving ostracism, and who are very often 
 scorned in their own homes, who have noth- 
 ing to gain but the consciousness of having 
 done right, we reach friendly hands across 
 the miles, and out of the silence we send 
 them blessings and bid them be strong and 
 of good cheer. Seemingly they fight alone, but 
 thought, hope & aspiration are never solitary 
 —they are not alone, for the great, throb- 
 bing Mother-heart of the world, has but to 
 know of their existence to be one with them. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 40 
 
 ET OUT OR GET IN 
 LINE. If all the letters, 
 messages and speeches 
 of Lincoln were destroy- 
 ed, except that one let- 
 ter to Hooker, we should still have 
 a pretty good index to the heart of 
 the Rail-Splitter. 
 In this letter we see that Lincoln 
 ruled his own spirit; and we also 
 behold the fact that he could rule 
 others. The letter shows frankness, 
 kindliness, wit, tact, wise diplom- 
 acy and infinite patience. 
 Hooker had harshly and unjustly 
 criticised Lincoln, his Command- 
 er-in-Chief, and he had embarras- 
 sed Burnside, his ranking officer. 
 But Lincoln waives all this in def- 
 erence to the virtues that he be- 
 lieves Hooker possesses, and pro- 
 motes him to succeed Burnside. 
 In other words, the man who had 
 been wronged promotes the man 
 who had wronged him, over the 
 head of a man whom the promo- 
 tee had wronged and for whom 
 the promoter had a warm personal 
 friendship. 
 
 But all personal considerations 
 were sunk in view of the end de- 
 sired. Yet it was necessary that 
 the man promoted should know 
 the truth, and Lincoln told it to 
 him in a way that did not humili- 
 ate nor fire to foolish anger; but 
 which certainly prevented the at- 
 tack of cerebral elephantiasis to 
 
 which Hooker was liable.*! Here 
 is Lincoln's letter: 
 
 Executive Mansion, 
 Washington, January 26, 1863. 
 Major-General Hooker: 
 General:— I have placed you at the head of 
 the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have 
 done this upon what appear to me to be suf- 
 ficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you 
 to know that there are some things in regard 
 to which I am not quite satisfied with you. 
 C I believe you to be a brave and skilful 
 soldier, which of course I like. 
 I also believe you do not mix politics with 
 vour profession, in which you are right. 
 C You have confidence in yourself, which is 
 a valuable if not an indispensable quality. 
 C. You are ambitious, which, within reason- 
 able bounds, does good rather than harm; 
 but I think that during General Burnside's 
 command of the army you have taken coun- 
 sel of your ambition and thwarted him as 
 much as you could, in which you did a great 
 wrong to the country and to a most meritor- 
 ious and honorable brother officer. 
 I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, 
 of your recently saying that both the army 
 and the government needed a dictator. Of 
 course it was not for this, but in spite of it, 
 that I have given you the command. Only 
 those generals who gain successes can set 
 up dictators. What I now ask of you is mili- 
 tary success, and I will risk the dictatorship. 
 The government will support you to the ut- 
 most of its ability, which is neither more nor 
 less than it has done and will do for all com- 
 manders. I much fear that the spirit which 
 you have aided to infuse into the army, of 
 criticising their commander and withholding 
 confidence from him, will now turn upon 
 you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put 
 it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he 
 were alive again, could get any good out of 
 an army while such a spirit prevails in It. 
 And now beware of rashness; beware of 
 rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigi- 
 lance go forward and give us victories. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 A. LINCOLN. 
 
 One point in this letter is espec- 
 ially worth our consideration, for 
 
The Ball Room 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 40 
 
 ET OUT OR GET IN 
 LINE. If all the letters, 
 messages and speeches 
 of Lincoln were destroy- 
 ed, except that one let- 
 ter to Hooker, we should still have 
 a pretty good index to the heart of 
 the Rail-Splitter. 
 In this letter we see that Lincoln 
 ruled his own spirit; and we also 
 behold the fact that he could rule 
 others. The letter shows frankness, 
 kindliness, wit, tact, wise diplom- 
 acy and infinite patience. 
 Hooker had harshly and unjustly 
 criticised Lincoln, his Command- 
 er-in-Chief, and he had embarras- 
 sed Burnside, his ranking officer. 
 But Lincoln waives all this in def- 
 erence to the virtues that he be- 
 lieves Hooker possesses, and pro- 
 motes him to succeed Burnside. 
 In other words, the man who had 
 been wronged promotes the man 
 who had wronged him, over the 
 head of a man whom the promo- 
 tee had wronged and for whom 
 the promoter had a warm personal 
 friendship. 
 
 But all personal considerations 
 were sunk in view of the end de- 
 sired. Yet it was necessary that 
 the man promoted should know 
 the truth, and Lincoln told it to 
 him in a way that did not humili- 
 ate nor fire to foolish anger; but 
 which certainly prevented the at- One point in this letter is espec- 
 tack of cerebral elephantiasis to ially worth our consideration, for 
 
 which Hooker was liable.*! Here 
 is Lincoln's letter: 
 
 Executive Mansion, 
 Washington, January 26, 1863. 
 Major-General Hooker: 
 General:— I have placed you at the head of 
 the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have 
 done this upon what appear to me to be suf- 
 ficient reasons, and yet I think it best for you 
 to know that there are some things in regard 
 to which I am not quite satisfied with you. 
 C. I believe you to be a brave and skilful 
 soldier, which of course I like. 
 I also believe you do not mix politics with 
 your profession, in which you are right. 
 C You have confidence in yourself, which is 
 a valuable if not an indispensable quality. 
 C You are ambitious, which, within reason- 
 able bounds, does good rather than harm; 
 but I think that during General Burnside's 
 command of the army you have taken coun- 
 sel of your ambition and thwarted him as 
 much as you could, in which you did a great 
 wrong to the country and to a most meritor- 
 ious and honorable brother officer. 
 I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, 
 of your recently saying that both the army 
 and the government needed a dictator. Of 
 course it was not for this, but in spite of it, 
 that I have given you the command. Only 
 those generals who gain successes can set 
 up dictators. What I now ask of you is mili- 
 tary success, and I will risk the dictatorship. 
 The government will support you to the ut- 
 most of its ability, which is neither more nor 
 less than it has done and will do for all com- 
 manders. I much fear that the spirit which 
 you have aided to infuse into the army, of 
 criticising their commander and withholding 
 confidence from him, will now turn upon 
 you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put 
 it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he 
 were alive again, could get any good out of 
 an army while such a spirit prevails in it. 
 And now beware of rashness; beware of 
 rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigi- 
 lance go forward and give us victories. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 A. LINCOLN. 
 
The Ball Room 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 41 
 
 it suggests a condition that springs 
 up like deadly nightshade from a 
 poisonous soil. I refer to the habit 
 of sneering, carping, grumbling at 
 and criticising the ones above us. 
 CLThe man who is anybody and 
 who does anything is surely going 
 to be criticised, vilified and mis- 
 understood. This is a part of the 
 penalty for greatness, and every 
 great man understands it; and un- 
 derstands, too, that it is no proof 
 of greatness. The final proof of 
 greatness lies in being able to en- 
 dure contumely without resent- 
 ment. Lincoln did not resent cri- 
 ticism; he knew that every life 
 must be its own excuse for being, 
 but look how he calls Hooker's 
 attention to the fact that the dis- 
 sension Hooker has sown is going 
 to return and plague him! "Neither 
 you, nor Napoleon, were he alive, 
 could get any good out of an army 
 while such a spirit prevails in it." 
 Hooker's fault falls on Hooker — 
 others suffer, but Hooker suffers 
 most of all. 
 
 Not long ago I met a Yale student 
 home on a vacation. I am sure he 
 did not represent the true Yale 
 spirit, for he was full of criticism 
 and bitterness toward the institu- 
 tion. President Hadley came in 
 for his share, and I was supplied 
 items, facts, data; with times and 
 places, for "a peach of a roast." 
 C. Very soon I saw the trouble was 
 
 not with Yale, the trouble was with 
 the young man. He had mentally 
 dwelt on some trivial slights until 
 he had got so out of harmony with 
 the institution that he had lost the 
 power to derive any benefit from 
 it. Yale is not a perfect institution 
 — a fact, I suppose, that President 
 Hadley and most Yale men are 
 quite willing to admit; but Yale 
 does supply certain advantages, 
 and it depends upon the students 
 whether they will avail themselves 
 of these advantages or not. 
 If you are a student in a college, 
 seize upon the good that is there. 
 You get good by giving it. You gain 
 by giving — so give sympathy and 
 cheerful loyalty to the institution. 
 Be proud of it. Stand by your 
 teachers — they are doing the best 
 they can. If the place is faulty, 
 make it a better place by an exam- 
 ple of cheerfully doing your work 
 every day the best you can. Mind 
 your own business. 
 If the concern where you are em- 
 ployed is all wrong, and the Old 
 Man a curmudgeon, it may be well 
 for you to go to the Old Man and 
 confidentially, quietly and kindly 
 tell him that he is a curmudgeon. 
 Explain to him that his policy is 
 absurd and preposterous. Then 
 show him how to reform his ways, 
 and you might offer to take charge 
 of the concern and cleanse it of 
 its secret faults. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 42 
 
 Do this, or if for any reason you 
 should prefer not, then take your 
 choice of these: Get out y or get 
 in line. You have got to do one or 
 the other — now make your choice. 
 If you work for a man, in heaven's 
 name, work for him! 
 If he pays you wages that supply 
 you your bread and butter, work 
 for him — speak well of him, think 
 well of him, stand by him &standby 
 the institution that he represents. 
 ill think if I worked for a man I 
 would work for him. I would not 
 work for him a part of the time, and 
 the rest of the time work against 
 him. I would give an undivided 
 service or none. 
 
 If put to the pinch,anounce of loyal- 
 ty is worth a pound of cleverness. 
 C, If you must vilify, condemn and 
 eternally disparage, why, resign 
 your position, and when you are 
 outside, damn to your heart's con- 
 tent. But, I pray you, so long as 
 you are a part of an institution, do 
 not condemn it. Not that you will 
 injure the institution — not that — 
 but when you disparage the con- 
 cern of which you are a part, you 
 disparage yourself. 
 More than that, you are loosening 
 the tendrils that hold you to the 
 institution, and the first high wind 
 that comes along, you will be up- 
 rooted and blown away in the bliz- 
 zard's track — and probably you 
 will never know why. The letter 
 
 only says, "Times are dull and we 
 regret there is not enough work," 
 et cetera. 
 
 Everywhere you find those out-of- 
 a-job fellows. Talk with them and 
 you will usually find that they are 
 full of railing, bitterness and con- 
 demnation. That was the trouble — 
 through a spirit of fault-finding 
 they got themselves swung around 
 so they blocked the channel, and 
 had to be dynamited. They were 
 out of harmony with the concern, 
 and no longer being a help they 
 had to be removed. Every employer 
 is constantly looking for people 
 who can help him; naturally he is 
 on the lookout among his employ- 
 ees for those who do not help, and 
 everything and everybody that is a 
 hindrance has to go. This is the 
 law of trade — do not find fault 
 with it; it is founded on Nature. 
 The reward is only for the man 
 that helps, and in order to help 
 you must have sympathy. 
 You cannot help the Old Man so 
 long as you are explaining in un- 
 dertone and whisper, by gesture 
 and suggestion, by thought and 
 mental attitude, that he is a cur- 
 mudgeon and his system is dead 
 wrong. You are not necessarily 
 menacing him by stirring up dis- 
 content and warming envy into 
 strife, but you are doing this: You 
 are getting yourself upon a well 
 greased chute that will give you a 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 43 
 
 quick ride to hades. <L When you 
 say to other employees that the 
 Old Man is a curmudgeon, you 
 reveal the fact that you are one; 
 and when you tell that the policy 
 of the institution is "rotten," you 
 surely show that yours is. 
 Hooker got his promotion even in 
 spite of his failings; but the chances 
 are that your employer does not 
 have the love that Lincoln had — 
 the love that suffereth long and is 
 kind. But even Lincoln could not 
 protect Hooker forever. Hooker 
 failed to do the work, and Lincoln 
 had to try some one else. So there 
 came a time when Hooker was 
 superseded by a Silent Man, who 
 ruled his own spirit, took the cities. 
 He minded his own business, and 
 did the work that no man ever can 
 do unless he gives absolute loyal- 
 ty, perfect confidence and untir- 
 ing devotion. 
 
 Let us mind our own business, 
 and work for self by working for 
 the good of All. 
 
 HE JEWISH METH- 
 OD OF TRAINING 
 CHILDREN. Asa rule 
 I have noticed that Jews 
 treat their wives, child- 
 ren and aged parents with a deal 
 more tenderness and consideration 
 than we Hittites. I wonder if this 
 is a fact, or is it a mere coincidence 
 in my experience? I have had a 
 
 good deal to do with the Chosen, 
 but I never yet heard one of them 
 refer to his father as the Old Gent; 
 and I have noticed, very often, in 
 Jewish families that the grandfa- 
 ther or grandmother was the lov- 
 ing equal of the children and the 
 pride and pet of the household. 
 CA full-grown Jew might put up 
 a good company bluff, but a child 
 is no hypocrite; and mark you this, 
 the child gets its cue for manners 
 and behavior from its parents. If 
 the mother has little patience the 
 child is a little worse, and if the 
 father is a boor in his home his 
 boys are hoodlums. Jewish child- 
 ren respect their parents and grand- 
 parents. They respect old age and 
 well doing, and the reason is, I 
 think, because the Jew, as a rule, 
 makes a companion of his child. 
 C,I do not believe that you can 
 teach a child under fourteen any- 
 thing by admonition; you teach him, 
 however, most emphatically, by 
 example. If you scold a child you 
 only add to his vocabulary, and he 
 visits on doll or playfellow your 
 language and manner. 
 The Jew may hang on to a dollar 
 when dealing with the Enemy, but 
 he does not dole out pittances to 
 his wife, alternately humor and 
 cuff his children, nor request, by 
 his manner, that elderly people 
 who are not up-to-date shall get 
 off the face of the earth r^»^^> 
 
C O N T EMPLATIOiXS 
 
 Page 44 
 
 ■^ATIENCE AND ENDURANCE. 
 
 i 5vJ Over the desk of William Morris there 
 used to hang a motto, the words carved 
 on wood ; and the words were these : He that 
 Endureth unto the End shall be Saved. 
 CI Patience — that is the theme! 
 I am not sure that William Morris was the 
 most patient man I ever saw; had he been 
 patient by nature he 
 
 would never have 
 thought to have that 
 sign constantly be- 
 fore him. 
 
 But it is well to real- 
 ize that it is the pa- 
 tient man who wins. 
 To do your work 
 and not be anxious 
 about the result, is 
 wisdom of the high- 
 est order. This does 
 not mean that you 
 are to sell yourself 
 as a slave. If the 
 position you now 
 have does not give 
 you an opportunity 
 to grow, and you 
 should know of a 
 better place, why go 
 to the better place, 
 by all means. The 
 point I make is sim- 
 ply this: if you care 
 to remain in a place 
 you can never bet- 
 ter your position by 
 striking for higher 
 wages or favors of any kind. <L The em- 
 ployee who drives a sharp bargain and is 
 fearful that he will not get all he earns, never 
 will. There are men who are set on a hair 
 trigger — always ready to make demands 
 when there is a rush of work, and who 
 threaten to walk out if their demands are 
 not acceded to. 
 
 The demands may be acceded to, but this 
 kind of help is always marked on the time- 
 book for dismissal when work gets scarce 
 and business dull. 
 
 Such men are out of employment about half 
 the time, and the curious part of it is, they 
 never know why. 
 
 As a matter of pure worldly wisdom — just 
 cold-blooded expediency — if I were an em- 
 ployee I would never mention wages. I 
 would focus right on my work and do it. 
 <i The man that endures is the man that wins. 
 I would never harass my employer by inop- 
 portune propositions — I would give him 
 peace, and I would lighten his burden. Per- 
 sonally Iwould nev- 
 
 ENAN suggests that one 
 reason why religion re- 
 
 mains on such a material 
 plane for many is because 
 they have never known a 
 great and vitalizing love: a love 
 where intellect, spirit and sex finds 
 its perfect mate. 
 
 11 People who live all the year in 
 the quiet valleys where the roses 
 continually bloom, are not neces- 
 sarily happy. 
 
 C If you have thoughts and honest- 
 ly speak your mind, Golgotha for 
 you is not far away. 
 Q In man's fearsome endeavor to 
 make himself secure for another 
 world, he has neglected this. 
 C We believe a thing first and skir- 
 mish for our proofs afterward,^. 
 
 er be in evidence, 
 unless it were posi- 
 tively necessary— 
 my work should tell 
 its own story. 
 The cheerful work- 
 er who goes ahead 
 and makes himself 
 a necessity to the 
 business and never 
 increases the bur- 
 den of his superiors 
 —will sooner or la- 
 ter get all that is his 
 due, and more. He 
 will not only get pay 
 for his work, but he 
 will get a bonus for 
 his patience, & an- 
 other for his good 
 cheer. 
 
 Themanwhomakes 
 a strike to have his 
 wages raised from 
 fifteen to eighteen 
 dollars a week, may 
 get the raise, and 
 then his wages will 
 stay there. Had he 
 kept quiet and just been intent on mak- 
 ing himself a five-thousand-dollar man, he 
 might have gravitated straight to a five-thous- 
 and-dollar desk. 
 
 I would not risk spoiling my chances for a 
 big promotion by asking for a little one. And 
 it is but trite truism to say that no man ever 
 received a big promotion because he de- 
 manded it — he got it because he could fill 
 the position, and for no other reason. 
 Ask the man who receives a ten-thousand- 
 dollar-a-year salary how he managed to bring 
 it about, and he will tell you he just simply 
 did his work as well as he could. Never did 
 such a man go on a strike. The most success- 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 45 
 
 ful strike is a defeat; and had this man been 
 a striker by nature, sudden and quick in 
 quarrel, jealous of his rights, things would 
 have conspired to keep him down and under. 
 I do not care how clever he may be or how 
 well educated, his salary would have been 
 eighteen a week at the farthest, with a very 
 tenuous hold on his job. HHq that endureth 
 unto the end shall 
 be saved. 
 
 At hotels the man 
 that complains is the 
 man against whom 
 the servants are al- 
 ways in league; and 
 the man who com- 
 plains most is the 
 man who has the 
 least at home. 
 If you are defamed, 
 let time vindicate 
 you — silence is a 
 thousand times bet- 
 ter than to explain. 
 C Explanations do 
 not explain. 
 Let your life be its 
 own excuse for be- 
 ing — cease all ex- 
 planations and all 
 apologies, and just 
 live your life. 
 By minding your 
 own business, you 
 give other folks an 
 opportunity to mind 
 theirs; and depend 
 upon it, the great 
 souls will appreciate you for this very thing. 
 C I am not sure that absolute, perfect justice 
 comes to everybody in this world; but I do 
 know that the best way to get justice is not 
 to be too anxious about it. As love goes to 
 those who do not lie in wait for it, so does 
 the big reward gravitate to the patient man. 
 HHe that Endureth unto the End shall 
 be Saved. 
 
 iMBOUT DR. R. M. BUCKE AND 
 |§f WHAT HE STOOD FOR. Said Walt 
 ifiM Whitman: 
 
 My science-friend, my noblest woman- 
 friend, 
 
 (Now buried in an English grave — and this 
 
 a memory-leaf for her dear sake,) 
 Ended our talk — "The sum, concluding all 
 we know of old or modern learning, 
 intuitions deep, 
 Of all Geologies — Histories — of all Astron- 
 omy — of Evolution, Metaphysics all. 
 Is, that we are all onward, onward, speeding 
 slowly,surely bet- 
 
 E grope our way through 
 life. Nature's first thought 
 is for reproduction of the 
 species: she has so over- 
 loaded physical passion 
 and women marry when 
 
 that men 
 
 the blood is warm and intellect cal 
 low. Girls marry for life the first 
 man that offers and forever put be- 
 hind them the possibility of a love 
 that would enable them to lift up 
 their eyes to the hills from whence 
 cometh their strength. 
 C Man has tried to make peace with 
 the skies instead of making peace 
 with his neighbor. 
 C It makes but very little difference 
 where genius is housed. 
 il By taking thought you can add 
 cubits to your stature 
 
 tenng, 
 Life, life an endless 
 march, an endless 
 army,(nohalt,but 
 it is duly over,) 
 The world, the race, 
 the soul — in space 
 and time the uni- 
 verses, 
 All bound as is be- 
 fitting each — all 
 surelygoingsome- 
 where." 
 
 Yes, we are going 
 Somewhere; we are 
 moving, moving for- 
 ward. 
 
 The world is getting 
 better. 
 
 That hardly seems 
 possible, some may 
 say, when we re- 
 call events that have 
 transpired the last 
 two years in South 
 Africa, and in the 
 Philipines. But that 
 achill of horror runs 
 over Christendom at the mention of these 
 events, proves the proposition as first stated 
 — if we were indifferent, the case would be 
 hopeless. 
 
 But beside this there are substantial proofs 
 that an Era of Kindness and Common-sense 
 is being ushered in. Good-will has always 
 existed, but it has been isolated, detached 
 and had to hide itself for fear of being laughed 
 into nothingness or stamped into death. Now 
 the detached pickets have come together, 
 touched hands, and a cordon of kindness 
 circles the globe. 
 
 This is proven by our treatment of the in- 
 sane. Other things bearing on the same point 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 46 
 
 might be mentioned, but let this suffice for 
 the present. 
 
 Hippocrates, who lived four hundred years 
 before Christ, raised medicine from a super- 
 stitious rite to a learned profession. He 
 treated the sick by regulating their diet, and 
 insisting on sunshine, cleanliness and cheer- 
 ful surroundings. Insanity, he declared, was 
 caused by imperfect 
 
 nutrition: and Hip- 
 pocrates,itwas,who 
 first set forth the 
 maxim that to have 
 a sound mind you 
 must have a sound 
 body. Mens sana in 
 coropore sano, was 
 borrowed from the 
 Greeks. 
 
 Hippocrates died & 
 his genius and his 
 knowledge seemed 
 to die with him. The 
 old superstition that 
 insane people were 
 possessed by devils 
 came back, and in- 
 cantations, with se- 
 vere tests such as 
 that of walking on 
 red-hot stones, be- 
 came again the fa- 
 shion and vogue. 
 A great man's chil- 
 dren may inherit 
 none of his genius, 
 but wait a genera- 
 tion or so, and the 
 divine spark will again flare up into life. 
 CI Galen, who lived six hundred years after 
 Hippocrates, called a halt on incantations, 
 and voiced the truths that Hippocrates had 
 set forth, which truths we discovered for 
 ourselves yesterday. 
 
 From Galen's time for sixteen hundred years 
 the world seemed to sleep. 
 In 1750 Benjamin Franklin succeeded in 
 founding the first Insane Asylum in Amer- 
 ica. Up to this time there were private Mad- 
 houses, where insane people were confined, 
 usually chained by the leg to the wall, sleep- 
 ing in straw and fed out of wooden dishes 
 that were passed to them from a safe dis- 
 
 tance. CThe Salem Idea had subsided into 
 the simple belief that insane people were 
 possessed of evil spirits and were being pun- 
 ished for secret sins. Society washed its 
 hands of the affair by locking the culprits up 
 in dungeons or chaining them in rows, well 
 out of sight of the rest of mankind. 
 Benjamin Franklin, the freethinker, knew 
 the iniquity of treat- 
 
 F everything in this world 
 
 happens because some- 
 thing else happened a 
 thousand years ago or 
 yesterday, and the result 
 could not possibly be different from 
 what it is, why besiege Heaven with 
 prayer? 
 
 CMan does what he does because 
 he thinks for the moment it is the 
 best thing to do. 
 
 CArt is not a thing separate and 
 apart — art is only the beautiful way 
 of doing things. 
 
 CIt is only in prosperity that we 
 throw our friends overboard. 
 CMen are ever forsaking fortune 
 when she is about to smile. 
 il To satisfy the God within is the 
 poet's prayer 
 
 ing the insane as if 
 they were criminals 
 and tried to remedy 
 it, but the stress of 
 political affairs si- 
 lenced him ere he 
 could fire a shot that 
 would be heard the 
 world over. 
 The year 1792 is a 
 memorable one in 
 the history of the 
 treatment of the in- 
 sane, for in thatyear 
 Dr. Pinel in France 
 challenged the en- 
 tire medical profes- 
 sion by announcing 
 that he was going to 
 unchain fifty mani- 
 acs, justas they hap- 
 pened to come, and 
 live with them with- 
 out the use of force. 
 CL And he did— and 
 the world looked on 
 aghast. 
 
 In the year 1801 Dr. 
 
 Pinel was visiting a 
 certain Asylum near Paris, and seeing about 
 one-third of the patients had lost a hand, and 
 in some cases both hands and a foot, he 
 asked the cause of this mutilation. 
 "Oh," was the matter-of-fact reply, "you 
 see they pulled so on the ropes we had 'em 
 tied with, that it made a ligature, cut off cir- 
 culation in their hands, and then as gangrene 
 set in, we had to amputate the parts to save 
 the poor devils' lives." 
 About the same time Elizabeth Fry and John 
 Howard, in England, had sent glimmering 
 rays of light through the gloom of ignorance 
 by demanding that the word "Madhouse" 
 should be abandoned, and that the insane 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 47 
 
 should be treated simply as if they were ill. 
 C,At Worcester, England, Mrs. Fry insisted 
 that naked women chained in stone cells 
 should be unfettered, clothed and treated 
 like human beings. At the same time she es- 
 tablished a dining-room at the Worcester 
 Asylum and had certain of the patients come 
 and sit at meat with her as invited guests. 
 Before this no pa- 
 
 RAYER is an emotional 
 
 tient had ever been 
 trusted with a knife, 
 fork, metal spoon, 
 or earthen dish — 
 the idea being prev- 
 alent that the pris- 
 oner would surely 
 swallow the fork, 
 stab some one with 
 the spoon, and end 
 by severing his jug- 
 ular with a fragment 
 of the plate. 
 Mrs. Fry dismissed 
 the armed guards 
 and proved to the 
 astonished officials 
 that a good many 
 insane people were 
 not crazy — surely 
 not all of the time. 
 Many of them, she 
 showed, had impul- 
 ses and moods when 
 they were kind, gen- 
 erous, orderly; and 
 could be made help- 
 ful — and their bad 
 times often bridged 
 by love. CL Instead of feeding them all on 
 chunks of meat and soggy bread, she paid 
 special attention to their diet, and continued 
 the thought of Hippocrates and Galen, al- 
 though, as far as I can find, she never heard 
 of either. 
 
 Matters followed a zigzag road, with pro- 
 gress all the time, although sometimes slow, 
 until about the year 1880, when there came a 
 great burst of light, and Dr. Bucke appeared. 
 CLThe Asylum for the Insane at London, 
 Ontario, under the superintendence of Dr. 
 R. M. Bucke, has in several important re- 
 spects set the medical world an example. It 
 has shown what kindness, trustfulness and 
 
 work can do in ministering to a mind dis- 
 eased, plucking from memory its rooted 
 sorrow. 
 
 It would be manifestly unfair to carry the 
 idea that what is known to Dr. Bucke is not 
 known elsewhere. Truth is in the air and 
 belongs to all who can appropriate it: every 
 great invention has been worked out by sev- 
 eral men, in differ- 
 
 exercise; an endeavor to 
 bring the will into a state 
 of harmony with the Di- 
 vine Will; a rest and com- 
 posure that gives strength by putting 
 us in position to partake of the 
 strength of the Universal, 
 d We do what we do and are what 
 we are on account of impulses given 
 us by previous training, previous 
 acts or conditions under which we 
 live and have lived. 
 CTo no woman can love mean so 
 much as to one who is aware that 
 she is physically deficient. 
 CAn act is only a crystallized 
 thought. 
 
 CBy right thinking does the race 
 
 ent parts of the earth 
 at about the same 
 time: and the gen- 
 eral policy that Dr. 
 Bucke follows in the 
 treatment of his pa- 
 tients is world-pro- 
 perty, like the Kin- 
 dergarten Idea, and 
 belongs everywhere 
 to the men who think 
 and the women who 
 feel. 
 
 Dr. Bucke has no 
 secrets. Anything he 
 knows is yours for 
 the asking — but nei- 
 ther Dr. Bucke, nor 
 any one else, can 
 impart to you any- 
 thing you do not al- 
 ready know. 
 Dr.Bucke called his 
 attendants together 
 and said, "Let us 
 never again use any 
 physical restraint 
 with our patients; 
 
 we will do away with 
 all handcuffs, straps and straight jackets; 
 never again will we meet violence with vio- 
 lence; if we are struck we will never strike 
 back — we will rule by kindness: we will 
 master by mind." 
 
 And for twenty years this has been the poli- 
 cy—kindness, patience, cheerfulness, trust- 
 fulness, work. 
 
 And the scientific world has to a great degree 
 adopted the policy. 
 
 The Asylum at London has a system of grad- 
 uation, and a plan of reward for well doing. 
 CViolent patients and those with a mania 
 for destroying things, are placed in a ward 
 where there is no furniture or anything that 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 48 
 
 can be destroyed. This ward is simply a 
 long, wide hallway with rooms opening off. 
 Every patient has a room of his own. This 
 room contains an iron bed with springs, mat- 
 tress, blankets, sheets and pillow. If a patient 
 destroys his bedding it is taken away from 
 him, but only for a few hours at a time. The 
 whole place is light, in fact, flooded with 
 sunshine and it is 
 scrupulously clean. 
 The suggestion of 
 restraint is removed 
 just as much as pos- 
 sible — all have the 
 free run and use of 
 the hallway. Every 
 patient is regarded 
 as a sick man; each 
 is under the care of 
 a physician who ex- 
 amines him daily & 
 keeps a record of 
 the case. Special at- 
 tention is paid to his 
 diet, vegetables and 
 fruitpredominating. 
 Intoxicants are ex- 
 cluded entirely, but 
 those who are ac- 
 customed to using 
 tobacco are allowed 
 the weed in moder- 
 ate quantities. 
 In summer the in- 
 mates of this "vio- 
 lent ward," which 
 we will call Ward A, 
 are all taken out into 
 a large, pleasant yard, and spend the day 
 there. No exception is made to the rule, un- 
 less a patient is so ill he cannot leave his bed. 
 If a patient is violent, they let him work it off 
 — it will not last long. Unless you meet vio- 
 lence with violence he soon gets enough of 
 it. The insane man is apt to be a supreme 
 egotist, and a good way to punish him is to 
 pay no attention to him. 
 Beginning in Ward A the plan is adopted of 
 trying to get a patient to forget himself and 
 become interested in others. Thus one pa- 
 tient is asked to help to take care of some one 
 else. If he reveals a disposition to be useful, 
 even in the most trivial way, his case is 
 
 looked upon as hopeful and he is promoted 
 
 to Ward B. 
 
 Here the plan of the rooms is the same as in 
 Ward A, only there are pictures on the walls, 
 chairs instead of benches, tables with books 
 and magazines, and usually a piano. The 
 women and men are in separate wards, but 
 the scheme of getting the patients to work is 
 the same. In the wo- 
 man's department, 
 for instance — Ward 
 B, I noticed a young 
 woman-patient was 
 combing the hair of 
 another that seemed 
 to be somewhat un- 
 easy & worrisome. 
 "She does not ap- 
 preciate your kind- 
 ness," I said to wo- 
 man Number One. 
 CI" Oh," was the 
 answer, "one does 
 not expect any gra- 
 titude from the poor 
 creatures. We never 
 resent anything, no 
 matter what it is." 
 CiWoman Number 
 One, a patient her- 
 self, yet was full of 
 the Master Spirit of 
 the place — she must 
 be helpful and she 
 must be patient. 
 Ward C differs only 
 from Ward B in that 
 there are curtains at 
 the windows, more pictures on the walls, 
 rugs on the floor, and each patient's bedroom 
 has a mirror, wash-bowl, soap dish, hair- 
 brush, comb, etc., and many little things in 
 way of decoration. Some of these rooms with 
 their photographs on the walls looked not 
 unlike students' rooms at Colleges— so or- 
 derly, well kept, and full of individuality 
 they were. 
 
 In Ward C the inmates, almost without ex- 
 ception, come and go at will. If they run away 
 they usually come back of their own account. 
 Dr. Bucke told me that in twenty-six years 
 at this Asylum he had never known a patient 
 that ran away to injure either himself or any 
 
 GOOD lie for its own 
 sake is ever pleasing to 
 honest men; we also re- 
 spect a discreet silence, 
 but a patched up, care- 
 fully explained record will not do. 
 And when such small men as "Mr. 
 S. Pepys" and James Boswell can 
 write immortal books, the moral for 
 the rest of us is that a little honesty 
 in literature is not a dangerous thing. 
 C I appeal to those who have tried 
 both plans, whether it is not easier 
 to tell the truth than concoct a lie. 
 And I assiduously maintain that if 
 the case is to be tried by a jury of 
 Discerning Persons, that the shock- 
 ing facts will serve the end far bet- 
 ter than a half-truth. 
 C Love is the great enlightener 
 
The Phalanstery Dining Room 
 
Reception Room in Chapel 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 49 
 
 one else. To make surveillance too rigid is a 
 disadvantage in many ways; to be deceived 
 by a man is not so bad as to distrust him — 
 and this applies even to insane people. 
 Trust — that is it — trust is the dominant note 
 in that whole institution. 
 Once a patient escaped from Ward A. The 
 man had recently arrived and was said to be 
 very dangerous. A 
 
 women, the driver, and the man on the seat 
 beside him are patients." 
 One of the women was in tears, and the 
 white-aproned nurse looked weepy. 
 "Ah," I said, "poor things, they have just 
 arrived." 
 
 "No," said the Doctor, "the woman who is 
 crying we discharged cured. The others just 
 rvirr -i. • |.« came down to see 
 
 OVE, that curious life- 
 stuff, which holds with- 
 in itself the spore of all 
 mystic possibilities: that 
 makes alive dull wits, gives 
 the coward heart and warms into 
 
 being the sodden senses; that gives 
 joy and gratitude, and rest and hope 
 and peace; shall we not call thee 
 Divine? &&&&>&&>&&>&&>&&i>&3&> 
 
 search was made, 
 but no trace could 
 be found of the run- 
 away. They wrote 
 to his friends, but 
 he had not reached 
 them. 
 
 About three months 
 afterward one of the 
 workers in the Asy- 
 lum found the man 
 working for a farm- 
 er ten miles away. 
 The man had hired 
 out and was doing good service, living in the 
 farmer's household. The family were enter- 
 taining a lunatic, unawares. The employee 
 said nothing, but went home fast to report to 
 Dr. Bucke, so the runaway could be seized. 
 C " Leave him alone," said Dr. Bucke. " He 
 is getting better treatment than we can give 
 him here." 
 
 The man worked a year for the farmer, and 
 having saved a hundred dollars, bought him- 
 self a new outfit of clothes and a ticket for 
 Colorado, and disappeared. 
 Dr. Bucke tells this story with a sly twinkle, 
 to illustrate what scientific treatment rightly 
 applied will do for an insane man. 
 Ward D is made up of detached cottages, 
 scattered around over the beautiful farm. 
 Here the patients live simply as families. 
 There is no restraint of any kind. They keep 
 regular hours, work, and have many em- 
 ployments — each according to his need. 
 CWhen patients are discharged from this 
 ward they sometimes decline to go; and 
 when they do go it is with much handshak- 
 ing, fond adieus and the usual feminine tears. 
 C I happened to witness one such scene at 
 the London railway station. Four women were 
 in the carriage, two men were on the box. 
 C "They are all our folks," said Dr. Bucke 
 to me. One is a nurse, the other three 
 
 her off, and bid her 
 good-bye." 
 While the general 
 policy of conduct- 
 ing hospitals for the 
 insane is about the 
 same everywhere, 
 still the executive 
 ability shown in the 
 management varies 
 greatly, of course. 
 A great success in 
 anything is possible 
 only where there is 
 one-man power. The Canadian Government 
 has shown rare wisdom in leaving Dr. Bucke 
 alone — he has not been hampered by petty 
 officialism, and thus he has been able to 
 work out his own ideas. 
 In several respects I believe the asylum at 
 London is in advance of any similar institu- 
 tion in the United States — three of which 
 items might be named. 
 
 1 — Better housing at less expense per capita. 
 The buildings at London represent an outlay 
 of $400.00 for each inmate; while in New 
 York State the rate at several institutions is 
 over $3,000.00 for each inmate. Imagine a 
 house costing $3,000.00 in which one person 
 lives, and you get a condition far beyond 
 what the average man possesses. A simpler 
 condition — less machinery in the business 
 of life is desirable. There is no good reason 
 for housing insane folks in palaces. 
 
 2 — The attendants, including nurses & phy- 
 sicians, at London are in the ratio of one to 
 each fifteen patients. In many asylums they 
 are one to seven. 
 
 3 — The useful labor performed by the pa- 
 tients, I believe, exceeds in value the labor 
 done by patients in any similar institution in 
 the world— Switzerland excepted. The in- 
 dustries are intensified farming, horticulture, 
 weaving, carpentry, stock raising and build- 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 50 
 
 absence, you are not dead and not really ab- 
 sent, but alive and well and not far from me 
 this moment. If I have been permitted — no, 
 not to enter, but through the narrow aper- 
 ture of a scarcely opened door, to glance 
 one instant into that other divine world, it 
 was surely that I might thereby be enabled 
 to live through the receipt of those lightning- 
 
 O, . « , flashed words from 
 love the plain, homely, 
 
 common, simple things of 
 earth, of these to sing; to 
 make the familiar beauti- 
 ful and the commonplace 
 enchanting; to cause each bush to 
 burn with the actual presence of 
 God, this is the poet's office. 
 C If love is life, and hate is death, 
 
 how can spite benefit? 
 
 ing. The general work of the place, such as 
 cooking, sewing, laundering, and keeping 
 the place in order, is for the most part done 
 by patients — this accounts for the small num- 
 ber of paid employees and attendants. The 
 prime object of this economy is not to save 
 money, but is a hygienic measure and in the 
 interest— physical and mental— of the patient 
 himself.tli ''When 
 thee builds a prison 
 thee would better 
 build it with the 
 thought in mind that 
 thee or thy children 
 may occupy the 
 cells," said Eliza- 
 beth Fry to the King 
 of France. 
 Most of the build- 
 ings at the London 
 asylum were built 
 under the personal 
 supervision of Dr. 
 Bucke himself; and in the arrangement, as 
 well as in the entire conduct of the institu- 
 tion, he has worked as if it were for himself. 
 His attitude toward a patient is, " I am that 
 man." 
 
