Books. DAS REICH DES ZAREN UND Die russen. Von Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu. Uebersetzt von L. Rezold und Joh. Müller. III. Band: Die Macht der Religion, Kirche, Geistlichkeit und Sektenwesen in Russland. Sondershausen, pp. xi., 606. [On that terrible day, the 13th of March, 1881, when Alexander II. was murdered in the streets of St. Petersburg, there was found open on his working-table one of the articles of Leroy-Beaulieu on Russia. It was the last thing he had read before going to his death, and the fact that the Czar of all the Russias sought information concerning his own country and people in the works of this foreigner, is the highest possible commendation of their merits. Scholars have confirmed this estimate. In Kattenbusch's new Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Konfessionskunde, the first volume of which is the best account published of the confessional, history, and status of the Orthodox Church, the writings of this author are everywhere regarded as prime authority. And certainly it is hard to imagine a book with more solid information to the square inch than we find here on the Church and religion in Russia. It aids materially in understanding Russian character and policy. In nearly every case the following statements are exact translations]. NI Ν IHILISM is for many of its adherents only a certain adaptation of their religion. The Russian people have actually been at a standstill religiously since the fifteenth, or even the thirteenth, century. In the unfavorable social status of the people lies the ground for mystical and pessimistic proclivities. The darker their existence is on earth the brighter they hope their future life will be. These characteristics show themselves even in the upper classes. In the case of many of these, Pessimism, Mysticism, and Nihilism are three deep waters in which they drown their weary souls. The influences of the history, state of civilization, social and religious order upon national character is greater than the influence of nature. This, too, is true in Russia. Fatalism and resignation are two pregnant traits in the national character of the Russians, and with Fatalism very often is connected a Mysticism. The lack of desire to act and exert themselves is closely allied to these traits. Many Russians have themselves already questioned whether their people are actually religious or Christian, and have answered in the negative. They say that the Russians have superstition but no religion; that Russia has churches but never had any other religion than the most primitive polytheism. Yet, this is a gross exaggeration, and there is a great difference between the religion of the Russian and that of the Neapolitan, or Andalusian, or Mexican, or Peruvian. Russian religion is indeed Christian, but of a very primitive kind and badly adulterated. Not only heathen customs and rites have been retained by the peasant, but in many cases his Christianity is only concealed polytheism. This to a great extent is to be explained by the introduction of Christianity into Russia and the spirit of Byzantine religion then prevailing. As in other cases, paganism was largely retained in Russia. The Mushik, or Russian peasant, still adheres to his polytheism in his worship of the saints. However much the old gods of the Slavs have been forgotten, they have in Russia disappeared only to reappear in the garb of Christian saints. Such metamorphoses have been the rule. The Slavic Jupiter, Perun, the god of thunder, has reappeared in the shape of Elias (Ilje) on the altars. In other instances the mystical character is none the less conspicuous. St. Nicholaus, the most popular of Russian saints, and who, according to Russian superstition, will succeed to the government of the world, when God " shall have become old," is also such an adaptation. To the present day images of God are found in peasants' houses in parts of Russia and are adored as St. Nicholaus. Under this Christian polytheism of the Mushiks lies a deeper religious vein, one characteristic of Oriental peoples, namely sorcery. There is actually not a village in Russia in which sorcery is not practised. In many villages the peasant regularly engages a sorcerer to dedicate his field after the priest has blessed it. In the eyes of many peasants the ceremonies and rites of the Church are nothing else than sorcery. According to their opinion the priests are such because they are acquainted with heavenly sorcery formulas. For this reason the words and rituals of the priests have for the people a magical power. Yet, notwithstanding these defects, religious feeling in Russia also develops noble forms of inner intensity and purity. Love of neighbors, humility, an ascetic tendency, self-resignation, sympathy for the poor and willingness to help them, are strongly developed. Most singular is the relation between State and Church in Russia. A contest or struggle between the two is in the nature of the case an impossibility. Practically the two and their interests are identical. The Church has great privileges and rights, but has paid for these by dependence upon the State. The Russian finds it impossible to separate the ideas of Church and State. He cannot recognize anybody as a genuine Russian unless he is an adherent of the Orthodox Established Church. In the estimation of the people all political wars are also religious wars. To the Slavophile, Russia alone represents true and genuine Christianity. Russia is not only a Christian land, but also a Christian State. This is practically an axiom among the people. In the famous and solemn prayer "for Orthodoxy," the anathema is immediately added upon all atheists and heretics who call into question the divine call and spiritual anointing of the Czar. For the Russian his nation is the chosen people of the Lord. The Orthodox Church is regarded as especially the Church of the Slavic peoples. Those Slavs who affiliate with the Western Catholic Church are not looked upon `as genuine Slavs. The Russian Church, as a whole, however, is in a state of petrifaction—a spiritual mummy in fact, and is therefore spiritually unproductive and barren. The Orthodoxy of the East knows no progress; its ideal is semper idem. There exists, however, in the Russian Church no absolute authority in matters of faith to correspond with the Pope in the Western Church. The Church will admit of no central authority, and its chief objection to the Roman Catholic Church is on this ground. The Russian loves to preserve his liberty to a certain extent in spiritual affairs. With With THE HUMOUR OF FRANCE. Selected and Translated. Introduction and Biographical Index, by Elizabeth Lee. Mlustrations by Paul Frénzeny. Crown 8vo, pp. 463. