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The Building of Cities -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- 1. DEVELOPMENT AND CONFLICT -- The Central Issues of Change -- Leadership -- Nature of a Project and Individual Response -- Environment of the Proposal -- Approaching the Issues -- Summary -- 2. CITY BUILDING -- Urbanization -- Urban Land Development: Social Values -- Urban Land Development: The Process -- Factors Influencing the Sequence of Decisions -- Interaction of Participants in the Process -- Summary -- 3. LYSANDER (RADISSON) -- Project Description -- The Urban Development Corporation -- Voices of Concern -- Community Advisory Committee -- Strategy of Dissent -- UDC's Strategy of Persuasion -- Summary -- 4. GANANDA -- Project Description -- Course of Events -- Local Government and Agency Approval -- Education: A Knotty Problem -- Management Problems -- Summary -- 5. RIVERTON -- Project Background -- Robert E. Simon and the Management Team -- Project Development -- Master Plan Development -- Town Review of the PUD Application -- Regional and Federal Project Review -- Avoiding Controversy: A Continuing Task -- Summary -- 6. URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND NEW COMMUNITIES -- Factors Affecting the Development Process -- Summary -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Macedon-Walworth New Community District Zoning Ordinance -- Index.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Searching for Patterns -- 1. Patterns of Evidence: Identifying Small Communities -- 2. Patterns of Settlements: The Early Years -- 3. Patterns of Settlements: The Era of Mass Migration -- 4. Patterns of Stability and Mobility -- 5. Patterns of Livelihood and Class -- 6. Patterns of Family Life -- 7. Patterns of Congregational Organization -- 8. Patterns of Synagogue History -- 9. Patterns of Religious Leadership -- 10. Patterns of Culture: The German Jews -- 11. Patterns of Culture: The East Europeans -- 12. Patterns of Prejudice and Transformation -- Epilogue: Patterns of Endurance and Decline -- Reading the Manuscript Census -- Bibliographic Essay -- Appendix of Tables -- Notes -- Index.

GIES PRIZE ESSAY NUMBER. YOL. XII NO. 5 OCTOBER, 1903 The ' Gettysburg CQercury GETTYSBURG COLLEGE i GETTYSBURG, PA. BARBfMINN ft LITTLE, LTD., aKTTYBBUftO O'SUR® e,; w M PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. Publishers ot THE GETTYSBURG NEWS 142 Carlisle St., Gettysburg, Pa. BARBEHENH«LITTLE, LTD. AMOS ECKERT Latest Styles in HATS, SHOES AND GENT'S FURNISHING .Our specialty. WALK-OVER SHOE AMOS ECKERT Prices always right The Lutheran puMigfjing jlouge. No. 1424 Arch Street PHILADELPHIA, PA. Acknowledged Headquarters for anything and everything in the way of Books for Churches, Col-leges, Families and Schools, and literature for Sunday Schools. PLEASE REMEMBER That by sending your orders to us you help build up and devel-op one of the church institutions with pecuniary advantage to yourself. Address H. S. BONER, Supt. WE RECOMMEND THESE FIRMS. The Pleased Customer is not a stranger in our estab-lishment— lie's right at home, you'll see him when you call. 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AxTe always Ha^e the sea-sons novelties, besides a complete line of staples at prices to tearxipt you. SPECIAL CARE TAKEN TO MAKE WORK STYLISH AND EXACTLY TO YOUR ORDER. (Hill fll. Seligman, Taiio*. 7 ChambcPsbafg St., Gettysburg, Pa. R. A. WONDERS Corner Cigar Parlors. A full line of Cigars, Tobacco, Pipes, etc. Scott's Corner, opp. Eagle Hotel GETTYSBURG, PA. Pool Parlors in Connection. D. J. Swartz Country Produce in Groceries Cigars and Tobacco GETTYSBURG. Established 1867 by Allen Walton. Allen K. Walton, Pre9. and Treas. Root. J. Walton, Superintendent. Hummelstown FO wi) Stone jjompanjj, QTT.A.:R,:e,-E-2!v£:E:LT and Manufacturers of BUILDING STONE, SAWED FLAGGING, and TILE, WALTOPILLE DAUPHIN COUNTY, PENNA. Contractors for all kinds of cut stone work. Telegraph and Express Address, BROWNSTONE, PA. Parties visiting Quarries will leave cars at Brownstone Station, on the P. & R. R.R. THE GETTYSBURG JIERGIIRY The Literary Journal of Gettysburg College Voi,. XII. GETTYSBURG, PA., OCTOBER, 1903 No. 5 CONTENTS SUNRISE . . • 144 LYMAN A. GUSS, '04. ARE THE OXFORD SCHOLARSHIPS OF CECIL RHODES LIKELY TO BENEFIT AMERICA? . . . ,. 148 ABDEI, R. WENTZ, '04. * WHY SHOULD THE AMERICAN COLLEGE GRADUATE ENTER THE TEACHING PROFESSION ? . . . 153 WIWAM W. BARKXEY, '04. HOW SHALL WE PREVENT PENNSYLVANIA COAL STRIKES? 157 FRANK LAYMAN, '04. SHALL WE REPEAL THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT ? . 163 C. EDWIN BUTI,ER, '05. VITAL FORCE IN LITERATURE . . . . 166 EDITORIALS 169 EXCHANGES 172 144 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. SUNRISE. (First Gies Prize Essay.) LYMAN A. GUSS, '04. IT is dark. The stars are shining. Yonder is the dipper and above its bowl is the ever-constant north star. The con-stellations are in their various places. There towards the east is Venus now reigning as star of the morning. The other planets discernible move slowly on in their alloted places in the silent majesty of their governing law. Even now they are seemingly somewhat darkened by the dazzling brilliancy of their sister planet. The whole firmament is resplendent with the grandeur of ten thousand suns studded in the canopy of heaven. The treasures of creation seem to have been sown broadcast in the limitless area of the sky. The beauty of the scene is consummate ; its apprehension is sublime ; its begin-ning and end is God. How irregular and yet how perfect the arrangement! How unreal and yet how systematic the con-trolling force ! How infinite the wisdom of the creator in the perfect harmony of the vast plan of the universe ! " One sun by day, by night ten thousand shine, And light us deep into the Deity ; How boundless in magnificence and might! O what a confluence of the real fires, From urns unnumbered down the steep of heaven, Streams to a point, and centres in my sight!" Even as.we surmise the very air seems pregnant with the over- > flowing beauty of the skies. Everything is silent. A touch of the supernatural seems to have fallen over the land. In the ether above is the silent twinkle, twinkle of the star; in the valley beneath is the sleeping village. The rolling undulations of the land and its rising hills, as dimly seen in the starlight, portend the shadowy forms of reclining giants. The whole valley lies before us as a visionary dreamland. The dormant powers and energies of man have not yet been awakened. It is a time when all things seems to conspire in the formation of a singular and strange existence. Everything seems saturated THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 145 with this all pervading influence, even the night itself unex-cepted, for "it is darkest before dawn." But while the grandeur of a perfect night is upon us it fades. The stars are going to sleep. Behold that streak of gray in the east! Surely it betokens not some disastrous fire ! It in-creases slowly. Now its import turns to significance. It is the herald of the king of day signalizing his advent. Aurora has hastened in her ever faithful office as precursor of her brother, Phoebus, who with his fiery steads and brazen chariot follows closely in her wake, and she now foretells his coming by her own inspiring presence. Slowly the streak of gray lengthens, widens, aye, it changes. The "flaky darkness" breaks within the east. The black of night is melting. Enveloped in its shroud the frowning night yields slowly to the smiling day. " Look, the gentle day, Before the wheels of Phoebus round about Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray." The streaks of gray have now become a sheet of pale yellow. The change and increase is slow, but constant and sure. Every moment signifies an addition to the growing brilliancy. Again the light has strengthened so as to contrast the whiteness of the horizon with the azure blue of the zenith. While the con-trast is marked, the blending is harmonious and unbroken. Straggling clouds in the western sky further enhance the glory of the occasion. The dark blue of their irregular arrangment suggests a variety to the natural splendor, ever modifying as each moment flits by. The silent music of the universe is sounding fourth its note on the interminable waves of the ether, and to the beat of each minute dawn progresses. But now behold the base line of earth and sky and the pre-tentious masses piled thereon in one unbroken stretch. The illusion is complete. Imagination is confused, but acts. Has some hostile foe invaded the land under the cover of darkness and is that long extent of apparent earthwork a mountain or the embattlement of an enemy ? Has nature sought to alter the form of the earth as wrought by the ages ? The deception is apparent. Reason conquers and prevails. The banks of clouds present their rugged outlines sharply defined against 146 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. the growing light of the eastern sky. The dim dividing line is quite obscure. " Rosy fingered Dawn " has already painted her delicate hue on the portals of the east, and the whole canopy of the sky seems tinted with the reflection. The vast field of red is mottled here and there with small patches of cloud which float silently in their gradual dissolution. The lower mass of accumulated clouds begin to fade and are checkered by the piercing shafts of morning light. The golden glow is already on this mass of bold relief. The diffusing light of the sun even ■ presages his coming by now slowly dissolving these barriers, which as agents of night, seem to obstruct his appearance. But now the village. Slowly it is awakening from the repose of night. White smoke from numerous chimneys is already curling into the still atmosphere above. Yonder to the right arises a steady column of blacker hue suggestive of the princi-pal industry. The attendant noises of the morning declare that activity has begun. To the left and farther up the valley the shrill shriek of a locomotive rends the peaceful air of morn-ing. The consoling note of the bird on the near-by tree sounds pure and clear as if in echoing response. Here and there goes the habitant to his toil, indicative of that irrevocable decree upon man, "Thou shalt work." The sharp spires of the two churches stand as silhouettes against the bright glow in the east. Every dwelling seems to demand a place in the picture below. The whole town lies huddled at the base of the eminence in the rear. Over the rolling landscape as it were, may be seen the farmer's house serving as a pleasing relief to the otherwise somewhat monoto-nous scene. Gradually creeping by the town and widening away through the land is the solitary river like unto a silver cord in the distance, until it is finally obscured in the recesses of the distant ridges. It seems to reflect the strengthening light of morning and even so appears as a molten stream of silver with its white metallic lustre. Directly below its clear ripple seems to designate the fact of its Alteration from every impurity by the darkness of night. All is idealistic in the spec-tacle before us. Nature seems united in one supreme effort to please in her elevating influence. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 147 Sunrise is an ever-changing sight. At no two minutes is the scene the same. Already with what seems accelerated speed the day-star has almost completed his preliminary course and his appearance is at hand. The sky before us is one sheet of burning gold. Everything is radiant with the effulgent light. The fragmentary clouds now skirting the horizon gleam as they absorb the light and beauty of the morning. Long shafts of light, fan-like, present the ultimate variation and the orb of day is manifest. One long ray of shimmering light shot across the intervening country is the signal gun of his appearance, They increase, multiply and remultiply and the whole earth is drowned in the flood of vital light. Night has abdicated and day has mounted the throne. "Night candles are burnt out" and sunrise is complete. " 'Tis mom. Behold the Kingly Day now leaps The eastern wall of earth with sword in hand, Clad in a flowing robe of mellow light, Like to a king that has regained his throne, He warms his drooping subjects into joy, That rise rejoiced to do him fealty, And rules with pomp the universal world." I48 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. ARE THE OXFORD SCHOLARSHIPS OF CECIL RHODES LIKELY TO BENEFIT AMERICA? {Second Cies Prise Essay.) ABDEI. R. WENTZ, '04. AFTER the death of Cecil Rhodes, the South African multi-millionaire and the Empire Builder, which occur-' red on March 26th last, it was announced to the world that his will provided for a $ro,ooo,ooo bequest to Oxford University, England. And this is nothing very remarkable. It is but natural that a man who in his life had such a wide outlook upon the world's affairs should donate a portion at least of his immense fortune to the furtherance of education. And that this donation should be made to Oxford University is exactly what might be expected in view of the fact that the donor was graduated at that institution. But the point of special interest and the one which most concerns us as Americans is the nature of the conditions which the bequeather attaches to his bequest. The famous will which has aroused so much comment, both favorable and unfavorable, provides that the $10,000,000 shall be applied to scholarships apportioned as follows: two to each of the self-governing colonies of the British Empire, five to Germany, and two to each state or territory of United States. The scholarships are each to amount to $1500 per year for a term of three years. The method of choosing the students is provided for in the will and it is quite a novel one. In the examination of the competitors, reference must be had to the following four points :(i) his literary and scholastic ability; (2) his love of outdoor sports ; (3) his manliness ; (4) his moral character and his qualification for leadership. Marks for the several qualifications are to be awarded in the proportion of four-tenths for the first, one-tenth for the second, three-tenths for the third, and two-tenths for the fourth. Mr. Rhodes' pur-pose in making such a donation was to bring about Anglo- Saxon amity by having the leading men in the three countries educated together at the same institution and thus to secure the "peace of the world." THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 149 It is not our purpose in this paper to examine whether the "peace of the world" will likely be secured by these scholar-ships, nor yet whether Cecil Rhodes' motive in establishing them was a good one. The question that we do propose to attempt to answer is whether America is likely to be benefitted by the scholarships or not. Of course, the future alone will positively and absolutely reveal the answer to this question, but by considering the present-day conditions and the most probable effects we can with at least some degree of certitude arrive at a conclusion upon the subject. While it must be ad-mitted that there are some arguments which would seem to favor an affirmative decision upon the question, nevertheless there are various' and weighty considerations which force us into the belief that the Oxford scholarships will probably not benefit America. In the first place, we can not but feel that for young men of the United States to leave their country and go across the sea to England, there to receive their education, will bring undesirable results for our country. The men who would take advantage of the scholarships would in the vast majority of cases be the brightest and manliest young men of their respective states. And for these men to be drained out of our own institutions and out of our country to be sent to England to patronize and bring honor to Oxford University would be deplorable, to say the least. Moreover the scholarships will be procurable by the average Sophomore of our colleges. This is the most forma-tive period in a man's life and that the best young men of our country, and those who are expected sometime to become im-portant factors in our national affairs, should leave their native land and spend their formative under-graduate period in a foreign country would be anything but desirable. There they will be brought entirely under English influences; they will be instilled with English principles and English ideas, in many cases so very different from American principles and ideas; they will be virtually denationalized. If the course at Oxford could be pursued as a post-graduate course by those who hold degrees from American institutions the result might not be so ISO THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. bad ; but if those who are to become leaders in our govern-mental affairs are to have their ideas fashioned according to British moulds, it must be dangerous to the principles of this American republic. The plan seems to be one-sided in this respect: that England is to do all the moulding of character and ideas, while Germany and the United States are to do none. For while we feel sure that our fellow-citizens who shall go to Oxford will be "up and doing" and will be fair representatives of our dear country, yet it seems equally certain that the hundred students who shall go from the United States, despite their American "hustle," will exert absolutely no influence over the 13,000 undergrad-uates with whom they associate. That these scholarships were established with a view to benefitting England rather than the United States or Germany seems almost certain from a remark made by Mr. Rhodes while he was forming his plans for estab-lishing them. The suggestion having been made by a friend that the recipients of the scholarships be permitted if they choose to study at Harvard or any other American institution, Mr. Rhodes is said to have replied thus: "The Americans can, if they like, endow scholarships for their own universities; my scholars must all come to my old university." It might be said on the other side of the question that America will be benefitted by the scholarships because they are to secure the "peace of the world." But would she? Even if we should go so far as to grant that this little educational scheme of one man will secure world-wide peace, can we assert that America would be benefitted by it? It seems quite cer-tain that with our twentieth-century civilization there will be no more really great wars, no wars between the great powers of the world. In the arbitration of international difficulties the United States is never forced to make any very important con-cessions. Great Britain and Germany would reap far more benefit from the proposed world wide peace than the United States would. And even if war should come, is not the United States government, backed by her patriotic and liberty-loving sons, able to hold her own against any other nation in the 1 Rupp B-u.ild.ing* YORK, PENN'A. Watch for his Representative when he visits the Collleeggee | PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTIZERS. Geo. E. Sparkler, PIANOS, ORGANS, MUSICAL MERCHANDISE Music Rooms, - York St. Telephone 181 GETTYSBIJEG C. B. KITZMILLER, DEALER IN Hats, Caps, Roots, and ^ ■ifcn -Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, FJPL. k M. AIAEMAN, Manufacturer's Agent and Jobber of Hardware, Oils, faints and Quensware Gettysburg, Pa. 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Acknowledged Headquarters for anything and everything in the way of Books for Churches, Col-leges, Families and Schools, and literature for Sunday Schools. PLEASE REMEMBER That by sending your orders to us you help build up and devel-op one of the church institutions with pecuniary advantage to-yourself. Address H. S. BONER, Supt. * .-»,.,. . I. ,,» 1»,.« .,,»« -mt YI |€ g>tubents, professors, j&lumnt anb all Hopal 41 jikipportersof tlje ©range I anb JHue from coast to 4* i coast, a most glabsome # £ £ (greeting: j toeet Cfjrisitmasi jop be tftine, ,# ^f Co make mp fonbesit breams complete Wyt belte ring out mp menage stoeet, 4t &nb tins; is! tofjat tfcep seem to slap: 'P ■- ———-- j .-■"--,-.,.■ THE MERCURY. 233 orator, Garfield, McKinley, the model and martyred President, Wanamaker and Rhodes, the capitalists, and scores of men just as representative. The difficulties and peculiar disadvantages suffered and surmounted by these models for all time in their struggle to the top reveals to us something of the nature of the perilous ascent. It does more. It shows the long period of •development and training of the equilibrium necessary to the keeping of the heights once reached. And next for an intelligent combat we would know what is and makes success ? We are compelled once again to force the rusty lock and cast a rapid glance thro the moldy pages of the past. In a critical analysis of the characters that have pre-served to us their sacred memory we find—no matter in what sphere their greatness has been achieved, in war or politics, letters or trade, supremacy in any and all—four mighty forces blending in perfect harmony and forming the prime factors, the foundation rock upon which has been constructed the tow-ers of strength, wisdom, leadership and learning of all time. Docility, Receptivity—with power to assimilate, indomitable Virility and Be-at-it-ive-ness. These are the weapons with which success is conquered and by the keen edges of which names are inscribed in immortality. Subtract from this super-structure one block or modify it an iota and the edifice of fame will crumble and fall, leaving, not success, but pitiful ruin. If then success and the ship of fortune rests with greater safety and more frequency in the four harbors herein designated; if the crowns of ivy and laurel, resting upon the heads of the world's greatest men, commemorate bloody battles, years of endurance and hardships; and finally, if what is commonly understood as " a good chance in life " is in nowise conducive to a strong development of the requisites necessary for success, as shown by the adverse circumstances in connection with the early lives of our honored living and dead, then it must be conceded that for this present age and generation " a good chance in life " has not much to do with success. c. E. B. '05. .1 >.,. ,11 II,, 234 THE MERCURY. ' i THE FASCINATION OF WAR. [Contributed for the Pen and Sword Prise Essay contest.'] "GEORGE MERITT." IN these modern times when eminent men, representing the most advanced nations in the world, assemble for the pur-pose of promoting international comity and universal peace, the subject ol war, in whatsoever phase, is receiving wide con-sideration. And yet, in this present period of the world's his-tory, during which the most rapid strides are being made to-ward the peaceful solution of all difficulties between nations, there is being waged a mighty war in the East, a conflict of tremendous import not only to the contesting empires, Russia and Japan, but to the world at large. Thus the propagation of the world's peace movement and, in direct contrast, the struggle between the subjects of the Czar and the Mikado have both, on accoimt of their overshadowing importance, given rise to wide discussion as to the nature of war, its general causes and some of its subjective properties. It is one of these pro-perties, the fascination of war, which will form the subject of this essay. From time immemorial war has had a peculiar fascination for all peoples. The barbaric warfare, with all its cruelty, appeals ever to the savage, and the glory of military renown continues to attract the civilized soldier. Though among the more advanced countries the main causes of war lie in agres-sion, territorial or otherwise, devotion to some great principle, or racial enmity, nevertheless struggles between barbarous or semi-civilized peoples are in part due to an eagerness for the clash of arms—a desire to find some outlet for savage instincts. True, the more important causes manifest themselves but back of it all is that fascination for war, that longing for military re-nown to be gained by heroism on the field of battle. And even in our modern times do not "the trumpet's call, the roll of drums and the tramp of marching feet" thrill our hearts with patriotic pride and exercise a strange fascination for us ? Do we not gaze upon the soldier, arrayed in uniform of military splendor, with envious though admiring eyes ? Human nature never fails to manifest itself and from ages back all have worship- ,.,.Miiw mMiwwi>w."■■»!> - THE MERCURY. 235 ped at the shrine of the soldier-hero. The recital of mighty con-flicts, in which innumerable hosts incurred every danger and countless thousands bled and died, never fails to arouse to the highest pitch of excitement and to fascinate by sublime awful-ness. The valor, us services rendered on the field of battle by the phalanxes of Philip of Macedon, the fierce charges of the Roman legions of old, the mighty victories of the Saxons over the Saracen hordes, the brilliant campaigns of Napoleon Bona-parte and the heroism of the Japanese armies in the. present struggle, arouse the intensest interest and exercise a strong fascination over all. And not only is this fascination displayed on occasions of renowned and brilliant martial achievments but it is manifest in the lesser experiences of military life. So thor-oughly has the admiration for martial pomp been implanted within our natures, that we are captivated, as it were, by camp and barrack life, with its drill, dress parade and reviews. We applaud the marching troops of state militia and flock in great numbers to view their annual camps. The soldierly young cadets of West Point and the well trained ensigns from Anna-polis inspire admiration and enthusiastic praise at all times. Thus we see the fascination, which all things martial has for us, is no idle term but is deeply imbued within us. Having shown that war truly means a potent spell of fascina-tion, the question naturally arises, Will this love of conflict, this attraction for war materially hinder the success of the world's peace movement ? General Sherman's famous utterance, "War is hell," ex-presses with keen and incisive force what men have been think-ing for years, and it is a gratifying fact that to-day the most eminent statesmen in the world are allied on the side of uni-versal peace. They are striving to settle all difficulties by arbitration and The Hague Tribunal stands as a monument to their splendid efforts. There are those who believe that war can never be made simply a thing of the past. They claim, despite the rapid strides made by the peace movement, that nations will continue to be more inclined to settle their disputes through force of arms than to submit them to a mediator. They assert, in addition, that the inherent love of all peoples 236 THE MERCURY. for military glory and the fascination warlike achievments ex-ercise over them will render the attainment of universal peace impossible. Faulty statements at best, as has been shown by the decided inclination of nearly every advanced country, through its head ruler, minister of state and other eminent men, to be identified with such a cause, and in every instance that nation's position has met with the approval of the great majority of subjects, who do not allow the fascination that war may exert over them to obscure their judgment or weaken their sympathetic concern for humanity's welfare. Our own worthy President and his distinguished Secretary of State have been allowed with the World's Peace idea, no abler presenta-tion of the question having been made?' than that delivered by the latter in his address to the World's Peace Congress, re-cently assembled at Boston. Also in other countries the trend seems to be toward the just conclusion that "war is useless slaughter" and should be prevented. Therefore, we are justified in saying that the fascination of war, strong as is its influence, cannot seriously impede the ad-vance of this noblest of ideas, which gaining strength with every day, and enlisting in its service the truly great men of the world, sTtall finally achieve a glorious triumph and secure for the earth Universal peace. WHO IS AMERICA'S GREATEST POET? BY "LAEUUS." EDGAR ALLEN POE, whom many foreign critics regard as the one American poet possessed of the elusive quality called genius, was born in Boston in 1809 and died in Baltimore forty years later. Like Scotland's great Burns, he is one of whom we can not but ask, what might have been? With respect to each, the question was pertinent until death closed the scene and put its warning finger on the lips of the scorner. We may ask the question ; but there we must stop. A friend wise enough, and strong enough, might have guided Poe's steps into the path of respectability, just as one wise enough and strong enough might have made of Burns a fit companion for THE MERCURY. 237 the languid gentility of his time. The lightning, controlled, is no longer the lightning; and genius in the leading strings of respectable mediocrity is no longer genius. The day of vindictive discussions of Poe is long passed. We of the present generation may grieve over his weaknesses and "his excesses; but we can not profit ourselves or others, by blaming him for being what he was. True, it is a thousand •pities, that he was not himself, plus the power of self-direction, that could have made of him as great a man as he was a poet. This one thing he lacked. He paid the price of weakness and waywardness, dying in disgrace at an age, when Bryant, Lowell, Longfellow and Whittier were in the midst of their careers as poets, and as men whom the nation delighted to honor. It is to be fixed in mind that these men who, like Poe, were New Englanders by birth, were also New Englandersby inheritance and by education. The Puritan spirit was the guide of their lives. Poe was of the South, born though he was in Boston. His parents were nomadic actors, and the child's first impress-ions were those of the unreal and dangerous life of the stage. Besides, he was a wonderfully precocious boy, and was robbed of the real childhood that ought to be the birthright of all who come into the world. The real drama of life is dramatic enough ; the real tragedies of life are tragic enough. Is it any wonder, that the child trained in an environment of pretense should lose or never acquire that balance of char-acter and of conduct, without which no man is completely a man. Under the thin disguise of the title, this essay is intended to be a suggestive study of the poetry of the man, whose passage across the heavens of our literature was not entirely like that of the lightning uncontrolled. There was the brilliant flashing of his strange genius; there remains the memory of the strik-ing impression he made upon his own generation. He was one •of the first American authors, who dared to have a literary opinion different from that of England. He did more to es-tablish a native American literature than all the writers that preceded him. Let it never be forgotten, that Poe conferred upon our country the glory of having produced the most origi- 238 THE MERCURY. nal poet of the century. He, like obscurity, that takes its shape in a glimmer of light, ascended the "Acropolis" of Literary-fame. His master poems stand alone in poetry, as the Venus-in sculpture, and the Transfiguration in painting. He left more than an empty name. The line of light that follows the meteor dies and disappears quickly, and leaves the darkness as it was. Poe's meteoric career was more than meteoric. He is and will be a genuine force in our literature. The power that was-in him, and that made him what he was has not disappeared from the earth. Bryant wrote his first boyish verses before Poe was born, and, long after Poe's ashes had been laid in the grave, Bryant continued to sing in his high, pure and manly-strain; yet as a poet, Poe, with his handful of appealing versesr counts for much more in the world of literature than the author of "Thanatopsis," in spite of the latter's long and blameless-life, devoted to high ideals in literature, journalism, and citizen-ship. Such is the irony of the fate, that almost shapes the man's career before his birth ! Of its kind, there is nothing better in the language than Longfellow's "Skeleton in Armor," with its splendid lyric swing; and the "Village Blacksmith," and "The Wreck of the Hesperus" are almost as good in their humble sphere. "Evan-geline," his masterpiece, is the most beautiful and the most •touching tale in verse yet told by any American poet; its-charm is increased greatly by the natural scenery of America, and our varying seasons. The easy verses sing themselves into> the memory of all who read his poems. His poetic gift con-tinued to ripen and to bear mellow fruit to the end of his life- The chief reason for Longfellow's popularity as a poet, both at home and abroad, is due to his firm belief and ardent trust iro his fellowmen. He, however, is not a musician in verse like: Poe, neither are his poems so characteristic of his own life, as Poe's masterpieces are of their author. Whittier was early brought into that intimate communion; with Mother Earth, and with Nature, which comes not by mere to observation, and which gives such a peculiar charm of pictur-esque truth to so many of his poems. How much he thus-learned, and to how good profit he put it, are visible in many of ■ . ■ > .1 ' '.' ■ 111111 i>iiPiiiyi.iMHiii>nii>i|pipiiWi'-w~--^j- • m THE MERCURY. 239 his poems, but specially in his "Snow-Bound," which, in addi-tion to its other merits, has now also an historical value, as a vivid picture of modes of life, even then obsolescent, and now almost as far away as those pictures of Homer. And not only will the scenery of New England, both outward and domestic, live in his verse ; but it is worth remark, that the nobler quali-ties of the Puritans have nowhere found such adequate literary expression since Milton, as in this member of a sect which they did their utmost to suppress. "Maud Muller" is perhaps the most popular of all his briefpoems. In some of his stanzas there is a lyrical melody, that sings itself into the memory. The best of his ballads have an easy grace of movement. True, he has won his place among American poets, and is very popular. Yet his poems are not interpreted and recited by our great en-tertainers, as are the masterpieces of Longfellow and Poe. I began with the suggestion that Poe was to be understood through his poetry, rather than through any analysis of his life. Indeed, all real and vital literature must be appreciated at first hand, or not be appreciated at all. To know the names and dates of all Poe's poems, and to be able to describe every drunken debauch of his unfortunate career, is not to know Poe as a poet, as a composer of literature, which appeals to the instincts of the possible, and yet impos-sible poet, in every man, who dares to dream dreams, and to build air-castles. Poe touches our inner feelings. It may well be questioned if he quite gets at what is truest and best within us. Certainly he "glides into our darker musings;" but he does not steal away their sadness, he rather intensifies it, and makes us feel what strange compounds we are of the simple, the sublime and the mysterious. In his essay on " The Poetic Principle," Poe said, in praise of Bryant's poem entitled "June," that it always affected him in a remarkable manner. The intense melancholy which seems to well up, perforce, to the surface of all the poet's cheerful sayings about his grave, we find thrilling us to the soul, while there is the truest poetic elevation in the thrill. The impres-sion left is one of pleasurable sadness. /, ■ranvMiBHiwtiiqi^^ttriffltfifl^ 24O THE MERCURY. With Poe, the "feeling of sadness and longing " was real and very present during the most of his life. Perhaps this fact suggests, as powerfully as any other, his title to greatness as a poet. In his " Fable for Critics," Lowell describes himself as a poet burdened with a pack of isms—a burden which was certain to keep him from reaching the greatest success as a poet. Poe had no isms. His one passion was pure poetry—the poetry that is divorced from preaching and moralizing, and which exists for itself, or as a purposeless ex-pression of the poet's feeling for beauty. So, whatever theme he touched, he made musical aud beautiful. However disgraceful Poe's life may have been in many of its outward manifestations, there can be no doubt, but that it had its beautiful side. He knew beauty, purity and truth, even though he also knew their opposites too well. His best poems are almost perfect in their beauty : but with this beauty, there occasionally come incongruous suggestions, that make the flesh of the spirit creep. Perhaps it is no mean service to make sorrow and suffering beautiful in themselves. Some of our best loved poets help us to see the beauty and the joy, which are seen the better through tears, and after pain. Poe would seem to have in-tended to show the sweetness of the bitter, the very joy of sorrow, the exquisite pleasure of pain—so strange, so seemingly contradictory to the man and his writings. It has been hinted that Poe is better understood now, than fifty years ago. He came into the realm of American litera-ture very much as an interloper. But before death closed the scene, the splendor of poetical brilliancy shown through his drooping eye-brows with marked clearness. He was unlike other poets of the first rank. They were men of irreproachable character, with a vital interest in the life that was being lived, and the thought that dominated their generation. Here was a man, who represented poetry from another side. Here was a man who professed to speak the language of the poets, but who lived almost the life of an out-cast. And he seemed to care very little—so much the worse for him then!—for the feelings and the conventionalities of the time. • mrm'1+r r?; T f-fmriwiV THE MERCURY. 24I The puzzling first stanza of " Dreamland " is very character-istic of Poe's life ; for even yet he is a good deal of an enigma— out of space, out of time—to those who know him best. "By a route obscure and lonely, Haunted by ill-angels only, Where an Eidolon, named night, On a black throne reigns upright, I have reached these lands, but newly, From an ultimate dim Thule— From a wild, weird clime that lieth sublime Out of space—out of time." BEGIN NOW. You will read in song or story Of the men of sturdy will Who have fought for^jold and glory And have scaled Achievement's Hill; But to make the application And to draw the moral true, If you'd win that lofty station, Start today ! It's up to you! EARNEST NEAL LYON IN|N. Y. PRESS. "I'll try to steal her heart," quothjhe, "And win her sweetest smiles." "I'll try to steel my heart," said she, "Against love's subtle wiles." So both in steel began to deal And, as you may opine, Love soon declared a dividend And started a combine.—Ex. There was a crowd, for there were three, The girl, the parlor lamp and he ; Two is company, and no doubt That's the reason the lamp went out.—Ex. Ill . u iBimmiteHftt THE MERCURY Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter Vol. XIII GETTYSBURG, PA., DECEMBER, 1904 No. 7 Editor-in-chief C. EDWIN BUTLER, '05 Exchange Editor CHARLES GAUGER, '05 Business Manager A. L. DILLENBECK, '05 Asst. Business Manage} JOHN M. VAN DORKN, '06 Associate Editors H. C. BRILLHART, '06 ALBERT BILLHEIMER, '06 H. BRUA CAMPBELL, '06 Advisory Board PROF. J. A. HIMES, LITT.D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M.D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD, D.D. Published each month, from October to June inclusive, by the joint literary societies of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) College. Subscription price, one dollar a year in advance; single copies 15 cents. Notice to discontinue sending the MERCURY to any address must be accompanied by all arrearages. • Students, Professors and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Busi-ness Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address" THE MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORIALS. Our college weekly, The Gettysburgian, very profitably de-votes two pages, in each issue, to the discussion of the impor-tant, vital and present needs of the college and student body. Consequently topics of immediate interest are limited and the difficulty of finding subjects which may be treated with the brevity required in these columns suggests the theme of want. Surely, at this season, few topics more apropos or relevant could claim our interest and attention. Just now, we want, more time for study, more time for lec-tures and recitations, more time for collateral reading, more time for recreation, more time for thought on the problems that confront us. Indeed we could almost wish for a thousand hours in one day. Our wants are legion. We want more un-selfishness, a wider dispensation of the little cups of cold water ; we want to make every one happy and cheerful. •"** in THE MERCURY. 243 Ask a fellow-student to participate in this little service, to make himself responsible for some worthy project, to do this or that and the ever ready cry is "no time, too busy." What a multitude of unperformed ideal services could be accomplished if we only had more time! But what use do we make of the many odd ten and fifteen minute periods in each day ? An-other year has almost passed and a statement will need to be' forthcoming. Count the debit and credit columns and ascer-tain the heavy losses sustained. Is there sufficient capital to engage in business for another year? As a suggestion, ■"The Economical use of Time" might afford abundant material for the pen of some brilliant essayist. . I > Culture in its wide ethnographic sense means a thorough acquaintance with all intellectual activity. It comprises know-ledge, art, belief, morals, law, custom and numerous habits and capabilities of man when considered as a member of society. All men are more or less cultured ; some more but a vast num-ber less. While a college is intended to and does impart, to a degree, polish and culture yet a brilliant lustre is impossible if the material be crude and unsculptural. "One gets out of life just what he puts into it" and this is especially true of college life. Many men go through the course for the culture that can be had, others with a more definite aim in view and quite a number with no aim or purpose. The two former will in all probability attain their object but what of the latter ? His lackadaisical spirit somehow gets a diploma for him, which sig-nifies neither culture nor purpose, and with this he takes his exit to help advertise his fostering mother. How incongruous! Shall his class-fellows, with the interest and welfare of their alma mater burning in their hearts, permit such an one to leave the ranks, with none of the distinguishing characteristics of a •college man, uncultured, and unenthusiastic ? This type of student is no stranger in any of our colleges. Engage him in conversation and he is soon distinguished as profoundly ignor-ant of the topic under discussion ; in his very gait he gives no •chance for a false conception as to his general make-up. Is it impossible to invent some moral or physical law, designing it to ll-nl'lUUI 244 THE MERCURY. operate on his kind, so that within the next decade perhaps the species may become extinct ? Could such a happy solution of the difficulty be reached it would confer untold blessings upon all institutions and add a very valuable specimen to collections-in the museum. But not in books, alone or a close application to what might be termed college duties is culture to be found. These are often pursued at the sacrifice of other things which have not a little of the polishing element in them. Culture is synonymous with civilization and for its perfection and realiza-tion must have a wider scope than is found immediately within a college curriculum. Fortunate is the institution that has a variety and number of societies and social organizations, the doors of which are ever open to all students, and wise is the man who enters and improves the social and literary oppor-tunities offered there. Contact with the other man is bound tc» augment personality, develop consideration, create thought power and as a consequence impart a depth of culture or civili-zation obtainable in no other manner. EXCHANGES. There is a growing tendency on the part of our exchangesr to picture in burning colors the hero and the coward; the brawny champion of the grid-iron and the insignificant strip-ling ; the bluffer and the grind ; the society man and the "Stag ;" the busy-body and the recluse, in short, every character, whether unique or commonplace, of the academic world. We remark that this is a healthy tendency ; for it not only displays college life in its excentricities but also gives us a glimpse of human character, in its formative period, as found in different colleges. It further sets up ideals, in part, creations of the mind tho they may be, as goals toward which many a student strives or from which he turns in contempt and disgust according as he either sees his ideal or the reverse of his ideal exemplified on the pages of his alma mater journal. Evidently the writer of "The New Sphere for Women" in the Washington Collegian was limited in printing space or is of very tender years and rather inclined to partiality. ■ • • ■ PATKOMZE OUK ADVEKTISEKS. FURNITURE Mattresses, Bed Springs, Iron Beds, Picture Frames, Repair Work done promptly. Under-taking a specialty. * Telephone No. 97. H- IB. Bendei 37 Baltimore St., Gettysburg, Pa. THE STEWART & STEEN CO. College Engravers cuncL (P-rinteTS 1024 ArchJSt., Philadelphia, Pa. 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ORATORICAL NUMBER APRIL, 1901 CONTENTS April 35 The Significance of the Unin-tended 36 Our Democracy 41 The Dream of the Ages 43 The Man with the Hoe 47 War in the Light of the Twen-tieth Century SI International Arbitration to Sat-isfy National Honor 55 John Ruskin—The Man 58 Editorials 62 "The Reign of Law" 63 Exchanges 67 Advertisements 68 FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. For Fine- Printing go to Be X lo Wile Friipliil faff CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes and. Gents' Furnishing Goods Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. EDGAR 5. MARTIN, ^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES ^p* ^y*j^ Chambersburz St., Gettysburg Leadership IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S FURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony ? The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: FALL AMD WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : : STIINE McPherson Block- No. II BALTIMORE STREET WILLIAM H.HETF.ICK GETTYSBURG COLLEGE PA.UL K1ELFFER FRANKLIN &MARSHAL HOWARD E.SH1MER MUHLENBERG COLLEGE J . W. D OVNEY L E H1G H EDWARD E.KELLEY URSIWU5 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY The Literary Journal of Pennsylvania College Entered at the Postojftce at Gettysburg as second-class matter VOL. X GETTYSBURG, PA., APRIL, 1901 No. 2 APRIL JOHN KEBLE Lessons sweet of spring returning, Welcome to the thoughtful heart! May I call ye sense or learning, Instinct pure, or heaven-taught art? Be your title what it may, Sweet and lengthening April day, While with you the soul is free, Ranging wild o'er hill and lee; Soft as Memnon's harp at morning, To the inward ear devout, Touched by light with heavenly warning, Your transporting chords ring out. Every leaf in every nook, Every wave in every brook, Chanting with a solemn voice Minds us of our better choice. Needs no show of mountain hoary, Winding shore or deepening glen, Where the landscape in its glory, Teaches truth to wandering men. Give true hearts but earth and sky, And some flowers to bloom and die, Homely scenes and simple views Lowly thoughts may best infuse. 36 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE UNINTENDED PATTI. KIEFFER, of Franklin and Marshal [First Prize] '"PHERE is an Eastern fable of three princes contesting in arch- * ery for their father's kingdom. The youngest, regarded as a weakling, after an apparently poor effort, is unable to find his arrow. The elder brothers divide the kingdom, while he is left in ridicule to search for the lost missile. Hedoesso. Traveling many days in the direction of the shot, he comes upon his arrow imbedded in the door of a cavern, whither it has been wafted, mile after mile, by some unseen power. The door opens into the land of the genii, a realm of untold riches; and the youthful archer, now a mighty potentate, returns to receive adulation, where but a short time before he had met with but scorn and ridicule. The story of the princely archer is more than a fable; it is an allegory. The shot from his bow had an unintended and unex-pected result; a similar fate has attended men's efforts in all ages. For it is the universal experience that men aim at one thing and attain another. It has been always thus. Men work and labor and toil, and when it is all over and the work is done, behold, the result is other than that of the original intent. Men build better than they know. So true is this that there would seem to be a law by virtue of which it is characteristic of most of the great and genuine and lasting achievements of man, that they come in an unwonted, unintended and unexpected manner. Great is that which man has sought for and achieved; greater still is that which he has not sought for and has yet achieved. Great is the logic of man; the logic of events is greater. Indirection and unconscious-ness— these have attended the fruitful workings of human handi-craft, of human agency, and of human genius. The great discoveries—how have they come? In their blind-ness, men sought to read their fortunes in the stars, and out of astrology grew the noble science of astronomy. In the black kitchens men spend their lives in the search for the elixir of life, and out of alchemy, chemistry is born. The fall of an apple and the discovery of a universal law are inseparably linked. In the cathedral at Pisa a verger oils a lamp and leaves it swinging to and fro; a youth of eighteen sees it, ponders, and conceives the idea of measuring time. Indirection is the law. Men puzzle them- THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 37 selves with problems for years; and then, suddenly, and in some unexpected manner the truth is imparted to some genius and the world moves on a step. New and untried ventures bring strange results. Columbus is sure that he is discovering a new route to the East; the floating seaweed that quells the mutiny on board his ships belongs to a new continent whose discovery renders his name immortal. To-day, four hundred years later, the powerful young nation which has grown up upon this continent has reached the Pacific and is look-ing beyond, and men stand with bated breath as they see her reach-ing across the great ocean to the East. The dream of the Genoese adventurer, after four centuries is about to receive some semblance of fulfillment in a manner of which he little dreamed. A protest against the sale of indulgences is a trifling matter; not so insignifi-cant is the splitting of the Roman Catholic Church and the de-stroying of the Papal supremacy. The little Mayflower bears a small band of men and women seeking religious freedom. After several centuries we look back to the spot upon which they landed, little dreaming of their mission, to see diverging therefrom the rays of light which have illuminated our nation ever since. That was Puritan light that made clear the pathway to Bunker Hill, to Yorktown, and to Appomattox. The colonies are now full grown and the mother country be-comes tyrannical. An unjust stamp tax is imposed and the colo-nists resist. The Boston Tea Party registers opposition to taxation without representation. But the colonists are still loyal. '' From one end of the colonies to the other," says Franklin, "no one is thinking of independence." Then, like a thunderbolt in a clear sky, a bold spirit, raised to a higher plane than his fellows, and catching the first glimpse of a new dawn, cries, "Give me liberty, or give me death!'' The cry of treason is the reply; but the events of a few swift years prove that he has caught a true vision. Resist-ance to a petty stamp tax inspired a revolution, threw off a yoke of oppression, and laid the foundation for the freest, most enlight-ened, most powerful republic in history—while men wondered. The world's battles in all times have been fought out upon forlorn hopes. Gideon sat by the wine-press when he received the call to arms. His three hundred put to flight the hosts of the Midianites. Wilberforce in England and Garrison in America go forth, like Hercules of old, to battle with the hydra-headed slave 33 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY interests. In both continents it is one against a thousand. The one wins and both continents are freed. The world's schools present a strange picture. England's greatest preacher was an uneducated school usher. The temper-ance lecturer is picked out of the gutter. Buu3'an was an infidel. Lincoln was born in a slave state. Paul sat at the feet of Gama-liel. Moses was brought up in Egypt. The poet, the artist—he, too, knows the significance of the unintended. He calls it inspiration. Not a substitute for toil, for years of labor; but the final result comes not in the direct line of work. The painter in his studio sees his work fruitless for years; he is almost in despair; and then one night, as he is taking a moment's rest, in God's great out-of-doors perhaps, his reward comes. Gaspar Becana sits idle by the hearth when the long-awaited message, denied him at his work, is revealed to him in the flame. Years of toil, of unremitting labor; but at the supreme moment, no effort. Small wonder that Schiller exclaimed; "Since creation began All that mortals have wrought All that's God-like in man Comes—the flash of a thought." A scene from our nation's history. Thirty years of growing bitterness have kindled the flame of national discord, and the fiery characters proclaim that slavery is a crime. But at this moment the black slave is forgotten. It is a Federal fort off the southern coast, and it has been fired upon; the national troops have been attacked; states withdraw from the Union; brother takes arms against brother in the horrors of an internecine con-flict. Anti-slavery is swallowed up in a war for the preservation of the Union. Two short, swift years of war, and the voice of the commander-in-chief is heard throughout the land. The words he speaks are those of the Emancipation Proclamation. The slave is free, and that is accomplished by two years of war for another purpose in which thirty years of direct opposition failed. But there is no standing still. History is making. It is thirty years later and another crisis is reached. An oppressed people has lifted its appeal to the great American heart, whose pulsations, imperceptible at times, are none the less sure and true. The world's eyes are directed to Cuba, to the unprecedented ?pec-tacle of a great power wielding the sword in a war for the sake of THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 39 humanity. But while the battle is on, what means this other sound, this note ol war from far across the sea? What mean these guns and sound of falling masonry? Has the electric impulse reached from Cuba half-way around the world? Yes. The American flag floats over Manila and the Philippines are ours. "But hold," the people cry, "tofree Cuba is our onhy aim. What have we to do with those far-off islands and a foreign race. New possessions are not part of our intent." Intent? If history can teach; if the experience of the past can furnish lessons for the present and future, this is the very seal and sign and token of the genuineness of your new duty that it was unintended. Then a voice cries, "So be it, America has burst her bonds!" "Imperi-alism!" is the reply and a new conflict is on. The final arbiter, the sovereign will of the people, must decide. But who can doubt the result? Stop our country's growth? Put an end to the national life? The ballot is cast; the people have echoed "So be it," and the seal of ratification is placed upon another great move-ment whose inception was unwitnessed by human eyes. Then, above the conflict of party and the war of words, one can all but hear the genius of the nation: "Here, O America, is thy duty. Whether thou wilt or no, here is thy mission. Thy path is clear. Here or nowhere is thy destiny, work it out therefrom, to the ends of liberty and humanity, of justice and order and peace." And what is the meaning of it all? Is man a creature of blind chance, his fate determined by every gust of wind that blows? Is history wrought out by luck? Are we to doubt the poet, doubt that "through the ages one increasing purpose runs?" Are man's work, his years of toil, his planning, his foresight, his God-given gift of reason—are all these to go for naught? The on-ward march of civilization answers No. The uplifting and better-ing of humanity answer No. The assent of man answers No. The unintended—unintended by whom? Who intended that the sun should shine by day and the moon by night? Who intended that the earth should yield up her fruits and the rain descend from Heaven? While man proposes, God disposes. Eeason,plan, method, purpose,—all these, could man, blind man, but see them. Yes, "there's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will." It is a dark night at a time of crisis in our nation's history. The 40 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY great captain lies dead at Washington by the hand of the assassin. In the great city of the commonwealth a mob is gathering and its mutterings are terrible in their foreboding. Old wounds gape afresh. The suspense is awful; what the morning will bring no one can tell. Suddenly, above the uproar of the crowd, like the clear note of a trumpet, a voice is heard. It is the voice of a man of the people. The words he speaks are few and simple: "God reigns!" Like the calming of a great storm upon the waters, the crowd disperses and the dawn ushers in a day of peace. May the echo of those words be endless in our country's career! God grant that down her path in times of peaceful well-being, in times of storm and stress, the words of her inspired patriot may ring in the ears of all her sons, "God reigns!" Yes, at her birth-throes He was with her; in the trying times of her infancy and youth He guided her; in her maturity he has blest her. And now, in the full plenitude of her powers, He has sent her a new mission. May He give her strength to fulfill it. May He give her people wis-dom and make her leaders to see the right path: And then, as we turn our eyes towards the future, with senses sharpened by patriotic fervor, we may catch the first glimpse of her shining forth supreme in that glorious company of nations when right shall have become might and the sense of human brotherhood filled all men's souls; and as we strain our ears to listen we may hear, mingled with the triumphal music of might and power, and rising far above it, the clear, pure note of a simple entreaty, the voice of the people lifted on high with that of the poet, to the ' 'God of our fathers, known of old Lord of our far-flung- battle line, Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine, Lord God of Hosts be with us yet Lest we forget! Lest we forget!" «9£, "While words of learned length and thundering sound Amazed the gazing rustics round; And still they gazed and still the wonder grew That one small head should carry all he knew." —GOLDSMITH. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 41 OUR DEMOCRACY WM. H. HETEICK, of Gettysburg [Second Prize] YV7E feel honored, as a people, in that good favor and for- " tune which makes us citizens of the American republic. We exult in the privileges which that citizenship affords. We rejoice in the liberty that gives us equal chances with all for the highest and noblest attainments in life. In short, we would be none but Americans. Were we Germans, we might challenge the world for a refor-mation. Were we Frenchmen, we might extol with pride the merits of an eventful revolution. Or, were we Englishmen, we might look with pleasure on a long line of illustrious rulers, or boast of universal dominion over the seas, or of lands on whose soil the sun never goes down. But we are Americans. We hold up but a century and a quarter of history, but where is its equal? Our part in the world movement was the founding of the people. To found the people. What an aim! To vindicate their honor! To make them free! Ours was the revolution on whose fate hung the human race. It was a conflict between man and king—a people in battle against the tyranny of the whole past. Here was born civil liberty that lifts the yoke of oppression from a subju-gated world. Ah! Here on our own battle-field was struck the blow that annihilated slavery, which for fifty centuries darkened civilization with inhuman crime. Our boast is not of territory. The sun sets every evening over our land, but it throws its golden light on a free and independent people, subject to none but their God, and held and maintained by a constitution that receives the approbation of the world. Our exultation is in the principles of our government; our joy in their beneficent results. Democracy is our nation's honor; manhood the integrity of our people. Manhood—the keystone in the arch of our republic. Manhood—that which Rome with all her strength could never develop, nor Greece, with all her depth of thought, conceive. MANHOOD, that gave Germany her refor-mation, but not strong enough to make her free; that once made England a republic, but too weak to give her equal rights. No! Europe could never develop it. The nearest she came to it was the Puritan and him she drove, exiled, beyond the sea. Away 42 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY from custom and the iron grip of centuries; beyond the despotism of monarchs and aristocracies ; on the water-edge of-an unknown continent it found a home, and on that continent it established an ideal government for man, our own republic. We, the people of that republic, sit this day in our own purple, with no master but our conscience, our reason, and our God. Beneath us lies the dark past of conflict, breaking its troubled waters against the mountain of our democracy. The step to a throne has been taken and the destiny of man is sealed. We stand at last where kings have never stood; with no equal in the world; with tyranny at our feet and the eternal sunshine of progress on our heads. In our hands no diamond-studded sceptre; but an in-vincible ballot. On our heads the crown of an inalienable right. Here equality brings the triumph of humanity, the problem of the ages. We give man his rights and in less than two centuries he builds a nation. We make him his own master and he conquers his own self. We give him room for genius and he becomes a Garfield and a Lincoln. Accident and favor no more usurp the place of honor. The wreath of victory is placed on the man who can, be he the favored son of fortune or the poor, obscure peasant from the cabin-home. It is democracy—manhood crowned—that makes us truly great. To destroy that there must be a power greater than the people's and deeper than the soul's. To take away from the people their God-given rights is to make the world an enigma and the hope of man a dream. No! The people rise and with them the world. Creation moves towards its inevitable goal with our own democracy in the lead. One by one the nations fall in line, moving to no martial strain, but to the music of peace, goodwill to mankind. Yonder in the clear light of the future stands the cross of Christ, in which the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of the Lord, and around which shall gather the nations all, unfurling their banners "in the Parliament of Man, the Feder-ation of the World." «8^ "The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion. —MaCaulay. