A Treatise on the Influence of Mind over Matter IN SOLVING THE GREAT PROBLEM OF HOW TO PREV- IOUSLY DETERMINE THE SEX —THE INHERITED DISPOSITION —TALENTS TO BE DESIRED BY PARENTS IN THEIR OFFSPRING —ALSO TO PREVIOUSLY DETERMINE THE SEX OF THE HIGHER ORDER OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND FOWLS —GIVING THE COMPARATIVE ADVAN- TAGES AND DISADVAN- TAGES OF COUN- ■ , , TRY LIFE OVER CITY LIFE IN RAISING A FAMILY. Written by an old Farmer and Stock Breeder of forty years’practical on a farm, where Nature’s Laws were carefully studied and experimented with. THE ONLY WORK OF THE KIND EVER PUBLISHED FARMER JOE JOHNSON CHICAGO, ILLINOIS Entered according to Act of Congress, June the Twenty-sixth, in the Year Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-nine, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) FARMER JOE JOHNSON. CONTENTS. BOOK I. Thoughts on Human Nature; and Nature's PAGE Laws 13 Akk ark Not Born Frkk and Lquak - - 16 Diskask Lasts Through Generations 16 The; Marriage Relation 18 Infeuence of Mind over Matter 23 Inheritance 26 Married to a Drunkard 28 First Impressions 33 The Time to Train a Chied 34 Internationae Disarmament 40 Coming Generations of America - - 44 Difficulties Must Come 56 Remarks by Senator Ingaees 63 The Social Elements Preparing for the Strife 69 The Heaping of Treasures 71 Some American Millionaires and how they got their Millions 75 The Increase of Poverty 80 Two Remarkable Types of the Impending Catastrophe -------89 Crown or People 101 Brought to the Front in Italy - 101 A Conflict Imminent in Germany - - 102 Attitude of the German Army - - - 103 Remarks by Whit el aw Reid - 109 Views of a Member of the Supreme Court 111 CONTENTS. Nothing in a Name; 119 PAGE Mental and Physical Perfection - - 119 Hygiene and Inheritance - - - 120 Fallacy of Medicine Dosing - 124 Dong Medical Names 129 Wisdom of Chinese System op Doctoring - 130 The Craze for Dosing 139 Good and Bad Emotions 143 Criticisms of Dr. Schenck’s Theories - - 145 No Crime to Regulate the Sex ... i4B The Unwelcome Child 149 An Illustration in Criticism of Dr. Schenck’s Theories 151 Eord Salisbury’s Eecture - 153 The Older Predestines the Younger - - 160 Notes of Warning 164 The Intermingling of Blood - 166 Unintentional Conception - 170 Rules in Nature’s Daws to be Observed in Determining the Sex - 173 Result of the Martial Spirit Caused by the Recent War 175 Dr. Schenck on War Birth Rate - - - 178 Breeding, and How to Determine Sex and Disposition of Stock 181 Vitality a Cardinal Point in all Domestic Animals as in the Human ... iss To Determine Sex and Disposition of Animals 193 For Governing the Gender of Fowls - 199 BOOK 11. City and Country Dife 205 Applying Fducation to Dife - 272 Biographical Memoirs - 281 PREFACE. IN the following pages the Author has simply endeavored to give some of Nature’s im- mutable laws, according to his own expe- rience of forty years as a practical Farmer and Stockbreeder, in as plain, practical, and brief manner as possible, which, if strictly observed, will almost always accomplish the desired result of previously determining the Sex of the Human Family, as well as that of the higher order of Domestic Animals and Fowls; also how to deter- mine the disposition, talent, inclinations, or nat- ural trend of the minds of generations yet un- born—a subject without a doubt the most important, and yet the most neglected, of all others, by almost all those contemplating raising a family or breeding stock on a farm. Though it may at first seem of a somewhat delicate nature to some of the more fastidious, it is, however, a matter that confronts and should vastly interest the heads of every well-regulated and thoughtful family in the world, as well as all stock breeders on the farm. In fact, it is the very first principle and starting point, to ef- fect more reform, and improvement, morally, mentally and physically, and we might say re- ligiously, than any other principle in the whole world. It is a deplorable fact that less thought and judgment are given by the matrimonially inclined VI PREFACE. to their future offspring, and, indeed, we might assert the same equally startling and lamentable fact of a majority of the already married, who soon expect to become the heads of families, they giving less thought and concern to their future offspring than does the commonest and most careless farmer to the breeding and propagation of stock on a farm. When, however, after it is too late, they find themselves the parents of a weak and degenerate family of children, they be- gin to realize the awful consequences of their thoughtlessness, or ignorance, of what a heritage they have visited upon their children and their children’s children. It is then the thought of remorse comes home to them after it is, alas, too late. They then begin to realize how dif- ferent it might have been. The Author’s knowledge of how to determine the sex and disposition, inclinations, talents, etc., has been obtained altogether from observation and practical experience of forty years of stock breeding on a farm, and at the same time raising a family of boys and girls, all of whom he is thankful to say, have at least good common sense and a variety of talents which he considers worth more to us than volumes of vague and impractical theories of the many would-be over- educated theorists in all branches of the present day and generation, most of whom only seem to try to mystify rather than simplify in all branches, even in religious as well as in the great and un- changing laws of Nature, to say nothing of our temporal laws, most of which they have already PREFACE. constructed, as to have two or more meanings, or no meaning at all, to suit the case pending, and thus escape the penalties attached. The great Laws of Nature are, however, in- exorable and are rigidly enforced upon the high and the low, the rich and the poor alike. The penalties for their violation cannot be escaped. It has, therefore, been the author’s effort to be so plain and practical, though he may have been somewhat promiscuous and crude, that the “wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein,” but that he may be able to read, under- stand, profit and reinform himself, and those to follow after him, without the aid of an encyclo- pedia or Webster’s Unabridged, which the author has not even once called into use in his entire work. No apology will therefore be offered for these pages, although it may be thought by some to be of a delicate nature, but, nevertheless, plain every day facts are stubborn things, and must -be sooner or later confronted by the most fastidi- ous. It has, therefore, been my only aim and effort to present some of Nature’s Laws in re- gard to the procreation of our own species, which all should know, in as modest a manner as pos- sible. Believing “to the pure all things are ,pure,” so also to the low,xvile, and filthy, almost all things are susceptible of being perverted to suit the taste. The author is fully aware he will be severely criticized, if not ridiculed, by many of our eminent men of the medical profession, such as PREFACE. Dr. Schenck, Dr. Wilbur, Dr. Watson, Dr. Fry and others of less renown of our own country, some of whom have claimed recently to have made most wonderful discoveries by experiment- ing with butterflies, bees,frogs and many other of the insect and reptile species, perhaps the bed- bug and potato-bug, of which we confess to have always been far more interested in the extermina- tion than the propagation, believing them to be like many of our noxious weeds, among the curses of the earth and almost of spontaneous, and indigenous creation. Should the following pages accomplish that which it is honestly intended, the author, though but a plain common-sensed and unpretentious farmer, will congratulate himself with having laid a firm foundation for the greatest moral, mental, and physical reforms of the present age. That all may read and study without prejudice, and be greatly profited thereby, is the desire of The Author. THOUGHTS ON HUMAN NATURE AND NATURE’S LAWS FOR THE THOUGHTFUL OBSERVER. “It is God’s law remember it, In your still chamber as you sit. With thoughts you would not dare have known. And yet make comrades when alone. “Then let your secret thoughts be fair, They have a vital part and share, In shaping worlds and moulding fate, God’s laws are so intricate.” It is the imperative duty of all those who are in the great future, to depend upon us for all they have and are, morally, physically, and es- pecially mentally; therefore we should not in any sense be the means of dwarfing our own off- spring by any voluntary influence, or neglect our obligations to the welfare of future genera- tions, by failing to employ judiciously every means within our power and control, and thus avoid handicapping in the least, our own off- spring, in the great struggle of life. The eter- nal fitness of, where, when and how to do a thing, should be diligently ascertained, and the knowledge be made the basis of all our aims and actions of our minds. It should be made the rank of our moral obligation, that we do not INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. stray from the golden mien of our future hopes, because our rise is the development into a more complete correspondence with our future off- spring, and every trivial or unreasonable pas- sion which turns us aside from the great object and aim of life’s purpose is in direct conflict with the universal laws and plans of Him who so wisely planned the cycles of our existence. All the races, and animals of all descriptions, that have existed upon the earth, are the pro- ducts of Nature’s laws. History, observation, in- vestigation, and research into the open book of nature go to prove the different races of the human family, animal life, and everything exist- ing upon the earth, are the products of Nature’s great and immutable laws of creation. There is one mind for man and beast, but different degrees of instinct, intelligence and reason. Man in- herits morally, intellectually, physically and spiritually, each being far-reaching in their ten- dencies for good or evil, according to birth, cul- tivation and environments. Man and woman, more especially man and wife, and children are triune in nature and character, each separate natures and characters, susceptible of vast influ- ences and improvement before begotten, as well as after birth. If more of these unborn faculties were improved by education, culture and refinement, the prospects and conditions of future generations would be very much amelior- ated. Man exists, without any of these advantages, as an ignorant and superstitious being, very INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. little superior to the brute. Multitudes of human beings in all generations, even in our own civil- ized land, endure and have a miserable existence, not a grade higher than the animals, on account of their inherited and evil surroundings. They either are not permitted, or do not enjoy the good influences that are elevating in the higher plane of morals and intelligence. The more the moral and mental natures of children are trained and disciplined the more they will grow and ad- vance on the different lines of their inherited in- clinations for a higher standard of life. It is ■natural for the adult and youth to go to ruin and disgrace and disease under inherited tendencies. It would, however, be difficult to find a person in this vast universe who has not transgressed Na- ture’s laws. Disobedience to God’s laws is the first great cause that entails suffering and woe to mankind. Therefore, to the more successful- ly combat this weakness and secure a truer manhood and womanhood is not only a work of a lifetime, as many suppose, but the work of generations, both before and after birth. Not only prejudice and ignorance, but education and circumstances, often prevent many from perceiv- ing their natural tendencies and rising in their might to hurl back the hoards of evil influences bent on their demoralization from tendencies to degeneration. The natural endowments are too much cultivated on lines of selfish and debasing motives, and momentary pleasures, which will soon overcome the vacillating minds in the mighty struggles and battles of life. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. DISEASE LASTS THROUGH GENERATIONS. “Tuberculosis lowers the resisting power of the children afflicted even to the third and fourth generation. It hurts the children in their search for lucrative employment. Note in this connection the fact that one of the questions asked of applicants for civil service positions is whether or not either of their parents have or has had consumption. “In Germany, France and Italy they have for years had societies for the prevention and study of this disease. A British society has just been organized and the State of Pennsylvania has had such a society for a few years. The formation of such a society in Chicago may therefore be taken as a local expression of approval of uni- versal conviction.” In America we are taught by the Declaration of Independence “that all men are born free and tequal.” It is a great mistake. Why is it that one horse is worth but fifty dollars, and an- other is worth a thousand dollars? The differ- ence is not only in the blood, but the capabilities. It is quite a different thing to swim with the current, to that of swimming against it. If a man finds himself in an ancestral current of good blood, flowing smoothly in his veins for generations, and surrounded by good influences, it is not so much credit to him to turn out good, honest, pure and noble, as the other fellow of opposite conditions. He could not well help it. It takes a life-long struggle against the many INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. temptations, trials, difficulties and disappoint- ments to attain honor, integrity and sound character, when there is even a mixture of evil- inherited tendencies. Every person has their own peculiar ideas of perfect happiness (if there is such a state on this mundane sphere). Some would like wealth, others to be learned, some fame, while many think if they were beautiful, talented and accom- plished, even in some of the minor and useless they would be happy. All these traits are certainly desirable, and to be commended, and the one person in their posses- sion is to be envied, but are rarely attainable in one person without inheritance. It is our experience that there is more happi- ness in contentment than in any one nature or possession, and more contentment in industry, than in indolent wealth, or shiftless poverty. Therefore, “contentment” is said to be the great secret of happiness, so we assert “industry” to be the great secret of contentment. “Our lives are not entirely what we make them,” as the old adage is wont to say, because born of weak and imbecile parentage, the child, like the fountain, is not apt to rise higher than the source from which it springs. Like water, the natural course or tendency is downward, to seek a level or degeneracy, and in more favorable conditions of birth, if the “brakes” are not put on in time, the consequences are in evit- able and likewise ruinous. The individual that is not endowed with reason and perception enough INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. to discern his own weak points, and judgment sufficient to in time place the guard at the weak- est gate, is sure to make a failure in every way. Our interest, therefore, should not only be for the present, but more especially for the future, and future generations. The past is gone and beyond redemption. Lost opportunties only serve as past experiences, which should, how- ever, be of great benefit to us in the future, as a warning to keep clear of old disasters, and em- brace new opportunities. This work being entirely our own contribu- tion towards that much to be desired consum- mation of the improvement of the disposition and mental qualities, as well as the predetermin- ing of the sexes. Although our knowledge and powers are incomplete and limited, sufficient is herein pointed out to change the whole aspect of the world. Such a condition if it were attainable, is, we fear, far distant at present, owing to the ignorance or ignoring of nature and Nature’s laws, in the marriage relations. If our knowledge were more perfect, and our means of application adapted, we would be able to much sooner see the human race in its perfect beauty, as Provi- dence no doubt intended it to be; in the more harmonious proportions and complete balance of all parts in which man came out of the hands of his Creator in whose divine image we are told he was in the beginning made. That the safety of the ivhole may be the better THE MARRIAGE RELATION. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. protected against the fatal errors of the few, by the varied influences operating upon the mental conditions of individuals and communities, in promoting their mental good, and growth, or preventing their deterioration by the removal of the causes. Nature’s laws culminate very often in lines for a time according to changes of en- vironments, but in Nature’s struggle it is not al- ways the best, but the best fitted to adapt them- selves to circumstances that live on for a time. Man, by reason of his great developing facul- ties in many different ways, has risen superior to the power which governs life below him, and could, if he would, root out the undesirable in 'many ways from among those striving for bet- ter things. The only way to get rid of degen- eracy is to breed and educate it out. If not, it will constantly be more or less polluting and con- taminating, by intermingling with the bad. The fact is sadly overlooked that the great purpose of the institution of marriage and the family should not be alone for convenience, and the sole purpose of the preservation of the race.; the elevation of the race as well, through the improvement of it to the highest possible degree attainable. Why talk of punishing for the sake of reform- ing murderer. You cannot do it. The mur- derers brain is in a state below that of most animals, in many of its faculties. It is in a state, of degeneration. Any naturalist would tell us there is no hope for such. There is no reason in sending such a person to prison to get out again, 20 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. and to murder again, and to marry and continue to propagate his own breed. Better start the world with a better stock and let annihilation be his portion. Among the youthful whose ten- dencies are murderous, only confinement and watching with no governor’s hand to interfere, should be the rule. Murderous inclinations, like the liquor tastes, and all other evils, are a form of inheritance, insanity, and in many cases should be so treated, and as closely guarded as other forms of insan- ity. Dr. Elmer Gates wisely says “he would not attempt to remedy the immoralities of hu- manity with the knife, even in these days of ad- vanced surgery, for almost all the physical ail- ments human flesh is heir to; but by brain build- ing, beginning at the earliest period of the child’s life.” The doctor’s theory is good as a last re- sort, but it should go back farther than the earli- est period of the child’s life, even to many years before it was begotten and born. These facts, to the commonest observer, are being seen and demonstrated almost every day of our lives, both in the human and animal creation. Any observ- ing farmer is aware of that fact, and knows that there is but one way to overcome these defects, and that is by breeding them out, though it may take years in the brute, and generations in the human animal. The behavior of the child is a fair index and clear reflection of the parents. Give us good, pure and noble parents, more especially mothers, and with but few exceptions will we have no INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. cause to deplore the outcome of the children. Parents, therefore, should not be so blinded and prejudiced as not to be able to see their chil- dren’s faults and failings as others see them in the parents before them. That every man is the architect of his own future, either mentally, morally, physically or financially, four features, embracing- about all there is to be desired by man, is far from being true. Wealth is not always inherited, nor acquired, by superior financial abilities, but is oftentimes forced by accident or opportunities, or by reckless or daring plunges upon many of far less ability and merit, while prominence is as often the force of circumstances as merit. While many men of far more worth, force and ability in every way have lived and died in obscurity and unsung because of over-modesty or lack of circumstances or opportunity to be shoved to the forefront. Therefore, the proper study of man should be himself. The proper knowledge of ourselves in all respects should be of the great- est interest and importance to us in choosing a companion or business profession for which we are naturally best adanted, and selecting a course of training and education necessary to develop our minds on lines of thought and study most natural. In this way individual characters' are usually formed and developed. This is not paternalism. A man or woman who has studied their own inclinations, or the inclinations of their character may be the rulers of the temporal destiny of their offspring. 22 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER, The many mothers’ societies and clubs for “child study” may be well enough, but most parents fail to perceive the proper time to com- mence the study of the disposition of the child is before its existence, as well as after, or while it is yet in the embryonic state. Their efforts are like purifying a stream of poisonous or polluted water below the fountain head, or source of pol- lution. A man or woman commits the hopes and hap- piness of her future, in trustful recklessness, to an individual who may be a charnel house from past or hidden sin and who is more fit for the hospital, infirmary or asylum than he is for the honorable couch of matrimony. Such a decep- tion on his part is surely no less than monstrous, for the untold misery and suffering of his part- ner and their offspring, the latter, if any there be, almost certainly proving to be weak, puny and imbecile, burdens to themselves and society from infancy to the grave and only having strength enough to curse the very parentage that forced an existence on them. If anyone would identify such products of wedded love, more often an unholy sentiment of cupidity, lust and tyranny, he will find them throughout this broad land, both in the cottages of the humble and the man- sions of the wealthy, though happily most of them sink into premature graves or are hidden from the public gaze in the living tombs of the insane. Good health, and a sound mind, with the knowledge of how to retain them, is much to be desired, while ignorance and the violation of the INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. neglect to carefully observe them, is the prime cause of a world of disappointment and suffering. The mysteries of mind over matter and the close relations between them has never been ab- solutely solved. The wisest students and teach- ers grow cautious in their affirmations, and the most modern theories of the brain and its func- tions has much to do, and tell, as to the condi- tions of mental development. We, however, set reason, and common sense, or practical experi- ence, and knowledge ahead of all vague and imy practical theories and assertions of the present day and generation. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. The relation of the mind to the body is far more intimately connected than is generally con- ceded. Its silent influence in wrong directions is most mischievous and ruinous. No man can live with a mind impregnated with poisonous thoughts without seriously affecting himself and those to follow after him. It ruins the disposi- tion, sours the temper, saps the vital force, and ends by producing conditions which ultimately react on himself and equally or more forcibly on his progeny. The outcome is, therefore, weakened nerves, deranged stomach, surfeited liver, clouded brain, if not severed conscience and settled melancholy, ending in conditions from which all materia medica is powerless to relieve. There is a limit to the most robust and the strongest constitutions, mentally as well as 24 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. physically, they have been known to give way as quickly under the strain and pressure of great pleasures and merry-making as under the more Cumbersome cares of life’s burdens and labors. While the theory of the brain and its duties and functions has much to do, and tell, as the conditions of development and strain of con- sciousness with the mind, it really is, and all! scientists do not try, or dare not press the con- ditions too far, as the substance of the brain are countless millions of elements of nerve cells and nerve fibers, too fine and mysterious for the human mind to comprehend. We, therefore, contend that it is fully as reasonable for parents to transmit to their offspring by some previous preparation of the mind on certain desired lines of thought, talents, or even voice, as it is to trans- mit expressions of the features, the physical de- fects, or excellencies of the parents, facts which the most incredulous are willing to admit from every day observation. Where, outside of sacred history, can be found a more touching and genuine illustration of the great and mysterious Trinity of “three in one/’ than in the father, mother and son or child? Three in one. The very Trinity of earthly vir- tues, the brightest jewels of a Christian home, and truest type of Heaven on Earth, to cement the ties between man and wife by natural en- dearments, it is threefold, and should be sacred in its nature. The all important question, the marriage of unsuitable persons, is entirely too much disre- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. garded, as only concerning the individuals form- ing the sacred alliance, is made without a thought of the later responsibilities to the unborn and society. Any person with even ordinary percep- tion can readily see and appreciate the fact, and be able to very accurately trace good or evil effects upon their own progeny, as well as so- ciety. Physiology clearly teaches us that both the animal and vegetable kingdom must acquire full development before they are capable of re- producing their own species in the highest forms and most vigorous and perfect conditions. Hence very little reflection will convince any reasonable person of the disastrous conse- quences sure to follow the marriage of diseased or demented persons. Disease or weakness of mind or body will surely be transmitted to the children of the third and fourth generation. This is no vague theoretical statement, but is an indis- putable fact based on the practical observations and knowledge of all our best physicians as well as substantiated by both sacred and profane his- tory, and also being many times verified by, alas! too many of modern times. It should convey a most impressive and warning lesson to all. The nature and tendency of this fact may be objected to by many as interfering and restricting the liberties of the marriage relation. We candidly admit this to be so, and only the more forcibly urge the restriction of this grossly abused liberty of the marital right and can only here express the hope and give the warning that a wider dif- fusion of the fact of the detrimental nature to 26 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. the mental and physical capacities may lead many to a better realization and appreciation of the extent to which their capacity for weal, or woe, to themselves and their children and chil- dren’s children depends upon their acting in har- mony with the knowledge they enjoy of Na- ture’s laws and the tremenduous power the pres- ent generation possesses of moulding to a large degree the dispositions, talents, habits and appe- tites and well-being of generations that are to follow them. INHERITANCE. The inheritance of disease and good health, Is no more unlikely than poverty or wealth, _ A sound mind, good memory and constitution, Is a legacy beyond all computation. To be born with a silver spoon in the mouth, Is an old woman’s adage, and humbug, I trouth, Though the thought has been the ruin of many, And never yet been known to benefit any. To those unaccustomed to weighing principles from the standpoint of an exact natural philoso- phy it may seem strange that the subsequent generation of humanity should suffer the pen- alties of the accumulated crimes and misfortunes of several preceding generations; yet, since it is the expressed judgment of Nature, which cannot err, we should expect mature consideration to make manifest the justice and certainty of its INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. decision. That there is a reign of law in the suc- cession of human events, a conviction warranted by observed facts. Events do not spring into existence disjoined from antecedents leading to them. They are perceived to be the natural is- sues of times and conditions that have gone be- fore. Preceding events and circumstances have foreshadowed them. The law of cause and effect, is nowhere more prominently marked than on the physiognomy of the children of their ances-' try. The seeds of the past sowing must of neces- sity germinate, develop and bring forth fruit- age according to the conditioris, circumstances, etc., they were sown in; and the harvest at some time is therefore inevitable, whatever it may be. What lessons of experience they contain, as well as lessons of wisdom and warning to the present and coming generations in all things pertaining to their future welfare. There is no doubt that as strong- mental im- pressions, as horrible bodily deformities, inde- pendent of disease, can be and often are made upon the unborn child, altogether foreign to either of the parents, such as nervous tempera- ments, birth marks and bodily deformities of frightful nature, caused from some unusual and' sudden occurrence such as fright, extreme joy or sorrow or dissipation, the former having an im- press of what is called a birth mark, sometimes of the resemblance of an animal which caused a sudden shock or fright, the latter causing a pre- disposition to melancholia, dissipation, etc. could record many instances, were it essential, in 28 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. our own experience, in which the most unques- tionable deformities could be accounted for only by some strong and striking impressions having been made on both mind and body, both previ- ous to, and after conception. Indeed we might go through the whole catalogue of both vices and virtues were it necessary. The author has the permission of giving the following true and pathetic story of a mother, as a note of warning, showing the fearful consequences of evil inheritance in one line alone, which is equally as true in all other lines of both good and evil qualities of inheritance, of which there are annually in America alone thousands of similar cases: “Married to a drunkard! Yes, I was married to a drunkard. Look at me! I am talking to the girls.” We all turned and looked at her. She was a wan woman, with dark, sad eyes and white hair, placed smoothly over a brow that denoted intellect. “When I married a drunkard I reached the acme of misery. I was young, and, oh, so happy! I married the man I loved and who professed to love me. He was a drunkard, and I knew it—knew it. but did not understand it. There is not a young girl that does understand it, unless she has a drunkard in her fam- ily. Then, perhaps, she knows how deeply the iron en- ters the soul of a woman when she loves and is allied to a drunkard, whether father, husband, brother or son. Girls, believe me when I tell you that to marry a drunkard, to love a drunkard, is the crown of all mis- ery. I have gone through the deep waters and know. “I have gained that fearful knowledge at the expense of happiness, sanity, almost life itself. Do you wonder my hair is white? It turned white in a night—‘bleached by sorrow,’ as Marie Antoinette said of her hair. I am not forty years old yet, yet the snows of seventy rest upon my head and upon my heart. Ah, I cannot begin INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. to count the winters resting there,” she said with unutterable pathos in her voice. “My husband was a professional man. His calling took him from home frequently at night and when he returned he returned drunk. Gradually he gave way to temptation in the day, until he was rarely sober. I had two lovely little girls and a boy. My husband had been drinking deeply. I had not seen him for two days. He had kept away from his home. One night I was seated beside my sick boy; the two little girls were in bed in the next room, while beyond was another room into which I heard my husband go, as he entered the house. I do not know why, but a feeling of terror suddenly took possession of me and I felt that my little girls were in danger. I arose and went into the room. The door was locked. I knocked on it frantically, but no answer came. I seemed to be endowed with super- human strength, and throwing myself with all my force against the door, the lock gave way and the door flew open. Oh, the sight! the terrible sight! “Delirium tremens! You have never seen it. girls. God grant you never may. My husband stood beside the bed, his eyes glaring with insanity and in his hand a large knife. “‘Take them away!’ he screamed. ‘The terrible things! They are crawling all over me! Take them away!’ and he flourished the knife in the air. “Regardless of danger I rushed to the bed, and my heart seemed suddenly to cease beating. There lay my children, covered with their life-blood, slain by their own father! I was literally dumb in the presence of this terrible sorrow. I scarcely heeded the maniac at my side—the man who had wrought me all this woe. Then I uttered a loud scream and my wailings filled the air. The servants heard me and hastened to the room, and when my husband saw them he suddenly drew the knife across his own throat. I knew nothing more. I was borne senseless from the room that contained my slaughtered children and the body of my husband. The next day my hair was white and my mind so shat- tered that I knew no one. “Two years I was a mental wreck; then I recovered 30 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. from the shock and absorbed myself in the care of my boy. But the sin of the father was visited upon the child, and six months ago my boy of eighteen was placed in a drunkard’s grave, and I returned unto my desolate home a childless woman—one on whom the hand of God had rested heavily. "Girls, it is you I wish to rescue from the fate that overtook me. Do not blast your life as I blasted mine. Do not be drawn into the madness of marrying a drunkard. You love him! So much the worse for you, for married to him the greater will be your mis- ery because of your love. You will marry him and then reform him, so you say. Ah! a woman sadly overrates her strength when she undertakes to do this. “You are no match for the giant demon, ‘Drink,’ when he possesses a man’s body and soul. What is your strength beside his gigantic force. He will crush you, too. It is to save you, girls, from the sorrows that wrecked my happines that I have unfolded my his- tory to you. I am a stranger in this great city. I am merely passing through it; and I have a message to bear to every girl in America—never marry a drunk- ard 1” In Germany one man had eight hundred and four descendants, nearly all of whom were inher- ited criminals of some kind, many of them murderers. A man named Juke, in the state of New York, in seven generations, produced one thousand two hundred criminals aud pau- pers at a cost to the state of over $10,000,000. The most effective and cheapest way to prevent crime is to prevent the marriage of criminals, so with diseasNor inTperfections ol'any kind, as all careful statistics will prove. Hence the vast im- portance of all entertaining matrimonial views or matrimonial alliances and of the necessity of close study and knowledge of the genealogy of ancestral lines and tendencies. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 31 The author therefore warns both parents just previous to conception, and the mother espe- cially, both before and after, to fortify both their minds and bodies by a necessary mental and physical preparation, by good and sober habits, and a concentration of the mind on any lines they most desire to transmit to their yet unborn chil- dren. It is simply preparing the soil previous to planting, and cultivating it after the seed has been planted. We would again urge the importance of avoiding whatever may expose to risks of being strongly influenced by undesirable, dis- agreeable and repulsive impressions, and sur- rounding themselves as much as possible with pleasant associations, ennobling meditations and objects they most desire to be impressed, such as music, good literature, oratory, poetry, finance, mechanics or anything that is honorable .and has a tendency to elevate and strengthen and refine the mind upon certain lines most de- sired to be transmitted to the unborn child, yet in embryo, ever remembering the fact that vices as well as virtues are like poets, orators and master-genius of all kinds; are born, and not made, and afterwards developed. If a child yet unborn, and even before it is begotten, is susceptible of being influenced by what is repulsive, and diseased in mind and body, is it not just as reasonable to suppose it also is in like manner just as susceptible to what is at- tractive and ennobling in character and disposi- tion, trend of mind and bodily perfections as under the opposite conditions and circum- 32 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. stances? All may not be so situated and circum- stanced as to be able to choose their associations, or control circumstances, as to be able to avoid the risks of coming in contact with what is often disagreeable and repulsive to their tastes and natures, but it may be possible for most persons to be able to at least avoid becoming unnerved by dissipation, or strong impression, at such critical periods of transition, and should use every endeavor to adopt what is strengthening to the mind and entire physical organization. That strong or weak mental tendencies are as much inherited, if not more so, than disease, re- semblance, or even voice, is an undisputable fact that the commonest observer ought to be aware of. It is a notorious and lamentable fact that, alas, too many parents give less heed and thought, to say nothing of any previous prepa- ration, to the most important event of the lives of their own offspring than the most careless farmer to the breeding of his stock, and they are left to promiscuously grow up like stock without any refining influences whatever, as one of our most noted temperance lecturers remarked in the city of Chicago before a large and refined audi- ence of would-be aristocrats in a fine and leading church, “that when he saw a mother of a child giving more care and attention to her dog than to her own child, it was not at all surprising that the dog made the better and more useful citizen of the two.” In an interview with him afterwards on the subject of education and music being taught in INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. our public schools, to say nothing' of Spanish), he asserted, “it was an imposition on the public, as there was not more than ten per cent, of the pupils had any natural musical talent, and the idea of giving one hour per day for the sole benefit of ten per cent, to the loss of the other ninety per cent, was an extravagant burden to the people, besides a gross injustice to a large majority of the other pupils.” When he ex- claimed, with emphasis, “he might have given his entire life to the study and practice of music, and could not have made even a Wheeler and Wilson out of himself, much less a Singer.” The fact was, he said, “he was not made that way,” neither were his parents before him. It would have simply been gross violation of every known and recognized law of nature and heredi- tary instinct. FIRST IMPRESSION. The importance of first impressions being the most lasting, even after birth, is not realized by many individuals until after they have, at least, passed the meridian of life, when they are able to look back to childhood and recall names, in- cidents, circumstances, and rules first learned at the old log. or little red school-house, and prin- ciples and habits taught them, good or bad, on their mother’s knee, which are more familiar to them at the age of fifty or sixty years than seem- ingly more important matters, events and prin- ciples which are now daily transpiring and being taught, as it were, today and forgotten tomorrow. 34 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. It is very evident to the most casual observer, from the fast increasing population of our coun- try and more especially our cities, the concentra- tion of business in all lines, the numerous and wonderful labor saving machinery, that even the present, and much more the future generations, especially of the great masses of the common people, are fast being elected to a much more fierce struggle for existence, much less a few of the comforts and minor luxuries of the life and the land in which they are forced to subsist. Hence the greater the importance and necessity of a proper training and more practical education from the very start, of even embryonic life of existence, to the finish, on lines most suitable to their natural or inherited inclinations to achieve any degree of success in the mighty coming struggle for even an existence. It has been wisely said, “The proper time to commence to train a child is one hundred years before it is born.” Though this may seem to many a little premature, there is, however, far more truth than poetry in it. It is this most im- portant, though sadly neglected principle, we have from the beginning, and shall to the end en- deavor to impress upon our indulgent readers and patrons. Should we succeed in accomplish- ing this one important point we will feel we have been amply rewarded. THE TIME TO TRAIN A CHILD. This one vital point should be remembered, as speaking in thunder tones all along down INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. through the ages to come, to all those contem- plating raising a family, as what is born and bred in the bone, can neither be thoroughly whipped, edncated,"Dr doctored out, though it may for a time be suppressed. Like a truth, “Though crushed to the ground it will rise again.” Not- withstanding all our numerous penitentiaries, asylums, universities, medical colleges, free dis- pensaries and flaming head-lines*and columns of fake advertisements for the healing of every ail- ment that human flesh is heir to; even to the making of a new mart, if only the frame or skele- ton is furnished, other than the natural way, which the poor unsuspecting and inherited inva- lid grabs at like a drowning man grabs at float- ing straws, only to sink the more rapidly and deeper to his inevitable doom. A physician recently proposed tojirm the chil- dren against mtenipefance By vaccinating them withrequisine, a preparation made from the blood of tfte tiorse which had been previously fed on alcohol. If it is possible to promote temperance by vaccination, it would be possible on the same theory to inject all the virtues. The doctors of the future, instead of preaching “Thou shalt not steal,’’ should try the virus of honesty on offi- cials and parties on which moral suasion long since had ceased to be a virtue. We believe there is already too much of brutal blood in the human without injecting more, poisoned from the effects of alcohol. Better strive to purify our own blood than inject more of the poisoned blood of a brute into the already brutal nature of man. Of 36 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. course science has done a lot for us, but perhaps it’s well known that it has at different times branded every known food as being baneful Thus the great German professor, Friedlander, proclaimed that the general indulgence in salt was ruining Europeans, and traced his own longevity—he lived to be 83—to abstinence from it. The French savant, Monsieur Pasquier, held that milk w*as responsible for nearly all dis- eases, while another French savant proved to his own satisfaction that pure water was poisonous. Other learned men—all remember, respected in their day in the scientific world, not as cranks—have tabooed the use of any fermented liquids; others the eating of meat, others veg- etables. In short, every food has at some time or other been proclaimed highly injurious, and if the world had listened to all these scientific sages it would long have., died, of starvation'/ Should any of the many scientific cranks of the old, or. new countries, have had freer access to the country, where they could have practically studied the natural wants of the animal, their un- reasonable theories would have soon vanished before the light of nature. The author once knew a man to live to be over one hundred years of age, who had been an in- veterate user of both tobacco and whisky almost from his youth, but do not feel that he has any right to recommend their use for longevity. Ac- cidents are liable to happen in the worst, as well as in the best, of families, and that an occasional INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 37 grain of salt is a natural necessity to the good health of all but strictly carnivorous animals. Look at the spirit of patriotism, bravery and daring so recently exhibited by our own country in rushing to the suffering Cubans (though more recently cooled by gross neglect and abuse by in- heritedly corrupt officials both military and civil) no doubt inherited from their fathers one genera- tion ago, from the effects of the war of the rebel- lion, also the poor Cuban that had inherited the same spirit of freedom, born and bred in them, handed down from sire to son for generations back, preferring even death by starvation, rather than oppression by tyrants. The late deeds of daring, courage and heroism of Dewey, Hobson, Funston and many others of less renown, who are fully as much entitled to glory and honor, by sacrificing their health and in many instances their lives, in the trenches and filthy, neglect- ed and diseased camps outside of the enemies’ country, and say there is not much of the old in- herited spirit, blood and daring, bravery and pa- triotism of their ancestors still warmly flowing in the veins of their gallant sons, and ask where it all originates? While war is to be deplored and depreciated with all its damning, corrupting and demoralizing influences by all who love God and their fellow-man, it, however, not infrequently re- sults in the general good. God even makes the “wrath of man to praise Him,” and then restrains the remainder of that wrath that man may not be justified in “doing evil that good may come.” It often happens that greater calamities are averted 38 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. by the presence of smaller ones. War, therefore, like many other things, seems a necessary evil, or a kind of a military necessity, like financial pan- ics, occurring periodically in all nations and countries, about every generation, in order that great military chieftains and a spirit of patriotism may be bred, born and developed in the coming generations as leaders, the better to protect and defend their national honor, and the interest of the people of the many different nations and tribes of the world, begotten and born with no lack of fighting blood coursing in their veins to defend their homes and adopted country. This influence and spirit is apparent to-day all over our own country, and is certainly a characteris- tic of the American people, “To rush to glory or the grave in the defense of their country’s honor.” The query naturally arises to the thoughtful mind: “When and where did it come from, and how did it originate?” The answer no doubt is: “It is but the effect of Mind over Matter, origi- nating partly from the war of one generation ago, in the spirit of the sires being transmitted to their sons and being developed in a practical way, when an opportunity or necessity presented itself in a righteous and humane cause.’’ Be- sides it affords a fitting opportunity to many of our mushroom and romantic voting Americans to learn and experience some of the sterner reali- ties of life, so that they may be the better enabled to appreciate the comforts and luxuries of their mother’s tables, homes and the many liberties and advantages of their own glorious country, INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 39 as well as the uselessness of an impractical strate- gy board, fighting great naval and land battles on paper, with extravagant salaries, in a fine drawing room, thousands of miles distant from the enemy, instead of on the sea and land, and thus impeding practical and often more capa- ble men. The former of which do not know that the difference between practical and impractical is about the same as between character and rep- utation, or a politician and a statesman, and the modern interpretation of royalty or blue-blood, is the sons of their fathers, or official despotism, and that they may be in the-future the better en- abled to guard against and more fully appreciate an overproduction of red tape, and impractical majors, brigadiers, colonels, generals, staff offi- cers, heartless and incompetent surgeons and in- competent commissary department, also the fla- grant todyism of the press and whitewashing commissions, who, though they may be able to “Fool a part of the people a part of the time, they cannot fool all the people all of the time.” The influences of money over both mind and matter, or matter over mind (the rule works both ways), though much more rapidly startling, for- cible and convincing in its will and corrupting ef- fects, is somewhat similar to the influences of mind over matter in a mental and physical way, showing the trend of future momentous events as an important study to the considerate and thoughtful, of the present day and generation, with all its palpable and corrupting influences over the press and government, both local and 40 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. general, civil and military, as well as private bus- iness, and even religion. It is truthfully recorded “That the evil use of money is the root of all evil,” though it may be like war, and many others evils, considered a nec- essary one, but it seems more susceptible to much greater perversions by the potential ten- dencies of modern times to combination and con- centration. The Czar of Russia’s recent move for an inter- national conference of the leading powers to dis- cuss the feasibility of international disarmament, is unreasonable from the fact there always have been wars, and it is but logical to suppose from the many injustices and oppressions, there al- ways will be wars until the dawn of the millenni- um. It is only history repeating itself from the beginning. It is manifestly evident throughout the entire world, that the present conditions are more provocative to armament, rather than dis- armament. A nation, as a person, who goes armed with revolvers and bowie knives, is much more likely to get into a quarrel than the man who goes unarmed. To be loaded down with deadly weapons is not evidence of peace but war. It is a forecast by signs as inevitable as those which guide the weather predictions of the gov' ernment bureau, or those which herald the ap- pearance of land to the sailor at sea, or the signs of the arrival of spring by the small boy on the street with his game of marbles, or the arrival of the song birds from their southern climes, or the INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 41 appearance of candidates and political aspirants prior to an election, with their friendly shake of the hand, and apparent great interest in your per- sonal welfare. One has but now to place his ear to the ground and listen to hear the low rumbling and mutter- ing thunders of discontentment, and spirit of re- venge, from the middle class of home and prop- erty owners, who are beginning to realize they are fast being reduced to tenantry and poverty, of an approaching storm of evolution, or revolu- tion, of some kind, already on deck, within the next generation. In almost all of the now most formidable nations on the globe, the common subjects of which feel they are fast being reduced by its evil and powerful influence to the same serfdom and slavery of Russia and the other older countries of Europe, by the corrupt and tyrannical rulers influenced by the evil use of money. There are too many quarrels yet unsettled, too much partitioning of territory yet to be done, which is a dangerous operation, too many jeal- ousies yet actively at work; and the horizon is yet lowering with dark clouds heavily charged, too thick for a gleam of the millennium dawn to penetrate, to expect a peace conference will yet accomplish anything but further agitation, to in- tercept the use of any new and more powerful weapons or explosives than those now made, and of others in process of construction and inven- tion, to be thrown from balloons in the air above. With the inventive genius of the present times 42 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. and that to be produced in the coming genera- tions, by the close application and study upon the principles and mysteries of the influences of mind over matter, in modern warfare, as everything else, it is but reasonable to the considerate mind to cast his horoscope ahead to predict the bat- tles and wars of the future will not be fought be- tween the great formidable and rival powers of the world, and of a naval nature by the great na- val engines of destruction of life and property, on the coast or sea, but will be more of an internal and rebellious nature and by a still more modern means of appliance for the destruction of life and property, by taking in some way the advantage of the deadly gatling and rapid firing dogs of war, which no two opposing forces dare even now to meet out in the open field or sea. The battle of Omdurman and its wholesale slaughter of theonrushing Dervishes, by the rapid fire guns and repeating rifles have given military strategists a pause. It is safe to say that here- after no military commander who knows his bus- iness will expose his troops in anv large body within the range of an enemy’s rapid-fire attack. To do so would result in a carnage beyond de- scription. A very short exposure to a modern battery of Maxims would literally wipe them out, and there would be left none to tell the tale of what had happened. The Dervishes fought with a blind devotion. They poured a wild, shouting, furious horde in- to a murderous fire, and cross-fire, which it was death to face. Think of the twelve thousand dead INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. and dying followers of the Khalifa who fell in that short conflict—the bloodiest hour in the his- tory of the world—taught the lesson that to en- gage troops at close range means utter annihila- tion, There never will be a charge of the Light Brigade in the face of a Maxim battery supple- mented by modern repeating rifles. It is more probable that war in the future will be a game of chess. An elaborate series of manoeuvres will lead up to a possibly bloodless victory. No gen- eral will dare to place a battalion within range of the enemy’s guns. A hideous mistake on the part of a commanding officer might result in a carnage that would instantly annihilate a regi- ment, and by a blunder of the staff the entire forces of a nation might be wiped out of exist- ence in a short time. Electricity, about which the world knows but comparatively little as yet, sometimes plays an important part in the field of war. Tesla, whose untiring efforts have brought before the public many marvelous results, now claims to be able to control the direction of water crafts at almost any distance. He proposes to guide from New York a boat on the Seine at the Paris Exposition, just to show that in the world of electricity dis- tance is as nothing. Applying the subtle force to torpedoes in war, no vessel would be safe from attack and destruction. So this is, indeed, a “shocking” age, both in peace and war, and some have gone far enough to predict that the time will come when everybody will have to go about completely insulated. 