 As a sort of spiritual index to the heart of 
 Dr. Bucke I herewith reprint the dedication 
 from his book, "Cosmic Consciousness": 
 
 TO MY SON, MAURICE ANDREWS BUCKE. 
 
 8 December, 1900. 
 
 Dear Maurice:— A year ago to-day, in the 
 prime of youth, of health and strength, in an 
 instant, by a terrible and fatal accident, you 
 were removed forever from this world in 
 which your mother and I still live. Of all 
 young men I have known you were the most 
 pure, the most noble, the most honorable, 
 the most tender-hearted. In the business of 
 life you were industrious, honest, faithful, 
 intelligent and entirely trustworthy. How at 
 the time we felt your loss — how we still feel 
 it — I would not set down even if I could. I 
 desire to speak here of my confident hope, 
 not of my pain. I will say that through the 
 experiences which underlie this volume I 
 have been taught, that in spite of death and 
 the grave, although you are beyond the 
 range of sight and hearing, notwithstanding 
 that the universe of sense testifies to your 
 
 Montanawhichtime 
 burns only deeper 
 and deeper into my 
 brain. 
 
 Only a little while 
 now and we will 
 be again together & 
 with us those other 
 noble and well-be- 
 loved souls gone be- 
 fore. I am sure I 
 shall meet you and 
 them; and that you 
 and I shall talk of a 
 thousand things and of that unforgetable 
 day and of all that followed it ; and that we 
 shall clearly see that all were parts of an in- 
 finite plan which was wholly wise and good. 
 Do you see and approve as I write these 
 words? It may be well. Do you read from 
 within what I am now thinking and feeling? 
 If you do you know how dear to me you 
 were while you yet lived what we call life 
 here and how much more dear you have be- 
 come to me since. 
 
 Because of the indissoluble links of birth 
 and death wrought by nature and fate be- 
 tween us ; because of my love and because 
 of my grief; above all because of the infin- 
 ite and inextinguishable confidence there is 
 within my heart, I inscribe to you this book 
 which, full as it is of imperfections which 
 render it unworthy of your acceptance, has 
 nevertheless sprung from the divine assur- 
 ance born of the deepest insight of the no- 
 blest members of our race. 
 So longl dear boy. YOUR father. 
 
 While the printers were putting the above 
 article into type, word came that Dr. Bucke 
 was dead. There had been a storm of sleet 
 and snow: the trees were laden with their 
 burden of beauty that beamed and sparkled 
 in the bright moonlight. The Doctor had 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 51 
 
 spoken of this beauty to his family, and had 
 stepped out upon the veranda to view it. He 
 slipped and fell, striking on the back of his 
 head, and died almost instantly from con- 
 cussion of the brain. Painlessly and without 
 warning he passed away, the prime thought 
 of his life filling his heart at the instant — the 
 wonder and beauty of this great Universe! 
 It will not be amiss 
 for me to repeat here 
 what I said at the 
 Roycroft Chapel 
 two weeks before 
 Dr. Bucke's death, 
 on returning from a 
 visit to him: C"Dr. 
 Bucke, the friend, 
 companion and lit- 
 erary executor of 
 Walt Whitman, is 
 the manliest man I 
 ever saw. His face 
 beams with intelli- 
 gence, animation, honesty, courage, gentle- 
 ness and good cheer. He radiates life and 
 health. The tenderness and sympathy he 
 shows for those poor people in his charge is 
 god-like, yet his feelings never play him 
 false — he is never maudlin — he does not go 
 down to them: he lifts them up to him." 
 When a young man Bucke was caught by a 
 storm in the Rocky Mountains and lost in 
 the snow. When found his feet were frozen 
 so that circulation had ceased. His compan- 
 ions amputated the feet — anaesthetics being a 
 thousand miles away. For six weeks the 
 stricken man lay in that mountain cabin, ten- 
 ded only by his rough, yet gentle, compan- 
 ions. For the first time in his life he had time 
 to think. " I was born again," he said to me, 
 with a smile, " I was born again ; it cost me 
 my feet — yet it was worth the price ! " 
 Few, comparatively, knew of the tragedy of 
 this man's life — the artificial feet — although 
 he did not regard it as a tragedy, and he was 
 averse to mentioning it. He reveled in the 
 blessings of existence, not its disadvantages. 
 And he only mentioned the facts to me to 
 make clear a point in philosophy: we pay 
 for every blessing with a price. 
 It was Jack Frost that crunched his feet ; 
 it was the beauty of the Frost that lured him 
 out of his library the night of his death. Yet, 
 
 true to his nature, he bore his ancient ene- 
 my no grudge. He did not even take the pre- 
 caution to carry his cane — the ice had been 
 lying in wait for near fifty years — it grap- 
 pled with him, and he was dead. 
 I shed no tears on account of the fate of this 
 strong and manly man : he did his work, 
 lived his life, and the power that upheld and 
 sustained him Here 
 will not forsake him 
 There. He was very 
 nearly an Emanci- 
 pated man — almost 
 Universal. And the 
 Power that loaned 
 him to us possibly 
 has need for him 
 elsewhere. Earth is 
 poorer for his pass- 
 ing; and we are the 
 richer that he lived. 
 He has gone Some- 
 where. 
 
 ffgfHAT SHALL WE DO? The spirit 
 ^ V ; "< grows through exercise of its faculties 
 just as a muscle grows strong through 
 use. Expression is necessary to life. Life is 
 expression, and repression is stagnation — 
 death. 
 
 Yet there is right expression and wrong ex- 
 pression. If a man permits his life to run riot 
 and only the animal side of his nature is al- 
 lowed to express itself, he is repressing his 
 highest and best, and therefore those quali- 
 ties not used atrophy and die. 
 Men are punished by their sins, not for 
 them. Sensuality, gluttony and the life of 
 license repress the life of the spirit and the 
 soul never blossoms ; and this is what it is 
 to lose one's soul. All a-down the centuries 
 thinking men have noted these truths, and 
 again and again we find individuals forsak- 
 ing, in horror, the life of the senses and de- 
 voting themselves to the life of the spirit. 
 This question of expression through the 
 spirit, or through the senses — through soul, 
 or body — has been the pivotal point of all 
 philosophies and the inspiration of all our 
 religions. 
 
 Every religion is made up of two elements 
 that never mix any more than oil and water 
 mix. A religion is a mechanical mixture, not 
 a chemical combination, of morality and 
 
 HE individual who does 
 a great and magnificent 
 work is on close and 
 friendly terms with God. 
 He is the son of God, 
 and it is necessary that he should 
 feel his kinship in order to do his 
 work. 
 
 C We grow strong thro' doing things. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 52 
 
 dogma. Dogma is the science of the unseen: 
 the doctrine of the unknown and unknowa- 
 ble. And to give this science plausibility its 
 promulgators have always fastened it upon 
 morality. Morality can and does exist en- 
 tirely separate and apart from dogma, but 
 dogma is ever a parasite on morality, and 
 the business of priests is to confuse the two. 
 C But morality and 
 religion never sa- 
 ponify. Morality is 
 simply the question 
 of the expression of 
 your life forces- 
 how shall you use 
 them? You have so 
 much energy — and 
 what will you do 
 with it? And from 
 out the multitude 
 there have always 
 been men to step 
 forward & give you 
 advice for a consideration. Without their 
 supposed influence with the Unseen we 
 might not accept their interpretation of what 
 is right and wrong. But with the assurance 
 that their advice is backed up by Deity, fol- 
 lowed with an offer of reward if we believe 
 it, and a threat of punishment if we don't, 
 the Volunteer-Superior Class has driven men 
 wheresoever it will. The evolution of formal 
 religions is not a complex process, and the 
 fact that they embody these two unmixable 
 things, dogma and morality, is a very plain 
 and simple truth, easily understood, undis- 
 puted by all reasonable men. 
 And be it said that the morality of most re- 
 ligions is good. Love, gentleness, truth, char- 
 ity and justice are taught in them all. But, 
 like a rule in Greek grammar, there are 
 many exceptions. And so in the morality of 
 religions there are exceptional instances con- 
 stantly arising where love, truth, charity, 
 gentleness and justice are waived, on sug- 
 gestion of the Superior Class, that good may 
 follow. Were it not for these exceptions 
 there would be no wars between Christian 
 nations. 
 
 The question of how to express your life 
 will probably never down, for the reason 
 that men vary in temperament and inclina- 
 tion. Some men have no capacity for certain 
 
 sins of the flesh; and others there be, who, 
 having lost their inclination for sensuality 
 through too much indulgence, turn ascetics. 
 Yet all sermons have but one theme: how 
 shall life be expressed? Between asceticism 
 and indulgence men and races swing. 
 Asceticism in our day finds an interesting 
 manifestation in the Trappists, who live on 
 a mountain, nearly 
 inaccessible, and 
 deprive themselves 
 of almost every ves- 
 tige of bodily com- 
 fort, going without 
 food for days, wear- 
 ing uncomfortable 
 garments, suffering 
 severe cold; and 
 should one of this 
 community look 
 upon the face of a 
 woman he would 
 think he was in in- 
 stant danger of damnation. So here we find 
 the extreme instance of men repressing the 
 faculties of the body in order that the spirit 
 may find ample time and opportunity for 
 exercise. 
 
 Between this extreme repression and the 
 license of the sensualist lies the truth. But 
 just where, is the great question; and the 
 desire of one person, who thinks he has 
 discovered the norm, to compel all other 
 men to stop there, has led to war and strife 
 untold. All law centers around this point — 
 what shall men be allowed to do? And so 
 we find statutes to punish "strolling play 
 actors," "players on fiddles," "disturbers 
 of the public conscience," persons who 
 dance wantonly," "blasphemers," and in 
 England there were in the year 1800 thirty- 
 seven offenses punishable by death. 
 When expression is right, and what not, is a 
 matter of opinion. One religious denomina- 
 tion that now exists does not allow singing; 
 instrumental music has been to some a rock 
 of offense, exciting the spirit, through the 
 sense of hearing, to improper thoughts — 
 "through the lascivious pleasing of a lute"; 
 others think dancing wicked, while a few 
 allow pipe-organ music, but draw the line 
 at the violin; while still others employ a 
 whole orchestra in their religious service. 
 
 be 
 
 OTra OVERS of the truth must 
 SSfe»i thank exile for some of 
 our richest and ripest lit- 
 erature. Exile is not all 
 exile. Imagination cannot 
 imprisoned. Amid the winding 
 
 bastions of the brain thought roams 
 free and untrammeled. 
 <L Liberty is only a comparative term. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 53 
 
 Some there be who regard pictures as im- 
 plements of idolatry; while the Hook and 
 Eye Baptists regard buttons as immoral. 
 C Strange evolutions are often witnessed 
 within the life of one individual. For instance, 
 Leo Tolstoy, a great and good man, once a 
 sensualist, has now turned ascetic, a not 
 unusual evolution in the lives of the saints. 
 But, excellent as 
 
 this man is, there is 
 a grave imperfec- 
 tion in his cosmos 
 which to a degree 
 vitiates the truth he 
 tries to teach: he 
 leaves the element 
 of beauty out of his 
 formula. Not caring 
 for harmony as set 
 forth in color, form 
 and sweet sounds, 
 he is quite willing 
 to deprive all others 
 of these things 
 which minister to 
 their well-being. 
 There is in most 
 souls a hunger for 
 beauty, just as there 
 is physical hunger. 
 Beauty speaks to 
 their spirits through 
 the senses; but Tol- 
 stoy would have 
 your house barren 
 to the verge of hard- 
 ship. My veneration 
 for Count Tolstoy 
 is profound, yet I 
 mention him here 
 simply to show the 
 danger that lies in 
 allowing any man, even one of the wis- 
 est of men, to dictate to us what is best. 
 We ourselves are the better judges. Most 
 of the frightful cruelties inflicted on men 
 during the past have arisen simply out 
 of a difference of opinion arising through 
 a difference in temperament. The question 
 is as live today as it was two thousand years 
 ago — what expression is best? That is, what 
 shall we do to be saved? And concrete 
 absurdity consists in saying we must all do 
 
 the same thing. Whether the race will ever 
 grow to a point where men will be willing 
 to leave the matter of Life-Expression to the 
 individual is a question, but the Millennium 
 will never arrive until men cease trying to 
 compel all other men to live after one pattern, 
 it Most people are anxious to do what is 
 best for themselves and least harmful for 
 others. The average 
 
 EX holds first place 
 
 in 
 
 the thought of God. Its 
 glory pervades and suf- 
 fuses all Nature. It is sex 
 that gives the bird its 
 song, the peacock its gorgeous plu- 
 mage, the lion his mane, the buf- 
 falo his strength and the horse his 
 proud arch of neck and flowing tail. 
 Aye, it is sex that causes the flow- 
 ers to draw from dull earth those 
 delicate perfumes that delight the 
 sense of smell; it is sex, and sex 
 alone, that secures to them the daz- 
 zling galaxy of shapes and colors 
 that reflect the Infinite. 
 C I wish that all parents knew that 
 love is better than a cat-o'-nine-tails, 
 and that sympathy saves more souls 
 than threats do. 
 
 CLThe friends we have are only our 
 other selves, — we get what we de- 
 
 man now has intelli- 
 gence enough: Uto- 
 pia is not far off, if 
 the self-appointed 
 folk who govern us, 
 & teach us for a con- 
 sideration, would 
 only be willing to 
 do unto others as 
 they would be done 
 by, that is to say, 
 mind theirown bus- 
 iness, and cease 
 coveting things that 
 belong to other peo- 
 ple. War among 
 nations and strife 
 among individuals 
 is a result of the 
 covetous spirit to 
 possess either pow- 
 er or things or both. 
 A little more pa- 
 tience, a little more 
 charity for all, a 
 little more devotion, 
 a little more love; 
 with less bowing 
 down to the past, 
 and a silent ignor- 
 ing of pretended 
 authority; a brave 
 looking forward to 
 the future, with more confidence in our- 
 selves, and more faith in our fellows, and 
 the race will be ripe for a great burst of light 
 and life. 
 
 - -REACHING IS BETTER THAN 
 SgPUNISHING. Honey bees are the 
 Mllmost intelligent animals of their size of 
 all the works of God. Bees should be han- 
 dled by those who love them. To handle 
 bees carelessly or indifferently is to injure 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 54 
 
 the bees ; and probably to be injured your- 
 self. Aye, you may pay for your carelessness 
 with your life. 
 
 Men who manage horses successfully are 
 always men who love horses. I am a horse- 
 man and know by actual experience every 
 phase of horse raising and horse training. 
 «L Horses should be taught, and not broken. 
 <^Men should be 
 taught, and not gov- 
 erned. 
 
 And to teach suc- 
 cessfully you must 
 love. He who loves 
 the most is the best 
 teacher. 
 
 Men who manage 
 men should be those 
 who love men. But 
 most jails and pri- 
 sonsareinthehands 
 of men who despise 
 and fear other men. 
 Every prison is a 
 university in which 
 hate, falsehood, vil- 
 lainy and vice are 
 taught. Every jail 
 is a sort of prepar- 
 atory school for 
 wrong. And all the 
 hate and untruth 
 that prisons create 
 spring naturally in- 
 to being for the rea- 
 son that men are 
 filled with the de- 
 lusion that they pos- 
 sess a divine right 
 to punishother men. 
 Every item of the 
 decalog can be le- 
 gally broken, and the business of lawyers isto 
 tell you how. Thus society sets the example 
 of wrongdoing. And so long as the state sets 
 the example of killing its enemies, men will 
 occasionally kill theirs. Laws, to a degree, 
 are contrivances for revenge, but principally 
 for making the many pay tithes and taxes to 
 the few. Are the politicians you know men 
 who love their fellow-men ? 
 Be careful how you manage men, for the 
 day is surely coming when if you have not 
 
 love and yet attempt to manage men, you 
 will pay for your rashness with your life. 
 CI Preachers have told us that we should re- 
 form in order to prepare for death. The wise 
 teacher tells men that they should forsake 
 sin, so as to prepare for life. Sin is a wrong 
 expression of your life energy and therefore 
 is a mistake— and a mistake fraught with 
 bad results. 
 
 HE pure, happy life of 
 Nature would pale at the 
 thought of abusing one's 
 mate. Among wild ani- 
 mals the females are pro- 
 tected; no tigress is ever abused or 
 imposed upon — in fact, she would 
 not stand it. In a condition of un- 
 trammeled nature animals are emi- 
 nently just and moral in their love 
 affairs. In a state of captivity, how- 
 ever, they will sometimes do very 
 unbecoming things. 
 CL When we realize that we are a 
 part of all that we see, or hear, or 
 feel, we are not lonely. But to feel 
 a sense of separation is to feel the 
 chill of death. 
 
 C Things strongly condemned must 
 have merit, for why should the pack 
 bay so loudly if there is no quarry! 
 C The achievement is more than the 
 public acknowledgement of the deed. 
 
 All men in the law 
 or out of it, who 
 make a business of 
 disciplining others, 
 are in a very bad 
 & foolish business. 
 C That is to say, 
 they are expressing 
 their lives unwisely 
 — sinfully. Judges, 
 lawyers, detectives, 
 policemen & prison 
 guards are expres- 
 sing their lives ab- 
 surdly, so they very 
 seldom grow either 
 in intellect or spirit. 
 Almost without ex- 
 ception they are all 
 rogues and hypo- 
 crites. 
 
 Sin is its own pun- 
 ishment. God never 
 punishes men for 
 their sins : a self- 
 lubricating & auto- 
 matic Law looks out 
 for that. How pre- 
 posterous the illus- 
 ion that holds fast 
 in the mind of puny 
 man that it is his du- 
 ty to go nosing and 
 hunting around over the world with hand- 
 cuffs, clubs & come-alongs in order to punish 
 other men who have sinned ! Such hunters 
 of men are ignorant of both God and Man, 
 and are themselves hunted by the devil. C, Be 
 wise and teach, but do not punish : for God 's 
 in his Heaven, and all 's right with the world. 
 
 tWM HAT SHOULD BE THE FUNC- 
 ||f| TION OF GOVERNMENT. Every 
 &±m4 thoughtful traveler in Europe must 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 55 
 
 be impressed with the superfluity of folks — 
 that is to say, folks with nothing to do. In 
 Italy this plethora seems more pronounced 
 than elsewhere. At every hotel there are four 
 servants where only one is required. 
 At Genoa there lined up in the hallway to 
 speed my parting a facchino, four porters, 
 three waiters, two chambermaids and a boots, 
 while tapering off 
 into the street were 
 various able-bodied 
 loungers, numerous 
 old women and a 
 full dozen small bri- 
 gands. Each and ev- 
 ery one in the line 
 expected — aye, de- 
 manded legal-ten- 
 der. All had done 
 service, or said they 
 had, and to omit any 
 one from the pay- 
 roll was to call down 
 curses loud & deep. 
 The amount of tax 
 ran from one lire 
 (twenty cents)to five 
 centesimi(onecent), 
 and a small hand- 
 ful of coppers was 
 then required for 
 the mob to struggle 
 for in the street, so escape could be made 
 under cover of the smoke. 
 At Venice you pay your gondolier a tariff 
 rate per hour, and as he calls off the names 
 of the palaces you pass (when you wish he 
 would not) in a gibberish he thinks is Eng- 
 lish, you must pay him extra. Besides, if 
 you are so reckless as to land along the way, 
 the "hooker" who holds the boat expects a 
 copper. At all churches old women open the 
 doors and officious loungers offer informa- 
 tion that is not desired, for expected coin. 
 CTo refuse to give to the beggars is to invite 
 insult and insolence. Desperation is written 
 on the dark faces that beseech you, and when 
 you remember how, not many moons ago, 
 this superfluous Italian populace exploded 
 in one wild yell and made a dash for the 
 baker shop windows, you do not wonder. 
 C, Naples, Rome, Florence and Milan were 
 placed under martial law, and at Milan alone 
 
 in the month of May, 1898, two hundred 
 people were shot by the soldiers in the pub- 
 lic streets during my brief stay. 
 I saw volleys fired into crowds. The living 
 would scurry away like frightened rabbits, 
 into alleys, houses, side streets, cellars. But 
 there on the sidewalks and in the streets lay 
 the fallen and tumbled dead — men, women 
 and children. In less 
 than five minutes' 
 time wagons loaded 
 with soldiers dash- 
 ed up; the dead and 
 dying were thrown 
 like cord-wood into 
 the springless tum- 
 brils, & with crack- 
 ing of whips, horses 
 and wagons dashed 
 away. Some of the 
 soldiers remained & 
 with hose and buck- 
 ets and brooms ev- 
 ery vestige of blood 
 was washed away. 
 The papers made no 
 reports — some de- 
 nied that a volley 
 had been fired. 
 And now the King 
 of Italy has gone by 
 a quick and painless 
 route into the Beyond. He was only a man 
 — not a great man, neither was he a bad 
 man. Only a vain, ignorant, selfish man — 
 with transient moods of wanting to do right 
 — whose feet had been caught in a mesh of 
 wrong, and who had n't the power to get 
 away. To kill him was absurd, for the wrong 
 for which he stood still exists. It is the insti- 
 tution and policy, not the man. More volleys 
 will be fired into the crowds that cry for 
 bread. The death-carts will continue to dump 
 their victims into coffinless graves. 
 I shed tears for the homeless, the harassed, 
 the oppressed — for the women who hold 
 hungry babes to famished breasts — for the 
 ignorant and brutal who wrench at their 
 bonds, and who by violence hope to achieve 
 freedom. 
 
 For the dead King I waste no pity. He him- 
 self caused thousands of men to be killed. 
 He lived by the sword and died by the 
 
 HE great orator always 
 shows a dash of indiffer- 
 ence for the opinions of 
 his auditors; and the 
 great writer is he who 
 loses self-consciousness and writes 
 himself down as he is, for at the 
 last analysis all literature is a con- 
 fession r&&> Ag®> 
 
 *lSo peculiar, complex, and won- 
 derful is this web of life, that our 
 very blunders, weaknesses and mis- 
 takes are woven in and make the 
 fabric stronger. 
 
 CLHate may animate, but only love 
 inspires rfgsz A£6$> 
 
(CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 56 
 
 bullet. What else could he expect? He in- 
 vited his fate. He was only a slave at the 
 last, and Death has set him free. 
 Italy has less than one-half the population 
 of the United States, yet she has a navy that 
 outmatches ours. She maintains an army of 
 two hundred and fifty thousand men in time 
 of peace, and there is one priest for every 
 sixty persons. She 
 might maintain the 
 priests, but she can- 
 not possibly hope 
 to advance & carry 
 the army that rides 
 upon her back. Italy 
 is the extreme type 
 of all the European 
 countries, with the 
 exception of Hol- 
 land, Switzerland, 
 Norway and Swe- 
 den. These stand for 
 intelligence, sobrie- 
 ty, beauty & worth. 
 Italy is rotting at the 
 core. The moss is at 
 work pulling down 
 the palaces that Ca- 
 prino planned; the 
 grass springs from 
 between the paving 
 stones where Mich- 
 
 O me the love of man for 
 woman is as sacred a 
 thing as Christ's love for 
 the Church: and all of its 
 attributes are as divine as 
 any of the fantastic hazards of mind. 
 Indeed we should know nothing of 
 love did we not see it manifest in 
 man, and the only reason we be- 
 lieve in the love of God is because 
 we find love on earth. 
 C For merit there is a recompense in 
 sneers, and a benefit in sarcasms, 
 and a compensation in hate: for when 
 these things get too pronounced a 
 champion appears^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 ael Angelo trod, and the noble Romans and 
 courtly Florentines, like the crawling lizards, 
 only bask in the sun in winter and move but 
 to keep in the shade in summer. Conscrip- 
 tion kills ambition. Men will not work where 
 the Government demands half their wages, 
 as Italy does. Only two careers worth men- 
 tioning are open to aspiring youth in Italy — 
 the army and the church. Manual labor is 
 held everywhere in contempt, and this ac- 
 counts for the seeming superfluity of folks 
 and the brazen beggardom. The rich set the 
 example of idleness. Italy's art is a thing of 
 the past. Italy was. 
 
 Governments cannot be done away with in- 
 stantaneously, but progress will come, as it 
 has in the past, by lessening the number of 
 laws. We want less governing, and the ideal 
 government will arrive when there is no 
 government at all. 
 
 So long as governments set the example of 
 
 killing their enemies, private individuals will 
 occasionally kill theirs. So long as men are 
 clubbed, robbed, imprisoned, disgraced and 
 hanged by the governing class, just so long 
 will the idea of violence and brutality be 
 born in the souls of men. 
 Governments imprison men and then hound 
 them when they are released. Hate will 
 never die so long as 
 men are taken from 
 useful production 
 on the specious plea 
 of patriotism, and 
 bayonets gleam in 
 the name of God. 
 CThe worst part 
 about making a sol- 
 dier of a man is not 
 that he kills brown 
 men or white men, 
 but that the soldier 
 loses his own soul. 
 31 In America just 
 now there are strong 
 signs of following 
 the example of mod- 
 ern Italy. To divert 
 the attention of men 
 from useful produc- 
 tion to war, waste 
 and wealth through 
 conquest is to invite 
 moral disease and death. The history of na- 
 tions dead and gone is one. They grew 
 "strong" and died because they did. Insur- 
 ance actuaries say that athletes are bad risks. 
 ^Switzerland to-day is the least illiterate as 
 well as the most truly prosperous country in 
 the world. She is, in fact, the only republic, 
 for the people themselves make the laws. 
 Her government is of the people. In Switzer- 
 land to work with your hands is honorable 
 — manual training for both boys and girls is 
 a part of the public school system. Her 
 gilded social aristocracy is either English or 
 American. 
 
 Switzerland has no navy, for the same rea- 
 son that Bohemia has not; and while every 
 man is a soldier, yet three weeks' service 
 every year is only a useful play spell. In 
 Switzerland there is no beggardom and little 
 vice. Everywhere life and property are safe; 
 the people are healthy, prosperous and 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 57 
 
 happy. Switzerland minds her own business 
 and the chief tenet of her political creed is, 
 "We will attend to our own affairs." She 
 will fight only if invaded, and fortunately she 
 is not big enough to indulge in jingo swagger. 
 stLThe flag of Switzerland is the White Cross 
 — white on a red background — and this is 
 the symbol of peace and amity the wide world 
 over. The "Geneva 
 Cross," a red cross 
 on a white back- 
 ground, designed in 
 compliment to Swit- 
 zerland, is the one 
 flag upon which no 
 cannon is trained. 
 CAnd now at the 
 parting of the ways 
 would it not be wise 
 for our America to 
 choose between the 
 example of Switz- 
 erland and Italy? 
 C America is truly 
 a giant; it is well 
 to have the strength 
 of a giant but not 
 well to use it like a 
 giant. This country 
 is the richest coun- 
 try the world has 
 known — in treasure 
 and in men and women. If we mind our own 
 business and devote our energies to the arts 
 of peace we can solve a problem that has 
 vexed the world from the beginning of time. 
 Shall we make our country blossom like the 
 rose, or shall we follow the example of Italy? 
 
 grflRT AND RELIGION. I am not en- 
 
 WJnffl tirely sure this will hold in every 
 
 mM. instance, but it seems true in the main. 
 
 Please think it out for yourself, and if I 'm 
 
 wrong, put me straight. 
 
 The proposition is this: The Artist needs no 
 
 religion beyond his work. 
 
 That is to say, Art is religion to the man who 
 
 thinks beautiful thoughts and expresses them 
 
 for others the best he can. 
 
 Religion is an emotional excitement whereby 
 
 the devotee rises into a state of spiritual 
 
 sublimity, and for the moment is bathed in 
 
 an atmosphere of rest, and peace, and love. 
 
 All normal men and women crave such 
 periods; and Bernard Shaw says we reach 
 them through strong tea, tobacco, whiskey, 
 opium, love, art or religion. 
 I think Bernard Shaw a cynic, but there is a 
 glimmer of truth in his idea that makes it 
 worth repeating. But beyond Natural Reli- 
 gion, which is the passion for oneness with 
 the Whole, all form- 
 alized religions en- 
 graft the element of 
 fear, and teach the 
 necessity of placat- 
 ing a Supreme Be- 
 ing. C. Our idea of 
 a Supreme Being is 
 suggested to us by 
 the political govern- 
 ment under which 
 we live. The situa- 
 tion was summed up 
 by Carlylewhen he 
 said that Deity to 
 the average British 
 mind was simply an 
 infinite George the 
 Fourth. The thought 
 of God as a terri- 
 ble SupremeTyrant 
 first found form in 
 an unlimited mon- 
 archy; but as gov- 
 ernments have become more lenient so have 
 the gods, until you get them down (or up) to 
 a republic, where God is only a President 
 and we all approach him in familiar prayer, 
 on an absolute equality. 
 Then soon, for the first time, we find man 
 saying, "I am God, and you are God, and 
 we are all simply particles of Him," and this 
 is where the President is done away with, 
 and the Referendum comes in. But the ab- 
 sence of a supreme governing head implies 
 simplicity, honesty, justice and sincerity. 
 Wherever plottings, schemings and doubtful 
 methods of life are employed, a ruler is 
 necessary; and there, too, religion, with its 
 thought of placating God, has a firm hold. 
 Men whose lives are doubtful want a strong 
 government and a hot religion. 
 Formal religion and sin go hand in hand. 
 C Formal religion and slavery go hand in 
 hand. C Formal religion and tyranny go 
 
 MOB is the quintessence 
 of cowardice — a dirty, 
 mad, hydra-headed mon- 
 ster, that one good valiant 
 St. George can thrust to 
 the heart. When a mob speaks I say: 
 Vox populi vox devil! 
 C A smooth lawn with terra cotta 
 statuary gives a peace to the posses- 
 sor that even religion cannot lend. 
 C, The brethren of Joseph deposited 
 him in a cavity, but you cannot dis- 
 pose of genius that way. 
 CL The men who live in history are 
 those whose lives have been well 
 written a$®> 
 
C O i\ T E M P LATI O N S 
 
 Page 58 
 
 m 
 
 hand in hand.C Formal religion and ignor- 
 ance go hand in hand. 
 And sin, slavery, tyranny and ignorance are 
 one — they are never separated. 
 Formal religion is a scheme whereby man 
 hopes to make peace with his Maker; and 
 formal religion also tends to satisfy the sense 
 of sublimity where the man has failed to 
 find satisfaction in 
 his work. Voltaire 
 says, "When wom- 
 an no longer finds 
 herselfacceptableto 
 man, she turns to 
 God." When man 
 is no longer accept- 
 able to himself he 
 goes to church. In 
 order to keep this 
 article from extend- 
 ing itself into a tome, 
 I purposely omitted 
 saying a single thing 
 about the Protestant 
 Church as a useful 
 Social Club, & have 
 just assumed, for ar- 
 gument's sake, that 
 the church is a reli- 
 gious institution. 
 A formal religion is 
 a cut 'cross lots — 
 an attempt to bring about the emotions and 
 sensations that come to a man by the prac- 
 tice of love, virtue, excellence and truth. 
 When you do a splendid piece of work and 
 express your best, there comes to you, as 
 reward, an exaltation of soul, a sublimity of 
 feeling that puts you for the moment en rap- 
 port with the Infinite. A formal religion 
 brings this feeling without your doing any- 
 thing useful, therefore it is unnatural. 
 Formalized religion is strongest where sin, 
 slavery, tyranny and ignorance abound. 
 Where men are free, enlightened, and at 
 work, they find all the gratification in their 
 work that their souls demand — they cease 
 to hunt outside of themselves for something 
 to give them rest. They are at peace with 
 themselves, at peace with man and with God. 
 CBut any man chained to a hopeless task, 
 whose daily work does not express himself, 
 who is dogged by a boss, whenever he gets 
 
 a moment of respite turns to drink or religion. 
 41 Men with an eye on Saturday night, who 
 plot to supplant some one else, who can locate 
 their employer any hour of the day, who 
 use their wit to evade labor, who think only 
 of their summer vacation when they will no 
 longer have to work, are apt to be sticklers 
 in Sabbath keeping and churchgoing. 
 
 Gentlemen in busi- 
 
 T the last, no man who 
 does his own thinking is 
 an "ite." Outwardly he 
 maysubscribetothiscreed 
 or that, and if he is very 
 discreet he may make his language 
 conform, but inwardly his belief is 
 never pigeonholed, nor is his soul 
 labeled. In theology the great man 
 recoils at the thought of an exact 
 geometrical theorem, for he knows 
 its vanity; and all algebraic formu- 
 lae in our sublime moments are 
 
 CaSt aWay J^rt^rt^rf^J^rtg^^^ 
 
 C Hope pushed to the other side is 
 cowardice r4^>^^^^ r ^> f ^>^^,^> 
 
 ness who give elev- 
 en for a dozen, and 
 count thirty-four in- 
 ches a yard, who 
 are quick to fore- 
 close a mortgage, & 
 who say "business 
 is business," gener- 
 ally are vestrymen, 
 deacons and church 
 trustees.Look about 
 you ! C, Predaceous 
 real estate dealers 
 who set nets for all 
 theunwary,lawyers 
 who lie in wait for 
 their prey, the mer- 
 chant princes who 
 grind their clerks 
 under the wheel, oil 
 magnateswhosehis- 
 tory never is written 
 nor can be written, 
 often make peace with God, and find a gra- 
 tification for their sense of sublimity by 
 building churches, founding colleges and 
 libraries, and holding fast to a formalized 
 religion. Look about you! 
 To recapitulate: if your life-work is ques- 
 tionable, doubtful or distasteful, you hold 
 the balance true by going outside for the 
 gratification that is your due, but which your 
 daily work denies, and you find it in religion. 
 I do not say this is always so, but it is very 
 often. Great sinners are apt to be very reli- 
 gious; and conversely the best men who 
 have ever lived have been at war with es- 
 tablished religions. And further, the best 
 men are never found in churches. 
 Men deeply immersed in their work, whose 
 lives are consecrated to doing things, who 
 are simple, honest and sincere, want no 
 formal religion, need no priest nor pastor, 
 and seek no gratification outside their daily 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 59 
 
 they 
 
 lives. All they ask is to be let alone 
 wish only the privilege to work. 
 When Samuel Johnson, on his death-bed, 
 made Joshua Reynolds promise he would 
 work no more on Sunday, he of course had 
 no conception of the truth that Reynolds 
 reached, through work, the same condition 
 of mind that he— Johnson — had reached 
 by going to church. 
 Johnson despised 
 work and Reynolds 
 loved it; Johnson 
 considered one day 
 in the week holy; 
 to Reynolds all days 
 were sacred — sa- 
 cred to work; that 
 is, to the expression 
 of his best. C Why 
 should you cease to 
 express your high- 
 est and holiest on 
 SundayPAhllknow 
 why you don't work 
 on Sunday 1 It is be- 
 cause you think that 
 work is degrading, 
 and because your 
 barter and sale is 
 founded on fraud, 
 and your goods are 
 shoddy. Your week- 
 day dealings lie like 
 a pall upon your 
 conscience and you 
 need a day to throw 
 off the weariness of 
 that slavery under 
 which you live. You 
 are not free, and 
 you insist that oth- 
 ers shall not be free. 
 CYou have ceased 
 to make work glad- 
 some, and you toil 
 and make others toil 
 with you, and you 
 
 musicians and artists have all been men of 
 deep religious natures; but their religion 
 has never been a formalized, restricted, ossi- 
 fied religion. They did not worship at set 
 times and places. Their religion has been a 
 natural and spontaneous blossoming of the 
 intellect and emotions — they have worked 
 in love, not only one day in the week, but 
 rr ' i j * all days, and to them 
 
 T is only during the 
 sessions of sweet silent 
 
 thought that a man can 
 summon his soul to judg- 
 ment. Not even then is he 
 always quite sincere or free from 
 pose, for we view our acts as a pass- 
 ing procession, in which we proudly 
 march, and even into the deepest 
 seclusion we carry somewhat of this 
 strange dualism of character. The 
 average man plays to the gallery of 
 his own self-esteem. 
 C Superfluous things are the things 
 that we ^cannot do without; irrele- 
 vant things in literature are the nec- 
 essary J^rf^rf^&^&&&®>r&&!>&®!> 
 
 <LMan, in a state of Nature, is true 
 to his mate, but civilize him, and he 
 may be. Is it the law of "Thou Shalt 
 Not" that breeds Immorality? 
 CThe book written with anxious 
 purpose is made from paper, and to 
 the paper mill it soon returns. 
 CA cheerful resignation is always 
 heroic; but no phase of life is so 
 pathetic as a forced optimism 
 
 the groves have al- 
 ways and ever been 
 God's first temples. 
 Let us work to make 
 men free! Am I bad 
 because I want to 
 give you freedom, 
 and have you work 
 in gladness instead 
 of fear? 
 
 Do not hesitate to 
 work on Sunday, 
 just as you would 
 think good thoughts 
 if the spirit prompts 
 you. For work is, 
 at the last, only the 
 expression of your 
 thought, and good 
 work is religion. 
 
 HE FOLLY 
 OF LIVING 
 IN THE FU- 
 TURE. The ques- 
 tion is often asked, 
 "What becomes of 
 all the Valedictori- 
 ans and Class-Day 
 Poets?" 
 
 I can give informa- 
 tion as to two parties 
 for whom inquiry is 
 made — the Valedic- 
 torian of my Class is 
 now a worthy Floor 
 
 all well nigh faint from weariness and dis- 
 gust. You are slave and slave owner, for to 
 own slaves is to be one. 
 But the Artist is free and he works in joy, 
 and to him all things are good and all days 
 are holy. The great inventors, thinkers, poets, 
 
 Walker in Siegel, 
 CooperCompany's 
 and I was the Class-Day Poet. Both of us 
 had our eyes on the Goal. We stood on the 
 Threshold and looked out upon the World 
 preparatory to going forth, seizing it by the 
 tail and snapping its head off for our own 
 delectation. C,We had our eyes fixed on 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 60 
 
 the Goal — it might better have been the gaol. 
 Hit was a very absurd thing for us to fix 
 our eyes on the Goal. It strained our vis- 
 ion and took our attention from our work. 
 <lTo think of the Goal is to travel the dis- 
 tance over and over in your mind and dwell 
 on how awfully far off it is. We have so little 
 mind — doing business on such a small cap- 
 ital of intellect— that 
 to wear it thread- 
 bare looking for a 
 far off thing is to get 
 hopelessly stranded 
 in Siegel, Cooper 
 Company's. 
 Of course, Siegel, 
 Cooper Company 
 is all right, too, but 
 the point is this — 
 it was n't the Goal! 
 d A goodly dash of 
 indifference is a re- 
 quisite in the form- 
 ula for doing a great 
 work. 
 