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 43 THE DREAM OP THE AGES ARTHUR L. CROSSLEY, of Lafayette [Honorable Mention] 'T'HE centuries roll on and on. Nations come and go. But *■ great principles and truths never cease their onward progress. Slowly and quietly they make their way among the peoples, but surely as the eternal God from whom they spring. Such was the principle of religious liberty, forbidden and restrained by the pre-judices and customs of all the past, the first flame kindled in the heart of Luther, then spread throughout Germany and Europe to England and across the sea. Born of the theses nailed on the church at Wittenberg, grown among such convulsions of war and carnage as even Europe had never known before, the principle at last triumphed and the soul of man stood forth free to worship the God of its choice. Such was the growth of political freedom. We see the first faint gleamings of the dawn in early Greece and Rome. But the stormy clouds of the dark ages sweep before our gaze for a thou-sand years. With Magna Charta comes a rift in the darkness. Strong-hearted Englishmen rise in their might and Albion's Isle is free. But for a hundred years, continental Europe still lay in abject slavery at the feet of despots. Suddenly the terrible storm breaks on the vine-clad hills of France. The reign of terror is abroad in the land. Peasant and regal blood alike flow freely, and every brook and rill runs crimson to the sea. When at last the clouds are cleared away, the divine right of kings is a thing of the past, despotism is forever dead, and already we see across the waters the goddess of liberty, whose scepter shall rule the world. The work of the German monk is done. The task begun by Pym and Hampden is finished. The principles of religious and political freedom are proclaimed throughout the earth. But I think, perchance, I see another great principle at work among the peoples. I hear the great heart of humanity throbbing and beat-ing under its mighty impulse. Implanted in the breast of earliest man, it remained for the present age to see it take root and quicken into life. A spark kindled from the great altar of Truth, it has lain smouldering in the human heart through all the centuries. But the great social principle is at work in the world to-day as never before. It is the great force which is to-day shaping the 44 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY course of events. But little more than a century ago and there was not a nation under heaven in which slavery was forbidden. But, behold, England's air grows too pure for the slave to breathe; the shackles fall from the negroes of the southland; the serfs of Russia walk in freedom. "Tis but the first ripening grains of that harvest which is yet to be. 'Tis but the glimmering stars of the morning which foretell the coming of the sun. Go, read the workings of this great principle in the mighty movements of the past century, in the extended suffrage of our land, in the history of the Rockdale pioneers, in the great secret societies of our age, in the present attitude of the Christian Church, all unite in one mighty strain, the Brotherhood of Man. But as society more fully realizes the great bonds which unite man to man, as the flame of truth grows brighter and brighter, men more clearly see the injustice which surrounds them on every side. The scales fall from their eyes. They behold an age of such marvelous labor-saving inventions as a century ago the boldest imagination would not have dared to dream of. But never has the lot of the toiler been harder. Never have his ranks num-bered so many of the children of our land. They behold a nation groaning beneath the burden of its wealth, whose fields are wav-ing with yellow harvests, whose granaries are bursting with golden grain. Yet in the very midst of these greatest accumula-tions of wealth, there are homes of direst poverty, and children that hunger and freeze. They behold a civilization, the most wonderful of all the aeons of time. But its course is strewn with the wrecks of humanity, its foundation stones are red with the blood of man. But seek a deeper meaning in thy book of truth, in the Utopi-an literature of Bellamy and Morris in the mighty trades-unions with their cry of "labor against capital," in the air ever rife with the curses and threats of the striker; yea, go breathe it in the fra-grance of those flowers that bloom on the graves at Homestead and Lattitner. The great social principle is at work in the world, and has been from Babylon down. But never have its notes of warn-ing sounded so plainly in the ears of all who listen. The silent toilers of the ages have at last begun to know the great wrongs which are being done under the veil of law and necessity, and they are determined to right them, even by that greater wrong, the strike and the riot. The principle is at work in the hearts of THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 45 men. We see it in the struggling, starving masses of our great cities, in the discontented workers in our factories and furnaces. The threatening murmur grows louder and louder, until but a few months ago, the hills and valleys of our own fair state echoed and re-echoed, rumbled and thundered with the angry cry and fearless demand of such an army of toilers, in solid and united ranks, as never before in an industrial crisis, has blocked the wheels of progress. The toilers of earth have at last realized their strength, and they are demanding that which by justice has ever been theirs. They have turned on their oppressor and ask, "Who made thee a task-master over us? Why shall thy children have a plenty and more than enough while our little ones go a-hunger-ing?" The toilers are waiting their answer. The appearance of a new truth or principle among men ever means a change in the great social organization. It is only a question whether society shall gradually and in due time adjust itself, and it shall only be a reformation, or whether it shall repress the changes which the growing principle makes necessary, until they shall suddenly break forth in a revolution. Ambition and power have been repressing the changes in tlae organization of society which this growing social principle has made necessary, and for this cause is labor arrayed against capital, and there are strikes and riots and bloodshed. Build your roads of iron and your bridges of steel. Harness the steam and the mighty Niagara. Delve deep into the heart of earth and search the infinite with thy telescope. Bring forth the atom of matter and circle the globe with thy lightning. But, im-portant as all these are, there is yet a greater task before the American manhood of to-day—to solve the great social problems which are pressing on every hand, to put an end to this fraternal strife which threatens, to stay the floods of discontent which are slowly gathering their mighty waters, to quench the fires of an-archy which are kindling in every city and village, to fell this cruel giant of oppression who is trampling out the souls of men. Is the task too great ? Falter not, for we have in our sling one sure stone, even justice. By this shall we accomplish our mighty work, put an end to this tyranny of man over man, let no longer one man possess that which belongs to all, but recognize the equal rights of every man to the bounties of nature, the free blessings of heaven and the rich heritage of all the past. This is 46 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY what justice demands and the working men of to-day are seeking. And it is because we have trampled on these great principles of right, because the opportunities of life have not been thrown open to all alike, but it has been for some to sow and for others to reap, for this cause are the stormclouds gathering on the horizon of time and the laborers are marshalling their forces. The call comes to finish the work begun by Garrison and Lin-coln, to strike down the oppressor of men and forever loose the bonds of slavery which still linger, to wipe out the stain of that southern legislature's recent action, and to make the pages of our own state yet fairer, to rescue the childhood and daughters of our land from the curse of such lives as that of the factory, that life which to-day, ere the bloom ot youth hath appeared, stamps disease on thin pale faces, hopelessness and ignorance on their young lives, and forever brands vice and immorality on their in-nocent souls. We plead not for the men, they are strong. We plead for the helpless childhood of our land, for the fathers and mothers of the years to come. Shield them from the curses which blight. I,et not the gates of the factory and the depths of the mine shut then* from the opportunities of life. Else in the after years they shall know the great wrong which has been done, their hearts shall grow bitter within, and their lives shall become sources of evil and anarchy. "For the child's sob in the silence curses deeper Than the strong- man in his wrath." Go, conquer the isles of the sea. Carry thy commerce to the uttermost parts of the earth. Gather the riches of the nations in thy garners. Wear thy purple robe, knit with the life threads of youth. Drink thy sparkling wine, tinged with the heart drops of childhood. But remember, our brothers, the toilers, are journeying to meet us among the rock-bound hills of Gilead. Wronged through all the centuries, they have not forgotten that stolen blessing. L,et us not delay, but haste to see that these great labor problems are solved, that justice is done in the land, and that brother is reconciled unto brother. Else, behold, these toilers of earth shall rise up and become a very Samson in our land,—nay, even now they are rising—and in their wrath shall they bow themselves and the pillars of state shall tremble and fall at their might. It needs no Daniel to read God's handwriting on those pages THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 47 of the past. The great social principle must prevail in the end. Whether it come by peace or by a Reign of Terror, whether by the mounts of Gilead where the sons of Isaac met, or by Pharsalia, whether thy brother's anger shall be appeased or he shall rise in his wrath and strike thee down, I know not. But come it will as sure as the fountains of eternal truth and justice. And when at last this great principle shall have prevailed among men, and there shall have been effected in society those changes which the growing light of truth and intelligence has made necessary, when the fertile Canaan of life's opportunities shall have been thrown open to all alike, then and then only will the race of man have taken one more step up the incline of true progress and we shall have come a little nearer to that "Dream of the Ages," that time of which the prophets have foretold, and the poets have sung, that day when the stranger shall see in the stranger his brother, when man shall no longer rise on his fellow-man, but united by the bonds of brotherhood, they shall together mount the heights of progress and achievement. «^ THE MAN WITH THE HOE HOWARD E. SHIMER, of Muhlcuberg- \ RIGHTEOUS discontent has ever been the dynamic force ** making for social uplifting,—the sign manual of progress. It is the men who have been discontented with wrong and oppres-sion that have carried on the great agitations of the world, and have made history. Wilberforce and Howard, Thomas Paine and Samuel Adams, Garrison and Phillips were all men profoundly discontented with the wrongs inflicted upon their fellow men; and from their discontent came the spark that lit the altar-fire of liberty. Were Millet's "Angelus" before us while reading Edwin Markham's "The Man with the Hoe," we would be inclined to revolt against nature's apparent injustice. Millet has painted the man with the hoe in colors; Edwin Markham, in words. He is a digger of the earth, bowing his back and breaking the clods. He stands as a type, the honest and honorable representative of those whose lot it is, and must always be, to perform the hard uninspir-ing and soul-crushing labors of mankind. He was seen of old 48 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY among the brick-makers of Egypt, among the millions who lifted wearily the walls of Ilium; who carved the pillars of Karnak and paved the Appian way. To-day he may be seen with a needle in a New York sweat-shop, with a pick in a West Virginia coal mine, with a hod in a London alley, with a spade on the banks of the Zuyder Zee. The manual laborer of to-day is far more discontented with his environment than were his progenitors. This discontent does not imply that his condition has degenerated. It is rather a sign of progress from the status of the mere burden bearer to that of the thinking and responsible social unit. The leaven of educa-tion has worked through the mass—all too imperfectly it may be —and fermentation is still going on. As the reed, breathed upon by the great god Pan, could become no more "a simple reed by the river," so it is no longer possible for the man with the hoe, into whose soul has come the conception of larger liberties and a wider life, to accept with dull and passive content the lot of his forefathers. Much depends upon the point of view from which this man with the hoe is considered. When beheld through the windows of a Fifth Avenue palace, the objective universe takes on a different aspect to that which it assumes when seen from an East-side tene-ment house. The counting house and the sweatshop generate two distinct philosophies of life. The sympathetic spirit may be aroused by the thrilling tale of the sailor's ship-wreck, the miner's entombment, or the slow starvation of the sweater's slave; but only those who must bear the brunt of these industrial tragedies can realize to the full the horrors of the black waves, the poison of the fire-damp, and the howls of the hungry wolf at the door. Sometimes it is a tyrant, forgetful of this brunt, who oppresses; sometimes it is an aristocracy which gathers in the fruits of power and throws upon the masses the burdens of government; sometimes it is a plutocracy which openly exalts money and debases flesh and blood; but everywhere it is the same brutal spirit which ig-nores the brotherhood of man. He was a veritable Columbus in the world of sociology who made the discovery that there is a good deal of human nature among men. The man with the hoe may justly claim to possess his modicum of human nature. With Shakespeare's usurer, he may exclaim: "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 49 us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?" The laborer is a man, claiming a man's share of life; and the questions which most directly affect him can be best considered from the standpoint of manhood rather than from that of classhood. But it is this very breadth of vision that is the most difficult of attainment. The increase of the class sense is rapid. Even the constant attrition going on under democratic institutions does not serve to keep it in check. Plato's saying that "every city holds two nations, the rich and the poor," has in it only too much truth. The Optimist, however, sees thatthe standards of humanity are being more and more upheld by the masses, who occupy that social stratum which lies between the dark despair of the Sub-merged Tenth and the gilded idleness of the Elevated Four Hundred. The literary sycophants who strew rhetorical flowers in the pathway of the successful, without inquiring into the methods employed for procuring success, complacently throw the respon-sibility for the present condition of the man with the hoe upon God, or Nature, or the man himself. Is it the fault of God or Nature that children are driven into factories at so early an age that their bodies are stunted, their minds dwarfed and the strength and usefulness of future generations impaired? Is God or Nature responsible for the laws which permit this impairment of the man-power and the woman-power of the nation? The indolent cannot expect plenty under any just form of government; neither can the vicious expect happiness. But, let us see whether something can not be done to alleviate effectually the painful inequalities of the conscientious employee as compared with his employer, and whether philosophy can not be led from the closet and religion from the altar, and made to exert a united, a practical, and an all-powerful influence upon the affairs of men. Give justice to everyone—justice in the making of the laws, justice in the interpretation of the laws, justice in the execution of the laws,—justice first and charity afterward. But questions of detail and method constitute, after all, but a comparatively unimportant part of our problem. The great thing is, that the mass of the community shall be capable of self-govern-ment. Theologies and governments alike are but the replica of the human minds back of them. Michael Augelo may conceive SO THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY heaven-reaching lines of grace; but to erect the stately edifice there must be suitable material. So, the question of the industrial welfare of the American laborer merges into the broader question of the triumph or the failures of the democratic idea upon which the American Republic is founded. Political equality and industrial inequality can not long co-exist. In our republican institutions work the ferment of the ages and the leaven of all nations. Kings may prop up their thrones with bayonets; but democracy must rest upon in-telligence. The greatest danger which confronts our republic is the grow-ing antagonism between classes. The poor will never again be the passive sufferers of bygone ages. Their indictment of social injustice is drawn and presented. "Bitter voices say it," writes Ruskin, "voices of battle and famine throughout all the world, which must be heard." The test is at hand which is to prove whether the sneers of Macaulay and Carlyle against the republic were false or founded upon truth. It is easier by far to preach the gospel of rights than to teach the law of the comprehension of duty; for the latter demands a well-disciplined and well-devel-oped intellect. We know that it is said, iu palliation of the restrictive influence of plutocracy, that the condition of the man with the hoe is as good as he deserves. We know that it would be useless and per-nicious to call upon the half-savage and brutalized peasantry by electing them to Congress or the State Legislature. We know that the man with the hoe is unfit for it, that is the very curse of the system. What is it that unfits him? What is it that makes slavish labor, and slavish ignorance, and slavish stupidity his necessary heritage? Does not the same Aryan blood course through his veins? Has he not five senses, the same faculties, the same passions? When every true American realizes that the Almighty knows no class distinctions; when the lessons of truth and purity which have been inculcated in our Christian homes, will be applied to the man with the hoe; when religion and labor will go hand in hand; when none but the bravest and most loyal citizens dare sway the employer's sceptre, all signs of decay will be buried into oblivion and we shall have a nation too noble to crumble, too great to be conquered. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 51 WAR IN THE LIGHT OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY EDWARD E. KELLEY, of Ursinus '-pHE military power of Europe has become a matter ot vital *■ importance. She is virtually arm-crushed. Her armies are devouring her very substance, depleting the national treas-uries, and changing the established social and political con-ditions. With the unsettled state of China, the increase of arma ments and navies and the attitude of a people cursed by taxation and conscription, Europe cannot remain forever a vast, hostile camp. The rivalries of England and Russia and the antipathies of the Frank and the German threaten to "turn loose the dogs of war'' to prey upon humanity for their self aggrandizement. Under existing conditions war must come. Such is the verdict of history as she points the finger of warning to Rome and Carthage. A condition of affairs like this, however, has no place in the midst of the liberty, the intelligence, the happiness and the morality of our age. When war thus threatens to rush the nations headlong into a "roaring conflagration of anarchies," then war disdains the spirit of the age, mocks the God-like reason within man, and becomes "the living and triumphant relic of barbarism." Not only Europe but the civilized world demands that this in-stitution, by which so few rights have been gained, which could not have been achieved without it, be brought before the bar of reason. For this institution has committed the greatest crimes recorded on the pages of history in blasphemy of that which is holiest; in the name of liberty, fraternity and equality, the French Revolution raised a gigantic monument whose brick was the flesh of Frenchmen and whose mortar was the heart's blood ot France. True, some wars have been productive of a lasting good. Europe purchased liberty of mind by the death of six million crusaders; religious liberty was the outgrowth of the Thirty Years' War; the French Revolution broke the iron chains of despotism; this, our own glorious union, had its birth in war. It were a grievous pity, however, if such a blasting institution had not done some good. The most lasting benefit may be the result of the worst evil, and on the other hand, "the purest, holiest and noblest virtue may be devoted to a useless cause." But the blighting and accursed results of war everywhere predominate. Civiliza-tion was retarded one hundred years, as a consequence of the THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Thirty Years' war. The civil wars in England and France delayed it for similar periods. Above all, man is to be governed not by material but by moral standards. There is no doctrine more abusive to the human understanding than that we ma}' do evil that good may come. There is another sentiment—"sublime, sacred, insurmountable, indestructible, eternal—the sentiment of right." Let no advocate of war presume on the dead past as a criterion for the breathing, ever living present. Political and economic conditions have changed since George the III; absolutism is a thing of the past; the object of the crusades is now the noble mission of the press. Oh! how incompatible with the age is this institution of war. We, the heirs of all the ages, look with sympathy on the barbaric past, and still we train legions of men to the profession of murder; we speak of a higher civilization amidst the ruin of our home, the shriek of the widow and the cry of the orphan which our cruelty has made. We boast of a common brotherhood of man, and yet we grasp our fellow by the throat and stifle the very life that God gave him! The fact that our own nation recently drove despotism from the shores of this west-ern continent and broke the shackles of an oppressed people is no justification of war. It was a glorious work. And she but made use of a recognized agent which is maintained by the interests and prejudices of powerful nations. The stigma lies not on the noble work of the Republic; but upon the age which upholds this bloody relic of the past in domination over reason; for this age, while it makes the individual abide by a trial of reason, is so inconsistent as to allow the nations, groups of individuals, to be ruled merely by their lust for conquest. Let us not, I beseech you, deceive our-selves. For this institution of war to have a mission, our religion, which teaches love to one's neighbor, must be false; philosophy, which teaches the irrationality of brute force, belies itself, and man, who professes to acknowledge standards of morality and justice, is a base and unworthy hypocrite. Vain and delusive is the theory of the survival of the strongest —of the right of one civilization to crush another out of existence. Our universe is a natural one, and its units can only grow from step to step through the continuous process of natural law. Where-ever nations have attempted to usurp the place of nature by in. troducing untimely changes, inevitable and dreadful reaction has THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 53 followed. History is replete with the baneful results of coercion. Such a theory binds only the jungle. When applied to man, fash-ioned in the Divine image and sweeping onward, ever onward to the realization of his ideal, it prostrates the native dignity of his manhood in the dust. The triumph of the stronger is not the triumph of justice. O, strange Justice, which is ever on the stronger side. "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne." Tell me, when Poland, noble and heroic Poland, lay crushed and bleeding at the foot of the Muscovite, was the triumph of the stronger the better? Who of us is certain in his heart that force is accomplishing a purpose in South Africa? Read in the history of Ireland another living witness against the iniquity and injustice of war. Truly, justice depends upon reason and not upon the sword, and man, "the sovereign animal of crea-tion," cannot be molded like clay. We have reached that stage in the world's progress when the restriction of force will be conducive to the advancement of civ-ilization; when co-operation must replace destructive competition. Before this growing love of humanity man must acknowledge his fellow as a natural as well as a social and political unit. Before this growing love of humanity war becomes a crime. From amongst the ruin, bloodshed, and carnage of the battle-field, the soul, startled, shrinks from its shattered body to wing its flight heavenward ':o record its destruction. Do you not think that God, the great sovereign of nature, will demand the right of its deviation from that purpose for which the laws of nature and of nature's God created it? By what right do we rush this being, its heart fermenting with evil passions, with curses upon its lips, un-called into the presence of an offended deity? How will we in judgment before the tribunal of the Most High, free ourselves from our responsibility for its condemnation? How will we an-swer the shivered, wrecked and ruined legions—the once glorious and God-like representatives of a mighty universe standing hand to hand .witnesses before the Eternal King against us? Is it through the plea that we desired the territory belonging to another? Is it through the false argument that we wished to substitute our higher civilization for a lower? The rise and fall- of nations means less to God than the loss of this one soul—this soul, which, as Cato says, "secured in her existence, smiles at the drawn dagger and defies its point. The stars shall fade away, the sun himself grow dim S4 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY with age, and nature sink in years, but thou shalt flourish in im-mortal youth, unhurt amidst the war of elements, the wrecks of matter and the crush of worlds." When all is considered we find that man is bound to his fellow not through mere ties of blood, but by the sacred ties of his own divine nature. A condition of affairs like the present which ig-nores this hallowed link of a common Fatherhood strikes at the very vitals of Christian idealism. The maintenance of war, this relic of primitive man, on the plea of its antiquity is unjustifiable. History is a mute witness to the fact that all human institutions have their day, that once they have ceased to be of utility they must either be forgotten or destroyed. "There is no question without an answer; no problem without a solution." War and "man's inhumanity to man has made countless thousands mourn." Man introduced inequalities and wrongs upon this earth; honor de-mands that by him they must be righted. Duty calls to everyone of us to array himself on the side of humanity. Let others sing of the flag and country, I plead for this growing love of humanity which will elevate and purify patriotism. Let others chant the martial music of war, I hear the cries which have risen midst the ruins of the world's battle fields; from the homes of those who have shed the rich, ripe blood of their manhood in behalf of military glory; from the millions who have been robbed of their liberties; from the millions throughout the broad universe who have been ruthlessly sacrificed to the cause of nations. Oh, we have had enough,of bloodshed! Let us blot it from our lives, and I appeal to you, representatives of our civilization, to cast your in-fluence wherever you can, against this hideous relic of barbarism. Remembrance implores you by the sorrow-tensioned chords of memory; from every blood-stained battle-field the commingled ashes of the dead entreat you; humanity cries out to you in the mute persuasion of her fallen greatness, and heaven adjures you in the dying agonizing voice of a crucified God: Thou shalt not plant the brand of Cain upon the brow of man! >*> ««£> " Eloquence is the appropriate organ of the highest personal energy.''—Emerson. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURi 55 ■ INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION TO SATISFY NATIONAL HONOR JAMHS N. DOWNEY, of Lehig-h HPHE establishment of an international tribunal to which all * disputes between nations, that cannot otherwise be adjusted, should be referred has been the dream of philosophers and states-men for ages. That this has not been accomplished, proves that civilization has not advanced sufficiently to enable nations to set-tle their differences except by resort to arms. In the dawn of civilization we find, even in judicial processes, a mixture of forcible contention, showing the transition from a period when rights were regulated by the strong hand. In later years, however, there has been some progress in settling disputes between nations and the principle that human reason is capable of settling differences as well as creating them has been established. The past century was ushered in in the midst of a period of destructive wars and its history contains the records of many bloody conflicts. Nevertheless, it has witnessed the growth of the practice of international arbitration to satisfy '' National Honor." This method has been shown to be broad and far-reach-ing, and while in some instances the award has been set aside or not enforced, in no case have two nations gone to war after hav-ing agreed to arbitrate a difference. The first experience of this nation in settling disputes was the Jay Treaty with Great Britain in 1794. While this treaty was not satisfactory and by no means popular with the American people it is our initial step in the paths of arbitration. Washing-ton alone, while not approving of the treaty, stood up for it and signed it. In so doing he exhibited his firmness of character, good judgment, and foresight. And when he said "My objects are to prevent war, if justice can be obtained by fair and strong representations of the injuries which this country has sustained at the hands of Great Britain," he at once struck the key-note of arbitration. Since the Jay Treaty there have been twenty distinct arbitrations between the two great English speaking nations of the world, Great Britain and the United States, of which the Behring Sea dispute is the latest example. The greatest settle-ment was that of the "Geneva Award" in regard to the Alabama claims and it demonstrated that arbitration between nations was possible. This was a grave question and involved the honor 01 S6 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY England and the United States, yet by temperate and wise dis-cussion, it was brought to a peaceful adjustment, and, as has wisely been said, "Two great and powerful nations, gaining in wisdom and self-control and losing nothing in patriotism and self-respect, taught the world that the magnitude of a controversy need not be a bar to its peaceful solution and the maintenance of national honor." When the conference at the Hague was called by the Czar in 1899, the suggestion was greeted with sneers and suspicion on the part of many, with enthusiasm by a few and by most with a shrug of the shoulders. The majority of the delegates attending had vague ideas concerning arbitration and its extent. Russia, the leader of the movement, was the greatest surprise of all. She thought arbitration should be made obligatory except where honor and vital interests were involved. Honor and vital interests are always shadowy things in the hands of the statesmen, and, more-over, can be shown to exist in any dispute that may arise. The conference found the idea of disarmament too fanciful and the limitation of armament to its present strength premature. Dis-armament should follow and not precede arbitration. The real obstacle in the way of arbitration is not so much the lack of efficiency in method as the lack of disposition to try it, and the system of arbitration presupposes that nations desire an amicable adjustment of their differences. Such settlement may be prevented, either by wilful opposition to it, by claims that render argument impossible, or by some covert act on the part of one of those concerned. It is difficult, if not impossible, to con-tend against a situation like this, since the direct tendency and effect is to bring on a collision before arbitrators can intervene. History affords many examples of aggressive wars or wars of ambition where national honor was not concerned; but happily they are now becoming less frequent. The remedy against such wars was suggested in the unratified treaty of arbitration adopted in 1890 by the Pan-American Conference. It was proposed to adopt a principle of international law, and to make it imperative that diplomatic and consular controversies and any disputes what-soever between nations, except cases in which, in the judgment of one of the parties concerned, its independence was at stake, should be settled by arbitration. The object of this was to leave each nation the right of self defense, while forbidding any to - THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 57 commit aggression. Again, at the conference at Hague, these resolutions were revived and vigorously pushed by Great Britain and the United States. Great generals have shown their abhorrence of war. Well-ington said, "Nothing except a battle won can be half so melan-choly as a battle lost." General Grant, speaking of arbitration and national honor, said, "Though I have been trained as a soldier and have taken part in many battles, there was never a time, when in my estimation some way could not have been found to prevent the drawing of the sword." The characters of the men who govern nations and to whom the honor of their country is entrusted, shape the events that fol-low. If they are wise and honorable, then their country will be peaceful and prosperous. If they are impulsive, self-seeking, and unreasonable, then their country will suffer. Our republic, guided and directed by this spirit, has done more for the cause of international arbitration than any other country in the world. Its purpose has been the enlargement of the individual, the advancement of his interests and liberties, and finally, to administer justice to all. The question of peace and the satisfaction of national honor is one which may not be settled for generations. It is one, how-ever, which this and every coming generation will have to deal with, and whatever is done the world looks to the United States as a leader. Appreciating this we may close our minds to our ingenious fault-finding and turning our eyes away to the far horizon, we there see the shadowy images of international law and justice and morality dimly visible among the clouds. k "The prodigies which eloquence often works, in the hands of a single man, upon an entire nation, are perhaps the most shining testimony of the superiority of one man over another." —D''Alemberi. 58 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY JOHN RUSKIN—THE MAN ' WM. L. HESS, of Swarthmore JOHN RUSKIN has said, 'All my theories are summed up in *-* the line of Wordsworth, 'We live by admiration, hope and love.' Not admiration of ourselves, nor hope for ourselves. Love can be only of others; self-love is a contradiction of terms." Truly, a noble utterance from a man of intense earnest-ness and commanding sincerit3r. Search where you will, there can be found no character who commands more genuine respect and whose personality has been more general than that of the practical thinker, the late John Ruskin. His was a life of genius, enthusiasm and self-devotion. To read him is to admire him; and to admire him is to admire that which is sincere, pure and poetic. John Ruskin was born in London, England. Unlike the fathers of many of our celebrities, his father was a man of affluence, his shrewdness in business, that of a wine merchant, being the means of his acquiring a fortune early in life. We are told that the elder Ruskin was of a visionary nature when away from his shop, and that he spent his evenings in reading Shakespeare and in singing. The mother was a woman of great severity. One of the tasks which she imposed upon her son until he was fourteen years of age was that of committing many and long passages from the Bible. The influence of this early teaching was manifold. His writings teem with Biblical quotations and imagery. We do not find in Ruskin's early life any of those amusements which are so common to boyhood. He was not in any way in-dulged, and if he committed a fault the usual penalty was sure to follow. These restrictions made his boyhood unattractive and uninteresting. Yet there was developing in this quiet and reserved child a genius which was destined to astound the world. At the age of eleven years he is discovered successfully copy-ing the etched illustrations by George Cruikshank, to Grimm's '' Fairy Tales." It is true that as an etcher he showed slight pro-ficiency, but this early performance is evidence that he had the power to become mighty in something although it happened not to be in etching. After having received a preparatory training under the direc-tion of tutors, Ruskin was sent to Oxford, where he was graduated at Christ Church College. His college life was uneventful, and of his life at Oxford he relates, "It seemed to me all that was re- I THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 59 quired of me was to say my prayers, go to church, learn my les-sons, obey my parents and enjoy my dinner." Like the unfolding of a beautiful, delicately perfumed flower which gradually opens its petals to God's genial sunshine was the unfolding of the life and character of the nineteenth century prophet, John Ruskin. The tempest of criticism beat about him; the fierce winds of doubt, greed and envy tried by their piercing blasts to cast him to the dust; but, like the flower, he remained steadfast and pure—beautiful in his constancy. He held that 'his mission in life was to proclaim the beauties in the works of others—not his own." Did he fulfill his mission? Ask that stu-dent of art who received his first impressions from Ruskin ! Did he fulfill his mission ? Turn to that student of architecture who owes to Ruskin what skill he possesses, and ask if his master ful-filled his mission ! Ask that lecturer or preacher who uses such choice rhetoric in his discourses, that lecturer or preacher who has read Ruskin ! Ask that social reformer who has studied Rus-kin's ideas and method of reform as he saw them in others but which he idealized and made his own; yes, ask that question of all, and the artist, the architect, the lecturer and preacher, and the social reformer will candidly answer, John Ruskin did fulfill his mission, he did perform those duties which he claimed he would perform; and, sir, the world to-day is better because there has lived in it a man who not only promised, but one who also acted out his promises in word and in deed. Ah! a great and good man has gone out from our midst. The physical form of our lamented Ruskin has left us, but the influence of his Christian life remains. And this influence will remain as long as the world endures, and future generations will appreciate Ruskin as we have failed to do. Criticism will be heard no more; but the melody of his language; his grand prophetic visions will be enjoyed by all! Pre-eminently was Ruskin a nature-worshipper. He loved the flowers, the brook, the mountains, and the fleecy clouds. To him the wayside rose preached more eloquently than words the lessons of purity and simplicity, and to sit for hours watching the fitful changing of the skies was to him a perfect delight. His soul stirred within him, he could exclaim with Shakespeare: 60 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY "Full many a glorious morning have I seen Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the meadow green, Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy." We should study Ruskin, for, by so doing, our faculty of appreciation for nature will be opened. We will more deeply value the small things which lie about us on life's pilgrimage. The tiny blade of grass will arouse new thoughts within us. The dainty Quaker-lady will teach us the lesson of humility as it has never before been taught; even the seemingly unsightly stones which are strewn along our path possess a language too deep for words. An editor of note has lately said, "Work is for the worker." To no one does this more aptly apply than to John Ruskin. Many of his well-defined theories for the betterment of the working classes, and for the uplifting of humanity in general may appear to have been as seed sown by the wayside, but the time spent in working out his theories only strengthened him for the practical tasks which he so well performed day by day. That which is put into work is surely that which shall be reaped. Put in envy, and discontent and misery shall be the reward, whereas power is the reward of love and patience! Thus it was a practical test of our teacher when he gathered around him that promiscuous band of workmen and children to teach .them the right way of living. After his arduous labor of thirty long years to undertake such a stupendous work was noth-ing less than heroic. Again must we pay honor to this fearless spirit, who needed only to speak, and the intelligence of the world listened with awe! L,eft a fortune by his father, he lavished it upon his chosen people, ignorant and poverty stricken. The quintessence of art, literature, and science was offered to them; and costly museums were founded for their instruction. And this cost him more than his wealth! He paid the price; they reaped the material reward! His was the loss of peace; theirs was the gain of a new life and happiness! But the enterprise was a failure! Failure, did I say? Yes, but a glorious failure; not shorn of any of its benefits, its fame still lives as a blessing to humanity! In its character this enterprise might seem Utopian, but after all deductions have been made there is no discredit to be cast THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 61 upon the memory of John Ruskin, for, bear in mind, he was merely living what he wrote. With his Bible as his lexicon he followed its teachings; followed them although the whole Christian world laughed him to scorn; aye, followed them even after his project had failed! He wrote, "Religion is a submission, not an aspira-tion; an obedience, not an ambition, of the soul," and he lived that religion. His life was a constant submission, a holy obedi-ence to the will of his God, and our God. In his declining years he was rejected; thrust aside by the busy world; but from out his confinement we still heard him proclaim against the evils of the times. In poor health, yet while life lasted he continued to attack the most alluring vices, and preach those "inner virtues" which he held so sacred. There was something awaiting him beyond which was no vanity; all was radiant before him; and on the twentieth of January of the last year of the nine-teenth century the soul of John Ruskin serenely took its flight. . The character of this great benefactor of the whole human race, what is its message to thinking men and women? Simply this, that truth, knowledge, right living, are the basis of growth in man. But there is a sadness in truth! Knowledge has its sorrow! Right living still continues to have its tragedy! The martyred Lincoln wrote the truth in his Proclamation which freed millions in bondage, and his life was the price! The Seeker after knowledge, a Newton or a Darwin, must drink to the dregs the cup of sorrow! A Christ must be led to a Calvary, and there pay the penalty for his spotless life! Upon the monument of Time one more name should be en-graved, that of John Ruskin, and underneath, I would have traced the words, "Prince of Peace." "Those who speak in public are better heard when they dis-course by a lively genius and ready memory than when they read all they would communicate to their hearers."—Watts. "The business of oratory is to persuade people." —Lord Chesterfield. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Kntertdat the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter VOL. X GETTYSBURG, PA., APRIL, 1901 No. 2 K. C. RUBY, '02, Editor-in- Chief R. ST. CLAIR POFFENBARGER,' 02, Business Manager J. F. NEWMAN, '02, Exchange Editor AAssi■s,tant. E»dji,tors Advisor'y Board " , ., 0 ,"" PROF. J. A. HIMES, A. M., LIT. D. MISS ANNIE M. SWARTZ, '02 _ " " " ' "' * . " " ,", PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. A. B. RICHARD,'02 _ . _. _ ' _ PROF. J. W. RICHARD. D. D. Assistant Business Manager CURTIS E. 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Through the kindness of the contestants we are permitted to place before our readers all the orations which were used in the contest, and to the Public Ledger of Philadelphia we owe our grat-itude for the use of the plate in reproducing the photogravure as found on the frontispiece in this issue. We wish to state, how- THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 63 ever, that the defects in the frontispiece are due to the condition of the plate and not that of the printer. Time did not permit of any change. • Having opened a new store opposite W. M. R. R. Depot, will be pleased to have you call and examine goods. Picture Framing promptly attended to. Repair Work a Specialty Students' Trade Solicited FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. 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'- u VOL. IX. No. 6 NOVEMBER, 1900 ooTheoo Gettysburg Mercury CONTENTS An Evening Lesson, Abraham Lincoln, Lament for the Pine, Rabbi Ben Ezra, . Thanksgiving Day, . Editor's Desk, A Chapter of a Life, The Stability of a Republic, Shakespeare's Attitude Toward Education, . 193 The Horse vs. the Automobile, 196 Our Old School Ground, . . 198 When Should a Young Man Choose his Profession, . 201 How it Looks from the Road, 203 My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is, 203 m FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. For Fine- Printing go to i Jo Co Wile Priiptlipg Sfaw CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes- and. Gents' Furnishing Goods \ Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. EDGAR S. MARTIN, ^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES. q^f l2^ t&* Chambersburg St., Gettysburg Leadership IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S PURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony ? The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: FALL AND WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : : STIINE McPherson Block. No. II BALTIMORE STREET THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, The Literary Journal of Ptnnsylvania College. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., NOVEMBER, 1900. No. 6 AN EVENING LESSON. [J. B. B., '01.1 'Twas in a dusky twilight hour I wandered down the vale, Beneath the cooling- azure bower My spirit to regale. I spoke to God ; He answered back And nought our talk disturbed, Till down the narrow winding track A noise our talk disturbed. 'Twas not the sound of human tongue, Nor beast nor bird aloof; But ringing from the hills among, A call to man's behoof. I stepped aside and turned awry To watch the iron steed, Till rumbling, roaring, rolling by He vanished o'er the mead. My thoughts again to God returned, He spoke once more to me, And from his sovran lips I learned These words of majesty: So run my plans creation through Across the track of time, Tneir goal as sure, their course as true Their journey more sublime; And nations, that as thou will show Attention's early gaze, In wisdom, and in strength shall grow, To prosper all their days. 172 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY ABRAHAM LINCOLN. [ORATION BY J. FRANK HEILMAN.] '"PHIRTY-FIVE years have passed and the Republic is stronger A than ever. The battle smoke of civil war has rolled away, and as we look into the clear past our first glance meets the colossal figure of Abraham Lincoln. He seems a mountain— when you examine each particular crag and feature how homely he appears; but stand back half a century, behold the entirety. —Do you not see the hand of God ! We wonder at him for his greatness, and we are proud of him that he is ours. We cannot imagine Lincoln as a Grecian or a Roman ; he is not English and certainly not French—he belongs to us alone but his fame is the world's. Our broad land can no more contain that than the pres-ent generation can estimate its duration; ages are the units which shall measure its extent and eternity shall not behold its com-pletion. Let us for a while then consider him who, under God, more than any other preserved our liberties and kept us as a peo-ple what we are. The nation was falling; that government of which sages had dreamed, that Republic toward which the Liberian exile cast his longing eye, the hope of mankind, the home of the brave sink-ing into theory ! On the fate of our country hung the fate of the human race for all time and our country was perishing. "Hu-manity with all its fears" was "hanging breathless on her fate ! " Should kings reign forever and the people never be free ? Then came the hour and the man;—from the ranks of the common people appeared the "rail-splitter" of Illinois. Who was that unknown man ? When England saw him she jeered at his home-ly face, France mocked his big hands and bent shoulders, the great men of his own land had no faith in him—but he had come with a mission, God had sent him ; and amid the clash of armies and the hell of war he rose Godlike. Those big hands erased the Mason and Dixou line, tore the shackles from the slave and held our country on the great world map ; those bent shoulders lifted our Republic to the highest place in history—and when his work was done he sealed it with his own blood. Then France took the name of the backwoodsman and said, "It belongs with Richelieu and Napoleon " ; then England took that homely face and hung it with Shakespeare and the elder Pitt; while the negro, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 173 holding up to the world the shackles and chains of two centuries, exclaimed, "Lincoln broke these." The hisses turned to cheers ! While he lived, however, Lincoln was never fully appreciated, it was only when he had passed away and strong men staggered under the great burdens which he had borne so well, that his countrymen began to feel how strong he had been ; it was not until the giant of the forest had. fallen that, by the space unoccu-pied, its magnitude was realized. Then the world looked on and wondered—that child of poverty, that rail-splitter, that uncrowned king! His influence rose from an unseen shoot to a vast and mighty tree, and now in the hour of civil heat and international suspense our country rests beneath its shadow. Unknown, untried, slandered, without a single precedent in all history, called by the American people to lead them—where ? —through an earthquake epoch that was splitting the land north from south and shaking the pillars of human liberty. When Abra-ham Lincoln entered Washington, kings rejoiced, proclaimed that republics were forever done ; but when they bore him back to the west, historians wrote, "Republics shall stand and kingdoms fall." When amid the jeers of Europe he entered the Capitol our coun-try was breaking apart and five million slaves breathed our air; but when they bore him, murdered, back to Illinois our land had been united forever and our flag made the flag of the free. Yes, he was poor and unpolished, awkward and homely, true, he was a rail-splitter, and yet—he was a king ! His wisdom, his elo-quence, his humanity, courage and prophetic vision blended into the ideal statesman just as the prismatic shades fold into the pure white. Then, too, so many heroes are famous either for great heart or great brain power, but in Lincoln the great heart and the great brain were together. While the awful responsibility of the Re-bellion was sinking its story deep in his brow, and while the re-peated disasters of our armies where so nearly overwhelming him that occasionally his mind was weak, he found time to write and in the name of the Republic to thank mothers whose sons had fallen in battle. A master of language ! what did he know of Latin or Greek—to-day a university of Great Britain is studying the perfect English of an off-hand letter. A stump speaker who distorted his face to provoke a laugh, they tell us that his Gettys-burg oration will live with "De Corona." Washington was 174 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY proud, aristocratic, in habit and reserve English; Lincoln was a democrat, out and out a man of the people, distinctively Ameri-can. How appropriate it is that he sleeps his last sleep far away in the West, on an arm of the "Father of Waters," in the bosom of our country, in the heart of the people he loved so well. It is said that the greatest of Italian sculptors owing to the superstitious fear of losing his genius always left unfinished some parts of his creations, but it seems that when God formed the masterpiece of American history, He gave to the world the in-comparable boon of a leader perfect in every respect. Your children's children shall lisp his name with reverence, aye, when continents have changed their coasts and the twentieth century shall be called the dawn of history, your posterity, the great American people, shall point with pride to Abraham Lincoln, our uncrowned king. LAMENT FOR THE PINE. [C W. WISER, '01.] High up on the mountain side, In his cabin lone and drear, Pondering o'er the glowing fire, Sits the aged pioneer. Cold without the wind is roaring, Thro' the tops of many trees ; Dismally its wierd notes moaning:— "Gone is summer's gentle breeze." Darkness now is quickly gathering 'Neath her folds the parting day, And with forces growing fuller, Comes the storm, the night to sway. Bright within a great log burning On the ancient hearth aglow, Lightens up the little cabin, With its smoky rafters low. In his arm chair, dozing, napping, Sits in peace the aged swain; While upon the window pattering, Fall the little drops of rain. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Thus he sits and gently dozes, In the fire's cheery glare, While without, in roaring tempest, Mournful sounds now pierce the air. Hark ! he cries, what do I hear In the wildness of the night, Is it then a lost one near,—■ Or the eagle in its flight. Ah I I know, it is the sighing Of the top of yonder pine, How it sets my heart a throbbing, When I think of days long syne. How my heart aches at the thought Of those days so long gone by, When beneath the mighty forest Naught was seen of yonder sky. When within its darksome shadows Roamed at large the nimble deer, And upon its mossy carpets Walked the panther and the bear. When beneath its mighty shelter Naught was felt of winter's sting; Snugly sheltered 'neath its branches We did wait the coming spring. Long since those trees have fallen Like stout heroes of the past; Felled by the brawny woodman, Tho' they braved the wintry blast. Ah ! no more I'll see those pines, As they towered to the sky, And no more will feel their shelter As I thro' the forest hie. In their place new ones have risen, Scrubby trees of oak and pine, But no more I'll see its glory As I did in days long syne. 17S The dead leaves their rich mosaics Of olive and gold and brown Had laid on the rain-wet pavements, Through all the embowered town. —Samuel Longfellow- -November. 176 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY "RABBI BEIN EZRA." [C. C. GROVE.] /^"\N taking up the present theme, realizing as I hope some of ^S the great depth and beauty of the poem, my spirit is found breathing with Milton: " What in me is dark Illumine ; what is low raise and support," that I may bring to the notice of someone the consummate beauty of religious philosophy in Browning's "Rabbi ben Ezra." "Bring to the notice," I said, for it has been well written, "This is one of those poems which can never be profitably anatyzed or commented on: it must be read." Therefore, it is ours only to give the poem in sections with some outside substantiating and explana-tory thoughts. Like Longfellow's "Psalm of Life," this poem is an address of an old man, the Rabbi, to a young man, concerning the course of life, to light him on the way and to counsel him that he may come off victorious. He begins :— Grow old along with me ! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made : Our times are in His hand Who saith, "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God : see all, nor be afraid ! " The glory of the sun in the zenith is one; in its setting, a more serene, benignant glory. Such is old age—"I shall know, being old." In "Saul," the poet expresses the same in other language, thus :— By the spirit, when age shall o'ercome thee, thou still shall enjoy More indeed, than at first when unconscious, the life of a boy. Would there were more who think Tennyson's Ulysses :— How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use ! As tho' to breathe were life ; More ready to "see all" nor "be afraid." The fears and hopes of youth's doubtful stage are thus out-lined :— Not that, amassing flowers, Youth sighed, "Which rose make ours, Which lily leave and then as best recall ? " Not that, admiring stars, It yearned, "Nor Jove, nor Mars ; Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all I " THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 177 Not for such hopes and fears Annulling youth's brief years, Do remonstrate ; folly wide the mark ! Rather I prize the doubt Low kinds exist without, Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark. While "Young, all lay in dispute" and so it must needs be. i/ove, hope, fear, faith,—these make humanity These are its signs, and note, and character.—"Paracelsus." These are exponents of character, as Bailey says, in Festus, Sc. A Country Town :— Who never doubted never half believed, Where doubt, there truth is, 'tis her shadow. Yet this is not all; the hopes, joys, and pleasures of youth although not remonstrated against are nevertheless proper only in their place and season. Poor vaunt of life indeed, were man but formed to feed On joy, to solely seek and find and feast; Such feasting ended, then as sure an end to man ; Irks care the crop-full bird ! Frets doubt the maw-crammed beast "Such feasting ended" would but mark the beginning of a period of lassitude, inactivity, and indifference. Does any care harass the crop-full bird or doubt the well-fed beast? But strong souls, having passed the days of being fed on broth, are different. Says George Eliot in "Spanish Gypsy," Book IV :— Strong souls Live like fire-heated suns, to spend their strength In furthest striving action. Not enjoyment and not sorrow Is our destined end or way, But to act that each to-morrow Finds us farther than to-day. Let us then Rejoice we are allied To That which doth provide And not partake, effect and not receive ! A spark disturbs our clod; Nearer we hold of God Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe. We have a nearer hold of God, possess a closer relationship with God who gives than with His tribes that take. Ours it is to minister, not to be ministered unto; to provide and not par-take ; to sow and not share the harvest. Our relationship is more close with God, the giver, than with the hosts who would merely receive. 