Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

THE MEN OF THE [LONDON] "TIMES."
HE Caxton Magazine for May has an illus-

by Mr. J. C. Woollan. The three chiefs of the
Times who are dealt with are Mr. Walter, Mr.
G. E. Buckle, and Mr. Moberley Bell. Mr.
Buckle has been editor of the paper for no less

than eighteen years, having been only twenty-nine years old when called to the editorial chair in 1884. Mr. Woollan says that he was chosen chiefly because he had large mental gifts which had been highly cultivated, and had, moreover, most excellent talent for expressing himself in good English. Mr. Buckle's enthusiasms are golf and privacy, the latter being no doubt the reason why he is so little known in the general world. The other strong man behind the Times is Mr. Moberley Bell, who is officially described as assistant-manager, but whose position is a very different one. Mr. Bell was formerly Times correspondent in Egypt, having inherited that post from his father. Mr. Bell has been described as the "De Blowitz of Egypt," and he has been credited with being the original author of the British occupation. Judging from what Mr. Woollan says, the Times is by no means under the control of old Tories. Mr. Moberley Bell is a LiberalUnionist, while Mr. Buckle is a member of the Reform Club, which fact is given as "a hint as to his personal politics."

MR. G. E. BUCKLE. (Editor of the London Times.)

MAXIM GORKY.

MAXIM GORKY, "a new star in the fir

mament of Russian literature that has excited much attention not only in Russia, but also in other countries," is the subject of an article by M. von Brandt in the Deutsche Rundschau for May. The writer is not sure whether Gorky will turn out to be a fixed star, or will eventually dwindle down to a star of smallest magnitude after a brief period of brilliance. But the question is immaterial, since Gorky is, in any case, interesting as a product of his surroundings.

Maxim Gorky,-i.e., "the Bitter, "-was born March 14, 1868, at Nishni Novgorod, the son of a paper hanger. He lost both his parents at the

age of five; four years later he was apprenticed to a shoemaker by his grandfather, a dyer. The boy soon ran away, and for fifteen years thereafter he led a wandering life. He tried his hand at many occupations to support himself, but never staid long enough in one place to gain a foothold. However, during these years he unconsciously gathered the material he was to use later on for his stories. His education he gained through omnivorous reading, to which he was first directed by a cook on a Volga steamer, where he served as scullion. His first literary attempt was a story, "Makar Tschudra," that appeared in 1892 in a magazine at Tiflis, where he was working in a railroad shop. The success of this story determined his career.

Gorky, with his antecedents, would naturally be in sympathy with the movements of the Russian people, that now and again find expression in the student riots. Attracting the attention of the police by his last works and his intercourse with suspected persons, he was arrested this year at Nishni, but soon liberated, and is now living in the Crimea, under police surveillance, it seems. Gorky, as an exponent of the life of the Russian people, takes a place in its literature, the tendencies of which he exemplifies.

TENDENCIES OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE.

"Russian literature in its normal development for the last fifty years, and even more on its abnormal side, is the product of the view of life of the great mass of the Russian people that has remained entirely untouched by western European ideas. The vague, dreamy longings of the inhabitant of the steppes, who has scarcely come under the influence of culture, the unconscious groping for more truth and light which has for centuries produced innumerable sects within the Russian Church, and finally the Russian peasant's love for the soil,-these have given to Russian literature its local color and its power. The outlook upon little Mother Volga,' the mighty river, the immense steppes, and the still more immense sea, the attempt to fathom the heart of the peasant, which is unfathomable, as everything that is not bounded by knowledge,-these have given to Russian literature that dreaminess, vagueness, and undefinableness that exerts such great charm upon the Russian himself, and is even influencing the more critical West - European. Tolstoy is in this respect the most characteristic figure of modern Russian literature."

GORKY'S COMMUNISTIC VIEWS. Gorky is a product of the communistic tendencies of Russian socialism and of the moral conditions of the Russian people. Brandy plays

[graphic]

66

a large part in his stories; but he also expresses admirably the vague longing for something higher, that seems to fill every Russian of the lower classes, the love and comprehension of the broad expanse of the steppes and the sea, for what we might call the distant, which drives the peasant from his glebe and the vagabond from the work just found, the chasm that divides the tramp from the bread winners and the proprietors.