 No one knows what 
 the Goal is— we are 
 sailing under sealed 
 orders, tl Do your 
 work to-day, doing 
 it the best you can, 
 and live one day at 
 a time. The man that 
 does this is conserv- 
 ing his God-given 
 energy, & not spin- 
 ning it out into ten- 
 uous spider threads 
 that Fate will prob- 
 ably brush away. 
 C To do your work 
 well to-day, is the 
 sure preparation for 
 something better to- 
 morrow. The past 
 has gone; the future 
 
 £-3* HE STONES THAT THE BUILD- 
 II fi REJECTED. There was a time 
 \dJm when the farmers about East Aurora 
 were fairly rich, but that was in the long ago. 
 To talk now about "the independence of the 
 agrarian population" is a fine piece of irony. 
 In journeying through the country, when 
 you see a house with a touch of art about it, 
 , t fences in splendid 
 
 N L I second-rate men have condition, outbuild- 
 ings painted, and a 
 barn that is not de- 
 clining into desue- 
 tude, you may safe- 
 ly assume that the 
 owner is some city 
 man, playing at ag- 
 riculture. "I had the 
 best farm in the 
 country," said Hor- 
 ace Greeley, "but it 
 took all of my in- 
 come to make it so." 
 CSo reduced are 
 the farmers of New 
 York State that no 
 first-class insurance 
 company will take a 
 risk on farm prop- 
 erty. Farmers are 
 thought to be a bad 
 moral risk, it being 
 rightly assumed that 
 a man in financial 
 straits is in no posi- 
 tion to dally con- 
 cerning such trifles 
 as meum and teum. 
 To insure a farmer's 
 barn is to invite the 
 man to borrow mon- 
 ey & invest in kero- 
 sene. Not one farm- 
 house out of forty 
 in New York is in- 
 sured, for the sim- 
 
 exalted aims. The great of 
 earth simply endeavor to 
 do their work, not to be 
 great. They meet each pro- 
 blem of life as it presents itself, cheer- 
 iilly, bravely, manfully, be the duty 
 ligh or low. The great navigator dies 
 in innocent ignorance of the fact 
 that he has discovered a continent. 
 H Without love the world would 
 only echo cries of pain, the sun 
 would only shine to show us grief, 
 each rustle of the leaf would be a 
 sigh and all the flowers only fit to 
 garland graves. 
 
 CL The thought of the love of God 
 cannot be grasped in the slightest 
 degree, even as a working hypothe- 
 sis, by a man who does not know 
 human love. 
 
 ft A man who puts himself in a bad 
 light, caring not a fig for our appro- 
 bation or censure, is no sham. 
 ftMediocrity always fears when the 
 ghost of genius does not down at its 
 bidding j^j^&^a^ 
 
 wecannotreach;the 
 present only is ours. Each day's work is a 
 preparation for the next. 
 Live in the present — the Day is here, the 
 time is Now. 
 
 There is only one thing worth praying for — 
 to be in the line of Evolution. 
 
 pie reason that the 
 insurance companies decline to do business 
 with farmers. Last week I was shown a cir- 
 cular letter sent out by "The Agriculturist 
 Insurance Company," of Watertown, N. Y., 
 wherein its agents were ordered to write no 
 more policies on farm property under any 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 61 
 
 consideration; and the anomaly comes in 
 when we consider that this company was 
 organized in 1866 for the special purpose of 
 insuring agriculturists against loss by fire. 
 C Yes, the farmers around East Aurora are 
 
 one around the Shop does, because that is 
 not my name. It all happened when a man 
 from Buffalo drove up in a fine buggy and 
 seeing me running the lawn-mower, called, 
 "~ say, John, you — hold my horse a minqte!' 
 
 poor. To a great degree they are reduced to CL I went over and held the horse. The man 
 
 a state of trade and barter; and cold cash is went inside and asked for Fra Elbertus. 
 
 a thing that seldom gladdens their eyes. A C"That 's him out there holding your 
 year ago should you r ■ n - 
 
 ES, this we all know: all 
 of man's handiwork that 
 finds form in beauty has 
 its rise in the loves of 
 men and women. Love is 
 
 have tramped with 
 me across an East 
 Aurora farm you 
 would have said that 
 the chief crop was 
 bowlders. 
 This is not quite so 
 much so as it was. 
 C And this is why: 
 When we built our 
 big fireplace in the 
 new Shop out of 
 bowlders, the result 
 was so pleasing that 
 I just said to Billy 
 Kelly, who did most 
 of the work, "Billy, 
 this Shop is getting 
 too small for our 
 force; let 's put up 
 an entire building 
 of field stones. Will 
 you stand by?" 
 
 I '11 not only stand 
 by for a year or two, 
 but I '11 stick by the 
 Roycroft Shop un- 
 til I die of old age," 
 solemnly answered 
 Billy. 
 
 Now Billy Kelly is 
 one of the few men 
 in this world whom 
 I know, who speak 
 the truth. Sammy is 
 possessed of a trop- 
 ical imagination, the 
 Red One often in- 
 dulges in fancy's flight, and Ali Baba is an 
 awful liar. But Billy Kelly is truthful. 
 "John," said Billy, "you draw the plans, 
 and give me the boys, and we '11 put up that 
 building." 
 
 Billy always calls me "John"— 'most every 
 
 vital, love is creative, love is crea- 
 tion. It is love that shapes the plas- 
 tic clay into forms divinely fair; 
 love carves all statues, writes all 
 poems, paints all canvases that glo- 
 rify the walls where color revels, 
 sings all the songs that enchant our 
 ears.^^.^b*^,^^^^^^^^^ 
 C Great men are ever lonely and live 
 apart, but birds of a feather flock 
 together because they are afraid to 
 flock alone. They want warmth and 
 protection. Fear and the herding in- 
 stinct are closely related. 
 C How else can we reach heaven 
 save through love? Who ever had a 
 glimpse of the glories that lie be- 
 yond the golden portals save in lov- 
 ing moments? 
 
 CTo lovers all things are of equal 
 importance, and this is the highest 
 sanity. 
 
 horse!" was the re- 
 ply. But never mind 
 that. We were talk- 
 ing about Billy Kel- 
 ly & the new build- 
 ing to be made out 
 ofbowlders.C'Put 
 'er there, John," 
 says Billy. 
 So we shook hands 
 on it; and straight- 
 way I wrote an ad- 
 vertisement to in- 
 sert in the Blizzard, 
 offering one dollar 
 a load for bowlders. 
 The next morning 
 after that advertise- 
 ment appeared the 
 stones began to ar- 
 rive. 
 
 The second morn- 
 ing there was a pro- 
 cession of loads, & 
 wagons loaded with 
 bowlders were seen 
 comingto town from 
 all directions. Most 
 of the farmers were 
 suspicious & insist- 
 ed on having their 
 money on the spot; 
 so Baba was pro- 
 vided with a shot 
 bagofsilverdollars, 
 and to each man he 
 gave his due. The 
 Baba also availed 
 himself of the buy- 
 er's privilege, and rubbed a little good advice 
 into the farmers as to the advantage of giving 
 honest measure and providing good stones. 
 One man caught bringing shale was well 
 damned, and pointed, personal, derogatory 
 remarks were made concerning his ancestry. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 62 
 
 C But every day the stones arrived and Ali 
 Baba was kept busy as a black ant, inspect- 
 ing the goods, and holding the agrarians up 
 to quality and quantity. 
 No crops were being planted — every one was 
 hauling stone. "I alius heard John was a bit 
 off," said one farmer, "an' now I know it." 
 C And this man made hot haste to move his 
 crop to market ere 
 
 "John" was declar- 
 ed dangerous and 
 locked up. 
 The farmers hauled 
 stones. 
 
 They hauled fifteen 
 hundred and forty- 
 seven loads, & that 
 was all the stones 
 they could afford to 
 haul at a dollar a 
 load. It was all the 
 stones that lay with- 
 in the dollar limit, 
 whichwastwomiles 
 from town. Three 
 or four loads a day 
 they could bring if 
 the distance was not 
 over two miles, but 
 when stones got so 
 scarce that they had 
 to be hauled, say, 
 three miles.thentwo 
 loads were consid- 
 ered a day's work. 
 ii The next person 
 who buys bowlders 
 in East Aurora will 
 have to pay two dol- 
 lars a load— I have 
 bulled the market 
 on niggerheads. 
 Bowlders come in 
 limited editions,and 
 Ali Baba says it will 
 be at least twenty 
 years before anoth- 
 er crop can be grown, C In the meantime, 
 with the help of the "boys," which means 
 the printers and artists, working odd hours, 
 Billy Kelly has erected a beautiful building 
 from the field stones— the stones rejected 
 of men. Billy and the boys did n't do quite 
 
 all the work alone — they had some help 
 from the gang that hangs around the station, 
 but all the printers had a hand in it. 
 Beside having enough bowlders for the Li- 
 brary building, just completed, we have 
 enough hardheads to make the Roycroft 
 Phalanstery. 
 
 The plans are all completed, and Billy and 
 the boys began on 
 
 will doubtless be 
 
 HERE 
 
 a certain general mental 
 drift or tendency in a 
 thinker, but until one 
 abandons his reason, and 
 barters his birthright for a mess of 
 assuring pottage, his belief is in a 
 state of flux, and sedimentation does 
 not take place. It is a low grade of 
 intellect that expects to corral truth 
 in a "scheme" or to hold it secure 
 in a "system." 
 
 <T Man, wise as he is, and pluming 
 himself on his ability to defeat his 
 fellows, cannot with impunity play 
 his tricksy games with God. 
 CTo succeed get ahold, and hang 
 on — inertia is often as good as en- 
 terprise. In nature it is the parasite 
 that grows fat. 
 
 C There are many deeply religious 
 people outside the church, but those 
 inside usually call them infidels. 
 C How sharper than a serpent's 
 tooth is a thankless parent! 
 C An ounce of performance is worth 
 a pound of preachment 
 
 the foundation last 
 week. 
 
 T^OVEISALL. 
 
 illri ' say t0 you 
 ¥Mm that man has 
 
 not sufficient ima- 
 gination to exagger- 
 ate the importance 
 of Love. It is as high 
 as the heavens, as 
 deep as hell, as su- 
 blime as the stars 
 and great as the gal- 
 axy of worlds that 
 fade on our feeble 
 vision into mere 
 milky ways. 
 Love holds within 
 her ample space all 
 wrecks, all ruins, all 
 grief, all tears; and 
 all the smiles, and 
 sunshine & beauty 
 that mortals know 
 are each and all her 
 priceless gifts, and 
 hers alone. 
 God of all Mercy, 
 whosenameisLove! 
 Look Thou upon us 
 and in pity pluck 
 from our hearts that 
 deep rooted unbe- 
 lief, and that mir- 
 ing uncleanness of 
 thought that causes 
 us yet as a people 
 to learn from the lips of vice and stupid 
 ignorance our knowledge of the most vital 
 and profound and potential of all faculties! 
 Through love — for there is no other way — 
 lead us back to love and light, so that like 
 the flowers, the tendrils of our hearts may 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 63 
 
 draw from Thee those delicate perfumes of 
 inspiration and rich harmonies of color that 
 alone give beauty and proportion to our 
 thoughts and acts. We have wandered far, 
 but hearken Thou to us, for we thirst and 
 are never quenched, our hearts hunger and 
 are never satisfied, we cry and the heavens 
 are but brass! God of Mercy, we beseech 
 of Thee to hear us, 
 
 doubt whether there are 
 any attorneys in heaven, it 
 is a fact that there is one 
 lawyer in the Calendar of 
 Saints — St. Yves of Brittany. Lecky, 
 the historian, tells how when the 
 peasants celebrate the feast of St. 
 Yves they sing: Advocatus et non 
 latro — Res miranda populo. 
 
 Men judge women by those with 
 whom they have been most intimate. 
 
 and in pity bring us 
 back, through love, 
 to Thee! 
 
 MfSTUDY IN 
 |H BROWN. On 
 ISMtheLakeShore 
 Railroad, Train No. 
 32 leaves Toledo at 
 8.50 a. m. and ar- 
 rives at Cleveland 
 at 11.25, stopping at 
 Sandusky and Ely- 
 ria. The distance is 
 one hundred and 
 eleven miles. 
 Laylander took this 
 train, he told me, on the morning of July 
 23rd, 1900. This train, known as "The Fast 
 Mail," is made up of a dozen mail cars and 
 one passenger coach at the end. Formerly 
 the entire train was made up of mail cars 
 alone, but the traveling public importuned 
 the management until the one coach was 
 added, this as a matter of accommodation. 
 The train making very fast time, this one 
 coach is naturally well filled by people who 
 wish to arrive. 
 
 On the occasion mentioned, nearly every 
 seat was taken. Back by the door on the 
 obsolete wood box, now used as a receptacle 
 for the trainmen's lanterns, sat a solitary 
 woman. 
 
 This woman was an Arrangement in Brown, 
 her dress being a dark brown, her waist of 
 a lighter shade of brown, the veil matched 
 the skirt; and upon her wide brimmed hat 
 was a drooping melancholy ostrich feather 
 of a shade that matched the waist. To com- 
 plete the costume there were brown gloves 
 of undressed kid. It was a chromatic ensem- 
 ble worthy of Sammy the Artist. 
 Laylander entered the coach just as the train 
 was pulling out, and meditatively walked the 
 
 length of the car looking for a vacant seat. 
 Laylander is big, towsled, homely, awkward, 
 but carries a look of power and intelligence 
 that only the Discerning detect. The Vision 
 in Brown on the wood box, at the extreme 
 corner, half caught Laylander's attention, 
 but made no special impression. He walked 
 on down toward the wood box, crowned with 
 - . its precious freight. 
 
 HILE there is a grave 
 
 As none of the per- 
 sons sitting alone in 
 the seats offered to 
 push over and wel- 
 come a stranger, he 
 moved on in a sort 
 of brown study to- 
 ward the Study 
 in Brown, growing 
 more & more aware 
 of the Presence with 
 each step; still, he 
 did not look toward 
 the lady — he was 
 just aware she was 
 there, that 's all. 
 He intended to go 
 through to the rear door, make a bluff at 
 getting a drink of water, then turn back and 
 make one of the swine move over. 
 Just before he reached the water-cooler, a 
 brakeman pushed in ahead of him, and said 
 in a brakeman's guttural, meant to be kind, 
 "Here, Lady — I have a seat for you — this 
 way, please — is this your grip?" 
 The lady half smiled, but did not move. 
 Then she said in a quiet but perfectly audi- 
 ble voice, "No, that valise is not mine. I am 
 very comfortable here. I am holding this seat 
 — holding it for my friend!" and she looked 
 straight into the eyes of Laylander, who was 
 vulcanizing in a way that might have been 
 regarded as rude, attracted by the drooping, 
 melancholy ostrich feather, and the sweetest 
 voice he had ever heard. 
 The lady smiled, and the lines around Lay- 
 lander's mouth grew tight in an attempt to 
 meet his vis-a-vis half way. She made a mo- 
 tion to draw her skirts close, so as to make 
 room on the wood box. Laylander removed 
 his hat like a wooden automaton, wondering 
 where he had ever met this woman before. 
 CLHe sat down but did n't say anything, 
 because there was really nothing to say. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 64 
 
 CIThe woman was a superb creature. Lay- 
 lander had taken that all in; she was an 
 aristocrat from the toe of her flat-heeled, 
 broad-soled English shoe to the tip of the 
 drooping melancholy feather. She was such 
 a thorough aristocrat that she was also a 
 thorough democrat. 
 
 The sweat was beginning to stand out on 
 Laylander, and he 
 
 was going to make 
 some remark about 
 the weather, when 
 the low and gentle 
 voice said, semi- 
 confidentially, "We 
 have never met be- 
 fore, so do not try 
 to locate me. If we 
 had ever seen each 
 other before this we 
 would not have to 
 strive to remember 
 the event. Do you 
 like Maeterlinck?" 
 CNow it so hap- 
 pened that Laylan- 
 der was charged with Maeterlinck to the 
 point of saturation. He said, "Why, good- 
 ness, yes!" 
 
 Then they talked of Maeterlinck. 
 "He is as universal as Whitman, only Whit- 
 man is never pierced by the world-sorrow. 
 Whitman is so full of courage that it gives 
 one courage to read him, yet Maeterlinck is 
 more subtle," said the lady. 
 "Ah, yes! Whitman is masculine, while 
 Maeterlinck is evidently the son of his moth- 
 er. His best characteristics are distinctly 
 feminine — he is like Frederick Nietsche." 
 CThen the lady confirmed Laylander's 
 statement by a quotation from Nietsche, and 
 reaching into a brown-trimmed Boston bag, 
 which she held in her hands, she drew forth 
 Nietsche's last book of essays, and read half 
 a page aloud, leaning over toward the big 
 Laylander. This reminded Laylander of 
 something in Ibsen's Ghosts, and he drew 
 the book out of the side pocket of his coat. 
 CThen they conversed — "communed" is 
 the word Laylander used in telling me about 
 it — communed concerning the philosophy 
 of Whitman, Nietsche and Maeterlinck. 
 " This, I think, is Sandusky," said Laylander, 
 
 peering out of the window. C "Oh, no, we 
 stopped for five minutes at Sandusky — it 
 must have been over an hour ago. We are 
 just running into the Cleveland Union Sta- 
 tion—this is where I get off." 
 The train stopped. 
 
 Laylander took the Boston bag and followed 
 down the aisle. €L He walked dumbly by the 
 . lady's side to the en- 
 
 OVbRo are hopelessly 
 
 given over to mysteries 
 and secrecy, to signs and 
 omens and portents; they 
 carry meaning further and 
 spin out the thread of suggestion to 
 a fineness that scowling philoso- 
 phers can never follow. 
 C You can lead a boy to college, but 
 you cannot make him think. 
 C I love you because you love the 
 things that I love 
 
 trance of the wait- 
 ing-room. 
 
 Then they paused 
 there and looked at 
 each other for just 
 an instant. 
 Laylanderquitefor- 
 got to hand the lady 
 her property — he 
 stood clutching the 
 Boston bag in both 
 hands as if it might 
 fly away. 
 
 She gently took it 
 from him with one 
 hand, and liftingher 
 brown veil with the 
 other, said softly, "I do not know your name 
 — I do not wish to. You do not know mine. 
 Let it remain so. Probably we shall never 
 meet again. You may kiss me if you wish," 
 and she stepped close and stood on tiptoe. 
 
 (TraflHO ARE THE HEATHEN? "Every 
 Writ ren 2 ion began simply as a matter of 
 maM reason," says Max Muller, "and from 
 this drifted into a superstition." Without the 
 basis of reason on which to build, the super- 
 stition could not exist. But it is the history 
 of all religions that the ignorant, led on by 
 the designing, use the language of hyperbole, 
 poesy and symbolism as if they designated 
 concrete things. When this is done you have 
 a superstition. It is the simplest evolution, 
 and the sternest, truest, most undeniable, in 
 all the world of thought — this thing of trans- 
 forming a poetic figure into a literal fact. 
 "Figurative language is the bulwark of the 
 Church," said John Wesley. This accounts 
 for the fact that in all religions there are 
 many men who represent a high order of 
 intelligence: and their belief is made tenable 
 only by placing a mystic and poetic construc- 
 tion upon the creed. Priests, of course, are 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 65 
 
 often caught in the mesh of superstition, but 
 those of the first grade in every land have 
 an Esoteric Truth for themselves, and leave 
 the gross fact for their followers. 
 Religions are many and diverse, but reason 
 and goodness are one. It is the business of 
 the prophet and seer to sound this truth again 
 and yet again, lest religion degenerate com- 
 pletely into fetich, 
 
 HAT parent only is doing 
 
 and the dervish take 
 theplaceofthedoer. 
 C, A few weeks ago 
 I met a bishop of the 
 Episcopal Church 
 who seriously ar- 
 gued that my posi- 
 tion outside The 
 Church" was pre- 
 posterous, I belong- 
 ed inside. "Why," 
 said he, "you be- 
 lieve not only that 
 one man was Divine 
 but that all men are; 
 and all of our creed 
 you hold as poetic 
 truth. And this you 
 have a perfect right 
 to do inside of the 
 Church, only it is 
 absurd to be getting 
 yourself misunder- 
 stood by expressing 
 things that are be- 
 yond the average in- 
 tellectual grasp. If 
 there is any trouble 
 with your faith it is 
 in that you believe 
 too much. Now be 
 diplomatic and sen- 
 sible and cease to 
 fight & antagonize. 
 Come home, find 
 
 companionship in the Church and peace for 
 your soul. And if you think that churchly 
 honors will be a satisfaction to you it can 
 all be arranged." 
 
 One point in the bishop's plea is worth our 
 while and that is that the heretic is a man 
 with faith plus. The heresy head-hunters are 
 a very stupid lot, and any man who has 
 staked his life on a belief in the love of God 
 
 his whole duty who is 
 training the child to do 
 without him; and herein 
 nature and necessity are 
 usually wiser than fortune's favorites. 
 H As the second commandment was 
 the death of Art for a thousand years, 
 so has the forced servility of woman 
 held civilization in thrall to a degree 
 that no man can compute. 
 <L "Vengeance is mine and I will 
 repay," saith the Lord, and others. 
 The others think the Lord needs 
 an instrument, and they volunteer 
 to be it. 
 
 CYou cannot legislate virtue into 
 people. There is no man ever any 
 better than he wants to be. 
 CThe true work of all governments 
 is to do away with the necessity of 
 any government. 
 
 C Those who do most in the world 
 are those who love most. 
 
 and placed no limit on the mercy of the 
 Unseen has ever been game for the theolog- 
 ical Rough Riders. 
 
 The matter of martyrdom in the good old 
 days agone (and the best that can be said of 
 them is that they are gone) was only a huge 
 misunderstanding. And the tragic joke of it 
 all lies in the fact that persecutor and mar- 
 tyr are cut from the 
 same piece. The two 
 were good men, but 
 they were lacking in 
 humor. The perse- 
 cutors and martyrs 
 have zeal in excess, 
 & they have surely 
 supplied the Great 
 Aristophanes of 
 Heaven many a 
 laugh by the quick 
 changes in which 
 they have traded 
 places in the stocks 
 & upon the gallows. 
 CThe foregoing re- 
 marks were suggest- 
 ed by an Associated 
 Press Dispatch stat- 
 ing that two Zion- 
 ist missionaries sent 
 out by Rev. John 
 Alex. Dowie of Chi- 
 cago were mobbed 
 at Mansfield, Ohio. 
 Later I had the feli- 
 city of interviewing 
 one of these mis- 
 sionaries who gave 
 his story, with full 
 details as to times 
 and places. 
 He was caught by 
 the mob, stripped, 
 decorated with pea- 
 green paint, and then chased by sundry 
 citizens, male and female, who carried peach- 
 sprout switches that they used with unction. 
 These ladies and gentlemen of Mansfield, 
 Ohio, who chased the missionary, were 
 Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians. The 
 Chicago Zionites had simply encroached on 
 their preserve, and they arose, and resented 
 the intrusion with a "righteous indignation." 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 66 
 
 The Catholics feel too sure to be troubled by 
 small fry like our friend Dowie, and the in- 
 fidels, including Universalists and Unitari- 
 ans, for the most part do not care a dam. So 
 it was left for the chaste Dowieites to be 
 hand-illumined and chased by the folks who 
 are very much of their own kidney. That is 
 to say, they were all chasers and chasees, 
 firm believers in the 
 
 dogma that Jesus of 
 Nazareth never had 
 but one parent, and 
 furthermore, these 
 people hold that a 
 belief in this vagary 
 is absolutely neces- 
 sary to save us from 
 eternal damnation. 
 i This brings us up 
 to the "Society of 
 the Sanctified and 
 Righteous Fist," 
 which we translate 
 in our terse & idio- 
 matic way into "The 
 Boxers."The inspi- 
 ration of this society 
 is religious zeal, re- 
 inforced by patriot- 
 ism, both of which 
 have served as the 
 last refuge for all the 
 really great scound- 
 rels who have ever 
 lived. We meet the 
 Boxers, in turn, by 
 religious zeal, back- 
 ed up with patriot- 
 ism. We love our 
 religion & our coun- 
 try, and so do they, 
 and so we fight. 
 In China there are 
 three religions rec- 
 ognized by the State: Confucianism, Taoism 
 and Buddhism. Confucius lived about five 
 hundred years before Christ. He was not 
 the originator of the doctrines he taught and 
 distinctly protests, repeatedly, against any 
 such assumption. To call him the founder of 
 a religion would be like calling Tolstoy the 
 originator of Christianity — both are merely 
 interpreters. Confucius gathered together 
 
 the best that was in antiquity in way of phi- 
 losophy and ethics and applied this philoso- 
 phy to life. He studiously avoids all refer- 
 ence to the existence and attributes of the 
 Divine, but merely states what he believes 
 is best to do while here. 
 The word Confucius or Kung-fu-tse means 
 "The Holy Master" or "The Exalted One"; 
 
 the real name of the 
 
 T is a great man who, when 
 
 he finds he has come out 
 at the little end of the 
 horn, simply appropriates 
 the horn and blows it for- 
 
 evermore 
 
 C He who will not accept orders has 
 no right to give them; he who will 
 not serve has no right to command; 
 he who cannot keep silence has no 
 right to speak. 
 
 ii What is the good of eternally dis- 
 cussing the Future? If God is or is 
 not, we are bound to keep doing the 
 best we can, one day at a time, just 
 the same 
 
 41 Even impressionable women do 
 not find it hard to resist temptation 
 when offered by the wrong man at 
 an inopportune time. 
 C The charm of reading is in the 
 recognition of what we know. 
 <! Positive anything is better than 
 negative nothing 
 
 man himself is lost 
 in the mist. Confu- 
 cius has often been 
 likened to Socrates, 
 but in fact is a com- 
 bination of Socrates 
 and Moses, for he 
 founded a minute 
 ritual & made many 
 rules for the con- 
 duct of our lives. 
 He was guided by 
 the "Voice," just as 
 Socrates was by his 
 "Demon "or Moses 
 by the "Lord." All 
 of which means pro- 
 bably nothing else 
 than that there is a 
 something in each 
 man's heart which 
 tells him what is 
 right and what not. 
 All Quaker mothers 
 ask their little chil- 
 dren, when a ques- 
 tion of conduct ari- 
 ses, "What does the 
 Voice say, Dear?" 
 The child pauses, 
 considers & knows 
 what is right. 
 Dr. Paul Carus has 
 said that all the Mo- 
 saic laws are simply 
 sanitary, and he has further stated that Moses 
 was merely endeavoring to lead his people 
 out of captivity into physical and mental 
 freedom. He died before his experiment 
 had developed very far, and his followers 
 built up a superstition on his life and works. 
 H Confucius said "To understand yourself 
 is the key to wisdom." Confucius was essen- 
 tially an individualist, as all wise men are 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 67 
 
 and ever have been. Once one of his followers 
 asked Confucius what he should do in a cer- 
 tain vexed situation. "Do unto others as you 
 would have them do to you," was the reply. 
 <T Contemporary with Confucius is Lao-tze 
 who taught of the Tao, which means the 
 Way. The word has a peculiar metaphysical 
 meaning and really has no equivalent in 
 English. Tao repre- 
 sents theFirstCause 
 or Guiding Princi- 
 ple of life, and is 
 the good angel that 
 carries the lamp and 
 points us the path- 
 way we should fol- 
 low. The thought is 
 extremely poetic, & 
 symbols all we can 
 read into it. But that 
 there is one best way 
 to live— all agree. 
 There is the right 
 and the wrong, and 
 Tao will lead aright 
 if we will become as 
 little children, cease 
 all violence of direc- 
 tion and have faith 
 in the good. It seems 
 impossible that Je- 
 sus did not know of 
 the doctrine of Tao, 
 for he calls Himself 
 the Way and uses 
 again and again the 
 thought of simplici- 
 ty, gentleness and 
 peace, and his phil- 
 osophy of unselfish- 
 ness is one with the 
 life and thought of 
 Lao-tze. "I repre- 
 sent the Way, the 
 
 Truth and the Life," said Lao-tze. C Tao 
 was originally simply a religion of reason — 
 it taught the better way. But upon the poetic 
 expressions of Lao-tze priests built a fabric, 
 just as Renan avers that Paul established a 
 church on the fervent sayings of Jesus. Paul 
 was the founder of the Christian Church, 
 not Jesus; but the orthodox faith was not 
 complete until we had Dante and Milton. 
 
 C In the first century after Christ, Buddhism 
 was introduced. The Emperor Ming-ti offici- 
 ally recognized it as the third state religion, 
 and since his time the reigning Emperor has 
 regularly been present once a year in the 
 temples of Confucianists, Taoists and Buddh- 
 ists. In fact the Emperor officially believes 
 in each of the three religions, just as the 
 Ruler of England is 
 
 AKE my word for it, Char- 
 lie, the man pushing a 
 wheelbarrow is just as 
 happy as the man riding 
 in the automobile — he has 
 just as good a digestion, sleeps as 
 well, and will live as long. God 
 equalizes all things, and if you get 
 off a way, so as to get the perspec- 
 tive, you will see everything is of 
 one size. 
 
 C Do not stop to think about who are 
 with you, and what men are against 
 you. It matters little at the last — 
 both the ability to harm and the 
 ability to help are overestimated. 
 CThe only way you can get into the 
 Kingdom of Heaven is to carry the 
 Kingdom of Heaven in your heart. 
 C People who profess to love their 
 enemies are apt to hold averages 
 good by hating their friends. 
 C Gentleness and good cheer — these 
 come before all questions of morals. 
 
 a Presbyterian in 
 Scotland & an Epis- 
 copalian when he 
 returns to England. 
 C Buddhism at the 
 base stands for gen- 
 tleness, kindness, 
 earnestseekingafter 
 light and all that is 
 just and right. It also 
 teaches the sacred- 
 ness of life, so that 
 a good Buddhist is 
 both a vegetarian & 
 an abstainer from 
 all intoxicants. But 
 Buddhism is an ex- 
 ceeding complex & 
 intricate affair to ex- 
 plain, quite as com- 
 plex as Christiani- 
 ty. Christianity em- 
 braces over a hun- 
 dred recognized de- 
 nominations, some 
 of which insist on 
 decoratingmembers 
 of rival sects with 
 green paint. In fact, 
 I myself believe in 
 the teachings of the 
 Christ most thor- 
 oughly, yet the ex- 
 pressed thought that 
 I am a follower of 
 Christ would be met with howls of derision 
 by most of my respectable neighbors and 
 also down the creek as far as Ebenezer. Yet 
 it is a grain of satisfaction to me to remember 
 that Christ was not a Christian; for St. Paul, 
 Dante & Milton were, in his day, yet to come. 
 CBut the different kinds of Buddhists in 
 India and China live on very good terms. 
 C,To make this fact plain it should be stated 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 68 
 
 our Christ as one who taught their gospel. In 
 other words they claim Christ as a Buddhist. 
 C Converts to any new religion, or phase of 
 religion, are necessarily men who know little 
 of the history of religions. Men who know 
 all religions have small faith in any. All the 
 great religions had a little beginning. A man 
 of power stands out from the world, regard- 
 less of precedent 
 
 ATU RE showed great wis- 
 dom in sending the young 
 in litters: when she cut 
 down to one, she lapsed. 
 The other day I saw three 
 lion cubs with their mother. The 
 way those cubs wrestled with each 
 
 that when the Nestorian Christians visited 
 China in the Seventh Century they were 
 greeted by Buddhists, Taoists and Confu- 
 cians as the "Glorious Teachers," and all 
 began to compare the similarity of their 
 basic principles. 
 
 So this happy condition continued until the 
 beginning of the Ninth Century, when the 
 Nestorians had be- 
 come strong and es- 
 tablished many con- 
 vents. They owned 
 much property and 
 occasionally came 
 into collision with 
 the Buddhists who 
 trespassed on their 
 rights.In some cases 
 bands of men, sort 
 of paid Pinkertons, 
 were hired by the 
 different religionsto 
 protecttheirtemples 
 from intruders. The 
 Confucians armed 
 also, very much as 
 England now buys 
 two war ships when- 
 ever Russia orders 
 one. So in the year 
 841 the Emperor 
 Wutung issued his 
 notorious edict ab- 
 olishing all Buddh- 
 ists and Christian 
 Convents in China. 
 The Protestant Bar- 
 onsinEnglandmade 
 the Catholic Monks 
 go out in exactly the 
 same way, in the 
 Fourteenth Centu- 
 ry Jfl So the Chris- 
 tians and Buddhists 
 had to go from China, and Marco Polo, who 
 traversed China about the year 1270, says he 
 found not a single Christian on his travels. 
 But he did find that the Buddhists, who had 
 slowly returned to China, knew of Jesus of 
 Nazareth and held Him in great esteem, 
 speaking of Him as a "Budh" or a reincar- 
 nation of Buddha. And so it is to this day — 
 all the higher sects of Buddhism recognize 
 
 other, lay in wait, charged, sprang 
 and tumbled, was wonderful. Hour 
 after hour they kept up the rough- 
 house play. They released enough 
 energy on each other to turn a dy- 
 namo. Lucky for that lioness that 
 she had three babies, and not simply 
 one. If there had been but one it 
 would have required all her time to 
 amuse the youngster, and he would 
 have worn her nerves to a frazzle. 
 As it was, the cubs amused each 
 other and gave the fond mother time 
 to meditate & think Great Thoughts. 
 C The best recipe for having strong, 
 excellent and noble children is to be 
 a strong, excellent and noble parent. 
 
 heedless of conse- 
 quence, and points 
 the Way. His is a 
 religion of reason, 
 and he has always 
 said in substance 
 that righteousness 
 is only a form of 
 common sense, that 
 sin is folly and the 
 best way to help 
 yourself is to help 
 others. He has al- 
 ways been a man of 
 the widest sympa- 
 thy & most sublime 
 charity. But he is 
 opposed, hated, vil- 
 ified and misunder- 
 stood. Stupidity and 
 hypocrisy confront 
 him, and he speaks 
 in bursts of fevered 
 eloquence — in par- 
 able. He feels that 
 his life is guided by 
 a Power behind and 
 beyond himself,that 
 he voices Universal 
 Truth. All the truly 
 strongmen feel their 
 kinship to the God- 
 head, & so express 
 themselves. All the 
 truths they utter are 
 never new— they are as old as fate. But truth 
 is always being corrupted by the ignorant, 
 the selfish and the designing, and so these 
 "Prophets," "Budhs" or "Christs," vary- 
 ing in power and degree, are continually 
 coming to the front and tearing away the 
 veil of superstition and hypocrisy. 
 After they are gone, their scattered words 
 may be seized upon by the ignorant, and a 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 69 
 
 symbolism is made to stand for a literal fact, 
 and then you have a superstition. Orthodox 
 Christianity is a superstition, and is at once 
 recognized as such by the wise men of China. 
 And there are more philosophers pro rata 
 in China than in America. The Pundit La- 
 lana says that in the East there is an Emerson 
 every four miles. <L The educated Chinaman 
 knows all we know 
 and all he himself 
 knows beside. The 
 three state religions 
 of China contain 
 every bit of truth 
 that is to be found in 
 Christianity. Com- 
 mercially and ma- 
 terially we excel the 
 Chinese, but this is 
 the result of climate, 
 environment & con- 
 ditions outside of all 
 religion. And trolley 
 cars, long distance 
 telephones, Maxim 
 guns, electrocution 
 chairs, palace cars, 
 and Hoe multiple 
 presses are the re- 
 sult of conditions 
 absolutely untouch- 
 ed by the spirit of 
 the Man who preached the Sermon on the 
 Mount.C We have all the splendid things I 
 have enumerated, but on the other hand we 
 have mobs that strip women of their clothing 
 on the public street, we decorate Christian 
 preachers with green paint, we burn men at 
 the stake, or cut their carcasses into bits and 
 give them to the crowds as souvenirs. In 
 every large city of America no unarmed man 
 is safe at night; not a day passes but women- 
 thugs rob men on the public streets of certain 
 large cities in daylight; we have poverty, 
 vice, prostitution, destitution on every hand. 
 Half of our population live in the cities: the 
 spirit of Christ has small place in our gov- 
 ernment, and it is notorious that our cities 
 are governed by the worst. Drunkenness 
 exists to a degree the world has never else- 
 where seen, excepting in England and Scot- 
 land. And as it was Schlitz beer that made 
 Milwaukee famous, so likewise much of the 
 
 wealth and prestige in many of our cities was 
 secured by ministering to perverted appetites. 
 C The idea of such a country as this, where 
 purity, honesty and truth are exceptional, 
 sending missionaries abroad is the very acme 
 of bigoted assumption. The missionaries we 
 send to China never become citizens of 
 China— not at all. They are ever American, 
 TTrnr . j , English or German, 
 
 HERE is a grave doubt as 
 to how much civilization 
 has been benefitted by 
 rulers and warriors. Often 
 they have made this world 
 a place of the skull — not so the 
 teachers. It was not a teacher who 
 smote agony untold to mother hearts 
 by an order to destroy the first born. 
 It was not a teacher who ordered 
 American soldiers to "kill all over 
 ten years of age." 
 
 «LTo Nellie C.:— You ask what I 
 consider my best piece of writing. 
 Answer — The Mozart manuscript 
 
 that I lost out of the car window. 
 
 as the case may be. 
 They are "foreign- 
 ers" to the last and 
 never come to fully 
 know or sympathize 
 with the people they 
 are trying to teach. 
 The result is they 
 only make hypo- 
 crites or beggar at- 
 taches — "rice con- 
 verts," as Lafcadio 
 Hearn points out in 
 his interesting book 
 Out of the East. If 
 these men wanted 
 to do good & bene- 
 fit mankind there is 
 plenty of the raw 
 material right here 
 at home; but their 
 ignorance makes of 
 them an easy prey 
 
 to their zeal, so they go abroad to save the 
 souls of the heathen." For the most part the 
 Protestant missionaries are a weakling lot. 
 C.I am informed by the Red One that an 
 expert accountant is a bookkeeper out of a 
 job. A missionary is a preacher who has 
 failed to receive a loud "call" at home. Mis- 
 sionaries do not go abroad to learn — they go 
 abroad with preconceived ideas concerning 
 the "heathen," full of the fallacy that they 
 have the truth and the heathen are without 
 it. To send men to India to learn and then 
 have these men come back and tell us what 
 they learned would be a wise move, but to 
 send men across the sea to unload their 
 ignorance and arrogance is absurd and. is 
 bound to make trouble. 
 It must further be noted that the Chinese 
 never harmed us in the slightest until we 
 invaded their country. We exclude China- 
 men from America and yet we raise a mighty 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 70 
 
 howl because they try to exclude us from 
 China. And our grievance against China now 
 is not a matter of "the sacredness of life." 
 Life is not a sacred matter to us at all. We 
 mow down men with our rapid firing guns, 
 and then traverse the country, barnstorming, 
 boasting of it. We show pictures of the mu- 
 tilated and fallen by stereopticon and in our 
 newspapers without 
 apparent shame.We 
 have killed a hun- 
 dred Chinamen for 
 one missionary kill- 
 ed by the Chinese, 
 and are so ruthless 
 of life that we pal- 
 liate the crime by 
 saying a missionary 
 is worth a hundred 
 Chinamen,thusput- 
 ting a Rialto value 
 upon souls, which 
 act only a Jugger- 
 naut of blood could 
 justify. 
 