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1893. THE HUMOUR of GERMANY. Selected and Translated. With Introduction and Biographical Index, by Hans Müller-Casenov. With Illustrations by C. E. Brock. Crown 8vo, pp. 437. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1893. THE HUMOUR OF ITALY. Selected and Translated. With Introduction and Biographical Index, and Notes, by A. Werner. With Fifty-one Illustrations by Arturo Faldi. Crown 8vo, pp. 345. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1893. [These books are the first three of a series of volumes on "International Humor," edited by W. H. Dircks. Future volumes are promised dealing with the humor of Russia, Spain, Holland, Engiand, Ireland, Scotland, the United States, and Japan. The three volumes, so far issued, contain characteristic sketches, stories, and extracts from the early periods of each literature to the present time. There are included also proverbs and maxims, folk-wit and folktales, and the eccentricities of modern newspapers. Although man in all countries is pretty much alike in passions and appetites, foibles and weaknesses, in the matter of humor he differs much in different countries. Very amusing things there are, undoubtedly, in all these volumes; but those who have been born and bred in the United States and are sprung from ancestors who have lived here for generations, will wonder how any one can find anything funny in some of the things which are here printed as humor, and which doubtless have furnished abundant amusement in the country where they originated. We cannot do better than reproduce some of the remarks of the various Editors in their Introductions.] M. RENAN once declared that the French language, manners, wines, and songs had exercised an apostleship of good humor and humanity throughout the world. No one is likely to dispute the fact that for gayety and cheerfulness the Frenchman has no rival. It has been said over and over again that French literature contains much wit, but little humor; like most assertions of the sort, it is only partly true. As humorists of the finest type, Rabelais and Molière stand second to Shakespeare only; Panurge runs Falstaff very close, and the rogueries and comicalities of Scapin and Mascarille are hard to match. Humor has been aptly defined as thinking in jest while feeling in earnest, and wit as thinking in jest without any underlying seriousness. There is no doubt that seriousness and humor go together, and that the most serious nations are the most humorous. In the literature of the world those of England and Spain must bear the palm for humor. Wit is to be found in the literature of France earlier than in that of any other nation. It first appears in the twelfth century and has ever since formed a very large and important part of French verse and prose. In the seventeenth century, the golden age of French literature, among the many great names, one stands out boldly-that of Molière, the greatest writer of comedy, excepting Shakespeare, the modern world has produced. The maxim writers and epigrammatists form an important and characteristic section of French literature. No nation has written better maxims, thoughts, and aphorisms; even should the matter be of little account, and that is but seldom, the form is always perfect. When we think of French aphorisms the names of La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, La Bruyère, Vauvenarges, Chamfort, Rivarol, De Bonald, and Joubert immediately rise in our minds. Frenchmen used to know La Rochefoucauld by heart, and it has been translated into every civilized tongue. Like the gift of telling a short tale, maxim writing is a talent possessed by the French alone among nations. The comic newspapers of France are to some extent a disappointment. They are so intensely topical, that after a couple of weeks a Parisian himself would probably have forgotten the allusions. Fundamentally, the German character appears to be averse to humor. Its mirth does not come to it spontaneously, a gift of the gods, arising out of the mere exuberance of being. This nation shares the temperament of all northern races. It is quick to respond to things mystic, and yearns over the vague grace of twilight moods. I say fundamentally, for, looking at the life of the nation as it appears to-day, in those phenomena of the lower and middle classes which have their scene of action in the out-of-door world, there would appear to be in plenty a spirit of merry-making and pleasureseeking inherent in the German character. It is safe to admit that a certain lightness of disposition, which seems indispensable to the humorous attitude, is absent among those racequalities which go to make up the German nature pure and simple. Though a nation counting Heine and Lichtenberg among its own, it is not in the spielende Urtheil, as Jean Paul has called inspired sallies of wit, that German humor specially distinguishes itself; now and again it has its moods of riotous absurdity; but where it is most characteristic is in the telling of the humorous tale, lovingly handled in its details, the pathetic verging very near upon the comic, finally succumbing in a ripple of good-natured laughter at somebody or other who is really not so very bad, but only very human, and for whose misfortunes-poor devil!