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legations to cease; on the contrary, the organization of an army of relief, a march to Peking, and the taking of the city were made necessary. Under these circumstances, when China asks for a cessation of hostilities, and proposes to reopen negotiations by the appointment of an Envoy with full powers, our Government can only reply that the conditions laid down in its previous communication to the Chinese Government have not been fulfilled; that the Powers have been compelled to rescue their Ministers by force of arms without the aid of the Chinese Government, and that, while this Government is ready to welcome any overtures for a truce, there must first be effective suspension of hostilities, not only in Peking, but throughout China. Until this is done, although no war has been declared between the two countries, China is virtually at war with this country,

of extra-territoriality be violated without prompt and severe punishment. The policy of the United States has from the beginning been conspicuously frank, just, and conservative of the best interests of China; this policy will doubtless be followed by the Administration to the end. While reserving for the United States every just right of inflicting the penalty which ought to follow a gross violation of the usages of international intercourse, it is entirely above the sus picion of selfishness. The spectacle of the oldest of existing Governments finding the most substantial aid in the friendliness of the youngest of the Great Powers is not only extremely picturesque, but prophetic of the new principles and hopes of the new time upon which the world is entering.

and the United States can pursue no other The Ramapo Issue Again

course than that of protecting its representatives and citizens in China and their property, and of endeavoring, so far as possible, to secure order.

There is, apparently, no responsible Government in China with which the United States can now treat. No one knows, as a matter of fact, whether any Government exists other than that of the great Viceroys. The whereabouts of the Empress and the Emperor are unknown; if they could be treated with, it is doubt ful if they could keep their engagements or make effective any promises which they should make. Moreover, there is still the question of indemnity to be dealt with; and our hand cannot be stayed nor our troops withdrawn until adequate guarantees are secured for the punishment of the violators of the legation quarter and of the murderers of foreigners, whether missionaries or otherwise, and for the payment of adequate indemnity for the property destroyed. Our Government has very wisely refused to declare war upon China and to take the position officially that the Chinese Government is responsible for the attacks on the legations. There seems, unfortunately, however, to be little question that this was the case, and that it will be necessary to teach the Chinese Government that ambassadors cannot be attacked with impunity, nor can the principle

The Outlook has already pointed out the enormity of the Ramapo steal. It can be designated by no more favoring terms. It was a flagrant robbery from

the people of the State of their, water, with absolutely no return given to them therefor. The bill passed last year did nothing except save the city of New York from being handed over bound to this Ramapo corporation. The Morgan bill, which proposed to give the city a right to go anywhere into the State to supply itself with water, was defeated, not wholly or even chiefly by the Ramapo influence, but, by the sentiment of country districts that the city ought not to be vested with any such unlimited powers. In our judgment, the country districts were right. The city of New York ought not to be vested with any such unlimited powers.

There is but one remedy, and a radical one, for the great Ramapo wrong. The charter should be repealed absolutely. There may be a question whether, under the State Constitution, the Legislature has power to repeal a charter; but it should not assume that it has no such power. On the contrary, it has presumptively all the powers of the people of the State, and it should at least make the attempt. If the repeal is resisted on the ground that a charter so granted is in the nature of a contract and unrepealable, it will be for

the courts to decide that question; the the city of New York could be and should courts will have also before them another be represented on the Board, which question, namely, whether the charter should be non-partisan, and that the right itself is constitutional. There are two of appeal to the courts would at least reasons for doubting its constitutionality; prevent the grosser forms of favoritism one, that it does not conform to the con- and partisanship. stitutional requirement that the purpose of every act must be stated in its title; the other, the broader ground that the charter exceeded the powers of the Legislature, and is contrary both to public health and public policy. If it be objected that the company has been at expense on the strength of this charter-expense incurred in good faith-the answer is that if the repeal of the charter inflicts direct damages upon any individuals, the State Ican and should assume responsibility for such damages. It should pay for its own blunder; but its water is well worth all that such payment could possibly cost. The charter repealed, and the State once more in possession of its own water, a Metropolitan Water Board should be constitu.ed, which should have a general supervision over the watershed of the State, which should map out the State and acquaint itself with the relations of the watershed to the various localities, which should

