voluminous as those of European nations. And all this learning and love of learning has been acquired without help or suggestion from any foreign people. If their authentic histories reach back to nearly five centuries ago, mythical history reaches still further back into the very Night of Time.

Such are the salient outlines of the traits and characteristics of the Chinese empire and its multitudinous people. Such is the nation on whose destiny the fixed attention of Christendom is now turned with a look of eager and passionate interest. In dealing with this strange but most wonderful people, it must not be forgotten that the present dynasty at Peking is a foreign one,- a Manchu and not a native Chinese dynasty. This Manchu family, kindred of the Mongols before it, has become imbecile and impotent in its dotage. In the long period since the Mongol conquest, only once has a native dynasty held the government of the empire. Under the native Mings the empire saw its palmiest, most peaceful days. There are still evidences that, centuries in the past, the civilization of the empire was of a higher order in some respects than now exists; but the difference is doubtless due to the Mongol and Manchu governments, and the era of colossal public work has given way to more practical necessities of life and labor.

When Nineveh and Babylon were in the splendor of their might, men in China were predicting eclipses, making catalogues, and giving names to the stars. But Nineveh and Babylon were mere mounds of earth and rubbish when China was great, and to this date the civilization and life of the empire is the wonder of the world.

The recent disregard of the principle of sovereignty of states by the great Powers of Europe has, most happily, been peaceful even if under political pressure. Germany alone has brought wrong and violence, and has boldly set aside even a decent recognition of sovereignty and rights at Peking.

China can only be won to modern European civilization by Chinamen themselves. If Germany were to land an army of a hundred thousand men on the Shantung peninsula it would effect no purpose, but, like the army of Cambyses in Egypt, would miserably perish. China, not more than any other country, will consent to

buy and sell and enter into commercial relations with a people who has wronged them and whom they hate. The policy seemingly adopted by Russia and England is clearly the one way to proceed with China. The object is not to conquer by war and violence: it is to entice these people to buy and sell; and this cannot be accomplished through hostile action. China must be won by friendly action, and by showing her the way to her own national advantage and the personal interests of the people. And all this is to be done as England and Russia are now seemingly doing. Contact must be had through concessions for railways and mining privileges, even if obtained through kindly political pressure. The railway, the telegraph, the transforming machine, must penetrate down to and through the remotest provinces of the empire. The long-buried, immense fields of anthracite coal, the mines of tin and copper, must be brought to the view of these industrious people to win their personal interest. Happily for China, if not for the world, China gives no indication of being a goldbearing country.

But in these views one great political event must be brought to pass. The foreign dynasty at Peking must be overthrown, and a native one erected in its place; and this, too, must be effected by the native race, possibly aided by pressure from Russia and England. Strangely enough, long suffering under a barbaric foreign dynasty, there is not to be found so patriotic a people as the native Chinese. They wander to all countries, but they become citizens of none. In America, in Mexico, or in Europe, or in the Indian Isles, they are still Chinamen, even to their costume. Their patriotism is blended with the respect and reverence they give to the ashes of their ancestors, and their imperishable historic and traditional past. The love of his race and of his country is the heritage of the ages.

The Chinese race is neither dead nor moribund. It is the decrepit dynasty that is now dying; and, as I have said, China must be redeemed to modern civilization by the race itself. To speculate upon the partition of China as we do about Africa is utterly absurd, if not an utter impossibility to accomplish. If all the armies of Europe were to invade this vast empire in the expectation of making its military conquest by arms, they would in

evitably perish from the face of the earth. No European army could exist on the great plain of Central China. Climate, the food, and the sluggish waters would alone destroy them. Kindness and self-interest alone can accomplish the redemption of this strange land and people. Although the action of the Powers in China has been in total disregard of the rights of sovereignty of the empire, it has happily for humanity and the hopes of the futurebeen characterized by no deed of war, no work of violence, and no attempt at conquest. A partition into "spheres of influence » may be justified, even if it be not strictly lawful.

When the United States government declared war against Spain it was frankly proclaimed and duly avowed to the world that our action was inspired by the sentiment of humanity, and because we disapproved of the government by Spain of its own subjects in the island of Cuba. Whatever may have been the secret desire or individual wishes of certain European states, it is certain that no official protest was made to our government, and the war with Spain was tacitly justified by Europe. Not one of the members of the European Cabinet could utter a word of protest, since the events of the GræcoTurkish war, the affairs of Crete, and the more recent attitude of the Powers toward China afforded precedents which could not be ignored or forgotten. If by any possibility any member of the "European Concert" had dared to interfere in the affairs of Spain and the United States, it surely would have been confronted by the united action of the rest, and the interposition would have been of no binding force or effect. Great government bodies like the European Concert are rarely found to stultify their own action.