—we may have a kindly feeling. Then we have a mastership in spectral stories, uncanny and imaginative, leaving the reader's mind in a delightful condition of doubt as to their actual meaning and significance; and we have also the expression of the spirit of poetic adventure,—a determination to have fun at all hazards, either with the public or else at the public, if perchance it should be too dull to be taken into partnership. It is by no means always the funny element that predominates in German writings of a humorous tendency. Their office seems to be more to suggest the effect which their lighter moods of fancy have upon the serious affairs of life, and in studying the humor of Germany in a spirit of literary criticism it is indispensable to take these (wo aspects in their action and reaction upon each other. There is a psychical development of the individual which runs parallel to that of the nation. In confirmation of the theory of humorous development here faintly outlined, it may be said that in Germany humorous perception is for the most part not the possession of youth. It is not until the need of a corrective to a habit of speculative brooding has been felt, that imperceptible and unconsciously healthful minds rise to those dispassionate heights whence the Occidental Brahmin gazes upon a motley world. Italian humor, says Mr. J. A. Symonds, a very competent authority, died with Ariosto. Still, a good deal has been produced since Ariosto which may legitimately be defined as humor, though, for various reasons presently to be detailed, there are peculiar difficulties connected with its presentation in a foreign tongue. The professed humorist, the writer who is comic and nothing else, or, at any rate, whose main scope is to be funny, is all but unknown in modern Italian literature. Strictly speaking, he is perhaps a Germanic rather than a Latin product. The jokes in Italian comic and other papers are not, as a rule, overpoweringly amusing: and if we do come across a book which sets itself forth as Umoristico, the chances are that it turns out to be very tragical mirth indeed. But in novels and tales, even in essays and descriptions, which have no specially humorous intention, you often come across passages of a pure and spontaneous humor, inimitable in its own kind. Examples of one characteristic of Italian humor are almost impossible to render into another language. It consists in a peculiar, naïve drollery,―a something which reminds one of the Irish way of relating a story, only that it is quieter and more restrained,-a simplicity which seems almost unconscious of the ludicrous side of what it is describing, till we are undeceived by a sly hit here and there. This, though more developed in modern writers, exists side by side with the broader comic element in the older literature. There is a certain childlike quality about the Italian of the age of Dante that lends itself admirably to the expression of this trait. The French are said to possess wit but not humor; the Italians have humor, but not wi.-or, at any rate, more of the former than of the latter. True humor is never divorced from pathos; and it is usually allied with the power of seeing the poetry in common things. In speaking of the humorous literature of Italy, we must not forget to notice the English influence which made, itself so strongly felt during the eighteenth century. Swift, Addison, and Sterne found not only eager readers, but imitators. It must also be confessed that Italian humor is often of the Aristophanic order, not merely in that a great deal of it is concerned with topics usually omitted from polite conversation, but also in the more free-and-easy way in which the Unseen is frequently dealt with. THE GREAT SEA-SERPENT. An Historical and Critical Treatise. With the Reports of 187 Appearances (Including those of the Appendix), the Suppositions and Suggestions of Scientific and Non-Scientific Persons, and the Author's Conclusions. With 82 Illustrations. By A. C. Oudemans, Jzn., Doctor of Zoology and Botany, Member of the Zoological Society of the Netherlands, Director of the Royal Zoological and Botanical Society (Zoölogical Gardens) at The Hague. Royal 8vo, pp. 591. Published by the Author, October, 1892. Leiden: E. T. Brill. [What Doctor Oudemans hopes to achieve by this work is shown in the extract from the Preface which appears below. To this we have appended his statement of the plan of the book. He has written in the English language rather than his mother-tongue, because English is known to all zoologists and all navigators. How thoroughly he has performed his task appears by his "Literature on the Subject," which contains more than 400 publications extending from 1555 to 1890. He finds an allusion to the sea-serpent in the First Book of "Paradise Lost," where Milton compares the Arch-Fiend to that sea-beast Leviathan, which God of all his works We give the author's conclusions as to the scientific Order to which sea-serpents belong and the name he proposes for them.] IN N all ages meteoric stones have fallen on the Earth. Many of them were found by persons who were in search of them and preserved them. Thus collections were made in cabinets of curios and natural history. Many learned persons believed in meteoric stones, but many others were sceptical, and their attacks were so violent, and their mockery about stones that fell from the atmosphere, or were thrown by the men on the Moon to the inhabitants of the Earth, so sharp, as to shake the belief of many a collector. The happy posses sor, fearing the sneers of the so called learned men, concealed his treasures, or threw them away on the dust-hill, or in a ditch. Albeit, however, there appeared a firm believer in aërolites, named Chladni, who took the trouble to collect all accounts concerning observations of meteoric stones from ancient times up to the nineteenth century. He showed: (1) The immense number of facts. (2) The strikingly concurrent testimony in all the accounts independent of each other. In the year 1829 he published his work “Ueber Feuermeteore” (i. e., On Meteoric Stones), in Vienna, and from that moment the eyes of unbelievers were opened. Meteoric stones were again found, and were proved to be quite different from terrestrial stones. From that moment the belief in the existence of meteoric stones was fixed forever. This work has the same purpose as Chladni's in 1829. My plan which no one else has tried with the sea-serpent-has been to put all the accounts, tales, and reports of the great animal side by side, to point out the statements which are immediately recognizable as strange, or explicable by reference to some known animal, and, finally, to decide which of the known animals may have been bold enough to present itself as a deceitful serpentine creature, or, if the result is negative and leads to the conclusion that the sea-serpent does not belong to any known species of animal, to decide what kind of animal does exist, though unknown to zoologists. I firmly believe that the sea-serpent belongs to the Order of Pinnipedia. Like the other members of that Order it has four flappers, a hairy skin, and strong whiskers. The head resembles that of a sealion, its long neck resembles that of a sea-lion, its trunk and its fore flappers resemble those of a sea-lion. Sea-serpents form a little division of the Pinnipeds, for which I propose the name of Longicaudata, or Long-tailed Animals. This division consists of one genus, named by Rafinesque, in 1819, Megophias. This genus contains but one species, for which I propose the same name as the genus. The sea-serpent, therefore, I call Megophias megophias. The Press. POLITICAL. THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. PRESIDENT CLEVELAND-MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS OF THE MAN. New York Tribune (Rep.), March 2.