 The missionaries as 
 a rule are ignorant, 
 unsympathetic, ar- 
 rogant: all fully con- 
 fidentthat they have 
 a monopoly of truth. 
 Their presence is 
 an affront to a mild and gentle people. First 
 they are tolerated, then feared when it is 
 seen that they divide house against house 
 and create factions and ill will. Between the 
 missionaries of different Christian denomin- 
 ations there is ever strife and rivalry. They 
 warn the converts against other denomina- 
 tions. Some of these missionaries or their 
 followers become traders, and commerce 
 enters. Then come foreign soldiers to protect 
 the foreign missionaries and foreign mer- 
 chants. Russia seizes a province to pay for 
 some fancied indemnity; the French take a 
 concession; the Germans a coaling station; 
 the English a port; the Italians raise a row 
 because they get nothing, and behold Chinese 
 "exclusiveness" grows impatient. 
 The poor heathen cannot understand why 
 they should not be let alone. They see no 
 special virtue in the pig-eaters who come to 
 force a religion on them which seems no 
 
 improvement on the one they have. So they 
 organize the Society of Sanctified Fists and 
 after long suffering riot breaks out and the 
 missionaries are either killed or bundled 
 back home. 
 
 "Vengeance is mine and I will repay," saith 
 the German Emperor. 
 I can see a grain of excuse in the Boxer 
 movement, but I do 
 not find anything to 
 pardon in the bru- 
 tality of the Meth- 
 odist Bishop who 
 recently said, "We 
 willChristianizethe 
 Chinese, even if it 
 takes a million bay- 
 onets and costs a 
 sea of blood." 
 Altogether my sym- 
 pathies are with the 
 Boxers. They are 
 only following the 
 exhortation of Pitt 
 to us as colonists. 
 And I say to all per- 
 sons anxious to ben- 
 efit mankind: 
 Build over against 
 your own house — 
 the heathen are at 
 your door. Let him 
 who is without sin cast stones at Chinamen. 
 
 pffjBOVE THE RABBLE. The Eiffel 
 wMm Tower is one thousand feet high; it is 
 illS the highest structure in the world. 
 Next to this comes the Washington monu- 
 ment, five hundred and fifty-five feet. The 
 Great Pyramid is four hundred and eighty 
 feet; the spire of St. Peter's at Rome is four 
 hundred and thirty-two feet. 
 There are four elevators that run to the 
 second landing of the Tower — two ascend- 
 ing and two descending. From this point 
 there is one running up and one running 
 down. In order to lessen vibration to the 
 structure and to the vertebrae of passengers, 
 the elevators move at the rate of only one 
 hundred feet a minute; thus it takes ten 
 minutes to make the ascent. 
 The second landing-place is three hundred 
 and seventy feet from the ground, and this is 
 
 E grow through expres- 
 sion — if you know things 
 there is a strong desire to 
 express them. It is na- 
 ture's way of deepening 
 our impressions — this thing of re- 
 counting them. And happy, indeed, 
 are you if you know a soul with 
 whom you can converse at your best. 
 C If I were a woman, I would culti- 
 vate the fine art of listening. No 
 woman can talk as interestingly as 
 she can look. 
 
 C The ostrich's plan of disposing of 
 difficulties is not without its disad- 
 vantages &^&&&3&>&&&&y4g&r&®> 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 71 
 
 about as far from mother earth as most peo- 
 ple care to go. The highest buildings in Chi- 
 cago are about two hundred feet. From the 
 roofs of these edifices the people below look 
 like pigmies; the rattle of traffic is heard as 
 a faint hum. But from the top of the Eiffel 
 Tower men and women on the ground all 
 look alike; they are mere dots, without 
 height or individu- 
 ality. CL The Eiffel 
 Tower is the greatest 
 scheme for elevat- 
 ing humanity ever 
 conceived. It costs 
 five francs to make 
 the ascent, but it is 
 worth the money. It 
 will try your nerves, 
 and possibly make 
 you seasick, but the 
 joy you feel on get- 
 ting back to earth is 
 compensation for all 
 discomfort. 
 Besides this,change 
 is hygienic, and new 
 sensations, new ex- 
 periences and new 
 views are tonics. In 
 fact, a specialist in 
 neurotics at Paris 
 takes certain of his 
 patients to the top of the Eiffel Tower in 
 order to arouse them out of their despond- 
 ency — to animate and compel them to think 
 of new things. 
 
 We have all heard of the chronic invalid who 
 was not cured until the house caught afire; 
 but who wants to start a conflagration as 
 treatment for melancholia? Yet the elevators 
 at the Eiffel Tower run every day, and it 
 has happened that when patients who have 
 tried to commit suicide are taken up in the 
 nicely cushioned cage, they have become 
 frightened and begged to be taken down at 
 once. CL Let me frankly confess that I was 
 first attracted to the Eiffel Tower through the 
 advice of a physician. I had overworked, 
 endeavoring to read all of the chipmunk 
 magazines as fast as they appeared. Nervous 
 prostration set in, and neurasthenia had taken 
 a firm hold on me, and if my actions at this 
 time were slightly peculiar, the gentle reader 
 
 must be charitable and attribute my eccen- 
 tricity solely to my physical condition — and 
 the magazinelets. 
 
 I made the ascent of the Tower by stages: 
 the first time I was fully satisfied on going to 
 the second landing. The next time to the third, 
 and on the third ascent I reached the summit. 
 C Had I gone but once it would have been 
 an experience never 
 tobeforgotten.Alas! 
 the medicine was so 
 palatable that I took 
 a double dose, and 
 on the second trip 
 the Tower was only 
 half as high. I was 
 quite blase. C, The 
 work of the great 
 engineer? What of 
 it! He has the earth 
 to build upon, the 
 corners of the world 
 from which to draw 
 material, books that 
 tell him the crush- 
 ing resistance of his 
 base and the break- 
 ing tension of his 
 beams. He digs for 
 hiscaissons,layshis 
 foundation, places 
 his steel uprights, 
 counts on the force of the wind, computes 
 the exact weight of each piece he will use, 
 bolts and rivets part to part, carrying up 
 columns and girders by elevator, and like 
 the building of a railroad, lays the track for 
 his carriages as he goes. A railway extends 
 iron after iron on the ground; this extends 
 iron after iron into the air. But it is all accord- 
 ing to well digested physical laws; it is all 
 geometric. The Tower has four immense 
 corners three hundred feet apart that are 
 mortised into the very crust of the Miocene 
 Period. The pressure on each square centi- 
 metre at the base is nine pounds; that at the 
 Washington monument is fifty-eight pounds. 
 The difference is in the material used. Who 
 is afraid? There it rises, tall, straight, correct, 
 cold-levelled with plumb-line and square. It 
 is all mathematically adjusted, clamped, im- 
 plicated, riveted, rectilinear, symmetrical, 
 sure. It cost $1,500,000. 
 
 OB was stung into self- 
 vindication — a thing no 
 man should ever attempt. 
 If men do not comprehend 
 the trend of your life by 
 your actions, they will never know 
 it better by your making a personal 
 explanation. Your life may be right 
 but your reasons never. Life, like 
 love, is its own excuse for being. 
 tL One of the compensations in sin 
 is that it saves a man from becom- 
 ing a Pharisee. 
 
 *L Self-Reliance is very excellent, 
 but as for independence, there is no 
 such thing 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 72 
 
 On my third passage in the elevator of the 
 Eiffel Tower the novelty of the thing had 
 quite worn away. I joked with the ticket- 
 seller, slapped the guard on the back, entered 
 the car and pacified several ladies who were 
 a bit nervous and threatening to scream ; then 
 I gave the order to ascend. My jaunty manner 
 quite put the passengers at their ease. In 
 pigeon French I ex- 
 plained the work- 
 ingsof theelevators, 
 the cost of the struc- 
 ture, the time it took 
 to build it and the 
 difficulties encoun- 
 tered. 
 
 On the down trip 
 one of the ladies 
 asked: "Who was 
 it built this tower, 
 anyway?" 
 "I am the man who 
 built it," was my 
 unblushing answer. 
 C"I thought from 
 your accent that you 
 were an American?" 
 C" Madam, you ev- 
 idently forget that 
 in building towers 
 the vocabulary gets 
 a trifle mixed up." 
 The next day as I viewed the Eiffel Tower 
 from my hotel window, I smiled in derision. 
 COn first approaching the Tower a week 
 before, I had been overawed, then I admired, 
 then endured, then pitied, then embraced — 
 an opportunity to scorn it. 
 And this is how it happened: In the Paris 
 edition of the New York Herald I read an 
 advertisement worded as follows: "Prof. Le 
 Galligar, the celebrated aeronaut, will make 
 an ascension for scientific purposes to-mor- 
 row, from the Champ de Mars. Three pas- 
 sengers will be taken at fifty francs each. 
 Apply early at Fifteen Rue St. Denis." 
 An overwhelming desire had come over me 
 to spit down upon the pride of M. Eiffel. 
 Here was the chance. I hastened to Rue St. 
 Denis, found Prof. Le Galligar, a bright 
 youth of about twenty-two, at a little wine 
 shop. He was too young to be celebrated, 
 and did not look scientific, yet I paid him my 
 
 passage money and took a receipt. He could 
 not understand my English, and to me his 
 French was incomprehensible ; but by means 
 of much pantomime it was agreed that I 
 should be on hand at two o'clock the fol- 
 lowing day. 
 
 I slept little that night, and was up betimes 
 the next morning. When I approached the 
 Champ de Mars in 
 the afternoon, I saw 
 the great mud-col- 
 ored balloon sway- 
 ing back and forth 
 likeanimpatientele- 
 phant. Quite a large 
 crowd had gather- 
 ed. On working my 
 way through the jam 
 I found that ropes 
 had been stretched 
 in the form of a 
 square to keep peo- 
 ple back. I managed 
 to reach the ropes, 
 dodged under, and 
 was seized by a big 
 "John Darm." I 
 shouldered him to 
 one side, and just as 
 hewasabouttodraw 
 his sword, Prof. Le 
 Galligar rushed for- 
 ward, all in spangled tights. He embraced 
 me, and kissed me on both cheeks. He intro- 
 duced me to the assemblage, first to the east, 
 then to the north, then to the west, then to 
 the south. The crowd cheered lustily. 
 Soon the other two passengers appeared. 
 One was a tall, slim man, the other short and 
 stout. They were embraced by the professor, 
 and duly introduced, first to me, then to the 
 crowd, east, north, south and west. 
 My shipmates were both Frenchmen, and 
 spoke no English. I was neither frightened 
 nor nervous, but still I had prayed hard that 
 at least one of them might speak English. I 
 wished to hear my native tongue before I 
 left the earth. 
 
 But there was no time for disappointment. 
 The Professor seized me by the arm, marched 
 me around to the other side of the swaying 
 basket, and pointed to the rope ladder. I 
 consulted my watch; it was just two o'clock. 
 
 OUNG men, ardent and 
 full of zeal, are always 
 coming to the rescue of 
 God. They defend Him 
 heroically. Does any one 
 speak disrespectfully of the Almighty 
 they rush in as champions protect- 
 ing His good name and vindicate 
 Him if possible by humiliating the 
 offender. 
 
 C. Sickness sometimes is the calling 
 a halt that gives a man time to think. 
 C It is a good policy to leave a few 
 things unsaid. 
 
 C It is not difficult to bear another's 
 
 woes j^&^>%s&&i&>A£&>&s&&^r&& 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 73 
 
 I climbed up, and found that my colleagues 
 had preceded me. 
 
 On standing in the basket the top came 
 nearly level with my shoulders. The tall 
 man's head was a foot above mine and the 
 little duodecimo's a foot below — his face 
 deathly pale. C,The Professor perched airily 
 on the edge of the basket, and gave orders 
 to cast off. Then it 
 was that the little 
 stout man got his 
 hands on the side of 
 the basket and tried 
 frantically to get out 
 — he had changed 
 his mind. The Pro- 
 fessor slid down & 
 grasped him by the 
 legs, endeavoring to 
 pull him back in. I 
 took a hand, too. 
 We forced him to 
 the floor, while all 
 the time the crowd 
 cheered. 
 
 Then there was a 
 silence. I stood on 
 the prostrate form 
 of the fat man and 
 looked over the side 
 to see what this sud- 
 den quiet meant. A 
 shrill feminine voice 
 came to my ears just 
 then: "Why, that 's 
 the man who built 
 the Eiffel Tower!" 
 CI looked down & 
 
 there, to the front of the crowd, was my friend 
 of the day before. She waved her parasol at 
 me, and I was going to shout back an ante- 
 mortem statement but my attention was di- 
 verted by seeing that the anchor ropes, which 
 had been held by a dozen men a moment 
 before, were now dangling. 
 We were off! No, we were not moving at all ; 
 the earth was slowly slipping away from us 
 and turning at the same time. The north of 
 Paris was sloughing around to the northeast. 
 C,The Eiffel Tower pushed down and away. 
 It slid down until we were at the first landing, 
 the second, we were even with the top; it 
 glided down beneath us a hundred feet. I 
 
 leaned over the basket and spat violently. 
 The tall man jabbered in French, shook my 
 hand, and the Professor all the while tumbled 
 out cards, dodgers and sundry advertise- 
 ments in the interest of science. And still the 
 little man lay in the bottom of the basket, 
 and the great city slowly swirled and slipped 
 away, away, away. CL The houses were only 
 painted play blocks 
 
 HE books written behind 
 prison bars, by men in 
 forced exile and by those 
 who paid the penalty of 
 honest expression with 
 death, largely inspire earth's highest 
 thoughts; the world's Saviours are 
 often society's outcasts. 
 <L Every author is the hero of his 
 tale. Make no mistake — when he 
 pictures a man that is wise & good, 
 that man is himself or the person 
 he would like to be. 
 C No joy can be complete apart from 
 a love that loves the whole world's 
 joy better than any separate joy of 
 any single soul. 
 
 C Listen closely and you will detect 
 the minor note in the voice of every 
 man of decided worth r&®> 
 
 gently rocking up & 
 down, and the hor- 
 ses were surely out 
 of a Noah's Ark 
 collection. We were 
 over the Champs 
 Elysees, approach- 
 ing the Arc de Tri- 
 omphe.C The peo- 
 ple looked likeblack 
 ants as viewed from 
 a tree top. Some of 
 them were moving, 
 some evidently had 
 discovered us and 
 were standing still. 
 There they were, a 
 full three million of 
 them below us, eat- 
 ing, sleeping, fight- 
 ing and praying; in 
 houses, on roofs, on 
 ladders, on fences, 
 a few up the Eiffel 
 Tower, but all on 
 earth. Some were in 
 love, some disap- 
 pointed, some lay- 
 
 ing plans to get the 
 money of others; black ants working for the 
 applause of black ants; black ants seeking to 
 reform ants blacker than themselves. All 
 born in sin, and therefore deserving damna- 
 tion. Yet some were to be saved by special 
 enactment. How pick out which were to be 
 saved, and which not? They were all alike. 
 So I damned them all, and then forgave them 
 — electing them to Tuileries in the skies. 
 C Paris with its long line of white houses 
 was drifting away. The black ants could no 
 longer be distinguished. The boulevards 
 were reduced to mere threads, and the wind- 
 ing Seine was only a long crooked chalk- 
 mark. H M. Le Galligar had thrown out all 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 74 
 
 mi 
 
 of his advertising matter, and was slashing 
 bags of sand and emptying them. The air 
 was cold, and he was slapping his hands; I 
 slapped mine, too. The face of the tall man 
 was pinched and blue. 
 The earth had given us the slip now; it had 
 faded from sight, and below was only a great, 
 white, spreading cloud. And yet, strange! I 
 could plainly hear 
 human voices. They 
 came as sounds do 
 across a quiet lake. 
 CThe Professor 
 consulted his instru- 
 ments& made notes, 
 then he pulled at a 
 cord. The cloud en- 
 veloped us, cover- 
 ing our faces with 
 mist. CLThe bleating 
 of sheep could be 
 heard — the voices 
 became plainer, the 
 green of the earth 
 came back, but Pa- 
 ris was only a gray 
 bank of clouds on 
 the horizon. 
 The earth was ris- 
 ing to greet us. Men, 
 women & children 
 were leaving their 
 houses— some run- 
 ning across fields in 
 our direction. Two 
 drag-ropes were out 
 — one with an an- 
 chor. Again the aer- 
 onaut pulled at the cord; the earth came 
 nearer. C The basket dashed against a tree 
 and bumped its freight all together. We apol- 
 ogized. Then we hit a stone wall, but shot 
 up again ten feet in the air. 
 The anchor failed to catch, but fate was kind ; 
 an old woman in a rainy day skirt and wooden 
 shoes was after us. She ran like a sprinter. 
 At last she got the rope in her hands; she 
 yelled "whoa" sturdily and pulled hard, but 
 could not stop us. Other women came, chil- 
 dren too, then a man. All lent a hand. The 
 fat passenger was standing, and the instant 
 the basket touched the ground he rolled over 
 the side into the friendly lap of earth. We 
 
 all climbed out. CThe Professor lighted a 
 cigarette, gave a jerk to a small rope, and the 
 great balloon struggled, quivered, sank and 
 died. C A whole peasant village was bab- 
 bling about us. The Professor was arguing 
 hotly with the fat man; the peasantry too, 
 were taking part. It was all in very rapid 
 Francais. < L Suddenly M. LeGalligar receiv- 
 ed the gift of ton- 
 
 OUNG converts are afraid 
 that God shall become 
 ridiculous. They cannot 
 comprehend the differ- 
 ence between criticising 
 their conception of God, and God 
 Himself. All blasphemy laws are 
 based on this misconception. 
 CEvery man who has been pulled 
 into a theological argument (& where 
 is the man who has not been pulled 
 into a theological argument?) thinks 
 less of himself afterward. 
 C Common sense is a form of god- 
 liness, & in the last analysis wisdom 
 & virtue are synonymous ; and what- 
 ever is wise cannot but be good. 
 *LThe men who do things, and not 
 the men who merely talk about 
 things, are those who bless the world. 
 
 gues. He turned & 
 spoke to me in Eng- 
 lish that was strong- 
 ly tinctured with a 
 Dublin brogue. He 
 explained that the 
 law of ballooning 
 was, that the first 
 individual to seize 
 the rope of a de- 
 scending balloon 
 was to receive ten 
 francs; this is to be 
 paid by the person 
 who first got out of 
 the basket. He ap- 
 pealed to me as the 
 judge: should the 
 fat man pay or not? 
 CI decided that he 
 should pay, and he 
 did. C Then we set- 
 tled for the apples 
 which were knock- 
 ed from the trees by 
 ourdragginganchor 
 and paid five francs 
 for fixing the stone 
 wall. C As the Pro- 
 fessor started to roll up the dead balloon I 
 looked at my watch. It was just twenty-five 
 minutes after two. We were twelve miles 
 from Eiffel Tower. 
 
 fgOCIETY AND ITS DIVERSIONS. 
 gknJf Herbert Spencer, at eighty-three years 
 tSSsil of age, has recently sent some small 
 shivers down the spines of the Leisure Class 
 in England by saying, "The society repre- 
 sented by our so-called best families is es- 
 sentially barbaric." 
 
 This remark, coming from a commonplace 
 man, would have excited no comment, but 
 when Herbert Spencer stands behind a sen- 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 75 
 
 tence, it is apt to mean much. The Pall Mall 
 Gazette quoted the comment and added: 
 "Poor old man! he is certainly in his dot- 
 age." CThe worst about Spencer's remark 
 is that it is true. Society moves in a circle — 
 things are in a swirl, and civilization could 
 never exist at all were it not for the fact that 
 country boys, born in families of no social 
 standing, no wealth, 
 
 CIn order to belong to the Best Society you 
 must dress so you cannot be useful — you 
 cannot shoulder a trunk, carry out the ashes, 
 cook, hitch up a horse, nor dig in the ground. 
 The raiment that Society demands you shall 
 wear, forbids your using your muscles in 
 any useful effort. 
 
 At the Waldorf-Astoria seventeen hundred 
 servants are em- 
 
 are constantly going 
 up to the cities to 
 take places where 
 only men of power 
 can exist. 
 
 The society repre- 
 sented by our Best 
 Families is essenti- 
 ally barbaric — in 
 America and else- 
 where. And the rea- 
 son is that it has 
 ceased to produce 
 and now only con- 
 sumes. fl.lt lives on 
 the labor of others. 
 tlThe thing which 
 does not serve — that 
 has no use, is surely 
 a burden to some- 
 body if continued. 
 CThe self-appoint- 
 ed Superior Class 
 is an awful handi- 
 cap to civilization. 
 41 Our Best Society 
 destroys, consumes 
 and lays waste. The 
 Child Slavery of the 
 South, the Sweat Shops of the cities, and the 
 unending toil of most farming folk is a direct 
 result of our Best Society — this so-called 
 Superior Class. 
 
 There is a certain amount of work to do in 
 the world, and the reason some people have 
 to work from daylight clear into the night is 
 because others do not work at all. If you 
 consume more than you produce some one 
 must labor to make good the deficiency. 
 COur Best Society is intent on honoring the 
 man who wastes and consumes. In fact, if 
 you are a mere producer, and nothing else, 
 the Best Society does not deign to notice you, 
 much less admit you into its charmed circle. 
 
 HOW the marbles that 
 fill your niches and the 
 canvases that glorify your 
 walls to those who seldom 
 see such sights. Give your 
 education to those who need it, your 
 culture to those who have less, and 
 you double your treasure by giving 
 it away 
 
 C,The great man is poised and sat- 
 isfied — no matter what happens. 
 The little man is always full of trou- 
 ble ; and this trouble he always lays 
 to the fault of others. 
 tLMost of the really great men in 
 America have warmed their bare 
 feet frosty mornings on the spot 
 where the cows have lain down. 
 CWe are heirs to the past, both its 
 good and its i 
 
 ployed, and this is 
 just the capacity of 
 the hotel — there is 
 one servant for ev- 
 ery guest. And in 
 meat and drink each 
 guest wastes about 
 five times as much 
 as he consumes. 
 This fact is also true 
 of all the so-called 
 First-Class Hotels 
 in our large cities. 
 €1 Some one has got 
 to make good this 
 wastage— and it is 
 the social outcast 
 who does it. 
 Only a few years 
 ago all useful work 
 was done by slaves. 
 These slaves were 
 bought, sold, worn 
 out, beheaded and 
 tossed to hell at will 
 by the Best Society, 
 tl Gradually things 
 have bettered, but 
 the distinguishing 
 feature of the Best Society yet is that it at- 
 taches a disgrace to useful effort — it disso- 
 ciates itself from toil. 
 
 In every town and city in America there is 
 this little Smart Set that patterns its life after 
 that of the Turk. It is waited on, and spends 
 its days in having "a good time." 
 Usually the true type centers itself around a 
 small ivy-covered church upon which is a 
 disguised cross. 
 
 In Virginia, for instance, the Best Society 
 swings around this church with its skimped, 
 iced and rudimentary cross. Education is to 
 fit one for this Best Society — to avoid work 
 and do it gracefully. And if one can become 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 76 
 
 a priest to this Society and preside at the 
 modest, ivy-clad chapel with its pee-wee 
 cross, what greater honor! 
 Oh, yes there is one honor just as great, the 
 Army! The Church or the Army, which 
 shall it be? is the tantalizing question that 
 confronts the ambitious mother — to save 
 souls or damn them— it really matters little. 
 CAnnapolis with 
 
 brass buttons or the 
 Church with hooks 
 and eyes! Which? 
 And anyway, thank 
 God! Reginald is to 
 be a gentleman. He 
 shall dance & hunt 
 and shoot— he shall 
 be an ornament to 
 the Best Society. 
 C. The Best Society 
 gets its recreation 
 through waste and 
 destruction. In Vir- 
 ginia especially it 
 demandsblood.The 
 horses they use are 
 first deprived of 
 their tails. The birds 
 mate, nest and rear 
 their young, only to 
 be shot & mutilated 
 by members of the 
 Best Society; foxes 
 are bred but to be 
 chased by packs of 
 hounds that are kept 
 for no other pur- 
 pose than to destroy 
 these foxes that are bred to be destroyed 
 for the amusement of this Superior Class. 
 C The foxes have holes and the birds of the 
 air have nests, but what 's the use when we 
 who belong to the Best Society know where 
 they are ! CL The following is a clipping taken 
 from the Society Column of the Richmond, 
 Virginia, Dispatch for May 21st, 1902. I 
 print the extract without comment: 
 
 On Sunday evening the observant captain 
 of the Waynesboro Club, Captain William 
 McCray, who belongs to our Best Society, 
 and who is ever on the alert to take advant- 
 age of any new scheme in the sporting line, 
 noticed about two bushels of chimney swal- 
 
 lows taking refuge in a neighbor's chimney, 
 whereupon he summoned James Craig, and 
 together they concocted a plan by which to 
 take captive the unsuspecting denizens of 
 the air. By means of a large sack spread 
 over the top of the chimney, and the appli- 
 cation of a dense smoke at the bottom, about 
 four hundred swallows were incarcerated. 
 
 The originators of 
 
 HERE is no Secret Soci 
 
 ety that hascorralled truth. 
 Truth is in the air, and 
 when your head gets into 
 the right stratum you know 
 it. No one can impart it to you until 
 the time is ripe, and when the time 
 is ripe for you to know, you do not 
 have to ride a Goat in order to un- 
 derstand A£&&®>&& r&&&&> 
 
 il Nature punishes most sins, but 
 blasphemy, sacrilege and heresy are 
 things that nature does not provide 
 any punishment for; therefore man 
 has to look after these things himself. 
 C The best souls often suffer most, 
 while baseness and flaunting pride 
 go free. But pain is not all pain. 
 CL Wit and insight are saving virtues 
 that only the strong possess 
 
 the plan were so 
 jubilant over their 
 catch that they im- 
 mediately commu- 
 nicated the news to 
 several members of 
 the Staunton Gun 
 Club, whom they 
 invited, & Messrs. 
 William McDaniel, 
 S. P. Davis & John 
 Foxhall joined them 
 Monday afternoon 
 in a shooting match. 
 The birds were lib- 
 erated from a trap 
 one at a time, and 
 the sportsmen said 
 they have never un- 
 dergone such a test 
 of marksmanship as 
 they were put to by 
 the frightened swal- 
 lows.C. A number 
 of spectators were 
 present, including a 
 number of ladies, 
 and neither the at- 
 traction of the polo 
 game, going on at the time, nor the impend- 
 ing storm, could drive them from the scene 
 of excitement. 
 
 The match lasted for several hours, and 
 William McDaniel of Staunton, took the lead, 
 killing thirteen out of twenty-four birds, fol- 
 lowed by Dr. T. S. Richardson, who killed 
 twelve out of twenty-four. 
 A notable feature in the case is that the swal- 
 lows that were so fortunate as to escape 
 made direct for the shelter of the chimney 
 from which they had been captured." 
 
 CUf there is any better way to teach virtue 
 than to practice it, I do not know it. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 77 
 
 BOUT KNOCKING 
 AND KNOCKERS. 
 
 Arise, my God, and strike, for 
 
 we hold Thee just, 
 Strike dead the whole weak 
 race of venomous worms 
 That sting each other here in the dust. 
 
 — Tennyson. 
 
 Mr. William T. Stead once wrote 
 some things about Chicago. Some 
 of the items he penned were not 
 wholly complimentary.The intense 
 activity of the place, Mr. Stead 
 thought, had evolved a certain im- 
 patience and often an ungenerous 
 quality of mind that revealed itself 
 in heresy trials, divorce mills, po- 
 litical fights where aldermen de- 
 fied the judges, the judges defied 
 the legislature, and the legislators 
 challenged the governors. To this 
 English visitor the daily papers 
 were unnecessarily busy with char- 
 ges, accusations and indictments, 
 and everywhere, even in parlors, 
 scandal, defamation and vitupera- 
 tion seemed to abound. "Chicago 
 averages a murder a day, not count- 
 ing all those who are done to death 
 by Chicago Tongue," said Mr. 
 Stead. C Mr. Israel Zangwill, coun- 
 tryman and friend of Mr. Stead, 
 visiting Chicago some time after, 
 was escorted about the city by a 
 Committee to Behold the Sights. 
 Among other places of interest he 
 was taken to the Stock-yards, where 
 luncheon was served for the party. 
 During the meal a Pert Miss, seated 
 
 next to the guest of honor, asked 
 him this question: C"Mr. Zang- 
 will, how do you like Chicago 
 Ham?" ii The Dreamer of the 
 Ghetto raised his sorrowful face 
 and said, "I like it, I like it — much 
 better than Chicago Tongue!" CL A 
 thousand years before Christ, Sol- 
 omon said some wholesome truths 
 about this matter of Tongue. It is 
 doubtful whether he had any pro- 
 phetic vision of the Chicago arti- 
 cle, and really there is no proof 
 that Chicago Tongue is any worse 
 than any other brand; but let it 
 stand as the type of a Bad Thing. 
 CA tragic, though perhaps not a 
 remarkable case of Chicago Ton- 
 gue, came to my attention a few 
 years ago. It seems that a good 
 natured and somewhat talkative 
 man remarked in a little Bohemian 
 company that a certain artist, well 
 known to those present, wore trou- 
 sers that bagged beautifully at the 
 knee. C A man and woman in the 
 party, who had a well defined case 
 of artistic jealousy toward the vol- 
 uble man, repeated the remark to 
 the artist who was referred to. The 
 woman repeated the remark in the 
 morning, and the little artist, of a 
 sensitive and gentle type with no 
 capacity for horse-play, was just a 
 trifle nettled. And when the man 
 told him the same thing with vary- 
 ing accent and inflection, in the 
 afternoon, the matter took on a 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 78 
 
 rather serious shape. A few days 
 after the artist met the gossipy 
 woman again, and he questioned 
 her as to what had been said. She 
 repeated the remark about Pants, 
 with gesticulations, genuflexions, 
 shrugs and curves; and wishing to 
 prove her friendship, warned the 
 artist to be on his guard against 
 those who were trying to Unhorse 
 him. CThe more the artist thought 
 of the matter the more sure he was 
 that this remark about his raiment 
 really meant that he was a man 
 devoid of taste, lacking in refine- 
 ment, if not decency, and totally 
 unfit to associate with ladies and 
 gentlemen. Each time he met his 
 alleged friends they pumped the 
 poison into him. The matter preyed 
 upon the man's mind until he could 
 neither eat, sleep nor work. He 
 sought out his traducer, insulted 
 him openly, and got himself well 
 chastised. His violence lost him 
 his position, and a long season of 
 dissipation and idleness followed, 
 with golden moments lost and lost 
 forever. The last I heard of the 
 man and woman who had so un- 
 wittingly combined to work the 
 ruin of their friend, they had turned 
 on each other and were rending 
 reputations to rag-time. €l The in- 
 cident just mentioned sounds like 
 an extreme case, but I hardly think 
 it is, for the mischief-makers are 
 at work in a similar way on every 
 
 hand. Should the Angel Gabriel 
 come to me and in a confidential 
 undertone declare that a certain 
 man, any man or any angel, was a 
 vilifier of truth, a snare to the in- 
 nocent, a pilferer, a sneak, a rob- 
 ber of graveyards, I would say, 
 "Gabriel, you are troubled with 
 incipient paranoia — I do not be- 
 lieve a word of what you say. The 
 man you mention may not be a 
 saint, but he is probably just as 
 good as you or I. In fact I think 
 he must be very much like you, for 
 we are never interested in either 
 a person or a thing that does not 
 bear some direct relationship to 
 ourselves. Then, Gabriel, do you 
 not remember the words of Bishop 
 Begum, who said that no man ap- 
 plies an epithet to another that 
 cannot with equal truth be applied 
 to himself?" il When we remem- 
 ber that hoarse, guttural cry of 
 "Away with him — away with him!" 
 and when we recall that some of 
 the best and noblest men who have 
 ever lived have been reviled and 
 traduced, indicted and executed by 
 so-called good men — certainly men 
 who were sincere — how can we 
 open our hearts to the tales of 
 discredit told of any man? The 
 Billingsgate Calendar has been ex- 
 hausted in attempts to describe 
 Walt Whitman, and the lexicon of 
 abuse has been used to hammer 
 the heads of such men as Richard 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 79 
 
 Wagner, Victor Hugo, Count Tol- 
 stoy and William Morris. Know- 
 ing these things, as every one does, 
 shall we imitate folly, accept con- 
 crete absurdity for our counsel and 
 guide, and take stock in Chicago 
 Tongue? CThat entire Salem 
 Witchcraft insanity was nothing 
 but a bad case of Chicago Tongue. 
 Much of the martyrdom & blood- 
 shed of the past can be traced di- 
 rectly to the same cause. H Nations 
 have gone to war because some 
 princeling has charged that a King 
 stuck his tongue in his cheek and 
 bit his thumb when another King 
 was mentioned, — nothing but Chi- 
 cago Tongue! <LDo not deceive 
 yourself with the vain thought that 
 women hold a monopoly on Chi- 
 cago Tongue — men set them a 
 pace in this direction that they can 
 never hope to equal. The gossip of 
 women is usually of a patty-pan 
 order, and comparatively harmless 
 compared with that of men. C One 
 peculiarity of Chicago Tongue is 
 that when it is passed along from 
 one person to another it takes on 
 ptomaines. The original remark, 
 uttered in a certain circle, may 
 have been utterly devoid of poison, 
 but when the repetition comes, in 
 a different atmosphere, to differ- 
 ent hearers, told by another man, 
 the wit that once disinfected the 
 thing is gone, and we have only 
 dead, stale, tainted, unprofitable 
 
