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The M of Human Life By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, : T seems to me that there are, when all is eaid, but two ways of h regarding the mystery of human life. Either give it up, the A whole thing, as a tragedy too black for respect, and give up - with it all the beautiful bellefs which have (3me into it from some source of unutterakle patience, or herole faith, give up, frankly, God and goodness, Heaven and happiness, faith and pur ity and prace—give up all that makes life tolerable, death f.“l_eei‘- ful, pain reasonable, and hope possibic—or else aocg-;:t the system of (hings at its worst, candidly admit its mongtroug perplexities, and boldly swing the ulmfi(\ array of them over, into the gaze of a sweet reasonableness which sees in the bleckest of them the shadow cf the eternal sun. If we make angels of our spectres, we rneed not be afraid. In a werd, if we can see in the wo_r;-r,t facts of thig life an argument for their justification or even their explanation in another, we have gained a point of view of which the most brilliant sceptic in this scoffing world cannot denrive us, How ¢ 's Tai ow a Comet’s Tail Grows By Waldemar IKaempffert, O bridal veil was ever so filmy as a comet's tail. Hundreds of cubic miles of that wonderful appendage are out-weighed by a ‘ g Jjarful of zir. By means of the speciroscope we have magically e transported this fairy plume to otr laboratories, and have dis f:;’:@.",q@ covered that it is akin to the biue flame of our gas-stoves; for GREY the gas by which we cook and the delicate tresses of a comet both consist of combinations of hydrogen and carbon, appro priately called by chemists “hydrocarbons.” When it first appears in the heavens, far removed from the sun, a comet is a tailless blotch of light. As a comet swims on toward the sun, the hydrocarbons of the tail split up under the increasing heat into hydrogen gas and hydrocarbons of a higher boiling point. With a still cloger approach to the sun, these more resistant hydro carbong eventually yield t{o the increasing hecat and are decomposed in the form of scot. Interplanetary space is airless, Hence the soot cannot burn. It must pursue the comet in the form of a dust train. The particles constitut ing that train are gllall enough to be toyed with by the pressure of sunlight. No matter where the comet may be in itg orbit, whether it hag just entered the solar system or ig speeding away, that plume is inevitably tossed away from the sun, just as if a mighty wind were blowing it from the central luminary. The appendage of shining dust is the symbol of the triumph of light over solar gravitation.—Harper's Magazine, o ® My Vision. Mankind's Emancipation From Fvil Was Presented By Julia Ward Howe, NE night recently I experienced a sudden awakening. I had a vision of a new era which is to dawn for mankind and in which R men and women are battling equally, unitedly, for the uplift- A A ing and emancipation of the race from evil. f:"!",’,’ 1 saw men and women of every clime working like bees .i.'.f;’ut to unwrap the evils of society and to discover the whole eb of vice and misery, and to apply the remedies, and also to find the inidluence that ghould best counteract evil and its attending suffering. There geemed to be a new, a wondrous, ever permeating light, the glory of which I cannot attempt to put in human words—the light of the new born hope and sympathy blazing. The source of this light was born of human endeavor, immortal purpose of countless thousands of men and women who were equally doing their part In the world-wide battle with evil and whose energy was bended to tear the mask from error, crime, superstition, greed and to discover and apply the remedy. I saw the men and the women standing side by side, shoulder to should er, a common, lofty, and indomitable purpose lighting every face with a glory not of this earth. All were advancing with one end in view, one foe to trample, one everlasting good to geain, ; And then I saw the victory. All of evil was gone from the earth. Mis ery was blotted out. Mankind was emancipated and ready to march forward in a new era of human understanding, ail encompassing sympathy and everpres ent help. The' era of perfect love, of peace passing understanding. Tk wfff‘e' )a;,&?