178 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Then, welcome each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting- that bids nor sit nor stand but go ! Be our joys three-parts pain ! Strive, and hold cheap the strain Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the throe ! Enviable ye "strong souls"; yea, ye, who like Paul say, "I glory in tribulation also." For from such a course, For thence,—a paradox which comforts while it mocks,— Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail: What I aspired to be, And was not, comforts me : A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale. Aspiration, breathing toward higher things, ennobles, exalts man more perhaps than a backward glance at past achievements, as is said in "Saul," " 'Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man would do." He might sink to low depths, to the brute even, but would not. To the brute ? Yes, for What is he but brute Whose flesh hath soul to suit, Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play ? To man, propose this test—Thy body at its best, How far can that project thy soul on its lone way ? The body cannot stand this test, nor was it intended to do so. Yet it dare not be looked upon as a mere encumbering tenement as Browning in the next four stanzas shows, bringing out the fact that our body is holy ; that it is glorious, even divine to live in the "rose-mesh" of flesh. Yet gifts should prove their use : I own the Past profuse Of power each side, perfection every turn : Eyes, ears took in their dole, Brain treasured up the whole ; Should not the heart beat once "How good to live and learn ? " Not once beat "Praise be Thine 1 I see the whole design, I who saw Power, see now Love perfect too : Perfect I call thy plan : Thanks that I was a man ! Maker, remake, complete,—I trust what Thou shalt do ! " For pleasant is this flesh ; Our soul in its rose-mesh Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest: Would we some prize might hold To match those manifold Possessions of the brute,—gain most, as we did best! Let us not always say "Spite of this flesh to-day I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole ! " As the bird wings and sings, Let us cry "All good things Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!" m THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 179 To revert to the second of these stanzas, this is the expression of man at the very crest of the mountain of his glory and power. It all follows the order of Divine Revelation—Power, Love—first Elohim, then Jehovah, then "God is love." There also appears the trust begotten of love. Here is a man in his prime. "The truth of truths is love." Now we pass to age. Its glory, knowledge : "I shall know, being old." Therefore I summon age To grant youth's heritage, Life's struggle having so far reached its term : Thence shall I pass approved A man, for aye removed From the brute , a God though in the germ. And I shall thereupon Take rest ere I be gone Once more on my adventure brave and new; Fearless and unperplexed, "When I wage battle next, What weapons to select, what armor to indue. The former years have taught; age comes to pass sentence on youth ; then shall aged man go forth unperplexed by the varying changes and problems of life, removed from the brute, a God in powers and thought though embryonic. Stanza five presented man in Youth as gladly being of those who "provide" and "effect." Now at the beginning of the period called "Age," he tries, tests, calculates the profit or loss resulting from those efforts, those "fires." "Every man's work shall be made manifest : for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Youth ended, I shall try My gain or loss thereby ; Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold: And I shall weigh the same, Give life its praise or blame : Young, all lay in dispute, I shall know, being old. Thus ends Youth, and Age begins. The latter carefully ex-amines the past and pronounces at last its worth. Youth dies as the day and glory tinted Age begins. For note when evening shuts, A certain moment cuts The deed off, calls the glory from the gray : A whisper from the west Shoots—"Add this to the rest, Take it and try its worth : here dies another day." So, still within this life, Though lifted o'er its strife, Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last, "This rage was right i'the main, That acquiescence vain: The Future I may face now I have proved the Past." THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY For more is not reserved To man, with soul just nerved To act to-morrow what he learns to-day, Here work enough to watch The Master work, and catch Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play. How beautifully expressed the thought that the Master's life was for an example that we should follow, and that too, carefully, devoutly, day by day ! The previous stanza reminds one of that superb simile of Goldsmith's in "Deserted Village" lines 187-192. Age has passed the active stage. As Youth was told to ' 'trust God; see all, nor be afraid," so our minds are turned back to think of the beginning of a new stage by similarity in verse: As it was better, Youth Should strive, througfh acts uncouth, Towards making-, than repose on aught found made: So, better, age, exempt Prom strife, should know, than tempt Further, Thou waitedst age : wait death, nor be afraid ! Now comes the serene period of waiting. It is glorious only as it is found in the way of righteousness, Prov. 16 : 31. Enough now, if the Right And Good and Infinite Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own, With knowledge absolute, Subject to no dispute From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone. Be there, for once and all, Severed great minds from small, Announced to each his station in the Past! Was I, the world arraigned, Were they, my soul disdained, Right ? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last! Supply the relative whom twice ; first, with / as antecedent, sec-ond, with they as antecedent. The sentence is hard to pass, for the decision is not easily made. The Right some would say is not absolute therefore. It is so and universal too but man in applying the principles to particular cases does not know all the conditions, and circumstances or may be laboring under a delu-sion or superstition ; hence, the difficulty. Now, who shall arbitrate ? Ten men love what I hate, Shun what I follow, slight what I receive; Ten, who in ears and eyes Match me : we all surmise, They, this thing, and I, that: whom shall my soul believe? There follow now several paragraphs concerning the proper judgment of life, comparing man's with God's estimate of worth. "Man looketh on the outward appearance but God looketh on the heart." THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 181 Not on the vulgar mass Called "work," must sentence pass ; Thing's done, that took the eye and had the price ; O'er which, from level stand, The low world laid its hand, Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice: But all, the world's coarse thumb And finger failed to plumb, So passed in making up the main account: All instincts immature, All purposes unsure, That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount. Thoughts hardly to be packed Into a narrow act, Fancies that broke through the language and escaped: All I could never be, All men ignored in me, This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped. The great Judge shall consider the secret intents of the hear t We know not these, how can we judge? We may know them for ourselves ; therefore, we are commanded to judge ourselves. The last clause attracts to itself (its own elaboration) or causes the poet to expand the metaphor most beautifully. "We are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we all are the work of Thy hand," Isa. 64 : 8, or Jeremiah gives it more fully, 18 : 2-6. Aye, note that Potter's wheel, that metaphor ! and feel Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay— Thou, to whom fools propound, When the wine makes its round, "Since life fleets, all is change ; the Past gone, seize to-day !" Fool! All that is, at all, Lasts ever, past recall; Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure: What entered into thee, That was, is, and shall be: Time's wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure. He fixed thee 'mid this dance of plastic circumstance, This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest: Machinery just meant To give thy soul its bent, Try thee, and turn thee forth sufficiently impressed. What though the earlier grooves which ran the laughing loves Around thy base, no longer pause and press ? What though, about thy rim, Skull-things in order grim Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress ? Look not thou down but up ! To uses of a cup, The festal board, lamp's flash, the trumpet's peal, The new wine's foaming flow, The Master's lips aglow ! Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what needst thou with earth's wheel? But I need, now as then, Thee, God, who moldest men ! And since, not even while the whirl was worst, Did I—to the wheel of life With shapes and colors rife, Bound dizzily—mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst: 182 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Foolish proposition that, that "since life fleets, all is change," when applied to man's real self, his spiritual being and its life. The "Past is gone," but only in that it is "past recall." "Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." The deeds in the body shall all have to pass examination. They are not gone forever. " Tempus res humanas mutat," but not the characters of men. " Potter and clay endure." How meter, rhyme and alliteration, everything conduces in the first two lines of the next stanza to show the evanescence of circumstantial influences ! These are just enough to bring about the proper results in all God's people. " All things work together for good to them that love God." We must fret and chafe because in later 3'ears the shapings may be more stern in character and less attractive. They all and each have their place to bring about true beauty and strength of char-acter. Let us look to the higher import and purpose in all works, and especially in ourselves, "heaven's consummate cup.'' We need not fashion ourselves upon earth's wheel, according to the designing of men. " Be not confor7ned to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Not " earth's wheel" then, but the great Fotter we need now as ever. Lastly, after striving in youth, following meekly and trust-ingly in later life, and waiting reverently to have the Potter's plans completed, the whole is surrendered, to be taken for use in the temple above, when the flaws shall have been righted, when this inglorious body shall be raised in glory, incorruption and im-mortality. So, take and use Thy work, Amend what flaws may lurk, What strains o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim ! My times be in Thy hand ! Perfect the cup as planned ! Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same ! c*p The drying up of a single tear has more Of honest fame than shedding seas of gore. —Byron. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 183 THANKSGIVING DAY. E. C. RUBY, '02. /'"VUR Thanksgiving Day is a composite one. It is made up ^-^ from parts of celebrations of that day by other peoples. We have taken the time from an Indian festival which used to take place during the fall of the year. The wild-wood festival, with its feasting, its dancing of Indian warriors to the songs of their dusky sweethearts, may well be called the original Thanks-giving Day in this happy land of ours. The Thanksgiving we celebrate at the close of every harvest season owes something to the religious rites of ancient nations. The oldest of these is the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, with its magnificent festivities. It was the feast of the " ingathering" of the harvest of all the fruits, the corn, the wine, and the oil. The labors of the field were then over for the year, and the feast was an occasion of joyousness and gladness to the people. The glory of the great Hebrew festival has long since passed away, but the fundamental principle—that every one should equally rejoice in the fruits of the current harvest, together with the whole people of the land '' before the Lord''—has entered into the harvest observances of Christian lands. Greece celebrated the great feast known as the Eleusinia, or the feast to Demeter of the beautiful robe. Demeter was the goddess of harvests. Her daughter, Persephone, had been kid-napped by Pluto, and, because she had tasted a pomegranate seed, could remain with her mother only part of the year. This made Demeter angry, and she left the gods, made her dwelling upon the earth, and taught Celeus, King of Eleusis, how to plow, sow and reap. For this the Greeks celebrated the Eleusinian feast, one of the grandest of the Greek festivals. The Romans celebrated a harvest festival called the Cerealia. It took its name from Ceres, who was the Demeter of the Romans. This festival was a general holiday, every one resting from work, and eager for enjoyment and pleasure. Coming nearer to our own harvest festival is the English Har-vest- home. This was usually a day of boisterous mirth. The people kindled bonfires, danced on the green sward, and engaged in athletic sports. The Pilgrim Fathers remembered this festival in their new home, and expressed their thankfulness for their first harvest by 184 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY a feast. Of their harvest, Governor Bradford tells us that " they began now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recov-ered in health and strength, and had all things in good plenty." Thereupon the Governor issued a proclamation appointing a Feast of Thanksgiving. On the appointed Thursday the feast was opened with religious services. Then came a period of feasting and recreation. The real Thanksgiving dinner took place on Saturday, the last day of the celebration. The earth, the air and the water had yielded of their bountiful supplies to make this Thanksgiving dinner, and when the pioneers sat down to the meal they saw a table spread with water-fowl, wild turkey, veni-son, corn and barley ; with this cheer they gave thanks that "by the goodness of God they were far from want." Our Thanksgiving of to-day has taken some part from each of these different festivals. It has taken the time of the Indian meeting ; its charity is gained from the Jewish Feast of Taberna-cles ; it has copied the festivals of Demeter and Ceres, in giving thanks for the crops ; its mirth and festivity has a flavor of the English Harvest-home festival ; and its spirit of thankfulness and religious adoration was given to it by our Pilgrim forefathers. When the American Colonies had established their independ-ence, and had united themselves under one form of government, the New England Thanksgiving custom was gradually extended to the Middle States, then to the West, and more slowly to the South. In 1863 it began to be annually proclaimed for observ-ance throughout the country. For more than thirty years has Thanksgiving been a national institution throughout this country, while as a religious festival it dates back over two and three-quarter centuries—to the first celebration by the Pilgrim Fathers of New England. In the early days of the planting of church and commonwealth on this continent, when a sterile soil began to yield its bounties to the often-famished settler, it is pleasant to recall that the little community took delight in giving public ex-pression to the spirit of thanksgiving, which has now grown into a mighty custom over the entire Republic, after the annual har-vesting of the fruits of the earth. The following extract Irom Mrs. H. B. Stowe's " Oldtown" indicates graphically the general character ot the New England Thanksgiving observance : "Great as the preparations were for the dinner, everything was so con- I ~ THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 18S trived that not a soul in the house should be kept from the morn-ing service of Thanksgiving in the church, and from listening to the Thanksgiving sermon, in which the minister was expected to express his views freely concerning the politics of the country, and the state of things in society generally, in a somewhat more secular vein of thought than was deemed exactly appropriate to the Lord's day." There is no religious tradition more interesting from its an-tiquity and its general significance, or more suggestive and useful as an American custom, than that of the annual Thanksgiving service, the purpose of which is to express general thanksgiving for the bounties of the year, and especial thanksgiving for national prosperity and progress. In this light alone the service ought to command, without any exception whatever, a more than usual interest in every church of every name. It is little less than a national misfortune that the opportunity of Thanksgiving Day is not universally improved by all churches. Throughout the entire history of the most ancient tradition of Thanksgiving it has always been recognized that the best and highest expression of Thanksgiving was that of charity to the suffering and the needy. The same Thanksgiving Day which marks the close of a season of bounty should not less mark the opening of a season of benefaction, the giving of thanks finding its full expression in the sharing of our bounties with those who may suffer want. A more recent and no less commendable feature of our Thanks-giving Day, is the custom of gathering together in family reunions which keep well knit the bonds of kinship and attune hearts, often sundered by discord, to the universal note of harmony and common rejoicing. This pleasant feature is beautifully expressed in the following verses from a poem written by Phoebe Carey: " O men, grown sick with toil and care, Leave for awhile the crowded mart; O women, sinking- with despair, Weary of limb and faint of heart, Forget your years to-day and come As children back to childhood's home. Walk through the sere and fading wood, So lightly trodden by your feet, When all you knew of life was good, : ■ 186 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY And all you dreamed of life was sweet, And ever fondly looking- back O'er youthful love's enchanted track. Go sit beside the hearth again, Whose circle once was glad and gay ; And if from out the precious chain Some shining links have dropped away, Then guard with tender heart and hand The remnant of thy household band. Draw near the board with plenty spread, And if in the accustomed place You see the father's reverend head, Or mother's patient, loving face, Whate'er your life may have of ill, Thank God that these are left you still." November woods are bare and still, November days are clear and bright; Each noon burns up the morning's chill, The morning's snow is gone by night ; Each day my steps grow slow, grow light, As through the woods I reverent creep Watching all things lie "down to sleep." —Helen Hunt Jackson. All brilliant flowers are pale and dead And silent droop to earth, While pansies chill in velvet robes Count life but little worth ; But in these dark November days That wander wild and wet, Our thoughts are winged to summer hours On breath of mignonette. —Eliza O. Pearson. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. Vol. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., NOVEMBER, 1900. No. 6. Editor-in-Chief, S. A. VAN ORMER, '01. Assistant Editors, W. H. HETRICK, "W. A. KOIII.I'.K. Business Manager, H. C. HOFFMAN. Alumni Editor, REV. I\ D. GARLAND. Assistant Business Manager, WILLIAM C. NEY. Advisory Board, PROF. J. A. HIMES, LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD, D. D. Published monthly by the students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg") College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Ten Cents. Notice to discontinue sending* the MERCURY to any address must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORS' DESK. '"■pHERE is a tendency on the part of college students to sell *■ their text books as soon as the branches in which they have been used are completed. There can be no objection offered to this custom in general, for many of the books will not be needed again during the college course, while the money invested in them can be used to advantage by most students ; but there are books that ought not to be sold—books that ought to be not only kept but used throughout the college course, and chief among these is the Rhetoric. If we measure the importance of a branch, in comparison with others, by the use to be made of it in after life, surely no other branch can claim more of our time and energy ; it we would express ourselves forcibly and accurately in 188 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY speaking and in writing, we must be familiar with the principles of Rhetoric ; if we would obviate the humiliation that comes from having our writing in after life criticised and condemned, we must cultivate the habit of looking up troublesome and un-certain points while in college. J> That the colleges of our country are taking an active part in the present political campaign is evinced by the number of clubs that nave been organized and the selection of the great issues of the campaign for discussion in literary societies and debating clubs. Colleges rightly invite free thought and free discussion of political issues in the class room as well as in student organiza-tions, for these and similar issues are to confront those now in college when they shall have become local leaders in political circles. A careful, thorough and unbiased study of National economic problems must necessarily broaden the intellectual hori-zon of the student and prepare him the better to meet the de-mands that shall rest upon him as a citizen. A CHAPTER OP A LIFE. T,. W. GROSS, '01. INVITATIONS were out announcing the wedding of Miss *■ Estella Wellington to J. Harry Ashland. It was to be a church wedding in the Episcopal church of that town. Friends and relatives of both families from far and near were invited. At last the day dawned and the merry wedding chimes rang out bright and clear. It was in June, the beautiful month of roses. Nothing could be more beautiful than the gay and happy scene that was presented to the honored guests who filled the little church on this occasion to witness the ceremony. Nature seemed to offer her congratulations in the extravagant profusion of flowers she furnished for the bride and the decorations. The birds in the tree tops along the deep, shady drives warbled a merry march for the bridal party as it passed to the elegant mansion of the bride. Harry Ashland was not rich. He was the only son, and the pride and joy of his mother's heart, and so it was with a feeling of sadness THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 189 that she, regardless of the gaiety and mirth around her, saw another woman claim a place in his affections. He had married against her choice. Yet she saw that her son dearly loved the one he married and was loved in return, and so said not a word except iu gentle reasoning; but even the desire of his mother, much as he cared for her, could not alter his intention. He married his choice and Mrs. Ashland calmly submitted, and made the occasion of the wedding and short visit at home of her son as pleasant as possible. Harry was industrious, popular and a general favorite in his home town, as was always shown by the host of friends who greeted him on his visits to his mother. He had no other profession, but traveled for his uncle, who was manager of a large machine in-dustry in the South. He had been in his uncle's office for some time, and when he was promoted to collector his salary was raised sufficient, he thought, to warrant his taking the step he did, and so he married. His wife came from an old Maryland family, bringing him wealth, social distinction and culture in exchange for his name, honesty and good character. He met her since he was working for his uncle, and although she was, perhaps, above him in the social scale, yet his manliness, comeliness and winning personality won her heart and hand for him; and finally she decided to share his fate through life. He had no fortune to depend on, yet his prospects for a successful life were bright as the morning sun. And they hoped in a year or so to have a home as beautiful as her own down in Maryland. In August Mr. and Mrs. Ashland moved to their residence in a small town in the territory Harry was to work, storing their goods and boarding at a hotel. He at once took the road and began business for his uncle. L,ong trips had to be made, some-times by rail, others by stage, and sometimes he drove in a buggy over long, lonesome roads through the wild and mountainous country. Business was good, and although it required him to be away from home a great deal of his time, he was happy in the thought that it was done for the one he loved above all others. His uncle entrusted him with collecting large amounts of money from which he drew his own salary and paid other assist-ants under him, turning the balance over as the net earnings of the company. 190 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Harry had now been married a year, expecting by this time to have a neat little sum over and above his family expenses at the hotel, but found that their boarding there was very expensive. His wife was accustomed to the luxuries of life and dressed according to the fashions of the day. Thus the satisfaction of her fastidious tastes drained his yearly income to its lowest dregs. It was with disappointment that he learned these facts; yet he started again with renewed determination to make more money the next year than he did the first, and in'spite of everything, make his coveted home for himself and wife to enjoy life with the wealthy. The second year rolled around without apparent change in his financial affairs. His expenses were increasing, the savings decreasing ; yet he made more trips through mountain and valley, and through town and city than ever before in his energetic struggle for existence. Besides his loving wife he now had a little girl to welcome him home with her childish prattle and glee, and he often dissipated his gloom and disappointment on coming in from a hard trip by talking and a frolic with little Iyida. But still it seemed as if the clouds were lowering and his domestic horizon getting darkei instead of brighter. He was often found in deep thought by his wife, who would try to cheer him, unconscious of his real trouble, never dreaming that she might be the cause of it. He often thought of his mother's advice about this very thing, of marrying within his class, and thought, now there might be something in it, after all. But he would rather struggle to the last than say a word to check his wife in the spending of the money he would earn. May be Harry had too much pride. About this time he was sent out to make one of the largest collections of the year, and he rather dreaded the trip because it had to be made in a buggy over lonesome and rough roads. However, giving his wife and daughter a loving farewell he started on the trip. He visited subordinate agents and dealers, collect-ing money from each till, by the time he was ready to start for headquarters, he had a little over five thousand dollars in his possession. This money he kept in a tin box securely fastened under the buggy seat. He had never been molested by highway-men himself, but often had heard of such robberies occurring in the vicinity through which he had to pass, and he felt a peculiar THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 191 dread pass over him lest he should be attacked on this particular trip when he carried so much money. Harry had been driving all day and his horse became very tired and somewhat jaded. He hoped to reach his destination before night-fall, but being in Autumn and the days growing shorter, darkness gathered sooner than he anticipated. A drizzling rain set in, and to add to his difficulties, his horse became lame from much traveling. As a result intense darkness caught him in the very worst part of the road. Yes, he was robbed. His worst fears were realized. A full and vivid account of the bold and daring robbery appeared in the daily papers giving all the details. But the highwaymen had the money and were still at large. It was the same old story. The tired horse was stopped and held while three or four men sprang at the occupant of the buggy, bound him hand and foot, gagged him, tied the horse to a tree in the wood by the road side and then hastened away with their booty. He remained in his help-less condition till at last, after a night of agony trying to free himself, he was set free by a passer-by in the morning after the banditti were miles away. He went at once to his uncle, told his story and had detectives started in pursuit of the robbers. But the old man was angry, flew into a rage at such a great loss of money, blamed Harry for neglect and carelessness, and finally discharged him from his service. This was the climax to all his trouble. He tried to reason with his uncle but he would hear none. Harry could not pacify him. He went home to his wife with a heavy heart; his bright-est gleams of home and success blasted, utterly ruined. His wife tried to console him, but with no avail. He saw bills staring him in the face, his month's salary stolen and nothing for the future in sight. Here again pride came in his way and he refused several offers of help by kind friends because the salary was lower than he had been used to getting and in the humbler occupations. His discouragement increased; at times he became moody and silent. The thought of his great misfortune, his uncle's relentlessuess and his domestic affairs weighed heavily upon him. At last it became unbearable and he told his wife he must go to the city and obtain a position worthy of his station in life. He bade 192 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY them goodbye and left little L,ida and her mother in their rooms at the hotel. Harry was gone, alas! never to return. He failed to obtain the position, his money was soon spent, and he paid his last dime for a piece of rope. The next morning his cold, distorted and lifeless body was found hanging to the limb of a tree in a secluded part of one of the parks about the great city. His body was identified by his friends, who were notified by the authorities, and taken home and buried. Time, the great physician, the healer of all wounds, bound up the broken hearts of his many friends, and soon they looked up again. He was rid of the world and its struggles and soon for-gotten by it, remembered only by a few of his friends. One life less in the world ; one leaf fallen from the great tree—the world; one pebble less on the great sea shore; one drop less in the ocean. Soon the waters closed over the ripple and were as placid as before. THE STABILITY OF A REPUBLIC. W. H. HETRICK, '01. TVTATIONAL, evolution in the course of its progress has finally •*■ ^ given government a sublime perfection in the principles and constitutions of modern Republicanism. A republic such as our own, firmly grounded on union, liberty and independence, is not modern in development, but stands as the complete product of the ages. Its grand perfection and accomplishment is the re-sult of long centuries of national experience. Out of the confu-sion of the past, the rude primitive rule of patriarchs, the disso-lution of empires, the unrelenting tyranny of despotism, the heart-less cruelty of kings, out of innumerable wars and inhuman wrongs, God, the maker of destiny, has perfected a government for man, and we call that government a republic. Heretofore the government of nations was, to a great extent, at variance with the desires and thoughts of the human mind. There was no satisfaction in serving ; no morality in slavery ; no justice in taxation without representation ; no virtue in ine-quality. Man since his creation has felt and expressed a strong dissatisfaction with the government imposed upon him. It was his conviction that he was and by right ought to be free. A deep inexplicable fact of his being forced him to the belief that the law THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 193 which governs society should conform to his own conscience and reason. This was the requisite of his soul. When once attained and instituted, government would be perfect. There would be nothing beyond it; no deeper principle for higher attainment. It would be the consummation of law. Such is our own republic. The principles in her constitution strike deep into the heart of being. Liberty, union and inde-pendence are not artificial, not the invention of mind nor even the result of thought. No ! They are the aspirations of the soul; the uniformities of all natural law. Ages of time, millions of people and hundreds of civilizations, by the power of progress, have at last evolved from the great powers of human experience an en-during form of government, that can never fall or be dissolved by the presence of faults or the schemes of men. Our country shall never degenerate from her elevated place of greatness. To bring this about would necessitate retrogression, and retrogression means a changing of law for something worse. It would be the destruction of a perfect law for the adoption of one whose im-perfection was the principal cause of its revision. It would be contrary to the nature of things. It would mean imperialism which belongs to the past. It would mean despotism, militarism, disorder. It would be forcing the law of nature, of reason and of justice against its own development. No! Our constitution is founded upon a rock, the rock of tried experience, the deepest law of progress. It must ever stand as a monument built for all time to come. SHAKESPEARE'S ATTITUDE TOWARD EDUCATION. EMORY D. BREAM, '02. WHRN we turn to the history of education to ascertain the relative position of Shakespeare among the great writers of the world, we are told that Greece had its Homer, Rome its Virgil, Italy its Dante, Germany its Goethe, France its Hugo and England its Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton and many others ; but if one of these distinguished writers were to be chosen king over the others, Shakespeare would, by common consent, be placed upon the throne. Naturally, then, we would expect a man of such a lofty liter-ary position to be a patron of education. Although he has written no treatise on education, nor is he recognized as an educator, yet 194 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY one cannot read his works intelligently without noticing how careful he is to endow the nobler characters of his plays with the love of knowledge. For instance, in " As You L,ike It," who does not admire the noble discontent of Orlando with a condition that hinders manly development ? In the " Tempest " do we not immediately recognize Prospero as a true Student ? Shakespeare distinguishes the educated man from the unedu-cated. The fact that he firmly believed that the mind, God's greatest gift to man, should be cultivated and adorned, is proved by the case of Orlando. He is discontented with his breeding, and recognizes that though he is a gentleman by birth, yet that avails little if he lacks breeding. " For call you that keeping for a gentleman of my birth, that differs not from the stalling of an ox ? His horses are bred better." How strongly Shakespeare empha-sizes in these lines the fact that God would not have endowed us with minds superior to animals if he did not intend that we should cultivate them. Intelligence is a distinguishing mark of a lady or gentleman. In the " Merchant of Venice " this fact is brought out clearly. Bassanio lacks commercial ability and is unable to win for him-self the means necessary for the support of a man of rank ; yet he possesses the elegant tastes of a gentleman, and when supplied with money, he has no trouble in winning the heart of Portia, a young woman of wealth and high social position. Shakespeare is careful to portray her even as having good sense enough to esteem spiritual higher than material qualities. This is clearly shown in the.conversation between Portia and Nerissa when Nerissa recounts to Portia the various suitors that have sought her hand. She finds fault with all until Bassanio's name is mentioned. Here Shakespeare shows a distinction. The Nea-politan prince took so much interest in his horse that he boasted even of being able to shoe it. Faulconbridge, the young baron of England, is, in Portia's words, "A proper man's picture ; but alas ! who can converse with a dumb show ? '' But when Bas-sanio, the Venetian, a scholar and soldier, is named these two ac-complishments win for him favor in the eyes of Portia. In these examples Shakespeare made the educated man of greater weight than all the men of wealth, noble birth and polish. An educated person is recognized by people of less ability as being superior to them. This is also brought out plainly by THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 195 Portia after Bassanio has opened the leaden casket, and, according to the command given in the stanza of poetry that it contained, has claimed her with a kiss. In the conversation that follows she calls herself an unlessoned, unschooled and unpractised girl, but not too old to learn. Thus she recognizes Bassanio as her superior. In turn, when Portia is pleading for Antonio, Shylock admires her ability to argue, and as soon as she seems to be giving justice to his side of the question, he bursts out in exclamations of praise. " A Daniel come to judgment! Yea a Daniel! O wise young judge, how I honor thee ! " Considering the fact that Portia has before this confessed herself to be an unschooled girl, such ability to plead a case seems contradictory ; but this shows that educa-tion is not merely book knowledge. Though Shylock may have thought that it was to his interest to laud the wise young judge, yet doubtless Shakespeare wished to lay stress upon the influence that an educated person has over an uneducated one. Lastly, a love for study and close application is necessary to acquire an education in the true sense of the word. In " Hamlet," where the king tells Hamlet that his intention to return to Wit-tenburg to school is contrary to the wishes of the king and queen, from the words, "We beseech you, bend you to remain here," we would infer that he was a diligent student and loved study. The most forcible illustration of this, however, is Prospero. He was so attentive to his books that he neglected his duties as a ruler even so much as to allow his brother to usurp the throne. In the conversation between Miranda and Ferdinand, while he was piling up the logs, Miranda requests Ferdinand to rest awhile, saying that, "He's hard at study. He's safe for these three hours." Indicating how diligently Prospero studied. These seem almost like words of advice from the great dramatist to those who wish to be real students, and they show that Shakespeare not only was favorable to education, but believed that everyone should be educated. O reader ! had you in your mind Such stores as silent thought can bring ; O gentle reader ! you would find A tale in everything. —Woods-worth. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE MORSE VS. THE AUTOMOBILE. H. L. STIFEL, '03. pVER since this world began there has been in existence a cer- -*-' tain class of persons, who have opposed, with all their strength, every innovation, every invention, which untiring labor or a happy chance has brought before the public. Though I do not consider myself as one of this mean-spirited class, I wish to speak a word in favor of that good friend and servant of man, the horse, as opposed to the automobile. Of the three classes of the automobile, steam, gasoline and electric, it is hard to make a choice of the one with the least ob-jectionable features. The latter we may reject at once, owing to the difficulty in charging the batteries. An average electric ma-chine will run for twenty miles ; then it must be recharged. This circumstance renders it absolutely useless for long tours, as there are but few places along a country road where this recharging may be effected. Even in the city, the owner of this type of the automobile may find himself compelled to procure a team to drag home his horseless carriage. Nor is the steam wagon much better. It requires a great deal of labor in firing up before each trip. Another disagreeable feature is the incessant noise of the steam. Besides, a man must, to all purposes, know as much as a licensed engineer before he is capable of managing such a ma-chine. The steam pressure and the amount of water in the boiler must be careiully watched. The fire and fuel also require con-stant attention. There remains only the gasoline type. This is the most practical of all three, but it also has one very unpleasant feature. It is everywhere accompanied by the disagreeable odor of gasoline. Any one of these three classes, moreover, needs as much care as would two horses. The machine is fitted up with a large amount of nickel and brass trimmings, which, in order to be kept presentable, require as much polishing and cleaning as would a team. Then, too, the mechanism must be kept clean and free from rust, and must be thoroughly oiled, not to mention the fact that it must be kept in good running order. It has been asserted that the automobile will eventually dis-place the horse entirely. This I emphatically deny. In my opinion, it is only a fad which society, bored to the last degree, has taken up. At all events, in its present stage of development, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY it is nothing but a toy. In the course of time the automobile may prove to be more serviceable thau the horse for heavy haul-ing or rapid transit, but it can never take the place of the hon-e for pleasure driving. There is a vast difference between guiding a mere machine and spinning along a road behind a spirited horse. The keen sense of satisfaction felt in the mastery of a creature of flesh and blood, intelligent, and with a will of its own, would be entirely absent in the running of an automobile. In regard to the matter of safety, the horse is again superior to the steam or gasoline wagon. A horse, on the darkest night, will keep on the road by instinct. An automobile, guided by a man, of course cannot do this, for man hasnot this instinct which is given to the animal. Therefore, the driver, if we may call the person who runs the automobile by that name, is likely to find himself lying in a ditch beside the road. We have often read of horses stopping and refusing to go on when their instinct tells them there is danger ahead. This again is impossible to the auto-mobile driver, for he receives no such warning. Naturally, an accident may happen to a careless driver with the most intelligent of horses; but is not the danger much greater when a careless man has a boiler full of steam, or a tank of gasoline under him ? A small stone, lying in the road, may strike a front wheel and throw the steering gear to one side, ditching the machine or send-ing it over an embankment, with an explosion, perhaps, as the result. An ordinary vehicle would simply run over the obstruc-tion with no worse effect than a slight jolt. In view of these facts, let us cling to the horse, an intelligent animal, capable of loving and of being loved, rather than take up the automobile, a thing of cogs and machinery. In following out this course we shall obtain more pleasure, and we shall obtain it with greater safety. Is it not, therefore, the more desirable ? o*p I hold it true, whate'er befall, I feel it when I sorrow most ; 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. -Tennyson. 198 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY OUR OLD SCHOOL GROUND. [D. M. MISLCHIOR, '02.] TT may seem very odd that one should select a plain, country "■ school as the most interesting place he ever knew, yet, for me, there is no other place that carries with it so much personal interest as those nooks and crooks about our old school house. The beautiful parks about Philadelphia are very interesting not only for their beauty, but also for their historical connections; there is pleasure in watching the ocean dash its breakers against the beach of some seaside resort ; the rush and bustle of Broad-way is fascinating ; yet, I imagine that if I ever live to be an old man and think of the happy days of my past life, no recollections will come before me so vividly as those connected with that old school-ground. I should not say old so far as the building is concerned, for when I started to school it was a comparatively new one. About a quarter of a mile east of Springtown it stood—and still stands —upon a little hill beside a quaint, old Evangelical church. The house was a substantial brick building—much after the manner of all country school houses in a prosperous farming community. The playground was not much of a recommendation, for aside from being small it was uneven and rocky. It was probably for this reason that we sought other places for our sports and often wandered far beyond our prescribed limits. There was a row of sheds back of the church for the accom-modation of such church goers as were willing to pay a yearly rent to protect their teams from the rain or the burning sun. Here we would all gather on a rainy day, as long as it was not too cold, and amuse ourselves as best we could, playing such games as a half a hundred lively boys and girls could play in so small a space. On the east side of the building was an anything-but-hand-some- looking rail fence, and on the inner side of this we built huts, made of rails, corn-fodder, and dry leaves. At the back of these stood a row of cider and Baldwin apple trees, and many a feast we had off them, the owner having long before given up hope of ever getting any of the apples for himself. Running at right angles with the school ground was the road and right in front of the school house was the top of a very steep THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 199 hill which afforded us ample means for coasting. And what sport is more fascinating than coasting when you have a straight '' drive " tor a quarter of a mile or more ? I remember one im-mense sled (double-deckers were unheard of at that time) which was the pride of the whole school. Two big fellows would sit on it facing each other, and then a heap of little boys would be piled on crosswise and away they'd go. At the top of the hill there were usually immense snow drifts, and it was lots of fun to tun-nel them. First a fellow would start from the top and, feet first, would work his way through until a good sized hole would be made. Then little subways were made until the top, becoming too weak, would fall in. In the field on the other side of the road we would often build an immense snow fort, and how hard we would fight to defend it! It would be captured and recap-tured, until the teacher's bell would call us to our afternoon's work. Below this field ran a mill race, and I can well remember how, in the early part of September, we would sneak down to it, undress and take a lively little swim in the almost bitter cold water—a practice that was prohibited not only by the teacher, but also by our parents. Once, especially, do I remember how I sneaked away one noon with a fishing line in my pocket to try a half hour's luck at angling, and how I slipped from a log, fell in to my waist, and in the hope of not being detected put on a brave face and determined to sit the whole afternoon in my wet trousers. But the teacher had heard of my misfortune through someone else and was waiting for me. Instead of getting a thrashing, he gave me a sealed note to take to my father and sent me home. Believing that a great deal of harm is often done by exposing domestic affairs, I'll not say anything of the interview with my father in his private study. After the long, weary winter months were past, Spring would arouse the sleeping fields and woods, and then perhaps the most fascinating part of those school days would come. The early flowers, especially arbutus, would come out in the valley below the school house, or on the mountain back of it; and many, many times we would scour those fields and bring back not only flowers, but turtles, snakes and other such harmless creatures as would terrify the girls. Then, although perhaps chiefly in the Autumn, would come the time to play Hare and Hound, and through fields, over 200 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY streams, up the hills we would run, heedless of wet feet, torn clothes or of being late for school. Down at the foot of an adjoining field stood a lime kiln, and back of it along a small mountain creek we would sit and cut willow whistles, dare each other to do almost impossible feats, and just have a jolly good time. It was down there that on the last day of school we were always permitted to play that forbidden game—"ring tag." That was one of the times when the boys condescended to play with the girls, and everybody kissed every-body else good-bye. It was a bit of foolishness, and yet when one thinks back, and the faces of all those schoolmates come before him, he is struck with surprise to note what changes eight or nine years may bring. Some of them are married, a few have died, others are away attending some higher institution of learning, while the majority are still there, but gradually scattering one by one. Often, when thinking ofhome, I see before me that school house —a church on one side enclosed by a row of trees, fields of corn stubble on two other sides, and the well-travelled road directly in front. There is the narrow, rocky lane leading down to the mill-race, coasting down which a little girl, caught between a sled and rock, once broke a leg and was lamed for life. To one side stands the coal shed. On the right is the rock on which the auctioneer stood when we had "horse sales." So as I stand there and look upon spot after spot where one little thing or another happened that I shall never forget, it seems to me that if I live to be ninety years old, I shall never find a place of more personal interest than the scenes of my early country school life. Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear ; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air. —Grey. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 201 WHEN SHOULD A YOUNG MAN CHOOSE HIS PROFESSION ? HEIGHTMAN, '02. '"PHIS question, manifestly of so vast importance to every young *■ man, should be presented to him at an early age. But he should be careful lest he make a decision too hastily. Often does a man see his mistake too late when, after spending a long time in preparation, he enters upon his chosen profession, and feels that it will be neither pleasant nor profitable to him. But he can put the blame upon none else than himself, unless perchance he has been forced by his parents against his own will to choose a certain profession, though he has had from his early youth a long-ing to be engaged in another—one in which he is confident of success. This we know ought not to be. Every young man has, without doubt, an inclination to some one profession, and he should be allowed to pursue it and not be persuaded to follow the same profession in which his father is engaged, simply because his father has made a success of it. And then, too, how often is a young man led into his father's business at so early,an age that he is scarcely old enough to have formed a true conception of the world. True, it may be the very best thing the father can do to give his son employment as early as possible, especially if he be inclined to be wayward ; and still more, it may, as is often the case, make a good, energetic busi-ness man of him, when, if he were allowed to remain idle a year or more, he might contract slothful habits, which would cling to him all through life. But yet, I think the father makes a mis-take if he does not give his son ample time to learn to know the world, and to be able to decide rightly and satisfactorily his pro-fession for life. In doing this, however, the father should not allow him to spend one moment in idleness. If he cannot send him to college, he should ever have some duty for him to per-form, and should afford him every facility for improving his in-tellect, by encouraging him in a desire for knowledge, and by surrounding him with the best books. If a young man can go to college, and would make the best possible success in life, let him, by all means, decide before he goes to college, what will be his profession. Doing this he will have a motive before him, and will press onward with renewed vigor at every step of his advance. Throughout his course, 202 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY whenever he learns anything which he knows will be of value when applied to his chosen profession, for the very reason that he realizes its worth to him, that knowledge will impress itself upon his mind, and he will retain it when he enters upon his pro-fession. How essential is it, in this our day, to concentrate our efforts upon one line of study or thought in order to reach that degree of excellence required if we would be among the men in the first ranks of our profession. Especially is this so in the ministry. It is the belief of some that the successful minister is the one who has made special preparation in the study of God's Word all through his college years before he enters the seminary. He will surely be able to understand theology much more readily if he is well versed in the truths of the Bible, upon which theology is based. So it is in the preparation for any profession. First to choose a profession, and then to use every effort to advance to as high a degree of perfection as possible in this one line of study, is the secret of the success of all eminent men. But there are those who are at a loss to make a choice—some thinking that they would not be suitable for the profession they would like, and continuing on in a state of indecision possibly throughout their course, while others, somewhat indolent, put it off until they find which one will require the least energy on their part. What a fatal mistake ! Not prepared for anything espe-cially, they may go out into a business life and be successful, but not, indeed, to the degree of success they would have had they made special preparation—nor would they have as much satisfac-tion. And again, does not every young man have some one talent, which, if he cultivate it, may not only give him wonderful suc-cess in life, but may make his name famous ; while, if he allow it to remain dormant, and gives it no attention, though it mani-fest itself repeatedly, he doubtless loses his one chance of suc-cess in life. However, a man cannot always know what this talent is. In this case, let him make an earnest endeavor to find out what he may best fit himself for, and in what direction his mind and pleasure are bent the more ; but let him quickly make his decision. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 203 MOW IT LOOKS PROM THE ROAD. A. L. VERMILYA. Search the woods and rake the meadows For a robin, owl or bat; Something that when slain and mounted May adorn my lady's hat. Rip the feathers off the songsters, Take each head and tail and wing, For them is my lady waiting, Tender-hearted, gracious thing. See her sitting in her carriage Making all the show she can ; On her head a cemetery, In her hand a feather fan. Yet she talks of love and mercy To all things in honeyed words, While she's decked in borrowed plumage Torn from slaughtered singing birds. O, Consistency! thou jewel, Teach these women common sense ; Teach them, while they prate of kindness, They themselves give rank offense. MY MIND TO ME A KINGDOM IS. My minde to me a kingdome is; Such perfect joy therein I finde As farre exceeds all earthly blisse, That God or Nature hath assignde ; Though much I want that most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave. —An Old Song. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. C. P. SOLT MERCHANT TAILOR Masonic Bldg., GETTYSBURG Our collection of Woolens for the coming- Fall andWinter season cannot be surpassed for variety, attractive designs and general completeness. The latest styles of fashionable novelties in the most approved shades. Staples of exceptional merit, value and -wearing-durability. Also altering-, repairing-, dyeing- and scouring- at moderate prices. .FOR UP-TO-DATE. Clothing, Hats, Shoes, And Men's Furnishing- Goods, go to I. HALLEM'S MAMMOTH CLOTHING HOUSE, Chambersburg St., GETTYSBURG, PA. ESTABLISHED 1867 BY ALLEN WALTON. ALLEN K. WALTON, President and Treasurer. ROBT. J. WALTON Superintendent. flammelstomn Broom Stone Company Quarrymen and Manufacturers of Building Stone, Sawed Flagging and Tile Waltonville, Dauphin Co., Pa. Contractors for all kinds of Telegraph and Express Address. Cut StoneWork. BROWNSTONE, PA. Parties visiting' the Quarries will leave cars at Brownstone Station on the P. & R. R. R. For a nice sweet loaf of Bread call on J. RAMER Baker of Bread and Fancy Cakes, GETTYSBURG. PA. EIMER & AiUEND, Manufacturers and Importers of Chemicals and Chemical Apparatus 205, 207, 209 and 211 Third Avenue, Corner 18th Street NEW YORK. Finest Bohemian and German Glassware, Royal Berlin and Meissen Porcelain, Pure Hammered Platinum, Balances and Weights. Zeiss Mi-croscopes and Bacteriological Apparatus; Chemical Pure Acids and Assay Goods. SCOTT PAPER COMPANY MAKERS OF FINE TOILET PAPER 7th and Greenwood Ave. PHILADELPHIA PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Century Double-Feed Fountain Pen. Fully 'Warranted 16 Kt. Gold Pen, Iridium Pointed. GEO. EVELER, Agent for Gettysburg College PRICE LIST. No. 1. Chased, long- or short $2 00 No. 1. Gold Mounted 3 00 No. 3. Chased 3 00 No. 3. Gold Mounted 4 00 Spiral, Black or Mottled $2 SO Twist, " 2 50 Hexagon, Black or Mottled 2 SO Pearl Holder, Gold Mounted S 00 THE CENTURY PEN CO., WHITEWATER, WIS. Askyour Stationer or our Agent to show them toyou. Agood local agent-wanted in every school mmmmwmmmmwmwmmmmmmwwmm^ Printtigand We Print This Book THE MT. HOEEY STATIONERY AND PRINTING CO. does all classes of Printing' and Binding, and can furnish you any Book, Bill Head, Letter Head, Envelope, Card, Blank, or anything1 pertain-ing to their business in just as good style and at less cost than you can obtain same elsewhere. They are located among the mountains but their work is metropolitan. You can be convinced of this if you give them the opportunity. gi Mt. Holly Stationery and Printing Co. ^mTSiV ^iumiiuuiUiiuuiuuiiiUiuuiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiumi^ R H. S. BENNER, .DEALER IN. Groceries, Notions, Queensware, Glassware, Etc., Tobacco and Cigars. J7 CHAMBERSBURG ST. WE RECOMMEND THESE BUSINESS MEN. Pitzer House, (Temperance) JNO. E. PITZER, Prop. Rates $1.00 to $1.25 per day. Battlefield a specialty. Dinner and ride to all points of interest,including-the three days' figrht, $1.25. No. 127 Main Street. MUMPER & BENDER Furniture Cabinet Making, Picture Frames Beds, Springs, Mattresses, Etc. Baltimore St., GETTYSBURG, PA. You will find a full line of Pure Drugs and Fine Sta- People's Drug Store Prescriptions a Specialty. .00 TO. .fjotel (Gettysburg Barber Sfyop. Centre Square. B. M. SEFTON J. A. TAWNEY ** Is ready to furnish Clubs and Bread, Rolls, Etc. At short notice and reasonable rates. Washington & Middle Sts., Gettysburg. \YT TJ rT\nODT Successor to W. T . ^KJUKJISJ., Simon J.Codori Dealer in Beef, Pork, Lamb, Veal, Sausage. Special rates to Clubs. York St., GETTYSBURG. Davib Croxel, Dealer in ^ine (groceries anb notions t^x^york Street. .GO TO. CHAS. E. BARBEHENN, Barber In the Eagle Hotel, Cor. Main and Washington Sts. YOHN BROS Agents for the Keystone State, Waldo, Washburn, Groupner & Meyer. Highest Grade Mandolins, Guitars, Banjos, Mandollas and Mandocellos. Headquarters for Phonographs, Graphophones and supplies. Trimmings of every description. All sheet music one-half off. Large discounts on Books and studies. 326 Market St., Harrisburg, Pa. FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. Spaldings Foot Ball Supplies Are universally used wherever the game is played, thetrade mark being- the guarantee. TheSpalding-Official Inter-collegiate Foot Ball is used by all the leading- colleg-es and athletic clubs of the country/ Price $4.00. Send for catalogue of all Athletic Sports. Spalding's Official Foot Ball Guide, with the new rules for 1900, and records, reviews and instructions, including- pictures of 1600 play-ers. Price 10 cents. Sandow's Spring- Grip Dumb-Bells. In-vented by Sandow. Have no equal as an exerciser and developer. Every muscle benefited. Spalding-'s Championship Hammer with ball bearing* pivot and wire handles. Used by all experts. "H. Vardon" Golf Clubs. Made from Harry Vardon's own models furnished ex-clusively to us. Spalding-'s Athletic Library. Devoted to Athletic Sports. Published monthly. Ten cents per copy. Send for list. A. G. SPALDING & BROS. (Incorporated) NEW YORK CHICAGO DENVER ROWE, Your Grocer Carries Full Line of Groceries, Canned Goods, Etc Best Coal Oil and Brooms at most Reasonable Prices. OPPOSITE COLLEGE CAMPUS. S. J. CODORI, y* Druggists* Dealer in Drugs, Medicines, Toilet Articles, J> Stationery, .Blank Books, Amateur Pho-tographic Supplies, Etc., Etc. BALTIMORE ST. R. H. GULP PAPER HANGER, Second Square, York Street. COLLEGE EMBLEMS. EMIL ZOTHE, ENGRAVER, DESIGNER AND MANUFACTURING JEWELER. 19 S. NINTH ST. PHILADELPHIA SPECIALTIES: Masonic Marks, Society Badges, College Buttons, Pins, Scarf Pins, Stick Pins and Athletic Prizes. All Goods ordered through A. N. Beau. To Repair Broken Arti-cles use Remember '< MAJOR'S RUBBER CEMENT, MAJOR'S LEATHER CEMENT. Meneely Bell Co. TROY, N. Y. MANUFACTURERS OF SUPERIOR BELLS The 2000 pound bell now ringing; in the tower of Pennsylvania Col-lege was manufactured at this foundry. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Pleased Customer Is not a stranger in our establish-ment— he's right at home, you'll see him when you call. We have the materials to please fastidious men. J. O. LIPPY, Merchant Tailor 39 Chambersburg St., Gettysburg, Pa. G, E. SPANGLER, Dealer in Pianos, Organs, Music, Musical Instruments, Strings, Etc. YORK STREET, 1ST SQUARE. GETTYSBURG. L. D. Miller, GROCER Confectioner and Fruiterer. Ice Cream and Oysters in Season. 19 Main St. GETTYSBURG City Hotel, Main St. Gettysburg. J* Free 'Bus to and from all Trains Thirty seconds' walk from either depot Dinner with drive over field with four or more, $1.35 Rates $1.50 to $2.00 per day- John E. Hughes, Frop. Capitol Ctt£ Cafe Cor. Fourth and Market Sts. HARRISBURG, PA. First-Class Rooms Furnished. Special Rates to Private Parties. Open Day and Night. European Plan. Eunch of All Kinds to Order at the Restaurant. ALDINQER'S CAPITOL CITY CAFE. POPULAR PRICES F. Mark Bream, Dealer in Fancy and Staple Groceries Telephone 29 Carlisle St., GETTYSBURG, PA. .Photographer. No. 3 Main St., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. Our new effects in Portraiture are equal to photos made anywhere, and at any price. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS Klrigbt, 140-142 Woodward Avenue DETROIT, MICH. Manufacturers of High Grade Fraternity Emblems Fraternity Jewelry Fraternity Novelties Fraternity Stationery Fraternity Invitations Fraternity Announcements Fraternity Programs Send for Catalogue and Price List. Special Designs on Application. MOTEL GETTYSBURG LIVERY GETTYSBURG, PA. LONG & MOLTZWORTM, Proprietors Apply at Office in the Motel for First-Class Guides and Teams THE BATTEFIELD A SPECIALTY Ube :S5oIton Market Square Ibarriaburg, flJa. Large and Convenient Sample Rooms, Passenger and Baggage Elevator. Electric Cars to and from Depot. Electric Light and Steam Heat. J. M. & M. S. BUTTERWORTH, Proprietors Special Rates for Commer-cial Men " EZ 1ST IMMER CUT ET WAS ZU WISSEIN." These are the words of Goethe, the great German poet, and are as true in our day as when uttered. In these times of defective vision it is good to know something about eyes. A great deal has been learned about the value of glasses and their application since Goethe lived. Spectacle wearers have increased by thousands, while at the same time, persons losing their eyesight, have been greatly diminished. If your eyes trouble you in any way let me tell you the cause. Examination free and prices reasonable. We grind all our own lenses and fit the best lenses (no matter what anyone else has charged you) for $2.50 per pair and as cheap as SO cents per pair, or duplicate a broken lens if we have one-half or more of the old one, at a reasonable charge, returning same day received. .E. L. ECOLE. 807 and 809 North Third Street, HARRISBURG, PA PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS- (^entpol Jlotel, ELIAS FISSEL, Prop. (Formerly of Globe Hotel) Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, Pa. Two doors from Court House. MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. Steam Heat, Electric Light and Call Bells all through the House. Closets and Bath Rooms on Every Floor. Sefton & Fleni-ming's Livery is connected with this Hotel. Good Teams and Competent Guides for the Battlefield. Charges Moderate, Satisfaction Guaranteed. Rates $1.50 Per Day. GET A SKATE ON And send all your Soiled Linen to the Gettysburg Steam Laundry R. R. LONG, Prop. R. A. WONDERS, Corner Cigar Parlors. A full line of Cigars, Tobacco, Pipes, Etc. Scott's Corner, Opp. Eagle Hotel. GETTYSBURG, PA. c Try My Choice Line of A High-Grade Chocolates ^ at 40c per lb. Always fresh at J[ C CHAS. H. McCLEARY (| Carlisle St., Opposite W. M. R. R. U Also Foreign and Domestic Fruits Y' Always on Hand. JOHN M. MINNIGH, Gonfeetionepy, lee, •■-""lee Creams. Oysters Stewed and Fried. No. 17 BALTIMORE ST. The Leading Barber CSfyop (Successor to C. C. Sefton) Having- thoroughly remodeled the place is now ready to accommodate the public Barber Supplies a Specialty. .Baltimore Street. ESTABLISHED 1876 PENROSE MYERS, Watchmaker and Jeweler Gettysburg Souvenir Spoons, Col-lege Souvenir Spoons. NO. 10 BALTIMORE ST., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. L. f\. klltW Manufacturers' Agent and Jobber of Hardware, Oils, Paints and Queensware. GETTYSBURG, PA. The Only Jobbing House in Adams County.