 Chicago Tongue. And so you see 
 how a person who repeats an un- 
 kind remark is probably doing a 
 much greater mischief than the 
 one who first voiced it. The man 
 who repeats the story, and thus 
 retails the poison, fails to supply 
 the antidote. Let his name be ana- 
 thema. <LThe basic principle of 
 Chicago Tongue is jealousy. Jeal- 
 ousy is a social cancer, and grows 
 by what it feeds upon. And its 
 only food is Chicago Tongue — the 
 more tainted the better. 41 1 once 
 knew three intelligent men to start 
 in giving each other small doses of 
 Chicago Tongue, just by way of 
 banter. The doses were increased, 
 and in a short time all three began 
 to really believe the stories they 
 had been telling about a particular 
 man of whom they were all more 
 or less jealous. The cancer grew 
 worse — the poison was at work — 
 the trio held meetings behind lock- 
 ed doors to devise a way by which 
 they could rid themselves of the 
 supposed enemy. Assault and even 
 murder were on their proposed 
 program. They were wild, mad, 
 stark, staring crazy on Chicago 
 Tongue, ii Luckily, a sane man 
 discovered them in time, rapped 
 them all vigorously over the head, 
 separated them one from the other 
 so they could no longer infect each 
 other and pool their poison. Had 
 this separation not been brought 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 80 
 
 about they surely would have all 
 run down a steep place into the 
 sea and been drowned, as was that 
 herd of swine in the story, when 
 the devils took the rudder. C If 
 you are a man, beware how you let 
 any devil get possession of your 
 thinking apparatus. All devils use 
 Chicago Tongue as bait. C In way of 
 strictest justice, though, it must be 
 admitted that the dealers in Chi- 
 cago Tongue are often innocent of 
 wrong intent — that is, they do not 
 know it is loaded. And when the 
 boomerang comes back they are 
 so surprised and grieved, and hurt! 
 and they lift their hands in inno- 
 cence and assume the pose of mar- 
 tyrdom. C. Every large newspaper 
 office is the scene of a seething 
 discontent. Peace is never declared 
 — war reigns eternally. The public 
 probably knows nothing of these 
 plottings,counter-plottings,curses, 
 revilings, jealousies. The trouble 
 is under the surface, just as much 
 as are the loves, jealousies and 
 heartaches Below-Stairs. The im- 
 passive face of Jeems, as he stands 
 behind his master's chair, tells no 
 tale. CIt is the business of Jeems 
 to see nothing — and everything — 
 to hear nothing and repeat noth- 
 ing. This if he is an artist in his 
 line, for woe is Jeems if he brings 
 the troubles of Below-Stairs to his 
 master's ears, hoping thereby to 
 find favor. For we hate the man 
 
 who brings us trouble. In the olden 
 time the messenger who brought 
 tidings of disaster paid for his 
 temerity with his head. On the 
 other hand, blessed are the feet of 
 him who bringeth glad tidings: he 
 shall be rewarded with a necklace 
 of gold, and he shall choose for his 
 own, from the fairest daughters of 
 earth. <L I have spoken of the con- 
 stant friction, faction and fight that 
 exist in every newspaper office. 
 The truth of this is classic, but the 
 Underground Fight is everywhere 
 where many men are gathered to- 
 gether in a like occupation. The 
 Army is a hot-bed of gossip. The 
 Church is just as bad, and if a his- 
 tory of ecclesiastical rancor were 
 written it would reveal an inferno 
 of hate. And then the Sons of 
 Esculapius — every blessed one of 
 them carries two or three hammers 
 in his kipsy, this besides the one 
 he has constantly in use. In fact 
 the Sons have formed themselves 
 into one gigantic orchestra, and 
 the only piece they play is the An- 
 vil Chorus. C, Newspaper offices 
 are mentioned because there the 
 pot seems to seethe and boil and 
 spit with greatest glee. Hate, jeal- 
 ousy and rage continually feed the 
 flame. Possibly the reason the fires 
 of strife are never banked in a 
 newspaper office is because the 
 men work under an intense nerv- 
 ous pressure. There is hot haste, 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 81 
 
 and broken hours of rest, and al- 
 ways stimulants in way of tobacco, 
 drink and drugs. Hence there are 
 sharp answers, snubbings, marble 
 faces, icy hands and bitter hearts; 
 for despondency follows fast where 
 good cheer is reinforced by drink. 
 Then beside, three-fourths of the 
 matter printed in the average daily 
 paper is a record of strife, and the 
 workers become imbued with it. 
 When a young man goes into a 
 metropolitan newspaper office as a 
 reporter, he is given a table among 
 forty other tables, where men with 
 hats over their eyes write in fever- 
 ish haste. Possibly here and there 
 are those sitting in idleness with 
 feet on the table. These men have 
 done their tasks for the day and 
 are watching the clock, waiting for 
 the hour when they are allowed to 
 leave. Our new man not having 
 much to do, gets to talking with 
 one of these idlers — they go out 
 together to get a drink. At the bar 
 are other young men, and these 
 are pointed out by the new-found 
 friend, and jerky scraps of their 
 history given, which seem to cover 
 every crime in the calendar, and ev- 
 ery phase of iniquity that brutishbe- 
 ings could devise. These so-called 
 rogues are employees of the same 
 concern that employs the Glib In- 
 former. tlThe Greenhorn dares 
 to remark that they do not look 
 so bad as that, and then he is reas- 
 
 sured by facts and dates, and times 
 and places. C Should the Green- 
 horn stick to his new friend, he is 
 quickly introduced into a clique 
 and becomes a part of the jealousy 
 and cruel bickering of the place. 
 He is pushed this way and that 
 by those with stronger minds — 
 or more experience — takes part 
 in plottings to oust certain men, 
 not fully knowing why, and in a 
 few months — a year perhaps — gets 
 the Blue Envelope himself. He 
 does not realize why he should be 
 discharged, because he is not aware 
 that hate and jealousy have inocu- 
 lated his mind, but these things 
 are beginning to reveal themselves 
 in his work. The life of a man in 
 any one metropolitan newspaper 
 office is very short. A year, say, 
 is about the limit, when out he 
 goes, penniless, to look for an- 
 other job. C Should any man hold 
 his place for two years or more, it 
 is because he has religiously avoid- 
 ed mixing in factions ; he has lent 
 his ear to no plots; listened to no 
 scandal; bore no bad news; gloried 
 in no man's downfall. And when 
 you find a veteran like, say, Ches- 
 ter S. Lord of The Sun, you know 
 him to be a man who is above all 
 idle gossip, bickering, quibbling 
 and jealousy — who takes no part 
 in schemes and plots, and who 
 will not hearken to them in others. 
 The man who cannot enjoy a good 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 82 
 
 position without plotting to dis- 
 lodge some one else, is laying a 
 fuse that will cause himself to be 
 lifted into space very shortly. <L A 
 ludicro-tragic feature of Chicago 
 Tongue is that those who deal in 
 it most, always are full of griev- 
 ances and wails, because, they al- 
 lege, other folks are talking about 
 them. Indeed, this is their excuse 
 for the constant use of the ham- 
 mer, — that some one is "knock- 
 ing on them." They mistake the 
 sound of their own hammers for 
 that of others. C Any man who 
 plots another's undoing is digging 
 his own grave. Every politician 
 who voices innuendoes, and hints 
 of base wrong about a rival, is 
 blackening his own character. For 
 a time he may seem to succeed, 
 but the end is sure — it is defeat 
 and death. All those plotters of 
 the French Revolution who worked 
 the guillotine in double shifts were 
 at last dragged to the scaffold and 
 pushed under the knife. C The 
 hate we sow finds lodgment in 
 our hearts and the crop is nettles 
 that Fate unrelentingly demands 
 we shall gather. They who live by 
 the hammer shall perish by the 
 hammer. C,If you work in a de- 
 partment store, a bank, a railroad 
 office, a factory, I beg of you, on 
 your life, do not knock. Speak ill 
 of no one, and listen to no idle 
 tales. Whether the bitter things 
 
 told are true or not, has no bear- 
 ing on the issue. To repeat an 
 unkind truth is just as bad as to 
 invent a lie. If some one has spoken 
 ill of me, do not be so foolish as 
 to hope to curry favor by telling 
 me of it. CThe "housecleaning" 
 that occurs in the offices of com- 
 panies and corporations every lit- 
 tle while comes as a necessity. In 
 a small establishment the head of 
 the house can usually pooh-pooh 
 the bickering out of the window, 
 but in large concerns where many 
 men are troubled with lint on the 
 lungs, and everybody seems to have 
 forgotten his work, just to "chew," 
 then self-protection prompts the 
 manager to clean house. It is the 
 only thing he can do to preserve 
 the life of the concern — out go 
 the bacteria. C It is said that Mr. 
 James Gordon Bennett, proprietor 
 of the New York Herald, comes 
 home from Europe, only to dis- 
 charge, peremptorily, every em- 
 ployee in his service. At regular 
 intervals the place gets honey- 
 combed with plot and counter- 
 plot, hate, jealousy and factional 
 folly, and the master, having no 
 time to sift the lies or sit in judg- 
 ment on fishwife gossip, just cleans 
 the coop from cellar to cockloft of 
 good and bad alike. CIt is very 
 likely that if Mr. Bennett remained 
 in personal charge of his estate he 
 could keep the Chicago Tongue in 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 83 
 
 subjection, but being away, hate 
 permeates the structure and the 
 Augean act is positively necessary. 
 C I suppose there are institutions 
 where Chicago Tongue is to a great 
 degree obliterated, thro' the strong 
 personality of the man at the helm. 
 I have seen schools where the gen- 
 erous spirit of one man filled the 
 whole place. But the man who is 
 great enough to flavor a newspaper 
 plant with love and patience, I 
 fear has not yet been found. C And 
 of this never for a moment doubt, 
 that the man who manages suc- 
 cessfully a great railroad, factory, 
 bank or other enterprise, is one 
 who neither listens to, nor bears 
 tales to any person of what this 
 one says or does. He treats all 
 with courtesy and fairness, and 
 like the great and loving Lincoln, 
 when his generals were accused, 
 deducts seventy-five per cent from 
 every accusation and throws the re- 
 mainder in the waste-basket — ac- 
 tions alone count. tL Where many 
 men are employed, there are always 
 some who are full of schemes and 
 plots for more pay, shorter hours 
 or favors generally. They scheme 
 to have one foreman "bounced" 
 in order to have another man, who 
 will help their cause, put in charge. 
 Should success follow their efforts, 
 and the old foreman be replaced, 
 the first move of the new man will 
 probably be to discharge the con- 
 
 spirators who helped him. Men 
 who conspire, and plot, and who 
 lend a ready ear to the idea of a 
 strike, are marked on every time- 
 book for dismissal when the hour 
 is ripe. And whenever you find a 
 newspaper man or a printer who 
 spends half his time looking for a 
 job, you can rest assured that he 
 is one who carries a large cargo of 
 Chicago Tongue. <lYou can never 
 stand in with the boss by telling 
 him of those who are laggards. The 
 only way you can win his favor is 
 by setting the loafers a pace. He 
 knows all about the loafers — God 
 help him! for if he did not he 
 could never successfully manage 
 an institution. «1 No man can ever 
 succeed who hopes to get a better 
 position by defaming or dragging 
 down the reputation of another. 
 There is but one way to win, and 
 that is to do your work well, and 
 speak ill of no one, not even as a 
 matter of truth. Any other course 
 leads to tears, woful waste of life- 
 force, and oblivion. There is only 
 one way to win the favor of good 
 men, and there is only one way you 
 can secure the smile of God, and 
 that is to do your work as well as 
 you can, and be kind, and be kind. 
 
 Clnterest a person in useful em- 
 ployment and you are transform- 
 ing Chaos into Cosmos. Blessed 
 is the man who has found his work. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 84 
 
 OUR OTHER SELF. 
 Work to please yourself 
 and you develop and 
 strengthen the artistic 
 conscience. Cling to 
 
 that and it shall be your mentor in 
 times of doubt: you need no other. 
 There are writers who would scorn 
 to write a muddy line, and would 
 hate themselves for a year and a 
 day should they dilute their thought 
 with the platitude of the fear-rid- 
 den peoples. Be yourself and speak 
 your mind to-day, though it con- 
 tradict all you have said before. 
 And above all, in art, work to 
 please yourself — that Other Self 
 that stands over and behind you 
 looking over your shoulder, watch- 
 ing your every act, word and deed 
 — knowing your every thought. 
 Michael Angelo would not paint a 
 picture on order. "I have a critic 
 who is more exacting than you," 
 said Meissonier, "it is my Other 
 Self." €1 Rosa Bonheur painted 
 pictures just to please her Other 
 Self, and never gave a thought to 
 any one else, and having painted 
 to please herself, she made her 
 appeal to the great Common Heart 
 of humanity — the tender, the no- 
 ble, the receptive, the earnest, the 
 sympathetic, the lovable. That is 
 why Rosa Bonheur stands first 
 among women artists of all time: 
 she worked to please her Other 
 Self. CThat is the reason Rem- 
 
 brandt, who lived at the same time 
 Shakespeare lived, is to-day with- 
 out a rival in portraiture. He had 
 the courage to make an enemy. 
 When at work he never thought of 
 any one but his Other Self, and 
 so he infused soul into every can- 
 vas. The limpid eyes look down 
 into yours from the walls and tell 
 of love, pity, earnestness and deep 
 sincerity. Man, like Deity, creates 
 in his own image, and when he por- 
 trays some one else, he pictures 
 himself, too — this provided his 
 work is Art. If it is but an imita- 
 tion of something seen somewhere, 
 or done by some one else, or done 
 to please a patron with money, no 
 breath of life has been breathed 
 into its nostrils and it is nothing, 
 save possibly dead perfection — no 
 more, il Is it easy to please your 
 Other Self? Try it for a day. Be- 
 gin to-morrow morning and say, 
 'This day I will live as becomes 
 a man. I will be filled with good 
 cheer and courage. I will do what 
 is right; I will work for the high- 
 est; I will put soul into every hand- 
 grasp, every smile, every expres- 
 sion — into all my work. I will live 
 to satisfy my Other Self."tL You 
 think it is easy? Try it for a day. 
 
 CRecognize that a line of conduct 
 that may be right under one con- 
 dition may be evil when pushed 
 
 too far ^^^^^^^^.^^^^^i^^i 
 
CONTEMPLATION S 
 
 Page 85 
 
 |f||IME AND CHANCE. The subject is 
 Mm rather complex, Dearie, so I '11 have to 
 mm explain it to you. The first point is that 
 there is not so very much difference in the 
 intelligence of people after all. The great 
 man is not so great as folks think, and the 
 dull man is not quite so stupid as he seems. 
 The difference in our estimates of men lies 
 in the fact that one 
 
 o 
 
 join 
 
 man is able to get 
 his goods into the 
 show-window & the 
 other fellow is not 
 aware that he has 
 any show-window 
 or any goods. 
 "The soul knows all 
 things, and knowl- 
 edge is only a re- 
 membering," says 
 Emerson. 
 
 This seems a very 
 broad statement; & 
 yet the fact remains 
 that the vast major- 
 ity of men know a 
 thousand times as 
 much as they are 
 aware of. In the si- 
 lent depths of sub- 
 consciousness lie 
 myriads of truths, 
 each awaiting a time 
 when itsowner shall 
 call it forth. To util- 
 ize these stored up 
 thoughts you must 
 express them to oth- 
 ers; and to express well your soul has to 
 soar into this sub-conscious realm where you 
 have cached these net results of experience. 
 CIn other words, you must "come out" — 
 get out of self — away from self-conscious- 
 ness, into the region of partial oblivion — 
 away from the boundaries of time and the 
 limitations of space. The great painter for- 
 gets all in the presence of his canvas; the 
 writer is oblivious to his surroundings; the 
 singer floats away on the wings of melody 
 (and carries the audience with her); the or- 
 ator pours out his soul for an hour, and it 
 seems to him as if barely five minutes had 
 passed, so wrapt and lost is he in his exalted 
 
 theme. C When you reach the heights of 
 sublimity, and are expressing your highest 
 and best, you are in a partial trance condi- 
 tion. And all men who enter this condition 
 surprise themselves by the quantity of knowl- 
 edge and the extent of the insight they pos- 
 sess. And some going a little deeper into this 
 trance condition than others, and knowing 
 nothing of the mir- 
 
 this brotherhood 
 of Consecrated Lives re- 
 quires no particular rites 
 of initiation — no ceremo- 
 nial — no recommenda- 
 You belong when you are 
 
 tions 
 
 worthy. Those who belong to the 
 Brotherhood feel the absolute noth- 
 ingness of the world of society, 
 churches, fashion, politics and busi- 
 ness; and realize strongly the con- 
 sciousness of the Unseen World of 
 Truth, Love and Beauty, 
 tl Sheep and cattle go in droves, 
 while a lion simply flocks with its 
 mate — and lets it go at that. 
 C Whenever any good comes our 
 way, let us enjoy it to the fullest, 
 and then pass it along, in another 
 form J^^^rt^j^^m±&s&^&r4g& 
 
 aculous storing up 
 oftruthinthecellsof 
 sub-consciousness, 
 jump to the conclu- 
 sion that their intel- 
 ligence is guided by 
 a spirit not theirs. 
 When an individual 
 reaches this conclu- 
 sion he commences 
 to wither at the top, 
 for he relies on the 
 dead, and ceases to 
 feed thewellsprings 
 of hissub-conscious 
 self. €1 The mind is 
 a dual affair— ob- 
 jective and subject- 
 ive. The objective 
 mind sees all, hears 
 all, reasons things 
 out. The subjective 
 mind stores up and 
 only gives out when 
 the objective mind 
 sleeps. And as few 
 men ever cultivate 
 the absorbed, reflec- 
 tive or semi-trance 
 state, where the objective mind rests, they 
 never really call on their sub-conscious 
 treasury for its stores. They are always self- 
 conscious. CL A man in commerce, where 
 men prey on their kind, must be alive and 
 alert to what is going on around him, or 
 while he dreams, his competitor will seize 
 upon his birthright. And so you see why 
 poets are poor and artists often beg. 
 And the summing up of this sermonette is 
 that all men are equally rich, only some 
 through fate are able to muster their mental 
 legions on the plains of their being and count 
 them, while others are never able to do so. 
 CBut what think you is necessary before a 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 86 
 
 person comes into possession of his sub- 
 conscious treasures? Well, I '11 tell you : It is 
 not ease, nor prosperity, nor requited love, 
 nor worldly security — not these, Dearie; no. 
 CI "You sing well," said the master, impa- 
 tiently, to his best pupil, "but you will never 
 sing divinely until you have given your all 
 for love, and then been neglected and reject- 
 ed, and scorned and 
 beaten, and left for 
 dead. Then, if you 
 do not exactly die, 
 you will come back, 
 and when the world 
 hears your voice it 
 will mistake you for 
 an angel and fall at 
 your feet." 
 And the moral is, 
 that as long as you 
 are satisfied & com- 
 fortable, you use 
 only the objective 
 mind and live in the 
 world of sense. But 
 let love be torn from 
 your grasp and flee 
 as a shadow— living 
 only as a memory 
 in a haunting sense 
 of loss; let death 
 come and the sky 
 shut down over less 
 worth in the world; 
 or stupid misunder- 
 standing and crush- 
 ing defeat grind you 
 into the dust, then 
 you may arise, forgetting time and space and 
 self, and take refuge in mansions not made 
 with hands; and find a certain sad, sweet 
 comfort in the contemplation of treasures 
 stored up where moth and rust do not cor- 
 rupt, and where thieves do not break through 
 and steal. 41 And thus looking out into the 
 Eternal, you forget the present and enter into 
 the Land of Sub-Consciousness — the Land 
 of Spirit, where yet dwell the gods of ancient 
 and innocent days. C Is it worth the cost? 
 
 HLAGIARISM AND KABOJOLISM. 
 There is that which is called plagiar- 
 ism, and I trust that upon this theme 
 
 no quibbler will challenge my fitnessto speak. 
 C. A frivolous person has defined plagiarism 
 as the act of taking your own wherever you 
 find it. I shall not, however, attempt to be- 
 cloud the subject with smartness, but will 
 deal with it seriously and sincerely as is meet, 
 ti Plagiarism consists in appropriating as 
 your own the Good Stuff of another, tl There 
 are three degrees of 
 
 ONSECRATED Lives! 
 
 You meet and you part, 
 but you each feel a firmer 
 impulse to keep the light 
 burning — the altar light to 
 Truth, Love, Simplicity and Beauty. 
 No other bond is required than that 
 of devotion to Truth, the passion of 
 listening in the Silence, the prayer 
 for Wholeness and Harmony, the 
 earnest desire to have your life re- 
 flect to the Good. 
 
 C When we get to heaven, if all these 
 fine fellows who never lived except 
 in books are not there, it will be a 
 lonely place, cursed with a monoto- 
 nous felicity. 
 
 C It is difficult to improve on the 
 plan of God; many have tried it but 
 to their sorrow 
 
 this moral malady: 
 petitplagiarism, pla- 
 giarism in second 
 degree, and grand 
 plagiarism. C, Petit 
 plagiarism consists 
 in lifting the simple 
 thoughts & senten- 
 ces; plagiarism in 
 the second degree, 
 consists in lifting 
 scenes & chapters; 
 & grand plagiarism 
 consists in seizing 
 the whole book and 
 putting your name 
 on the title page. 
 Grand plagiarism 
 may be committed 
 through the conniv- 
 ance of the plagiaree 
 — in which case the 
 offense is condon- 
 ed. Judge Gaynor 
 has recently ruled 
 that an injunction in 
 such a case does not 
 lie, altho' the parties 
 may.Cl The antithe- 
 sis of plagiarism is kabojolism. This offense 
 consists in attributing to another Good Stuff 
 which he never expressed; and, in short, is 
 simply plagiarism placed wrong side out, or 
 more properly, if I may be allowed the ex- 
 pression, turned t'other end to. 
 The simplest and most common form of ka- 
 bojolism consists in quoting some absurd or 
 mythical personage. In small towns the habit 
 is as plentiful as the Jigger in July; and the 
 Bucolic Philosopher at the Grocery con- 
 stantly refers to Ol' Bill Jones, and states 
 what he could easily prove had Ol' Bill not 
 passed to the Realm of Shade. 
 Dickens pictures this phase of kabojolism 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 87 
 
 when he has Mrs. Gamp constantly refer to 
 her mythical friend, Mrs. Harris. 
 Kabojolism in the second degree consists in 
 stating things tinted with risque and flavored 
 like heinzbeans, for which you do not wish 
 to stand sponsor, but which you feel should 
 be said in the interest of the Higher Criti- 
 cism. Therefore, you say them, and give an- 
 other credit. C. Ka- 
 bojolism is no new 
 thing: Thucydides 
 tells of how Aristo- 
 phanes referred to 
 the great speech of 
 Pericles over the 
 Athenian dead he- 
 roes as "the best 
 thing that Aspasia 
 ever wrote." 
 In the days of Au- 
 gustus Caesar a part 
 of the duties of the 
 Questorwasto write 
 the orations for the 
 Emperor. This was 
 well understood, & 
 nobody attempted to 
 dodge the proposi- 
 tion. Time does not 
 change human na- 
 ture much, for just 
 recently a zealous 
 follower of Grover 
 Cleveland put forth 
 the claim that he was 
 the only president 
 since Lincoln who 
 wrote his own mes- 
 
 daughter who could write a good oration, 
 than of any oration he could possibly write 
 himself. I would be — would n't you? 
 I once advertised one of my workmen as an 
 Infant Prodigy — he was neither an infant 
 nor a prodigy — but he looked the part. In 
 the language of my friend, Colonel Ed. 
 Geers, the Prodigy could not trot a little bit, 
 but he was a tre- 
 
 LL our belongings should 
 
 mean much to us, and 
 great care should be ex- 
 ercised in selection. We 
 need only a few things, 
 but each of these things should sug- 
 gest utility, strength, harmony and 
 truth. All of our actions must be 
 suggestive of peace and right. Not 
 only must we speak truth, but we 
 must live it. Our lives should be 
 consecrated to the good — lives con- 
 secrated to Truth and Beauty. Con- 
 secrated Lives! 
 
 C Speak to-day what you think is 
 true, and contradict it all to-morrow 
 if necessary. 
 
 CThe greater comprehends the less; 
 but the less cannot comprehend the 
 greater ,&^2> ass&> 
 
 mendous looker. So 
 I showed him to the 
 visitors & they were 
 wonderfully much 
 impressed. 
 The genuine crack- 
 erjack work about 
 the place was done 
 by small, red-haired 
 & bow-legged men 
 with freckles, and 
 hand-me-down suits 
 and diffident man- 
 ners. As long as I 
 could keep the Pro- 
 digy from talking, 
 and at night destroy 
 all the work he did 
 during the day, as 
 Penelope raveled 
 the shroud, I was 
 all right. <L After a 
 time the Prodigy af- 
 fected a short velvet 
 jacket, and a tailor- 
 made codpiece. He 
 soon became known 
 as the Wonder of 
 
 sages. CThe late Judge Hubbard of Gene- 
 seo, New York, once gave a particularly 
 eloquent and forceful Fourth of July oration. 
 After the address a local joker stepped up, 
 shook hands with the speaker and asked him 
 this question, "Judge, which one of your 
 daughters wrote that speech?" 
 The Judge might have parried the gentle 
 thrust, but instead the truthful man answered, 
 "Oh, Nellie is the author of it!" Then see- 
 ing the smiles on the faces of the bystanders 
 he continued, "Nellie is the author of the 
 speech, but as I am the author of Nellie, I 
 claim the speech." It is needless to say that 
 the Judge was much more proud of his 
 
 the World. Worse 
 than that, he began to believe it, and then 
 either he or I had to go. C He happened to 
 be it. H Voltaire was more given to kabo- 
 jolitis than any other writer I now recall. He 
 cited authorities numerous and sent all the 
 savants of Europe digging in the libraries for 
 men and books that never lived outside the 
 figment of his own pigment. 
 Grand kabojolism consists in attributing to 
 another a whole book that you yourself have 
 Dashed Off. Not long ago one Tark Booth- 
 ington wrote a book. Bone, Marl & Company 
 offered to publish it if my name could be 
 used as author. There was a thousand dollars 
 in it for Tark, and as much for me, but the 
 
C O N T EMPLATI O A S 
 
 Page 88 
 
 book was so bad I stood firm and absolutely 
 refused to be bribed. My friend Edgar Saltus 
 says in his monthly gallimaufry that Daudet 
 used to employ 'prentice talent on his books. 
 Some of Daudet's boys did remarkably well 
 for green hands, but they would occasionally 
 lapse, as even careful writers may. A lady 
 reader of Daudet's Works having stumbled 
 upon a beautiful an- 
 achronism wrote to 
 Daudet and put him 
 straight. Thereupon 
 instead of writing a 
 courteous note of 
 thanks to the lady, 
 Daudet so far for- 
 got himself as to re- 
 ply, "Dear Madam: 
 I have not read the 
 book in question, & 
 what 's more, I do 
 not intend to." 
 When Rudolph von 
 Liebich and Amy 
 Fay were pupils of 
 Franz Liszt, they 
 were once making 
 merry over a musi- 
 cal composition by 
 the Duke of Weim- 
 ar. "Have a care, 
 children," said the 
 Master in his gentle 
 way, "Have a care, 
 children, how you 
 make fun of the mu- 
 sic of princes— you 
 can never tell who 
 wrote it." CI At least three instances are on 
 record where men have created a nation that 
 never existed and given the people a litera- 
 ture, a science and a religion complete. Chat- 
 terton started to do something like that, when 
 he slipped his hawser and drifted to Bedlam. 
 CI More than once it has happened that men 
 have written books and knowing their own 
 names could not give them sufficient ballast 
 have put the MSS. on Deity. Indeed, this has 
 been a not uncommon expedient — to attri- 
 bute authorship of books and children to 
 God. This lets all parties out from under, 
 absolves from blame, and if there is credit to 
 be gotten later some one always shows up 
 
 and claims it as Agent for the Principal. 
 CI The law defines a whole round of«dire 
 deeds and puts the blame on God — man is 
 let off; but there be lawyers who would like 
 to get a service on God and make Him show 
 cause, mulcting Him for damages, or placing 
 Him in contempt for non-appearance. This 
 tendency to put the blame on somebody, and 
 finally falling back 
 
 HE man of the Consecra- 
 
 ted Life may mix with the 
 world, and do the world's 
 business, but for him it is 
 not the true world, for 
 hidden away in his heart he keeps 
 burning a lamp before a shrine ded- 
 icated to Love and Beauty. The 
 Adept only converses at his best 
 with Adept, and he does this thro' 
 self-protection. To hear the world's 
 coarse laugh in his Holy of Holies 
 — no! and so around him is a sacred 
 circle, and within it only the Elect 
 are allowed to enter. 
 C Modern Martyrdom is the sweet 
 apotheosis of the things we do not 
 care to avoid. 
 
 CA man's word is only valuable 
 when it is not for sale 
 
 on God, on account 
 of the difficulty in 
 locating Him, is a 
 very ancient plan. 
 CL The life of the in- 
 dividual mirrors the 
 life of the race. In 
 my boyhood's days 
 we had a hired man 
 named Joshua. If 
 anything was ever 
 lost, stolen, broken 
 or misused, we al- 
 ways said, "Josh, 
 he done it!" 
 That scheme of Jo- 
 seph Smith, disre- 
 spectfully referred 
 to by the ribald as 
 "Joe Smith of Nau- 
 voo," was no new 
 thing. Six men in 
 the history of the 
 world have done the 
 thing better. Smith 
 wrote a fairish book, 
 buried it deep in the 
 ground, and at the 
 right time dug it up 
 and flashed it, with God's name on the title- 
 page. So far God has written no pamphlet 
 repudiating it and the various other books 
 attributed to Him. 
 
 That scheme of the "Cardiff Giant" was 
 worked out on the suggestion of men who 
 assisted Smith with his Hot Stuff. The only 
 difference was that Smith's piece de resist- 
 ance -was a book, and the other fellows' was 
 a giant. Both were prepared by hand, both 
 planted, both dug up. 
 
 The fellows attributed their giant to God, just 
 as Smith had done with his book — with this 
 to their advantage; God has made giants, but 
 whether He has made books or not is still 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 debatable. CL A rather curious complication 
 in the line of kabojolism came to me a few 
 years ago. My friend, Colonel Cudahy of 
 the Beef Trust, who, they boastingly say in 
 Chicago, was suckled by a sow, just as Ro- 
 mulus and Remus were cared for by the she- 
 wolf, wrote a somewhat sensational novel. 
 At least I heard he had written a novel in- 
 spired by the swish 
 of a petticoat, and 
 although I had not 
 seen the book, yet 
 following a habit ac- 
 quired while work- 
 ing on the New York 
 Sun, I reviewed the 
 book first and trust- 
 ed to luck to read it 
 later. Unfortunate- 
 ly for me it trans- 
 pired that Colonel 
 Cudahy had written 
 no book — he had 
 only contemplated having Samuel Eberly 
 Gross write one for him. 
 However, the review had gone out to the 
 syndicate, and it could not be gotten back. 
 Hardly had my critical comments on Colo- 
 nel Cudahy's work appeared than McClurg 
 & Company telegraphed me for a hundred 
 copies, thinking I was the publisher. I ad- 
 vised Aleck that if he would forward me a 
 case of six quarts, we would call it square. 
 That disposed of him, but in less than a 
 week, Charlie Thorne, of Montgomery Ward 
 & Company, arrived in Sun-Up, and the first 
 topic he brought up was the Cudahy novel. 
 Mr. Thorne told me he had read the book 
 and considered my review an impartial and 
 Able Effort. In thus saying he had read a 
 book that had never been written, Charlie 
 revealed himself a peachful prevaricator, but 
 as I had reviewed the work I was hardly in 
 position to nail the lie. So we just stood there 
 and looked at each other like two curs that had 
 stolen a capon. Happily, just then Ali Baba 
 called to me and asked where I had left the 
 shovel. This changed the subject, and I saw 
 Thorne was as much relieved as I. 
 The giving of letters of recommendation to 
 folks for whom you have no use, is a com- 
 mon form of petit kabojolism. Then there 
 are big men who often sell their names to 
 
 Page 89 
 
 boom things,like Judge Cheesemite of Keene, 
 New Hampshire, who never weighed more 
 than one hundred and twenty pounds in the 
 shade, who yet has his name placarded in 
 the Boyce Weeklies as an example of a man 
 whose life was saved by a certain Obesity 
 Belt built at Jackson, Michigan. 
 There is also that case of George Stevens, a 
 noted jester, justler 
 and all-'round jack- 
 anapes, of Toledo. 
 Stevens made the 
 fortune of one Jim 
 Laroux, a muskrat 
 Frenchman, who in- 
 vented a blood med- 
 icine called Perun- 
 ia, & paraded Stev- 
 ens as one who had 
 been snatched from 
 an untimely tomb 
 by its use. Stevens, 
 I hear, has recently 
 had a misunderstanding with Laroux, and 
 has stated in print that he never even tasted 
 the bellywash concocted by the muskrat rival 
 of Dr. Pierce. €1 In the meantime the mus- 
 covy muskrat rides in an automobile. 
 Love itself is a form of kabojolism, for its 
 province is to exaggerate the excellence of 
 its subject and bestow a credit where it is 
 not wholly due. The beautiful, budding, 
 blushing country lass, aged nineteen, is sel- 
 dom the paragon of sweetness, gentleness, 
 intellect, modesty and truth that we, editori- 
 ally speaking, in our youth warmly averred. 
 For a time we succeeded in making her think 
 so, and later we had to gently undeceive her, 
 otherwise she would have used us, editori- 
 ally speaking, as a door-mat. Life moves in 
 spirals — periodicity is everywhere — and 
 recently I myself was exposed to kabojolitis. 
 C I was out with Major Pond on a lecture 
 tour, and the Major prepared a circular set- 
 ting forth the excellence of his attraction. 
 This circular made me out to be quite the 
 Greatest Thing that ever happened. The 
 Major said my personal presence was such 
 that the audience was won before I had said 
 a word; and when I began to talk the multi- 
 tude hung upon my words spellbound. He 
 declared I was the Themistocles who would 
 lead the world out of artistic bondage. 
 
 O organization ever con- 
 tained within its ranks the 
 best. Organization is arbi- 
 trary & artificial : it is born 
 of selfishness; and at the 
 best is a mere matter of expediency. 
 CWe are all children in the Kin- 
 dergarten of God: and it doth not 
 yet appear what we shall be 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 90 
 
 That settled it: I went to Major Pond and 
 told him that if this Themistocles business 
 were true, and I had no doubt but that it 
 was, I should have at least One Hundred 
 Dollars more a week. 
 
 At this the Major fell in a swoon and awoke 
 swearing; finally he cooled down and ex- 
 plained to me that I should know better— 
 
 expecters of scale. C I am fully convinced 
 that there is just as much kabojolism in the 
 world as plagiarism — just as much undue 
 credit given as credit withheld. 
 Let me close with a somewhat sad but true 
 incident: In New York, years ago, there 
 used to live an elderly gentleman with long 
 white whiskers, a linen duster and patriarchal 
 ways. He was com- 
 
 ND so this Artist and his 
 Wife were priests of Beau- 
 ty, and their little girl was 
 a neophyte; and the room 
 where the Roman lamp 
 burned was filled with the holiness 
 of beauty, and no unkind thought or 
 wrong intent could exist there. Con- 
 secrated Lives ! a^> 
 
 the circularwas just 
 a case of commer- 
 cial kabojolism: — 
 credit where it was 
 not due. He told me 
 I was really consid- 
 erable of a chump, 
 a sort of wagtongue 
 chough, butitwould 
 not be good policy 
 to say so on the bills. 
 C Then the Major 
 explained to me this 
 truth: The fifty-sev- 
 en varieties of freak, 
 
 and all the fantastic tricks, fussy airs, and 
 foolish elevation of the nose and chin of a 
 cantatrice come from the fact that she reads 
 the newspaper reports that her impresario 
 writes about her, and takes them literally. 
 And this is why all impresarios grow old 
 and senile early in life — it comes from en- 
 during the contumely of the premiere dan- 
 seuse and the cantatrice, who refuse, wom- 
 anlike, to take the small bills cum grano 
 salis. The reason so many histrions express 
 their contempt for the horse-blocks — and 
 everything else — from the altitude of high 
 Olympus, is because they regard the press 
 notices penned by the manager as Holy Writ. 
 41 A woman I know has a husband who is 
 for her a spiritual sinker, yet she quotes him 
 in public and puts him forth as an example 
 of virtue — when, in fact, he is quite the 
 other thing. Charles Frohman once told me 
 that he considered the romeike habit worse 
 than hitting the pipe. He said every prima 
 donna he ever knew, but one, was puffed up 
 with the hallucination that she was the dimity 
 divinity of Orpheus — the favorite of the 
 gods — all this through the romeike dalliance. 
 Thus does the lady-star, who is a sort of 
 ladybug, grow great on newspaper guff, and 
 win the obese obeisance of toddy mixers, 
 bell-boys, hack drivers and other ardent 
 
 monly known as the 
 "Bum Peter Coop- 
 er." At conventions 
 and all public gath- 
 erings, his services 
 were in demand at 
 two dollars per. All 
 he had to do was to 
 applaud the speak- 
 ers by striking voci- 
 ferously on the floor 
 with his cane, say 
 nothing & look like 
 the real Peter Coop- 
 er. €1 Finally, through the applause that al- 
 ways greeted him when he appeared upon 
 the stage at public meetings, a buzzing blue- 
 bottle got into his bonnet, and he became 
 possessed of the idea that he was the Sure- 
 Enough Peter Cooper, and the other man, 
 who built the Cooper Union, was the Bum. 
 He grew garrulous and fell into the habit of 
 referring to the Real Peter Cooper as a freak, 
 a fake and a fraud. As long as the Bum was 
 quiet, all was well, but when he began to 
 talk, his supporters were obliged to throw 
 him into the Irish Sea. 
 A good I-X-L bum, if he is a looker, has a 
 place, but when it begins to put on airs, some- 
 thing always happens. The bum is one of 
 society's luxuries. In the language of John 
 Randolph, "the necessities we must have, 
 but the luxuries we can do without." 
 The suggestion of one who has dallied both 
 with plagiaritis and kabojolitis would be the 
 advice of Ali Baba to the young Athenian 
 who wanted to borrow twenty-five obuli so 
 he could wed: Don't. 
 
 At the last all Art is One, and the same truth 
 can be stated of kabojolism. And I am fully 
 convinced that as all things are held in place 
 by the Opposition of Forces, and as the wind 
 is only rushing to fill a Vacuum, and the 
 flowing waters are working out an equilibri- 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 91 
 
 um, so kabojolism is a part of the Great 
 Plan to hold the balance true. 
 Some of us are very sure we are not getting 
 the credit that is our due — we are not ap- 
 preciated. If this is true let us take consola- 
 tion in the thought that we are Necessary 
 Parts of the Whole, and as we are not getting 
 due credit, some one is getting a credit that 
 is not his due. All 
 
 is One, and nothing 
 really makes any 
 difference. 
 
 AY AS YOU 
 GO. I 'm not 
 so sure just 
 what the Unpardon- 
 able Sin is, but I be- 
 lieve it is this dispo- 
 sition to evade the 
 payingofsmallbills. 
 41 Ask the grocer, 
 the liveryman or the 
 butcher,whoarethe 
 folks that contract 
 bills and never pay, 
 or pay when they 
 dam please, and he 
 will tell you they are 
 the aristocrats. The 
 blacksmiths, stone- 
 masons, carpenters 
 & farmers look you 
 squarely in the eye, 
 speak to you frank- 
 ly face to face, and 
 if they promise to 
 pay you Saturday 
 night, and cannot, 
 they come around 
 and tell you why. I 
 have been despoil- 
 ed of hard earned 
 dollars, and had my 
 
 reputation ripped up the back when I ven- 
 tured to ask for my own, but never excepting 
 by those who have a Thursday. 
 If you wish to lessen the worries of the world 
 and scatter sunshine as you go, don't bother 
 to go a-slumming, or lift the fallen, or trouble 
 to reclaim the erring — simply pay your debts 
 cheerfully and promptly. It lubricates the 
 wheels of trade, breaks up party ice, gives 
 
 tone to the social system and liberates good 
 will. C, Pay as you go. 
 Especially pay the people who work by the 
 day and toil with their hands. A dollar means 
 much to the man who spades your garden — 
 never humiliate the man by making him ask 
 for his dollar. Give it to him immediately 
 the work is done, and if he did it well, tell 
 him so. When the 
 
 HE success of an individ- 
 ual is usually damnation 
 for his children. Luxury 
 enervates and kills, and 
 this is the reason that the 
 
 race has made such slow and pain- 
 ful progress. All one generation gains 
 is lost in the next. The great nations 
 have died off from the earth simply 
 because they have succeeded. 
 C.The Jiner instinct in a man is 
 a manifestation of weakness, not 
 strength. It is a clutch to get some- 
 thing for nothing, a grab at good 
 which you have not earned. 
 CLTwo consecrated lives constitute 
 a congregation and where they com- 
 mune is a temple. 
 
 <L No one knows a thing for sure 
 until he tells it to some one else. 
 C Is truth a thing to hide in a ginger 
 jar and place on a high shelf? 
 H Man cannot advance and leave 
 woman behind 
 
 woman who crou- 
 ches over a sewing 
 machine for you all 
 day long, brings the 
 garment home, pay 
 her all you owe, and 
 do not add to her 
 troubles by exercis- 
 ing the prerogative 
 of one who is pay- 
 ing over money, to 
 flaunt out either in- 
 sulting remarks or 
 insulting manners. 
 C The Gentle Man 
 shows his true na- 
 ture in his treatment 
 of social inferiors; 
 and of all damning 
 sins, the withhold- 
 ing of money due a 
 working man is the 
 worst. C,Let us pay 
 as we go. The cheer- 
 fulness & good will 
 we give out with our 
 money will in turn 
 begivenoutbythose 
 we pay it to. C,P a Y 
 as you go. 
 
 USIC HUN- 
 GRY.I'm for- 
 ty miles from 
 a lemon, Dear, and 
 the same distance from a library, but if my 
 memory serves me rightly, Emerson once 
 said, "I would bathe me in sweet sounds. 
 Ah, that would be a rest and benediction!" 
 And so to-night I 'm music hungry. I have 
 spurred my spirit in a vain attempt to write, 
 but the result is a composition that would 
 make you think of a book advertisement by 
 Lawrence Hutton in Harper's. You know 
 
CON T EM PLATIONS 
 
 Page 92 
 
 Annie Besant told us that the soul lived on 
 certain planes, and if one would express 
 divine thoughts, the spirit must rise above 
 the lowlands. I think there 's something in 
 that, for one cannot be much wiser nor bet- 
 ter than the people he is with. And to reach 
 an attitude where the sense of sublimity is 
 possible, I need music. CI Some day, you 
 know, I am to write a 
 
 beautiful thing that 
 shall link my name 
 with that of Great 
 Ones gone, but I 'm 
 sure I can never do 
 it without you are 
 in the next room at 
 the piano. You will 
 have to play each 
 morningforanhour 
 to lift me into the 
 right atmosphere, & 
 then you can steal 
 out on tiptoe and I 
 will finish the chap- 
 ter. When the chap- 
 ter is done, I '11 read 
 it to you and kiss 
 your cheek and you 
 will say it is Sub- 
 lime, as you ever 
 do. And what a joy 
 it is that comes after 
 work well done! It 
 is an ambrosia well 
 worth goingthrough 
 Hades to sip. But to 
 be really happy,you 
 must have some one 
 with whom to share 
 your joy: one can 
 bear grief alone, but 
 it takes two to be 
 glad. Peg Woffing- 
 ton knew that when 
 
 she played her part like an angel of light, 
 for in the wings she knew Sir Henry Vane 
 was waiting with her cloak, and when she 
 danced panting off the stage she went straight 
 to his arms, oblivious to the roar of applause 
 and loud calls of "Bravo ! Bravo ! " — she only 
 heard his whispered words, "Well done!" 
 C Yes, Dear, I 'm music hungry:— hungry 
 for music— and you. 
 