«*"%f'ixi&JW@\wr@ ist ws : i oy b R e e B TR e Days of the R [ ] ° Clipper-Ships By Captain Arthur H. Clark. HE American clipper-ship era began in 1843, as a result of the growing demand for a more rapid delivery of tea from China, continuing under the stimulating influence of the discovery of gold in California, and ending with the outbreak of the Civil th 4@)] War, These memorable years form one of the most important A and interesting periods of maritime history. They stand be tween the long, weary centuries during which man mnavigated the sea with oar and sail—a slave to unknown winds and currents, alike help less in calm and storm-——separating and at the same time connecting those ages of comparative darkness with the successful introduction of steam navi giukm. by which man has obtained mastery upon the ocean. After countless generations of evolution, this ear witnessed the highest development of the wooden sailing-ship in construction, gpeed and beauty. Many of the clipper-ships—indeed, nearly all of them—made speed records whlc‘h were not equalled by the steamships of their day, and more than a quarter of a century elapsed, devoted to discovery and invention in perfecting the marine engine and boiler, before the best speed records of the clipper ships were broken. And even today there are not more than thirty ocean mail steamers afloat whose speed exceis the best twenty-four hours’ run of the American clippers of fifty years ago, while their records under canvas, over courses encircling the globe, for the superb stake of commercial supremacy and championship of the seas, stuind unbroken and unsurpassed. —Harper's Magazine. Where the English | City Is Supreme Ey Frederick C. Howe. HE English city, too, is free from the spoils system. Jobs are filled for efficiency and not for pull, and the employee is retained during good behavior, This is a real democracy of merit. An rassecinses alderman would think of demanding a city contract for himself ;‘,’iv,”dafi\)' as soon as he would the creation of an unnecessary job for a S S friend or relative. Public opinion, too, would tolerate the one sbout as cuickly as it would the other. Not that the English city has any civil service laws, It doesn't need them. Public opinion regu lates the service just as it does official conduct in other regards. This is the only kind of a merit system that protects the public from a bureaucratic administration, 1t is along these lines that the English city is supreme. It has a fine gense of itself. It has an intolerant conscience. It commands the service of a high grade of citizenship. It has never known the ward-heeler, and is exact ing in its demands on its councilmen. And the people delight in the city's successesa Thev ave proud of a fine tramway balance sheet. They applaud an efficient manager. They are glad when the city makes a profit. Not for the sake of the profit alone, but because of the success of it all. The people care for the city and talk city in a way that we do not and cannot compre hend. This is one of the things we lack, this sense of a city. Wea have not yet eroused an organized public opinion that is jealous of the city's well-being. We expect ineficiency as a malter of course, and shrug our shoulders when an official goes wrong. And we do not expect the police and health depart ments, the civil service laws or the purely personal side of our political lite to be abbve reproach. It is in its thrifty, commercial side that the English city excels, This is largely due to the fact that only tax or ratepayers vote. The council represents property, rot persons. This gives a rather sordid, ungenerous tone to all discussion. For the taxes are assessed against the rental value rather than upon the capitailzed value of the praperty itselt And the taxes are paid by the tenant and not by the owner. In consequence,- the English councilman is always in terror of the taxpayer. And the people get the taxpayer's administration and an administration thst is very timorous of anything which increases the rates—~From “The American and British City,” in Scribner. ) m The German Emperor has a well equipped pottery which brings him in { £50,000 & year, | “ During the reign of William and Mary bachelors and widowers over 25 years were taxed 1 shilling yearly. OLD, OLD STORY IN NEW FORM, —— ; Five liundred thousand leagne, [ guess, é Our weary earth has bowled through space; 4 And fi[t.v thousand miles. no less, i The pallid moon has held her race, s The careful clock has ticked away, ~ Full eighty thousand moments drear; i Bo long has been the lagging day 4 Since last T saw you &‘um. dear! 3 ~Womzn's {lome Comipanion. — 3 b GOPCOOCEOCOOOOO9ROO9 34 ¢e grOOuemEeOCLEOOOO 6O .::g eu::g:l..:cs : . soes ruriine i 7 : , sses AN ADVENTURE S : 080 @ 4 0000 eO9O ssss OF MYSTERY sss2 eeso . L p——— ssce By HAYDEN CARRUTH. ggße 6960 0800 csaeo 0800560 ) ece 002680602620 080 ¥ 00 08090/ 600063CR00 @0 008C0000C02690006800 “Speaking of mysteries, Super na tural happenings, and that sort | thing,” said the Major, pulling a very long face, and not observing that h’f‘ cigar had gore out, *'l Lad an etperi ence last night which convinces 24’ that we stand very close to the un known, and that the vaunted motf’erq gcience has no more conmipleted its la bors than had Hercules when he went out and sized up the Numean liody and -asked a bystanding