The end to be secured is perfectly plain. By the Ramapo charter the water of the State has been given over to a private corporation. That water should be taken back again by the State, and the difficult question of its legitimate distribution and use should be given to a body which represents the people of the State and is amenable to them for the use of its powers. Nothing less than this will be adequate to right the wrong perpetrated by the Ramapo water bill, to restore the water to the people of the State, and so to put it under their control that it shall be made useful to the greatest number of localities, with justice to all local communities. And no man should be voted for as either Governor, Assemblyman, or Senator, who is not committed to secure by some method this justice for the people of the State and for future generations.

know how and where this watershed The Contagion of Faith

could be made most advantageous to all the people and to each locality, with the least injury to every other locality; and no village, town, or city, including the city of Greater New York, should be allowed to take water from the State, and still less should any private corporation be allowed to do so, without obtaining permission of this Water Board, from whose decision under certain conditions an appeal should lie, if necessary, to the Supreme Court of the State. The people of the country districts ought not to have unlimited power to block the right of the city to secure that water which is essential to its life. The city ought not to have unlimited power to take water from the country districts without regard to their health and well-being. The questions which might easily arise between different districts, or between city and country, should be submitted to the arbitrament of an impartial tribunal. If it be objected that a Water Board appointed by the Governor would probably be Republican and perhaps rural, while the city of New York is Democratic, the answer is that

It is a significant fact that every intelligent man finds it necessary to have what is called a working theory of life; in other words, every man feels compelled, in order to live at all and do any work, to accept some conception of life which makes room for action and place for hope. The consistent pessimists who believe nothing and hope for nothing are few. In pessimism there are almost numberless gradations, from despair up to that conventional pose into which so many people have fallen of late years; fallen so completely that it has become second nature to look at the dark side of things and to take gloomy views. This attitude does not, however, in the least interfere with the pleasure which the average pessimist finds in life, nor with the satisfaction which he takes in his own work. He has, as somebody has well said, "the best possible time in the worst possible world." The men who profess to find neither order nor meaning nor beauty in life are very often persons who work as if the objects which they are striving to

obtain were worth securing; who hold themselves to a scrupulous performance of duty, as if duty were not only obligatory, but were worth doing; and who are loyal in all their personal relations, as if loyalty were not only a matter of morality but also a source of pleasure.

To be consistently pessimistic one must believe nothing, hope nothing, and do nothing. The moment a man hopes, believes, or acts, he ceases to be a consistent pessimist. An effective argument can be made for pessimism as a philosophical theory; as a working theory it is untenable unless one so modifies it as practically to destroy its force. There are a few smitten and hunted creatures here and there in society who, if they took their own experience as a basis for a judgment of the value of life, might, with some show of decency, proclaim themselves pessimists; but, by an enormous majority, men in all parts of the world, and in the worst times, find something which is worth living for and something which is worth doing. The man who follows pessimism to a consistent end is to be found only in the list of suicides. The instincts of humanity, as well as its intelligence, its insight, and its inspiration, are against a view of life which makes life unbearable.

But while pessimism as a working theory finds very few consistent adherents, pessimism as an intellectual pose finds many who are only too ready to take courage out of the hearts of those with whom they have influence; for the most unfortunate result of the pessimistic pose is the devitalization which it effects. It takes the tonic out of the atmosphere in which men live; it saps their hopes in the exact degree in which they accept it; it not only destroys their illusions but their aspirations as well. It is a kind of blight on the finer growths of the spirit. The best things in men are evoked by their own faith in themselves, or by the faith of others in them. He who believes that another is base has taken the first step, and perhaps the most effective one, toward making that other base; while he who treats one who is undeserving as if he were deserving has taken the first and perhaps the most effective step toward rehabilitating a fallen man.