 HE VAMPIRE. William Marion Reedy 
 holds the Mirror up to Nature as fol- 
 lows: "The sensation of the day in 
 English art is the painting, 'The Vampire,' 
 exhibited recently at the Gallery in London. 
 It is the work of Philip Burne-Jones, related 
 to Sir Edward Burne-Jones, the pre-Ra- 
 phaelite mystic, friend of Swinburne and 
 Rossetti^ and a gen 
 
 so-called "disadvan- 
 in the life of a child 
 
 HE 
 
 tages 
 
 are often its advantages. 
 And on the other hand, 
 "advantages" are very of- 
 ten disadvantages of a very serious 
 sort. To be born in the country of 
 poor parents, is no disadvantage. 
 C We grow through expression, and 
 the large colleges, even yet, afford a 
 very imperfect means for expression 
 — all is impression and repression 
 and suppression. 
 
 C By going with a gang men hope 
 to grow wise. But while wisdom has 
 sometimes come to men in solitude, 
 it is not to be found in the crowd. 
 C. If your life is to be a genuine con- 
 secration, you must be free. Only 
 the free man is truthful; only the 
 heart that is free is pure. 
 C Let 's keep the windows open to 
 the East, be worthy, and sometime 
 we shall know r&&> 
 
 erally beautiful 
 soul.' The painting 
 is remarkable in it- 
 self for a grewsome 
 power of painting a 
 rather bitter moral 
 that is not new now 
 any more than when 
 Villon, as translat- 
 ed by Henley, sang 
 'Booze & the Blow- 
 ense Cops the Lot.' 
 The picture shows 
 a dead youth, type 
 of a murdered soul, 
 and over him bends 
 the vampire with 
 the face of a woman. 
 The cynical, bitter 
 lesson is well press- 
 ed home, but there 
 is a certain taint of 
 hasheesh art about 
 it. The picture is 
 more sensational 
 than meritorious as 
 a creation in paint. 
 And of more impor- 
 tance than the pict- 
 ure itself is the poem 
 written by Rudyard 
 Kipling for it, who 
 is Mr. Philip Burne- 
 Jones' cousin. 
 "The verse and the 
 picture remind one of the story of Whistler 
 and Rossetti. Rossetti one day showed Whis- 
 tler a painting upon which he was engaged. 
 Some time later Whistler, visiting the author 
 of The House of Life, asked about the 
 painting. Rossetti said he had put the paint- 
 ing away uncompleted. 'But,' said he, 'I 've 
 written a sonnet on the subject of painting. 
 Let me read it to you.' Whistler submitted. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 93 
 
 When Rossetti had finished, Jimmie arose 
 and said, 'Rossetti, frame the sonnet.' And 
 so there are a great many people who will 
 think, with good cause, that the Kipling poem 
 is better than the Burne-Jones picture. The 
 picture is somewhat tawdry. The verses that 
 interpret it are finely bitter and iconoclastic 
 of the gynolatry just now general in the 
 world. The savage 
 spirit of the verse is 
 refreshing. It illus- 
 trates again that Mr. 
 Kipling is the only 
 living poet, barring 
 Swinburne & Hen- 
 ley, who writes po- 
 etry that has in it 
 meat for men. 
 "This poem on 'The 
 Vampire' goes to the 
 very source of the 
 real mockery of fail- 
 ure in life and in 
 effort. Woman does not understand. She 
 never did and never will. The man loves 
 something in her beyond herself, and the 
 more he gets of her the surer he is to fail of 
 the attainment of that fuller thing to which 
 she invites and yet bars the way." 
 Mr. Reedy is right, woman does not under- 
 stand — neither does Mr.Reedy ; nobody does. 
 Continually there comes to every thinking 
 man a Voice which says, Arise and get thee 
 hence for this is not thy rest. All through 
 life are these way stations where man says, 
 "There, now I 've found it, here will I build 
 three tabernacles." But soon he hears the 
 Voice and it is ever on, and on, and on. He 
 came into life without his choice and is being 
 hurried out of it against his will, and over 
 the evening of his dreams steals the final 
 conclusion that he has been used by a Power, 
 beyond himself, for unseen ends. 
 But the novelists, and politicians, and econ- 
 omists, and poets are continually telling us 
 that man's troubles comes from this or that, 
 and then they name their specialty. They are 
 like catarrh doctors who treat every patient, 
 no matter what the ailment, by nasal douche. 
 C Marriage is only a way station. Trains 
 may stop two minutes, or twenty minutes for 
 lunch; the place may be an ugly little cross- 
 roads or it may be a beautiful village; possi- 
 
 bly it's the end of a division, but egad! 
 Dearie, it 's not the end of the journey. Very 
 young people think it is, but they find their 
 mistake. It 's a nice place, very often, but 
 not the place they thought it was. They 
 bought one thing and when they got home 
 found something else in the package, and 
 nature won't change it. But woman should 
 not be blamed for 
 that — that 's God's 
 fault, not her's. 
 PhilipBurne-Jones, 
 Kipling and Reedy 
 say man is unhap- 
 py because woman 
 doesn'tunderstand, 
 but I 'm quite sure 
 that one of the trio 
 knows that the un- 
 rest and weariness 
 of life lies deeper. 
 CI Woman under- 
 stands man quite as 
 well as man understands woman, and I 
 believe a bit better. I have spoken. 
 Thomas De Quincey was saved from despair 
 and death by Ann of Venusburg. De Quincey 
 lived for full fifty years after that — always 
 looking for Ann. Some folks say that he was 
 looking for his ideal, and that he simply 
 called it "Ann"; but this is a mere quibble. 
 DeMusset translated the Essays of an Opium 
 Eater and transformed Ann into a conven- 
 tional society belle, lest the Faubourg D'Up- 
 per be shocked. But as the Gentle Reader is 
 neither a child nor a fool, let the facts suffice 
 as De Quincey recorded them: Ann was of 
 Venusburg. tl Every man whose life and 
 aspirations are touched with the Spirit, 
 spends his life, perhaps unconsciously, look- 
 ing for the Ideal Woman: the woman whose 
 soul will make good the deficiencies in his 
 own. He feels his weakness, his incomplete- 
 ness; he is conscious that alone he is but 
 half a man, but if he could only find Her — 
 his other half — all would be as God designed 
 it. Thus sought Dante, thus sought De Quin- 
 cey, thus sought Le Gallienne in his Quest. 
 And Le Gallienne found Her — the Golden 
 Girl — found her just where De Quincey 
 found his Ann. C Ann of Venusburg was 
 not a vampire; the Golden Girl was not a 
 vampire. Each was the woman who Under- 
 
 LL success consists in 
 this: you are doing some- 
 thing for somebody — ben- 
 efiting humanity; and the 
 feeling of success comes 
 from the consciousness of this. 
 C The Brotherhood of Consecrated 
 Lives admit all who are worthy, & all 
 who areexcluded excludethemselves. 
 
C () XTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 94 
 
 stands. And having an understanding mind 
 and a willing heart each gave life and heal- 
 ing and complemented the soul of a strong 
 man, instead of sucking his heart's blood. 
 il The man of Spiritual Impulse is to a 
 degree an ascetic; perforce, he must be, for 
 Spirituality is sex manifesting itself in reli- 
 gious or artistic fervor. I will grant if you 
 insist on it, that as- 
 ceticism is a form of 
 sensuality that finds 
 its gratification in 
 denial. I will also 
 grant that your Art- 
 ist is not a celibate, 
 and all I claim isthat 
 his highest pleas- 
 ures are to him sym- 
 bol. He knows that 
 the things which en- 
 dure are spiritual. 
 C Andsothewoman 
 who is to comple- 
 ment this man of intellect and soul must be 
 the Woman who Understands. He cannot 
 teach her, life is too short. She should com- 
 prehend without explanation that sex must 
 not run rampant ; neither need it be subdued, 
 but it must be spiritualized. If she allows 
 mere intuition to lead she is a vampire, and 
 in a very short time will hold her mate only 
 by a statutory bond, and here is a case where 
 woman's boasted intuition leads straight to 
 ashes and desolation. And even though a 
 bishop in full canonicals has solemnized a 
 riot of the passions, and little girls in white 
 have gone before strewing flowers, love's 
 death surely follows license. Can law sanc- 
 tify sensuality, and do all the "bad women" 
 live in this "quarter" or that? The police do 
 not know, for they are but the tools of that 
 ignorant, blundering, blind thing, the law; 
 and the preachers who conventionally bless 
 certain things and curse others, lift an eye- 
 brow and ask in affected surprise, "What 
 does the gentleman mean?" 
 But the law of antithesis exists, the paradox 
 lives, life is a spiral; and possibly when all 
 Things are Made Plain, we who have glorified 
 in women but a single virtue, will find that 
 De Quincey and Le Gallienne were right, 
 and that the woman who Understands is the 
 Magdalene, who from out the purging fires 
 
 of purgatory completes the circle and arises 
 pure and spotless, recognizing Deity incar- 
 nate when all others blindly fail. 
 Walking through the gallery of statuary of 
 the Luxembourg I saw the white carved nude 
 figure of a man — a man in all the splendid 
 strength of youth. Standing behind him on a 
 higher part of the pedestal was the form of 
 a woman; and this 
 woman was leaning 
 over, her face turn- 
 ed towards him, and 
 her lips about to be 
 pressed upon his. I 
 moved closer and to 
 one side, and saw 
 that on the face of 
 the youth was an ex- 
 pression of deathly 
 agony; and then I 
 noted that the mus- 
 cles of that splendid 
 body were tense in 
 awful pain. And in that one glance I saw that 
 the woman's body was the body of a tigress 
 — that only her face was beautiful — and that 
 the arms ended in claws that were digging 
 deep into the vitals of the man as she drew 
 his face to hers. Suddenly feeling the need 
 of fresh air I turned and went out on the 
 street. That piece of statuary gave Philip 
 Burne-Jones the suggestion for his painting, 
 "The Vampire." Now one might suppose 
 from that awful sermon in stone that woman 
 was the cause of man's undoing. But for the 
 benefit of henpecked and misunderstood hus- 
 bands I '11 call attention to the fact that men 
 who have achieved most in literature, music, 
 painting and philosophy, are men who knew 
 from sad experience the sharpness of wom- 
 an's claws: Socrates, Dante, Shakespeare, 
 Rousseau, Milton, Wagner, Paganini and so 
 many more that were I to name them all the 
 world would not be large enough to contain 
 the books in which they are printed. Of 
 course I '11 admit that the men who have 
 been flayed by women have usually been 
 greatly helped by women, and this some- 
 times accounts for the flaying. But the point 
 that I make is that all experience is good — 
 the Law of Compensation never rests and 
 the stagnation of a dead level "happy mar- 
 ried life" may not be any more to a strong 
 
 HAT think you the earth 
 will be like when the ma- 
 jority of men and women 
 in it learn that to be sim- 
 ple and honest and true, 
 is the part of wisdom, and that to 
 work for Love and Beauty is the 
 highest good? 
 
 C If you would have friends, be one. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 95 
 
 man's advantage than a long course of stupid 
 misunderstanding. Milton bewailed the fact 
 that he could get freedom from marital woes 
 on no less ignoble grounds than violating his 
 marriage vows. Milton did not get his free- 
 dom. His wife sat on him, silent and insen- 
 sate, and so did her whole family of seven 
 persons. And his sharp cry made him the 
 butt of jibes & jeers 
 
 innumerable. Mil- 
 ton was an obscure 
 school-teacher and 
 clerk; but if any of 
 those great men who 
 sought to humiliate 
 and defeat him are 
 nowadays mention- 
 ed in history it is 
 only to say "they 
 lived in The Age of 
 Milton." "His life 
 ruined by a wom- 
 an"— Pish! you flat- 
 ter her; she has n't 
 the power. And the 
 end of the whole 
 thing, Brother, is, 
 it doesn'tmuch mat- 
 ter what your con- 
 dition in life is: all 
 things are equaliz- 
 ed. When the Pro- 
 phet said, "God is 
 good and his mercy 
 edureth from ever- 
 lasting to everlast- 
 ing," he certainly 
 understood himself. 
 
 EATH AND FRIENDSHIP. The 
 desire for friendship is strong in every 
 human heart. We crave the compan- 
 ionship of those who can understand. The 
 nostalgia of life presses, we sigh for " home," 
 and long for the presence of one who sym- 
 pathizes with our aspirations, comprehends 
 our hopes and is able to partake of our joys. 
 A thought is not our own until we impart it 
 to another, and the confessional seems a 
 crying need of every human soul. 
 One can bear grief but it takes two to be glad, 
 ii We reach the Divine through some one, 
 and by dividing our joy with this one we 
 double it, and come in touch with the Uni- 
 
 versal. The sky is never so blue, the birds 
 never sing so blithely, our acquaintances 
 are never so gracious as when we are filled 
 with love for some one. 
 Being in harmony with one we are in har- 
 mony with all. The lover idealizes and clothes 
 the beloved with virtues that only exist in 
 his imagination. The beloved is consciously 
 or unconsciously 
 
 EAUTIFUL are the sea- 
 sons; and glad I am that 
 I have not yet quite lost 
 my love for each. But now 
 they parade past with a 
 curious swiftness! They look at me 
 out of wistful eyes, and sometimes 
 one calls to me as she goes by and 
 asks, "Why have you done so little 
 since I saw you last?" And I can 
 only answer, "I was thinking of you." 
 C I 'd rather be the stupidest clod in 
 nature than to possess all knowledge 
 with no one to whom I could com- 
 municate it. 
 
 CThe beauty with which love adorns 
 its object becomes at last the pos- 
 session of the one who loves. 
 C Beauty is an Unseen Reality — an 
 attempt to reveal a spiritual condition. 
 
 aware of this, and 
 endeavors to fulfill 
 the high ideal; and 
 inthecontemplation 
 of the transcendent 
 qualities that his 
 mind has created, 
 the lover is raised 
 to heights otherwise 
 impossible. 
 Should the beloved 
 pass from this earth 
 while such a con- 
 dition of exaltation 
 exists, the concep- 
 tion is indelibly im- 
 pressed upon the 
 soul, just as the last 
 earthly view is said 
 to be photographed 
 upon the retina of 
 the dead. The high- 
 est earthly relation- 
 ship is in its very 
 essence fleeting, for 
 men are fallible, and 
 living in a world 
 where the material 
 wants jostle, & time 
 and change play their ceaseless parts, grad- 
 ual obliteration comes and disillusion enters. 
 But the memory of a sweet affinity once fully 
 possessed, and snapped by fate at its suprem- 
 est moment, can never die from out the heart. 
 All other troubles are swallowed up in this, 
 and if the individual is of too stern a fiber to 
 be completely crushed into the dust, time 
 will come bearing healing, and the memory 
 of that once ideal condition will chant in his 
 heart a perpetual eucharist. 
 And I hope the world has passed forever 
 from the nightmare of pity for the dead; 
 they have ceased from their labors and are 
 at rest. C, But for the living, when death has 
 
(OA I EM PL ATIONS 
 
 Page 96 
 
 entered and removed the best friend, fate 
 has done her worst; the plummet has sound- 
 ed the depths of grief, and thereafter nothing 
 can inspire terror. At one fell stroke all 
 petty annoyances and corroding cares are 
 sunk into nothingness. The memory of a 
 great love lives enshrined in undying amber. 
 It affords a ballast 'gainst all the storms that 
 blow, and although 
 
 it lends an unutter- 
 able sadness, it im- 
 parts an unspeak- 
 able peace. Where 
 there is this haunt- 
 ing memory of a 
 great love lost, there 
 is also forgiveness, 
 charity & a sympa- 
 thy that makes the 
 man brother to all 
 who suffer and en- 
 dure. The individ- 
 ual himself is noth- 
 ing: he has nothing 
 to hope for, nothing 
 to lose, nothing to 
 win, & this constant 
 memory of the high 
 and exalted friend- 
 ship that was once 
 his is a nourishing 
 source of strength; 
 it constantly puri- 
 fies the mind and 
 inspires the heart to 
 noblerliving and di- 
 viner thinking. The 
 man is in communi- 
 cation with Elemental Conditions. Ci To have 
 known an ideal friendship, and had it fade 
 from your grasp and flee as a shadow before 
 it is touched with the sordid breath of self- 
 ishness, or sullied by misunderstanding, is 
 the highest good. And the constant dwell- 
 ing in sweet, sad recollection on the exalted 
 virtues of the one that has gone tends to 
 crystallize these very virtues in the heart of 
 him who meditates them. 
 
 OHE PASSING OF BRANN. It's a 
 II grave subject: Brann is dead. Brann 
 9hJh! was a Fool. The Fools were the wisest 
 men at Court; and Shakespeare, who dearly 
 
 loved a Fool, placed his wise sayings in the 
 mouths of men who wore the motley. When 
 he adorned a man with cap and bells it was 
 as though he had given bonds for both that 
 man's humanity and intelligence. Neither 
 Shakespeare nor any other writer of books 
 ever dared to depart so violently from truth 
 as to picture a Fool whose heart was filled 
 with perfidy. C The 
 
 MERSON loved the good 
 
 more than he abhorred 
 evil. Carlyle abhorred 
 evil more than he loved 
 the good. If you should 
 by chance find anything in this book 
 you do not especially like, it is not 
 at all wise to focus your memory on 
 that, to the exclusion of all else — 
 bless my soul! 
 
 C The life of every man is a seam- 
 less garment — its woof his thoughts, 
 its warp his deeds. When for him 
 the roaring loom of time stops and 
 the thread is broken, foolish people 
 sometimes point to certain spots in 
 the robe and say: "O why did he 
 not leave that out!" not knowing 
 that every action of man is a sequence 
 from off fate's spindle >4g& 
 
 Fool is not malici- 
 ous. Stupid people 
 may think he is, be- 
 cause his language 
 is charged with the 
 lightning's flash;but 
 they are the people 
 who do not know 
 the difference be- 
 tween an incubator 
 and an egg plant. 
 C Touchstone, with 
 unfailing loyalty, 
 follows his master 
 with quip & quirk, 
 into exile. When all, 
 even his daughters, 
 had forsaken King 
 Lear, the Fool bares 
 himself to the storm 
 & covers the shak- 
 ing old man with his 
 own cloak. And so 
 when in our day we 
 meet the avatars of 
 Trinculo, Costard, 
 Jacques and Mer- 
 cutio, we find they 
 are men of tender 
 susceptibilities, generous hearts and intel- 
 lects keen as a rapier's point. CI Brann was 
 a Fool. <L Brann shook his cap, flourished 
 his bauble, gave a toss to that fine head, and 
 with tongue in cheek, asked questions and 
 propounded conundrums that stupid Hypo- 
 crisy could not answer. So they killed Brann. 
 11 Brann was born in obscurity. Very early 
 he was cast upon the rocks and nourished 
 at the she-wolf's teat. 
 
 He graduated at the University of Hard 
 Knocks and during his short life took several 
 post graduate courses. He had been wage- 
 earner, printer's devil, printer, pressman, 
 editor. CI He knew the world of men: the 
 
Elbert Hubbard 
 
 From a photograoh of the bust by 
 Saint Gerome-Roycroft 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 97 
 
 struggling, sorrowing, hoping, laughing, fal- 
 lible world of men. And to those whom God 
 had tempted beyond what they could bear, 
 his heart went out. He read books with 
 profit, and got great panoramic views out 
 into the world of art and poetry; dreaming 
 dreams and sending his swaying filament of 
 thought out and out, hoping it would some- 
 where catch and he 
 would be in com- 
 munication with An- 
 other World. 
 Discreet & cautious 
 little men are gener- 
 ally known by the 
 company they keep. 
 The Fool was not 
 particular about his 
 associates: child- 
 ren, sick people, in- 
 sane folks, rich or 
 poor— it made no 
 difference to him. 
 He sometimes even 
 sat at meat with pub- 
 licans and sinners. 
 C He was a Mystic 
 & lived in the ideal. 
 This deeply relig- 
 ious quality in his 
 nature led him into 
 theology, and he be- 
 came a clergyman 
 — a Baptist clergy- 
 man. C No church 
 is large enough to 
 hold such a man as 
 this: the fool quality 
 in his nature outcrops, and the jingle of bells 
 makes sleep to the Chief Pewholder impos- 
 sible, tl So the Fool had to go. 
 Then he founded that unique periodical, 
 which in three years attained a circulation 
 of sixty thousand copies. This paper was 
 not used for pantry shelves, lamp lighters, 
 or other base utilitarian purposes. It cost ten 
 times as much as a common newspaper, and 
 the people who bought it read it until it was 
 worn out. All the things in this paper were 
 not truth : mixed up amid a world of wit were 
 often extravagance and much bad taste. It 
 was only a Fool's newspaper! In this period- 
 ical the Fool railed and jeered and stated 
 
 facts about smirking Complacency, facts so 
 terrible that folks said they were indecent. 
 He flung his jibes at Stupidity and Stupidity 
 sought to answer by assassination. 
 Texas has a libel law patterned after the 
 libel law of the State of New York. If a man 
 takes from you your good name you can put 
 him behind prison bars and place shutters 
 over the windows of 
 
 ITERATURE should be 
 the product of the ripened 
 mind — the mind that 
 knows the world of men 
 and which has grappled 
 with earth's problems. Letters should 
 not be a profession in itself — to make 
 a business of an art is to degrade it. 
 Literature should be the spontane- 
 ous output of the mind that has 
 known and felt. To work the mine of 
 spirit as a business and sift its pro- 
 duct for hire, is to overwork the vein 
 and palm off slag for useful metal. 
 C I expect to see the day when the 
 conversational method will be su- 
 preme, and teaching will be done 
 practically without books — by object 
 lessons, thinking things out, talking 
 about them and doing things 
 
 his place of busi- 
 ness. CThe people 
 who thought Brann 
 had injured them 
 did not invoke the 
 law. They invoked 
 Judge Lynch. 
 A mob seized the 
 Fool, and placing a 
 rope about his neck 
 led him naked thro' 
 the October night, 
 out to the Theologi- 
 cal Seminary ,which 
 they averred he had 
 traduced. C There 
 they smote him with 
 their hands and spat 
 upon him. Their in- 
 tention was to hang 
 the Fool, but better 
 counsel prevailed,& 
 on signing, in ter- 
 rorem, a document 
 they placed before 
 him, they gave him 
 warning to depart to 
 another state. And 
 on his promising to 
 do so they let him go. CLBut the next day he 
 refused to leave; and his flashing wit still 
 filled the air, now embittered, through the 
 outrages visited upon him. 
 His enemies held prayer meetings, invoking 
 Divine aid for the Fool's conversion — or 
 extinction. One man quoted David's prayer 
 concerning Shimei: "Bring Thou down his 
 hoar head to the grave in blood ! " And others 
 still, prayed, "Let his children be fatherless 
 and his wife a widow." CL But still the Fool 
 flourished his bauble.CThen they shot him. 
 CThat hand which wrote the most Carlylean 
 phrase of any in America is cold and stiff. 
 That teeming brain which held a larger 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 98 
 
 vocabulary than that of any living man in 
 America is only clay that might stop a hole 
 to keep the wind away. That soul through 
 which surged thoughts too great for speech 
 has gone a-journeying. 
 Brann is dead. C, No more shall we see that 
 lean, clean, homely face with its melancholy 
 smile. No more shall we hear the Fool elo- 
 quently, and oh! so 
 
 foolishly, plead the 
 cause of the weak, 
 the unfortunate, the 
 vicious. CNo more 
 shall we behold the 
 tears of pity glisten 
 in those sad eyes as 
 his heart was wrung 
 by the tale of suf- 
 fering and woe. 
 His children are fa- 
 therless, his wife a 
 widow.C. Brann the 
 Fool is dead. 
 
 p^COMPARI- 
 §|lSON. When 
 LgaLj Emerson bor- 
 rowed of Words- 
 worth that fine ex- 
 pression aboutplain 
 living & high think- 
 ing no one was more 
 astonished than he 
 that Whitman and 
 Thoreau should ac- 
 cept him at his word. 
 He was decidedly 
 curious about their 
 
 And when he threw a bit of a bomb into 
 Harvard Divinity School it was the shrewd- 
 est bid for fame that ever preacher made, 
 tl I said " shrewd " — that 's the word. Emer- 
 son had the instincts of Connecticut; that 
 peculiar development of men who have eked 
 out existence on a rocky soil, banking their 
 houses against grim winter or grimmer sav- 
 age foes. With this 
 
 REAT men 
 
 are not so 
 great as we think them, 
 and dull people are not 
 quite so dense as they 
 seem. It is really a ques- 
 tion in my mind whether the Great 
 Man ever existed. Seen at an angle 
 across the distance, so the light 
 strikes on a certain facet of his be- 
 ing, we say the man is brilliant. In 
 his own household he is probably 
 considered something else. He is 
 great to us only because we do not 
 know him. He does a few things 
 well, but special talent in any direc- 
 tion is purchased with a price. If you 
 have much skill in certain lines, you 
 are lacking in other directions. Like 
 a chain, a man's real strength is in 
 his weakest part ,&&&^,&&&3?>&& 
 
 Yankee shrewdness 
 went a subtle and 
 sweeping imagina- 
 tion, and a fine ap- 
 preciation of the ex- 
 cellent things that 
 men have said and 
 done. But he was 
 never so foolish as 
 to imitate the heroic 
 — he simply admir- 
 ed it from afar. He 
 often advised others 
 to work their poetry 
 up into life, but he 
 did not do it him- 
 self. He never cast 
 the bantling on the 
 rocks, nor caused 
 him to be suckled 
 with the she-wolf's 
 teat. CHe admired 
 "abolition" from a 
 distance. Whenever 
 he went away from 
 home it was always 
 with a return ticket. 
 
 experiment but kept a safe distance between 
 himself and the shirt-sleeved Walt; and as 
 for Henry Thoreau — bless me! Emerson 
 regarded him only as a fine savage, and told 
 him so. Of course Emerson loved solitude, 
 but it was the solitude of a library or an 
 orchard, & not the solitude of plain or wilder- 
 ness. Emerson looked upon Beautiful Truth 
 as an honored guest. He adored her, but it 
 was with the adoration of the intellect. He 
 never got her tag in jolly chase of comradery ; 
 nor did he converse with her, soft and low, 
 when only the moon peeped out from behind 
 the silvered clouds, and the nightingale list- 
 ened. He never laid himself open to damages. 
 
 He has summed up 
 Friendship in an es- 
 say as no other man ever has, and yet there 
 was a self-protective aloofness in his friend- 
 ship that made icicles gather, as George 
 William Curtis has explained. 
 In no relation of his life was there a complete 
 abandon. His Essay on Self-Reliance is 
 beef, iron, and wine, and Works and Days 
 is a tonic for tired men; and yet I know that 
 in spite of all his pretty talk about living near 
 to Nature's heart he never ventured into the 
 woods outside of hallooing distance from the 
 house. He could neither ride a horse, nor 
 shoot, nor sail a boat — and being well aware 
 of it, never tried. All of his farming was 
 done by proxy; and when he writes to Car- 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 99 
 
 lyle late in life, explaining how he is worth 
 forty thousand dollars, well secured by first 
 mortgage, he makes clear one-half of his 
 ambition. And yet, I call him master, and 
 will match my admiration for him 'gainst 
 that of any other, six nights and days to- 
 gether. But I summon him here to contrast 
 his character with that of another — another, 
 who, like himself, 
 
 was twice married. 
 C, In his Essay on 
 Love Emerson re- 
 veals just an average 
 sophomore insight; 
 and in his work I do 
 not find a mention 
 or a trace of influ- 
 ence exercised by 
 either of the women 
 whom he wedded, 
 nor by any other 
 woman. Shelleywas 
 whathewas through 
 
 the influence of the two women he married. 
 Ci Shelley wrecked the life of one of these 
 women. She found surcease of sorrow in 
 death; and when her body was found in the 
 Serpentine he had a premonition that the 
 hungry waves were waiting for him too. But 
 before her death and through her death she 
 pressed home to him the bitterest sorrow that 
 man ever can know: the combined knowledge 
 that he has mortally injured a human soul 
 and the sense of helplessness to minister to 
 its needs. Harriet Westbrook said to Shelley, 
 "Drink ye all of it." And could he speak 
 now he would say that the bitterness of the 
 potion was a formative influence as potent 
 as that of the gentle ministrations of Mary 
 Wollstonecraft who broke over his head the 
 precious vase of her heart's love and wiped 
 his feet with the hairs of her head. 
 In the poetic sweetness, gentleness, lovable- 
 ness, and beauty of their natures Emerson 
 and Shelley were very similar. In a like en- 
 vironment they would have done the same 
 things. A pioneer ancestry with its struggle 
 for material existence would have taught 
 Shelley caution; and a noble patronymic 
 fostered by the state, lax in its discipline, 
 would have made Emerson toss discretion 
 to the winds. C Emerson and Shelley were 
 both apostles of the good, the true and the 
 
 reached immortali- 
 ty,for their thoughts 
 live in the thoughts 
 of the race again, & 
 their hopes and as- 
 pirationsmingleand 
 are one with the men 
 and women of earth 
 who think and feel 
 and dream. 
 
 raiOY IN THE 
 ||||CONFLICT. 
 llfclEJJ To rise in the 
 
 beautiful. One rests at Sleepy Hollow, his 
 grave marked by a great rough-hewn bowl- 
 der, while overhead the winds sigh a requiem 
 through the pines. The ashes of the other lie 
 beneath the moss-grown wall of the Eternal 
 City, and the creeping vines and flowers, as 
 if jealous of the white, carven marble, snug- 
 gle close over the spot with their leaves and 
 y . i petals.C Both have 
 
 OU better learn to accept 
 all the small misfits and 
 trivial annoyances of life 
 as a matter of course. To 
 allow them to receive at- 
 tention beyond their deserts is to 
 wear the web of your life to the warp. 
 Be on the lookout for the great joys 
 and never let mosquitoes worry you 
 into a passion 
 
 world, in spite of popular illusions, is by 
 no means an unmixed blessing. The young 
 proletarian, playing happily in his native 
 gutter, scarcely realizes this. So soon as 
 he begins to think at all about himself, his 
 teachers begin the evil lesson of ambition; 
 he lifts his eyes to the distant peaks, and 'the 
 sun is bright upon them and they seem very 
 fair. The garrulous Smiles comes his way 
 with stories of men who have "got on" — 
 without a word of warning against the sor- 
 rows of success. No one warns him of the 
 penalties. Every one speaks of climbing as 
 though it were bliss unspeakable. And so the 
 youngster, finding his limbs are stout and the 
 strength is in him, starts confidently enough, 
 by the way of book or barter, as his tastes 
 incline. Let the epic Smiles tell of the career 
 of those who win. Let no one tell of those 
 who fall, who drop by the way with bodies 
 enfeebled by overstudy, underfed; or who 
 are lost amidst the fogs of commercial im- 
 morality. Our concern is with those who 
 win, to whom a day comes when they can 
 see their schoolmates far below them, still 
 paddling happily in the gutter; can look 
 down on venerable heads to which they 
 once looked up, and turning the other way, 
 behold the Promised Land. One might think 
 it would be all exultation, this Nebo incident, 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 100 
 
 the happiest of all possible positions in the 
 sad life of man. It may be, even, that the man 
 from below tells himself as much. His means 
 for horse exercise came when his nerve for 
 it had gone. The wine of life does not wait. 
 After all, the man he has ousted had drunk 
 the best of the cup; for the conqueror the 
 dregs. That is the disillusionment of the suc- 
 cessful proletarian. 
 
 Better a little farm, 
 a life of old fashion- 
 ed work, love, and a 
 tumult of children, 
 than this Dead Sea 
 fruit of success. It is 
 fun to struggle, but 
 tragedy to win. 
 "Success is hide- 
 ous," says Victor 
 Hugo. C. Happy is 
 the poor man who 
 clutches that prize 
 in the grip of death 
 
 Leave things to other folks a little if you can ; 
 the world will have to git along without you 
 some day, and it might as well git used to it 
 now as any time. Git out o' this barn now — 
 I want to sweep up!" 
 
 He grumbles, and still he does the thing and 
 does it thoroughly. I never lie awake nights 
 wondering whether the cows have been 
 ¥^ttat-t a xt^hi ^ watered, or the hor- 
 
 ICHAEL ANGELO was 
 homely in feature, and the 
 aspect of his countenance 
 was mutilated by a crash- 
 ing blow from a rival stu- 
 dent's mallet that flattened his nose 
 to his face. Torregiano lives in his- 
 tory for this act alone; thus proving 
 that there are more ways than one 
 
 to gain immortality 
 
 and never has to see it crumble in his hand, the helm. 
 
 ffr|LI BABA THE SAGE. Hasty people, 
 WigM with slight hold on Fundamental Ver- 
 'WM. ities, may assume that because AH 
 Baba refuses to act without due knowledge, 
 make a leap in the dark, and do things with- 
 out knowing why, he is not a valuable helper. 
 On the other hand, he is especially valuable 
 on that very account. CAs a matter of con- 
 science, when an order is given to Baba, he 
 gently pooh-poohs it, patronizingly indulges 
 it, or boldly shows you where your proposi- 
 tions are puerile and preposterous. All ac- 
 cording to whether the time is before or after 
 dinner. After the order is given he goes and 
 does just what he pleases. And be it said to 
 his credit that what he does, usually, is the 
 right thing. C Baba grumbles in order to 
 convince himself and others that he is not 
 under the heel of the tyrant. Once I made 
 him the flat proposition, thus: "Here you, 
 Baba, when I tell you to do things you always 
 kick. Now, if you will cease grumbling when 
 I order things done, I '11 give you five dollars 
 extra each month. Is it a bargain?" 
 The old man picked up a straw, chewed on 
 it meditatively, smiled and replied, "No, I'm 
 gittin' 'nough wages, I guess. You mean all 
 right, but you give too dam many orders. 
 
 ses bedded, or in 
 winter whether the 
 barn door is prop- 
 erly fastened so the 
 drifting snow will 
 not make a bank un- 
 der my best colt. I 
 know positively that 
 all is snug and se- 
 cure, and covering 
 myself in the warm 
 blankets I fall asleep 
 content & at peace, 
 saying, "Baba 's at 
 CAnd so I wonder after all if we 
 who are clothed in a little brief authority do 
 not give too many orders, and busy ourselves 
 with a pismire activity in watching and peek- 
 ing and lying in wait to see that some one 
 does not shirk his duty? 
 Is it not better to pick your man and then 
 rely on him — put faith in him, and show by 
 your manner that you know the thing will be 
 done? I rather think so, for in some way our 
 mental attitude under right conditions infuses 
 a heroic quality into others. 
 There are a great many men who are emi- 
 nently capable of doing good work, who 
 never get the opportunity, simply because 
 their employers will not trust them. Suspi- 
 cion, surveillance and doubt are thrust upon 
 them ; when faith, good-cheer and confidence 
 should be given instead. <Ut was some years 
 ago that Ali Baba gave me the advice about 
 not giving too many orders. I did not exactly 
 relish it at the time, but I am now fully con- 
 vinced that in that particular utterance my 
 colleague struck twelve. CJn the first place 
 Ali Baba attempts no task nor line of work of 
 which he is not absolutely master. In conver- 
 sation he may roam the Universe and flood 
 the world with theories, but in actual life he 
 knows what he is going to do, and he does it. 
 C.And so I have found that Ali renders the 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 101 
 
 best service to humanity when he is not 
 handicapped with orders and instructions. 
 In a frantic effort trying to remember the in- 
 structions, he would in all probability let slip 
 the main issue into the yeasty deep. 
 
 |f||HE MAN WITH THE HOE. Proba- 
 vmm * know more clearly than Mr. 
 pUl Markham did, 
 himself, just what 
 he had in view when 
 he wrote The Man 
 with the Hoe.lLThQ 
 trouble with the hoe 
 man is too much hoe 
 — it is hoe-conges- 
 tion. C The hoe is 
 all right and all men 
 should hoe. If all 
 men hoed a little, 
 no man would have 
 to hoe all the time. 
 C To hoe all of the 
 timeslantsthebrow. 
 C And to never hoe 
 tends to hydroceph- 
 alus & nervous pro- 
 stration. Many men 
 never hoe, because 
 they say, "I don't 
 have to." It's a fool's 
 answer. 
 
 Then many men are 
 not allowed to hoe 
 — the land is needed 
 for game preserves. 
 And in a country 
 called Italy, where 
 the true type of the 
 hoe-man is found in 
 abundance, there is 
 an army of two hun- 
 dred and fifty thou- 
 sand fighting men 
 who have to be fed with the things the hoe- 
 man digs out of the ground. 
 Wherever there are many soldiers there are 
 also many hoe-men. C Some one must hoe. 
 C All food and all wealth are hoed out of 
 the ground. C If you never hoe and yet eat, 
 you are slanting the forehead of the hoe-man 
 and adding to that stolid look of God-forsaken 
 hopelessness. C He does not look as though 
 
 he ever sang at his work. A man who cannot 
 sing at his work or has nothing cheerful to 
 anticipate, is apt to have a slantindicular 
 forehead. C If you help the hoe-man hoe, 
 he will then have time to think, and gradu- 
 ally the shape of his head will change, his 
 eye will brighten, the coarse mouth will be- 
 come expressive, and at times he will take 
 his dumb gaze from 
 
 ANK accounts, safety, and 
 satisfaction are not the 
 things that stir the emo- 
 tions and sound the soul- 
 depths. Landseer never 
 knew the blessing of a noble discon- 
 tent. But he contributed to the quiet 
 joy of a million homes; and it is not 
 for us to say, "It is beautiful, but is it 
 art?" Neither need we ask whether 
 the name of Landseer will endure 
 with those of Raphael and Leonardo. 
 Landseer did a great work, and the 
 world is better for his having lived; 
 for his message was one of gentle- 
 ness, kindness, and beauty. 
 C I expect to see the day when the 
 honors and compensation of school 
 teaching will command the services 
 of the best and strongest men and 
 women in every community. 
 C I would hold my friend only by the 
 virtue that is in me — by the attrac- 
 tion of the worth that is in my soul. 
 
 the earth and look 
 up at the stars. 
 Let us all hoe— a 
 little. 
 