Strangely enough it fell to the lot of our own country to deal the final fatal blow to the rule of sovereignty of states, and, perhaps unconscious to ourselves, we were following in the line of precedents laid down for us by the European governments. Our action has received justification and the adhesion of the five great Powers.

The states of Christendom have at last arrived at the parting of the ways." They must choose the road to universal war or the pathway to universal peace.

A rule of conduct binding upon the states of the civilized world for centuries,

and existing under the universal sanction of the nations, cannot be suddenly swept away unless some remedial measure be substituted in its place. The war of our government with the kingdom of Spain rent asunder the last shred of obligation to respect the sovereignty of states, and the nations are confronted with the possibilities of wars of conquest and the destruction of the weak by the strong. It was for us-the last of the world Powersto sweep away the law of national sovereignty by a single decisive blow.

What shall the remedy be? That is the portentous problem to be solved by the great statesmen now assembled at The Hague. It is by no means necessary to suppose that the Emperor of Russia expects the speedy disarmament and the disbanding of the armies of Christendom. It cannot be doubted that he hopes for the ulterior success, in part, of his expressed plans, but through legislative measures of such a character as to make great armies and navies unnecessary. The concept of a great tribunal of the nations, of a supreme court of jurisdiction, constituted of the representative statesmen and jurists of Europe and America, has long existed in the minds and hearts of good men. Nor is such a tribunal by any means an impossibility. It cannot be forgotten that during the sittings of the European Concert, the Emperor of Germany placed every possible obstacle in opposition to its action. He opposed the propositions of the ministers; he sent coquetting messages to the Sultan and exchanged portraits and presents with him; and he reminded the Concert and the public that many of his best officers were in command of the Sultan's troops. It was all futile. England, Russia, France, Italy, and Austria hung together as a unit, and the German kaiser-king was compelled to submit to their decisions.

If such a great national tribunal of arbitration possessing judicial powers and authority should at last become a historic fact, to glorify the nineteenth century, our war with Spain will not have been waged in vain. The demands of justice and righteousness throughout the civilized world are imperative, and the world itself is ripe for the fruition of our civilization in the creation of a Supreme Court of Christendom.

If ever in the history of mankind on earth there was a united passionate prayer

to heaven uttered from the great heart of humanity, such a longing, such a hope, such a prayer, finds expression to-day. Not only statesmen, men of learning, and men of science long for the dawn of the reign of law and justice, or—as the philosophy of China expresses it-the dominion of reason and justice; but the soldiers who compose the great armies of Europe give evidence that they will no longer consent to be led in front of rapid-fires, Maxims, lyddite shells, and magazine rifles to be mowed down, at a mile's distance, like grass before a reaper. The time, too, is at hand when such men will no longer enlist to be driven into a slaughter-house. They know, as we do, that it is no longer war, testing the courage and heroism and even the patriotism of brave men, and they know it is all simply slaughter and wholesale murder.

If the action of the European Cabinet in the affairs of Greece and Turkey and the island of Crete shall become the germ of the national tribunal of Christendom; if the freedom of old Crete from the Turkish despotism and the Bashi-Bazouk assassins become assured; if the great Siberian railway shall realize the hopes entertained of it in carrying European civilization into the

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heart of Bokhara, Manchuria, and the great deserts of Gobi; and if southern Siberia shall come to be a harvest land waving in golden wheat instead of a dreaded land of exile, we may utter our grateful thanks of praise to heaven, in conscious pride of good that the nineteenth century, amid all its worries, its hopes and fears, its intellectual development and all its busy work, has accomplished more for the welfare of mankind, more for justice and righteousness, than has been accomplished through the long array of centuries of the past. If the passionate hopes of Christendom are realized in the creation of a great national tribunal to which all nations must bring their appeals and their grievances for arbitration, disarmament will surely come of the nations' own volition, since these great armies and navies will no longer be needed, and their necessities will become a thing of the barbaric past.

It may be that the white wings of peace and righteousness may not overspread the weary nations; but the evil demons of war and rapacity may be cast into outer darkness.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

FRANCIS ASBURY ROE, Rear-Admiral, U.S.N.

FIND my poetry in the music of Nature,

and my theology in the nature of things about me. The first gives expression to the music of language; the second conveys to the mind the wonderful works of the Great Creator: the first gives melody to music; the second encircles the imagination with a halo of grandeur.