44 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. The new or coming generation, of Americans especially, is sure to be an entirely differently ar- ranged article from the American of the last gen- eration, in that his wants, demands, require- ments, and developments are fast becoming far more extensive and of a far more mutual nature. The relations of war tend to educate on new lines and develop new conditions and demands in mili- tary, civil, social, financial and religious affairs, without any seeming adequate or perceptible preparation, except that one mysterious influ- ence of “mind over matter/’ by the throwing away of many of the older and antiquated ideals which have heretofore been so strenuously main- tained by the older American, and substituting other, and more liberal, modern notions in all lines of improvement and branches of the sci- ences, as well as government. The whole sys- tem of government will need to be reorganized and revised, to suit his wants and demands. There necessarily will have to be a divorce of government from politics to raise it from the den of corruption which it now is. American wants, American demands, American ingenuity, Ameri- can justice, American strategy and freedom can be suppressed only for a time, to rise again in its might to avenge its wrongs. Therefore the re- sort will be to the still more modern and advan- tageous engines of destruction by electricity, poi- sonous gases, smokeless powder, dynamite, ly- phite and hellite. The latter, a more recently new, noiseless, and smokeless explosive, invented by a New York chemist and inventor, of most INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. wonderfully destructive power. The very name itself is significant and suggestive of something- fearful and to be avoided by all evil doers and corruptionists, and many times more destructive than dynamite, hurled from the clouds as it were, by lightning streaks and bolts of thunder, de- stroying the more congested centers of great cities, the hot beds and breeding places of all manner of concupiscence in a few hours in the night time, as with a beason of destruction, and the effectiveness and rapidity of an earthquake. Hence the more sparsely and purer sections will be far the more safer and desirable for business and dwelling. This is the logical conclusion of a conservative man, not by any means an alarmist or pessimist, but simply a careful observer of the signs of the times. Unless something is speedily done to avert it, or bring about a fairer state of justice and wealth it will not be long before this nation will be a nation of hired men and women. It is a subject for serious consideration and much significance that suicides and infanticides are greatly on the increase from the fear of want and destitution, and crimes of less heinous nature by many who prefer the comforts of prison life to the deprivations and suffering from the outside. This is true both in America and Europe. Lon- don prisons are now so crowded with convicts that many victims are being sent to the jails of the provincial towns—a subject upon which the press is comparatively silent. The only question is will free America tamely and quietly submit, as older countries have so far 46 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. been compelled to do. Patriotism, like love, may die a death from which there is no resurrection’ aiTd'"a -republic has especial reasons for guarding well the devotion of its subjects from the blight- ing- frosts of treachery, or the ingratitude of dis- honest rulers, and should be apprehensive lest violence has been done to thousands of generous impulses. It is not for a country’s good for its officials to trifle with its main supporters for sheer love of greed and gain. The strong or extremely wealthy people and corporations might as well learn one time as another that all the people in the world have to live, and it is for them to de- cide whether a large or small proportion are to live independently or live as paupers in the work- houses. We cannot get rid of the unfortunates, and sometime the powerful people will learn it is better to give them a chance to earn a living de- cently and honestly than to crowd them to the wall of oppression and slavery. The higher the official injustice the greater the crime, no mat- ter where the blame for the wrong exists, or what the punishment inflicts upon the guilty. The higher the elevation from which a criminal falls, the deeper and more vile is his condition, and the ig'fleater should be his humiliation and punish- ment, to satisfy justice and avenge the wronged. It is impossible to wipe out existing facts with even a double coat of whitewash. Justice, mercy and humanity are as indelible as vice, crime and brutality. Civil wars, like family fueds, or quarrels, are the most bitter, relentless and fiercely waged. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 47 therefore the necessity of a previous preparation for war in time of peace is the wisest policy to re- tain the proverbial chip on a government’s shoul- der. The courts have fallen under the corrupt influence of a class and have been diverted from justice to injustice. The very nature of their duties and labors at once withdraws the judges from close contact with the people en- gaged in the commoner occupations and forced to struggle for an honest existence. Having so- cial position they naturally fall into the company of others similarly situated. Courtesies from men of great wealth and those who manage vast corporate interests tendered in the most delicate way are never wanting and seldom refused. The study of the progress of the last and pres- ent generation has been most wonderful and marvelous in its developments and can only be attributed to the close application of inventive geniuses produced by the dominating powers of the influence of mind over matter, which it is but fair to presume the same spirit, under more pressing and favorable circumstances and condi- tions, will be more largely manifested, developed, and perfected on the same principle in .the pres- ent and coming generation, in all branches of science and mechanics, though it may seem the field of skill in all lines has already been covered, and so perfected as to be impossible to make any further progress in invention. There are. how- ever, many things that are at present considered improbable, if not impossible, that will be over- come much easier because of the facilities to do 48 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. so, than have the many hitherto seeming impos- sibilities been removed; as has been the case with even the last and present decade, with compara- tively less capabilities and advantages, such as the perfecting of electricity as a motive power, and for heating and illuminating; air and subma- rine navigation, cold and hot compressed air as a motive power, wireless telegraphy, rendering near-by and remote parts of the country even much more accessible than at present, and dis- tance as nothing, rendering the noble horse prac- tically useless, and to exist more as an ornament for pleasure, respect, credit and for the good he has done, than as a necessity. All of these ele- ments are subject to much more improvement and utilization than has yet been accomplished and are within the sight of the coming few .years, unreasonable and impossible as they may now appear. Then will all the elaborate, expensive, and now formidable coast defenses with their six- teen and twenty-inch engines of destruction, appear as nothing, even in the sight of man. Ac- cording to the best scientific military engineers the science of war has now reached such a state of perfection that no possible combination of the world would be able to conquer either England, Russia or America. The world, more especially America, since the war of the Rebellion, has by that silent though mysterious and most powerful influence of “mind over matter,” been making history at rapid strides. On general principles it would not be unreasonable to expect surprising movements INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. to develop much sooner than many of the more confident expect. A convention of corrupt and selfish delegates of the heretofore sovereign peo- ple’s misrepresentative and dominating political bosses for power and place, present and future, for pecuniary and official favors, endorsing everything before, after and about them through fear of the party lash, or an election, municipal, state or national. The bursting of a bubble on the surface of the much watered, over-capitalized and inflated rot- ten stocks of the many rotten trusts of the coun- try, preferred stocks for the preferred people, and common and worthless stocks for the common people, the latter liable to collapse at any moment and produce a financial crisis (if not worse) of an alarming nature. Tc get rid of effects, the cause must first be removed. The iron hand of covetousness, greed, gain and advantage is abroad in the world, as never before, except as in ancient Rome and Athens. The earth, the sea, the air, the city, the country, and even the woods, are full of expectancy and fearful forebodings of something somewhere, somehow, or someway, with a glimmering hope only of a favorable intervention of a kind provi- dence in behalf of suffering humanity. How many times the human race has risen to a state of civilization, approaching, or similar to that of our own, and retrograded to oblivion, with its monuments and histories crumbled into dust, to be unknown to its progeny and its existence unrecorded in our histories, is a matter 50 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. of conjecture. The Pyramids of Egypt, the un- known languages found on tablets of stone in prehistoric ruins and the petrifactions of the Aztecs are evidences that ours is not the first attempt of the human species to establish an enduring civilization here on earth. They have gone! The ruins of their monu- ments mark their once existence! Is ours to go? What we know of the present race is, that somewhere in Asia, near the waters of the Pa- cific, it first assumed the form of government and society; that for a time civilization flourished; men and women grew to a great stature; the fab- rics of the finest silks were woven; philosophers were abundant, and the arts and sciences flour- ished. But where is it now? The citizens of China have left the mark of leprosy where the great Confucius once ruled. Around the Gulf of India, where stately and massive structures marked the civilization that once flourished there, may now be found only ruins and semi- savage tribes. What are the secrets of their downfall? We only know that discord came and society was a failure. The emigrant wagons bore the fleeing lovers of freedom with their wives and children westward. Stopping in Africa the seed of society was again cultivated and attained rel- atively a high degree of perfection. But here, too, the experiment of human gov- ernment failed, and now the pyramids stand as lone sentinels of their departed greatness. Again, those who would escape the distress INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. that comes with deranged society took up their journey eastward and the next stopping place was along the northern shores of the Mediterranean. A few centuries and here, again, liberty and un- stinted energy crowned the efforts of our progen- itors with a civilization that stands out in bold re- lief against the pall of blackness beyond. The hardy yeomanry of Greece and Rome grew to be stalwart men. Theirs was a civilization as great as ours now is, as tested by the principles of hu- manity. But it, too, is gone! Stunted specimens of our race live there in floorless cottages with thatched roofs, separated in time by but a short period from the condition of the Arabs of India or the naked denizens of Africa, whose degeneracy pre- ceded that of Rome. When the iron hand of covetousness was laid upon the people of the Roman Empire, the peo- ple reduced to tenantry and the title to all wealth centered in a few in Rome and Athens—when a pall of distress overhung all—the people emigra- ted into the black forests of the North in search of freedom, and their descendants founded the states of Europe. Again the experiment of hu- man government was begun. Again covetous- ness, the mother of sins, has done its deadly work —and Europe topples to its fall. The same grave in which are buried the more ancient nations of the earth is opening to receive the modern nations of Europe! Such, under the present teachings of the world, must inevitably be their fate! 52 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. In time our forefathers fled from unhappy Europe, and crossing the Atlantic Ocean, set- tled the North American Continent. And here, too, they took up the problem that has baffled the human race—the problem of a perfect and enduring civilization. Shall we, too, fail? God forbid! How many times the human race has encir- cled the globe in a vain effort to find peace, rest and happiness, to degenerate, rot, and again in time begin the struggle over again, we know not; but we do know that the race of which we have a history began in Asia, has encircled the world and now stands at bay in the United States facing a storm of despotism blowing from the East. There is no other country to which we can fly. The circuit of the earth has been made. The proud and free spirits that have heretofore aban- doned the struggle to hew for themselves new homes in the forests of the unexplored countries, must now go down in the awful maelstrom that threatens to engulf us, or, struggling with us, save the land of their adoption from the common fate of nations. Here, too, covetousness is turning over to the few the wealth of the nation. Less than one per cent of the people own more than fifty per cent of the wealth of the country. In the cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago over ninety per cent of the families are tenants. Our jails and penitentiaries are crowded. The census returns show an alarming increase in suicides and insanity, all portending the breaking down of our INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 53 civilzation. A vain and selfish aristocracy is ris- ing-, and a clamor for an increase in the standing army is with us to hold down the distressed and restless masses. Taxes are increasing, and the ability of the property owners to discharge their obligations to the Government is yearly made more difficult. The men who own money and securities and who evade their taxes are continu- ally insisting upon their method of government. The people are being threatened and cajoled by turns. All these things have been with nations that have preceded us, as they plunged onward to their ruin. Here, too, we have the apologists for these conditions. The men engaged in plundering the people are acting just as their kind acted when plundering the nations of Asia, Africa and Eu- rope. With crime, suicides and insanity increas- ing at an alarming rate, they tell us that civiliza- tion is advancing. With the people losing their homes and tenantry increasing they tell us that times are prosperous. Economic errors are in our school books, and the policy of eighty per cent of our newspapers and magazines is directed by commercial instinct and the spirit of a mammonism. In the midst of this assault upon the integrity of the nation they inculcate in the breasts of the people that false pride and boasting vanity which, with nations as with individuals, goes before a fall. It has been thus with the nations that have gone before us, and so it will be with us unless we find a method 54 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. to save our people from the common fate of ether people. What is the remedy? There must be a marked departure from old methods. We must have cor- rect principles. One of them should be this: The true purpose of government is to encourage the development of the human race—physically, mentally and morally. Another this: Man serves himself best by promoting the common good. And another this: Cruelty begets cruelty and kindness begets kindness. We must mean what we say, and our creed must be—To emancipate mankind. To abuse those who oppose us is not right—we seek to save them along with our- selves. They are not to be blamed for their opin- ions—they are the product of their environments. If you had been raised as they have been, among the same surroundings, you would, probably, be as they are. To abuse the rich will make no headway—direct your analysis to the conditions that make one man enormously rich while mak- ing a thousand poor. Those who abuse the rich, as a rule, would act as the rich act were the situ- ation reversed. A political campaign may be won by abusing our opponents, but it lowers the character of those who use it and prepares them for abusing each other on the first provocation. We should place all public questions on a high plane—with the emancipation of mankind as the ultimate object to- be gained. Abuse begets abuse and sets men to cutting each others throats —it is the devil’s work. We can discuss public questions and point out the fatal results that INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. must follow certain laws without being abusive and without arraying class against class. It should be understood that one who is abusive has a weak cause. When abuse is no longer used men will learn to be self-reliant and depend upon sound reasoning for the conclusions they reach. Let us point to the fact that people, as a rule, do' not understand the effect of laws on civiliza- tion; and get them to study those laws. The whole creation and all the manifestations of the spiritual, intellectual and even the physi- cal forces are now in a transitional period as nev- er before. Even trade and methods of business that have been pursuing their customary ways for centuries are paralyzing individual effort and puzzling the lawmakers of the earth. Storm cen- ters of labor and capital are gathering over against each other, threatening the very integrity of the industrial firmament of man. The late ap- pearances of the hitherto unsuspected intellectual and physical forces, but add Titans of unknown strength to the conflict toward which all the world is consciously or unconsciously rushing. He who observes and reflects on matters of church and state feels this condition in the very pulsing ether, the like of which history does not disclose. No human wisdom can say what mean the great and increasing aggregations of capital, now sufficient to buy kingdoms. If these shall be arrayed against the empty hands of labor, then shall mass collide with mass, and who can pre- dict the end thereof? We see no commanding 56 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. spirit of compromise in these approaching and threatening avalanches, which seem destined to involve the whole social system in universal ruin before the young men of this generation become three-score and ten years of age. So that the world, as it passes into the twentieth century, meets a perfect whirlwind of world forces which overwhelm the statesman, the philosopher and the historian, and drives them back into the cave of Sinai, while the storms pass the bounds of known law and rush on to a fate that makes the thought- ful tremble. DIFFICULTIES MUST COME. After much reflection, we do not believe it is the specific mission of the church to adjust men to the new conditions of life and action, or, in a temporal sense, to safety them against the Atlan- tic storms of capital and labor. These storms will be terrific, but they must come. They are brewed in the selfishness of the human heart, and each succeeding one shall prove more destructive than its predecessor. The new conditions which shall whirl us into the twentieth century, uncor- rected by the gospel, shall forge unbreakable chains for the spirits, minds and bodies of men. There is a charm in the power of union and in the exhibition of strength, but, unless it is a union of strength uncemented with selfishness, it will crumble by whatsoever law it may have been INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. This, of course, may be considered somewhat of a digression, and is only given as a sort of fore- caster or prediction from the signs of the times, from the smouldering elements of discontent, un- rest and dissatisfaction and feeling of oppression, obtained from a close and long association and intermingling with the great middle class of com- mon sense and already tax-ridden people, who do not only feel, but know they are being unjustly burdened by burdensome taxes imposed upon them by an extravagant government, both local and general, that is being manipulated by corrupt and tyrannical or thdughtless officials, in the in- terest of great corporations, trusts, and combines, with whom the common people are not allowed or do not have the opportunity to come in touch with the boodling officials, and subsidized press of the country, and are thus being entirely ig- nored in all their interests, with only the freedom to tamely pay bills as they are presented, without a murmur, and without a just hearing from any source. These things being so, it is all the more essential to know how to determine the sex of our future offspring!, to be the better able and prepared to withstand the great coming struggle of life. The principle will not down, even though it may be temporarily “crushed to the ground, it will rise again in its might.” The fight between the plain citizen and the gormandizing watered trusts and vultures and law-defying corporations cannot help but be severe. It is now uninten- tionally and unguardedly admitted by the press that has assisted very materially in bringing 58 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. about this state of affairs; that these things can- not continue indefinitely in a free republic. Consumers and the creators of wealth are ab- solutely at the mercy of power, that has set itself up to be greater than the people, and stronger than the government, and expensive investiga- tions are nothing but mockery and modern pow- wows to hoodwink the people. The Czar of Russia has recently admitted he is helpless and tired of life, and the world, and its fetes, its lies, its hypocrisies, and wishes he was out of it. These are only a few facts given for the consider- ation of the more thougtful; which cannot be es- caped, only by the burying of one’s head in the sand, like an ostrich, and entirely ignoring them. There should be no such a word or phrase as subjects, or subject races in the vocabulary of a free and patriotic country unless it be applicable to the official instead of the people. It should serve as a warning against the germs of imperial- ism and despotism. The reversal of the phrase is more appropriate and should be the rule. Even with the assurance of an alliance of the Anglo-Saxon races, whether it abides under the Stars and Stripes or Union Jack, “that there is no other combination of forces can make us afraid, is false.” It is the combination of forces within that causes the explosion to do the effective work without. It is evidently only the manifestations of the latent and mysterious forces and influence of mind over matter, or matter over mind, to gen- erate and develop later on into an evolution, or revolution, the nature of which, time only can INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 59 tell. Not being- an anarchist, or socialist, neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a believer in a gov- ernment that is not for the greatest good for the greatest number cannot long peaceably exist. The condition of the country in regard to trusts alone is, indeed, alarming. It does not require the divine inspiration of an Isaiah, a Jeremiah, or a Daniel to foretell the' baneful effect of the injustice of ten per cent of the world’s population, ruling by their might, the rights of the other ninety per cent. The only question is, “How long will it be till the time: of great tribulation, if not ‘The time of the end’.” “The voice of the people is surely the voice of God,” and should be heeded. Protection that protects the strong, as against the weak, as well as greed and gain, is but a huge octopus that is fast encircling in its crushing and deadly tentacles around the plain people and common business man, which is, in fact, the nerve and bone of the country, and heretofore the nation’s defenders. The authorities seem helpless or indifferent, as yet, even in attempting any relief to its main protectors. These deadly tentacles must soon be severed, if in no other way than by fire and sword, or by some fearful shock within, to loosen its deadly grasp. Though this may seem somewhat of a digres- sion, it is given only as some of the natural ef- fects and consequences of “Mind over Matter” in human form and affairs, which is fast being pro- duced in the present and coming generation of burden-bearers and bill-payers. 60 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. Jails, penitentiaries, armies and navies are not the country’s best defenses. The well-protected and guarded home is the best fortress of a nation. The hearth stone and the fireside of the well reg- ulated family is the firmest foundation of a coun- try’s safety, triumph and future destiny. Acts of injustice are but adding fuel to the disposition of the people, as individuals, to ignite ten, twenty, thirty years hence. Household utensils are bet- ter weapons for peace than Sharps rifles or gat- ling guns. The same storm that wrecks the ship in which the family sails will sink the great ship of state. There is nothing more infallible than “Coming events cast'their shadows before them,'’ though they may”not always" bd"hbuceabtC to the less observing and more thoughtless minds. The common yoemanry of the country and owners of homes, are not haters of money and wealth, but are doubters of the honesty of all who do; and they are haters of those who do not understand or ignore the phrase “Live and let live,” and are in favor of “equal and exact jus- tice to all,” and opposed to especial privileges and favors to the few, or the dollar before the man, instead of the man before the dollar. It does not take any great stretch of imagination, or extra keen perception to forecast under the manage- ment of trusts how long it will take to become one huge combine controlling not only the neces- sary commodities of life, but the courts and state or national legislature in their own interest, and thus rule or fix prices on everything in common use by the common people, by taking away their INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. identity and make them a nation of hirelings and employes. It will not only take away the hope of the youth,but the middle-aged of the country who have labored hard and long to build the great country it has heretofore been. These poisonous and detrimental influences over the present and coming generations are already very perceptible to the casual observer, and are being developed rapidly on the principle of influence of mind over matter. The nature and tendency of a large per cent of the modern literature of the recent past and present day and age, such as the leading magazines, and more especially newspapers, which are far more closely read and studied than any other, indeed they are so numerous that few have time to devote to any other literature, have a predisposition to educate and influence the youth to romance and adventures, if not military life. War, and its attendant excitements have a wonderfully stimulating effect upon the press of the country, and more especially the American magazines, which are read and studied with an intense avidity by parents, who in turn allow their children of very premature years to, with the same eagerness, to study and read the cuts,or pictures, from infancy up, thus forming the first and more lasting, perhaps predisposing impres- sions, to deeds of heroism, romance and adven- ture, or anything but the more quiet and unex- citing civil life. The influence of sowing this seed in young and fertile soil, or mind, is tremendous, and the reap- 62 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. ing of its harvests is sure to be of the same nature as the seed sown—disastrous. The hopes of freedom cannot be torn from the minds and hearts of the plain people, that the freedom of the American republic has planted within them. The urgent appeal, “Give me lib- erty or give me death” still echoes around the world. In the future, as in the past, the desire to be free will grow stronger than the desire for a mere physical existence. Therefore the conflict will continue here, and everywhere else, until a day is reached when the love of money will no' longer sear the national conscience “as with a hot iron,” and hypocrisy will no longer hide its hideous features of greed and avarice behind the mask of philanthropy. The following extracts from leading men and periodicals, and opinions of prominent men on the many silent, dangerous signs and “tendencies of the times,” which have in the past, present, and will continue in the future, with more force and effect, to produce that silent and mysterious, though most powerful, effect for good or evil, upon the present and future gener- ations, is given to show the effects of mind over matter; to all believers in a beneficent Provi- dence to prepare the way for the coming of the great Prince of Peace may be interesting. If it is true “God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps upon the sea And rides upon the storm,” INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 63 However, we do not attempt to solve the mys- teries of divine Providence, but when we see the hitherto unknown rush orders for munitions of war and battleships throughout the world, it is easy to know what it portends, notwithstanding all the peace conferences, which are only sugges- tive of the great fear and alarm of something in the no distant future. It is a truth that the world at the present time is living in such a constant] state of suspense and expense, never before known in its history, hoping and praying for a better condition of things. Whether they are doomed to die in despair, “time” the great arbi- ter of all things can only tell. The old doctrine of “No man can tell what an hour will bring forth” has been proven many times by demon- stration. So it is reasonable only to judge by the tendencies and signs of the times and bide the time. Senator Ingalls writes:— “Liberty is something- more than a name. He who depends upon the will of another for shelter, clothing and food cannot be a free man in the broad, full mean- ing of that word. The man whose daily bread for him- self and family depends upon wages that an employer may give or withdraw at pleasure is not free. The al- ternative between starvation and submission to a schedule is slavery. “Freedom does not consist in definitions. The decla- ration that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are the inalienable rights of every human being makes no man Independent. The right to liberty is an empty mockery and delusion unless the power to be free exists also. Freedom is not merely the removal of legal restraints, the permission to come or go. Added to these must be the capacity and the opportunity, 64 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. which only exemption from the necessity of incessant daily labor can bring. To paraphrase Shakespeare, Poverty and Liberty are an ill-matched pair. Freedom and dependence are incompatible. The abolition of poverty has been the dream of visionaries and the hope of philanthropists from the dawn of time. “The inequality of fortunes and the obvious injustice of the unequal distribution of wealth among men have been the perplexity of philosophers. It is the unsolved enigma of political economy! Civilization has no para- dox so mysterious as the existence of hunger when there is an excess of food—of want in the midst of superfluity. That one man should have possessions be- yond the capacity of extravagance to squander, and another, able and willing to work, should perish for want of embers, rags and a crust, renders society unin- telligible. It makes the charter of human rights a logogriph. So long as such conditions continue the key to the cipher in which destiny is written is not revealed —the brotherhood of man is a phrase, justice is a for- mula, and the divine code is illegible. “The exasperation of the poor at the insolent osten- tation of the rich has overthrown empires. The relief of the needy has been the object of statutes human and divine. The complaints of the wretched are the burden of history. Job was a millionaire. Whether that incomparable production bearing his_ name is a parable or a biography, it is of profound interest, be- cause it shows that the patriarch was occupied with the same questions that disturb us now. He describes, like a Populist, those who take the ass of the orphan and the ox of the widow, remove the land-marks, reap the field and gather the vintage of the poor, whom they deprive of their garments and leave naked to the show- ers of the mountains and the shelter of the rocks. “The Hebrew prophets reserved their choicest male- dictions for the extortions and luxury of the rich, and Moses prescribed regulations for the remission of debts, the redistribution of lands and the restriction of pri- vate fortunes. In Rome, for centuries, the ownership of real estate was limited to 300 acres to each citizen, and the number of cattle and slaves was restricted to INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 65 the area cultivated. But the laws given by the Al- mighty, through Moses, to the Jews, were as inoperative as the_ codes of Lycurgus and Licinius against the indomitable energies of man and the organic condi- tions of his being. “At the time of Caesar 2,000 plutocrats practically owned the Roman Empire, and more than 100,000 heads of families were mendicants, supported by dona- tions from the public treasury. The same struggle has continued through the Middle Ages into the nineteenth century. There is no remedy prescribed to-day that has not been ineffectually administered to innumerable patients before: no experiment in finance and political economy proposed that has not been repeatedly tried, with no result but individual disaster and national ruin. “At last, after much random groping and many bloody and desperate combats with kings and dynas- ties, privilege, caste and prerogative, old abuses, for- midably intrenched orders, titles and classes, the ulti- mate ideal of Government has here been realized, and the people are supreme. The poor, the toilers, the laborers are the rulers. They make the laws, they form the institutions. Louis XIV. said, T am the State,’ Here the wage-workers, the farmers, the blacksmiths, the fishermen, the artisans say, ‘We are the State.’ Confiscation and pillage and the enrichment of royal favorites are unknown. Every man, whatever may be his nativity, his faculty, education or morality, has an equal chance with every other in the race of life. Leg- islation, whether good or bad, is enacted by the ma- jority. “Less than a century ago the social condition in the United States was one of practical equality. In our first census period there was neither a millionaire, a pauper nor a tramp in the country. The first American citizen to pass the million-dollar goal was the original Astor, about 1806, who had migrated from Germany not many years before, the son of a butcher, with a pack of Pelts as the foundation of his fortune. The largest estate before this time belonged to George Washington, which at his death, in 1799, was appraised at about $650,000. 66 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. “The mass of the people were farmers and fisher- men, living contentedly upon the products of their toil. Ihe development of the continent by the introduction of railroads, agricultural machinery and the scientific applications of modern life has made us the richest na- tion on earth. The aggregate possessions of the coun- try probably exceed $100,000,000,000, one-half of which is said to be under the direct control of less than 30,000 persons and corporations. The largest private fortunes in the world have been accumulated in the last half century in the United States. “And our material resources are yet hardly touched. Less than a fourth part of our arable area has been ploughed. Our mines hide treasures richer than those of Ophir and Potosi. Our manufactures and commerce are adolescent, but they already have established an aristocracy of wealth that wears neither garter nor cor- onet, and is proclaimed by no herald, but often is wel- comed in the courts of princes and the palaces of kings. “If the unequal distribution of the burdens and bene- fits of society depends upon legislation, institution and government, then under a system like ours the equilib- rium should be restored. If wealth results from unjust laws, and poverty from legislative oppression, the rem- edy is in the hands of the victims. If they suffer it is from self-inflicted wounds. We have no feudal tenures, no primogeniture, nor entail; no opportunities that are not open to all. Justice, equality, liberty and fraternity are the foundations of the State. In every man’s hand is the ballot. The school offers education to all. The press is free. Speech, thought and conscience are un- fettered. “But universal suffrage has- not proved a panacea for the evils of society. Poverty is not abolished. Though wealth has accumulated beyond the dreams of avarice, the inequality of distribution is as great as in the time of Job and Solomon and Agis. Not only is the old problem unsolved, but its conditions are com- plicated and intensified. Vaster political power is con- solidated in the hands of the few, and more stupendous fortunes acquired by individuals under a republic than under a monarchy. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. “The great gulf between the rich and the poor yawns wider and wider day by day. The forces of labor and capital, which should be allies, auxiliaries and friends, are arrayed against each other like hostile armies in fortified camps, preparing for siege of battle. Millions of money are annually lost in wages, the destruction of perishable property, the deterioration of plants and the decrease of profits by the strikes and lockouts which have become the normal condition of the war between employers and employees. “Utopia is yet an undiscovered country. Ideal per- fection in society, like the mirage of the desert, recedes as it is Approached. Human nature remains unchanged in every environment. “The condition of the masses is immeasurably bet- tered with the advance of civilization. The poorest artisan to-day has free enjoyment of comforts and con- veniences that monarchs with their treasures could not purchase five centuries ago. But De Toqueville ob- served the singular anomaly that as the state of the masses improves, they find it more intolerable, and dis- content increases. Wants and desires are multiplied more rapidly than the means of gratification. Educa- tion, daily newspapers, travel, libraries, parks, galleries and shop windows have widened the horizon of work- ingmen and women, increased their capacity for enjoy- ment, familiarized them with luxuries and the advan- tages of wealth. Political instruction has taught them the equality of man and made them acquainted with the power of the ballot. False teachers have convinced them that all wealth is created by labor, and that every man who has more than he can earn with his hands hy daily wages is a thief, that the capitalist is a foe, and the millionaire a public enemy who should be out- lawed and shot at sight. . “Great private fortunes are inseparable from high civilization. The richest community in. the pgr capita, at this, time is. .the, lndians. Its aggregate wealth is ten times greafer, proportionally, Ihan that of the United States. It is held in common. Community of property may not be the cause of bar- barism, but in every State, as social and economic INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. equality is approached, and wealth “created by labor” without the intervention of capital, as in China and India, wages are low, the laborer is degraded and prog- ress impossible. Were the wealth of the United States equally distributed among its inhabitants at this time the sum that each would possess, according to the cen- sus, would be about $l,OOO. “Were this equation to continue, progress obviously would cease. Had this been the prevalent condition from the beginning, we should have remained station- ary. Only as wealth becomes concentrated can nature be subjugated and its forces made subservient to civili- zation. Until capital, through machinery, harnesses steam, electricity and gravitation, and exempts man from the necessity of constant toil to procure subsist- ence, humanity stands still or retrogrades. Railroads, telegraphs, fleets, cities, libraries, museums, universi- ties, cathedrals, hospitals—all the great enterprises that exalt and embellish existence and ameliorate the condi- tions of human life—come from the concentration of money in the hands of the few. “Even if it were desirable to limit accumulations, so- cietv possesses no agency by which it can be done. The mind is indomitable. The differences between men are organic and fundamental. They are established by or- dinances of the Supreme Power and cannot be repealed bv act of Congress. In the contest between brain and number, brains have always won, and always will. “The social malady is grave and menacing, but the disease is not so dangerous as the doctors and tie drugs The political quacks, with their sarsaparilla and plasters and pills, are treating the symptoms instead of the complaint. The free coinage of silver, the in- crease of the per capita, the restriction of immigration, the Australian ballot and qualified suffrage are impor- tant questions, but they might all be accomplished with- out effecting the slightest amelioration of the condition of the great masses of the wage-workers of the United States. Instead of disfranchising the poor ignorant it would be well to increase their wealth and their intelli- gence, and make them fit to vote. A class inevitably becomes conspirators, and free institutions INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 69 can only be made secure by the education, prosperity and contentment of those upon whom their existence depends.” Here is a statement of facts; but where is the statement of the remedy? There is none. Yet the writer is not in sympathy with the facts to which he calls attention: he would prefer, if he could, to call attention to a way of escape from what he sees inevitable. So would all men who are worthy of the human form and nature. So far as Mr. Ingalls is concerned, this is evidenced by the following extract from one of his speeches in the United States Senate. (Congressional Record, Vol. 7, pp. 1054-5.) He said: “We cannot disguise the truth that we are on the verge of an impending revolution. Old issues are dead. The people are arraying themselves on one side or the other of a portentious contest. On one side is capital, formidably intrenched in privilege, arrogant from con- tinued triumph, conservative, tenacious of old theories, demanding new concessions, enriched by domestic levy and foreign commerce, and struggling to adjust all val- ues to its own gold standard. On the other side is la- bor asking for employment, striving to develop domes- tic industries, battling with the forces of nature and subduing the wilderness. Labor, starving and sullen in the cities, resolutely determined to overthrow a system under which the rich are growing richer and the poor are growing poorer—a system which gives to a Van- derbilt or Gould wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, and condemns the poor to poverty from which there is no escape or refuge but the grave. Demands for justice have been met with indifference and disdain. The la- borers of the country, asking for employment, are treated like impudent mendicants begging for bread.” the social elements peepaelng fob the steife. Looking about ns we see the ‘elements’ preparing for the strife of this day—the fire of God’s wrath. Sel- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. fishness, knowledge, wealth,, ambition, hope, discontent, fear and despair are the ingredients whose friction will shortly set aflame the angry passions of the world and cause its various social “elements’ to melt in the fer- vent heat. Looking out over the world, note what changes have taken place in respect to these passions during the past century, and especially during the past forty years. The satisfied contentment of the past is gone from all classes,—rich and poor, male and female, educated and ignorant. All are dissatisfied. All are sel- fishly and increasingly grasping for ‘rights’ or be- moaning ‘wrongs.’ True, there are wrongs, grievous wrongs, which should be righted, and rights that should be enjoyed and respected: but the tendency of our time, with its increase of knowledge and independence, is to look only at the side of questions closest to self-inter- est, and to fail to appreciate the opposite side. The effect foretold by the prophets will be ultimately to set every man’s hand against his neighbor, which will be the immediate cause of the great final catastrophe. God’s Word and providence and the lessons of the past are forgotten under the strong convictions of personal rights, etc., which hinder people of every class from choosing the wiser, moderate course, which they can- not even see because selfishness blinds them to every- thing out of accord with their own prejudices. Each class fails to consider with impartiality the welfare and rights of the other. The golden rule is generally ig- nored; and the lack of wisdom as well as the injustice* of this course will soon be made manifest to all classes, for all classes will suffer terribly in this trouble. While the rich are diligently heaping up fabulous treasure for these last days, tearing down their store- houses and building greater, and saying to themselves and their posterity, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; eat, drink and be merry,” God through the prophets, is saying, “Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things to which thou hast provided?” Yes, the dark night predicted is fast approaching; and, as a snare, it shall overtake the whole world. Then, indeed, whose shall these hoarded treasures be, INFLUENCE of mind over matter. 71 when, m the distress of the hour, “they shall cast their silver in the streets and their gold shall be removed?” “Their silver and their gold shall not be able to de- liver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord, . . . because it is the stumbling block of their iniquity.” THE HEAPING OP TREASURES, It is evident that we are in a time pre-eminent above all others for the accumulation of wealth, and for “wanton” or extravagant living on the part of the rich. Let us hear some testimony from current literature. If the point is conclusively proved, it becomes another evidence that we are in the “last days” of the present dispensation and nearing the great trouble which shall eventually wreck the present order of the world and usher in the new order of things under the Kingdom of God. The Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone, in a speech recently reported, after referring to the present as a “wealth- producing age,” said:— “There are gentlemen before me who have witnessed a greater accumulation of wealth within the period of their lives than has been seen in all preceding times since the days of Julius Caesar.” Note this statement by one of the best informed men in the world. This fact, so difficult for us to compre- hend—that more wealth has been produced and accu- mulated during the past fifty years than during the pre- vious _ nineteen centuries—is nevertheless shown by statistics to be a very conservative estimate, and the new conditions thus produced are destined to play an important part in the readjustment of the social order of the world now impending. The Boston Globe, Dec. 23. ’9O, gave the following account of some of the wealthy men of the United btates:— The twenty-one railroad magnates who met in New *ork on Monday, to discuss the question of railroad INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. competition, represented $3,000,000,000 of capital. Men now living can remember when there were not half a dozen millionaires in the land. They are now num- bered 4,600 millionaires and several whose yearly in- come is said to be over a million. “There are in New York City, at a conservative cal- culation, the surprising number of 1,157 individuals and estates that are each worth $1,000,000. There are in Brooklyn 162 individuals and estates each worth at least $1,000,000. In the two cities there are then 1,319 millionaires; but many of these are worth much more than $1,000,000—they are multi-millionaires, and the na- ture of these great fortunes is different, and they there- fore yield different incomes. The rates of interest which some cf the more conspicuous ones draw are reckoned in round numbers, thus: John D. Rockefeller’s, 6 per cent; William Waldorf Astor’s, 7 per cent.; Jay Gould’s estate, which, being wrapped up in corporations, is still practically undivided, 4 per cent.; Cornelius Vander- bilt’s, "5 per cent., and William K. Vanderbilt’s, 5 per cent. “Calculating at the foregoing rates and compounding interest semi-annually, to allow for reinvestment, the yearly and daily incomes of the four individuals and of the estates named are as follows: Yearly. Daily. William Waldorf Astor $8,900,000 $23,277 John D. Rockefeller 20,8=53 Jay Gould’s Estate 4,040,000 11,068 Cornelius Vanderbilt 11,090 William K. Vanderbilt 3-795.000 io,397 The above is evidently a conservative estimate, for not long since it was noted that Mr. John D. Rocke- feller’s quarterly dividend on Standard Oil Company’s stock, of which he is one of the principal holders, was represented by a check for four millions of dollars; and this is only one of his many investments. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. The Niagara Falls Review not long ago contained the following:— “One of the greatest dangers which now menace the stability of American institutions is the increase of in- dividual millionaires, and the consequent concentration of property and money in single hands. A recent arti- cle in a prominent paper of New York State gives fig- ures which must serve to draw general attention to the evolution of this difficulty. The following are said to be the nine greatest fortunes in the United States:— William Waldorf Astor $150,000,000 Jay Gould John D. Rockefeller Cornelius Vanderbilt. 90,000.000 William K. Vanderbilt Henry M. Flagler 60,000,000 John L. Blair Russell Sage 50,000.000 Collis P. Huntington Total “Estimating the yield from these immense sums in accordance with the average interest obtained upon other similar investments, the following would be the proceeds: Yearly. Daily. Astor $25,027 Rockefeller 16,003 Gould 11,068 Vanderbilt, C 12,477 Vanderbilt, W. K 11,090 Flagler 8,318 Blair 3.045,000 8,342 Sage 8,342 Huntington 4:137 “Nearly all these men live in a comparatively simple style, and it is obviously impossible for them to spend more than a portion of their immense daily and yearly revenues. The surplus consequently becomes capital, and helps to build still higher the fortunes of these indi- 74 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. viduals. Now the Vanderbilt family possesses the fol- lowing immense sums:— Cornelius Vanderbilt ... 90,000,000 William K. Vanderbilt .. 80,000,000 Frederick W. Vanderbilt 4 .... 17,000,000 George W. Vanderbilt 15,000,000 Mrs. Elliott F. Sheppard .... 13,000,000 Mrs. William D. Sloane Mrs Hamilton McK. Twombly Mrs. W. Seward Webb .... 13,000,000 $254,000,000 “Still more wonderful are the accumulations made through the great Standard Oil trust, which has just been dissolved.—succeeded by the Standard Oil Com- pany. The fortunes from it were as follows:— John D. Rockefeller $ 90,000,000 Henry M. Flagler William Rockefeller 40,000,000 Benjamin Brewster 25,000,000 Henry H. Rogers Oliver H. Payne (Cleveland) 25,000,000 Wm. G. Warden (Philadelphia) Chas. Pratt estate (Brooklyn) 25,000,000 John D. Archbold Total “It took just twenty years to combine this wealth in the hands of eight or nine men. Here, then, is the danger. In the hands of Gould, the Vanderbilts and Huntington are the great railroads of the United States. In the possession of Sage, the Astors and others, rest great blocks of New York land, which are constantly increasing in value. United and by natural accumula- tion, the fortunes of these nine families would amount in twenty-five years to $2,754,000,000. William Waldorf Astor himself, by pure force of accumulation, will prob- ably be worth a thousand millions before he dies- and this money, like that of the Vanderbilts, will descend m his family as in others, and create an aristocracy of wealth extremely dangerous to the commonwealth, INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. and forming a curious commentary upon that aristoc- racy of birth or talent which Americans consider to be so injurious in Great Britain. “Other great fortunes are in existence or rising, a few only of which may be given:— William Astor Leland Stanford Mrs. Hetty Green... 30,000,000 Philip D. Armour Edward F. Searles J. Pierpont Morgan 25,000,000 Charles Crocker estate 25^000,000 Darius O. Mills Andrew Carnegie 25,000,000 E. S. Higgins estate 20,000,000 George M. Pullman Total ‘Thus we see capital in almost inconceivable sums being vested in a few, and necessarily taken from [the opportunity of] the many. There is no power in man to peaceably settle this vexed question. It will go on from bad to worse.” SOME AMEEICAN MILLIONAIRES AND HOW THEY GOT THEIB MILLIONS, The editor of the Review of Reviews gives what he terms “a few excerpts from a most instructive and en- tertaining paper, the only fault of which is its opti- mistic view of the plutocratic octopus,” in these words:— “An American who writes from intimate personal knowledge, but who prefers to remain anonymous, tells in Cornhill Magazine with much sympathy the story of several of the millionaires of the giant Repub- lic. He claims that even if the four thousand million- aires own among them forty billion dollars out of the seventy-six billions which form the total national wealth, still the balance leaves every citizen SSOO pe-r head as against $330 per head forty-five years ago. He 76 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. argues that millionaires have grown by making other classes not poorer but richer. “ ‘Commodore Vanderbilt, who made the first Van- derbilt millions, was born just a century ago. His cap- ital was the traditional bare feet, empty pocket and be- lief in his luck—the foundation of so many American fortunes. Hard work, from six years of age to six- teen. furnished him with a second and more tangible capital, namely, one hundred dollars in cash. This money he invested in a small boat; and with that boat he opened a business of his own—the transportation of vegetables to New York. At twenty years of age he married, and man and wife both turned money-makers. He ran his boat. She kept a hotel. Three years later he was worth ten thousand dollars. After that his money came rapidly—so rapidly that when the civil war broke out the boy, who had started with one boat, worth one hundred dollars, was able to present to the nation one of his boats, value eight hundred thousand dollars, and yet feel easy about his finances and his fleet. At seventy years of age he was credited with a fortune of seventy millions. “ ‘The Astor fortune owes its existence to the brains of one man and the natural growth of a great nation, John Jacob Astor being the only man in four genera- tions who was a real money-maker. The money he made, as he made it, was invested.in New York City property; the amount of such property is limited, as the city stands upon an island. Consequently the growth of New York City, which was due to the growth of the Republic, made this small fortune of the eight- eenth century the largest American fortune of the nine- teenth century. The first and last Astor worthy of study as a master of millions was John Jacob Astor who, tiring of his work as a helper in his father’s bucher’s shop in Waldorf, went, about one hundred and ten years ago, to try his luck in the new world. On the ship he really, in one sense, made his whole fortune. He met an old fur trader who posted him in the tricks of Indian fur-trading. This_ trade he took up and made money at. Then he married Sarah Todd, a shrewd, energetic young woman. Sarah and John Jacob dropped INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. into the homely habit of passing all their evenings in their shop sorting pelts. ... In fifteen years John Jacob and Sarah his wife had accumulated twenty-five hundred thousand dollars. ... A lucky speculation in United States bonds, then very low in price, doubled John Jacob’s fortune; and this wealth all went into real estate, where it has since remained.’ “Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins and Collis P. Huntington went to California in the gold fever of 1849. When the trans-continental railway was mooted these four ‘saw millions in it,’ and con- tracted to make the Union Pacific. The four men, penniless in 1850, are to-day credited with a combined, fortune of $200,000,000. “ ‘One of them, Leland Stanford, had designed to found a family; but ten years ago his only son died, and he then decided to establish a university in memory of that son. And he did it in princely fashion, for while yet “in the flesh” he “deeded” to trustees three farms containing 86,000 acres, and, owing to their splendid vineyards, worth $6,000,000. To this he added $14,000,- 000 worth of securities, and at his death left the univer- sity a legacy of $2,500,000—a total gift by one man, to one institution of learning of $22,500,000, which is said to be a “world’s record.” His wife has announced her intention to leave her fortune, some $10,000,000. to the university.’ “The most remarkable instance of money-making shown in the history of American millions is that fur- nished by the Standard Oil Trust;— “ ‘Thirty years ago five young men. most of them liv- ing in the small city of Cleveland (State of Ohio), and all comparatively poor (probably the whole party could not boast of $50,000), saw monetary possibilities in petroleum. In the emphatic language of the old river pilot. “They went in for it thar and then,” and they got it. To-day that same party of five men is worth $600,000,000. . . . John D. Rockefeller, the brain and “nerve” of this great “trust,” is a ruddy-faced man with eye so mild and manner so genial that it is very hard to call him a “grasping monopolist.” His “hobby” now is education, and he rides this hobby in robust, 78 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. manly fashion He has taken the University of Chicago under his wing, and already the sum of seven million dollars has passed from his pockets to the treasury of the new seat of learning in the second city of the Re- public.’ ” In an article in the Forum Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, the New York statistician, gives the names of seventy Americans whose aggregate wealth is $2,700,000,000, an average of $38,500,000 each; and declares that a list of ten persons could be made whose wealth would aver- age $100,000,000 each; and another list of one hundred persons whose wealth would average $25,000,000 each; and that “the average annual income of the richest hun- dred Americans cannot be less Teach] than $1,200,000, and probably exceeds $1,500,000.” Commenting on this last statement, an able writer (Rev. Josiah Strong) says:— “If one hundred workmen could earn each SI,OOO a year, they would have to work twelve hundred or fif- teen hundred years to earn as much as the annual in- come of these one hundred richest Americans. And if a workman could earn SIOO a day he would have to! work until he would be five hundred and forty-seven years old, and never take a day off, before he could earn as much as some American’s are worth.” The following table compares the wealth of the four richest nations of the world in 1830 and 1893: and shows how riches are being “heaped together” nation- ally in these “last days” of this age of almost fabulous accumulation: Total wealth, Total wealth, 1830. 1893. Great Britain ... $50,000,000,000 France 40,000,000,000 Germany 35,000,000,000 United States ... 72,000,000,000 That the reader may have an idea as to how statis- ticians arrive at their conclusions on so vast a subject, INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. we give the following as an approximate classified esti- mate of the wealth of the United States:— Real estate in cities,and towns $15,500,000,000 Real estate other than cities and towns. . 12.500,000,000 Personal property (not hereafter sped- fied) 8,200.000.000 Railroads and their equipments 8.000. 5.300.000. Capital invested in manufactures Manufactured goods 5,000,000.000 Productions (including wool) 3,500,000,000 Property owned and money invested in foreign countries 3,100,000,000 Public buildings, arsenals, warships, etc. 3,000,000.000 Domestic animals on farms 2.480,000,000 Domestic animals in cities and towns... 1,700,000,000 Money, foreign and dometsic coin, bank notes, etc Public lands (at $1.25 per acre) 1,000.000.000 Mineral products (all descriptions) 590,000,000 Total $72,000,000,000 . It is estimated that the wealth of the United States is now increasing- at the enormous rate of forty million dollars per week, or two billion dollars per year. (The total_ indebtedness of the people of the United States, public and private, is estimated to be twenty billion dollars.) This heaping together of treasures for the last days, here noted, relates specially to these United States, but the same is true of the whole civilized world. Great Britain is per capita richer than the United States— the richest nation on earth. And even in China and Japan there are millionaires of recent development. The defeat of China in the recent war with Japan is charged as chiefly due to the avarice of government officers, who are said to have supplied inferior and even imitation cannon and cannon-balls, although paid a large price for the genuine. Of course only a minority of those who seek wealth find it. The rush and strife for wealth is not always rewarded. The bane of selfishness extends far beyond 80 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. the successful, and, as the Apostle said, “They that will be rich [who are determined to be rich at all hazards] fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful desires which drown men in destruction and perdition; for the love of money [wealth] is a root of all evil.” The majority, inexperienced, take the risks and find disappointment and loss: the few, worldly- wise and keen, take few risks and reap most of the gains. Thus, for instance, a “South-African gold fever” has recently spread over Great Britain, France and Germany, and has transferred from the pockets and bank accounts of the middle class to those of the wealthy capitalists and bankers, who take little risk, hundreds of millions of dollars. The result will un- doubtedly be great loss to said middle class so anxious for sudden riches that they risk their all. The tendency of this will be to make many of this usually conserva- tive class discontented and ready in a few years for any Socialistic scheme which promises to be to their advan- tage. THE INCREASE OF POVERTY. But is it true that there are poor and needy people in this land of plenty, in which so many are heaping together such fabulous wealth? Is it not his or her own fault if any healthy man or woman cannot get along comfortably? Would it not tend to cultivate pauperism and dependence if the “well-to-do” should undertake to paddle the canoes of the poorer classes? Thus the subject is regarded by many of the wealthy, who in many instances were poor themselves twenty- five years ago, and who remember that then all who were able and willing to work could find plenty to do. They do not realize what great changes have taken place since then, and that while their fortunes have im- proved wonderfully, the condition of the masses has ret- rograded, especially during the last seven years. True, wages, while lower than formerly, are generally fair, being maintained by Unions, etc,; but many cannot obtain work, while many of those who have situations INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. have work only about half time, and often less, and are barely able by strict economy to live decently and honestly. When special depressions come, as in 1893-6, many of these out of work are thrown upon the charity of their friends, who are illy able to sustain this additional pres- sure; and those who have no friends are forced upon public charities, which at such times are wholly inade- quate. The depression of 1893 passed like a wave over the whole world, and its heavy pressure is still widely felt; though to some a breathing spell of recuperation has come. But, as the Scriptures point out, this trouble comes in waves or spasms,—“as travail upon a woman,” —and each succeeding spasm will probably be more severe,—until the final one. The wealthy and comfort- able; often find it difficult to realize the destitution of the poorest class, which is rapidly becoming more nu- merous. The fact is that even among those of the mid- dle and wealthy classes who do think and fed for the distresses of the very poor there is the realization of the utter impossibility of so changing the present social order as to bring any permanent relief to them; and so each does what little he thinks to be his ability and duty for those nearest to him, and_ tries to discredit or forget the reports of misery which reach his eyes and ears. , . „ The following extracts from the daily press will call to mind the conditions which obtained in 1893, and which before very long will probably be duplicated with interest. The California Advocate said:- “The assembling of the masses in our great cities in multitudinous thousands is a most grue- some spectacle, and their piteous cry for work or bread is being heard all over the land. It is the unsolved problem of poverty, intensified by the unprecedented depression of business. Involuntary is a con- stantly growing evil coincident with civilization. It is the dark shadow that steadily creeps after civilization, increasing in dimensions and intensity as civilization advances. Things are certainly in an abnormal condi- tion when men are willing to work, want to work, and 82 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. yet cannot find work to do, while their very life depends upon work. There is no truth in the old saw that ‘the world owes every man a living.’ ' But it is true that the world owes every man a chance to earn his living. Many theories have been advanced and many efforts have been made to secure inalienable ‘right to work’ to every one willing to work; but all such attempts! have hitherto ended in gloomy failure. He will indeed be a benefactor to mankind who shall successfully solve the problem how to secure to every willing worker some work to do, and thus rid mankind of the curse of involuntary idleness.” Another account describes how, in Chicago, a crowd of over four hundred unemployed men marched through the downtown streets, headed by one of their number carrying a pasteboard sign on which was scrawled the grim legend. “We Want Work.” The next day they marched with many banners bearing the following in- scriptions: “Live and Let Live,” “We Want a Chance to Support Our Families,” “Work or Bread,” etc. An army of unemployed marched through San Francisco with banners on which were inscribed, “Thousands of Houses to Rent, and Thousands of People Homeless,” “Hungry and Destitute,” “Driven by the Lash of Hun- ger to Beg,” “Get Off Our Backs and We Will Help Ourselves,” etc. Another clipping read;— “Newark, N. J., August 21.—Unemployed working- men held a large parade to-day. At the head of the line marched a man with a large black flag, upon which in white letters were the words: ‘Signs of the Times—l Am Starving Because He is Fat.’ Beneath was a picture of a large, well-fed man with a high hat, and beside him a starving workman.” Another journal, referring to the English coal-min- ers’ strike, said:— “The stories of actual distress, and even of starvation, are multiplying painfully throughout England, and the cessation of industries and the derangement of railways are assuming proportions of grave national calam- ity. ... As might be expected, the real cause con- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. sists in the huge royalties that lessees have to pay for the ground to the landlords from which they lease the mines. A considerable number of millionaires, whose coal royalties hang like millstones around the neck of the mining industries, are also prominent peers, and angry public consciousness puts the two things .together with a snap. . . . Radical papers are compiling por- tentious lists of lords not unlike the lists of trusts in America, showing in their figures thir monstrous levies on the earnings of the property of the country. ‘*Thfe cry for bread goes up from the city. It is! deeper, hoarser, broader than it has ever been. It comes from gnawing stomachs and weakened frames. It comes from men who tramp the streets searching for work. It comes from women sitting hopeless in bare rooms. It comes from children. “In the city of New York the poor have reached straits of destitution that have never before been known. Probably no living person understands how awful is the suffering, how terrible the poverty. No one person can see it all. No one’s imagination can grasp it. “Few persons who will read this can understand what it means to be without food. It is one of those things so frightful that it cannot be brought home to them. They say, ‘Surely people can get something to eat some- where, enough to support life; they can go to their friends.’ For the stricken ones there is no ‘some- where.’ Their friends are as destitute as themselves. There are men so weakened from lack of food that they cannot work if work is offered to them.” An editorial in the San Francisco Examiner said;— “Flow is this? We have so much to eat that the farmers are complaining that they can get nothing for it. We have so much to wear that cotton and woolen mills are closing down because there is nobody to buy their products. We have so much coal that the rail- roads that carry it are going into the hands of receiv- ers. We have so many houses that the builders are out of work. All the necessities and comforts of life are as plentiful as ever they were in the most prosperous 84 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. years of our history. When the country has enough food, clothing, fuel and shelter for everybody, why are times hard? Evidently nature is not to blame. Who or what, then, is? “The problem of the unemployed is one of the most serious that face the United States. According to the statistics collected by Bradstreet’s there were at the opening of the year something over 801,000 wage-earn- ers out of employment in the first 119 cities of the Uni- ted States, and the number of persons dependent upon these for support was over 2,000,000. If the 119 cities gave a fair average for the country the total of wage- earners wanting employment on the first of the year would run above 4,000,000 persons, representing a de- pendent population of 10,000,000. As the unemployed seek the cities it is safe to deduct one-fourth from these figures. But even with this deduction the number of wage-workers out of employment is an enormous, heart-rending total. “The hard road of poverty whose end is pauperism has been traveled so long in Europe that the authorities of the Old World know better how to deal with it than the comparatively prosperous community on this side of the water. The wages of Europe are so low that in many States the end of life must be the poorhouse. No amount of industry and frugality can enable the labor- er to lay by a competence for old age. The margin be- tween income and expenses is so small that a few days’ sickness or lack of employment reduces the laborer to destitution. Government there has been forced to deal with it more or less scientifically instead of in the hap- py-go-lucky method familiar to America, where tramps flourish without work and the self-respecting man who falls into need must suffer hunger.” The editor of The Arena says in his Civilization Infer- no:— “The Dead Sea of want is enlarging its borders in every populous centre._ The mutterings of angry dis- content grow more ominous with each succeeding year. Justice denied the weak through the power of avarice has brought us face to face with a formidable crisis INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER 85 whicli may yet be averted if we have the wisdom to be just and humane; but the problem cannot longer be sneered at as inconsequential. It is no longer local; it affects and threatens the entire body politic. A few years ago one of the most eminent divines in America declared that there was no poverty to speak of in this Republic. To-day no thoughtful person denies that this problem is of great magnitude. A short time since I employed a gentleman in New York to personally in- vestigate the court records of the city that he might as- certain the exact number of warrants for evictions is- sued in twelve months. What was the result? The rec- ords showed the appalling fact that during the twelve months ending September i, 1892, twenty-nine thousand seven hundred and twenty warrants for eviction were issued in the city of New York. “In a paper in the Forum of December, 1892, by Mr. Ja-cob Riis, on the special needs of the poor in New York, he says: ‘For many years it has been true of New York that one-tenth of all who die in this great and wealthy city are buried in the pottersfield. Of the 382,530 interments recorded in the past decade, 37,966 were in the pottersfield,’ and Mr. Riis proceeds to hint at the fact known to all students of social conditions who personally investigate poverty in the great cities, that the pottersfield gauge, terribly significant though it be, is no adequate measure by which to estimate the poverty problem of a great city. On this point he con- tinues; “ ‘Those who have had any perspnal experience with the poor, and know with what agony of fear they strug- gle against this crowning misery, how they plan and plo£ and pinch for the poor privilege of being laid to rest in a grave that is theirs to keep, though in life they never owned a shed to call their own, will agree with me that it is putting it low to assume that where one falls, in spite of it all, into this dread trench, at least two or three must be hovering on the edge of it. And with this estimate of from twenty to thirty per cent, of our population always struggling to keep the wolf from the door, with the issue in grievous doubt, all 86 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. the known, if scattered, facts of charity management in New York agree well enough.’ • , “In 1890 there were two hundred and thirty-nine sui- cides officially reported in New York city. The court records are burdened as never before with cases of at- tempted self-slaughter. ‘You,’ said Recorder Smyth, addressing a poor creature who had sought death by leaping into the East river, ‘are the second case of at- tempted suicide that has been up in this court this morning; and,’ he continued, T have never known so many attempted suicides as during the past few months.’ “The night is slowly but surely settling around hun- dreds and thousands of our people, the night of pov- erty and despair. They are conscious of its approach but feel powerless to check its advance. ‘Rents gets higher and work cheaper every year, and what can we do about it?’ said a laborer recently while talking about the outlook. T do not see any way out of it,’ he added bitterly, and it must be confessed that the outlook is dark if no radical economic changes are at hand, for the supply is yearly increasing far more rapidly than the demand for labor. ‘Ten women for every place no matter how poor,’ is the dispassionate statement of an official who has recently made the question of female labor a special study. ‘Hundreds of girls,’ continues this writer, ‘wreck their future every year and destroy their health in the stuffy, ill-ventilated stores and shops, and yet scores of recruits arrive from the country and small towns every week to fill the places vacated.’ And let us not imagine that these conditions are peculiar to New York. What is true of the metropolis is to a cer- tain extent true of every great city in America. Within cannon-shot of Beacon Hill, Boston, where proudly rises the golden dome of the Capitol, are hundreds of families slowly starving and stifling; families who are bravely battling for life’s barest necessities, while year by year the conditions are becoming more hopeless, the struggle for bread_ fiercer, and the outlook more dis- mal. In conversation with these toilers, he said, with a certain pathos and dejection, which indicated hopelessness or perhaps a deadened perception which INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 87 prevented his fully grasping the grim import of_ his words, ‘I once heard of a man who was put in an iron cage by a tyrant, and every day he found the walls had come closer and closer to him. At last the walls came so close together that every day they squeezed out a part of his life, and somehow,’ he said, ‘it seems to me that we are just like that man, and when I see the lit- tle boxes carried out every day, I sometimes say to my wife, There’s a little more squeezed out; some day we will go, too.’ “I recently visited more than a score of tenement houses where life was battling with death; where, with a patient heroism far grander than deeds of daring won amid the exulting shouts of the battle-field, mothers and daughters were ceaselessly plying the needle. In sev- eral homes I noticed bedridden invalids whose sunken eyes and emaciated faces told plainly the story of months, and perhaps years, of slow starvation amid the squalor, the sickening odor, and the almost universal filth of the social cellar. Here one becomes painfully conscious of specters of hunger and fear ever present. A lifelong dread presses upon the hearts of these ex- iles with crushing weight. The landlord, standing with a writ of is continually before their mind’s eye. Dread sickness haunts every waking moment, for to them sickness means inability to pro- vide the scant nourishment which life demands. The despair of the probable future not infrequently torments their rest. Such is the common lot of the patient toiler in the slums of our great cities to-day. On most of their faces one notes an expression of gloomy sadness and dumb resignation. “Sometimes a fitful light flashes from cavernous sock- ets, a baleful gleam suggesting smouldering fires fed bv an ever-present consciousness of wrongs endured. They feel in a dumb way that the lot of the beast of the field is happier far than their fate. # Even though they struggle from dawn far into the night for bread and a wretched room, they know that the window of hope is closing for them in the great throbbing centers of Christendom. Sad, indeed, is the thought that, at 88 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. the present time, when our land is decked as never before with stately temples dedicated to the great Naz- arene, who devoted his life to a ministry among the poor, degraded and outcast, we find the tide of misery rising; we find uninvited poverty becoming the inev- itable fate of added thousands of lives every year. Never was the altruistic sentiment more generally upon the lips of man. Never has the human heart yearned as now for a true manifestation of human brotherhood. Never has the whole civilized world been so profoundly moved by the persistent dream of the ages—the father- hood of God and the brotherhood of man. And yet, strange anomaly! The cry of innocence, of outraged justice, the cry of the millions under the wheel, rises to-day from every civilized land as never before. The voice of Russia mingles with the cry of Ireland. Out- cast London joins with the exiles of all great continen- tal and American cities in one mighty, earth-thrilling demand for justice. ‘.Tn London alone there are more than three hun- dred thousand persons on the very brink of the abyss, whose every heart-beat thrills with fear, whose life-long nightmare is the dread that the little den they call home may be taken from them. Beneath them, at the door of starvation, are over two hundred thousand lives; still further down we find three hundred thousand in the stratum of the starving, in the realm where hunger gnaws night and day, where every second of every min- ute, of every hour of every day, is crowded with agony. Below the starving are the homeless—they who have nothing with which to procure a lodging even in the worst quarters; they who sleep without shelter the year round, hundreds of whom may be found any night on the cold stone slabs along the Thames embankment. Some have a newspaper between themselves and the damp stone, but the majority do not even enjoy this luxury! This army of absolutely homeless in London numbers thirty-three thousand.” Does some one say, This is an overdrawn picture? Let him investigate. If it is but one-half true, it is deplorable! INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. TWO REMARKABLE TYPES OF THE IMPENDING CATASTROPHE. But let no one conclude because these various de- scriptions are not literal, but symbolic, that they may therefore represent merely a battle of words, a quaking of fear, or a trivial storm of human passion. For though controversy, and words of passion and argu- ments will be and are among the weapons used in this battle, especially in the beginning of it, yet it will not end with these. Every prophetic detail indicates that before it ends it will be a most sanguinary conflict, a fierce and terrible storm. We have already observed the typical character of the great tribulation which came upon fleshly Israel in the end of the Jewish age; and now, having come to the parallel period—the har- vest of the Gospel age, we see all the indications of a similar, though much greater trouble, upon “Christen- dom,” its antitype. While the judgments visited upon Judea and Jerusalem were terrible in the extreme, they were only on a small scale as compared with the great tribulation, now fast approaching, upon Christendom, and involving the whole world. The Roman army and regular warfare caused but a small portion of the trouble in the end of the Jewish age, noted as the most terrible on the pages of history, and approached only by the French Revolution. It sprang mainly from national disintegration, the over- throw of law and order—anarchy. Selfishness appar- ently took complete control and arrayed every man against his neighbor—-just as is predicted of the com- ing trouble upon Christendom (in the midst of which the great spiritual temple. God’s elect Church, will be completed and glorified). “Before those days there was no_ hire for man, nor any hire for beast [see margin]; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in, because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbor.” That times have not so changed as to make such a calamity either impossible or improbable in our day is too manifest to require proof. But if any should be 90 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. inclined to doubt it, let them call to mind the great Revolution that only a century ago brought France to the verge of social ruin and threatened the peace of the world. Some have the erroneous idea that the world has out- grown the barbarieties of earlier days, and they rest in fancied security and assume that such calamities as have occurred in the past could not befall the world again; but the fact is that our nineteenth century refine- ment is a very thin veneer, easily peeled off: sound judgment and an acquaintance with the facts of even recent history and with the present feverish pulse of humanity are sufficient to guarantee the possibility of a duplication of the past, even without the sure word of a prophecy, which foretells a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. In the symbolic language of Revelation, the French Revolution was indeed a “great earthquake”—a social shock so great that all “Christendom” trembled until it was over; and that terrible and sudden outburst of a single nation’s wrath, only a century ago, may give some idea of the fury of the coming storm, when the wrath of all the angry nations will burst the bands of law and order and cause a reign of universal anarchy. It should be remembered, too. that that calamity occurred in what was then the very heart of Christendom, in the midst of what was regarded as one of the most thor- oughly Christian nations in the world, the nation which for a thousand years had been the chief support of Papacy. A nation intoxicated with Babylon’s wine of false doctrines in church and state, and long bound by priestcraft and superstition, there vomited forth its pol- lution and spent the force of its maddened rage. In fact, the French Revolution seems referred to by our Lord in his Revelation to John on Patmos as a pre- lude to, and an illustration of, the great crisis now approaching. It should be observed also that the same causes which operated to bring about that great calamity are now operating to produce a similar, but far more ex- tensive revolution, a revolution which Will be world- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 91 wide. The causes of that terrible convulsion have been briefly summed up by the historian as follows;*— “The immediate and most effective cause of the French Revolution must be referred to the distresses of the people and the embarrassments of the govern- ment occasioned by the enormous expenses of the war in which France supported the independence of the American colonies. The profligacy of the court, the dissensions of the clergy, the gradual progress of gen- eral intelligence, the dissemination of revolutionary principles occasioned by the American contest, and the long established oppressions to which the masses of the people were subjected, all contributed to the same effect. . . . Exhausted by oppression, irritated by the continual presence of insulting tyranny, excited to resentment of their wrongs, and instructed in the knowl- edge of their rights, the people of France awakened to one universal spirit of complaint and resentment. The cry of Liberty! resounded from the capital to the fron- tiers, and was reverberated from the Alps to the Pyre- nees, the shores of the Mediterranean and the At- lantic. Like all sudden and violent alterations in cor- rupt states, the explosion was accompanied by evils and atrocities, before which the crimes and the miseries of the ancient despotism faded into insignificance.” Says another historian :t— “First among the causes of the revolution in France was the hostility felt toward the privileged classes—- the king, the nobles and the clergy—on account of the disabilities and burdens which law and custom imposed on the classes beneath them. “The Land.—Nearly two-thirds of the land in France was in the hands of the nobles and of the clergy. A great part of it was illy cultivated by its indolent own- ers. The nobles preferred the gayeties of Paris to a residency on their estates. There were many small land- campaigns of Napoleon, p. 12. tUniversal History (by Prof. Fisher, ofYale College), P- 497 92 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. owners, but they had individually too little land to fur- nish them with subsistence. The treatment of the peasant was often such that when he looked upon the towers of his lord’s castle, the dearest wish of his heart was to burn it down with all its registers of [mortgages]. The clergy had an immense amount of land, seigniorial control over thousands of peasants, and a vast income from tithes and other sources. In some provinces there was a better state of things than in others; but in general, the rich had the enjoyments, the poor carried the burdens. “Monopolies.—Manufactures and trades, although en- couraged, were fettered by oppressive monopolies and a strict organization of guilds. “Corrupt Government.—The administration of gov- ernment was both arbitrary and corrupt. “Loss of Respect for Royalty.—Respect fcr the throne was lost. “Abortive Essays at Reform.—The efforts at political and social reform in France and in other countries, emanating from sovereigns after the great wars, pro- duced a restless feeling without effecting their purpose of social reorganization. “Political Speculation.—The current of thought was in a revolutionary direction. Traditional beliefs in re- ligion were boldly questioned. Political speculation was rife. Montesquieu had drawn attention to the lib- erty secured by the English constitution. Voltaire had dwelt on human rights. Rosseau had expatiated on the sovereign right of the majority. “Example of America.—Add to these agencies the influence of the American Revolution, and of the American Declaration of Independence, with its proc- lamation of human rights, and of the foundation of government in contract and the consent of the people.” In all those leading causes which culminated in the terrors of the French Revolution we see a strong re- semblance to similar conditions to-dav which are rap- idly and surely leading to the foretold similar results on a world-wide scale. Mark the growing animosity between the privileged classes (royalty and aristocracy) and the working classes, the discussions of the rights INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 93 and wrongs of the people, and the decline of respect for both civil and ecclesiastical authority. Note also the revolutionary current of popular thought and ex- pression—the increasing dissatisfaction of the masses of the people with the ruling powers and the institutions of government. And if the American Declaration of Independence with its proclamation of human rights and of the foundation of government in contract and the consent of the people, inspired by masses of the French with a desire tor liberty and independence, it is not surprising that the successful experiment of this government of the people and by the people, for a century past, and the measure of liberty and prosperity here enjoyed, are having their effect upon the peoples of the old world. The ever-continuous tide of emigra- tion from other countries to this country is another evidence of the impression which this experiment has made upon the peoples of other nations. And yet, the liberty and prosperity here enjoyed are far from satisfactory to the people here. They crave a still better condition and are seeking measures to attain it. Nowhere throughout Christendom does this determination assert itself more positively and boldly than here. Every man is on the qui vive to assert his real or fancied rights. The trend of thought here, as elsewhere, is in the current of revolution, and is daily becoming more so. The French Revolution was a struggle of a measure of light against gross darkness; of the awakening spirit of liberty against long established oppression; and of a measure of truth against old errors and superstitions, long encouraged and fostered by civil and ecclesiastical powers for their own aggrandizement and the people’s oppression. And yet, it exhibited the danger of liberty unguided by righteousness and the spirit of a sound mind. A little learning is indeed a dangerous thing. One of Charles Dickens’ stories, the scene of which is laid in the troublous times of the French Revolu- tion, begins thus, and aptly fits the present time, as he suggests;— “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; 94 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolish- ness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of light, it was the sea- son of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way;—in short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” While we see the same causes operating throughout the world to-day, to produce similar results on a more extended scale, we cannot console ourselves with ideas of ancied security, and proclaim Peace! Peace! when there is no peace; especially in view of the warnings of prophecy. In the light of the foretold character of coming events of this battle, we may regard the French Revolution as only the rumbling of distant thunder, giving warning of an approaching storm; as a slight tremor preceding the general earthquake shock; as the premonitory click of the great clock of the ages, which gives notice to those already awake that the wheels are in motion, and that shortly it will strike the mid- night hour which will end the present order of affairs and usher in a new order,—the Year of Jubilee, with its attendant commotion and changes of possession. It did arouse the whole world and set in operation the mighty forces which will eventually utterly overthrow the old order of things. When the conditions are fully ripe for the great Rev- olution a most trivial circumstance may serve as a natch to set on fire the present social structure through- out the whole world; just, for instance, as in the case of the French Revolution, the first overt act, it is said, was the beating of a tin pan by a woman whose chil- dren were hungry. Soon an army of mothers was marching o the royal palace to ask for bread. Beihg refused, they were by the men, and soon the wrath of the nation was kindled and the flames of rev- olution swept the whole land. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER 95 And yet, so oblivions was royalty to the conditions of the people, and so surrounded with plenty and lux- ury, that, even when these outbreaks came, the queen could not comprehend the situation. Hearing from her palace the commotion of the mob, she inquired what it meant, ancT being told that the people were clamoring for bread, she replied, “It is foolish for them to make such an ado about bread: if bread is scarce, let them get cake, it is cheap now.” So striking is the similarity of the present to those times, that the alarm is being sounded by many thoughtful discerners of the signs of the times, while others cannot realize the situation. The cries which preceded the French Revolution were as nothing in comparison to the appeals now going up from the masses all over the world to those in power and in- fluence. Says Prof. G. D. Herron, of lowa College;— “Everywhere are the signs of universal change. The race is in an attitude of expectancy, straitened until its new baptism is accomplished. Every nerve of so- ciety is feeling the first agonies of a great trial that is to try all that dwell upon the earth, and that is tof issue in a divine deliverance [though he fails to see what the deliverance will be. and how it will be brought about]. We are in the beginning of a revolution that will strain all existing religious and political institu- tions, and test the wisdom and heroism of earth’s purest and bravest souls. . . . The social revolution, mak- ing the closing years of our century and the dawning years of the next the most crucial and formative since the crucifixion of the Son of Man, is the call and op- portunity of Christendom to become Christian.” , t^as‘ ca is not heeded; Indeed Is not really neard by any but a helpless minority In power, so great is the din of selfishness and so strong are the ,S °*l cljS^orn- Only the agonies of the coming great ftion .dread course nothing will be more manifest ?f the just retribution which will reveal f°°‘? thl effect the change; to all men the fact that the just Judge of all the earth INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. is laying “judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet.” .. , . The retributive character of the great_tribulation upon fleshly Israel in the harvest of the Jewish age was very marked; so also was that of the French Revolution, and so it will be manifest in the present distress when the climax is reached. The remarks of Mr. Thomas rl. Gill, in his work. The Papal Drama, referring to the retributive character of the French Revolution, suggest also the retributive character of the coming trouble upon Christendom as a whole. He says;— “The more deeply the French Revolution is consid- ered, the more manifest is its pre-eminence above all the strange and terrible things that have come to pass on this earth. . . . Never has the world witnessed so exact and sublime a piece of retribution. . . . If it inflicted enormous evil, it presupposed and over- threw enormous evil. ... In a country where every ancient institution and every time-honored custom dis- appeared in a moment; where the whole social and no- litical system went down before the first stroke; where monarchy, nobility and church were sweat awav almost without resistance, the whole framework of the state must have been rotten: royaltv, aristocracy and priest- hood must have grievously sinned. Where the good things of this world,—birth, rank, wealth, fine clothes and elegant manners.—became worldlv perils, and wordly disadvantages for a time, rank, birth and riches must have been frightfully abused. _ “The nation which abolished and proscribed Chris- tianity, which dethroned religion in favor of reason, and enthroned the new goddess at Notre Dame in the person of a harlot, must needs have been afflicted by a very unreasonable and very corrupt form of Chris- The people that waged a war of such utter extermination with everything established, as to abnh’sh the common forms of address_and salutation and the "ommon mode of reckoning time, that abhored ‘you’ as a sin. and shrank from ‘monsieur’ as an abomination, that turned the weeks into decades, and would know the old months no more, must surely have good reason INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 97 to hate those old ways from which it pushed its depart- ure into such minute and absurd extravagance. “The demolished halls of the aristocracy, the rifled sepulchres of royalty, the decapitated king and queen, the little dauphin so sadly done to death, the beggared princes, the slaughtered priests and nobles, the sov- ereign guillotine, the republican marriages, the Meudon tannery, the couples tied together and thrown into the Loire, and the skins: thtiyß are witllttTeloquent of retribution; they bespeak the solemn presence of Nemesis, the awful hand of an avenging power. They bring to mind the horrible sins of that old France: the wretched peasants ground beneath the weight of imposts from which the rich and noble were free; visited ever and anon by cruel famines by reason of crushing taxes, and then hung up or shut down by twenties or fifties for just complaining of starvation: and all this for centuries! They call to remembrance the Protestants murdered by millions in the streets of Paris, tormented for years by military dragoons in Poi- tou and Bearn, and hunted like wild beasts in the Cevennes; slaughtered and done to death by thousands and tens of thousands in many painful ways and through many painful years. . . . “In no work of the French Revolution is this, its re- tributive character, more strikingly or solemnly appar- ent than in its dealings with the Roman Church and Papal power. It especially became France, which after so fierce a struggle had rejected the Reformation, and perpetrated such enormous crimes in the process of re- jection, to turn its fury against that very Roman Church on whose behalf it had been so wrathful, . . .to abolish Roman Catholic worship, to massacre multi- tudes of priests in the streets of her great towns, to hunt them down through her length and breadth, and to cast them by thousands upon a foreign shore, just as she had slaughtered, hunted down and driven into exile hundreds of thousands of Protestants; . . .to carry the war into the Papal territories, and to heap all sorts 98 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. of woes and shames upon the defenceless Popedom. . The excesses of revolutionary France were not more the punishment than the direct result of the excesses of feudal, regal, and Papal France. “In one of its aspects the Revolution may de de- scribed as a reaction against the excesses, spiritual and religious, of the Roman Catholic persecution of Protes- tantism. No sooner had the torrent burst forth than it dashed right against the Roman Church and Popedom. The property of the Church was made over to the state; the French clergy sank from a proprietary to a salaried body; monks and nuns were restored to the world, the property of their orders being confiscated; Protestants were raised to full religious freedom and political equality. . . . The Roman Catholic relig- ion was soon afterwards formally abolished. “Buonaparte unsheathed the sword of France against the helpless Pius VI. . . . The Pontiff sank into a de- pendant. . . . Berthier marched upon Rome, set up a Roman Republic, and laid hands upon the Pope. The sovereign pontiff was borne away to the camp of infi- dels . . . from prison to prison, and was finally car- ried captive into France. Here ... he breathed his last at Valence, where his priests had been slain, where his power was broken, and his name and office were a mockery and a byword, and in the keeping of the rude soldiers of the commonwealth, which had for ten years held to his lips a cup of such manifest and exceeding bitterness. ... It was a sublime and perfect piece of retribution, which so amazed the world at the end of the eighteenth century: this proscription of the Romish Church bv that very French nation that slaughtered myraids of Protestants at her bidding; this mournful end of the soverism pontiff, in that very Dau- phine so consecrated by the struggles of tltfe Protest- ants, and near those Alpine valleys where the Wald- enses had been so ruthlessly hunted down by French soldiers: this transformation of the ‘States of the Church’ into the _‘Roman Republic:’ and this over- throw of territorial Popedom by that very French nation, which. Just one thousand years ago, had. under Pepin and Charlemagne, conferred these territories, INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. “Multitudes imagined that the Papacy was at the point of death, and asked, would Pius VI. be the last pontiff, and if the close of the eighteenth century would be signalized by the fall of the Papal dynasty. But the French Revolution was the beginning, and not the end of the judgment; France had but begun to execute the doom, a doom sure and inevitable, but long and lingering, to be diversified by many strange incidents, and now and then by a semblance of escape, a doom to be protracted through much pain and much ignominy.” We must expect that the approaching trouble will be no less bitter and severe than these two illustrations, but rather more terrible as well as more general; be- cause (1) present day conditions render each member of the social structure more dependent than ever before, not only for new and increased comforts and luxuries, but also for the very necessities of life. The stoppage of the railroad traffic alone would mean starvation within a week in our large cities; and general anarchy would mean the paralysis of every industry dependent on commerce and confidence (2) The Lord specially declares that the coming trouble will be “such as was not since there was a nation”—nor ever shall be here- after.—Matt. 24:21. But while there is no hope held out that the trouble can be averted, there are instructions given in the Scriptures to such individuals as would hide from the coming storm. (1) The faithful of the Church are promised deliv- erance before the full force of the storm breaks. (2) All who love justice and pursue peace diligently set their house in order, as directed by the Word of the Lord, which says—“ Before the decree is brought forth, before the day pass as the chaff before the wind, yet there be come over you the day of the anger of the Lord, seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth who have fulfilled his ordinances; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.”—Zeph. 2:2, 3. That all such may be awakened to the situation the Prophet Joel calls upon those who see these things to INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. sound an alarm, saying, “Blow ye the trumpet, sound an alarm in my holy mountain [Christendom—profess- edly the holy mountain of kingdom of the Lord], let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” (Joel 2:1.) “Upon the wicked,” says the Pslamist, God “shall rain snares, fire and brimstone [symbols of trouble and de- struction] and a horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup; for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness.”—Psa. 11:3-7. The battle of this great day of God Almighty will be the greatest revolution the world has ever seen because it will be one in which every principle of un- righteousness will be involved; for as truly in this judgment of the nations, as in the judgment of indi- viduals, “there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known.” (Matt. 10:26.) Behold, how, even now, the searchlight of general intelligence is discovering the secret springs of political intrigue, financial policies, religious claims, etc., and how all are brought to the bar of judgment, and by men, as well as by God, declared right or wrong as judged by the teachings of the Word of God—by the golden rule, the law of love, the examples of Christ, etc., all of which are coming into such re- markable prominence in the discussion of these times. The battle of the great day, like every other revolu- tionary war, has its stages of gradual development. Back of every indication of strife are the inspiring causes, the real or fancied national and individual wrongs; next comes a keen appreciation of those wrongs by those who suffer from them; then generally follow various attempts at reform, which, proving abortive, lead to great controversies, wars of words, divisions, strife of opinions, and finally to revenge and strife at arms. Such is the order of the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty. Its general character is that of a struggle of light against darkness, of liberty against oppression, of truth against error. Its extent will be world-wide—peasant against prince, pew against pulpit, labor against capital; the oppressed in arms against injustice and tryranny of every kind; and the INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. oppressors in arms for the defence of what they have long considered to be their rights, even when seen to be encroachments upon the rights of others. “Less than forty years ago troops, in obedience to the commands of their sovereigns, turned their guns upon the people, and shot and bayoneted men, women and even children until blood flowed like water in the streets of Berlin, Vienna, and many other of the capi- tals of the Old World. It was not a mere mob of tramps and toughs with whom the military was called upon to deal, but well-to-do and highly educated citi- zens—professional men, merchants, manufacturers, pol- iticians and legislators—in fact, all that element which goes to make up what is known in the Old World as the ‘Bourgeoise’ and middle classes, who were endeav- oring to secure the political rights solemnly promised to them by the terms of the constitutions decreed by their respective rulers, but which the latter declined to put into force until compelled by the people.” CEOWN OE PEOPLE? BROUGHT TO THE FRONT IN ITALY, “Would the troops, if called upon to-day to fire upon their fellow-countrymen, manifest similar obedience to the behest of the ‘Anointed of the Lord?’ That is a question which at the present moment is occupying to a far greater degree than people in this country might be inclined to believe the attention of the crowned heads of Europe, and it has within the last few days been brought before the public through a reso- lution submitted to the Italian Parliament providing for the substitution of the word ‘national’ for that of ‘royal’ In the official description of the army. The arguments put forward by the supporters of the motion, which was eventually defeated by the Ministerial party, which possesses a majority in the Legislature, were not only logical, but also powerful, and cannot fail to ap- peal strongly to the people of Italy, as well as every other civilized nation, and must assuredly have afforded very serious grounds for reflection to King Humbert and to his brother and sister monarchs.” 102 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. [The article points out that without special commo- tion, the command of the English army has within the past three years been transferred to Parliament, as rep- resented in the Minister of War, whereas previously the army had been directly attached to the crown by reason of its commander being a prince of the royal- blood, who held his office as the Queen's representa- tive. The Queen, it appears, and not unnaturally, sought for a considerable time to retain this remaining prop of sovereignty, but without avail. In France, also, the jealousy of the people for the control of the army is shown by the fact that the appointment of a general as commander-in-chief is refused, and the control held in the hands of a changeable Secretary of War, who represents the party put in power by the ballots of the people. The article proceeds:—] “A conflict of this kind is no longer regarded as im- minent in Italy. But it cannot be denied that some- thing of this nature is apprehended in Germany, and more, especially in Prussia, where monarch and people are daily drifting further apart. That Emperor Wil- liam anticipates some such struggle is apparent from all his recent utterances whenever he has occasion to address his troops, notably at Bielefeld recently, his favorite theme being the duty of the soldiers to hold themselves ready to defend with their life’s blood their sovereign and his throne, not so much against the for- eign foe as against the enemies within the frontiers of the empire, and of the kingdom. In presiding at the ceremony of the swearing in of the recruits, he never fails to remind them that their first duty is toward himself, rather than to the people who pay them, and he is never tired of expatiating on what he describes as the ‘King’s cloth;’ that is to say. the uniform, which he, like many other sovereigns, chooses to regard as the livery, not of the State nor of the Nation, but of the monarch, to whom the wearer is bound by special ties of allegiance, loyalty and blind, unquestioning obedi- ence. Nor must it be forgotten that in all instances of dispute and strife between civilians and military men A CONFLICT IMMINENT IN GERMANY. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. the Emperor always upholds the latter, even when they are shown to be the aggressors, and actually to the extent of either pardoning or commuting the always lenient sentences that have been inflicted upon officers who. while drunk, have seriously wounded, and in some cases, killed, unarmed and inoffensive civilians. ATTITUDE OF THE GERMAN ARMY. “What will be the attitude of the army should the anticipated struggle between Crown and people take place? In court and official circles at Berlin it is be- lieved that the Emperor will be able to rely upon his troops. But this opinion is in no way shared by the people themselves, nor yet by the leading German pol- iticians of the day. The rank and file of the army is no longer composed, as in former days, of ignorant boors, unable either to read, write or even think for themselves, but of thoughtful, well-educated men. who have been taught at school what are the rights and con- stitutional prerogatives for which their grandfathers and fathers fought in vain. They know, too, enough of history to appreciate the fact that in every struggle between the Crown and the people it is always the latter that has ended by carrying the day.” Mr. Ingalls again writing in a leading New York journal gives the following, which is the observation of the author and experience of thousands of the best citizens, showing what marvelous revelations in business have been brought about within the last decade: “The tools to him who can use them,” said Napoleon. “Them as has, gits,” said the Arkansas man, “Everyone for himself, and the devil take the hind- most,” says the nineteenth century. “Root. hog. or die.” says nature. “To him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have,” says God. “All men are created equal,” says the Declaration of Independence. But they are not any more than 104 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. horses are. The hip-shotten, sway-backed, lop-eared street, car steed was not created equal to Ormond, the king of the turf, who cannot be bought for a quarter of a million. Nor Richard Croker to Daniel Webster, nor Alfred Austin to William Shakespeare. Since Adam left Eden, if he did, this has been a tough world for the most of its inhabitants. Not one came into it of his own accord, and few would have come at all had they been consulted! Fewer stil 1 would remain were They sure of anything better some- where else. All being endowed with aspirations for happiness, multitudes find wretchedness, poverty and and disease their only inheritance. Our credentials bear the same sign and seal, but some are born to honor and some to dishonor. Some lie in lilies and roses and walk on velvet, while others equally deserv- ing shiver in rags and sleep in doorways, and stain flinty paths with bloody feet. All desire to succeed, but few reach the goal. There is too much whining and squealing in these degenerate days. Brave men take their medicine with- out either, and endure adversity with fortitude. It would be sardonic to suppose that there is to be no reparation for the elaborate insults of fate, sometime and somewhere. Otherwise, life would be an unintel- ligible, practical joke, played by a being capable only of malignant laughter at his victims. Whatever our errand or mission on this planet, it has long been evident to the impartial critic that we are not here for recreation, and that the brotherhood of man up to this time, as applied to human affairs, is like a phrase drawn out of a hat. Carnage and pillage continue popular, and while in theory our gov- ernment has for its avowed object the greatest good of the greatest number, with most of us the greatest number continues to be number one. Equality of condition, of endowment, of possession has never existed, and the divergences now are wider than ever before. That the inqualities are to increase rather than diminish seems likely, and we must face the consequences. It is apparent also that whatever progress has been INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 105 made hitherto is due wholly to the efforts of individ- uals. States make no inventions. Nations write no poems or dramas. Society is rich or strong or pure only as the individuals of which it is composed are wealthy and powerful and virtuous. Battles are won and lost as the individual soldiers are intrepid or timid. The Decalogue, that statue enacted in the par- liament of the skies and promulgated amid the thun- ders of Sinai, has no effect except as its precepts are obeyed by the individuals to whom they are addressed. So our social and political system rests on individ- ualism; the highest development of the individual as the unit of the state, and, as the correlative of this, the equality of all men before equal laws, and equality of opportunity, so that all shall have an equal chance in this harum-scarum, helter-skelter scrimmage which we call life. No man can ask more than this, and none should be content with less than this. Every arena must be open. Any citizen can enter the ring if he' wishes. If he is put to sleep the first round he can turn to some vocation for which he is better qualified. Aware of the incompatibility of feudalism and lib- erty, of the dangers of unrestricted accumulation of wealth, not only to the individual but to society, and of hereditary limitation of property, our political an- cestors abolished primogeniture and entail, supposing that in this way they had provided for the destruction of great estates and for the free distribution of capital in each generation. They did not foresee the invention of corporations and trusts, fictitious creatures, without souls and yet endowed with earthly immortality—legal monsters in- capable of crime, but that can rob the citizen of his birthright and deprive posterity of its heritage. In the early part of the century my Grandfather Ingalls, of Middleton, Mass., was a blacksmith, as ironworkers were called in those days. On the hearth in my library in Atchison, as the most valued of my ancestral heirlooms stands the old anvil upon which he used to fashion and temper the scythe blades, the hoes and spades, the horseshoes and plow points for his rustic neighbors, when Thomas Jeffer- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. son was president. He was a man of influence and position, an active leader of the local dfemocrary, and died possessed of a comfortable fortune. Today there is not one of the things which he made in his forge that is not manufactured by machinery controlled by trusts, at prices which render individual competition impossible, and the occupation of the blacksmith is gone. My Grandfather Chase, of Haverhill, Mass., about the same time, was a pioneer in the wholesale manu- facture of boots and shoes. The soles and uppers were cut by hand and taken home in sets of sixty pairs by the neighboring farmers, where the women stitched and bound them, and the men pegged and sewed them, in the intervals of toil in the field or forest. Within the life of the man of middle age all the boots and shoes in the world were made by manual labor. My father invented the first machine for cutting soles from leather and for burnishing and finishing the edges and shanks. This has been followed by a multitude of inventions, so that now, with the exception of a few cobblers here and there, no man makes shoes. They are all made in factories by machinery requiring 136 different operations for every shoe, so that the man who makes the heel never sees the toe, and the avoca- tion of the shoemaker is gone; and when by caprice or over production, or under consumption, the factory shuts down, the operatives having no independent handicraft, is thrown out of employment, his wages stop, and he becomes a mendicant or a tramp. In the same way the tailor, the carpenter, the compositor, the weaver, the farm hand have gradually become dis- located. Population is constantly increasing, and the avenues of employment are continually diminishing. I remember a story in my boyhood of a captive, confined in a vast apartment from which there was no escape, who was startled at midnight by the clang of the bell in his prison tower. Waking in the morning, he discovered that there was one less window in his room. The following morning there was another one missing, and thus he became aware that day by day the walls of his cell were closing in upon him, and that INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. sooner or later the discordant bell would toll the hour of his doom. Labor, thus having lost its independence, is becom- ing degraded and discredited and losing its self-respect as well. Society is stratified. Its mobility is disap- pearing. The relations between the rich and the poor are not cordial. The prosperous are tolerant or pat- ronizing. The dependent are sullen. They feel that under existing conditions they do not have equal opportunities. They are right. The race is no longer to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Not long since in a Western state I encountered a gentleman who described himself as an agent of the American Biscuit Trust. He said his duties were to see that no other biscuits or crackers than those made by his employers were sold in the territory in his charge. During our conversation, in response to my curiosity, he mentioned that two Germans who had been bakers in Berlin, having made a few thousand dollars keeping a saloon in Illinois, had concluded to abandon that business and make crackers again. As soon as he heard of their intention he mentioned to them that it would be a losing venture and advised them to desist. But they kept on, supposing they had as much right to sell biscuits as to sell beer and com- menced business, whereupon the agent of the trust hired and adjacent store, stocked it with the trust’s goods, cut the price 10 per cent, and, when this was met, cut again. I asked the result and was told with a complacent smile that in three months the capital of the unsophisticated Germans was gone, and they were financially strangled to death. This was not com- petition. It was crime. It was worse than robbery on the highway, because it lacked the courage of the footpad. In the dominion of the Sultan or the Czar there is no more excreable tyranny, no more abom- inable violation of the fundamental rights of man. At the time this trust was formed there were several bakeries in St. Joseph, Atchison and other towns along the Missouri river. They were compelled to close. The workmen were discharged, and one of the pro- prietors now has a salary for visiting the grocery stores INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. in order to guard against free trade among American citizens in ginger snaps and to prevent smuggling of illicit food into the stomachs of the people. Formerly flax culture was an exceedingly profitable industry in Eastern Kansas. The fibre was valuable for fabrics, and the seed for linseed oil. _ Mills were set up at many towns in the valley, providing a market for the farmers and yielding good returns to the own- ers. When the Linseed Oil Trust was formed, these establishments, either by purchase or strangulation, were suppressed, and flax culture has disappeared as absolutely as though the earth had become incapable of its support. That the hostility to these combinations is not selfish is shown by the fact that in many cases they have cheapened and bettered products and thus helped con- sumers in the struggle for life. The Standard Oil Com- pany has undoubtedly diminished the cost of light for the poor and added immeasurably to the comforts of existence. And yet it stands as the most odious rep- resentative of intolerant monopoly in public estima- tion, because more ruthlessly than any other it has absorbed the agencies of production and rendered competition impossible. The chief reason why the great mass of evil things, bad conditions, cruelties, corruptions and tyrannies exist is because the people do not care to abolish them. Either through cowardice, inertia, or complicity, they submit. The good are spasmodic. They appear in practical affairs to be capable only of reverie or hysterics. The bad are persistent. They are wiser in their day and generation than the children of light. It would be puerile to classify all the organizers of these great combinations as criminals engaged in a premeditated conspiracy against the rights of the com- mon people. Department stores are not wicked. They are inexpedient, because they centralize activities that ought to be diffused over vast areas which are steril- ized by their withdrawal. Some of the trusts may be beneficent, but the tendency Is destructive. All the agencies of civilization are being drawn within the INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. influences of a centripetal force, as the planets and their satelites might fall into the sun. Public opinion, when aroused, is irresistible. Its decrees will be formulated in 1900. In so far as trusts and monopolies interfere with individualism and the equality of rights and opportunities, they will be re- strained. The remedy is simple. The power of Con- gress to tax has been held to be the power to destroy. It was invokd against the state banks. It is the most formidable weapon that can be wielded by an exas- perated people.” Note what Whitelaw Reid says of boodle methods, as a manufacturer of public opinion through the newspapers, at a gathering of jour- nalists: “There is no such thing in America as an independ- ent press, unless it is out in the country towns. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to express an honest opinion. If you express it you would know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid one hundred and fifty dol- lars a week for keeping honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for doing similar things. If I should allow honest opinions to be printed in one issue of my paper, like Othello, before twenty-four hours my occu- pation would be gone. The man who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the 'streets hunting for another job. The business of a journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread, or for what is about the same thing, his salary. You know this and I know it; and what foolery it is to be toasting the independent press. We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are jumping jacks. They pull the strings and we dance Our time, our talents, our lives, our possibilities are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prosti- tutes.” INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. The foregoing is given to show what marvel- ous revolutions in all business interests have been brought about within the last decade, and to what a remarkable degree the matter of money has in “influencing” a corrupt press, which in turn “influences the minds” of the vast multitudes of the more thoughtless suffragist. It is a truth that many educated, though inher- ited prejudices, are more ready to believe a lie than the truth. “Though they have eyes they see not, having ears they hear not.” Therefore, there is none so blind as those who will not see,” or those who will not hear, or if hearing and seeing, refuse to heed. These same conditions, evidenced by recent events, are daily becoming more obvious in the United States, and are of absorbing interest to the whole world, and the question naturally arises, are these things to be perpetual “world without end.” As before stated, it does not take a very keen perception to discern the dark outlines of discontent and disastrous times, and pending rev- olution of some kind, awaiting the coining, if not the present generation. Apparently now, society, politics, religion and military and civil conditions are like a tinder box ready for the match; like a powder magazine ready for an explosion at al- most any time; like an organized army, ready for an assault at the word of command from a proper leader. The right to criticize public servants and public measures is fast becoming considered trea- son. If one-half of these conditions be so, it is indeed alarming. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. THE VIEWS OF A MEMBER OF THE SUPREME COURT. Justice Henry B. Brown, addressing the Alumni of the Law Department of Yale College, took as his theme, “The Twentieth Century.” He pointed out that the chnges of the twentieth century promise to be social rather than political or legal, and then named the three most prominent perils which threaten the imme- diate future of the United States—(i) Municipal Cor- ruption, (2) Corporate Greed, and (3) The Tyranny of Labor. Among others things he said:— “Probably in no country in the world is the influence of wealth more potent that in this, and in no period of our history has it been more powerful than now. Mobs are never logical, and are prone to seize upon pretexts rather than upon reasons to wreak their vengeance upon whole classes of society. There was probably never a flimsier excuse for a great riot than the sym- pathetic strike of last summer [1895], but back of it were substantial grievances. If wealth will not respect the rules of common honesty in the use of its power, it will have no reason to expect moderation or discre- tion on the part of those who resist its encroachments. “I have spoken of corporate greed as another source of peril to the state. The ease with which charters are procured has produced great abuses. Corporations are formed under the laws of one state for the sole purpose of doing business in another, and railways are built in California under charters granted by the states east of the Mississippi for the purpose of removing their litigation to federal courts. The greatest frauds are perpetrated in the construction of such roads by the directors themselves, under guise of a construction company, another corporation, to which is turned over all the bonds, mortgages and other securities, regard- less of the actual cost of the road. The road is equipped in the same way by another corporation, formed of the directors, which buys the rolling stock and leases it to the road, so that when the inevitable foreclosure comes the stockholders are found to have been defrauded for the benefit of the mortagees, and the mortgagees de- frauded for the benefit of the directors. Property thus 112 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. acquired in defiance of honesty and morality does not stand in a favorable position to invoke the aid of the law for its protection. “Worse than this, however, is the combination of corporations in so-called trusts, to limit production, stifle competition and monopolize the necessaries of life. ‘The extent to which this has already been carried is alarming; the extent to which it may hereafter be car- ried is revolutionary. The truth is that the entire cor- porate legislation is sadly in need of overhauling, but the difficulty of procuring concurrent action on the part of the forty-four states is apparently insuperable. “From a wholly different quarter proceeds the third and most immediate peril to which I have called your attention—the tyranny of labor. It arises from the ap- parent inability of the laboring man to perceive that the rights he exacts he must also concede. Laboring men may defy the laws of the land and pull down their own houses and those of their employers about their heads, but they are powerless to control the laws of nature—the great law of supply and demand, in obedi- ence to which industries arise, flourish for a season, and decay, and both capital and labor receive their appropriate rewards.” judge Brown sees no hope of a reconciliation be- tween Capital and Labor, being of too logical a mind to suppose that bodies moving in opposite directions would ever come together. He says further:— “The conflict between them has been going on and increasing in bitterness for thousands of years, and a settlement seems further off than ever. Compulsory arbitration is a misnomer—a contradiction in terms. One might as well speak of an amicable murder or a friendly war. It is possible that a compromise may finally be effected upon the basis .of co-operation or profit-sharing, under which every laborer shall become, to a certain extent, a capitalist. Perhaps, with superior education, wider experience and larger intelligence, the laboring man of the_ twentieth century may attain the summit of his ambition in his ability to command the entire profits of his toil. In referring to the social disquietude arising from INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER, the corporate evils mentioned he proposes as a pallia- tive, but not as a remedy, the public ownership of what are called “natural monopolies.” He thinks these privileges should be exercised by the state or the mu- nicipality directly, rather than the corporations should compete and quarrel for franchises with bribes. He says:— “There would seem to be no sound reason why such franchises, which are for the supposed benefit of the public, should not be exercised directly by the public. Such is. at least, the tendency in modern legislation in nearly every highly civilized state. Here great corpo- rate interests, by parading the dangers of paternalism and socialism, have succeeded in securing franchises which properly belong to the public.” Hence the using and abusing of privileges inconsiderately and foolishly granted by an in- considerate and foolish people. Thus might volumes of opinions of pending dangers from the highest and most learned and conservative bishops, and statesmen, and jurists, both living and dead, in foreign lands as well as free Amer- ica, from the immortal Washington down to the martyred and inspired prophet Lincoln; from Bob Ingersoll, agnostic as he is, up to the pres- ent incumbent, who though formerly had pro- nounced convictions on these same danger lines, seems now utterly helpless, indifferent, or fearful, even to suggest anything remedial by message or otherwise. So the lamentation goes up: “Of what avail are plow and sail. Or life, or lance, if freedom fail?” The recent private remark that parties who bought Chas. T. Yerkes, of Chicago; Andrew Carnegie, of Pittsburg, Pa.; or even W. J. Bryan 114 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. for fools, would get badly cheated, has a world of significance in it. Throughout the world seething unrest, con- flicting interests and cross currents keep civilized mankind in a perpetual state of excitement and expectancy. The tension of nerve and mind be- comes more intense year by year; at short inter- vals some startling event shakes the political, commercial and religious world with a silent schismatic force, and men realize and fear the ac- cumulating elements of disaster that lurk beneath the surface of society—like the lower animals, with a sort of instinctive inspiration of the change of season; or the approach of a storm of the ele- ments. Politicians, while they strive to modify the course of these silent forces, frankly admit they cannot thoroughly control them or foretell their dire results. In the confusion of endless theories, proposals, experiments and prophecies, on two points the greater thinkers are agreed. On the one hand they see impending an ap- proaching storm which will convulse the whole world, and shatter the present structure of politi- cal, social and financial life. These destructive forces must exhaust themselves before the forma- tive ones can reconstruct the fabric on a more substantial foundation. While on the other hand they agree that never did nations more long for peace, or more clearly see the duty and advantages of cultivating unity and fraternal accord, than at the present time, as is evidenced by the great disarmament confer- ence at The Hague, in Holland, at the request INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. of the Czar, and is being represented by all the nations in the world; but, like the peace confer- ence prior to the American Revolution, when its members were crying peace! peace! when the great Irish patriot that he was, Patrick Henry, who, by almost divine inspiration, saw evolution before revolution and vehemently exclaimed; “Give me liberty or give me death. Why cry, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace; war and revolution are inevitable;” and thus turned the scale in favor of America’s independence, and the not only boasted, but real freedom, for al- most a century. Destruction is a much more rapid process than construction, in all animate as well as inanimate creation. The skilled mechanic that is able to construct a very fine, powerful and complicated piece of machinery, is able to ruin or destroy it almost by a touch. A superstructure that has taken years to construct, no matter how deep and firm its foundations, can be razed to the ground by the force that created or erected it in an instant. The power to create has the same power to destroy. Is a law of nature. Chauncey M. Depew, LL. D., credited with being amongst the wisest and ablest thinkers of the present day, in addressing the graduating class of the University of Chicago, and others, as orator of its Tenth Convocation, said among other things, that the graduates of the four hundred universities of the country are to be the lieuten- ants, captains, colonels, brigadier-generals, ma- jor-generals of the army of the American future INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. progress to which we all belong. It was, per- haps, only courtesy, and a sense of propriety, with a large grain of taffy and flattery for which he is noted, that led the gentleman, in addressing a college class, to suggest that incapability and ignorance prevailed only outside of great col- leges. It is a fact that there are many better and more practically educated boys and girls in our common schools than of the more preten- tious colleges, though many are actuated by the belief that a college education should be the chief aim, glory and end of life, and that it is a necessary adjunct to the accumulation of and re- tention of wealth and happiness, or the becoming a great statesman or military chieftain, forget- ting or entirely ignoring a Lincoln, or a Grant, and many others of like caliber. While wealth may be a necessary qualification to philanthropy, too few are wont to do deeds of philan- thropy on the principle of not “letting the left hand know what the right hand doeth.” Most contributions for the establishment and mainte- nance of colleges are given as monuments to the donor’s own glory, renown and name, if not as an advertisement to his varied and extensive business interests. As to accumulating wealth, we refer to the elder Vanderbilt and the original John Jacob As- tor—the one an uneducated ferryman, the other an ignorant fur or pelt dealer—both being do- mestic, economical and industrious, perhaps by force of circumstances and the growth of the country, neither could well help but succeed INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 117 der the then existing conditions in their ven- tures. The following list of American millionaires who have given a million or more dollars to the endowment of colleges may be interesting, some of which was conditional only if others, far less able, would do “so and so,” in the nature of a dare. Not one of these wealthy and intelligent men ever enjoyed a college education nor had they much above that afforded by the common schools: Stephen Girard, to the Girard College, $8,000,- 000; John D.Rockefeller, University of Chicago, $7,000,000; Geo. Peabody, to various institu- tions, $6,000,000; Leland Stanford, $7,000,000; Mrs. Stanford, $5,000,000 to Stanford Univer- sity; Asa Parker, to Lehigh University, $3,500,- 000; Paul Tulane, to Tulane University, New Or- leans, $2,500,000; Isaac Rich, Boston University, $2,000,000; Jonas G. Clark, to Clark University, Worcester, Mass., $2,000,000; the Vanderbilts, to Vanderbilt University, $1,775,000; James Lick, to the University of California, $1,600,000; John C, Green, to Princeton University, $1,500,- 000; Wm. C. De Pauw, to Asbury, now De Pauw University, $1,500,000; A. J. Drexel, to the Drexel School, $1,500,000; Leonard Case, to Cleveland University of Sciences, $1,500,000; Peter Cooper, to Cooper Union, $1,200,000; Ezra Cornell and Henry W. Sage (not Russell), to Cornell University, each $1,100,000; Charles Pratt, to Pratt Institute, of Brooklyn, N. Y., $2,- 700,000; P. D. Armour, of Chicago, to the INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. Armour Institute, $2,000,000; Marshall Field, to University of Chicago, $1,000,000, and many others who have given liberally to institutions of learning. The Armour Institute, of Chicago, is perhaps the most charitable and practical in its helps in all lines, of any on the lists. Most all bear the name of the donors, which of course has its significance. Although a college education is valuable, it is by no means the. thing most desirable. Indeed, if every man in the city of Chicago, or America, were a college graduate, the conditions would be worse, instead of better, than they are now. Mr. Depew admits this when he says “(he mechanic feels a discontent which his father of forty years ago, with one-third of the wages, and his dollar buying one-half as much, never knew. All this comes from education.” Indeed, the more general the education, and knowledge of corruption and injustice, the more general the discontent and fear. While it is true many righteous, noble and generous men have been wealthy, it is also true that most of the self- ish and wicked men have been educated, and the best statesmen, soldiers, patriots, financiers and holy men have been unlearned, though wise and intelligent men. The more education a wicked man has, the greater his power and disposition for scheming, fraud, deception and all manner of evil. Education and “knowledge increased” among the masses is only hastening the social crisis, and its ultimate result, anarchy and revolution. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. NOTHING IN A NAME. There is nothing in a name, or position; it is blood and brains that tell, and high thinking, and a right spirit should be the goal aimed at. A man should only be proud of his ancestors when they have been of the highest order, and not when they have attained promotion or dis- tinction through some corrupt political push or pull, even though they have some royal or blue blood coursing through their veins, which may have become so polluted and filthy by dissipa- tion or licentious practices that they are not fit associates for brutes. Any moral scientist will be ready to concede the conclusion arrived at by the hard practical common-sense man, or woman, who are struggling with the tremendous prob- lems of religious, economical and social reforms that are to-day shaking every political fabric of the civilized world. Mental and physical perfection, as nearly as possible, should be the desire of all mankind, but we fear the work of, alas! too few. We are told that man was originally created perfect, but through all ages he has marred the very bed and house he lives in by being too much of an animal, and being guided too much by the instinct of the animal, instead of reason, to guide and direct him in the laws of nature. There is one man, or one woman, above all others to be feared and con- trolled in order to secure success to yourself and posterity, and that is yourself. Out of the many MENTAL AND PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 120 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. thousands of human beings, there is only one person who can do you mental, and permanent, injury, and that is the person that walks under your own hat, and in your own shoes. The hard- est realm to govern is the realm between your own scalp and the soles of your own feet. The mind and body are often neglected and given over to the lustful passions and pleasures of a momentary nature, to the fearful detriment of those to follow after him. HYGIENE AND INHERITANCE. The laws of hygiene and inheritance are often entirely ignored. Expectant parents should first endeavor to learn the laws of health and hygiene, and so prepare themselves to be able, so far as it is possible, to bring their offspring into the world in at least a normal condition in every respect. It has been asserted the greatest darkness is ig- norance. This cloud of darkness seems to have enveloped nearly all the human race, in so far as their knowledge of the great laws of nature in regard to improving and elevating their own spe- cies is concerned. The three most important events of a man’s life are considered by many to be his birth, marriage and death. We would add still another and more important event, and that is the time he was begotten, which we claim is the first beginning of life fully as much as when he was first laid in the downy cradle, or at his mother’s breast, and should have as much if not more of its mother’s watchful and tender care and INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 121 concern as after birth, being more susceptible in embryonic life to good or bad influences, and should be nurtured with more care than through its entire infancy. Being impeded by nature in the beginning, it is therefore fatal to add any more to the burden, the race being life long, and the pace so terrible and constantly being in- creased. This time being, as it were, laying the foundation, the most important part of the super- structure, of the coming man or woman, of which we often hear men boast they were not in the least consulted, thus throwing a fearful responsi- bility on parents, which is so often thoughtlessly assumed, without any previous preparation what- ever, and thus allowing their children to suffer the awful consequences. It should not be forgot- ten there is a third party, perhaps the most vitally interested of all in the transaction, whose rights are none the less sacred because its wee, still, small voice cannot be heard to maintain them. To condemn a human being to the vicissitudes of life is, under the most favorable circumstances, is a serious responsibility, which ought not to be assumed by any reasonable persons without due forethought and preparation by both parents. The assumption of a moment’s sensual gratifica- tion is one cause why so many are inclined to regret, if not curse, the dav they were begotten and born into the world. The number of insane people is increasing at an alarming rate, and so are people of all s irts of phvsical and mental dis- orders. The sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons, and can there be any worse affliction 122 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. than to know that you have inherited some mis- erable constitutional weakness as a result of the shortcomings of your great-grandfather? It's hard to bear, but there is nothing one can do about it save to take the lesson to himself and try conscientiously to see that his offspring shall inherit no mental or moral deformities as a result of his violations of the laws of the universe. We have state laws which prevent the breeding of animals that have certain diseases, and if laws are good for anything they ought to be invoked to prevent the marriage of people who are morally or physically unfit for propagating the human race. A very eminent, close-observing professional M, D. recently made the statement before a pub- lic audience, “that from statistics, fifty years ago there were but six hundred cases of insanity to the million, whereas now there are one thousand eight hundred. From this he figures that in two hundred and fifty years there will not be a sane man on the earth.” It is indeed an alarming statement of the rapid degeneracy of man. It is now a question whether it is not more difficult to find a strictly sane man than a partially insane one. The American Medical Association, which recently closed its annual meeting of this year at Columbus, Ohio, was noteworthy for the attention that it gave to crime as a disease. In the last number of the Archives di Psichia- tria the eminent criminologist, Cesare Lom- broso, has a study of Luccheni, the assassin of INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. the Empress of Austria. He regards the crime as in itself atrocious to the last degree, but he sees in the criminal only the victim of epilepsy, for which that victim was no more responsible than for the color of his hair or the length of his arms. At the Columbus convention the same general tendency to regard crime as largely the result of causes over which the criminal had no control seemed to prevail. It was insisted that the marriage of criminals should be prohibited, and it was intimated that more drastic measures ought to be resorted to, if necessary, to prevent the perpetuation of hereditary criminals. Another prophetic pennant floats over the congress on prophylaxis of blood-poisoning dis- eases, soon to gather at Brussels, wherein will be considered possible marriage limitations, barring the present methods of transmitting that most loathsome disease prevalent among the hopelessly debased. If all applicants in Cupid’s courts for marriage licenses were required to show a clean bill of health, mentally and physically, by a regularly constituted board of examiners, many of the queer freaks and odd pranks the rosy little god has been accustomed to play upon mankind for ages would be very materially restricted. Physi- cally and mentally, such an examination, prop- erly conducted, would undoubtedly be a valuable safeguard to posterity. While such restrictions might diminish the number of marriages, it would also tend to greatly lessen the number of divorces, as well as the number of weak, diseased 124 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. and half imbecile children, as children are only the second edition of their parents under the con- dition they were begotten. FALLACY OF MEDICINE DOSING. The fallacy of the mother only having to undergo any medical treatment, as some of our would-be advanced thinkers would have you believe, or even extra prescribed food other than that of a nutritious, health-giving and strength- ening nature, is simply preposterous. Not being a pill peddler and always avoiding physicians as much as possible—though they in their place at the proper time are often a necessity, would advise in most such cases to throw physic and all drugs to the dogs, and prescribe only the laugh, the sunshine or mirth cure, with perhaps a little of the science of meta- physics, and homeopathic doses of Christian Sci- ence or Dr. Dewey’s faith cure, might not be detrimental, or poverty cure, or many others of like innocence and absurdity floating about the country, but especially avoid the “freeze-out cure,” and many others just as unreasonable, in all such cases, with a liberal amount of both out- door and indoor exercise, sound sleep and rest, minus worry. The science of divine healing consists mostly in applying to divinity through a proxy, or mid- dleman, that is supposed to be able to have the power of reaching higher with his prayers than yourself. The science of Christian Science con- sists mostly in, if you are sick, just think you are INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. not, and yon are well. Somewhat like the science of spiritualism—a somethinghaving thepower to communicate with nothing. Like many other im- practical sciences and issues of the day, which issues and fake theories, socially, politically, re- ligiously, serve only to impose on their weak and credulous followers, new and impractical sci- ences, as well as medically, are constantly bob- bing up, and new germs and microbes of inher- ited disease are being discovrde as though of re- cent existence, but the old system of prescribing and treatment goes persistently “marching on,” heedless of the violation of nature’s laws, as the main cause of most organic defects and disease. As the rapid growth of the finger nails is evi- dence of good health, so what is called the “hab- it” of biting or gnawing them is evidence the parents did the same thing before their children were born. Most “habits,” if a tracer were put out and followed up, would be found of honest origin. Many very small defections and imper- fections of the extremities are found on children for generations. Hence it is but reasonable to expect the same results in the whole organiza- tion. No one will deny that cleanliness is next to Godliness; but man, not being even partly am- phibious, it is not, therefore, a necessity that he be bodily water-soaked every day. One extreme is as bad as the other. Better give more heed to the inside than the outside. What signifies a bald head on the outside to being bald-headed on the inside? INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. Believing somewhat, with the Chinaman, that it is more a good physician’s mission (outside of surgery) to keep his patients from getting sick than curing them after they are sick, leaving na- ture as much as possible, with perhaps a little assistance in some cases, to effect the curing process, and pay to cease during sickness and go on during health. Physicians ignorant of their profession many times kill, while they pretend to heal, yet they ‘’all the same’’ oblige men to pay them for the slaughter. Even those who do not wish to kill are willing to be armed with the power of a license and take the money and chances of cure-alls. The reported death-rate from the use and abuse of the drug habit is something appalling when we consider it is seventy-five thousand per annum in the United States alone. It is admitted by many leading insurance com- panies that the almost universal habit of drug- taking, from the milder tonics to many of the more pernicious patent medicines which flood the country by being so extensively advertised in flaming head-lines over whole columns that whenever the average man or woman feels de- pressed, or slightly ill, they at once resort to some of these more or less strong and injurious patent remedies, or fakes, like a drowning man grabbing at straws; when, if they would try to find out the cause of the trouble and seek to ob- viate it by regarding nature’s laws and regulating their mode of living and pernicious habits, the general health of the community would be much INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. improved and the death rate greatly decreased. A family physician, after treating his patient un- successfully for some time, was requested by the impatient patient, if he was at all able to strike at the root of his disease, he hoped he woujd) hasten to do so, and he being assured by his physician he was able to do so, if it would give no offense. On being assured it would not, and that was what he was for, and expected to do, then the wise physician, without further pre- scribing, at once took his cane and smashed a fine demijohn on the mantle. It is useless to say the patient was somewhat surprised, but rap- idly recovered after the first shock. The drug habit, like the liquor or tobacco habit, only tends to continually lower the tone of the whole sys- tem. The more it is indulged in, the more ap- parent becomes the necessity in the down-hill course pursued. Disease is not as dangerous as doctors and drugs. The medicine quacks and impostors, with their sarsaparilla's, plasters, pills', and what not, are treating symptoms rather than the disease. The majority of persons do not look beyond the fact that they seem to feel better after the use of a stimulating drug or patent medicine. This feeling is caused only from the temporary be- numbing action, or effects, of the drugs, which have no healing or uplifting action or curing power whatever. Nature has the only curing power, and should be very cautiously tampered with. Each year in medical text-books there is a 128 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. tendency to restrict the influence of taking cold as a cause of disease. This is owing to the stead- ily increasing belief in the germ theory, and also to the knowledge that many acute attacks are but the result of antecedent disease. Patients insist that they took cold on this day or that, assuming this or that to be the cause of their ailmentb whatever it may be. In point of fact, many disorders imputed to colds are not more frequent in cold seasons and in high latitudes than at other times and elsewhere. There is a mental phase of this subject that is interesting and easily explained. Few persons really take cold who are not self-consciously careful, or fear- ful of the consequences of exposure. Who ever got a cold from plunging into the water to save a life, or escaping scantily clad from a house on fire? Try to find records of such cases. Ordi- narily, when the mind is diverted there is no such thing as taking cold. The insane, living in an unreal world and thinking unreal thoughts, do not take cold as others do, and escape many other adverse influences that affect normal per- sons. They are thinking about other things. The influence of cold falls on the nervous system. The hyper-sensitive take cold in the mind, so to speak, and manifest it physically. An oversensitive organization keeps the nerv- ous system alert for impressions of disaster. And thus a panic is created among the nerve centers, even when a slight condition of cold is conveyed to them. Many of these sensations from which the hyper-sensitive suffer have no external cause. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 129 This brings us back to the nervous system again. How are you living? Too much tobac- co, stimulant, overwork, and too little sleep? Nature is no sentimentalist. She demands a strict account and pay for every indiscretion. The American habit of overheating houses is another cause of colds, and this overheating is probably due to American nervousness. To avoid colds, keep the nervous system in as normal a condition as environment will permit. Taking no thought about this phase of the subject will bring strength, resistance, and immunity that is truly surprising. The following is a fair sample of the over-' educated medical phrases, among many others about as senseless and confusing, used by the medical fraternity of the country in order to appear learned in their profession and “up” in technicalities in their consultation and fashion; LONG MEDICAL NAMES. AND HOW THEY CONFUSED ONE MAN WHEN HE INTRODUCED A DOCTOR. “Plague take these long medical names, anyhow!” re- marked a gentleman of this city to a reporter of a New Orleans paper “I have a friend who is a distinguished Northern oculist, and who came to New Orleans to attend the convention of the Western—hold on! give me time!—the Western Ophthalmogologic and Oto Laryngologoic association. The title means simply, eye, ear and throat, but, of course, it would be shocking bad form to give it any such plebeian ren- dering before a member, so I did my best, some days in advance, to commit the confounded thing to memory. I got so I could reel it off all right when I was perfectly calm, but if I became the least excited or nervous I was dead certain to get it ‘pied,’ as the printers say. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. “Well, when my friend arrived I took him around to my club to make him acquainted, and then my troubles began. The very first time I undertook to introduce him I described him as ‘Dr. Blank, of the Opgolomagic and Auto-Larrygarical Association.’ That destroyed my self-confidence right at the start-off, and never once during the entire evening did I manage, by any sort of accident, to get the blasted name right. I called the first word oppylogagie, opiarythomeck, opthalo- golygic and other things too numerous to mention, and covered myself with polysyllables like a mantle. “Every now and then my friend would look pained and prompt me in an undertone. ‘lt’s really quite easy,’ he said. ‘Oh, yes, dead easy!’ I groaned, ‘as easy as a map of the Philippines.’ After that experi- ence I introduced him as ‘my friend, Dr. Blank, who is here attending the convention.’ Then I would fly and leave him to explain himself. If I ever get into the legislature I am going to introduce a bill compelling doctors to talk straight United States. A prominent New York physician pays the following compliment to “Pigtail Johnny” of China, which has a great deal of good, hard and practical common horse sense in it: “He says the longer he lived the more he realized that the world was all sixes and sevens, even in matters of science and philanthropy—we take hold of al- most every problem at the wrong end. We are forever prating about the superiority of our west- ern civilization over that of the Orient. We proudly point to our hospitals, medical colleges and asylums, and ask what the East has done to show in lieu of them? After having spent the greater part of his life in China and the other eastern countries, he says one thing that China has to show that alone acts as an offset to all our much-vaunted hospitals and medical colleges and INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 131 asylums is a common-sense starting point upon which to base the practice of medicine. He could not say much for the Chinese knowledge of drugs and their virtues and vices, but he could not help but admire the common-sense basis upon which their practice of medicine was founded. “A Chinaman pays his physician a stated fee just so long as he remains well; the moment he gets sick he stops the fee and the doctor is thus deprived of his income until the patient entirely recovers his health. That is the common sense of it. It is starting out at the right end of the problem. It is a procedure backed upon the true science of health,” When here in the more civ- ilized East we would add that if the patient dies through the neglect or ignorance of the attend- ing 'physician, or perchance is killed outright, it is only considered as evidence to the doctor's credit and reputation, as a malignant and more serious case, and thus enables and justifies him in collecting a more extravagant fee from the friends of the victim. With us the opposite is true; with us the tail wags the dog, instead of the dog wagging the tail. We pay a doctor to restore our most prec- ious endearment after we have lost it, or to guard against loss. In other words, we lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen. The Chi- nese theory is rooted deep in common sense, ours in imbecility, as we inculcate the idea that health is only worth looking after after we have lost it. As a consequence we build great hospitals, asy- lums, and homes for the incurables, and costly INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. homes for the orphans, for many of which our system of doctoring is responsible. Then we boast of them, and the poor heathen snickers in his sleeve at our stupidity. When we get down to the cold facts, these institutions of which we so proudly boast are but monuments to our pig- headed imbecility. While we are infinitely in advance of China in medical knowledge, we are apparently just as much behind them in the cold, common sense of practice. We are apt to send for a physician for every little ail- ment, no matter how trivial; if he is only armed with a diploma, no matter what his other qualifi- cations are. Should he be a homeopathist, he times your pulse, looks at your tongue and takes your temperature, and leaves a little aconite and belladonna, to be taken alternately every hour, to reduce the temperature and relieve any head- ache, at a cost to himself of perhaps of from two to five cents. Should he be an alopathist, or old school, he of course makes about the same diag- nosis of the case, looks wise, bothered, and seri- ous, and decides there are strong symptoms of typhoid, and issues a prescription to the drug store (oftentimes only another name for a saloon) in a foreign language of which you know noth- ing (all of which perhaps means only calomel, morphine or quinine to arouse the liver, stupefy the system and get up a general uproar in the head), and he, the doctor, generally has an inter- est and receives a liberal commission (and an excellent place for the young to learn the perni- cious and extravagant habit of treating and be- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 133 big treated, which always leads from bad to worse), at a cost to the patient of perhaps one to two dollars and five to ten cents to the druggist, so the poor patient will forget the whole business, and when the effect goes off, of course the pa- tient feels greatly relieved—thinks the doctor all right, a great success. Should he chance to be of the eclectic school of M. D.’s the remedy is po- dophylin or mayapple root to arouse the liver. All go home and charge up from two to five dollars, and repeat the process from day to day as long as possible, to their own financial benefit and the patient’s financial, if not physical, detriment, and claim to have saved you from a long siege of malaria, if not typhoid fever, to their own credit and great medical reputation. When often a little common sense, with the aid of the many ex- cellent medical works giving the symptoms and remedies, in nine cases out of ten you could have prescribed fully as successfully for yourself or family. Even though it be an old Spanish prov- erb that “God works the cure and the doctor gets the credit and pay’’ has more in it than many are wont to believe. Hence it is not only the duty but it is within the means of everyone to know his or her own constitution and that of his fam- ily, so as to be able to treat them in all ordinary cases fully as well, if not better, than most phy- sicians. The old style of treatment of forty and fifty years ago for grip, then called cold-plague, break- bone and winter fever, later on lung fever and pneumonia, if allowed to develop, is not to be INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. despised. Attributable then, as now, to certain conditions of the system, season and weather for contracting’ it. The following is the authors personal experience, and it is given thinking it may be interesting to many of the older and beneficial to many of the younger parents of the country: “ The prevailing winter diseases of recent years, said a citizen the other day to a representative of a leading New York paper, “are of course identical with those known forty years ago under different names. “When I was a boy at home in Ohio we used to have epidemics of 'influenza colds’ ever few years. I have had a pretty good siege of what is termed grip that winter, and I cannot see that It was in any way different from one of those same ‘influenza colds.’ There were the same pains in the head, back, and legs; the same loss of strength and appetite, with great mental depression My mother had her own way of doctoring all the ills her numerous children and grandchildren were subject to. , “Call a doctor for a cold? Why, the townspeople would seriously contemplate the appointment of a ‘conservator’ over the man who spent money on a doc- tor for anything short of typhoid fever or a dangerous physical injury. And it was well for the patient that such sentiments prevailed. The old-time doctor, with his lance, his leeches, his jalap, and calomel, was a serious proposition. His first recognized duty, no mac- ter what the ailment, was to bleed the patient, this op- eration to be followed by calomel in doses up to thirty grains. Strong indeed was the patient whose constitution could stand this treatment. While the doctor got the credit for a man’s recovery, nature, which proved stronger than the power of the drugs, was wholly ignored in the process. , “The commonly accepted theory about colds was that they ‘must run their course.’ Every well-regulated family had its stock of herbs—‘yarbs,’ my mother called depending in great bunches from hooks in the INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 135 garret rafters. The stock was replenished each sum- mer, and the freshness of the supply thus assured. For every physical ill there was a corresponding panacea in mother’s attic; even cases of mental dereliction have met their Waterloo, as it were, in that selfsame herb- arium. An infusion of skullcap and ladyslipper, cun- ningly blended and administered by that dear; wrinkled old hand, hrrs sent iiiaiiy"a fit of the 'blue devils’ back to the nether shades. " J “Nothing in the line of colds short of whooping cough or influenza was considered worthy of ‘treat- ment.’ ‘Be careful and not get your feet wet,’ mother would say; ‘and keep your chist and throat warm,’ and the cold was supposed to wear itself out. For whoop- ing cough the remedy was flaxseed tea, a mucilaginous compound popularly supposed to ‘ease the cough.’ An influenza cold merited the distinction of a ‘course of treatment.’ The patient was kept indoors, and, in sev- ’ era! cases, in bed. Warm drinks, mostly boneset (thor- oughwort) tea, were administered, and the victim was fed enormous quantities of food in season and out of season. If the cough was ‘tight’ a sweat was the loos- ening agency. Extract of skullcap and ladyslipper quieted the nervesTancfa small handful of poppy leaves added to "the brew induced sleep. - "The idea of influenza proving fatal was unheard of. Occasionally an anxious mother might be heard to say: ‘My darter’s cough don’t seem tew loose up.’ But in- stances are not wanting in which consumption, that dread scourge of New England, originated in an influ- enza cold. While none will admit more readily than I the wonderful strides of medical science (I have three brothers in the profession), yet I question whether my mother’s method of treating not only colds, but all the minor ills of humanity has ever been improved upon. Even severe attacks of pneumonia have 3delded to her vigorous methods—we used to call it lung fever m those days. Pneumonia, under that name, was un- heard of. Ever have It? Let me tell you of something that happened to me when I was about 17 years old. It was in the winter of i856-’57, and there was splendid skat- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. ing on the river just down the hill, a few rods from my grandmother’s. One night the boys and girls of the neighborhood got up a skating party. If it were but last night I could remember it no more vividly. I’d had a cold for several days, and grandmother would not hear of my going. ‘Better go to bed, sick as you be, instead o’ galavantin’ up the river on sich a night as this with a passel o’ crazy coots,’ she said; but I knew she felt sorry for me, dear old soul. It was a bitter night; the mercury must have ranged at least 20 degrees below zero. The moon was at its full and the stars glittered like electric points. I went to bed early, hoping to forget my disappointment in sleep. But I could hear the shouts of the youngsters on the ice, and, by rising on my elbow, I could see the whirling skat- ers around a big bonfire they had kindled. I was pas- sionately fond of skating, and the sight of so much sport right under my nose, and I only a spectator, was exasperating, to say the least. “Presently I caught sight of a curly head and a pair of red cheeks to which I was partial going sailing by. This was the final incentive which causedl me to swing out of my chamber window, a few minutes later, by aid of a friendly tree branch, and join the skaters. I took charge of the rosy cheeks and curly head and had splendid fun all the evening. It was almost mid- night when some one discovered a ‘bend-a-bow.’ Don’t know what that is? It’s a strip of ice that will not bear the dead weight of a skater, but by acquiring great momentum upon the solid ice, one may shoot across it in comparative safety. The ice rocks and bends, which gives it the name of bend-a-bow. Several of the bovs had made the risky trip when I undertook it. I had barely struck the thin ice when another boy kicked a bit of stick directly in front of me. I tripped and plunged through the ice into twenty feet of water. There was, fortunately, but little current and the boys got me out readily. But before I could get my skates unbuckled my clothes were frozen stiff, and I had to be half carried to the house. I was shaking like a victim of ague when the boys_ put me down in mother’s kitchen in front of the big fireplace. I was trying to INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 137 coax a blaze out of the smoldering embers when mother, candle in hand, entered the room. ‘O, John,’ was her only comment upqn my drenched condition. “Next morning I had a raging fever and a tightness in my side and chest that made it difficult and painful to breathe. Gently, but with tightly compressed lips, my mother set about, to ‘break up the fever.’ I recall every detail. Clad only in a loose dressing gown I was placed in a splint-seat chair with my feet in a tub of hot water, continually replenished from a boil- ing kettle on the crane. Beneath my chair was placed a saucer half filled with alcohol with a bit of rag in it. The rag was ignited and the blue flame, almost touch- ing the chair seat, unpleasantly suggested a certain or- thodox sentiment of those days. Around me, envelop- ing chair, tub, blazing spirits and all, was wrapped a heavy woolen blanket, which was closely tucked under my chin. Talk of sweat boxes, hot vapor baths, and the like, but as compared with my mother’s ‘fever- breaker’ they are as the gentle dew to the July thunder- storm. Within five minutes the perspiration literally poured from my face and and I begged for quarter. But with grim determination mother kept right on replenishing the hot-water tub. At last the sweating process having reached a stage satisfactory to her views, she entered upon the internal treatment. Into a big bowl half filled with elder-blow, hoarhound. Sol- omon’s seal, and boneset shtTpoufed a pint ts’f Boiling waterl covering the same with a saucer, and put it by to steep. Meantime she had put a pair of thick flannel blankets upon her own bed in the corner of the big ‘south room.’ Then she filled a warming pan with coals. “Never saw a warming pan, eh? Imagine a big brass chafiag dish with five feet of wooden handle and you have it. This was introduced to the bed and moved quickly around until the clothes were smoking hot. The ‘yarbs’ now having steeped sufficiently the liquid was strained off. and, so hot that it puckered my lips. I was compelled to swallow it despite my protests. I was now like a squeezed-out sponge and as weak as the proverbial ‘sucking dove.’ Wrapping 138 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. the great quilt around me, one of ray uncles picked me up bodily and deposited me into mother’s bed, an old-time, swan’s-down bed. They have long ago given place to hygienic ideas, but they were mightily com- forting in one’s aching bones all the same. Tucked up in the hot woolens, a cupful of poppy tea com pleted my mother’s part of the ‘fever-breaking’ treat- ment. O, the delicious sense of rest and comfort that followed. The homely old ‘south room’ seemed a bower of beauty, and my mother, as she tiptoed softly in and out, giving touches to the pillows or tucking in a refractory sheet, seemed an enchanted fairy with a magic wand. And then oblivion. After an unbroken sleep of ten hours X. awakened free from any pain, the, lever entirely gone, and was freely possessed of a de- sire to eat. “This was the way they broke a. fever forty-four years ago. I doubt if, with all the modern annhances and medical lore of tnes(fTatter~lJays. a doctor can accom- plish more than jny mother did with her homely ‘yarbs’ aha warming "pan. ' “Mother was no exception to the average New England housewife of those days. It would have been a most disgraceful thing to charge that an adult woman was ignorant of the province of ‘yarbs.’ The good housewife would as soon think of not laying in pro- visions for winter as to neglect the annual gathering of herbs. Some of these were powerful poisons and required to be used with great discretion. ‘Lobelia,’ ‘deadly night shade’_ (belladonna), stinkweed’ (stra- monium), though active remedial agents, required to be administered with great caution. I once asked mother how she knew how much to give for a dose. ‘Why, child,' she replied, T jest use my gumption.’ I think it was this quality which governed her entire materia medica. Sometimes, in cases which failed to yield readily to treatment, there would be called in for consultation ‘Aunt Lolis’ or ‘Aunt Nabby;’ or other local wiseacres._ in the belief that ‘in a multitude of counselors there is safety.’ After all, I think her gentle, kindly nursing was the secret of mother’s suc- cess.” INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 139 THE CBAZE FOR “ DOSING.” There is a great and growing craze in this country for the taking of drugs, especially drugs the nature and effects of which are wholly un- known and sometimes injurious rather than ben- eficial to the taker. A man or a woman has a qualm. Instead of asking himself or herself, “What have I eaten? What have I drank? Have I been sitting in a draft?” he or she—he no less than she:—casts about for some drug which he or she has heard about or read about, no one knows where. And having found one with a sufficiently terrifying name, odor or taste, he or she pours it into his or her helpless interior, and with a sublime faith and courage awaits the results. Usually the drug is harmless and passes inef- fectually away, leaving nature free to pursue its task of curing the cause of the qualm. But only too often the drug, worthless for curing the dis- order at which it was aimed, strikes and injures some other part of the delicate internal econ- omv. Of course it would be a waste of words to ask people to take care of their health, to defend their stomachs against their greedy palates, to exercise as much prudence in the care of their bodies as they exercise in the care of their horses, dogs, or birds. But is it equally useless to ask them to let the drug bottles alone after they have made themselves ill by over-heating or the other common imprudences, and to give INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. nature a fair chance to nurse the injured part back to health? One has but to occasionally visit some of our many medical colleges and witness the, alas! too many reckless young men who openly boast they would prefer a poisonous and loathsome disease to a common cold, who seem to be in college solely to learn enough to only enable them the better and more successfully to practice their nefarious and lustful designs on the lewd, and oftentimes the unsuspecting and innocent, female victims, many of whom are casting about with matrimonial views with some, as they sup- pose, educated professionals. It is indeed enough to make one suspicious of a large per cent of the entire fraternity and ponder well, in a case of dire necessity and emergency, who to patronize. There is no more suitable and better place for the young physician to practice, learn, and experiment, and appreciate responsibilities, if he chooses than with his own wife and children at his own home. Many fond parents, especially mothers and daughters, in their zealousness and enthusiasm in the different churches, societies and even the W. C. T. U., forget, in their one-ideaism, that it is fully as debasing and ruinous to both soul and body to have their sons, brothers and husbands come home with their bodies and souls polluted with the prevailing sin of licentiousness and pro- fanity, and that the fumes of liquor on the breath is no more obnoxious than the sulphurous fumes of profanity on the breath, or the disgusting per- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. fumes of the licentiousness communicated by the would-be fair sex able to attract by artificial per- fumes, as the lower animals by natural scent, late from the fashionable drug store, which in many cases is in comparison to the saloon about the same as licentiousness and profanity are to intemperance or the liquor habit. It is the imperative duty of everyone to strive to acquaint him or herself enough with their own anatomy, digestive, intestinal and genital organs, to be able to diagnose their own case in most of ordinary ailments without the hastening to the drug store and doctor, or rather to the doctor and drug store, to know what to do and what not to do, in most minor ailments, as different constitutions often require entirely different treat- ment. What may be beneficial to one may be poison to another. Hence the importance of knowing ourselves better than others know us. The modern skepticism and distrust of doctors is aimed almost entirely at the claims of cura- tives, medicines, and at the achievements of pre- ventatives of disease, either acquired or inher- ited. Yet it is a fact at the present day that one hundred dollars is spent on doctors and pre- scriptions and quack cure-alls where one dollar is spent on preventative measures—on living and acting in accordance with the scientific rules of nature’s laws, and sanitation. The future increase of longevity depends more on attending to the prevention of disease than the cure of it. Preventative medicines and principles are a comparatively new science, but are destined in 142 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. time to overshadow and crowd the old curative methods into the background. The science of surgery consists principally in a thorough knowledge of anatomy, good instru- ments, nerve on part of both operator and pa- tient after the latter is convinced it is life or1 death anyhow. A very noted and successful surgeon during the war of the rebellion said to the author “He always required a glass of strong brandy, to steady his nerves, before proceeding to an oper- ation, after which he could as readily amputate a man’s leg just above the shoulder as below the thighs.” Practical and experimental knowledge without education has more frequently raised man to glory and renown than education without prac- tical knowledge.' Nature supplies the raw ma- terial, "whiTe "education is the artificial or manu- factured. A practical education means the art of making active and useful what we learn. No per- son, especially a parent, is properly educated who is not equal to the successful raising and man- agement of a family, independent of many other minor accomplishments. As most farmers be- lieve it advantageous to sow in the damp or mist, so the first seeds of intelligence should be sown in the first and thickest mists of life. The best and most important part of a person’s education is that which he gets or gives himself by observa- tion and experience. The self-made man is not always to be deprecated and despised, if he is not too much inclined to worship his own maker. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. That good emotions augment the nutritive products of both mind and body has been thor- oughly demonstrated. Everyone ought to be aware of the fact that under the influences of sorrow and grief the whole organism becomes affected and evil emo- tions and passions produce criminal, poisonous effects, is not a matter of argument. Hence the attributes of the mind and body are paralyzed and all those subject to them come into unhin- dered play. The highest powers are always the first affected, and consequently the first to suc- cumb to evil influences. Therefore, the brain, being in closest communication with the organs of generation, whatever affects one will naturally affect the other, and consequently be unduly transmitted to the offspring, for such is the mys- tic union, relation and dependence between body and mind that any good or bad habit contracted through the agency of the body affects the mind in a corresponding degree. The constant drain of seminal fluid, necessary to the vigorous life, involves the gradual and premature decay of the whole system, more especially the mind. Then let every votary of this pernicious practice calmly consider that every time he induces this unnat- ural emission he is, in strict truth, opening the very veins of his heart and brain and pouring out both its best and richest blood, for it is com- puted by the most learned of the medical frater- GOOD AND BAD EMOTIONS. nity that one ounce of this seminal fluid is con- 144 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. sidered equal to forty or fifty ounces of the life’s blood. Thus it is we often see weak, puny off- spring from seemingly strong and robust par- entage. Nature is therefore a solemn and impressive teacher, and gives her admonitions in unmis- takable and warning language, so that manhood may assert its natural rights when sexual inter- course becomes necessary, that it may be pro- duced with vigor and in accordance with nature’s laws and principles of procreation. Conception is simply a process of inoculation and should always be performed with the very best and purest blood and conditions possible, always re- membering there is a third one more vitally interested in the all important transaction, even though it may not be able to lift up its wee, still, small voice in sol- emn protest at the time. That the germ cells are originally male or female there is, in the author’s opinion, not the slightest doubt. The question is, therefore, simply, can they be previ- ously influenced by a previous preparation of the parties interested as desired? We claim the affirmative. It is not scientific proof so much as practical proof that should be convincing, though it may take a long time to ascertain this fact. It is usually the silent men and women that are worth listening to. as they generally speak the loudest and are invariably the deepest think- ers, like the silent partner in business, always speaks the loudest and with the most force and also has the the most influence. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. CRITICISMS OF DR. SCHENCK’S THEORIES. The celebrated Dr. Schenck’s theory, that everything depends upon the mother, is cer- tainly erroneous and preposterous. As well might he claim all children would be the express image of the mother, in all respects, without even so much as the proverbial “ear mark’’ of the father, or “chips from the old block,” or even of “one of the old blue hen’s chickens,” all of which have more significance than many are wont to believe. Chickens often come home to roost, to both the conviction, mortification and guilt of the parents. There is no cause without its effect, neither is there any effect without a cause, somewhere, for the black sheep in the flock, or the skeleton in the closet. Dr, Schenck’s theory of the child in embryo being sexless, and that its gender can be con- trolled or manipulated by the tampering with the blood globules or corpuscles, is not only absurd, but dangerous, if not criminal—abstaining from saccharine or sugar diet, or any other kind of diet, for that matter, other than good, wholesome and nutritious diet. It could not possibly have any influence except on the appetite and taste, while most experienced and observing parents may readily recall cases they are able to account for in their own children. All experience teaches a natural craving and desire of expectant moth- ers for sweets, or sugar, diet. Hence the natural taste and appetite of almost all children for can- dy, which is as natural as it is for a duck to take to water, and is only a proof that most, or at least INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. a great majority, of the births would be males according to Dr. Schenck’s theory. To say the gender in the very beginning is neutral is also very unreasonable. Might as well reason that the disposition, talents and features were always those of the mother, and that the father had noth- ing whatever to do in the matter, because they were not visible in the beginning. Dr. Schenck might as well reason it was possible to change or determine the gender of an egg after the proc- ess of incubation had taken place. Personal ob- servation and experience teaches that there are more female births by non-meat eaters than there are by vegetable, fruit and acid, as well as sugar and saccharine, diets. The exceptions are rare where the prospective mother has a natural or craving appetite for sour, or tart food, and when it is the case the effect, according to Dr. Schenck’s theory, would be to produce a female child, if the opposite would produce a male. Whereas, the child being a part and parcel of the mother, the effects of tart or acid diets would be injurious in producing a predisposition in the coming child to colic, same as nursing on that kind of diet, which all experienced mothers can readily testify to, after the experience of having to walk the floor at nights and lose sleep with a “cross brat” of a child suffering with the colic or gripe for which the mother herself is to blame. The many dangers of tampering with nature’s laws no one fully knows or is able to realize at such critical times until it is too late to remedy, which is the main cause of so many INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 147 fakes and imposters. The controlling of the sex is evidently the effect of mind over matter, as much as sunshine over vegetation, and can be accomplished in no other possible way. True, much that goes on in the beginning, the mother has a most potent influence over, but not the only one by any means. Dr. Schenck’s assertion that the sex of the child is, or can be, controlled absolutely by the mother after conception, is ab- surd in the extreme, according to all common sense and reason, as well as the highest authori- ties on hereditary and general laws, the impress of the sex as well as the features and all other traits are made from the very beginning and cannot be altered, or changed subsequently, and must or can only be accomplished by a previous preparation of the mind and blood according to the laws of nature, in accordance with the influ- ence of mind over matter. An effectual barrier is often thrown in the way of your interests or improvement, while you are insensible oh it, or, if sensible of it, either un- willing, or neglect to improve by it. Ignorance is seldom known until it is too late, or is matched with experience. A person has no greater enemy to fear than his own conceit, or learning, as well as ignorance. It is the very mother of fear, as well as the mother of self-admiration and conceit. A student in college is seldom able to make much progress until he is able to perceive his own conceit, and ignorance, and how much there is yet to be learned. There is as much difference between education and intelligence as there is 148 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. in a politician and statesman, reputation and character, or gall and heart. It is even yet a dis- pute by some whether the lungs or heart control the circulation of the blood in the body. Thej many mysteries of the infinite are far beyond the comprehension of the finite. It will not do to! hurl grammars, arithmetics, medical or scientific books against our adversaries with which to combat practical truths and knowledge. Nat- ural ability with only theoretical education has more frequently raised man to glory, and virtue, than education without natural ability. Ability is the natural power of applying education to practical purposes. All experience shows that different persons have different degrees of in- herited talents and abilities. Parents, therefore, without ability, are like a house without a roof, practically a detriment to posterity. After leav- ing college it would be well for some men to go to school and learn some lessons from nature. NO CRIME TO REGULATE THE SEX. Every available means possible should be sub- servient to the good of future generations, and nothing neglected that would be either beneficial or detrimental, even though it may appear at first, to some of the more modest, to have an im- moral cast. Marriage, birth and death may have many repulsive and dreadful features, but they all, like life, are realities and necessarily have to be endured. It is claimed by some of the more fastidious of Dr. Schenck’s theories, even though he were able to accomplish what he claims to be INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 149 immoral, and little less than criminal, to give it publicity, or in any way encourage its practical application. Such logic is feeble, as the tendency would rather be to prevent many of the darkest and dealiest crimes and practices now prevailing to an alarming extent through the country. That parents have the moral and natural right from choice, and force of circumstances, had they nat- ural power and knowledge, to regulate the sex of their children, is for many reasons perfectly nat- ural and unquestionable and cannot be any more criminal than the sacred right of marriage itself, which is alone for the lawful purpose of multiply- ing and increasing the inhabitants of the earth and securing a hereditary succession and to cul- tivate domestic happiness .according to God’s command. All new discoveries in nature’s laws, if not perverted and abused, are intended for blessings. It is the abuse of our intended bless- ings that makes evils of them. The unwelcome child. What a dismal recep- tion and pitiable object of innocence—the crime of being unfortunately born into a cold and un- friendly world without the welcome or sym- pathy of humane parents to start with, because of sex or otherwise. The fact does not in the least lessen or mitigate the responsibilities. We can- not conceive of a more brutal, inhuman or even criminal act than that of parents being the in- struments in bringing offspring into the world and then damning them because of their sex, by inheritance or neglect in any way, which THE UNWELCOME CHILD. 150 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. is, alas, too often done. The guilt, if any exists, is entirely on the parents, dishonoring and disown- ing that which is born of their own bone, and blood. Indeed it would have been better if such an unfortunate had “had a millstone hanged about its neck and cast into the depths of the sea.” Imagine family of rude boys growing up without a mother’s or sister’s refining and' restraining influences, or a family of girls without the protection of a father, or a brother to warn and guard them from the many defiling evils, and dangerous pit falls of society, and say parents have not the right, or that it is criminal, for parents to regulate the sex of their offspring according to their circumstances, had they the power, or knowledge to naturally do so. How- ever keenly the disappointment may be felt or the many joyous anticipations and calculations may be forever blasted, the natural affections and sympathies should always be ready to protect and defend the innocent to the last. The “sow” in all her filth and brutal nature, with a litter of a dozen or more pigs, will do that much for her young. The author has personally known such instances. One of the greatest and most important ques- tions to man is the study of himself as compared with those around him. His first chief end should be to glorify his Creator; his next chief duty should be to glorify and honor his fam- ily, as children should honor and respect their parents. A humane and honest man, and virtuous woman, are indeed the noblest works of God. Children should be an honor and comfort INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. to their parents in their declining years, as well as a pleasure and blessing to society. Most men and women are not capable of appreciating them- selves, or their neighbors and associates, and are practically unfitted for most avocations in life until they have assumed the grave responsibili- ties of raising a family of their own. Think for a moment of having a young and thoughtless physician who is not the father of a family, pre ■ scribing in a serious case in your own family, and who did not know something from experi- ence of the value of life as it were in his own family. AN ILLUSTRATION IN CRITICISM OF DR. SCHENCK’S THEORIES. An illustration of the possibility of the father impressing his entire image upon a son happened to the author’s personal knowledge forty years ago, which created a lasting impression and was an impressive lesson to the author; indeed,it was the means of his first commencing the study of the great laws of procreation in the human fam- ily, by practical experience and observation up to the present time. The case was one of much interest to the author, and the entire community in which it happened on account of the scandal and litigation which exposed the whole circum- stances It was the case .of an illegitimate child being born of unusually robust parents, especially the father, the husband of an in- valid wife in the lower walks of life, though of fair mental capacity. The child was begotten in the intense heat and excitement of the animal INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. passions of the lustful father, as shown in the trial. The child being removed in its infancy far from both parents’ influence, and environments, and not returning until after it had grown to maturity, the father in the meantime having died some twenty years previous to the return of his son, when every one familiar with the circum- stances were most forcibly struck with his being a perfect facsimile of his father in every respect, voice, motions, statue and principals, so much so that he was easily recognized by all who knew his father twenty years previously, even in the darkest night time, by his voice and actions alone, so much was he the image of the father that all asserted it was the father risen from the dead. This case is only one among many similar, though perhaps not so striking and impres- sive, In the author’s own personal observation and knowledge, in the human family, as well as in the brute creation, to show the fallacy of Dr. Schenck’s food theory, and the effects of mind over matter and circumstances in which the doctor has always about forty-five to one hundred chances to win out every time, the proportion of female births being about that per cent larger than males, although statistics report it somewhat less, which is not the case, accountable .only from the fact that most children are begotten in the first stages of that condition of being most liable to conception, and as proof from testimony in this case, was in the very last stages of that condition of the mother to conceive, and consequently INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 153 there was no impress whatever, of the mother on the progeny. The doctor’s recent suc- cessful and much published case of Lady Warwick in Europe, no doubt is true, but it should be remembered he has always the advan- tage, as before stated, about one chance to every two, to win out every time, besides we suspect a very handsome fee, of which he is only to be en- vied. The birth rate of females is much larger than statistics report, so also is the death rate of males up to the ages of twelve to fifteen years, owing principally to being more exposed to in- clement weather, etc., being fully as tender as the female, and more liable to more fatal diseases even from the same exposure, but after the age of puberty in the female the conditions are re- versed, the male is apt to become more hardy, and the female more delicate, when the death rate of the female from the effects of the fore, and after change of life, and childbirth is much great- er than the male, barring war and accidents, which tends to about equalize them. The condi- tions being about equal after the change in life of the female, the death rate in the two gen- ders is very nearly equal, as insurance companies will tell you. and take risks on one about as read- ily as the other. The birth rate of domestic ani- mals is almost twenty-five per cent greater in favor of the female, and domestic fowls, almost two to one, an illustration of which is hereafter given. Lord Salisubry in his recent celebrated lec- LORD SALISBURY’S LECTURE. 154 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. ture to the chemists of London on the many sci- entific questions and unreasonable theories of the age, entitled “The Depth of Human Ignor- ance Rather than the Wonderful Extent of Hu- man Knowledge,” illustrates what he sought to enforce particularly in this age of theories, when so many third or fourth rate devotees of science effects a swagger, as if the universe no longer possessed any secrets for them tol solve, was that we lived in a small, bright oasis of knowledge, surrounded by a vast unexplainable desert of unpenetrable mys- teries. While he admitted the full value of the many achievements of scientific research, he pointed out the vast majority of riddles pro- pounded by nature and nature’s laws, which until very recently defied investigation and failed to re- ceive a solution. The general drift of his address was to the effect that how little we know, and that most of the principal problems would never in this world be solved by natural man. Science, he said, may tell much that is interesting and useful, but as to questions of whence we came and whither we are going, and of a hundred thousand other problems, bound up therein, science can give no practical answer. The uni- versal and many mysterious laws of nature in the minutest things are unaccountable for, by the finite mind. Though insignificant they may seem, have a significance which is incomprehensible. The fact that an uneven number of rows on an ear of corn cannot be found, or that an uneven number of grains of wheat, barley or rye, do not INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 155 grow in a well-developed head of grain, cannot be accounted for, though it is a fact, or any two particles in all the many kingdoms cannot be found exactly alike, though a striking simi- larity in all the many different series. It may be safely said that among that distin- guished audience who had not entered the hall with a certain degree of assurance and conceit of his own eminence in some way or other, of the various branches of science and learning there was not one on hand who did not leave the hall an humbler and therefore a much wiser and bet- ter man. He wished to impress the idea that it was necessary for a man to be humbled before he became exalted, and that it was far better, though much harder, for a man to wear out than to rust out. All this is only evidence there is not enough individualism, not enough discriminating, or studying of the different mental and physical ca- pacities and types of ourselves mentally and phy- sically, at home or in the schools. Though there may be a similarity, it is impossible to grow chil- dren as we grow cereals or vegetables, by plant- ing them exactly at the same time and depth, and by furnishing them with the same fertilizers, either before or after birth. The fact remains that similar conditions come nearer producing similar effects than promiscuous conditions, in all the different varieties of both the animal and vegeta- ble kingdom. Push the argument, or theory, to its extreme, and it will invariably be found that all future conditions depend on the previous prepa- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. ration, and that like conditions will come much nearer producing like effects than unlike condi- tions. Of all the blessings that mortal man can re- ceive and enjoy, there is none so great as good health. Riches, honor, fame and all other prizes for which men labor and toil are insignificant when compared to the possession of a sound mind and a sound body. This is no new bit of wisdom, with knowledge to know howto1 transmit the same precious boon to his children. It has been said many times since the days of King Sol- omon, but it should come with a new and more forcible meaning in these modern days. For by reason of the enormous increase of causes that produce many of the most common and fatal maladies, it has .come about that in no period of the world’s history should the individual be more concerned in protecting himself and others from disease and mental defects as in the closing years of the nineteenth century. If you want to educate the public on any great question the proper place to begin is at the home. Strip your information of technicalities, and put it in such a way that the common people, especially the heads of families, may be able to understand it and, if possible, to add something to the general fund of information in the way of how to produce and keep sound minds and bodies rather than try to remedy the defects after it has been produced. Those who conduct, the domestic affairs of home, as well as those who make our laws, in both state and nation, have so far failed to take full advan- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 157 tage of these things in protecting the private and public health, and we are to a very large extent deprived of the blessing which ought to flow from the knowledge of how to prevent, rather than the cure of unsound and diseased bodies, which is left too much to drugs and quack doctors. We read and are told by scientists, and no doubt truthfully so, that tuberculosis destroys more lives than any other disease in the world. It kills more than 100,000 annually in the United States alone, and the person who contracts this disease has simply sustained an accident by go- ing out and inhaling the deadly microbes and bacillus of the street or roads of the country, or town, or in the home, on the carpets and draper- ies, which collects on the tongue, which scientists with the aid of their microscopes declare amount to many hundred varieties if scraped off, in a nor- mally healthy person, which is only acknowledg- ing the whole body is formed of this great buga- boo, and highly magnified and deadly microbes. If this be so, the only salvation for the human race is the knowledge of how to produce and propa- gate health-giving microbes. They admit compar- atively nothing can be done to cure disease, but much can be done to prevent it which, alas, is too much neglected until it is too late. The founda- tion being the proper time and place to begin the work of a sound and perfect superstructure. The earth, the air, the sea, since the fall of man, has been and always will be, full of animalcules, in- to the naked eye. They are no doubt a necessity to existence, to both animate and in- 158 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. animate creation, though some no doubt are poi- sonous. Science, with the aid of powerful mag- nifying glasses, has been able to make many wonderful and astounding discoveries, and saw fit to denominate them as mostly “the deadly mi- crobe,’’ from which there would seem no escape, only by making their environment less congenial in producing a hardier race of people with the ability of resisting the poisonous infection, as in the day of Mathusala. Barring surgery and the use of anodynes and opiates to relieve pain and suffering, we claim the science of curing disease has not made the prog- ress the last generation that it claims to have done. Although many of the causes, outside of inheritance, may have been ascertained and par- tially removed by sanitation, nature is left to do the curing, therefore the effort and study should be to prevent rather than to cure disease and bodily defects, by the inheritance of a constitution able to resist and throw off naturally many of these poisons, as in ancient times, when human life lasted for centuries by reason of being a hardier race of people and not being exposed to the many deadly “doctors” and drugs of the pres- ent day. Microbes magnified into great, horrid animals and serpents with horns and thousands of legs, like the deadly tarantula, are enough to frighten the nervous into epileptics, when the fact is" they themselves are nothing but a great huge microbe of larger growth, and composed almost entirety of smaller ones. If a person could see himself INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 159 magnified many hundred times under a powerful magnifying glass, as the microbes, he would sim- ply be horrified at himself and loath to believe that such a being ever existed on earth, as him- self. Silent men are mostly men of deepest and put est actions. _ Like water, runs the smoothest, while the shallow and babbling brook (or like the shallow and babbling politician or so- ciety devotees) goes pell niell and headlong they ToTow not whither, thinking all man are like themselves—either knaves or fools, while a true, generous and deep thinker may often appear silly or partially insane being absolutely absorbed in deep thought on some momentous or puzzling question. Indeed it has been said with much truth, it is more difficult to find a strictly sane man than a partially insane man.—Like an Edi- son, and many other geniuses who are all thought and action and few words. Thought is the true sense of energy and intellect, while speech is, or ought to be, the external thought, and thought should be the internal speech clothed in the simplest and purest language. The advantages of natural abilities are to be preferred to artificial education and will soon upset all forced or unnatural growth. Common sense is therefore to be secured before we will be able to acquire uncommon sense. What the present age and generation mostly needs is a harmonious and well rounded plan of education, built on rational lines, lines that har- monize and follow the natural inclinations and 160 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. trend of the mind, instead of forcing an undue and unnatural growth, or attempt to run the mind through an artificial mold, when it was in- tended to run in an entirely different direction and try to raise the intellect and moral standard of the coming generations to their natural ele- ments, by beginning at the very foundation and handing down good habits, sound minds and bodies from sire to son, thus making the future generations masters of their own destinies. Until the grave closes over man almost the only thing of worth that life holds for him is the knowledge that is withheld. We may know all this, but we do not recognize it, we too often en- tirely ignore it. Though we may have learned self control, which portends or shows upon the surface, the eager research of life is filled, every- thing that reaches out in the self-same way to the unknown and unknownable. Even for us who have left many decades behind us in the flight of time, and have therefore a greater or less store of experience, life still possesses many possibil- ities and probabilities, all as yet unexplored, or even hinted at. It has been the fate of, alas, too many to be disappointed in the future outcome of their children, but for this disappointment who is to be blamed? The hopes and desires may have shone over all the future, and without striv- ing to find out exactly for what their children were best fitted. THE OLDER PREDESTINES THE YOUNGER. The older predestines the younger to a certain natural course in life. The result is the parent’s INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. regret, the world’s loss, without any one's gain. Many a man has made a poor minister or law- yer, who would have made an excellent cobbler or cooper. Many a woman has become a third or fourth rate singer who would have been a first rate dressmaker, or housekeeper, and some have been obliged to stick to their needle or ma- chine, when they might have aroused the world as actresses. Many a man has been compelled to follow the plow when he should have made an orator or statesman. What is there, then, to re- deem the years spent in dwarfing our uncongen- ial and unnatural occupation? What is there for parents to do, but sadly acknowledge that they have made a sad and bitter mistake, and what good will that do after the failure has been made? We should remember that a child is much like a traveler in a foreign country, and has no means of learning what he wants to know. His habits and natural observations are as yet uninformed or undeveloped, so he has nothing upon which to base his judgment, but that which he sees, or is told him, by those who have been longer in the country than he, upon the manner in which this information is conveyed if conveyed at all) depends much of both the past and future of both parent and child. The human mind and conscience is constantly in a state of unrest, if in a normal and healthy condition. The treatment of this state of mind should be constructive and not destructive, though on the latter line too many parents have based the training of themselves and children. 162 TNFITTENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. Repression at every point where there seems to be a sign of expansion for the good and noble is inconsistent with adult life. All should be brought under regulations and training ac- cording to a proper measurement. Whatever exceeds the line should be lopped off. Only up to a certain point does the analogy between the plant vegetable and plant human hold good. The human plant cannot well be pruned out of its natural tendencies, without serious injury, nor can it be dwarfed out of its natural direction, without assuming an abnormal growth in an- other, and perhaps more objectionable direction. Would you therefore let the children do as they please and become the spoiled and unmanage- able beings we so often see them? Yes, let them do as they please, but be very particular to see that they please to do right; always remembering that disease and defects of both mind and body are traceable to some hereditary cause and that the old maxims of “a stitch in time will save nine,” or “an ounce of prevention is worth pounds of cure. People who spend their lives solely on animal pleasure and gratifications soon find life a dis- appointment and painfully short, and usually have a miserable end to eke out, though not in the least superstitious or believers in ghosts and hob-goblins, they are always afraid of them, as were their ancestors before them. Like a red rag to a bull, or turkey gobbler, more however an imaginary fright, than rage of passion. Jesse James, Jr., son of the notorious bandit INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 163 of the border days of frontier life, is a fair and striking example as to how far the life of a per- son may be influenced by the lives of those who preceded them in ancestral lines. Begotten and born as he was, while his father was under the strongest influences of avenging either an imag- inary or real wrong, even though his environ- ments from his youth up have been those which would tend to make a man upright and hon- orable. and as such he has _been esteemed by his friends and acquaintances, that the impulses of his inherited nature have been dormant in his mind, heart and blood, governed strongly with his advancing years, only awaiting the stimulus to develop their natural or inherited tendencies to commit the crime transmitted by ancestral strains, in the same vocation from sire to the un- fortunate son. Thomas A. Edison is a similar striking example only in another and more hon- orable direction in his inventive genius, as in his experiments and performances he has recently demonstrated in the most wonderful wave motor, which alone has already surprised the world, by his scientific skill and knowledge of electricity, undoubtedly inherited from his father’s unremit- ting application on the same lines of thought, transmitted to the more fortunate son. So also the present generation of the colored man is dis- tinctively different from those of a decade before and a decade after their liberation, is accountable alone for the great and silent and leavening power and influence of mind over matter. That it is so on down through the whole catalogue of INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. vices and virtues, is the experience and observa- tion of the author with but few exceptions even in religion and politics. Thus “small habits well pursued betimes, may reach the magnitude of crimes.” It is indeed both surprising and disgusting, but none the less to be expected, when we con- sider the conditions that so many seemingly in- telligent people believe in hoodooism, or “virtue,” as they call it, of the rabbit’s foot, and foreknowl- edge of the fake clairvoyant, the effects of an in- herited superstition. “The generations of the future, Will win or lose success at last, For in the future they are only The raw material of the past.” Every seed is but the production of a preced- ing seed, and the father and mother of the com- ing harvest and the all-important question to all should be “What will the harvest be?” Many having permanently exhausted them- selves they find indigestion, ambition, honor and all that goes to contribute comfort and pleasure and enjoyment, irretrievably gone about the time they should have plenty of time and means to en- joy health and life. Those who put everything into sensual enjoyments soon find life a dreary and dismal waste, and life for them early becomes a matter of sad regret, with no cheerful, forward ‘outlook either for themselves or posterity to follow. NOTES OF WARNING. Begotten and born of parents at the time with even a cold in head or lungs is a sure precursor INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. of catarrh in the head, chest, throat, or lungs, a predisposition to throat or lung trouble; in liquor and licentiousness, a drunkard and debauch; in theft, a kleptomaniac; in politics, a boodler; in ignorance, a superstition, the number 13 or the sight of a new moon over the left shoulder will invariably create a shudder and frightful forebod- ing of some pending calamity or misfortune. The fact that many may differ upon the subject herein discussed is offered by many as a reason for regarding as presumption an attempt to solve the great and all-important and interesting subject and problem of previously determining the heritage and sex. If the matter depends up- on the opinions of men they would be of some force in the argument, but when it is recognized that there is a standard of authority by which the question can be settled beyond dispute, the ob- jection must be necessarily dismissed with the answer that great and learned-men are not al- ways the wisest m ail things, and that the wis- dom of the world is oftentimes but igorance and foolishness with God or the laws of nature's god. To predetermine sex,, character anff other tastes and talents, vices and virtues, and suffer- ings, or Whatever goes to make up their, exist- ence, many times more than wealth or college educations and thereby govern whatever apper- tains to man and nature’s laws of mind over mat- ter, lias been the great, aim and effort. Must Humanity throw over modesty, entirely ignoring a subject so closely connected, and infinitely eventful, to all parents and communities and so- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. ciety, and find their echoes away down through the deeper recesses of human nature, in the moulding of generations yet unborn, after it has been too late to use the remedy? The intermingling of blood, by the crossing of the many different races of our country, is not to be looked upon, as it is by many, with fear and disfavor, but rather should be regarded with favor as an improvement of the different races, as a surer and more ready means of Americanizing and improving the great foreign element of our country mentally, morally and physically. The vigor, the vital force and the mental capacity of other people are bound to improve by intermix- ture of blood; the more composite their charac- ter the greater their strength and energy. In countries, .neighborhoods and families -where they form but a small percentage of population, the range of choice must necessarily be limited and the consequences are as necessarily toward a retrograde on the degenerative line, rather than an improvement. Like animals, too much in-breeding has a ten- dency always to deteriorate in all lines of hard- ness and usefulness if not judiciously exercised. It is already apparent that the foreign habits and language so prevalent on the streets of our great cities, but a few years since, is fast becoming eliminated by the rising generation, which is a good indication of the great and puzzling prob- lem of the foreign element, being as it were fast consumed by the more modern and better Amer- THE INTERMINGLING OF BLOOD. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. ican habits taught in the public schools, the great Americanizer of the children. Indeed it is remarkable how little foreign language is heard on the streets by the children of foreign parent- age. One more generation will almost accom- plish the much to be desired result, were it not for the constant supply of raw recruits. Dr. Roberts, formerly from a goat ranch in the state of Missouri, but more recently of Chicago, has made the discovery of making old people young and frisky by injecting new life in them with a fluid lymph extracted from the glands of a goat into the veins and blood of the human, which he claims, with many followers, as usual, will largely exterminate discrepancy, and restore youth to the infirm, who, no doubt, will become frisky as the small boy, whose pres- ence climbing fences in the alley and masticat- ing old tin cans and rumaging in garbage boxes, in the absence of pastures green, on the left-hand side. The tendencies and disposition of the goat in the human are already quite natural and numerous. If at all, Dr. Koch’s sheep lymph would be far more innocent and preferable, to say nothing about the odor. The late Prof. Koch, after his recent much in- flated, but more recently much collapsed, theory of his wonderful and infallible cure of consump- tion, and even making a young man out of an old man, by the process of injecting a lymph, manufactured, or extracted, from the male or- gans of the sheep, into the blood of the human, has recently made another wonderful discovery, 168 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER, that where there are no mosquitoes there is no malaria, and that the use of the drug quinine was entirely dispensed with in countries having no mosquitoes. The regret is, they could not have been, “shooed” out of Cuba and our recent mili- tary camps. We do not court his notoriety, but cannot help but admire his wonderful persistency and research in his efforts in making new dis- coveries, and only hope he may be able later on to stumble onto something of more practical, permanent and beneficial use to himself and the world, even though it be “far fetched and dearly bought.” If some scientist would announce to the world through the press, or some popular medical magazine, that the bite of the pesky flea, or obnoxious bedbug, was as dangerous and poi- sonous as the mosquito or some serpent, the whole world would be alarmed, as it has been on the myriads of deadly microbes in the air, so that it was dangerous to life to go out, or to live in anything but well-fumigated apd air-tight apart- ments; it, however, having been more recently discovered by experience that these same deadly microbes are a necessity to good health. When we announce to the world, from the epicurean tastes of the mosquito, flea, or bedbug, the ex- cessive use of tobacco is a sure preventative in preventing the bite, is no reason that all should rush to the use of the pernicious habit of smok- ing or chewing, which is about as bad as the use and abuse of quinine habit for malaria, the rem- edy B'eing about as’TSad as the disease; but it will not prevent the pesky hop, skip and jump of the INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. flea, or the obnoxious and persistent crawling of the bug over the body, and annoying singing- in the ears of the mosquito. In the meantime we are offering no relief for the less poisonous blood and more tender skins of the ladies. Indeed, there seems no protection for them, only the effectively barring out or total extermination of the pests. The question is often asked why such pests were created, as was childishly asked why God made little, red, sour apples. The answer was, because He made big, red, sweet apples, and that there never was a curse without a blessing, a joy without a sorrow; life means death; health, disease; war, peace; time, eternity; a counterfeit, a genuine; and so on through the whole cata- logue of opposites and negatives, even a Koch or Murphy to experiment on diseased lungs, while the many ads. continue to appear, all the same, to catch the unwary sufferer. Noxious vermin, like noxious weeds, seem to be among the curses of the earth, and of indigen- ous and almost of spontaneous creation, in com- pliance with the command “that man shall hence- forth earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.” The disgrace is, however, like most filthy con- tagions, not so much the having of them as in the keeping and harboring of them, and is only evidence of a person’s filthy kitchen or neglected bedchamber. All creation, animal as well as the human, vegetable and fruits have either deadly or annoying enemies to combat with for an ex- istence or growth to maturity and perfection. 170 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. It is often, therefore, a wise conclusion that we had many times better suffer the ills and petty annoyances we have, than to vigorously kick, or “fly to others we know not of.’’ There never appears but a few men of real worth or genius in the world, on the same lines at the same time, or any age, but if they were united the world could not stand before them. Genius is, however, subject to the same great laws of nature as those that regulate the pro- duction of corn and cotton. It cannot win con- tinued universal admiration except in alliance with reason and the laws of nature, and is only entitled to respect and confidence where it pro- motes and improves the health and suffering of mankind on established principles—principles in harmony with nature instead of practical theo- ries. Therefore, the unavoidable influences of mind over matter,, in the laws of procreation of the human race, are as much in evidence as the warmth and sunshine in the vegetable kingdom. UNINTENTIONAL CONCEPTION. It is a well-known fact that most impregna- tions are either accidental or unintentional, or at least not mutual. They mostly occur, like death, or a thief in the night, when the parties are least expecting, or prepared for it, one of the most im- portant events of their lives, more especially the lives of the fruits of their own thoughtless pro- duction, for which they alone are entirely respon- sible, little realizing in how short a time their own careless productions will be on the stage of action, a true facsimile and exposition of them- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. selves, exposing to the gaze of the world most of their parents’ heretofore secrets and deceptions of either good or bad qualities, even to the brogue of the tongue, and the impress on the features of a visible map of the country from which they hailed, be it Ireland, Scotland, Germany or Sweden, France, Spain, Japan or China, Eng- land or America, Jew or Gentile, city or coun- try, black or white, with, as it were, a Cain-like mark, a visible and indelible mark of their an- cestors, in whatever clime they may choose to roam or dwell. Even in our own America the same features are to a great extent noticeable to the close observer in the Hawkeye or Buck- eve, Hoosier or Sucker, a Yankee or Southerner, an easterner or a frontiersman, or whatever his state or nativity, there is something about his makeup to distinguish him from his other fellow beings, as well as of the different nationalities. However true this may be, there is one signifi- cant fact and commendable feature connected with it all, and that is, if they are in America, the readiness of all to take offense if called any- thing but an American, which is only the more substantial evidence of America’s popularity and attraction from all parts of the entire globe, to avail themselves of its advantages and seek and appreciate its freedom, as being the greatest and best country in the world, which is fast Americanizing or Anglo-Saxonizing the human race. Hence the greater necessity and import- ance of guarding well from the earliest start, even in embryonic life, to the finish of life’s 172 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. mighty struggle and race, by not being previous- ly handicapped in any way by ancestral anteced- ents who fail to appreciate the vast necessity of a previous preparation as being essential in con- trolling future events, and success in all things, both temporal and spiritual, and more especially in matters appertaining to the future welfare of their own households. Momentary pleasures and enjoyments are worth but little without a sunshine of hope to brighten for ourselves and children any hopes and prospects of developing any of the capabili- ties and perfections of which they are suscepti- ble. More are apt to let golden opportunities, as a bright summer’s morning, pass unheeded and unembraced, and let intended blessings get mouldy, and call them curses, which, like pro- cessions, return to the place from which they started. The true art of life is. then, to act wise- ly. In its largest meaning, a sense of fitness is the supreme grace. The survival of the fittest is, therefore, marked by the choice of the fittest. “There is no such thing as death— In nature nothing dies; From each sad remnant of decay. Some forms of life arise. The little leaf that falls, All brown and seared, to earth, Ere long will mingle with the buds, That gave the flower its birth. The man is thought a knave or fool, Or bigot plotting crime. Who, for advancement of his race, Is wiser than his time.” INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 173 RULES IN NATURE’S LAWS TO BE OBSERVED IN DETERMINING THE SEX. In this system of determining the sex there is no necessity whatever of any medical or food treatment, or any other kind of treatment or con- sultation, other than the strict observance of nature’s procreative laws, which never chasteneth with a rod, but only with time. Any violation of nature’s laws should not only be denounced and condemned as repugnant, but criminal in practice. The arrival of a baby boy in the house- hold, especially after the previous arrival of two or more girls, or vice versa, is a wellspring of joy and delight to the parents, more especially to the father who had about lost the hope of per- petuating his good name, which was in danger of going out of existence in one short genera- tion. All great improvements, inventions and discoveries have mostly been the result of long, individual and practical experimenting; some have been the result of accident. We will, there- fore, only speak of what we actually know and testify to what we have seen. It has been asserted by some of the more sen- sitive and over-moral that nothing should be said or published on this subject, which so much affects and interests every well-regulated house- hold and family, lest the minds and morals of some should be corrupted. There can be noth- ing immoral or corrupting in parents being the masters of their children’s destinies, in regard to sex and disposition. It is always the first 174 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. impulse and interrogation of parents after the arrival of the child to know and inquire, “What is it—a boy or girl?” This is as weak and feeble logic as it is inconsistent and unreasonable, for there is scarcely a household in the world in which the sex of their children is not of first interest to the parents, as they are in their future well-being, which is oft- entimes of the greatest importance. I have, therefore, none other than the purest motives, and will endeavor, as I have so far done, to give our knowledge in the most chaste language pos- sible to be understood. Most medical and scien- tific works are of incalculable value, no doubt, to the more highly educated who are “up” in technicalities, but are as a sealed book in the hands of the multitudes of non-professional and common people. Life not being much of a ro- mance with most people, but a stern reality, and many delicate subjects and practical facts neces- sarily have to be confronted sooner or later by all. The fate of individuals is often the fate of society. The knowledge of a child’s ancestry or pedigree for one or more generations, and its environment for the first few years, is a fair in- dex of its future, unless some dire misfortune overtakes it, though it may be possible to pull down a strong superstructure on a firm founda- tion, which it has taken many years to build up, though it is not so probable. Tt is easier for a man who drinks to break himself than break the habit. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. RESULT OF THE MARTIAL SPIRIT CAUSED BY THE RECENT WAR. The martial spirit which has spread over the country the past year has by its pre-natal influ- ence effected an increase in male over female1 births. Anthropological students say the dispro- portion, which began to manifest itself in No- vember and December, will continue until April 1899, or about a year from the beginning of the war. Statistics received from several cities show a large increase in male births. In New York the ratio of increase over female births in the month of December of the year 1898, over the same month last year, is nearly eight per cent. In St. Louis, for November, 1898, it was eleven per cent. In Atlanta, the last week in November, 1898, shows fifteen boys born to every eleven girls, as compared with eleven boys to twelve girls a year ago. Boston shows nearly the same proportion, and so does Philadelphia, Cleveland has been too busy with the grip epi- demic to go into birth statistics, but the con- sensus of medical opinion is tha*t more boys are being born into the world than girls. Anyone observing the birth reports within their personal limits will perceive this fact. Providence, R. 1., and Springfield, Mass., are boy baby towns for December, 1898, and so is Cincinnati, and all other large cities west of the Alleghanies. If under such unintentional conditions “influ- ence of mind over matter” be possible, what would be the possibilities of intentional influ- 176 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. ences on the same or along any other lines? Superstitious mothers, years ago, were wont to attribute a preponderance of male births as a true sign of war for the coming generation, on the principle of Providence, as nations previ- ously “preparing in time of peace for war”; when in fact, if it is evidence of anything, it is evi- dence only that war has just existed, and left its impress by influence of Mind over Matter, by enthusiastic fathers in direct opposition to Dr. Schenck’s theory, which is explained elsewhere. All know that mothers, and expectant mothers above all others, at such times abhor war, in- stead of becoming enthusiastic over it, and the influence must necessarily come from the more enthusiastic fathers in strict harmony with, and is but a striking verification of the principles the author has so strenuously endeavored to im- press on his readers. Therefore, Dr. Schenck’s “saccharine diet and food theories” at such times, above all others, is more apt to be sadly neg- lected, and is only strong proof against his un- reasonable theories. It is, therefore, but reason- able and logical to conclude that if unintentional influences are so potent, it is manifestly evident of what the possibilities and capabilities of inten- tional and cultivated influences may produce. We therefore consider the foregoing reports worth more in support of our principles of determining the sex than thousands of straight testimonials. This is no visionary dream or the- ory, but a statistical fact, though it may be con- demned by many wiseacres. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. Women, more especially true mothers, wives and sweethearts, are not apt to become very enthusiastic over the prospect of their husbands, sons and sweethearts going to war. The influ- ence, therefore, if any, necessarily must come from the other side, in direct opposition to Dr. Schenck’s theory, which he himself admits in an interview since the development of the facts. Our own limited knowledge and observation since the agitation of this fact, to which we have given considerable attention, is that the male birth rate is much in excess of the foregoing reports. Dr. Schenck was recently interviewed respect- ing the remarkable phenomenon of the high pro- portion of male births in the United States dur- ing the last two months. He showed much in- terest in the facts and said: “I am quite disposed to attribute the increased male births to the martial enthusiasm evoked by the war, but acording to my theory the enthusiasm must have been strongest on the women’s side. During the East African campaign, when warriors made prisoners of unwilling wives, the ratio of births was seventy-nine boys to four hundred and three girls. The result was -due to the enthusiasm inspiring the men, while their captive wives were dejected and sorrowful. "I think it clear that the American women favored the late war more strongly and more heartily than the American men. but this is not the only contributory cause to the_ excess of the male birth rate now observ- able. I believe at the outbreak of the war the' people at large lived more copiously. This was par- ticularly the_ case with women, who took more nour- ishment owing to the excitement caused by the ap- proach of war.” DR. SCHENCK ON WAR BIRTH RATE. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. Although eight thousand six hundred and forty-one male babies were born in Chicago in 1898, against eight thousand two hundred and ninety-six girls, local doctors give little credence to the Schenck theory that the war is responsible. Dr. F. W. Reilly of the Health Department of Chicago does not consider Prof. Schenck’s the- ory seriously when he says; “There is no statis- tical substantiation of the theory of Prof. Schenck that the proportion of male births to female in- creases during and after the war. It’s all rot.” Another doctor took practically the same view. (1.) To control the sex conception should never take place accidentally or unintentionally, or without due previous preparation and fore- thought of both the mind and body. Actions that are committed with no thought as to the ultimate influences on the future offspring are nothing but brutal. (2.) The minds of both prospective parents for some time—the longer the better—previous to conception, and the mother after and during the entire time of pregnancy, should be reason- ably trained and held as much as possible on all lines of thought, or study most desired, to transmit to her child, not forgetting or neglect- ing both outdoor and indoor exercise, and always cultivating as cheerful and happy a dis- position as is possible under the circumstances. (3.) Should a male child be desired, it is of the utmost importance and indeed absolutely necessary, that both parents for some time-pre- vious to conception prepare themselves by a TNFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. longing desire for that sex, and wVipn roprpptinn doestake place., it ahoiild.b£iaft£LJhe-JiiiddleJ3i. the Time of the formation of the ovum or egg, after- the cessation of the meng^"W~^ftrglTgTfua- tion, or just before the ovum or egg Is expelled, or the time when the desire ,for sexual intercourse Fs not so strong in the...female as it is. according to the laws oTHiature, immediately after the period of menses; this period lasting from six to eight, and twelve to fourteen davs in some, after cessation of the menses, before the ovum or egg is expelled” which is to become impregnated by coming in contact with the seminal fluid of the male, when according to nature’s laws the male is supposed to be the more .vigorous of the two, and thus more liable to impress his whole nature as well as sex upon his left, as, it were, in an incubator under the process of hatching and developing later on. For a female child the rule should simply be reversed.< Conception should take place as soon as possi- ble after the cessation of the menses. Hence tile 'caiiseTof the preponderance of female, births. Food or special diet, as Dr. Schenck would have you believe, in the author’s opinion and experi- ence, has nothing whatever to do with determin- ing the sex. Indeed, too rich and high diet and living the author believes to be rather detriment- al in many ways than beneficial in any way. In- toxicants should never be indulged in under any circumstances, ever fearing its baneful and dan- gerous influences upon the mind and appetite of the future progeny. Also avoiding all excite- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. ment, especially that of an irritant or melancholy nature. (4.) The foetus, or future child, now under its future mother’s fostering care, is just as much, if not more subject to good or bad influences, as after it has been born and laid in its little crib or cradle, or at its mother’s breast, and should be guarded by both parents by that same jealous care and training as after birth, the male parent ever taking natural lessons from the animal, and more especially the song birds, during the entire period of the mating and hatching season, in feeding and guarding its mate and their young, even to death, until the young are on the wing and have grown to maturity, never permitting yourself to believe you can violate any of nature’s moral laws with impunity. It is contrary to all reason as well as nature itself, and will gnaw at your very vitals, making present and future life miserable. Do not accept any doctrine or prac- tice because of its age; frequently its age is the best evidence of its fallacy. Neither boast of your own blood. Your neighbors may know it to be tinged with imbecility or foul disease. In- herited traits, like murder, will out some time, some way or other, sooner or later. These are not new facte, but simply old facts with new faces, and therefore will be worth heeding and careful consideration. Hence it is well to— “Clean out the corners of the brain, Bear down with scrub brush and soap, And dump all fear into the drain, And dust a cozy chair for Hope. INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. Clean out the brains’ deep rubbish hole, Soak every corner great and small, And in the front room of the soul. Hang prettier pictures on the wall. Scrub up the windows of the mind, Clean up and let the spring begin, Swing open wide the dusty blind, And let the spring sunshine in.” PRINCIPLES, RULES, AND OBSERVATIONS AS TO BREEDING, AND HOW TO DETERMINE THE SEX AND DISPOSITION OF STOCK ON THE FARM. There are a great many men who know how to manage a farm theoretically, or on paper. One would usually get this impression from reading the many agricultural papers, many of which are full of good advice and pleasing theories and suggestions. It is, however, much easier to know how to run a farm theoretically than practically. Like all other business, practice tends to perfec- tion, and experience, though many times slow and tedious, as well as dear, is the best teacher in all lines, more especially in stock raising and breeding. No man has better opportunities and faculties to study nature and nature’s laws in re- gard to the procreation of both the animal and human race, as well as the vegetable kingdom, than the farmer. That which lies at the founda- tion of the improvement of all stock is the fact, the common but too much neglected axiom, that like always produces like, with a tendency to degenerate, or run down or out. This is the 182 influence of mind over matter. governing law and principle in every portion of animated nature. There is not a deviation from it in the vegetable kingdom, and the exceptions are few and far between among the lower class of animals as well as the human family. When, however, in the higher species the principle may not seem at all times to hold good, it is because of another power, the intellectual, or the imag- inative, somewhat controlling the more original one. There are a few strange exceptions to this, showing the power of imagination even on the lower animals, the progeny being much affected by circumstances that happen during the time of conception, or rather during the period they are in “heat” or season. Some of these singular facts are recorded. One of a cow which chanced to come in season while pasturing in a field which was bounded by that of a neighbor, out of which an ox jumped, and went with the cow until she was brought home and mated with the male. The ox was white, with no black or red spots, and horned, the owner of the cow had no horned cattle in his possession, nor any with white on them. Nevertheless the product the following spring was a black and white calf with horns. Many other similar cases in modern times are known. One, however, more striking case in ancient times which some might regard as more of a miracle, is that of Jacob, recorded in Gen. 30:37-42. “And Jacob took his rods of hazel and chestnut trees, and pealed white streaks in them, and made them white appear which was INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 183 in rods, and he set the rods which he had pealed before the flocks in gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, that they conceive before the rods and brought forth cat- tle ring, streaked, speckeled and spotted,” which goes to show that though the organic principle is in full activity, yet it haa been very materially influenced and changed, or impressed by sur- rounding circumstances, and that even nature itself has in a manner conformed to art. We might record many instances, though perhaps not striking, within our own experience, were it necessary, of disposition, deformities and color, which are looked upon and called by some of the more thoughtless and less observing, some of nature’s freaks. That there is no effect without a cause, neither is there a cause without an effect, is a true axiom. In selecting a sire for the improvement of farm stock, always pick one with amiable traits (even in the hog) stamina of constitution and size sufficient to rear up stock such as is most de- sired. The superiority of age, predominancy of animal magnetism, and vigor and vivacity pT spirits at the time of mating-, most invariably de- termines the sex to be male, if in the last stages, of “heat.” ■"Notwithstanding this, occasional deviations may occur from natural principles. We should endeavor to correct the defects of animals, by selecting sires that possess opposite constitutional tendencies from the dam. The more masculine and less feminine in the male, the more apt he is 184 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. to transmit his own good or bad qualities, and the more feminine and less masculine in the dam the better breeding qualities, this rule is uni- versal and natural throughout the universe in all kingdoms. We should ever keep in mind that like always produces liko ~rrrrder'"al] circum- stances; in disposition, as well as form, color and constitutions, and look for a sire that possesses these qualities of excellency, which we wish to engraft in our stock, however, there may be strains of good or bad blood, which in superior or inferior animals, as persons, which may run up or down, or backwards or forwards, but is always traceable, if the pedigree is carefully looked up. This is equally applicable to the dam or sire. It is the foundation of scientific and suc- cessful breeding. It is unreasonable to expect a race horse from a draught horse, or a coach horse from a bronco, or vice versa. It is a well authenticated fact that the instinctive savage- ness of all wild animals, as well as uncivilized tribes of the human race, bred, born and raised in captivity or civilization, lose half their vicious natures the first generation after their confine- ment. Let any sportsman or dog fancier mate his pointer or setter, or any other of the canine hunt- ing species, during the hunting, or working sea- son, and note a difference of almost one hundred per cent on the progeny, in the susceptibility and adaptability over both sire and dam, on their natural lines, even in scent and management of working and breaking in to work as a pointer, INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. setter or retriever. It is but the mysterious in- fluences of ‘instinct” over matter in the brute creation as “mind” in the human. Fine hunters as well as poets “are born, not made.” Custom and convenience, however, induce the generality of breeders to look mostly to male. The question as to the comparative influence of the male with many, is a somewhat difficult one to decide. There are, however, no doubt, in- stances where the female decidedly predomin- ates, in sex as well as good qualities, chiefly because of being bred in the first stages of heat, or season, and to a run down or less vig- orous male, and naturally her good or bad form, qualities and nature as well as sex are more hereditary and essentially part of her, and more likely to lie transmitted to her offspring. Close Flood or relationship, shouTd be carefully avoid- ed, as the tendency is to degeneracy in the ani- mal, as well as the human family. Nutritious food should be given with proper and natural exercise, though not enough to allow fattening. VITALITY A CARDINAL POINT IN ALL DOMESTIC ANIMALS AS IN THE HUMAN. Each recurring season emphasizes the fact that we live in a trying climate, and that animal and vegetable life, to be assured of perpetuity and satisfactory development in America, must be of a robust, vigorous type. Ability to with- stand extreme cold, torrid heat, blizzards, hot winds, insects and drouth seems to be an essen- tial. Such winters as that just passed remind us 186 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. that there is no permanent place in our agricul- ture for weaklings. In the struggle with our cli- matic conditions those that survive must be fit to cope with the extremest vagaries of the ele- ments. The winter of 1898-99 has been a costly one to this country. It not only caused heavy losses of live stock in some sections of the range country, but it has left bare ground where green wheat and rich clover fields should have been. It has destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of small fruits, ornamental trees, vines and shrub- bery; and thus far the spring has not been es- pecially well adapted to the repairing of this widespread damage. While this lesson in climate is clearly in view it may be well to remind stock-breeders that they may profit by Nature’s none-too-gentle reminder that life of all kinds in this country is real and earnest; that animals as well as plants to be of permanent value here must possess sound con- stitutions and proved ability to withstand a cer- tain amount of unavoidable grief. We must never lose sight of the fact that the average American farmer expects his live stock to work more or less for a living. He lives a strenuous life of toil himself and his domestic animals must be able to range far afield if need be for food, water and shelter. There is usually a sufficiency of these necessities available, but the stock is not indulged or “coddled” to the extent so gener- ally observed in Britain—the home of so many of our improved types. In England there are wonderfully developed animals which in some INFLUENCE"of MIND OVER MATTER. instances have scarcely known what it is to seek their own food, saying nothing about fighting flies in bare pastures. It is generous keeping that has made most of the best British breeds, and some care is necessary tojprevenflfiheir deteriora- tion under the stress of the American climate. The most highly-specialized meat and dairy breeds will not thrive well under continuous ad- verse conditions. Those who are not prepared to give them more than ordinary attention had best let them alone. Ordinary care means ordinary stock and ordinary prices for it. Breeders should on the one hand seek to es- tablish therefore, as much strength of constitu- tion as possible, avoiding intense inbreeding and overfeeding. Farmers buying improved stock on the other hand should remember that there is quite as much in the feed as in the breed, and not subject animals of superior form or capacity to rough usage. By producing a class of ani- mals capable of thrift without excessive pamper- ing, breeders will enable the farming community to elevate the standard of our live stock and secure that quality which now more than ever before is essential to securing a profitable price in market. Comparative anatomy demonstrates the fact, that the exact resemblance subsists between the human and animal race. Their diseases are very similar, as also the treatment if conducted on much the same principles. “Dr. Jav’s work, as professor of Zoology in the university of Phila- delphia, led him to believe some years ago, that 188 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. the animal kingdom would be the best study of the human anatomy and human nature.” Therefore the practical and observing farmer and stock-breeder, more than any person or oc- cupation, has more and larger opportunities to draw more from nature, and nature’s laws and stores of interesting and useful material, which when combined and recombined, affords to the imagination more usefulness to posterity, per- manent and more lasting knowledge to ourselves, than most of the long and fine-spun theories of impractical studies. We learn to-day, to-morrow we discover some- thing new and useful, and hence it may be said we live in an important, eventful, and progressive age of discoveries and wonderful inventions. Every department of nature displays an un- bounded scope to the thoughtful and investigat- ing mind. The world within, as well as without and around, has its many mysteries and constant and almost imperceptible changes,and calls forth our wonder and admiration of an all-wise ruler of the universe in His adopting the life and use- fulness of the lower order of creation to the high- er order of life. While man is gifted with reason, reflection and speech, in a higher degree than the lower animals are endowed with, a similar share of each, but instinct, strength and speed belongs mostly to them, in a peculiar and interesting manner. One thing forcibly strikes an observer of nature, above all others, that whatever animals require for the economy of their situation or INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. 189 condition on earth, they by the bounty of Provi- dence, have been wisely provided for. Each species, that it might fulfill its destiny 1/ere, is amply provided with every means and facility and natural implement that is imperatively needed. The social habits of animals, the various ways in which they live, the government they sustain, all demand a means of communication, ideas and language, some of which is admirable and won- derful, some consist of silent signs of warning or danger signals made through the medium of sense of touch, scent, or otherwise, which are as thoroughly understood, as any secret signs and passwords of the many secret organizations of man for social benefits and protection. The sing- ing of the male bird during the breeding and hatching season, is to cheer and comfort its mate, and is an instructive lesson to man under similar circumstances. Wonderous and beauti- ful is it to contemplate this paternal self-devotion and affection of some birds, or other humbler creatures, reflective as it is, of what we should never fail to acknowledge and practice, as the purest and most holy of all emotions that should actuate our own species. Under the same con- ditions, a person need but imagine what an in- fluence it would have on the future generations of our own species. The dog, though considered the most intelli- gent of all domestic animals, being possessed with comparatively much larger brain than the horse, is a true specimen to show how easy and INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. soon if neglected in their own habits of breeding become degenerates into the commonest cur, or mongrel that infest our streets and country. Be- ing nearest to man in intelligence, sagacity and fidelity, therefore he is considered man’s best friend and companion, as well as servant. In- deed he is the only animal known to forsake his own kind and cleave to man, and is not only companionable, but useful, if well bred, cultured and intelligent, but as much a nuisance and ob- ject of pity if a degenerate cur, and only deserves to be humanely put out of existence. The common gray a.rd red fox squirrel is among the largest brained and most intelligent of the smaller wild animals. There is nothing dishonorable, disagreeable or very destructive about him. The expression of his eye, as well as his every action, denotes his intelligence and his sagacity in providing for the future in laying up his winter stores, as well as his knowledge and practice of the laws of hygiene, are almost hu- man. His superior intelligence makes him very easily domesticated and an interesting pet. The squirrel is the only animal knowq tn castrate his own young, which is a fact but few know. The author has personally captured by gun and otherwise many that were as cleanly and appar- ently as neatly castrated as a barrow hog, or a guilded horse. It is thought by some to be done by the old male while the young are in the nest, but for what motive is not fully known. In the author’s opinion, however, it is done by the INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. mother to save her own annoyance and the bet- ter to preserve the peace and prolong the lives of her own young, as the males are very fierce and savage in their battles during the mating season, and it is- not uncommon for them to fight each other even to death at such times, to the great annoyance and discomfort of the female, which is of a more natural and docile disposition. The belief by some that the young of the com- mon rabbit or hare, is destroyed in the nest by the male, is not so. We do not believe instinct or nature is so cruel in any of the animal species, as to be guilty of wilfully destroying their own young. They all have natural enemies, enough without resorting to this practice, which is con- trary to nature, though it may be practiced by the “human’’ animal, which only proves instinct is more human, in many respects, than* reason. The rabbit being among the most prolific, as well as defenseless of the smaller animals, bring- ing forth its young in litters of from four to six, as often as six to eight weeks apart, for six months in the year, being nocturnal himself, he only seems to provide food for many of the more fiercer nocturnal and carnivorous birds, and ani- mals, such as the owl, and hawk, who swoop down on the young in the nie'ht time, besides the cunning and wild fox, the mink, and weasel, the farmer’s dog and cat. and even seroents are on the constant watch for its flesh and blood, to say nothing of the medium-sized boy with his im- proved double-barreled piece whose first prac- ticing in the art of learning how to shoot is on INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. poor defenseless bunnie, both young and old, to say nothing of the more reckless and cruel sportsman from town, its only salvation and pro- tection being in its nimble legs, which never fail to do their duty under the existing circum- stances. Indeed the wonder is that he has not long since been entirely exterminated, and cer- tainly would have been but for his persistent and rapid increase. Notwithstanding all the rabbit’s deadly enemies, it takes the precaution, and never fails to make its nest and bring forth its young out in the open field, or prairie, away from the haunts of its enemies, being always invisible to the keenest eye and never discovered unless ac- cidentally turned out by the plowman, who has never known a nest to be trodden on by the hoofs of his team or by the cattle in the pasture. In fact, however, were it not for the rabbit’s many deadly enemies constantly by night, and day, seeking to devour him, he would soon become so numerous as to be a menace, as he already is, in many localities. Excepting his nocturnal habits, he is to be classified with the sheep, amongst the larger domestic animals. Being en- tirely submissive when captured, and mostly herbivorous, but never submitting to confine- ment or domestication. We should always remember it is a mark of a great and elevated mind, and tender heart, to render comfort and kindness to all the subordin- ate races of the inferior animals. The goad or lash in the hands of a man will always determine his character, culture and breeding more per- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. fectly than six months’ acquaintance in the school room, or long and intimate business relations. Every farmer, mechanic or housekeeper can readily realize the want or lack of system or a place for everything and everything in its place. As small straws show which way the wind blows, so very trifling things indicate a man or woman’s character and disposition. Even a bad system is preferable to no system at all. He that is cruel and unjust and unmerciful to the animal tribe will exercise a corresponding feeling to his friends and neighbors and acquaint- ances. That a merciful man will be merciful to his brute, is the pure language of inspiration. Study nature, it is mighty, and defies all bur- lesque-. It is the best of teachers and does not make fools. Obey its laws and nature will ever obey you, as it is ever in harmony with itself, and refuses to be otherwise than it is. Its work is mightier than the power of man. Those who do not know the things which are of use and a ne- cessity for them to know, are but ignorant men or women, notwithstanding whatever else they may know. Through the ignorance of what is good or bad, the lives of many are greatly per- plexed. Scholars are frequently met with who are ignorant of nothing more than their own ignorance. RULES TO BE OBSERVED TO DETERMINE THE SEX AND DISPOSITION OF ANIMALS. Practically the laws of nature in regard to the procreation of the animal race, is very similar 194 INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. to that of the human family, and the rules to be observed as to sex and disposition are identical with the human race, that is to say, you should always avoid breeding unruly or vicious and diseased animals of any kind. All practical and observing farmers know there is as much of a variety in the disposition and intelligence of animals as in persons, especially in the horse, and the canine race, where disposition, intelligence and certain traits are most essential and desired. There is, however, a vast difference in the many different breeds and also a great deal depends on their education and training, and we might say their environments, as in the higher, or human race. We do not claim to be able to entirely control the sex of animals that bring forth their young by pairs of two or more, or in litters, but claim to be able only to control a preponderance of male or female as desired, which all breeders will readily recognize the vast importance of—and desirable feature, especially in cattle and hogs as well as horses, on account of the larger and more rapid growth and better fattening qualities, as well as of size and hardiness of males—and the superiority in the meat, and less risk in castrat- ing, which any ordinary farmer ought to be able to successfully perform without risk. Spaying, however, is quite a scientific surgical operation, somewhat similar to the now very common oper- ation for appendicitis in the human, and requires somewhat of an expert to successfully operate. It is, however, fully as necessary as the former, to INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. produce the same clean and untainted quality of meat. Indeed there should be some legislation for the restriction of butchering of any animals when in heat, or season, as the meat of such ani- mals is tainted and fully as strong or unclean, as is that of the male under the strong influence of animal passion, and is as unfit for human food. This odor or taint being so strong in both male and female of all animals, it is scented by them for long distances, to enable them to meet by follow- ing up the scent for mating purposes. No intel- ligent farmer permits such meat to go in his bar- rels, or on his table, but often times is careless enough to think it good enough for city folks who do not know any better, or know what is the real cause of the odor, or strong taste, and call it the wool taste, if it is chargeable to mutton chops, and do not know what, if it be pork chops, or beef steak, and take their medicine with perhaps only a slight sniff of the nose. The author might give many interesting expe- riences on the farm in breeding from balky, kicking and otherwise vicious horses, breachy cattle, hogs and sheep were it necessary, but suffice it to say most farmers of forty years’, or even much less, experience could also do like- wise. Nature has wisely arranged, as most farmers know, that a large preponderance of animals are females, the cause undoubtedly is in obedience to nature’s laws and the command “to go forth and multiply and increase and replenish the earth.” The first impulse, or instinct, of all ani- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. mals is to mate the first opportunity after com- ing in heat or season, and often with a run-down or already exhausted male. The natural con- sequence is the progeny are not only mostly female, but more likely to bear the impress of the dam in most respects. Therefore to produce the opposite effect, it is of the utmost import- ance not to mate animals until after the middle, or last stages of that condition, and then only to males of superior age and strength and vigorous condition. That is the secret or problem of how to determine the sex in the animal as well as hu- man race, which has so recently been exercising the minds of many of our scientific and medical men, and criticized by the press as being immor- al and criminal. The notion advocated by some stockbreeders, that one of the organs of genera- tion, or testicles, is always male and the other female, the right being male and the left female, and that by removing the right the progeny will be female, and, vice versa, is simply absurd. Even to deprive both sexes of half their organs of generation would not destroy the power to procreate, but it certainly would lessen the vitality of the offspring. Nature intended both organs to afit together, as the kidneys or lungs, though it is possible to exist after being deprived of one or the other, but far from being in a strong and healthy condition. If an older, strong- er and more vigorous male, thus deprived, be mated with a younger, and less vigorous female, the effects might not be so noticeable, but the conditions being equal the effects, or defects, INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. // will undoubtedly be in proportion. The depriva- tion of any of either the internal or external organs of the body, that are intended to act in harmony with each other is only a weakening of the vital forces that much. It may be necessary to say there are condi- tions governing some cases in both the human and brute creation beyond the control and knowledge of the most scientific or practical. Such as are called freaks in nature, the actual cause of which is unknown, but the prevailing notion that female twins of both the animal and human species are always barren, is far from being true, as the author personally knows in numerous cases of man and beast. The term “free-martin” is therefore considered a fake, though there may be many, as there also is in single births, caused from defect in the genital organs which happens in any birth, in all species of creation, though possibly more frequently in double birth caused perhaps from the failure of some double extra effort of nature, in produc- ing perfection and cannot be positively account- ed for, as there may be various reasons for it. The exception to the general rule in the laws of nature are, however, few and far between. Heat always expands and cold contracts with but one exception, and that is water frozen expands, and warmed or heated contracts. The author confesses to never having given much credence to the Darwinian theory of man having been bred up from the monkey, but rather inclines to the belief, that it would be far INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. easier, and take much less time and patience, to breed man down to the plane, mentally at least, if not physically to that of the monkey, or baboon. A prominent horticulturist of Chicago recently claims to have produced the oddity, of a jet black rose from grafting upon the oak a dark red species of the rose. The tanning qualities of the oak being of such a nature as to produce a black color, as the mixture of the blood of the white and black man, would naturally produce a lighter or darker color in the progeny. The sap in the vegetable kingdom acting as the blood in the animal, thus as by the grafting of a large species of sweet apple on a stock of smaller spe- cies of sour apple, or vice versa, the product is very materially affected for the better or the worse, so also in the impregnation or mixing of all fruits, flowers and cereals producing similar results. Although the laws of nature in the vege- table being very similar to that of the animal king- dom, they are, through a wise providence, in many respects very dissimilar, thus disapproving the Darwinian theory of hybridization, as in the case of the horse and ass, the progeny is always sterile, with only two or three known exceptions. Nature wisely says so far and no farther, else what a conglomeration of hybridized mongrels and degenerates this world would be. As the colored man very sensibly remarked upon his first sight of the chimpanzee, “It looked to him as though it might be half horse, half human and the other half alligator.’’ , Nature and wisdom are never at enmity with INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. eacli other; therefore, she shows her great works alike in her small as well as her greater creations, and is often greatest in her smaller creations. All her laws are firmly established and in har- mony with herself. It is onr part to obey them or suffer the inevitable consequences, even by unlearning many things we might have thought heretofore to be established facts. FOR GOVERNING THE GENDER OF FOWLS. It is a well known fact that all fowls that lay their eggs by the larger quantities, there being a more largely preponderance of female birds, more especially among the larger species, such as the turkey, pea-hen, etc., though not so much so among, the smaller species of wild fowls, which annually pair off, and the only attributable cause is the natural instinct of the female for mating with the male upon the first impulse of nature’s laws to “multiply and increase their own spe- cies,’’ notwithstanding all the vigor and beauty of the plumage of the male. The female pre- dominancy in the larger breeds is a wise ar- rangement, if for no other reason, than the ten- dency of the male birds to destroy each other in their many long and fierce battles, even to death, during the’mating season, and almost rendering mating impossible were they more numerous and allowed their liberty to devour each other. The majority of females in the case of the smaller and less vicious varieties, such as the guinea, prairie chicken and quail, is perhaps less, this also applying to water fowls. The pigeon or INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. dove species, or all that lay their eggs only by pairs are generally equal in sex, mating and hatching many times during the same season, thus increasing quite as rapidly as other species. The quail though not like the dove, “the em- blem of innocence,” is certainly the cleanliest and noblest of all the feathered tribe. No court or jury has ever yet been able to arraign or indict him for one single mean, dishonorable or destructive act. Though he may occasionally take a few scattered grains of wheat off the ground, for which he amply repays the farmer, in his destruction of many injurious insects and noxious weed seeds. Not only is his rich and beautiful plumage to be admired, but it is a pleasure to watch his shy actions, in the early spring time and hear his thrilling notes, or words of “Bob White,” as he is perched at high noon on the fence, or, later on, on a wheat shock in the field, and in the early fall in the early morning or late in the evening to hear his twit- tering notes of caution and warning to the covy of young after a night’s guard in the open field, and hear his plaintive call after being scattered by the cruel hunter, or wily hawk, his worst natural enemy, calling the covev together and seeking the open field for a camping or roosting ground, which is invariably done in a small cir- cle, with all heads out and with one on guard, or sleeping with eye open, ready to give the dan- ger signal, on the approach of an enemy. Though he can never be tamed, or domesticated, he will, however, if not disturbed by the cruel INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. sportsman with dog- and gun, or the small boy, become quite tame and familiar around the farm- er’s home. The devotion of both the male and female after marriage or mating, in the spring of each year, also to their young, is indeed won- derful and affectionate in the extreme, even to risking death, and should be a lasting object les- son to parents, of their obligation to each other and their families. Indeed the quail being the most noble “Roman” of all the game birds, should be more strictly protected by legislation the whole year, if for nothing else but his beauty, company, and innocence, and compel the city epicure to tickle his palate with the more dainty, disagreeable, destructive and quarrelsome spar- row, whose flesh is just as delicate, and finely flavored, if he onlv thought so. The quail is not at all migratory or subject to domestication, always remaining for one year, at least, if not too much disturbed, within two or three _ hundred rods from its birth or native hatching place. All poultry raisers can appreciate the advan- tages of raising more male birds, especially chickens and turkeys, on account of their hardi- hood, more rapid and larger growth and heavier weight, and thus being readv for market earlier than the females, and commanding much better sale and prices at the leading hotels and restau- rants of large cities for early fries. The pesky, pernicious, disagreeable and dirty 1 6 i 5Parro.w’ w^ is fast becoming an in- tolerable nuisance and annoyance in our conn- INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. try, will lay, hatch and have their young coming- on in all stages and sizes at the same time, in the same nest. We classify them in the same class of birds, as rats among the smaller and lower animals, undermining, overbearing, dirty and destructive to all innocent song birds, and should, if possible, be exterminated, as rats, from the face of the earth, being of no good or pleasure to anvbodv. We have frequently known them drag the young or other innocent song birds out of their nests and tear the nest to pieces, and carry it off to build for themselves. It is claimed by some fancy poultry raisers and breeders that there is an imaginative influence of different breeds of chickens visibly impressed with the different breeds of fowls by the constant asso- ciation of male with that of an entirely different breed, though impregnated Pv a male of hill blood of their own breed. Hence, if a male of Plymouth rock species be mated with three Ply- mouth rocks and three Leghorn hens, the pro- geny of the Leghorns, of course, would be a com- plete cross of the two varieties, but the question is how did the chicks from the Plymouth rocks become visably adulterated with the Leghorns unless imaginative or by the constant inter- course of the Plymouth rock male with the Leg- horn female, and thus polluting, or adulterating, the sexual organs by the constant communica- tion of the different breed, somewhat after the manner of the bee mixing the pollen of flowers of different varieties of fruits and vegetables, such as the nutmeg and cucumber, the water INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. melon and pumpkin, the latter of which is prac- ticed in order to increase the size and thickness of the rind to better preserve it for shipping long distances, by car loads without bursting or dam- aging it, to the great detriment of the flavor of the melon. The fertilizing- of the red clover bloom bv the bumble-bee is evidence of how easy contamination is effected, as it is a well- known fact that a wet season always causes a light crop of cloverseed, caused from a light crop of bumble-bees, by drowning out their nests in the ground, and thus a lack of bees to better fer- tilize the clover bloom. So with the chickens, the adulteration may be caused partly from the sexual organs, or partly bv the influence of sight, or imagination, from the constant associations of the two breeds, somewhat after the manner of Jacob’s cattle, or bv both influences combined. The idea may be possible, but we think hardly probable, as the influence runs the wrong way, and is a disputed question with many fancy breeders. Be that as it may, the remedy is very easily overcome by keeping the different varie- ties entirely separated. It being impossible to regulate the mating of fowls and attributing the preponderance of fe- males from the very fact the first impulses of the female to mate in accordance with nature’s laws, as in the animal and human race, to multiply and increase, their own species after their own kind. Therefore, the only remedy under these condi- tions is to operate and regulate the sex through the eggs. Should more females be desired, the INFLUENCE OF MIND OVER MATTER. first half of the laying of eggs should be selected for setting-, or the incubatorlbrTemales, and vice versa, for males. This, while it may not be so infallible as m the animal race, that bring forth their young by litters of two or more, will accom- plish a large majority one way or the other, as desired. This has been the experience of the au- thor in his long study and patient experiment- ing in endeavoring to unfold and reveal the cre- ative laws of nature in solving and previously de- termining the sexes in fowls. Farmer Joe Johnson. CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. THE COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES AND DISAD- VANTAGES OF CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. It may be thought altogether out of place and inappropriate for anything: in the interest of agricultural or city pursuits, or the comparative advantages and disadvantages of country life over city life, to appear in a work of this kind, but knowing, after an experience of forty years of rural life in all its phases on a farm, and of much of the discontent and dissatisfaction, the hardships, deprivations as well as joys, pleasures and comforts, and the envy of many farmers of the city people, and their, to them, apparently easy and happy life, and after an experience of several years of city life in the gfreat western me- tropolis of Chicagfo, amongfst a mixture of all kinds and nationalities in the world, and having a fair opportunity to study and observe, more especially the street life of almost all classes and conditions of people in a great city. A few plain, practical and unvarnished thoughts, giving the comparative advantages and disadvantages of city life, as compared with that of the generally considered, more monotonous life in the coun- try or on a farm, might be interesting as well as useful, to both city and country readers, both of CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. which being so grossly ignorant of the lives and burdens, deprivations and disadvantages, as well as the many, to some, seeming advantages, pleasures and comforts each enjoy over the other, in all seasons of the year, are continually envying each other of the many imaginary com- forts and enjoyments, of which but a small per cent of either class are in the least capable of realizing until they themselves have had a few years of experience of life in the city as com- pared to real life in the country, and on a farm where “man’s work is always from sun to sun, and woman’s work is never done.” A visit to the country consisting of a few days or weeks spent in the spring or summer time, when all nature is in its beauty, after being close- ly confined to shop, in the office or business of any kind for eight or ten months in the year, is calculated to create a feeling of admiration and envy, and exclamations of joy are apt to gush over the beauties. luxuries and comforts of coun- try life over that of, to them, the more monoto- nous city life, which, in reality, was only the temporary change, from one to the other, for a short time only, but let these city enthusiasts put on the garb and harness of their country cousins and condescend to some of the realities of coun- try or farm life for one year, or less time, and see how soon their enthusiasm and fancied envy will wither, and fade away, because of the impracti- cal knowledge they previously had of country life, which they had supposed to be mostly ro- mance, and consisted mostly in listening to the CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE,, 207 song- birds and watching the waving fields of grain which they suppose to grow without any care or cultivation nights, Sundays and rainy days; while the prosperous farmer has nothing to do but wait, and watch, and admire it until it was ready for the harvest, and haul it to market and get his filthy lucre, of which he is always envied by the city people, who mostly think it grew almost spontaneously out of the ground, like their in- terest on mortgages and bonds, growing nights, rainy days and Sundavs, and it is a lamentable and provoking fact that some of the clergy and a large part of the press and politicians would have you believe that about all the farmer had to do was to pay off mortgages and bank money. The former, however, is, alas, too true, but woe to the farmer who has much of it to do. “Oh! why are farmers made so coarse, Or clergy made so fine? A kick that scarce would move a horse, May kill a sound (?) divine.” The pastor who takes a text of scripture and selects a subiect for his discourse or evening lec- ture, entirely foreign to his text, with a grain or two of political salt in it, is liken unto the shep- herd that feeds his flock on salted sawdust adul- terated with a slight sprinkle of cereals, pre- sumes the starving shegp are not wise enough to know the difference, while thev are being starved to death on the adulteration, is deceiving himself much worse than the starving flock. Either the stupidity and ignorance of the people, or the CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE, knavery and presumption of campaign orators, candidates, officials and preachers, even the press are far more given to arrogance and de- ception in the citv than in the country, is only evidence of the intelligence and purity of the dif- ferent lives in the different sections, and the more gullibility of the city people. Reverse the picture and we have about the same effect and experience. We have only to imagine the country cousins coming to the city in the excursion season, mostly to be entertained by their citv cousins, in the fall of the year after the "harvests have been gathered and garnered, when the parks and boulevards are in their best shape and dress, and places of amusement and entertainments are all wide open, after house and street cleaning season is over and the country vacation season is on, also the markets and tables fairly groaning with all the luxurious fruits and vegetables of the land, that can be had by them with only the seeming trouble of ordering and receiving it, at the rear door, almost ready for use, without even getting their delicate hands soiled by the preparation before its com- ing to the table. They too only seeing the bright side of things, become green with envy of their city friends of to them, their seemingly endless and inexpensive comforts, pleasures and advant- ages of city life. Both, however, appear to for- get that it is much easier and more pleasant and comfortable, and less expensive, to be en- tertained than to entertain. The contrast from one to the other is in realitv onlv a break in the CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 209 imaginary monotony of both, and not a real rep- resentation of either city or country life. If the front or street entrance of many of the seemingly stately buildings and mansions be contrasted with rear entrances and alleys, and see and inhale, at some seasons of the year, the stench, filth and squalor of the alleys and com- pare it with the pure and invigorating air of the country, they would be more contented with country life. So when they become more ac- quainted and familiar with the shoddy pretense and affectation of a large per cent of city people who appear to have more thoroughly mastered the art of deception and fraud, and after being toned up and polished down, to get out in the best bib and tuck, are started on the street or in society: somewhat after the manner of a city lady admiring her country cousin’s beautiful hens, remarking she. “Supposed they would be able to lay eggs every day.” When she was very politely informed they were amply able to do so, but their circumstances were such that their hens were not reauired to do so. Those who live in the country think what a treat it would be to them to live in the city, and be able to take in all the good things. So it is, but those who live in the city usually either run themselves down in trying to take in everything, or else they become calloused, so to speak, and get into the way of letting all sorts of good things go by, with the thought that perhaps there will be another chance to hear or see them. These same city people, whose good fortune the CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. country people regard with eager eyes, are more apt to be thinking- about the freedom and quiet and beauty of the country. The fact of the mat- ter is, that in order to appreciate almost any- thing, at its full worth, one must be deprived of it. “Man never is but always is to be blest.” Their object being- to capture, matrimonially or otherwise, some of the more unsuspecting of the opposite sex, by their useless pretended accomplishments, anything but economical or domestic, by their extremely modest or bold front, whichever suits best the victim in contem- plation, even though he chance to be some Eng- lish nobleman or millionaire’s son or daughter, with only money Qualifications. We fail, therefore, to perceive the real advan- tages of city life, especially to the plain, common sense person, either in moderate or immoderate circumstances, and who is or contemplates rais- ing a family free from both the polluting atmos- phere and contaminating influences of the streets, also the many corrupting-, immoral and extravagant environments of society, as well as fraud and deception in business, social, political and even religious and educational life, and cir- cles in the city. The supposed advantages of the city common schools over the country, or smaller town _ schools, is considered to be’ far superior, and is an incentive to many parents to move to the citv to afford their children superior educational opportunities, is not so in many respects, while they only afford them a better opportunity to learn much they would have been 'city and coin try life. 211 better off to never have learned, and may take a life-time to even unlearn. While our common school system is the boast of our country, it is, to many, a burdensome and expensive luxury, that no one, not even the press, dares to criticise or say aught against its extravagance in much of its foolish and impractical fads taught, to the burden of the supporters who seem tamely to submit to it, oftentimes at a great loss of time, if not ruin, to many pupils of our large cities, by utterly disqualifying them in the attempt to qual- ify them for something- for which neither their circumstances nor their natures were ever intended. Education as given in our public schools and many colleges is not much more than a farce and mockery. The more important branches are almost totally neglected. Many of the teachers are not even practical enough to know from whence their salaries emanate, and seem only to be interested in the drawing of them, and rais- ing of them, if possible, with a pension attached, than anything else, not knowing whether it or- iginates from the general government, from a high or low protective tariff, on foreign products, or from the humbler class of property owners who are not able to secrete their small belong- ings, as the other fellows do their stocks and bonds and personalities. It is making us a weak and sickly people. That something is some- where radically wrong with the entire system of the present day and generation, can no longer be doubted. The best medical and practical au- 212 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. thorities in the country now claim that fully one- half of the disease from which we suffer could be prevented if we had been tausrht more physiol- ogy and less Latin, more dieting and less fad, more hygienic laws and less fashion, more about our own physical and mental conditions, and less about athletics. It seems very little, or no, attempt is made to instruct in these important studies. They are simply skimmed over, if taught at all, and every effort is made to force the children in those branches which tend to aid them socially and financially, without much re- gard to future physical welfare. That this is true, and has been the cause of thousands of wrecked lives is in evidence every day. Experiments by the medical fraternity and boards of health in the larger cities show that by sanitary means alone they can reduce the death rate about twenty-five per cent, yet it continues to increase yearly throughout all large cities. Why? Because our children are educated in the public schools in the many prevailing foolish foibles and fads and impractical things to the sad neglect of their bodies. It is gratifying, however, to learn the world at large is becoming more skeptical as to whether a higher education is really an influence for good; every man must show the real answer to that in his future life. Even some of our theological seminaries in their higher order of teaching are being denounced by the more practical evangelist of the day, as the prevailing cause of so much skepticism through- out the world, and are now adopting new and V ' CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. more practical and modern modes of studying the sacred word to accommodate the common people, Scribner’s Magazine, recently commenting on the choice of words, says; “In that far-away time, when the entire race shall have attained some pitch of aesthetic development now only to be dreamed of, the common words of oneys or- dinary acquaintances may all give one the sense of rarity, of value, of having been chosen, select- ed, before they were used, from some rich store held well in reserve. But there are many steps to be taken before we reach that point, and the first step should be taken by the schools and col- leges, where so much else is now taught that is of less importance, and where the art of speak- ing with some perception of the worth of lan- guage appears to be, as a rule, so utterly un- known and unheeded. One must regret—where so much else is taught that is of less importance. For nothing is surer than that speech that is habitually restrained—except when, at the right time and place, it lets itself ‘go’—and that seeks, in the best sense and without affectation, after measure and style, has a deep effect upon both the moral nature and the mind. Clarity of think- ing may be furthered more by this means than has ever yet been fully realized. Of what the ethics of man might gain from it, all the inspired teachers of religion who have counselled the guarding of the tongue have had a well-defined idea.” One of the principle objections and diffi- culties of the present-day education in the cities, CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. is its tendency to pride, arrogance and discon- tent, and its lack of elementary wisdom and cul- ture of the hearts of the youth. The author believes that most people are edu- cated more by events, observation and experi- ence after their school years have ceased than by long-time training in most of the city schools and colleges, and that opportunities and circum- stances make more men wealthy, popular and world-wide renowned, than much book learning. Therefore, the author argues that the advantages for schools are more natural and practical in the country or smaller towns, and far superior mor- ally and physically, as well as mentally, than in the larger cities. That a majority of our best men in almost all lines have been born, raised and'educated in the country on farms, until ma- turity, is evidence of the fact that the country is far preferable for raising a family of boys and girls, and securing a more natural and practical education. Even though they persist on having their din- ner at high