-He goes to Washington with an opportunity not less remarkable than the manner in which it came to him. The unwritten law renders him superior to all the temptations which beset a President in his first term. So far as any Chief Magistrate can be, he is without personal obligations. At his back is the good will of the nation, which thinks he means well, desires his success and its own advantage, and |ice; probably Mr. Grace magnifies his. But, | confidence in the good sense, conservatism, What has a man of destiny to do with grat- Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph (Rep.), March 4.-The conditions surrounding Cleveland are almost unprecedented from another point of view. Perhaps those attending the gentle Monroe, with his "Era of Good FeelThe We have no disposition to question the per- transfer of the whole legislative and executive Frank Leslie's Weekly (Rep.), March 9.-ing," come nearest to the present aspect. sonal integrity and patriotic purpose of Presi- apparatus to the control of the party.of which dent Cleveland. We believe that, according Cleveland is the representative, but not the exto his lights, he means to administer office ponent, is an inauguration witnessed but twice We before in our history. with sole reference to the public good. see no reason to doubt that he is truly American in his instincts and aspirations. Will he Pittsburgh Dispatch (Ind.-Rep.), March 5. be able to overcome the dominating tendencies The well-known characteristics of Mr. Cleveof the party behind him and marshal it in sup- land and the disposition shown in the selection port of a genuinely patriotic policy as to the of the Cabinet are the factors which warrant great economic questions of the time? That even his late opponents-or the reasonable party has hitherto stubbornly resisted the press-element among them-in expecting good reure of the President and those who agree with sults from his four years' term. That there him in behalf of financial legislation calculated will be tariff changes must be expected; but to avert serious perils. Will it persist in this Mr. Cleveland is fully committed to the policy of making those changes on conservative and careful principles. attitude? cares little for the small ambitions and petty exuberance of partisanship. Besides, an in- was Columbus Evening Dispatch (Ind.-Rep.), March 4.-Of President Cleveland there need be little said, since he is no uncertain quantity. He gave the country a fearless and clean Administration for four years, and during his coming term it is more than probable that he will seek the approbation of those who represent the business rather than political interests of the country. It can be said with entire confidence that President Cleveland will do his best to earn the good will of the American people, irrespective of politics. He has pronounced for purity in public service, for progression in public affairs, and for patriotism above all other causes of the nation. Louisville Commercial (Ind.-Rep.), March 5. -He enters upon his office as little hampered by obligations as any man who ever occupied Legislature are now in control of the party that elected him, and he should have a better the Presidential chair. Both branches of the chance than he had before to impress his policy on the legislation of the country. His fellowcitizens can fairly expect of him that he will be a better President during this term than he was in his first. for and elected to the Presidency. This Philadelphia Ledger (Ind.-Rep.), March 6.not because he had demonstrated that If Mr. Cleveland has proved to his countrymen he was a statesman, a patriot, or even a politician. It was simply and solely be- any one thing more clearly than another it is his fine sincerity of character and his unselfish cause a fortunate chance, having nothing to devotion to that which he believes to be for do with personal desert, had served to their best interests. In that sincerity and pub- The persons who have the most reason to anChicago Evening Journal (Rep.), March 4.make him conspicuous as a "lucky" man in a lic-spirited devotion they should trust so long party which was destitute of brains and char- as he continues to show his fidelity to them. ticipate trouble during the next four years are acter. He was defeated for reëlection, but Having their sympathy and confidence in his the capital worst with their yells and shouts the ones who have defiled the atmosphere of was nominated the third time simply because efforts to make his Administration honorable, to-day. The Tammany heelers who have dehe was the only man the Democratic party had useful, efficient, he will be more likely to suc-scended on Washington to participate in a been able in thirty years to elect to the Presi- ceed than if public sentiment fails to encourage Democratic triumph may, before a month is dency. He is not a Democrat in the fullest and sustain him. As their Chief Magistrate sense, and he is disliked by all genuine Dem- he is the servant of the people, and, as the past, rue it as a part of their own funeral cereocrats who know what a sham and a humbug Ledger believes, an intelligent, sincere, unsel-monies. They are fawning upon Cleveland he is. But he was taken because he had succeeded where all others had failed. With this unparalleled record it is not strange that a man of such meagre intellectual powers should become puffed up and have so exaggerated a notion of himself as has Grover Cleveland to-day. At fish one. now, but they have no more affection for him than the tiger for the keeper, whose hot iron it dreads. On more than one occasion Cleveland has seared the hide of Tammany with his adherence to stern notions of public probity and on more than one occasion Tammany has shown its appreciation of their irrepressible antagonism. Philadelphia Inquirer (Rep.), March 6.