AjN \Z r t SK*-*—*— DECEMBER, 1900 Qettysbtiir Mercury CONTENTS The End of the Nineteenth Cen-tury, 205 Pennsylvania College at the Close of the Nineteenth Cen-tury, 206 The Belles 208 The Mysterious Picture, . . 211 Father Hawkin's Observations, 215 King- of Reformers, . . .217 An Old Camera, . . .220 Editor's Desk 222 Elements of Inspiration in the Earliest Greek Poets, . . 224 Words add Things, . 228 A Financier, . 233 Book Review 236 Among Our Contemporaries . 236 FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. For Fine. Printing go to Tk J° Co Wile Prifltiig ftwe CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Leadership Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes and. Gents' Furnishing Goods Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S fURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony'! The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: FALL AND WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : EDGARS. MARTIN, F^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES Chambersburg St., Gettysburg ST McPherson Block. No. li BALTIMORE STREET THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, The Literary Journal of Pennsylvania College. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG. PA., DECEMBER, 1900. No. 7. THE END OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. "Old Time's great clock, that never stops, Nor runs too fast nor slow, Hung up amid the worlds of space Where wheeling planets glow; Its dial-plate the orbit vast Where whirls our old earth free— Has pushed its pointers round again And marked a century." «^2> 'T'HE century ends. The startling records of to-day are being ■^ stamped upon the last lap of the scroll. Marvelous have been the achievements of the last ten decades. Strange are the inscriptions on the escutcheons of the nations of the world. May the American not cease to hallow the ground where rest the ashes of the sages, patriots and warriors! Remembered be the deeds of the fathers ; long live their admonition ! Soft be the breeze that sways the trees on the famous fields of battle! Forgotten the strife that stained our soil with blood! Firm be the future grasp of Labor's callous hand—recognized, in every sphere, the noble and the true! Appreciated be the heritage of the fathers ! Bared be every arm in defense of our common, sacred trust! Solid be the phalanx in freedom's holy cause! 206 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE AT THE CLOSE OP THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. E. S. BREIDENBAUGH, SC. D. T N this last issue of the MERCURY for the nineteenth century it *■ is proper to consider Pennsylvania College in connection with the present condition of higher education in our country. While not attempting a complete survey, a few glimpses of the field will be a source of congratulation and encouragement in our work, and may be an incentive to further effort for advancing the interests of our college. During the last third of the century there has been a large in-crease in the number of college students, proportionally a larger increase than the increase in population. There are no available statistics to show whether the number of Lutheran young people in institutions of learning has grown in proportion to the growth of our church membership, there are sufficient facts to show that there has been a very decided increase in the number of our young peo-ple who are having the advantages of the higher education. This increase in number of college students is due in part, if not wholly, to the growing conviction that a higher education is advantageous to men in every field of activity. While formerly the college graduates rarely entered any other profession than the ministry, law or medicine, we now find a minority of all the college graduates entering these professions. In our own college we find in recent years an increasing number of our graduates entering on business or technical pursuits. This change in the life work of college men has accompanied and has been in part the cause of and in part the effect of changes in the college curriculum. There have been introduced into the curriculum many important subjects, which in the early part of the century were hardly thought of in connection with a college education. This large increase in number of subjects taught has necessitated the introduction of electives into the requirements for entrance to and graduation from college. The same conditions have lead to the opportunity being given to the student to substi-tute for Greek, L,atin and Mathematics, which formerly occupied nearly the whole of the college time, Modern Languages, Natural and Physical Sciences, History, Politics, etc., thus giving the student the choice of subjects in which he may specialize. At the same time the requirements for entrance and graduations have THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 207 been notably increased. In all departments of study there have been changes in method of work which increase the labors of the teachers and require more and better study on the part of the pupils. Pennsylvania College has enlarged her courses of study —has adopted to a fair degree elective courses of study—and in every department has increased the requirements for graduation. These changes in subjects of study and methods of work have necessitated an increased teaching force and enlarged equipment. Our college has in recent years somewhat increased her teaching force and added laboratories of chemistry, biology and elementary mechanics. We have also greatly improved our accommodations for class work in new and convenient buildings. The duty of our college is not rivalry with our neighbors, nor is it at present to do university or technical work, but is to do the best possible for our constituency in providing a sound college training such as is demanded by the present times, to this end we need, and we need greatly, additional teaching force, increased facilities for laboratory work and larger library equipment. Our professors are required to teach too many subjects, and other subjects barely included or not included in our curriculum require attention which cannot be given them. While there has been no increase in the personal interest teachers have for their pupils, there has been a change in methods which requires more immediate individual work between teacher and pupil. This personal teaching in all subjects, while greatly benefiting the student, is a great drain on the vital power of the teacher. As the number of pupils increases the personal attention to individual pupils must lessen unless the teaching force is in-creased, thus enabling each teacher to have fewer subjects and a smaller number of pupils. Co-education has been adopted to a limited degree by Penn-sylvania College. If we desire to enlarge this work, which can easily be done, we must have suitable accommodations for the young women. There has been in our colleges a great change in the dormitory and other accommodations for students. What thirty or forty years ago was regarded as excellent is now deemed wholly inadequate by parents and pupils. In some places these provisions have grown to extravagant proportions, while Pennsylvania College 208 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY has not developed to such a degree, we are in these respects fully abreast of the times. We find the college student yearly taking a greater interest in matters outside the college curriculum—this when properly guarded, is wise and of educational advantage. Our students have shown reasonable activity and had fair success in many of these enterprises, such as athletics, musical clubs, publications and debating clubs. With all these changes in college work—with the greater pressure of material things, with the ever increasing claims of study on the energy of the student and the accompanying greatly increased personal freedom and self-control of the individual student there has been an equally increased interest in religious subjects—this is shown in many ways, not the least being the activity of the College Y. M. C. A. and the accompanying Bible study. In this brief summary of the changing conditions of college work—and we believe they are changes for the better—we find that Pennsylvania College has been advancing in the same direction as the general educational world, and while there is always room for fuller growth, we feel encouraged with the past and are hope-ful for the future. These improving conditions are due to the diversified and united labors of trustees, presidents, professors,students,numerous liberal friends and the general loyalty of the alumni of the college. It is in reliance on the continued energy and loyalty of all these friends that we are assuredly hopeful for the future of our college. THE BELLES. J. B. BAKER, '01. Hear the singing of the belles— Choir belles! What a world of vanity their rhapsody foretells ! How they wrinkle, wrinkle, wrinkle, All the muscles of their bite 1 While the gems that oversprinkle All their tresses, seem to twinkle With a hyaline delight; THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 209 Keeping time, time, time, In a faintly falling: rime, To the nasal proclamation that so dissonantly wells From the belles, belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles— From the singing and the ringing- of the belles. II Hear the flippant summer belles, Giddy belles! What a string- of soda bills their coquetry foretells ! Throug-h the balmy air of nig-ht How they draw us out of sight! From their starting, darting eyes All aglow, What a funny feeling hies To the bosom of the lover, while he spies Not the bow. Oh, from out those spheric cells, What a gush of repartee extravagantly wells ! How it swells ! How it dwells On the future ! how it tells Oh the philter that impels To the flushing and the blushing Of the belles, belles, belles, Of the belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles— To the flushing and the blushing of the belles. Ill Hear the loud alarum belles— Infant belles ! What a train of muffled oaths their noisiness compels ! In the startled ear of night How they scream out their affright! Too much horrified to speak, They can only shriek, shriek, Out of tune, In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the sire, In a mad expostulation with his warm erratic ire Leaping higher, higher, higher, With a desperate desire, And a resolute endeavor To resign the job forever That he undertook alas, too soon. Oh, the belles, belles, belles What a tale their horror tells Of the crier! 210 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY How they squirm, and kick, and roar, What a horror they outpour On the palpitating bosom of the sire ! Nor the father fully knows, By the wiggling-. And the wriggling, How the sulphur ebbs and flows ; But the mother t'is who tells, In the jangling, And the wrangling, How the danger sinks and swells, By the sinking and the swelling in the squealing of the belles,- Of the belles— Of the belles, belles, belles, belles, Belles, belles, belles— In the squealing and the reeling of the belles. IV Hear the moaning of the belles— Ancient belles ! What a world of sympathy their monody compels ! Through the day and oft by night, How our tears spring into light, At the melancholy mumble of their tone ; For every sound that floats From the rust within their throats Is a groan. And the lovers—ah, the lovers— They who go and wed some others, Altar prone, And who strolling, strolling, strolling, By discarded belles alone, Feel a glory in so rolling On the human heart a stone— They are neither false nor true men— They are neither brute nor human— They are fiends, And their king the devil, tolls, And he rolls, rolls, rolls, Rolls A threnode from the belles ! And his scaly bosom swells With a threnode from the belles! And he dances and he yells ; Keeping time, time, time, In his Tartarean grime, To the threnode of the belles— Of the belles; Keeping time, time, time, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 211 In his Tartarean grime, To the throbbing- of the belles— Of the belles, belles, belles,— To the sobbing- of the belles ; Keeping time, time, time, As he knells, knells, knells, In his Tartarean grime, To the groaning of the belles— Of the belles, belles, belles,— To the moaning of the belles Of the belles, belles, belles, belles— Belles, belles, belles— To the moaning and the groaning- of the belles. THE MYSTERIOUS PICTURE. STANLEY C. FOWLER, '04. 44QPEAKING of mysteries reminds me of a very curious, yes, ^ startling experience I had when a struggling young artist in Paris," said Wilbur Cutting. " What was that? " we asked. " Go ahead, let her rip, said Coleman, the irrepressible, "we're all attention." Wilbur puffed at his favorite corn-cob pipe and we all drew our chairs nearer the grate fire which burned cheerily and lighted up our cozy club-room. Presently we heard Wilbur's voice from behind a cloud of tobacco smoke, saying: "I was searching for a new model to pose for my 'Abraham.' I had been told of an old, patriarchal Jew, living in one of the many by-ways in the Latin quarter. While walking down a dingy, narrow alley, my attention was attracted by a picture lying on a heap of canvasses, in an old curiosity shop. Drawn by an irresistible impulse I entered and purchased it from the shop-keeper, a queer, little, old Orient, who seemed eager to dispose of it. I took it under my arm and hurried back to my studio, in-tending to retouch it. I placed it on my easel and scrutinizing it closely, marked what a peculiar face it was. Pure oval, the fore-head low and square, eyebrows high-arched meeting over a long, Roman nose, the nostrils were contracted, the mouth, tight shut, was cruel and sinister. The eyes had been scratched through the pupils, completely destroying its expression ; the hair, long 212 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY and black as a raven's wing, was painted as though blown by the wind and finally blended into the deep crimson background. The head had the appearance of flying through the air, for there was neither shoulders nor neck. I failed to recognize the style and searched in vain for the artist's name. "I was soon at work on the eyes, hoping to complete them before the arrival of Archie Armstrong, a young American, who, attracted by the gayeties of Bohemian life, had adopted them as his profession. He had a rich, indulgent, spinster aunt, living in Paris, who descended periodically upon his studio, which was across the hall from mine, and purchased all his masterpieces. To tell the truth, the only parts of them not painted by me were his signatures, which he persistently painted in the brightest colors and in the most conspicuous places. He was expecting a visit from his aunt that afternoon and was about to make a raid upon my studio and carry off all the paintings, finished or not. "As I painted the eyes, it seemed as though an invisible hand was guiding or directing my brush. They were soon finished and I stepped back to see my work. What an expression ! Simply hellish. The eyes seemed like living coals of fire. They burned and blazed and seemed to pierce one through and through. I felt a most peculiar tingling sensation. "I looked at lny hands. No longer were they covered with oil and paint stains, but were changed to long, slender white hands with tapering fingers. My velvet jacket and paint covered trous-ers were changed to an evening suit. Even the studio had changed to a drawing-room elegantly furnished. "Stepping over to one of the mirrors that adorned the wall, I looked in. I started back with a cry of surprise and alarm. The face that had stared at me from the canvass now gazed back at me from the mirror. Could it be possible? Was it I? I raised my hand to my face and when the glass reflected the action, I knew then that I had changed. "Presently I heard footsteps and turning, beheld a young man advancing towards me with outstretched hands to welcome me. I hastened to meet him and he led me into an inner room where a young woman was reclining gracefully on a high-backed, old-fashioned seat. She blushed prettily as we entered and he presented me to her—his wife. As I bowed low and kissed the tips of her dainty fingers, I had an uncontrollable desire to kill THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 213 her, take possession of me. I cannot explain it. It seemed as though I must kill her or myself. "The young man took me to his "den" where we were soon drinking her health. I took up a jeweled dagger from a table and told him of some murders I had heard of done under hypnotic influence. He asked if I believed in hypnotism and I replied in the affirmative, saying, that I could hypnotize him if I so desired. He seemed startled but continuing to drink heavily was soon in a stupor. "Seizing the dagger I stole into the room where his wife was; I raised it aloft and struck with all my might, again and again. As I felt the blade sink into the soft flesh, I could not refrain from laughing exultingly. I knew that when he was aroused from his stupor he would believe himself guilty of the crime. I think I must have been changed into the devil, for I chuckled and gloated over the misery that would come to the young man. "I stole away still gloating over my crime. Suddenly my face grew warmer and warmer. It seemed that flames were creeping slowly over my head. I screamed aloud for agony and then I must have fainted. "When I regained consciousness, I found myself in my own bed with Archie leaning over me and the.morning sun pouring in the window. " 'What has happened ?' I asked. " 'Blamed if I know,'said Archie, rubbing his head. 'Icame yesterday afternoon and nearly banged my fists off, trying to make you let me in. I heard you sputtering and as time was valuable, I pushed the door in and found you staring at the queerest picture I ever saw. You turned around to me sputtering gibberish and I took you into your room. I thought you had been indulging too freely. In the night you stabbed your lay figure with your pallet knife. You'll have a nice job replacing that gown. You had it spoiled before I discovered you. You've been raving until you screamed just now,' said Archie, looking disgustedly at me. ' 'I looked at my easel. The picture was gone. "'Where's the picture?' I asked. Archie looked sheepish and said: 'Well, auntie would have it. There's the check on the table.' % % if. ■%. % "That afternoon as I was relating my experience to Archie, the 214 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY door flew open with a bang and in stepped his aunt with head erect and fire in her eye. Without returning Archie's greeting, she opened hostilities thus: " 'What do you mean by selling me that picture, sir ! I don't believe you painted it at all! I think the devil did ! ' " 'Why, auntie, you surprise me. What's the trouble,' asked Archie. " 'Trouble! Humph! I should say so. Trouble! There's been nothing but trouble since I brought that thing to my house. Why, when I had Henry hang it in my saloon with the rest of your paintings, he acted like a lunatic. Tried to stab me ! He raved so all last night about that picture that I took it down this morning and threw it in the fire, and as I did so, it shrieked! My nerves have had such a fright that it'll be months before they'll get quieted again. How did you ever get it, tor I don't believe you painted it? ' she finally asked Archie. " 'Well, I'll confess I didn't paint it. My friend Wilbur bought it in an old shop and I thought since you liked it, you know, when—er—that is—I thought you would like it better if you thought that I painted it. I am sorry that I deceived you, but shan't do it again,' said Archie, looking very penitent. " 'You'd better not, for I am very shrewd. I thought you didn't paint it,' said his aunt, and turning to me said: " 'Mr. Wilbur, if you would turn your attention toward art, as my gifted nephew has, and paint a few pictures like his, it would be better than tramping around buying such things as that picture and calling them your own as I guess you were going to do. I hope this will be a lesson to you, Archie. Don't follow in your friend's footsteps again or attempt to deceive me again, for I am too shrewd for you !' and off she stamped, followed by Archie, whose face was purple with suppressed laughter. I was in deadly fear of the eruption and heaved a sigh of relief as they disappeared. "All those symptoms Archie's aunt attributed to his shame and mortification he felt at being caught trying to fool her. "I made inquiries afterwards at the shop about the picture. All that I could learn was that the shop-keeper had bought it at the auction of the art treasures of a young man who had killed his wife and died crazy. It was said that he had imported the picture from the Orient, where it had been, probably, for many I THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 215 years. It was the shop-keeper who had scratched out the eyes, for he said they haunted him. Whether or not I should have died mad, as did its former possessor, had it not been destroyed, I can't tell." e^pj FATHER HAWKINS' OBSERVATIONS. CHAS. W. WEISER, '01. Well, Lizer, I'se been up ter town, Ther college fur ter see, And talk about yer country Jakes— Ther same as you and me. Of bildins fine I saw a heft, That's fine as ever I've seen, And trees, and signs—"Keep off ther grass' I guess because its green. The Profs' got lots of larnin, And plenty fur ter spare ; But me thinks they need it all, Ter train thim fellers thare. So guess we'll send our Kier, Ter eddicated be, Fur he must have more larnin, Than ever you an me. I saw thim fellers go A stragglin long ther walk, Ther one he looked so strait ahead As any line of chalk. He looked not ter ther right er left, But just strait down his nose, And where that little nose did point, He always surly goes. Ther one did run his hands, Inter his pockets deep. With hangin head and crooked back, He ter the class did creep. His knees did knock each other gainst, And pigeoned were his toes. Well such er sight I niver seed Where ever I do goes. 216 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Another one went walkin long, A lookin at ther cloud ; His nose er pointin in ther air, His heels er stumpin loud. He wore er collar high er enough, Fer any six months calf ; And tie like my red handkichief, That made er feller laugh. And one he said "Wha don chu knaw" I took my "cut" ter day ; Another one he got er "zip," And wished he'd stayed away. They say they "horse," and "make a stab, An some times make a "break." But if I had them in my field, I'd make them take a rake. When yer do hear a college chap, Yer don't know what he says I guess its Latin—but don know, In all my born days. We send our men from off ther farm— They have some common sense ; Ther "city's" call them "greenies" But grapple for ther pence. But soon they larn to shporty dress, And know ther college slang, They come back with swellin heads, Too fine ter help er lang. They think they know a heft of stuff, And flaunt it in yer face, But 'fore ther thro' ther college course, They've set another pace. But don't cher know, I often see, Ther boys from off ther farm, Who think ther "dad" has got ther "mon," Make oft ther shports—yes marm. And tho I kin not spaik mam Like eddicated men I'm not so dull as ruff mam Tho' kin not hold ther pen. And so they musn't judge mam, 'Cause farmin is our lot, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 217 That we are slow and kin not tell Ef they're er man er not. They ortend fur ter be mam, More than thay really was, But live ter what ther trained fur, And not make sich a fuss. " KIING OP REFORMERS." GEO. W. NICELY, '01. Honorable mention Junior Oratorical. HPHE sixteenth century gave birth to the most remarkable man A the world has ever known. Welcome must have been the change in all Germany, created by the reformation. " From Germany proceeded the power which caused Rome, the once proud mistress of almost the whole world, to tremble, even when she was at the zenith of her potency. And from Germany also proceeded the power which shook the triple crown of the most artful religious and temporal usurper at modern Rome, and brought her to the very brink of inevitable ruin; it was in Ger-many where the morning dawn of a pure worship of the Supreme Being, and of a wise liberty of conscience was destined to arise." In order to realize, to some extent, the magnitude and im-portance of Luther's services to mankind in promoting the cause of freedom and progress, as well as in reformiug the church, it is necessary to recall the condition of the civilized world at the time he appeared and began his career on the stage of human affairs. In the beginning of the 15th century the church was almost universally corrupt, and popes and bishops and people were alike involved in the general demoralization. For a hundred years before the papal chair was occupied by princes, most of whom attained their elevation by intrigue and bribery, and some even by assassination. " It was an age of monasticism." Thousands of men and women in all countries had renounced the world and entered into monasteries and convents to lead lives of superior holiness, but these retreats from the world had changed from their original character and many of them were now places of in-dolence and sensuality. Guiler Von Kaiserburg declares that convent life had become a mere mockery. Infessura, a Roman 218 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY historian, says: "Everyone in Rome knows, alas, that monas-teries have now become dens of corruption.'' Such was the general character of the clergy, from the pope down to the lowest priest; and such also was the condition of religious teachers. Ignorance, superstition and immorality prevailed generally among them. All who questioned the authority of this complex despotism, or denounced its usurpations, were soon silenced or crushed. John Huss and Jerome Prague suffered martydom at Constance for preaching the truths of the gospel a hundred years before Luther; Savoiiavola, at Florence, met a similar fate in 1498. Thousands of others were persecuted, imprisoned, assassinated, tortured to death; hunted down like the wild beasts, or burned to the stake, for worshiping God according to the dictates of their own con-science, for reading the scriptures or for exposing the wickedness and usurpations of the clergy. It was under this state of civil and ecclesiastical despotism, when corruption and profligacy were dominant in the church, and ignorance and superstition prevailed among the people, that Luther appeared and entered upon the great work of reform, for which God had prepared him. It is difficult, if not impossible, at the present day to appreciate the magnitude of that work. All sources of power and influence in church and state; all customs and habits of the people for generations; all existing institutions and the entire structure of society were against him, and had to be assailed, confronted, overthrown and reformed. The word of God was buried in the Latin vulgate version, which only the educated few could read, and copies were so dear and scarce that they were inaccessible to the common people, even if they had been able to read them. " It was one of the achievements of Luther, and a service of ines-timable value to the Germanic nation, that he translated the Bible and gave it to the people in their own tongue, so that all could read it and know that the doctrines he proclaimed were the living truths of the living God, before whom popes and kings and priests and all men were alike accountable." But Luther's work was not confined to reforming the church and furnishing the Bible to the people. It was not only the overthrow of usurped ecclesi-astical power and the restoration of religious toleration and free-dom in Europe. It was all this, but it was also more. There is not an interest or reform affecting human welfare in modern civilization—whether educational, social, industrial or THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 219 political—upon which Luther did not shed the light of his great intellect and soul, enlightened by the word and spirit of God. He taught that it was the duty of the state to educate all the children of the people in order that they might become intelligent and useful citizens; and thus he was the pioneer advocate of uni-versal education four centuries ago. In quelling the outbreak of communism in Germany, known as the "peasant war," he de-clared it to be the duty of all to be subject to " the powers that be," and to acquire property, not by the plunder and robbery of others, but by industry, frugality and honesty. In an address to the princes and nobles of Germany, he taught the reciprocal duties of rulers to their subjects, and of subjects to their rulers, suggest-ing the fundamental principle announced in our Declaration of Independence, that governments, though " ordained of God, de-rive their just powers from the consent of the governed." " I will call this Luther a true, great man," says Carlyle. " Great in intellect, in courage, affection and integrity, one of our most lovable and precious men; great, not as a hewn obelisk, but as an Alpine mountain, so simple, spontaneous, honest, not set-ting up to be great at all; therefore quite another purpose than being great. A.h, yes, unsubduable granite, piercing far and wide into the heavens; yet, in the clefts of its fountains, green, beautiful valleys with flowers ! " "In my judgment," said Senator Wellington of Maryland, " Luther is the greatest man that hath yet lived." "Challenging the license To make gain of sin, Luther nails his protest; Listen to the din. "Striking with his hammer— How the panels shake— How the gateway trembles— How the timid quake! "Blows on blows resounding, Echoed from afar; How the world is shaken, How the churches jar. "We to-day are feeling Heart and conscience thrill, And throughout the ages Men will feel it still. 220 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY "Till the death-stroke's given To all force and fraud; For the striking' hammer Is the word of God." AN OLD CAMERA. P. W. EYSTEB, '03. A BOUT twenty years ago there lived in Dowingtown, about •**■ thirty miles west from Philadelphia, a young man by the name of Warren, whose ambition it was to succeed. He started out in life by teaching school in his native town. So, during the school term he was busy, but during vacation he did all kinds of work about his home. His neighbor was a photographer, and business being dull, he sold his old camera to Mr. Warren at a small price. After young Warren's school had closed, he packed up his camera and left the town, visiting the small villages and towns, to take the pictures of buildings and family groups. Finally he came to a small vil-lage called Pleasant Hill. There was at the time a small show in the place, and as Warren was strolling over the show grounds, he saw an Italian organ-grinder, and a curly-headed boy about six years old on whose face were the features of an American parent-age. Just then the intoxicated assistant-manager of the show came out of a nearby hotel, and tossing to the organ grinder a dime, said, "Make the little rascal dance." The organ grinder, after a few kicks and cuffs, got the boy to dance. The photographer, Mr. Warren, was among the onlookers and took a picture of the Italian and the daucing boy. Warren went to his lodging place, and after developing the picture, put it with others in his traveling case, forgetting all about it. Not meeting with much success at Pleasant Hill, he went to Ardmore, a suburb of Phila-delphia. He took the pictures of the pretty houses and beautiful scenes to be seen in and about Ardmore. One morning as he was stopping before a large sandstone house, preparing to take a pic-ture of it, a handsome lady, on whose face were signs of inward grief, came walking across the lawn, and commenced to talk with the photographer. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 221 This was the house of Mr. Sheffield, a wealthy Philadelphia banker, who lived in Ardmore, and conducted his business in the city. About five years before, his little only son, then one year old, had wandered into the street and was kidnapped. Mr. Shef-field offered a large reward to any one who would make known the whereabouts of his child, but was not successful. Mrs. Shef-field, who admired children, was so grieved at the loss of her only child that she, at times, came near losing her reason. She would every morning, at the time the child was kidnapped, walk across the lawn as if looking for some one; and she Could frequently be heard repeating a low prayer, in which she asked but one favor from God—the return of her sou. This accounted for her pres-ence on the lawn at this time. Mr. Warren invited her to look over the pictures in his travel-ing case while he was fixing the camera. She examined them all till she came to the last, the picture of the organ-grinder and the curly-headed boy; and as she recognized the boy's picture, she exclaimed , "Oh, my boy, my dear little George," and fell over fainting. Just then Mr. Sheffield came; arid Mrs. Sheffield soon recovered sufficient to hand the picture to Mr. Sheffield, He took a long look at it, and judging from the tears that rolled down his cheeks, one could easily tell what his feelings were. Mr. Sheffield asked young Warren where and when he had last seen the organ-grinder and the little boy. Warren gave Mr. Sheffield the desired information, and in less than four hours the police in every town and village in eastern Pennsylvania were looking for an organ-grinder and a little boy, who answered the description of those on the picture. Both were soon found. The organ-grinder, who was the kidnapper, was dealt with according to law and the child was sent to the home of his loving mother. The boy grew up to take part in his father's business, and to-day the Philadelphia firm of Sheffield & Son is well known. The young photographer received from Mr. Sheffield the reward which gave him a good start in business. At present Mr. Warren lives in Baltimore as a retired mer-chant, and he often tells his friends about the old camera stored on the garret of his house. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., DECEMBER, 1900. No. 7. Editor-in- Chief, S. A. VAN ORMEK, '01. Assistant Editors, W. H. HBTEICK, W. A. KOIILEH. Business Manager, H. C. HOFFMAN. Alumni Editor, REV. F. D. GARLAND. Assistant Business Manager, WILLIAM C. NEY. Advisory Board, PROF. J. A. HIMES, LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD. D. D. Published monthly by the students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Ten Cents. Notice to discontinue sending the MERCURY to any address'must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORS' DESK. "VVTE hear with regret of the death of Business Manager Hoff- " man's father. Mr. Hoffman was summoned home some weeks ago on account of his father's illness, and accompanied him to a Philadelphia hospital, where an operation to save his life was performed in vain. The MERCURY extends sincere sym-pathy to the bereaved family. Since the close of the foot ball season there is a noticeable in-crease in interest in the work of the literary societies. Special programs were rendered in both societies last evening (Dec. 7)— THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 223 in Philo, "An Evening with Kipling"; in Phrena, "A Mock Trial.'' Both halls were filled. It is to be hoped that enthusiasm in and the healthy rivalry between the two societies will continue increasing as time advances. A college man is expected not only to talk intelligently on the current topics of the day but also to meet his adversary in debate with clean-cut, forcible arguments. Men are needed who can think accurately and think on their feet. That Gettysburg men may be the better able to meet these de-mands, a course in Argumentation has been provided for. It is in charge of Professor Klinger, whose enthusiasm and magnetism will prove a source of inspiration to the members of the class, which, added to a knowledge of the principles of Argumentation and practice in the application of these principles, will amply pay for the time and energy expended. As this is the last issue of THE MERCURY for the year and for the century, we wish to bespeak a continuance of the kindly feeling and hearty support of the journal on the part of the stu-dents, alumni and friends of the college. We wish all a pleas-ant vacation, and hope that all may return with renewed ambition and high ideals. When we shall have been transported by the machinery of the world into a new century, may we behold a "New Era" that con-tains bright visions for the coming years ! *3^ab Do not look for wrong- and evil, You will find them if you do; As you measure to your neighbor, He will measure back to you. Look for gladness, look for gladness, You will meet them all the while; If you bring a smiling visage To the glass, you meet a smile. —Alice Cary. 224 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY ELEMENTS Of INSPIRATION IN TME EARLIEST CREEK POETS. C. M. A. STINE, '01. "VVTHAT do we mean when we speak of a book as inspired ? " What is the signification of the word inspiration? These two questions present themselves at the very outset of the subject. The word inspiration means, literally, a breathing into, that is, it is the breathing of God's spirit into the mind of man. When we speak of a book as inspired we mean that it makes the divine will known to man, or contains some great principle or truth in regard to the life of man. It is in this sense of the word that we use the terms inspired and inspiration. In considering the elements of inspiration in the earliest Greek poets we naturally inquire what these elements are in order that we may know what to look for. Let us consider the subject from three standpoints: first, the revelations of God and of the hereafter which they gave to their readers ; second, any prophecies which they contain ; third, their influence upon Greek morals and civilization. Homer and Hesiod are the earliest Greek poets of whose works we have any definite knowledge. The great epics of Homer and the "Theogouy" and the "Works and Days" of Hesiod may fairly be considered as representative of this earliest known period of Greek poetry. Hesiod, in his "Theogouy," as the name indicates, endeavored to harmonize and systematize the numerous myths in regard to the gods b}' arranging the gods themselves in the order of exact genealogy. Homer portrays the gods as grand in the strength of their passions and in their power, yet they leave the impression of being scarcely more than human beings endowed with great power and with immortality. In the Iliad they take sides against one another. Zeus at first is not favorable to the Greeks, and they realize that without the favor of Zeus it is useless to fight. They therefore prosecute the war by wiles and by spies till Zeus has been propitiated. The power of Zeus is recognized, but there are none of the attributes portrayed as pertaining to him which belong to the true God. In his portrayal of the character of Athena, Homer gives the loftiest conception of the Deity. Athena is mind personified. She is without the lower attributes and the petty jealousies which attach to the. other gods. Athena, "the flashing eyed," is essentially the goddess of the keeu-witted THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 225 Greeks. It is necessary that the Greek be constantly on the lookout not to offend the Deities, and if by some mischance a god or goddess is offended, it is necessary that the offended deity be placated at any cost. The various divinities have their favorites over whom they watch and whose actions they direct. In the first book of the Iliad Athena is represented as restraining Achilles by his yellow hair when he is about to draw his sword against Agamemnon : ***** jiffy g> •AOrjvrj ******* * * * l-avOTfi $k ho/ir/i HX* TTTjXziwya, (II. I. 193-201.) Again, in the Odyssey, she assists Teleuiachus to set out from Ithaca in search of his father, and watches over the wandering Odysseus. But how far is all this from the love of the Christian Jehovah ! There is a power spoken of against which it is useless to strug-gle or to appeal to the gods. The decrees of the fates are unalter-able. Even the gods themselves are subject to them. As com-pared with the Christian idea of God as the supreme power there is a wide difference to be noted here. Homer gives a high con-ception of God, when it is remembered that he was a pagan, but the Zeus of Homer and of Hesiod is far indeed from the God of the Christian. From the foregoing we see, first, that there is no clear revela-tion of the attributes of God; second, that there is no idea of Provi-dence; when a guiding hand is revealed it is still within the limitations of stern fate. As to revelations of the future life, the hereafter as painted by Homer is gloomy and forbidding. Instead of regarding the soul as the real ego, and the body merely as a fetter from which the soul is freed at death, the soul is regarded by him merely as a "shade," the shadow of the physical body. This life is all, and there awaited the Greek after death a joyless exist-ence in a gloomy twilight at best, and perhaps even the tortures of Tartarus. He makes the shade of the great Achilles in Hades to say: "I would be A laborer on earth, and serve for hire Some nian of mean estate, who makes scant cheer, Rather than reig-n o'er all who have gone down To death." Od. XI. 489-90, (Bryant's Trans.) 226 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Such a conception of the hereafter must certainly be regarded as unfavorable to the attainment of the highest and noblest life. As to the revelations of God and of the hereafter as contained in these poems we may say that God never reveals half of himself, or in contradictory lights, nor can an idea of the hereafter be for a moment entertained as the correct one if it is hostile to the attainment of the noblest life and the fulfillment of man's highest ideals. Second, as to the element of prophecy as contained in these poems. Prophecy, strictly defined, is "a prediction under divine influence or direction." We ask then, what predictions are there in the works of these poets and what indications do these predic-tions give of having been made under divine influence or direction ? These poems contain not a single instance of this kind of prophecy. It is true that Homer represents predictions as uttered and later on as fulfilled, but there is no prophecy made by either Hesiod or Homer in regard to the future. The predictions of oiacles are mentioned, and later on we see the fulfillment of these predictions worked out as the action of the poem moves on, but in no case is a prophecy in regard to future ages uttered. We come next to the influence which the works of these poets had on the morals and civilization of the Greek people. It is from this third standpoint that we are most likely to speak of these poems as inspired. The"Theogony" of Hesiod moulded the vast number of myths which we find to have existed in that early period into an orderly, polytheistic theology and was accepted as authority by the Greeks. Any book which brings the idea of God nearer to a people and gives more definite form to that idea, whatever form it may be, will have an influence for good upon the morals of that people. In this way such a book as the "Theogony" must have influenced Greek morals. Hesiod's "Works and Days," however, came nearer home to the hearts of the common people. This poem is a sort of a farm-er's calendar, and in addition to the enumeration of the various lucky days for sowing, etc., it contains a collection of precepts, ethical, economical and political. While the style is homely and unimaginative there is a lofty and solemn feeling throughout, found-ed on the "idea that the gods have ordained justice among men, have made labor the only road to prosperity, and have so ordered THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 227 the year that every work has its appointed season, the sign of which may be discerned." A poem of this character certainly had a beneficent effect upon the minds of the people. It is before the immortal Homer that we must pause in wonder and almost in awe. The influence of the Iliad and the Odyssey upon the Greek mind can hardly be over-estimated. Tbe char-acters which stand forth in his poems, with their matchless symmetry and trueness to life, even to this day, twenty-five hundred years after the writing of the poems, play a part in the formation of the ideals of all who read them, and cannot but enoble the reader. Nausicaa, the loveliest of Homer's female creations, is a character which, in her innocence and her queenly maidenhood, has scarcely ever been equaled. Penelope is the ideal of a con-stant wife, faithful and unswerving in her affections through the most trying experiences. Hector is an ideal of a loyal, unselfish patriot. While no less brave than the fiery Achilles, he is yet more human than that mighty warrior, who has been rendered by the gods practically invulnerable. The appeal of the white-haired Priam for the body of his son will never fail to touch human hearts. With characters such as these ever before them in the lofty poetry of Homer, Greek minds could not fail to be purified and ennobled. Their influence upon the general culture of the age must have been very great, and they are therefore treated as one of the great factors in Greek civilization by many historians. To sum up, we find that while these early poems failed to give the highest conceptions of God, contain nothing of the idea of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and were entirely lacking in the element of prophecy, they, nevertheless, were of the greatest value in the education of the Greek people and the advancement of civilization. In this third aspect, at least, they do not fall short of that lofty ideal which we expect an inspired work to fulfill. While we are not warranted in conclud-ing that they were inspired, yet so long as either Hesiod or Homer are read, the homely truth of the former and the superb genius of the latter must command our highest admiration. 228 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY WORDS AND THINGS. D. C. BUBNITK, '01. I ANGUAGE is God's gift to man. The lower animals pos- *~* sess memory, will and intellect, and in a few cases even the ability to repeat words; but to man alone has the Creator given the power of expressing his thoughts in words. This dis-criminate use of words is the most prominent mark of difference between man and beast. The value of language is realized when we try to imagine man without it. How limited would be his knowledge and how nar-row his range of thought, for he would be unable to receive from his fellows one single idea with which to compare his own thoughts, and thus arrive at new conclusions. Nor would reason have any value without words to communicate to others its re-sults. What would be the extent of scientific knowledge today had Copernicus, Newton, Franklin and all the host of discoverers been unable to preserve their results in words? "Thoughts without words are nothing." * Words are valueless without a knowledge of the relations they bear to the things for which they are the symbols. But an ex-tensive knowledge of their significance is inestimable, for upon this foundation rests all learning—that alone which can procure true appreciation of life and its blessings. Acquaintance with the real meanings of words is necessary to scholarship. One must be able at a glance to discern that which lies back of a word, the thing for which a word stands. He must have appropriate terms with which he can readily give accurate expression to his own thoughts. "A word fitly spoken," says Solomon, "is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." T_et us attempt to substitute one word for another in a passage of Milton, and we destroy the effect of the whole. It was Webster's accurate selection of words that placed him in history. How do we acquire this ability to join the right word with the right thing ? This faculty, like most other endowments, develops with age. The infant hears a word and learns by mere observa-tion what thing it represents. He wishes to denote an object or express a thought, and his elders supply him with the necessary words. And this process of obtaining the meanings of words may be pursued in this same manner all through life. No con- *Max Muller. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 229 scious effort in this direction need be made in order to prosper, but to pass into the sphere of education one must apply himself to the work of definition; he must faithfully consult his dic-tionary. The student's vocabulary is also increased, as in the case of the infant, by being supplied with the ideas before he is given the corresponding terms. That is, a definition may precede the word it explains. This is the modern inductive method of teaching, especially in the natural sciences. By it we are lead first to form a conception and then given the appropriate word. By repeated use every word whose meaning is understood be-comes a complete possession. But not only mere definition and repetition suffice to procure for us in all cases true appreciation of the meanings of words. The things for which some words stand must be experienced before their real significance lies open before us. Who knows what the word "sorrow" really means but him who has had trouble ? The mild tempered person can-not realize fully what lies back of the word "anger." The true meaning of "ocean" is inconceivable to him who has never be-held its beauty. Words are living beings to one who has expe-rienced the things they represent. One of the greatest obstacles to retard our progress is the lack of this absolute requirement for advancement—total command of the words in common use. We wonder why this is. Of course some of us lack original capacity to understand words, and some of us have not had sufficient opportunities to obtain a good vocabulary. But most of us have this capacity and have had the best of chances, and yet we are deficient. The failure to understand and use words in their true import can generally be traced to the habitual disinclination to do that which requires .special effort; in short, we have been lazy. It is surprising how few of us are willing to attribute some of our fail-ings to that cause. Many of our present shortcomings are owing to wilful neglect in the past. In the case in hand we have failed to perform the fundamental process. We have procrastinated, deferring the definition of unfamiliar words till "the next time." We have done this again and again, and now when we attempt higher pursuits, we find our error. An exceedingly large proportion of persons are in this condi-tion. And it is to be deplored that a very large part of those in 230 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY this plight do not seem at all anxious to remedy their condition. How shiftless and inaccurate is their use of words. How feeble their attempts to argue, or even to hold intelligent conversation. The artisan must have materials with which to work. He who would make his thoughts known must have suitable words. But these persons are satisfied with their poor attempts, both to ex-press their thoughts and to understand the thoughts of others. "The world," says Paschal, "is satisfied with words; few care to dive beneath the surface." How true this is. We see it everywhere. Where it is possible the student uses his memory. Words, empty words, are all he tries to obtain; and, sad to say, he gets what he is after. He fails to see beyond the narrow present into the broad future. He strives for present reputation and marks, and he gets them; and that is all. He soon loses words, and he has never received their corresponding ideas, and all that is left is a record "on the books," which in these days of the survival of the fittest, counts for naught. But then there is that large class of persons who do thoroughly realize the necessity of greater command of language, who do want to make up for past neglect. How can we accomplish this ? "There is no royal road to learning." The rudiments of any study must be mastered before there can be advancement. We must now do what we have before neglected. We must use our dictionaries and weigh the significance of each word before we attempt to use it. To attain the highest use of language we must not pass by a single word without thoroughly understanding the thing it stands for. Extreme care must be exercised in the selec-tion of words with which to express our thoughts. Constant watchfulness is the price of success. This work of improvement is an arduous task, the performance of which persistence alone can accomplish, but the end fully repays the effort. Who that has reached this goal would trade his accomplish-ment for all that man could offer? With this possession one dwells upon a higher plane than that of his less intelligent fellow. By it he is brought a step nearer to the Being with whose help he obtains it. No other acquirement can produce such pleasure as this knowledge of the relations of words to things. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 231 THE REFINING FIRE IN NATURE. J. R. STONER, '01. A T that period of the year when the process of oxidation is **• going on more rapidly than at any other, preparing nature for a state in which she may resume anew the forms of activity and life,—look out over the landscape ! The autumnal equinox has ushered in another season to succeed the vanished summer, and the robe of verdure is changed into the beautiful golden garb of autumn. The forest and the grove reflect a hue of amber and gold as they lie in the distance, bathed in the rich sunlight against the blue background of the sky. It is but the flame of this burning process in nature now fanned into a great conflagration consum-ing all that has flourished in the past year that is no longer of value in the economy of nature, except it be decomposed into its elements and taken up in the formation of other substances. But all is not consumed. The golden grain and the fruit of the tree; that which at one time appeared but as an obstructed growth of leaves, now contains within its narrow shell the capability of un-folding in another life. By its persistence in complying with the law that turns all hindrances to good effects, while it could not assume the beauty and prominence of a leaf in the bright robe of the herb or the tree, but submitting to its allotted destiny, it grad-ually developed into the permanent kernel, able to survive in the test under which the leaf must perish. We see all around us the work of nature purging the earth of all that is useless at the end of a period of creative activity or growth, preparing for another period of vigor and work. By means of this oxidation or slow burning "all effete substances that have served their purpose in the old form are burnt up" and only that which has the promise of life and usefulness passes un-harmed through the ordeal. Without this conflagration by which the earth is swept in autumn, there could be no.new, fresh growth in nature. Through the amber flames of autumn comes the pure, fresh verdure of spring. Everywhere is this refining fire purg-ing the universe of all that is worthless, perpetually tending to bring it into a purer state. Even the rivulet, whose crystal waters have been made foul by the natural contamination of the soil over which it has flown, is made purer by being thrown into a state of agitation as it ripples down over the obstructions in its way. The grand column that dashes precipitately over the awful 232 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY cataract and is separated into multitudinous particles of spray reaches the plane below in a purer state ; because the molecules have been bathed in the refining element of oxygen pervading the atmosphere. Thus we see that hindrances or adversity in nature are the means through which all great and phenomenal feats are brought about. And may not this principle be traced into the ethical life of man ? Surely all great heroes of the past, whose deeds are worthy of immortality, and whose careers merit the height of fame they have attained, have been disciplined by the stern school of adversity. They were men who met the hindrances with a de-termined will that would not flinch, when faced by difficulties, or cower in the presence of misfortune, their destinies were not moulded by circumstances ; but circumstances were controlled by their high destiny, the goal of their illustrious lives. And as a consequence the hindrances they met and surmounted prepared them to survive in the refining fire of trial, and instilled into their very sinews pure and noble principles of life. Thus estab-lished in character, they came from the ordeal all the more beauti-ful for having been submitted to the test. Arduous accomplishments that require an extraordinary amount of perseverence, patience, tact, and earnest toil should not be looked upon disparagingly. They are but the means, the testing fire, as it were, by which those who are fit to rise high in the walks of life, to take charge of responsible positions and to wield the sceptre of influence over the world in a manner to di-rect it in the channels of righteousness, are separated from those who are frivolous, trifling, insignificant idlers. And like the evergreen,—fitting emblem of the eternal that it is,—as it stands robed in its brilliant garb, unscathed by the withering effect of the autumn frost and the snows of winter, an object of life stand-ing out in sharp contrast with the seemingly lifeless world around it; so shall those, who have stood the test, be clothed in immor-tality though all things else may perish. CQgj 111 fares the land to hastening' ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. —Goldsmith. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 233 A PINANCIER. FRANK 8. FITE, '01. \ HAD the rare privilege, some forty years ago, to make the ac- * quaintance and to be favored with the confidence of a finan-cier who had risen to eminence from the lowest social grade. As a beggar boy, his exceptional talent for begging had roused the enthusiasm of a set of elderly maidens, who were attracted by his peculiar cry of helplessness and his boast of honesty. They put him to school. He learned there the fundamental principles of arithmetic, and little else; but his aptitude for trade was devel-oped in a marvelous degree. All the spending money of the scholars was invariably found at the end of a vacation in Chaucey Alcott's pockets. Yet, no boy could say that he had been cheated. All the fellows felt that their bits of silver coin had mysteriously disappeared in their various business relations with Alcott; but still they reluctantly confessed that everything had been "fair and square." He was said to be "on the dead level," yet plucked them, it would seem, pitilessly; but he stood by his own contracts, as he compelled them to stand by theirs. No act of positive dishonesty was ever proved against this plausible, cautious and relentless trader. The boys declared that he was shrewd, cunning and hard, yet he was "so obliging!" They disliked him, and at the same time accepted his services. Could they have caught him in any act of rascality his life would have been made a misery, but he was so discreet in his early preparation for his future career that, at the age of ten, he already gave promise of the great merchant and banker he eventually became. On leaving school, young Alcott found that his possessions amounted to thirty dollars. Instead of rushing at once to the elderly maidens who had helped him he went to the city and offered himself as clerk in a wholesale fish house. The senior partner was attracted by his evident talent and felt his youth renewed in looking at the youngster; he gave him a position in his counting room at once with a salary of fifty dollars a year. The keen youth, seeing at a glance that his employers were pious misers, instantly became, to all appearances, a pious miser himself. But in the course of five or six years he astonished the firm by show-ing that he knew more about the wholesale fish business than they did, and had made some money by quiet speculation of his 234 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY own. They oSered to double, treble, quadruple his salary, but nothing would satisfy Alcott but a partnership in their question-ablegaius. This they refused and Alcott promptly set up for himself on a small capital of money but a large capital of knowledge and intelligence, and soon cornered his former employers in a few heavy dealings and put them into bankruptcy in twenty-four months after he had left them, with the skillful use of their own methods. In the course of a few years he ventured cautiously but surely into other departments of commerce. He became a general merchant and at last assumed the dignity of ship owner and shipped his o-oods in his own vessels. He had two grand qualifications for business: his mind was quick and his heart was hard. In all financial panics he collected what was his due relentlessly, regard-less of the suffering it might bring upon nobler people than him-self; and paid all his own notes punctually as they fell due. To "fail'' was to him the worst of crimes. Almost everybody detested him, yet all knew that they could rely both on his word and his bond. Such a merchant, perhaps, should be judged by his own prin-ciples ; he had no sympathy with the great body of merchants of the country and laughed at all such sentimentality. "Get the better of 'em," was his motto. About this time he was a little wearied with commerce and bonds and stocks held for him the charm which merchandise had lost. He had obtained about two million dollars and amazed the moneyed world by a rush into Wall street, where he became a gigantic stock-jobber and banker. Here, as in school, the same shrewd, cunning characteristics were manifest, and slowly at first, but surely, his fortune increased and he obtained big commissions on the doubtful and worthless securities he sold; but just as his school-mates, those wbo relied on him could not assert that he had done anything to forfeit his reputation for honesty. It was at this point that I happened to have the honor of being one of his clerks, and in a short time his confidential one. I at once noticed his profanity. Everybody and everything interfering with his business designs brought forth a volley of oaths. There is probably no greater shock to the mind of an honest, well-intentioned country lad who is sent to confront the tempta- THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 235 tions of a city, with a mother's prayers hovering over him, than when he finds his employer is a rascal disguised as an honest man. Shall he also become a rascal ? Shall he stoop to scoundrelisms which his inmost soul abhors ! His behavior under such circum-stances is a test of his character ; his father, mother and sister, if he is fortunate enough to have a sister, combine all their moral energies to help him. There is no reason why the boy should have more privileges thau the girl, but the fact that he has is too evident to admit of a doubt. The denial of sisters to advance their brothers is one of the tragedies of human life. The re-verse SHOULD be the case, but unfortunately is not. But to return to my theme. As soon as I found out Mr. Al-cott, I began to look upon him with a certain horror. He had the greatest confidence in my honesty and even allowed me to sign his name to checks, but when I suggested that my services were worth more than I received, and that fifteen hundred would but partly recompense my unceasing work in his journal and ledger, he used his favorite formula and cursed me and my ser-vices roundly. He really thought that my services were due his pre-eminent position, though he was aware that I might ruin him in a single day had I chosen to "skip" at the close of business hours with his stocks and bonds. It is curious that I never had the slightest temptation to use the vast powers with which Mr. Alcott endowed me, for I might easily have become a millionaire in some European country had I chosen, like my employer, to become a rogue. I witnessed, as do clerks every day, the process of plundering, without any desire to plunder the plunderer. His wife, a meek woman, whom he swiftly scared into the grave, left him a daughter. She appeared to me a foolish, gig-gling creature, with large black eyes, a pug nose, and a complex-ion which was red to the point of ignition. A younger clerk in the office, much to our amusement, with a salary of five hundred dollars a year, declared that he was madly in love with her and convinced her of his sincerity ; as it was ridiculous to suppose that the father would consent to such a match, the clerk and heiress eloped and were married. When Alcott heard of it, he blasphemed with a savage fluency that was Wonderful even in him. His son-in-law was a bright fellow, however, with some rich connections, and with their backing, soon appeared in Wall Street. He made money, backed as he was, and Mr. Alcott went deliberately to work to ruin him, but at first he didn't succeed, as the son-in-law, in an early "corner in Erie," took eight hundred thousand out of his father-in-law's pocket: but this only stimu-lated Mr. Alcott and he ventured his millions without stint in an attempt to "corner" his son-in-law. [Continued.] 236 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY BOOK REVIEW. Quicksand, by Hervey White :—Small, Maynard, and Co., $1.50. QUICKSAND is the life history of a family with many more downs than ups. It is divided into three parts, in each of which a particular member of the family is the central figure, although all the members of the family enter into each divi-sion. The birth, boyhood, education, marriage, struggle for literary fame, and tragic death of Hubert form a conspicuous current in the narration. The varying dispositions of the members of the family, the appearance of the Indian, Maude, and the faithful hired man give an abundance of variety. The characters are depicted in striking detail, and the descriptions of the three homes (which the cover-ing of shame made necessary) are complete. The effect of a number of follies (crimes in some instances) are so clearly brought out as to emphasize the necessity of straight forward living. AMONG OUR CONTEMPORARIES, TT has not been the policy of THE MERCURY to devote much *■ space to an exchange article, but we feel it our duty to say something at intervals of those journals of other institutions, the reading of which gives us much pleasure and is profitable. The fact that an exchange article was crowded out of the November number explains why, in a few instances, reference is made to October numbers. The University of Virginia Magazi?ie is one of the most com-plete literary journals on our table, and the November number is an especially good one. It contains an article on "Keats—A Conscious Reformer of English Poetry," that is worthy of study. "The Quiet Indian's Ghost" in the November Touchstone is a well written story. The editor makes a strong appeal to the "men of Lafayette" in behalf of the literary journal of the insti-tution . The recent changes in the form and general get-up of the Pharetra make it the neatest and most attractive of our exchanges. The material is of a high grade, and the pen-sketches add ma-terially to its attractiveness. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 237 "The Living Relic of Barbarism" in the October Ursinus Col-lege Bulletin is decidedly above the average oration in beauty and in force. An increased number of pages of literary material should accompany the change of The Bulletin from a biweekly to a monthly. The November Midland contains in its literary department a poem by Longfellow and one from the Denver News, an article by an alumnus and one by a student. Will this encourage liter-ary work among the students at Midland f The Dickinson Literary Monthly has materially raised its standard and, in general, does not suffer in comparison with the best; but the November number contains a partisan article that is unworthy a place in a college journal. Those interested in the educational condition of Puerto Rico will find an interesting article by Dr. M. G. Brumbaugh in the Juniata Echo for October. The Echo is to be congratulated on being able to publish these articles. We regret that the Novem-ber number did not contain one. "The Spanish Arnaida," an outline with explanations, by Stanley Ecker in The Western University Couranl reflects credit upon the author and the journal. It is the result of effort and thought. The poetry of The Lesbian Herald is an important feature of the publication. A well written article on "The Sun's Eclipse," accompanied by a photograph of the total eclipse at Centreville, Va., May 28, 1900, appears in the last issue. ««*£> "Over and over again, No matter which way I turn, I always find in the book of life Some lesson that I must learn ; I must take my turn at the mill, I must grind out the golden grain, I must work at my task with a resolute will, Over and over again." PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. C. F?. SOLT MERCHANT TAILOR Masonic Bldg., GETTYSBURG Our collection of Woolens for the coming- Fall and Winter season cannot be surpassed for variety, attractive designs and general completeness. The latest styles of fashionable novelties in the most approved shades. Staples of exceptional merit, value and wearing durability. Also altering-, repairing-, dyeing and scouring at moderate prices. .FOR UP-TO-DATE. Clothing, Hats, Shoes, And Men's Furnishing- Goods, go to I. HALLEM'S MAMMOTH CLOTHING HOUSE, Chambersburg St., GETTYSBURG, PA. 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The Century Double-Feed Fountain Pen. Fully Warranted J6 Kt. Gold Pen, Iridium Pointed. GEO. EVELER, Agent for Gettysburg College PRICE LIST. No. 1. Chased, long or short $2 00 No. 1. Gold Mounted 3 00 No. 3. Chased 3 00 No. 3. Gold Mounted 4 00 Spiral, Black or Mottled |2 SO Twist, " 2 SO Hexagxm, Black or Mottled 2 SO Pearl Holder, Gold Mounted S 00 THE CENTURY PEN CO., WHITEWATER, WIS. Askyour Stationer or our Agent to show them to you. Agood local agent wanted in every school ^Mirmm^fr^wmmwwMmmmmmmwmm^ Printingand Binding We Print This Book THE MT. HOLLY STATIONERY AND PRINTING CO. does all classes of Printing- and Binding-, and can furnish you any Book, Bill Head, Letter Head, Envelope, Card, Blank, or anything- pertain-ing to their business in just as good style and at less cost than you can obtain same elsewhere. They are located among the mountains but their work is metropolitan. You can be convinced of this if you g-ive them the opportunity. Mt. 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JUNE, 1901 ooTheoo ettysbur VOL. X NO. 4 PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE GETTYSBURG,PA. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. Amos Eckert Dealer in Hats, Shirts, Ties, Um-brellas, Gloves, Satchels, Hose, Pocket Books,J* Trunks, J>& Telescopes, Rubbers, Etc., Etc. AMOS ECKERT. PRICKS ALWAYS RIGHT. TUG Lutheran No. 1424 Arch Street, PHILADELPHIA, PA. Acknowledged Headquarters for Any-thing and Everything in the way of Books for Churches, Families, Colleges and Schools, and Literature for Sunday Schools. PLEASE REMEMBER That by sending your orders to us you help build up and develop one of the church institutions, with pecuniary ad-vantage to yourself. Address HENRY S. BONER, Supt., No. 1424 Arch St. Phila. 50 YEARS' EXPERIENCE TRADE MARKS DESIGNS COPYRIGHTS &C. Anyone sending a sketch and description may quickly ascertain our opinion free whether an Invention la probably patentable. Communica-tions strictly confidential. Handbook on Patent! sent free. Oldest agency for secuiingpatents. Patents taken through Munn & Co. receive special notice, without charge, In the Scientific American. A handsomely illustrated weekly. Largest clr. dilation of any scientific journal. Terms. $3 a year; four months, $£• Sold by all newsdealers. MUNN &Co.36""a* New York Branch Office, 626 F St., Washington, D. C. J. I. MUMPER, PHOTOGRAPHER, i 29 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, i'n. Special attention paid to COLLEGE WOKK A fine collection of Battlefield Views always on hand. Mail orders receive prompt at-tention. C. A. Blocher's Jewelry Store, For Souvenir Spoons, Sword Pins, Etc. All kinds of Jewelry. Repairing- a Specialty. POST OFFICE CORNER CENTRE SQUARE THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY The Literary Journal of Pennsylvania College Entertd at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter VOL. X GETTYSBURG, PA., JUNE, 1901 No. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS William Shakespeare, . 104 What College Does for a Man, . . . . . . 107 The Mountain Brook, . 109 The Great Stone Face, . . Ill Two John Smiths, . US On a Sunlit Harbor, . . 118 Tennyson's "In Memoriam," . 119 Sonnet, . . 121 Editorial, . 122 The Present Difficulty Between Russia and Japan, 124 The Badge of Courage, . . 125 Translation of Horace I. 35, . 127 The Use of the Novel, . . 128 A Visit to Vahalla, . . 129 An Indian Legend, . . 131 Exchanges, . . . . . . 133 A Picture of Fancy, . . . . . . 134 The College Girl, . 135 For a cap and bells our lives we pay, Bubbles we earn with a whole soul's tasking; 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the asking ; There is no price set on the lavish summer, And June may be had by the poorest comer. And what is so rare as a day in June ? Then, if ever, come perfect days ; Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, And over it softly her warm ear lays. Whether we look, or whether we listen, We hear life murmur, or see it glisten ; Every clod feels a stir of might, An instinct within it that reaches and towers, And, grasping blindly above it for light, Climbs to a soul for grass and flowers. -Lowell. 