Hatred against ownership, and perhaps even more against work that produces more than the mere daily bread, is the red thread running more or less distinct through all of Gorky's work, and which gives to it its socialistic color.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

This is most apparent in the novel Foma Gord- A THOROUGHGOING eulogist of China is

These communistic socialistic

jejew.' views, though neither very intellectual nor especially new, evidently characterize the point of view that Gorky himself takes, or that he presupposes in the majority of his readers. Hence they deserve more attention than they could otherwise claim, as they also are subject to the old error that only manual labor is work, a point of view that corresponds to a low state of culture, but that would hardly obtain in a more advanced state of society."

A RUSSIAN REALIST.

As

Von Brandt sums up his impressions of Gorky as follows: "Gorky's stories display great power, and one is often tempted to add, great beauty, in spite of the unpleasant material, so long as he tells of what he has seen and felt himself. But when he goes into psychological questions, as in Foma Gordjejew,' he weakens or sinks into the mud of the French immoral novels. long as he remains Russian he gives us at least a faithful description of the lower, or perhaps the lowest, classes of the Russian people. His figures have the advantage of being true to life. They are not appetizing; they smell of sweat, brandy, rags, and misery, and the lack of soap and water is unpleasantly apparent; but they are people of flesh and blood, and not pale phantoms. Hence the reading of his works is not such a trial to the nerves as that of many other products of the northern school. We are moved, and may even turn with disgust from many of his creations, but we must admit that he has gone straight to the life of the people, leading us to the depths, if not to the heights. If it had been his intention to represent to us the classes that he has drawn as being ready for liberation, we should have to designate the attempts as a failure; on the contrary, he has placed many of the measures of the Russian Government in a clearer light. His works so far have given no proof that he is equal to the task of exerting an

Prince Ukhtomsky.

He contributes to the Contemporary Review an article on "The Genius of China," which is enough to make us all weep that we were not born Chinese. Prince Ukhtomsky has been in China many times, and has fallen in love with the yellow man. He believes in him down to the ground, and in this article he ventures to prophesy various things which, when they happen, will occasion disturb. ances in the world at large.

THE EXPANSION OF CHINA.

China is something so immense and potent that it is impossible to foresee to what it may grow within a few decades. It is certain that the current of modern life will drag China into its strenuous whirlpool, will stir up and stimulate the naturally good-natured giant to demand a proportionate share of power, glory, and wealth, of success and weight in the assembly of nations. Already the yellow race begins to struggle with difficult problems; and in the twentieth century, whatever it may cost, China will acquire as natural colonies Annam, CochinChina, with Cambodia, Siam, and Burmah, the great Malay regions, Formosa, the Philippines, Borneo, Sumatra, and Java. Whoever rules China, it will certainly in time acquire a formidable fleet, and then the struggle for existence will follow its course with pitiless logic. The Chinese have energy, sagacity, and capital. Until the year 1400, China kept a whole generation ahead of Europe. Since then she has fallen behind, perhaps some thirty years. But she is waking up. There are no signs whatever of decline or decrepitude. Unable to repel the invading foreign devils, they have made themselves indispensable to the newcomers, and managed in a certain sense to bind them hand and foot. Already being unrivaled in the field of commercial resourcefulness, the Chinese little by little crowd out the foreigners from their territory, and the time can hardly be far distant

when all the import and even the export trade will be in the hands of Chinamen, whose diligence is exemplary, and who rapidly learn and master every industry. The day must surely come when America, England, Sweden, and Germany will cease to be necessary to China, grown aware of her own boundless resources.

A PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.

Prince Ukhtomsky maintains that the Russians alone, of all foreign nations, are regarded by the Chinese as their friends. He quotes a story told by the Russian poet, Maikoff, which tells how he once asked the Kirghiz Sultan Vailkhanoff what was his philosophy of history. He answered, "God Almighty gave the sovereignty of the earth to my ancestor, Jenghis Khan. For our sins it has been taken away from his descendants and given to the White Czar. That is my philosophy of history." It is not quite clear, however, whether the White Czar means the Son of Heaven or the Russian Czar. It is possible that Prince Ukhtomsky may expect that the Russian Czar will become the ruler of China, and so acquire a double right to the title of the Son of Heaven, which included the idea of White Prince, White Czar.

RUSSIA AS CHINA'S SAVIOUR.