-The close of the war found the Democratic party without principles or policy, and even Mr. Cleveland's previous Administration failed to equip it with a code of statesmanship that is essentially Democratic. Elected a second time by a hundred discordant elements, it is not surprising that Mr. Cleveland should begin New York Voice (Proh.), March 9.-Presihis second Administration without any ade-dent Cleveland assumes office, if appearances quate understanding by anybody of the quality of his Democracy. Syracuse Standard (Ind.-Rep.), March 4.The men called the Anti-Snappers apparently reached the limit of their usefulness (to Mr. Cleveland) when they had held their protesting Convention in this city, nine months ago. Chicago they counted for little, and now they count for even less. William R. Grace, the Indianapolis News (Ind.-Rep.), March 4.most influential of them, is so thoroughly used There is ample reason to believe that the counand discarded that he remains away from the try by its vote did not so much express confiinangural ceremonies, in no very amiable state dence in the Democratic party as in Mr. of mind. Many of the men who have Cleveland. He was really the platform as close relations with Mr. Cleveland become well as the candidate. The Congress which persuaded, soon or late, that he is incapa- expires to-day has done little with its phenomble of gratitude. At present the trait of enal Democratic majority to win the respect ingratitude appears to be the worst thing and confidence of thoughtful and conservative in the man's nature. Some who have done people. The country, we repeat, has no great him kindness may have magnified their serv-confidence in the Democratic party. It has are to be trusted, independent, to an unusual degree, of political machines and factional entanglements. The indications during the campaign that he had bowed the knee to Tammany Hall were very strong, and the Voice presented these indications in strong language and believed them. It has since been stated by those close to him that the demands made upon him by Murphy, Sheehan, Croker, and others at the famous dinner in this city, were refused by him with a blunt vigor that stopped all further demands. The truth of this we do not know. We can tell better when he makes his appointments. The one certain blot upon 1 his course as a candidate was that paragraph in | for the Mayoralty of his own city, for which | the public confidence to so great a degree. his letter of acceptance truckling to the liquor he was a successful candidate a few months None ever had stronger incentives to discharge power, and which, we cannot doubt, was in- later. He had no State reputation, and was those duties to the fullest extent, and those who serted at the demand of that power. In other practically unknown outside of Erie county, know him believe President Cleveland will respects he assumes power free from the worst where he was creditably recognized in law and give the country the greatest Administration it influences in his party, ruling them and not and politics. To-day he ranks with Jefferson, has ever known. Certain it is that he is a man ruled by them. Jackson, and Tilden as one of the great epoch- of strong convictions, and that he has the making oracles of Democracy, and his fame courage of his convictions even his enemies vastly exceeds that of any other American. will not deny. The greatest man of the age is He is the foremost statesman of this continent. confronted with the greatest responsibilities And unless Grover Cleveland brutally belies and the greatest possibilities any man of this his whole public career, his second Administra-generation has been called upon to meet. tion will be one of the ablest, cleanest, most popular, independent, and beneficent of any that it has been the lot of the historian to record. Utica Press (Ind.), March 6.-His sturdy independence and ugly honesty have commanded very general approval. He does not hesitate to stand out against the leaders in his own party if he thinks they are in the wrong. He is as little influenced by purely political considerations as any man in his position can be. Moreover, he has had experience in the office he assumed Saturday, and understands its duties and requirements. There will be no experimenting, because it will not be necessary. Washington Evening Star (Ind.), March 4. -That the President will devote himself to "turning the rascals out"-the only reason why they should be so termed being their non•Democratic predilections-is far from probable, for victorious Mr. Cleveland resembles Sir Philip Sidney's hero who "seeks the glory, not the prey.' " Syracuse Evening News (Dem.), March 4.There may be occasions when political acts of his will not find favor in the eyes of strong partisans. But no matter what his shortcomings may be he will always have credit in doing what he believes to be right and for the best interests of those who have entrusted him with their Government. Pittsburgh Post (Dem.), March 4.—Since we Presidents have ranked with Cleveland in the Kansas City Times (Dem.), March 4. Cleveland is the man for the era. He is the typical American, the typical business man, the typical citizen. He has pride of character, but no pride of rank. He has ambition for results, but none for glory. He demands of others what he gives himself to them and to dutyfaithful and incorruptible labor at the business tasks assigned. The country is in an expectant frame of mind. The Republicans have lost their partisan belligerence for the moment. They feel that they cannot attempt to fight Cleveland with their old weapons. They realize that a change has come, and they wait to see what they will do as a party. THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. New York World (Dem.), March 5.