These are the fruits to be gathered in the great fields of Nature, where the careful observer will find an everlasting harvest. This music and these wonders can be found in the far north, in the land of whispering pines; in the south, where the stately palms and mangroves nod their heads to southern gales; in the west, beyond whose rocky cañons and lofty mountains is heard the roar of restless torrents hurrying their way to the peaceful Pacific, whose islands are thronged with birds of tireless wing, whose voices, though coarse, are even musical; in the east, where is heard the cadence of the rolling Atlantic, and where the flocks of gulls

and terns drop like meteors on the sandy shores.

The songs of birds are as varied as the sounds of an Æolian harp, and the birds themselves have been created with forms and habits to suit their environments.

Among the most gifted of our songbirds is the Brown Thrasher or Brown Thrush. It is a common bird in the eastern States and should be easily recognized at first sight. It is about eleven and a half inches long, the tail being five or six inches of its full length. It is of a rusty brown above, with the sides and breast spotted with dark brown; its eyes are of a bright lemon yellow. On account of the constant switching of the tail when darting through thickets and underbrush it has been given the name of "thrasher." Its singing hours are almost exclusively confined to the early morning and sundown. The position assumed while singing is usually the topmost branch of a tree; here, with its head thrown upward

and tail drooping, it pours forth the sweet notes of its own throat and those of all the birds of the woodlands and fields, from the loud whistle of the cardinal in the deep woods, to the lisping notes of the dickcissel in the stubble field, all are within his range, intermingled with the original liquid notes from his flute, made, as it were, of silver and gold, His life seems to be one round of joy with a medley of song.

Another near relative of the thrasher and the far-famed mockingbird is the Cat-bird. He does not seem to be popular with everybody who knows him. A certain amount of ridicule is attached to his name, particularly on account of the cat-like note that he utters. Few who listen to his song, as he sits almost erect on the highest branch, can feel inspired with it, when it closes with the mocking cat-call note, and with a saucy flirt of his tail he disappears in the thicket. Little cares he for public opinion. He does not ask if his society is welcome, but takes up his abode in our dooryards and helps himself to our berries and cherries. He does untold good, for he is always busy and not always in mischief. Worms, insects, and spiders form most of his daily fare. He has no favorite dwelling-place, but in thickets, orchards, woods, and along streams of water his note may be heard every few yards.

One of our most common birds, especially abundant along the edges of woodland borders and vacant fields, is the Field Sparrow. It has a song which is rather mournful, but sweet, and which it sings throughout the entire day, and the hotter the day the louder the bird sings. Its song is heard when most other birds are silent.

There is one little bird which every person who lives in the country ought to know; everyone who is accustomed to rural walks should hear his musical voice. His song is not long, but it is one gush of silvery notes, accompanied by a metallic tremolo. This bird is the Lark Sparrow. Its favorite summer resorts are prairie lands, clover and stubble fields, neglected and sparsely wooded pastures, and fields bordered with low trees. Several birds of this species may be seen running in the grass with lowered heads like quails, from which manner, in some places, they receive the name of Quail-heads. Again they are given the name of "Road-birds," from

their habit of running along roadsides and feeding in roads.

In Texas the Lark Finch often repairs old nests of the mockingbird and orchard oriole with a lining of grass, horse hairs, etc., and its eggs have been found in the nest of the scissor-tailed flycatcher. The nest, however, is usually placed on the ground, sometimes in trees and bushes. When on the ground it is generally sunken in a hollow, concealed by tufts of grass or clover; and it is hard to find, for the bird, like the bobolink, has the habit of running some distance from the nest before taking wing. The composition varies according to the vegetable growth of the locality in which it is built; usually grasses, clover, and weed stems make up the structure. The eggs are three to five in number, commonly four; they are pure white or have a faint bluish or brownish tinge, speckled and marked with zig-zag, straight, and wavy lines of very dark brown and black, chiefly at the larger end, like the eggs of the Baltimore oriole, and in exceptional cases it is impossible to differentiate the eggs of the two species.

Nearly everyone is acquainted with the familiar little Song Sparrow, which has a short, sweet song, full of mirth and melody. Another of our common sparrows in the eastern States is beautifully named Vesper Sparrow. It is also known by other names, such as Grassfinch, Baywinged Bunting, or Gray Bird. Its favorite resorts are weedy fields, roadsides, and commons. From its habit of singing in the evening and in cloudy weather, it is called Vesper Bird. The bird's song alone is sufficient to distinguish it from others of the smaller sparrows. It is a clear, sweet trill, finely modulated, or it is the song sparrow's song reversed.