There are two spirits in every man, and these spirits are contending together

for the mastery. In all our relations we make our choice as to whether we shall evoke the best or the worst in those whom we meet; whether we shall liberate the best that is in them or invigorate the worst. There are men who go through life and do no evil so far as action is concerned, but who blight everything fine and fair which comes in their way, by the chilling breath of skepticism; there are others who have a genius for calling out the best. It was impossible not to believe in the nobility and dignity of life when one listened to Phillips Brooks; his atmosphere made skepticism incredible. When Hume declared that he believed in immortality whenever he remembered his mother, he was bearing testimony to the almost divine influence which women of the highest type always exert, and which they often exert in entire unconsciousness. What a man believes or what he disbelieves is a vital matter, not only for himself, but for others. Let him believe in the best, and, however full of faults and imperfections he may be, there will be in his own nature a slow but tidal movement toward goodness, and he will make the attainment of virtue easier for all who know him. Let a man disbelieve in the possibility of purity, integrity, and unselfishness, and, although he may have great ability and many attractive qualities, he will smirch the society through which he passes, and leave a blackened trail behind him. When a man comes to look back on his own life, his most blessed comfort may be the discernment for the first time that he has helped instead of hindered, and his most terrible punishment may be the discernment for the first time of the aid which he has given unconsciously and unintentionally to the process of moral disintegration and spiritual decline in those about him,

was

The Board of Control elected by the incorporators of the American National Red Cross at their recent meeting in Washington, D. C., has accepted the resignation of Mr. George Kennan, First Vice-President, which tendered to Miss Clara Barton at Santiago de Cuba on the 4th of August, 1898, and which was renewed on the 17th of May, 1900. In place of Mr. Kennan, whose connection with the Red Cross since the Santiago campaign has been only nominal, the Board of Control has elected Mr. B. H. Warner, of Washington, D. C.

The Spectator

Seeing a great fair is apt to bewilder as well as fatigue. The average visitor does not go to an Exposition with any idea of serious study, but just to "see things." And seeing so many things generally produces the same effect that London produced on the humble mind of Jedediah Buxton. Jedediah was a country-born mathematical prodigy of the last century, and on a time his friends took him to the great city of London. There, true to his instinct, he attempted to count all the objects he saw and the sounds he heard.

But the crowds were so great, the houses so many, the street-sounds so various, that even a mathematical prodigy had to give up the task of enumerating them and go back discouraged to his quiet country village, where sights were familiar and not too numerous to be counted. The Exposition sightseer grows inclined to give up the task of seeing everything, of making notes, of following plans and guide-books, and willing to wander around in haphazard fashion, enjoying things for the moment, and indifferent whether he remembers them or not, conscious as he is that he cannot carry away accurate impressions of a hundredth part of the vast whole.

This is probably not the best way of seeing an Exposition, but it came to be the Spectator's way at Paris. The Spectator tried the expert's way at first. This is to study a few things thoroughly; and the plan commends itself to one's better judgment. But, after following the expert method, under the personal guidance of a distinguished professor, for one morning, the Spectator gave it up. He found that the time at his disposal would enable him to see only one corner of one building if he spent it in this way, and that certainly would not do. Then, too, the expert had a disagreeable way of admiring immensely things which the Spectator thought very commonplace, and of condemning as tawdry and meretricious the things which the Spectator was inclined to praise. After one of these distressing experiences the Spectator was reminded of Rufus Choate's remark to his daughter at the opera: "My dear, will you please inter

pret to me the libretto, lest I dilate at the wrong emotion !" So, after the first morning, the Spectator wandered here and there at his own sweet will, admiring the things he would admire, and passing by with a glance many things which he ought to have admired and doubtless would if he had not been simply a Spectator.

Many of the Exposition buildings seemed beautiful in themselves, while there was little or no unity in their arrangement. The Château d'Eau, with its playing fountains, and the Electricity Building, with its novel façade, appealed to the Spectator's love of the unconvenseemed worthy of becoming, as they are tional in architecture. The Art buildings to be, permanent memorials of the Exposition. Even the entrance gateway, with the world, day and night, in her evening its much-criticised Parisienne welcoming toilette, seemed not inappropriate as symbolizing, with its color and chic, the bright, gay capital itself. But the Spectator liked best to stand on one of the great bridges that cross the Seine and gaze at the buildings on the river banks, full of color and various contrast as they are, with here and there the outlines of the larger Exposition buildings in sight, and, beyond, the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro buildings, and, yet further, the background of the splendid city. The river highway of Paris is always interesting, and this year, with its picturesque Old Paris. on one side and the long stretch of varicolored National Buildings on the other, and with its never-ending flotilla of crowded passenger-boats and its fine. series of bridges, it is incomparable. Especially when the buildings and bridges

are illuminated at night does the spectacle take its place in one's memory alongside that other ever-memorable one of the White City at Chicago under similar conditions. At Chicago one said, This can This can never be surpassed! never be equaled! At Paris one said,