noon, and tea at low tide in the even- ing, or not to be able to master the art of eating soup with a fork, or being able to appreciate in the modern city churches the modern solo, duet or quartette music, rendered up in G, with the voice unnaturally cultivated, up or down, to the piercing scream of the fish hawk and eagle, and the tremelo of the hungry and more innocent sheeps voice, or down in C with the baritone voice of the bull in the pasture, as all of which sounds in comparison to the more musical Gos- CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 215 pel Hymns, to the old fogy, or old fashioned, if you please, who unfortunately happened to be born and bred back in the twenties. Were the words distinguishable, it would appear more like an attempt at a dialogue, or rendering of a piece of something about half singing, half recitation and the other half declamation, without any soul inspiring music whatever in it. An elderly gentleman on returning from church recently, looking anxiously and wor- ried, meekly inquired of his wife if there was no kind of meat or diet to feed a chc to give them good taste in selecting simplicity of style and intelligible pronun- ciation? “Why, what is the matter, dear?” “It’s like this, said Jones, I don’t mind a little of the tra-la-la business at times—in fact, I want some of the classical and incomprehensible when we have visitors from Boston, but when it comes to singing a fond old hymn like “Nearer My God to Thee,” “In the Sweet By and By,” “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” and other hymns it’s the simplicity of the airs belonging to these hymns that makes them dear and what they are, and when you divorce the words and the music its like putting asunder those whom God has joined together. A barbaric scream designed mostly as an exercise for the expansion of the lungs, and to exhibit the multitudinous sounds that can come from one human throttle, when joined to such words is simply sacrilegious.” After being in- formed by his good wife it was more attributable to the drinking water than the diet, he went away CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. looking sorrowful, and indignant as one without hope as do many others, muttering, “Anyhow, then, there seems to be no hope.” While all persons are born with natural ten- dencies more or less directly inherited and more or less strongly marked, it is not to be denied that customs, environments and training or edu- cation has a most notable influence and effect upon the natural tendencies. The evils which sometimes are developed in adult persons are often only good traits run to waste by improper training, or development in bad associations in childhood becomes obstinacy in the adult which is almost impossible to eradicate, and equally as hard to successfully cembat. A habit as many suppose is not so liable to set in after the adult age has been reached. It is but a part and parcel of the child’s inheritancy from its parents. There are those who are born physically and mentally weak and tired, or without energy or ambition. Such are doomed to rust out, rather than wear out. Can’t help it, is an excuse behind which many attempt to hide their faults. Any man or woman can help anything they may will to, pro- vided it originated with themselves. If some timely warning would break up many bad habits, individuals as well as communities would be much more benefited. Opportunities and induce- ments to cultivate these bad habits are much more potent in the city than in smaller towns of the country. One or two business transactions will invariably detect the city-bred man from the country-bred man or woman, whether he has his CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 217 hair parted in the middle or not. The cut of his clothes, the tip of his hat, and the position or twirl of his cane will usually indicate from whence he hails, and whither he is drifting, as well as what he is after, and his capabilities and whether he is entitled to a hearing or not in your presence. It is hard to abolish a custom, or habit, once introduced, however foolish or effeminate it may be. The chains of habit and custom, though they may often appear at first too small to be seen or felt, they are as often too strong and binding to be effectively broken, but if you are determined to live and die a slave to habit, or custom, be careful to see and know it is at least a good one. In the matter of dress and actions, one should always keep below his means and ability. We would recommend never to be first in fashion, nor the last out of it, but to dress ac- cording to your circumstances and occupation, and this is always in the latest style. As a rough shell often encloses a pearl, so does a mean dress often cover the upright and noble. Always avoid vain and foolish assumptions or affectations; it is evidence of a weak mind. True to nature and our adaptations should be our aim, whether in city or country, and our success will be far better than the majority of so called realists. Brave deeds, honorable actions, and true merit, always count for more in the world’s history than the many vague theories. Therefore, it is not strange that too much book lore is often cast to one side, to give place to the more practical ideas. Both, 218 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE, however, have their place in fact. Teaching and thoughts are often the precursors of great deeds as well as much deception and fraud, in so far as diplomas are concerned, as testimonials to their fitness for the great and real struggle of future life. Economical habits and domestic accom- plishments which is so much neglected, if not often entirely ignored, in most families of city people as being distasteful and humiliating, is to be preferred to many of the minor and useless, but maybe more fashionable accomplishments taught, studied and recommended in the fancy fashion and advertised magazines published in our cities and flooding the country and crowding back something more useful and real. Indeed it is taught by some that the present modern improvements and conveniences in many of the homes and apartment buildings of cities have had a detrimental tendency in turn- 'ing many to a more sportive and profligate life, than to the more useful, virtuous and domestic attainments of which most city ladies are fast be- coming either vastly ignorant or grossly negli- gent. The deprivation of which, to the country ladies, are really advantageous to them in forcing them to a better realization of the comforts they have, as well as a better domestic education to fit them for the same future usefulness in their call- ing, as was their mothers before them. An ex- cess of good things is sometimes an injury. Bless- ings, like religion, are often perverted, and com- forts and conveniences unappreciated, may prove to be injuries, if not curses. CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 219 Many do not know, or if they know, do not realize what virtue is, until their own sister or brother has fallen, or what common sense is, until they see a city dude or fool, or know what education is until it is stamped by experience, or know enough to know how little they do know, and that there is such a thing as blissful ignor- ance, until they have learned many things they had better never have known. An “old fool” is acknowledged to be the worst of fools, but an educated fool is more unendurable and more of a known quantity and of all qualities. Both, how- ever, are more to be pitied than censured, and more indigenous to the city than the country, being more or less a contagious trait as well as inherited with some. Experience is always a hard master and dear teacher, so it is wise to manage as much as pos- sible to learn at the expense and experience of others. It is said that breeds contempt,” which we are sorry to testify is being exemplified every day, to an alarming extent upon the streets of our cities, in the constant intermingling and familiarity of the sexes from childhood to ma- turity, on the streets and in the schools, by night and by day. It is almost equal to that of the farmers’ herds of stock on the farm, or in the pas- ture, or dogs on the street, which we attribute as one of the main causes of the constant aping of the masculine by the feminine and vice versa, not only in actions and words and deeds, but by dress, especially on the wheel, and at the fash- CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. ionable bathing resorts, which must have a more or less future demoralizing effect and disrespect for virtue and all other better qualities that go to make up the average man or woman. Thus their children, where there is the least predispo- sition, become prematurely “slummy,” are pre- pared to enter the second grade of the slums before they enter the “slummery” institute. The lady who does not allow herself to be caught in the gaudy and giddy whirl of fashionable life that prevails in our civilization is fortunate, for all who are not “up” in fashion are making them- selves miserable and poor, if not dishonest, by trying to be. In this respect and many others the country is far in advance of advantages for raising a purer, more virtuous, more industrious, more economical and in every way more useful class of citizens. Of course there are exceptions to the general rule, but they are far less in the country than in city life, from the remiss of duty of parents of good intentions, from the poisonous and contaminating influence of street life, which are almost absent in the rural districts. Even the much boasted advantages and not to be condemned system of kindergarten schools for the younger and more neglected children of the cities, is often taken advantage of by many parents in trusting their children to they know not who, in order that the mothers may avoid the responsibility, obligation and burden of, to them, the monotonous, but more important task of a better and moral home training without which many are allowed to go to premature ruin, in CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 221 order to afford their mothers better opportunities for street parading. The fact is that many of the greatest men and women the nation ever producecd were bred and born of good old Scotch-Irish parentage, of hum- ble life, in the country, free from the contaminat- ing influences of street and city life. There is something in a country life that leads to loftier ambitions and implants in the soul an inspira- tion to better things that nothing else can or seems to do. It may be in the sunshine, in the free, pure air, in the song of birds, or the rippling of the brooks, but whatever it is, the fact remains that a boy or girl raised on a farm, who gets his or her early lessons from; nature, there is an inde- finably something in them that some day makes them more honorable, virtuous, and greater, than the more modern, city-bred, born and reared man or woman. Anyhow, of such were Lincoln, Garfield, Fran- ces Willard, Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Beecher Stowe and many others of the same type. Would that there were more of them. The political press of our large cities are wont to give much stress to the opinions of the presidents and pro- fessors of the numerous universities and the clergy upon the many leading social, financial, civil and military and all other political and eco- nomical questions of the day, when the fact is, that not one in ten of them are only educated on certain beaten lines and ruts, from which they are unable to extricate themselves, on few prac- tical lines. They are not more than many other CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. salaried hirelings, few of whom pay a farthing of direct taxes to support the government that pro- tects them, but they are always found to be ready and willing to dictate. Were they compelled, as other less favored, to pay their share of tribute to the support of extravangance and corruption, many of their complexions and opinions would soon be reversed. The truth is, that many of our much less pretentious common school educated farmers and mechanics are far superior in prac- tical judgment on all economical and other ques- tions, and pay high tribute for the little protection they receive. Position, however, bars them from public opinion publicly expressed. Truly this is a wonderful age for books and literature of all kinds, good, bad and indif- ferent, a large per cent of which are void of meaning, or practical information, or at least anything that is useful and real in life, which is sought and read by the seminary and college-cul- tured and city-bred with surprising avidity, most- ly because of its recent and meaningless title and contents. It is, indeed, amazing to know the multitudes that have no higher aim or ambition in life— “Than only live to eat and drink, And wake and sleep and never think.” It is a poor rule that will not work both ways, as “the iniquities of the parents are visited upon the children,” etc., so often the iniquities of the children are visited upon the parents. CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 223 The great Woman’s Educational Federation recently held at the city of Denver! What was it, and what’s the good to be derived from it, to the great masses of the common people? Only read- ing after the fashion of nur college graduates, minus the form of delivering diplomas, long meaningless and impractical essays on the sub- ject of education. However, it serves to fill the columns of our papers and distribute some of their surplus funds, as well as opportunity for them to give expression to their many more idle dreams of hazy and impractical anticipations, for- getting the old and much written copy of their youthful days, “As the twig is bent so the tree is inclined.” The higher salaried people of our cities, who have either worked themselves up by a life ser- vice or succeeded by some clandestine “push or puli’’ with the big firms and corporations, or public officials, is to be envied above all others, as they go clothed in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day, even “Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like ‘some’ of these.” They seem to “toil not, neither do they spin,” save upon the bicycle, or in the palace car; neither do they pay tribute to Caesar, or any one else for protection, for the support of their protector. The fact that all lines of business, as well as professions, mechanical and otherwise, are fast drifting into specialties, indeed they have almost already arrived at that stage, so it is very diffi- cult to find an all-round man or woman outside 224 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. of the country, where the facilities for producing that sort of product is much superior to the city, notAvithstanding the many different schools and mechanical colleges of all kinds for training in all lines. It is a notorious as well as regrettable fact that experts and adepts in the legal profession, espe- cially in the branches pertaining to corporations and trusts, have become so able, with their back- ing and legal lore, to twist and manipulate the highest courts and laws, almost any way desired by their clients, and that the confusion, and pro- fusion, of campaign orators, who attempt to per- plex and hoodwink the sovereign commoners of the land, should not be permitted to darken the arc light of liberty and intelligence. It is even discouraging to the fool-killer when he casts about him to know how far behind he is with his work, when he reads and learns so much about good credit and sound money to know how ex- ceedingly discreditable and rotten everything else is about him. It is evident the chief factor and issue is only “how much is there in it?” Hon- or, country and patriotism being altogether an outside matter, and a cheap article. Like a humane old lady, after capturing a mole that had been undermining and destroying her garden, after severely reprimanding it, con- cluded she would neither shoot nor hang it, but would punish it by burying it alive in the ground. Official economy also is liken unto another Avom- an who was fortunate enough to find a dime be- lieved it would be economy to deposit it in the CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 225 savings box, or bank, and was amply able and justified in going down town to die department stores and spending a dollar of her husband’s hard-earned money for some useless articles be- cause they were cheap. A poor man was once arrested for a licentious act and not being able to hire an attorney, was tried before a jury and was granted by the court permission to whisper a word in the ear of each juryman. The jury, after retiring a few minutes, returned a verdict of acquittal, to the surprise of the court, whose cur- iosity was aroused to know what the defendant had said that had had such a telling and persua- sive effect upon the jury. The defendant, on be- ing assured he was scott free from any further prosecution in the case, consented to give the secret of his persuasive argument in his own be- half, which was, “If ever there was a time for licentious men to stand together, this is the time.” Not one was able to resist the argument. So it is with a higher official, military or civil, “the punishment of the mole.” The levying of a tax of one dollar means the expenditure of one hundred dollars of the peoples’ money. The im- possibility of convicting anyone by court of jury, or even military commission, because so many are guilty of the same or similar crimes, are dis- posed to “stand together,” is thus strikingly illus- trated. Under the existing condition of affairs an hon- est man, or official in the general acceptation of the term, is almost compelled, in order to finan- cially protect himself, to indirectly “hold up” his 226 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. constituents, on the principle and justification of having previously been “held up,” therefore as- sumes he has the moral, if not the legal right, to take from a thief what he thinks he has unjustly been deprived of, and his conscience soon be- comes elastic and allows him to do it, the first opportunity that presents itself, even if it is a great injustice to many others who are innocent. Thus it would seem the American people are fast becoming a nation of thieves and looters. More especially is this so in the cities than the country. They reason that when they are, as it were, barred in the courts of justice (or rather injustice), they have the right to take back what they have had previously and unjustly been filched of. The old but true saying “that one half of the world does not know how the other half exists,” is in evidence to the casual observer every day in a large city. The contrast is both wonderful and astounding, disgusting and pitiful, as well as un- pleasant and disagreeable, and to know you are in such proximity to it, and so utterly helpless to mitigate it, or in the least to alleviate, makes it much more unpleasant to contemplate. The gathering of twenty-five or thirty thous- and waifs at their annual picnic at Washington Park, given by the charitably inclined under the auspices of the Salvation Army, the fact that they were scarcely missed from the crowded thor- oughfares of the city, in contrast with the great American derby day gathering, are only exhibi- tions of the two extremes of Chicago wealth and extravagance, on the one hand, and her poverty CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 227 and charity on the other; the one being clothed in tatters and rags, with pinched and pitiful features, and bare-footed, banqueting free of charge on many of the substantial, if not luxur- ies of the land, with free transportation both to and from the park by the different steam, elec- tric and elevated railroad lines, the other being- clothed in all the elegance of costly apparel, and splendor of equipage, flashing tapestry, and gaudy livery dress in buckskin, front and rear, with sportive and immoral tendencies before and behind it, aping the British style of London, threatening the demoralization and downfall, financially, if not otherwise, of most of those par- ticipating from their apparent ability to have money in abundance to fling to the winds, if not to burn. Their passage down the boulevards and through the park to the great American Derby and race park by tens of thousands, was a perfect hurricane of crinoline and millinery on the smooth and hard granite pavements on a sweep- ing trot of the steeds and heavy coach horses, with all the many equipages, from the single and double rigs and high pressure tandems, to the low pressure and more cumbersome coach and six-in-hand double-decked tally-hos and electric vehicles, with all the brilliant colors of the rain-bow, and gold and silver-mounted har- ness flashing in the sun, and sparkling diamonds on their persons, and elaborate wardrobes, with glittering sun shades of all hues and colors, wom- an’s richly feathered and flower bedecked head apparel, with the blowing of trumpets and clank- 228 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. ing of chains and Indian-like college yells, the clatter of thousands of horses’ hoofs, and rumbl- ing of wheels of the many light and heavy vehi- cles jarred the very earth and sounded for blocks away, as they passed rapidly by, like an ap- proaching thunder storm, and reminded the spectator of a great army of heavy artillery and troopers of cavalrymen, either hastening to bat- tle, or fleeing in retreat, and confusion, after a great defeat, with their lives and valuables. An old G. A. R. could but imagine it like the stam- pede of Bull Run. The waifs, however, as much as the patrons of the derby, seemed enthusiastic in the momentary pleasures and enjoyments of the day, neither realizing the great present and future responsi- bility of the one to the other. The one sailing through life, as it were,“on flowery beds of ease,” while the other seemed doomed to be “tossed on life’s tempestuous seas.” The one rolling in lux- ury and wealth, the other reveling in penury and want. The origin, pedigree, temporal and eter- nal destiny of both is full of interest to the thoughtful observer. The inference of the two extremes was that one must naturally be down, while the other must be up. The one necessarily will be humiliating, while the other is exalting, as it is written, “He that is exalted must needs be humbled, and he that is already humbled shall be exalted.” We therefore can but look for the true test of natural character among the humbler classes of the great army of common people of whom the country acquires it greatest wealth. CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 229 power, stability and protection, military as well as financially and socially. It is no exaggeration to say there is enough preaching, praying, singing and exhortation to "flee from the wrath to come,” were it only heed- ed, on the street corners outside of the thousand churches and missions to save the town, and enough deception, hypocrisy and extravagance inside the churches to forever condemn a goodly portion of the members, and enough street cor- ner and saloon political schemers and wire-work- ers to influence and control, by boodle and other- wise, the press, courts, and about the entire city municipality, to the great burden if not bank- ruptcy of a very large per cent of the common and more honest people, and the condemnation of themselves to the states prison, were it only possible to convict them of their bold and daring swindling of honest people. The worst atheistical and skeptical producers are not of the men of the more bold and outspok- en of the Bob Ingersoll and army contractors type, but the men who make the loudest profes- sions of faith in the churches and prayer meet- ings and entirely ignore the golden rule and de- nying their God in business, politics, office and courts of justice. The most dangerous class to society, Christianity and the country generally, is not the lower element of tramps, the vicious and more reckless; they are the lawyers, the merchants, the editors, the preachers, the college professors, and officials who live on fat salaries and in palatial mansions, and sit in elegant 230 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. churches and look sanctimonious and uncon- cerned on the injustices and hypocracies of the courts and churches and corporations in their many evils and wrongs, to society, and the gen- eral welfare and advancement of pure religion and justice to humanity, and only very complai- santly say, in actions, if not in words, the matter can only be restrained or eradicated at the risk of their business, or salary, and continue to doal out justice and free (?) gospel to men that have the world, the flesh and the devil in human form, besides a lot of hogs, and breachy stock, to daily contend with to raise the meagre wherewithal to bear the burdens of government, and sanctimo- niously be told from the sacred desk by the “kid- gloved, silk stocken gentry/’ and college bred gentlemen who gets most of his gospel from the newspapers, or books from the libraries, other than the one book he should get his gospel, it is an easy way to lift a mortgage, seemingly un- conscious, or ignorant of the fact he is preach- ing politics instead of free gospel at the rate of from two to five thousand per annum, and that the other fellow is not possessed with common sense enough to perceive the difference, even though he may not have his hair parted in the middle, and annointed with sweet scented per- fumery, while the other fellows are at least ful- filling the very important scriptural command of, “earning his bread by the sweat of his brow,” while they are “clothed in purple and fine linen and faring sumptuously every day,” and basking in the sunshine of ease, comfort and pleasure, CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 231 and causing the world to sink deeper in skepti- cism and unbelief, either forgetting or not know- ing, and if knowing entirely ignoring the fact that consistency is one of the brightest of jewels. The would-be higher, or college educated crit- ics of the country, have very little conception of the state of doubt into which they have thrown the minds of the lower critics, especially the dis- position to skepticism of the more common peo- ple, in all matters pertaining to religion and morals. Some of the leading divines of the city of Chi- cago being recently interviewed by a reporter of one of the leading periodicals of the city as to the “needs of the churches and the people, etc.,” and the learned answers published were both amusing and disgusting to the common sense man, to the see the prevarication and mystifica- tion of so plain and practical interrogation that should have but the one simple and unequivocal answer of the Golden Rule. One commences by saying the “perpetuation of the policy of separat- ism, which is the opprobrium of Protestanism, is not likely to bring in a better state of religion among the people.” Who knows the meaning of such a phrase? Another commences by say- ing, “all agree that the church of Jesus Christ ought to exert a good influence upon the peo- ple,”— admitting it does not. Another says “religion in a nutshell should be preached more on a divine power to transform men on this earth than as a divine ‘scheme’ to transport men to another world, and that missions among 232 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. the poor were a fraud, only better than nothing.” Admitting that it is not preached in a nutshell, and that it is a scheme to transport only some men to a better world and the poor can go afoot, if they go at all. Another in answer to the ques- tion dodges it completely, by answering both “yes and no.” The interpretation of which could only be, he did not care how things went, so long as he got a big salary. Another talks about an American Christianity as though it should be dif- ferent from a Christ-like Christianity, which should include the whole world. These are only given as some examples of the inconsistencies the common people may expect and get from the overeducated, and high salaried and impractical ministry, which are entirely out of touch with the common people, instead of the simple and plain gospel. It is but a sample of the modern, or “advanced” Christianity of the day. The warnings go forth, and convictions of duty and privilege fasten upon many minds; but, alas! all is of no avail; they go unheeded. Great power has been, and to some extent still is, in the hands of ecclesiastics; but, in the name of Christ and his gospel, it has been, and still is, selfishly used and abused. “Honor one of another,” “chief seats in the synagogues,” and “to be called Rabbi,” Doctor, Reverend, etc., and seeking gain, each “from his own quarter (or denomina- tion)” and “the fear of man which bringeth a snare”—these hinder some even of God’s true servants from faithfulness, while apparently many of the under-shepherds never had any in- CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 233 terest in the Lord’s flock except to secure the golden fleece. While we gladly acknowledge that many edu- cated, cultivated, refined and pious gentlemen are, and have been, included among the clergy in all the various denominations of the nominal church, which all through the age has included both wheat and tares, we are forced to admit that many who belong to the “tare” class have found their way into the pulpits as well as into the pews. Indeed the temptations to pride and vainglory, and in many cases to ease and affluence, present- ed to talented young men aspiring to the pulpit, have been such as to guarantee that it must be so, and that to a large extent. Of all the profes- sions, the Christian ministry has afforded the quickest and easiest route to fame, ease and gen- eral temporal prosperity, and often to wealth. The profession of law requires a lifetime of in- tellectual energy and business effort, and brings its weight of pressing care. The same may be said of the profession of medicine. And if men rise to wealth and distinction in these professions, it is not merely because they have quick wits and ready tongues, but because they have hon- estly won distinction by close and constant men- tal application and laborious effort. On the other hand, in the clerical profession.' a refined, pleas- ant demeanor, moderate ability to address a pub- lic assembly twice a week on some theme taken from the Bible, together with a moderate educa- tion and good moral character, secure to any young man entering the profession, the respect >rt, and brings 234 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. and reverence of his community, a comfortable salary and a quiet, undisturbed and easy life. If be have superior talent, the people, who are admirers of oratory, soon discover it, and before long he is called to a more lucrative charge; and, almost before he knows it, he has become famous among rarely stop to question whether his piety—his faith, humility and godliness— have kept pace in development with his intellect- ual and oratorical progress. In fact, if the latter be the case, he is less acceptable, especially to wealthy congregations, which, probably' more frequently than very poor ones, are composed mostly of “tares.” If his piety indeed survive the pressure of these circumstances, he will, too often for the good of his reputation, be obliged to run counter to the dispositions and prejudices of his hearers, and he will shortly find himself unpop- ular and undesired. These circumstances have thus brought into the pulpit a very large propor- tion of what the Scriptures designate “hireling shepherds.” * The responsibility of those who have under- taken the gospel ministry in the name of Christ is very great. They stand very prominently be- fore the people as the representatives of Christ, —as special exponents of His spirit, and ex- pounders of His truth. And, as a class, they have had advantages above other men for coming to a knowledge of the truth, and freely declaring it. They have been relieved from the burdens of toil and care in earning a livelihood which fetter other men, and, with their temporal wants sup- CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 235 plied, have been granted time, quiet leisure, spe- cial education, and numerous helps of associa- tion, etc., for this very purpose. Here, on the one hand, have been these great opportunities for pious zeal and devoted self-sac- rifice for the cause of truth and righteousness; and, on the other, great temptations, either to indolent ease, or to ambition for fame, wealth or power. Alas! the vast majority of the clergy have evidently succumbed to the temptations, rather than embraced and used the opportunities, of their positions; and, as a result, they are to- day “blind leaders of the blind,” and together they and their flocks are fast tumbling into the ditch of skepticism. They have hidden the truth (because it is unpopular), advanced error (be- cause it is popular) and taught for doctrine the precepts of men (because paid to do so). They have, in effect, and sometimes in so many words, said to the people, “Believe what we tell you on our authority,” instead of directing them to “prove all things” by the divinely inspired words of the apostles and prophets, and “hold fast” only “that which is good.” For long centuries the clergy of the Church of Rome kept the Word of God buried in dead languages, and would not permit its translation into the vernacular tongues, lest the people might search the Scriptures and thus prove the vanity of her pretensions. In the course of time a few godly reformers arose from the midst of her corruption, rescued the Bible from oblivion and brought it forth to the people; and a great protestant movement—protesting 236 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE, against the false doctrines and evil practices of the Church of Rome—was the result. But ere long Protestantism also became cor- rupt, and her clergy began to formulate creeds to which they have taught the people to look as the epitomized doctrines of the Bible, and of par- amount importance. They have baptized and catechised them in infancy, before they had learned to think; then, as they grew to adult years, they have lulled them to sleep, and given them to understand that their safe course in re- ligious matters is to commit all questions of doctrine to them, and to follow their instructions, intimating that they alone had the education, etc., necessary to the comprehension of divine truth, and that they, therefore, should be consid- ered authorities in all such matters without fur- ther appeal to God’s Word. And when any pre- sumed to question this assumed authority and to think differently, they were regarded as heretics and schismatics. The most learned and promi- nent among them have written massive volumes of what they term Systematic Theology, all of which, like the Talmud among the Jews, is cal- culated to a large extent to make void the Word of God, and to teach for doctrine the precepts of men; and others of the learned and prominent have accepted honorable and lucrative professor- ships in Theological Seminaries, established, os- tensibly, to train young men for the Christian ministry, but in fact to inculcate the ideas of the so-called “Systematic Theology” of their several schools—to fetter free thought and honest rev- CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 237 erent investigation of the sacred Scriptures with a view to simple faith in their teachings, regard- less of human traditions. In this way generation after generation of the “clergy” has pressed along the beaten track of traditional error. And only occasionally has one been sufficiently awake and loyal to the truth to discover error and cry out for reform. It has been so much easier to drift with the popular current, especially when great men led the way. Thus the power and superior advantages of the clergy as a class have been misused, although in their ranks there have been (and still are) some earnest, devout souls who verily thought they were doing God service in upholding the false systems into which they had been led, and by whose errors they also had been in a great meas- ure blinded. While these reflections will doubtless seem of- fensive to many of the clergy, especially to the proud and self-seeking, we have no fear that their candid presentation will give offense to any of the meek, who, if they recognize the truth, will be blessed by a humble confession of the same and a full determination to walk in the light of God as it shines from his Word, regardless of human traditions. We rejoice to say that thus far during the harvest period we have come to know a few clergymen of this class, who, when the harvest truth dawned upon them, forsook the error and pursued and served the truth. But the majority of the clergy, alas! are not of the meek class, and again we are obliged to realize CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. the force of the Master’s words—“ How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the king- dom of God!” whether those riches be of reputa- tion, fame, learning, money, or even common ease. Be these predictions as they may, it is evidently not only the anticipation, and expectation, but the firm belief of not a few, (of not a superstitious nature) that the twentieth century is to be the dawn of a sort of a new era, or dispensation of new light, or rule, or order, of things,—for the better, or worse, many differ. Many old Bible students figure out from phophesies, dire calam- ities and purgings of a fearful nature, preparatory to a better condition, if not a real millennium, while others figure the reverse. While many others, like the North American Indian, from a sort of instinctive belief in a happy hunting ground beyond this life, seem to sniff it in the air, see it in the political press and literature, hear it in the low mutterings of the masses against the classes, and feel it in the many imaginative and real injustices of the courts and legislative bodies in imposing upon them burdensome burdens to support extravagance and stop competition. All admit with a certain borne, or unaccount- able expectancy of something, that it is the proper time to stop and consider, and take a sort of an inventory of the past, and prepare for something, they know not what, in the future. Upon the principle of the prosperity advocate who insists and urges the way to get it, is to “talk and write it up,” or vice versa, virtually admit- CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 239 ting the great necessity of “mind over matter,” to accomplish any desired result. They, how- ever, all very generally fail to note the new and most powerful element in the apparently inevit- able conflict never before encountered, viz.; the more general spread -of intelligence throughout the whole world, as well as all the advantages of modern improvements in all lines, mostly oper- ated, if not‘owned, and controlled, by skilled cit- izens and mechanics. So long as such conditions exist, the key to the cipher in which destiny is written is not revealed. It makes the charter of human rights a puzzling problem and very diffi- cult logarithm to solve by any but an infinite mind or power. These with many other most glaring inconsist- encies and injustices are becoming more appar- ent every day to the more thoughtful observer of the common sense people, and the burning ques- tion is, what shall the final harvest be? He who rightly understands the reasonable- ness and excellency of true Christianity will know that it can never be excusable for the waste of any money on pride, folly and inconsistencies. Most all have already far too much religion, but it is to be regretted not half enough Christianity. People are fast losing respect for that self- boasting religion, which neglects all objects of commisseration near and around it, but goes to the end of the world in seeking of misery and idolatry for the purpose of talking about it. The recent most abusive criticism from the pulpit in the state of Missouri, of one of the most 240 CITY AND COUNTRY LIRE. noted, talented and consistent temperance lec- turers of the United States, because he dared to attack intemperance in high places, is but an ex- hibition of the narrow inconsistency and preju- dice of many of the pulpit occupants who are more ready to follow and believe party leaders than their Lord and Master. An intemperate man, or preacher, is among the worst of hypo- crites, capable only of doing more harm than good. Free press, free speech, and free gospel is not a practical truth. The right of freedom consists only in the freedom to do right. When religion is made a political engine, she exposes herself to having her sacred character neglected and for- gotten, the most tolerant become intolerant to- wards her. Therefore, believers become skep- tical and are apt to believe something else be- sides what she teaches and retaliate by attacking her in the sanctuary itself. True religion, there- fore, does not consist in marble pillars, or costly vestments; it is rarely found in costly churches, or richly bound books, or corrupt political and sub- sidized newspapers, and courts of pretended jus- tice and boodle taking officials, robbing their neighbors and constituents, six days in the week, and attending church on the seventh, and devot- ing a lifetime in deception and gathering fraudu- lent dollars, nor dealing out false justice from the legal bench or mysterious or doubtful religion from the sacred desk, as a commodity, at a stip- ulated and extravagant price in huge churches, as cold and frigid as ice, large enough to corpo- CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 241 rations for a free pass to last through the vaca- tion, or heated season, all of which has more sig- nificance than many know, or are wont to be- lieve, though the donors know it means special privileges to them in this world, and may think it equal to a free pass in a Pullman or Wagner to the next. While on the other hand many are wont to be- lieve it is a righteous act to donate liberally to the support of an extravagant and high salaried pas- tor, to the neglect of their barber, grocery, or any other honest obligation, while others give for electioneering purposes, knowing it to be a good investment and that Christianity (?) is un- der the same obligations as the saloon or club. No man is justified in supporting any comfort or luxury outside of his family that he is not able to support inside of it. Christianity as well as charity should commence at home. Soft ser- mons in soft plush cases, delivered to conscience scared and exquisite congregations, will contrib- ute but little, if anything, to the cause of true re- ligion. Things should be called by their right name. You must expel from churches Chris- tians (?) who eat and drink the holy sacrament on Sundays and devour widows’ and orphans’ homes all the balance of the week. The church’s need is for more “rough riders” and less smooth and impractical silk-stocken and clerical-cut smooth sailors and Pullman palace car riders, and less delivering of paradoxical sermons of a purely literary character, mostly extracted from profane history and popular novels, of a romantic 242 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. coloring, instead of from sacred history, anu more after the manner of the sermon on the Mount. There is no argument or reason which has yet been advanced in support of the combination of commercial industries, which cannot be used with as much, if not more force and reason than that of church consolidation. Negotiations in this direction would meet with almost resistless opposition from the pastorate. If such combina- tions are economical in industrial enterprises, it is difficult for the common man to perceive who would be harmed by them except the ministers who would lose their pastorates. Operating ex- penses would be greatly reduced and a much cheaper, and no doubt a better article of gospel furnished, as one minister and one choir would be able to accomplish at the same time and per- haps in a more entertaining, if not in a more successful manner, than half a dozen, as it is, under the present order. The public school system, “the boast of the country,” with all its teachers, superintendents and boards of education forming into clubs and federations, though without a charter from some remote state—are more for the mainte- nance and advance of salaries, at the people’s ex- pense, than the- advancement of the cause of ed- ucation, congregating around the public treasury like flies around a dead carcass. The same might be said of the saloons, and all public servants. A corner on the burial of the dead is now in or- der by the undertakers and casket manufacturers. CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 243 Seventy-five cents of black cloth over the corpse, one dollar for the casket, and forty to fifty dollars for burial. A senseless, silly Indian college yell that might be useful in helping to subjugate the Filipinos, if they had it in the front or right place at the right time, is one of the chief accom- plishments of city colleges. True religion is confidence in the Creator which impels us to trust in Him. Honor to the marriage relation, love of husband and wife, the affection of brother and sister, the love of father and son, of mother and daughter, of mother and son and thy neighbor, at least enough to refrain from cheating him out of his eyes, and doing unto him about as you would have him to do unto you, instead of the now prevailing rule, ‘“do others as they do you.” Were these things more universal as they formerly were, earth at the present time would be a veritable heaven to what it is, and “hell more of a fable.” The fact, how- ever, there is a counterfeit, is only proof that there is a genuine, and the regret is that temporal laws are not as inexorable as nature’s or divine laws, else what would the consequences be? The board of trade, the stock exchange and the races are very similar in many respects, all are an uncertain quantity, though perhaps a neces- sity, like many other useful institutions, greatly perverted and given over to a gambling element, with many men in them with hearts as hard as adamant, conscience seared as with a hot Iron, and blood as cold as a snake’s, or Triesler’s “Liquified Air,” that can fall to a temperature of 244 CITY AND COUNTRY LIRE. . three hundred degrees below zero, in order to freeze a man out of financial existence. Old bucks to fleece the innocent and unsuspecting lambs of the same flock, as well as sometimes actually butting each others brains out in their eagerness for greed and gain. With no sympathy or fellow-feeling for their own, where are file in- nocent and unsuspecting lambs likely to appear? It is not only proper but right and becoming to respect and honor the high office any indi- vidual may be fortunate enough to hold in a great city, state or nation, but man or hero worship is a characteristic of weakness that should be avoided. Curiosity, however, should not be construed for patriotism. The vast amount of hard and poor pay of starving officials and clergy of the country is all rot, which is evidenced by their anxiety and hard work (if any) to secure a continuance, more than doing their duty as servants of the people, instead of accepting free transportation in palace cars from great coipora- tions, at the expense of the country on the false pretense of a vacation from over-work and long application. The swing around the circle and culmination at Chicago’s great “Peace Jubilee,” though somewhat premature, savored somewhat of a great protracted political demonstration for campaign purposes being held on the eve of an important and uncertain election, and being con- ducted by and with the influence of almost all the high dignitaries of the land, both civil and mili- tary, with questionable abbreviations both before and after their cognomens, was only more evi- CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 245 dence of the imperial cities influence and capa- bilities upon short notice that she is already the greatest common center of attraction and influ- ence around which almost all corporations and politicians, as well as commercial interests are wont to revolve. The true interpretation of such immense demonstrations at such times, by the common people, is that it consists mostly of giving, and receiving taffy either on a gold, or silver platter, and by the inns and expectants, and that much vulgar curiosity is accepted, and called by the press, “genuine patriotism,” while a whole lot of royalty is misconstrued into loy- alty, ignoring the fact that it is always your best friends that tell your faults and warns you of pending dangers. Though the hand-writing on the wall may not be visible to some, it is antici- pated by many. The time was when honor and humiliation was considered cheap articles with a true definition, but under modern times and the present regime, they have become an extravagant and desirable luxury at other people’s expense. A court-mar- tial with conviction and punishment by suspen- sion with full and extravagant pay for life, is but a “friendly bout,” and an incentive to others of the same sort, at the nation’s expense. The question naturally arises of the young, though already great metropolis on the inland sea, what shall its future be? With all its good, bad and indifferent qualities and advantages and disadvantages, its over two millions of people of all kindreds and tongues on the globe, people CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. in all conditions and circumstances of life, from the highest to the lowest, in all kinds of business, its many tall and stately buildings, its huge man- ufactories, its immense department stores, al- ways open and free alike to customers and visit- ing strangers and sightseers, its extensive and magnificent parks, and boulevards, the admira- tion of the world, its continually thronged thor- oughfares from morning to night, its many ele- vated railroads, its extensive stock yards and lumber yards, its many huge grain elevators, with railroads and shipping facilities, and its most wonderful drainage canal, which, when com- pleted, will furnish the purest and best water in the world, to the greatest number of people, be- sides a front and rear water inlet and outlet to all points of the compass, and many other markets, already the greatest in the world, besides its many places of historical, artistical and literary interests too numerous to mention, which alto- gether, makes it a veritable World’s Fair all the time, Midway-plaisance included, and the finest and most healthful, salubrious and extensive summer resort in the world. Chicago has also all creeds and persuasions of religions in the world, from the heathenish Hot- entot, to the sainted orthodox, who will not hesi- tate for a minute to swindle his brother, the more loose heterodox, the highly bred over-cultured theologicallv educated, scientific skeptic and infidel. While the one believes in a hell, the other does not, but as conscientiously affirms _that if there is no hell, there ought to be one for the CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. “other fellows.” They all, by their previous college and literary training, are only the better enabled and prepared for the pulpit, platform or rostrum in speechmaking and reciting with great oratory and eloquence some of their committed eulogies on some of the past, present and dead heroes and statesmen of the country, but both previously and afterwards entirely ignoring their precepts and example by their schemes of selfish greed and gain, and corrupting influence in their en- deavors to secure pelf and office, while they revel at the extravagant clubs and banquets in sipping their wines from the same golden “loving cup” in mockery of an event that happened some twenty centuries ago. She has all complications and va- rieties of politics from the “up to date” boodler, loud-mouthed spellbinder and machine article down or up (either way), to the whisky-bloated, ward healer, saloon bummer, to the rampant an- archist and socialist. All schools of the medical fraternity, from the old school and time doctor Drugindraft and high pressure steam, and electric power doctors to the more or less (either way) modern and popular charm cures, divine and Christian science and all other kinds of healers, the former of which are able to kill at long range in a short time, while the latter operates at short range, and prefer to let their patients die a nat- ural death, at least, if desired. Also any amount of palmists, mind readers, spiritualists and clairvoyants formerly from Lon- don or Paris, but more recently from the slums of their native or adopted city, and being the sev- CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. enth son or daughter, of their father who was the seventh son of their sires for generations preced- ing them, all gifted with the supernatural power of fore and after knowledge, of being able, for a consideration, to tell you all about your past, present and future destiny, temporarily, spiritu- ally, and more especially domestically, financially and matrimonially, who are patronized alike by the rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, principally, however, by those having speculative and mat- rimonial views, or already having marital and financial troubles and are of a credulous temper- ament. All seem encouraged, without stint or compunction of a moral press, with whole col- umns of “ads” portraying their wonderful arts, knowledge and divine powers to assist in captur- ing the curious, ignorant and credulous. While Chicago has her multifarious dogmas, religious beliefs and creeds of all kinds, she is constantly sending out missionaries to all parts of the world to civilize and christianize the world, they in return are sending their missionaries to Chicago to convict and convert Chicago to their many strange beliefs and practices. So with all these chances, it would seem the people who have not yet decided in favor of the simple, “straight and narrow way,” are yet numerous and no matter what their tendencies and tastes, cam be suited in their hungry knawing hope of finding comfort and peace for their aching hearts and troubled spirits. There are many followers of Confucius, Brah- mans, Mohammed, Brigham Young, as well as CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 249 fire worshippers, sun worshippers, star and water gazers, each and all ready to uphold and descant upon the merits of their religious beliefs and practices without limit. The Korshanites are able to prove beyond a demonstration and doubt that the great sphere and planet earth is hol- low or convex on the inside and inhabited by mortal beings, while the outside, or surface, is the final destination of all and is inhabited by the immortal. It is truly wonderful, strange, pit- iable and amusing to think how many false religions and anti-Christs there are in a great city. In only one thing are all the varied beliefs agreed—namely, if the world, and more espe- cially the city of Chicago, is to be christianized, it must be done through their religious belief. To this end and for this reason all of their dif- ferent followers labor, talk and practice their strange rites and ceremonies. For this reason and purpose, strange creeds and prayers are re- cited from all Bibles in the world, and new - ' sions are being established and missionaries sent from all parts of the globe. While Chicago in re- turn, is just as active and persistent in sending missionaries to them in her endeavors to civilize and christianize and convert them from their idolatrous worship. Thus the constant see-saw, and struggle for supremacy goes on and the question is when will right and truth prevail? After all, it is, alas, too true, that mammon is the greatest shrine of all and that the majority are willing to bow down and daily worship and sac- rifice their bodies, souls and all on its golden altar CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. The truth as it has been set’ forth by precept and example by the One of humble birth, is what the anxious world is waiting, watching, wanting and hoping for, instead of so much mystifying, skeptifying sectarian creeds and ceremonies and vague theories of all the many modern eulogies, seisms and isms advanced by the higher cultured critics and fad freaks. Such is life, the teaching, the influence and environment in a great city, as compared to the more peaceful, restful, retiring, healthful, soul-inspiring and more natural life in the country. It is, however, a noteworthy fact, which has in the last few years been particularly demon- strated, that Chicago is freer from extremes in weather and destructive storms and cyclones, than any other spot in the country. A fact alone worthy of great consideration in choosing a safe habitation and dwelling place for the nervously disposed, even though it is dubbed as the “windy city,” as it was by its opponents before the great World’s Fair as “Robber’s Roost.” Though Chicago be free from the destructive elementary storms, she is undoubtedly fast be- coming, if she is not already, the great hot bed and storm center of political corruption and re- form, both national and local, as well as morally and religiously, as Medicine Hat or Manitoba is the great storm center or originator and distrib- utor of most of the storms of the country. The only question is, which will ultimately triumph. The hope and prayer, however, is of all good citizens for the latter, and that there is yet salt CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 251 enough to preserve her without the necessity of being compelled to resort to the use of “embalm- ing chemicals.” That there is at present a constant increase in the population and business is evidenced by the continual increase of all sizes, sorts and kinds, colors, inside and outside, of all conditions and persuasions and tongues, under normal con- ditions at the rate of from one to one hun- dred and fifty thousand a year. The query arises," where do they all come from, and where do they go, and how do they exist, is sometimes a puzzling problem, but when we realize the fact they are here and more com- ing and they seem to be shod and clad and ap- pear in as thriving a condition as in smaller towns throughout the country, the only solution is that there is more to do, and that on the prin- ciple, of “the more the merrier,” they must nat- urally exist off of each other, as they do in Lon- don and other large cities in Europe, and if Eu- rope can support a city like London, or London can support a country like Europe, why cannot America? If there is any place in America that has the room to spread out to do it, Chicago is surely the place, as she has the room, hustle and all the facilities above any other place in the country. Notwithstanding all her sins of omis- sion and commission, she seems to have risen phoenix-like, above them all in her rapid leaps and bounds to greatness. It is not only a commendable feature, but a notable fact, that almost all persons that have 252 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. had occasion trom force of circumstances, or otherwise, to emigrate from the western metrop- olis, are wont to return again, if possible, to either spend their declining years, or the better to seek a livelihood, believing after all their va- ried trials and experiences, Chicago is the cheap- est, healthiest, most comfortable and best all- round place on earth to exist, as good, comfort- able homes, rents and all the substantiate of life are cheaper than in any other city of one-third its size in the United States. Indeed, it has been asserted there are some who have even returned from the spirit land to better their condition, though there are yet many that need a spirit of regeneration and baptism of fire, if not actually to be “born again.” However, to die is about the last thing a person does in Chicago, as it is much more expensive than life. Sidney A. Gaylor, the noted telepathist of To- peka, Kan., claims to be able to send messages all over the world, both terrestial and celestial, and send them at will without the use of wires, though highly educated, may be somewhat ec- centric, anyhow when he makes known he has* had recent messages that the headquarters of hell are in Lombard street, London, with a flourish- ing branch in Wall street, New York, and equally as strange and true is the assertion he makes, that Lombard street is the headquarters of hell, is the statement he makes with all sincerity that the headquarters of heaven is in Chicago. In explanation he said “at the end of every age a new heaven is founded, and Chicago is now the CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 253 place above all others where happiness and com- fort should reign supreme.” Classical Boston- ians may take exceptions to this, but educated as well as wise men are liable to differ, if fools do not. However Gaylor’s information is from in- spiration and must therefore be incontrovertible. Judging the future by the past, it is but rea- sonable to predict that there are those now living who will be able to see this verified. When a large church or school house is built on the open prairie one summer, and is filled to over- flowing the next, is evidence of the natural rapid growth and increase in population. Children seem on the outskirts a natural production and of almost spontaneous origin and growth, ris- ing like the seventeen-year locust, out of the ground every twelve months or less time. It is, therefore, no exaggeration to say Chica- go is now the eight wonder of the world. Not- withstanding the many corrupt spellbinding ca- lamity howls, on the one hand, and the more per- sistent prosperity howls on the other hand. The “people, like David, in all their vicissitudes, are pursued by lean political hounds” on one side, and by the fat political contracting hounds on the other, in their strenuous efforts to hood-wink and oppress the people until they are ready to beseech the Lord to deliver them from their con- scienceless oppressors, and masters, who prom- ised and ought to be their humble servants in- stead of tyrannical masters. The infant city with all its corruption and many impediments, seems to possess virtue and CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. confidence enough to push on “multiplying and increasing” in all lines and ways with its usual rapid strides soon to consummate its future des- tiny of being the leading and most populous city on the globe. The howl of the political press about a “rotten fifty-cent dollar,” and sound one hundred cent- dollar, or fifty cent wheat,” and rotten fifty-cent real estate, and the many worse than no-cent dol- lars, life insurance policies forfeited, by taking something for nothing, and the imbecility of a Bryan, or the big kind-heartedness of a vacillat- ing McKinley, subject to the dictation of some- body, or thing, around Wall or Lombard street. It is self-evident to the dullest perception and most incredulous, something is alarmingly rotten some where, someway, or somehow in Denmark, as well as rotten commissary departments, rotten Major Generals, rotten army contractors and “rotten beef.” Why should a government always take the most round-about and hardest way to accomp- lish anything? What is the use of beating about the bush so much when the rascally animals are out from under cover in plain view? Why not feed the Washington military commission for a week on samples of canned, refrigerated and em- balmed beef? are the interrogations of the plain and common people. If they like it, and thrive and live, all right. If they dislike it and sicken and die—well and good, also! The truth then would be demonstrated and everybody better satisfied, and the soldier wrongs vindicated and CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 255 the “other fellows” convicted and punished as they should be, without so much expense and “red tape.” The earnest petition of the country is to be delivered from so much tom-foolery in high places, under the pretense of high official and military dignity. The present great want and need of our coun- try is more practical business men on the front seats of our legislative halls, of the Governor Pingree, of Michigan, type, who are not afraid to speak out in meeting and stand or fall on prin- ciples and less of the multi-millionaire and cor- poration lawyers, and office-seeking and schem- ing politicians and distinguished corruptionists, who are there only for “what there is in it,” to them; the former of which knows practically and experimentally the plain and common people and farmers have but very little freedom other than to hoe their potato patches barefooted, if they are not able to afford a pair of his brand of ex- cellent shoes. Thomas Lewis, in Leslie’s Weekly, recounts the following concerning Lincoln and Douglas; The circumstances of which the writer well re- members, and gives as a fair sample of honor by a pair of country-bred and born boys, as a com- parative difference of honor between the states- man of one generation ago and that of the pres- ent day and generation of conscienceless corrup- tionist mostly city-bred and born and college- educated, only the better to enable them to swin- dle. generated from the war of the rebellion, with suspicious interrogation points and dollar mark 256 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. after and before their titles, thus making them appear the more conspicuous in print: “While still a young man Mr. Lincoln became known as ‘Honest Abe,’ and it was no nickname. He was* noted for taking small fees. When Douglas was in the United States senate, Mr. Lincoln had a note of five hundred dollars sent him for collection on Douglas. He sent it to a correspondent in Washington. The> money was paid and draft returned to Mr. Lincoln, who remitted, retaining but two dollars and a half for his fee. When asked how he came to retain so small a fee Mr. Lincoln replied: ‘I had no trouble with it. I sent it to my friend in Washington, and was only out the postage.’ “It is not known to every one at this date that while Stephen A. Douglas was in the senate he introduced a bill praying Congress to make a donation of public lands to the state of Illinois for the purpose of having a railroad run from the south to the north of the state. The bill passed, donating to the state the alternate sec- tions of land, six miles in width, on either side of the road. It passed on the last day of the session. The next morning I called on Mr. Douglas at his house and congratulated him on the passage of the bill. Mr. Douglas replied: T was offered fifty thousand dollars by officials of the Cairo company, and I could have had it made to whom I pleased.’ I said; ‘Why did you not take the money? With your Chicago property and fifty thousand dollars you could retire at the end of your term.’ ‘Lewis,’ said he, T would rather be hpnest to my constituents than to have a million dol- lars and be president.’ ” The chief magistrate of the nation should be elected for one term only, consisting of eight years, by the popular vote—not by the electoral Vote: the United States senators elected by the people—not as now by the legislature, subject to the corrupting influences and manipulations of money and favoritism. The local postmasters CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 257 and many other of the appointive offices, should be elected by their patrons. It would have much to do in curbing political power and corruption. The grand jury system abolished, so criminals could be convicted or acquitted at once without so much tedious litigation and legal ceremony; the petit jury allowed a two-thirds rule, would avoid a lot of bribery and jury-hanging expense and suspense. No honest man can reasonably object to a two-thirds rule. The former only screens rascals, and promotes long and tedious litigation. The divorce laws made uniform or national, and only granted for adultery—not for the want of three expensive hats annually, or three square meals a day without the provisions (water ex- cepted), being furnished, or three years neglect or absence, or the slightest crook of the finger of either party. The many long and conflicting church creeds should be revised and abbreviated to the Golden Rule—not to “do others as others do you,” which would promote much more con- fidence and produce far less skepticism. All leg- islation void until confirmed by the people. Un- til most of these are so, or a hope of their ac- complishment, the people cannot be their own sovereigns, or look for the faintest gleam of the millennial dawn. Technicalities and long tedious ceremonials belong to the Jews, not the Gentiles. Ihe individual who patronizes the postal de- partment to the extent of one hundred or more letters per day does not expect cut rates or get more favors than the individual who only patron- 258 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. izes the department to the limited extent of one or two letters per day, has a world of significance and justice in it, and is no reason that the gov- ernment should go out of the postal business, as she is wanted out of the banking business, the better to enable the poor bankrupt bankers (?) to secure the graft that should belong to the people, or go to the government for the better support and protection of a “government of, by, and for the people.” Such is the visible side of life in a great me- tropolis. Nothing natural, like the country, but all an artificial display of luxury, extravagance and dissipation, or exhibitions of want, penury and destitution. Of the invisible side, one can better imagine than describe. After all, prosperity and adversity depends much upon what kind of glasses one views them through. Like the old farmer who conceived the idea, in time of drouth, of putting green gog- gles on his cattle so all vegetation would appear to them green as grass and declared it a success, as his stock ate and did well, notwith- standing the deception. So the banker, the cor- poration. the high official, looking through high- Iv magnifving gold rimmed glasses sees all things for his good, as does the individual look- ing through common blue glasses see all things with a blue cast, or at the worst. Therefore, it is wise to view the conditions as they really are with the unbeclouded and naked eye, free from prejudice and partisanship. Therefore in summing up the whole matter by CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. taking it up one side and down the other, inside and out, from the center to the circumference, from our own experience in both city and coun- try life, the advantages of country life is the most preferable, and we would advise all, more espe- cially those raising, or contemplating raising a family, to ponder and consider well before abandoning the country, or farm, before the fam- ily have grown to maturity, and you have at least secured a competency; as one good, reliable common sensed boy or girl raised in the country is worth two or more of the affected and arti- ficial city article, though the former may be more uncouth in appearance and liable to be duffed by the city lass and dudes, of more fash- ionable and sportive proclivities, and silly society votaries, many of whom do not knw what vir- tue is. Though but “hayseeds?! late from the rural dstricts, they know enough at least to appreciate what character is, from the fact of having budded one of their own, and knowledge enough to know how little they do know, which is far from being true, with alas, too many of the city born and bred, who lack suffi- cient moral courage to be independent enough to defy the trammels imposed upon them by the numerous foolish foibles, and silly fads and fash- ions of the shoddy aristocracy of the city. Many a man who feels that he is using all his time and vitality in merely keeping in line with the ever-increasing exactions and competi- tion of business, looks at his children and won- ders how it will be when they come to enter the CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. struggle of practical existence. With men who have places of responsibility it seems necessary for them to do what should be the work of sev- eral men, and for every position offered there are scores and hundreds anxious to get it. It is hard to find a line of work that is not crowded with people struggling against one another in fierce competition. Then again “others do it and we have to” is the only excuse offered by supposedly honorable and well-disposed men for doing what goes against their conscience and sense of right and justice. The politician is ac- cused of being corrupt, and too often satisfies himself with a noted boodler’s explanation of the situation; “Might as well have the game as the blame.” However, there is a better time rapidly approaching. Men are thinking more and are gradually beginning to put the true value upon things and conduct. The awakening of con- science seems slow to the sufferers from our pres- ent cut-throat struggle for money and power, but we are progressing faster than we realize. The great minds are not the only ones that are con- sidering our false economic and unwholesome social conditions. The people are all studying and thinking as never before, and when the peo- ple really get to thinking it does not take long for thought to cfvitalize into action. The first thing is to find just what is the matter and the next to apply the remedies. As Emerson says; “It cannot be wondered at that this general in- quest into abuses should arise in the bosom of society, when one considers the practical imped- CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 261 iments that stand in the way of virtuous young men. The young man, on entering life, finds the way to lucrative employments blocked with abuses. The ways of trade are grown selfish to the borders of theft, and supple to the borders (if not beyond the borders) of fraud.” There must come a wise readjustment, or at the rate people are wasting energy in senseless but seemingly necessary competition there won’t be enough after a while to support the wrecks driven to the asylums and poorhouses.” Indeed with many fashion is a difficult matter to decide. Though it is said, and so strictly taught, by both precept and example, “you might as well be out of the world as out of fashion,” and alas! how many lack the independence of being both ruled and ruined by it, by being foolish enough to believe it. Fashion is the hardest and most tyrannical of masters. The independence of it is almost equal to independence in wealth, its strictest observers are always those who can least afford to maintain it. The “new woman,” too, is much more in evi- dence in the city than in the country and is only evidence that there is also a new man to match her. The best and shortest definition we are able to give, or know, for the one, is a masculine woman, the other a feminine man. They both, anyhow, strongly imply there has previously been somewhere an old woman and an old man some- what derelict in their family duties, and in a great measure responsible for this modern and disgust- ing production of the human species. CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. The matrimonial craze in the city seems to be an epidemic and matrimony among this class is of frequent occurrence, and for a short time only, and is thought by some to be contagious. Di- vorces are about as common. The mills are con- tinually in full blast for such and grind fast, even though they are a little extravagant in their toll, the grists are very numerous. Suicides are in- digenous to this class and about the last act in the drama of their unnatural and useless lives. The crop of grass widowers and widows is also large, but their weeds are of short life and dura- tion, whether it is attributable to force of cir- cumstances, climatic influences, or the polluted conditions of the atmosphere of the city, or all together, has not been positively decided by the medical fraternity. Some assert ..the cause of these unnatural, outgrowths of ridiculous customs and fashions to the wheel, others to club life, while many say It is the result of the familiarity of the sexes on the street in childhood. Certain- ly, it cannot to tKe popular game of foot ball, very appropriately “dubbed” by the “small boy” as “foot ball fight,” which is fully as barbarous and fatal to life and civilization as the Spanish bull fight unless the female sex are un- duly influenced by the vulgar habit of “rooting” on such occasions. While it may be a truth that many of the more refined and cultured frequent and spend much time in admiration and study of our fine art gal- leries, it is also a truth that many more of the vulgar and uncultured take the opportunity and CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 263 advantage of their vulgar curiosity to cultivate in themselves and accompanying friends a dis- position to immorality and licentiousness. It is indeed a grave question whether the vulgar, or the refining influences predominates, when all classes, ages and sexes are permitted to gather to view and admire, some with exclamations of wonder and delight, others with opportunities for immoral and vulgar suggestions, at the sight of the many nude pictures and statuary, when much less nude and vulgar exhibitions in the saloon, bawdy houses, and show windows would be con- sidered revolting, indecent and insulting to all modesty and refinement. The object of the blush of shame to the truly modest should be condemned as much one place as another, even though it be the latest and most perfect production from the hand of a popular and master artist. The nymphs, for example, are some of the fruits. Out of the Chicago Art Gallery into the annual Chicago Cat Show. What a contrast to the com- mon country man. Only a step from the sub- lime to the ridiculous, to see the women gush and go off in catalepcies over some grandly decorated bipeds of the Tom, Tabby, Teddy and Marias, feline species, in their loving caresses and silly cat talk, to the neglect, perhaps, of their own children and suffering humanity on the outside, seemingly ignorant of the poisonous contami- nating, infectious and diphtheria- breeding breath of the cat late from the rotten garbage box, and filthy alleys, entirely oblivious of the fact that the CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. cat of the city is only useful to make night hide- ous with their caterwalling concerts to the an- noyance of belated husbands who cannot defend themselves with boot-jacks, since boots have be- come entirely a “back number’7 in city life. It is also amusing to see columns in the newspapers written up on the virtues of the cat, and catology, away back from the ancient days of Nero and the downfall of the Roman Empire, without a derog- atory word of the disease-breeding, nasty, stink- ing, night-prowling “scat.” All either ignorant or entirely forgetting to re- cord the good luck attending the coming of the proverbial “black cat” to the fortunate house- hold, or the ill luck befalling Nero because of his fondness for the ill-omened “white cat,” thus caus- ing the great preference for the happy medium for the production and propagation of the more popular blueish or maltese cat; entirely ignor- ing the sweeter scented, finer furred, much more innocent and about as useful and worthy of praise, and historical newspaper record, the “pole cat,” which for some cause or other was deprived of the privilege of competing for a premium with his more favored feline species. No writer with all their wisdom and knowledge on catology has yet given the reason of the “nine lives of the cat,” as attributable to all the sense and good qualities of the nine species of the feline race being concentrated in the pole cat. Cats are credited with having nine lives, because of the nine species of the feline race. If this be so, what a fearful slaughter the Bermudians will CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 265 be compelled to do to rid their country ol their recent plague of cats, which is said to be prowl- ing about making night hideous with their con- certs, so that invalids are being compelled to leave the island and authorities are being urged to levy a head tax on cats to rid the country of the disturbing Toms and Marias. If some effect- ive means of this kind were adopted in our cities not only with the feline, but with the canine spe- cies, what a comfort and blessing it would be, not only to the invalid but the large majority of the well, peace and quiet-loving citizens. The coun- try is the natural place for all such animals. It is stated by eminent physicians that ninety-nine per cent of the common contagious diseases are carried from house to house in the cities by these domestic pets. Should one-half of this be so, it is enough to warrant their extermination. It is a well authenticated fact, that in the rural districts when one has ought against his neigh- bor and wishes to avenge an imaginary or real wrong by doing him a private injury, or get even for some wrong or injury, it has long been the custom to turn loose on him any number of ill- omened white cats, after which the boys are per- mitted to have fun by tying the tails of the cats together and hang them across the clothes-line in the back yard,so they may,like the “kill-kenny” cat devour each other, and by their frightful squalls and profusion of flying fur, break and forever frighten away the supposed hoodoo, and is most effectively accomplished by their hideous squalls, and flying fur, which for a time serves CITY ANT) COUNTRY LIFE. to make the atmosphere in the vicinity green and sulphurous, besides it is fun for the boys, which they consider no more barbarous, inhuman nor brutal than the “prize fight/’ “foot ball fight,” or “Spanish bull fight,” in that it does not last so long and accomplishes more good. Undoubtedly the men are not at the cat show for “what there is in it,” as that is the uppermost object aim and motto of the average Chicago man. The more recent annual dog show of Chicago held at one of the largest halls in the city, with a daily patronage of from five to six thousand peo- ple, eager for catalogues at from one dollar to three dollars apiece, giving pedigrees as long as an old-fashioned bed cord, at a time of a heated municipal campaign, and a week of religious awakening, when most halls and churches were also crowded to overflowing, is a serious question of which the great masses of people are the most interested in, the dog show and their followers, the gospel and its followers, or the numerous political candidates, and their hordes of followers for place and spoils, is but a manifestation of the varied tastes and interests of both humanity and more especially the humanity in a great metropolis. It is amusing, as well as somewhat disgusting, to see how interested and enthusiastic some will be- come over the “dog,” of which there were on ex- hibition all sorts, sizes, kinds and colors, from the small long silken haired poodle, with golden bangled neck and jewelry, the poisonous CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 267 spitz and ugly (cute?) snubnosed and vulgar pug, to the bloodthirsty blood hound, savage bull, and great dane and more kindly disposed St. Bernard of two or three hundred pounds weight, to say nothing of the more common and numerous old fashioned yellow dog, or mastiff, and more keen intelligent and useful black and tan, cattle, shep- herd, setter, pointer and retriever, of which the country man is most interested in because of their usefulness rather than ornamental qual- ities. It is surprising and wonderful what ex- travagant estimates and values some are wont to place on their kennels of the canine species, be- ing far above the noble horse. The J. Gould, Jr., kennel is valued at from forty to fifty thousand dollars. Whether that is the tax value, of course, is not known. It is indeed a novel sight to see a man or woman on the street, or in the parks, with a five or ten thousand dollar dog either in their em- brace or by their side, for a companion or pet, when thousands of human beings are suffering for the want of food, or a comfortable place for themselves and children to sleep. Of such “dogs, sorcerers, etc.,” are the kingdoms of this world. The old adage, in the country, “a poor man for children, a mule for kicks, and a dog for fleas,” is somewhat reversed in the city, where it is a poor man for wants, a tenant for kicks and the landlord to pay bills. Anjdrow, it is much more pleasant to an old veteran and not half so dangerous to stand and gaze into the smiling faces and hear the bark CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. and whine of chained and caged dogs of peace, man’s friendliest friend, no matter how unkind you use him, than to stand and face the frowning muzzles and hear the more fierce and howling bark of the deadly dogs of war. However, only some “dogs must have their day’’ under the new order of things, as the amateur photographer or shadow catcher, waltzing around both city and country with his kodak trying to make believe they are finished artists by taking some romantic landscape views and city street scenes, which is to both real and of everyday observation, think- ing that “distance lends enchantment,” and that near by and rugged experience is not real. The bold and very truthful, but unpopular as\ sertion was made by an eminent and honest divine in the pulpit of the city universities, “that there were more convicts in the penitentiaries of this country that were college graduates than any other class,” when one could not refrain from thinking of the number still at large, who assist- ed byHheir college training alone."have been en- abled to escape conviction and ought to be oc- cupying the same positions, with their palls, in- stead of “soft snaps” outside. A convincing proof that a narrow, impractical and dishonest educa- tion, as much as ignorance, lavs the foundations for vice and crime, Imitation and fashion, help to propagate it. A very eminent, honest and wise judge, after a long experience on the bench, recently remarked, he would as soon have a case of his own decided by the tossing of a copper, “head T win, tail you CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE loose,” as to have it decided by tbt manipulation of corrupt courts and attorneys in our cities. A wise man has the advantage of the ignorant, himself having been ignorant, but the ignorant man cannot recognize the wise because he has never been wise himself. What then is educa- tion? It is not merely the acquiring and pos- sessing of much impractical and theoretical col- lege knowledge and wisdom, merely to assist in becoming the less classically educated? It is not enough to be learned, intelligent and accomp- lished? We must be good, honorable, upright and humane. We should be cultured in morals and manners, as well as in mind. The culture or education that does not improve the manners and morals of a person is not true culture, but fails in its most important function. It simply makes of men smart rascals, intelligent rogues, and more polished scamps—the better to enable them to practice the art of deception and swind- ling and the science of getting rich without get- ting in jail or the penitentiary. No man ever had too good an education, but many a man has one that is better than he knows how to use. An education is merely tools to work with and to have more than can be used is much the same as it would be for a man to buy a complete outfit of the most complicated and ex- pensive carpenter’s tools when he hadn’t really learned how to properly use the saw, hammer and jack plane. When a man gets more edu- cation than he can use it is more apt to be a hindrance than a help. The man-is the main CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. thing after all, education or no education. Every man or woman who can do so should have the highest education, but those who cannot get it should take comfort from the fact that Shakes- peare did nothing at Oxford except get into trouble. As Elbert Hubbard truly says: “It hardly seems possible that a Harvard degree would have made a stronger man of Abraham Lincoln; or that Edison, whose brain has wrought greater changes than that of any other man of the century, was the loser by not being versed in physics as taught at Yale. The law of compensation never rests, and men who are taught too much from books are not taught by Deity.” Two common-sensed, level-headed and practical young men from the country recently graduated at the great University of Chi- cago in political economy and sociology, believ- ing that these principles could not be practically learned from books alone, but rather from life and experience, from which emanate the facts on which these sciences, as well as all other sciences are based, also believing their education acquired at the university was all one-sided and imprac- tical, only giving the student a cultivation at once narrow and selfish, if he did not share as much his time with the masses of plain and com- mon-sensed people as in college. Civilization and education, as some of the heathen and auto- crats define it, is the most scientific method of robbing the weak and helpless. Note the contrast between the practical and the impractical man in advice to young theorists jus-t CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 271 launching on the great ocean of life’s realities. Evidently the Governor is not an easy-chair theo- rist. At Columbia University’s recent commencement ex- ercises degrees were conferred on five hundred and three candidates. Honorary degrees were conferred on Rear Admiral George W. Mefville, Carl Schurz and Governor Roosevelt. In the afternoon the Governor delivered the address to the alumni in the big gymnasium. The Governor was the lion of the day and every time he appeared he was met with applause and cheers. In the course of his address to the students the Governor said; “We live in an age when there is much unrest and social discontent. Any man who affords the slightest cause for such discontent is a traitor to what is best in the1 national character. I would preach to every man not to hope to get through life with the maximum of ease. We are coming to have contempt for the idle, for the man who is content to stay in the eddy and away from the wavesj Don’t be impractical; don’t talk about things, but do them. You’ll never be a power for good unless you strive to make the good in the community as effective a force as the evil. The man who is im- practical is an evil to the community. We don’t need nice, dainty men, but what we do need is the man of high instincts, who isn’t afraid to go down into the hurly burly of the arena.” Also the address of Rev. Joseph F. Berry D.D. at the annual commencement exercises of the College of Liberal Arts of the Northwestern University, Evanston, -to a class of eighty-one graduates. He addressed himself solely to the class, warning them to remember that “a college diploma did not necessarily mean an edu- cation, as many suppose it does.” He pointed out to them that they were now prepared to begin educating themselves; that their hardest work of CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. life was to come; but he congratulated them on the fact that they were well equipped for the struggle they were to undertake. “You have succeeded merely in climbing the summit of the foothills. That is all. The great mountain ranges lie yonder. They stand like great giants in the distance and invite you to come to them, and to climb their rugged sides into the altitudes where vision is clear and the air pure and bracing. Be not satisfied with the foothill vision. Climb! Climb! Move stead- ily upward until the loftiest summits have been scaled and you stand a conqueror where God’s sun of light and life is shining evermore. “Set your ideals high. It is not easy to get them too high. ‘Our only greatness is that we aspire,’ says Jean Ingelow. Says Frederick Robertson, ‘Man’s des- tiny is to be not dissatisfied, but forever unsatisfied.’ “You must be ready for your opportunity. ‘No man is born into this world whose work is not botn with him,’ says Lowe.ll. Life pulsates with opportunities. Every day brings them. Every hour brings them. Every lesson in the schoolroom is an opportunity.” “But suppose no opportunity comes to us. Then make it. Make it as the farmer boy Ferguson did when he calculated the distance of the stars with a few beads on a string. Make it as Edison did who, without money, books, or influential friends, lifted himself out of obscurity to the foremost practical scientist of our day. Make it as George Dewey did when, in a strat- egic hour, calm and resolute, he thought out and fought out the most extraordinary sea battle of modern days.” Dr. John Dewey, of the University of Chicago, said: APPLYING EDUCATION TO LIFE. “Education is no longer its own justification. The interest in it has at last transferred itself from ac- commodation to verification to its application to life.” This transfer is not only noticeable and wel- CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. u come, but still there is ample occasion for its fur- ther emphasis. When one visits our numerous libraries, finds the long shelves of public reports compiled by bureaus and commissions, duty and performance stops with mere compilation. When we further note the tendency of science to confine itself strictly to research, and when one discovers how lacking in ‘‘practical suggestions and theo- ries” scientific men often are, one sympathizes with Dr. Dewey’s further declaration that “When theoretical education forgets that its value- rests only in solving, by practice, the problems out of which it has arisen, it is only a luxury and be- comes a social nuisance, disturber, and all the more a mystery. While lofty aspirations and high aims may be commendable to most graduating classes, the practical or lower aims ofttimes sees more and better game, by not endeavoring to shoot too high for the mark aimed at. Over-educated pro- fessors and lecturers often shoot ineffectually above the heads of their hearers. Even Rudyard Kipling, the great modern English writer and poet, with all of his imagina- tive genius and learning, lacks realism when he becomes so sympathetic and poetical about the “Boy in the Brushwood,” and the “Burden Bear- er.” He utterly fails to even hint or suggest any way to alleviate the “burden bearer,” whom he ought to know is already being borne down .with almost unbearable burdens; but rather intimates it well to silently and tamely submit to the im- posing of more, or the bearing down upon the 274 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE, already burdensome burdens of the “burden bearers,” for the sake of the lords. His theme of “Bread upon the Waters,” would have been more real if it had been bread upon the table. His “Sunday at Home,” is cheerless to those who have none, or if one, a mortgaged one, to go to. “His Day’s Work” should be furnished at a fair day’s pay. The world is passing through a state of arose and realism and not thirsting so much for romance, poetry and the imaginative liter- ature, to tickle the fancy and interests of the bur- den imposers. “What is the white man’s burden Of which the poet sings— This laureate from the jungles Who thinks such horrid things? Who tells of apes and devils, Of dark uncanny lands. In language weird and savage Scarce a mortal understands. What is the white man’s burden? Will some one please to rise, And tell a waiting anxious world, What Kipling's verse implies? To sound the death of Kipling’s lore And through his measures trace, Prophetic of a mighty truth— The Kismet of the race?” Many people think that a man who has read many books is therefore educated, and that he who has read few is therefore ignorant, or uned- ucated. Others think if one has been through a course of study in college, if he knows some- thing of the dead languages, and can quote from ancient history and ancient authors, and knows CITY AND COUNTRY LITE. very little of modern, or live languages, and live issues—or may have a smattering of some of the many minor modern accomplishments, he is con- sidered educated and accomplished, meanwhile the truth is, one can know all this and yet not know but very little that is real, or of use to him, or his fellow men. In a large sense of the word learning and education are not synonymous, the one does not necessarily involve the other, ex- cept to a limited degree. Learning, that is pos- session of the material of practical knowledge, is not only important, but of extreme value, yet one may lack what is technically known as learning and be truly educated, while on the other hand, a man may be loaded with learning and seri- ously deficient in real education. Therefore, the sneer often heard about “educated fools” is not without a point of reason, as there are men pos- sessed of great learning who are almost devoid of those essentials, or products of true education, wisdom or even common sense. Education, therefore, should be the unfolding and develop- ing of the whole human nature. If it be inher- ited vice so much the worse. If it be inherited virtue so much the better the results to be ob- tained from it. There are three physical highways to the mind, the eye, the ear, and the heart. The effort should, therefore, be to drive the truth to the mind through either one or all of these great highways. Nature in the countryis far the more advantag- eous. Ihe temptations,vexations,disappointments, 276 CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. anxieties, destitution, distress, suspense, expense, failures and uncertainties, liabilities and respon- sibilities of all kinds are far greater in city life than in country life on a farm, where everything is in more harmony and accordance with nature, and affords the student better facilities for study- ing the wonderful works of nature’s laws and hence grows up more healthful and natural. No man knows what his destiny is in the city until he has had the experience of raising a fam- ily. That system of experience and education is the best that makes the best citizens, but many fail to appreciate experience or education until they are too old to learn or to go to school. A city- bred and educated man or woman is as verdant and as much out of his element in the country, as the country man is in the city. They both are oftentimes objects of pity rather than creatures of ridicule. After all, “contentment is the great secret of a happy life,” and industry and pros- perity the great secret of contentment. Every human soul has a germ of hope, or some flower within, that would open, if they could only find sunshine and free and pure air to expand it. The common course of things should be in favor of happiness, contentment, and a competence as a rule for all—misery and want the exception. Were the order reversed our attention would be called to health and competency instead of mis- ery and want. A person should be rated for what they actually are, and not for what they appear on the surface to be. What avails all the pomp and parade of city CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 277 life, which appears oj the streets, if, when we shift the gaudy flattering scene, the participants are unhappy. Happiness must begin within the home, be it a mansion or hovel. A sordid love of display and show is certainly a very useless and injurious thing, for the mind much occupied with it, is necessarily blinded to almost every virtue. Passing up and down the streets one cannot help but be impressed with the fact that society is hollow; a deception and a fraud, when he sees how many there are who swagger and strut and how few there are who sre natural and walk, while fops simper and fools chuckle and simple- tons giggle, how few people laugh. There is, of course, hunger, suffering and want and wretch- edness in the country, but these evils chiefly con- gregate in large cities. Everything, however, counts and goes pell mell for what it is worth in the great western metropolis, with a vigorous push, pull, drag and hustle, in all seasons of the year and all kinds of weather, from early morning to late at night, on a sort of “every fellow for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” or any way to get there no matter about the other fellow. Therefore the country man or farmer and all small, dealers in business, are as the lamb is to the wolf. A hundred thousand dollar deal goes through about as quickly and with apparently as little consideration as a hundred dollar deal. The man’s silly, sickening, simpering, whims, prims and superfluities, dictated by artificial fashion, CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. go with all the rest of the rush, on the street, in the park, theater, church, and in fact every- where. Mary Anderson de Navarro, one of the few pure stage actresses, after a decade of stage and city life, gave herself up to the domestic joys of rural life in England. To many it appeared a mistake to refuse the valiant offers of the stage and city life, but she has never regreted her de- cision on account of the constant high tension of nerve and mind in keeping up unnatural style and superfluous fashion. Her ardent preference for rural life, because .of its naturalness, has in it a sincerity that is almost a novelty nowadays. Praise of rustic simplicity in these days is wont to have a hollow sound. The whole trend of American life is towards the cities. This makes great cities, but does it make purer characters and greater individual happiness? Mrs. Anderson thinks not, and supports her belief with her own experience. Temperament is a large element in all ques- tions of happiness, but there is a reason to be- lieve that the rush of modern city life creates an artificial temperament, as well as artificial stand- ards of life. We are not satisfied unless events and sensations follow each other in breathless succession. Life must present the appearance of a fast passing train, or it becomes monotonous. City work and duties demand swift action and high tension and city enjoyments and pleasures must go at the same gait, with none, or but few, of the advantages for the little details that lend CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE. 279 a sweetness and fullness and naturalness and healthfulness of country life. It is said that it is not all gold nor dia- monds that glitter; neither is it all joy, pleasure, happiness, comfort and peace serene, that ap- pears so on the street, on the wheel, in the broughams, on the boulevards, in the parks, and magnificent homes. Much of it is but an exhi- bition of deception and show, with much shoddy pretense on the outside and hades on the inside, and at the homes of the many mansions. There- fore, it is better “to bear the ills you think you have, than to be too hasty in fleeing to others you think not of,” as there are far more fortunes lost and characters ruined in the city than in the country. The country is far more preferable in so far as health, morals, honor, physical and mental development are concerned. Hence it is wise to look beyond the outside conditions of things as they appear on the surface. It is a dangerous experiment for either the country- bred or city-bred man or woman to make, as either would be as much out of his or her natural elements, as a fish out of water, one as much a verdant hayseed, as the other a helpless and dis- gusting city dude. Therefore consider well, be- fore making the change and let well enough alone, as you incur the danger of- flopping out of the frying pan into the fire, is the verdict, con- clusion and admonition of Farmer Joe Johnson. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. The following biographical memoirs in verse are by the author of this book, upon meeting and interviewing of an old comrade at the National Encampment of the G. A. R. in 1898, after a separation of thirty-four years: “Oh, Joe, come sit down with me; Let’s light a fresh cigar; And travel backward o’er the road Which we have come so far. From childhood’s happy, golden days To the seer and yellow leaf, Like growing grain from early spring To that’s gathered in the sheaf. From early morn till dewey eve, From rise to set of sun, Review the past and what we did, And what we should have done. Review the scenes of childhood, Where we were raised with care; Where we hunted the fleet roe-buck. And built castles in the air. And went fishing in the stream When on errands we were sent, And covered our tracks with lies, As we were homeward bent. When father took wee sister up. And sat down in the chair, Oh, what a miss and what a sight. And how perfumed the air. 282 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. When we were kids, sick with colds, and (what’s now called grip), Mother with her teas and mustard draft Relieved our pain, and cured our aching heads, Without the aid of any (old) Dr. Drugindr?r' At evening when the fire was all aglow, We staid at home to play, and talk, and sing; Around the great wood fir* our parents sat, But did not play (as now) at cards or anything. Then with our wooden guns we’d march, And follow ’round the beaten tracks, All in the dark along the cabin walls. Behind the old, old chair backs. Often in the night when all was still, With old books we’d often read, As in the old log school we sat Until ’twas time to go to bed. In springtime, as the sun grew higher, When the blue birds, robins and the crows Came from their former sunny climes, After winter’s cold blasts and fleecy snows. We hied away to the sugar camp, With horse and sled, and gun and ax; And oh! what fun we used to have Boiling the sweet and making maple wax. We then could shoot our shot-guns clear, At flocks of pigeons in the skies, And bid farewell to cumbring cares And feast on maple wax and pigeon pi The hens were kind and liberal then, They did not know of trusts and corners; They only thought to lay their precious fruit And save the Lentant mourners. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. 283 The maidens used to laugh, and tell us Later on, when we lads, yet in our teens, That we were rude, ungallant and uncouth. And weren’t no good, and only fit for .greens. There’s the hill, and there’s the shady woods, And there’s the creeks by whose brink Above remains the sky, the moon and stars, Where the timid deer used to come to drink. Oh, what happy, happy days were those, But we then failed to see, or know it; And yet how few there seem who know, Or, if they know, seem only to ignore jt. The rocks and hills remain the same, But the timber is all cut away; You’d hardly recognize the ground Where we two used to play. The creeks that then seemed rivers most, Have nearly all run dry, Where once we chased the big horned dace And other smaller fry. The old spring is flowing just the same, And the water’s just as cold As ’twas when we were children, With no thought of ever being old. The old stone church is standing yet. But looks like one forsaken; And, oh, what memories of the past A sight of it did awaken. The old schoolhouse, ’twas built of logs, The largest in the land; So large indeed, that we then thought It would forever stand. 284 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS, But it, too, has passed away, Our schoolmates they are gone, To render up their last account, So we’re left to follow on. For full four years or more, O’er forge and anvil bent, Then through the long and cruel war Full three years, or more, was spent. For rather more than thirty years We lived and tilled the farm. Where the Stars and Stripes have absent been Because they feared no harm. Still the scenes of childhood all arise, When we’re young with lightsome hearts Those times bereft of cares and sighs, All free from pride and fashion’s arts. We’ll the memory of the joyous time When we were once but little boys, Who ran along the shores of youth_ And shared in all its lightsome joys. | We’ll remember kind the companions That tread the self-same shore; We now regret we cannot pass Along this jovous path once mor But our thoughts shall often wander To those bright and youthful days, And their gentle, tender touch Will gladden all life’s weary ways. Joe, we’re not alone; others share Our pains and toils, and pleasures That life’s successive stages bring With their own peculiar joys and treasures. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. 285 Worldly fame, and power and wealth Invites beyond our youthful door; Still we’d like once more to turn and tread This youthful, happy path once more. But time once gone is gone forever, The stream of life will quickly pass, And one unbounded spring encircle all, While we are fading like the grass. Joe, our bright, glad youth, is nearly gone, It’s end is speedy drawing near, And days and years are passing swiftly by, Those days and years once to us so dear. Not now they may not seem to be So dear as they will later on, ’Till we look back in after years, When our comrades are almost gone. Even now we think of comrades past and gone, While we, like an old soldier scout, As in our tent and fire-lit camp we lie While the enemy prowls round about. When we were young, in the prime of life We went to war to save the union and free the slaves, As we then thought our patriotic duty; Now it seems ’twas more to foster trusts and knaves. Now it’s all tariff high, or tariff low, And either a sound or rotten dollar; But we were glad to get the crisp green back, Worth but forty cents, without a kick or holler. It looks to us like all was topsy-turvy To what it was when we were younger, And the fear’s with most old soldiers That all’s for the scheming money-monger. 286 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS When we hear of distinguished corruptionists We’re almost forced to think, and swear, by-gad, There’s hardly salt enough on terra-firma To save the country from the bad. Then there’s that pesky, puzzling money question; It, like a jug or our old canteens. To have two sides, one the in, the other out, The in, alone, for moneyed men and queens. While on the outside there’s lots of room, The inside is for the favored few, Not for the common people of the country, Just such chaps as me and you. What’s it to us whether money’s white or yaller? It appears alike to the white man and the black; Disfranchise one from his certain rights The other will soon be left upon the rack. Now we fear this perplexing money question Is only like a great big sore, or kanker On our once glarious country’s body politic, Intended only for the millionaire and banker. As most officials of the once great nation Are for themselves, and grinding other’s axes While the common people get left behind To bear the burdens and pay the taxe Little do they seem to care for the like of you and me, Or whether we live, or whether we die, As they reach out their hands for greed and gain While on their downy couch they lie. With their hard and marble hearts. They only think and plan for self, While we who fought the country’s battles, For them to enjoy the ease and pelf. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 287 Wealth has its duties, we must allow, But not to enrich the watered stocks of bond- holders, While weeping children are wanting bread, That comes alone from the humble plow-holders. It shouldnt’t pick the pockets of honest people And confiscate the humble homes Of those who fought and bled on the field of battle, Not to support alone mortgagees and drones. To take away the rights of honest toilers, And fill the pockets of purse-proud fools With that which belongs to the humble mechanic, Who works from early morn to late at night with tools. Bearing burdens through the heat of the day, That others may receive all the profits and pleasure, Of his industry, economy and genius, While he’s deprived of all the treasure. All favors are secured by pushes and pulls, And are given to the sons of the fathers, Merit, worth, honor, and right are not in it, Which precludes all rights of any others. I’ve been nosing around some, Joe, And know just what I’m talking about, If it’s not from father to son, it’s a foul bribe, That bars all good and honest people out. Joe. we’re getting tired of hero worship, Why not the rank and file have credit, As he who only bears the sword and epaulet, And naught for he who bore the musket. Not to support alone mortgagees and drones. But for his country’s cause, and patriotism, Not back in the rear, instead of front. Through the power of wealth and favoritism. 288 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. The women are not as in days of yore, They’re all for music, school and college, Where most that’s taught them Is far from good and useful knowledge. Of course they learn to spin upon their wheels, But not the kind of wheels our mothers used, Their all for fuss and feathers, flirt and fashion. Almost any faddle just to be amused. Then there’s the Sunday schools and churches, The former all right, and the singing fine, Splendid, uplifting and soul-inspiring, But the preaching is mostly out of line. A text, of course, is taken, but that’s the last of it, And the women’s gorgeous feathers and big bonnets, With the singing anything but congregational, Makes most men as mad as a nest of hornets. When we go into most of city churches, There’s a card on the back of the pew, In plain Roman or capital letters, Hinting this seat for the favored few. It makes one feel he’s but a trespasser, Not welcome in the sanctum-sanctorum, To listen to free (?) gospel as expounded From a velvet and flower-bedecked rostrum. We have no need for navies and armies, No need for captains, generals bold, Our strength lies in the plowman’s song, Far more than all the yellow gold. Smite not the lowly ones that stretched Their swarthy hands in Freedom’s name; Think not innocent ones will praise The greed of might and shameless shame. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 289 The grandest glory won by tears and strife From gory crimes of wars and death, Are dead to praise through all these yea_rs, And damned by dishonor’s foulest breath. Then sheath thy sword back to its scabbard. And let the unpretentious heroes hold Dominion o’er a fair and Deaceful land, In homes of peace, not bought with gold. The men who knows and doth their every duty do, And stands alone for duty’s sake, the same, Either in public view, or private life, Whether worldly praise be his, or blame. Such men is the country’s greatest need, Not gush, and boast, and concentrated wealth, But standing firm for justice, truth and right, And never moved or swayed for place or pelf. Soft the azure skies may seem to be, And while the blossoms want to bloom, To deck the lowly Southren mound. Or wreath the Northern silent tomb. Now, but one foe their sons do face, One glorious cause their bosoms thrill, Look! see the flag above them waves, Upon the Nation’s hill and vales. 01?’ &ray~haired heroes! yet who live Where once did wars and creeds divide, -Place yet the wreath with clasped hands, Your dead, with ours, sleep side by side. Though one sleeps beneath the Northern pine. Lrowned with victories’ glorious wreath, other where the Southern palm Waves gently o’er the silent dust beneath. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS. Joe, our country is kind and good to us, In giving liberal in way of pension, Which helps us out, and saves us lots of trouble In our old age, and years of dedention. As we are passing off the stage of action, We’re left to think and often wonder What’s to be the fate of our friends jind children; Is a question of much concern and ponder. Joe, our once glad youth is past and gone, The end is drawing fearfully near, The days and years are passing swiftly by. Those days and years that were once so dear. Even now they may not seem to be So dear, as then they did not seem, Till we look back in after years, And see them like as a dream. Bright be the few remaining years before us, Friend of our childhood’s happy days, Peace wave her olive branches o’er us, And joy and comfort attend our ways. Though our wandering path be dark as night, Courage, brother, do not fall or stumble, Trust in God, and always do the best, There’s stars above to guide the humble. If we only do all the good we can. Though our ways lie far asunder. If our souls grow purer and our lives more grand, We shall surely meet up yonder. Farmer Joe Johnson.