The Swamp Sparrow-a most beautiful bird of its tribe- is found from the northern States northward. On account of its secretive and retiring habits the bird is very apt to escape notice unless perseveringly hunted and purposely looked for. This little sparrow dwells in the deep recesses of marshy thickets environed with a canopy of tangled foliage, whose treacherous quagmire abounds in a luxuriant growth of wild grasses. In these retreats the bird may exist in abundance and still be considered rare in certain localities where it has been overlooked. Its neat, trim form and tasteful colors render it one of the handsomest smaller sparrows.

Here is a bird of skyrocket song; you can't tell what he is going to say or what kind of aërial acrobatic tumbles he is going to perform while his whimsical song is being uttered. It is no other than the beautiful Yellow-breasted Chat. When the bird is once seen and known it will never be forgotten. For the convenience of those who care to become acquainted with him I will here give a minute description. It is of a bright olive green above; below, golden yellow, lower breast, white; lore, black, isolating the white under-eyelid from a white superciliary line above and a short maxillary line below; wings and tail unmarked, glossed with olive; bill and feet blue-black. Length, seven to seven and a half inches; wing, about three; tail, about three and a quarter inches. When migrating no bird is more shy and retiring than are the chats. They skulk along silently in thickets, along the banks of streams, or on the edges of upland woods. But no sooner has pairing been effected than their whole nature seems changed, and the silent bird becomes the noisiest of the wood. His shyness gives way to an audacity which is surprising.

If he discovers your approach, even at a considerable distance, he prepares to resent the intrusion; and, giving three short, loud whistles, very low in tone, as a warning, he advances toward you, all the while careful that he himself should be heard and not seen. Then follows a medley of sputtering, cackling, whispering, and scolding notes, frequently interspersed with loud whistles, and continued, as the bird runs, hops, or flies in the deepest thicket, with a pertinacity which knows no fatigue. He tells you that your gun won't shoot; that it is a flint-lock; that your ramrod is broken; that you have fired it at a buzzard; that you haven't got a gun; that you are a bald-headed cripple; that there is a horrid suicide in the bushes, and a big snake and a nasty skunk; that your baby is crying, your house is afire, and the bridge broken down; that you have missed the road to the reform farm, and that the poor-house is over the creek. Then he calls the dogs; says that you have gone to seed; advises you to go west and grow up with the country; that you are taking up too much of his valuable time; that you must excuse him for a moment. During all this time he remains invisible, or at most, his black eye and mask, or golden breast, appear for a moment as he

peers at you from the tangled branches of the brambles, or flashes from branch to branch, dancing an accompaniment to his fantastic notes. At last he suddenly appears on the top of a bush not ten feet from you, makes a profound bow, and, with a derisive whisk of his long tail, exposes his immaculate white crissum and dives again into the deepest thicket. You take a long breath and wipe your face, and he returns to the assault from the rear. Should you move on, he follows; if you approach, he retires, and, keeping at a respectful distance, he laughs defiance and shouts mockery and tantalizing sarcasm. He is a fearful scold, and it is no wonder the inside of his mouth is black. But this boldness is when he knows he has the advantage. Sometimes he may be surprised as he sings in the upper branches of a tree. He then sits motionless, continuing his song as if unaware of any intrusion upon his privacy; and so resonant and varying are his notes that they confuse the ear as to the spot from which they come, while his yellow breast so completely harmonizes with the green leaves and sunlight, that he is with difficulty discovered. It is to his rapid and sonorous notes, quick motions or perfect quiet, with harmonious surroundings, that he owes the reputation for ventriloquism which he has obtained; and it may be said of his reputation for mimicry that he has no need to borrow notes from any other bird, and does not knowingly do so. Before the breeding-season is over the chat becomes as silent as during the spring migration, and he leaves for the south as stealthily as he came.

In the United States there is a wellknown small bird, conspicuous for its bright colors, peculiar, undulating flight, and plaintive, lisping notes. It is known by several names, as Thistle-bird, Lettucebird, and Wild Canary. Its properly accepted name, however, is American Goldfinch. I am of opinion that no bird enjoys life better than this one. One of the reasons is because it does not begin housekeeping until most other birds are through breeding, in July, August, or September, when the thistle-down begins to float in the breeze or when the golden-rod nods its head of saffron yellow to all the winds of heaven. When on the wing its flight is like the sweep of ocean waves, and in the depth of each curve may be heard the strongest accent of its lisping

notes.