104 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE J. B. BAKER, '01 'TPHERE is no name in modern literature, or perhaps we may * put it more broadly and state with equal certainty, none in all literature as illustrious as the name of William Shakespeare. Homer, in the gay dawn of Grecian civilization, stands out as the finished product of a more illustrious civilization than the one he occupies. He inhabits Olympus with imperial gods and god-desses and sings the grandest of heroic songs. A thousand years thereafter, in a lavish mood Calliope smiled upon the Latins. She gave to them a Virgil. In sweet and mel-low tones he sang of arms and men, and sent ringing through the corridors of time the undying cadence of his mellifluous tongue. Dante, when the gods of Homer and the heroes of Virgil were no more, towered up in Titanic grandeur, proud and solitary, with the sad and solemn dreams of his poetic imagination. Milton, of immortal fame, opened the gates of death, of heaven and hell, and saw such visions as no man saw before or since. Goethe, the acknowledged prince of German poets, stirred the whole literary mind of Europe like a breeze sweeping over a forest. But Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton and Goethe do not live in our hearts ; do not twine round our affections; do not satisfy our souls as Shakespeare does. Here and there we may find touches of more daring sublimity, passages more steeped in learning, lines more concealed in abstract thought, but with Henry Glassford Bell, we must acknowledge that the greatest and best interpreter of human nature, the poet of the widest sympathies, a greater sculptor than Phidias, a truer painter than Raphael, came into the world at the pleasant town of Stratford-upon-Avon in April of 1564. Much as might be said of the life of this myriad-minded man, his early environment, his education, his struggle for success, his domestic and public relations, we shall pass all these by and pause for a moment in profoundest reverence to meditate upon the mag-nitude of his intellect. Let us first view him as the dreamer. How barren and inhos-pitable would be the realms of fancy if the characters of Shakes-peare's creation were not its denizens ! What an arid plain ! How sparsely inhabited ! How cold its inhabitants ! Where in all history can we find a creation to equal, nay, to THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 105 , approach the production of " A Mid summer Night's Dream ?" What poet has ever seen so many fairies flitting along the green knoll, through the shady dingle, and near the crystal fountain ? Who saw them dancing on the sand with " printless foot," mak-ing midnight mushrooms, gathering dewdrops and hanging pearls " on every cowslip's ear ?" Who saw them creep into the acorn cups, stealing honey-bags from the humble bees, and plucking the wings from painted butterflies ? What intellectual vision was ever keen enough to catch them bringing jewels from the deep and putting a girdle " round the earth in forty minutes ?" Can you find anywhere in all literature a creation to approach the ex-ploits of Queen Mab driving her hazelnut chariot with little atomies, using traces of a spider's web, a whip of a cricket's bone, and a lash of film ? And not only are the sportive acts of these various fairy beings fascinating, their very names are suggestive to us ot their nature, and carry a charm to the ear that hears them. Puck, Cricket, Cobweb, Oberon, and Ariel who slept in the cow-slip's bell, are as sweet music emanating from the strings of a master harpist. Shakespeare's imagination, however, was not always leading his lambent feet to the ephemeral assemblies of sylvan life. His thoughts were not always wrapped in the dapper little inhabitants of the fields of fancy. He was more than a dreamer. He was an interpreter of nature. Never in all history has an uninspired mind so variously and so exhaustively interpreted the mind of the Creator as revealed in nature as Shakespeare has. No " cloud-capped towers" were too high for him to behold, and no grain of sand too mean for him to wonder at. The blue hills from which the Avon flows lay before him as the slope of age, which we must all ascend, and the dark ravines that lay between them as the valley of the shadow of death. The blinding flash from an o'erhanging cloud, and the quick, sharp clang that clattered through the heavens and echoed and re-echoed among the distant hills, awakened within him a sense of the majesty of his Creator. The frail anemone and the faint blush of the arbutus in the midst of bleak and wintry March, touched his heart like a hope from heaven in a field of graves. The spark-ling oriole swinging in his hammock, the quail piping from the meadow fence, and the lark soaring up from the lush grass, re-minded him of the happiness of liberty, and furnished him with 106 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY some of his sublimest thoughts. He plucked the lily of the val-ley, and showed to the world that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of them. In short, he was a perfect child of nature, finding " Tongues in trees, books in running- brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything." But Shakespeare was more thau an interpreter of unconscious nature. He peered into the arcana of human character. He sunk his plummet into the sea of human experience, deeper thau poet ever stirred its briny depths. The magic wand of his genius laid bare to him that paragon of all animals—intelligent man. It revealed to him the asininity of passion as well as the nobility of reason, the niggardliness of greed as well as the voluptuousness of hedonism, the depressions of the canaille as well as the festivi-ties of the affluent. Who has ever depicted in such striking colors the power of an evil woman as Shakespeare has ? Where can you find one steeped in greater heinousness than Lady Mac-beth ? Jezebel, the infamous wife of Ahab, planned the murder of Naboth for the acquisition of his vineyards. Catherine de Medici, almost insane with fear of the Huguenots, shocked the world with St. Bartholomew's massacre. But Lady Macbeth was the bloodthirsty assassin herself. " Give me the dagger," she says ; " the sleeping and the dead are but as pictures ; 'tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil." On the other hand, what pen has given us a more sublime picture of the bonds of reciprocal love than that which existed between Celia and Rosalind ? That of Holy Writ between David and Jonathan, and the one between Laelius and Scipio, are the only ones of which we are cognizant that will bear comparison with it. Who has ever shown the fickleness of the multitude more strikingly than the consummate Anthony showed it when he ap-pealed to the passions of the populace ? Who has shown the desolating effects of revenge more accurately than Shakespeare's Hamlet ? Who has glorified the spirit of forgiveness more admi-rably than his Prospero ? In fact, there is scarcely a phase of life that he did not touch, and on account of this his name enjoys its unparalleled univer-sality. An Englishman reads him andhe says, " How English !" A German reads him and he exclaims, " How Teutonic !" An THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 107 Italian reads hirn and be says, "How Roman !" As they said that Helen of Argos had such universal beauty that every one felt related to her, so Shakespeare seems to an American an Ameri-can genus. His broad humanity transcends all sectional lines, and he is the common heritage of the literary minds of the world. WHAT COLLEGE DOES POR A MAN . WILLIAM FKEAS, '01 A S the end of the college year draws near, it is fitting to ask the **■ question, What does college do for a man ? I^et us try to answer this query. It is difficult to hit upon the best thing which may have been accomplished, for there are so many good results, but we will mention a few. An undergraduate cannot appreciate so well the influence his college career has upon him as one who has been out in public life for some years after leaving his Alma Mater, but he has a fairly good idea. There is one thing which seems to hold pre-eminence in the majority of cases. It is, that a habit of thought has been formed. Nothing can be of more benefit to a man. How many men who have graduated have retained much of the subject matter of the text-books used ? They are not very numerous. Then, of what use are the text-books ? It is the training of application and learning to read and study intelligently which makes them so use-ful. Another thing of vast importance presents itself. At the time a man generally goes away from home to college he is at an impressionable age. It is during this period that his character is formed. Frequently we hear it said that a man is through all his life what he was when he graduated. How careful we should be that our associations and surroundings are such as to form good, noble characters. The love of knowledge, for its own sake, is gained when we come into touch with the great number of things to be learned in this world. When we see the extent of good, solid literature, and realize how little of it we will be able to master, there comes to us an unsatisfied longing—an aching void. There opens before us a vista, through which we can travel only for a short distance. Then it is that we see how small is our real knowledge. It knocks the over-weening conceit out of a man quicker than anything else, and puts him into a true posi- 108 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY tion to his fellows. A college course reveals to us in what line we may be most useful, for what our talents are best fitted. It is true, the majority of men come to college with a fixed purpose, and lay out for themselves a prescribed course which will best fit them for their life-work, but new capabilities are developed, and they turn their energies into new channels. Outside work, such as managing a team, being on the staff of a college publication, being active in literary societies, and many other things, aid greatly in the progress of a man. Laziness attacks all men at times, and especially a college student, but a man with any spirit cannot always sit idly by and watch the progress of his friends and not make an effort to follow them. We might even say that his association with wide-awake men is an education in itself. Many a man gets his first impulse for hard, persistent work while in college. He begins to appreciate the true worth of the mas-terpieces of literature and art, and places inferior productions in their true light. Even to-day we hear the assertion that college life ruins many, and so people refuse the advantages to those whom it would ben-efit greatly. A man must have very little backbone if the good he gets does not far outweigh the evil. An example of a wrecked life, traceable to college days, does sometimes come to our view, however much we regret it, but that should not make anyone condemn a college career, for a great number of men gain many advantages from it. Frequently a man is led to live an intellectual life, and then looks at things squarely in the face, " clearly, dis-passionately, and in their large relations." It has been said that " the American college is a mother of men." When a man gets away from home, and has to look out for himself, he gets expe-rience sometimes dearly bought, but of great value to him. It gives him the quality of independence which stands him in good stead. There are two elements in a college career—instruction and personality, and it is not easy to say which has the more and better influence. A man at college comes into contact with higher per-sonalities than he is likely to meet under other circumstances. Instruction gives him good principles upon which to build the structure of his life, while, on the other hand, the personality of the instructors can and does influence a student to higher ideals. The contact of man with man is beneficial to all concerned. Many THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 109 a life-long friendship has been formed during college days which, in later years, is of inestimable value. College is an excellent place to study men—their modes of work, their characters, and, in fact, all about them. This training is very useful in later life. The study of science and philosophy strengthens our trust in our Creator. The more we study the plan which is everywhere exhibited about us the more we feel "perfect fear" and rever-ence, as well as love and devotion, for the God who made us. We get a grander idea of His love for us in the provisions made for our welfare. Some few men may, perhaps, scientifically and philosophically, reason God out of existence, but generally the moral and mental horizon is widened infinitely. Let us sum up a few of the things mentioned which college does for a man. It forms the habit of thought ; it molds charac-ter ; it gives a love of knowledge for its own sake ; it has a de-terminative influence ; it brings man into contact with many other men, some of higher personalities ; it enriches his life ; it deepens and widens his view of truth ; it raises his ideals ; it increases his view of, and his love for, the beautiful; and it strengthens his faith in God by giving him a better understanding of the won-drous provisions made by an all-wise God for his welfare here be-low. THE MOUNTAIN BROOK C W. WF.ISER, '01 From a crevasse in the ledges, Covered by the flowery hedges, Shaded froni the noon-day's glow, In a pocket, mossy, low, Cool and limpid, bubbling ever From its home, without endeavor— Flows the crystal ice-cold fountain, High upon the lonely mountain. From deep parts, to us unknown, It has through the ages flown; From dark caverns in the ground, Gushing, bubbling all year 'round It pours forth into the light, Pure and limpid, crystal, bright, Filtered rain and melted snows. Rippling, wavering, on it flows 110 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY From its rock-bound, mossy bower, Hidden by the bush and flower, Rhododendrons, ferns and pines, Thorny shrubs and flowering vines, From whose branches, twigs and strands Hanging mosses stream in bands. All's a deep, luxuriant maze Whence songsters bright peal softest lays. Over all's the glowing sun; Underneath the shadows run, Where the fountain noiseless plays All the livelong summer days. Down the nook and thro' the dell, Rippling on the brook to swell, Flows the little, limpid stream, Murmuring as in pleasant dream, By the ancient little mill, Sometimes clattering, sometimes still; By the vine-clad cabin running, On whose porch the dog is sunning, And the old black puss is drowsing. In the mead a cow is browsing, By the brook are children playing, To the woods a colt is straying, From the trees an axe is ringing, In the house the mother's singing, From the chimney, curling, blue, Floats the smoke, and wafting thro' The Heavens bright, above the trees Dissolves in cooling morning breeze. A moment, and the scene is gone, The gurgling brook is flowing on, Now between the ponderous mass Of towering peaks, thro' mountain pass, Tumbling down with swish and roar, Dashed to spray on rocky floor. Rushing on its downward course, Over boulders, rumbling, hoarse, Loudly, swiftly on it sweeps Down the pass and o'er the steeps, Dashing into feathery spray, Prancing silvery on the way. Loudly rumbling, Noisy, grumbling, Gurgling, whirling, Eddying, twirling; Wildly churning, Skipping, turning, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 111 Downward rushing, Bubbling, gushing, In its hurry And its flurry L,oudly roaring, Madly pouring, On its way to vales below Does the mountain torrent flow. Thus the limpid mountain stream Floats at first as in a dream, a Sweetly murmuring softest tune, Harmonious with the month of June; Then as down the pass it flows, Swiftly up the scale it goes • With a rumble and a roar, Resounding far the mountains o'er; Floating, rushing, murmuring ever, Onward to the mighty river, Thence into the deep blue ocean, Tossed about in ceaseless motion, Till at last in vapor form It home returns in mist or storm. THE GREAT STONE FACE Oration by S. A. VAN ORMEB, '01 QITTING belore their cabin door, Ernest and his mother were ^ looking through the gathering gloom that follows the setting sun at the Great Stone Face, who, from his throne on the perpen-dicular side of the mountain, miles away, seemed to preside over the valley beneath. Here the mother related the story of the mountain image— told how that it had long been believed that the time would come when one should be born in the region who should become the greatest and noblest personage of his time ; and who should, in the splendor of his manhood, exactly resemble the wondrous features on the mountain side ; told how that the earliest inhab-itants had heard the story from the Indians, who had received it from their ancestors, to whom it had been told by the trickling waters of the mountain brook and whispered by the swaying trees. At the conclusion of the story Ernest expressed a desire to live to see the man; and his mother replied, " Perhaps you may." 112 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Time passed. Ernest lived on in his log cottage, helping his mother with his little hands and loving heart. He had no teacher save the Great Stone Face, whom he imagined to smile at him in response to his veneration. After the toil of the day he would gaze at the Titan image, and discern the love that was meant for all. Soon it was reported that one who had been born in the region was about to return, and spend his declining years amid the scenes of his childhood—the prophetic personage long-looked-for. Now this Mr. Gathergold had been fortunate in business pur-suits. He was the owner of a fleet that gathered the treasures of land and sea. A great retinue preceded him, and the people eagerly awaited his arrival. He came; but the "yellow claw" that dropped some coppers to a beggar woman, and the careworn face, bore no resemblance to the benign features of the mountain image. Dis-appointment filled Ernest's breast, and he turned away ; while the crowd, heedless of his lack, lauded the miser. But Ernest continued to study the granite face. Soon it was reported that the counterpart of the wondrous image was to ap-pear in the person of General Blood and Thunder. The inhab-itants prepared to banquet him and his retinue. The tables were set in the open. The banquet ended, the General arose to speak, and then Ernest saw him over the heads of the jubilant throng. His war-worn countenance, full of energy and expressive of an indomitable will, was indeed characteristic of the warrior; but it bore little resemblance to the broad, wise and sympathetic features of the man of stone. Next came the eminent statesman, whose clarion voice had made him prominent. Great preparations were made to receive Old Stony Phiz. Officers and prominent men accompanied him. A band added to the enthusiasm of the crowd, for he was a Presi-dential candidate. But, in the words of the author, " the sublimity and stateli-ness, the grand expression of divine sympathy, that illuminated the mountain image and etherealized its ponderous granite sub-stance into spirit, might here be sought in vain." The years sped on. White hairs appeared in Ernest's head. He had become a minister, and many eminent men visited him to share his wisdom. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 113 While he sat one evening reading songs that he thought worthy of one resembling the Great Stone Face, the author of those songs appeared, and Ernest was once again disappointed. Pleasantly they talked together; and when the hour arrived for Ernest to address an open-air meeting, they walked arm-in-arm to the scene. Ernest took his position before the audience; and as he poured forth the fullness of his heart the poet noticed the strong re-semblance between the grand beneficence of the minister's face and that of the face now enshrouded in the mountain mists ; and, in the author's words, " impulsively he threw his hands aloft and shouted: 'Behold! behold! Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone Face !' " Such, in short, is the story of the Old Man of the Mountains; the legend of the Great Stone Face. Man cherishes ideals, and his worth in the world depends upon the ideals that he cherishes. Ideals, in the words of one, "are the meat and drink of life." Every thought that we think and every deed that we do is directed to some end; and life, which is but a series of acts, must answer to some end, noble or mean, pursued either consciously or unconsciously. The word progress is mean-ingless without reference to an ideal. They support and encour-age us. They exercise their influence upon us insensibly. They force us into the arena where we must wield the Gladiatorial sword in their vindication. The man of science discerns and interprets an order in things that we do not make. The effort to give distinctness and form to our ideals brings with it a purity that becomes evident. In this sense only should the word ideal be used; but if our thoughts and actions are directed toward a mean or low end, the result is just as evident. These truths are beautifully illustrated by the char-acters of the story. " We are what we are," says the Chinese aphorism, "'because we have been doing what we have been doing," and it might well be added that we have been doing what we have been doing because of the ideals we cherish. This is none the less true of nations than of men. Biography and History alike are replete with illustra-tions of men and nations that arose to eminence in a particular line because their thoughts, their efforts and their energies were directed toward that one end—an ideal. The merchant, the warrior, the statesman, the poet, and 114 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Ernest—the minister—all were born in the valley over which the man of the mountain presided. The merchant left in early life, spent his time and energy in accumulating a massive fortune. Anxiety filled his breast lest the ships that sought the northern furs be crushed by the icebergs, or the savage tribes, for whose Afric gold he bartered, might murder his agents. The storm at sea filled his breast with terror; still he sought his gold. His saf-fron hand and knitted brow were indeed characteristic. He achieved his end. He was diligent in business, so are all men who achieve success—"they shall stand before kings." The Phoenicians centered their efforts on commercial pursuits, and they secured almost exclusively the carrying trade of antiquity. The general's stern features and commanding figure were suggest-ive of one who had obeyed the bugle's call and led the charge to the mouths of belching cannon; one hardened by the carnage and death-agony of fields lost and won. Contrast, if you will, two great warriors to two great nations— Napoleon and Washington. Napoleon welded together into one vast domain many parts of Europe; Washington gained the inde-pendence of the American colonies. Napoleon worked for vain glory and aggrandizement; Washington fought for a cherished principle—a noble end. Napoleon "stamped his name upon the bricks of Paris;" Washington in the hearts of his countrymen. Sparta devoted her attention to military pursuits and she pro-duced a race of warriors of whose deeds and endurance we read with wonder. The statesman and orator, whose voice was heard on various occasions, could sway his auditors, which was one aim —perhaps he had a higher. The lives of Adams, Madison, Web-ster, Clay, Calhoun, Douglas, Lincoln, Blaiue present the various phases of achievement that result from the tendencies and attitudes of the men; but these are familiar. Athens sought orators and she produced them—"Orators that commanded silence in the very streets while the}'- spoke in the as-semblies. '' The poet sung his way to the hearts of the people and left cheer and inspiration there—which was his ambition. Milton's Paradise Eost is the result of great effort. Grey spent seven years on his Elegy. There was a time when England gave much attention to literature, and in the Elizabethan Age she produced Spencer, Shakespeare and Bacon together with many others scarcely less famous. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 115 But Ernest! He, like the others had heard the story of the mountain image in youth; but, unlike them, he had made it the study of his life. // was his ideal. He had seen it dimly through the morning fogs; he had seen it when the noonday sun made it effulgent or the storm-cloud cast over it an ominous shadow; he had looked upon it at evening until the ebon curtains of night shut itoff from mortal gaze. He it was Who had grown to resemble The Old Man of the Mountains; he was the counterpart of The Great Stone Face. TWO JOHN SMITHS L. W. GROSS, '01 TN a remote settlement in one of the upper counties of Pennsyl- •"■ vania there lived two men who both had the popular name of John Smith. Strange as it may seem, neither was related to the other nor to their illustrious namesake—the Virginia hero. These two men lived in a region once famous for its giant murmuring pines and its hemlocks, whose size is to this day re-vealed by the massive stumps which the. settlers removed from the ground and dragged to the roadside for the purpose of construct-ing iences on either side. Oftentimes the belated traveler would mistake their crooked gnarled roots, raised high above his head, for some giant ready to strike him down with a club. So fantastic and strange they appeared, making all sorts of weird forms and designs as they cast their crooked shadows athwart the road in the moonlight, that they startled and frightened anyone passing along this lonely road by night. In order to distinguish these two strange characters they were each given a special name to designate which John Smith was meant in talking about them. The one was called "Devil" John and the other "Lightning" John. Both names were descriptive of the personality of each man. Both persons were famous in the community. Of their early history I know nothing, but as my fancy pictures them to me now, I see them as aged men, perhaps 45 years of age. "Devil" John is tall, broad shouldered and slightly stooped. He goes about without a coat and has his trousers crowded into the tops of his boots. He wears a slouched hat and a lumberman's flannel shirt. He has long dark hair, mixed with gray, reaching nearly to his shoulders. His eyes are 116 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY small and of a grayish color, deeply set in his head, overhung by thick bristling eyebrows, and moved restlessly about when one looked at him. On the left side of his face is a scar which he says he received in an encounter with a bear. His face is nearly covered by his beard and moustache. His entire appearance arouses one's suspicion, yet his dealings with his neighbors are faultless. This man was the stage driver from the nearest railroad station to this particular place, which was a distance of sixteen miles. The way lay mostly through mountains and it required a full day to make the journey. To hear him relate his adventures with huge rattlesnakes, bears and highwaymen on the route made one think that he was a veritable "Tom Pinch." But this particular Smith's fame did not only consist in being a stage driver. That was a very small part of it. What he really was famous for was the fact that he was the biggest, the most skillful and accomplished liar in the community, besides other characteristics which contributed to his fame as a "character." Whenever the question in regard to the relative amount of pleasure derived from the pursuit or the realization of an object comes up, I think of a ride a young school teacher took on this particular stage. In contemplation of his journey he imagined himself seated on top of a huge coach, like a king upon his throne, with a coat-of-arms emblazoned upon the sides of the body of the vehicle. He imagined himself being drawn by at least four spirited horses at a full round gallop down the Narrows, around dangerous passes, over hill and dale. This was in contemplation. But what he realized when he stepped from the platform of the railway train was to find a disreputable old bay horse hitched to what was once a skeleton road wagon. It had been lengthened in order to make room for a trunk or two behind the driver's seat which was covered by a yellow umbrella. When the teacher inquired for the stage this odd combination was pointed out to him, and in a short time he was being driven over this route by the famous "Devil" John Smith. It took but a short time for the fact that he was the new school teacher to be known to the driver, and then into the credulous ears of this timid youth, who was already beginning to feel the pangs of disappointment and homesickness, were poured tales of all the bad boys in the school, making them appear as desperadoes, cowboys and veritable imps. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 117 He was told about the number of teachers who had been turned out of the school during the last term. All these stories were so well told that the unsuspecting pedagogue could not help but believe them, and before he was halfway over the route he wished himself in any other part of the world. The little children were deathly afraid of "Devil" John and would scamper away whenever they saw him coming. It was rumored that when his two children were sick with diphtheria he intentionally gave them carbolic acid instead of the proper medi-cine and thus killed them in a few minutes. This wicked act caused the children in the neighborhood to fear him. "Devil" John was also very irreligious, never being known to attend a religious service, and he frequently cursed his good wife who was a constant church goer. "Lightning" John Smith was famous for being the ugliest man as well as the loudest shouting Methodist in that part of the country. In appearance he resembled a Galilean bedouin. His hair and eyes were jet black. Beneath a scanty black mustache a row of well-preserved and very white teeth displayed themselves. Unlike the other John Smith he would drive for hours through cold winter nights in order to give his experience in the regular series of protracted meetings held in the Methodist church of that village during the winter months. He invariably began to speak slowly and in a moderate tone, but the longer he spoke the louder he became, until he fairly shrieked, bringing his hard fist down on the back of the pew for emphasis at the end of each sentence. The torrent of words and blows could be heard by passersby, who ofttimes took the commotion for the ravings of a mad man. After continuing his cries and shouting for some time he would sit down and wipe the perspiration from his brow. Thus we have a picture of two characters which have been interesting to me, and I doubt not that many others have seen these two persons in their own community under other names. c^p In every act reflect upon the end; and in the undertaking it consider why you do it.—JEREMY TAYLOR. 118 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY ON A SUNLIT HARBOR J. R. S., '01 On the pier of a beautiful harbor stand Three figures garbed in royal array, With anxiety stamped on their noble brows,— A youthful hero, and honored gray. 'Neath the watery horizon the sun reclines ! A sea of fire 's on the face of the deep! But the delicate hues from the sky shine not In a sea of glass; for wavelets leap. And the eyes of the three are fixed on a spot Far out on the troubled, uneasy sea; For the tide is receding and the breeze is brisk And a precious gem is borne to the lee. The gold and the violet and the pale green flame, Like the colors of a mighty banner flung On the harbor,—were caught by the playful waves, And from their crests in splendor hung. It was not this grandeur that held their gaze, Enrapt by the scene an only child Was carelessly drifting to the open sea, And tempests were rising o'er breakers wild. Said the father to the hero, "She ventured too far She can never return against those odds." And the stately mother with silvering locks Disturbed the silence by heart-breaking sobs. In an instant two skiffs, the pursued and pursuing, Were afloat in a splendor, rare and unreal, That makes life in this world an ecstasy, A glorious, painless star,—an ideal. And as twilight drew its shades o'er the deep The ideal became the real, indeed; For the rescue is complete and the treasure regained And hope made joy by a noble deed. When daisies pied, and violets blue, And lady-smocks all silver white, And cuckoo buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight. —SHAKBSPBARE. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 119 TENNYSON'S "IN MEMORIAM" CLYDE B. WEIKEBT, '02 HPO attempt to criticise such a piece of literature as the "In A Memoriam" of Tennyson would be rashness on the part of one whom insufficient study and poor interpretation of thought has acquainted with but few ideas of the real import of the poem. This work has been done more or less ably by men of culture in the art of criticism, and to these we willingly commit the task, being satisfied ourselves with an attempt at the comparison of this work to several others alike in character; and with an estimate of the poem, its merits and worth. In comparing this poem with the "Lycidas" of Milton we are at once made conscious of a vast diversity in degree of feeling in the hearts of the two authors. Milton mourns for the loss of his friend but his sorrow is obviously not so deep-seated as that which Tennyson pours forth in the endearing terms of the "In Memor-iam." The relation of the former poet to the subject of his song was tender and full of feeling, but the intimacy that existed be-tween Tennyson and Hallam was infinitely closer. In the one case it was the love of friend for friend; in the other of brother for brother, mortal man for his ideal,—almost perfect love. This love is expressed in a poem by Milton that compares with the feeling expressed in the verses by Tennyson only as a set of res-olutions framed by a secret society on the death of a brother does with the tender verses penned by a mother on the death of her child. The circumstances of King's death and the sorrow caused by . it are not treated philosophically by Milton in the "Lycidas" as are the like circumstances by Tennyson in the "In Memoriam." His departure from this life is deeply regretted, but the pangs caused by his death are not referred to as bringing blessings in disguise to us. Sorrow is not represented as elevating or as de-signed to better our condition; as making us more perfect morally or spiritually. Separation from loved ones is not mollified by any such vivid assurances of a happy meeting in the hereafter. The thought of the departed ones is not used as a guiding star by which we can regulate our aims and measure our achievements. Again, Milton does not indulge in any of the happy explana-tions or rather suggestive questions concerning the future state of the soul as does Tennyson. These almost inexplicable problems 120 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY are dealt with in a most interesting way by the author of the "In Memoriam," for instead of expressing his own beliefs he rather intimates happy and probable solutions and gives to the mind of the reader a subject for thought. The most notable of our innate curiosities concerning eternity are voiced and the poet does not seemingly shun any one of them. Milton happily refers to his friend in glory but does not suggest near so many of his possible conditions there. The thought in the "Lycidas" is not so subtle, nor is the trac-ing of the poet's meaning nearly so difficult a task as in the "In Memoriam," yet its many mythological references render it far less enjoyable and less capable of interpretation by the unschol-arly. The poem of Tennyson's seems to conform more closely to Milton's statement, "Poetry should be simple, sensuous, and pas-sionate," than does his own. Shelley treats the death of John Keats in his "Adonais" more extensively than Milton does that of his friend in the "Lycidas.'' However, it may be said as was concerning the latter that the sorrow for Keats was not so heart-felt; his death did not affect the author so directly as Hallam's did Tennyson. Furthermore, the philosophical treatment is less as are also the intimations concern-ing eternity. The thought is more subtle than in the "Lycidas," though still far inferior to the "In Memoriam," and the language is less scholastic. But the poem seems to be more of a reprimand or an accusation against the author of the harsh criticisms against Keats, rather than a loving memorial and eulogy on his life. Words again fail in attempting an estimate of this poem. Pardoning a personal reference, let it be said that never has any piece of literature appealed to my emotions more than this. Never has the light and purity of perfect love for a friend been shown so forcibly as was by Tennyson in this memorial of Arthur Hallam. Ideality of character and ambitions seem to be the chief attributes which are assigned to his friend and these are worshipped with a steadfast devotion. A perfect consciousness of the super-iorities of his ideal kept the worshipper forever in loving awe of the worshipped one and became his only delight. The philosophical treatment of the subject is excellent. The poet never allows himself to become so enveloped in the cloud of sorrow as not to be able to see the light beyond. Through each pang which Hallam's death has caused him he sees the refinement THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 121 of his own nature. His death he realizes to be only the opportu-nity for further development which will render him a more perfect model after which to mould his own life. Even the spring-tide, when the advent of Arthur's birthday approaches is used to rep-resent the glorious season of immortality when friend shall meet friend to part no more. As to the allusions to the future, nothing could be more probable and suggestive than his opinions. The intimation of the development of the mind in after life along all lines of knowl-edge and wisdom on a more rapid and perfect scale is beautiful. The hope for recognition in glory is full of pathos and contains a happy, consoling thought. His reference to his friend as being with God, where he is only in his true sphere, shows a faith that is boundless and displays the most confident trust. Surely noth-ing could be more full of belief in and admiration for the Divine than the verse with which the poem is concluded: That God, which ever lives and moves, One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event, To which the whole creation moves." SONNET I think of her and try, all through the day, To see her face, and as I persevere L,ove lets me see, but the sweet lips appear Cold, and the eyes not yielding' blue, but gray, Hard gray ; her whole form seems to say me nay. In all the din of day I cannot hear Her voice ; but in the night it seems so near, Laughing and chiding all my doubt away, So near, I almost feel her breath ; I crave Fancy of I^ove ; he sweeps me with his wing And all the air around is sweet with her : I feel her breast to mine like a swelling wave And lingering lips light love-words murmuring, Melt into mine in a soft slipping blur. Mortimer Stirling, from Red and Blue. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Entertdat the Postojjice at Gettysburg as second-class matter Voi,. X GETTYSBURG, PA., JUNE, 1901 No. 4 E. C. RUBY, '02, Editor-in- Chief R. ST. CLAIR POFFENBARGER,' 02, Business Manager J. P. NEWMAN, '02, Exchange Editor Assistant Editors Miss ANNIE M. SWAHTZ, '02 A. B. RICHARD, '02 Advisory Board PROF. J. A. HIMES, A. M., LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLBY, M. D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD, D. D. Assistant Business Manager CURTIS E. COOK, '03 Published each month, from October to June inclusive, by the joint literary societies of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg1) College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Fifteen Cents. Notice to discontinue sending the MERCURY to any address must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORIALS ¥ ITERARY societies are voluntary associations for educational ■"-^ purposes. They are entirely separate from the regular course of school and college work. In many instances they are established by the students themselves, and the officers are usually chosen from their own numbers. This gives them the opportun-ity to learn how to preside at public meetings and to become fa-miliar with the recognized methods of conducting the affairs per-taining to such organizations. It is in these societies that the young parliamentarian learns to make a motion or to rise to a point of order; the aspiring debater displays his skill in convincing his hearers that his opponents are wrong; and the coming orator pours forth his eloquence to his heart's content. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 123 The debates, the essays and the orations develop the powers of observation and expression. They promote readiness and in-dependence. Are these not some of the most valuable things which a man, who goes out into the world to try its realities, ought to possess ? Do we as students fully realize the importance of such an equipment ? In all true education the amount of knowledge communicated, however important it may be, is an entirely subordinate matter compared with the mental desires that are aroused and the mental power that is stored up. I once heard a man say that he did not care so much whether the teacher taught his son the facts in his-tory, but he did want him to create in him a taste for history. This expresses exactly the idea of our college course. How few, indeed, are the facts which we as students are able to gather while under the instruction of the professor compared with those that are gathered by men who are working by themselves in some chosen profession! Some of us regret that not more time can be spent in the classroom on the subject of botany. If the professor has succeeded in arousing a taste for the subject he has accom-plished his work. The student will then become his own teacher and a better one he could not find anywhere. The same is true in the department of literature. How few are the authors to whom we get but an introduction ! But if we have been led to love lit-erature, or have been made hungry, we will not be satisfied with what we get in the classroom. Could not the same be said of all the college work ? We should not come to college with the ex-pectation of going away with a load of facts and a feeling that we have all we want. If we do not go away with a greater appetite than when we came, we might as well have remained at home. c^P Duty is a power which rises with us in the morning and goes to rest with us at night. It is the shadow which cleaves to us, go where we will, and which only leaves us when we leave the light of life.—GLADSTONE. 124 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE PRESENT DlfEICULTY BETWEEN RUSSIA AND JAPAN ARTHUR B. RICHARDS, '02 rT,HE current literature of the last mouth has had much to say *■ concerning the threatened war between Japan and Russia. The province of Manchuria, situated on the eastern coast of Siberia, seems to be the bone of contention. Each nation has her own distinct reasons for wishing to bring this province under her control. What Russia desires is a harbor in the east. She now owns the greater part of Siberia, but can not develop the resources of this vast territory nearly so well as she could were she able to reach the eastern markets. With a seaport in the east Russia could greatly increase her commerce; she could trade directly with the islands of the Pacific. But in order to reach a harbor she must go through the center of Manchuria and she is now striving to hold this country until she can secure the right of way. Japan, on the other hand, has not room at home to accommo-date her industrious and ever-increasing population. The people can not all be cared for on the small island, and Japan has long been looking to Manchuria as a possible outlet. Moreover, Japan had gained a landing in Manchuria during the war with China in 1895, but was forced by Russia to withdraw. This Japan has not yet forgotten, nor is she ready to forgive it. These, in brief, are the principal causes of the threatened war. In case war were toensue.it is generally conceded that Russia would prove too strong for her rival. Manchuria would be the objective point, and could probably be reached and a landing effected by Japan. But she would be unable to hold out long against the superior laud force of Russia. In round numbers, Russia's army has 1,250,000 men to Japan's 90,000. Russia's troops, by the thousands, could be hurried across Siberia by means of the newly constructed railway, while Japan would be compelled to bring her army by the slow process of transportation. These considerations show that Japan's hope of success is very small, and with such odds against her it is not likely that she will be willing to clash arms with the formidable Russians. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 125 THE BADGE OF COURAGE CARRIE E. INGLEBIRT, '04 'T'HIS expression is doubtless familiar to nearly every one by ■"■ reason ol its being almost identical with the title of a recent and very popular book. You can read the words, pass on, and pay little attention to them, yet if the reader pauses and takes a deeper insight into them they gradually unfold a meaning which is far from being insignificant. Courage is a spiritual or innate force, which enables one to face trouble, danger, and even death, with that fearlessness which characterized the sainted martyrs of mediaeval days when being led forth to the stake. Amid the jeers and hisses of the surging crowds, they sang hymns. The American of today, living at too fast a pace to sing slow meter psalms in the face of danger, cheer-fully whistles. It is a somewhat common or popular opinion that courage can only be displayed upon the field of battle or other public places, in which the chief actors appear before the eye of the public. But this contention is false and unreasonable, as can be proven by examples almost without number. In all the humbler walks of life men and women, unseen and almost unheard of, show themselves to be heroes and heroines of the most courageous type. Do not the city papers bring to our notice page aftef page of noble soul-stirring deeds performed at a most perilous risk of life ? And despite the idea that news items are often fictitious, these cannot all be the products of ingenious reporters. With no disparagement to the soldier, it may be said that he has ever before him, as a stimulus to courageous deeds, the hope of promotion from the ranks. But no such red badge of courage adorns the man who saves another in distress, passes on into the crowds, and is lost sight of. Such instances are witnessed fre-quently in our large cities. The laurel and myrtle wreaths are reserved exclusively for those who are valorous in time of public danger, while the one who, from an unselfish Christian motive, takes his life in his hand, remains unrecognized. Out of the multiplicity of instances may we not treat of just a few ? To whom shall the badge of courage go with more pro-priety or justness than to those who leave home, and all the 126 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY sacred interests which are clustered around the homestead, and sail far away, across the sea to the sunny isles of a southern clime, there to become ministering angels to the suffering human beings stricken with leprosy. It is almost certain to be their first and last journey ; for who, with the meagre knowledge of man, can tell when they, too, will be in the same sad plight ? Let us also spare a kindly thought for the mothers, wives and clear ones of the hero who buckles on his belt and sword and goes forth to war. Must not pain and anguish almost wrack those fond hearts at the separation, which can so easily be final ? Surely, do the dear ones at home anxiously scan the daily mortality list, as sent out by the army. And then the startling intelligence reaches them that their hero has gone down in battle, or, sadder still, has fallen a victim to the wages of disease. No more will his cheery whistle resound through the house, or his happy smile chase the shadows of care and trouble away as the rising sun dis-pels the morning mist. It is altogether befitting that upon these sorrow-laden ones we pin the badge of courage. What emblem of courage should we give to such as these for their self-sacrificing devotion to their trust ? Theirs is the self-consciousness of work well done, of obligation carried out, of duty faithfully fulfilled, and no more honorable badge of courage can be secured at our hands than this. They know, as Christians, that they have answered the demands of their Maker, and the ringing plaudits of the people are as the singing of birds in their ears. The highest aspiration in life should be to do the best at all times, and in all places. And now, this having been done, a distinct feeling of satisfaction must surely be felt. Having endeavored to prove the theory already advanced, may we not conclude that the true badge of courage is not neces-sarily the red one for valor in time of danger, but is really the white, that one symbolic of purity and innocence, which is not secured in this sphere, but when the possessor has left the earthly scenes, and stands forth in the clear radiance of another world, then is the true reward, the real badge of courage, seen in its highest and holiest sense. The hearts of men are their books; events are their tutors; great actions are their eloquence.—Macaulay. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 127 TRANSLATION OF HORACE I. 35 ABDEL E. WENTZ, JK., '04 O peaceful goddess, favored Antium's queen, Thou who canst raise a humble man to fame, And turn proud triumphs wondrous to be seen To funerals—all men adore thy name. The rustic farmer prays to thee in fear; To thee as mighty mistress of the sea, Whoever tries through boisterous waves to steer, Directs his prayer, that he secure may be. The warlike Dacian flees before thy face; Whole towns and nations look to thee for aid. The strength of kings depends upon thy grace; The power of despots all on thee is staid. They know that thou canst overthrow the state, And quickly rouse the idle ones to arms; They stand before thee trembling lest their fate Shall prove thee to be worthy of alarms. Stern Doom is ever foremost in thy train; She bears her emblems in her brazen hand: The huge beam—nail, the wedge, the clamps, the chain, And melted lead, to make thy edicts stand. Pure Faith and Hope are both thy steadfast friends, They follow thee whatever may betide; To thee each one an earnest friendship lends, Nor can misfortune drive them from thy side. As Caesar sails for distant Britain's shore, Do thou protect and keep him by thy might; Defend our youthful soldiers, we implore, And may they be successful in the fight. Alas! the awful crimes in which we've shared! Too long have civil wars abased our pride; What altars in our madness have we spared? What kind of evil have we left untried? O grant to forge the blunted sword anew! Remove from us the cause of all our woes; Bestow on us thy grace in all we do, And help us to subdue our cruel foes. 128 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE USE OF THE NOVEL BESS DRAIS, '04 TX EPRIVED of books the world would be robbed of one of its *-/ most essential joys. They are one of the few profitable things that afford unalloyed pleasure. In books, the mind has scope, something to develop its power and something that feeds it. There are thousands of standard works of fiction which are wholesome in tendency, purely educators of the mind. The bright accounts of travel, witty discussions, lively or pathetic story-telling in the form of a novel, is a singular characteristic of the present age. We should read them not merely to be occupied but to weigh and consider, although their purpose is, in a measure, to delight, relieve and amuse. A novel to be of great value, however, must be true to life. If it excites sympathy it will help us to see our own faults as well as the failings of others and will teach us to make an allowance for human nature. The novel superseded the drama when the latter had become unprofitable; not content with this, it makes high aims to rival history by discussing the great deeds of the past and the burning questions of the present; for its general use is culture, teaching history or science, thus reaching many people with its truths which would not be read elsewhere. In times of despondency, when even life seems monotonous, novels sustain and cheer, showing us the truest side of human na-ture which we are often inclined to imitate. Grounded on truth they arouse our moral imagination causing us to think—to think very seriously of our own weak selves. But truth is not the only requisite. The novel, to be profitable as well as entertaining, needs love. Of course I do not mean that sentimental art of love-making,' but rather a tender feeling for hu-manity and the conditions of man. Hawthorne, in his novels, pictures a higher ideal of life by making virtue more attractive and vice more repulsive. He goes deeper and higher than mere literalness; he. sees life as a whole but after all the true things are the spiritual things. At a certain age we are most amused by the unnatural and supernatural, but, as it has been said, when we grow older we realize that life itself has the best outlook for us and the most interesting fiction is that THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY . 129 which shows us life as it is. So every novel does have a purpose,' and whatever that purpose ma)' be it will be truly noble if built on the appreciation of human love, human courage and human character. A VISIT TO VALHALLA P. W. EYSTER, '03 /^\NE day in May after a shower of rain, a student while walk- ^^ ing over the scene of Pickett's charge in quest of relics found a ring, which had been washed out of the ground. On close examination he found it to be a broad, silver ring, which bore the device of two triangles, crossing each other in such a way as to form the representation of a star. King Solomon, the Wise, is said to have invented this device, which is of great use to enchanters and conjurers, but as the student was not well versed in the signs of magic he could not appreciate its value and carelessly placing the ring on the little finger of his left hand, returned to college. He was a member of society and attended the parties and enter-tainments given by the hospitable people of Gettysburg. In the latter part of May, on a beautiful moonlight night, there was a party given by his friends near L,ittle Round Top. He went to this party where he enjoyed himself until a late hour, when he saw that a certain young lady got home safely. He challenged her to walk on Little Round Top past the statue of Gen. Warren. She being active, accepted the challenge. They left their friends and when they reached the summit, being out of breath, they seated themselves on a rock near the statue for a brief rest. While they were resting, the statue commenced to speak, moving its jaws as if rusted from disuse. It said, "You, young man, have a ring on your finger bearing the representation of a star; that ring is the key to Valhalla. The fates have decreed that the gates of Valhalla shall not be opened by the hand of a man, even though he possess the ring with the star, but if the young lady will touch the rock upon which I stand after you have placed the silver ring on her finger, the gates of Valhalla shall for the first time be opened to mortal man." The ring having been placed on the young lady's finger, she touched the rock upon which the statue stands. Immediately there was a loud report like that of thunder, and the rock moved 130 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY aside leaving an opening where the two entered. After entering they found themselves on a grassy plain. They saw at a distance a body of English soldiers dressed in bright red uniforms, lined up for battle. Soon another body of soldiers appeared but not so gayly dressed as the other. At the head of this was the venerable George Washington preparing to fight for the thousandth and first time the battle of Yorktown. Washington rode before his men and said: "See those Red-coats, shoot for their belts, we must win the day or perish on a bed of honor." The English advanced, but the soldiers of the "land of the free and the home of the brave" being determined to win drove the Redcoats over their entrenchments. The visitors advanced farther and saw at a distance embank-ments of cotton-bales and earth thrown up, behind which were a few thousand men. Seeing Andrew Jackson riding near them they asked him what his men were waiting for. He said, "They are waiting to thrash the army which defeated Napoleon on the world-famed battlefield of Waterloo." The English army ad-vancing under Gen. Packenham soon attacked the embankments of Jackson's soldiers but was driven back in confusion under a writhing fire from the American guns. The next scene which met the visitors' eyes was a battle be-tween soldiers wearing the blue and those wearing the gray. As a regiment of soldiers were filing past the visitors, the young man asked a soldier, who was in the rear, what they were about to do. He replied, "We are going to fight the battle of Gettysburg, where we will show to the world that 'Republics shall stand and king-doms fall.' And we will teach the kings of Europe that 'a gov-ernment of the people, for the people, and by the people' is a possibility." By this time the battle was going on in dead earn-est. Valhalla was resounding from the artillery duel between the contending armies. Soon a division of the Confederate army, advancing from the smoke, charged the Union breast-works. A hand to hand conflict ensued, and above the rattle of the musketry could be heard the groans of the wounded and dying men. During the excitement of the battle the young lady carelessly lost the ring, when there was a clap of thunder and the visitors again stood on Little Round Top. Oh! had this woman not been so careless as to lose the key to Valhalla, we might visit at our leisure the warriors contending on the bloody battle-field of Val- THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 131 halla. But just as Eve was the cause of the downfall of man, so this Gettysburg maid, one of the daughters of Eve, was the cause of the loss of the key to that mysterious realm of the soldiers' heaven. But what is the use of mourning over the misfortunes of mankind, since we cannot add a cubit to our stature. After they had stood for a while on Eittle Round Top, breathing the atmosphere of mortal men, they started for the young lady's home. When the two separated, they promised each other to keep their visit to Valhalla a secret. But putting a secret in a woman's braiu is like pouring water on a sieve. So, dear reader, I have the pleasure of recording the incidents of a visit to Valhalla. c*$J AN INDIAN LEGEND A. 0. WOLFE, '04 To the westward, afar o'er the prairies is the land where the Sierra Nevadas Rear aloft their bald heads to the heavens; and reach out with their mystical shadows, Just as though the grim soul of the mountains stretched its hundred hands forth o'er the valley, To rebeckon its armies of whirlwinds, or to summon its thunders to rally. There the smiling- Yosemite valley, 'neath the sheltering crags of the mountains, Robed in tropical green and in freshness as is grass near the spray of a fountain, Stretches out with its slow winding river; and with a waving ocean of petals, Attempts, in its alluvial bosom, to conceal all its glittering metals. In the valley a town of the Shoshones, nestled snugly 'tween mountain and river, Seemed asleep in the afternoon sunlight; for the red men with bow and with quiver, Far away o'er the snowy capped mountains, sought the flesh of the deer on the prairie Or the lumbering buffalo hunted. The village, by the wand of a fairy, Seemed a quaint painting conjured on canvas; e'en the butterfly breezes were leaving The fierce watch dogs alone to their dreaming; and the squaws stopped anon at their weaving 132 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY With the maidens to witness the sunset. At some distance removed from the village Walked the wife of the red warrior's chieftain. She had gone the green meadow to pillage Of its succulent roots and its fruitage. To her right her child toddling and straying Neared the place where a crystal spring bubbling with itself like an infant was playing. From aloft in the transparent ether on bold pinions descended an eagle, Which at first seemed a speck in the zenith; then as bent on a purpose illegal, Nearer and larger it grew till at length, like a bolt from a bow it de-scended, Grasped ithe Indian child in its talons, and aloft to the wild crags ascended. Such a scream from the lips of the mother as might waken to life the departed, Roused the idling maids in the village. They beheld as she frantically started Up the steep ragged side of the mountain, that she further and further retreated In pursuit of her child and the eagle. But her journey was not half completed Ere a wild hissing sound through the branches, the dark gathering clouds and the thunder, The swift pattering fall of the rain drops, and the tossing of tree tops in wonder, All proclaimed the approach of the tempest. The elements crash! The wild winds bellow! And the day reels and rocks into darkness. Then the lightning shot forth in the yellow And sulphurous turmoil of ether in a network of serpentine flashing, Till the hills on their very foundations seemed to rock at its terrible crashing. And the storm is abroad in the mountains! The oracular hills and the hollows Are appalled at the noise of his stamping; and the brook in the gulch where he wallows L,eaps its bounds, in its anger, a torrent. Then from bastion to bastion each moment In the chaldron of vapor below with a roaring and rumbling the sound went Of the battering peal of the thunder. Millions or more of roused echoes arose When the wind rushing forth in his fury, left the blue ocean in placid repose And encamped 'mong the paralyzed hemlocks. And he howls as he hounds down his quarry. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 133 And his lash tears the hair of the oak tree, which, with womanish fear in its flurry, As it clings to the rock with torn garments, is bewailing- its fate and the morning'. Then this fierce guide of storm and of terror rushes off with a hoarse note of warning Through the intricate maze of the branches. There is war in the skies! And the midnight, Doubly mocked by its own apparitions, quickly cringes and shrinks from the flashlight Of the murderous bolt of the lightning. Then the storm passes on to the ocean, And has left the dark mountains in quiet and the night-fairies filled with emotion. But the Indian child and the mother passed from life into death in its maelstroms; And the eagle bore skyward their spirits to the glad Hunting Ground of the Shoshones. As they sail through the night wind, richly lit by the glow of the moon-light, The bright orbs of the sky in amazement reel and swim in their oceans of starlight. All the spirits of beasts of the forest quickly flee the approach of the stranger, As a herd of wild deer on the prairie run away at the first sign of danger- Then a buffalo, older and wiser to oppose their advancing, had started, But the bold, fearless soul of the mother raised her hand and the wild beast departed; And at once in its place was the sunrise, was the glad Hunting Ground of the Shoshones. EXCHAINGES IT is a relief to turn from the somewhat tedious prose articles of * the college magazine to its lighter contents. We are not among those who say that the literary monthly should be com-posed entirely of short stories, but we do believe there should be enough light material to relieve the tedium which necessarily arises from the perusal of a number of theoretical articles, which are often difficult of comprehension. Because of its pleasing va-riety, The College Student holds first place among our last month's exchanges. Nearly all the magazines contain some fiction—The Touchstone and The Lesbian Herald too much, according to our opinion. 134 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY "The Poet's Corner" of the Dickinson Literary Monthly is always entertaining. " The "Wreck " is a vivid descriptive poem in the last number. The Shakespeare edition of The Coitey College Chronicle is full of excellent articles on the great dramatist and his work. Half-tones of the poet, his own and Ann Hathaway's home, make the magazine very attractive. " Nescius Aurae Fallacis " in The Western University Courant is the title of a story on a phase of college life which is probably familiar to most students. A PICTURE OF FANCY I. There's a vale in the far away mountains Where the pinnacle barriers stand Like guards in the outskirts of nature To shut in the peace of the land. Here, wild and alone, great boulders are strewn And there sweeps a beautiful lawn; And the Angel of Light brings a rose every night To hang on the curtains of dawn. II. She forgets not to pause in the evening And spread o'er the heavens a glow, With a picture whose secret of painting No mortal man ever shall know; When the stars are asheen and the skies are serene, And the soft clouds gently are driven, She changes the scene and the moon glides between Like a ray through the window of heaven. III. I gaze on the depths of the morning And all like a glory doth seem, I find in the twilight resplendent, A divine and immaculate dream. And touched by the wand of some magical hand, All the raptures of fancy unroll; And a music unknown, like a deep undertone, Is awaked in the harp of the soul. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 135 IV. Would I Bell the sweet picture of fancy- Though its being were nought but a name? No not for the wormwood of glory, And not for the bubble of fame. It is sweet to be near to the eye and the ear, Of a Father who watches above, To study how grand are the works of His hand, And to catch little secrets of love. Ex. How much energy, vitality, effort, is being expended every day fruitlessly because of the want of intelligent application ! Even among students of college there are some who, though they are sincerely studious in their daily work, pass through their course without having attained the best which their opportunity affords and their efforts seem to deserve.—Ex. "To me, I swear, you're a volume rare;" But she said, with a judicious look, "Your oath's not good by common law, Until you've kissed the book." —Ex. THE COLLEGE GIRL There's a gladness in her gladness When she's glad; There's a sadness in her sadness When she's sad; But the gladness of her gladness, And the sadness of her sadness, Aren't a marker to the madness Of her madness When she's mad. —Ex, PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. Botcher Beef, Veal, Pork, Lamb, Sausages. Special rates to Clubs. In buying don't forget the Advertisers; They support us. ESTABLISHED 1867 BY ALLEN WALTON. ALLEN K. WALTON, President aud Treasurer. ROBT. J. WALTON, Superintendent. flammeistomn Bromti Stone Gompany Quarrymen and Manufacturers of Building Stone, Sawed Flagging and Tile Waltonville, Dauphin Co., Pa. Contractors for all kinds of Telegraph and Express Address. Cut Stone Work. BROWNSTONE, PA. Parties visiting the Quarries will leave cars at Brownstone Station on the P. & R. R. R. For a nice sweet loaf of Bread call on J. RAiUER Baker of Bread and Fancy Cakes, GETTYSBURG. PA. ~ EIMER & AMEND, Manufacturers and Importers of Chemicals and Chemical Apparatus 205, 307, 209 and 211 Third Avenue, Corner 18th Street NEW YORK. Finest Bohemian and German Glassware, Royal Berlin and Meissen Porcelain, Pure Hammered Platinum, Balances and Weights. Zeiss Mi-croscopes and Bacteriological Apparatus; Chemical Pure Acids and Assay- Goods. SCOTT PAPER COMPANY MAKERS OF FINE TOILET PAPER 7th and Greenwood Ave. PHILADELPHIA PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Century Double-Feed Fountain Pen. Fully Warranted J6 Kt. Gold Pen, Iridium Pointed. GEO. EVELER, Agent for Gettysburg College PRICE LIST. No. 1. No. 1. No. 3. No. 3. Chased, long or short $2 00 Gold Mounted 3 00 Chased 3 00 Gold Mounted 4 00 Spiral, Black or Mottled $2 SO Twist, " 2 50 Hexagon, Black or Mottled 2 SO Pearl Holder, Gold Mounted S 00 THE CENTURY PEN CO., WHITEWATER, WIS. Askyour Stationer or our Agent to show them toyou. Agood local agent wanted in every school 71 We Print This Book THE MT. HOLLY STATIONERY AND PRINTING CO. does all classes of Printing- and Binding-, and can furnish you any Book, Bill Head, Letter Head, Envelope, Card, Blank, or anything pertain-ing to their business in just as good style and at less cost than you can obtain same elsewhere. They are located among the mountains but their work is metropolitan. You can be convinced of this if you give them the opportunity. Mt. Holly Stationery and Printing Co. SPRINGS1;^A. H. S. BENNER, .DEALER IN. Groceries, Notions, Queensware, Glassware, Etc., Tobacco and Ggars. J7 CHAMBERSBURG ST. WE RECOMMEND THESE BUSINESS MEN. Pitzer House, (Temperance) JNO. E. PITZER, Prop. Rates $1.00 to $1.25 per day. Battlefield a specialty. Dinner and ride to all points of interest,including the th ree days* fig-lit, $1.25. No. 127 Main Street. You will find a full line of Pure Drugs and Fine Sta-tionery at the People's Drug Store Prescriptions a Specialty. J. A. TAWNEY_^_ Is ready to furnish Clubs and Boarding Houses with Bread, Rolls, Etc. At short notice and reasonable rates. Washington & Middle Sts., Gettysburg. R. A. WONDERS, Corner Cigar Parlors. A full line of Cigars, Tobacco, Pipes, Etc* Scott's Corner, Opp. Eagle Hotel. GETTYSBURG, PA. M. B. BENDER Furniture IRON BEDS, MATTRESSES, SPRINGS Picture Framing and Repair Work done Promptly 27 BALTIMORE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. .00 TO. fjotel (Gettysburg Barber Sfyop. Centre Square. B. M. SEFTON W.F.CODORI, m^Tc^do^i Dealer in Beef, Pork, Lamb, Veal, Sausage. Special rates to Clubs. York St., GETTYSBURG. .GO TO. CHAS. E. BARBEHENN, Barber In the Eagle Hotel, Cor. Main and Washington Sts. CHAS. S. MUMPER (Formerly of Mumper & Bender) Furniture Having opened a new store opposite W. M. R. R. Depot, will be pleased to have you call and examine goods. Picture Framing promptly attended to. Repair Work a Specialty Students' Trade Solicited FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. Spalding's Official League Ball and Athletic Goods Officially adopted by the lead-ing Colleges, Schools and Athletic Clubs of the Country Every Requisite for— BASE BALL FOOT BALL OOLF TENNIS ATHLETICS GYMNASIUM Spalding's Official League Bail Is the Official Ball of the National Iveague, the princi-pal minor leagrues and all the leading college associations Handsome Catalogue of Base Ball and all Athletic Sports Free to any address Spalding's Offi-cial Base Ball Guide for 1901, edited by Henry Chadwick, ready March 30,1901. Price 10 cents. A. Q. SPALDINQ & BROS., Incorporated NEW YORK CHICAGO DENVER ROWE, Your Grocer Carries Pull Line ol Groceries, Canned Goods, Etc. Best Coal Oil and Brooms at most Reasonable Prices. OPPOSITE COLLEQE CAMPUS. S. J. CODORI, *#Druggists Dealer in Drugs, Medicines, Toilet Articles, J> Stationery, Blank Books, Amateur Pho-tographic Supplies, Etc., Etc. BALTIMORE ST. R. H. GULP PAPER HANGER, Second Square, York Street. COLLEGE EMBLEMS. EMIL ZOTHE, ENGRAVER, DESIGNER AND MANUFACTURING JEWELER. 19 S. NINTH ST. PHILADELPHIA SPECIALTIES: Masonic Marks, Society Badges, College Buttons, Pins, Scarf Pins, Stick Pins and Athletic Prizes. All Goods ordered through A. N. Beau. A. C Miller Job Printer Students' Trade Solicited Best of Work Guaranteed Meneely Bell Co. TROY, N. Y. MANUFACTURERS OF SUPERIOR BELLS The 2000 pound bell now ringing in the tower of Pennsylvania Col-lege was manufactured at this foundry. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Pleased Customer Is not a stranger in our establish-ment— he's right at home, you'll see him when you call. We have the materials to please fastidious men. J. D. LIPPY, Merchant Tailor 39 Chambersburg" St., Gettysburg, Pa. L Try My Choice Line of .} £ High-Grade Chocolates 3 ¥¥ at 4flc per lb. Always fresh at CHAS. H. McCLEARY Carlisle St., Opposite W Also Foreign and Domestic Fruits A 3 ARY J Mil. R. R. p Y' Always on Hand. L. D. Miller, GROCER Confectioner and Fruiterer. Ice Cream and Oysters in Season. 19 Main St. GETTYSBURG City Hotel Main St. Gettysburg. Free 'Bus to and from all Trains Thirty seconds' walk from either depot Dinner with drive over field with four or more, $1.35 Rates $1.50 to $2.00 per day- John E. Hughes, Frop. Capitol Cits Cafe Cor. Fourth and Market Sts. HARRISBURG, PA. First-Class Rooms Furnished. Special Rates to Private Parties. Open Day and Night. European Plan. Lunch of All Kinds to Order at the Restaurant. ALDINGER'S CAPITOL CITY CAFE. POPULAR PRICES F. Mark Bream, Dealer in Fancy and Staple Groceries Telephone 29 Carlisle St., GETTYSBURG, PA. JxMijjJ^^hy .Photographer. No. 3 Main St., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. Our new effects in Portraiture are equal to photos made anywhere, and at any price. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS ftlrigbi 140-142 Woodward Avenue DETROIT, MICH. Manufacturers of High Grade Fraternity Emblems Fraternity Jewelry Fraternity Novelties Fraternity Stationery Fraternity Invitations Fraternity Announcements Fraternity Programs Send for Catalogue and Price List. Special Designs on Application. HOTEL GETTYSBURG LIVERY GETTYSBURG, PA. LONG & NOLTZWORTH, Proprietors Apply at Office in the Motel for First-Class Guides and Teams TME BATTLEFIELD A SPECIALTY Zhe Bolton Market Square Ibarrfaburg, ff»a. Large and Convenient Sample Rooms. Passeng-er and J5a.gga.ge Elevator. Electric Cars to and from Depot. Electric Light and Steam Heat. J. M. & M. S. BUTTERWORTH, Proprietors Special Rates for Commer-cial Men "EZ 1ST IMMER CUT ET WAS ZU WISSEIN." These are the words of Goethe, the great German poet, and are as true in our day as when uttered. In these times of defective vision it is good to know something about eyes. A great deal has been learned about the value of glasses and their application since Goethe lived. Spectacle wearers have increased by thousands, while at the same time, persons losing their eyesight have been greatly diminished. If your eyes trouble you in any way let me tell you the cause. Examination free and prices reasonable. We grind all our own lenses and fit the best lenses (no matter what anyone else has charged you) for $2.50 per pair and as cheap as SO cents per pair, or duplicate a broken lens if we have one-half or more of the old one, at a reasonable charge, returning same day received. .E. L. EGOLF. 807 and 809 North Third Street, FIARRISBURG, PA. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. Pentpol J-fotel, ELIAS F1SSEL, Prop. (Formerly of Globe Hotel) Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, Pa. Two doors from Court House. MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. Steam Heat, Electric Lig-ht and Call Bells all through the House. Closets and Bath Rooms on Every Floor. Sefton & Flem-ming's Livery is connected with this Hotel. Good Teams and Competent Guides for the Battlefield. Charges Moderate, Satisfaction Guaranteed. Rates $1.50 Per Day. GET A SKATE ON And send all your Soiled Linen to the Gettysburg Steam Laundry R. R. LONG, Prop. Horace Partridge & Co., BOSTON, MASS. Fine Athletic Goods Headquarters for Foot Ball, Gym-nasium, Fencing and Track Supplies. Send for Illustrated Catalog. 84 and 86 Franklin Street R. W. LENKER, Agent at Penna. College. JOHN M. MINNIQH, Confeetionery, lee, • »««Iee Creams-*-* Oysters Stewed and Fried. No. 17 BALTIMORE ST. HARim §. 3EFTON The Leading Barber v>f)op (Successor to C. C. Sefton) Having1 thoroughly remodeled the place is now ready to accommodate the public Barber Supplies a Specialty. .Baltimore Street. GETTi^URCj., PA. ESTABLISHED 1876 PENROSE MYERS, Watchmaker and Jeweler Gettysburg Souvenir Spoons, Col-lege Souvenir Spoons. NO. lO BALTIMORE ST., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. L. t\. kiitm Manufacturers' Agent and Jobber of Hardware, Oils, Paints and Queensware. OETTYSBURa, PA. The Only Jobbing House in Adam* County. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. For Fine. Printing go to Tfe Jo Co Wile foitiipg Honje CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes and. Gents' Furnishing Goods Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. EDGARS. MARTIN, ^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES. %2** w^v^ Charnbersburg St., Gettysburg Leadership . IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S PURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony? The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: FALL AND WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : : STIINE McPherson Block. No. II BALTIMORE STREET ,--.-;. Ibotcl (Bett^sbutQ. ©ett^burg, pa. ZlDerville IE. Ztnn, proprietor r^^^^gsS^S^S^-* The Leading Hotel Rates $2.00 per Day Long & Holtzworth Livery Attached Cuisine and Service First-Class Look for Wm. M. Seligman's Advertisement on this page in our next issue