farmer if he thought the critter would bite.” “You had been sampling thét Louisville man’s peach-blow cobbler, eh?” returned the Colonel, suspicious -Iy. “I had not,” replied the Major, stiMly. ‘That it was after dinner I do not deny—make the most of it! I had had wine with the meat, as becomes a gentleman in my position —do your worst with this faet also! I had accomplished my dinner in com pany with two or three old college friends, and we had revived past memories, and given Good Cheer a chance to spread her wings—gloat over this also it you willl I am pre pared to defend the statement that I was not intoxicated. What I am about to relate is plain fact, and to morrow I shall lay it before the So ciety for Psychological Research.” “Oh, dear me,” said the Doctor, soothingly; *“we didn’t know the thing was so serious. Of course ¥ou were sober. Take your facts out of cold storage and blaze away with 'em!"”’ " “Thank you,” returned the Major, completely mollified. “You will think it a serious matter when you hear about it. As I said, 1 had dined with some old college chums. The door was opened to Conviviality, bus rigid 1y barred on Excess. I left the table without assistance. True, an officious waiter hovered near, but when I obof‘ served the. superfluous scoundrel, I spoke to him in a rolling voice, and‘ bid him begone about his business, if Ee had any. Judge Dot} and" I )8 ~on the sidewalk. Two l%‘m ; 1&# W wer oM st puzzled which to take, but at my suggestion we took the one that we could feel. Something aiready told me that it was a night of plienome non, but I knew that the sense of touch is never to be deceived—as you shall again see later on in my narra tive. We accordingly rode away in the tangible cab. I blush to say it of a friend of mine, but the plain fact is that the Judge was not master of himself. He sang, and sang exe crably. He looped his feet up in the arm-rests. He also called for some unnamed lost love of his youth in a tearful tone, : . “But we arrived safely at the Judge’s house, and set him down. I was both shocked and relieved to see that his butler had deemed it neces sary to await his master in the vesti bule. As you know, I live at the Empress of India, the.large uptown family hotel. There are several en trances; the cabman drove me to one at the side. As I alighted I noticed that the street was deserted; the hour, 1 confess, was late. It was a cold, clear, frosty night. I dis missed the cab and turned to enter the hostelry. Now, gentlemen, the matter for the attention of the So-‘ ciety for Pyschological Research be-‘ gins here. As [ went up the steps, I saw distinctly through. the glass door, and down the long corridor within which leads to the office off at the left. The corridor was also deserted. I placed my hand upon the brass rod across the middle of the door, and started to push my way in. - The door yielded in a perfect natural manner, and I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I pushed on, but to my utter surprise I did not gain the corridor. The door con tinued to swing back hefore me as 1 pressed against the rod, but though 1 was constantly advancing, 1 re mained continuaily on the outside— a very peri at the gate of Paradise. 1 scon observed that the corridor was appearing and disappearing in a most extraordinary manner, bus when in sight its aspect was perfectly nor mal, and it seemed but a step before me. It was as if 1 were pushing door and corvidor ahead of me, or as it 1 were on a treadmill instead of the firm tiles, which 1 distinctly felt bencath my feet. Gentlemen, I am not without perseverance—call it stubbornaess, if you will. 1 deter mined to push on into that hotel or die at my pest. 1] set my jaws firmly and struck a regular gait of what 1 suspect was about {wo and a half miles an hour. Refusing utterly to recognize that I was, so to sar, up against a power beyond the ken of man, 1 continued to forge ahead, the door, the corridor and | know not what else before me. Gentlemen, for how many weary hours 1 thus stood up and battled with the unknown ana the unknowable | have no idea. This much I do know, however, the dark ness of night had given place to the rly gray of morning, and a porter had come to extinguish the lights in e corridor, before 1 escaped the clutches of the awful mystery and ound myself within, the porter ap arently grasping my arm. He was real, for I heard his ghastly, insolent laugh, and rebuked him for it. I ?ghen went to bed. Now, gentlemen, 1 am no student of the occult; before thz hidden I stand a bowed figure. @ut €0 much I know—that this all gmppened as I have related it. Proof, too, is not wanting; I found my shoes in the morning with the soles quite ij;‘worn through, though I had bought them new before going to the din ner. 1 hope the Society for Psycho ’loglcal Research can do something with my experience.” . “Come, come,” said the Doctor, woftly; ‘‘throw away that cold cigar and have a fresh one. Don't go and take up the valuable time of the Psy chological Society with your story; you simply got caught in one of these revolving storm-doors, and circulated all night like a merry-go-round. At the dinner you may have barred the door on Excess, but I'm afraid she got in at the window.”