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Hall of Sculpture. Fine indeed is the effect of these heroic groups of plaster and bronze, with our own St. Gaudens's General Sherman and Macmonnies's equestrian group taking a most distinguished place. One feels inclined to spend all his remaining time in this one department, but the American determination to " it all" hurries him on. Many fine sculptures are also found throughout the grounds, including some old friends of the World's Fair at Chicago. Almost everywhere, in the interior of the buildings, one finds evidence of the touch of taste. This may not be art in the highest sense, but it gives one the feeling that this people, whatever its faults, has come nearer, in some directions, than has any other to realizing the ideal of beauty.

Among the various exhibits happened upon in a day in this vast congeries of things interesting and amusing the Spectator rescues, from memory's flotsam and jetsam, these: A house devoted to babyincubators, with living examples of the successful results--tiny pink specimens of the genus homo in little glass cases kept at a uniform temperature, the babies being removed only to be fed. The kindly French nurses pour forth voluble explanations of the nativity and present status of the motherless infants, and the astonished visitor, murmuring, "What next?" drops a coin in the collection-box and departs. At the other extreme, a Brobdingnagian Frenchman in the streets of Old Paris, said to be the largest man in the world, and one before whom the Spectator would not like to question the assertion. The French are supposed to be small, but, taking pattern afar off after this man, many of them are tall, stalwart fellows, notably the gymnasts who perform their feats on the sidewalks near the Madeleine on holidays. A bachelor's palace is seen, consisting of a suite of beautiful rooms, expensively and attract-' ively furnished, where a man might live an ideally quiet life of the hermit kind if he did not require a retinue of servants to care for his apartments. One would suppose the French Government would have refused to sanction this exhibit, bewailing as it does the slow growth of France's population. A more character

istic bachelor's apartment was a "house upside down," where mirrors reverse the visitors, one's neighbors seem to be walking on their heads, etc. A house which had sheltered the great Napoleon while he was crossing the Alps is to be seen in the Swiss Village, which itself is one of the marvels of the Exposition and a great triumph for the workers in staff. One believes at first that an abandoned quarry has been used for the village site, the imitation of rocks and cliffs is so perfect. The Norwegian Pavilion, containing boats used by Nansen on his Polar expedition, and the fine Italian Building, with its cathedral effect, are among the best of the national buildings. One of the interesting experiences was a test of the inhospitable-looking chairs marked "Go, Brothers!" (the firm of Allez Frères), found everywhere on the grounds, which one has only to sit on for an instant to bring a woman seemingly from nowhere to collect a sou for the privilege. This "disappearing lady" is one of the features of a show where everything has to be paid for, often in ways which are startling to the American visitor.

Everything has its price in the Exposition and in Paris, but the Spectator found the prices usually not exorbitant. Even American drinks-i.e., beverages which are not mere "wash-downs," as is the case with most French drinks, but cold and delicious in taste-can be had, if the visitor but knows where to find them, at average American prices. Of course, if one goes to a fine roof garden restaurant he may expect to pay, as one of the Spectator's friends did, two dollars for cocoa and rolls for four-but then that included yard-square napkins and a superb view of the Exposition. The cabs are ridiculously cheap-thirty cents for a ride to any part of Paris; and the Spectator had no disagreeable experiences with the cabbies, though he heard of many. Lodgings may be had, with the careful attendance that a Frenchwoman gives, for a dollar a day, or less. The best restaurants are expensive, but so they are everywhere; and the Spectator found in Paris restaurants which furnish at moderate rates cooking and service that one cannot find in New York at corresponding prices,

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