MARCH, J900 Qettysbur Mercury CONTENTS. The Power of Ignorance, 1 Remembrance, 8 The Death of King Solomon 8 The Uses of Dreams,. 13 Editor's Desk, 17 A Word Deserved, 18 Meeting of The Pennsylvania College Alumni Association of Harrisburg, 19 The Veil of Separation 20 The Dead on Expansion, 21 The Old Chief and The Black-smith, 22 Why We Broke Camp, 27 At The Breakfast Table 30 GETTYSBURG COLLEGE LIBRARY .GETTYSBU^!§bRG C DUPLiCfA'. i FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. For Fine. Printing go to CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and . Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. Have you an assured -&&& R. I. ELLIOTT Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes and. Gents' Furnishing Goods Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. EDGAR S. MARTIN, F^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES. %/& tgr? Mr* Chambersburg St., Gettysburg. Would you try for a government posi-tion, if you knew just how to am" and the kinds __ positions from which you can choose, and what to do to insure your getting on the list after you have applied 1 The Government of the United States is the best of employers. Fair compen-sation, regularity of payment, reason-ably sure tenure, tasks not too difficult, i ana hours not too long, offer strong at-tractions to young personsof both sexes whohavenosettledincome. Manyenter Government employ, spend their spare i hours in studying law or medicine, or finance, and save enough from their salaries to start In a professional or business career. We have just published a book from whlchemy candidate may learn just what is necessary and wliat tinnecessary in | brushing up his studies for an examina-tion: and what his chancesare, all things considered, for making his way into the I Civil Service, and staying there. The title of this book is "How to Prepare i'or a Civil Service Examination ; U Hh Recent Questions and An- , swers." It contains all Information which any candidate would require to firepare for any competitive office under he Government, and includes a "Ten weeks1 Course of Study,"ln the form of questions actually asked at recent ex-aminations, with the correct answers to , them. Besides the technical require- ' menta. It also covers all the elementary branches, like arithmetic, spelling, pen- | manship, geography, letter writing, civil government, etc., etc., so that one who masters this course of study would not only pass well an examination for o, yov- , ernment position, but would be cure of I preferment over other applicants for a clerkship in a business house. CLOTH—$2.00 Postpaid—560 PAGES Another booJciree(Quick atFigures)if you mention this paper when ordering. mros & NOBLE, Publishers ' 4-6-13-14 Cooper Institute, N. Y. City SchoolbooTcs ofall publishersat one store .THE. GETTYSBURG MERCURY. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., MARCH, 1900. No. 1 THE POWER OP IGINORAINCE. [ABSTRACT OF A LECTURE BEFORE THE TEACHERS' INSTITUTE, JANUARY 27TH, BY PROF. O. G. KLINGER.] I AM here to engage your attention for a little while in a sub-ject which is too seldom considered, but rich in educational value. It is the " Power of Ignorance." We often hear of the power of knowledge—it has been the pet theme of platform speakers for many generations ; but who has stopped to consider the power of the unformed intellect, or of the intellect developed but dominated by some blinding prejudice, or pride of opinion ? And yet Ignorance has played as mighty a part in the world's drama as Knowledge. All the domain which Knowledge calls her own has been wrested from Ignorance. Ignorance, dark, gloomy, superstitious, destructive, first; knowledge second—at the beginning a glimmer, a mere insight, a guess, and then a growing light—at the present a great luminary, an hour above the horizon. All that makes our nineteenth century habitable for men and women, such as you, is the product of advancing science. No other age has been so great as our age, because Knowledge has stricken off the shackles of superstition, shaken the obstinacy of bigotry, deepened the sympathies, augmented the value of human life, converted the forces of nature into servants, established the dignity of self-hood, brought freedom to light, conquered the ocean and annihilated space. Her advance has been in the face of Ignorance, which at each moment has con-tested with pen and fire and sword her progress. My object this evening will be to set forth as clearly as I may be able the power of this antagonist of knowledge, that in the light of it you may see more clearly the sanctity of freedom of research, freedom of thought, and freedom of speech. QETTYSBU*G COLLEGE LIBRARY GETTYSBURG, PA^ THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Remember, that knowledge is power only when it informs some human will, and directs some human choice. Knowledge concealed within the lids of books is not power—it is so much waste paper so far as the world's progress is concerned. It must possess the mind, illumine the intellect, impel the will in its choices, and become a human force. And by ignorance I mean the mind that is not informed, a will that makes its choices in the dark ; a htiman force without direction. But this is not the only kind of ignorance. It has happened in the world's history that men and nations of large culture have been so dominated by pre-judice, by pride of opinion, by love of party, by bigotry, as to avert from themselves the best blessings which the merciful Father had designed for them. There are wise fools in the world as well as dullones, and bigotry, which is but a form of ignorance, has been a great obstacle in the path of progress. Our thought must search for its illustrations in the cabinet of History, and they will not be difficult to find. Every page is re-plete with them. We take those that strike the eye first, because of their magnitude—conspicuous examples of the blighting effects of gross ignorance, and the more refined but less hopeful bigotry. I refer to the Barbarian invasion of Rome, the fall of Alexandria, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and England's loss of her American Colonies. The tidal wave of ancient civilization, which took its rise in Egypt and the Mesopotamia, never flowed farther north than the Black Sea, the Carpathian mountains, and the Rhine river. Be-yond these boundaries lay in dark obscurity the terra incognita. Of this whole, vast, indefinite stretch the ancients had only the most meagre information, and they peopled it with the most hor-rible, most fantastic creatures of the imagination, as children fill the dark with hobgoblins and spooks. And as though their fears had been prophetic, out of this very region were to come the forces which would overturn their government, raze their cities, crush their pride, and extinguish their culture. The old civilization reached its maximum development in Greece and Rome—the former leading and the latter following in the sequence of history. In Greece it was expressed in a litera-ture and art the most perfect the world has ever enjoyed ; in Rome it took the form of an architecture, " full of expression of gigantic power and strength of will." The former gave to the THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. world the Parthenon ; the latter the Coliseum. The former fur-nished ideals of the beautiful; the latter ideals of social order. Greece has since been the teacher of all that pertains to the aesthetic nature ; Rome of all that pertains to government and jurisprudence. ?j£ ?|s *f% yf* 5|* 'J^ *f* *"p While Greece was achieving her greatest triumph—while adorning her cities with the most exquisite art, perfecting her language, and evolving her beautiful philosophy ; while Rome was rearing triumphal arches, sending nation after nation under the yoke, and welding together the whole civilized world into one massive empire—up in this region of the north there was a strange restlessness, of which the southern nations never dreamed, but which forbode for them the most direful consequences. A dreary stretch of forest, reaching from the Rhine to the North Sea, unbroken save here and there by patches of cultivated land—a wilderness of mighty trees, which bowed their heads be-fore the Blusterer of the north, or sank beneath the weight of years, but at whose root the woodman's axe was seldom laid— whose deep recesses furnished safe retreats for bear and the wild-boar— such was Europe in the third century Anno Domini when the Goths first emerged from its retreats and stood upon the banks of the Danube. Great people they were, tall and massive of shoulder, with great swelling muscles—a giant each one, whose tawny hair, reaching to the shoulder, was his especial pride. From under shaggy eye-brows gleamed eyes which seemed cut out of blue Arctic ice, reflecting every flash of passion, and terrible when lit up with the rage of battle. Great animals, with the germ in them of great souls, true to their word, loathing nothing so much as shame and cowardice, with heart attuned to carnage, afraid to die elsewhere than on the battlefield—whose Heaven even was a Val-halla of eternal conflict—such were the Goths. Beyond them towards the east dwelt the Huns, a Tartar tribe. Let Gibbon describe them : '' These savages of Scythia were com-pared to the animals which walk very awkwardly on two legs. They were distinguished from the rest of the human species by their broad shoulders, flat noses, and small black eyes, deeply buried in the head ; and as they were almost destitute of beards, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. they never enjoyed either the manly grace of youth or the vener-able aspect of age." To render them more hideous still, while they were yet of tender age their parents gashed their cheeks with knives that their faces might look more ferocious with the ugly scars. They were so constantly on horseback that their legs received the curve of the horse's body. Their hideous appear-ance was a true index of their character—ruthless, lustful; they struck terror into the hearts of their enemies on the field of battle. Beyond them dwelt another tribe of people, of whose origin we know nothing, and of whose character we know little. The Sienpi were the natural enemies of the Huns, into whose terri-tory they made frequent incursions. Brave and savage, skilled in the use of such weapons as they had, they were able to chill with terror even the hearts of such creatures as the Huns. It is probable that under the pressure of these implacable foes the Huns migrated from their ancient seats, near the Chinese Empire, towards the west. Their coming in countless hordes was an astonishment to the valiant Goths, who trembled before their uncouth enemies and retreated before their onslaught. Thus it happened that in the fourth century of our era, the Goths suddenly appeared upon the banks of the Danube and besought a refuge within the bounds of the Roman Empire. Their petition was at length granted, and the fate of the South was sealed. At once, on the death of the great Theodosius, occurred the revolt of the Gothic tribes. Under the leadership of Alaric, after various vicissitudes, they traversed the country from the Danube southward and sought a rich harvest of fame and treasure in the fair land of Greece. Passing, without opposition, through the pass of Thermopylae, they ravaged the whole country to the plains of Sparta. *A* *A* *1* *±* *1^ *Jf* ^^ *^ *f* ^ *j* *r» *T* *T* *r* 'T* You have read of, even if you have never seen, the devas-tating power of the cyclone. The sun rises upon a stretch of prairie, beautiful with swaying grain, and dotted with towns and villages. The sky overhead is flecked with shredded clouds, which reflect and refract the sun's rays—distant prisms of hazy texture. Suddenly from out the sky, with scarcely a moment's warning, comes a mighty shadow. Your ear is startled by the deep bellowing of winds as they struggle in the upper air. Dower THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. and lower they force each other in their whirling conflict. The one from the west hurls back the one from the east, and, with in-conceivable rapidity, the storm-cloud, lightning-riven, skims the earth. You know the rest. The sun sets at evening upon a blighted land, filled with ruin and death. \1A *JJ «X* *.IA »L* *±? ^f *!_.* if* if* *f* ^f* *J* ^T* *J* 'I* The passing of Alaric and his Goths left Greece stripped of her beauty ; her temples lying in ruins; her sculpture broken and stripped of its golden plates ; her towns and villages a mass of burning embers. '' The whole territory of Attica, from the prom-ontory of Sunium to the town of Megara was blasted by his baleful presence ; and, if we may use the comparison of a contem-porary philosopher, Athens itself resembled the bleeding and empty skin of a slaughtered victim." The cyclone of ignorance has passed, and what the centuries had achieved of all that ap-peals to the aesthetic nature was in a day destroyed by the barba-rians, whose natures were insensible to the allurements of beauty, except as it was expressed in the grace and symmetry of the female form. Alexandria, founded at the mouth of the Nile by Alexander the Great, and coming under the sovereignty of Ptolemy Soter, and afterwards of his son, Philadelphus, became under their fostering care, and by reason of its location, the foremost city of its day, and the real center of the Hellenistic world. It was from her that the Romans received the Greek civilization, which wrought such a miracle among them ; from her that the literary and artistic in-fluences went forth to mold the taste of Europe ; it was in her that poets and critics wrote and labored in the Hellenistic period. For the Ptolemies were patrons of art and literature, and invited to their court the learned from all parts of the world. To facili-tate research, a great museum, similar in character to our modern university, and a great library were established. Here were gath-ered the manuscripts of all the Hellenic writers, great and small. These the scholars of Alexandria, from the third century B.C. downward, sifted, preserving what was of value and destroying what was worthless. The works of the great thinkers, from Homer to Demosthenes, were edited, and their scholia form the foundations of all modern critical study. This happy state of things continued until the time of Bishop THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Theophilus, " the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue ; a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and blood." This narrow-minded bigot, caring only for power, knowing little of the glory of Greek literature, and caring less, pillaged the library, destroyed the compositions of ancient genius, and forever impoverished the world of scholarship. " Nearly twenty years afterwards, the appearance of the empty shelves ex-cited the regret and indignation of every spectator whose mind was not totally darkened by religious prejudice." Nor did the exquisite art which adorned the streets, as well as temples and private homes, suffer a less bitter fate. Images of gold and silver were melted, and those of inferior material were broken to bits and cast into the streets. Thus could religious fanaticism, inflaming the heart of an unscrupulous, ecclesiastical politician, and blinding his eyes to the enormity of his crime, subvert and destroy in a few hours what scholarship had accumu-lated during six centuries of labor. *J* 5JC ftfi *jC *fs 3j£ ?JC 5JC The darkest page in the history of France is that which re-cords the power and influence of the Guises. Hand in hand with the Queen-mother, Catherine de Medici, they labored for the ex-termination of the Huguenots. To trace here the intricate schemes, the diabolical plottings, the attempts at assassination, the submission of truth and honor to accomplish their design, would require too great a space. After unwearying effort, con-tinued through several years, they at length succeeded in winning the King's reluctant consent to the massacre of St. Bartholomew. At a given signal, in the early morning, the work of destruction began with the murder of Coligni, and when it ceased three days later, fully thirty thousand Huguenots had miserably perished at the hands of the Catholics. The persecution of the Protestants of France continued with varying degrees of savage intensity until the time of Louis XIV. This monarch, when old, was tormented by the memory of his many evil deeds, and sought some way in which he might atone for them before Almighty God. That way was suggested by his Queen, Madame de Maintenon. In pursuance of her awful plan, L,ouis revoked the Edict of Nantes, and outlawed every Huguenot who refused to embrace the Catholic faith. By this act of religious bigotry '' fully three hundred thousand of the most THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. skillful and industrious of the subjects of Louis were driven out of the kingdom. Several of the most important and flourishing of the French industries were ruined, while the manufacturing interests of other countries were correspondingly benefited by the energy, skill and capital which the exiles carried with them." Many of them found their way to America, and their descendants have been among our most distinguished citizens. It is hardly too much to say that France has never recovered fully from the disastrous effects of Iyouis' infamous policy. *(£ 5jC 5|C ^|C 5J» *j£ *(> *1^ In the history of the world it has never been the privilege of any other nation to have such colonial possessions as had England in the New World. Her government of the colonies was one colossal blunder from the beginning, but it remained for the ob-stinacy of George the Third to alienate them wholly and convert them into "a government of the people, by the people and for the people." " He had," says Green, " a smaller mind than any English king before him, save James the Second. He was wretchedly educated, and his natural powers were of the meanest sort.'' He had but one idea—to embody in himself all the powers of the government. " Be a king, George," had been the contin-ually repeated exhortation of his mother from his early youth, and to be a king George thought he must be a tyrant. The story of his tyrannical acts which before twenty years had passed by had driven the American colonies into revolution and independence, and brought England to the verge of ruin, is known to every schoolboy, and would be a twice-told tale if repeated before this audience. L,et it suffice that we in America owe the government, of which we are so proud, to the conceit of one who was the most conspicuous failure that ever disgraced the English throne—to him we owe all, but for it all owe him no thanks. *«i* xL* *1* ^U -J-* *£* •& ^S ^^ *X* *T* *T* *T* *T* I am done. My effort has been to suggest to you the de-structive and pernicious power of ignorance in some of its most common forms. In spite of advancing science, superstition and bigotry and fanaticism still persist, though happily their power is limited in our day to the pen. Our eye is set on that day, no longer far removed, when freedom of thought and speech shall no longer be challenged; when the minds of scholars shall be free from prejudice; when the common man of our land, as in ancient 8 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Greece, shall be able to appreciate arid to enjoy the finest art and literature; when in the workshop and on the farm, at the anvil and before the mast, we shall have men who think. The dawn has already broken; the full day will come in its own good time. REMEMBRANCE, If, perchance, in days to come, A truant thought strays back to me, Pray, believe the kindest ones In turn, are entertained of thee. As the sands along- the shore, To-day are thrown upon the beach, And to-morrow waves return To hurl them far beyond our reach; So the friends of yesterday, The ones we always held so dear, Quietly vanish from our sight, And leave us waiting, lonely here. —B. THE DEATH OF KING SOLOMON. THE king paused in his walk and, leaning against one of the tall pillars of the porch of the palace, gazed long at the flashing glory of the temple which rested like a diadem upon the brow of Mount Moriah. The sun had set ablaze the towering pinnacles of the building, and the burnished gold burned and flashed in the red rays of the setting sun. Already the purple shadows were creeping between the columns, and as the king gazed his face was exceeding sad and the shadows on his brow were deep as those between the columns. His waving hair was whitened by the frosts of three score winters. His eyes had not lost their piercing gaze, but his forehead was furrowed by care and his face had much of the sadness which too much self-indul-gence and the too familiar knowledge of the heartless world en-gender. His cheekbones were high and his chin rather promi-nent. The very spirit of majestic command seemed expressed in all his features. Yet withal, there could be traced about the mouth and eyes those delicate markings which are the imprint of a kindly, generous nature, and which contradicted the cynical THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. expression which sometimes swept like the hand of a demon across his features. In his eyes and towering forehead there was a suggestion of that gigantic intellect which had grappled with all the problems of the universe. Kindly, just and God-fearing, yet self-indulgent, and led astray in his quest of happiness, the sadness which burdened his great soul was mirrored in his coun-tenance. Solomon, the mighty ruler, the matchless judge, the wisest scholar, the profouudcst philosopher and the learned psy-chologist— this Solomon, was old, and weary, and brokenhearted, troubled by the disasters to his great empire, which he foresaw, sad at the thought of many wasted years. As the sun sank below the horizon, he turned away from the temple and cast a momentary glance at the magnificence about him ; then with a gesture of contempt, he walked slowly into the cool, shadowy gardens of his palace. Long but slowly he paced among the shadowy paths, engaged in profound thought. It seemed as if his God, with whom he had once walked very inti-mately, granted him a knowledge of the close approach of death ; for suddenly he straightened his stooping shoulders and lifting his hand beneath a light where the gesture might be seen, he summoned the ever alert attendants. It was the king's will that the court be summoned. Swift runners sped from palace to palace in luxurious Jerusalem. Lords and courtiers rose from banqueting tables and hastened, wonder-ing, toward the palace. For had they not been summoned by the royal word ? And who in all the land might delay when King Solomon called? Surely, none. The great hall of justice was ablaze with light. Throngs of whispering nobles were the evidence of surprise at this night summons. Suddenly all were hushed. The heavy curtains at the royal entrance had been held aside and now the solitary figure of the king moved past the kneeling nobles to the great throne of ivory and gold. The king took his seat between the huge, crouching, golden lions and looked awhile in silence from one face to another. Some were old and tried friends and counsellors who had been with him when as a young man he had received the sceptre from the hand of Israel's God and his father, the royal David. Others were younger, and as his eye glanced from one to another, he thought of their fathers, some of whom were mighty warriors, others wise counsellors. IO THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. At length bespoke: "Oh Nobles, I have summoned you hither this night, at this unaccustomed hour, to bid you farewell. This evening, for the last time, I saw the red light of the depart-ing sun kiss the house of our God, resting upon it like a beuison from the Most High. "I go unto my fathers. To-night, ere the first rays of the morning sun laugh on the waters of Jordan and wake our queenly city from her slumbers, I go on the last, long journey. I am old and very weary of life, and I go to the grave, whither ye all are hastening. '' Oh Nobles—Counsellors and Warriors—ye whose heads are hoar, and who follow me soon, long have we labored together for beloved Israel. Some, perchance, even knew my father, David. Oh, grey-heads ! your king loves you. " And ye, whose raven locks the frosts of many winters may yet whiten, sons of mighty men, my young men, your king loves you not less. Be ye faithful as your fathers to the God of Israel and your king. " Ye have seen my race, which now is nearly run. To the dominions of my father I have added, and have made Israel ex-ceeding strong and mighty. Ye, too, saw me turn aside from following after Jehovah. Ye know the punishment—how I must have this fair kingdom rent and torn from me. But know that the God of Israel, in his measureless kindness and mercy, which are even as the fathomless space of the whirling orbs, has par-doned my transgression and forgiven my sin. " Now the hour is come and your king goes to the court of the Ruler of the universe. My nobles—counsellors, warriors and statesmen—remember your love for Solomon and stand faithful. Turn ye not aside after riches and honor. 'A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold. The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all. A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.' " 'Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.' " But the night flees and my strength fails. This night, ere the rosy morning descends from the hills and touches the purple vineyards, I will to be borne to my palace which is beyond Giloh. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. II For, oh Nobles, know that a weary old man wishes, in his weak-ness, to look once more upon his pleasant palace which gleams in its whiteness, amid the green gardens, and from there be gathered unto his fathers. ' Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.' " And now, fare ye well, my Lords ; may the mighty God of Israel be with you. Oh my children, a long farewell." The king stood for a moment with hands outstretched in bless-ing over the silent, awe-struck nobles, then moved with calm and composed step down from the throne at whose base the world had bowed. He gazed a moment longer at the assemblage of grey-headed men, who were separate ; then with a last majestic wave of the hand he passed from the judgment hall and the sight of his nobles forever. He hastened to his waiting chariot and was borne slowly along the road which leads to Hebron. His palace and gardens, with their pools which lay like three turquoise amid a sea of emerald, were his destination. Only once did the king rouse himself from the reverie into which he had fallen. As the white splendor of Jerusalem, bathed in the tropic full-moon, was disappearing behind him, he stood up in the rocking chariot, and with a gesture of matchless dignity, bade a last adieu to his queenly capital. Then he lapsed again into reverie. And of what did he dream? Who can say? Perchance it was of the future, per-chance of the past. Of that past when he ruled at Jerusalem, while the wealth of the world was poured in front of the lions of his ivory throne. The memories of a sacred and glorious past must have thronged upon him. Along this very road the mighty David passed and repassed. Here he had kept his father's flocks as a youth. Back and forth in this vicinity the jealous Saul had hunted him. Yonder, in the velvetry blackness, sleeps Rachel, the beloved of Jacob. There, alone, through the centuries, her ashes rest. A little farther on, at Giloh, the house of Ahithophel, the faithful counsellor of David, suggests its train of memories ; or perhaps some glorious vision of this plain, as it was destined tq appear, bathed in glittering light and echoing to the " Glory, in the Highest" of the angels, may have been vouchsafed to this son of David. And now, beyond Giloh, the chariot approaches the palace, 12 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. in the midst of its gardens. The weary old monarch steps from his chariot as he has done so often before at this spot. Hither, in the past, he has come in the dewey morning to find rest and quiet. And now, in the evening of his life, the king comes to his beautiful gardens to die. How the heart of that mighty ruler must have grieved as he looked back over the desolate years of which he had exclaimed "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" Slowly the king passes between the sculptured columns of his marble palace which rise, slender and graceful, to the distant roof swimming in dusky shadow; on between the two statuesque guards in their golden armor ; on, into the palace with its purple velvets and its tapestries. Fountains murmur and tinkle about him ; rare birds, strange beasts, gathered from the four corners of the world for the pleasure of this mighty potentate, are all around him. The mingled odors of many flowers float to his nostrils. But they are all unnoticed. In sad and solemn quiet the king paces slowly to his chamber. It has been whispered that the king wishes quiet and to be left alone, and the palace which in the years of the past has been filled with music and oftentimes with the sounds of revelry, seems to be without human inhabitant, and as silent as some great, white mausoleum. Only once, at the break of day, the attendants steal to the chamber of the king, and behold his form outstretched upon the couch, then as if terrified by the sight of the angel of death hovering over the king, they disappear. So, not surrounded by the nobles of the land or by sorrowing dear ones, but alone, the spirit of King Solomon stands on the •brink of the dark waters of the river of death and awaits the sum-mons of the most high God. Thus, while in communion with Jehovah, his spirit unterrified by the approach of death, is con-ducted into the council-chamber of the universe. And Israel's greatest king is dead. For "God's finger touched him," and even as the stars began to fade the mighty spirit of King Solomon had winged its flight into the unknown. Once more the lord of day ascends the dark mountains of Moab, and gleams upon the white palace which rests on the crest of a hill amid its green gardens like the white foam upon the crest of some dark-green wave of the ocean. In this palace, designed only for pleasure and joy, there is sadness and gloom. But the features of the king are tranquil and placid in death. Fven as at THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 13 evening the setting sun may break through the clouds and shine over the gray ocean, soothing the tired waters to rest, so now the morning sun lights up the countenance of the king and shows the perfect peace which has taken the place of the sadness and trouble. Amid the grief of a nation the king has gone to his last, long rest. —Max. THE USES OF DREAMS. C. L. '01. IT may be of interest to note at the outset some of the physical and the psychological phenomena of dreams. " A dream is a train of thought, images or phantasies, that passes through the mind in sleep.'' In dreams we lose all voluntary control over our thoughts, and our minds are, as it were, freed from all re-straints, turned out of the boundaries set by will, and left to roam at pleasure through almost infinite areas of thought and imagina-tion. Some claim that the activity of the soul does not cease for a single moment, and that dreams are one of the results of this constant activity. Others affirm, with equal certainty, that the soul has periods of inactivity and rest, when our sleep is entirely devoid of dreams. But does it not seem more reasonable that we forget our dreams, or rather fail to recollect them ? It is true, of course, that the action of the soul during the hours of slumber is much more feeble than during waking hours, but even this statement cannot be made without exception. Un-doubtedly the imagination is, at times, more lively in sleep than at any other time. A person, whose imagination is notably dull and lifeless, can, oftentimes, especially when just lapsing into un-consciousness, picture before his mind the most lovely, Edenic bowers, fairy landscapes, and scenic views that divest even Alpine glories of their rapturous charms. Occasionally the mind is very active also during periods of somnolence. This is proved by the fact that mathematicians, after having worked for days and weeks, perhaps, on a difficult problem, have finally solved it while wrapped in sleep. Again many persons of small originality and creative genius have composed poems of a merit that would have justly surprised them when awake, and have preached sermons and delivered lectures to enraptured audiences. Some persons of little or no musical ability have in their dreams outrivaled Mozart 14 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. and Beethooven in their musical productions, and their render-ing of them, and surpassed Jenny Lind and Patti in their vocal successes. The idea that the ancients had of dreams was vastly different from that which prevails at present. When superstition and witchcraft were fastened to everybody's creed, when ghosts stalked to and fro in every graveyard and haunted the scene of every murder, when enchanting sprites, bewitching elves, and diabolical imps jostled each other in the minds of nobleman and peasant, a dream was thought to be something of great import-ance and of good or evil omen. As each succeeding age has broken one or more of the super-stitious fetters with which it was bound and has approached nature and nature's God, and looked at nature not as a blind in-congruous force, but as an orderly and harmonious creation, evil has been traced to its source and found to consist not in the un-accountable and uncontrollable flights of a fanciful imagination, but in natural laws that have been violated or broken. This contrast may be explained by the difference between ancient and modern philosophy in accounting for the origin of evil. In Homer the thought is often emphasized that " Dreams come from Zeus," and a dream often meant as much as the flight of birds or the con-dition of the inspected vitals. The undertaking of an important expedition or of a desperate conflict often turned upon a dream of an officer during the preceding night, and many an unsuc-cessful exploit or disastrous defeat was traced to an ill-omened dream. Just after the expedition of " The Ten Thousand Im-mortals " had started on its perilous journey toward the capital of " The Great King," Xenophon, the leader of the expedition, had a dream in which, in the midst of a terrific thunder storm, he saw a ball of lightning fall upon his father's house, enveloping it in flames. The report following the bolt waked him. He considered the dream favorable because it seemed to be a token sent from Zeus, the author of dreams. On the other hand it seemed like an evil omen in that it might be interpreted that the " Immortals " were to be surrounded by the barbarian hordes as the house had been by the flames. No doubt the wretched failure of the expedition was largely accounted for by the commander's dream. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 15 Possibly no other book is so replete with stories of dreams as the Bible. It is reasonable to suppose that before the dawning of the " New Dispensation " divine communications were often sent to mortals through the media of dreams. Joseph's dreams seemed to his jealous brothers, and also to his devoted father, to be a mere idle, if not presumptuous, fancy of superiority over them. His brothers hated him because of their own interpreta-tion of his dreams. They were unable to free their minds of the unpleasant prophesies which they thought the dreams contained, so they cast him in a pit at Dothan, and then, as if to make more sure against the dreams' fulfillment they bartered him off to an Egypt-bound caravan of Ishmaelites. This " Dreamer " in-terpreted his own dream, and his brorhers were, afterwards, only too glad to make obeisance to his fruitful sheaf. Passing by many significant dreams, let us notice the dream which came to Joseph, husband of Man', the mother of Jesus. He was warned in a dream not to remain in Judea, but "to take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt." Upon the prompt obedience to this dream depended the life of the infant Jesus. Had Pilate heeded the warning of his wife's dream, he would not have delivered up Jesus to be crucified. In these in-stances dreams seemed to be angelic messengers from God with important dispatches. We recall the dream of the late, venerable Dr. A. J. Gordon, pastor of the Clarendon Street Baptist Church, Boston, which in-spired him to write that popular book, "How Christ Came to Church." In his preface the author states that he is not so sup-erstitious as to believe that every dream has a good or a bad meaning, but he believes, as in his own dream, we may learn val-uable lessons and receive wonderful inspiration even from dreams. Indeed, there are many cases on record where a dream has in-spired the mind to accomplish a skillful and even a masterful fete. Coleridge's " Kubla Khan" was suggested to him by a dream while he sat napping in his chair. Upon awaking, he seized his pen and wrote from memory that composition. The great musician, Tartani, composed his famous "Devil's Sonata" under the influence of a dream, in which his Satanic Majesty en-chanted Tartani by his wonderful exhibition of skill upon the violin, and challenged the dreamer to a match. As soon as Tar- i6 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. tani awoke he took up his violin and composed, in answer to the challenge, the above named composition. In the time of Shakespeare dreams were often misunderstood, and one of the most unpleasant aspects of death was the frightful dreams which were thought to accompany it. In Hamlet's So-liloquy on Death, when contemplating suicide, the " dread of something after death"—harrowing dreams, prevents him from becoming his own murderer. "To die,—to sleep ; To sleep ! perchance to dream /—ay, there's the rub ; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause." It is the thought of these fearful dreams that makes him decide to bear " Those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of." We owe a debt of gratitude to those promoters of civilization which have unveiled to us those harmless forces which were for centuries enshrouded in an awful mysticism. We recognize that dreams are simply the production of an unbridled fancy, of an imagination uncurbed by will, the "reflections of our waking thoughts." We no longer believe that to dream of gold is good luck, and to dream of silver, bad luck. We reply to such a thought the words of the proverb, " It is as idle as a dream.'' We sometimes gain some inspiration and profit from dreams, but we do not invest them with power to bring us either ill or harm. We see in them a proof of our immortality, and often associate them with our condition after death, but in no terrifying way, and as far as disturbing dreams are concerned, we may meet our death " Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." .THE. GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Entered at the Postojice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. Voi,. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., MARCH, 1900. No. 1 Editor-in- Chief, . A. VAN ORMER, '01. Assistant Editors, W. H. HETRICK, W. A. KOHLER. Business Manager, H. C. HOFFMAN. Alumni Editor, REV. F. D. GARLAND. Assistant Business Manager, WILLIAM C. NEY. Advisory Board, PROF. J. A. HIMES, LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M.D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD, D. D. Published monthly by the students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg-) College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Ten Cents. Notice to discontinue sending the MERCURY to any address" must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORS DESK. WITH this issue the ninth volume of THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY begins. The retiring staff, continuing the work of their predecessors, have delivered into our hands a journal that occupies a high place among college publi-cations of the state. Their encouraging words and helpful sug-gestion, together with the kindly expressions of THE GETTYS-BURGIAN, and. the readiness with which contributors have re-sponded to our call for material, give us encouragement. We now fully realize the burden of work that it is ours to bear; neither are we insensible of the responsibilities that rest upon us; hence we solicit a continuation of the same co-opera-tion thus far extended to us, that we may present to the students, alumni, and friends of the institution a literary journal worthy of Pennsylvania College. i8 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. The recurrence of the twenty-second of February naturally causes one to look back through the not yet dim vists of Ameri-can history to the days of the Great Commander, whose life is a panorama of noble, self-sacrificing, patriotic deeds. We read with admiration of his boyhood and youth ; we see his growing worth as he delivers Gov. Dinwiddie's message to the French officer ; we gaze upon him with }oy as he tells the British general how to fight the Indians ; we laud his bravery as we see him in the front of many battles, and as he crosses the raging Delaware on that fateful Christmas night; we raise our hats in reverence while he fervently implores the interposition of the God of Bat-tles in behalf of the Continental armies ; but to know his true worth we must follow him further—we must see him cast aside the proffered crown and become a private citizen; we must note his magnanimous spirit at Yorktown, read the record of his suc-cessful administrations, stud}' his farewell to the American people and follow him once more into private life ere we can fully ap-preciate him whom '' Providence left childless that he might be called the Father of his Country." A WORD DESERVED. THE business manager and the assistant business manager of the late MERCURY staff have done so much for the journal that they should receive special mention in its columns. The chief difficulty in the way of the monthly nearly always has been lack of money. Occasionally, but not often, a manager has been found who, at the expiration of his term, could give a respectable report to the literary societies. Two years ago, on account of financial embarrassment, the monthly was changed from a news and literary journal to a journal entirely literary, and its name was changed to "THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY." In the first year, during which at least one issue was not published for want of money, THE MERCURY ran in debt, and serious thought was at times entertained by the staff of giving up the paper altogether. Such was the pecuniary condition of THE MERCURY when it fell into the hands of Mr. Hamacher and Mr. Moore. As regards what was done, it is sufficient to say that at present the paper is THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 19 on the best financial basis she .ever has known, and considering the chaotic state in which the late staff received it, we may say-without exaggeration that Mr. Hamacher has proved himself an exemplary business manager. —H., '00. MEETING OP THE PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OP HARRISBURG. THE annual business meeting and banquet of the Pennsyl-vania College Alumni Association of Harrisburg and vi-cinity was held at the "Harrisburg Club" on the evening of February 27th. At the business meeting the Committee on Or-ganization and By-laws submitted a Constitution which, with several minor alterations, was duly adopted. An election was }hen held for the selection of officers for the current year, the following being elected : President, M. H. Buehler, Harrisburg ; Vice-Presidents, Capt. F. M. Ott, Harrisburg; Rev. D. H. Gilbert, Harrisburg; Rev. F. D. Weigel, Mechanicsburg; Secretary and Treasurer, Chas. Hollinger, Harrisburg. At the termination of the business meeting the members ad-journed to the banquet hall of the Club, the walls of which were gracefully draped with flags and college colors, while numerous palms and other tropical plants were tastily scattered about the hall. In an alcove to one side was seated a full orchestra and mandolin club which rendered classical selections during the pro-gress of the banquet. Covers were laid for forty-two and an ex-tensive menu, served in the highest style of the culinary art, was thoroughly enjoyed. The Association had the honor of entertaining as its guests prominent Alumni of the various educational institutions; Yale being represented by Hon. Lyman Gilbert, Harrisburg; Prince-ton by Charles A. Bergner, Harrisburg; Dickinson by its Pres-ident, Dr. George E. Reed ; Irving by President Campbell; Penn-sylvania College by President H. W. McKnight, Prof. O. F. Klinger and Prof. Chas. Huber ; other guests being Mr. Charles A. Kunkel, Harrisburg, and Dr. Leslie Kauffman, of Kauffman, Pa. The office of Toastmaster was ably filled by Capt. F. M. Ott, '70, and toasts were responded to as follows : "Pennsylvania Col- 20 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. - lege," Prof. 0. F. Klinger; "Yale," Hon. Eyman D. Gilbert; "Colleges for Our Sisters," Dr. E. E- Campbell; "Princeton," Charles H. Bergner, Esq.; "Our Rival," Dr. George E. Reed; "Our Alumni," M. W. Jacobs, Esq. Addresses were also made by President McKnightand Rev. Dr. D. M. Gilbert. This initial banquet of the Association proved to be an unqualified success and was one of the most successful and complete functions of the kind ever held in Harrisburg. The members of the association present were : Rev. T. B. Birch, Prof. C. F. Kloss, Prof J. F. Kempfer, Rev. E. D. Weigel, all of Mechanicsburg; Rev. M. P. Hocker, Steelton ; Rev. Benj. R. Lantz, Millersburg ; Rev. G. M. K. Diffenderfer, Newport; Dr. J. F. Staley, Mr. F. W. Staley, Middletown; J. S. Alleman, Esq., Arthur D. Bacon, M. H. Buehler, Jno. F. Dapp, Meade D. Detweiler, Esq., Rev. Luther DeYoe, Dr. C. B. Fager, Dr. V. H. Fager, Prof. L,. O. Foose, Rev. D. M. Gilbert, Jno. W. Hay, M. D., C. H. Hollinger, John Hoffer, Jr., M. W. Jacobs, Esq., Croll Keller, Dr. Geo. B. Kunkel, Rev. Marion J. Kline, Dr. J. B. Mc- Alister, Capt. F. M. Ott, Dr. C. A. Rahter, Rev. M. H. Stine, Dr. H. B. Walter, E. H. Wert, Esq., H. M. Witman, all of Har-risburg, and Rev. J. Edw. Byers, Penbrook. ^ THE VEIL OE SEPARATION. " Ah sir, there are times in the history of men and nations when they stand so near the veil that separates mortals from im-mortals, time from eternity, and men from their God, that they can almost hear the breathings and feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Through such a time has this Nation gone, and when two hundred and fifty thousand brave spirits passed from the field of honor through that thin veil to the presence of God, and when at last its parting folds admitted the martyred President to the dead heroes of the Republic, the Nation stood so near the veil that the whispers of God were heard by the children of men." —JAMBS A. GARFIBW. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 21 E THE DEAD ON EXPANSION. XPANSION is in future the policy of our country, and only cowards fear and oppose it."—Buchanan. " It is of very dangerous tendency and doubtful con-sequences to enlarge the boundaries of this country. There must be some limit to the extent of our territory, if we would make our institutions permanent. I have always wished that the country should exhibit to the nations of the earth this example of a great, rich, powerful republic which is not possessed of the spirit of aggrandizement. It is an example, I think, due from us to the world in favor of the character of republican government." —Webster. " We are not seeking annexation of territory, certainly we do not desire it unless it should come by the volition of a people who might ask the priceless boon of a place under the flag of the Union. I feel sure that for a long time to come the people of the United States will be wisely content with our present area, and not launch upon any scheme of annexation."—Blaine. The editor of the School Gazette, after quoting the above, ex-plains that the utterances of Buchanan and Webster were made when the South sought to increase the territory of the Union, and that Blaine's statement is only ten years old. Her Dewey lips Hobsoned his, while like a Shaft'er glance, Schley-ly thrown with a Sampson's strength, pierced through his heart, Weyl'er true love was Miles away, suffering Cervera heart-pangs than this false woman could believe. "O'tis beyond me," said he," why I should Merritt this ?'.'—From the Lesbion Herald. " When you see a stately temple, Fair and beautiful and bright, With its lofty towers and turrets Glistening- in the sun's clear light, Think how soon the noble structure Would to shapeless ruin fall, Were it not for sure foundations Firmly laid beneath it all." —DR. C. H. PAYNB. II 22 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. THE OLD CHIEF AND THE BLACKSMITH. THE final day had come and the east was already bright with day. In golden splendor the pure sun mounted the hori-zon of a calm, cloudless sky. Its yellow rays lit up the green patches of corn and pasture in the most delicate colors and tiuted the distant mountains, stretched in majestic line far into the north, in soft purple. All was calm and peaceful. Silence seemed to rule the universe, as if it had hushed it for a great oc-casion. What an occasion it was ! Among those mountains the poor Indian was busy long before sunrise preparing with sorrow-ful mood a journey of the deepest woe and gloom. Yes, this was the day. The red man must change his home. Those hills so rich in fruit and grain were not his. The barren mountains had no place for him. He lived on the white man's ground. He hunted the white man's game. One last, lingering look on a happy home, the abode of his ancestors, his rightful inheritance, where once he enjoyed his wild day unmolested and drove his game over unclaimed land. He must go and the white man gives no farewell, no sign of sorrow, no clasp of the hand, save one, a hard laborer, an honest blacksmith. The early morning found his roughly-made work-shop at the foot of the mountains in full operation. Now the noisy anvil broke the deep silence and now the groaning bellows breathed loud and heavily, sending the black smoke far into the clear sky. Within and without in scattered heaps lay almost everything that a smith could make use of, and much more that he couldn't use at all. The workman stood by the side of the forge, his one hand bounding up and down with the handle of the bellows, the other poking at intervals the roaring flame with an iron rod. He was a large, broad-shouldered man, with slightly bended back, a re-sult of his much stooping. A thick gray beard swept his broad breast, which was partly exposed by an open shirt. His face was large and stout, of hard masculine expression, full of force and intelligence. A well proportioned head, broad, high forehead and prominent chin, showed a man of no low, trivial thought, but one of judgment and decision ; a man, who, if he would have a chance to develope his powers, might have been a genius, but by force of circumstances remained uneducated, possessing, however, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 23 a great amount of good common sense, which he made use of when the occasion demanded it. As he stood by his work his brow was tightly contracted and his eyes firmly fixed on the flame. He was thinking. What were his thoughts ? Let us believe that he was thinking of the Indian. He ofteu thought of him. He pitied him. He believed that the Indian deserved a home and that he could love a home with as much tenderness and fidelity as any one else ; that he had feelings and that he had a soul as immortal as his own. Such were the thoughts of this poor workman as he stood in his shop on the last day for the Indian in his Eastern home. Suddenly a man appeared before the door. The smith, somewhat taken by surprise in the midst of his thought, quickly turned and beheld before him a neighbor; a farmer who was generally known in the community as being of a sour, selfish disposition ; a man with whom the smith could never become wholly reconciled. He was one of those many persons whose only care and thought is to en-large his borders, heap up his wealth, drive his wife and children at the first peep of day from their warm beds into the fields, and at evening reckon a profit of five cents a good day's work. He had no thought for the Indian. He hated him and could scarcely wait until he would leave the country forever. The reason for this was a selfish one. He found out that the Indians had dis-covered a silver mine iu the mountains and were working it with immense success. "They couldn't take this along," he argued, ' 'so the first man to find it would be its owner.'' He knew that the blacksmith was in close friendship with the redskins, and more than likely would know more about its locality and value than any other person in the neighborhood. He therefore came at an early hour to the shop. The smith began the conversation. " Good morning, Henry. A beautiful day?" "Splendid," replied the farmer. "They can't complain of bad weather.'' " No, they can't," answered the smith, " and I don't believe the weather bothers them much. They have other things to com-plain about; a lost home, for instance." "And lost produce and grain," quickly returned Henry. " I'll warrant they will have to raise their own now." " Henry," answered the smith with earnest expression, look-ing his visitor fair in the face, " I don't believe they ever stole a 24 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. cent's worth from you. You have not treated the Indian right and he knows it, and before he would steal your crops in revenge behind your back, he would meet you face to face like a man." " Well, what I see with my own eyes I guess I can believe," replied the farmer in great haste. " But whether they stole it or not, how about the mine? They can't take it along." " No, they surely can't," said the smith, sorrowfully, " but I would to God they could. Some of our greedy neighbors, ex-cuse the word, Henry, you know it's the truth, some of our greedy neighbors can hardly wait until the Indian leaves to lay hold on that mine, the only means the poor creatures have of making a livelihood. They are friendless, homeless, without pity or sympathy, and worse than all, an unknown west before them. It's shameful. But, Henry, one thing I wish with all my heart, and that is that these mountains might bury the treasure deep in their bosoms before the merciless white man pollutes it with his unworthy hand." "Come, come, come," began the other. "You're on your old subject again. That isn't the point. Some one will get it and so why not try for a share ?" No sooner had the last word slipped from the lips of the farmer than both were startled by the clatter of hoofs over the little road-bridge by the side of the shop. Henry walked briskly to the door, saw the Indian, immediately returned, somewhat paler, however, and whispered to the smith, " It's the chief." The Indian entered, dressed in all the gaudy decorations of his rank. His black silk hair fell gracefully about his muscular shoulders. His face was broad and brown, painted in circular stripes of various colors. A pair of black eyes, tightly pinched, glanced sharply over his high, prominent cheek-bones. Although old, as the wrinkles in his forehead would indicate, he seemed as agile and quick of motion as a young warrior on his first hunt. Bending himself slightly forward he made a becoming salute with his right arm, and, with eyes tenderly fixed on the old smith, ad-dressed him. '' What I have to say will not be long. You know all. The red man must leave his native hills for the barren west. The day has come when he must bid adieu to his mountain home. He comes to give good-bye to a friend. The Indian leaves many enemies, but he comes to give the blacksmith a kind farewell. He envies not his little home, his small fields, his blacksmith THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 25 shop. May he live in peace. May prosperity gladden his ad-vancing years. Ah, no more shall he bend his back beneath the horse. No more shall he swing the sledge. The red man's friend shall be rich in fields, proud in wealth, honored among men. The treasures of mines shall make happy his children's homes. His grand-children shall live well, they shall be truly fortunate. The Indian's silver shall be theirs and it shall prosper in their hands." " Come," continued the chief, drawing a silken scarf from his waist, " come, friend, let me bind your eyes and I will lead you to a treasure such as man never beheld before. Come, it is yours." The old smith was astonished at the chief's offer. He stood mute and silent. Recovering himself he approached nearer to the Indian and with broken speech humbly addressed him. "I thank you heartily, chief, for your ofier, but I cannot accept it. I live happy. I work hard all day long and am satis-fied with my little home and family. What do I want with all that wealth ? Why do I deserve it ? I could not rest night or day by living off of the Indian's silver. No, chief, I refuse it. I thank you for the offer, but give or sell the mine to one who could work it with untroubled conscience." The chief was greatly troubled by the smith's refusal and was on the point of pressing his offer further, when Henry broke in, his face beaming from ear to ear as though he was sure it was his already. " I'll let you bind my eyes, venerable chief. I'll take it." The Indian, with angry countenance, drew back in amaze-ment and with scorn answered him. "Youtakeit! Ah, no, no, no, white man ! Rather let it rot with the ages than have it en-rich the hand of an enemy." Approaching the smith again he kindly entreated him to accept. "It's yours, take it. Come, let me Show you your wealth ?" " No, I can't accept it," inter-rupted the smith humbly. " It would bring worriment upon my gray hairs and strife among my children. No, I can't manage so large a treasure." The chief, now aware that it would be useless to urge him further, quickly stepped forward and said : " Then, if you will not take my silver, take my hand. The mine will remain where it is. Man cannot find it. It is the Indian's treasure and ever shall be." Then bowing low before the old man he withdrew to his horse, mounted and departed for the mountains. The farmer, j| 26 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. not feeling very well, quietly walked to the door and was gone without a word. It was some time before the blacksmith returned to his work and resumed his place at the forge. He thought the matter over and over and finally concluded that he had done the right thing. He worked hard that whole day till evening, when he locked the shop, walked silently home and told his wife and children the whole story. They all in the old quaint way agreed that father had done the best and so went to bed and slept. The next morning the smith arose bright and early, as usual, greatly refreshed from the anxiety of the previous day. After breakfast he started for his shop, which was not far distant, thinking not so much of the fortune which he had refused as Of the wandering Indians, who must have been by that time far on their journey. Arriving at the shop he unlocked the shabby door, entered it and taking a small iron shovel from the wall stepped to the forge and began to clear away the ashes to start a fire. After thrusting his shovel several times into the heap, he became greatly astonished at the smallness of the hole. It seemed to have grown much smaller during the night. Bending over the forge he began to scrape away the ashes with his rough hand. To his surprise he found that at the bottom of the open-ing stood a bright, round kettle filled with silver blocks about an inch square. With trembling hands he lifted the treasure from its hiding place and stood it on the anvil, noticing at the same time a small piece of paper sticking out over the rim of the vessel. Drawing this gently from the blocks he unfolded it and saw drawn in rough outline the figure of an Indian, under which was written the words, " To the Indian's friend." —W. H. H., '01. " "When you see a mig-hty forest, With its tall and stately trees, Lifting' up their giant branches; Wrestling with the wintry breeze; Do not fail to learn the lesson Which the moaning winds resound, Every oak was once an acorn, All unnoticed on the ground." —DR. C. H. PAYNE. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 27 WHY WE BROKE CAMP. TEIYL you a story? Well, if you have patience enough I'll tell you of an experience I had last summer vacation, while on a camping trip. You see, every summer vacation when I come home I spring it on the " old gent," that, after having worked so hard for nine months, my poor brain needs rest. Well, he takes it all in, and gives me a vacation of several weeks. Then the old gang gets together, and we go on a few weeks' loaf. Fun ? Well, I should say so. I^ast Summer, following our usual custom, we visited "Straw-berry Island," a beautiful little Island in the middle of the broad Susquehanna. Here there is but one small village of a few hun-dred population. The rest of the square mile of the island is heavily wooded, and affords an excellent place for campers. Usually there are anywhere from three to six parties camping on the island. But at the time we were there none of the others had yet arrived. Soon we were settled down, and were enjoying ourselves very much in hunting and fishing. One evening after we had been there about a week, I went to the village for our mail. When I got back, and distributed the letters to their respective owners, I took my own letters and drew apart a little to read them. The first one I opened was from my father. (You know my father is postmaster in the town in which I live, and, as it is a pretty large town, usually has large quantities of stamps, besides a good deal of money, on hand.) Well, to continue where I left off, the first letter was from my father, and the very first line conveyed to me the startling news that the post-office had been robbed the previous week of a considerable sum of money and about $400 worth of stamps. There was no clue to the robbers, and at present the officers were at a stand-still in their investigations. It is needless to tell you that I was surprised at the news. My first thought was to leave for home next day, but further in the letter father said I needn't let this spoil my fun, and that I should stay as long as I wished. So I decided to stay. The next afternoon I was appointed to run over the island in search of some stray chickens for our evening meal. I started about four o'clock, and leisurely made my way across the island. About a quarter-mile beyond the village I came upon a thick 28 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. clump of trees and undergrowth, situated about three hundred yards from a farmhouse. Thinking this would be a good place for the chickens, I cautiously made my way into the thickest part of the copse. Suddenly I was startled by hearing a gruff voice directly in front of me. I stopped at once, and soon heard another voice, raised in an altercation with the first speaker. He was cursing him roundly for a cheat and a rascal, saying that after having done the dirty work (I couldn't quite catch what), he wasn't going to take a cent less than half of the haul. I be-came interested in what was going on, and crept closer to the speakers, and saw two as villainous and rough looking toughs as ever I beheld. Between them they had a large bag of money, and beside the larger of them lay a peculiar oblong tin box, which somehow or other seemed very familiar to me. All at once it struck me that that was the stamp box which I had seen so often in my father's safe at home. Then it flashed upon me that these were the robbers who had so neatly eluded the officers of the law. My first impulse was to get back to camp at once, tell the other fellows about the robbery and my discovery, and then come and capture these fellows. But, on second thought, I saw it would be wiser to watch them, and find out where they took the booty. Soon the rascals came to an agreement, and decided that they would hide the " swag " until a convenient time should offer for them to dispose of it. They then picked up the bag and stamp box and made their way toward the other side of the island. It was now nearly dark, and I thought I could safely follow them. So I waited till they had gone, and then cautiously picked my way after them. After a half-hour's walk they came to a small tent pitched in a wooded hollow near the shore. They entered here, and I crept up close to catch every word concerning the disposal of the money and stamps. After a good deal of discussion they decided to bury it in the ground under the tent, and in order to do this I knew they would have to move the tent; so I quietly slipped away and hurried off as quickly as possible to our camp, and told the boys about the whole matter. They were eager to go at once, and even more so when I told them that the postoffice authorities had offered a re-ward of $500 for the capture of the robbers. Now, this meant $100 apiece for us, and we could do a good many things on $100. So we decided to go that very night. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 29 We had with us several revolvers and hunting-guns. Each fellow armed himself with one of these, and was soon ready to set out. We started about eleven o'clock, and reached the village a half-hour later. Here I stepped into a store, telephoned to the police at home that I had caught the thieves, and then proceeded. About twelve o'clock we were nearly at the robbers' camp, and I told my chums to take it easy so that we might take the men by surprise. Every fellow cocked his revolver and made ready for business. We crept silently up to the tent, and, peering in, saw two dark forms lying within, sound asleep. Then we entered, and order-ing two of the boys to cover each man, I proceeded to awake the larger and tougher of them. I succeeded pretty quickly, and soon had him securely bound, and then proceeded to do the same for his partner. We found all the booty buried in the earth under the tent, and then loosening our prisoners' legs, ordered them to march on ahead. We soon reached our camp, and binding the men again so that they could not get away, we took turns at guarding them during the night. We held them till the next evening, when my father came with two officers. We all set out for home, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing the malefactors in prison. In due time we received the reward. I saved mine, and father added a substan-tial sum to it. That's the reason I am flush this term. Come up town and have some oysters on me, the whole gang. — " APFI,EBEB." '■ Oh, wad some power the g-iftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us ! It wad frae monil a blunder free us And foolish notion, What airs in dress and g'ait wad lea' us And e'en devotion." -BURNS. i\ 30 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE. GRACE had been said. The preacher of the village, whose gray hairs had never been endangered by conjugal wrath, in short, who was a bachelor, had performed that solemn office, as was his wont, at the Lyn boarding-house. Around the table sat six. The preacher, by right of his sober mien and broadcloth, of course, occupied the first place of honor, that is, he sat at the end of the table next the door leading into the pantry, from which issued the appetizing sound of the sizzling, sputtering and splashing of the cooking, or the rattle and clatter of pots and pans, and occasionally, to vary the program, the bang of falling dishes invariably followed by a lecture on culinary economy and general management by the matron of the establish-ment, who at divers times and in divers manners, delivered these emphatic and lengthy dissertations to the cook, a buxom, grin-ning lass of perhaps sixteen summers, who bore several red marks on her face, testifying to the violence of gesture with which the lecturer was accustomed to drive home her rather striking argu-ments. Next to the preacher sat Mr. Eyn, who boasted the empty title of " Eord of the House "—a little, pinched, henpecked piece of crusty mortality, who spoke with a very emphatic "I intend" or " I will," but, as I observed, only when his wife was in the pan-try and the door closed. In her presence, or within range of her eye through the open pantry door, he seemed to sink about six inches in stature, and peep slyly out of the corners of his e3'es, like a cat expecting a sudden and unannounced visitation of boot-jacks and stove-pokers. Beside the hard-fated Mr. Lyn was situated, geographically speaking, a volcano of sentimental effusion, or, perhaps better, sat the village poet. He looked like a poet, at least to a stranger, having all the visible qualifications—long hair, a sentimental air, a canary-like whimper that sometimes sounded like the sigh of a zephyr, and a box of dyspepsia tablets sticking out of his vest pocket, which would most strongly confirm the theory suggested by the unbarbered hair. At the end of the table, opposite the snowy-templed " shep-herd in Israel," sat the school-mistress, another very important functionary in the village, enthroned in dignity and starch. She THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 31 always dressed in a rusty shade of brown satin, evidently to match her complexion, and had it so thoroughly starched that she could sit down only in one way, there being only one hinge in the dress. She was always " precise" and plain, never bedecked herself with flowers, perhaps because she couldn't starch them. Slight in figure, in her rusty armor she looked not altogether unlike a mud-wasp— a dignified mud-wasp. Her features denoted character, but as Pat said, who sat around the corner from her, they looked a little smoke-dried. Pat was a red-nosed Irishman, with a broad, open, jolly Irish face, always lit up with an expression of bantering humor, and partly covered with a thin, scattered crop of stubble. He was the man of all work about the establishment, and bossed about by the lady of the house, curtly snapped at by the next highest power, Mr. Lyn, divinely stared at by the volcano, furiously glared at by the mud-wasp, and reproached every now and then by the preacher for profanity, he bad a very wretched time of it, and often gave that as a reason for the redness of his nose. "Be-jabbers," he would say, " Oi must droon moi troubles;" but how he drowned his troubles by reddening his nose I never could imagine. Grace had been said, as I stated before, and Jane began to serve roast chicken, starting with the preacher. " Thank you, my girl," said his reverence in his blandest tone as she turned from him to the poet, who took a wing with a smile—a very poetic smile—and, holding it up on a fork that all could see it, in his softest canary notes began : " Oh for the wings of an angel, To fly to that heavenly shore, I would leave this land of sorrow, There in joy to dwell evermore." " Oh, how delectable !" exclaimed the ecstatic teacher. "What spontaneity and brilliancy of genius ! Surely, Mr. Bilious, you have been endowed with those peculiar qualities of intellect which combine with a deep and susceptible emotional nature to consti-tute those favored and favorite mortals, whose function in life and society is to add to the general happiness of humanity ; one of those who drink of Olympian fountains and feast on the ambrosial —the ambrosial—feast on the ambrosial—in short, Mr. Bilious, you are a poet." She always rattled out her comments in a man- 32 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. \ ner something like a hysterical alarm-clock, and stopped for the same reason, too—because she was run down. The flattered rhymer, in his confusion and gratitude, blushed a sort of 3^ellow green, and fumbled about in his inspired cranium for a suitable answer, when Pat relieved him. " Ay, Midam, a pooet's boorn a pooet; ye can't make 'im." Though "Madam" rarely condescended to notice any of Pat's remarks, she replied: "Mr. O'Brien, I fully appreciate the force and significance of that sententious and universal truth to which you have just given utterance. I find it true, in my ramblings through the variegated fields of imaginative literature, that a skill-ful master of the poetic art must—must possess certain natural endowments of mind and feeling. He may avail himselfof the most efficient intellectual discipline in the most advanced institutions of learning, established in either hemisphere, the Eastern or the Western, fortne impartation of knowledge and mental develop-ment, and yet, sir, may never gain admission into the temple of the Muses." " Yis, a pooit's loike an iditor. Ye moight fade a goat tin years on newspaipers, but shtill ye couldn't make an iditor av 'im." Very much to Pat's annoyance—for he felt unusually honored in being patronized by such an able representative of scholarship and high English—the poet, who felt that they were both allud-ing to him, chimed in : " If Nature on you doth bestow it, To reveal her charms, to be a poet, In school or out you're bound to show it, And all the world will some time know it." "Och, bedad," supplemented Pat, with a dubious smile of malicious humor, intending to punish Mr. Bilious for this obtru-sive sally, "Ye remoindmeso much of Samson in the Scriptures." The poet shook out his tresses of black, hanging in Miltonic waves over his shoulder, proud to have them compared to Sam-son's immortal looks of strength, but Pat. continued : " Ye both use th' same wippin, only ye make pooetry with it and he slew the inimies of Israel." Of course, we laughed; the preacher till he was as red as Pat's nose, I till my sides ached, and even the school-mistress smiled as loud as the constitutional gravity of her deportment would permit, the poet, all the while, turning alter- THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. 33 nately red, white and blue, and looking as though he had swal-lowed a smoothing-iron. Mr. Lyn alone did not smile—the pan-try door was open. The cook was seized with a fit of tittering that went nigh end-ing with her dropping the coffeepot, with which she had now reached the school-mistress, filling the cups as she went round the table. " O Miss Jane, do exercise more vigilant care lest you occa-sion some disastrous calamity. Just cogitate how seriously I might have been scalded by that liquid, in that state of violent ebullition, as you undoubtedly apprehend. Such inexcusable carelessness cannot, must not be tolerated, young lady." Jane, somewhat abashed, colored and would have attempted an apology, but the preacher, ever ready to rescue one in embar-rassment, interposed : " Nothing hurt, Jane; accidents will hap-pen everybody. I don't wish them to you," he added, with an air of cheerful gallantry, " but I like to see you blush up ; your cheeks look like peaches." " Yis, yer Riverence," added Pat, "and Oi am so fand of paiches," looking at the preacher and then at the cook. The teacher had, by far, too positive notions of propriety not to rebuke the facetious Patrick. " Undoubtedly, Mr. O'Brien, you have not had the advantages which the cultured usually de-nominate the ' privileges of high society,' those elements of good-breeding enjoyed in homes of education and refinement, or un-doubtedly you would not be guilty of the audacity, so boldly and improperly to allude to the female employee of the establishment in which you occupy the humble position of a menial. Mr. O'Brien, I certainly am surprised." Pat looked at me and winked, evidently not much discon-certed by the bombardment. •'You exhibit," she continued, angry because Pat did not wilt, " directly under and within the range of my ocular vision, such indecency towards me, one so manifestly your superior"— another wink. "Well, did I ever!" she ejaculated, closing her mouth with a snap like a pocketbook, looking daggers all the while at the unabashed Mr. O'Brien. "Did ye iver," rejoined the impregnable Patrick. "It's moire than Oi can till ye what ye iver did; yer auld enough to 34 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. have done imiything, judgin', as the poet says, 'by the silver min-gled mang th' gauld.' " '' Sir,'' sharply retorted the now thoroughly enraged pre-ceptress, "I do not propose—" " Nay, Midim," interrupted Pat., " Oi didn't ask ye to pro-pose, and there's no danger of innybody havin' ye innyhow, un-less p'rhaps yed propose in the dairk av th' moon." During this passage between the scholarly tongue of the out-raged pedagogue and the native wit of the mischievous Irishman none of us dared to laugh out, though we suffered severely with suppressed mirth, which, in my case, played a little game of earth-quake in my abdominal regions, made me drink two glasses of water in quick succession and spill half a cup of coffee over the table. Determined to beat a retreat with at least the honors of war, she turned from the Irishman, as if perfectly disgusted with his conduct, and addressed Jane, who was about to give her a^second cup of coffee. " No, thank you. If I should indulge in the sec-ond cup of this beverage, although I consider it exquisitely pal-atable and invigorating, when administered, or rather taken, in moderate quantities, my digestive organ would be greatly exag-gerated— I mean aggravated, and probably develop in the course of time sub-acute gastritis or some other modification of irritant poisoning. Indeed, I have entertained the greatest apprehension of"—just then the door bell rang, and I was called out. —A. N. ONYMOUS. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. C. H. SOLT MERCHANT TAILOR Masonic Bldg., GETTYSBURG Our collection of Woolens for the coming Fall and Winter season cannot be surpassed for variety, attractive designs and general completeness. The latest styles of fashionable novelties in the most approved shades. Staples of exceptional merit, value and wearing durability. Also altering, repairing, dyeing and scouring at moderate prices. .FOR UP-TO-DATE. Clothing, Hats, Shoes, And Men's Furnishing' Goods, go to. I. HALLEM'S MAMMOTH CLOTHING HOUSE, Chambersburg St., GETTYSBURG, PA. ESTABLISHED 1867 BY ALLEN WALTON. ALLEN K. WALTON, President and Treasurer. ROBT. J. WALTON, Superintendent. flammelstomn Broom Stone Gompany Quarrymen and Manufacturers of Building Stone, Sawed Flagging and Tile Waltonville, Dauphin Co., Pa. Contractors for all kinds of Cut Stone Work. Parties visiting the Quarries will leave cars at Brownstone Station on the P Telegraph and Express Address. BROWNSTONE, PA. : R. R. R. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Century ^^.0 Double-Feed Fountain Pen. ^^Poiated- GEO. EVELER, Agent for Gettysburg College PRICE LIST. .$2 SO . 2 50 No. 3. Chased 3 00 Hexag-on, Black or Mottled No. 3. Gold Mounted 4 00 Pearl Holder, Gold Mounted . 2 50 . S 00 THE CENTURY PEN CO. Askyour Stationer or our Agent to shozv them toyou WHITEWATER, WIS A good local agent-wanted in every school. ^mmwmmrmwmmwmwmwm^ Printing and Binding "We Print This Book THE MT. HOLLY STATIONERY AND PRINTING CO. does all classes of Printing' and Binding, and can furnish you any Book, Bill Head, Letter Head, Envelope, Card, Blank, or anything pertain-ing- to their business in just as good style and at less cost than you can obtain same elsewhere. They are located among the mountains but their work is metropolitan. You can be convinced of this if you give them the opportunity. Mt. Holly Stationery and Printing Co. K SPRINGS, PA. VL H. S. BENNER, .DEALER IN. Groceries, Notions, Queensware, Glassware, Etc., Tobacco and Cigars. Yl CHAMBERSBURG ST. WE RECOMMEND THESE BUSINESS MEN. Pitzer House, (Temperance) JNO. E. PITZER, Prop. Rates $1.00 to $1.25 per day. Battlefield a specialty. Dinner and ride to all points of interest,including the th ree days" fiffht, $1.25. No. 127 Main Street. MUMPER & BENDER Furniture Cabinet Making, Picture Frames Beds, Springs, Mattresses, Etc. Baltimore St., GETTYSBURG, PA. You will find a full line of Pure Drugs and Fine Sta- People's Drug Store Prescriptions a Specialty. .GO TO. fjotel (Gettysburg Barber Sfyop. Centre Square. B. M. SEFTON J. A. TAWNEY o. Is ready to furnish Clubs and Bread, Rolls, Etc. At short notice and reasonable rates. Washington & Midde Sts., Gettysburg. XWTT. TrJ. //dfe//>/l/d. C/)/Cd50. Sd/iftvnasco. London. PdnsJerf//?. Co/03ne. CALL ON F. Mark Bream, The Carlisle Street Grocer Who always has on hand a full line of Fine Groceries. .Photographer. No. 3 Main St., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. Our new effects in Portraiture are equal to photos made anywhere, and at any price PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. ^entpol Jfotel, ELIAS FISSEL, Prop. (Formerly of Globe Hotel) Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, Pa. Two doors from Court House. MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. Steam Heat, Electric Light and Call Bells all through the House. Closets and Bath Rooms on Every Floor. Sefton & Flem-ming's Livery is connected with this Hotel. Good Teams and Competent Guides for the Battlefield. Charges Moderate, Satisfaction Guaranteed. Rales $1.50 Per Day. R. A. WONDERS, Corner Cigar Parlors. A full line of Cigars, Tobacco, Pipes, Etc. Scott's Corner, Opp. Eagle Hotel. GETTYSBURG, PA. L Try My Choice Line of .' £ High-Grade Chocolates 3 L, at 40c per lb. Always fresh at ,\ C CHAS. H. McCLEARY "j C Carlisle St., Opposite W. M. R. R. ^ Also Foreign and Domestic Fruits '(' Always on Hand. JOHN M. MINNIQH, Confectionery, lee, -andIee Creams. Oysters Stewed and Fried. No. 17 BALTIMORE ST. BARBER SHOP®® CHARLES C. SEFTON, Proprietor. .Baltimore Street. The place for Students to go. Only First-class Tonsorial Work. LIVERY ATTACHED. ESTABLISHED 1876 PENROSE MYERS, Watchmaker and Jeweler Gettysburg Souvenir Spoons, Col-lege Souvenir Spoons. NO. 10 BALTIMOE ST., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. HARRY B.AR010R, Chambersburg: Street, Gettysburg:, Pa. Electrical .and Bicycle Supplies Repair Work of Every Description.