—Harper's Magazine. [ COMMERCE AND PEACE. %@be Victories of Peace OQutlast the | Victories of War. International peace is best pre served by satisfactory trade relation ghips. War means disaster even with !vlctory. Large fleets of battleships ‘and great standing armies may have their value in preserving harmony among nations. But the increase of commercial relationships with a for eign country and the weaving of an ‘intricate net of international inter ‘ests is a much better way to keep the ‘peace. - These are the sentiments expressed to his American countrymen by the Italian Ambassador at the close of a busy week in Chicago. They are words of truth and soberness. They are supported by many illustrations in the history of the United States. ‘They are splendid sug_estions in con nection with the work of the newly formed Italian Chamber of Com merce. The clash of arms plays havoc with commercial interesis. The men who will lose most usually are slow est in their advocacy of resort to war. That this feeling can be made a powerful factor in international peace was declared in striking sen tences by the Ambassador from Italy. Where solidarity of interests exists between representatives of the com merce of different nations the chances for arbitration cos disturbing ques tions are far greater than those for war. The conclusion follows that the more general and involved the lines of trade become, the less danger there will be of armed conflict. From this point of view the con '"&llgj; agents of the Unlte%States are ‘dding a splenatd Work in vhe intorests of pedace. The great manufacturing concerns of America which are reach ing out to all parts of the world may prove more effective forces than the steadily developing fleet. Such agen cies are friendly. They leave no bit terness for years to overcome. They work quietly, and every contract or new business connection is just one more element against war.—Chicago Tribune: Note on the Black Snake, I have never seen a black snake over seven feet long, and much doubt if they grow to a greater length. They are not hard to catch, though in an open field they can run about as fast as a man can. When caught they struggle desperately until they find there is no opportunity to escape, when they will give up fighting and may be hardled with impunity. Last spring, when I was walking over the Brandywine hills, a hlack snake stuck his head out of a hole in an old apple tree about six feet from the ground. He dodged back out of sight when he saw me. Then 1 lighted a piece of newspaper and dropped it into the hole. In just about a second the snake started out again, and just as he poked his head through the hole my companion grabbed him around the neck. I took hold of the tail as it ap peared and we stretched him out to full length and. measured him—five and a half feet. He did not fight much, but this may have been caused by his just having shed his skin. He was turned loose, and went wriggling off into the swamp. Farmers in that part of the country do not like to have the black snakes killed. One day a few weeks later I was walking through a laurel thicket and heard a great commotion in the leaves. A black snake had been dis turbed by the noise I made. He rushed toward me until he saw me fix my feet to stop him, when he turned and ran off in the other direc tion into a clump of chestnut sprouts. - Up these he climbed for about twenty feet, gliding from one branch to another, but not at any time en ‘cireling the trunk or a limb. As I went toward him he would go off from the top of one tree to anoth er, stopping now and then to look ‘back at me. I brought his skin home ‘and it measured just six foct. i 1 have never found these snakes to lbe vicious; they can be handled eas ilr, and their bite is harmiless. They can squeeze pretty hard if they get a turn around your wrist, but not hard enough to break a bone.