 Y RULE OF 
 THREE. The 
 masterpieces 
 of Art are all cloud- 
 capped.Fewmen in- 
 deed ever reach the 
 summit: we watch 
 them as they ascend 
 and we lose them 
 in the mists as they 
 climb: & sometimes 
 they never come 
 back to us. If they 
 do, having been on 
 the Mount of Trans- 
 figuration, they are 
 no longer ours. 
 In all great literature 
 there is this large, 
 airy, impersonal in- 
 dependence. C.The 
 Mountain does not 
 go to you : you may 
 famish out there on 
 the arid plain and 
 your bones whiten 
 amid the alkali inthe 
 glistening sand, but 
 the majestic Moun- 
 tain looks on imper- 
 turbable. The valleys are there, with the rich 
 verdure, where the trout frolic, and the cool 
 springs where the wild game gathers, but 
 what cares the Mountain for you! Ecclesi- 
 astes offers no premiums to readers. Shakes- 
 peare makes no appeal to club raisers, Em- 
 erson puts forth no hot endeavor for a million 
 subscribers: all these can do without you. 
 C Rich lodes run through this Mountain, and 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 102 
 
 we continually delve and toil for treasures. 
 And in spite of the pain and isolation and 
 the privation that is incident, and the danger- 
 ous crevices that lie in wait, we secure a 
 reward for our labor. Still we do not find 
 the fabled "pockets" that we seek — it is al- 
 ways something else. From Columbus search- 
 ing for a Northwest Passage to the rustic 
 swain who follows 
 
 with such fidelity 
 the wake of a petti- 
 coat, all are the sport 
 of Fate. We achieve, 
 but die in ignorance 
 of the extent to 
 which we have ben- 
 efited the Race. And 
 like the man who 
 rode the hobby all 
 his life, and whose 
 friends discovered 
 after he was dead 
 that it was a real 
 horse and had car- 
 ried the man many 
 long miles, so are 
 we carried on steeds 
 that are guided by 
 an Unseen Hand. 
 4^ All sublime Art 
 is symbolistic. What 
 is the message the 
 greatviolinistbrings 
 you? Ah, you can- 
 not impart it! Each 
 must hear it for him- 
 self. The note that 
 is "clear" to all is 
 not great Art. When 
 CharlesLamb poin- 
 ted to the row of 
 ledgers in the office 
 of the East India 
 Company and said, 
 "These are my works," he was only joking; 
 for he afterward explained that ledgers, in- 
 dices, catalogs, directories, almanacs, reports 
 and briefs are not literature at all. These 
 things inspire no poems; they give no glow. 
 CLThe province of Art is not to present a 
 specific message, but to impart a feeling. If 
 we go home from the Lyceum hushed, tread- 
 ing on air, we have heard Oratory, even 
 
 HE Church must have the 
 credit for being the moth- 
 er of modern art. Not only 
 did she furnish the incen- 
 tive, but she supplied the 
 means. She gave security from the 
 eternal grind of material wants and 
 offered men undying fame as the 
 reward for noble effort. 
 C I expect to see the day when over- 
 wrought nerves in teacher or pupil 
 will be unknown, for joy will take 
 the place of anxiety, and all the bug- 
 aboo of "exams" will be consigned 
 to limbo. Examination is just what 
 the word signifies — pulling up the 
 plant to get a look at the roots. 
 C As to happiness — is it possible to 
 be wretched at twenty, when one has 
 health, a passion for art, free passes 
 for the Louvre, an eye to see, a heart 
 to feel, and sunshine gratis? 
 il Get a man interested in poetry, art, 
 sociology, and he will talk of these. 
 
 though we cannot recall a single sentence; 
 and if we read a poem that brings the un- 
 bidden tears and makes the room seem a 
 sacred chancel, we have read Literature. 
 The Master has imparted to our spirits a 
 tithe of his own sublimity of soul. 
 For the good old ladies who prick the Bible 
 for a message, I have a profound sympathy; 
 
 the Sacred Page fits 
 man's every mood, 
 and this is why it is 
 immortal. For that 
 which is clear is 
 ephemeral. C Sym- 
 bolism requires in- 
 terpreters, and lo! 
 colleges spring up 
 with no other intent 
 than to train men to 
 explain a Book: for 
 the Saviours of the 
 world all speak in 
 parables. They see 
 the significance of 
 Things and voice a 
 various language. 
 Interpreters make 
 the symbolist im- 
 mortal, & the sym- 
 bolist makes the 
 fame of the inter- 
 preters. If Turner 
 had been "clear," 
 Ruskin might still be 
 AssistantProfessor. 
 All Holy Writ from 
 Moses to Whitman 
 is mystical. The wri- 
 ter has breathed in- 
 to its nostrils the 
 breath of life, that 
 impalpable, elusive 
 Something we for- 
 ever seek & which 
 forever escapes us. COf course I would not 
 have a writer endeavor to be mystical — this 
 would be positively base; but I would have 
 each man who feels that he has something to 
 say express himself in his own way, without 
 let, hindrance, or injunction from writers on 
 rhetoric, who having never produced any- 
 thing to speak of themselves, yet are willing 
 for jingling coin to show others how. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 103 
 
 Let the writer have a clear conception and 
 then express it so it is at the moment clear 
 to his Other Self— that Self that looks on 
 over the shoulder of every man, endorsing 
 or censuring his every act and thought and 
 deed. The highest reward of good work con- 
 sists in the approbation of this Other Self, 
 and in that alone; even though the world flouts 
 it all, you have not 
 
 express in any. And as for memory it is be- 
 coming an extinct faculty, so prone are we 
 to fill our pockets with note books (that we 
 are constantly losing). Whenever a fellow 
 who is clever with the pen fails to pay his 
 debts, or does this, that or the other that a 
 man should not do, there goes up a pretty 
 cry, "Oh, he 's a genius— he 's exempt!" 
 
 HASTITY and temper- 
 ance are negative virtues 
 and therefore not neces- 
 sarily virtues at all. Do 
 something — do something 
 worth while; be somebody; and do 
 not imagine that Heaven's Gate will 
 ever open at your approach if you 
 are merely an "abstainer." Do not 
 consume your energies resisting 
 temptation — you will go to hell sure. 
 Life, and life abundantly, comes 
 through expression; repression is 
 stagnation — death. 
 C Beware of the Bishop's Voice — 
 your own is better 
 
 failed. C"I know 
 what pleasure is," 
 said Stevenson,"for 
 I have done good 
 work." 
 
 1ENEFIT OF 
 CLERGY. In 
 'England and 
 France during the 
 Twelfth Century it 
 was the custom to 
 remit the death pun- 
 ishment upon every 
 criminal who could 
 read. They called it 
 "benefit of the cler- 
 gy" — beneficium 
 clericorum autcler- 
 gicorum. CWhen a 
 prisoner demanded 
 this benefit of the 
 clergy the Chaplain 
 would hand the prisoner a book. "Does he 
 read?" demanded the Judge of the Chap- 
 lain. " He reads like a clergyman," was the 
 answer. This to us seems a good reason why 
 the sentence should have been carried out, 
 as clergymen are usually atrocious readers. 
 But the law said differently and the fellow's 
 neck was saved. Just why favor was thus 
 shown I do not know, but the inference 
 seemed to be that a man who could read was 
 a pretty good fellow and could ill be spared. 
 We, too, place honors at the feet of accom- 
 plished people. Men who can write books 
 are great fellows, except in their own homes. 
 And yet I 'm sure that the men who write 
 fluently, are often cheap wits. The men who 
 write best do not necessarily think best. I 
 have seen men who could not read, yet who 
 had a good mental grip on many a sublime 
 thought. I 've known men who could jabber 
 in four languages and yet had no thought to 
 
 Bless my soul! let 
 us do away with 
 "benefitsofthecler- 
 gy" and mete out 
 the same rules of 
 justice to all — men 
 and women alike. 
 
 §|||IENIUS.Gen- 
 ius is unique. 
 isiJ No satisfac- 
 tory analysis of it 
 has yet been given. 
 We know a few of 
 its indications — that 
 is all. First among 
 these is ability to 
 concentrate. 
 No seed can sow 
 genius; no soil can 
 grow it; its quality 
 is inborn and defies 
 both cultivation and 
 extermination. CTo 
 be surpassed is never pleasant; to feel your 
 inferiority is to feel a pang. Seldom is there 
 a person great enough to find satisfaction in 
 the success of a friend. The pleasure that 
 excellence gives is not tainted by resentment; 
 and so the woman who marries a genius is 
 usually unhappy. C Genius is excess; it is 
 obstructive to little plans; it is difficult to 
 warm yourself at a conflagration ; the tempest 
 may blow you away; the sun dazzles; light- 
 ning strikes fiercely; the Nile overflows.Gen- 
 ius has its time of straying off into the infinite 
 and then what is the good wife to do for 
 companionship? Does she protest and find 
 fault? It could not be otherwise, for genius 
 is dictatorial without knowing it, obstructive 
 without wishing to be, intolerant unawares 
 and unsocial because it cannot help it. C. The 
 wife of a genius sometimes takes his fits of 
 abstraction for stupidity, and having the 
 man's interests at heart, she endeavors to 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 arouse him out of his lethargy by chiding 
 him. Occasionally he rouses enough to chide 
 back; and so it has become an axiom that 
 genius is not domestic. 
 Some one has said that no man can appreci- 
 ate the beautiful who has not a keen sense 
 of humor. For the beautiful is the harmo- 
 nious, and the laughable is the absence 
 of fit adjustment. 
 
 WWt n tne P re f ace 
 
 II II to the Marble 
 Jiljyi Faun, Haw- 
 thorne admits that 
 his best work was 
 done for one single, 
 particular person. 
 This person was so 
 very indulgent that 
 he could overlook 
 all small faults and 
 foibles, & so strong 
 that he could go with 
 Hawthorne on his 
 highest Empyrean 
 flights. He compre- 
 hended all that was 
 between the lines & 
 sympathized with 
 the author's every 
 aspiration. And yet 
 he was a critic of so 
 high and noble a mind that he demanded the 
 best, and instantly knew when the author 
 groped for his reasons and fumbled for his 
 facts. C. Hawthorne avers that every author 
 who writes well writes for some One. The 
 One he idealizes. In the olden time it was 
 the " Gentle Reader" or the " Beloved Read- 
 er" or the "Indulgent Reader"; and to this 
 ideal Person Hawthorne always addressed 
 himself, confident of a patient hearing. He 
 says that never in all his life did he meet this 
 Person face to face; he never had a letter 
 from him, nor a visible sign, but still the 
 author winged his scrolls out into the void 
 with full faith that they would reach their 
 rightful destination. C. Browning expressed 
 the same idea, only in another way, when 
 he replied to a carping critic, "It is not sur- 
 prising that you do not understand my lines 
 for I do not write for you." 
 Hawthorne, I am sure, here voiced a truth 
 
 Page 104 
 
 that is universal to every man who toils and 
 delves in the realm of art. For the simple 
 intent of all art is to communicate your feel- 
 ings and emotions to another. Art has its rise 
 in the need of human companionship. You 
 feel certain thoughts and strive to express 
 them. You may express by music, by chis- 
 eled shapes, by painted canvas or through 
 written words. But 
 at the last all art is 
 one. As you work, 
 over against you sits 
 another, who says, 
 "Yes, yes, I under- 
 stand !"C. The per- 
 son I write for is a 
 Woman. 
 
 At times she sits and 
 looks at me, leaning 
 forward, resting her 
 chin on her hand. 
 She smiles indulg- 
 ently, & sometimes 
 a little sadly, as my 
 pen runs on. She 
 knows me so per- 
 fectly that she often 
 anticipates what I 
 would say and thus 
 saves me the trouble 
 of writing it. She 
 guesses my every 
 mood. Certainly she is no silly, young thing 
 with bangs and frizzes, ready to giggle at 
 slight excuse, and filled with virginal pruri- 
 ency. This woman has suffered and known 
 and felt and that is why she understands. 
 Her heart has been purified in the white 
 fires of experience. She knows more than I, 
 for she sees all around me, and my little 
 effort to palm off a white lie, or the smallest 
 attempt at insincerity or affectation only 
 brings a wondering look, that stings me for 
 a week and a day. She is no prude, is this 
 woman who watches me with wistful eyes: I 
 can say anything to her I choose, no topic is 
 forbidden — she only asks that I be honest 
 and frank. I always know when I have 
 pleased her, for then she holds out her arms 
 in a slow, sweeping gesture, but when I step 
 forward all I clasp is empty air. So I know I 
 have never really seen her, nor have I ever 
 received from her a letter. She is the sister 
 
 O greater blessing than the 
 artistic conscience can 
 come to any worker in art, 
 be he sculptor, writer, 
 singer, or painter. Hold 
 fast to it, and it shall be your com- 
 pass in time when the sun is dark- 
 ened. To please the public is little, 
 but to satisfy your Other Self, that 
 self that looks over your shoulder 
 and watches your every thought and 
 deed, is much. No artistic success 
 worth having is possible unless you 
 satisfy that Other Self. 
 C Concealment is friction. A secret 
 
 gnaWS J^J^&&A£&>&&&&!>&®>&&> 
 
A Book-binder 
 
In the Bindery. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 105 
 
 of my soul, and for her I write because she 
 understands. 
 
 im UCCESS is in the blood. CThere are 
 men whom Fate can never keep down 
 B — they march jauntily forward, and 
 take by divine right the best of everything 
 that earth affords. But their success is not 
 attained by the Sam- 
 uel Smiles-Connec- 
 ticut policy.They do 
 not lie in wait, nor 
 scheme, nor fawn, 
 nor seek to adapt 
 their sails to catch 
 the breeze of popu- 
 lar favor. Still, they 
 are ever alert and 
 alive to any good 
 that may come their 
 way, and when it 
 comes they simply 
 appropriate it, and 
 tarrying not, move 
 steadily on. CGood 
 health! When you go 
 out of doors, draw 
 the chin in, carry the 
 crown of the head 
 high, & fill the lungs 
 to the utmost; greet 
 your friends with a 
 smile, and put soul 
 in every hand clasp. 
 Do not fear being 
 misunderstood; and 
 never waste a min- 
 ute thinking about 
 
 your enemies. Try to fix firmly in your own 
 mind what you would like to do, and then 
 without violence of direction you will move 
 straight to the goal. Fear is the rock on which 
 we split, and hate is the shoal on which many 
 a barque is stranded. When we are fearful, 
 the judgment is as unreliable as the compass 
 of a ship whose hold is full of iron ore ; when 
 we hate, we have unshipped the rudder; and 
 if we stop to meditate on what the gossips 
 say, we have allowed a hawser to befoul the 
 screw. CKeep your mind on the great and 
 splendid thing you would like to do; and 
 then, as the days go gliding by, you will find 
 yourself unconsciously seizing upon the 
 
 opportunities that are required for the ful- 
 fillment of your desire, just as the coral insect 
 takes from the running tide the elements that 
 it needs. Picture in your mind the able, 
 earnest, useful person you desire to be, and 
 the thought you hold is hourly transforming 
 you into that particular individual. Thought 
 is supreme, and to think is often better than 
 to do. C. Preserve a 
 
 AVE your beautiful things, 
 of course — why not? En- 
 courage the workers in 
 art, and use your money 
 to decorate and beautify, 
 >ut do not think that these things 
 will benefit you if you join the So- 
 cial Exodus and make hot haste to 
 put distance between you and those 
 who are less fortunate. Owners of 
 art must build no spite fence! 
 CIn Egypt I saw men unearthing 
 stone temples, and no one really 
 knows what god these temples were 
 dedicated to, much less why. The 
 god they sought to serve is as dead 
 as the folks who invented him. 
 CA11 there is of life is to do our 
 work (which is only play) as well as 
 we can and be kind 4&&>&®> 
 
 right mental attitude 
 — that of courage, 
 frankness and good 
 cheer. C,The only 
 way to get friends 
 is to be one. 
 
 OODLUM- 
 ISM springs 
 naturallyinto 
 
 being, like every- 
 thing else, when the 
 conditions are ripe. 
 The right conditions 
 are idleness and a 
 lack of incentive to- 
 ward the higher life. 
 It is said the people 
 talk gossip in the 
 country, but gossip 
 is only the lack of a 
 worthy theme. Hav- 
 ing nothing else to 
 talk about, the folks 
 turn & talk of each 
 other; and if they 
 rend characters and 
 rip reputations up 
 the back, it is only 
 a sign of mental poverty. Get a man inter- 
 ested in poetry, art, sociology, and he talks of 
 these. Set him to work at some useful em- 
 ployment that calls into being his higher 
 faculties — the love of harmony, proportion, 
 color — and his mind will revolve around 
 these things, and of these will he converse. 
 CThe cure for hoodlumism is manual train- 
 ing, and an industrial condition that will give 
 the boy or girl work — congenial work — a 
 fair wage, and a share in the honors of mak- 
 ing things. Salvation lies in the Froebel meth- 
 ods carried into manhood. You encourage 
 the man in well doing by taking the things 
 he makes, the product of hand and brain, 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 106 
 
 and pay him for them, supply a practical, 
 worthy ideal and your hoodlum spirit is gone 
 and gone forever. You have awakened the 
 man to a Higher Life — the life of art and 
 usefulness— you have bound him to his race 
 and made him brother to his kind. The world 
 is larger for him — he is doing something- 
 doing something useful: making things that 
 people want. Q, All 
 success consists in 
 this: You are doing 
 something for some- 
 body — benefiting 
 humanity; and the 
 feeling of success 
 comes from the con- 
 sciousness of this. 
 il Interest a person 
 in useful work and 
 you are transform- 
 ing Chaos into Cos- 
 mos. C. Blessed is 
 that man who has 
 found his work. 
 
 |T is a humili- 
 ating fact that 
 great men are 
 not capable of trans- 
 mitting their genius 
 to their sons. C, In 
 fact, genius never 
 comes from the fa- 
 ther. On the contra- 
 ry, all the meaner 
 traits of character 
 seem to be supplied 
 to the sons by great 
 
 men, while the characteristics that have made 
 the father famous are entirely wanting. 
 Truth, honor, courage, are less frequently 
 transmitted from father to son than the baser 
 passions. Physically the same thing is seen. 
 Men of splendid physique, form or stature 
 rarely beget sons of equal perfection. A man 
 will often transmit a disease or a tendency 
 to it, but not a well developed muscular sys- 
 tem. Man is a lonely creature. He stands by 
 himself, independent even of the parents who 
 begot him. Even they do not know him. 
 There are recesses in the nature of every 
 person into which no eye ever penetrates. 
 There are traits in his character no glimpse 
 
 of which is ever obtained. C Paternity is an 
 insignificant office, after all— really not worth 
 boasting of. C It was a bad blunder of the 
 Ancients to account for genius by saying the 
 man's father was a god, when the real facts 
 are that the great man is under obligations 
 to his mother for his mental and spiritual 
 heritage. The Roman Catholic has a scientific 
 basis for what you 
 
 LL lovers of books have 
 chums, and the pleasure 
 of reading is to pass this 
 joy along to another. Lov- 
 ers always read together, 
 
 and the chief joy of loving a woman 
 is to read to her, or have her read 
 to you. To mix it mentally with a 
 good woman who has phosphorous 
 is paradise enow. 
 
 CWhy should anyone who is free 
 belong? To belong implies that some 
 one has a rope fastened to your foot. 
 And furthermore, I do not want 
 anyone to "belong" to me. 
 CThe right conditions for Hood- 
 lumism are idleness and a lack of 
 incentive toward useful effort. 
 C. Gossip is only lack of a worthy 
 theme A^&&^^&®*e!®>&&&®>&& 
 
 call "Mariolatry." 
 Assuming the divin- 
 ity of the son, it will 
 never do to dispute 
 the divinity of the 
 one who bore him. 
 
 pjlWIMMING 
 |mf uneasily in 
 B^wfl my Ink Bot- 
 tle is an Essay on 
 the Benefits & Ad- 
 vantages of Sin. As 
 yet I do not feel com- 
 petent to fish it out: 
 I am waiting, hoping 
 that some one else 
 will do the task for 
 me. It is a delicate 
 and elusive bit of 
 work, and no mat- 
 ter how well done 
 I know that the man 
 who does it will lay 
 himself open to the 
 frequent charge of 
 being an Advocate 
 of the Devil. 
 Yet the grim fact re- 
 mains that sin in very many instances has 
 led the way to Saintship. No woman happily 
 married to the man she loves, ever recog- 
 nized Divinity Incarnate, breaking over his 
 head the precious ointment of her loyalty 
 and wiping his feet with the hairs of her head. 
 C There is something startling in the truth 
 that the woman who preserves her "virtue" 
 pays a price for the privilege. 
 And where is the preacher who dare face 
 the fact that the "honest" man or woman 
 with fixed income, happily situated, is to a 
 degree insulated from all sympathy and fel- 
 lowship with the great mass of beings who 
 suffer and endure the slings and arrows of 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 107 
 
 outrageous fortune. Prosperity is not all 
 prosperity — there is even a penalty in trav- 
 eling successward, although Samuel Smiles 
 knew it not. Men are only great as they pos- 
 sess sympathy, and that which causes a 
 man to center in himself, taking a satisfac- 
 tion in the security he has attained for the 
 good things of this world, or another world, 
 is not wholly good. 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 i 
 
 ■ HEY say that 
 love is blind: 
 love perhaps 
 is short sighted, or 
 inclined to strabis- 
 mus, or sees things 
 all out of their true 
 proportion, magni- 
 fying pleasant little 
 ways into seraphic 
 virtues, but love is 
 not really blind — 
 the bandage is never 
 
 so tight but that it can peep. The only kind 
 of love that is really blind and deaf is Pla- 
 tonic love. Platonic love has n't the slightest 
 idea where it is going, and so there are sur- 
 prises and shocks in store for it. The other 
 kind, with eyes wide open, is better. I know 
 a man who has tried both. Love is progres- 
 sive. All things that live should progress. To 
 stand still is to retreat, and to retreat is death. 
 Love dies, of course. All things die, or be- 
 come something else. And often they become 
 something else by dying. Behold the eternal 
 Paradox! The love that evolves into a higher 
 form is the better kind. Nature is intent on 
 evolution, yet of the myriad of spores that 
 cover earth, most of them are doomed to 
 death; and of the countless rays sent out by 
 the sun, the number that fall athwart this 
 planet are infinitesimal. Edward Carpenter 
 calls attention to the fact that disappointed 
 love, love that is "lost," often affects the indi- 
 vidual for the highest good. If it had been at- 
 tained, imperfections would have been found 
 in it. But now it is in the realm of dreams, 
 forever beyond disappointing. Only dreams 
 are unchanging. CLLove in its essence is a 
 spiritual emotion, and its office seems to be 
 an interchange of thought and feeling; but 
 often thwarted in its object it becomes gen- 
 eral, transforms itself into sympathy, and 
 
 or plebeian, homely 
 or handsome, saved 
 or damned. In addi- 
 tion to these classes 
 we have the masses. 
 The masses are the 
 great undissolved 
 
 embracing a world, goes out to and blesses 
 all mankind. 
 
 ||gl|JHERE seems ever to have been a ten- 
 Mm dency on the part of small philoso- 
 MHim phers to divide humanity up into 
 classes. We are set down as good or bad, 
 great or ordinary, bond or free, learned or 
 TTl - . illiterate, aristocrat 
 
 Hb average man is a vic- 
 tim of Arrested Develop- 
 ment — the passing years 
 bring an increase of know- 
 ledge only in very excep- 
 tional cases. Health and prosperity residuum— the peo 
 are not pure blessings — a certain pie who go about 
 element of discontent usually seems ^praTonlhe 
 
 necessary tO Spur men On tO a street corners nor 
 
 higher life «w «» «* «*. f ps. To&te 
 
 are born and the wires flash no news; they 
 visit, but the society columns are not bur- 
 dened with names of their friends; they die 
 and bulletins give no sign. Yet it might be 
 difficult to find a man who at the tribunal of 
 his own heart would confess that he belonged 
 to the masses. We talk glibly about giving a 
 helping hand to the masses, elevating the 
 masses, never once admitting that we, like 
 all others, are but a molecule in God's 
 masses. And a peculiar thing about this is 
 that the men who talk most about "elevating 
 the masses" are often puny little fellows who 
 themselves are merely pensioners on a pa- 
 tient world. If there is any better way to 
 help the masses than by going quietly about 
 your work and setting us a good example, I 
 have not yet seen it. 
 
 Each man thinks his own experience unique, 
 peculiar, distinctive: he belongs to a class, of 
 course, but a very small and select class; 
 just as all lovers are sure that such love as 
 theirs never before existed, except mayhap 
 on the stage or in a book. And thus adown 
 the centuries from the days of Solomon 
 and his Shulamite shepherdess, lovers have 
 strolled hand in hand, chanting the lovers' 
 litany, "love like ours can never die." 
 And so we are all labeled and pigeonholed, 
 done up into bundles, and those that cannot 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 108 
 
 be disposed of handily are dumped into the 
 masses. But if we snatch from Kronos a little 
 leisure and think it over, we will find that all 
 things are comparative: there is no standard 
 of goodness, nor of greatness, nor of freedom, 
 nor of beauty, nor of aristocracy, and the 
 man we think is saved is only partially saved, 
 and the person whom we chalk-mark "damn- 
 ed," may welcome 
 
 P 8 ™ 
 
 of doing both. CJn Art we ask for the widest, 
 freest and fullest liberty for Individuality — 
 that 's all! 
 
 jE^|HE spirit grows through exercise of 
 liiii' ts faculties* ) ust as a muscle grows 
 ImSm strong through use. Expression is nec- 
 essary to life. Life is expression, and repres- 
 t,.^ . . sion is stagnation 
 
 HAT man only is great 
 who utilizes the blessings 
 that God provides; and of 
 these blessings no gift 
 equals the gentle, trust- 
 ing companionship of a good woman. 
 CI expect to see the day when 
 school-teachers will not be supplied 
 with a beautiful scarcity of every 
 
 1 
 
 thing but hard work &&±>&®>&i&> f &&!> 
 
 us in Heaven, if by 
 chance we should 
 ever get there. 
 All conditions are 
 transient; life is in 
 a state of flux; clas- 
 ses are to a large 
 extent a matter of 
 clothes; and caste 
 is an idea founded 
 on a false hypothe- 
 sis & in the world's 
 march is often top- 
 pled by a mob be- 
 tween cockcrow and sun-up. The gradations 
 we seem to see are more apparent than real. 
 On close inspection we find the great man is 
 not so great as we thought, and the stupid 
 man not quite so dull as he appeared. 
 
 the Cross for eighteen hundred years 
 has been a sacred emblem, and the 
 Trm% gallows since John Brown, glorious; 
 and as the word Quaker, flung in impotent 
 and impudent wrath, now stands for gentle- 
 ness, peace and truth, so has the word Phi- 
 listine become a synonym for manly intelli- 
 gence. CI In Literature, he is a Philistine 
 who seeks to express his personality in his 
 own way. A true Philistine is one who 
 brooks no let nor hindrance from the tip- 
 staffs of letters, who creating nothing them- 
 selves, yet are willing for a consideration to 
 show others how. These men strive hard to 
 reduce all life to a geometrical theorem and 
 its manifestations to an algebraic formula. 
 But life is greater than a college professor, 
 and so far its mysteries, having given the slip 
 to all the creeds, are still at large. My indi- 
 vidual hazard at truth is as legitimate as 
 yours. The self-appointed beadles of letters 
 demand that we shall neither smile nor sleep 
 while their Presiding Elders drone, but we 
 plead in the World's Assize for the privilege 
 
 death. CYet there 
 is right expression 
 and wrong expres- 
 sion. If a man per- 
 mits his life to run 
 riot, and only the 
 animal side of his 
 nature is allowed to 
 express itself, he is 
 repressing his high- 
 est and best, and 
 therefore the quali- 
 ties not used atro- 
 phy and die. CMen 
 are punished by their sins, not for them. 
 Sensuality, gluttony and the life of license 
 repress the life of the spirit, and the soul 
 never blossoms; and this is what it is to lose 
 one's soul. Ci Every religion is made up of 
 two elements that never mix any more than 
 oil and water mix. A religion is a mechan- 
 ical mixture, not a chemical combination, of 
 morality and dogma. Dogma is the science 
 of the unseen: the doctrine of the unknown 
 and the unknowable. 
 
 The question is as live to-day as it was two 
 thousand years ago — what expression is 
 best? This is, what shall we do to be saved? 
 and concrete absurdity consists in saying we 
 must all do the same thing. Whether the race 
 will ever grow to a point where men will be 
 willing to leave the matter of Life-Expression 
 to the individual, is a question; but the Mil- 
 lennium will never arrive until men cease 
 trying to compel all other men to think and 
 live after one pattern. 41 Most people are 
 anxious to do what is best for themselves 
 and least harmful for others. The average 
 man now has intelligence enough: Utopia is 
 not far off, if the self-appointed folk who 
 govern us, and teach us for a consideration, 
 would only be willing to do unto others as 
 they would be done by, that is to say, mind 
 their own business, and cease coveting things 
 
 * 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 109 
 
 that belong to other people. War among the 
 nations and strife among individuals is a 
 result of the covetous spirit to possess either 
 power or things, or both. A little more pa- 
 tience, and little more charity for all, a little 
 more devotion, a little more love; with less 
 bowing down to the past, and a silent ignor- 
 ing of pretended authority; a brave looking 
 forward to the fu- 
 ture, with more con- 
 fidence in ourselves 
 and more faith in 
 our fellows, and the 
 race will be ripe for 
 a great burst of light 
 and life. 
 
 In philosophy there 
 is an apostolic suc- 
 cession. We build 
 on the past, and all 
 the centuries of tur- 
 moil &travail which 
 have gone on before 
 have made this mo- 
 ment possible. Nev- 
 er has there been 
 any such thing as 
 "the fall of man"; 
 for the march of the 
 race has been one 
 continual climb — a 
 movement onward 
 and upward. CThe man who has dared to 
 think for himself and voiced his thought— 
 the emancipated man — has been as one in a 
 million. But now he is everywhere. Liberty 
 is contagious, and so is good health. CLWe 
 live in wondrous times — evolution is every- 
 where at work, and at work for better things. 
 
 longer need it be concealed that in 
 Switzerland you can purchase copies 
 and models of Thorwaldsen's "Lion 
 of Lucerne." Some are in marble, some in 
 granite, some in bronze, and at my hotel in 
 Lucerne we used to have the noble beast on 
 the table every day at breakfast done in but- 
 ter. But most of the reproductions are in 
 wood — all sizes, from heroic mold to watch 
 charms and bangles. Sculptors have carved 
 this lion, painters have painted it, artists 
 have sketched it, but did you ever see a 
 reproduction of The Lion of Lucerne?" 
 
 No, Dearie, you never did. No model has a 
 trace of that indefinable look of pain, that 
 soulful, human quality which the original 
 has. No, not one — all are caricatures. 
 An intelligent young woman called my atten- 
 tion to the fact that the psychological condi- 
 tions under which we view "The Lion" are 
 the most subtle and complete that man can 
 devise; & these are 
 
 HAT the men and women 
 of wealth and culture who 
 are deliberately making 
 their homes among the 
 poor are as one to ten 
 thousand, compared with the "sud- 
 den 0011" who are making frantic 
 efforts to get away from all smirch- 
 ing contact with plain people, there 
 is no doubt: but the claim that money 
 gives us the right to monopolize the 
 beautiful things of earth, and the 
 gentle qualities of heart, no longer 
 goes unchallenged. The culture that 
 is kept close smells to high heaven: 
 only running water is pure 
 
 the things that add 
 the last touch to art 
 & cause us to stand 
 speechless,&which 
 make the unbidden 
 tears start. The lit- 
 tle lake at the foot 
 of the cliff prevents 
 atoonearapproach; 
 the overhanging 
 vines and "melan- 
 choly boughs" form 
 a dim shade; the 
 falling water seems 
 like the playing of 
 an organ in a vast 
 cathedral, and last, 
 the position of the 
 lion itself, against 
 the solid cliff, par- 
 takes of the mirac- 
 ulous. It is not set 
 up there for people 
 to look at; it is a part of the mountain and 
 the great seams of the strata running through 
 the figure lend the spirit of miracle to it all. 
 It seems as though God, Himself, had done 
 the work and the surprise and joy of discov- 
 ery are ours, as we stand before it, uncov- 
 ered. COne must concede the masterly fram- 
 ing and hanging of the picture, but beyond 
 this is the technical skill giving the look of 
 woe that does not tell of weakness, as woe 
 usually does, but strength and loyalty and 
 death without flinching in a righteous cause 
 — symbolic of the Swiss Guard that died at 
 their posts, not one of the three hundred 
 wavering, there at the King's Palace at Ver- 
 sailles — all dead and turned to dust a century 
 past, and this dead lion mutely pleading for 
 our tears! CLWe pay the tribute. 
 And the reason we are moved is because we 
 partake of the emotions of the artist when he 
 did the work; and the reason we are not 
 
(CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 110 
 
 moved by any model or imitation is because 
 there is no feeling in the heart of the imitator. 
 Great art is born of feeling — high, intense 
 and holy feeling. In order to do, you must feel. 
 
 WM KNOW a man who studies Matthew 
 jgj gs| Henry's Commentary three hours ev- 
 mJSm ery day and can show you the error 
 of your way in five 
 languages. During 
 the past year he has 
 read one hundred 
 and sixteen books. 
 In his library there 
 are three thousand 
 volumes&heknows 
 them all. This man 
 declares that Emer- 
 son's influence on 
 the world has been 
 for evil; that Dar- 
 win was an infidel, 
 &that Froebel, who 
 taught of the divin- 
 ity of all children, 
 was a lunatic. And 
 be it known this man 
 has read Emerson, 
 Darwin & Froebel, 
 too, so his opinions 
 cannot be account- 
 ed for on the ground 
 of illiteracy. This gentleman claims that a 
 person who cannot read Hebrew is in no 
 position to judge whether the story of Jonah 
 and the Whale is literally true or not. When 
 he explains (and this gentleman explains a 
 great deal) he clouds intelligibility in pom- 
 pous, portentious, polysyllabic garrulity. He 
 receives a salary of nine hundred dollars per 
 year — just the amount the New York Cen- 
 tral pays its locomotive firemen — and will 
 never be able to earn more; he is cold, un- 
 sympathetic, harsh and unfeeling, and there- 
 fore unprogressive. His intellect is proof 
 against a new idea and his soul calloused 
 'gainst all sublime emotion. He calls hell 
 God's justice and peoples Tophet with the 
 folks he does n't like. As a teacher he has no 
 magnetism; he is not an orator; and as a 
 writer he possesses no style. His pen has 
 never brought him a dollar and never can, 
 for in literature there is no market for the 
 
 dead and rotten. He badgers boys, quarrels 
 with girls, quibbles with women, holds long 
 arguments with busy men, stopping them on 
 street corners, and offends innocent elderly 
 persons by inquiring as to their fitness for 
 death. <! Now the question is, what avails 
 our boasted educational system that can turn 
 out such a product as this? — a man who can 
 speak Greek, Latin, 
 Hebrew, German & 
 English; who holds 
 degrees from three 
 colleges, and yet at 
 the last is only a 
 dam fool! 
 
 yr^UN literature, 
 III || as in all art, 
 Wulw there are two 
 separate & distinct 
 schools. Just now 
 one school is called 
 Realism andtheoth- 
 er Impressionism. 
 These schools have 
 been known by sev- 
 eral names, but the 
 thing itself is ever 
 the same: and be- 
 tween these schools 
 there is an endless 
 war. The fight is as 
 ancient as Aristophanes and recent as Mr. 
 Hamlin Garland. Armistices are sometimes 
 agreed upon, but the battle again rages sooner 
 or later. CI The difference between Realism 
 and Impressionism is that one describes the 
 thing, while the other only suggests it. Im- 
 pressionism makes you think; Realism does 
 the thinking for you. 
 
 Not long ago I saw a picture which seemed 
 to me to be Impressionism of the pure type. 
 It was a canvas thirty-six by fifty inches, 
 entitled, "Waiting." It showed a woman 
 seated on the sands of the sea. The woman's 
 back is towards us and over her head is held 
 tightly a tattered shawl. A bulge to the right 
 of the shawl tells that within her arms the 
 woman holds a child. You do not see the 
 child, yet you know 't is there — hugged 
 closely to the mother's heart. You do not see 
 the woman's face, but you know that she is 
 looking out upon the restless, tossing tide; 
 
 T requires two to make a 
 home. The first home was 
 made when a woman, cra- 
 dling in her loving arms a 
 baby, crooned a lullaby. 
 All the tender sentimentality we 
 throw around a place is the result 
 of the sacred thought that we live 
 there with some one else. It is our 
 home. The home is a tryst — the 
 place where we retire and shut the 
 world out. Lovers make a home just 
 as birds make a nest, & unless a man 
 knows the spell of the divine passion 
 I hardly see how he can have a home 
 at all. He only rents a room^^^^. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 111 
 
 and you know that she is waiting for a ship 
 that will never return. C However, if you 
 have never waited for a footstep that shall 
 never come, and listened long for a voice 
 that shall never more be heard, the picture 
 will mean little to you. But if you have lived 
 and suffered and known and felt, you will 
 see despair written large across the dull, 
 threatening grey of 
 that sky; and wreck- 
 ed hopes in every 
 curve and line of 
 the angry waves; & 
 the long monoton- 
 ous stretch of yel- 
 low sands will speak 
 to you of a hope that 
 never dies, and the 
 bulge in the shawl 
 will tell of a love 
 that is stronger than 
 death. 
 