PEBRUARY, 1901 ooTheoo ettysbiir Mercury CONTENTS The Flight of the Birds 239 The Taking of a United States Census 240 Pan-American Sports 243 A College Romance 244 The Treatment of the Skeptic 246 A Glimpse of Byron 248 Giving 254 Exchanges 255 Editor's Desk 258 The Past Our Present Pilot 259 A Financier (Continued) 263 A Twilight Reverie 266 "Taps" 266 An Era of Progress 268 G'BURG C. LIB. pUPLICATE FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. For Fine. Printing go to Tk Jo Eo Wile ftkilm Staff CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Dealer In Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes and. Gents' Furnishing Goods Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. EDGAR S. MARTIN, ^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES Chambersburs St., Gettysburg Leadership IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S FURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony? The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: PALL AND WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : : STINE McPherson Block. No. II BALTIMORE STREET THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. The Literary Journal of Pennsylvania College. Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter% VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG. PA., FEBRUARY, 1901. No. 8. THE FLIGHT OF THE BIRDS. MARGARET (HIMES) SEEBACH. Not one by one on lonely wing, They seek afar a sunny clime, When winds a chill from ice-fields bring The sombre Autumn-time; But when the cold rain comes to beat On tattered nest and drooping feather, They rise in rushing flocks, to greet The South-land all together. Not one by one, as single souls, We seek thy sunshine, Land of Light, When o'er our love-lit sky uprolls The first black shade of flight. When Pain comes whispering, " Rise and go I I bring the heart's bleak winter weather," Our pilgrim souls clasp hands, and so We journey home together I 240 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE TAKING OF A UNITED STATES CENSUS. C. W. WEISER, '01. HPHE book-agent or peddler may meet with a door slammed in * his face, a couple of cross dogs let loose, or an angry and citrous tongue set wagging ; he may even meet with the toe of a boot, or some missile hurled violently at him—poor man ! But the enumerator who is discreet and courteous has none of these weapons of local warfare to fear. His way is paved by the an-nouncement in the local papers of his coming. All the cross dogs seem to be away on a visit, or else tied. The people greet you with, " I knew you'd be along ; I saw it in the paper.'' He, unlike the wretched book-agent, starts out knowing that he is going to succeed. He is not asking the people, in an indirect way, for dollars ; all he wants is their census. "Well, you hain't a going to get any of my senses," replied one woman. The census enumerator learns lessons and acquires experience which could be obtained in no other way. He comes in contact with all sorts and condition^ of men. Some of his experiences with these people are indelibly fixed in his memory. Many of them, indeed, are pleasant, and some of them ridiculously humor-ous ; while some of the scenes and tales of woe which incidentally come to his knowledge are pitiable in the extreme. It is our purpose to relate some of these experiences in the active service. In town the work was pleasant, and progressed rapidly, until I came to the manufacturing establishments, where it went slow. It was necessary to make a complete inventory of the books and property, which took much time. The proprietors, however, acted in a very courteous manner. In the country the work was more troublesome, owing to the distance between the different farms, and the rough roads I had to travel over. It was not an unusual occurrence to be seen pushing a wheel up a hilly road, which was almost too rough even for a buggy. The farmers were usually to be found in a back field at their corn. This meant a long tramp, and some-times several hours spent standing out under a scorching hot sun filling out the Agricultural report, for no one kept a book ac-count. But this was amply atoned for by a cordial invitation to a farmer's dinner. The required statistics were freely given, except in the case THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 2A\ of a few illiterate people, who thought that this was only a scheme for increasing taxation. I met one man only who was unreason-able. Him, no amount of explanation would satisfy, until fright-ened into answering by the presentation of my census badge. All in all, the farmers proved themselves to be a well read, intel-ligent, courteous and hospitable people. It was, however, among the poor classes in or along themoun-tain side where one met with the most varied experiences. We came in contact with poverty and illiteracy of the most flagrant kind. The lack of suitable food and clothing was most evident. Some of the narratives were heartrending. I rapped at the closed door of a little shack one June morning, and soon saw the hag-gard and disheveled head of a distracted woman peer through a sidewindow. Soon the bolts were drawn and the door was opened. After I had completed the Population Schedule, and asked for the cause of the death of her child, the poor mother answered in tones of despair that it had frozen to death in bed one cold mid-winter night. Perched in an agony of physical and mental torment, in a lit-tle black hovel, through whose single window peered the dim light, I found a murderess—an ex-penitentiary convict. The look of despair, and fear, and torment, mirgled with every sign of the wildest passion, were sufficient to make one shudder. After a long and lonesome journey on horseback, through the wildest and most picturesque mountains in the state, I arrived one mid-day on the top of a lofty mountain. Far below lay a deep, narrow vale, wooded with the verdant forest. On the op-posite side loomed up lofty crags and peaks, proud sentinels of a scene of native grandeur which few have ever beheld, and which brought tears of rapture to the eye. In all this grand and lonely fastness there were but four families, for two of which I had to make this long trip. They had never been to school. Had no-where to go to church. Creeping in among the bushes I came across some rude hovels, in which dwelt gnome-like creatures, who spoke a dialect scarcely to be understood. The chief object which showed of any com-munication with the outside world, which I saw in one hovel, was a tin cup filled with tobacco standing in the centre of a rough table. Of this both men and women smoked and chewed. I suppose it was their only consolation. When asked the date of 242 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY their birth, the one replied that she was born in "the corn husk-ing time," another in the " huckleberry season." When asked their age, they simply couldn't tell; they hadn't the faintest idea. At another house I rapped at the door. A woman answered, and after I had stated my business she simply turned her back and walked away. I followed her into the house, opened my portfolio, and began work. When I asked the date of her birth she studied awhile and finally drawled out, "Why—m—1749." (She was about thirty years of age.) Another woman said she was born in 1896. One old man replied, " My mommy hut mir net gesat" (His mother hadn't told him). No doubt you will ask whether the condition of these people of the mountains cannot be helped. It cannot, at least in this generation. It has been tried. Some of the children have been brought out to the town schools, and after years of hard toil and unceasing, patient effort 011 the part of the teacher, these chil-dren have gone back as ignorant as when they came. They could not spell d-o-g or c-a-t. When given warm clothing they could not be induced to wear much of it. Habits of thought and neat-ness could not be taught to them. When they spoke to each other it was in such guttural, and so rapid, that no one else could understand. And is it any wonder that these people have become so de-praved and mentally estranged ? Isolated from the world, amidst wild and lone surroundings, they have always lived in the same spot where their ancestors lived for two hundred years back. Under such conditions the natural condition would be for these people to drift back towards a wild and animal state. Thus, coming in contact with the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it will readily be seen what a wide range for the study of humanity the enumerator has. Much of the social and moral condition of our country cannot be conveyed by the great round numbers of a census report. It remains buried in the heart of the enumerator. 'Many a dream has vanished away, Many an ideal turned to clay ; Many a friendship proved untrue— Constant and lasting, Oh, how few !" THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 243 PAN-AMERICAN SPORTS. '"PHE President of the Pan-American Exposition recently appoint- *■ ed a Committee on Sports, as follows: Jesse C. Dann, Chairman, Dr. Chas. Cary, J. McC. Mitchell, John B. Olmsted, Chas. M. Ranson, Seward A. Simons, Wm. Burnet Wright, Jr. Soon after its appointment the committee invited the follow-ing named gentlemen to act as members of an Advisory Committee on Amateur Sports: Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, Walter Camp, C. C. Cuyler, C. S. Hyman (Canada), C. H. Sherrill, A. A. Stagg, Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Casper Whitney. The appointment of this Advisory Committee emphasizes the desire of the Committee to have all amateur competitions occupy the highest possible plane. The Stadium, with a seating capacity of 12,000, is beautiful in design and promises to be one of the most successful architect-ural creations of the Exposition. It will surround a quarter-mile track with ground area ample for the requirements of all the events proposed. As to the nature of the athletic events planned, it may be said that amateur sports of all kinds will be encouraged as representing the most desirable of athletic competitions, and the members of the Committee on Sports, being college graduates, particularly wish to make a special feature of college sports. In the manage-ment of inter-collegiate events, it is the desire of the Committee that the various college associations be invited to undertake as far as possible the arrangement of the necessary details connected therewith. Although amateur sports will comprise a large part of the program, it is proposed to have such a number of professional events as will allow visitors an opportunity to witness the athletic skill of the best professionals. The character of prizes that will be offered has not yet been definitely determined upon, but the assurance may be given that prizes will be awarded of value as lasting souvenirs of athletic success at the Exposition. It is proposed to arrange a number of college baseball and foot-ball games, and it is especially desired by the Committee that the Eastern Inter-Collegiate (I. A. A. A.) Track Meeting be held in Buffalo next year. An ideal program might be to hold in the Stadium the East-ern Inter-Collegiate Meeting, then the Western Inter-Collegiate 244 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Meeting; these to be followed by a Pan-American Meeting open to competitors in the two previous meetings and to representatives of other Inter-Collegiate Associations. Other Inter Collegiate events have been considered, such as La Crosse, Cross Country Running with start and finish in the Stadium, etc., etc. The Committee on Sports hope that the Exposition may have a full college representation. It is proposed to hold many other sports in the Stadium, the A. A. U. Championship, Lawn Tennis, La Crosse, Cycling, Association Football, Water Sports, Trap and Target Shooting, etc., etc. All communications should be sent to Jesse C. Dann, Chair-man; 433 Ellicott Square, Buffalo, N. Y. c*p A COLLEGE ROMANCE. '99. Thro' a painted window Soft the sunlight falls, With a rainbow beauty Lighting- up the halls— With a touch of glory, Gilding dim, old walls. Stately arching pillars Rise above the stair, On the carven columns Stone-cut faces rare; Here a laughing satyr, Tearful naiad there. Graven deep, long ages Each has filled its space, Keeping watch in silence O'er the classic place. Time has laid no finger On each cold, still face. Motionless in sunshine, And in shadow so, Heeding not unnumbered Feet that come and go. Oh, what fiue romances Must these statues know! THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 245 Could each sculptured image Open lips of stone, Tell to eager listening Secrets it hath known, Bits of lore and legend, Of the days long gone! Once a dark-eyed maiden Lingered near the stair, And a fair-haired Junior Stood beside her there, With one strong arm resting Strangely near her hair. Eyes of brown are meeting Eyes of tender blue, Hearts are closer beating— Lips are Hearing, too, How it came to happen Neither ever knew. Just a hurried pressure, One keen moment's bliss, But the face above them Saw the stolen kiss. When had graven image Looked on sight like this? Years have closed the lashes Over eyes of brown; One page in life's story Folds forever down. Thro' the classic hallway Others trail the gown. Tho' the silent statue May recall full well That romantic moment, Yet a magic spell Ouardeth still the secret— It can never tell! c*P Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 'Tis only noble to be good ; Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood. —TENNYSON. 246 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE TREATMENT OF THE SKEPTIC. J. B. BAKER, '01. TVTHAT the world is to-day, she owes to the skeptic. Before " he walked among men, the race was inert and drowsy and dull. No systems of thought were conceived, no rational explanations sought. It does appear sometimes, however, in going back to mythic lands and mythopceic days, that they must have been, indeed, an active state. The grotesqueness of their various colored myths is sometimes taken as a proof of mental keenness. The multiplicity of their beings, and the variety of their functions, connected as they are with almost every conceivable phenomenon of nature, is said to augur a deep measure of mental acumen on the part of the authors, as well as the people who believed in them and honored them. But they are not the product of a mature analysis ; only the fancies of a dreamy childhood. Their golden fables were nothing more than the gyrations of splendid color to the yawning child who is just rubbing the scales of sleep away from his eyes. They are the capricious imaginings of an awakening mind. In this setni-somiioleut condition the sons of men were long enwrapped, and cared little to abandon it. When Thales, Anaximines, Diogenes and others appeared with their various creeds and myth-dispelling dogmas, they dis-turbed the lethargy of their fellows, and incurred the hostility of many. Their names became the targets of false accusation, and their teachings were branded as dangerous. But the world of philosophy is not unique in its antagonism to the independent thinker. The realm of science is its kin. There was a time when scientific men believed the world to be fiat. Columbus said it was round, and instantly the tongues of ridicule were loosened on him. Yet upon his hypothesis rest the important calculations of to-day. There was a time when the sage men of the world held that "lightning was an almost infinitely fine combustible matter, that floats in the air and takes fire by sudden and mighty fermenta-tion; also, that it was a physical expression of God's wrath against the insects He had created." Benjamin Franklin was too practical a man for such idle spec-ulation, and showed them their folly by the flying of his kite. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 247 No sooner had he seized the bolts of Zeus, however, and shat-tered their theory to the good of mankind, than he was charged with an affront to the Almighty himself. Protecting houses against lightning was said to interfere with the prerogatives of Deity, and when, three years after the experi-ment, New England was shaken by an earthquake, a Boston divine contended, in a sermon preached on the subject, that light-ning rods, by gathering the electricity from the clouds and ac-cumulating it in the earth, were the causes of the upheaval. There was a time, even later than that, when the stage-coach was the fastest mode of transportation, when steam locomotion was unknown and little thought of. George Stephenson went to work to construct an engine, and this is what the Quarterly Re-view had to say: "What can be more palpably absurd and ridicu-lous than the prospect held out for locomotives traveling twice as fast as stage-coaches. We would as soon expect the people of Woolwich to suffer themselves to be fired off in one of Congreve's cannons as to trust themselves to the mercy of such a machine going at such a rate." Another authority of equal prominence said that " the poisoned air of the locomotives would kill the birds." Waile still another insisted that " there would be no further use for horses." Such examples might be added to an almost infinite number, but would only strengthen a truth already quite patent. There is yet another sphere of activity in which the skeptic, or man of thinking, figures prominently, and that is the world of religious thought. Nowhere does dissension touch such a vital point in man's destiny, and nowhere has it been punished with greater severity. The men of courage, who gave us the heritage of a pure gos-pel, were men who felt the hand of inquisitional torture. They were men whose flesh and bones were blistered and charred by the fagots of fire; men who were driven about like the master they followed, with nowhere to lay their heads. We honor them, and mention their names with oracular reverence. But we are judging them all from the vantage ground of tested history. What shall be our attitude toward the skeptic of to-day ? Con-servatism might advise us to shun him as we would shun a ser-pent. Radicalism might tell us to be fearless and read his works. We shall not presume to answer the question, but consider it wise 243 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY to resort to that sage old philosopher, who said, "Know thyself," and to a still higher authority, which says, "Know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Above all things, whether we believe him or not, whether he is right or wrong, it is due to us to respect him for his independent thought and candor. "Honor the honest man. Earth rears but few. Only at God's white forge are such souls wrought. Rare honest man. His mind perchance sees truth In different forms from thine, yet honor him. Perchance his vision thy dim sight transcends And what to thee appears sublime and sure As the eternal hills, to him is but A bubble in the air. Perchance when thou Hast found the crystal spring whereof he drinks Thou, too, wilt quaff, and own the light divine." A GLIMPSE OP BYRON. HTHE meteoric career of this celebrated, but ill-starred poet has * been a subject of study for all lovers of literature and its makers. Meteoric, both because of its brilliancy and short dura-tion. Byron's popularity, in his day, was greater than that of any of his contemporaries, but it was much briefer and more in-constant, and to-day the general verdict pronounced by the read-ing public and literary reviewers, is against him. To-day men praise the highland ruggedness and simplicity of Scott's poetry; its bold irregularity and indifference to minor imperfections, claiming all to be the highest attributes of genius; they speak with unchilled ardor of Wordsworth: his great and sympathetic heart; his tender but manly verse, always sincere, often profound and ever, the genuine utterances of a true priest of the spirit; Southey and Coleridge are both loved and lauded for their large-ness of vision and poetic truth; but Byron who was hailed as he rose over the horizon in the artlessness and inexperience of his youth, as a star of the first magnitude, as the brightest orb in the firmament, is now almost universally despised and deserted; an outlaw under the ban of moral reproach and literary censure, he stands friendless in the gloom of his solitary exile. That Byron was endowed with rare natural gifts, that his poetry bears the evi-dence of exceptional powers are denied by no impartial reviewers; THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 249 that his poems lack energy, emotional colouring, daring in in-vention and many of the less definable qualities of poetry cannot be rationally insisted upon; bat that his poetry is unfit for the hands and hearts of innocent and impressionable youth and that it revolts the moral sensibilities of the more mature in years and experience, as well as offends the literary taste of the cultured, are matters of fact, known to all students of English literature. This apparent paradoxical fact must be accounted for by the unfortunate accompaniments that attended and marred his genius. His powers were of the first order, but they were accompanied by a pessimistic and envenomed spirit, a haughty egotism—though this he endeavored to conceal,—and at last, what reversed his early successes, a growing affectation of contempt for public opinion or private regard. There was a mixture of literary and moral virtues with literary and moral vices in which the propor-tion of vice became predominant, and eventually prostituted his genius to the service of shame and folly in their most attractive and insidious forms. Censorship should not be unjust, not even unsympathetic towards this most to be pitied of poets. His works to be properly appreciated, and his unwholesome sentiment and thought to be viewed in a fair light, must be traced back to his sad life as their source of inspiration, and there though the works may justly be reprobated as unchaste and injurious,we cannot help, at least but partially exonorate their author, when we view the circumstances that gave them birth and determined their character. Born into the world with a tender but impetuous and some-what petulant nature, he was alternately visited with passionate caress and indiscriminate and vindictive disfavor by his mother, —caressed into self-will and pride, he was upbraided and scolded into ill-temper and defiance; his sensitive young nature was embittered; his strong propensity to love and crave it in return was here first disappointed and thwarted; here his spirit began to be discolored with that tinge of hatred and haughty contempt for human kind that disfigured his poetry and ruined his life. Leaving home with scarce a regret save that at the expiration of the school term he would have to return, he hoped to enter a more wholesome social atmosphere, to mingle among more active and congenial spirits, and there find that sympathy, trust and esteem for which his ardent young nature panted. His friendships, 250 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY as may be imagined, were few but fast, nearly always broken, if broken at all, through his own petulance upon the most trivial occasions, but generally soon renewed with ties of stronger affec-tion and mutual respect. Precocious emotional susceptibility exposed him at a very early age to the vexatious experience of unreasoning loves. The mistresses of hisyouthful passions uniformly repelled his advances, little knowing that they were crushing a heart that would bleed, not for a day, or a week, or a month, but for a lifetime; that they were rejecting a passion, which, exalted by a sanctified home-life, would have provided and enriched every endearment of wedded felicity; but spurned with indifference in its first ventures, would turn to the madness of despair. The haughty pride of his untamed spirit was insulted at every turn; his keen sensibility to neglect or offense kept his resent-ment, against somebody or other, at white heat the greater por-tion of his life, making him new enemies, and decimating fre-quently the ranks of his friends—those who generally endured his eccentricities, and enjoyed his confidence and esteem. His first effort in poetry was a juvenile performance, with meagre promise of his later fame in it, written at school and pub-lished when he left the University under the title, " Hours of Idleness." It was assailed at once by Francis Jeffreys, the most celebrated critic of his day, in the Edinburgh Review. The poem, prefaced with a disavowal of all poetical aspira-tions and a cleverly written appeal to the clemency of the critics was condemned without reserve, its faults exposed with relent-less accuracy, and, in general, treated with so much ridicule and contempt that Byron was aroused, the latent powers of sarcasm and irony that lay sleeping within him were awakened, and he seized the pen and wrote with the energy and inspiration of a demon, "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," venting indis-criminate calumnies upon all writers and critics of his day. This poem, though written in the rashness of youth, and in some re-spects inviting severe censure as " misplaced anger and indis-criminate acrimony," for the first time announced his real power. His skill in versification, the vigor of his thought, the terrible energy of his feelings, and brilliancy of sarcastic wit, proclaimed at once to England that no common man had risen, and prophe-cies were many and sanguine of his future fame. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 251 After having been rebuked by every journal, by critic and even friends for his unjust assault upon men of genius and merit, some of established reputation and venerated name, he became dissatisfied at home, and, conceiving his talents not duly appre-ciated, and himself slighted, he sailed from England and traveled throughout the continent, visiting Spain, France, Switzerland and Italy. During his tour he wrote the first two cantos of " Childe Harold." This poem, written in the verse of Spencer's " Fairie Queen," though often affectedly antiquated in style, and always darkened by skepticism and misanthropy, is energetic and manly in thought always, in spirit often, and his language is picturesque and expressive, conjuring from the world of fancy the weird but vivid and copious imagery that so uniformly characterizes all his poetry. This rhythmic tale is regarded as a poetical version of his own life, the central figure throughout the narrative no other than the haughty Byron himself, masquerading in an imperfect disguise. The spirit, the pictured career and dismal sentiments of the self-exiled hero, are all paralleled in Byron, though he strenuously denied their identity, alleging that Harold was wholly an inde-pendent creation, without an existing prototype, at least under his observation. The poet, however, in the fourth canto identi-fies himself with the gloomy pilgrim visiting earth's historic scenes, as if no longer caring to maintain his false character. All the poetry that followed was animated by the same spirit; characters were changed in name, but not in essence ; scenery was altered; the tale diversified by fresh incident; yet through it all stalked Harold's sombre ghost casting a shade of gloom and sadness over it, and breathing into it his philosophy of despair. Frequently Byron was bitter, but that in his attacks upon so-ciety, upon the virtues and excellencies of character, which most men admire and magnify, he was insincere, and did not give utterance to sentiments actually his own, only unsympathetic and misled readers dare assert. His poetry above any other of his age bears the stamp of its author's character, the seal of his spirit, though often gracefully concealed, and impresses the reader that whatever the scenes, whatever the characters, Byron is there and speaks from the innermost depths of his heart. "From the in-nermost depths of his heart," for in all his works the energy of his 252 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY spirit burns with a blazing heat and like a kindled furnace throws its wild glare upon the narrow scene it irradiates; little difference whether he wrote of angels or villains, of princes or beggars, the torch of his thought and feeling was lighted at the same flame. This sombre color and despairing energy of his genius, though admirable in the proper place and proportion, makes it impossible for him to sympathize with the ordinary and more generous feel-ings of humanity. He could not elevate the simple and obscure life, the pure love, the trials, the sorrows, the tradegy and comedy of those low in station and humble in fortune, into the realm of poetic beauty as Burns; Nature had denied him the tender respon siveness of heart to song of bird, ripple of brook, the sigh of wind, which it so richly bestowed upon Wordsworth. Byron was fasci-nated by rugged scenery, by nature in her violent moods but never loved her for herself, and though his poetry abounds with allusions to and descriptions of mountain and lake, ocean and forest, they serve but to suggest by analogy some mood of man—and that mood how monotonously the same ! What a sublime range of character, what inexhaustible re. sources of human feeling, what a wealth of poetic mystery, beauty and truth investing diversified nature and human life were left un-touched by his master pen. Had his energy of spirit not been perverted and confined to the narrow channels into which it was forced, had his harp been tuned to more numerous and pleasing chords, who can say that with his exuberance of imagination, ca-pacity for reflection and poetic insight and art, Byron would not have been the chief ornament of his day and generation, his mem-ory cherished with fondest admiration, and his poetry a more per-manent and vastly more desirable addition to our literature. Of this sad fact Byron was not ignorant and often took occasion in his verse to rebuke his impetuous and monotonous strain of feeling and ardently prayed for tranquillity of spirit and soberness of mind. Serene landscapes, peaceful waters, inspired longings "to forsake earth's troubled waters for a purer spring." "Clear placid Leman," he cries, "once I loved Torn ocean's roar but thy soft murmuring' Sounds sweet as if a sister's voice reproved." During the early stages of his literary career he resolves but in vain to tame his wild passions and to think and feel as other men: THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 253 "Yet must I think less wildly; I have thought Too long and darkly, till my brain became In its own eddy boiling- and o'erwrought A whirling gulf of phantasy and flame, And thus untaught in youth my heart to tame My springs of life were poisoned,—"Tis too late." The tragedy of a soul here seems to reach its catastrophe in the utterance of the concluding sentence: '' 'Tis too late !'' Byron here appears to stand on a commanding eminence and view with retrospective survey the irredeemable past, lamenting the errors of his way, but all "too late," and theu with sublime heroism to submit to the doom prepared for him, "to feed on bitter fruits without accusing Fate;'' to chide himself with the guilt of his own desolation: "The thorns which I have reaped are of the tree I planted—they have torn me and I bleed, I should have known what fruit Would spring from such a seed." His poetry thus is the musical wail of a proud yet broken spirit; a life with many shattered yet many vibrant strings; it is a feast of beauty attended by the unclean spirits of an unchaste mind, a song with the vigor and spirit of a march and the sadness and gloom of a dirge; the tuneful philosophy of a man who knew both too much and too little of himself and his fellow mortals, who in tempest and calm sailed life's pathless sea without chart or compass; a man with more than the usual powers of men, but destitute of their most common possession—character. "A wandering mass of shapeless fame, A pathless comet and a curse, The menace of the universe, Still rolling on with innate force Without a sphere, without a course." —TID BITS. Oh, many a shaft at random sent Finds mark the archer little meant; And many a word at random spoken May soothe or wound a heart that's broken. —SCOTT. 254 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY GIVING. When God brought forth the world we're told, He did it by decree, , Just spake the word, and chaos rolled Into consistency. But when the race of human-kind To sin became a slave, Not all the words in Perfect Mind Could ransom, so He gave. He gave his child, the anointed One, The best in Heaven above, That man might learn through His dear Son How God indeed is Love. And so must we, if we would be Found walking in His ways, Show to mankind that sympathy, That gives as well as prays. A word well said may often thrill, A happy song may cheer, But souls will ne'er be won, until Kind deeds with words appear. They are the vessels that contain The oil of healing grace, And they alone can free from pain The deep-scarred human race. Then let our eyes be e'er alert, Our neighbors' want to see, Our hands and feet grow more expert To bear them sympathy. For thus it is, each little chance Improved, becomes a gem, Whose lustre shall fore'er enhance Our heavenly diadem. —ERNIE. e$P Three poets in three distant ages born, Greece, Italy and England did adorn ; The first in loftiness of thought surpassed, The next in majesty, in both the last. The force of nature could no further go; To make a third she joined the former two. -DRYDEN. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY. Entertdat the Postojfice at Gettysburg as second-class matter. VOL. IX. GETTYSBURG, PA., FEBRUARY, 1901. ' No. 8 Editor-in- Chief, . A. VAN OR.MER, '01. Assistant Editors, W. H. HKTRICK, W. A. KOHLER. Business Manager, H. C. HOFFMAN. Alumni Editor, REV. F. D. GARLAND. Assistant Business Manager, WILLIAM C. NEY; Advisory Board, PROF. J. A. HIMES, LIT. D. PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. PROF. J. W. RICHARD. D. D. Published monthly by the students of Pennsylvania (Gettysburg) College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Ten Cents. Notice to discontinue sending- the MERCURY to any address must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EXCHANGES. [From the January TOUCHSTONE, Lafayette.] Our Contemporaries. I HAVE heard it said that we never have original thoughts; that even those which we consider original have been worked over in the minds of others who have gone before. It seems impossible, however, that two college men, apparently far sepa-rated, should have had thoughts so exactly similar, and above all, that they should have expressed them in language so similar, as have two men representing two of our prominent colleges. This is an age of psychological phenomenon, and the power ot one mind over another is unquestioned ; but, if the case under consideration comes under this head, there evidently remains a field of psychological research yet unfathomed. 2S6 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY We ask the aid of those interested in honest college literary work, in the solution of the following mystery : In the Nassau Literary Magazine for October, 1900, was printed the MacLeau prize oration, entitled "An Ideal of American His-tory." In the Gettysburg Mercury for November, 1900, appeared an oration, entitled " Abraham Lincoln." We quote from these two articles, and print them in parallel columns. AN IDEAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY. Thirty-five years have gone by and the Republic is stronger than ever. The battle smoke of the civil war has rolled away, and to-day when we look into the clear past, our first glance meets the colossal figure of Abraham Lincoln. He is an American mountain—when you view minutely and examine care-fully each particular crag or fea-ture, how homely he seems ! But stand back half a century, behold the entirety—do you not see an Al-mighty hand ? We say an Ameri-can mountain, for you cannot think of Lincoln as a Grecian or a Roman, he is not English and certainly not French—he is ours, the man be-longs to. us alone, while his fame is the world's. Our broad country can no more contain that, than the present race can compute its dura-tion. Ages are the units which shall measure its extent, and eter-nity shall not behold it9 comple-tion. Let us for a while then con-sider him who, under God's provi-dential hand, more than any other, preserved our liberties and main-tained for us our national govern-ment. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Thirty-five years have passed and the Republic is stronger than ever. The battle-smoke of civil war has rolled away, and as we louk into the clear past, our first glance meets the colossal figure of Abra-ham Lincoln. He seems a moun-tain— when you examine each par-ticular crag and feature, how home-ly he appears; but stand back half a century, behold theentirety—Do you not see the hand of God ! We wonder at him for his greatness, and we are proud of him that he is ours. We cannot imaging Lincoln as a Grecian or a Roman; he is not English and certainly not French —he belongs to us alone, but his fame is the world's. Our broad land can no more contain that than the present generation can esti-mate its duration; ages are the units which shall measure its ex-tent, and eternity shall not behold its completion. Let us for a while then consider him who, under God, more than any other, preserved our liberties and kept us as a peo-ple what we are. The Nassau Literary Magazine Princeton University Princeton, N. J., Jan. 29, 1901 Editor Gettysburg Mercury, « Dear Sir: You have probably noticed in the Lafayette Touchstone for January, 1901, in the department headed Our Contemporaries, that attention is called to two orations, one entitled "An Ideal of American History," which was published in this magazine in the THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 257 October number and another, entitled "Abraham Lincoln," which appeared in your magazine for November. The opening para-graphs of the two orations are printed in parallel columns and are so similar that it leaves no doubt in our mind that either one was copied from the other or else both were taken from a common source. If you will read what the Toiichstonc says you will prob-ably come to the same conclusion. Now this matter should be sifted to the bottom and it is to the interest of both magazines to see that it is done. I send you a copy of the Lit. which contains "An Ideal of American History" and request that you send us the November number of the Mercury. Will you also state who wrote the oration on "Abraham Lincoln," when it was delivered, and when probably written. Also the home residence of the man who wrote it. "An Ideal of American History" was delivered here last June and won the Junior McLean Oratorical prize of $ioo. I trust you will appreciate the seriousness of this for both of us, and help me to find out the truth of the matter. Awaiting an early reply, I am, sincerely RALPH P. SWOFFORD. The above are self-explanatory. It but remains for the MER-CURY to clear away the accumulated mist, thus vindicating Mr. Heilman and his alma mater as well as the MERCURY. For this purpose we find sufficient testimony in Mr. Heilman's Statement. "March 9, 1900, I delivered the oration at Collegeville before the Pennsylvania Inter-Collegiate Oratorical Union; March 10, joined Glee Club on trip at Carlisle; March 19, returned to Get-tysburg from Glee Club trip and found awaiting me a letter from Princeton, written by a '97 alumnus of the Harrisburg High- School, whose classmate I had been for about 9 mouths. The letter asked me to send a copy of my oration for a few hints and ideas, as the '97 alumnus was preparing an oration soon to be de-livered. Sent copy of oration to Princeton March 20th or 21st. Handed oration to Dr. Himes in competition for Geis Prize— third number. [The third production for the Geis prizes is due May 1st.—Ed.] Have not seen the manuscript since." The oration came into possession of the MERCURY from the Geis prize committee through Dr. Himes, before the close of 258 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY college in June. We published it in the November MERCURY, and the original manuscript is still in our possession. We hope the above is a satisfactory explanation—that it is not necessary to ramble through that "field of psychological research yet unfathomed." It is to be hoped, further, that this, as a warn-ing to college men, may prove beneficial. Gettysburg does not suffer from the "mix up;" indeed we may feel complimented that one of our men wrote the oration that won the MacLean prize of $ioo at Princeton University, knowing that it was not sent for the use made of it. Princeton, come out. Lafayette, give us due credit. S. A. VAN ORMER, Ed. MERCURY. EDITORS' DESK. Following the custom of former years, no January number of the MERCURY was issued. The question of special programs in our literary societies is be-ing discussed. That they have merit no one will doubt; but whether they should occur so frequently is, indeed, a question. The object of the societies is to train their members for the duties that shall rest upon them in years to come by assisting in and completing that harmonious development that shall send the col-lege student into the world well-rounded. Our discoveries in science have been made by men who worked in seclusion; our masterpieces in literature and in art have not been wrought before the gaze of cheering throngs; the men who have "moved the masses" in days agone have frequently talked to the ocean's waves and the forest's trees. Young men, that they may be successful, must cultivate the habit of working with-out artificial stimulus. As this is the last issue of the present staff, we desire to ex-press our appreciation of the hearty support we have received from those interested in THE MERCURY. We have at all times had sufficient material on hand. Whether or not we have selected wisely the material used, others must determine. We have tried THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 259 to maintain the standard formerly held by THE MERCURY among the college journals of the State. In conclusion, we remind the Professors, Students and Alumni of Pennsylvania College that the standard of her journals have much to do with her success ; and we bespeak for the new staff the same hearty support given us, that the literary journal of the institution may be worthy ot Pennsylvania College. THE PAST OUR PRESENT PILOT. CHAS. LEONARD, '01, Reddig Junior Oratorical Prize. ■CAR back through the dim, dim vistas of the ages, when chaos, ■*■ darkness and void had receded in obedience to the eternal fiats of the Omnipotent, to give place to cosmos, light, and cre-ation, there appeared in that creation a creature whose progress and destiny have been the objects of the concern of two worlds. The earth was man's birthday present. "Go forth and subdue it" was the divine commission, and the history of the race is the story of the warfare that has been going on ever since that com-mission has been received. As the nineteenth century gates swing on their hinges, soon to shut into the hoary past another century, we feel like one who is leaving the harbor to sail an untried sea; in whose vision friends throwing kisses of good-by, and waving handkerchiefs for a suc-cessful voyage, are fast fading from view, and from whose sight the well beloved shore is receding and has at last merged into the misty horizon overhanging the deep. In the stately ship of civilization we are about to launch on a trackless ocean. Farewell to the past—only its lessons are any longer ours. Welcome the future, in which we are to live and act! I^et our prayers be united that our majestic ship may clear all the dangerous rocks that lie just beneath the surface, any one of which may prove fatal to the progress of the "Ship of State." As we stand at the stern of the vessel, looking out upon the watery expanse stretching into eternity on either side of the wake, with our mind's eye we take a retrospective glance into the history of the past. We look into the realm of discovery and we note that the most important contribution of this realm to civilization has been the discovery of laws in the moral and the physical universe. 260 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Ages ago the minds of men craved to understand the laws of the heavenly bodies, and the skies did speak to the old Chaldean shepherds, but in an unknown language. They were transported by the rich melody of the spheres, but could not appreciate or understand the celestial anthem. Ptolemy listened and caught a few scattered words; Copernicus hearkened and caught the first full sentences: Kepler and Newton gave us the first translation of the rythmical language of the heavenly orbs. Thus we see the gradual development of the scientific spirit in the presence of which truth has always unveiled her face and made herself known, as she has come to answer the everlasting "Why?" of science. In philosophy the same development is strikingly real. Man in his eagerness to answer the two questions concerning himself of "Whence?" and "Whither?" at first indulged in speculations that seem to us to the last degree chimerical. Twenty-five centuries have made but comparatively few changes on the face of the material world. A Greek of the fifth century B. C. might still find his way without difficulty from town to town of his native Hellas, and recognize at a glance the scenes of his childhood days, but he would find the world of thought a new creation or rather the old so transformed as to be unrecognizable. We have emanated from the mist and fog which enveloped the old Pagan philosophers. We have transcended the highest thought of grand old Socrates. Thought can no longer be said to be "An infant crying in the night, An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry." In the sunlight of truth this infant of thought has grown to a great stature, though it has not yet attained the perfect symmetry of maturity. The discovery of laws has been just as important and extensive in the social and political world as in the realm of philosophy. Every century has been an improvement over the preceding. Nations have been born, grown up, and died, while history, the coroner of the fallen empires of the past, has declared at the autopsy, "The cause of death was the result of a departure from law, either undiscovered or disobeyed" and standing, a silent sentinel, in the ashes of their former glory, pointing her finger toward the future she says in prophetic voice to all surviving nations "Beware!"— THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 261 a word so full of meaning when uttered by such an authoritative voice. Are we heeding this long sounded warning? Shall we dare say that the past is meaningless? Shall we not profit by the wise instruction it has to give? The Mu

MAY, 1901 o oTheo o Qettysbur Mercury VOL. NO PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE GETTYSBURG,PA PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. Amos Eckert Dealer in Hats, Shirts, Ties, Um-brellas, Gloves, Satchels, Hose, Pocket Books,J-Trunks, J>J> Telescopes, Rubbers, Etc., Etc. AMOS ECKERT. PRICES ALWAYS RIGHT. TUB Llltta No. 1424 Arch Street, PHILADELPHIA, PA. Acknowledged Headquarters for Any-thing and Everything- in the way of Books for Churches, Families, Colleges and Schools, and Literature for Sunday Schools. PLEASE REMEMBER That by sending- your orders to us you help build up* and develop one of the church institutions, with pecuniary ad-vantage to yourself. Address HENRY S. BONER, Supt., No. 1424 Arch St. Phila. 50 YEARS' EXPERIENCE TRADE MARKS DESIGNS COPYRIGHTS &C. Anyone sending a sketch mid description mnv quickly ascertain our opinion free whether ah invention is probably pulentable. Communica-tions strictly confidential. Handbook on Patents sent free. Oldest apency for securing patents. Patents taken throuph Munn & Co. receive special notice, without charge, in the Scientific American, A handsomely illustrated weekly. Largest olr-culationof any scientific journal. Terms, $3 a year; four months, $1. Sold by all newsdealers. MUNN & Co.36lB">adwa>- New York Branch Office, 626 F St., Washington, D. C. J. I. MUMPER, PHOTOGRAPHER, 29 Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, Pa. Special attention paid to COLLEGE WOKE A fine collection of Battlefield Views always on hand. Mail orders receive prompt at-tention. C. A. Blocher's Jewelry Store, For Souvenir Spoons, Sword Pins, Etc. All kinds of Jewelry. Repairing a Specialty POST OFFICE CORNER CENTRE SQUARE THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY The Literary Journal of Pennsylvania College Entered at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter VOL. X GETTYSBURG, PA., MAY, 1901 No. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS The Social Qualities of Robert Burns as Manifested in His Poems, 70 The Cultivation of Patriotism, . 77 Superlatives, . 80 Perseverance, . 82 A Dutch Schoolmaster's Adventure, . . . . .84 Editorials, . 88 An Old Reader, . 90 Pictures, . 91 Spontaneity in Literature, . . . . . .93 In Nature's Realm, . 96 A Country Barn on a Rainy Day, . . - . 97 All Souls Day, . 98 Exchanges, . 100 Now the bright morning-star, day's harbinger, Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her The flowery May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose. Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire Mirth, and youth, and warm desire; Woods and groves are of thy dressing; Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing! Thus we salute thee with our early song, And welcome thee, and wish thee long. -Milton. Through wood, and stream, and field, and hill, and Ocean, A quickening life from the Earth's heart has burst As it has ever done, with change and motion, Prom the great morning of the world when first God dawned on Chaos; in its stream immersed The lamps of heaven flash with a softer light; All baser things pant with life's sacred thirst; Diffuse themselves; and spend in love's delight The beauty and the joy of their renewed might. -Shelley. 70 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY THE SOCIAL QUALITIES Of ROBERT BURNS AS MANIFESTED IN MIS POEMS D. C. BURNITE, '01 [Graeff Prize Essay] A CAREFUL comparison of the lives of poets, with their pro- ■*"*• auctions, discloses this fact, that almost universally there exists more or less inconsistency betiveen their true characters and the characters which their poems would lead us to believe they really possessed. In some cases the former belie the latter completely. In others, the works are in a large measure faithful transcripts of the men. Great uncertainty would attend an at-tempt to paint pictures of the natures of many poets were we to use as materials only the evidence drawn from their productions. Recurring bombast and affectation preclude any possibility of using their poems, with any great amount of reliability, as stand-ards by which to judge their real characters. Not so, however, with all poets. Here and there in the field of our inspection appears a bard, whose writings are a faithful reflection of his real nature. But before we can be sure that this is true of any poet, we must be certain that he is thoroughly sin-cere. So, before we can proceed to show that the qualities indi-cated in the poems of Burns are revelations of his actual personal characteristics, we must prove his sincerity. And we do this, not by a comparison of his verses with his biography, but by testi-mony drawn from the poems themselves, apart from all historical evidence. Men who talk much of themselves, as Burns does, are not gen-erally prone to admit their own shortcomings. But this poet, contrary to general practice, makes no attempt to present only the good side of his character. Frequently he gives us glimpses of his own weaknesses; not a shameless exhibition of guile, but always with expressions of sorrow and remorse. Never hidden, always open, he bares his whole heart, and shows himself as he is. He seems anxious to have us see him in a true light. How frankly and clearly he reveals his true self when he proposes "A Bard's Epitaph" for his own tomb. Read his condemnation of his own self: . THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 71 " Is there a man whose judgment clear, Can others teach the course to steer, Yet runs, himself, life's mad career, "Wild as the wave; Here pause—and thro' the starting tear Survey this grave. " The poor inhabitant below Was quick to learn and wise to know, And keenly felt the friendly glow, And softer flame; But thoughtless follies laid him low, And stain'd his name !" Can we read this and believe that Burns was not sincere ? But there are other evidences of his genuineness. Affectation and sincerity are incompatible. But, no matter how closely we scrutinize his lines, we find no indications of the former in Burns' works He must have been a lover of the truth, for he never descends to the expression of feigned emotions. His pictures are real; all are undoubtedly the products of his own experience. Of his hundreds of poems, with one or two exceptions, none are the offspring of imagination. All he presents he himself has seen and felt. We see no indications of anything assumed about his addresses "To a Mouse" and "To a Mountain Daisy." Neither is there anything false or overdrawn in his descriptions. Per-fectly natural himself, he presents things as they are. Nothing could be written with much more fidelity to life than his "Cotter's Saturday Night." Without his characteristic straightforward-ness such complete depiction of Scottish peasant life would have been impossible. All his poems manifest in the man a spirit of genuineness and deep sincerity. With this conviction, then, that Burns wrote exactly as he saw, thought, and felt, we can be certain that the social qualities which his poems suggest are identical with those he really pos-sessed. Our investigation, then, involves an answer to the question, What social qualities do Burns' poems make us think he pos-sessed ? With this answered, we then know, with some measure of accuracy, what Burns himself was socially—what it was that, in all probability, must have rendered him an ever-welcome guest both in the humble homes of the Scottish peasantry and in the mansions of the gentry. But in order that we may be competent judges as to what features in his social nature were attractive and 72 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY what were not, we must make allowance for the differences in time, place, and circumstances, and view the matter, not from oicr point of view, but from the standpoint of his Scottish contempo-raries. Only then can we avoid the danger of an over or an under estimation of the man's social constitution. We have already spoken of what we regard as the crowning social virtue of any man—sincerity. "L,et a man but speak forth with genuine earnestness the thought, the emotion, the actual condition of his own heart, and other men must and will give heed to him."* Burns, as we have stated, does this. We here have a certain quality which would of itself draw men to its possessor. A writer whose poetic works are imbued throughout with the truth must himself have been sincere. Burns must have attracted his fellows because of this one social quality, if for nothing else. The whole world loves a patriot. Even those of other nations than his own admire him; but especially his own countrymen. Burns' poems indicate the presence of patriotism in the heart of their author. Compare his stanzas with those of former Scottish bards, and what do we find ? The subjects of their themes are foreign, and they even scout their own native dialect. The poeti-cal works of Burns are the initial achievement of a new era in his nation's literature. He is the first to give out a body of dis-tinctively Scottish poetry. He saw no need to step beyond the borders of his own laud for things of which to sing. He writes of things, not English, or Irish, or Continental, but of things Scottish—thoroughly so, from his country's ' 'braes'' to her moun-tains, from her field-mice to her horses, from her beggars to her kings, from her daisies to her trees, from her " burns" to her rivers; all of his own "bonnie laud." Nor does he hesitate to take the initiative of using the language of his fireside; not, however, because he was unable to write in pure English. Some of his poems show that he could. But he prefers his native tongue, and seems to delight in the use of its quaint expressions. He appears proud of his dialect, and all he describes with it. In almost every poem there breathes the true spirit of patriotism, a quality which we believe helped to make his society desirable. What Scotchman could have avoided a feeling of attraction to the "loyal native" who wrote such things * ♦Carlyle. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 73 .'* ' j as "My Heart's in the Highlands" or "Scots wha hae wi' Wal-lace bled?" Another social characteristic is revealed in his verses; a trait indispensable to gaining the good-will of the Scottish peasantry. How generously he applies himself to the faithful interpretation of the thoughts, feelings and manners of that class amongst whom he was reared ! His poetry teems with this natural sympathy for the lowly inhabitant of the thatched cottage. His were the first Scottish poems to show it, and from it we can be sure that the man himself thoroughly loved the humble people of whom he writes. How nobly he exalts their simple lot in the words he puts into the mouth of Luath, "the ploughman's collie" in "The Twa Dogs." In the "Cotter's Saturday Night" he brings to the notice of the humble bread-winners, not the ills, but the blessings of their toilsome lives. He would make them proud of their station and their labor. He appears at all points to have been a thorough democrat, and evidently was in close touch with the lives of the poorest people. It is such qualities as these that hold men in social esteem, with thehighas well as the low. A highly sympathetic nature was a social trait which undoubtedly helped to make Burns popular. Cheerfulness is a prime essential to social success. A glance convinces us that the man who wrote these poems surely had this attribute. Such a one must have cheered the lives and bright-ened the very faces of those with whom he came in contact. At every turn we meet his genial poetic laughter. And this, too, in the same poems in which he tells of his own misfortunes. To be happy in adversity; what an enviable trait! And if he could shake off his coil of pitiful thought and recognize the good things in his own life, he surely would shed some beams of happiness on the lives of those about him. All his songs attest this quality. "When at his best, you seem to hear the whole song warbling through his spirit, naturally as a bird's."* Note it in this stanza: "Ye banks land braes o' bonnie Doon, How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair? How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae weary, fu' o' care?" A vein of humor makes its possessor welcome. "I,augh, and the world will laugh with you." Doubtless Burns' little world "Jeffrey. 74 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY enjoyed many a laugh with him. For some of his poems fairly bubble with humor. And the author of these must have exhibited a like trait when he spoke, as well as when he wrote. We realize this when we "Remember Tarn O'Shauter's Mare;" or read the following from "Death and Dr. Hornbook": "The Clachan yill had made me canty, I was nae fou, but just had plenty; I stacher'd whyles, but yet took tent ay To free the ditches; An' hillocks, stanes, an' bushes, kenn'd ay Frae ghaists and witches. "The rising- moon began to glow'r The distant Cumuock hills out owre; To count her horns wi' a' my pow'r, I set mysel'; But whether she had three or four, I could na tell." These and many other poems, manifest in Burns himself a spirit of jocularity which, we believe, heightened the attractive-ness of his nature wherever he went. That a man was a friend of "John Barleycorn" was no social defect in Burns' day. And he'seems, from his poems, to have been a participant in "those convivial enjoyments which were not only counted excusable by the temper of the time, but gloried in by all whose heads were strong enough to indulge in them without ruin."* In fact, as a "total, abstainer" Burns' social career would likely have been curtailed. It is perfectly natural, therefore, that he gives drink and drinking a very prominent place in his verses. And the fact that he does so leads us to conclude that he was a not infrequent participant in the then prevalent jolly tavern carouses. Many evidences in his poems manifest his inclination toward convivial enjoyments of a more healthy character. He seems to have had a fondness for other gatherings than those where the consumption of "usquebae" was the central feature. We refer to such social functions as he speaks of in his "Hallow E'en." He evinces perfect familiarity with the jolly practices of that mysterious night, as he describes the mirthful sports of the country "lads and lasses." In fact, his frequent description of J *Blackwood'6. Feb., 1872. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 75 such scenes convinces us that he must have been an important member of the peasant society of his locality. But we see evidences that he would also make a valuable ad-dition to a higher plane of society than that of his own country-side. The mere fact that he was able to produce such remarkable verses is enough to show that he was fitted to move on a higher level than that of the peasant class. We can treat only briefly of a few of the many manifest traits which, besides those already cited, would make him a social attraction in the hall as well as in the hut. It is hard to prove conclusively from his poems that Burns was a good conversationalist. But we think there are indications that warrant us in believing that he was. The ease with which we understand the thoughts he wishes to convey in his lines, i. e., his extreme simplicity, together with his vivacity of expression and his powers of vivid description, lead us to think that he was a good talker. Nor would such a writer be at a loss for topics for conversation. He seems perfectly familiar with the full details of an immense variety of topics. Burns undoubtedly was at perfect ease in conversation. A keen insight into human nature, as we see it in his verses, would enable him to throw himself quickly into close sympathy with new associates; an almost invaluable social quality. His oft-appearing spirit of independence would gain him respect. The thoughtful tenderness he exhibits, not only for his fellow-men, but for beasts and flowers, too, suggests a feature in his nature which would draw men to him. Thus we see in his poetry, char-acteristics which would make his company acceptable to those of high rank. Of Burns' actual social successes in a certain direction, we have positive evidence. The great majority of his poems are con-cerning women with whom he has been in love, or at least ad-mired greatly. And we can easily see that, if not as a lover, at least as an admirer, he was accepted in .some cases. At any rate, we can judge from these poems that he had sufficient attractions to make him acceptable among the lasses of his native land. This gives us a clue, though an uncertain one, to his personal appear-ance and manners. To have been admired by so many women, he must have been to some degree attractive in looks and move-ments. 