—Forest and Stream. R Y One firm of four men having their headquarters near the Illincis River gather sioo,ooo worth of pelts every Yyear, which are sent to Europe. What Diseases Are Incurable? Of All Maladies the Most Hopeless Are Pro- - _ duced by the Death of the Nerve Cells : s :: ~ - By AMON JENKINS, M. D. } ; 1z there a diseaze which was never cured? The incurable and necessarily fatal diseases of man are rare, and strange as rare. Also there are many incurable diseases having little or no relation to fatality. The three quickest, surest deadly diseases which present no hope of re covery whatsoever are virulent germ diseases. No case of rabies has ever recovered after the first symptoms have developed. The same can be said of the acute form of anthrax and glanders. Rabies have been with us too recently and tragically to re quire description. Glanders, a germ disease of the horse's nose, has been caught by men drinking from "horse buckets, from a horse snorting in the face of its groom, and in one case of unpoetic justice a maker of bologna sausages died. The germ of glanders was discovered in 1882. This disease comes on with hard chills and fever. In three days head, neck and joints blotch and swell to bursting. Re lief comes in a week or ten days. Anthrax (wool sorter’s disease— malignant boil) has the largest, toughest, strongest, wickedest germ known, and why it does not possess the universe itself is a mystery, for they are practically immortal. No degree of cold nips, and it takes boil ing water a matter of ten minutes to kill the veriest youngsters, is a sheep and cattle disease, and the ordinary two months’ process of tanning leath er affects them not in the least. Con sequently they may persist and live in shoe and glove leather. Several vary surprising deaths have come from anthrax germs being in sur geons’ catgut thread. Anthrax lives for years in the carcass of buried animals, Animals grazing over the graves of such, though buried six feet deep, have caught the discase, here brought up to grass by fishing worms. Anthrax usually shows in man by a small blush boil on the back of the forearm. A few hours, or days at most, tell the terrible tale. The criminal possibilities of tkese three diseases had not or should not be written to make the Bergias and Brinvilliers of history seem but ty ros in the Satanic art. Leprosy Cures Questioned. Leprosy is anotnsr incurable— has been cured (?) three times by Calmett’s medical preparation of snake virus (cobra venum). Yearsi ago Dr. Duque, of Havana's Lepsr‘ Hospital, found live leprosy germs in the stomach of a yellow fever mos—‘ quito. Doubtless this little deadly ‘wongetracs earries it to men. All over South America and the West Indies clothes and house vermin are be lieved to be the criminals. : Red mangrove wine was discovered by leprous West Indian negroes and first tried out by Dr. Duque, he claim ing several cures. One thing certain, in a survey of hundreds of lepers, it was easy to pick out those using the wine by their better locks and color. It the Bible all kinds of skin dis cases were called leprosy. In the tenth century Britain had it bad.‘ In the twelfth it was spread all over Europe by the Crusaders, but in the | last few centuries it has about played out in the Old Country, showingz that however incurable a disease may be in the individual, there is no such thing as an incurable disease in the race. Leprosy is ugiy enough, but not a patching in looks with confluent smallpox, where the head is as hig as a bucket, and no features to be discerned through the spongy mask of swelling. Literally leprosy, like in Ben Hur, is a pardonable form of exaggeration. Indesd, leprosy is only dramatic in literature. When Dr. Crandon, of Boston, re cently said that sickness is going out of fashion, ‘“‘well organized, civilized society will not stand for it, and it must go,” the doctor did not reckon with the nerve cell, the neuron and its cureless troubles. He was bhut speaking of crass germ and filth dis eases. For locomotor ataxia (Tabes dorsalis) the zons of men may have forever, The only absclutely out and out in curably diseases are nerve cell, neu ronic ‘diseases, and it will presently be shown why this must be so. Nenu rons are the central nerves and brain cells, the cardinal units of life it self. Some are seemirgly simple cells with starlike points, while others may look like a tadpole with a tail three feet long, and reaching from the middie of the back to the tip of the toes. Th 2 neuron is the centre and origin of thought, sensa tion and motion, but these cells are so complicated, so highly and in finitely delicate and perfeet in con struction that if injured or destroyed, it leaves no reproductive cells to re produce or regenerate itself. Cnce gone, gone entirely, which is only true of itself, for all other cells can reproduce and regenerate themselves to some extent at least. Th€n, too, this long tail-like conductor is the part that most often, and incurably, goes out of business. | Some of the strongest minds in modern medicine are trying to make the neuron the standard around which most medical thought of the future must rally. However, anl anyhow, when a neuron or its fine filmy electric tail once dies the jig in up for that man. Of course most il not all maladies of the mind are neuronic and incurabge, and are quite too deep to handle here. There must be incurable neuronic diseases until