The prince says western Europe has broken a terrible breach in the great wall of China, spiritually considered :

"Who and what can save China from falling entirely under the foreign yoke? We believe

Ukhtomsky waxes eloquent in praise of the Chinese. He denies indignantly that they are indifferent to religion and believe in nothing. The veneration of departed parents and ancestors, the recognition of the existence of their forefathers as living spirits who are able to enter into communication with their descendants, takes the place of religion. They see the presence and activity of spirits in everything. There is not a kingdom in the world where learning is so highly esteemed and reverenced as in China. Every scrap of paper marked with hieroglyphics is honored by the Chinese. A Chinaman is ready

to study with incredible industry up to any age, overcoming the greatest obstacles. The respect of the people and of the authorities to those who have shown special assiduity and intelligence is extended also to their parents for having given birth to sons so useful for their country. The Chinese administration consists of an incredibly small number of persons of at all important rank. For the whole colossal empire there are only 9,000. The representative of power temporarily appointed is to such an extent identified with the population intrusted to his charge that he has sometimes to suffer a heavy penalty for crimes committed within the region intrusted to him, and he is repeatedly fined for the misdoings of others. He is guilty before the Son of Heaven for floods, droughts, famines, fires, and other natural calamities.

BUDGET FOR A SMALL COLLEGE.

Russia alone can. From Russia's example the WHAT shall be done with the small college?

Western peoples will learn to understand and value an active faith which gives peace not less than Buddhism with its assuagement of the rebellious will, and, at the same time, brings the gladdening dawn of man's regeneration. This is the key of our unique success, unparalleled in history in subjecting kingdom after kingdom, not merely by open hostility and military achievement, but also by the secret powers of emotional sympathy and the irresistible necessity under which we lie of finding in every intelligent creature of whatever face, of whatever race, a comrade and brother with equal rights before God and the Czar."

He dreads the possibility of Great Britain converting the yellow man into a sepoy, and he declares boldly that the chief problem of Russia in the yellow East is to guard against such possibilities.

CHINESE VIRTUES.

Leaving the political question of the future relations of China to the great powers, Prince

is a question that has been freshly brought to mind during the commencement season just closed. Dr. D. K. Pearsons has done something toward the solution of this problem, as was shown in the character sketch published in the REVIEW OF REVIEWS for November, 1901, but all the small colleges of the country have not shared in his bounty, and many such are confronted by a crisis that seems to involve their very existence.

In the discussion of the place of the traditional small college in our educational system that has been in progress for several years nothing has been more noticeable than the absence of any recognized standard of equipment or expenditure for such an institution. An attempt to supply data of this character is made by Prof. Charles R. Henderson, of the University of Chicago, who. offers, in the American Journal of Sociology for May, a series of estimates based on his own experience in the administration of a small college, and a comparison with the experience of others. similarly situated.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Drawing-one instructor.

1,800 2,000 1,000 900

[blocks in formation]

These estimates do not include cost of buildings.

40,000 1,000

.

"It is, for obvious reasons, impossible to arrive at the exact amount of money squandered in betting every year; but not long before his death, it was stated on the authority of Mr. Mulhall, the most famous of latter-day statisticians, that during the last hundred years no less a sum than £3,000,000,000 ($15,000,000,000) had been won and lost on the turf and at the cardtable; and there are many well-qualified judges who would say that this is rather an underestimate than an exaggeration."

This total is estimated to equal in weight 66,000 race horses. It would, if portioned out among the British army in South Africa, give each soldier a load of 2 cwt. of gold. It would "A require ten strong locomotives to pull it. century's betting money would form a rectangu lar column of sovereigns ten feet square, and more than twice as high as St. Paul's Cathedral." Invested, the sum would have yielded £90,000,000 ($450,000,000) a year. The calculations and illustrations are ingenious and suggestive.

THE DEADLY AUTOMOBILE.

The annual budget of such an institution RECENT fatal accidents, if such they may

would be approximately as follows:

Cost of instruction....

Cost of library.......

$31,000 1,000 2,000 1,000

1,000

500 1,000

$37,500

Cost of repairs and improvements

Cost of additions to apparatus.....

Cost of care of buildings and grounds..

Cost of insurance....

Cost of financial administration...

Total annual disbursements...

INCOME.

endowment, $300,000, at 4 per cent. ......