 1ND so Bac- 
 'M chante has 
 Rj danced away 
 into history and left 
 Boston to her beans 
 and books. Beauti- 
 ful bronze repre- 
 senting some of the 
 most delicate lines 
 of harmony &grace- 
 ful motion caused 
 "wicked thoughts," 
 saysMr.Lucy Stone 
 Blackwell in the 
 Herald. This being 
 true, of course Bac- 
 chante had to dance 
 onward or wear a 
 tea gown. Mr.Black- 
 well points to the 
 Shaw Memorial and 
 says there 's art and virtue, too. Yes, armed 
 men marching southward with swords drawn 
 and bayonets in place may represent virtue 
 — the Czar's idea of virtue. I also understand 
 that General Weyler prefers the Shaw Mem- 
 orial to Bacchante. But why could n't Bos- 
 ton have both? Well, I '11 tell you why: War 
 is a thing— a grim, wild, savage thing. War 
 means to march and shoot and stab and 
 
 strike, and these are actions all can compre- 
 hend; but Bacchante is an idea, a thought, a 
 phantasy, a chord of music half forgotten — 
 a dream. Boston cannot dream, therefore 
 Bacchante was not for Boston. And bear in 
 mind the subject under discussion is Art not 
 Shaw — for Shaw, the man, all honor; but 
 the Shaw Memorial represents the rudimen- 
 tary barbarism that 
 
 EINGS hopelessly separ- 
 ated from us are not ours : 
 a god we cannot love, a 
 man we may. Love implies 
 a certain equality; it also 
 implies an insufficiency, a desire 
 unsatisfied, a wish not gratified, a 
 hope unfulfilled, a prayer unanswer- 
 ed. Love asks the help of another, 
 it demands the sympathy of one with 
 whom we may walk hand in hand; 
 it means fraility, and paradoxically, 
 it means strength, for only as we 
 admit our insufficiency can we gain 
 power. We win by abandonment. 
 Alone a man is only a leaf in the 
 storm, but to love and be loved is to 
 ally ourselves with the powers of Na- 
 ture: to be grappled to our kind, and 
 through them to the Universe, with 
 hoops of steel. Thus is weakness 
 allied with strength. 
 CThe voice should be the sound- 
 ing-board of the soul Ag&Ag®>&&!>&g?> 
 
 lingers in the lap 
 of Boston. What 's 
 that — "And so does 
 Bacchante?" God 
 bless my soul! per- 
 hapsshedoes— how 
 serious we are get- 
 ting! 
 
 |W|AN'S actions 
 
 Iffll may k e rignt 
 KaflJ but his rea- 
 sons for these ac- 
 tions, never. tLWe 
 band ourselves with 
 our kind in a social 
 way because it is 
 the law of our na- 
 ture, & then we con- 
 ceal ourselves from 
 ourselves by giving 
 a reason. A religi- 
 ous denomination is 
 an excuse for cer- 
 tain people forming 
 a little social com- 
 munity. I have no 
 fault to find with the 
 action: I only point 
 out the phenomen- 
 on. It is an instinct 
 implanted deep in 
 the heart of human- 
 ity, and has come to 
 us adown the ages 
 from the times when self-preservation made 
 clanship a necessity. The strife of existence 
 set every man's hand against every other 
 and to stand against a greater foe clanship 
 came in, and certain men swore to other 
 men fealty and fidelity. The line of cleavage 
 is purely social affinity, but men say it is be- 
 cause one believes in baptism by immersion 
 and the other by a touch of the forefinger. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 112 
 
 ill 
 
 The excuse is accepted seriously by both 
 parties and henceforth you have two insti- 
 tutions instead of one. And the only thing 
 that will ever remove that artificial idea that 
 one kind of baptism is right and another 
 wrong is social affinity. Women's Clubs are 
 everywhere breaking down sectarian lines 
 and lessening faith in "justification" and 
 "original sin," sim- 
 ply because Presby- 
 terian women find 
 that Unitarian wo- 
 men arecompanion- 
 able. And we have 
 always known that 
 whenever a stalwart 
 young Baptist falls 
 in love with a char- 
 ming young Metho- 
 dist, either one or 
 the other will soon 
 shed all conscienti- 
 ous denominational 
 scruples concern- 
 ing tweedledee and 
 tweedledum. If men 
 will ever grow great 
 enough so that they 
 no longer fear other 
 men, & feel at home 
 with all their kind, 
 instead of merely 
 with a few, then will 
 sect disappear, for 
 sectarianism is only 
 a masked religious 
 vendetta. The ven- 
 detta never had a 
 sufficient excuse,al- 
 though, of course, 
 it ever thinks it has; 
 and anything in this 
 day that separates 
 man from man is 
 not just right. <L Many of the items of beliefs 
 that have kept men apart are now considered 
 unknowable or merely fancies. Since the sci- 
 entific method has displaced the theological, 
 it is found that there are certain laws for men's 
 welfare and growth that may be disclosed by 
 observation and investigation more than by 
 "inspiration." Man will always be separated 
 from man until their interests are identical. 
 
 H^jLL adown the ages society has made 
 m&ffi, the mistake of crucifying its Saviors 
 ms&£> between thieves. That is to say, society 
 has recognized in the Savior a dangerous 
 quality — something about him akin to a 
 thief, and his career has been cut short. 
 CWe have telephones and trolley cars, yet 
 we have not traveled far into the realm of 
 spirit,and our X-ray 
 
 HAVE noticed that in 
 households where a strap 
 hangs behind the kitchen 
 door, ready for use, it is 
 not utilized so much for 
 pure discipline as to ease the feelings 
 of the parent. They say that expres- 
 sion is a need of the human heart; 
 and I am also convinced that in many 
 hearts there is a very strong desire 
 at times to "thrash" some one. Who 
 it is makes little difference, but chil- 
 dren being helpless and the law giv- 
 ing us the right, we find gratification 
 by falling upon them with straps, 
 birch rods, slippers, ferrules, hair 
 brushes or apple-tree sprouts. C No 
 student of pedagogics now believes 
 that the free use of the rod ever made 
 a child "good," but all agree that it 
 has often served as a safety valve for 
 pent up emotion in parent & teacher. 
 C Salvation lies in carrying the Froe- 
 bel methods into manhood 
 
 has given us no in- 
 sight into the heart 
 of things. C Should 
 the Savior come to- 
 day and preach the 
 same gospel that He 
 taught before, soci- 
 ety would see that 
 His experience was 
 repeated. 
 
 Society is so dull 
 and dense, so lack- 
 ing in spiritual vi- 
 sion, so dumb and 
 so beast-like that it 
 does not know the 
 difference between 
 a thief and the only 
 begotten Son. Cln a 
 frantic effort to for- 
 get its hollowness it 
 takes to ping-pong, 
 parchesi and pro- 
 gressive euchre, & 
 seeks to lose itself 
 and find a solace in 
 tiddledywinks.Now 
 and then it blinks 
 stupidly and cries, 
 "Away with Him!" 
 or it stops its game 
 long enough to pass 
 gall and vinegar on 
 a spear to One it has 
 
 thrust beyond the 
 pale. For the woman who has loved much, 
 society has but one verdict: Crucify her! 
 The best and the worst are hanged on one 
 tree. In the abandon of a great love there is a 
 God-like quality which places a woman very 
 close to the holy of holies, and yet such a 
 one, not having complied with society's 
 edicts, is thrust out, and society, Pilate-like, 
 washes its hands in innocency. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 113 
 
 rmHAT IS TRUTH? Man seeks happi- 
 hVh ness: a ^ men see ^ happiness. There 
 WkMM is no other goal or intent in life; and 
 whether men seek it through license or ascet- 
 icism, through selfishness or sacrifice, it is 
 the one eternal quest. €1 There is no other 
 aim in life for any man or any woman than 
 this — happiness. Even the suicide seeks 
 happiness, his act 
 
 that slips the cable 
 of existence, being 
 always an attempt to 
 flee from misery — 
 which is the oppo- 
 site pole from that 
 of happiness. 
 In man's search for 
 happiness his per- 
 ceptions pass thro' 
 three separate dis- 
 tinct forms of rea- 
 son. The first and 
 lowest form is rather 
 
 a condition of un-reason than reason. The 
 man does not yet comprehend that life is a 
 sequence, that this happens to-day because 
 that happened yesterday — that effect follows 
 cause. He seeks happiness, and he wants it 
 now. He knows nothing of the pleasures of 
 anticipation, the beauty of patience, the 
 splendid reward for self-control. 
 The lowest type in this stage is represented 
 by the savage. Mrs. General Custer tells of 
 a certain band of Sioux Indians that were 
 being conducted to a reservation by a regi- 
 ment of soldiers. A hard march was ahead, 
 and this was fully explained to all. Two 
 days' rations were dealt out to soldiers and 
 captives alike. Immediately on receiving their 
 rations, the Indians squatted on the ground 
 and ate the two days' rations at a sitting. 
 Some were unable to move; others were 
 sick, and the march was delayed until these 
 found relief. The soldiers, of course, stowed 
 the eatables in their haversacks, and pieced 
 them out so as to last. C The Indian knows 
 no such thing as restraint — if he gets hold of 
 whiskey he drinks until he falls down stupe- 
 fied: hence the laws against selling strong 
 drink to Red Men. The Indian banks no fuel 
 against the winter — in fact, he is surprised 
 that winter should ever come again. He prays 
 the Great Spirit to prolong the Indian Sum- 
 
 monds in their shirt 
 bosoms, carrying 
 two watches where 
 one would answer 
 the purpose, drink- 
 ing champagne like 
 water and wooing 
 the means of debili- 
 ty & disease, forget- 
 ful of the morrow. 
 C Still other men, 
 a little higher up the 
 scale, but still in this 
 First Stage of Rea- 
 
 mer indefinitely, and expects his prayer to 
 be answered. C.The difference between a 
 great many white men and the Indian, in this 
 matter of reckoning consequences, is slight. 
 Men give notes, hoping and half expecting 
 they will never come due. They draw health 
 drafts upon futurity and hope to evade pay- 
 ment. The sight is common of men in full 
 , . dress, wearing dia- 
 
 O literature that is not 
 filled with this subtle sug- 
 gestiveness, flavored as it 
 were with unuttered feel- 
 ing, can live. Great liter- 
 ature ever casts a mysterious purple 
 shadow. 
 
 CThe Millennium will never come 
 until governments cease from gov- 
 erning, and the meddler is at rest. 
 
 son (or un-reason) will care for their physi 
 cal health, collect fuel against the coming 
 winter, materially provide for the rainy day, 
 but will leave their whole spiritual acreage a 
 tangle of briars and brambles. They will 
 study statute law so as to keep on the right 
 side of the sheriff, and yet deal in subterfuge, 
 trickery, untruth, and play hide-and-seek 
 with the decalog, expecting to go unpunished. 
 CLThey do not know that to enslave another 
 is to have one end of the chain riveted to 
 your own wrist. They do not know that to 
 cheat another is to cheat yourself. They do 
 not know that nothing can be concealed or 
 hidden, and that everything, good or bad, 
 reacts on the doer, and that men are pun- 
 ished by their sins, not for them. 
 They are a little higher in intelligence than 
 the savage, but still in the First Stage — they 
 seek happiness by appropriation. They plot, 
 plan, connive, scheme, and hold back a part 
 of the price, with intent of, and in the hope 
 of securing a personal and exclusive good — 
 that is to say, happiness. 
 The Second Stage is the Period of Virtue. 
 The man has caught glimpses into the Law 
 of Consequences. He knows that headache 
 follows debauch, that satiety follows license, 
 that notes come due, and that there is a pal- 
 pable difference between right and wrong. 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 114 
 
 That is, in fact, his distinguishing feature- 
 he knows right from wrong. He thinks much 
 on this subject, he talks about it, writes about 
 it, preaches about it — right and wrong. He 
 separates this from that, eschews evil and 
 cleaves to that which is good : his life is given 
 up to separating good from bad, and all that 
 which he thinks is good he desires to appro- 
 priate, and what he 
 thinks is bad he dis- 
 cards. C If he has 
 the power he passes 
 laws forbidding un- 
 der severe penalties 
 this,that&theother. 
 He sees that certain 
 things are "sins" & 
 so he would stamp 
 them out. He knows 
 what is best (or he 
 thinks he does), and 
 for the good of men 
 he would restrain 
 them, and compel 
 
 could n't whistle. "So it is with my learned 
 friend," said Lincoln. "When he thinks, he 
 cannot talk, and when he begins to talk, he 
 leaves off thinking." CI This story applies to 
 many good people in Stage Two that we are 
 now considering. They cannot love virtue 
 without hating vice, and finally they find so 
 much to avoid that most of their time is spent 
 „ in shunning things. 
 
 HERE is no perfect ex- 
 pression for thought, only 
 an attempt at expression. 
 This is done by means of 
 symbols appealing to the 
 He who conveys highest 
 
 senses 
 
 emotions by the fewest symbols is 
 the greater artist. 
 
 C All men are my brothers, not 
 just those who belong *e=&> 
 
 them to follow in the 
 straight and narrow path. Such were the 
 Puritans, the Huguenots, the early Metho- 
 dists and all that excellent class that exists 
 now and has always existed, known as Primi- 
 tive Christians. You may know the people of 
 the Second Stage by the propensity to sepa- 
 rate the good from the bad. They divide the 
 days into secular and sacred; they have 
 buildings that are "sacred"; and rites, cere- 
 monies and functions that are "holy." They 
 even have Holy Men who are supposed to 
 be close to the Throne of God, and these 
 men "intercede" in behalf of others who 
 have very small influence, if any, with Deity. 
 C Men in this Second Stage believe that 
 God loves some men more than others, that 
 he hates certain people, and that some souls 
 will be "saved" and others "lost." They are 
 always separating good from bad, right from 
 wrong, sheep from goats, angels from devils, 
 virtue from vice, learned from ignorant, sin- 
 ful from righteous, truth from error. 
 Lincoln once arose (and he used to arise a 
 joint at a time) to reply to the learned coun- 
 sel on the other side. He began by telling of 
 a steamboat that used to run on the Sanga- 
 mon. The boiler of this boat was so small and 
 its whistle so big, that when it whistled it 
 could n't run, and when it was running it 
 
 It is as if Lincoln's 
 Sangamon steam- 
 boat had spent most 
 of its time blowing 
 its whistle, in which 
 case it would have 
 made no progress. 
 C, These men can- 
 not love virtue with- 
 out hating vice — 
 their detestation of 
 wrong evolves in 
 them a mood which 
 they call "righteous 
 
 indignation"; so in spite of their undoubted 
 honesty and deep sincerity, they are dan- 
 gerous if given unlimited power. They hate 
 the wrong more than they love the right, so 
 in many instances there is more hate than 
 love in their characters: the entire fabric of 
 their lives is stained with hate. 
 Happily this class has many lines of cleav- 
 age, and so separates into denominations, 
 sects and clans that hold each other in check. 
 CiCarlyle tells of a certain village in the 
 dominion of Peter the Great where a few 
 Catholic families dwelt. The "best citizens" 
 felt that these Catholics were a menace to 
 the well-being of the place, as "they were 
 worshipers of images and hopelessly given 
 over to popery." So, for the good of the 
 place, and the Glory of God, the first citi- 
 zens sent a commission to the King asking 
 permission to kill the Catholics. 
 The King heard their prayer and agreed to 
 give them the desired permission, provided 
 they would agree to his giving other Catho- 
 lics permission to kill them. 
 "Oh, but your Majesty," replied the Com- 
 missioners, "there is a difference— you seem 
 to forget that we are in possession of the 
 True Faith !"€l Men in this Second Stage 
 live a life of struggle— they wrestle with the 
 spirit for a blessing, they struggle with the 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 115 
 
 world of wrong; and they tussle with the 
 demon within. They believe that their own 
 natures are rooted in evil, and to eradicate 
 this devil within is the chief thought of their 
 lives. Their energies are given over, in great 
 degree, to "resisting temptation." They are 
 abstainers, and to abstain from certain things 
 they think constitutes "virtue." Their lives 
 are largely negative, 
 
 not positive; and to 
 suppress & repress 
 they believe is the 
 duty of every one. 
 In fact, the idea of 
 " duty " is strong 
 upon them. Duty is 
 the thing you desire 
 to do, but you pre- 
 tend you don't, be- 
 cause you want a 
 special reward for 
 doing it. 
 
 The First Stage does 
 not distinguish be- 
 tween right&wrong. 
 CLThe distinguish- 
 ing feature of the 
 Second Stage is, it 
 separates right from 
 wrong. 
 
 The Third Stage re- 
 sembles the First to 
 the uninitiated, for 
 it does not seek to 
 separate right from 
 wrong. It recognizes 
 that at the base of 
 evil lies good; and 
 that right and wrong 
 are relative terms & 
 easily shift places. 
 It believes more in 
 the goodness of bad 
 people than the bad- 
 ness of good people. It sees that sin is mis- 
 directed energy, and also that often through 
 sin do men reach the light, and it recognizes 
 that that which teaches cannot be wholly bad. 
 H Of course, these Three Stages, that I have 
 outlined, are to a degree arbitrary classifica- 
 tions, for they all overlap more or less, and 
 a man may be in one stage one day and in 
 another the next. Yet true types of Stages 
 
 F you start and move in a 
 direct line, and keep mov- 
 ing, you will go around the 
 world — eventually coming 
 back to the place of be- 
 ginning. Life is a spiral and all things 
 move in circles; and yet if you ask 
 the man he will tell you he is mov- 
 ing straight ahead, for his senses 
 (very fallacious things) tell him so. 
 Drunkards make good temperance 
 cranks; temperance cranks drunk- 
 ards. Ascetics turn libertine in an 
 hour; and libertines, who have ex- 
 hausted their capacity to sin, make 
 zealous ascetics. Thus we see that 
 the opposite of things are alike and 
 the things that are different are, in 
 fact, often the same. 
 CGod only calculates on each man 
 being himself, and the presumption 
 originally was that he would be hon- 
 est. The Universe is not planned 
 for duplicity &$&>&&&^ 
 
 Number One and Number Two exist on 
 every hand, and can easily be recalled by 
 all observing men. Stage Number Three is 
 not so sharply defined; men in this class are 
 often unknown to those nearest them, and to 
 the uninitiated they are sometimes pigeon- 
 holed with Class One — they are branded 
 "infidels." But you need not be disturbed 
 by this, for if you 
 have read history 
 you know that the 
 "infidel" has often 
 been a person with 
 faith plus.Cl He is 
 ahead of his fellows, 
 when they are quite 
 sure he is behind. 
 C The true type of 
 man in Stage Three 
 believes in all re- 
 ligions and in all 
 gods. He sympathi- 
 zes with every sect, 
 but belongs to none. 
 He recognizes that 
 every religion is a 
 prayerforLightand 
 a reaching out for 
 help. He recognizes 
 that there is good in 
 all, and that a man's 
 "god" is the high- 
 est concept of what 
 he would like to be 
 — his god is himself 
 at his best, and his 
 devil is himself at 
 his worst.C Yet the 
 wise man does not 
 cavil at this multi- 
 plicity of beliefs and 
 strife of sects. For 
 himself he would 
 much prefer a reli- 
 gion that would unite men, not divide them. 
 C.Yet he perceives that denominations rep- 
 resent stages of development in the onward 
 and upward spiral of existence. There is 
 much clay in their formation, and all are in 
 a seething state of unrest; but each is doing 
 its work in ministering to a certain type of 
 mind. Birds moult their feathers because 
 they are growing better feathers; and so in 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 116 
 
 time will these same "orthodox" believers 
 gladly moult the opinions for which they 
 once stood ready to fight. 
 The wise man not only believes in all reli- 
 gions, but in all men — good, bad, ignorant, 
 the weak, the strong. He recognizes that night 
 is as necessary as day; that all seasons are 
 good; and that all weather is beautiful. The 
 fierce blowing wind 
 purifies the air, just 
 astherunningwater 
 purifies itself. 
 Each & everything 
 is a part of the great 
 Whole. We are bro- 
 ther to the bird, the 
 animal, the tree and 
 the flower. Life is 
 everywhere — even 
 in the rocks — "a 
 square foot of sod 
 contains at least two 
 hundred separate 
 formsofexistence," 
 said Grant Allen. 
 Life is everywhere, 
 and it is all one Life, 
 and we are particles 
 of it. €L Of all hu- 
 man reason none is 
 more valuable than 
 that higher under- 
 standing which al- 
 ways comprehends 
 that in nature mis- 
 takes are not made; 
 and that all seem- 
 ing errors of men— 
 the so-called "sins" 
 are stepping stones 
 that can be used to 
 reach a higher good. 
 H And this Life is 
 good. CLEvery truth 
 is a paradox, and every strong man supplies 
 the argument for his own undoing; each 
 truth is only a half truth — and the statement 
 of truth always involves a contradiction. 
 Wise men realize these things, and so they 
 cease to quibble. They know you can explain 
 nothing to any one— if the man does not 
 already know it, your anxious efforts to make 
 him see will all be vain and futile. 
 
 Every man does what he does because he, 
 at the moment, thinks it is the best thing for 
 him to do. He believes he makes a choice, 
 but the truth is, his nature succumbs to the 
 strongest attraction ; and he is as much under 
 the dominion of natural laws as if he were 
 pure oxygen or nitrogen. Schopenhauer once 
 said that if you saw a stone rolling down hill 
 and you should stop 
 
 E reap as we sow. We hear 
 that quite often, don't we ? 
 But it is only a half-truth, 
 for not only do we reap 
 as we sow but we reap as 
 other men have sown. We are heirs 
 to the past — its good and ill, and all 
 the millions of men who have gone 
 before us have for us prepared the 
 way. Not only do we reap the ripe 
 grain that others have planted, but 
 our bare and bleeding feet tread the 
 thistles sown by those long dead. I 
 have n't much power, but I have 
 power enough, if I choose, to make 
 several hundred people think this 
 earth is hell. I can make them reap 
 the nettles that I sow. 
 H There is no such thing as a new 
 truth. Truth is as old as fate. There 
 is no plural Truth — there is only 
 the one Truth, and this is very old 
 and very simple. All wise men have 
 known it ^i^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 it and ask it why it 
 rolled down hill, if 
 it had conscious life, 
 it would undoubt- 
 edly answer, "I roll 
 down hill because I 
 choose to." C Any 
 man of certain tem- 
 perament, who has 
 had certain experi- 
 ences, & is possess- 
 ed of certain qual- 
 ities, will always do 
 acertainthingunder 
 certain conditions. 
 And if you can find 
 another like him, he 
 will also do exactly 
 the same thing as the 
 first under like con- 
 ditions.C Knowing 
 all these things, the 
 man of wisdom does 
 not blame anybody 
 for anything. C He 
 may pity, but he 
 does not attempt to 
 punish, forheknows 
 thatthe Law of Con- 
 sequences sees that 
 exact justice is done 
 to every one, and 
 he never makes the 
 mistake of suppos- 
 ing that he is divine- 
 ly appointed to act the part of a Section of 
 the Day of Judgment. He will influence if 
 he can — he will reform, educate and lead 
 out, but he will not try to repress or chastise. 
 C.His life will be one long pardon; one in- 
 exhaustible pity; one infinite love, and there- 
 fore, one infinite strength. 
 Anchorage is what most people pray for, 
 when what we really need is God's great 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 117 
 
 open sea. The command, "Sail on, and on, 
 and on, and on!" comes only to those who 
 are in Stage Three, or the Stage of Enlight- 
 enment. C It is almost too much to expect 
 that the period of insight and perfect poise 
 should be more than transient. Yet it does 
 exist, and there is no reason why it should 
 not in time become a habit of life. Most Free 
 Souls who have 
 reached this state 
 of "Cosmic Con- 
 sciousness," will 
 testify that insight 
 came first as a thrill, 
 and the periods then 
 gradually extended 
 as mastery became 
 complete. It was a 
 matter of growth — 
 an evolution. CYet 
 growth never pro- 
 ceeds at an even, 
 steady pace, either 
 in the realm of spirit 
 or matter. There are 
 bursts and bounds, 
 throes and throbs, 
 and then times of ap- 
 parent inaction. But 
 this inaction is only 
 a gathering togeth- 
 er of forces for the 
 coming leap — the fallow years are just as 
 natural, just as necessary as the years of 
 plenty, d "Who shall relieve me of the body 
 of this death?" cried the Prophet. He had 
 in mind the ancient custom of punishing the 
 murderer by chaining to him the dead body 
 of his victim. Wherever the man went he 
 had to drag the putrifying corpse — he could 
 not disentangle himself from the result of his 
 evil act. No more horrible punishment could 
 possibly be devised; but Nature has a plan 
 of retribution that is very much akin to it. 
 What more terrible than this: The evil thing 
 you do shall at once become an integral part 
 of what you are.C You cannot escape it— 
 no concealment is possible, you are what 
 
 Jou are on account of what you have done. 
 LThe man who imagined that scene of the 
 "final judgment" where the righteous file 
 into paradise and the wicked are tumbled 
 into perdition, had a certain conception of 
 
 life. And this conception was that separation 
 of good people from bad — with an impassa- 
 ble gulf between, was a good thing. Yet the 
 man to whom is attributed this parable did 
 not believe in extrication, for his life was a 
 living protest against it. He deliberately as- 
 sociated with so-called bad people, and surely 
 had more love for the sinner than he had for 
 the righteous.CThe 
 Law of Consequen- 
 ces works in both 
 ways: by associa- 
 tion with the sinner 
 and recognizing the 
 good in him, you 
 unconsciously rec- 
 ognize the good in 
 yourself. The love 
 you give away is 
 the love you keep — 
 by benefiting anoth- 
 er you benefit your- 
 self.C The thought 
 of getting safely out 
 of the world has no 
 part in life of the 
 Enlightened Man — 
 to live fully while 
 here is his problem 
 — one world at a 
 time is enough for 
 him. C He believes 
 that that which is good here is good in every 
 star, and the Power that is caring for him 
 Now will not forsake him Then. 
 
 ^HEN I tell my little girl about the First 
 Man and the First Woman who lived 
 in a Beautiful Garden and were per- 
 fectly happy until they disobeyed God, she 
 says, "Oh, why did n't they mind what He 
 said?" And then she throws her arms about 
 my neck and assures me that she will always 
 do just what I wish her to. So she confuses 
 me with Deity, and gives us the first hint of 
 ancestor worship, for I am the biggest and 
 strongest and best man she knows. CL Every 
 one obeys me, goodness, they have to — well, 
 I guess so! C And as the years go by and 
 count themselves with the eternity that lies 
 behind, I shall not be here; and she will do 
 as I have done and as you have done — stand 
 by an open grave and ask in anguish, "If a 
 
 HE chief offense of some 
 philosophers is, that the 
 world as it is does not 
 please them. They are 
 like a guest who yawns 
 and scowls and sneers: he is quite 
 determined he will not have a good 
 time, and what is more, he will not 
 allow others to. 
 
 All lawyers are officers of the 
 Court — servants of the Goddess, 
 who being blind, never sees anything 
 of their little lapses. 
 C Kindness is something we receive 
 and have to pass along in order to 
 keep it *4gs®> 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 118 
 
 man die shall he live again?" And the fall- 
 ing clods will give no sign and the winds that 
 sigh and sob through the trees will make no 
 reply; but hope and love will answer, yes. 
 
 [SHiSt T is the Scientist who now takes off his 
 M M shoes, knowing that the place whereon 
 BcLafl he stands is holy ground. Science is 
 reverent, & speaks 
 
 mi 
 
 with lowered voice, 
 for she has caught 
 glimpses of myster- 
 ies undefinable and 
 thoughts have come 
 to her that are be- 
 yond speech. Sci- 
 ence cultivates the 
 receptive heart and 
 thehospitablemind, 
 and her prayer is 
 for more light, and 
 to this prayer the 
 answer is even now 
 arriving. 
 
 Of course I know 
 that there has ever 
 been a tendency in 
 the church to per- 
 secute the man who 
 believed too much 
 and to cry anathe- 
 ma upon the one 
 who had faith plus. The men and women of 
 transcendent soul and luminous spirit have 
 ever had to make their way, not only against 
 the public, but against the majority in the 
 church; and usually the church has been 
 their bitterest enemy and most clamorous 
 detractor. In the church there has ever been 
 a struggle between the cold clammy spirit of 
 materialism and the saints, poets, prophets 
 and mystics. But the materialists have now 
 ousted the saints as the cuckoo does the 
 thrush. Materialism has won and the day has 
 come when the church must be awarded the 
 palm; for the proud triumph is hers of hold- 
 ing a monopoly on disbelief, doubt and denial. 
 HAnd when Dr. Edward Everett Hale, at 
 the grave of Oliver Wendell Holmes, called 
 attention to the fact that the five great poets 
 of America were all outside the pale of the 
 orthodox church, he could truthfully have 
 added, and so are all poets, prophets, saints 
 
 and seers of earth. They are in the camp of 
 her whom the church has so long feared and 
 fought — science. 
 
 R9JES> yes, I am a Zionist. I long to be a 
 citizen of the Eternal City of fine 
 HI B minds. I would belong to that brother- 
 hood that cultivates the receptive heart and 
 the generous mind. 
 HAT was a fool wish Of My neighbors are 
 
 often hundreds of 
 miles apart.CThey 
 are the men & wo- 
 men of earth who 
 think and feel and 
 dream, & ask them- 
 selves each morn- 
 ing, What is Truth? 
 We think better of 
 Pilate for his ques- 
 tion. To meet a god 
 face to face and not 
 ask would have be- 
 tokened complete 
 imbecility. But Je- 
 sus did not answer, 
 —He could n't. All 
 truth is relative, and 
 that message which 
 comes out of the 
 great Silence to you 
 
 Bobby Burns — quite in 
 keeping with his going up 
 to Edinburgh and having 
 his heart broken by vain 
 striving after things for which he 
 had no use.C Let a man once see 
 himself as others see him and all 
 enthusiasm vanishes from his heart; 
 and when that is gone he might as 
 well die at once, for enthusiasm is 
 the one necessary ingredient in the 
 recipe for doing good work. 
 CL I expect to see the day when no 
 school-teacher will have more than 
 twenty pupils 
 
 can only be inter- 
 preted to another who, too, has listened and 
 heard. Yes, let us all be Zionists and dwell 
 in the New Jerusalem of Celestial Truth. 
 
 WW? °^ ten h a PP ens tnat ( he man we call 
 HH " in fidel" is one with faith plus. Per- 
 HJM secutor and martyr are cut off of one 
 piece, and shift places very easily — it 's all 
 a question of transient power. 
 And so, viewing the question on all sides, it 
 seems to me that Ali Baba, the alleged Cor- 
 ner Grocery Infidel, is at the last, a man of 
 deep religious conviction, although he him- 
 self is not in the least aware of it. Surely the 
 Kingdom of God does not consist in the rigid 
 observance of any set of petty forms — it is a 
 condition of the spirit. In actual life my 
 friend practices every Christian duty. He 
 cheerfully does every duty that lies nearest 
 him. He is kind, generous, industrious, tire- 
 less in well-doing, honest. His life is one of 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 119 
 
 absolute simplicity. He is the friend of chil- 
 dren, a lover of animals, and ever you will 
 find him on the side of the weak, the defense- 
 less and the oppressed. He enters heartily 
 into life, partakes moderately of all good 
 things, and his heart-attitude is one of grati- 
 tude, generosity and shining truth. 
 To do good is his religion. And if it should 
 ever happen that 
 you fell among rob- 
 bers & were beaten 
 sore & left for dead, 
 andAHBabapassed 
 that way, he would 
 not only bind up 
 your wounds and 
 take you to a place 
 of safety, but would 
 see the Good Sam- 
 aritan and go him 
 one better by organ- 
 izing a posse of far- 
 mers and going in 
 hot pursuit of the 
 thieves. CAli Baba 
 has been my faith- 
 ful helper for near a 
 score of years. His 
 fidelity has given me 
 days of rest that oth- 
 erwise would have 
 been impossible; he 
 has added to my ma- 
 terial gains; and his 
 cheerful example of 
 doing the thing that 
 ought to be done, 
 without thought of 
 
 reward or special favor, has been to me a 
 continual inspiration. €1 At times when those 
 I thought were friends proved cold and cal- 
 loused, and the way was dark with uncer- 
 tainty, and all my plans seemed vanishing in 
 mist, I have taken fresh courage when I 
 thought of one who lives content with small 
 means, talks gently, acts frankly, bears all 
 cheerfully and does all bravely — for such 
 is Ali Baba of East Aurora, Erie Co., N. Y. 
 
 jNCE there was a man who lived in 
 France. And the man was n't very 
 rich or very poor — but just comfort- 
 able. He lived in a snug house of five rooms. 
 
 And one day there came word that the Em- 
 peror would journey that way and the man's 
 wife thought it would be a fine thing to en- 
 tertain the Emperor, for it would give the 
 family Distinction. And so the man and the 
 wife took all their earnings and hired masons 
 and carpenters and made four of the rooms 
 into a Salon. They also put in a marble stair- 
 case and big mirrors 
 
 RAZOR with which you 
 
 cannot shave may have 
 better metal in it than one 
 with a perfect edge. One 
 has been sharpened and 
 the other not. I am very sure that 
 the men who write best do not nec- 
 essarily know the most; fate has put 
 an edge on them — that 's all. A good 
 kick may start a stone rolling, when 
 otherwise it rests on the mountain 
 side for a generation. 
 CHate hurts worse the man who 
 nurses it; all selfishness robs the 
 mind of its divine insight and cheats 
 the soul that would know. 
 €LSo long as governments set the 
 example of killing their enemies, 
 private individuals will occasionally 
 kill theirs 
 
 & bought much fine 
 Furniture. And all 
 the time they and 
 their children hud- 
 dled in one room. 
 So they waited for 
 the Emperor. They 
 waited a month — 
 two — three — six. 
 C, But the Emperor 
 did not come, and in 
 fact he never came, 
 but a revolution did, 
 for this occurred in 
 France, and a mob 
 cut off the Emper- 
 or's head. C. Moral: 
 Don't starve your 
 soul and body lying 
 in wait for Social 
 Honors— they may 
 never come — and if 
 they should, are not 
 comparable in val- 
 ue to peace of mind. 
 
 mm think i mi 
 
 iflll start a crus- 
 
 w 
 
 mJm ade for the re- 
 formation of reformers. I am fully persuaded 
 that our besetting sin, as a people, is neither 
 intemperance nor unchastity, but plain pre- 
 tense. We are not frank and honest with 
 ourselves nor with each other. The disposi- 
 tion to cheapen and adulterate and get the 
 start of our fellows is the universal habit of 
 commerce and society. We are copper cents 
 trying to pass for half dollars. My suggestion 
 is that for a whole year we let the heathen 
 rest, resign all public work in the Personal 
 Purity League, and declare a vacation in the 
 W. C. T. U. Then each man and woman set 
 a guard over his own spirit and try to be 
 greater than he who taketh a city. In other 
 
CONTEMPLATIONS 
 
 Page 120 
 
 words, practice the old, plain, simple virtues 
 of gentleness, charity and honesty, doing 
 unto others as we would they would do unto 
 us. By this method we would not have to 
 talk so much and do so much, and so could 
 think and rest. I 'm sure it would be better 
 for our nerves — and possibly just as well 
 for the heathen and drunkard. Stop this 
 violent running to 
 and fro, and be sim- 
 ple & honest— only 
 for a year! And then 
 possibly at the end 
 ofthattimewecould 
 sit in the presence 
 of each other and 
 be silent without be- 
 ing uncomfortable. 
 
 J§TG|ND I wish to 
 W^M say right here 
 xfiafij! that the indi- 
 vidual that does a 
 great and magnifi- 
 cent work is on close 
 and friendly terms 
 with God. He is the 
 son of God, and it 
 is necessary that he 
 should feel this kin- 
 ship in order to do 
 his work. From Mo- 
 ses, the called of 
 God, on up to So- 
 crates, who listened 
 to the Demon, to 
 George Fox, who 
 heeded the Voice, 
 to the Prophets of our own time, all lie low 
 in the Lord's hand and listen closely ere 
 they act. A man is strong only when he feels 
 that he is backed by a Power, not his own, 
 that makes for Righteousness. 
 When I think of these brave souls, the Sav- 
 iours of the World, who have sought to lead 
 men out of the captivity of evil, — feeling and 
 knowing that they were the sons of God — I 
 stand uncovered. But a mass of people — a 
 crowd, a mob, — that claims to be a "Chosen 
 People," is a sight to make angels weep. 
 "You cannot indict a class," said Macaulay ; 
 corporations have no souls, and a horde that 
 claims to be inspired is only a howling cow- 
 
 AM fully convinced that 
 the world is growing bet- 
 ter; but I am also fully 
 convinced that the pro- 
 gress has not been made 
 that many think. Any man who be- 
 lieves that God is everywhere, that 
 a certain Divinity is in all men, and 
 that Deity manifests Himself to-day 
 as much as ever He did, is still 
 hailed by many as infidel. Too much 
 faith receives the same punishment 
 at the hands of the mob as none at all. 
 CA11 your possessions are just to 
 keep you out of mischief, until 
 Death, the good old nurse, comes 
 and rocks you to sleep. 
 CTo be stupid when inclined and 
 dull when you wish is a boon that 
 only goes with high friendship 
 
 ardly Thing. Great men are ever lonely and 
 live apart, but birds of a feather flock together 
 because they fear to flock alone. They want 
 warmth and protection — they are afraid. 
 
 BfUT in the great world women occa- 
 : sionally walk off the dock in the dark- 
 si ness, and then struggle for life in the 
 deep waters. Socie- 
 ty jigs & ambles by, 
 with a coil of rope, 
 but before throwing 
 it, demands of the 
 drowning one a cer- 
 tificate of character 
 from her Pastor, or 
 a letter of recom- 
 mendation from her 
 Sunday School Su- 
 perintendent, or a 
 testimonial from a 
 School Principal. 
 Not being able to 
 produce the docu- 
 ment the struggler is 
 left to go down to 
 her death in dark- 
 ness and despair. 
 CL I fix my thought 
 on the good that is 
 in every soul and 
 make my appeal to 
 that. And the plan 
 is a wise one, judg- 
 ed by results. It se- 
 cures for you loyal 
 helpers, worthy 
 friends, aids diges- 
 tion, gets the work done and tends to sleep 
 o' nights. And I say to you, that if you 
 have never known the love, loyalty and in- 
 tegrity of a proscribed person, you have 
 never known what love, loyalty and integ- 
 rity are. H I do not believe in governing by 
 force, or threat, or any other form of coer- 
 cion. I would not condemn any one. I would 
 not arouse in the heart of any of God's 
 creatures a thought of fear, or discord, or 
 hate, or revenge. I will influence men, if I 
 can, but it shall be only by aiding them to 
 think for themselves; and so, mayhap, they, 
 of their own accord will choose the better 
 part — the ways that lead to Life and Light. 
 
SO HERE THEN ENDETH CODTEmPLJITIOnS AS WRITTEN BY ELBERT 
 HUBBARD. PRINTED BY THE ROYCROFTERS AT THEIR SHOP IN EAST 
 AURORA, NEW YORK, U. S. A. PRESSWORK FINISHED IN OCTOBER, NINE- 
 TEEN HUNDRED TWO. THE TITLE PAGE AFTER THE DECRETALES OF ST. 
 GREGORY AS DONE BY JOANIS PETIT AT VENICE IN FIFTEEN HUNDRED 
 AND TWENTY-NINE. THE ORNAMENTS DESIGNED BY RICHARD KRUGER, 
 PRESSWORK BY OTTO FRANZ, AND COMPOSITION BY CHARLES ROSEN 
 
AVERY 
 CJWtt