-Especially acceptable to the people will be Mr. Cleveland's strong denunciation of trusts and other combinations" formed for the purpose of limiting production and fixing prices." He rightly declares that these combinations "frequently constitute conspiracies against the interests of the people," and there is encouragement in his statement that "to the extent that they can be reached and restrained by Federal power the General Government should relieve our citizens from their interference and exac New York Times (Ind.-Dem.), March 5. The obstructions, not only in the way of the Democratic party, but in the way of Mr. Cleveland's leadership in that party, have all been Ballimore News (Dem.), March 4.-It is besurmounted by the sheer force, on the one cause President Cleveland combines the deephand, of Mr. Cleveland's indomitable honesty est sense of duty to humanity with a patriotand unflinching, unselfish courage, and on theism firm as the eternal hills that he stands toother-let us not forget it-by the American day the foremost representative of American love of those qualities and the American citizenship. He has never posed as the special capacity for political sense. It is on this basis friend of other nations, yet he is a conscious that the safety of the country rests. Mr. Cleve- member of the brotherhood of man. He has land will do his work and pass again into pri- never flattered his own people by attributing vate life. But the qualities of the American to them any superiority on the grounds of people that have enabled him to do that work their nationality, but he has never failed to reso far, and will enable him to go on with it, mind them that their special privileges, right-tions." will remain, strengthened by his career, and eously exercised, constitute them the heirs of available for the support of other leaders who all the ages, the favored children of the gods. shall equally deserve it. Brooklyn Eagle (Dem.), March 4.-The unprecedented character of Mr. Cleveland's vindication mates with the magnitude of it. Both should ever be impressed on the minds of the rising generation. Both make for principle and courage in public men. Both prove the intelligent and heartful response of the American electorate to courage and principle. Always the triumph of the people and of the man of 1892 will be recurred to as a moral revolution in American history. From it the right in all politics will everywhere draw encouragement. Nashville American (Dem.), March 5.-The people believe in this man. They know him to be honest and intelligent. They know that he has courage and assertiveness. They know him to be unselfish and broad. They know him to be a patriot and a statesman. They tried him once and were pleased. A misconception on their part did themselves greater injustice than it did him, and repenting of their error they, after a lapse of one Administration, called upon him to come from the repose of private life and give to generations yet unborn his conception of what a President should be. That he yesterday was inaugurated for the second time, after a tremendous victory at Elmira Gazette (Senator Hill's home organ), the polls, shows that the people are never March 4-The highest expectations are aroused as Grover Cleveland takes the Presi-rong for long and that the great qualities of statesmanship cannot be hid under one thousand dential chair. A change for the better is ex- bushels. We predict for his Administration and pected. Harrison succeeded Cleveland by the country peace and prosperity. We predict reason of public uneasiness over the latter's tariff reform policy. The people were ignorant of it and afraid. But Cleveland succeeds Harrison because that policy has become better understood. Fear dictated the change of 1888. Judgment dictates the change of 1892. Bounding confidence in the new President is the public sentiment. The people have set the mark high for him and are sure he will reach it. brotherly love amongst citizens and the pro- This is the sort of talk we had a right to expect from a Democratic President. It should point the way for his Attorney-General. Cleveland had weakened in any degree in his Those persons who have imagined that Grover devotion to tariff reform will be undeceived in reading the sturdily honest and outspoken passage which he devotes to this subject. It is which he has ever declared on this question. quite in line with the most pronounced views New York Evening Post (Ind.-Dem.), March 6.-The message of 1887, mild as it was, threw the protected classes into spasms. They went into the campaign of the following year with eyes bloodshot. They gained a short-lived triumph. The man whom they held in such rage and terror has come back to the place from which they thrust him, and he utters no word of triumph or of self-gratulation. He makes no reference to his former Administration. Nobody unfamiliar with the nation's history could learn from the inaugural address that Mr. Cleveland had ever before been President of the United States. Such a spirit is the best augury of a successful and useful term, since it indicates that he has neither friends to reward nor enemies to punish, nor any ends to serve but those of the entire country. The Brooklyn Citizen (Dem.), March 4. effect of the address as a whole must be gratifying to every man who voted for Mr. Cleveland. It shows us the President alive with the sense of duty, under no delusions whatever as to the work which the American people have elected him to discharge, and in the enjoyment of a perfect physical and mental health which, under the blessing of God, will enable him to perfectly sustain every burden of his great office. Birmingham Age-Herald (Silver Dem.), March 5.-The people are in accord with Mr. Cleveland in his liberal ideas of party lines and distinctions, and in all his policies, except Troy Press (Senator Murphy's paper), March the single one of finance. He was elected in 4. His unparalleled popularity is because he spite of his money views, on a platform he personifies what Diogenes tried vainly to find could not cordially endorse, but even here the in ancient Greece-an honest man. And with people demand that factious differences shall inflexible honesty he conspicuously combines not impede or cripple his usefulness. They common sense. He despises demagogy, re- believe that he is wise and great enough to pudiates the artful avenues by which politicians reach a common ground with them. He must seek to climb the ladder of success, and takes have the fullest, fairest opportunity. In short, the people into his confidence. This confidence the people see in Mr. Cleveland the embodi- Boston Herald (Ind.