76 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURi Thus far we have considered only those things in Burns for which he was undoubtedly admired. But he shows traits that we cannot believe were acceptable to all of his contemporaries, for he refers in different passages to the fact that he had enemies. Certainly there were some who did not admire all he did; but just as we are limited in giving all his good qualities, by the fact that he does not make manifest in his poems all the traits he really pos-sessed, so are we limited, but to a greater degree, in observing all his bad qualities; for though he constantly confesses that he had monstrous faults, he has not specified what the particular immor-alities were that he committed, and we cannot know all these without referring to his biography. However, he does exhibit definitely some traits which, we believe, would be hindrances to his free movement among all classes of society. Profanity may have been attractive to his tavern associates, but must have been a shock to the strict piety which we know prevailed in his community. Reference to "Holy Willie's Prayer" manifests a spirit approaching blasphemy, an indication that the poet himself was probably not averse to the use of strong expressions by word of mouth, as well as pen. As a sincere man, Burns was a hater of hypocrisy, upon which subject he wrote several poems. But this feeling leads him into a fault. The satires he has written against hypocrites are too bitter to be commended. Were we to see only those works, we would have little desire to meet their writer. The acrimony of his invective seems unreasonable and repulsive, rather than at-tractive. We have mentioned Burns' drinking habits; but though we have no direct testimony in his poems that he himself was over indulgent, yet some of the scenes he depicts make clear that he must have been present at them, or he could not have described them so well. He at least practically confesses that he frequented places and associated with persons of low repute. Whether it is likely that he indulged in the orgies he describes, the reader can judge from the evidence. Such tendencies as these thus indi-cated certainly did not at that time constitute admirable social qualities. That Burns was positively vulgar, we must admit. A look into certain of his poems, which we do not deem fit to make more public by quoting them here, will convince us of this. It is seen, THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 77 for instance, in certain lines of ' 'The Kirk's Alarm.'' A betrayal of such lack of decency, in the eyes of some, would seriously affect his social character. Though to many persons the absence of Christian qualities in a man would be no social objection, yet we must be of the opinion that Burns' great lack in this regard would form a barrier to his entrance into close acquaintance with many persons at his time. We are sorry to admit that such a genius, in all his works, shows no spirit of true devotion to his Creator and His Son. Probably a closer inspection of Burns' lines would manifest more qualities wherein he would be attractive or not; but we think we have drawn from his poems enough of both kinds to indicate whether or not he deserved to be popular. It is our decision that his good far outweigh his bad social qualities. We believe that were Burns' biography to be forever lost, with noth-ing but his poems for grounds from which to reason, the world today, were he to come back again, would greet him—just as Scotland would have done immediately after his death—with open arms. And we would welcome him, if for nothing else, because of his social qualities as manifested in his poems. THE CULTIVATION OP PATRIOTISM FRANK LBNKER, '03 HPO have a thorough understanding of the subject one must ^ necessarily have a full and true conception of the meaning of the word patriotism. Patriotism is—" L,ove and devotion to one's country, the spirit that originating in love of country prompts to obedience to its laws, to the support and defense of its exist-ence, rights and institutions and to the promotion of its welfare." From the definition of the word it is readily seen that without patriotism no good government can exist and by as much as the people of a nation are patriotic or unpatriotic, by so much that nation will be either pre-eminent or debased in the galaxy of nations. Patriotism is of different kinds. It is patriotism that leads a man to shoulder his musket and amid storms of applause and the entrancing strains of his national air to dare to fight for his country's honor. It is still greater patriotism that enables him to endure 78 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY the privations and hardships of a severe campaign and which enables him, when some very daring service is required, willingly to lay down his life. It is patriotism that a man displays when for a season he leaves the pleasures of his home, neglects his business and exposes himself to the censure of those opposed to him, to become a voice of the people in the nation's council. But only the true statesman, the man who stands for right and principle against personal interests, displays this patriotism. Then, too, anyone may be a true patriot. He need not be a soldier, he need not be a statesman, but one thing Me must be—a man—a man true and firm, a man of high principle and lofty sent-iments and above all he must dare to stand by the right. If each one should place his country's welfare above his struggle for per-sonal gain and aggrandizement, what a powerful nation such men would constitute. It is acknowledged that there is no power equal to the mother's in shaping the characters and disposition of the young. If the solemn duties and obligations of motherhood could but be more strongly intrenched in the minds of those who have assumed the positions of wives and mothers, patriotism would surely become a more self-sacrificing and deep-seated kind. Mothers should endeavor to bring their children up to maturity even-minded and devoted to their country and to their God. Early in life children should be taught to reverence the starry ensign—the symbol of their freedom, to respect the nation's laws —safeguards of their liberty, and above all to know our history. Let them know how the nation was established on a foundation of right, cemented with the blood of some of the noblest men who ever lived. Let them know how, when the nation was in its in-fancy, our statesmen studied and planned so that laws tending only to progress might be promulgated. Let them know how gallantly our warriors punished England's insult to that banner, which so long as the true American spirit prevails will tell of the freedom of our nation and assure every American citizen protec-tion abroad or a speedy vengeance if molested. It should not be forgotten to tell them of the Civil War which for a time threatened to disrupt the Union. Tell them how the North was arrayed against the South and how bravely brother engaged brother to the death. But most emphatically tell them that each fought for principle. They fought not concerning petty THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 79 matters but rather concerning deep-rooted belief that each was right. Then review how at first there seemed to be bitter feeling, then gradually take them through the intervening space of time and at last show them how gloriously a united, a thoroughly . united and closely associated baud of men, representing the North, South, East and West, defeated the cruel Spaniards on San Juan hill. Our young should also be led to hate the greatest curse of the nation, they should be taught to abhor the greatest enemy of true manhood and upright living—the moral-debasing and character-weakening rum. Can a drunkard be a true patriot? No, most decidedly not. For how can a man who weakens himself morally, physically and mentally by using the vile stuff offer his ablest and best services to his country either as a statesman, a soldier, or as an exemplary private citizen. Double-dealing, rottenness and corporation influence in politics is another great evil and the one which probably above all others might possibly cause the downfall of these United States. Oh, would that some of our statesmen were more honorable men, would that they were more stalwart warriors in the defense of right and more zealous to forward measures drawn up for the public good rather than for personal gain and advantage ! L,et those, in whose power it is to elect the law-makers, cast their ballots for none but honest men. Then, with an honorable man guiding the ship of state, and none but honorable men on the crew, how can it be otherwise than that a more patriotic spirit would be displayed in the next generation. We turn our sad, reluctant gaze Upon the path of duty; Its barren, unwilling' ways Are void of bloom and beauty. Yet in that road, though dark and cold, It seems as we begin it As we press on—I/O ! we behold- There's Heaven in it. —Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 80 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY SUPERLATIVES J. B. BAKER,'01 WHEN, in accusing Peter of affiliation with Jesus of Nazareth, the morbid scions of Jewish authority, said "Thy speech bewrayeth thee," they described a condition of more than local interest. The sentiment their charge embodied has outlived the perverted Sanhedrin. It prevails to-day and applies to us. We are the heirs of a rich language; londled were we in the lap of opulence and children of fortune are prone to squander. Our language, being as it is a composite one, necessarily, by the survival of the fittest, contains the accumulated grace and vigor of its varied progeny. Its verbs express accurately every shade of human thought, even to the antipodal range of a Shakespeare. Its nouns are like the notes of a pianoforte, so varied is their tone. Its adjectives, in their several degrees embellish even that which already is sublime. They are the grace notes in the vernacular strains and of all things the most difficultly used. The proper adaptation of an adjective, even in the positive de-gree, to its corresponding noun is of itself a task of no mean im-port; the comparative requires more skill, while the superlative, like a run of extras on a key board, is accomplished gracefully, only by a practiced man. And yet how prone we are to use them. With what readiness we carry every thing to a ne plus ultra. Why is it thus? Wherein lies the cause ? Emerson has probably answered it, in his essay on history, without intending directly to do so. After a short disser-tation on the various nations that have come and gone over the highway of time, he says, "But I will make no more account of them. I believe in Eternity, I can find Greece, Palestine, Italy, Spain, the islands, the genius and creative principle ofeach andall eras in my own mind." The much-travelled man does not call each high hill a cloud-piercing peak, nor does he speak of every landscape as nature's last attempt. Those are the foibles of childhood. The evolutions of such whose peregrinations have not as yet translated them be-yond their native shire. Precisely the same is true in the world of thought. The cos-mical mind uses few superlatives. The farther out it pushes into unknown tracts, the more it discovers of hitherto unrevealed re-ality, the closer appears its affinity with it, and with that increasing THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 81 identity there comes an increasing frugality of terms. He who has thoroughly established his identity with all reality could not possibly predicate a superlative of any thing without paying his own self an indirect compliment, and this, if report be true, is of all things the most odious to men of a larger growth. So much' so at least that they will use them stintingly, save only as applied to Divinity. As proof of this we need but resort to the sayings and writings of such great men. The genial paternal Emerson is judiciously sparing even in the use of his comparatives and yet there \s an ex-hilarating loftiness in all his thoughts. The many sided Ruskin speaks most frequently in simple, homely, childlike terms, and yet Carlyle compared his words to copious lightning bolts pour-ing incessantly into the black words of anarchy about him. Tolstoi, whose boldness has incurred the hostility of the Russian royalty, seldom calls things by their hardest names, yet his pen is a very scramasax in the side of monarchial iniquity. Nor is this abstemiousness from any thing that smacks of hy-perbole a characteristic only of him who sits down quietly at his desk and writes in his pacific words. It is characteristic of great men everywhere. Even in the forum, tempest-tossed and raging. The men who kindled and maintained the fires of patriotism through seven years of blood strife were men whose speech was as plain as their garb. A few months training in a country school and a six weeks course in law would not be likely to embellish much the speech of any one. But "give me liberty or give me death" had a potency that added superlatives could not augment. Daniel Webster, in that paragon of American philippics, his reply to Senator Hayne, is deadliest when he is plainest. His unadorned arrows are the swiftest. Lincoln, the great, in his speech on these hallowed grounds, gives us not only a model in structure well worth study, but manifests a chastity in terms seldom seen. Not once, in referring to the war in which we were then engaged, does he use an extravagant term such as thousands of others might with apparent justification have employed, and yet there is an Alpine sublimity pervading it all. So we might continue our citation almost indefinitely, pushing our observations out even beyond the confines ofour native tongue; including all ages past and present, all lands and climes, and find the great men every where corroborating the truth. The greater 82 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY the man, the smaller will things appear, and with the diminution of things will come a corresponding frugality of terms; deducting from this the converse and we have in very truth the modern ap-plication of those ancient words, "Thy speech bewrayeth thee." PERSEVERANCE EMORY D. BREAM, '02 T^HE old saying, " A rolling stone gathers no moss," has been * illustrated so often, and in so many ways, that when we see a young man going from one thing to another, not following one pursuit long enough to overcome its difficulties, we at once con-clude that he will never amount to much. The youth who comes to college with the intention of being a doctor, a lawyer, or having in view some other profession, and when he encounters difficulties in Greek, mathematics and other hard studies, has not the conquering spirit to master them, shows to a marked degree the lack of persistency. Or if, during his college course, he is swayed from his purpose, and decides to take a special course because he has failed in some department, or there is in the regular course a laborious, abstract subject which he dislikes, and which he has not the courage to attempt, it is evi-dent that he will never be well prepared to face the more difficult problems of life. Hence, instead of steering to a position of trust and honor, he will drift down the stream along with thousands of aimless beings like himself. On the other hand, the young man who chooses a worthy and honorable calling because he knows it is right and noble to do so; because he knows that to attain the desired end he will have to work long and hard; if such a young man will do with his might what his hand findeth to do, and, like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster or Abraham Lincoln, overcome every obstacle that comes in his way, each victory won will strengthen and encourage him for something higher. With such persistency he is bound to make life a success. The boy who enters life as a clerk, and looks forward to the time when he will be a prominent business man, lending a help-ing hand to the needy, using his influence in every good cause or having some other worthy aim, and takes for his motto this I THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 83 proverb of Solomon, "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings;" the boy who enters a blacksmith shop, determined to hammer out, as it were, link by link the very chain by which he is to be raised to honor and usefulness; if such boys keep in mind the life of Iceland Stanford or P. D. Armour or Clem. Studebaker, never dreaming of failure, future genera-tions will not fail to call them blessed. The drummer-boy who says to himself, '' I shall not always beat the drum. I will rise just as high as my talents or the neces-sities of war will permit;" the youthful soldier behind the gun, who performs faithfully every duty, no matter how small it may be; if within his breast burns the spirit of patriotism ; if he feel that faithful work insures success, and that success means that a man must make the best possible use of his God-given talents for the benefit of his fellow-men; if he never allow himself to be deceived nor turned from the path of martial glory by spending his time, strength and money in the regimental saloon; if such drummer-boys and soldiers take as their ideal Paul Jones or An-drew Jackson or Ulysses Grant, their names will be recorded on the pages of history. To-day there is a greater need than ever for able men in the pulpit; for h°nest cashiers in our banks; for upright and noble statesmen, who do not enter politics for money or the gratifying of selfish desires; for truly patriotic generals and admirals, like him who was called "Father of His Country," and who will not, after the war is over, fill the columns of our newspapers with abominable wrangling as to who won certain battles, Santiago for instance, or who will be promoted-and who will not. We shall be needed. Our future depends upon the present. To make the best use of our present opportunities, we must per-severe. "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving' thine out grown shell by life's unresting sea." —The Chambered Nautilus. 84 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY A DUTCH SCHOOLMASTER'S ADVENTURE A. 0. WOLF, '04' SOME eighty years ago, in the vicinity of the little village of Gettysburg, there lived two celebrated characters. One a long, lank, ungraceful Dutch schoolmaster by the name of Joseph Sleutsenslizer, who wielded the birch in a most prolific manner and who was noted for his arrant cowardice and marked suscepti-bility to feminine influences; the other, Mike Miller by name, a type of Herculean manhood, famed for his ability to break the most vicious horse, and for a diposition to indulge in all the pranks and roguish proceedings-of the most recklessly disposed element of the mischievous young men among whom he lived. It so happened that these worthies were rival suitors for the hand of the village belle. Their antagonism had attained to such proportions that our friend Joseph had felt himself constrained to exert his influence to prevent his rival from receiving an invita-tion to a ball which was to be held at a neighbor's home some distance south of the village. For thus, the schoolmaster argued to himself, he would be able to anticipate the advances of his rival and to monopolize the society of the fair one in question. His plans had worked well. The revelry was over. The tracing and retracing of the woof and weft of the dizzy dance by the light of the roaring logs had ended. The dingy rafters had ceased to ring with peals of girlish laughter and strains of the violin. The swish, swish of fantastic feet was no longer heard. Echo from her rocky cavern stepped forth perplexed at the sudden transformation. A scamper for wraps, a change from almost tropic heat to the crisp atmosphere of a November night, and the terpsichorean revelers bid adieu to their host and the dancing. As they trudge homeward beneath the brilliant emblazonry of a star-lit sky, oceans of midnight air poured over the mountains into the forest-covered valley making its branches groan with forebodings of the coming storm. The maidens became startled at the demoniacal laughter of some melancholy night-bird only to give the attentive swains an opportunity for reassuring them. Jest is passed from couple to couple, and their hilarious spirits find vent in snatches of song and in pertinent thrusts of wit. At the fork of the road they separate with a hasty "good night" and a counter ejaculation of unthought-of-until-the-last-moment inter-rogations hurled at each receding party. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 85 Joseph was now reaping the fruit of his well laid scheme, as, with the fairest of the fair maids in the little village on his arm, he turned to the right on the road that leads past Devil's Den. His heart beat wildly for it was rarely that he had the opportunity of enjoying the society of the beautiful but somewhat reticent maid. In fact, the society of others seemed preferable to his own. This made him gloat over his good fortune as an ogre would gloat over his cannibal repast. The infatuated schoolmaster failed to conceive himself anything but a brilliant courtier in at-tendance on the object of his affection. Moreover, his bigotry would not permit him to offer his awkward, uncouth appearance and decidedly rustic air in striking contrast to the trim figure of his companion, as a possible explanation of her reticence and her disposition to indulge in a peculiar sort of suppressed laughter. Suddenly she became communicative and deftly turned the drift of their conversation on ghosts, hobgoblins and other super-stitious fancies so dear to the heart of the early Dutch settler. Oh, what's that ! she cried, clasping his arm in terror. His heart stood still. But just then a passing breeze rustled the dead leaves on a bush by the roadside which she had mistaken for the crouching figure of some wanderer from Spiritland. After this his aroused imagination saw ghosts innumerable; headless hobgoblins and winged fairies. Even the murky air seemed teeming with imaginary hosts. The drift of his com-panion's conversation by no means tended to allay his trepida-tion. In a fearful whisper she told him of a time when her father passed along that very road after nightfall, and how a horned creature with gleaming eyes and nostrils that breathed forth sheets of flame snatched him up and was bearing him away. It became frightened at the wild cry of a panther, dropped him half dead and galloped into a cavern in the adjacent hillside. Again, she related the story of the adventure of a certain deacon which happened at the rocks which they were then Hear-ing. The deacon was going home from a visit to a sick neighbor and on passing the rocks he heard an unearthly crash and felt the rock on which he stood heave under him. Thunder pealed. The sky was kindled by a lurid blaze. The ground was on flame, and fiery torrents came down in tumultuous avalanches. The rocks melted and the valley assumed the aspect of a basin of glowing ore. He bounded with the speed of the wind through the raging 86 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY conflagration. The sulphurous molten tide pursued him, spouting white columns of vapor and sheets of vitreous lava. As he ran, it gained speed on him; when he bounded, the spot Irom which he sprang was on fire before he alighted on the ground. At length he sank exhausted, but the indefatigable lava rolled on like armies rushing to battle. Suddenly the earth quaked and a fissure appeared, out of which leaped a compan}' of devils as if shot from a subterranean catapult. The foremost, whose stature was as that of a tree, advanced and with a claw-like hand had picked him up and was about to hurl him into the bottomless pit. The deacon recollecting himself cried, "Get thee behind me, Satan,'1 which so enraged his captor that, with a horrible roar, he hurled him through the air with such force that he continued his aerial course until he lauded on his own door step. Joseph was now fully aware of his danger. His natural cow-ardice prompted him to cast his eyes in every nook and cranny of that mass of rocks which now bears such a sinister name, and from which he firmly expected to see the beginning of a sponta-neous combustion which would overwhelm him. Nor had he long to wait. Just as they came opposite the rock a blood-curd-ling yell resounded which would have put to shame a vociferous Comanche brave. By a sudden contraction and relaxation of his muscles, Joseph was elevated some three or four feet in the air. He turned to look for his companion, but she was fleeing with the speed of a whirlwind and giving vent to that series of ex-quisitely rendered screeches, in which startled women delight to indulge. Another whoop from the rock, accompanied by the rattle of chains and clank of iron, and Joseph's knees began to strike each other in a remarkable manner. He looked up, and there on the summit of the rock stood his Satanic Majesty plainly outlined against the stony vault. To the excited beholder he seemed panoplied in all the regal habiliments of a prince of the nether world. His hoofs and horns gleamed in the starlight, and from his eyes scintillated the fiery sparks of his wrath. The poor pedagogue was in a serious predicament. His limbs moved convulsively. His hair rose and with it his hat, allowing the cool breeze to fan his throbbing forehead. His heart palpitated wildly. His breath came in short quick gasps. Hoping that he was in some horrible nightmare, and that his visitor would soon vanish, he looked up. His majesty was de- I THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 87 liberately stepping to the edge of the rock where he tore a tree from its roots, and with a sepulchral roar leaped headlong, with the tree in his grasp, upon the terrified Joseph. The branches of the tree struck him and bore him to the earth. His tormentor leaped upon him, kicked him, pulled his hair, spat upon him, at the same time producing the most hideous noises. Tired of his diversion, he threw the trunk of the tree across the breast of the prostrate pedagogue and started, roaring like an enraged buffalo, in pursuit of the fleeing girl. A rescuing party, aroused by the clamor, came and released the terror-stricken Joseph and heard his fabulous tale. Their mirth knew no bounds. And ever after when the irate school-master was asked to relate his adventure at the Devil's Den he would exclaim, "Vat ! you dink a Dutchman's a geece, hugh ! Do you dink I shust come over tomorrow ?" This, dear reader, is how Devil's Den came to be so named. Again the sun is over all, Again the robin's evening call Or early morning lay; I hear the stir about the farms, I see the earth with open arms, I feel the breath of May. Century Magazine. Oh, the merry May has pleasant hours, And dreamily they glide, As if they floated like the leaves Upon a silver tide. The trees are full of crimson buds, And the woods are full of birds, And the waters flow to music, Like a song with pleasant words. Willis. & There is something grander than the ocean, and that is con-science; something sublimer than the sky, and that is the interior of the soul. —Victor Hugo. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Entertd at the Postoffice at Gettysburg as second-class matter VOL. X GETTYSBURG, PA., MAY, 1901 No. 3 E. C. RUBY, 'Oi, Editor-in-Chief R. ST. CLAIR POFFENBARGER,' 02, Business Manager J. F. NEWMAN, '02, Exchange Editor Assistant,-E.d,.it.ors Advisor•*y Board . -K, o ,"-. PROF. J. A. HIMES, A. M., LIT. D. M. IS"S "ANNIE M. .S"W" ARTZ, '02 _ " _ " ." ~ PROF. G. D. STAHLEY, M. D. A. B. RICHARD, '02 _ T _. _ ' -. PROF. J. W. RICHARD, D. D. Assistant Business Manager CURTIS E. COOK, '03 Published each month, from October to June inclusive, by the joint literary societies of Peuusj'lvania (Gettysburg-) College. Subscription price, One Dollar a year in advance; single copies Fifteen Cents. Notice to discontinue seudiug the MERCURY to any address must be accompanied by all arrearages. Students, Professors, and Alumni are cordially invited to contribute. All subscriptions and business matter should be addressed to the Business Manager. Articles for publication should be addressed to the Editor. Address THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY, GETTYSBURG, PA. EDITORIALS '"pHE first day of May was once a festival in honor of an Ameri- *■ can "saint," canonized simply by popular acclamation. Our colonial troops deprived themselves of the patronage of St. George by their rebellion, and at once they looked about for a saint of their own. Their choice fell on Tamina, a sagamore of the Delaware Indians, who, tradition says, bad whipped satan. Naturally the soldiers concluded that the conqueror of satan could also overcome St. George. The name of St. Tamina was in-scribed upon the banners of the colonial troops and on the first day of May celebrations were held in his honor. These celebra-tions were a combination of the Indian war dance and the old English May Day frolics. The May-pole was crowned with a THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 89 liberty cap, and bore a tomahawk instead of the garlands of flowers used to decorate the English May-pole. The army was not alone in doing honor to the "saint." Poets sang of his virtues. His life was dramatized and appeared on the stage in many places. Societies, which usually took the place of the modern club, were formed under his name. In England it was customary, on the first day of May, to wear a sprig of green gathered in the early morning and worn all day. This sprig was called the " May." The narrow-leaved elm and the hawthorn were the trees from which the sprig was usually taken. The expedition into the grove after it was called " going a-Maying," and the carrying of it home was " bringing in the May." The erecting of a May-pole, the young men and maidens dancing around it with flowers and song, and the choosing of the most attractive maiden as the " Queen of the May," to whom homage was paid as long as the day lasted, were characteristic features in the observance of May Day. This festival was quite general in England until the Puritans of the Commonwealth put a stop to it and uprooted the May-poles. It was again revived after the Restoration, but has now nearly, if not entirely, died out. In the New England States this same festival had been observed for a short time. Here it was also opposed by the Puritans, who regarded it as an emblem of satanic rule. In such an atmosphere it could not flourish long, and soon became a thing of the past. The custom of giving " May baskets," however, survived a little longer, and for aught we know may still be observed in some places. A basket, tastefully arranged with flowers, was left by the love-sick swain at the door of his lady-love; children tied baskets and bouquets on the door-knob of the house wherein dwelt their playmates, and friends remembered each other by gifts and flowers on May Day morning. r"pHEPvE is a surprising lack of knowledge in regard to *■ South America, its people and their ways. There is more known of Europe, Asia and Africa than of South America, once an echo of Spain in her glory and the home of a brave people con-quered by treachery and deceit. When we do study its history at all, we start with its discovery and almost abruptly end there. 90 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY Perhaps it is because we do not have so much in common as we have with the people of other countries that we know so little about the people, but it would be better to be more familiar with the doings and character of the people who live on the same side of the world as we do. We usually regard South America as made up of a number of little republics always at odds and the people as indolent and uneducated. We might change our minds some-what if we knew more about them. The natural resources of the country are worth study also, the magnificent mountain-ranges, the valuable forests and mines, the rivers and bays, the fertile plains equal to any which nature has ever bestowed on any country. —S. AN OLD READER CHAS. W. WEISKB, '01 I picked up an old school reader, Which up on the attic lay, Covered with the dust of ages, Brown with mold and decay. I opened its well-worn pages— They were soiled and marked with grime, By the little hands which used them In a by-gone, happy time. And out came the flood of memory, "With a rush, a flutter and sweep, And I lived those days all over— Those days ere I climbed life's steep. Aye! there was the old brown school house, With its warped and beaten floor, And there were the old wooden benches, Arid the old thumb-latch on the door. And there was the rude cut initial, Carved on the desk and seat, And under the forms the shuffling Of stout-booted restless feet. Around me arose a murmur, A chatter and whisp'ring gay, The humming of happy children, In the school beside the way. But the cold winds weirdly sighing, Awoke me from my dream; The present lay before me— Iafe's bright and silvery stream. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 91 PICTURES MARY C. SIELING, '03 HPHERE are pictures not painted with the brush of the artist. * The hills, the valleys, the sky, the rivers—all the works of God—what are they to him that see, aught but so many beautiful pictures ? How the hills, with their trees rising rank above rank, brighten the valleys between them. What artist can imitate the delicate shade of their green ? What colors mixed by man are so beautiful as their red and gold in autumn, and in what picture hung in our houses is there expressed the desolation of those same hills in winter, when the trees are bare and the winds moan through their branches ? The stream sings through the valley, hurrying on to the sea. The sunbeams dance upon the waters, making the scene still more pleasing, while the flowers along its banks add to its,beauty. All this is a beautiful picture, and it fills our hearts with peace. In the sky, too, there are pictures. The heavens are a moving panorama. The blue of the noon-day sky is to the sight what far-off beautiful music is to the ear. It fills us with a vague longing, and turns our thoughts to what is high and spiritual. The sunset is the most beautiful of all pictures, for do not the rifted clouds, bordered in gold, with the splendor spreading from them, seem like outer battlements of heaven when the inner gates are opened ? These pictures are around us and above us day after day. They gladden us, purify us and uplift us. He who can copy these pictures on canvas is the painter, and that man is the best painter who can most com-pletely forget himself and yield his soul and his hand to the Mas-ter of all paintings, content to let himself be the means through which the copies of the paintings, engraved deep on his own soul, are made to stand out on canvas. Raphael painted his beautiful Madonna because, in his mind, there was a beautiful picture of the purity and love of the mother of Jesus, and this picture was his, not only from a study of the Bible, but from the memory of his own pure and noble mother. Michael Angel o, who in the age in which Christian art had reached its zenith, stood almost unrivaled as a painter, sculptor, architect and poet. He painted and carved as never man painted and carved before or since, because he more fully than other men let nature and the God of nature speak through his life and his hand. 92 THE GETTYSBURG MEBCURY But artists are not the only men who try to copy these pictures which God has painted. The poets and prose writers also paint pictures, not with brush and palette, but with words in writing. "The Great Stone Face," how clearly we see with Hawthorne the long valley with the great family of lofty mountains beyond, the great face of stone carved in the side of the mountain, the people of the valley. Ernest, who, as a boy and man, looked through a long life for the face that should resemble the great face carved in stone, and who should thus fulfill a tradition of the valley ! With him we look into the face of the rich man, warrior and poet, and with him we are saddened to find in each one something lacking, but with the people we shout to see at last that he, Ernest himself, is the man who resembles the great stone face. But these pictures drawn by prose writers and painters, in the end mean to us only as much as we put into them. We cannot enjoy a poem or a painting of a forest stream unless we ourselves have felt the restfulness and delightful coolness of a streamlet murmuring over the pebbles under the shade of the overhanging trees, nor will the most beautiful pictured children Millias appeal to us before we have learned in some way the beauty and inno-cence of childhood. Thus in truth, all the pictures, of which we have spoken, depend on the great painter, Nature. But every-body is to a certain extent an artist, because everybody is paint-ing a picture called character. This picture is of more importance in the sight of God and to us than any other kind of picture. Upon this picture depends our happiness hereafter. Some people are trying hard to paint the picture well, while others handle the brush so carelessly that in the end the picture is a mere daub. There are a few men whose characters stand out above others like the paintings of the mas-ters. We should study these pictures, and let the beauty of their character enter into our own lives. If you would teach a boy self-poise, coolness of judgment and majesty of character, let him read about George Washington. If you would have him sincere, looking through the glamour of symbols to the things beneath, let him study long and well the lives of such men as Socrates and Lincoln. But if you would have him to be a true man, rounded, combining all virtues, let THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 93 him study the life of Him more majestic than Washington, for He was the God of man, and more sincere than Socrates. "We should study His life until just as Ernest, by looking long and lovingly into the great stone face, grew like it in feature, we also, by looking at the picture of His character, may grow more and more like Him. SPONTANEITY IN LITERATURE J. RUSH STONER, '01 QPONTANEITY, applied to literature, may be used to desig- ^ nate that spontaneous flow of eloquence or spirit from the depth of the author's own nature, giving to literary work spice and attraction. It may have an ennobling effect, or it may have a degrading effect, according as the life and ethical ideas of the author are high or low. It constitutes the ground upon which what is commonly called good and bad literature are distinguish-able. In the higher sense it might be looked upon as inspiration in literature; in the lower sense, merely as an evil tending to de-moralize the race. All who are familiar with the poetry of Robert Burns have recognized there the naturalness with which the poet gave vent to his feelings. And with the exclusion of his coarser poems, he might be taken as a good type of authors, whose writings flow with natural freshness of pure humor, pathos and wit, appealing strongly to the higher sympathies and the nobler passions. There is in literature a force that molds the character or indi-viduality of the reader. This element, or subtle force, makes itself clearly manifest in the life principles of different individuals, through the subconscious impressions it ingrains upon the mind. For the reader, if he is in the highest sense a true reader, must be in a receptive state, imbibing the spirit and tone of the litera-ture perused. And these impressions are stored up for future reproduction in the principles of life. Enthroned thus in the ruling element of the world, this force becomes at once a power in shaping the destiny of the race. Those who are at all susceptible to literature resort to it either for rest, pleasure, instruction, or for its ennobling influence. The scientist, exhausted from his deep abstraction in the realms of nature, searching for laws and principles in large collections of 94 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY facts, comes hither to quaff from this sparkling fountain, this source of the emotional nature. It is to him a source of rest and pleasure, indispensable to his well-being, that he may draw from his life's work the best results. And, too, what wealth of in-struction is yielded to the earnest seeker after knowledge as he pries into this mine of wisdom. Above all, the ennobling effect ofgood literature is universal; experienced alike by scientist and all who come within the scope of its power. The existence of this subtle force in literature may be verified by the career of a distinguished scientist of the nineteenth cen-tury, who neglected entirely the fine arts and the reading of in-spired writings for the absorbing interests of his life's work. In this description of his own life, Darwin tells his pathetic story. He tells how in the early part of his life he took great delight in poetry and music, and then, after many years of their utter neglect, he tried to read some poetry. But he could no longer appreciate it. His mind had become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, and was so revolutionized that poetry seemed unendurably dull and even nauseating. He had lost all appreciation of the higher tastes. He says this atrophy of the emotional nature is doubtless a loss of happiness. And he expresses an intense regret that he could not have his life to live again, that he might, at regular intervals throughout his busy career, pay some attention to those things which appeal to the spiritual side of life, that this horrible atrophy in his mind might have been averted. Here was a man who accomplished a vast work in science, but his absorption in the work, and neglect of the finer arts, brought him to a painful consciousness of the reality of this element in literature, and its influence upon the reader. While there are many instances that demonstrate the reality of this force by showing the change brought about in the indi-vidual who is isolated from its influences, there are also numerous evidences of its positive influence upon the individuality of the reader. So positive is this influence, that the literature a person enjoys is an unfailing index to his character. If the mind be turned into the channels of heroic and active literature, a heroic spirit of'strong and manly principles, master of circumstances and capable of resisting the most powerful evils, is the inevitable re-sult. If, on the other hand, time is spent in devouring nonsensi- THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 95 cal trash of a doubtful, or possibly degrading moral tone, you have as a reward, or rather demerit, a nerveless, sentimental tem-perament, unfit for the accomplishment of any great work, be it in the study or in life's profession. There is no more contemptible type of human character than the nerveless sentimentalist and dreamer, who spends his life in a "weltering sea of sensibility," and never does a concrete, manly deed. But, ah ! the individuality formed by contact with inspir-ing and ennobling literature ! How sublime is that character, standing firm amid the tempests, like a tower when everything rocks about it, and the weaker fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast ! Since there is. a spontaneous force in literature exerting its influence over every reader, whether he is conscious of the fact or not, how essential it is that all current literature and fiction should be idealistic, upholding the ideal of the race; for this is the law of human progress. It would be better if the realistic novel were never published. What we want is a stalwart ideal-ism. In life " aim and ideal are everything;" so it is in litera-ture. And if these be high and just, the author is true to his profession, and will be false to no one. How great is the responsibility resting upon the author ! He may be the agency through which humanity is brought into the most exalted phase of moral excellence, or into the vilest degen-eracy, endowing the race with real wealth to promote its civiliza-tion, or bringing upon it the deadliest curse. Then let those who are looking forward to a higher order of things, social and politi-cal, equip themselves and aspire to win the favor of the people by making the idealistic literature surpass in splendor the low-grade realistic novel, as the glorious mid-day sun outshines the insignificant glow-worm. And let the unscrupulous author, who has no higher ambition than to cater to the populace, sink into oblivion beneath the weight of a refined popular taste and criti-cism. This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, Slow rises worth by poverty depressed. -Johnson. 96 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY IN NATURE'S REALM J. RUSH STONER, '01. How oft in life's deep vestige sought,— Be it in Nature's realm and throne, Where fleeting time has strata laid, And plant life quivering, by zephyrs blown, Wafts perfume o'er the sacred dead, Or in the search of truth and lore,— The Unintended lifts its head And speaks in oracles of yore! In the closing days of winter drear, When anon begins through Nature's veins To course the life of a living world, We strolled through field and rustic lanes; Enchanting for romance were they, In facts for science richer still. We searched for minerals, types of rock And phenomena caused by rippling rill. And lo! within a fractured rock A microscopic plant was seen. Perennial, delicate, tiny thing, It has of Nature's marvels been One oft escaped the human eye; A life unscathed by Aeolian breath Or Zeus' cataclysms wild, Nor felt Apollo's scorching dearth. But clinging to the rugged cliff A lonely, solitary form; In all the great, wide universe Only a little speck forlorn; Yet symmetry and order plain Are there set forth in clear design By the Supreme Intelligence, Its "Great Original," benign. A useless infinitesimal plant! But it a mission has to fill: It may proclaim the law Divine, And be of greatest value still. If it but shows that God, who keeps The stars in cosmic beauty bright, Regards the smallest forms of being, It turns on science floods of light. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 97 i And man, a spark of the Divine May see in this the message clear, That God who rules things great and small In sweet compassion holds them dear. And he may catch the inspiration, That love, the essence of the soul, Controls and rules the universe And pilots safely to the goal. A COUNTRY BARN ON A RAINY DAY D. S. Weimer, '03 TT is a warm summer morning, the folks have arisen from the long, A sweet slumbers of the night, breakfast has been prepared and served, the horses have been fed and harnessed, and all are ready to go to their respective duties, when, lo! the sky becomes dark, ened and in a short time the rain begins to descend upon the parched earth, causing the drooping plants to lift their heads, as it were, and to spread out their leaves that they may be bathed by the gentle rain. All stand wrapped in delight, as they watch the rain which has been needed so long, no one being unwilling to rest from his labor, while the gentle rain descends to replenish the earth with flowers and fruits. Soon the scene changes. The father, ever mindful ofhis duties, bids the sons go to the barn to unharness the horses. When this is done, they are told that they must go to the barn-floor and pre-pare to thresh some rye in order to have some long straw for tying the corn in the autumn. Soon the doors are thrown open and you see the boys sweeping the floor to get ready to place upon it the sheaves of grain ready for the flail. When the sweeping is completed, you see James climb thelad-der and pass into the mow, while Henry remains upon the floor to arrange the sheaves in order, one after the other, until the floor is fairly covered, when James ceases to throw them from the mow and descends to the floor and prepares to begin with the flail. Taking their flails, they step to their places, and at once begin to strike with alternate strokes, creating a great noise so that it is very difficult to be understood in speaking, but doing the work to which they were appointed with apparent ease and skill. They 98 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY labor during the long hours of the day, ceasing only when thefact that it is time to perform the regular evening duties is made known to them. From what I have said, you may infer that the "Country Barn" is, besides being a protection for the animals against the inclem-ency ofthe weather and a storehouse for grain, a kind ofworkshop, where boys are taught to improve their time and not to throw away the golden moments. We shall see that it is something more. While James and Henry are busy at their work, Willie, Ned, and Joe, who are yet too small to bear the greater burdens of life, are rolling over the hay, turning somersault, standing upon their heads, playing "Run and Jump," "Hide and Seek," and indulg-ing in other sports. Seated in the corner of the barn-floor or run-ning to and fro, or lounging in the swing made by Henry, are Jane and Nell, too selfish to engage in sport with the boys, or probably keeping away, pouting on account of some trick which the boys have served them. Thus wesee that the "Country Barn" is a shelter, a storehouse, a workshop, and a playhouse, teaching to us the lesson that the things which exist may be used for different purposes, each pur-pose in its own time, being necessary for full and complete devel-opment and advantageous to all. «f^£> ALL SOULS DAY W. H. B. CARNEY, '99. Arched above, a reefless ocean Gray of clouds; no sunny glow: Leafless trees affect no motion To the biting' winds which blow. Everywhere are solemn faces,— Father, mother, daughter, son; Over all I see the traces Of a sorrow, deep and lone. Towards God's acre slowly walking Where a loved one lies "At Rest"; Thinking all, but none are talking: Sometimes Silence speaks the best. w THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 99 On the arm a wreath of holly With white flowers wove between; But the gnawing melancholy Of the heart cannot be seen. In the churchyard there is weeping Over every ivied mound; Some have infant forms in keeping, Some by sculptor's hand are crowned. On the graves the wreaths are lying, Glistening with blood-warm tears, Tribute of a love undying, Living on through dragging years. In a homestead sits a maiden Sighing o'er a golden band ; For his grave her hands not laden; There's a trench in foreign land. In her dreams a wife is hearing Lashing waves that froth and roar; And she sees a boat that's nearing,— But it never reached the shore. • In the church is told the story How the Christ, in village Nain, Gave a widow cause to glory, Raising up her son again. While the trumpet tones are blowing All the dead in Him shall rise; And the living, those reknowing. Shall meet with them in the skies. Every desert yield the treasured, Every mountain, and the Bea, Thousands in whose deeps unmeasured Toss like leaves upon the lea. Then I see the faint hearts strengthen And the tears are wiped away; For the shadows soon will lengthen, Herald of Eternal Day. —Berlitz School of Languages, Berlin, Germany. 100 THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY EXCHANGES TVTE have been pleased to receive more than the usual number " of magazines and journals from different colleges and universities during the past month, many of which visited our desk for the first time. Among these the Red and Blue, because of its neat and attractive appearance, and wealth of both poetry and prose, will always be most heartily welcomed. The Harvard Monthly is unassuming in appearance, and filled with excellent literary productions. The Nassau Literary Magazine and the University of Virginia Magazine are both entertaining as always. In addition to these, many others could be mentioned. It has been interesting to note that nearly all the magazines have given considerable space to poetical selections, and also that the number of really good prose articles is greater than dur-ing the previous month. The Lesbian Herald contains a tender and beautiful poem, "The Trailing Arbutus," whose title was probably suggested by John Burrough's poem on the" same subject. We quote the fol-lowing : " Her presence like glimmering sunshine seemed, And the soft sweet breath of the spring, The blue of her eyes was the blue of the heaven, Her voice had a gladsome ring. " Like the voice of the birds as they sing in the trees, When the sweet April shower is done, Or lift to the heavens their anthems of praise When a glad new day has begun. " But the wind swept by with a wailing moan, And the maiden so wondrous fair Was gone in her glory of summer sheen, But the prints of her feet were there. " You call it the trailing arbutus flower, A sweet breath of spring, you say, But I know the glory which gave it birth In the foot-prints left that day." The author of '' The L,ady of the L,ake '' in The Mountaineer evidently appreciates the vivacity and beauty of one of Scott's grandest productions, and thoroughly enjoys the chivalric spirit manifested by the characters. THE GETTYSBURG MERCURY 101 In the St. John's Collegian appears an article on " The Bible as a Text-book.'' The importance of this subject cannot be ques-tioned when we think of the efforts which are made to exclude the Bible from the curriculum of our educational institutions, and the author's very thorough discussion has our entire appro-bation . The Juniata Echo is publishing a series of articles on Porto Rico, written by Prof. M. G. Brumbaugh, Ph. D., Commissioner of Instruction in Porto Rico. These articles contain valuable information. The last issue contains an article on Martin Luther, part of which we take the liberty of quoting: " Martin Luther was the example of loyalty, the exponent of freedom, the guiding star of the Reformation, the advocate of the genuine Pauline Doctrine, and the mainstay of Christendom since the Apostles. . ******* " 'Thou, who art so great in whatever aspect we view thee, so worthy of admiration, so deserving of universal gratitude, alike great as a man, a scholar, a citizen, and a Christian', hast so in-spired us with the thought so characteristic of thy life, that he who steers his frail canoe the best, truest and noblest in the ser-vice of himself, his Alma Mater, his nation and his God; steers it longest when he receives his reward." "The Chemist's Guess" in The Free Lance teaches two important lessons—" the result of careless work " and " honesty is the best policy." J-Other exchanges to be acknowledged are: The Dickinson Lit-erary Monthly, The Susquehanna, The College Folio, The Western Ufiiversity Courant, The Catthage Collegian, The Scio Collegian, The Phoenix, The Campus and The Forum. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. C. R. SOLT MERCHANT TAILOR Masonic Bldg., GETTYSBURG Our collection of Woolens for the coming Fall and Winter season cannot be surpassed lor variety, attractive designs and general completeness. The latest styles of fashionable novelties in the most approved shades. Staples of exceptional merit, value and wearing durability. Also altering, repairing, dyeing and scouring at moderate prices. In buying don't forget the Advertisers. They support us. ESTABLISHED 1867 BY ALLEN WALTON. ALLEN K. WALTON, President and Treasurer. ROBT. J. WALTON, Superintendent. flammelstomn Bromn Stone Gompany Quarrymen and Manufacturers of Building Stone, Sawed Flagging and Tile Waltonville, Dauphin Co., Pa. Contractors for all kinds of Telegraph and Express Address. Cut Stone Work. BROWNSTONE, PA. Parties visiting the Quarries will leave cars at Brownstone Station on the P. & R. R. B. For a nice sweet loaf of Bread call on J. RAMER Baker of Bread and Fancy Cakes, GETTYSBURG. PA. EIMER & AMEND, Manufacturers and Importers of Chemicals and Chemical Apparatus 205, 207, 209 and 211 Third Avenue, Corner 18th Street NEW YORK. Finest Bohemian and German Glassware, Royal Berlin and Meissen Porcelain, Pure Hammered Platinum, Balances and "Weights. Zeiss Mi-croscopes and Bacteriological Apparatus; Chemical Pure Acids and Assay Goods. SCOTT PAPER COMPANY MAKERS OF FINE TOILET PAPER 7th and Greenwood Ave. PHILADELPHIA PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Century Double-Feed Fountain Pen. Fully Warranted J6 Kt. Gold Pen, Iridium Pointed. GEO. EVELER, Agent for Gettysburg College PRICE LIST. Spiral, Black or Mottled $2 50 Twist, " 2 SO Hexagon, Black or Mottled 2 SO Pearl Holder, Gold Mounted S 00 THE CENTURY PEN CO. WHITEWATER, WIS. Askjour Stationer or our Agent to show them toyon. Agood local agent wanted in every school No. 1. Chased, long or short $2 00 No. 1. Gold Mounted 3 00 No. 3. Chased 3 00 No. 3. Gold Mounted 4 00 awfwmiffmmmmwiffmiffifmrmiffmmiffifrTffffgg 7k Printing and Binding We Print This Book THE MT. HOEEY STATIONERY AND PRINTING CO. does all classes of Printing and Binding-, and can furnish you any Book, Bill Head, Letter Head, Envelope, Card, Blank, or anything pertain-ing- to their business in just as good style and at less cost than you can obtain same elsewhere. They are located among the mountains but their work is metropolitan. You can be convinced of this if you give them the opportunity. Mt. Holly Stationery and Printing Co. *SPRINGS, PA. UMkJttiUlUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUiUR H. S. BENNEF?, .DEALER IN. Groceries, Notions, Queensware, Glassware, Etc, Tobacco and Cigars. 17 CHAMBERSBURG ST. WE RECOMMEND THESE BUSINESS MEN. Pitzer House, (Temperance) JNO. E. PITZER, Prop. Rates $1.00 to $1.25 per day. Battlefield a specialty. Dinner and ride to all points of interest,including the th ree days' tight, $1.25. No. 127 Main Street. You will find a full line of Pure Drugs and Fine Sta-tionery at the People's Drug Store Prescriptions a Specialty. J. A. TAWNEY_^ Is ready to furnish Clubs and Boarding Houses with Bread, Rolls, Etc. At short notice and reasonable rates. Washington & Middle Sts., Gettysburg. . A. WONDERS, Corner Cigar Parlors. A full line of Cigars, Tobacco, Pipes, Etc. Scott's Corner, Opp. Eagle Hotel. GETTYSBURG, PA. M. B. BENDER Furniture IRON BEDS, MATTRESSES, SPRINGS Picture Framing" and Repair Work done Promptly 27 BALTIMORE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. .GO TO. fyokl Gettysburg Barber Sfyop. Centre Square. B. M. SEFTON WTJ /~T\P\r\Dl Successor to . r . {JJUKJKl, Simon J.Codori Dealer in Beef, Pork, Lamb, Veal, Sausage. Special rates to Clubs. York St., GETTYSBURG. .GO TO. CHAS. E. BARBEHENN, Barber In the Eagle Hotel, Cor. Main and Washington Sts. * CHAS. S. MUMPER (Formerly of Mumper & Bender) Furniture Having opened a new store opposite W. M. R. R. Depot, will be pleased to have you call and examine goods. Picture Framing promptly attended to. Repair Work a Specialty Students' Trade Solicited FAVOR THOSE WHO FAVOR US. Spalding's Official League Ball and Athletic Goods Officially adopted by the lead ing Colleges, Schools and Athletic Clubs of the Country Every Requisite for— BASE BALL FOOT BALL GOLF TENNIS ATHLETICS GYMNASIUM Spalding's Official League Ball Is the Official Ball of the National league, the princi-pal minor leagues and all the leading-college associations Handsome Catalogue of Base Ball and all Athletic Sports Eree to any address Spalding's Offi-cial Base Ball Guide for 1901, edited by Henry Ohadwick, ready March 30,1901. Price 10 cents; A. O. SPALD1NO & BROS., Incorporated NEW YORK CHICAGO DENVER ROWE, Your Grocer Carries Full Line of Groceries, Canned Goods, Etc. Best Coal Oil and Brooms at most Reasonable Prices. OPPOSITE COLLEGE CAMPUS. S. J. CODORI, ^4 Druggists Dealer in Drugs, Medicines, Toilet Articles, J* Stationery, Blank Books, Amateur Pho-tographic Supplies, Etc., Etc. BALTIMORE ST. R. H. CULP PAPER HANGER, Second Square, York Street. COLLEGE EMBLEMS. EMIL ZOTHE, ENGRAVER, DESIGNER AND MANUFACTURING JEWELER, 19 S. NINTH ST. PHILADELPHIA SPECIALTIES: Masonic Marks, Society Badges, College Buttons, Pins, Scarf Pins, Stick Pins and Athletic Prizes. All Goods ordered tltrough A. N. Beau. To Repair Broken Arti-cles use Remember MAJOR'S RUBBER CEMENT, MAJOR'S LEATHER CEMENT, Meneely Bell Co. TROY, N. Y. MANUFACTURERS OF SUPERIOR BELLS The 2000 pound bell now ringing in the tower of Pennsylvania Col-lege was manufactured at this foundry. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. The Pleased Customer Is not a stranger in our establish-ment— he's right at home, you'll see him when you call. We have the materials to please fastidious men. J. D. LIPPY, Merchant Tailor 39 Chambersburg St., Gettysburg, Pa. Try My Choice lane of ,\ High-Grade Chocolates 3 'at 40c per lb. Always fresh, at ,£ CHAS. H. McCLEARY J Carlisle St., Opposite W.M.R.R. jj Also Foreign and Domestic Fruits A i Always on Hand. B,C L. D. Miller, GROCER Confectioner and Fruiterer. Ice Cream and Oysters in Season. 19 Main St. GETTYSBURG City Hotel, Main St. Gettysburg. Free 'Bus to and from all Trains Thirty seconds' walk from either depot Dinner with drive over field with four or more, $1.35 Rates $1.50 to $2.00 per day John E. Hughes, Prop. 1 k Capitol Cit£ Cafe Cor. Fourth and Market Sts. HARRISBURG, PA. Pirst-Class Rooms Furnished. Special Rates to Private Parties. Open Day and Nig-ht. European Plan. Lunch of All Kinds to Order at the Restaurant. ALDINQER'S CAPITOL CITY CAFE. POPULAR PRICES F. Mark Bream, Dealer in Fancy and Staple Groceries Telephone 29 Carlisl e St., GETTYSBURG, PA. .Photographer. No. 3 Main St., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. Our new effects in Portraiture are equal to photos made anywhere, and at any price. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS Wright, 140-142 Woodward Avenue DETROIT, MICH. Manufacturers of High Grade Fraternity Emblems Fraternity Jewelry Fraternity Novelties Fraternity Stationery Fraternity Invitations Fraternity Announcements Fraternity Programs Send for Catalogue and Price List. Special Designs on Application. MOTEL GETTYSBURG LIVERY GETTYSBURG, PA. LONG & HOLTZWORTM, Proprietors Apply at Office in the Hotel for First-Class Guides and Teams THE BATTLEFIELD A SPECIALTY Uhe JSolton Market Square •fcartfeburg, fl>a. Earge and Convenient Sample Rooms. Passenger and Baggage Elevator. Electric Cars to and from Depot. Electric Eight and Steam Heat. J. M. & M. S. BUTTERWORTH, Proprietors Special Rates for Commer-cial Men "EZ 1ST IMMER CUT ET WAS ZU WISSEIN." These are the words of Goethe, the great German poet, and are as true in our day as when uttered. In these times of defective vision it is good to know something about eyes. A great deal has been learned about the value of glasses and their application since Goethe lived. Spectacle wearers have increased by thousands, while at the same time, persons losing their eyesight have been greatly diminished. If your eyes trouble you in any way let me tell you the cause. Examination free and prices reasonable. We grind all our own lenses and fit the best lenses (no matter what anyone else has charged you) for $2.50 per pair and as cheap as SO cents per pair, or duplicate a broken lens if we have one-half or more of the old one, at a reasonable charge, returning same day received. .E. L EGOLE. 807 and 809 North Third Street, HARRISBURG, PA. PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. ^entpol Jlotel, ELIAS FISSEL, Prop. (Formerly of Globe Hotel) Baltimore Street, Gettysburg, Pa. Two doors from Court House. MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. Steam Heat, Electric Inght and Call Bells all through the House. Closets aud Bath Rooms on Every Floor. Sefton & Flem-minfr's Livery is connected with this Hotel. Good Teams and Competent Guides for the Battlefield. Charges Moderate, Satisfaction Guaranteed. Rates $1.30 Per Day. GET A SKATE ON And send all your Soiled Einen to the Gettysburg Steam Laundry R. R. LONG, Prop. Horace Partridge & Co., BOSTON, MASS. Fine Athletic Goods Headquarters for Foot Ball, Gym-nasium, Fencing' and Track Supplies. Send for Illustrated Catalog. 84 and 86 Franklin Street R. W. LENKER, Agent at Penna. College. JOHN M. MINNIGH, Confectionery, lee, ■•««>Iee Creams Oysters Stewed and Fried. No. 17 BALTIMORE ST. The Leading garber v5f)op (Successor to C. C. Sefton) Having thoroughly remodeled the place is now ready to accommodate the public Barber Supplies a Specialty. .Baltimore Street. Grymi5£im(i, PA. ESTABLISHED 1876 PENROSE MYERS, Watchmaker and Jeweler Gettysburg Souvenir Spoons, Col-lege Souvenir Spoons. NO. 10 BALTIMORE ST., GETTYSBURG, PENNA. L. i\. kiimm Manufacturers' Agent and Jobber of Hardware, Oils, Paints and Queensware. GETTYSBURG, PA. The Only Jobbing House in Adams County. i I - >- L PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS. For Fine- Printing go to Tte Jo Co Wile Pnviqjg HOOK CARLISLE ST. GETTYSBURG, PA. C. B. Kitzmiller Dealer in Hats, Caps, Boots and Douglas Shoes GETTYSBURG, PA. R. M. Elliott Dealer in Hats, Caps, Shoes and. Gents' Furnishing Goods Corner Center Square and Carlisle Street GETTYSBURG, PA. EDGARS. MARTIN, F^CIGARS AND SMOKERS' ARTICLES. Chambersburg St., Gettysburg Leadership IN THE CLOTHING and MEN'S EURNISHING Business It is strictly here—everybody knows it. Testimony ? The stock itself. The pen suffi-ciently nimble to tell all the good points of our ::::::: PALL AND WINTER. SUITS AND OVERCOATS has not been found. We will keep you dressed right up-to-date if you buy your Clothing and Furnishings here. : : : : STIINE McPherson Block- No. II BALTIMORE STREET <5ett\?stmret pa. /iDerville E. Zinn, proprietor The Leading Hotel Rates $2.00 per Day Long & Holtzworth Livery Attached Cuisine and Service First-Class We furnish The swellest Furnishings for Collegians in America. Ties, Hosiery, Gloves, Underwear, Sweaters, Hats, Caps. PRICES EXTREMELY REASONABLE. Joseph Auerbach, 623 Penna. Ave., Washington, D. C