$12,000

[blocks in formation]

termed, resulting from the speeding of automobiles in the vicinity of New York City, have drawn public attention to this new peril, and may serve to crystallize public sentiment into a demand for the more rigid enforcement of existing laws, if not for the enactment of new measures that will more effectually safeguard the lives of pedestrians and others who venture on the public highways.

DANGERS OF UNRESTRICTED AUTO-DRIVING.

Some of the dangers that follow in the wake of the recklessly driven "autos" on many city

streets and suburban roads are hinted at in an article on "Vexations of City Pedestrians," contributed by Mr. Louis Windmüller to the spring number of Municipal Affairs:

"Ordinances which restrict their speed to eight miles an hour in cities are seldom heeded. The most flagrant violations rarely are punished with adequate severity. Gliding noiselessly and swiftly over smooth pavements, these vehicles are apt to run down the unfortunate who may cross their paths. In turning corners they seldom reduce speed to the rate ordained by law. Frequently they collide before they can signal their approach. The cyclist on such occasions is apt to suffer with the pedestrian, and consequently is more careful than the chauffeur, who relies on the superior strength of his vehicle. Of horseless carriages driven at reckless speed, the greater number circulate in suburbs of French cities.

The driver of one who had made a run of some hundred kilometers an hour in a race near Paris, when recently called upon to explain some accidents laid to his charge, could remember the jolting of his wheels, but had no time to stop for investigation!' The impudence of autoists made the London police desperate until they discovered an old ordinance which limited the speed of vehicles in city streets to three miles an hour. Every one had to be announced by a footman swinging a flag a hundred feet ahead. When customary British conscientiousness enforced this rule, the automobiles disappeared.

EFFECT OF REDUCED PRICES.

"While they remain expensive, the use of these vehicles is naturally confined to the few who can indulge in the luxury. But a widely felt popular demand for them, stimulated by the desire to go with little effort as fast as possible, will increase production and improve quality. Increasing sales will reduce cost, until a fair mobile may be had for the price of a good cycle. When their use becomes universal they will be more dangerous than trolleys, which are confined to their tracks. Notwithstanding innumerable laws to prevent them, casualties are of daily occurrence; it will be difficult to restrain autos from killing pedestrians, from destroying the slower vehicles, and from injuring each other when thousands race at the rate of forty miles an hour over the common highways. They should then be restricted to inclosed roads of their own, as locomotives very properly are."

IT

LIFE AND DEATH.

T is difficult to imagine an article on the tremendous problems of life and death in an English or American review, but the French are extremely fond of such articles. M. Dastre's paper in the first May number of the Revue des Deux Mondes is a good example of its type. He begins by denying flatly that science has thrown any real light on the mysteries of life and death, while philosophy offers us merely hypotheses,the old ones,-thirty years, a hundred years, and and even two thousand years old. In biology,– to return to science, there are three main systems by which it is attempted to explain the vital phenomena, -in fact, the various biolo gists may be divided into animists, vitalists, and unicists.

THE EMANCIPATION OF SCIENCE FROM "THEORY."

At

Of course, it must not be supposed that science has made no progress. The neo-animists of today have traveled some distance from Aristotle, St. Thomas, or Stahl; so, too, Darwin and Haeckel have developed the modified ideas of Descartes. In M. Dastre's opinion, the most striking change has been that theories have ceased to tyrannize over scientific research. the beginning of the nineteenth century the science of vital phenomena had not progressed in the same manner as the other natural sciences, but remained to a large extent wrapt in the scholastic fog. Vital force was regarded as a capricious thing, which acted arbitrarily in a healthy body, and still more arbitrarily in a sick

one.

TRUE FIELD OF PHYSIOLOGY.

Then came the revolution which separated the sphere of experimental science from that of philosophical interpretation. philosophical interpretation. As M. Dastre says, Ludwig and Claude Bernard drove out of the domain of experimental science these three chimeras,-vital force, the final cause, and the caprice of living nature. Physiology found its limits in a perception that the living being is not merely an organism completely constituted, such as a clock, for example, but it is a piece of machinery which constructs itself and perpetuates itself, and is thus distinguished from anything of the kind in inanimate nature. The true field of physiology was thus found to be the study of those phenomena by which the organism constructs and perpetuates itself.

« AnteriorContinuar »