-Dem.), March 5.-The is appreciated and returned, with interest. ment of their aspirations toward an era of address is well grounded in principle, but very Humanly speaking, nothing is surer than that peace, good will, economy, honesty, and pros-brief in its elaboration of the points considered. the popular faith in Cleveland will remain un-perity, and they are going to stand by him. So disturbed to the end. Yet this man, who has must the party. broken all political records, and with as many Presidential years before him as behind, was a dozen years ago a private citizen of Buffalo, not even thought of at that time Augusta Chronicle (Dem.), March 5.-No President ever entered upon his duties with heartier endorsement or in the enjoyment of They are all sound and wise ones, including, as they do, a conservative protection of the currency, a call for clear reform in the tariff, a warning against pension abuses, an appeal for economy in expenditure, a condemnation of the conferment of office for partisan service, a disapproval of the "trust" practices in trade, I would have been considered by our fathers | rious land. May we ever be blessed as in the and an advocacy of equal rights before the law. "immense aggregations of kindred enter-four years which round out the career of the There could hardly be a better platform for a prises" are now carried on by a single firm. grandson of old Tippecanoe. patriotic President to present in the opening of We have more faith in the gradual evoluhis Administration. tion of the truth in this matter, than in the ex cathedra" declarations of even such a man as Grover Cleveland. Boston Globe (Dem.), March 6.-Those to whom the people have entrusted in Congress the duties of remedying existing wrongs may Chicago Herald (Dem.), March 5. In rebe counted upon to follow the wise, conserva-gard to the tariff, he recognizes the truth that tive, and businesslike course which the the whole scheme of Protectionism is vicious people's President points out, and which not because it undermines the spirit of self-reliance only leads to the continued supremacy of and begets a habit of looking to Government Democracy, but assures the prosperity, honor, for help in every difficulty or misfortune. But and welfare of the whole country. he seems to be somewhat too fearful that somebody will deal with this system of wrong and demoralization rashly and in a spirit of vindictiveness. He seems to be afraid that we shall hurt ourselves by righting wrongs and getting rid of a bad policy too quickly. He will probably discover ultimately that the vindictiveness is all on the side of privilege, and that it is idle to waste sympathy upon the beneficiaries of a system of plunder and oppression. Philadelphia Record (Ind.-Dem.), March 6.— Complaint is made that the inaugural is not explicit enough in regard to the currency and finances. But what more could the President have said on this subject? He has declared that his Administration will withhold no use of the powers with which it is invested to maintain the public credit and avert financial disaster. It is true that the President might have intimated that in, a certain emergency he would call an extra session of Congress. But there is no need to anticipate events. Mr. Cleveland has no notion of making a hazardous experiment with the temper of Congress until an imperative occasion for action shall have arisen. In the meantime he gives the country the assurance that so far as in him lies no detriment shall occur to the Republic. Detroit Free Press (Dem.), March 5.-There is no mistaking the spirit in which he declares that while there should be no vindictiveness or punishment, the doctrine must be carried out that "the necessity for revenue to support the Government furnishes the only justification for taxing the people." This is what the Chicago platform demands and all that it demands in that behalf. New York Tribune (Rep.), March 5.—It is an inaugural full of promise. If the President works faithfully up to the lines he has marked, he will deserve honor as a brave and conscientious man, even though the trial of Free Trade results in disaster. But the peculiar circumstances of the time called for more definite information about the methods to be adopted to save the country from serious dangers, and about the nature and extent of the industrial revolution to be expected; and it is a misfortune for the country as for the President himself that he was not able to give such information in more definite form. " Baltimore American (Rep.), March 5.-The following paragraph in the inaugural address is significant: Loyalty to the principles upon which our Government rests positively demands that the equality before the law which it guarantees to every citizen should be justly and in good faith conceded in all parts of the land. The enjoyment of this right follows the badge of citizenship wherever found, and unimpaired by race or color, it appeals for recognition to American manliness and fairness." This is singularly like a paragraph in ex-President Harrison's inaugural address, which caused the bitterest criticism in the South. Will it be more favorably received when issuing from the lips of the South's chosen leader? Brooklyn Standard-Union (Rep.), March 6. -The British newspapers are all pleased with Cleveland's inaugural. They think it brave, and to contain nearly all the good points. They look to Cleveland and his crowd for a better chance at our markets. Only the Standard ventures to say, according to the tone of the address, the American tariff will remain essentially Protective, though it will be reduced. Philadelphia Times (Ind.-Dem.), March 6.— The inaugural has more of the serious quality Atlanta Constitution (Silver Dem.), March of Washington's addresses than anything we 5.