some wizard, some future doctor who can do with men as Luther Burbank does with plants, and so develops a self-producing, self-generating neu ron in man. With such a neuron at the head of human affairs barring disaster, man might live almost as long as he desires. Right here there seems something wrong in the neu ron thecry. How else could some of our old war horses like Mark Twain and Watterson stay in the ring so long? Such men must have used up or worn out a bushel of neurons. It seems both absurd and impossible that these cells could last for a whole busy lifetime withcut regeneration. Speaking of locomotor ataxia as chief of neuron diseaseg, half a cen tuiry ago Romberg said: “For ncne of these is there hope of recovery; all are condemned to death.” Never theless, modern treatment has great 1y mildened and lengthened this dis ease. Locomotor ataxia is not itself deadly, but it shortens life through the many complications which it awakens. Some cases are protracted out to thirty years. Thomsen’'s disease lis strange enough. Its most conspicuous fea ture is overdevelopment of the mus cles. These stand out in great wads, tiers and layers for all the world like the statue of the Farnese Hercules. Severe or mild epilepsy is practi cally incurable. The well-known shaking palsy, though protracted through years, maybe, of success and affluence, is cureless. It begins in the fingers, with a slight tremor, to extend into legs, face and hody. Arthritis deformans is a myster ious skulky disease, often starts and stays in the hip joints, but may ex tend into and deform every joint of the body. " Even after death the body may remain as rigid as stone. In the early stages the jeint juice is in creased too nmuch, and swells the joints. Later it dries up into a tough gristle, which glues the joints solid. This disease (as all other incurables) should be treated as curable. Much better results are thus secured thaun if treated in a half-hearted, foregone way. Syringomyela (flute-like spinal cord)—this disease burrows a flute like hole through the whole length of the spinal cord as big as a lead pen cil. Pains and wasting of the limbs are its main signs, and may last for vears, and can be greatly helped. Shriveling of the optic nerves will recall Mr. Broadway Rouse’s case, his CADETI et substitate, and Wm‘i{f lion-dollar cffer as a reward for cure. Spot hardening is a common affec tion of the brain and cord, and usu ally follows some cother severe dis ease. The brain and spinal cord are full of hard, shotty spots, which range in size from a pinhead to a fil bert. Paralysis of the legs is the chief resu.t. £ As for DBright's disease, organic heart disease, cirriosis of the liver, cancer, consumption—this group of diseases has fallen from the list of incurable. Many physicians now be lieve that the lungs, liver, kidney and heart possess marvelous recuperative and regenerative powers. Ortel, through exercise and diet, has cured many cases of organic heart disease. Insurance companies no longer take snap judgment from the first exami nation in examining for Bright's dis case, but wait a whilc and examine !gain and again. Internal and external cancer treat ed by the knife, has yielded as high as thirty per cent. of cures that have no return after five years. Consump tion is becoming more and more amenable every vyear. : Unused, useless cells or organs are a common and most dangerous cause of diseasgp. Man is not only the high est, but the quickest, evolved of all animals. Consequ-ntly he is full of old, shrunken, wuseless, discarded cells and organs, relics of a past which the system has not yet got en tiely rid of. This old rubbish is a veritable sleeping volcano, perfect seeds of sickness and death, and if science can ever knock these old, cranky cells out of man's life, there is no telling what sort of an arch angel career he could take up now that we have flying machines. These diseases are somewhat along the line of modern medicine’s high est ideals. Already’ certai. elective and selective serums reach to and retard some cf these old revolution ary relics. Evefy tyro now knows that Professor Metchnikoff regards old age somewhat as a disease, which science in future times may greatly protract and delay. Burbank proved in plants that their forms and quali ties were tremendously exchangeable from species to species, Now the whale is supposed to live to an ideal old age of seven or eight centuries. Doubtless infant whales develop a serum which rids them of their dan gerous relics, similarly as the tad poles lose their tails.- In the face of past performance guaranteeing the world's future hopes and expectations, can money be more blessedly employed than in medical research? Hence the names of Rockefcller and Carnegie may live forever.—New York Times. The actual cost of the Suez Canal was $120,750,000.