-There is nothing in Mr. Cleveland's rehave had since, unless it were the brief but marks to indicate that the promise of the Dempregnant second inaugural of Lincoln. It con- ocratic party to extend equal justice to both tains not a word designed to catch applause. gold and silver, in the free coinage of both at a It recognizes that the integrity of government parity to be adjusted on a proper basis, will must depend on the integrity of the citizen not be redeemed by his Administration. Some and that the practical problems of politics lose of Mr. Cleveland's rash friends, who are most of their difficulty if approached in an endeavoring to shape the currency of this counhonest and candid mind, with clear conceptions try on a European basis, and to commit it to of truth and morals and sound political prin- the precarious direction of Wall street influciple. To bring the people back to such con- ences, have been outspoken as to what Mr. Boston Journal (Rep.), March 6.—Mr. Cleveceptions, which influences alien to our republic Cleveland proposed to do. We are gratified to land does not say, in so many words, that have obscured, is the first and highest task of observe that Mr. Cleveland has not met their revenue must be the only consideration in statesmanship, and it is because he has shown expectations in his inaugural address, and framing a tariff, though his language is easily himself a man of firm conviction and moral while they may construe his remarks as bear-open to that construction, if one chooses to put courage that the people have called Mr. Cleve-ing out their assertions, the Constitution it upon it. Its adroitness is manifest in the land back to lead the way out of the perplexi- accepts them as being delivered in good faith, fact that it is open to a different construction ties to which a bungling paternalism has with a view to redeeming the pledge of the if one chooses. It will be recognized that the brought us. party made in Chicago. tariff plank which the Chicago Convention adopted and that which it rejected were two very different things, yet it would be practicable for Mr. Cleveland to recommend a policy in accord with either, without being charged with doing anything inconsistent with his present declarations. In the use of words, and quite rotund and resonant words, to conceal thought, Mr. Cleveland is an aknowledged master. Pittsburgh Leader (Dem.), March 5. · Mr. Cleveland has a word to say about trusts, which comes like the gentle rain from heaven at a time when those combinations are at the zenith of their power and when the Sherman Anti-Trust Law is declared a nullity by a committee of Congress. In the opinion of the incoming President, trusts are conspiracies, and should be reached and restrained by the Federal authority. If this declaration is not the forerunner of an anti-trust law that will be operative, we are strangely at fault in our estimate of the Chief Executive's ability to carry out his pledges. " Raleigh News and Observer (Dem.), March 5.-The allusion to the undesirability of making a mad rush for spoils is suggestive of the fact that he has been criticised for appointing Gresham, and he deftly wards off the blow. He also delicately suggests that we Democrats must all stand together and that there should be manifested a disposition to surrender some of our convictions where the party is not united, in order to harmonize our efforts and bring about united action. question of civil service reform what President Boston Advertiser (Rep.), March 6.-On the Cleveland says is right nobly said. It is in line with what he has said before many a time, Washington Evening Star (Ind.), March 3 is as noteworthy as were the plaudits bestowed when in office as well as when out of office. It -As to the soundness of his views on matters but a few hours before by Democratic crowds of importance there is, of course, disagreeRichmond Times (Dem.), March 5.-We do ment, but not even the lowest and most violent in Washington and along the roads leading to not at all agree with Mr. Cleveland's attack of his enemies have ever dared intimate an in- Washington upon Vice-President Stevenson upon industrial combinations, for he says: fraction of that sturdy honesty which has ever for having, as an officer in Cleveland's former "The existence of the immense aggregations been a prominent characteristic in the Harrison Administration, done on a mighty scale all the of kindred enterprises and combinations of family. More than any other President of things that his official superior said and says business interests, formed for the purposes of recent times, General Harrison has controlled ought not to be done, in the direction of maklimiting production and fixing prices, is incon- the conduct of those Governmental depart-ing" appointments to office"" the reward of sistent with a fair field, which ought to be ments which are ordinarily committed to the partisan activity." open to every independent activity.' The unquestioned care of subordinates-a departure President is in deep water just here. No man involving tremendous effort and calling into has yet fathomed it-perhaps no man ever play that mastery over detail which is given will. Where competition ceases to be bene- to but few, and that keen insight belonging ficial, and where combination becomes better, especially to the well-trained and experienced can only be determined by experiment. There lawyer. is absolutely no fixed law about it, as in Kepler's laws of motion. But there is a great Democratic principle involved, which so good a Democrat as Mr. Cleveland should not have overlooked, and that is for the Government to let people alone and not interfere in their business so long as they keep the peace and do not cheat or steal from each other, What Cincinnati Evening Post (Ind.), March 2.General Harrison's Administration has not been smirched by the breath of a scandal. It has been an excellent business régime. It has upheld the national honor with firmness and dignity. It has made the American people stronger than ever in their love of their glo for equality before the law for every race or Worcester Spy (Rep.), March 5.—His appeal color, in every quarter of the nation, is eminently manly and creditable, and may well be pondered upon by that portion of his party dwelling in the South. Hartford Courant (Rep.), March 6. The best thing that he says is his pledge to exercise every power of the Executive to maintain the national credit and to keep the currency of the country sound and stable. His views of the danger of trusts, the folly of believing that because the country is strong now it can stand |